the reference is to upper Ethiopia, called Habesh or Abyssinia, a country of Africa adjoining Egypt and including the island Meroë; [see Dillman in Schenkel i. 285 sqq.; Alex.’s Kitto or Mc. and S. s. v. Ethiopia. Cf. Bib. Sacr. for 1866, p. 515].*
αἷμα, -τος, τό, blood, whether of men or of animals; 1. a. simply and generally: Jn. xix. 34; Rev. viii. 7 sq.; xi. 6; xvi. 3 sq. 6b (on which passages cf. Ex. vii. 20 sqq.); xix. 13; ῥύσις αἵματος, Mk. v. 25, [(πηγὴ αἵμ. 29)]; Lk. viii. 43 sq.; θρόμβοι αἵματος, Lk. xxii. 44 [L br. WH reject the pass.]. So also in passages where the eating of blood (and of bloody flesh) is forbidden, Acts xv. 20, 29; xxi. 25; cf. Lev. iii. 17; vii. 16 (26); xvii. 10; see Knobel on Lev. vii. 26 sq.; [Kalisch on Lev., Preliminary Essay § 1]; Rückert, Abendmahl, p. 94. b. As it was anciently believed that the blood is the seat of the life (Lev. xvii. 11; [cf. Delitzsch, Bibl. Psychol. pp. 238-247 (Eng. trans. p. 281 sqq.)]), the phrase σὰρξ κ. αἷμα בָּשָׂר וְדָם, a common phrase in Rabbinical writers), or in inverse order αἷμα κ. σάρξ, denotes man’s living body compounded of flesh and blood, 1 Co. xv. 50; Heb. ii. 14, and so hints at the contrast between man and God (or even the more exalted creatures, Eph. vi. 12) as to suggest his feebleness, Eph. vi. 12 (Sir. xiv. 18), which is conspicuous as respects the knowledge of divine things, Gal. i. 16; Mt. xvi. 17. c. Since the first germs of animal life are thought to be in the blood (Sap. vii. 2; Eustath. ad Il. 6, 211 (ii. 104, 2) τὸ δὲ αἵματος ἀντὶ τοῦ σπέρματός φασιν οἱ σοφοὶ, ὡς τοῦ σπέρματος ὕλην τὸ αἷμα ἔχοντος), the word serves to denote generation and origin (in the classics also): Jn. i. 13 (on the plur. cf. W. 177 (166)); Acts xvii. 26 [R G]. d. It is used of those things which by their redness resemble blood: αἷ. σταφυλῆς the juice of the grape [‘the blood of grapes,’ Gen. xlix. 11; Deut. xxxii. 14], Sir. xxxix. 26; l. 15; 1 Macc. vi. 34, etc.; Achill. Tat. ii. 2; reference to this is made in Rev. xiv. 18-20. εἰς αἷμα, of the moon, Acts ii. 20 (Joel ii. 31 (iii. 4)), i. q. ὡς αἷμα, Rev. vi. 12. 2. blood shed or to be shed by violence (very often also in the classics); a.: Lk. xiii. 1 (the meaning is, whom Pilate had ordered to be massacred while they were sacrificing, so that their blood mingled with the blood [yet cf. W. 623 (579)] of the victims); αἷ. ἀθῷον [or δίκαιον Tr mrg. WH txt.] the blood of an innocent [or righteous] man viz. to be shed, Mt. xxvii. 4; ἐκχεῖν and ἐκχύνειν αἷμα (שָׁפַךְ דָּם, Gen. ix. 6; Is. lix. 7, etc.) to shed blood, slay, Mt. xxiii. 35; Lk. xi. 50; Acts xxii. 20; Ro. iii. 15; Rev. xvi. 6a [here Tdf. αἵματα]; hence αἷμα is used for the bloody death itself: Mt. xxiii. 30, 35; xxvii. 24; Lk. xi. 51; Acts [ii. 19, yet cf. 1 d. above;] xx. 26; Rev. xvii. 6; μέχρις αἵματος unto blood i. e. so as to undergo a bloody death, Heb. xii. 4, (τὸν αἴτιον τῆς . . . μέχρις αἵματος στάσεως, Heliod. 7, 8); τιμὴ αἵματος ‘price of blood’ i. e. price received for murder, Mt. xxvii. 6; ἀγρὸς αἵματος field bought with the price of blood, Mt. xxvii. 