International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Aseas — Astrology
Aseas
Aseas - a-se'-as (Asaias = Isshijah (Ezra 10:31)) A son of Annas, who put away his "strange wife" (1 Esdras 9:32).
Asebebias
Asebebias - a-seb-e-bi'-as, a-seb-e-bi'-a (Asebebias; the King James Version Asebebia): Asebebias his sons and brethren returned with Ezra to perform the functions of priesthood in Jerusalem (1 Esdras 8:47). Compare Sherebiah (Ezra 8:18).
Asebias
Asebias - as-e-bi'-as, as-e-bi'-a (Asebias; the King James Version Asebia): Asebias returned with Ezra to perform the function of a priest in Jerusalem (1 Esdras 8:48). Compare Hashabiah (Ezra 8:19).
Asenath
Asenath - as'-e-nath (Aseneth): The wife of Joseph, daughter of Potiphera, mother of Manasseh and Ephraim (Genesis 41:45, 50; 46:20). She was evidently an Egyptian woman and bore an Egyptian name. '-c-n-t, pointed by the Massoretes as 'acenath, appears in the Septuagint as aseneth or asenneth. The last two consonants appear to represent the name of the Egyptian goddess Neith. The first part of the name will then represent either ns = "belonging to" (so Brugsch and generally), or 'ws-n (note the doubled "n" in the Septuagint transcription) = "she belongs to" (so Spiegelberg). It is possible that these four letters represent the Egyptian name Sn-t (so Lieblein and others), though the 'aleph (') must then be explained as 'aleph prostheticum and the taw (t) would be less regular than a he (h) to stand for the Egyptian feminine t.
J. Oscar Boyd
Aser
Aser - a'-ser (Aser): the King James Version: Greek form of Asher (thus the Revised Version (British and American)) (Luke 2:36; Revelation 7:6).
Aserer
Aserer - as'-e-rer
See SERAR.
Ash (1)
Ash (1) - ash ('oren; the Revised Version (British and American) FIR-TREE; the Revised Version, margin Ash): A maker of idols "planteth a fir-tree (margin, "ash"), and the rain doth nourish it" (Isaiah 44:14). It is a suggestion as old as Luther that the final letter "n", was originally a "z", and that the word should be 'erez, "cedar"; the chief objection is that cedar occurs just before in the same verse. The word 'oren seems to be connected with the Assyrian irin, meaning fir or cedar or allied tree. "Fir" has support from the Septuagint and from the rabbis. Post (HDB) suggests as probable the stone pine, Pinus pinea, which has been extensively planted round Beirut and unlike most planted trees flourishes without artificial watering--"the rain doth nourish it."
The translation "ash" was probably suggested by the fanciful resemblance of the Hebrew 'oren and the Latin ornus, the manna ash of Europe. Three varieties of ash flourish in Syria, Fraxinus ornus, F. excelsior and F. oxycarpa. The last mentioned, which is common in parts of North Palestine, being a large tree some 30 to 40 ft. high, might suit the context were there anything philological to support the idea.
E. W. G. Masterman
Ash (2)
Ash (2) - (Bear).
See ASTRONOMY.
Ashamed
Ashamed - a-shamd': Almost exclusively moral in significance; confusion or abashment through consciousness of guilt or of its exposure. Often including also a sense of terror or fear because of the disgrace connected with the performance of some action. Capacity for shame indicates that moral sense (conscience) is not extinct. "Ashamed" occurs 96 out of 118 times in the Old Testament. Hebrew bosh, "to feel shame" (Latin, pudere), with derivatives occurs 80 times; kalam, "to shame," including the thought of "disgrace," "reproach"; chapher, "to blush": hence shame because of frustrated plans (uniformly in the Revised Version (British and American) "confounded"); Greek aischunomai, "suffused with shame," passive only and its compounds. Uses: (1) A few times, of actual embarrassment, as of Hazael before the steadfast look of Elisha (2 Kings 8:11; see also 2 Samuel 10:5; 2 Kings 2:17; Ezra 8:22). (2) Innocence not capable of shame: "both naked .... and .... not ashamed" (Genesis 2:25; see SHAME); the redeemed no occasion for (Psalms 34:5 the King James Version; 1 John 2:28); Christ not of "brethren" (Hebrews 2:11); nor Christian of gospel (Romans 1:16); nor God of men of faith (Hebrews 11:16); nor they who trust in God (Isaiah 50:7; 54:4; Joel 2:26). (3) Sense of guilt: "I am ashamed .... for our iniquities" (Ezra 9:6); "of thy lewd way" (Ezekiel 16:27, 61); ascribed to idolaters chagrined at worthlessness of idols (Isaiah 1:29; 9, 11; 45:16; Jeremiah 2:26); to enemies (Psalms 6:10); to wicked (Psalms 31:17); to all who forsake God (Jeremiah 17:13); to those who trust in human help, as Israel of Egypt and Assyria, and Moab of Chemosh (Jeremiah 2:36; 48:13); to a mother of wicked children (Jeremiah 50:12). (4) Repentance causes shame for sin (Jeremiah 31:19; Romans 6:21). (5) Calamities also, and judgments (Jeremiah 14:3-4; 15:9; 20:11). (6) Capacity for shame may be lost through long-continued sin (Jeremiah 6:15; 8:12; compare Jeremiah 3:3), exceptionally striking passages on the deadening power of immorality, suggestive of 1 Timothy 4:2; Titus 1:15. (7) The grace of Christ delivers from the shame of moral timidity (Romans 1:16; 2 Timothy 1:18, Romans 12:1-21, 16; 1 Peter 4:16). (8) At Christ's second coming His followers will "not be ashamed before him" (1 John 2:28); at the final judgment He will be ashamed of all who have been ashamed of Him (Mark 8:38; Luke 9:26; compare Matthew 10:33; Hebrews 11:16). (9) The word lends itself to rich poetic use, e.g. Lebanon, with faded and falling foliage, "is ashamed" (the Revised Version (British and American) "confounded") at the desolations of the land under Sennacherib (Isaiah 33:9); so great is God's glory in the new Jerusalem that "the sun (is) ashamed" in His presence (Isaiah 24:23), explaining the glorious figure in Revelation 21:23; 22:5. (The references in this article are from the King James Version; the Revised Version (British and American) frequently replaces `ashamed' by `put to shame.')
See SHAME.
Dwight M. Pratt
Ashan
Ashan - a'-shan (`ashan): An unknown site in the domain of Judah (Joshua 15:42), possessed by Simeon (Joshua 19:7), and mentioned among the priests' cities in 1 Chronicles 6:59. (44) = Joshua 21:16 (`ayin is a corruption of `ashan). Chorashan (or Borashan), which was probably the site of some reservoir in the Southwest part of Judah (1 Samuel 30:30), is the same as Ashan.
Asharelah; Asarelah
Asharelah; Asarelah - ash-a-re'-la ('asar'elah): One of the Asaphites appointed by David to the temple service (1 Chronicles 25:2); in 1 Chronicles 25:14 he is called Jesharelah. The latter element in both forms may be ('el) "God," but the meaning of the former part in the first form is doubtful. Thes. compares 'acar, "to bind," "whom God has bound (by a vow)."
Ashbea
Ashbea - ash'-be-a, ash-be'-a ('ashbea`): "The house of Ashbea," a family of linen-workers mentioned in 1 Chronicles 4:21. We might render beth 'ashbea` as their dwelling-place; nothing is known of such a place nor is this house of weavers referred to in any other place.
Ashbel; Ashbelite
Ashbel; Ashbelite - ash'-bel, ash'-bel-it ('ashbel): The gentilic name "Ashbelite" is found in Numbers 26:38, second son of Benjamin (Genesis 46:21). In 1 Chronicles 7:6-11 (6) "Jediael" ("known to God") is substituted for the heathen-sounding "Ashbel" ("Ishbaal," "man of Baal"). The chronicler, in this case, conforms literally to the principle laid down in Hosea 2:17; the title "Baal" ("lord") was applied in early days (e.g. in the days of Saul) to the national God of Israel, but in later days the prophets objected to it because it was freely applied to heathen gods (compare ISH-BOSHETH). In 1 Chronicles 8:1 the three names Bela, Ashbel, Aharah (= Ahiram) are taken from Numbers 26:38, however, without change.
H. J. Wolf
Ashdod
Ashdod - ash'-dod ('ashdodh; Azotos; modern Esdud): One of the five chief cities of the Philistines. The name means stronghold or fortress, and its strength may be inferred by the fact that Psammetik I, of Egypt, besieged it for many years (Herodotus says 29). Some of the Anakim were found there in the days of Joshua (Joshua 11:22), and the inhabitants were too strong for the Israelites at that time. It was among the towns assigned to Judah, but was not occupied by her (Joshua 13:3; Joshua 15:46-47). It was still independent in the days of Samuel, when, after the defeat of the Israelites, the ark was taken to the house of Dagon in Ashdod (1 Samuel 5:1-2). We have no account of its being occupied even by David, although he defeated the Philistines many times, and we have no definite knowledge of its coming into the hands of Judah until the time of Uzziah (2 Chronicles 26:6). Ashdod, like the other Philistine towns, came under the authority of the Assyrian monarchs, and we have mention of it in their records. It revolted against Sargon in 711 BC, and deposed the Assyrian governor, Akhimiti, who had been appointed by him in 720. Sargon at once dispatched a force to subdue the rebels and the city was severely punished. This is referred to by Isaiah (Isaiah 20:1). Amos had prophesied such a calamity some years before (Isaiah 1:8), and Jeremiah refers to "the remnant of Ashdod" as though it had continued weak until his day (Jeremiah 25:20). Zephaniah (Zephaniah 2:4) refers to the desolation of Ashdod and Zechariah to its degraded condition (Zechariah 9:6). It continued to be inhabited, however, for we find the Jews intermarried with them after the return from Babylon (Nehemiah 13:23-24). In the Maccabean period we are told that Judas and Jonathan both took it and purified it of idolatry (1 Maccabees 5:68; 10:84). In these passages it is called Azotus, as it is also in the New Testament (Acts 8:40). In the 4th century AD it became the seat of a bishopric. It had been restored in the time of Herod, by the Roman general Gabinius, and was presented to Salome, the sister of Herod, by the emperor Augustus. It is now a small village about 18 miles Northeast of Gaza.
H. Porter
Ashdodites
Ashdodites - ash'-dod-its, ash'-doth-its: Inhabitants of ASHDOD (which see) (Joshua 13:3; the King James Version Ashdothites, Nehemiah 4:7).
Ashdoth Pisgah
Ashdoth Pisgah - ash'-doth piz'-ga ('ashdoth ha-picgah): Thus the King James Version for the Revised Version (British and American) "The slopes (the Revised Version, margin springs) of Pisgah." The spurs and ravines, or the "shoulders" of Pisgah are meant. 'Ashedah is "a pouring out," and 'ashedoth are the slopes of a mountain from which springs gush forth. In Joshua 10:40; 12:8, 'Ashedoth, translated "springs" in the King James Version, is "slopes" in the Revised Version (British and American) (Deuteronomy 3:17; Joshua 12:3; 13:20).
See PISGAH.
Asher (1)
Asher (1) - ash'-er ('asher; Aser).
1. Biblical Account: According to the Biblical account Asher was the eighth of Jacob's sons, the second borne to him by Zilpah the handmaid of Leah. His uterine brother was Gad (Genesis 35:26). With four sons and one daughter he went down into Egypt (Genesis 46:17). At his birth Leah exclaimed, "Happy am I! for the daughters will call me happy: and she called his name Asher," i.e. Happy (Genesis 30:13). This foreshadowing of good fortune for him is repeated in the blessing of Jacob: "His bread shall be fat, and he shall yield royal dainties" (Genesis 49:20); and again in that of Moses: "Blessed be Asher with children; let him be acceptable unto his brethren, and let him dip his foot in oil" (Deuteronomy 33:24). His family prospered in Egypt, and at the Exodus the tribe of Asher is numbered at 41,500 adult males (Numbers 1:41). At the second census the number is given 53,400 (Numbers 26:47). The place of Asher in the desert march was with the standard of the camp of Dan, on the north of the tabernacle, along with Dan and Naphtali; the prince of the tribe being Pagiel the son of Ochran (Numbers 2:27 ff). Among the spies Asher was represented by Sethur (Numbers 13:13). The tribe seems to have taken no important part in the subsequent history. It raised no hero, and gave no deliverer to the nation. In the time of David it was of so little consequence that the name is not found in the list of chief rulers (1 Chronicles 27:16 ff). The rich land assigned to Asher sloped to the Phoenician seaboard, and brought him into touch with the Phoenicians who were already world-famous in trade and commerce. He probably soon became a partner in their profitable enterprises, and lost any desire he may ever have had to eject them from their cities (Judges 1:31). He cared not who ruled over him if he were free to pursue the ends of commerce. Zebulun might jeopard their lives unto the death, and Naphtali upon the high places of the field, to break the power of the foreign oppressor, but Asher "sat still at the haven of the sea, and abode by his creeks" (Judges 5:17 ff). He was probably soon largely absorbed by the people with whose interests his were so closely identified: nevertheless "divers of Asher," moved by the appeal of Hezekiah, "humbled themselves, and came to Jerus" (2 Chronicles 30:11 the King James Version). To this tribe belonged the prophetess Anna (Luke 2:36 ff).
2. Modern Theory: According to a modern theory, the mention of the slave girl Zilpah as the mother of Asher is meant to indicate that the tribe was of mixed blood, and arose through the mingling of Israelites with the Canaanites. It is suggested that the name may have been taken from that of the Canaanite clan found in the Tell el-Amarna Letters, Mari abd-Ashirti, "sons of the servant of Asherah." A similar name occurs in the inscriptions of the Egyptian Seti I (14th century BC), `Aseru, a state in western Galilee (W. Max Muller, As. und Eur., 236-39). This people it is thought may have associated themselves with the invaders from the wilderness. But while the speculations are interesting, it is impossible to establish any relationship between these ancient tribes and Asher.
3. Territory of Asher: The boundaries of the territory are given in considerable detail in Joshua 19:25 ff (compare Judges 1:31 f; Joshua 17:10 f). Only a few of the places named can be identified with certainty. Dor, the modern Tan-Turah, although occupied by Manasseh belonged to Asher. Wady ez-Zerqa, possibly identical with Shihor-libnath, which enters the sea to the South of Dor, would form the southern boundary. The lot of Asher formed a strip of land from 8 to 10 miles wide running northward along the shore to the neighborhood of Sidon, touching Issachar, Zebulun and Naphtali on the East Asher seems to have taken possession of the territory by a process of peaceful penetration, not by conquest, and as we have seen, he never drove out the Phoenicians from their cities. The rich plain of Acre, and the fertile fiats between the mountain and the sea near Tyre and Sidon therefore remained in Phoenician hands. But the valleys breaking down westward and opening on the plains have always yielded fine crops of grain. Remains of an ancient oak forest still stand to the North of Carmel. The vine, the fig, the lemon and the orange flourish. Olive trees abound, and the supplies of olive oil which to this day are exported from the district recall the word of the old-time blessing, "Let him dip his foot in oil."
W. Ewing
Asher (2)
Asher (2) - ash'-er ('asher):
(1) See preceding article.
(2) A town on the southern border of Manasseh (Joshua 17:7). The site is unknown.
(3) A place of this name is mentioned in Apocrypha (Tobit 1:2), identified with Hazor, in Naphtali.
See HAZOR.
Asherah
Asherah - a-she'-ra, ash'-er-im ('asherah; alsos, mistranslated "grove" in the King James Version, after the Septuagint and Vulgate):
1. References to the Goddess
2. Assyrian Origin of the Goddess
3. Her Symbol
4. The Attributes of the Goddess
Was the name of a goddess whose worship was widely spread throughout Syria and Canaan; plural Asherim.
1. References to the Goddess: Her "image" is mentioned in the Old Testament (1 Kings 15:13; 2 Kings 21:7; 2 Chronicles 15:16), as well as her "prophets" (1 Kings 18:19) and the vessels used in her service (2 Kings 23:4). In Assyria the name appears under the two forms of Asratu and Asirtu; it was to Asratu that a monument found near Diarbekir was dedicated on behalf of Khammu-rabi (Amraphel) "king of the Amorites," and the Amorite king of whom we hear so much in Tell el-Amarna Letters bears the name indifferently of EbedAsrati and Ebed-Asirti.
2. Assyrian Origin of the Goddess: Like so much else in Canaanite religion, the name and worship of Asherah were borrowed from Assyria. She was the wife of the war-god Asir whose name was identified with that of the city of. Assur with the result that he became the national god of Assyria. Since Asirtu was merely the feminine form of Asir, "the superintendent" or "leader," it is probable that it was originally an epithet of Ishtar (Ashtoreth) of Nineveh. In the West, however, Asherah and Ashtoreth came to be distinguished from one another, Asherah being exclusively the goddess of fertility, whereas Ashtoreth passed into a moon-goddess.
