Smith's Bible Dictionary

Solomon — Syrtis The

Solomon

Sol’omon (peaceful). I. Early life and accession to the throne.—Solomon was the child of David’s old age, the last-born of all his sons. 1 Chronicles 3:5. The yearnings of the “man of war” led him to give to the new-born infant the name of Solomon (Shelômôth, the peaceful one). Nathan, with a marked reference to the meaning of the king’s own name (David, the darling, the beloved one), calls the infant Jedidiah (Jedid’yah), that is, the darling of the Lord. 2 Samuel 12:24-25. He was placed under the care of Nathan from his earliest infancy. At first, apparently, there was no distinct purpose to make him the heir. Absalom was still the king’s favorite son, 2 Samuel 13:37; 2 Samuel 18:33, and was looked on by the people as the destined successor. 2 Samuel 14:13; 2 Samuel 15:1-6. The death of Absalom when Solomon was about ten years old left the place vacant, and David pledged his word in secret to Bath-sheba that he, and no other, should be the heir. 1 Kings 1:13. The words which were spoken somewhat later express, doubtless, the purpose which guided him throughout. 1 Chronicles 28:9, 1 Chronicles 28:20. His son’s life should not be as his own had been, one of hardships and wars, dark crimes and passionate repentance, but, from first to last, be pure, blameless, peaceful, fulfilling the ideal of glory and of righteousness after which he himself had vainly striven. The glorious visions of Ps. 72 may be looked on as the prophetic expansion of these hopes of his old age. So far, all was well. Apparently his influence over his son’s character was one exclusively for good. Nothing that we know of Bath-sheba leads us to think of her as likely to mould her son’s mind and heart to the higher forms of goodness. Under these influences the boy grew up. At the age of ten or eleven he must have passed through the revolt of Absalom, and shared his father’s exile. 2 Samuel 15:16. He would be taught all that priests or Levites or prophets had to teach. When David was old and feeble, Adonijah, Solomon’s older brother, attempted to gain possession of the throne; but he was defeated, and Solomon went down to Gihon and was proclaimed and anointed king. A few months more and Solomon found himself, by his father’s death, the sole occupant of the throne. The position to which he succeeded was unique. Never before, and never after, did the kingdom of Israel take its place among the great monarchies of the East. Large treasures, accumulated through many years, were at his disposal.

II. Personal appearance.—Of Solomon’s personal appearance we have no direct description, as we have of the earlier kings. There are, however, materials for filling up the gap. Whatever higher mystic meaning may be latent in Psalm 45, or the Song of Sons, we are all but compelled to think of them as having had at least a historical starting-point. They tell of one who was, in the eyes of the men of his own time, “fairer than the children of men,” the face “bright and ruddy” as his father’s, Song of Solomon 5:10; 1 Samuel 17:42, bushy locks, dark as the raven’s wing, yet not without a golden glow, the eyes soft as “the eyes of doves,” the “countenance as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars,” “the chiefest among ten thousand, the altogether lovely.” Song of Solomon 5:9-16. Add to this all gifts of a noble, far-reaching intellect, large and ready sympathies, a playful and genial humor, the lips “full of grace,” and the soul “anointed” as “with the oil of gladness,” Psalm 45, and we may form some notion of what the king was like in that dawn of his golden prime.

III. Reign.—All the data for a continuous history that we have of Solomon’s reign are—(a) The duration of the reign, forty years, b.c. 1015–975. 1 Kings 11:42. (b) The commencement of the temple in the fourth, its completion in the eleventh, year of his reign. 1 Kings 6:1, 1 Kings 6:37-38. (c) The commencement of his own palace in the seventh, its completion in the twentieth, year. 1 Kings 7:1; 2 Chronicles 8:1. (d) The conquest of Hamath-zobah, and the consequent foundation of cities in the region of north Palestine after the twentieth year. 2 Chronicles 8:1-6.

IV. Foreign policy.—

1. Egypt. The first act of the foreign policy of the new reign must have been to most Israelites a very startling one. He made affinity with Pharaoh, king of Egypt, by marrying his daughter. 1 Kings 3:1. The immediate results were probably favorable enough. The new queen brought with her as a dowry the frontier city of Gezer. But the ultimate issue of the alliance showed that it was hollow and impolitic. 2. Tyre. The alliance with the Phoenician king rested on a somewhat different footing. It had been a part of David’s policy from the beginning of his reign. Hiram had been “ever a lover of David.” As soon as he heard of Solomon’s accession he sent ambassadors to salute him. A correspondence passed between the two kings, which ended in a treaty of commerce. The opening of Joppa as a port created a new coasting-trade, and the materials from Tyre were conveyed to that city on floats, and thence to Jerusalem. 2 Chronicles 2:16. In return for these exports, the Phoenicians were only too glad to receive the corn and oil of Solomon’s territory. The results of the alliance did not end here. Now, for the first time in the history of the Jews, they entered on a career as a commercial people. 3. The foregoing were the two most important alliances. The absence of any reference to Babylon and Assyria, and the fact that the Euphrates was recognized as the boundary of Solomon’s kingdom, 2 Chronicles 9:26, suggests the inference that the Mesopotamian monarchies were at this time comparatively feeble. Other neighboring nations were content to pay annual tribute in the form of gifts. 2 Chronicles 9:28. 4. The survey of the influence exercised by Solomon on surrounding nations would be incomplete if we were to pass over that which was more directly personal—the frame of his glory and his wisdom. Wherever the ships of Tarshish went, they carried with them the report, losing nothing in its passage, of what their crews had seen and heard. The journey of the queen of Sheba, though from its circumstances the most conspicuous, did not stand alone.

V. Internal history.—

1. The first prominent scene in Solomon’s reign is one which presents his character in its noblest aspect. God in a vision having offered him the choice of good things he would have, he chose wisdom in preference to riches or honor or long life. The wisdom asked for was given in large measure, and took a varied range. The wide world of nature, animate and inanimate, the lives and characters of men, lay before him, and he took cognizance of all. But the highest wisdom was that wanted for the highest work, for governing and guiding, and the historian hastens to give an illustration of it. The pattern-instance is, in all its circumstances, thoroughly Oriental. 1 Kings 3:16-28. 2. In reference to the king’s finances, the first impression of the facts given us is that of abounding plenty. Large quantities of the precious metals were imported from Ophir and Tarshish. 1 Kings 9:28. All the kings and princes of the subject provinces paid tribute in the form of gifts, in money and in kind, “at a fixed rate year by year.” 1 Kings 10:25. Monopolies of trade contributed to the king’s treasury. 1 Kings 10:28-29. The total amount thus brought into the treasury in gold, exclusive of all payments in kind, amounted to 666 talents. 1 Kings 10:14. 3. It was hardly possible, however, that any financial system could bear the strain of the king’s passion for magnificence. The cost of the temple was, it is true, provided for by David’s savings and the offerings of the people; but even while that was building, yet more when it was finished, one structure followed on another with ruinous rapidity. All the equipment of his court, the “apparel” of his servants, was on the same scale. A body-guard attended him, “threescore valiant men,” tallest and handsomest of the sons of Israel. Forty thousand stalls of horses for his chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen, made up the measure of his magnificence. 1 Kings 4:26. As the treasury became empty, taxes multiplied and monopolies became more irksome. 4. A description of the temple erected by Solomon is given elsewhere. After seven years and a half the work was completed, and the day came to which all Israelites looked back as the culminating glory of their nation. 5. We cannot ignore the fact that even now there were some darker shades in the picture. He reduced the “strangers” in the land, the remnant of the Canaanite races, to the state of helots, and made their life “bitter with all hard bondage.” One hundred and fifty-three thousand, with wives and children in proportion, were torn from their homes and sent off to the quarries and the forests of Lebanon. 1 Kings 5:15; 2 Chronicles 2:17-18. And the king soon fell from the loftiest height of his religious life to the lowest depth. Before long the priests and prophets had to grieve over rival temples to Molech, Chemosh, Ashtaroth, and forms of ritual not idolatrous only, but cruel, dark, impure. This evil came as the penalty of another. 1 Kings 11:1-8. He gave himself to “strange women.” He found himself involved in a fascination which led to the worship of strange gods. Something there was perhaps in his very “largeness of heart,” so far in advance of the traditional knowledge of his age, rising to higher and wider thoughts of God, which predisposed him to it. In recognizing what was true in other forms of faith, he might lose his horror at what was false. With this there may have mingled political motives. He may have hoped, by a policy of toleration, to conciliate neighboring princes, to attract a larger traffic. But probably also there was another influence less commonly taken into account. The widespread belief of the East in the magic arts of Solomon is not, it is believed, without its foundation of truth. Disasters followed before long as the natural consequence of what was politically a blunder as well as religiously a sin.

