Games

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GAMES
I. Among the Israelites.—The Jews were essentially a serious people. What in other nations developed into play and games of various kinds, had with them a seriously practical and often a religious character. Their dances were a common form of religious exercise, which might indeed degenerate into disorderly or unseemly behaviour, but were only exceptionally a source of healthy social amusement (Psa_150:4, Exo_32:6; Exo_32:19, 2Sa_6:14 ff., Jer_31:4, Ecc_3:4). Music, again was especially associated with sacred song. Its secular use was condemned by Isaiah as a sign of extravagant luxury (Isa_5:12). Lots and the like were used as a means of ascertaining the Divine will, not for amusement or profit. Even what with children might be called games of ‘make believe’ became with some of the prophets vehicles of religious instruction. The symbolic object-lessons of Ezekiel were like children’s toys adapted to a religious purpose (see esp. ch. 4). Even this humour of the prophets, striking as it was, was intensely serious: witness the scathing ridicule of Phœnician idolatry by Elijah and Deutero-Isaiah (1Ki_18:27, Isa_44:12-20; Isa_46:1-2).
It is a matter of some dispute whether manly sports had any place in the social life of the Israelites. There was undoubtedly some sort of training in the use of weapons, particularly the sling (among the Benjamites especially) and the bow, for the purposes of warfare and the chase. We have a definite reference to the custom of practising at a mark in 1Sa_20:20; 1Sa_20:35 ff., and there are several metaphorical allusions to the same practice (Job_16:12-13, Lam_3:12). Again, it has also been thought that we have in the burdensome stone of Zec_12:2 an allusion to a custom of lifting a heavy stone either as a test of strength or as a means of strengthening the muscles; but there is no actual proof that there was any sort of competitive contest in such exercises. It may be suggested, however, on the other hand, that the practice of determining combats by selected champions, one or more, from either side, which we read of in 1Sa_17:10, 2Sa_2:13-16, and the expression used in the latter case, ‘let the young men … arise and play before us,’ makes it likely that friendly tournaments were not unknown.
Riddle-guessing is the one form of competition of which we have any certain proof. In Jdg_14:12-14 the propounding and guessing of riddles as a wager appears as part of the entertainment of a marriage feast. The questions put by the queen of Sheba to Solomon probably belong to the same category (1Ki_10:1; 1Ki_10:3). Indeed, the propounding of ‘dark sayings’ was a common element in proverbial literature (Psa_78:2, Pro_1:6).
Children’s Games.—Games of play are so invariable an element of child life among all peoples, that it hardly needs proof that the Israelites were no exception to the rule. The playing of the boys and girls in the streets of the glorified Jerusalem (Zec_8:6) might indeed mean nothing more than kitten play; but fortunately we have in Mat_11:15. || Luk_7:31 f. a most interesting allusion to the games (mock-weddings and mock-funerals) played in the market-place in our Lord’s time, as they are played in Palestine at the present day.
We read in 2Ma_4:9-17 how Jason the high priest and the head of the Hellenizing party, having bribed Antiochus Epiphanes with 150 talents of silver, set up ‘a place of exercise’ (gymnasium) for the training up of youths ‘in the practices of the heathen.’ The only game specifically mentioned is the discus. There is also mentioned in 2Ma_4:18 ‘a game’ that was held every fifth year at Tyre—evidently an imitation of the Olympic games. Later, Herod the Great appears from Josephus (Ant. XV. viii. 1) to have provoked a conspiracy of the Jews by building a theatre and an amphitheatre at Jerusalem for the spectacular combats of wild beasts, and to have initiated very splendid games every five years in honour of Cæsar. These included wrestling and chariot races, and competitors were attracted from all countries by the very costly prizes.
II. Games of Greece and Rome.—Athletic contests formed a very important feature in the social life of the Greeks. They originated in pre-historic times, and were closely associated with religious worship. Thus the Olympic games were held in honour of Olympian Zeus in connexion with the magnificent temple in Olympia in Elis; the Isthmian games on the Isthmus of Corinth in honour of Poseidon; the Pythian were associated with the worship of the Pythian Apollo at Delphi; the Nemean were celebrated at Nemea, a valley of Argolis, to commemorate the Nemean Zeus. These four games were great Pan-Hellenic festivals, to which crowds came from all parts, not only free-born Greeks, but also foreigners, although the latter, except the Romans in later times, were not allowed to compete. The most important of these games were the Olympic. They were held every four years, and so great was the occasion that from the year b.c. 264 events as far back as 776 were computed by them. The period between one celebration and another was called an Olympiad, and an event was said to have occurred in the 1Jam_2:1-26 nd, 3rd, or 4th year of such an Olympiad. The Isthmian games, which took place biennially in the first and third year of each Olympiad, seem to have been modelled on very much the same lines as the Olympic. To the Biblical student they have a more direct interest, as it is highly probable that the frequent allusions to such contests by St. Paul (see esp. 1Co_9:24-27) were due to his personal observation of these games, which must have taken place while he was at Corinth. As, however, our knowledge of the Olympic games, of which several ancient writers have left us particulars, is far more complete, it often happens that the language of St. Paul is more easily illustrated from them. It should be mentioned also in this connexion that besides these four great athletic contests, games of a local character, often in imitation of the Olympic, were held throughout Greece and her colonies in all towns of importance, which had both their stadium and their theatre. The most important of these, from the Biblical student’s point of view, were the games of Ephesus. With these St. Paul was certainly familiar, and, as will be seen below, allusions to games are remarkably frequent in writings connected with Ephesus.
The contests at Olympia included running, boxing, wrestling, chariot races, and other competitions both for men and for youths. The judges, who seem also to have acted as a sort of managing committee, with many dependents, were chosen by lot, one for each division of Elis. They held at once a highly honoured and a very difficult post, and were required to spend ten months in learning the duties of their office. For the last 30 days of this period they were required personally to superintend the training of the athletes who were preparing to compete. In addition to this, the athletes were required to swear before competing that they had spent ten months previously in training. We thus realize the force of such allusions as that of 1Ti_4:7-8, where St. Paul insists on the greater importance of the training unto godliness than that of the body. These facts also add point to the allusions in 2Ti_2:5. An athlete is not crowned unless he contend ‘according to regulation.’ These regulations required the disqualification not only of the disfranchised and criminals, but of those who had not undergone the required training. It is the last to which the passage seems especially to point.
The prize, while it differed in different places, was always a crown of leaves. At Olympia it was made of wild olive; in the Isthmus, in St. Paul’s time, of pine leaves; at Delphi, of ‘laurel’; at Nemea, of parsley. In addition to this, at Olympia, Delphi, and probably elsewhere, the victor had handed to him a palm-branch as a token of victory. It is almost impossible to exaggerate the honour attached to winning the prize in these contests. The victor entered his native city in triumphal procession; he had conferred upon him many privileges and immunities, and his victory was frequently celebrated in verse. His statue might be, and often was, placed in the sacred grove of Elis, and he was looked upon as a public benefactor. St. Paul in 1Co_9:24-27 makes use of the spirit of these contests to illustrate to the Corinthians, to whom it must have specially appealed, the self-denial, the strenuousness, and the glorious issue of the Christian conflict, drawing his metaphorical allusions partly from the foot-race and partly from the boxing and wrestling matches. ‘They do it to receive a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, as not uncertainly; so fight I, as not beating the air; but I buffet my body, and bring it into bondage,’ etc.
There is a very interesting allusion to the games of Ephesus in 2Ti_4:7 ‘I have contended the good contest, I have completed the race … henceforth is laid up for me the crown of righteousness,’ etc. This stands in striking contrast to Php_3:12-16 ‘Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect: but I press on … forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before, I press on toward the goal unto the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.’ Here again it is the intense eagerness of the athlete that is specially in St. Paul’s mind. We have many other allusions by St. Paul to the foot-race, as in Rom_9:16, Gal_2:2; Gal_5:7, Php_2:16, Act_20:24. These generally refer to the ‘course’ of life and conduct. The last passage, it should be remembered, is addressed to the elders at Ephesus. The full significance of Rom_9:16 is missed unless we realize the intensity of effort required by the racer. The supreme effort of the will is worthless without the grace of God.
We have allusions to the wrestling match certainly in Eph_6:12, where St. Paul speaks of wrestling against spiritual forces, and probably to boxing in Eph_4:27, where ‘giving place’ means giving vantage-ground to the spiritual foe. In connexion with Ephesus we may notice also the allusion in Act_19:31 to the Asiarchs—the officers who superintended the games. The reference to fighting ‘with wild beasts at Ephesus’ in 1Co_15:32 is probably a metaphorical allusion to such contests as were common afterwards in the Colosseum at Rome, and were, according to Schmitz (see ‘Isthmia’ in Smith’s Dict. of Gr.-Rom. Ant.), probably introduced into the Isthmian games about this time.
Outside St. Paul’s writings there is an important reference to athletic contests in Heb_12:1-2. Here the two points emphasized are: (1) the ‘cloud of witnesses’ (Gr. martyres), whose past achievements are to encourage the Christian combatants for the faith; (2) the self-sacrifice and earnestness needed in running the Christian race. The Christian athlete must lay aside every ‘weight’—every hindrance to his work, just as the runner divested himself of his garments, having previously by hard training got rid of all superfluous flesh,—and look only to Christ. Again, in Rev_7:9 we have in the palms in the hands of the great company of martyrs a very probable reference to the palms given to the successful competitors in the games. Here, again, it should be borne in mind that it was to Ephesus and the surrounding towns, the district of the great Ephesian games, that St. John was writing.
F. H. Woods.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909

Of children, Zec_8:5. Imitating marriages and funerals, Mat_11:16-17. The earnestness of the Hebrew character indisposed adults to games. Public games they had none, the great feasts of religion supplying them with their anniversary occasions of national gatherings. Jason's introduction of Greek games and a gymnasium was among the corrupting influences which broke down the fence of Judaism, and threw it open to the assaults of the Old Testament antichrist, Antiochus Epiphanes (1Ma_1:14; 2Ma_4:12-14). Herod erected a theater and amphitheater, with quinquennial contests in gymnastics, chariot races, music, and wild beasts, at Jerusalem and Caesarea, to the annoyance of the faithful Jews (Josephus, Ant 15:8, sec. 1; 9, sec. 6). The "chiefs of Asia" (Asiarchs) superintended the games in honor of Diana at Ephesus (Act_19:31).
In 1Co_15:32 Paul alludes to "fights with beasts" (though his fights were with beast-like men, Demetrius and his craftsmen, not with beasts, from which his Roman citizenship exempted him), at Ephesus. The "fighters with beasts" were kept to the "last" of the "spectacle"; this he alludes to, 1Co_4:9; "God hath set forth (exhibited previous to execution) us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death, for we are made a spectacle unto the world," etc., a "gazing stock" as in an amphitheater (Heb_10:33). The Asiarchs' friendliness was probably due to their having been interested in his teaching during his long stay at Ephesus. Nero used to clothe the Christians in beast skins when he exposed them to wild beasts; compare 2Ti_4:17, "I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion" (namely, from Satan's snare, 1Pe_5:8).
In 2Ti_4:7, "I have striven the good strife," not merely a fight, any competitive contest as the race-course, 1Ti_6:12 which was written from Corinth, where national games recurred at stated seasons, which accounts for the allusion: "strive" with such earnestness in "the good strife" as to "lay hold" on the prize, the crown or garland of the winner, "eternal life." (See TIMOTHY.) Jas_1:12; Rev_2:10. Php_3:12-14; "not as though I had attained," namely, the prize, "or am already perfected" (Greek), i.e., my course completed and I crowned with the garland of perfect victory; "I follow after," i.e. I press on, "if that I may apprehend (grasp) that for which I am apprehended of (grasped by) Christ," i.e., if so be that I may lay hold on the prize for obtaining which I was laid hold on by Christ at conversion (Son_1:4; 1Co_13:12).
"Forgetting those things behind (the space already past, contrast 2Ti_3:7; 2Pe_1:9) and reaching forth unto those things before," like a race runner with body bent forward, the eye reaching before and drawing on the hand, the hand reaching before and drawing on the foot. The "crown (garland) of righteousness," "of life," "of glory," is "the prize of the high calling (the calling that is above, coming from, and leading to, heaven) of God in Christ Jesus" (1Th_2:12), given by "the righteous Judge" (2Ti_4:8; 1Pe_5:4). The false teacher, as a self constituted umpire, would "defraud you of your prize" (katabrabeueto), by drawing you away from Christ to angel worship (Col_2:18). Therefore "let the peace of God as umpire rule (brabeueto) in your hearts" and restrain wrong passions, that so you may attain the prize "to the which ye are called" (Col_3:15).
In 1Co_9:24 the Isthmian games, celebrated on the isthmus of Corinth, are vividly alluded to. They were a subject of patriotic pride to the Corinthians, a passion rather than a pastime; so a suitable image of Christian earnestness. Paul wrote 1 Corinthians at Ephesus, and in addressing the Ephesian elders he uses naturally the same image, an undesigned coincidence (Act_20:24). "So (with the determined earnestness of the ONE earthly winner) run, that ye may obtain" is such language as instructors in the gymnasts and spectators on the race-course would urge on the runners with. The competitor had to "strive lawfully" (2Ti_2:5), i.e. observing the conditions of the contest, keeping to the bounds of the course, and stripped of clothes, and previously training himself with chastity, abstemious diet, anointing, enduring cold, heat, and severe exercise.
As a soldier the believer is one of many; as an athlete he has to wage an individual struggle continually, as if (which is the case in a race) one alone could win; "they who run in the stadium (racecourse, oblong, at one end semicircular, where the tiers of spectators sat), run all, but one receiveth the prize." Paul further urges Christians, run so as not only to receive salvation but a full reward (compare 1Co_3:14-15; 2Jn_1:8). Pugilism is the allusion in "I keep under (Greek: I bruise under the eyes, so as to disable) my body (the old flesh, whereas the games competitor boxed another I box myself), and bring it into subjection as a slave, lest that by any means, when I have preached (heralded, as the heralds summoned the candidates to the race) to others, I myself should be a castaway" (Greek: rejected), namely, not as to his personal salvation of which he had no doubts (Gal_1:15; Eph_1:4; Eph_1:7; Php_1:6; Tit_1:2; 2Ti_1:12), but as to the special reward of those who "turn many to righteousness" (Dan_12:3; 1Th_2:19).
So Paul denied himself, in not claiming sustenance, in view of "reward," namely, "to gain the more" (1Co_9:18-23). 1Co_9:25; "striveth for the mastery," namely, in wrestling, more severe than the foot-race. The "crown" (garland, not a king's diadem) is termed "corruptible," being made of the soon withering fir leaves from the groves round the Isthmian racecourse. Our crown is "incorruptible" (1Pe_1:4). "I run not as uncertainly," i.e. not without a definite goal, in "becoming all things to all men" I aim at "gaining the more." Ye gain no end, he implies to the Corinthians, in your eating idol meats. He who knows what to aim at, and how to aim, looks straight to the goal, and casts away every encumbrance (Heb_12:1). So the believer must cast aside not only sinful lusts, but even harmless and otherwise useful things which would retard him (Mar_9:42-48; Mar_10:50; Eph_4:22; Col_3:9).
"He must run with enduring perseverance the race set before him." "Not as one that beateth the air," in a skiamachia, or sparring in sham fight, striking the air as if an adversary. Satan is a real adversary, acting through the flesh. The "so great a cloud of witnesses" (Heb_12:1-2) that "we are compassed about with" attest by their own case God's faithfulness to His people (Heb_6:12).
A second sense is nowhere positively sustained by Scripture, namely, that, as the crowd of surrounding spectators gave fresh spirit to the combatants, so the deceased saints who once were in the same contest, and who now are witnessing our struggle of faith, ought to increase our earnestness, testifying as they do to God's faith. fullness; but see Job_14:21; Ecc_9:5; Isa_63:16, which seemingly deny to disembodied spirits consciousness of earthly affairs. "Looking off unto Jesus (aforontes, with eye fixed on the distant goal) the Prince-leader and Finisher (the Starting point and the Goal, as in the diaulos race, wherein they doubled back to the starting point) of our faith" (2Ti_3:7).
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.