3. Her Symbol: In Assyrian asirtu, which appears also under the forms asratu, esreti (plural) and asru, had the further signification of "sanctuary." Originally Asirtu, the wife of Asir, and asirtu, "sanctuary," seem to have had no connection with one another, but the identity in the pronunciation of the two words caused them to be identified in signification, and as the tree-trunk or cone of stone which symbolized Asherah was regarded as a Beth-el or "house of the deity," wherein the goddess was immanent, the word Asirtu, Asherah, came to denote the symbol of the goddess. The trunk of the tree was often provided with branches, and assumed the form of the tree of life. It was as a trunk, however, that it was forbidden to be erected by the side of "the altar of Yahweh" (Deuteronomy 16:21; see Judges 6:25, 28, 30; 2 Kings 23:6). Accordingly the symbol made for Asherah by his mother was "cut down" by Asa (1 Kings 15:13). So, too, we hear of Asherim or symbols of the goddess being set up on the high places under the shade of a green tree (Jeremiah 17:2; see 2 Kings 17:10). Manasseh introduced one into the temple at Jerusalem (2 Kings 21:3, 7).
4. The Attributes of the Goddess: Asherah was the goddess of fertility, and thus represented the Babylonian Ishtar in her character as goddess of love and not of war. In one of the cuneiform tablets found at Taanach by Dr. Sellin, and written by one Canaanite sheikh to another shortly before the Israelite invasion of Palestine, reference is made to "the finger of Asherah" from which oracles were derived. The "finger" seems to signify the symbol of the goddess; at any rate it revealed the future by means of a "sign and oracle." The practice is probably alluded to in Hosea 4:12. The existence of numerous symbols in each of which the goddess was believed to be immanent led to the creation of numerous forms of the goddess herself, which, after the analogy of the Ashtaroth, were described collectively as the Asherim.
A. H. Sayce
Asherites
Asherites - ash'-er-its (ha-'asheri): The descendants of Asher, Jacob's eighth son (Judges 1:32).
Ashes
Ashes - ash'-iz: Among the ancient Hebrews #and other Orientals, to sprinkle with or sit in ashes was a mark or token of grief, humiliation, or penitence. Ashes on the head was one of the ordinary signs of mourning for the dead, as when "Tamar put ashes on her head .... and went on crying" (2 Samuel 13:19 the King James Version), and of national humiliation, as when the children of Israel were assembled under Nehemiah "with fasting, and with sackcloth, and earth (ashes) upon them" (Nehemiah 9:1), and when the people of Nineveh repented in sackcloth and ashes at the preaching of Jonah (Jonah 3:5-6; compare 1 Maccabees 3:47). The afflicted or penitent often sat in ashes (compare Job 2:8; 42:6: "I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes"), or even wallowed in ashes, as Jeremiah exhorted sinning Israel to do: "O daughter of my people .... wallow thyself in ashes" (Jeremiah 6:26), or as Ezekiel in his lamentation for Tyre pictures her mariners as doing, crying bitterly and `casting up dust upon their heads' and `wallowing themselves in the ashes' (in their weeping for her whose head was lifted up and become corrupted because of her beauty), "in bitterness of soul with bitter mourning" (Ezekiel 27:30-31).
However, these and various other modes of expressing grief, repentance, and humiliation among the Hebrews, such as rending the garments, tearing the hair and the like, were not of Divine appointment, but were simply the natural outbursts of the impassioned oriental temperament, and are still customary among eastern peoples.
Figurative: The term "ashes" is often used to signify worthlessness, insignificance or evanescence (Genesis 18:27; Job 30:19). "Proverbs of ashes," for instance, in Job 13:12, is Job's equivalent, says one writer, for our modern "rot." For the ritual use of the ashes of the Red Heifer by the priests, see RED HEIFER.
George B. Eager
Ashhur
Ashhur - ash'-ur (ashchur, the King James Version Ashur): The "father of Tekoa" (1 Chronicles 2:24; 4:5), probably the founder of the village. The original meaning of the name is the "man of Horus," Ashurites (ha-'ashuri). This name occurs in the list of Ish-bosheth's subjects (2 Samuel 2:9). The Syriac, Arabic, and Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 A.D.) versions read ha-geshuri, "the Geshurites," designating the small kingdom to the South or Southeast of Damascus. This reading, though adopted by Ewald, Thenius and Wellhausen, is untenable, for during the reign of Ish-bosheth Geshur was ruled by its own king Talmai, whose daughter was married to David (2 Samuel 3:3; 13:37). Furthermore Geshur was too far away from the rest of Ishbosheth's territory. A more consistent reading is ha-'asheri, as given in the Targum of Jonathan and accepted by Kohler, Klost, Kirkpatrick and Budde, "those of the house of Asher" (compare Judges 1:32). The term would, then, denote the country to the West of Jordan above Jezreel.
Samuel Cohon
Ashima
Ashima - a-shi'-ma, ash'-i-ma ('ashima'; Asimath): A deity worshipped at Hamath (2 Kings 17:30) of whom nothing further is known. It has been suggested that the name is the same as that of the goddess Simi, the daughter of the supreme god Hadad, who was worshipped at Membij, but there is nothing to support the suggestion.
Ashkelon
Ashkelon - ask'-ke-lon, esh'-ka-lon, as'-ke-lon (the King James Version Eshkalon, (Eshkalonites; Joshua 13:3); Askelon, (Judges 1:18; 1 Samuel 6:17; 2 Samuel 1:20); 'ashqelon; modern Askelan): A maritime town between Jaffa and Gaza, one of the five chief cities of the Philistines. The Ashkelonites are mentioned by Joshua (Joshua 13:3), and the city was taken by the tribe of Judah (Judges 1:18). One of the golden tumors (the King James Version "emerods") sent back with the ark by the Philistines was from Ashkelon (1 Samuel 6:17). David couples Ashkelon with Gath in his lament over Saul and Jonathan (2 Samuel 1:20) indicating its importance, and it is joined with Gaza, Ashdod and Ekron in the denunciations of Amos (2 Samuel 1:7-8). It is referred to in a similar way by Jeremiah (Jeremiah 25:20; 5, 7). Zephaniah (2:4,7) speaks of the desolation of Ashkelon and Zechariah announces the fear of Ashkelon on the destruction of Tyre (9:5). The city is mentioned in the Tell el-Amarna Letters, and a certain Yitia is referred to as king. It revolted against Rameses II and was subdued, and we have mention of it as being under the rule of Assyria. Tiglath-pileser III names it among his tributaries, and its king, Mitinti, is said to have lost his reason when he heard of the fall of Damascus in 732 BC. It revolted in the reign of Sennacherib and was punished, and remained tributary to Assyria until the decay of that power. In Maccabean times we learn of its capture by Jonathan (1 Maccabees 10:86; 11:60, the Revised Version (British and American) "Ascalon"). Herod the Great was born there (BJ, III, ii, 1 ff). In the 4th century AD it was the seat of a bishopric. It became subject to the Moslems in the 7th century and was taken by the Crusaders. It was taken in 1187 by Saladin, who dismantled it in 1191 to make it useless to Richard of England, into whose hands it was expected to fall. Richard restored it the next year but it was again destroyed by Saladin. It was an important fortress because of its vicinity to the trade route between Syria and Egypt.
H. Porter
Ashkelonites
Ashkelonites - ash'-ke-lon-its (Joshua 13:3): The people of Ashkelon, who were Philistines.
Ashkenaz
Ashkenaz - ash'-ke-naz ('ashkenaz): The name occurs in Genesis 10:3; 1 Chronicles 16:1-43, in the list of the sons of Japheth as a son of Gomer. See TABLE OF NATIONS. It occurs also in Jeremiah 51:27 (the King James Version "Ashchenaz") in connection with the kingdoms of Ararat and Minni, which suggests a location about Armenia.
Ashnah
Ashnah - ash'-na ('ashnah): Two sites, (1) Joshua 15:33, a site in the lowlands of Judah, probably near Estaol and Zorah. The small ruin Aslin between those two places may retain an echo of the old name; (2) Joshua 15:43 an unknown site farther south.
Ashpenaz
Ashpenaz - ash'-pe-naz ('ashpenaz): The master of the eunuchs of Nebuchadnezzar was an officer into whose hands the king entrusted those of the children of Israel, and of the princes, and of the seed of the king of Judah, whom he had carried captive to Babylon, that they might be taught the learning and tongue of the Chaldeans in order to serve in the king's palace. He is mentioned by name in Daniel 1:3 only. It used to be supposed that the name was Persian; but it now seems more probable that it is Babylonian. We would suggest Ashipu-Anu-Izzu, "the Aship-priest of Ann is mighty," as a possible form of the original.
R. Dick Wilson
Ashriel
Ashriel - ash'-re-el.
See ASRIEL.
Ashtaroth
Ashtaroth - Plural of Ashtoreth.
See ASHTORETH.
Ashtaroth; Ashteroth-karnaim; Beeshterah
Ashtaroth; Ashteroth-karnaim; Beeshterah - ash'-ta-roth, as'-ta-roth (`ashtaroth; the King James Version Astaroth; Astaroth, the city of Og, king of Bashan (Deuteronomy 14:1-29, etc.); `ashteroth qarnayim, the scene of the defeat of the Rephaim by Chedorlaomer (Genesis 14:5): (be`eshterah) a Levitical city in Manasseh East of the Jordan (Joshua 21:27)): The name probably means "house" or "temple of Ashtoreth." It is identical with Ashtaroth of 1 Chronicles 6:71. Ashtaroth is the plural of ASHTORETH (which see). The name denotes a place associated with the worship of this goddess. Ashteroth-karnaim is mentioned only once in canonical Scripture unless we accept Gratz's restoration, when Karnaim appears as a city taken by Israel: "Have we not taken to us horns (qarnayim) by our own strength?" (Amos 6:13). It is identical with Carnion or Carnaim of 1 and 2 Macc, a city of Gilead with a temple of Atar-gatis. The name Ashtaroth has been identified with Astertu in the lists of Tahutmes III of the XVIIIth Egyptian Dynasty; and with Ashtarti of the Tell el-Amarna Letters. Its claim to antiquity is therefore well established.
As far as the Biblical record is concerned, the names at the head of this article might stand for one and the same city, Ashtaroth being a contraction from Ashteroth-karnaim. But in the days of Eusebius and Jerome, we learn from the Onomasticon, there were two forts of this name 9 miles apart, lying between Adara (Der`ah) and Abila (Abil), while Ashtaroth, the ancient city of Og, king of Bashan, lay 6 miles from Adara. Carnaim Ashtaroth, which is evidently identical with Ashteroth-karnaim, they describe as a large village in the angle of Bashan where tradition places the home of Job. This seems to point to Tell `Ashtara, a hill which rises about 80 ft. above the plain, 2 miles South of el-Merkez, the seat of the governor of the Chauran. Three-quarters of a mile North of el-Merkez, at the south end of a ridge on which the village of Sheikh Ca'ad is built, stands the weley of the stone of Job, Weley Sakhret 'Ayyub. By the large stone under the dome Job was said to have sat to receive his friends during his affliction. An Egyptian inscription, found by Schumacher, proves the stone to be a monument of the time of Rameses II. At the foot of the hill is pointed out the bath of Job. In el-Merkez the building known as Deir 'Ayyub, "Monastery of Job," is now part of the barracks. There is also shown the tomb of Job. The stream which flows southward past Tell `Ashtara, is called Moyet en-Neby 'Ayyub, "stream of the prophet Job," and is said to have risen where the patriarch stamped his foot on his recovery. It is to be noted also that the district lying in the angle formed by Nahr er-Raqqad and the Yarmuk River is called to this day ez-Zawiyet esh-sharqiyeh, "the eastern angle" (i.e. of the Jaulan). The term may in Jerome's time have covered the land east of the `Allan, although this is now part of the Chauran. At Tell `Ashtara there are remains pointing to a high antiquity. The site was also occupied during the Middle Ages. Perhaps here we should locate Carnaim Ashtaroth of the Onomasticon. It does not, however, agree with the description of Carnaim in 1 and 2 Macc. The Ashtaroth of the Onomasticon may have been at el-Muzerib, on the great pilgrimage road, about 6 Roman miles from Der'ah--the distance indicated by Eusebius. The old fortress here was situated on an island in the middle of the lake, Baheiret el-Bajjeh. A full description of the place is given in Schumacher's Across the Jordan, 137 ff. It must have been a position of great strength in antiquity; but the ancient name has not been recovered.
Some would place Ashteroth-karnaim, the Carnaim of the Maccabees, at Tell 'Ash`ari, a site 10 Roman miles North of Der`ah, and 4 1/2 Roman miles S 2 of Tell `Ashtara. This clearly was "a place hard to besiege, and difficult of access by reason of the narrowness of the approaches on all sides" (2 Maccabees 12:21). It crowns a promontory which stands out between the deep gorge of the Yarmuk River and a great chasm, at the head of which is a waterfall. It could be approached only by the neck connecting it with the mainland; and here it was guarded by a triple wall, the ruins of which are seen today. The remains of a temple close by the bridge over the Yarmuk may mark the scene of the slaughter by Judas.
The whole question however is obscure. Eusebius is clearly guilty of confusion, with his two Ashtaroth-karnaims and his Carnaim Ashtaroth. All the places we have named lie considerably North of a line drawn from Tell Abel to Der`ah. For light upon the problem of identification we must wait the results of excavation.
W. Ewing
Ashterathite
Ashterathite - ash'-te-rath-it, ash-ter'-ath-it (ha-`ashterathi): A native of Ashtaroth: Uzzia, one of David's heroes (1 Chronicles 11:44).
Ashteroth-karnaim
Ashteroth-karnaim - ash'-te-roth kar-na'-im: I.e. "Ashteroth of the two horns," mentioned in Genesis 14:5 as the place of Chedorlaomer's defeat of the Rephaim. See ASHTAROTH. A Carnaim or Carnion in Gilead, with a temple of Atar-gatis attached, was captured by Judas Maccabeus (1 Maccabees 5:43, 44; 2 Maccabees 12:26).
Ashtoreth
Ashtoreth - ash'-to-reth, ash-to reth (`ashtoreth; plural `ashtaroth; Astarte):
1. Name and Origin
2. Attributes of the Goddess
3. Ashtoreth as a Moon-Goddess
4. The Local Ashtaroth
1. Name and Origin: The name of the supreme goddess of Canaan and the female counterpart of Baal.
The name and cult of the goddess were derived from Babylonia, where Ishtar represented the evening and morning stars and was accordingly androgynous in origin. Under Semitic influence, however, she became solely female, but retained a memory of her primitive character by standing, alone among the Assyro-Bab goddesses, on a footing of equality with the male divinities. From Babylonia the worship of the goddess was carried to the Semites of the West, and in most instances the feminine suffix was attached to her name; where this was not the case the deity was regarded as a male. On the Moabite Stone, for example, `Ashtar is identified with Chemosh, and in the inscriptions of southern Arabia `Athtar is a god. On the other hand, in Atar-gatis or Derketo (2 Maccabees 12:26), Atar, without the feminine suffix, is identified with the goddess `Athah or `Athi (Greek Gatis). The cult of the Greek Aphrodite in Cyprus was borrowed from that of Ashtoreth; whether the Greek name also is a modification of Ashtoreth, as has often been maintained, is doubtful.
2. Attributes of the Goddess: In Babylonia and Assyria Ishtar was the goddess of love and war. An old Babylonian legend related how the descent of Ishtar into Hades in search of her dead husband, Tammuz, was followed by the cessation of marriage and birth in both earth and heaven, while the temples of the goddess at Nineveh and Arbela, around which the two cities afterward grew up, were dedicated to her as the goddess of war. As such she appeared to one of Assur-bani-pal's seers and encouraged the Assyrian king to march against Elam. The other goddesses of Babylonia, who were little more than reflections of the god, tended to merge into Ishtar who thus became a type of the female divinity, a personification of the productive principle in nature, and more especially the mother and creatress of mankind.
The chief seat of the worship of Ishtar in Babylonia was Erech, where prostitution was practiced in her name, and she was served with immoral rites by bands of men and women. In Assyria, where the warlike side of the goddess was predominant, no such rites seem to have been practiced, and, instead, prophetesses were attached to her temples to whom she delivered oracles.
3. Ashtoreth as a Moon-Goddess: In Canaan, Ashtoreth, as distinguished from the male `Ashtar, dropped her warlike attributes, but in contradistinction to Asherah, whose name and cult had also been imported from Assyria, became, on the one hand, the colorless consort of Baal, and on the other hand, a moon-goddess. In Babylonia the moon was a god, but after the rise of the solar theology, when the larger number of the Babylonian gods were resolved into forms of the sun-god, their wives also became solar, Ishtar, "the daughter of Sin" the moon-god, remaining identified with the evening-star. In Canaan, however, when the solar theology had absorbed the older beliefs, Baal, passing into a sun-god and the goddess who stood at his side becoming a representative of the moon--the pale reflection, as it were, of the sun--Ashtoreth came to be regarded as the consort of Baal and took the place of the solar goddesses of Babylonia.
4. The Local Ashtaroth: Hence there were as "many Ashtoreths" or Ashtaroth as Baals. They represented the various forms under which the goddess was worshipped in different localities (Judges 10:6; 1 Samuel 7:4; 12:10, etc.). Sometimes she was addressed as Naamah, "the delightful one," Greek Astro-noe, the mother of Eshmun and the Cabeiri. The Philistines seem to have adopted her under her warlike form (1 Samuel 31:10 the King James Version reading "Ashtoreth," as Septuagint), but she was more usually the moon-goddess (Lucian, De Dca Syriac., 4; Herodian, v.6, 10), and was accordingly symbolized by the horns of a cow. See ASHTEROTH-KARNAIM. At Ashkelon, where Herodotus (i.105) places her most ancient temple, she was worshipped under the name of Atar-gatis, as a woman with the tail of a fish, and fish were accordingly sacred to her. Elsewhere the dove was her sacred symbol. The immoral rites with which the worship of Ishtar in Babylonia was accompanied were transferred to Canaan (Deuteronomy 23:18) and formed part of the idolatrous practices which the Israelites were called upon to extirpate.
