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International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

VE


VEDAN

ve'-dan (wedhan): A place-name occurring only in Ezek 27:19, "Vedan and Javan traded with yarn for thy wares." the King James Version, taking the syllable we as the Hebrew conjunction, renders "and Dan also." The text is in bad condition. Some read "Dedan," but Dedan is spoken of separately in the following verse. Assuming that Vedan is the correct reading, an identification may be conjectured with Waddan, also called al-`Abwa`, between Mecca and Medina. It was the object of Mohammed's first expedition (Ibn Hisham, 415). The name contains that of the god Wadd who was worshipped chiefly by the Arab tribe Kalb.

A. S. Fulton


VEHEMENT, VEHEMENTLY

ve'-he-ment, ve'-he-ment-li (charishi; epipothesis): "Vehement" (from Latin vehere, "to carry," or ve, "out of," and mens, "mind"), carried away by the mind or force of passion, occurs twice in the Old Testament (Song 8:6, the King James Version "a most vehement flame" (jealousy)) as the translation of shalhebheth-yah, "the flame of Yah," which perhaps means lightning (the Revised Version (British and American) "a very flame of Yahweh," margin "a most vehement flame, Hebrew: Yah"); and as the translation of the King James Version charishi, "silent," "still," hence "sultry" (Jon 4:8, the King James Version "a vehement east wind," the Revised Version (British and American) "sultry"). In the New Testament, "vehement desire" is (the King James Version) the translation of epipothesis, "earnest desire" (2 Cor 7:11, the Revised Version (British and American) "longing").

"Vehemently" is the translation of deinos, "greatly" (Lk 11:53); of ek perissou or ekperissos, "beyond measure" (Mk 14:31, "He spake exceeding vehemently"); of eutonos, "intensely" (Lk 23:10); and in the King James Version of prosrhegnumi, "to break" or "dash upon" (Lk 6:48,49, the Revised Version (British and American) "break").

W. L. Walker


VEIL (1)

val: The following words are so translated in English Versions of the Bible (sometimes the King James Version vail): (1) miTpachath, Ruth 3:15 the King James Version, the Revised Version (British and American) "mantle." As the material was strong enough to serve as a bag for a large quantity of grain the Revised Version (British and American) is certainly right; compare Isa 3:22. (2) macweh, Ex 34:33-35. Paul in his quotation of the passage in 2 Cor 3:13-16 uses kalumma, following Septuagint. The covering worn by Moses to conceal the miraculous brightness of his face, although, according to Massoretic Text, he seems to have worn it only in private. (3) macckhah, Isa 25:7; in 28:20 translated "covering." The use in 25:7 is figurative and the form of the "veil" a matter of indifference. (4) tsammah, the Revised Version (British and American) Song 4:1,3 (margin "locks" (of hair)); 6:7; Isa 47:2, the King James Version "locks." The meaning of the word is uncertain and the King James Version may very well be right. If, however, the Revised Version's translation is correct, a light ornamental veil is meant. (5) tsa`iph, Gen 24:65; 38:14,19. A large wrap is meant, which at times was used to cover the face also. In 24:65 Rebekah conformed to the etiquette which required the veiling of brides (see MARRIAGE ). In Genesis 38 one motive for Tamar's use of the veil was certainly to avoid recognition, but it seems clear from the passage that veils were used by courtesans. Why is unknown, perhaps partly to conceal their identity, perhaps partly in parody of the marriage custom. (6) redhidh, Song 5:7 (the Revised Version (British and American) "mantle," margin "veil"); Isa 3:23. A light mantle is certainly meant. In Song 5:7 it is torn from the maiden in the watchmen's endeavor to detain her. (7) parakalumma, The Wisdom of Solomon 17:3 the King James Version, the Revised Version (British and American) "curtain." (8) Verb katakalupto, 1 Cor 11:6 f, with akatakalupto, "unveil" in 11:5; the King James Version has "cover" and "uncover"; kalupto, 2 Cor 4:3 (twice), anakalupto, 2 Cor 3:18; the King James Version "hid" and "open."

