Punishments – Purim; Pur

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Punishments

pun'-ish-ments ('awon, "fault," "iniquity," "punishment for iniquity," "sin" (; ; ; ; ; margin; ,,,,; ,,), `onesh, "tribute," "fine," "punishment" (), chaTa'ah, or chaTTa'th, "sin" and its retribution, "penalty," "expiation" (); kolasis, "punishment," "torment" (), epitimia, "poll tax," hence, "penalty" (), timoria, "vindication," hence, "penalty" (), ekdikesis, "vindication," "retribution" ( the King James Version)): A court could inflict for a crime against the person, a sentence of

(1) death in the form of stoning, burning, beheading, or strangling, etc.;

(2) exile to one of the cities of refuge in case of manslaughter (); or

(3) stripes, not to exceed 40, in practice 39 or less (; ).

Offences against property (theft, fraudulent conversion of deposit, embezzlement, robbery) were punished by exacting more than the value of the things taken (), the excess going to the injured party, thus differing from a fine, which goes into the treasury of the community. The housebreaker was liable to be slain with impunity (). A fine in the modern sense is unknown in the Scriptures, unless be interpreted as referring to such.

1. History of the Hebrew Law concerning Punishment:

The earliest theory of punishment seems to have been that of retaliation--"blood for blood"--and to some extent this principle appears even in the Law of Moses (,; ). Early in the history of the race, punishment was administered for sin and crime. Adam and Eve were driven from the Garden, and Cain, the first murderer, though not executed in retaliation for his deed, had a mark set on him. The words of Lamech () indicate that death was regarded as the fitting punishment for murder, and the same thought apparently was in the minds of the brethren of Joseph (). Judah, as head of his family, seems to have had power of life and death (), and Abimelech threatens his people with the extreme punishment in case they injure or insult Isaac or his wife (). Similar power is ascribed to Pharaoh ().

2. The Mosaic Law concerning Punishment:

Under the Law of Moses, the murderer was to be put to death without mercy. Even if he took refuge at the altar in a sanctuary or in an asylum city, he would not be immune from arrest and execution, and the same principle was applied in the case of an animal (,,,, parallel). But punishment under the Mosaic Law was not to be entailed or transmitted (), as was the case among the Chaldeans () and the kings of Israel (; ).

It has been noted that capital punishment is extensively prescribed by the Mosaic Law, and undoubtedly the Law was carried out. This circumstance has been explained by reference to the fact that the nation consisted of newly emancipated slaves, and therefore required harsh measures to keep them in check.

Under the Mosaic Law, the offenses that made one liable to the punishment of death were:

(1) striking or reviling a parent (,);

(2) blasphemy (,,; ; ,);

(3) Sabbath-breaking (; ; );

(4) witchcraft and false pretension to prophecy (; ; ; ; );

(5) adultery (; );

(6) unchastity:

(a) before marriage, but detected afterward (),

(b) in case of a woman with someone other than her betrothed (),

(7) rape ();

(8) incestuous and unnatural connections (; ,,);

(9) man-stealing ();

(10) idolatry, actual or virtual, in any form (; ; );

(11) false witness in capital cases (,).

A large number of offenses come under the law of punishment by cutting off from the people, the meaning of which expression has led to some controversy. It may signify excommunication or death, and occurs in connection with the following offenses:

(1) breach of morals, such as willful sin in general (,); incestuous or unclean connections (; 29:9-21);

(2) breach of covenant, brought about through uncircumcision (; ), neglect of Passover (), Sabbath-breaking (), neglect of Atonement Day (), work done on the Atonement Day (), children offered to Molech (), witchcraft (), anointing an alien with holy oil ();

(3) breach of ritual, committed by eating leavened bread during Passover (,), eating fat of sacrifices (), eating blood (; ), eating sacrifices while unclean (,; ,,), offering too late (), making holy ointment for private use (,), making perfume for private use (), general neglect of purification (,), not bringing offering after slaying a beast for food (), slaying the animal at a place other than the tabernacle door (), touching holy things illegally (,,).

