the Pentateuch the law, without any addition. Next to this they have the
Talmud, which is divided into two parts: the first is only an
application of the law to particular cases, with the decision of the
ancient rabbins, and is called _mishnah_, or “second law:” the other
part, which is a more extensive application of the same law, is a
collection of determinations by rabbins, later than the _mishnah_. This
last is termed _gemara_, “perfection,” “finishing,” because they
consider it as a conclusive explanation of the law, to which no farther
additions can be made. There are two _gemaras_, or two Talmuds, that of
Jerusalem, and that of Babylon. The former was compiled, according to
the Jews, about the end of the second or third century, by a celebrated
rabbin, called Jochanan; but father Morinus maintains that the _gemara_
was not finished till about the seventh century. Dr. Prideaux says that
it was completed about A. D. 300. The Jews have little value for this
Jerusalem Talmud, on account of its obscurity. The Babylonish _gemara_
is, as the rabbins say, more modern. It was begun by a Jewish doctor,
named Asa, and continued by Marmar and Mar, his sons or disciples. The
Jews believe that the _gemara_ contains nothing but the word of God,
preserved in the tradition of the elders, and transmitted, without
alteration, from Moses to rabbi Judah, the holy, and the other compilers
of the Talmud; who did not reduce it to writing till they were afraid it
would be corrupted by the several transmigrations and persecutions to
which their nation was subjected.
GENEALOGY, γενεαλογία, signifies a list of a person’s ancestors. The
common Hebrew expression for it is _Sepher-Toledoth_, “the Book of
Generations.” No nation was ever more careful to preserve their
genealogies than the Jews. The sacred writings contain genealogies
extended three thousand five hundred years backward. The genealogy of
our Saviour is deduced by the evangelists from Adam to Joseph and Mary,
through a space of four thousand years and upward. The Jewish priests
were obliged to produce an exact genealogy of their families, before
they were admitted to exercise their function. Wherever placed, the Jews
were particularly careful not to marry below themselves; and to prevent
this, they kept tables of genealogy in their several families, the
originals of which were lodged at Jerusalem, to be occasionally
consulted. These authentic monuments, during all their wars and
persecutions, were taken great care of, and from time to time renewed.
But, since the last destruction of their city, and the dispersion of the
people, their ancient genealogies are lost. But to this the Jews reply,
that either Elias, or some other inspired priest or prophet, shall come,
and restore their genealogical tables before the Messiah’s appearance; a
tradition, which they ground on a passage in Nehemiah vii, 64, 65, to
this effect: the genealogical register of the families of certain
priests being lost, they were not able to make out their lineal descent
from Aaron; and therefore, “as polluted, were put from the priesthood;”
the “Tirshatha said unto them, that they should not eat of the most holy
things, till there stood up a priest with Urim and Thummim.” From hence
the Jews conclude, that such a priest will stand up, and restore and
complete the genealogies of their families: though others suppose these
words to import, that they should never exercise their priesthood any
more; and that, “till there shall stand up a priest with Urim and
Thummim,” amounts to the same as the Roman proverb, _ad Græcas
calendas_, [never,] since the Urim and Thummim were now absolutely and
for ever lost.
GENERATION. Beside the common acceptation of this word, as signifying
descent, it is used for the history and genealogy of any individual, as
“The book of the generations of Adam,” Genesis v, 1, the history of
Adam’s creation, and of his posterity. “The generations of the heavens
and of the earth,” Genesis ii, 4, is a recital of the creation of heaven
and earth. “The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the Son of
David,” Matthew i, 1, is the genealogy of Jesus Christ, and the history
of his life. The ancients sometimes computed by generations: “In the
fourth generation thy descendants shall come hither again,” Genesis xv,
16. “Joseph saw Ephraim’s children of the third generation,” Genesis 1,
23. “A bastard shall not be admitted into the congregation, till the
tenth generation,” Deut. xxiii, 2. Among the ancients, when the duration
of generations was not exactly described by the age of four men
succeeding one another from father to son, it was fixed by some at a
hundred years, by others at a hundred and ten, by others at
thirty-three, thirty, twenty-five, and even at twenty years; being
neither uniform nor settled: only, it is remarked, that a generation is
longer as it is more ancient.
