Apparition
Apparition
(, 2Ma 5:4; ,
Wis 17:3; , Wis 17:15 [14]), the sudden appearance of a “ghost” or the spirit of a departed person (comp. Luk 24:37), or some other preternatural object. SEE SPECTRE. The belief in such occurrences has always been prevalent in the East; and among the modern Mohammedans the existence and manifestation of efreets is held an undoubted reality (Lane’s Mod. Eg. 1, 344). SEE SUPERSTITION. Such a belief, however, has no sanction in the canonical Scriptures beyond the doubtful case of Saul (1Sa 28:14). SEE WITCHCRAFT. The visits of Christ to his disciples after his resurrection come under altogether a different category. SEE APPEARANCE.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Apparition
APPARITION
In Authorized Version this word occurs thrice, in the Apocr. [Note: Apocrypha, Apocryphal.] only: Wis 17:3 (Gr. , Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885 spectral form), 2Ma 3:24 (Gr. , Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885 apparition, (Revised Version margin) manifestation), and 2Ma 5:4 (Gr. , Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885 vision, (Revised Version margin) manifestation). In Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885 it occurs thrice only: Mat 14:26 || Mar 6:49 ( Authorized Version spirit), and 2Ma 3:24 (as above).
The Revisers have used this word in its ordinary current sense of an immaterial appearance, as of a real being, a spectre, phantom, or ghost. There is always connected with this term the idea of a startling or unexpected appearance, which seems also associated with the original . The immaterial appearance of a person supposed to be seen before (double) or soon after death (ghost), is a wraith; but these three synonyms are often interchanged.
The Jews of Christs time, like all unscientific minds (ancient and modern), believed in ghosts naturally, instinctively, uncritically. Dr. Swete (The Gospel according to St. Mark, London, 1898, p. 131) refers to Job 4:15 ff; Job 20:8, and especially to Wis 17:3 (4) and Wis 17:14 (Wis 17:15) for earlier evidence of a popular belief in apparitions among the Hebrew people. The disciples sudden shriek of terror (, Mar 6:49) shows that they thought the phantom was real; but if we try to realize their attitude and outlook, we shall understand the futility of attributing to such nave intelligences the discrimination of modern psychological research. The suggestions of excitable imaginations were indistinguishable from the actual presentations of objective reality. The best illustrations of their habits of thought must be sought in ancient and modern records of Oriental beliefs.
A. Erman (Life in Ancient Egypt, London, 1894, pp. 307, 308) says that the Egyptians did not consider man as a simple individuality; he consisted of at least three parts, the body, the soul, and the ghost, the image, the double, or the genius, according as we translate the Egyptian word . After the death of a man, just as during his lifetime, the was still considered to be the representative of his human personality, and so the body had to be preserved that the might take possession of it when he pleased. It is to their faith in the that we owe all our knowledge of the home life of the people of ancient Egypt.
E. J. W. Gibb (History of Ottoman Poetry, London, 1900, pp. 5659) says that according to the Sufi theory of the human soul it is a spirit, and therefore, by virtue of its own nature, in reality a citizen of the Spirit World. Its true home is there, and hence, for a certain season, it descends into this Physical Plane, where, to enable it to act upon its surroundings, it is clothed in a physical body. The power of passing from the Physical World into the Spiritual is potential in every soul, but is actualized only in a few.
For the mediaeval conception of the nature of ghosts see the locus classicusDante, Purg. xxv. 88108in which Dante explains his conception of the disembodied soul as having the power of operating on matter and impressing upon the surrounding air the shape which it animated in life (Aquinas), thus forming for itself an aerial vesture (Origen and St. Augustine). See also Dante, Conv. translation ii. c. 9, and Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theol. pt. iii. suppl. qu. lxix, art. 1.
Keim (Jesus of Nazara, London, 1879, iv. 184191) critically reviews the various explanations offered of the miracle of Jesus walking over the billows, but says nothing of the word , merely remarking (p. 190): If we adhere to the actual narrative, the going on the water was far from being an act of an ordinary characterit was something divine or ghostly. For the latest criticism of the popular belief of NT times in the manifestations of the spirit world, see P. Wernle, Beginnings of Christianity, London, 1903, pp. 111.
P. Henderson Aitken.
Fuente: A Dictionary Of Christ And The Gospels
Apparition
APPARITION.In RV [Note: Revised Version.] of Mat 14:26 and Mar 6:49 for AV [Note: Authorized Version.] spirit. The Gr. word (phantasma) differs from the usual word for spirit (pneuma). It occurs only in these passages.
Fuente: Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible
Apparition
ap-a-rishun (, ndalma, , epiphaneia; , phantasma): This word is not found in the Old Testament or New Testament canon, the King James Version or the American Standard Revised Version, but occurs twice in the Revised Version (British and American) and thrice in Apocrypha the King James Version as follows: The Wisdom of Solomon 17:3, Greek indalma, the Revised Version (British and American) spectral form; 2 Macc 3:24, Greek epiphaneia, the Revised Version (British and American) apparition, the Revised Version, margin manifestation; 2 Macc 5:4, Greek epiphaneia, the Revised Version (British and American) vision, the Revised Version, margin manifestation. New Testament, Revised Version: Mat 14:26; Mar 6:49; Greek phantasma, the American Standard Revised Version ghost, the King James Version Spirit.
Fuente: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Apparition
“a phantasm or phantom” (from phaino, “to appear”), is translated “apparition” in the RV of Mat 14:26; Mar 6:49 (AV, “spirit”). In the Sept., Job 20:8; Isa 28:7.