VI. His literary works.—Little remains out of the songs, proverbs, treatises, of which the historian speaks. 1 Kings 4:32-33. Excerpta only are given from the three thousand proverbs. Of the thousand and five songs we know absolutely nothing. His books represent the three stages of his life. The Song of Songs brings before us the brightness of his youth. Then comes in the book of Proverbs, the stage of practical, prudential thought. The poet has become the philosopher, the mystic has passed into the moralist; but the man passed through both stages without being permanently the better for either. They were to him but phases of his life which he had known and exhausted, Ecclesiastes 1-2; and therefore there came, as in the confessions of the preacher, the great retribution.

Solomon’s Porch

Solomon’s Porch. [PALACE; TEMPLE.]

Solomon’s servants

Solomon’s servants (Children of). Ezra 2:55, Ezra 2:58; Nehemiah 7:57, Nehemiah 7:60. The persons thus named appear in the lists of the exiles who returned from the captivity. They were the descendants of the Canaanites who were reduced by Solomon to the helot state, and compelled to labor in the king’s stone-quarries and in building his palaces and cities. 1 Kings 5:13-14; 1 Kings 9:20-21; 2 Chronicles 8:7-8. They appear to have formed a distinct order, inheriting probably the same functions and the same skill as their ancestors.

Solomon’s Song

Solomon’s Song. [CANTICLES.]

Solomon Wisdom of

Solomon, Wisdom of. [WISDOM, BOOK OF.]

Son

Son. The term “son” is used in Scripture language to imply almost any kind of descent or succession, as ben shânâh, “son of a year,” i.e., a year old; ben kesheth, “son of a bow,” i.e., an arrow. The word bar is often found in the New Testament in composition, as Bar-timæus.

Soothsayer

Soothsayer. [DIVINATION.]

Sop

Sop. In eastern lands, where our table utensils are unknown, the meat, with the broth, is brought upon the table in a large dish, and is eaten usually by means of pieces of bread dipped into the common dish. The bread so dipped is called a “sop.” It was such a piece of bread dipped in broth that Jesus gave to Judas, John 13:26; and again, in Matthew 26:23, it is said “he that dippeth his hand with me in the dish,” i.e., to make a sop by dipping a piece of bread into the central dish.

Dipping the Sop.

Sopater

Sop’ater (saviour of his father), son of Pyrrhus of Berea, was one of the companions of St. Paul on his return from Greece into Asia. Acts 20:4. (a.d. 55.)

Sophereth

Soph’ereth (writing). “The children of Sophereth” were a family who returned from Babylon with Zerubbabel among the descendants of Solomon’s servants. Ezra 2:55; Nehemiah 7:57. (b.c. before 536.)

Sorcerer

Sorcerer. [DIVINATION.]

Sorek

So’rek (red), The valley of, a wady in which lay the residence of Delilah. Judges 16:4. It was possibly nearer Gaza than any other of the chief Philistine cities, since thither Samson was taken after his capture at Delilah’s house.

Sosipater

Sosip’ater (saviour of his father), kinsman or fellow tribesman of St. Paul, Romans 16:21, is probably the same person as Sopater of Berea. (a.d. 54.)

Sosthenes

Sos’thenes (saviour of his nation), was a Jew at Corinth who was seized and beaten in the presence of Gallio. See Acts 18:12-17. (a.d. 49.)

Sota-i

So’ta-i (changeful). The children of Sotai were a family of the descendants of Solomon’s servants who returned with Zerubbabel. Ezra 2:55; Nehemiah 7:57. (b.c. before 536.)

South Ramoth

South Ra’moth. [RAMATH OF THE SOUTH.]

Sow

Sow. [SWINE.]

Sower Sowing

Sower, Sowing. The operation of sowing with the hand is one of so simple a character as to need little description. The Egyptian paintings furnish many illustrations of the mode in which it was conducted. The sower held the vessel or basket containing the seed in his left hand, while with his right he scattered the seed broadcast. The “drawing out” of the seed is noticed, as the most characteristic action of the sower, in Psalm 126:6 (Authorized Version “precious”) and Amos 9:13. In wet soils the seed was trodden in by the feet of animals. Isaiah 32:20. The sowing season began in October and continued to the end of February, wheat being put in before, and barley after, the beginning of January. The Mosaic law prohibited the sowing of mixed seed. Leviticus 19:19; Deuteronomy 22:9.

Eastern Sower.

Spain

Spain. 1 Maccabees 8:3; Romans 15:24, Romans 15:28. The local designation, Tarshish, representing the Tartessus of the Greeks, probably prevailed until the fame of the Roman wars in that country reached the East, when it was superseded by its classical name. The mere intention of St. Paul to visit Spain (whether he really did visit it is a disputed question.—Ed.) implies two interesting facts, viz., the establishment of a Christian community in that country, and that this was done by Hellenistic Jews resident there. The early introduction of Christianity into that country is attested by Irenæus and Tertullian.

Sparrow

Sparrow (Heb. tzippôr, from a root signifying to “chirp” or “twitter,” which appears to be a phonetic representation of the call-note of any passerine (sparrow-like) bird). This Hebrew word occurs upwards of forty times in the Old Testament. In all passages except two it is rendered by the Authorized Version indifferently “bird” or “fowl” and denotes any small bird, both of the sparrow-like species and such as the starling, chaffinch, greenfinch, linnet, goldfinch, corn-bunting, pipits, blackbird, song-thrush, etc. In Psalm 84:3 and Psalm 102:7 it is rendered “sparrow.” The Greek στρονθίον (Authorized Version “sparrow”) occurs twice in the New Testament, Matthew 10:29; Luke 12:6-7. (The birds above mentioned are found in great numbers in Palestine, and are of very little value, selling for the merest trifle, and are thus strikingly used by our Saviour, Matthew 10:29, as an illustration of our Father’s care for his children.—Ed.) The blue thrush (Petrocossyphus cyaneus) is probably the bird to which the psalmist alludes in Psalm 102:7 as “the sparrow that sitteth alone upon the house-top.” It is a solitary bird, eschewing the society of its own species, and rarely more than a pair are seen together. The English tree-sparrow (Passer montanus, Linn.) is also very common, and may be seen in numbers on Mount Olivet, and also about the sacred enclosure of the mosque of Omar. This is perhaps the exact species referred to in Psalm 84:3. Dr. Thomson, in speaking of the great numbers of the house-sparrows and field-sparrows in Palestine, says: “They are a tame, troublesome and impertinent generation, and nestle just where you do not want them. They stop up your stove- and water-pipes with their rubbish, build in the windows and under the beams of the roof, and would stuff your hat full of stubble in half a day if they found it hanging in a place to suit them.”

Syrian Sparrow.

Sparrows in Market.

Sparta

Spar’ta, a celebrated city of Greece, between whose inhabitants and the Jews a relationship was believed to subsist. Between the two nations a correspondence ensued.—Whitney. The actual relationship of the Jews and Spartans, 2 Maccabees 5:9, is an ethnological error, which it is difficult to trace to its origin.

Spear

Spear. [ARMS.]

Spearmen

Spearmen. Acts 23:23. These were probably troops so lightly armed as to be able to keep pace on the march with mounted soldiers.

Spice Spices

Spice, Spices.

