W

W

WAFERS  (ﬧקיקים (raw keh keem), thin cake)  With one exception, wafers are always mentioned in connection with offerings made for:  the consecration of priests; cereal offerings in general; thank offerings; Nazarite offerings (Numbers 6); and Levitical offerings as a whole.

WAGES  (ﬤﬧש (shaw kawr), hire, reward; ﬤﬧﬨמש (mah sheh koe rath);   לﬠפ (paw ‘al); misqoV (mis thos), hire)  The compensation given to a person hired for performing some work or service. 

     In the primitive economy of the nomadic Hebrews, wage earners did not form a distinct social class.  Urban civilization and the development of crafts and trades increased the number of salaried auxiliaries, who received at least part of their wages in weighed bronze or silver.  Coined money did not appear in the lands of the Bible before the Persian period.  The Bible mentions wages to hired shepherds, farm hands, crewmen on fishing boats, mercenary soldiers, and a harlot. 

     The determination of wages was debated informally between the master and the person whom he wished to engage.  The law had some provisions to prevent or restrain the exploitation of wage earners by greedy masters.  As a whole, the condition of a wage earner was not a happy, but an anxious one, as he had to live from hand to mouth.  In figurative usage, the Hebrew or Greek terms translated as “wages” apply to the favors God grants to humans.

WAHEB (והב, gift) A place in Moab, probably near the Arnon.  The New Revised Standard Version translates: “Waheb in Suphah; the King James Version translates:  “What he did in the Red Sea.”

WAILING.  See Mourning.

WAISTCLOTH (ﬧאזו (‘ay tsore), girdle, belt) The innermost garment, worn around the loins and ordinarily never removed.  Workmen removed their outer garments and wore only the waistcloth when on the jobs.

WAIT (אﬧב (‘aw rab), to lie in ambush; קוה (kaw vaw), wait for, hope in; ekdecomai (ek deh koe my), to expect, look for; prosdecomai (pros deh koe mai), look for, expect, await).  See also Hope.

WALLET (ילקוט (yah leh koot), bag, scrip)  A receptacle used as a shepherd’s bag.  David put the stones for his sling “in his shepherd’s bag or wallet.”

WALLS (ﬢﬧג (gaw der), fence; ﬧשו (soor); חומה (khoe maw); ﬧקי (keer); teicoV (tie kos), city wall) Walls are mentioned often in the Old Testament.  Vineyards and fields have walls.  House walls were of unhewn stones.  City walls, normally of rough-hewn stones with upper courses of brick, were often of great height and breadth.  References to walls in the New Testament are few.

WAR, IDEAS OF (See War, Methods of for Hebrew and Greek glossary)  The concept of the holy war declared, led, and won by Yahweh governs Old Testament (OT) military thinking.  It reached its greatest influence during the period of the judges; in the monarchy political expediency took precedence.  The prophets thought of war primarily as the judgment of God against rebellious Israel or against the haughty Gentile nations.  The apocalyptist saw in war a testing of faith, and held that the final age of peace would be preceded by a massive holy war.  Jesus taught little concerning war, but directed his mission toward peace.  The early church spiritualized the holy war as a struggle against sin and Satan.  The decisive battle had already been won in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

W-1

                 Holy War in Israel’s History—The concept of a holy war demands the statements in Exodus 15 (“Yahweh is a man of war [ish melekhamah]”) and I Samuel 17 (“the battle [hamelekhamah] is Yahweh’s”).  By its nature the holy war must have the sanction and active participation of the national god.  Consultation of the deity was a necessary prelude to battle.  “Inquiring of the Lord” was an important means of determining strategy while the war was in progress; any defense of Israel was a holy war.  The enemy invading the sacred land given to Israel would bring the wrath of Israel’s God upon themselves.  But sometimes the invader was used by Yahweh to punish the people.  Both aspects of war are repeatedly illustrated in the book of Judges.

                   The military commander did not lead in his own name or by his own genius.  He held his command by the spirit of God; if the Spirit was withdrawn his authority to lead went with it.  The men who served under the charismatic leader were required to show complete single-mindedness in the service of Yahweh.  The fearful, the newly married, and those distracted by worries were ideally invited to go home.  Their presence would break the unity of those who “offered themselves willingly.”  The holy war was conducted with the full support of the priests and cult.  The soldier took on a priestly quality.  The military camps were places where Yahweh “walked.”  A man having sexual intercourse would be disqualified from entering the encampment.    

                 For a holy war’s battles the number of soldiers in the army is of little importance. The holy war was called Yahweh’s war, and its battle cry was a variation of “Yahweh has delivered them into our hand.”  In the Song of Deborah the Lord comes from the Lord’s mountain home and brings the natural and cosmic powers to bear against Sisera.  At a crucial point in the battle the “terror of Yahweh” falls upon the enemy and throws them into confusion.  The 40 years of wilderness wanderings were a punishment for the people’s lack of trust in Yahweh’s ability to win the victory in spite of the physical size and military equipment of the Canaanite cities.  David’s willingness to fight against Goliath, and Jonathan’s attack on the Philistines are evidence of complete confidence in this premise.

                 The holy war ideology was not confined to Israel, but was shared by her neighbors, so warfare often resolved itself into a power struggle between the gods of the warring nations.  The Philistines naturally accepted the defeat of the Israelites and the capture of the ark as evidence that Dagon was stronger than Yahweh; yet, Dagon fell on his face before the ark.  At a later date Mesha, king of Moab, attributed his defeat to the weakness of his god.  When the Israelites were defeated he ascribed the victory to Chemosh.

                 Deuteronomy sees three possible results of a holy war.  A city that accepts terms of peace is enslaved.  If the terms are rejected, the males are put to the sword, but the other occupants and the property of the city become booty.  Enemy cities within the boundaries of the Holy Land are to be utterly destroyed as a sacrifice to the Lord.  The holy war, although an important part of Hebrew theology is never represented as an end in itself, but as an instrument of the God the covenant by which God brings his people the well-being and prosperity which in the OT is called shalom, peace.

                 The holy-war concept was developed and reached its greatest influence during the period of the judges.  The semi-independent tribal leaders could not be brought into united action unless they were assured that Yahweh was himself their leader.  Under the centralized administration of the monarchy, the holy war lost much of its vital power.  For Saul, who sought to preserve the traditional ways, the holy war remained as active a concept as it was in the days of the judges. 

    With David’s rule the tribal organization was broken down.  Warfare became an instrument of national policy.  Lip service might be paid to older traditions, but the prophets who gave the divine verdict were the court’s creatures.  There was a court theology which sees the monarch as Yahweh’s appointee.  This changed outlook led to the increasing importance of treaties as a means of guaranteeing security.  But still the holy war’s ancient tradition survived through the ordinary citizen’s and the soldier’s loyalty to its principles.

     Holy-war thinking figures prominently in the book of Deuteronomy.  Chapters 20, 21, 23, 24, and 25 give rules of warfare in a form which breathes the spirit of holy war.  Priestly historians regard the exodus from Egypt as the holy war par excellence.  The holy-war tradition was preserved in the part of the Israelite cult least dominated by the royal court.  With the Israelite kingdoms’ fall another radical change in the idea of war took place.  The nation ceased to exist as a political entity, and therefore lost its capacity to wage war.  The only conceivable form of holy war in the post-exilic period was revolt against the ruling power.

     While the prophets regarded universal peace as a goal, they were not opponents of war as such.  Elisha was such an active participant in strategic planning that King Josiah called him “the chariots of Israel and its horsemen.”  As Yahweh’s men, these prophets were staunch holy war adherents.  If they did oppose the king’s military plans, it was because they felt that the conditions necessary for a holy war had not been met.

W-2

     The so-called writing prophets sometimes supported the king in war, but they were far more often opponents.  This does not mean that they transcended the holy war’s traditions; they felt it was the only type of war in which Israel could validly engage.  If the grounds for such a war were entirely lacking they were compelled to speak against the participation of Israel in political wars.  The necessary prerequisite of holy war is uncompromising trust in the power of Yahweh to give victory.  Isaiah’s oracle (31:1) reflects the lack of such trust:  “Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help and rely on horses, who trust in chariots because they are many and in horses because they are very strong, but do not look to the Holy one of Israel or consult the Lord.”

     By taking up the religious and other practices of the nations around her, Israel has lost the true source of her strength, the presence of Yahweh.  In allowing herself to come into this position, Israel has denied her covenant vocation.  Thus, the people of God stand under judgment, and in typical biblical fashion, the punishment fits the crime.  Yahweh permits them to be a nation like the nations of the earth.  Their army is helpless against the great world powers, and they became spoils of war.

     The prophet’s new view of war as divine judgment is a leading idea in the Deuteronomic history work from Judges to the end of Kings.  The OT prophets applied their belief in war as Yahweh’s instrument of judgment to other nations as well as Israel.  God punishes evil where it appears beyond the bounds of Israel.  Isaiah of Babylon saw in Cyrus of Persia the anointed servant of the Lord whose military campaigns would clear the way for Israel’s return from exile.  

     4 elements may be distinguished in apocalyptic ideas of war:  the presence of demonic powers affecting world order; the end of that order; a final great holy war; and an era of peace under God’s rule.  The OT apocalyptic views of war are found mostly in Daniel and Ezekiel, with short passages in Isaiah 63, Joel 3, and Habakkuk 3.  (Most of the apocalyptic material on war was written between the OT and the NT.  See also War entry in the OT Apocrypha/Influences outside the Bible section of the Appendix) Wars will increase in intensity, brutality and destructiveness, and an uncontrolled outburst of warfare is a sign of the imminent end of the age (Daniel 8).

     Ezekiel’s prophecy of the destruction of Gog is the most complete presentation of the theme in the OT (Ezekiel 38-39).  Gog and his hosts invade the land, and Yahweh’s wrath flames out against them.  Yahweh’s divine call to war and victory, and the sacrificial nature of the war are all present in Ezekiel’s account; it is highlighted by apocalyptic imagery.

     New Testament (NT) apocalyptic passages follow the typical apocalyptic views of war, including demonic forces and the end of the age.  Revelation alludes to it as the victory of the lamb over the ten kings allied to the beast.  Holy war at the end of days became a common feature of apocalyptic thought, which continues to the present day in the doctrines of some apocalyptic-minded groups.   

                 War is not a central concern in the ministry of Jesus.  Jesus would be compelled to consider the traditional function of the messiah as leader of the final war.  The disciples tried to cast their master in this role.  The weight of evidence indicates Jesus rejected war as a means of carrying out his work.  His rebuke of Peter’s use of the sword at the arrest is consistent with this view.  Jesus indicates that he could have been such a messiah had he wished to do so.

                 Jesus never spoke directly against war as an instrument of national policy.  In his day war was conducted by Romans on the frontiers.  It would not have been immediately relevant to a Palestinian Jew living in a peaceful province.  Jesus spoke freely with soldiers as with others.  He sometimes used examples drawn from war.  He declared that he had not come to bring peace, but a sword, which is actually an honest recognition of his teaching’s divisive nature.  Jesus’ teaching is strongly directed toward peace and peacemaking.  God’s kingdom needs no force to establish or maintain it; the enemy is to be met with love and good deeds.  Jesus’ ethic is the antithesis of the warlike mood.  If all accepted it, the world created would make war impossible.

                 The church was different from OT Israel, which was a national and political organism.  Israel was therefore, by its nature, thrust into war.  Individual Christians might serve in national armies, but a Christian armed force was impossible.  A doctrine of war like that found in the OT was not a pressing necessity for the NT church.  Consequently the NT writers reinterpret the holy war in a spiritual way.  The basic Christian warfare is against sin in any of its manifestations.

W-3

                 Physical warfare belongs to the province of the state.  It originates in greed and lust for power and is one of the implements by which the demonic powers bring sin and death.  Victory in Christian spiritual warfare is given by God.  Unlike the Jewish apocalyptists, the Christians did not have to wait until the end of the age for an intervention of God in history.  While the doctrine of the Second coming of Christ made it possible to retain the idea of a holy war, the vital theological importance of such a war was not felt by the Christian.  In the period of waiting between the act of God in Christ and the final total victory the Christian’s duty was endurance and witness to the gospel, calling all to reconciliation, and therefore to peace.  

WAR, IMPLEMENTS OF WAR.  See Weapons and Implements of War.

WAR, METHODS OF.

            Glossary

ﬢוﬢג (geh dode), slashing, raiding troop                מלחמה ﬢשק (kaw dash  me leh khaw  

מלחמה (me leh khaw maw), warring,                      maw), consecrating war

    fighting                              

הﬠﬧﬤמ  (ma 'ah raw kaw), battle array                ﬧבק (keh rawb), battle, war

ﬧמצו (maw tsore), siege                                     פּﬧשו (so far), curved war horn

סללה (so leh law), rampart, siege wall                  שלל (saw lawl), spoil, plunder booty

צבא (tsaw baw), go forth to war, army, warriors                   

dexiolaboV (deks ee oh lah bos), a                  strateuma (strah tee oo ma), army, 

    [right] flank guard, light armed spearmen            troops, corps, guard

                 Conditions in Palestine and War Preparation—Palestine’s terrain had a great influence on Hebrew battle tactics.  Palestine is divided into the coastal plains, the central ridge, the Jordan Valley, and the plateau east of the Jordan.  The coastal plain, Palestine’s most fertile and arable part, was never completed occupied by the Hebrews.  The center of Hebrew culture lay in the central ridge, hill country running north and south. It is broken into the hills of Galilee and Samaria by the large Esdraelon Plain.  Megiddo was located at the juncture of this plain and the Plain of Sharon on the coast and thus constantly of outstanding strategic importance. 

                 The Samaritan hills extend from Mount Gilboa overlooking the Plain of Esdraelon southward, with Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim overlooking the Plain of Shechem.  The southern hill country was Judah with the Wilderness of Judah toward the east and the Shephelah to the southwest.  The Jordan Rift stretches southward to its lowest point at the Dead Sea, through the Arabah until it issues in the Gulf of Aqabah.  The Arnon runs through an impressive gorge on the northern border of ancient Moab into the Dead Sea.

                 Palestine constituted the land bridge between the valleys of the Nile and the Tigris-Euphrates.  The favorite route lay along the coastal trade route.  Another route branched off at Megiddo through the Esdraelon Plain to the Jordan.  For the invading nomads from the desert and crossing the Jordan, the Jericho Plain gave access to Palestine westward over the central ridge, through Bethel and Beth-horon to the coast.

                 Prior to the monarchy the Israelites had no walled cities for defense; they had to hide in mountain caves, holes, rocks, tombs, and cisterns.  Defensive fortifications’ real beginnings were with David and the capture of Jerusalem, followed by Libnah, Lachish, Gezer, and Beth-horon.  Omri built and fortified Samaria.  On the opposite ends of the Plain of Esdraelon lay the fortresses of Megiddo and Jezreel.  Asa of Judah built Geba and Mizpah as Benjaminite border fortresses.

                 The spring of the year was the “time when kings go forth to battle.”  Before the Davidic dynasty, troop provisions were the responsibility of the soldiers’ families.  War was seldom declared, since this would eliminate the element of surprise.  Troops were mustered by war horn, visible hill signals, or by messengers.  Be-fore engaging in war, Israel consulted their God to determine whether the times were favorable for the project.  War might be undertaken only by divine sanction.  Sacrifices had to be made to gain God’s favor and to consecrate the war (qadash melekhamah).  Saul illegally consulted familiar spirits through necromancy, more orthodox means having failed.  Priests would accompany the army into battle as did the ark.

W-4

                  Styles and Consequences of Warfare—The razzia or raid has been from time immemorial the military form of the nomad and semi-nomad.  A Pharaoh from the 2100s B.C. complains:  “Lo, the wretched Asiatic—it goes ill with the place where he is . . .  He does not dwell in a single place . . .  He has been fighting since the time of Horus.  He does not conquer, nor can he be conquered.”

                 Palestine in the pre-monarchical period was constantly subjected to tribal razzias; the tribe of Gad was itself a “raiding troop” (gedod).  The Israelites suffered from Moabite, Amalekite, Midianite, and even Philistine gedodim.  David also made intermittent raids on tribes in the Negev desert.  Such raids were often the results of disputes about wells.  Raids naturally involved plunder and captives or the recapture of what had been lost.  Such a raid lies behind Genesis 14.  Such raiding bands were inevitably small, such as Gideon and his 300 men (Judges 7-8) or the 600 men of Dan (Judges 18).  The success of an attack often hinged on the element of surprise.  Joshua lured the inhabitants of Ai by a pretended retreat, while an ambush captured the defenseless city.  The most favorable time of attack was immediately before dawn (Joshua 10; I Samuel 11).  King Mesha of Moab captured Nebo from Israel by such a night attack.

                 The battle array (ma‘ahrakah) was of the simplest kind.  Shield-bearing spearmen held the first line of defense, with the archers in the rear; whole masses of troops would join in hand-to-hand combat.  The army would often be divided for split attack, usually into three parts.  A war cry accompanied the attack.  Bedouin battles were often settled by the single combat of opposing champions.  In a later encounter between the forces of Ishbosheth and David, 12 champions from each side fought. 

     The Israelites did not master the art of open warfare before the time of David.  They were more at home guarding the passes into Benjamin, Judah, or Ephraim territory.  It was the Philistines which brought about a unification of the tribes and a reorganization of military affairs.  David was well versed in guerrilla tactics, but as king he appointed Joab as commander.  Joab captured Jerusalem, which David made his capital city.  Joab was a master of siege-work, and it is doubtful whether this art was well known to the Israelites before this time.  David created an empire by incessant warfare with the Philistines, Moabites, Syrians, Edomites, and Ammonites.  Horses and chariots were captured and used by David’s army, and the methods of both open and siege warfare were developed.  Solomon built cities to house horses and chariots. 

     Though siege warfare (matsor) was already known to the Egyptians of the Middle Kingdom, it was actually the Assyrians who became masters of this type of warfare.  An effective siege cut off all communications of a city without outside help and occupied all the water supplies in the neighborhood.  Rabbah is the first recorded siege of the Israelites. When the Israelites besieged a walled city, they built a siege wall (solelah).  Such an earthen mound served as a protection particularly for the archers.

     Assyrian siege methods are well known from cuneiform sources and the bas-relief.  War machines were constructed locally.  Causeways were built in order to bring the siege machines like the siege platform and the battering ram up to the immediate area of the wall.  Meanwhile, the walls would be further weakened by the digging of a tunnel.  In the general assault, the first to advance were the heavy armed infantry, who mounted tall scaling ladders.  The besieged hurled boiling oil and shot burning arrows at the invaders.

     Once a city was taken, the defenders were put to the sword.  Since war was believed to be a sacred duty, divine favor might be assured by devoting everything living to destruction.  Captured kings and leaders were usually slain.  The males were often totally exterminated.  The Assyrian conquerors’ cruelty was proverbial.  Many were impaled or decapitated; children were slaughtered.  In a successful siege the walls were broken down, and the city and especially the temples were burned.  Anything of value became the soldiers’ booty.

WAR CLUB.  See Club.

WARDROBE, KEEPER OF THE (  ש מ ﬧ   ה ב ג ﬢ י ם (sho mer  hah bay gaw deem), keeper of the garments)  A servant in the royal household who had charge of the robes of the king.  One is mentioned in II Kings 22 named Harhas.  Perhaps there was a special room in the palace for storing the royal robes.

W-5

WARS OF THE LORD, BOOK OF THE.  A document mentioned in Numbers 21.  It is possible that the two other poems quoted in this chapter are to be attributed to the same source.  The fragment assigned to the book gives no clue as the book’s nature.  From the title, it may be safely presumed that the book was a collection of folk poetry relating to Joshua’s wars of the conquest and perhaps also to those of Saul and David.

                 This book is important as confirming that the traditions embodied in the present biblical documents are derived in part from older written sources as well.  There is mention elsewhere of the “Book of Jashar” which cannot be older than the time of David.  This may give a hint as to the date of this article’s book.  The “wars of Yahweh” are the wars which were fought on his behalf and in which he personally took part; for the early Hebrews war was a sacred activity.  The Hebrew term used was qadash  melekhama, consecrating war.

WASH, WASHINGS (בםﬤ (kee bem), wash garments; ﬧחץ (raw khats), wash body, see Bathing)

WASHBASIN ( סיﬧ ﬧחצי (seer  rah kheh tsee), washing pot)  The Hebrew term used in Psalms 60 and 108 normally refers to a wide-mouth cooking pot.  In these passages the ceremonially cleaning cooking pot has degenerated into an unclean washbasin.  Moab is described as God’s washbasin in these passages.

WASP (ﬧﬠהצ (tsee reh ‘aw), hornets) Any of numerous species of stinging insects.  Most of the wasps are solitary in their habits, but others are social, such as the common hornet.  See also Bee, Hornet.

WATCH, WATCHES.  See Night.

WATCHER (ﬠיﬧ (‘eer)) The conventional rendering of the Aramaic term used in Daniel 4 to designate a certain type of celestial being.  The exact meaning of ‘ir is uncertain.  As early as the 100s B.C., it was understood in the sense of “wakeful.”  The name could reflect a common ancient belief that celestial beings are sleepless.  Jewish angelology is indebted to Iranian sources.  See also entry in the Old Testament Apocrypha/Influences outside the Bible section of the Appendix.

 WATCHMAN (צפה (tso feh); שמﬧ (shaw mar)) One who keeps vigil, who guards a person or property, usually at night.  Watchman over fields and vineyards were posted usually only during the time of harvesting.  The watchman of the city kept the walls safe from the enemy at night.  He was especially valuable in time of siege.  The prophet as watchmen of God observed the impending doom on the nation as well and announced it to the sleeping, indifferent people.  The oracle concerning Dumah has become a familiar Advent or Epiphany passage (Isaiah 21).  An agent of God from heaven is called an ‘ir (“watcher”), and is probably an angel.

WATCHTOWER (מגﬢל (mig dal); המצפ (me tseh feh); בחן (bah khan))  A structure from which a certain area of land could be guarded.

                 Towers were built in fields from which the owner could watch the crops.  The towers were generally constructed of stone and usually provided temporary living quarters. In present-day Palestine watchtowers are usually round and may be as high as 3 meters.

WATER (מים (may eem); udwr (you dor))  In many instances the word refers to springs, lakes, seas, rain, etc.  In other cases the characteristics of water provide the basis for metaphors.  Moreover, water figured prominently in ritual usage and symbolism.  The prophets, critical of the effectiveness of external rites insisted that an inner cleansing was necessary (e.g. In Ezekiel 36, Yahweh [the Lord] said: “I will sprinkle clean water upon you and you shall be clean from all your uncleanness.”)

                 Water as Metaphor—Palestinians understood their dependence upon “bread and water.”  The theological meaning of water comes to expression in Israel’s wilderness.  The lack of water invariably was the occasion for murmuring and doubt.  Yahweh provided his people with water.  The people were led through these trying experiences in order that they might come to know humans live only by the word of God.   Since Palestine did not have to deal with seasonal flooding as in Egypt and Mesopotamia, and since fertility is dependent on annual rainfall, Palestine experienced water as an element friendly to humans. 

W-6

     Paradise is conceived as an oasis from which issued a river to irrigate the surrounding desert.  In the oracles of Balaam it is said that Israel is “like valleys that stretch afar, like gardens beside a river” (Numbers 24).  On the other hand, the raging, unruly waters symbolized for Israel the powers which are opposed to God’s sovereignty and there threatened to destroy history’s meaning, as though the world could return to the pre-creation chaos.  The “many waters” are sometimes equivalent to the “many peoples” who threaten Israel’s existence.  But Israel could go through the “deep waters” in the confidence that Yahweh is Lord of the Deep. 

                 The significance of water in Palestine often provided the metaphors of religious language (e.g. Amos 5; Jeremiah 2, 15, 17; Isaiah 8, 12, 55). Water could be a symbol Yahweh’s salvation or wrath.  Jeremiah rebuked the people for rejecting Yahweh, the “fountain of living waters.”  The wise man is likened to a “tree planted by streams of water.”  In the prophecy of the writer of the second part of Isaiah (chapter 58), in the dawn of the new age, Israel will be “like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail.”  In Ezekiel 47, the River of Life issues from below the threshold of the temple.

                 Water in Myth and Ritual—In traditions derived from Egyptian, Mesopotamian, and Canaanite, water is regarded as a foe which God overcomes.  According to ancient mythology, there was a primordial battle between gods who emerged from uncreated chaos.  The hero-god split the body of the dragon of chaos, and separated the two halves.  The result is that man’s world was situated between the “waters above” and the “waters below.”  Ugaritic mythology relates that Baal is in conflict with the formidable water dragon known as Prince Sea and Judge River.  Concrete evidence of the influence of mythological thinking upon Israel is found in the fact that Solomon installed in the Jerusalem temple a bronze sea.  In the Old Testament there are specific references to this dragon under the names Leviathan or Rahab.

                 Faint echoes of this mythology are found in the priestly creation story, with its portrayal of uncreated watery chaos.  It also speaks of the interposition of firmament to separate “the waters from the waters.”  The Flood’s priestly version portrays the near return of the earth to pre-creation chaos.  Against this background of thought we may better understand some of Israel’s language (e.g. Psalms 24, 33, 98, 104, and 136).

                 This language implies a dramatic conflict between Yahweh and the waters of chaos.  In the psalm of Habakkuk 3, it is said of Yahweh, “You trampled the sea with your horses, churning the mighty waters.”  In the same poem Yahweh’s anger was against the rivers and the sea.  Other psalms with this theme include Psalms 74, 77, 89, 93, 104, 114; Job 26, 38, and Proverb 8.

                  In the religions of the Fertile Crescent the theme of the dramatic conflict with the waters was part of a pattern of myth and ritual which was re-enacted each year in connection with the seasonal cycle of fertility and summer barrenness.  Israel was tempted to believe that rainfall and fertility were dependent upon the nature gods.  Elijah’s contest with Baal on Mount Carmel is best understood as a demonstration of Yahweh’s power to bring rain.  It is the God of Israel who blesses his people; God controls the heavenly and subterranean waters.  Israel then radically reinterpreted this theme of conflict within the context of exclusive faith in Yahweh, the Lord of history.  It may be that Israel held a New Year’s Festival at which time Yahweh’s kingship was celebrated by rehearsing his victory over the waters (e.g. Psalms 29, and 93).

                 In any case, the mythological language was historicized.  The tendency to historicize mythological motifs is evident in associating the chaotic waters with the Red Sea (e.g. Ex. 15; Josh. 24; Neh. 9; Pss. 78, 106).  Yahweh is praised thus in Ex. 15:  “At the blast of your nostrils the waters piled up, the floods stood in a heap; the deeps congealed in the heart of the sea.”  Yahweh’s battle with the waters of chaos was not fought in the timeless realm of mythology, but in history’s arena.  Thus Psalms 77, and Isaiah 44, 51 recall Yahweh’s mighty deeds of old when he redeemed his people.  In other passages we read that Yahweh rebuked the Red Sea and led his people through the Deep, and that Yahweh divided the Sea (e.g. Psalms 66, 89, 106, and 136).

                 The nearness of death is sometimes described as a descent into the waters of the Deep.  In Psalm 18, Yahweh came to the rescue; the channels of the sea were laid bare and Yahweh “drew me out of the mighty waters.”  Since the Sea symbolizes chaotic demonic powers that are subdued but not finally vanquished, apocalyptic writers looked to the future, when Yahweh “will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent, and Yahweh will slay the dragon that is in the sea” (Isaiah 27).                  

                 Water in the New Testament (NT)—In the NT the people of God are cleansed “by the washing of water with the word (Ephesians 5). In I Peter 3 it is held that baptism is foreshadowed in the story of the Flood.  The “living water” theme finds expression in the story of Jesus, who promised to provide “living water” to the Samaritan Woman.  Revelation affirms that Christ dispenses “water without price from the fountain of the water of life” (Revelation 21, 22).

