Assembly (Hastings' Dictionary)

A. is employed in AV as the rendering of several Heb. words, tlie two most important of which are niy and Snp. The Re'isers, howpver, have endeavoured (as they have Miem- ASSENT ASSURANCE 175 Reives explained in their Preface) ' to preserve a consistent distinction ' between the words ' assembly ' and 'congregation,' 'without aiining at absolute uniformity.' This they have done by rendering Vnj and its cognate verb by ' assembly ' and 'assemble,' retaining 'congregation ' for ii;'.

This last is the older word of the two, denoting a gathering or assembly of any kind, whether for drliberative (as Gn 49") or other purposes. Gradu- ally, however — mainly through the inlluence of l)t — ^^Q assumed a more technical signilication as denoting the Israelitish community, in whole or in part. "Thus .iit '?np, Dt 23-"-, denotes the theo- cratic community.

'The assembly' par excellence is fiequent in P in the sense just given, although not so characteristic of this document as the sjTionymous term .Tiy, which occurs over a hundrc'.l tunes in the technical sense of the theocratic community or congregation of the E.\odus. It is doubtful if nny occurs in any genuine pre-exilic text in this sense. See Conguegation. LmRATTRR. — Moore, Judges, 20', crit. not« ; fJiesebrecht in 8t«de'» ZriUchrift, i. 243 I. On Sni; read llolzinger, ibid. ix. lO.'i f.

Od itft/A^t ixjcAitr'a (Ac 193^), liamsay in Kxpos. 5th Ser. iii. 137 ff, A. K. S. Kennedy. ASSENT, the subst., in the archaic sense of accord or consent, occurs 2 Ch 18'^ ' the words of the proj)hets declare good to the king with one a.' (ns, KV ' mouth '). Cf. Carlyle, Paxt and Present, ' 'fravelling with one a. on the broad way.' The verb is found Ac 24' ' the Jews also a"" ' (TR am- iBtrro, edd. ffwfir^ffeiTo, liV ' joined in the churge'). J. HastiN(;s.