International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Money — Mythology
Money
Money - mun'-i: Various terms are used for money in the Bible, but the most common are the Hebrew keceph, and Greek argurion, both meaning silver. We find also qesiTah, rendered by Septuagint "lambs," probably referring to money in a particular form; chalkos, is used for money in Matthew 10:9; Mark 6:8; 12:41. It was the name of a small coin of Agrippa II (Madden, Coins of the Jews); chrema, "price," is rendered money in Acts 4:37; 18, 20; 24:26; kerma, "piece," i.e. piece of money (John 2:15); didrachmon, "tribute money" (Matthew 17:24 the King James Version, the Revised Version (British and American) "half-shekel"); kensos, "census," "tribute money" (Matthew 22:19).
1. Material and Form: Gold and silver were the common medium of exchange in Syria and Palestine in the earliest times of which we have any historical record. The period of mere barter had passed before Abraham. The close connection of the country with the two great civilized centers of antiquity, Egypt and Babylonia, had led to the introduction of a currency for the purposes of trade. We have abundant evidence of the use of these metals in the Biblical records, and we know from the monuments that they were used as money before the time of Abraham. The patriarch came back from his visit to Egypt "rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold" (Genesis 13:2). There was no system of coinage, but they had these metals cast in a convenient form for use in exchange, such as bars or rings, the latter being a common form and often represented or mentioned on the monuments of Egypt. In Babylonia the more common form seems to have been the former, such as the bar, or wedge, that Achan found in the sack of Jericho (Joshua 7:21). This might indicate that the pieces were too large for ordinary use, but we have indications of the use of small portions also (2 Kings 12:9; Job 42:11). But the pieces were not so accurately divided as to pass for money without weighing, as we see in the case of the transaction between Abraham and the children of Heth for the purchase of the field of Machpelah (Genesis 23:1-20). This transaction indicates also the common use of silver as currency, for it was "current money with the merchant," and earlier than this we have mention of the use of silver by Abraham as money: "He that is born in thy house and he that is bought with thy money" (Genesis 17:13).
Jewels of silver and gold were probably made to conform to the shekel weight, so that they might be used for money in case of necessity. Thus Abraham's servant gave to Rebecca a gold ring of half a shekel weight and bracelets of ten shekels weight (Genesis 24:22). The bundles of money carried by the sons of Jacob to Egpyt for the purchase of grain (Genesis 42:35) were probably silver rings tied together in bundles. The Hebrew for "talent," kikkar, signifies something round or circular, suggesting a ring of this weight to be used as money. The ordinary term for money was keceph, "silver," and this word preceded by a numeral always refers to money, either with or without "shekel," which we are probably to supply where it is not expressed after the numeral, at least wherever value is involved, as the shekel (sheqel) was the standard of value as well as of weight (see WEIGHTS AND MEASURES). Thus the value of the field of Ephron was in shekels, as was also the estimation of offerings for sacred purposes (Leviticus 5:15; Leviticus 27:1-34, passim). Solomon purchased chariots at 600 (shekels) each and horses at 150 (1 Kings 10:29). Large sums were expressed in talents, which were a multiple of the shekel. Thus Menahem gave Pul 1,000 talents of silver (2 Kings 15:19), which was made up by the exaction of 50 shekels from each rich man. Hezekiah paid the war indemnity to Sennacherib with 300 talents of silver and 30 of gold (2 Kings 18:14). The Assyrian account gives 800 talents of silver, and the discrepancy may not be an error in the Hebrew text, as some would explain it, but probably a different kind of talent (see Madden, Coins of the Jews, 4). Solomon's revenue is stated in talents (1 Kings 10:14), and the amount (666 of gold) indicates that money was abundant, for this was in addition to what he obtained from the vassal states and by trade. His partnership with the Phoenicians in commerce brought him large amounts of the precious metals, so that silver was said to have been as plentiful in Jerusalem as stones (1 Kings 10:27).
Besides the forms of rings and bars, in which the precious metals were cast for commercial use, some other forms were perhaps current. Thus the term qesiTah has been referred to as used for money, and the Septuagint translation has "lambs." It is used in Genesis 33:19; Joshua 24:32; Job 42:11, and the Septuagint rendering is supposed to indicate a piece in the form of a lamb or stamped with a lamb, used at first as a weight, later the same weight of the precious metals being used for money. We are familiar with lion weights and weights in the form of bulls and geese from the monuments, and it would not be strange to find them in the form of sheep. QesiTah is cognate with the Arabic qasaT, which means "to divide exactly" or "justly," and the noun qist means "a portion" or "a measure."
Another word joined with silver in monetary use is 'aghorah, the term being translated "a piece of silver" in 1 Samuel 2:36. 'Aghorah is cognate with the Arabic ujrat, "a wage," and it would seem that the piece of silver in this passage might refer to the same usage.
Another word used in a similar way is rats, from ratsats, "to break in pieces," hence, rats is "a piece" or "fragment of silver" used as money. These terms were in use before the introduction of coined money and continued after coins became common.
2. Coined Money: After the exile we begin to find references to coined money. It was invented in Lydia or perhaps in Aegina. Herodotus assigns the invention to the Lydians (i.94). The earliest Lydian coins were struck by Gyges in the 7th century BC. These coins were of electrum and elliptical in form, smooth on the reverse but deeply stamped with incuse impressions on the obverse. They were called staters, but were of two standards; one for commercial use with the Babylonians, weighing about 164,4 grains, and the other of 224 grains (see Madden, op. cit.). Later, gold was coined, and, by the time of Croesus, gold and silver. The Persians adopted the Lydian type, and coined both gold and silver darics, the name being derived from Darius Hystaspis (521-485 BC) who is reputed to have introduced the system into his empire. But the staters of Lydia were current there under Cyrus (Madden, op. cit.), and it was perhaps with these that the Jews first became acquainted in Babylon. Ezra states (2:69) that "they (the Jews) gave after their ability into the treasury of the work threescore and one thousand darics (the Revised Version (British and American)) of gold, and five thousand pounds of silver." The term here rendered "daric" is darkemonim, and this word is used in three passages in Neh (7:70-72), and 'adharkonim occurs in 1 Chronicles 29:7 and Ezra 8:27. Both are of the same origin as the Greek drachma, probably, though some derive both from Darius (a Phoenician inscription from the Piraeus tells us that darkemon corresponds to drachma). At all events they refer to the gold coins which we know as darics. The weight of the daric was 130 grains, though double darics were struck.
Besides the gold daric there was a silver coin circulating in Persia that must have been known to the Jews. This was the siglos, supposed to be referred to in Nehemiah 5:15, where it is translated "shekel." These were the so-called silver darics, 20 of which were equivalent to the gold daric. Besides these Persian coins the Jews must have used others derived from their intercourse with the Phoenician cities, which were allowed to strike coins under the suzerainty of the Persians. These coins were of both silver and bronze, the suzerain not permitting them to coin gold. We have abundant examples of these coins and trade must have made them familiar to the Jews.
The issues of Aradus, Sidon and Tyre were especially noteworthy, and were of various types and sizes suited to the commercial transactions of the Phoenicians. The Tyrian traders were established in Jerusalem as early as the time of Nehemiah (13:16), and their coins date back to about that period. Among the finest specimens we have of early coinage are the tetradrachms of Tyre and the double shekels or staters of Sidon. The latter represent the Persian king, on the obverse, as he rides in his chariot, driven by his charioteer and followed by an attendant. On the reverse is a Phoenician galley. The weight of these coins is from 380 to 430 grains, and they are assigned to the 4th and 5th centuries BC. From Tyre we have a tetradrachm which corresponds to the shekel of the Phoenician standard of about 220 grains, which represents, on the obverse, the god Melkarth, the Tyrian Hercules, tiding on a seahorse, and, beneath, a dolphin. The reverse bears an owl with the Egyptian crook and a flail, symbols of Osiris. The early coins of Aradus bear, on the obverse, the head of Baal or Dagon, and on the reverse a galley. The inscription has "M.A." in Phoenician letters, followed by a date. The inscription signifies "Melek Aradus," i.e. "king of Aradus."
When Alexander overthrew the Persian empire in 331 BC, a new coinage, on the Attic standard, was introduced, and the silver drachms and tetradrachms struck by him circulated in large numbers, as is attested by the large number of examples still in existence. After his death, these coins, the tetradrachms especially, continued to be struck in the provinces, with his name and type, in his honor. We have examples of these struck at Aradus, Tyre, Sidon, Damascus and Acre, bearing the mint marks of these towns. They bear on the obverse the head of Alexander as Hercules, and, on the reverse, Zeus seated on his throne holding an eagle in the extended right hand and a scepter in the left. The legend is BASILEOS ALEXANDROU, or ALEXANDROU, only, with various symbols of the towns or districts where they were struck, together with mint marks.
The successors of Alexander established kingdoms with a coinage of their own, such as the Ptolemies in Egypt and the Seleucids in Syria, and these coins, as well as those of Alexander, circulated among the Jews. The Ptolemies of Egypt controlled Palestine for about a century after Alexander, and struck coins, not only in Egypt, but in some of the Phoenician towns, especially at Acre, which was, from that time, known as Ptolemais. Their coins were based upon the Phoenician standard. But the Seleucid kings of Syria had the most influence in Phoenicia and Palestine, and their monetary issues are very various and widely distributed, bearing the names and types of the kings, and the symbols and mint marks of the different towns where they were struck, and are on the Alexandrine or Attic standard in contrast to those of the Ptolemies. They are both silver and bronze, gold being struck in the capital, Antioch, usually. The coins of Antiochus IV, Epiphanes, are especially interesting on account of his connection with Jewish affairs. It was he who made the futile attempt to hellenize the Jews, which led to the revolt that resulted, under his successors, in the independence of the country of Syrian control, and the institution of a native coinage in the time of the Maccabees.
The struggle caused by the persecution of Antiochus commenced in 165 BC and continued more than 20 years. Judas, the son of Mattathias, defeated Antiochus, who died in 164, but the war was continued by his successors until dynastic dissensions among them led to treaties with the Jews to gain their support. At last Simon, who espoused the cause of Demetrius II, obtained from him, as a reward, the right to rule Judea under the title of high priest, with practical independence, 142-143 BC. Later Antiochus VII, his successor, confirmed Simon in his position and added some privileges, and among them the right to coin money (138-139 BC). Both silver and bronze coins exist ascribed to Simon, but some numismatists have recently doubted this, and have assigned them to another Simon in the time of the first revolt of the Jews under the Romans. The coins in question are the shekels and half-shekels with the legends, in Hebrew, sheqel yisra'el and yerushalem qedhoshah ("Jerusalem the holy"), bearing dates ranging from the 1st to the 5th year, as well as bronze pieces of the 4th.
The reason for denying the ascription of these coins to Simon the Maccabee is the difficulty in finding room for the years indicated in his reign which closed in 135 BC. He received the commission to coin in 139-138, which would allow only 4 years for his coinage, whereas we have coins of the 5th year. Moreover, no shekels and half-shekels of any of the Maccabees later than Simon have come to light, which is, at least, singular since we should have supposed that all would have coined them as long as they remained independent, especially since they coined in bronze, examples of the latter being quite abundant. The fact also that they bore the title of king, while Simon was high priest only, would seem to have furnished an additional reason for claiming the prerogative of coinage in silver as well as bronze. But this argument is negative only, and such coins may have existed but have not come to light, and there are reasons which seem to the present writer sufficient to assign them to Simon the Maccabee. In the first place, the chronological difficulty is removed if we consider that Simon was practically independent for three or four years before he obtained the explicit commission to coin money. We learn from Josephus (Ant., XIII, vi, 7) and from 1macc (13:41,42) that in the 170th year of the Seleucid era, that is, 143-142 BC, the Jews began to use the era of Simon in their contracts and public records. Now it would not have been strange if Simon, seeing the anarchy that prevailed in the kingdom of Syria, should have assumed some prerogatives of an independent ruler before they were distinctly granted to him, and among them that of coining money. If he had commenced in the latter part of 139 BC, he would have been able to strike coins of the 5th year before he died, and this would satisfy the conditions (see Madden's Jewish Coinage). There is a difficulty quite as great in attributing these coins to Simon of the first revolt under the Romans. That broke out in 66 AD, and was suppressed by the taking of Jerusalem in 70. This would allow a date of the 5th year, but it is hardly supposable that in the terrible distress and anarchy that prevailed in the city during that last year any silver coins would have been struck. There is another fact bearing upon this question which is worthy of notice. The coins of the first revolt bear personal appellations, such as "Eleazar the priest," and "Simon," while those assigned to Simon the Maccabee bear no personal designation whatever. This is significant, for it is not likely that Eleazar and Simon would have commenced coining silver shekels and half-shekels with their names inscribed upon them in the 1st year of their reign and then have omitted them on later issues. Another point which has some force is this: We find mention, in the New Testament, of money-changers in connection with the temple, whose business it was to change the current coin, which was Roman or Greek, and bore heathen types and legends, for Jewish coins, which the strict Pharisaic rules then in force required from worshippers paying money into the temple treasury. It is inferred that they could furnish the shekels and half-shekels required for the yearly dues from every adult male (compare Matthew 17:24-27). Now the only shekels and half-shekels bearing Jewish emblems and legends, at that time, must have been those issued by the Maccabean princes, that is, such as we have under discussion. In view of these facts the Maccabean origin of these pieces seems probable.
The shekels under discussion have on one side a cup, or chalice (supposed to represent the pot of manna), with the legend in Hebrew around the margin, sheqel yisra'el, with a letter above the cup indicating the year of the reign. The reverse bears the sprig of a plant (conjectured to be Aaron's rod) having three buds or fruits, and on the margin the legend, yerushalem ha-qedhoshah, "Jerusalem the holy." The half-shekel has the same type, but the reverse bears the inscription, chatsi sheqel (half-shekel). The letters indicating the year have the letter called "shin" (Shenath, "year") prefixed, except for the first. This also omits the Hebrew letter "waw" (w) from qedhoshah and the second letter, "yodh" (y) from yerushalem. The term "holy" for Jerusalem is found in Isaiah 48:2 and other passages of the Old Testament, and is still preserved in the Arabic qudus by which the city is known today in Syria.
Copper, or bronze, half-and quarter-shekels are also attributed to Simon, bearing date of the 4th year. The obverse of the half-shekel has two bundles of thick-leaved branches with a citron between, and on the reverse a palm tree with two baskets filled with fruit. The legend on the obverse is shenath 'arba` chatsi, "the fourth year a half," and on the reverse, li-ghe'ullath tsiyon, "the redemption of Zion." The quarter-shekel has a similar type, except that the obverse lacks the baskets and the reverse has the citron only. The legend has rebhia`, "quarter," instead of "half." Another type is a cup with a margin of jewels on the obverse and a single bunch of branches with two citrons on the reverse.
The palm is a very common type on the coins of Judea and a very appropriate one, since it is grown there. Jericho was called the city of palms. The branches of trees in bundles illustrate the custom of carrying branches at the Feast of Tabernacles and the erection of booths made of branches for use during this feast (see Leviticus 23:40). The baskets of fruit may refer to the offerings of first-fruits (Deuteronomy 26:2). One of the above series of coins published by Madden bears the countermark of an elephant, which was a symbol adopted by the Seleucid kings, and this is an evidence of its early date. But whatever doubts there may be as to the coins of Simon, there can be none as to those of his successor, John Hyrcanus, who reigned 135-106 BC, since they bear his name. They are all of bronze and bear the following inscription with a great number of variations, Yehochanan hacohen hagadel wachabar heyhudim, "Johanan the high priest and senate of the Jews." The reverse has a two-branched cornucopia with a poppy head rising from the center. There is some doubt as to the meaning of the word hebher in the above. It is commonly rendered "senate," taking it in the sense it seems to bear in Hosea 6:9, "a company" or "band," here the company of elders representing the people. Judas Aristobulus (106-105 BC) issued similar coins with Hebrew legends, but with the accession of Alexander Janneus (105-78 BC) we find bilingual inscriptions on the coins, Hebrew and Greek. The obverse bears the words yehonathan ha-melekh, "Jehonathan the king," and the reverse, BASILEOS ALEXANDROU, "King Alexander." Most of his coins, however, bear Hebrew inscriptions only. All are of copper or bronze, like those of Hyrcanus and Aristobulus, and are of the denomination known to us in the New Testament as "mites" weighing from 25 to 35 grains.
When the Romans took possession of Palestine in 63 BC, the independent rule of the Hasmoneans came to an end, but Pompey confirmed John Hyrcanus as governor of Judea under the title of high priest. Dissensions between him and other members of his family called for interference several times on the part of the Romans. Hyrcanus was again confirmed by Julius Caesar in 47 and continued in authority until 40. It is uncertain what coins he issued, but whatever they were, they bore the type found on those of Alexander Janneus. In 40 BC, the Parthians temporarily overthrew the Roman authority in Syria and Palestine, and set Antigonus on the throne of the latter, and he reigned until 37. The coins he issued bore bilingual inscriptions like the bilinguals of Alexander. He calls himself Antigonus in Greek, and Mattathias in Hebrew, the type being a wreath on the obverse and a double cornucopia on the reverse, though some have it single. They are much heavier coins than the preceding issues. The legends are: obverse, BASILEOS ANTIGONOU, "of King Antigonus"; reverse (mattithyah ha-kohen gadhol ha-yeh(udhim), "Mattathias the high priest of the Jews."
The Hasmonean dynasty ended with Antigonus and that of the Herods followed. Herod the Great was the first to attain the title of king, and his coins are numerous and bear only Greek legends and are all of bronze. The earliest have the type of a helmet with cheek pieces on the obverse and the legend: BASILEOS HRODOU, and in the field to the left gamma (year 3), and on the right, a monogram. The reverse has a Macedonian shield with rays. The coin here illustrated is another type: a rude tripod on the obverse, and a cross within a wreath on the reverse, the legend being the same as given above.
Herod Archelaus, who reigned from 4 BC to 6 AD, issued coins with the title of ethnarch, the only coins of Palestine to bear this title. They are all of small size and some of them have the type of a galley, indicating his sovereignty over some of the coast cities, such as Caesarea and Joppa.
The coins of Herod Antipas (4 BC-40 AD) bear the title of tetrarch, many of them being struck at Tiberias, which he founded on the Sea of Galilee and named after the emperor Tiberius. The following is an example: obverse HER. TETR. (HERODOU TETRACHOU), with the type of a palm branch; reverse, TIBERIAS, within a wreath. Others have a palm tree entire with the date lambda-gamma (LG) and lambda-delta (LD): 33 and 34 of his reign, 29-30 AD. There are coins of Herod Philip, 4 BC-34 AD, though somewhat rare, but those of Agrippa, 37-44 AD, are numerous, considering the shortness of his reign. The most common type is a small coin ("mite") with an umbrella having a tassel-like border, on the obverse, and three ears of wheat on one stalk on the reverse. The legend reads: Basileos Agrippa, and the date is LS (year 6). Larger coins of Agrippa bear the head of the emperor (Caligula or Claudius) with the title of Sebastos (Augustus) in Greek.
Agrippa II was the last of the Herodian line to strike coins (48-100 AD). They were issued under Nero, whose head they sometimes bear with his name as well as that of Agrippa. They are all of the denomination of the mite (lepton).
In 6 AD, Judea was made a Rom province and was governed by procurators, and their coins are numerous, being issued during the reigns of Augustus, Tiberius, Claudius and Nero. They are all small and bear on the obverse the legends: KAISAROS (Caesar), or IOULIA (Julia), or the emperor's name joined with Caesar. The coins of the Jews struck during the first and second revolts, 66-70 AD, and 132-135 AD, have already been alluded to with the difficulty of distinguishing them, and some have been described. They all have the types common to the purely Jewish issues; the date palm, the vine, bunches of fruit, the laurel or olive wreath, the cup or chalice, the lyre and a temple with columns. Types of animals or men they regarded as forbidden by their law. Most of them are bronze, but some are silver shekels and half-shekels, dated in the lat, 2nd and 3rd years, if we assign those of higher date to Simon the Maccabee. Those of the 1st year bear the name of Eleazar the priest, on the obverse, and on the reverse the date "first year of the redemption of Israel," shenath 'achath li-ghe'ullath yisra'el. Others bear the name of Simon and some that of "Simon Nesi' Israel" ("Simon Prince of Israel"). The coins of the 2nd and 3rd years are rare. They have the type of the cup and vine leaf, or temple and lulabh. Those supposed to belong to the second revolt bear the name of Simon without Nesi' Israel, and are therefore assigned to Simon Bar-Cochba. The example here given has the type of the temple on the obverse with what is thought to be a representation of the "beautiful gate," between the columns, and a star above. The name Simon is on the margin, the first two letters on the right of the temple and the others on the left. The legend of the reverse is: lecheruth yerushalem ("the deliverance of Jerusalem").
Some of the coins struck by the Romans to commemorate their victory over the Jews were struck in Palestine and some at Rome, and all bear the head of the Roman emperor on the obverse, but the reverse often exhibits Judea as a weeping captive woman, seated at the foot of a palm tree or of a Roman standard bearing a trophy. The legend is sometimes Judea capta and sometimes Judea devicta. The example given has the inscription in Greek: IOUDIAS EALOKUIAS, Judea capta.
There are coins of Agrippa II (the "king Agrippa" of Acts 25:1-27: Acts 26:1-32, struck in the reign of Vespasian, with his name and title on the obverse and with a deity on the reverse, holding ears of wheat in the right hand and a cornucopia in the left. The inscription reads: ETOU KSBA AGRI PPA (year 26, King Agrippa) in two lines.
