COMMUNITY OF GOODS

John sets the law of this communion clearly before us when he records the words of the Lord Himself, ' Abide in me, and I in you' (Jn 15<). The communion of the human and the Divine is a mutual activity, which may be summed up in the two words grace and faith. For grace is the spontaneous and unstinted Divine giving as revealed aifd mediated by Jesus Christ, while faith in its ideal form is the action of a soul which, re-ceiving the Divine grace, surrenders itself without any reserve unto the Lord. J. C. Lambert.

COMMUNITY OF GOODS.— See CoMMnNioN.

COUPASS. — A 'compass' is the space occupied by a circle, or the circle itself: Pr 8" 'he set a compass upon the face of the deep' (AVm and RV 'a circle') usually explained of the horizon, which seems to be a circle resting on the ocean. To 'fetch a compass' (Nu 34', Jos 155, 2 S S», 2 K 3') is to make a circuit or simply ' go round.' The tool for making a circle is a compass (Is 44"). — See Arts and Crafts, § 1.

COMPASSION.— See Pity.

CONANIAH.— 1. A Levite who had charge of the tithes and offerings in the time of Hezekiah (2 Ch 3112. 1!). 2. A chief of the Levites in Josiah's reign (2 Ch 35'); called in 1 Es 1' Jeconias.

CONCISION. — A name applied contemptuously by S. Paul (Ph 32) to the merely fleshly circumcision (Gr. katatomS; the ordinary word for 'circumcision' is peritomS).

CONCORDANCES.- The Latin word cancordantim, for an alphabetical list of the words of Scripture drawn up for purposes of reference to the places where they occur, was first used by Hugo de Sancto Caro, who compiled a Concordance to the Vulgate in 1244. This was revised by Arbottus (1290), and became the basis of a Hebrew Concordance by Isaac Nathan (1437-45). Nathan's work was revised and enlarged by John Buxtorf, the elder, whose Concwdantice BiUiarum Hebraiax (1632) held the place of standard Concordance for two centuries, and served as the model for many others. John Taylor's Hebrew Concordance adapted to the English Bible, disposed alter the manner of Buxtorf (2 vols, folio, Norwich, 1754-57), is another link in the succession. The first Concordance to the English Bible is that of John Marbeck (folio, London, 1S50). The earliest Concordance to the Septuagint is Conrad Kircher's (1607). The first Greek NT Concordance was published at Basle anonymously in 1546. In the use of the following lists it will be understood that, while the most recent works, other things being equal, are to be preferred, there is so much common material that many of the older works are by no means obsolete.

1. Hebrew. — Fuerst, Libr. Sacrorum Vet. Test. Con-cordanticB Heb. alque Chald. (1840); The Englishman's Hebrew and Chaldee Concordance of OT (2 vols., Bagster) ; B. Davidson, A Concordance of the Heb. and Chaldee Scriptures (Bagster, 1876); Bagster's Handy Hebrew Concordance [an invaluable work]; Mandelkern, Vet. Test. Concardantiee (foUo, Leipzig, 1896), and a smaller edition without quotations (Leipzig, 1897).

2. Greek. — (o) The Septuagint. — Bagster's Handy Concordance of the Septuagint; Hatch-Redpath's Con-cordance of the Septuagint and other Greek Versions of the OT, with two supplemental fasciculi (Clarendon Press, 1892-97). This is the standard work, replacing

-Trommius' Concardantiee Groecoe Versionis vulgo dictce LXX Interpretum (2 vols. Amst. 1718).

(&) The NT. — The Englishman's Greek Concordance of the NT (Bagster) ; C. F. Hudson, Greek Concordance to NT, revised by Ezra Abbot (do.); SchmoUer, Con-cardantiee manuales NT grceci (1890); Bruder, Concor-dantiiB omnium vocum NT grwci* (1888). All these works are now superseded by Moulton-Geden's Con-cordance to the Greek Testament (Edinburgh, T. & T. Clark, 1897).

CONFESSION

3, English, — Until recent times the standard work was Cruden's Complete Concordance to the Holy Scriptures (1st ed. 1738. Cruden's is truly a marvellous work, and was frequently copied, without acknowledgment, in subsequent productions. It was even issued in abridgment — the most useless and provoking of all literary products). More recent works are Eadie's Analytical Concordance; Young's Analytical Bible Con-cordance (Edin. 1879-84), with supplem. vol. by W. B. Stevenson; Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (Hodder & Stoughton, 1894); Thoms's Concordance to BV of NT (1882). W. F. Adeney and J. S. Banks.

CONCUBINE.— See Family, Marriage, § 6.

CONCUPISCENCE.— Concupiscence is intense desire, always in a bad sense, so that it is unnecessary to say ' evil concupiscence ' as in Col 3'. The reference is nearly always to sexual lust.

CONDUIT.— See Jerusalem.

CONEY (EV tr. of shaphan, RVm rock badger).— The Hyrax syriacus, called by the Arabs wabr, also the ghanam beni Israel (the sheep of the children of Israel). The coney is a small rabbit-like animal, with short ears and a mere stump of a tail. It has stiff greyish-brown hair, with softer, lighter-coloured hair on the belly; it Is nocturnal in its habits, and lives in holes in the rocks. Conies are very plentiful along the rocky shores of the Dead Sea, and also in the Lebanon, especially above Sidon; they can, however, be seen as a rule only between sunset and sunrise. They are gregarious in their habits, and disappear into their rocky fastnesses (Ps 104", Pr 30!m- ») with the greatest rapidity on the slightest approach of danger. The Bedouin, when hunting them, lie hidden for many hours during the night close to their holes. They feed on grass and sweet-smelling herbs, and their flesh is esteemed for eating by the Bedouin; they do not actually 'chew the cud' (Lv 11', Dt 14'), though they work their jaws in a way that resembles a ruminant. Structurally the coney is so peculiar as to have an order, the Hyracoidea, to itself. E. W. G. Masterman.

CONFECTION.— This word in AV means perfume (Ex 30^), and ' confectionary' (1 S 8''), means perfumer.

CONFESSION.— In Eng. the words 'confess,' 'con-fession' denote either a profession of faith or an acknowl-edgment of sin; and they are used in EV in both of these meanings.

1. Confession of faith. — (1) In the OT the word 'con-fess' is found in this sense only in 1 K8"- » = 2Ch6"-2«. But the acknowledgment of God as God and the proc-lamation of personal trust in Him meet us continually in the lives or on the lips of patriarchs, prophets, and psalmists. The Book of Psalms in particular is a store-house of confessional utterances in prayer and song (see 71 48" etc.).

(2) Coming to the NT, we find that 'confess' is of frequent occurrence in the sense we are considering, and that confession now gathers expressly round the Person and the Name of Jesus Christ. Moreover, the idea of confession has been elaborated, lis immediate relation to faith and vital importance for salvation being clearly brought out.

(a) The meaning of confession. — In the earlier period of our Lord's ministry, confession meant no more than the expression of belief that Jesus was the expected Messiah (Jn 1"). Even the title 'Son of God' (Mt 8»ll, cf. Jn l*"- ■") at this stage can be used only in its recog-nized Messianic sense (Ps 2'). A great advance In faith and insight is marked by St. Peter's confession at Cffisarea Philippi, 'Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God' (Mt 16i«||). This was the highest point reached by Apostolic belief and profession during the Lord's earthly ministry, and it anticipated those later views of Christ's true nature which found embodi-ment in the Creeds of the Church. After the Resurreo-

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