Games. Among the Greeks, the rage for theatrical exhibitions was such that every city of any size possessed its theatre and stadium. At Ephesus, an annual contest was held in honor of Diana. It is probable that St. Paul was present when these games were proceeding. A direct reference to the exhibitions that I took place on such occasions is made in 1Co_15:32. St. Paul's Epistles abound with allusions to the Greek contests, borrowed probably from the Isthmian games, at which he may well have been present during his first visit to Corinth.
These contests, 1Ti_6:12; 2Ti_4:7, were divided into two classes,
the pancratium, consisting of boxing and wrestling, and
the pentathlon, consisting of leaping, running, quoiting, hurling the spear and wrestling.
The competitors, 1Co_9:25; 2Ti_2:5, required a long and severe course of previous training, 1Ti_4:8, during which a particular diet was enforced. 1Co_9:25; 1Co_9:27. In the Olympic contests, these preparatory exercises extended over a period of ten months, during the last of which, they were conducted under the supervision of appointed officers. The contests took place in the presence of a vast multitude of spectators, Heb_12:1, the competitors being the spectacle. 1Co_4:9; Heb_10:33.
The games were opened by the proclamation of a herald, 1Co_9:27, whose office it was to give out the name and country of each candidate, and, especially, to announce the name of the victor before the assembled multitude.
The judge was selected for his spotless integrity; 2Ti_4:8, his office was to decide any disputes, Col_3:15, and to give the prize, 1Co_9:24; Php_3:14, consisting of a crown, 2Ti_2:6; 2Ti_4:8, of leaves of wild olive at the Olympic games, and of pine, or at one period ivy, at the Isthmian games. St. Paul alludes to two only out of the five contests, boxing and running, more frequently to the latter. The Jews had no public games, the great feasts of religion supplying them with anniversary occasions of national gatherings.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863

Games and combats were instituted by the ancients in honour of their gods; and were celebrated with that view by the most polished and enlightened nations of antiquity. The most renowned heroes, legislators, and statesmen, did not think it unbecoming their character and dignity, to mingle with the combatants, or contend in the race; they even reckoned it glorious to share in the exercises, and meritorious to carry away the prize. The victors were crowned with a wreath of laurel in presence of their country; they were celebrated in the rapturous effusions of their poets; they were admired, and almost adored, by the innumerable multitudes which flocked to the games, from every part of Greece, and many of the adjacent countries. They returned to their own homes in a triumphal chariot, and made their entrance into their native city, not through the gates which admitted the vulgar throng, but through a breach in the walls, which were broken down to give them admission; and at the same time to express the persuasion of their fellow citizens, that walls are of small use to a city defended by men of such tried courage and ability. Hence the surprising ardour which animated all the states of Greece to imitate the ancient heroes, and encircle their brows with wreaths, which rendered them still more the objects of admiration or envy to succeeding times, than the victories they had gained, or the laws they had enacted.
2. But the institutors of those games and combats had higher and nobler objects in view than veneration for the mighty dead, or the gratification of ambition or vanity; it was their design to prepare the youth for the profession of arms; to confirm their health; to improve their strength, their vigour, and activity; to inure them to fatigue; and to render them intrepid in close fight, where, in the infancy of the art of war, muscular force commonly decided the victory. This statement accounts for the striking allusions which the Apostle Paul makes in his epistles to these celebrated exercises. Such references were calculated to touch the heart of a Greek, and of every one familiarly acquainted with them, in the liveliest manner, as well as to place before the eye of his mind the most glowing and correct images of spiritual and divine things. No passages in the nervous and eloquent epistles from the pen of St. Paul, have been more admired by the critics and expositors of all times, than those into which some allusion to these agonistic exercises is introduced; and, perhaps, none are calculated to leave a deeper impression on the Christian's mind, or excite a stronger and more salutary influence on his actions. Certain persons were appointed to take care that all things were done according to custom, to decide controversies that happened among the antagonists, and to adjudge the prize to the victor. Some eminent writers are of opinion that Christ is called the “Author and Finisher of faith,” in allusion to these judges. Those who were designed for the profession of athletae, or combatants, frequented from their earliest years the academies, maintained for that purpose at the public expense. In these places they were exercised under the direction of different masters, who employed the most effectual methods to inure their bodies for the fatigues of the public games, and to form them for the combats. The regimen to which they submitted was very hard and severe. At first, they had no other nourishment than dried figs, nuts, soft cheese, and a gross heavy sort of bread called μαζα; they were absolutely forbidden the use of wine, and enjoined continence. When they proposed to contend in the Olympian games, they were obliged to repair to the public gymnasium at Elis, ten months before the solemnity, where they prepared themselves by continual exercises. No man that had omitted to present himself at the appointed time, was allowed to be a candidate for the prizes; nor were the accustomed rewards of victory given to such persons, if by any means they insinuated themselves, and overcame their antagonists; nor would any apology, though seemingly ever so reasonable, serve to excuse their absence. No person that was himself a notorious criminal, or nearly related to one, was permitted to contend. Farther, to prevent underhand dealings, if any person was convicted of bribing his adversary, a severe fine was laid upon him; nor was this alone thought a sufficient guard against unfair contracts, and unjust practices, but the contenders were obliged to swear they had spent ten whole months in preparatory exercises; and, beside all this, they, their fathers, and their brethren, took a solemn oath, that they would not, by any sinister or unlawful means, endeavour to stop the fair and just proceedings of the games.
3. The spiritual contest, in which all true Christians aim at obtaining a heavenly crown, has its rules also, devised and enacted by infinite wisdom and goodness, which require implicit and exact submission, which yield neither to times nor circumstances, but maintain their supreme authority, from age to age, uninterrupted and unimpaired. The combatant who violates these rules forfeits the prize, and is driven from the field with indelible disgrace, and consigned to everlasting wo. Hence the great Apostle of the Gentiles exhorts his son Timothy strictly to observe the precepts of the Gospel, without which, he can no more hope to obtain the approbation of God, and the possession of the heavenly crown, than a combatant in the public games of Greece, who disregarded the established rules, could hope to receive from the hands of his judge the promised reward: “And if a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned except he strive lawfully,” 2Ti_2:5, or according to the established laws of the games. Like the Grecian combatants, the Christian must “abstain from fleshly lusts,” and “walk in all the statutes and commandments of the Lord, blameless.” Such was St. Paul; and in this manner he endeavoured to act: “But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway,” 1Co_9:27. The latter part of this verse Doddridge renders, “lest after having served as a herald I should be disapproved;” and says in a note, “I thought it of importance to retain the primitive sense of these gymnastic expressions.” It is well known to those who are at all acquainted with the original, that the word used means to discharge the office of a herald, whose business it was to proclaim the conditions of the games, and display the prizes, to awaken the emulation and resolution of those who were to contend in them. But the Apostle intimates, that there was this peculiar circumstance attending the Christian contest, that the person who proclaimed its laws and rewards to others, was also to engage in it himself; and that there would be a peculiar infamy and misery in his miscarrying. ‘Αδοκιμος, which we render castaway, signifies one who is disapproved by the judge of the games, as not having fairly deserved the prize: he therefore loses it; even the prize of eternal life. The rule which the Apostle applies to himself he extends in another passage to all the members of the Christian church: “Those who strive for the mastery are temperate in all things, now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible.” Tertullian uses the same thought to encourage the martyrs. He urges constancy upon them, from what the hopes of victory made the athletae endure; and repeats the severe and painful exercises they were obliged to undergo, the continual anguish and constraint in which they passed the best years of their lives, and the voluntary privation which they imposed on themselves, of all that was most grateful to their appetites and passions.
4. The athletae took care to disencumber their bodies of every article of clothing which could in any manner hinder or incommode them. In the race, they were anxious to carry as little weight as possible, and uniformly stripped themselves of all such clothes as, by their weight, length, or otherwise, might entangle or retard them in the course. The Christian also must “lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset” him, Heb_12:1. In the exercise of faith and self-denial he must “cast off the works of darkness,” lay aside all malice and guile, hypocrisies, and envyings, and evil speakings, inordinate affections, and worldly cares, and whatever else might obstruct his holy profession, damp his spirits, and hinder his progress in the paths of righteousness.
5. The foot race seems to have been placed in the first rank of public games, and cultivated with a care and industry proportioned to the estimation in which it was held. The Olympic games generally opened with races, and were celebrated at first with no other exercise. The lists or course where the athletae exercised themselves in running, was at first but one stadium in length, or about six hundred feet; and from this measure it took its name, and was called the stadium, whatever might be its extent. This, in the language of St. Paul, speaking of the Christian's course, was “the race which was set before them,” determined by public authority, and carefully measured. On each side of the stadium and its extremity, ran an ascent or kind of terrace, covered with seats and benches, upon which the spectators were seated, an innumerable multitude collected from all parts of Greece, to which the Apostle thus alludes in his figurative description of the Christian life: “Seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight,” Heb_12:1.
The most remarkable parts of the stadium were its entrance, middle, and extremity. The entrance was marked at first only by a line drawn on the sand, from side to side of the stadium. To prevent any unfair advantage being taken by the more vigilant or alert candidates, a cord was at length stretched in front of the horses or men that were to run; and sometimes the space was railed in with wood. The opening of this barrier, was the signal for the racers to start. The middle of the stadium was remarkable, only by the circumstance of having the prizes allotted to the victors set up there. From this custom, Chrysostom draws a fine comparison: “As the judges in the races and other games, expose in the midst of the stadium, to the view of the champions, the crowns which they were to receive; in like manner, the Lord, by the mouth of his prophets, has placed the prizes in the midst of the course, which he designs for those who have the courage to contend for them.” At the extremity of the stadium was a goal, where the foot races ended; but in those of chariots and horses, they were to run several times round it without stopping, and afterward conclude the race by regaining the other extremity of the lists from whence they started. It is therefore to the foot race the Apostle alludes, when he speaks of the race set before the Christian, which was a straight course, to be run only once, and not, as in the other, several times without stopping.
6. According to some writers, it was at the goal, and not in the middle of the course, that the prizes were exhibited; and they were placed in a very conspicuous situation, that the competitors might be animated by having them always in their sight. This accords with the view which the Apostle gives of the Christian life: “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended; but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus,”
Php_3:13-14. L'Enfant thinks, the Apostle here alludes to those who stood at the elevated place at the end of the course, calling the racers by their names, and encouraging them by holding out the crown, to exert themselves with vigour. Within the measured and determinate limits of the stadium, the athletae were bound to contend for the prize, which they forfeited without hope of recovery, if they deviated ever so little from the appointed course.
7. The honours and rewards granted to the victors were of several kinds. They were animated in their course by the rapturous applauses of the countless multitudes that lined the stadium, and waited the issue of the contest with eager anxiety; and their success was instantly followed by reiterated and long continued plaudits; but these were only a prelude to the appointed rewards, which, though of little value in themselves, were accounted the highest honour to which a mortal could aspire. These consisted of different wreaths of wild olive, pine, parsley, or laurel, according to the different places where the games were celebrated. After the judges had passed sentence, a public herald proclaimed the name of the victor; one of the judges put the crown upon his head, and a branch of palm into his right hand, which he carried as a token of victorious courage and perseverance. As he might be victor more than once in the same games, and sometimes on the same day, he might also receive several crowns and palms. When the victor had received his reward, a herald, preceded by a trumpet, conducted him through the stadium, and proclaimed aloud his name and country; while the delighted multitudes, at the sight of him, redoubled their acclamations and applauses.
8. The crown in the Olympic games was of wild olive; in the Pythian, of laurel: in the Isthmian or Corinthian, of pine tree; and in the Nemaean, of smallage or parsley. Now, most of these were evergreens; yet they would soon grow dry, and crumble into dust. Elsner produces many passages in which the contenders in these exercises are rallied by the Grecian wits, on account of the extraordinary pains they took for such trifling rewards; and Plato has a celebrated passage, which greatly resembles that of the Apostle, but by no means equals it in force and beauty: “Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible.” The Christian is thus called to fight the good fight of faith, and to lay hold of eternal life; and to this he is more powerfully stimulated by considering that the ancient athletae, took all their care and pains only for the sake of obtaining a garland of flowers, or a wreath of laurel, which quickly fades and perishes, possessed little intrinsic value, and only served to nourish their pride and vanity, without imparting any solid advantage to themselves or others; but that which is placed in the view of the spiritual combatants, to animate their exertions, and reward their labours, is no less than a crown of glory which never decays; “an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for them,” 1Pe_1:4; 1Pe_5:4. But the victory sometimes remained doubtful, in consequence of which a number of competitors appeared before the judges, and claimed the prize. The candidates who were rejected on such occasions by the judge of the games, as not having fairly merited the prize, were called by the Greeks αδοκιμοι, or disapproved, which we render cast away, in a passage already quoted from St. Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians: “But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection, lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be, αδοκιμος, cast away,” rejected by the Judge of all the earth, and disappointed of my expected crown. What has been observed concerning the spirit and ardour with which the competitors engaged in the race, and concerning the prize they had in view to reward their arduous contention, will illustrate the following sublime passage of the same sacred writer in his Epistle to the Philippians: “Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect; but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark, for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus,” Php_3:12-14. The affecting passage, also, of the same Apostle, in the Second Epistle of Timothy, written a little before his martyrdom, is beautifully allusive to the above-mentioned race, to the crown that awaited the victory, and to the Hellanodics or judges who bestowed it: “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but to all them also that love his appearing,” 2Ti_4:8.
Biblical and Theological Dictionary by Richard Watson
PRINTER 1849.

