1. In Biblical History: Comes first into Biblical history as a high officer in the service of Ben-hadad II, king of Syria (2 Kings 8:7 ff; compare 1 Kings 19:15 ff). He had been sent by his sick sovereign to inquire of the prophet Elisha, who was then in Damascus, whether he should recover of his sickness or not. He took with him a present "even of every good thing of Damascus, forty camels' burden," and stood before the man of God with his master's question of life or death. To it Elisha made the oracular response, "Go, say unto him, Thou shalt surely recover; howbeit Yahweh hath showed me that he shall surely die." Elisha looked steadfastly at Hazael and wept, explaining to the incredulous officer that he was to be the perpetrator of horrible cruelties against the children of Israel: "Their strongholds wilt thou set on fire, and their young men wilt thou slay with the sword, and wilt dash in pieces their little ones, and rip up their women with child" (2 Kings 8:12). Hazael protested against the very thought of such things, but Elisha assured him that Yahweh had shown him that he was to be king of Syria. No sooner had Hazael delivered to his master the answer of the man of God than the treacherous purpose took shape in his heart to hasten Ben-hadad's end, and "He took the coverlet, and dipped it in water, and spread it on his face, so that he died: and Hazael reigned in his stead" (2 Kings 8:15). The reign which opened under such sinister auspices proved long and successful, and brought the kingdom of Syria to the zenith of its power. Hazael soon found occasion to invade Israel. It was at Ramoth-gilead, which had already been the scene of a fierce conflict between Israel and Syria when Ahab met his death, that Hazael encountered Joram, the king of Israel, with whom his kinsman, Ahaziah, king of Judah, had joined forces to retain that important fortress which had been recovered from the Syrians (2 Kings 9:14-15). The final issue of the battle is not recorded, but Joram received wounds which obliged him to return across the Jordan to Jezreel, leaving the forces of Israel in command of Jehu, whose anointing by Elisha's deputy at Ramoth-gilead, usurpation of the throne of Israel, slaughter of Joram, Ahaziah and Jezebel, and vengeance upon the whole house of Ahab are told in rapid and tragic succession by the sacred historian (2 Kings 9:1-37; 2 Kings 10:1-36).ISBE Hazael.3

Whatever was the issue of this attack upon Ramoth-gilead, it was not long before Hazael laid waste the whole country East of the Jordan--"all the land of Gilead, the Gadites, and the Reubenites, and the Manassites, from Aroer, which is by the valley of the Arnon, even Gilead and Bashan" (2 Kings 10:33; compare Amos 1:3). Nor did Judah escape the heavy hand of the Syrian oppressor. Marching southward through the plain of Esdraelon, and following a route along the maritime plain taken by many conquerors before and since, Hazael fought against Gath and took it, and then "set his face to go up to Jerus" (2 Kings 12:17). As other kings of Judah had to do with other conquerors, Jehoash, who was now on the throne, bought off the invader with the gold and the treasures of temple and palace, and Hazael withdrew his forces from Jerusalem.ISBE Hazael.4

Israel, however, still suffered at the hands of Hazael and Ben-hadad, his son, and the sacred historian mentions that Hazael oppressed Israel all the days of Jehoahaz, the son of Jehu. So grievous was the oppression of the Syrians that Hazael "left not to Jehoahaz, of the people save fifty horsemen, and ten chariots, and ten thousand footmen; for the king of Syria destroyed them, and made them like the dust in threshing" (2 Kings 13:1-7). Forty or fifty years later Amos, in the opening of his prophecy, recalled those Syrian campaigns against Israel when he predicted vengeance that was to come upon Damascus. "Thus saith Yahweh .... I will send a fire into the house of Hazael, and it shall devour the palaces of Ben-hadad" (Amos 1:3-4).ISBE Hazael.5

2. In the Monuments: Already, however, the power of Syria had passed its meridian and had begun to decline. Events of which there is no express record in the Biblical narrative were proceeding which, ere long, made it possible for the son of Jehoahaz, Joash or Jehoash, to retrieve the honor of Israel and recover the cities that had been lost (2 Kings 13:25). For the full record of these events we must turn to the Assyrian annals preserved in the monuments. We do read in the sacred history that Yahweh gave Israel "a saviour, so that they went out from under the hand of the Syrians" (2 Kings 13:5). The annals of the Assyrian kings give us clearly and distinctly the interpretation of this enigmatic saying. The relief that came to Israel was due to the crippling of the power of Syria by the aggression of Assyria upon the lands of the West. From the Black Obelisk in the British Museum, on which Shalmaneser II (860-825 BC) has inscribed the story of the campaign he carried on during his long reign, there are instructive notices of this period of Israelite history. In the 18th year of his reign (842 BC), Shalmaneser made war against Hazael. On the Obelisk the record is short, but a longer account is given on one of the pavement slabs from Nimroud, the ancient Kalab. It is as follows: "In the 18th year of my reign for the 16th time I crossed the Euphrates. Hazael of Damascus trusted to the strength of his armies and mustered his troops in full force. Senir (Hermon), a mountain summit which is in front of Lebanon, he made his stronghold. I fought with him; his defeat I accomplished; 600 of his soldiers with weapons I laid low; 1,121 of his chariots, 470 of his horses, with his camp I took from him. To save his life, he retreated; I pursued him; in Damascus, his royal city, I shut him up. His plantations I cut down. As far as the mountains of the Hauran I marched. Cities without number I wrecked, razed, and burnt with fire. Their spoil beyond count I carried away. As far as the mountains of Baal-Rosh, which is a headland of the sea (at the mouth of the Nahr el-Kelb, Dog River), I marched; my royal likeness I there set up. At that time I received the tribute of the Syrians and Sidonians and of Yahua (Jehu) the son of Khumri (Omri)" (Ball, Light from the East, 166; Schrader, COT, 200 f). From this inscription we gather that Shalmaneser did not succeed in the capture of Damascus. But it still remained an object of ambition to Assyria, and Ramman-nirari III, the grandson of Shalmaneser, succeeded in capturing it, and reduced it to subjection. It was this monarch who was "the saviour" whom God raised up to deliver Israel from the hand of Syria. Then it became possible for Israel under Jehoash to recover the cities he had lost, but by this time Hazael had died and Ben-hadad, his son, Ben-hadad III, called Mari on the monuments, had become king in his stead (2 Kings 13:24-25).ISBE Hazael.6

LITERATURE.ISBE Hazael.7

Schrader, COT, 197-208; McCurdy, HPM, I, 282 ff.ISBE Hazael.8

T. Nicol.ISBE Hazael.9

Hazaiah

Hazaiah - ha-za'-ya (chazayah, "Jah sees"): Among the inhabitants of Jerusalem mentioned in the list of Judahites in Nehemiah 11:5.ISBE Hazaiah.2

Hazar

Hazar - ha'-zar (chatsar, construct of chatser, "an enclosure," "settlement," or "village"): Is frequently the first element in Hebrew place-names.ISBE Hazar.2

1. Hazar-addar: Hazar-addar (Hebrew chatsar 'addar), a place on the southern boundary of Judah (Numbers 34:4), is probably identical with Hazron (Joshua 15:3), which, in this case, however, is separated from Addar (the King James Version "Adar"). It seems to have lain somewhere to the Southwest of Kadesh-barnea.ISBE Hazar.3

2. Hazar-enan: Hazar-enan (Hebrew chatsar 'enan, "village of springs": enan is Aramaic; Once (Ezekiel 47:17) it is called Enon), a place, unidentified, at the junction of the northern and eastern frontiers of the land promised to Israel (Numbers 34:9 f; compare Ezekiel 47:17; 48:1). To identify it with the sources of the Orontes seems to leave too great a gap between this and the places named to the South. Buhl (GAP, 66 f) would draw the northern boundary from Nahr el-Qasimiyeh to the foot of Hermon, and would locate Hazar-enan at Banias. The springs there lend fitness to the name; a condition absent from el-Chadr, farther east, suggested by von Kesteren. But there is no certainty.ISBE Hazar.4

3. Hazar-gaddah: Hazar-gaddah (Hebrew hatsar-gaddah), a place in the territory of Judah "toward the border of Edom in the South" (Joshua 15:21, 27). Eusebius, Onomasticon (s.v. "Gadda") places it in the uttermost parts of the Daroma, overlooking the Dead Sea. This might point to the site of Masada, or to the remarkable ruins of Umm Bajjaq farther south (GAP, 185).ISBE Hazar.5

4. Hazar-hatticon: Hazar-hatticon (the Revised Version (British and American) HAZER-HATTICON; Hebrew chatser ha-tikhon, "the middle village"), a place named on the ideal border of Israel (Ezekiel 47:16). The context shows that it is identical with Hazar-enan, for which this is apparently another name. Possibly, however, it is due to a scribal error.ISBE Hazar.6

5. Hazarmaveth: Hazarmaveth (Hebrew chatsarmaweth), the name of a son of Joktan attached to a clan or district in South Arabia (Genesis 10:26; 1 Chronicles 1:20). It is represented by the modern Chadramaut, a broad and fruitful valley running nearly parallel with the coast for about 100 miles, north of el-Yemen. The ruins and inscriptions found by Glaser show that it was once the home of a great civilization, the capital being Sabata (Genesis 10:7) (Glaser, Skizze, II, 20, 423 ff).ISBE Hazar.7

6. Hazar-shual: Hazar-Shual (Hebrew chatsar shu`al), a place in the South of Judah (Joshua 15:28) assigned to Simeon (Joshua 19:3; 1 Chronicles 4:28). It was reoccupied after the exile (Nehemiah 11:27). Sa`weh on a hill East of Beersheba has been suggested; but there is no certainty.ISBE Hazar.8

7. Hazar-susah: Hazar-susah (Hebrew chatsar cucah, Joshua 19:5), Hazar-susim (Hebrew chatsar cucim, 1 Chronicles 4:31). As it stands, the name means "station of a mare" or "of horses," and it occurs along with Beth-marcaboth, "place of chariots," which might suggest depots for trade in chariots and horses. The sites have not been identified.ISBE Hazar.9

W. EwingISBE Hazar.10

Hazar-addar; Hazar-enan; Hazar-gaddah; Hazar-hatticon; Hazar-maveth; Hazar-shual; Hazar-susa; Hazar-susim

Hazar-addar; Hazar-enan; Hazar-gaddah; Hazar-hatticon; Hazar-maveth; Hazar-shual; Hazar-susa; Hazar-susim - ad'-ar; e'-nan; gad'-a; hat'-i-kon; ma'-veth; shoo'-al; su'-sa; su'-sim.ISBE Hazar-addar; Hazar-enan; Hazar-gaddah; Hazar-hatticon; Hazar-maveth; Hazar-shual; Hazar-susa; Hazar-susim.2

See HAZAR.ISBE Hazar-addar; Hazar-enan; Hazar-gaddah; Hazar-hatticon; Hazar-maveth; Hazar-shual; Hazar-susa; Hazar-susim.3

Hazazon-tamar

Hazazon-tamar - haz'-a-zan-ta'-mar (chatsatson tamar; the King James Version Hazezon Tamar): "Hazazon of the palm trees," mentioned (Genesis 14:7) as a place of the Amorites, conquered, together with En-mishpat and the country of the Amalekites, by Chedorlaomer; in 2 Chronicles 20:2 it is identified with EN-GEDI (which see); and if so, it must have been its older name. If this identification be accepted, then Hazazon may survive in the name Wady Husasah, Northwest of `Ain Jidy. Another suggestion, which certainly meets the needs of the narrative better, is that Hazazon-tamar is the Thamara of Eusebius, Onomasticon (85 3; 210 86), the Thamaro, of Ptol. xvi.3. The ruin Kurnub, 20 miles West-Southwest of the South end of the Dead Sea--on the road from Hebron to Elath--is supposed to mark this site.ISBE Hazazon-tamar.2

E. W. G. MastermanISBE Hazazon-tamar.3

Hazel

Hazel - ha'-z'-l (Genesis 30:37 the King James Version).ISBE Hazel.2

See ALMOND.ISBE Hazel.3

Hazelelponi

Hazelelponi - haz-el-el-po'-ni.ISBE Hazelelponi.2

See HAZZELELPONI.ISBE Hazelelponi.3

Hazer-hatticon; Hazarhatticon

Hazer-hatticon; Hazarhatticon - ha'-zer-hat'-i-kon.ISBE Hazer-hatticon; Hazarhatticon.2

See HAZAR.ISBE Hazer-hatticon; Hazarhatticon.3

Hazerim

Hazerim - ha-ze'-rim, haz'-er-im (chatserim): Is rendered in the King James Version (Deuteronomy 2:23) as the name of a place in the Southwest of Palestine, in which dwelt the Avvim, ancient inhabitants of the land. The word means "villages," and ought to be translated as in the Revised Version (British and American). The sentence means that the Avvim dwelt in villages--not in fortified towns--before the coming of the Caphtorim, the Philistines, who destroyed them.ISBE Hazerim.2

Hazeroth

Hazeroth - ha-ze'-roth, haz'-er-oth (chatseroth, "enclosures"): A camp of the Israelites, the 3rd from Sinai (Numbers 11:35; 12:16; 33:17; Deuteronomy 1:1). It is identified with `Ain Chadrah ("spring of the enclosure"), 30 miles Northeast of Jebel Musa, on the way to the 'Arabah.ISBE Hazeroth.2

See WANDERINGS OF ISRAEL.ISBE Hazeroth.3

Hazezon-tamar

Hazezon-tamar - haz'-e-zon-ta'-mar chatsatson tamar, Genesis 14:7 the King James Version; chatstson tamar, 2 Chronicles 20:2).ISBE Hazezon-tamar.2

See HAZAZON-TAMAR.ISBE Hazezon-tamar.3

Haziel

Haziel - ha'-zi-el (chazi'el, "God sees"): A Levite of the sons of Shimei, of David's time (1 Chronicles 23:9).ISBE Haziel.2

Hazo

Hazo - ha'-zo (chazo, fifth son of Nahor (Genesis 22:22)): Possibly the eponym of a Nahorite family or clan.ISBE Hazo.2

Hazor

Hazor - ha'-zor (chatsor; Nasor; Codex Sinaiticus, Asor, 1 Maccabees 11:67):ISBE Hazor.2

(1) The royal city of Jabin (Joshua 11:1), which, before the Israelite conquest, seems to have been the seat of a wide authority (Joshua 11:11). It was taken by Joshua, who exterminated the inhabitants, and it was the only city in that region which he destroyed by fire (Joshua 11:11-13). At a later time the Jabin Dynasty appears to have recovered power and restored the city (Judges 4:2). The heavy defeat of their army at the hands of Deborah and Barak led to their final downfall (Judges 4:23 ff). It was in the territory allotted to Naphtali (Joshua 19:36). Hazor was one of the cities for the fortification of which Solomon raised a levy (1 Kings 9:15). Along with other cities in Galilee, it was taken by Tiglathpileser III (2 Kings 15:29). In the plain of Hazor, Jonathan the Maccabee gained a great victory over Demetrius (1 Maccabees 11:67 ff). In Tobit 12 it is called "Asher" Septuagint Aser), and Kedesh is said to be "above" it. Josephus (Ant., V, v, 1 ) says that Hazor was situated over the lake, Semechonitis, which he evidently identifies with the Waters of Merom (Joshua 11:13). It must clearly be sought on the heights West of el-Chuleh. Several identifications have been suggested, but no certain conclusion can be reached. Some (Wilson and Guerin) favor Tell Harreh to the Southeast of Qedes, where there are extensive ruins. Robinson thought of Tell Khureibeh, 2 1/2 miles South of Qedes, where, however, there are no ruins. We may take it as certain that the ancient name of Hazor is preserved in Merj el-Chadireh, Southwest of Qedes, and North of Wady `Uba, and in Jebel Chadireh, East of the Merj, although it has evidently drifted from the original site, as names have so often done in Palestine. Conder suggests a possible identification with Chazzur, farther South, "at the foot of the chain of Upper Galilee .... in position more appropriate to the use of the chariots that belonged to the king of Hazor" (HDB, under the word).ISBE Hazor.3

(2) A town, unidentified, in the South of Judah (Joshua 15:23).ISBE Hazor.4

(3) A town in the South of Judah (Joshua 15:25).ISBE Hazor.5

See KERIOTH-HEZRON.ISBE Hazor.6

(4) A town in Benjamin (Nehemiah 11:33) now represented by Khirbet Chazzar, not far to the East of Neby Samwil.ISBE Hazor.7

(5) An unidentified place in Arabia, smitten by Nebuchadnezzar (Jeremiah 49:28, 33).ISBE Hazor.8

W. EwingISBE Hazor.9

Hazor-hadattah

Hazor-hadattah - ha'-zor-ha-dat'-a (Aramaic chatsor chadhattah, "New Hazor"): "An Aramaic adjective, however, in this region is so strange that the reading must be questioned" (Di). One of the "uttermost cities .... of Judah toward the border of Edom" (Joshua 15:25). Eusebius and Jerome describe a "New Hazor" to the East of Ascalon, but this is too far North.ISBE Hazor-hadattah.2

Hazzelelponi

Hazzelelponi - haz-e-lel-po'-ni (hatstselelponi): A feminine name occurring in the list of the genealogy of Judah (1 Chronicles 4:3); probably representing a clan.ISBE Hazzelelponi.2

He

He - ha: The fifth letter of the Hebrew alphabet; transliterated in this Encyclopedia as "h." It came also to be used for the number 5. For name, etc., see ALPHABET.ISBE He.2

Head

Head - hed (ro'-sh, Aramaic re'sh, and in special sense gulgoleth, literally, "skull," "cut-off head" (1 Chronicles 10:10), whence Golgotha (Matthew 27:33; Mark 15:22; John 19:17); mera'ashah, literally, "head-rest," "pillow," "bolster" (1 Kings 19:6); qodhqodh, literally, crown of the head (Deuteronomy 28:35; 16, 20; 2 Samuel 14:25; Isaiah 3:17; Jeremiah 48:45); barzel, "the head of an axe" (Deuteronomy 19:5, the Revised Version margin "iron"; 2 Kings 6:5); lehabhah, lahebheth, "the head of a spear" (1 Samuel 17:7); kephale): The first-mentioned Hebrew word and its Aramaic form are found frequently in their literal as well as metaphorical sense. We may distinguish the following meanings:ISBE Head.2

1. Used of Men: By a slight extension of meaning, "head" occasionally stands for the person itself. This is the case in all passages where evil is said to return or to be requited upon the head of a person (see below).ISBE Head.3

2. Used of Animals: The word is also used in connection with the serpent's head (Genesis 3:15), the head of the sacrificial ram, bullock and goat (Exodus 29:10, 15, 19; Leviticus 4:4, 24), the head of leviathan (Job 41:7 (Hebrews 40:31)).ISBE Head.4

3. The Head-Piece: It is used also as representing the top or summit of a thing, as the capital of column or pillar (Exodus 36:38; 38:28; 2 Chronicles 3:15); of mountains (Exodus 19:20; Numbers 21:20; Judges 9:7; Amos 1:2; 9:3); of a scepter (Esther 5:2); of a ladder (Genesis 28:12); of a tower (Genesis 11:4).ISBE Head.5

4. Beginning, Source, Origin: As a fourth meaning the word occurs (Proverbs 8:23; Ecclesiastes 3:11; Isaiah 41:4) in the sense of beginning of months (Exodus 12:2), of rivers (Genesis 2:10), of streets or roads (Isaiah 51:20; Ezekiel 16:25; 21:21).ISBE Head.6

As a leader, prince, chief, chieftain, captain (or as an adjective, with the meaning of foremost, uppermost), originally: "he that stands at the head"; compare "God is with us at our head" (2 Chronicles 13:12); "Knowest thou that Yahweh will take away thy master from thy head?" (2 Kings 2:3); "head-stone" the Revised Version (British and American) "top stone," i.e. the upper-most stone (Zechariah 4:7).ISBE Head.7

5. Leader, Prince: Israel is called the head of nations (Deuteronomy 28:13); "The head (capital) of Syria is Damascus, and the head (prince) of Damascus is Rezin" (Isaiah 7:8); "heads of their fathers' houses," i.e. elders of the clans (Exodus 6:14); compare "heads of tribes" (Deuteronomy 1:15), also "captain," literally, head (Numbers 14:4; Deuteronomy 1:15; 1 Chronicles 11:42; Nehemiah 9:17). The phrase "head and tail" (Isaiah 9:14; 19:15) is explained by the rabbis as meaning the nobles and the commons among the people; compare "palm-branch and rush" (Isaiah 9:14), "hair of the feet .... and beard" (Isaiah 7:20), but compare also Isaiah 9:15. In the New Testament we find the remarkable statement of Christ being "the head of the church" (Ephesians 1:22; 5:23), "head of every man" (1 Corinthians 11:3), "head of all principality and power" (Colossians 2:10), "head of the body, the church" (Colossians 1:18; compare Ephesians 4:15). The context of 1 Corinthians 11:3 is very instructive to a true understanding of this expression: "I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God" (compare Ephesians 5:23). Here, clearly, reference is had to the lordship of Christ over His church, not to the oneness of Christ and His church, while in Ephesians 4:16 the dependence of the church upon Christ is spoken of. These passages should not therefore be pressed to include the idea of Christ being the intellectual center, the brain of His people, from whence the members are passively governed, for to the Jewish mind the heart was the seat of the intellect, not the head.ISBE Head.8

See HEART.ISBE Head.9

6. Various Uses: As the head is the most essential part of physical man, calamity and blessing are said to come upon the head of a person (Genesis 49:26; Deuteronomy 33:16; Judges 9:57; 1 Samuel 25:39; 2 Chronicles 6:23; Ezekiel 9:10; 11:21; 16:43; 22:31). For this reason hands are placed upon the head of a person on which blessings are being invoked (Genesis 48:14, 17-18; Matthew 19:15) and upon the sacrificial animal upon which sins are laid (Exodus 29:15; Leviticus 1:4; 29, 33). Responsibility for a deed is also said to rest on the head of the doer (2 Samuel 1:16; 3:29; 1 Kings 8:32; Psalms 7:16; Acts 18:6). The Bible teaches us to return good for evil (Matthew 5:44), or in the very idiomatic Hebrew style, to "heap coals of fire upon (the) head" of the adversary (Proverbs 25:22; Romans 12:20). This phrase is dark as to its origin, but quite clear as to its meaning and application (compare Romans 12:17, 19, 21). The Jew was inclined to swear by his head (Matthew 5:36), as the modern Oriental swears by his beard. The head is said to be under a vow (Numbers 6:18-19; Acts 18:18; 21:23), because the Nazirite vow could readily be recognized by the head.ISBE Head.10

There are numerous idiomatic expressions connected with the head, of which we enumerate the following: "the hoary head" designates old age (see HAIR); "to round the corners of the head," etc. (Leviticus 19:27; compare also Deuteronomy 14:1; Amos 8:10), probably refers to the shaving of the side locks or the whole scalp among heathen nations, which was often done in idolatrous shrines or in token of initiation into the service of an idol. It was therefore forbidden to Israel, and its rigid observance gave rise to the peculiar Jewish custom of wearing long side locks (see HAIR). "Anointing the head" (Psalms 23:5; 92:10; Hebrews 1:9) was a sign of joy and hospitality, while the "covering of the head" (2 Samuel 15:30; Esther 6:12; Jeremiah 14:3), "putting the hand upon the head" (2 Samuel 13:19) and putting earth, dust or ashes upon it (Joshua 7:6; 1 Samuel 4:12; 2 Samuel 12:1-31; 13:19; Lamentations 2:10; compare Amos 2:7) were expressive of sadness, grief, deep shame and mourning. In Esther 7:8 Haman's face is covered as a condemned criminal, or as one who has been utterly put to shame, and who has nothing more to say for his life.ISBE Head.11

In this connection the Pauline injunction as to the veiling of women in the public gatherings of the Christians (1 Corinthians 11:5), while men were instructed to appear bareheaded, must be mentioned. This is diametrically opposed to the Jewish custom, according to which men wore the head covered by the Tallith or prayer shawl, while women were considered sufficiently covered by their long hair (1 Corinthians 11:15). The apostle here simply commends a Greek custom for the congregation residing among Greek populations; in other words, he recommends obedience to local standards of decency and good order.ISBE Head.12

"To bruise the head" (Genesis 3:15) means to injure gravely; "to smite through the head" (Psalms 68:21) is synonymous with complete destruction. "To shake or wag the head" (Psalms 22:7; 44:14; 64:8; Jeremiah 18:16; 48:27; Lamentations 2:15; Matthew 27:39; Mark 15:29) conveys the meaning of open derision and contempt. "To bow down the head" (Isaiah 58:5) indicates humility, sadness and mourning, but it may also be a mere pretense for piety. (Sirach 19:26).ISBE Head.13

