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International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

ST


STACHYS

sta'-kis (Stachus): The name of a Roman Christian to whom Paul sent greetings. The name is Greek and uncommon; it has been found in inscriptions connected with the imperial household. Paul designates him "my beloved" (Rom 16:9).


STACK

stak: Ex 22:6 the King James Version, the Revised Version (British and American) "shocks" (of grain).


STACTE

stak'-te (nataph, "drops" (Job 36:27); stakte, meaning "oozing out in drops"): One of the ingredients of the holy ointment (Ex 30:34; Ecclesiasticus 24:15, margin "opobalsamum," the King James Version "storax"). The marginal reading is a concession to Jewish tradition, but see SPICE , (1). Dioscorides describes two kinds of stacte, one of pure myrrh and one of storax and a fat mixed. See MYRRH . This nataph must have been either myrrh "in drops," as it is collected, or some other fragrant gum, similarly collected, such, for example, as gum tragacanth.


STAFF

staf: Many Hebrew terms are represented by this word. The "staves" of the ark translate the word badh, literally, "a part," hence, branch, bar, etc. (Ex 25:13,14,15,27,28, etc.). Other words, as matteh, maqqel, shebhet, used of the staff in the hand, the shepherd's staff, figuratively, "staff of bread" (matteh, Ezek 4:16; 5:16; 14:13), as indispensable for support of life, are dealt with under ROD (which see). The New Testament word is rhabdos (Mt 10:10 parallel Lk 9:3; Heb 11:21).

See also SCEPTRE .


STAIR

star.

See HOUSE .


STAKE

stak: Isa 33:20; 54:2 for yathedh, "tent-pin," or, perhaps, "tent-pole" (Ex 27:19; Jdg 4:21, etc.). The King James Version Sirach 43:19, "The hoar frost, .... being congealed, lieth on the top of sharp stakes," is of course meaningless. the Revised Version (British and American) "When it is congealed, it is as points of thorns" renders the Greek very exactly, but the Hebrew would indicate for the original meaning "forms frost-flowers of sapphire."


STALK

stok: In Gen 41:5,22 is for qaneh, "cane"; in Josh 2:6 for ets, "wood." In Hos 8:7, the Revised Version margin has "stalk" for qamah, "that which stands." The Revised Version's "standing grain" is due to this meaning of qamah in Ex 22:6, etc., but this translation spoils the figure. The meaning is, "They sow the wind, a worthless sowing, for such seed produces no stalk, it yields no grain."


STALL

stol ((1) marbeq, literally,, "a place for tying up" (Am 6:4; Mal 4:2), (2) 'abhac, "to give fodder" (Prov 15:17), (3) 'urvah, "to pluck and feed" (1 Ki 4:26; 2 Ch 9:25; 32:28), (4) repheth, "a resting place" (Hab 3:17); (5) phatne, "a manger" or "crib" (Lk 13:15; compare 'ebhuc, translated "crib" in Isa 1:3; Prov 14:4)): During the season when cattle are not being used they are allowed to roam in the fields. Otherwise they are tied in rooms in the winter time, or under shelters made of green boughs in the summer, and all their food brought to them. Horses and cattle alike are haltered and the chains fastened through holes made in stones projecting from the walls. No stanchions and no separating partitions between animals are used. The horses are usually hobbled as well.

James A. Patch


STAMMERER

stam'-er-er: Isa 32:4, `illegh, "inarticulate speaking." In Isa 28:11; 33:19, l`g (pointing uncertain) is rendered "strange" by the Revised Version (British and American), with "stammering" in the King James Version, the Revised Version margin. Probably the word means both, as primitive people always think that their own language alone is clearly pronounced. Or the word may mean "mocking."


STANDARD-BEARER

stand'-ard-bar'-er.

See WAR , 5;BANNER .


STANDARDS

stand'-ardz.

See WAR , 5;BANNER ;ASTRONOMY , sec. II, 7.


STANDING

stand'-ing.

See ATTITUDES .


STAR IN THE EAST

See STAR OF THE MAGI ;MAGI .


STAR OF BETHLEHEM

See STAR OF THE MAGI .


STAR OF THE MAGI

|| 1. The Magi

2. Herod's Enquiry

3. Two Facts concerning the Star

4. The Wisdom of the Magi Not Astrological

5. The Prophecy of Balaam

6. The Star Not a Conjunction of Planets

7. The Star Not Nova Cassiopeiae

8. The Legend of the Well

9. Lesson of the Narrative

1. The Magi:

The birth of our Lord was announced in a supernatural manner not only to Jews by the angelic message to the shepherds, but also to Gentiles, for "Wise-men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we saw his star in the east, and are come to worship him" (Mt 2:1,2). The word which has been rendered "wise men" in the King James Version and the English Revised Version (the American Standard Revised Version "Wise-men") is "Magi." These, according to Herodotus, were originally a tribe of the Medes (Herodotus i.101) and from their supposed skill in divination the term was applied to the learned and priestly caste among the followers of Zoroaster; they were thus in principle worshippers of one only God, and rejecters of polytheism and idolatry. The simple creed and high morality, which Zoroastrianism in its purest form professed, were well adapted to prepare its faithful disciples to receive a further revelation, and we may reasonably believe that the wise men who had been thus guided to worship the new-born king of the Jews had been faithful to the light afforded to them, for "in every nation he that feareth him (God), and worketh righteousness, is acceptable to him" (Acts 10:35).

See MAGI .

2. Herod's Enquiry:

The gospel tells us that the arrival of the Magi at Jerusalem threw Herod the king and all the city into great excitement, and Herod at once called a council of all the chief priests and scribes of the people that he might learn from them where the Messiah should be born. In reply they quoted to him the prophecy of Micah which had indicated Bethlehem as the destined site. "Then Herod privily called the Wise-men, and learned of them exactly what time the star appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem, and said, Go and search out exactly concerning the young child; and when ye have found him, bring me word, that I also may come and worship him. And they, having heard the king, went their way; and lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was. And when they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy" (Mt 2:7-10). So much, and no more, are we told of the star of the Magi, and the story is as significant in its omissions as in that which it tells us.

3. Two Facts concerning the Star:

What sort of a star it Was that led the wise men; how they learned from it that the King of the Jews was born; how it went before them; how it stood over where the young Child was, we do not know. We are indeed told but two facts concerning it: first, that its appearance in some way or other did inform the wise men, not of the birth of a king of the Jews, but of the King of the Jews for whose coming, not Israel only, but more or less consciously the whole civilized world was waiting; next, that, when they had come to Judea in consequence of this information, the star pointed out to them the actual spot where the new-born King was to be found. It went before them till it came and stood over where the young Child was. It may also be inferred from Mt 2:10 that in some way or other the wise men had for a time lost sight of the star, so that the two facts mentioned refer to two separate appearances. The first appearance induced the Magi to leave the East and set out for Judea; the second pointed out to them the place at Bethlehem where the object of their search was to be found. Nothing is told us respecting the star except its work as a guide.

There can be no doubt that the Magi took their journey in obedience to direct revelation from God, and since we are told that God warned them in a dream not to return to Herod, so that they departed to their own country another way, it is but reasonable to suppose that their outward journey had been directed in a similar manner.

4. The Wisdom of the Magi Not Astrological:

It has been conjectured that as the Magians were credited with a great skill in astrology they may have been able to forecast the birth of our Lord by the rules of their article But this conjecture must be peremptorily rejected. It ascribes to the pseudo-science of astrology a reality to which it has no claim, for it is inconceivable that the planetary configurations can really foretell the birth of princes. Even if it were admitted that such could be the case, no such event could be taken as indicating the One Birth for which the world was waiting, unless some direct and explicit revelation from God had been received to that effect. For that Birth was necessarily unique, and science can deal only with repeated events. No astronomical research is now, or was at any time, competent in itself to supply the indication needed; it was not in virtue of any natural learning that the wise men understood the meaning of the star. And if a mere astronomical research was helpless to supply any such power of prediction, still more emphatically must the claim of "occult knowledge" be disallowed. So far as occult knowledge has had any basis in fact at all, it has been simply a euphemistic way of describing the frauds, impostures and crimes by which debased heathen priesthoods and "medicine men" have imposed upon the gross superstition of their followers. The very suggestion that, by means like these, God's purpose would be made known shows that those who suggest it have not entirely shaken off the influence of heathenism.

5. The Prophecy of Balaam:

The suggestion has often been made that the prophecy of Balaam, "There shall come forth a star out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel" (Nu 24:17), may have been preserved in the East and have furnished the clue upon which the Magi acted. It is a pleasing thought that these devout Gentiles had thus preserved and meditated upon the prophecy given through one who may well have been of an allied order to themselves; but that prophecy can surely not have been sufficient in itself, and some much more direct intimation must have been vouch-safed to them; though the prophecy may have aided their faith and have dictated the form in which they announced their mission to King Herod and the Jews.

6. The Star Not a Conjunction of Planets:

We are not told how the Magi learned the meaning of the star, neither are we told what kind of a star it was. Some three centuries ago the ingenious and devout Kepler supposed that he could identify the star with a conjunction of the planets Jupiter and Saturn in the constellation Pisces, the two planets being so close as to seem a single star. This conjunction took place in the month of May, 7 BC, not very long before the birth of our Lord is supposed to have taken place. But the late Professor Pritchard has shown (Nature and Revelation, 243-55), first, that a similar and closer conjunction occurred 59 years earlier, and should therefore have brought a Magian deputation to Judea then. Next, that the two planets never approached each other nearer than twice the diameter of the moon, so that they would have appeared, not as one star, but as two, and thirdly, if the planets had seemed to stand over Bethlehem as the wise men left Jerusalem, they would assuredly not have appeared to do so when they arrived at the little city. Ingenious as the suggestion was, it may be dismissed as unworthy of serious consideration.

7. The Star Not Nova Cassiopeiae:

Another suggestion has received at times a very wide popularity. In the year 1572 a wonderful new star appeared in the constellation Cassiopeia. At its brightest it outshone Venus and was visible in the daylight, and though it gradually declined in splendor it was not lost to sight until after 16 months. There have been other instances of outbursts of short-lived bright stars, and in the annals of the years 1265 and 952 some brief notices have been found which may have referred to objects of this class, but more probably described comets. The guess was then hazarded that these three events might all refer to the same object; that the star in Cassiopeia might be a "variable" star, bursting into brilliancy about every 350 years or so; that it was the star that announced the birth of our Lord, and that it would reappear about the end of the 19th century to announce His second coming. This rumor was widely spread, and from time to time ignorant people have noticed the planet Venus which shines with extraordinary brilliancy when in particular parts of her orbit, and have imagined, especially when she has been thus seen as a morning star in the east, that she was none other than the star of Bethlehem at its predicted return. There is no reason to suppose that the star of 1572 had ever appeared before that date or will ever appear again; but in any case we are perfectly sure that it could not have been the star of Bethlehem, for Cassiopeia is a northern constellation, and the wise men in their journey from Jerusalem to Bethlehem had Cassiopeia and all her stars behind their back.

The statement that the star "went before" the Magi gives the impression that it was some supernatural light like the shekhinah, "glory," resting upon the tabernacle, or the pillar of fire which led the children of Israel through the wilderness. But this view raises the questions as to the form in which it first appeared to the wise men, when they were still in the East, and how they came to call it a star, when they must have recognized how un-starlike it was. On the other hand, if what they saw when in the East was really a star, it seems most difficult to understand how it can have appeared to go before them and to stand over the place where the young Child lay.

8. The Legend of the Well:

Yet there is a legend still current in Palestine which may possibly explain how an actual star may have fulfilled this part, and there is a well at Bethlehem that is still shown to pilgrims as the means whereby the wise men "saw the star" the second time. It is said that when they had reached Bethlehem, apparently nearly at mid-day, one of them went to the well of the inn in order to draw water. Looking down into the well he saw the star reflected from the surface of the water and knew that it must be directly overhead. Its re-observation under such unusual circumstances would be a sufficient assurance to the Magi that they had reached the right place, and inquiry in the inn would soon inform them of the visit of the shepherds, and of the angelic message which had told them where to find the babe `born in the city of David, the Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.'

If we may accept this legend we may take the star as having been what astronomers know as a "new" or "temporary" star, like that of 1572. When the Magi first saw it, and in consequence set out upon their journey, it may have been an evening star and thus, being seen only in the west shortly after sunset, it would appear, evening after evening, to point them their way to Judea. As they journeyed thither it probably faded as temporary stars in general quickly do. At the same time it would have drawn nearer and nearer to the sun, until it was lost in its rays by the time they reached Jerusalem, when they would seem to have lost sight of it altogether. Having thus lost it, they would naturally not expect to see it again until it had drawn away from the sun on the other side, and been detected as a morning star in the east before sunrise; they would not expect to discover it in the daytime.

In the ordinary way, the planet Venus is, after the two "great lights," the brightest object in the heavens, but temporary stars are on record that have even exceeded Venus in brightness. The difficulty of seeing the planet Venus in full sunshine does not lie in her want of brightness, but in picking up and holding steadily so minute a point of light in the broad expanse of the gleaming sky. This difficulty, which would be even greater in the case of a star, would be lessened by looking down the well, as the shaft would narrow the field of view down to a small area, and would direct the observer's gaze straight to the star. There may also have been, at the very time of observation, a temporary revival of the brightness of the star as has been recorded in the case of one or two objects of the same class. The legend, whether well founded or not, seems to have some astronomical verisimilitude, and at any rate suggests a mode in which an actual star could have seemed to stand over the place where the young Child lay. It would also explain what seems to have been implied in the narrative, how it happened that the Magi alone, and not the Jews in general, perceived the star at its second appearance.

9. Lesson of the Narrative:

Yet it seems safer to conclude that the narrative has been purposely left--astronomically--too incomplete for any astronomical conclusion to be drawn from it. One verse more, and that a short one, could have answered all our inquiries, could have told us whether the star was a conjunction of the planets, a comet, or a temporary star; or whether it was a supernatural light like the pillar of fire in the wilderness. But that verse has not been given. The score of additional words which could have cleared up the matter have been withheld, and there can be no doubt as to the reason. The star, whatever its physical nature, was of no importance except as a guide to the birthplace of the infant Jesus. The reticence of the gospel narrative on all points, except those directly relating to our Lord Himself, enforces the truth that the Scriptures were not written to instruct us in astronomy, or in any of the physical sciences, but that we might have life eternal (Jn 17:3).

E. W. Maunder


STAR OF WORMWOOD

See WORMWOOD .


STAR; STARS

star, starz.

See ASTRONOMY , sec. I, 6.


STARGAZERS

star'-gaz-erz.

See ASTROLOGY , 5.


STARS, COURSES OF

See ASTRONOMY , sec. I, 1.


STARS, FALLING; MORNING; WANDERING

See ASTRONOMY , sec. I, 8; I, 7; I, 9.


STARS, SEVEN

See ASTRONOMY .


STATELY

stat'-li (kebhuddah, "weight," "honor," "wealth"): "And sit upon a stately (magnificent) bed" (Ezek 23:41).


STATER

sta'-ter (stater): Used only once, Mt 17:27, where it is rendered by "piece of money" in the King James Version and "shekel" in the Revised Version (British and American). It was originally a standard Greek weight equal to two drachmas, but later it was used to designate the tetradrachma, and this is probably the coin referred to in the above passage.

See MONEY .


STATURE

stat'-ur (madh, middah, "measure" (Nu 13:32, etc.), qomah, "standing up" (1 Sam 16:7, etc.); helikia, "greatness"): This last word means "height of the body," "stature," in Lk 2:52; 19:3; Eph 4:13, but it can mean "length of life" equally well and has this force in Jn 9:21,23; Heb 11:11. And this meaning, not "stature" (as in the King James Version), is fixed for Mt 6:27 parallel Lk 12:25, for to add some 18 inches (see CUBIT ) to one's "stature" would be a grotesque feat, while it is the smallness of the act that is emphasized. Hence, the translation "able to extend his long path of life by a single cubit" (the Revised Version (British and American) "measure of life"). Compare also "great of stature" Baruch 3:26 (eumegethes).

Burton Scott Easton


STAVES

stavz (baddim): Ten or eleven Hebrew words are used in the Old Testament to describe various staffs, bars, and wooden rods used by the Hebrews (compare STAFF ;ROD ;SCEPTER ). One word only is used to describe the staves or wooden poles used for carrying the holy furniture of the tabernacle from place to place. That word is badh (plural baddim), which occurs 28 times in Exodus and Numbers and 5 times in Kings and Chronicles (compare also Job 17:16; Hos 11:6). The only passage in which these staves are mentioned by another name is 1 Ch 15:15, where the staves used for carrying the ark from its captivity into Jerusalem are called motah. The reason for this probably is that the original baddim had been lost during the long absence of the sacred chest from its home in the tabernacle.

In the wilderness wanderings, arrangements were made that four items of the holy furniture of the portable tabernacle should be carried on the shoulders of Levites, suspended on these staves. These were the golden altar of incense, the golden table for shewbread, the brazen altar of sacrifice, and the ark of the covenant (Ex 35:12-16).

In the case of the large altar of sacrifice, which was in reality a hollow wooden chest covered with brass (bronze) plates (see ALTAR ), four rings were attached to the brass grating which rose midway in the chest, and through these rings the staves passed. The staves were of acacia wood and were covered with brass plating. In the case of the three golden utensils of the sanctuary, the staves were of acacia wood, covered with gold plates.

