LEWD

LIBNAH

popular use, and in the fact that these laws are addressed to the people, not to the priest. It resembles Deut. very closely in forbidding certain forms of idolatry and semi-heathen practices which were common in Palestine. The two codes are penetrated throughout by the sense that what gives Israel its distinctive character is its religion, though they express this in different ways — H dogmatically forbidding ('for I am the Lord'), Deut. developing the reason why some things are forbidden. On the other hand, Deut. betrays the existence of a more complex and developed social life than H, though the basis for both is still the land. Thus H leaves the great festivals connected with the agricultural life, while Deut. seeks to add historical motives to them, and thus prepares for the time when the people, even though torn from the land, can find a bond of national and reUg-ious life in these festivals. Again, to H the centralized priesthood and developed ritual of Deut. are unknown: it ignores the central sanctuary and the Levites. The chief distinction between H and the Book of the Covenant is that H is more detailed and shows a larger interest in the ceremonial side of Israel's life. The latter point must not, however, be pressed too far, since H has not survived in its entirety, and, having passed through the hands of a Priestly editor, may have retained more particularly those sections which interested him, and which therefore may have been made to appear relatively more conspicuous.

Further, when compared with P, H does not conceive of Israel as grouped round the sanctuary, but regards the local sanctuaries as forming an element in the popular life. It knows nothing of the centraUzed and hie-rarchical priesthood, and the priesthood it knows is one side of a larger Ufe, not its controlling factor. Its sacrifices are the older and simpler burnt-offering and thank-offering, without the development of guilt- and sin-offerings. Though 6'-' be taken to represent the early sin-offering required by this code, its place is very secondary compared with P. The laws of H are gener-ally cast into concise formulse to meet practical needs. They are backed continually by religion, but the religion supplies a sanction and a command rather than a reason and a motive. The book is specially conscious of Israel's reUglon as one which requires separation from all heathen pollution. Holiness is separateness, 'for I Jahweh sanctify you.' The period at which the laws were compiled is still debated, but the affinity between H and Ezekiel is so close that a direct connexion must be presumed. This affinity does not consist in common phrases, nor can it be measured by identity of language; it shows itself in the common point of view which justi-fied Ezeldel in borrowing phrases, because no others could be found which were so adequate to embody his meaning. To both holiness is the stamp of Israel's religion, and this holiness is largely construed as absence of ceremonial pollution — a pollution which includes more than ethical elements. The law-book probably arose at some sanctuary other than Jerusalem, and expressed and determined the reUgious life which centred there. As such, it offers a welcome and pleasant sketch of pre-exilic Israelitish lite. It probably owed its survival through the Exile, in spite of the superior influence of Deut., to the fact that it deeply influenced the thought of Ezekiel. The priest-prophet preserved a book to which he owed so much; and it is not impossible that certain features in the conclusion (26<-«) which have seemed to several to point to the Exile, may be due to Ezekiel himself or to a member of his school.

Ch. 27 contains rules on the commutation of vows and tithes. ^It belongs to P, and owes its present position to the fact 'that it presupposes the year of Jubilee (ch. 25).

A. C. Welch.

LEWD. — In the AV 'lewd' does not always mean 'lustful,' as it does now. That meaning, indeed, is not found in the Apocr. or NT. There the meaning is simply 'wicked,' as Ac 17» 'certain lewd fellows of the

baser sort.' So 'lewdness' is usuaUy simply 'wicked-ness.'

I.IBANUS. — The (Greek) form of the (Heb.) name Lebanon (wh. see), 1 Es 4" 5'', 2 Es IS^", Jth 1', Sir 2413 5012 [all],

LIBEETINBS. — Ac T brings the Libertines forward as a group or synagogue amongst the Hellenistic Jews concerned in the prosecution of Stephen. There is no sufficient reason for emending the text. And, the text standing as it is, the conclusion at once follows that the men in question came from Rome. The ' Libertines,' or 'Freedmen' of Rome, were a considerable class. Among the vast bodies of slaves composing the im-perial and aristocratic households, emancipation was a common occurrence. The Freedmen frequently held positions of great influence, and sometimes played a noble, oftener an ignoble, part. Amongst the Libertines were found many Jews, not a few of them being the descendants of the Jerusalemites , carried away by Pompey. Some of these latter, having bought their freedom and returned to the Holy City, would prob-ably be men of more than average force and earnestness. Hence they were natural leaders in the opposition to Stephen's destructive criticism of Jewish institutionallsm.

Henky S. Nash.

LIBERTY. — Moralists are accustomed to distinguish between formal freedom, or man's natural power of choice, and real freedom, or power to act habitually in accordance with the true and good. Scripture has little to say on the mere power of choice, while every-where recognizing this power as the condition of moral Ufe, and sees real liberty only in the possession and exercise of wisdom, godliness, and virtue. Where there is ignorance and error, especially when this arises from moral causes (Ro 1", Eph 4", 1 Jn 2" etc.) — subjection to sinful lusts (Ro 7"-'^, Eph 2', 1 P 1» 42- 3; cf. 2" etc.), fear and distrust of God (Ro 8" He 12'8-" etc.), bondage to the letter of the law (Gal 421. 26) — there cannot be liberty. Sin, in its nature, is a state of servitude (Jn 8"). Spiritual liberty is the introduction into the condition which is the opposite of this — into the knowledge and friendship of God, the consciousness of cleansing from guilt, deliverance from sin's tyranny, the possession of a new life in the Spirit, etc. Even under the Law, saints could boast of a measure of liberty; God's commandment was found by them to be exceeding broad (Ps 119«- », ct. Ps 51"- "). But the gospel gives liberty in a degree, and with a completeness, unknown under the Law and unthought of in any other reUgion. It does this because it is the religion of reconciliation, of the Spirit, of sonship, of love. Jesus already teaches that His yoke is easy and His burden Ught; this because He inculcates meek-ness and lowliness of heart — a spirit like His own (Mt 1129. 30). jjjg reUgion is to St. James 'the perfect law, the law of liberty' (l^*). The instrument in freeing from bondage is 'the truth' (Jn S'^); the agent is the Spirit of God. ' Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there,' of necessity, 'is Uberty' (2 Co 3"). As the result of the reception of the truth of the gospel, the believer knows himself justified and saved (Ro 6'), knows God as Father, and is assured of His love (1 Jn 4"-"); receives the spirit of adoption, in which is Uberty (Ro 8it. 16); experiences deUverance from the dominion of sin (6"- 18 7» 82); is set free from the yoke of out-ward observances (Gal 4', cf. 5' 'with freedom did Christ set us free; stand fast, therefore,' etc.); has victory over the world (Gal 4", 1 Jn S*); Uves in the power of the Spirit (Gal 5'»-"- 22-25); has release from fear of death (He 2"), etc. On the freedom of man's will, see Peedestination, p. 749". James Orb.

LIBNAH. — 1. An unidentified station in the desert wanderings (Nu 332"). 2. A Canaanite city taken by Joshua after Makkedah and before Lachish (Jos 102» etc.), named between Arad and AduUam (12i5), and

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