Quis nescit, Volusi Bythynice, qualia demensÆgyptus portenta colit?Porrum et cepe nefas violare aut frangere morsu;O sanctas gentes quibus hæc nascuntur in hortis Numina!Sat.xv.“How Egypt, mad with superstition grown,Makes gods of monsters, but too well is known.’Tis mortal sin an onion to devour;Each clove of garlic has a sacred power.Religious nation, sure! and blest abodes,Where ev’ry garden is o’errun with gods!”
Quis nescit, Volusi Bythynice, qualia demensÆgyptus portenta colit?Porrum et cepe nefas violare aut frangere morsu;O sanctas gentes quibus hæc nascuntur in hortis Numina!Sat.xv.“How Egypt, mad with superstition grown,Makes gods of monsters, but too well is known.’Tis mortal sin an onion to devour;Each clove of garlic has a sacred power.Religious nation, sure! and blest abodes,Where ev’ry garden is o’errun with gods!”
Quis nescit, Volusi Bythynice, qualia demensÆgyptus portenta colit?Porrum et cepe nefas violare aut frangere morsu;O sanctas gentes quibus hæc nascuntur in hortis Numina!Sat.xv.
Quis nescit, Volusi Bythynice, qualia demens
Ægyptus portenta colit?
Porrum et cepe nefas violare aut frangere morsu;
O sanctas gentes quibus hæc nascuntur in hortis Numina!
Sat.xv.
“How Egypt, mad with superstition grown,Makes gods of monsters, but too well is known.’Tis mortal sin an onion to devour;Each clove of garlic has a sacred power.Religious nation, sure! and blest abodes,Where ev’ry garden is o’errun with gods!”
“How Egypt, mad with superstition grown,
Makes gods of monsters, but too well is known.
’Tis mortal sin an onion to devour;
Each clove of garlic has a sacred power.
Religious nation, sure! and blest abodes,
Where ev’ry garden is o’errun with gods!”
So Lucian in his Jupiter, where he is giving an account of the different deities worshipped by the several inhabitants of Egypt, says, Πηλουσίωταις δὲ κρόμμυον, those of Pelusium worship the onion.” Hence arises a question, how the Israelites durst venture to violate the national worship, by eating those sacred plants. We may answer, in the first place, that whatever might be the case of the Egyptians in later ages, it is not probable that they were arrived at such a pitch of superstition in the time of Moses; for we find no indications of this in Herodotus, the most ancient of the Greek historians: secondly, the writers here quoted appear to be mistaken in imagining these plants to have been generally the objects of religious worship. The priests, indeed, abstained from the use of them, and several other vegetables; and this might give rise to the opinion of their being reverenced as divinities: but the use of them was not prohibited to the people, as is plain from the testimonies of ancient authors, particularly of Diodorus Siculus.
ONYX,שהם, Gen. ii, 12; Exod. xxv, 7; xxviii, 9, 20; xxxv, 27; xxxix, 6; 1 Chron. xxix, 2; Job xxviii, 16; Ezekiel xxviii, 13. A precious stone, so called from the Greek ὅνυξ,the nail, to the colour of which it nearly approaches. It is first mentioned with the gold and bdellium of the river Pison in Eden; but the meaning of the Hebrew word is not easily determined. The Septuagint render it, in different places, thesardius,beryl,sapphire,emerald, &c. Such names are often ambiguous, even in Greek and Latin, and no wonder if they are more so in Hebrew. In Exodus xxviii, 9, 10, a direction is given that two onyx stones should be fastened on the ephod of the high priest, on which were to be graven the names of the children of Israel, like the engravings on a signet; six of the names on one stone, and six on the other. In 1 Chron. xxix, 2, onyx stones are among the things prepared by David for the temple. The author of Scripture Illustrated” observes, upon this passage, that “the wordonyxis equivocal; signifying, first, a precious stone or gem; and, secondly, a marble called in Greekonychites, which Pliny mentions as a stone of Caramania. Antiquity gave both these stones this name, because of their resemblance to the nail of the fingers. The onyx of the high priest’s pectoral was, no doubt, the gem onyx; the stone prepared by David was the marble onyx, or ratheronychus; for one would hardly think that gems of any kind were used externally in such a building, but variegated marble may readily be admitted.”
OPHIR, a place or country remote from Judea, to which the ships of Solomon traded. There has been much discussion respecting the situation of this place; some supposing it to have been the island of Socotora, without the straits of Babelmandel; others, that anciently called Tabrobana, which is supposed by some to have been Ceylon, and by others Sumatra; while others fix its situation on the continent of India. M. Huet and, after him, Bruce, place Ophir at Sofala, in South Africa, where mines of gold and silver have been found, which show marks of having been very anciently and extensively worked. The latter says, also, that the situation of this place explains the period of three years which the Ophir ships were absent, from the different courses of the monsoons and trade winds, which they would have to encounter going and returning. Ruins of ancient buildings have also been found in the neighbourhood of these mines. In confirmation of this opinion, Bruce says there was a place called Tarshish near Melinda.
In the same direction with Ophir lay Tarshish; the voyage to both places being accomplished under one, and always, as it would seem, in the same space of time, three years; by which it may be inferred that, notwithstanding the imperfect navigation of the times, they must be at a considerable distance from the ports of Judea. But the true situation of these places must ever remain matter of conjecture; and all that can be considered as certain respecting them is, that from the articles imported from them, namely, gold, silver, ivory, apes, peacocks, and precious stones, they must have been situated in the tropical parts of either Africa or Asia.