After the revolt of Bar-Cochba and the final subjugation of the Jews by Hadrian, Jerusalem was made a Roman colony and the name was changed to Aelia Capitolina. A series of coins was struck, having this title, which continued until the reign of Valerianus, 253-260 AD. These coins were all of copper or bronze, but silver pieces were in circulation, struck at Rome or at some of the more favored towns in Syria, such as Antioch. These were denarii and tetradrachms, the former being about one-fourth the weight of the latter which were known as staters (Matthew 17:27). The piece referred to was the amount of tribute for two persons, and as the amount paid by one was the half-shekel (Matthew 17:24), this piece must have been the equivalent of the shekel or tetradrachm.
H. Porter
Money, Current
Money, Current - kur'-ent (`obher, "passing," Genesis 28:16; 2 Kings 12:4 (Hebrews 5:1-14)): The text and translation in 2 Kings 12:4 are uncertain and difficult. See the Revised Version margin. The reference is probably not to a money standard, but to a poll tax which was levied in addition to the free-will offering. Genesis 23:16 implies the existence of a standard shekel and also probably the use of the precious metals in stamped bars or ingots of an approximately fixed weight or value, a primitive coinage. Code of Hammurabi presupposes these pieces, and records in cuneiform writing discovered in Cappadocia indicate that shekel pieces with a seal stamp were in use in Asia Minor in the time of Hammurabi (Sayce, Contemporary Review, August, 1907, XCII, 259 ff). The existence of these pieces did not do away with the custom of weighing money, a practice which obtained in Israel down to the time of the exile (Jeremiah 32:10).
Walter R. Betteridge
Money, Love of
Money, Love of - (philarguria, 1 Timothy 6:10, literally, "love of silver"; compare corresponding "lovers of money" (Luke 16:14; 2 Timothy 8:2), equivalent to "avarice"): The vice that seeks to retain and hoard all that is acquired (Trench, Synonyms of the New Testament, xxiv); described as "a root of all kinds of evil."
See also COVETOUSNESS.
Money, Sin
Money, Sin - See SIN MONEY; SIN OFFERING.
Money-changers
Money-changers - chan'-jers (kollubistes, from kollubos, "a small coin," so "a money-changer," or "banker" (Matthew 21:12; Mark 11:15; "changers" in John 2:15; compare John 2:14, where kermatistes, "a dealer in small bits," or "change," is also rendered "changers"); compare trapezites, "one who sits at a table," "a money-changer," "a banker" or "broker"; one who both exchanges money for a small fee and pays interest on deposits (Matthew 25:27, the King James Version "exchangers," the American Standard Revised Version "bankers")): The profession of money-changer in Palestine was made necessary by the law requiring every male Israelite who had reached the age of 20 years to pay into the treasury of the sanctuary a half-shekel at every numbering of the people, an offering to Yahweh, not even the poor being exempt. It seems to have become an annual tax, and was to be paid in the regular Jewish half-shekel (Exodus 30:11-15). Since the Jews, coming up to the feasts, would need to exchange the various coins in common circulation for this Jewish piece, there were money-changers who exacted a premium for the exchange. This fee was a kollubos (about 31 cents in U.S. money, i.e. in 1915), hence, the name kollubistes. The Jews of Christ's day came from many parts of the world, and the business of exchanging foreign coins for various purposes became a lucrative one, the exchangers exacting whatever fee they might. Because of their greed and impiety, Jesus drove them from the courts of the temple.
Edward Bagby Pollard
Monster
Monster - mon'-ster.
See DRAGON; SEA-MONSTER.
Month
Month - munth (chodhesh, yerach; men): Chodhesh is strictly the "new moon," the appearance of which marked the beginning of the month, commonly indicated by ro'sh ha-chodhesh. Yerach is derived from yareach, "moon," which comes from the verb that means "to wander," "to make a circuit." Thus the month was lunar, the period of the moon's circuit. The Greek men also meant "moon," from the Sanskrit ma, "to measure," the Latin mensis and our "moon" being derived from the same root.
See CALENDAR; TIME; ASTRONOMY.
Chodhesh, or rather ro'sh ha-chodhesh, was observed as a festival (1 Samuel 20:5, 18, 24; Isaiah 1:14).
H. Porter
Monthly; Prognosticators
Monthly; Prognosticators - munth'-li, prog-nos'-ti-ka-terz.
See ASTROLOGY, sec. I, 6.
Monument
Monument - mon'-u-ment (Isaiah 65:4 the King James Version).
See VAULT.
Mooli
Mooli - mo'-o-li (Codex Alexandrinus Mooli; Codex Vaticanus Moolei; the King James Version Moli): Son of Merari and grandson of Levi (1 Esdras 8:47) = "Mahli" in Ezra 8:18 (see Exodus 6:16, 19).
Moon
Moon - moon (yareach; meaning obscure--probably "wanderer"; by some given as "paleness"; selene): The moon was very early worshipped by the nations of the Far East as a divinity or the representative of one or more deities. These deities were both masculine and feminine. In Assyria and Babylonia the most common name for the moon-god was Sin or Sen. In Babylonia he was also called Aku and Nannara. In Egypt the moon was representative of several deities, all masculine. The chief of these was Thoth the god of knowledge, so called because the moon was the measurer of time. Babylonia has, also, Aa, the goddess of the moon, as the consort of the sun, while her equivalent was known in Phoenicia as Ashtaroth-karnaim. This personification and worship of the moon among the nations who were neighbors to Palestine was but part of an elaborate Nature-worship found among these people. Nor was this worship always separated from Palestine by geographical lines. It crept into the thought and customs of the Hebrews and in a sense affected their religious conceptions and ceremonies. They fell into the habit of making direct homage to sun, moon and stars, as is evidenced by Job 31:26-27; Jeremiah 44:17, and even Isaiah 8:18 (see CRESCENTS). Moses seems to have forewarned his people against the danger of this form of worship (Deuteronomy 4:19).
The actual worship of the moon and the idolatry consequent thereon seems to have touched the Hebrews, though this is disputed by some. It would seem difficult to explain 2 Kings 21:3 upon any other supposition, and in 2 Kings 23:4-5 we have a clear statement that Josiah put down the worship of the moon among the people and silenced the priests of this form of worship.
Certain forms of the adoration of the moon, or superstitious fear of baneful influences as coming from the moon, still abound in some sections of the world. In fact in nearly all sections modified forms of old superstitions still hold sway and yield but slowly to scientific knowledge.
The eclipses of the moon were naturally given a religious significance inasmuch as the Hebrew knowledge of them did not rise much above awe and wonder (Isaiah 18:7; Joel 2:31; Matthew 24:29; Mark 13:24). Other passages causing interference with the constancy of the moon to foreshadow great events can be found in Jeremiah 13:16; Ezekiel 32:7-8; Revelation 8:12. An interesting passage and most difficult of interpretation is Revelation 12:1. It is frequently interpreted as a revelation in symbolism of the glory of the church clothed with the light and radiating the truth of God.
See also ASTRONOMY; ASTROLOGY.
C. E. Schenk
Moon, New
Moon, New - See ASTROLOGY, sec. I, 6; ASTRONOMY, sec. I, 3, (1); FASTS AND FEASTS.
Moossias
Moossias - mo-os'-i-as (Codex Vaticanus Moosseias; Codex Alexandrinus Moos Sias; the King James Version, Moosias, mo-o-si'as): One of those who had taken a "strange wife" (1 Esdras 9:31) = "Maaseiah" in Ezra 10:30.
Moph
Moph - mof.
See MEMPHIS.
Morality
Morality - mo-ral'-i-ti.
See ETHICS.
Morashtite
Morashtite - mo-rash'-tit (hamorashti; the King James Version, Morasthite, mo-ras'-thit): Gentilic designation of the prophet Micah (Jeremiah 26:18; Micah 1:1).
See also MORESHETH-GATH.
Mordecai
Mordecai - mor'-de-ki, mor-de-ka'-i (mordekhay; Mardochaios): An Israelite of the tribe of Benjamin, whose fate it has been to occupy a distinguished place in the annals of his people. His great-grandfather, Kish, had been carried to Babylon along with Jeconiah, king of Judah (Esther 2:5-6). For nearly 60 years before the scenes narrated in Esther, in which Mordecai was greatly concerned, took place, the way to Palestine had been open to the Israelites; but neither his father, Jair, nor afterward himself chose to return to the ancient heritage. This seems to have been the case also with the rest of his house, as it was with the vast majority of the Israelite people; for his uncle died in Persia leaving his motherless daughter, Hadassah, to the care of Mordecai. Employed in the royal palace at Susa, he attracted, through the timely discovery of a plot to assassinate the king, the favorable notice of Xerxes, and in a short time became the grand vizier of the Persian empire. He has been believed by many to have been the author of the Book of Esther; and in the earliest known notice of the Feast of Purim, outside of the book just mentioned, that festival is closely associated with his name. It is called "the day of Mordecai" (2 Maccabees 15:36). The apocryphal additions to Esther expatiate upon his greatness, and are eloquent of the deep impression which his personality and power had made upon the Jewish people. Lord Arthur Hervey has suggested the identification of Mordecai with Matacas, or Natacas, the powerful favorite and minister of Xerxes who is spoken of by Ctesias, the Greek historian. Few have done more to earn a nation's lasting gratitude than Mordecai, to whom, under God, the Jewish people owe their preservation.
John Urquhart
Moreh, Hill of
Moreh, Hill of - mo'-re (gibh`ath ha-moreh, "hill of the teacher"; Codex Vaticanus Gabaathamora; Codex Alexandrinus, tou bomou tou Abor): The Hebrew moreh is derived from the verb yarah, "to teach," "to direct," and indicates one who directs, or gives oracular answers. We might therefore read "hill of the teacher," the height being associated with such a person who had his seat here. The hill is named only in describing the position of the Midianites before Gideon's attack (Judges 7:1). If the identification of the Well of Harod with `Ain Jalud is correct, Gideon must have occupied the slopes to the East of Jezreel. The Midianite camp was in the valley of Jezreel (Judges 6:33). The Hebrew text in Judges 7:1, which has probably suffered some corruption, seems to mean that the Midianites lay North of the position held by Gideon, their lines running from the hill of Moreh in the plain. The hill can hardly have been other than Jebel ed-Duchy, often called Little Hermon, which rises boldly from the northern edge of the vale of Jezreel, with Shunem (Solam) lying at its western foot. Moore ("Judges," ICC, 200) would lay the scene in the neighborhood of Shechem, but there is no good reason to doubt the accuracy of the tradition which places it at the eastern end of the plain of Esdraelon.
W. Ewing
Moreh, Oak of
Moreh, Oak of - ('elon moreh, "terebinth of the teacher"; ten drun ten hupselen; the King James Version Plain of Moreh): It seems probable that the place here intended may be the same as that mentioned in Deuteronomy 11:30 ('elone moreh, "terebinths of Moreh," the King James Version "plains," the Revised Version (British and American) "oaks," the Revised Version margin "terebinths"). Both are defined as near to Shechem. The position cannot be identified today. The tree or trees were evidently a place of resort for those who wished to consult a moreh. See MOREH,HILL OF . To this day in Palestine trees are often regarded with a certain religious awe as the habitation of spirits. Isolated terebinths receive much veneration. The present writer has often seen such trees with multitudinous rags of all colors attached to them by the peasantry as evidence of their homage.
See MEONENIM.
W. Ewing
Moresheth-gath
Moresheth-gath - mo'-resh-eth-gath, mo-resh'-eth-gath (moresheth gath, "inheritance or possession of Gath"; Septuagint kleronomias Geth): A place mentioned only in Micah 1:14. It must have been in the vicinity of Gath as the meaning of the name would indicate, and was the home of the prophet Micah (Micah 1:1; Jeremiah 26:18). It was probably in the vicinity of Mareshah (Micah 1:15). Jerome, in his preface to his work on Micah, places it a little to the East of Eleutheropolis (Beit Jibrin), and it would be natural to find it there if the latter place was Gath as some think. Robinson (BR, II, 68) found ruins of a village between one and two miles East of Beit Jibrin. It must have been among the foot-hills of Judah between the hill country and the Philistine plain on the route from Jerusalem to Lachish, Gaza and Egypt. Mareshah was certainly in that region, and the prophecy of Micah mentions towns and villages in the Shephelah and the Philistine country as though they were familiar to him (see HGHL and G. A. Smith, "Micah," in his Minor Prophets).
H. Porter
Moriah, Land of
Moriah, Land of - mo-ri'-a ('erec ha-moriyah; eis ten genitive ten hupselen): Abraham was directed by God to take his son Isaac, to go into the land of Moriah, and there to offer him for a burnt offering (Genesis 22:2) upon a mountain which God would show him. This land is mentioned only here, and there is little to guide us in trying to identify it. A late writer (2 Chronicles 3:1) applies the name of Moriah to the mount on which Solomon's Temple was built, possibly associating it with the sacrifice of Isaac. A similar association with this mountain may have been in the mind of the writer of Genesis 22:1-24 (see Genesis 22:14), who, of course, wrote long after the events described (Driver). But in Genesis 22:2 no special mountain is indicated.
Abraham journeyed from the land of the Philistines, and on the 3rd day he saw the place afar off (Genesis 22:4). This naturally suggests some prominent mountain farther North than Jerusalem. The description could hardly apply to Jerusalem in any case, as it could not be seen "afar off" by one approaching either from the South or the West. The Samaritans lay the scene of sacrifice on Mt. GERIZIM (which see).
Instead of "Moriah" in this passage Peshitta reads "Amorites." This suggests a possible emendation of the text, which, if it be accepted, furnishes a more definite ides of the land within which that memorable scene was enacted. Both Jerusalem and Gerizim, however, lay within the boundaries of the land of the Amorites. No doubt the enmity existing between the Jews and the Samaritans led them each to glorify their own holy places to the detriment of those of their rivals. Little stress can therefore be laid upon their identifications. With our present knowledge we must be content to leave the question open.
W. Ewing
Morning
Morning - mor'-ning: There are several Hebrew and Greek words which are rendered "morning," the most common in Hebrew being boqer, which occurs 180 times. It properly means "the breaking forth of the light," "the dawn," as in Genesis 19:27; Judges 19:8, 25, 27. Another word with the same meaning is shachar (Genesis 19:15; Nehemiah 4:21; Isaiah 58:8). mishchar ("womb of the morning," Psalms 110:3) is a poetical term derived from. the same root. See HIND OF THE MORNING. noghah, naghha' (Daniel 6:19 (Hebrews 20)), mean "brightness." hashkem, comes from hishkim, "to load an animal" (for a journey), and as the nomads are accustomed to do this early in the morning it came to mean early morning (1 Samuel 17:16).
See BETIMES.
In the New Testament orthros, is properly "dawn," and is used for early morning (John 8:2; Acts 5:21), and
proia signifies the same (Matthew 27:1). proi, "early," is an adverb and means early in the morning (Mark 1:35). Morning as an adjective is orthrinos (Revelation 22:16), or proinos (1 Esdras 1:11; 5:50; Revelation 2:28; 22:16).
H. Porter
Morning Watch
Morning Watch - 'ash-moreth ha-boker (Exodus 14:24; 1 Samuel 11:11); in Judith 12:5 for heothine phulake; compare Sirach 55:6; 1 Maccabees 5:30): The last portion of the night.
See WATCH.
Morning, Wings of
Morning, Wings of - See ASTRONOMY, sec. I, 4.
Morrow After the Sabbath
Morrow After the Sabbath - (mochorath, or mochoratham, "the morrow," or "tomorrow," "the day following"; mochorath ha-shabbath, "the day after the Sabbath," i.e. the first day of the week): The first day of the week was designated for the formal offering of the first-fruits in the form of wave-sheaves (Leviticus 23:11), and of the wave-loaves 50 days later (Leviticus 23:16-17). This recognition of an after-Sabbath during festive periods has its counterpart in the later ecclesiastical practice of celebrating not only Easter Sunday, but also Easter Monday, etc., and undoubtedly was a factor in establishing the custom which transferred the sanctity of the Sabbath to the first day of the week after the resurrection of our Lord.
Frank E. Hirsch
Morrow, Tomorrow
Morrow, Tomorrow - mor'-o, too-mor'-o: Two words are used in the Old Testament in this meaning: boqer, which properly means "dawn," or "morning," and machar, properly the same, but used for the next morning and hence, "tomorrow," like the German morgen. The derivative mo-chorath, is "the following day," "all the next day," especially after yom ("day"), but usually coupled with a noun following, as in Leviticus 23:11, mochorath ha-shabbath "day after the Sabbath." It is also used adverbially for "on the morrow," as in Genesis 19:34.
In the Greek of the New Testament we find aurion (Matthew 6:34, etc.), commonly used, but hexes, also occurs (Acts 25:17 the King James Version, where the Revised Version (British and American) renders more exactly "the next day"); epaurion, is "on the morrow" (Acts 10:9, 23-24).
H. Porter
Morsel
Morsel - mor'-sel (brosis): Found only in Hebrews 12:16 the King James Version, "For one morsel of meat (the Revised Version (British and American) "mess of meat") sold his birthright," literally, "for one eating," i.e. one meal. The Great Bible (Cranmer's) has "for one mease of meat."
Mortal; Mortality
Mortal; Mortality - mor'-tal, mor-tal'-i-ti (thnetos to thneton): The meaning is "subject to death" (Romans 6:12; 8:11; 1 Corinthians 15:53-54; in 2 Corinthians 5:4 the Revised Version (British and American) has "what is mortal"). In Job 4:17, the Hebrew word is 'enosh, "mortal man."
See IMMORTAL.
Mortar
Mortar - mor'-ter (medhokhah (Numbers 11:8), makhtesh (Proverbs 27:22)): A hollowed stone or vessel in which grain or other substance was pounded or beaten with a pestle. The Israelites used a mortar in which to beat the manna in the wilderness (Numbers 11:8), and Proverbs 27:22 declares, "Though thou shouldst bray a fool in a mortar with a pestle .... yet will not his foolishness depart from him," i.e. it is inherent and ineradicable. Some have supposed an allusion to an oriental mode of punishment by pounding the criminal to death in a mortar, but this is unlikely. In illustration of Proverbs 27:22 such proverbs are quoted as "Though you beat that loose woman in a mortar, she will not leave her ways." See also BRAY. For "mortar" (the King James Version "morter").
See BITUMEN.
James Orr
Mortgage
Mortgage - mor'-gaj (arabh): To give or be security as a part of bartering, give pledges, become surety. In time of great need for food, "Some also there were that said, We are mortgaging (the King James Version "have mortgaged") our fields," etc. (Nehemiah 5:3).
See SURETY.
Mortify
Mortify - mor'-ti-fi (Romans 8:13 the King James Version and the English Revised Version, thanatoo, the English Revised Version margin "make to die," and Colossians 3:5, nekroo, the English Revised Version margin "make dead"): This sense of mortify is obsolete in modern English, and the American Standard Revised Version in both places substitutes "put to death," with great advantage. The context in both passages goes to the heart of Paul's doctrine of the union of the believer with Christ. This union has given the soul a new life, flowing (through the Spirit) from Christ in the heavenly world, so that the remnants of the old corrupt life-principle are now dangerous excrescences. Hence, they are to be destroyed, just as a surgeon removes the remnants of a diseased condition after the reestablishment of healthy circulation. The interpreter must guard against weakening Paul's language into some such phrase as "subdue all that is inconsistent with the highest ideals," for Paul views the union with Christ as an intensely real, quasi-physical relation.
Burton Scott Easton
Moserah
Moserah - mo-se'-ra, mo'-se-ra (mocerah, "bond"): Perhaps Moser with the "he" of locale (direction), "to Moser" (Deuteronomy 10:6).
See MOSEROTH.
Moseroth
Moseroth - mo-se'-roth, mo'-se-roth, -roth (moceroth, "bonds"): A desert camp of the Israelites between Hashmonah and Bene-jaakan (Numbers 33:30-31). It is probably the same as Moserah (Deuteronomy 10:6), though in that passage the name follows Bene-jaakan. There Aaron died and was buried.
See WANDERINGS OF ISRAEL.
Moses
Moses - mo'-zez, mo'-ziz (mosheh; Egyptian mes, "drawn out," "born"; Septuagint Mouse(s)). The great Hebrew national hero, leader, author, law-giver and prophet.
I. LIFE
1. Son of Levi
2. Foundling Prince
3. Friend of the People
4. Refuge in Midian
5. Leader of Israel
II. WORK AND CHARACTER
1. The Author
2. The Lawgiver
3. The Prophet
LITERATURE
The traditional view of the Jewish church and of the Christian church, that Moses was a person and that the narrative with which his life-story is interwoven is real history, is in the main sustained by commentators and critics of all classes.
It is needless to mention the old writers among whom these questions were hardly under discussion. Among the advocates of the current radical criticism may be mentioned Stade and Renan, who minimize the historicity of the Bible narrative at this point. Renan thinks the narrative "may be very probable." Ewald, Wellhausen, Robertson Smith, and Driver, while finding many flaws in the story, make much generally of the historicity of the narrative.
The critical analysis of the Pentateuch divides this life-story of Moses into three main parts, J, E, and the Priestly Code (P), with a fourth, D, made up mainly from the others. Also some small portions here and there are given to R, especially the account of Aaron's part in the plagues of Egypt, where his presence in a J-document is very troublesome for the analytical theory. It is unnecessary to encumber this biography with constant cross-references to the strange story of Moses pieced together out of the rearranged fragments into which the critical analysis of the Pentateuch breaks up the narrative. It is recognized that there are difficulties in the story of Moses. In what ancient life-story are there not difficulties? If we can conceive of the ancients being obliged to ponder over a modern life-story, we can easily believe that they would have still more difficulty with it. But it seems to very many that the critical analysis creates more difficulties in the narrative than it relieves. It is a little thing to explain by such analysis some apparent discrepancy between two laws or two events or two similar incidents which we do not clearly understand. It is a far greater thing so to confuse, by rearranging, a beautiful, well-articulated biography that it becomes disconnected--indeed, in parts, scarcely makes sense.