1. Heb. bâsam, besem, or bôsem. In Song of Solomon 5:1, “I have gathered my myrrh with my spice,” the word points apparently to some definite substance. In the other places, with the exception perhaps of Song of Solomon 1:13; Song of Solomon 6:2, the words refer more generally to sweet aromatic odors, the principal of which was that of the balsam or balm of Gilead; the tree which yields this substance is now generally admitted to be the Balsam-odendron opobalsamum. The balm of Gilead tree grows in some parts of Arabia and Africa, and is seldom more than fifteen feet high, with straggling branches and scanty foliage. The balsam is chiefly obtained from incisions in the bark, but is procured also from the green and ripe berries. 2. Necôth. Genesis 37:25; Genesis 43:11. The most probable explanation is that which refers the word to the Arabic naka˒at, i.e., “the gum obtained from the tragacanth” (Astragalus). 3. Sammı̂m, a general term to denote those aromatic substances which were used in the preparation of the anointing oil, the incense offerings, etc. The spices mentioned as being used by Nicodemus for the preparation of our Lord’s body, John 19:39-40, are “myrrh and aloes,” by which latter word must be understood not the aloes of medicine, but the highly-scented wood of the Aquilaria agallochum.

Spider

Spider. The Hebrew word ˒accâbı̂sh in Job 8:14; Isaiah 59:5 is correctly rendered “spider.” But semâmı̂th is wrongly translated “spider” in Proverbs 30:28; it refers probably to some kind of lizard. (But “there are many species of spider in Palestine: some which spin webs, like the common garden spider; some which dig subterranean cells and make doors in them, like the well-known trap-door spider or southern Europe; and some which have no web, but chase their prey upon the ground, like the hunting- and the wolf-spider.”—Wood’s Bible Animals.)

Spikenard

Spikenard (Heb. nêrd) is mentioned twice in the Old Testament, viz., in Song of Solomon 1:12; Song of Solomon 4:13-14. The ointment with which our Lord was anointed as he sat at meat in Simon’s house at Bethany consisted of this precious substance, the costliness of which may be inferred from the indignant surprise manifested by some of the witnesses of the transaction. See Mark 14:3-5; John 12:3, John 12:5. (Spikenard, from which the ointment was made, was an aromatic herb of the valerian family (Nardostachys jatamansi). It was imported from an early age from Arabia, India, and the Far East. The costliness of Mary’s offering (300 pence = $45) may best be seen from the fact that a penny (denarius, 15 to 17 cents) was in those days the day-wages of a laborer. Matthew 20:2. In our day this would equal at least $300 or $400.—Ed.)

Spikenard.

Spinning

Spinning. The notices of spinning in the Bible are confined to Exodus 35:25-26; Proverbs 31:19; Matthew 6:28. The latter passage implies (according to the Authorized Version) the use of the same instruments which have been in vogue for hand-spinning down to the present day, viz., the distaff and spindle. The distaff, however, appears to have been dispensed with, and the term so rendered means the spindle itself, while that rendered “spindle” represents the whirl of the spindle, a button of circular rim which was affixed to it, and gave steadiness to its circular motion. The “whirl” of the Syrian women was made of amber in the time of Pliny. The spindle was held perpendicularly in the one hand, while the other was employed in drawing out the thread. Spinning was the business of women, both among the Jews and for the most part among the Egyptians.

Sponge

Sponge, a soft, porous marine substance. Sponges were for a long time supposed to be plants, but are now considered by the best naturalists to belong to the animal kingdom. Sponge is mentioned only in the New Testament. Matthew 27:48; Mark 15:36; John 19:29. The commercial value of the sponge was known from very early times; and although there appears to be no notice of it in the Old Testament, yet it is probable that it was used by the ancient Hebrews, who could readily have obtained it good from the Mediterranean, where it was principally found.

Sponge of Commerce.

Spouse

Spouse. [MARRIAGE.]

Stachys

Sta’chys, a Christian at Rome, saluted by St. Paul in the Epistle to the Romans. Romans 16:9. (a.d. 55.)

Stacte

Stacte (Heb. nâtâf), the name of one of the sweet spices which composed the holy incense. See Exodus 30:34—the only passage of Scripture in which the word occurs. Some identify the nâtâf with the gum of the storax tree (Styrax officinale), but all that is positively known is that it signifies an odorous distillation from some plant.

Standards

Standards. The Assyrian standards were emblematic of their religion, and were therefore the more valuable as instruments for leading and guiding men in the army. The forms were imitations of animals (1), emblems of deities (2), and symbols of power and wisdom (3). Many of them were crude, but others were highly artistic and of great cost. The Egyptian standards were designed in the same idea as those of the Romans, exhibiting some sacred emblem (5, 6, 8), or a god in the form of an animal (3, 4), a group of victory (7), or the king’s name or his portrait as (1), of lower, and (2), of upper, Egypt, or an emblematic sign, as No. 9.

Assyrian Standards.

Egyptian Standards.

Star of the wise men

Star of the wise men. [MAGI.]

Stater

Stater. [MONEY.]

Steel

Steel. In all cases where the word “steel” occurs in the Authorized Version the true rendering of the Hebrew is “copper.” Whether the ancient Hebrews were acquainted with steel is not perfectly certain. It has been inferred from a passage in Jeremiah 15:12, that the “iron from the north” there spoken of denoted a superior kind of metal, hardened in an unusual manner, like the steel obtained from the Chalybes of the Pontus, the ironsmiths of the ancient world. The hardening of iron for cutting instruments was practiced in Pontus, Lydia, and Laconia. There is, however, a word in Hebrew, Paldâh, which occurs only in Nahum 2:3(Nahum 2:4), and is there rendered “torches,” but which most probably denotes steel or hardened iron, and refers to the dashing scythes of the Assyrian chariots. Steel appears to have been known to the Egyptians. The steel weapons in the tomb of Rameses III, says Wilkinson, are painted blue, the bronze red.

Stephanas

Steph’anas, a Christian convert of Corinth whose household Paul baptized as the “first-fruits of Achaia.” 1 Corinthians 1:16; 1 Corinthians 16:15. (a.d. 53.)