GENESIS, a canonical book of the Old Testament, so called from the Greek
γενεσις, _genesis_, or _generation_, because it contains an account of
the origin of all visible things, and of the genealogy of the first
patriarchs. In the Hebrew it is called בראשית, which signifies, _in the
beginning_, because it begins with that word. See PENTATEUCH.
GENNESARETH, LAND OF, or GENNESAR, a small district of Galilee, supposed
to have been so called from its pleasantness, and extending about four
miles along the north-western shore of the sea of Galilee, or
Gennesareth, so called from this same region. It is more probable,
however, that Gennesareth is nothing more than a word moulded from
Cinnereth, the ancient name of a city and adjoining tract in this very
situation, as well as of the lake itself. This part of Galilee is
described by Josephus as possessing a singular fertility, with a
delightful temperature of the air, and abounding in the fruits of
different climates.
GENTILE. The Hebrews called the Gentiles גויים, ἔθνη, _the nations_,
that is, those who have not received the faith or law of God. All who
are not Jews, and circumcised, are _goiim_. Those who were converted,
and embraced Judaism, they called proselytes. Since the Gospel, the true
religion is not confined to any one nation or country, as heretofore,
God, who had promised by his prophets to call the Gentiles to the faith,
with a superabundance of grace, has fulfilled his promise; so that the
Christian church is now composed principally of Gentile converts; and
the Jews, too proud of their particular privileges, and abandoned to
their reprobate sense of things, have disowned Jesus Christ, their
Messiah and Redeemer, for whom, during so many ages, they had looked so
impatiently. In the writings of St. Paul, the Gentiles are generally
denoted as Greeks, Rom. i, 14, 16; ii, 9, 10; iii; x, 12; 1 Cor. i,
22–24; Gal. iii, 28. St. Luke, in the Acts, expresses himself in the
same manner, Acts vi, 1; xi, 20; xviii, &c.
2. St. Paul is commonly called the Apostle of the Gentiles, 1 Tim. ii,
7, or Greeks; because he, principally, preached Jesus Christ to them;
whereas Peter, and the other Apostles, preached generally to the Jews,
and are called Apostles of the circumcision, Gal. ii, 8. The prophets
declared very particularly the calling of the Gentiles. Jacob foretold
that the Messiah, he who was to be sent, the Shiloh, should gather the
Gentiles to himself. Solomon, at the dedication of his temple, prays for
“the stranger” who should there entreat God. The Psalmist says, that the
Lord would give the Gentiles to the Messiah for his inheritance; that
Egypt and Babylon shall know him; that Ethiopia shall hasten to bring
him presents; that the kings of Tarshish, and of the isles, the kings of
Arabia and Sheba, shall be tributary to him, Psalm ii, 8; lxvii, 4;
lxxii, 9, 10. Isaiah abounds with prophecies of the like nature, on
which account he has justly been distinguished by the name of “the
prophet of the Gentiles.”
GENTILES, COURT OF THE. Josephus says there was, in the court of the
temple, a wall, or balustrade, breast-high, with pillars at particular
distances, and inscriptions on them in Greek and Latin, importing that
strangers were forbidden from entering farther; here their offerings
were received, and sacrifices were offered for them, they standing at
the barrier; but they were not allowed to approach to the altar. Pompey,
nevertheless, went even into the sanctuary, but behaved with strict
decorum; and the next day he commanded the temple to be purified, and
the customary sacrifices to be offered. A little before the last
rebellion of the Jews, some mutineers would have persuaded the priests
to accept no victim not presented by a Jew; and obliged them to reject
those which were offered by command of the emperor, for the Roman
people. The wisest in vain remonstrated with them on the danger this
would bring on their country; urged that their ancestors had never
rejected the presents of Gentiles; and that the temple was mostly
adorned with the offerings of such people; at the same time, the most
learned priests, who had spent their whole lives in the study of the
law, testified that their forefathers had always received the sacrifices
of strangers.
From the above particulars, we learn the meaning of what the Apostle
Paul calls “the middle wall of partition,” between Jews and Gentiles
broken down by the Gospel.
