Appoint (Hastings' Dictionary)

In earlier Eng. this word had a con- siderable range of meaning, and there are many examples in AV of obsol. or archaic uses. To a. is literally ' to bring to a point,' i.e. fix or settle. 1. If the point in question is between two or more persons, then it means to agree, as Jg 20^ ' Now there was an a"" sign between the men of Israel and the liers in wait.' Cf. Job 2" 'Job's three friends . . had made an appoLatment together to come to mourn with him and to comfort him.' 2.

If it is one's own mind that is to be brouglit to a point or settled, then a. means to resolve, as 2 S 17" 'The Lord had a'"' (RV 'ordained') to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel.' 3. If it is other persons or things, then a. means («) to make firm, establish, as Pr 8*" He a^ (RV ' marked out ') the foundations of the earth.' (6) To pre- scribe or decree, as Gn 3(P ' A. me thy wages, and I will give it' ; 2 S 15" ' Thy servants are ready to do whatsoever my lord the king shall a.'

(RV ' choose ') ; 2 Es 3' ' thou a""^' death in (RV ' for ') him'; Is SO' RV 'every stroke of the a"" staff' (Heb. mjio hed ' staff of foundation,' AV 'grounded,' RVm 'of doom'); 1 Co 4» 'a''' (RV 'doomed') to death'; 1 Th 5» 'God hath not a'" us to wrath.' (e) To set apart, as Job 7' ' wearisome nights are a"" to me'; Ac 1^ 'they a" (RV 'nut forward') two, Joseph . , and Slattliias.' Hence ('/) to assi™ to some purpose or position, as Lk 10' ' the Lord a^ other seventy also.'

In this sense a. is used with ' out ' in Gn 24" ' the woman wliom the Lord hath a"^ out (RV 'a""') for my master's son' ; Jos 20' ' A. out for vou (RV ' assign you ') cities of refuge.' Last of all («) in Jg IS"- ■' a. means to furnish or equip : ' six hundred men a" (RV ' girt ') APPREHEND AQUILA 129 with weapons of war.' With which cf. Shaka. Tit. And. IV. li. 16— You mA7 be armed and appoiDted well ' ; and Tindale's tr. of Lk 17' ' Apoj-nt thy selfi> and sen-e me.' J. Hastincs.

APPREHEND is twice used in AV in the still customary sense of ' making prisoner,' Ac 12^, 2 Co U"; but K\' turns a. into 'take' in both passages, in order to make the tr. of the verb (rioiu.) uniform. See Jn T"- »»• " S-" 10^ 11" 21'- '», Ac 3', Rev 19". In Ph 3'^ " a. is found in the nearly obsol. sense of ' laying hold of,' and is used tig., ' If that I may a. that for wliich also I am a"" of (KV 'was a"* by') Christ Jesus' (Amer. RV ' laid hold on '). To those, the only examples of a.

in AV, RV adds Jn 1' 'And the light shineth in the darkness, and the darkness a*^ it not' (AV 'comprehended,' RVm 'overcame,' ^(•ith a ref. to Jn 12^ ' that darkness overtake you not,' where the Gr. verb KaraXafifidi'u is the same) ; and Eph. 3" 'that j'e . . may be strong to a.' (sameGr., AV 'may be able to comprehend'), 'a minute and over-careful change,' says Moule. See Comprehend. J. Hastings.

APPROVE This word has now settled down into the meaning of 'to think well of ; examples are I's 49", La 3**. Hut in other passages we see it only approaching this meaning, and that from two sides. We may a. of a thing if its worth is tested by us, or if it is demonstrated to us. Hence (1) to test, or a. after testing (Gr.

ioKtixiiw or ioKiiioi) : Ro 16'° 'Salute Apelles, a" in Christ,' 2'" and F'h l" ' thou a"' the things that are excel- lent' (RVm ' provest the things that differ'), Ro I4'9, 1 Co 11"' 16», 2 Co 10" 13', 2 Ti 2", and in RV Ro 14^, 1 Th 2^, Ja V.* And (2) to demonstrate, or a.

after demonstration : Ac 2^ ' a man a'' of God among you ( RV ' unto 3'ou ') by miracles ' (iwoSeSeiy- uJfor fit vfiat, 'a strong word = clearly shown, pointed out specially or apart from others ; it ex- presses clearness, and suggests certainty. '—Vage and Walpole, Acts, p. 18); 2 Co 6 'in all things a'"' ourselves as the ministers of God' (iTinilaTT)ixi, RV 'commending'); 7" 'Ye have a"" yourselves to be clear in this matter' (awlarrifu, RV as AV). Cf. Pref. to AV^ (1611) ' We do seek to a.

ourselves to every one's conscience.' J. HASTINGS. APRON (n^'iiq, Gn 3' ; aiiuKlvBiov {semicinctium), Ac 19'^). — "The OT instance is sufficiently explained by the context. That of Ac 19'" was a wrn|)per of coloured cotton, in shape and size resembling a bath-towel, worn by hshermen, potters, water- carriers, sawyers, etc., as a loin-cloth; worn also by grocers, bakers, carjienters, and craft.

smen generally, as a protection to their clothes from dust and stains, and as something to wipe their perspiring and soiled liniids uimn. St. Paul would wear an a. when making tent-cloth. The labori- ousness of his life at Kphesus for the support of himself and others is referred to in the farewell words at Miletus (Ac 20**). Handkerchiefs and aprons were chosen (Ac 19") because they were light and portable, and of the same shape for all.

