falling through the atmosphere, is in Palestine not common, but often very destructive (Josh. x. 11. Ps. xviii. 12; comp. Exod. ix. 18, seq., and Ps. lxxviii. 47, 48). Its destructiveness is implied in the figurative use of the word, which is connected with 'overflowing rain, fire, and brimstone,' to signify God's punishments on a guilty nation (Ezek. xiii. 11; xxxviii. 22). The term hail stones' (in the Hebrew, literally, 'stones of hail,' Is. xxx. 30), denotes hail of an extraordinary size. HAIR. A thick and long head of hair was among the ancient Hebrews accounted ornamental (2 Sam. xiv. 25, 26. Ezek. xvi. 7), and probably a token, if not a source, of strength (Judg. xvi. 17). Hence the rich and eminent, especially of the female sex, had their hair artistically dressed and oiled (Judg. xvi. 13. 2 Kings ix. 30. Cant. iv. 1). 2 Sam. xiv. 2). Long and ornamental hair became a sign of effeminacy and moral weakness (1 Cor. xi. 14. 1 Tim. ii. 9. 1 Pet. iii. 3). The hair, however, in a hot country might interfere with personal cleanliness; on which account the priests and Levites, on being inaugurated, were required to have their hair cut, as symbolical of purity (Numb. viii. 7). With a similar import, as well as to promote his cure, the leper was to have his hair cut off (Lev. xiv. 8, 9). During the period of service, the priests were not to shave their heads nor suffer their locks to grow loug; they shall only poll their heads (Ezek. xliv. 20; comp. Numb. vi. 5). Complete shaving of the head was probably rare, since a bald head attracted special notice (2 Kings ii. 23), and was an object of contempt; the rather because leprosy occasioned the loss of the hair. As long and decorated hair was an accompaniment of joy, so shaving of the beard and the head was a sign of grief (Jer. xli. 5. Ezek. v. 1). Cutting the hair of males became so customary, that it was a distinction of sex; which made Paul speak strongly of those men who wore long hair (1 Cor. xi. 14, 15). In later days, shaving the head of males has become a general custom; so that hairdressers have to do more with the head than the beard. The Orientals, therefore, say that Europeans have the head of women, since the latter shave the beard and let the hair of the head grow. The modern custom of shaving the head is connected with that of wearing on it folds of rich and heavy cloth, for the heat of the climate renders turbans and long hair oppressive. See HEAD. It was forbidden by the Mosaic law to round the corners of the head, or mar (pluck up or destroy) the corners of the beard (Lev. xix. 27). This prohibition was doubtless intended to prevent the Israelites from yielding to the customs of the inhabitants of Canaan, lest, becoming like, they might be of them (see Jer. ix. 26, marg.; xxv. 21-23). Osburn (Ancient Egypt') has from the Egyptian monuments shown that several of the Canaanitish nations shaved some part of the head. The Zuzim shaved the back of the head; the Moabites of Rabbah shaved the forehead half way to the crown; the Hittites closely shaved the beard, moustaches, and eye-brows; they also shaved a square place just above the ear, leaving the hair on the side of the face and the whiskers, which hung down in a long plaited lock. John the Baptist wore a garment of camels' hair, which, unlike some other, was obviously coarse (Matt. iii. iv. Mark i. 6). The hair, according to Chardin on 1 Sam. xxv. 4, is not shorn from the camels like wool from sheep; but they pull off this woolly hair, which the camels are disposed in a sort to cast off, as many other creatures change their coats, yearly. The hair is made into cloth now. Modern dervishes wear such garments. Campbell, the poet, mentions a tent of camels'-hair cloth which he saw in the kingdom of Algiers. It was twenty-five feet in diameter and very lofty. HALL, COMMON, is, in Matt. xxvii. 27, the rendering of the Latin word (in Greek letters) prætorium, which is elsewhere translated hall of judgment' (John xviii. 28), and palace' (Philipp. i. 13). In Mark xv. 16, the Latin pratorium is retained. The prætorium, from prætor, properly signified the general's tent in a camp. As the word prætor was used of magistrates who administered justice, for example the governors of provinces, so prætorium came in general to signify the residence of such officers (John xviii. 28, 33; xix. 9). The word was transferred to the camp of the prætorian cohort, and so was applied to the camp before the prætorium of Pilate (Matt. xxvii. 27. Mark xv. 16). The Roman procurators or governors who ordinarily dwelt at Cæsarea, when they came to Jerusalem, chose for their residence a palace built by Herod (Acts xxiii. 35) near the upper city, and forming part of Fort Antonia, where lay the Roman cohort that kept the Jewish capital in subjection. The greater part of this band' was drawn up in the camp for the political purpose of witnessing the ignominious derision of 'the king of the Jews' (Matt. xxvii. 26-28). HAM, from a Hebrew word signifying hot,' unless it should be thought that it is a Hebrew form of Chemi, the Egyptian name for Egypt, appears in the table of nations (Gen. x.) as one of the three sons of Noah, and the progenitor, among others, of Mizraim, another appellation for Egypt, and is accounted to represent Africa. In Ps. lxxviii. 