ORACLE denotes something delivered by supernatural wisdom; and the term is also used in the Old Testament to signify the most holy place from whence the Lord revealed his will to ancient Israel, 1 Kings vi, 5, 19–21, 23. But when the word occurs in the plural number, as it mostly does, it denotes the revelations contained in the sacred writings of which the nation of Israel were the depositaries. So Moses is said by Stephen to have received the lively oracles” to give unto the Israelites. These oracles contained the law, both moral and ceremonial, with all the types and promises relating to the Messiah which are to be found in the writings of Moses. They also contained all the intimations of the divine mind which he was pleased to communicate by means of the succeeding prophets who prophesied beforehand of the coming and of the sufferings of the Messiah with the glory that should follow. The Jews were a highly privileged people in many and various respects, Rom. ix, 4, 5; but the Apostle Paul mentions it as their chief advantage that unto them were committed the oracles of God,” Romans iii, 2. What nation,” says Moses, is there that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law which I set before you this day?” Deut. iv, 8. The psalmist David enumerates their excellent properties under variousepithets; such as the law of the Lord, his testimony, his statutes, his commandments, his judgments, &c. Their properties are extolled as perfect, sure, right, pure, clean, true, and righteous altogether; more to be desired than much fine gold; sweeter than honey and the honey comb. Their salutary effects are all mentioned; such as their converting the soul, making wise the simple, rejoicing the heart, enlightening the eyes; and the keeping of them is connected with a great reward, Psalm xix. The hundred and nineteenth Psalm abounds with praises of the lively oracles, the word of the living God; it abounds with the warmest expressions of love to it, of delight in it, and the most fervent petitions for divine illumination in the knowledge of it. Such was the esteem and veneration which the faithful entertained for the lively oracles under the former dispensation, when they had only Moses and the prophets; how, then, ought they to be prized by Christians, who have also Christ and his Apostles!
Among the Heathen the termoracleis usually taken to signify an answer, generally couched in very dark and ambiguous terms, supposed to be given by demons of old, either by the mouths of their idols, or by those of their priests, to the people, who consulted them on things to come.Oracleis also used for the demon who gave the answer, and the place where it was given. Seneca defines oracles to be enunciations by the mouths of men of the will of the gods; and Cicero simply calls them,deorum oratio, the language of the gods. Among the Pagans they were held in high estimation; and they were consulted on a variety of occasions pertaining to national enterprises and private life. When they made peace or war, enacted laws, reformed states, or changed the constitution, they had in all these cases recourse to the oracle by public authority. Also, in private life, if a man wished to marry, if he proposed to take a journey, or to engage in any business of importance, he repaired to the oracle for counsel. Mankind have had always a propensity to explore futurity; and conceiving that future events were known to their gods, who possessed the gift of prophecy, they sought information and advice from the oracles, which, in their opinion, were supernatural and divine communications. The institution of oracles seemed to gratify the prevalent curiosity of mankind, and proved a source of immense wealth, as well as authority and influence, to those who had the command of them. Accordingly, every nation, in which idolatry has subsisted, had its oracles, by means of which imposture practised on superstition and credulity. The principal oracles of antiquity are, that of Abæ, mentioned by Herodotus; that of Amphiaraus, at Oropus in Macedonia; that of the Branchidæ at Didymeum; that of the camps at Lacedæmon; that of Dodona; that of Jupiter Ammon; that of Nabarca in the country of the Anariaci, near the Caspian Sea; that of Trophonius, mentioned by Herodotus; that of Chrysopolis; that of Claros, in Ionia; that of Amphilochus at Mallos; that of Petarea; that of Pella in Macedonia; that of Phaselides in Cilicia; that of Sinope in Paphlagonia; that of Orpheus’s head at Lesbos, mentioned by Philostratus. But of all oracles, the oracle of Apollo Pythius at Delphi was the most celebrated; this was consulted in the dernier resort by most of the princes of those ages.
Most of the Pagan deities had their appropriate oracles. Apollo had the greatest number: such as those of Claros, of the Branchidæ, of the suburbs of Daphne at Antioch, of Delos, of Argos, of Troas, Æolis, &c, of Baiæ in Italy, and others in Cilicia, in Egypt, in the Alps, in Thrace, at Corinth, in Arcadia, in Laconia, and in many other places enumerated by Van Dale. Jupiter, beside that of Dodona and some others, the honour of which he shared with Apollo, had one in Bœotia under the name of Jupiter the Thunderer, and another in Elis, one at Thebes and at Meroe, one near Antioch, and several others. Æsculapius was consulted in Cilicia, at Apollonia, in the isle of Cos, at Epidaurus, Pergamos, Rome, and elsewhere. Mercury had oracles at Patras, upon Hæmon, and in other places; Mars, in Thrace, Egypt, and elsewhere; Hercules, at Cadiz, Athens, in Egypt, at Tivoli, in Mesopotamia, where he issued his oracles by dreams, whence he was called Somnialis. Isis, Osiris, and Serapis delivered in like manner their oracles by dreams, as we learn from Pausanias, Tacitus, Arrian, and other writers; that of Amphilochus was also delivered by dreams; the ox Apis had also his oracle in Egypt. The gods, called Cabiri, had their oracle in Bœotia. Diana, the sister of Apollo, had several oracles in Egypt, Cilicia, Ephesus, &c. Those of fortune at Præneste, and of the lots at Antium are well known. The fountains also delivered oracles, for to each of them a divinity was ascribed: such was the fountain of Castalia at Delphi, another of the same name in the suburbs of Antioch, and the prophetic fountain near the temple of Ceres in Achaia. Juno had several oracles: one near Corinth, one at Nysa, and others at different places. Latona had one at Butis in Egypt; Leucothea had one in Colchis; Memnon in Egypt; Machaon at Gerania in Laconia; Minerva had one in Egypt, in Spain, upon mount Ætna, at Mycenæ and Colchis, and in other places. Those of Neptune were at Delphos, at Calauria, near Neocesarea, and elsewhere. The nymphs had theirs in the cave of Corycia. Pan had several, the most famous of which was that in Arcadia. That of the Palici was in Sicily. Pluto had one at Nysa. Saturn had oracles in several places, but the most famous were those of Cumæ in Italy, and of Alexandria in Egypt. Those of Venus were dispersed in several places, at Gaza, upon Mount Libanus, at Paphos, in Cyprus, &c. Serapis had one at Alexandria, consulted by Vespasian. Venus Aphacite had one at Aphaca between Heliopolis and Byblus. Geryon, the three-headed monster slain by Hercules, had an oracle in Italy near Padua, consulted by Tiberius; thatof Hercules was at Tivoli, and was given by lots, like those of Præneste and Antium. The demi-gods and heroes had likewise their oracles, such were those of Castor and Pollux at Lacedæmon, of Amphiaraus, of Mopsus in Cilicia, of Ulysses, Amphilochus, Sarpedon in Troas, Hermione in Macedonia, Pasiphäe in Laconia, Chalcas in Italy, Aristæus in Bœotia, Autolycus at Sinope, Phryxus among the Colchi, Zamolxis among the Getæ, Hephæstion the minion of Alexander, and Antinous, &c.
