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CopperAid to Bible Understanding
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uses. It being one of the oldest metals known, Tubal-cain prior to the Noachian flood forged tools out of copper. (Gen. 4:22) Household and sanctuary utensils included pots, basins, pans, shovels and forks. (Ex. 38:3; Lev. 6:28; Jer. 52:18) Copper was used for doors, gates, pillars and musical instruments (2 Ki. 25:13; 1 Chron. 15:19; Ps. 107:16; Isa. 45:2); armor, shields, weapons and fetters. (1 Sam. 17:5, 6, 38; 2 Sam. 22:35; 2 Ki. 25:7; 2 Chron. 12:10) The metal was also used in the making of idols. (Rev. 9:20) Copper coins were in circulation in Jesus’ day. (Matt. 10:9) The Scriptures also speak of copper in a figurative or symbolic sense.—Lev. 26:19; Job 6:12; Isa. 48:4; 60:17; Jer. 1:18; Ezek. 1:7; Dan. 2:32; Rev. 1:15; 2:18.
See METALWORKER; MINE, MINING; REFINE, REFINER.
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Copper SerpentAid to Bible Understanding
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COPPER SERPENT
The copper figure or representation of a serpent made by Moses during Israel’s trek in the wilderness. Near the border of Edom the people showed a rebellious spirit, complaining about the miraculously provided manna and the water supply. Jehovah therefore punished them by sending poisonous serpents among them and many persons died from serpent bites. After the people showed repentance and Moses interceded for them, Jehovah told him to make a figure in the form of a serpent and to place it upon a signal pole. Moses complied, and “it did occur that if a serpent had bitten a man and he gazed at the copper serpent, he then kept alive.”—Num. 21:4-9; 1 Cor. 10:9.
The Scriptures do not identify the type of venomous serpent Jehovah sent among the people. The Hebrew expression for “poisonous serpents” (han-nehha·shimʹ has·sera·phimʹ) at Numbers 21:6 can denote a “fiery serpent,” perhaps from the burning or inflammation-causing effect of its poison. This may indicate that the bite caused a burning sensation because of inflammation or thirst.
The Israelites kept the copper serpent and later improperly began to worship it, making sacrificial smoke to it. Hence, as part of his religious reforms, Judean King Hezekiah (745-716 B.C.E.) had the now more than seven-hundred-year-old copper serpent crushed to pieces because the people had made an idol of it. According to the Hebrew text the account at 2 Kings 18:4 reads in part quite literally, “one (he) began to call it Ne·hushʹtan.” Some translations leave the word “Nehushtan” untranslated (AT; Ro; RS), and suggested meanings of the Hebrew term nehhush·tanʹ are “only a bit of bronze” or “a bronze thing” and, probably, “bronze-god.” The New World Translation appropriately says that the copper serpent “used to be called the copper serpent-idol.”—See Lexicon in Veteris Testamenti Libros, by Koehler and Baumgartner, p. 610.
Jesus Christ made clear the prophetic meaning of the wilderness event involving the copper serpent when he told Nicodemus: “Moreover, no man has ascended into heaven but he that descended from heaven, the Son of man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so the Son of man must be lifted up, that everyone believing in him may have everlasting life.” (John 3:13-15) Like the copper serpent Moses placed on a pole in the wilderness, the Son of God was impaled or fastened on a stake, thus appearing to many as an evildoer and a groveling sinner, like a snake, being in the position of one cursed. (Deut. 21:22, 23; Gal. 3:13; 1 Pet. 2:24) In the wilderness a person who had been bitten by one of the poisonous serpents Jehovah sent among the Israelites evidently had to gaze at the copper serpent in faith. Similarly, to gain everlasting life through Christ it is necessary to exercise faith in him.
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CopyistAid to Bible Understanding
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COPYIST
Biblically speaking, the term “copyist” applies to a transcriber or person who made copies of written material, specifically of the Scriptures. The Hebrew word rendered “copyist” is so·pherʹ, which has to do with counting and recording and has various meanings. It can denote a scribe (Judg. 5:14), a secretary (Jer. 36:32) and a recorder. (Ezek. 9:2, 3) A “scribe” is either a public writer penning compositions dictated by various persons, a secretary, or copyist or teacher of the Law. However, the term “copyist” is especially apropos when applied to individuals who worked at copying the Law and other portions of the Holy Scriptures. Particularly identified as copyists are Shaphan, a certain Zadok and the priest Ezra.—Jer. 36:10; Neh. 13:13; 12:26, 36.
The priest Ezra, who went from Babylon to Jerusalem with the Jewish remnant in the seventh year of Persian King Artaxerxes (468 B.C.E.), is identified as “a skilled copyist in the law of Moses” and as “a copyist of the words of the commandments of Jehovah and of his regulations toward Israel.” (Ezra 7:6, 7, 11) In his time the Jewish scribes first became prominent as a group of Scripture copyists. Thousands of Jews had remained in Babylon and others had been scattered about because of migrations and for business purposes. Local assembly halls known as synagogues sprang up in different places and, for these, copyists had to make handwritten copies of Biblical manuscripts. They did so with great care.—See SCRIBE.
It was Ezra, the skillful priestly copyist, who read “the book of the law of Moses” to a congregation in restored Jerusalem. Competent explanation and instruction given by Ezra and his assistants on that occasion led to “great rejoicing” and rich blessings for the assembled people.—Neh. chap. 8.
The psalmist, his heart “astir with a goodly matter” concerning God’s Messianic King, said: “May my tongue be the stylus of a skilled copyist.” (Ps. 45:1-5) His wish, it seems, was that his tongue prove to be eloquent, a match for the exalted theme of his composition, which was inspired of God. Thus, the psalmist desired that his tongue function efficiently, like a stylus in the hand of a trained and skillful copyist, one with ability.
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CorAid to Bible Understanding
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COR
A dry measure and also one used for measuring oil. The cor corresponded to the homer and contained ten bath measures. (1 Ki. 4:22; 5:11; 2 Chron. 2:10; Ezek. 45:14) If the bath measure is to be reckoned at 5.81 gallons (22 liters), as favored by archaeological evidence, the cor measure would equal 58.1 gallons (220 liters).
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CoralAid to Bible Understanding
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CORAL
The limestone deposits of certain sea organisms called polyps. Living in colonies, these
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