ANVIL (an'vil), (Heb. pah'am, beaten), the iron block on which the smith lays his metal to be forge:.
It varies in shape according as the metal varies in which the smith works. It generally has a beak or horn at one end for forging hollow or rounded work, and stands on a wooden block (Is. xli :7).
The description of the metal worker in Is. 6. 7, is one that might have been taken from the Arab workshop of the present day. As the Orien tal artisan has only a few simple tools at his command, his work lacks the precision and uni formity attained in the West by elaborate ma chinery. Hence vivacious comment during the process of manufacture, and a feeling of triumph at times when the article turns out according to sample. The act of welding on the anvil, to which the prophet alludes, is especially a moment of noisy enthusiasm and mutual encouragement be tween the smith and his fellow-workman on the other side of the anvil. They then call out to each other to strike more rapidly and vigorously, before the metal cools, crying shidd!' the Arabic equivalent of Isaiah's 'be of good courage!' Then the term applied to the soldering Arabic 'tayyib!' that is, 'good!'—is at once a call to cease from further hammering and a declaration that the work is satisfactory. (G. M. Mackie. Hastings' Bib. Diet.) APE (al)), Web. :7 7, koth, whence the Latin ized name Cephusl.
In the Hebrew and Semitic cognate tongues, and in the classical languages, these names, under various modifications, designate the Simiad:r. in cluding, no doubt, species of Cercopithecus, Mac acus and Cynoceplialus, or Guenons, apes and baboons; that is. all the animals of the quadru manous order known to the i lebrews, Arabs, Egyptians and the classical writers. Accordingly, we find Pliny and Solinus speaking of Ethiopian Cephi exhibited at Rome. and in the upper part of the celebrated Pramestine mosaic representing the inundation of the Nile, figures of Simiadx occur in the region which indicates Nubia; among others, one in a tree with the name Ke-i-pen be side it, which may be taken for a Cercopithecus of the Guenon group But in the triumphal proces sion of Thothmes 111 at Thebe, nations from the interior of Africa, probably from Nubia. bear curi osities and tribute, among which the Camelopard ahs or Giraffe and six quadrumana may be ob served. The smallest and most effaced animals may he apes, but the others. and in particular the three figured and colored from careful drawings, in Plate xxi of Rosellini's work, are undoubtedly Macaci or Cynocephali, that is, species of the genus baboon, or baboon like apes. Naturalists
and commentators, not deterred by the intermin able list of errors which the practice has occa sioned, are often unnecessarily anxious to assign the names of animals noticed in Scripture and in the ancient classics to species characterized by the moderns, although the original designations are to he taken in a familiar sense, and often ex tend even beyond a generical meaning.
Among the articles of merchandise imported by Solomon's fleet was the Kophe (I Kings x:22; 2 Chron, 1x :2t). The Greek writers mention a sort of ape, native of Ethiopia and around the Red Sea, called Kephos, or Keipos, or Kebos, which comes near to the Hebrew Kuph, or Koph. It was about the size of a roebuck. The Egyptians of Babylon, in Egypt, adored a kind of ape, which Strabo calls Keipos, and they arc still worshiped in many places of India.
The only species of ape of the baboon form known in Arabia is the Nlocko.
Comparing the characters of this species, we find it by configuration, colors and manners pe culiarly adapted to the purposes of idolatry in its grossest and most debasing aspect. The He brew people. already familiar with a similar wor ship in Egypt, may have copied the native tribes in the wilderness, and thus drawn upon them selves the remonstrance in Lev. xvii :7, where the allusion to these animals is very descriptive, as is that in is. xiii :21 ; and again. xxxiv:t4, where the image is perfect, when we picture to our selves the 'hairy ones' lurking about the river in the juniper and licorice jungle. it is not un likely that the baboon idol may have had goat's horns, since we find the same attribute on rams' heads in Egypt ; on lions' heads on coins of Tarsus, and on horses' and elephants' heads on medals of Syrian kings.
APELLES (Gr. 'ArcXXiis.
a Christian at Rome, whom Paul salutes in his Epistle to the Church there (Rom. xvi:to), and calls 'approved in Christ,' an approved Christian.
Origen doubts whether he may not have been the same person with Apollos; but this is far from likely. (See Arou.os.) According to the old church traditions Apelles was one of the seventy disciples and bishop either of Smyrna or I Ierac lcia (Epiph. Cont. lhrres, p. 20 ; Fabrici Lex. Erangelii, pp. t 15, t to, etc.). The name itself is notable from Horace's 'Credat Jud:rus Apella, non ego' (Sat. i :5). by which he less probably means a circumcised Jew in general, as many think, than a particular Jew of that name well-known at Rome.