Smith's Bible Dictionary.pdf - Online Christian Library

Smith's Bible Dictionary
The Hebrew word erez, invariably rendered “cedar” by the Authorized Version, stands for that
tree in most of the passages where the word occurs. While the word is sometimes used in a wider
sense, (Leviticus 14:6) for evergreen cone-bearing trees, generally the cedar of Lebanon (Cedrus
libani) is intended. (1 Kings 7:2; 10:27; Psalms 92:12; Song of Solomon 5:15; Isaiah 2:13; Ezekiel
31:3-6) The wood is of a reddish color, of bitter taste and aromatic odor, offensive to insects, and
very durable. The cedar is a type of the Christian, being evergreen, beautiful, aromatic, wide
spreading, slow growing, long lived, and having many uses. As far as is at present known, the cedar
of Lebanon is confined in Syria to one valley of the Lebanon range, viz., that of the Kedisha river,
which flows from near the highest point of the range westward to the Mediterranean, and enters
the sea at the port of Tripoli. The grove is at the very upper part of the valley, about 15 miles from
the sea, 6500 feet above that level, and its position is moreover above that of all other arboreous
vegetation. (“Of the celebrated cedars on Mount Lebanon, eleven groves still remain. The famous
B’Sherreh grove is three-quarters of a mile in circumference, and contains about 400 trees, young
and old. Perhaps a dozen of these are very old; the largest, 63 feet in girth and 70 feet high, is
thought by some to have attained the age of 2000 years.”—Johnson’s Encycl.)
Cedron
(John 18:1) [SEE Kidron, Or Kedron]
Ceiling
The descriptions of Scripture, (1 Kings 6:9,15; 7:3; 2 Chronicles 3:5,9; Jeremiah 22:14; Haggai
1:4) and of Josephus, show that the ceilings of the temple and the palaces of the Jewish kings were
formed of cedar planks applied to the beams or joists crossing from wall to wall. “Oriental houses
seem to have been the reverse of ours, the ceiling being of wood, richly ornamented, and the floor
of plaster or tiles.”
Celosyria
[Coelesyria]
Cenchrea, Or Cenchrea
(accurately Cenchre’ae) (millet), the eastern harbor of Corinth (i.e. its harbor on the Saronic
Gulf) and the emporium of its trade with the Asiatic shores of the Mediterranean, as Lechaeum on
the Crointhian Gulf connected it with Italy and the west. St. Paul sailed from Cenchrae, (Acts 18:18)
on his return to Syria from his second missionary journey. An organized church seems to have been
formed here. (Romans 16:1)
Censer
A small portable vessel of metal fitted to receive burning coals from the altar, and on which
the incense for burning was sprinkled. (2 Chronicles 26:19; Luke 1:9) The only distinct precepts
regarding the use of the censer are found in (Leviticus 16:12) and in (Numbers 4:14) Solomon
prepared “censers of pure gold” as part of the temple furniture. (1 Kings 7:50; 2 Chronicles 4:22)
The word rendered “censer” in (Hebrews 9:4) probably means the “altar of incense.”
Census
[Taxing]
Centurion
[Army]
Cephas
[Peter]
Chaff
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William Smith