Challenge (Hastings' Dictionary)

In the sense of 'claim,' Ex 22» ' any manner of lost thing which another challen- getli to be his' (%x, RV 'one saith '). Cf. More (1513), 'He began, not by warre, but by Law, to challenge the crown.' J. Hastings. CHALPHI (AV Calphi)=Alph^us {Xa\<pd, Jos. Ant. XIII. V. 7, Xa^^as), the father of Judas, one of the two captains of Jonathan Maccal)Kus who stood firm in a battle fought against the Syrians at Hazor in N. GalUee (1 Mac 11'°). H. A. White. CHAMBER as a verb occurs Ro 13" ' Let us walk honestly, as in the day . . . not in chambering and wantonness' (ko(tt), ' a bed,' Lk 11' ; ' the marriage bed,' He 13; here 'illicit intercourse' ; cf. Ro 9'° itoiTT7» lxo'«"'i ' having conceived '). See House. J. Ha.stings. CHAMBERLAIN An officer in the houses of kings and nobles charged with the care of their apartments, dress, etc., though the office often im- plied other duties of trust. In OT the word occurs in 2 K 23" and repeatedly in Est, where the original is eunuch (oip) ; but it is generally believed that this name is not to be taken always in a literal sense, and hence it is often rendered bv the word ojjicer. In Esther, however, the chamberlain evidently belongs to that class of persons who are entrusted with the watchful care of the harems of Oriental monarchs. In NT at Ac 12" it is said that the people of Tyre and Sidon sought the favour of Herod Agrippa through the mediation of Hlastus 'the king's c' (rbv ^wl toO koitwvo! toO /SaiTiX^wt), showing that the office was one of con- siderable influence. The word occurs again in AV in Ro le'', but is rendered in RV more accurately ' treasurer (oiVovi/io!) of the city,' in connexion witli the name of Erastus, a Christian of Corinth, from which i)lace it is generally believed that St. Paul wrote liis Ep. to the Romans, and where it is not likely there would be a chamberlain in the primary sense of the word. J. WoRTABET. CHAMELEON AV so renders nb Ic/lilh, xafnat- \4ui',chnmdfun, the second of the lizards mentioned in Lv 11', which RV renders land-crocodile. On the other liand, RV renders by rlmmeleon the last of the animals mentioned in this passage, nrij'jB tin.ihemcth, d<nrdXo|, talpri, wliich AV renders mole. The Ileb. ki'ifth is used in many passages in its etymological sense of strenqtk, but only in the present for an animal. Nothing in its etymolo'ry points to the chnmcleon. Among the lizards the land-monitor, which is the lana-rrocodile of the indents, rsiimmosnurus scincn.i, Merrem. is next to the Nile-monitor, Monitor Nilotu-us, GeoU'r., in size and strength. The Arabs call both waral (vulgo warnn). They distinguish the first as tvarnl el-nrrl=the land-warnl, and the second as MHiral el-hiihr = ivater-warnl. But the first is also called dabb = 2i zdb, wliich is the name of the last animal in tlie previous verse, translated in AV tortiiiie, an<l in RV fjrcnt lizard. It often attains a length of from 4 to 5 ft. It would there- fore be better to render ?<16, land-crocodile or land- •>OL. I. — 24 monitor, and kS^k, Nile-monitor or water-monitor. This would carry out the etymological idea of strength, as the water-monitor is a foot or twc longer than its land relative, and Arabian stories are full of the records of its power in fighting, not only snakes, but the dabb itself. This would give to two of the lizard group appropriate specific names. Both are noted for devouring crocodile's eggs. The Nile-monitor was held in great reverence in ancient Egj'pt on this account. As before said, RV gives c/uimeleon for tin- shemeth (Lv 11^). While it is perhaps probable that this animal is a lizard, as its name stands at the end of a list of lizards, it is by no means certain. It is also at the end of a list of things 'that creep upon the earth' (11^). In those days there was no scientific study of objects of Nature, and the collocation of the diilerent clean and unclean animals was with reference to char- acteristics which are not recognised in any other system of classification (ll''"'-'"-^). It is quite possible, therefore, that tinshemeth is not a lizard, out the mole-rat of Syria, Spalax typhlus, which, although not a true mole, has all its habits and its general aspect. The LXX and Vulg. renderings strengthen this possibility. There is, however, one strong objection to rendering tinshemcth ' mole- rat.' It is that holed (Lv ll^) tr. in both VSS (on the authority of the LXX 7a\^, and Vulg. mustela), weasel, very probably refers to the mole-rat. See MOLK, Wkasel. It is inadmissible to suppose that the same animal is mentioned twice, by diilerent names, so close together in tlie same list. There seems to be no warrant for the adoption of chameleun for tinshemcth, excepting the deriva- tion of the word from a root signifying to breathe, coupled with the ancient opinion that the chameleon lived on air. It must not be forgotten that, in the same chapter, tinsliemeth is given as the name of an aquatic fowl (v.'», cf. Dt 14'"). See Swan. On the whole, we think the question of the identity of both tinshcnieths very unsatisfactory, and well- nigh insoluble. G. E. Post.