ATTALUS

it was of great Importance. It haa the best harbour on the coast. Paul and Barnabas came on there from Perga, and took ship for Antioch (Ac 14^5).

A. SOUTEE.

ATTALUS.— King of Pergamum (b.c. 159-138). He was one of the Icings to whom the Roman Senate is said to have written in support of the Jews in the time of Simon the Maccabee (1 Mac 15^).

ATTENDANCE. — In 1 Mac 15'^ 'attendance' is used for a king's retinue; while in 1 Ti 4'3 it is used in the obsolete sense of attention: 'Till I come give attendance (RV 'heed') to reading.'

ATTHARATES (1 Es 9").— A corruption of the title tirshatha; cf. Neh 8' and art. Attharias.

ATTHAEIAS (1 Es 5").— A corruption of the title tirshatha; cf. Ezr 2»' and art. Attharates.

ATTIRE.— See Dress.

ATTUS (AV Lettus).— Sonot Secheniaa (1 Es 8»); same as Hattush of 1 Ch 3^ and Ezr 8^.

AUDIENCE. — From Lat. audientia; 'audience' means in AV the act of hearing, as Lk 20« 'in the audience of all the people.' Now it means the people gathered to hear.

AUGIA. — A daughter of Zorzelleus or Barzillai (1 Es 538).

AUGURY. — See Magic, Divinatton and Sorcery.

AUGUSTAN BAND (RV), AUGUSTUS' BAND (AV).— See Band.

AUGUSTUS. — This name is Latin, and was a new name conferred (16th Jan. b.c. 27) by the Roman Senate on Caius Octavius, who, after his adoption by the dictator Caius Julius Caesar, bore the names Caius JuUua Caesar Octavianus. The word means 'worthy of reverence' (as a god), and was represented in Greek by Sebastos, which has the same signification, but was avoided by Lk 2' as impious. In official docu-ments Augustus appears as ' Imperator Caesar Augustus.' He was born in b.c. 63, was the first Roman emperor from B.C. 23, and died in a.d. 14. He was equally eminent as soldier and administrator, and the Empire was governed for centuries very much on the lines laid down by him. In Lk 2' he is mentioned as having issued a decree that all inhabitants of the Roman Empire should be enrolled (tor purposes of taxation). There is evidence for a 14-year cycle of enrolment in the Roman province of Egypt.

A. SOUTER.

AUTEAS.— A Levite (1 Es 9"); called in Neh S' Hodiah.

AUTHORITY.— The capabihty, liberty, and right to perform what one wills. The word implies also the physical and mental ability for accomplishing the end desired. Authority refers especially to the right one has, by virtue of his office, position, or relationship, to command obedience. The centurion was ' a man under authority,' who knew what it meant to be subject to others higher in authority than himself, and who also himself exercised authority over the soldiers placed under him (Mt 8'- '). In like manner ' Herod's juris-diction' (Lk 23') was his authority over the province which he ruled. Hence the authority of any person accords with the nature of his office or position, so that we speak of the authority of a husband, a parent, an apostle, a judge, or of any civil ruler. The magistrates who are called in Ro 13' ' the higher powers,' are strictly the highly exalted and honoured authorities of the State, who are to be obeyed in all that is right, and reverenced as the 'ministers of God for good.' God is Himself the highest authority in heaven and on earth, but He has also given unto His Son ' authority on earth to forgive sins' (Mt 9*) and to execute judgment (Jn5"). After His resurrection Jesus Himself declared : ' All authority hath been given unto me in heaven and on

AXLE, AXLE-TREES

earth" (Mt 28i»; cf. Col 2>», 1 P 3^). In the plural the word is used in Eph 2^ 3'" 6", Col 1" 2", to denote good and evil angels, who are supposed to hold various degrees and ranks of authority. See Dominion, Power.

M. S. Terry. AUTHORIZED VERSION.- See English Versions. AVARAN ('pale'?). — Surname of Eleazar, a brother of Judas Maccabseus (1 Mac 2* 6").

AVEN.— An insulting substitute (in Ezk 30") for On (wh. see).

AVENGER OF BLOOD.— The practice of blood- revenge has been very widely spread among societies in a certain stage of civilization, where there has been no central authority to enforce law and order, and where the certainty of retaliation has been the only guarantee for security of life. Among the Semites the custom was in full force from the earliest times, and it is still the only spring of order in Arabia. It depends for its maintenance upon the solidarity of the clan or tribe. All the members of the tribe, what-ever may be the immediate parental relationship, are counted as being of one blood; a wrong done to one is a wrong done to all, to be avenged if necessary by all the offended clan upon all the clan of the offender. The phrase used by the Arabs is, ' Our blood has been shed.'

Of the form of blood-revenge that involved the whole clan or tribe in the murder of a single individual there are still traces in the OT (Jos 7«, 2 K 9^). Naturally, however, the duty of avenging the shedding of blood fell primarily upon him who was nearest of kin to the slaughtered man. This next of kin was called the gC'el. The word in Hebrew law was used in a wide sense for him whose duty it was to redeem the property or the person of an impoverished or enslaved relative (Lv 25^- "-«', Ru 4"i), but it came to be used specially of the man who had to perform this most tragic duty of kinship. The steady effort of Hebrew law was to limit this ancient custom so as to ensure that a blood feud should not perpetuate itself to the ruin of a whole clan, and that deliberate murder and accidental homicide should not come under the same penalty. It is possible to trace with some definite-ness the progress of this sentiment by which the gS'el was gradually transformed from being the, irresponsible murderer of a possibly blameless manslayer to being practically the executioner of a carefully considered sentence passed by the community. See Kin [Next of].

R. Bruce Taylor.

AVITH.— A Moabite city (Gn 36=5); site unknown.

AVOID. — This verb is used intransitively in 1 S 18" ' David avoided out of his presence twice.' So Coverdale translates Mt 16^ ' Auoyde fro me, Sathan.'

AVOUCH. — This word, now obsolete except in legal phrases, means to acknowledge.

AWA, AWITES (2 K 17M- a)-- See Ivvah.

AVVIM. — 1. The Avvim are spoken of in Dt 2'' (cf. Jos 134) as primitive inhabitants of S.W. Palestine near Gaza, who were absorbed by the immigrants from Caphtor (wh. see), i.e. the Philistines. 2. A Benjamite town (Jos 18^3); site unknown. J. F. McCurdy.

AWAY WITH. — This phrase is used idiomatically with the force of a verb in Is 1" ' the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with,' i.e. tolerate. This verb is omitted ( = 'get away with,' i.e. in mod. English 'get on with').

AWL. — A boring instrument, named only in con-nexion with the ceremony whereby a slave was bound to perpetual servitude (Ex 21«, Dt 16").

AWNING. — Correctly given by RV in Ezk 27' as tr. of Heb. mikstk, corrected from mekassek (AV 'that which covered thee').

AX, AXE. — See Arts and Crafts, 1, 3,

AXLE, AXLE-TREES.- See Wheel.

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