W-7

                 The mythological themes of the OT are also found in a passage in the Gospel of Luke.  At the end of this age there will be “distress of nations in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves.”  In Revelation 21, Satan is identified with the great dragon; the apocalypse reaches its climax in the vision of the new heaven and the new earth, wherein there will be no more sea.

WATER FOR IMPURITY  (מי  נﬢה (my  nee daw), water for uncleanness) A cleansing agent, described in Numbers 19 in 2 slightly divergent accounts and used to purify those unclean by contact with death.  Elsewhere in the OT where uncleanness associated with death is described, “water for impurity” is not mentioned. 

                 An unblemished red cow, which had never been yoked was burned outside the camp together with cedar wood, hyssop and scarlet thread.  The composite ash, mixed with stream water, constituted the “water for impurity.”  Failure to undergo the sprinkling on the third and seventh days meant expulsion from Israel.  The ritual use of magical ingredients mixed with water is widely attested in non-biblical sources and argues an ancient, non-Hebrew origin for the ritual.  The symbolism of the cow (ancient fertility symbol), the red color (suggesting blood), the cedar (long-lived), and the “living water,” provide a powerful combination of symbols to counteract the uncleanness caused by Death.

WATER GATE (המים ﬠﬧש (shaw ‘awr  ha mah yeem), gate of the waters)  A gate on the eastern side of Jerusalem, restored by Nehemiah.  Presumably in the rampart above the spring of Gihon, Ezra read the Law to the people there, and booths were erected there for the Feast of Tabernacles.  Some scholars identify the Water Gate with one of the southern gates of the temple area.

WATER HEN (ﬨנשמﬨ (tee neh sheh met), lizards, waterfowl) A member of a group of birds which includes rails, water hens, gallinules, and coots, and totals about 200 species, Tristram says nothing about water hens in Palestine in the 1800s A.D.  It is pure conjecture that tineshemet designates on the birds mentioned above.

WATER OF BITTERNESS (מי  המﬧים  המאﬧﬧים (my  ha maw reem  ha mah ‘ar reem), water of painful bitterness)  A quasi-magical drink, consisting of sanctuary dust, ink from a “curse” parchment, and holy water, employed in the “ordeal of jealousy.”

                 A husband who suspected his wife of infidelity but had no legal proof, could bring her to the sanctuary, where, under conditions calculated to terrify the guilty, her innocence was tested.  Her hair was unbound as a sign of her shame, and her bosom bare.  The priest mixed the ingredients and pronounced a terrible curse, with which she identified herself by an “Amen, amen.”  If she was guilty, her body’s lower part became distorted; if innocent, she was unharmed and received the blessing of bearing children.  Such ordeals are pre-Hebraic and possibly older than belief in personal deities.  Other purging oaths are found in the Old Testament; genuine ordeals are rare.  The “water of bitterness” ritual shows clear traces of the more primitive conception that the water itself was able to destroy a perjured adulteress; it went out of use well before 100 A.D.

WATER SHAFT (ﬧצנו (tsee nor), waterfall) A system providing access for water from a spring into a city. Underground shafts or tunnels have been found at Gezer, Gibeon, Jerusalem, and Megiddo.

WATER WORKS.  Humans need water for themselves and their beasts.  When nature provides relatively few water sources, humans may either restrict their habitation or bring water to where it can be used.  In the earliest times, when the digging of cisterns, wells, and channels was too hard, we find the settlements of people grouped in the neighborhood of springs and lakes or by perennial streams.  As humans learned to master new materials and fashion better tools, their ability to access and move water where they wanted it increased.

                 The powerful states of Egypt and Mesopotamia were able to maintain an extensive system of irrigation canals for their flat lands of fertile soil.  In later Assyrian times Sennacherib (705-681 B.C.) created a gigantic system of reservoirs and canals, and a monumental bridge built of masonry, to irrigate wide tracts of land around his capital at Nineveh.  Ashurnasirpal II (883-857) tunneled the rocky bank of the Upper Zab River, and dug a canal, to bring water to the fields of Calah.  But for Israel, Judah, and Canaan, inhabiting a region devoid of great rivers and wide tracts of flat, fertile soil, no such projects were feasible.

W-8

                 Palestine’s Ancient Irrigation Works and Water Sources—The fact that water flows downhill, and can be held up or diverted, will have suggested to Stone Age people the simple ideas of digging runnels, scooping out basins, or barriers to guide, check, or store the rain or spring water that flowed by their early encampments.  It is safe to infer that today’s rough stone terrace walls, ditches, and channels have been developed from simple irrigation works as old as agriculture itself.  We read in biblical literature of springs and wells, but little or nothing of irrigation.  It was not agriculture, but town life that evoked from early humans their most strenuous efforts to control water.  For the Old Testament society, part urban, part agricultural, and part semi-nomadic, the best that could be done was: to maintain or increase the yield of natural springs and wells; to catch and store for domestic or communal use periodic rainfall; and to reduce the human labor involved.

                 We can be sure that the presence of natural springs was by far the most potent single factor determining the location of the earliest settlements.  The oldest one investigated, Jericho, owed its existence to the powerful spring, now ‘Ain es-Sultan, which a later age made the scene of one of Elisha’s miracles.  In the Hebrew writings the scanty folklore of springs turns almost exclusively on the personalities of Israel’s early tribal history.  (e.g.  Moses and the springs of Massah and Meribah (Exodus 17; Numbers 20); and Caleb adding two springs to his daughter’s dowry)

                 The built wells feature more prominently.  The stories about them relate to tribal, pastoral society more than to city and village life.  The discovery that reserves of water lay hidden beneath the earth is not likely to have been made early.  The Bible tradition which attributes the oldest wells to the patriarchs, some time after 1500 B.C., may well be correct.  The well tales around Beer-sheba and Gerar, the disputes, how they were settled, and their association with Abraham and Isaac may be based on tribal memory.

                 Of the ancient town wells that have been examined, the most spectacular is the Lachish well; others have been found at Beth-shemesh, Beth-shean, and Tell el-‘Ajjul.  The Lachish well was high up the city-mound‘s slope.  It was carried down to the depth of 43.6 meters beneath a circular well-head.  The first 7m above the bedrock was lined with heavy stone blocks.  The date of the well was before the wall was built, and that was in Iron Age II (900-600 B.C.).  The well of Haran was closed with a stone that could be rolled aside; the flocks gathered to it to be watered, probably from stone troughs.  Nahor in Mesopotamia and Bethlehem had similar wells.  Water was drawn by hand in pitchers or skins.  The finding of water where there were no springs was neither an easy nor a commonplace achievement.  The actual digging with the bronze tools available was no light matter.  The successful sinking of a well was a feat worth of princes (Numbers 21).   

                 Water Storage—The long summer of Palestine, where from May to October no rain falls, makes the climate seem dry.  But from November to April the average rainfall in the hill country is about 62 cm., or the same as in the center of England.  Efficient storage of rain can do much to overcome the habitual summer drought, so the possession of a cistern may make all the difference.  So, until the introduction in modern times of piped municipal supplies, all but the poorest houses, have possessed cisterns, where rain falling on roofs and courtyards is stored for use in the summer.  In Jerusalem, beneath the temple area and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, vast subterranean reservoirs, some medieval or Christian in origin, some much older, hold a perpetual supply of many tens of millions of liters.

                 The simplest of cisterns have changed little in form since the earliest times.  They are roughly bell-shaped chambers, with a narrow vertical shaft at the top for letting down pitchers.  The shaft from the surface is lined with masonry of rough-hewn stones, to which successive generations add a few courses as the surface of the ground rises.  In Greek or Roman times there was introduced a type of open storage tank.  These tanks varied greatly in size; they would be filled by means of conduits brought from near or far.

                 Since most Palestinian limestone is porous, a cistern to hold water through the summer must be plastered.  The great increase of domestic cisterns during the Iron Age (from 1200 B.C.), and the subsequent spread of population was made possible by discovering that a waterproof plaster could be made from burnt and slaked lime.  In Gezer, excavation revealed the rock to be honey-combed with cisterns, one for each group of houses.  Beth-shemesh in the late Bronze Age (1600-1200 B.C.) had “lime-plastered” cisterns.  At the remote town of Debir, in southern Judah, many lime-plastered domestic cisterns were constructed after 1000 B.C.

W-9

                 Some Iron Age towns were almost or entirely devoid of spring water, like Samaria or Mizpah.  Such places must have relied on the efficient and adequate storage of rain water; the development of the mortar must be counted among the notable achievements of the Early Iron Age.  The building of a cistern was a mark of progressive government, benefiting not only the towns but also the countryside.  King Uzziah (783-742 B.C.)  “built towers in the wilderness, and hewed out many cisterns . . .”  Many such rural cisterns, of great capacity but easily filled, may still be found in use by cultivators and shepherds.

                King Mesha bade Qarhoh’s men be self-dependent and dig their own cisterns; he built two pools within Qarhoh.  Several famous biblical cities had their pools:  Hebron (II Samuel 4); Gibeon (II Samuel 2); perhaps Samaria (I Kings 22); and Jerusalem (II Kings 20).  At Gibeon there may be seen today, a rectangular pool, probably of Roman origin, lined with masonry and coated with mortar.  The excavation at el-Jib in 1956 revealed a circular pit, 11.5 meters in diameter and of unknown depth.  It was a riddle how the pool was filled; there were no signs of an inlet.  Pottery in the rubbish suggested that the pool wasn’t in use by the 500s B.C. 

     At Gezer a similar great rock-cut pool, oblong with rounded corners, existed within the wall.  Its capacity has been reckoned at over 2,000,000 litters; here too, it is a mystery as to how it was filled.  The pool of Samaria has not been found.  The city in Israelite times depended on rain caught in cisterns.  It was only under the Roman Empire that engineers brought spring water to Sebaste by a masonry and rock-cut conduit partly hewn as a tunnel through the mountain.

     In the Roman and Greek provinces aqueducts were not uncommon; they were open plastered channels following the contours or crossing low ground on walls or bridges.  Caesarea, was supplied by such an aqueduct from springs at the foot of the Carmel Range.  At all periods from the Greek to the present builders and cultivators in the lands of Jericho have made use of the powerful springs which rise in the Wadi Qelt; water still rushes down channels whose history may be traced perhaps to Herod the Great.

     At Jerusalem for many generations the Jebusite inhabitants and the early Israelites could subsist on the yield of the spring Gihon, at the city mound’s eastern foot.  But as the population grew, it was determined to supplement the local supply with water from the higher hill country some 24 km to the south.  Between the city and Hebron, there are 3 reservoirs enclosed by three masonry barriers, which are popularly called King’s Solomon’s Pools.  From the same valley a separate and lower aqueduct can be traced to Herod’s desert castle. 

     There are two Jerusalem aqueducts; at one point water is siphoned in a pipe of stone drums set in a concrete wall.  Many hands have contributed through the ages to these aqueducts:  Herod the Great, Pontius Pilate, the Roman legion at Aelia Capitolina, and the medieval sultans.  As to earlier builders, the rough workmanship and archaic-looking tooling on the lower aqueduct have suggested the work of one or another of the kings of Judah, designed to bring water to the temple of Jerusalem.  The Bible does not state that Solomon or any of his successors brought water to the temple.

     King Hezekiah’s conduit was rediscovered in 1838.  The purpose of this was to supply the city with a safe reserve of water from the Gihon spring to a new pool behind a barrier built across the valley between Jerusalem’s 2 hills (II Chron. 32).  It was necessary to tunnel through the mountain spur on which the ancient city lay.  The tunnel traced an S-curve for over 500 meters.  An inscription describing the achievement was engraved on the tunnel near its outlet.  Hezekiah blocked the natural flow of the waters into the Kidron Valley. 

     From earlier times, perhaps Solomon’s, two open-air channels had carried the “softly flowing” waters of Gihon to irrigate through spaced apertures the terraced gardens of Siloam.  The higher channel, after passing through a rock-cut tunnel to the west side of David’s city, helped to fill an older pool than Hezekiah’s.  These early aqueducts both started from an enlargement and deepening of the cavern in which Gihon rises.  

                 Water Shafts—Hezekiah’s conduit was hewn at a dangerous time to ensure the people of Jerusalem the use of their spring and to deny it to an enemy.  The project was helped by much earlier workings dug by the old city’s Jebusite inhabitants, who centuries before sank a vertical shaft and extended the cavern in which the spring rose.  Hezekiah’s aim was to bring water within the city, store it in quantity and stop the flow outside. 

     Other Bronze Age cities that were founded close to springs had made similar tunnels.  One of the most instructive was found at Megiddo.  The spring rose in a small cave at the foot of the hill on which the city stood.  The women would leave the city, walk down the hill carrying their water jars, and reach the water by a flight of steps, and eventually by a covered way in the side of the hill.

W-10

     In the 1100s B.C., they tunneled inward from the spring and downward from a point inside the city in the form of a great square well over 7 meters across with a flight of rock-cut steps around its 4 sides.  The stairs caused it to contract so rapidly that there was still almost 10 meters to go to water when it was too narrow to continue.  The masons continued with a stepped, sloping passage, which met a tunnel driven inward from the spring.  It was soon decided to close the exit and prolong the tunnel inward.  The tunnel was deepened so that water could flow right in and be drawn up in buckets.  This system probably failed in dry weather, so it became necessary to build a new staircase to the spring where the old sloping tunnel had been cut down.

     Similar but less ambitious water systems existed at Gezer, Ibleam, and Gibeon.  For these 3, the actual springhead was enlarged and deepened and make it accessible underground from within the city; no attempt was made to store the water.  At Gezer the tunnel was a short flight of steps leading down 6 meters to a landing and then a much longer flight at right angles, going down 22.7 meters and out 34 meters. 

     At Gibeon the system was identical in character.  The outer approach to the spring was a deep cave artificially prolonged as a tunnel some 12 meters into the hillside.  Around the 800s a special postern gate was built above the spring to shorten the journey.  The opening of the cave was fitted with grooves so that it could be barred on the outside or built up; then a steep dog-legged staircase of 93 rock-cut steps, with a total length of more than 50 meters was tunneled upward to emerge within the town walls.  It is a strange fact that these impressive water shafts have passed almost unnoticed by ancient writers.  In II Samuel 5, David says to his men: “Whoever would strike down the Jebusites, let him get up the tsinor. . .”  The discovery of the shaft gives support to the interpretation of this rare word as “water tunnel.”

WATERCOURSE (אפיק (aw feek), brook, channel) Channel in Ps. 126; watercourse/dry stream in Ez. 31/32.

WATERPOTS.  See Pottery; Vessels.

WATERS, MANY (מים ﬧבים (may eem  rah beem), great waters) An Old Testament expression which often designates the waters of chaos, upon which the earth is founded.

WATERS OF MEROM.  See Merom, Waters of.

WATERSKIN (נבל (nah bal), bottle, skin bottle, vessel)  A poetic designation of rain clouds in the phrase “water-skins of the heavens (Job 38).

WATERSPOUT (ﬧצנ (tsee nor), cataract) King James Version translation of the Hebrew (New Revised Standard Version has “cataract” (see cataract)

WAVE OFFERING (ﬨנופה (the no faw)) Cultic act of offering agricultural produce before the altar by the Israelite worshiper.  This rite formed a small part of the complex system of sacrifice which developed late in Israel’s biblical history.  The term points to “the waving” before the altar of something being offered “before Yahweh.”  A variety of items could be included:  various parts of a ram, together with various kinds of “breads.”  The earliest practice was probably symbolic and later became an actual presenting of real things which were being offered for the priests.  At various occasions, both animal and grain offerings were offered in this way.

                 It appears that the offerings “waved” were parts of the important sacrifices: cereal offering; first-fruit offering; burnt offering; drink offering; sin offering; and peace offering.  This offering was brought by the worshiper, but was offered only by the priest; this offering was before the altar.  Thus, it was holy and could be used only for “clean” purposes, such as the support of priests and their families.  According to another form of the rite, the offering was taken from the priests and burned on the altar with the burnt offering.

WAX (ﬢונג (doe nag)) The ordinary use of wax in sealing documents is not mentioned in the Bible.  Wax appears only in poetry, where its melting provides a metaphor for wasting away and destruction.

W-11

WAY (ﬢﬧך (dah rak), going, journey; אﬧח (‘oh rakh), road, path; odoV (oh dos), road, journey, system of doctrine) A common biblical metaphor for courses of nature, modes of human and divine conduct, attitude habit, custom, undertaking, plan, purpose, fate, and the like.

                 There are for humans two ways: the good and the right way, the way of the Lord (Genesis 18; Psalms 18, 25; Isaiah 55), and the way of evil (Proverb 2, 8; Jeremiah 18; Ezekiel 3; Jonah 3; Zechariah 1).  The Lord’s way and the human way are radically different.  The Lord’s ways are perfect and true (Deuteronomy 32; II Samuel 22; Psalm 18; Revelation 15).  The human way may be either good or evil (I Kings 8; Psalm 101; Matthew 21; Genesis 6; Judges 2; Job 22).  Man has freedom of will to avoid the evil way (Psalm 119: 101, 104, 128). People or nations may change their ways (Jeremiah 18; Ezekiel 18).

                 God observes and knows all the human ways (Job 24; 31; 34; Psalms 119:168; 139).  The Lord will deal with Israel, when she shows remorse, not according to her evil ways, but for the sake of the Lord’s name and the covenant.  The Lord is ever ready to teach humans and lead them in the Lord’s way (Psalms 16, 23, 27, 86, 119: 27, 29, 33, 35, 37; Isaiah 30; Jeremiah 32, 42).  Of the two ways open to humans, one leads to life and peace (Psalm 16; Proverbs 3, 6, 10, 12, 15, 16; Isaiah 59.  The “way of the Lord,” God’s purpose, which the prophets proclaimed, is fulfilled in Christ (Matthew 3; Mark 1; Luke 3, 7; John 1). It is the way of peace, of truth, of salvation.  Christ has opened the “new and living way” to God.  He is the way (John 14)

WAYFARER (ﬧחא (‘oh reh khah)) A traveler by road, especially someone on foot, such as merchants, musicians, the Exiled, sojourners, or beggars; it was often unsafe to be a wayfarer.  He often received hospitality.

WAYMARK (ציון (tsee yoon), pillar, monument) A sign set up along a path or road.  In Jeremiah, it is most likely small heaps of stones are to be used to mark the route of exile so that Israel can return by the same road.  In II Kings 23 “monument” is misleading; this grave would likely be marked only by a pile of stones.

WEALTH (הון (hone), plenty; חיל (khah yeel), riches; ﬠשﬧ (‘aw shar), riches; ploutoV (ploo tos), riches, opulence; mammwnaV (mam mone as), riches)  In the Old Testament wealth must be considered in relation to the synonymous term “riches”; both mean an abundance of property.

                  The distinctive OT attitude toward wealth is largely determined by religious understanding.  “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof.”  It was Yahweh who had given his people the land of Palestine after the Exodus, so also Yahweh blesses individuals with wealth (e.g. Abraham, Solomon).  They must not forget or ever say:  “My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.”  When Israel did forget and break the covenant, then her land and wealth were taken from her.  And yet, to a faithful Israel, Yahweh promises that even the wealth of the nations will be brought to Zion.

                  The book of Job strongly protests against the view that goodness brings wealth. In a number of psalms (Pss. 10; 14; 40; 52; 72) “rich” is synonymous with “wicked” and “poor” with “righteous and godly.”  While the term “poor” is to be understood as a religious term, it undoubtedly reflects an economic situation in post-exilic Judaism.  There is hope that God will vindicate himself and the righteous poor by a complete reversal of the situation.  A more prudential, less theological attitude toward wealth is found Proverbs 10, 13, 18, 28.

                 The New Testament (NT) attitude toward wealth lays added emphasis on its dangers.  “How hard it will be for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God!”  Jesus is frankly pessimistic about the ability of those who possess wealth to escape being beholden to it.  Jesus believed that possessions invariably lay a person in bondage (“You cannot serve God and mammon”).  He actually personifies riches, probably to heighten his emphasis on the demonic power of mammon.  The facts betray the probability that the person with possessions will fail to commit himself in thought and action to the truth.  And so Jesus taught:  “Provide yourselves with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail . . . For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”  He did not condemn possession as such, nor did he commend poverty as such.  The poor widow was not praised for her poverty but for giving all she had in devotion to God.  It was this freedom to sit lightly to one’s possessions in whole-hearted service to God that was the heart of the matter.  More than Jesus’ words, his life itself carried his message.  For he was a living renunciation of all that might stand between himself and complete trust, devotion, and service to God.

W-12

                 The early church’s attitude consistently reflects Jesus’ teaching.  This communal sharing shows the early Christians’ desire to express their love for one another and their self-abandonment in service to God.  The apostle Paul urged

                 The book of Revelation strongly denounces the church at Laodicea “For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing; not knowing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked” (Revelation 3).  Revelation refers to Rome and says:  “In one hour all this wealth has been laid waste.”  In the NT, then, while wealth is not condemned as such, there is a strong pessimism over the possibility of its being a blessing rather than a demonic snare to humans.

WEAPONS.    

           Glossary

      ﬢבקים  (daw beh keen), some things            מפּיץ (meh feets), war-hammer, maul     

         joined together (i.e. scale armor)              נשק (neh shek), arms, armor
  ﬧהחגו (ha go raw), girdle, something            סגﬧ (seh gar) possibly weapon, or  

          girded (put) on                                          “close ranks”

      חליצה (khah lee tsaw) KJV armor;             צלצל (tseh law tsal), harpoon

          RSV spoils 
  חניﬨ  (khah neeth), spear, lance                   צנה (tsee naw), from the root 

                                                                          “protect,” shield
  ﬧבח (kheh reb), from the root “laid              קין(kah yeen), lance, spear 
          waste” sword, dagger                                                                                   

       ﬤיﬢון (kee done), spear, javelin                  ﬧמח (roe makh), lance, spear

       ﬤלי (keh lee), weapons, arms,                   שלט (shah lat), shield    

          equipment  
  מﬢ  (mad) vestment, garment, armor          שﬧיון (she reh own), coat of mail           

       ןמג (maw ghen), shield                                                        

       
   qureoV (thoo ree os), large oblong            opla (op lah), arms, armor, weapons

           shield
   logch (log kheh), tip of javelin, later          panoplia (pan op leeah), complete 

          lance, spear                                              suit of armor, including weapons  

                 Implements of warfare may be divided according to use.  Defensive weapons consisted mainly of shields and protective armor.  Defense of cities consisted of strategic location of cities and walled defenses.  Offensive weapons can be classified as: hand-held, missile, and weapon/projectile combination.  Hand-held weapons included clubs, battle-axes, and maces, cutting (knives and edged swords), and thrusting weapons (dagger, lance, and pointed sword).  The missile weapon was thrown and included darts, spears, and javelins.  Probably later in the evolution of weapons is the third type, in which the weapon discharges a projectile.  These include bows and arrows, and slings and catapults with various size stones.

                  Stone Age and Chalcolithic Age Weapons—Weapons in some form or other are as old as humankind, beginning with rocks just being picked up and thrown.  Exactly at what time prehistoric humans began fashioning tools and weapons is not known; it is often hard to tell whether a stone in the earliest sites was fashioned or natural.  Up to the latter part of the 4000s B.C. all tools and weapons were made of stone, hence the use of the terms Paleolithic, Mesolithic, and Neolithic (Old, Middle, and New Stone Age).

                 Stone Age humans made tools and weapons of various kinds of stones:  flint, obsidian, coarse granite, and quartzite; the oldest occupied caves in Palestine show evidence of a fairly extensive flint industry.  Tools and weapons were fashioned by varied techniques of chipping and flaking.  During the Middle Paleolithic period flake tools appear to replace in part the hand axes of the Lower period.  A carefully drawn distinction between tool and weapon is quite impossible to delineate for the prehistoric Near East.  Even in the metal ages a clear-cut distinction is not always possible.

W-13

                 What the first fashioned weapon may have been cannot be known.  Certainly the spear (wooden) is an old weapon.  Evidence suggests that wooden spears and spears with detachable spearheads were known to Neanderthal humans.  The simple club must be included as one of the earliest tools.  A stone bound with thongs to a wooden handle must have been in use from time immemorial.  Only stone objects have remained intact as silent witness to the use they may have had; wood and leather have long since disintegrated.

                 Exactly when the Paleolithic Age ended and the Mesolithic began, or what the dimensions of the Mesolithic Age were is becoming increasingly difficult since the pre-pottery Neolithic Age is being pushed back in time.  Mesolithic cultures were practically at the same time as the early Neolithic Age in Jericho.  The most characteristic Mesolithic culture was the Natufian (8000-6000 A.D.).  The Natufians fashioned very small flint points.  Arrowheads and agricultural implements were also found in abundance.

                 The beginnings of the Neolithic Age cannot be determined chronologically.  It was the age of domestication, the invention of pottery, and of the manufacture of stones without handles, used as axes.  The stone implements of this period are much better than those of the Mesolithic.  It was found that grinding the edge of a stone and then polishing it created a much finer edge.  The process of grinding also meant that holes could be bored in stone during this period.  Ground stones have been found as early as 5000 B.C.

                 In contrast to the axe, which was either hafted into the end of a wood or bone handle or shafted, the adz was usually thonged.  Stone arrowheads are ancient, but the tanged variety, with its sharp end and a smaller, narrow, blunt end to insert in a shaft and fastened with a cord, was probably invented in Late Paleolithic times by the Aterians in North Africa.  By the advent of the metal age a large variety of arrowhead types existed.  The tanged and the hollow-based varieties were both found in Egypt. 

                 Other stone weapons from the Neolithic and Chalcolithic period are daggers, sling-stones, mace-heads, and battle-axes.  Baked clay pellets and other sling-stones have also been found throughout Phoenicia around 3500 B.C.  Early daggers of flint with hollow-based hilts were used in pre-dynastic Egypt.  Maceheads of various types were common in Western Asia, as were battle-axes.  The earliest specimens of battle-axes known are clay models from the Ubaid period, also around 3500.

                 Chalcolithic Age (4000-3000), Bronze Age (3000-1200), and Iron Age (1200-300) Weapons—The latter part of the 4000s is usually known to archaeologists as the period in which copper tools and weapons began to replace stone, although the latter remained in common use as late as the Iron Age.  Metallurgy was widely practiced in the Near East from 4000 onward.  Even in Assyria stone was not largely replaced by metal until a millennium later; in Egypt this did not occur until 2000.  Thus, there was a Chalcolithic (i.e. copper) Age, when metallic and non-metallic tools and weapons occur side by side; it was really for battle that the advantages of metal weapons became fully apparent.  Early metal weapons were at first copied from stone, but the greater flexibility of metal allowed for developing new forms as well.  Stone edges if broken were next to useless.  A metal-edged instrument seldom broke, and the dulled edge could be re-sharpened by hammering.

                 The earliest metal tools were made of native copper, which was of very high purity and as a result extremely soft; it could be hardened by cold-working, especially by hammering.  Daggers constitute one of the earliest metal weapons.  Metal was, of course, exceedingly precious, and hurling weapons would only be provided with metal tips.  Already in early dynastic times in Egypt copper spearheads were fairly numerous.  The metal battle-ax consisted of a rounded body with a splayed blade and a cylindrical butt behind the shaft hole.

                 The most important discovery for the evolution of metal tools was the discovery of hardening copper by adding tin; between 5% and 15% of the mix was tin.  A greater amount of tin made the metal harder but also more brittle.  Bronze was particularly useful for the longer piercing weapons.  The dagger, cast with a hilt, became common in Western Asia.  The sword is simply the evolution of the dagger at the beginning of the Bronze Age.  The casting of a bronze sword called forth all the skill of the ancient workman.  Non-metallic flaws had to be avoided; the proper balance between hardness and flexibility had to found.  With the advent of bronze socketed spearheads made their first appearance.

                 The earliest iron implement were made of meteoric rock.  At first such implements were used only for ornamental or magical purposes.  Ancient smelting techniques would only produce wrought iron.  The object’s surface was coated with steel by heating the object while in contact with carbon.  Iron’s chief advantage over bronze lay in its great hardness and strength.  Swords or daggers became common with the Iron Age’s advent. 