A. H. Sayce
Ashur
Ashur - ash'-ur.
See ASHHUR.
Ashurbanipal
Ashurbanipal - a-shoor-ba'-ne-pal (Ashur-bani-apal, "Ashur creates a son"): Before setting out on his last campaign to Egypt, Esarhaddon king of Assyria doubtless having had some premonition that his days were numbered, caused his son Ashurbanipal to be acknowledged the crown prince of Assyria (668 BC). At the same time he proclaimed his son Shamash-shum-ukin as the crown prince of Babylonia. At the father's death the latter, however, was only permitted to become viceroy of Babylonia.
Ashurbanipal is generally believed to be the great and noble Osnappar (Ezra 4:10). See OSNAPPAR. If this identification should not prove correct, the king is not mentioned by name in the Old Testament. In the annals of Ashurbanipal there is a list of twenty tributary kings in which Manasseh (written Minse) of the land of Judah is mentioned. With a few exceptions the list is the same as that given by Esarhaddon, his father. In 2 Chronicles 33:11 ff we learn that the captains of the host of the king of Assyria took Manasseh with hooks and bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon. The king to whom reference is made in this passage was either Esarhaddon or Ashurbanipal. If the latter, his restoration of Manasseh was paralleled in the instance of Necho, the vassal king of Memphis and Sais, who also had revolted from Assyria; for he was accorded similar treatment, being sent back to Egypt with special marks of favor, and reinstated upon his throne.
Another reference in the Old Testament, at least to one of the acts of Ashurbanipal, is the prophecy of Nahum, who in predicting the downfall of Nineveh, said, "Art thou (Nineveh) better than No-amon?" This passage is illustrated by the annals of the king, in which he recounts the destruction of the city. No (meaning "city") is the name of Thebes, while Amon (or Amen) was the chief deity of that city.
Esarhaddon died on his way to Egypt, which he had previously conquered, an insurrection having taken place. Tirhakah, whom Esarhaddon had vanquished, and who had fled to Ethiopia, had returned, and had advanced against the rulers appointed by Assyria. He formed a coalition with Necho and others. Not long after Ashurbanipal came to the throne, he set out for Egypt and defeated the forces. The leaders of the insurrection were carried to Nineveh in fetters. Necho, like Manasseh, as mentioned above, was restored to his rule at Sais. Tirhakah died shortly after. His sister's son Tanut-Amon (Tandami) then took up the cause, and after the departure of the Assyrian army he advanced against the Assyrian vassal governors. The Assyrian army returned and relieved the besieged. Tanut-Amon returned to Thebes, which was conquered and which was spoiled by the rapacious Assyrians, 663 BC. This is what the prophet Nahum referred to (3:8). A few years later Psammetik, the son of Necho, who had remained faithful after his restoration, declared his independence. As the Assyrian army was required elsewhere, Egypt was henceforth free from the yoke of the Assyrian.
Ba`al of Tyre, after a long siege, finally submitted. Yakinlu, king of Arvad, paid tribute and sent hostages. Other rebellious subjects, who had become emboldened by the attitude of Tirhakah, were brought into submission. Under Urlaki, the old enemy Elam, which had been at peace with Assyria since the preceding reign, now became aggressive and made inroads into Babylonia. Ashurbanipal marched through the Zagros mountains, and suddenly appeared before Susa. This move brought Teumman, who had in the meanwhile succeeded Urlaki, back to his capital. Elam was humiliated.
In 652 BC the insurrection of Shamash-shumukin, the king's brother, who had been made viceroy of Babylon, broke out. He desired to establish his independence from Assyria. After Ashurbanipal had overcome Babylon, Shamash-shum-ukin took refuge in a palace, set it on fire, and destroyed himself in the flames.
There is much obscurity about the last years of Ashurbanipal's reign. The decadence of Assyria had begun, which resulted not only in the loss to the title of the surrounding countries, but also in its complete annihilation before the century was over. Nineveh was finally razed to the ground by the Umman-Manda hordes, and was never rebuilt.
Ashurbanipal is also distinguished for his building operations, which show remarkable architectural ingenuity. In many of the cities of Assyria and Babylonia he restored, enlarged or embellished the temples or shrines. In Nineveh he reared a beautiful palace, which excelled all other Assyrian structures in the richness of its ornamentations.
During his reign the study of art was greatly encouraged. Some of his exquisite sculptures represent not only the height of Assyrian art, but also belong to the most important aesthetic treasures of the ancient world. The themes of many of the chief sculptures depict the hunt, in which the king took special delight.
Above all else Ashurbanipal is famous for the library he created, because of which he is perhaps to be considered the greatest known patron of literature in the pre-Christian centuries.
For Bibliography see ASSYRIA.
A. T. Clay
Ashurites
Ashurites - ash'-ur-its (ha-'ashuri): According to the Massoretic Text of 2 Samuel 2:9, a tribe included in the short-lived kingdom of Ish-bosheth, Saul's son. A slight textual correction gives "Asherites," that is, the tribe of Asher; with this the Targum of Jonathan agrees. The tribe of Asher lay where it would naturally fall to Ish-bosheth's kingdom. The reading "Geshurites" (Vulgate and Syriac) is excluded by the known independence Of Geshur at this time (2 Samuel 3:3; 13:37). For similar reasons we cannot think of Assyria (Hebrew Asshur) nor of the Arabic Asshurim of Genesis 25:3.
Ashvath
Ashvath - ash'-vath (`ashwath): A man of Asher, of the house of Japhlet (1 Chronicles 7:33).
Asia
Asia - a'-shi-a (Asia): A Roman province embracing the greater part of western Asia Minor, including the older countries of Mysia, Lydia, Caria, and a part of Phrygia, also several of the independent coast cities, the Troad, and apparently the islands of Lesbos, Samos, Patmos, Cos and others near the Asia Minor coast (Acts 16:6; 10, 27). It is exceedingly difficult to determine the exact boundaries of the several countries which later constituted the Roman province, for they seem to have been somewhat vague to the ancients themselves, and were constantly shifting; it is therefore impossible to trace the exact borders of the province of Asia. Its history previous to 133 BC coincides with that of Asia Minor of which it was a part. However, in that year, Attalus III (Philometer), king of Pergamos, bequeathed his kingdom to the Roman Empire. It was not until 129 BC that the province of Asia was really formed by Rome. Its first capital was Pergamos, the old capital of Mysia, but in the time of Augustus, when Asia had become the most wealthy province of the Empire, the seat of the government was transferred to Ephesus. Smyrna was also an important rival of Ephesus. The governor of Asia was a pro-consul, chosen by lot by the Roman senate from among the former consuls who had been out of office for at least five years, and he seldom continued in office for more than a single year. The diet of the province, composed of representatives from its various districts, met each year in the different cities. Over it presided the asiarch, whose duty it was, among other things, to offer sacrifices for the welfare of the emperor and his family.
In 285 AD the province was reduced in size, as Caria, Lydia, Mysia and Phrygia were separated from it, and apart from the cities of the coast little remained. The history of Asia consists almost entirely of the history of its important cities, which were Adramyttium, Assos, Cnidus, Ephesus, Laodicea, Miletus, Pergamos, Philadelphia, Sardis, Smyrna, Thyatira, Troas, etc.
E. J. Banks
Asia Minor
Asia Minor - a'-shi-a mi'ner:
Introductory
I. THE COUNTRY
1. Position and Boundaries
2. General Description
3. Mountains
4. Rivers, Lakes and Plains
5. Roads
6. Climate and Products
II. HISTORY
1. The Hittites
2. Phrygian and Bithynian Immigrations
3. Lydians, Greeks and Persians
4. Alexander and his Successors
5. The Galatians
6. The Romans in Asia Minor
III. ASIA MINOR IN THE 1ST CENTURY AD
1. The Population
2. The Native Social System
3. Emperor Worship
4. The Hellenistic System
5. Roman "Coloniae"
IV. CHRISTIANITY IN ASIA MINOR
Christian Inscriptions, etc.
LITERATURE
Introductory:
Technically, it is only on sufferance that an account of "Asia Minor" can find a place in a Biblical encyclopedia, for the country to which this name applies in modern times was never so called in Old Testament or New Testament times. The term first appears in Orosius, a writer of the 5th century AD, and it is now applied in most European languages to the peninsula forming the western part of Asiatic Turkey.
The justification for the inclusion in this work of a summary account of Asia Minor as a whole, its geography, history, and the social and political condition of its people in New Testament times, is to be found in the following sentence of Gibbon: "The rich provinces that extend from the Euphrates to the Ionian Sea were the principal theater on which the Apostle to the Gentiles displayed his zeal and piety"; and no region outside the city of Rome has preserved to modern times so many records of the growth and character of its primitive Christianity.
I. The Country. 1. Position and Boundaries: Asia Minor (as the country was called to distinguish it from the continent of Asia), or Anatolia, is the name given to the peninsula which reaches out between the Black Sea (Pontus Euxinus) on the North and the Mediterranean on the South, forming an elevated land-bridge between central Asia and southeastern Europe. On the Northwest corner, the peninsula is separated from Europe by the Bosporus, the Sea of Marmora and the hellespont. On the West the peninsula borders on the Aegean Sea, whose numerous islands tempted the timid mariner of ancient times on toward Greece. The West coast, with its alternation of mountain and river-valley, is deeply indented: there is a total coast line of four times the length of a line drawn from North to South The numerous land-locked bays and harbors of this coast have made it the happy hunting-ground of Mediterranean traders in all ages. On the East it is usual to delimit Asia Minor by a line drawn from Alexandretta to Samsun, but for the purposes of New Testament history it must be remembered that part of Cilicia, Cappadocia and Pontus (Galatia) lie to the East of this line (Longitude 26 degrees to 36 degrees East; latitude 36 degrees to 42 degrees North).
2. General Description: There are two distinct countries, implying distinct historical development, in the Anatolian peninsula, the country of the coast, and the country of the central plateau. The latter takes its shape from that of the great mountain ranges which bound it on the West, East and North. The high central tableland is tilted down toward the North and West; the mountain ranges on these sides are not so lofty as the Taurus chain on the South and Southeast. This chain, except at its Southeast corner, rises sharply from the South coast, whose undulations it determines. On the North, the mountains of Pontus (no distinctive name), a continuation of the Armenian range, give the coast-line a similar character. On the inhospitable North coast, there is only one good harbor, that of Sinope, and no plain of any extent. The South coast can boast of the plains of Pamphylia and Cilicia, both highly fertile, the harbors of Makri and Marmariki, and the sheltered bays of Adalia and Alexandretta. On the West, the ascent from the littoral to the plateau is more gradual. A distance of over 100 miles separates the Phrygian mountains where the oriental plateau begins, from the West seaboard with its inlets and trading cities. These hundred miles are composed of river valleys, divided off by mountain ranges, and forming the channels of communication between the interior and the coast. While these two regions form part of a single country it is obvious that--in all that gives individuality to a country, their flora, fauna, climate, conditions of life and history--the one region is sharply marked off from the other. For the plateau naturally connects itself with the East In its vegetation and climate, its contrasts of temperature, its dry soil and air, it forms part of the region extending eastward to central Asia. The coast land recalls the scenery and general character of the Greek mainland and islands. It naturally looked to, it influenced and was influenced by, the populations on the other side of the Aegean Sea. At Smyrna, the traveler in all ages recognizes the bright, active life of southern Europe; at Iconium he feels the immobile and lethargic calm of the East. Asia Minor in its geographical structure as well as in its population, has been throughout history the meeting-place, whether for peaceful intermixture or for the clash in war, of the eternally contrasted systems of East and West.
3. Mountains: The Armenian mountains reach westward, and fork, close to the line we have chosen as the East boundary of Asia Minor, into two ranges, the Taurus Mountains on the South, and the mountains of Pontus on the North Mount Argaeus (over 12,000 ft.) stands in the angle formed by these ranges, nearer to Taurus than to the northern system. Taurus is pierced on the northern side of the Cilician plain by the pass, easy to traverse and still more easy to defend, of the Cilician Gates, while another natural route leads from central Cappadocia to Amisus on the Black Sea. These mountain ranges (average height of Taurus 7,000 to 10,000 ft.; the North range is much lower) enfold the central Galatian and Lycaonian plains, which are bounded on the West by the Sultan Dagh and the Phrygian mountains. From the latter to the west coast extend three mountain ranges, delimiting the valleys of the Caicus, Hermus and Meander. These valleys lie East and West, naturally conducting traffic in those directions.
4. Rivers, Lakes and Plains: The great plains of the interior, covering parts of Galatia, Lycaonia and Cappadocia, lie at an altitude of from 3,000 to 4,000 ft. Rivers enter them from the adjoining mountains, to be swallowed up in modern times in salt lakes and swamps. In ancient times much of this water was used for irrigation. Regions which now support only a few wretched villages were covered in the Roman period by numerous large cities, implying a high degree of cultivation of the naturally fertile soil. The remaining rivers cut their way through rocky gorges in the fringe of mountains around the plateau; on the West side of the peninsula their courses open into broad valleys, among which those of the Caieus, Hermus and Meander are among the most fertile in the world. Down those western valleys, and that of the Sangarius on the Northwest, ran the great highways from the interior to the seaboard. In those valleys sprang up the greatest and most prosperous of the Hellenistic and Greek-Roman cities, from which Greek education and Christianity radiated over the whole country. The longest river in Asia Minor is the Halys, which rises in Pontus, and after an enormous bend south-westward flows into the Black Sea. This, and the Iris, East of Amisus, are the only rivers of note on the North coast. The rivers on the South coast, with the exception of the Sarus and the Pyramus which rise in Cappadocia and water the Cilician plain, are mere mountain torrents, flowing immediately into the sea. A remarkable feature of Asia Minor is its duden, rivers disappearing underground in the limestone rock, to reappear as springs and heads of rivers many miles away. Mineral and thermal springs abound all over the country, and are especially numerous in the Meander valley. There are several salt lakes, the largest being Lake Tatta in Lycaonia. Fresh-water lakes, such as Karalis and the Limuae, abound in the mountains in the Southwest.
5. Roads
The road-system of Asia Minor is marked out by Nature, and traffic has followed the same lines since the dawn of history. The traveler from the Euphrates or from Syria enters by way of Melitene and Caesarea, or by the Cilician Gates. From Caesarea he can reach the Black Sea by Zela and Amisus. If he continues westward, he must enter the Aegean area by one of the routes marked out, as indicated above, by the valleys of the Meander, Hermus or Caicus. If his destination is the Bosporus, he travels down the valley of the Sangarius. Other roads lead from the bay of Adalia to Antioch in Pisidia or to Apameia, or to Laodicea on the Lycus and thence down the Meander to Ephesus. The position of the Hittite capital at Pteria fixed the route North of the central plain in general usage for travelers from East to West, and this was the route followed by the Persian Royal Road. Later, traffic from the East took the route passing along the South side of the Axylon, North of Iconium, and Pisidian Antioch to the Lycus, Meander and Ephesus. This route coincides with that from the Cilician Gates, from a point Northeast of Iconium. The need to control the Pisidian tribes in the reign of Augustus led to the building of a series of roads in Pisidia, radiating from Antioch; one of these roads led from Antioch to Lystra, and it was the one traversed by Paul on his journey from Antioch to Iconium (Acts 13:51).
6. Climate and Products: The winter on the central plateau is long and severe, the summer is short and hot: but a cool breeze from the North (the inbat) tempers the hot afternoons. The south coast in summer is hot and malarious; in winter its climate is mild. Much snow fails in the regions adjacent to the Black Sea. The climate of the west coast resembles that of southern Europe. The country contains vast mineral wealth; many of the mines were worked by the ancients. There are forests of pine, oak and fir in the mountains of the North and South. The central plateau has always been famous for its vast flocks of sheep. King Amyntas of Galatia owned enormous flocks which pastured on the Lycaonian plain. Carpets and rugs and other textile products have always been characteristic of Asia Minor. The wealth of the cities in the province of Asia depended largely on textile and dyeing industries (Revelation 1:1-20 through Revelation 3:1-22).
II. History. It follows from what has been said above that the clue to the history of Asia Minor more almost than in the case of any other country, lies in its geographical position and structure. "Planted like a bridge between Asia and Europe," it has been throughout human history the meeting-place and the battle ground of the peoples of the East and those of the West. From the earliest period to which our records reach, we find it inhabited by an amalgam of races, religions and social systems, none of which has ever quite died out. And throughout history new races, religions and social systems, alike imperishable in many of their features, have poured into the peninsula to find a home there.