H. L. E. LueringISBE Head.14

Headband

Headband - hed'-band.ISBE Headband.2

See DRESS.ISBE Headband.3

Headdress

Headdress - hed'dres.ISBE Headdress.2

See DRESS.ISBE Headdress.3

Headstone

Headstone - hed'-ston.ISBE Headstone.2

See CORNER-STONE.ISBE Headstone.3

Headstrong

Headstrong - hed'-strong.ISBE Headstrong.2

See HEADY.ISBE Headstrong.3

Headtire

Headtire - hed'-tir.ISBE Headtire.2

See BONNET; DRESS.ISBE Headtire.3

Heady

Heady - hed'i: The translation in the King James Version of propetes, "falling forward," trop. "prone," "ready to do anything," "precipitate," "headlong" (2 Timothy 3:4, "heady, high-minded," etc., the Revised Version (British and American) "headstrong"; in Acts 19:36, the only other place in the New Testament where propetes occurs, the King James Version has "rashly," the Revised Version (British and American) "rash"). "Headstrong signifies strong in the head or the mind, and heady, full of one's own head" (Crabb, English Synonyms). "Heady confidence promises victory without contest" (Johnson).ISBE Heady.2

Heal

Heal - hel (rapha'; therapeuo, iaomai, diasozo): The English word is connected with the Anglo-Saxon hoelan, and is used in several senses: (1) Lit., in its meaning of making whole or well, as in Ecclesiastes 3:3. In this way it occurs in prayers for restoration to health (Numbers 12:13; Psalms 6:2; Jeremiah 17:14); and also in declarations as to God's power to restore to health (Deuteronomy 32:39; 2 Kings 20:5-8). (2) Metaphorically it is applied to the restoration of the soul to spiritual health and to the repair of the injuries caused by sin (Psalms 41:4; Jeremiah 30:17). (3) The restoration and deliverance of the afflicted land is expressed by it in 2 Chronicles 7:14; Isaiah 19:22. (4) It is applied to the forgiveness of sin (Jeremiah 3:22).ISBE Heal.2

In the New Testament, therapeuo is used 10 times in describing our Lord's miracles, and is translated "heal." Iaomai is used to express spiritual healing (Matthew 13:15; Luke 5:17; John 12:40), and also of curing bodily disease (John 4:47). Diasozo, meaning "to heal thoroughly," is used in Luke 7:3 the King James Version where the Revised Version (British and American) renders it "save." The act of healing is called iasis twice, in Acts 4:22, 30; sozo, to save or deliver, is translated "made whole" by the Revised Version (British and American) in Mark 5:23; Luke 8:36; Acts 14:9, but is "healed" in the King James Version. Conversely "made whole" the King James Version in Matthew 15:28 is replaced by "healed" in the Revised Version (British and American).ISBE Heal.3

Healed is used 33 times in the Old Testament as the rendering of the same Hebrew word, and in the same variety of senses. It is also used of purification for an offense or breach of the ceremonial law (2 Chronicles 30:20); and to express the purification of water which had caused disease (2 Kings 2:21-22). Figuratively, the expression "healed slightly" (the English Revised Version "lightly") is used to describe the futile efforts of the false prophets and priests to remedy the backsliding of Israel (Jeremiah 6:14; 8:11); here the word for "slightly" is the contemptuous term, qalal, which means despicably or insignificantly. In Ezekiel 30:21, the word "healed" is the rendering of the feminine passive participle, rephu'ah and is better translated in the Revised Version (British and American) "apply healing medicines." In the New Testament "healed" usually occurs in connection with the miracles of our Lord and the apostles. Here it is worthy of note that Luke more frequently uses the verb iaomai than therapeuo, in the proportion of 17 to 4, while in Matthew and Mark the proportion is 4 to 8.ISBE Heal.4

Healer (chabhash) occurs once in Isaiah 3:7; the word literally means a "wrapper up" or "bandager."ISBE Heal.5

Alexander MacalisterISBE Heal.6

Healing

Healing - hel'-ing (marpe', te`alah, kehah): In the Old Testament this word is always used in its figurative sense; marpe', which literally means "a cure," is used in Jeremiah 14:19 twice, and in Malachi 4:2; te`alah, which literally means "an irrigation canal," here means something applied externally, as a plaster, in which sense it is used metaphorically in Jeremiah 30:13; kehah occurs only in Nahum 3:19 the King James Version and is translated "assuagings" in the Revised Version (British and American).ISBE Healing.2

In the New Testament 5 times the verb is therapeuo; once (Acts 10:38) iaomai; in the other passages it is either iama, as in 1 Corinthians 12:9-30, or iasis, as in Acts 4:22, derivatives from this verbISBE Healing.3

Healing, Gifts of

Healing, Gifts of - (charismata iamaton): Among the "spiritual gifts" enumerated in 1 Corinthians 12:4-11, 28 are included "gifts of healings." See SPIRITUAL GIFTS. The subject has risen into much prominence of recent years, and so calls for separate treatment. The points to be considered are: (1) the New Testament facts, (2) the nature of the gifts, (3) their permanence in the church.ISBE Healing, Gifts of.2

1. The New Testament Facts: The Gospels abundantly show that the ministry of Christ Himself was one of healing no less than of teaching (compare Mark 1:14 f with Mark 1:32-34). When He sent forth the Twelve (Mark 6:7, 13) and the Seventy (Luke 10:1, 9), it was not only to preach the Kingdom of God but to heal the sick. The inauthentic conclusion of Mark's Gospel, if it does not preserve words actually used by Christ Himself, bears witness at all events to the traditional belief of the early church that after His departure from the world His disciples would still possess the gift of healing. The Book of Acts furnishes plentiful evidence of the exercise of this gift by apostles and other prominent men in the primitive church (Acts 3:7 f; Acts 5:12-16; 8:7; 19:12; 28:8 f), and the Epistle of James refers to a ministry of healing carried on by the elders of a local church acting in their collective capacity (James 5:14 f). But Paul in this passage speaks of "gifts of healings" (the plural "healings" apparently refers to the variety of ailments that were cured) as being distributed along with other spiritual gifts among the ordinary members of the church. There were men, it would seem, who occupied no official position in the community, and who might not otherwise be distinguished among their fellow-members, on whom this special charisma of healing had been bestowed.ISBE Healing, Gifts of.3

2. The Nature of the Gifts: On this subject the New Testament furnishes no direct information, but it supplies evidence from which conclusions may be drawn. We notice that the exercise of the gift is ordinarily conditional on the faith of the recipient of the blessing (Mark 6:5-6; 10:52; Acts 14:9)--faith not only in God but in the human agent (Acts 3:4 ff; Acts 5:15; 9:17). The healer himself is a person of great faith (Matthew 17:19 f), while his power of inspiring the patient with confidence points to the possession of strong, magnetic personality. The diseases cured appear for the most part to have been not organic but functional; and many of them would now be classed as nervous disorders. The conclusion from these data is that the gifts of healing to which Paul alludes were not miraculous endowments, but natural therapeutic faculties raised to their highest power by Christian faith.ISBE Healing, Gifts of.4

Modern psychology, by its revelation of the marvels of the subliminal self or subconscious mind and the power of "suggestion," shows how it is possible for one man to lay his hand on the very springs of personal life in another, and so discloses the psychical basis of the gift of healing. The medical science of our time, by its recognition of the dependence of the physical upon the spiritual, of the control of the bodily functions by the subconscious self, and of the physician's ability by means of suggestion, whether waking or hypnotic, to influence the subconscious soul and set free the healing powers of Nature, provides the physiological basis. And may we not add that many incontestable cases of Christian faith-cure (take as a type the well-known instance in which Luther at Weimar "tore Melanchthon," as the latter put it, "out of the very jaws of death"; see RE ,XII , 520) furnish the religious basis, and prove that faith in God, working through the soul upon the body, is the mightiest of all healing influences, and that one who by his own faith and sympathy and force of personality can stir up faith in others may exercise by God's blessing the power of healing diseases?ISBE Healing, Gifts of.5

3. Permanence of Healing Gifts in the Church: There is abundant evidence that in the early centuries the gifts of healing were still claimed and practiced within the church (Justin, Apol. ii.6; Irenaeus, Adv. Haer. ii. 32, 4; Tertullian, Apol. xxiii; Origen, Contra Celsum, vii.4). The free exercise of these gifts gradually ceased, partly, no doubt, through loss of the early faith and spirituality, but partly through the growth of an ascetic temper which ignored Christ's gospel for the body and tended to the view that pain and sickness are the indispensable ministers of His gospel for the soul. All down the history of the church, however, there have been notable personalities (e.g. Francis of Assisi, Luther, Wesley) and little societies of earnest Christians (e.g. the Waldenses, the early Moravians and Quakers) who have reasserted Christ's gospel on its physical side as a gospel for sickness no less than for sin, and claimed for the gift of healing the place Paul assigned to it among the gifts of the Spirit. In recent years the subject of Christian healing has risen into importance outside of the regularly organized churches through the activity of various faith-healing movements. That the leaders of these movements have laid hold of a truth at once Scriptural and scientific there can be little doubt, though they have usually combined it with what we regard as a mistaken hostility to the ordinary practice of medicine. It is worth remembering that with all his faith in the spiritual gift of healing and personal experience of its power, Paul chose Luke the physician as the companion of his later journeys; and worth noticing that Luke shared with the apostle the honors showered upon the missionaries by the people of Melita whom they had cured of their diseases (Acts 28:10). Upon the modern church there seems to lie the duty of reaffirming the reality and permanence of the primitive gift of healing, while relating it to the scientific practice of medicine as another power ordained of God, and its natural ally in the task of diffusing the Christian gospel of health.ISBE Healing, Gifts of.6

LITERATURE.ISBE Healing, Gifts of.7

Hort, Christian Ecclesia, chapter x; A.T. Schofield, Force of Mind, Unconscious Therapeutics; E. Worcester and others, Religion and Medicine; HJ, IV, 3, p. 606; The Expositor T, XVII, 349, 417.ISBE Healing, Gifts of.8

J. C. LambertISBE Healing, Gifts of.9

Health

Health - helth (shalom, yeshu`ah, 'arukhah; riph'uth, 'arukhah; soteria, hugiaino): Shalom is part of the formal salutation still common in Palestine. In this sense it is used in Genesis 43:28; 2 Samuel 20:9; the stem word means "peace," and is used in many varieties of expression relating to security, success and good bodily health. Yeshu`ah, which specifically means deliverance or help, occurs in the refrain of Psalms 42:11; 43:5, as well as in Psalms 67:2; in the American Standard Revised Version it is rendered "help." Riph'uth is literally, "healing," and is found only in Proverbs 3:8. Marpe' also means healing of the body, but is used in a figurative sense as of promoting soundness of mind and moral character in Proverbs 4:22; 12:18; 13:17; 16:24, as also in Jeremiah 8:15, where the Revised Version (British and American) renders it "healing." 'Arukhah is also used in the same figurative sense in Isaiah 58:8; Jeremiah 8:22; 30:17; 33:6; literally means "repairing or restoring"; it is the word used of the repair of the wall of Jerusalem by Nehemiah (chapter 4).ISBE Health.2

The word "health" occurs twice in the New Testament: in Paul's appeal to his shipmates to take food (Acts 27:34), he says it is for their soteria, literally, "safety"; so the American Standard Revised Version, the King James Version "health." The verb hugianino is used in 3 John 1:2, in the apostle's salutation to Gaius.ISBE Health.3

Alexander MacalisterISBE Health.4

Heap

Heap - hep (`aremah, gal, nedh, tel): "Heap" appears (1) in the simple sense of a gathering or pile, as the translation of `aremah, a "heap," in Ruth 3:7 of grain; Nehemiah 4:2 of stones; in 2 Chronicles 31:6, etc., of the tithes, etc.; of chomer (boiling up), a "heap"; in Exodus 8:14 of frogs; of gal, a "heap"; in Job 8:17 of stones. (2) As indicating "ruin," "waste," gal (2 Kings 19:25; Job 15:28; Isaiah 25:2; 37:26; Jeremiah 9:11; 51:37); me`i (Isaiah 17:1); `i (Psalms 79:1; Jeremiah 26:18; Micah 1:6; 3:12); tel, "mound," "hillock," "heap" (Deuteronomy 13:16; Joshua 8:28; Jeremiah 30:18 the King James Version; Jeremiah 49:2). (3) Of waters, nedh, "heap," "pile" (Exodus 15:8; Joshua 3:13, 16; Psalms 33:7; 78:13); chomer (Habakkuk 3:15, "the heap of mighty waters," the Revised Version margin "surge"). (4) A cairn, or heap of stones (a) over the dead body of a dishonored person, gal (Joshua 7:26; 8:29; 2 Samuel 18:17); (b) as a witness or boundary-heap (Genesis 31:46 f, Gal`edh (Galeed) in Hebrew, also mitspah, "watch tower," Yeghar-Sahadhutha' (Jegar-sahadutha) in Aramaic, both words meaning "the heap of witness"; see Genesis 31:47, 49 the Revised Version (British and American)). (5) As a way mark, tamrurim, from tamar, "to stand erect" (Jeremiah 31:21 the King James Version, "Set thee up waymarks, make thee high heaps," the Revised Version (British and American) "guide-posts," a more likely translation).ISBE Heap.2

"To heap" represents various single words: chathah, "to take," "to take hold of," with one exception, applied to fire or burning coals (Proverbs 25:22, "Thou writ heap coals of fire upon his head," "Thou wilt take coals of fire (and heap them) on his head"); caphah, "to add" (Deuteronomy 32:23); tsabhar, "to heap up" (Habakkuk 1:10); kabhats, "to press together" (with the fingers or hand) (Habakkuk 2:5); rabhah, "to multiply" (Ezekiel 24:10); episoreuo, "to heap up upon" (2 Timothy 4:3, they "will heap to themselves teachers after their own lusts"); soreuo, "to heap up" (Romans 12:20, "Thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head"); thesaurizo, "to lay up" (as treasure) (James 5:3 the King James Version, "Ye have heaped treasure together," the Revised Version (British and American) "laid up"); tsabhar, "to heap up," "to heap" or "store up" (Job 27:16, "silver"; Psalms 39:6, "riches"; Zechariah 9:3, "silver,"); sum, sim "to place," "set," "put" (Job 36:13 the King James Version, "The hypocrites in heart heap up wrath," the Revised Version (British and American) "They that are godless in heart lay up anger"). In Judges 15:16 we have chamor, chamorothayim, "with the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps," the Revised Version margin "heap, two heaps"; one of Samson's sayings; chamor means "an ass," chomer "a heap."ISBE Heap.3

For "heap up words" (Job 16:4), the Revised Version (British and American) has "join together"; for "shall be a heap" (Isaiah 17:11), "fleeth away," margin "shall be a heap"; "heap" for "number" (Nahum 3:3); the English Revised Version "heap of stones" for "sling," margin as the King James Version and the American Standard Revised Version (Proverbs 26:8); "in one heap" for "upon a heap" (Joshua 3:16); "he heapeth up (dust)" for "they shall heap" (Habakkuk 1:10).ISBE Heap.4

W. L. WalkerISBE Heap.5

Heart

Heart - hart (lebh, lebhabh; kardia): The different senses in which the word occurs in the Old Testament and the New Testament may be grouped under the following heads:ISBE Heart.2

1. Various Meanings: It represents in the first place the bodily organ, and by easy transition those experiences which affect or are affected by the body. Fear, love, courage, anger, Joy, sorrow, hatred are always ascribed to the heart--especially in the Old Testament; thus courage for which usually ruach is used (Psalms 27:14); joy (Psalms 4:7); anger (Deuteronomy 19:6, "while his heart is hot," lebhabh); fear (1 Samuel 25:37); sorrow (Psalms 13:2), etc.ISBE Heart.3

Hence, naturally it came to stand for the man himself (Deuteronomy 7:17; "say in thine heart," Isaiah 14:13).ISBE Heart.4

2. Heart and Personality: As representing the man himself, it was considered to be the seat of the emotions and passions and appetites (Genesis 18:5; Leviticus 19:17; Psalms 104:15), and embraced likewise the intellectual and moral faculties--though these are necessarily ascribed to the "soul" as well. This distinction is not always observed.ISBE Heart.5

3. Soul and Heart: "Soul" in Hebrew can never be rendered by "heart"; nor can "heart" be considered as a synonym for "soul." Cremer has well observed: "The Hebrew nephesh ("soul") is never translated kardia ("heart"). .... The range of the Hebrew nephesh, to which the Greek psuche alone corresponds, differs so widely from the ideas connected with psuche, that utter confusion would have ensued had psuche been employed in an unlimited degree for lebh ("heart"). The Biblical lebh never, like psuche, denotes the personal subject, nor could it do so. That which in classical Greek is ascribed to psuche (a good soul, a just soul, etc.) is in the Bible ascribed to the heart alone and cannot be otherwise" (Cremer, Lexicon, article "Kardia," 437 ff, German edition).ISBE Heart.6

4. Center of Vital Action: In the heart vital action is centered (1 Kings 21:7). "Heart," except as a bodily organ, is never ascribed to animals, as is the case sometimes with nephesh and ruach (Leviticus 17:11, nephesh; Genesis 2:19; Numbers 16:22; Genesis 7:22, ruach). "Heart" is thus often used interchangeably with these two (Genesis 41:8; Psalms 86:4; 119:20); but "it never denotes the personal subject, always the personal organ."ISBE Heart.7

5. Heart and Mind: As the central organ in the body, forming a focus for its vital action, it has come to stand for the center of its moral, spiritual, intellectual life. "In particular the heart is the place in which the process of self-consciousness is carried out, in which the soul is at home with itself, and is conscious of all its doing and suffering as its own" (Oehler). Hence, it is that men of "courage" are called "men of the heart"; that the Lord is said to speak "in his heart" (Genesis 8:21); that men "know in their own heart" (Deuteronomy 8:5); that "no one considereth in his heart' (Isaiah 44:19 the King James Version). "Heart" in this connection is sometimes rendered "mind," as in Numbers 16:28 ("of mine own mind," Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 A.D.) ex proprio corde, Septuagint ap' emautou); the foolish "is void of understanding," i.e. "heart" (Proverbs 6:32, where the Septuagint renders phrenon, Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 A.D.) cordis, Luther "der ist ein Narr"). God is represented as "searching the heart" and "trying the reins" (Jeremiah 17:10 the King James Version). Thus, "heart" comes to stand for "conscience," for which there is no word in Hebrew, as in Job 27:6, "My heart shall not reproach me," or in 1 Samuel 24:5, "David's heart smote him"; compare 1 Samuel 25:31. From this it appears, in the words of Owen: "The heart in Scripture is variously used, sometimes for the mind and understanding, sometimes for the will, sometimes for the affections, sometimes for the conscience, sometimes for the whole soul. Generally, it denotes the whole soul of man and all the faculties of it, not absolutely, but as they are all one principle of moral operations, as they all concur in our doing of good and evil."ISBE Heart.8

6. Figurative Senses: The radical corruption of human nature is clearly taught in Scripture and brought into connection with the heart. It is "uncircumcised" (Jeremiah 9:26; Ezekiel 44:7; compare Acts 7:51); and "hardened" (Exodus 4:21); "wicked" (Proverbs 26:23); "perverse" (Proverbs 11:20); "godless" (Job 36:13); "deceitful and desperately wicked" (Jeremiah 17:9 the King James Version). It defiles the whole man (Matthew 15:19-20); resists, as in the case of Pharaoh, the repeated call of God (Exodus 7:13). There, however, the law of God is written (Romans 2:15); there the work of grace is wrought (Acts 15:9), for the "heart" may be "renewed" by grace (Ezekiel 36:26), because the "heart" is the seat of sin (Genesis 6:5; 8:21).ISBE Heart.9

7. Process of Heart Renewal: This process of heart-renewal is indicated in various ways. It is the removal of a "stony heart" (Ezekiel 11:19). The heart becomes "clean" (Psalms 51:10); "fixed" (Psalms 112:7) through "the fear" of the Lord (verse 1); "With the heart man believeth" (Romans 10:10); on the "heart" the power of God is exercised for renewal (Jeremiah 31:33). To God the bereaved apostles pray as a knower of the heart (Acts 1:24--a word not known to classical writers, found only here in the New Testament and in Acts 15:8, kardiognostes). In the "heart" God's Spirit dwells with might (Ephesians 3:16, eis ton eso anthropon); in the "heart" God's love is poured forth (Romans 5:5). The Spirit of His son has been "sent forth into the heart" (Galatians 4:6); the "earnest of the Spirit" has been given "in the heart" (2 Corinthians 1:22). In the work of grace, therefore, the heart occupies a position almost unique.ISBE Heart.10

8. The Heart First: We might also refer here to the command, on which both the Old Testament and New Testament revelation of love is based: "Thou shalt love Yahweh thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might" (Deuteronomy 6:5); where "heart" always takes the first place, and is the term which in the New Testament rendering remains unchanged (compare Matthew 22:37; Mark 12:30, 33; Luke 10:27, where "heart" always takes precedence).ISBE Heart.11

9. A Term for "Deepest": A bare reference may be made to the employment of the term for that which is innermost, hidden, deepest in anything (Exodus 15:8; Jonah 2:3), the very center of things. This we find in all languages. Compare Ephesians 3:16-17, "in the inward man," as above.ISBE Heart.12

J. I. MaraisISBE Heart.13

Hearth

Hearth - harth: Occurs 7 times in the King James Version: Genesis 18:6; Psalms 102:3; Isaiah 30:14; Jeremiah 36:22-23 bis; Zechariah 12:6;, 4 times in the Revised Version: Leviticus 6:9; Isaiah 30:14; Ezekiel 43:15-16 ("altar hearth"); compare also Isaiah 29:1 the Revised Version margin. It will be noted that the renderings of the two versions agree in only one passage (Isaiah 30:14).ISBE Hearth.2

(1) The hearth in case of a tent was nothing more than a depression in the ground in which fire was kindled for cooking or for warmth. Cakes were baked, after the fashion of Genesis 18:6, in the ashes or upon hot stones. In this passage, however, there is nothing in the Hebrew corresponding to the King James Version "on the hearth." In the poorer class of houses also the hearth consisted of such a depression, of varying dimensions, in the middle or in one corner of the room. There was no chimney for the smoke, which escaped as it could, or through a latticed opening for the purpose (the "chimney" of Hosea 13:3). While the nature of the hearth is thus clear enough, more or less uncertainty attaches to specific terms used in the Hebrew. In Isaiah 30:14 the expression means simply "that which is kindled," referring to the bed of live coals. From this same verb (yaqadh, "be kindled") are formed the nouns moqedh (Psalms 102:3 (Hebrews 4:1-16)) and moqkedhah (Leviticus 6:9 (Hebrews 2:1-18)) which might, according to their formation, mean either the material kindled or the place where a fire is kindled. Hence, the various renderings, "firebrand," "hearth," etc. Moreover, in Leviticus 6:9 (2) the termination -ah of moqedhah may be taken as the pronominal suffix, "its"; hence, the Revised Version margin "on its firewood."ISBE Hearth.3

(2) Two other terms have reference to heating in the better class of houses. In Jeremiah 36:22-23 the word ('ach) means a "brazier" of burning coals, with which Jehoiakim's "winter house" was heated. The same purpose was served by the "pan (kiyyor) of fire" of Zechariah 12:6 the Revised Version (British and American), apparently a wide, shallow vessel otherwise used for cooking (1 Samuel 2:14, English Versions of the Bible "pan"), or as a wash basin (compare Exodus 30:18; 1 Kings 7:38, etc., "laver").ISBE Hearth.4

(3) Another class of passages is referred to the signification "altar hearth," which seems to have been a term applied to the top of the altar of burnt offering. The moqedhah of Leviticus 6:9 (2), though related by derivation to the words discussed under (1) above, belongs here (compare also Ecclesiasticus 50:12, "by the hearth of the altar," par' eschara bomou). Again in Ezekiel's description of the altar of the restored temple (43:15,16), he designates the top of the altar by a special term (the Revised Version margin, ariel), which is by most understood to mean "altar hearth" (so the Revised Version (British and American)). With this may be compared the symbolical name given to Jerusalem (Isaiah 29:1), and variously explained as "lion (or lioness) of God," or "hearth of God."ISBE Hearth.5

Benjamin Reno DownerISBE Hearth.6

Heartily

Heartily - har'-ti-li: Occurs (Colossians 3:23) as the translation of ek psuches, "out of the soul," "Whatsoever ye do, do it heartily as unto the Lord (who sees the heart and recompenses "whatsoever good thing a man does") and not unto men" (however they, your masters according to the flesh, may regard it); the Revised Version (British and American) "work heartily," margin (Greek) "from the soul."ISBE Heartily.2

In 2 Maccabees 4:37, we have "Antiochus was heartily sorry," psuchikos ("from the soul").ISBE Heartily.3

Heat

Heat - het (chom, horebh, "drought," Job 30:30; Isaiah 4:6; 25:4; Jeremiah 36:30; sharabh, Isaiah 49:10, translated in the Revised Version margin "mirage"; zestos, "fervent," Revelation 3:15, therme, Acts 28:3, kauma, Revelation 7:16, kauson, Matthew 20:12; see MIRAGE):ISBE Heat.2

1. Dreaded in Palestine: The heat of the summer is greatly dreaded in Palestine, and as a rule the people rest under cover during the middle of the day, when the sun is hottest. There is no rain from May to October, and scarcely a cloud in the sky to cool the air or to screen off the burning vertical rays of the sun. The first word of advice given to visitors to the country is to protect themselves from the sun. Even on the mountains, where the temperature of the air is lower, the sun is perhaps more fierce, owing to the lesser density of the atmosphere.ISBE Heat.3

2. Causes Disease: This continuous summer heat often causes sunstroke, and the glare causes diseases of the eye which affect a large percentage of the people of Palestine and Egypt.ISBE Heat.4