W-14

                 Biblical Weapons—The Hebrew khereb (dagger) is a short sword used for stabbing.  Weapons under 40 cm. in length are usually called “daggers”; the Hebrews made no such distinction.  The Hebrews knew the shorter, stabbing sword as well as the dagger.  Innumerable daggers have been found on Bronze and Iron Age sites throughout Egypt, Palestine, and Mesopotamia.

                 The Hebrew khanith, qayin, kidon, romakh (spear or lance) is an offensive weapon consisting of a long shaft on which was mounted a stone or metal spearhead.  The spear is a very ancient weapon probably as early as the Middle Paleolithic Age; the metal age’s advent permitted a socketed spearhead.  Most bronze and iron spearheads were socketed.  The tip was often equipped with two sharp hooks or barbs.  The opposite end of the shaft was sometimes equipped with a socketed shoe used for setting the spear in the ground.  Together with the tsinah (shield), the spear constituted the Naphtalites’ tribal weapon.  The Greek logche or Roman pilum was a javelin consisting of a long, thin iron shaft slightly less than a meter long.  There was a longer spear used for thrusting by Judeans, Gadites, and Egyptians.  The  mephets (maul, war-club) was also used.

                 Ancient Near Eastern shields were usually made of perishable materials, so no shield has been found yet in Palestine.  In Egypt a wooden shield covered with skin seems to have been the only defensive weapon in the oldest period.  The Egyptian shield had a curved top and a square bottom.  The Assyrians had many different types of shields.  For siege warfare they used massive shields of this type to serve as protection for bowmen; Syrian shields were probably the same type as the Egyptian.  Hittites also had simple rectangular shields curving inward; Mitannians used smaller round shields.  Philistine shields were also apparently round.

                 The Hebrew words for defensive weapons are magen, shalat, and tsinah (shield), keli (warrior’s equipment, including armor, mad and neshek (armor), sheriyon (upper coat of mail), and dabeqim (lower chain mail).  Among Hebrews both types of shields mentioned above were known.  Shields were made of leather stretched over a wooden frame.  On the march the shield was covered; in peacetime they hung in arsenals.  Metal shields were rare and probably used only for ceremonial purposes.  Ordinary soldiers had the more practical leather shields, often made with a heavy boss at the center for added protection.  The shield is often used figuratively to symbolize God’s relation to God’s people.  Little is known of Hebrew armor.  Saul and Jonathan both had armor, which must at least have consisted of a helmet, a breastplate or coat of mail, greaves, and a shield.  Apparently, Hebrew armor consisted of two parts: the sheriyon; and the dabeqim.

                 The New Testament (NT) seldom refers to shields or armor.  The Greek word thureos refers to a large, oblong shield.  Roman opla and panoplia (both words mean equipment including armor).  Roman armor in NT times consisted of galea or cassis (leather or metal helmet, respectively), lorica (cuirass), and ocreae (greaves).  The helmet consisted of various parts: the protective cap itself, a highly decorative and elaborate crest, two bucculae (cheek pieces), and a hinged visor.  For comfort the helmet was normally lined with felt or sponge.  The cuirass of body armor was of various kinds, but the simplest and most common consisted of a leather corselet made of strips of leather faced with metal and wrapped around the torso.  Two shoulder pieces were hung over the shoulder and wired to the corset itself.  Other types of armor made of metal were also known, though they were not as common as the simple lorica, probably because of their cost.  Greaves were usually made of bronze and molded to fit the leg.

     

WEASEL (ﬢחל (kho lad), mole)  A small carnivorous mammal, which includes the martens and polecats.  While the precise identity of kholad cannot be established, the ancient Bible versions point to the weasel family.

WEATHER.  The Bible has no word for “weather” but many references to weather phenomena, such as: incidental references; similes; figurative language in poetry and prophecy; popular weather lore; meteorological speculations.  See Palestine, Climate of.

WEAVING. See Cloth.

WEDDING. See Marriage.

W-15

WEEDS (באשה (bo eh shaw), bad plant; וףס (sooph), sea-weed; ﬧאש (roshe), poisonous plant, hemlock(?); Zizanion (zih zah nee on), darnel “false wheat”)  The translation of several words in the Bible.  The Greek zizanion is probably darnel, which grow in grain fields and resembles wheat.  They are sometimes left to grow until the harvest, when women and children weed them out by hand.  In the so-called parable of the tares (Matthew 13), Jesus teaches his disciples to be patient.  Premature separation of the wheat from the weeds is rejected; patience is urged, because: people root up the wheat along with the weeds, and God has determined the time of separation, which is not to be foreshortened.  The interpretation of the parable of the tares in Matthew 13 is an allegory, late, and was probably composed by Matthew himself.  

WEEK (ﬠשבו (shaw bo ‘ah); to sabbaton (to  sabbaton), ceasing from labor) A period of 7 days, a basic unit of time reckoning current in various calendar systems, both ancient and of the present day.  An institution of early Semitic origin, its use was mediated to the modern world by the Bible and Jewish and Christian practice.  The days of the week were designated by number, “first day,” “second day,” etc.  The final day of the week came to be known as the sabbath.  The week, just as the sabbath, had its origin in the ancient Semitic calendar based on units of 50.  The week was originally an institution of primitive Semitic agricultural civilization, a time unit consisting of 6 days of field labor plus a 7^th day of rest.  7 weeks and a festal day, constituted 50, and a second and larger time unit called a pentecontad.  7 pentecontads and two week-long festival periods, plus one more festival day constituted the year of 365 days.

                 The Babylonians from 3000-2000 B.C. employed this calendar, so they were acquainted with the week as a time unit.  Ancient Babylonians observed religious festivals each for a period of seven days.  In the later Babylonian lunar-solar calendar of 30-day months, the 7^th, 14^th, 21^st, and 28^th days of certain months, and also the 19^th (i.e. the 49^th) were regarded as taboo days, upon which certain forms of labor were prohibited.

                 With Solomon’s erection and dedication of the first Temple in Jerusalem from 975-950 B.C., and in response to increasing international influence, the solar calendar replaced the pentecontad calendar as the official system of time reckoning for Israel.  This solar calendar reckoned time, quite naturally, in terms of days, months, solar seasons, and solar years.  Between the day and the month the seven-day week was a convenient and needed unit of time reckoning.  The sabbath lived on as a basic institution in the religious observance of Israel.  The week was also used for fixing the incidence of the two annual 7-day agricultural festivals.  

                 Eventually, under the influence of either this solar calendar or of the lunar-solar adopted by the Jewish religious community at some time during 425-400 B.C., the sabbath came to run throughout the year with complete disregard of the incidence of festival days.  These days were now largely discarded or radically changed in character and manner of observance.  The week has continued to function in both religious practice and in general and conventional time reckoning.

           

WEEKS, FEAST OF (ﬠוﬨשב חג (khawg  shaw boo ‘othe);  ﬧחג הקצי (khawg ha kaw tseer), feast of harvesting; ﬠצﬧה (‘ah tsaw raw), assembly; יﬤוﬧםהב יום (yom  ha beek koo reem), day of firstlings;   חמשים יום (kha me sheem  yom), 50 days;  h penthcosth (heh  pen teh kos teh), “the fifty”)  The second of the three great festivals in Israel, often treated as the conclusion of the cycle that began at Passover; celebrated after the fall of the temple to commemorate the giving of the law.

                 Weeks was basically a harvest festival.  Throughout its biblical history it maintained its original character.  The term “Weeks” is reference to the period of the grain harvest, beginning with the barley and ending with the completion of the wheat harvest.  In this period, Israel was called to recognize God as the source of rain and fertility.  The feast is also known as the Day of First Fruits.  It marked the beginning of the season in which it was appropriate to bring offerings of first fruits. 

                 Among Greek-speaking Jews the feast was known as the Pentecost (50^th day).  In secular Greek usage the adjective pentecoste was technical term, deriving from a 2% (1/50).  The term ‘atsarah, “assembly” may refer to the Assembly which closes the Passover cycle.  The feast, both by virtue of its relation to Passover and the entire harvest period, is agricultural in character.

                 In Palestine, Weeks proper lasted only one day.  In the Diaspora, to avoid not celebrating on the correct day, the duration was extended to 2 days.  The date was set as the 50^th day “from the morrow after the sabbath.”  The Sadducees always celebrated this day on Sunday.  The rabbis celebrated this day on the 15^th day of Nisan.  The Day of the Sheaf fell on the 16^th.  The Jews celebrated Weeks on the basis of this computation and still do.  The sheaf is present as a wave offering; it was the fistful of stalks produced when, in ceremonial fashion, the sickle was first put “to the standing grain.”  It paid tribute to God as the owner of the land and the source of its products.  The offering was made on behalf of all the people.  The ceremony of the sheaf was integrally a part of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

W-16

                 The feast day was one of solemn joy and thanksgiving that God’s protection had watched over and provided a successful cereal harvest, which began 7 weeks before.  Work was to cease; through its male representatives, the whole community of Israel presented itself before the Lord.  Central to the day’s significance was a special cereal offering, consisting of “two loaves of bread.”  Since the bread was baked with leaven, it was eaten by the priest without ever being on the altar.  2 lambs were also presented as a wave offering.  Beginning with this sacrifice, it was permissible to use it for food and liturgical purposes.  The feast was brought to a conclusion by the eating of communal meals to which the poor, the stranger, and the Levite were invited.

                 Weeks was also the Feast of First Fruits.  Individual worshipers could make offerings of the new grain crop as personal sacrifices of first fruits.  It seems that the private offerings could be made at any time during the season now begun, not only at the high feasts.  Weeks not only celebrated God as the giver of grain but also, in the ceremony for the offering of first fruits, interpreted the meaning of harvests in the light of Israel’s sacred history, from the Exodus to its inheritance of Canaan as the Land of Promise.

                 Following the destruction of the temple Weeks continued to be observed by its gradual transformation into a feast commemorating the gift of the law.  A collection of Torah readings arose to be read in preparation for the eve of the feast.  As already noted, the association of the revelation of the law with Weeks is a later development.  The custom of the reading of Exodus 19 on this day seems to have begun around 200 A.D.  Long before this it was customary to read the book of Ruth; this custom has been maintained.  It is historically incorrect to describe Weeks as a “feast of revelation” at the time of Jesus, and it is misleading to interpret Acts 2 and Pentecost on the assumption that it is a displacement of, or substitution for a feast of the law.

WEEPING.  See Mourning.

WEIGHTS AND MEASURES.

              Glossary 

ך יוםﬢﬧ (day rake  yom), day’s journey                 מﬠנה (ma ‘eh naw), furrow as a  
ﬤﬤﬧ (kik kawr), Talent, large [round] coin               measure of land  

נצף (net sef), found in archaeology, not Bible;       ﬢצמ (tsay made), a day’s plowing 

    meaning is uncertain                                            by oxen

מאזנים (meh ‘oh zeh nah yeem), balances            ﬠﬢצ  (tsah ‘ad), step, pace  

       מהלך יום (mah ha lawk  yom), day’s walk,     קשיטה (keh she taw), something 

           journey                                                         weighed, coin or weight

hmeraV odoV (heh mer ras  oh dos), day’s     xeosthV (eks ee os tes), Roman,  

          journey                                                              equal to about a pint (234 ml)
      metrhthV (meh treh tes), equal to NT            phcuV (pek us), forearm, cubit,  

            Hebrew bath, about 9 gallons (34.2 liters)          about  1 ft. (30.5cm)

      milion (mih lee on) 1000 double paces,         stadion (stay dee on), ⅛ Roman  

             8 stadia
 mna (mih na), weight equal to 100 drachma,            mile, 201.45 yards (183.1 meters)

               1/60 talent                                                    talanton (tah lan ton), Talent, a large

      modioV (mo dee os), dry measure equal to           weight or a large sum of money

          about a peck (8.74 liters)                            sabbatou odoV (sab bah too  oh dos) 

                                                                                      sabbath journey

     In early days of human communication standards by which weights, capacities, and distances could be understood became necessary.  At first measurements were probably made by reference to well-known physical phenomena.  For weighing there were necessarily balances, and in prehistoric times stones came to be used as standards.  Ur-Nammu founder of the Third Dynasty of Ur, around 2050 B.C., in the earliest law code known up to 1960 B.C., established official weights and measures to keep dishonest merchants from using “two kinds of weights, a large and a small”, and the “two kinds of measures, a large and a small” (Deuteronomy 25).  There had been weights and measures in the civilization around the eastern end of the Mediterranean in the two millenniums before the appearance of the Israelites.

    

W-17

           For the use of weights, me‘ozenayeem (balances) were necessary.  The biblical balance consisted of a beam suspended on a cord or mounted on an upright support.  Both kinds are mentioned in Egyptian literature.  A pan was suspended by cords from each end of the beam.  When the pans were at equal height, the standard weight and the object to be weighted were equal.  In Egyptian judgment scenes the heart is weighed in the balance against the feather.  The graduated scale using the leverage principle did not appear before the 300s B.C.  Dishonest manipulation of balances was not uncommon.  Just balances are prescribed in Leviticus 19, Job 31, Prov. 16, and Ez. 45.  Balances are mentioned figuratively in Job 6, Ps. 62, and Daniel 5. 

     In Egypt the cubit was used in computing areas.  100 cubits or st’t was a square 100 cubits to a side, approximately 2,735 square meters.  In Mesopotamia it was customary to measure by units of capacity, the quantity of seed necessary to sow it properly.  On occasion areas are described by linear measures.  There is no special terminology for measures of area in the Old Testament (OT).  The samedh is presumed to be what a yoke of oxen could work in a day. 

     Weights:  Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Canaanite—What we know of weights in the ancient Near East comes from literary references and objects of stone, metal, or glass which evidently were used in balances.  The few that are inscribed give us information, but there is considerable variety in some weights with the same inscription.  Much that has been written about Egyptian weights is conjecture. 

     Egyptian numbering was in the decimal system, with hieroglyphs for the powers of ten.  There were also hieroglyphs for the fractions from ½ to 1/64.  Earliest Egyptian weights from prehistoric times were of various stones.  Three weights are mentioned in Egyptian texts: dbn (deben); qdt (qedet); and s’ty (seal).  The deben weight in the form of cows is found to be about 91 grams.  Apparently the deben varied greatly during Egyptian history.  The qedet was a tenth of a deben.  A seal was a twelfth of a deben.

     Babylon’s and Assyria’s weights conformed to no general standard through the ages.  Changes in government brought changes in standards.  The Semitic verb meaning “weigh” is shql, from which comes “shekel,” at first a standard of weight and later the basic piece of silver money.  There were 2 other common weights: mina and talent.  “Talent” is from the Greek talanton, once meaning “balance” and then applied to a weight.

     These weights varied greatly. The Babylonian-Assyrian method used the number 60 in computation instead of 10.  Ordinarily the talent consisted of 60 minas and the mina of 60 shekels, but there were “heavy” and “light” standards, with the heavy weighing twice as much as the light.  Two stones were found that were used to set the standard.  They indicated the use of light and heavy mina.  The royal standard of light and heavy were some 5% heavier than the ordinary weights, indicating that payments to the royal treasury were slightly larger than the same sums used in ordinary transactions.

     Table: Babylon/Assyrian Weights (rough estimates)

Common Weight, Light                                            Heavy

     Talent       30 kg.               66 lbs.                              60 kg.               132 lbs.

     Mina         500 g.               1.1 lbs.                               1 kg.               2.2 lbs.

     Shekel      8.3 g                 0.3 oz.                         16.7  g.                0.6  oz.

Royal Weight, Light                                                 Heavy

     Talent     30.6 kg.            67.3 lbs.                           61.2 kg.              134.6 lbs.

     Mina       525    g.            1.16 lbs.                           1.05 kg.              2.32 lbs.

     Shekel    8.37   g.             0.31 oz.                          16.74  g.              0.62 oz.

     The term “Canaanite” here applies to the ancient inhabitants of the land at the east end of the Mediterranean other than Israelites.  It includes the Ugaritic and the Phoenician.  The mina in many instances consisted of 50 rather than 60 shekels.  The use of shekels for large weights indicates that minas and talents were reckoned directly in shekels.  The talent was probably 3,000 shekels rather than 3,600.  Like Babylon, there were 2 standards of weight.  Also as in Babylon, there was a variety in the shekel’s weight.  Ras Shamra has produced weights, which indicates a unit of 23.5 grams, which would approximate the heavy shekel of Palestine.   

W-18

  

                 Weights: Israel—Israel’s computations used 10 rather than 60.  In the West 
       Asian systems the shekel was the basic weight.  No 2 inscribed weights with
       identical notation measure are exactly the same.  The Hebrew shekel has been 
       computed by various authorities as slightly over 11 grams.  Objective evidence 
       comes from inscribed weights found in excavations at Lachish, Zahariyeh,
       Samaria, possibly Mizpah, Beth-zur, and others; they are thought to be from the 
       600s or 500s B.C.  The 3 groups found are:  netseph, pim, and beqa.

                 The netseph is not mentioned in the Bible; it may mean half of something.  Discovery of the pim cleared the meaning of a passage in I Samuel 13.  In the King James Version pim was translated “file.”  Scholars surmised that the pim was the amount of weight or money spent to sharpen implements.  The pim is perhaps ⅔ of a shekel.  Beqa is from the verb root meaning “split,” and is translated “half shekel” on the basis of Ex. 38.  The standard weight of all three varied throughout their history.  The netseph weighed an average of 9.8 g.  The pims found weigh an average of 7.8 g.  The beqas weigh an average of 6.1 g.  The variations demonstrate the inexactness of the Israelite weight system; the average represents only a rough idea of the standards used.

                 Weights mentioned in the OT are:  the gerah (1/20 shekel); ⅓ shekel; the beqa (½ shekel); the shekel; the mina (50 shekels); the talanton; and the qesitah.  The qesitah weight may have been in metal in the form of a lamb, or a quantity of silver equal to the price of a lamb.  The talent was 3,000 shekels.  Taking the shekel as 11.4 g., the OT weights may be estimated in the table found below:     

      Table

Weights:  Israel             Metric        English                              Metric       English

ﬧהג (Gerah), 1/20 shekel   0.57 gr.      0.02 oz.      שקל (Shekel)   11.4 gr.       0.4 oz.  

ﬠבק (Beka), ½ shekel       5.7  gr.       0.2   oz.      מנה (Mina),   571.2   gr.      1.3 lb. 

פים (Pim), ⅔ shekel         7.6   gr.      0.27 oz.     Talent,            34.3 kg.        75.6  lb.

                 According to the above, Goliath’s coat of mail, weighing 5,000 shekels of bronze, would be 57 kg.  His spearhead of 600 shekels would be almost 8 kg.  The “shekel of the sanctuary” is an expression peculiar to the Priestly writer.  Some scholars translate “sacred shekel” and presume it was different from the ordinary shekel.  On the other hand, it may refer to a standard weight which was kept in the sanctuary.  The primary Greek OT has “sacred didrachma.”  A didrachma is lighter than the ordinary shekel.  It appears that the Greek translators were dealing in approximation, as were English translators.  In Daniel 5 the words “Mene, mene, tekel, and parsin” are sometimes seen as a play on the words “mina, mina, shekel, and a half. 

                 The Apocrypha mentions shekels and minas.  Talents are mentioned in I Esd. 1, 4, 8; Tob. 1; and II Macc. 3, 4, 5, 8.  The talent in the New Testament (NT) parables was used to represent a large sum of money or large weight.  The mina, like the talent in Matthew, doubtless represents a sum of money.

                 Measures of Capacity: Egyptian, Mesopotamian, and Canaanite—The standard measure of capacity in ancient Egypt, was the khkt, which has been estimated as 5.03 liters, amounting to slightly more than 5¼   quarts.  It was divided into fractions of ½, ¼, 1/8, 1/16, and 1/64.  There were also the double khkt and the quadruple khkt, and the “sack” (16 khkt).  For liquids there was the “hin” jar, which from inscribed examples is shown to be about 0.5 liters.

                 Mesopotamian names of measures for capacity abound in the Sumerian, Assyrian, Neo-Babylonian, and Nuzian texts.  From the references it is evident that there was considerable variation in standards.  Among the ancient Mesopotamians the basic measure of capacity seems to have been the Semitic qa.  The next higher unit was the sutu, which contained 10 qas.  There is mention of a “sutu of 10 minas.”  Since the mina was a weight, the cubic capacity of a situ would depend on the material used.  Calculations were made assuming that the material was water and barley. 

                 2 most recent evaluations of the qa are 1 liter and 1.34 liters.  In the Middle Assyrian and Nuzian texts there is a third unit, imeru, which means “ass,” presumably the load an ass was expected to carry.  So, for Middle Assyrian and Nuzian times we may consider the approximate standard as being: a qa = 1.34 liters (1.43 qts.); the sutu of 10 qas=13.4 liters (14.3 qts); and the imeru=134 liters (143.4 qts.).  In the Ugaritic (Canaanite) literature, homer means “ass” and is used as a unit of dry measure.  The lethech is a unit of dry measure; the log may be a liquid measure.

      

W-19

                 Measures of Capacity:  Israelite—Hebrew measures of capacity never were finally fixed.  The homer was a standard dry measure similar to the imeru equaling 134 liters (143.4 qts).  Other calculations make this measure considerably more.  References in the OT indicate that it was a fairly large measure.  In the story of the miraculous provision of quails “he who gathered least gathered ten homers.”

                 Equal to the homer was the cor.  It was used for dry measure and for oil.  The lethech was a dry measure, mentioned only in Hosea 3.  The Mishna evaluates the lethech as half a cor.  The ephah was a dry measure equal to 1/10 of a homer.  The ephah was in common use, as it was frequently mentioned in the OT.  There are passages where the New Revised Standard Version inserts ephah to give the full meaning.  The bath is a liquid measure said to be equal to the ephah.  The bath was used to indicate both small and large quantities. 

                 The seah was a dry measure.  If the Greek saton is an exact equivalent, it capacity would be about 12.3 liters.  By some it is proposed that the seah is equivalent of the salis of Isaiah 40.  The hin was a liquid measure 1/6 of a bath, according to the Jewish historian Josephus.  Besides the whole hin there were 1/6, ¼, 1/3, and ½ hins.  The omer was used in the gathering of the manna; it was 1/10 of an ephah.  Probably another name for the omer was the issaron, which means “a tenth,” probably of an ephah.  A measure mentioned only in II Kings 6 is the kab.  There is no conclusive evidence as to what a kab was.  The smallest biblical measure of capacity was the log.  It is named only in Leviticus as ¼ of a kab.

                 Measures of the Bible varied.  There was no absolute standard of measurement until introduction of the metric system.  Only a provisional attempt at approximate evaluation is possible and is given below.     

                 Capacity:  Israel  (Dry)              Metric            English 

             קב (kab),                                    1.1   liters       1.16 quarts  

             ﬠמﬧ (omer), ﬠשﬧון (issaron),

                 1/10 ephah                                2 liters           2.1 quart

             seah (סאה), ⅓ ephah                  5.83 liters           ⅔ peck  

             ephah (אפה)                             17.5  liters          ½ bushel 

             lethech (ﬨךל), ½ homer             90.3  liters        2.6 bushels 

             homer (ﬧחמ), cor                     180.6 liters         5.2 bushels

             (Liquid)                                     Metric            English
             log (לג)                                     156    ml.            0.67 pint
             hin (הין)                                   3.8    liters           1 gallon
            (ﬨב) bath                                  20.9   liters          5.5 gallons 
             cor, homer                               209   liters          55  gallons

             The handful gives a general impression of quantity, though it could hardly be called an exact measure. The artabe was a Persian measure estimated as 64 liters (68.5 qts).  Measures of capacity listed in the NT are Greek or Roman.  The xestes is the sextarius of about a pint or half a liter.  Metretes is definitely a measure.  The “bushel of Matthew 5 is the Greek modios, and is less than ¼ of an American bushel.  The amount of ointment Mary used to anoint Jesus’ feet was a litra, the Roman pound of 12 ounces.  The mixture of myrrh and aloes that Nicodemus brought for Jesus’ body weighed about 100 of these pounds. 

                 Measures of Length:  Egyptian, Mesopotamian, and Canaanite—In ancient Egypt small objects were measured by dimensions of the lower arm.  The Egyptian cubit or mh was given a length from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger.  It was about 52.3 cm., but the Egyptian cubit was variable from 45 to 52.3 cm.  The palm or ssp was 1/7 of a cubit, about 7.5 cm.  The finger or db was ¼ of a palm or 1/28 of a cubit, about 18.2 mm.  For longer measures there was the rod or ht, 100 cubits, about 52.3 meters.  There was a much larger measure called the “river” or ytrw.  Its length is uncertain, but it is presumed to be at least 2 km. 

                 Like the Egyptian, the Sumerian and Akkadian (Mesopotamian) small measures for length were based on parts of the forearm.  It is thought that the Mesopotamian cubit (kus, ammatu) was a bit shorter than the Egyptian, about 49.6 cm.  The Sumerian ideogram SU BAD represents the open hand or span from the thumb to the little finger, about 25 cm. The Sumerian and Akkadian finger (susi, ubanu) was 1/30 of a cubit. 

                

W-20

           For larger measures there was the rod (gi, qanu), containing 6 cubits and equal to about 3 meters.  A Sumerian ninda was 12 cubits, about 6 meters.  The rope (zer, aslu) was 120 cubits, about 60 meters.  The double stadion (Sumerian gis) was 720 cubits.  The walk of a Babylonian hour (2 modern hours) was 1,800 ninda, 21,600 cubits, about 11.82 km.  Canaanite measures in all probability corresponded to the measurements of ancient Mesopotamia and later Israel.   

                 Measures of Length:  Israelite—Like the Egyptians, the Sumerians and the Assryo-Babylonian, the Israelites used the cubit as a standard.  Undoubtedly, the cubit or ‘amah was the length of the forearm to the tip of the middle finger; but as human arms are of different lengths, the Israelite cubit was not absolute.  There are instances where the word “cubit,” like “shekel,” is implied and is inserted in the NRSV.  In Palestine no cubit measures have been found in the excavations yet.  The cubit is used extensively in giving dimensions of: Noah’s ark; the ark of the covenant; Solomon’s temple; and the second temple.  There were different cubits in Israel: the common cubit; and the long cubit (six long cubits= 7 common cubits).

                 In many cases cubits are named in round numbers.  The people were to follow the ark at a distance of about 2,000 cubits; Benaiah slew an Egyptian 5 cubits tall; Goliath’s height is given as six cubits and a span (2.9 meters); the two bronze pillars, Jachin and Boaz were 18 cubits.  The NT word for “cubit” is pechus.  Most people are content to think of it as half a yard, which is about right, though probably a little less than the actual cubit when in biblical times it was used for accurate measure.

                 The distance between the extended thumb and the little finger was the span.  According to Ezekiel’s scale it would measure 25.9 cm.  On the common scale it would be around 22 cm.  The palm or tephach (tophach), the width of the hand at the base of the fingers is considered 1/6 of a cubit.  Tophach is used in measuring the thickness of Solomon’s molten sea; tephach is used to define Ezekiel’s cubit.  The smallest Israelite linear measure was the finger or ‘etsebba’a, ¼ of a handbreadth. It occurs only in the thickness of the two hollow pillars (Jeremiah 52).  An approximation of Israel linear measure is given on the next page.            

              Length:  Israel                                Metric       English 

      Common Measures   

      אצבﬠ (‘eh tseb bah), finger                          18.5 mm      0.73 in. 
      טפח (teh fakh), handbreadth                         73.6 mm        2.9 in.

 זﬧﬨ       (zeh ret), span                                     22.2 cm       8.75 in.

      אמה (‘ah maw), cubit                                   43.9 cm       17.5 in.

        Ezekiel 40, 43 Measures                      Metric       English
            Span                                                     25.9 cm        10.2 in.
            Cubit                                                    51.8 cm        20.4 in.

