IV. ACCOMMODATION IN REVELATION
3. PRESENT CONDITION
Hamadan has perhaps never fully recovered from the fearful massacre made there in 1220 AD by the Mongols, but its population is about 50,000, including a considerable number of descendants of the Israelites of the Dispersion (tracing descent from Asher, Naphtali, etc.). They point to the tombs of Esther and Mordecai in the neighborhood. It is a center for the caravan trade between Baghdad and Tehran. There is an American Presbyterian mission at work.
Authorities (besides those quoted above): Ctesias, Curtius, Amm.
Marcellinus, Pausanias, Strabo, Diod. Siculus; Ibnu’l Athir, Yaqut, Jahangusha, Jami`u’t Tawarikh, and modern travelers.
W. St. Clair Tisdall
ACHO
<ak’-o>.
See ACCO.
ACHOR
<a’-kor> (
rwOk[;
[`akhor], “trouble,” the idea of the word being that of trouble which is serious and extreme. See ACHAN): The place where Achan was executed in the time of Joshua (<060724>Joshua 7:24,26). In all the five places where it is mentioned it is described as the [`emek], the arable valley of Achor. There is no ground in the record for the current idea that it must have been a locality with horrid and dismal physical features. It was on a higher level than the camp of Israel in the Jordan valley, and on a lower level than Debir — a different Debir from that of <061515>
Joshua 15:15. In a general way, as indicated by the points mentioned in the border of Judah, it was north of Betharabah, and south of Debir (<060724>
Joshua 7:24; 15:7).
Many identify it with the Wady Kelt which descends through a deep ravine from the Judean hills and runs between steep banks south of the modern Jericho to Jordan, the stream after rams becoming a foaming
torrent. Possibly the name may have been applied to a region of considerable extent. In <236510>
Isaiah 65:10 it is a region on the east side of the mountain ridge which is in some sense balanced with Sharon on the west side. By implication the thing depicted seems to be these rich agricultural localities so far recovered from desolation as to be good grounds for cattle and sheep. Hosea recognizes the comforting aspect of the dreadful affair in the valley of Achor; it was a doorway of hope to pardoned Israel
(<280215>
Hosea 2:15 (17)), and he hopes for like acceptance for the Israel of his own day.
Willis J. Beecher
ACHSA
<ak’-sa>: Used in the King James Version in <130249>
1 Chronicles 2:49 for ACHSAH, which see.
ACHSAH
<ak’-sa> (
hs;k][“
[`akhchah]; in some copiesas;k][“
[`akhca’] in <130249>1 Chronicles 2:49), “anklet”): The daughter of Caleb whom he gave in marriage to his younger kinsman Othniel the son of Kenaz, as a reward for smiting Kiriath-sepher (<061516>
Joshua 15:16 ff; <070112>
Judges 1:12 ff). Caleb, the narrative says, established Achsah in the South-country, and in addition, at her asking, gave her certain important springs of water — the “upper basins” and the “nether basins.” Professor G. F. Moore identifies these with the groups of springs in Seit ed-Dilbeh (notes on Judges in
Polychrome Bible).
Willis J. Beecher
ACHSHAPH
<ak’-shaf> (
πv;k]a”
[’akhshaph], “sorcery,” or “fascination”): A city in the northern part of the territory conquered by Joshua. The king of Achshaph was a member of the coalition against Israel under Jabin and Sisera. It is mentioned with Hazor, Megiddo, Taanach, etc., in the list of conquered kings. It is one of the cities marking the boundaries of the tribe of Asher (<061101>Joshua 11:1; 12:20; 19:25). Several attempts have been made
to identify the site of it, but explorers are not agreed as to the identification.
ACHZIB
<ak’-zib> (
byzIk]a”
[’akhzibh], “lying” or “disappointing”): The name of two towns in Palestine:(1) A town in western Judah in the lowlands, mentioned in connection with Mareshah and Keilah as one of the cities allotted to Judah
(<061544>
Joshua 15:44), and in Micah (1:14), where it suggests play upon its meaning, “deceptive” or “failing,” possibly the place having received its name from a winter spring or brook, which failed in summer. It is also called Chezib (
byzIK]
[kezibh] (<013805>Genesis 38:5)), where Judah was at the time of the birth of his son Shelah. In <130422>
1 Chronicles 4:22 it is called Cozeba, the King James Version “Chozeba” (
ab;zEKo
[kozebha’]), clearly seen to be the same as Achzib, from the places with which it is grouped.