1. The Hittites: At the dawn of history, Asia Minor was ruled by a non-Aryan people, the Hatti or Hittites about which knowledge is at present accumulating so fast that no final account of them can be given. See HITTITES. Asia Minor is now recognized to have been the center of their civilization, as against the older view that they were a Mesopotamian people. Sculptures and hieroglyphs belonging to this people have long been known over the whole country from Smyrna to the Euphrates, and it is almost unanimously assumed that their capital was at Boghaz Keui (across the Halys from Ancyra). This site has been identified with much probability with the Pteria of Herodotus, which Croesus captured when he marched against the Persians, the inference being that the portion of the Hittite land which lay East of the Halys was at that time a satrapy of the Persian Empire. Excavations in the extensive ancient city at Boghaz Keui have recently been carried out by Winckler and Puchstcin, who have discovered remains of the royal archives. These records are written on clay tablets in cuneiform script; they are couched partly in Babylonian, partly (presumably) in the still undeciphered native language. The documents in the Babylonian tongue prove that close political relations existed between the Hatti and the eastern monarchy. In the 14th century BC the Hittites appear to have conquered a large part of Syria, and to have established themselves at Carchemish. Thenceforth, they were in close touch with Mesopotamia. From about the beginning of the first millennium, the Hittites "were in constant relations, hostile or neutral, with the Ninevites, and thenceforward their art shows such marked Assyrian characteristics that it hardly retains its individuality."
2. Phrygian and Bithynian Immigrations: The date of the Phrygian and Bithynian immigrations. from southeastern Europe cannot be fixed with certainty, but they had taken place by the beginning of the first millennium BC. These immigrations coincide in time with the decline of the Hittite power. After many wanderings, the Phrygians found a home at the western side of the plateau, and no power exercised such an influence on the early development of Asia Minor as the Phrygian, principally in the sphere of religion. The kings of Phrygia "bulked more impressively in the Greek mind than any other non-Gr monarchy; their language was the original language and the speech of the goddess herself; their country was the land of great fortified cities, and their kings were the associates of the gods themselves." The material remains of the "Phrygian country"--the tomb of Midas with the fortified acropolis above it, and the many other rock-tombs around--are the most impressive in Asia Minor Inscriptions in a script like the early Ionian are cut on some of the tombs. The Phrygian language, an Indo-Germanic speech with resemblances to both Greek and the Italian languages, is proved by some seventy inscriptions (a score of them still unpublished) to have been in common use well into the Christian period. Two recently found inscriptions show that it was spoken even in Iconium, "the furthermost city of Phrygia," on the Lycaonian side, until the 3rd century of our era. Those inscriptions mention the names of Ma (Cybele) and Attis, whose cult exercised a profound influence on the religions of Greece and Rome.
3. Lydians, Greeks and Persians: The next monarchy to rise in Asia Minor is that of Lydia, whose origin is obscure. The Phrygian empire had fallen before an invasion of the Cimmerii in the 9th or 8th century BC; Alyattes of Lydia, which lay between Phrygia and the Aegean, repelled a second invasion of the Cimmerii in 617 BC. Croesus, king of Lydia (both names afterward proverbial for wealth), was lord of all the country to the Halys, as well as of the Greek colonies on the coast. Those colonies--founded from hellas--had reached their zenith by the 8th century, and studded all three coasts of Asia Minor. Their inability to combine in a common cause placed them at the mercy of Croesus, and later of his conquerors, the Persians (546 BC). The Persians divided Asia Minor into satrapies, but the Greek towns were placed under Greek dynasts, who owned the suzerainty of Persia, and several of the inland races continued under the rule of their native princes. The defeat of Xerxes by Hellas set the Greek cities in Asia Minor free, and they continued free during the period of Athenian greatness. In 386 BC they were restored to the king of Persia by the selfish diplomacy of Sparta.
4. Alexander and His Successors: When Alexander the Great crossed the Hellespont in 334 BC, a new era opened for the Asiatic Greeks. Hitherto the Greek cities in Asia Minor, apart from spasmodic efforts at combination, had been mere trading communities, independent of each other, in competition with each other, and anxious for reasons of self-interest to bring each other to ruin. These colonies had moreover been confined to the coast, and to the open river valleys of the west, The idea of a Greek empire in Asia Minor was originated by Alexander, and materialized by his successors. Henceforward the city rivalries certainly lasted on, and at a later period excited the scorn of the stolid Romans; but henceforward the Greek cities were members of a Greek empire, and were conscious of an imperial mission. It is to this period that the Hellenization or, as Mommsen would translate the term, the civilization of the interior of Asia Minor belongs. The foundations of Alexander's successors, the Attalids and Seleucids, covered the peninsula; their object was to consolidate the Greek rule over the native races, and, most important of all, to raise those races to the Greek level of civilization and education. The experiment succeeded only partially and temporarily; but such success as it and the later Roman effort in the same direction had, exercised a profound influence on the early growth of Christianity in the country (see below).
5. The Galatians: In their manner of entering and settling in the country, in the way in which they both came under the influence of the Asiatic environment, and impressed the stamp of their vigorous individuality on the culture and the history of the land, the Galatae, a Celtic nation who crossed from Europe in 278-277 BC, to establish themselves ultimately on the East of ancient Phrygia and on both sides of the Halys, recall the essential features of the Phrygian immigration of a thousand years earlier. "The region of Galatia, at a remote period the chief seat of the oriental rule over anterior Asia, and preserving in the famed rock-sculptures of the modern Boghaz Keui, formerly the royal town of Pteria, reminiscences of an almost forgotten glory, had in the course of centuries become in language and manners a Celtic island amidst the waves of eastern peoples, and remained so in internal organization even under the (Roman) empire." But these Gauls came under strong oriental influence; they modified to some extent, the organization of the local religion, which they adopted; but they adopted it so completely that only one deity with a Celtic name has so far appeared on the numerous cult-inscriptions of Galatia (Anderson in Journal of Hellenistic Studies, 1910, 163 ff). Nor has a single inscription in the Galatian language been found in the country, although we know that that language was spoken by the lower classes at least as late as the 4th century AD. The Galatian appears to have superseded the Phrygian tongue in the part of Galatia which was formerly Phrygian; no Phrygian inscriptions have been found in Galatia, although they are common in the district bordering on its southern and western boundaries. But Galatian was unable to compete with Greek as the language of the educated classes, and even such among the humbler orders as could write, wrote in Greek, and Greek-Roman city-organization replaced the Celtic tribal system much earlier and much more completely in Galatia than Roman municipal organization did in Gaul. Still, the Galatians stood out in strong contrast both to the Greeks and to the Orientals. Roman diplomacy recognized and encouraged this sense of isolation, and in her struggle against the Orientals and the Greeks under Mithridates, Rome found trusty allies in the Galatians. In the Imperial period, the Galatians were considered the best soldiers in Asia Minor.
See GALATIA.
6. The Romans in Asia Minor: The Romans exercised an effective control over the affairs of Asia Minor after their defeat of Antiochus the Great in 189 BC, but it was only in 133 BC, when Attalus of Pergamus bequeathed his kingdom of "Asia" to the Roman state, that the Roman occupation began. This kingdom formed the province Asia; a second inheritance which fell to Rome at the death of Nicomedes III in 74 BC became the province Bithynia, to which Pontus was afterward added. Cilicia, the province which gave Paul to the empire and the church, was annexed in 100 BC, and reorganized by Pompey in 66 BC. These provinces had already been organized; in other words the Roman form of government had been definitely established in them at the foundation of the empire, and, in accordance with the principle that all territory which had been thoroughly "pacified" should remain under the administration of the senate, while the emperor directly governed regions in which soldiers in numbers were still required, the above-mentioned provinces, with the exception of Cilicia, fell to the senate. But all territory subsequently annexed in Asia Minor remained in the emperor's hands. Several territories over which Rome had exercised a protectorate were now organized into provinces, under direct imperial rule. Such were: Galatia, to which under its last king Amyntas, part of Phrygia, Lycaonia, Pisidia and Pamphylia had been added, and which was made a Roman province at his death in 25 BC (the extension of Galatia under Amyntas to include Antioch, Iconium, Lystra and Derbe and the consequent incorporation of these cities in the province Galatia, forms the ultimate historical basis of the "South Galatian Theory"); Paphlagonia, annexed in 7 BC; Cappadocia, in 17 AD; Lycia, in 43 AD, and in 63 AD the part of Pontus lying between the Iris and Armenia. This formed the Roman Asia Minor of Paul's time.
III. Asia Minor in the First Century AD. 1. The Population: The partition of Asia Minor into Roman provinces did not correspond to its ethnological divisions, and even those divisions were not always clearly marked. As is clear from the brief historical sketch given above, the population of Asia Minor was composed of many overlying strata of races, which tended in part to lose their individuality and sink into the original Anatolian type. Answering roughly to the above-mentioned separation of Asia Minor into two countries, and to its characterization as the meeting-place of East and West, we can detach from among a medley of races and institutions two main coexistent social systems, which we may call the native system, and the hellenistic system. These systems (especially as the result of Roman government) overlap and blend with each other, but they correspond in a general way to the distinction (observed in the country by Strabo) between city-organization and life on the village system. A deep gulf separated these forms of society.
2. The Native Social System: Under the Roman Empire, there was a continuous tendency to raise and absorb the Anatolian natives into Greek cities and Roman citizenship. But in the Apostolic Age, this process had not gone far in the interior of the country, and the native social system was still that under which a large section of the population lived. It combined the theocratic form of government with institutions derived from a preexistent matriarchal society. The center of the native community was the temple of the god, with its great corporation of priests living on the temple revenues, and its people, who were the servants of the god (hierodouloi; compare Paul's expression, "servant of God"), and worked on the temple estates. The villages in which these workers lived were an inseparable adjunct of the temple, and the priests (or a single priest-dynast) were the absolute rulers of the people. A special class called hieroi performed special functions (probably for a period only) in the temple service. This included, in the ease of women, sometimes a
service of chastity, sometimes one of ceremonial prostitution. A woman of Lydia, of good social position (as implied in her Roman name) boasts in an inscription that she comes of ancestors who had served before the god in this manner, and that she has done so herself. Such women afterward married in their own rank, and incurred no disgrace. Many inscriptions prove that the god (through his priests) exercised a close supervision over the whole moral life and over the whole daily routine of his people; he was their Ruler, Judge, helper and healer.
3. Emperor Worship: Theocratic government received a new direction and a new meaning from the institution of emperor-worship; obedience to the god now coincided with loyalty to the emperor. The Seleucid kings and later the Roman emperors, according to a highly probable view, became heirs to the property of the dispossessed priests (a case is attested at Pisidian Antioch); and it was out of the territory originally belonging to the temples that grants of land to the new Seleucid and Roman foundations were made. On those portions of an estate not gifted to a polis or colonia, theocratic government lasted on; but alongside of the Anatolian god there now appeared the figure of the god-emperor. In many places the cult of the emperor was established in the most important shrine of the neighborhood; the god-emperor succeeded to or shared the sanctity of the older god, Grecized as Zeus, Apollo, etc.; inscriptions record dedications made to the god and to the emperor jointly. Elsewhere, and especially in the cities, new temples were founded for the worship of the emperor. Asia Minor was the home of emperor-worship, and nowhere did the new institution fit so well into the existing religious system. Inscriptions have recently thrown much light on a society of Xenoi Tekmoreioi ("Guest-Friends of the Secret Sign") who lived on an estate which had belonged to Men Askaenos beside Antioch of Pisidia, and was now in the hands of the Roman emperor. A procurator (who was probably the chief priest of the local temple) managed the estate as the emperor's representative. This society is typical of many others whose existence in inner Asia Minor has come to light in recent years; it was those societies which fostered the cult of the emperor on its local as distinct from its provincial side (see ASIARCH), and it was chiefly those societies that set the machinery of the Roman law in operation against the Christians in the great persecutions. In the course of time the people on the imperial estates tended to pass into a condition of serfdom; but occasionally an emperor raised the whole or part of an estate to the rank of a city.
4. The Hellenistic System: Much of inner Asia Minor must originally have been governed on theocratic system; but the Greek city-state gradually encroached on the territory and privileges of the ancient temple. Several of these cities were "founded" by the Seleucids and Attalids; this sometimes meant a new foundation, more often the establishment of Greek city-government in an older city, with an addition of new inhabitants. These inhabitants were often Jews whom the Seleucids found trusty colonists: the Jews of Antioch in Pisidia (Acts 13:14 ff) probably belong to this class. The conscious aim of those foundations was the Hellenization of the country, and their example influenced the neighboring cities. With the oriental absolutism of the native system, the organization of the Greek and Roman cities was in sharp contrast. In the earlier centuries of the Roman Empire these cities enjoyed a liberal measure of self-government. Magistracies were elective; rich men in the same city vied with each other, and city vied with city, in erecting magnificent public buildings, in founding schools and promoting education, in furthering all that western nations mean by civilization. With the Greek cities came the Greek Pantheon, but the gods of Hellas did little more than add their names to those of the gods of the country. Wherever we have any detailed information concerning a cult in inner Anatolia, we recognize under a Greek (or Roman) disguise the essential features of the old Anatolian god.
The Greeks had always despised the excesses of the Asiatic religion, and the more advanced education of the Anatolian Greeks could not reconcile itself to a degraded cult, which sought to perpetuate the social institutions under which it had arisen, only under their ugliest and most degraded aspects. "In the country generally a higher type of society was maintained; whereas at the great temples the primitive social system was kept up as a religious duty incumbent on the class called Hieroi during their regular periods of service at the temple. .... The chasm that divided the religion from the educated life of the country became steadily wider and deeper. In this state of things Paul entered the country; and wherever education had already been diffused, he found converts ready and eager." This accounts for "the marvelous and electrical effect that is attributed in Acts to the preaching of the Apostle in Galatia" (Ramsay, Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia, 96).
5. Roman "Coloniae": Under the Roman Empire, we can trace a gradual evolution in the organization of the Greek cities toward the Roman municipal type. One of the main factors in this process was the foundation over inner Asia Minor of Roman colonies, which were "bits of Rome" set down in the provinces. These colonies were organized entirely on the Roman model, and were usually garrisons of veterans, who kept unruly parts of the country in order. Such in New Testament time were Antioch and Lystra (Iconium, which used to be regarded as a colony of Claudius, is now recognized to have been raised to that rank by Hadrian). In the 1st century Latin was the official language in the colonies; it never ousted Greek in general usage, and Greek soon replaced it in official documents. Education was at its highest level in the Greek towns and in the Roman colonies, and it was to those exclusively that Paul addressed the gospel.
IV. Christianity in Asia Minor. Already in Paul's lifetime, Christianity had established itself firmly in many of the greater centers of Greek-Roman culture in Asia and Galatia. The evangelization of Ephesus, the capital of the province Asia, and the terminus of one of the great routes leading along the peninsula, contributed largely to the spread of Christianity in the inland parts of the province, and especially in Phrygia. Christianity, in accordance with the program of Paul, first took root in the cities, from which it spread over the country districts.
Christian Inscriptions, etc.:
The Christian inscriptions begin earliest in Phrygia, where we find many documents dating from the end of the 2nd and beginning of the 3rd centuries AD. The main characteristic of those early inscriptions--a feature which makes them difficult to recognize--is their suppression as a rule of anything that looked overtly Christian, with the object of avoiding the notice of persons who might induce the Roman officials to take measures against their dedicators. The Lycaonian inscriptions begin almost a century later, not, we must suppose, because Christianity spread less rapidly from Iconium, Lystra, etc., than it did from the Asian cities, but because Greek education took longer to permeate the sparsely populated plains of the central plateau than the rich townships of Asia. The new religion is proved by Pliny's correspondence with Trajan (111-13 AD) to have been firmly established in Bithynia early in the 2nd century. Farther east, where the great temples still had much influence, the expansion of Christianity was slower, but in the 4th century Cappadocia produced such men as Basil and the Gregories. The great persecutions, as is proved by literary evidence and by many inscriptions, raged with especial severity in Asia Minor. The influence of the church on Asia Minor in the early centuries of the Empire may be judged from the fact that scarcely a trace of the Mithraic religion, the principal competitor of Christianity, has been found in the whole country. From the date of the Nicene Council (325 AD) the history of Christianity in Asia Minor was that of the Byzantine Empire. Ruins of churches belonging to the Byzantine period are found all over the peninsula; they are especially numerous in the central and eastern districts. A detailed study of a Byzantine Christian town of Lycaonia, containing an exceptionally large number of churches, has been published by Sir W. M. Ramsay and Miss G. L. Bell: The Thousand and One Churches. Greek-speaking Christian villages in many parts of Asia Minor continue an unbroken connection with the Roman Empire till the present day.
LITERATURE.
Ramsay's numerous works on Asia Minor, especially Paul the Traveler, etc., The Church in the Roman Empire, The Cities of Paul, The Letters to the Seven Churches, and Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia have been freely drawn upon in this account. For a fuller bibliography, see Encyclopedia Biblica (11th edition), article "Asia Minor" (Hogarth and Wilson).
W. M. Calder
Asia Minor, Archaeology of
Asia Minor, Archaeology of - a'-shi-a mi'-ner, ar'-ke-ol'-o-ji ov: At the present stage of our information it is difficult to write with acceptance on the archaeology of Asia Minor. Views unquestioned only a few years ago are already passing out of date, while the modern archaeologist, enthusiastically excavating old sites, laboriously deciphering worn inscriptions, and patiently collating documentary evidence, has by no means completed his task. But it is now clear that an archaeological field, worthy to be compared with those in the valleys of the Euphrates and the Nile, invites development in Asia Minor.
