Record (Hastings' Dictionary)

To record a thing is to call it to Blind (Lat. rccordare, i.e. re and cor the heart, throi:gh Old Fr. recorder). This primitive mean- ing, 'call to mind' or 'meditate on' is found, e.g., in Erasmus, Crede, 47, ' After that thou shalte have dylygently recorded these thyn^es, and called them well to remembraunce, then nave recourse hcther agayne unto me'; Tindale, Expositions, 110, 'Therefore care day by day and hour by hour earnestly to keep the covenant of the Lord thy God, and to recorde therein day and night.' A similar meaning, ' bear in mind,' is common in Wyclif. Thus Gn 19^ ' Whan forsothe God had Bubvertid the citees of tliat regioun, he recordide of Abraham' (1388 'he hadde mynde of Abraham ') ; Pr 31' ' Of ther sorewe recorde thei no more' (1388 'Thenke thei no more on her sorewe'). We may call a thing to mind either by speak- ing about it or by writing it down. The former meaning is now obsolete, but AV has preserved one example : 1 Cli 16 ' He appointed certain of the Levites to minister before the ark of the Lord, and to record, and to thank and praise the Lord God of Israel' (Heb. i'!'?!', lit. 'to cause to remember,' KV ' to celebrate ' ; the AV tr" is as old as Wyclif ; the 13S8 version gives ' have mynde of the werkis of the Lord '). The phrase 'call to record' means 'cause to te.stify,'^ Dt 30" ' I call heaven and earth to record this day against you ' (c;; 'niyn), 31^ ; and ' take to record has the same meaning : Is 8' ' (And) I will take unto me faithful witnesses to record '("V iy;i<i); Ac 20^ ' Wherefore I take you to record this diiy, that I am pure from the blood of all men' (^apri)- poMoi iM<»i which is incorrectly taken by AV, after Tindale, in the classical sense of ' call one to witness' [which would need iiiias], but rightly by IIV, as by Wyclif, in the sense, known only to very late Greek, of ' testify '). 1 he Bubst. ' record ' is used in AV, usually in the tense of witnest, whether the person who witnesses {liipTv%, 2 Co 1°, Ph 1') or the testimony itself (p.afnvpia, Jn l'» 8"- " 1!F, 1 Ju 5'^'- ", 3 Jn "}. In the same sense is used the phrase ' bear record,' a frequent tr. of puprrvpiu ' to give testimony.' J. Hastings. RECORDER, THE (T;i;ri, lit. 'the remem- brancer'; L.\X ^Jri tuji/ inro/jii'ijfiiTiav, {6) dfafnnv-^- ffKuv, virofiifiviiaKuji', (6) inrop.vri^aToyp6L<pos). — An ollicer of high rank in the Israelite kingdom. His func- tions are nowhere precisely defined, but the im- portance of his office is shown by the f.act that he IS mentioned along with the commander-in-chief, the chief secretary, and other leading oflicials at the courts of David and Solomon (2'S 20= 8>«= 1 Ch 1S'», 1 K 43). In the reign of Hezekiah lie appears as the king's representative together with the prefect of the palace and the chief secretary (2 _K 18'»- " = 18 363- ~), while the holder of the same office under Josiali formed one of the commission appointed to superintend the repairing of the temple (2 Ch 34). The ' recorder ' is often supposed to have been a historiographer, but Benzinger (Arch. 310), Nowack (i. 308), Kittel (on 1 K 4»), ct al., argue plausibly that his duty was to reinind the king of important business by preparing matters for his consideration and laying them before him. Under David and Solomon tlie office was filled by Jehoslinphat the son of Ahilud ; under Hezekiah, by Joah the son of Asaph; and under Josiali, by Joah the son of Joaliaz. J. F. Stenning.