Stephen

Ste’phen, the first Christian martyr, was the chief of the seven (commonly called Deacons) appointed to rectify the complaints in the early Church of Jerusalem, made by the Hellenistic against the Hebrew Christians. His Greek name indicates his own Hellenistic origin. His importance is stamped on the narrative by a reiteration of emphatic, almost superlative, phrases: “full of faith and of the Holy Ghost,” Acts 6:5; “full of grace and power,” ibid. Acts 6:8; irresistible “spirit and wisdom,” ibid. Acts 6:10; “full of the Holy Ghost.” Acts 7:55. He shot far ahead of his six companions, and far above his particular office. First, he arrests attention by the “great wonders and miracles that he did.” Then begins a series of disputations with the Hellenistic Jews of north Africa, Alexandria, and Asia Minor, his companions in race and birthplace. The subject of these disputations is not expressly mentioned; but from what follows it is obvious that he struck into a new vein of teaching, which evidently caused his martyrdom. Down to this time the apostles and the early Christian community had clung in their worship, not merely to the holy land and the holy city, but to the holy place of the temple. This local worship, with the Jewish customs belonging to it, Stephen denounced. So we must infer from the accusations brought against him, confirmed as they are by the tenor of his defence. He was arrested at the instigation of the Hellenistic Jews, and brought before the Sanhedrin. His speech in his defence, and his execution by stoning outside the gates of Jerusalem, are related at length in Acts 7. The framework in which his defence is cast is a summary of the history of the Jewish Church. In the facts which he selects from his history he is guided by two principles. The first is the endeavor to prove that, even in the previous Jewish history, the presence and favor of God had not been confined to the holy land or the temple of Jerusalem. The second principle of selection is based on the attempt to show that there was a tendency from the earliest times toward the same ungrateful and narrow spirit that had appeared in this last stage of their political existence. It would seem that, just at the close of his argument, Stephen saw a change in the aspect of his judges, as if for the first time they had caught the drift of his meaning. He broke off from his calm address, and turned suddenly upon them in an impassioned attack, which shows that he saw what was in store for him. As he spoke they showed by their faces that their hearts “were being sawn asunder,” and they kept gnashing their set teeth against him; but still, though with difficulty, restraining themselves. He, in this last crisis of his fate, turned his face upward to the open sky, and as he gazed the vault of heaven seemed to him to part asunder; and the divine Glory appeared through the rending of the earthly veil—the divine Presence, seated on a throne, and on the right hand the human form of Jesus. Stephen spoke as if to himself, describing the glorious vision; and in so doing, alone of all the speakers and writers in the New Testament except only Christ himself, uses the expressive phrase “the Son of man.” As his judges heard the words, they would listen no longer. They broke into a loud yell; they clapped their hands to their ears; they flew as with one impulse upon him, and dragged him out of the city to the place of execution. Those who took the lead in the execution were the persons who had taken upon themselves the responsibility of denouncing him. Deuteronomy 17:7; comp. John 8:7. In this instance they were the witnesses who had reported or misreported the words of Stephen. They, according to the custom, stripped themselves; and one of the prominent leaders in the transaction was deputed by custom to signify his assent to the act by taking the clothes into his custody and standing over them while the bloody work went on. The person who officiated on this occasion was a young man from Tarsus, the future apostle of the Gentiles. [PAUL.] As the first volley of stones burst upon him, Stephen called upon the Master whose human form he had just seen in the heavens, and repeated almost the words with which he himself had given up his life on the cross, “O Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Another crash of stones brought him on his knees. One loud, piercing cry, answering to the shriek or yell with which his enemies had flown upon him, escaped his dying lips. Again clinging to the spirit of his Master’s words, he cried, “Lord, lay not this sin to their charge,” and instantly sank upon the ground, and, in the touching language of the narrator, who then uses for the first time the words afterward applied to the departure of all Christians, but here the more remarkable from the bloody scenes in the midst of which death took place, fell asleep. His mangled body was buried by the class of Hellenists and proselytes to which he belonged. The importance of Stephen’s career may be briefly summed up under three heads:

1. He was the first great Christian ecclesiastic, “The Archdeacon,” as he is called in the eastern Church. 2. He is the first martyr—the protomartyr. To him the name “martyr” is first applied. Acts 22:20. 3. He is the forerunner of St. Paul. He was the anticipator, as, had he lived, he would have been the propagator, of the new phase of Christianity of which St. Paul became the main support.

Stocks

Stocks. (An instrument of punishment, consisting of two beams, the upper one being movable, with two small openings between them, large enough for the ankles of the prisoner.—Ed.) The term “stocks” is applied in the Authorized Version to two different articles, one of which answers rather to our pillory, inasmuch as the body was placed in a bent position, by the confinement of the neck and arms as well as the legs, while the other answers to our “stocks,” the feet alone being confined in it. The prophet Jeremiah was confined in the first sort, Jeremiah 20:2, which appears to have been a common mode of punishment in his day, Jeremiah 29:26, as the prisons contained a chamber for the special purpose, termed “the house of the pillory.” 2 Chronicles 16:10 (Authorized Version “prison-house”). The stocks, properly so called, are noticed in Job 13:27; Job 33:11; Acts 16:24. The term used in Proverbs 7:22 (Authorized Version “stocks”) more properly means a fetter.

Ancient Stocks.

Stoics

Sto’ics. The Stoics and Epicureans, who are mentioned together in Acts 17:18, represent the two opposite schools of practical philosophy which survived the fall of higher speculation in Greece. The Stoic school was founded by Zeno of Citium (cir. b.c. 280), and derived its name from the painted “portico” (stoa) at Athens in which he taught. Zeno was followed by Cleanthes (cir. b.c. 260); Cleanthes by Chrysippus (cir. b.c. 240), who was regarded as the intellectual founder of the Stoic system. “They regarded God and the world as power and its manifestation, matter being a passive ground in which dwells the divine energy. Their ethics were a protest against moral indifference, and to live in harmony with nature, comformably with reason and the demands of universal good, and in the utmost indifference to pleasure, pain, and all external good or evil, was their fundamental maxim.”—American Cyclopædia. The ethical system of the Stoics has been commonly supposed to have a close connection with Christian morality; but the morality of stoicism is essentially based on pride, that of Christianity on humility; the one upholds individual independence, the other absolute faith in another; the one looks for consolation in the issue of fate, the other in Providence; the one is limited by periods of cosmical ruin, the other is consummated in a personal resurrection. Acts 17:18. But in spite of the fundamental error of stoicism, which lies in a supreme egotism, the teaching of this school gave a wide currency to the noble doctrines of the fatherhood of God, the common bonds of mankind, the sovereignty of the soul. Among their most prominent representatives were Zeno and Antipater of Tarsus, Seneca, and Marcus Aurelius.

Stomacher

Stomacher. The Hebrew word so translated, Isaiah 3:24, describes some article of female attire, the character of which is a mere matter of conjecture.

Stones

Stones. Besides the ordinary uses to which stones were applied, we may mention that large stones were set up to commemorate any remarkable event. Genesis 28:18; Genesis 35:14; Genesis 31:45; Joshua 4:9; 1 Samuel 7:12. Such stones were occasionally consecrated by anointing. Genesis 28:18. Heaps of stones were piled up on various occasions, as in token of a treaty, Genesis 31:47, or over the grave of some notorious offender. Joshua 7:26; Joshua 8:29; 2 Samuel 18:17. The “white stone” noticed in Revelation 2:17 has been variously regarded as referring to the pebble of acquittal used in the Greek courts; to the lot cast in elections in Greece; to both these combined; to the stones in the high priest’s breastplate; to the tickets presented to the victors at the public games; or, lastly, to the custom of writing on stones. The notice in Zechariah 12:3 of the “burdensome stone” is referred by Jerome to the custom of lifting stones as an exercise of strength, comp. Sirach 6:21; but it may equally well be explained of a large corner-stone as a symbol of strength. Isaiah 28:16. Stones are used metaphorically to denote hardness or insensibility, 1 Samuel 25:37; Ezekiel 11:19; Ezekiel 36:26, as well as firmness or strength. Genesis 49:24. The members of the Church are called “living stones,” as contributing to rear that living temple in which Christ, himself “a living stone,” is the chief or head of the corner. Ephesians 2:20-22; 1 Peter 2:4-8.

Stones Precious

Stones, Precious. Precious stones are frequently alluded to in the Holy Scriptures; they were known and very highly valued in the earliest times. The Tyrians traded in precious stones supplied by Syria. Ezekiel 27:16. The merchants of Sheba and Raamah in south Arabia, and doubtless India and Ceylon, supplied the markets of Tyre with various precious stones. The art of engraving on precious stones was known from the very earliest times. Genesis 38:18. The twelve stones of the breastplate were engraved each one with the name of one of the tribes. Exodus 28:17-21. It is an undecided question whether the diamond was known to the early nations of antiquity. The Authorized Version gives it as the rendering of the Heb. yahalôm, but it is probable that the jasper is intended. Precious stones are used in Scripture in a figurative sense, to signify value, beauty, durability, etc., in those objects with which they are compared. See Song of Solomon 5:14; Isaiah 54:11-12; Lamentations 4:7; Revelation 4:3; Revelation 21:10, Revelation 21:21.

Stoning

Stoning. [PUNISHMENTS.]