3. Relief Sought: It is to be expected that in these times of heat and drought the ideal pleasure has come to be to sit in the shade by some cool flowing fountain. In the mountains the village which has the coolest spring of water is the most desired. These considerations give renewed meaning to the passages: "as cold waters to a thirsty soul" (Proverbs 25:25); "He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; he leadeth me beside still waters" (Psalms 23:2). What a blessing to be "under the shadow of the Almighty" (Psalms 91:1), where "the sun shall not strike upon them, nor any heat" (Revelation 7:16)!ISBE Heat.5

4. Midday Heat: The middle of the day is often referred to as the "heat of the day" (1 Samuel 11:11). It made a great difference to the army whether it could win the battle before the midday heat. Saladin won the great battle at Hattin by taking advantage of this fact. It was a particular time of the day when it was the custom to rest. "They came about the heat of the day to the house of Ish-bosheth, as he took his rest at noon" (2 Samuel 4:5). Yahweh appeared to Abraham as "he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day" (Genesis 18:1). The hardship of working throughout the day is expressed in Matthew 20:12, "who have borne the burden of the day and scorching heat." Sometimes just after sunrise the contrast of the cold of night and the heat of the sun is especially noticeable. "The sun ariseth with the scorching wind" (James 1:11).ISBE Heat.6

5. Summer Heat: In summer the wind is usually from the Southwest, but in case it is from the South it is sure to be hot. "When ye see a south wind blowing, ye say, There will be a scorching heat" (Luke 12:55). The heat on a damp, sultry day, when the atmosphere is full of dust haze is especially oppressive, and is referred to in Isaiah 25:5 as "the heat by the shade of a cloud." The heat of summer melts the snow on the mountains and causes all vegetation to dry up and wither. Ice and snow vanish in the heat thereof (Job 6:17), "Drought and heat consume the snow waters" (Job 24:19). But the "tree planted by the waters, that spreadeth out its roots by the river .... shall not fear when heat cometh, but its leaf shall be green" (Jeremiah 17:8).ISBE Heat.7

6. Figurative Uses: The word is used often in connection with anger in the Scriptures: "hot anger" (Exodus 11:8); "hot displeasure" (Deuteronomy 9:19); "anger of the Lord was hot against Israel" (Judges 2:14 the King James Version); "thine anger from waxing hot" (Psalms 85:3 King James Version, margin); "I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot" (Revelation 3:15).ISBE Heat.8

Alfred H. JoyISBE Heat.9

Heath

Heath - heth.ISBE Heath.2

See TAMARISK.ISBE Heath.3

Heathen

Heathen - he'-th'-n, he'-then.ISBE Heathen.2

See GENTILES.ISBE Heathen.3

Heave Offering

Heave Offering - hev of'-er-ing.ISBE Heave Offering.2

See SACRIFICE.ISBE Heave Offering.3

Heaven

Heaven - hev'-'n.ISBE Heaven.2

See ASTRONOMY.ISBE Heaven.3

Heaven, Host of

Heaven, Host of - See ASTRONOMY, sec. I, 1.ISBE Heaven, Host of.2

Heaven, Ordinances of

Heaven, Ordinances of - See ASTRONOMY, sec. I, 1; II, 13.ISBE Heaven, Ordinances of.2

Heaven, Windows of

Heaven, Windows of - See ASTRONOMY, sec. III, 4.ISBE Heaven, Windows of.2

Heavenly

Heavenly - hev'-'n-li (ouranios, epouranios): Pertaining to heaven or the heavens. See HEAVENS. The phrase ta epourania, translated "heavenly things" in John 3:12; Hebrews 8:5; 9:23, but in Ephesians "heavenly places" (John 1:3, 10; 2:6; 3:10; 6:12), has shades of meaning defined by the context. In John 3:12, in contrast with "earthly things" (i.e. such as can be brought to the test of experience), it denotes truths known only through revelation (God's love in salvation). In Hebrews the sense is local. In Ephesians it denotes the sphere of spiritual privilege in Christ, except in John 6:12, where it stands for the unseen spiritual world, in which both good and evil forces operate. It is always the sphere of the super-earthly.ISBE Heavenly.2

James OrrISBE Heavenly.3

Heavens

Heavens - hev'-'nz (shamayim; ouranoi): On the physical heavens see ASTRONOMY; WORLD. Above these, in popular conception, were the celestial heavens, the abode of God and of the hosts of angels (Psalms 11:4; Psalms 103:19-21; Isaiah 66:1; Revelation 4:2; 5:11; compare Daniel 7:10), though it was recognized that Yahweh's presence was not confined to any region (1 Kings 8:27). Later Judaism reckoned seven heavens. The apostle Paul speaks of himself as caught up into "the third heaven," which he evidently identifies with Paradise (2 Corinthians 12:2).ISBE Heavens.2

See HEAVENLY.ISBE Heavens.3

Heavens, New (and Earth, New)

Heavens, New (and Earth, New) - 1. Eschatological IdeaISBE Heavens, New (and Earth, New).2

2. Earliest Conceptions: Cosmic verses National TypeISBE Heavens, New (and Earth, New).3

3. Different from Mythological TheoryISBE Heavens, New (and Earth, New).4

4. Antiquity of Cosmical ConceptionISBE Heavens, New (and Earth, New).5

5. The Cosmical Dependent on the Ethico-ReligiousISBE Heavens, New (and Earth, New).6

6. The End Correspondent to the BeginningISBE Heavens, New (and Earth, New).7

7. The Cosmical Heavens: Hebrews 12:26-29ISBE Heavens, New (and Earth, New).8

8. Palingenesis: Matthew 19:28ISBE Heavens, New (and Earth, New).9

9. A Purified UniverseISBE Heavens, New (and Earth, New).10

1. Eschatological Idea: The formal conception of new heavens and a new earth occurs in Isaiah 65:17; 66:22; 2 Peter 3:13; Revelation 21:1 (where "heaven," singular). The idea in substance is also found in Isaiah 51:16; Matthew 19:28; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Hebrews 12:26-28. In each case the reference is eschatological, indeed the adjective "new" seems to have acquired in this and other connections a semi-technical eschatological sense. It must be remembered that the Old Testament has no single word for "universe," and that the phrase "heaven and earth" serves to supply the deficiency. The promise of a new heavens and a new earth is therefore equivalent to a promise of world renewal.ISBE Heavens, New (and Earth, New).11

2. Earliest Conceptions: Cosmic verses National Type:ISBE Heavens, New (and Earth, New).12

It is a debated question how old in the history of revelation this promise is. Isaiah is the prophet with whom the idea first occurs in explicit form, and that in passages which many critics would assign to the post-exilic period (the so-called Trito-Isaiah). In general, until recently, the trend of criticism has been to represent the universalistic-cosmic type of eschatology as developed out of the particularistic-national type by a gradual process of widening of the horizon of prophecy, a view which would put the emergence of the former at a comparatively late date. More recently, however, Gressmann (Der Ursprung der israelitisch-judischen Eschatologie, 1905) and others have endeavored to show that often even prophecies belonging to the latter type embody material and employ means of expression which presuppose acquaintance with the idea of a world-catastrophe at the end. On this view the world-eschatology would have, from ancient times, existed alongside of the more narrowly confined outlook, and would be even older than the latter. These writers further assume that the cosmic eschatology was not indigenous among the Hebrews, but of oriental (Babylonian) origin, a theory which they apply not only to the more developed system of the later apocalyptic writings, but also to its preformations in the Old Testament. The cosmic eschatology is not believed to have been the distinctive property of the great ethical prophets, but rather a commonly current mythological belief to which the prophets refer without formally endorsing it.ISBE Heavens, New (and Earth, New).13

3. Different from Mythological Theory: Its central thought is said to have been the belief that the end of the world-process must correspond to the beginning, that consequently the original condition of things, when heaven and earth were new, must repeat itself at some future point, and the state of paradise with its concomitants return, a belief supposed to have rested on certain astronomical observations.ISBE Heavens, New (and Earth, New).14

4. Antiquity of Cosmical ConceptionISBE Heavens, New (and Earth, New).15

While this theory in the form presented is unproven and unacceptable, it deserves credit for having focused attention on certain phenomena in the Old Testament which clearly show that Messianic prophecy, and particularly the world-embracing scope which it assumes in some predictions, is far older than modern criticism had been willing to concede. The Old Testament from the beginning has an eschatology and puts the eschatological promise on the broadest racial basis (Genesis 3:1-24). It does not first ascend from Israel to the new humanity, but at the very outset takes its point of departure in the race and from this descends to the election of Israel, always keeping the Universalistic goal in clear view. Also in the earliest accounts, already elements of a cosmical universalism find their place side by side with those of a racial kind, as when Nature is represented as sharing in the consequences of the fall of man.ISBE Heavens, New (and Earth, New).16

5. The Cosmical Dependent on the Ethico-Religious:ISBE Heavens, New (and Earth, New).17

As regards the antiquity of the universalistic and cosmical eschatology, therefore, the conclusions of these writers may be registered as a gain, while on the two other points of the pagan origin and the unethical character of the expectation involved, dissent from them should be expressed. According to the Old Testament, the whole idea of world-renewal is of strictly super-natural origin, and in it the cosmical follows the ethical hope. The cosmical eschatology is simply the correlate of the fundamental Biblical principle that the issues of the world-process depend on the ethico-religious developments in the history of man (compare 2 Peter 3:13).ISBE Heavens, New (and Earth, New).18

6. The End Correspondent to the Beginning: But the end correspondent to the beginning is likewise a true Scriptural principle, which theory in question has helped to reemphasize, although there is this difference that Scripture does not look forward to a repetition of the same process, but to a restoration of the primeval harmony on a higher plane such as precludes all further disturbance. In the passages above cited, there are clear reminiscences of the account of creation (Isaiah 51:16, "that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth"; Isaiah 65:17, "I create new heavens and a new earth"; 2 Peter 3:13 compared with 2 Peter 3:4-6; Revelation 21:1 compared with the imagery of paradise throughout the chapter). Besides this, where the thought of the renewal of earth is met with in older prophecy, this is depicted in colors of the state of paradise (Isaiah 11:6-9; Hosea 2:18-21). The "regeneration" (palingenesia) of Matthew 19:28 also points back to the first genesis of the world. The `inhabited earth to come' (oikoumene mellousa) of Hebrews 2:5 occurs at the opening of a context throughout which the account of Genesis 1:1-31 through 3 evidently stood before the writer's mind.ISBE Heavens, New (and Earth, New).19

7. The Cosmical Heavens: Hebrews 12:26-29: In the combination "new heavens and a new earth," the term "heavens" must therefore be taken in the sense imposed upon it by the story of creation, where "heavens" designates not the celestial habitation of God, but the cosmical heavens, the region of the supernal waters, sun moon and stars. The Bible nowhere suggests that there is anything abnormal or requiring renewal in God's dwelling-place (Hebrews 9:23 is of a different import). In Revelation 21:1-27, where "the new heaven and the new earth" appear, it is at the same time stated that the new Jerusalem comes down from God out of heaven (compare Revelation 21:1-2, 10). In Hebrews 12:26-28 also the implication is that only the lower heavens are subject to renewal. The "shaking" that accompanies the new covenant and corresponds to the shaking of the law-giving at Sinai, is a shaking of "not the earth only, but also the heaven." This shaking, in its reference to heaven as well as to earth, signifies a removal of the things shaken. But from the things thus shaken and removed (including heaven), the writer distinguishes "those things which are not shaken," which are destined to remain, and these are identified with the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God, however, according to the general trend of the teaching of the epistle, has its center in the heavenly world. The words "that have been made," in Hebrews 12:27, do not assign their created character as the reason why heaven and earth can be shaken, an exegesis which would involve us in the difficulty that among that which remains there is something uncreated besides God; the true construction and correct paraphrase are: "as of things that were made with the thought in the mind of God that those things which cannot be shaken may remain," i.e. already at creation God contemplated an unchangeable universe as the ultimate, higher state of things.ISBE Heavens, New (and Earth, New).20

8. Palingenesis: Matthew 19:28: In Matthew 19:28 the term palingenesia marks the world-renewing as the renewal of an abnormal state of things. The Scripture teaching, therefore, is that around the center of God's heaven, which is not subject to deterioration or renewal, a new cosmical heaven and a new earth will be established to be the dwelling-place of the eschatological humanity. The light in which the promise thus appears reminds us that the renewed kosmos, earth as well as cosmical heavens, is destined to play a permanent (not merely provisional, on the principle of chiliasm) part in the future life of the people of God. This is in entire harmony with the prevailing Biblical representation, not only in the Old Testament but likewise in the New Testament (compare Matthew 5:5; Hebrews 2:5), although in the Fourth Gospel and in the Pauline Epistles the emphasis is to such an extent thrown on the heaven-centered character of the future life that the role to be played in it by the renewed earth recedes into the background. Revelation, on the other hand, recognizes this element in its imagery of "the new Jerus" coming down from God out of heaven upon earth.ISBE Heavens, New (and Earth, New).21

9. A Purified Universe: That the new heavens and the new earth are represented as the result of a "creation" does not necessarily involve a production ex nihilo. The terms employed in 2 Peter 3:6-13 seem rather to imply that the renewal will out of the old produce a purified universe, whence also the catastrophe is compared to that of the Deluge. As then the old world perished by water and the present world arose out of the flood, so in the end-crisis "the heavens shall be dissolved by fire and the elements melt with fervent heat," to give rise to the new heaven and the new earth in which righteousness dwells. The term palingenesia (Matthew 19:28) points to renewal, not to creation de novo. The Talmud also teaches that the world will pass through a process of purification, although at the same time it seems to break up the continuity between this and the coming world by the fantastic assumption that the new heavens and the new earth of Isaiah 65:17 were created at the close of the Hexemeron of Genesis 1:1-31. This was inferred from the occurrence of the article in Isaiah 66:22, "the new heavens and the new earth."ISBE Heavens, New (and Earth, New).22

Geerhardus VosISBE Heavens, New (and Earth, New).23

Heavy; Heaviness

Heavy; Heaviness - hev'-i, hev'-i-nes (kabhedh, de'aghah; lupe):ISBE Heavy; Heaviness.2

1. Literal: Heavy (heave, to lift) is used literally with respect to material things, as the translation of kobhedh, "heaviness" (Proverbs 27:3, "a stone is heavy"); of kabhedh, "to be weighty" (1 Samuel 4:18; 2 Samuel 14:26; Lamentations 3:7); of `amac, "to load" (Isaiah 46:1 the King James Version; compare Matthew 26:43; Mark 14:40; Luke 9:32, "Their eyes were heavy"); bareomai, "to be weighed down."ISBE Heavy; Heaviness.3

2. Figuratively: It is used (1) for what is hard to bear, oppressive, kabhedh (Exodus 18:18; Numbers 11:14; 1 Samuel 5:6, 11; Psalms 38:4; Isaiah 24:20); motah, a "yoke" (Isaiah 58:6, the Revised Version (British and American) "bands of the yoke"); qasheh, "sharp," "hard" (1 Kings 14:6, "heavy tidings"); barus, "heavy" (Matthew 23:4); (2) for sad, sorrowful (weighed down), mar, "bitter" (Proverbs 31:6, the Revised Version (British and American) "bitter"); ra`, "evil" (Proverbs 25:20); ademoneo, literally, "to be sated," "wearied," then, "to be very heavy," "dejected" (Matthew 26:37, of our Lord in Gethsemane, "(he) began to be sorrowful and very heavy," the Revised Version (British and American) "sore troubled"); "ademonein denotes a kind of stupefaction and bewilderment, the intellectual powers reeling and staggering under the pressure of the ideas presented to them" (Mason, The Conditions of our Lord's Life on Earth); compare Mark 14:33; (3) morose, sulky, as well as sad, car, "sullen," "sour," "angry" (1 Kings 20:43; 21:4, "heavy and displeased"); (4) dull, kabhedh (Isaiah 6:10, "make their ears heavy"; Isaiah 59:1, "neither (is) his ear heavy"); (5) "tired" seems to be the meaning in Exodus 17:12, "Moses' hands were heavy" (kabhedh); compare Matthew 26:43 and parallels above.ISBE Heavy; Heaviness.4

Heavily is the translation of kebhedhuth, "heaviness" (Exodus 14:25), meaning "with difficulty"; of qadhar, "to be black," "to be a mourner" (Psalms 35:14 the King James Version, the Revised Version (British and American) "I bowed down mourning"); of kabhedh (Isaiah 47:6).ISBE Heavy; Heaviness.5

Heaviness has always the sense of anxiety, sorrow, grief, etc.; de'aghah, "fear," "dread," "anxious care" (Proverbs 12:25, "Heaviness in the heart of a man maketh it stoop," the Revised Version margin "or care"); kehah, "to be feeble," "weak" (Isaiah 61:3, "the spirit of heaviness"); panim, "face," "aspect" (Job 9:27 the King James Version, "I will leave off my heaviness," the Revised Version (British and American) "(sad) countenance"; compare 2 Esdras 5:16; Wisdom of Solomon 17:4; Ecclesiasticus 25:23); ta'aniyah, from 'anah, "to groan," "to sigh" (Isaiah 29:2, the Revised Version (British and American) "mourning and lamentation"); tughah, "sadness," "sorrow" (Psalms 119:28; Proverbs 10:1; 14:13); ta`anith, "affliction of one's self," "fasting" (Ezra 9:5, the Revised Version (British and American) "humiliation," margin "fasting"); katepheia, "dejection," "sorrow" (literally, "of the eyes") (James 4:9, "your joy (turned) to heaviness"); lupe, "grief" (Romans 9:2, the Revised Version (British and American) "great sorrow"; 2 Corinthians 2:1, the Revised Version (British and American) "sorrow"); lupeomai (1 Peter 1:6, the Revised Version (British and American) "put to grief"); for nush, "to be sick," "feeble" (Psalms 69:20, the Revised Version margin "sore sick"), and ademoneo (Philippians 2:26 the Revised Version (British and American) "sore troubled"), the King James Version has "full of heaviness." "Heaviness," in the sense of sorrow, sadness, occurs in 2 Esdras 10:7, 8, 24; Tobit 2:5; lupe (Ecclesiasticus 22:4, the Revised Version (British and American) "grief"; 30:21, "Give not thy soul to heaviness," the Revised Version (British and American) "sorrow"; 1 Maccabees 6:4); lupeo (Ecclesiasticus 30:9, the Revised Version (British and American) "will grieve thee"; penthos (1 Maccabees 3:51, etc.).ISBE Heavy; Heaviness.6

The Revised Version has "heavier work" for "more work" (Exodus 5:9); "heavy upon men" for "common among men" (Ecclesiastes 6:1); for "were heavy loaden" (Isaiah 46:1), "are made a load"; for "the burden thereof is heavy" (Isaiah 30:27), "in thick rising smoke."ISBE Heavy; Heaviness.7

W. L. WalkerISBE Heavy; Heaviness.8

Heber

Heber - he'-ber (chebher, "associate" or, possibly, "enchanter"; Eber): A name occurring several times in the Old Testament as the name of an individual or of a clan.ISBE Heber.2

(1) A member of the tribe of Asher and son of Beraiah (Genesis 46:17; Numbers 26:45; 1 Chronicles 7:31 f).ISBE Heber.3

(2) A Kenite, husband of Jael, who deceptively slew Sisera, captain of the army of Jabin, a Canaanite king (Judges 4:17; 5:24). He had separated himself from the main body of the Kenites, which accounts for his tent being near Kedesh, the place of Sisera's disastrous battle (Judges 4:11).ISBE Heber.4

(3) Head of a clan of Judah, and son of Mered by his Jewish, as distinguished from an Egyptian wife. He was father, or founder, of Soco (1 Chronicles 4:18).ISBE Heber.5

(4) A Benjamite, or clan or family of Elpaal belonging to Benjamin (1 Chronicles 8:17).ISBE Heber.6

(5) Heber, of our Lord's genealogy (Luke 3:35 the King James Version), better, Eber.ISBE Heber.7

So, the name "Eber," `ebher, in 1 Chronicles 5:13; 8:22, is not to be confused with Heber, chebher, as in the foregoing passages.ISBE Heber.8

Edward Bagby PollardISBE Heber.9

Heberites

Heberites - he'-ber-its (ha-chebhri): Descendants of Heber, a prominent clan of Asher, (Numbers 26:45). Supposed by some to be connected with the Chabiri of the Tell el-Amarna Letters.ISBE Heberites.2

Hebrew Language

Hebrew Language - See LANGUAGES OF THE OLD TESTAMENT; ARAMAIC.ISBE Hebrew Language.2

Hebrew; Hebrewess

Hebrew; Hebrewess - he'-broo, he'-broo-es (`ibhri, feminine `ibhriyah; Hebraios): The earliest name for Abraham (Genesis 14:13) and his descendants (Joseph, Genesis 39:14, 17; 40:15; 41:12; 43:32; Israelites in Egypt, Exodus 1:15; 6, 11, 13; 3:18; in laws, Exodus 21:2; Deuteronomy 15:12; in history, 1 Samuel 4:6, 9; 7, 19, etc.; later, Jeremiah 34:9, "Hebrewess," Jeremiah 34:14; Jonah 1:9; in the New Testament, Acts 6:1; 2 Corinthians 11:22; Philippians 3:5). The etymology of the word is disputed. It may be derived from Eber (Genesis 10:21, 24-25, etc.), or, as some think, from the verb `abhar, "to cross over" (people from across the Euphrates; compare Joshua 24:2). A connection is sought by some with the apri or epri of the Egyptian monuments, and again with the Habiri of the Tell el-Amarna Letters. In Acts 6:1, the "Hebrews" are contrasted with "Hellenists," or Greek-speaking Jews. By the "Hebrew" tongue in the New Testament (Hebraisti, John 5:2; 13, 17, 20; 20:16) is meant ARAMAIC (which see), but also in Revelation 9:11; 16:16, Hebrew proper.ISBE Hebrew; Hebrewess.2

James OrrISBE Hebrew; Hebrewess.3

Hebrews, Epistle to The

Hebrews, Epistle to The - he'-brooz,ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.2

I. TITLEISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.3

II. LITERARYISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.4

1. The Author's Culture and StyleISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.5

2. Letter, Epistle or Treatise?ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.6

3. A Unity or a Composite Work?ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.7

III. THE AUTHORISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.8

1. TraditionISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.9

(1) Alexandrian: PaulISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.10

(2) African: BarnabasISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.11

(3) Rome and the West: AnonymousISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.12

2. The Witness of the Epistle ItselfISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.13

(1) Paul not the AuthorISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.14

(2) Other TheoriesISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.15

(a) Luke and ClementISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.16

(b) Barnabas; Priscilla and Aquila; Philip; Aristion; ApollosISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.17

IV. DESTINATIONISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.18

1. General Character of the ReadersISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.19

2. Jews or Gentiles?ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.20

3. The Locality of the ReadersISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.21

V. DATEISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.22

1. Terminal DatesISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.23

2. Conversion and History of the ReadersISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.24

3. Doctrinal DevelopmentISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.25

4. The Fall of JerusalemISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.26

5. TimothyISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.27

6. Two PersecutionsISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.28

VI. CONTENTSISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.29

1. Summary of ContentsISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.30

2. The Main ThemeISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.31

3. Alexandrian InfluencesISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.32

4. The Christian FactorISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.33

LITERATUREISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.34

I. Title. In the King James Version and the English Revised Version the title of this book describes it as "the Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Hebrews." Modern scholarship has disputed the applicability of every word of this title. Neither does it appear in the oldest manuscripts, where we find simply "to Hebrews" (pros Hebraious). This, too, seems to have been prefixed to the original writing by a collector or copyist. It is too vague and general for the author to have used it. And there is nothing in the body of the book which affirms any part of either title. Even the shorter title was an inference from the general character of the writing. Nowhere is criticism less hampered by problems of authenticity and inspiration. No question arises, at least directly, of pseudonymity either of author or of readers, for both are anonymous. For the purpose of tracing the history and interpreting the meaning of the book, the absence of a title, or of any definite historical data, is a disadvantage. We are left to infer its historical context from a few fragments of uncertain tradition, and from such general references to historical conditions as the document itself contains. Where no date, name or well-known event is fixed, it becomes impossible to decide, among many possibilities, what known historical conditions, if any, are pre-supposed. Yet this very fact, of the book's detachment from personal and historical incidents, renders it more self-contained, and its exegesis less dependent upon understanding the exact historical situation. But its general relation to the thought of its time must be taken into account if we are to understand it at all.ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.35

II. Literary Form. 1. The Author's Culture and Style: The writer was evidently a man of culture, who had a masterly command of the Greek language. The theory of Clement of Alexandria, that the work was a translation from Hebrew, was merely an inference from the supposition that it was first addressed to Hebrew-speaking Christians. It bears none of the marks of a translation. It is written in pure idiomatic Greek. The writer had an intimate knowledge of the Septuagint, and was familiar with Jewish life. He was well-read in Hellenic literally (e.g. Wisdom), and had probably made a careful study of Philo (see VI below). His argument proceeds continuously and methodically, in general, though not strict, accord with the rules of Greek rhetoric, and without the interruptions and digressions which render Paul's arguments so hard to follow. "Where the literary skill of the author comes out is in the deft adjustment of the argumentative to the hortatory sections" (Moffatt, Introduction, 424 f). He has been classed with Lk as the most "cultured" of the early Christian writers.ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.36