The biographical narrative of the Hebrew national hero, Moses, is a continuous thread of history in the Pentateuch. That story in all its simplicity and symmetry, but with acknowledgment of its difficulties as they arise, is here to be followed.
I. Life. 1. Son of Levi: The recorded story of Moses' life falls naturally into five rather unequal parts: "And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter of Levi" (Exodus 2:1). The son of Levi born of that union became the greatest man among mere men in the whole history of the world. How far he was removed in genealogy from Levi it is impossible to know. The genealogical lists (Genesis 46:11; Exodus 6:16-20; Numbers 3:14-28; Numbers 26:57-59; 1 Chronicles 6:1-3) show only 4 generations from Levi to Moses, while the account given of the numbers of Israel at the exodus (Exodus 12:37; 38:26; Numbers 1:46; 11:21) imperatively demand at least 10 or 12 generations. The males alone of the sons of Kohath "from a month old and upward" numbered at Sinai 8,600 (Numbers 3:27-28). It is evident that the extract from the genealogy here, as in many other places (1 Chronicles 23:15 f; 1 Chronicles 26:24; Ezra 7:1-5; Ezra 8:1-2; compare 1 Chronicles 6:3-14; Matthew 1:1-17; Luke 3:23-38) is not complete, but follows the common method of giving important heads of families. The statement concerning Jochebed: "And she bare unto Amram Aaron and Moses, and Miriam their sister" (Numbers 26:59) really creates no difficulty, as it is likewise said of Zilpah, after the mention of her grandsons, "And these she bare unto Jacob" (Genesis 46:17-18; compare Genesis 46:24-25).
The names of the immediate father and mother of Moses are not certainly known. The mother "saw him that he was a goodly child" (Exodus 2:2). So they defied the commandment of the king (Exodus 1:22), and for 3 months hid him instead of throwing him into the river.
2. Foundling Prince: The time soon came when it was impossible longer to hide the child (Josephus, Ant, II, ix, 3-6). The mother resolved upon a plan which was at once a pathetic imitation of obedience to the commandment of the king, an adroit appeal to womanly sympathy, and, if it succeeded, a subtle scheme to bring the cruelty of the king home to his own attention. Her faith succeeded. She took an ark of bulrushes (Exodus 2:3-4; compare ARK OF BULRUSHES), daubed it with bitumen mixed with the sticky slime of the river, placed in this floating vessel the child of her love and faith, and put it into the river at a place among the sedge in the shallow water where the royal ladies from the palace would be likely to come down to bathe. A sister, probably Miriam, stood afar off to watch (Exodus 2:3-4). The daughter of Pharaoh came down with her great ladies to the river (Exodus 2:5-10). The princess saw the ark among the sedge and sent a maid to fetch it. The expectation of the mother was not disappointed. The womanly sympathy of the princess was touched. She resolved to save this child by adopting him. Through the intervention of the watching sister, he was given to his own mother to be nursed (Exodus 2:7-9). "And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son" (Exodus 2:10). Thus, he would receive her family name.
Royal family names in Egypt then were usually compounded of some expression of reverence or faith or submission and the name of a god, e.g. "loved of," "chosen of," "born of," Thoth, Ptah, Ra or Amon. At this period of Egyptian history, "born of" (Egyptian mes, "drawn out") was joined sometimes to Ah, the name of the moon-god, making Ahmes, or Thoth, the scribe-god, so Thothmes, but usually with Ra, the sun-god, giving Rames, usually anglicized Rameses or Ramoses.
It was the time of the Ramesside dynasty, and the king on the throne was Rameses II. Thus the foundling adopted by Pharaoh's daughter would have the family name Mes or Moses. That it would be joined in the Egyptian to the name of the sungod Ra is practically certain. His name at court would be Ramoses. But to the oriental mind a name must mean something. The usual meaning of this royal name was that the child was "born of" a princess through the intervention of the god Ra. But this child was not "born of" the princess, so falling back upon the primary meaning of the word, "drawn out," she said, "because I drew him out of the water" (Exodus 2:10). Thus, Moses received his name. Pharaoh's daughter may have been the eldest daughter of Rameses II, but more probably was the daughter and eldest child of Seti Merenptah I, and sister of the king on the throne. She would be lineal heir to the crown but debarred by her sex. Instead, she bore the title "Pharaoh's Daughter," and, according to Egyptian custom, retained the right to the crown for her first-born son. A not improbable tradition (Josephus, Ant, II, ix, 7) relates that she had no natural son, and Moses thus became heir to the throne, not with the right to supplant the reigning Pharaoh, but to supersede any of his sons.
Very little is known of Moses' youth and early manhood at the court of Pharaoh. He would certainly be educated as a prince, whose right it probably was to be initiated into the mysteries. Thus he was "instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians" (Acts 7:22), included in which, according to many Egyptologists, was the doctrine of one Supreme God.
Many curious things, whose value is doubtful, are told of Moses by Josephus and other ancient writers (Josephus, Ant, II, ix, 3; xi; CAp, I, 31; compare DB ; for Mohammedan legends, see Palmer, The Desert of the Exodus, Appendix; for rabbinical legends, see Jewish Encyclopedia). Some of these traditions are not incredible but lack authentication. Others are absurd. Egyptologists have searched with very indifferent success for some notice of the great Hebrew at the Egyptian court.
3. Friend of the People: But the faith of which the Epistle to the Hebrews speaks (Hebrews 11:23-28) was at work. Moses "refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter" (Exodus 2:11-14; Acts 7:24). Whether he did so in word, by definite renunciation, or by his espousal of the cause of the slave against the oppressive policy of Pharaoh is of little importance. In either case he became practically a traitor, and greatly imperiled his throne rights and probably his civil rights as well. During some intervention to ameliorate the condition of the state slaves, an altercation arose and he slew an Egyptian (Exodus 2:11-12). Thus, his constructive treason became an overt act. Discovering through the ungrateful reproaches of his own kinsmen (Acts 7:25) that his act was known, he quickly made decision, "choosing rather to share ill treatment with the people of God," casting in his lot with slaves of the empire, rather than "to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season," amid the riotous living of the young princes at the Egyptian court; "accounting the reproach of Christ" his humiliation, being accounted a nobody ("Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?") as "greater riches than the treasures of Egypt" (Hebrews 11:25-26; Acts 7:25-28). He thought to be a nobody and do right better than to be a tyrant and rule Egypt.
4. Refuge in Midian: Moses fled, "not fearing the wrath of the king" (Hebrews 11:27), not cringing before it or submitting to it, but defying it and braving all that it could bring upon him, degradation from his high position, deprivation of the privileges and comforts of the Egyptian court. He went out a poor wanderer (Exodus 2:15). We are told nothing of the escape and the journey, how he eluded the vigilance of the court guards and of the frontier-line of sentinels. The friend of slaves is strangely safe while within their territory. At last he reached the Sinaitic province of the empire and hid himself away among its mountain fastnesses (Exodus 2:15). The romance of the well and the shepherdesses and the grateful father and the future wife is all quite in accord with the simplicity of desert life (Exodus 2:16-22). The "Egyptian" saw the rude, selfish herdsmen of the desert imposing upon the helpless shepherd girls, and, partly by the authority of a manly man, partly, doubtless, by the authority of his Egyptian appearance in an age when "Egypt" was a word with which to frighten men in all that part of the world, he compelled them to give way. The "Egyptian" was called, thanked, given a home and eventually a wife. There in Midian, while the anguish of Israel continued under the taskmaster's lash, and the weakening of Israel's strength by the destruction of the male children went on, with what more or less rigor we know not, Moses was left by Providence to mellow and mature, that the haughty, impetuous prince, "instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians," might be transformed into the wise, well-poised, masterful leader, statesman, lawgiver, poet and prophet. God usually prepares His great ones in the countryside or about some of the quiet places of earth, farthest away from the busy haunts of men and nearest to the "secret place of the Most High." David keeping his father's flocks, Elijah on the mountain slopes of Gilead, the Baptist in the wilderness of Judea, Jesus in the shop of a Galilean carpenter; so Moses a shepherd in the Bedouin country, in the "waste, howling wilderness."
5. Leader of Israel: (1) The Commission. One day Moses led the flocks to "the back of the wilderness" (Exodus 3:1-12; see BUSH,BURNING . Moses received his commission, the most appalling commission ever given to a mere man (Exodus 3:10)--a commission to a solitary man, and he a refugee--to go back home and deliver his kinsmen from a dreadful slavery at the hand of the most powerful nation on earth. Let not those who halt and stumble over the little difficulties of most ordinary lives think hardly of the faltering of Moses' faith before such a task (Exodus 3:11-13; Exodus 4:1, 10-13). "Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you" (Exodus 3:14), was the encouragement God gave him. He gave him also Aaron for a spokesman (Exodus 4:14-16), the return to the Mount of God as a sign (Exodus 3:12), and the rod of power for working wonders (Exodus 4:17).
One of the curious necessities into which the critical analysis drives its advocates is the opinion concerning Aaron that "he scarcely seems to have been a brother and almost equal partner of Moses, perhaps not even a priest" (Bennett, HDB, III, 441). Interesting and curious speculations have been instituted concerning the way in which Israel and especially Pharaoh were to understand the message, "I AM hath sent me unto you" (Exodus 3:13-14; compare Exodus 6:3). They were evidently expected to understand this message. Were they to so do by translating or by transliterating it into Egyptian? Some day Egyptologists may be able to answer positively, but not yet.
With the signs for identification (Exodus 4:1-10), Moses was ready for his mission. He went down from the "holy ground" to obey the high summons and fulfill the great commission (Exodus 4:18-23). After the perplexing controversy with his wife, a controversy of stormy ending (Exodus 4:24-26), he seems to have left his family to his father-in-law's care while he went to respond to the call of God (Exodus 18:6). He met Aaron, his brother, at the Mount of God (Exodus 4:27-28), and together they returned to Egypt to collect the elders of Israel (Exodus 4:29-31), who were easily won over to the scheme of emancipation. Was ever a slave people not ready to listen to plans for freedom?
(2) The Conflict with Pharaoh. The next move was the bold request to the king to allow the people to go into the wilderness to hold a feast unto Yahweh (Exodus 5:1). How did Moses gain admittance past the jealous guards of an Egyptian court to the presence of the Pharaoh himself? And why was not the former traitorous refugee at once arrested? Egyptology affords a not too distinct answer. Rameses II was dead (Exodus 4:19); Merenptah II was on the throne with an insecure tenure, for the times were troubled. Did some remember the "son of Pharaoh's daughter" who, had he remained loyal, would have been the Pharaoh? Probably so. Thus he would gain admittance, and thus, too, in the precarious condition of the throne, it might well not be safe to molest him. The original form of the request made to the king, with some slight modification, was continued throughout (Exodus 8:27; 10:9), though God promised that the Egyptians should thrust them out altogether when the end should come, and it was so (Exodus 11:1; 31, 33, 39). Yet Pharaoh remembered the form of their request and bestirred himself when it was reported that they had indeed gone "from serving" them (Exodus 14:5). The request for temporary departure upon which the contest was made put Pharaoh's call to duty in the easiest form and thus, also, his obstinacy appears as the greater heinousness. Then came the challenge of Pharaoh in his contemptuous demand, "Who is Yahweh?" (Exodus 5:2), and Moses' prompt acceptance of the challenge, in the beginning of the long series of plagues (see PLAGUE) (Exodus 8:1 ff; Exodus 12:29-36; 14:31; compare Lamb, Miracle of Science). Pharaoh, having made the issue, was justly required to afford full presentation of it. So Pharaoh's heart was "hardened" (Exodus 4:21; 3, 13; 12, 35 - Exodus 10:1; 14:8; see PLAGUE) until the vindication of Yahweh as God of all the earth was complete. This proving of Yahweh was so conducted that the gods of Egypt were shown to be of no avail against Him, but that He is God of all the earth, and until the faith of the people of Israel was confirmed (Exodus 14:31).
(3) Institution of the Passover. It was now time for the next step in revelation (Exodus 12:1-51; Exodus 13:1-16). At the burning bush God had declared His purpose to be a saviour, not a destroyer. In this contest in Egypt, His absolute sovereignty was being established; and now the method of deliverance by Him, that He might not be a destroyer, was to be revealed. Moses called together the elders (Exodus 12:21-28) and instituted the Passover feast. As God always in revelation chooses the known and the familiar--the tree, the bow, circumcision, baptism, and the Supper--by which to convey the unknown, so the Passover was a combination of the household feast with the widespread idea of safety through blood-sacrifice, which, however it may have come into the world, was not new at that time. Some think there is evidence of an old Semitic festival at that season which was utilized for the institution of the Passover.
The lamb was chosen and its use was kept up (Exodus 12:3-6). On the appointed night it was killed and "roasted with fire" and eaten with bitter herbs (Exodus 12:8), while they all stood ready girded, with their shoes on their feet and their staff in hand (Exodus 12:11). They ate in safety and in hope, because the blood of the lamb was on the door (Exodus 12:23). That night the firstborn of Egypt were slain. Among the Egyptians "there was not a house where there was not one dead" (Exodus 12:30), from the house of the maid-servant, who sat with her handmill before her, to the palace of the king that "sat on the throne," and even among the cattle in the pasture. If the plague was employed as the agency of the angel of Yahweh, as some think, its peculiarity is that it takes the strongest and the best and culminates in one great stunning blow and then immediately subsides (see PLAGUE). Who can tell the horror of that night when the Israelites were thrust out of the terror-stricken land (Exodus 12:39)?
As they went out, they "asked," after the fashion of departing servants in the East, and God gave them favor in the sight of the over-awed Egyptians that they lavished gifts upon them in extravagance. Thus "they despoiled the Egyptians" (Exodus 12:36). "Moreover the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh's servants, and in the sight of the people" (Exodus 11:3; Exodus 12:35-36).
(4) The Exodus. "At the end of 430 years, even the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the hosts of Yahweh went out from the land of Egypt" (Exodus 12:41). The great oppressor was Rameses II, and the culmination and the revolution came, most probably, in connection with the building of Pithom and Raamses, as these are the works of Israel mentioned in the Bible narrative (Exodus 1:11). Rameses said that he built Pithom at the "mouth of the east" (Budge, History of Exodus, V, 123). All efforts to overthrow that statement have failed and for the present, at least, it must stand. Israel built Pithom, Rameses built Pithom; there is a synchronism that cannot in the present knowledge of Egyptian history even be doubted, much less separated. The troubled times which came to Egypt with the beginning of the reign of Merenptah II afforded the psychological moment for the return of the "son of Pharaoh's daughter" and his access to the royal court. The presence and power of Yahweh vindicated His claim to be the Lord of all the earth, and Merenptah let the children of Israel go.
A little later when Israel turned back from the border of Khar (Palestine) into the wilderness and disappeared, and Merenptah's affairs were somewhat settled in the empire, he set up the usual boastful tablet claiming as his own many of the victories of his royal ancestors, added a few which he himself could truly boast, and inserted, near the end, an exultation over Israel's discomfiture, accounting himself as having finally won the victory:
"Tehennu is devastation, Kheta peace, the Canaan the prisoner of all ills;
"Asgalon led out, taken with Gezer, Yenoamam made naught;
"The People of Israel is ruined, his posterity is not; Khar is become as the widows of Egypt."
The synchronisms of this period are well established and must stand until, if it should ever be, other facts of Egyptian history shall be obtained to change them. Yet it is impossible to determine with certainty the precise event from which the descent into Egypt should be reckoned, or to fix the date BC of Moses, Rameses and Merenptah, and the building of Pithom, and so, likewise, the date of the exodus and of all the patriarchal movements. The ancients were more concerned about the order of events, their perspective and their synchronisms than about any epochal date. For the present we must be content with these chronological uncertainties. Astronomical science may sometimes fix the epochal dates for these events; otherwise there is little likelihood that they will ever be known.#
They went out from Succoth (Egyptian "Thuku," Budge, History of Egypt, V, 122, 129), carrying the bones of Joseph with them as he had commanded (Exodus 13:19; Genesis 50:25). The northeast route was the direct way to the promised land, but it was guarded. Pithom itself was built at "the mouth of the East," as a part of the great frontier defenses (Budge, op. cit., V, 123). The "wall" on this frontier was well guarded (Exodus 14:1-31), and attempts might be made to stop them. So they went not "by the way of the land of the Philistines .... lest peradventure the people repent when they see war" (Exodus 13:17). The Lord Himself took the leadership and went ahead of the host of Israel in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night (Exodus 13:21). He led them by "the way of the wilderness by the Red Sea" (Exodus 13:18). They pitched before Pi-hahiroth, over against Baal-zephon between Migdol and the sea (Exodus 14:2). Not one of these places has been positively identified. But the Journeys before and after the crossing, the time, and the configuration of the land and the coast-line of the sea, together with all the necessities imposed by the narrative, are best met by a crossing near the modern town of Suez (Naville, Route of the Exodus; Palmer, The Desert of the Exodus), where Ras `Ataka comes down to the sea, upon whose heights a migdhol or "watch-tower," as the southern outpost of the eastern line of Egyptian defenses, would most probably be erected.
Word was carried from the frontier to Pharaoh, probably at Tanis, that the Israelites had "fled" (Exodus 14:5), had taken the impassioned thrusting out by the frenzied people of Egypt in good faith and had gone never to return. Pharaoh took immediate steps to arrest and bring back the fugitives. The troops at hand (Exodus 14:6) and the chariot corps, including 600 "chosen chariots," were sent at once in pursuit, Pharaoh going out in person at least to start the expedition (Exodus 14:6-7). The Israelites seemed to be "entangled in the land," and, since "the wilderness (had) shut them in" (Exodus 4:3), must easily fall a prey to the Egyptian army. The Israelites, terror-stricken, cried to Moses. God answered and commanded the pillar of cloud to turn back from its place before the host of Israel and stand between them and the approaching Egyptians, so that while the Egyptians were in the darkness Israel had the light (Exodus 14:19-20). The mountain came down on their right, the sea on the left to meet the foot of the mountain in front of them; the Egyptians were hastening on after them and the pillar of cloud and fire was their rearward. Moses with the rod of God stood at the head of the fleeing host. Then God wrought. Moses stretched out the rod of God over the sea and "Yahweh caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all the night" (Exodus 14:16-21). A pathway was before them and the sea on the right hand, and on the left was a "wall unto them," and they passed through (Exodus 14:21-22). Such heaping up of the waters by the wind is well known and sometimes amounts to 7 or 8 ft. in Lake Erie (Wright, Scientific Confirmations of the Old Testament, 106). No clearer statement could possibly be made of the means used and of the miraculous timing of God's providence with the obedience of the people to His command to Moses. The host of Israel passed over on the hard, sandy bottom of the sea. The Egyptians coming up in the dark and finding it impossible to tell exactly where the coastline had been on this beach, and where the point of safety would lie when the wind should abate and the tide come in again, impetuously rushed on after the fleeing slaves. In the morning, Yahweh looked forth and troubled the Egyptians "and took off their chariot wheels, and they drove them heavily" (Exodus 14:24-25). The wind had abated, the tide was returning and the infiltration that goes before the tide made the beach like a quicksand. The Egyptians found that they had gone too far and tried to escape (Exodus 14:27), but it was too late. The rushing tide caught them (Exodus 14:28). When the day had come, "horse and rider" were but the subject of a minstrel's song of triumph (Exodus 15:1-19; Psalms 106:9-12) which Miriam led with her timbrel (Exodus 15:20). The Bible does not say, and there is no reason to believe, that Pharaoh led the Egyptian hosts in person further than at the setting off and for the giving of general direction to the campaign (Exodus 15:4). Pharaoh and his host were overthrown in the Red Sea (Psalms 136:15). So Napoleon and his host were overthrown at Waterloo, but Napoleon lived to die at Helena. And Merenptah lived to erect his boastful inscription concerning the failure of Israel, when turned back from Kadesh-barnea, and their disappearance in the wilderness of Paran. His mummy, identified by the lamented Professor Groff, lies among the royal mummies in the Cairo Museum. Thus at the Red Sea was wrought the final victory of Yahweh over Pharaoh; and the people believed (Exodus 14:31).
(5) Special Providences. Now proceeded that long course of special providences, miraculous timing of events, and multiplying of natural agencies which began with the crossing of the Red Sea and ended only when they "did eat of the fruit of the land" (Joshua 5:12). God promised freedom from the diseases of the Egyptians (Exodus 15:26) at the bitter waters of Marah, on the condition of obedience. Moses was directed to a tree, the wood of which should counteract the alkaline character of the water (Exodus 15:23-25). A little later they were at Elim (Wady Gharandel, in present-day geography), where were "twelve springs of water and three score and ten palm trees" (Exodus 15:27). The enumeration of the trees signifies nothing but their scarcity, and is understood by everyone who has traveled in that desert and counted, again and again, every little clump of trees that has appeared. The course of least resistance here is to turn a little to the right and come out again at the Red Sea in order to pass around the point of the plateau into the wilderness of Sin. This is the course travel takes now, and it took the same course then (Exodus 16:1). Here Israel murmured (Exodus 16:2), and every traveler who crosses this blistering, dusty, wearisome, hungry wilderness joins in the murmuring, and wishes, at least a little, that he had stayed in the land of Egypt (Exodus 16:3). Provisions brought from Egypt were about exhausted and the land supplied but little. Judging from the complaints of the people about the barrenness of the land, it was not much different then from what it is now (Numbers 20:1-6). Now special providential provision began. "At even .... the quails came up, and covered the camp," and in the morning, after the dew, the manna was found (Exodus 16:4-36).