The last mention of any of these staves is in 1 Ki 8:7-9, where it is stated of the ark, in the holy of holies in Solomon's Temple, that the ends of its staves were seen by anyone standing in the adjoining holy place, before (i.e. east of) the oracle. Priests only might view them there, the curtain being withdrawn. The writer of 1 Ki 8 adds that the staves were thus visible when he wrote, an item of evidence worthy of note as to the date of the document.

W. Shaw Caldecott


STAY

sta: Is derived from two distinct forms. From one derivation it has the meaning "to stand" and so "to continue in one place" (Gen 8:10; Lev 13:23,28, etc.), "to forbear to act" (Ruth 1:13), "to rest," "to be trustful" (King James Version, the English Revised Version Isa 10:20; see below). Transitively it means "to cause to stay," "to hinder" (Dan 4:35, etc.), and "stay" as a noun means "cessation of progress"' (Lev 13:5,37), "sojourn." From the second derivation the verb means "to support" (Ex 17:12; 1 Ki 22:35; Song 2:5), while the noun means "a support" (1 Ki 10:19; Isa 3:1, etc.). the American Standard Revised Version has judged obsolete "stay on" in the sense "trust in," and for "stay" has substituted "lean" in Isa 10:20 and "rely" in 30:12; 31:1; 50:10, although "stay themselves upon" (= "support themselves by") has been kept in 48:2. Otherwise the Revised Version (British and American) has made few alterations. But such as have been made ("tarry ye" for "stay yourselves" in Isa 29:9 and the American Standard Revised Version "restrain" for "stay" in Job 37:4) could have been carried farther with advantage.

Burton Scott Easton


STEAD; STEADS

sted, stedz (tachath, "(same) place"; AS stede, "place"): Occurs only in 1 Ch 5:22, "They dwelt in their stead (place) until the captivity."


STEALING

ste'-ling.

See CRIMES ;PUNISHMENTS .


STEDFASTNESS

sted'-fast-nes: (1) stereoma, "firmness": "The steadfastness of your faith in Christ" (Col 2:5). Some take this figuratively, in a military sense, of a "solid front" (see Thayer, Greek-English Lexicon of New Testament, under the word). (2) sterigmos, "stability" (2 Pet 3:17; compare 1 Cor 15:58).


STEEL

stel: the Revised Version (British and American) substitutes "brass" for "steel" in 2 Sam 22:35; Job 20:24; Ps 18:34; Jer 15:12, and "steel" for "torches" in Nah 2:3.

See BRASS .


STEPHANAS

stef'-a-nas (Stephanas): The name occurs only in 1 Cor 1:16; 16:15-18. Stephanas was a Christian of Corinth; his household is mentioned in 1 Cor 16:15 as the first family won to Christ in Achaia, and in 1 Cor 1:16 as among the few personally baptized by Paul at Corinth. The "house of Stephanas," apparently of independent means, had "set themselves to minister unto the saints" (1 Cor 16:15), i.e. to do Christian service. Possibly this service consisted in putting their house at the disposal of the Christians at Corinth for worshipping, or in rendering special assistance in establishing intercommunication between the Corinthian church and the apostle, or the other churches. An instance of such service was the commission of Stephanas at Ephesus referred to in 1 Cor 16:17,18. At the occasion of some disorders in the Corinthian church Stephanas, with Fortunatus and Achaicus in the deputation, brought a letter of the Corinthians to Paul. Our present 1 Corinthians is the reply to this letter, and thus, in all probability, the three men mentioned above were the bearers of this epistle. With fine courtesy Paul expresses his appreciation for this service in 1 Cor 16:18, referring to it as a cherished opportunity of fellowship with his beloved Corinthians through these representatives. It is in consideration of such Christian service that Paul enjoins upon the Corinthians to show the house of Stephanas that respect and deference due to Christian leaders by willingly submitting to their direction.

S. D. Press


STEPHEN

ste'-vn (Stephanos, "crown" (Acts 6:5 through 8:12)):

1. His Personal Antecedents

2. His Character and Activity

3. His Teaching

4. His Arraignment before the Sanhedrin

5. His Defence before the Sanhedrin

(1) Personal Defence

(2) Defense of His Teaching

6. Martyrdom of Stephen

LITERATURE

Known best as the proto-martyr of the Christian church, introducing the heroic period of persecutions. He deserves as well to be called the first great apologist for Christianity, since it was this that brought on his death as a martyr (circa 36 or 37 AD).

1. His Personal Antecedents:

As his name and his relations in the church at Jerusalem seem to imply (Acts 6:3 ff), he was a Hellenist, i.e. a Greek-speaking Jew. Thus he belonged to that class of Jews usually residing outside of Palestine who, though distinguished from the orthodox Palestinian Jew by a broader outlook on life due to a more liberal education, were Jews none the less, the original Jewish element predominating in their character, and who might be true Israelites indeed, as Stephen was. Of his conversion to Christianity we know nothing, though there is a tradition that he was among the Seventy. As Stephen by his life and work marks a period of transition in the development of the early Christian church, so his name is connected with an important new departure within the organization of the church itself, namely, the institution of the office of the Seven (Acts 6:1 ff), who were entrusted with the administration of the work of relief in the church at Jerusalem--the foundation of the diaconate (Iren., Haer., i.26; Cyprian, Epist., iii.3). Of the seven men, all Hellenists, elected to this office at the occasion of a grievance of the Hellenistic Christians in the Jerusalem church against the Hebrew Christians, to the effect that in the distribution of alms their widows were being discriminated against, Stephen, who heads the list, is by far the most distinguished.

2. His Character and Activity:

Stephen more than met the requirements of the office to which he was elected (Acts 6:3); the record characterizes him as "a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit" (Acts 6:5), i.e. of an enthusiastic faith and of a deep spirituality, and his activity was not restricted to the functions of his office; in fact while nothing is said of the manner in which he fulfilled the duties of his office, though without doubt he fulfilled them faithfully, the record makes it very clear that the importance of Stephen lay in his activity as a preacher, a witness for Christ; it is this activity which has given him the place he holds in history (Acts 22:20). In itself that is not surprising, for in the early Christian church every Christian was at once a witness for Christ, and lay-preaching was common. The Seven from the first were occupied with essentially spiritual work, as also the later diaconate was engaged in something far different from mere charity organization. But Stephen was especially qualified for this high work, having been endued by the Holy Spirit with apostolical gifts, not only that of preaching, but also that of working miracles (Acts 6:8). In his freer views of Jewish law and customs, due to his deeper conception and better understanding of the essence of Christianity, he even excelled the apostles.

3. His Teaching:

He burst the bonds of Judaism, by which the other apostles were still bound, by teaching that the temple and the Law of Moses were evanescent and that Christianity was destined to supersede Judaism (Acts 6:14). These freer views of Stephen, though possibly attributable to his Hellenic culture, were certainly not of Hellenistic origin, for just their promulgation is what brought him into controversy with the Hellenistic synagogues of Jerusalem. Though the Hellenist dispensed himself from keeping all of the Pharisaic additions to the Law, he always regarded the Law of Moses and the temple at Jerusalem as highly as the Palestinian Jew. Even Philo characterizes the Law of Moses in distinction from the laws of other nations, as stedfast, immovable and unchangeable, placing it on a level with the laws of Nature. The true source of Stephen's freer views of the Mosaic Law and the temple was Christ's own teachings, Stephen showing a wonderfully ripened understanding of them, paralleled only by that of Paul some time later. Christ's words regarding the temple (Jn 4:20-24; Mk 13:2) not only led Stephen to see that the true worship of God was not confined to the temple, but opened his eyes as to the purely formal character of this worship in that day, which, far from being true worship, had become a mere ceremonialism (Mk 7:6), and in the words of Christ (Jn 2:19) he saw an intimation of the new temple which was to take the place of the old. Thus also his conception of the transitory nature of the Mosaic Law may be traced to Christ's teaching as to the Sabbath, the laws of purifying, the fulfillment of the Law and Jewish customs of the day (Mt 5:20) and of a better righteousness than that of the Pharisees and scribes (Mt 9:16). As Christ had been drawn into controversy with Pharisees and scribes on account of these freer views, and as His word about the temple was used to frame the accusation against Him in His trial, so also in the case of Stephen. He did not hesitate to preach his views, choosing the Hellenistic synagogues for this purpose, and soon became engaged in controversies there. But, as the record says, his opponents "were not able to withstand the wisdom," i.e. better understanding, convincing knowledge, "and the Spirit," i.e. the deep earnestness and spirituality, "by which he spake" so convincingly (Acts 6:10; Mt 10:19,20). Seeing themselves beaten, they took recourse to the ignoble method of declaring him a blasphemer and a heretic, by using the same foul means that the enemies of Jesus had resorted to, by suborning false witnesses to the plot, by stirring up the people against him, by appealing to their Jewish prejudices and to the scribes and elders, members of the Sanhedrin, and thus eventually brought about his arraignment.

4. His Arraignment before the Sanhedrin:

The accusation which they brought against him, through the introduction of false witnesses, included a twofold charge, one against his person, a charge of blasphemous words against Moses which would make him also a blasphemer of God, and one against his teaching, charging him with revolutionary and radical statements concerning the temple and the Law. (compare Mk 14:58; 13:2; 15:29). "Customs of Moses" (Acts 6:14) were the institutions that distinguished the Jews and that were derived from Moses. By his reference to "this place" and "these customs" Stephen was understood to imply the destruction of the temple and the change of the Law, Christianity thus aiming not only at the overthrow of the Jews' religion but the very termination of their national existence.

The charge against Stephen's person was a baseless accusation. There was no blasphemy on the part of Stephen, save by perversion of his words. The charge against his teaching was both false and true. It was false as an implied insinuation that he impugned the divine origin and character of the temple and the Mosaic Law, but it was true as far as he conceived both to be only of a temporary nature and serving a merely provisional purpose, which, as we have seen, constituted the peculiarity of his teaching. As in the trial of Christ, the judge, Pontius Pilate, read his true verdict, "I find no guilt in him," written on His countenance and whole bearing, thus here the record tells us that the judges of Stephen, "All that sat in the council .... saw his face as it had been the face of an angel" (Acts 6:15; 2 Cor 3:18); as if in refutation of the charge made against him, Stephen receives the same mark of divine favor which had been granted to Moses. It is a significant fact that Stephen was not arraigned before the Sanhedrin as being a Nazarene though at bottom it was the real cause of his arraignment. Thus also his defense before the Sanhedrin, though the name of Jesus was not mentioned until the very last, was in reality a grand apology for Christ.

5. His Defense before the Sanhedrin:

While the assembly was overawed by the evidence of singular innocence and holiness written upon the countenance of Stephen (Acts 6:15), the question of the high priest "Are these things so?" broke in upon the silence. It drew forth from Stephen that masterful pleading which, so sublime in form and content and bare of all artificiality, belongs to the highest type of oratory, characterized by its deep, earnest, and genuine spirituality, the kind of oratory of which the great speeches of our own martyred Lincoln were models. It is not so much a plea in selfdefence as a grand apology for the cause which Stephen represents.

Beginning by mentioning "the God of glory" and ending with a vision of that glory itself, the speech is a wonderful apotheosis of the humble cause of the Nazarene, the enthusiastic tribute of its first great martyr delivered in the face of death. The contents of his speech are a recital of the most marked phases of Jewish history in the past, but as read from the point of view of its outworkings in the present--old facts interpreted by a spiritfilled disciple of Christ. It is in reality a philosophy of Israel's history and religion, and in so far it was a novum. Thus the new feature that it furnishes is its philosophy of this history which might be termed the Christian philosophy of Jewish history. In appealing to their reason he calls up picture after picture from Abraham to Moses; the speech exhibits vividly the continuity and the progress of the divine revelation which culminated in Jesus of Nazareth, the same thought as that expressed by Christ in Mt 5:17 of the principal agreement between the Old Testament and the New Testament revelation.

The emotional appeal lies in the reverential and feeling manner in which he handles the history sacred to them all. The strong appeal to the will is made by holding up the figure of Moses type of the Law, in its vital significance, in such a way as passionately to apply it to the fundamental relation of divine plan and human conduct. Thus the aim of Stephen was to point out to his hearers the true meaning of Jewish history and Jewish Law in reference to the present, i.e. in such a way that they might better understand and judge the present and adjust their conduct to it accordingly. Their knowledge of Jewish history and Jewish religion as he would convey it to them would compel them to clear him of the accusation against him as blasphemer and false teacher.

In accordance with the accusation against him, his defense was a twofold one: personal defense and defense of his teaching.

(1) Personal Defense

The charge of blasphemy against God and contempt of the Law is implicitly repudiated by the tenor of the whole speech. The courteous and at once endearing terms in Stephen's address (Acts 7:2) to the council, and the terms "our fathers" and "our race" in Acts 7:2,19 by which he closely associates himself with his hearers, his declaration of the divine majesty of Yahweh with which the speech opens (7:2), of the providential leading of the patriarchs (7:8,10), his recognition of the Old Testament institutions as divinely decreed (7:8), his reference to the divine sanction of the Law and its condemnation of those who had not kept it (7:53), at the close of his speech, show clearly his reverence, not only for the past history of the Jewish race, but as well for its Sacred Writings and all of its religious institutions. It makes evident beyond doubt how not grounded the accusation of blasphemy against him was. Not to impiety or frivolity in Stephen, but to some other cause, must be due therefore the difference between him and his opponents. What it is Stephen himself shows unmistakenly in the second part of his defense.

(2) Defence of His Teaching

The fundamental differences between Stephen and his opponents, as is evident from the whole tone and drift and purpose of his speech, lay in that he judged Old Testament history from the prophetical point of view, to which Jesus had also allied Himself, while his opponents represented the legalistic point of view, so characteristic of the Jewish thought of that day. The significance of this difference is borne out by the fact upon which Stephen's refutation hinges, namely, the fact, proved by the history of the past, that the development of the divine revelation and the development of the Jewish nation, so far from combining, move in divergent lines, due to a disposition of obstinate disobedience on the part of their fathers, and that therefore not he but they were disobedient to the divine revelation. Thus in a masterful way Stephen converts the charge of Antinomianism and anti-Mosaism brought against him into a countercharge of disobedience to the divine revelation, of which his hearers stood guilty in the present as their fathers had in the past. In this sense the speech of Stephen is a grand apology for the Christian cause which he represented, inasmuch as it shows clearly that the new religion was only the divinely-ordered development of the old, and not in opposition to it.

The main arguments of the speech may be summed up as follows: (a) God's self-manifestation to Israel in revealing His covenant and His will, so far from being bound to one sanctuary and conveyed to one single person (Moses), began long before Moses and long before there was a temple. Thus it was gradual, and as it had begun before Moses it was not completed by him, as is evident from his own words, "A prophet shall God raise up unto you from among your brethren, like unto me" (Acts 7:2-37).

(b) The Jews to whom these revelations were granted, so far from being thankful at all stages of their history, had been slow to believe and understand them because they "would not be obedient" (Acts 7:39,57). They resisted the purpose of God by obstinately and stiff-neckedly opposing those through whom God worked. Thus their fathers had turned away from Moses at the very moment when he was receiving God's greatest revelation, and, instead of obeying the "living oracles" (7:38) he gave them, turned to idol-worship for which God punished them by the Babylonian captivity (7:39-43). They had killed the prophets who had protested against the dead ritualism of the temple-worship and raised their voice in behalf of a true spiritual worship as that of the tabernacle had been (7:44-50,52). This disposition of disobedience so characteristic of the race in its whole history, because, in spite of the divine revelation received, they remained unregenerate (7:51), reached its culmination in that awful crime of betrayal and murder committed by the present generation upon the "Righteous One" whose coming the prophets had predicted the rejection of Jesus of Nazareth, by which the Jews doomed not only their national existence, but also their temple-worship and the reign of the Law to destruction (7:52 through 6:14).

Though the name of Jesus was not uttered by Stephen in his speech and does not occur until in his dying prayer, his hearers could not fail to notice the hidden reference to Him throughout the entire speech and to draw parallels intended by Stephen: As Joseph and Moses, types of the Messiah, had been rejected, scorned and illtreated (Acts 7:9,27,39), before being raised to be ruler and deliverer, so Jesus had also been repulsed by them.

The climax of his speech is reached in Acts 7:51-53, when Stephen, breaking off the line of argument, suddenly in direct address turns upon his hearers, and, the accused becoming the accuser, charges them openly with the sin of resisting the Holy Spirit, with the murder of the prophets and the Righteous One, and with continual disobedience to the Law. These words which mark the climax, though probably not the close of the speech, pointed the moral in terms of the most cutting rebuke, and were at once prophetical as to the effect the speech would have upon his hearers and for him.

