THE AGES DIGITAL LIBRARY REFERENCE CYCLOPEDIA of BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL and ECCLESIASTICAL LITERATURE Pensieri, Batista - Pestle by James Strong & John McClintock To the Students of the Words, Works and Ways of God: Welcome to the AGES Digital Library. We trust your experience with this and other volumes in the Library fulfills our motto and vision which is our commitment to you: MAKING THE WORDS OF THE WISE AVAILABLE TO ALL — INEXPENSIVELY. AGES Software Rio, WI USA Version 1.0 © 2000 2 Pensieri, Batista, an Italian engraver who flourished in the latter part of the 16th century, was a native of Parma, and is usually called Baptista Parmensis, from his signature. Zani calls his name Battista Pensieri da Parmna, and says that he was a designer, engraver, and a seller of books and prints, and gives four inscriptions from his prints (see Spooner). Pensieri resided chiefly at Rome, where he engraved several plates for various masters, and others from his own designs, executed in a style resembling that of Cornelius Cort. Among these are the following: The Virgin and Infant appearing to St. John (after Baroccio, Baptista Parmensis fec. 1588): — The Baptism of Christ (Baptista Parmensis): — The Chastity of St. Joseph (1593): — The Crucifixions (in two sheets, Baptista Parmensis fornis. 1584). Pensio i.e. the enjoyment or use of a part of the fruits of a benefice without service, was formerly a very common occurrence in the Church of Rome, and is even now occasionally enjoyed in the Church of England. SEE SINECURE. At present in the Romish Church the pensio is accorded only to priests de emeritu. Titulis pensionis is the name of the secured income to a priest without regard as to its source. Penso, Joseph also called DE LA VEGA, a Jewish merchant of Spain, is noted for his literary labors as poet, moral philosopher, and orator. He was born about 1650 at Espejo, in Cordova; and lived afterwards at Livorno, Amsterdam, and Antwerp, at which last place he probably died. He belongs to the last Spanish Jews who cultivated Spanish poetry in a foreign land. He wrote, hw;2æ2qTæhi yreysæai, “the Prisoners of Hope,” an allegorical drama (Amsterd. 1673): — µyNæviwov sDer]Pe, “Orchard of Lilies.” In both these dramas Penso shows the assiduity of Satan in deluding man from the worship of God, and the many snares he lays in his way to entrap him; but Providence frustrates all Satan’s diabolic devices, and righteousness obtains at last the sway over him: — La Rosa, Panegyrica sacra, a panegyric poem in praise of the Mosaic law (ibid. 1683): — The Life of Adam, in Spanish (ibid. 1683): — Sermon funebre, a funeral oration in Spanish on the death of his mother, printed together with a funeral oration 3 on the death of his father (ibid. 1683): — Discurso Academico moral y sanyrado, etc. (ibid. 1683): — Discursos academicos, morales, rhetoricos, y sangrados que recito en lafiorida Acadamia de los Floridos, etc. (ibid. 1685). See Furst, Bibl. Jud. 3:75; Gratz, Gesch. d. Juden, 10:198; 13; Kavserling, Sephardim, p. 316 sq.; Bibliothekjiudischer Kanzelredner, vol. i, Beilage, p. 17; Margoliouth, Modern Judaism investigated, p. 246; Delitzsch, Zur Geschichte der jidischen Poesie, p. 77, 160, 174; De Rossi, Dizionario storico degli autori Ebrei, p. 326 (Germ. transl. by Hamburger); Etheridge, Introduction to Hebrew Literature, p. 389; Wolf, Bibl. Hebr. 1:555; 3:417; 4:851. (B. P.) Pentacle of Solomon a five-angled figure, composed of two triangles interlaced; the legendary seal or sigil of Solomon, carved on an emerald, by which he ruled the gins or daemons, representing the five fingers of the hand of Omnipotence. David’s shield had six angles. Pen’tateuch the collective title commonly given to the first five books of the O.T. In the present article we treat this important section of Scripture as a whole, in the light of modern criticism and discussion, reserving its component books for their separate heads. See Moses. I. The Name. — The above is the Greek name given to the books commonly called the Five Books of Moses (hJ penta>teucov sc. biblov; Pentateuchus sc. liber; the fivefold book; from tou~cov, which, meaning originally “vessel, instrument,” etc., came in Alexandrine Greek to mean “book”). In the time of Ezra and Nehemiah it was called “the Law of Moses” (<150706>Ezra 7:6); or “the book of the Law of Moses” (<160801>Nehemiah 8:1); or simply “the book of Moses” (<150618>Ezra 6:18; <161301>Nehemiah 13:1; <142504>2 Chronicles 25:4; 35:12). This was beyond all reasonable doubt our existing Pentateuch. The book which was discovered in the Temple in the reign of Josiah, and which is entitled (<143414>2 