lxxxiv, 7. The LXX, in Chronicles, render the word by ἀπίων, pear
trees;” so Aquila and the Vulgate, both in Samuel and Chronicles,
_pyrorum_.” Others translate it the mulberry tree.” More probably it is
the large shrub which the Arabs still call baca;” and which gave name to
the valley where it abounded. Of this valley Celsius remarks, that it
was rugged and embarrassed with bushes and stones, which could not be
passed through without labour and tears;” referring to Psalm lxxxiv, 7;
and the rough valley,” Deut. xxi, 4; and he quotes from a manuscript of
Abu'l Fideli a description of the tree which grew there, and mentions it
as bearing a fruit of an acrid taste.
MULE, פרד, 2 Sam. xiii, 29; 1 Kings i, 33; x, 25, &c. A mongrel kind of
quadruped, between the horse and the ass. Its form bears a considerable
resemblance to the last mentioned animal; but in its disposition it is
rather vicious and intractable; so that its obstinacy has become a
proverb. With this creature the early ages were probably unacquainted.
It is very certain the Jews did not breed mules, because it was
forbidden them to couple together two creatures of different species,
Lev. xix, 19. But they were not prohibited the making use of them: thus
we find in David’s time that they had become very common, and made up a
considerable part of the equipage of princes, 2 Sam. xiii, 29; xviii, 9;
1 Kings i, 33, 38, 44; x, 25; 2 Chron. ix, 24.
MURDER. Among the Hebrews murder was always punished with death; but
involuntary homicide, only by banishment. Cities of refuge were
appointed for involuntary manslaughter, whither the slayer might retire
and continue in safety till the death of the high priest, Num. xxxv, 28.
Then the offender was at liberty to return to his own house, if he
pleased. A murderer was put to death without remission, and the kinsman
of the murdered person might kill him with impunity. Money could not
redeem his life: he was dragged away from the altar, if he had there
taken refuge. When a dead body was found in the fields of a person slain
by a murderer unknown, Moses commanded that the elders and judges of the
neighbouring places should resort to the spot, Deut. xxi, 1–8. The
elders of the city nearest to it were to take a heifer which had never
yet borne the yoke, and were to lead it into some rude and uncultivated
place, which had not been ploughed or sowed, where they were to cut its
throat. The priests of the Lord, with the elders and magistrates of the
city, were to come near the dead body, and, washing their hands over the
heifer that had been slain, were to say, Our hands have not shed this
blood, nor have our eyes seen it shed. Lord, be favourable to thy people
Israel, and impute not to us this blood, which has been shed in the
midst of our country.” This ceremony may inform us how much horror they
conceived at the crime of murder; and it shows their fear that God might
avenge it on the whole country; which was supposed to contract pollution
by the blood spilt in it, unless it were expiated, and avenged on him
who had occasioned it, if he could be discovered.
MUSIC is probably nearly coeval with our race, or, at least, with the
first attempts to preserve the memory of transactions. Before the
invention of writing, the history of remarkable events was committed to
memory, and handed down by oral tradition. The knowledge of laws and of
useful arts was preserved in the same way. Rhythm and song were probably
soon found important helps to the memory; and thus the muses became the
early instructers of mankind. Nor was it long, we may conjecture, before
dancing and song united contributed to festivity, or to the solemnities
of religion. The first instruments of music were probably of the
pulsatile kind; and rhythm, it is likely, preceded the observation of
those intervals of sound which are so pleasing to the ear. The first
mention of stringed instruments, however, precedes the deluge. Tubal,
the sixth descendant from Cain, was the father of all such as handle the
harp and the organ.” About five hundred and fifty years after the
deluge, or B. C. 1800, according to the common chronology, both vocal
and instrumental music are spoken of as things in general use: And Laban
said, What hast thou done, that thou hast stolen away unawares to me,
and carried away my daughters, as captives taken with the sword?
Wherefore didst thou flee away secretly, and steal away from me; and
didst not tell me, that I might have sent thee away with mirth and with
songs, with tabret and with harp?” Gen. xxxi, 26, 27.