                 For distances there are several words for which no exact value is certain.  There is the “pace” or tsa’ad.  The stadion contained 400 cubits or slightly less than 200 meters.  The mile or milion was the Roman mile of 1,000 paces, 5,000 Roman feet, or 1,618 yards.  The length of a day’s journey (darake yom,  mahalake yom, emeras odos) would depend on the method of transportation and the kind of terrain covered.  A fair estimate under ordinary conditions is 32 to 40 km.  A sabbath day’s journey or sabbatou odos is given as the distance between Olivet and Jerusalem.  Another explanation is based on Exodus 16.  The distance between the people and the ark is given as about 2,000 cubits, so the sabbath day’s journey would be about 2,000 cubits.

                 No weight or measure in biblical times was sufficiently fixed to enable us to give its exact metric equivalent; but there were ideals for just balances, just weights, and just measures.  There were different standards in the various countries of the Near East; and frequently two standards such as short and long, light and heavy, common and royal, were used simultaneously in the same country.

WELLS (ﬧבא (beh ‘air) and ﬧבו (bore), cistern, pit; יןﬠמ (ma ‘eh yawn), fountain; ﬧמקו (maw kore), spring, fountain; ﬠין (‘ah yeen), eye, face, fountain)  Because of rainfall scarcity, wells have always been important in the Bible.  Their depth and shape often vary in accordance with the type of soil and the water level.

                 Wells were located in the wilderness, valleys, cities, fields, and courtyards.  They were very important in a nomadic society.  Villages’ and cities’ water supply from cisterns and springs was often supplemented from wells.  Well possession was often a cause of strife.  Wells’ mouths were covered to keep the water clean and to prevent anything from falling in.  Water was carried from wells in jars and was removed from deep wells by means of jars or waterskins attached to ropes.  Wells were thought to be places inhabited by spirits; the Song of the Well (Numbers 21) is an early Hebrew folk song which suggests the Lord’s power over the well.

WEN (יבלﬨ (yab bah lat), running sore)  King James Version translation of Hebrew.  The reference is to a cattle disease marked by running sores, perhaps anthrax (Leviticus 22)

WEST. See Orientation.

WESTERN SEA (הים האחﬧון (ha yawm  ha ‘ah khoe rone); the second word is from the root meaning “to linger”)  The designation of the Mediterranean in Deuteronomy 11.

WHALE (khtoV (keh tos), large fish, sea monster; Hebrew words translated as “whale” in the King James Version (Job 7; Ezekiel 32) were done so in error)  Any of the species of large, warm-blooded, air-breathing sea mammals.  Quite apart from mythical monsters, the biblical Hebrews may have known or heard about various large marine animals, any one of which could be called a “great fish.”  (e.g. sharks, whales, or dolphins).  The ones most likely to be near Palestine would be the humpback whale, the fin whale and dolphins.

 WHEAT (חנטין (khih neh teen); ﬧב (bar), corn, grain; ﬢגן (daw gawn), corn, grain; ﬧיפוﬨ (ree foth), crushed corn, grits; sitoV (sit os), corn, grain) An annual grass which produced one of the most important grains for food in ancient biblical times.  It has been cultivated for food in the area at least since Neolithic times (6000-4000 B.C.).  Botanists have disagreed concerning the identification of the many species and subspecies of wheat.  One botanist claims that the biblical wheats were from the emmer class; another identifies them as durum; and others identify them with the spelt class.  The absence of wild specimens of the spelt group in Palestine today argues in favor of emmer.

                 The wheat harvest was an ancient time reference; the Feast of Weeks (i.e. of the wheat harvest) was one of the three principal ancient yearly festivals.  There are frequent references to the processing of wheat.  Poetically wheat appears as a symbol of God’s care.  In the New Testament wheat is mentioned in allegory and parable.  Grains of wheat, most carbonized, have been discovered in several excavations in the Holy Land.          

WHEEL (אופן (‘oh fan) גלגל (gah leh gal), whirlwind; trocoV (tro kos), runner)  The wheel was known to the Old Testament (OT); it had been invented in Mesopotamia before 3000 B.C.  Early wheels were of solid wood and were often in 3 parts, plus rim, perhaps because of the scarcity of wide planks.  The spoked wheel, which was developed around 2000 B.C., is also well known in the OT.  In Kings 7 certain wheels are reported to have had axles, rims, spokes, and hubs, in this instance of cast bronze.

                 The wheel was used on wagons, carts, and chariots.  In Solomon’s temple, ten “stands” are described, each with four wheels, and upon these stands were placed the ten lavers of the temple court.  In Ezekiel’s visions of the Divine Presence (ch. 1) there appear the four cherubim who support Yahweh’s throne, beside each of whom is a gleaming wheel equipped with eyes.  In Daniel 7 these wheels have become the wheels of God’s throne.  For figurative use, there is a broken wheel at a cistern or well, making it impossible to draw up the life-giving water, which is a metaphor for death in Ecclesiastes 12.  Driving a wheel (of a royal chariot) over the wicked (Proverb 20) is presumably a figure for their punishment.  The meaning of the phrase “wheel of origin” in James 3 is uncertain; the New Revised Standard Version renders it “cycle of nature.”  

WHEEL,  POTTER’S.  See Potter’s Wheel. 

WHELP (ﬧגו (gore), lion or jackal’s whelp; בן (ben), son (of a lioness)) In Jacob’s blessing (Genesis 49) Judah is praised as a lion’s whelp, presumably because of his strength and alacrity in leadership.  In Jeremiah 51, Judah is personified as a mother lioness.  In Job 4, Eliphaz uses figures of the lion and the lioness and her whelps for the wicked and violent.

WHET (לטש (law tas), sharpen) In Deuteronomy 32 and Psalm 7 it indicates the Lord’s preparation for judgment.

W-22

WHIP (שוט (shote), scourge; fragellion (frah gel lee on), scourge) An instrument of punishment or of coercion, both of men and  of animals.  Jesus used one to drive the sellers from the temple.

WHIRLWIND (סﬠﬧ (sah ‘ar), storm, tempest; סופה (soo faw), hurricane; גלגל (gah leh gal), wheel) The designation of several types of winds.  Isaiah 17 has “whirling dust (galegal) before the storm (suphah).”

                 Storm-winds are not unusual in the rainy season, but true whirlwinds or tornadoes occur chiefly near the coast in early winter when the air is unstable.  Such whirlwinds may have swept up Elijah (II Kings 2) in the funnel-shaped vortex.  Whirlwinds of a lesser sort are the “dust devils” or whirling columns of dust which sometimes are drawn up from a hot, dry surface in unstable air (e.g. the “palm-columns” [or “pillars”] of smoke in Song of Songs [Solomon] 3.

WHITE (לבן (law ban); leukoV (loo kos), light, bright; koniaw (koe nee ah oh), whitewash, plaster) In the Old Testament “white” generally describes the natural color of an object:  animals; leprosy; milk; and snow.  For white garments, the cloth would be washed with a detergent, bleached in sulphur fumes, and left to dry in the sun.  In the New Testament white garments indicate the glory of their wearer:  the transfigured and risen Lord (Matthew 17, 28); angels (John 20; Acts 1).  The New Testament also speaks of “whitewashed” to indicate that on the outside everything looks fine, but within there is uncleanness and corruption.

WHORE.  See Prostitution.

WIDOW (אלמנה (ah leh maw naw), desolate places; chra (keh rah)) Many references to the widow indicate that hers was an unfortunate state and she was frequently subjected to harsh treatment.

                 “In every code except the Hebrew, the widow has rights of inheritance but in Hebrew law she is  completely ignored.”  The Hebrew belief that death [of the husband] before old age was a calamity, caused a judgment of sin that was extended to the wife; it was a disgrace to be a widow.  A childless widow could return to her father’s house, at least if she was the daughter of priest.  She might be able to wait for marriage to her husband’s brother who was too young for marriage or not yet born.  But if there were no brothers or if they were too poor to support the widow, she was without other recourse.  If she took an oath, it stood, since she had no husband who might revoke it.

                 The condemnations voiced by the prophets include attacks upon mistreating widows.  The frequency of strong words of denunciation clearly testifies to the widow’s frequently oppressive treatment.  “Widow” in Hebrew resembles and is from the same root as the word meaning “mute” (i.e. having no voice); the biblical concern for the widow is evidence that she needed it.  She evidently had only the protection which public compassion granted by acts of charity and justice.  Among others, widows are to be given the tithe of the 3^rd year’s produce.  The widow is under God’s special care; God provides her with food and clothing.  God is declared to be “father of the fatherless and protector of widows.”  The term for widow is applied to Babylon (city).  Desolated Israel is to be of good cheer and to forget the “reproach of widowhood.”  There appeared in the early church a group of women called “real widows.”  She must learn her religious duties as these relate to life in her own family and help her parents.  She must be at least 60 years old and married only once. 

WIFE. See Marriage.

WILD ASS (ﬠﬧוﬢ (‘ah rode)) In the biblical period and for centuries later, wild asses roamed the less settled parts of Western Asia.  Wild asses were swift and untamable; they are usually referred to as a figure of speech.  In Isaiah 32 the presence of wild asses in what was a human habitation suggests the complete absence of men.  Hosea compares Israel to a solitary wild ass wandering off to Assyria.  The references to wild asses in Daniel 5 emphasizes the extent of the change in Nebuchadnezzar’s fortunes.  It is in Job that we find more allusions to the wild ass than any other Old Testament book (Job 6, 11, 24, 39).

W-23

WILD GOAT (ואק  (‘ak koe)) An untamed, horned, cud-chewing mammal.  It is believed that the biblical wild goat was the Nubian ibex.  These animals were known to the Hebrews as living in rocky regions.

WILD GOATS’ ROCKS ( צוﬧי היﬠלים (tsoe ray  ha yeh ‘ay leem), rocks of the wild she-goat) The location of a cave where David showed mercy to Saul.  It was somewhere in the limestone wilderness near En-gedi, about halfway up the western shore of the Dead Sea.

WILD GOURDS (ﬠﬨפק (fa koo ‘oth), wild cucumbers) A plant with trailing, vine-like shoots.  It produces a fruit resembling an orange and could easily be mistaken for an edible melon.

WILD GRAPES (באשים (beh 'oo sheem), bad, unripe, or sour grapes) An expression used in Isaiah 5.  In response to God’s kindness and mercy, Israel the vine has brought forth wild (i.e. worthless) grapes.

WILD OLIVE TREE ( ﬠצ שמן (‘ets  sheh men); agrielaioV (ag ree lay ee os)) See Oil Tree; Cypress; Flora.

WILD OX (ﬧאם (reh am), buffalo) A wild two-horned quadruped called the aurochs, thought to be the stock from which the domesticated ox was derived.  There are 9 references in the Old Testament to wild oxen.  The most notable ones are: Job 39; Psalms 22, 92; and Isaiah 34.  Wild oxen were known in ancient Mesopotamia and are mentioned in Assyrian records.  

WILDERNESS (ﬢבﬧמ (mid bawr), plain, desert; ﬠﬧבה (‘aw raw baw), desert, plain; ﬨהו (toe hoo), desolation, desert; erhmoV (er eh mos), uninhabited region, desert) The translation of several words, often used inter-changeably with “desert.”  Accurate translation is difficult, because the so-called wilderness regions included arid and semi-arid territory, sandy desert, rocky plateaus, pasture lands, and desolate mountain terrain. “Wilderness” is also mentioned in connection with: Beer-Sheba; Damascus; Edom; Engedi; Gibeon; hill country of Judah; Moab; and Sinai.

WILL (ﬧיﬨב (beh reeth), covenant; diaqhkh (die ath eh keh), covenant)  In the Old Testament (OT), “will” does not appear but the Hebrew berith is translated by diatheke in the primary Greek (OT), with the idea that the diatheke  is the declaration, the will of one person and not an agreement between two parties.

                In the New Testament a man’s “will” [and testament] may not be annulled once it has been ratified (e.g. the appointment of an heir in Galatians 3); such a will was irrevocable in Greek communities.  In Roman practice a will could be revoked by the testator at any time before his death.  Apart from Galatians 3 and Hebrews 9, diatheke regularly expresses the idea of Covenant.

WILL OF GOD (חפץ (kheh fets), delight, pleasure, wish; ןﬧצו(raw tsone), delight, satisfaction, pleasure; qelhma (theh leh ma), bent, inclination) An act or process of volition; something wished by a person, especially with power or authority.  It involves strong purpose, intention, determination, power of self-direction, or self-control.  This article will note how this concept is applied to God by biblical writers, and to observe also how they relate it to the human will, to the natural world, and to the course of history

                 There is no word in biblical Hebrew for “will” in the technical psychological sense.  Biblical language with reference to humans is functional and practical; ancient Hebrew tended to treat personality as an unanalyzed unity.  They were familiar with will as desire, not with will as a faculty of the mind, like intellect or emotion.  Our study of the will of God is not based on words, but on actions ascribed to God and various roles attributed to him by Hebrew writers.

                Almost the same situation is found in the Greek of the New Testament (NT).  Thelhema in most cases means God’s objective will, which one can keep.  There is evidence in the later NT writing of the beginning of the use of thelhema in the psychological sense (e.g.  I Peter 3; II Peter 1).  In passages from the latest documents of our NT, we probably have the closest approach to the true psychological concept of will which occurs in biblical literature.  It shows that by the middle of the 100s A.D. Christian thought was beginning to adapt itself to the abstract pattern of psychology.  Although there are minor exceptions, on the whole, NT thought remains pre-philosophical.

W-24

     

                 Creator—There are at least 4 strands in biblical thought which present God as Creator.  Each of these in its own way reveals a human conception of God’s will.  The role which God takes in different phases of creation is like that of humans.  First, the most primitive idea of the natural world’s creation is allusions to an epic of Rahab’s slaughter (Job 9; Ps. 89; Is. 51).  These remind us of the Babylonian myth of Tiamat’s slaughter by Marduk.  In the primeval Hebrew story Yahweh begins to impose his will upon chaos in a violent combat.

                 The Y(J)ahwist (J) story of Gen. 4 relates how Yahweh created man, animals, and birds out of formless earth, and woman out of a man’s ribs.  God plants a garden in Eden as their home.  This story presents God as potter, gardener, and surgeon.  There is a stark contrast between the will of Rahab’s ferocious conqueror and the will of the Yahweh who presides over the pastoral scene of Eden.  The most complete and advanced account of the natural world’s creation is given by the Priestly Writer (P) in Genesis 1-2:3.  It begins with chaos, a formless substance floating in a primeval sea, soon to be separated into “waters above” and “waters below.”  Creation takes places as God brings God’s will to bear upon this orderless mass in 7 actions:

                 On the:             God Created:                  On the:         God Created:

      First Day              light; day and night                Fifth Day      sea creatures and birds

      Second Day        sky “dome”; the heavens       Sixth Day     land creatures and man

      Third Day            dry lands and seas                 Seventh Day     rest and the sabbath

      Fourth Day           sun; moon; stars

                 The unique element in this story is God’s omnipotence.  In this conception there is no use of physical energy whatever; nor is there hesitation.  Here God has omniscience, omnipotence, certainty, precision, and mastery; the strength of God’s will is absolute.  Perhaps the nearest analogy is the primitive shaman, the magical power of whose incantations is supposed to be instantaneous.  God uses no magical device, no incantation; God’s word is enough.  There is certainty without struggle; God transforms chaos into the natural world.

                 Second, human biological creation belongs to the natural order.  The structure of humans and their life cycle are like those of the animals.  What distinguishes humans from all the animals is their intelligence and free will.  This is what P means when he says that humans are created in God’s image.  It is in this way that we are to understand how P could say that God gave humans dominion over all the other life on earth. 

                 One cannot understand the Bible unless he keeps this high conception in mind.  But even biblical writers at times express amazement at man’s position on the earth.  The unique nature of humans allows us a deeper insight into the will of God; humans are moral beings.  As God has chosen to give humans this moral capacity, God must refrain from the exercise of his own omnipotent will.  The creation of the human’s moral nature introduces a vastly complicated factor into the drama of the divine will.

                 Where P uses the concept of God’s image, J has dealt with the mystery of our character in the story of Gen. 3.  The 4 characters in the short story are God, Adam, Eve, and the serpent.  4 elements which enter into the act are desire, free will, intelligence, and the standard of right; “reason” enters in the serpent’s role.  This is the eternal picture of the human’s moral life.  God tells humans what is right, but then allows them freedom to see what they will do.  The same divine act which creates the possibility of moral character in humans allows for sin.  By deliberate choice of one’s will over God’s will, humans separate themselves from God.

                 The third stage in the divine will’s expression is the creation of God’s Kingdom.  It presupposes, absorbs and transcends the natural world and human creation.  God’s kingdom begins with 1 man, but its basic concept is human society.  The biblical story begins with Abraham and unfolds with the growth of his descendants into the Hebrew nation.  The morality concept is broadened and deepened with the centuries.

                 In time it was revealed to prophets like Amos that the Hebrew nationalistic view of God was too limited; God’s will included all nations.  Hebrews found it impossible to give up that nationalistic view.  This is why they rejected Jesus and the Christian gospel of the divine will, in which all forms of nationalism and racism are repudiated.  The NT reveals God’s will to extend God’s kingdom to every frontier of humankind.

                 Fourth, victory over Satan is the Bible’s supreme revelation of God’s will.  Satan finds no place in the OT’s early religion.  He appears in the beginning of Job, in Zech., and in I Chron. 21.  After these allusions in the late OT writings, Satan achieved full stature as the arch-rebel against God’s will.  In the Satan concept, the struggle of God’s will to establish the kingdom takes place on a transcendental plane between God and Satan.

W-25

                 In Revelation Rahab and the serpent are still performing demonic work.  The dragon was apparently slain, but reappears in later Hebrew and Christian thought.  In Rev. 12 and 20 we learn that the combat with Satan as the serpent and the dragon goes on until the end of time.  The creation process in which Yahweh is imposing Yahweh’s will upon chaos, continues so long as the world stands.  It is an age-long struggle with the world’s hostile, rebellious, and unrepentant spirit, expressed in nature, humans, society, and in Satan.  Christian faith affirms that in the cross of Christ, God makes atonement for humans whom Satan has led astray.

                 God’s Will, Human Will, and Moral Law—In the long course of biblical revelation God is presented in many ways; usually God has the attributes of a man.  “He” is presented as a cosmic warrior, a giant, or someone who mounts his war chariot, draws his bow from its sheath, fires arrows like bolts of lightning, and casts a spear at the enemy.  It is common in the OT to refer to Yahweh as the God of hosts (armies).

                 Vindictive cruelty is sometimes ascribed to God’s will (Joshua 7; II Kings 5).  In Exodus 20 God visits sins of fathers upon their children to the third or fourth generation.  From our point of view this is irrational cruelty, but the idea involved is a logical interpretation of a fact of nature:  children suffer from a father’s evil reputation.  If we agree that nature is created by God, we too must still grapple with this same cruel fact.

                 An arbitrary will is sometimes attributed to God.  After Pharaoh had made up his mind to let the slaves go, God hardened his heart.  Probably the Hebrews ascribed to God the conscienceless immorality of the king, who felt himself bound by no moral law.  In II Samuel 24, God incites David to take the registration and then sends a pestilence because he has done it.  In the much later I Chronicles 21, it was Satan who incited David to make the registration.  Given their theological presuppositions, both these writers drew logical conclusion from the data based on assumptions current in their time.

                 On the other hand, it is a commonplace in the Bible to assign a tender, flexible, responsive will to God.  Jesus encourages his disciples to keep on asking God for what they want.  Biblical writers also give prominence to the idea that God’s will is controlled by love.  Hosea presents God as the faithful husband of Israel the faithless wife and as sad father to an obstinate son.  Jesus tells 3 great stories—the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son—to illustrate how the divine will is guided by an unfailing love.  One of the most extraordinary concepts of the Bible is that God must suffer in order to implement God’s will.

                 The question here is the tension between God’s will and the human will.  God by an act of God’s free will limits God’s self by allowing freedom to human will.  The Bible teaches that conflict arises between humans and God only when humans attempt to substitute their own will for God’s will.  God’s freedom and human freedom do indeed constitute a paradox.  The resolution of that paradox is not futile rebellion of the finite against the infinite, but the insight that it is only in the service of God that humans can find freedom.

                 It is accepted in the Bible that the will of God established the moral law for humans.  The view of Exodus 20 that children suffer for sins of their fathers is repudiated in Deuteronomy 24, Jeremiah 31, and Ezekiel 18.  The prophets replaced it by the view that every human suffers only for their own sin, and its corollary that humans get a just recompense in this life.

                 This is a sound principle in courts of law, but when it is used as a theological concept to explain good or evil, it is dangerous.  If the world is controlled by God, how are we to explain irrational tragedies?  If God is omnipotent, is God good?  If God is good is God omnipotent?  One has to face the question whether God’s own will is controlled by the moral law.  Job’s final approach was to recognize God’s mystery and the limitations of human understanding.  Further, freedom of will requires the possibility of mistakes, accidents, tragedy.  God opens the possibility of tragedy by creating humans free.  Through free will’s challenge to intelligence and good will, the stern discipline contributes to moral character.

                 The roles attributed to God in the course of this discussion are anthropomorphic.  God is soldier, king husband or father.  Almost all the attributes of humans are ascribed to God somewhere in the Bible.  The answer is that in these varied symbols biblical writers have attempted to express what they apprehended of the divine revelation.  That God is personal is the deepest intuition of faith.  Roles ascribed to God were refined, broadened, deepened, and came to their culmination in the conception of God as father in the words of Jesus.  Faith still provides its own autonomous confirmation in the hearts of believers.  

W-26

                  God’s Purpose—God was seen as having a deliberately conceived plan for action.  The Old Testament (OT) does not use the words for “purpose” to refer to divine salvation as such.  Israel came to see God’s saving purpose in history, reaching backward in time to creation itself, and outward to the whole world.  Three Hebrew words used in reference to this purpose are makhashabah, ‘ahtsah, and sode.  The first, makhasha-bah, means design, or project.  People can plan, but not without God’s knowing; they can plan purposes contrary to God, and in the short run, carry them through. Yet it is only God’s purpose that triumphs in the end.

                 ‘Ahtsah is used for all kinds of advice and deliberations.  It has particular theological significance when it is used of God’s counsel, plan or purpose.  They dispose of the destinies of nations; but they are also the guiding and ruling principle for the believer throughout their earthly lives.  As Isaiah 5 indicates, to doubt that God has a purpose, is tantamount to denying God’s existence.

                 Sode means assembly, consultation, intimate deliberations.  It speaks of an intimate circle of friends where confidences can be safely exchanged.  The prophets use this word for God as the source of their overwhelming urge to speak.  But intimacy with God is not the exclusive prerogative of the prophet, for the psalmist claims this same “friendship” for those who fear God.        

                 In the New Testament, boule means “counsel,” “design,” and sometimes “secret thoughts”; thelema means “will,” “inclination,” “design.”  When they are used, they often merit no stronger translation than “wish” or “desire.”  As in the OT, people are able to have their own purposes and pursue them.  But in the end God’s will is irresistible.  The tension between human and divine purposes is reflected even in the life of Jesus Christ.  “Remove this cup from me: yet not what I will, but what thou wilt.”  God’s purpose, once a secret or “mystery,” is now disclosed in and by the life and work of Jesus Christ.  It appears as a purpose of salvation for all.  It has absorbed human iniquities, even the greatest iniquity of the Cross.  

                God’s universal saving purpose is the proper environment and motivation of the Christian.  But as Paul said, “I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate . . . I can will what is right, but I cannot do it.”  In Romans 8, he shows that it is God’s gift of the Spirit that overcomes even this.  Thus our final salvation, like the guarantee given for it now, is not awarded on our merits, but is the sheer gift of God.  “God is at work in you, both to will and to work for God’s good pleasure.” (Philemon 2).  “It is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12).    

WILLOW TREE (צפצפה (tsah feh tsaw faw); ﬠﬧבים (‘ah raw beem)) A tree commonly found along water courses; both willows and poplars are common in the Near East.  Their common features and habitat may have been the cause of confusion in biblical usage.  Willows and poplars are especially prominent along the banks of the Jordan River.  The willow can take root from a twig.  The branches were used with others for the Feast of Booths.  The “Brook of Willows” in Moab may refer to the Wadi el-Hesa, southeast of the Dead Sea.

WILLOW, BROOK OF THE (נחל הﬠﬧבים ( nah khal  ha ‘ah raw beem))  A wadi on the frontier of Moab.  The lower course of the Wadi el Hesa has a small plain; in places it is rather swampy and suitable for willows.     

WIMPLE (מטפחﬨ (me teh fah khat), mantle, cloak)  Archaic term used to translate the Hebrew word.  A wimple was a covering for the head and neck, worn by women out of doors.

WIND (ﬧוח (roo akh), breath, spirit; סﬠﬧ (sah ‘ar); סופה (so fah), hurricane, whirlwind; pneuma (noo ma), breath, spirit)  Horizontal movement of air, powerful, fast, empty, and having a rushing sound.  It is also the wind (spirit?) which is Yahweh’s instrument in overcoming chaos. See also Palestine, Climate of; Whirlwind.

WINDOW (שקף (shaw kaf), to look out; quriV (thoo rees), small opening)  A rectangular opening in a house’s wall.  It could be covered with latticework, which could be turned aside or looked through.  Temple “windows with recessed frames . . . narrowing inwards into their jambs” are described in Ezekiel 40, 41.

W-27

WINE (יין (yah yin); ﬨיﬧוש (tee rose), new wine; ﬠשים (‘oh sheem), pressings, juice; ﬧחמ (kha mar), fermentation; ﬨג (gat), (upper) winepress; יקב (yah kab), (lower) winepress; oinoV (oy nos), vine and clusters; gleukoV (gloo kos), sweet new wine; lhnoV (leh nos), (upper) winepress; upolhnion (yoo poe leh nee on), (lower) winepress)  From ancient times Palestine-Syria has been famous for the quality and quantity of its wine.  Wine was one of the chief products of Israel throughout its history.  In New Testament (NT) times, wine and oil alone are to be protected from the apocalyptic famine (Revelation 6).

                 Varieties and Preparation—Although wine made from dates and pomegranates was widely produced in the ancient world, Palestinian wine was almost exclusively fermented grape juice.  Because of its color wine could also be called the “blood of the grape.”  It is possible that this terminology was in Jesus’ mind when he said “this is my blood of the covenant.”  In the Greek and Roman period it was quite common to mix wine with water.  For the most part, adding water to wine was considered to be an adulteration.  Wine was often mixed with spices.  In general, “those who try mixed wine” have woe, sorrow, strife, and complaining.  Wine mixed with myrrh or gall was used as a drug; as an act of mercy the soldiers offered Jesus such a potion.

                 In Egypt wines were often named after the districts in which they were produced.  In Judah the district surrounding Hebron was especially noted; several of the place names have to do with cultivating vines (see Abel-Kera-Mim; Anab; Beth-Haccherem; Eshol).  The wines of Syria were world-famous.  The grapes were harvested in August and September and were spread out in the sun for a time before they were made into wine.  Even after the invention of mechanical wine press the produce of grapes trodden in wine vats was preferred because of its quality and consistency.  Such vats in Old Testament (OT) and NT times, consisted of a pair of square pits, usually hewn out of rocky ground.  The vat in which the grapes were trodden was higher than its counterpart.  In area the upper vat was usually about twice as large as the lower; the lower was deeper.  Although heavy stones were sometimes used to hasten the production of juice, the chief method was to tread them by foot.  It was customary for several men to tread out the grapes together; the vintage season was a joyous time.  The men shouted as they worked and songs were sung.  Three psalms (8, 81, 84) were introduced as “according to the Gittith” (the root for “gittith” is the same as for the word for “vat”).  It is possible that these particular psalms were vintage songs.  Since the harvest of olives is later than that of grapes, it is probable that wine vats were used for making olive oil. 