6. Martyrdom of Stephen:

Such arguing and directness as Stephen's could have but one result. Prejudiced and enraged as they were, the unanswerable arguments of Stephen, based on their own Scriptures, made them mad with fury, and doubtless through their demonstrations they stopped the speech. But Stephen, ansported with enthusiasm and inspiration, was vouchsafed a vision of the "glory of God," which he had mentioned in the beginning of his speech (Acts 7:2), and of Jesus, whose cause he had so gallantly defended (Acts 7:55). Stephen standing there, his gaze piercing into heaven, while time and human limitations seemed effaced for him, marks one of the most historic moments in the history of Israel, as his words constitute the most memorable testimony ever uttered in behalf of Christ: "Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man"--the only place where this title is uttered by any other person than Jesus--"standing on the right hand of God" (Acts 7:56). Now the audience could restrain its rage no longer, and the catastrophe followed immediately. Contrary to Roman law and order they took Stephen, and without awaiting sentence against him, amid a tumultuous scene, stoned him to death, the punishment prescribed in Mosaic Law for a blasphemer (Dt 17:7; Lev 24:14-16). This recourse to lynch law may have been connived at by the Roman authorities, since the act was without political significance. It is noteworthy, however, that the Jewish legal forms were observed, as if to give to the violence the appearance of legality. Accordingly, Stephen was taken outside the city (Lev 24:14; compare Lk 4:29); the witnesses threw the first stone at him (compare Dt 17:7) after taking off their upper garments and laying them at the feet of a "young man named Saul" (Acts 7:58)--afterward Paul, now about 30 years old--who evidently had charge of the whole proceedings.

Stephen died as he had lived, a faithful witness to his Master whom he acknowledged as such amid the rain of stones hurled at him, loudly calling upon His name, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit" (Acts 7:59; compare Lk 23:46), and whose spirit he exemplified so nobly when, with a final effort, bending his knees, he "cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge" (Acts 7:60; compare Lk 23:34). "And when he had said this, he fell asleep" (Acts 7:60; compare 1 Cor 15).

The impression made by Stephen's death was even greater than that made by his life. Though it marks the beginning of the first great persecution of Christians, the death of the first Christian martyr resulted in the greatest acquisition Christianity has probably ever made, the conversion of Saul of Tarsus. The vision of the risen and exalted Jesus vouchsafed to the dying Stephen presented Christianity to Saul of Tarsus in a new light, tending to remove what had been its greatest stumbling-block to him in the Crucified One. This revelation coupled with the splendid personality of Stephen, the testimony of his righteous life and the noble bravery of his sublime death, and above all his dying prayer, fell upon the honest soul of Saul with an irresistible force and inevitably brought on the Damascus event, as Augustine clearly recognized: "Si Stephanus non orasset, ecclesia Paulum non habuisset." Judged by his teaching, Stephen may be called the forerunner of Paul. He was one of the first to conceive of the fact that Christianity represented a new order of things and as such would inevitably supersede the old order. Thus his teachings forecast that greatest controversy of the first Christian century, the controversy between Judaism and Christianity, which reached its culmination-point in the Council of Jerusalem, resulting in the independence of the Christian church from the fetters of Judaistic legalism.

LITERATURE.

R. J. Knowling, "Acts" in Expositor's Greek Testament., II (1900); Feine, PRE3, XIX (1907); Pahncke in Studien u. Krit. (1912), I.

S. D. Press


STEWARD

stu'-erd ('ish `al bayith (Gen 43:16,19; 44:1; 1 Ki 16:9), ha-meltsar (Dan 1:11), ha-cokhen (Isa 22:15)):

1. Old Testament Usage:

In the King James Version the word "steward" is found in Gen 15:2; 1 Ch 28:1, in addition to the above. The American Standard Revised Version renders Gen 15:2 as "possessor," and 1 Ch 28:1 "rulers."

The phrase ben-mesheq in Gen 15:2 is best rendered "son of acquisition," hence, "heir." But this is disputed. Skinner in the ICC on Gen regards the text as hopelessly corrupt, and offers no solution of the difficulty. In the other passages, the phrase 'ish `al bayith is conveniently translated "steward," though literally it is "man over the house." The word ha-meltsar in Dan 1:11 is translated in the King James Version as a proper noun. This is certainly a mistake. The margin gives "the steward," and this is followed in the Revised Version (British and American). A better rendering perhaps would be "overseer," as this man seemed to have the superintendence of the training and feeding of the young men until they were fitted to enter the king's service. He was thus rather a steward of persons than of property (see MELZAR ). In Isa 22:15 Shebna is described in the text as "treasurer," but in the margin as "steward," and seems to combine the ideas in both the words "treasurer" and "steward." Shebna was thus one of the highest officials, having charge of the city's funds, and of administering them for the city's benefit.

Though the word for "steward" occurs but once in that sense, the idea is one familiar to the Old Testament. Eliezer of Damascus was Abraham's slave and trusted steward. Heseems to have had the oversight of all his affairs and was entrusted with the important duty of getting a wife for Isaac. He apparently had charge over the family of his master as well as his property. Whether Isaac had such a steward or not is nowhere stated, but it is practically certain that he had. Jacob seems to have been Laban's steward for a time, as he apparently had full charge of the flocks and herds of his master. Joseph was practically Potiphar's steward, and when he became Pharaoh's chief minister, he himself had a steward over his own house (Gen 39:4,5; 44:1,4). The king Elah in his brief reign of two years had a steward in charge of his household (1 Ki 16:9). The same was doubtless true of all the kings, and it may be safely inferred that every household of distinction or of sufficient wealth had a steward in charge. The functions of this officer seem at times to have included the care of the children or minors, as well as of the property. Sometimes he was a slave, sometimes a freedman.

2. In the New Testament:

epitropos, oikonomos. These two terms denote similar positions. The exact difference cannot be clearly defined, as they are sometimes almost synonymous. The two are found together in Gal 4:2. Some scholars say they are used synonymously, others that the first word is a more general term including the latter. Lightfoot and Ellicott think that the former refers rather to the guardianship of persons, the child's legal representative, while the latter word refers to the head servant appointed to manage the household or property (compare 2 Macc 11:1; 13:2). There would, however, not be any such hard-and-fast line between their respective duties; these might vary with every master, or might be combined in one individual.

(1) In the Gospels.

The idea seems to have been perfectly familiar to the people in Christ's day. Every household of distinction seems to have had a steward in charge, Herod's steward was named Chuzas, and his wife, Joanna, followed and ministered to Jesus (Lk 8:3). The word epitropos used here is held by some scholars to imply that he had charge of the education of Herod's children. This is very probable but not certain. In the parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard, it is the steward who pays the laborers at the close of the day (Mt 20:8). The parable of the Unjust Steward best illustrates the practice. This steward was a freeman, had full charge of his master's affairs and could use them to his own advantage if he chose, was fully accountable to his master and had to render an account when called upon. If unfaithful he was usually discharged at once (Lk 16:1-13). The parables of the Minae or Pounds (Lk 19:12-27), the Talents (Mt 25:14-30), and the Wicked Husbandmen (Mt 21:33-46) teach similar truths. In His warning to His disciples Jesus seems to imply that they were to act as stewards in His absence (Lk 12:42). According to this passage a steward's task was to manage all the affairs of his master, attend to receipts and expenditures, and portion out to each one of the household what should come to him. The disciples were left thus in charge of His gospel and were to use this gift to the best advantage in behalf of others until His return. In Jn 2:8 the term "ruler" is given in the margin as "steward." The one referred to here was really director of the feast rather than steward, though in a sense charged with the responsibility of conducting it. Many stewards were no doubt slaves, as is implied in Mt 24:45, while others were freedmen (Lk 16:1-21).

(2) In the Epistles.

The application of this term is largely confined to the ministry of the gospel. Paul and his fellow-laborers regarded themselves as stewards of the mysteries of God (1 Cor 4:1,2). The idea is that he take scrupulous care of that which was entrusted to him, and give it out to others faithfully and as directed by his master Jesus Christ. A bishop or overseer is to be as God's steward (Tit 1:7). Peter considered himself and all other Christians as "stewards of the manifold grace of God" (1 Pet 4:10). The prevalence of the custom of having guardians and stewards over children in their minority is shown in Gal 4:2. The difference in meaning of the two words used here is stated above. In Romans 16:23 Erastus is called the oikonomos of the city. This is best translated "treasurer." Erastus was thus an influential member of the community of Corinth and evidently a faithful Christian.

James Josiah Reeve


STEWPAN

stu'-pan (Lev 11:35 margin).

See PAN .


STIFF-NECKED

stif'-nekt (qesheh `oreph, literally, "hard of neck"): As it is figuratively used, both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, the word means "stubborn," "untractable," "not to be led." The derivation of the idea was entirely familiar to the Jews, with whom the ox was the most useful and common of domestic animals. It was especially used for such agricultural purposes as harrowing and plowing (Jdg 14:18; 1 Cor 9:9).

The plow was usually drawn by two oxen. As the plowman required but one hand to guide the plow, he carried in the other an "ox-goad." This was a light pole, shod with an iron spike. With this he would prick the oxen upon the hind legs to increase their speed, and upon the neck to turn, or to keep a straight course when deviating. If an ox was hard to control or stubborn, it was "hard of neck," or stiff-necked. Hence, the figure was used in the Scriptures to express the stubborn, untractable spirit of a people not responsive to the guiding of their God (Ex 32:9; 33:3; Dt 9:6; 2 Ch 36:13; Jer 17:23, etc.). See also the New Testament where sklerotrachelos, is so translated (Acts 7:51), "Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Spirit.". Compare Baruch 2:30,33.

Arthur Walwyn Evans


STILL

stil: "To be still" is "to keep silence" (Ps 4:4, etc.) and so "to be quiet" (Ps 107:29, etc.) or "inactive" in any way (Jdg 18:9; 1 Ki 22:3; Zec 1:11, etc.). So "be still" in Ps 46:10 means "desist from your war" (compare the Revised Version margin "let be"). The "still small voice" of 1 Ki 19:12 (the Revised Version margin "sound of gentle stillness") is due to taking the Hebrew demamah in its literal force of "silent," but the word here means "whisper"--"a whispering, little voice." This familiar passage, however, has made "still voice" good English, and the combination is used in Job 4:16 by the Revised Version margin. In Ps 23:2 the translation "still waters" takes "waters of rest" (so literally for menuchah; compare the Revised Version margin) to mean "waters with little motion." But the meaning is either "wells by which the flocks rest" or "wells that give refreshing water." As an adverb "still" is perhaps more emphatic than in modern English; compare "power to keep still the kingdom," 2 Ch 22:9 the King James Version (the Revised Version (British and American) "to hold the kingdom").

Burton Scott Easton


STING

sting (parash, "to cut into"; kentron, "a goad," "spur"): A sharp, pointed organ or instrument for inflicting wounds by puncture; sting of an adder, Prov 23:32; of scorpions, Rev 9:10. In the free quotation of 1 Cor 15:55 from Hos 13:14, death is personified as a deadly animal, like a scorpion or serpent, which inflicts destruction by means of sin as its kentron. It should also be remembered that in Acts 26:14 the same Greek word is used with reference to an instrument for exciting fear, rather than death. Both figures are pertinent; for death is powerless, except through sin, and, also, when sin is vanquished, the fear of death (Heb 2:15) is gone.

H. E. Jacobs


STIR, STIR UP

stur: Used transitively and intransitively to indicate inner, concentrated movement; translates a number of Hebrew and Greek verbs, each of which has its different shade of meaning. Thus, e.g. in Ps 39:2, we have `akhar, "to be troubled," "excited"; in Song 2:7, `ur, "to awake," "disturb" (by the festal dances and songs). In 2 Tim 1:6, it stands for Greek anazopureo, used of the resuscitation of a flame; in 2 Pet 1:13; 3:1, Greek diegeiro, "to awaken from sleep or stupor"; in Acts 21:27, Greek sugcheo, "to commingle," vividly portraying the confusion and tumult that resulted; in Acts 13:50, Greek parotruno, "to urge on"; Acts 17:13, Greek saleuo, "to shake to and fro."


STOCK

stok: In English Versions of the Bible is used for:

(1) The stem of a tree, whether alive (Job 14:8; Isa 40:24) or cut down (Isa 44:19; The Wisdom of Solomon 14:21). In Jer 2:27; 3:9; Hos 4:12, where the Hebrew has simply `ets, "wood," either meaning is possible (tree-worship? idolatry?). In Jer 10:8 the text is doubtful.

(2) A family (Lev 25:47; 1 Esdras 5:37; Tobit 5:13; 1 Macc 12:21; 2 Macc 1:10; Acts 13:26; Phil 3:5).

(3) Elsewhere (Job 13:27, etc.) the word refers to an instrument of punishment.

See PUNISHMENTS .


STOICS

sto'-iks (Stoikoi):

1. Origin and Propagation

2. Metaphysics and Religion

3. Sensationalist Epistemology

4. Ethical Teaching

5. Relation to Christianity

LITERATURE

1. Origin and Propagation:

The name was derived from the Stoa Poikile, the painted porch at Athens, where the founders of the school first lectured. This school of Greek philosophy was founded at Athens circa 294 BC by Zeno (circa 336-264 BC), a native of Citium, a Greek colony in Cyprus. But the Semitic race predominated in Cyprus, and it has been conjectured that Zeno was of Semitic rather than Hellenic origin. His Greek critics taunted him with being a Phoenician. It has therefore been suggested that the distinctive moral tone of the system was Semitic and not Hellenic. Further color is given to this view by the fact that Zeno's immediate successors at the head of the school also hailed from Asia Minor, Cleanthes (331-232 BC) being a native of Assos, and Chrysippus (280-206 BC) of Soli in Cilicia. Several other adherents of the system hailed from Asia Minor, and it flourished in several Asiatic cities, such as Tarsus and Sidon. In the 2nd century BC the doctrine was brought to Rome by Panaetius of Rhodes (circa 189-109 BC), and in the course of the two succeeding centuries it spread widely among the upper classes of Roman society. It reckoned among its adherents a Scipio and a Cato, Seneca and Marcus Aurelius, as well as the freedman Epictetus. The most adequate account of the teaching of the Greek Stoics has been preserved in the writings of Cicero, who, however, was a sympathetic critic, rather than an adherent of the school. The system acquired its most lasting influence by its adoption as the formative factor in the jurisprudence of imperial Rome, and Roman law in its turn contributed to the formation of Christian doctrine and ethics.

2. Metaphysics and Religion:

The main principles of Stoicism were promulgated by Zeno and Cleanthes, and Chrysippus formulated them into a systematic doctrine which became a standard of orthodoxy for the school, and which permitted but little freedom of speculation for its subsequent teachers. Whatever may have been the Semitic affinities of mind of Zeno and his followers, they derived the formal principles of their system from Greek antecedents. The ethical precept, "Follow Nature," they learnt from the Socratic school of Antisthenes, the Cynics. But they followed the earlier philosopher Heraclitus in defining the law of Nature as reason (logos), which was at once the principle of intelligence in man, and the divine reason immanent in the world. This doctrine they again combined with the prevalent Greek hylozoism, and therefore their metaphysics inclined to be a materialistic pantheism. On the one side, Nature is the organization of material atoms by the operation of its own uniform and necessary laws. On the other side, it is a living, rational being, subduing all its parts to work out a rational purpose inherent in the whole. As such it may be called Providence or God.

While the Stoics rejected the forms and rites of popular religion, they defended belief in God and inculcated piety and reverence toward Him. Their pantheism provided a basis for Greek polytheism also alongside of their monism, for where all the world is God, each part of it is divine, and may be worshipped. Another consequence of their pantheism was their attitude to evil, which they held to be only apparently or relatively evil, but really good in the harmony of the whole. Therefore they bore evil with courage and cheerfulness, because they believed that "all things worked together for good" absolutely.

3. Sensationalist Epistemology:

The materialistic trend of their metaphysics also comes out in their epistemology, which was sensationalist. The human mind at its birth was a tabula rasa. Its first ideas were derived from sensations, the impressions made by the external world upon the soul, which they also conceived as a material body, though made of finer atoms than the external body. Out of these sense-impressions the mind built up its intuitions or preconceptions, and its notions, which constituted its store of ideas. It is not clear how far they attributed originative power to the mind as contributing some factor to the organization of knowledge, which was not derived from experience. The Stoic system is never consistently materialistic, nor consistently idealistic. Most of its terms are used in a dual sense, material and spiritual.

4. Ethical Teaching:

But its ethical teaching shows that the main trend of the system was spiritualistic. For its crown and climax was the ethics. The Stoics did not pursue knowledge for its own sake. They speculated about ultimate problems only for the practical purpose of discovering a rule of life and conduct. And in their ethics, the great commandment, "Follow Nature," is interpreted in a distinctly idealistic sense. It means, "Follow reason," as reason inheres both in man and in the universe as a whole. It is submission to Providence or the rational order of the universe, and the fulfillment of man's own rational nature. The life according to Nature is man's supreme good. How actual Nature could be the ideal good that man ought to seek, or how man was free to pursue an ideal, while he was bound in a system of necessity, were fundamental paradoxes of the system which the Stoics never solved. They summed up their moral teaching in the ideal of the sage or the wise man. His chief characteristic is ataraxy, a calm passionless mastery of all emotions, and independence of all circumstances. He therefore lives a consistent, harmonious life, in conformity with the perfect order of the universe. He discovers this order by knowledge or wisdom. But the Stoics also defined this ideal as a system of particular duties, such as purity in one's self, love toward all men, and reverence toward God. In Stoic ethics, Greek philosophy reached the climax of its moral teaching. Nowhere else outside Christianity do we find so exalted a rule of conduct for the individual, so humane, hopeful and comprehensive an deal for society.

