Female Scripture Biography, Volume ICox, F. A. (Francis Augustus)
Religion
Female Scripture Biography, Volume I
Cox, F. A. (Francis Augustus)
Bible -- Biography; Women -- Religious life; Women in the Bible
This celebrated princess is said to have visited Solomon, "to prove him
with hard questions," by which have generally been understood enigmatical
puzzles. Some of these are to be found in sacred writ, of which the riddle
which Samson proposed to the young men of Timnath, is a very ancient and
curious specimen. It appears from the writings of the ancients, that the
Greeks and all the Eastern nations, were singularly attached to enigmas.
Plutarch, in his Feast of the Seven Sages, introduces the following
questions proposed by Amasis, the king of Egypt, to the king of Ethiopia:
"What is the most ancient thing--what the most beautiful--what the
largest--what the wisest--what the most common--what the most useful--what
the most hurtful--what the strongest--and what the most easy?" To which the
king of Ethiopia replied, "The most ancient thing is time--the most
beautiful is light--the largest is the world--the wisest is truth--the
most common is death--the most useful is God--the most hurtful is the
devil--the strongest is fortune--and the most easy, to follow one's own
inclination." In the book of Proverbs, we find several series of this
description, which originally might have been answers to questions of a
similar nature. Among others, we have this very curious and beautiful
statement: "There be four things which are little upon the earth, but they
are exceeding wise; the ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare
their meat in the summer; the conies are but a feeble folk, yet make they
their houses in the rocks; the locusts have no king, yet go they forth all
of them by bands; the spider taketh hold with her hands, and is in kings'
palaces." To the same class may be referred the following paragraph in the
third chapter of Ecclesiastes: "To every thing there is a season, and a
time to every purpose under the heaven: a 'time to be born, and a time to
die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; a time
to kill, and a time to heal: a time to break down, and a time to build up;
a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time
to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to get, and a
time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; a time to rend, and
a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to
love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account