1. Earliest Influences from Mesopotamia: In the Contemporary Review for August, 1907, Professor Sayce reminded his readers that the Greek geographers called Cappadox the son of Ninyas, thereby tracing the origin of Cappadocian culture to Nineveh, and similarly they derived the Merm had Dynasty of Lydia from Ninos the son of Belos, or from Babylonia through Assyria. Actual history is probably at the back of these legends, and the Table of Nations supports this (Genesis 10:22), when it calls Lud, or Lydia, a son of Shem and brother of Asshur. This is not to assert, however, that any great number of Semitic people ever made Asia Minor their home. But Professor Winckler and others have shown us that the language, script, ideas and institutions characteristic of the Babylonian civilization were widespread among the nations of western Asia, and from very early times Asia Minor came within their sphere of influence. Strabo records the tradition that Zile, as well as Tyana, was founded upon "the mound of Semiramis," thus connecting these ancient sites with the Mesopotamian culture. Dr. David Robinson in his Ancient Sinope (145 ff), argues that "the early foundations of Sinope are probably Assyrian," though established history cannot describe in detail what lay back of the Milesian settlement of this the northern point and the best harbor of the peninsula. Neither could Strabo go back of the Milesian colonists for the foundation of Samsoun, the ancient Amisus, an important commercial city east of Sinope, but the accompanying illustration (Fig. 1) seems clearly to show the influence of Assyria. The original is a terra cotta figure of gray clay found recently in Old Samsoun. Mesopotamian religious and cultural influences thus appear to have tinged Asia Minor, at least at certain points, as far as the coast of the Black Sea, and indeed the great peninsula has been what its shape suggests, a friendly hand stretching out from the continent of Asia toward the continent of Europe.
2. Third Millennium BC: Professor Sayce's article referred to above was based upon the evidence furnished by cuneiform tablets from Kara Eyuk, the "Black Mound," an ancient site just within the ox-bows of the Halys River near Caesarea Mazaca. These tablets, as deciphered by himself and Professor Pinches, were of the period of Abraham, or of Hammurabi, about 2250 BC, and were written in a dialect of Assyrian. The settlers were soldier colonists from the Assyrian section of the Babylonian empire, engaged in mining and in trade. Silver, copper and perhaps iron were the metals sought. "Time was reckoned as in Assyria by means of officials called limmi, who gave their name to the year." The colonists had a temple with its priests, where financial transactions were carried on under the sanctity of religion. There were roads, mail carriers whose pouches were filled with cuneiform bricks, and commercial travelers who made a speciality of fine clothing. This makes quite natural the finding of a goodly Babylonian mantle by Achan at the pillage of Ai (Joshua 7:21). Slavery is a recognized institution; a boy is sent to a barber for circumcision; a house, wife and children are pledged as security for a debt. An oath is taken "on the top of a staff," an interesting fact that sheds its light on the verses describing the oath and blessing of dying Jacob (Genesis 47:31; Hebrews 11:21). Early Asia Minor is thus lighted up at various points by the culture of Mesopotamia, and transmits some of the scattered rays to the Greek world.
3. Second Millennium BC: The earliest native inhabitants to be distinguished in Asia Minor are the Hittites (see HITTITES). Ever since 1872, when Dr. Wright suggested that the strange hieroglyphics on four black basalt stones which he had discovered at Hamath were perhaps the work of Hittite art, there has been an ever-growing volume of material for scholars to work upon. There are sculptures of the same general style, representing figures of men, women, gods, lions and other animals, eagles with double heads, sphinxes, musical instruments, winged discs and other symbols, all of which can be understood only in part. These are accompanied by hieroglyphic writing, undeciphered as yet, and the inscriptions read "boustrophedon," that is from right to left and back again, as the oxen go in plowing an oriental field. There have also been discovered great castles with connecting walls and ramparts, gates, tunnels, moats, palaces, temples and other sanctuaries and buildings. More than this, occasional fragments of cuneiform tablets picked up on the surface of the ground led to the belief that written documents of value might be found buried in the soil. Malatia, Marash, Sinjirli, Sakje Geuzi, Gurun, Boghaz-keuy, Eyuk, Karabel, not to mention perhaps a hundred other sites, have offered important Hittite remains. Carchemish and Kedesh on the Orontes were capital cities in northern Syria. The Hittites of the Holy Land, whether in the days of Abraham or in those of David and Solomon, were an offshoot from the main stem of the nation. Asia Minor was the true home of the Hittites.
Boghaz-keuy has become within the last decade the best known Hittite site in Asia Minor, and may be described as typical. It lies in northern Cappadocia, fifty muleteer hours South of Sinope. Yasilikaya, the "written" or "sculptured" rocks, is a suburb, and Eyuk with its sphinx-guarded temple is but 15 miles to the North. It was the good fortune of Professor Hugo Winckler of the University of Berlin to secure the funds, obtain permission from the Turkish government, and, in the summer of 1906 to unearth over 3,000 more or less fragmentary tablets written in the cuneiform character and the Hittite language. This is the first considerable store of the yet undeciphered Hittite literature for scholars to work upon. These tablets are of clay, written on both sides, and baked hard and red. Often the writing is in ruled columns. The cuneiform character, like the Latin alphabet in modern times, was used far from its original home, and that for thousands of years. The language of a few Boghaz-keuy tablets is Babylonian, notably a copy of the treaty between Rameses II of Egypt and Khita-sar, king of the Hittites in central Asia Minor. The scribes adopted not only the Babylonian characters but certain ideographs, and it is these ideographs which have furnished the key to provisional vocabularies of several hundred words which have been published by Professors Pinches and Sayce. When Professor Winckler and his German collaborators publish the tablets they have deposited in the Constantinople museum, we may listen to the voice of some Hittite Homer speaking from amid the dusty bricks written in the period of Moses. Beside Boghaz-keuy the beetling towers of lofty Troy sink to the proportions of a fortified hamlet.
Hittite sculptures show a very marked type of men, with squat figures, slant eyes, prominent noses and Mongoloid features. We suppose they were of Turanian or Mongolian blood; certainly not Semitic and probably not Aryan. As they occupied various important inland centers in Asia Minor before, during and after the whole of the second millennium BC, it is probable that they occupied much or most of the intervening territory (see Records of the Past for December, 1908). A great capital like Boghaz-keuy, with its heavy fortifications, would require extensive provinces to support it, and would extend its sway so as to leave no enemy within striking distance. The "Amazons" are now generally regarded as the armed Hittite priestesses of a goddess whose cult spread throughout Asia Minor. The "Amazon Mountains," still known locally by the old name, run parallel with the coast of the Black Sea near the Iris River, and tradition current there now holds that the women are stronger than the men, work harder, live longer and are better at a quarrel! A comparative study of the decorated pottery, so abundant on the old sites of the country, makes it more than possible that the artificial mounds, which are so common a feature of the Anatolian landscape, and the many rockhewn tombs, of which the most famous are probably those at Amasia, were the work of Hittite hands.
The Hittite sculptures are strikingly suggestive of religious rather than political or military themes. The people were pagans with many gods and goddesses, of whom one, or one couple, received recognition as at the head of the pantheon. Such titles as Sutekh of Carchemish, Sutekh of Kadesh, Sutekh of the land of the Hittites, show that the chief god was localized in various places, perhaps with varying attributes. A companion goddess was named Antarata. She was the great Mother Goddess of Asia Minor, who came to outrank her male counterpart. She is represented in the sculptures with a youthful male figure, as a consort, probably illustrating the legend of Tammuz for whom the erring Hebrew women wept (Ezekiel 8:14). He was called Attys in later days. He stands for life after death, spring after winter, one generation after another. The chief god worshipped at Boghaz-keuy was Teshub. Another was named Khiba, and the same name appears in the Tell el-Amarna correspondence from Jerusalem. This affords a remarkable illustration of the prophet's address to Jerusalem, "Your mother was a Hittite" (Ezekiel 16:45).
The worship of the Hittites of the era of the Exodus is still seen pictured on the rocks at Yasilikaya. This spot was the sanctuary of the metropolis. There are two hypaethral rock galleries, the larger of which has a double procession of about 80 figures carved on the natural rock walls, which have been smoothed for the purpose, and meeting at the inmost recess of the gallery. The figures nearest the entrance are about half life-size. As the processions advance the height of the figures increases, until the two persons at the head, the chief priest and priestess or the king and queen, are quite above life-size. These persons advance curious symbols toward each other, each is followed by a retinue of his or her own sex, and each is supported--the priest-king upon the heads of two subjects or captives, and the priestess-queen upon a leopard. The latter figure is followed by her consort son.
The ruins at Eyuk are compact, and consist of a small temple, its sphinx-guarded door, and a double procession of approaching worshippers to the number of about 40. The main room of the sanctuary is only 7 yds. by 8 in measurement. This may be compared with the Holy Place in the tabernacle of the Israelites, which was approximately contemporary. Neither could contain a worshipping congregation, but only the ministering priests. The solemn sphinxes at the door suggest the cherubim that adorned the Israelite temple, and winged eagles with double heads decorate the inner walls of the doorway. Amid the sculptured processions moving on the basalt rocks toward the sanctuary is an altar before which stands a bull on a pedestal, and behind which is a priest who wears a large earring. Close behind the priest a flock of three sheep and a goat approach the sacrificial altar. Compare the description in Exodus 32:1-35. The Israelites said to Aaron, "Up, make us gods"; he required their golden earrings, made a calf, "and built an altar before it"; they offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings; they sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. Israelite worship was in certain forms similar to the worship of the Hittites, but its spiritual content was wholly different. For musical instruments the Eyuk procession exhibits a lituus, a (silver?) trumpet and a shapely guitar. The animal kingdom is represented by another bull with a chest or ark on its back, a well-executed lion and two hares held in the two talons of an eagle. A spring close by furnished all the water required by the worshippers and for ritual purposes.
Professor Garstang in The Land of the Hittites shows that the power which had been waning after about 1200 BC enjoyed a period of recrudescence in the 10th and 9th centuries. He ascribes to this period the monuments of Sakje Geuzi, which the professor himself excavated, together with other Hittite remains in Asia Minor. The Vannic power known as Urartu, akin to the Hittites but separate, arose in the Northeast; the Phrygians began to dominate in the West; the Assyrians pressed upon the Southeast. The overthrow of the Hittites was completed by the bursting in of the desolating Cimmerian hordes, and after 717, when Carchemish was taken by the Assyrians, the Hittites fade from the archaeological records of their home land.
See ASIA MINOR,II , 1.
4. First Millennium BC: Before the Hittites disappeared from the interior of Asia Minor, sundry Aryan peoples, more or less closely related to the Greeks, were established at various points around the coast. Schliemann, of Trojan fame, was the pioneer archaeologist in this field, and his boundless enthusiasm, optimism and resourcefulness recovered the treasures of Priam's city, and made real again the story of days when the world was young. Among the most valuable collections in the wonderful Constantinople Museum is that from Troy, which contains bronze axes and lance heads, implements in copper, talents of silver, diadems, earrings and bracelets of gold, bone bodkins and needles, spindle whorls done in baked clay, numbers of idols or votive offerings, and other objects found in the Troad, at the modern Hissarlik. Phrygian, Thracian and subsequently Galatian immigrants from the Northwest had been filtering across the Hellespont, and wedging themselves in among the earlier inhabitants. There were some points in common between the Cretan or Aegean civilization and that of Asia Minor, but Professor Hogarth in his Ionia and the East urges that these resemblances were few. It was otherwise with the Greeks proper. Herodotus gave the names of twelve Aeolian, twelve Ionian and six Dorian cities on the west coast, founded by colonists who came across the Aegean Sea, and who leavened, led and intermarried with the native population they found settled there. One of these Asiatic Greek colonies, Miletus, was sufficiently populous and vigorous to send out from 60 to 80 colonies of its own, the successive swarms of adventurers moving North and East, up the coast of the Aegean, through the Bosphorus and along the south shore of the Black Sea. In due season Xenophon and the Ten Thousand, and then Alexander with his Macedonians, scattered yet more widely the seeds of Hellenic culture upon a soil already prepared for its reception. The inscriptions, sculptures, temples, tombs, palaces, castles, theaters, jewelry, figurines in bronze or terra cotta, coins of silver or copper and other objects remaining from this period exhibit a style of art, culture and religion which may best be named Anatolian, but which are akin to those of Greece proper. The excavations at Ephesus, Pergamus, Sardis and other important sites show the same grafting of Greek scions upon the local stock.
One marked feature survived as a legacy from Hittite days in the worship of a great Mother Goddess. Whether known as Ma, or Cybele, or Anaitis, or Diana, or designated by some other title, it was the female not the male that headed the pantheon of gods. With the Greek culture came also the city-state organization of government. The ruder and earlier native communities were organized on the village plan. Usually each village had its shrine, in charge of priests or perhaps more often priestesses; the land belonged to the god, or goddess; it paid tithes to the shrine; sacrifices and gifts were offered at the sacred center; this was often on a high hill, under a sacred tree, and beside a holy fountain; there was little of education, law or government except as guiding oracles were proclaimed from the temple.
In the early part of this millennium the Phrygians became a power of commanding importance in the western part of the peninsula, and Professor Hogarth says of the region of the Midas Tomb, "There is no region of ancient monument's which would be better worth examination" by excavators. Then came Lydia, whose capital, Sardis, is now in process of excavation by Professor Butler and his American associates. Sardis was taken and Croesus dethroned by the Persians about 546 BC, and for two centuries, until Alexander, Persian authority overshadowed Asia Minor, but permanent influences were scanty.
5. The Romans in Asia Minor: By about the year 200 BC the Romans began to become entangled in the politics of the four principal kingdoms that then occupied Asia Minor, namely Bithynia, Pergamus, Pontus and Cappadocia. By slow degrees their influence and their arms advanced under such leaders civil and military as Sulla, Lucullus, Pompey, Cicero and Julius Caesar, while Attalus of Pergamus and Prusias of Bithynia bequeathed their uneasy domains to the steady power arising from the West. In 133 BC the Romans proceeded to organize the province of Asia, taking the name from a Lydian district included in the province. Step by step the Roman frontiers were pushed farther to the East. Mithridates VI, king of Pontus, was called "the most formidable enemy the republic ever had to contend with," but he went down before the conquering arms of Rome. See PONTUS. Caesar chastised the unfortunate Pharnaces at Zile in central Asia Minor, and coolly announced his success in the memorable message of three words, "veni, vidi, vici." Ultimately all of this fair peninsula passed under the iron sway, and the Roman rule lasted more than 500 years, until in 395 AD Theodosius divided the empire between his sons, giving the East to Arcadius and the West to Honorius, and the Roman Empire was cleft in twain.
True to their customs elsewhere the Romans built roads well paved with stone between the chief cities of their eastern provinces. The archaeologist or common traveler often comes upon sections of these roads, sometimes in the thickest forests, as sound and as rough as when Roman chariots rumbled over them. Milestones were erected to mark the distances, usually inscribed in both Latin and Greek, and the decipherment of these milestone records contributes to the recovery of the lost history. Bridges over the important streams have been rebuilt and repaired by successive generations of men, but in certain cases the Roman character of the original stands clearly forth. The Romans were a building people, and government houses, aqueducts, baths, theaters, temples and other structures confront the archaeologist or await the labor of the spade. Epigraphical studies such as those of Professor Sterrett indicate what a wealth of inscriptions is yet to be recovered, in Latin as well as in Greek
It was during the Roman period that Christianity made its advent in the peninsula. Christian disciples as well as Roman legions and governors used the roads, bridges and public buildings. Old church buildings and other religious foundations have their stories to tell. It is very interesting to read on Greek tombstones of the 1st or 2nd century AD such inscriptions as, "Here lies the servant of God, Daniel," "Here lies the handmaid of God, Maria." Our great authority for this period is Sir William M. Ramsay, whose Historical Geography of Asia Minor and other works must be read by anyone who would familiarize himself with this rich field.
6. The Byzantine Period: By almost imperceptible degrees the Roman era was merged into the Byzantine. We are passing so rapidly now from the sphere of archaeology to that of history proper that we must be brief. For a thousand years after the fall of Rome the Eastern Empire lived on, a Greek body pervaded with lingering Roman influences and with Constantinople as the pulsating heart. The character of the times was nothing if not religious, yet the prevailing Christianity was a syncretistic compound including much from the nature worship of earlier Anatolia. The first great councils of the Christian church convened upon the soil of Asia Minor, the fourth being held at Ephesus in 431, and at this council the phrase "Mother of God" was adopted. We have seen that for fifty generations or more the people of Asia Minor had worshipped a great mother goddess, often with her consort son. It was at Ephesus, the center of the worship of Diana, that ecclesiastics, many of whom had but a slight training in Christianity, adopted this article into their statement of religious faith.
7. The Seljukian Turks: Again the government of the country, the dominant race, the religion, language and culture, all are changed--this time with the invasions of the Seljukian Turks. This tribe was the precursor of the Ottoman Turks and later became absorbed among them. These Seljukians entered Asia Minor, coming up out of the recesses of central Asia, about the time that the Normans were settling along the coasts of western Europe. Their place in history is measurably clear, but they deserve mention in archaeology by reason of their remarkable architecture. Theirs was a branch of the Saracenic or Moorish architecture, and many examples remain in Asia Minor Mosques, schools, government buildings, khans, fortifications, fountains and other structures remain in great numbers and in a state of more or less satisfactory preservation, and they are buildings remarkably massive, yet ornate in delicacy and variety of tracery.
The Ottoman Turks, cousins of the Seljukians, came up out of the central Asian hive later, and took Constantinople by a memorable siege in 1453. With this event the archaeology of Asia Minor may be said to close, and history to cover the field instead.