It will be seen that there is a certain reference to what in modern times would be termed a "veil" only in (2) above. For a possible additional reference see MUFFLER .

The use of the face veil as a regular article of dress was unknown to the Hebrew women, and if "veil" is to be understood in Song 4:1, etc., it was worn as an ornament only. The modern oriental custom of veiling is due to Mohammedan influence and has not been universally adopted by Jewesses in the Orient. In New Testament times, however, among both Greeks and Romans, reputable women wore a veil in public (Plutarch Quaest. Rom. xiv) and to appear without it was an act of bravado (or worse); Tarsus, Paul's home city, was especially noted for strictness in this regard (Dio of Prusa, Tarsica prior, section symbol 48). Hence, Paul's indignant directions in 1 Cor 11:2-16, which have their basis in the social proprieties of the time. The bearing of these directions, however, on the compulsory use of the hat by modern women in public worship would appear to be very remote.

For the Veil of the Tabernacle and the Temple see next article.

Burton Scott Easton


VEIL (2)

(1) (parokheth; katapetasma; the King James Version vail): In Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, the veil that hung between the two holy chambers of the tabernacle is mentioned 23 times (Ex 26:31, etc.). In several places it is termed "the veil of the screen" and it is distinguished from "the screen for the door of the tabernacle" (Ex 35:12,15; 39:34,38). By the latter is meant the curtain that hung outside the holy place, i.e. at the tabernacle entrance. Ex 26:31 informs us that the veil was made of fine-twined linen, and that its colors were blue and purple and scarlet. It was embroidered with cherubim. At each removal of the tabernacle the veil was used to enwrap the ark of the testimony (Nu 4:5). From its proximity to this central object of the Hebrew ceremonial system, the veil is termed "the veil of the testimony" (Lev 24:3), "the veil which is before the testimony" (Ex 27:21), etc. In Solomon's Temple the veil is mentioned but once (2 Ch 3:14). It was protected by doors of olive wood (1 Ki 6:31). In the later temple it is alluded to in 1 Macc 1:22. Its presence in Herod's temple is attested by the statement in each of the Synoptists that at the time of Christ's death the veil of the temple was rent from top to bottom, or in the midst (Mt 27:51; Mk 15:38; Lk 23:45; compare in Mishna, Mid. ii. 1; iv.7). This fact is the basis of the profound truth expressed by the writer to the Hebrews that Jesus, by His sacrificial death, opened for all believers a way into the holiest "through the veil, that is to say, his flesh" (Heb 10:20). See TABERNACLE ;TEMPLE . (2) See the preceding article andDRESS , V.

W. Shaw Caldecott


VEIN

van: Only in Job 28:1, the King James Version "a vein for the silver," or motsa', "going forth," "source." Both the King James Version "vein" and the Revised Version (British and American) "mine" are more specialized than motsa', but the Revised Version (British and American) doubtless conveys the original meaning.


VENGEANCE

ven'-jans.

See AVENGE ;GOEL ;RETRIBUTION ;REVENGE .


VENISON

ven'-i-z'-n, ven'-z'-n: Is derived (through the French venaison) from the Latin venari, "to hunt," and means properly "the spoils of the chase." As, however, the object of the chase, paragraph excellence, was the deer, venison came to mean usually (as it invariably does in modern English) "deer's flesh." But in English Versions of the Bible this technical force seems not to be implied, for "venison" is used only for the two Hebrew words tsayidh (Gen 25:28; 27:5 ff), and tsedhah (Gen 27:3), and both these words (from tsudh, "to hunt") mean simply "game" of any kind.


VERDIGRIS

vur'-di-gres.

See SCUM .


