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THE CONCISE

BIBLE DICTIONARY.

For complete list of Proper Names see Concordance.

A

Abraham

AARON [aar on], the brother and "prophet" | he moved to Bethel (now Beitin), afterwards (i.e. speaker) of Moses. From him descended, to Egypt. Egypt (q.v.) was ruled at the time through his eldest son Eleazer, the hereditary by "Hyksos conquerors from Asia, at whose class of priests (q.v.) in Israel.

ABBA [ab ba] (Aramaic "father"), a name addressed to God in Jewish and early Christian prayers. It occurs thrice in the New Testament, with its Greek equivalent placed after it (Mark 14. 36; Rom. 8. 15; Gal. 4. 6).

ABEL (a'bel] (Heb. "breath," "vanity;" in Assyrian" son," probably the original meaning), the second son of Adam, who was murdered by his brother Cain (Gen. 4. 1 ff.). He was God-fearing and righteous, and in contrast with Cain is the pattern of a worshipper pleasing to God, who on that very account has to suffer (1 John 3. 12). He is described as righteous by our Lord (Mat. 23. 35), and in the Epistle to the Hebrews (11. 4) stands at the head of the heroes of faith.

ABIB ('bib]. [See CALENDAR.]

ABIMELECH [a bim'e lech] (Heb. "father-king"). 1. Name of the Philistine king of Gerar, a friend of Abraham (Gen. 20. and 21.). As the name occurs also in the history of Isaac (Gen. 26.), and Achish king of Gath (1 Sam. 21. 10) is called Abimelech in the title prefixed to Ps. 34, it may have been a common title of Philistine kings.

2. Name of the son of Gideon, king of Shechem, made famous through the fable of the thorn bush- the earliest fable of which the authorship is known - which his half-brother Jotham made at his expense (Judg. 9. 7 ff.).

ABRAHAM [a'bra-ham] ("father of a multitude"), originally ABRAM [a'bram] ("exalted father"), the ancestor of the Hebrew people, was born at Ur Casdim, "Ur of the Chaldees," properly "Ur of the Babylonians," the site of which is now Mugheir, south of Babylon; or Ur may be Uri, which was the Sumerian name of Accad (q.v.). Contract-tablets show that in the age of Abraham Canaanite merchants-or "Amorites," as

the Babylonians called them-speaking

court an Asiatic was likely to be welcomed. The Hyksos capital was at Zoan (now San), in the north-eastern part of the delta, so that a traveller from Asia would soon find himself in the presence of the Pharaoh. We are told that Abram was rich, among other things, in camels, an animal which was peculiarly Asiatic, and was not employed in Egypt till the Christian era.

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ABRAHAM'S OAK.

the language of Canaan (Isa. 19. 18)-i.e. In the Valley of Esheol, about three miles north of Hebron, stands the

traditional tree under which Abraham pitched his tent (Gen. 18).

Hebrew were settled in Babylonia. In a tablet dated in the reign of the grandfather of Khammu-rabi or Amraphel (Gen. 14. 1), one of the witnesses is called "the Amorite, the son of Abi-ramu," or Abram. In migrating to the west, Terah did what Babylonians and Amorites" were constantly doing. He stopped at Haran in Mesopotamia, a city built by Babylonian kings. The patron deity of Ur was the moon-god, whose great temple rose in its midst, and the patron deity of Haran was

the same.

Even in Canaan, Abram was under Babylonian influence and Babylonian government. He first pitched his tent under the "terebinth" of Moreh, before Shechem (now Nablas); then

From a Photograph by the Photochrom Co., Ltd.

When the patriarch returned to Canaan, he was deserted by his nephew Lot, who settled himself in Sodom, and so became a Canaanitish citizen. The Canaanitish princes of the vale of Siddim rebelled against their Babylonian masters, and an army was led against them by Chedorlaomer of Elam, suzerain lord of Babylonia. Under him marched Amraphel of Shinar, or Northern Babylonia, Arioch of Ellasar, and Tidal, king of "nations." Names similar to these have been found in Babylonian inscriptions.

