Ferret

VIEW:35 DATA:01-04-2020

FERRET (an?qah).?An unclean animal, Lev_11:30, RV ?gecko.? Rabbinical writers suggest the bedgehog, but this is unlikely. For gecko see Lizard.
E. W. G. Masterman.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909

Hebrew 'anaqah, from 'aanaq "to groan." Gosse refers it to the house mouse, from its squeak. Rather the gecko, which croaks as a frog and has feet so formed as to walk on the ceilings of houses which it enters (Lev_29:30, Speaker's Commentary). It is enumerated with unclean creeping things, which favors the view that some lizard is meant.
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.

Ferret. One of the unclean creeping things mentioned in Lev_11:30, The animal referred to was probably a reptile of the lizard tribe, (the gecko). The rabbinical writers seen to have identified this animal with the hedgehog.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863

אנקה , from אנק , or cry out, Lev_11:30. The ferret is a species of the weasel; but Bochart will have the anakah to be the spotted lizard, called by Pliny stellio. Dr. James takes it for the frog, in allusion to the name, which literally signifies the crier, befitting the croaking of that animal; but we shall find the frog mentioned under another name. Dr. Geddes renders it the newt, or rather the lizard of the Nile; and it evidently must be of the lizard species. Pliny mentions “the galleotes, covered with red spots, whose cries are sharp,” which may be the gekko, which is probably the animal here intended. As its name, in the Indies tockai, and in Egypt gekko, is formed from its voice, so the Hebrew name anakah, or perhaps anakkah, seems to be formed in like manner; the double k being equally observable in all these appellations. If these remarks are admissible, this lizard is sufficiently identified.
Biblical and Theological Dictionary by Richard Watson
PRINTER 1849.

fer?et (אנקה, 'ănāḳāh, the Revised Version (British and American) GECKO): Occurs only in Lev_11:30 the King James Version, in the list of animals which are unclean ?among the creeping things that creep upon the earth.? the Revised Version (British and American) has ?gecko? with the marginal note, ?Words of uncertain meaning, but probably denoting four kinds of lizards.? The list of animals in Lev_11:29, Lev_11:30 includes (1) ḥōledh, English Versions of the Bible ?weasel?; (2) ‛akhbār, English Versions of the Bible ?mouse?; (3) cābh, the King James Version ?tortoise,? the Revised Version (British and American) ?great lizard?; (4) 'ănāḳkāh, the King James Version ?ferret,? the Revised Version (British and American) ?gecko?; (5) kōaḥ the King James Version ?chameleon,? the Revised Version (British and American) ?land crocodile?; (6) leṭā'āh, English Versions of the Bible ?lizard?; (7) ḥōmeṭ, the King James Version ?snail,? the Revised Version (British and American) ?sand lizard?; (8) tinshemeth, the King James Version ?mole,? the Revised Version (British and American) ?chameleon.? It will be noted that while Revised Version makes the first two mammals and the remaining six reptiles, the King James Version makes not only (1) and (2) but also (4) and (8) mammals, and (7) a mollusk. So far as this general classification is concerned the King James Version follows the Septuagint, except in the case of (7). It must be borne in mind that all these words except (2) and (8) occur only in this passage, while (2) and (8) occur each in only a few passages where the context throws but uncertain light upon the meaning. Under these circumstances we ought to be content with the rendering of the Septuagint, unless from philology or tradition we can show good reason for differing. For 'ănāḳāh, Septuagint has μυγάλη, mugálē, which occurs in Herodotus and Aristotle and may be a shrew mouse or a field mouse. Just as the next word, kōaḥ, is found in other passages (see CHAMELEON) with the meaning of ?strength,? so 'ănāḳāh occurs in several places signifying ?moaning? or ?sighing? (Psa_12:5; Psa_79:11; Psa_102:20; Mal_2:13). It seems to be from the root, 'ānaḳ, ?to choke,? ?to be in anguish? (compare 'ānāḳ, ?a collar?; ḥānaḳ, ?to choke?; Arabic ‛unḳ, ?neck?; Arabic khanaḳ, ?to strangle?; Greek ἀνάγκη; Latin angustus; German enge, Nacken; English ?anxious,? ?neck?). Some creature seems to be meant which utters a low cry or squeak, and neither ?ferret? (the King James Version) nor ?gecko? (Revised Version (British and American)) seems to have a better claim than the older Septuagint rendering of μυγάλη = ?shrew mouse? or ?field mouse.?

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.

Ferret [LIZARD]
The Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
by John Kitto.

Ferret
evidently a conjectural rendering for anakah' ( אֲנָקָהa sighing; Sept. μυγαλή, Vulg. mygale), one of the unclean creeping things mentioned in. Lev_11:30. The Rabbinical writers seem to have identified this animal with the' hedgehog (see Lewysohn, Zool. des Talmuds, § 129, 134). The Sept. and Vulg. refer to an animal which, according to Aristotle (Hist. Anim. 8:24), is the Mus araneus, or shrew-mouse; but the associated names render it more probable that the animal referred to in Leviticus was a reptile of the lizard tribe (so Bochart and Gesenius), deriving its name from the mournful cry, or wail, which some lizards utter, especially those of the Gecko family. The Lacerta gecko (otherwise called "fan-foot" lizard; Gecko lobulatus, the Ptyodactylus of Hasselquist) is perhaps the animal intended. "The geckos are small lizards, usually somewhat clumsy in form, stealthy and cat-like in their actions, secreting themselves in holes and crevices by day, and at night coming forth to prey upon nocturnal insects. The form of the eve indicates their season of activity, for the pupil, which is capable of great expansion and contraction, closes to a vertical line. The animals crawl with ease and confidence on perpendicular walls, and even on the under sides of ceilings, beams, and-the like, provided these have a somewhat roughened surface. This curious power, the rapidity with which they disappear in some crevice when alarmed, and their sombre and lurid hues, their association with night, their land and harsh, croak, their slow and stealthy pace, and especially a certain sinister expression of countenance, produced by the large globular eye, unprotected by as eyelid and divided by its linear pupil, have combined to give to these reptiles in all countries a popular reputation for malignity and venom, and they are generally much dreaded. This reputation, however, appears to be wholly groundless'; and the story told by Hasselquist of a man who would lay hold of the reptile, and whose hand instantly became covered with red pustules, inflamed and itching, must be received with suspicion. Still more incredible is another account by the same naturalist, to the effect that he saw at Cairo two women and a girl at the point of death from having eaten some cheese over which a gecko had crawled! The most interesting point in the economy of these curious lizards is the structure of their feet, by which they are enabled to defy the laws of gravity. The feet are nearly equal, short, stout, and terminated by five toes, differing- little in length, which radiate as if from a centre, so as to form two thirds of a circle. The under surface of the toes is, in most of the genera, much widened, and furnished with small plates or laminae, overlapping each other in a regular manner, which varies in different genera and species. The toes are frequently united by a membrane at their base. The claws are pointed, hooked, and kept constantly sharp, by an apparatus by which they are capable of retraction, like those of the cat. It is by means of the singular lamellated structure of the under surface of the toes that these reptiles, or at least many of them, are enabled to cling to vertical or even inverted surfaces, as house-flies do. The mode in which this is effected we do not thoroughly understand; but we may conjecture that it is by the raising, of these imbricated plates by muscular action, so as to form a vacuum beneath the sole, when the pressure of the external air causes the toe to adhere firmly to the surface. The similarity of the structure to that of the coronal sucker in the remora suggests this explanation. A familiar illustration of the principle is seen in the leathern suckers which children make, which adhere so firmly that large stones are lifted lay them." SEE LIZARD.

CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.

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