Stork

Stork (Heb. chası̂dâh), a large bird of passage of the heron family. The white stork (Ciconia alba, Linn.) is one of the largest and most conspicuous of land birds, standing nearly four feet high, the jet black of its wings and its bright-red beak and legs contrasting finely with the pure white of its plumage. Zechariah 5:9. In the neighborhood of man it devours readily all kinds of offal and garbage. For this reason, doubtless, it is placed in the list of unclean birds by the Mosaic law. Leviticus 11:19; Deuteronomy 14:18. The range of the white stork extends over the whole of Europe, except the British isles, where it is now a rare visitant, and over northern Africa and Asia as far at least as Burmah. The black stork (Ciconia nigra, Linn.), though less abundant in places, is scarcely less widely distributed, but has a more easterly range than its congener. Both species are very numerous in Palestine. While the black stork is never found about buildings, but prefers marshy places in forests, and breeds on the tops of the loftiest trees, the white stork attaches itself to man, and for the service which it renders in the destruction of reptiles and the removal of offal has been repaid from the earliest times by protection and reverence. The derivation of chası̂dâh (from chesed, “kindness”) points to the paternal and filial attachment of which the stork seems to have been a type among the Hebrews no less than the Greeks and Romans. It was believed that the young repaid the care of their parents by attaching themselves to them for life, and tending them in old age. That the parental attachment of the stork is very strong has been proved on many occasions. Few migratory birds are more punctual to the time of their reappearance than the white stork. The stork has no note, and the only sound it emits is that caused by the sudden snapping of its long mandibles.

The Stork.

Strain at

Strain at. (So translated in the Authorized Version, but in the Revised Version “strain out,” Matthew 23:24; which is undoubtedly the true reading.—Ed.)

Stranger

Stranger. A “stranger,” in the technical sense of the term, may be defined to be a person of foreign, i.e., non-Israelitish, extraction resident within the limits of the promised land. He was distinct from the proper “foreigner,” inasmuch as the latter still belonged to another country, and would only visit Palestine as a traveller: he was still more distinct from the “nations,” or non-Israelite peoples. The term may be compared with our expression “naturalized foreigner.” The terms applied to the “stranger” have special reference to the fact of his residing in the land. The existence of such a class of persons among the Israelites is easily accounted for. The “mixed multitude” that accompanied them out of Egypt, Exodus 12:38, formed one element; the Canaanitish population, which was never wholly extirpated from their native soil, formed another and a still more important one; captives taken in war formed a third; fugitives, hired servants, merchants, etc., formed a fourth. With the exception of the Moabites and Ammonites, Deuteronomy 23:3, all nations were admissible to the rights of citizenship under certain conditions. The stranger appears to have been eligible to all civil offices, that of king excepted. Deuteronomy 17:15. In regard to religion, it was absolutely necessary that the stranger should not infringe any of the fundamental laws of the Israelitish state. If he were a bondman, he was obliged to submit to circumcision, Exodus 12:44; if he were independent, it was optional with him; but if he remained uncircumcised, he was prohibited from partaking of the Passover, Exodus 12:48, and could not be regarded as a full citizen. Liberty was also given to an uncircumcised stranger in regard to the use of prohibited food. Assuming, however, that the stranger was circumcised, no distinction existed in regard to legal rights between the stranger and the Israelite; the Israelite is enjoined to treat him as a brother. Leviticus 19:34; Deuteronomy 10:19. It also appears that the “stranger” formed the class whence the hirelings were drawn; the terms being coupled together in Exodus 12:45; Leviticus 22:10; Leviticus 25:6, Leviticus 25:40. The liberal spirit of the Mosaic regulations respecting strangers presents a strong contrast to the rigid exclusiveness of the Jews at the commencement of the Christian era. The growth of this spirit dates from the time of the Babylonish captivity.

Straw

Straw. Both wheat and barley straw were used by the ancient Hebrews chiefly as fodder for the horses, cattle, and camels. Genesis 24:25; 1 Kings 4:28; Isaiah 11:7; Isaiah 65:25. There is no intimation that straw was used for litter. It was employed by the Egyptians for making bricks, Exodus 5:7, Exodus 5:16, being chopped up and mixed with the clay to make them more compact and to prevent their cracking. [See BRICK.] The ancient Egyptians reaped their corn close to the ear, and afterward cut the straw close to the ground and laid it by. This was the straw that Pharaoh refused to give to the Israelites, who were therefore compelled to gather “stubble” instead—a matter of considerable difficulty, seeing that the straw itself had been cut off near to the ground.

Brick-making in Egypt.

Stream of Egypt

Stream of Egypt occurs once in the Old Testament—Isaiah 27:12. [RIVER OF EGYPT.]

Street

Street. The streets of a modern Oriental town present a great contrast to those with which we are familiar, being generally narrow, tortuous, and gloomy, even in the best towns. Their character is mainly fixed by the climate and the style of architecture, the narrowness being due to the extreme heat, and the gloominess to the circumstance of the windows looking for the most part into the inner court. The street called “Straight,” in Damascus, Acts 9:11, was an exception to the rule of narrowness: it was a noble thoroughfare, one hundred feet wide, divided in the Roman age by colonnades into three avenues, the central one for foot passengers, the side passages for vehicles and horsemen going in different directions. The shops and warehouses were probably collected together into bazaars in ancient as in modern times. Jeremiah 37:21. That streets occasionally had names appears from Jeremiah 37:21; Acts 9:11. That they were generally unpaved may be inferred from the notices of the pavement laid by Herod the Great at Antioch, and by Herod Agrippa II at Jerusalem. Hence pavement forms one of the peculiar features of the ideal Jerusalem. Tobit 13:17; Revelation 21:21. Each street and bazaar in a modern town is locked up at night; the same custom appears to have prevailed in ancient times. Song of Solomon 3:3.

Stripes

Stripes. [PUNISHMENTS.]

Suah

Su’ah (sweeping), son of Zophah, an Asherite. 1 Chronicles 7:36. (b.c. about 1020.)

Succoth

Suc’coth (booths).

1. An ancient town, first heard of in the account of the homeward journey of Jacob from Padanaram. Genesis 33:17. The name is derived from the fact of Jacob’s having there put up “booths” (succôth) for his cattle, as well as a house for himself. From the itinerary of Jacob’s return it seems that Succoth lay between Peniel, near the ford of the torrent Jabbok, and Shechem. Comp. Genesis 32:30 and Genesis 33:18. In accordance with this is the mention of Succoth in the narrative of Gideon’s pursuit of Zebah and Zalmunna. Judges 8:5-17. It would appear from this passage that it lay east of the Jordan, which is corroborated by the fact that it was allotted to the tribe of Gad. Joshua 13:27. Succoth is named once again after this—in 1 Kings 7:46; 2 Chronicles 4:17—as marking the spot at which the brass founderies were placed for casting the metal work of the temple. (Dr. Merrill identifies it with a site called Tell Darala, one mile north of the Jabbok.—Ed.)

2. The first camping-place of the Israelites when they left Egypt. Exodus 12:37; Exodus 13:20; Numbers 33:5-6. This place was apparently reached at the close of the first day’s march. Rameses, the starting-place, was probably near the western end of the Wádi-t-Tumeylát. The distance traversed in each day’s journey was about fifteen miles.

Succoth-benoth

Suc’coth-be’noth occurs only in 2 Kings 17:30. It has generally been supposed that this term is pure Hebrew, and signifies the tents of daughters; which some explain as “the booths in which the daughters of the Babylonians prostituted themselves in honor of their idol,” others as “small tabernacles in which were contained images of female deities.” Sir H. Rawlinson thinks that Succoth-benoth represents the Chaldæan goddess Zerbanit, the wife of Merodach, who was especially worshipped at Babylon.

Suchathites

Su’chathites, one of the families of scribes at Jabez. 1 Chronicles 2:55.

Sukkiim

Suk’kiim (booth-dwellers), a nation mentioned 2 Chronicles 12:3 with the Lubim and Cushim as supplying part of the army which came with Shishak out of Egypt when he invaded Judah. The Sukkiim may correspond to some one of the shepherd or wandering races mentioned on the Egyptian monuments.