2. Letter, Epistle or Treatise?: It has been questioned whether Hebrews is rightly called a letter at all. Unlike all Paul's letters, it opens without any personal note of address or salutation; and at the outset it sets forth, in rounded periods and in philosophical language, the central theme which is developed throughout. In this respect it resembles the Johannine writings alone in the New Testament. But as the argument proceeds, the personal note of application, exhortation and expostulation emerges more clearly (Hebrews 2:1; Hebrews 3:1-12; 1, 14; 5:11; 6:9; 10:9; 13:7); and it ends with greetings and salutations (Hebrews 13:18 ff). The writer calls it "a word of exhortation." The verb epesteila (the Revised Version (British and American) "I have written") is the usual expression for writing a letter (Hebrews 13:22). Hebrews begins like an essay, proceeds like a sermon, and ends as a letter.ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.37

Deissmann, who distinguishes between a "true letter," the genuine personal message of one man to another, and an "epistle," or a treatise written in imitation of the form of a letter, but with an eye on the reading public, puts Hebrews in the latter class; nor would he "consider it anything but a literary oration--hence, not as an epistle at all--if the epesteila, and the greetings at the close, did not permit of the supposition that it had at one time opened with something of the nature of an address as well" (Bible Studies, 49-50). There is no textual or historical evidence of any opening address having ever stood as part of the text; nor does the opening section bear any mark or suggestion of fragmentariness, as if it had once followed such an address.ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.38

Yet the supposition that a greeting once stood at the beginning of our document is not so impossible as Zahn thinks (Introduction to the New Testament, II, 313 f), as a comparison with James or 1 Peter will show.ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.39

So unusual is the phenomenon of a letter without a greeting, that among the ancients, Pantaenus had offered the explanation that Paul, out of modesty, had refrained from putting his name to a letter addressed to the Hebrews, because the Lord Himself had been apostle to them.ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.40

In recent times, Julicher and Harnack have conjectured that the author intentionally suppressed the greeting, either from motives of prudence at a time of persecution, or because it was unnecessary, since the bearer of the letter would communicate the name of the sender to the recipients.ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.41

Overbeck advanced the more revolutionary hypothesis that the letter once opened with a greeting, but from someone other than Paul; that in order to satisfy the general conditions of canonization, the non-apostolic greeting was struck out by the Alexandrians, and the personal references in Hebrews 13:22-25 added, in order to represent it as Pauline.ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.42

3. A Unity or a Composite Work?: W. Wrede, starting from this theory, rejects the first part of it and adopts the second. He does not base his hypothesis on the conditions of canonization, but on an examination of the writing itself. He adopts Deissmann's rejected alternative, and argues that the main part of the book was originally not an epistle at all, but a general doctrinal treatise. Then Hebrews 13:1-25, and especially Hebrews 13:18 ff, were added by a later hand, in order to represent the whole as a Pauline letter, and the book in its final form was made, after all, pseudonymous. The latter supposition is based upon an assumed reference to imprisonment in Hebrews 13:19 (compare Philemon 1:22) and upon the reference to Timothy in Hebrews 13:23 (compare Philippians 2:19); and the proof that these professed Pauline phrases are not really Pauline is found in a supposed contradiction between Hebrews 13:19 and 13:23. But 13:19 does not necessarily refer to imprisonment exclusively or even at all, and therefore it stands in no contradiction with 13:23 (compare Romans 1:9-13). And Timothy must have associated with many Christian leaders besides Paul. But why should anybody who wanted to represent the letter as Pauline and who scrupled not to add to it for that purpose, refrain from the obvious device of prefixing a Pauline greeting? Moreover, it is only by the most forced special pleading that it can be maintained that Hebrews 1:1-14 through Hebrews 12:1-29 are a mere doctrinal treatise, devoid of all evidences of a personal relation to a circumscribed circle of readers. The period and manner of the readers' conversion are defined (Hebrews 2:3 f). Their present spiritual condition is described in terms of such anxiety and hope as betoken a very intimate personal relation (Hebrews 5:11 f; Hebrews 6:9-11). Their past conflicts, temptations, endurance and triumph are recalled for their encouragement under present trials, and both past and present are defined in particular terms that point to concrete situations well known to writer and readers (Hebrews 10:32-36). There is, it is true, not in Hebrews the same intense and all-pervading personal note as appears in the earlier Pauline letters; the writer often loses sight of his particular audience and develops his argument in detached and abstract form. But it cannot be assumed that nothing is a letter which does not conform to the Pauline model. And the presence of long, abstract arguments does not justify the excision or explaining away of undoubted personal passages. Neither the language nor the logic of the book either demands or permits the separation of doctrinal and personal passages from one another, so as to leave for residuum a mere doctrinal treatise. Doctrinal statements lead up to personal exhortations, and personal exhortations form the transition to new arguments; they are indissolubly involved in one another; and chapter 13 presents no such exceptional. features as to justify its separation from the whole work. There is really no reason, but the unwarrantable assumption that an ancient writer must have conformed with a certain convention of letter-writing, to forbid the acceptance of Hebrews for what it appears to be--a defense of Christianity written for the benefit of definite readers, growing more intimate and personal as the writer gathers his argument into a practical appeal to the hearts and consciences of his readers,ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.43

III. The Author. Certain coincidences of language and thought between this epistle and that of Clement of Rome to the Corinthians justify the inference that Hebrews was known in Rome toward the end of the 1st century AD (compare Hebrews 11:7, 31 and 1:3 ff with Clement ad Cor 9,12,36). Clement makes no explicit reference to the book or its author: the quotations are unacknowledged. But they show that Hebrews already had some authority in Rome. The same inference is supported by similarities of expression found also in the Shepherd of Hermas. The possible marks of its influence in Polycarp and Justin Martyr are too uncertain and indefinite to justify any inference. Its name does not appear in the list of New Testament writings compiled and acknowledged by Marcion, nor in that of the Muratorian Fragment. The latter definitely assigns letters by Paul to only seven churches, and so inferentially excludes Hebrews.ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.44

When the book emerges into the clear light of history toward the end of the 2nd century, the tradition as to its authorship is seen to divide into three different streams.ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.45

(1) Alexandrian: PaulISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.46

In Alexandria, it was regarded as in some sense the work of Paul. Clement tells how his teacher, apparently Pantaenus, explained why Paul does not in this letter, as in others, address his readers under his name. Out of reverence for the Lord (II, 2, above) and to avoid suspicion and prejudice, he as apostle of the Gentiles refrains from addressing himself to the Hebrews as their apostle. Clement accepts this explanation, and adds to it that the original Hebrew of Paul's epistle had been translated into Greek by Luke. That Paul wrote in Hebrew was assumed from the tradition or inference that the letter was addressed to Aramaic-speaking Hebrews. Clement also had noticed the dissimilarity of its Greek from that of Paul's epistles, and thought he found a resemblance to that of Acts.ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.47

Origen starts with the same tradition, but he knew, moreover, that other churches did not accept the Alexandrian view, and that they even criticized Alexandria for admitting Hebrews into the Canon. And he feels, more than Clement, that not only the language, but the forms of thought are different from those of Paul's epistles. This he tries to explain by the hypothesis that while the ideas were Paul's, they had been formulated and written down by some other disciple. He found traditions that named Luke and Clement of Rome, but who the actual writer was, Origen declares that "God alone knows."ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.48

The Pauline tradition persisted in Alexandria, and by the 4th century it was accepted without any of the qualifications made by Clement and Origen. It had also in the same period spread over the other eastern churches, both Greek and Syrian. But the Pauline tradition, where it is nearest the fountain-head of history, in Clement and Origen, only ascribes Hebrews to Paul in a secondary sense.ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.49

(2) African: BarnabasISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.50

In the West, the Pauline tradition failed to assert itself till the 4th century, and was not generally accepted till the 5th century. In Africa, another tradition prevailed, namely, that Barnabas was the author. This was the only other definite tradition of authorship that prevailed in antiquity. Tertullian, introducing a quotation of Hebrews 6:1, 4-6, writes: "There is also an Epistle to the Hebrews under the name of Barnabas .... and the Epistle of Barnabas is more generally received among the churches than that apocryphal `Shepherd' of adulterers" (De Pudicitia, 20). Tertullian is not expressing his mere personal opinion, but quoting a tradition which had so far established itself as to appear in the title of the epistle in the MS, and he betrays no consciousness of the existence of any other tradition. Zahn infers that this view prevailed in Montanist churches and may have originated in Asia. Moffatt thinks that it had also behind it "some Roman tradition" (Introduction, 437). If it was originally, or at any time, the tradition of the African churches, it gave way there to the Alexandrian view in the course of the 4th century. A Council of Hippo in 393 reckons "thirteen epistles of the apostle Paul, and one by the same to the Hebrews." A council of Carthage in 419 reckons "fourteen epistles of the apostle Paul." By such gradual stages did the Pauline tradition establish itself.ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.51

(3) Rome and the West: AnonymousISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.52

All the evidence tends to show that in Rome and the remaining churches of the West, the epistle was originally anonymous. No tradition of authorship appears before the 4th century. And Stephen Gobarus, writing in 600, says that both Irenaeus and Hippolytus denied the Pauline authorship. Photius repeats this statement as regards Hippolytus. Neither he nor Gobarus mentions any alternative view (Zahn, Intro, II, 310). The epistle was known in Rome (to Clement) toward the end of the 1st century, and if Paul's name, or any other, had been associated with it from the beginning, it is impossible that it could have been forgotten by the time of Hippolytus. The western churches had no reason for refusing to admit Hebrews into the Pauline and canonical list of books, except only that they did not believe it to be the work of Paul, or of any other apostle.ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.53

It seems therefore certain that the epistle first became generally known as an anonymous writing. Even the Alexandrian tradition implies as much, for it appears first as an explanation by Pantaenus why Paul concealed his name. The idea that Paul was the author was therefore an Alexandrian inference. The religious value of the epistle was naturally first recognized in Alexandria, and the name of Paul, the chief letter-writer of the church, at once occurred to those in search for its author. Two facts account for the ultimate acceptance of that view by the whole church. The spiritual value and authority of the book were seen to be too great to relegate it into the same class as the Shepherd or the Epistle of Barnabas. And the conception of the Canon developed into the hard-and-fast rule of apostolicity. No writing could be admitted into the Canon unless it had an apostle for its author; and when Hebrews could no longer be excluded, it followed that its apostolic authorship must be affirmed. The tradition already existing in Alexandria supplied the demand, and who but Paul, among the apostles, could have written it?ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.54

The Pauline theory prevailed together with the scheme of thought that made it necessary, from the 5th to the 16th century. The Humanists and the Reformers rejected it. But it was again revived in the 17th and 18th centuries, along with the recrudescence of scholastic ideas. It is clear, however, that tradition and history shed no light upon the question of the authorship of Hebrews. They neither prove nor disprove the Pauline, or any other theory.ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.55

2. The Witness of the Epistle Itself: We are therefore thrown back, in our search for the author, on such evidence as the epistle itself affords, and that is wholly inferential. It seems probable that the author was a Hellenist, a Greek-speaking Jew. He was familiar with the Scriptures of the Old Testament and with the religious ideas and worship of the Jews. He claims the inheritance of their sacred history, traditions and institutions (Hebrews 1:1), and dwells on them with an intimate knowledge and enthusiasm that would be improbable, though not impossible, in a proselyte, and still more in a Christian convert from heathenism. But he knew the Old Testament only in the Septuagint translation, which he follows even where it deviates from the Hebrew. He writes Greek with a purity of style and vocabulary to which the writings of Luke alone in the New Testament can be compared. His mind is imbued with that combination of Hebrew and Greek thought which is best known in the writings of Philo. His general typological mode of thinking, his use of the allegorical method, as well as the adoption of many terms that are most familiar in Alexandrian thought, all reveal the Hellenistic mind. Yet his fundamental conceptions are in full accord with the teaching of Paul and of the Johannine writings.ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.56

The central position assigned to Christ, the high estimate of His person, the saving significance of His death, the general trend of the ethical teaching, the writer's opposition to asceticism and his esteem for the rulers and teachers of the church, all bear out the inference that he belonged to a Christian circle dominated by Pauline ideas. The author and his readers alike were not personal disciples of Jesus, but had received the gospel from those who had heard the Lord (Hebrews 2:3) and who were no longer living (Hebrews 13:7). He had lived among his readers, and had probably been their teacher and leader; he is now separated from them but he hopes soon to return to them again (Hebrews 13:18 f).ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.57

Is it possible to give a name to this person?ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.58

(1) Paul not the AuthorISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.59

Although the Pauline tradition itself proves nothing, the internal evidence is conclusive against it. We know enough about Paul to be certain that he could not have written Hebrews, and that is all that can be said with confidence on the question of authorship. The style and language, the categories of thought and the method of argument, all differ widely from those of any writings ascribed to Paul. The latter quotes the Old Testament from the Hebrew and Septuagint, but He only from Septuagint. Paul's formula of quotation is, "It is written" or "The scripture saith"; that of Hebrews, "God," or "The Holy Spirit," or "One somewhere saith." For Paul the Old Testament is law, and stands in antithesis to the New Testament, but in Hebrews the Old Testament is covenant, and is the "shadow" of the New Covenant. Paul's characteristic terms, "Christ Jesus," and "Our Lord Jesus Christ," are never found in Hebrews; and "Jesus Christ" only 3 times (10:10; 13:8), and "the Lord" (for Christ) only twice (2:3; 7:14)--phrases used by Paul over 600 times (Zahn). Paul's Christology turns around the death, resurrection and living presence of Christ in the church, that of Hebrews around His high-priestly function in heaven. Their conceptions of God differ accordingly. In Hebrews it is Judaistic-Platonistic, or (in later terminology) Deistic. The revelation of the Divine Fatherhood and the consequent immanence of God in history and in the world had not possessed the author s mind as it had Paul's. Since the present world is conceived in Hebrews as a world of "shadows," God could only intervene in it by mediators.ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.60

The experience and conception of salvation are also different in these two writers. There is no evidence in Hebrews of inward conflict and conversion and of constant personal relation with Christ, which constituted the entire spiritual life of Paul. The apostle's central doctrine, that of justification by faith, does not appear in Hebrews. Faith is less the personal, mystical relation with Christ, that it is for Paul, than a general hope which lays hold of the future to overcome the present; and salvation is accomplished by cleansing, sanctification and perfection, not by justification. While Paul's mind was not uninfluenced by Hellenistic thought, as we find it in Alexandria (as, e.g. in Col and Eph), it nowhere appears in his epistles so clearly and prominently as it does in Hebrews. Moreover, the author of Hebrews was probably a member of the community to which he writes (Hebrews 13:18 f), but Paul never stood in quite the relation supposed here to any church. Finally, Paul could not have written Hebrews 2:3, for he emphatically declares that he did not receive his gospel from the older disciples (Galatians 1:12; 2:6).ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.61

The general Christian ideas on which He was in agreement with Paul were part of the heritage which the apostle had left to all the churches. The few more particular affinities of Hebrews with certain Pauline writings (e.g. Hebrews 2:2 parallel Galatians 3:19; Hebrews 12:22; 3:14 parallel Galatians 4:25; Hebrews 2:10 parallel Romans 11:36; also with Ephesians; see yon Soden, Hand-Commentar, Romans 3:1-31) are easily explicable either as due to the author's reading of Paul's Epistles or as reminiscences of Pauline phrases that were current in the churches. But they are too few and slender to rest upon them any presumption against the arguments which disprove the Pauline tradition.ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.62

(2) Other TheoriesISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.63

The passage that is most conclusive against the Pauline authorship (Hebrews 2:3) is equally conclusive against any other apostle being the author. But almost every prominent name among the Christians of the second generation has been suggested. The epistle itself excludes Timothy (Hebrews 13:23), and Titus awaits his turn. Otherwise Luke, Clement of Rome, Barnabas, Silas, Apollos, Priscilla and Aquila, Philip the Deacon, and Aristion have all had their champions.ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.64

(a) Luke and ClementISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.65

The first two, Luke and Clement, were brought in through their connection with Paul. Where it was recognized that a direct Pauline authorship could not be maintained, the Pauline tradition might still be retained, if the epistle could be assigned to one of the apostle's disciples. These two were fixed upon as being well-known writers. But this very fact reveals the improbability of theory. Similar arguments from language and thought to those derived from the comparison of Hebrews with the Pauline writings avail also in the comparison of Hebrews with the writings of Lk and Clement. Both these disciples of the apostle adhere much closer to his system of thought than Hebrews does, and they reveal none of the influences of Alexandrian thought, which is predominant in Hebrews.ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.66

(b) Barnabas; Priscilla and Aquila; Philip; Aristion; ApollosISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.67

Of all the other persons suggested, so little is known that it is impossible to establish, with any convincing force, an argument for or against their authorship.ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.68

(i) Barnabas was a Levite of Cyprus (Acts 4:36), and once a companion of Paul (Acts 13:2 ff). Another ancient writing is called "the Epistle of Barnabas," but it has no affinity with Hebrews. The coincidence of the occurrence of the word "consolation" in Barnabas' name (Acts 4:36) and in the writer's description of Hebrews (Acts 13:22) is quite irrelevant. Tertullian's tradition is the only positive argument in favor of the Barnabas theory. It has been argued against it that Barnabas, being a Levite, could not have shown the opposition to the Levitical system, and the unfamiliarity with it (Hebrews 7:27; 9:4), which is supposed to mark our epistle. But the author's Levitical system was derived, not from the Hebrew Old Testament, nor from the Jerusalem temple, but from Jewish tradition; and the supposed inaccuracies as to the daily sin offering (Hebrews 7:27), and the position of the golden altar of incense (Hebrews 9:4) have been traced to Jewish tradition (see Moffatt, Introduction, 438). And the writer's hostility to the Levitical system is not nearly as intense as that of Paul to Pharisaism. There is nothing that renders it intrinsically impossible that Barnabas was the author, nor is anything known of him that makes it probable; and if he was, it is a mystery why the tradition was confined to Africa.ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.69

(ii) Harnack has argued the probability of a joint authorship by Priscilla and Aquila. The interchange of "I" and "we" he explains as due to a dual authorship by persons intimately related, but such an interchange of the personal "I" and the epistolary "we" can be paralleled in the Epistles of Paul (e.g. Romans) where no question of joint authorship arises. The probable relation of the author to a church in Rome may suit Priscilla arid Aquila (compare Romans 16:5 with Hebrews 13:22-24), but even if this interpretation of the aforementioned passages were correct, it is possible and probable that Luke, Barnabas, Apollos, and certainly Clement, stood in a similar relation to a Roman church. Harnack, on this theory, explains the disappearance of the author's name as due to prejudice against women teachers. This is the only novel point in favor of this theory as compared with several others; and it does not explain why Aquila's name should not have been retained with the address. The evidences adduced of a feminine mind behind the epistle are highly disputable. On the other hand, a female disciple of Paul's circle would scarcely assume such authority in the church as the author of Hebrews does (Hebrews 13:17 f; compare 1 Corinthians 14:34 f). And nothing that is known of Priscilla and Aquila would suggest the culture and the familiarity with Alexandrian thought possessed by this writer. Acts 18:26 does not prove that they were expert and cultured teachers, but only that they knew and could repeat the salient points of Paul's early preaching. So unusual a phenomenon as this theory supposes demands more evidence to make it even probable. (But see Rendel Harris, Sidelights on New Testament Research, 148-76.)ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.70

(iii) Philip the Deacon and Aristion, "a disciple of the Lord" mentioned by Papias, are little more than names to us. No positive knowledge of either survives on which any theory can be built. It is probable that both were personal disciples of the Lord, and they could not therefore have written Hebrews 2:3.ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.71

(iv) Apollos has found favor with many scholars from Luther downward. No ancient tradition supports this theory, a fact which tells heavily against it, but not conclusively, for someone must have written the letter, and his name was actually lost to early tradition, unless it were Barnabas, and that tradition too was Unknown to the vast majority of the early churches. All that is known of Apollos suits the author of Hebrews. He may have learned the gospel from "them that heard" (2:3); he was a Jew, "an Alexandrian by race, a learned (or eloquent) man," "mighty in the Scriptures," "he powerfully confuted the Jews" (Acts 18:24 ff), and he belonged to the same Pauline circle as Timothy and Titus (1 Corinthians 16:10-12; Titus 3:13; compare Hebrews 13:23). The Alexandrian type of thought, the affinities with Philo, the arguments from Jewish tradition and ceremonial, the fluent style, may all have issued from "an eloquent Jew of Alexandria." But it does not follow that Apollos was the only person of this type. The author may have been a Gentile, as the purity of his Greek language and style suggests; and the combination of Greek and Hebrew thought, which the epistle reflects, and even Philo's terms, may have had a wide currency outside Alexandria, as for instance in the great cosmopolitan cities of Asia. All that can be said is that the author of Hebrews was someone generally like what is known of Apollos, but who he actually was, we must confess with Origen, "God alone knows."ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.72

IV. Destination. The identity of the first readers of Hebrews is, if possible, more obscure than that of the author. It was written to Christians, and to a specific body or group of Christians (see I above). The title "to Hebrews" might mean properly Palestinian Jews who spoke the Hebrew language, but the fact that the epistle was written in Greek excludes that supposition. It therefore meant Christians of Jewish origin, and gives no indication of their place of residence. The title represents an early inference drawn from the contents of the document, and the tradition it embodies was unanimously accepted from the 2nd century down to the early part of the last century. Now, however, a considerable body of critics hold that the original readers were Gentiles. The question is entirely one of inference from the contents of the epistle itself.ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.73

1. General Character of the Readers: The readers, like the writer, received the gospel first from "them that heard" (Hebrews 2:3), from the personal disciples of the Lord, but they were not of their number. They had witnessed "signs and wonders" and "manifold powers" and "gifts of the Holy Spirit" (Hebrews 2:4). Their conversion had been thorough, and their faith and Christian life had been of a high order. They had a sound knowledge of the first principles of Christ (Hebrews 6:1 ff). They had become "partakers of Christ," and had need only to "hold fast the beginning of (their) confidence firm unto the end" (Hebrews 3:14). They had been fruitful in good works, ministering unto the saints (Hebrews 6:10), enduring suffering and persecution, and sympathizing with whose who were imprisoned (Hebrews 10:32-34). All this had been in former days which appeared now remote. Their rulers and ministers of those days are now dead (Hebrews 13:7). And they themselves have undergone a great change. While they should have been teachers, they have become dull of hearing, and have need again to be taught the rudiments of the first principles of the gospel (Hebrews 5:12), and they are in danger of a great apostasy from the faith. They need warning against "an evil heart of unbelief, in falling away from the living God" (Hebrews 3:12). They are become sluggish (Hebrews 6:12), profane like Esau (Hebrews 12:16), worldly-minded (Hebrews 13:5). Perhaps their religion was tending toward a false asceticism and outward works (Hebrews 13:4, 9). And now that this moral dulness and spiritual indifference had fallen upon them, they are being subjected to a new test by persecution from outside (Hebrews 10:36; 12:4), which renders the danger of their falling away from the faith all the more imminent. The author apparently bases his claim to warn them on the fact that he had been a teacher among them, and hoped soon to return to them (Hebrews 13:18 f). The same might be said perhaps of Timothy (Hebrews 13:23). Both author and readers had friends in Italy (Hebrews 13:24) who were with the author when he wrote, either in Italy saluting the readers outside, or outside, saluting the readers in Italy. In all this there is little or nothing to help to fix the destination of the letter, for it might be true at some time or other of any church.ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.74

2. Jews or Gentiles?: The old tradition that the readers were Jews claims some more definite support from the epistle itself. The writer assumes an intimate knowledge of the Old Testament and of Jewish ceremonial on their part. The fathers of the Hebrew race are also their fathers (Hebrews 1:1; 3:9). The humanity that Christ assumed and redeemed is called "the seed of Abraham" (Hebrews 2:16). All this, however, might stand in reference to a Gentilechurch, for the early Christians, without distinction of race, regarded themselves as the true Israel and heirs of the Hebrew revelation, and of all that related to it (1 Corinthians 10:1; Galatians 3:7 ff; Galatians 4:21 ff; Romans 4:11-18). Still there is force in Zahn's argument that "Hebrews does not contain a single sentence in which it is so much as intimated that the readers became members of God's people who descended from Abraham, and heirs of the promise given to them and their forefathers, and how they became such" (Intro to New Testament, II, 323). Zahn further finds a direct proof in Hebrews 13:13 that "both the readers and the author belong to the Jewish people," which he interprets as "meaning that the readers were to renounce fellowship with the Jewish people who had rejected Jesus, to confess the crucified Jesus, and to take upon themselves all the ignominy that Jesus met at the hands of his countrymen" (ibid., 324-25). But that is too large an inference to draw from a figurative expression which need not, and probably does not, mean more than an exhortation to rely on the sacrifice of Christ, rather than upon any external rules and ceremomes. Nor were the "divers and strange teachings" about marriage and meats (13:4,9) necessarily Jewish doctrines. They might be the doctrines of an incipient Gnosticism which spread widely throughout the Christian churches, both Jewish and gentile, toward the end of the 1st century. There is otherwise no evidence that the apostasy, of which the readers stood in danger, was into Judaism, but it was rather a general unbelief and "falling away from the living God" (3:12).ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.75