Chronicles 34:14) the book of the Law of Jehovah by the hand of Moses,” was substantially, it would seem, the same volume. In <143430>2 Chronicles 34:30 it is styled “the book of the Covenant,” and so also in <122302>2 Kings 23:2, 21, while in <122208>2 Kings 22:8 Hilkiah says, I have found “the book of the Law.” Still earlier, in the reign of Jehoshaphat, we find a “book of the Law of Jehovah” in use (<141709>2 Chronicles 17:9). This was probably the earliest designation, for a “book of 4 the Law” is mentioned in Deuteronomy (31:26), though it is questionable whether the name as there used refers to the whole Pentateuch or only to Deuteronomy. The modern Jews usually call the whole by the name of Torah (hr;woT), i.e. “the Law,” or Torath Mosheh (hv,m triwoT), “the Law of Moses.” The rabbinical title is hr;woThi yvem]Wj hV;mæj} the five fifths of the Law.” In the preface to the Wisdom of Jesus the Son of Sirach, it is called “the Law,” which is also a usual name for it in the New Testament (<401205>Matthew 12:5; 22:36, 40; <421026>Luke 10:26; <430805>John 8:5, 17). Sometimes the name of Moses stands briefly for the whole work ascribed to him (<422427>Luke 24:27). Finally, the whole Old Testament is sometimes called a potiori parte, “the Law” (<400518>Matthew 5:18; <421617>Luke 16:17; <430749>John 7:49; 10:34; 12:34). In <431525>John 15:25; <450319>Romans 3:19, words from the Psalms, and in <461421>1 Corinthians 14:21, from Isaiah, are quoted as words of the Law. SEE LAW. II. Present Form. — The division of the whole work into five parts has by some writers been supposed to be original. Others (as Leusden, Havernick, and Lengerke), with more probability, think that the division was made by the Greek translators. For the titles of the several books are not of Hebrew, but of Greek origin. The Hebrew names are merely taken from the first words of each book, and in the first instance only designated particular sections and not whole books. The MSS. of the Pentateuch form a single roll or volume, and are divided not into books, but into the larger and smaller sections called Parshiyoth and Sedarim. Besides this, the Jews distribute all the laws in the Pentateuch under the two heads of affirmative and negative precepts. Of the former they reckon 248; because, according to the anatomy of the rabbins, so many are the parts of the human body; of the latter they make 365, which is the number of days in the year, and also the number of veins in the human body. Accordingly the Jews are bound to the observance of 613 precepts; and in order that these precepts may be perpetually kept in mind, they are wont to carry a piece of cloth foursquare, at the four corners of which they have fringes consisting of eight threads apiece, fastened in five knots. These fringes are called tyx]yxæ, a word which in numbers denotes 600: add to this the eight threads and the five knots, and we get the 613 precepts. The five knots denote the five books of Moses. (See Bab. Talmud. Maccoth, sect. 3; Maimon. Pref. to Jad Hachazakah; Leusden, Philol. p. 33.) Both Philo (de Abraham. ad init.) and Josephus (c. Apion. 1:8) recognize the division now current. Vaihinger supposes that the symbolical meaning of the number five led to 5 its adoption; for ten is the symbol of completion or perfection, as we see in the ten commandments (and so in Genesis we have ten “n generations”), and therefore five is a number which, as it were, confesses imperfection and prophesies completion. The Law is not perfect without the Prophets, for the Prophets are in a special sense the bearers of the Promise; and it is the Promise which completes the Law. This is questionable. There can be no doubt, however, that this division of the Pentateuch influenced the arrangement of the Psalter in five books. The same may be said of the five Megilloth of the Hagiographa (Canticles, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, and Esther), which in many Hebrew Bibles are placed immediately after the Pentateuch. In some Jewish writers, however, there are found statements indicating that the Pentateuch was formerly divided into seven portions (comp. Jarchi, ad Proverb. 9: 1; ibique Breithaupt). In the Jewish canon the Pentateuch is kept somewhat distinct from the other sacred books of the Old Testament, because, considered with reference to its contents, it is the book of books of the ancient covenant. It is the basis of the religion of the Old Testament, and of the whole theocratical life. SEE OLD TESTAMENT. For the several names and contents of the five books we refer to the articles on each book, where questions affecting their integrity and genuineness separately are also discussed.