VOSSIUS, vesh-i'us, GERHARD: Roman Cath olic provost of Tongern, papal prothonotary; b. about the middle of the sixteenth century; d. at Liege Mar. 25, 1609. He was enabled to make re searches in the libraries of Italy which resulted in the accumulation of materials on patristics. As a result he acquired great reputation by his edition and Latin translation of the sermons of Chrysos tom (Rome, 1580); an edition of part of Theodoret's Works (1585); his editions of the Gesta et monu mentes Crregorii IX. (1586); of the works of Gregory Thaumaturgus (Mainz, 1604), and Ephraem Syrus (Rome, 1589-98), of St. Bernard's De considerestione (with commentary; 1594), and other patristic works. Of his personal life nothing further is known.
Bibliography: J. F. Foppeus, Bibliotheca Belpica, i. 362, Brussels, 1739; KL, xii. 1122.
VOTAW, CLYDE WEBER: Congregationalist; b. at Wheaton, Ill., Feb. 6, 1864. He was educated at Amherst College (A.B., 1888), Yale Divinity School (graduated, 1891), and the University of Chicago (Ph.D., 1896); he was reader and tutor in Biblical literature in the University of Chicago (1892-96), instructor in New-Testament literature
(1896-1900); assistant professor of Biblical Greek (1900-06), becoming associate professor of New Testament literature (1906). In 1905-07 he was also acting professor of New-Testament interpretation in Chicago Theological Seminary. He is associate editor of The Biblical World, and has written Inductive Studies in the Founding of the Christian Church (Hartford, Conn., 1892); The Use of the Infinitive in Biblical Greek (Chicago, 1896); Inductive Studies in the Primitive Era of Christianity (Chicago, 1898); The Apostolic Age (New York, 1905); and Best .Books for Old and New Testament Study (with J. E. McFadyen; 1909).
VOWS. I. In the Old Testament. Ethics of the Vow (§ 3). II. In the Church. Roman Catholic Doa-
L In the Old Testament: The Hebrew word for
" vow," nadar, is
probably connected with the word
nazar,
" dedicate "; for a vow of abstinence the
word is
'issar.
The vow, common to the Hebrew
and other religions, takes in the Old Testament two
forms: (1) a gift to God for a wish granted, a danger
escaped, or a difficult undertaking accomplished;
or (2) a promise to abstain, until some purpose is
accomplished or for some definite time, from some
enjoyment or pleasure. This abstinence may be
conceived as a self-applied stimulus, or it may be a
voluntary sacrifice made to conciliate the deity's
good will. The first form is the most common in
the Old Testament. Instances are: Jacob
(
The positive vow, as the cases show, may involve very varied issues and circumstances. The moat common form is a definite offering promised for a definite benefit. In the case of Jephthah (q.v.) it was a human sacrifice [probably so in intent] for a victory over the enemy; usually it was some other object or service. The severest form of the vow was the ban (see Law, Hebrew, Civil, and Criminal). Often, particularly in the Psalms, the vow of sacrifice is descriptive of the thanks of the pious for answer to prayer.
It was a natural consequence, as vows were made
in the service of religion, that they should come
under religious regulation, as in the Pentateuch
(
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The making of a vow is regarded in religious law
as not an absolute religious duty (cf.
II. In the Church: Connected with the idea of a personal God with whom his creatures have personal relations is the conception of services and gifts which they may offer to him, and thus also of
religious acts by which they pledge :. Basal certain services expressly to him. This
Ideas. is the most general notion of a religiousvow (cf. the short definition of Thomas Aquinas, " A promise made to God "). In a narrower sense, the word conveys the idea of the promise of something which the promiser does not strictly owe to God, or which he is not already bound to give or perform. The impulse to make such a promise may come from the desire to show gratitude and devotion to God by offering him something of special value; or it may be thought of as a means of advancing in communion with God and in the achievement of perfection; or without such definitely religious motives, it may be offered as giving some sort of a right to receive a desired favor in exchange.