It is the whole argument of the epistle, rather than any special references, that produced the tradition, and supports the view, that the readers were Jews. The entire message of the epistle, the dominant claims of Christ and of the Christian faith, rests upon the supposition that the readers held Moses, Aaron, the Jewish priesthood, the old Covenant and the Levitical ritual, in the highest esteem. The author's argument is: You will grant the Divine authority and greatness of Moses, Aaron and the Jewish institutions: Christ is greater than they; therefore you ought to be faithful to Him. He assumes an exclusively Jewish point of view in the minds of his readers as his major premise. He could scarcely do that, if they had been Gentiles. Paul, when writing to the mixed church at Rome, relates his philosophy of the Christian revelation to both Jewish and Gentilepre-Christian revelation. Gentile Christians adopted the Jewish tradition as their own in consequence of, and secondary to, their attachment to Christianity. Even Judaizing GentileChristians, such as may be supposed to have belonged to the Galatian and Corinthian churches, adopted some parts of the Jewish law only as a supplement to Christianity, but not as its basis.ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.76

Von Soden and others have argued with much reason that these Christians were not in danger of falling back into Judaism from Christianity, but rather of falling away from all faith into unbelief and materialism, like the Israelites in the wilderness (Hebrews 3:7 ff), or Esau (Hebrews 12:16). With all its references to Old Testament sacrifice and ceremonial, the letter contains not a single warning against reviving them, nor any indications that the readers were in danger of so doing (Hand-Commentar, 12-16). But it has been too readily assumed that these facts prove that the readers were not Jews. The pressure of Social influence and persecution rendered Jews and Jewish Christians, as well as GentileChristians, liable to apostatize to heathenism or irreligion (Wisdom of Solomon 2:10, 20; 2 Maccabees 1:4; 1:6; 1:7; Philo, De Migratione Abrahami, XVI; Matthew 24:10, 12; Acts 20:30; 1 Corinthians 10:7, 14; 2 Thessalonians 2:4; 1 John 2:18; 5:21; Pliny Epistle X, 96). Von Soden's argument really cuts the other way. If the writer had been dealing with Gentile Christians who were in danger of relapsing into heathenism or of falling into religious indifference, his argument from the shadowy and temporary glories of Judaism to the perfect salvation in Christ would avail nothing, because, for such, his premises would depend upon his conclusion. But if they were Jewish Christians, even though leaning toward heathenism, his argument is well calculated to call up on its side all the dormant force of their early religious training. He is not arguing them out of a "subtle Judaism" quickened by the zeal of a propaganda (Moffatt, Introduction, 449-50), but from "drifting away" in Heb (2:1), from "neglect" (2:3), from "an evil heart of unbelief, in falling away from the living God" (3:12), from "disobedience" (4:11), from "a dulness of hearing" (5:11), but into "diligence .... that ye be not sluggish" (6:11 f), into "boldness and patience" (10:35 f), and to "lift up the hands that hang down, and the palsied knees" (12:12); and this he might well do by his appeal to their whole religious experience, both Jewish and Christian, and to the whole religious history of their race.ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.77

3. The Locality of the Readers: The question of the locality of these "Hebrews" remains a matter for mere conjecture. Jerusalem, Alexandria, Rome, Antioch, Colosse, Ephesus, Berea, Ravenna and other places have been suggested. Tradition, since Clement of Alexandria, fixed on Jerusalem, but on the untenable ground that the letter was written to Aramaic-speaking Jews. The undisputed fact that it was written in Greek tells against Jerusalem. So does the absence of all reference to the temple ritual, and the mention of almsgiving as the chief grace of the "Hebrews" (6:10). Jerusalem received rather than gave alms. Nor is it likely that all the personal disciples of the Lord would have died out in Jerusalem (2:3). And it could not be charged against the mother church that it had produced no teachers (5:12). These points also tell with almost equal force against any Palestinian locality.ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.78

Alexandria was suggested as an alternative to Jerusalem, on the supposition that those references to Jewish ritual which did not correspond with the Jerusalem ritual (Hebrews 7:27; 9:4; 10:11) might refer to the temple at Leontopolis. But the ritual system of the epistle is that of the tabernacle and of tradition, and not of any temple. The Alexandrian character of the letter has bearing on the identity of the author, but not so much on that of his readers. The erroneous idea that Paul was the author arose in Alexandria, but it would have been least likely to arise where the letter was originally sent.ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.79

Rome has lately found much favor. We first learn of the existence of the letter at Rome. The phrase "they of Italy salute you" (Hebrews 13:24) implies that either the writer or his readers were in Italy. It may be more natural to think of the writer, with a small group of Italian friends away from home, sending greetings to Italy, than to suppose that a greeting from Italy generally was sent to a church at a distance. It is probable that a body of Jewish Christians existed in Rome, as in other large cities of the Empire. But this view does not, as von Soden thinks, explain any coincidences between Hebrews and Romans. A Roman origin might. It could explain the use of Hebrews by Clement. But the letter might also have come to Rome by Clement's time, even though it was originally sent elsewhere. The slender arguments in favor of Rome find favor chiefly because no arguments can be adduced in favor of any other place.ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.80

V. Date. 1. Terminal Dates: The latest date for the composition of Hebrews is clearly fixed as earlier than 96 AD by reason of its use by Clement of Rome about that time. There is no justification for the view that Hebrews shows dependence on Josephus. The earliest date cannot be so definitely fixed. The apparent dependence of Hebrews on Paul's Epistles, Galatians, 1 Corinthians and Romans, brings it beyond 50 AD.ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.81

2. Conversion and History of Readers: But we have data in the epistle itself which require a date considerably later. The readers had been converted by personal disciples of the Lord (Hebrews 2:3). They did not, therefore, belong to the earliest group of Christians. But it is not necessary to suppose a long interval between the Lord's ascension and their conversion. The disciples were scattered widely from Jerusalem by the persecution that followed the death of Stephen (Acts 8:1). "We may well believe that the vigorous preaching of Stephen would set a wave in motion which would be felt even at Rome" (Sanday, Romans, xxviii). They are not, therefore, necessarily to be described as Christians of the 2nd generation in the strict chronological sense. But the letter was written a considerable time after their conversion. They have had time for great development in Heb (5:12). They have forgotten the former days after their conversion (10:32). Their early leaders are now dead (13:7). Yet the majority of the church still consists of the first converts (2:3; 10:32). And although no argument can be based upon the mention of 40 years (3:9), for it is only an incidental phrase in a quotation, yet no longer interval could lie between the founding of the church and the writing of the letter. It might be shorter. And the church may have been founded at any time from 32 to 70 AD.ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.82

3. Doctrinal Development: The doctrinal development represented in Hebrews stands midway between the system of the later Pauline Epistles (Philippians, Colossians, Ephesians) and that of the Johannine Writings. The divers and strange teachings mentioned include only such ascetic tendencies about meat and marriage (Hebrews 13:4, 9) as are reflected in Paul's Epistles early and late. There is no sign of the appearance of the full-blown heresies of the Ebionites, Docetists, and Gnostics, which became prevalent before the end of the 1st century. On the other hand the Logos-doctrine as the interpretation of the person of Christ (Hebrews 1:1-4) is more fully thought out than in Paul, but less explicit, and less assimilated with the purpose of Christianity, than in the Fourth Gospel.ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.83

4. The Fall of Jerusalem: It has been argued that the letter must have been written before the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD, because in writing to a Jewish community, and especially in dealing with Jewish ritual, the writer would have referred to that event, if it had happened. This point would be relevant, if the letter had been addressed to Jerusalem, which is highly improbable. But, at a distance, an author so utterly unconcerned with contemporary history could easily have omitted mention of even so important a fact. For in fact the author never mentions the temple or its ritual. His system is that of the tabernacle of the Old Testament and of Jewish tradition. The writer's interest is not in historical Judaism, and his omission to mention the great catastrophe does not prove that it had not occurred. The use of the present tense of the ritual does not imply its present continuance. "The present expresses the fact that so it is enjoined in the law, the past that with the founding of the New Covenant the old had been abolished" (Peake, Hebrews, 39).ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.84

5. Timothy: A point of contact with contemporary history is found in the fact that Timothy was still living and active when Hebrews was written (13:23), but it does not carry us far. Timothy was a young man and already a disciple, when Paul visited Galatia on his 2nd journey about 46 AD (Acts 16:1). And he may have lived to the end of the century or near to it. It cannot be safely argued from the mere mention of his name alone, that Paul and his other companions were dead.ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.85

6. Two Persecutions: Two incidents in the history of the readers are mentioned which afford further ground for a somewhat late date. Immediately after their conversion, they suffered persecution, "a great conflict of sufferings; partly, being made a gazingstock both by reproaches and afflictions; and partly, becoming partakers with them that were so used" (Hebrews 10:32 f). And now again, when the letter is written, they are entering upon another time of similar trial, in which they "have need of patience" (Hebrews 10:36), though they "have not yet resisted unto blood" (Hebrews 12:4). Their leaders, at least, it would appear, the writer and Timothy, have also been in prison, but one is at liberty and the other expects to be soon (Hebrews 13:19, 23). It has been conjectured that the first persecution was that under Nero in 64 AD, and the second, that in the reign of Domitian, after 81 AD. But when it is remembered that in some part of the Empire Christians were almost always under persecution, and that the locale of these readers is very uncertain, these last criteria do not justify any dogmatizing. It is certain that the letter was written in the second half of the 1st century. Certain general impressions, the probability that the first apostles and leaders of the church were dead, the absence of any mention of Paul, the development of Paul's theological ideas in a new medium, the disappearance of the early enthusiasm, the many and great changes that had come over the community, point strongly to the last quarter of the century. The opinions of scholars at present seem to converge about the year 80 AD or a little later.ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.86

VI. Contents. 1. Summary of Contents: I. The Revelation of God in His Son (Hebrews 1:1-14-Hebrews 2:1-18).ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.87

1. Christ the completion of revelation (Hebrews 1:1-3).ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.88

2. Christ's superiority over the angels (Hebrews 1:4 ff).ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.89

(1) Because lie is a Son (Hebrews 1:4-6). (2) Because His reign is eternal (Hebrews 1:7 ff). 3. The dangers of neglecting salvation through the Son (Hebrews 2:1-4).ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.90

4. The Son and humanity (Hebrews 2:5 ff). (1) The lowliness and dignity of man (Hebrews 2:5-8). (2) Necessity for the Incarnation (Hebrews 2:9 ff). (a) To fulfill God's gracious purpose (Hebrews 2:9 f) .ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.91

(b) That the Saviour and saved might be one (Hebrews 2:11-15).ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.92

II. The Prince of Salvation (Hebrews 3:1 through Hebrews 4:13).ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.94

1. Christ as Son superior to Moses as servant (Hebrews 3:1-6).ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.95

2. Consequences of Israel's unbelief (Hebrews 3:7-11).ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.96

3. Warning the "Hebrews" against similar unbelief (Hebrews 3:12 ff).ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.97

4. Exhortations to faithfulness (Hebrews 4:1-13). (1) Because a rest remains for the people of God (Hebrews 4:1-11).ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.98

(2) Because the omniscient God is judge (Hebrews 4:12 f).ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.99

III. The Great High Priest (Hebrews 4:14 through Hebrews 10:18).ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.100

1. Christ's priesthood the Christian's confidence (Hebrews 4:14-16).ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.101

2. Christ has the essential qualifications for priesthood (Hebrews 5:1-10).ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.102

(1) Sympathy with men (Hebrews 5:1-3). (2) God's appointment (Hebrews 5:4-10). 3. The spiritual dulness of the Hebrews (Hebrews 5:11 through Hebrews 6:12).ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.103

(1) Their lack of growth in knowledge (Hebrews 5:11 ff).ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.104

(2) "Press on unto perfection" (Hebrews 6:1-3). (3) The danger of falling away from Christ (Hebrews 6:4-8).ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.105

(4) Their past history ground for hoping better things (Hebrews 6:9-12).ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.106

4. God's oath the ground of Christ's priesthood and of the believer's hope (Hebrews 6:13 ff).ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.107

5. Christ a priest after the order of Melchizedek (Hebrews 7:1 ff).ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.108

(1) The history of Melchizedek (Hebrews 7:1-3). (2) The superiority of his order over that of Aaron (Hebrews 7:4-10).ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.109

(3) Supersession of the Aaronic priesthood (Hebrews 7:11-19).ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.110

(4) Superiority of Christ's priesthood (Hebrews 7:20-24).ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.111

(5) Christ a priest befitting us (Hebrews 7:24 ff). 6. Christ the true high priest (Hebrews 8:1 through Hebrews 10:18).ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.112

(1) Because He entered the true sanctuary (Hebrews 8:1-5).ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.113

(2) Because He is priest of the New Covenant (Hebrews 8:6 ff).ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.114

(3) A description of the old tabernacle and its services (Hebrews 9:1-7).ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.115

(4) Ineffectiveness of its sacrifices (Hebrews 9:8-10).ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.116

(5) Superiority of Christ's sacrifice (Hebrews 9:11-14).ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.117

(6) The Mediator of the New Covenant through His own blood (Hebrews 9:15 ff).ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.118

(7) Weakness of the sacrifices of the law (Hebrews 10:1-5).ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.119

(8) Incarnation for the sake of sacrifice (Hebrews 10:6-9).ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.120

(9) The one satisfactory sacrifice (Hebrews 10:10-18).ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.121

IV. Practical Exhortations (Hebrews 10:19 through Hebrews 13:25).ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.122

1. Draw near to God and hold fast the faith (Hebrews 10:19-23).ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.123

2. The responsibility of Christians and the judgment of God (Hebrews 10:24-31).ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.124

3. Past faithfulness a ground for present confidence (Hebrews 10:32 ff).ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.125

4. The household of faith (Hebrews 11:1 ff). (1) What is faith? (Hebrews 11:1-3). (2) The examples of faith (Hebrews 11:4-32). (3) The triumphs of faith (Hebrews 11:33 ff). 5. Run the race looking unto Jesus (Hebrews 12:1-3). 6. Sufferings as discipline from the Father (Hebrews 12:4-11).ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.126

7. The duty of helping and loving the brethren (Hebrews 12:12-17).ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.127

8. Comparison of the trials and privileges of Christians with those of the Israelites (Hebrews 12:18 ff).ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.128

9. Various duties (Hebrews 13:1-17). (1) Moral and social relations (Hebrews 13:1-6). (2) Loyalty to leaders (Hebrews 13:7 f). (3) Beware of Jewish heresies (Hebrews 13:9-4). (4) Ecclesiastical worship and order (Hebrews 13:15-17).ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.129

10. Personal affairs and greetings (Hebrews 13:18 ff).ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.130

(1) A request for the prayers of the church (Hebrews 13:18 f).ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.131

(2) A prayer for the church (Hebrews 13:20 f) . (3) "Bear with the word of exhortation" (Hebrews 13:22).ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.132

(4) "Our brother Timothy" (Hebrews 13:23). (5) Greetings (Hebrews 13:24). (6) Grace (Hebrews 13:25). 2. The Main Theme: The theme of the epistle is the absoluteness of the Christian religion, as based-upon the pre-eminence of Jesus Christ, the one and only mediator of salvation. The essence of Christ's preeminence is that He fully realizes in His own person the principles of revelation and reconciliation. It is made manifest in His superiority over the Jewish system of salvation, which He therefore at once supersedes and fulfils. The author's working concept is the Logos-doctrine of Philo; and the empirical data to which it is related is the religious history of Israel, as it culminates in Christianity. He makes no attempt to prove either his ideal first principles or his historical premises, and his philosophy of religion takes no account of the heathen world. The inner method of his argument is to fit Judaism and Christianity into the Logos-concept; but his actual is related to the ideal in the way of Plato's antithesis, of shadow and reality, of pattern and original, rather than in Aristotle's way of development, although the influence of the latter method may often be traced, as in the history of faith, which is carried back to the beginnings of history, but is made perfect only in the Christian consummation (Hebrews 11:40). In a number of other ideas the teleological movement may be seen cutting across the categories of shadow and reality (Hebrews 1:3, 10; 4:8 f; Hebrews 5:8 f; Hebrews 9:12; 10:12; 12:22).ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.133

3. Alexandrian Influences: The form of the argument may be described as either rabbinical or Alexandrian. The writer, after laying down his proposition, proceeds to prove it by quotations from the Old Testament, taken out of their context and historical connection, adapted and even changed to suit his present purpose. This practice was common to Palestinian and Alexandrian writers; as was also the use of allegory which plays a large part in Hebrews (e.g. Hebrews 3:7 through Hebrews 4:11; 13:11 f). But the writer's allegorical method differs from that of the rabbis in that it is like Philo's, part of a conscious philosophy, according to which the whole of the past and present history of the world is only a shadow of the true realities which are laid up in heaven (Hebrews 8:5; 9:23 f; Hebrews 10:1). His interest in historical facts, in Old Testament writers, in Jewish institutions and even in the historical life of Jesus, is quite subordinate to his prepossession with the eternal and heavenly realities which they, in more or less shadowy fashion, represent. That the affinities of Hebrews are Alexandrian rather than Palestinian is further proved by many philological and literary correspondences with The Wisdom of Solomon and Philo. Most of the characteristic terms and phrases of the epistle are also found in these earlier writers. It has been argued that Hebrews and Wisdom came from the same hand, and it seems certain that the author of Hebrews was familiar with both Wisdom and the writings of Philo (Plumptre in The Expositor, I, 329 ff, 409 ff; von Soden in Hand-Commentar, 5-6). In Philo the dualism of appearance and reality finds its ultimate synthesis in his master-conception of the Logos, and although this term does not appear in Hebrews in Philo's sense, the doctrine is set forth in Philonic phraseology in the opening verses (1:1-4). As Logos, Christ excels the prophets as revealer of God, is superior to the angels who Were the mediators of the old Covenant, and is more glorious than Moses as the builder of God's true tabernacle, His eternal house; He is a greater Saviour than Joshua, for He brings his own to final rest; and He supersedes the Aaronic priesthood, for while they ministered in a "holy place made with hands, like in pattern to the true," under a "law having a shadow of the good things to come, not the very image of the things" (Hebrews 9:24; 10:1), He "having come a high priest of the good things to come, through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands .... nor yet through the blood of goats and calves, but through his own blood, entered in once for all into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption" (Hebrews 9:11 f).ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.134

4. The Christian Factor: Yet it is possible to exaggerate the dependence of Hebrews on Alexandrian thought. Deeper than the allegorical interpretation of passages culled from the Septuagint, deeper than the Logos-philosophy which formed the framework of his thought, is the writer's experience and idea of the personal Christ. His central interest lies, not in the theoretical scheme which he adopts, but in the living person who, while He is the eternal reality behind all shadows, and the very image of God's essence, is also our brother who lived and suffered on earth, the author of our salvation, our "fore-runner within the veil," who "is able to save to the uttermost them that draw near unto God through him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them" (Hebrews 1:1-4; 2:14 ff; Hebrews 2:10; Hebrews 5:7-9; Hebrews 4:14-15; 6:20; 7:25). As in Paul and John, so in Hebrews, the historical and ever-living Christ comes in as an original and creative element, which transforms the abstract philosophy of Hellenistic thought into a living system of salvation. Because of His essential and personal preeminence over the institutions and personalities of the old Covenant, Christ has founded a new Covenant, given a new revelation and proclaimed a new gospel. The writer never loses sight of the present bearing of these eternal realities on the lives of his readers. They are for their warning against apostasy, for their encouragement in the face of persecution, and for their undying hope while they `run the race that is set before (them), looking unto Jesus the author and perfecter of .... faith (Hebrews 2:3; 3:12 ff; Hebrews 4:1 ff; Hebrews 10:28 ff; Hebrews 12:1 f,22 ff).ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.135

LITERATURE.ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.136

(1) Commentary by A. S. Peake, Century Bible; A.B. Davidson, Bible Handbooks; Marcus Dods, Expositor's Greek Test.; T.C. Edwards, Expositor's Bible; F. Rendall (London, 1888); Westcott3 (1903); von Soden, Hand-Commentar; Hollmann, Die Schriften des New Testament.ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.137

(2) Introductions by Moffatt, Introduction to the Lit. of the New Testament; A. B. Bruce in HDB; von Soden in EB; Zahn, Introduction to the New Testament; H.H.B Ayles, Destination, Date, and Authorship of the Epistle to the Hebrews; Harnack, "Probabilia, uber die Addresse und den Verfasser des Hebraerbriefes," ZNTW, I (1900); W. Wrede, Das literarische Ratsel des Hebraerbriefes (1906).ISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.138

(3) Theology: Bruce, The Epistle to the Hebrews; Milligan, The Theology of the Epistle to the Hebrews; Menegoz, La theologie de l'epitre aux Hebreux. For fuller list, see Moffatt, in the work quotedISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.139

T. ReesISBE Hebrews, Epistle to The.140

Hebrews, Gospel According to The

Hebrews, Gospel According to The - (Euaggelion kath' Hebraious, to Hebraikon, to Ioudaikon; Evangelium Hebraeorum, Judeorum):ISBE Hebrews, Gospel According to The.2

1. References in Early Church HistoryISBE Hebrews, Gospel According to The.3

2. Its Character and ContentsISBE Hebrews, Gospel According to The.4

3. Its Circulation and LanguageISBE Hebrews, Gospel According to The.5

4. Relation to MatthewISBE Hebrews, Gospel According to The.6

5. Time of CompositionISBE Hebrews, Gospel According to The.7

6. Uncanonical Sayings and IncidentsISBE Hebrews, Gospel According to The.8

7. ConclusionISBE Hebrews, Gospel According to The.9

LITERATUREISBE Hebrews, Gospel According to The.10

"The Gospel according to the Hebrews" was a work of early Christian literature to which reference is frequently made by the church Fathers in the first five centuries, and of which some twenty or more fragments, preserved in their writings, have come down to us. The book itself has long disappeared. It has, however, been the subject of many critical surmises and discussions in the course of the last century. It has been regarded as the original record of the life of Jesus, the Archimedespoint of the whole gospel history. From it Justin Martyr has been represented as deriving his knowledge of the works and words of Christ, and to it have been referred the gospel quotations found in Justin and other early writers when these deviate in any measure from the text of the canonical gospels. Recent discussions have thrown considerable light upon the problems connected with this Gospel, and a large literature has grown up around it of which the most important works will be noted below.ISBE Hebrews, Gospel According to The.11

1. References in Early Church History: Speaking of Papias Eusebius mentions that he has related the story of a woman who was accused of many sins before the Lord, which is contained in the "Gospel according to the Hebrews." This does not prove that Papias was acquainted with this Gospel, for he might have obtained the story, which cannot any longer be regarded as part of John's Gospel, from oral tradition. But there is a certain significance in Eusebius' mentioning it in this connection (Euseb., HE, III, xxxix, 16). Eusebius, speaking of Ignatius and his epp., takes notice of a saying of Jesus which he quotes (Ep. ad Smyrn, iii; compare Luke 24:39), "Take, handle me, and see thatI am not an incorporeal spirit." The saying differs materially from the saying in Luke's Gospel, and Eusebius says he has no knowledge whence it had been taken by Ignatius. Jerome, however, twice over attributes the saying to the "Gospel according to the Hebrews," and Origen quotes it from the "Teaching of Peter." Ignatius may have got the saying from oral tradition, and we cannot, therefore, be sure that he knew this Gospel.ISBE Hebrews, Gospel According to The.12

The first early Christian writer who is mentioned as having actually used the "Gospel according to the Hebrews" is Hegesippus, who flourished in the second half of the 2nd century. Eusebius, to whom we owe the reference, tells us that Hegesippus in his Memoirs quotes passages from "the Syriac Gospel according to the Hebrews" (Historia Ecclesiastica, IV, xxii, 7).ISBE Hebrews, Gospel According to The.13

Irenaeus, in the last quarter of the 2nd century, says the Ebionites use only the "Gospel according to Matthew" and reject the apostle Paul, calling him an apostate from the law (Adv. Haer., i. 26, 2). There is reason to believe that there is some confusion in this statement of Irenaeus, for we have the testimony of Eusebius, Jerome and Epiphanius that it was the "Gospel according to the Hebrews" that was used by the Ebionites. With this qualification we may accept Irenaeus as a witness to this Gospel.ISBE Hebrews, Gospel According to The.14

Clement of Alexandria early in the 3rd century quotes from it an apocryphal saying with the same formula as he employs for quotation of Holy Scripture (Strom., ii.9). Origen, Clement's successor at Alexandria, has one very striking quotation from the "Gospel according to the Hebrews" (Comm. in Joann, ii), and Jerome says this Gospel is often used by Origen.ISBE Hebrews, Gospel According to The.15

Eusebius, in the first half of the 4th century, mentions that the Ebionites use only the "Gospel according to the Hebrews" and take small account of the others (Historia Ecclesiastica, III, xxvii, 4). He has, besides, other references to it, and in his widely known classification of Christian Scriptures into "acknowledged" "disputed," and "rejected," he mentions this Gospel which he says some have placed in the last category, although those of the Hebrews who have accepted Christ are delighted with it (Historia Ecclesiastica, III, xxv, 5). Eusebius had himself in all probability seen and handled the book in the library of his friend Pamphilus at Caesarea, where Jerome, half a century later, found it and translated it.ISBE Hebrews, Gospel According to The.16

