LINTEL. The headpiece of a door frame, or window frame. In the A. V. three Hebrew words are thus rendered :— (1.) (t Kings vi. 31i, translated post ' in Ezek. xl., xli. A technical architectural term, of which the exact meaning, in our present ig,norance of Semitic architecture, it is difficult to determine. The LXX. [cod. Alex.] render it cbXcal in Kings, and in Ezekiel leave it untranslated ; aiXci; (sometimes confounded with niXcip., A. V. arches') in which they arc followed by the Chaldee and Syriac ver sions. It is omitted by the Vulgate in Kings, and in Ezekiel rendered frons.' Jarclai renders the word, a round column like a tree,' as if front r6t4= ij;•4 querous ; and Aquila, led astray by the resem blance of the volutes of the classical orders to rams' horns, yhobta, elsewhere always mean ing a ram.' The word, however, is probably connected with the obsolete root and signi fies a projecting architectural member, probably, according to Gesenius, the whole door-case, with its side-posts, lintel, threshold, and structural de corations. This sense would suit the passage in Kings, describing the entrance to the holy of holies (where Michaelis, Supp/., p. 7o, would explain it of the triangular pediment above the doorway), as well as the passages in Ezekiel in which it is used in connection with a doorway, e.g., xl. 9, 21, etc.; xli. 3. ln the plural, Gesenius considers that the word signifies projecting members along the front wall of a building ornamented with pillars or pilasters, with windows between (xl. to, 14, 16 ; xli. r). Ewald (Proph. des Alt. Bund., ii. 362) adopts the same view, rendering it Vorspriinge,' i.e., vorspringendes Mauerwerk.' So also Coc
ceius, projecturae parietis in imo prominentis.' BOttcher (apud Rosenmiiller, &hal., in loc.) very happily adopts the rendering antm,' which appears to come as near to its meaning as any term derived from classical architecture can do.
(2.) iinn, Amos ix. (iXacrilluov, LXX. ; cardo, Vulg.); Zeph. 14. (Odmop,a, LXX. ; limen, Vulg.), in the margin chapiter ' or knop,' a rendering which is unquestionably more correct ; the latter is adopted where the word occurs in the description of the golden candlestick, Exod. xxv. 31, etc. [KrzoP]. Rosenmiiller (Schol., in loc.), however, defends the rendering superliminare,' because the frieze over a doorway was oftcn orna mented with carvinos of the cups of flowers or fruit.
(3.) 9ipv.p. (Exo6d. xii. 22, 23) ; LXX. ; Vulg. superliminare, translated upper doorpost (Exod. xii. 7). There is little doubt of the correct ness of this rendering, the word being derived from to overlay,' especially timber,' e.g., Kings vii. 5. Other meanings and derivations are given in Rosenmiiller, Schol., in loc. e.g.., that of Jarchi, who derives it from the Chaidee 91V, ` to beat,' because the door when it shuts strikes the lintel, and Ibn Esra, who connects it with another mean ing of the Hebrew root, to look dovvn from above ' (cf., Ps. xiv. 2 ; 1XXXV. 12), and translates it ` window,' such as the Arabs have over their house doors. Bochart, adopting this view (p. 679), refers it to the lattice-work above the door through which those who knocked could be in spected. V.