gāmz:
I. Israelitish Games
1. Children's Games
Mimicry
2. Sports
3. Games of Chance and Skill
4. Story-Telling
5. Dancing
6. Proverbs
7. Riddles
II. The Games of Greece and Rome
1. Historical Introduction
2. General References
3. Specific References to Greek Athletics
4. References to the Theater and the Drama
Literature
About the amusements of the ancient Israelites we know but little, partly on account of the nature of our literary sources, which are almost exclusively religious, partly because the antiquities thus far discovered yield very little information on this topic as compared with those of some other countries, and partly because of the relatively serious character of the people. Games evidently took a less prominent place in Hebrew life than in that of the Greeks, the Romans and the Egyptians. Still the need for recreation was felt and to a certain extent supplied in ways according with the national temperament. Mere athletics (apart from Greek and Roman influence) were but little cultivated. Simple and natural amusements and exercises, and trials of wit and wisdom, were more to the Hebrew taste. What is known or probably conjectured may be summed up under the following heads: Games of Children; Sports; Games of Chance and Skill; Story-telling; Dancing; Proverbs; Riddles. The amusements of Greece and Rome, which to some extent influenced later Jewish society and especially those which are directly or indirectly referred to in the New Testament, will be theme of the latter part of the article.

I. Israelite Games
1. Children's Games
There are two general references to the playing of children: Zec_8:5 : ?And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in the streets thereof?; and Gen_21:9 margin, where we read of Ishmael ?playing? (mecaḥēḳ). The rendering of our Bibles, ?mocking,? is open to question. Of specific games and pets there is hardly a mention in the Old Testament. Playing with ball is alluded to in Isa_22:18 : ?He will ... toss thee like a ball into a large country,? but children need not be thought of as the only players. If the balls used in Palestine were like those used by the Egyptians, they were sometimes made of leather or skin stuffed with bran or husks of corn, or of string and rushes covered with leather (compare Wilkinson, Popular Account, I, 198-201; British Museum Guide to the Egyptian Collections, 78). The question of Yahweh to Job (Job_41:5): ?Wilt thou play with him (the crocodile) as with a bird? or wilt thou bind him for thy maidens?? suggests that tame birds were petted by Hebrew children, especially by girls. The New Testament has one reference to children's play, namely, the half-parable about the children in the market-place who would neither dance to the flute as if at a marriage feast nor wail as if at a funeral (Mat_11:16 f parallel Luk_7:32).
Mimicry
There are interesting accounts in Les enfants de Nazareth, by the Abb? Le Camus (60-66; 101-10), of the way in which the children of the modern Nazareth mimic scenes connected with weddings and funerals. That Israelite children had toys (dolls, models of animals, etc.) cannot be doubted in view of the finds in Egypt and elsewhere, but no positive evidence seems to be as yet forthcoming.
2. Sports
Running was no doubt often practiced, especially in the time of the early monarchy. Saul and Jonathan (2Sa_1:23), Asahel (2Sa_2:18), Ahimaaz (2Sa_18:23, 2Sa_18:27) and some of the Gadites in David's service (1Ch_12:8) were renowned for their speed, which can only have been the result of training and exercise. The same may be said of the feats of those who ran before a king or a prince (1Sa_8:11; 2Sa_15:1; 1Ki_1:5; 1Ki_18:46). The Psalmist must have watched great runners before he pictured the sun as rejoicing like a strong man to run his course (Psa_19:5; compare also Ecc_9:11; Jer_8:6; Jer_23:10). For running in the Greek games, see the latter part of this article.
Archery practice is implied in the story of Jonathan's touching interview with David (1Sa_20:20, 1Sa_20:35-38) and in Job's complaint: ?He hath also set me up for his mark. His archers compass me round about? (Job_16:12 f). Only by long practice could the 700 left-handed Benjamite slingers, every one of whom could sling stones at a hair-breadth and not miss (Jdg_20:16), and the young David (1Sa_17:49), have attained to the precision of aim for which they are famous.
In Zec_12:3, ?I will make Jerusalem a burdensome stone,? literally, ?a stone of burden,? Jerome found an allusion to a custom which prevailed widely in Palestine in his day, and has been noticed by a recent traveler, of stone-lifting, i.e. of testing the strength of young men by means of heavy round stones. Some, he says, could raise one of these stones to the knees, others to the waist, others to the shoulders and the head, and a few could lift it above the head. This interpretation is not quite certain (Wright, Comm., 364), but the form of sport described was probably in vogue in Palestine in Biblical times.
High leaping or jumping was probably also practiced (Psa_18:29). The ?play? referred to in 2Sa_2:14 of 12 Benjamites and 12 servants of David was not a sport but a combat like that of the Horatii and the Curiatii.
3. Games of Chance and Skill
Dice were known to the ancient Egyptians, and Assyrian dice have been found, made of bronze with points of gold, but there is no trace of them in the Old Testament. Recent research at Ta‛annek has brought to light many bones which seem to have been used in somewhat the same way as in a game played by the modern Arabs, who call it ka‛ab, the very word they apply to dice. These bones were ?the oldest and most primitive form of dice? (K?nig after Sellin, RE3, XVIII, 634). The use of dice among the later Jews is attested by the condemnation of dice-players in the Mishna (Sanh., iii. 3). The Syrian soldiers who cast lots for the raiment of Jesus at the cross (Mat_27:35 parallel Mar_15:24; Luk_23:34; Joh_19:24) may have used dice, but that can neither be proved nor disproved.
It has been suggested that the mockery of Jesus before the Sanhedrin described in Mat_26:67 f parallel Mar_14:65; Luk_22:63 f may have been connected with a Greek game in which one of the players held the eyes of another while a third gave him a box on the ear. The last was then asked with what hand he had been struck. A somewhat similar game is represented in an Egyptian tomb picture (Wilkinson, Popular Account, I, 192). This reference, however, though not quite inadmissible, is scarcely probable. Games with boards and men bearing some resemblance to our draughts were in great favor in Egypt (ibid., 190-95), but cannot be proved for the Jews even in New Testament times.
4. Story-Telling
Listening to stories or recitations has long been a favorite amusement of Orientals (compare Lane, Modern Egyptians, 359-91: ?The Thousand and One Nights?), but there seems to be no reference to it in the Bible. There can be no reasonable doubt, however, that the Hebrews, like their neighbors, had story-tellers or reciters, axed heard them with delight. Egyptian tales of great antiquity are well known from the two volumes edited by Professor Petrie in 1895; and there are several non-canonical Jewish tales which combine romance and moral teaching: the Books of Tobit and Judith and perhaps the Story of Ahikar, the last of which, with the help of the Aramaic papyri discovered at Elephantine, can be traced back (in some form) to about 400 bc (Sch?rer, GJ V4, III, 255). There are also many short stories in the Haggadic portions of the Talmud and the Midrash.
5. Dancing
Dancing, that is, the expression of joy by rhythmical movements of the limbs to musical accompaniment, is scarcely ever mentioned in the Bible as a social amusement, except in a general way (Jdg_16:25, Jdg_16:27(?); Job_21:11; Psa_30:11; Ecc_3:4; Jer_31:4, Jer_31:13; Lam_5:15; Mat_11:17; Luk_15:25). There is one exception, the dancing of Salome, the daughter of Herodias, before Herod Antipas and his court (Mat_14:6 parallel Mar_6:22), which was a solo dance, probably of a pantomimic character affected by Roman influence. The other Biblical references to dancing can be grouped under two heads: the dance of public rejoicing, and the dance which was more or less an act of worship. Of the former we have two striking examples in the Old Testament: the dance accompanied by the tambourine with which the maidens of Israel, led by Jephthah's daughter, met that leader after his victory (Jdg_11:34), and the dances of the Israelite women in honor of Saul and David to celebrate the triumph over the Philistines (1Sa_18:6; 1Sa_21:11; 1Sa_29:5).
It was probably usual to welcome a king or general with music and dancing. There is a good illustration in a fine Assyrian sculpture in the British Museum which represents a band of 11 instrumentalists taking part in doing homage to a new ruler. Three men at the head of the procession are distinctly dancing (SBOT, ?Psalms,? English, 226).
The distinctly religious dance is more frequently mentioned. The clear instances of it in the Bible are the dance of the women of Israel at the Red Sea, headed by Miriam with her tambourine (Exo_15:20); the dance of the Israelites round the golden calf (Exo_32:19); the dance of the maidens of Shiloh at an annual feast (Jdg_21:19); the leaping or limping of the prophets of Baal round their altar on Carmel (1Ki_18:26), and the dancing of David in front of the ark (2Sa_6:14, 2Sa_6:16 parallel 1Ch_15:29). There are general references in Psa_149:3 : ?Let them praise his name in the dance?; Psa_150:4 : ?Praise him with timbrel and dance?; and perhaps in Psa_68:25. The allusions in Son_6:13, ?the dance of Mahanaim,? and in the proper name Abel-meholah, ?the meadow of the dance? (1Ki_19:16, etc.), are too uncertain to be utilized. The ritual dance was probably widespread in the ancient East. David's performance has Egyptian parallels. Seti I, the father of Rameses II, and three other Pharaohs are said to have danced before a deity (Budge, The Book of the Dead, I, xxxv), and Asiatic monuments attest the custom elsewhere. About the methods of dancing practiced by the ancient Hebrews but little is known. Probably the dancers in some cases joined hands and formed a ring, or part of a ring, as in some heathen representations. The description of David's dance: he ?danced before Yahweh with all his might ... leaping and dancing before Yahweh? (2Sa_6:14-16) suggests three features of that particular display and the mode of dancing which it represented: violent exertion, leaping (mephazzēz), and whirling round (mekharkēr). Perhaps the whirling dance of Islam is a modern parallel to the last. Women seem generally to have danced by themselves, one often leading the rest, both in dancing and antiphonal song; so Miriam and the women of Israel, Jephthah's daughter and her comrades, the women who greeted Saul and David, and, in the Apocrypha, Judith and her sisters after the death of Holofernes (Judith 15:12 f). Once the separation of the sexes is perhaps distinctly referred to (Jer_31:13). In public religious dances they may have occasionally united, as was the case sometimes in the heathen world, but there is no clear evidence to that effect (compare, however, 2Sa_6:20 and Psa_68:25). Of the social dancing of couples in the modern fashion there is no trace. There seems to be some proof that the religious dance lingered among the Jews until the time of Christ and later.