The responses of oracles were delivered in a variety of ways: at Delphi, they interpreted and put into verse what the priestess pronounced in the time of her furor. Mr. Bayle observes that at first this oracle gave its answers in verse; and that it fell at length to prose, upon the people’s beginning to laugh at the poorness of its versification. The Epicureans made this the subject of their jests, and said, in raillery, it was surprising enough, that Apollo, the god of poetry, should be a much worse poet than Homer, whom he himself had inspired. By the railleries of these philosophers, and particularly by those of the Cynics and Peripatetics, the priests were at length obliged to desist from the practice of versifying the responses of the Pythia, which, according to Plutarch, was one of the principal causes of the declension of the oracle of Delphos. At the oracle of Ammon, the priests pronounced the response of their god; at Dodona, the response was issued from the hollow of an oak; at the cave of Trophonius, the oracle was inferred from what the suppliant said before he recovered his senses; at Memphis, they drew a good or bad omen, according as the ox Apis received or rejected what was presented to him, which was also the case with the fishes of the fountain of Limyra. The suppliants, who consulted the oracles, were not allowed to enter the sanctuaries where they were given; and, accordingly, care was taken that neither the Epicureans nor Christians should come near them. In several places, the oracles were given by letters sealed up, as in that of Mopsus, and at Mallus in Cilicia. Oracles were frequently given by lot, the mode of doing which was as follows: the lots were a kind of dice, on which were engraven certain characters or words, whose explanations they were to seek on tables made for the purpose. The way of using these dice for knowing futurity, was different, according to the places where they were used. In some temples, the person threw them himself; in others, they were dropped from a box; whence came the proverbial expression, The lot is fallen.” This playing with dice was always preceded by sacrifices and other customary ceremonies. The ambiguity of the oracles in their responses, and their double meaning, contributed to their support.
Ablancourt observes, that the study or research of the meaning of oracles was but a fruitless thing; and that they were never understood till after their accomplishment. Historians relate, that Crœsus was tricked by the ambiguity and equivocation of the oracle:
Κροισος Ἁλυν διαβας μεγαλην αρχην καταλυσει.
Κροισος Ἁλυν διαβας μεγαλην αρχην καταλυσει.
Κροισος Ἁλυν διαβας μεγαλην αρχην καταλυσει.
Κροισος Ἁλυν διαβας μεγαλην αρχην καταλυσει.
Thus rendered in Latin:
Crœsus Halym superans magnam pervertet opum vim.”[If Crœsus cross the Halys he will overthrow a great empire.]
Crœsus Halym superans magnam pervertet opum vim.”[If Crœsus cross the Halys he will overthrow a great empire.]
Crœsus Halym superans magnam pervertet opum vim.”
Crœsus Halym superans magnam pervertet opum vim.”
[If Crœsus cross the Halys he will overthrow a great empire.]
[If Crœsus cross the Halys he will overthrow a great empire.]
Thus, if the Lydian monarch had conquered Cyrus, he overthrew the Assyrian empire; if he himself was routed, he overturned his own. That delivered to Pyrrhus, which is comprised in this Latin verse,
Credo equidem Æacidas Romanos vincere posse,”[I believe indeed that the sons of Æacus the Romans will conquer,]
Credo equidem Æacidas Romanos vincere posse,”[I believe indeed that the sons of Æacus the Romans will conquer,]
Credo equidem Æacidas Romanos vincere posse,”
Credo equidem Æacidas Romanos vincere posse,”
[I believe indeed that the sons of Æacus the Romans will conquer,]
[I believe indeed that the sons of Æacus the Romans will conquer,]
had the same advantage; for, according to the rules of syntax, either of the two accusatives may be governed by the verb, and the verse be explained, either by saying the Romans shall conquer the Æacidæ, of whom Pyrrhus was descended, or those shall conquer the Romans. When Alexander fell sick at Babylon, some of his courtiers who happened to be in Egypt, or who went thither on purpose, passed the night in the temple of Serapis, to inquire if it would not be proper to bring Alexander to be cured by him. The god answered, it was better that Alexander should remain where he was. This in all events was a very prudent and safe answer. If the king recovered his health, what glory must Serapis have gained by saving him the fatigue of the journey! If he died, it was but saying he died in a favourable juncture after so many conquests; which, had he lived, he could neither have enlarged nor preserved. This is actually the construction they put upon the response; whereas had Alexander undertaken the journey, and died in the temple, or by the way, nothing could have been said in favour of Serapis. When Trajan had formed the design of his expedition against the Parthians, he was advised to consult the oracle of Heliopolis, to which he had no more to do but send a note under a seal. That prince, who had no great faith in oracles, sent thither a blank note; and they returned him another of the same kind. By this Trajan was convinced of the divinity of the oracle. He sent back a second note to the god, in which he inquired whether he should return to Rome after finishing the war he had in view. The god, as Macrobius tells the story, ordered a vine, which was among the offerings of his temple, to be divided into pieces, and brought to Trajan. The event justified the oracle; for the emperor dying in that war, his bones were carried to Rome, which had been represented by that broken vine. As the priests of that oracle knew Trajan’s design, which was no secret, they happily devised that response, which, in all events, was capable of a favourable interpretation, whether he routed and cut the Parthians in pieces, or if his army met with the same fate. Sometimes the responses of the oracles were mere banter, as in the case of the man who wished to know by what means he might become rich, and who received for answer from the god, that he had only to make himself master of all that lay between Sicyonand Corinth. Another, wanting a cure for the gout, was answered by the oracle, that he was to drink nothing but cold water.
