Rock – Roman Army

Rock

rok ((1) cela`; (2) tsur (3) challamish, "flint"; compare Arabic khalanbus, "flint"; (4) kephim (Job 30:6; Jeremiah 4:29); compare Kephas, "Cephas" = Petros, "Peter" (John 1:42 the King James Version and the Revised Version margin); (5) petra):

1. Names:

Tsur and cela` are the words most often found, and there is no well-defined distinction between them. They are frequently coupled together in the parallelism which is characteristic of the Hebrew writers: e.g.

"Be thou to me a strong rock (tsur),

A house of defense to save me.

For thou art my rock (tsela) and my fortress"

(Psalms 31:2,Psalms 31:3).

"He clave rocks (tsur) in the wilderness,

And gave them drink abundantly as out of the depths.

He brought streams also out of the rock (sela),

And caused waters to run down like rivers"

(Psalms 78:15,Psalms 78:16).

It is plain here that the two words are used for the sake of variety, without any clear difference of meaning. Even challamish (translated "flint") is used in the same way with tsur in Psalms 114:8:

"Who turned the rock (tsur) into a pool of water;

The flint (callamish) into a fountain of waters."

2. Figurative:

(1) Some of the most striking and beautiful imagery of the Bible is based upon the rocks. They are a symbol of God: "Yahweh is my rock, and my fortress" (2 Samuel 22:2; Psalms 18:2; Psalms 71:3); "God, the rock of my salvation" (2 Samuel 22:47; compare Psalms 62:2,Psalms 62:7; Psalms 89:26); "my God the rock of my refuge" (Psalms 94:22); "the rock of thy strength" (Isaiah 17:10); "Lead me to the rock that is higher than I" (Psalms 61:2); repeatedly in the song of Moses (Deuteronomy 32:3,Deuteronomy 32:4,Deuteronomy 32:18,Deuteronomy 32:30,Deuteronomy 32:31; compare 2 Samuel 22:32). Paul applies the rock smitten in the wilderness (Exodus 17:6; Numbers 20:11) to Christ as the source of living water for spiritual refreshment (1 Corinthians 10:4).

(2) The rocks are a refuge, both figuratively and literally (Jeremiah 48:28; Song of Songs 2:14); "The rocks are a refuge for the conies" (Psalms 104:18). Many a traveler in Palestine has felt the refreshment of "the shade of a great rock in a weary land" (Isaiah 32:2). A very different idea is expressed in Isaiah 8:14, "And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offense" (compare Romans 9:33; 1 Peter 2:8).

(3) The rock is a symbol of hardness (Jeremiah 5:3; compare Isaiah 50:7). Therefore, the breaking of the rock exemplifies the power of God (Jeremiah 23:29; compare 1 Kings 19:11). The rock is also a symbol of that which endures, "Oh that they .... were graven in the rock for ever!" (Job 19:23,Job 19:24). A rock was an appropriate place for offering a sacrifice (Judges 6:20; Revelation 13:2). The central feature of the Mosque of `Umar in Jerusalem is Qubbat-uc-Cakhrat, the "dome of the rock." The rock or cakhrat under the dome is thought to be the site of Solomon's altar of burnt offering, and further is thought to be the site of the threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite which David purchased to build an altar to Yahweh.

3. Kinds of Rock:

(1) The principal rock of Palestine and Syria is limestone of which there are many varieties, differing in color, texture, hardness and degrees of impurity, some of the limestone having considerable admixtures of clay or sand. Some of the harder kinds are very dense and break with a conchoidal fracture similar to the fracture of flint. In rocks which have for ages been exposed to atmospheric agencies, erosion has produced striking and highly picturesque forms. Nodules and layers of flint are of frequent occurrence in the limestone.

(2) Limestone is the only rock of Western Palestine, with the exception of some local outpourings of basaltic rock and with the further exception of a light-brown, porous, partly calcareous sandstone, which is found at intervals along the coast. This last is a superficial deposit of Quaternary or recent age, and is of aeolian origin. That is, it consists of dune sands which have solidified under the influence of atmospheric agencies. This is very exceptional, nearly all stratified rocks having originated as beds of sand or mud in the bottom of the sea.