If the Mishna can be trusted (Ṣūkkah, v.4), there was a torch-light dance in the temple in the illuminated court of the women at the Feast of Tabernacles in which men of advanced years and high standing took part. The Gemara to the Jerusalem Talmud adds that a famous dancer on these occasions was Rabbi Simeon or Simon, the son of Gamaliel, who lived in the apostolic age (Josephus, BJ, IV, iii, 9). According to another passage (Ta‛ănı̄th 4 8) the daughters of Jerusalem used to dance dressed in white in the vineyards on Tishri the 10th and Abib the 15th. Religious dancing in the modern East is illustrated not only by the dances of the dervishes mentioned above, but also by occasional dances led by the sheikh in honor of a saint (Curtiss, Primitive Semitic Religion Today, 169). Among the later Jews dancing was not unusual at wedding feasts. More than one eminent rabbi is said to have danced before the bride (Kethubbōth 17a). Singing and dancing, with lighted torches, are said to be wedding customs of the modern Arabs.
Literature
Arts. ?Dance? in Smith DB2, HDB, DCG, EB, Jewish Encyclopedia (also ?Games?); ?Tanz? in RE3 and the German Dictionaries of Winer, Riehm, and Guthe (Reigen); Nowack, HA, I, 278 f.
6. Proverbs
Proverbs (משׁל, māshāl; παροιμία, paroimı́a) : Proverbs and proverbial expressions seem to have been, to some extent, a means of amusement as well as instruction for the ancient Oriental who delighted in the short, pointed statement of a moral or religious truth, or a prudential maxim, whether of literary or popular origin. Most of these sayings in the Bible belong to the former class, and are couched in poetic form (see PROVERBS; ECCLESIASTES; ECCLESIASTICUS). The others which are shorter and simpler, together with a number of picturesque proverbial phrases, must have recurred continually in daily speech and have added greatly to its vivacity.
The Old Testament supplies the following 10 examples of the popular proverb: (1) ?Like Nimrod a mighty hunter before Yahweh? (Gen_10:9); (2) ?As the man is, so is his strength? (Jdg_8:21), only two words in the Hebrew; (3) ?Is Saul also among the prophets?? (1Sa_10:11 f; 1Sa_19:24); (4) ?Out of the wicked (wicked men) cometh forth wickedness? (1Sa_24:13); (5) ?There are the blind and the lame; he cannot come into the house? (2Sa_5:8); (6) ?Let not him that girdeth on his armor boast himself as he that putteth it off? (1Ki_20:11); (7) ?Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life? (Job_2:4); (8) ?The days are prolonged, and every vision faileth? (Eze_12:22), a scoffing jest rather than a proverb; (9) ?As is the mother, so is her daughter? (Eze_16:44), two words in the Hebrew; (10) ?The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge? (Jer_31:29; Eze_18:2). In the New Testament we find 10 others: (1) ?Physician, heal thyself? (Luk_4:23); in the Midrash Rabbāh on Gen: ?Physician heal thine own wound?; (2) ?Can the blind guide the blind? shall they not both fall into a pit?? (Luk_6:39); (3) ?With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured unto you? (Mat_7:2 parallel Mar_4:24; Luk_6:38), almost identical with a Jewish proverb, ?measure for measure? cited several times in the ancient Midrash, the Mekhiltā'); (4) ?One soweth, and another reapeth? (Joh_4:37); (5) ?A prophet is not without honor, save in his own country? (Mat_13:57; Luk_4:24; Joh_4:44; Logion of Oxyrhynchus); (6) ?There are yet four months, and then cometh the harvest? (Joh_4:35), possibly a kind of proverb; (7) ?Wheresoever the carcass is, there will the eagles (m ?vultures?) be gathered together? (Mat_24:28 parallel Luk_17:37); perhaps a proverb of which there is a trace also in the reference to the vulture: ?Where the slain are, there is she? (Job_39:30); (8) ?It is hard for thee to kick against the goad? (Act_26:14), a Greek proverb: for proof compare Wetstein's note; (9) ?The dog turning to his own vomit again, and the sow that had washed to wallowing in the mire? (2Pe_2:22); Wetstein gives rabbinic parallels for the former half, and Greek for the latter; (10) ?Ye ... strain out the gnat, and swallow the camel? (Mat_23:24).
There are also many proverbial phrases which added piquancy to conversation. Exceeding smallness was likened to the eye of a needle (Mat_19:24 parallel Mar_10:25; Luk_18:25), or to a grain of mustard (Mat_13:31 parallel Mar_4:31; Mat_17:20 parallel Luk_17:6), comparisons both found also in the Talmud, the Koran, and modern Arabic sayings. Relative greatness was likened to a camel (Mat_19:24, etc.), in the Talmud to a camel or an elephant. Great number was illustrated by reference to ?the sand which is upon the sea-shore? (Gen_22:17 and many other passages); ?the dust of the earth? (Gen_13:16, etc.; also an Arabian figure); ?the grass of the earth? (Job_5:25; Psa_72:16; compare Psa_92:7), an early Babylonian figure; a swarm of locusts (Nah_3:15 and Nah_3:4 other passages), a similitude used also by Sennacherib (RP, n.s. VI, 97), and the stars of heaven (Gen_15:5 and Gen_15:10 other passages). When complete security was promised or described it was said that not a hair of the head was or should be injured or perish (1Sa_14:45; 2Sa_14:11; 1Ki_1:52; Dan_3:27; Luk_21:18; Act_27:34). Overcoming of difficulties was referred to as the removal of mountains (Mat_17:20; Mat_21:21 parallel Mar_11:23; 1Co_13:2), an expression which has rabbinic parallels. Other proverbial phrases may perhaps be found in the saying about the mote and the beam (Mat_7:3-5), jot or tittle (Mat_5:18 parallel Luk_16:17), and the foolish words of Rehoboam and his young advisers (1Ki_12:10 f). Many old proverbs have no doubt perished. Dukes in his Rabbinische Blumenlese gives 665 proverbs and proverbial expressions from the Talmud and related literature, and modern collections show that proverbial lore is still in great favor in the Biblical Orient. See also PROVERBS.
Literature
In addition to works already mentioned K?nig, Stilistik, etc., DCG (?Jesus' Use of Proverbs?); Murray, DB, article ?Proverbs?; Cohen, Ancient Jewish Proverbs, 1911.
7. Riddles
Riddles (חידה, ḥı̄dhāh; αἴνιγμα, aı́nigma): Riddle-making and riddle-guessing were in favor in the ancient East, both in educated circles and in comparatively common life. There is a tablet in the British Museum (K 4347: Guide to Assyrian and Babylonian Antiquities2, 53) from the library of Ashur-bani-pal which attests the use of riddles not only by the Assyrians of the 7th century bc, but also in a far earlier age, for it contains a Sumer as well as a Semitic text. So it is not surprising that we find a remarkable example in early Israelite history in Samson's famous riddle: ?Out of the eater came forth food, and out of the strong came forth sweetness? (Jdg_14:14). The riddle is couched in poetic form, as is also the solution: ?What is sweeter than honey? and what is stronger than a lion?? (Jdg_14:18), and the comment: ?If ye had not plowed with my heifer, ye had not found out my riddle? (same place) . The stipulation of a prize or penalty according to the success or failure of the persons challenged to solve the riddle was a custom met with also among the ancient Greeks and in a later age among the Arabs. In 1Ki_10:1 parallel 2Ch_9:1 the word used of Samson's riddle (ḥı̄dhāh) is employed of the ?hard questions? put to Solomon by the queen of Sheba. The Septuagint seems to have understood the word as ?riddle? here also, for it renders ?enigmas,? and some of the later Jews not only adopted this interpretation, but actually gave riddles said to have been propounded. Of these riddles which, of course, have no direct historic value, but are interesting specimens of riddle lore, one of the best is the following: ?Without movement while living, it moves when its head is cut off?; the answer to which is: ?a tree? (Jewish Encyclopedia, article ?Riddle?; see also for these riddles W?nsche, Die R?thselweisheit bei den Hebr?ern, 15-23). If Josephus can be trusted, historians of Phoenicia recorded a riddle-contest between Solomon and the Phoenician Hiram in which the latter finally won with the help of a Tyrian named Abdemon (Ant., VIII, v, 3; CAp, 1, 18). In this case, too, defeat involved penalty. The testing of ability by riddles has a striking parallel in the Persian epic, the Shah Nameh, in the trial of the hero Sal by the mobeds or wise men (W?nsche, op. cit., 43-47). Solomon's fame as an author of riddles and riddle-like sayings is referred to in Sirach 47:15, 17 (Hebrew): ?With song, and proverbs, dark sayings (ḥı̄dhāh) and figures, thou didst greatly move the nations.? Ḥı̄dhāh occurs only once in Prov (1:6): ?the words of the wise, and their dark sayings,? but the collection contains several examples of what K?nig calls ?the numerical riddle?: Pro_6:16-19; Pro_30:7,Pro_30:15 f,18 f, 21ff,24-28, 29ff. In each case the riddle is stated first and then the solution. The saying in Pro_26:10 : ?As an archer that woundeth all, so is he that hireth the fool and he that hireth them that pass by,? has been cited as a riddle, and it is certainly obscure enough, but the obscurity may be due to textual corruption. There are several passages in the Old Testament in which the word ḥı̄dhāh seems to be used in the general sense of ?mysterious utterance?: Num_12:8; Psa_49:4; Psa_78:2; Dan_5:12 (the Aramaic equivalent of ḥı̄dhāh); Dan_8:23; Hab_2:6. In Eze_17:1 it describes the parable or allegory of the Two Eagles and the Cedar and the Vine. Sirach has several numerical riddles: 23:16; 25:1 f,7 f; 26:5 f; 50:25 f; and there are similar sayings in Ab 5 1-11, 16-21 (Taylor's edition). In the Book of Jeremiah (Jer_25:26; Jer_51:41; Jer_51:1) are two examples of a cryptic or cipher mode of writing which comes very near the riddle. SHē SHaKH, in the first two passages, represented by the three letters shı̄n, shı̄n, kaph, answering to our sh, sh, k, is meant to be read with the substitution for each letter of the letter as near the beginning of the alphabet as it is near the end, the result being sh = b, sh = b, k = l, that is, B-b-l or Babel/Babylon. In the same way in the last passage the consonants composing the word Lebkamai l, b, k, m, y, suggest k, s, d, y, m, that is, Kasdı̄m or Chaldees. This cipher or riddle-writing was called by the Jews 'At-bash (compare Buxtorf, Lexicon Chaldaicum, etc., I, 131, 137 f, edited by Fischer; and modern commentaries on Jer). The New Testament contains no riddle except the numerical puzzle, Rev_13:18 (compare NUMBER; GEMATRIA), and has the Greek equivalent of ḥı̄dhāh only in 1Co_13:12, ?for now we see ... darkly,? the Revised Version, margin ?in a riddle? (Greek en ainı́gmati). There can be little doubt that riddles enlivened marriage festivals, such as that of Cana. W?nsche (op. cit.) gives some interesting specimens of later Jewish riddles, subsequent indeed to our Lord's time, but such as might have been in circulation then.
Literature
The most important authority is the above-cited monograph of W?nsche. K?nig has an interesting paragraph in his Stilistik, Rhetorik, Poetik, etc., 12 f. Compare also Hamburger, RE, II, 966ff; articles on ?Riddle? in Jewish Encyclopedia, Smith's DB, HDB, larger and smaller; Murray's DB; German Bible Dictionaries of Winer, Riehm2, and Guthe; Rosenm?ller, Das alte und neue Morgenland, III. 48 f.

