Pyramid (Hastings' Dictionary)

Simon the Maccabee is said to have erected a magnificent monument to his parents and his (four) brothers at Modein. This consisted partly of seven pyramids (irvpa/jildas), si.x set up one opposite another, with the seventh (intended apparently for Simon's own monument) probably standing by itself at one of the ends, 1 Mac 13^ (cf. Jos. Ant. Xlll. vi. 6). Pyramid-graves are, of course, most familiar to us in Egypt, but they were not un- common elsewhere. There is probably a reference to such graves in Is 14" 'all the kings of the earth, all of them, lie in honour, each one in hia own house.' The Bible contains no certain special allusion to the pyramids of Egypt, the reference in Job 3''', which has been conjectured, being very doubtfiil (see Dillm. ad loc). PYRRHUS {Uippos : lit. ' fiery-red ').— Amongst the companions of St. Paul who accompanied him on his last journey to Jerusalem from PhUippi was Sopater of Beroea, who in the RV is described as •son of Pyrrhus' (Ac 20^). The word Iluppov is omitted in TR in accordance with the later authorities, but it is read by all the diflerent classes of older documents (X-'^BDE vulg. boh. sah. Or.), and must clearly have formed part of the original te.xt. Blass {ad loc.) points out that this is the only case in the NT in which a patronymic is added after the Greek fashion, and that perhaps it implies that Sopater was of noble birth. A. C. Headlam. PYTHON The reading iriiflui-a in Ac 16" is attested by the overwhelming evidence of kABC D. The inferior reading irvSoivos, found in C^D' EHLP, is easily expl.ained. The accusative form was not understood. Hence the more intelligible construction with the genitive (cf. Lk 4-"). The reading irvdwi'a is obviously the right one (so Lachm. Tisch. WH, Blass) The name llidiiiv as a Greek term must be con- nected with that of the district llvddi in Phocis, which lay at the foot of Parnassus where the town Delphi was situated. Its geographical asso- ciation with the Delphic oracle over which Apollo presided gave rise to the adjective noffios as an epithet of Apollo. His priestess was called ii Jli'dia. Also the name HvSuiv, derived from this local connexion, was bestowed on the serpent whom the god was believed to have slain when he took possession of the Delphic oracle. Accord- ing to Apollodorus (L iv. 1) this oracle was formerly in possession of the goddess Themis, and the mysterious chasm, from which the intoxicating and inspiring exhalations issued, was guarded by this serpent, whom Apollo destroyed. The con- nexion of the serpent with wisdom and sooth- saying is based on demonology (see Magic in vol. iii. pp. 2(J9 (footnote), 210). Cf. Gn 3', Mt 10'«. In tlie present passage it is clear that what is implied is that the girl was considered to be possessed of a soothsaying demon. In the lan- guage of the OT she would probably be called a D'K n'?V3 (1 S 28'). The word nix, however, is employed by itself to convey this meaning, and is reproduced in the LXX by iyyaffTplp-vSos (Lv 19" 20", ''). The Syriac version on Ac 16'" renders by |!iD»jO> (>.i03 'soothsaying spirit '(lit. 'spirit of soothsaying '). See art. SOOTHSAYING ; cf. ala* Necromancy under Sorcery. Owen C. 'Whitehousk. QOHELETH QUAKKY 179 Q