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The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Third-day, October 1, 1867.

Bible Terms Defined.

BUTTER. The Hebrew word usually rendered butter denotes, properly, sour or curdled milk, Gen. xviii, 8, Judge. v, 25, Job xx, 17. This last is a favorite beverage in the East to the present day. Burckhardt, when crossing the desert from the country south of the Dead Sea to Egypt, says, “Besides flour I carried some butter and dried leben (sour milk), which, when dissolved in water, not only forms a refreshing beverage, but is much to be recommended as a preservative of health when traveling in summer.” Yet butter may have been known to the Hebrews. It is much used by the Arabs and Syrians at the present day, and is made by pouring the milk into the common goat-skin bottle, suspending this from the tent-poles, and swinging it to and fro with a jerk, until the process is completed. Still it is not certain that the Hebrew word rendered butter ever denotes that article. Even in Prov. xxx, 33, we may render, “The pressing of milk bringeth forth cheese;” and everywhere else the rendering “curd,” or “curdled milk,” would be appropriate.

CAMEL, carrier, a beast of burden very common in the East, where it is called “the land-ship,” and “the carrier of the desert.” It is six or seven feet high, and is exceedingly strong, tough, and enduring of labor. The feet are constructed with a tough, elastic sole, which prevents the animal from sinking in the sand; and on all sorts of ground it is very sure-footed. The Arabian species, most commonly referred to in Scripture, has but one hump on the back; while the Bactrian camel, found in central Asia, has two. While the animal is well fed, these humps swell with accumulated fat, which is gradually absorbed under scarcity and toil, to supply the lack of food. The dromedary is a lighter and swifter variety, otherwise not distinguishable from the common camel, Jer. ii, 23. Within the cavity of the stomach is a sort of paunch, provided with membranous cells to contain an extra provision of water: the supply with which this is filled will last for many days while he traverses the desert. His food is coarse leaves, twigs, thistles, which he prefers to the tenderest grass, and on which he performs the longest journeys. But generally, on a march, about a pound weight of dates, beans, or barley, will serve for twenty-four hours. The camel kneels to receive its load, which varies from 500 to 1,000 or 1,200 pounds. Meanwhile it is wont to utter loud cries or growls of anger and impatience. It is often obstinate and stupid, and at times ferocious; the young are as dull and ungainly as the old. Its average rate of travel is about two and one-third miles an hour; and it jogs on with a sullen pertinacity hour after hour without fatigue, seeming as fresh at night as in the morning. No other animal could endure the severe and continual hardships of the camel, his rough usage, his coarse and scanty food. The Arabians well say of him, “Job’s beast is a monument of God’s mercy.”

This useful animal has been much employed in the East, from a very early period. The merchants of those sultry climes have found it the only means of exchanging the products of different lands, and from time immemorial long caravans have traversed year after year the almost pathless deserts, Gen. xxxvii, 25. The number of one’s camels was a token of his wealth. Job had 3,000, and the Midianites’ camels were like the sand of the sea, Judge. vii, 12, 1 Chron. v, 21, Job i, 3. Rebekah came to Isaac riding upon a camel, Gen. xxiv, 64, the queen of Sheba brought them to Solomon, and Hazael to Elisha, laden with the choicest gifts, 1 Kings x, 2, 2 Kings viii, 9, and they were even made serviceable in war, 1 Sam. xxx, 17. The camel was to the Hebrews an unclean animal, Lev. xi, 4, yet its milk has ever been to the Arabs an important article of food, and is highly prized as a cooling and healthy drink. Indeed no animal is more useful to the Arabs, while living or after death. Out of its hair they manufacture carpets, tent cloth, and large sacks for corn. Of its skin they make huge water-bottles and leather sacks, also sandals, ropes, and thongs. Its dung, dried in the sun, serves them for fuel.

CAMELS’ HAIR was woven into cloth in the East, some of it exceedingly fine and soft, but usually coarse and rough, used for making the coats of shepherds and camel-drivers, and for covering tents. It was this that John the Baptist wore, and not “soft raiment,” Matt. xi, 8. Modern dervishes wear garments of this kind; and this appears to be meant in 2 Kings i, 8.

The expression, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle,” etc., Matt. xix, 24, was a proverb to describe an impossibility. The same phrase occurs in the Koran; and a similar one in the Talmud, respecting an elephant’s going through a needle’s eye. See also the proverb in Matt. xxiii, 24, which illustrates the hypocrisy of the Pharisees by the custom of passing wine through a strainer. The old versions of the New Testament, instead of, “strain at”

a gnat, have, “strain out” which conveys the true meaning.

SCORPION, Luke x, 19, one of the largest and most malignant of all the insect tribes. It somewhat resembles the lobster in its general appearance, but is much more hideous. Those found in Southern Europe seldom exceed two inches in length; but in tropical climates it is no uncommon thing to meet with them five or six times as long. They live upon other insects, but kill and devour their own species also. Maupertuis put about a hundred of them together in the same glass, and in a few days there remained but fourteen, which had killed and devoured all the rest. He enclosed a female scorpion in a glass vessel, and she was seen to devour her young as fast as they were born. There was only one of the number that escaped the general destruction by taking refuge on the back of its parent; and this soon after revenged the cause of its brethren, by killing the old one in its turn. Such is the terrible nature of this insect; and it is even found that when placed in circumstances of danger, from which it perceives no way of escape, it will sting itself to death. The passage most descriptive of the scorpion is Rev. ix, 3–10, in which it is to be observed that the sting of these creatures was not to produce death but pain so intense that the wretched sufferers should seek death, ver. 5, rather than submit to its endurance. Dr. Shaw states that the sting of scorpions is not always fatal, the malignity of their venom being in proportion to their size and complexion. The poison is injected by means of a sharp, curved sting at the end of the six-jointed tail. It occasions great pain, inflammation, and hardness, with alternate chills and burning. These animals frequent dry and hot places, and lie under stones and in the crevices of old ruins. The Jews encountered them in the wilderness, Deut. viii, 15, and a range of cliffs across the hot valley south of the Dead Sea, called Acrabbim, or scorpions, appears to have been much infested by them. The scorpion of Judea, when curled up, greatly resembled an egg in size and shape; hence the comparison and the contrast in Luke xi, 11, 12. The scorpions which the haughty Rehoboam threatened to use instead of whips, 1 Kings xii, 11, were probably scourges armed with knobs like the joints of a scorpion’s tail; and like the sting of that animal, occasioned extreme pain.