VERILY, VERITY

ver'-i-ti, ver'-i-ti ('abhal, etc.; amen): "Verily," as corroborative adverb, represents various Hebrew and Greek words and particles ('abhal, "truly," in Gen 42:21, etc.; 'akh, "only," "surely," in Ps 66:19; Isa 45:15, etc.). For the King James Version "verily thou shalt be fed" (Ps 37:3, where 'emunah), the American Standard Revised Version has "feed on his faithfulness" and the English Revised Version "follow after faithfulness," margin in both "feed securely." The Greek amen (Hebrew 'amen) is used very frequently in the Gospels as an emphatic confirmation of Christ's sayings (Mt 5:18,26; 6:2; Mk 3:28, etc.), and in John's Gospel is repeated to give additional emphasis (Jn 1:51; 3:3,5,11, The Revised Version (British and American) makes various changes, as "wholly" for "verily" (Job 19:13), "surely" (Ps 39:5; 73:13), "indeed" (Mk 9:12; Rom 2:25; Heb 3:5; 7:5), etc., and sometimes puts "verily" where the King James Version has other words, as "also" (Mt 13:23), "doubtless" (Phil 3:8), etc.

Verity is the translation of 'emeth, "truth," "stedfastness" (Ps 111:7, "The works of his hands are verity and judgment," the American Standard Revised Version "truth and justice," the English Revised Version "truth and judgment"); and of aletheia, "truth," "reality," "certainty" (1 Tim 2:7), "faith and verity," the Revised Version (British and American) "faith and truth."

W. L. Walker


VERMILION

ver-mil'-yun.

See COLORS , (3).


VERSIONS

vur'-shunz.

See AMERICAN REVISED VERSION ;ARABIC VERSIONS ;ARMENIAN VERSIONS ;COPTIC VERSIONS ;ENGLISH VERSIONS ;ETHIOPIC VERSIONS ;LATIN VERSION ,THE OLD ;SEPTUAGINT ;SYRIAC VERSIONS ;TARGUM ;TEXT AND MANUSCRIPTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT ;TEXT OF THE OLD TESTAMENT ;VULGATE .


VERSIONS, GEORGIAN, GOTHIC, SLAVONIC

jor'-ji-an, goth'-ik, sla-von'-ik:

1. The Georgian Version:

Georgia is the name given to the territory extending to the East of the Black Sea, a country that has had an independent national existence of 2,000 years but is now (under the name Grusinia) a part of the trans-Caucasian domain of Russia. The language has no affinities with any of the recognized groups, but is becoming obsolete under Russian pressure. Christianity was introduced into Georgia m the 4th century, and a national conversion followed. A well-supported tradition makes the first translation of the Bible almost contemporaneous with this conversion and refers it to Mesrop (died 441; see ARMENIAN VERSIONS ), but the fact is not quite certain and the beginnings of a native version may really be as much as two centuries later. The oldest manuscript extant is a Psalter of the 7th-8th centuries, and the earliest copy of the Gospels is perhaps a century later; in all, Gregory (Textkritik, 573-75) enumerates 17 Georgian manuscripts of the New Testament, but his list is not exhaustive.

The first printed Bible was produced in the ancient alphabet in Moscow in 1743 and has never been reprinted, but other edd, perhaps only of the New Testament, were issued at least in 1816 and 1818, using the nonecclesiastical alphabet. According to Conybeare (ZNTW, XI, 161-66, 232-39 (1910)) the Georgian version was first made from the Old Syriac and then later (11th century) revised from the Greek In 1910 a new edition, based on two manuscripts dated respectively 913 and 995, was begun (Quattuor Ev. versio Georgia vetus, Petersburg). The Georgian version was used by S. C. Malan, The Gospel according to John, translated from the 11 Oldest VSS, London, 1862.

