SPINNING AND WEAVING

to the Egyptian and Hebrew looms, are the subject of a special study by the present writer in the article 'Weaving' in EBi iv. 5282-87 (with illustt.), to which the curious student is referred. It must suffice here to mention only such of the details as bear on certain OT references, most of them misunderstood hitherto.

(o) The formation of the shed was effected by at least two leash-rods or shafts, the Roman lidatoria, sus-pended from the upper cross-beam (see illust. Wilkin-son, Anc. Egyp. ii. 171) or otherwise, connected by loops or leashes with each of the odd and even warp-threads respectively. The two sets of threads were alternately brought forward (or raised in the hori-zontal loom) by pulling the leash-rods, thus forming a shed for the passage of the shuttle-rod carrying the weft. Now, with a heavy warp, the rods must have been of considerable thickness, — a stout branch of a tree serves as a leash-rod, for example, in a modern Anatolian loom figured in Smith's Diet, of Gr. and Rom. Ant.' ii. 179. Accordingly, when the shaft of Goliath's spear is compared to a weaver's manor (1 S 17', 2 S 2115, 1 ch 205; of. ll^), it is not to either of the 'beams' of the loom but to 'a weaver's shaft' or leash-rod that the comparison applies. The original term above given, it may be added, is from the same root as nlT, one of the Mishna terms for the leash-rod (cf . Jerome's true rendering, guasi lidatorium. texentium) .

(b) The weft or woof (Lv 13"") was passed through the shed by means of a staff or rod on which the yarn was wound. Homer, however, was already familiar with a shuttle-rod at one end of which was a revolving spool from which the weft-thread unrolled itself in its passage. It is uncertain whether Job 7', the only EV occurrence of shuttle, refers to a shuttle-rod, or to the loom as a whole.

(c) The weft was beat up at each passage of the shuttle-rod by a thin lathe or batten, or, as later, by a special comb.

In Egypt, however, under the Middle Empire, it would appear that the more efficient 'reed,' still used in modem weaving, had already been invented for this purpose (Gar-stang, Burial Customs of Anc. Egyp. [1907], 133 ff. with illust.); the two reeds there figured are 27 and 29 inches in length, showing approximately the width of the web. The Bedouin women of Moab to-day weave their tent curtains in strips about 5 yards longandfrom 16 to 20 inches wide, according to Jaussen (Coutumes dea Arabes, etc. [1908], 74).

The Hebrews in early times used a batten simply to beat up the weft withal, as we learn from the true text of Jgl6^^'-which reads thus: 'If thou weavest the seven plaits of my head with the warp land beatest them up with the batten, then shall I become weak and be as other men; and she made him sleep, and wove the seven plaits of his head with the warp], and beat them up with the batten (EV 'pin'), and said (as in EV) . . . and he awaked out of his sleep and pulled up the loom together with the warp.' For Delilah, seated on the ground beside her horizontal loom with Samson's head upon her knees (v.^^)^ it -was an easy matter to use his flowing locks as weft and weave them into the warp of her loom. When Samson awoke he pulled up the loom, wliich was fastened to the ground with pegs.

With Penelope's type of loom, the web could be woven only from the top downwards. This was also the Jewish custom in NT times with the other form of upright loom. Our Lord's tunic, it will be remembered, ■was without seam, woven from the top throughout' (Jn 19^). For the weaving of such seamless robes, which were in vogue in Egypt under the later dynasties at least, It was necessary to mount a double warp and to weave each face of the warp with a continuous weft (see EBi iv. 6289).

6. When the web was finished, the weaver cut the ends of the warp threads, those left hanging being the thrum of Is 38'2 RVm, and rolled up the web. These two processes are the source of the figures for premature death in the passage cited. The 'new' cloth of Mt 9'°, Mk 2" AV was unfulled (RV 'undressed'), that is.

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SPIRITUAL GIFTS

cloth fresh from the loom. The milling or fulling was the work of the fuller (Arts and Crafts, § 6).

