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of the field (Lv 19'; Agriculture, § 3), the corners of the beard and head-hair (v.^') and of the upper garment or cloak (Fringes).

2. Another illustration is found in the importance attached among many peoples to the corner-stone in the foundation course of every important building, which was laid with religious rites, including, in early times, the burial beneath it of a human victim (see House, § 3). The corrected text of Is 28" speaks of 'a precious foundation corner-stone,' which is neither Zion (as usually interpreted), nor the future Messiah, but a calm trust in J"; hence the prophet adds 'he that trusts shall not be moved' or 'put to shame' (LXX, ct. 1 P 28 and Kittel, Bib. Heb.). Jer Bl"" and Job 38° both associate the corner-stone with the founda-tions. Hence the figurative use of the word for the chief men of the State, as its 'corners,' i.e. supports and defences (Jg 20^, 1 S 14S8 [cf. marg.l. Is 19" RV, Zee 101). On the other hand, the stone of Ps 1182» which became 'the head of the corner' (RV) — the reference is to Zion — is understood by many to be the corner-stone of the topmost course.(cf. the head stone of Zee 4', which is different from the 'foundation' of v.»). In NT this passage and Is 28" receive a Messianic appli-cation, Jesus Christ being both the foundation and the head of His Church (Mt 21«||, Ac 4", 1 P 2«<).

A. R. S. Kennedy.

CORNET. — See Music and Musical Instrumenih.

CORRUPTION.— Jewish anthropology conceived of man as composed of two elements, the physical body and the soul. At death the soul went to Sbeol, and the body decayed. The term 'corruption' came, therefore, to stand for the physical aspects of that state which followed death and preceded the resurrection. In this sense it is used in Ac 2"- " IS^i-", 1 Co 15«- '»; cf. also 1 Co 15''-". There is no evidence that it had a moral force, although some have found such an implication in Gal 6=, where the reference is rather to a belief that the wicked will not share in the glories of the resurrection. Neither is it a term to indicate annihilation, which idea does not seem to have been held by the Palestinian Jews. Jesus through His resurrection is represented (2 Ti 1'°) as having brought life and incorruption to Ught. The resurrection as a part of salvation is thus placed in sharpest contrast with the condition of the personality following physical death, since, as St. Paul says (2 Co S"), for a man who is saved, the decomposition of the physical body is but an occasion for the assumption of an Incorruptible heavenly body.

Shailer Mathews.

COS. — An island oft the coast of Caria, S.W. of Asia Minor, famous for its fertihty and beauty. It was a Dorian colony, and a great seat of the worship of iS^sculapius and of the study of medicine. Its position made it also an important place from a trade point of view, as it lay on the cross Unes of traffic between Greece, Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt. It is uncertain whether Cos, which had been a faithful ally of the Romans, was incorporated in the province of Asia in B.C. 139 (see Caria), but it certainly was a part of it in the time of Augustus. Its trade connexion made it one of the Jewish centres of the ^gaean. The Jews there were favoured by the Romans in B.C. 139-138 (1 Mac 15^). It was a place on the route of the Jewish pilgrims to Jerusalem (cf. Ac 21'). Herod the Great was a benefactor of the people of Cos.

A. SOUTER.

COSAM. — An ancestor of Jesus (Lk S^s).

COSMOGONY.— See Creation.

COSS^ANS. — A name adapted from the Greek form of Bab. KasshS, a semi-barbarous people inhabit-ing the mountain region between Elam and Media proper. They answer to Cush (wh. see) in Gn 10^ (and 213?) as distinguished from the African Cush. They were a powerful people between the 18th and the 12th

COVENANT

centuries B.C., during which time Babylonia was ruled by a Cossaean dynasty. J. F. McCurdy.

COTTON is the better tr. (so RVm) of karpae, which in AV and RV is tr. 'green,' Est 1». It was either muslin or calico. E. W. G. Masterman.

COUCH . — See House, § 8 . The verb ' to couch ' occurs in Dt 3312 'the deep that coucheth beneath.' The word means simply to lie down, but it is used almost exclusively of animals, as is the Heb. word also. The subterranean deep, says Driver, is perhaps pictured as a gigantic monster.

COULTER.— Only 1 S IS"', for the word elsewhere rendered 'plow-share,' and so it should be here, as the Hebrew plough, like its Syrian representative to-day, had no coulter. See Agriculture, § 1.

COUNCIL. — See Sanhedrin. For the Council of Ac is, Gal 2, see Paul, Galatians [Ep. to], § 3.

COUNSELLOR.— This is the spelling in modern editions of the AV. In the ed. of 1611 it is ' counseller,' except in Ezr 8^, Pr 122» 15^2, where the spelling is ' counsellour.' The word is used mostly of a king's counsellor, or more generally of one who gives counsel. But in Dn S'- ' it means a justice; and in Mk 15", Lk 235", it is used of Joseph of Arimathsea as a member of the Sanhedrin. In Dn 3^- " 4» 6' the peculiar word rendered 'counsellor' in AV is hesitatingly translated by Driver 'minister'; RV retains 'counsellor.'

COUNTERVAIL.— To countervail (Est 7*. Sir 6i') is to make up for, give an equivalent, as in More's Utopia: 'All the goodes in the worlde are not Uable to countervayle man's life.'

COURAGE. — In Dn 11« 'courage' is the rendering of the Heb. word for 'heart'; in Am 2i« 'courageous' is literally ' stoutest of heart.' Elsewhere in the OT the root-ideas of the words generally used are ' to be firm ' Cdmets) and 'to be strong' (,chazaq). Courage, being a quality of mind, has manifold manifestations, as, e.g. in the sufferer's endurance, the reformer's boldness, and the saint's 'wrestling' (Eph 6"), as well as in the soldier's valour. Professor Sorley says that moral courage is ' the control of the fear of social evils (disgrace or ridicule from those who determine the opinion of the community), whereas the ordinary application of courage is to the fear of physical evils' (Baldwin, Diet, of Phi-losophy, i. 239).

In the NT the Gr. noun for ' courage ' is found only in Ac 281'. xhe corresponding verb is rendered uni-formly in the RV 'be of good cheer'; but a later form of the same verb occurs six times, and is tr. in KV 'be of good courage.' The comparative rarity of the word 'courage' implies no disparagement of the virtue, for exhortations to 'be strong,' and to 'fear not' are frequent. T. H. Green, comparing Greek and Christian ideals of virtue (.Prolegomena to Ethics, p. 277 ff.), shows how greatly the conception of moral heroism has been widened. Courage or fortitude is defined as 'the will to endure even unto death for a worthy end ' ; therefore the Christian may be courageous 'in obscure labours of love as well as in the splendid heroism at which a world might wonder.'

J. G. Taseer.

COURSE.- See Priests and Levites, III. 2 (6).

COURT. — See House, § 2; Justice; Tabernacle; Temple.

COUSIN. — Elisabeth is called Mary's 'cousin' in Lk V, and the relationship is often understood in the modern sense of that word. But ' cousin' in the English of 1611 meant no more than kinsman or kinswoman. The relationship between Mary and Elisabeth is not known.

COVENANT. — The term is of frequent occurrence in the Bible, and is used in the general sense of a compact or agreement between parties, and also in the more

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