George E. White
Asiarch
Asiarch - a'-shi-ark (Asiarches; the English Revised Version "the chief officers of Asia," the King James Version "the chief of Asia"): The title given to certain men of high honorary rank in the Roman province of Asia. What their exact functions were is not altogether clear. They derived their appellation from the name of the province over which they presided (compare BITHYNIARCH ;CARIARCH ;SYRIARCH ). Brandis has shown that they were not "high priests of Asia," as some have thought, but delegates of individual cities to the provincial Council (Commune Asioe; see ASIA MINOR) which regulated the worship of Rome and of the emperor. They were probably assembled at Ephesus, among other places, to preside over the public games and the religious rites at the festival, in honor of the gods and the emperor, when they sent word to Paul and gave him a bit of friendly advice, not to present himself at theater (me dounai heauton eis to theatron, Acts 19:31). The title could be held along with any civil office and with the high-priesthood of a particular city. They served for one year, but re-election was possible (the tenure of office, according to Ramsay, was four years). The municipalities must have shown the Asiarchs high honor, as we find the names of many perpetuated on coins and inscriptions. The office could only be held by men of wealth, as the expenses of the provincial games were for the greater part defrayed by the Asiarchs.
LITERATURE.
CI, 2511, 2912; CIL, 296, 297; Brandis, Pauly-Wissowa's Real-Encyclopedia, articles "Archiereus" and "Asiarches"; Strabo, XIV, 649; Eusebius, HE, IV, 15; Hicks, Ancient Greek Inscrs in the British Museum; Ramsay, Classical Review, III, 174 ff; Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia, I, 55-58, and II, chapter xi; Guiraud, Les assemblees provinciales de l'Empire Romain; Lightfoot, Ignatius and Polycarp, II, 987 ff.
M. O. Evans
Asibias
Asibias - as-i-bi'-as (Asibias and Asebias): Asibias put away his "strange wife" (1 Esdras 9:26). Compare Malchijah (Ezra 10:25).
Aside
Aside - a-sid': "Distinct from others," "privately," such is the sense of the word in 2 Kings 4:4; Mark 7:33. Also "to withdraw" (Luke 9:10 the King James Version; Acts 23:19: hupochoreo, also anachoreo). One is said to have turned aside when he departs from the path of rectitude (Psalms 14:3; Sirach 2:7; 1 Timothy 1:6). In a figurative sense it is used to express the thought of putting aside, to renounce, every hindrance or impediment to a consecrated earnest Christian life (Hebrews 12:1: apotithemi).
Asiel
Asiel - a'-si-el, as'-i-el (Asiel; the King James Version Asael (Tobit 1:1)):
(1) Grandfather of Jehu, one of the Simeonite "princes" mentioned in 1 Chronicles 4:35 as sharing Judah's inheritance (see Joshua 19:9).
(2) A swift writer engaged by Ezra to transcribe the law (2 Esdras 14:24).
(3) An ancestor of Tobit (Tobit 1:1). Compare Jahzeel or Jahziel (Genesis 46:24).
Asipha
Asipha - as'-i-fa (Codex Alexandrinus, Aseipha; Codex Vaticanus, Taseipha) = Hasupha (Ezra 2:43; Nehemiah 7:46). The sons of Asipha (temple-servants) returned with Zerubbabel to Jerusalem (1 Esdras 5:29).
Ask
Ask - ask (sha'al "to inquire," "to seek for counsel," "to demand"): It is the word commonly used in the Old Testament and is equivalent to eperotao, "to request," used in the New Testament. It does not imply any inferiority on the part of the person asking (Psalms 2:8). It is the Son who is bidden to ask, and therefore the word expresses the request of an equal. It has also the meaning "to inquire": "Wherefore .... ask after my name?" (Genesis 32:29) signifying, "Surely you must know who I am." "Ye shall ask me no question" (John 16:23), i.e. "about the true meaning of My words, for all will then be clear to you" (Dummelow). aiteo, is the word commonly used with reference to prayer. It means "to ask," "to implore," and presents the petitioner as an inferior asking from a superior (Matthew 6:8; Matthew 7:7-8; Mark 10:35; John 14:13, and in many other places). It is not, however, asking in the sense of the word beg, but rather that of a child making request of its father. The petitioner asks both because of his need and of the assurance that he is welcome. He is assured before he asks that the petition will be granted, if he asks in accordance with God's will (1 John 3:22; 5:15). Moreover the Spirit leads us to such asking in that He reveals our need and the goodness of God to us.
Jacob W. Kapp
Askelon
Askelon - as'-ke-lon: the King James Version form in Judges 1:18; 1 Samuel 6:17; 2 Samuel 1:20, for ASHKELON (which see).
Asleep
Asleep - a-slep' (yashen, "sleeping," radham, "deep sleep"; katheudo, "to fall asleep," aphupnoo, "to fall asleep"): A state of repose in sleep, Nature's release from weariness of body and mind, as of Jonah on shipboard (Jonah 1:5); of Christ in the tempest-tossed boat (Matthew 8:24); of the exhausted disciples in Gethsemane (Matthew 26:43 the King James Version). Used with beautiful and comforting significance of death (koimaomai, "to put to sleep"). Sleep implies a subsequent waking, and as a symbol of death implies continued and conscious life beyond the grave. In the presence of death no truth has been so sustaining to Christian faith as this. It is the distinct product of Christ's resurrection. Paul speaks of departed believers as having "fallen asleep in Christ" (1 Corinthians 15:6, 18); as proof of the soul's immortality he terms the risen Christ "the first-fruits of them that are asleep." Lazarus and Stephen, at death, are said to have "fallen asleep" (John 11:11; Acts 7:60); so of David and the ancient patriarchs (Acts 13:36; 2 Peter 3:4). The most beautiful description of death in human language and literature is Paul's characterization of the dead as "them also which sleep in Jesus" (1 Thessalonians 4:14 the King James Version). This blessed hope has wrought itself permanently into the life and creed and hymnology of the Christian church, as in the hymn often used with such comforting effect at the burial service of believers: "Asleep in Jesus! blessed sleep!"
Dwight M. Pratt
Asmodaeus
Asmodaeus - az-mo-de'-us ('ashmedhai; Asmodaios): An evil spirit first mentioned in Tobit 3:8. Older etymologists derived the name from the Hebrew verb shamadh, "destroy"; but it is now generally held to be associated with Zoroastrianism, with which the Jews became acquainted during the exile, and by which later Jewish views on the spirit-world were greatly influenced. It is now held to be the equivalent of the Persian Aeshma-Deva, the spirit of concupiscence. The spirit is at times reckoned as the equal in power of "Abaddon" (Job 31:12) and of "Apollyon" (Revelation 9:11), and in Tobit is represented as loving Sara, only daughter of Raguel of Ecbatana, and as causing the death on the bridal night of seven husbands who had in succession married her. His power was broken by the young Tobias acting on the advice of the angel Raphael (Tobit 6:15). He burnt on the "ashes of incense" the heart and liver of a fish which he caught in the Tigris. "But when the devil smelled the smell, he fled into the uppermost parts of Egypt, and the angel bound him" (Tobit 8:3). Milton refers to the incident in Paradise Lost, 4, 168-71, founding on Jewish demonology and the "loves of the angels" (Genesis 6:2).
J. Hutchison
Asmoneans
Asmoneans - as-mo-ne'-ans: A remarkable priestly family of Modin, in Judea, also called Hasmoneans or Maccabees. They belonged to that portion of the Jewish nation which under all trials and temptations remained loyal to Yahweh, even when the national life and religion seemed at their lowest ebb, and they succeeded, for a while at least, in restoring the name and fame of Israel. All in all they were an extremely warlike family. But the entire Asmonean history affords abundant proof of the bitter partisanships which, even more than the persecutions of their enemies, sapped the national strength and divided the nation into bitterly hostile factions. The Asmoneans never, in all their history, or at any given period in it, had a united people behind their backs. They had to fight disloyalty at home, as well as deadly enmity abroad. A considerable portion of the people was unable to withstand the paganizing influence of the Macedonian and Syrian periods, and in this direction the thousands of Hebrew soldiers, who fought under the Greek banners, must have exerted an inestimable influence. The Asmonean struggle is therefore, in all its phases, a three-sided one, and it makes the ascendancy of the family all the more remarkable. The sources of our knowledge of this period are mainly found in the Books of the Macc, in the Josephus, Antiquities and Josephus, Jewish Wars of Josephus, and in occasional references of Strabo, Livy and other classic historians. The contents of Josephus, Antiquities plainly prove that Josephus used the Books of the Macc as far as possible, but that besides he was possessed of sources of information now wholly lost. The name "Asmonean" is derived from the Hebrew Chashman, "wealthy." Chashman was a priest of the family Joarib (Ant., XII, vi, 1; 1 Maccabees 2:1; 1 Chronicles 24:7). The name "Maccabee," from the surname of Judas, the son of Mattathias, may be derived from the Hebrew maqqdbhah, "a hammer"; makhbi, "an extinguisher"; or from the first letters of the Hebrew sentence, Mi Khamokhah Ba-'elim YHWH? "Who among the gods, O Lord, can be likened unto thee," inscribed on the Maccabean banner in the word Makhbiy.
1. The Asmonean Revolt: Antiochus Epiphanes returned in 169 BC from the Egyptian wars, the fruits of which had been wrested from him by the Roman power, which a year later, in his fourth war, in the person of Pompilius Laenas, was to order him peremptorily to leave Egypt once and for all time. Thus his four campaigns against his hereditary foe were made utterly barren. Grave suspicions had been aroused in the king's heart against the Jews, and when their wrangling about the high-priesthood afforded him an opportunity, he resolved forever to crush the power of Judaism and to wipe out its detested religion. Thus Apollonius (Josephus tells us, the king himself, BJ, V, ix, 4) in 168 BC appeared before Jerusalem, devastated the city, defiled the temple by the sacrifice of swine on the altar of burnt offering, destroyed all the holy writings that could be obtained, sold numberless Jews and their families into slavery, forbade circumcision on pain of death and inaugurated the dark period spoken of by Dan (9:27; 11:31). Thus Antiochus marked his name in blood and tears on the pages of Jewish history. Against this cruel tyranny and this attempt to root out the religion of Israel and their ancient faith, the Maccabean family revolted and thus became the leaders in a desperate struggle for Jewish independence. How far they succeeded in these efforts the following sketch will show.
2. Mattathias: Mattathias was a priest of the house of Joarib, at the time of the breaking out of the revolt most likely a refugee from Jerusalem, living at Modin, West of the city, in the highlands of Judea, where he may have owned an estate. When compulsion was tried by the Syrians to make him sacrifice to idols, he not only refused to obey, but slew a Jew, who came forward to the altar, as well as Apelles, the Syrian commander and a portion of his guard (Ant., XII, vi, 2). Overthrowing heathen altars as he went, he was followed into the wilderness by large bands of loyal Jews. And when the refusal to fight on the Sabbath day had led to the slaughter of a thousand of his followers, he gave liberty to the Jews to give battle on that day. In 167 BC, soon after the beginning of the conflict, he sank under the unequal task, leaving the completion of the work to his five sons, John (Gaddis), Simon (Matthes), Judas (Maccabaeus), Eleazar (Auran) and Jonathan (Apphes). On his deathbed he appointed Simon as the counselor and Judas as the military leader of the movement (Ant., XII, vi, 1). These two with Jonathan were to carry the work to completion.
3. Judas Maccabeus, 166-160 BC: Judas proved himself full worthy of his father's foresight and trust. His military talent was marvelous, his cunning baffling, his courage leonine, his swiftness that of the eagle. He reminds one strongly of Joshua, the ancient military genius of Israel. Nearly all his battles were fought against impossible odds and his victories inspired the Syrians with awe. In sudden night attacks he surprised the Syrian generals, Apollonius and Seron (1 Maccabees 3:10, 13), and scattered their armies. Antiochus, ready to chastise the countries eastward, who appeared on the point of rebellion, entrusted the conduct of the Judean war to Lysias, his kinsman and favorite, who was charged to wipe Israel and its hated religion off the face of the earth. The latter entrusted the actual conduct of hostilities to a great and well-equipped army, under Ptolemeus, Nicanor and Gorgias. This army was encamped at Emmaus, South of Modin, while Judas lay with his small force a little to the Southeast. When Gorgias attempted to surprise him by night, Judas himself fell like an avalanche on the rest of the Syrian army and crushed it, then met and defeated the returning Gorgias and gained an immense booty. Equally successful in the campaign of 165 BC Judas captured Jerusalem and purified and rededicated the temple, just five years after its defilement. Thus the Jewish "Festival of Lights" came into existence. The next year was spent in the reduction of Idumaea, the Jordan territory, the Ammonites, and several important strongholds of the enemy, whilst Simon marched northward and brought back the Jewish captives from Galilee and the sources of the Jordan.
Meanwhile Antiochus had died in the eastern campaign and his death inaugurated the collapse of the Syrian empire. Philip was appointed guardian of the infant king, while his uncle Demetrius sought to dethrone him by the aid of the Romans. The siege of the stronghold of Jerusalem, still in the hands of the Syrians, by the Maccabees, led Philip to make a heroic effort to crush Judas and his growing power, and he swiftly marched upon Judea with a large and well-equipped army. The odds were too strong for Judas, his band was frightened by the Syrian war-elephants and in the battle of Bethzacharias the Maccabees were defeated and Eleazar, the youngest brother, was killed. Jerusalem was taken by the Syrians, the temple wall broken down and only the threatening danger of an attack from the king's southern foes saved the Maccabean cause. Lysias retreated but left a strong garrison in Jerusalem. All seemed lost. Alcimus, leader of the disloyal Jews and a mortal enemy of Judas, was made high priest and he prayed Demetrius, who had captured the Syrian throne, to come to his aid against the Maccabees in 162 BC. Bacchides was sent with a strong force and sought in vain to obtain possession of the person of Judas by treachery. He made havoc of the Jews, by killing friend and foe alike, and returned to the East to be succeeded by Nicanor, who also failed to dispose of Judas by treachery. In the ensuing battle at Capharsalama he was defeated and compelled to fall back on Jerusalem and thence on Beth-horon, where Judas attacked, again defeated and killed him. In this hour of hope and fear Judas was led to seek a Roman alliance whose consummation he never saw. From that day his fortune changed. A new Syrian army under Bacchides and the false priest Alcimus approached Jerusalem. Judas gave them battle at Elasa, in April, 161 BC. With only 3,000 men he engaged the Syrian forces. He succeeded in defeating the left wing of the Syrians under Bacchides, but was in turn surrounded and defeated by the right wing. All hope of escape being cut off, Judas surrounded himself with his best warriors and fell at last surrounded by heaps of slain foes. Strange to say the Syrians surrendered his body to Simon and Jonathan his brother, who buried him by his father's side at Modin.
4. Jonathan, 160-143 BC: The death of Judas for the moment paralyzed the revolutionary movement, while it increased the determination of the Syrians. All previous privileges were revoked, and the Maccabean sympathizers were rigorously persecuted. But all this served only to bind the party closer together, and the chief command was conferred on Jonathan, the youngest brother, as daring as, and perhaps more crafty than, Judas. He plunged into the wilderness, relieved himself of the burden of the women and children, and when the latter under the care of John, his brother, were exterminated by the Amri, he took bloody vengeance on them. Surprised by Bacchides, the Syrian general, he inflicted great losses on the latter and escaped across the Jordan. The death of the traitor Alcimus, in 160 BC, for a while relieved the situation and the strength of the Maccabeans rapidly grew. A second campaign of Bacchides proved fruitless against the daring and cunning of Jonathan and Simon, and they succeeded in making peace with the Syrians (Ant., XIII, i, 5, 6), but the citadel of Jerusalem and other strongholds remained in the hands of the enemy. The events of the year 153 BC however changed the entire aspect of affairs. Demetrius saw his throne menaced by Alexander Balas, a Roman favorite. Trying to secure the aid of the Maccabees, he greatly extended the former concessions, and when Balas outstripped him in generosity and appointed Jonathan high priest with practically royal powers, the Maccabees craftily played out the one against the other. Since the death of Alcimus the high-priesthood had now been vacant for seven years (Ant., XIII, ii, 3); for which reason the appointment was exceedingly gratifying to the Jews. In his extremity, Demetrius offered the practical equivalent of independence, but the Maccabees had learned the value of these promises by bitter experience. The shrewdness of Jonathan led him to turn a cold shoulder to all the fine promises of Demetrius and to entrust his fortunes to Balas, and not in vain, for the former died in battle with the latter (Ant., XIII, ii, 4). Jonathan excelled all his brothers in craft and ever embraced the most promising side, as is evident from his relations with Ptolemy Philometer, Balas and Demetrius. When the latter's cause was embraced in 148 BC by Apollonius, governor of Syria, Jonathan revealed the true Maccabean military genius, by gaining a signal victory over him. Balas now gave the long-coveted permission to break down the old Syrian tower at Jerusalem, which for so long had been a thorn in the sides of the Maccabeans. Alas, during the siege both Balas and Philometer died and Demetrius breathed vengeance against Jonathan. But the latter dexterously won over the king by large presents (Ant., XIII, iv, 9) and accepted the restricted liberties offered. Profiting however by the endless cabals of the Syrian court, he soon sided with Tryphon, the new claimant, and with the aid of his brother Simon extended the Maccabean power over nearly all Palestine. In the next Syrian war he gained an almost miraculous victory over the enemy (Ant., XIII, v, 7; 1 Maccabees 11:67 ff). Tired of the endless struggle and longing for a strong arm to lean on, like Judas, he sought a renewal of the Roman alliance, but never saw its realization. Tryphon, who feared him, treacherously made him prisoner at Ptolemais; all his followers were immediately killed and he himself subsequently executed at Basca in Coele-Syria (Ant., XIII, vi, 2, 6).