Egypt has been called the cradle of the arts and sciences, and there can
be no doubt of the very early civilization of that country. To the
Egyptian Mercury, or _Thoth_, who is called _Trismegistos_, or thrice
illustrious,” is ascribed the invention of the lyre, which had at first
only three strings. It would be idle to mention the various conjectures
how these strings were tuned, or to try to settle the chronology of this
invention. The single flute, which they called _photinx_, is also
ascribed to the Egyptians. Its shape was that of a horn, of which, no
doubt, it was originally made. Before the invention of these
instruments, as Dr. Burney justly observes, music could have been little
more than metrical, as no other instruments except those of percussion
were known. When the art was first discovered of refining and sustaining
tones, the power of music over mankind was probably irresistible, from
the agreeable surprise which soft and lengthened sounds must have
occasioned.” The same learned writer has given a drawing, made under his
own eye, of an Egyptian musical instrument, represented on a very
ancient obelisk at Rome, brought from Egypt by Augustus. This obelisk is
supposed to have been erected at Heliopolis, by Sesostris, near four
hundred years before the Trojan war. The most remarkable thing in this
instrument is, that it is supplied with a neck, so that its two strings
were capable of furnishing a great number of sounds. This is a
contrivance which the Greeks, with all their ingenuity, never hit upon.
I have never been able,” says the doctor, to discover in any remains of
Greek sculpture, an instrument furnished with a neck; and Father
Montfaucon says that in examining the representations of near five
hundred ancient lyres, harps, and citharas, he never met with one in
which there was any contrivance for shortening the strings during the
time of performance, as by a neck and finger board.” From the long
residence of the Hebrews in Egypt, it is no improbable conjecture that
their music was derived from that source. However that may be, music,
vocal and instrumental, made one important part of their religious
service. If the excellence of the music was conformable to the sublimity
of the poetry which it accompanied, there would be no injustice in
supposing it unspeakably superior to that of every other people; and the
pains that were taken to render the tabernacle and temple music worthy
of the subjects of their lofty odes, leaves little doubt that it was so.
That the instruments were loud and sonorous, will appear from what
follows; but as the public singing was performed in alternate responses,
or the chorus of all succeeded to those parts of the psalm which were
sung only by the appointed leaders, instruments of this kind were
necessary to command and control the voices of so great a number as was
usually assembled on high occasions.
The Hebrews insisted on having music at marriages, on anniversary birth
days, on the days which reminded them of victories over their enemies,
at the inauguration of their kings, in their public worship, and when
they were coming from afar to attend the great festivals of their
nation, Isaiah xxx, 29. In the tabernacle and the temple, the Levites
were the lawful musicians; but on other occasions any one might use
musical instruments who chose. There was this exception, however: the
holy silver trumpets were to be blown only by the priests, who, by the
sounding of them, proclaimed the festival days, assembled the leaders of
the people, and gave the signal for the battle and for the retreat, Num.
x, 1–10. David, in order to give the best effect to the music of the
tabernacle, divided the four thousand Levites into twenty-four classes,
who sung psalms, and accompanied them with music. Each of these classes
was superintended by a leader, placed over it; and they performed the
duties which devolved upon them, each class a week at a time in
succession, 1 Chron. xvi, 5; xxiii, 4, 5; xxv, 1–31; 2 Chron. v, 12, 13.
The classes collectively, as a united body, were superintended by three
directors. This arrangement was subsequently continued by Solomon after
the erection of the temple, and was transmitted till the time of the
overthrow of Jerusalem. It was indeed sometimes interrupted, during the
reign of the idolatrous kings, but was restored by their successors, 2
Chron. v, 12–14; xxix, 27; xxxv, 15. It was even continued after the
captivity, Ezra iii, 10; Neh. xii, 45–47; 1 Mac. iv, 54; xiii, 51. It
should be remarked, however, that neither music nor poetry attained to
the same excellence after the captivity as before that period.
There were women singers as well as men in the temple choir; for in the
book of Ezra, among those who returned from the Babylonish captivity,
there are said to have been two hundred, Ezra ii, 65; and in Nehemiah
vii, 67, we read of two hundred and forty-five singing men and women.
The Jewish doctors will, indeed, by no means admit there were any female
voices in the temple choir; and as for those משררות, _meshoreroth_, as
they are called in the Hebrew, they suppose them to be the wives of
those who sung. Nevertheless, the following passage makes it evident
that women, likewise, were thus employed: God gave to Heman fourteen
sons and three daughters; and all these were under the hands of their
father for song in the house of the Lord, with cymbals, psalteries, and
harps, for the service of the house of God,” 1 Chron. xxv, 5, 6.
Instrumental music was first introduced into the Jewish service by
Moses; and afterward, by the express command of God, was very much
improved with the addition of several instruments in the reign of David.
When Hezekiah restored the temple service, which had been neglected in
his predecessor’s reign, “he set the Levites in the house of the Lord,
with cymbals, with psalteries, and with harps, according to the
commandment of David, and of Gad the king’s seer, and Nathan the
prophet; for so was the commandment of the Lord by his prophets,” 2
Chron. xxix, 25.