There are two points in dispute on the subject of oracles; namely, whether they were human, or diabolical machines; and whether or not they ceased upon the publication or preaching of the Gospel. Most of the fathers of the church supposed that the devil issued oracles; and looked on it as a pleasure he took to give dubious and equivocal answers, in order to have a handle to laugh at them. Vossius allows that it was the devil who spoke in oracles; but thinks that the obscurity of his answers was owing to his ignorance as to the precise circumstances of events. That artful and studied obscurity in which the answers were couched, says he, showed the embarrassment the devil was under; as those double meanings they usually bore provided for their accomplishment. Where the thing foretold did not happen accordingly, the oracle, forsooth, was misunderstood. Eusebius has preserved some fragments of a philosopher, called Œnomaus; who, out of resentment for his having been so often fooled by the oracles, wrote an ample confutation of all their impertinencies: When we come to consult thee,” says he to Apollo, “if thou seest what is in futurity, why dost thou use expressions that will not be understood? Dost thou not know, that they will not be understood? If thou dost, thou takest pleasure in abusing us; if thou dost not, be informed of us, and learn to speak more clearly. I tell thee, that if thou intendest an equivoque, the Greek word whereby thou affirmedst that Crœsus should overthrow a great empire was ill chosen; and that it could signify nothing but Crœsus’s conquering Cyrus. If things must necessarily come to pass, why dost thou amuse us with thy ambiguities? What doest thou, wretch as thou art, at Delphi? employed in muttering idle prophecies!” But Œnomaus is still more out of humour with the oracle, for the answer which Apollo gave the Athenians, when Xerxes was about to attack Greece with all the strength of Asia. The Pythian declared, that Minerva, the protectress of Athens, had endeavoured in vain to appease the wrath of Jupiter; yet that Jupiter, in complaisance to his daughter, was willing the Athenians should save themselves within wooden walls; and that Salamis should behold the loss of a great many children, dear to their mothers, either when Ceres was spread abroad, or gathered together. Here Œnomaus loses all patience with the god of Delphi. This contest,” says he, “between father and daughter is very becoming the deities! It is excellent, that there should be contrary inclinations and interests in heaven. Poor wizard, thou art ignorant whose the children are that Salamis shall see perish; whether Greeks or Persians. It is certain they must be either one or the other; but thou needest not to have told so openly, that thou knewest not which. Thou concealest the time of the battle under those fine poetical expressions, ‘either when Ceres is spread abroad, or gathered together;’ and wouldest thou cajole us with such pompous language? Who knows not, that if there be a sea fight, it must either be in seed time or harvest? It is certain it cannot be in winter. Let things go how they will, thou wilt secure thyself by this Jupiter, whom Minerva is endeavouring to appease. If the Greeks lose the battle, Jupiter proved inexorable to the last; if they gain it, why then Minerva at length prevailed.”
It is a very general opinion among the more learned, that oracles were all mere cheats and impostures; either calculated to serve the avaricious ends of the Heathen priests, or the political views of the princes. Bayle says positively, they were mere human artificers, in which the devil had no hand. He was strongly supported by Van Dale and Fontenelle, who have written expressly on the subject. Father Balthus, a Jesuit, wrote a treatise in defence of the fathers with regard to the origin of oracles; but without denying the imposture of the priests, often blended with the oracles. He maintains the intervention of the devil in some predictions, which could not be ascribed to the cheats of the priests alone. The Abbé Banier espouses the same side of the question, and objects that oracles would not have lasted so long, and supported themselves with so much splendour and reputation, if they had been merely owing to the forgeries of the priests. Bishop Sherlock, in his Discourses concerning the Use and Intent of Prophecy,” expresses his opinion, that it is impious to disbelieve the Heathen oracles, and to deny them to have been given out by the devil; to which assertion, Dr. Middleton, in his Examination,” &c, replies, that he is guilty of this impiety, and that he thinks himself warranted to pronounce from the authority of the best and wisest of the Heathens themselves, and the evidence of plain facts, which are recorded of those oracles, as well as from the nature of the thing itself, that they were all mere imposture, wholly invented and supported by human craft, without any supernatural aid or interposition whatsoever. He alleges, that Cicero, speaking of the Delphic oracle, the most revered of any in the Heathen world, declares, that nothing was become more contemptible, not only in his days, but long before him; that Demosthenes, who lived about three hundred years earlier, affirmed of the same oracle, in a public speech to the people of Athens, that it was gained to the interests of King Philip, an enemy to that city; that the Greek historians tell us, how, on several other occasions, it had been corrupted by money, to serve the views of particular persons and parties, and the prophetess sometimes had been deposed for bribery and lewdness; that there were some great sects of philosophers, who, on principle, disavowed the authority of all oracles; agreeably to all which Strabo tells us, that divination in general and oracles had been in high credit among the ancients, but in his days were treated with much contempt; lastly, that Eusebius also, the great historian of the primitive church, declares, that there were six hundred writers among the Heathens themselves who had publiclywritten against the reality of them. Plutarch has a treatise on the ceasing of some oracles; and Van Dale, a Dutch physician, has a volume to prove they did not cease at the coming of Christ; but that many of them ceased long before, and that others held till the fall of Paganism, under the empire of Theodosius the Great, when Paganism being dissipated, these institutions could no longer subsist. Van Dale was answered by a German, one Mœbius, professor of theology at Leipsic, in 1685. Fontenelle espoused Van Dale’s system, and improved upon it in his History of Oracles;” and showed the weakness of the argument used by many writers in behalf of Christianity, drawn from the ceasing of oracles. Cicero says, the oracles became dumb in proportion as people, growing less credulous, began to suspect them for cheats. Plutarch alleges two reasons for the ceasing of oracles: the one was Apollo’s chagrin; who, it seems, took it in dudgeon to be interrogated about so many trifles. The other was, that in proportion as the genii, or demons, who had the management of the oracles, died, and became extinct, the oracles must necessarily cease. He adds a third and more natural cause for the ceasing of oracles; namely, the forlorn state of Greece, ruined and desolated by wars; for, hence, the smallness of the gains let the priests sink into a poverty and contempt too bare to cover the fraud. That the oracles were silenced about or soon after the time of our Saviour’s advent, may be proved, says Dr. Leland, in the first volume of his learned work on The Necessity and Advantage of Revelation,” &c, from express testimonies, not only of Christian but of Heathen authors. Lucan, who wrote his Pharsalia” in the reign of Nero, scarcely thirty years after our Lord’s crucifixion, laments it as one of the greatest misfortunes of that age, that the Delphian oracle, which he represents as one of the choicest gifts of the gods, was become silent.
