RECORDER

Apostle's meaning in such passages to suppose that the need of reconciliation is on man's side only, and not also on God's. Man, indeed, does need to be recon-ciled to God, from whom he is naturally alienated in his mind in evil works (Col l^^i). 'The mind of the flesh is enmity against God' (Ro 8'), and this enmity of the carnal heart needs to be overcome. On this side, the ' ministry of reconciliation ' is a beseeching of men to be reconciled to God (2 Co S^"). But the very ground on which this appeal is based is that ' God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not reckoning unto them their trespasses' (v."). It is an essential part of the Apostle's teaching that sinners are the objects of a Divine Judicial wrath (Ro I's). They lie under a condemnation that needs to be removed (3198.). They are described as 'enemies' in two passages (gio njs) where the word is plainly to be taken in the passive sense of objects of wrath (cf. in Ro ll^s, the con-trast with 'beloved'). It is this barrier to God's reconciliation with men that, in the Apostle's doctrine, Christ removes by His propitiatory death (Ro 32*, Col 12»). The ground on which men are called to be reconciled to God is: ' Him who knew no sin he made to be sin on our behalf; that we might become the righteousness of God in him' (2 Co 6™- ^i). Believers 'receive' a reconciliation already made (Ro S" RV). The gospel reconciliation, in other words, has a twofold aspect — a God ward and a manward; and peace is made by the removal of the variance on both sides. See artt. above referred to. Jambs Okr.

RECORDER.— See King, 2 (6) (c).

RED.— See Colouhs, 3.

RED HEIFER.— The ashes of a 'red heifer'— more correctly a red cow— added to 'running water,' formed the most powerful means known to the Hebrews of removing the defilement produced by contact with a dead body. The method of preparing the ashes and the regulations for the application of the 'water of impurity ' (see below) are the subject of a special section of the Priests' Code (Nu 19). It will be advisable to summarize the contents of the chapter, in the first place, and thereafter to inquire into the significance of the rite in the light of recent anthropological research.

1. The chapter above cited consists of two parts; the first part, vv.'-", gives instructions for the prepara-tion of the ashes, and (vv."-") for the removal by their means of the defilement contracted by actual contact with the dead body. The second part, vv."-^^, is an expansion of w.'^'-, extending the application of 'the water of impurity ' to uncleanness arising from a variety of sources connected with death.

The animal whose ashes acquired this special virtue had to be of the female sex, of a red, or rather reddish- brown, colour, physically without blemish, and one that had never borne the yoke. The duty of superintending the burning, which took place 'without the camp,' was entrusted to a deputy of the high priest. The actual burning, however, was carried through by a lay assistant, which fact, taken along with the detail (v.') that every particle of the animal, including the blood, was burned, shows that we have not to do here with a ritual sacrifice, as might be inferred from the EV of v.'. The word there rendered 'sin-offering' properly denotes in this connexion (cf. 8') 'a purification for sin' (Oxf. Heb. Lex. 310»; cf. Sacrifice, § 14). The priest's share in the ceremony was confined to the sprinkling of some of the blood 'toward the front of the tent of meeting' (v.' RV), in token of the dedication of the animal to J", and to the casting into the burning mass of a piece of cedar wood and a bunch of hyssop bound with a piece of scarlet cloth (such, at least, is the regulation of the Mishna treatise dealing with this subject).

A third person — the priest and his assistant having themselves become 'unclean' through contact with these sacred things (see below) — now gathered the

RED SEA

ashes and laid them up ' without the camp in a clean place,' to be used as occasion required. The special name given to the mixture of 'running water' (v.", lit. 'living water,' i.e. water from a spring, not a cistern) and the ashes is properly ' water of impurity ' (v.'- ". zo- 21 — so RVm; Amer. RV 'water for impurity'; EV water of separation), i.e. water for the removal of impurity or un-cleanness. This powerful cathartic was applied to the person or thing to be cleansed, either by being thrown over them (see Gray, Com. on v."), or by being sprinkled with a sprinkler of hyssop (v.'S). This was done on the third and seventh days, after which the defiled person washed his person and garments, and was then restored to the privileges of the cult and the community. The only other reference to 'the water of impurity' is in the late passage, Nu Sl^".

2. The clue to the significance of the rite above described is found in the primitive conception of un-cleanness, as this has been disclosed by modern anthro-pological research (see Clean and Unclean). In all primitive societies a dead body in particular is regarded as not only unclean in itself, but as capable of infecting with uncleanness all who come in contact with it or are even in proximity to it. The Semites shared these ideas with primitive communities in every part of the world. Hence, although the literary formulation of the rite of the Red Heifer in Nu 19 may be late, the ideas and practices thereof are certainly older than the Hebrews themselves.

While the central idea of the rite — the efficacy of ashes as a cathartic, due probably to their connexion with fire (cf . Nu 3123, and Farnell, TheEvolution at Religion, 101 n.) — has its parallels elsewhere, the original significance of several of the details is still very obscure. This applies, for example, to the red colour of the cow, and to the addition to her ashes of the 'cedar wood and hyssop and scarlet ' (for various suggestions see, in addition to Gray, op. dt., Hastings' DB iv. 208 fl.; Bewer in JBL xxiv. (190S) 42 ff., who suggests that the cow may have been originally a sacrifice to the dead).

The value of the chapter for the student of Hebrew ritual lies in the illustration it affords of the primitive conceptions of uncleanness, especially of the unclean-ness of the dead, and of the ' contagiousness of holiness,' the nature of which has been so clearly expounded by Robertson Smith (see RS' 446«- ' Holiness, Uncleanness, and Taboo '). The ashes of the red heifer and the water of impurity here appear, in virtue of their intense 'holiness,' as 'a conducting vehicle of a dangerous spiritual electricity' (Farnell, op. dt. 95), and Jiave the same power as the dead body of rendering umclean all who come in contact with them (see vv.™- ^ifj and art. Clean' AND Unclean).

There are no inventions in ritual, it has been said, only survivals, and in the rite under review we have one of the most interesting of these survivals. The remarks made in a previous article (Atonement [Day op]) are equally applicable to the present case. As re-interpreted by the compilers of the Priests' Code, the rite conveys, in striking symbolism, the eternal truth that purity and holiness are the essential characteristics of the people of God. A. R. S. Kennedy.

RED SEA.— The body of water, over 1000 miles in length, which divides Africa from Arabia. The Biblical interest of the name centres at its northern end in its two projections, the Gulf of Suez, running north-west, and the Bay of Akabah almost due north. The former once extended much farther to the north, along the route of the present Suez Canal. Anciently it was known as the Gulf of HeroOpolis, running as far north as the Bitter Lakes. In this region it is probable that the passage of the sea described in Ex 14 took place, though it has been located by some at the present Suez, and by others still farther south.

This primitive extension of the gulf to the north.

3D

785