5. Relation to Christianity:

When "certain .... of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encountered" Paul at Athens, and when, after the apostle had spoken on Mars' Hill, "some mocked; but others said, We will hear thee concerning this yet again" (Acts 17:18,32), it is no improbable inference that the Epicureans mocked, while the Stoics desired to hear more. For they would find much in the apostle's teaching that harmonized with their own views. Paul's quotation from the classics in his Athenian speech was from the Stoic poet, Aratus of Soli in Cilicia: "For we are also his offspring." His doctrine of creation, of divine immanence, of the spirituality and fatherhood of God, would be familiar and acceptable to them. His preaching of Christ would not have been unwelcome to them, who were seeking for the ideal wise man. Paul's moral teaching as it appears in his Epistles reveals some resemblance to Stoic ethics. it is possible that Paul had learnt much from the Stoic school at Tarsus. It is certain that subsequent Christian thought owed much to Stoicism. Its doctrine of the immanent Logos was combined with Philo's conception of the transcendent Logos, to form the Logos doctrine through which the Greek Fathers construed the person of Christ. And Stoic ethics was taken over almost bodily by the Christian church.

See EPICUREANS ;PHILOSOPHY .

LITERATURE.

The chief extant sources are the writings of Cicero, De Finibus, De Natura Deorum, etc.; Seneca, Plutarch, M. Antoninus Aurelius, Epictetus, Diogenes Laertius, Sextus Empiricus and Stobaeus. Modern works: H. von Arnim, Stoicorum veterum fragmenta; Zeller, Stoics, Epicureans and Sceptics; R. D. Hicks, Stoic and Epicurean; W. L. Davidson, The Stoic Creed; E. V. Arnold, Roman Stoicism, which contains a full bibliography and deals with the relation of Stoicism to Christianity; on the latter point see also Lightfoot, Philippians, ExcursusII , "St. Paul and Seneca"; histories of philosophy by Rogers, Windelband, Ueberweg, and E. Caird.

T. Rees


STOMACH

stum'-uk (stomachos): In man and most vertebrates, a membranous sac-like portion of the alimentary canal, in which the earlier stages of digestion take place and in which food is prepared to yield its nourishment (1 Tim 5:23).

Used figuratively of pride, "A proud look and high stomach" (Ps 101:7, Prayer-book Version), and courage, "Stirring up her womanish thoughts with a manly stomach" (2 Macc 7:21 the King James Version, the Revised Version (British and American) "with manly passion").


STOMACHER

stum'-uk-er: Used to translate pethighil (Isa 3:24 the King James Version), where the meaning is uncertain. The English word denotes that part of a woman's dress which covered the breast and the pit of the stomach. It was usually much ornamented.


STONE, STONES

ston, stonz:

1. Hebrew and Greek Words:

(1) Chiefly 'ebhen, and lithos; but also, occurring rarely, 'eshekh (Lev 21:20); tsur (Job 22:24), usually "rock"; tseror (2 Sam 17:13); petros (Jn 1:42); psephos (Rev 2:17). For cela`, usually "cliff," "crag," "rock," the King James Version, in Ps 137:9; 141:6, has "stone," but the Revised Version (British and American) "rock." For the King James Version "stones," cheres (Job 41:30), the Revised Version (British and American) has "potsherds."

See SELA .

2. Literal Usage:

The word is used of great stones (Gen 29:2); of small stones (1 Sam 17:40); of stones set up as memorials (1 Sam 7:12, "Eben-ezer," "stone of help"); of precious stones (Ex 35:9, etc.); of hailstones (Josh 10:11).

3. Figurative Usage:

Of hardness: "I will take the stony heart out of their flesh" (Ezek 11:19); of one smitten: "(Nabal's) heart died within him, and became as a stone" (1 Sam 25:37); of weight: "A stone is heavy, and the sand weighty" (Prov 27:3); of dumbness: "Woe unto him that saith to the wood, Awake; to the dumb stone, Arise!" (Hab 2:19); of Jerusalem: "I will make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all the peoples" (Zec 12:3); of the corner-stone as a figure of high position:

"The stone which the builders rejected

Is become the head of the corner" (Ps 118:22).

See FLINT ;ROCK .

(2) Used also anatomically of the testicles (Lev 21:20; Dt 23:1; Job 40:17, pachadh, the Revised Version (British and American) "thighs").

Alfred Ely Day


STONE-SQUARERS

ston'-skwar-erz: the King James Version in 1 Ki 5:18; the Revised Version (British and American) "the Gebalites" (which see).


STONES, PRECIOUS

|| 1. Ancient and Modern Names

2. Change of Signification of Names

3. Three Important Lists of Stones

4. Interpretation of Greek Names Used by John

5. Interpretation of Hebrew Names

6. Greek and Latin Equivalents of Hebrew Names

7. Inconsistencies of Text or Translation

8. Vulgate and Septuagint

9. Hebrew Texts of Septuagint and English Versions of the Bible

10. Equivalence of Hebrew and Greek Names

11. Interpretation of Greek Names Used by Septuagint

12. List of Names with Biblical References

1. Ancient and Modern Names:

Great difficulty is met with in any attempt to translate the Greek and Hebrew names mentioned in the Bible into names that would be used for the same minerals in a particular country at the present day. It is only within the last century, through the development of the sciences of chemistry and crystallography, that it has become possible to define mineral species with any considerable approach to precision. In ancient times various minerals were regarded as belonging to a single kind, and indicated by a single name, that are now distributed into different kinds and mentioned under different names.

For example, 2,000 years ago the Greek term anthrax was used to signify various hard, transparent, red stones that are now known to differ much from one another in chemical composition, and are therefore assigned to different species and given different names; among them are oriental ruby (red corundum), balas ruby (red spinel), almandine and pyrope (red garnets); a stone designated anthrax by the ancient Greeks might thus belong to any one of a number of various kinds to the assemblage of which no name is now given, and the word anthrax has no simple equivalent in a modern language.

2. Change of Signification of Names:

Confusion is introduced in another way. The English names of most of the precious stones mentioned in the Bible are adaptations of Greek names through the Latin; for instance, the English word "topaz" is a modification of the Latin word topazius, itself merely a Latin form of the Greek word topazion. It would at first sight appear that the Greek word topazion must be translated into English by the word "topaz"; but, strangely, although the words are virtually identical, the stones indicated by the words are quite different. The topazion of the ancient Greeks was a green stone yielding to the action of a file and said to be brought from an island in the Red Sea, whereas the topaz of the present day is not a green stone, does not yield to the action of a file, and has not been brought from an island in the Red Sea. The topazion of the ancient Greeks is really the peridot, not the topaz, of modern mineralogy; topazion and topaz are different kinds of stone. For the interpretation of the Bible it is thus necessary to ascertain, if possible, the kind of stone to which a Greek or Hebrew name was applied at the time when the word was written.

3. Three Important Lists of Stones:

Most of the names of the precious stones mentioned in the Bible are contained in the Hebrew description of the breastplate of the high priest and the Greek description of the foundations of the New Jerusalem. The ornaments assigned to the king of Tyre (Ezek 28:13) included only stones that had been used in the breastplate; indeed, in the Septuagint, they are the same twelve, mentioned in precisely the same order.

The stones of the breastplate according to our Hebrew text (Ex 28:17-21) were:

The foundations of the New Jerusalem are (Rev 21:19,20):

1 iaspis

2 sappheiros

3 chalkedon

4 smaragdos

5 sardonux

6 sardion

7 chrusolithos

8 berullos

9 topazion

10 chrusoprasos

11 huakinthos

12 amethustos

Only 4 of the latter stones are mentioned elsewhere in the New Testament, also in the Book of Revelation, namely: iaspis (4:3; 21:18), smaragdos (4:3), sardion (4:3) and huakinthos (9:17).

4. Interpretation of Greek Names Used by John:

For the interpretation of the Greek names used by John, much help is given by Pliny's great work on Natural History, published 77 AD, for it records what was known about precious stones at the very time when John himself was living. The Greek names of stones and their Latin verbal equivalents had presumably the same signification for both these writers; it is thus possible, in some cases at least, to ascertain what name is now assigned to a stone mentioned in the New Testament if the name and description are recorded in the treatise of Pliny; the results are given in the alphabetical list below. All twelve stones, except chalkedon, are mentioned by Pliny; the few important stones described by him, but not mentioned by John as foundations, are crystallum and adamas, both of them colorless; onyx, remarkable rather for structure than color; electrum (amber), a soft material; carbunculus, fiery red; callaina, pale green, probably turquoise; cyanus, dark blue; and opalus (opal); ranked in Pliny's time immediately after smaragdus in value. Achates (agate) is omitted, but was no longer precious.

5. Interpretation of Hebrew Names:

In the interpretation of the Hebrew names of the stones of the breastplate there is much greater difficulty, for no Hebrew literature other than the Old Testament has been preserved, and little help is afforded by the contexts of other verses in which some of the Hebrew names of precious stones occur. If we could assume that the Septuagint and the Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 A.D.) versions of the description of the breastplate were made from Hebrew texts absolutely identical in respect of the names of the stones with those used for the preparation of the English Versions of the Bible, and that the versions were correctly made, the Greek equivalents of the Hebrew terms for the time of the Septuagint translators (about 280 BC) and their Latin equivalents for the time of Jerome (about 400 AD) would be directly determinable by collation of the Hebrew original with the Greek and Latin translations.

It must be remembered, however, that a Hebrew writer, in describing the arrangement of a row of stones, began with that on his right and mentioned them in the order right to left, while a western writer begins with the stone on his left and mentions them in the reverse order. Hence, in translating a Hebrew statement of arrangement into a western language, one may either translate literally word by word, thus adopting the Hebrew direction of reading, or, more completely, may adopt the western direction for the order in the row. As either method may have been adopted by the Septuagint translators, it follows that 'odhem and bareqeth, the first and last stones of the 1st row according to our Hebrew text, may respectively be equivalent either to sardion and smaragdos, or, conversely, to smaragdos and sardion; and similarly for the other rows. The number of the middle stone of any row is the same whichever direction of reading is adopted. 'Odhem being red, and sardion and smaragdos respectively red and green (see below), 'odhem must be equivalent to the former, not the latter, and the Septuagint translators must have adopted the Hebrew direction of reading the rows.

6. Greek and Latin Equivalents of Hebrew Names:

Other sets of possible equivalents are derivable by collation of the Biblical description with each of the two descriptions given by Josephus (Ant., III, vii, 5; BJ, V, v, 7). The possible Greek and Latin equivalents of Hebrew names are thus as follows:

It may be remarked, as regards the 1st stone of the 1st row, that in the time of Josephus the stone sardonux could be signified also by the more general term sardion; and, as regards the 1st stone of the 2nd row, that anthrax and carbo being respectively Greek and Latin for "glowing coal," anthrax and carbunculus, diminutive of carbo, were used as synonyms for certain red stones.

7. Inconsistencies of Text or Translations

From the inconsistencies of the above table of possible equivalents it may be inferred that either (1) essentially different translations were given in several cases for the same Hebrew word, or (2) the Hebrew texts used in the preparation of the Septuagint and the Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 A.D.) versions were, in respect of the precious stones, different from each other and from that used in the preparation of English Versions of the Bible, or (3) the breastplate differed at different epochs, or (4) one or other, or both, of the descriptions by Josephus are incorrect. Conceivably differences may have arisen in all the above-mentioned ways.

(1) Inconsistency of Septuagint Translators

That the Septuagint translators were uncertain as to the correct translation of the Hebrew names used for the precious stones into the Greek names used in their time, and that they translated the Hebrew name of a stone in more than one way may be shown as follows. In the Hebrew text corresponding to English Versions of the Bible the word shoham, designating the 2nd stone of the 4th row of the breastplate, occurs also in several verses where there is no mention of other stones, and where there is thus no risk of accidental interchange, such as may easily occur when technical terms, more especially if unintelligible to the transcriber, are near to one another in the text. Now, for our versions shoham has been systematically translated "onyx," and for the Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 A.D.) the Hebrew word having the same position in the text has been systematically translated by a Latin synonym of onyx, namely, lapis onychinus (except in Job 28:16, where lapis sardonychus is the rendering). Hence, it is probable that the word in these particular verses was shoham in the Hebrew original of the Vulgate, and therefore also of the Hebrew original of the Septuagint. Yet in the Septuagint the Hebrew word is translated soom (1 Ch 29:2, indicating that the translator, not knowing the Greek word for shoham, gave merely its Greek transliteration) as well as smaragdos (Ex 28:9; 35:27; 39:6 or Septuagint 36:13), prasinos (Gen 2:12), sardion (Ex 25:7; 35:9 or Septuagint 35:8), onux (Job 28:16).

These differences suggest that there were different Septuagint translators, even for different chapters of the same book, and that little care was taken by them to be consistent with one another in the translation of technical terms.

(2) Differences of Hebrew Texts

That the Hebrew texts used for the Septuagint, Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 A.D.) and English Versions of the Bible were not identical in all the verses in which there is mention of precious stones is especially clear from an analysis of the respective descriptions of the ornaments of the king of Tyre (Ezek 28:13). In the Septuagint 12 stones are mentioned; as already stated, they have precisely the same names and are mentioned in precisely the same order as the stones of the breastplate described in that version, the only difference being that gold and silver are inserted in the middle of the list. On the other hand, in Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 A.D.) and English Versions of the Bible descriptions of the ornaments, only 9 of the 12 stones of the breastplate are mentioned; they are not in the same order as the corresponding stones in the breastplate as described in those VSS, silver is not mentioned at all, while gold is placed, not in the middle, but at the end of the list. Further, the order of mention of the stones in English Versions of the Bible differs from that of mention in Vulgate.

(3) Changes in the Breastplate

That the breastplate in use in the time of the Septuagint translators (about 280 BC) may have been different from the one described in the Book of Exodus is manifest if we have regard to the history of the Jewish nation; for Jerusalem was captured by Shishak, king of Egypt, about 973 BC, by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, about 586 BC, and by Ptolemy Soter, king of Egypt, about 320 BC. The original breastplate may have been part of the spoil on one or other of these occasions, and have then disappeared forever.

Again, between the times of the Septuagint translators and Josephus, Jerusalem was more than once in the hands of its enemies; in 198 BC the city was captured by Antiochus the Great; in 170 BC it was stormed, and its temple plundered, by Antiochus Epiphanes; in 54 BC the temple was desecrated by Crassus. The breastplate familiar to Josephus (for he was long a priest in the temple of Jerusalem) may thus not have been identical with that in use when the Septuagint version was made.

And if the signification of the Hebrew names of the stones had not been carefully passed down from one generation to another while the breastplate was no longer in existence (for instance, during the Babylonian captivity), or if stones like those of the original breastplate were not available when a new breastplate was being made, there would inevitably be differences in the breastplate at different times.

The probability of this hypothesis of one or more replacements of the breastplate is still further increased if we have regard to the large stones that were set in gold buttons and fastened to the shoulderpieces of the ephod, the vestment to which the breastplate itself was attached (Ex 28:9; 39:6 or Septuagint 36:13). According to the Septuagint, the material was smaragdos (and therefore green); according to Josephus it was sardonux (and therefore red with a layer of white). Though the Septuagint translators may never have had opportunities of looking closely at the stones, they might be expected to know the color of the material; Josephus must have seen them often. But the complete difference of colors of smaragdos and sardonux suggests that the difference of the names is due, not to a Septuagint mistranslation of the Hebrew name shoham, but to an actual difference of the material; it may have been smaragdos (and green) at the time when the Septuagint translation was made, and yet sardonux (and red with a layer of white) in the time of Josephus.

(4) Descriptions Given by Josephus

That in respect of the breastplate it is unsafe to collate the Hebrew texts of the various versions with that of Josephus may be demonstrated as follows. The 2nd stone of the 2nd row, termed cappir in our Hebrew text, is termed sappheiros in the Septuagint and sapphirus in the Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 A.D.) Wherever else cappir occurs in our Hebrew text, sappheiros occurs in the corresponding place in the Septuagint and sapphirus in the Vulgate; it may thus be inferred that in respect of the word cappir our Hebrew text and the Hebrew texts used for the Septuagint and Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 A.D.) versions were in complete accord with one another. Also, it is certain that the Latin word sapphirus was derived from the Greek word sappheiros, and that either the latter had its origin in the Hebrew word cappir or that both words had the same source. There is no reason to think that from the time of the Septuagint translators to that of Jerome the word sappheiros was ever used to signify any other than one kind of stone or that the kind was ever called iaspis. But in both the descriptions given by Josephus the middle stone of the 2nd row is given as iaspis, not as sappheiros, which he makes the last stone of the row. Hence, for the middle stone of the 2nd row, the Hebrew texts were concordant in giving the name cappir, but they fundamentally differed from that of Josephus whose two descriptions agree in giving the name iaspis; it is not a difference of mere nomenclature or translation, but of the kind of stone set in a definite part of the breastplate. This being the case, collation of the Hebrew, Septuagint and Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 A.D.) descriptions of the breastplate with those given by Josephus cannot be relied on to give a true Greek or a true Latin equivalent for the Hebrew name of any of the stones.

It may be added that the two descriptions given by Josephus differ from each other only as regards the order of the stones in the last two rows; in the 3rd row, the order is precisely reversed; in the 4th row the order is chrusolithos, onuchion, berullion for Ant, and onuchion, berullion, chrusolithos for BJ. Josephus, Antiquities was written at greater leisure than BJ, and was not completed till 18 years later; Josephus had thus more time for the consultation of old manuscripts. Speaking generally, it is more accurate than his earlier treatise as regards the history of those times of which he had no direct knowledge; its description of the breastplate is more precise as regards the arrangement of the stones, and is therefore the one to which the greater weight must be given. It differs from the Septuagint only through the interchange of the 2nd and 3rd stones in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th rows; and possibly Josephus gave the order from his memory either of the Septuagint or of the actual breastplate.