GERAR, a royal city of the Philistines, situate not far from the angle
where the south and west sides of Palestine meet.
GERIZIM, a mount near Shechem, in Ephraim, a province of Samaria.
Shechem lay at the foot of two mountains, Ebal and Gerizim. Gerizim was
fruitful, Ebal was barren. God commanded that the Hebrews, after passing
the Jordan, should be so divided, that six tribes might be stationed on
Mount Gerizim, and six on Mount Ebal. The former was to pronounce
blessings on those who observed the law of the Lord; the others, curses
against those who should violate it, Deut. xi, 29; xxvii, 12. As to the
original of the temple upon Gerizim, we must take Josephus’s relation of
it. Manasseh, the grandson of Eliashib, the high priest, and brother to
Jaddus, high priest of the Jews, having been driven from Jerusalem in
the year of the world 3671, and not enduring patiently to see himself
deprived of the honour and advantages of the priesthood, Sanballat, his
father-in-law, addressed himself to Alexander the Great, who was then
carrying on the siege of Tyre; and having paid him homage for the
province of Samaria, whereof he was governor, he farther offered him
eight thousand of his best troops, which disposed Alexander to grant
what he desired for his son-in-law, and for many other priests, who
being married, as well as he, contrary to the law, chose rather to
forsake their country than their wives, and had joined Manasseh in
Samaria. When Antiochus Epiphanes began to persecute the Jews, A. M.
3836; B. C. 186, the Samaritans entreated him that their temple upon
Gerizim, which hitherto had been dedicated to an unknown and nameless
god, might be consecrated to Jupiter the Grecian, which was easily
consented to by Antiochus. The temple of Gerizim subsisted some time
after the worship of Jupiter was introduced into it; but it was
destroyed by John Hircanus Maccabæus, and was not rebuilt till Gabinius
was governor of Syria; who repaired Samaria, and called it by his own
name. It is certain, that, in our Saviour’s time, this temple was in
being; and that the true God was worshipped there, since the woman of
Samaria, pointing to Gerizim, said to him, “Our fathers worshipped in
this mountain, and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men
ought to worship,” John iv, 20. We are assured, that Herod the Great,
having rebuilt Samaria, and called it Sebaste, in honour of Augustus,
would have obliged the Samaritans to worship in the temple which he had
erected there, but they constantly refused.
GETHSEMANE. See OLIVES, _Mount of_.
GIANT, נפל, Greek, γίγας, _a monster_, _a terrible man_, a chief who
beats and bears down other men. Scripture speaks of giants before the
flood: “Nephilim, mighty men who were of old, men of renown,” Gen. vi,
4. Aquila translates nephilim, ἐπιπίπτοντες, _men who attack_, who fall
with impetuosity on their enemies, which renders very well the force of
the term. Symmachus translates it βιαίοι, _violent men_, cruel, whose
only rule of action is violence. Scripture sometimes calls giants
Rephaim: Chedorlaomer beat the Rephaim at Ashteroth-Karnaim. The Emim,
ancient inhabitants of Moab, were of a gigantic stature, that is,
Rephaim. The Rephaim and the Perizzites are connected as old inhabitants
of Canaan. The Rephaim in some parts of Scripture signify spirits in the
invisible world, in a state of misery. Job says that the ancient Rephaim
groan under the waters; and Solomon, that the ways of a loose woman lead
to the Rephaim; that he who deviates from the ways of wisdom, shall
dwell in the assembly of Rephaim, that is, in hell, Prov. ii, 18; iv,
18; xxi, 16, &c; Gen. xiv, 5; Deut. ii, 11, 20; iii, 11, 13; Joshua xii,
4; xiii, 12; Job xxvi, 5. The Anakim, or the sons of Anak, were the most
famous giants of Palestine. They dwelt at Hebron and thereabouts. The
Israelites sent to view the promised land reported, that, in comparison,
they themselves were but grasshoppers, Num. xiii, 33.
2. As to the existence of giants, several writers, both ancient and
modern, have thought that the giants of Scripture were men famous for
violence and crime, rather than for strength or stature. But it cannot
be denied, that there have been races of men of a stature much above
that common at present; although their size has often been absurdly
magnified. The ancients considered persons whose stature exceeded seven
feet as gigantic. Living giants have certainly been seen who were
somewhat taller; but the existence of those who greatly surpassed it, or
were double the height, has been inferred only from remains discovered
in the earth, but not from the ocular testimony of credible witnesses.