Non ullo sæcula donoNostra carent majore Deum, quam Delphica sedesQuod sileat.Pharsal.lib. v, 111.Of all the wants with which the age is curst,The Delphic silence surely is the worst.”Rowe.
Non ullo sæcula donoNostra carent majore Deum, quam Delphica sedesQuod sileat.Pharsal.lib. v, 111.Of all the wants with which the age is curst,The Delphic silence surely is the worst.”Rowe.
Non ullo sæcula donoNostra carent majore Deum, quam Delphica sedesQuod sileat.Pharsal.lib. v, 111.
Non ullo sæcula dono
Nostra carent majore Deum, quam Delphica sedes
Quod sileat.
Pharsal.lib. v, 111.
Of all the wants with which the age is curst,The Delphic silence surely is the worst.”Rowe.
Of all the wants with which the age is curst,
The Delphic silence surely is the worst.”
Rowe.
In like manner, Juvenal says,
Delphis oracula cessant,Et genus humanum damnat caligo futuri.Sat.vi, 554.Since Delphi now, if we may credit fame,Gives no responses, and a long dark nightConceals the future hour from mortal sight.”Gifford.
Delphis oracula cessant,Et genus humanum damnat caligo futuri.Sat.vi, 554.Since Delphi now, if we may credit fame,Gives no responses, and a long dark nightConceals the future hour from mortal sight.”Gifford.
Delphis oracula cessant,Et genus humanum damnat caligo futuri.Sat.vi, 554.
Delphis oracula cessant,
Et genus humanum damnat caligo futuri.
Sat.vi, 554.
Since Delphi now, if we may credit fame,Gives no responses, and a long dark nightConceals the future hour from mortal sight.”Gifford.
Since Delphi now, if we may credit fame,
Gives no responses, and a long dark night
Conceals the future hour from mortal sight.”
Gifford.
Lucian says, that when he was at Delphi, the oracle gave no answer, nor was the priestess inspired. This likewise appears from Plutarch’s treatise, why the oracles cease to give answers, already cited; whence it is also manifest, that the most learned Heathens were very much at a loss how to give a tolerable account of it. Porphyry, in a passage cited from him by Eusebius, says, The city of Rome was overrun with sickness, Æsculapius and the rest of the gods having withdrawn their converse with men; because since Jesus began to be worshipped, no man had received any public help or benefit from the gods.” With respect to the origin of oracles, they were probably imitations, first, of the answers given to the holy patriarchs from the divine presence or Shechinah, and secondly, of the responses to the Jewish high priest from the mercy seat: for all Paganism is a parody of the true religion.
ORDINATION, the act of conferring holy orders, or of initiating a person into the ministry of the Gospel, by prayer and with or without the laying on of hands. In the church of England, ordination has always been esteemed the principal prerogative of bishops; and bishops still retain the function as a mark of their spiritual sovereignty in their diocess. Without ordination no person can receive any benefice, parsonage, vicarage, &c. A person must be twenty-three years of age, or near it, before he can be ordained deacon, or have any share in the ministry; and full twenty-four before he can be ordained priest, and by that means be permitted to administer the holy communion. A bishop, on the ordination of clergymen, is to examine them in the presence of the ministers, who in the ordination of priests, but not of deacons, assist him at the imposition of hands; but this is only done as a mark of assent, not because it is thought necessary. In case any crime, as drunkenness, perjury, forgery, &c, is alleged against any one that is to be ordained, either priest or deacon, the bishop ought to desist from ordaining him. The person to be ordained is to bring a testimonial of his life and doctrine to the bishop, and to give an account of his faith in Latin; and both priests and deacons are obliged to subscribe to the thirty-nine articles. In the ancient discipline there was no such thing as a vague and absolute ordination; but every one was to have a church, whereof he was to be ordained clerk or priest. In the twelfth century the bishops grew more remiss, and ordained without any title or benefice. The council of Trent, however, restored the ancient discipline, and appointed that none should be ordained but those who were provided with a benefice; which practice still obtains in the church of England.