At the time of the invasion, Abram was living at Mamre or Hebron, the confederate of three

Amorite chieftains. When he heard that his nephew was among the captives of the invading army, he pursued it, with his allies, to near Damascus, and recovered the captives and spoil. The conqueror was greeted on his return by Melchizedek (q.v.), priest-king of Jerusalem. Abram had a son, Ishmael, by the Egyptian "bondwoman" Hagar. The name Ishmael is found in Babylonian documents of the age of Khammu-rabi, king of Babylonia (q.v.). When Ishmael was thirteen years old, Abram and all his family were circumcised. In Egypt, circumcision had been practised from time immemorial; it was now to be the seal of the Covenant (q.v.) between God and Abram's seed. At the same time, Abram's name was changed to Abraham, the change denoting that Abraham was no longer a Babylonian. Soon afterwards, the guilty cities of "the plain," or vale of Siddim, were destroyed by a rain of "brimstone and fire." Abraham had interceded for the sinners in vain; Lot and his daughters alone escaped, and became the ancestors of Ammon and Moab. We next find Abraham at Gerar, south of Gaza. In the land of Gerar, Isaac was born; and it was here also that "God did tempt" Abraham to sacrifice his only son-the heir of the repeated promise of a mighty nation that should possess the land of Canaan-in accord

ance with the Canaanitish ritual, on a mountain "in the land of Moriah." But the sacrifice of Isaac was stayed, and Abraham was taught that God did not require so terrible an offering as heathen religion commanded.

At Hebron, his wife Sarah (Assyrian Sarrat, "queen") died. She was buried in "the field of Machpelah," which the patriarch bought for four hundred silver shekels (about $229.00) from the Hittites (q.v.) settled there. The details of this bargain agree very strikingly with the Babylonian legal procedure in such transactions. Abraham now sent his servant to Mesopotamia to seek a wife for his son Isaac from among his kindred at Haran. Rebekah, the sister of Laban, accordingly became Isaac's wife. By his second wife, Keturah, Abraham was the ancestor of various tribes of Central Arabia. After this Abraham died, and was buried at Machpelah. Abraham was the friend of God, the glorious prototype of the obedience and righteousness of faith; the father of the faithful, and the founder of the Hebrew race and of the religion of Jehovah.

ABSALOM [ab sa-lom] (Heb. "father of peace"), son of David and Maachah (2 Sam. 3. 3), through popular arts alienating the people from his father, at length raised a revolt against him (15-17), but was defeated by Joab (2 Sam. 18),

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and slain by him (18. 14), to the great sorrow of David (2 Sam. 18. 33; 19. 4).

ACACIA [a-ca'ci-â]. [See SHITTAH.] ACCAD [ae'ead] (Gen. 10. 10), one of the four cities of Nimrod in Shinar (Babylonia). Land of Sumer and Accad is in the Assyrian inscriptions the common designation of Babylonia as

a whole. [See BABYLONIA.]

ACELDAMA [a-çel'da-má]. [See JERUSALEM.]

ACTS [ǎets], THE, or THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES [å-pos'tles]. Both titles go back to the second century, although neither was given the book by its author. The longer title is misleading if understood of "all the apostles," since the doings of only two, St. Peter and St. Paul, are described at any length. It is an historical work, of which the "Gospel according to St. Luke" forms the first book. This second book

describes the stages by which Christianity spread from Jerusalem the sacred, to Rome the political, capital of the world. The baptism of the Ethiopian (Acts 8. 27 ff.), and the presence of many Christians in Damascus (9. 2, 10, 19) are signs of a process by which the religion diffused itself southwards and eastwards. But the development of the church seemed to the author to be determined by its history in the civilized part of the world, and hence he describes that history alone.