The _harp_, כנור, kinnor, was the most ancient of the class of stringed
instruments, Gen. iv, 21. It was sometimes called שמינית, or eight
stringed,” 1 Chron. xv, 21; Psalm vi, 1; xii, 1; although, as we may
gather from the coins or medals of the Maccabean age, there were some
harps which were furnished with only three strings. The _nablum_ or
_psaltery_, ναϐλίον, ναύλα, נבל, is first mentioned in the Psalms of
David. In Psalms xxxiii, 2, and cxliv, 9, it is called עשור, a
ten-stringed instrument;” but in Psalm xcii, 3, it is distinguished from
it. Josephus assigns to it twelve strings, which, taken in connection
with the fact above stated, leaves us to conclude that it sometimes had
ten and sometimes twelve strings. It was not played with a bow or fret,
but with the fingers: the act of playing it is expressed in Hebrew by
the word מזר. It resembled in form a right-angled triangle, or the Greek
delta, ▽, inverted. The body of it was of wood and hollow, and was
enclosed with a piece of leather tensely drawn. The chords were extended
on the outside of the leather, and were fixed at one end into the
transverse part of the triangular body of the instrument. Such is its
form at the present day in the east; but it has only five strings in its
modern shape, 2 Sam. vi, 5; 1 Kings x, 12. There was another instrument
of this kind used in Babylonia: it was triangular in form. In Greek it
is called σαμϐύκη; in Hebrew, סבכא and שבכא. It had originally only
four, but subsequently twenty, strings, Dan. iii, 5, 7, 10, 15. Among
their wind instruments was the _organ_, so called in the English
version, in Hebrew, עוגב, Gen. iv, 21. It may be styled the ancient
shepherd’s pipe, corresponding most nearly to the σύριγξ, or the pipe of
Pan among the Greeks. It consisted at first of only one or two, but
afterward of about seven, pipes made of reeds, and differing from each
other in length. The instrument called משרוקיתא, used in Babylon, Dan.
iii, 5, was of a similar construction. חלול, נחילות, and נקב, _chalil_,
_nechiloth_, and _nekeb_, are wind instruments made of various
materials, such as wood, reeds, horns, and bones. As far as we may be
permitted to judge from the three kinds of pipes now used in the east,
the Hebrew instrument called _nechiloth_ is the one that is double in
its structure; _chalil_ is perhaps the one of simpler form, having a
single stem with an orifice through it; while _nekeb_ answers to the one
without an orifice, Isaiah v, 12; xxx, 29; Jer. xlviii, 36; Psalm v, 1;
Ezek. xxviii, 13. סומפוניה, or, according to the marginal reading,
סיפניא, Dan. iii, 5, 10, was a wind instrument made of reeds, by the
Syrians called _sambonja_, by the Greeks _samponja_, and by the Italians
_zampogna_. According to Servius, it was of a crooked shape. קרן, the
_horn_ or _crooked trumpet_, was a very ancient instrument. It was made
of the horns of oxen, which were cut off at the smaller extremity, and
thus presented an orifice which extended through. In progress of time,
rams’ horns were hollowed and employed for the same purpose. It is
probable that in some instances it was made of brass, fashioned so as to
resemble a horn. It was greatly used in war, and its sound resembled
thunder. תץוץרה, _chatsoteroth_, the _silver trumpet_, was straight, a
cubit in length, hollow throughout, and at the larger extremity shaped
so as to resemble the mouth of a small bell. In times of peace, when the
people or the rulers were to be assembled together, this trumpet was
blown softly. When the camps were to move forward, or the people to
march to war, it was sounded with a deeper note.
There were several sorts of drums. The תפים תף, _toph_, rendered in the
English version _tabret_ and _timbrel_, Gen. xxxi, 27, consisted of a
circular hoop, either of wood or brass, three inches and six-tenths
wide, was covered with a skin tensely drawn, and hung round with small
bells. It was held in the left hand, and beaten to notes of music with
the right. The ladies through all the east, even to this day, dance to
the sound of this instrument, Exod. xv, 20; Job xvii, 6; xxi, 12; 2 Sam.
vi, 5. The _cymbals_, צלצלים, _tseltselim_, מצלות, were of two kinds
formerly, as there are to this day, in the east. The first consisted of
two flat pieces of metal or plates: the musician held one of them in his
right hand, the other in his left, and smote them together, as an
accompaniment to other instruments. This cymbal and the mode of using it
may be often seen in modern armies. The second kind of cymbals,
consisted of four small plates attached, two to each hand, which the
ladies, as they danced, smote together. But מצלות, Zech. xiv, 20,
rendered in the English version _bells_, are not musical instruments, as
some suppose, nor indeed bells, but concave pieces or plates of brass,
which were sometimes attached to horses for the sake of ornament.
