Cuttings in the Flesh – Cyrus

Cuttings in the Flesh

This expressionloccurs only in Leviticus 19:28 21:5. The former passage runs thus: ‘Ye shall not make any cuttings in your fiesh for the dead. ... I am the Lord.’ The same prohibition, otherwise expressed in the original, is found in the earlier Deuteronomic legislation (Deuteronomy 14:1). The reference is to the practice, not confined to the Hebrews or even to their Semitic kinsfolk, of making incisions in the face, hands (Jeremiah 48:37). and other parts of the body to the effusion of blood, as part of the rites of mourning for the dead (see Mahks, § 4), and by a natural transition, to which the wearing of sackcloth forms a parallel, in times of national calamity. The custom is referred to without condemnation by the pre- Deuteronomio prophets, see Hosea 7:14 (corrected text, as RVm), and esp. Jeremiah 16:6 41 47:5.

The underlying motive of this practice and the reasons for its legislative prohibition have been variously stated. It may be regarded as certain, however, that the practice had its root in primitive animistic conceptions regarding the spirits of the departed. The object in view may have been either so to disfigure the living that they should be unrecognizable by the malignant spirits of the dead, or, more probably, by means of the effusion of blood — which originally, perhaps, was brought into contact with the corpse — to maintain or renew the bond of union between the living and the dead.

The explanation just given is confirmed by the allied practice, springing from similar motives, of shaving off the whole (Ezekiel 44:20. gf. Baruch 6) or part of the head hair or of the beard in token of jmourning (Isaiah 15:2 22:12. Ezekiel 7:18. Amos 8:10 etc.). Both practices, the incisions and the shaving, are named together in the legislative passages above cited. Thus Deuteronomy 14:1 forbids ‘baldness between the eyes,’ i.e. the shaving of the front of the scalp, ‘for the dead’; in Leviticus 19:27 it is forbidden to ‘round the corners’ of the head, i.e. to shave the temples (ct. Jeremiah 9:26 25:23. where certain desert tribes are named ‘the corners dipt,’ from their habit of shaving the temples, see Hair), and to ‘mar the corners of the beard’ (ct. Jeremiah 48:37). These references recall the wide-spread heathen practice of hair-offerings, which goes back to the antique conception that the hair, like the blood, is the seat of hfe.

The reason of the twofold prohibition now becomes apparent. With the growth of loftier conceptions of J" and His worship, these practices, with their animistic background and heathen associations, were seen to be unworthy of a people who owed exclusive devotion to their covenant God, a thought Implied in the concluding words of Leviticus 19:28 ‘I am Jahweh.’ The practice of gashing the body till the blood ran, as part of the ritual of Baal worship, is attested by 1 Kings 18:28.

The further prohibition of Leviticus 19:28 ‘nor print any marks upon you,’ refers to another widely prevalent custom in antiquity, that of tattooing and even branding (3 Maccabees 2:29) the body with the name or symbol of one’s special deity, a practice to which there is a reference in Isaiah 44:5. to be rendered as in RVm, ‘another shall write on his hand. Unto the Lord,’ or, better, as one word, ‘Jahweh’s.’ A. R. S. Kennedy.

CYAMON, Jth 73= Jokneam (wh. see).

Cylinder

Song of Songs 5:14 RVm tor EV ‘ring.’ See Ring.

Cyivibal

See Music and Musical Instruments.

Cypress

(1) itrsa/i (Isaiah 44:14. RV ‘holm oak’) stands for some tree with very hard wood, the meaning of the root (in Arabic) being to be hard. ‘Holm oak’ is the rendering of the oldest Latin translation. This is the Quercus ilex, a tree now rare W. of the Jordan, but still found in Gilead and Bashan; (2J te’ashshur (Is 41" RVm). Both AV and RV have ‘box tree’ (wh. see); (3) berSsh (2 Samuel 6:5 RVm). Both AV and RV have ‘fir wood’ (see also Isaiah 55:13). . In Palestine to-day cypresses are extensively planted, especially in cemeteries.

E. W. G. Masterman.

Cyprus

An island in the N.E. corner of the Levant, within sight of the Syrian and Cilician coasts. Its greatest length is 140 miles, breadth 60 miles. In configuration it consists of a long plain shut in on the N. and the S.W. by mountain ranges.