Sun

Sun. In the history of the creation the sun is described as the “greater light,” in contradistinction to the moon, the “lesser light,” in conjunction with which it was to serve “for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and for years,” while its special office was “to rule the day.” Genesis 1:14-16. The “signs” referred to were probably such extraordinary phenomena as eclipses, which were regarded as conveying premonitions of coming events. Jeremiah 10:2; Matthew 24:29 with Luke 21:25. The joint influence assigned to the sun and moon in deciding the “seasons,” both for agricultural operations and for religious festivals, and also in regulating the length and subdivisions of the “years,” correctly describes the combination of the lunar and solar year which prevailed at all events subsequent to the Mosaic period. Sunrise and sunset are the only defined points of time in the absence of artificial contrivances for telling the hour of the day. Between these two points the Jews recognized three periods, viz., when the sun became hot, about 9 a.m., 1 Samuel 11:9; Nehemiah 7:3; the double light, or noon, Genesis 43:16; 2 Samuel 4:5; and “the cool of the day,” shortly before sunset. Genesis 3:8. The sun also served to fix the quarters of the hemisphere, east, west, north, and south, which were represented respectively by the rising sun, the setting sun, Isaiah 45:6; Psalm 50:1, the dark quarter, Genesis 13:14; Joel 2:20, and the brilliant quarter, Deuteronomy 33:23; Job 37:17; Ezekiel 40:24; or otherwise by their position relative to a person facing the rising sun—before, behind, on the left hand and on the right hand. Job 23:8-9.

The worship of the sun, as the most prominent and powerful agent in the kingdom of nature, was widely diffused throughout the countries adjacent to Palestine. The Arabians appear to have paid direct worship to it without the intervention of any statue or symbol, Job 31:26-27, and this simple style of worship was probably familiar to the ancestors of the Jews in Chaldæa and Mesopotamia. The Hebrews must have been well acquainted with the idolatrous worship of the sun during the captivity in Egypt, both from the contiguity of On, the chief seat of the worship of the sun, as implied in the name itself (On being the equivalent of the Hebrew Bethshemesh, “house of the sun,” Jeremiah 43:13), and also from the connection between Joseph and Potipherah (“he who belongs to Ra”) the priest of On. Genesis 41:45. After their removal to Canaan, the Hebrews came in contact with various forms of idolatry which originated in the worship of the sun; such as the Baal of the Phœnicians, the Molech or Milcom of the Ammonites, and the Hadad of the Syrians. The importance attached to the worship of the sun by the Jewish kings may be inferred from the fact that the horses sacred to the sun were stalled within the precints of the temple. 2 Kings 23:11. In the metaphorical language of Scripture the sun is emblematic of the law of God, Psalm 19:7, of the cheering presence of God, Psalm 84:11, of the person of the Saviour, John 1:9; Malachi 4:2, and of the glory and purity of heavenly beings. Revelation 1:16; Revelation 10:1; Revelation 12:1.

Suretyship

Suretyship. In the entire absence of commerce the law laid down no rules on the subject of suretyship; but it is evident that in the time of Solomon commercial dealings had become so multiplied that suretyship in the commercial sense was common. Proverbs 6:1; Proverbs 11:15; Proverbs 17:18; Proverbs 20:16; Proverbs 22:26; Proverbs 27:13. But in older times the notion of one man becoming a surety for a service to be discharged by another was in full force. See Genesis 44:32. The surety of course became liable for his client’s debts in case of his failure.

Susa

Su’sa. Esther 11:3; Esther 16:18. [SHUSHAN.]

Susanchites

Su’sanchites is found once only—in Ezra 4:9. There can be no doubt that it designates either the inhabitants of the city Susa or those of the country—Susis or Susiana. Perhaps the former explanation is preferable.

Susanna

Susan’na (a lily).

1. The heroine of the story of the Judgment of Daniel. (The book which gives an account of her life is also called “The history of Susanna,” and is one of the apocryphal books of the Bible.)

2. One of the women who ministered to the Lord. Luke 8:3. (a.d. 28–30.)

Susi

Su’si, the father of Gaddi the Manassite spy. Numbers 13:11.

Swallow

Swallow (Heb. derôr in Psalm 84:3; Proverbs 26:2; Heb. ˒âgûr in Isaiah 38:14; Jeremiah 8:7, but “crane” is more probably the true signification of ˒âgûr [CRANE]). The rendering of the Authorized Version for derôr seems correct. The characters ascribed in the passages where the names occur are strictly applicable to the swallow, viz., its swiftness of flight, its nesting in the buildings of the temple, its mournful, garrulous note, and its regular migrations, shared indeed in common with several others. Many species of swallow occur in Palestine. All those common in England are found.

Swallow.

Swan

Swan (Heb. tinshemeth), thus rendered by the Authorized Version in Leviticus 11:18; Deuteronomy 14:16, where it occurs in the list of unclean birds. But either of the renderings “porphyrio” (purple water-hen) and “ibis” is more probable. Neither of these birds occurs elsewhere in the catalogue; both would be familiar to residents in Egypt, and the original seems to point to some water-fowl. The purple water-hen is allied to our corn-crake and water-hen, and is the largest and most beautiful of the family Rallid™. It frequents marshes and the sedge by the banks of rivers in all the countries bordering on the Mediterranean, and is abundant in lower Egypt.

Swearing

Swearing. [OATH.]

Sweat Bloody

Sweat, Bloody. One of the physical phenomena attending our Lord’s agony in the garden of Gethsemane is described by St. Luke, Luke 22:44: “His sweat was as it were great drops (lit. clots) of blood falling down to the ground.” Of this malady, known in medical science by the term diapedesis, there have been examples recorded in both ancient and modern times. The cause assigned is generally violent mental emotion.

Swine

Swine (Heb. chazı̂r). The flesh of swine was forbidden as food by the Levitical law, Leviticus 11:7; Deuteronomy 14:8; the abhorrence which the Jews as a nation had of it may be inferred from Isaiah 65:4 and 2 Maccabees 6:18-19. No other reason for the command to abstain from swine’s flesh is given in the law of Moses beyond the general one which forbade any of the mammalia as food which did not literally fulfill the terms of the definition of a “clean animal,” viz., that it was to be a cloven-footed ruminant. It is, however, probable that dietetical considerations may have influenced Moses in his prohibition of swine’s flesh: it is generally believed that its use in hot countries is liable to induce cutaneous disorders; hence in a people liable to leprosy the necessity for the observance of a strict rule. Although the Jews did not breed swine during the greater period of their existence as a nation, there can be little doubt that the heathen nations of Palestine used the flesh as food. At the time of our Lord’s ministry it would appear that the Jews occasionally violated the law of Moses with regard to swine’s flesh. Whether “the herd of swine” into which the devils were allowed to enter, Matthew 8:32; Mark 5:13, were the property of the Jewish or of the Gentile inhabitants of Gadara does not appear from the sacred narrative. The wild boar of the wood, Psalm 80:13, is the common Sus scrofa, which is frequently met with in the woody parts of Palestine, especially in Mount Tabor.

The Wild Boar.

Sword

Sword. [ARMS.]

Sycamine tree

Sycamine tree is mentioned only in Luke 17:6. There is no reason to doubt that the sycamine is distinct from the sycamore of the same evangelist. Luke 19:4. The sycamine is the mulberry tree (Morus). Both black and white mulberry trees are common in Syria and Palestine.

Sycamore

Sycamore (Heb. shikmâh). Although it may be admitted that the sycamine is properly, and in Luke 17:6, the mulberry, and the sycamore the fig-mulberry, or sycamore-fig (Ficus sycamorus), yet the latter is the tree generally referred to in the Old Testament, and called by the Septuagint sycamine, as 1 Kings 10:27; 1 Chronicles 27:28; Psalm 78:47; Amos 7:14. The sycamore, or fig-mulberry, is in Egypt and Palestine a tree of great importance and very extensive use. It attains the size of a walnut tree, has wide-spreading branches, and affords a delightful shade. On this account it is frequently planted by the waysides. Its leaves are heart-shaped, downy on the under side, and fragrant. The fruit grows directly from the trunk itself on little sprigs, and in clusters like the grape. To make it eatable, each fruit, three or four days before gathering, must, it is said, be punctured with a sharp instrument or the finger-nail. This was the original employment of the prophet Amos, as he says. Amos 7:14. So great was the value of these trees that David appointed for them in his kingdom a special overseer, as he did for the olives, 1 Chronicles 27:28; and it is mentioned as one of the heaviest of Egypt’s calamities that her sycamores were destroyed by hailstones. Psalm 78:47.

