Volume 1
A dictionary of the Bible : dealing with its language, literature, and contents, including the Biblical theology / edited by James Hastings ; with the co-operation of John A. Selbie.
- Date:
- 1909-10
Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Credit: A dictionary of the Bible : dealing with its language, literature, and contents, including the Biblical theology / edited by James Hastings ; with the co-operation of John A. Selbie. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.
890/898 (page 862)
![rot. Year by year in the Nazareth synagogue Jesus must have seen and heard all this, and how the reader tried to read in one breath the verses in which Haman and his sons are jointly mentioned, to show that they were hanged together' (Geikie, The Life and Words of Christ, i. 226). Edersheim (Tlie Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, i. 229) speaks of the ' good cheer and boisterous enjoyments' of the Feast of Purim, some of its customs 'almost reminding us of our fifth of November.' (2) The Feast of the Dedication of the Temple (nsin, n^an najq, i-yKaivia, 1 Mac 4:^^-^^, 2 Mac 10f-; (pdra, Jos. Ant. XII. vii. 7).—It was instituted by Judas Maccabajus in B.C. 164, when the temple which had been desecrated by Antiochus Epiphanes was once more purified and re - dedicated to the service of J. It commenced on the 25th of Chislev (the ninth month), and lasted for eight days. ' All through the land the people assembled in their synagogues, carrying branches of palm and other trees in their hands, and held jirbilant services. No fast or mourning could commence during the feast, and a blaze of lamps, lanterns, and torches illuminated every house, within and without, each evening. In Jerusalem the temple itself was thus lighted up. The young of every household heard the stirring deeds of the Maccabees, to rouse them to noble emulation, and with these were linked the story of the heroic Judith and the Assyrian Holofernes ' (Geikie, The Life and Words of Christ, vol. i. p. 225). It will be noticed that in four particulars the Feast of the Dedication resembled the Feast of Tabernacles, (1) in its duration of eight days; (2) in the chanting of the Hallel (Pss 113-118); (3) in the practice of carrying palm branches ; (4) in the illumination of the temple. Edersheim, in The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, ii. 221 i., thinks that the first three particulars were derived from the Feast of the Tabernacles, and that the last (the temple illumination) passed from the Feast of the Dedication into the observances of the Feast of Tabernacles. The date of the Feast of the Dedication, the 25th of Chislev, some hold to have been adopted by the ancient Church as that of the birth of our blessed Lord—Christmas—the dedication of the true temple, which was the body of Jesus (Jn 2) (Edersheim, The Temple, etc., p. 293, and ' Christmas a Festival of Jewish Origin ' in The Leisure Hour for Dec. 1873). The F. of the Dedication is mentioned in Jn 10-^ (3) The Feast of Wood Offering or of the Wood- carriers, ^v\o<popluv (Jos. BJ, 11. xvii. 6), on the 15th of Abib—being the last of the nine occasions on which offerings of wood were brought for the use of the temple (cf. Neh 13). The Feast of the Pleading of the Law (1 Es 9', Neh 8'); The Feast of Nicanor on the 13th of Adar (1 Mac 7^^); The Feast of the Captured Fortress on the 23rd of lyyar (the second month) (1 Mac 13=°-'-); and The Feast of Baskets, evidently ' never attained to any real religions significance' (see Schultz, OT Theol. i. 431, and Edersheim, The Temple, etc., 295 f., on the Feast of Wood Oflering). IV. Fasts.—(1) TJie Day of Atonement. — cn23n, Tjixipa i^CKaaixov, lit. Day of the Coverings or Atonements (Lv 16 (F) and 23=''-^- (H), Ex (P), Nu 29''' (P)). It was the only fast day prescribed by the law (Lv 23 (H)). In the Talmud it is called ' The Day' (kov) ; in the NT it is called ' the fast,' i] vrjarela (Ac 27^). The sacrifices were three- fold : (1) the ordinary daily sacrifices; (2) the special expiatory sacrifices of the day; (3) the festive sacrifices (Nu 29''-''). The characteristic feature of the day was the offering of the sin-oirer- ing of atonement by the high priest alone (Lv 16^^) —not in his gorgeous official dress, but in the simple white linen robes of purity and consecration (Lv 16^- 31 23-'- 2-, Nu 29'). The order of proceedings is given in Lv 16. In yy_3-io liavB tlie geucral outline, in vv.