The only difference between the descriptions given in the Septuagint and the Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 A.D.) is that the last two stones, namely berullion (beryllus) and onuchion (onychinus), are interchanged.

8. Vulgate and Septuagint:

As already pointed out, the Hebrew texts of the Septuagint and English Versions of the Bible must have differed completely as regards the descriptions of the ornaments of the king of Tyre; it is thus not at all certain that they were in complete accord as regards the descriptions of the breastplate. In fact, it is generally accepted that the Hebrew word yashepheh and the Greek word iaspis are virtually identical, and that they were used to signify the same kind of stone.

9. Hebrew Texts of Septuagint and English Versions of the Bible:

Hence, it follows that the Hebrew text of English Versions of the Bible is not identical with the Hebrew texts of the Septuagint and the Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 A.D.) versions in respect of the stones in the 2nd and 4th rows; if our Hebrew text is correct as regards yashepheh, that stone was the last stone in the last row; if the Hebrew texts of the Septuagint and Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 A.D.) versions were correct, yashepheh, which had for its Greek equivalent iaspis, must have been the last stone in the 2nd row; further, onuchion (Septuagint) and beryllus (Vulgate) must be equivalent, not to yashepheh, but to some other stones of the breastplate.

10. Equivalence of Hebrew and Greek Names:

Taking these matters into consideration, the following have considerable claims to be regarded as equivalents:

The remaining three stones, tarshish, shoham and yahalom, are thus equivalent to chrusolithos, onuchion and berullion, but it is uncertain which Greek name corresponds to any of those Hebrew names.

11. Interpretation of Greek Names Used by Sepuagint:

For the interpretation of the Greek names of stones mentioned in the Septuagint (and thus of the Hebrew names in the original text), the work of Theophrastus, a contemporary of the Septuagint translators, is very useful. That author mentions, besides krustallos and margarites which occur elsewhere than in the description of the breastplate, nine of the Septuagint names of the breastplate stones, namely: achates, amethustos (as amethuson), anthrax, iaspis, ligurion (as lugkurion), onuchion, sappheiros, sardion, smaragdos. The three stones mentioned in the Septuagint but not by Theophrastus are berullion, chrusolithos, and topazion. Since he mentions only four stones that are not referred to in the Septuagint, namely chrusokolla, hualoeides, kuanos and omphax, it follows that the Septuagint translators at Alexandria introduced every important name that was then in use at Athens for a precious stone.

In the following alphabetical list references are given to all the verses in which each name of a precious stone occurs, and for each use of a translated name the corresponding word in the original text.

12. List of Names with Biblical References:

Achates (achates): probably Septuagint translation of shebho (Ex 28:19; 39:12). It is not mentioned in Apocrypha or the New Testament.

Adamant (see also special article): in Ezek 3:9; Zec 7:12, English Versions of the Bible translation of Hebrew shamir.

Agate: in Ex 28:19; 39:12, English Versions of the Bible translation of Hebrew shebho; in Isa 54:12; Ezek 27:16, the King James Version translation of Hebrew kadhkodh.

'Achlamah: in Ex 28:19; 39:12: 3rd stone, 3rd row, of the breastplate. Septuagint translates amethustos; Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 A.D.) translates amethystus; English Versions of the Bible "amethyst."

The Septuagint rendering amethustos is generally accepted as correct, but the late Professor N. S. Maskelyne, F.R.S., formerly (1857-80) Keeper of Minerals in the British Museum, gave reasons for regarding the 'achlamah of breastplate times as possibly an onyx in which white bands alternated with waxy-yellow to reddish-yellow bands.

Amber: in Ezek 1:4,27; 8:2, the King James Version, the English Revised Version and the American Revised Version margin translation of Hebrew chashmal; in Ex 28:19, the Revised Version margin translation of Hebrew leshem.

Amethustos (amethustos): in Rev 21:20: the 12th foundation of the New Jerusalem; Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 A.D.) translates amethystus; English Versions of the Bible "amethyst." Four varieties of amethystus were recognized by Pliny as precious; all of them were transparent, and of purple tint or of tints derived from purple. According to the Septuagint, amethustos was the 3rd stone, 3rd row, of the breastplate, and the stone occupying this position is given in our Hebrew text as 'achlamah. Amethustos is mentioned under the name amethuson by Theophrastus; he describes it as a transparent stone resembling wine in color and as used by the gem engravers of his day. Amethystus and amethuson were doubtless identical with the amethyst of the present day, a purple variety of quartz (silica). Beads and other ornaments of amethyst found in old Egyptian tombs show that the stone was regarded as precious in very ancient times.

Amethyst: in Ex 28:19; 39:12, English Versions of the Bible translation of Hebrew 'achlamah; in Rev 21:20, English Versions of the Bible translation of Greek amethustos.

Anthrax (anthrax): in Tobit 13:17; Ecclesiasticus 32:5, English Versions of the Bible translates "carbuncle." According to the Septuagint, anthrax was also a stone of the breastplate, 1st stone, 2nd row, but there is uncertainty as to the Hebrew text of the Septuagint in respect of this word. The anthrax of Theophrastus included different kinds of hard, red stone used by the gem engravers. It is the carbunculus of Pliny's time, and probably included the oriental ruby (corundum, alumina), the balas ruby (spinel, aluminate of magnesium), the almandine (a kind of garnet, alumino-silicate of iron) and pyrope (another kind of garnet, alumino-silicate of magnesium) of the present day.

Bareqeth: in Ex 28:17; 39:10; Ezek 28:13: 3rd stone, 1st row, of breastplate. Septuagint probably translates smaragdos, but there is uncertainty as to the Hebrew text of the Septuagint in respect of this word: English Versions of the Bible translates "carbuncle"; the Revised Version margin translates "emerald." The rendering smaragdos may be correct, but no emeralds of very early age have been found in Egypt. From the similarity of the words bareqeth and baraq ("lightning"), it has been suggested that possibly the breastplate stone was not green but of bluish-red color, in which case it may have been an almandine (garnet). English Versions of the Bible has interchanged the names given by Septuagint, to the 3rd stone of the 1st row (smaragdos, "emerald") and the 1st stone of the 2nd row (anthrax, "carbuncle").

Bdellium (see also special article): in Gen 2:12; Nu 11:7, English Versions of the Bible translation of Hebrew bedholach.

Bedholach: The Septuagint translates anthrax in Gen 2:12, and krustallos in Nu 11:7; Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 A.D.) and English Versions of the Bible translate bdellium. Some commentators, rejecting both the Septuagint translations, interpret the material to be pearl, others to be the gum of an Arabian tree.

Berullos (berullos): in Tobit 13:17; Rev 21:20: the 8th foundation of the New Jerusalem. Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 A.D.) translates beryllus; English Versions of the Bible translates "beryl." According to Septuagint, berullion was a stone of the breastplate, the 2nd stone, 4th row; owing to uncertainty as to their Hebrew text, there is doubt as to the Hebrew word translated berullion. Berullos is not mentioned by Theophrastus, who may have regarded it as included in the smaragdos of his day.

In the time of Pliny 8 varieties were recognized; he says that beryllus was already thought by some to be "of the same nature as the smaragdus, or at least closely analogous. India produces them, and they are rarely to be found elsewhere. The lapidaries cut all beryls of a hexagonal form because the color which is deadened by a dull uniformity of surface is heightened by the reflections resulting from the angles. If they are cut in any other way, these stones have no brilliancy whatever. The most esteemed beryls are those which in color resemble the pure green of the sea. Some are of opinion that beryls are naturally angular."

This description suggests the identity of the seagreen beryllus of Pliny's time with the sea-green beryl (alumino-silicate of beryllium) of the present day.

Beryl: in Ex 28:20; 39:13; Song 5:14; Ezek 1:16; 10:9; 28:13; Dan 10:6, English Versions of the Bible translation of Hebrew tarshish; in Gen 2:12; Ex 25:7 margin; 28:9,20; 35:27 margin; 1 Ch 29:2 margin; Job 28:16 margin, the Revised Version margin translation of Hebrew shoham; in Tobit 13:17; Rev 21:20, English Versions of the Bible translation of Greek berullos.

Carbuncle: in Ex 28:17; 39:10; Ezek 28:13, English Versions of the Bible translation of Hebrew bareqeth; in Ex 28:18 margin; 39:11; Ezek 27:16; 28:13, the Revised Version margin translation of Hebrew nophekh; in Isa 54:12, English Versions of the Bible translation of Hebrew 'eqdach; Tobit 13:17; Ecclesiasticus 32:5, English Versions of the Bible translation of Greek anthrax.

Chalcedony: in Ex 28:20, the Revised Version margin translation of Hebrew tarshish; in Rev 21:19, English Versions of the Bible translation of Greek chalkedon.

Chalkedon (chalkedon): in Rev 21:19: the 3rd foundation of the New Jerusalem. Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 A.D.) translates calcedonius; English Versions of the Bible translates "chalcedony." Though the name Chalcedon (Latin form) occurs in Pliny, it is not as the name of a stone but as that of a free town then standing on the southern side of the Bosphorus, probably close to the site on which Scutari now stands. Chalcedon had once been noted for its copper mines; but the latter, when Pliny wrote, had been so far exhausted that they were no longer worked.

Pliny refers to a kind of smaragdus (a green stone) as having been found near Chalcedon, but adds that the stones were of very small size and value. They were "brittle, and of a color far from distinctly pronounced; they resembled in their tints the feathers that are seen in the tail of the peacock or on the neck of the pigeon. More or less brilliant, too, according to the angle at which they were viewed, they presented an appearance like that of veins and scales." In another place he refers to a stone from Chalcedon or Calchedon (another reading) as being an iaspis of turbid hue. It is possible that at Patmos or Ephesus, at one of which John was living when he wrote the Book of Revelation, the word chalkedon was used to specify the particular kind of smaragdus or iaspis that had been found near the town of that name. It is uncertain what name would be given to such a stone in the present day, but the signification now attached to the name "chalcedony" (cryptocrystalline silica) cannot be traced farther back than the 15th century.

Chrusolithos (chrusolithos): in Rev 21:20: the 7th foundation of the New Jerusalem. Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 A.D.) translates chrysolithus; the King James Version translates "chrysolyte"; the Revised Version (British and American) translates "chrysolite." According to Septuagint chrusolithos was one of the stones of the breastplate (lst stone, 4th row), but there is uncertainty as to the Hebrew text of the Septuagint in respect of this word; the name is not mentioned by Theophrastus. The chrysolithus of Pliny was a "transparent stone with a refulgence like that of gold." Those were most valued which "when placed by the side of gold, impart to it a sort of whitish hue, and so give it the appearance of silver."

It may perhaps have included the yellow sapphire (alumina), the yellow quartz (citrine, silica) and the yellow jargoon (zircon; silicate of zirconium) of the present day. The term "chrysolite" is now applied to a different mineral, namely, to a yellow variety of olivine (silicate of magnesium and iron), a species that includes the green precious stone peridot as another of its varieties.

Chrusoprasos (chrusoprasos): in Rev 21:20: the 10th foundation of the New Jerusalem. Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 A.D.) and the King James Version translate chrysoprasus; the Revised Version (British and American) translates "chrysoprase." The chrysoprasus was regarded by some naturalists of the time of Pliny as a variety of beryllus. The 1st variety of beryllus and the most esteemed was, as stated above, of a pure sea-green color; the 2nd was paler, and approached a golden tint; the 3rd, allied to the 2nd in brilliancy but more pallid, was the chrysoprasus. The latter was thought by other naturalists to belong to an independent genus of stone. In another place Pliny describes the color as like that of the leek, but as varying in tint between the topazion of his day (our peridot) and gold. The stone may have been a yellowish-green plasma (chalcedony, crypto-crystalline silica) or, as suggested by King, pale chrysoberyl (aluminate of beryllium); it is not the chrysoprase of the present day, which is an apple-green chalcedony (colored by nickel).

Chrysolite, chrysolyte: "chrysolite" in Ezek 28:13, the King James Version margin translation of Hebrew tarshish; Rev 21:20, the Revised Version (British and American) translation of Greek chrusolithos; "chrysolyte" in Rev 21:20, the King James Version translation of Greek chrusolithos.

Chrysoprase, chrysoprasus: "chrysoprase" in Ezek 27:16, the King James Version margin translation of Hebrew kadhkodh; Rev 21:20, the Revised Version (British and American) translation of Greek chrusoprasos; "chrysoprasus" in Rev 21:20, the King James Version translation of Greek chrusoprasos.

Coral, red coral (see special article): "coral" in Job 28:18; Ezek 27:16, English Versions of the Bible translation of Hebrew ra'moth; Lam 4:7, the Revised Version margin translation of Hebrew peninim; "red coral" in Job 28:18, the Revised Version margin translation of Hebrew peninim.

Crystal (see special article): in Job 28:17, the King James Version translation of Hebrew zekhukhith; Ezek 1:22, the King James Version translation of Hebrew qerach; in Job 28:18, the Revised Version (British and American) translation of Hebrew gabhish; in Rev 4:6; 22:1, English Versions of the Bible translation of Greek krustallos; in Rev 21:11, English Versions of the Bible translation of Greek krustallizo ("to shine like crystal").

Diamond: in Jer 17:1, English Versions of the Bible translation of Hebrew shamir; in Ex 28:18; 39:11; Ezek 28:13, English Versions of the Bible translation of Hebrew yahalom.

'Eqdach: in Isa 54:12: Septuagint translates krustallos; Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 A.D.) periphrases as lapides sculpti ("engraved stones"); English Versions of the Bible translates "carbuncles." From the similarity to qadhach, "to burn," it is interpreted as meaning fiery or sparkling, whence comes the rendering "carbuncles."

Electrum (see special article): Ezek 1:4, the Revised Version margin translation of Hebrew chashmal, "amber."

Emerald: in Ex 28:18; 39:11; Ezek 27:16; 28:13, English Versions of the Bible translation of Hebrew nophekh; in Ex 28:17; 39:10, the Revised Version margin translation of Hebrew bareqeth; in Tobit 13:16; Judith 10:21; Ecclesiasticus 32:6; Rev 21:19, English Versions of the Bible translation of Greek smaragdos; in Rev 21:19, English Versions of the Bible translation of Greek adjective smaragdinos.

Gabhish: in Job 28:18: The Septuagint transliterates gabis; the King James Version translates "pearls"; the Revised Version (British and American) translates "crystal." From the similarity to gabhash, "ice," the rendering "crystal" is suggested.

Chashmal: in Ezek 1:4,27; 8:2: The Septuagint translates elektron; Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 A.D.) and the Revised Version margin translate electrum; the King James Version, the English Revised Version and the American Revised Version margin translate "amber"; the American Standard Revised Version translates "glowing metal." The elektron of the time of the Septuagint and Theophrastus was the amber, of the present day; in the time of Pliny amber was an object of luxury ranked next to crystal, and the term electrum was then applied, not only to amber, but also to a metallic alloy of gold and silver.

Huakinthos, (huakinthos): in Rev 9:17; 21:20: the 11th foundation of the New Jerusalem. Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 A.D.) translates hyacinthus; the King James Version translates "jacinth"; the Revised Version (British and American) translates "jacinth" (Rev 21:20) and "hyacinth" (Rev 9:17); the Revised Version margin translates "sapphire" (Rev 21:20). Pliny describes the hyacinthus as being very different from amethystus, "though partaking of a color that closely' borders upon it" and as being of a more diluted violet, It may have been the pale blue sapphire (alumina) of the present day; the modern hyacinth, or jacinth, is a quite different stone, a brownish to reddish zircon (silicate of zirconium).

Hyacinth, jacinth (see also special article onHYACINTH ): "hyacinth" in Rev 9:17, the Revised Version (British and American) translation of Greek huakinthos; "jacinth" in Ex 28:19; 39:12, the Revised Version (British and American) translation of Hebrew leshem; in Rev 9:17; 21:20, the King James Version translation of Greek huakinthos.

Iaspis (iaspis): in Rev 4:3; 21:11,18 f: the 1st foundation of the New Jerusalem. Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 A.D.) translates jaspis; English Versions of the Bible translates "jasper." According to Septuagint iaspis was the 3rd stone, 2nd row, of the breastplate, but there is uncertainty as to the Hebrew text of the Septuagint in respect of this word; Septuagint translates also kadhkodh as iaspis (Isa 54:12). Pliny describes iaspis as being generally green and often transparent; he recognizes as many as 14 varieties.

He adds that "many countries produce this stone: that of India is like smaragdus in color; that of Cyprus is hard and of a full sea-green; and that of Persia is skyblue. Similar to the last is the Caspian iaspis. On the banks of the river Thermodon the iaspis is of an azure color; in Phrygia it is purple; and in Cappadocia of an azure-purple, somber and not refulgent. The best kind is that which has a shade of purple, the next best being the rose-colored, and the next the stone with the green color of the smaragdus," etc.

The term "jasper" is now restricted to opaque stones; the green transparent kind of iaspis may have been identical with the green chalcedony (crypto-crystalline silica) called plasma at the present day.

Jasper: in Ex 28:20; 39:13; Ezek 28:13, English Versions of the Bible translation of Hebrew yashepheh; in Rev 4:3; 21:11,18,19, English Versions of the Bible translation of Greek iaspis.

Kadhkodh: in Isa 54:12; Ezek 27:16: The Septuagint translates iaspis (Isa 54:12) and transliterates chorchor (Ezek 27:16); Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 A.D.) translates jaspis (Isa 54:12) and transliterates chodchod (Ezek 27:16); the King James Version translates "agate"; the King James Version margin translates "chrysoprase" (Ezek 27:16); the Revised Version (British and American) translates "ruby." There is little to indicate the probable meaning of the word.