At Rephidim was the first of the instances when Moses was called upon to help the people to some water. He smote the rock with the rod of God, and there came forth an abundant supply of water (Exodus 17:1-6). There is plenty of water in the wady near this point now. The Amalekites, considering the events immediately following, had probably shut the Israelites off from the springs, so God opened some hidden source in the mountain side. "Then came Amalek, and fought with Israel" (Exodus 17:8). Whether the hand which Moses lifted up during the battle was his own hand or a symbolical hand (Exodus 17:9-12), thought to have been carried in battle then, as sometimes even yet by the Bedouin, is of no importance. It was in either case a hand stretched up to God in prayer and allegiance, and the battle with Amalek, then as now, fluctuates according as the hand is lifted up or lowered (Exodus 17:8-16).
Here Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, met him and brought his wife and children to him (Exodus 18:5-6; compare Numbers 10:29). A sacrificial feast was held with the distinguished guest (Exodus 18:7-12). In the wise counsel of this great desert-priest we see one of the many natural sources of supply for Moses' legal lore and statesmanship. A suggestion of Jethro gave rise to one of the wisest and most far-reaching elements in the civil institutions of Israel, the elaborate system of civil courts (Exodus 18:13-26).
(6) Receiving the Law. At Sinai Moses reached the pinnacle of his career, though perhaps not the pinnacle of his faith. (For a discussion of the location of Sinai, see SINAI; EXODUS.) It is useless to speculate about the nature of the flames in theophany by fire at Sinai. Some say there was a thunderstorm (HDB); others think a volcanic eruption. The time, the stages of the journey, the description of the way, the topography of this place, especially its admirable adaptability to be the cathedral of Yahweh upon earth, and, above all, the collocation of all the events of the narrative along this route to this spot and to no other--all these exercise an overwhelming influence upon one (compare Palmer, The Desert of the Exodus). If they do not conclusively prove, they convincingly persuade, that here the greatest event between Creation and Calvary took place
Here the people assembled. "And Mount Sinai, the whole of it, smoked," and above appeared the glory of God. Bounds were set about the mountain to keep the people back (Exodus 19:12-13). God was upon the mountain: "Under his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the very heaven for clearness" (Exodus 19:16-19; Exodus 24:10, 16-17), "and God spake all these words" (Exodus 20:1-17). Back over the summit of the plain between these two mountain ridges in front, the people fled in terror to the place "afar off" (Exodus 20:18), and somewhere about the foot of this mountain a little later the tabernacle of grace was set up (Exodus 40:17). At this place the affairs of Moses mounted up to such a pinnacle of greatness in the religious history of the world as none other among men has attained unto. He gave formal announcement of the perfect law of God as a rule of life, and the redeeming mercy of God as the hope through repentance for a world of sinners that "fall short." Other men have sought God and taught men to seek God, some by the works of the Law and some by the way of propitiation, but where else in the history of the world has any one man caught sight of both great truths and given them out?
Moses gathered the people together to make the covenant (Exodus 24:1-8), and the nobles of Israel ate a covenant meal there before God (Exodus 24:11). God called Moses again to the mountain with the elders of Israel (Exodus 24:12). There Moses was with God, fasting 40 days (Exodus 34:28). Joshua probably accompanied Moses into the mount (Exodus 24:13). There God gave directions concerning the plan of the tabernacle: "See .... that thou make all things according to the pattern that was showed thee in the mount" (Hebrews 8:5-12, summing up Exodus 25:40; 26:30; 27:8). This was the statement of the architect to the builder. We can only learn what the pattern was by studying the tabernacle (see TABERNACLE). It was an Egyptian plan (compare Bible Student, January, 1902). While Moses was engaged in his study of the things of the tabernacle on the mount, the people grew restless and appealed to Aaron (Exodus 32:1). In weakness Aaron yielded to them and made them a golden calf and they said, "These are thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt" (Exodus 32:2-6; compare CALF, GOLDEN). This was probably, like the later calf-worship at Bethel and Dan, ancient Semitic bull-worship and a violation of the second commandment Exodus 20:5; compare Bible Student, August, 1902). The judgment of God was swift and terrible (Exodus 32:7-35), and Levi was made the Divine agent (Exodus 32:25-29). Here first the "tent of meeting" comes into prominence as the official headquarters of the leader of Israel (Exodus 33:7-11). Henceforth independent and distinct from the tabernacle, though on account of the similarity of names liable to be confused with that building, it holds its place and purpose all through the wanderings to the plain of Moab by Jordan (Deuteronomy 31:14). Moses is given a vision of God to strengthen his own faith (Exodus 33:12-23; Exodus 34:1-35). On his return from communion with God, he had such glory within that it shone out through his face to the terror of the multitude, an adumbration of that other and more glorious transfiguration at which Moses should also appear, and that reflection of it which is sometimes seen in the life of many godly persons (Matthew 17:1-13; Mark 9:2-10; Luke 9:28-36).
Rationalistic attempts to account for the phenomena at Sinai have been frequent, but usually along certain lines. The favorite hypothesis is that of volcanic action. God has often used natural agencies in His revelation and in His miracles, and there is no necessary obstacle to His doing so here. But there are two seemingly insuperable difficulties in the way of this naturalistic explanation: one, that since geologic time this has not been a volcanic region; the other, that volcanic eruptions are not conducive to literary inspiration. It is almost impossible to get a sane account from the beholders of an eruption, much less has it a tendency to result in the greatest literature, the most perfect code of laws and the profoundest statesmanship in the world. The human mind can easily believe that God could so speak from Sinai and direct the preparation of such works of wisdom as the Book of the Covenant. Not many will be able to think that Moses could do so during a volcanic eruption at Sinai. For it must be kept in mind that the historical character of the narrative at this point, and the Mosaic authorship of the Book of the Covenant, are generally admitted by those who put forward this naturalistic explanation.
(7) Uncertainties of History. From this time on to the end of Moses' life, the materials are scant, there are long stretches of silence, and a biographer may well hesitate. The tabernacle was set up at the foot of the "mountain of the law" (Exodus 40:17-19), and the world from that day to this has been able to find a mercy-seat at the foot of the mountain of the law. Nadab and Abihu presumptuously offered strange fire and were smitten (Leviticus 10:1-7). The people were numbered (Numbers 1:1 ff). The Passover was kept (Numbers 9:1-5).
(8) Journey to Canaan Resumed. The journey to Canaan began again (Numbers 10:11-13). From this time until near the close of the life of Moses the events associated with his name belong for the most part to the story of the wanderings in the wilderness and other subjects, rather than to a biography of Moses. (compare WANDERINGS OF ISRAEL; AARON; MIRIAM; JOSHUA; CALEB; BRAZEN SERPENT, etc.). The subjects and references are as follows:
The March (Numbers 2:10-18; Numbers 9:15-23)
The Complaining (Numbers 11:1-3)
The Lusting (Numbers 11:4-6, 18-35)
The Prophets (Numbers 11:16)
Leprosy of Miriam (Numbers 12:1-16)
(9) The Border of the Land: Kadesh-barnea (Numbers 13:3-26)
The Spies (Deuteronomy 1:22; Numbers 13:2, 21; Numbers 23:27, 28-30; Numbers 14:1-38)
The Plagues (Numbers 14:36-37, 40-45)
(10) The Wanderings: Korah, Dathan and Abiram (Numbers 16:1-35)
The Plague (Numbers 16:41-50; Numbers 17:1-13)
Death of Miriam (Numbers 20:1)
Sin of Moses and Aaron (Numbers 20:2-13; Psalms 106:32)
Unfriendliness of Edom (Numbers 20:14-21)
Death of Aaron (Numbers 20:22-29)
Arad (Numbers 21:1-3)
Compassing of Edom (Numbers 21:4)
Murmuring (Numbers 21:5-7)
Brazen Serpent (Numbers 21:8-9; John 3:14)
(11) Edom: The Jordan (Numbers 21:10-20)
Sihon (Numbers 21:21-32)
Og (Numbers 21:33-35)
Balak and Balaam (Numbers 22:4; 24:25)
Pollution of the People (Numbers 25:6-15)
Numbering of the People (Numbers 26:1-65)
Joshua Chosen (Numbers 27:15-23)
Midianites Punished (Numbers 31:1-54)
(12) Tribes East of Jordan (Numbers 32)
(13) Moses' Final Acts. Moses was now ready for the final instruction of the people. They were assembled and a great farewell address was given (Deuteronomy 1:1-46 through Deuteronomy 30:20). Joshua was formally inducted into office (Deuteronomy 31:1-8), and to the priests was delivered a written copy of this last announcement of the Law now adapted to the progress made during 40 years (Deuteronomy 31:9-13; compare Deuteronomy 31:24-29). Moses then called Joshua into the tabernacle for a final charge (Deuteronomy 31:14-23), gave to the assembled elders of the people "the words of this song" (Deuteronomy 31:30; Deuteronomy 32:1-43) and blessed the people (Deuteronomy 33:1-29). And then Moses, who "by faith" had triumphed in Egypt, had been the great revelator at Sinai, had turned back to walk with the people of little faith for 40 years, reached the greatest triumph of his faith, when, from the top of Nebo, the towering pinnacle of Pisgah, he lifted up his eyes to the goodly land of promise and gave way to Joshua to lead the people in (Deuteronomy 34:1-12). And there Moses died and was buried, "but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day" (Deuteronomy 34:5-6), "and Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died" (Deuteronomy 34:7).
This biography of Moses is the binding-thread of the Pentateuch from the beginning of Exodus to the end of Deuteronomy, without disastrous breaks or disturbing repetitions. There are, indeed, silences, but they occur where nothing great or important in the narrative is to be expected. And there are, in the eyes of some, repetitions, so-called doublets, but they do not seem to be any more real than may be expected in any biography that is only incidental to the main purpose of the writer. No man can break apart this narrative of the books without putting into confusion this life-story; the one cannot be treated as independent of the other; any more than the narrative of the English Commonwealth and the story of Cromwell, or the story of the American Revolution and the career of Washington.
Later references to Moses as leader, lawgiver and prophet run all through the Bible; only the most important will be mentioned: Joshua 8:30-35; 24:5; 1 Samuel 12:6-8; 1 Chronicles 23:14-17; Psalms 77:20; 99:6; Psalms 105:1-45; Psalms 106:1-48; Isaiah 63:11-12; Jeremiah 15:1; Daniel 9:11-13; Hosea 12:13; Micah 6:4; Malachi 4:4.
The place held by Moses in the New Testament is as unique as in the Old Testament, though far less prominent. Indeed, he holds the same place, though presented in a different light. In the Old Testament he is the type of the Prophet to be raised up "like unto" him. It is the time of types, and Moses, the type, is most conspicuous. In the New Testament the Prophet "like unto Moses" has come. He now stands out the greatest One in human history, while Moses, the type, fades away in the shadow. It is thus he appears in Christ's remarkable reference to him: "He wrote of me" (John 5:46). The principal thing which Moses wrote specifically of Christ is this passage: "Yahweh thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me" (Deuteronomy 18:15, 18 f). Again in the Epistle to the Hebrews, which is the formal passing over from the types of the Old Testament to the fulfillment in the New Testament, Jesus is made to stand out as the Moses of the new dispensation (Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 12:24-29). Other most important New Testament references to Moses are Matthew 17:3; Mark 9:4; Luke 9:30; John 1:17, 45; 3:14; Romans 5:14; Jude 1:9; Revelation 15:3.
II. Work and Character. So little is known of the private life of Moses that his personal character can scarcely be separated from the part which he bore in public affairs. It is the work he wrought for Israel and for mankind which fixes his place among the great ones of earth. The life which we have just sketched as the life of the leader of Israel is also the life of the author, the lawgiver, and the prophet.
1. The Author: It is not within the province of this article to discuss in full the great critical controversies concerning the authorship of Moses which have been summed up against him thus: "It is doubtful whether we can regard Moses as an author in the literary sense" (HDB, III, 446; see PENTATEUCH; DEUTERONOMY). It will only be in place here to present a brief statement of the evidence in the case for Moses. There is no longer any question concerning the literary character of the age in which Moses lived. That Moses might have written is indisputable. But did he write, and how much? What evidence bears at these points?
(1) "Moses Wrote."
The idea of writing or of writings is found 60 times in the Pentateuch It is definitely recorded in writing purporting to be by Moses. 7 times that Moses wrote or was commanded to write (Exodus 17:14; 34:27; 39:30; Numbers 17:2-3; Deuteronomy 10:4; 31:24) and frequently of others in his times (Deuteronomy 6:9; 27:3; 31:19; Joshua 8:32). Joshua at the great convocation at Shechem for the taking of the covenant wrote "these words in the book of the law of God" (Joshua 24:26). Thus is declared the existence of such a book but 25 years after the death of Moses (compare Bible Student, 1901, 269-74). It is thus clearly asserted by the Scriptures as a fact that Moses in the wilderness a little after the exodus was "writing" "books."
(2) Moses' Library. There are many library marks in the Pentateuch, even in those portions which by nearly all, even the most radical, critics are allowed to be probably the writings of Moses. The Pentateuch as a whole has such library marks all over it.
On the one hand this is entirely consistent with the known literary character of the age in which Moses lived. One who was "instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians" might have had in his possession Egyptian records. And the author of this article is of that class to whom Professor Clay refers, who believe "that Hebraic (or Amoraic) literature, as well as Aramaic, has a great antiquity prior to the 1st millennium BC" (Clay, Amurru, 32).
On the other hand, the use of a library to the extent indicated by the abiding marks upon the Pentateuch does not in the least militate against the claim of Moses for authorship of the same. The real library marks, aside from the passages which are assigned by the critics to go with them, are far less numerous and narrower in scope than in Gibbon or in Kurtz. The use of a library no more necessarily endangers authorship in the one case than in the other.
(3) The Moses-Tradition. A tradition from the beginning universally held, and for a long time and without inherent absurdity, has very great weight. Such has been the Moses-tradition of authorship. Since Moses is believed to have been such a person living in such an age and under such circumstances as might suitably provide the situation and the occasion for such historical records, so that common sense does not question whether he could have written "a" Pentateuch, but only whether he did write "the" Pentateuch which we have, it is easier to believe the tradition concerning his authorship than to believe that such a tradition arose with nothing so known concerning his ability and circumstances. But such a tradition did arise concerning Moses. It existed in the days of Josiah. Without it, by no possibility could the people have been persuaded to receive with authority a book purporting to be by him. The question of the truthfulness of the claim of actually finding the Book of the Law altogether aside, there must have been such a national hero as Moses known to the people and believed in by them, as well as a confident belief in an age of literature reaching back to his days, else the Book of the Law would not have been received by the people as from Moses. Archaeology does not supply actual literary material from Israel much earlier than the time of Josiah, but the material shows a method of writing and a literary advancement of the people which reaches far back for its origin, and which goes far to justify the tradition in Josiah's day. Moreover, to the present time, there is no archaeological evidence to cast doubt upon that tradition.
(4) The Pentateuch in the Northern Kingdom. The evidence of the Pentateuch in the Northern Kingdom before the fall of Samaria is very strong--this entirely aside from any evidence from the Sam Pentateuch. Although some few insist upon an early date for that book, it is better to omit it altogether from this argument, as the time of its composition is not absolutely known and is probably not very far from the close of the Babylonian exile of Judah. But the prophets supply indubitable evidence of the Pentateuch in the Northern Kingdom (Hosea 1:10; 4:6; 1, 13; 9:11; 12:9; Amos 5:21-22; 8:5; compare Green, Higher Criticism and the Pentateuch, 56-58).
(5) Evidence for the Mosaic Age. Beyond the limit to which historical evidence reaches concerning the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch, internal evidence for the Mosaic age as the time of its composition carries us back to the very days of Moses. Egyptian words in the Pentateuch attest its composition in the Mosaic age, not because they are Egyptian words, for it is quite supposable that later authors might have known Egyptian words, but because they are Egyptian words of such marked peculiarities in meaning and history and of such absolutely accurate use in the Pentateuch, that their employment by later authors in such a way is incredible. The list of such words is a long one. Only a few can be mentioned here. For a complete list the authorities cited must be consulted. There is ye'or, for the streams of Egypt; achu, for the marshy pasture lands along the Nile; shesh, for the "fine white linen" of the priests; "the land of Rameses" for a local district in lower Egypt; tsaphenath pa`neach, Joseph's Egyptian name, and acenath, the name of Joseph's Egyptian wife, and many other Egyptian words (see Lieblein, inPSBA , May, 1898, 202-10; also The Bible Student, 1901, 36-40).
(6) The Obscurity of the Doctrine of the Resurrection in the Pentateuch.
This obscurity has been urged against the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch. Because of the popular belief concerning the doctrine of the resurrection among the Egyptians, this objection to the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch becomes the most forcible of all the objections urged by critics. If the Pentateuch was written by Moses when Israel had just come out of Egypt, why did he leave the doctrine of the resurrection in such obscurity? The answer is very simple. The so-called Egyptian doctrine of the resurrection was not a doctrine of resurrection at all, but a doctrine of resuscitation. The essential idea of resurrection, as it runs through Scripture from the first glimpse of it until the declaration of Paul: "It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body" (1 Corinthians 15:35-45), is almost absolutely beyond the Egyptian vision of the future life. With the Egyptians the risen body was to live the same old life on "oxen, geese, bread, beer, wine and all good things" (compare for abundant illustration Maspero's Guide to Cairo Museum). The omission of the doctrine of the resurrection from the Pentateuch at the later date assigned by criticism is very hard to account for. In view of some passages from the Psalms and the Prophets, it appears inexplicable (Job 19:25-27; Psalms 16:10; 49:15; Isaiah 26:19; Ezekiel 37:1-28; Daniel 12:2). The gross materialism of the Egyptian doctrine of the rising from the dead makes the obscurity of the doctrine of the resurrection in the Pentateuch in Moses' day perfectly natural. Any direct mention of the subject at that time among a people just come out of Egypt would have carried at once into Israel's religion the materialism of the Egyptian conception of the future life. The only way by which the people could be weaned away from these Egyptian ideas was by beginning, as the Pentateuch does, with more spiritual ideas of God, of the other world and of worship. The obscurity of the doctrine of the resurrection in the Pentateuch, so far from being against the Mosaic authorship, is very cogent reason for believing the Pentateuch to have come from that age, as the only known time when such an omission is reasonably explicable. Lord, in his lectures, though not an Egyptologist, caught sight of this truth which later work of Egyptologists has made clear (Moses, 45). Warburton had a less clear vision of it (see Divine Legation).
(7) The Unity of the Pentateuch. Unity in the Pentateuch, abstractly considered, cannot be indicative of particular time for its composition. Manifestly, unity can be given a book at any time. There is indisputably a certain appearance of unity in narrative in the Pentateuch, and when this unity is examined somewhat carefully, it is found to have such peculiarity as does point to the Mosaic age for authorship. The making of books which have running through them such a narrative as is contained in the Pentateuch which, especially from the end of Genesis, is entangled and interwoven with dates and routes and topographical notes, the history of experiences, all so accurately given that in large part to this day the route and the places intended can be identified, all this, no matter when the books were written, certainly calls for special conditions of authorship. A narrative which so provides for all the exigencies of desert life and so anticipates the life to which Israel looked forward, exhibits a realism which calls for very special familiarity with all the circumstances. And when the narrative adds to all this the life of a man without breaks or repetitions adverse to the purpose of a biography, and running through from beginning to end, and not a haphazard, unsymmetrical man such as might result from the piecing together of fragments, but a colossal and symmetrical man, the foremost man of the world until a greater than Moses should appear, it demands to be written near the time and place of the events narrated. That a work of fiction, struck off at one time by one hand, might meet all these requirements at a later date, no one can doubt, but a scrap-book, even though made up of facts, cannot do so. In fact, the scraps culled. out by the analysis of the Pentateuch do not make a connected life-story at all, but three fragmentary and disconnected stories, and turn a biography, which is the binding-thread of the books, into what is little better than nonsense.
The unity of the Law, which also can be well sustained, is to the same effect as the unity of the narrative in certifying the narrative near to the time and place of the events narrated. The discussion of the unity of the Law, which involves nearly the whole critical controversy of the day, would be too much of a digression for an article on Moses (see LAW; LEVITICUS; DEUTERONOMY; also Green, Higher Criticism and the Pent; Orr, POT; Wiener, Biblical Sac., 1909--10).
Neither criticism nor archaeology has yet produced the kind or degree of evidence which rationalism demands for the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch. No trace has yet been found either of the broken tablets at Mt. Sinai or of the autograph copy of the Law of the Lord "by the hand of Moses" brought out of the house of the Lord in the days of Josiah. Nor are these things likely to be found, nor anything else that will certify authorship like a transcription of the records in the copyright office. Such evidence is not reasonably demanded. The foregoing indications point very strongly to the production of the Pentateuch in the Mosaic age by someone as familiar with the circumstances and as near the heart of the nation as Moses was. That here and there a few slight additions may have been made and that, perhaps, a few explanations made by scribes may have slipped into the text from the margin are not unlikely (Numbers 12:3; Deuteronomy 34:1-12), but this does not affect the general claim of authorship.
Psalms 90:1-17 is also attributed to Moses, though attempts have been made to discredit his authorship here also (Delitzsch, Commentary on the Psalms). There are those who perhaps still hold to the Mosaic authorship of the Book of Job. But that view was never more than a speculation.
