owed its origin to the pious and learned Spener,” as Dr. Mosheim calls
him, who formed private devotional societies at Frankfort, in order to
cultivate vital and practical religion; and published a book entitled
Pious Desires,” which greatly promoted this object. His followers laid
it down as an essential maxim, that none should be admitted into the
ministry but those who not only had received a proper education, but
were also distinguished by their wisdom and sanctity of manners, and had
hearts filled with divine love. Hence they proposed an alteration in the
schools of divinity, which embraced the following points: 1. That the
scholastic theology, which reigned in the academies, and was composed of
intricate and disputable doctrines, and obscure and unusual forms of
expression, should be totally abolished. 2. That polemical divinity,
which comprehended the controversies subsisting between Christians of
different communions, should be less eagerly studied, and less
frequently treated, though not entirely neglected. 3. That all mixture
of philosophy and human science with divine wisdom, was to be most
carefully avoided; that is, that Pagan philosophy and classical learning
should be kept distinct from, and by no means supersede, Biblical
theology. But, 4. That, on the contrary, all those students, who were
designed for the ministry, should be accustomed from their early youth
to the perusal and study of the Holy Scriptures, and be taught a plain
system of theology, drawn from these unerring sources of truth. 5. That
the whole course of their education was to be so directed as to render
them useful in life, by the practical power of their doctrine, and the
commanding influence of their example. Such, in substance, is Mosheim’s
account of the meditated reforms in the public schools. But it was not
intended to confine these reforms to students and the clergy. Religious
persons of every class and rank were encouraged to meet in what were
called Biblical colleges, or colleges of piety, (we might call them
prayer meetings,) where some exercised in reading the Scriptures,
singing, and prayer, and others engaged in the exposition of the
Scriptures; not in a dry and critical way, but in a strain of practical
and experimental piety, by which they mutually edified each other. This
practice, which always more or less obtains where religion flourishes,
as, for instance, at the Reformation, raised the same sort of outcry as
at the rise of Methodism; and those who entered not into the spirit of
the design, were eager to catch at every instance of weakness or
imprudence, to bring disgrace on that which, in fact, brought disgrace
upon themselves, as lukewarm and formal Christians. In so saying,
Master, thou reproachest us also.” This work began about 1670. In 1691
Dr. Spener removed from Dresden to Berlin, where he propagated the same
principles, which widely spread, and were well supported in many parts
of Germany by the excellent Professor Francke and others, until the
general decline of religion which has unhappily prevailed in Germany for
the last half century. See NEOLOGY.
PI-HAHIROTH. The Hebrew _pi_ answers to the modern Arabic word _fum_,
signifying mouth;” and is generally applied to the passes in the
mountains. In the English and Septuagint versions, Hahiroth is taken as
a proper name; and the whole word would imply the mouth or pass of
Hahiroth or Hiroth, whatever particular origin or signification may
belong to that word. The name, however, sufficiently explains the
situation of the children of Israel; who were hemmed in at this place,
between the sea in front, and a narrow mountain pass behind; which no
doubt encouraged Pharaoh to make his attack upon them in so
disadvantageous a position; thinking that they must inevitably fall an
easy prey into his hands, or be cut to pieces: when their deliverance,
and his own destruction, were unexpectedly wrought by the parting of the
waters of the sea. The place where this miracle is supposed to have
happened, is still called Bahral-Kolsum, or the Sea of Destruction; and
just opposite to the situation which answers to the opening called
Pi-hahiroth, is a bay, where the north cape is called Ras Musa, or the
Cape of Moses. That part of the western or Heroopolitan branch of the
Red Sea where, from these coincidences, the passage most probably took
place, is described by Bruce as about three leagues over, with fourteen
fathoms of water in the channel, nine at the sides, and good anchorage
every where. The farther side is also represented as a low sandy coast,
and an easy landing place. See RED SEA.