^^-^^ the details, Avhich were as follows: (1) The killing of the bullock by the high priest as a sin-offering for himself and his house; (2) the burning of incense in the Holy of Holies by the high priest; (3) the sprinkling of the mercy-seat {IXaarripiO!' iirlOefxa) with the blood of the priest's sin-offering ; (4) the casting lots upon the goats of the people's sin-offering, one goat for J, one for Azazel (''iNty., Philo, 'The one goat is given to the fugitive creature, and the lot which it received is named in the prophecy sent away [referring to awowofiiraiov by which the LXX tr.'ji.s'ty ], because it is persecuted,expelled,and driven far away by wisdom.' Willis,' Azazel, the name of a personal being, in opposition to J, the personal name of God.' Schultz, ' Some powerful being to whom the animal is assigned, and to whom it is sent wdth the now forgiven guilt of the reconciled people. . . . This being must be conceived of as strange and unholy. . . . An Aramaic name for an unclean and ungodlike power, which has its abode in the wilderness, in the accursed land out- side the sacred bounds of the camp.' Watson in Camh. Comp. to the Bible, ' Azazel, the completely separate one, the evil spirit regarded as dwelling in the desert'). See Azazel. (5) The killing of the goat of the people's sin-offering by the high priest; (6) the sprinkling of the mercy-seat with the blood of the people's sin-offering; (7) the sprinkling of the blood of each sin-oflTering on the golden altar of incense and before it seven times ; (8) atonement for the court and altar of burnt- ofiering; (9) confession of sin over the live goat, and his dismissal into the wilderness to Azazel; (10) resumption by the high priest of the gorgeous robes of his office; (11) the offering of burnt- offerings and burning the fat of the sin-offerings; (12) the burning of the sin-offerings without the camp (He IS^'^^). The chief purpose of the Day of Atonement was to jjreserve the holiness of the sanctuary as a fit place of meeting between God and man. There were five subjects of atonement: (1) The Holy Sanctuary {i.e. the Holy of Holies); (2) the Tent of Meeting (i.e. the Holy Place); (3) the altar (i.e. of burnt-oflering); (4) the priest; (5) all the congregation. It is significant that there is no mention of the Day of Atonement until Sir 50^-. Zee 3' is doubt- ful. In Neh 8 it might have been expected. Neh •yvsb.gss records (1) the observance of the Feast of Trumpets on the first day of the seventh month of the year B.C. 444 ; (2) the celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles, including the reading of the books of the law day by day, from the 15th to the 22nd of the same month ; (3) the observance of a day of general fasting and prayer on tlie 24th day of the same month. Either the 24th day was observed in place of the Day of Atonement on the 10th day, or the latter had not yet been appointed. It is difficult to avoid the latter alternative. ' This testimonium e silentio is enough ; down to that date (B.C. 444) the great day of the Priestly code (now introduced for the first time) had not existed' (Wellhausen, Prolegomena, p. 111). For the refer- ences in the NT see Ro S-'' {i\a<rTripiov, n-ib?). He 2*' 4I4-I6 51-10 gl9. 20 1^22-28 gl-6 gll-If) J3IO-I2 I Jii 2^ 4' (iXoc/no's) (Willis, Worship of the Old Covenant, pp. 201-214; Edersheim, The Temple, etc., ch. xvi. pp. 263-288). See further, Atonement (Day of). (2) Other Fasts.—The Day of Atonement was the only fast day prescribed by the law. But we read of individual and national fasts in Jg 20^^ 1 S 7' 3V\ 2 S 12, 1 K 2P-Jon 3- \ Jer 14^2 36''-», La 2i», Jl 1 2- Is 58=-'', Neh 9f-, Est 4^^ Dn 10^ 1 Mac 3. Two passages in Zee call for comment,](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b24749163_0001_0890.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