2. The Lawgiver: The character of Moses as lawgiver is scarcely separable from that of Moses as author, but calls for some separate consideration.
(1) The extent of the Mosaic element in the Pentateuch legislation has been so variously estimated that for any adequate idea of the discussion the reader must consult not only other articles (LAW; COVENANT, BOOK OF THE; PENTATEUCH) but special works on this subject. In accord with the reasons presented above for the authorship of the Pentateuch in Mosaic times, the great statesman seems most naturally the author of the laws so interwoven with his life and leadership. Moses first gave laws concerning the Passover (Exodus 13:1-22). At Sinai, after the startling revelation from the summit of the mountain, it is most reasonable that Moses should gather the people together to covenant with God, and should record that event in the short code of laws known as the Book of the Covenant (Exodus 24:7). This code contains the Moral Law (Exodus 20:1-17) as fundamental, the constitution of theocracy and of all ethical living. This is followed by a brief code suitable to their present condition and immediate prospects (Exodus 20:24-26; Exodus 21:1-36 through Exodus 23:1-33). Considering the expectations of both leader and people that they would immediately proceed to the promised land and take possession, it is quite in order that there should be laws concerning vineyards and olive orchards (Exodus 23:11), and harvests (Exodus 23:10-16) and the first-fruits (Exodus 23:19). Upon the completion of the tabernacle, a priest-code became a necessity. Accordingly, such a code follows with great minutiae of directions. This part of the Law is composed almost entirely of "laws of procedure" intended primarily for the priests, that they might know their own duties and give oral instruction to the people, and probably was never meant for the whole people except in the most general way. When Israel was turned back into the wilderness, these two codes were quite sufficient for the simple life of the wanderings. But Israel developed. The rabble became a nation. Forty years of life under law, under the operation of the Book of the Covenant in the moralities of life, the Priestly Code in their religious exercises, and the brief statutes of Leviticus for the simple life of the desert, prepared the people for a more elaborate code as they entered the promised land with its more complex life. Accordingly, in Deuteronomy that code was recorded and left for the guidance of the people. That these various codes contain some things not now understood is not at all surprising. It would be surprising if they did not. Would not Orientals of today find some things in Western laws quite incomprehensible without explanation?
That some few items of law may have been added at a later time, as some items of history were added to the narrative, is not at all unreasonable, and does in no way invalidate the claim of Moses as the lawgiver, any more than later French legislation has invalidated the Corsican's claim to the Napoleonic Code.
The essential value of the Mosaic legislation is beyond comparison. Some of the laws of Moses, relating as they did to passing problems, have themselves passed away; some of them were definitely abrogated by Christ and others explicitly fulfilled; but much of his legislation, moral, industrial, social and political, is the warp and woof of the best in the great codes of the world to this day. The morality of the Decalogue is unapproached among collections of moral precepts. Its divinity, like the divinity of the teachings of Jesus, lies not only in what it includes, but also in what it omits. The precepts of Ptah-hotep, of Confucius, of Epictetus include many things found in the Decalogue; the Decalogue omits many things found among the maxims of these moralists. Thus, in what it excludes, as in what it includes, the perfection of the Decalogue lies.
(2) It should be emphasized that the laws of Moses were codes, not a collection of court decisions known to lawyers as common law, but codes given abstractly, not in view of any particular concrete case, and arranged in systematic order (Wiener, Biblical Sac., 1909-10). This is entirely in harmony with the archaeological indications of the Mosaic and preceding ages. The Code of Hammurabi, given at least 5 centuries before, is one of the most orderly, methodical and logical codes ever constructed (Lyon, JAOS, XXV, 254).
3. The Prophet: The career and the works and the character of Moses culminate in the prophetic office. It was as prophet that Moses was essentially leader. It was as prophet that he held the place of highest eminence in the world until a greater than Moses came.
(1) The statesman-prophet framed a civil government which illustrated the kingdom of God upon earth. The theocracy did not simulate any government of earth, monarchy, republic or socialistic state. It combined the best elements in all of these and set up the most effective checks which have ever been devised against the evils of each.
(2) The lawgiver-prophet inculcated maxims and laws which set the feet of the people in the way of life, so that, while failing as a law of life in a sinful world, these precepts ever remain as a rule of conduct.
(3) The priest-prophet prepared and gave to Israel a ritual of worship which most completely typified the redemptive mercy of God and which is so wonderfully unfolded in the Epistle to the Hebrews, as it has been more wonderfully fulfilled in the life and atoning death of Christ.
(4) In all the multiform activities of the prophetic career he was a type of Christ, the type of Christ whose work was a "tutor unto Christ."
Moses' revelation of God ever transcends the speculations of theologians about God as a sunrise transcends a treatise on the solar spectrum. While the speculations are cold and lifeless, the revelation is vital and glorious. As an analysis of Raphael's painting of the transfiguration belittles its impression upon the beholder, while a sight of the picture exalts that scene in the mind and heart, so the attempts of theologians to analyze God and bring Him within the grasp of the human mind belittle the conception of God, dwarf it to the capacity of the human intellect, while such a vision of Him as Moses gives exalts and glorifies Him beyond expression. Thus, while theologians of every school from Athanasius to Ritschl come and go, Moses goes on forever; while they stand cold on library shelves, he lives warm in the hearts of men.
Such was the Hebrew leader, lawgiver, prophet, poet; among mere men, "the foremost man of all this world."
LITERATURE.
Commentaries on the Pentateuch; for rabbinical traditions, compare Lauterbach in Jewish Encyclopedia; for pseudepigraphical books ascribed to Moses, see Charles, Assumption of Moses; for Mohammedan legends, compareDB ; Ebers, Egypten und die Bucher Mosis; for critical partition of books of Moses, compare the Polychrome Bible and Bennett inHDB ; for comprehensive discussion of the critical problems, compare POT.
M. G. Kyle
Moses, Assumption of
Moses, Assumption of - a-sump'-shun.
Moses, Song of
Moses, Song of - The name given to the song of triumph sung by Moses and the Israelites after the crossing of the Red Sea and the destruction of the hosts of Pharaoh (Exodus 15:1-18). The sublimity of this noble ode is universally admitted. In magnificent strains it celebrates the deliverance just experienced, extolling the attributes of Yahweh revealed in the triumph (Exodus 15:1-12), then anticipates the astonishing effects which would flow from this deliverance in the immediate future and later (Exodus 15:13-18). There seems no reason to doubt that at least the basis of the song--possibly the whole--is genuinely Mosaic. In the allusions to the guidance of the people to God's holy habitation, and to the terror of the surrounding peoples and of the Canaanites (Exodus 15:13-18), it is thought that traces are manifest of a later revision and expansion. This, however, is by no means a necessary conclusion.
Driver, who in LOT, 8th edition, 30, goes with the critics on this point, wrote more guardedly in the 1st edition (p. 27): "Probably, however, the greater part of the song is Mosaic, and the modification or expansion is limited to the closing verses; for the general style is antique. and the triumphant tone which pervades it is just such as might naturally have been inspired by the event which it celebrates."
The song of Moses is made the model in the Apocalypse of "the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb," which those standing by the sea of glass, who have "come off victorious from the beast, and from his image, and from the number of his name," sing to God's praise, "Great and marvelous are thy works, O Lord God, the Almighty," etc. (Revelation 15:2-4). The church having experienced a deliverance similar to that experienced by Israel at the Red Sea, but infinitely greater, the old song is recast, and its terms are readapted to express both victories, the lower and the higher, at once.
James Orr
Mosollamon
Mosollamon - mo-sol'-a-mon.
See MOSOLLAMUS.
Mosollamus
Mosollamus - mo-sol'-a-mus:
(1) the King James Version "Mosollam" (Mosollamos), one of the three "assessors" appointed to the two commissioners in the inquiry made about "strange wives" (1 Esdras 9:14) = "Meshullam" in Ezra 10:15.
(2) the King James Version "Mosollamon," one of those sent by Ezra to the captain Loddeus to obtain men who could execute the priest's office (1 Esdras 8:44 (Septuagint 43)) = "Meshullam" in Ezra 8:16 (Codex Vaticanus reads also Mesolabon, in 1 Esdras 8:44).
Most High, Most Holy
Most High, Most Holy - See GOD, NAMES OF.
Mote
Mote - mot (karphos): A minute piece of anything dry or light, as straw, chaff, a splinter of wood, that might enter the eye. Used by Jesus in Matthew 7:3 ff; Luke 6:41 f in contrast with "beam," to rebuke officiousness in correcting small faults of others, while cherishing greater ones of our own.
Moth
Moth - moth (`ash; compare Arabic `uththat, "moth"; colloquial, `itt; cac, "worm" (Isaiah 51:8); compare Arabic sus, "worm," especially an insect larva in flesh, wood or grain; ses, "moth" (Matthew 6:19-20; Luke 12:33); setobrotos, "moth-eaten" (James 5:2)):
The moths constitute the larger division of the order Lepidoptera. Two of the points by which they are distinguished from butterflies are that they are generally nocturnal and that their antennae are not club-shaped. Further, the larva in many cases spins a cocoon for the protection of the pupa or chrysalis, which is never the case with butterflies. The Biblical references are to the clothes-moth, i.e. various species of the genus Tinea, tiny insects which lay their eggs in woolen clothes, upon which the larvae later feed. As the larva feeds it makes a cocoon of its silk together with fibers of the cloth on which it is feeding, so that the color of the cocoon depends upon the color of the fabric. The adult is only indirectly harmful, as it is only in the larval stage that the insect injures clothing. Therefore in Isaiah 51:8, "For the moth (`ash) shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm (cac) shall eat them like wool," both words must refer to the larva, the distich demanding such a word as cac to balance `ash in the first half. The word "moth" occurs 7 times in the Old Testament, in Job, Psalms, Isaiah and Hosea, always in figurative expressions, typifying either that which is destructive (Job 13:28; Psalms 39:11; Isaiah 50:9; 51:8; Hosea 5:12) or that which is frail (Job 4:19; 27:18).
See INSECTS.
Alfred Ely Day
Mother
Mother - muth'-er ('em, "mother," "dam," "ancestress"; meter):
1. Her Position in the Old Testament: In vain do we look in the Scriptures for traces of the low position which woman occupies in many eastern lands. A false impression has been created by her present position in the East, especially under Mohammedan rule. Her place as depicted in the Scriptures is a totally different one. Women there move on the same social plane with men. They often occupy leading public positions (Exodus 15:20; Judges 4:4; 2 Kings 22:14). The love of offspring was deeply imbedded in the heart of Hebrew women, and thus motherhood was highly respected. Among the patriarchs women, and especially mothers, occupy a prominent place. In Rebekah's marriage, her mother seems to have had equal voice with her father and Laban, her brother (Genesis 24:28, 50, 53, 55). Jacob "obeyed his father and his mother" (Genesis 28:7), and his mother evidently was his chief counselor. The Law places the child under obligation of honoring father and mother alike (Exodus 20:12). The child that strikes father or mother or curses either of them is punished by death (Exodus 21:15, 17). The same fate overtakes the habitually disobedient (Deuteronomy 21:18-21).
In one place in the Law, the mother is even placed before the father as the object of filial reverence (Leviticus 19:3). The Psalmist depicts deepest grief as that of one who mourneth for his mother (Psalms 35:14). In the entire Book of Proverbs the duty of reverence, love and obedience of sons to their mothers is unceasingly inculcated. The greatest comfort imaginable is that wherewith a mother comforts her son (Isaiah 66:13).
2. Position in the New Testament: And what is true of the Old Testament is equally true of the New Testament. The same high type of womanhood, the same reverence for one's mother is in evidence in both books. The birth of Christ lifted motherhood to the highest possible plane and idealized it for all time. The last thing Jesus did on the Cross was to bestow His mother on John "the beloved" as his special inheritance. What woman is today, what she is in particular in her motherhood, she owes wholly to the position in which the Scriptures have placed her. Sometimes the stepmother is spoken of as the real mother (Genesis 37:10). Sometimes the grandmother or other female relative is thus spoken of (Genesis 3:20; 1 Kings 15:10).
Tropically the nation is spoken of as a mother and the people are her children (Isaiah 50:1; Jeremiah 50:12; Hosea 2:4; 4:5). Large cities also are "mothers" (2 Samuel 20:19; compare Galatians 4:26; 2 Esdras 10:7), and Job even depicts the earth as such (Job 1:21).
Henry E. Dosker
Mother-in-law
Mother-in-law - See RELATIONSHIPS, FAMILY.
Motion
Motion - mo'-shun: In 2 Esdras 6:14, the King James Version "motion" represents the Latin commotio, "commotion," "disturbance" (the Revised Version (British and American) has revised entirely here). In Romans 7:5, "the motions of sins, which were by the law," "motion" is used in the sense of "impulse," and "impulses" would probably give the best translation. But the Greek noun (pathemata) is hard to translate exactly, and the Revised Version (British and American) has preferred "passions," as in Galatians 5:24. Sanday (ICC) paraphrases "the impressions of sense, suggestive of sin, stimulated into perverse activity by their legal prohibition." See PASSION. "Motion" is found also in Wisdom of Solomon 5:11 (the King James Version and the Revised Version margin) and Wisdom of Solomon 7:24 (the King James Version and the Revised Version (British and American)) in a modern sense.
Burton Scott Easton
Mound
Mound - mound.
See SIEGE, 4, (c).
Mount Ephraim
Mount Ephraim - See EPHRAIM, MOUNT.
Mount of Congregation, The
Mount of Congregation, The - See CONGREGATION, MOUNT OF.
Mount of Corruption
Mount of Corruption - See OLIVES, MOUNT OF.
Mount of Olives
Mount of Olives - See OLIVES, MOUNT OF; JERUSALEM.
Mount of the Amalekites
Mount of the Amalekites - ("Hill-country of the Amalekites" (Judges 12:15)): The Amalekites are usually connected with the valley (Numbers 14:25; Judges 7:12), but appear from this passage to have had a settlement in the hill country of Ephraim.
See AMALEKITE .
Mount of the Amorites
Mount of the Amorites - ("Hill-country of the Amorites" (Deuteronomy 1:7, 20, 24; compare Numbers 13:29; Joshua 10:6, etc.)): The region intended is that afterward known as the hill country of Judah and Ephraim, but sometimes "Amorites" is used as a general designation for all the inhabitants of Canaan (Genesis 15:16; Joshua 24:8, 18, etc.).
See AMORITES.
Mount of the Valley
Mount of the Valley - Zereth-shahar is said to be situated in or on the "mount of the valley" (behar ha`emeq (Joshua 13:19)). Cheyne (EB, under the word) says "i.e. on one of the mountains East of the Jordan valley (compare Josephus 13 27), and not impossibly on that described at length inBJ ,VII , vi, 1-3." To the Northwest of this mountain is Wady ec-Cara, wherein there may be a reminiscence of Zereth-shahar. There is no certainty.
Mount; Mountain
Mount; Mountain - mount, moun'-tin.
See HILL, MOUNT,MOUNTAIN .
Mourning
Mourning - morn'-ing.
See BURIAL; GRIEF.
Mouse; Mice
Mouse; Mice - mous, mis (`akhbar; Septuagint mus, "mouse"; compare Arabic `akbar, "jerboa" not 'akbar, "greater"; compare also proper noun, `akhbor, "Achbor" (Genesis 36:38 f; 1 Chronicles 1:49; also 2 Kings 22:12, 14; Jeremiah 26:22; 36:12)): The word occurs in the list of unclean "creeping things" (Leviticus 11:29), in the account of the golden mice and tumors (the King James Version and the American Revised Version margin "emerods") sent by the Philistines (1 Samuel 6:4-18), and in the phrase, "eating swine's flesh, and the abomination, and the mouse" (Isaiah 66:17). The cosmopolitan housemouse, Mus musculus, is doubtless the species referred to. The jerboa or jumping mouse, Arabic yarbu, is eaten by the Arabs of the Syrian desert, Northeast of Damascus. Possibly allied to `akhbar is the Arabic `akbar (generally in plural, `akabir), used for the male of the jerboa.
Alfred Ely Day
Mouth
Mouth - mowth (peh, chekh, garon (Psalms 149:6); Aramaic pum, tera (Daniel 3:26); stoma, 71 times, once logos, i.e. "word of mouth," "speech" (Acts 15:27); once we find the verb epistomizo, "to silence," "to stop the mouth" (Titus 1:11)):
1. Literal Sense: In addition to frequent references to man and animals, "Their food was yet in their mouths" (Psalms 78:30); "And Yahweh opened the mouth of the ass" (Numbers 22:28); "Save me from the lion's mouth" (Psalms 22:21), etc., the term is often used in connection with inanimate things: mouth of a sack (Genesis 42:27); of the earth (Genesis 4:11; Numbers 26:10); of a well (Numbers 29:2-3, 8, 10); of a cave (Joshua 10:18, 22, 27); of Sheol (Psalms 141:7); of the abyss (Jeremiah 48:28); of furnace (Aramaic tera`, Daniel 3:26); of idols (Psalms 115:5; Psalms 135:16-17).
2. Figurative Sense: (1) The "mouth" denotes language, speech, declaration (compare "lips," "tongue," which see): "By the mouth of" is "by means of," "on the declaration of" (Luke 1:70; Acts 1:16); "Whoso killeth any person, the murderer shall be slain at the mouth of witnesses" (Numbers 35:30; compare Deuteronomy 17:6; Matthew 18:16; Hebrews 10:28); "I will give you mouth and wisdom" (Luke 21:15); "fool's mouth" (Proverbs 18:7). (2) "Mouth" also denotes "spokesman": "He shall be to thee a mouth" (Exodus 4:16).
Numerous are the idiomatic phrases which have, in part, been introduced into English by means of the language of the Bible. "To put into the mouth," if said of God, denotes Divine inspiration (Deuteronomy 18:18; Micah 3:5). "To have words put into the mouth" means to have instructions given (Deuteronomy 31:19; 2 Samuel 14:3; Jeremiah 1:9; Exodus 4:11-16). "The fruit of the mouth" (Proverbs 18:20) is synonymical with wisdom, the mature utterance of the wise. "To put one's mouth into the dust" is equivalent with humbling one's self (Lamentations 3:29; compare "to lay one's horn in the dust," Job 16:15). Silent submission is expressed by "laying the hand upon the mouth" (Judges 18:19; Job 29:9; 40:4; Micah 7:16); compare "to refrain the lips"; see LIP. "To open the mouth wide" against a person is to accuse him wildly and often wrongfully (Psalms 35:21; Isaiah 57:4), otherwise "to open one's mouth wide," "to have an enlarged mouth" means to have great confidence and joy in speaking or accepting good things (1 Samuel 2:1; Ezekiel 33:22; 2 Corinthians 6:11; Ephesians 6:19). "To gape upon one with the mouth" means to threaten a person (Job 16:10). Divine rebuke is expressed by the "rod of God's mouth" (Isaiah 11:4), and the Messiah declares "He hath made my mouth like a sharp sword" (Isaiah 49:2; compare Revelation 2:16; 15, 21). Great anguish, such as dying with thirst, is expressed by "the tongue cleaving to the roof of the mouth" (Hebrew chekh, Job 29:10; Psalms 137:6; compare Psalms 22:15).
H. L. E. Luering
Mowing; Mown Grass
Mowing; Mown Grass - mo'-ing, (gez, "a shearing," "cut grass"): In Psalms 72:6 the good king's rule is said to be "like rain upon the mown grass," to start the new growth (compare 2 Samuel 23:4; Hosea 6:3). "The king's mowings" (Amos 7:1) were the portion of the spring herbage taken as tribute by the kings of Israel to feed their horses (compare 1 Samuel 8:15 ff; 1 Samuel 18:5). "After the king's mowings" would denote the time when everybody else might turn to reap their greenstuffs (BTP, II, 109). The term "mower" (qatsar, "to dock off," "shorten") in Psalms 129:7 the King James Version is rendered "reaper" in the Revised Version (British and American), and in James 5:4 the Revised Version (British and American) has "mow" for amao (the King James Version "reap").
M. O. Evans
Moza
Moza - mo'-za (motsah):
(1) Son of Caleb and Ephah (1 Chronicles 2:46).
(2) A descendant of Saul (1 Chronicles 8:36-37; 1 Chronicles 9:42-43).
Mozah
Mozah - mo'-za (ha-motsah; Codex Vaticanus Amoke; Codex Alexandrinus Amosa): A town in the territory of Benjamin named after Mizpeh and Chephirah (Joshua 18:26). It may be represented by the modern Beit Mizzeh, the heavy "ts" of the Hebrew letter (tsade) passing into the light "z" of the Arabic, a not unusual change. The name means "place of hard stone." The village lies to the North of Quloniyeh (possibly Emmaus), about 4 miles Northwest of Jerusalem.
Muffler
Muffler - muf'-ler (re`alah): The name given to an article of woman's dress in Isaiah 3:19. It describes a veil more elaborate and costly than the ordinary. A cognate word in the sense of "veiled" is applied in the Mishna (Shabbath, vi.6) to Jewesses from Arabia.
See DRESS.
Mulberry; Trees
Mulberry; Trees - mul'-ber-i, (bekha'im; Septuagint apioi, "pear trees" (2 Samuel 5:23 f; 1 Chronicles 14:14 f, margin "balsam-trees"; Psalms 84:6, the King James Version "Baca," margin "mulberry trees," the Revised Version (British and American) "weeping," margin "balsam-trees"): According to Arabic writers the Baca tree is similar to the balsam (Balsamodendron opobalsamum), and grows near Mecca; no such tree is, however, known in Palestine. The name may, in Hebrew, have been applied to some species of ACACIA (which see). The idea of "weeping" implied in the root, both in Hebrew and Arabic, may be explained by the exudation of gum. "The sound of marching in the tops of the mulberry trees" has been explained to refer to the quivering of the leaves of poplars, but there is not much to support this view (see POPLAR). The translation "mulberry trees" is, however, even more improbable, as this tree, though very plentiful today, had not been introduced into Palestine in Old Testament times.