2. The Gothic Version:

Ulfilas, the Arian bishop of the West Goths and the chief agent in their conversion to Christianity, was also the first translator of the Bible into Gothic, a work for which he had even to invent an alphabet. According to tradition, his translation included the entire Bible with the exception of Kings (which he thought unadapted to the already too warlike character of his converts), but there is doubt whether his work actually included more than the New Testament. Too little of the Old Testament has survived to enable a settling of this question, nor is it possible to tell how much revision the New Testament translation has undergone since Ulfilas' work.

A list of the six Gothic manuscripts is given in HDB, IV, 862, to which is to be added a bilingual Latin-Gothic manuscript containing portions of Luke 24, known as the Arsinoe Fragment (published in ZNTW, XI, 1-38 (1910) and separately (Giessen, 1910)). In all there have been preserved in the Old Testament Gen 5 (in part); Ps 52:2 f; Neh 5-7 (in part), and in the New Testament the Gospels and Pauline Epistles (all incomplete), with quotations from Hebrews. The best complete edition is that of Stamm-Heyne(9) (Paderborn, 1896), but as the version is of basic importance for the history of the Germanic languages there are many editions of various portions prepared for philological purposes.

The Old Testament fragments are a translation of a text very closely allied to the Lucianic Greek (see SEPTUAGINT ) and are certainly not from the Hebrew New Testament undoubtedly was made from a text of the type used in Antioch (Constantinople) in the 4th century, with very slight variations, none of which are "neutral" (von Soden classes them as of the I-type). Either in making the translation or (more probably) in a subsequent revision an Old-Latin text was used, of the type of Codex Brixianus (f), and certain Old-Latin readings are well marked. For brief lists of these peculiarities see Burkitt in Journal Theological Studies, I, 129-34 (1900), or von Soden, Schriften des New Testament, I, 1469 f (1906).

3. The Slavonic Version:

It is definitely known that the first Slavonic translation of the Bible was commenced in 864 or earlier by the two brothers Cyril (died 869) and Methodius (died 885), and that the latter worked on it after the former's death. Their work was undertaken for the benefit of the Balkan Slavs, and at first only the liturgical portions (Gospels, Acts, Epistles and Psalms) were translated, but, after the completion of this, Methodius carried the translation farther to include larger portions of the Old Testament. How much of this he accomplished is obscure, but he seems not to have finished the Old Testament entirely, while almost certainly he did not translate Revelation. Uncertain also is the exact dialect used for this work; although this dialect was the basis of the present liturgical language of the Russian church, it has undergone much transformation before arriving at its final stage. At different times the translation of the Bible was revised to conform to the changes of the language, in addition to other revisional changes, and, as a result, the manuscripts (some of which go back to the 10th century) exhibit very varying types of text that have not been satisfactorily classified.

An attempt to bring the discrepant material into order was made about 1495 by Archbishop Gennadius, but he was unable to find Slavonic manuscripts that included the entire Bible and was forced to supply the deficiencies (Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther and most of Jeremiah and the Apocrypha) by a new translation made from the Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 A.D.) This Bible of Gennadius was the basis of the first printed edition, made at Ostrog in 1581, although the liturgical portions had been printed earlier (Acts and Epistles first of all in 1564). The Ostrog edition followed Gennadius fairly closely, but Esther, Canticles, and Wisdom were new translations made from the Septuagint. The next revision was undertaken by order of Peter the Great and was performed by using the Greek (Old Testament and New Testament), although the resulting text was not printed until 1751. A slightly emended edition of 1756 is still the official Bible of the Russian church.

This Slavonic version is to be distinguished from the version in the true Russian language, begun first in 1517, revised or remade at various times, with an excellent modern translation first published complete in 1876. See, on the whole subject, especially Bebb in Church Quart. Rev., XLI, 203-25, 1895.

LITERATURE.

On all three versions see HDB ,IV , 861-64, 1902, and the article "Bibelubersetzung" inPRE 3,III (1897), with the important supplement inXXIII (1913).