The reformed held the call of the people the only thing essential to the validity of the ministry; and teach, that ordination is only a ceremony, which renders the call more august and authentic. Accordingly the Protestant churches of Scotland, France, Holland, Switzerland, Germany, Poland, Hungary, Denmark, &c, have no episcopal ordination. For Luther, Calvin, Bucer, Melancthon, &c, and all the first reformers and founders of these churches, who ordained ministers among them, were themselves presbyters, and no other. And though in some of these churches there are ministers called superintendents, or bishops, yet these are onlyprimi inter pares, the first among equals; not pretending to any superiority of orders. Having themselves no other orders than what either presbyters gave them, or what was given them as presbyters, they can convey no other to those they ordain.On this ground the Protestant Dissenters plead that their ordination, though not episcopal, is the same with that of all the illustrious Protestant churches abroad; and object, that a priest ordained by a popish bishop should be received into the church of England as a valid minister, rightfully ordained; while the orders of another, ordained by the most learned religious presbyter, which any foreign country can boast, are pronounced not valid, and he is required to submit to be ordained afresh. In opposition to episcopal ordination, they urge that Timothy was ordained by the laying on of the hands of the presbytery, 1 Tim. iv, 14; that Paul and Barnabas were ordained by certain prophets and teachers in the church of Antioch, and not by any bishop presiding in that city, Acts xiii, 1–3; and that it is a well known fact, that presbyters in the church of Alexandria ordained even their own bishops for more than two hundred years in the earliest ages of Christianity. They farther argue, that bishops and presbyters are in Scripture the same, and not denominations of distinct orders or offices in the church, referring to Phil. i, 1; Titus i, 5, 7; Acts xx, 27, 28; 1 Peter v, 1, 2. To the same purpose they maintain, that the superiority of bishops to presbyters is not pretended to be of divine, but of human, institution; not grounded on Scripture, but only upon the custom or ordinances of this realm, by the first reformers and founders of the church of England; nor by many of its most learned and eminent doctors since. See Stillingfleet’sIrenicum, in which the learned author affirms and shows this to be the sentiment of Cranmer, and other chief reformers both in Edward VI. and Queen Elizabeth’s reign, of Archbishop Whitgift, Bishop Bridges, Lee, Hooker, Sutcliff, Hales, Chillingworth, &c. Moreover, the book entitled, the Institution of a Christian Man,” subscribed by the clergy in convocation, and confirmed by parliament, owns bishops and presbyters by Scripture to be the same. Beside, the Protestant Dissenters allege, that if episcopal ordination be really necessary to constitute a valid minister, it does not seem to be enjoined by the constitution of the church of England; because the power of ordination which the bishops exercise in this kingdom, is derived entirely and only from the civil magistrate; and he authoritatively prescribes how, and to whom ordination is to be given: that if an ordination should be conducted in other manner and form than that prescribed by him, such ordination would be illegal, and of no authority in the church. Accordingly the bishop at the ordination of the candidate asks, Are you called according to the will of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the due order of this realm?” The constitution and law of England seem to know nothing of uninterrupted lineal descent, but considers the king vested, by act of parliament, or the suffrage of the people, with a fulness of all power ecclesiastical in these realms, as empowering and authorizing bishops to ordain: and this power of ordination was once delegated to Cromwell, a layman, as vicegerent to the king. They farther think it strange, that the validity of orders and ministrations should be derived, as some have contended, from a succession of popish bishops; bishops of a church, which, by the definition of the nineteenth article of the church, can be no part of the true visible church of Christ, and bishops, likewise, who consider the Protestant clergy, although ordained by Protestant bishops, as mere common unconsecrated laymen.
On reviewing the whole of this controversy, says Dr. Watts, that since there are some texts in the New Testament, wherein single persons, either Apostles, as Paul and Barnabas, ordained ministers in the churches, or evangelists, as Timothy and Titus; and since other missions or ordinations are intimated to be performed by several persons, namely, prophets, teachers, elders, or a presbytery, Acts xiii, 1; 1 Timothy iv, 14; since there is sometimes mention made of the imposition of hands in the mission of a minister, and sometimes no mention is made of it; and since it is evident that in some cases popular ordinations are and must be valid without any bishop or elder,--I think none of these differences should be made a matter of violent contest among Christians; nor ought any words to be pronounced against each other by those of the episcopal, presbyterian, or independent way. Surely all may agree thus far, that various forms or modes, seeming to be used in the mission or ordination of ministers in primitive times, may give a reasonable occasion or colour for sincere and honest searchers after truth to follow different opinions on this head, and do therefore demand our candid and charitable sentiments concerning those who differ from us. Among the Wesleyan Methodists, the ordination of their ministers is in the annual conference, with a president at its head, and is by prayer without imposition of hands. The latter they hold to be a circumstance of ordination, not an essential. They sometimes therefore use it, and at others omit it. The missionaries sent out by that body, if not previously ordained by the conference, are set apart by a few senior ministers; and ordinarily in this case, the service of the church of England, with some alterations, is used, with imposition of the hands of the ministers present.
OSSIFRAGE,פרס, Lev. xi, 13; Deut. xiv, 12. Interpreters are not agreed on this bird; some read vulture,” others the black eagle,” others the falcon.” The nameperes, by which it is called in Hebrew, denotes to crush, to break;” and this name agrees with our version, which implies the bone-breaker,” which name is given to a kind of eagle, from the circumstance of its habit of breaking the bones of its prey, after it has eaten the flesh: some say also, that he even swallows the bones thus broken. Onkelos uses a word which signifies naked,” and leads us to the vulture: indeed, if we were to take the classes of birds in any thing like a natural order in the passages here referred to, the vulture should follow the eagle as an unclean bird. The Septuagint interpreter also renders vulture; andso do Munster, Schindler, and the Zurick versions.
OSTRICH,יענה; in Arabicneamah; in Greek ϛρȣθοκάμηλος,the camel bird; and still in the east, says Niebuhr, it is calledthar edsjammel, the camel bird,” Lev. xi, 16; Deut. xiv, 15; Job xxx, 29; Isaiah xiii, 21; xxxiv, 13; xliii, 20; Jer. 1, 39; Lam. iv, 3; Micah i, 8;רננים, Job xxxix, 13. The first name in the places above quoted is, by our own translators, generally rendered owls.” “Now it should be recollected,” says the author of Scripture Illustrated,” “that the owl is not a desert bird, but rather resides in places not far from habitations, and that it is not the companion of serpents; whereas, in several of these passages, thejonehis associated with deserts, dry, extensive, thirsty deserts, and with serpents, which are their natural inhabitants. Our ignorance of the natural history of the countries which the ostrich inhabits has undoubtedly perverted the import of the above passages; but let any one peruse them afresh, and exchange the owl for the ostrich, and he will immediately discover a vigour of description, and an imagery much beyond what he had formerly perceived.” The Hebrew phraseבת היענה, means the daughter בת היענה of vociferation,” and is understood to be the female ostrich, probably so called from the noise which this bird makes. It is affirmed by travellers of good credit, that ostriches make a fearful, screeching, lamentable noise.