(3) In Sinai, Edom, Moab, Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon is found the Nubian sandstone, a silicious sandstone which, at least in the North, is of middle or lower Cretaceous age. In the South, the lower strata of this formation seem to be paleozoic. Most of it is not sufficiently coherent to make good building stone, though some of its strata are very firm and are even used for millstones. In some places it is so incoherent or friable that it is easily dug with the pick, the grains falling apart and forming sand that can be used in mortar. In color the Nubian sandstone is on the whole dark reddish brown, but locally it shows great variation, from white through yellow and red to black. In places it also has tints of blue. The celebrated rock tombs and temples of Petra are carved in this stone.

(4) Extensive areas of the northern part of Eastern Palestine are covered with igneous rock. In the Jaulan Southeast of Mt. Hermon, this has been for ages exposed to the atmosphere and has formed superficially a rich dark soil. Further Southeast is the Leja' (Arabic "refuge"), a wild tract covered with a deposit of lava which is geologically recent, and which, while probably earlier than man, is still but little affected by the atmosphere. It is with difficulty traversed and frequently furnishes an asylum to outlaws.

See CRAG; FLINT; GEOLOGY OF PALESTINE; LIME.

Alfred Ely Day

Rock Of Ages

See AGES, ROCK OF; ISAIAH, VII.

Rock-Badger

r.-baj'-er: This term is found in the Revised Version margin for "coney," shaphan (Leviticus 11:5; compare Deuteronomy 14:7; Psalms 104:18; Proverbs 30:26). It is a translation of klip das, the name given. by the Boers to the Cape hyrax or coney.

See CONEY.

Rod

(maqqel, maTTeh, shebheT; rhabdos): Little distinction can be drawn between the Hebrew words used for "rod" and "staff." Maqqel is the word used in Genesis 30:37 ff for the twigs of poplar put by Jacob before his sheep, and in Jeremiah 1:11 of the "rod of an almond-tree." MaTTeh is used of a rod in the hand, as the "rods" of Moses and of Aaron (Exodus 4:2 Exodus 7:9 , etc.). ShebheT is used, but sometimes also maTTeh, of the rod used for correction (Exodus 21:20; 2 Samuel 7:14; Proverbs 10:13; Proverbs 13:24; Isaiah 10:5, etc.). In Psalms 23:4 ("Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me"), however, shebheT is the shepherd's rod, figurative of divine guidance and care. In Ezekiel 21:10,Ezekiel 21:13, the word stands for the royal scepter. In the New Testament "rod" is used of a rod of correction (1 Corinthians 4:21), Aaron's rod (Hebrews 9:4), a ruler's rod "of iron" (severity, as in Revelation 2:27; Revelation 12:5; Revelation 19:15), a measuring rod (Revelation 11:1).

See also ARMOR, ARMS.

James Orr

Rodanim

rod'-a-nim: The reading of Massoretic Text in 1 Chronicles 1:7 for the DODANIM (which see) of Genesis 10:4, corresponding to the Rhodioi of the Septuagint in both passages. The Rodanim are generally identified as inhabitants of the island of RHODES (which see), well known to the ancient Phoenicians (Homer's Iliad).

Roe; Roebuck

ro, ro'-buk: the King James Version has "roe" and "roebuck" for tsehi, tsebhiyah. the Revised Version (British and American) usually substitutes "gazelle" in the text (Deuteronomy 12:15, etc.) or margin (Proverbs 6:5, etc.), but retains "roe" in 2 Samuel 2:18; 1 Chronicles 12:8; Song of Songs 3:5; Song of Songs 7:3. So the Revised Version (British and American) has "gazelle" for the King James Version "roe" in Sirach 27:20 (dorkas). the Revised Version (British and American) has "roe-buck" for yachmur (Deuteronomy 14:5; 1 Kings 4:23), where the King James Version has "fallow deer." In the opinion of the writer, 'ayyal English Versions of the Bible "hart," should be translated "roe-buck," yachmur "fallow deer," and tsebhi "gazelle."

See DEER; GAZELLE.

Alfred Ely Day

Rogelim

ro'-ge-lim, ro-ge'-lim (roghelim; Rhogelleim): The place whence came Barzillai the Gileadite to succor David in his flight from Absalom (2 Samuel 17:27; 2 Samuel 19:31). It probably lay near the path followed by David, but it is not identical.

Rohgah

ro'-ga (Kethibh rohaghah, Qere rohgah): A name in the genealogy of Asher (1 Chronicles 7:34).

Roimus

ro'-i-mus (Rhoeimos; Codex Alexandrinus Rhomelios): One of the leaders with Zerubbabel in the return (1 Esdras 5:8) = "Rehum" in Ezra 2:2, of which it is the Greek form = "Nehum" in Nehemiah 7:7.