MUSTARD, σίναπι, Matt. xiii, 32; xvii, 20; Mark iv, 31; Luke xiii, 19;
xvii, 6; a well known garden herb. Christ compares the kingdom of heaven
to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in the earth,
which indeed,” said he, is the least of all seeds; but when it is grown
is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of
the air come and lodge in the branches thereof,” Matt. xiii, 31, 32.
This expression will not appear strange,” says Sir Thomas Browne, if we
recollect that the mustard seed, though it be not simply and in itself
the smallest of seeds, yet may be very well believed to be the smallest
of such as are apt to grow unto a ligneous substance, and become a kind
of tree.” The expression, also, that it might grow into such dimensions
that birds might lodge on its branches, may be literally conceived, if
we allow the luxuriancy of plants in India above our northern regions.
And he quotes upon this occasion what is recorded in the Jewish story,
of a mustard tree that was to be climbed like a fig tree. The Talmud
also mentions one whose branches were so extensive as to cover a tent.
Without insisting on the accuracy of this, we may gather from it that we
should not judge of eastern vegetables by those which are familiar to
ourselves. Scheuchzer describes a species of mustard which grows several
feet high, with a tapering stalk, and spreads into many branches. Of
this arborescent or treelike vegetable, he gives a print; and Linnæus
mentions a species whose branches were real wood, which he names _sinapi
erucoides_. But whatever kind of tree our Lord meant, it is clear, from
the fact that he never takes his illustrations from any objects but such
as were familiar, and often present in the scene around him, that he
spoke of one which the Jews well knew to have minute seeds, and yet to
be of so large growth as to afford shelter for the birds of the air.
MYRRH, מור, Exod. xxx, 23; Esther ii, 12; Psalm xiv, 8; Prov. vii, 17;
Cant. i, 13; iii, 6; iv, 6, 14; v, 1, 5, 13; σμύρνα, Ecclus. xxiv, 15;
Matt. ii, Mark xv, 23; John xix, 39; a precious kind of gum issuing by
incision, and sometimes spontaneously, from the trunk and larger
branches of a tree growing in Egypt, Arabia, and Abyssinia. Its taste is
extremely bitter, but its smell, though strong, is not disagreeable; and
among the ancients it entered into the composition of the most costly
ointments. As a perfume, it appears to have been used to give a pleasant
fragrance to vestments, and to be carried by females in little caskets
in the bosoms. The magi, who came from the east to worship our Saviour
at Bethlehem, made him a present of myrrh among other things, Matt. ii,
11.
MYRTLE, הדס, Neh. viii, 15; Isaiah xli, 19; lv, 13; Zech. i, 8–10; a
shrub, sometimes growing to a small tree, very common in Judea. It has a
hard woody root that sends forth a great number of small flexible
branches, furnished with leaves like those of box, but much less, and
more pointed: they are soft to the touch, shining, smooth, of a
beautiful green, and have a sweet smell. The flowers grow among the
leaves, and consist of five white petals disposed in the form of a rose:
they have an agreeable perfume, and ornamental appearance. Savary,
describing a scene at the end of the forest of Platanea, says, Myrtles,
intermixed with laurel roses, grow in the valleys to the height of ten
feet. Their snow-white flowers, bordered with a purple edging, appear to
peculiar advantage under the verdant foliage. Each myrtle is loaded with
them, and they emit perfumes more exquisite than those of the rose
itself. They enchant every one, and the soul is filled with the softest
sensations.” The myrtle is mentioned in Scripture among lofty trees, not
as comparing with them in size, but as contributing with them to the
beauty and richness of the scenery. Thus Isaiah, xii, 19, intending to
describe a scene of varied excellence: I will plant in the wilderness
the cedar, and the shittah tree, and the myrtle, and the oil tree;” that
is, I will adorn the dreary and barren waste with trees famed for their
stature and the grandeur of their appearance, the beauty of their form,
and also the fragrance of their odour. The apocryphal Baruch, v, 8,
speaking of the return from Babylon, expresses the protection afforded
by God to the people by the same image: Even the woods and every
sweet-smelling tree shall overshadow Israel by the commandment of God.”