Ostriches are inhabitants of the deserts of Arabia, where they live chiefly upon vegetables; lead a social and inoffensive life, the male assorting with the female with connubial fidelity. Their eggs are very large, some of them measuring above five inches in diameter, and weighing twelve or fifteen pounds. These birds are very prolific, laying forty or fifty eggs at a clutch. They will devour leather, grass, hair, stones, metals, or any thing that is given to them; but those substances which the coats of the stomach cannot act upon pass whole. It is so unclean an animal as to eat its own ordure as soon as it voids it. This is a sufficient reason, were others wanting, why such a fowl should be reputed unclean, and its use as an article of diet prohibited. The ostrich,” says M. Buffon, was known in the remotest ages, and mentioned in the most ancient books. How indeed could an animal so remarkably large, and so wonderfully prolific, and peculiarly suited to the climate as is the ostrich, remain unknown in Africa, and part of Asia, countries peopled from the earliest ages, full of deserts indeed, but where there is not a spot which has not been traversed by the foot of man? The family of the ostrich, therefore, is of great antiquity. Nor in the course of ages has it varied or degenerated from its native purity. It has always remained on its paternal estate; and its lustre has been transmitted unsullied by foreign intercourse. In short, it is among the birds what the elephant is among the quadrupeds, a distinct race, widely separated from all the others by characters as striking as they are invariable.” “On the least noise,” says Dr. Shaw, “or trivial occasion, she forsakes her eggs, or her young ones; to which perhaps she never returns; or if she does, it may be too late either to restore life to the one, or to preserve the lives of the others. Agreeably to this account the Arabs meet sometimes with whole nests of these eggs undisturbed: some of them are sweet and good, others are addle and corrupted; others again have their young ones of different growth, according to the time, it may be presumed, they have been forsaken of the dam. The Arabs often meet with a few of the little ones no bigger than well grown pullets, half starved, straggling and moaning about like so many distressed orphans for their mother. In this manner the ostrich may be said to be hardened against her young ones as though they were not hers; her labour, in hatching and attending them so far, being vain, without fear, or the least concern of what becomes of them afterward. This want of affection is also recorded, Lam. iv, 3, ‘the daughter of my people is become cruel, like ostriches in the wilderness;’ that is, by apparently deserting their own, and receiving others in return.” Natural affection and sagacious instinct are the grand instruments by which providence continues the race of other animals: but no limits can be set to the wisdom and power of God. He preserveth the breed of the ostrich without those means, and even in a penury of all the necessaries of life. Notwithstanding the stupidity of this animal, its Creator hath amply provided for its safety, by endowing it with extraordinary swiftness, and a surprising apparatus for escaping from its enemy. They, when they raise themselves up for flight, laugh at the horse and his rider.” They afford him an opportunity only of admiring at a distance the extraordinary agility and the stateliness likewise of their motions, the richness of their plumage, and the great propriety there was in ascribing to them an expanded quivering wing. Nothing certainly can be more entertaining than such a sight, the wings, by their rapid but unwearied vibrations, equally serving them for sails and oars; while their feet, no less assisting in conveying them out of sight, seem to be insensible of fatigue.
MAP OFPALESTINE.Illustrating theNEW TESTAMENT.
MAP OFPALESTINE.Illustrating theNEW TESTAMENT.
MAP OFPALESTINE.Illustrating theNEW TESTAMENT.
OWL. There are several varieties of this species, all too well known to need a particular description. They are nocturnal birds of prey, and have their eyes better adapted for discerning objects in the evening or twilight than in the glare of day. 1.כוס, Lev. xi, 17; Deut. xiv, 16; Psalm cii, 6, is in our version rendered the little owl.” Aquila, Theodotion, Jerom, Kimchi, and most of the older interpreters, are quoted to justify this rendering. Michaëlis, at some length, supports the opinion that it is the horned owl. Bochart, though with some hesitation, suspected it to be theonocrotalus, a kind of pelican, because the Hebrew name signifiescup, and the pelican is remarkable for a pouch or bag under the lower jaw; but there are good reasons for supposing that bird to be theקאתof the next verse. Dr. Geddes thinks this bird the cormorant; and as it begins the list of water fowl, and is mentioned always inthe same contexts withקאת, confessedly a water bird, his opinion may be adopted. 2.קאת, Lev. xi, 17; Deut. xiv, 16; Isaiah xxxiv, 11. In the two first places our translators render this the great owl,” which is strangely placed after the little owl, and among water birds. Our translators,” says the author of Scripture Illustrated,” “seem to have thought the owl a convenient bird, as we have three owls in two verses.” Some critics think it means a species of night bird, because the word may be derived fromנשף, which signifiesthe twilight, the time when owls fly about. But this interpretation, says Parkhurst, seems very forced; and since it is mentioned among water fowls, and the LXX. have, in the first and last of those texts, rendered it by ἴβις,the ibis, we are disposed to adopt it here, and think the evidence strengthened by this, that in a Coptic version of Lev. xi, 17, it is callediporhip, which, with a Greek termination, would very easily make ιβις. 3.קפון, which occurs only in Isaiah xxxiv, 15, is in our version rendered the great owl.” 4.לילית, Isa. xxxiv, 14, in our version the screech owl.” The root signifiesnight; and as undoubtedly a bird frequenting dark places and ruins is referred to, we must admit some kind of owl.
A place of lonely desolation, whereThe screeching tribe and pelicans abide,And the dun ravens croak mid ruins drear,And moaning owls from man the farthest hide.
A place of lonely desolation, whereThe screeching tribe and pelicans abide,And the dun ravens croak mid ruins drear,And moaning owls from man the farthest hide.