Roll (Scroll)

rol: The usual form of book in Biblical times. It had been in use in Egypt for perhaps 2,000 years at the time when, according to the Pentateuch, the earliest Biblical books were written in this form. The Babylonian tablet seems to have been the prevailing form in Palestine up to about 1350 BC, but by 1100 BC, at least, the roll had been in established use for some time as far North as Byblos. Two Hebrew words, gillayon, meghillah, one Aramaic, cephar, and one Greek word, biblion, are so translated in the King James Version. Cephar (Ezra 6:1, the Revised Version (British and American) "archives, margin "books"), with the corresponding Hebrew form cepher, is the generic word for any whole work large or small, but as a book form (Isaiah 34:4) it may mean "roll," and, according to Blau (pp. 37, 45, etc.), it never does mean anything else. Both the other words seem to be connected with galal, "roll," which is the technical term for opening or closing a book. The meghillath cepher (Jeremiah 36:2) means the unwritten roll, or the roll considered in its material form as contrasted with the work. Meghillah, which is found in Ezra 6:2 (English Versions of the Bible, "roll"), Jeremiah (often), Ezekiel (often) and Zechariah, is a somewhat late word, and came to mean a small roll (but with a complete work) as distinguished from a book, corresponding thus to the modern distinction of pamphlet and book or document and book. The word gillayon is translated in the Revised Version (British and American) as "tablet," and is universally regarded as meaning (Isaiah 8:1) some smooth surface, corresponding to the same word in Isaiah 3:23 which is rendered "hand-mirror." But "cylinder-seal" would possibly fit the sense in both cases; this being hung round the neck as an ornament in one case and inscribed with a personal name in the other.

Biblion is regarded by the Bible translators as equivalent to meghillah in the sense of small roll. It is in fact 4 times in the Septuagint of Jeremiah 36:1–32 used as the translation for meghillah, but very much oftener it is the translation for cepher, for which in fact it is the correct technical equivalent (Birt, Buchrolle, 21). Indeed the "small book" (Thayer, Lexicon, 101) is hardly consistent with the ideas of the heavens as a scroll, of the Lamb's Book of Life, or of the vast quantity of books of John 21:25, although in Luke 4:17 it may perhaps correspond closely with meghillah in the sense of a complete roll and work, which is at the same time a whole part of a larger work. Its use in Revelation 6:14 is reminiscent of Isaiah 34:4 ("scroll"), and is conclusive for the roll form. It is indeed always technically a roll and never codex or tablet.

It is not likely that Isaiah and John (here and in his Gospel, 21:25) refer directly to the Babylonian idea that the heavens are a series of written tablets or to the rabbinic saying that "if all the oceans were ink, all reeds pens, the heavens and earth sheets to write upon, and all men writers, still it would not suffice for writing out the teachings of my Masters" (Blau, op. cit., 34). Nevertheless, the "whole Cosmos" does suggest "the heavens and earth" as sheets to write on, and under all there does perhaps lurk a conception of the broad expanse of heaven as a roll for writing upon.

LITERATURE.

Birt, Die Buchrolle in der Kunst, Leipzig, 1907; Jew Encyclopedia, XI, 126-34, "Scroll of the Law"; Blau, Studien z. althebr. Buchwesen, Strassburg, 1902, 37-66, etc., and the literature under the article "Writing," especially Gardthausen, 134-54.

E. C. Richardson

Roller

rol'-er: the King James Version and the English Revised Version in Ezekiel 30:21 for chittul, "bandage" (so the American Standard Revised Version). "Roller" was formerly a technical term in surgery for a wide bandage.

Rolling Thing

rol'-ing: Isaiah 17:13, the King James Version "like a rolling thing before the whirlwind," a noncommittal translation of galgal, "revolving thing," "wheel" (Ecclesiastes 12:6). the Revised Version (British and American) "like the whirling dust before the storm" is probably right.

See CHAFF; DUST; STUBBLE.

Romamti-Ezer

ro-mam-ti-e'-zer, ro-mam-ti-e'-zer (romamti `ezer, "highest help"): Son of Heman, appointed chief of the 24th division of singers in David's time (1 Chronicles 25:4,1 Chronicles 25:31).

See JOSHBEKASHAH.

Roman Army

See ARMY, ROMAN.