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CELLAR.—Used only once in the Gospels, in Luk_11:33, where Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885 gives ‘cellar’ for Authorized Version ‘secret place,’ following the correct reading êñýðôç , ‘a vault,’ ‘crypt,’ or ‘cellar,’ not êñõðôüí , ‘hidden.’ Josephus uses the same word, êñýðôç , in a way to make its meaning very clear: ‘They set a tower on fire, and leapt into the ‘cellar beneath’ (BJ, v. vii. 4).
Abundant proof is forthcoming from the examination of the ruins of many ancient Eastern houses, from allusions in the Bible (cf. 1Ch_27:27-28) and in other writings of the times, as well as from modern dwellings in the East which are typically Oriental, that many ancient houses were provided with ‘cellars beneath,’ and that ordinarily these ‘cellars’ were used as store-houses rather than as dwelling-places.
Looking at the passage Luk_11:33 in the light of the connexion in which we find it in Mat_5:14-16 and Mar_4:21, the idea is that a course of concealment on the part of Christians is unreasonable, and contrary to the Divine design. Christians are ‘the light of the world,’ the light by which the mass of mankind may see the things of religion. As such they cannot escape observation if they would, and they should not wish to escape it if they could, for this would be contrary to the very purpose of God in making them sources of light. The unreasonableness of such a course, from cowardice or any other motive, is what is set forth in this and the other significant figures used by our Lord: ‘No man, when he hath lighted a lamp, putteth it in a cellar, neither under a bushel, or a bed (Mk.), but on a lamp-stand, that they which come in may see the light.’ The very purpose in lighting the lamp is that men may see it, or see by it. Is it, then, to be put in the cellar, where people do not live, or under a bushel or a bed, where it would be obscured? Is it not rather to be put on the lamp-stand, where all comers may see it, and see by it?
Literature.—Meyer, Com. in loc.; Expositor, ii. i. [1881] p. 252ff.
Geo. B. Eager.