                 The first stage of fermentation, six hours after the pressing, took place in the lower vat itself.  Then the wine was transferred to jars or skins.  An opening was left to allow for the escape of gases formed by fermentation.  Elihu in Job says “Behold my heart is like wine that has no vent; like new wineskins, it is ready to burst.”  Freshly made wine was put into new wineskins; old skins would burst under the pressure.

                 Uses, Attitudes, and Wine Images—Because water was relatively scarce and often polluted in biblical times, wine was used much more extensively than it is today.  In addition to use in everyday meals, wine was liberally provided at banquets (the Hebrew word for “banquet” or “feast” is meshettah, drinking.  Wine was an article of trade; Solomon gave wine (among other things) in return for the timber required in the building of the temple.  At the meal wine was strained through a cloth before it was drunk.  Old wine was preferred to new because it was both sweeter and stronger.  Wine was used as a medicine as well as a drink.  It revives those who are fainting; it was commonly used in dressing wounds.

                 Wherever wine is produced, it is used in sacrifices and offerings.  The worshiper brought wine whenever he made a pilgrimage to the temple.  It is possible that wine replaced a custom of offering blood.  Wine was often treated as if it were blood, and was pour out at the base of the altar.  Wine was always accompanied by a lamb, fine flour, oil, or a combination of these.

                 Wine is praised and condemned in the OT and the NT.  The earliest narratives contained in the OT seem to have a negative attitude (Gen. 9; Hab. 2; Mic. 2; Is. 28, 56). In consequence priests are later forbidden to drink wine when engaged in their duties.  The book of Proverbs is most explicit in its condemnation of immoderation.  As a protest against the luxury of Canaanite civilization the Nazirites took vows never to drink wine, strong drink, or any product of the grapevine.  In later times, however, opposition to wine decreased.

W-28

                 In the NT, John the Baptist, perhaps following a Nazirite vow, drank no wine, Jesus did not refute the charge that he was a “glutton and a drunkard.” There is no absolute condemnation of wine in the NT.  The drinking of wine to excess is disapproved; such immoderation will not prepare one for the coming of the kingdom.  No Christian should become drunk with wine; rather, he should be filled with the Spirit.  The thoughtful Christian should not drink any wine at all if it will cause his weaker brother to slip back into Gentile ways.

                 Since wine was one of the necessities of life, expressions derived from its production and consumption are commonly used in biblical imagery.  In the OT, God’s judgment is often expressed in terms of a cup of wine.  Similarly this judgment is compared to the treading out of grapes.  Elsewhere Yahweh is pictured as treading the wine press in Yahweh’s wrath.  Abundance of wine is an expression of God’s blessing.

                 In the NT, Jesus’ comparison of his blood to the cup of wine at the Last Supper is, of course, the most important use of wine in NT imagery.  Jesus compares his new teaching to new wine; it cannot be contained by the old wineskins.  In the changing of water into wine (John 2), the water probably represents Judaism and the wine Christianity.  And the book of Revelation contains several descriptions of God’s final judgment in terms of the treading of a wine press and the drinking of a cup of wrath.  

WING (ﬤנף (kaw nawf); pterux (peh teh ruks), used in: Genesis 1; Deuteronomy 4; Ruth 2; Job 39; and Psalms 17, 18, 36, 57, 61, 63, 78, and 104; Jeremiah 48, 49; Isaiah 10; Ezekiel 17, Hosea 4, and Zechariah 5.)  Yahweh, conceived as riding through the skies moves “on the wings of the wind.”  Prophets use it in their description of judgment, military attack, national pride and power, and Yahweh’s sustaining care.  Winged figures similar to Zechariah 5’s women are found in Eastern folk tales.  Pterux appears 5 times in the New Testament.

WINNOWING (זﬧה (zaw raw), scatter, disperse; diaxkorpizw (die as kop peez oh), disperse, scatter)  The process of throwing the cut stalks of grain in to the air so that the kernels will fall into a pile and the refuse will be carried away by the wind.  Winnowing follows threshing.  At the beginning of the work a fork is used and later a shovel.  Winnowing is often used figuratively to represent the destruction of evil.

WINTER. See Summer and Winter; Palestine, Climate of.

WISDOM ( חﬤמה (khaw keh maw); הצﬠ (‘eh tsaw), counsel; sofia (so fee ah), knowledge, prudence)  A quality of mind distinguishing the wise man, by virtue of which he is skilled and able to live well and both succeed and counsel success; also a quality in itself apart from the person, above and beyond the person, existing ideally with God and imparting form to creation.  Wisdom is a deposit of reflection upon human experience.

                 The wise man in Israel was part of general pattern of ancient Near Eastern culture.  There were wise men in Egypt, Babylonia, Persia, and other lands.  There were kings and others with a reputation for superior wisdom.  Recorded wisdom in Egypt and Assyria-Babylonia was mostly royal wisdom.  The concern of viziers was to train their sons to serve royalty; wisdom was the knowledge taught in the schools for the royal scribes.  Prudent behavior, conduct befitting kings, conduct for one who would stand before kings were the most frequently taught subjects.  There is also instruction for everyone, observations on life and humankind’s fate.

                 Biblical and other Near Eastern wisdom literature occupy a lot of common ground.  The correspondence of Amen-em-opet with the last half of Proverbs 22 and the 1^st half of 23, is close enough that the influence of the Egyptian source, or some common source upon this Proverbs passage is nearly beyond question.  More general but quite probable is the influence of Canaanite and Akkadian sources.  The Bible’s wisdom literature is a segment of the “wisdom of the east.”  Much of the Near Eastern influence is more diffuse than specific.

                 The Wise Man: At Court and as King—The wise man is many things, from artisan to astrologer, from parent to philosopher.  Being wise was an occupation, one which brought mostly men to the attention and the courts of kings.  One of the latest biblical books contains one of the most detailed descriptions of such wise men in the court of the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar.  This sly monarch demands of his “wise men” that they relate and interpret his dream; when they insist that was impossible, he orders their execution.  Daniel with God’s help declares and explains the dream, and so saves his own life.

                 The general term “wise men” includes the “magicians, the enchanters, the sorcerers.”  Daniel and his companions, who were counted among the wise, were “educated” for 3 years “to teach them letters.”  Daniel is especially gifted in the understanding of visions and dreams and rises to the position of “chief prefect” over all the wise men.  Though the story is legendary, later, and given an imaginary setting, this developed picture of the wise man at the royal court throws light upon the numerous less detailed descriptions of the wise.

                 When God, through Moses and Aaron, demanded release of his people, the pharaoh had to be convinced. Moses and Aaron performed miracles, but his “wise men and the sorcerers did the same by their secret arts.”  In the contest of magic and wisdom Moses and his brother were “ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters,” because through them God worked his wonders.  This wisdom contest is a feature of the “priestly” version of the Exodus narrative, written several centuries before the Daniel legends.

W-29

                 Another Israelite in an Egyptian court also resembled Daniel.  Joseph showed superior intelligence.  In prison he first gave evidence of the God-given wisdom which made him an interpreter of dreams for the Pharaoh.  Furthermore, Joseph gave sound advice and was wise through the spirit of God.  These 3 situations, Joseph, Moses, Daniel, have this in common: in a contest with a foreign court’s wise men, with the help of God, the Hebrews triumph.  Isaiah 47 refers with special scorn to the court astrologers.  The counselors in foreign courts seem mostly to have been futile, and their advice is sometimes more amusing than sound.

                 There were official advisers at the courts of Israelite kings as well, distinguished by their political sagacity, wisdom, and judgment.  No one wise adviser was more famous than David’s traitorous counselor Ahithophel, whose “counsel was as if one consult the oracle of God.”  Twice we hear of wise women—the wise woman of Abel (II Samuel 20), and the wise women in the court of Sisera (Judge 5).  It is particularly in the days of this cluster of kings, David, Solomon, and Rehoboam, that we read of wise men at the Israelite court.  It is safe to infer that the expression “royal counselor” was still in use some centuries later.

                 As Moses towered above the wise and experienced men with whom he surrounded himself, so according to the tradition Solomon outshone his professional advisers.  David, his father, was graced with intelligence as a youth and recognized for his wisdom in old age.  Solomon’s potential was realized when God appeared in his dream and granted his request:  “an understanding mind,” “understanding to discern what is right,” “wisdom and knowledge” (I Kings 3; II Chronicles 1).  So excellent was his wisdom that his fame at once spread abroad beyond the borders of his land.  Hiram, king of Tyre, acknowledged Solomon’s wisdom, and Solomon had no greater admirer than the queen of distant Sheba, and “All the kings of the earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God had put into his mind”  (I Kings 10).  

                 The stories told of Solomon are folk tales and legend, and may not be used uncritically as historical records.  Undoubtedly, Solomon was a great organizer and administrator.  The tales told of him are the efforts of later generations to recover the vanished splendor of his glorious times.  They also made him the author of Proverbs, Song of Songs, and Ecclesiastes, and the Wisdom of Solomon.  It is not strange that parts of the literature of wisdom should be attributed to King Solomon, or that Hezekiah should be known as a patron of the art of wisdom.  Also it is quite natural that wisdom should be ascribed to the awaited messianic king.  His symbolic name contains as its first element “Wonderful Counselor.”

                 The Old Testament (OT) tales of wise men at the courts of foreign kings are biased, designed to glorify Israel’s God and his agents and to unmask all pretenders.  A passage in Ezekiel 28 speaks of royal wisdom ironically, in a barb aimed at the king of Tyre.  Isaiah 10 mocks the presumed wisdom of the king of Assyria.  The data suggests a tendency in biblical times to associate wisdom with kings and the courts of kings.  Literature of the non-biblical, ancient Near East has this same characteristic.

                 The Wise Man: Prophets and the Wise—It is quite probable that when Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel spoke of the wise, they too referred to advisers in the courts of Judean kings; they ridicule the wise men of other nations and admonish Judah’s wise men.  Isaiah 30 spoke of the wise who counseled resistance while expecting aid from Egypt; God’s counsel was otherwise.  Both Jeremiah and Ezekiel spoke of when law perishes from the priest, and counsel from the elders (Jeremiah 18; Ezekiel 7).  Both of these contemporary prophets knew of a group separate from priests and from prophets.  Since Jeremiah’s activity must often have appeared to be political, the wise men who plotted against him may well have been the royal counselors.  Ezekiel too may have pointed the finger at the king’s “brain trust.”  The use of the word ‘etsah, “counsel,” in these latter passages strengthens the impression that these wise men are the king’s counselors.  The royal counselors in Jerusalem’s court also take their place among those whose counsel must yield before God’s.

                 It would be wrong to count all the wise, so styled in prophetic literature among the kings and the royal counselors.  Jeremiah 4 is not pointing to any single professional group when he speaks of God’s people.  It would certainly be wrong to put a narrow limitation on the sorts of persons that in biblical literature are termed wise. Persons possessing certain skills are counted as wise. Besides the extraordinarily wise, there was the skilled and experienced, the elders, the fathers and mothers, teachers, writers, judges, and philosophers.

W-30

                  The literature, particularly wisdom literature reveals the diffusion of wisdom in Israel.  The follies, the virtues, and the attitudes illustrated in the literature have their home in upper-class society.  It seems conventional in wisdom literature to address the learner as “son.”  Usually the “father” in this literature is the master of the academy or the author of the text.  Wisdom came from: elders, teachers, and parents, who were custodians of a tradition; poets and writers of proverbs, who sought to put in brief and vivid language, the yield of their learning and experience; persons versed in law and letters, who were qualified to serve as judges in the gates; and great thinkers who created books like Job and Ecclesiastes.  

                 Wisdom Literature—What the wise taught and wrote has been preserved in part in the biblical books of some Psalms, Proverbs, Job, and Ecclesiastes, and in brief passages in other contexts.  Some of their writings are counted among the apocryphal books (e.g.  Ecclesiasticus, Wisdom of Solomon, and IV Maccabees). 

                  Among the biblical psalms are a number which share features with the other wisdom literature.  The spirit of some of the psalms is akin to the spirit of Proverbs, fully confident that rewards  and punishments are dealt out in just measure (Pss. 1, 34, 37), and that the way of righteousness is to be commended (Pss. 92, 112, 127, 128, 133).  The author of Psalm 73 struggled as did the author of Job, with the problems which the apparent miscarriage of divine justice present.  The writer of Psalm 49 shared some sentiment with Koheleth of Ecclesiastes, but the author of this Psalm offered no remedy; he only published his sad knowledge of life’s vanity.  There are other Psalms which are wholly or in part meant to teach wisdom.

                  The seed of wisdom literature, the mashal or proverb is common to all cultures and times; no doubt it always existed in Israel.  Poetic bits occur among the earliest literary sources in the Bible, and proverbs in rhythmic form may well have circulated in Israel in pre-monarchic days.  Such proverbs appear in Ugaritic sources.  Egyptian wisdom also has the developed art form and precedes biblical literary production.  Deter-mining which of the Proverbs preserved in the Bible go back to ancient times is beyond the reach of sober scholars.  The portion of Proverbs mentioned in the introduction of this article is a product of a Jewish wisdom writer who was acquainted with the earlier composition in some form or other.  A certain skill akin to wisdom went into the propounding as well as the solving of riddles.  The tradition that the wise Solomon “spoke of trees” and “spoke also of beasts” may mean simply that he was a maker of fables.

                  Although Proverbs had influences going back to Egyptian, Canaanite, Phoenician and folk wisdom earlier than 1000 B.C., the probability is great that the actual authors of the book of Proverbs were wisdom teachers of the 400s or 300s, who expressed both ancient wisdom and created new texts for guidance.  This is the nature of Proverbs, a book designed to help the youth of its day achieve success in life and avoid snares and dangers.  It is this naïve optimism which both characterizes its wisdom and suggests when it was written.  The belief in rewards for personal merit and penalties for personal guilt has become an orthodoxy; righteousness can be equated with wisdom and evil with folly.  The book contains balanced-line proverbs, discourses on wisdom, unchastity, the good wife, and keen observation on human nature and fine poetic similes.

                  The book of Job is the best of the wisdom literature.  Its author chooses dialogue, and uses Job’s friends as a mouthpiece for his discourses.  He chooses as his central figure the pious, legendary Job.  He converts a treatise into a living drama.  The argument develops vividly with mounting intensity until Job rests his case; God has the last word.  The thought’s progress is marred by the confused order of the text in the 3^rd round of discourses, caused by the addition of a 4^th friend, and a great poem which blunts the point of the Job drama.

                  It is the main thought which permits a guess at the time when the book was written.  Job seems to follow on the book of Proverbs.  The author of Job is reacting to the proverb’s uncritical acceptance of their dogmatic position on personal retribution.  Job is a religious book.  Its author denies the simple arithmetic of divine justice; he attacks the arrogance of the fortunate and reassures all person who are perplexed by adversity.  The author of Job had learned that human are more complicated and God less transparent than the teachers of proverbs assumed.  Far from denying God or the fact of his dealing with humans, he ends by siding with God, with whom he feels sympathy and whose nearness he prizes above all.     

                  The book of Ecclesiastes is the product of a genial, independent, philosophic spirit.  Its anonymous author was a cultured, cosmopolitan, probably wealthy, elderly sage in Jerusalem who lived after 250 B.C.  The book is a fairly unified work with a minimum of glosses, most of which were designed to correct the book’s “false” doctrine that the virtuous go unrewarded and the sinful without penalty.  OT authorities thought well before adding it to the canon, because it contains contradictions and is no divine revelation but one man’s opinion. 

W-31

                  The writer of Ecclesiastes took the position that a person knows only what through experience and reflection he finds out for himself.  Koheleth (preacher, herald) set out to discover what it is good for a man to do the few days of his life.  He experimented with and concluded that everything is only “vanity and a striving after wind.”  The best that men can do is “to be happy and enjoy themselves as long as they live, and in all things be moderate; neither too wise and good nor yet too wicked and foolish.”  There is too much in life that we do not and cannot know.  Moreover, the fate of the righteous and the fate of the wicked are distressingly the same.  This argument runs no straight course in Ecclesiastes; the unity is one of mood rather than order.

                  The book of Daniel, both its biblical and apocryphal parts, is an apocalypse and not closely related to wisdom; it shows that God protects the faithful from martyrdom.  It looks forward to a book like IV Maccabbees, in which martyrs prove that reason is stronger than human passions.  Indeed, despite its apparent setting, Daniel was written in and about the times before and during Maccabean times.  Both books would educate men to loyalty and fortitude.     

            See also Wisdom; Daniel Additions; Ecclesiasticus; Wisdom of Solomon entries in the Old Testament (OT) Apocrypha/Influences outside the OT section of the Appendix.

                  Biblical wisdom is what the wise men are and what they say.  Biblical thought about wisdom brings it into relation with both man and God.  There is ambiguity in biblical thought as to the source of human wisdom.  Sometimes one is wise by nature.  More often the originally simple have it in their power to acquire wisdom, given a proper, religious attitude, and good will.  This wisdom which is at hand to be learned appears to have a tangible form.  It is a fund of racial experience, and is available in the schools and in the homes.  It is also what one learns in a lifetime of earnest seeking, experience, experiment, and reflection. 

                  In contrast to this kind of wisdom, there is human wisdom which comes to one as a gift, divinely bestowed; it is wisdom through the spirit of God.  In the development of rabbinic Judaism, the tendency to look to Scriptures for divine wisdom became a notable feature.  Like Ben Sirach searching law, wisdom, and prophets, and like Ezra, the “scribe skilled in Moses’ law,” those who wrote the Mishna and early midrashim searched the OT for meaning.  So did the community described in the Dead Sea Manual of Discipline, as well as the early Christian community, with a special interest in the end of this age and the beginning of a new one.

                  The idea that human wisdom comes as a gift from God derives from the thought that God is wise.  It is expressed so as to leave room for an alternative interpretation: not that God is wise, but that wisdom is with God.  The Hebrew poets and the authors of Job 28, Proverbs 8-9, apocryphal Ecclesiasticus and Wisdom of Solomon, and others probably meant to do no more than describe God as wise when in their poetic exuberance they made of wisdom God’s first creation and God’s delight.

                  The Egyptians and Babylonians had gods of wisdom; the same mythological features may have wound up in OT wisdom.  The New Testament logos theme did not develop independently of the personification of wisdom in the OT’s and the Apocrypha’s wisdom literature.  Without the wisdom literature the Scripture would be decidedly poorer; wisdom adds a dimension.  It is philosophy rooted in life.  It is philosophy although it is not reduced to a system.  It teaches rational living, which is good and godly living.  It teaches that life controlled by reason is life with the fewest sorrows.  When troubles come, the wise can bear them.

WISE MEN.  See Magi.

WIT.  See Humor.

WITCHCRAFT.  See Magic

WITHERED HAND (exhrammenhn ecwn thn ceira (eks eh ram meh nen  ek own  ten  kie rah), having the withered hand)  The cure of man’s withered is reported in parallel by Matthew 12, Mark 3, and Luke 6.  Luke adds that was the man’s right hand. 

WITNESS (ﬠﬢ (‘ed), testifier; martuϛ (mar tus), testifier)  A person who has firsthand knowledge of a fact or an event.  Biblical law requires testimony from at least 2 witnesses; nothing is said regarding qualification.  If a document was involved, it was signed by the witnesses; witnesses did not testify under oath. The victim could demand that persons capable but unwilling to testify, do so under pain of a curse; witnesses flung the 1^st stone.

W-32

                  Bearing false witness is banned in the laws and condemned in wisdom literature.  A false witness is subjected to the penalty that he had schemed to inflict.  God is called upon as a witness—a prosecuting witness and judge.  The writer of the 2^nd part of Isaiah considers Israel a witness to Yahweh.  In the New Testament the procedural rule of 2 witnesses is made applicable to the Christian community by Matt. 18.  Those who attests truths about God are called witnesses, as are those who testified what they saw or heard about Jesus.

WITNESS, ALTAR OF.  An altar erected on the west bank of the Jordan by the tribes living east of the Jordan that they might have a “witness” that they had a portion in the Lord (Joshua 22).

WIZARD (נייﬢﬠ (yid deh ‘oh nee), soothsayer, spirit of divination)  See Familiar Spirit.

WOLF (זאב (zeh ‘abe); lukoϛ (loo kos))  With the exception of some domestic dogs, the largest living member of the canine family.  It hunts singly or in pairs, and also in packs.  It is known for boldness, fierceness, and voracity.  The wolf was well known in ancient Palestine; all biblical references to wolves are figurative.  Benjamin is described as a ravenous wolf.  Judah’s princes are compared to rapacious wolves.  False prophets are seen as wolves, as are false teachers.  The traditional enmity between wolves and sheep gives point to the hope that in the universal peace of the messianic age, even the wolf and lamb shall dwell together (Isaiah 11).   

WOMAN (אשח (‘eesh shaw); gunh (goon eh))  The function and status of woman in the Bible are strongly influenced by the patriarchal form of family life.  Woman’s principal function is wife and mother.  As a mother she sustains a relationship to children which involves their care and nurture.  She takes part in the economic and social life of the community and in its political and even military affairs.  The position of woman in the New Testament (NT) was of considerable importance.

                  Woman’s position in the Bible is largely that of subordination to her father or her husband.  Her father gave a woman to be the wife of another; her husband could freely divorce; either could decide whether an oath she had taken was valid.  Although a woman did not actually choose her own husband, her desires were not always ignored.  The father engaged in a contract with the prospective husband to make her sexuality available to him.  It was the surrender of authority over a woman by one man to another.  She evidently kept her own name and individuality; she was sometimes the stronger character.  Respect towards one’s mother was demanded in biblical society and disrespect was severely punished.  As mother, she was more than the bearer of children.  She also had the responsibility of caring for them.

                  Women’s participation in the community’s social life was considerable.  They were present at weddings and funerals.  Mourning for the dead was done by women.  Women shared in the harvest festivals.  Woman’s economic activities receive attention in Proverbs 31; business enterprise on the part of woman was rare.  Yet both Ananias and his wife, Sapphira sold property; one Lydia of Thyatira was a seller of purple goods.

                  The list of the nation’s heroes, compiled by a writer in the 100s B.C. contains only the names of men.  This hardly does justice to the facts.  The influence of women as related to affairs of state is seen in Deborah, Bathsheba, Jezebel, and others who were the mothers of kings.  Women more than men engaged in the arts of dancing and singing.  Cultic dancing was practiced by the prophetic bands which roamed the countryside; ritual dancing by women was not unknown.  The “singing women” who sang laments over the fate of Josiah are named along with the “singing men.”  Some women practiced magic and literally wove magic spells by sewing wrist bands and veils for the purpose of “hunting souls.”

                  Women participated fully in the religious activities revolving around the great festivals of the Passover.  In prescribing the manner of keeping the Feast of Booths (Tabernacles) a man’s daughter, maidservant, and widows are specifically named.  Women attended religious gatherings and shared in sacrificial meals.  Both her ritual uncleanness and her sexual nature as a woman barred her from serving as a priest.  Huldah the prophetess was consulted regarding the newly found Book of the Law.  The wife of Isaiah is called a prophetess.  The religious influence of women was undoubtedly great.

                  The ideal woman is gracious, restrained in speech, trustworthy, efficient, industrious, brave, wise, kind, and reverent.  Disparagement of woman’s character and nature is at times rather outspoken.  Woman may be contentious, noisy, indiscreet.  A woman’s beauty is extravagantly depicted in an anthology of love (Song of Songs [Solomon]).  In outlining the physical development of a woman from birth to sexual maturity, her beauty is not unnoticed by the prophet Ezekiel.

W-33

                  Many laws treat men and women as equals; both parties caught in adultery are to be put to death.  Woman’s inferior status, however is reflected in laws which show discrimination.  The valuation of a man differs from that of a woman when a special vow is made.  Traits of feminine character are applied to men or nations considered collectively, by some biblical writers (e.g. Egyptian will tremble with fear “like women”).  In the book of Revelation appears the form of a woman clothed with the sun. 

                  While not differing radically from the concept which the Old Testament presents, the view of woman in the NT reflects the Christian influence as well as the Jewish community.  Many anonymous women appear in the gospel accounts Jesus’ life (Matt. 9, 14, 15, 26; Mark 1; Luke 13; John 4).  Named women include Mary Magdalene, Mary James’ and Joseph’s mother, the mother of Zebedee’s sons, the “other” Mary, Mary and Martha, Mary Jesus’ mother.  Jesus occasionally taught through allusions to woman’s activities in the home.

                  The gospel was available to humankind without regard to sex.  Men and women were dragged to prison for their faith.  Both Aquila and his wife Priscilla instructed Apollos in the faith; women served as deaconesses in the early church.  Accepting the biblical view of woman’s subordination to man, the writers of the NT stressed the duty of modesty, submission, and piety.  They should not teach or in any other way usurp man’s position in the church.  In theory at least, woman was expected to exhibit chiefly the domestic virtues as a demonstration of her piety and faith.  In actual practice, her leadership and influence extended into the life of the entire Christian community, as the NT itself reveals.

WONDER, WONDERS.  See Signs and Wonders.

WOOD  (ﬠﬧי (ya ‘ar), thicket, forest; ﬠצ (‘ets), tree, timber), ﬧשח (kho resh), forest; אﬠ (‘aw’); xulon (eks oo lon), timber, cross, tree; xulinoV (eks oo ih nos), wooden, made of wood)  The materials provided by trees for construction of boats, public buildings, houses, furniture, idols, utensils, and musical instruments, as well as for use as fuel.  Frequent wars and liberal use of wood for fuel, without concern for reforestation account for the barrenness in modern times.

                  Wood was used freely for burnt offering on ancient Canaanite and Hebrew altars.  Several different kinds of wood are mentioned: Gopher Wood; Acacia; Cedar and Pine; Olive; Almug; Scented Wood (See separate entry for each wood mentioned).  In addition to use in building and for fuel, wood was used for wagons, threshing sledges, yokes, furniture, vessels, and musical instruments.  Idols were often made of wood.

WOOL (צמﬧ (tseh mer); ﬠמﬧ (‘ah mar); erion (er ee on))  Prominently a product of Palestine, wool was the tribute King Mesha of Moab paid to King Ahab of Israel (Northern Kingdom).  For reasons not now clear, Israelite law forbade the wearing of material combining wool and linen, possibly because such cloth was the special material of priestly garments.  Wool became the common metaphor of whiteness and purity.

WORD (ﬢבﬧ (daw bawr), speech, command; אמﬧה (‘ee meh raw), saying, discourse; logoV (lo gos), speech, language, talk, statement, formula, divine word; rhma (reh ma), speech, command, promise) In the Old Testament (OT), the characteristic means whereby God makes God’s will known to humans in law and prophecy.  By it, God created the heavens and the earth.  In the New Testament (NT), the Word of the Lord is frequently the Word of Christ.  The main Hebrew word dabar most likely comes from the root-verb meaning “to speak.”  The Greek word logos has a great range of meanings in classical Greek, which reflect those of the root-word lego meaning “pick up,” with secondary senses “count, tell, recount, say,” and “speak.”  The Greek word rema is derived from an old root meaning “speak,” and means “that which is spoken.”

                  In the OT—The “word of the Lord” is used most frequently in the OT to describe Revelation’s medium.   Jeremiah, Hosea, Joel, Jonah, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah begin with or have near their beginning the formula: “The word of the Lord that came to . . .”  “Thus says the Lord” and “Hear the word of the Lord occurs frequently in the Prophets.  Other prophets begin with describing their prophecies as “visions” (e.g. Ezekiel, Nahum, Habakkuk).  Amos, Obadiah, Micah, and Isaiah combine the above-mentioned beginnings.  

W-34

                  Thus, while other religions stress vision as the principal means for attaining to the knowledge of God, the religion of the OT tends to regard it as subsidiary; hearing is primary.  The emphasis on word rather than vision may be connected with the Hebrew rejection of idolatry.  Revelation by word and vision may also be contrasted with that by inspiration or possession, which was typical of primitive Hebrew prophecy.  But the one to whom the word comes can at least contemplate the possibility of silence, unthinkable for the prophet inspired by possession.  God communicates with humans in a way which they can understand. 