PILATE. It is not known of what country or family Pontius Pilate was,
but it is believed that he was of Rome, or, at least, of Italy. He was
sent to govern Judea in the room of Gratus, A. D. 26, or 27. He presided
over this province for ten years, from the twelfth or thirteenth year of
Tiberius, to the twenty-second of the same emperor. He is represented,
both by Philo and Josephus, as a man of an impetuous and obstinate
temper, and, as a judge, one who used to sell justice, and, for money,
to pronounce any sentence that was desired. The same authors make
mention of his rapines, his injuries, his murders, the torments that he
inflicted upon the innocent, and the persons he put to death without any
form of process. Philo, in particular, describes him as a man that
exercised an excessive cruelty during the whole time of his government;
who disturbed the repose of Judea; and was the occasion of the troubles
and revolt that followed. St. Luke acquaints us, that Pilate had mingled
the blood of the Galileans with their sacrifices; and that the matter,
having been related to Jesus Christ, he introduced the subject into his
discourse, Luke xiii. The reason why Pilate treated them in this manner,
while sacrificing in the temple, is not known. At the time of our
Saviour’s passion, Pilate made some attempts to deliver him out of the
hands of the Jews. He knew the reasons of their enmity against him,
Matthew xxvii, 18. His wife, also, having had a dream that alarmed her,
requested he would not stain his hands with the blood of that just
person, verse 19. He therefore attempted to appease the wrath of the
Jews by scourging Jesus, John xix, 1; Matt. xxvii, 26; and also tried to
take him out of their hands by proposing to deliver him or Barabbas on
the day of the passover. Lastly, be thought to discharge himself from
pronouncing judgment against him, by sending him to Herod, king of
Galilee, Luke xxiii, 7, 8. When he saw all this would not satisfy the
Jews, and that they even threatened him in some manner, saying, he could
be no friend to the emperor if he suffered Jesus to be set at liberty,
John xix, 12–15, he caused water to be brought, and washed his hands
before all the people, and publicly declared himself innocent of the
blood of that just person, Matthew xxvii, 23, 24. Yet at the same time
he delivered him to his soldiers that they might crucify him. This was
enough to justify Jesus Christ, as Calmet observes, and to prove that he
held him as innocent; but it was not enough to vindicate the conscience
and integrity of a judge, whose duty it was as well to assert the cause
of oppressed innocence, as to punish the guilty. He ordered the
inscription to be placed over the head of our Saviour, John xix, 19; and
when requested by the Jews to alter it, peremptorily refused. He also
gave leave for the removal of our Lord’s body, and to place a guard over
the sepulchre, Matthew xxvii, 65. These are all the particulars that we
learn concerning Pilate from the writers of the Gospels.
The extreme reluctance of Pilate to condemn Christ, considering his
merciless character, is signally remarkable, and still more his repeated
protestations of the innocence of his prisoner; although, on occasions
of massacre, he made no scruple of confounding the innocent with the
guilty. But he was unquestionably influenced by the overruling
providence of God, to make the righteousness of his Son appear as clear
as the noon day, even when condemned and executed as a malefactor, by
the fullest, the most authentic, and the most public evidence: 1. By the
testimony even of his judges, Pilate and Herod, after examination of
evidence. 2. By the message of Pilate’s wife, delivered to him on the
tribunal. 3. By the testimony of the traitor Judas, who hanged himself
in despair, for betraying the innocent blood. 4. By the testimony of the
Roman centurion and guard, at his crucifixion, to his divinity and
righteousness. And, 5. Of his fellow sufferer on the cross. Never was
innocence so attested as his innocence.
Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Eusebius, and after them several others, both
ancient and modern, assure us that it was formerly the custom for Roman
magistrates to prepare copies of all verbal processes and judical acts,
which they passed in their several provinces, and to send them to the
emperor. And Pilate, in compliance with the custom, having sent word to
Tiberius of what had passed relating to Jesus Christ, the emperor wrote
an account of it to the senate, in a manner that gave reason to judge
that he thought favourably of the religion of Jesus Christ, and showed
that he should be willing for them to confer divine honours upon him;
but the senate was not of the same opinion, and so the matter dropped.