Many characteristics suggest that the date of this history belongs to the period following 75 A.D. There were already in existence many histories of the Saviour (Luke 1. 1) when the plan of this history was conceived, and it has been suggested that the dates in Luke 3. 1 were calculated between 79 and 81 A.D. The marked insistence on the fact that Jesus and afterwards St. Paul were repeatedly pronounced by Roman officials to be guiltless of any crime against the Roman law (Luke 23. 2, 4, 14, 22; Acts 18. 16; 24. 23; 25. 25; 26. 31; 27. 3; 28. 31, and presumably in the trial at Rome), taken in connection with the fact that the Acts was composed in a time of persecution (14. 22), after Christianity had been declared by the government to be illegal and a capital offence, would lead to the belief that the author was guided to a certain degree by the desire to "appeal to the truth of history against the immoral and ruinous policy" of persecution. The book was intended to contain, among other things, "a temperate and solemn record of the facts concerning the formation of the church, its unswerving loyalty to the Roman government, its friendly reception by the Romans, and its triumphant vindication in the first great trial at

Rome."

The author's personal acquaintance with many of the facts and personages of the history is shown by the marvellous vividness and accuracy of the narrative. The portraiture of St. Paul is so lifelike, and marked by So many touches of loving admiration, as to show the hand of a friend and disciple. The term "we" often occurs in the narrative (ch. 16. 10-17; 20. 5-15; 21. 1-18; 27. 1-28. 16), marking that the author was personally engaged in the incidents described. His tastes and ideas (so far as they are disclosed) are of the Greek type. Many little touches show an interest in medical details. All these characteristics agree with and confirm the very early tradition that the author was St. Luke, the friend and "the beloved physician" of St. Paul (Col. 4. 14).

ADAM [ad'am], the Hebrew word for man, specially applied to the first man, the father of the whole human race (Gen. 3.20; cf. Acts 17. 26). After the account of the creation of man and

account of Adam given in Genesis. St. Paul contrasts with the first father of mortal men Christ, the "second man," the "last Adam," as the founder of a race regenerated by Divine grace (1 Cor. 15. 21, 22, 45-49; Rom. 5. 12-21). ADAMANT [ad'à-mănt] (Heb. shamir; Gr. adamas). It is not known what is meant by shamir. Some have thought a peculiarly hard steel, others have suggested corundum (crystallized alumina), which is the hardest mineral excepting the diamond. The Greek word adamas (at any rate about the Christian era) denoted the diamond; but it is hardly probable that the Hebrews were acquainted with this stone during the time of the Old Testament.

ADDER [ad'der]. [See SERPENT.]

ADONAI ad'o-na'-i], a Hebrew name for God. It is the plural of Adon, "lord," with the pronominal suffix of the first person. In reading Adonai" wherever aloud, the Jews pronounce The comthe ineffable name JHVH occurs. bination of these consonants with the vowels Adonai gives the usual pronunciation of "Jehovah.'

AGAPE [ag'a-pe] (from Gr. "love"), or lovefeasts, the common meals of the early Christians which expressed the brotherly love that bound them together as one family, and culminated in the Lord's supper. Gross abuses of this beautiful custom, such as are condemned in 1 Cor. 11. 17 ff. and Jude 12, led to the separation of the Lord's supper from the love-feast in the post-apostolic church.

AGATE [ag'ate] (Heb. shebo; Gr. achates). The word is also used in the A. V. as a translation of the Hebrew word kadkod. The agate is one of the many varieties of minutely crystalline silica [see CHALCEDONY], denoting those arranged more or less in bands of different tints. From a very early period it has been used as a gem, and was often engraved.

