the Third Week of Advent
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Bible Dictionaries
Earth
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
or 'erets in Hebrew; gee in Greek, designating either the whole globe, or land as opposed to sea, or a particular land; to be distinguished by the context. A distinct term expresses the material of which the earth consists damaah , the "ground," "soil," from whence Adam was named (Genesis 2:7), his body coming from and returning to the earth (Genesis 3:19), a different word "dust" (Job 10:9; Ecclesiastes 12:7). Naaman desired to have two mules' burden of earth of the Holy Land ('Εretz Ιsrael ), whether for an altar or other sacred purpose (Exodus 20:24), a half-paganish nation that God would accept devotions in connection with that soil rather than with any other.
In James 5:17 it is translated: "it rained not on the land (of Israel)"; for the drought was a judgment, not on the whole earth, but on Israel; compare Luke 4:25. So in Luke 23:44 "there was darkness over all the land," not "all the earth"; compare Matthew 27:45. In 1 Corinthians 15:47-49, "the first man is of the earth, earthy," contrasted with "the Lord from heaven" and "the heavenly," the term is choikos , not merely earthly, i.e. born upon earth, but "earthy," literally, "of heaped clay," answering to the surface "dust" in the Old Testament of which man is made; not merely terrestrial, but terrene, therefore, transitory.
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Fausset, Andrew R. Entry for 'Earth'. Fausset's Bible Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/fbd/e/earth.html. 1949.
