Ec'stasy (Gr. ek, out, stasis, a standing). Literally, a condition in which one stands out of one's mind, loses one's wits, or is "beside oneself". St. Paul refers to this when he says he was caught up to the third heaven and heard unutterable words, "whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell" (2 Cor. xii, 2-4). St. John also says he was "in the spirit" --i.e. in an ecstasy --when he saw the apocalyptic vision (Rev.i, 10). The belief that the soul left the body at times was very general in former ages, and there was a class of diviners among the ancient Greeks called Ecstati, who used to lie in trances, and when they came to themselves gave strange accounts of what they had seen while they were "out of the body".

Ecstat'ic Doctor, The. Jean de Ruysbroeck, the mystic (1294-1381).

<lexicon><entry><headword>Ec'stasy </headword>
<etymology> (<abbr expan= 'Greek'>Gr.</abbr> <foreign lang=gr>ek</foreign>, out, <foreign lang=gr>stasis</foreign>, a standing).</etymology>
<definition>Literally, a condition in which one stands out of one's mind, loses one's wits, or is <q>"beside oneself"</q>.
<name reg= 'Paul, Saint'>St. Paul</name> refers to this when he says he was caught up to the third heaven and heard unutterable words, <q who='St. Paul'>"whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell"</q> (<source><bibl><title>2 <abbr expan= 'Corinthians'>Cor.</abbr></title><biblScope> <num value= '12'>xii</num>, 2-4</biblScope></bibl></source>). <name reg= 'John, Saint'>St. John</name> also says he was <q who='St. John'>"in the spirit"</q> --<foreign lang=la><abbr expan= 'id est'>i.e.</abbr></foreign> in an ecstasy --when he saw the apocalyptic vision (<source><bibl><title><abbr expan= 'Revelations'>Rev. </abbr></title><biblScope><num value= '1'>i</num>, 10</biblScope></bibl></source>). The belief that the soul left the body at times was very general in former ages, and there was a class of diviners among the ancient Greeks called <foreign lang=gr>Ecstati</foreign>, who used to lie in trances, and when they came to themselves gave strange accounts of what they had seen while they were <q>"out of the body"</q>.</definition></entry>
<entry><headword>Ecstat'ic Doctor, The.</headword>
<definition><name reg= 'Ruysbroeck, Jean de'>Jean de Ruysbroeck</name>, the mystic (1294-1381).</definition></entry></lexicon>

Note

The tagset above was created using the guidelines available at the T.E.I. (Text Encoding Initiative) homepage. I have, however, added the following elements: <lexicon>, to signal the type of document from which the information is taken, ie. a dictionary; <entry>, to indicate the major subdivisions within that document; <headword>, <definition> and <etymology> to differentiate between the (probable and possible) constituent parts of an entry; <source> to identify any authority cited. Since I was not provided with complete bibliographical details for the edition of Brewers Dictionary of Phrase and Fable distributed during the class, I have chosen to focus on the text itself rather than the printing and formatting of the version in question. Proper names have been labelled where such labelling seemed likely to facilitate cross-referencing.