II. The Games of Greece and Rome
1. Historical Introduction
This is not the place to give a detailed account of the Greek gymnasia and the elaborate contests for which candidates were prepared in them, or to describe the special forms of sport introduced by the Romans, but these exercises and amusements were so well known in Palestine and throughout the Roman Empire in the time of Christ and the apostles that they cannot be passed over in silence. Some acquaintance with them is absolutely necessary for the interpretation of many passages in the New Testament, especially in the Epistles. Hellenic athletics found their way into Jewish society through the influence of the Greek kingdom ruled over by the Seleucids. Early in the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes (circa 176 bc) a gymnasium, ?place of exercise,? was built in Jerusalem (1 Macc 1:14; 2 Macc 4:9, 12) and frequented by priests (1 Macc 1:14 f), who are spoken of as ?making of no account the honors of their fathers, and thinking the glories of the Greeks best of all.? After the success of the Maccabean rising Greek games fell into disrepute among the Jewish population of Palestine, and were thenceforth regarded with suspicion by all strict religionists, even the worldly Josephus sharing the general feeling (Ant., XV, viii, 1). Nevertheless Gentile games must have been familiar to most in Jerusalem and elsewhere during the Herodian rule and the Roman occupation. Herod the Great built a theater and amphitheater in the neighborhood of the city (Josephus, ibid.; for probable sites, see G.A. Smith, Jerusalem, II, 493), and instituted in the name of Caesar games which included Roman as well as Hellenic sports, celebrated every 5 years. There was also a hippodrome or race-course for horses and chariots, bearing considerable resemblance to the Roman circus (Josephus, Ant, XVII, x, 2; BJ, II, iii, 1). Jericho, too, was provided with a theater, an amphitheater and a hippodrome. There was a hippodrome also at Tarichea. In addition there were scattered over Syria many Hellenic and partially Hellenic cities - Sch?rer (GJV4, II, 108-221) gives the history of 33 - Caesarea Stratonis, Caesarea Philippi, the cities of the Decapolis, Tiberias, etc., which would all have had gymnasia and games. In Tarsus, which must have had a large Greek element in its population, Paul must have heard, and perhaps seen, in his childhood, much of the athletic exercises which were constantly in progress, and in later life he must often have been reminded of them, especially at Corinth, near which were celebrated biennially the 1sthmia or 1sthmian Games which drew visitors from all parts of the Empire, at Caesarea which possessed a theater, an amphitheater and a stadium, and at Ephesus. The custom, indeed, seems to have been almost universal. No provincial city of any importance was without it (Sch?rer, op. cit., 48), especially after the introduction of games in honor of the Caesars. The early Christians, therefore, whether of Jewish or Gentile origin, were able to understand, and the latter at any rate to appreciate, references either to the games in general, or to details of their celebration.
2. General References
The word which described the assembly gathered together at one of the great Grecian games (agō̇n) was also applied to the contests themselves, and then came to be used of any intense effort or conflict. The corresponding verb (agōnı́zomai) had a similar history. Both these words are used figuratively in the Pauline Epistles: the noun in Phi_1:30; Col_2:1; 1Th_2:2; 1Ti_6:12; 2Ti_4:7, rendered in the Revised Version (British and American) (except in the second passage), ?conflict? or ?fight?; the verb in Col_1:29; Col_4:12; 1Ti_4:10; 1Ti_6:12; 2Ti_4:7, translated ?strive,? ?fight.? In 1Co_9:25; 2Ti_2:5 (where another word is used) there are literal references. The former passage English Revised Version: ?Every man that striveth in the games (agōnizómenos) is temperate in all things,? also alludes to the rigid self-control enforced by long training which the athlete must practice. The training itself is glanced at in the exhortation: ?Exercise thyself (gúmnaze) unto godliness? (1Ti_4:7), and in the remark which follows: ?Bodily exercise (gumnası́a) is profitable for a little.? It is remarkable that the word gymnasium, or ?place of training,? which occurs in the Apocrypha (2 Macc 4:9, 12) is not met with in the New Testament. The necessity for the observance of rules and regulations is referred to in the words: ?And if also a man contend in the games, he is not crowned, except he have contended lawfully? (2Ti_2:5). In all these passages the games will have been more or less in the apostle's thought (for other possible New Testament references compare Heb_5:14; Heb_10:32; Heb_12:1; 2Pe_2:14).
3. Specific References to Greek Athletics
In addition to these general references there are many allusions to details, again found mainly in the Pauline Epistles. These may most conveniently be grouped in alphabetical order.
(A) Beast-Fight
The combats of wild animals with one another and with men, which were so popular at Rome toward the close of the Republic and under the Empire, were not unknown in Palestine. Condemned criminals were thrown to wild beasts by Herod the Great in his amphitheater at Jerusalem, ?to afford delight to spectators,? a proceeding which Josephus (Ant., XV, viii, 1) characterizes as impious. After the fall of Jerusalem in 70 ad many Jewish captives were slain in fighting with wild beasts (BJ, VII, ii). This horrible form of sport must have been in the apostle's mind when he wrote: ?I fought with beasts (ethēriomáchēsa) at Ephesus? (1Co_15:32). The reference is best understood as figurative, as in Ignatius on Rom_5:1, where the same word (thēriomachéō) is used, and the soldiers are compared to leopards.
(B) Boxing
This form of sport is directly referred to in 1Co_9:26 : ?So box I (Revised Version margin, Greek pukteúō), as not beating the air.? The allusion is probably continued in 1Co_9:27 : ?but I buffet (the Revised Version, margin ?bruise,? Greek hupōpiázō) my body.?
(C) The Course
Foot-races and other contests took place in an enclosure 606 feet 9 inches in length, called a stadium. This is once referred to in a passage in the context of that just mentioned, which almost seems based on observation: ?They that run in a race-course (RVm, Greek stádion) run all? (1Co_9:24).
(D) Discus Throwing
The throwing of the discus, a round plate of stone or metal 10 or 12 inches in diameter, which was a prominent feature of Greek athletics and is the subject of a famous statue, a copy of which is in the British Museum, is not mentioned in the New Testament, but is alluded to in 2 Macc 4:14 as one of the amusements indulged in by Hellenizing priests in the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes.
(E) The Foot-Race
The words for ?run? and ?race? (Greek tréchō and drómos) sometimes clearly, and in other cases probably, allude to foot-races at the games. For obvious references compare 1Co_9:24; Heb_12:1; 2Ti_4:7; for possible references see Act_13:25; Act_20:24; Rom_9:16; Gal_2:2; Gal_5:7; Phi_2:16; 2Th_3:1. The second of these passages (Heb_12:1) alludes to the necessity for the greatest possible reduction of weight, and for steady concentration of effort. All the passages would remind the first readers of the single-course and double-course foot-races of the games.
(F) The Goal
The goal of the foot-race, a square pillar at the end of the stadium opposite the entrance, which the athlete as far as possible kept in view and the sight of which encouraged him to redouble his exertions, is alluded to once: ?I press on toward the goal? (Phi_3:14, Greek skopós).
(G) The Herald
The name and country of each competitor were announced by a herald and also the name, country and father of a victor. There may be an allusion to this custom in 1Co_9:27 : ?after that I have been a herald (Revised Version margins, Greek kērússō) to others?; compare also 1Ti_2:7; 2Ti_1:11, where the Greek for ?preacher? is kḗrux, ?herald.?
(H) The Prize
Successful athletes were rewarded at the great games by a wreath consisting in the apostolic age of wild olive (Olympian), parsley (Nemean), laurel (Pythian), or pine (Isthmian). This is referred to in a general way in Phi_3:14, and in 1Co_9:24 : ?One receiveth the prize? (Greek in both cases brabeı́on; compare also Col_3:15 : ?Let the peace of Christ arbitrate (Revised Version margin) in your hearts,? where the verb is brabeúō). The wreath (stéphanos) is directly alluded to in 1Co_9:25 : ?They (the athletes) do it to receive a corruptible crown?; 2Ti_2:5 : ?A man ... is not crowned, except he have contended lawfully?; and 1Pe_5:4 : ?Ye shall receive the crown of glory that fadeth not away.? There may be allusions also in Phi_4:1; 1Th_2:19; Heb_2:7, Heb_2:9; Jam_1:12; Rev_2:10; Rev_3:11. In the palm-bearing multitude of the Apocalypse (Rev_7:9) there is possibly a reference to the carrying of palm-branches by victors at the games. The judges who sat near the goal and who, at Olympia at any rate, had been carefully prepared for their task, may be glanced at in 2Ti_4:8 : ?The crown ... which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give to me at that day.?
(I) Wrestling
This form of sport, which was in great favor in Greek society from the age of Homer onward, is alluded to once in the New Testament: ?Our wrestling (Greek pálē) is not against flesh and blood,? etc. (Eph_6:12). The exercise made great demands on strength, perseverance and dexterity. There is an indirect allusion in the term palaestra, which first meant ?place for wrestling,? and then ?place for athletic exercises in general? (2 Macc 4:14).
4. References to the Theater and the Drama
Although there is no direct reference in the New Testament to the intellectual contests in which the Greeks delighted as much as in athletics, the former cannot be entirely ignored. The word ?theater? (Greek théatron) occurs 3 times: twice in the sense of ?public hall? (Act_19:29, Act_19:31); and once with a clear reference to its use as a place of amusement: ?We are made a spectacle? (1Co_4:9). ?The drama was strongly discountenanced by the strict Jews of Palestine, but was probably encouraged to some extent by some of the Jews of the Diaspora, especially in Asia Minor and Alexandria. Philo is known to have witnessed the representation of a play of Euripides, and the Jewish colony to which he belonged produced a dramatic poet named Ezekiel, who wrote inter alia a play on the Exodus, some fragments of which have been preserved (Sch?rer, GJV4, II, 60; III, 500ff). An inscription found not long ago at Miletus shows that part of theater of that city was reserved for Jews (Deissmann, Light from the Ancient East, 446ff). The readers of the Pauline Epistles, Jews as well as Gentiles, would be generally more or less familiar with theater and the drama. It has been suggested that there is a glimpse of a degraded form of the drama, the mime or mimic play, which was exceedingly popular in the 1st century and afterward, in the mockery of Jesus by the soldiers (Mat_27:27-30 parallel Mar_15:16-19). The ?king? seems to have been a favorite character with the comic mime. The mockery of the Jewish king, Agrippa I, by the populace of Alexandria, a few years later, which furnishes a very striking parallel to the incident recorded in the Gospels (Sch?rer, GJV4, I, 497), is directly connected by Philo with the mimes. The subject is very ably discussed by a German scholar, Hermann Reich, in a learned monograph, Der K?nig mit der Dornenkrone (1905). Certainty is, of course, unattainable, but it seems at least fairly probable that the rude Syrian soldiers, who were no doubt in the habit of attending theater, may have been echoing some mimic play in their mock homage to ?the king of the Jews.?

Literature
In addition to works already mentioned see for the whole subject: articles ?Games? in Smith, DB2; HDB, large and small; EB; Jewish Encyclopedia; arts. ?Spiele? in Winer, RWB, and Riehm2, and especially K?nig, ?Spiele bei den Hebr?ern,? RE3. On the games of Greece and Rome See articles in Smith's Dict. of Greek and Roman Antiquities, ?Amphitheatrum,? ?Circus,? ?Olympia,? ?Stadium,? etc.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.

If by the word are intended mere secular amusements, which are the natural expression of vigorous health and joyous feeling, fitted, if not designed, to promote health, hilarity, and friendly feeling, as well as to aid in the development of the corporeal frame, we must look to other quarters of the globe, rather than to Palestine, for their origin and encouragement. The Hebrew temperament was too deep, too earnest, too full of religious emotion, to give rise to games having a national and permanent character. Whatever of amusement, or rather of recreation, the descendants of Abraham possessed, partook of that religious complexion which was natural to them; or rather the predominant religiousness of their souls gave its own hue, as to all their engagements, go to their recreations. The influence of religion pervaded their entire being; so that whatever of recreation they needed or enjoyed is for the most part found blended with religious exercises. Hence their great national festivals served at once for the devout service of Almighty God, and the recreation and refreshment of their own minds and bodies.
Games, however, are so natural to man, especially in the period of childhood, that no nation has been or can be entirely without them. Accordingly a few traces are found in the early Hebrew history of at least private and childish diversions. The heat of the climate too in Syria would indispose the mature to more bodily exertion than the duties of life imposed, while the gravity which is characteristic of the Oriental character might seem compromised by anything so light as sports. Dignified ease therefore corresponds with the idea which we form of Oriental recreation. The father of the family sits at the door of his tent, or reclines on the housetop, or appears at the city gate, and there tranquilly enjoys repose, broken by conversation, under the light and amid the warmth of the bright and breezy heavens, in the cool of the retiring day, or before the sun has assumed his burning ardors (Deu_16:14; Lam_5:14). Even among the active Egyptians, whose games have been figured on their mural tablets, we find little which suggests a comparison with the vigorous contests of the Grecian games. One of the most remarkable is the following (fig. 189), showing what appears to be play with the single-stick.