While the Old Testament (see I, above) presents vows as, under certain conditions, a natural part of a religious life, it tells nothing that is necessarily decisive for Christian ethics; nor does the New Testament contain any positive teaching on the
subject. From the mouth of Christ 2. New- there is only a sharp word for those
Testament who vow to the temple service that Indications. with which they should have sup-
ported their parents
(
Views on the subject in general must therefore
be formed from the universal principles of Christian
ethics as contained in the New Testament and attested by the Christian conscience. The idea of a
gift which the pious soul feels compelled to consecrate to God is of the very essence of Christianity.
But this gift is nothing less than that of the whole
person, will, and life (cf., e.g.,
The concrete individual development of the moral life leads to the conception of various special objects of solemn promise, and to that of special vows.
Two kinds of duties and promises may 3. Ethics of be distinguished: (1) the general eth-
the Vow. ical duties imposed by the communityand accepted by the individual,, and (2) special acts or manners of ethical conduct which the individual takes upon himself, either to make progress in the spiritual life or to express a particular sense of obligation toward God. The first class of duties are imposed both by Church and State, as well as by voluntary associations, and solemn promises are required from their members. But these (e.g., the marriage vow) hardly come within the definition, being made rather to the community than to God (see Oath). As to the second class, an examination on approved ethical principles will show that a Christian may, of his own free impulse, undertake to promise to God certain special acts or manners of life which are not of universal obligation, either divine or human. In such a course the logical limits of freedom and obligation must be preserved in their due proportion; and it is true of such promises that they are implicitly involved in the general or baptismal vow to love and serve God with all one's heart. It must be remembered also that all action is conditioned by a variety of subjective and objective circumstances which may alter from time to time. What seems now a positive duty may some day be superseded by a more pressing one, and man must then be free to follow the higher call. There may be cases in which a vow to remain unmarried should be taken by an Evangelical Christian; but if he is to make it unconditionally, he must be absolutely sure that he will never be placed in a position in which it would be better for him to be married. An unconditional vow of the sort may amount to tempting God, with no promise of a blessing in return; and the same may be said of the pledge required by total-abstinence societies. If the formal expression of the resolve becomes a burden on the conscience, it exposes the soul to an additional danger; in that case such special and formal vows will be required only seldom and under extraordinary circumstances in the life of Evangelical Christians. In most cases their place will better be taken by an earnest laying before God of the impulses of devotion, with a prayer
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of the matter and declaring monastic vows not merely invalid but sinful and idolatrous (cf., e.g., his De votis monasticis, 1522). Special vows, in the sense given in the earlier part of this article, he was willing to tolerate, though he thought little of them. The Augsburg Confession and Apology and the Schmalkald Articles (qq.v.) declared against monastic vows quite in his spirit. While Calvin placed the baptismal vow above all; and asserted Christian liberty against the Romanist conception of vows, he yet insisted on the utility of voluntary special vows, by which a Christian might at times reenforce the weakness of his will or express in a signal manner his gratitude to God. Some Lutheran theologians, such as Chemnitz and J. Gerhard, have leaned to this view much more than Luther himself; but through all their diversity in detail, modern ethical and religious teachers on the Protestant side have adhered more or less to the general line of argument briefly sketched in the beginning of this article.
Bibliography: On 1 consult: J. L. Saalachiitz, Das mosaische Recht, i. 358 sqq., Berlin, 1846; 'A. Edersheim, Jesus the Messiah, ii. 17-21, New York, 1898; Smith, Rel. of Sem, 2d ed., pp. 481-485; Nowack, Archäologie, ii. 168-169, 263-2B6; Benzinger, Archäologie, pp. 387-388 et passim; DB, iv. 872-873; Ell, iv. 5252-55; JE, aii. 451-452; DCG, ii. 810-811; KL, v. 246-249; the talmudic tracts Nedarim, Arakin, and Shekalin, iv. frE On 2 consult: Bingham, Origines, VII., iii. 7-8, iv. 2, XVI., vii. 9; Schonen, in TQS, 1874, pp. 195 sqq., 447 sqq.; F. Dash, Die Zultissagkeit der Geliibde, Gütersloh, 1896; Virginea Christi. Die Geliibde der gottgeweihten Jungfraueu in den ersten drei Jahrhunderten, in T U, xxxi. 2, 1907; and literature under the articles to which reference is made in the text.
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