Perhaps – Coptic Wiki

anusim

anusim pl. n. Hebrew (ah-noo-SEEM) Literally, “compelled ones.” The historical term for Jews who were forced to convert to another religion. The anusim often tried secretly to preserve their Jewish customs and teach them to their children. Perhaps the most famous anusim are the Spanish and Portuguese Jews who were compelled to convert to Christianity […]

Aleichem, Sholom

Aleichem, Sholom (SHOH-lum ah-LEH-khem) Pseudonym of Solomon Rabinowitz (1859-1916), perhaps the best-known Yiddish humorist, dramatist, and short-story author. His stories of Jewish shtetl life in Russia—complete with descriptions of eccentric characters, Jewish holiday celebrations, and religious persecution—became known worldwide. Stories featuring one of his most famous characters, Tevye the Dairyman, were the basis for the […]

ANGELS OF THE SEVEN CHURCHES

ANGELS OF THE SEVEN CHURCHES The general practice of NT writers points to the conclusion that the word ‘angels,’ used in this connexion, is employed to denote superhuman and celestial personalities. We are not, however, without examples of its being used to indicate ordinary ‘messengers’ (cf. Lk 7:24; 9:52, Ja 2:25, etc.). In this case […]

ANGELS

ANGELS The scope of this article.—The passages in the apostolic writings in which angels are mentioned or referred to will be examined; some of them are ambiguous and have been interpreted in various ways. The doctrine of the OT and of the apocryphal period on the subject has been so fully dealt with in HDB […]

AMPLIATUS (Ἀμπλιᾶτος)

AMPLIATUS (Ἀμπλιᾶτος [Ro 16:8 א ABFG], a common Lat. name of which AV Amplias [Ἀμπλίας, DELP] is a contraction) Saluted by St. Paul and described as ‘my beloved in the Lord’ (τὸν ἀγαπητόν μου ἐν Κυρίῳ). The only other persons described in Ro 16 as ‘my beloved’ are Epænetus (v. 5) and Stachys (v. 9). […]

AMOMUM

AMOMUM (ἄμωμον, perhaps from Arab. hamma, ‘heat’) An aromatic balsam used as an unguent for the hair, made from the seeds of an eastern plant which has not been identified with certainty, Josephus (Ant. xx. ii. 2) speaks of Harran as ‘a soil which bare amomum in plenty,’ and Vergil (Ecl. iv. 25) predicts that […]

AMEN

AMEN The lack of a common language has always been a barrier to the mutual knowledge and intercourse of the great nations of mankind, all the more that the days when the educated men of all European nations were wont to converse in Latin have long since passed away. To a certain extent the gulf […]

ALEXANDRIA (Ἀλεξάνδρια)

ALEXANDRIA (Ἀλεξάνδρια) The city of Alexandria almost realized Alexander the Great’s dream of ‘a city surpassing anything previously existing’ (Plutarch, Alex. xxvi.). Planned by Dinocrates under the king’s supervision, and built on a neck of land two miles wide interposed between the Mediterranean Sea and Lake Mareotis (Mariut), about 14 miles from the Canopic mouth […]

ADRIA (ὁ Ἀδρίας)

ADRIA (ὁ Ἀδρίας [WH Ἀδρίας], ‘the Adrias,’ RV ‘the [sea of] Adria’) The name was derived from the important Tuscan town of Atria, near the mouths of the Padus, and was originally (Herod. vi. 127, vii. 20, ix. 92) confined to the northern part of the gulf now called the Adriatic, the lower part of […]

ADOPTION

ADOPTION The term.—The custom of adopting children is explicitly alluded to by St. Paul alone of biblical writers; he uses the word ‘adoption’ (υἱοθεσία, Vulg. adoptio filiorum, Syr. usually sīmath benayā)) five times: Ro 8:15, 23; 9:4, Gal 4:5, Eph 1:5. This Greek word is not found in classical writers (though θετὸς υἱός is used […]