AGRICULTURE [ag'ri-enl'ture]. The patriarchs and their descendants down to the conquest of Canaan were rearers of cattle (sheep, oxen, goats, asses, and camels). After the settlement, the western tribes learned agriculture, and the cult

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PLOUGHING.

naanites. Among the crops raised were wheat, barley, rye (R. V. spelt"), flax, cummin, fitches (R. V."spelt"), beans, lentils, and millet (cf. Ezek. 4. 9).

woman in Gen. 1. 26, 30, there is a second account | ure of the vine, olive, and fig tree, from the Cain Gen. 2. The first narration is usually called the Elohistic, from its use of the word Elohim for God; the second the Jehovistic, from its use of the name Jehovah Elohim. His disobedience and punishment are told in Gen. 3. In the Zend Avesta, the collection of ancient sacred books of the Iranians, there is a remarkable parallel to the

AHAB [a'hab] ("father's brother "), son of Omri, king of the northern kingdom of Israel in the time of Elijah, reigned twenty-two-years.

He defeated Benhadad, King of Damascus, twice, destroyed his capital, and shut him up in Aphek, afterwards forming a treaty with him against Assyria. Shalmaneser II., King of Assyria, in his monolith inscription claims to have defeated Ahab and Benhadad with other kings at Karkar in 854 B.C. A year after this Ahab met his death in a battle before Ramoth-Gilead, in which Benhadad overcame both him and his ally, Jehoshaphat of Judah. The worship of Baal and Ashtoreth, introduced by his wife, the Tyrian princess, Jezebel, with the religious struggle this called forth in the country, and his robbery and judicial murder of Naboth, left in Israel à dark shadow on the memory of Ahab.

AHASUERUS [a-has'u-e'rus], the name of the Persian king Xerxes (485-465 B.C.) in Ezra 4. 6 and the Book of Esther. The Ahasuerus of Dan. 9. 1 has not yet been satisfactorily identified. ALABASTER [al'à-bas 'ter] (Gr. alabastros). A more or less pellucid variety of light-colored marble, often banded or mottled, used for ornamental vases, etc. Matt. 26. 7.

possibly the mixture of gold and silver now called electrum.

AMEN ['men' or 'men'], a Hebrew word meaning "truth" (Isa. 65. 16), used adverbially to express strong confirmation (cf. Deut. 27. 15). Its use as a confirmatory response at the close of prayer ("May it be so") is illustrated in Ps. 106. 48; 1 Cor. 14. 16, etc. Amen, Amen occurs twenty-five times in John's Gospel, and nowhere else, and is translated "Verily, verily," The Amen-i.e. the faithful and abiding One is a title of Christ (Rev. 3. 14). AMETHYST [am'e-thyst] (Heb. achlamah; Gr. amethystus). A purplish variety of quartz (crystallized silica), often used for ornamental purposes. It looks like a pale purple glass, but is rather harder. Ex. 28. 19.

AMMONITES [am'mon-ites], a Semitic people settled north-east of the Dead Sea. The Israelites having seized, in the time of the Judges, a territory which they claimed, they were, down to the second century B.C., their hereditary foes. They are mentioned by Origen, in the third century A.D., as a still-existing Arab tribe. AMOMUM (a-mo'mum] (margin of R. V., Rev. 18. 13), an odoriferous plant; possibly a kind of

ALEXANDRIA [al'ex-an'dri-a] (Acts 18. 24), the great seaport at the mouth of the Nile, founded by Alexander the Great about 332 B.C. He gave the Jews a quarter in it, and in the early Chris-vine, a native of Armenia. tian age it was the chief trade centre of east and west, and the home of literature and Greek philosophy.

ALGUM [al'gam] (2 Chr. 2. 8; 9. 10, 11) or Almug (1 Kings 10. 11, 12), probably red sandalwood. It was obtained from Ophir.

ALMOND [äl'mond]. The common almond, whose beautiful pink-white flowers appear in January, are among the first of the year; hence its Hebrew name="waking" (Jer. 1. 11, 12). It grows wild on the higher lands of Palestine. There are frequent references to this tree in the Bible (Gen. 43. 11; Ex. 25. 33-35).

