BYSSUS. The Greek word POoaos occurs in Luke xvi. 19, where the rich man is described as being clothed in purple and fine linen; and also in Rev. xviii. 12, 16, and xix. S, 14, among the merchandise, the loss of which would be mourned for by the merchants trading with the mystical Babylon. But it is by many authors still consi dered uncertain whether this byssus was of flax or cotton. Reference has been made to this article both from bad and Butz, and might be also from shesh. For, as Rosenmiiller says, 'The Hebrew word shesh, which occurs thirty times in the two first books of the Pentateuch (v. SHESH, and Celsius, ii. p. 259), is in these places, as well as in Prov. xxxi. 22, by the Greek Alexandrian translators, interpreted byssus, which denotes Egyptian cotton, and also the cotton cloth made from it. In the later writ! ings of the Old Testament, as for example, in the Chronicles, the book of Esther, and Ezekiel, bus is commonly used instead of shesh, as an expres sion for cotton cloth.' This however seems to be inferred rather than proved, and it is just as likely that improved civilization may have in troduced a substance such as cotton, which was unknown at the times when shesh was spoken of and employed ; in the same manner as we know that in Europe woollen, hempen, linen, and cotton clothes have, at one period of society, been more extensively worn than at another.
7Z bad occurs in numerous passages of Scrip ture, as Exod. xxviii. 42, and xxix. 29 ; Lev. vi. 3 ; xvi. 4, 23, 32 ; I Sam. ii. 18 ; xxxii. 18 ; 2 Sam. vi. 14 ; I Chron. xv. 27; Ezek. ix. 2, 3, II; X. 2, 6, 7 ; Dan. x. 5 ; xii. 7. In all these places the word linen is used in the Authorized Version, and Rosenmiiller (Botany of the Bible, p. 175) says, 'The official garments of Hebrew as well as of Egyptian priests, were made of linen, in Hebrew bad.' Celsius. however, (ii. p. 509), states his
opinion thus : Non fuit igitur 12 vulgare linum, ut arbitrati sunt viri quidam doctissimi ; sed linum 2Egypti optimum et subtilissimum ; and he quotes (p. sio) Aben Ezra for its being the same thing as Lutz: Butz idem est quod bad, nempe species lini in JEgypto.' butz or buz occurs in 1 Chron. iv. 21 ; xv. 27 ; 2 Chron. ii. 14 ; iii. 14 ; v. 12 ; Esther i. 6 ; viii. 15 ; Ezek. xxvii. 16 ; and in these passages in the Authorized Version it is rendered fine linen and white linen. According to Celsius, Butz idem est quod Grwci et Latini bysszun adpellant ;' while Rosenmiiller, as above stated, considers buz and byssus to indicate cotton and the cloth made from it ; as does Forster in his book De Bysso Antiquorum.
The mere similarity of name would not prove the correctness of either opinion, for they are not more like than are kootn, and kutan, adduced by Rosenmiiller (Bibl. Bet. p. 176), as the Arabic names of cotton, while in fact they indicate, the first cotton, and the second flax. So at p. 179, the same author states that in the Sanscrit, karpasum denotes a linen cloth.' Now nothing is more certain than that the Sanscrit word indicates cotton, and cotton only, which was no doubt known to the Hebrews during a part at least of the time when the Scriptures were written. Mr. Harmer has justly observed that there were various sorts of linen cloth in the days of an tiquity ; for little copious as the Hebrew language is, there are no fewer than four different words, at least, which have been rendered 'linen,' or 'fine linen,' by our translators.' These words are, bad, Butz, pishtah, and shesii.—[KARPAS, SHESH.] —J. F. R.