Qerach: in Ezek 1:22: Septuagint translates krustallos; Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 A.D.) translates crystallum; English Versions of the Bible translates "crystal"; the Revised Version margin translates "ice." The translations are suggested by the similarity to the Hebrew qerach, "ice."

Krustallos (krustallos): in Rev 4:6; 22:1: Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 A.D.) translates crystallum; English Versions of the Bible translates "crystal." The crystallum of Pliny was the rock-crystal (clear quartz) of the present day. Among the localities cited for crystallum by Pliny are "the crags of the Alps, so difficult of access that it is usually found necessary to be suspended by ropes in order to extract it."

Lapis lazuli: in Rev 21:19, the Revised Version margin translation of Greek sappheiros.

Leshem: in Ex 28:19; 39:12: 1st stone, 3rd row, of the breastplate. Septuagint probably translates ligurion, but there is uncertainty as to their Hebrew text; Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 A.D.) probably translates ligurius; the King James Version translates "ligure"; the Revised Version (British and American) translates "jacinth"; the Revised Version margin translates "amber."

The ligurion of the Septuagint is probably identical with the lugkurion of Theophrastus; this was a yellow to yellowishred stone used by seal engravers, and was transparent and difficult to polish. The yellow ligurion may be the yellow jargoon of the present day (zircon, silicate of zirconium), a stone much used by the ancient Greek and Roman engravers; but as the jargoon has not been found among ancient Egyptian work, it has been suggested that the ligurion of the breastplate may have been a yellow quartz (citrine) or agate. The yellowish-red ligurion may have been one of the stones to which the name "jacinth" (also a zircon) is now applied. Professor Maskelyne, rejecting the Septuagint translated, suggests that the leshem was identical with the neshem of the Egyptians, namely the green feldspar now called amazon stone; as an alternative rendering to this he suggests yellow jasper. The translation "amber" (Revised Version, margin) is not likely to be correct, for that material would have been too soft for use as a stone of the breastplate; its properties do not accord with those assigned by Theophrastus to the lugkurion.

Ligure: in Ex 38:19; 39:12, the King James Version translation of Hebrew leshem.

Ligurion (ligurion): in Septuagint Ex 28:19; 39:12, Septuagint translation of Hebrew leshem: 1st stone, 3rd row, of breastplate.

Margarites (margarites): in Mt 7:6; 13:45,46; 1 Tim 2:9; Rev 18:12,16; 21:21: Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 A.D.) translates margarita; English Versions of the Bible translates "pearl." The margarites is mentioned by Theophrastus as being one of the precious stones, but not pellucid, as produced in a kind of oyster and in the pinna, and as brought from the Indies and the shores of certain islands in the Red Sea. Hence, it was identical with the pearl of the present day.

Nophekh, in Ex 28:18; 39:11; Ezek 27:16; 28:13: 1st stone, 2nd row, of the breastplate. There is uncertainty as to the Hebrew text used by the Septuagint, but probably nophekh is translated anthrax (except in Ezek 27:16, where the text differs); Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 A.D.) probably translates carbunculus; English Versions of the Bible translates "emerald"' the Revised Version margin translates "carbuncle." English Versions of the Bible interchanges the names given by the Septuagint to the 3rd stone, 1st row (smaragdos, "emerald") and the 1st stone, 2nd row (anthrax, "carbuncle"). Professor Maskelyne suggests that the nophekh of the breastplate may have been the mophak or mafka of the Egyptian hieroglyphics, the turquoise of the present day.

'Odhem, in Ex 28:17; 39:10; Ezek 28:13: 1st stone, 1st row, of the breastplate. Septuagint probably translates sardion, Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 A.D.) probably translates sardius; English Versions of the Bible translates "sardius"; EVm translates "ruby." The Hebrew word is related to ['adham], "to be red," and signifies a reddish stone; it may have been sard (a name given not only to red, but also to pale reddish-yellow or brown, translucent chalcedony), but was more probably carnelian, a red stone closely allied to sard, and much used by the ancient Egyptians and Assyrians.

Onuchion, (onuchion, onux): "onux," Septuagint translation of Hebrew shoham (Job 28:16); onuchion, perhaps Septuagint translation of shoham in the descriptions of the ornaments of the king of Tyre (Ezek 28:13) and the stones of the breastplate (being there made 3rd stone, 4th row, in Ex 28:20; 39:13), but there is uncertainty as to the Hebrew text of the Septuagint; Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 A.D.) translates onyx, lapis onychinus, lapis sardonychus. The onuchion of Theophrastus was a hard, translucent stone used by the seal engravers; it consisted of white and dusky layers in alternation. The onyx of Roman times was an opaque stone of white and black layers, like the onyx of the present day.

Onyx: in Gen 2:12; Ex 25:7; 28:9,20; 35:9,27; 39:6,13; 1 Ch 29:2; Job 18:16; Ezek 28:13, English Versions of the Bible translation of Hebrew shoham.

Pearl: in Job 28:18, the King James Version translation of Hebrew gabhish; in Job 28:18, the Revised Version margin translation of Hebrew peninim; in Mt 7:6; 13:45 f; 1 Tim 2:9; Rev 18:12,16; 21:20,21, English Versions of the Bible translation of Greek margarites.

Peninim, in Job 28:18; Prov 3:15; 8:11; 20:15; 31:10; Lam 4:7: Septuagint (from which Prov 20:15 is missing) periphrases the word or had a different Hebrew text; Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 A.D.) translates ebur antiquum ("old ivory") in Lam 4:7, but elsewhere periphrases the word or had a different Hebrew text; English Versions of the Bible translates "rubies"; the Revised Version margin translates "red coral," or "pearls," except for Lam 4:7, where the translation is "corals." The word is similar to an Arabic word meaning "branches" and may signify red coral, which has been highly esteemed since very ancient times; a description of korallion is given by Theophrastus. Pliny says that in his day the reddest and most branched was most valued.

PiTedhah, in Ex 28:17; 39:10; Job 28:19; Ezek 28:13: 2nd stone, 1st row, of the breastplate. Septuagint translates topazion in Job 28:19 and probably also in the other verses; Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 A.D.) translates topazius; English Versions of the Bible translates "topaz." The topazion of ancient times appears to have been scarcely known before the Ptolemaic period, and Professor Maskelyne suggested that the Hebrew word may possibly be allied to bijada, which in Persian and Arabic signifies "garnet."

Ramoth: in Job 28:18, the King James Version margin translation of Hebrew ra'moth.

Ra'moth, in Job 28:18; Ezek 27:16: Septuagint translates meteora (Job 28:18) and ramoth (Ezek 27:16); Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 A.D.) periphrases the passages; English Versions of the Bible translates "coral"; the King James Version margin translates "ramoth" (only in Job 28:18). There is little to indicate the meaning of the Hebrew word.

Ruby: in Job 28:18; Prov 3:15; 8:11; 20:15; 31:10; Lam 4:7, English Versions of the Bible translation of Hebrew peninim; in Isa 54:12; Ezek 27:16, the Revised Version (British and American) translation of Hebrew kadhkodh; in Ex 28:17; 39:10; Ezek 28:13, the King James Version margin translation of Hebrew 'odhem.

Sappheiros (sappheiros): in Tobit 13:16; Rev 21:19: the 2nd foundation of the New Jerusalem. Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 A.D.) translates sapphirus; English Versions of the Bible translates "sapphire"; the Revised Version margin translates "lapis lazuli" (but only in Rev 21:19). According to the Septuagint, sappheiros was the 2nd stone, 3rd row, of the breastplate, but there is uncertainty as to the Hebrew text. Pliny describes sapphirus as "refulgent with spots like gold. It is also of an azure color, though sometimes, but rarely, it is purple; the best kind being that which comes from Media. In no case, however, is this stone transparent." These characteristics correspond to the lapis lazuli (sulphato-silicate of sodium and aluminum), not to the sapphire (alumina) of the present day.

Cappir, in Ex 24:10; 28:18; 39:11; Job 28:6,16; Song 5:14; Isa 54:11; Lam 4:7; Ezek 1:26; 10:1; 28:13: 2nd stone, 2nd row, of the breastplate. Septuagint translates sappheiros; Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 A.D.) translates sapphirus and (Ex 24:10) lapis sapphirinus; English Versions of the Bible translates "sapphire." The Hebrew word is universally accepted as equivalent to the Greek sappheiros; that name was used, not for the stone now known as sapphire, but for that now known as lapis lazuli, a substance which was regarded by the ancient Egyptians as a precious stone.

Sardine (stone), sardius: "sardine" (stone) in Rev 4:3, the King James Version translation of Greek sardinon, an error of text for sardion; "sardius" in Rev 4:3, the Revised Version (British and American) translation of Greek sardion; in Rev 21:20, English Versions of the Bible translation of Greek sardion; in Ex 28:17; 39:10; Ezek 28:13, English Versions of the Bible translation of Hebrew 'odhem.

Sardion (sardion): in Rev 4:3; 21:20: the 6th foundation of the New Jerusalem. According to the Septuagint, sardion was the 1st stone, 1st row, of the breastplate. Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 A.D.) translates sardius; the King James Version translates "sardine" (stone) (Rev 4:3) and "sardius" (Rev 21:20); the Revised Version (British and American) translates "sardius." The sarda of Pliny's time was much used by the seal engravers. There were three Indian varieties, all of them transparent, one of them red in color; there was then no precious stone in more common use; those of honey-color were less valued. It probably included both the sard and the carnelian of the present day (crypto-crystalline silica).

Sapphire: in Ex 24:10; 28:18; 39:11; Job 28:6,16; Song 5:14; Isa 54:11; Lam 4:7; Ezek 1:26; 10:1; 28:13, English Versions of the Bible translation of Hebrew sappir; in Tobit 13:16; Rev 21:19, English Versions of the Bible translation of Greek sappheiros; in Rev 21:20, the Revised Version margin translation of Greek huakinthos.

Sardonux (sardonux): in Rev 21:20: the 5th foundation of the New Jerusalem. Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 A.D.) and English Versions of the Bible translate sardonyx. According to Pliny, the name sardonyx was at first given to an Indian (red) sarda with a layer of white in it, both being transparent.

Pliny says that later three colors were considered essential, but that they might be repeated indefinitely. The Arabian sardonyx was "characterized by several different colors, black or azure for the base and vermilion surrounded with a line of rich white for the upper part, not without a certain glimpse of purple as the white passes into the red."

The sardonux of John's time is included in the sardonyx of the present day.

Sardonyx: in Rev 21:20, English Versions of the Bible translation of Greek sardonux; Ex 28:18; 39:11, the Revised Version margin translation of Hebrew yahalom.

Shamir, in Jer 17:1; Ezek 3:9; Zec 7:12; Septuagint omits Jer 17:1, and in the other two verses either periphrases the word or had a different text; Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 A.D.) translates (unguis) adamantinus in Jer 17:1, and adamas in the other two verses; English Versions of the Bible translates "diamond" (Jer 17:1) and "adamant" (Ezek 3:9; Zec 7:12). Shamir was a hard material used for engraving precious stones; in the days of Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Zechariah, splinters of both diamond and corundum (white sapphire or adamant stone) were probably available for the purpose. Both diamond and adamant are English modifications of the Latin adamas; the form "diamond" has been restricted for some centuries to the more precious of the above stones.

Shebho, in Ex 28:19; 39:12: the 2nd stone, 3rd row, of the breastplate. Both Septuagint and Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 A.D.) probably translate achates, but their Hebrew texts are uncertain; English Versions of the Bible translates "agate." The name achates was given in ancient times to certain stones having banded structures, the agates of the present day. In the time of Theophrastus achates was sold at a great price, but by the time of Pliny had ceased to be a precious stone. Professor Maskelyne suggests that the shebho of the breastplate may have signified the "stone of Sheba" or "Seba," a district in Southern Arabia, and have been the Arabian onyx.

Shoham, in Gen 2:12; Ex 25:7; 28:9,20; 35:9,27; 39:6,13; 1 Ch 29:2; Job 28:16; Ezek 28:13: the 2nd stone, 4th row, of the breastplate. Septuagint translates prasinos, i.e. "leek-green stone" (Gen 2:12), sardion (Ex 25:7; 35:9), smaragdos (Ex 28:9; 35:27), berullion, probably, through interchange of words in the Hebrew text (Ex 28:20; 39:13), soom (1 Ch 29:2), onux (Job 28:16) and perhaps onuchion (Ezek 28:13); Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 A.D.) translates onyx (Ezek 28:13), lapis sardonychus (Job 28:16) and lapis onychinus elsewhere; English Versions of the Bible translates "onyx"; the Revised Version margin translates "beryl" (except in Ezek 28:13). Professor Maskelyne and Professor Sayce, accepting green as the color of shoham, have expressed the opinion that the stone known by that name in very early times was the stone called 'siamu by the Assyrians, and therefore the green turquoise; Professor Maskelyne gives "amazon stone" as an alternative rendering of the word. Berullion is given by the Septuagint as the 2nd stone, onuchion as the 3rd stone, of the 4th row; sardion as the 1st stone, smaragdos as the 3rd stone, of the 1st row; but their Hebrew text is uncertain.

Smaragdinos, smaragdos (smaragdinos): in Rev 4:3: the Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 A.D.) translates smaragdinus; English Versions of the Bible translates "emerald." Smaragdos (smaragdos) in Tobit 13:16; Judith 10:21; Ecclesiasticus 32:5; Rev 21:19: the Vulgate translates it as smaragdus; English Versions of the Bible translates "emerald." According to the Septuagint, smaragdos was the 3rd stone, 1st row, of the breastplate, but their Hebrew text is uncertain. The smaragdos of Theophrastus was a small, scarce, presumably green, stone used by the gem engravers. In Pliny's time the genus smaragdus comprised no fewer than 12 kinds; one of them was the emerald of the present day, and probably the smaragdos of Theophrastus.

Tarshish, in Ex 28:20; 39:13; Song 5:14; Ezek 1:16; 10:9; 28:13; Dan 10:6: the 1st stone, 4th row, of the breastplate. The Septuagint translates tharsis (Song 5:14; Ezek 1:16; Dan 10:6), anthrax (Ezek 10:9); in the remaining verses there is uncertainty as to the order of the Hebrew words in the several texts. The most likely Septuagint equivalent of tarshish is either chrusolithos or berullion; Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 A.D.) translates hyacinthus (Song 5:14), mare ("sea") (Ezek 1:16), chrysolithus (Ezek 10:9; Dan 10:6). The Septuagint gives anthrax as the 1st stone, 2nd row, chrusolithos as the 1st stone, 4th row, berullion as the 2nd stone, 4th row, of the breastplate; English Versions of the Bible translates "beryl"; the King James Version margin translates "chrysolite" (in Ezek 28:13 only); the Revised Version margin translates "chalcedony" (Ex 28:20; 39:13), "topaz" (Song 5:14) and "stone of Tarshish" (Ezek 10:9). Professor Maskelyne suggests that the stone may have been citrine (quartz), if yellow as suggested by chrusolithos, and green jasper, if green as suggested by berullion.

Topaz: in Ex 28:17; 39:10; Job 28:19; Ezek 28:13, English Versions of the Bible translation of Hebrew piTedhah; in Rev 21:20, English Versions of the Bible translation of Greek topazion; in Song 5:14, the Revised Version margin translation of Hebrew tarshish.

Topazion (topazion): in Rev 21:20: the 9th foundation of the New Jerusalem. According to the Septuagint topazion was the 2nd stone, 1st row, of the breastplate. Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 A.D.) translates topazius; English Versions of the Bible translate it as "topaz."

The topazion of Pliny's time was "held in very high estimation for its green tints; when it was first discovered it was preferred to every other kind of precious stone." It was said to be brought from an island in the Red Sea, off the coast of Arabia. It was the only stone of high value that yielded to the action of the file. Topazion is not mentioned by Theophrastus. Pliny's account corresponds to the peridot of the present day (silicate of magnesium and iron), not to our topaz (fluosilicate of aluminium).

Yahalom, in Ex 28:18; 39:11; Ezek 28:13: the 3rd stone, 2nd row, of the breastplate. Owing to the uncertainty as to the order of the words in the Hebrew text of the Septuagint, there is uncertainty as to the Greek equivalent of yahalom; probably it is one of the words chrusolithos, berullion, onuchion, given by the Septuagint as the names of the stones of the 4th row. English Versions of the Bible translates "diamond"; this is certainly wrong, for the stone had a name engraved on it and the method of engraving a diamond was not invented till 2,000 or 3,000 years after the breastplate was made; nor were diamonds, if known at all, then known so large as to be comparable in respect of size, with the other stones of the breastplate. The Revised Version margin translates "sardonyx" (in Exodus only). Professor Maskelyne suggests that the Hebrew yahalom and the Greek hualos may be kindred words and that yahalom may have been a bluish glass (considered valuable in very early times), or blue chalcedony, or perhaps even beryl.

Yashepheh, in Ex 28:20; 39:13; Ezek 28:13: the 3rd stone, 4th row, of the breastplate. Septuagint probably translates iaspis, though iaspis is placed by the Septuagint as the 3rd stone, 2nd row; Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 A.D.) probably translates jaspis; English Versions of the Bible translate it as "jasper." The equivalence of the Hebrew yashepheh and the Greek iaspis is generally accepted.