5. Simon, 143-135 BC: Thus again the Maccabees faced a great crisis. But Simon, the sole survivor of the sons of Mattathias, now stepped in the breach, foiled all the treacherous plans of Tryphon, met strategy with strategy, renewed the alliance with Demetrius and obtained from him the high-priesthood. All the old privileges were renewed, the alliance with Tryphon was condoned by the king, and the Maccabees resolved to count this era as the beginning of their true freedom (1 Maccabees 13:41). The hated stronghold of Gazara fell and last of all the citadel of Jerusalem was reduced, and even the hill, on which it had stood, was completely leveled in the following three years (Ant., XIII, vi, 7). Simon, favored by the decadence of the Syrian power, brought the rule of the Maccabeans to the zenith of its glory. The only considerable architectural work undertaken in the whole period was the magnificent tomb of the Asmoneans at Modin, built by Simon, which was visible even from the Mediterranean. He was the first of the Maccabees to strike his own coinage, maintained himself, with the aid of his sons, John and Judas, against the new Syrian pretender, Antiochus Sidetes, 139 BC, but fell at last a victim to the treachery of his own son-in-law, Ptolemeus (Ptolemy, 1 Maccabees 16:11) at a banquet prepared for him (135 BC). His wife and sons, Mattathias and Judas, were made captives at the same time (Ant., XIII, vii, 4; BJ, I, ii, 3).
6. John Hyrcanus, 135-105 BC: John succeeded his father both as prince and high priest, and his long reign displayed all the characteristics of the true Maccabees. The older sources here are lost sight of, and nearly all we know is derived from Josephus. The reign of John Hyrcanus started amid great difficulties. Hardly was Ptolemeus disposed of before Antiochus appeared before Jerusalem with a strong army and closely invested it. In a truce with the king, Hyrcanus obtained as favorable conditions as possible, paid a ransom and had to permit the razing of the city wall. To obtain money he opened and spoiled the tomb of David (Ant., XIII, viii, 4) and thus obtained a standing army for the defense of the country. With this army he accompanied the king to the Parthian war, in which Antiochus was killed. Hyrcanus now threw off the Syrian yoke and began a war of conquest. In a quick campaign he conquered the trans-Jordanic territory, destroyed Samaria and its temple and devastated the land of Idumaea, whose people were now embodied in the Jewish commonwealth by an enforced circumcision (Ant., XIII, ix, 1). By an embassy, the third in the Asmonean history, he made an alliance with Rome. Meanwhile a strong partisan spirit had been aroused against him at home, on account of his leaving the party of the Pharisees, to affiliate himself with that of the Sadducees, their bitter enemies. Thus the men who had been the very core of the Maccabean revolt from the beginning now raised a sedition against him. The hagiocratic view of Jewish life, from the start, had been the essence of the Asmonean movement and, as the years rolled on, the chasm between the two great parties in Israel grew ever wider. The break with the Pharisees seemed like a break with all Asmonean antecedents. The core of the trouble lay in the double power of Hyrcanus, who, against the Pharisaic doctrine, combined in one person both the royal and priestly dignities. And as the Pharisees grew in strength they also grew in reverence for the traditions of the fathers, whilst the Sadducees paid attention only to the written testimony, and besides were very liberal in their views in general. Only the immense popularity of Hyrcanus enabled him to weather this storm. After a reign of nearly three decades he died in peace, envied for three things--the possession of the supreme power in Israel, the possession of the high-priesthood and the gift of prophecy (Ant., XIII, x, 7).
7. A Dying House, 105-37 BC: With John Hyrcanus the glory of the Maccabean house passed away. What remains is only the sad tale of outward and inward decay. The period covered is only six or seven decades. Knowing his family, Hyrcanus had nominated his wife to the supreme power, while Aristobulus, his oldest son, was to take the high-priesthood. But the latter was no sooner installed in this office than he threw off the mask, assumed the royal title, imprisoned and starved to death his mother and incarcerated his three youngest brothers, leaving at liberty only Antigonus, whom he soon after caused to be murdered in a frenzy of jealousy of power (Ant., XIII, xi, 1,2,3). Shortly after this he died of an intestinal disease, little lamented by his people. His childless widow elevated the oldest of the surviving sons of Hyrcanus, Janneus Alexander, to the throne and married him. This man began his reign with the murder of one of his remaining brothers and, following the example of his father, affiliated himself with the party of the Sadducees. Involved in bitter wars, which arose on every hand, he proved that the old military genius of the Maccabees had not wholly perished. When the Pharisees aroused a widespread sedition against him, he crushed the movement in a torrent of blood (Ant., XIII, xiv, 2). In the internecine war that followed, he killed some 50,000 of his own people and was practically an exile from his own city and government. Ruling only by brute force, he made the last years of his reign dark and gloomy. Josephus touches but lightly on the bitter events of this sedition, on both sides marked with great barbarity (Ant., XIII, xiv, 2). Though suffering from an incurable form of quartan fever, he waged war to the last and died during the siege of Ragaba. On his deathbed he advised his queen to cast herself upon the mercy of the Pharisees: a wise counsel as the event proved, for she was permitted to retain the crown and to place her son Hyrcanus in the high-priestly office. Thus she ruled for nine years (78-69 BC). On her death, her son Aristobulus, whom she had kept from public affairs and who espoused the cause of the Sadducees, aspired to the crown. Another internecine war resulted, in which Aristobulus was victorious. Hyrcanus agreed, for a large financial consideration, to leave public affairs entirely alone. The Herodian family, which owed everything to the Maccabees (Ant., XIV, i, 3), now appears on the scene. Antipater, a friend of Hyrcanus, induced him to escape to Aretas, king of Arabia, at Petra, with whom he made an alliance. In the ensuing war, Aristobulus was conquered, shut up in Jerusalem and compelled to invoke the aid of the Romans, with whose assistance the Arabs were repelled (Ant., XIV, ii, 3). In this same year Pompey came to Damascus, where he found himself between three fires, for not only the two brothers, but a large hagiocratic party of Pharisees as well clamored for a hearing. This last party refused both Aristobulus and Hyrcanus as rulers. Through the machinations of Antipater, Pompey sided with Hyrcanus, upon which Aristobulus prepared for war. Pompey promptly marched on Jerusalem and the irresolute Aristobulus met him with promises of subjection and presents. When his followers however refused to carry out these promises, Aristobulus was imprisoned and Pompey at once invested Jerusalem, which was taken by assault on the passover of 63 BC, after a siege of three months. Pompey entered the holiest place of the temple, thus forever estranging the Pharisaic party from Rome. But he did not spoil the temple, and appointed Hyrcanus high priest. This event marks the collapse of the Maccabean power. What follows are only the throes of death. Aristobulus, and his two sons, Alexander and Antigonus, were taken to Rome as prisoners. On the way Alexander escaped and renewed the fruitless struggle in Judea, only to be at once crushed by the Roman general Gabinius. A little later both Aristobulus and Antigonus also escaped. Returning to the homeland, the former, like his son, fought a brief and valiant but fruitless campaign and was returned captive to Rome, where he died by poison, on the eve of beginning service under the Roman standards, 49 BC. Alexander was executed at Antioch by Pompey. Of all the Maccabean princes thus only Antigonus and Hyrcanus remained. The Idumean power was now about to supplant the Maccabean. Herod the son of Antipater sided, as his father had done, with Hyrcanus against Antigonus. The factional disturbances at Rome and throughout the empire permitted of the enactment of the last stage of the Asmonean drama, in the final contest of Hyrcanus and Antigonus. Herod was in Judea with Hyrcanus, when Antigonus with the Parthian hordes overran the country, caused Herod precipitately to evacuate Palestine, and after capturing Jerusalem in 40 BC, sent his uncle Hyrcanus as a captive to the East, after having cropped off his ears, to incapacitate him forever for the high-priestly office (Ant., XIV, xiii, 10). Herod now obtained the aid of the Romans and permission to reconquer Judea. In a furious campaign, marked by the most shocking barbarities, he occupied the greater part of the country, and finally in 37 BC succeeded in taking Jerusalem. Antigonus surrendered but was executed at Antioch by Antony, at the instigation of Herod (Ant., XIV, xvi, 4). The fate of the remnants of the Maccabean stem, at the hands of Herod, may be found by consulting the article under MACCABEES.
Henry E. Dosker
Asnah
Asnah - as'-na ('acnah, "thornbush"): One of the Nethinim, who returned with Zerubbabel from the exile (Ezra 2:50).
Asnapper
Asnapper - as-nap'-er.
See OSNAPPAR.
Asochis, Plain of
Asochis, Plain of - a-so'-kis.
See CANA,OF GALILEE .
Asom
Asom - a'-som (H, Asom) = Hashum (Ezra 10:33): The sons of Asom put away their "strange wives" (1 Esdras 9:33).
Asp
Asp - (pethen (Deuteronomy 32:33; Job 20:14, 16; Isaiah 11:8); aspis (Romans 3:13)); Any poisonous snake, or even poisonous snakes in general, would satisfy the context in all the passages cited. Pethen is also translated ADDER (which see) in Psalms 58:4; 91:13. Most authors have supposed the Egyptian cobra (Naia haje, L.) to be the snake meant, but while this is widely distributed throughout Africa, its occurrence in Southern Palestine seems to rest solely on the authority of Canon Tristram, who did not collect it. There are Other poisonous snakes in Palestine, any one of which would satisfy the requirements of these passages. See SERPENT. While the aspis of classical Greek literature may well have been the Egyptian cobra, it is to be noted that Vipera aspis, L., is confined to central and western Europe.
Alfred Ely Day
Aspalathus
Aspalathus - as-pal'-a-thus (aspalathos): An aromatic plant mentioned in Ecclesiasticus 24:15 the King James Version, where "wisdom" says, "I gave a sweet smell like cinnamon and aspalathus," etc. It would appear, from a reference in Pliny, to have been a prickly shrub, the wood of which was scented, but nothing certain is known about it.
Aspatha
Aspatha - as-pa'-tha ('acpatha'): One of the ten sons of Haman (Esther 9:7) (Pers aspadata, "given by a sacred horse," according to Thesaurus, Add. 71, after Pott and Benfey).
Asphalt
Asphalt - as'-falt.
See SLIME.
Asphar, the Pool
Asphar, the Pool - as'-far, (lakkos Asphar): When Jonathan and Simon fled from Bacchides they encamped by this pool in the wilderness of Tekoa (1 Maccabees 9:33; Ant, XIII, i, 2). It is probably identical with Ez-Za`feraneh, a ruined site with an ancient cistern, to the South of Tekoa, and East of Chalchul. Bir Selhub about 6 miles Southwest of `Ain Jidy is favored by some (EB, under the word), the hills around it being known as Cafra, in which there may be a survival of the old name.
Aspharasus
Aspharasus - as-far'-a-sus (Aspharasos = Mispar (Ezra 2:2; Mispereth, Nehemiah 7:7)): A leader of the captives, who returned with Zerubbabel to Jerusalem (1 Esdras 5:8).
Asriel
Asriel - as'-ri-el ('asri'-el, "Vow of God"?): A man of Manasseh (Numbers 26:31; Joshua 17:2). The form Asrielites, i.e. family of Asriel, occurs in Numbers 26:31. According to 1 Chronicles 7:14, Asriel was born to Manasseh by an Aramitess concubine. the King James Version has "Ashnel."
Ass
Ass - as (chamowr or chamor, compare Arabic chamar, apparently connected with Arabic root 'achmar, "red," but referred by some to root hamal, "to carry"; also, but less commonly, both in Hebrew and in Arabic, 'athon, Arabic 'atan, used in Arabic only of the females; pereh, or pere', and `aradh, or `arodh, Arabic 'ard, "wild ass," and also `ayir, Arabic `air, "a young" or "wild ass").
1. Names: The name `arodh (Job 39:5) is rare; onos (Matthew 21:2).
2. Meaning: (1) Chamor is derived from the root which means, in all probability, "to carry a burden" (see Furst, Handworterbuch, ch-m-r ii), or "heap up." While no analogies are contained in the Old Testament this root occurs in New Hebrew. The Aramaic chamer, means "to make a ruin-heap" (from which the noun chamor, "a heap," used in Judges 15:16 in a play of words: "With the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, with the jawbone of an ass have I smitten a thousand men"). The root may also mean "to be red." In this case the nominal form chamor may have been derived from the reddish-brown skin of a certain type of the ass.
(2) 'Athon, Assyrian 'atanu and Aramaic 'atana', is derived from 'atha' "to come," "go," etc. (Furst suggests that it may be derived from 'athan, Aramaic `adhan, "to be slender," "docile," etc.); 'athonoth tsechoroth, "red-white asses" (Judges 5:10) designates a better breed.
(3) `Ayir, Arabic `airu ("male ass") used of the young and vigorous animal, is derived from the root `-y-r, "to go away," "escape through swiftness" (Hommel, Namen der Saugethiere, 121-23). This name is used as a parallel to beni 'athono (Genesis 49:11) and as a compound of `ayir pere' (Job 11:12), "a wild ass's colt."
(4) Pere', "wild ass," is derived from the root which means "to run," suggestive of the animal's swiftness.
(5) `Arodh, is, in all probability, an Aramaic loan-word for the Hebrew pere'. The Targum uses `arodha' and `aradha'.
3. Uses: From the references to these various names in the Old Testament it is clear that (1) chamor was used for riding purposes: (a) by men (2 Samuel 16:2, 23; 19:26; 1 Kings 2:40; 1 Kings 13:13, 23-24, 27); (b) by women (Exodus 4:20; Joshua 15:18; Judges 1:14; 1 Samuel 25:20, 23, 42; compare 2 Chronicles 28:15). tsemedh chamorim, "a pair of asses" was used for riding as well as for burdens (Judges 19:3, 10, 19, 21, etc.). (2) It was also used in tillage (Isaiah 32:20). In this connection the law prohibits the use of an ass in plowing with an ox (Deuteronomy 22:10). The she-ass ('athon) was used as a beast of burden (Genesis 45:23) and for riding (Judges 5:10; Numbers 22:21-22; 2 Kings 4:24). The 'ayir is also referred to as used in riding (Judges 10:4), carrying (Isaiah 30:6) and tilling (Isaiah 1:1; 30:24).
4. As a Domestic Animal: Besides the use of the ass in agriculture and riding it was employed in the caravans of commerce, and sent even upon long expeditions through the desert. The ass is and always has been one of the most common domestic animals. It is a much more important animal in Bible lands than in England and America. The humblest peasant owned his own ass. It is associated throughout the Bible with peaceful pursuits (Genesis 42:26 f; Genesis 22:3; 1 Samuel 16:20; 2 Samuel 19:26; Nehemiah 13:15), whereas the horse is referred to in connection with war and armies. Reference is also made to the use of the flesh of the ass in time of famine (2 Kings 6:25). The origin of the ass like that of most domestic animals is lost in antiquity and it cannot be confidently stated from what species of wild ass it was derived. There are three races of wild asses in Asia, one of which is found in Syria, but they may all be referred to one species, Equus hemionus. The African species is East asinus, and good authorities consider our domestic asses to have descended from this, and to have been introduced at an early period into the entire Orient. The Sulaib Arabs of the Syrian desert, who have no horses, have a famous breed of swift and hardy gray asses which they assert they cross at intervals with the wild asses of the desert. It is not unlikely that domestic asses like dogs are the result of crosses with more than one wild species.
As a domestic animal it preceded the horse, which was first introduced into Egypt by the Hyksos about 1800 BC.
See HORSE.
5. Figurative Uses in the Old Testament: (1) chamorr garem, "an ass of strong bones," is used metaphorically of Issachar (Genesis 49:14); besar chamor, "the genital organ of an ass," is used in contempt (Ezekiel 23:20); qebhurath chamor, "the burial of an ass," is applied to ignominious treatment of a corpse (Jeremiah 22:19); chamor is used as a symbol of peace and humility (2 Samuel 19:26). Zechariah speaks of the future Messiah as "lowly, and riding upon an ass, even upon a colt the foal of an ass" (Zechariah 9:9; compare Matthew 21:5, 7).
(2) Pere' is used as a symbol of wildness (Hosea 8:9), and pere' 'adham, `a wild ass of man' (Genesis 16:12), referring to Ishmael, designates a free nomad. In Job the name pere' is applied to the desert dwellers (Job 24:5). Jeremiah employs this name as a symbol of lust. He compares Israel's love of idolatry to the lust of the wild ass (Jeremiah 2:24).
6. Wider Use in Literature: The ass ('athon) figures prominently in the Balaam story (Numbers 22:1-41; 2 Peter 2:16. See Gray,ICC , "Numbers," at the place). It is interesting to note that Apion charged the Jews that they "placed an ass's head in their holy place," affirming that "this was discovered when Antiochus Epiphanes spoiled our temple, and found that ass's head there made of gold, and worth a great deal of money." Josephus, refuting this absurdity, states that the Roman conquerors of Judea found nothing in the temple "but what was agreeable to the strictest piety." He goes on to say: "Apion ought to have had a regard to these facts. .... As for us Jews, we ascribe no honor or power to asses, as do the Egyptians to crocodiles and asps. .... Asses are the same with us which they are with other wise men; namely, creatures that bear the burdens that we lay upon them" (Apion, II, 7).