                  By God’s word spoken to the prophets, God makes known God’s righteous will, concerned with human conduct in this world.  The sum total of the revelation of God’s will is God’s law.  God’s word is a word of command; its characteristic mood is the imperative.  As a word of command it comes not only to humans but to the whole universe.  The forces of nature obey the word which called them into being.  The power attributed to God’s word is also attributed to human words, especially blessings and curses, which had power.  They were believed to influence the course of events.  The “false” prophet was one who was willing to speak favorable words and so produce the result his patron desired.  The belief in the quasi independence of the word, once it had been spoken, must have made the later personification of the word possible. 

                  See also entry in the OT Apocrypha/Influences outside the OT section of the Appendix.

                  In the NT—John could have developed his doctrine independently.  He had available all the material which Philo used.  John goes beyond Philo, whose Logos is never more than a personification, to affirm that in Jesus Christ the “Word became flesh.  The meaning of “word” in the NT is colored more by OT associations of the Hebrew dabar than by the use of Greek logos in classical Greek.  The “Word of God” is used of:  OT law; a passage from Psalm 82, alluded to in John 10:35; God revealed will or plan for humankind; the word preached by Jesus; the Christian message.  The “word of the Lord” is also used in the sense of Jesus’ preaching.  The Christian message is also described as the “Word of Christ.”  “Word” by itself is also used in all the senses listed under “Word of God.” 

                  Logos can also be described as “word of truth,” and “word of life.” Remata is used in the phrase “words of this Life.”  Rema is used in two passages where there is no parallel in the NT uses of logos:  “The word of God came to John” (Luke 3) and “The world was created by the word of God.”  There is an intimate connection between Christ and the word of which he was first the author and then the theme.  The word is not a formula, but something living and dynamic.  “My speech (logos) and my message (kerugma) were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and power.”

                  Three passages use “Word” as a title of Christ (the 1^st 14 verses of John; I John 1; and Revelation 19).  In John’s Gospel, John’s assertion that in Jesus of Nazareth the Word became flesh was an attempt to put into simple language agreeable to pagan, Jewish, and Christian, the basic Christian conviction that through the life, teaching, actions, and death of the man Jesus a new revelation of God had been given.  The developments in the use and meaning of logos which have been described above may help to explain how John came to choose this term as description of the status and function of Christ.

                  In I John 1, the King James Version and the New Revised Standard Version differ as to whether the “word” in “word of life” is a common or a proper noun; the Greek manuscripts do not help in deciding between them.  The passage gives a perfectly good sense if it is taken as a reference in the gospel.  At the same time there is a close relationship between this Letter and the Gospel of John with its “Word” in John 1.

                  In Revelation 19, the leader of the armies of heaven, whose name is “The Word of God,” is clearly meant to represent the Christ.  The imagery of this vision is clearly drawn from the apocryphal Wisdom of Solomon.  For Revelation the exalted Christ is the Word of God; for John the Christ is equally such while still on earth.  It seems most likely that the author of Revelation knew John and was led by the use of “Logos” in the gospel to find in Wisdom of Solomon the convenient imagery for his vision of the exalted Christ.

                  The end-of-the-age terminology of the Jewish messianic hope which had been used by Jesus and the first apostles proved inadequate beyond the confines of Judaism.  It was possible to adapt “Son of God” and “Son of Man” to express his relationship to the present age and world.  From his pre-existence and his function of God’s agent in redemption, it was inferred that he was also God’s agent in creation.  “Son of man” is not used outside the gospels and Acts 7, but it is probable that it underlies Paul’s use of the “man from heaven.”  Christ is the archetypal, true man, the man “made in God’s image.”

W-35

                  In the wisdom literature “wisdom” and “word” are very close to each other in meaning.  “Wisdom” as feminine noun in Greek, is not suitable as a masculine title, so the adoption of “Logos” in its place was almost inevitable.  Hebrews 1 comes close to “Logos” with the discussion of the pre-existent Son of God, who is his Father’s agent in creation and “bears the very stamp of God’s nature.”  It is this conviction of the author of Hebrews that in Christ God has spoken to humans, and that God’s whole plan and purpose for humankind has been made apparent, that is the real ground for John’s affirmation that Jesus is the Word made flesh.    

WORKS OF GOD (ﬠשיומ (mah ’ah shay oo); ﬠלפ (po ‘al), deed, action; גבוﬧוﬨ   (geh boo roth), mighty acts; נפלאוﬨ (nee feh law ‘oth), marvelous things/deeds; ergon (erg on), deed, action; megaleia (meh gah lay ee ah), great things, wonderful works; energeia (en er gay ee ah), energy, efficacy, power)  An expression denoting either: “deeds done by God”; or “things made by God.  More often than not, the expression is in the singular (e.g. Yahweh’s “deed,” referring to a succession of “mighty acts” grouped together as in Isaiah 5  (“They do not regard the deed (po ‘al) of the Lord, or see the work (ma’asha) of the Lord).                                             

                  The work of God is described as “terrible,” “done in faithfulness.” “God’s compassion is over all that he has made.”  Godly people are to “mediate” and “have pleasure” in them, be thankful for them and bless and praise God who has done them.  The relation between the “work” of God and the “word” of God is closer than the very few passages in which they are mentioned together would indicate. Actions originate in thought; the formulated thought or “word” is the middle term between thought and deed. The same applies to Wisdom. 

                  The conclusion of the preceding paragraph is amplified in the Prologue to John’s Gospel, in which the Logos, the divine thought or reason, is the creative ground of all existence; “all things were made through him.”  The most distinctive teaching about “the works of God” is to be found in John’s Gospel.  In answer to the question:  “What must we do, to be doing the work of God?”  Jesus replies:  “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” 

WORLD, THE (אﬧץ  (‘er ets), earth, land; בלﬨ (tay bale), earth; חלﬢ (khah lad), time, lifetime; ﬠולםה (ha ‘oh lawm), the eternal; Oikoumenh (oy koo meh neh), habitable earth; Aiwn (ae on), era, age; KosmoV (kos mos), present order of things, ornament, embellishment.)  A term which, in English Bibles, has a wide variety of meanings.  In the NRSV 4 Hebrew words and 2 Greek Hebrew words meaning a spatial entity are translated “world.”  Kosmos has many nuances in the primary Greek Old Testament (OT) and the New Testament (NT): the universe as a whole; the planet Earth; “people”; the scene and object of God’s redemptive purpose. 

                  There are also words and phrases which have a time, rather than a space.  This may seem confusing but is not surprising, since the world exists in space and time.  This article’s purpose is theological, to deal with the biblical concept of “the world” as cosmos, the ordered system of nature. Since the world is not devoid of life, but is the home of sentient and intelligent creatures, the final emphasis will be more on God’s providential and redemptive purpose for the world than on cosmology (origin of the world; see World, Origin of).

                  Hebrew Words Used in the OT—Eretz occurs 2,407 times; the corresponding Aramaic 21 times (See beginning for translations).  The reason why eretz is seldom rendered “world” is that it occurs so often in con-junction with tabal; eretz is nowhere the universe.  The early Semite gave the name eretz to familiar territory, and continued to use the word for “earth”/“world” as Israel’s horizons widened. 

                  Tabal occurs 36 times in the OT.  It origin is obscure, but there are indications that, like eretz, it originally meant dry land.  In Isaiah 13 we have “world” parallel with “wicked” as if to anticipate the pejorative sense of the Greek kosmos in the NT.  This is expressed most strongly in Isaiah 34, where we find the elaborate parallelism of “nations”/“peoples” with “earth”/“world.”  It is clear that tabal is no more the universe than is eretz.

                   Khalad is used in 5 passages; it properly means time or lifetime.  Twice the King James Version (KJV) and the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) use “world” (Psalms 17 and 49).  The general sense of ‘olam in Ha’olam is “long duration.  In Ecclesiastes 3, the NRSV and the Easy-to-Read Version (ERV) rightly substitute “eternity” for “the world.”  The Hebrews had no word for the “universe.”  They had to resort to paraphrases like “the heavens and the earth.”  Or they could express the totality of things by a simple kol.  The OT is fully committed to the creation doctrine.  The primary meaning of the Hebrew verb bara’ (create) was probably “to build,” but 50 times in the OT it has become a theological term, always with God as subject.  Genesis was written against a background of Babylonian mythology.  A literal translation of Genesis 1’s first 2 verses would be:  “When God began to create the heavens and the earth, the earth was formless and void.”

W-36

                  Greek Words Used in the NT—Any treatment of the “the world” in the NT must be prefaced by a summary of the Greek concept of kosmos (See entry in the Old Testament (OT) Apocrypha/Influences outside the OT section of the Appendix.)  Oikoumene is an abbreviation of a phrase meaning “the inhabited earth”; it occurs 15 times.  It was originally a designation of the Greek world as opposed to “barbarian” lands.  By NT times it had come to be used of the Roman world.  Oikoumene is capable of expansion to include the whole world of humans (Matthew 24).  In Romans 10 oikoumene has as wide a connotation as the Hebrew tabal.  In Hebrew 2 there is the oikoumene (aeon or kosmos) to come.

                  Aeon, like the Hebrew ‘olam, has the general sense of “long duration.”  KJV and ERV translates it as “world” around 30 times.  It is translated as “age” or “Greek age” in Matthew 13 (Mark 4), Luke 16, Romans 12, I Corinthians 2, 10, II Corinthians 4, I Timothy 6, II Timothy 4, Hebrews 1, 6, 11.  The translation “world” rather than “age” is justified in some of these passages.  In John 6, 7, 9, aeon is used in phrases meaning “forever” or “never.”  The created aeonas of Hebrew 1 must be spatial entities rather aeons of time.  The worlds of space and time cannot be separated from one another. 

                  Kosmos in the NT—The word kosmos is found 188 times in the NT.  104 of the examples are in John’s writings; 46 are in Paul’s letters.  All the standard English versions translate it “world.”  The word came to have meanings which have no parallels outside the NT.  The fullest definition of the word in this sense is in Acts 17: “The God who made the world and everything in it.”  The words “heaven and earth” would come naturally to Jesus, who was steeped in the OT.  Several passages speak of the “foundation of the world” (Matthew 25; Luke 11; John 17; Ephesians 1; Hebrew 4, 9; I Peter 1; Revelation 13, 17.  In some of these passages the kosmos in mind may have been the Hebrew eretz or tabal, but in the NT it must have acquired the wider meaning of the “universe.”  Synonyms of kosmos are: ktsis (creation); and panta (all things)

                  That God created the universe is sometimes said and is always assumed; the doctrine of creation was not prominent in the Christian kerygma (gospel, message), Christianity was concerned with redemption, rather than with creation.  In the Prologue to John’s Gospel “the Logos (Word) was in the beginning with God’ all things were made through God . . . And the Word became flesh.”

                  Two aspects of Paul’s thoughts about the universe offer a challenge to theologians today.  The first is almost prophetic of modern attitudes toward the enigma of the universe.  The second appears to have a “mythological” background and received little attention from “liberal” theologians.  In Romans 8, Paul writes that “the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but the will of him who subjected it in hope . . . the creation will be set free from its bondage . . . and obtain the glorious liberty.”  Paul evidently shared the current and widespread belief that the world was in some way in the grip of a “lowerarchy” of demonic powers.  Over all these powers Christ triumphed on the cross.  It was God’s purpose that they should all be reconciled to him “by the blood of his cross.”

                  When kosmos is used of the planet Earth, it can have the same double meaning that “the world has in English.  In “Show yourself to the world” and “The world has gone after him,” “the world” means “people generally.”  In Romans 11, “the world” is the Gentile world.  The distinction between the geophysical earth and its human inhabitants in these passages has no theological significance.  This is the world in which humans pursue riches and pleasure, or suffer hardship and grief.  It profits one nothing if he “gains the whole world and forfeits one’s life.”  All that is in the world, all lust and pride of life is of the world.

                  There are several scattered passages in John’s writing (e.g. John 1, 3, 7, 8, 12-18; I John 2-5) which speak strongly of kosmos as the fallen race of humankind.  The summary is that “the whole world is in the power of the evil one.”  Christians must expect the world’s hatred, which has already hated their Master.  Elsewhere in the Bible (Rom. 1, 5; I Cor. 2, 3, 15; Gal. 6; Heb. 11; James 1, 4; II Peter 1) kosmos has this same sense.  

                  Paul says in I Corinthians 3:  “The wisdom of this world is folly with God,” and Galatians 6:  “Far be it from me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”  Paul doubtless took quite literally the story of Adam’s transgression, as a consequence of which sin and death had entered the world.  It says in James 4:  “Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?”  II Peter 1 speaks of “the phthora (corruption) that is in the world.”

                  

W-37

                 The world at enmity with God is the very world that God “so loved.”  The word “world” is less frequently used in this sense by Paul, but his whole doctrine of salvation is summed in the statement:  “God was in Christ reconciling the world to God’s self.”  Insofar as the world is redeemed, it ceases to be kosmos or aeon outos, and instead becomes the “kingdom of God.”  

WORLD, ORIGIN OF. 

      In the Old Testament (OT)—To the ancient Hebrews, the world had no organic unity.  It was a collection of separate phenomena individually controlled and collectively disposed at the will and pleasure of their common Creator.  There is no word in biblical Hebrew corresponding to "universe" or "cosmos."

                  For the Hebrews, the search for the world’s origin was not a search for the physical origin or central organic principle of the universe, but simply the account of how the various natural phenomena within it had come to acquire their respective roles and had been assigned their functions.  Furthermore, Hebrew thinking on the subject was more along the line of myth rather than intellectual, issuing more out of imagination than logical inference or disciplined inquiry.  This makes any current attempt to reconcile biblical thought with modern science a futile exercise in bringing together two patterns of thought which are fundamentally not compatible. 

                  The basic view of the universe was based on ancient Near East lore.  The "top" of the universe began with  highest heaven.  Under that was the waters above the firmament.  In these waters were contained the storehouses of snow and hail, and the chambers of winds.  The firmament was thought to divide the upper waters from the lower, and there were sluices through the firmament that allowed the upper waters to come down.  There were pillars of the sky and earth which held up the firmament.  Next came the earth itself, which included the sky.  Next, there were fountains of the deep on the earth, which allowed the waters of the deep to come up.  The waters under the earth were fed by rivers of the nether world at the "bottom" of the universe.

                  There are four principal accounts of creation in the OT: two in the book of Genesis; a third in Proverbs 8; and a fourth, pieced together from stray allusions in the prophetic and poetic books.                       

            Day      Action                                     Purpose                                

              1        Creating Light                           To distinguish day from night

              2        Creating firmament                    To divide the primordial waters

                             (layer just above the sky)      into an upper and lower

              3        Creating earth, seas, & plants 

              4        Creating distinct sources of        to give light and to

                             light                                        regulate days & seasons

              5        Animal life in sea and sky                                                       

              6        Animal life on earth; humans,     to subdue the earth & rule

                            created in the image of God     the animal kingdom                 

              7        Sabbath                                                day of rest                             

                  All things are represented as coming into being solely by the authority of God.  There are several features of this account:  First, there is monotheistic orientation.  In the earlier Mesopotamian origin of the world, the phenomena of nature are represented as being directed by a host of gods.  In Genesis, however, such powers are assigned to the phenomena themselves, who carry out the will of God on their own.  Phenomena, though primarily disposed by a supreme creator, are essentially self-determinant, and their functions and operations are no longer due to external agents.  2^nd, the pre-scientific distinction between daylight and the sun is made also in the Mesopotamian Epic of Creation.  3^rd, is the priority of water.  It is likely that water, having no fixed shape and appearing to be ungenerated, comes perforce to be regarded by the primitive mind around the world, as something that must have existed before all other things were created. 

                  4^th, is the priority of wind.  Because it is likewise unrestricted, the primordial quality of water is shared by wind.  In fact the Hebrew expression used in Genesis 1:2, can mean "spirit of God," "the breath of God," or "a mighty (divine) wind."  The ancient mind that wrote this passage probably did not pick out one of these meanings over the others, so there is no need for us to do so.  The wind is said to have hovered, or fluttered, over the surface of the waters.  The Hebrew word used here is only used elsewhere only to describe the hovering of an eagle over its young.  Hence, all that the scriptural passage really implies is that the wind swept the waters as a coasting bird sweeps through the air. 

                  

W-38

                   The 5^th feature is that the Hebrews distinguished clearly between the "great blue yonder" in general and the earth’s immediate ceiling or canopy.  The "great blue yonder" was simply the great cosmic ocean’s upper part; the earth's sky was conceived as a layer stretched across it to prevent its waters from overflowing.  These 2 parts above the earth are separated by the firmament, which ancient thought imagined to be a strip of metal.

                  The 6^th feature was man.  The scriptural writer is quite prepared to take over from the older, pagan mythology the idea that man was created in the divine image.  But he makes a supremely significant advance upon the pagan view.  Human are in Genesis 1 represented, not as the menial of the gods, but as the ruler of the animal and vegetable kingdoms.  No sooner is man fashioned than he is bidden to "subdue the earth."  It is significant also in this connection that it is the fruits of earth and trees, and not animal flesh, that is said to have been given to man for food.  Finally, there is the 7^th feature of the 6 days of creation.  This is, in all probability, simply a device on the part of the priestly compilers whereby the ancient myth might be accommodated to Israel's institution of the 7-day week and the 7^th-day sabbath. 

                  The 2^nd chapter of Genesis, minus the first 4 verses, logically comes second in the story as we have it.  Actually, it was written in a period of history some 400 years earlier than the 1^st chapter.  Most scholars believe that it was written by the Jahwistic writer in the 900s B.C.  It has 4 main features.  1^st, is the watering of the earth.  This account is more about man’s origin than the earth’s origin.  In it, the earth was first watered, not by rains, but by an underground flood.  This form of watering is close to what Palestine depends on for its moisture in the early days of October when farming begins.

                  In contrast Genesis 1’s more exalted outlook, the human function in this account retains the primitive view that it was to tend and till God’s garden.  Since the human function is to serve the gods rather than rule the animal kingdom, the creation of animals has to be introduced as an afterthought.  While nothing is said in Genesis 1 concerning the substance out of which man was made, Genesis 2 states that man was molded out of dust and animated by divine breath.  Elsewhere in the Near East, it is often divine blood, rather than divine breath, that is mingled with primal clay.  Finally, there is the woman’s creation. She is said to have been created out of man's rib; the story of woman's origin from man’s flesh is common to many primitive peoples.

                  The 3^rd story is from Proverbs 8:22-31.  Unacquainted as they were with physical laws and organic processes, the Hebrews were impelled to find some mythical explanation for the natural order that they insisted existed.  Here, wisdom is introduced as a master worker.  The process was broken down into 6 stages, each of which had a pair of complementary acts.  1^st was the partition of the primordial waters into an upper and lower register, matched by the filling of underground springs.  2^nd is the sinking of mountain roots into the nether oceans, matched by the raising of their summits above the earth’s level.  3^rd, is the exposure of earth and open tracts of land, matched by the production of vegetation. 4^th, is the firmament’s establishment, matched by an encircling mountain range.  5^th, the condensation of thin vapors into clouds to provide rain, matched by the release of the underground waters through gushing springs.  And 6^th, the bounding of the oceans is matched by the steadying of the bases of the earth.

                  Although Wisdom is here regarded as older than all created things, it is not to be inferred that it was deemed older than the cosmic ocean.  In Mesopotamia, it was by virtue of the "wisdom" latent in that ocean that magicians were able to operate.  All that the proverbial writer really says is that Wisdom preceded the oceans (plural)- i.e. the division of the ocean into ones above and below the earth.

                  The 4^th story is a primordial combat myth that is alluded to in Job 3, Pss. 74,  89, 93, Is. 27, 30, 51, & Hab. 3.  This myth’s essence is that at the beginning of the present world era, God battled a draconic monster, who he subdued either by slaying him or binding him.  The monster’s names are:  Leviathan, Yam, Nahar, Tannin, & Rahab.  It is a Syro-Palestinian myth that is found throughout ancient Near Eastern literature. 

                  (See also the entry in the Old Testament  Apocrypha / Intertestamental section of the Appendix)

                  Usage in New Testament (NT) View of the New Age.  The NT offers no original view of the world’s origin, but it does link the productive, creative word that is identified with the incarnate godhead of Jesus Christ.  The writer of II Peter 3 uses the world’s renewal after the Flood as an analogy for the world’s cosmic conflagration, when the dissolution of all things will be succeeded by new heavens and a new earth.  In Revelation, the primordial battle against the dragon and his confederates is repeated as a prelude to the new era.  Finally, attention may be drawn to the fact that the familiar portrayal of the Holy Spirit as a dove represents an interpretation of the "spirit of God hovering on the face of the waters" during the creation of the world.

W-39

                  It was a widespread notion in antiquity that time was a cycle rather than a linear progression.  The cycle could be conceived as one that revolved over periods up to millenniums, or as one that revolved annually.  Eschatology, or the lore of the last things, thus became the story of the origin of the new world in the future tense.  Or, by the annual cycle, every New Year became a new creation. In accordance with this basic concept, almost every element of the traditional creation myths is duly reproduced in the apocalyptic vision of the last things.  The world will be renewed, which is the doctrine is well attested also in early rabbinic literature.  And this renewal will not be solely a matter of moral regeneration.

                  The dragon which God defeated and chained in the beginning will burst his bonds and offer a new challenge and again be beaten in combat.  As with the world’s origin, with victory comes sovereignty over the new world and age.  Just as in the traditional myth God sent his special waters to moisten the earth, a stream of living waters will be released.  And, in the traditional myth God sent light to begin the creation process. 

                  The crowning point of the new creation will be emergence of the new human.  Moreover, the righteous, who will be spared for this consummation, will enjoy once more the bliss of the primeval age.  Once again, the creative breath of God moves in the darkness over the troubled waters of the world, and once again the sudden burst of his light heralds a new day.

                  The Bible opens with creation’s story, not because this is the beginning of all things, but because it wishes to proclaim at the outset that the world is under God.  It is the breath of the eternal God that stirs the primordial waters, and it is the same breath that turns the dull clod into a living soul.  All the subsequent narratives and chronicles are a reaffirmation of this truth, and an epic of continuous creation, with the divine breath still hovering over the turbulent deep and still being breathed into rude clay.  It is in line with this tremendous concept that the NT ends with the vision of a new creation, or rather a completion of the continuous process

WORM  (סס (saws), moth; ﬧמה (rem maw); ﬨולﬠה (toe lah ‘aw); skwlhx (sko leks))  A small, slender, creeping animal, usually limbless and soft-bodied.  The most typical are earthworms.  The term “worm” can be applied to the larva of various insects.   The Hebrew sas is used in Isaiah 51 and probably refers to the larva of one of the various cloth moths.  Tola’ah presumably refers to the larvae of some leaf-eating insect.  Both remah and tola’ah are used of the wormlike creatures which feed upon corpses.  Worms thus come to form part of the Hebrew picture of the land of the dead.

                  In the New Testament, the word skolex is used in Mark 9 to refer to larvae. A form of the word is used in Acts 12 to metaphorically describe a sickness.  “Worm” serves as a figure to denote the lowliness and insignificance of the speaker.  The meaning in Job 7 of “My flesh is clothed with worms” is not clear.  It is possibly “flies” or a figure of speech for an ulcerous condition.

WORMWOOD  (הנﬠל (lah ‘ah naw); ayinqoV (ap sin thos))  A plant with a bitter taste.  The Hebrew word is always use metaphorically of bitterness and sorrow.  The prophets describe the judgment of God in terms of being fed with wormwood.  Revelation describes the blazing star called “Wormwood” as falling from heaven and turning the waters bitter.  The sage known to the Greeks could be the wormwood of John of Patmos.  

WORSHIP IN THE OLD TESTAMENT (OT)  (ﬠבﬢ (‘aw bad), to serve; השﬨחוה (he shet tah khah voo), bow down, prostrate; from Saxon word woerthscipe (worthship), meaning homage)  Worship is activity designed to recognize and describe the worth of the person or thing to which homage is addressed.  Worship is synonymous with a totally reverent life.  Here it describes activities, attitudes, and behavior, proper to the sanctuary.

                  Worship in the Patriarchal Era, Mosaic Era, and Early Monarchy—It is no longer possible to state that worship in the days of the founding fathers of Israel revolved around animism.  The religious background of Canaan revealed by archaeology shows that patriarchal religion was at least polytheistic.  The patriarchal legends reflect nomadic and eventful tradition in distinction from the agricultural and fertility interests of their contemporaries.  God appears to the individual patriarchs; the appearance resulted in places of worship.  In Gen. 14 Abraham is said to have met Melchizedek the king-priest of El Elyon, and to have committed himself to El Elyon.  In Gen. 22 worship is seen to consist in sacrifice.  In Gen. 28 the sacred Bethel is described so that it sounds of cosmic symbolism. Israelite worship in Genesis is rudimentary, personal and family-oriented.

W-40

                  Behind the legislative narratives and tradition of the Passover in Exodus 12-13 lies doubtless an old nomadic feast of firstlings.  Jethro led Israel’s worship in confession, sacrifice, and sacred meal; Exodus 24 gives the details of the covenant acts of worship.  These stories show how faith is enshrined in and expressed by ritual action.  Ancient religious customs are being pressed into the service of the new faith.  The departure from Sinai is accompanied by ritual action and provision is made for religious occasions during the wanderings.  Elements of early (false) worship and late (true) worship are combined in Exodus 32

                  Israel’s crossing into Canaan and Jericho’s capture are as much religious processions as military movements.  Joshua 4 contains the sanctuary legend for Gilgal, which became famous as the place where Saul was crowned.  In the period of judges, private practice and observance was maintained, at least for a time.  Inevitably there were periods of mingling 2 ways of life and worship.  As Israel took over the land, they inevitably took over sanctuaries (Dan, Gilgal, Bethel, Beer-sheba, Shechem, and Shiloh).  Every city and large village had its own high place; the practices of worship were widespread.  Israel soon adopted the festal calendar of 3 feasts in Exodus 23.  The account of Ephraim’s sanctuary at Shiloh, shrine, ark, sacred fire, altars, elaborate cult, and priesthood, shows Israelites participating in Canaanite religious practices.  Yahweh, God of Israel was becoming a Baal.  Israel’s worship at the high places was being increasingly fused with Canaanite forms.

                  Israel’s decline, the Philistine menace, the loss of Shiloh and the ark, and the pathetic, ineffective Yahwism of Saul reflected a Yahwism at low ebb.  David initiated a revival of Yahwism.  It is probable that David’s religious achievements reflect a further mingling of co-existing beliefs.  On the one side there is David’s personal loyalty to Yahweh.  On the other side there is Zadok, Nehushtan (priests) and the god El Elyon— Jerusalem’s ancient god.  The suggestion that David synthesized an El Elyon/Yahweh mix is commanding increasing support.  David was probably the architect of the cult and music practiced in Solomon’s temple.       

                  The Temple and Its Cult—Solomon’s erection of the temple was another major event in the David synthesis.  The plan, furnishings, symbolism, and worship patterns show Canaanite, Phoenician, and Egyptian influences.  The idea of the sacred place, whether it be a mountain, a portable shrine like the ark or tent, or a provincial sanctuary like Shechem or Shiloh, is constant and prominent in Israel’s religion.  Yahwism and all church architecture since have benefited from certain aspects of Solomon’s temple.  The court, holy place and holy of holies reflect Moses’ tabernacle.  The decorating motifs, lights, and bread of the presence were parts of Israelite worship.  The cult comprised basically 3 agricultural feasts celebrated throughout the land:  Unleavened Bread (offering of first fruits); Weeks (Pentecost, a mid-summer feast); and Booths (harvest thanksgiving).  The last feast was the greatest, when Israel lived 7 days in booths and celebrated the New Year, poured water, and offered prayer for the coming of the former rains.   