Epiphanius, who lived largely in Palestine, and wrote his treatise on heresies in the latter half of the 4th century, has much to say of the Ebionites, and the Nazarenes. Speaking of the Ebionites, he says they receive the "Gospel according to Matthew" to the exclusion of the others, mentioning that it alone of the New Testament books is in Hebrew speech and Hebrew characters, and is called the "Gospel according to the Hebrews" (Haer., xxx.3). He goes on to say, that their "Gospel according to Matthew," as it is named, is not complete but falsified and mutilated, "and they call it the Hebrew Gospel" (Haer., xxx. 13). The quotations which Epiphanius proceeds to make show that this Gospel diverges considerably from the canonical Gospel of Mt and may well be that according to the Hebrews. It is more likely that "the Gospel according to Matthew, very full, in Hebrew," of which Epiphanius speaks, when telling about the Nazarene, is the Hebrew "Gospel of Matthew" attested by Papias, Irenaeus, and a widespread early tradition. But as Epiphanius confesses he does not know whether it has the genealogies, it is clear he was not himself acquainted with the book.ISBE Hebrews, Gospel According to The.17

Jerome, toward the end of the 4th century, is our chief authority for the circulation and use of the "Gospel according to the Hebrews," although his later statements on the subject do not always agree with the earlier. He was proud of being "trilinguis," acquainted with Hebrew as well as with Latin and Greek. "There is a Gospel," he says, "which the Nazarenes and Ebionites use, which I lately translated from the Hebrew tongue into Greek and which is called by many the authentic Gospel of Matthew" (Commentary on Matthew 12:13). The fact here mentioned, that he translated the work, seems to imply that this Gospel was really something different from the canonical Mt which he had in his hands. In another place, however, he writes: "Matthew .... first of all composed the Gospel of Christ in Hebrew letters and words, in Judea, for behoof of those of the circumcision who had believed, and it is not quite certain who afterward translated it into Greek. But the very Hebrew is preserved to this day in the Caesarean library, which Pamphilus the Martyr, with such care, collected. I myself was allowed the opportunity of copying it by the Nazarenes in Berea who use this volume. In which it is to be observed that the evangelist, when he uses the testimonies of the Old Testament, either in his own person, or in that of the Lord and Saviour, does not follow the authority of the Septuagint translators, but the Hebrew. Of those, the following are two examples: `Out of Egypt have I called my Son' (Matthew 2:15 the King James Version); and `He shall be called a Nazarene' (Matthew 2:23)" (De Vir. Ill., iii). It certainly looks as if in the former instance Jerome meant the Gospel according to the Hebrews, and in the latter the well-authenticated Hebrew Gospel of Matthew. At a later time, however, Jerome appears to withdraw this and to introduce a confusing or even contradictory note. His words are: "In the Gospel according to the Hebrews, which was written indeed in the Chaldee-Syr (Aramaic) language, but in Hebrew characters, which the Nazarenes use as the `Gospel of the Apostles,' or as most people think `according to Matthew,' which also is contained in the library at Caesarea, the narrative says" (Adv. Pelag., iii.2). As he proceeds, he quotes passages which are not in the canonical Mt. He also says: "That Gospel which is called the Gospel of the Hebrews which was latedly translated by me into Greek and Latin, and was used frequently by Origen" (Catal. Script. Eccl., "Jacobus"). Jerome's notices of the actual Gospel were frequent, detailed and unequivocal.ISBE Hebrews, Gospel According to The.18

Nicephorus at the beginning of the 9th century puts the Gospel according to the Hebrews in his list of disputed books of the New Testament along with the Apocalypse of John, the Apocalypse of Peter, and the Epistle of Barnabas. This list is believed to rest upon an authority of about the year 500 AD, and, in the stichometry attached, this Gospel is estimated to have occupied 2,200 lines, while the canonical Mt occupied 2,500.ISBE Hebrews, Gospel According to The.19

Codex Lambda of the 9th century, discovered by Tischendorf, and now in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, has marginal notes affixed to four passages of Matthew giving the readings of to Ioudaikon, the lost Gospel according to the Hebrews (Scrivener, Textual Criticism, I4, 160; see also PlateXI , 30, p. 131).ISBE Hebrews, Gospel According to The.20

2. Its Character and Contents: All that survives, and all that we are told, of this work, show that it was of the nature of a Gospel, and that it was written in the manner of the Synoptic Gospels. But it seems not to have acquired at any time ecclesiastical standing outside the very limited circles of Jewish Christians who preferred it. And it never attained canonical authority. The Muratorian Fragment has no reference to it. Irenaeus knew that the Ebionites used only the Gospel according to Matthew in Hebrew, although, as we have seen, this may be really the Gospel according to the Hebrews; but his fourfold Gospel comprises the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, which we know. There is no reason to believe that it was the source of the quotations made by Justin from the Apomnemoneumata, or of quotations made anonymously by others of the early Fathers. Like the Synoptic Gospels, however, it contained narratives of events as well as sayings and discourses. It had an account of John the Baptist's ministry, of the baptism of Jesus, of the call of the apostles, of the woman taken in adultery, of the Last Supper, of the denial of Peter, of appearances of Jesus after the resurrection; and it contained the Lord's Prayer, and sayings of Jesus, like the forgiveness of injuries seventy times seven, the counsel to the rich young ruler, and others. One or two sayings have a Gnostic tinge, as when Jesus calls the Holy Spirit His mother, and is made to express His unwillingness to eat the flesh of the Passover Lamb. There are apocryphal additions, even where incidents and sayings are narrated belonging to the canonical Gospels, and there are sayings and incidents wholly apocryphal in the fragments of the Gospel which have survived. But these superfluities do not imply any serious deviation from Catholic doctrine; they only prove, as Professor Zahn says, "the earnestness of the redactor of the Gospel according to the Hebrews to enrich the only Gospel which Jewish Christians possessed up to that time from the still unexhausted source of private oral tradition" (GK, II, 717).ISBE Hebrews, Gospel According to The.21

The very title of the work suggests that it circulated among Jewish Christians. Those Christians of Palestine to whom Jerusalem was the ecclesiastical center betook themselves, after the troubles which befell the Holy City, to the less frequented regions beyond the Jordan, and were thus cut off from the main stream of catholic Christianity.ISBE Hebrews, Gospel According to The.22

3. Its Circulation and Language: It was accordingly easier for the spirit of exclusiveness to assert itself among them and also for heretical tendencies to develop. The Ebionites went farthest in this direction. They denied the supernatural birth of our Lord, and insisted upon the binding character of the Law for all Christians. The Nazarenes, as all Jewish Christians were called at first, observed the ceremonial law themselves, but did not impose it upon GentileChristians. And they accepted the catholic doctrine of the person of Christ. It was among a community of these Nazarenes at Berea, the modern Aleppo, that Jerome, during a temporary residence at Chalcis in Northern Syria, found the Gospel according to the Hebrews in circulation. No fewer than 9 times does he mention that this Gospel is their one Gospel, and only once does he connect the Ebionites with them in the use of it. Epiphanius draws a clear line of distinction between the Ebionites and the Nazarenes; and we can scarcely suppose that a Gospel which satisfied the one would be wholly acceptable to the other. There is reason to believe that the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew was most to the mind of the Hebrew Christians, and that it took different forms in the hands of the sects into which the Jewish Christian church became divided. Thus the Gospel of the Nazarenes was the Gospel according to the Hebrews, which in all probability had some affinity with the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew. The Gospel of the Ebionites, which seems to have been the same as the Gospel of the Twelve Apostles, was something of a more divergent doctrinal tendency suited to the exclusive and heretical views of that sect. But it is not easy to reconcile the statements of Epiphanius with those of Eusebius and Jerome.ISBE Hebrews, Gospel According to The.23

That the Hebrew tongue in which Papins says Matthew composed his Logia was the Aramaic of Palestine is generally accepted. This Aramaic was closely akin to the Syriac spoken between the Mediterranean and the Tigris. It was the same as the Chaldee of the books of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Daniel, of which examples have so recently been found in the Aramaic papyri from Elephantine at Assouan. Eusebius and Jerome are emphatic and precise in recording the fact that the Gospel according to the Hebrews was not only Hebrew or Aramaic in composition, but written in the square Hebrew characters, so different from the Old Hebrew of the Moabite Stone and the Siloam inscription. That there was a Greek translation before the time of Jerome of the Gospel according to the Hebrews, which was used by Origen, Clement of Alexandria, and others, is strenuously affirmed by Professor Harnack (Altchristliche Literatur, I, 6 ff) and as strenuously denied by Professor Zahn (GK, II, 648 ff). One reason why the book never attained to any ecclesiastical authority was no doubt its limited circulation in a tongue familiar, outside the circle of Jewish Christians, to only a learned few. For this reason also it is unlikely that it will ever be found, as the Epistle of Barnabas, the Shepherd, and other works have been.ISBE Hebrews, Gospel According to The.24

4. Relation to Matthew: It is natural to seek for traces of special relationship between the Gospel according to the Hebrews, circulating among communities of Jewish Christians, and the Gospel according to Matthew which grew up on the soil of Palestine, and which was originally composed in the interest of Jewish Christians, and circulated at a very early period in a Hebrew recension, soon superseded by the canonical Gospel of Matthew and now altogether lost. We have already seen that Irenaeus in all likelihood confused the "Gospel according to the Hebrews" with the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew; and that Jerome says the Gospel used by the Nazarenes was called by many the authentic Gospel of Matthew. Moreover, among the fragments that have survived, there are more which resemble Matthew's record than either of the other Synoptics. E.B. Nicholson, after a full and scholarly examination of the fragments and of the references, puts forward the hypothesis that "Matthew wrote at different times the canonical Gospel and the Gospel according to the Hebrews, or, at least, that large part of the latter which runs parallel to the former" (The Gospel according to the Hebrews, 104). The possibility of two editions of the same Gospel-writing coming from the same hand has recently received illustration from Professor. Blass' theory of two recensions of the Acts and of Luke's Gospel to explain the textual peculiarities of these books in Codex Bezae (D). This theory has received the adhesion of eminent scholars, but Nicholson has more serious differences to explain, and it cannot be said that his able argument and admirably marshaled learning have carried conviction to the minds of New Testament scholars.ISBE Hebrews, Gospel According to The.25

5. Time of Composition: If we could be sure that Ignatius in his Epistle to the Smyrneans derived the striking saying attributed to our Lord, "Take, handle me, and see thatI am not an incorporeal spirit," from the Gospel according to the Hebrews, we should be able to fix its composition as at any rate within the 1st century. The obscurity of its origin, the primitive cast of its contents, and the respect accorded to it down into the 5th century, have disposed some scholars to assign it an origin not later than our Synoptic Gospels, and to regard it as continuing the Aramaic tradition of the earliest preaching and teaching regarding Christ. The manifestly secondary character of some of its contents seems to be against such an early origin. Professor Zahn is rather disposed to place it not earlier than 130, when, during the insurrection of Bar-cochba, the gulf that had grown up between Jews and Jewish Christians was greatly deepened, and with an exclusively Gentilechurch in Jerusalem, the Jewish Christians had lost their center and broken off into sects. The whole situation seems to him to point to a date somewhere between 130-50 AD. The data for any precise determination of the question are wanting.ISBE Hebrews, Gospel According to The.26

6. Uncanonical Sayings and Incidents: There is a saying which Clement of Alexandria quotes from it as Scripture: "He that wonders shall reign and he that reigns shall rest" (Strom., ii.9). Origen quotes from it a saying of Jesus, reminding us somewhat of Ezek (8:3): "Just now My Mother the Holy Spirit took me by one of my hairs, and bore me away to the great mountain Thabor" (Orig., In Joann., ii; it is quoted several times both by Origen and Jerome). Jerome more than once quotes from it a saying of the Lord to His disciples: "Never be joyful except when ye look on your brother in love" (Hieron. in Ephesians 5:4; in Ezekiel 18:7). In his commentary on Mt (Ezekiel 6:11) Jerome mentions that he found in the third petition of the Lord's prayer for the difficult and unique Greek word epiousios, which he translates "supersubstantialis," the Aramaic word machar, crastinus, so that the sense would be, "Tomorrow's bread give us today." Of unrecorded incidents the most notable is that of the appearance of the Risen Lord to James: "And when the Lord had given His linen cloth to the servant of the priest, He went to James and appeared to him. For James had sworn that he would not eat bread from that hour wherein he had drunk the cup of the Lord until he saw Him rising from the dead. Again a little afterward the Lord says, Bring a table and bread. Immediately it is added: He took bread and blessed and brake, and afterward gave it to James the Just and said to him, My brother, eat thy bread for the Son of Man has risen from them that sleep" (Hieron., De Vir. Illustr., "Jacobus").ISBE Hebrews, Gospel According to The.27

Jerome also tells that in the Gospel according to the Hebrews, there is the following passage: "Lo, the mother of the Lord and His brethren said unto Him: John the Baptist is baptizing for the remission of sins; let us go and be baptized by him. But He said to them: What sin have I committed that I should go and be baptized by him? Unless perchance this very word which I have spoken is a sin of ignorance" (Hieron., Adv. Pelag., iii.2).ISBE Hebrews, Gospel According to The.28

7. Conclusion: This Gospel is not to be classed with heretical Gospels like that of Marcion, nor with apocryphal Gospels like that of James or Nicodemus. It differed from the former in that it did not deviate from any essential of catholic truth in its representation of our Lord. It differed from the latter in that it narrated particulars mostly relating to our Lord's public ministry, while they occupy themselves with matters of curiosity left unrecorded in the canonical Gospels. It differs from the canonical Gospels only in that it is more florid in style, more diffuse in the relation of incidents, and more inclined to sectional views of doctrine. Its uncanonical sayings and incidents may have come from oral tradition, and they do lend a certain interest and picturesqueness to the narrative. Its language confined it to a very limited sphere, and its sectional character prevented it from ever professing Scriptural authority or attaining to canonical rank.ISBE Hebrews, Gospel According to The.29

See also APOCRYPHAL GOSPELS.ISBE Hebrews, Gospel According to The.30

LITERATURE.ISBE Hebrews, Gospel According to The.31

E.B. Nicholson, The Gospel according to the Hebrews (1879); R. Handmann, Das Hebrder-Evangelium: Texte u. Untersuchungen, Band V (1889); Zahn, GK, II, 642-723 (1890); Harnack, Geschichte der altchristlichen Literatur, I, 6 ff; II, 1, 625-51 (1897); Neutestamentliche Apocryphen (Hennecke), I, 11-21 (1904).ISBE Hebrews, Gospel According to The.32

T. NicolISBE Hebrews, Gospel According to The.33

Hebrews, Religion of The

Hebrews, Religion of The - See ISRAEL,RELIGION OF .ISBE Hebrews, Religion of The.2

Hebron (1)

Hebron (1) - he'-brun (chebhron, "league" or "confederacy"; Chebron): One of the most ancient and important cities in Southern Palestine, now known to the Moslems as el Khalil (i.e. Khalil er Rahman, "the friend of the Merciful," i.e. of God, a favorite name for Abraham; compare James 2:23). The city is some 20 miles South of Jerusalem, situated in an open valley, 3,040 ft. above sea-level.ISBE Hebron (1).2

I. History of the City. Hebron is said to have been rounded before Zoan (i.e. Tanis) in Egypt (Numbers 13:22); its ancient name was Kiriath-arba, probably meaning the "Four Cities," perhaps because divided at one time into four quarters, but according to Jewish writers so called because four patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Adam were buried there. According to Joshua 15:13 it was so called after Arba, the father of Anak.ISBE Hebron (1).3

1. Patriarchal Period: Abram came and dwelt by the oaks of MAMRE (which see), "which are in Hebron" Gen (13:18); from here he went to the rescue of Lot and brought him back after the defeat of Chedorlaomer (14:13 f); here his name was changed to Abraham (17:5); to this place came the three angels with the promise of a son (18:1 f); Sarah died here (23:2), and for her sepulcher Abraham bought the cave of Machpelah (23:17); here Isaac and Jacob spent much of their lives (35:27; 37:14); from here Jacob sent Joseph to seek his brethren (37:14), and hence, Jacob and his sons went down to Egypt (46:1). In the cave of Machpelah all the patriarchs and their wives, except Rachel, were buried (49:30 f; 50:13).ISBE Hebron (1).4

2. Times of Joshua and Judges: The spies visited Hebron and near there cut the cluster of grapes (Numbers 13:22 f). HOHAM (which see), king of Hebron, was one of the five kings defeated by Joshua at Beth-horon and slain at Makkedah (Joshua 10:3 f). Caleb drove out from Hebron the "three sons of Anak" (Joshua 14:12; 15:14); it became one of the cities of Judah (Joshua 15:54), but was set apart for the Kohathite Levites (Joshua 21:10 f), and became a city of refuge (Joshua 20:7). One of Samson's exploits was the carrying of the gate of Gaza "to the top of the mountain that is before Hebron" (Judges 16:3).ISBE Hebron (1).5

3. The Days of the Monarchy: David, when a fugitive, received kindness from the people of this city (1 Samuel 30:31); here Abner was treacherously slain by Joab at the gate (2 Samuel 3:27), and the sons of Rimmon, after their hands and feet had been cut off, were hanged "beside the pool" (2 Samuel 4:12). After the death of Saul, David was here anointed king (2 Samuel 5:3) and reigned here 7 1/2 years, until he captured Jerusalem and made that his capital (2 Samuel 5:5); while here, six sons were born to him (2 Samuel 3:2). In this city Absalom found a center for his disaffection, and repairing there under pretense of performing a vow to Yahweh, he raised the standard of revolt (2 Samuel 15:7 f). Josephus mistakenly places here the dream of Solomon (Ant., VIII, ii, 1) which occurred at Gibeon (1 Kings 3:4). Hebron was fortified by Rehoboam (2 Chronicles 11:10).ISBE Hebron (1).6

4. Later History: Probably during the captivity Hebron came into the hands of Edom, though it appears to have been colonized by returning Jews (Nehemiah 11:25); it was recovered from Edom by Simon Maccabeus (1 Maccabees 5:65; Josephus, Ant, XII, viii, 6). In the first great revolt against Rome, Simon bar-Gioras captured the city (BJ, IV, ix, 7), but it was retaken, for Vespasian, by his general Cerealis who carried it by storm, slaughtered the inhabitants and burnt it (ibid., 9).ISBE Hebron (1).7

During the Muslim period Hebron has retained its importance on account of veneration to the patriarchs, especially Abraham; for the same reason it was respected by the Crusaders who called it Castellum ad Sanctum Abraham. In 1165 it became the see of a Latin bishop, but 20 years later it fell to the victorious arms of Saladin, and it has ever since remained a fanatic Moslem center, although regarded as a holy city, alike by Moslem, Jew and Christian.ISBE Hebron (1).8

II. The Ancient Site. Modern Hebron is a straggling town clustered round the Haram or sacred enclosure built above the traditional cave of MACHPELAH (which see); it is this sacred spot which has determined the present position of the town all through the Christian era, but it is quite evident that an exposed and indefensible situation, running along a valley, like this, could not have been that of earlier and less settled times. From many of the pilgrim narratives, we can gather that for long there had been a tradition that the original site was some distance from the modern town, and, as analogy might suggest, upon a hill. There can be little doubt that the site of the Hebron of Old Testament history is a lofty, olive-covered hill, lying to the West of the present town, known as er Rumeidy. Upon its summit are cyclopian walls and other traces of ancient occupation. In the midst are the ruins of a medieval building known as Der el-Arba`in, the "monastery of the forty" (martyrs) about whom the Hebronites have an interesting folklore tale. In the building are shown the so-called tombs of Jesse and Ruth. Near the foot of the hill are several fine old tombs, while to the North is a large and very ancient Jewish cemetery, the graves of which are each covered with a massive monolith, 5 and 6 ft. long. At the eastern foot of the hill is a perennial spring, `Ain el Judeideh; the water rises in a vault, roofed by masonry and reached by steps. The environs of this hill are full of folklore associations; the summit would well repay a thorough excavation.ISBE Hebron (1).9

A mile or more to the Northwest of Hebron is the famous oak of MAMRE (which see), or "Abraham's oak," near which the Russians have erected a hospice. It is a fine specimen of the Holm oak (Quercus coccifera), but is gradually dying. The present site appears to have been pointed out as that of Abraham's tent since the 12th century; the earlier traditional site was at Ramet el Khalil.ISBE Hebron (1).10

See MAMRE.ISBE Hebron (1).11

III. Modern Hebron. Modern Hebron is a city of some 20,000 inhabitants, 85 percent of whom are Moslems and the remainder mostly Jews. The city is divided into seven quarters, one of which is known as that of the "glass blowers" and another as that of the "water-skin makers." These industries, with the manufacture of pottery, are the main sources of trade. The most conspicuous building is the Haram (see MACHPELAH). In the town are two large open reservoirs the Birket el Qassasin, the "pool of the glass blowers" and Birket es Sultan, "the pool of the Sultan." This latter, which is the larger, is by tradition the site of the execution of the murderers of Ishbosheth (2 Samuel 4:12). The Moslem inhabitants are noted for their fanatical exclusiveness and conservatism, but this has been greatly modified in recent years through the patient and beneficent work of Dr. Paterson, of the U. F. Ch. of S. Med. Mission. The Jews, who number about 1,500, are mostly confined to a special ghetto; they have four synagogues, two Sephardic and two Ashkenazic; they are a poor and unprogressive community.ISBE Hebron (1).12

For Hebron (Joshua 19:28) see EBRON.ISBE Hebron (1).13

E. W. G. MastermanISBE Hebron (1).14

Hebron (2)

Hebron (2) - (chebhron, "league," "association"):ISBE Hebron (2).2

(1) The third son of Kohath, son of Levi (Exodus 6:18; Numbers 3:19, 27; 1 Chronicles 6:2, 18; 12, 19).ISBE Hebron (2).3

(2) A son of Mareshah and descendant of Caleb (1 Chronicles 2:42-43).ISBE Hebron (2).4

Hebronites

Hebronites - he'-brun-its (chebhroni): A family of Levites, descendants of Hebron, third son of Kohath (Numbers 3:27; 26:58, etc.).ISBE Hebronites.2

Hedge

Hedge - hej:ISBE Hedge.2

(1) mecukhah, "a thorn hedge," only in Micah 7:4.; mesukkah, "a hedge" (Isaiah 5:5); mesukhath chadheq, "a hedge of thorns" (Proverbs 15:19).ISBE Hedge.3

(2) gadher, and geherah, translated "hedges" in the Revised Version (British and American) only in Psalms 89:40, elsewhere "fence." GEDERAH (which see) in the Revised Version margin is translated "hedges" (1 Chronicles 4:23).ISBE Hedge.4

(3) na`atsuts, "thorn-hedges" (Isaiah 7:19).ISBE Hedge.5

(4) phragmos, translated "hedge" (Matthew 21:33; Mark 12:1; Luke 14:23); "partition" in Ephesians 2:14, which is its literal meaning. In the Septuagint it is the usual equivalent of the above Hebrew words.ISBE Hedge.6

Loose stone walls without mortar are the usual "fences" around fields in Palestine, and this is what gadher and gedherah signify in most passages. Hedges made of cut thorn branches or thorny bushes are very common in the plains and particularly in the Jordan valley.ISBE Hedge.7

E. W. G. MastermanISBE Hedge.8

Hedgehog

Hedgehog - hej'-hog Septuagint echinos, "hedgehog," for qippodh, in Isaiah 14:23; 34:11; Zephaniah 2:14, and for qippoz, in Isaiah 34:15).ISBE Hedgehog.2

See PORCUPINE; BITTERN; OWL; SERPENT.ISBE Hedgehog.3

Heed

Heed - hed: This word, in the sense of giving careful attention ("take heed," "give heed," etc.), represents several Hebrew and Greek words; chief among them shamar, "to watch"; blepo, "to look," horao, "to see." As opposed to thoughtlessness, disregard of God's words, of the counsels of wisdom, of care for one's ways, it is constantly inculcated as a duty of supreme importance in the moral and spiritual life (Deuteronomy 4:9, 15, 23; 27:9 the King James Version, etc.; Joshua 22:5; 23:11; Psalms 39:1; Matthew 16:6; Mark 4:24; 13:33; Luke 12:15; 1 Corinthians 3:10; 8:9; 10:12; Colossians 4:17, etc.).ISBE Heed.2

James OrrISBE Heed.3

Heel

Heel - hel (`aqebh): "The iniquity of my heels" (Psalms 49:5 the King James Version) is a literal translation, and might be understood to indicate the Psalmist's "false steps," errors or sins, but that meaning is very doubtful here. the Revised Version (British and American) gives "iniquity at my heels." the Revised Version margin gives a still better sense, "When the iniquity of them that would supplant me compasseth me about, even of them that trust in .... riches"--treacherous enemies ever on the watch to trip up a man's heels (compare Hosea 12:3). Of Judah it was said, "Thy heels (shall) suffer violence" (Jeremiah 13:22) through being "made bare" (the King James Version), and thus subject to the roughness of the road as she was led captive.ISBE Heel.2

Figurative: (1) Of the partial victory of the evil power over humanity, "Thou shalt bruise (m "lie in wait for") his heel" (Genesis 3:15), through constant, insidious suggestion of the satisfaction of the lower desires. Or if we regard this statement as a part of the Protevangelium, the earliest proclamation of Christ's final, and complete victory over sin, the destruction of "the serpent" ("He shall bruise thy head"), then the reference is evidently to Christ's sufferings and death, even to all that He endured in His human nature. (2) Of the stealthy tactics of the tribe of Dan in war, "An adder in the path, that biteth the horse's heels" (Genesis 49:17), by which it triumphed over foes of superior strength. (3) Of violence and brutality, "Who .... hath lifted up his heel against me" (Psalms 41:9; John 13:18), i.e. lifted up his foot to trample upon me (compare Joshua 10:24).ISBE Heel.3