Zekhukhith, in Job 28:17: Septuagint translates hualos, a name given at first to any transparent stone, but in later times only to glass; Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 A.D.) translates vitrum; the King James Version translates "crystal"; the Revised Version (British and American) translates "glass." Zekhukhith is related to a Hebrew word meaning "to be pure," whence the renderings crystal and glass.

Lazarus Fletcher


STONING

ston'-ing.

See PUNISHMENTS .


STOOL

stool ('obhnayim): It is not clear what the character and purpose of this stool were Septuagint has no reference to it). It seems to have been a chair of a peculiar sort upon which a woman reclined in parturition (Ex 1:16). The Hebrew word is in the dual number and primarily means "two stones." The only other place where it occurs is Jer 18:3, where it is rendered "wheels" Septuagint epi ton lithon, "on the stones"). In 2 Ki 4:10, the word translated in the King James Version as "stool" (kicce') is in the Revised Version (British and American) more correctly translated "seat."

See also BIRTH-STOOL ;SEAT .

Jesse L. Cotton


STORAX

sto'-raks.

See POPLAR ;STACTE .


STORE-CITIES

stor'-cit-iz (mickenoth): the Revised Version (British and American) Ex 1:11 (of PITHOM and RAAMSES (which see)) for the King James Version "treasure cities" (compare 1 Ki 9:19; 2 Ch 8:4,6; 16:4, etc.). Depots of provisions and magazines of arms.


STOREHOUSES

stor'-houz-iz, -ez: The following chief changes in the use of this word (representing various Hebrew words) in the Revised Version (British and American) to be noted are: In Dt 28:8, the Revised Version (British and American) has "barns" ('acamim); in 1 Ch 27:25, "treasures" ('otsroth); in Neh 12:25, for "thresholds" has "storehouses" ('asuppim), so, for "Asuppim" in 1 Ch 26:15,17 ("house of Asuppim," "toward Asuppim") has "store-house"; in Lk 12:24, for "storehouse" has "store-chamber" (tameion). In other passages the King James Version "storehouse" is retained (Gen 41:56; 2 Ch 32:28, mickenoth; Ps 33:7, 'otsroth; Jer 50:26, ma'abhucim).


STORIES

sto'-riz: For the King James Version "stories" (ma'aloth) in Am 9:6, the Revised Version (British and American) reads "chambers" (in heavens); in Gen 6:16 (ark); Ezek 42:3,6 (temple), the word is supplied. the Revised Version (British and American) in the latter verse reads in the text "the third story" (margin as in the King James Version). In 1 Ki 6:5,10, the Revised Version (British and American) has "stories" (yatsia` yatsua`; see TEMPLE ), and in Ezek 41:6 supphes "stories."


STORK

stork (chacidhah; variously rendered in the Septuagint: Lev 11:19, erodios; Dt 14:18, pelekan; Job 39:13, hasida (transliteration of Hebrew); Zec 5:9, (epops; Latin Ciconia alba): A large wading bird of the family Ardeidae, related to crane, ibis, heron and bittern. The stork on wing is a bird of exquisite beauty. The primary, secondary and a few of the tertiary wing feathers are black, the remainder, also the head, neck, and back and under parts white, the bill and legs red. When a perching white bird suddenly unfolds these wonderful wings, having at times a sweep of 7 ft., and sails away, it makes a very imposing picture. Zechariah in a vision saw a woman having the wings of a stork; Zec 5:9, "Then lifted I up mine eyes, and saw, and, behold, there came forth two women, and the wind was in their wings; now they had wings like the wings of a stork; and they lifted up the ephah between eaxth and heaven." These birds winter in Africa. In their spring migration many pairs pause in Palestine, others cross the Mediterranean and spread over the housetops, ruins and suitable building-places of Europe as far north as Rolland and England. Always and everywhere the bird has been more or less protected on account of its fidelity to a chosen location, its fearlessness of man and the tender love between mated pairs and for its young.

The stork first appears among the birds of abomination, and it is peculiar that the crane does not, for they are closely related. But the crane eats moles, mice, lizards and smaller animals it can capture, also frogs and fish. To this same diet the stork adds carrion and other offensive matter, and the laws of Moses, as a rule, are formulated with good reason. Yet at one time, storks must have been eaten, for Pliny quoted Cornelius Nepos, who died in the days of Augustus Caesar, as saying that "in his time storks were holden for a better dish at board than cranes." Pliny adds: "Yet see, how in our age now, no man will touch a stork if it be set before him on the board, but everyone is ready to reach into the crane and no dish is more in request." He also wrote that it was a capital crime in Thessaly to kill storks, because of their work in slaying serpents. This may have been the beginning of the present laws protecting the bird, reinforced by the steady growth of respect and love for its tender, gentle disposition. The Hebrew word chaidhah, from which the stork took its name, means "kindness."

There is a smaller stork having a black neck and back, that homes in Palestine, but only in small numbers as compared with the white. These birds flock and live in forests around the borders of waste and desert places, and build in trees. The young of both species remain a long time in the nest and are tenderly cared for, so much so indeed that from their performances and love of building on housetops arose the popular tradition that the stork delivers newly born children to homes. The birds first appear in Lev 11:19 and Dt 14:18. Jeremiah noticed that the stork was migratory; see 8:7: "Yea, the stork in the heavens knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle-dove and the swallow and the crane observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the law of Yahweh." The Psalmist referred to their nesting in the cedars of Lebanon, for in Palestine these birds could not build on housetops, which were flat, devoid of chimneys and much used by the people as we use a veranda today; see Ps 104:17:

"Where the birds make their nests:

As for the stork, the fir-trees are her house."

Gene Stratton-Porter


STORY

sto-ri.

See COMMENTARY .


STORY TELLING

See GAMES , I, 4.


STORY WRITER

sto'-ri-rit-er: In the sense of chronicler or historian occurs in 1 Esdras 2:17 (margin "recorder") and 2:25.


STOUT; STOUTNESS

stout, stout'-nes: In modern English the word signifies strength firmness, corpulence, etc., but in English Versions of the Bible (Ps 76:5; Isa 10:12; 46:12; Dan 7:20; Mal 3:13 with stoutness" in Isa 9:9) it always means "bold" or "proud" and invariably in a bad sense; compare the German stolz, with which "stout" is allied.


STRAIGHT STREET

strat stret.

See DAMASCUS .


STRAIGHT; STRAIGHTWAY

strat, strat'-wa: "Straiglit" and "strait" are two entirely different words that have no connection with each other in English, the former being derived from the Anglo-Saxon, while the latter has come back from the Latin through the Romance. At some point still farther back, however, the two words may have had some common original with the general meaning "to stretch." But in straight the stretched object is a cord from which all curvature is removed, while in strait a solid is thought of, which is drawn out and made narrow, used figuratively in Job 20:22; 36:16; Mt 7:13 f; Phil 1:23. Before English spelling had reached a relatively settled stage the spelling of the two words was interchanged occasionally, but in even Elizabethan times this could happen only through ignorance. In English Versions of the Bible the forms are kept distinct with great care. "Straight," then, appears only in the sense "not crooked," in the Old Testament most commonly for some form of yashar, "be smooth" (2 Ch 32:30, etc.). In the Apocrypha and New Testament the word is not very common, being used for orthos (Baruch 6:27; Heb 12:13); euthus (Judith 13:20; Mk 1:3 and parallel's), with the verbs anorthoo (Lk 13:13), and euthuno (Jn 1:23; Heb 12:12 the Revised Version margin), "to make straight," and euthudromeo, "to make a straight course" (Acts 16:11; 21:1). For straightway in English Versions of the Bible overwhelmingly the most common word is euthus, or eutheos. the King James Version varies the translation of this adverb by using either "straightway" or "immediately" without distinction, but the Revised Version (British and American) (with a very few exceptions, e.g., Mt 24:29) has adhered to "straightway." The other occurrences in the Bible (1 Sam 9:13; 28:20, etc.) represent no special word.

Burton Scott Easton


STRAIN

stran (diulizo, "to strain off," "to filter"): Mt 23:24, "Ye blind guides, that strain out the gnat, and swallow the camel" The imagery is that of a drinking-vessel full of liquid, from which tiny impurities are carefully removed while immense masses of other impure matter (Lev 11:4) are overlooked (compare Mt 7:3 f). The first edition of the King James Version read the same as the Revised Version (British and American), but in the later editions a misprint converted "strain out" into "strain at," an error that has never been corrected.


STRAIT; STRAITEN; STRAITLY

strat, strat'-'-n, strat'-il: The word "strait" and its compounds are used in English Versions of the Bible in the literal sense of "narrow" (tsar, 2 Ki 6:1; Isa 49:20; mutsaq, Job 37:10; 'atsal, Ezek 42:6) and in the figurative sense of "strict" (shabha`, Ex 13:19; caghar, Josh 6:1; tsarar, "to be distressed," 2 Sam 24:14 parallel; yatsar, Job 20:22; metsar, Lam 1:3). In Apocrypha the verb "straitened" occurs in Susanna verse 22. In the New Testament we have stenos (Mt 7:13 f parallel, the Revised Version (British and American) "narrow"; polus, "much"; so the Revised Version (British and American) Mk 3:12; 5:43; sunecho, "to urge," "hold together," Lk 12:50; Phil 1:23). It occurs in its superlative form in Acts 26:5, "After the straitest (akribestatos, "most exact," "scrupulous") sect of our religion," i.e. "the most precise and rigorous in interpreting the Mosaic Law, and in observing the more minute precepts of the Law and of tradition" (Thayer, Lexicon, under the word; compare Acts 22:3).

See also STRAIGHT ,STRAIGHTWAY .

M. O. Evans


STRAKES

straks: An older form for "streaks" (so the American Standard Revised Version) in the King James Version, the English Revised Version Gen 30:37 (pitslah, "peeled spot"); Lev 14:37 (sheqa`aruroth, "hollow places"). For "strake," Tobit 11:11; the King James Version Acts 27:17.

See STRIKE .


STRANGE GODS

See GOD ,STRANGE .


STRANGE WIFE

"Strange" as contrasted with "an Israelite." Such wives are spoken of in the King James Version Ezr 10:2,11 (the English Revised Version "strange women," the American Standard Revised Version "foreign women"; see STRANGER AND SOJOURNER ; in the parallel 1 Esdras 8:68 through 9:37, the King James Version uses "strange wives" and "strange women" indifferently, and the Revised Version (British and American) here follows the King James Version) as "wives of the people of the land," in taking whom the men of Israel are said to have "trespassed against their God." Accordingly such wives were "put away."


STRANGE WOMAN

The Hebrew zar, translated "stranger," meant primarily one "who turns aside," i.e. to visit another country; then a "sojourner," "stranger." The "strange woman" of Prov 2:16 is a technical term for "harlot"; compare Jdg 11:1,2, where "son of a strange (the Revised Version (British and American) "another") woman" (11:2, 'acher) is parallel to "the son of a harlot" (11:1).

See STRANGE WIFE .


STRANGE, FIRE

stranj ('esh zarah, "alien fire"): These words are mentioned in connection with the fatal sin committed by the two oldest sons of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, in "offering strange fire before Yahweh," on the occasion of the formal consecration of the Aaronitic priesthood (Lev 10:1,2). The fact is mentioned again in Nu 3:4; 26:61. The greatest calamity of all befell them in that they were cut off childless, which for every true Israelite was the darkest fate imaginable. This fact is mentioned twice (Nu 3:4 and 1 Ch 24:2). The power which cut off the lives of Nadab and Abihu (Lev 10:1,2) is the same as that which shortly before had consumed the consecratory burnt offering (Lev 9:24). What was its true character, whether, as Rosenmuller and Dachsel surmise, it was a lightning stroke or some other supernatural agency, is not worth while debating. It is enough for us to know that "there came forth fire from before Yahweh and devoured them." Yet this latter word is not to be taken literally, since they were carried out for burial in their own linen garments (Lev 10:5). They were therefore merely killed, not incinerated. What was their sin? The words "strange fire" have been explained either as common fire, which they placed in their censers, or as unholy incense, which they put thereon (Ex 39:38). But the text plainly points to the former. The sacred fire, once kindled on the altar, was never to be permitted to go out (Lev 6:12 f). When later the temple was dedicated Yahweh again lighted the fire on the altar from heaven, as in the case of the dedication of the tabernacle. As, however, the injunction to take fire for the censers of the incense offering only from the coals of the altar is not found before (Lev 16:12), Rosenmuller's observation would seem to be very much to the point: "Quamquam enim in iis quae praecedunt, non extat hoc interdictum, tamen est verisimile Mosem vetasse Aaroni et filiis eius ne ignem alienum altari imponerent." ("For although his injunction does not hold in regard to the preceding cases, yet it is very probable that Moses had forbidden Aaron and his sons to place strange fire upon the altar.") A verbal injunction of Moses must have preceded the fatal mistake. But the text leads us to believe there was more than a mistake here. Some find here the sin of drunkenness, from the enjoined abstinence from any intoxicating drink before the priests thereafter minister before Yahweh (Lev 10:9). The likeliest explanation is that, inflated with pride on account of the exaltation of the Aaronitic family above all Israel, they broke unbidden into the ritual of the consecration of the tabernacle and priesthood, eager to take part in the ceremony, and in their haste bringing strange fire into the tabernacle, and thus met their death (see Oehler, Old Testament Theol., 126, 282). The fire burning on the altar came from God, it might never go out, since it represented "the unbroken course of adoration of Yahweh, carried on in sacrifice." And this course was interrupted by Nadab and Abihu. The fire on the altar was a symbol of holiness, and they sought to overlay it with unholiness. And thus it became to them a consuming fire, because they approached the Holy One in a profane spirit (compare Isa 33:14).

Henry E. Dosker


STRANGER AND SOJOURNER (IN THE APOCRYPHA AND THE NEW TESTAMENT)

The technical meaning attaching to the Hebrew terms is not present in the Greek words translated "stranger" and "sojourner," and the distinctions made by English Versions of the Bible are partly only to give uniformity in the translation. For "stranger" the usual Greek word is xenos, meaning primarily "guest" and so appearing in the combination "hatred toward guests" in The Wisdom of Solomon 19:13 (misoxenia). Xenos is the most common word for "stranger" in the New Testament (Mt 25:35, etc.), but it seems not to be used by itself with this force in the Apocrypha. Almost equally common in the New Testament is allotrios, "belonging to another" (Mt 17:25,26; Jn 10:5 (bis)), and this is the usual word in the Apocrypha (Sirach 8:18; 1 Macc 1:38, etc.), but for some inexplicable reason the Revised Version (British and American) occasionally translates by "alien" (contrast, e.g. 1 Macc 1:38; 2:7). Compare the corresponding verb apallotrioo (Eph 2:12; 4:18; Col 1:21). With the definite meaning of "foreigner" are allogenes, "of another nation," the Revised Version (British and American) "stranger" (1 Esdras 8:83; 1 Macc 3:45 (the King James Version "alien"); Lk 17:18 (the Revised Version margin "alien")), and allophulos, "of another tribe," the Revised Version (British and American) "stranger" (Baruch 6:5; 1 Macc 4:12, etc.) or "of another nation" (Acts 10:28). For "to sojourn" the commonest form is paroikeo, "to dwell beside," the Revised Version (British and American) always "to sojourn" (Judith 5:7; Sirach 41:19; Lk 24:18 (the King James Version "to be a stranger"); Heb 11:9). The corresponding noun for "sojourner" is paroikos (Sirach 29:26 f (the King James Version "stranger"); Acts 7:6,26; Eph 2:19; 1 Pet 2:11), with paroikia, "sojourning" (The Wisdom of Solomon 19:10; Sirach 16:8; Acts 13:17 (the King James Version "dwelling as strangers"); 1 Pet 1:17). In addition, epidemeo, "to be among people," is translated "to sojourn" in Acts 2:10; 17:21, and its compound parepidemos, as "sojourner" in 1 Pet 1:1 (in Heb 11:13; 1 Pet 2:11, "pilgrim").

Burton Scott Easton


STRANGER AND SOJOURNER (IN THE OLD TESTAMENT)

stranj'-er:

I. THE GER

1. Legal provisions

(1) Principles

(2) Rules

2. Relation to Sacrifice and Ritual

3. Historical Circumstances

II. THE TOSHABH

III. THE NOKHRI OR BEN NEKHAR

1. Marriage

2. Exclusion of Some Races from the Assembly

IV. THE ZAR

Four different Hebrew words must be considered separately: (1) ger, the American Standard Revised Version "sojourner" or "stranger"; (2) toshabh, the American Standard Revised Version "sojourner"; (3) nokhri, ben nekhar, the American Standard Revised Version "foreigner"; (4) zar, the American Standard Revised Version "stranger."

I. The Ger.

This word with its kindred verb is applied with slightly varying meanings to anyone who resides in a country or a town of which he is not a full native land-owning citizen; e.g., the word is used of the patriarchs in Palestine, the Israelites in Egypt, the Levites dwelling among the Israelites (Dt 18:6; Jdg 17:7, etc.), the Ephraimite in Gibeah (Jdg 19:16). It is also particularly used of free aliens residing among the Israelites, and it is with the position of such that this article deals. This position is absolutely unparalleled in early legal systems (A. H. Post, Grundriss der ethnologischen Jurisprudenz, I, 448, note 3), which are usually far from favorable to strangers.

1. Legal Provisions:

(1) Principles.