In the OT the name Cyprus does not occur, but undoubtedly the island is referred to under the name Kittim, which is the same as the name of the Phoenician town Kition, now Larnaka. In Genesis 10:4 Kittim is spoken of as a son of Javan, together with Tarshish and Elishah. This probably implies that the earliest population of Cyprus was akin to the pre-Hellenic population of Greece. In Ezekiel 27:6 the isles of Kittim are spoken of as supplying Tyre with boxwood. But the name Kittim is used also of the West generally, as in Daniel 11:30 of the Romans (ct. Numbers 24:24).

The early importance of Cyprus was due to its forests and its copper. Its copper has long ago been exhausted, and owing to neglect its forests have perished. But throughout the bronze age,’ which for .^gsean countries may roughly be reckoned as B.C. 2000 to B.C. 1000, its copper was exported not only to Syria but to Egypt and to Europe, and, mixed w ith the tin brought by Phoenicians from Cornwall and the West, it provided themetal from which both weapons and ornaments were made. Hence the name copper is derived from Cyprus. When the iron age began, this metal also was obtained from Cyprus.

Doubtless the copper was first exported by Phoenicians, who early founded Kition and other towns in Cyprus, and introduced the worship of the Syrian Aphrodite who became known to the Greeks as the ‘Cyprian goddess.* But the Greeks themselves were not long behind the Phoenicians in the island, — the settlers were doubtless Peloponnesians disturbed by the Dorian invasions, and they used what the Greeks called the Arcadian dialect. They brought with them the ^gsean civilization, as relics found in the island prove conclusively. Paphos, Soli, Salamis^ were Greek settlements, the last being named from the island oS the coast of Attica. But the Greeks soon combined with the Phoenicians. They adopted what was probably in origin a Hittite alphabet, in which every syllable is represented by a separate si^. and this lasted till the 4th century.

Cyprus did not develop as an independent power. Before B.C. 1450 it was made tributary to Egypt. About B.C. 1000 it was subject to Tyre, and with Phoenicia it passed into the hands of Sargon, the Assyrian, about B.C. 700. Sargon left an inscription at Kition, and later Assyrian kings record tribute received from Cyprus. About B.C. 560 Amasis of Egypt reduced the island, and it passed with Egypt_ to Camoyses of Persia in B.C. 626. It took part in the Ionian revolt of B.C. 501, but was quickly reduced, and supplied Xerxes withafleet inn. c.480.Athensmaderepeatedattempts to secure the island, but the mixed population prevented any strong Hellenic movement, and it only passea definitely into Greek hands by submission to Alexander the Great after the battle of Issus in b.c. 333. On the division of his empire it fell to the Ptolemys of Egypt, until it was annexed by Rome in B.C. 57. It was made a separate province after the battle of Actium in B.C. 31, becoming at first an ‘imperial’ province, but being afterwards transferred to ‘senatorial’ government, BO that in Acts 13:7 St. Luke rightly describes the governor as a proconsul.

Jews first settled in Cyprus under the Ptolemys, and their numbers there were considerable before the time of the Apostles. Barnabas is described as a Cypriot Jew, and when he and St. Paul started from Antioch on the First Missionary Journey, they first of all passed through Cyprus (Acts 13:4–12). They landed at Salamis, then a Greek port flourishing with Syrian trade, now deserted — with its harbour silted up — three miles from Famagusta. Here they preached in the synagogue, where their message was probably not entirely new (Acts 11:19). and then journeyed through ‘the whole island’ (RV) to New Paphos in the W. — a three or four days’ journey, even if they preached nowhere on the way. New Paphos, like Old Paphos, was the seat of the worship of Aphrodite (see Paphos), and was at this time the Roman capital. (For the incidents connected with the proconsul and the magus, see artt. Sergius Paulus and Bar- JESUS.)

Besides Barnabas we have mention of Mnason, an ‘original convert,’ as coming from Cyprus (Acts 21:16). but we have no knowledge of how the Church grew in the island until it included 15 bishoprics. The Jews of Cyprus took part in the great rising of their race which took place in a.d. 117 (when Trajan was busy with Parthia), and they are said to have massacred 240,000 of the Gentile population. The revolt was suppressed without mercy, and all Jews were expelled from the island.