ALOES [al'ões], a perfume for garments (Ps. 45. 8; Song of Sol. 4. 14), and for beds (Prov. 7. 17); used also in burial (John 19. 39). Aloes was probably the gum of the eagle-tree of India. (See LIGN ALOE.]

ALPHA [alpha] and OMEGA [-me'gå or o'me-gå], the names of the first and last letters in the Greek alphabet. "The Alpha and the Omega" is used in Revelation 1. 8, 21. 6, 22. 13, R.V., as a title of Christ, Beginning and End of all things (cf. John 1. 1-3; Col. 1. 15-18. Cf. also The First and the Last in Isa. 41. 4, 44. 6, 48. 12, the title given to Christ in Rev. 1. 17, 2. 8, 22. 13).

ALTAR [al'tar], an artificial erection for the offering of sacrifices and prayers, originally of earth, turf, and unhewn stones (Ex. 20. 24, 25); The law ordained that sacrifices should be offered only in the sanctuary; but the Hebrews continued to erect altars upon the high places (q.v.), until the Temple (q.v.) at Jerusalem, with its altar of incense in the sanctuary and its altar of burnt-offering in the forecourt, became under the reformation of Josiah universally recognized as the only place where sacrifices could be legitimately offered. The "horns" of the altar, placed at its four corners, were its most sacred parts. The blood of the sacrifices was smeared on them, and they were clasped by fugitives who claimed the right of asylum (Amos 3. 14). [See TABERNACLE.]

AMALEKITES [am'a-lek-ites], wild Bedawîn tribes in the south of Palestine, especially in the wilderness now named Et-Tih, with whom the Israelites were at feud from the time of Moses till their destruction by Saul and David. In the tablets of Tel el-Amarna (q.v.) they are classed

as "plunderers."

AMBER [am'ber] (Heb. chasmal; Gr. electron). The word thus rendered occurs thrice in Ezekiel. It is almost certainly not the familiar mineral, a fossil resin of an orange-yellow color, which

bears this name, but some metallic compound:

AMORITES [am'o-rites]. On the early Babylonian monuments all Syria, including Palestine, is known as "the land of the Amorites"; on those of the fifteenth century B.C., the country to the north of Palestine. They are represented on the

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AMORITE.

blue eyes, aquiline noses, and pointed beards Egyptian monuments with fair skins, light hair, When the Israelites invaded Palestine, their first attack was repulsed by the Amorites, who were then, with the Hittites (q.v.), the chief among the Canaanite tribes. [See ABRAHAM.]

the minor prophets, was a shepherd of Tekoa, in AMOS [a'mos] (probably "burdened"), one of Judah, and prophesied at Bethel in the reigns of Uzziah, King of Judah, and Jeroboam II., King of Israel. The priests accused him of treason, and expelled him from the northern kingdom, to which his prophecies mainly refer, and whose downfall he foretold. [See MINOR PROPHETS

necked"), a race of giants, who, when driven ANAKIM [an'a-kim], "sons of Anak" ("longfrom the mountains of Hebron by Caleb or Joshua, found refuge in Philistia.

in LXX. to translate herem-i.. whatever is ANATHEMA [å-nath'e-ma] having been used solemnly and by command of God given over to destruction-came to mean a man or thing utterly abandoned and abominable (cf. Rom. 9.3 and Gal. 1. 8, where 4. V. "accursed" is in R.V.

"anathema").

east of Jerusalem, was the birthplace of Jehu ANATHOTH [an'a-thoth], three miles northand of Jeremiah.

twelve disciples of Jesus, brother of Simon Peter, ANDREW [an'drew], ("manly"), one of the

son of Jonas or John, was born at Bethsaida on the Sea of Galilee (John 1. 44). He was one of the first among the disciples of John the Baptist to become a follower of Jesus (John 1. 37-40), who called him, along with Peter, while fishing at the Sea of Galilee, to become a fisher of men (Mat. 4. 18-22; Mark 1. 16-20). He appears to have been one of those disciples who, after Peter, James, and John, stood nearest to his Master (Mark 13. 3; John 6. 8; 12. 22). The Acts of the Apostles mentions him only in 1. 13. According to tradition, he suffered martyrdom in Achaia on a cross shaped in the form of the letter X.