                  Rites and festivals familiar to Israel were to be seen in Solomon’s temple, but how much non-Israelite also appeared?  There were undoubtedly elements of sun worship.  Did the myth of creation, the deity’s death and resurrection, marriage, and other features find celebration at Jerusalem?  None of these claims may be said to be fully substantiated.  One scholar suggests that the Psalms are to be understood in terms of “cultic reality,” rather than “poetic fiction.”  The Psalter is the prayer book of the first, and the second temple.

                  At Jerusalem, as at other sanctuaries through the land, worshipers came to rejoice in the faith that God had recorded God’s name and had stored up God’s holiness, presence, and blessing for those who sought God out.  They came before their God with their tithes, first fruits, and sacrificial offerings in the sanctuary.  There was music, dancing, preaching, reciting of stories, petitions, prayers, creeds and confessions, sacred meals and washings, fires of altar, and people everywhere.  There is silence, too, in Israelite worship.  Those in difficulty could find the way of spiritual revival as they remember God and all God’s grace.  People came “to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire at the Lord’s temple” (Psalm 27).

                  The Psalms’ cultic activity has as its sources ancient Jerusalem motifs of El Elyon, Nehustan, righteousness and welfare, a priest-king ideology, and Yahwistic features like Ark of the Covenant, Covenant, tabernacling Presence, and Yahweh’s Glory. The Psalter’s cultic nucleus includes psalms like 2, 18, 23, 24, 29, 46-48, 68, 72, 81, 84, 89, 93, 95-101, 110, 113-18, 120-34, and 149.  There are also cultic remains in Is. 40-55. 

                 

W-41

          Worship:  Prophetic Response; Josiah’s Reforms; and the Post-exilic Era—Whatever the range of cultic activity at Jerusalem, it is clear that Israel rejoiced before God in ancient sanctuaries.  Prophets like Amos, Isaiah, and Jeremiah participated in temple and sanctuary worship; yet the prophets condemned many things.  Amos denounces ritual lawbreaking, ritual prostitution, worship not accompanied by repentance, and Israel’s feasts.  Hosea promises that God will punish Israel by ending her festive occasions, for God desired mercy not sacrifice.  Isaiah complains that God’s people are sick and faint in head and heart.  All magical, divinatory, spiritualist, and necromantic forms of religious activity are utterly alien to Israel’s faith.  The prophets of the 700s and most of the 600s B.C. protested mainly in vain.  Josiah, following the discovery of the law book (probably what is now Deuteronomy 5-28) in 621 B.C., set out to reform the religious worship of his day.  He centralized sacrifice at Jerusalem and he abolished local shrines and negated the status of local priestly families.  He sought purification of worship in Jerusalem; after his death there was a further relapse.

      The work of Josiah, Deuteronomy, and Ezekiel brought about a reformed cult.  The main feasts were continued; the relationships of priests, Levites, and other priestly groups were defined; cult prophets probably became temple singers.  In the 2^nd temple there was a morning sacrifice and another between the 2 evenings, with additions for the sabbaths and special feasts.  The post-exilic period saw great changes in the pre-exilic feast of ‘Asiph.  On the 1^st day of Tishri, New Year’s, Rosh Hashanah was celebrated; the 10^th day was Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, when an annual purification was made for temple priests and people.  Some portions of the ritual are archaic, but both the need for the occasion and the activity of the high priest are new.

      Personal Worship and Worship Characteristics—The rich themes of the community celebrations of Israel’s covenant faith must not blind us to the equally rich strains of personal religion and worship present in the OT (e.g. Hannah at prayer (I Samuel 1); David’s devotions (Psalms 23, 51)).  David is portrayed as one of the most gifted individuals in God’s presence.  The royal cult must have meant for good kings at least, acts of personal consecration.  The Psalter is known to contain personal hymns of thanksgiving.  The “I” of the psalm is rarely a singular collective for Israel.  The royal “I” made the psalms available for all Israel. 

      The Psalms contain many individual acts of prayer and devotion.  In the testimony among Isaiah’s disciples there are new insights into a personal religion of faith dependent on God’s Word alone.  The so-called confessions of Jeremiah, the prophet Habakkuk, Psalm 73, the lyrical outpourings in Isaiah 40-55 etc., disclose vistas of personal religion.  The fall of Jerusalem and of the first temple, the long sojourn in exile away from the shrine and the growth of the idea of scripture gave rise to new modes of worship.  At some time or other new centers arose though it is unlikely that the synagogue is mentioned in OT times.

      As mentioned earlier, certain psalms reflect the Hebrew religion’s “cultic reality” with their ritual expressions.  In Exodus 24 the divine side of the covenant, as well as the human is conveyed in ritual.  This ritual religion is dominated by what has been called holy history.  The Psalter contains psalms which recapitulate that sacred story and illustrations of sacred recital or the making known of Yahweh’s works.  The worshiper remembers and thus makes present to himself the sacred history, to which he belongs.  The particular form of the historical implications of Israel’s worship is the covenant; that is the presupposition of the worship.  The aspect of covenant also plays its part in the role of the king and of the Davidic house in Israel’s worship.  

      Since the system of worship is revealed, then the fulfillment of worship is obedience to God.  There are Torah liturgies in Psalms 15 and 24 which lay down ethical requirements.  Israelite worship centers on Israel’s God.  He is the author of sacrifice and worship.  Israel’s worship is performed, not merely that she may derive blessing or welfare from this worship, but that she may glorify God.  Israelite worship centers on the cultic presence of Israel’s tabernacling God.  “I am Yahweh.” is doubtless the heart of scripture, of revelation, and of Israel’s faith as shown in worship.  To call upon the name of Yahweh or to bless in his name is the supreme act of worship.  Yahweh’s name is put upon the people of Israel in blessing.

WORSHIP IN NT TIMES, JEWISH.  See Worship in NT Times, Jewish entry in the Old Testament Apocrypha /Influences Outside the Bible section of the Appendix.    

WORSHIP IN NEW TESTAMENT (NT) TIMES, CHRISTIAN—Until the middle of the 100s A.D. and Justin Martyr’s description of worship, our knowledge of early Christian worship is very sketchy.  The NT contains only 1 record of celebrating the Lord’s Supper.  We have a curious set of eucharistic prayers in the Didache shortly before 100, and a confused account of Christian service by a pagan governor shortly after 100.

            

W-42

          It is possible to trace worship development and infer much that isn’t obvious right away.  Worship in NT times found a focus in baptism, preaching, and the Lord’s Supper, and was dominated by faith in Jesus as the risen Messiah and living Lord.  It took over a lot of its Jewish background; it was only slightly influenced by the Gentiles.  It enjoyed a rich life of prayer, psalmody, scripture reading, instruction, and private devotions.  There was ordination, ministry to the sick, prayer, anointing and exorcism, marriage benediction, funeral banquets, and weekly and annual days of fasting and of celebration.

                  Inheritance from the Jews—Early Christianity naturally developed a liturgical life within the context of its Jewish heritage.  Early Christianity was distinctive for its communal meal, while for the rest it observed Jewish public and private worship modes.  When excluded from temple and synagogue, Christians developed independent services; central to these were baptism and Lord’s Supper.  The break with Judaism wasn’t as abrupt as we sometimes think, nor did it occur uniformly.  Paul began missionary labors with synagogue preaching and worship until he was forced to withdraw to a lecture hall or private house.  The earliest Christians worshiped in temple and synagogue, supplementing this worship by their distinctive common meal.

                  When primitive Christians were forced to make their own provisions for worship, they naturally relied on the familiar forms they had inherited from Judaism.  However, the Christians abandoned the temple’s sacrificial system altogether, regarding it as having been fulfilled in Christ’s death.  Even Judaism had to cease making sacrifices after the destruction of the temple in 70 A.D.  From temple worship Christianity inherited a way of expressing the meaning of Christ’s passion, rather than an actual form of worship.  The Cross’ sacrificial character lay in the “recalling” or solemnly “proclaiming” before God the sacrifice once offered.  The only other aspect of temple worship which affected Christianity was the Psalms.

                  From the synagogue the local center of worship in post-exilic Judaism, Christianity came to inherit most of what we think of as the service of the word.  Scripture reading, preaching, psalmody, and public prayer had by the 100s become the first part of the regular weekly service of the Christians.  There was similarity in most of the items, but dissimilarity both in their content and in the order in which they came (See below)

                              Jewish Service                                     Christian Service (150 A.D.)

            Antiphonal reciting of the Decalogue                   Scripture reading (Greek OT)       

                                                                                           Hymn (from Psalms)

                                                                                           Scripture reading (gospels)

            The Shema Prayer (“Hear O Israel)                       Sermon (weekly)

            The Shemone Esreh Prayer (God's Blessings)     Common prayers

            Pentateuch (1^st 5 books) lesson                            Kiss of peace

            Psalmody (hymn)                                                   Offertory (bread and wine)

            Sermon (occasional)                                             Consecration of bread & wine

                                                                                            Communion

      At the conclusion of prayers the congregation recited the Amen.  While there was structure, the congregation’s leader who recited the benedictions was not bound by the actual words, only the content.  The liturgy was a lay liturgy.  In the Christian service most synagogue worship items were retained, but altered considerably.

                  Passover Meal and the Last Supper—Another area of Jewish worship which affected Christian liturgy was the Passover meal’s home ritual; this forms the background for the Lord’s Supper. It is not clear whether the Last Supper was the Passover meal or occurred 24 hours before it.  The first 3 gospels take the former view. John’s Gospel dates the Passion at the time of the slaying of the Passover lambs the day before Passover.  What is important is that the Passover traditions have affected the development of the Lord’s Supper. 

    Passover is a symbolic feast which re-enacted the last dramatic night before the crossing of the Red Sea.  The master of the house recited answers to questions posed by the youngest present, and told the story of the slaughter of the first-born, the flight from Egypt, and the delivery from slavery under the Pharaohs.  The meal looked backward to God’s saving act in Israel’s redemption, and forward to the culmination of his promises in the kingdom; it recalls the redemption from Egypt and looks toward the final triumph of God’s kingdom.

W-43

           This dual concern is characteristic of the Last Supper and the Lord’s Supper. Redemption wrought by Jesus is “shown forth” in the bread and wine; while hope of the future kingdom finds expression in the words of Jesus and Paul.  The actual details of a Jewish meal have provided the framework for Jesus’ act and the structure of the earliest Christian prayers at the Lord’s Supper.  Whether or not the Last Supper was Passover, the beginning and end of the meal would be similar.  The dinner would open with a grace.  The meal would conclude with the grace after the meal said with a cup of wine shared by all.  The grace would have a preliminary dialogue, and open with: “Let us bless our God.”  This would be followed by a blessing of God for food, land, and people.  Jesus took the occasion of this celebration to relate the wine to his forthcoming passion.

   The Lord’s Supper took a long time to enact, and as late as 100 was an actual meal.  The earliest Christian prayers we have reflect the structure of the Jewish graces.  The importance of sacred meals involving bread and wine was also part of the Qumran (Dead Sea) material.  In their Manual of Discipline, the community’s high priest presides at a communal meal. “He utters a blessing over the first portion of the bread and the wine.  [The Messiah of Israel] stretches out his hands upon the bread.”  The Qumran material witnesses to the existence of a sacred meal which bears a striking resemblance to the later Lord’s Supper.  Judaism provided the background for many other acts of Christian worship besides its central service of word and sacrament.  Jewish proselyte baptism is a source both for John’s rite and for the Christian one.  

     The Gentile Inheritance—It is much more difficult to assess the Gentile influences on Christian worship than the Jewish.  Except for the funeral feast and some marriage customs, no specific elements of early Christian liturgy can be directly traced to Greek sources.  While much of Christian worship stood in marked contrast to pagan, there were subtle similarities between Christianity and pagan mystery religions.  

     Fundamental to these mystery religions was the ritual associated with the dying and rising god.  Also fundamental were the sacred meals at which the god was believed to be present.  Obvious connections between these religions and the Christian belief in the death and resurrection of Christ and in the communion of his body and blood in the Lord’s Supper can be made.  For the converted Gentile, the Christian cult must not have seemed altogether unlike the cult libations and initiations with which he was familiar.  The Gentile would read into religious forms of Jewish origin, ideas and associations from his pagan background. 

     The main differences were clear.  The cults combined beliefs from the entire Mediterranean; Christianity was exclusive.  The cults closely guarded their “mystery”; early Christianity proclaimed the mystery of God’s action in Christ.  Initiation into the cults was costly; Christianity recruited mainly from the underprivileged.  Cults were concerned first with triumph over death; Christianity related this to the triumph over moral evil.  Cult gods were personifications of fertility; Christianity was rooted in the historic acts of an actual person.  The deepest difference lay in the conception of the divine suffering.  Cult gods died unwillingly, while Christianity preached a God who willingly took on the suffering involved in the redemption of humankind. 

      There was similarity and dissimilarity between Christain worship and pagan cults; language and metaphor are similar.  When the Gentile Christian addressed Christ as kyrios (Lord), they must have associated Christ with the savior “lords” and “gods” of paganism.  A 2^nd factor concerns the blessing of things.  Jewish prayer blesses God for things; Gentiles ask for God’s blessing on things.  The blessing of the bread and wine of the Lord’s Supper has its origin in the conceptions of the divine being present in things, whereas the prophetic strain of Jewish religion lays the emphasis on blessing God for things.  “Eating the flesh” of Christ is reminiscent of pagan language, but the author’s concern to interpret the rite spiritually is also evident.  If he speaks in language familiar to his hearers, it is with a vastly different message.

     The Lord’s Supper—The communal meal of the Christians, the “breaking of bread,” was at first supple-mental to the temple and synagogue; it was held in Christian homes.  Each guest provided his own supper or a contribution to the common table.  It celebrated the messianic banquet and bore witness to the risen Christ’s presence.  In Luke 24, “Christ was known to them in the breaking of the bread.”  The Christian meal was continuation of Easter meals and fulfilled Jewish expectations of the Messiah’s coming and this age’s end.  For the Christian this was fulfilled in the Lord’s Supper, which celebrated the Messiah and the final climax.

W-44

    There was a grace before meals with the bread’s distribution, given new meaning by Christ’s act at the Last Supper, and a concluding grace over a cup of wine; the NT does not preserve the form of these graces.  The antiquity of present Jewish forms leads us to suppose that Jews said something like the prayer below.  The Christian forms would doubtless have been reworded in the light of the new faith.  The Didache’s communion prayers go back to 90 A.D.

                            Jewish Prayer                                                  Christian Prayer

      1 Blessed art thou, O Lord our God,          3 We thank thee, our Father, for the holy 

            King of the universe, who bringest               vine of David, thy child, which thou
      forth bread from the earth                             has revealed through Jesus, thy 
                                                                            child. To thee be glory forever.

                                                                             We thank thee our Father, for the life 
                                                                             which thou has revealed through 

                                                                                   Jesus thy child.  To thee be glory 
                                                                              forever.

        
                                                                     1 As this piece [of bread] was scattered 
                                                                          over the hills & then was brought 
                                                                          together and made one, let thy
                                                                           Church be brought together from 
                                                                           the ends of the earth into thy 
                                                                           Kingdom.  For thine is the glory

                                                                                 and the power through Jesus 
                                                                           Christ forever.

     
    2 [After meal] Blessed be He.  Blessed       [After meal] We thank thee, holy 
      be the Lord our God, the God of                 Father,  for thy sacred name 

      Israel, the God of hosts, dwelling                which thou hast lodged in our 
      between the cherubim, for the meal            hearts, and for the knowledge 
      we have eaten.                                             & faith & immortality which thou

                                                                                    hast revealed through Jesus, 
                                                                              thy child. To thee be glory forever.

        
     3 Blessed art thou, O Lord our God,          2&5 Almighty Master, thou has 

               who hast made  the fruit of the vine.               created everything for the sake  
                                                                                 of thy name and hast given all 
     4 Blessed art thou, O Lord our God,                 food and drink to enjoy that they
        King of the Universe, who                              may thank thee.  But to us thou 

              sustaineth the whole with good-                     thou has given spiritual food &  

              ness, with kindness, and with                         drink and eternal life through 

              mercy.                                                             Jesus, thy child.
                                                                               Above all, we thank thee that   

           5 We thank thee O Lord God, that thou                thou are mighty. To thee be   

      hast caused us to inherit a                                   glory forever.   
     pleasant, good, and wide land.                             

        
      6 Have mercy, O Lord our God, on               6 Remember, Lord, thy Church, to  

             Israel, thy people, and on Jerusalem,              save it from all evil & to make it
        thy city, and on Zion, the abiding                     perfect by thy love.  Make it holy,

             place of thy glory, on thy altar and                    and gather it together from the 4 

             thy temple.  Blessed art thou, O                       winds into thy kingdom which 
        God, who buildest Jerusalem.                         thou hast made ready for it.  For  
                                                                                  thine  is the power and the glory 

                                                                                        forever. Let Grace come and let
                                                                                  this world pass away. Hosanna

                                                                                         to the God of David. If any is  
                                                                                   holy,  let  them come.  If not let 

                                                                                         them  repent. Our Lord come.  
                                                                                               Amen.

W-45

                  The reader who compares these prayers will note the striking similarity.  “We thank thee” is synonymous with “We bless thee,” or “Blessed are thou.”  The liturgy in the Didache clearly envisions an actual meal.  The earliest Eucharists seem to have concluded with psalm singing, exhortation, prophecy, and speaking with tongues.  “Let grace come, let this world pass away,” or similar phrases end the Didache service.

                  The Didache prayers do not directly refer to Christ’s words of institution or to the Passion.  Some contend that there were originally 2 types of early Eucharist—a joyful type centered in the Resurrection, and a solemn one, centered in the Cross.  The early Lord’s Supper was doubtless a most joyful occasion; the accent fell upon the Resurrection of messianic banquet.  The peculiar solemnity of Paul’s account may be explained by the prominence of the Cross in his theology.  It was also a response to the excesses of the Corinthian feast, and the unsocial behavior of the well-to-do which led him to stress the more somber note of the celebration.

                  When the break between Christianity and Judaism forced the new community to provide for all of its worship needs, changes in the supper occurred.  Preaching was added, and the Christian liturgy became regularized as weekly worship, and Sunday was celebrated as the Christian sabbath; the Lord’s Supper came in the evening.  The first we hear of a Christian service in the morning is around 100 A.D.  It is possible that some of the synagogue service items came to precede the Lord’s Supper.  Benedictions, doxologies, and new Chris-tian hymns probably came to form a part of the meal.  There was an imperial edict forbidding unlicensed clubs to hold meals.  After that a service of word and sacrament developed distinct from the actual supper.

                  The Service of Word and Sacrament—The imagery of Revelation gives us our only indication in the NT of the Christian liturgy.  Chapters 4-6 suggest that the author has cast his vision in forms derived from the liturgy (i.e. throne = bishop’s chair; seats of the elders = presbyters; lamb = bread and wine; book = gospel.  If we are to read these chapters of Revelation in this way, it would appear that the service known to us in the 100s was already established by the 90s in some parts of Asia Minor.

                  Pliny (113 A.D.) records that “they were accustomed on a special day to assemble before daylight and to sing a hymn to Christ, and to bind themselves by an oath not to commit theft . . . or adultery, and not to break their word . . . after this they depart and meet together again to take food.”  This text seems to say that the Christians had both a pre-dawn service and a daytime communal meal (It is unclear whether this meal was the Lord’s Supper or an ordinary “church supper” or Agape.  The ban on meals by unlicensed clubs may have led to the separation of the actual supper from its sacramental actions.  Clearly, a service of the word with features from the synagogue liturgy had now developed and was held very early in the morning.

                  With Justin Martyr’ account of the Christian liturgy (about 150), we find a form of service we are familiar with and which provided the framework for later development (See Inheritance from the Jews section earlier in this article for order of worship).  Prayers concluded with “Amen,” to which evidently Christian gave the meaning of “so be it,” and “so it is.”  The deacons arranged the bread and wine offering on a table before the bishop, who then did the consecration prayer.  It concluded with the congregational Amen; then the deacons served Communion.  With Communion the service ended.  The bread and wine were in some way Jesus’ flesh and blood.  The Jewish abhorrence of drinking blood as taboo was not shared by Gentiles; the prophetic nature of Jesus’ action at the Last Supper was interpreted differently in circles which embraced Greek culture.

                  The officiant at Justin’s service was the bishop.  Earlier the presbyter-bishop would be the officiant.  Earlier still, Christians from the congregation at-large were chosen for this duty according to their special gifts.  The picture Paul leaves is of a congregation, each member of which prayed, prophesied, exhorted, spoke with tongues, and even consecrated the Lord’s Supper as they were called by the Spirit.

                  From Judaism’s home ritual and Jesus’ act at the Last Supper, there developed the distinctive Lord’s Supper.  Around 100 the sacramental aspect of this meal was transferred to an early-morning service; part of this liturgy was a Christian form of synagogue worship.  We assume that, to meet the needs of the primitive Christians when they were banned from the synagogue, some service of the word came to precede the meal of the Lord’s Supper, or a separate morning service was constructed and to this was later added the sacramental part. 

                  When the sacramental aspect of the Lord’s Supper was divorced from the actual meal, the latter lost its original significance and dwindled in importance.  The agape could only be held intermittently when the lex Julia was not strictly enforced.  Eventually it was suppressed, as it became associated with the cult of the dead and subject to the undue excesses of pagan feasting and debauchery.  The Christian services doubtless differed somewhat from place to place.  But the general structure of the liturgy must have been fairly uniform.

W-46

                  Baptism—Owing to the widespread use of purification rituals in Judaism and in the ancient world in general, it is no matter of surprise that Christianity should have adopted water baptism.  The Jewish custom of proselyte baptism, the lustrations of the Qumran community, and the rite of John the Baptist all indicate an environment to which Christianity owed much in the development of its ceremony.

                  Gentile sources play little or no role in the very early period.  References may be made to the purification ceremonies in Mithra, the Isis cult, “sacred drowning”; and the blood bath in Magna Mater.  Gentile converts familiar with these and similar rites, brought over pagan associations to the Christian ceremony.  The Gentile converted to Judaism was required to be circumcised, then to undergo a bath of immersion to purify them from their paganism, and finally to offer sacrifice.  The last was, of course, impossible to do outside Jerusalem; even circumcision was rarely performed.  In consequence, the initiatory bath was heightened in significance.  It was performed by self-immersion with 2 witnesses present.  Whether the rite should be understood to involve forgiveness of sins is in dispute within Jewish circles themselves.  Its fundamental meaning was separation from a pagan past and entrance into a new, acceptable relation with God. 

                  There can be little question that John’s baptism owed something to this proselyte ceremony. What was original in John’s rite was the idea that even one of the chosen race needs purification.  For John the end of the age was rapidly approaching.  The transcendent Messiah would soon appear to destroy the ungodly.  The baptism of John meant a symbolic anticipation of the divine judgment.  The River Jordan was a symbol of the river of fire flowing from the throne of the Ancient of Days.

                  From the recently discovered Qumran (Dead Sea scrolls) material we have further evidence of the importance of cleansing rites in Judaism before, during, and shortly after Jesus’ time.  The Manual of Discipline ceremony says:  “God will sprinkle upon him the Spirit of Truth like water for impurity.”  From these sources, the Christian baptism rite then developed; it owed its distinctive character to Jesus’ experience and mission.

                  Jesus’ ministry began with his association with John’s movement; a number of his first disciples were John’s followers.  The experience of his baptism led Jesus to the conviction that the powers of the kingdom were already present in him.  At this moment Jesus underwent a decisive experience, both in understanding his unique relation to God and in grasping the sacrificial nature of his mission.  For Jesus the breath of God’s power, God’s Spirit, is to be seen in a sacrificial dove rather than in one of destroying fire; later he does connect his baptism with fire.  But the central point is that the sacrificial dove has taken the place of John’s sterner proclamation.  The “Jew” with whom John’s disciples disputed in John 3 is probably a reference to Jesus from some Baptist source.  The break between Jesus and John had as a consequence that the rite of baptism was not continued by Jesus during his mission.

                  How then did the church come to adopt baptism if it ceased to figure in Jesus’ mission?  If many early Christians had originally been part of John’s movement, the transformation of John’s baptism into a Christian type would have been likely in any case.  For the church, Jesus’ own baptism was the first manifestation of Jesus as Messiah.  Also, the connection between the Spirit and a water rite was thus firmly established in their minds.  For the Christian convert, entering the Spirit community of Pentecost meant undergoing a rite similar to John’s but with a new Christian meaning.  Baptism in the name of Jesus made all the difference.

                  The supreme importance of the baptism rite emerges from the large number of allusions to it.  It is a firmly established custom, to be taken for granted, by Paul’s ministry.  A number of biblical references lead us to suppose it was administered by an officiant in connection with a liturgical question and a confession of faith; these forms might vary.  The confession given by Paul (“Jesus is Lord) is perhaps the earliest.  The NT has preserved several confessions (John 2; Romans 1, 8; I Corinthians 12, 15; I Timothy 3,6; II Timothy 2; I Peter 3) It is out of these confessions that later creeds developed as formulas of faith at baptism.  In these primitive creeds, the confession of Jesus as Lord, Messiah, or Son of God is given a central place.  Another point to note is the central role of asking questions of the participant’s faith as part of the early baptismal creed.

                  We may note that there was probably no baptism formula in the early church, such as we are familiar with.  The formula:  “I baptize you in the name of . . .”  was a type of confession.  When such confessions were no longer rendered in the water, because of widespread infant baptism, the new formula came into vogue.  In NT times baptism was by a single immersion preferably in running water; there was baptism for the dead.  Whether or not infant baptism was practiced in NT times is a much disputed question.  In I Corinthians 7, the implication is that children born after the parents’ conversion do not need to undergo such a rite; those born before the parents’ conversion would have been baptized.  NT evidence is insufficient to solve the problem of infant baptism one way or the other.

              

 W-47

                  Confirmation, Laying on of Hands, and Anointing—There is also the issue of the laying on of hands or confirmation being part of a complete conversion.  Acts recounts 2 stories which suggest that water baptism needed to be supplemented with apostolic laying on of hands.  Peter, John, and Paul lay hands on new converts shortly after baptism.  On the other hand, there are NT passages which just as clearly associate the descent of the Spirit with the water rite.  The problem is further complicated by the fact that not only the laying on of hands, but the use of oil in baptism also enters in, as this was a feature of all bathing in the ancient world.  In fact, the laying on of hands and anointing would seem in the ancient world to be a natural part of the water rite.  Even the clothing and unclothing suggests to Paul the putting off of the old man and the put-ting on of Christ, or the new man.  Eventually neophytes wore white robes to symbolize their new estate. When the biblical evidence is viewed as a whole, it rather looks as if the administration of baptism differed in various localities and was variously interpreted.

                  Anointing and laying on of hands became more closely associated with the gift of the Spirit than the water because they more obviously symbolized the descent, the Spirit’s downward motion.  There is a notable absence in the NT of symbolism of being dipped or drenched in the Spirit.  Eventually the gift of the Spirit was detached from the actual water ceremony, which was viewed as a cleansing preparation for it.  Visible gifts of the Spirit (ecstatic utterances, miracles, etc.) were absent in Samaria.  These gifts appeared after Peter and John performed the laying on of hands (Acts 8) and were the result of Paul’s laying on of hands in Acts 19.  It is not made clear in the NT who is the normal official at baptism.  While apostles baptized, it was mainly left to the local ministry of the presbyter-bishops.  Lay baptism in emergencies (but not by women) is attested by time of Tertullian.  This probably applies only to the water rite. 

                  The meaning of baptism is variously interpreted in the NT.  All these various interpretations express the basic Christian conviction that by baptism a new life begins in the messianic community of the risen Lord.  In the symbolism of dying and rising and of rebirth, we perhaps have echoes of Greek culture.  Washing away of sin and receiving the Spirit are more characteristic of a Jewish perception.