It appears by what Justin says of these acts, that the miracles of
Christ were mentioned there, and even that the soldiers had divided his
garments among them. Eusebius insinuates that they spoke of his
resurrection and ascension. Tertullian and Justin refer to these acts
with so much confidence, as would make one believe they had read and
handled them. However, neither Eusebius nor Jerom, who were both
inquisitive and understanding persons, nor any other author who wrote
afterward, seems to have seen them, at least not the true and original
acts. For as to what we have now in great number, they are not
authentic, being neither ancient nor uniform. There are also some
pretended letters of Pilate to Tiberius, giving a history of our
Saviour; but they are universally allowed to be spurious. Pilate being a
man who, by his excessive cruelties and rapine, had disturbed the repose
of Judea, during the whole time of his government, was at length deposed
by Vitellius, the proconsul of Syria, A. D. 36, and sent to Rome to give
an account of his conduct to the emperor. But, though Tiberius died
before Pilate arrived at Rome, yet his successor Caligula banished him
to Vienne in Gaul, where he was reduced to such extremity that he laid
violent hands upon himself. The evangelists call him governor, though in
reality he was nothing more than procurator of Judea, not only because
governor was a name of general use, but because Pilate, in effect, acted
as one, by taking upon him to judge in criminal matters, as his
predecessors had done, and as other procurators in the small provinces
of the empire, where there was no proconsul, constantly did.
PILLAR properly means a column raised to support a building; but in
Scripture the term mostly occurs in a metaphorical or figurative sense.
Thus we have a pillar of cloud, a pillar of fire, a pillar of smoke, &c;
signifying a cloud, a fire, a smoke raised up toward heaven in the form
or shape of a pillar, Exod. xiii, 21; Judges xx, 40. Job speaks of the
pillars of heaven and the pillars of the earth, Job ix, 6; xxvi, 11;
which are strong metaphorical expressions, that suppose the heavens and
the earth to be an edifice raised by the hand of the almighty Creator,
and founded upon its basis. St. Paul speaks of the Christian church
under the similitude of a pillar or column on which the truth, or
doctrine of the glorious Gospel is inscribed, 1 Tim. iii, 15.
PILLOWS. The prophet speaks of sewing pillows to arm holes.” There is
here, probably, an allusion to the easy indulgence of the great. To this
day in the east they cover the floors of their houses with carpets: and
along the sides of the wall or floor, a range of narrow beds or
mattresses is often placed upon these carpets; and, for their farther
ease and convenience, several velvet or damask bolsters are placed upon
these carpets or mattresses,--indulgences that seem to be alluded to by
the stretching of themselves upon couches, and by the sewing of pillows
to arm holes,” Ezekiel xiii, 18; Amos vi, 4.
PINE TREE. The pine appears in our translation three times, Neh. viii,
15; Isaiah xli, 19; lx, 13. Nehemiah, viii, 15, giving directions for
observing the feast of tabernacles, says, “Fetch olive branches, pine
branches, myrtle branches, and branches of thick trees, to make booths.”
The Hebrew phrase שמן, means literally _“branches of oily_ or _gummy
plants_.” The LXX. say _cypress_. Scheuchzer says the Turks call the
cypress _zemin_. The author of Scripture Illustrated” says, I should
prefer the whole species called jasmin, on account of its verdure, its
fragrance, and its flowers, which are highly esteemed. The word _jasmin_
and _jasemin_ of the Turks, resembles strongly the _shemen_ of the
Hebrew original here. The Persians also name this plant _semen_ and
_simsyk_.” The authority, however, of the Septuagint must prevail. In
Isa. xli, 19; lx, 13, the Hebrew word is תדהר; a tree, says Parkhurst,
so called from the springiness or elasticity of its wood. Luther thought
it the elm, which is a lofty and spreading tree; and Dr. Stock renders
it the ash. After all, it may be thought advisable to retain the pine.
La Roche, describing, a valley near to Mount Lebanon, has this
observation: “_La continuelle verdure des pins et des chênes verds fait
toujours sa beauté_.” [The perpetual verdure of the pines and the live
oaks makes it ever beautiful.]
PISGAH, a part of Mount Nebo, so called, being, in all probability, a
distinct, and most likely the highest, summit of that mountain. Here
Moses climbed to view the land of Canaan; and here he died.
PISIDIA, a province of Asia Minor, having Lycaonia to the north,
Pamphylia to the south, Cilicia and Cappadocia to the east, and the
province of Asia to the west. St. Paul preached at Antioch in Pisidia,
Acts xiii, 14; xiv, 24.
