- CHAMELEON a species of lizard which has the faculty of changing the
colour of its skin. It is ranked among the unclean animals in Leviticus
11:30, where the Hebrew word so translated is coah (R.V., “land
crocodile”). In the same verse the Hebrew tanshemeth, rendered in
Authorized Version “mole,” is in Revised Version “chameleon,” which is
the correct rendering. This animal is very common in Egypt and in the
Holy Land, especially in the Jordan valley. - CHAMOIS only in Deuteronomy 14:5 (Hebrews zemer), an animal of
the deer or gazelle species. It bears this Hebrew name from its leaping or
springing. The animal intended is probably the wild sheep (Ovis
tragelephus), which is still found in Sinai and in the broken ridges of Stony
Arabia. The LXX. and Vulgate render the word by camelopardus, i.e., the
giraffe; but this is an animal of Central Africa, and is not at all known in
Syria. - CHAMPION (1 Samuel 17:4, 23), properly “the man between the two,”
denoting the position of Goliath between the two camps. Single combats
of this kind at the head of armies were common in ancient times. In ver. 51
this word is the rendering of a different Hebrew word, and properly
denotes “a mighty man.” - CHANCE (Luke 10:31). “It was not by chance that the priest came down
by that road at that time, but by a specific arrangement and in exact
fulfilment of a plan; not the plan of the priest, nor the plan of the wounded
traveller, but the plan of God. By coincidence (Gr. sungkuria) the priest
came down, that is, by the conjunction of two things, in fact, which were
previously constituted a pair in the providence of God. In the result they
fell together according to the omniscient Designer’s plan. This is the true
theory of the divine government.” Compare the meeting of Philip with the
Ethiopian (Acts 8:26, 27). There is no “chance” in God’s empire.
“Chance” is only another word for our want of knowledge as to the way in
which one event falls in with another (1 Samuel 6:9; Ecclesiastes 9:11). - CHANCELLOR one who has judicial authority, literally, a “Lord of
judgement;” a title given to the Persian governor of Samaria (Ezra 4:8, 9,
17). - CHANGES OF RAIMENT were reckoned among the treasures of rich men
(Genesis 45:22; Judges 14:12, 13; 2 Kings 5:22, 23).
kiana
(Kiana)
#1