Of capital punishments that are properly regarded as of Hebrew origin, we note:

(1) Stoning

Stoning, which was the ordinary mode of execution (; ; ; ; ; ). The witnesses, of whom there were at least two, were required to cast the first stone ( ). If these failed to cause death, the bystanders proceeded to complete the sentence, whereupon the body was to be suspended until sunset ().

(2) Hanging

Hanging is mentioned (; ), probably not as a mode of execution, but rather of exposure after death. It may have been a Canaanitish punishment, since it was practiced by the Gibeonites on the sons of Saul (,).

(3) Burning

Burning, before the age of Moses, was the punishment of unchastity (). The Law prescribes it as a punishment in the case of a priest's daughter (), and in case of incest (), but it is also mentioned as following death by other means (), and some believe it was never used except after death. That it was sometimes used as a punishment on living persons among the heathen is shown by Da 3.

(4) The Sword or Spear

The sword or spear as an instrument of punishment is named in the Law (; ; ). It occurs frequently in monarchic and post-Bab times (; ; ; ; ; ,), but among these cases, there are some of assassination rather than of punishment.

(5) Strangling

Strangling as a form of punishment has no Scripture authority, but according to tradition was frequently employed, and is said to have been performed by immersing the convict in clay or mud, and then strangling him by a cloth tied around the neck.

3. Punishments of Foreign Origin: Besides these, which are to be regarded as the ordinary capital punishments, we read of some that were either of foreign introduction or of an irregular kind, such as:

(1) crucifixion (which see);

(2) drowning ( parallel);

(3) sawing asunder or crushing (; );

(4) torturing (; );

(5) precipitation (; );

(6) suffocation (2 Macc 13:4-8).

The Persians are said to have filled a high tower a great way up with ashes, and then to have thrown the criminal into it, and continually stirred up the ashes by means of a wheel till he was suffocated (Rawlinson, Ancient Monarchy, III, 246).

Punites

pu'-nits (puni, probably "dark"): Descendants of Puvah, of the tribe of Issachar (; compare ; ; ).

Punon

pu'-non (punon): A desert camp of the Israelites, the second after leaving Mt. Hor (,). Eusebius (Onom 299 85; 123 9) mentions an Idumean village, North of Petra, in the desert, where convicts were mining copper, called Phinon or Phainon. These are doubtless identical.

See WANDERINGS OF ISRAEL.

Pur

pur (; ).

See PURIM.

Purah

pu'-ra (purah, "branch"): Gideon's "servant," literally, "young man," i.e. armor-bearer ( f, the King James Version "Phurah").

Purchase

pur'-chats: In modern English, "to acquire by payment," in Elizabethan English, "to acquire" by any means. In the Old Testament, the King James Version has used "purchase" to represent qanah, and its derivatives (verb and noun), except in , where the word is ga'al (the Revised Version (British and American) "redeem"). In the New Testament the noun does not occur and the verb is used for ktaomai, in ; , and peripoieo, in ; . But none of these words connotes the payment of a price, so that the Revised Version (British and American) has kept the word only in (margin "acquired"), changing it into "obtain" in ; , and "gain" in . In the Old Testament, the Revised Version margin has "gotten" in and the American Standard Revised Version has (very properly) introduced the same word into the text of ; .

Burton Scott Easton

Pure; Purely; Purity

pur, pur'-li, pu'-ri-ti: This group of words has in the Old Testament and the New Testament an almost exclusively ethical significance, though the word "pure" is of course used also in its literal sense of freedom from alloy or other alien matter (, etc.). "Pure" in the Old Testament represents many Hebrew words, most frequently Tahor; "purely," occurs once only in the King James Version, as the translation of bor, properly "that which cleanses" (compare , the Revised Version margin "Hebrew `cleanse my hands with lye,' " i.e. alkali for soap) in , the Revised Version (British and American) "thoroughly (margin "as with lye," the King James Version "purely") purge away thy dross"; "pureness" is the King James Version translation of the same word in , the Revised Version (British and American) "cleanness." In the New Testament "pure" is the translation chiefly of katharos (, Blessed are the pure in heart," etc.), but also of hagnos (; ; ; --always in an ethical sense). A different word (eilikrines) is used in , the Revised Version (British and American) "sincere." "Purity" (hagneia) occurs only in the King James Version in ; ; in the Revised Version (British and American) in (as the translation of tes hagnotelos).

