Θεοσεβής, an epithet three times applied to Job (1:1, 8; 2:3), occurs only once in the N. T. (
What would have needed to be said on εὐλαβής has been for the most part anticipated already (see § 10); yet something further may be added here. I observed there how εὐλάβεια passed over from signifying caution and carefulness in respect of human things to the same in respect of divine; the German ‘Andacht’ had much the same history (see Grimm, Wörterbuch, s. v.). The only places in the N. T. where εὐλαβής occurs are
If we keep in mind that, in that mingled fear and love which together constitute the piety of man toward God, the Old Testament placed its emphasis on the fear, the New places it on the love (though there was love in the fear of God’s saints then, as there must be fear in their love now), it will at once be evident how fitly εὐλαβής was chosen to set forth their piety under the Old Covenant, who, like Zacharias and Elizabeth, “were righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless” (
Plutarch on more occasions than one exalts the εὐλάβεια of the Romans in the handling of divine things, as contrasted with the comparative carelessness of the Greeks. Thus, after other instances in proof (Coriol. 25), he goes on: ‘Of late times also they did renew and begin a sacrifice thirty times one after another; because they thought still there fell out one fault or other in the same; so holy and devout were they to the gods’ (τοιαύτη μὲν εὐλάβεια πρὸς τὸ θεῖον Ῥωμαίων). Elsewhere, he pourtrays aemilius Paulus (c. 3) as eminent for his εὐλάβεια. The passage is long, and I only quote a portion of it, availing myself again of Sir Thomas North’s hearty translation, which, though somewhat loose, is in essentials correct: ‘When he did anything belonging to his office of priesthood, he did it with great experience, judgment, and diligence; leaving all other thoughts, and without omitting any ancient ceremony, or adding to any new; contending oftentimes with his companions in things which seemed light and of small moment; declaring to them that though we do presume the gods are easy to be pacified, and that they readily pardon all faults and scrapes committed by negligence, yet if it were no more but for respect of the commonwealth’s sake they should not slightly or carelessly dissemble or pass over faults committed in those matters’ (p. 206). Compare Aulus Gellius, ii. 28: ‘Veteres Romani in constituendis religionibus atque in diis immortalibus animadvertendis castissimi cautissimique.’ Euripides in one passage contemplates εὐλάβεια as a person and a divine one, χρησιμωτάτη θεῶν (Phoen. 794).
But if in εὐλαβής we have the anxious and scrupulous worshipper, who makes a conscience of changing anything, of omitting anything, being above all things fearful to offend, we have in θρῆσκος (
How delicate and fine then is St. James’s choice of θρῆσκος and θρησκεία (i. 26, 27). ‘If any man,’ he would say, ‘seem to himself to be θρῆσκος, a diligent observer of the offices of religion, if any man would render a pure and undefiled θρησκεία to God, let him know that this consists not in outward lustrations or ceremonial observances; nay, that there is a better θρησκεία than thousands of rams and rivers of oil, namely, to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with his God’ (
‘adorned
With gay religions full of pomp and gold.’
Paradise Lost, b. i.
And our Homilies will supply many more: thus, in that Against Peril of Idolatry: ‘Images used for no religion or superstition rather, we mean of none worshipped, nor in danger to be worshipped of any, may be suffered.’ A very instructive passage on the merely external character of θρησκεία, which same external character I am confident our Translators saw in ‘religion,’ occurs in Philo (Quod Det. Pot. Ins. 7). Having repelled such as would fain be counted among the εὐσεβεῖς on the score of divers washings, or costly offerings to the temple, he proceeds: πεπλανηται γὰρ καὶ οὗτος τῆς εὐσέβειαν ὁδοῦ, θρησκείαν ἀντὶ ὁσιότητος ἡγουμενος. The readiness with which θρησκεία declined into the meaning of superstition, service of false gods (Wisd. 14:18, 27;
Θρησκείαν οἶδα καὶ τὸ δαιμόνων σέβας,
Ἡ δ᾽ εὐσέβεια προσκύνησις Τριάδος.
Δεισιδαίμων, the concluding word of this group, and δεισιδαιμονία as well, had at first an honourable use; was == θεοσεβής (Xenophon, Cyrop. iii. 3. 26). It is quite possible that ‘superstitio’ and ‘superstitiosus’ had the same. There seem traces of such a use of ‘superstitiosus’ by Plautus (Curcul. iii. 27; Amphit. i. 1. 169); although, as no one has yet solved the riddle of this word,2 it is impossible absolutely to say whether this be so or not. In Cicero’s time it had certainly left its better meaning behind (De Nat. Deor. ii. 28; Divin. ii. 72); and compare Seneca: ‘Religio Deos colit, superstitio violat.’ The philosophers first gave an unfavourable significance to δεισιδαιμονία. Ast indeed affirms that it first occurs in an ill sense in a passage of Polybius (vi. 56. 7); but Jebb (Characters of Theophrastus, p. 264) quotes a passage from Aristotle (Pol. v. 11), showing that this meaning was not unknown to him. So soon as ever the philosophers began to account fear not as a right, but as a disturbing element in piety, one therefore to be carefully eliminated from the true idea of it (see Plutarch, De Aud. Poët. 12; and Wyttenbach, Animadd. in Plutarchum, vol. i. p. 997), it was almost inevitable that they should lay hold of the word which by its very etymology implied and involved fear (δεισιδαιμονία, from δείδω), and should employ it to denote that which they disallowed and condemned, namely, the ‘timor inanis Deorum’ (Cicero, Nat. Deor. i. 41): in which phrase the emphasis must not be laid on ‘inanis,’ but on ‘timor’; cf. Augustine (De Civ. Dei, vi. 9): ‘Varro religiosum a superstitioso eâ distinctione discernit, ut a superstitioso dicat timeri Deos; a religioso autem vereri ut parentes; non ut hostes timeri.’ Baxter does not place the emphasis exactly where these have done; but his definition of superstition is also a good one (Cathol. Theol. Preface): ‘A conceit that God is well pleased by over-doing in external things and observances and laws of men’s own making.’
But even after they had thus turned δεισιδαιμονία to ignobler uses, defined it, as does Theophrastus, δειλία περὶ τὸ δαιμόνιον, and Plutarch, De Superst. 6. more vaguely, πολυπάθεια κακὸν τὸ ἀγαθὸν ὑπονοοῦσα, it did not at once and altogether forfeit its higher signification. It remained indeed a middle term to the last, receiving its inclination to good or bad from the intention of the user. Thus we not only find δεισιδαίμων (Xenophon, Ages. xi. 8; Cyr. iii. 3. 58) and δεισιδαιμονία (Polybius, vi. 56. 7; Josephus, Antt. x. 3. 2) in a good sense; but St. Paul himself employed it in no ill meaning in his ever memorable discourse upon Mars’ Hill. He there addresses the Athenians, “I perceive that in all things ye are ὡς δεισιδαιμονεστέρους” (
1 Cicero’s well-known words deducing ‘religio’ from ‘relegere’ may be here fitly quoted (De Nat. Deor. ii. 28): ‘Qui omnia quae ad cultum deorum pertinerent, diligenter retractarent, et tanquam relegerent, sunt dicti religiosi.’
2 Pott (Etym. Forsch. vol. ii. p. 921) resumes the latest investigations on the derivation of ‘superstitio.’ For the German ‘Aberglaube’ (==‘Ueberglaube’Etym. Note. 26) see Herzog, Real-Encyc. s. v.
[The following Strong's numbers apply to this section:G1174,G2126,G2152,G2318,G2357.]
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