Sychar

Sy’char, a place named only in John 4:5. Sychar was either a name applied to the town of Shechem or it was an independent place. The first of these alternatives is now almost universally accepted. [SHECHEM.]

Sychem

Sy’chem, the Greek form of the word Shechem. It occurs in Acts 7:16 only. [SHECHEM.]

Syene

Sye’ne, properly Seveneh, a town of Egypt, on the frontier of Cush or Ethiopia, Ezekiel 29:10; Ezekiel 30:6, represented by the present Aruân or Es-Suân.

Symeon

Sym’eon. (The Jewish form of the name Simon, used in the Revised Version of Acts 15:14, and referring to Simon Peter.—Ed.)

Synagogue

Synagogue.

1. History.—The word synagogue (συναγωγή), which means a “congregation,” is used in the New Testament to signify a recognized place of worship. A knowledge of the history and worship of the synagogues is of great importance, since they are the characteristic institution of the later phase of Judaism. They appear to have arisen during the exile, in the abeyance of the temple-worship, and to have received their full development on the return of the Jews from captivity. The whole history of Ezra presupposes the habit of solemn, probably of periodic, meetings. Ezra 8:15; Nehemiah 8:2; Nehemiah 9:1; Zechariah 7:5. After the Maccabæan struggle for independence, we find almost every town or village had its one or more synagogues. Where the Jews were not in sufficient numbers to be able to erect and fill a building, there was the proseucha (προσευξή), or place of prayer, sometimes open, sometimes covered in, commonly by a running stream or on the seashore, in which devout Jews and proselytes met to worship, and perhaps to read. Acts 16:13; Juven. Sat. iii. 296. It is hardly possible to overestimate the influence of the system thus developed. To it we may ascribe the tenacity with which, after the Maccabæan struggle, the Jews adhered to the religion of their fathers, and never again relapsed into idolatry.

Ruined Synagogue at Merion.—Site of Capernaum. (From a Photograph.)

2. Structure.—The size of a synagogue varied with the population. Its position was, however, determinate. It stood, if possible, on the highest ground, in or near the city to which it belonged. And its direction too was fixed. Jerusalem was the Kibleh of Jewish devotion. The synagogue was so constructed that the worshippers, as they entered and as they prayed, looked toward it. The building was commonly erected at the cost of the district. Sometimes it was built by a rich Jew, or even, as in Luke 7:5, by a friendly proselyte. In the internal arrangement of the synagogue we trace an obvious analogy to the type of the tabernacle. At the upper or Jerusalem end stood the ark, the chest which, like the older and more sacred ark, contained the Book of the Law. It gave to that end the name and character of a sanctuary. This part of the synagogue was naturally the place of honor. Here were the “chief seats,” for which Pharisees and scribes strove so eagerly, Matthew 23:6, and to which the wealthy and honored worshipper was invited. James 2:2-3. Here, too, in front of the ark, still reproducing the type of the tabernacle, was the eight-branched lamp, lighted only on the greater festivals. Besides this there was one lamp kept burning perpetually. More toward the middle of the building was a raised platform, on which several persons could stand at once, and in the middle of this rose a pulpit, in which the reader stood to read the lesson or sat down to teach. The congregation were divided, men on one side, women on the other, a low partition, five or six feet high, running between them. The arrangements of modern synagogues, for many centuries, have made the separation more complete by placing the women in low side-galleries, screened off by lattice-work.

Ruins of a Jewish Synagogue.

3. Officers.—In smaller towns there was often but one rabbi. Where a fuller organization was possible, there was a college of elders, Luke 7:3, presided over by one who was “the chief of the synagogue.” Luke 8:41, Luke 8:49; Luke 13:14; Acts 18:8, Acts 18:17. The most prominent functionary in a large synagogue was known as the sheltı̂ach (= legatus), the officiating minister who acted as the delegate of the congregation, and was therefore the chief reader of prayers, etc., in their name. The chazzân or “minister” of the synagogue, Luke 4:20, had duties of a lower kind, resembling those of the Christian deacon or sub-deacon. He was to open the doors and to prepare the building for service. Besides these there were ten men attached to every synagogue, known as the batlanim (= otiosi). They were supposed to be men of leisure, not obliged to labor for their livelihood, able therefore to attend the week-day as well as the Sabbath services. The legatus of the synagogues appears in the angel, Revelation 1:20; Revelation 2:1, perhaps also in the apostle of the Christian Church.

4. Worship.—It will be enough, in this place, to notice in what way the ritual, no less than the organization, was connected with the facts of the New Testament history, and with the life and order of the Christian Church. From the synagogue came the use of fixed forms of prayer. To that the first disciples had been accustomed from their youth. They had asked their Master to give them a distinctive one, and he had complied with their request, Luke 11:1, as the Baptist had done before for his disciples, as every rabbi did for his. “Moses,” was “read in the synagogues every Sabbath day,” Acts 15:21, the whole law being read consecutively, so as to be completed, according to one cycle, in three years. The writings of the prophets were read as second lessons in a corresponding order. They were followed by the derash, Acts 13:15, the exposition, the sermon of the synagogue. The conformity extends also to the times of prayer. In the hours of service this was obviously the case. The third, sixth, and ninth hours were in the times of the New Testament, Acts 3:1; Acts 10:3, Acts 10:9, and had been probably for some time before, Psalm 55:17; Daniel 6:10, the fixed times of devotion. The same hours, it is well known, were recognized in the Church of the second century, probably in that of the first also. The solemn days of the synagogue were the second, the fifth, and the seventh, the last or Sabbath being the conclusion of the whole. The transfer of the sanctity of the Sabbath to the Lord’s day involved a corresponding change in the order of the week, and the first, the fourth, and the sixth became to the Christian socity what the other days had been to the Jewish. From the synagogue, lastly, come many less conspicuous practices, which meet us in the liturgical life of the first three centuries: Ablution, entire or partial, before entering the place of meeting, John 13:1-15; Hebrews 10:22; standing, and not kneeling, as the attitude of prayer, Luke 18:11; the arms stretched out; the face turned toward the Kibleh of the east; the responsive amen of the congregation to the prayers and benedictions of the elders. 1 Corinthians 14:16.

5. Judicial functions.—The language of the New Testament shows that the officers of the synagogue exercised in certain cases a judicial power. It is not quite so easy, however, to define the nature of the tribunal and the precise limits of its jurisdiction. In two of the passages referred to—Matthew 10:17; Mark 13:9—they are carefully distinguished from the councils. It seems probable that the council was the larger tribunal of twenty-three, which sat in every city, and that under the term synagogue we are to understand a smaller court, probably that of the ten judges mentioned in the Talmud. Here also we trace the outline of a Christian institution. The Church, either by itself or by appointed delegates, was to act as a court of arbitration in all disputes among its members. The elders of the church were not, however, to descend to the trivial disputes of daily life. For the elders, as for those of the synagogue, were reserved the graver offences against religion and morals.

Synagogue The Great

Synagogue, The Great. On the return of the Jews from Babylon, a great council was appointed, according to rabbinic tradition, to reorganize the religious life of the people. It consisted of 120 members, and these were known as the men of the Great Synagogue, the successors of the prophets, themselves, in their turn, succeeded by scribes prominent, individually, as teachers. Ezra was recognized as president. Their aim was to restore again the crown, or glory, of Israel. To this end they collected all the sacred writings of the former ages and their own, and so completed the canon of the Old Testament. They instituted the feast of Purim, organized the ritual of the synagogue, and gave their sanction to the Shemôneh Esrêh, the eighteen solemn benedictions in it. Much of this is evidently uncertain. The absence of any historical mention of such a body, not only in the Old Testament and the Apocrypha, but in Josephus, Philo, etc., has led some critics to reject the whole statement as a rabbinic invention. The narrative of Nehemiah 8:13 clearly implies the existence of a body of men acting as councillors under the presidency of Ezra; and these may have been an assembly of delegates from all provincial synagogues—a synod of the national Church.

