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Dictionary of the Bible

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CLEAN AND UNCLEAN

ness of death, partly from the value of a corpse for magical purposes. Among the Jews a corpse was re-garded as exceptionally defiling (Hag 2>«). Even a bone or a grave caused infectious uncleanness, and graves were whitened in order to be easily recognizable. He who touched a corpse was unclean tor seven days (Nu 19"«). Purification was necessary on the third and seventh days; and on the latter the unclean person also washed his clothes and bathed. A corpse defiled a tent and all open vessels in it. For similar reasons warriors needed purification after a battle (Nu 31"-"); a murderer defiled the land and had to flee to a city of refuge, where he must remain till the death of the high priest (Nu 35). It has been suggested that this pro-vision was due to the notion that the high priest, the temporary representative of Jahweh, was regarded as suffering from the defilement of murder as God suffered, and as the land suffered (Dt 21>). It is singular that apparently a person -who was unclean from touching a corpse might yet eat the Passover (Nu 9«-").

The kinsmen of a dead man were usually also unclean; Hos 9* points to a similar idea among the Jews. In-deed, mourning customs were in origin probably warnings of such impurity. Some of the most common are pro-hibited in Dt 141 and Lv 19''8, perhaps because of their heathenish associations.

The ritual of purification from corpse-defilement, described in Nu 19, must be of high antiquity. The purifying medium was water, the blood and ashes of a red heifer, with cedar, hyssop, and scarlet. This was sprinkled over the unclean person on the third and seventh days, and the priest and attendants who per-formed the ceremony were themselves defiled by it till evening, and needed purification (cf. Dt 21). The ritual thus unites the three great cathartic media, fire, water, and aromatic woods and plants. The last, perhaps, were originally considered to be efficacious in expelling the death-demons by their scent.

5. TJncleanness connected with leprosy. Orientals considered leprosy the one specially unclean disease, which required not healing but cleansing (c£. Nu 12''). It appears to have been a kind of elephantiasis, and Lv 13 gives directions tor its diagnosis. If pronounced unclean, the leper was excluded from the community (cf. 2 K 7'). He could not attend a synagogue service in a walled town, though in open towns a special part of the synagogue was often reserved for lepers. If he was cured, he must undergo an elaborate process of purificatory ritual (Lv 14), including (a) the sacrifice of one bird and the release of another, perhaps regarded as carrying away the demon; fragrant plants, water, and the blood of the dead bird were used at this stage; (6) the washing of clothes, shaving of the hair, and bathing of the body ; then (c) after seven days' interval this second process was repeated; and finally (d) on the eighth day sacrifices were offered, and the man ceremonially cleansed with the blood and oil of the sacrifice.

II. Uncleanness in the NT. Legal casuistry carried the cathartic ritual to a high pitch of complexity, and Jesus came into frequent conflict with the Jewish lawyers over the point (cf. Mk 7'-'). He denounced it energetically (Lk 11'*, Mt IS'"), and, by insisting on the supreme importance of moral purity, threw ceremonial ideas into a subordinate position. The full force of this teaching was not at once reaUzed (cf . Ac 10"). The decree in Ac IS''' still recommends certain taboos. But St. Paul had no illusions on the subject (cf . Ro 14", 1 Co 613, C!ol 2'«- 2»-22, Tit 1"). In practice he made concessions to the scruples of others (Ac 2128, Ro I420) as Jesus had done (Mk 1"); and it was recognized that a man who had scruples must not be encouraged to violate them. But it was inevitable that with the process of time and reflexion, ceremonial prohibitions and ritualistic notions of cleanness should disappear before the Christian insistence on the internal elements

CLOUD

in religion. There are certain survivals of such notions even now, and ceremoniaUsm is not extirpated. But its scope is very narrow, and it is the custom to explain such ritual regulations as survive, on grounds that accord better with the spirit of Christianity and the ideas of civilized society. A. W. F. Blunt.

