CHURCHES, ROBBERS OF

cally equivalent. Thus the elders of Ephesus are reminded (Ac 20z») that they are bishops. In the Pastoral Epistles, Timothy appoints 'bishops and deacons'; Titus, 'elders and deacons,' though Timothy also (1 Ti 5") has elders under him. The qualifications of the elder, as described to Titus, are practically those of the bishop as given to Timothy, and it is added (Tit 1') that the elders must be such 'because the bishop must be blameless,' etc. — which is decisive that the bishop's office was at least as wide as the elder's. Moreover, in both cases the duties implied are ministerial, not what we call episcopal. If the elder's duty is to rule (1 Ti 5"), he does it subject to Timothy, much as a modern elder rules subject to his bishop.

(3) Bishops. See Bishop. H. M. Gwatkin.

CHURCHES, ROBBERS OF.— This is in Ac 19" an AV mistranslation (RV has 'robbers of temples'). Even the RV is inexact. The word ought to be trans-lated simply 'sacrilegious persons,' that is, persons acting disrespectfully to the goddess of Ephesus. In 2 Mac 4« (RV 'author of the sacrilege') the expression is applied to Lysimachus, brother of Menelaus the high priest, who perished in a riot caused by sacrilege

(B.C. 170). A. SOUTER.

CHURCHES, SEVEN. — See Angels of the Seven Churches, Revelation [Book of], also the artt. on Ephesus, Sivtyrna, etc.

CHUSI (Jth 7"), mentioned with Ekrebel ('Akrdbeh), is possibly Kuzah, 5 miles S. of Shechem and 5 miles W. of 'Akrabeh.

CHUZA ( Araer. RV Chuzas) .—The steward of Herod Antipas. His wife Joanna (wh. see) was one of the women who ministered to our Lord and His disciples (Lk 8').

OIELED, CIELING (Amer. RV 'ceUed,' 'ceiUng'). The latter occurs only } K 6", where it has its modern signification (reading, however, 'unto the beams [or ratters] of the cieUng).' The verb, on the other hand, should everywhere be rendered 'panelled' (2 Ch 3', Jer 22", Ezk 41i6, Hag 1* 'your panelled houses'), the reference being to the panels of cedar or other costly wood with which the inner walls were lined. See House, § 4. A. R. S. Kennedy.

CILICIA.' — A district in the S.E. corner of Asia Minor, which in NT times was divided into two portions. The Roman province Cilicia, which is alone referred to in the NT, stretched from a Uttle E. of Corycus to Mt. Amanus, and from the Cilician Gates and Anazarbus to the sea. For administrative purposes it was combined with Syria and Phoenicia. The sense of the unity of Syria and Cilicia is seen clearly in Gal 1^' (also in Ac 1523. 41). The capital of the province Cilicia was Tarsus (Ac 21" 22»). The other portion to which the name was applied was the client-kingdom of king Antiochus, which was under the suzerainty of Rome, and included Cilicia Tracheia (Rugged Cilicia) to the W., as well as a belt surrounding the Roman province on the N. and E. Neither district has as yet been thoroughly explored.

A. SOUTEH.

CIMMERIANS. — The name, which has come to us through the Greek, of the people known as Gomer (wh. see) in the Bible, the Gimirre of the cuneiform inscrip-tions. J. F. McCURDY.

CINNAMON (Ex 30», Pr 7", Ca 4", Rev 18").— Almost without doubt the product of Cinnamomum zeylanicum of Ceylon. The inner bark is the part chiefly used, but oil is also obtained from the fruit. Cinnamon is still a favourite perfume and flavouring substance in Palestine. E. W. G. Masterman.

CIRCUIT occurs 4 times in AV: IS 7'^ (a late and doubtful passage, ace. to which Samuel went on circuit to various high places). Job 22'* (RVm and Amer. RV 'vault,' i.e. the vault of heaven), Ps 19= (of the sun's course in the heavens), Ec 1° (of the circuits of the

CISTERN

wind). Besides retaining these instances, RV sub-stitutes ' made [make] a circuit ' for AV ' fetch a com-pass' in 2 S 52«, 2 K 3^ Ac 28". See Compass.

CIRCUMCISION.— This rite is not of Israelite origin; there are some good grounds for the belief that it came to the Israelites from the Egyptians. The fact of a flint being used for its performance (Jos 5^- ') witnesses to the immense antiquity of the rite. Its original meaning and object are hidden in obscurity, though the theory that it was regarded as a necessary preUminary to marriage has much to commend it. Among the Israelites it became the sign of the Covenant People; whoever was uncircumcised could not partake of the hopes of the nation, nor could such join in the worship of Jahweh; he could not be reckoned an Israelite (Gn 17"). Not only was every Israelite required to undergo circumcision, but even every slave acquired by the Israelites from foreign lands had likewise to be circumcised (Gn 17'2- ") ; according to Ex 12*8- » even a stranger sojourning in the midst of Israel had to submit to the rite, at all events if he wished to join in the cele-bration of the Passover. Originally male children were not circumcised in Israel (cf. Jos 5*-'), but boys had to undergo it on arriving at the age of puberty; but in later days the Law commanded that every male child should be circumcised on the eighth day after birth (Lv 12').

In the OT there are two accounts as to the occasion on which circumcision was first practised by the IsraeUtes; according to Gn 1710-" the command was given to Abraham to observe the rite as a sign of the covenant between God and him, as representing the nation that was to be; while according to Ex i'^- ^ its origin is connected with Moses. It was the former that, in later days, was always looked upon as its real origin; and thus the rite acquired a purely religious character, and it has been one of the distinguishing marks of Judaism ever since the Exile. The giving of a name at circum-cision (Lk 1" 221) (jiij not belong to the rite originally, but this has been the custom among Jews ever since the return from the Captivity, and probably even before.

In the early Church St. Paul had a vigorous warfare to wage against his Judaizing antagonists, and it became a vital question whether the Gentiles could be received into the Christian community without circumcision. As is well known, St. Paul gained the day, but it was this question of circumcision, which involved of course the observance of the entire Mosaic Law, that was the rock on which union between the early Christians and the Judaizing Christians split. Henceforth the Jewish and the Christian communities drifted further and further apart.

Circumcision in its symboUc meaning is found fairly frequently in the OT; an 'uncircumcised heart' Is one from which disobedience to God has not been 'cut off' (see Lv 26", Dt 10>' 30*); the expression 'uncircum-cised lips' (Ex 6'2. SO) would be equivalent to what is said of Moses, as one who ' spake unadvisedly with his lips' (Ps 10633, cf. Is 6'); in Jer 6'° we have the expres-sion ' their ear is uncircumcised ' in reference to such as will not hearken to the word of the Lord. A like flgura-tive use is found in the NT (e.g. Col 2U. ").

W. O. E. Oesterley.

CISTERN. — In Palestine, the climate and geological formation of the country render the storage of water a prime necessity of existence. Hence cisterns, mostly hewn in the solid rock, were universal in Bible times, and even before the Hebrew conquest (Dt 6", Neh 9", both RV). Thus at Gezer it has been found that 'the rock was honeycombed with cisterns, one appropriated to each house [cf. 2 K 183'] or group of houses . . . (and) fairly uniform in character. A circular shaft, about 3 feet in diameter and 5 feet deep, cut through the rock, expands downwards into a chamber roughly square or circular in plan, about 13 to 25 feet in diameter and generally about 20 feet deep. . . . The wall is

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