M. O. EvansISBE Heel.4

Hegai; Hege

Hegai; Hege - he'-ga-i, he'-ge (heghay; Gai (Esther 2:8, 15), and heghe', Hege (Esther 2:3)): One of the officers of the Persian king Ahasuerus; a chamberlain or eunuch (keeper of women), into whose custody the "fair young virgins" were delivered from whom the king intended to choose his queen in the place of the discredited Vashti.ISBE Hegai; Hege.2

Hegemonides

Hegemonides - heg-e-mon'-i-dez, hej-e-mo-ni'-dez (Hegemonides): The Syrian officer placed in command of the district extending from Ptolemais to the Gerrenians (2 Maccabees 13:24). It is not easy to see how in the King James Version and even in Swete's revised text the word can be taken as a mere appellative along with strategon, the two being rendered "principal officer": one of the two could certainly be omitted (Swete, 3rd ed., 1905, capitalizes Hegemonides). In the Revised Version (British and American) the word is taken as the name of some person otherwise unknown.ISBE Hegemonides.2

Heifer

Heifer - hef'-er (parah, in Numbers 19:1-22 (see following article) and Hosea 4:16; `eghlah, elsewhere in the Old Testament; damalis, in Hebrews 9:13):For the "heifer of three years old" in the King James Version, the Revised Version margin of Isaiah 15:5; Jeremiah 48:34, see EGLATH-SHELISHIYAH. A young cow (contrast BULLOCK). The `eghlah figures specifically in religious rites only in the ceremony of Deuteronomy 21:1-9 for the cleansing of the land, where an unexpiated murder had been committed. This was not a sacrificial rite--the priests are witnesses only, and the animal was slain by breaking the neck--but sacrificial purity was required for the heifer. Indeed, it is commonly supposed that the rite as it now stands is a rededication of one that formerly had been sacrificial. In the sacrifices proper the heifer could be used for a peace offering (Leviticus 3:1), but was forbidden for the burnt (Leviticus 1:3) or sin (Leviticus 4:3, 14) offerings. Hence, the sacrifice of 1 Samuel 16:2 was a peace offering. In Genesis 15:9 the ceremony of the ratification of the covenant by God makes use of a heifer and a she-goat, but the reason for the use of the females is altogether obscure. Compare following article.ISBE Heifer.2

Figuratively: The heifer appears as representing sleekness combined with helplessness in Jeremiah 46:20 (compare the comparison of the soldiers to `stalled calves' in the next verse). In Jeremiah 50:11; Hosea 10:11, the heifer is pictured as engaged in threshing. This was particularly light work, coupled with unusually abundant food (Deuteronomy 25:4), so that the threshing heifer served especially well for a picture of contentment. ("Wanton" in Jeremiah 50:11, however, is an unfortunate translation in the Revised Version (British and American).) Hosea, in contrast, predicts that the "heifers" shall be set to the hard work of plowing and breaking the sods. In Judges 14:18, Samson uses "heifer" in his riddle to refer to his wife. This, however, was not meant to convey the impression of licentiousness that it gives the modern reader.ISBE Heifer.3

Burton Scott EastonISBE Heifer.4

Heifer, Red

Heifer, Red - In Numbers 19:1-22 a rite is described in which the ashes of a "red heifer" and of certain objects are mixed with running water to obtain the so-called "water for impurity." (Such is the correct translation of the American Standard Revised Version in Numbers 19:9, 13, 10, 21; 31:23. In these passages, the King James Version and the English Revised Version, through a misunderstanding of a rather difficult Hebrew term, have "water of separation"; Septuagint and the Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 A.D.) have, "water of sprinkling." the English Revised Version margin, "water of impurity," is right, but ambiguous.) This water was employed in the removal of the uncleanness of a person or thing that had been in contact with a dead body, and also in removing ritual defilement from booty taken in war.ISBE Heifer, Red.2

1. Origin and Significance of the Rite: The general origin of the rite is clear enough, as is the fact that this origin lies back of the official sacrificial system of Israel. For the removal of impurity, ritual as well as physical, water, preferably running water (Numbers 19:17; compare Leviticus 14:5 ff; Leviticus 15:13), is the natural means, and is employed universally. But where the impurity was unusually great, mere water was not felt to be adequate, and various substances were mixed with it in order to increase its efficacy. So (among other things) blood is used in Leviticus 14:6-7, and dust in Numbers 5:17 (see WATER OF BITTERNESS). The use, however, of ashes in Numbers 19:17 is unique in the Old Testament, although parallels from elsewhere can be adduced. So e.g. in Ovid Fasti, iv.639-40, 725, 733, in the last of these references, "The blood of a horse shall be a purification, and the ashes of calves," is remarkably close to the Old Testament. The ashes were obtained by burning the heifer completely, "her skin, and her flesh, and her blood, with her dung" (the contents of the entrails) (Numbers 19:5; compare Exodus 29:14). Here only in the Old Testament is blood burned for a ceremonial purpose, and here only is burning a pewliminary; elsewhere it is either a chief act or serves to consume the remnants of a finished sacrifice--Leviticus 4:12 and Numbers 19:3 are altogether different.ISBE Heifer, Red.3

The heifer is a female. For the regular sin offering for the congregation, only the male was permitted (Leviticus 4:14), but the female was used in the purificatory ceremony of Deuteronomy 21:3 (a rite that has several points of similarity to that of Numbers 19:1-22). An individual sin offering by one of the common people, however, required a female (Leviticus 4:28), but probably only in order to give greater prominence to the more solemn sacrifices for which the male was reserved. A female is required again in the cases enumerated in Leviticus 5:1-6, most of which are ritual defilements needing purification; a female was required at the purification of a leper (in addition to two males, Leviticus 14:10), and a female, with one male, was offered when a Nazirite terminated his vows (Numbers 6:14). Some connection between purification and the sacrifice of a female may be established by this list, for even in the case of the Nazirite the idea may be removal of the state of consecration. But the reason for such a connection is anything but obvious, and the various explanations that have been offered are hardly more than guesses. The most likely is that purificatory rites originated in a very primitive stage when the female was thought to be the more sacred animal on account of its greater usefulness. Of the other requirements for the heifer she must be "red," i.e. reddish brown (Numbers 19:2). Likeness in color to blood is at first sight the most natural explanation, but likeness in color to ripe grain is almost equally plausible. It may be noted that certain Egyptian sacrifices also required red cattle as victims (Plutarch, De Isid. 31). The heifer is to be "without spot" ("faultless"), "wherein is no blemish," the ordinary requirement for sacrifices. (The Jewish exegetes misread this "perfectly red, wherein is no blemish," with extraordinary results; see below.) But an advance on sacrificial requirements is that she shall be one "upon which never came yoke." This requirement is found elsewhere only in Deuteronomy 21:3 and in 1 Samuel 6:7 (that the animals in this last case were finally sacrificed is, however, not in point). But in other religions this requirement was very common (compare Iliad x.293; Vergil, Georg. iv.550-51; Ovid, Fasti iv.336).ISBE Heifer, Red.4

2. Use of Cedar and Hyssop: While the heifer was being burned, "cedar-wood, and hyssop, and scarlet" (i.e. scarlet wool or thread) were cast into the flames. The same combination of objects (although differently employed) is found at the cleansing of a leper (Leviticus 14:4), but their meaning is entirely unknown. The explanations offered are almost countless. It is quite clear that hyssop was especially prized in purifications (Psalms 51:7), but the use of hyssop as a sprinkler and the use of ashes of hyssop may be quite unrelated. Hyssop and cedar were supposed to have medicinal properties (see CEDAR; HYSSOP). Or the point may be the use of aromatic woods. For a mixture of cedar and other substances in water as a purificatory medium compare Fossey, Magie Assyrienne, 285. The scarlet wool offers still greater difficulties, apart from the color, but it may be noted that scarlet wool plays a part in some of the Babylonian conjurations (Assyrian Bibl., XII, 31). But, obviously, none of this leads very far and it may all be in the wrong direction. All that can be said definitely is that Leviticus 14:4 and Numbers 19:6 show that the combination of objects was deemed to have a high purificatory value.ISBE Heifer, Red.5

3. Application and Sacredness of the Ashes: The ashes, when obtained, were used in removing the greatest of impurities. Consequently, they themselves were deemed to have an extraordinarily "consecrated" character, and they were not to be handled carelessly. Their consecration extended to the rite by which they were produced, so that every person engaged in it was rendered unclean (Numbers 19:7-8, 10), an excellent example of how in primitive religious thought the ideas of "holiness" and "uncleanness" blend. It was necessary to perform the whole ceremony "without the camp" (Numbers 19:3), and the ashes, when prepared, were also kept without the camp (Numbers 19:9), probably in order to guard against their touch defiling anyone (as well as to keep them from being defiled). When used they were mixed with running water, and the mixture was sprinkled with hyssop on the person or object to be cleansed (Numbers 19:17-19). The same water was used to purify booty (Numbers 31:23), and it may also be meant by the "water of expiation" in Numbers 8:7.ISBE Heifer, Red.6

4. Of Non-Priestly and Non-Israelitish Origin: In addition to the similarities already pointed out between Numbers 19:1-22 and Deuteronomy 21:1-9, the rites resemble each other also in the fact that, in both, laymen are the chief functionaries and that the priests have little to do (in Deuteronomy 21:1-9 they are mere passive witnesses). This suggests a non-priestly origin. The title "sin-offering" in Numbers 19:9, 17 (unless used in a unique sense) points to an original sacrificial meaning, although in Numbers 19:1-22 the heifer is carefully kept away from the altar. Again, the correspondences with rites in other religions indicate a non-Israelitish origin. Such a ceremony may well have passed among the Israelites and have become prized by them. It contained nothing objectionable and seemed to have much of deep worth, and a few slight additions--chiefly the sprinkling (Numbers 19:4; compare Leviticus 4:6, 17)--made it fit for adoption into the highest system. Some older features may have been eliminated also, but as to this, of course, there is no information. But, in any case, the ceremony is formed of separate rites that are exceedingly old and that are found in a great diversity of religions so that any elaborate symbolic interpretation of the details would seem to be without justification. The same result can be reached by comparing the countless symbolic interpretations that have been attempted in the past, for they differ hopelessly. As a matter of fact, the immense advance that has been gained in the understanding of the meaning of the Old Testament rites through the comparative study of religions has shown the futility of much that has been written on symbolism. That a Certain rite is widely practiced may merely mean that it rests on a true instinct. To be sure, the symbolism of the future will be written on broader lines and will be less pretentious in its claims, but for these very reasons it will rest on a more solid basis. At present, however, the chief task is the collection of material and its correct historical interpretation.ISBE Heifer, Red.7

5. Obscurity of Later History: The later history of the rite is altogether obscure. As no provision was made in Numbers 19:1-22 for sending the ashes to different points, the purification could have been practiced only by those living near the sanctuary. Rabbinical casuistry still further complicated. matters by providing that two black or white hairs from the same follicle would disqualify the heifer (see above), and that one on whom even a cloth had been laid could not be used. In consequence, it became virtually or altogether impossible to secure a proper animal, and the Mishnic statement that only nine had ever been found (Parah, iii.5) probably means that the rite had been obsolete long before New Testament times. Still, the existence of the tractate, Parah, and the mention in Hebrews 9:13 show that the provisions were well remembered.ISBE Heifer, Red.8

Height; Heights

Height; Heights - hit, The English terms represent a large number of Hebrew words (gobhah, marom, qomah, rum, etc.). A chief thing to notice is that in the Revised Version (British and American) "height" and "heights" are frequently substituted for other words in the King James Version, as "coast" (Joshua 12:23), "region" (1 Kings 4:11), "borders" (Joshua 11:2), "countries" (Joshua 17:11), "strength" (Psalms 95:4), "high places" (Isaiah 41:18; Jeremiah 3:2, 21; 7:29; 12:12; 14:6), "high palaces" (Psalms 78:69). On the other hand, for "height" in the King James Version, the Revised Version (British and American) has "stature" (Ezekiel 31:5, 10), "raised basement" (Ezekiel 41:8), etc. In the New Testament we have hupsoma, prop. of space (Romans 8:39), and hupsos of measure (Ephesians 3:18; Revelation 21:16).ISBE Height; Heights.2

James OrrISBE Height; Heights.3

Heir

Heir - ar:ISBE Heir.2

1. The Word "Heir": In the New Testament "heir" is the invariable translation of kleronomos (15 times), the technical equivalent in Greek, and of the compound sunkleronomos, "co-heir," in Romans 8:17; Ephesians 3:6; Hebrews 11:9; 1 Peter 3:7 (in Galatians 4:30; Hebrews 1:14, contrast the King James Version and the Revised Version (British and American)). In the Old Testament "heir" and "to be heir" both represent some form of the common verb yarash, "possess," and the particular rendition of the verb as "to be heir" is given only by the context (compare e.g. the King James Version and the Revised Version (British and American) in Jeremiah 49:2; Micah 1:15). Exactly the same is true of the words translated "inherit," "inheritance," which in by far the great majority of cases would have been represented better by "possess," "possession" (see INHERITANCE andOHL on ...). Consequently, when God is said, for instance, to have given Palestine to Israel as an `inheritance' (Leviticus 20:24, etc.), nothing more need be meant than `given as a possession.' The Septuagint, however, for the sake of variety in its rendition of Hebrew words, used kleronomeo in many such cases (especially Genesis 15:7-8; 22:17), and thereby fixed on `heir' the sense of `recipient of a gift from God.' And so the word passed in this sense into New Testament Greek--Romans 4:13-14; Galatians 3:29; Titus 3:7; Hebrews 6:17; 11:7; James 2:5; compare Ephesians 3:6; Hebrews 11:9; 1 Peter 3:7. On the other hand, the literal meaning of the word is found in Mark 12:7 (and parallels and Galatians 4:1--in the latter case being suggested by the transferred meaning in Galatians 3:29--while in Romans 8:17; Galatians 4:7, the literal and transferred meanings are blended. This blending has produced the phrase "heirs of God," which, literally, is meaningless and which doubtless was formed without much deliberation, although it is perfectly clear. A similar blending has applied "heir" to Christ in Hebrews 1:2 (compare Romans 8:17 and perhaps Mark 12:7) as the recipient of all things in their totality. But apart from these "blended" passages, it would be a mistake to think that sonship is always consciously thought of where "heir" is mentioned, and hence, too much theological implication should not be assigned the latter word.ISBE Heir.3

2. Heir in Old Testament Law: The heirs of property in the Old Testament were normally the sons and, chief among these, the firstborn.ISBE Heir.4

(1) Deuteronomy 21:15-17 provides that the firstborn shall inherit a "double portion," whence it would appear that all the other sons shared equally. (It should be noted that in this law the firstborn is the eldest son of the father, not of the mother as in Exodus 13:2.) Uncertain, however, is what Deuteronomy 21:15-17 means by "wife," and the practice must have varied. In Genesis 21:10 the son of the handmaid was not to be heir with Isaac, but in Genesis 30:1-13 the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah are reckoned as legitimate children of Jacob. See MARRIAGE. Nor is it clear that Deuteronomy 21:15-17 forbids setting aside the eldest son because of his own sin--compare the case of Reuben (Genesis 49:3, 1; 1 Chronicles 5:1), although the son of a regular wife (Genesis 29:32). The very existence of Deuteronomy 21:15-17, moreover, shows that in spite of the absence of formal wills, a man could control to some extent the disposition of his property after his death and that the right of the firstborn could be set aside by the father (1 Chronicles 26:10). That the royal dignity went by primogeniture is asserted only (in a particular case) in 2 Chronicles 21:3, and both David (1 Kings 1:11-13) and Rehoboam (2 Chronicles 11:21-23) chose younger sons as their successors. A single payment in the father's lifetime could be given in lieu of heritage (Genesis 25:6; Luke 15:12), and it was possible for two brothers to make a bargain as to the disposition of the property after the father's death (Genesis 25:31-34).ISBE Heir.5

(2) When there were sons alive, the daughters had no right of inheritance, and married daughters had no such right in any case. (Job 42:15 describes an altogether exceptional procedure.) Probably unmarried daughters passed under the charge of the firstborn, as the new head of the family, and he took the responsibility of finding them husbands. Numbers 27:1-11; Numbers 36:1-12 treat of the case where there were no sons--the daughters inherited the estate, but they could marry only within the tribe, lest the tribal possessions be confused. This right of the daughters, however, is definitely stated to be a new thing, and in earlier times the property probably passed to the nearest male relatives, to whom it went in later times if there were no daughters. In extreme cases, where no other heirs could be found, the property went to the slaves (Genesis 15:3; Proverbs 30:23, noting that the meaning of the latter verse is uncertain), but this could have happened only at the rarest intervals. A curious instance is that of 1 Chronicles 2:34-35, where property is preserved in the family by marrying the daughter to an Egyptian slave belonging to the father; perhaps some adoption-idea underlies this.ISBE Heir.6

(3) The wife had no claim on the inheritance, though the disposition made of her dowry is not explained, and it may have been returned to her. If she was childless she resorted to the Levirate marriage (Deuteronomy 25:5-10). If this was impracticable or was without issue she returned to her own family and might marry another husband (Genesis 38:11; Leviticus 22:13; Ruth 1:8). The inferior wives (concubines) were part of the estate and went to the heir; indeed, possession of the father's concubines was proof of possession of his dignities (2 Samuel 16:21-22; 1 Kings 2:13-25). At least, such was the custom in the time of David and Solomon, but at a later period nothing is heard of the practice.ISBE Heir.7

(4) The disposition of land is a very obscure question. Numbers 36:4 states explicitly that each heir had a share, but the continual splittin up of an estate through successive generations would have produced an impossible state of affairs. Possibly the land went to the eldest born as part of his portion, possibly in some cases it was held in common by the members of the family, possibly some member bought the shares of the others, possibly the practice differed at different times. But our ignorance of the facts is complete.ISBE Heir.8

NOTE.--The dates assigned by different scholars to the passages cited have an important bearing on the discussion.ISBE Heir.9

Burton Scott EastonISBE Heir.10

Helah

Helah - he'-la (chel'ah): A wife of Ashhur, father of Tekoa (1 Chronicles 4:5, 7).ISBE Helah.2

Helam

Helam - he'-lam (chelam, 2 Samuel 10:16 f; in 2 Samuel 16:17 with the he of locale; Septuagint Hailam): A place near which David is said to have defeated the Aramean world under Hadarezer (2 Samuel 10:16 ff). Its site is unknown. Cornill and others introduce it into the text of Ezekiel 47:16 from the Septuagint Heliam). This would place it between the territories of Damascus and Hamath, which is not unreasonable. Some scholars identify it with Aleppo, which seems too far north.ISBE Helam.2

Helbah

Helbah - hel'-ba (chelbah): A place in the territory assigned to Asher (Judges 1:31). It may be identical with Mahalliba of Sennacherib's prism inscription. The site, however, has not been recovered.ISBE Helbah.2

Helbon

Helbon - hel'-bon (chelbon; Chelbon, Chebron): A district from which Tyre received supplies of wine through the Damascus market (Ezekiel 27:18); universally admitted to be the modern Halbun, a village at the head of a fruitful valley of the same name among the chalk slopes on the eastern side of Anti-Lebanon, 13 miles North-Northwest of Damascus, where traces of ancient vineyard terracing still exist. Records contemporary with Ezek mention mat helbunim or the land of Helbon, whence Nebuchadnezzar received wine for sacrificial purposes (Belinno Cylinder, I, 23), while karan hulbunu, or Helbonian wine, is named in Western Asiatic Inscriptions, II, 44. Strabo (xv.735) also tells that the kings of Persia esteemed it highly. The district is still famous for its grapes--the best in the country--but these are mostly made into raisins, since the population is now Moslem. Helbon must not be confounded with Chalybon (Ptol. v.15, 17), the Greek-Roman province of Haleb or Aleppo.ISBE Helbon.2

W. M. ChristieISBE Helbon.3

Helchiah

Helchiah - hel-ki'-a.ISBE Helchiah.2

See HELKIAS.ISBE Helchiah.3

Heldai

Heldai - hel'-da-i (chelday):ISBE Heldai.2

(1) A captain of the temple-service, appointed for the 12th month (1 Chronicles 27:15). Same as Heled (cheledh) in parallel list (compare 1 Chronicles 11:30), and is probably also to be identified with Heleb, son of Baanah the Metophathite, one of David's heroic leaders (2 Samuel 23:29).ISBE Heldai.3

(2) One of a company of Jews who brought gifts of gold and silver from Babylon to assist the exiles under Zerubbabel (Zechariah 6:10).ISBE Heldai.4

Heleb

Heleb - he'-leb chelebh, 2 Samuel 23:29).ISBE Heleb.2

See HELDAI.ISBE Heleb.3

Heled

Heled - he'-led (cheledh, 1 Chronicles 11:30).ISBE Heled.2

See HELDAI.ISBE Heled.3

Helek

Helek - he'-lek chelekh): Son of Gilead the Manassite (Numbers 26:30; Joshua 17:2). Patronymic, Helekites (Numbers 26:30).ISBE Helek.2

Helem

Helem - he'-lem:ISBE Helem.2

(1) helem; Septuagint Codex Vaticanus, Balaam, omitting "son," Codex Alexandrinus, huios Elam, "son of Elam" (1 Chronicles 7:35). A great-grandson of Asher, called Hotham in 1 Chronicles 7:32. The form "Elam" appears as the name of a Levite in 1 Esdras 8:33.ISBE Helem.3

(2) chelem, "strength," regarded by Septuagint as a common noun (Zechariah 6:14). One of the ambassadors from the Jews of the exile to Jerusalem; probably the person called Heldai in Zechariah 6:10 is meant.ISBE Helem.4

Heleph

Heleph - he'-lef (cheleph): A place on the southern border of Naphtali (Joshua 19:33); unidentified.ISBE Heleph.2

Helez

Helez - he'-lez (chelets "vigor"; Septuagint Selles, Chelles):ISBE Helez.2

(1) 2 Samuel 23:26; 1 Chronicles 11:27; 27:10. One of David's mighty men; according to 1 Chronicles 27:10, he belonged to the sons of Ephraim and was at the head of the 1 Chronicles 7:11-40th course in David's organization of the kingdom.ISBE Helez.3

(2) Septuagint Chelles, 1 Chronicles 2:39. A man of Judah of the clan of the Jerahmeelites.ISBE Helez.4

Heli

Heli - he'-li (Helei for `eli):ISBE Heli.2

(1) The father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, in Luke's account of the genealogy of Jesus (Luke 3:23).ISBE Heli.3

(2) An ancestor of Ezra (2 Esdras 1:2).ISBE Heli.4

Heliodorus

Heliodorus - he-li-o-do'-rus (Heliodoros): Treasurer of the Syrian king Seleucus IV, Philopator (187-175 BC), the immediate predecessor of Antiochus Epiphanes who carried out to its utmost extremity the Hellenizing policy begun by Seleucus and the "sons of Tobias." Greatly in want of money to pay the tribute due to the Romans as one of the results of the victory of Scipio over Antiochus the Great at Magnesia (190 BC), Seleucus learned from Apollonius, governor of Coele-Syria (Pal) and Phoenicia, of the wealth which was reported to be stored up in the Temple at Jerusalem and commissioned Heliodorus. (2 Maccabees 3) to plunder the temple and to bring its contents to him. On the wealth collected in the Temple at this time, Josephus (Ant., IV, vii, 2) may be consulted. The Temple seems to have served the purposes of a bank in which the private deposits of widows and orphans were kept for greater security, and in 2 Maccabees 3:15-21 is narrated the panic at Jerusalem which took place when Heliodorus came with an armed guard to seize the contents of the Temple (see Stanley, Lectures on the History of the Jewish Church,III , 287). In spite of the protest of Onias, the high priest, Heliodorus. was proceeding to carry out his commission when, "through the Lord of Spirits and the Prince of all power," a great apparition appeared which caused him to fall down "compassed with great darkness" and speechless. When "quite at the last gasp" he was by the intercession of Onias restored to life and strength and "testified to all men the works of the great God which he had beheld with his eyes." The narrative given in 2 Maccabees 3 is not mentioned by any other historian, though 4macc refers to the plundering of the Temple and assigns the deed to Apollonius. Raffaelle used the incident in depicting, on the walls of the Vatican, the triumph of Pope Julius II over the enemies of the Pontificate.ISBE Heliodorus.2

J. HutchisonISBE Heliodorus.3

Heliopolis

Heliopolis - he-li-op'-o-lis.ISBE Heliopolis.2

See ON .ISBE Heliopolis.3

Helkai

Helkai - hel'-ka-i, hel'-ki, hel-ka'-i (chelqay, perhaps an abbreviation for Helkiah, "Yah is my portion." Not in the Septuagint's Codex Vaticanus; Codex L: Chelkias (Nehemiah 12:15)): The head of a priestly house in the days of Joiakim.ISBE Helkai.2