CLEMENT.— The name of a fellow-worker with St. Paul (Ph 4'). There are no sufilcient grounds for identifying him with Clement, bishop of Rome, the writer of the EpisUe to the Church of Corinth.

3. G. Taskee.

OLEOPAS.— Only Lk 241'; whether to be identified with Clopas of Jn W^ and Alphseus of Mt 10' etc., is a matter of dispute.

CLEOPATRA. 1. Adaughter of Ptolemy Epiphanes. She married in B.C. 173 her own brother Ptolemy Philo-metor (Ad. Est 11'), and afterwards her second brother Ptolemy Physcon (Li v. xlv. 13, Epit. 69; Justin, xxxviii. 8). She greatly favoured the Jews in Egypt (Jos. c. Apimi. ii. 5), and encouraged Onias iv. in the erection of the temple at Leontopolis (Jos. Ant. xiii. iii. 2). 2. A daughter of Ptolemy Philometor. In B.C. 150 she was given in marriage by her father to Alexander Balas (1 Mac 10*'- ^'; Jos. Ant. xiii. iv. 1). When Balas was driven into Arabia, she became (B.C. 146), at her father's bidding, the wife of his rival, Demetrius Nikator (1 Mac 11'2; Jos. Ant. xni. iv. 7; Liv. Epit. 52).

CLOKE (AV and RV, but Amer. RV 'cloak').— See Dkess, § 4.

CLOPAS (AV Cleophas) ia named only in Jn 19». See Alph^us and Brethren of the Lord.

CLOSET. The Gr. word so rendered in NT properly denotes 'a store-chamber' as Lk 12^1 RV, then any inner or more private room as opposed to the Uvlng-room; so Mt 6», Lk 12' RV 'inner-chamber.' Cf. 1 K 2030 22i», lit. 'a chamber within a chamber,' and House, § 2. For Jl 2'° see Driver, Joel and Amos, in loc.

A. R. S. Kennedy.

CLOTHES, CLOTHING.— See Dress.

CLOUD. In Scripture, as with us, the clouds are the visible masses of aqueous vapour, darkening the heavens, sources of rain and fertility, telUng the present state of the weather or indicating a coming change. They serve also for figures of instabiUty and transitoriness (Hos 6*), calamity (La 2'), the gloom of old age (Ec 12'), great height (Job 20«), immense numbers (He 12'). The following points should be noted. 1. The poetic treatment in Job. The waters are bound up securely in the clouds, so that the rain does not break through (26*) ; when the ocean issues from chaos like a new-born child, God wraps it in the swaddUng-bands of clouds (38»); the laws of their movements are impenetrable mysteries (36» 37" 38"). 2. The cloud indicates the presence of God, and at the same time veils the insuffer-able brightness of His glory (Ex 16" 19^ etc.). Simi-larly the bright cloud betokens the Father's presence, and His voice is heard speaking from it (Mt 17'). But a dark cloud would effectually hide Him, and thus furnishes a figure for displeasure (La 3"). At Rev 10' the cloud is an angel's glorious robe. 3. The pillar of cloud and Are directs and protects the journeyings of the Exodus (Ex I32', Ps 105"). This corresponds with the fact that armies and caravans have frequently been directed by signals of fire and smoke. 4. The cloud alternates with the cherub as Jahweh's chariot (Ps 18'°, Is 19'). Indeed, the cherub is a personification of the thunder-cloud. The Messianic people and the Messiah Himself sweep through the heaven with clouds (Dn 7", Mk 14»2, Rev 1'), or on the clouds (Mt 26"): hence the later Jews identified Anani ( = 'He of the clouds,' 1 Ch 32*) with the Messiah. The saints are to be caught up in the clouds (1 Th 4"). The Messiah's throne is a white cloud (Rev 14'*). 6. In the 'Cloud Vision' of Apoc. Bar 53-73, the cloud from which the twelve

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