International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

Y

Yarn — Young; Men, Young Women

Yarn

Yarn - yarn.

1. In the Old Testament: ('aph, "also," "moreover," "yea" (1 Samuel 21:5 the King James Version; 1 Samuel 24:11, etc.), gam, "also," "likewise," "moreover," "yea" (2 Kings 2:3; 16:3, etc.], ki, "inasmuch," "certainly," "doubtless," "yea" (Psalms 102:13; 105:12, etc.)): Each of these words occurs frequently, especially the first two.

2. In the New Testament: In the New Testament we have: nai, "verily," "yea," the usual particle of affirmation (Matthew 5:37; 9:28, etc.); de, "however," "on the other hand" (Luke 2:35; Acts 20:34 the King James Version, etc.); alla, "however," "but" (Luke 24:22 the King James Version; Romans 3:31 the King James Version, etc.); kai, "also," "besides," "yea" (Acts 3:16; 7:43 the King James Version, etc.). Christ forbids the employment of any affirmation stronger than the solemn repetition of the first mentioned (Matthew 5:37).

Frank E. Hirsch

Year

Year - yer (shanah, Aramaic shenah, "a return" (of the sun), like the Greek eniautos; yamim, "days," is also used for "year," and the Greek hemerai, corresponds to it (Joshua 13:1; Luke 17:1-37, 18); etos, is also employed frequently in the New Testament; for the difference between etos and eniautos, see Grimm-Thayer, under the word): The Hebrew year was solar, although the month was lunar, the adjustment being made in intercalation.

See ASTRONOMY; TIME.

Years, Seventy

Years, Seventy - See SEVENTY YEARS.

Yellow

Yellow - yel'-o.

See COLORS .

Yodh

Yodh - yod "y": The 10th letter of the Hebrew alphabet; transliterated in this Encyclopedia as "y". It came also to be used for the number 10.

See JOB, and for name, etc., see ALPHABET.

Yoke

Yoke - yok:

(1) The usual word is `ol (Genesis 27:40, etc.), less commonly the (apparently later) form moTah (Isaiah 58:6, etc.; in Nab 1:13 moT), which the Revised Version (British and American) in Jeremiah 27:1 28:1 translates "bar" (a most needless and obscuring change). The Greek in Apocrypha (Sirach 28:19, etc.) and in the New Testament (Matthew 11:29 f, etc.) is invariably zugos. Egyptian monuments show a yoke that consisted of a straight bar fastened to the foreheads of the cattle at the root of the horns, and such yokes were no doubt used in Palestine also; but the more usual form was one that rested on the neck (Genesis 27:40, etc.). It was provided with straight "bars" (moToth in Leviticus 26:13; Ezekiel 34:27) projecting downward, against which the shoulders of the oxen pressed, and it was held in position by thongs or "bonds" (moceroth in Jeremiah 2:20; 5:5; 27:2; 30:8; 'aghuddoth in Isaiah 58:6, "bands"), fastened under the animals' throats. Such yokes could of course be of any weight (1 Kings 12:4 ff), depending on the nature of the work to be done, but the use of "iron yokes" (Deuteronomy 28:48; Jeremiah 28:13 f) must have been very rare, if, indeed, the phrase is anything more than a figure of speech.

What is meant by "the yoke on their jaws" in Hosea 11:4 is quite obscure. Possibly a horse's bit is meant; possibly the phrase is a condensed form for "the yoke that prevents their feeding"; possibly the text is corrupt.

See JAW.

The figurative use of "yoke" in the sense of "servitude" is intensely obvious (compare especially Jeremiah 27:1-22, Jeremiah 28:1-17). Attention needs to be called only to Lamentations 3:27, where "disciplining sorrow" is meant, and to Jeremiah 5:5, where the phrase is a figure for "the law of God." This last use became popular with the Jews at a later period and it is found, e.g. in Apocrypha Baruch 41:3; Psalter of Wisdom of Solomon 7:9; 17:32; Ab. iii.7,. and in this sense the phrase is employed. by Christ in Matthew 11:29 f. "My yoke" here means "the service of God as I teach it" (the common interpretation, "the sorrows that I bear," is utterly irrelevant) and the emphasis is on "my." The contrast is not between "yoke" and "no yoke," but between "my teaching" (light yoke) and "the current scribal teaching'; (heavy yoke).