Egyptians at play
Zechariah (Zec_8:5) alludes to the sportiveness of children in the streets as a sign and consequence of that peace and prosperity which are so free from alarm that the young take their usual games, and are allowed entire liberty by their parents?'and the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in the streets thereof' (comp. Jer_30:19). An interesting passage illustrative of these street-amusements is found in Mat_11:16?'This generation is like unto children sitting in the markets and calling unto their fellows, We have piped unto you and ye have not danced, we have mourned unto you, and ye have not lamented.'
That the elegant amusement of playing with tamed and trained birds was not unusual may be learned from Job_41:5 :?'Wilt thou play with him (leviathan) as with a bird?' Commenting on Zec_12:3, Jerome mentions an amusement of the young, which we have seen practiced in more than one part of the north of England. 'It is customary,' he says, 'in the cities of Palestine, and has been so from ancient times, to place up and down large stones to serve for exercise for the young, who, according in each case to their degree of strength, lift these stones, some as high as their knees, others to their middle, others above their heads, the hands being kept horizontal and joined under the stone.'
Music, song, and dancing, were recreations reserved mostly for the young or for festive occasions. From Lam_5:16, 'the crown is fallen from our head' (see the entire passage on the subject of games), it might be inferred that, as among the Greeks and Latins, chaplets of flowers were sometimes worn during festivity. To the amusements just mentioned frequent allusions are found in holy writ, among which may be given Psa_30:11; Jer_31:13; Luk_15:25. In Isa_30:29, a passage is found which serves to show how much of festivity and mirth was mingled with religious observances; the journey on festival occasions up to Jerusalem was enlivened by music, if not by dancing?'Ye shall have a song as in the night when a holy solemnity is kept; and gladness of heart, as when one goeth with a pipe to come into the mountain of the Lord, to the Mighty One of Israel.' A passage occurs in 2Sa_2:14, which may indicate the practice among the ancient Israelites of games somewhat similar to the jousts and tournaments of the middle ages. No trace is found in Hebrew antiquity of any of the ordinary games of skill or hazard which are so numerous in the western world.

Fighting a dog
The Grecian influence which made itself felt after the Exile, led to a great change in the manners and customs of the Hebrew nation. They were soon an almost different people from what we find them in the days of their national independence and primitive simplicity. In 1Ma_1:14, we find evidence that the Grecian games were introduced, and that a gymnasium was built under Antiochus Epiphanes?'They built a place of exercise at Jerusalem, according to the custom of the heathen. Compare 2Ma_4:12-14, where special mention is made of the prevalence of 'Greek fashions' and 'the game of discus;' though, as appears clearly from the last passage (2Ma_4:17), these practices were considered contrary to the Mosaic institutions, and were hateful to pious Israelites. The Herodian princes had theaters and amphitheaters built in Jerusalem and other cities of Palestine, in which were held splendid games, sometimes in honor of their Roman masters. The drama does not appear to have been introduced, but Jews were in foreign countries actors of plays.
These facts make it the less surprising that allusions should be found in the New Testament writings to the Grecian games, on which we think it desirable to supply somewhat detailed information, in order to serve as illustrations of Scriptural language.

Leaping
The fact that, as we have seen, the games of the amphitheater were celebrated even in Jerusalem, serves to make it very likely that Paul, in 1Co_15:32; 1Co_4:9, alludes to these detestable practices, though it is not probable that the Apostle was himself actually exposed to the fury of the raging animals. Contrary to the opinion of some writers, the reference to these combats appears to us very clear, though it was only metaphorically that Paul 'fought with beasts at Ephesus.'
The word which the Apostle (1Co_15:32) uses is emphatic and descriptive. The beast-fight constituted among the Romans a part of the amusements of the circus or amphitheater. It consisted in the combat of human beings with animals. The persons destined to this barbarous kind of amusement were generally of two classes?1. Voluntary, that is, persons who fought either for amusement or for pay: these were clothed and provided with offensive and defensive weapons. 2. Condemned persons, who were mostly exposed to the fury of the animals unclothed, unarmed, and sometimes bound. As none but the vilest of men were in general devoted to these beast-fights, no punishment could be more condign and cruel than what was frequently inflicted on the primitive Christians, when they were hurried away 'to the lions' (as the phrase was), merely for their fidelity to conscience and to Christ, its Lord. Ephesus appears to have had some unenviable distinction in these brutal exhibitions, so that there is a peculiar propriety in the language of the Apostle.

Wrestling
The New Testament, in several places, contains references to the celebrated Grecian Games, though it may be allowed that some commentators have imagined allusions where none were designed. As might, from his heathen learning, be expected, it is Paul who chiefly supplies the passages in question (see Gal_2:2; Gal_5:7; Php_2:16; Heb_12:1; Heb_12:4; Php_3:14; 2Ti_2:5). The most signal passage, however, is found in 1Co_9:24-27, 'Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air; but I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection, lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.' In the Old Testament two passages contain a clear reference to games; Psa_19:5; Ecc_9:11.

Boxing
Four of these games stood far above the rest, bearing the appellation of 'sacred,' and deriving their support from the great Hellenic family at large, though each one had special honor in its own locality: these four were the Olympic, Pythian, Nemean, and Isthmian. The first were held in the highest honor. The victors at the Olympic Games were accounted the noblest and happiest of mortals, and every means was taken that could show the respect in which they were held. These games were celebrated every five years at Olympia, in Elis, on the west side of the Peloponnesus. Hence the epoch called the Olympiads.
The gymnastic exercises were laid down in a well-planned systematic series, beginning with the easier, and proceeding on to the more difficult. Some of these were specially fitted to give strength, others agility; some educated the hands, others the feet. Among the lighter exercises was reckoned running, leaping, quoiting, hurling the javelin. When skill had been obtained in these, and the consequent strength, then followed a severer course of discipline. This was two-fold?1, simple; 2, compound. The simple consisted of wrestling, boxing; the compound we find in the Pentathlon (the five contests), and the Pankration (or general trial of strength). The Pentathlon was made up of the union of leaping, running, quoiting, wrestling, and hurling the spear; the Pankration consisted of wrestling and boxing.

Racing
Racing may be traced back to the earliest periods of Grecian antiquity, and may be regarded as the first friendly contest in which men engaged. Accordingly the Olympic and Pythian, probably also the other games, opened with foot-races. Foot-racing, perfected by systematic practice, was divided into different kinds. If you ran merely to the end of the course, it was called stadium; if you went thither and back, you ran the double course. The long course required extraordinary speed and power of endurance. What it involved the ancients have left in no small uncertainty. It is sometimes given as seven times over the stadium: at others, twelve times; at others again, twenty; and even the number of four and twenty times is mentioned. These lengths will give some idea of the severity of the trial, and serve to illustrate the meaning of the Apostle when he speaks of running with patience (sustained effort) the race set before him (Heb_12:1). Indeed, one Ladas, a victor at the Olympic games, in the 'long race,' was so exhausted by his efforts, that, immediately on gaining the honor and being crowned, he yielded up his breath?a fact which also serves to throw light on Scriptural language, as showing with what intense eagerness these aspirants strove for perishing chaplets. In the preparatory discipline everything was done which could conduce to swiftness and strength. The exercises were performed with the body naked and well oiled. Minute directions were established in order to prevent foul play of any kind, so that all the competitors might start and run on terms of entire equality, illustrating the words of Paul on the necessity of running lawfully (2Ti_2:5). The contest was generally most severe; to reach the goal sooner by one foot was enough to decide the victory. How true and graphic then the descriptions given by Paul; it was, as the Apostle states, in the race-course that the contests took place: every one striving for the victory was temperate in all things; nay more, he kept under his body, and brought it into subjection. A passage is found in the Enchiridion of Epictetus, which shows with what propriety the terms which the Apostle employs were chosen by him: 'You wish to conquer at the Olympic games? so also do I; for it is honorable; but bethink yourself what this attempt implies, and then begin the undertaking. You must subject yourself to a determinate course; must submit to dietetic discipline; must pursue the established exercises at fixed hours in heat and cold; must abstain from all delicacies in meat and drink; yield yourself unreservedly to the control of the presiding physician, and even endure flogging.'
It may well be supposed that the competitors employed all their ability, and displayed the greatest eagerness to gain the prize. The nearer, too, they approached to the goal, the more did they increase their efforts. Sometimes the victory depended on a final spring; happy he that retained power enough to leap first to the goal. The spectators also used every encouragement in their power, these favoring one competitor, those another.
All these remarks go to show how wisely Paul acted in selecting the figure, and how carefully he has preserved the imagery which belongs to it. A word employed in the Common Version, 1Co_9:27, 'Lest when I have preached to others I myself should be a castaway'?namely, preached, mars the figure. The original means 'acted the part of herald,' whose business it was to call the competitors to the contest and proclaim their victory, functions which Paul spent his life in performing.
Paul speaks in the same connection of running not as uncertainly, of fighting not as one who beateth the air; alluding to the preludial exercises, trials of individual and of comparative strength, which took place in the course of training. These runnings and boxings had no immediate aim nor result, and implied no real competitor; hence the propriety of the terms which the sacred writer employs.

Chariot Race
In writing to the Christians at Corinth there was a special propriety, on the part of the Apostle, in making allusions to the public games. Corinth was the place where one of the four Greek national games was celebrated, namely, the Isthmian. These games were so called from being held on the isthmus which joins northern with southern Greece, a spot of land most celebrated in Grecian history, alike in martial and commercial matters. The Corinthians appear to have been inordinately fond of these amusements. They were held every three years. They comprised three leading divisions?musical, gymnastical, and equestrian contests. In the first the tyrant Nero carried off a crown, by destroying his too highly-gifted antagonist. The gymnastic contests were the same as those of which we have already spoken. A few words, however, may here be introduced as to the horse-racing, which has not been hitherto described. Generally the same kinds prevailed as at the Olympic and Pythian games. Chariot-races seem to have been practiced in the earliest heroic times, since chariots were as early as this used in battle, and the notices which have come down to us refer this kind of sport to the early period now indicated. It stood pre-eminently before other games. The skill and outlay which it required prevented any but persons of distinction?the wealthy, governors, princes, and kings?from engaging in its enjoyments. The number of chariots that might appear on the course at once cannot be accurately determined. Pindar praises Arkesilas of Cyrene for having calmly brought off his chariot uninjured, in a contest where no fewer than forty took part. The course had to be gone over twelve times. The urgency of the drivers, the speed and exhaustion of the horses, may easily be imagined. The greatest skill was needed in turning the pillar which marked the extremity of the course, especially when the contending chariots were numerous.
At the Olympic Games the prize was simply a chaplet made of wild olive. The crowns were laid on a tripod, and placed in the middle of the course, so as to be seen of all. On the same table there were also exposed to view palm-branches, one of which was given into the hand of each conqueror at the same time with the chaplet. The victors, having been summoned by proclamation, were presented with the ensigns of victory, and conducted along the stadium, preceded by a herald, who proclaimed their honors, and announced their name, parentage, and country.
The real reward, however, was in the fame which ensued. A chaplet won in the chariot-races at Olympia was the highest of earthly honors. What congratulations from friends; how was the public eye directed to the fortunate conqueror; what honor had he conferred on his native city, and for what office was such an one unfit! What intense and deep delight must his bosom have been filled with when the full acclaim of assembled Greece fell upon his ear, coming in loud salutations and applauses from every part of the crowded course! Then came the more private attentions of individual friends. One brought a chaplet of flowers; another bound his head with ribbons. Afterwards came the triumphal sacrifice made to the twelve gods, accompanied by sumptuous feasting. The poet now began his office, gaining, in some cases, both for himself and the happy victor, an unexpected immortality. Music also lent her aid, and his name was sung wherever the noble accents of the Greek tongue asserted their supremacy. In order to perpetuate the memory of these great men, their names and achievements were entered into a public register, which was under the care of suitable officers. A no less privilege was that of having a statue of themselves placed either at the expense of their country or their friends, in the sacred grove of Jupiter. A perhaps still greater honor awaited the victor on his return home. The conquerors at the Isthmian games had used to be received in their chariots, superbly attired, amid thronging and jubilant multitudes.
One or two other privileges belonged to these victors, such as immunity from public offices, and a certain yearly stipend. If to all this be added the strict scrutiny which competitors were obliged to undergo (in the best ages), so that none could enter the lists but such as were of pure Greek blood, and incorrupt in life, none but such as had undergone the required disciplinary training, and (in the case of the chariot and horse races) none but those who could afford to possess and train horses in a country in which, as in Greece, horses, particularly in the earlier ages, were very scarce and dear; it will be seen that the distinction of the prize was not over-rated, when it was compared with a Roman triumph.
At the Isthmian games the prize was parsley during the mythic periods. In later ages the victor was crowned with a chaplet of pine leaves. Parsley, however, appears to have been also employed. If the conqueror had come off victorious in the three great divisions?music, gymnastics, and racing?he was in the Pythian, as well as in the other sacred games, presented also with a palm-branch.
The Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
by John Kitto.

