NATURAL

was intensified by the jjaptivity in Babylon, when the prophetic and priestly instructors of the exiled Jews taught them that their calamities came upon them on account of their disloyalty to Jahweh and the ordinances of His religion, and because they compromised with Idolatrous practices and heathen nations. It was in Babylon that Ezekiel drew up the programme of worship and organization for the nation after the Return, laying stress on the doctrine that Israel was to be a holy people, separated from other nations (see Ezk 40-48). Some time after the Return, Ezra and Nehemiah had to contend with the laxity to which Jews who had remained in the home land and others had jdelded; but they were uncompro-mising, and won the battle for nationalism in religion.

Judaism was in even greater danger of being lost in the world-currents of speculation and religion soon after the time of Alexander the Great. Indeed, but for the brave Maccabsean rising in the earlier half of the 2nd cent. B.C., both the religion and the language of the Jew might, humanly speaking, have perished.

The Apocrypha speaks of the ' nations ' just as do the later writings of the OT. They are 'uncircumcised,' 'having sold themselves to do evil' (1 Mac 1'=); they break the Sabbath, offer no sacrifice to Jahweh, eat unclean food and such as has been offered to idols (2 Mac gs. 3. 18 igif. etc. etc.).

The NT reveals the same attitude towards foreign nations on the part of the Jews (see Ac 10*' et passim). In Rabbinical writings Jewish exclusiveuess manifested itself even more decisively (see Eisenmenger, Entdecktes Judenthum, vol. i., esp. ch. xvi.). But, as in the OT a broader spirit shows itself constantly, culminating fn the universalism of Christianity, so enlightened and broadminded Jews in all ages have deprecated the fanatical race-hatred which many of their compatriots have displayed. T. Witton Davies.

KATTTRAL. — The contrast between 'natural' (Gr. psyckikos) and 'spiritual' {pneutnatikos) is drawn out by St. Paul in 1 Co lS«-<». The natural body is derived f^om the first Adam, and is our body in so far as it is accommodated to, and limited by, the needs of the animal side of the human nature. In such a sense it is especially true that 'the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God' (1 Co 2"). Man derives his spiritual life from union with Christ ('the last Adam'), but his present body is not adapted to the needs of this spiritual existence; hence the distinction made by St. Paul between the natural body (called the 'body of death,' Ro 7") and the spiritual body of the resurrection. 'The transference from the one to the other begins in this life, and the two beings are identical in so far as continuity creates an identity, but otherwise, owing to the operation of the union with Christ, distinct.

T. A. MoxoN.

NATURE. — The terra ' nature' is not used in the OT. nor was the conception current in Hebrew thought, as God alone is seen in all, through all, and over all. The idea came from the word physis from Hellenism. Swine's flesh is commended for food as a gift of nature in 4 Mac 5'. In the NT the term is used in various senses: (1) the forces, laws, and order of the world, including man (Ro 128 lia- M, Gal 4*); (2) the inborn sense of pro-priety or morality (1 Co 11», Ro 2"); (3) birth or physical origin (Gal 2"', Ro 2") ; (4) the sum of character-istics of a species or person, human (Ja 3'), or Divine (2 P 1<) ; (5) a condition acquired or inherited (Eph 2', ' by nature children of wrath '). What is contrary to nature is condemned. While the terra is not found or the conception raade expUcit in the OT, Schultz {OT Theol. ii. 74) finds in the Law 'the general rule that nothing is to be permitted contrary to the delicate sense of the inviolable proprieties of nature,' and gives a number of instances (Ex 23i9 34», Lv 22's 19", Dt 22'-", Lv 10» 1928 21' 22M, Dt 14' 23'). The beauty and the order of the world are recognized as evidences of Divine wisdom

NAZIRITE

and power (Ps 8' 19' 33»- ' 90' 104. 136»"- 147, Pr 8K-8", Job 38. 39); but the sum of created things is not hypostatized and personified apart from God, as in much current modern thinking. God is Creator, Preserver, and Ruler: He makes all (Is 44^, Am 4"), and is in all (Ps 139). His immanence is by His Spirit (Gn P). Jesus recognizes God's bounty and care in the flowers of the fleld and the birds of the air (Mt 6»- ^'); He uses natural processes to illustrate spiritual, in salt (5"), seed and soil (133-»), and leaven (13M). The growth of the seed is also used as an illustration by Paul (1 Co 15"- "). There is in the Bible no interest in nature apart from God, and the problem of the relation of God to nature has not yet risen on the horizon of the thought of the writers. Alphed E. Gaevie.

NAUGHT.— 'Naught' is 'nothing' (from A.S. na 'not,' and wiht 'a whit or a thing'). Sometimes the spelling became 'nought' (perhaps under the influence of 'ought'). In the earliest editions of AV there is no difference between 'naught' and 'nought'; but in the ed. of 1638 a difference was introduced, ' naught' being used in 2 K 2", Pr 20'<, because there the meaning is ' bad ' ; ' nought ' everywhere else, but with the meaning ' worthlessness.' This distinction was preserved by Scrivener, in his Cambr. Par. Bible, and is found in most modern English Bibles.

'Naughty,' however, is simply 'worthless,' as Jer 24= 'very naughty flgs.' But 'naughtiness' always means 'wickedness,' as Pr 11» 'transgressors shall be taken in their own naughtiness.'

NAVE. — The form in which (possibly by a primitive error In transcription of the Greek) the Heb. name Nun appears in AV of Sir 46'.

NAVY.— See Ships and Boats, p. 849''.

NAZARENE.— A title applied to Christ in Mt 2« apparently as a quotation from a phrophecy . Its significa-tion is a matter of controversy. Apart from the primary meaning of the word, 'an inhabitant of Nazareth,' there may have been, as is often the case in prophetic quotations, a secondary meaning in allusion to the Heb. word netser, ' a branch,' in which case the reference may have been to the Messianic passage Is 11'; or possibly the reference may have been to the word nSisar, 'to save.' The epithet, applied often in scorn (cf. Jn 1"), was used of Christ by demoniacs (Mk 1«, Lk 4M), by the people generaUy (Mk 10", Lk 18"), by the soldiers ( Jn 18=- '), by the servants (Mt 26", Mk 14"), by Pilate (Jn 19"), as well as by His own followers on various occasions (Lk 24" etc.). The attempt to connect the word with 'Nazirite' is etymologically impossible, and has no meaning as applied to Jesus Christ.

T. A. MoxoN.

NAZARETH (mod. en-Nasira). — A town in the north border of the Plain of Esdraelon. It was a place of no history (being entirely unmentioned in the OT, Josephus, or the Talmud), no importance, and, possibly, of bad reputation (Jn 1«). Here, however, lived Mary and Joseph. Hither, before their marriage, was the angel Gabriel sent to announce the coming birth of Christ (Lk l!»-38)_ and hither the Holy Family retired after the flight to Egypt (Mt 2P). The obscure years of Christ 's boyhood were spent here, and in its synagogue He preached the sermon for which He was rejected by His fellow-townsmen (Mt 13", Lk 4^'). After this, save as a centre of pilgrimage, Nazareth sank into obscurity. The Crusaders made it a bishopric; it is now the seat of a Turlcish lieutenant-governor. Many traditional sites are pointed out to pilgrims and tourists, for not one of which, with the possible exception of the ' Virgin's Well ' (which, being the only spring known in the neigh-bourhood, was not improbably that used by the Holy Family), is there any justiflcation.

R. A. S. Macalisteh.

NAZIRITE (AV Nazarite).— The primary meaning of the Heb. verb naear is to separate. Hence the nasir

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