KEUCHENIUS, PETRUS, a learned Dutch theologian, was born at Bois-le-Duc, 22d August 1654, and studied at Leyden and Utrecht, where he had Spanheim, Le Moyne, Witsius, and Lens den for his teachers • and was successively minister at Alem, Tiel, and 'Arnheim, at which last place he died 27th March 1689. He wrote Annotata in onznes N. T. Libros, the second and only complete edition of which, superintended by Alberti, ap peared at Leyden in 1755. The author's aim in these annotations is to throw light on the N. T. by determining the sense in which words and phrases were used at the time it was written, and among those with whom its writers were familiar. For this purpose he compares the language of the N..T. with that of the LXX-, and calls in aid from the Chaldee and Syriac versions. His notes are characterised by sound learning and great good sense. Alberti commends in strong terrns his erudition, his candour, solidity, and impartiality.— W. L. A.
KEY, rant3. The only passage in which we read of a key being employed is Judg. iii. 25, where we find Eglon, after his assassination of Ehud, bolting and barring 61/?) the door, which cotzld not be opened again until the servants brought the key' (the A. V. omits the article), and pushed back the bar. This corresponds with what we know of the construction of early Orien tal locks, which consisted merely of a wooden slide, drawn into its place by a string, and fas tened there by teeth or catches ; the key being a bit of wood, crooked like a sickle, which lifted up the slide and extracted it from its catches, after which it was drawn back by the string. At a
later period, when iron came into general use, keys were made of that metal, and Sir G. Wilkinson, Anc. Egyptians, ii. ro9, ff., gives a drawing of one found at Thebes, about five inches long, with three teeth projecting from a bar at right angles to the shank. But even in the present day, as in Theve not's time, both locks and keys are of wood, and the former are of so clumsy a. construction that they can be e.asily opened without the key, as a little paste on the end of the finger will do the job as well.' An allusion to this has been seen in Cant. v. 4, 5 (Jahn, Heb. Ant. ; Harmer, Obs., vol. i. 394 ; Wilkinson, u.s.) The 'key on the shoulder' is used as the emblem of official dignity, cor responding to the chamberlain's keys of modem days, in the case of Eliakirn, Is. xxii. 22, when he succeeded Shebna, on his degradation, as master of the king's household, Is. xxii. 15-2o; xxxvi. 3. The expression is transferred in a mystiad or spiritual sense to Christ, Rev. iii. 7 ; cf. i.
The Rabbins say that God has reserved to him self four keys, entrusting them to none, no not to the angels—those of rain, the grave, fruitfulness, and barrenness--E. V.