(2) It has been identified with the modern `Ayin-Kezbeh in the valley of Elah, and north of Adullam.
Edward Mack (3) Mod Zib Septuagint variously: <061929>
Joshua 19:29, Codex Vaticanus, [∆Ecozo>b, Echozob], Codex Alexandrinus, [∆Aczei>f, Achzeiph];
<070131>
Judges 1:31, Codex Vaticanus, [∆Ascazei>, Aschazei], Codex
Alexandrinus, [∆Ascendei>, Aschendei], Greek Ecdippa: A small town some miles north of Acre on the coast. It is mentioned in <061929>
Joshua 19:29 as falling within the possessions of the tribe of Asher, but they never occupied it, as they did not the neighboring Acre (Acco). The Phoenician inhabitants of the coast were too strongly entrenched to be driven out by a people who had no fleet. The cities on the coast doubtless aided one another, and Sidon had become rich and powerful before this and could succor such a small town in case of attack.
Achzib was a coast town, nine miles north of Acco, now known as Ez- Zib. It appears in the Assyrian inscriptions as Aksibi and Sennacherib enumerates it among the Phoenician towns that he took at the same
times as Acco (702 BC). It was never important and is now an insignificant village among the sand dunes of the coast. It was the bordertown of Galilee on the west, what lay beyond being unholy ground.
H. Porter
ACIPHA
<as’-i-fa>.
See ACHIPHAH.
ACITHO; ACITHOH
<as’-i-tho> (variant of AHITUB): The name in the King James Version of an ancestor of Judith (Judith 8:1).
ACKNOWLEDGE
<ak-nol’-ej> ([gignw>skw, gignosko]): To declare that one recognizes the claims of a person or thing fully established. Both in Old Testament and New Testament expressed by various forms of the word “know”
(<200306>
Proverbs 3:6; <236109>
Isaiah 61:9; <510202>
Colossians 2:2 the King James Version).
The Psalmist (<193205>
Psalm 32:5) “acknowledged” his sin, when he told God that he knew the guilt of what he had done. The Corinthians (<470114>
2 Corinthians 1:14) “acknowledged” Paul and his companions when they formally recognized their claims and authority.
ACQUAINT; ACQUAINTANCE
<a-kwant’>, <a-kwan’-tans> ([gnwstoi>, gnostoi]): Terms referring to various degrees of knowledge, but implying more or less detailed information; applied to God’s omniscience (<19D903>
Psalm 139:3), to the grief of the Suffering Servant of Yahweh (<235303>
Isaiah 53:3), and to the knowledge which man should have of God. The noun in the concrete, unless limited by a qualifying term, means more than one who has been known simply in passing, and implies a degree of intimacy, as may be seen in <420244>
Luke 2:44;
23:49; <121205>
2 Kings 12:5.
H. E. Jacobs
ACRA
<ak’-ra>, <a’-kra> (1 Macc 1:33 the Revised Version (British and American), “citadel”).
See JERUSALEM.
ACRABATTENE
<ak-ra-ba-te’-ne>.
See AKRABATTINE (in the Apocrypha).
ACRABBIM
<ak-rab’-im>: Incorrect transliteration of
syBir’q][“
[`aqrabbim], of<061503>
Joshua 15:3 in the King James Version.
See AKRABBIM.
ACRE (1)
<a’-ker>, <a’-ker>.
See ACCO.
ACRE (2)
<a’-ker> (
dm,x,
[tsemedh]): A term of land-measurement used twice in the English versions of the Bible (<230510>Isaiah 5:10; <091414>
