IGNORANCE (Ig'n6-rans), (Heb. 71a, shirty gaw', Lev. iv:2, 6), the want of knowledge or instruction.
It is often used to denote illiteracy. The causes of ignorance are chiefly three : (I) Want of ideas; (2) want of a discoverable connection between the ideas we have; (3) want of tracing and examining our ideas. As it respects religion, ignorance has been distinguished into three sorts An inVin cible ignorance, in which the will has. no part (Acts xvii:3o). It is an insult upon justice. to suppose it will punish men because they were ignorant of things which they were physically in ca.pable of knowing. 2. There is a willfu/ and ob stmatc ignorance; such an ignorance, far from ex culpating, aggravates a man s crimes (Acts iii :17).
3. A sort of voluntary ignorance, which is neither entirely willful nor entirely invincible ; as when a man has the means of knowledge, and does not use them (Eph. iv :18). (See SIN.) Specific Scripture Allusions. Heathen are "ignorant;"destitute of the true knowledge of God (Acts xvii :23). Wicked teachers are "ignorant;" they know not what they ought to teach others (Is. Ivi:to). Paul sinned 'Ignorantly" against
Christ before his conversion, not knowing the truth of the Christian religion (I Tim. i :13). Peter and John were "ignorant;" that is, not trained up in the schools of polite learning (Acts iv :I3).
I. H. S. There are three interpretations of this mystic title. One is that the letters are initials of the words "In Hoc Signo" 'in this sign,' which ap peared on the luminous cross supposed to have been miraculously displayed before the army of Constantine.
Another is that they are the initials of the words Jesus Hominuni, Salvator, 'Jesus Savior of Men.' The third is that they are the first three letters of the Greek word I-ay-sous, Jesus. This last explanation is upheld by the Cambridge Camden Society, in a work called, Argument for the Greek Origin of the Monogranz I. H. S. (Lond. 1841).
TIM (i'im), (Heb.17".;1, ee-yeents, ruins), a short form Of IJE-ABARIM.