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Dictionary of the Bible

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CLOUT

streams of water pour is 'the wide world wliich the Almighty created ' a very peculiar piece of imagery.

J. Taylor.

CLOUT.— Jer SS"-" 'old cast clouts.' The word is still used in Scotland for cloths (as in 'dish-clout'), but for clothes only contemptuously. Formerly there was no contempt in the word. Sir John Mande- ville (Travels, Macmillan's ed. p. 75) says, 'And in that well she washed often-time the clouts of her son Jesu Christ.' The verb 'to clout' occurs in Jos 9', of shoes (Amer. RV 'patched').

CLUB.— Only Job 41" RV, for AV 'dart.' The stout shepherd's club, with its thick end probably studded with nails, with which he defended his flock against wild beasts, is rendered by ' rod ' in Ps 23' and elsewhere.

CNIDUS .—A city of Carta, in S.W. of Asia Minor. It was the dividing point between the S. and W. coasts of Asia Minor, and at this point St. Paul's ship changed its course in the voyage to Rome (Ac 27'). It contained Jewish inhabitants as early as the 2nd cent. B.C. (1 Mac 15^), and had the rank of a free city. A. Soutee.

COAL. Mineral coal was unknown in Bible times. Wherever ' coal ' (or 'coals') is mentioned, therefore, we must in the great majority of cases understand wood or charcoal. Several species of wood used for heating pur-poses are named in Is 44"-", to which Ps 120* adds 'coals of broom' (RVm). In two cases, however, the 'Uve coal' of Isaiah's vision (Is 6') and the 'coals' on which was 'a cake baken' for EUjah (1 K 19^), the Heb. word denotes a hot stone (so RVm see Bread). The charcoal was generally burned in a brasier (Jer 36^- RV, AV 'hearth') or chafing-dish, the 'pan of fire' of Zee 12« RV. See, further, House, § 7.

Coal, or rather charcoal, supplies several Scripture metaphors, the most interesting of which is illustrated by the expression of the wise woman of Tekoa, 'thus shall they quench my coal that is left ' (2 S 14'). By this she means, as shown by the following words, the death of her son and the extinction of her family, an idea elsewhere expressed as a putting out of one's lamp (Pr 13S). A. R. S. Kennedy.

COAST. Coast, now confined to the shore of the sea, was formerly used of the border between two countries, or the neighbourhood of any place. When St. Paul 'passed through the upper coasts' (Ac 19'), he was in the interior of Asia Minor. Herod ' slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof '(Mt2'«).

COAT.— See Dress, §§ 2 (d), 4.

COAT OF MAIL.— See Armour, Arms, § 2 (c).

COCK.— Mt 26M- n, Mk ISiB 14s»- ", Lk 22m- «»■ ", Jn 13'° 18". Cocks and hens were probably unknown in Palestine until from two to three centuries before Christ's time. In the famous painted tomb at Marissa (see Makeshah), a work of about B.C. 200, we have the cock depicted. Cocks and hens were introduced^from Persia. The absence of express mention of them"from the Law, and the fact that it is a ' clean' bird, have made it possible for the Jews for many centuries to sacrifice these birds on the eve of the Day of Atonement a cock for each male and a hen for each female in the household. Talmudic tradition finds references to the cock in Is 22", Job 38», and Pr 30", but all these are very doubtful. The 'cock -crowing' was the name of the 3rd watch of the night, just before the dawn, in the time of our Lord. During this time the cocks crow at irregular intervals. E. W. G. Masterman.

COCKATRICE.— See Serpent.

COCKER.— Sir 30' 'Cocker thy child, and he shall make thee afraid,' that is 'pamper.' Cf. Shaks. King John v. i. 70

'Shall a beardless boy, A cocker'd silken wanton, brave our fields?'

and Hull (1611), ' No creatures more cocker their young

COLOSSJi;

than the Asse and the Ape.' The word is not found eariier than the 15th century. Its origin is obscure.

COCKLE (bo'shah, Job 31").— AVm ' stinking weeds ' or RVm 'noisome weeds' are both more correct. Sir J. Hooper has suggested 'stinking arums,' which are common Palestine plants, but the more general rendering is safer. E. W. G. Masterman.

0(ELE-SYRIA, 'Hollow Syria,' is property the great hollow running N. and S. between the Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon ranges (1 Es i*'; Strabo, xvi. 2). It corresponds to the Big'ath ha-LebanSn of Jos 11" etc.; possibly also to Biq'ath Aven of Am V. The first element of the name persists in the modern name of the valley S. of Baalbek, el-BugH' . The Orontes drains the valley northward, and the Litani southward, both rivers rtsing near Baalbek. The soil is rich, producing splendid crops of wheat, etc., while some of the finest vineyards in Syria clothe the adjoining slopes.

' Coele-Syria ' came to have a wider significance, cover-ing indeed, with Phoenicia, all the Seleucid territory S. of the River Eleutherus (2 Mac 3' etc.; Strabo, xvi. 763). In 1 Es 2" etc., Ccele-Syria and Phoenicia denote the whole Persian province, stretching from the Euphrates to the borders of Egypt. Josephus reckons the country E. of Jordan to Ccele-Syria (Ant. i. xi. 5, xiii. xiii. 2 f ., etc.), including in it Scythopolis, the only member of the DecapoUs west of the river. W. Ewinq.

COFFER occurs only in 1 S 68- "• ■=, and the Heb. term 'argHz, of which it is the tr., is also found nowhere else. It appears to have been a small chest which contained (?) the golden Cgures sent by the Philistines as a guilt-offering.

COFFIN.— Gn 50» only (of the disposal of Joseph's body in Egypt). Israelitish burial rites (see Mourning Customs, Tomb) did not include the use of cofBns.

COHORT.— See Band, Legion.

COIKS. See Money.

C0L-H0ZEH;(' seeingall').— A Judahite (Neh 11»).

COLIUS (1 Es 9").- See Calitas, Kelaiah.

COLLAR. See Ornaments, § 2.

COLLEGE.— This stands in AV (2 K 22", 2 Ch 34") for the Heb. mishneh, which RV correctly renders 'second quarter,'-jia quarter of the city lying to the north (Zeph 1'°), and possibly referred to in Neh 11', where our versions have 'second over the city.' The idea of a 'college' came from the Targ. on 2 K 22", ' house of instruction.' J. Taylor.

COLONY. The word colonia is a pure Latin word, which is written in Greek letters in the only place where it occurs in the Bible (Ac 16"'), and expresses a purely Roman institution. It is a piece of Rome transported bodily out of Rome itself and planted somewhere in the Roman Empire. lA other words, it is a collection of Roman citizen-soldiers settled on a mihtary road to keep the enemies of the Empire in check. These retained their citizenship of Rome and constituted the aristocracy of every town in which they were situated. Their constitution was on the model of Rome and Ihe Italian States. A number of places are mentioned in the NT which were really coloni(B, but only one, Philippi, is so named, and the reason for this naming is no doubt that the author of Acts was proud of this city, with which he had some connexion. Pisidian Antioch, Lystra, Corinth, and Ptolemais, not to mention others, were colonial. Sometimes these colonice were merely settlements of veterans for whom their generals had to find a home.

A. SOUTER.

COLOSSI was an ancient city of Phrygia (Roman province Asia), at one time of great importance, but dwindling later as its neighbour Laodicea prospered. It was situated in the upper part of the valley of the Lycus, a tributary of the Maeander, about 10 miles from Laodicea, and 13 from Hierapolis. The

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