1 Samuel 14:14), and said to be the only term in square measure found in the Old Testament.
The English word “acre” originally signified field. Then it came to denote the measure of land that an ox team could plow in a day, and upon the basis of a maximum acre of this kind the standard acre of 160 square rods (with variations in different regions) was fixed. The Hebrew word
translated acre denotes a yoke of animals, in the sense of a team, a span, a pair; it is never used to denote the yoke by which the team are coupled together. The phrase `ten yokes of vineyard’ (<230510>
Isaiah 5:10) may naturally mean vineyard covering as much land as a team would plow in ten days, though other plausible meanings can also be suggested. In <091414>
1 Samuel 14:14 the same word is used in describing the limits of space within which
Jonathan and his armor-bearer slew twenty Philistines. The translation of the Revised Version (British and American), “within as it were half a furrow’s length in an acre of land,” means, strictly, that they were slain along a line from two to twenty rods in length. The word rendered
“furrow,” used only here and in <19C903>
Psalm 129:3, is in Brown’s Hebrew Lexicon defined as “plowing-ground.” This gives the rendering “as it were in half a plowing-stint, a yoke of ground,” the last two phrases defining each the other, so that the meaning is substantially that of the paraphrase in the King James Version. There is here an alleged obscurity and
uncertainty in the text, but it is not such as to affect either the translation or the nature of the event.
Willis J. Beecher
ACROSTIC
<a-kros’-tik>: The acrostic, understood as a short poem in which the first letters of the lines form a word, or name, or sentence, has not yet been proved to occur in ancient Hebrew literature. The supposed examples found by some scholars in <190201>
Psalm 2:1-4 and 110:1b-4 are not generally recognized. Still less can be said in favor of the suggestion that in Est 1:20 four words read from left to right form by their initials an acrostic on the name YHWH (compare Konig, Einleitung 293). In Byzantine hymn- poetry the term acrostichis with which our word “acrostic” is connected was also used of alphabetical poems, that is poems the lines or groups of lines in which have their initials arranged in the order of the alphabet.
Acrostics of this kind are found in pre-Christian Hebrew literature as well as elsewhere in ancient oriental literature. There are twelve clear instances in the Old Testament: Psalms 25; 34; 37; 111 f; 119; 145; <203110>
Proverbs 31:10-31, and Lamentations 1 through 4. There is probably an example in Psalms 9 and 10, and possibly another in Nab 1:2-10. Outside the Canon, Sirach 51:13-30 exhibits clear traces of alphabetic arrangement. Each of these fifteen poems must briefly be discussed.
Pss 9 and 10, which are treated as one psalm in Septuagint and Vulg, give fairly clear indications of original alphabetic structure even in the
Massoretic Text. The initials of 9:1,3,5 are respectively ‘aleph, beth, gimel; of 9:9,11,13,15,17 waw, zayin, cheth, Teth and yodh. <191001>
Psalm 10:1
begins with lamedh and 10:12,14,15,17 with qoph, resh, shin and taw.
Four lines seem to have been allotted to each letter in the original form of the poem. In Psalm 25 all the letters are represented except waw and qoph.
In 25:18 we find resh instead of the latter as well as in its place in 25:19. In 25:2 the alphabetical letter is the initial of the second word. The last verse is again supernumerary. There are mostly two lines to a letter. In Psalm 34 all the letters are represented except waw, 34:6 beginning not with it, as was to be expected, but with zayin. The last verse is again a
supernumerary. Since here and in 25:22 the first word is a form of padhah it has been suggested that there may have been here a sort of acrostic on the writer’s name Pedahel [pedhah’el], but there is no evidence that a psalmist so named ever existed. There are two lines to a letter. In Psalm 37 all the letters are represented except `ayin which seems however from Septuagint to have been present in the earliest text. As a rule four lines are assigned to each letter. In Psalms 111 f are found two quite regular
examples with a line to each letter. Psalm 119 offers another regular example, but with 16 lines to a letter, each alternate line beginning with its letter. Vs 1-8, for instance, each begin with ‘aleph. In Psalm 145 are found all the letters but nun. As we find in Septuagint between 145:13 and 14, that is where the nun couplet ought to be:
“Faithful is the Lord in his words And holy in his works,”
which may represent a Hebrew couplet beginning with nun, it would seem that a verse has dropped out of the Massoretic Text. <203110>
Proverbs 31:10-31 constitutes a regular alphabetical poem with (except in 31:15) two lines to a letter. Lamentations 1 is regular, with three lines to a letter Lamentations 2; 3; 4, are also regular with a curious exception. In each case pe precedes
`ayin, a phenomenon which has not yet been explained. In Lamentations 2 there are three or four lines to a letter except in 2:17, where there seem to be five. In Lamentations 3 also there are three lines to a letter and each line begins with that letter. In Lamentations 4 there are two lines to a letter except in 4:22 where there are probably four lines. Lamentations 5 has twice as many lines as the letters of the alphabet but no alphabetical arrangement. In Nab 1:1-10 ff Delitzsch (following Frohnmeyer) in 1876, Bickell in 1880 and 1894, Gunkel in 1893 and 1895, G. B. Gray in 1898 (Expos, September) and others have pointed out possible traces of original
alphabetical structure. In the Massoretic text, however, as generally arranged, it is not distinctly discernible. Sirach 51:13-30: As early as 1882 Bickell reconstructed this hymn on the basis of the Greek and Syriac versions as a Hebrew alphabetical poem. In 1897 Schechter (in the judgment of most scholars) discovered the original text in a collection of fragments from the Genizah of Cairo, and this proved the correctness of Bickell’s idea and even the accuracy of some details of his reconstruction.
