Cities of Refuge. See [Refuge].
CLAUDIUS, a Roman emperor; he succeeded Caius Caligula, A. D. 41, and reigned thirteen years, eight months, and nineteen days, dying A. D. 54. King Agrippa was the principal means of persuading Claudius to accept the empire, which was tendered him by the soldiers. As an acknowledgment for this service, he gave Agrippa all Judea, and the kingdom of Chalcis to his brother Herod. He put an end to the dispute which had for some time existed between the Jews of Alexandria and the other freemen of that city, and confirmed the Jews in the possession of their right of freedom, which they had enjoyed from the beginning, and every where maintained them in the free exercise of their religion. But he would not permit them to hold any assemblies at Rome. King Agrippa dying A. D. 44, the emperor again reduced Judea into a province, and sent Cuspius Fadus to be governor. About the same time the famine happened which is mentioned Acts xi, 28–30, and was foretold by the Prophet Agabus. Claudius, in the ninth year of his reign, published an edict for expelling all Jews out of Rome, Acts xviii, 2. It is very probable that the Christians, who were at that time confounded with the Jews, were banished likewise.
2. Claudius Felix, successor of Cumanus in the government of Judea. Felix found means to solicit and engage Drusilla, sister of Agrippa the Younger, to leave her husband Azizus, king of the Emessenians, and to marry him, A. D. 53. Felix sent to Rome Eleazar, son of Dinæus, captain of a band of robbers, who had committed great ravages in Palestine; he procured the death of Jonathan, the high priest, who sometimes freely represented to him his duty; he defeated a body of three thousand men, whom an Egyptian, a false prophet, had assembled upon the Mount of Olives. St. Paul being brought to Cesarea, where Felix usually resided, was well treated by this governor, who permitted his friends to see him, and render him services, hoping the Apostle would procure his redemption by a sum of money. He however neither condemned Paul, nor set him at liberty, when the Jews accused him; but adjourned the determination of this affair till the arrival of Lysias, who commanded the troops at Jerusalem, where he had taken Paul into custody, and who was expected at Cesarea, Acts xxiii, 26, 27, &c; xxiv, 1–3, &c.
While the Apostle was thus detained, Felix, with his wife Drusilla, who was a Jewess, sent for him, and desired him to explain the religion of Jesus Christ. The Apostle spoke with his usual boldness, and discoursed to them on justice, temperance, and the last judgment. Felix trembled before this powerful exhibition of truths so arousing to his conscience; but he remanded St. Paul to his confinement. He farther detained him two years at Cesarea, in compliance with the wishes of the Jews, and in order to do something to propitiate them, because they were extremely dissatisfied with his government. Being recalled to Rome, A. D. 60; and many Jews going thither to complain of the extortions and violence committed by him in Judea, he would have been put to death, if his brother Pallas, who had been Claudius’s slave, and was now his freedman, had not preserved him. Felix was succeeded in the government of Judea by Porcius Festus.
CLAY, חמר, is often mentioned in Scripture, nor is it necessary to explain the various references to what is so well known. It may be remarked, however, that clay was used for scaling doors. Norden and Pococke observe, that the inspectors of the granaries in Egypt, after closing the door, put their seal upon a handful of clay, with which they cover the lock. This may help to explain Job xxxviii, 14, in which the earth is represented as assuming form and imagery from the brightness of the rising sun, as rude clay receives a figure from the impression of a seal or signet.
CLEOPAS, according to Eusebius and Epiphanius, was brother of Joseph, both being sons of Jacob. He was the father of Simeon, of James the Less, of Jude, and Joseph or Joses. Cleopas married Mary, sister to the blessed virgin. He was therefore uncle to Jesus Christ, and his sons were first cousins to him. Cleopas, his wife, and sons, were disciples of Christ. Having beheld our Saviour expire upon the cross, he, like the other disciples, appears to have lost all hopes of seeing the kingdom of God established by him on earth. The third day after our Saviour’s death, on the day of his resurrection, Cleopas, with another disciple, departed from Jerusalem to Emmaus; and in the way discoursed on what had lately happened. Our Saviour joined them, appearing as a traveller; and, taking up their discourse, he reasoned with them, convincing them out of the Scriptures, that it was necessary the Messiah should suffer death, previously to his being glorified. At Emmaus, Jesus seemed as if inclined to go farther; but Cleopas and his companion detained him, and made him sup with them. While they were at table, Jesus took bread, blessed it, brake, and gave it to them, and by this action their eyes were opened, and they knew him. Upon his disappearing they instantly returned to Jerusalem, to announce the fact to the Apostles, who in their turn declared that “the Lord was risen indeed and had appeared to Peter.” In our translation of Luke xxiv, 31, it is said that Jesus “vanished out of their sight;” but the original is more properly rendered, “He suddenly went away from them,” the word being often applied by the Greek writers to those who in any way, but especially suddenly and abruptly, withdraw from any one’s company. No other actions of Cleopas are known. It is the opinion of Jerom, that his residence was at Emmaus, and that he invited our Saviour into his own house. Supposing Cleopas to have been the brother of Joseph, and father of James, &c, Calmet thinks it more probable that as he was a Galilean, he dwelt in some city of Galilee.