                  Ordination, Marriages and Funerals—The use of the laying on of hands in connection with appointment to an office goes back Judaism; elders and rabbis were so ordained.  It is probable that the choosing of the Seven in Acts 6 represents the effort of the church to organize itself in a way similar to Judaism, where every village had seven ruling elders.  The ordination prayer for presbyters in Hippolytus is:  As thou didst look upon the people of thy choice and didst command Moses to choose elders whom thou didst fill with the Spirit.  So now, O Lord, grant that there may be preserved among us unceasingly the spirit of thy grace.  Ordinations were preceded by prophetic utterances whereby the candidate was chosen for the office.  Fasting, seems to have been observed before ordination.

                  The NT provides no information on the Christian form of marriage and funerals.  We have to assume that customs familiar to Jews or Gentiles were continued depending on the cultural background of the people involved.  In Jewish circles marriage involved a ceremony of betrothal, crowning with garland, a nighttime procession, and a wedding feast.  It is not impossible that at times the marriage feast was associated with the Lord’s Supper.  In Roman circles the betrothal was less ceremonious and more of a business arrangement followed by a family party.  The bride was escorted in a torchlight procession to her new home.  Just how these ceremonies were Christianized in the early period is not clear.

                  With regard to funerals we have even less information.  No religious ceremonies were involved in Judaism.  There were paid mourners; and the body was buried after anointing and shrouding.  Pagan funeral processions were more elaborate.  The funeral banquet played a large role.  This was transformed by Christianity into the funeral agape.  The 2 points at which Christian funeral have stood in marked contrast to Jewish and pagan ones are:  the joyful note of resurrection; and the celebration of the Lord’s Supper at funerals, which there was characterized by the offering of a sacrifice for them, instead of to them.

W-48

                  Private Devotions, Vows, Discipline and Ministry to the Sick—Christian private prayer is an adaptation of Jewish practice.  The devout Jew prayed 3 times daily: early morning; 3 pm; and at dusk.  Further hours of prayer were gradually added until there was 6 periods of private devotion was established by Hippolytus’ time.  In addition to daily prayer, primitive Christians undertook vows and fasting, both taken over from Judaism.  The earliest Christians probably observed the Law’s one obligatory fast.  Christians fasted before ordinations and other solemn assemblies.  Wednesday and Friday are noted by the Didache as Christian fast days.  Cases of discipline were handled at gatherings for worship (Matt. 18; I Cor. 5). Appropriate rebukes were given, and repeat, unrepentant offenders were excluded from the community. 

                  From its origins Christianity was a healing cult; salvation was understood to involve the body and the kingdom’s presence.  Of the modes of healing in the NT, exorcism is the most prominent.  The primitive church continued Jesus’ ministry.  The formula specifically included Jesus’ name.  The ability to exorcise was viewed as a charisma.  Other modes of healing had a semi-magical character.  Healing was more often done with prayer, anointing, and laying on of hands.  Confession of sins also played a role in this ministry.

                  Church Calendar—Developing the church calendar was a remarkably slow process in Christianity.  Very little of the Jewish year found a place in Christian celebrations.  This is because the church year was largely the Gentile church’s creation; the background of days like Christmas and Epiphany is pagan, not Jewish.  The earliest Christians continued to observe the Jewish calendar, until the break with the synagogue was complete.  Sunday was observed as the day of the Lord’s resurrection.  The day was kept by celebrating the Lord’s Supper in the evening.  As it was a regular working day for Jew and Gentile, it could not be observed as a holiday or day of rest.  It was in the 300s that Emperor Constantine legislated the public holiday.

                  There was never any confusion in the early church between sabbath and Sunday.  Early Christians never applied sabbath legislation to Sunday.  While Jewish Christians still observed the sabbath, it was never binding on Gentile converts.  Within NT times 3 other Christian observances can be traced.  There were Station Days, Wednesday and Friday fast days, martyr’s days, celebrating the martyr’s passion or “birthday.” 

                  There was Easter observance, which goes back to the Jewish Christian church.  It was a Christian form of the Passover festival; it celebrated the death and resurrection of Christ at an evening Lord’s Supper.  When it became usual to have early morning sacrament, the Easter rite underwent a change.  Only one day was kept as Easter (there was no Holy Week). There was a fast leading up to it of different lengths in different localities.  Attempts were made to see I Peter and the farewell discourses in John’s Gospel as part of an Easter rite.


WRATH OF GOD  (אף (af), anger; ﬧהח (khaw raw), anger kindled; יחם (yaw kham), to be hot with anger; ﬠבﬧה (‘ah baw raw), anger, the act of losing one’s temper; קצף (kaw tsaf), to be anger, to provoke to anger; ﬠםז (tsaw am), to be angry indignant; orgh (or geh), anger, indignation; qumoV, qumowsw  (thuh mos, thuh mo so), anger, to be angered).  The biblical conception of the Deity’s threatening with annihilation the existence of whatever opposes his will or violates God’s holiness and love.  Its operation is seen as part of a final judgment, as well as in private and personal disasters.  The biblical writers draw analogies from human anger, yet anger in humans is sharply distinguished from God’s wrath.

                  There are several hundred references to the divine wrath in the Old Testament (OT) and proportionally less in the New Testament (NT).  God’s wrath is often suggested through expressions and metaphors drawn from the vocabulary of flood, famine, and conflagration, cursing, devouring, reaping, demolishing, slaughtering, smelting or refining, military siege and battle. 

                  Wrath of God in the OT—God’s wrath may be provoked against Israel, individuals and groups within Israel, nations and rulers, and humankind in general.  On occasion the Old Testament picture of God contains an undeniable element of irrationality not unlike cruel caprice.  In the biblical view, this mysterious and dangerous element is still compatible with the transcendence, inscrutability, radical separation, and menace of death for whoever stumbles upon it carelessly. 

                 Normally the OT traces the provocation of God’s wrath to deliberate human attempts to thwart God’s will and purpose for human salvation.  In the wilderness the Israelites murmur against God.  Social injustice within the community of God’s chosen people causes God to pour out God’s wrath upon them.  A recurring and major theme is that of Israel repeated apostasy.  The biblical threats of annihilation start with Deuteronomy’s exhortations, and prevails into the latest OT literature.  When God vents God’s wrath against the nations, this is seen by the OT writers as a consequence of the opposition to the divine purpose.  Such passages contain elements of chauvinism, yet the fact that they lie in a context of the divine wrath proclaimed even more strongly against Israel herself prevents the interpreter from reading them merely as unbridled patriotism.

                 

W-49

                 While the OT does not necessarily see all human trouble as a manifestation of divine anger, it nevertheless finds God’s wrath revealed in all manner of catastrophes.  Natural elements may be agents of God’s fury.  The mightiest agents of the divine wrath in the OT prove to be the historical powers, like Assyria.  Aggression by neighboring nations is Yahweh’s punishment of Israel for apostasy.  God’s wrath against Israel’s enemies makes itself known in disasters suffered by those nations.  When nations are kherem (devoted to destruction) and subjected to holy war, Israel herself is Yahweh’s instrument of wrath against them.  OT prophetic preaching and finally the apocalyptic writings look for a climactic display of Yahweh’s wrath on the day when God’s saving purpose is accomplished.  The later psalmists invoke this end-of-the-age wrath upon heathen as well as upon apostates.  Righteous worshipers are not without anxiety when they pray for this day.

                 While God’s wrath may operate for salvation on behalf of God’s people, the truly serious concern for Israel is her deliverance from the divine anger itself.  Even where magic seems formally to be used, the procedure works only if God allows it to.  OT prophetic preaching sought to avert Yahweh’s wrath through the people’s repentance (e.g. Jeremiah 4, 36; Amos 5; Malachi 3; See Repent).  Later tradition saw the priest and cultic ritual protecting the community.  In older stories, divine anger is lifted only by the death of the guilty.    

                 Often the requirements for her deliverance are found to lie beyond human accomplishment.  The fulfillment of the necessary condition is carried through by Yahweh.  According to the OT scheme, when collective or individual life in Israel did not receive the unmerited acts of God’s love with reverence, justice, and grace, that love had inevitably to display its wrath.  Because Israel had presumed upon this love, says Yahweh:  “I will fall upon them like a bear robbed of her cubs.”  If Israel betrayal of the covenant relationship provokes the divine fury, the faithfulness of God to it in love also constrains God’s anger.  There is no lasting assurance that wrath has been stayed.

                 See also entry in the OT Apocrypha/Influences outside the OT section of the Appendix.

                 Wrath of God in the NT—The view advocated by Marcion in the 100s A.D., and by others since, that righteous anger of the OT deity is alien to the loving God does not gain support from the NT itself.  Here, the dimension of God’s love measures the severity of God’s wrath.  It describes a part of the concrete experience of faith rather than an abstract speculation on the nature of God.  Only on a single occasion do the gospels attribute anger to Jesus by using an explicit word for it; only once does Jesus himself refer explicitly to divine anger.  Certain parables and the characters in them (e.g. angry householder, angry king, exclusion from the kingdom, the shut door) project the image of divine wrath.

                 The divine anger is clearly the presupposition whenever Jesus denounces those who flout what they know to be the will and purpose of God.  The compassion and mercy of Jesus find an element of their strength in his very capacity for anger whenever he finds the gracious will and purpose of God met with human hardness of heart.  There are many examples of the deep disturbance within Jesus at human trespass against the divine love point to the reaction in holy wrath of that love itself; indeed, the divine wrath is here operative.

                 Jesus treats the divine wrath with full seriousness, but never as if he felt at ease with it.  Rather, he arouses people to its reality as a part of his total work of bringing the regenerating love of the God under whose wrath the whole race stands.  He becomes obedient to his Father’s will even after he prays that, if possible, the cup (of wrath) pass from him.  As Jesus approached his death, he knew the full weight—without himself being its provocation—of God’s wrath.  NT writers saw in the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ the lifting of God’s wrath from all who so accepted it in faith.

                 Against those Christians who “outraged the Spirit of grace” by supposing that they now rested in complacent security apart from moral issues and the serious questions of faith and practice.  The NT writers warn that conversion in the New Covenant brings a true appreciation of its demands on the believer.  “These things are warnings for us“—thus do Paul and others draw a lesson from the loosing of God’s wrath against God’s chosen people as told in the OT.

                 The “Day of the Lord” proclaimed by OT prophets was for them already a “day of wrath.”  For the NT, the salvation drama is to play itself out in one final “judgment of the great day.”  The NT anticipates it as the “day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.”  One of the most striking images of the unfolding Day of Wrath is that of the flight of people to hide “from the wrath of the Lamb.”  Jesus is the agent of the divine wrath.  Christ’s Lordship has already been anticipated by Paul, who sees in him the revelation not only of God’s righteousness, but God’s wrath.  It is not impossible to trace the full idea to Jesus himself, saying about his own ministry:  “I came to cast fire upon the earth: and would that it were already kindled.”

W-50

                 One may conclude that the NT differs on 2 counts from the OT.  It takes a graver view of God’s wrath than do even the OT prophets, while at the same time it has discovered a hope of reconciliation with God unknown to the OT.  While the concluding chapters of the NT find that “the devil,” “the beast,” “the false prophet” will be “tormented day and night for ever and ever.”  God’s wrath shall not burn in eternity.  In the “new heaven” and the “new earth” there is no wrath, “for the former things have passed away.”

     

WREATH  (ﬢליםג (geh dee leem), platted chain work, from the verb “to twist”; ליה (loe yaw), festoons in architecture; stefanoV (steh fah nos), wreath used to crown victors in public games.

WRESTLING (בקא(‘aw bawk), to “dust each other” (by wrestling); יםﬨילפ (faw tah leem) struggle, wrestling-belt with handholds)  In Old Testament times, when warfare had already achieved a series of tactical and strategic levels, humankind looked back to a simpler and more romantic past.  The distinctive form of wrestling in the Bible world is belt-wrestling, whereby the combatants wear special belts upon which the holds are made.  This belt became an important possession of every man of consequence.

                  An awareness of belt-wrestling is necessary for perceiving the imagery in certain passages.  (e.g.  “righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins).  I. e. The Messiah will be a hero, not of physical violence, but of virtue.   This sport is the origin of the phrase “gird your loins.”

WRITING AND WRITING MATERIALS.  Writing was known and practiced in the ancient Near East long before the Hebrews took possession of Palestine.  The claim that writing was unknown in Palestine in patriarchal times are quite unfounded.

                  Development of Writing Outside of Syria-Palestine—The 1^st system of writing for which we have evidence is probably that invented in Mesopotamia sometime after 3500 B.C.  This was most likely a Sumerian creation.  It developed from a pictographic stage, when a picture of the sun represented the sun, to a logographic stage, when a logogram of the sun meant “sun,” “day,” “bright,” etc.; a foot meant also “stand,” “walk,” or “carry”).  Limitations of such a system are apparent when it is necessary to record an abstract concept. 

                  Eventually the logogram came to represent another word having the same sound.  At this stage the system becomes phonetic, with the signs standing for a syllabic sound.  Additional signs were added to phonetic signs to indicate person, tense, relative position, final syllable of a word, or the range of meaning of certain words.  Many signs were used to represent the same sound and one sign might possess more than one sound.

                 These signs were incised on tablets of soft clay with a stylus.  At first they were written vertically.  Later, the manner of holding the tablet was altered so that the signs were turned into horizontal lines.  The pictures gradually became stylized and simplified; the use of the stylus led to wedge-shaped lines, which led to the name cuneiform to describe the writing.

                 After 3000 B.C., this system was adopted by the Akkadians to write their Semitic tongue.  The grammatical tools mentioned above were all employed, and many additional values were given to signs for sounds peculiar to Semitic speech, eventually totaling some 600 signs.  After the Sumerians and Akkadian developed the system, it was used by the Elamites, Hurrians, Hittites, and Uratians.  The system was eventually employed to write at least 6 unrelated languages up to 1000 B.C.  The Aramaic language was written in a cursive alphabetic script in Mesopotamia during the Monarchy period of the Hebrews, most often on papyrus or leather.  Assyrian reliefs of the 700s and 600s B.C. portray scribes writing on a flexible material with pens beside other scribes using a stylus to incise cuneiform signs on clay tablets.

                 Archaeological evidence from Egypt points to a strong Mesopotamian influence around 3000 B.C.  The Egyptians did not take over the Sumerian system, but they applied the grammatical ideas mentioned earlier to their own symbols.  Egyptian symbols developed independently of Mesopotamian symbols.  The forms of individual hieroglyphs changed little during their long history.  The symbols represent only the sound of consonants, not syllables (e.g. the symbol “house” (paru) could be used for any word which required the consonants pr, in that order; a mouth (ra), could be use to render the consonant r.  The total disregard for vowels, a feature of most Semitic scripts also, means that we do not know the pronunciation of ancient Egyptian.

          

W-51

           Logograms which became phonetic signs contain from 1 to 3 consonants.  The fact that there were enough single-consonant signs to express all 24 Egyptian consonant sounds made it possible for hieroglyphic to become an alphabetic system; this revolutionary step was never taken.  Although hieroglyphic was used mostly for stone inscriptions, it was occasionally written with a pen in a somewhat cursive fashion.  In this form the signs were much simplified. 

                 At the end of the 700s B.C., a still more abbreviated form of the script was introduced.  By this time original forms of the signs were barely recognizable.  Around the 200s A.D., the Greek alphabet was adopted for the writing of the Egyptian language.  Hieroglyphic was written normally, but not always from right to left.  During the 1300s B.C., Akkadian was the international spoken language. Hence, cuneiform on clay tablets was the international writing used by Egyptian scribes.

                 At some time after 2000 B.C., the inhabitants of eastern Asia Minor, i.e. the Hittites, adopted the cuneiform syllabary of Mesopotamia.  An interesting feature of Hittite cuneiform is “allography,” the use of Sumerian logograms or Akkadian words spelled with syllabic symbols.  Between 1500 and 700 B.C., another hieroglyphic script, indigenous to Anatolia (modern-day Turkey), was in use for inscriptions on stone found at various sites throughout southern Anatolia and northern Syria.  The hieroglyphic signs, unlike those of Egypt, express syllabic values.  They are composed of consonant plus vowel only.  The texts are written in horizontal lines reading from right to left and left to right alternately, and is called Hieroglyphic Hittite.  It is likely that the hieroglyphic script was also written on wood or other perishable materials.  The Akkadian language was also well known in Anatolia.  Akkadian was the language of international trade and diplomacy throughout the ancient Near East.  Excavations at Hittite sites have also yielded some cuneiform texts in Hurrian. 

                 Further west on the Mediterranean, the Minoan civilization flourished on the island of Crete.  They developed a hieroglyphic form of writing around 2000 B.C.  Inscribed on stone or clay tablets, this system has yet to be fully deciphered.  Between the 1600s and 1500s B.C., Linear A replaced the earlier system.  Around 1400 B.C., Crete came under the domination of the Mycenean civilization, and a new form of writing, Linear B came into use.  This script proved to be a syllabary representing an early form of Greek.  From Minoan-Mycenean linear scripts the inhabitants of the island of Cyprus derived around 1400 a form of writing known as Cypro-Mycenean.  By the 600s we encounter still another script.  This Cypriote script is likewise a syllabary of 54 signs.  It was designed for an undeciphered non-Greek language. 

                 The unique position of Syria-Palestine as a bridge between Egypt and Western Asia produced a remarkably complicated development in the history of writing.  The most significant development was the adoption of the linear alphabetic system devised in Syria-Palestine.  This purely Phoenician script was employed in writing Greek around 800 B.C.  Certain signs which represented consonant sounds not found in Greek were used to indicate vowel sounds.  This alphabet was passed on to Italy for writing in Etruscan and Latin.  First written from right to left, it was soon written alternately in both directions, and finally exclusively from left to right.  Unicials or capitals were used until the 900s A.D.

                 Although the use of clay as a writing material was not native to Palestine, about 20 tablets have been found at Tanaach, Tell el-Hesi, Gezer, Jericho, Megiddo, and Shechem.  In Ugarit, cuneiform tablets in Hurrian and Sumerian were also found.  A stela from Balu’ah in ancient Moab bears inscription in a linear script dated by some scholars to the late 2000s B.C.  It is also possible the script of the Balu’ah stela is the same as that of a small group of inscriptions on stone and bronze tablets unearthed at Byblos.  The writing appears to run from right to left.  The inscriptions cannot yet be said to have been satisfactorily read.

                 In 1929, hundreds of clay tablets were discovered at ancient Ugarit in northern Syria.  When deciphered, the language proved to be an early form of Canaanite.  The alphabet is purely consonantal, but there are 3 signs to indicate “a,” “i,” or “u.”  One helpful feature of the script is the use of wedges to indicate word division.  The first alphabet is represented by about 25 inscriptions in the Sinai Peninsula, dated about 1500 B.C.  These inscriptions are written in a consonantal alphabet which was clearly derived from Egyptian hieroglyphic.  Far from being illiterate, Syria-Palestine’s inhabitants were making use of at least 5 systems of writing during the Late Bronze Age (1800s to 1400s B.C.)  A later stage of this script is represented by inscriptions from places like Beth-Shemesh, Byblos, and Lachish, dating from the 1200s and 1100s.  The script was adopted by Arameans between 1000 and the 900s.  They introduced using w, y, and h to indicate the presence of final long vowels.  Word dividers were frequently used in the Aramaic, Moabite, and Hebrew inscriptions.

            

W-52

                  Hebrew was written from 1000 B.C. in a form of Phoenician script.  Some time between 200 and the 100s., modified forms of Aramaic “square characters” were adopted by Jews.  The “Phoenician” forms continued to be used for some time on Hebrew coins from the 100s B.C. to 100s A.D.  Documents discovered by archaeology, which give us examples of alphabetic writing in Syria-Palestine include:  Ahiram Inscription; Samarian Ivories and Ostraca; Gezer Calendar; Lachish Ostraca; Jewish Seals; and Elephantine Papyri.

                  An innovation in the Aramaic or square script was using special final forms of certain letters.  The separation of words by spaces is also a feature of some of the scrolls written in square characters.  Vowel signs were developed between the 400s and 600s A.D.  A third system, known as the Tiberian was introduced at the end of the 700s and is still used today.  There is clear evidence for the use of writing in Syria-Palestine from the earliest times.  500 papyrus rolls were delivered to the Syrian ruler in partial payment for a load of timber.  Old Testament (OT) references to writing in Moses’ time are thus not to be regarded as anachronisms.  As in Egypt and Mesopotamia, those who were able to write were usually government officials.  We must assume that scribal schools existed as in neighboring nations.  By the late 600s some literacy was presupposed.

                   Writing Surfaces:  Stone, Metal, Clay, Potsherds, Linen—In all ages stone has been used for inscription when a high degree of permanence was desired.  Discarded flakes of limestone were sometimes used as a cheap writing material.  Stone is relatively scarce in Mesopotamia, so that cuneiform inscriptions on this material are confined almost exclusively to royal texts or public stelae.  In Syria-Palestine stone was likewise used for inscriptions in Aramaic or Canaanite intended for public display (e.g. Moabite Stone; Hebrew Gezer Calendar).  The stone might be prepared to receive the writing by a layer of plaster.

                  As a writing material, metal is much less common than stone.  Cuneiform in Sumerian, Akkadian, Old Persian, and Hittite were incised on gold, silver, copper, and bronze.  Some of the Dead Sea Scrolls were inscribed on copper.  The Hebrew word sapar (scribe) may represent the Akkadian sipparu, bronze.  Lead was extensively used in Greece, Italy, and Carthage for medical charms. 

                  The alluvial soil of the Tigris-Euphrates Valley made clay the most readily available and thus the cheapest material for writing purposes in Mesopotamia.  The use of clay led to the development of cuneiform.  The later spread of this script to such peoples as the Hittites, Hurrians, and Elamites was likewise accompanied by the use of clay tablets.  The moist clay was first kneaded into shape, and the surface smoothed with one end of the stylus.  The signs were impressed on the clay with the stylus, first on the flat and then, if necessary, con-tinuing on the convex side.  Legal documents were usually signed by means of cylinder seal impressions.

                  For longer literary works a series of tablets, each carefully labeled and numbered, might be employed.  The use of clay tablets spread to Syria-Palestine and Egypt when Akkadian became the language of international diplomacy.  There was correspondence between Egypt and Babylonia, Mitannian, Hittite, and Arzawa.  Probably under Mesopotamian influence, the use of clay tablets with a cuneiform alphabetic system during the early 1300s is found at Ugarit in northern Syria. 

                  The use of ostraca, pieces of broken and discarded pottery as a writing material was widespread throughout the ancient world.  They could easily be written on with pen and ink and even, if necessary reused if the previous text were washed off.  We find them in common use for schoolwork and daily life in Egypt from 2664-2155 B.C.  Such texts have been found in Egyptian, Aramaic, and Greek.  The use of ostraca in Mesopotamia was far more limited, since they could be used only for a script like Aramaic, which was written with pen and ink.  A number of ostraca have been unearthed in Palestine, especially at Samaria and Lachish.  From 3000 on, linen is found as writing material in Egypt.

                   Writing Materials:  Wood, Bark, Papyrus, Leather and Parchment—Apart from the carving of hieroglyphic inscriptions on wooden statues and reliefs in ancient Egypt, wooden tablets coated with stucco were frequently used especially for schoolboy exercises.  When we turn to the OT, we find clear evidence of the use of wood for writing (Numbers 17; Ezekiel 37).  The Hebrew word lukha in Isaiah 30 and Habakkuk 2 most likely means a wooden tablet.  In Greece and Italy wooden tablets were usually coated with wax.  Bark was in common use as a writing material at Rome until it was replaced by papyrus late in the 100s B.C.

                  

W-53

                 The ancient Egyptians employed papyrus plants.  Strips were cut from the stalk of the plant and laid side by side, then a second layer superimposed at right angles.  When beaten and smoothed, it formed a light but sturdy material.  When papyrus was first made in Egypt we do not know, but a blank roll has been recovered from the tomb of Hemaka around 3000 B.C.  It became the commonest writing material in the ancient world, and remained in use until it was replaced by paper around 1000.

                  Papyrus was used in Egypt for both literary and non-literary texts.  We may assume that the scribes who wrote Aramaic made use of papyrus in Mesopotamia, but none has been preserved.  It was extensively used in Syria by 1100; it was also used in Palestine.  Despite the fact that the OT several times refers to the papyrus plant, there is no clear indication of its use in writing, except for Jeremiah’s purchase in Jeremiah 32 and the scroll written by Baruch (Jeremiah 36).  Papyrus was the material on which Paul’s letters and other early New Testament documents were written. 

                  The use of tanned skins for writing purposes goes back to near 3000 B.C. in Egypt.  It remained in use in Egypt until the Arab conquest in the 600s A.D.  Leather, like papyrus, could not survive the climate of Mesopotamia.  In the Neo-Babylonian period cuneiform texts mention the use of leather for writing.  Though hides were tanned by the Hebrews, the OT makes no reference to writing on leather.  Parchment began to replace leather around the 200s B.C.  The hides were now prepared by removing the hair and rubbing them smooth.  A Greek document on this material dating around 195 B.C. has been found at Dura-Europos in eastern Syria.  The term “vellum” is usually reserved for parchment of an especially fine quality.

                  Writing Instruments—The stylus was of reed, hardwood, and perhaps bone or metal.  The tip of those employed to write cuneiform was either square or triangular.  The OT speaks of an iron stylus or chisel.  For writing with ink on papyrus, leather parchment, wooden tablets, or ostracae, the Egyptians used a rush cut obliquely and frayed at the end to form a brush.  At the end of the 200s B.C., Greek writers in Egypt devised a new type of pen by pointing the end of a reed and splitting it to form a nib. 

                  The Egyptians, because of the nature of their script, used ink from the earliest times.  Black ink was made from carbon in the form of soot mixed with a thin solution of gum.  The Hebrews probably used the same kind of black ink.  In Mesopotamia scribes carried their styluses in a case; Egyptian scribes made use of a hollow reed case for their brushes, a palette with cakes of ink and a small pot; at a later period the case and palette were combined.  A straight edge for ruling lines, pumice stone for smoothing the papyrus, a cloth or sometimes a sponge for washing off ink when an erasure was required, and a knife for cutting leather or papyrus and sharpening pens completed the equipment required by a scribe.

                  Development of the Book—The use of clay tablets in Mesopotamia meant that long literary works posed a problem.  In the case of a series of tablets, they were inscribed with portions of the text, each ending in a colophon giving the name of the work, the number of the tablet, and the opening words of the following tablet.  Egypt was fortunate in that papyrus and leather were much more suitable for the production of lengthy works.  Papyrus scrolls were usually between 23 and 28 cm in height and rarely exceeded 9 meters in length.  Egyptian papyrus were rarely inscribed on both sides.

                  The Hebrews also rolled up their documents of papyrus or leather.  The text was likewise written in columns.  Since around 9 meters was the normal length of a scroll, it was just sufficient for a book like Isaiah, but necessitated the division of the Pentateuch (1^st 5 OT books) into 5 sections.  Scrolls were often stored in pottery jars as were cuneiform tablets.

                  For legal or business documents the Greeks and Romans had used tablets of wood or lead, the former coated with wax, laid on each other and joined together by boring holes near the edges and securing them by thongs.  The advantage of this arrangement over the scroll led someone to experiment with a “codex” of papyrus sheets.  4 or 5 sheets of papyrus were folded over and stitched together to make a quire of 8 or 10 leaves.  A numbers of such quires produced a codex similar to our modern book.  The columns of writing were still narrow.  The codex form gradually displaced the scroll for non-Christian literature at least as early as the first 100 years A.D.  During the first half of the 300s parchment gave way to vellum for the finest books.

WRITING CASE (ק ס ﬨ   ה ס פ ﬧ (kah sat  hah seh fawr), dish, bowl (i.e. container) of writing [tools] ) The scribe’s kit, consisting of a wooden palette with cakes of ink, a mixing pot and a case for pens, carried in the belt.

W-54