- GAMES (1.) Of children (Zechariah 8:5; Matthew 11:16). The Jewish
youth were also apparently instructed in the use of the bow and the sling
(Judges 20:16; 1 Chronicles 12:2).
(2.) Public games, such as were common among the Greeks and Romans,
were foreign to the Jewish institutions and customs. Reference, however,
is made to such games in two passages (Psalm 19:5; Ecclesiastes 9:11).
(3.) Among the Greeks and Romans games entered largely into their social
life.
(a) Reference in the New Testament is made to gladiatorial shows and
fights with wild beasts (1 Corinthians 15:32). These were common among
the Romans, and sometimes on a large scale.
(b) Allusion is frequently made to the Grecian gymnastic contests
(Galatians 2:2; 5:7; Phil. 2:16; 3:14; 1 Timothy 6:12; 2 Timothy 2:5;
Hebrews 12:1, 4, 12). These were very numerous. The Olympic, Pythian,
Nemean, and Isthmian games were esteemed as of great national
importance, and the victors at any of these games of wrestling, racing, etc.,
were esteemed as the noblest and the happiest of mortals.
- GAMMADIM (Ezekiel 27:11) brave warriors; R.V. marg., “valorous
men;” others interpret this word as meaning “short-swordsmen,” or
“daring ones”, the name of a class of men who were defenders of the
towers of Tyre. - GAMUL weaned the leader of one of the priestly courses (1 Chronicles
24:17). - GAP a rent or opening in a wall (Ezekiel 13:5; comp. Amos 4:3). The
false prophets did not stand in the gap (Ezekiel 22: 30), i.e., they did
nothing to stop the outbreak of wickedness. - GARDENS mentioned in Scripture, of Eden (Genesis 2:8, 9); Ahab’s
garden of herbs (1 Kings 21:2); the royal garden (2 Kings 21:18); the royal
garden at Susa (Esther 1:5); the garden of Joseph of Arimathea (John
19:41); of Gethsemane (John 18:1).
The “king’s garden” mentioned 2 Kings 25:4, Nehemiah 3:15, was near the
Pool of Siloam.
Gardens were surrounded by hedges of thorns (Isaiah 5:5) or by walls of
stone (Proverbs 24:31). “Watch-towers” or “lodges” were also built in