Were we to admit what has been reported on the subject, there would be
no bounds to the dimensions of giants; the earth would seem unsuitable
for them to tread upon. History, however, acquaints us that, in the
reign of Claudius, a giant named Galbara, ten feet high was brought to
Rome from the coast of Africa. An instance is cited by Goropius, an
author with whom we are otherwise unacquainted, of a female of equal
stature. A certain Greek sophist, Proæresius, is said to have been nine
feet in height. Julius Capitolinus affirms that Maximinian, the Roman
emperor was eight feet and a half; there was a Swede, one of the life
guards of Frederick the Great, of that size. M. Le Cat speaks of a giant
exhibited at Rouen, measuring eight feet and some inches; and we believe
some have been seen in this country, within the last thirty years, whose
stature was not inferior. In Plott’s “History of Staffordshire,” there
is an instance of a man of seven feet and a half high, and another, in
Thoresby’s account of Leeds, of seven feet five inches high. Examples
may be found elsewhere of several individuals seven feet in height,
below which, after the opinion of the ancients, we may cease to consider
men gigantic. Entire families sometimes, though rarely, occur of six
feet four, or six feet six inches high. From all this we may conclude,
that there may have possibly been seen some solitary instances of men
who were ten feet in height; that those of eight feet are extremely
uncommon, and that even six feet and a half far exceeds the height of
men in Europe. We may reasonably understand that the gigantic nations of
Canaan were above the average size of other people, with instances among
them of several families of gigantic stature. This is all that is
necessary to suppose, in order to explain the account of Moses; but the
notion that men have gradually degenerated in size has no foundation.
There is no evidence whatever, that the modern tribes of mankind have
thus degenerated. The catacombs of ancient Egypt and Palestine; the
cenotaph, if it be truly such, in the great pyramid; the tomb of
Alexander the Great, are all calculated for bodies of ordinary
dimensions. The truth is still more satisfactorily established from the
mummies which are yet withdrawn from their receptacles in Egypt, and the
caverns of the Canary Islands. In the most ancient sepulchres of
Britain, those apparently anterior to the introduction of Christianity,
no remains are discovered which indicate the larger stature of the
inhabitants than our own. In every part of the world domestic implements
and personal ornaments, many centuries old, are obtained from tombs,
from bogs and mosses, or those cities overwhelmed by volcanic eruptions,
which would be ill adapted to a gigantic race of ancestors.
GIBEON, the capital city of the Gibeonites, who took advantage of the
oaths of Joshua, and of the elders of Israel, procured by an artful
representation of their belonging to a very remote country, Joshua ix.
Joshua and the elders had not the precaution to consult God on this
affair, but inconsiderately made a league with these people. They soon
discovered their mistake, and, without revoking their promise of saving
their lives, they condemned them to labour in carrying wood and water
for the tabernacle; and to other works, as slaves and captives; in which
state of servitude they remained, till the entire dispersion of the
Jewish nation, A. M. 2553; B. C. 1451. Three days after the Gibeonites
had surrendered to the Hebrews, the kings of Canaan being informed of
it, five of them came and besieged the city of Gibeon. The Gibeonites
sent to Joshua, and desired speedy help. Joshua attacked the five kings
early in the morning, put them to flight, and pursued them to Bethoron,
Josh. x, 3, &c. The Gibeonites were descended from the Hivites, the old
inhabitants of the country, and possessed four cities: Cephirah,
Beeroth, Kirjath-jearim, and Gibeon, their capital; all afterward given
to Benjamin, except Kirjath-jearim, which fell to Judah. The Gibeonites
continued subject to those burdens which Joshua imposed on them, and
were very faithful to the Israelites. Nevertheless, Saul destroyed a
great number of them, 2 Sam. xxi, 1; but God, in the reign of David,
sent a great famine, which lasted three years, A. M. 2983; B. C. 1021;
and the prophets told David that this calamity would continue while
Saul’s cruelty remained unavenged. David asked the Gibeonites what
