Tiling

Tiling (κέραμος, pottery-ware, hence a roof-tile; zomp. Xenoph. Mem. 3, 1. 7). The rendering of the V. at Lu 5:19, "through the tiling" (διὰ τῶν κε ράμων), occasions difficulty when we remember that houses in Palestine are not covered with tiles, as they frequently are in Asia Minor and in Western countries. Hence many have suggested that Luke, being a native probably of Antioch, used the word "tile" in the general sense of roof- material (Eusebius; Hist. Eccles. 3, 4; Jerome, Prol. to Com. on St. Matthew, 7:4; Conybeare and Howson, St. Paul, 1. 367). As to the particular part or substance thus "broken up," most interpreters have thought that it was the layer of sticks, brush, and hard-rolled clay which constitutes the ordinary flat roof Kof an Oriental house (Aruindell, Tray. in Asia Minor, 1, 1171; Russell, Aleppo, 1, 35), which Dr. Thomson says he has often seen thus removed for letting down grain, straw, or other articles (Land and Book, 2, 7). But this "operation would have raised an intolerable dust, such as to drive the audience entirely away. Some suppose, therefore, that it was merely the scuttle through which *the paralytic was lowered (Lightfoot, Horae Hebraicae, lad loc.), an explanation that scarcely meets the terms of the narrative. It probably was the awning (Shaw, Travels, p. 211) or rather board or leafy screen over the gallery or interior veranda (Kitto, Daily Bible Illust. ad loc.), which was easily removed and as easily replaced. See HOUSE.