E. J. Banks
IV. REASON FOR SUCH AN EPISTLE
Assuming therefore that the “Epistle to the Ephesians” is the epistle which Paul wrote to the Laodiceans, various questions arise, such as, Why did he write to the church there? What was there in the state of the church in Laodicea to call for an epistle from him? Was there any heresy there, like the false teaching which existed in the neighboring church in Colosse?
The answer to such questions is that though we do not possess much information, yet these churches in the province of Asia had many things in common. They had originated at the same time, during the two whole years of Paul’s residence in Ephesus. They were composed of men of the same races, and speaking the same languages. They were subject to the same influences of doctrinal error. The errors into which any one church fell could not fail to affect the others also. These churches were permeated to a large extent by the same ideas, derived both from the current
philosophy and from their ancestral heathen religions. They would, therefore, one and all, require the same apostolic instruction and exhortation. This epistle, accordingly, bears a close resemblance to the Epistle to the Colossians, just for the reason that the circumstances of the church in Laodicea were similar to those of the church in Colosse; and
also, that the thoughts which filled Paul’s heart as he wrote to Colosse were adapted, in the first place, to counteract the false teaching in Colosse, but they are also the foundation of all Christian experience, and the very life of all Christian truth and doctrine. These are the great thoughts of Christ the Creator of all things, Christ the Upholder of all things, Christ the Reconciler of all things. Such thoughts filling Paul’s heart would naturally find expression in language bearing a close resemblance to that in which he had just written to Colosse.
It is no more astonishing that Paul should have written to Laodicea, than that he also wrote to Colosse, which was probably the least important of all the cities and churches mentioned in the apostle’s work and career. Neither is it any more to be wondered at that he should have written so profound an epistle as that to “the Ephesians,” than that he should also have given directions that it be sent on to Colosse and read there; for this reason, that the exposition of Christ’s great love to the church and of His giving Himself for it — the doctrine of the grace of God — is the very corrective required by the errors of the false teachers at Colosse, and is also the groundwork of Christian truth and experience for all agesú
NOTE: A very remarkable circumstance in regard to the apocryphal Epistle to the Laodiceans is mentioned by Nestle in the preface to his edition of the Latin New Testament, published in Stuttgart in 1906. He writes that “the Epistle to the Laodiceans was for a thousand years part of very many Latin Bibles, and obtained a place in pre-Lutheran German Bibles, together with Jerome’s Epistle to Damasus.”
John Rutherfurd LAP
The word is the translation of three different Hebrew expressions: qyje [cheq] (Proverbs 16:33), dg<B, [beghedh] (2 Kings 4:39), and ˆx,jo [chotsen] (Nehemiah 5:13, besides ˆx,je [chatsen], Psalm 129:7). In all these passages the meaning is that of a part of oriental clothing, probably the folds of the garment covering the bosom or lap of a person. The flowing garments of Orientals invite the use of the same, on the part of speakers, in driving home certain truths enunciated by impressive
gesticulation. Every reader of Roman history recalls the impressive incident
of Quintus Fabius Maximus (Cunctator), who, in 219 BC, was ambassador of Rome to Carthage, and who, before the city council, holding the folds of his toga in the shape of a closed pouch, declared that he held enclosed in the same both peace and war, whichever the Carthaginians should desire to choose. When the Carthaginians clamored for war, he opened the folds of his garment and said: “Then you shall have war!” Very much like it, Nehemiah, when pleading for united efforts for the improvement of social order, addressed the priests of Jerusalem to get a pledge of their
cooperation: “Also I shook out my lap (hotsen), and said, So God shake out every man from his house, and from his labor, that performeth not this promise; even thus be he shaken out, and emptied” (Nehemiah 5:13).
In English Versions of the Bible the verb “to lap” is found, which has no etymological connection with the above-mentioned nouns. It is in Hebrew qq”l; [laqaq] and refers to the loud licking up of water by dogs (1 Kings 21:19; 22:38 the King James Version), and in the story of Gideon’s battle against the Midianites, of his 300 warriors (Judges 7:5 ff).
H. L. E. Luering LAPPIDOTH
<lap’-i-doth, -doth> (twOdyPil” [lappidhoth], “flames,” “torches”; the King James Version, Lapidoth): Deborah’s husband (Judges 4:4). The Hebrew name is a feminine plural like Jeremoth (1 Chronicles 7:8), Naboth (1 Kings 21:1). The plural is probably intensive. Jewish interpreters have identified Lappidoth (“flames”) with Barak (“lightning”). Some have taken the words rendered “wife of Lappidoth” ([’esheth lappidhoth]) as a
description of Deborah, and have translated them, “woman of lights,” i.e.
maker of wicks for the sanctuary; or “woman of flames,” referring to her prophetic zeal. These explanations are more interesting than probable.