See CLEAN; PURITY.

W. L. Walker

Purge

purj: A number of words in both the Old Testament and the New Testament are so rendered in the King James Version and the Revised Version (British and American), although frequently in the Revised Version (British and American) the older English word "purge" is displaced by the more applicable modern terms "cleanse" and "purify," since the emphatic and medical senses of the word, as we now use it, are not justified by some of the Hebrew and Greek originals. In older English the word was broader in meaning, today it is specific. Occurrences in the King James Version, with the changes made in the Revised Version (British and American), are as follows:

1. In the Old Testament:

(1) Taber, literally, "to be clean," used of the putting-away of idolatry from Judah by Josiah (,), is translated "purge" in all VSS, but, in , the American Standard Revised Version changes to "cleanse."

(2) chaTa', literally, "to make a sin offering" (): is changed without improvement to "purify" in the American Standard Revised Version, while "purge" is retained in the English Revised Version.

(3) kaphar, "to cover" or "to make atonement," occurs in ; ; ,; in the two passages in Psalms, the Revised Version (British and American) has "forgive" (the "expiate" of the margin is still better), and in Ezekiel the even more accurate "make atonement." In both

(4) tsaraph, "to refine" (), and

(5) duach, literally, "to rinse" (), "purge" is well retained in the Revised Version (British and American).

(6) barar, literally, "to be shining," the Revised Version (British and American) retains in , but in changes to "purify."

(7) zaqaq, "to pour down" as molten metal (), also becomes "purify" in the Revised Version (British and American).

These occurrences are all in the figurative sense, and apply to sin, uncleanness, idolatry, etc. Most noteworthy is the American Standard Revised Version change of the familiar .

2. In the New Testament:

The Greek words rendered "purge" in the King James Version of the Apocrypha and New Testament are kathairo, and katharizo, and their compounds and derivatives. In all passages except four, the Revised Version (British and American) more properly translates "cleanse" (; ; ; ; ,; ). In "when he had by himself purged our sins" is changed to "had made purification of." But in the case of the verb compounded with the preps. apo and ek, i.e. apokathairo and ekkathairo (; ; ), with strong signification to "cleanse out," the Revised Version (British and American) properly retains "purge." Most worthy of note is the change of the familiar verse in John, "Every branch, that beareth fruit, he purgeth" to "Every branch .... he cleanseth" (15:2).

Edward Mack

Purification

pu-ri-fi-ka'-shun.

See PURGE; PURITY; UNCLEANNESS.

Purim; Pur

pur'-rim, pur (purim, "lots"; Septuagint Phrourai): The name of a Jewish festival celebrated on the 14th and 15th days of the month Adar, the final month of the Biblical year, corresponding to February-March. 1. Scripture References:

The origin of the festival is narrated in the Book of Esther, and indeed is the motive of the book, as the time, reason and manner of its celebration are given in detail (; ). Reference also is made to it in apocryphal literature (Additions to Esther 10:10-13; 2 Macc 15:36) and in Josephus (Ant., XI, vi, 13). No reference is made to this feast in the New Testament, as it was celebrated locally, and is therefore not to be connected with any of the festal pilgrimages to Jerusalem. For this reason the supposition of some that the feast of was Purim is to be rejected, mention of it being immediately followed by the words, "And Jesus went up to Jerusalem."