Syntyche

Syn’tyche (with fate), a female member of the church of Philippi. Philippians 4:2-3. (a.d. 57).

Syracuse

Syr’acuse, the celebrated city on the eastern coast of Sicily. “The city in its splendor was the largest and richest that the Greeks possessed in any part of the world, being 22 miles in circumference.” St. Paul arrived thither in an Alexandrian ship from Melita, on his voyage to Rome. Acts 28:12. The site of Syracuse rendered it a convenient place for the African corn-ships to touch at, for the harbor was an excellent one, and the fountain Arethusa in the island furnished an unfailing supply of excellent water.

Syria

Syr’ia is the term used throughout our version for the Hebrew Aram, as well as for the Greek Συριʹα. Most probably Syria is for Tsyria, the country about Tsur or Tyre, which was the first of the Syrian towns known to the Greeks. It is difficult to fix the limits of Syria. The limits of the Hebrew Aram and its subdivisions are spoken of under ARAM. Syria proper was bounded by Amanus and Taurus on the north, by the Euphrates and the Arabian desert on the east, by Palestine on the south, by the Mediterranean near the mouth of the Orontes, and then by Phœnicia on the west. This tract is about 300 miles long from north to south, and from 50 to 150 miles broad. It contains an area of about 30,000 square miles.

General physical features.—The general character of the tract is mountainous, as the Hebrew name Aram (from a root signifying “height”) sufficiently implies. The most fertile and valuable tract of Syria is the long valley intervening between Libanus and Anti-Libanus. Of the various mountain ranges of Syria, Lebanon possesses the greatest interest. It extends from the mouth of the Litany to Arka, a distance of nearly 100 miles. Anti-Libanus, as the name implies, stands over against Lebanon, running in the same direction, i.e., nearly north and south, and extending the same length. [LEBANON.] The principal rivers of Syria are the Litany and the Orontes. The Litany springs from a small lake situated in the middle of the Cœle-Syrian valley, about six miles to the southwest of Baalbek. It enters the sea about five miles north of Tyre. The source of the Orontes is but about 15 miles from that of the Litany. Its modern name is the Nahr-el-Asi, or “rebel stream,” an appellation given to it on account of its violence and impetuosity in many parts of its course. The chief towns of Syria may be thus arranged, as nearly as possible in the order of their importance: 1, Antioch; 2, Damascus; 3, Apamea; 4, Seleucia; 5, Tadmor or Palmyra; 6, Laodicea; 7, Epiphania (Hamath); 8, Samosata; 9, Hierapolis (Mabug); 10, Chalybon; 11, Emesa; 12, Heliopolis; 13, Laodicea ad Libanum; 14, Cyrrhus; 15, Chalcis; 16, Poseideum; 17, Heraclea; 18, Gindarus; 19, Zeugma; 20, Thapsacus. Of these, Samosata, Zeugma, and Thapsacus are on the Euphrates; Seleucia, Laodicea, Poseideum, and Heraclea, on the seashore; Antioch, Apamea, Epiphania, and Emesa (Hems), on the Orontes; Heliopolis and Laodicea ad Libanum, in Cœle-Syria; Hierapolis, Chalybon, Cyrrhus, Chalcis and Gindarus, in the northern highlands; Damascus on the skirts, and Palmyra in the centre, of the eastern desert.

History.—The first occupants of Syria appear to have been of Hamitic descent—Hittites, Jebusites, Amorites, etc. After a while the first comers, who were still to a great extent nomads, received a Semitic infusion, which most probably came to them from the southeast. The only Syrian town whose existence we find distinctly marked at this time is Damascus, Genesis 14:15; Genesis 15:2, which appears to have been already a place of some importance. Next to Damascus must be placed Hamath. Numbers 13:21; Numbers 34:8. Syria at this time, and for many centuries afterward, seems to have been broken up among a number of petty kingdoms. The Jews first come into hostile contact with the Syrians, under that name, in the time of David. Genesis 15:18; 2 Samuel 8:3-4, 2 Samuel 8:13. When, a few years later, the Ammonites determined on engaging in a war with David, and applied to the Syrians for aid, Zobah, together with Beth-rehob, sent them 20,000 footmen, and two other Syrian kingdoms furnished 13,000. 2 Samuel 10:6. This army being completely defeated by Joab, Hadadezer obtained aid from Mesopotamia, ibid., ver. 2 Samuel 10:16, and tried the chance of a third battle, which likewise went against him, and produced the general submission of Syria to the Jewish monarch. The submission thus begun continued under the reign of Solomon. 1 Kings 4:21. The only part of Syria which Solomon lost seems to have been Damascus, where an independent kingdom was set up by Rezon, a native of Zobah. 1 Kings 11:23-25. On the separation of the two kingdoms, soon after the accession of Rehoboam, the remainder of Syria no doubt shook off the yoke. Damascus now became decidely the leading state. Hamath being second to it, and the northern Hittites, whose capital was Carchemish, near Bambuk, third. [DAMASCUS.] Syria became attached to the great Assyrian empire, from which it passed to the Babylonians, and from them to the Persians. In b.c. 333 it submitted to Alexander without a struggle. Upon the death of Alexander, Syria became, for the first time, the head of a great kingdom. On the division of the provinces among his generals, b.c. 321, Seleucus Nicator received Mesopotamia and Syria. The city of Antioch was begun in b.c. 300, and, being finished in a few years, was made the capital of Seleucus’ kingdom. The country grew rich with the wealth which now flowed into it on all sides.

Syria was added to the Roman empire by Pompey, b.c. 64, and as it holds an important place, not only in the Old Testament but in the New, some account of its condition under the Romans must be given. While the country generally was formed into a Roman province, under governors who were at first proprætors or quæstors, then proconsuls, and finally legates, there were exempted from the direct rule of the governor, in the first place, a number of “free cities,” which retained the administration of their own affairs, subject to a tribute levied according to the Roman principles of taxation; secondly, a number of tracts, which were assigned to petty princes, commonly natives, to be ruled at their pleasure, subject to the same obligations with the free cities as to taxation. After the formal division of the provinces between Augustus and the senate, Syria, being from its exposed situation among the provinciæ principis, was ruled by legates, who were of consular rank (consulares) and bore severally the full title of “Legatus Augusti pro prætore.” Judea occupied a peculiar position; a special procurator was therefore appointed to rule it, who was subordinate to the governor of Syria, but within his own province had the power of a legatus. Syria continued without serious disturbance from the expulsion of the Parthians, b.c. 38, to the breaking out of the Jewish war, a.d. 66. In a.d. 44–47 it was the scene of a severe famine. A little earlier, Christianity had begun to spread into it, partly by means of those who “were scattered” at the time of Stephen’s persecution, Acts 11:19, partly by the exertions of St. Paul. Galatians 1:21. The Syrian Church soon grew to be one of the most flourishing. Acts 13:1; Acts 15:23, Acts 15:35, Acts 15:41, etc. (Syria remained under Roman and Byzantine rule till a.d. 634, when it was overrun by the Mohammedans; after which it was for many years the scene of fierce contests, and was finally subjugated by the Turks, a.d. 1517, under whose rule it still remains.—Ed.)

Syro-phœnician

Syro-phœnician (Syro-phoenician) — occurs only in (Mark 7:26) The word denoted perhaps a mixed race, half Phoenicians and half Syrians; (or the Phoenicians in this region may have been called Syro-phoenicians because they belonged to the Roman province of Syria, and were thus distinguished from the Phoenicians who lived in Africa, or the Carthaginians. -- ED.)

Syrtis The

Syr’tis, The, Acts 27:17; in the Revised Version in place of “quicksands” in the Authorized Version. It was the well-known Syrtis Major, the terror of all Mediterranean sailors. “It is a dangerous shallow on the coast of Africa, between Tripoli and Barca, southwest of the island of Crete.” The other Syrtis, Syrtis Minor, was too far west to be feared by Paul’s fellow voyagers.—Ed.)