6. Special kinds of fabrics. — By appropriate arrange-ment of the warp, woof, and leash-rods, striped, checked, and other varieties of cloth were produced. The cloth intended by the 'chequer work' of Ex 28« is quite uncertain. The Revisers probably mean by the phrase a species of check, produced by alternating different coloured bands in the warp, or in the woof, or in both. The 'work of the cunning workman' (Ex 26> etc.), of which the inner curtains of the Tabernacle were composed, was probably a species of tapestry (EV Pr 7'8 31^^ but here doubtful), in which a design was traced by inserting short coloured threads behind a varying number of warp threads.

A weft of gold thread was employed for the high priest's robes (Ex 286'- 39«-; cf. Jth lO^", 2 Mac 5^ 'cloth of gold'). Herod Agrippa's 'royal apparel' (Ac 12") is said by Josephus to have been woven throughout of silver thread.

In OT times the finer textile fabrics were imported from Babylonia (Jos 72'), Phoenicia (Ezk 27'"-), Egypt, and in NT times even from India for the high priest's dress (Mishna, Ydma, Hi. 7). In the days of the Chronicler the weavers formed a trade guild (1 Ch 4^"), and so con-tinued in later times. As a class they were held in disrepute by the mass of the people, so much so that the Talmud declares weaving to be 'the lowest of crafts.' A. R. S. Kennedy.

SPIRIT. — The term is applied to God as defining His nature generally (Jn i^), and also as describing one element in that nature. His self-consciousness (1 Co 2"). It expresses not only God's immateriality, but also His transcendence of limitations of time and space. In the phrases 'Spirit of God,' the 'Spirit of the Lord,' the 'Spirit of Jesus Christ,' the 'Holy Spirit,' the 'Spirit of Truth,' the third Person in the Godhead is described (see Holy Spirit). The term is applied to personal powers of evil other than man (Mt 10' 12«, Lk 4=' 7», 1 Ti 4'; cf. Eph 6'^), as well as personal powers of good (He 1"), and to human beings after death, either damned (1 P 3") or blessed (He 1223). It is used also as personifying an influence (1 Jn 4*, Eph 2^, Ro 8"). Its most distinctive use is in the psychology of the Christian life. The contrast between ' soul ' and ' spirit,' and between 'flesh' and 'spirit,' has already been noted in the articles on these terms. While soul and spirit are not to be regarded as separate faculties, yet 'spirit' expresses the direct dependence of the life in man on God, first in creation (Gn 2'), but especially, according to the Pauline doctrine, in regeneration. The life in man, isolating itself from, and opposing itself to, God, is soul; that life, cleansed and renewed by the Spirit of God, is spirit; intimate as is the relation of God and man in the new life, the Spirit of God is distinguished from the spirit of man (Ro 8"), although it is not always possible to make the distinction. In Acts the phrase 'holy spirit' sometimes means the subjective human state produced ('holy enthusiasm'), and sometimes the objective Divine cause producing (see 'Acts' in the Century Bible, p. 386). As the Spirit is the source of this new life, whatever belongs to it is 'spiritual' (.pneumatikon) , as house, sacrifices (1 P 2'), understanding (Col 1»), songs (316), (ood_ drink, rock (1 Co 103<); and the 'spiritual' and 'soulish' (rendered 'carnal' or 'natural') are contrasted (1 Co 2" 15"- "). Spirit as an ecstatic state is also distinguished from mind (1 Co 14"- "), as inwardness from letter (Ro 2^' 7°, 2 Co 3*). The old creation — the derivation of man's spirit from God (Gn 2', Is 42'), offers the basis for the new (Ro 8'-", 1 Co 2"- 12), in which man is united to God (see In-spikation). Alfred E. Garvie.

SPIRITS IN PRISON.— See Descent into Hades.

SPIRITUAL GIFTS.— 1. The term.— A special Gr. word, charismata, is used in NT for spiritual gifts. It