2. History of Institution:

For the complete account of the institution of Purim reference must be made to the Book of Esther. Only a brief statement is possible here. Haman, son of Hammedatha the AGAGITE (q.v.; compare ,), who had been made prime minister by King Ahasuerus (Xerxes), bitterly hated the Jews, some of whom, as Mordecai, were rising to prominence in the empire. After Queen Vashti had been put away from her royal position for cause (), a Jewess named Esther, kinswoman and adopted daughter of Mordecai, was chosen to become the royal consort. This only increased the hatred of Haman, who in his jealous fury soon began to seek an opportune day to work his hate upon Mordecai and the whole Jewish people, and therefore resorted to the casting of the lots for the auspicious time: "They cast Pur, that is, the lot, before Haman from day to day, and from month to month, to the twelfth month, which is the month Adar" (3:7). Beginning with the 1st month, all the days and months were tried with unfavorable result, until the last. At Haman's request Ahasuerus caused his scribes to send into all the realm on the 13th day of the 1st month a decree that all Jews should be put to death on the 13th day of the 12th month (3:12 ff). As the narrative shows, the wisdom of Mordecai, Esther's heroism, and fasting and prayer availed to foil the dastardly scheme of Haman, who had already built the gallows on which his hated rival should be hanged. Haman was himself hanged on this gallows, while Mordecai was honored yet more (7:10; 8:1,2). A second decree was issued on the 23rd day of the 3rd month that on the 13th day of the 12th month (8:9,12), the day appointed in the first decree for their extermination, the Jews should gather together and defend themselves against their foes. On that fateful day not only did the Jews successfully resist the malice of their enemies, but the public officials also, seeing that the royal favor was with the Jews, espoused their cause. In Shushan, the royal city, a second day, the 14th, was granted the Jews for vengeance on their foes (9:11-16). In view of so great a deliverance "Mordecai wrote these things .... unto all the Jews .... to enjoin them that they should keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar, and the fifteenth day of the same, yearly, as the days wherein the Jews had rest from their enemies (9:20-22).

3. Manner of Observance:

Already as early as the times of the Maccabees (2 Macc 15:36), the festival was observed, the 14th day being called "Mordecai's day." Josephus refers to it as continuously and widely observed down to his time: "For this cause the Jews still keep the forementioned days, and call them days of Purim" (Ant., XI, vi, 13). In succeeding centuries as the Jews have passed from one civilization or empire to another, so many causes have arisen to remind them of the persecutions of Haman as to make the festival of a triumph over such persecutions both attractive and most significant to them. Experiences in Syria, Egypt, Rome, Russia and elsewhere have not been lacking in suggestion of the original occasion of Purim. The 13th day has been observed by fasting in commemoration of Esther's prayer and fasting before she approached the king; in the evening, at the beginning of the 14th day, the Jews repair to the synagogues where the Book of Esther, one of the meghilloth, is read with interpretations, execrations bursting out at the reading of Haman's name, accompanied by noise of rattles and stamping of feet, other persecutors and foes also sometimes coming in for a share of execration. The names of Mordecai and Esther receive blessings. On the following morning of the 14th synagogue services are again held, at which, in addition to the repetition of the Esther reading, , which records the destruction of the Amalekites (compare ), is also read as the lesson from the Law, presents are given to the poor and to friends, and the rest of the day, as also the 15th, observed with feasting and rejoicing, even excesses being condoned in the exuberance of national spirit.

4. Theories of Origin:

Many attempts have been made to trace the origin of Purim in pagan or cosmic festivals, but to the present time without success, without approach even to probability. Supposed connections with nature myths, national festivals, polytheistic legends have all found advocates. The word itself has suggested the possibility of identification with words of similar form or sound in other languages. But the ease of finding such similarities for any word casts doubt upon the reliability of any identification.

(1) It has been traced to the Assyrian puru, and identified with the Assyrian New Year when officials entered upon their term of service.

(2) The Babylonian puhru, new year festival, has also been claimed as the origin of Purim; Mordecai becomes Marduk, Esther is Ishtar, while Haman, Vashti and Zeresh are Median gods.

(3) The most popular attempts at identification are in the Persian field, where bahr, "lot," is claimed as the source of Pur, or purdighan, "new year," or farwardighan, the feast of departed souls.

(4) Origin also in a Greek bacchanalian occasion has been sought.

(5) Others suggest origin in other Jewish experiences than that claimed by the Book of Esther itself, such as a captivity in Edom, or a persecution under the Ptolemies in Egypt, or the victory of Judas Maccabeus over Nicanor in 161 BC (1 Macc 7:49).

No one of all these theories has sufficient probability to secure for itself anything like general acceptance; the Book of Es remains as the most reasonable account; the difficulties met in it are not so great as those of the explanations sought in other languages and religions.

LITERATURE.

Bible dicts., especially HDB, Encyclopedia Biblica and Jewish Encyclopedia; Paton, commentary on "Est" in ICC, particularly pp. 77-94.

Edward Mack

The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, ed. James Orr (1915). Public domain. Text from the CrossWire Bible Society.