CLOUD, a collection of vapours suspended in the atmosphere. When the Israelites had left Egypt, God gave them a pillar of cloud to direct their march, Exod. xiii, 21, 22. According to Jerom, in his Epistle to Fabiola, this cloud attended them from Succoth; or, according to others, from Rameses; or, as the Hebrews say, only from Ethan, till the death of Aaron; or, as the generality of commentators are of opinion, to the passage of Jordan. This pillar was commonly in front of the Israelites; but at Pihahiroth, when the Egyptian army approached behind them, it placed itself between Israel and the Egyptians, so that the Egyptians could not come near the Israelites all night, Exod. xiv, 19, 20. In the morning, the cloud moving on over the sea, and following the Israelites who had passed through it, the Egyptians pressing after were drowned. From that time, this cloud attended the Israelites; it was clear and bright during night, in order to afford them light; but in the day it was thick and gloomy, to defend them from the excessive heats of the deserts. “The angel of God which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them; and the pillar of the cloud went from before their face, and stood behind them,” Exod. xiv, 19. Here we may observe, that the angel and the cloud made the same motion, as it would seem, in company. The cloud by its motions gave the signal to the Israelites to encamp or to decamp. Where, therefore, it stayed, the people stayed till it rose again; then they broke up their camp, and followed it till it stopped. It was called a pillar, by reason of its form, which was high and elevated. Some interpreters suppose that there were two clouds, one to enlighten, the other to shade, the camp.
The Lord appeared at Sinai in the midst of a cloud, Exod. xix, 9; xxiv, 5; and after Moses had built and consecrated the tabernacle, the cloud filled the court around it, so that neither Moses nor the priests could enter, Exodus xl, 34, 35. The same happened at the dedication of the temple of Jerusalem by Solomon, 2 Chronicles v, 13; 1 Kings viii, 10. When the cloud appeared upon the tent, in front of which were held the assemblies of the people in the desert, it was then indicated that God was present; for the tent was a sign of God’s presence. The angel descended in the cloud, and thence spoke to Moses, without being seen by the people, Exod. xvi, 10; Num. xi, 25; xvi, 5. It is common in Scripture, when mentioning God’s appearing, to represent him as encompassed with clouds, which serve as a chariot, and contribute to veil his dreadful majesty, Job xxii, 14; Isaiah xix, 1; Matt. xvii, 5; xxiv, 30, &c; Psalm xviii, 11, 12; xcvii, 2; civ, 3. Cloud is also used for morning mists: “Your goodness is as a morning cloud; and as the early dew it goeth away,” Hosea vi, 4; xiii, 3. Job, speaking of the chaos, says, that God had confined the sea or the water, as it were with a cloud, and covered it with darkness, as a child is wrapped in its blankets. The author of Ecclesiasticus, xxiv, 6, used the same expression. The Son of God, at his second advent, is described as descending upon clouds, Matt. xxiv, 30; Luke xi, 27; Rev. xiv, 14–16.
COCCEIANS, the disciples of John Cocceius, a celebrated Dutch divine, born at Bremen, in 1608, where he was appointed professor of Hebrew, at the age of twenty-seven, and afterward filled the theological chair at Leyden, where he died in 1669. His works make ten volumes in folio. He was a man of good learning, and a vivid imagination. He considered the Old Testament as a mirror, which held forth figuratively the transactions and events that were to happen in the church under the dispensation of the New Testament, and unto the end of the world. He maintained, that by far the greater part of the ancient prophecies related to Christ’s ministry and mediation, and the rise, progress, and revolutions of the church; not only under the figure of typical persons and transactions, but in a more direct manner; and that Christ was, indeed, as much the substance of the Old Testament as of the New. Cocceius also taught, that the covenant made between God and the Jews was of the same nature as the new covenant by Jesus Christ; that the law was promulgated by Moses, not merely as a rule of obedience, but also as a representation of the covenant of grace; that when the Jews had provoked the Deity by their various transgressions, particularly by the worship of the golden calf, the severe yoke of the ceremonial law was added as a punishment; that this yoke, which was painful in itself, became doubly so on account of its typical signification; since it admonished the Israelites from day to day of the imperfection of their state, filled them with anxiety, and was a perpetual proof that they had merited the righteous judgment of God, and could not expect, before the coming of the Messiah, the entire remission of their iniquities; that indeed good men, under the Mosaic dispensation, were, after death, made partakers of glory; but that, nevertheless, during the whole course of their lives they were far removed from that assurance of salvation, which rejoices the believer under the dispensation of the Gospel; and that their anxiety flowed from this consideration, that their sins, though they remained unpunished, were not yet pardoned; because Christ had not as yet offered himself up to make an atonement for them. Cocceius was also a millennarian, and expected a personal reign of Christ on earth in the last days. Many of his opinions were afterward adopted by the Hutchinsonians.
COCK, ἀλέκτωρ, a well known domestic fowl. Some derive the Greek name from α, and λέκτρον, a bed, because the crowing of cocks rouses men from their beds; but Mr. Parkhurst asks, “May not this name be as properly deduced from the Hebrew אור הלכת, the coming of the light, of which this ‘bird of dawning,’ as Shakspeare calls him, gives such remarkable notice, and for doing which he was, among the Heathen, sacred to the sun, who in Homer is himself called ἀλέκτωρ?” In Matt. xxvi, 34, our Lord is represented as saying, that before cock-crow Peter should deny him thrice; so Luke xxii, 34, and John xiii, 39. But according to Mark xiv, 30, he says, “Before the cock crow twice thou shalt deny me thrice.” These texts may be very satisfactorily reconciled, by observing, that ancient authors, both Greek and Latin, mention two cock-crowings, the one of which was soon after midnight, the other about three o’clock in the morning; and this latter being most noticed by men as the signal of their approaching labours, was called by way of eminence, the cock-crowing; and to this alone, Matthew, giving the general sense of our Saviour’s warning to Peter, refers; but Mark, recording his very words, mentions the two cock-crowings.