The dominant principles of the legislation are most succinctly given in two passages: He "loveth the ger in giving him food and raiment" (Dt 10:18); "And if a ger sojourn with thee (variant "you") in your land, ye shall not do him wrong. The ger that sojourneth with you shall be unto you as the home-born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were gerim in the land of Egypt" (Lev 19:33 f). This treatment of the stranger is based partly on historic recollection, partly on the duty of the Israelite to his God. Because the ger would be at a natural disadvantage through his alienage, he becomes one of the favorites of a legislation that gives special protection to the weak and helpless.

(2) Rules.

In nationality the freeman followed his father, so that the son of a ger and an Israelitess was himself a ger (Lev 24:10-22). Special care was to be taken to do him no judicial wrong (Dt 1:16; 94:17; 27:19). In what may roughly be called criminal law it was enacted that the same rules should apply to gerim as to natives (Lev 18:26, which is due to the conception that certain abominations defile a land; 20:2, where the motive is also religious; 24:10-22; see SBL , 84 ff; Nu 35:15). A free Israelite who became his slave was subject to redemption by a relative at any time on payment of the fair price (Lev 25:47 ff). This passage and Dt 28:43 contemplate the possibility of a stranger's becoming wealthy, but by far the greater number of the legal provisions regard him as probably poor. Thus provision is made for him to participate in tithes (Dt 14:29; 26:12), gleanings of various sorts and forgotten sheaves (Lev 19:10; 23:22; Dt 24:19,20,21), and poor hired servants were not to be oppressed (Dt 24:14).

2. Relation to Sacrifice and Ritual:

Nearly all the main holy days apply to the ger. He was to rest on the Sabbath (Ex 20:10; 23:12, etc.), to rejoice on Weeks and Tabernacles (Dt 16), to observe the Day of Atonement (Lev 16:29), to have no leaven on the Festival of Unleavened Bread (Ex 12:19). But he could not keep the Passover unless he underwent circumcision (Ex 12:48). He could not eat blood at any rate during the wilderness period (Lev 17:10-12), and for that period, but not thereafter, he was probihited from eating that which died of itself (Lev 17:15; Dt 14:21) under pain of being unclean until the even. He could offer sacrifices (Lev 17:8 f; 22:18; Nu 15:14 f), and was subject to the same rules as a native for unwitting sins (Nu 15:22-31), and for purification for uncleanness by reason of contact with a dead body (Nu 19:10-13).

3. Historical Circumstances:

The historical circumstances were such as to render the position of the resident alien important from the first. A "mixed multitude" went up with the Israelites from Egypt, and after the conquest we find Israelites and the races of Palestine living side by side throughout the country. We repeatedly read of resident aliens in the historical books, e.g. Uriah the Hittite. According to 2 Ch 2:17 f (Hebrew 16 f) there was a very large number of such in the days of Solomon, but the figure may be excessive. These seem to have been the remnant of the conquered tribes (1 Ki 9:20 f). Ezekiel in his vision assigned to gerim landed inheritance among the Israelites (47:22 f). Hospitality to the ger was of course a religious duty and the host would go to any lengths to protect his guest (Gen 19; Jdg 19:24).

II. The Toshabh.

Of the toshabh we know very little. It is possible that the word is practically synonymous with ger, but perhaps it is used of less permanent sojourning. Thus in Lev 22:10 it appears to cover anybody residing with a priest. A toshabh could not eat the Passover or the "holy" things of a priest (Ex 12:45; Lev 22:10). His children could be purchased as perpetual slaves, and the law of the Jubilee did not apply to them as to Israelites (Lev 25:45). He is expressly mentioned in the law of homicide (Nu 35:15), but otherwise we have no information as to his legal position. Probably it was similar to that of the ger.

III. The Nokhri Ben Nekhar.

The nokhri or ben nekhar was a foreigner. The word is far wider than those considered above. It covers everything of alien or foreign character regardless of the place of residence. By circumcision a foreign slave could enter into the covenant with Abraham. Foreigners were of course excluded from the Passover (Ex 12:43), but could offer sacrifices to Israel's God at the religious capital (Lev 22:25). The Israelite could exact interest of them (Dt 23:20) and the payment of debts in cases where an Israelite debtor was protected by the release of Dt 15:3. Moses forbade the appointment of a foreigner as a ruler (Dt 17:15, in a law which according to Massoretic Text relates to a "king," but in the preferable text of Septuagint to a ruler generally). Later the worship of God by foreigners from a distance was contemplated and encouraged (1 Ki 8:41-43; Isa 2:2 f; 56:3,6 f; etc.), while the case of Naaman shows that a foreigner might worship Him abroad (2 Ki 5:17). A resident foreigner was of course a ger. The distinction between these three words is perhaps best seen in Ex 12:43,45,48 f. in the first of these verses we have ben nekhar, used to cover "alien" generally; in the last the ger is contemplated as likely to undergo a complete naturalization; while in 12:45 the toshabh is regarded as certain to be outside the religious society.

1. Marriage:

In the earlier period marriages with foreigners are common, though disliked (e.g. Gen 24:3; 27:46 ff; Nu 12:1; Jdg 14:3, etc.). The Law provides for some unions of this kind (Dt 21:10 ff; compare Nu 31:18), but later Judaism became more stringent. Moses required the high priest to marry a virgin of his own people (Lev 21:14); Ezekiel limited all descendants of Zadok to wives of the house of Israel (44:22); Ezra and Nehemiah carried on a vigorous polemic against the intermarriage of any Jew with foreign women (Ezr 10; Neh 13:23-31).

2. Exclusion of Some Races from Assembly:

Deuteronomy further takes up a hostile attitude to Ammonites and Moabites, excluding them from the assembly of the Lord even to the tenth generation, while the children of the third generation of Edomites and Egyptians could enter it (23:3-8 (Hebrew 4-9)). From 1 Ki 9:20,21,24; 1 Ch 22:2 we learn of the existence of foreign quarters in Israel.

IV. The Zar.

The remaining word zar means "stranger" and takes its coloring from the context. It may mean "stranger in blood," e.g. non-Aaronite (Nu 16:40 (Hebrew 17:5)), or non-Levite (e.g. Nu 1:51), or a non-member of some other defined family (Dt 25:5). In opposition to priest it means "lay" (Lev 22:10-13), and when the contrast is with holy, it denotes "profane" (Ex 30:9).

See FOREIGNER ;GENTILES ;PROSELYTE ;CHERETHITES ;PELETHITES ;MARRIAGE ;COMMERCE .

Harold M. Wiener


STRANGLED

stran'-g'-ld (chanaq; pniktos, from verb pnigo, "to choke," "to smother," "to strangle" (compare choking of swine in the lake, Mk 5:13; the seed are choked by the thorns, Mt 13:7; the servant takes his fellow-servant by the throat, the King James Version Mt 18:28)): As adjective "strangled," used of animals deprived of life by choking, and so without the shedding of the blood. Flesh thus killed was forbidden as food among the Hebrews, because it contained the blood (Lev 17:12). Even Jewish Christians in the Jerusalem council thought it best to forbid things strangled to be eaten by Gentile converts, so as not to give offense to Jewish sentiment, and doubtless also to prevent participation in heathen sacrificial feasts (Acts 15:20; 21:25).

Edward Bagby Pollard


STRANGLING

stran'-g'-ling.

See PUNISHMENTS .


STRAW; STUBBLE

stro, stub'-'-l: The cognates of Hebrew tebhen, "straw" and qash, "stubble," have been retained in the modern Arabic terms tibn and qashsh. Tibn applies to the straw which has been cut up into short pieces and more or less split by the threshing operations. It is commonly used throughout the East as a coarse fodder or roughage for domestic herbivorous animals (compare Gen 24:25,32; Jdg 19:19; 1 Ki 4:28; Isa 11:7; 65:25). Hay and similar cured crops are practically unknown. Barley, peas and other grain, when fed to animals, are mixed with the tibn. The animals will frequently reject the tibn unless there is grain in it. They often nose about the tibn until the grain settles to the bottom so that they can eat the latter without the straw. Straw left in the manger is thrown out in the stall to form part of the bedding (compare Isa 25:10).

Tibn is mixed with clay for plastering walls or for making sun-dried bricks. It is also mixed with lime and sand for plastering. The children of Israel had their task of brickmaking made more arduous by being required to gather stubble and prepare it by chopping it up instead of being given the already prepared straw of the threshing-floors (Ex 5:7 ff).

Qashsh (literally, "dried up") refers to the stalks left standing in the wheat fields or to any dried-up stalks or stems such as are gathered for burning. Camels and other flocks sometimes supplement their regular meals by grazing on the stubble, otherwise it has no use. In the Bible stubble is used to typify worthless inflammable material (Ex 15:7; Job 13:25; 41:28,29; Ps 83:13; Isa 5:24, etc.; 1 Cor 3:12, kalame).

mathben, is translated "straw" in Isa 25:10.

James A. Patch


STRAWED

strod: Past participle of "to strew," "scatter," or "spread about," as powder (of the golden calf, Ex 32:20, the Revised Version (British and American) "strewed"); branches (Mt 21:8, the Revised Version (British and American) "spread"); seed (Mt 25:24,26, the Revised Version (British and American) "scatter").


STREAM

strem: (1) nachal, English Versions of the Bible "stream," as: "Behold, he smote the rock, so that waters gushed out, and streams overflowed" (Ps 78:20). Often "valley," as "the valley (the King James Version "river") of the Arnon" (Dt 2:24); or "brook," as "the brook (the King James Version "river") of Egypt" (Josh 15:4; see BROOK orEGYPT ); or "river," as "the river Kishon" (Jdg 4:7). (2) nahar (Aramaic nehar (Dan 7:10); compare Arabic nahr, "river"): "He bindeth the streams," the King James Version "floods" (Job 28:11); "the River" (Euphrates) (Ex 23:31, etc.); "Abanah and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus" (2 Ki 5:12). (3) pelegh, the root palagh, "to split," "to divide," hence, "cleft," "channel": "a tree planted by the streams (the King James Version "rivers") of water" (Ps 1:3); "There is a river, the streams whereof make glad the city of God" (Ps 46:4); but: "The king's heart is .... as the watercourses" (the King James Version "rivers of water") (Prov 21:1). (4) 'aphiq, the root 'aphaq, "to be strong," hence, "channel," "valley," as holding, confining (BDB): "the streams in the South" (Ps 126:4); elsewhere "brook," as "the brooks (the King James Version "rivers") of Judah" (Joel 3:18); or "channel," as "the channel of brooks" (Job 6:15); or "watercourses" (the Revised Version margin "ravines," the King James Version "rivers") (Ezek 6:3, etc.). (5) ye'or, from Egyptian 'iotr, 'io'r, especially of the Nile, as: "Seven other kine came up after them out of the river" (Gen 41:3); the Revised Version (British and American) "stream," the King James Version "river" (Ex 7:19; 8:5);, the Revised Version (British and American) "stream," the King James Version "brook"; "The streams (margin "canals") of Egypt shall be diminished and dried up" (Isa 19:6). (6) yabhal, the root yabhal, "to bear along": "brooks and streams of waters" (Isa 30:25); compare yabhal, "river," "that spreadeth out its roots by the river" (Jer 17:8); 'ubhal, "the river Ulai" (Dan 8:2). (7) nazal, "to flow," "to trickle": "He brought streams also out of the rock" (Ps 78:16). (8) 'eshedh, "the slope of the valleys," the King James Version "the stream of the brooks" (Nu 21:15); compare 'ashedhoth, "the slopes" (Josh 10:40); "the slopes (margin "springs") of Pisgah" (Dt 3:17). (9) potamos, "The stream brake against that house" (Lk 6:48,49); elsewhere "river," as "the river Jordan" (Mk 1:5). (10) kludon, "stream," the King James Version The Wisdom of Solomon 19:7 (the Revised Version (British and American) "surge").

See BROOK ;CANALS ;CHANNEL ;RIVER ;VALE ;WATERCOURSE .

Alfred Ely Day


STREET

stret.

See CITY .


STRENGTH, OF ISRAEL

strength: For "the strength of the children of Israel," applied to Yahweh in the King James Version Joel 3:16, the Revised Version (British and American) reads "a stronghold to the children of Israel."


STRIKE

strik: The verbs "to strike" and "to stroke" (latter not in English Versions) have the same derivation, and originally "strike" was the intrans, "stroke" the transitive form. "Strike" however, became used in both senses (always transitive in English Versions of the Bible), while "to stroke" took on the meaning "to, rub gently." But in the King James Version this last force still belonged sometimes to "strike" and is so found in 2 Ki 5:11, "strike his hand over the place" (the Revised Version (British and American) "wave"), and perhaps Ex 12:7,22; Tobit 11:11 Otherwise AV's uses of the simple "strike" are modern, including "strike sail" (Acts 27:17; here and in Tobit 11:11 with an archaic preterite "strake," elsewhere "struck"). The Revised Version's "They lowered the gear" is a more precise translation, not a modernizing of the King James Version's English. The combination "to strike through," however, is not modern English, and was used by the King James Version as meaning either "to pierce" (Jdg 5:26; Job 20:24; Prov 7:23; Lam 4:9), or, as an intensive, "to strike violently," "to crush" (Ps 110:5). The Revised Version (British and American) has attempted to distinguish only in Hab 3:14, "pierce," margin "smite." "Striking hands" is a common custom at the conclusion of a bargain (Additions to Esther 14:8), but in Job 17:3; Prov 6:1; 17:18; 22:26; the Revised Version margin 11:15, the ceremony is used technically for an agreement to be surety for another. Striking (the Revised Version margin "firing") stones to produce a fire is mentioned (2 Macc 10:3).

The past participle of "strike" is stricken (modern English "struck") (compare Prov 23:35; Jer 5:3; Lam 4:9). So Isa 1:5, "Why will ye be still stricken?" is equivalent to "Why should ye receive any more blows?" (compare 16:7; 53:4,8 margin). But in the phrase "stricken in age" (Gen 18:11, etc.) "strike" has an older meaning, "advance."

Striker is found in 1 Tim 3:3; Tit 1:7 as a literal translation of plektes. A hot-tempered man, prone to physical outbursts, is meant. A stroke is simply a"blow," but in Dt 17:8; 21:5, "stroke" is used technically for "assault."

Burton Scott Easton


STRINGED, INSTRUMENTS

stringd.

See MUSIC .


STRIPES

strips.

See PUNISHMENTS .


STRIVE

striv.

See GAMES ,II , 2.


STRONGHOLD

strong'-hold.

See FORTIFIED CITIES ,IV , 1.


STUBBLE

stub'-'-l (qash (Ex 5:12, etc.); kalame (The Wisdom of Solomon 3:7; 1 Cor 3:12)): These Hebrew and Greek forms are used of the stalks of wheat, etc., left knee-high in the field by the reapers. tebhen (Job 21:18), is a mixture of chopped straw and chaff produced in threshing, which is winnowed out by the fan (compare Jer 23:28; Isa 5:24; Mt 3:12). When tebhen was withheld from them the Israelites had to utilize qash for the manufacture of their bricks (Ex 5:12).


STUDS

studz (nequddoth, "engraving," "stud"): Ornaments consisting of small silver points which it was proposed (Song 1:11) to affix to the new golden "plaits" (the Revised Version) or "borders" (the King James Version), and which were to replace the strung beads of the bride's necklace.


STUFF

stuf (keli; skeuos): "Material" for any purpose (Ezek 12:3,4,7); or "supplies" in a more general sense (Ex 36:7, Hebrew mela'-khah; compare the King James Version, the English Revised Version 1 Sam 10:22; 25:13; 30:24 (the American Standard Revised Version substitutes "baggage")); frequently, "household possessions" (Gen 31:37; 45:20; Ex 22:7; Josh 7:11; Neh 13:8; Judith 16:19; the King James Version Judith 15:11 (skeuasmata, the Revised Version (British and American) "furniture"); the King James Version Lk 17:31, where the Revised Version (British and American) reads "goods"). "Mingled stuff" is the translation of sha'aTnez in the Revised Version (British and American) instead of "garment of divers sorts" the King James Version (Dt 22:11).


STUMBLING-BLOCK; STUMBLING-STONE

stum'-bling-blok, (mikhshol, makhshelah; proskomma, skandalon): These are the most important of the varied renderings of either of two cognate Hebrew words, or of two different Greek words. Sometimes the Greek word for "stone" (lithos) accompanies the principal word. There is no important difference in the meaning of the words or of their renderings. the Revised Version (British and American) generally substitutes "stumbling" for "offence" of the King James Version.

The literal meaning of the Hebrew words--an object which causes one to stumble or fall--appears in such passages as Lev 19:14: "Thou shalt not .... put a stumblingblock (mikhshol) before the blind" (compare Jer 6:21). But the expression is ordinarily figurative, referring to that which causes material ruin or spiritual downfall, which were closely connected in Old Testament thought (Ps 119:165; Ezek 21:15). The things that lead astray are silver and gold (Ezek 7:19); idols (Ezek 14:3; Zeph 1:3, etc.).

One of the New Testament words, skandalon, literally means the stick of a trap to which the bait is attached, and which when touched springs the trap. Figuratively either word refers to a thing or a person that leads one to fall into error, into sin or into destruction: the cross of Christ (Gal 5:11; Rom 11:9); another's liberty (1 Cor 8:9); Peter in Mt 16:23; Christ, whose life and character were so different from Jewish expectation (Rom 9:33).

See also OFFENCE .

George Rice Hovey



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