Palm

The Heb. word "> kaph {from 422 to be bent, bowed), signifies the hand as bent or hollow, the palm in readiness for holding PALM TREE or grasping, and it is used with great freedom in OT.

Pharaoh’s cup is set upon the palm of lis hand (Gn 40"-#); the widow of Zarephath haa ‘but a palmful of meal’ (1 K 17); the palms are clapped in applause (2 K 1113) or in derision (Nu 24"); men seize with the palm (Ezk 297), and smite their palms together in han eee (Pr 6}; the palms are spread out in prayer (Ex 939. 5); it is by the toil of the palms that men earn their bread (Gn 31"); and to bein one’s palm is the Heb. expression for to be in one’s power. The Eng.

idiom uses ‘hand’ in almost these places. Indeed ‘palm’ never occurs in AV except when followed by ‘of the hand ’ (Ly 14", 18 54, 2 Καὶ 9®, Is 49!8, Dn 1010), In Dn 5° * ‘part’ (AV and RV) should be ‘ palm.’ In Sir 18° God is said to govern the world with the palm of His hand (ἐν σπιθαμῇ χειρὸς αὐτοῦ, lit. ‘with the span of his hand,’ οἵ. Is 40"). The Geneva and Bishops’ Bibles have ‘with the power of his hand’; other VSS, including RV, omit, following a better text.

The palm of the hand is thrice mentioned in NT. In Mt 26” it is said that ‘others smote him with the palms of their hands’; the Gr. is simply οἱ δὲ ἐρράπισαν (edd. ἐράπισαν). The only other occurrence of ῥαπίζειν in NT is Mt 5° ὅστις ce ace els τὴν δεξιὰν σιαγόνα [σου], ‘whosoever shall smite thee (RV ‘smiteth thee’) on thy right cheek,’ where the smiting is clearly with the palm of the hand.

And, as Swete (on Mk 14*) points out, in two at least of the three LXX instances of ῥαπίξειν, the reference is to a blow on the face by the hand of another (Hos 11‘, 1 Es 4%). Field (Otiwm Norv.? on Jn 183) quotes, further, a clear example from Josephus (Ant. Vill. xy.

4), who represents Zede- kiah as saying, before he struck Micaiah on the cheek, ‘If he a true prophet, as soon as he is struck by me, let him disable my hand’ (εὐθὺς ῥαπισθεὶς ὑπ᾽ ἐμοῦ βλαψάτω μου τὴν χεῖρα); and he decides, after examining the use of the word in classical writers, that ῥαπίζειν (though from pdms, a rod) is not used as equivalent to ῥαβδίζευ, ‘to strike with a rod,’ later than Herodotus. RV therefore need scarcely have repeated the AV margin ‘or with rods.

’ In Mk 145 (ῥαπίσμασιν αὐτὸν ἔβαλλον [but edd. after best MSS ἔλαβον, on which see Swete, in Joc.]) and in Jn 18% (ἔδωκε ῥάπισμα τῷ ᾿Ιησοῦ) we have the subst. ῥάπισμα, of which the meaning is determined by the meaning of ῥαπίζω : it means a stroke with the palm of the hand. RV has in Mk ‘received him with blows of their hands,’ with marg. ‘ or strokes of rods’ ; and in Jn ‘struck Jesus with his hand,’ with marg. ‘or with a rod.

’ The margins are to be rejected on the ground of congruity as well as the use of the word. J. HASTINGS.