PITCH, ופת, Exod. ii, 3; Isaiah xxxiv, 9; Septuagint ἄσφαλτος; a fat,
combustible, oily matter, sometimes called asphaltos, from the lake
Asphaltites, or Dead Sea, in Judea, on the surface of which it rises in
the nature of liquid pitch, and floats like other oleaginous bodies; but
is condensed by degrees, through the heat of the sun, and grows dry and
hard. The word which our translators have rendered _pitch_ in Gen. vi,
14, and חמר, _slime_, Gen. xi, 3; xiv, 10, is generally supposed to be
bitumen. In the first of these places it is mentioned as used for
smearing the ark, and closing its interstices. It was peculiarly adapted
to this purpose. Being at first soft, viscous, and pliable, it might be
thrust into every chasm and crevice with the greatest ease; but would
soon acquire a tenacity and hardness superior to those of our pitch. A
coat of it spread over both the inside and outside of the ark would make
it perfectly water proof. The longer it was kept in the water, the
harder and stronger it would grow. The Arabs still use it for careening
their vessels. In the second passage it is described as applied for
cement in building the tower of Babel. It was much used in ancient
buildings in that region; and, in the ruins of Babylon, large masses of
brick work cemented with it are discovered. It is known that the plain
of Shinar did abound with it, both in its liquid and solid state; that
there was there a cave and fountain which was continually casting it
out; and that the famous tower and no less famous walls of Babylon were
built by this kind of cement, is confirmed by the testimony of several
ancient authors. The slime pits of Siddim, Gen. xiv, 10, were holes out
of which issued this liquid bitumen, or _naphtha_. Bitumen was formerly
much used by the Egyptians and Jews in embalming the bodies of their
dead.
PITHOM, one of the cities that the Israelites built for Pharaoh in
Egypt, during the time of their servitude, Exod. i, 11.
PLAGUES OF EGYPT. The design of these visitations, growing more awful
and tremendous in their progress, was to make Pharaoh know, and confess,
that the God of the Hebrews was the supreme Lord, and to exhibit his
power and his justice in the strongest light to all the nations of the
earth, Exod. ix, 16; 1 Sam. iv, 8, &c; to execute judgment upon the
Egyptians and upon all their gods, inanimate and bestial, for their
cruelty to the Israelites, and for their grovelling polytheism and
idolatry, Exod. vii, 14–17; xii, 12. The Nile was the principal divinity
of the Egyptians. According to Heliodorus, they paid divine honours to
this river, and revered it as the first of their gods. They declared him
to be the rival of heaven, since he watered the country without the aid
of the clouds and rain. His principal festival was at the summer
solstice, when the inundation commenced; at which season, in the dog
days, by a cruel idolatrous rite, they sacrificed red-haired persons,
principally foreigners, to Typhon, or the power that presided over
tempests, at Busiris, Heliopolis, &c, by burning them alive, and
scattering their ashes in the air, for the good of the people, as we
learn from Plutarch. Hence Bryant infers the probability, that these
victims were chosen from among the Israelites, during their residence in
Egypt. The judgment then inflicted upon the river, and all the waters of
Egypt, in the presence of Pharaoh and of his servants, as
foretold,--when, as soon as Aaron had smitten the waters of the river,
they were turned into blood, and continued in that state for seven days,
so that all the fish died, and the Egyptians could not drink of the
waters of the river, in which they delighted as the most wholesome of
all waters, but were forced to dig wells for pure water to drink--was a
significant sign of God’s displeasure for their senseless idolatry in
worshipping the river and its fish, and also a manifest reproof of that
bloody edict whereby the infants were slain,” Wisdom xi, 7.
In the plague of frogs, their sacred river itself was made an active
instrument of their punishment, together with another of their gods. The
frog was one of their sacred animals, consecrated to the sun, and
considered as an emblem of divine inspiration in its inflations.
