DEATH

die'), of the problem of the early, untimely death of the good, and of immortality in relation to the ungodly and the righteous; Sirach, in which no clear conception of immortality appears, the best that can be said, to alleviate sorrow for the dead, being that 'the dead is at rest ' (38*') : in which also the fear of death is spoken of as besetting all ranks of men (40), and we are told who they are to whom death comes as a dread foe, and again who may welcome death as a friend (41).

III. In the NT. — 1. The teaching of Jesus. — (a) It is noticeable that our Lord has nothing to say directly concerning death as a physical phenomenon. He offers no explanation touching those matters in the experience of death which have always excited the curiosity of men, and in this respect His attitude Is in strong contrast with that found in Rabbinical writings. He makes no use of the conception of 'the angel of death,' so characteristic of the latter, and traceable perhaps in language such as that of 1 Co 15^, He 2", and Rev 20"- ".

(b) No stress is laid on death as an evU in itself. In the few stories which we have in the Gospels of His raising the dead to Ute, the raising is never represented as a deliverance and a good for the person brought back. Compassion for the sorrows of those bereaved Is the prime motive: in the case of Lazarus, it is ex-pressly added that the restoration was ' for the glory of God' (Jn IV- "). Still, those aspects of death which make the living and active shrink from it are inci-dentally recognized. Jesus in Rabbinic phrase speaks of tasting death (Mk 9'li) and of seeing death (Jn 8"- '2): and the feeling underlying such expressions is the very antithesis of that attaching to 'seeing Ute' and 'seeing many days.' Death is to common human feeling an unwelcome, though inevitable, draught. This gives point also to our Lord's promise that the believer shall never die (Jn IV^). At the same time, there is no reference in His teaching to natural death as the solemn end of life's experiences and opportunities, unless an exception be found in the saying about working 'while it is day' (Jn 9'): but contrast with this as to tone a passage like Ec 9'°.

(c) Jesus speaks of death as a sleep (Mk 6'', Jn 11"-") ; but the same euphemistic use is found in OT and in extra-Biblical writers. It did not of itself necessarily lessen the terrors of death (see Ps 13^); but we owe it to Christ and the Christian faith mainly that such a representation of death has come to mitigate its bitterness, — such a use as is also found elsewhere in NT (e.g. I Th 4"«). This conception of death is, of course, to be limited to its relation to the activities and interests of this world. It is a falUng asleep after life's day — and 'we sleep to wake': but there is nothing here to shed light on such questions as to whether that sleep is a prolonged period of unconsciousness or no.

{d) Natural death is lost sight of in the much larger and more solemn conception of the condition of man resulting from sin, which in the Fourth Gospel is par-ticularly described as 'death' (see Jn 6^' 6'° S^'- ^). The exemption and deliverance promised in Jn 11^'-relate to this spiritual death, and by that deliverance natural death is shorn of its real terrors. This con-dition, resulting from sin and separation from God, may be regarded as incipient here and tending to a manifest consummation hereafter, with physical death intervening as a moment of transition and deriving a solemn significance from its association with the course and state of sin (see Beyschlag, NT Theol., Eng. tr. ii. p. 56 f.). The corresponding language of 1 Ep. of John is not to be overlooked (3") as exemplifying Johan-nine phraseology. The conception, however, is not found exclusively in the Johannine writings. Note the saying in Lk 9'"' as bearing on this point. In Mt 7'"-'destruction' is the antithesis of 'life' (and of. Mt S^"-18>', Mk 8», Jn 3" etc.); but the conception of 'per-

DEBORAH

ishlng' covers the deep experience of spiritual death, the loss of all that really makes the man.

(The phrase 'die the death' in EV, in Mk 7'" and parallel, may be noticed as being not a literal translation of the Greek, but a mid-English emphatic expression,' now archaic.)

2. The rest of the NT.— We may notice the following points: (a) The Pauline doctrine that natural death is the primitive consequence of sin, already referred to, is to be explained as the common Jewish interpretation of the OT account of the Fall, and finds no direct support in the Gospels. The feehng that 'the sting of death is sin ' is, however, vridely existent in NT. (6) The use of the term * death* as denoting a certain spiritual state in which men may live and be still destitute of all that is worth calling 'life,' is quite common (Eph 2'- ' 5", Col 2", 1 Ti 5«, Ja I's, Jude '^ Rev 3i). (c) A mystical and figurative use of the notion of death as denoting the change from a sinful to a new life is noticeable. The believer, the man spiritually alive, is also 'dead to sin' (Ro 62, 1 P 2M), is ' dead with Christ ' (Ro as. Col 2" etc.). id) The expression 'eternal death' is found nowhere in NT, common as its use is in religious and theological language. It is the correlative, easily suggested by the expression 'eternal life' which is so conspicuous a topic of NT teaching, and it serves loosely as an equivalent for the antitheses to 'hfe' or 'eternal life' that actually occur, such as 'destruction' (Mt 7"), 'the eternal fire' (Mt 18'), 'eternal punishment' (Mt 25'^). Cf. also 'the second death' in Rev 21*. If we substitute for ' eternal ' some other rendering such as ' of the ages ' or ' seonian,' it but serves to remind us of the profound difiiculties attaching to the predication of eternity in relation to the subject of man's destiny or doom.

J. S. Clemens.

DEBATE. — This word had formerly the meaning of ' strife,' as in the Geneva tr. of Gn 13', ' there was debate betweene the heardmen of Abrams cattell, and the heardmen of Lots cattell.'

DEBIB. — The king of Eglon, who ace. to Jos 10' joined other four kings against Joshua, but was defeated and put to death along with his allies at Makkedah.

DEBIB. — 1. A town first known as Kiriath-sepher (Jos IS", Jg 1") in the neighbourhood of Hebron, and inhabited by Anakim (Jos 11^'), conquered by Joshua (1038 1121 1213), or more specifically by Othniel (15"), assigned as a Levitical city (21", 1 Ch e's) in the tribe of Judah (Jos 15*'). An alternative name Klriath-saimah, once recorded (15"), is probably a corruption of Kiriath-sepher, due primarily to the similarity of p and n in the old Hebrew alphabet. It has been doubtfully identified with edh-Dhaheriyeh near Hebron; till the site can be identified and examined, the attractive specula-tions based on the apparent meaning of the older name ('City of Books' or 'Scribes') must be left in the region of theory.

2. A place named in the northern boundary of Judah, near the valley of Achor (Jos 15'). The name still sur-vives as the appellation of a place in this neighbourhood.

3. A place, not Identified, in the border of the trans-Jordanic territory of Gad (Jos 13»). An alternative reading is Lidebir (cf. Lo-debah).

R. A. S. Macalistek.

DEBORAH ('bee').— 1. Rebekah's nurse, who accompanied her mistress to her new home on her marrying Isaac (Gn 24«9). She was evidently held in great reverence, as the name of the site of her grave in Bethel shows, Allon-bacuth, the 'terebinth of weeping' (Gn 358).

2. The fourth of the leaders, or 'Judges,' of Israel; called also a 'prophetess,' i.e. an inspired woman — one of the four mentioned in the OT — of the tribe of Issachar (Jg 5"), wife of Lappidoth (4<). Her home was between Bethel and Ramah in the hill-country of Ephraim; here the Israelites came to her for judgment and guid-

182