John A. Lees LAPWING
<lap’-wing> (tp”ykiWD [dukhiphath]; [e]poy, epops]): A translation used in early VSS, now universally admitted to be incorrect. The lapwing had a crest, and resembled in size and color the hoopoe (Upupa epops). It appears in the lists of abominations only (Leviticus 11:19 the King James Version and Deuteronomy 14:18 the King James Version, the Revised
Version (British and American) HOOPOE, which see). The lapwing is a plover, and its flesh and eggs are delicious food.
LASCIVIOUSNESS
<la-siv’-i-us-nes> ([ajse>lgeia, aselgeia], “licentiousness,” “wantonness,”
“unbridled lust,” “shamelessness,” “outrageousness”):
1. SOURCES:
Etymologists assign three probable sources of aselgeia, namely:
(1) from a compound of the alpha privitive (negation) and [Se>lgh, Selge], a Pisidian city whose inhabitants according to Thayer (New Testament Lexicon) “excelled in strictness of morals,” but, according to Trench, a place whose people “were infamous for their vices”;
(2) from a compound of “a” intense, and [salagei~n, salagein], “to raise a disturbance or noise”;
(3) from a compound of the alpha privitive [a, a-] and [se>lgw, selgo], or [qe>lgw, thelgo], “exciting disgust or displeasure.” It evidently means conduct and character that is unbecoming, indecent, unrestrainedly shameless.
2. AS USED IN THE NEW TESTAMENT:
Mark uses it in 7:22 with uncertainty as to the vice meant. Paul (2
Corinthians 12:21) classes it with uncleanness and fornication as sins to be repented of; also (Galatians 5:19; compare The Wisdom of Solomon 14:26, “wantonness”) puts it in the same catalogue with other works of the flesh; and (Ephesians 4:19) he refers to some aged ones so covetous, that they made trade of themselves by giving “themselves up to lasciviousness.”
The same word is translated “wantonness” in Romans 13:13, meaning wanton manner, filthy words, unchaste movements of the body. Peter (1 Peter 4:3) mentions those who “walked in lasciviousness, lusts,
winebibbings, revellings, carousings, and abominable idolatries.” He speaks (2 Peter 2:2) of “lascivious doings” (the King James Version “pernicious ways”); (2 Peter 2:7) “lascivious life” (the King James Version “filthy conversation”); and (2 Peter 2:18) of “lasciviousness” (the King James Version “wantonness”), as a means “to entice in the lusts of the flesh.”
Jude 1:4 probably does not refer to any form of sensuality in using the
word descriptive of “ungodly men” who perverted the faith of some and denied our only Master.
William Edward Raffety LASEA
<la-se’-a> ([La>saia, Lasaia]): A town on the South coast of Crete, 5 miles East of Fair Havens (Acts 27:8). The ruins were examined in 1856 by G. Brown (see Code of Hammurabi (St. P), chapter xxiii, 640). If Paul’s ship was detained long at this anchorage, it would be necessary to purchase stores from Lasea; and this in addition to the inconvenience of the
roadstead (see FAIR HAVENS) would probably explain the captain’s reluctance to winter there.
LASHA
<la’-sha> ([v”l; [lasha`]): A place named on the southern boundary of the Canaanites along with Gomorrah, Adnah and Zeboiim (Genesis 10:19).
Eusebius, Onomasticon identifies it with the hot springs at Callirrhoe in Wady Zerqa Ma`in, on the East of the Dead Sea; in this agreeing with Targum Jerusalem. This position, however, seems too far to the North, and possibly the site should be sought on the West of the Arabah. The absence of the article (compare Joshua 15:2) prevents identification with the promontory el-Lisan, which runs into the sea from the eastern shore.
Wellhausen (Comp. des Hexateuch., 15) thinks we should read µv;le [lesham], since the Hebrew letters, m “m” (mem) and [ “ ` “ (`ayin), are like each other in their Palmyrene form. We should then have indicated the boundary from Gaza to the Dead Sea, and then from the Dead Sea to Leshem, i.e. Dan. This is very precarious. No identification is possible.
W. Ewing