Library / Calmet's Dictionary of the Holy Bible, Complete and Unabridged

Volume II · L

Lunula

If. iii. 18.LUNULA. God threatens the Daughters of Sion in Isaiah, that He would take away the rich Ornaments which they wore about their Legs, their little Moons or Crescents: Auferet Dominus ornamentum calceamentorum & lunulas. The Roman Senators wore about their Ankle-bone above the Heel, a Sort of Buckle which they called Moon, because it was in the Form of a Crescent: Patricia claufit vestigia Lunâ. Some have believed, that they wore it before, and at the lower Part of the Leg; but this Opinion is singular; the ancient Figures represent it otherwise. Bruduas, Brother to Herod Atticus, wore this little Moon above his Heel upon the Ankle-bone. It was of Ivory, and in the Form of a Crescent1. The Hebrew Word2 which Saint Jerom has translated Lunulas, signifies in Reality Moon; and Menifcos made Use of by the Septuagint may likewise signify the same Thing. The Scripture uses the same Word in the Passage of Judges, where there is Mention made of the Chains of Gold or pretious Stones, hung Judg. viii. 21, 26.upon the Necks of the Camels belonging to the Midianites. They were gold Crescents.

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Footnotes

  1. Antiquit. expliqués. l. iii. p. 58. inveniatur in te qui lustret filium suum, aut filiam, ducens per ignem. ↩

  2. ,השהרכיםLXX. ↩

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Augustin Calmet, O.S.B., “Lunula,” in Calmet's Dictionary of the Holy Bible, Complete and Unabridged, English translation, Mind of the Church, https://mindofthechurch.com/works/calmet-dictionary/l/lunula/.

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