51, 'the land of Ham' is certainly Egypt. The population of Egypt, if viewed in connection with Biblical statements, occasions great ethnographical difficulties. The cultivated Egyptians and Cushites (Ethiopians) must in very early times have been dissimilar to the Negro race. HAMAN. See ESTHER. HAMATH, surnamed 'the great' (Amos vi. 2), a distinguished city of Syria, on the north-eastern side of Lebanon (Judg. iii. 3), on the river Orontes, was in the olden time' the residence of Syrian kings, of whom one, namely Toi, came into friendly relations with, if he did not become tributary to, David (2 Samuel viii. 9, seq.; comp. 1 Chron. xiii. 5. 1 Kings viii. 65.). In the latter passage, Hamath appears as the northern, while 'the river of Egypt' is the southern boundary of Solomon's dominions. Comp. Amos vi. 14, where by the river of the wilderness' the valley of the Arabah is meant. In Ezek. vlvii. 16, 20, Hamath is given as a northwestern limit of the future kingdom of Israel; with which agrees the fact, that in Gen. x. 18 the Hamathite is placed with the descendants of Canaan. Hamath became subject to Assyria (2 Kings xvii. 24; comp. Jer. xlix. 23). From the Syro-Macedonian king, Antiochus Epiphanes, it received the Greek name of Epiphania, which it retains with its original appellation. In the period of the Arabian dominion it had princes of its own, of whom was one of the renowned geographers and historians, namely, Abulfeda. The place, still considerable in virtue of its commerce, is the centre of a Turkish government. from letters (the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.' 2 Cor. iii. 6; comp. Rom. ii. 29), by the Holy Spirit in the preaching of the word of life, which in Jesus Christ re. deems believers from the curse of the law (Gal. iii. 13). In the apocryphal book Tobit (v. 3; ix. 5), the same word is used to denote a bill or account of money due, a sense which throws light on its application to the law of Moses, which was a list or schedule of obligations. Comp. Luke xvi. 6, where grammata, 'writings,' is the word used. The thus highly estimated independence of Christianity on dead letters necessarily postponed the time when its doctrine and facts were committed to writing, at least in so express and formal a manner as is implied in the composition of histories. But the very epistles which conveyed those indirect reproaches against a religion in letters, became the germ of a religious literature by far the richest as well as most precious of all others, whose only great defect now is found to be a want of immediate connection with the first days of the planting of the gospel. That literature, under the guidance of Providence, came into existence at the bidding of circumstances. Paul's churches required instruction and correction; therefore he wrote epistles. For the conversion of large masses of the world, arguments in proof of the Messiahship of Jesus were needed, different in character, like those for whom they were intended, hence the gospels. HAND, THE, was laid under the thigh in giving a pledge or taking an oath (Gen. xxiv. 2), and given as a token of good faith (2 Kings Christianity was thus consigned to letters. x. 15) or surrender (2 Chron. xxx. 8). In sa- These compositions were literally handwritcrifices, the hand was put on the head of the ings, or, to use the more common term, maanimal in order to indicate and offer it (Exod. nuscripts. Such manuscripts, as proceeding xxix. 10. Lev. i. 4). Laying on of hands, from their authors, may be called autographs; as offering the person to the service of Je- as transcribed by others from the originals, hovah, was practised in the inauguration of apographs or copies. A manuscript is an civil officers (Numb. xxvii. 18) and Levites autograph, whether written by the author or (viii. 10). Jesus signified the gift of his an amanuensis. The ancients seldom wrote blessing by laying on his hands (Matt. xix. their treatises with their own hands, but dic13). This custom was observed by the apos tated them to others, called 'swift writers,' tles in appointing to offices in the church 'fair writers,' or simply book writers.' In (Acts vi. 6. 1 Tim. v. 22). Washing of this way, probably, a great part of the books the hands was required to purify from Levi- of the New Testament were written (Rom. tical defilement (Lev. xv. 11), and of priests xvi. 22. Gal. vi. 11). At first, all manubefore they performed their duties (Exod. scripts were autographs; now, in all proba xxx. 19). It was an indication of being bility, all are apographs, for we have no evipure from human blood (Deut. xxi. 6-8). dence that the originals have been preserved. Hence the phrase, 'I will wash my hands in With the progress of the gospels apographs innocency' (Ps. xxvi. 6. Matt. xxvii. 