Burton Scott Easton


VERY

ver'-i: As adjective (from verus, "true"), "true," "real," "actual," etc. (Gen 27:21,24, "my very son Esau"; Josh 10:27, "this very day"; Jn 7:26, "the very Christ," etc.); chiefly as adverb, "in a high degree," "extremely." As ab adverb it is commonly in the Old Testament the translation of me'odh, and in the New Testament represents, as adjective and adverb, several Greek words, as alethos, "truly" (Jn 7:26, above), autos (Jn 14:11, "the very works' sake"; Rom 13:6), sphodra (Mt 18:31, "very sorry," the Revised Version (British and American) "exceeding sorry"; Mk 16:4, "very great," the Revised Version (British and American) "exceeding"), huper- (in composition 1 Thess 5:13), etc. the Revised Version (British and American) frequently omits "very," and also substitutes other words for it, as "exceeding" (2 Ch 16:8; Mt 26:7; compare above), "sore" (Zec 9:5), etc.

W. L. Walker


VESSEL

ves'-el: Is used freely in English Versions of the Bible to translate keli, the Aramaic ma'n, and skeuos, words all meaning "an implement or utensil" of any kind, when the context shows that a hollow utensil is meant. In 1 Sam 21:5, however, the translation of the plural of keli by "vessels" is dubious. English Versions of the Bible evidently intended something in the nature of provision wallets, and the "holiness" of such objects finds partial parallels in Nu 19:15; Lev 11:32-34, etc. But in 1 Sam 21:8, in the immediate context of the verse above, keli certainly means "weapons," and this translation is quite intelligible in 21:5 also. For war among the Hebrews was a holy function, calling for extreme ceremonial purity (Dt 23:9-14). See the commentaries. and especially RS2, 455-56. In addition, "vessel" appears in Isa 30:14 for nebhel, "jar"; in Mt 13:48 for aggos, "vessels"; and in Sirach 21:14; Mt 25:4 for aggeion, a diminutive form of aggos. A different use is that of The Wisdom of Solomon 14:1, where "vessel" represents ploion, "a boat," while The Wisdom of Solomon 14:5,6 the King James Version has "weak vessel" for schedia, "raft" (so the Revised Version (British and American)). Vessels of all sorts and kinds and for all sorts of uses were so familiar as to make them natural illustrations for different sorts of human beings (Hos 8:8; Isa 22:24; Jer 22:28, etc.; see POTTER ), and through Acts 9:15 the word "vessel" has passed into Christian theology as signifying simply a human being. But the figure of such "vessels" as (passively) filled with different contents is not Biblical. In 1 Thess 4:4 "vessel" may be taken as a figure for either the man's own body or for his wife. Between these possibilities the commentaries are almost equally divided.

Burton Scott Easton


VESTMENTS

vest'-ments.

See DRESS .


VESTRY

ves'-tri (meltachah): Once, in 2 Ki 10:22, as a place for vestments.


VEX, VEXATION

veks, vek-sa'-shun: "Vex," meaning originally to shake or toss in carrying, has a much more intensive meaning in Scripture than in common modern usage. It represents over a score of Hebrew and Greek words, most of them translated by this word only once, and many of them changed in the Revised Version (British and American) into other forms. Thus bahel in Ps 6:2,3,10. is in the American Standard Revised Version "troubled" (in Ps 2:5, the Revised Version margin. "trouble"); tsarar in Neh 9:27 is in the Revised Version (British and American) "distressed";. pascho in Mt 17:15 is "suffereth grievously"; kakoo in Acts 12:1 is "afflict," etc. So "vexation only" in Isa 28:19 is in the Revised Version (British and American) "nought but terror," and there are other changes of this word (compare Dt 28:20, "discomfiture"; Isa 9:1, "in anguish"). On the other hand, the Revised Version (British and American) has "vex" for "distress" (Dt 2:9,19); "they that vex" for "the adversaries of" (Isa 11:13); "vexeth himself" for "meddleth" (Prov 26:17), etc.

W. L. Walker



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