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Bible Dictionaries
Brimstone
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament
or Brimstone (θεῖον),* [Note: θεῖον is a word of uncertain etymology. It may be the neut. Of θεῖος and mean Divine incense, from the supposed purifying and contagion-preventing virtue it burning sulphur; but Curtius allies it with θύω and fumus. Brimstone is the O.E. ‘brenston’ and Scot. ‘bruntstane.’] or sulphur, is scientifically one of the most important or the non-metallic elements, widely distributed in the mineral world, sometimes pure, and sometimes chemically combined with other elements, forming sulphates and sulphides. It is found in greatest abundance in volcanic regions, and is extensively employed in arts and manufactures. Most of what is used in modern Europe is obtained from Sicily, which finds therein one of the sources of its wealth. The ancients used brimstone for ordinary fumigations and especially for religious purifications.
‘Bring hither fire, and hither Sulphur bring
To purge the palace’
(Homer, Od. xxii. 481f.).
In the Graeco-Roman period the hot sulphur springs of Palestine, on both sides of the Dead Sea, at Tiberias, and in the valley of the Yarmuk, were used medicinally. At the direction of his physicians, Herod the Great ‘went beyond the river Jordan, and bathed himself in the warm baths that were at Callirrhoë, which, besides their other general virtues, were also fit to drink’ (Jos. Ant. xvii. vi. 5).
But the biblical meaning, which is invariably determined by Genesis 19:24, reflects the ideas of a pre-scientific age, in which the commercial value and domestic utility of brimstone were unsuspected, while, electric currents and their sulphurous fumes were regarded as indications of the wrath of heaven. ‘Fire and brimstone and a burning wind’ (Psalms 11:6), ‘an overflowing shower, and great hail-stones, fire, and brimstone’ (Ezekiel 38:22), were not the mere symbols, but the actual media of Divine judgment. The association of lightning and brimstone was wide-spread and persistent, the ozonic odour which accompanies electric discharges being ascribed to the presence of sulphur, ‘Fulmina, fulgura quoque,’ says Pliny, ‘sulfuris odorem habent, ac lux ipsa eorum sulfurea est’ (Historia Naturalis (Pliny) xxxv. 1. [15]). ‘Sulfur aethereum’ (Lucan, vii. 160) and ‘sulfur sacrum’ (Pers. ii. 25) are synonyms for lightning, and Shakespeare’s ‘stones of sulphur’ are thunderbolts.
The prophetic writer of Revelation naturally retains the old picturesque language with its dread suggestion. His armies of angelic horsemen have breastplates of fire and of hyacinth and of brimstone-red and blue and yellow-and their breath is fire and smoke and brimstone (Revelation 9:17). The worshippers of the Beast and his image are to be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the angels and the Lamb (Revelation 14:10). And the destruction of the wicked in the end of the age will be a magnified repetition of the overthrow of the cities of the Ghôr-the godless multitude are to be cast into the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death (Revelation 2:18; cf. Revelation 19:20; Revelation 20:10).
James Strahan.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Brimstone'. Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdn/b/brimstone.html. 1906-1918.
