Cat
Webster's Dictionary [1]
(1): (v. t.) To bring to the cathead; as, to cat an anchor. See Anchor.
(2): (n.) A cat o' nine tails. See below.
(3): (n.) An old game; (a) The game of tipcat and the implement with which it is played. See Tipcat. (c) A game of ball, called, according to the number of batters, one old cat, two old cat, etc.
(4): (n.) A double tripod (for holding a plate, etc.), having six feet, of which three rest on the ground, in whatever position in is placed.
(5): (n.) A strong vessel with a narrow stern, projecting quarters, and deep waist. It is employed in the coal and timber trade.
(6): (n.) A strong tackle used to draw an anchor up to the cathead of a ship.
(7): (n.) An animal of various species of the genera Felis and Lynx. The domestic cat is Felis domestica. The European wild cat (Felis catus) is much larger than the domestic cat. In the United States the name wild cat is commonly applied to the bay lynx (Lynx rufus) See Wild cat, and Tiger cat.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible [2]
CAT . This animal is mentioned only in the Apocr. [Note: Apocrypha, Apocryphal.] (Ep. Jer v. 22 [Gr. 21]). There are two species of wild cat in the Holy Land.
Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblial Literature [3]
Fig. 119—Egyptian drawings of cats
It might be assumed that the cat was an useful, if not a necessary, domestic animal to the Hebrew people in Palestine, where corn was grown for exportation, as well as for consumption of the resident population, twenty or thirty-fold more than at present, and where, moreover, the conditions of the climate required the precaution of a plentiful store being kept in reserve to meet the chances of scarcity. The animal could not be unknown to the people, for their ancestors had witnessed the Egyptians treating it as a divinity. Yet we find the cat nowhere mentioned in the canonical books as a domestic animal. And in Baruch it is noticed only as a tenant of Pagan temples, where no doubt the fragments of sacrificed animals and vegetables attracted vermin, and rendered the presence of cats necessary. This singular circumstance, perhaps, resulted from the animal being deemed unclean, and being thereby excluded domestic familiarity, though the Hebrews may still have encouraged it, in common with other vermin-hunters, about the outhouses and farms, and corn-stores, at the risk of some loss among the broods of pigeons which, in Palestine, were a substitute for poultry.
With regard to the neighboring nations just named, they all had domestic cats, it is presumed, derived from a wild species found in Nubia, and first described by Ruppel under the name of Felis Maniculata. The typical animal is smaller, more slender, and more delicately limbed than the European. The fur is pale yellowish grey, with some dark streaks across the paws, and at the tip of the tail. In the domesticated state it varies in colors and markings, for the ancient monuments of Egypt contain many painted figures, which show them cross-barred like our wild species in Europe. Two specimens are here given from these paintings; one clearly a cat; the other, which is not apparently a cat but a species of gennet or paradoxurus, is, in the original, figured as catching birds, acting like a retriever for his master, who is fowling in a boat.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia [4]
(αἴλουρος , aı́louros ): The only mention of this animal is in Baruch 6:22. It is not mentioned in the canonical Scriptures, though Bochart ( Hieroz ., 862) gives "wild cats" as the equivalent of cı̄yı̄m in Isaiah 13:21; Isaiah 34:14; Jeremiah 50:39; Psalm 74:19 , where English Versions of the Bible gives "wild beasts of the desert." Mention is, however, made of cats, cathod , in the Welsh Bible (lsa Psalm 34:14 ). The only mention of the catta in classical Latin writers is in Martial xiii.69. How the cat was regarded in Egypt is described in Herod. ii.66 and Rawlinson's notes. In Baruch 6:22 cats are mentioned with "bats, swallows and birds" as sitting with impunity on the images of the heathen gods which are unable to drive them off. See also Zoology .
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature [5]
Bibliography Information McClintock, John. Strong, James. Entry for 'Cat'. Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/tce/c/cat.html. Harper & Brothers. New York. 1870.