A place of lonely desolation, whereThe screeching tribe and pelicans abide,And the dun ravens croak mid ruins drear,And moaning owls from man the farthest hide.
A place of lonely desolation, where
The screeching tribe and pelicans abide,
And the dun ravens croak mid ruins drear,
And moaning owls from man the farthest hide.
OX,בקר, in Arabicbœkerreandbykar, the male of horned cattle of the beeve kind, at full age, when fit for the plough. Younger ones are called bullocks. Michaëlis, in his elaborate work on the laws of Moses, has proved that castration was never practised. The rural economy of the Israelites led them to value the ox as by far the most important of domestic animals, from the consideration of his great use in all the operations of farming. In the patriarchal ages, the ox constituted no inconsiderable portion of their wealth. Thus Abraham is said to be very rich in cattle, Gen. xxiv, 35. Men of every age and country have been much indebted to the labours of this animal. So early as in the days of Job, who was probably contemporary with Isaac, the oxen were ploughing, and the asses were feeding beside them,” when the Sabeans fell upon them, and took them away. In times long posterior, when Elijah was commissioned to anoint Elisha, the son of Shaphat, prophet in his stead, he found him ploughing with twelve yoke of oxen, 1 Kings xix, 19. For many ages the hopes of oriental husbandmen depended entirely on their labours. This was so much the case in the time of Solomon, that he observes, in one of his proverbs, Where no oxen are, the crib is clean,” or rather empty; but much increase is by the strength of the ox,” Prov. xiv, 4. The ass, in the course of ages was compelled to bend his stubborn neck to the yoke, and share the labours of the ox; but still the preparation of the ground in the time of spring depended chiefly on the more powerful exertions of the latter. When this animal was employed in bringing home the produce of the harvest, he was regaled with a mixture of chaff, chopped straw, and various kinds of grain, moistened with acidulated water. But among the Jews, the ox was best fed when employed in treading out the corn; for the divine law, in many of whose precepts the benevolence of the Deity conspicuously shines, forbad to muzzle him, and, by consequence, to prevent him from eating what he would of the grain he was employed to separate from the husks. The ox was also compelled to the labour of dragging the cart or wagon. The number of oxen commonly yoked to one cart appears to have been two, Num. vii, 3, 7, 8; 1 Sam. vi, 7; 2 Sam. vi, 3, 6.
Thewild ox,תאן, Deut. xiv, 5, is supposed to be the oryx of the Greeks, which is a species of large stag.
PADAN-ARAM, called also Sedan-Aram in Hosea; both names denotingAramorSyria the fruitful, orcultivated, and apply to the northern part of Mesopotamia, in which Haran or Charran was situated. SeeMesopotamia.
PAGANS, Heathens, and particularly those who worship idols. The term came into use after the establishment of Christianity, the cities and great towns affording the first converts. The Heathens were called Pagans, frompagus, a village,” because they were then found chiefly in remote country places; but we use the term commonly for all who do not receive the Jewish, Christian, or Mohammedan religions.
PAINTING THE FACE, 2 Kings ix, 30. SeeEyes.
PALESTINE, taken in a limited sense, denotes the country of the Philistines or Palestines, including that part of the land of promise which extended along the Mediterranean Sea, from Gaza south to Lydda north. The LXX. were of opinion that the wordPhilistiim, which they generally translateAllophyli, signified strangers,” or men of another tribe. Palestine, taken in a more general sense, signifies the whole country of Canaan, the whole land of promise, as well beyond as on this side Jordan, though pretty frequently it is restrained to the country on this side that river; so that in later times the words Judea and Palestine were synonymous. We find, also, the name of Syria Palestina given to the land of promise, and even sometimes this province is comprehended in Cœlo-Syria, or the Lower Syria. Herodotus is the most ancient writer we know that speaks of Syria Palestina. He places it between Phenicia and Egypt. SeeCanaan.
PALM TREE,תמר, Exodus xv, 27, &c. This tree, sometimes called the date tree, grows plentifully in the east. It rises to a great height. The stalks are generally full of rugged knots, which are the vestiges of the decayed leaves; for the trunk of this tree is not solid, like other trees, but its centre is filled with pith, round which is a tough bark full of strong fibres when young, which, as the tree grows old, hardens and becomes ligneous.To this bark the leaves are closely joined, which in the centre rise erect; but, after they are advanced above the vagina which surrounds them, they expand very wide on every side the stem; and, as the older leaves decay, the stalk advances in height. The leaves, when the tree has grown to a size for bearing fruit, are six or eight feet long, are very broad when spread out, and are used for covering the tops of houses, &c. The fruit, which is called date, grows below the leaves in clusters and is of a sweet and agreeable taste. The learned Kæmpfer, as a botanist, an antiquary, and a traveller, has exhausted the whole subject of palm trees. The diligent natives,” says Mr. Gibbon, celebrated, either in verse or prose, the three hundred and sixty uses to which the trunk, the branches, the leaves, the juice, and the fruit, were skilfully applied.” “The extensive importance of the date tree,” says Dr. E. D. Clarke, is one of the most curious subjects to which a traveller can direct his attention. A considerable part of the inhabitants of Egypt, of Arabia, and Persia, subsist almost entirely upon its fruit. They boast also of its medicinal virtues. Their camels feed upon the date stone. From the leaves they make couches, baskets, bags, mats, and brushes; from the branches, cages for their poultry, and fences for their gardens; from the fibres of the boughs, thread, ropes, and rigging; from the sap is prepared a spirituous liquor; and the body of the tree furnishes fuel. It is even said that from one variety of the palm tree, thephœnix farinifera, meal has been extracted, which is found among the fibres of the trunk, and has been used for food.”
In the temple of Solomon were pilasters made in the form of palm trees, 1 Kings vi, 29. It was under a tree of this kind that Deborah dwelt between Ramah and Bethel, Judges iv, 5. To the fair, flourishing, and fruitful condition of this tree, the psalmist very aptly compares the votary of virtue, Psalm xcii, 12, 13, 14:--