(2) "Yoke" in the sense of "a pair of oxen" is tsemedh (1 Samuel 11:7, etc.), or zeugos (Luke 14:19).

Yoke-fellow

Yoke-fellow - yok'-fel-o (sunzugos, "yoked together"): The word is used by Greek writers of those united by any bond, such as marriage, relationship, office, labor, study or business; hence, a yoke-fellow, consort, comrade, colleague or partner.

(1) In the New Testament it occurs once only (Philippians 4:3): "I beseech thee also, true yoke-fellow." Most interpreters hold that Paul here addresses some particular but unnamed person, who had formerly been associated with him in the work of the gospel in Philippi. Many guesses have been made in regard to the identity of the unnamed "yoke-fellow," and these names have been suggested: Luke, Lydia, Epaphroditus, each of whom had in one way or another some connection with Philippi.

(2) Renan has suggested that yoke-fellow means Lydia (Acts 16:14-15, 40), and that she had been married to Paul. But the fact that the adjective gnesios, "true," qualifying "yoke-fellow" is masculine and not feminine shows that it is not a woman but a man who is referred to. Renan's suggestion is an unworthy one, and is quite devoid of proof. It is a mere fanciful and unsupported creation of the Frenchman's brain. Renan's idea is a modification of an opinion which is as old as Clement of Alexandria, that Paul here referred to his own wife. But this conjecture is contradicted by the statement of the apostle himself, that he had not a wife (1 Corinthians 7:8; 9:5).

(3) There is still another way of interpreting "yoke-fellow," and probably it is the right one. Some expositors take the word as a proper name. Among these Westcott and Hort print "Sunzuge," in the margin. In favor of this interpretation there is much to be said, especially the fact that the word is found in the very midst of the names of other persons. The names of Euodia and Syntyche are mentioned immediately before, and that of Clement follows immediately after the true yoke-fellow. The meaning therefore is probably, "I beseech thee also, true Synzygos," i.e. I beseech thee, who art a genuine Synzygos, a colleague rightly so called, a colleague in fact as well as in name. It is obvious to compare the way in which the apostle plays upon the name Onesimus, in Philemon 1:11.

John Rutherfurd

Young; Men, Young Women

Young; Men, Young Women - yung, (bachur, na`ar; neanias, neaniskos): "Young man" is generally in the Old Testament the translation of bachur, from bachar, "to prove," "to choose," and of na`ar (literally, "boy," but used sometimes also of a girl). The former term denotes a young man, no longer a mere youth, but liable to military service (Deuteronomy 32:25; Judges 14:10; 1 Samuel 8:16; 2 Kings 8:12, etc.). In Numbers 11:28, the King James Version "Joshua .... the servant of Moses, one of his young men" (bechurim), the Revised Version (British and American) renders "one of his chosen men," margin "from his youth." Na`ar is frequently used (singular and plural) of soldiers (1 Samuel 14:1, 6; 21:4; 1 Samuel 25:5, 8-9; 2 Samuel 1:5-6, 15, etc.). Abraham's "young men" (ne`arim) were "trained servants," "trained men," warriors (Genesis 14:24; compare Genesis 14:14 the Revised Version (British and American)). The word is often in the Old Testament translated "servant": thus in the Revised Version (British and American) for the King James Version "young man," "young men" (Genesis 18:7; 2 Kings 4:22; 1 Kings 20:14, the Revised Version margin). In the New Testament, the ordinary words for "young man" are neanias (Acts 7:58; 20:9; Acts 23:17-18, 22) and neaniskos (Matthew 19:20, 22; Mark 14:51, etc.). "Young men" in Acts 5:6 is neoteroi, comparative of neos, "young," recent; the feminine of the latter word is "young women" in Titus 2:4, and neoterai is "younger women" (the Revised Version (British and American) "widows") in 1 Timothy 5:14. In both the Old Testament and the New Testament young men are earnestly exhorted to wisdom and sober-mindedness (Proverbs 1:8-9; Ecclesiastes 11:9; Ecclesiastes 12:1, 13-14; Titus 2:6, "discreet"; compare Wisdom of Solomon 9:11), etc.

W. L. Walker