Under the Byzantine emperors Cyprus sufferedmuch from their misrule, and from the Saracens. Seized in 1191 by Richard C^oeur de Lion, it was sold to the Knights Templars. From 1479 to 1570 it was held by the Venetians. After three centuries of Turkish rule it passed under British rule in 1878, by a convention which still requires it to pay tribute to the Sultan. But it has scarcely recovered prosperity. Various causes have lessened the rainfall, it is troubled with malaria, its mineral resources were long ago worked out and its forests destroyed. There are no good roads, and communication is kept up by bullock-carts and mules, hs best ports (Lamaka and Limasol) are open roadsteads.

A. E. HiLLABD.

Cyrene

Capital of Libya (Tripoli) in N. Africa (Acts 2:10). the home of numerous Jews who with the ‘Libertines’ (freedmen from Rome?) and Alexandrians had a synagogue of their own at Jerusalem (Acts 6:9). Many of these became Christians, as Simon and his sons (doubtless), Mark 15:21; Lucius, Acts 13:1; and those in Acts 11:20 who preached to the ‘Greeks’ (.v.l. ‘Hellenists’).

A. J. Maclean.

Cyrenius

See Quihinics.

Cyrus

Referred to as ‘king of the Persians,’ 2 Chronicles 36:22, Ezra 1:1. Daniel 10:1. and often; ‘the Persian,’ Daniel 6:28; ‘king of Babylon,’ Ezra 5:13. He is regarded in Is 40-48 as specially destined by Jahweh to redeem Israel and execute Divine judgment upon Babylon, to set free the captives and restore Jerusalem and its Temple. He had not known Jahweh before his call, but carried out his mission in Jahweh’s name, and is styled ‘the friend of Jahweh’ and ‘Jahweh’s anointed.’ The Cyrus of whom these high expectations were formed was the founder of the Persian Empire. His grandfather was also called Cyrus (Kurush, Bab. Kurash, Heb. Koresh). He was an Aryan and descended from Achseraenes (Hakhamanish). At first he was king of Persia and Anshan or Anzan, an Elamite province, capital at Susa (Shushan), and vassal of Media. The contemporary cuneiform inscriptions are — ( 1 ) a cylinder inscription of Nabonidus, last king of Babylonia, from Sippara ; (2) an annalistic tablet of Cyrus written shortly after his conquest of Babylonia; (3) a proclamation of Cyrus of the same date. Nabonidus’ account was written soon after Cyrus, ‘a petty vassal’ of Astyagea (Istuvegu), king of the^Manda, with his small army had conquered Astyages (B.C. 549). This led to the withdrawal of the Manda from Harran, and left Nabonidus free to restore the temple of Sin there. Cyrus soon made himself master of the whole Median empire, but was faced by an alliance of Croesus, king of Lydia, Nabonidus of Babylon, and Amasis of Egypt. On the fall of Croesus, Cyrus turned to Babylonia, where Nabonidus had long estranged the inhabitants of the capital by his neglect of the sacred feasts and worship of Marduk. Belshazzar, his son, defended the land, but was defeated at Opis, and on 14th Tammuz, Sippara fell ‘without lighting.’ On the 16th, Gobryas (Gubaru, Ugbaru) entered Babylon without resistance, and Cyrus followed on the 3rd of Marcheshvan, b.c. 539-8, and was received, according to his own account, by all classes, especially by priests and nobles, as a liberator. He claims to have restored to their hornes the exiles from Babylonia and their gods, and prays that these gods may daily intercede for him with Marduk and Nabu, whose worshipper he professes to be. Cyrus reigned about nine years from this time, and in the last year handed over the sovereignty of Babylon to his son Cambyses.

The career of Cyrus so impressed the popular imagination, that the classical writers adorn his story with a variety of legendary incidents for which no confirmation can be produced. The policy which Cyrus pursued towards the Jews is variously estimated, but all accounts agree in stating that the restoration of the Temple was started by him, and in claiming him as a worshipper of Jahweh. C. H. W. Johns.

D