ANGEL [an'gel], literally a "messenger," and so translated in Luke 7. 24, etc., but specially a "messenger of God," one of the unseen citizens of heaven, who, according to Jewish and Christian opinion, are continually doing the oidding of the Most High (Ps. 104. 4; Mat. 4.6; Heb. 2. 7). The "Angel of Jehovah (A. V. and R. V. the LORD)" in the Old Testament is Jehovah Himself in self-manifestation. The "Angels of the Seven Churches," in Revelation, are either the chief overseers, or else personifications, of those churches.

ANISE [an'Ise] (Mat. 23. 23), dill (R. V., margin). Used only once, when the Lord rebuked the Pharisees for attending to trifles while they neglected weighter matters (Mat. 23. 23). The plant referred to is dill, as the revisers suggest in the margin. It is cultivated in the East as a condiment. By the distillation of its fruits (incorrectly called seeds) with water, the wellknown dill water of medicine is produced.

ANT [int]. Ants are proverbial for the marvellous instinct which guides them in the economy, work, and discipline of their communities. They are small insects, but have wonderful muscular strength. Ants of Palestine store corn for winter (Prov. 6. 6-8; 30. 25). ANTELOPE [an'té-lōpe] (R. V.; "Wild Bull," 4.V., Deut. 14.5; Isa. 51. 20), the Arabian species, with straighter horns than the African. The antelope is often depicted on Egyptian monuments. It is a beautiful creature, standing about four feet high; very wild and fleet, and fierce when hard pressed by the hunter.

ANTICHRIST [an'ti-christ] is in the New Testament a term used only by St. John (1 John 2. 18, 22; 4.3; and 2 John 7). The idea was already

familiar to readers of Dan. 7. and Ezek. 38 and 39. As used in the New Testament the name may mean "one who usurps the place of Christ," or "one who sets himself up as a substitute for Christ." The principle of his opposition consists in the denial of the incarnation, which revealed the gracious will of God to unite man with Himself through Christ, and in the assertion of man's divinity apart from God in Christ. St. Paul teaches (2 Thes. 2. 3-10) that Antichrist will appear as a single adversary of Christ, "the man of sin," who, furnished by Satan" with all power, and signs, and wonders of falsehood," will sit "in the sanctuary of God, setting himself forth as God," and will be brought to nought by the manifestation of the coming of the Lord. As Moses was the type of Christ, so Balaam, the "Anti-Moses," was a type of Antichrist (Rev. 2. 14; Jude 11.; 2 Pet. 2. 15).

ANTILEGOMENA [an'ti-le-gom'è-nå] (Gr. "disputed"). All the books that are found in the New Testament were not recognized as canonical at the first formation of the New Testament library. The Apocalypse, for example, and certain catholic epistles (2 and 3 John, 2 Peter, and Jude) find no place in the Syriac New Testament. In like manner, all the books of the Old Testament did not acquire their position of authority immediately.

No formal act by which the Canon (q.v.) was declared closed is recorded in history, but by the time of the New Testament there is no room to doubt that the Old Testament had been long complete in the form in which we now have it. Its threefold arrangement seems plainly indicated in the reference by the risen Saviour to all things which are written "in the law of Moses, and the prophets, and the psalms, concerning' Himself; for the Psalms form the first book in the third division of the Hebrew Bible.

Some have been inclined to place the final closing of the Hebrew Canon at a still later date, because the Talmud relates discussions which took place regarding Ezekiel, Ecclesiastes, the Song of Songs, and Esther, and which were only set at rest by a council at Jamnia about the beginning of the second century. [See also OLD TESTAMENT CANON.]

ANTIOCH [an'ti-och], (1) in Syria, on the river Orontes, a great city, ranking next after Rome

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