The poem begins with ‘aleph and has tav as the initial letter of the last line but one. In 51:21,22,24,25,26,27 the letters mem, nun, `ayin, pe, tsadhe, qoph and resh can be traced at the beginnings of lines in that order Samekh is absent (compare Schechter-Taylor, The Wisdom of Ben Sira, lxxvi- lxxxvii).
As this rapid survey will have shown, this form of acrostic as employed by Hebrew writers consisted in the use of letters of the alphabet as initials in their order, at regular intervals, the distance between two different letters ranging from one to sixteen lines. Once each letter is thus used three times, in another case eight times. The corruption of the text has in some cases led to considerable interference with the alphabetical arrangement, and textual criticism has endeavored to restore it with varying success.
These alphabetical poems have been unduly depreciated on account of their artificial structure and have also been regarded for the same reason as of comparatively late origin. This latter conclusion is premature with present evidence. The poems in Lamentations undoubtedly go back as far as the 6th century BC, and Assyrian testimony takes us back farther still for acrostic poems of some kind. Strictly alphabetical poems are of course out of the question in Assyrian because of the absence of an alphabet, but there are texts from the library of Ashur-bani-pal each verse-line in which begins with the same syllable, and others in which the initial syllables read together compose a word or sentence. Now these texts were written down in the 7th century BC, but may have been copied from far earlier
Babylonian originals. There can be little doubt that oriental poets wrote acrostic at an early period, and therefore the use of some form of the acrostic is no clear indication of lateness of date. (For these Assyrian acrostics compare Weber, Die Literatur der Babylonier und Assyrer, 37.)
LITERATURE.
In addition to authorities already cited: Konig, Einl, 58, 66, 74, 76, 399, 404, 419, and Stilistik, etc., 357 ff, Budde, Geschichte der alt-hebraischen Litteratur, 30, 90, 241, 291; article “Acrostic” in HDB (larger and smaller) and Hastings, Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, and Jewish
Encyclopedia; commentaries on Psalm, Nah, Proverbs and Lam; Driver, Parallel Psalter; King, Early Religious Poetry of the Hebrews, chapter iv.
William Taylor Smith
ACTS; APOCRYPHAL
<a-pok’-ri-fal>.
See APOCRYPHAL ACTS.
ACTS OF THE APOSTLES
<a-pos’-ls>:
`. TITLE.
It is possible, indeed probable, that the book originally had no title. The manuscripts give the title in several forms. Aleph (in the inscription) has merely “Acts” (Praxeis). So Tischendorf, while Origen, Didymus, Eusebius quote from “The Acts.” But BD Aleph (in subscription) have
“Acts of Apostles” or “The Acts of the Apostles” (Praxeis Apostolon).
So Westcott and Hort, Nestle (compare Athanasius and Euthalius). Only slightly different is the title in 31,61, and many other cursives (Praxeis ton Apostolon, “Acts of the Apostles”). So Griesbach, Scholz. Several fathers (Clement of Alex, Origen, Dionysius of Alex, Cyril of Jerusalem,
Chrysostom) quote it as “The Acts of the Apostles” (Hai Praxeis ton Apostolon). Finally A2 EGH give it in the form “Acts of the Holy Apostles” (Praxeis ton Hagion Apostolon). The Memphitic version has
“The Acts of the Holy Apostles.” Clearly, then, there was no single title that commanded general acceptance.