FOREHEAD. Marks upon the forehead, for the purpose of distinguishing the holy from the profane, arc mentioned in Ezek. Lx. 4, and again in Rev. vii. 3. These passages may be explained by reference to thc customs of other nations. Thus the Rev. J. Maurice, speaking of the rites which must be performed by the Hindoos before they can enter the great pagoda, says, an indispensable ceremony takes place, which can only be performed by the hand of a Brahmin ; and that is, the impress. ing of their foreheads with the tiluk, or mark of different colours, as they may belong either to the sect of Veeshn u or Seeva. If the temple be that of Veeshnu, their foreheads are marked with a longi tudinal line, and the colour used is vermilion. If it be the temple of Seeva, they are marked with a parallel line, and the colour used is turmeric of saffron. But these two grand sects being again sub-divided into numerous classes, both the size and the shape of the tiluk are varied in proportion to their superior or inferior rank. In regard to the ghth I must observe, that it was a custom, of very ancient date in Asia, to mark their servants. It is alluded to in these words of Ezekiel, where the Almighty commands his angels to Go through the midst of the city, and set a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh for the abominations corn, mitted in the midst thereof' (ix. 4)• The classical idolaters used to consecrate them selves to particular deities on the same principle. The marks used on these occasions were various. Sometimes they contained the name of the god ; sometimes his particular ensign, as thc thunderbolt of Jupiter, the trident of Neptune, the ivy of Bac chus, etc. ; or else they marked themselves with some mystical number whereby the god was de scribed. Thus, the sun, who was signified by the number 6oS, is said to have been represented by the two numeral letters XH.
If this analogy be admitted, the mark on the forehead may be taken to be derived from the analogous custom among the heathen of bearing on their forehead the mark of the gods whose votaries they were. Some, however, would rather under stand the allusion to refer to the custom of marking cattle, and even slaves, with the sign of ownership.
There has been much speculation respecting the mark itself. It was a Jewish 11W-ion that it was the letter n, because that was the first letter of the Hebrew word in11-1, the law,' as if it pointed out those who were obedient to the sacred code ; or because it was the first letter of the word rpm, thou shalt live.' It is indeed al leged that the angel had orders to write this mys terious letter with ink upon the foreheads of the righteous, and with blood upon the foreheads of the wicked ; in the one case signifying, thou shalt live,' and in the other, 'thou shalt die.' The early Christian commentators readily adopted the notion that the mark was the letter n, but alleged that its form was that of a cross in the old Samari tan alphabet which was used in the time of Ezekiel. Indeed both Jerome and Origen distinctly' allege that the letter still bore that form in their time : and although the letter does not retain that form in the present Samaritan alphabet, there is cer tainly evidence of its being represented on old coins by the character t; and another proof arises from the fact of its being represented by T in the Greek alphabet, which is derived from the Phoenician. lt having been thus settled that the character marked on the forehead was the letter n in its an cient cruciform shape, it VMS easy to reach the con clusion that the mark on the forehead denoted salvation by the cross of Christ.
This is very ingenious ; but there is no proof that the mark was the letter n, or any letter at all. The word employed is VI lay, and means simply a mark or sign (not a letter), and is so rendered in the Septuagint, the Targum, and by the best Jewish commentators. The name of the letter n is, how ever, probably from this word, and in this fact we have perhaps the source of the conjecture. It is, however, a curious circumstance that the analogous Arabic word Lci.:1 denotes a mark in the form of a cross, which was branded on the flanks or necks of horses and camels (Freytag's Lex. Arab. s. v.) See Havernick's Commentar. iiber Ezekiel, and Gill's Exposition, on Ezek. ix. 4.—J. K.