Games
are so natural to man, especially in the period of childhood, that no nation has been or can be entirely without them. I. Accordingly, a few traces are found in the early Hebrew history of at least private and childish diversions. The heat of the climate in Syria would indispose the mature to more bodily exertion than the duties of life imposed, while the gravity which is characteristic of the Oriental character might seem compromised by anything so light as sports. Dignified ease, therefore, corresponds with the idea which we form of Oriental recreation. The father of the family sits at the door of his tent, or reclines on the house-top, or appears at the city gate, and there tranquilly enjoys repose, broken by conversation, under the light and amid the warmth of the bright and breezy heavens, in the cool of the retiring day, or before the sun has assumed his burning ardors (Deu_16:14; Lam_5:14). Of the three classes into which games may be arranged, juvenile, manly, and public, the first two alone belong to the Hebrew life; the latter, as noticed in the Bible, being either foreign introductions into Palestine, or the customs of other countries.
1. With regard to juvenile games, the notices are very few. It must not, however, be inferred from this that the Hebrew children were without the amusements adapted to their age. The toys and sports of childhood claim a remote antiquity; and if the children of the ancient Egyptians had their dolls of ingenious construction, and played at ball (Wilkinson, Anc. Egypt. abridgm. 1:197), and if the children of the Romans amused themselves much as those of the present day (Horace, 2 Sat. 3:247), we may imagine the Hebrew children doing the same, as they played in the streets of Jerusalem (Zec_8:5; comp. Jer_30:19). The only recorded sports, however, are keeping tame birds (Job_41:5; compare Catull. 2, 1), and imitating the proceedings of marriages or funeral (Mat_11:16). Commenting on Zec_12:3, Jerome mentions an amusement of the young which is seen practiced in more than one part of the north of England. "It is customary," he says, "in the cities of Palestine, and has been so from ancient times, to place up and down large stones to serve for exercise for the young, who, according in each case to their degree of strength, lift these stones, some as high as their knees, others to their middle, others above their heads, the hands being: kept horizontal and joined under the stone. A similar mode of exercise prevailed in ancient Egypt (Wilkinson, 1:207). SEE CHILDREN.
Music, song, and dancing were recreations reserved mostly for the young or for festive occasions. From Lamentatiions 5:16, "the crown is fallen from our head" (see the entire passage on the subject of games), it might be inferred that, as among the Greeks and Latins, chaplets of flowers were sometimes worn during festivity. To the amusements just mentioned frequent allusions are fomund in holy writ, among which may be givens Psa_30:11; Jer_31:13; Luk_15:25. In Isa_30:29, a passage is found which serves to show how much of festivity and mirth- was mingled with religious observances; the journey on festival occasions up to Jerusalem was enlivened by music, if not by dancing. Some of the chief objects aimed at in the Greek and other games were gained among the Hebrews by their three great national festivals — the Passover, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Tabernacles. At the recurrence of these festivals the nation was brought together in honor of the true God; and in times of religious feeling these great meetings were looked forward to and were celebrated with perhaps not less joy, though joy of a somewhat different kind, from that with which the Greeks looked forward to and celebrated their Olympic, Isthmian, and Nemean games. The public games of the Hebrews seem to have been exclusively connected with military sports and exercises, and even of these the notices are few and brief. It was probably in this way that the Jewish youth were instructed in the use of the bow and of the sling (1Sa_20:20; 1Sa_20:30-35; Jdg_20:16; 1Ch_12:2). Allusion to what would seem to have been a kind of wardaesce, such as we read of in different countries, seems to be made in 2Sa_2:14, where Abner proposes that the young cen should arise and "play" before the two armies. The Hebrew שָׁחִק (shchak), for "play," is frequently used for dancing (2Sa_6:21; Jer_31:4); and Abner seems here to refer to a sport of this kind not now to be used as as imusement, but turned into stern reality. This may indicate the practice among the ancient Israelites of games somewhat similar to the jousts and tournaments of the Middle Ages. On the subject of dancing, see Michaelis, Mosaische Recht, article 197. No trace is found in Hebrew antiquity of any of the ordinary games of skill or hazard which are so numerous in the Western world. Dice are mentioned by the Talmudists (Mishna, Sanhedr. 3:3; Shabb. 23:2), probably introduced from Egypt (Wilkinson, 2:424); and, if we assume that the Hebrews imitated, as not improbably they did, other amusements of their neighbors, we might add such games as odd and even, mora (the micare digitus of the Romans), draughts, hoops, catching balls, etc. — (Wilkinson, 1:188). If it be objected that such trifling amusements were inconsistent with the gravity of the Hebrews, it may be remarked that the amusements of the Arabians at the present day are equally trifling, such as blind man's buff, hiding the ring, etc. (Wellsted's Arabia, 1:160). SEE SPORT.
2. With regard to manly games, they were not much followed up by the Hebrews; the natural earnestness of their character and the influence of the climate alike indisposed these to active exertion. The chief amusement of the men appears to have consisted 'in conversation and joking (Jer_15:17; Pro_26:19). The military exercise noticed above in 2Sa_2:14, if intended as a sport, it must have resembled the jerid, with the exception of the combatants not being mounted; but it is more consonant to the sense of the passage to give the term there used the sense offending or fighting (Thenius, Comm. ad loc.). Even among the active Egyptians, however, whose games have been figured on their mural tablets, we find little that suggests a comparison with the vigorous contests of the Grecian games. One of the most remarkable is the following, showing what appears to be play with the single-stick (Wilkinson, 1:206). In some instances wrestling or similar athletic exercises are exhibited on the Egyptian monuments, and even women are represented as tumbling in like sportive manner; but their favorite sport appears to have been the more sedate game of draughts, which even royalty did not disdain to share (Wilkinson, 1:189 sq.). SEE PLAY.
3. Public games were altogether foreign to the spirit of Hebrew institutions; the great religious festivals supplied the pleasurable excitement and the feelings of national union which rendered the games of Greece so popular, and at the same time inspired the persuasion that such gatherings should be exclusively connected with religious duties. Accordingly, the erection of a gymnasium by Jason, in which the discs was chiefly practiced, was looked upon as a heathenish proceeding (1Ma_1:14; 2Ma_4:12-14), and the subsequent erection by Herod of a theater and amphitheater at Jerusalem (Josephus, Ant. 15:8, 1), as well as at Caesarea (Ant. 15:9, 6; War, 1:21, 8) and at Berytus (Ant. 19:7, 5), in each of which a quinquennial festival in honor of Caesar was celebrated with the usual contests in gymnastics, chariot-races, music, and with wild beasts was viewed with the deepest aversion by the general body of the Jews (Ant. 15:8, 1). In the Old Testament two passages contain a clear reference to games: Psa_11:5, "Rejoiceth s a strong man to run a race;" Ecc_9:11, "I said that the race is not to the swift." The entire absence of verbal or historical reference to this subject, however, in the Gospels shows how little it entered into the life of the Jews. Some of the foreign Jews, indeed, imbibed a taste for theatrical representations; — Josephus (Life, 3) speaks of one Aliturus, an actor of farces (μιμολόγος), who was in high favor with Nero. (See Eichhorn, De Judaeor. re scenica, in the Comment. Goetting. Rec.)
II. Among the Greeks, on the other band, and subsequently among the Romans likewise, the rage for theatrical exhibitions was such that eamery city of any size possessed its theatre and stadium. At Ephesus an annual contest (ἀγών καὶ γυμνικὸς καὶ μουσικός Thucyd. 3:104) was held in honor of Diana, which was superintended by officers named Α᾿σιάρχαι (Act_19:31; A.V. "chief of Asia"). SEE ASIARCH. It is possible that Paul was present when these games were proceeding, as they were celebrated in the month of May (see Conybbeare and Howson's St. Paul, 2:82); but this hardly asgrees with the notes of time in Act_20:1-3; Act_20:16.
1. Roman Beast-fights and Gladiatorial Shows. —
(1.) A direct reference to the exhibitions that took place on such occasions is made in the terms — ἐθηρ ομάχησα, "I fought with beasts" (1Co_15:32). The θηριομαχία a or beast-fight (venatio in Latin) constituted among the Romans a part of the amusements of the circus or amphitheater. It consisted in the combat of human beings with animals. The persons destined to this barbarous kind of amusement were termed θηριομἀχοι, bestiarii. They were generally of tewo classes: 1. Voluntary, that is, persons who fought either for amusement or for pay: they were clothed and provided with offensive and defensive weapons. 2. Condemned persons, who were mostly exposed to the fury of the animals unclothed, unarmed, and sometimes bound (Cicero, Pro Sext. 64; Ep. ad Quint. Frat. 2:6; Seneca, De Benef 2:19; Tertull. Apol. 9). Politicai offenders especially were so treated, and Josephus (War, 7:3, 1) records that no less than 2500 Jews were destroyed in the theater at Caesarea by this and similar methods. The expression as used by Paul is usually taken as metaphorical, both on account of the qualifying words κατ᾿ ἄνθρωπον, "after the manner of a man," the absence of all reference to the occurrence in the Acts, and the rights of citizenship which he enjoyed none of these arguments can be held to be absolutely conclusive, while, on the other hand, the term θηριομαχεῖν is applied in its literal sense in the apostolical epistles (Igsnatius, ad Ephesians 1; ad Trall. 10; Mart. Polyc. 3; comp. Euseb. E. H. 4:15), and, where metaphorically used (Ignatius, ad Romans 5), an explanation is added which implies that it would otherwise have been taken literally. Certainly Paul was exposed to some extraordinary suffering at Ephesus, which he describes in language borrowed from, if not descriptive of, a real case of θηριομαχία for he speaks of himself as a criminal condemned to death (ἐπιθανατίους, 1Co_4:9; ἀποκρίμα τοῦ θανάτου ἐσχήκαμεν, 2Co_1:9), exhibited previously to the execution of the sentence (ἀπέδειξεν 1 Corinthians l.c.), reserved to the conclusion of the games (ἐσχάτους), as was usual with the theriomachi ("novissimos elegit, velut bestiarios," Tertull. De Pudic. 14), and thus made a spectacle (θέατρον ἐγενὴθημεν). Lightfoot (Exercit. on 1Co_15:32) points to the friendliness of the asiarchs at a subsequent period (Act_19:31) as probably resulting from some wonderful preservation which they had witnessed. Nero selected this mode of executing the Christians at Rome, with the barbarous aggravation that the victims were dressed up in the skins of beasts (Tacitus, Ann. 15:44). Paul may possibly allude to his escape from such torture in 2Ti_4:17. As none but the vilest of men were in general devoted to these beast-fights, no punishment could be more condign and cruel than what was frequently inflicted on the primitive Christians, when they were hurried away "to the lions" (as the phrase was), merely for their fidelity to conscience and to Christ its Lord. Ephesus appears to have had some unenviable distinction in these brutal exhibitions (Schleusner, Lex. s.v.), so that there is a peculiar propriety in the language of the apostle.
Of these beast-fights the Romans were passionately fond. The number of animals which appear to have been from time to time engaged in them is such as to excite in the reader's mind both pity and aversion. Sylla, during his praetorship, sent into the arena no fewer than 100 lions, which were butchered by beings wearing the human shape. Pompey caused the destruction in this way of 600 lions. On the same occasion there perished nearly twenty elephants. These numbers, however, are small compared with the butchery which took place in later periods. Under Titus, 5000 wild and 4000 tame animals, and in the reign of Trajan, 11,000 animals, are said to have been, destroyed. See Smith, Dict. of Class. Ant. s.v. Bestiarii.
(2.) The fights of the gladiators with one another was also a common practice at Rome. It began B.C. 264, and increased to such a fearful extent that on a single occasion, in honor of the triumph of the emperor Trajan over the Dacians, 10,000 gladiators fought for the amusement of the people. They were at first composed of captives or condemned malefactors, but afterwards, as the passion for blood grew stronger, free- born citizens, men of noble birth, and even women, fought after this fashion. The spectators betted on their favorite gladiators with much the same feelings as they betted on the favorite horses which ran before them in the circus. See Smith, Dict. of Class. Ant. s.v. Gladiatores.
