COMPASS

An instrument used by a carpenter or other craftsman to mark or inscribe a circle or arc on wood or some other material. The compass is also employed in making various geometric figures. Doubtless, compasses of antiquity were quite similar to those in use today and consisted of a pair of pointed legs joined at the top in a way that allowed them to be adjusted to vary the distance between the points. In modern times, a pencil or pen can sometimes be attached to one leg so as to pivot and mark paper or other material when the other, pointed leg, is set in a stationary position. When compasses have two sharp points, one of them can be used to scratch or scribe arcs or circles. Yet, draftsmen sometimes call such compasses “dividers” because the two sharp points can be used to measure off equal spaces on drawings or can be employed to transfer a certain measurement from one place to another. Hence, many artisans and mathematicians use the compass today, and a similar instrument was employed by the early Egyptians and Babylonians in their mathematical calculations.

The only Biblical reference to a compass is at Isaiah 44:13. There the idolatrous wood-carver is said to use the measuring line, red chalk and a wood scraper to fashion an idol. And, “with a compass he keeps tracing it out [evidently to make sure it is well-proportioned], and gradually he makes it like the representation of a man, like the beauty of mankind, to sit in a house.”