satisfaction they desired. They answered, “Seven of Saul’s sons we will
put to death, to avenge the blood of our brethren.” The Gibeonites
crucified them. From this time there is no mention of the Gibeonites as
a distinct people. But they were probably included among the Nethinim,
appointed for the service of the temple, 1 Chron. ix, 2. Afterward,
those of the Canaanites who were subdued, and had their lives spared,
were added to the Gibeonites. We see in Ezra viii, 20; ii, 58; 1 Kings
ix, 20, 21, that David, Solomon, and the princes of Judah, gave many
such to the Lord; these Nethinim being carried into captivity with Judah
and the Levites, many of them returned with Ezra, Zerubbabel, and
Nehemiah, and continued, as before, in the service of the temple, under
the priests and Levites. We neither know when, nor by whom, nor on what
occasion, the tabernacle and altar of burnt sacrifices, made by Moses in
the wilderness, were removed to Gibeon; but this we certainly know,
that, toward the end of David’s reign, and in the beginning of
Solomon’s, they were there, 1 Chron. xxi, 29, 30. David, seeing an angel
of the Lord at Araunah’s threshing floor, was so terrified, that he had
not time or strength to go so far as Gibeon to offer sacrifice; but
Solomon, being seated on the throne, went to sacrifice at Gibeon, 1
Kings iii, 4.
GIDEON, the son of Joash, of the tribe of Manasseh; the same with
Jerubbaal, the seventh judge of Israel. He dwelt in the city of Ophra,
and was chosen by God in a very extraordinary manner to deliver the
Israelites from the oppression of the Midianites, under which they had
laboured for the space of seven years. See Judges vi, 14–27; viii, 1–24,
&c.
GIER EAGLE, רחם, Lev. xi, 18; Deut. xiv, 17. As the root of this word
signifies _tenderness_ and _affection_, it is supposed to refer to some
bird remarkable for its attachment to its young; hence some have thought
that the pelican is to be understood; and Bochart endeavours to prove
that the golden vulture is meant; but there can be no doubt that it is
the _percnopterus_ of the ancients, the _ach-bobba_ of the Arabians,
particularly described by Bruce under the name of _rachamah_. He says,
“We know from Horus Apollo, that the _rachma_, or she vulture, was
sacred to Isis, and adorned the statue of the goddess; that it was the
emblem of parental affection; and that it was the hieroglyphic for an
affectionate mother.” He farther says, that “this female vulture, having
hatched her young ones, continues with them one hundred and twenty days,
providing them with all necessaries; and, when the stock of food fails
them, she tears off the fleshy part of her thigh, and feeds them with
that and the blood which flows from the wound.”
Hasselquist thus describes the Egyptian vulture: “The appearance of the
bird is as horrid as can well be imagined. The face is naked and
wrinkled, the eyes are large and black, the beak black and crooked, the
talons large, and extended ready for prey, and the whole body polluted
with filth. These are qualities enough to make the beholder shudder with
horror. Notwithstanding this, the inhabitants of Egypt cannot be enough
thankful to Providence for this bird. All the places round Cairo are
filled with the dead bodies of asses and camels; and thousands of these
birds fly about and devour the carcasses, before they putrify and fill
the air with noxious exhalations.” No wonder that such an animal should
be deemed unclean.
GIFT OF TONGUES, an ability given to the Apostles and others of readily
and intelligibly speaking a variety of languages which they had never
learned. This was a glorious and decisive attestation to the Gospel, as
well as a suitable, and, indeed, in their circumstances, a necessary
qualification for the mission for which the Apostles and their
coadjutors were designed. Nor is there any reason, with Dr. Middleton,
to understand it as merely an occasional gift, so that a person might
speak a language most fluently one hour, and be entirely ignorant of it
the next; which neither agrees with what is said of the abuse of it, nor
would it have been sufficient to answer the end proposed, Acts ii. Some
appear to have been gifted with one tongue, others with more. To St.
Paul this endowment was vouchsafed in a more liberal degree, than to
many others; for, as to the Corinthians, who had received the gift of
tongues, he says, “that he spake with tongues more than they all.”