Helkath

Helkath - hel'-kath (chelqath (Joshua 19:25); chelqath (Joshua 21:31); by a scribal error chuqoq (1 Chronicles 6:75)): A town or district on the border of Asher, assigned to the Levites; unidentified.ISBE Helkath.2

Helkath-hazzurim

Helkath-hazzurim - hel'-kath-haz'-u-rim, -ha-zu'-rim (chelqath ha-tsurim; Meris ton epiboulon): The name as it stands means "field of the sword edges," and is applied to the scene of the conflict in which twelve champions each from the army of Joab and that of Abner perished together, each slaying his fellow (2 Samuel 2:16). Some, following Septuagint, would read chelqath ha-tsodhim, "field of the crafty," i.e. "of the ambush." Thenius suggested chelqath ha-tsarim, "field of the adversaries" (see also H. P. Smith, ICC, "Samuel," 271). Probably, however, the text as it stands is correct.ISBE Helkath-hazzurim.2

W. EwingISBE Helkath-hazzurim.3

Helkias

Helkias - hel-ki'-as (chilqiyah; Chelkias; the King James Version Chelcias):ISBE Helkias.2

(1) Father of Susanna (Susanna verses 2,29,63). According to tradition he was brother of Jeremiah, and he is identified with the priest who found the Book of the Law in the time of Josiah (2 Kings 22:8).ISBE Helkias.3

(2) Ancestor of Baruch (Baruch 1:1).ISBE Helkias.4

(3) Father of Joiakim the high priest (Baruch 1:7). The name represents HILKIAH (which see).ISBE Helkias.5

Hell

Hell - hel (see SHEOL; HADES; GEHENNA):ISBE Hell.2

1. The Word in the King James Version: The English word, from a Teutonic root meaning "to hide" or "cover," had originally the significance of the world of the dead generally, and in this sense is used by Chaucer, Spenser, etc., and in the Creed ("He descended into hell"); compare the English Revised Version Preface. Now the word has come to mean almost exclusively the place of punishment of the lost or finally impenitent; the place of torment of the wicked. In the King James Version of the Scriptures, it is the rendering adopted in many places in the Old Testament for the Hebrew word she'ol (in 31 out of 65 occurrences of that word it is so translated), and in all places, save one (1 Corinthians 15:55) in the New Testament, for the Greek word Hades (this word occurs 11 times; in 10 of these it is translated "hell"; 1 Corinthians 15:55 reads "grave," with "hell" in the margin). In these cases the word has its older general meaning, though in Luke 16:23 (parable of Rich Man and Lazarus) it is specially connected with a place of "torment," in contrast with the "Abraham's bosom" to which Lazarus is taken (Luke 16:22).ISBE Hell.3

2. The Word in the Revised Version: In the above cases the Revised Version (British and American) has introduced changes, replacing "hell" by "Sheol" in the passages in the Old Testament (the English Revised Version retains "hell" in Isaiah 14:9, 15; the American Standard Revised Version makes no exception), and by "Hades" in the passages in the New Testament (see under these words).ISBE Hell.4

3. Gehenna: Besides the above uses, and more in accordance with the modern meaning, the word "hell" is used in the New Testament in the King James Version as the equivalent of Gehenna (12 t; Matthew 5:22, 29; 10:28, etc.). the Revised Version (British and American) in these cases puts "Gehenna" in the margin. Originally the Valley of Hinnom, near Jerusalem, Gehenna became among the Jews the synonym for the place of torment in the future life (the "Gehenna of fire," Matthew 5:22, etc.; see GEHENNA).ISBE Hell.5

4. Tartarus: In yet one other passage in the New Testament (2 Peter 2:4), "to cast down to hell" is used (the King James Version and the Revised Version (British and American)) to represent the Greek tartaroo, ("to send into Tartarus"). Here it stands for the place of punishment of the fallen angels: "spared not angels when they sinned, but cast them down to hell, and committed them to pits (or chains) of darkness" (compare Jude 1:6; but also Matthew 25:41). Similar ideas are found in certain of the Jewish apocalyptic books (Book of Enoch, Book of Jubilees, Apocrypha Baruch, with apparent reference to Genesis 6:1-4; compare ESCHATOLOGY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT).ISBE Hell.6

On theological aspect, see PUNISHMENT, EVERLASTING. For literature, see references in above-named arts., and compare article "Hell" by Dr. D. S. Salmond in HDB.ISBE Hell.7

James OrrISBE Hell.8

Hellenism; Hellenist

Hellenism; Hellenist - hel'-en-iz'-m, hel'-en-ist: Hellenism is the name we give to the manifold achievements of the Greeks in social and political institutions, in the various arts, in science and philosophy, in morals and religion. It is customary to distinguish two main periods, between which stands the striking figure of Alexander the Great, and to apply to the earlier period the adjective "Hellenic," that of "Hellenistic" to the latter. While there is abundant reason for making this distinction, it must not be considered as resting upon fortuitous changes occasioned by foreign influences. The Hellenistic age is rather the sudden unfolding of a flower whose bud was forming and maturing for centuries.ISBE Hellenism; Hellenist.2

1. The Expansion of the Greek Peoples: Before the coming of the Hellenic peoples into what we now call Greece, there existed in those lands a flourishing civilization to which we may give the name "Aegean." The explorations of archaeologists during the last few decades have brought it to light in many places on the continent, as well as on the islands of the Aegean and notably in Crete. When the Hellenic peoples came, it was not as a united nation, nor even as homogeneous tribes of a common race; though without doubt predominantly of kindred origin, it was the common possession of an Aryan speech and of similar customs and religion that marked them off from the peoples among whom they settled. When their southward movemerit from Illyria occurred, and by what causes it was brought about, we do not know; but it can hardly have long antedated the continuance of this migration which led to the settlement of the coast districts of Asia Minor and the islands of the Aegean from about the 13th to the 10th centuries BC. In the colonization of these new territories the Hellenic peoples became conscious of their kinship, partly because the several colonies received contingents from various regions of the motherland, partly because they were in common brought into striking contrast to the alien "Barbarians" who spoke other untintelligible languages. As the older communities on the mainland and on the islands began to flourish, they felt the need, arising from various causes, for further colonization. Among these causes we may mention the poverty of the soil in Greece proper, the restricting pressure of the strong tribes of Asia Minor who prevented expansion inland, a growing disaffection with the aristocratic regime in almost all Greek states and with the operation of the law of primogeniture in land tenure, and lastly the combined lure of adventure and the prospect of trade. Thus, it came about that in the 8th and 7th centuries BC, two great movements of colonial expansion set in, one toward the Hellespont and to the shores of the Pontus, or Black Sea, beyond, the other westward toward Southern Italy, Sicily, and beyond as far as Gades in Spain. To the 7th century belongs also the colonization of Naucratis in Egypt and of Cyrene in Libya. Then followed a period of relative inactivity during the 5th century, which was marked by the desperate conflict of the Greeks with Persia in the East and with Carthage in the West, succeeded by even more disastrous conflicts among themselves. With the enforced internal peace imposed by Macedonia came the resumption of colonial and military expansion in a measure before undreamed of. In a few years the empire of Alexander embraced Thrace, Asia Minor, Egypt, and Asia eastward beyond the Indus. The easternmost regions soon fell away, but Asia Minor, Syria and Egypt long continued under Greek rule, until Rome in the 1st century BC made good her claims to sovereignty in those lands.ISBE Hellenism; Hellenist.3

2. The Hellenic State: Throughout this course of development and expansion we speak of the people as Greeks, although it is evident that even such racial homogeneity as they may have had on coming into Greece must have been greatly modified by the absorption of conquered peoples. But the strong individuality of the Hellenic population manifested itself everywhere in its civilization. In the evolution from the Homeric kingship (supported by the nobles in council, from which the commonalty was excluded, or where it was supposed at most to express assent or dissent to proposals laid before it) through oligarchic or aristocratic rule and the usurped authority of the tyrants, to the establishement of democratic government, there is nothing surprising to the man of today. That is because Greek civilization has become typical of all western civilization. In the earlier stages of this process, moreover, there is nothing strikingly at variance with the institutions of the Hebrews, at least so far as concerns the outward forms. But there existed throughout a subtle difference of spirit which made it possible, even inevitable, for the Greeks to attain to democratic institutions, whereas to the Hebrews such a development was impossible, if not unthinkable. It is difficult to define this spirit, but one may say that it was marked from the first by an inclination to permit the free development and expression of individuality subordinated to the common good; by a corresponding recognition of human limitations over against one's fellow-man as over against Deity; by an instinctive dread of excess as inhuman and provoking the just punishment of the gods; and lastly by a sane refusal to take oneself too seriously, displaying itself in a certain good-humored irony even among men who, like Socrates and Epicurus, regarded themselves as charged with a sublime mission, in striking contrast with the Hebrew prophets who voiced the thunders of Sinai, but never by any chance smiled at their own earnestness. Even the Macedonians did not attempt to rule Greece with despotic sway, leaving the states in general in the enjoyment of their liberties; and in the Orient, Alexander and his successors, Roman as well as Greek, secured their power and extended civilization by the foundation and encouragement of Hellenic cities in extraordinary numbers. The city-state, often confederated with other city-states, displaced the organization of tribe or clan, thus substituting a new unit and a new interest for the old; and the centers thus created radiated Hellenic influence and made for order and good government everywhere. But in accordance with the new conditions the state took on a somewhat different form. While the city preserved local autonomy, the state became monarchical; and the oriental deification of the king reinforced by the Hellenic tendency to deify the benefactors of mankind, eventuated in modes of speech and thought which powerfully influenced the Messianic hopes of the Jews.ISBE Hellenism; Hellenist.4

3. Hellenic Life: The life of the Greeks, essentially urban and dominated by political interests fostered in states in which the individual counted for much, was of a type wholly different from the oriental. Although the fiction of consanguinity was cultivated by the Hellenic city-state as by the Semitic tribe, it was more transparent in the former, particularly in the newer communities formed in historical times. There was thus a powerful stimulus to mutual tolerance and concession which, supported as it was by the strong love of personal independence and the cultivation of individuality, led to the development of liberty and the recognition of the rights of man. A healthy social life was the result for those who shared the privileges of citizenship, and also, in hardly less degree, for those resident aliens who received the protection of the state. Women also, though not so free as men, enjoyed, even at Athens where they were most limited, liberties unknown to the Orientals. In the Hellenistic age they attained a position essentially similar to that of modern Europe. There were slaves belonging both to individuals and the state, but their lot was mitigated in general by a steadily growing humanity. The amenities of life were many, and were cultivated no less in the name of religion than of art, literature, and science.ISBE Hellenism; Hellenist.5

4. Hellenic Art and Letters: As in every phase of Greek civilization, the development of art and letters was free. Indeed their supreme excellence must be attributed to the happy circumstances which suffered them to grow spontaneously from the life of the people without artificial constraints imposed from within, or overpowering influences coming from without: a fortune which no other great movement in art or letters can boast. Greek art was largely developed in the service of religion; but owing to the circumstance that both grew side by side, springing from the heart of man, their reactions were mutual, art contributing to religion quite as much as it received. The creative genius of the Hellenic people expressed itself with singular directness and simplicity in forms clearly visualized and subject to the conditions of psychologically effective grouping in space or time. Their art is marked by the observance of a just proportion and by a certain natural restraint due to the preponderance of the intellectual element over the purely sensuous. Its most characteristic product is the ideal type in which only enough individuality enters to give to the typical the concreteness of life. What has been said of art in the narrower sense applies equally to artistic letters. The types thus created, whether in sculpture, architecture, music, drama, history, or oratory, though not regarded with superstitious reverence, commended themselves by the sheer force of inherent truth and beauty to succeeding generations, thus steadying the course of development and restraining the exuberant originality and the tendency to individualism. In the Hellenistic age, individualism gradually preponderated where the lessening power of creative genius did not lead to simple imitation.ISBE Hellenism; Hellenist.6

5. Philosophy of Nature and of Conduct: The traditional views of the Hellenic peoples touching Nature and conduct, which did not differ widely from those of other peoples in a corresponding stage of culture, maintained themselves down to the 7th century BC with comparatively little change. Along with and following the colonial expansion of Hellenism there came the awakening intellectual curiosity, or rather the shock of surprise necessary to convert attention into question. The mythology of the Greeks had contained a vague theology, without authority indeed, but satisfactory because adequate to express the national thought. Ethics there was none, morality being customary. But the extending horizon of Hellenic thought discovered that customs differed widely in various lands; indeed, it is altogether likely that the collection of strange and shocking customs which filled the quivers of the militant Sophists in the 5th century had its inception in the 6th and possibly the 7th century At any rate it furnished the fiery darts of the adversary until ethics was founded in reason by the quest of Socrates for the universal, not in conduct, but in judgment. As ethics arose out of the irreconcilable contradictions of conduct, so natural philosophy sprung from the contradictions of mythical theology and in opposition to it. There were in fact two strata of conceptions touching supernatural beings; one, growing out of a primitive animism, regarded their operations essentially from the point of view of magic, which refuses to be surprised at any result, be it never so ill-proportioned to the means employed, so long as the mysterious word was spoken or the requisite act performed; the other, sprung from a worship of Nature in her most striking phenomena, recognized an order, akin to the moral order, in her operations. When natural philosophy arose in the 6th century, it instinctively at first, then consciously, divested Nature of personality by stripping off the disguise of myth and substituting a plain and reasoned tale founded on mechanical principles. This is the spirit which pervades pre-Socratic science and philosophy. The quest of Socrates for universally valid judgments on conduct directed thought to the laws of mind, which are teleological, in contradistinction to the laws of matter, which are mechanical; and thus in effect dethroned Nature, regarded as material, by giving primacy to mind. Henceforth, Greek philosophy was destined, with relatively few and unimportant exceptions, to devote itself to the study of human conduct and to be essentially idealistic, even where the foundation, as with the Stoics, was ostensibly materialistic. More and more it became true of the Greek philosophers that they sought God, "if haply they might feel after him and find him," conscious of the essential unity of the Divine and the human, and defining philosophy as the endeavor to assimilate the soul to God.ISBE Hellenism; Hellenist.7

6. Hellenic and Hellenistic Religion: The Homeric poems present a picture of Greek life as seen by a highly cultivated aristocratic society having no sympathy with the commonalty. Hence, we are not to regard Homeric religion as the religion of the Hellenic peoples in the Homeric age. Our first clear view of the Hellenic commoner is presented by Hesiod in the 8th century. Here we find, alongside of the worship of the Olympians, evidences of chthonian cults and abundant hints of human needs not satisfied by the well-regulated religion of the several city-states. The conventionalized monarchy of Zeus ruling over his fellow-Olympians is known to be a fiction of the poets, having just as much--no more--foundation, in fact, as the mythical overlordship of Agamemnon over the assembled princes of the Achaens; while it caught the imagination of the Greeks and dominated their literature, each city-state possessed its own shrines sacred to its own gods, who might or might not be called by the names of Olympians. Yet the great shrines which attracted Greeks from every state, such as those of Zeus at Dodona (chiefly in the period before the 7th century) and Olympia, of Apollo at Delos and Delphi, and of Hera at Argos, were the favored abodes of Olympians. Only one other should be mentioned: that of Demeter at Eleusis. Her worship was of a different character, and the great repute of her shrine dates from the 5th century. If the Zeus of Olympia was predominantly the benign god of the sky, to whom men came in joyous mood to delight him with pomp and festive gatherings, performing feats of manly prowess in the Olympic games, the Zeus of Dodona, and the Delphian Apollo, as oracular deities, were visited in times of doubt and distress. The 7th and 6th centuries mark the advent--or the coming into prominence--of deities whose appeal was to the deepest human emotions, of ecstatic enthusiasm, of fear, and of hope. Among them we must mention Dionysus, the god of teeming Nature (see DIONYSUS), and Orpheus. With their advent comes an awakening of the individual soul, whose aspiration to commune with Deity found little satisfaction in the general worship of the states. Private organizations and quasi-monastic orders, like those of the Orphics and Pythagoreans, arose and won countless adherents. Their deities found admission into older shrines, chiefly those of chthonian divinities, like that of Demeter at Eleusis, and wrought a change in the spirit and to a certain extent in the ritual of the "mysteries" practiced there. It was in these "mysteries" that the Christian Fathers, according to the mood or the need, polemic or apologetic, of the moment, saw now the propaedeutic type, now the diabolically instituted counterfeit, of the sacraments and ordinances of the church. The spirit and even the details of the observances of the "mysteries" are difficult to determine; but one must beware of accepting the hostile judgments of Christian writers who were in fact retorting upon the Greeks criticisms leveled at the church: both were blinded by partisanship and so misread the symbols.ISBE Hellenism; Hellenist.8

If we thus find a true praeparatio evangelica in the Hellenistic developments of earlier Hellenic religion, there are parallel developments in the other religions which were adopted in the Hellenistic age. The older national religions of Persia and Egypt underwent a similar change, giving rise respectively to the worship of Mithra and of Isis, both destined, along with the chthonian mysteries of the Greeks, to be dangerous rivals for the conquest of the world of Christianity, itself a younger son in this prolific family of new religions. Space is wanting here for a consideration of these religious movements, the family resemblance of which with Christianity is becoming every day more apparent; but so much at least should be said, that while every candid student must admit the superiority of Christianity in moral content and adaptation to the religious nature of man, the difference in these respects was not at first sight so obvious that the successful rival might at the beginning of the contest have been confidently predicted.ISBE Hellenism; Hellenist.9

See GREECE,RELIGION IN ANCIENT .ISBE Hellenism; Hellenist.10

As with other manifestations of the Hellenic spirit, so, too, in matters of religion, it was the free development of living institutions that most strikingly distinguishes the Greeks from the Hebrews. They had priests, but were never ruled by them; they possessed a literature regarded with veneration, and in certain shrines treasured sacred writings containing directions for the practice and ritual of the cults, but they were neither intended nor suffered to fix for all time the interpretation of the symbols. In the 5th and 4th centuries the leaders of Greek thought rebuked the activity of certain priests, and it was not before the period of Roman dominion that priests succeeded even in a small measure in usurping power, and sacred writings began to exercise an authority remotely comparable to that recognized among the Jews.ISBE Hellenism; Hellenist.11

A most interesting question is that concerning the extent to which Greek civilization and thought had penetrated and influenced Judaism. During three centuries before the advent of Jesus, Hellenism had been a power in Syria and Judea. The earliest writings of the Hebrews showing this influence are Dan and the Old Testament Apocrypha. Several books of the Apocrypha were originally written in Greek, and show strong influence of Greek thought. The Septuagint, made for the Jews of the Dispersion, early won its way to authority even in Palestine, where Aramaic had displaced Hebrew, which thus became a dead language known only to a few. New Testament quotations of the Old Testament are almost without exception taken from the Septuagint. Thus the sacred literature of the Jews was for practical purposes Greek. Though Jesus spoke Aramaic, He unquestionably knew some Greek. Yet there is no clear evidence of specifically Greek influence on this thought, the presuppositions of which are Jewish or generally those of the Hellenistic age. All the writings of the New Testament were originally composed in Greek, though their authors differed widely in the degree of proficiency in the use of the language and in acquaintance with Hellenic thought. Their debt to these sources can be profitably considered only in connection with the individual writers; but one who is acquainted with the Hebrew and Greek literature instinctively feels in reading the New Testament that the national character of the Jews, as reflected in the Old Testament, has all but vanished, remaining only as a subtle tone of moral earnestness and as an imaginative coloring, except in the simple story of the Synoptic Gospels. But for the bitterness aroused by the destruction of Jerusalem, it is probable that the Jews would have yielded completely to Hellenic influences.ISBE Hellenism; Hellenist.12

William Arthur HeidelISBE Hellenism; Hellenist.13

Helm

Helm - helm.ISBE Helm.2

See SHIPS AND BOATS.ISBE Helm.3

Helmet

Helmet - hel'-met.ISBE Helmet.2

See ARMS , ARMOR.ISBE Helmet.3

Helon

Helon - hel'-on (chelon, "valorous"; the Septuagint's Codex Vaticanus, Chailon): The father of Eliab, the prince of the tribe of Zebulun (Numbers 1:9; 2:7; 24, 29; 10:16).ISBE Helon.2

Help

Help - With the sense of that which brings aid, support, or deliverance, "help" (noun and vb.) represents a large variety of words in Hebrew and Greek (noun 7, verb 16). A principal Hebrew word is `azar, "to help," with the corresponding nouns `ezer, `ezrah; a chief Greek word is boetheo (Matthew 15:25; Mark 9:22, 24, etc.). True help is to be sought for in Yahweh, in whom, in the Old Testament, the believer is constantly exhorted to trust, with the renouncing of all other confidences (Psalms 20:2; 33:20; 42:5; 46:1; Psalms 115:9-10, 11; 121:2; Isaiah 41:10, 13-14, etc.). In Romans 8:26 it is said, "the Spirit also helpeth our infirmity," the verb here (sunantilambanetai) having the striking meaning of to "take hold along with one." In the story of Eden, Eve is spoken of as "a help meet" for Adam (Genesis 2:18, 20). The idea in "meet" is not so much "suitability," though that is implied, as likeness, correspondence in nature (Vulgate, similem sibi). One like himself, as taken from him, the woman would be an aid and companion to the man in his tasks.ISBE Help.2

James OrrISBE Help.3

Helpmeet

Helpmeet - help'-met.ISBE Helpmeet.2

See HELP.ISBE Helpmeet.3

Helps (1)

Helps (1) - (antilempseis, 1 Corinthians 12:28): In classical Greek the word antilempsis means "remuneration," the hold one has on something, then perception, apprehension. But in Biblical Greek it has an altruistic meaning. Thus, it is used in the Septuagint, both in the Old Testament Scriptures and in the Apocrypha (Psalms 22:19; 89:19; 1 Esdras 8:27; 2 Maccabees 15:7). Thus, we obtain a clue to its meaning in our text, where it has been usually understood as referring to the deacons, the following word kuberneseis, translated "governments," being explained as referring to the presbyters.ISBE Helps (1).2

Henry E. DoskerISBE Helps (1).3

Helps (2)

Helps (2) - (boetheiai, Acts 27:17).ISBE Helps (2).2

See SHIPS AND BOATS,III , 2.ISBE Helps (2).3

Helve

Helve - helv (`ets "wood," "tree"): The handle or wooden part of an ax. "The head (margin "iron") slippeth from the helve" (margin "tree," Deuteronomy 19:5). The marginal reading suggests that "the ax is supposed to glance off the tree it is working on."ISBE Helve.2

Hem

Hem - (kraspedon): The classic instance of the use of "hem" in the New Testament is Matthew 9:20 the King James Version (compare Matthew 14:36), where the woman "touched the hem of his (Christ's) garment." The reference is to the fringe or tassel with its traditional blue thread which the faithful Israelite was directed to wear on the corners of the outer garment (Numbers 15:37 ff; Deuteronomy 22:12). Great importance came to be attached to it, the ostentatious Pharisees making it very broad or large (Matthew 23:5). Here the woman clearly thought there might be peculiar virtue in touching the tassel or fringe of Jesus' garment. Elsewhere the word is rendered BORDER (which see).ISBE Hem.2

Hemam

Hemam - he'-mam (Genesis 36:22 the King James Version and the English Revised Version).ISBE Hemam.2

See HEMAN; HOMAM.ISBE Hemam.3

Heman

Heman - he'-man (heman, "faithful"): The name of two men in the Old Testament.ISBE Heman.2

(1) A musician and seer, a Levite, son of Joel and grandson of the prophet Samuel; of the family of the Kohathites (1 Chronicles 6:33), appointed by David as one of the leaders of the temple-singing (1 Chronicles 15:17; 2 Chronicles 5:12). He had 14 sons (and 3 daughters) who assisted their father in the chorus. Heman seems also to have been a man of spiritual power; is called "the king's seer in matters of God" (1 Chronicles 25:5; 2 Chronicles 35:15).ISBE Heman.3

(2) One of the noted wise men prior to, or about, the time of Solomon. He was one of the three sons of Mahol (1 Kings 4:31 (Hebrews 5:11)); also called a son of Zerah (1 Chronicles 2:6).ISBE Heman.4

Psalms 88:1-18 is inscribed to Heman the Ezrahite, who is probably to be identified with the second son of Zerah.ISBE Heman.5

Edward Babgy PollardISBE Heman.6

Hemath

Hemath - he'-math.ISBE Hemath.2

See HAMMATH (1 Chronicles 2:55).ISBE Hemath.3

Hemdan

Hemdan - hem'-dan (chemdan, "pleasant"): A descendant of Seir, the Horite (Genesis 36:26). Wrongly translated "Amram" by the King James Version in 1 Chronicles 1:41 (the Revised Version (British and American) "Hamran"), where the transcribers made an error in one vowel and one consonant, writing (chamran), instead of (chemdan).ISBE Hemdan.2

Hemlock

Hemlock - hem'-lock.ISBE Hemlock.2

See GALL.ISBE Hemlock.3

Hen (1)

Hen (1) - hen (chen, "favor"). In Zechariah 6:14, English Versions of the Bible reads, "And the crowns shall be to Helem .... and to Hen the son of Zephaniah." But as this person is called Josiah in Zechariah 6:10, the Revised Version, margin "and for the kindness of the son of Zephaniah" is probably right, but the text is uncertain.ISBE Hen (1).2

See JOSIAH.ISBE Hen (1).3

Handkerchief — Hawk

Hen (2) — Hizki