The games and theatrical exhibitions of the heathen were regarded by the early Christians with as strong disapprobation as they were by the Jews generally, and for better reasons (Neander's Church Hist. 1:365, § 3). National antagonism to everything foreign as such had much effect in producing Jewish opposition to the games. It was as ministering in themselves and by their attendant circumstances to the lusts of the flesh and of the eye, as producing almost of necessity a cruel temper in the beholders, and running counter to the moral feeling, modesty, and sobriety of the Christian character, that the public spectacles and games of the heathen were ranked among those pomps and vanities which the Christians were obliged to renounce by their baptismal vow. Even the better-minded among the heathen regarded these games with disapproval. Pliny the consul speaks with approval of Junius Mauricius, who expressed an earnest wish that they could be abolished at Rome (Pliny's Letters, 4:22); nor does Tacitus appear to treat them with much greater respect (Hist. 3:83). Rome added to the Greek example features of cruelty which were unknown in the original Grecian games; and there was one feature of difference between the Grecian and Roman games which rendered the former a much more fitting illustration of the Christian life than the latter were, namely, that in the Grecian games the most eminent men in the land came forward and contended personally for victory, while in Rome the most eminent men were merely spectators of the contests of their inferiors (Gibbon, Decline and Fall, chapter 40, page 11). Diomede and Menelaus, Antilochus and Ajax, and Ulysses, the kings, great warriors, and wise men of the Grecian states, deemed it an honor to contend for victory in their countries' games, and even old Nestor, the Homeric type of perfection in the qualities of mind and body, regretted that his years prevented him from joining in the glorious strife (Iliad, 23:634); but "a senator, or even a citizen, conscious of his dignity, would have blushed to expose his person or his horses in the circus of Rome." See Smith's Dict. of Class. Ant. s.v. Ludi.
2. Grecian Prize or Gymnastic Contests. — The scriptural allusions (Gal_2:2; Gal_5:7; Php_2:16; Php_3:14; 1Ti_6:12; 2Ti_2:5; Heb_12:1; Heb_12:4; Heb_12:12) are the more appropriate, because the Grecian games were in their origin and in their best days intimately connected with religion. Games in Greece were very numerous. They are traceable by tradition back to the earliest periods of Grecian civilization. Indeed, much of the obscurity which rests on their origin is a consequence and a sign of their high and even mythic antiquity. See Smith, Dict. of Class. Ant. s.v. Athlete.
(1.) Four of these games stood far above the rest, bearing the appellation of ἱεροί "sacred," and deriving their support from the great Hellenic family at large, though each one had special honor in its own locality: these four were the Olympic, Pythian, Nemean, and Isthmian. The first were held in the highest honor. The victors at the Olympic games were accounted the noblest and happiest of mortals, and every means was taken that could show the respect in which they were held. These games were celebrated every five years at Olympia, in Elis, on the west side of the Peloponnesus. Hence the epoch called the Olympiads.
The gymnastic exercises were laid down in a well-planned systematic series, beginning with the easier (κὃνφα), and proceeding on to the more difficult (βαπέα). Some of these were specially fitted to give strength, others agility; some educated the hands, others the feet. Among the lighter exercises was reckoned running (δρόμος), leaping (ἱίλμα), quoiting (δισκος), hurling the javelin (ἀκόντιον). When skill had been obtained in these, and the consequent strength. then followed a severer course of discipline. This was twofold — 1, simple; 2, compound. The simple consisted of wrestling (πἀλη), boxing (πυγμή): the compound we find in the pentathlon (πἐνταθλον, quinquertium, the five contests), made up of the union of leaping, running, quoiting, wrestling, and in hurling the spear; and in the pankration (παγκράτιον, general trial of strength), which consisted of wrestling and boxing. It is not necessary here to speak in detail of the distinctions which Galen makes between the ordinary motions of the body and those which were required in these exercises, since the names theemselves are sufficient to make manifest how manifold, severe, long, and difficult the bodily discipline was, and the inference is easy and unavoidable that the effect on the bodily frame must have been of the most decided and lasting kind. SEE EXERCISE (BODILY).
Racing, which is the kind of contest chiefly referred to in the N.T., may be traced back to the earliest periods of Grecian antiquity, and may be regarded as the first friendly contest in which men engaged. Accordingly, the Olympic and Pythian, probably also the other games, opened with foot- races. Foot-racing, perfected by systematic practice, was divided into different kinds. If one ran merely to the end of the course (στάδιον), it was called stadium; if one went thither and back, he ran the double course (δίαυλος) The longest course was the δόλιχος, which required extraordinary speed and power of endurance. What it involved the ancients have left in no small uncertainty. It is sometimes given as seven times over the stadium; at others, twelve times; at others again, twenty; and even the number of four-and-twenty times is mentioned. In the preparatory discipline everything was done which could conduce to swiftness and strength. The exercises were performed with the body naked and well oiled. Minute directions were established in order to prevent foul play (κακοτεχνία, κακοὺργια) of any kind, so that as the competitors might start and run on terms of entire equality. The contest was generally most severe; to reach the goal sooner by one foot was enough to decide the victory. See Smith, Dict. of Class. Antiq. s.v. Stadium. SEE DISCUS; SEE LEAPING; SEE WRESTLING.
Besides the athletic games above described, there were others, consisting of racing in chariots, on horseback, or with torches; and still others, in which the parties strove to excel one another in skill in playing upon various instruments. SEE RACE.
At the Olympic games the prize was simply a chaplet made of wild olive. The crowns were laid on a tripod, and placed in the middle of the course, so as to be seen by all. On the same table there were also exposed to view palm-branches, one of which was given into the hand of each conqueror at the same time with the chaplet. The victors, having been summoned by proclamation, were presented with the ensigns of victory, and conducted along the stadium, preceded by a herald, who proclaimed their honors, and announced their name, parentage, and country. The real reward, however, was in the fame which ensued. A chaplet won in the chariot-races at Olympia was the highest of earthly honors. What congratulations from friends; how was the public eye directed to the fortunate conqueror; what honor had he conferred on his native city, and for what office was such a one not fit! With what intense and deep delight must his bosom have been filled when the full acclaim of assembled Greece fell upon his ear, coming in loud salutations and applauses from every part of the crowded course! Then came the more primate attentions of individual friends. One brought a chaplet of flowers; another bound his head with ribbons. Afterwards came the triumphal sacrifice made to the twelve gods, accompanied by sumptuous feasting. The poet now began his office, gaining in some cases, both for himself and the happy victor, an unexpected immortality. Music also lent her aid, and his name was sung wherever the noble accents of the Greek tongue asserted their supremacy In order to perpetuate the memory of these great men, their names and achievements were entered into a public register, which was under the care of suitable officers. A no less privilege was that of having a statue of themselves placed, either at the expense of their country or their friends, in the sacred grove of Jupiter. A perhaps still greater honor awaited the victor on his return home. The conquerors at the Isthemian games were wont to be received in their chariots, superbly attired, amid thronging and jubilant multitudes. One or two other privileges belonged to these victors, such as immunity from public offices, and a certain yearly stipend. At the Isthmian games the prize was ivy during the mythic periods. In later ages the victor was usually crowned with a chaplet of pine-leaves. If the conqueror had come off victorious in the three great divisions — music, gymnastics, and racing — he was in the Pythian, as well as in the other sacred games, presented also with a palm-branch. See Smith's Dict. of Class. Antiq. s.v. Isthmian, Olympian, Nemean, Pythian Games severally. SEE CROWN.
(2.) Paul's epistles (as above) abound with allusions to the Greek contests, borrowed probably from the Isthtmian games, at which he may well have been present during his first visit to Corinth (Conybeare and Howson, 2:206), These contests (ὁ ἀγών — a word of general import, applied by Paul, not to the fight, as the A.V. has it, but to the race, 2Ti_4:7; 1Ti_6:12) are minutely illustrated by his references, in which they are used as a figure of the Christian's course of duty and struggle with opposing influences. The competitors (ὁ ἀγωνιζὀμενος, 1Co_9:25; ἐάνἀθλῇ τις, 2Ti_2:5) required a long and severe course of previous training (comp. σωματικὴ γυμνασία, 1Ti_4:8), during which a particular diet was enforced (πάντα ἐγκρατεύεται, δουλαγωγῶ, 1Co_9:25; 1Co_9:27). In the Olympic contests these preparatory exercises (προγυμνάσματα) extended over a period of ten months, during the last of which they were conducted under the supervision of appointed officers. The contests took place in the presence of a vast multitude of spectators (περικείμενον νέφος μαρτύρων, Heb_12:1), the competitors being the spectacle (θέατρον= θέαμα, 1Co_4:9; θεαζόμενοι, Heb_10:33). The games were opened by the proclamation of a herald (κηρύξας, 1Co_9:27), whose office it was to proclaim the name and country of each candidate, and especially to announce the name of the victor before the assembled multitude, as well as to signify the other crises of the game. Certain conditions and rules were laid down for the different contests, as, that no bribe be offered to a competitor; that in boxing the combatants should not lay hold of one another, etc.; any infringement of these rules (ἐὰν μὴ νομίμως ἀθλήση, 2Ti_2:5) involved a loss of the prize, the competitor being pronounced disqualified (ἀδόκιμος, 1Co_9:27, "castaway," a term that seems to picture the condition of one disgraced by being adjudged unfit to enter the lists or rejected after the game was over). The judge was selected for his spotless integrity (ὁ δίκαιος κριτής, 2Ti_4:8): his office was to decide any disputes (βραβευέτω, Col_3:15; A.V. "rule") and to give the. prize (το βραβεῖον, 1Co_9:24; Php_3:14), consisting of a crown (στέφανος, 2Ti_2:5; 2Ti_4:8) of leaves of wild olive at the Olympic games, and of pine, or, at one period, ivy, at the Isthmian games. These crowns, though perishable (φθαρτόν, 1Co_9:25; comp. 1Pe_5:4), were always regarded as a source of unfailing exultation (Php_4:1; 1Th_2:19): palm-branches were also placed in the hands of the victors (Rev_7:9). Paul alludes to two only out of five contests, boxing and running, most frequently to the latter. In boxing (πυγμή ; compare πυκτεύω, 1Co_9:26), the hands and arms were bound with the cestus, a band of leather studded with nails, which very much increased the severity of the blow, and rendered a bruise inevitable (ὑποπιάζω, 1 Corinthians 1.c.; ὑπώπια= τὰ ὑπὸ τὁυς ῏ωπας τῶν πληγῶν ἴχνη, Polluxji Onom. 2:4, 52).
The skill of the combatant was shown in avoiding the blows of his adversary, so that they were expended on the air (οὐκ ὡς ἀέρα δέρων, 1 Corinthians 1.c.), or the phrase may allude to the preludial trials of comparative strength (comp. Statius, Theb. 6:487; Virgil, ,Eneid, 4:370). The foot-race (δρόμος, 2Ti_4:7, a word peculiar to Paul; comp. Acts 13:55; 20:24) was run in the stadium (ἐν σταδίω; A.V. "race;" 1Co_9:24), an oblong area, open at one end and rounded in a semicircular form at the other, along the sides of which were the raised tiers of seats on which the spectators sat. The race was either from one end of the stadium to the other, or, in the διαυλος, back again to the starting-post. There may be a latent reference to the δίαυλος in the expression ἀρχηγὸν καὶ τελειωτήν (Heb_12:2), Jesus being, as it were, the starting-point and the goal, the locus a quo and the locus ad quem of the Christian's course.
The judge was stationed by the goal (σκοπόν; Auth. Vers. "mark;" Php_3:14), which was clearly visible from one end of the stadium to the ether, so that the runner could make straight for it (οὐκ ὼς ἀδήλως, 1Co_9:26). Paul brings vividly before our minds the earnestness of the competitor, having cast off every encumbrance (ὄγκον ἀποθέμενοι πάντα), especially any closely-fitting robe (εὐπερίστατον, Heb_12:1; comp. Conybeare and Howson, 2:543), holding on his course uninterruptedly (διὡκω, Php_3:12), his eye fixed on the distant goal (ἀφορῶντες ἀπέβλεπε, Heb_12:2; Heb_11:26), unmindful of the space already past (τὰ μὲνὀπίσω ἐπιλανθανόμενος, Philippians 1.c.), and stretching forward with bent body (τοῖς δὲ ἔμπροσθεν ἐπεκτεινὀμενος), his perseverance (δἰ ὑπομονῆς, Heb_12:1), his joy at the completion of the course (μετὰ χαρᾶκ, Act_20:24), his exultation as he not only receives (ἔλαβον, Php_3:12), but actually grasps (καταλάβω, not "apprehend," as A.V. Phil.; ἐπιλαβον, 1Ti_6:12; 1Ti_6:19) the crown which had been set apart (ἀπὀκειται. 2Ti_4:8) for the victor. The lengths of the bounds (a stade or furlong apart) give some idea of the severity of the trial, and serve to illustrate the meaning of the apostle when he speaks of running with patience the race set before him (ὐπομονή, sustained effort), Indeed, one Ladas, a victor of the Olympic games, in the δόλοχος, or long race, was so exhausted by his efforts that, immediately on gaining the honor and being crowned, he yielded up his breath: a fact which also serves to throw light on scriptural language, as showing with what intense eagerness these aspirants (δολιχοδρόμοι, long-runners) strove for perishing chaplets (φθαρτὸν στὲφανον). SEE RUNNER.
On the subject here treated of, see West's Odes of Pindar, 2d ed.; Potter's Antiquities of Greece, book 2, chapter 21-25; and Adams' Roman Antiq. pages 224-234. By far the best work, however, is Krause's Die Gymnnastik und Agonistik der Hellenen (Halle, 1835); his Darstellung der Olymphischen Spiele (Vien. 1838); and his Die Pythien, Nemeen und Isthmeen (Leipzig, 1841). See also Nagel, De ludis saecularibus Romanorum in Gemara commemoratis (Altorf, 1743); Eckhard, De Paulo athleta (Viteb. 1688); Guhling, De locutionibuts sacris e palaestra petitis (ibid. 1726); Schopfer, De locutionibus Pauli gymnasticis (ibid. 1704); Auerswald, De veterum arte luctandi (ibid. 1720); Gunther, De cursoritus veterum (ib. 1709); Hofmann, De athletis veterum (Halle, 1717); Lydii Agonistica sacra (Franeq. 1700).

CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.

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