The incident referred to is in intimate agreement with Oriental feeling. Superstition carries it to • Craik (Ktmj/wA i^/ .^haJcrKpfarf, p. 147) jfointe out that a. In the seiide of prove or teat U very frequent Id Shaka. lie quotes Tvo Gent, qj Vertma, T. Iv. «3— ' O, "tU the cunie of love, and etill approved, WTien women cannot love where they're tieloved.' Aod he Bftj-B : 'When Don Pedro in htuch Ado alxnit Nothing (n. i.

3t>4)' denrrit»e« Benedick aB 'of approved vnlour," the words cannot he nnderatoo*! a« eonveyinif any notion of whnt we now call approval or H]>prnl>niion ; the meaning la merely that he had proved his valour by his conduct.' VOL. I. — 9 disgusting excesses, as when the foam is taken from the lips of one fallen insensible after the Moslem religious dance (zikr), or when torches are frantic- ally lit from the holy fire at Jerusalem.

But the underlving thought is that healing power being from al)ove must prefer consecrated channels. G. M. Mackie. APT has lost its orig. meaning of 'fitted,' which has been taken up by the compound 'adapted.' This, however, is tne meaning of apt in the iJible : 2 K 24" ' all of them strong ana a. for war ' ( ■iiri^'P "Irv, ) 1 Ch 7* ; ' a. to teach ' (6i«o)a-.Kd5), 1 Ti 3^ 2 Ti 2«. J. Hastings. AQUILA {'KKvXai, ' an eagle ').

— The lirst mention wliiih we have of Aquila in Scripture is in Ac 18', where he is described as 'a certain Jew ... a man of Pontus by race.' It has been conjectured that St. Luke here fell into a mistake, and should rather have described A. as belonging to the Pontian qctis at Rome, a distinguished member of which bore the name of Pontius Aquila (see Cic. ad Fam. x. 33 ; Suet. Jul. Ccbs. 78). But for this there is no warrant beyond the similarity of the names ; while, as further confirming A.'

s connexion with Pontus, we know that the A. who in the 2nd cent, trans- lated the OT into Greek was a native of that country (compare also Ac 2*, 1 P 1'). Along with Priscilla or Prisca his wife (see Priscilla), A. had taken up his abode in Rome, but had to flee owing to a decree of Claudius, in A.D. 52, expelling the Jews (Suet. Claud. 25 says, ' Judaeos impulsore Chresto a&sidue tumultuantes Roma expulit.' For the meaning to be attached to the passage, see Neander, Pjlamung, I. p.

332, note 2 ; Lightloot on Philippians, p. 16, note 1 ; Plumptre, Bibl. Studies, p. 419). That the decree, however, did not remain long in force, is proved by the mention of a number of Jews in Rome shortly afterwards (Ac 28"), and by A.'sown return (Ro 16^). From Rome A. sought refuge in Corinth, where he received the apostle Paul on his second missionary journey. It has been debated whether A. had embraced Christianity before meeting Paul, or whether he owed his con- version to the apostle.

Against the former view it is urged, that if he had been a Christian at the time of Ac 18-, he would have been described by the common name of ^(?t;t^i or disciple ; against the latter, that if Paul had brought him to the truth, the fact would hardly have remained un- recorded, and further, that community of occupa- tion rather than coniiiiunity of belief is specially mentioned as having brought the two together.

In the absence of fuller information it is impos- 8il)lo to decide the question with certainty ; but the ready welcome which A. evidently accorded to one whom the bulk of his fellow-countrymen viewed with such disfavour as Paul, inclines us to the belief that when he came to Corinth he had at least accepted the first principles of the Christian faith, though his progress and growth in it he doubtless owed to the apostle.

If so, he and his wife may be ranked as amongst the earliest members of the Christian Church at Rome ; and it would be from them that Paul would learn those particulars regarding the state of that Church to which he afterwards refers in his Ep. (see Ro 1' 16"'"). After about eighteen months' intercourse in Corinth, A. and Pri.

scilla accompanied Paul on his way to Syria, as far as Ephesus, where they remained behind to carry on the work, amongst those coming under their influence being A polios (Ac 18'-"). They were evidently still at Euhesus when 1 Co was written ; and their house had comp to he regarded as the meeting-place of one of those little groups of believers into which, without any delinite organisation, the Church was then divided (1 Co W'\ cf. Ro 16- '•).

From Ephesus A(|uila and Priscilla returned to Rome, partly perhaps on 130 AQUILA'S VERSION ARABAH account of tome great danger tliey had run on Paul's behalf, the warmth of the apostle's greeting proving, further, the general esteem in which tliey were held (Ko W). Eight years later we lind them again at Ephesus (2 Ti 4'").

The frequency of these changes of abode has caused diliiculty, but, apart fronwthe fact that an itinerant life was strictly iu accord with all that we know of the Jews of that day, wliat more natural than that A. and Priscilla should again desire to revisit the city whence they had been driven, as soon as it was safe to do so, even supposing they were not specially sent by St. Paul to prepare for his own coming? (See Lightfoot, PAi/i/)/)s«n.s, p. 176 ; Sanday and Headlara, Romans, p.

xxvii and p. 418 ff.) After 2 Ti 4'^ A. is not again mentioned in Scripture, and the evidence of tradition regarding him is vei-y scanty. G. MiLLlGAN.