The plague of lice, which was produced without any previous intimation
to Pharaoh, was peculiarly offensive to a people so superstitiously nice
and cleanly as the Egyptians; and, above all, to their priests, who used
to shave their whole body every third day, that neither louse, nor any
other vermin, might be found upon them while they were employed in
serving their gods, as we learn from Herodotus; and Plutarch informs us,
that they never wore woollen garments, but linen only, because linen is
least apt to produce lice. This plague, therefore, was particularly
disgraceful to the magicians themselves; and when they tried to imitate
it, but failed, on account of the minuteness of the objects, (not like
serpents, water, or frogs, of a sensible bulk that could be handled,)
they were forced to confess that this was no human feat of legerdemain,
but rather the finger of God.” Thus were the illusions of their magic
put down, and their vaunting in wisdom reproved with disgrace,” Wisdom
xvii, 7. Their folly was manifest unto all men,” in absurdly and
wickedly attempting at first to place the feats of human art on a level
with the stupendous operations of divine power, in the first two
plagues; and being foiled in the third, by shamefully miscarrying, they
exposed themselves to the contempt of their admirers. Philo, the Jew,
has a fine observation on the plagues of Egypt: Some, perhaps, may
inquire, Why did God punish the country by such minute and contemptible
animals as frogs, lice, flies, rather than by bears, lions, leopards, or
other kinds of savage beasts which prey on human flesh? Or, if not by
these, why not by the Egyptian asp, whose bite is instant death? But let
him learn, if he be ignorant, first, that God chose rather to correct
than to destroy the inhabitants; for, if he desired to annihilate them
utterly, he had no need to have made use of animals as his auxiliaries,
but of the divinely inflicted evils of famine and pestilence. Next, let
him farther learn that lesson so necessary for every state of life,
namely, that men, when they war, seek the most powerful aid to supply
their own weakness; but God, the highest and the greatest power, who
stands in need of nothing, if at any time he chooses to employ
instruments, as it were, to inflict chastisement, chooses not the
strongest and greatest, disregarding their strength, but rather the mean
and the minute, whom he endues with invincible and irresistible power to
chastise offenders.” The first three plagues were common to the
Egyptians and the Israelites, to convince both that “there was none like
the Lord;” and to wean the latter from their Egyptian idolatries, and
induce them to return to the Lord their God. And when this end was
answered, the Israelites were exempted from the ensuing plagues; for the
Lord severed the land of Goshen from the rest of Egypt; whence the
ensuing plagues, confined to the latter, more plainly appeared to have
been inflicted by the God of the Hebrews, Exodus viii, 20–23, to
convince both more clearly of “the goodness and severity of God,” Rom.
xi, 22; that great plagues remain for the ungodly, but mercy embraceth
the righteous on every side,” Psalm xxxii, 10.
The visitation of flies, of the gad fly, or hornet, was more intolerable
than any of the preceding. By this, his minute, but mighty army, God
afterward drove out some of the devoted nations of Canaan before Joshua,
Exod. xxiii, 28; Deut. vii, 20; Josh. xxiv, 12. This insect was
worshipped in Palestine and elsewhere under the title of Baal-zebub,
lord of the gad fly,” 2 Kings i, 1, 2. Egypt, we learn from Herodotus,
abounded with prodigious swarms of flies, or gnats; but this was in the
heat of summer, during the dog days; whence this fly is called by the
Septuagint κυνόμνια, _the dog fly_. But the appointed time of this
plague was in the middle of winter; and, accordingly, this plague
extorted Pharaoh’s partial consent, Go ye, sacrifice to your God, but in
the land;” and when Moses and Aaron objected the offence they would give
to the Egyptians, who would stone them for sacrificing the abomination
of the Egyptians,” namely, animal sacrifices, he reluctantly consented,
only ye shall not go very far away;” for he was apprehensive of their
flight, like his predecessor, who first enslaved the Israelites, Exod.
i, 10; and he again desired them to entreat for him.” But he again dealt
deceitfully; and after the flies were removed so effectually that not
one was left, when Moses entreated the Lord, Pharaoh hardened his heart
this fifth time also, neither would he let the people go.”
This second breach of promise on the part of Pharaoh drew down a plague
of a more deadly description than the preceding. The fifth plague of
murrain destroyed all the cattle of Egypt, but of the cattle of the
Israelites died not one.” It was immediately inflicted by God himself,
after previous notification, and without the agency of Moses and Aaron,
to manifest the divine indignation at Pharaoh’s falsehood. And though
the king sent and found that not one of the Israelites was dead, yet his
heart was hardened this sixth time also, and he would not let the people
go, Exod. ix, 1–7.