24. were multiplied till they became very nu1 Tim. ii. 8). After the captivity, arose the merous, inasmuch as the demand for copies practice of washing the hands before meat increased and spread on every side. Manu(Matt. xv. 2, 20. Luke xi. 38). scripts, whether originals or copies, comprised either portions or the whole of the New Testament. Such as comprised portions came first into existence. They consisted of one letter or one gospel, or, in each case, of more than one. At an early period the Christian writings were read in the church assemblies, for which purpose they were divided into portions, containing either HANDWRITING, a verbally exact English rendering of the Greek original, cheirographon, which in Latin is manuscriptum, denoting that which is written by the hand. The word is employed by Paul (Col. ii. 14) to signify the Mosaic law, the handwriting of ordinances that was against us,' in contradistinction to Christianity, taught apart select passages which, when put together, received the common name of Lectionarium, or Reader; and if it contained the gospels, Evangeliarium; if the Acts and the Epistles, Epistolare. Often, the several parts follow in the order in which they were publicly read. Such Readers arose in the Latin church in the fifth, in the Greek in the eighth century. The manuscripts were transcribed with great care and diligence, and transmitted from haud to hand, from church to church, and from age to age. At first, transcription was the work of pious indivi duals; afterwards, it became the duty of the inhabitants of religious houses, in most of which was set apart a Scriptorium, or Writing room, in which the transcription of MSS. was systematically carried on. The conscientious care bestowed on this important task secured the copies from depravation; and we have every reason to believe that, with only some one or two exceptions, the MSS. have not suffered from intentional falsification. These precious documents were thus preserved in and by writing till the revival of letters, when they were brought forth out of the dusty repositories in which they had very long and, in later ages, too quietly lain, and shortly after the invention of printing were happily put beyond the reach of danger, by being consigned to the custody of the press. It may, however, be doubted whether the ordinary Greek text, which has been made the subject of all modern criticism, might not with advantage be superseded by one to be immediately obtained from the oldest manuscripts in existence, which represent a state of the writings more nearly approaching to the originals. For writing materials the New-Testament anthors used Egyptian paper (2 John 12), and the letter-writers a finer kind, patronised by the emperor Augustus, which was very perishable. At a later period, the New Tes tament was written on skins of animals. Parchment, as being costly, was rarely used. In the eleventh century, cotton-paper, and in the thirteenth our ordinary linen-paper, came into use. The original writers appear to have written without separation of words, accents, or punctuation, and without any division of the text into sections or chapters. The subject-matter was arranged in a columnar form, in a character which resembled the Greek inscriptions on stone, only somewhat rounder in form. The written leaves were rolled together. The inconvenience of these rolls gave rise to bound books, not unlike our own. Still the old characters held their place, as well as the distribution of the matter in columns. By degrees the former lost their stiffness and perpendicularity, till at length, in the tenth century, the current hand became general, and the larger letters were kept for ornamental codices or books. About the same period, ornaments of various kinds, as painted initials and gilding, became fashionable. The Greek characters of the existing MSS. may be divided into two kinds, the large and the small. The latter were chiefly employed in the cursive or rapid hand. The former were used for works of greater pretension they are called uncial, and in form are square or round. The older are square, upright, and without junction with each other. Care and labour were on special occasions lavished on MSS., the letters being formed in gold or silver, on vellum stained with purple. This specimen of ancient writing is a fac simile of a portion of the famous Codex Purpureo-Argenteus, or Purple Silver Manuscript, preserved in the British Museum, and referred to the fifth century, though so early an age may be questioned. The words are found in the Greek of John xiv. 6. Легемутшос ERWEIMEIHÓ AOCKAIHAH OIÁKAI ĤZW G It will be noticed that there are no intervals between either the words or the letters, and the lines are formed independently of the sense. Nor are the letters of a uniform size and shape, though a general similarity prevails. The two last letters in the first line are an abbreviation for Jesus. Of the cursive or running hand the reader may study the following, a fac-simile of the beginning of Mark's Gospel, one of the gems of the Harleian Library in the British Museum. The MS. was written at Rome by one John, a priest, and completed on the 25th of April, 1478, as appears by a note on the last page. It consists of the four gospels, each preceded by a table of sections, written in red ink. Each gospel has at its commencement a