Mulberry (moron, (1 Maccabees 6:34)): The Syrians at Bathzacharias "to the end they might provoke the elephants to fight, they, shewed them the blood of grapes and mulberries." This reference must be to the deep red juice of the black mulberry (Morus nigra), the tut shami of Palestine, a variety cultivated all over the land' for its luscious, juicy fruit.
See SYCOMORE.
E. W. G. Masterman
Mulcted
Mulcted - mulk'-ted (`anash, "to be punished," "fined"): "The simple pass on, and are mulcted" (Proverbs 22:3 the Revised Version margin, the Revised Version (British and American) "suffer for it," the King James Version "are punished").
Mule
Mule - mul (peredh (1 Kings 10:25; 18:5; Ezra 2:66; Isaiah 66:20; Zechariah 14:15), the feminine pirdah (1 Kings 1:33, 38, 44), rekhesh, "swift steeds," the King James Version "mules" (Esther 8:10, 14), 'achashteranim, "used in the king's service," the King James Version "camels," the Revised Version margin "mules" (Esther 8:10, 14), yemim, "hot springs," the King James Version "mules" (Genesis 36:24); hemionos, "half-ass," "mule" (1 Esdras 5:43; Judith 15:11)): Mules are mentioned as riding animals for princes (2 Samuel 13:29; 18:9; 1 Kings 1:33, 38, 44); in the tribute brought to Solomon (2 Chronicles 9:24); as beasts of burden (2 Kings 5:17; 1 Chronicles 12:40); horses and mules are obtained from the "house of Togarmah" in the distant north (Ezekiel 27:14). The injunction of Psalms 32:9, "Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding," need not be understood as singling out the horse and mule as more in need of guidance than the rest of the brute creation, but rather as offering familiar examples to contrast with man who should use his intelligence.
At the present day mules are used as pack animals and for drawing freight wagons, rarely for riding. One does not often see in Palestine mules as large and fine as are common in Europe and America. This may be because most of the mares and many of the donkeys are small.
Alfred Ely Day
Multitude; Mixed
Multitude; Mixed - mul'-ti-tud, mikst.
See MINGLED PEOPLE.
Munition
Munition - mu-nish'-un.
See SIEGE, 4, (b).
Muppim
Muppim - mup'-im (muppim): A son of Benjamin (Genesis 46:21), elsewhere called "Shuppim" (1 Chronicles 7:12, 15; 26:16), "Shephupham" (Numbers 26:39), and "Shephuphan". (1 Chronicles 8:5); compare separate articles on these names.
Murder
Murder - 1. Terms: mur'-der (haragh, "to smite," "destroy," "kill," "slay" (Psalms 10:8; Hosea 9:13 AV]), ratsach, "to dash to pieces," "kill," especially with premeditation (Numbers 35:16 and frequently; Job 24:14; Psalms 94:6; Jeremiah 7:9; Hosea 6:9); phoneus, "criminal homicide," from phoneuo, "to kill," "slay"; phonos, from pheno, has the same meaning; anthropoktonos, "manslayer," "murderer," is used to designate Satan (John 8:44) and him that hates his brother (1 John 3:15); a matricide is designated as metraloas (1 Timothy 1:9); compare adelphokionos, "fratricidal" (Wisdom of Solomon 10:3). The plural of phonos, "murders," occurs in Matthew 15:19; Mark 7:21; Galatians 5:21 the King James Version; Revelation 9:21; compare 2 Maccabees 4:3, 18; 12:6):
2. The Hebrew Law: The Hebrew law recognized the distinction between willful murder and accidental or justifiable homicide (Numbers 25:16); but in legal language no verbal distinction is made. Murder was always subject to capital punishment (Leviticus 24:17; compare Genesis 9:6). Even if the criminal sought the protection of the sanctuary, he was to be arrested before the altar, and to be punished (Exodus 21:12, 14; Leviticus 24:17, 21; Numbers 35:16, 18, 21, 31). The Mishna says that a mortal blow intended for another than the victim is punishable with death; but such a provision is not found in the Law. No special mention is made of (a) child murder; (b) parricide; or (c) taking life by poison; but the intention of the law is clear with reference to all these eases (Exodus 21:15, 17; 1 Timothy 1:9; Matthew 15:4). No punishment is mentioned for attempted suicide (compare 1 Samuel 31:4 f; 1 Kings 16:18; Matthew 27:5); yet Josephus says (BJ, III, viii, 5) that suicide was held criminal by the Jews (see also Exodus 21:23). An animal known to be vicious must be confined, and if it caused the death of anyone, the animal was destroyed and the owner held guilty of murder (Exodus 21:29, 31). The executioner, according to the terms of the Law, was the "revenger of blood"; but the guilt must be previously determined by the Levitical tribunal. Strong protection was given by the requirement that at least two witnesses must concur in any capital question (Numbers 35:19-30; Deuteronomy 17:6-12; 12, 17). Under the monarchy the duty of executing justice on a murderer seems to have been assumed to some extent by the sovereign, who also had power to grant pardon (2 Samuel 13:39; 7, 11; 1 Kings 2:34).
See MANSLAYER.
Frank E. Hirsch
Murderers
Murderers - mur'-der-erz (Acts 21:38 the King James Version, the Revised Version (British and American) "assassins"): Represents a word only once mentioned in the New Testament, the Greek word sikarios, Latin sicarius from sica, "a small sword," or "dagger." The word describes the hired assassin, of whom there were bands in the pay of agitators in Rome in the last days of the Republic, who employed them to remove surreptitiously their political opponents. In the later days of the Jewish commonwealth, Judea became infested with the same type of ruffian, and it is natural that the Roman commandant at Jerusalem should describe them by the name so well known in the imperial city.
See ASSASSINS.
T. Nicol.
Murmur; Murmurings
Murmur; Murmurings - mur'-mur, mur'-mur-ingz: The Hebrew word (lun) denotes the semi-articulated mutterings of disaffected persons. It is used in connection with the complaints of the Israelites in the desert against Yahweh on the one hand, and against Moses and Aaron on the other hand (Exodus 16:7-8; Numbers 14:27, 36; 16:11; 17:5). In three places (Deuteronomy 1:27; Psalms 106:25; Isaiah 29:24), "murmur" translates a Hebrew word (raghan) which suggests the malicious whispering of slander.
In the New Testament "murmur" renders two different words, namely, gogguzo, and embrimaomai. The latter word suggests indignation and fault-finding (Mark 14:4 the King James Version). The former word (or a compound of it) is generally used in connection with the complainings of the Pharisees and scribes (Matthew 20:11; Luke 5:30; 15:2; 19:7).
T. Lewis
Murrain
Murrain - mur'-in, mur'-en, mur'-an] (debher): This name is given to a fatal cattle-disease, which was the fifth of the plagues of Egypt (Exodus 9:3), and which affected not only the flocks and herds, but also the camels, horses and asses. The record of its onset immediately after the plague of flies makes it probable that it was an epizootic, whose germs were carried by these insects as those of rinderpest or splenic fever may be. Cattle plagues have in recent years been very destructive in Egypt; many writers have given descriptions of the great devastation wrought by the outbreak in 1842. In this case Wittmann noted that contact with the putrid carcasses caused severe boils, a condition also recorded in Exodus as following the murrain. The very extensive spread of rinderpest within the last few years in many districts of Egypt has not yet been completely stamped out, even in spite of the use of antitoxic serum and the most rigid isolation. The word "murrain" is probably a variant of the Old French morine. It is used as an imprecation by Shakespeare and other Elizabethan writers, and is still applied by herdsmen to several forms of epidemic cattle sickness. Among early writers it was used as well for fatal plagues affecting men; thus, Lydgate (1494) speaks of the people "slain by that moreyne."nt that at least two witnesses must concur in any capital question (Numbers 35:19-30; Deuteronomy 17:6-12; 12, 17). Under the monarchy the duty of executing justice on a murderer seems to have been assumed to some extent by the sovereign, who also had power to grant pardon (2 Samuel 13:39; 7, 11; 1 Kings 2:34).
Alexander Macalister
Muse; Musing
Muse; Musing - muz, muz'-ing: The word occurs twice in the Old Testament, in the sense of "meditate" (Psalms 39:3, chaghigh; Psalms 143:5, siach); in the New Testament once (Luke 3:15, dialogizomai, where the Revised Version (British and American) reads "reasoned").
Mushi
Mushi - mu'-shi (mushi): Son of Merari (Exodus 6:19; Numbers 3:20; 1 Chronicles 6:19 (Hebrews 4:1-16); 23:21; 24:26). There is found also the patronymic "Mushites" (Numbers 3:33; 26:58).
Music
Music - mu'-zik:
I. IMPORTANCE
1. The Sole Art Cultivated
2. A Wide Vocabulary of Musical Terms
3. Place in Social and Personal Life
4. Universal Language of Emotions
5. Use in Divine Service
6. Part at Religious Reformations
II. THEORY OF MUSIC
1. Dearth of Technical Information
2. Not Necessarily Unimpressive
III. MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS
1. Strings
2. Winds
3. Percussion Instruments
LITERATURE
I. Importance. That the Hebrews were in ancient times, as they are at the present day, devoted to the study and practice of music is obvious to every reader of the Old Testament. The references to it are numerous, and are frequently of such a nature as to emphasize its importance. They occur not only in the Psalter, where we might expect them, but in the Historical Books and the Prophets, in narratives and in declamations of the loftiest meaning and most intense seriousness. And the conclusion drawn from a cursory glance is confirmed by a closer study.
1. The Sole Art Cultivated: The place held by music in the Old Testament is unique. Besides poetry, it is the only art that Art seems to have been cultivated to any extent in ancient Israel. Painting is entirely, sculpture almost entirely, ignored. This may have been due to the prohibition contained in the Second Commandment, but the fidelity with which that was obeyed is remarkable.
2. A Wide Vocabulary of Musical Terms: From the traces of it extant in the Old Testament, we can infer that the vocabulary of musical terms was far from scanty. This is all the more significant when we consider the condensed and pregnant nature of Hebrew. "Song" in our English Versions of the Bible represents at least half a dozen words in the original.
3. Place in Social and Personal Life: The events, occasions, and occupations with which music was associated were extremely varied. It accompanied leave-taking with honored guests (Genesis 31:27); celebrated a signal triumph over the nation's enemies (Exodus 15:20); and welcomed conquerors returning from victory (Judges 11:34; 1 Samuel 18:6). It was employed to exorcise an evil spirit (1 Samuel 18:10), and to soothe temper, or excite the inspiration, of a prophet (2 Kings 3:15). The words "Destroy not" in the titles of four of the Psalms (compare Isaiah 65:8) most probably are the beginning of a vintage-song, and the markedly rhythmical character of Hebrew music would indicate that it accompanied and lightened many kinds of work requiring combined and uniform exertion. Processions, as e.g. marriages (1 Maccabees 9:39) and funerals (2 Chronicles 35:25), were regulated in a similar way. The Psalms headed "Songs of Degrees" were probably the sacred marches sung by the pious as they journeyed to and from the holy festivals at Jerusalem.
4. Universal Language of Emotional: It follows from this that the range of emotion expressed by Hebrew music was anything but limited. In addition to the passages just quoted, we may mention the jeering songs leveled at Job (Job 30:9). But the music that could be used to interpret or accompany the Psalms with any degree of fitness must have been capable of expressing a great variety of moods and feelings. Not only the broadly marked antitheses of joy and sorrow, hope and fear, faith and doubt, but every shade and quality of sentiment are found there. It is hardly possible to suppose that the people who originated all that wealth of emotional utterance should have been without a corresponding ability to invent diversified melodies, or should have been content with the bald and colorless recitative usually attributed to them.
This internal evidence is confirmed by other testimony. The Babylonian tyrants demanded one of the famous songs of Zion from their Jewish captives (Psalms 137:3), and among the presents sent by Hezekiah to Sennacherib there were included male and female musicians. In later times Latin writers attest the influence of the East in matters musical. We need only refer to Juvenal iii.62 ff.
5. Use in Divine Service: By far the most important evidence of the value attached to music by the Hebrews is afforded by the place given to it in Divine service. It is true that nothing is said of it in the Pentateuch in connection with the consecration of the tabernacle, or the institution of the various sacrifices or festivals. But this omission proves nothing. It is not perhaps atoned for by the tradition (Wisdom of Solomon 18:9) that at the first paschal celebration "the fathers already led the sacred songs of praise," but the rest of the history makes ample amends. In later days, at all events, music formed an essential part of the national worship of Yahweh, and elaborate arrangements were made for its correct and impressive performance. These are detailed in 1 Chronicles. There we are told that the whole body of the temple chorus and orchestra numbered 4,000; that they were trained and conducted, in 24 divisions, by the sons of Asaph, Heman and Jeduthun; and that in each group experts and novices were combined, so that the former preserved the correct tradition, and the latter were trained and fitted to take their place. This is, no doubt, a description of the arrangements that were carried out in the Second Temple, but it sheds a reflex, if somewhat uncertain, light on those adopted in the First.
6. Part at Religious Reformations: We are told by the same authority that every reformation of religion brought with it a reconstruction of the temple chorus and orchestra, and a resumption of their duties. Thus when Hezekiah purged the state and church of the heathenism patronized by Ahaz, "he set the Levites in the house of Yahweh with cymbals, with psalteries, and with harps" (2 Chronicles 29:25). The same thing took place under Josiah (2 Chronicles 34:1-33). After the restoration--at the dedication of the Temple (Ezra 3:10) and of the walls of Jerusalem (Nehemiah 12:17)--music played a great part. In Nehemiah's time the descendants of the ancient choral guilds drew together, and their maintenance was secured to them out of the public funds in return for their services.
II. Theory of Music. 1. Dearth of Technical Information: It is disappointing after all this to have to confess that of the nature of Hebrew music we have no real knowledge. If any system of notation ever existed, it has been entirely lost. Attempts have been made to derive one from the accents, and a German organist once wrote a book on the subject. One tune in our hymnals has been borrowed from that source, but it is an accident, if not worse, and the ingenuity of the German organist was quite misdirected. We know nothing of the scales, or tonal system of the Hebrew, of their intervals or of their method of tuning their instruments. Two terms are supposed by some to refer to pitch, namely, "upon," or "set to `Alamoth," (Psalms 46:1-11), and "upon," or "set to the Sheminith" (Psalms 6:1-10; Psalms 12:1-8; compare also 1 Chronicles 15:19-21). The former has been taken to mean "in the manner of maidens," i.e. soprano; the latter "on the lower octave," i.e. tenor or bass. This is plausible, but it is far from convincing. It is hardly probable that the Hebrews had anticipated our modern division of the scale; and the word sheminith or "eighth" may refer to the number of the mode, while `alamoth is also translated "with Elamite instruments" (Wellhausen). Of one feature of Hebrew music we may be tolerably sure: it was rendered in unison. It was destitute of harmony or counterpoint. For its effect it would depend on contrast in quality of tone, on the participation of a larger or smaller number of singers, on antiphonal singing, so clearly indicated in many of the Psalms, and on the coloring imparted by the orchestra. That the latter occasionally played short passages alone has been inferred from the term celah, a word that occurs 71 times in the Psalms. It is rendered in the Septuagint by diapsalmos, which either means louder playing, forte, or, more probably, an instrumental interlude.
2. Not Necessarily Unimpressive: Our knowledge is, therefore, very meager and largely negative. We need not, however, suppose that Hebrew music was necessarily monotonous and unimpressive, or, to those who heard it, harsh and barbarous. Music, more than any other of the arts, is justified of her own children, and a generation that has slowly learned to enjoy Wagner and Strauss should not rashly condemn the music of the East. No doubt the strains that emanated from the orchestra and chorus of the temple stimulated the religious fervor, and satisfied the aesthetic principles of the Hebrews of old, precisely as the rendering of Bach and Handel excites and soothes the Christian of today.
III. Musical Instruments. The musical instruments employed by the Hebrews included representatives of the three groups: string, wind, and percussion. The strings comprised the kinnor, or nebhel or nebhel; the winds: the shophar, or qeren, chatsotserah, chalil, and `ughabh; percussion: toph, metsiltayim, tsltselim, mena`an`im, shalishim. Besides these, we have in Daniel: mashroqitha', cabbekha', pecanterin, cumponyah. Further, there are Chaldean forms of qeren and kithara.
1. Strings: (1) When Used. The chief of these instruments were the kinnor and nebhel (the King James Version, the Revised Version (British and American) "the harp" and "the psaltery" or "viol"). They were used to accompany vocal music. In 1 Samuel 10:5, Saul meets a band of prophets singing inspired strains to the music of the nebhel, "drum," "flute," and kinnor. In the description of the removal of the ark, we are told that songs were sung with kinnoroth, nebhalim, etc. (2 Samuel 6:5). Again, in various passages (1 Chronicles 15:16; 2 Chronicles 7:6, etc.) we meet with the expression keleshir, i.e. instruments of, or suitable for accompanying, song. It is evident that only the flute and strings could render melodies. The music performed on these instruments seems to have been mainly of a joyful nature. It entered into all public and domestic festivities. In Psalms 81:2, the kinnor is called "pleasant," and Isaiah 24:8 speaks of the "joy" of the kinnor. Very striking is the invocation Psalms 108:2: the poet in a moment of exhilarations calls upon the two kele shir to echo and share his enthusiasm for Yahweh. Only once (Isaiah 16:11) is the kinnor associated with mourning, and Cheyne infers from this passage "the kinnor was used at mourning ceremonies." But the inference is doubtful; the prophet is merely drawing a comparison between the trembling of the strings of the lyre and the agitation in his own bosom. Again, the Babylonian captives hang their kinnoroth on the willows in their dejection (Psalms 137:2), and the prophets (Isaiah 24:8; Ezekiel 26:13) threaten that as a punishment for sin the sound of the kinnor will cease.
(2) Materials. We have no exact information as to the materials of which these instruments were made. In 2 Samuel 6:5 the King James Version, mention is made of "instruments made of fir wood" (the English Revised Version "cypress"), but the text is probably corrupt, and the reading in 1 Chronicles 13:8 is preferable. According to 1 Kings 10:11 f, Hiram's fleet brought from Ophir quantities of 'almugh (2 Chronicles 2:8; 9:10, 'algum) wood, from which, among other things, the kinnor and nebhel were made. Probably this was red sandal-wood. Josephus (Ant., VIII, iii) includes among articles made by Solomon for the temple nebhalim and kinnoroth of electrum. Whether we understand this to have been the mixed metal so named or amber, the frame of the instrument could not have been constructed of it. It may have been used for ornamentation.
We have no trace of metal strings being used by the ancients. The strings of the Hebrew (minnim) may have consisted of gut. We read of sheep-gut being employed for the purpose in the Odyssey, xxi. 407. Vegetable fiber was also spun into strings. We need only add that bowed instruments were quite unknown; the strings were plucked with the fingers, or struck with a plectrum.
(a) The Kinnor: The Old Testament gives us no clue to the form or nature of the kinnor, except that it was portable, comparatively light, and could be played while it was carried in processions or dances. The earliest authority to which we can refer on the subject is the Septuagint. While in some of the books kinnor is rendered by kinnura, or kinura--evidently a transliteration--in others it is translated by kithara. We cannot discuss here the question of the trustworthiness of the Septuagint as an authority for Hebrew antiquities, but considering the conservatism of the East, especially in matters of ritual, it seems at least hasty to say offhand, as Wellhausen does, that by the date of its production the whole tradition of ancient music had been lost. The translation, at all events, supplies us with an instrument of which the Hebrews could hardly have been ignorant. The kithara, which in its general outlines resembled the lyre, consisted of a rectilinear-shaped sound box from which rose two arms, connected above by a crossbar; the strings ran down from the latter to the sound-box, to which, or to a bridge on which, they were attached.
The most ancient copy of a kithara in Egypt was found in a grave of the XIIth Dynasty. It is carried by one of a company of immigrant captive Semites, who holds it close to his breast, striking the strings with a plectrum held in his right hand, and plucking them with the fingers of the left. The instrument is very primitive; it resembles a schoolboy's slate with the upper three-fourths of the slate broken out of the frame; but it nevertheless possesses the distinctive characteristics of the kithara. In a grave at Thebes of a somewhat later date, three players are depicted, one of whom plays a kithara, also primitive in form, but with slenderer arms. Gradually, as time advanced, the simple board-like frame assumed a shape more like that afterward elaborated by the Greeks. Numerous examples have been found in Asia Minor, but further developed, especially as regards the sound-box. It may be noted that, in the Assyrian monuments, the kithara is played along with the harp, as the kinnor was with the nebhel.
The evidence furnished by Jewish coins must not be overlooked. Those stamped with representations of lyre-shaped instruments have been assigned to 142-135 BC, or to 66-70 AD. On one side we have a kithara-like instrument of 3 or more strings, with a sound-box resembling a kettle. It is true that these coins are of a late date, and the form of the instruments shown on them has obviously been modified by Greek taste, but so conservative a people as the Jews would hardly be likely to adopt an essentially foreign object for their coinage.
One objection raised by Wellhausen to the identification of the kithara with the kinnor may be noted. Josephus undoubtedly says (Ant., VII, xii) that the kinnura was played with a plectrum, and in 1 Samuel 16:23 David plays the kinnor "with his hand." But even if this excludes the use of the plectrum in the particular case, it need not be held to disprove the identity of kinnor and kinnura. Both methods may have been in use. In paintings discovered at Herculaneum there are several instances of the lyre being played with the hand; and there is no reason for supposing that the Hebrews were restricted to one method of showing their skill, when we know that Greeks and Latins were not.