8, i. q. χωρίον αἵματος, Acts i. 19—unless in this latter passage we prefer the explanation, which agrees better with the context, ‘the field dyed with the blood of Judas’; the guilt and punishment of bloodshed, in the following Hebraistic expressions: ἐν αὐτῇ αἵματα (Rec. αἷμα [so L Tr WH)) εὑρέθη i. e. it was discovered that she was guilty of murders, Rev. xviii. 24 (cf. πόλις αἱμάτων, Ezek. xxiv. 6); τὸ αἷμα αὐτοῦ ἐφ’ ἡμᾶς (sc. ἐλθέτω) let the penalty of the bloodshed fall on us, Mt. xxvii. 25; τὸ αἷμα ὑμῶν ἐπὶ τὴν κεφαλὴν ὑμῶν (sc. ἐλθέτω) let the guilt of your destruction be reckoned to your own account, Acts xviii. 6 (cf. 2 S. i. 16; Josh. ii. 19, etc.); ἐπάγειν τὸ αἷμά τινος ἐπί τινα to cause the punishment of a murder to be visited on any one, Acts v. 28; ἐκζητεῖν τὸ αἷμά τινος ἀπό τινος (בִּקֵּשׁ דָּם פ׳ מִיָּד פ׳, 2 S. iv. 11; Ezek. iii. 18, 20; xxxiii. 8), to exact of any one the penalty for another’s death, Lk. xi. 50; the same idea is expressed by ἐκδικεῖν τὸ αἷμά τινος, Rev. vi. 10; xix. 2. b. It is used specially of the blood of sacrificial victims having a purifying or expiating power (Lev. xvii. 11): Heb. ix. 7, 12 sq. 18-22, 25; x. 4; xi. 28; xiii. 11. c. Frequent mention is made in the Ν. Τ. of the blood of Christ (αἷμα τοῦ Χριστοῦ, 1 Co. x. 16; τοῦ κυρίου, xi. 27; τοῦ ἀρνίου, Rev. vii. 14; xii. 11, cf. xix. 13) shed on the cross (αἷ. τοῦ σταυροῦ, Col. i. 20) for the salvation of many, Mt. xxvi. 28; Mk. xiv. 24, cf. Lk. xxii. 20; the pledge of redemption, Eph. i. 7 (ἀπολύτρωσις διὰ τοῦ αἵ. αὐτοῦ; so too in Col. i. 14 Rec.); 1 Pet. i. 19 (see ἀγοράζω, 2 b.); having expiatory efficacy, Ro. iii. 25; Heb. ix. 12; by which believers are purified and are cleansed from the guilt of sin, Heb. ix. 14; xii. 24; [xiii. 12]; 1 Jn. i. 7 (cf. 1 Jn. v. 6, 8); Rev. i. 5; vii. 14; 1 Pet. i. 2; are rendered acceptable to God, Ro. ν. 9, and find access into the heavenly sanctuary, Heb. x. 19; by which the Gentiles are brought to God and the blessings of his kingdom, Eph. ii. 13, and in general all rational beings on earth and in heaven are reconciled to God, Col. i. 20; with which Christ purchased for himself the church, Acts xx. 28, and gathered it for God, Rev. v. 9. Moreover, since Christ’s dying blood served to establish new religious institutions and a new relationship between men and God, it is likened also to a federative or covenant sacrifice: τὸ αἷμα τῆς διαθήκης the blood by the shedding of which the covenant should be ratified, Mt. xxvi. 28; Mk. xiv. 24, or has been ratified, Heb. x. 29; xiii. 20 (cf. ix. 20); add, 1 Co. xi. 25; Lk. xxii. 20 [WH reject this pass.] (in both which the meaning is, ‘this cup containing wine, an emblem of blood, is rendered by the shedding of my blood an emblem of the new covenant’), 1 Co. xi. 27; (cf. Cic. pro Sestio 10, 24 foedus sanguine meo ictum sanciri, Liv. 23, 8 sanguine Hannibalis sanciam Romanum foedus). πίνειν τὸ αἷμα αὐτοῦ (i. e. of Christ), to appropriate the saving results of Christ’s death, Jn. vi. 53 sq. 56. [Westcott, Epp. of Jn. p. 34 sq.]*
αἱματεκχυσία, -ας, ἡ, (αἷμα and ἐκχύνω), shedding of blood: Heb. ix. 22. Several times also in eccl. writ.*
αἱμορροέω, -ῶ; to be αἱμόρροος (αἷμα and ῥέω), to suffer from a flow of blood: Mt. ix. 20. (Sept. Lev. xv. 33, where it means menstruous, and in medical writ.)*