MYSIA, a country of Asia Minor, having the Propontis on the north,
Bithynia on the north-east and east, Phrygia on the south-east, Lydia
(from which it was separated by the river Hermus) on the south, the
Ægean Sea on the west, and the narrow strait, called the Hellespont, on
the north-west. Mysia was visited by St. Paul in his circuit through
Asia Minor; but he was not suffered by the Spirit to remain there, being
directed to pass over into Macedonia, Acts xvi, 7–10. In this country
stood the ancient city Troy; as also that of Pergamus, one of the seven
churches of Asia. Under the Romans it was made a province of the empire,
and called Hellespontus; and its inhabitants are represented by Cicero
as base and contemptible to a proverb.
MYSTERY. The Greek word μυϛηριον denotes, 1. Something hidden, or not
fully manifest. Thus, 2 Thess. ii, 7, we read of the mystery of
iniquity,” which began to work in secret, but was not then completely
disclosed or manifested. 2. Some sacred thing hidden or secret, which is
naturally unknown to human reason, and is only known by the revelation
of God. Thus, Great is the mystery of godliness; God was manifest in the
flesh, justified by the Spirit,” &c, 1 Tim. iii, 16. The mystery of
godliness, or of true religion, consisted in the several particulars
here mentioned by the Apostle; particulars, indeed, which it would never
have entered into the heart of man to conceive,” 1 Cor. ii, 9, had not
God accomplished them in fact, and published them by the preaching of
his Gospel; but which, being thus manifested, are intelligible, as
facts, to the meanest understanding. In like manner, the term mystery,
Rom. xi, 25; 1 Cor. xv, 51, denotes what was hidden or unknown, till
revealed; and thus the Apostle speaks of a man’s understanding all
mysteries,” 1 Cor. xiii, 2; that is, all the revealed truths of the
Christian religion, which is elsewhere called the mystery of faith,” 1
Tim. iii, 9. And when he who spake in an unknown tongue is said to speak
mysteries,” 1 Cor. xiv, 2, it is plain, that these mysteries, however
unintelligible to others on account of the language in which they were
spoken, were yet understood by the person himself, because he hereby
edified himself,” 1 Cor. xiv, 4; Acts ii, 11; x, 46. And though in 1
Cor. ii, 7, 8, we read of the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the
hidden wisdom, which none of the princes of this world knew;” yet, says
the Apostle, we speak or declare this wisdom; and he observes, verse 10,
that God had revealed the particulars of which it consisted to them by
his Spirit. So when the Apostles are called stewards of the mysteries of
God,” 1 Cor. iv, 1, these mysteries could not mean what were, as facts,
unknown to them; (because to them it was given to know the mysteries of
the kingdom of God,” Matt. xiii, 11;) yea, the character here ascribed
to them implies not only that they knew these mysteries themselves, but
that as faithful stewards they were to dispense or make them known to
others, Luke xii, 42; 1 Pet. iv, 10. In Col. ii, 2, St. Paul mentions
his praying for his converts, that their hearts might be comforted to
the knowledge of the mystery of God, even of the Father, and of Christ;”
for thus the passage should be translated. But if, with our translators,
we render ἐπίγνωσιν, _acknowledgment_, still the word μυϛηριον can by no
means exclude knowledge; for this is life eternal,” saith our Lord, John
xvii, 3, that they may know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ,
whom thou hast sent.” And, lastly, whatever be the particular meaning of
the mystery of God,” mentioned Rev. x, 7, yet it was something he had
declared to (or rather _by_) his servants the prophets.” 3. The word
_mystery_ is sometimes in the writings of St. Paul applied in a peculiar
sense to the calling of the Gentiles, which he styles the mystery,” Eph.
iii, 3–6; and the mystery of Christ, which in other generations was not
made known to the sons of men, as it is now revealed to his holy
Apostles and prophets by the Spirit, that the Gentiles should be fellow
heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of Christ by the Gospel,”
Rom. xvi, 25; Eph. i, 9; iii, 9; vi, 19; Col. i, 26, 27; iv, 3. 4. It
denotes a spiritual truth couched under an external representation or
similitude, and concealed or hidden thereby, unless some explanation of
it be otherwise given. Thus, Rev. i, 20, The mystery,” that is, the
spiritual meaning, of the seven stars: The seven stars are the angels of
the seven churches.” So Rev. xvii, 5, And upon her forehead a name
written, Mystery, Babylon the Great,” that is, Babylon in a spiritual
sense, the mother of idolatry and abominations;” and, verse 7, I will
tell thee the mystery” or spiritual signification of the woman.” Compare
Matt. xiii, 11; Mark iv, 11; Luke viii, 10; Eph. v, 32; and their
respective contexts.