figure of its respective evangelist, and the first page of each gosper is beautifully illuminated with an elegantlydesigned heading and a large coloured initial letter, ornamented with beautiful and delicately-drawn arabesques. In this specimen there are on certain letters marks termed accents; large points also denote divisions, which divisions are according to the sense. The want of intervals caused the words to be differently divided, and disputes were carried on respecting the right separation of the sentences. It was a difficult task for a reader to read the Bible intelligibly in the public assemblies while it was without any marks of distinction; for private reading also some assistance was desirable. On this account ΠΡΕΣΒΥΤΑΣ ΝΗΦΑΛΙΟΥΣ ΕΊΝΑΙ ΥΓΙΑΙΝΟΝΤΑΣ ΤΗΙ ΠΙΣΤΕΙ ΠΡΕΣΒΥΤΙΔΑΣ ΩΣΑΥΤΩΣ ἘΝ ΚΑΤΑΣΤΗΜΑΤΙ ΙΕΡΟΠΡΕΠΕΙΣ ΜΗ ΔΙΑΒΟΛΟΥΣ ΜΗ ΟΊΝΩ ΠΟΛΛΩΝ ΔΕΔΟΥΛΩΜΕΝΑΣ ΚΑΛΟΔΙΔΑΣΚΑΛΟΥΣ. These lines were generally adopted in writing, and appear in several extant manuscripts. As the number of lines contained in a gospel or letter, and even the number of words, were set at the end, some means Euthalius, a deacon at Alexandria (cir. 460 A.D.), divided the Pauline Epistles and the Book of Acts into lines (stichoi, hence MSS. so divided are called stichometrical). The plan consisted in setting so many words in one line as were to be read uninterruptedly, so as clearly to bring out the sense of the author. We give a specimen out of the fragment of Paul's epistles, which Wetstein has marked with the letter H. The passage is Titus ii. 2, 3; the corresponding English stands on the right hand. THE-AGED-MEN BE SOBER GRAVE SOUND IN FAITH IN CHARITY. THE-AGED-WOMEN LIKEWISE IN BEHAVIOUR AS-BECOMETH-HOLINESS NOT GIVEN TO MUCH WINE for preserving the integrity of the books were thus supplied. In order to save room, writers satisfied themselves with marking, as in the above, the termination of the lines, and so laid the foundation for a system of punctuation similar to what is now preva- Τη Ε(πιςολή) μετα το Πασχα) . ΤΩ ΚΑΙΡΩ ΕΚΕΙ ΝΩΑΝ(ΘΡΩΠ)ΟΣΤΙΣ ΣΑΙΩΝΝΙΚΟ (ΔΗΜΟΣ) of the eighth century, is a Greek Evangelistarium in the Imperial Library at Vienna, containing short portions of the gospels which were selected by the Greek church for each of the feasts in the year. The volume is about seven inches by six in size, with nine lines in a page. It is written on a purple ground in fine gold uncials, with a few accents, supposed to be of later date. The history of this manuscript is curious and illustrates its value. At the beginning of the eighteenth century, it belonged to the monastery of the Augustines of St. Jean de Carbonaria, at Naples, who presented it to Charles VI., emperor of Germany. When the victorious armies of France ransacked Vienna, it was carried as a precious prize to Paris, where it was placed in the Royal Library, whence It was afterwards restored to Vienna. a second hand refreshed the characters with new ink. Traces of a third hand are seen. There are a very few stops, and these from a second hand. The titles are added, as of secondary consideration, in a somewhat smaller hand. Peculiarities of spelling show the book to have proceeded from an Egyptian calligraphist (fine writer). The masuscript designated as A, or Alexandrn. Mus. Britan. of the sixth century, contains the Old and New Testament; the latter, destroyed at the beginning, commences in Matt. xxv. 6, with the words, 'go ye out to meet him.' The order of the books is the same as in the Vatican Codex. Each page has two columns. The characters are fair, square, and upright, greater than in the Vatican copy. The letters are equidistant from each other, the words not divided, but the initial letters stand, in a larger form, at the beginning of each book and each of the minor sections; for the book has many sections, not unlike our verses, yet at a somewhat greater length, as a section does not end until the sentence Cath. Ep. Ep. Apoc. is completed. A void space of the length of a The total number of Greek MSS. of the New Testament, or portions of it, known to have been collated (compared together) by modern scholars, may be thus stated: Acts and Paul. 8 192246 58 200 9 3 255 88 ... 91 making altogether 1278, from which must be taken 335 reckoned more than once; so that there remain 943. Of these, what are termed the Alexandrian and Vatican Codices or MSS. occupy the foremost place, as containing the entire Bible and being of very high antiquity. The oldest MSS. are, for critical purposes, marked A, B, C, &c. Of two or three of these we subjoin a few particulars. Codex B, or Vaticanus 1209, of the fifth century, contains the Old and New Testament, the last in the following order-Gospels, Acts of the Apostles, the Catholic Epistles, Paul's, as far as Heb. ix. 14. The Epistles to Timothy, Titus, and Philemon, together with the Apocalypse, have perished. The book is written on the finest parchment, with unique and beautiful square letters, every where uniform, all equidistant from each other, no word separated from another, and each line seeming to be only one word. The letters had become so pale that word generally denotes the end of the section. |