Since the ancient VSS, then, render kinnor by kithara, and the kithara, though subsequently developed and beautified by the Greeks, was originally a Semitic instrument, it is exceedingly probable, as Riehm says, "that we have to regard the ancient Hebrew kinnor, which is designated a kithara, as a still simpler form of the latter instrument. The stringed instruments on the Jewish coins are later, beautified forms of the kinnor, intermediate stage Egyptian modifications represent the intermediate stage."
(b) The Nebhel: The nebhel has been identified with many instruments. The literal meaning of the word, "wine-skin," has suggested that it was the bagpipe! Others have thought that it was the lute, and this is supported by reference to the Egyptian nfr, which denotes a lute-like instrument frequently depicted on the monuments. The derivation of "nbl" from "nfr" is, however, now abandoned; and no long-necked instrument has been found depicted in the possession of a Semite. The kissar was favored by Pfeiffer. Its resonance-box is made of wood, and, the upper side, being covered tightly by a skin, closely resembles a drum. From this rise two arms, connected toward the top by a crossbar; and to the latter the strings are attached. The kissar has, however, only 5 strings, as opposed to 12 ascribed by Josephus to the nebhel, and the soundbox, instead of being above, as stated by the Fathers, is situated below the strings.
The supposition that the nebhel was a dulcimer is not without some justification. The dulcimer was well known in the East. An extremely interesting and important bas-relief in the palace at Kouyunjik represents a company of 28 musicians, of whom 11 are instrumentalists and 15 singers. The procession is headed by 5 men, 3 carrying harps, one a double flute, and one a dulcimer. Two of the harpists and the dulcimer-player appear to be dancing or skipping. Then follow 6 women; 4 have harps, one a double flute, and one a small drum which is fixed upright at the belt, and is played with the fingers of both hands. Besides the players, we see 15 singers, 9 being children, who clap their hands to mark the rhythm. One of the women is holding her throat, perhaps to produce the shrill vibrate affected by Persian and Arabian women at the present day. The dulcimer in this picture has been regarded by several Orientalists as the nebhel. Wettstein, e.g., says "This instrument can fairly be so designated, if the statement of so many witnesses is correct, that nablium and psalterium are one and the same thing. For the latter corresponds to the Arabic santir, which is derived from the Hebrew pecanterin, a transliteration of the Greek psalterion." And the santir is a kind of dulcimer.
This is not conclusive. The word psalterion was not always restricted to a particular instrument, but sometimes embraced a whole class of stringed instruments. Ovid also regarded the nabla as a harp, not a dulcimer, when he said (Ars Am. iii.329): "Learn to sweep the pleasant nabla with both hands." And, lastly, Josephus tells us (Ant., VII, xii) that the nebhel was played without a plectrum. The translation of nebhel by psalterion does not, therefore, shut us up to the conclusion that it was a dulcimer; on the contrary, it rather leads to the belief that it was a harp.
Harps of various sizes are very numerous on the Egyptian monuments. There is the large and elaborate kind with a well-developed sound-box, that served also as a pediment, at its base. This could not be the nebhel, which, as we have seen, was early portable. Then we have a variety of smear instruments that, while light and easily carried, would scarcely have been sonorous enough for the work assigned to the nebhel in the temple services. Berries, the more we learn of the relations of Egypt and Israel, the more dearly do we perceive how little the latter was influenced by the former. But the evidence of the Fathers, which need not be disregarded in a matter of this kind, is decisive against Egyptian harps of every shape and size. These have without exception the sound-box at the base, and Augustine (on Psalms 42:1-11) says expressly that the psalterium had its sound-box above. This is confirmed by statements of Jerome, Isidore, and others, who contrast two classes of instruments according to the position above or below of the sound-box, Jerome, further, likens the nebhel to the captial Greek letter delta.
All the evidence points to the nebhel having been the Assyrian harp, of which we have numerous examples in the ruins. We have already referred at length to the bas-relief at Kouyunjik in which it is played by 3 men and 4 women. It is portable, triangular, or, roughly, delta-shaped; it has a sound-box above that slants upward away from the player, and a horizontal bar to which the strings are attached about three-fourths of their length down. The number of the strings on the Assyrian harp ranges from 16 upward, but there may quite well have been fewer in some cases.
(c) Nebhel `asor: In Psalms 33:2; 144:9, "the psaltery of ten strings" is given as the rendering of nebhel 'asor; while in Psalms 91:3 'asor is translated "instrument of ten strings." No doubt, as we have just said above, there were harps of less and greater compass--the mention of the number of strings in two or three instances does not necessarily imply different kinds of harps.
(d) Gittith: The word gittith is found in the titles of Psalms 8:1-9; Psalms 81:1-16; Psalms 84:1-12. It is a feminine adjective derived from Gath, but its meaning is quite uncertain. It has been explained to denote (i) some Gittite instrument; the Targum, on Psalms 8:1-9, gives "on the kithara which was brought from Gath"; or (ii) a melody or march popular in Gath. The Septuagint renders "concerning the vintage," and may have regarded these psalms as having been sung to a popular melody. See above.
(e) The Shalishim: Shalishim occurs in 1 Samuel 18:6, where it is rendered "instruments of music," the Revised Version margin "triangles, or three stringed instruments." The word seems from the context to represent a musical instrument of some sort, but which is very uncertain. Etymology points to a term involving the number three. The small triangular harp, or trigon, has been suggested, but it would hardly have made its presence felt among a number of drums or tambourines. If the shalishim was a harp, it might very well be the nebhel, which was also triangular. There is no evidence that the triangle was used by Semitic people, or we might have taken it to be the instrument referred to. If it was a percussion instrument, it might possibly be a three-ringed or three-stringed sistrum.
(f) The Cabbekha': Among the instruments mentioned in Daniel 3:5, 7, 10 occurs the cabbekha' translated in the King James Version and the Revised Version (British and American) "sackbut," i.e. a trombone, why, it is impossible to say. The Septuagint renders the word by sambuke, and this is an instrument frequently mentioned by Greek and Latin writers. Though it is nowhere described, it was no doubt a harp, probably of high pitch. It was a favorite of dissolute women, and we frequently see in their hands in mural pictures a small triangular harp, possibly of a higher range than the trigon.
(g) Neghinoth: The word neghinoth occurs in the title of 6 psalms, and in the singular in two others; it is also found elsewhere in the Old Testament. Derived from naghan, "to touch," especially to play on a stringed instrument (compare Psalms 68:25, where the players, noghenim, are contrasted with the singers, harim), it evidently means stringed instruments in general.
2. Winds: (1) The `Ughabh. The first mention of a wind instrument occurs in Genesis 4:21, where we are told that Jubal was the "father of all such as handle the harp and pipe." The Hebrew word here translated "pipe" is `ughabh. It occurs in 3 other places: Job 21:12; 30:31; Psalms 150:4. In the Hebrew version of Daniel 3:5 it is given as the rendering of sumponyah, i.e. "bagpipe." Jerome translations by organon. The `ughabh was probably a primitive shepherd's pipe or panpipe, though some take it as a general term for instruments of the flute kind, a meaning that suits all the passages cited.
(2) The Chalil. The chalil is first mentioned in 1 Samuel 10:5, where it is played by members of the band of prophets. It was used (1 Kings 1:40) at Solomon's accession to the throne; its strains added to the exhilaration of convivial parties (Isaiah 5:12), accompanied worshippers on their joyous march the sanctuary (Isaiah 30:29), or, in turn, echoed the feelings of mourners (Jeremiah 48:36). In 1 Maccabees 3:45, one of the features of the desolation of the temple consisted in the cessation of the sound of the pipe. From this we see that Ewald's assertion that the flute took no part in the music of the temple is incorrect, at least for the Second the Temple.
As we should expect from the simplicity of its construction, and the commonness of its material, the flute or pipe was the most ancient and most widely popular of all musical instruments.
Reeds, cane, bone, afterward ivory, were the materials; it was the easiest thing in the world to drill out the center, to pierce a few holes in the rind or bark, and, for the mouthpiece, to compress the tube at one end. The simple rustic pattern was soon improved upon. Of course, nothing like the modern flute with its complicated mechanism was ever achieved, but, especially on the Egyptian monuments, a variety of patterns is found. There we see the obliquely held flute, evidently played, like the Arabic nay, by blowing through a very slight paring of the lips against the edge of the orifice of the tube. Besides this, there are double flutes, which, though apparently an advance on the single flute, are very ancient. These double flutes are either of equal or unequal length, and are connected near the mouth by a piece of leather, or enter the frame of the mouthpiece.
Though the flutes of the East and West resembled each other more closely than the strings, it is to the Assyrian monuments that we must turn for the prototypes of the chalil. The Greeks, as their myths show, regarded Asia Minor as the birthplace of the flute, and no doubt the Hebrews brought it with them from their Assyrian home. In the Kouyunjik bas-relief we see players performing on the double flute. It is apparently furnished with a beaked mouthpiece; like that of the clarinet or flageolet. We cannot determine whether the Israelites used the flute with a mouthpiece, or one like the nay; and it is futile to guess. It is enough to say that they had opportunities of becoming acquainted with both kinds, and may have adopted both.
(3) Nechiloth. Nechiloth occurs only in the title of Psalms 5:1-12. The context suggests that it is a musical term, and we explain neginoth as a general term for strings, this word may comprehend the wood-winds. the Revised Version margin renders "wind instruments."
(4) Neqebh. In Ezekiel 28:13 the King James Version, the Revised Version (British and American), neqabhim is rendered pipes. This translation is supported by Fetis: the double flute; Ambros: large flutes; and by Jahn: the nay or Arab flute. It is now, however abandoned, and Jerome's explanation that neqebh means the "setting" of precious stones is generally adopted.
(5) The Mashroqitha'. Mashroqitha', found in Daniel 3:5, etc., is also referred to the wood-winds. The word is derived from sharaq, "to hiss" (compare Isaiah 5:26, where God hisses to summon the Gentiles). The Septuagint translates surigx or panpipes, and this is most probably the meaning.
(6) The Cumponyah. Cumponyah (in Chaldaic sumponia) is another name for a musical instrument found in Daniel 3:5, etc. It is generally supposed to have been the bagpipe, an instrument that at one time was exceedingly popular, even among highly civilized peoples. Nero is said to have been desirous of renown as a piper.
(7) The Shophar Qeren. The shophar was a trumpet, curved at the end like a horn (qeren), and no doubt originally was a horn. The two words shophar and qeren are used synonymously in Joshua 6:4-5, where we read shophar ha-yobhelim and qeren ha-yobhel. With regard to the meaning of hayobhel, there is some difference of opinion. The Revised Version (British and American) renders in text "ram's horn," in the margin "jubilee." The former depends on a statement in the Talmud that yobhel is Arabic for "ram's horn," but no trace of such a word has been found in Arabic. A suggestion of Pfeiffer's that yobhel does not designate the instrument, but the manner of blowing, is advocated by J. Weiss. It gives a good sense in the passages in which yobhel occurs in connection with shophar or qeren. Thus in Joshua 6:5, we would translate, "when the priests blow triumph on the horn."
The shophar was used in early times chiefly, perhaps exclusively, for warlike purposes. It gave the signal "to arms" (Judges 6:34; 1 Samuel 13:3; 2 Samuel 20:1); warned of the approach of the enemy (Amos 3:6; Ezekiel 33:6; Jeremiah 4:5; 6:1); was heard throughout a battle (Amos 2:2, etc.); and sounded the recall (2 Samuel 2:28). Afterward it played an important part in connection with religion. It was blown at the proclamation of the Law (Exodus 19:13, etc.); and at the opening of the Year of Jubilee (Leviticus 25:9); heralded the approach of the Ark (2 Samuel 6:15); hailed a new king (2 Samuel 15:10); and is prophetically associated with the Divine judgment and restoration of the chosen people from captivity (Isaiah 18:3, and often).
(8) The Chatsotseroth. We are told (Numbers 10:2 ff) that Moses was commanded to make two silver trumpets which should serve to summon the people to the door of the tabernacle; give the signal for breaking up the camp; or call to arms. These instruments were the hatsotseroth, which differed from the shophar in that they were straight, not curved, were always made of metal, and were only blown by the priests. They are shown on the Arch of Titus and on Jewish coins, and are described by Josephus (Ant., III, xii, 6). The latter says: "In length it was not quite a yard. It was composed of a narrow tube somewhat thicker than a flute, widened slightly at the mouth to catch the breath, and ended in the form of a bell, like the common trumpets."
3. Percussion Instruments: (1) The Toph. The principal percussion instrument, the toph, is represented in English Versions of the Bible by "tabret" and "timbre," two words of different origin. "Tabret" is derived from Arabic tanbur, the name of a sort of mandolin. "Timbre" comes from Latin-Greek tympanum, through the French timbre, a small tambourine. The Arabs of today possess an instrument called the duf, a name that corresponds to the Hebrew toph. The duf is a circle of thin wood 11 inches in diameter and 2 inches in depth. Over this is tightly stretched a piece of skim, and in the wood are 5 openings in which thin metal disks are hung loosely; these jingle when the duf is struck by the hand. The toph probably resembled the duf.
Other drums are shown on the Egyptian and Assyrian monuments. In the Kouyunjik bas-relief the second last performer beats with his hands a small, barrel-like drum fixed at his waist. In the Old Testament the drum is used on festive occasions; it is not mentioned in connection with Divine service. It was generally played by women, and marked the time at dances or processions (Exodus 15:20; Judges 11:34; 1 Samuel 18:6; Jeremiah 31:4; Psalms 150:4). At banquets (Isaiah 24:8; 30:32; Job 21:12) and at marriages (1 Maccabees 9:39) it accompanied the kinnor and nebhel. In solemn processions it was also occasionally played by men.
(2) Metsiltayim, Tseltselim. In 1 Chronicles 15:19 we read that "Heman, Asaph, and Ethan, were appointed, with cymbals of brass to sound aloud." These cymbals are the metsiltayim (in two places tseltselim). They were very popular in Egypt. A pair made of copper and silver has been found in a grave in Thebes. They are about 5 inches in diameter and have handles fixed in the center. In the Kouyunjik bas-relief we see cymbals of another pattern. These are conical, and provided with handles.
Cylindrical staves slightly bent at one end were also used in Egyptian processions. Villoteau, quoted by J. Weiss, describes a bas-relief in which three musicians are seen, of whom one plays the harp, a second the double flute, while a third appears to be marking time by striking two short rods together; this was a method of conducting practiced regularly by other ancient nations.
(3) Mena`an`im. Lastly in 2 Samuel 6:5 we meet with a word that occurs nowhere else, and whose meaning is quite uncertain. the King James Version translates "cornets," the Revised Version (British and American) "castanets," and in the margin "sistra." The mena`an`im may have been the sistrum, an instrument formed of two thin, longish plates, bent together at the top so as to form an oval frame, and supplied with a handle at the lower end. One or more bars were fixed across this frame, and rings or disks loosely strung on these made a jingling noise when the instrument was shaken. This interpretation is supported by the derivation of the word, the Vulgate, and the rabbins.
LITERATURE.
Pfeiffer, Uber die Musik der alten Hebraer; Saalschutz, Form der heb. Poesie, etc.; Leyrer in RE; Riehm, Handwort. des bibl. Alterthums; Histories of Music by Fetis, Ambros, Rowbotham, Naumann, and Chappell; Wilkinson, Ancient Egypt; Wettstein in Del. Commentary on Isaiah; Lane, Modern Egyptians; Stainer, The Music of the Bible; Edersheim, The Temple, etc.; Wellhausen, "The Pss" in Polychrome Bible; Benzinger, HA; Nowack, HA; J. Weiss, Die mus. Instr. des AT; C. Engel, Music of the Most Ancient Nations; Vigoureux, Lea instruments de musique de la Bible; Driver, Joel and Amos; Cornill, Music in the Old Testament; and the various Bible Dictionaries.
James Millar
Musical Instruments
Musical Instruments - mu'-zi-kal in'-stroo-ments (shiddah we-shiddoth): "I gat me .... musical instruments, and that of all sorts" (Ecclesiastes 2:8). Thus the King James Version and the American Standard Revised Version; the English Revised Version and the American Revised Version margin "concubines very many." The word occurs only here; the meaning is not certain, but it has nothing to do with music.
Musician; Chief
Musician; Chief - mu-zish'-an.
Mustard
Mustard - mus'-tard (sinapi (Matthew 13:31; Mark 4:31; Luke 13:19; Matthew 17:20; Luke 17:6)): The minuteness of the seed is referred to in all these passages, while in the first three the large size of the herb growing from it is mentioned. In Matthew 13:32 it is described as "greater than the herbs, and becometh a tree" (compare Luke 13:19); in Mark 4:32 it "becometh greater than all the herbs, and putteth out great branches." Several varieties of mustard (Arabic, khardal) have notably small seed, and under favorable conditions grow in a few months into very tall herbs--10 to 12 ft. The rapid growth of an annual herb to such a height must always be a striking fact. Sinapis nigra, the black mustard, which is cultivated, Sinapis alba, or white mustard, and Sinapis arvensis, or the charlock (all of Natural Order Cruciferae), would, any one of them, suit the requirements of the parable; birds readily alight upon their branches to eat the seed (Matthew 13:32, etc.), not, be it noted, to build their nests, which is nowhere implied.
Among the rabbis a "grain of mustard" was a common expression for anything very minute, which explains our Lord's phrase, "faith as a grain of mustard seed" (Matthew 17:20; Luke 17:6).
The suggestion that the New Testament references may allude to a tall shrub Salvadora persica, which grows on the southern shores of the Dead Sea, rests solely upon the fact that this plant is sometimes called khardal by the Arabs, but it has no serious claim to be the sinapi of the Bible.
E. W. G. Masterman
Muth-labben
Muth-labben - muth-lab'-en (muth labben, "death of Ben," or "of the son"; Psalms 9:1-20, title).
See PSALMS.
Mutilation
Mutilation - mu-ti-la'-shun.
See PUNISHMENTS.
Mutter
Mutter - mut'-er (haghah (Isaiah 8:19; 59:3)): An onomatopoetic word, used of the growling of a lion (Isaiah 31:4), of the "mourning" of a dove (Isaiah 38:14), or of the human voice, whether speaking inarticulately (Isaiah 16:7) or articulately (Psalms 37:30, "The mouth of the righteous talketh of wisdom" compare Job 27:4; Proverbs 8:7, etc.). Hence, it is only the context that can give to haghah the meaning "mutter." No such meaning can be gathered from the context of Isaiah 59:3, and, in fact, the open shamelessness of the sinners seems to be in point. So the verse should be rendered, "Your lips have spoken lies, your tongue uttereth wickedness." In Isaiah 8:19 haghah describes the tone of voice used by the necromancers in uttering their formulas, "that chirp and that mutter." That this tone was subdued and indistinct is quite probable.
See PEEP.
Burton Scott Easton
Muzzle
Muzzle - muz'l (chacam; phimoo) : According to the Deuteronomic injunction (Deuteronomy 25:4), the ox was not to be muzzled while treading the grain, i.e. threshing. The muzzle was a guard placed on the mouth of the oxen to prevent them from biting or eating. The threshing ox would have ample opportunity of feeding (compare Hosea 10:11). The Deuteronomic injunction is quite in accordance with the humane spirit which inspires it all through. Paul quotes this law in two places (1 Corinthians 9:9; 1 Timothy 5:18) to illustrate his view that the "laborer is worthy of his hire."
T. Lewis
Myndus
Myndus - min'-dus (Mundos): A city of Asia Minor, situated at the extreme western end of a peninsula jutting into the sea (see CARIA). It seems that the city was independent at an early date and that many Jews lived there, for according to 1 Maccabees 15:23, it was one of the several places to which the Roman senate, in the year 139 BC, sent a letter in their behalf. The place was important only because of the silver mines in its vicinity. The mines were worked from a very early period, even to the Middle Ages, and have therefore given to the place the modern Turkish name, Gumushlu, meaning a silver mine.
E. J. Banks
Myra
Myra - mi'-ra (Mura): A city of the ancient country of Lycia about 2 1/2 miles from the coast. Here, according to Acts 27:6, Paul found a grain ship from Alexandria. The city stood upon a hill formed by the openings of two valleys. At an early period Myra was of less importance than was the neighboring city Patara, yet later it became a prominent port for ships from Egypt and Cyprus, and Theodosius II made it the capital of the province. It was also famed as the seat of worship of an Asiatic deity whose name is no longer known. Nicholas, a bishop and the patron saint of sailors, is said to have been buried in a church on the road between Myra and Andraki, the port. Here an Arab fleet was destroyed in 807. In 808 Haroun al-Rashid, the renowned kalif of Bagdad, took the city, and here Saewulf landed on his return from Jerusalem. Dembre is the modern name of the ruins of Myra, which are among the most imposing in that part of Asia Minor. The elaborate details of the decoration of theater are unusually well preserved, and the rock-hewn tombs about the city bear many bas-reliefs and inscriptions of interest. On the road to Andraki the monastery of Nicholas may still be seen.
