Arch (Hastings' Dictionary)

1. 0/ the Temple. The word ■ arch ' is used in the plural ('arches') 14 times in Kzk 40. That neither 'arch' nor 'arches' has any ri^'lit to appear in the Eng. Bible at all, an examination of the Heb. word, of the versions, and of the context, will make clear. The Heb. word is according to the Mass. pointing otjVl< 'Hnmmim, which ia the plur. of a'^'V 'Hum ; the word is, however, only found with sutlixes, and as the text stands it is sing, not plur. ; it is the Ker6 or corrected reading that makes the word plural. Twice indeed (40"'-'") does the fern. plur. nte^K occur ; but Smend {Cumm. p. 326) suspects an error. (Cornill in V." reads c^i'it sing. ; v."" he rejects, following most Heb. MSS. ) In all the rcinaiiiing 12 places the written text makes it singular and not plural. The word occurs nowhere outside this cha]iter, and it is almost certainly either a HyiiDnyni of o^'m 'iilAm, porch, or a clerical error for this last word. U2 ARCHANGEL ARCHITECTURE That the translators of the LXX had before them, in all the instances where either 2^'n or ^^'■■< is now found, one and the same Heb. word in the text, is suggested by the fact that these translators use but one Greek word, and that a mere translit. of 2^"!?, viz. aiAaji. Cornill in his amended text of Ezk reads =v "^i never 2^'"<, and trs. by Vorhalle (porcli). It should bo stated, however, that oi'\ou trs. the Heb. word 1? saph, 'threshold,' in Ezk 46', and ':':!? 'ayil, 'post,' in 40io»ie« and 41'. The Vulg. uses one word vestihiilum for U'lam and ' ulam. The Targ. also uses but one word, this being, however, «;'r'x ^ulamma\ not, as the LXX would lead us to expect, !<?!?'!? 'elamma\ It is certain that ^elam is used in the sense of 'ulam in Ezk 4(j3i. 31. M^ prob. also in 40'^- ^i, where the 'elam is said to be toward the outer court. The Doiiay Version, which follows the Vulg. more closely than the latter does the LXX, uses in all cases the Eng. word porch. In the mod. Gr. version, ffroa, porch, is the uniform rendering. In addition to Cornill, Smend, A. B. Davidson (see their Com- mentaries), Fried. Delitzsch {Prolegomena, p. 139), the Lexicons of Milhlau and Volck, Buhl, Oxford, and the majority of recent critics, accept the view that both Heb. words have but one meaning, viz. porch. What is intended by ' porch ' in this connexion see under Pokcu and Temple. 2. General. It is a debatable point whether the Israelites in OT times were acquainted with the arch as an architectural device, and whether they used it. There is no corresponding word in Hebrew ; but indeed few architectural terms are found in this language. Heb. is the language of poetry, of ethics, and of religion, and not of science or of art. See AKCUITECTUKE. T. W. DAVIES.