Ordination (Hastings' Dictionary)

It is not easy to trace in NT any precise form of ordination or consecration to ecclesiastical office. When our Lord sent forth the Ten (Jn 9033 3) He breathed on them, and said, ‘Receive (a gift of the) Holy Spirit,’ ete. But this is a consecration rather of the whole body than of the individuals present; and at all events we do not find the symbolism repeated. The Seven (Ac 65:8) were chosen by the eople and set before the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them.

The consecration of Barnabas and Saul (Ac 13%) for their work was by direct command of the Holy Spirit—there is no election this time, but the prophets and teachers fast and pray, and ΤΥ their hands on them, and so dismiss them. In the course of their journey (Ac 14%) they appoint (χειροτονήσαντες as 2 Co 8!%—mere appointment, not laying on of hands) elders in every church, and after prayer with fastings commend them to the Lord. This is all that we hear of the consecration of elders.

Timothy held a higher position. me is told (1 Ti 3) what sort of men bishops ought to be, and (5) how to deal with them. But 5° (lay hands hastily on no man) cannot refer to ordination, for the whole current of thought 15:35 runs on offenders, not on officials (Ellicott, Hort, ete.) But what of Timothy’s own consecration? In 1 Ti 118 the apostle commits this deposit to him ‘according to the prophecies which led the way to thee’ (xara τὰς προαγούσας ἐπὶ σὲ προφητείαΞ).

e is also told (44) not to neglect ‘the gift that is in thee, which was given to thee through prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the body of elders’ (διὰ προφητείας μετὰ ἐπιθέσεως τῶν χειρῶν τοῦ πρεσβυτερίου). And he is further reminded (2 Ti 1°) to stir into flame ‘the gift of God which is in thee through the laying on of my hands’ (διὰ τῆς ἐπιθέσεως τῶν χειρῶν μου). These passages fall into two sharply contrasted groups.

(a) The Seven are chosen by the people, the elders in Ac 1453 seem nominated by the apostles. Aiter that, they are commended to God with prayer, joined in one case to its cus- tomary accessory of fasting, in the other to its natural symbolism of the laying on of hands. (Ὁ) Saul and Barnabas are nominated by the Holy Spirit through prophecy, and also Timothy ; for ‘the prophecies which led the way to thee’ must have been commands to separate Timothy as Saul and Barnabas were separated before.

After that, hands are laid,—in the earlier case by the prophets and teachers with prayer and fasting; in the later by St. Panl and the body of elders, pretty certainly at Lystra. This close parallel seems to establish Hort’s contention, that 632 OREB AND ZEEB ORNAMENT Timothy’s consecration was not to a definite church office, but to the work of an evangelist (2 Ti 4°), as St. Paul’s companion in the place of Barnabas. See, further, Hort, Zhe Christian Ecclesia, 1897, and cf. art.

LAYING ON OF HANDs. H. M. GWATKIN. OREB and ZEEB (ἦν, 3x) ‘raven,’ ‘ wolf,’ Ὡρήβ, Z48).—Two Midianite princes captured and slain by the Ephraimites after Gideon's victory, Jg 7* 55, Ps 834, Is 10, cf. 9. The places where they fell were remembered by the Rock of Oreb and the Wine-press of Zeeb, pee near the point where the Wady Far'ah in Ephraim falls into the Jordan (Moore); Osh el-Ghurab in Judah (Conder) seems too far south.

It is noticeable that Oreb and Zeeb are animal names, such as occur in the totem stage of society. In times when totemism prevailed, clans were often named after animals; so it has been suggested that Oreb and Zeeb were names of Midianite clans (Stade, GVJ i. 189): if they were individuals, the names would belong to the stage when the totem tribe was passing into a national organization of society (Gray, Heb. Prop. Names, 114).

According to Is 10% the slaughter of Midian, not of the chiefs alone, took place at the rock of Oreb; but this divergence from the narrative in Jg is merely an inaccuracy of tradition, and need not imply a different account. The narrative, Jg 7-85, is assigned to E; parallel to this is another account, Jg 8**! J, in which the Midianite chiefs are kings, and their names Zebah and Zalmunna (wh. see). See art. GIDEON and note +t. G. A. COOKE.