LAPPIDOTH

Phrygian powder, obtained by crushing Phrygian stone, which was used for the eyes (Rev 3"). There were many Jewish inhabitants of Laodicea.'and the population as a whole was of very mixed race. There is a want of individuality about the lite of this city, which has been called ' the city of compromise.' The church there was not founded by St. Paul, but probably by one of his coadjutors, perhaps Epaphras (cf. Col 4"). It was no doubt one of the cities which received the 'Epistle to the Ephesians' (Col 41^), as well as the Epistle to the Colossians (Col 4"). It was one of the 'seven churches' of the Apocalypse (3"-^). Its condemnation is perhaps the severest of all. A. Souter.

LAPPIDOTH ('torches' or 'hghtning flashes').— The husband of Deborah the prophetess (Jg 4*). Some commentators take the term to be descriptive of the character of Deborah, 'a woman of lightning flashes.' In favour of this they urge the feminine termination -oth, but the same termination is found elsewhere to men's names, e.g. Meremoth. ■ T. A. Moxon.

LAPWING.— See Hoopoe.

LASCIVIOUSNESS.— The Greek word so translated in Mk 7™ etc. is translated ' wantonness ' in Ro 13'^. This is the translation in the VSS before AV in nearly all the passages where AV has 'lasciviousness.' The idea of the Gr. word is shameless conduct of any kind.

LASEA is mentioned by St. Luke (Ac 27'), but by no other ancient author. It was the nearest town to Fair Havens in Crete, but it was 5 miles away, and this, apart from the inconvenience of the roadstead, would explain the reluctance of the captain of St. Paul's ship to winter there. The ruins of Lasea were examined in 1856, — the site still bears the ancient name. A. E. Hillabd.

LASHA (Gn 10'") marked the S.E. boundary of the land of the Canaanites. Jerome identified it with the hot springs of CaUirrhog, in the WSdy ZerqS Ma'in. Wellhausen would identify it with Laish, on the N. frontier. There is nothing to support this but the resemblance in the name. Against it is the order in which the names occur. It cannot now be identified.

W. EWING.

LASSHARON.— A town taken by Joshua (12i8). LXX B reads here 'the king of Aphek in Sharon.' The Onomasticon gives the name of 'Sharon' to a second district, viz. that between Mount Tabor and Tiberias. The name SarBna attaches to an ancient site on the plateau, 6i miles S.W. of Tiberias, which may possibly represent Lassharon (Conder). W. Ewing.

LASTHENES. — An oflicer of high rank, 'kinsman' ( 1 Mac 1 131) and ' father ' (v. ^) of Demetrius 11. He raised a body of Cretan mercenaries, and enabled Demetrius to land in Cilicia, and wrest the throne of Syria from Alexander Balas (Jos. Ant. xiii. iv. 3; cf. 1 Mac 10"). When Demetrius was endeavouring to make terms with Jonathan the Maccabsean, he wrote to Lasthenes in favour of the Jews, and forwarded a copy of his letter to the Jewish prince (1 Mac ll^'-").

LATCHET.— See Dress, § 6.

LATIN. — In such provinces as Judaea the Latin language alone had place in official acts and Roman courts. Where Greek was allowed in court pleadings, it was, so to speak, an act of grace on the judge's part, and there can be little doubt that, e.g., the speech of TertuUus in Ac 24 was in Latin. The Latin words used in a Greek form in the NT are mainly administrative, legal, or military (e.g. census, custodia, prcetorium, colonia, libertinus, centurio, legio), or names of Roman coins (denarius, guadrans), but the total number of such Latin words occurring is only about 25. The Gentile names adopted by Jews were generally of Greek form (e.g. Philip) — a Latin form like the name of St. Paul was an exception (to be expected perhaps with one so proud of Roman citizenship). Throughout Palestine, while Latin was the language of the administration, Greek was the

532

LAW (IN OT)

main language of commerce, and Aramaic the language of common intercourse among Jews. Hence we find all three languages used for the superscription on the cross (Lk 23''). A. E. Hillakd.

LATIN VERSIONS.- See Text (of OT and NT) and Vulgate.

LATTICE.— See House, § 7.

LAUD.— In Ro 15" the AV has 'Praise the Lord, all ye Gentiles; and laud him, all ye people.' The Gr. vbs. being different, two different Eng. vbs. are used. But the RV turns 'laud' into 'praise.' In the OT, however, 'laud' and 'praise' are both used in order to distinguish two Heb. vbs., as in Ps 117' 145', though not quite consistently. In Ps I4712 the difference between the verbs is ignored.

LAUGHTER. — Laughter is used in the Bible in three ways. (1) It is opposed to weeping, as Ec 3' 7', Job 8^', Ps 126^ Lk 6^'. (2) It expresses incredulity, as Gu 17" 18". (3) It signifies derision, as Ts 2", Bel ".

LAVER. — See Tabernacle, § 4, Temple, § 6 (d).

LAW (IN OT). — 1. That the 'lawwas given by Moses' (Jn 1") represents the unanimous beUef both of the early Christians and of the Chosen Nation. He was their first as well as their greatest law-giver; and in this matter reUgious tradition is supported by all the histor-ical probabiUties of the case. The Exodus and the sub-sequent wanderings constitute the formative epoch of Israel's career: it was the period of combination and adjustment between the various tribes towards effecting a national unity. Such periods necessitate social experiments, for no society can hold together without some basis of permanent security; no nation could be welded together, least of all a nation in ancient times, without some strong sense of corporate responsi-bilities and corporate rehgion. It therefore naturally devolved upon Moses to establish a central authority for the administration of justice, which should be uni-versally accessible and universally recognized. There was only one method by which any such universal recognition could be attained; and that was by placing the legal and judicial system upon the basis of an appeal to that religion, which had already been successful in rousing the twelve tribes to a sense of their unity, and which, moreover, was the one force which could and did effectually prevent the disintegration of the heterogene-ous elements of which the nation was composed.

2. We see the beginning and character of these legis-lative functions in Ex 18", where Moses explains how 'the people come unto me to inquire of God: when they have a matter they come unto me; and I judge between a man and his neighbour, and make them know the statutes of God, and his laws (.tSrSth).' Origin-ally tOrah (the usual word in the OT for 'law') meant, as in this passage, oral instruction or direction. This kind of tSrah survived for long in Israel. It was a 'method strictly practical and in precise conformity with the genius and requirements of primitive nations,' W. R. Smith (OTJC' 339). Cases of exceptional diffi-culty were brought to the sanctuary, and the decisions there given were accepted as emanating from the Divine Judge of Israel (cf. 1 S 2^; and, for the use of 'Elohim' to signify the judges speaking in Jehovah's name, cf. Ex 216 22'). The cases thus brought 'before God' may be divided into three classes, as they dealt respect-ively with (1) matters of moral obligation, (2) civil suits, (3) ritual difficulties. We read that Moses found it necessary to devolve some of this administrative work upon various elders, whom he associated with himself in the capacity of law-givers. In this connexion it is important to remember that —

(a)Thesedeoisionswereorallygiven. (6) Althoughbinding only on the parties concerned, and in their case only so far as they chose to submit to the ruling of the judge, or as the latter could enforce his authority, yet with the increasing power of the executive government such decisions soon acquired the force of consuetudinary law for a wider circle.