E. J. Banks
Myrrh
Myrrh - mur:
(1) (mor or mowr; Arabic murr]): This substance is mentioned as valuable for its perfume (Psalms 45:8; Proverbs 7:17; Song of Solomon 3:6; 4:14), and as one of the constituents of the holy incense (Exodus 30:23; see also Song of Solomon 4:6; 1, 5, 13). Mor is generally identified with the "myrrh" of commerce, the dried gum of a species of balsam (Balsamodendron myrrha). This is a stunted tree growing in Arabia, having a light-gray bark; the gum resin exudes in small tear-like drops which dry to a rich brown or reddish-yellow, brittle substance, with a faint though agreeable smell and a warm, bitter taste. It is still used as medicine (Mark 15:23). On account, however, of the references to "flowing myrrh" (Exodus 30:23) and "liquid myrrh" (Song of Solomon 5:5, 13), Schweinfurth maintains that mor was not a dried gum but the liquid balsam of Balsamodendron opobalsamum.
See BALSAM.
Whichever view is correct, it is probable that the smurna, of the New Testament was the same. In Matthew 2:11 it is brought by the "Wise men" of the East as an offering to the infant Saviour; in Mark 15:23 it is offered mingled with wine as an anesthetic to the suffering Redeemer, and in John 19:39 a "mixture of myrrh and aloes" is brought by Nicodemus to embalm the sacred body.
(2) (loT, stakte; translated "myrrh" in Genesis 37:25, margin "ladanum"; Genesis 43:11): The fragrant resin obtained from some species of cistus and called in Arabic ladham, in Latin ladanum. The cistus or "rock rose" is exceedingly common all over the mountains of Palestine (see BOTANY), the usual varieties being the C. villosus with pink petals, and the C. salviaefolius with white petals. No commerce is done now in Palestine in this substance as of old (Genesis 37:25; 43:11), but it is still gathered from various species of cistus, especially C. creticus in the Greek Isles, where it is collected by threshing the plants by a kind of flail from which the sticky mass is scraped off with a knife and rolled into small black balls. In Cyprus at the present time the gum is collected from the beards of the goats that browse on these shrubs, as was done in the days of Herodotus iii.112).
E. W. G. Masterman
Myrtle
Myrtle - mur'-t'-l (hadhac; mursine (Isaiah 41:19; 55:13; Nehemiah 8:15; Zechariah 1:8, 10 f); also as a name in Hadassah in Esther 2:7, the Jewish form of ESTHER (which see)): The myrtle, Myrtus communis (Natural Order Myrtaceae), is a very common indigenous shrub all over Palestine. On the bare hillsides it is a low bush, but under favorable conditions of moisture it attains a considerable height (compare Zechariah 1:8, 10). It has dark green, scented leaves, delicate starry white flowers and dark-colored berries, which are eaten. In ancient times it was sacred to Astarte. It is mentioned as one of the choice plants of the land (Isaiah 41:19). "Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir-tree; and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle-tree" (Isaiah 55:13), is one of the prophetic pictures of God's promised blessings. It was one of the trees used in the Feast of Tabernacles (Nehemiah 8:15): "the branches of thick trees" (which see) are interpreted in the Talmud (Cuk. 3 4; Yer Cuk. 3, 53rd) as myrtle boughs; also (id) the "thick trees" of Nehemiah 8:15 as "wild myrtle." Myrtle twigs, particularly those of the broadleaved variety, together with a palm branch and twigs of willow, are still used in the ritual of the Feast of Tabernacles. For many references to myrtle in Jewish writings see Jewish Encyclopedia,IX , 137.
E. W. G. Masterman
Mysia
Mysia - mish'-i-a (Musia): A country in the northwestern part of Asia Minor, which formed an important part of the Roman province of Asia. Though its boundaries were always vague, it may be said to have extended on the North to the Sea of Marmora on the East to Bithynia and Phrygia, on the South to Lydia, and on the West to Hellespont. According to some authors it included the Troad. Its history is chiefly that of important cities, of which Assos, Troas, and Adramyttium on the border of Lydia, are mentioned in the New Testament. When Mysia became a part of the Roman province of Asia in 190 BC, its old name fell into disuse, and it was then generally known as the Hellespontus. According to Acts 16:7-8, Paul passed through the country, but without stopping to preach, until he reached Troas on the coast, yet tradition says that he founded churches at Poketos and Cyzicus. Onesiphorus, who was martyred some time between 109 and 114 AD, during the proconsulate of Adrian, is supposed to have evangelized this part of Asia. See The Expository Times,IX , 495 f.
E. J. Banks
Mystery
Mystery - mis'-ter-i (musterion; from mustes, "one initiated into mysteries"; mueo "to initiate," muo, "to close" the lips or the eyes; stem mu-, a sound produced with closed lips; compare Latin mutus, "dumb"): Its usual modern meaning (= something in itself obscure or incomprehensible, difficult or impossible to understand) does not convey the exact sense of the Greek musterion, which means a secret imparted only to the initiated, what is unknown until it is revealed, whether it be easy or hard to understand. The idea of incomprehensibility if implied at all, is purely accidental. The history of the word in ancient paganism is important, and must be considered before we examine its Biblical usage.
1. In Ancient Pagan Religions: In the extant classics, the singular is found once only (Menander, "Do not tell thy secret (musterion) to thy friend"). But it is frequently found in the plural ta musteria, "the Mysteries," the technical term for the secret rites and celebrations in ancient religions only known to, and practiced by, those who had been initiated. These are among the most interesting, significant, and yet baffling religious phenomena in the Greek-Roman world, especially from the 6th century BC onward. In proportion as the public cults of the civic and national deities fell into disrepute, their place came more and more to be filled by secret cults open only to those who voluntarily underwent elaborate preliminary preparations. There was scarcely one of the ancient deities in connection with whose worship there was not some subsidiary cult of this kind. The most famous were the Mysteries celebrated in Eleusis, under the patronage and control of the Athenian state, and associated with the worship of Demeter and her daughter Persephone. But there were many others of a more private character than the Eleusinian, e.g. the Orphic Mysteries, associated with the name of Dionysus. Besides the Greek Mysteries, mention should be made of the Egyptian cults of Isis and Serapis, and of Persian Mithraism, which in the 3rd century AD was widely diffused over the whole empire.
It is difficult in a brief paragraph to characterize the Mysteries, so elaborate and varied were they, and so completely foreign to the modern mind. The following are some of their main features: (1) Their appeal was to the emotions rather than to the intellect. Lobeck in his famous Aglaophamus destroyed the once prevalent view that the Mysteries enshrined some profound religious truth or esoteric doctrine. They were rather an attempt to find a more emotional and ecstatic expression to religious aspiration than the public ceremonies provided. Aristotle (as quoted by Synesius) declared that the initiated did not receive definite instruction, but were put in a certain frame of mind (ou mathein ti dein alla pathein). This does not mean that there was no teaching, but that the teaching was vague, suggestive and symbolic, rather than didactic or dogmatic. (2) The chief purpose of the rites seems to have been to secure for the rotaries mystic union with some deity and a guaranty of a blissful immortality. The initiated was made to partake mystically in the passing of the deity through death to life, and this union with his saviour-god (theos soter) became the pledge of his own passage through death to a happy life beyond. This was not taught as an esoteric doctrine; it was well known to outsiders that the Mysteries taught the greater blessedness of the initiated in the under-world; but in the actual ceremony the truth was vividly presented and emotionally realized. (3) The celebrations were marked by profuse symbolism of word and action. They were preceded by rites of purification through which all the mystae had to pass. The celebrations themselves were in the main a kind of religious drama, consisting of scenic representations illustrating the story of some deity or deities, on the basis of the old mythologies regarded as allegories of Nature's productive forces and of human immortality; combined with the recital of certain mystic formulas by the hierophant (the priest). The culminating point was the epopteia, or full vision, when the hierophant revealed certain holy objects to the assembly. (4) The cults were marked by a strict exclusiveness and secrecy. None but the initiated could be present at the services, and the knowledge of what was said and done was scrupulously kept from outsiders. What they had seen and heard was so sacred that it was sacrilege to divulge it to the uninitiated. (5) Yet the Mysteries were not secret societies, but were open to all who chose to be initiated (except barbarians and criminals). They thus stood in marked contrast to the old civic and national cults, which were confined to states or cities. They substituted the principle of initiation for the more exclusive principle of birthright or nationality; and so foreshadowed the disintegration of old barriers, and prepared the way for the universal religion. Thus the mystery-religions strangely combined a strict exclusiveness with a kind of incipient catholicity. This brief account will show that the Mysteries were not devoid of noble elements. They formed "the serious part of pagan religion" (Renan). But it must also be remembered that they lent themselves to grave extravagances and abuses. Especially did they suffer from the fact that they were withheld from the light of healthy publicity.
2. In the Old Testament and the Apocrypha: The religion of the Old Testament has no Mysteries of the above type. The ritual of Israel was one in which the whole people partook, through their representatives the priests. There was no system of ceremonial initiation by which the few had privileges denied to the many. God has His secrets, but such things as He revealed belonged to all (Deuteronomy 29:29); so far from silence being enjoined concerning them, they were openly proclaimed (Deuteronomy 6:7; Neb 8:1 ff). True piety alone initiated men into confidential intercourse with Yahweh (Psalms 25:14; Proverbs 3:32). The term "mystery" never occurs in the English Old Testament. The Greek word musterion occurs in the Septuagint of the Old Testament. Only in Daniel, where it is found several times as the translation of raza', "a secret," in reference to the king's dream, the meaning of which was revealed to Daniel (Proverbs 2:18-19, 22, 22).
In the Apocrypha, musterion is still used in the sense of "a secret" (a meaning practically confined to the Septuagint in extant Greek); of the secrets of private life, especially between friends (Sirach 22:22; 16, 17, 21), and of the secret plans of a king or a state (Tobit 12:7, 11; Judith 2:2; 2 Maccabees 13:21). The term is also used of the hidden purpose or counsel of God or of Divine wisdom. The wicked "knew not the mysteries of God," i.e. the secret counsels that govern God's dealings with the godly (Wisdom of Solomon 2:22); wisdom "is initiated [mustis] into the knowledge of God " (Wisdom of Solomon 8:4), but (unlike the pagan mystagogues) the writer declares he "will not hide mysteries," but will "bring the knowledge of her (wisdom) into clear light" (Wisdom of Solomon 6:22). Hatch maintains that the analogy here is that of an oriental king's secrets, known only to himself and his trusted friends (Essays in Biblical Greek, 58); but it is more likely that the writer here betrays the influence of the phraseology of the Greek Mysteries (without acquiescing in their teaching). In another passage, at any rate, he shows acquaintance with the secret rites of the Gentiles, namely, in Wisdom of Solomon 14:15, 23, where the "solemn rites" and "secret mysteries" of idolaters are referred to with abhorrence. The term "mystery" is not used in reference to the special ritual of Israel.
3. In the New Testament: In the New Testament the word occurs 27 or (if we include the doubtful reading in 1 Corinthians 2:1) 28 times; chiefly in Paul (20 or 21 times), but also in one passage reported by each of the synoptists, and 4 times in Revelation. It bears its ancient sense of a revealed secret, not its modern sense of that which cannot be fathomed or comprehended. (1) In a few passages, it has reference to a symbol, allegory or parable, which conceals its meaning from those who look only at the literal sense, but is the medium of revelation to those who have the key to its interpretation (compare the rabbinic use of raza', and codh, "the hidden or mystic sense"). This meaning appears in Revelation 1:20; 5, 7; probably also in Ephesians 5:32, where marriage is called "a mystery," i.e. a symbol to be allegorically interpreted of Christ and His church. It also seems implied in the only passage in which the word is attributed to our Lord, "Unto you is given the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all things are done in parables" (Mark 4:11; compare parallel Matthew 13:11; Luke 8:10). Here parables are spoken of as a veiled or symbolic form of utterance which concealed the truth from those without the kingdom, but revealed it to those who had the key to its inner meaning (compare Matthew 13:35; John 16:29 margin). (2) By far the most common meaning in the New Testament is that which is so characteristic of Paul, namely, a Divine truth once hidden, but now revealed in the gospels. Romans 16:25 f might almost be taken as a definition of it, "According to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which hath been kept in silence through times eternal, but now is manifested" (compare Colossians 1:26; Ephesians 3:3 ff). (a) It should be noted how closely "mystery" is associated with "revelation" (apokalupsis), as well as with words of similar import, e.g. "to make known" (Ephesians 1:9; 3, 5, 10; 6:19), "to manifest" (Colossians 4:3-4; Romans 16:26; 1 Timothy 3:16). "Mystery" and "revelation" are in fact correlative and almost synonymous terms. The mysteries of Christianity are its revealed doctrines, in contrast to the wisdom of worldly philosophy (see especially 1 Corinthians 2:1-16; compare Matthew 11:25 f); the point of contrast being, not that the latter is comprehensible while the former are obscure, but that the latter is the product of intellectual research, while the former are the result of Divine revelation and are spiritually discerned. (b) From this it follows that Christianity has no secret doctrines, for what was once hidden has now been revealed. But here arises a seeming contradiction. On the one hand, there are passages which seem to imply a doctrine of reserve. The mystery revealed to some would seem to be still concealed from others. The doctrines of Christ and of His Kingdom are hidden from the worldly wise and the prudent (Matthew 11:25; 1 Corinthians 2:6 ff), and from all who are outside the kingdom (Matthew 13:11 ff and parallel), and there are truths withheld even from Christians while in an elementary stage of development (1 Corinthians 3:1 ff; Hebrews 5:11-14). On the other hand, there are many passages in which the truths of revelation are said to be freely and unreservedly communicated to all (e.g. Matthew 10:27; 28:19; Acts 20:20, 27; 2 Corinthians 3:12 f; Ephesians 3:9, "all men"; Ephesians 6:19 f; Colossians 1:28; 1 Timothy 2:4). The explanation is that the communication is limited, not by any secrecy in the gospel message itself or any reserve on the part of the speaker, but by the receptive capacity of the hearer. In the case of the carnally-minded, moral obtuseness or worldliness makes them blind to the light which shines on them (2 Corinthians 4:2-4). In the case of the "babe in Christ," the apparent reserve is due merely to the pedagogical principle of adapting the teaching to the progressive receptivity of the disciple (John 16:12 f). There is no esoteric doctrine or intentional reserve in the New Testament. The strong language in Matthew 13:11-15 is due to the Hebrew mode of speech by which an actual result is stated as if it were purposive. (c) What, then, is the content of the Christian "mystery"? In a wide sense it is the whole gospel, God's world-embracing purpose of redemption through Christ (e.g. Romans 16:25; Ephesians 6:19; Colossians 2:2; 1 Timothy 3:9). In a special sense it is applied to some specific doctrine or aspect of the gospel, such as the doctrine of the Cross (1 Corinthians 2:1, 7), of the Incarnation (1 Timothy 3:16), of the indwelling of Christ as the pledge of immortality (Colossians 1:27), of the temporary unbelief of the Jews to be followed by their final restoration (Romans 11:25), of the transformation of the saints who will live to see the Second Advent (1 Corinthians 15:51), and of the inclusion of the Gentiles in the gospel salvation (Ephesians 3:3-6). These are the Divine secrets now at last disclosed. In direct antithesis to the Divine mystery is the "mystery of lawlessness" (2 Thessalonians 2:7) culminating in the coming of the Antichrist. Here, too, the word means a revealed secret, only in this case the revelation belongs to the future (2 Thessalonians 2:8), though the evil forces which are to bring about its consummation are already silently operative. (Besides the references in this paragraph, the word occurs in 1 Corinthians 4:1; 13:2; 14:2; Revelation 10:7. It is interesting to note that the Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 A.D.) sometimes renders musterion by Latin sacramentum, namely, in Ephesians 1:9; 3, 9; 5:32; 1 Timothy 3:16; Revelation 1:20. This rendering in Ephesians 5:32 led to the ecclesiastical doctrine that marriage is a "sacrament.")
4. The Pagan Mysteries and the New Testament: The question is now frequently discussed, how far the New Testament (and especially Paul) betrays the influence of the heathen mystery-cults. Hatch maintains that the Pauline usage of the word musterion is dependent on the Septuagint, especially on the Apocrypha (op. cit.), and in this he is followed by Anrich, who declares that the attempt to trace an allusion to the Mysteries in the New Testament is wholly unsuccessful; but Lightfoot admits a verbal dependence on the pagan Mysteries (Commentary on Colossians 1:26).
At present there is a strong tendency to attribute to Paul far more dependence than one of phraseology only, and to find in the Mysteries the key to the non-Jewish side of Paulinism. A. Loisy finds affinity to the mystery-religions in Paul's conception of Jesus as a Saviour-God, holding a place analogous to the deities Mithra, Osiris, and Attis; in the place Paul assigns to baptism as the rite of initiation; and in his transformation of the Lord's Supper into a symbol of mystic participation in the flesh and blood of a celestial being and a guaranty of a share in the blissful immortality of the risen Saviour. "In its worship as in its belief, Christianity is a religion of mystery" (article in Hibbert Journal, October, 1911). Percy Gardner traces similar analogies to the Mysteries in Paul, though he finds in these analogies, not conscious plagiarism, but "the parallel working of similar forces" (Religious Experience of Paul, chapters iv, v). Kirsopp Lake writes, "Christianity has not borrowed from the mystery-religions, because it was always, at least in Europe, mystery-religion itself" (The Earlier Epistles of Paul, 215). On the other hand, Schweitzer wholly denies the hypothesis of the direct or indirect influence of the Mysteries on Paul's thought (Geschichte der Paulinischen Forschung).
The whole question is sub judice among scholars, and until more evidence be forthcoming from inscriptions, etc., we shall perhaps vainly expect unanimous verdict. It can hardly be doubted that at least the language of Paul, and perhaps to some extent his thought, is colored by the phraseology current among the cults. Paul had a remarkably sympathetic and receptive mind, by no means closed to influences from the Greek-Roman environment of his day.
Witness his use of illustrations drawn from the athletic festivals, the Greek theater (1 Corinthians 4:9) and the Roman camp. He must have been constantly exposed to the contagion of the mystic societies. Tarsus was a seat of the Mithra religion; and the chief centers of Paul's activities, e.g. Corinth, Antioch and Ephesus, were headquarters of mystic religion. We are not surprised that he should have borrowed from the vocabulary of the Mysteries, not only the word musterion, but memuemai, "I learned the secret," literally, "I have been initiated" (Philippians 4:12); sphragizesthai, "to be sealed" (Ephesians 1:13, etc.); teleios, "perfect," term applied in the Mysteries to the fully instructed as opposed to novices (1 Corinthians 2:6-7; Colossians 1:28, etc.) (note, outside of Paul, epoptai, "eye-witnesses,"2 Peter 1:16).
Further, the secret of Paul's gospel among the Gentiles lay, humanly speaking, in the fact that it contained elements that appealed to what was best and most vital in contemporary thought; and doubtless the Mysteries, by transcending all lines of mere citizenship, prepared the way for the universal religion. On the other hand, we must beware of a too facile acceptance of this hypothesis in its extreme form. Christianity can be adequately explained only by reference, not to what it had in common with other religions, but to what was distinctive and original in it. Paul was after all a Jew (though a broad one), who always retained traces of his Pharisaic training, and who viewed idolatry with abhorrence; and the chief formative factor of his thinking was his own profound religious experience. It is inconceivable that such a man should so assimilate Gentile modes of thought as to be completely colored by them. The characteristics which his teaching has in common with the pagan religions are simply a witness to the common religious wants of mankind, and not to his indebtedness to them. What turned these religions into Mysteries was the secrecy of their rites; but in the New Testament there are no secret rites. The gospel "mystery" (as we have seen) is not a secret deliberately withheld from the multitude and revealed only to a privileged religious aristocracy, but something which was once a secret and is so no longer. The perfect openness of Christ and His apostles sets them in a world apart from the mystic schools. It is true that later the Mysteries exercised a great influence on ecclesiastical doctrine and practice, especially on baptism and the Eucharist (see Hatch, Hibbert Lectures, chapter x). But in the New Testament, acts of worship are not as yet regarded as mystic rites. The most we can say is that some New Testament writers (especially Paul) make use of expressions and analogies derived from the mystery-religions; but, so far as our present evidence goes, we cannot agree that the pagan cults exercised a central or formative influence on them.
LITERATURE.
There is a large and growing literature on this subject. Its modern scientific study began with C.A. Lobeck's Aglaophamus (1829). The following recent works may be specially mentioned: Gustav Anrich, Das antike Mysterienwesen (1894); G. Wobbermin, Religiongeschichtliche Studien zur Frage, etc. (1896); E. Hatch, Essays in Biblical Greek (1889) and Hibbert Lectures, 1888 (published 1890); F.B. Jevons, An Introduction to the History of Religion (1896); S. Cheethara, The Mysteries, Pagan and Christian (1897); R. Reitzenstein, Die hellenistischen Mysterienreligionen (1910); P. Gardner, The Religious Experience of Paul (1911); K. Lake, The Earlier Epistles of Paul (1911); articles on "Mystery" in Encyclopedia Britannica (11th edition), edition 9 (W.M. Ramsay), and edition 11 (L.R. Farnell), Encyclopedia Biblica (A. Julicher), Hastings, Dictionary of the Bible (five volumes) (A. Stewart); 1-volume Hastings, Dictionary of the Bible; (G.G. Findlay); Hastings, Dictionary of Christ and the Gospels (R.W. Bacon); articles on musterion in Cremer and Grimm-Thayer New Testament Lexicons; the commentaries, including J.B. Lightfoot on Colossians, J. Armitage Robinson on Ephesians, H. Lietzmann on 1 Corinthians; 9 articles in The Expositor on "St. Paul and the Mystery Religions" by Professor H.A.A. Kennedy (April, 1912, to February, 1913).
D. Miall Edwards
Mythology
Mythology - mi-thol'-o-ji.
See FABLE; BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA,RELIGION OF ; GREECE,RELIGION IN ANCIENT .