LITERATURE.
G. A. Smith, Jerusalem, I, 307 ff; Gesenius' and Furst's Lexicons to the Old Testament; articles in Encyclopedia Biblica and HDB.
Samuel Cohon
Assalimoth
Assalimoth - a-sal'-i-moth.
See SALIMOTH (Apocrypha).
Assamias
Assamias - a-sa-mi'-as (Codex Vaticanus, Assamias; Codex Alexandrinus, Asamias; the King James Version Assanias; compare Hashabiah (Ezra 8:24)): Assamias (chief priest) returned with Ezra to Jerusalem. He was one of twelve who had charge of the silver, gold and the temple-vessels (1 Esdras 8:54).
Assaphioth
Assaphioth - a-sa'-fi-oth (Codex Alexandrinus, Asaphphioth; Codex Vaticanus, Assapheioth; the King James Version Azaphion): The head of a family, which returned with Zerubbabel from captivity, called also the servants of Solomon (1 Esdras 5:33). Probably the same as Hassophereth of Ezra 2:55 and Sophereth of Nehemiah 7:57.
Assarion
Assarion - as-a'-ri-on.
See FARTHING.
Assassination
Assassination - a-sas-i-na'-shun.
1. Meaning of the Term: The language of Scripture distinguishes less clearly than the modern juridical between assassination and murder. "Murderer" = rotseach (Numbers 35:16-19, 21, 30-31; 2 Kings 6:32; Job 24:14); horegh, from haragh = "to slay," "kill," the King James Version translation "murderer" in Hosea 9:13; but "slayer" in Ezekiel 21:11. Where the Revised Version (British and American) renders "slayers," we find ratsach, in Numbers 35:11, 25-28; Deuteronomy 4:42; Deuteronomy 19:3-4, 6; Joshua 20:3, 5-6; 13, 21, 27, 32, 38, irrespective of whether willful, deliberate killing is spoken of, or hasty or merely accidental; and nakhah = "to strike," "wound," "kill," "slay," in Numbers 35:24. The prohibition against killing is all-inclusive, even to suicide, placing the ban not only on deliberate, purposeful slaying (Exodus 21:12, 14, 18), but on all endangering of life through negligence (Deuteronomy 22:8) or recklessness (Leviticus 19:14) or hatred, anger and revengefulness (Leviticus 19:17 ff).
2. Punishment of the Act: The Mosaic law presupposes the punishment of all killing of human beings on the ground of Genesis 9:6, and repeatedly reiterates it (Exodus 21:12, 14 ff; Leviticus 24:17, 21; Numbers 35:33; Deuteronomy 19:11 ff), the reason assigned being that man is made in the image of God; hence to slay a man is paramount to lifting the hand against the Creator. And while the degrees of guilt are not indicated by the language, they are closely distinguished by the punishments prescribed. Not only notorious enmity against the slain and deliberate lying-in-wait on the part of the murderer (Exodus 21:13; Numbers 35:20 ff; Deuteronomy 19:4, 11), but also the nature of the instrument was taken into account to determine the nature of the crime (Numbers 35:16 ff).
See CRIMES .
Frank E. Hirsch
Assassins
Assassins - a-sas'-inz (sicarioi; the King James Version murderers): Josephus (BJ, II, xiii, 3, xvii) relates that "there sprang up in Jerusalem a class of robbers called Sicarii, who slew men in the daytime, and in the midst of the city. This they did chiefly when they mingled with the populace at the festivals, and, hiding short daggers in their garments, stabbed with them those that were their enemies. The first to be assassinated by them was Jonathan the high priest, and after him many were slain daily" (see also Ant,XX , viii, 6, ix). The name is derived from Latin sica, "a dagger." The sicarioi were implacable in their hatred to Rome and to those Jews who were suspected of leaning toward Rome. They took a leading part in the Jewish rebellion and in the disturbance previous to it, and also in the faction quarrels during the war. After the war they continued their nefarious practices in Egypt and Cyrene whither they had fled.
Lysias mistook Paul for `the Egyptian who .... led out into the wilderness the 4,000 men of the sicarioi' (Acts 21:38).
S. F. Hunter
Assault
Assault - a-solt' (tsur; horme): The Hebrew verbal form is used of pressing forward a siege (see SIEGE), but also of a hostile attack upon a person then translated "assault" (Esther 8:11). The Greek word horme used of an attack upon persons in Acts 14:5 (the King James Version) is rendered "onset" in the Revised Version (British and American). The word "assault" remains in Acts 17:5, of attacking the house of Jason in Thessalonica, where the verb is ephistanai, "to come suddenly upon."
Assay
Assay - a-sa' (ya'al; nacah; peirdzein; peirasthai; peiran lambanein): The Hebrew and Greek words which are rendered in the King James Version "assay" are so rendered in the Revised Version (British and American), and the use of it is extended in the Revised Version (British and American) in two additional cases. The Hebrew word ya'al (1 Samuel 17:39) is used of David clad in Saul's armor, who "assayed," that is, "tried unsuccessfully," to go and attack Goliath in it, for "he had not proved it," where nacah is the verb. In Deuteronomy 4:34 and Job 4:2 nacah is rendered "assay," in the sense of "attempt," "venture." In Acts 16:7 Paul is said to have "assayed," that is, "attempted" (but was hindered), to go into Bithynia, and now in Acts 24:6 Paul is charged with having "assayed," that is, "having had the audacity," to profane the temple, where peirazein is the verb used in both cases. In Acts 9:26, and now in the Revised Version (British and American) Acts 26:21, "assay," renders the verb peirasthai, "to attempt," in both cases unsuccessfully. In Hebrews 11:29 it translates two Greek words peiran lambanein "to make an attempt unsuccessfully."
T. Nicol.
Assemblies, Masters of
Assemblies, Masters of - a-sem'-bliz, (ba`ale 'acuppoth, Ecclesiastes 12:11): the American Revised Version, margin "collectors of sentences," thus Qimchi, Grotius and others. This has been variously interpreted. Tyler translates "editors of collections." Klienert renders "protectors of the treasure-chambers," 'acuppoth being considered equivalent to the 'acuppim of 1 Chronicles 26:15, 17; Nehemiah 12:25 (see ASUPPIM). The proverbs are like nails guarding the sacred storehouse, the book closing with this warning against touching the collection (compare Revelation 22:18-19). Delitzsch translates "like fastened nails which are put together in collections." "As ba`ale berith (Genesis 14:13) signifies `the confederates,' ba`ale shebhu`ah (Nehemiah 6:18) `the sworn,' and the frequently occurring ba`ale ha-`ir `the citizens': so ba`ale 'acuppoth means, the possessors of assemblies and of the assembled themselves, or the possessors of collections and of things collected. Thus ba`ale 'acuppoth will be a designation of the `words of the wise' (as in shalishim, "choice men" = choice proverbs, Proverbs 22:20, in a certain measure personified), as of those which form or constitute collections and which stand together in order and rank" ("Eccl," English translation, 434).
The Jerusalem Talmud takes 'acuppoth as the Sanhedrin. On the whole it is better to interpret the phrase "persons skilled in collections" of wise sayings, grouped in a compact whole (compare Wright, Eccl, 102).
S. F. Hunter
Assembly
Assembly - a-sem'-bli (qahal; ekklesia): The common term for a meeting of the people called together by a crier. It has reference therefore to any gathering of the people called for any purpose whatsoever (Exodus 12:6; Psalms 22:16 the King James Version; Psalms 89:7 the King James Version; Acts 19:32, 41). The solemn assemblies of the Jews were their feasts or religious gatherings of any kind (Isaiah 1:13). The word paneguris, "a general festal assembly" (Hebrews 12:23), is transferred from the congregation of the people of Israel to the Christian church of which the congregation of Israel was a figure. In the same passage, ekklesia has the sense of calling, summoning. In classical Greek ekklesia was the name for the body of free citizens summoned by a herald. In this sense the church calls all the world to become identified with it. It denotes the whole body of believers, all who are called. Or it may refer to a particular congregation or local church (sunagoge, "synagogue" James 2:2 the Revised Version, margin).
See CALLING; CHURCH; CONGREGATION.
Jacob W. Kapp
Assembly, Solemn
Assembly, Solemn - See CONGREGATION; FEASTS.
Assent
Assent - a-sent': Twice used in the King James Version as equivalent to "voice," and to "consent," and displaced in both instances in the Revised Version (British and American) by the literal rendering of the Hebrew peh, "mouth" (2 Chronicles 18:12); and the Greek suntithemi, "agree to," i.e. "affirm" (Acts 24:9).
Assessor
Assessor - a-ses'-er: Lit. one who sits by another, an assistant; among the ancients especially an assistant to the king (compare "The assessor of his throne," Dryden, Milton's P.L., Book vi), or to the judge (see Dryden, Virgil's Aeneid, vi.583). Later it came to mean one who assesses people or property for purposes of taxation.
(1) Royal officials in Israel have the general title sarim, "princes," and this general title included the officer who was "over the tribute," who seems to have had charge of the assessment, as well as the collection of taxes. In the days of the later monarchy "the governor of the royal household," "the royal steward and high chamberlain," seems to have held some such important position (Isaiah 22:15; 3, 22).
(2) The early kings do not seem to have subjected the people to heavy taxes, but we find much in the prophets about the injustice and extortion practiced by these officials on the poor of the land (compare Amos 2:6-7; Isaiah 5:8; Jeremiah 5:28; Micah 3:11). Special taxes seem to have been imposed to meet emergencies (compare 2 Kings 23:35), but it is not clear that anything of the nature of a regular land tax, or property tax, existed in early times; though something of the kind may be referred to in the reward promised by Saul to the slayer of Goliath (1 Samuel 17:25) and the tenth mentioned in 1 Samuel 8:15-17. The kings of Judah, it would seem, made free use of the temple treasures.
(3) Later the Roman government "farmed out" the taxes of the provinces. The publicans, or tax-gatherers of the Gospels, seem to have been agents of the imperial procurator of Judea, instead of direct agents of the great Roman financial companies, who ordinarily let out the business of the collection of the taxes to officers of their own.
During the Empire there was ample imperial machinery provided for the regular collection of the taxes, and the emperor appointed a procurator in each province whose business it was to supervise the collection of revenue. Some Jews found the business profitable, but these were objects of detestation to their countrymen.
See PUBLICAN.
George B. Eager
Asshur; Assur
Asshur; Assur - ash'-oor, as'-oor.
See ASSYRIA.
Asshurim
Asshurim - a-shoo'-rim ('ashshurim): Mentioned among the sons of Dedan, son of Jokshah, son of Abraham by Keturah (Genesis 25:3).
Assidaeans
Assidaeans - as-i-de'-ans.
See HASIDAEANS (Apocrypha).
Assiduous
Assiduous - a-sid'-u-us: Occurs only in Wisdom of Solomon 8:18 the Revised Version (British and American), "In assiduous communing with her is understanding," i.e. "in continued exercise of fellowship." The idea expressed in the adjective is contained in the prepositional prefix, sun of the original suggumnasia, giving the verb intensive force.
Assign
Assign - a-sin (nathan, "to give," or "grant," i.e. apportion): Used (Joshua 20:8) of Moses setting apart Bezer as one of the three cities of refuge on the East of the Jordan (compare Deuteronomy 4:41-43); also of Joab's stationing Uriah in a place of mortal peril in battle (2 Samuel 11:16).
Assir
Assir - as'-er (accir, "captive"):
(1) A Levite of the family of Korah (Exodus 6:24; 1 Chronicles 6:22).
(2) A son of Ebiasaph and grandson of Assir. Samuel was descended from him (1 Chronicles 6:23).
(3) A son of Jeconiah, king of Judah, according to the King James Version and the Revised Version, margin and the American Revised Version, margin. It is a question whether the Assir of this passage (1 Chronicles 3:17) is not a common adjective modifying Jeconiah. The the American Standard Revised Version and the Revised Version (British and American) render it "the captive." It is to be noticed, however, that there is no definite article in the Hebrew.
Associate
Associate - a-so'-shi-at: Only in Isaiah 8:9 the King James Version, where the Hebrew ro`u, is variously interpreted, according to differences of opinion as to the verb whence it comes. The Revised Version (British and American) "make an uproar"; the Revised Version, margin "break"; Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 A.D.) "Congregamini"; Septuagint gnote ("know ye"); Luther: seid boese ("be wicked").
Assos
Assos - as'-os (Assos): An ancient city of Mysia in the Roman province of Asia, at which, according to Acts 20:13, Paul and Luke rested while on their way from Troas to Mitylene. Standing upon a conical-shaped rock on the southern coast of the Troad, it occupied one of the finest sites in Asia. The rock is about 700 ft. high; its sides are covered with terraces, both natural and artificial, and so steep is it that Stratoricus wrote of it: "If you wish to hasten your death, try and climb Assos." The view from the summit is extensive and magnificent.
The city, which is very ancient, is said to have been rounded by the Aeolians, and to have always been singularly Greek. As early as the 5th century BC it struck its own coins, and its coinage system continued until 235 AD. One of its early rulers or tyrants was Hermeas, a eunuch, once a slave, who gave his niece in marriage to Aristotle. There the great Greek philosopher lived three years, from 348 to 345 BC. During the time of the kings of Pergamus, the city bore the name of Apollonia. To the Byzantines it was known as Machramion, and at present the town, which has dwindled in importance under Turkish rule, is called Bekhram, a Turkish corruption of the Byzantine name.
The ruins of Assos are among the most imposing in Asia Minor, and yet they have long served as a quarry; from its public buildings the stones for the Constantinople docks were taken. The Turkish sultan Murad II presented the many beautiful bas-reliefs of the Doric temple of Athene to the French government, which are now preserved in the Louvre. The ruins were carefully explored and partially excavated in 1882-83 by Mr. Clarke for the Archaeological Institute of America, and the entire plan of the ancient city is clear. Upon the very summit of the hill stood the temple of Athena which is said to have been erected about 470 BC. Among its ruins Clarke found eight other bas-reliefs which are now in the Boston Museum and which possess a special interest because of their connection between the art of the Orient and of Greece. Upon the several natural terraces of the hill which have been enlarged by artificial means, stood the many public buildings, as the gymnasium, the public treasury, the baths, the market place and theater, of which but little now remains. The city was surrounded by a double wall which in places is still well preserved. The inner wall of dressed stones laid without mortar, and filled with loose stones, is 8 ft. thick, and the larger outer wall was protected with towers at intervals of 60 ft. The ancient road leading to Troas was well paved. The harbor from which Paul sailed has now been filled up and is covered with gardens, but at its side is the modern harbor protected by an artificial mole, about which are clustered the few houses bearing the name of Bekhram. Upon the summit of the hill, by the ruins of the temple, are cisterns, a Turkish fortress and a Byzantine church which has been converted into a mosque. Without the city walls is a necropolis. Its many sarcophagi of all ages and sizes and shapes are made of the native trachyte stone which, so the ancients believed, possessed the quality of consuming the bodies buried in it. The stone is the famous "Lapis Assius," or the flesh-eating, hence the word sarcophagus. In former times wheat was raised extensively in the fields about Assos, but now valonia, or acorn cups, form the chief article for export.
E. J. Banks
Assuage
Assuage - a-swaj' (the King James Version Asswage) :Lit,. "sweeten," "soften down"; then, "mitigate," "abate"; used of "flood," Genesis 8:1 ("subside"); of grief, Job 16:5-6 ("restrain"); also applied to any strong emotion; not used in the New Testament.
Assumption of Moses
Assumption of Moses - a-sump'-shun.
Assur
Assur - as'-ur.
See ASUR.
Assurance
Assurance - a-shoor'-ans: A term exceptionally rich in spiritual meaning. It signifies the joyous, unwavering confidence of an intelligent faith; the security of a fearless trust. The original words have to do with the heart of vital religion. baTach, "trust"; 'aman, "to prop," "to support," hence to confide in, to trust. Jesus repeatedly used this word "amen" to express the trustworthiness and abiding certainty of his sayings. pistis, "faith"; plerophoria, "full assurance." The confidence of faith is based, not on "works of righteousness which we have done" (compare Titus 3:4-5 the King James Version) but on the highpriesthood and atoning sacrifice of Christ (Hebrews 10:21-22; compare Hebrews 10:19, "boldness to enter .... by the blood of Jesus," the King James Version). Assurance is the soul's apprehension of its complete emancipation from the power of evil and from consequent judgment, through the atoning grace of Christ. It is the exact opposite of self-confidence, being a joyous appropriation and experience of the fullness of Christ--a glad sense of security, freedom and eternal life in Him. This doctrine is of immeasurable importance to the life of the church and of the individual believer, as a life of spiritual doubt and uncertainty contradicts the ideal of liberty in Christ Jesus which is the natural and necessary fruitage of "the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit .... shed on us abundantly, through Jesus Christ our Saviour." Paul unhesitatingly said, "I know" (2 Timothy 1:12)--a word which, oft-repeated in 1 Jn, furnishes the groundwork of glad assurance that runs through the entire epistle. For the classic passage on "full assurance" see Colossians 2:1-10.
Dwight M. Pratt
Assurbanipal
Assurbanipal - as-ur-ba'-ni-pal.
See ASHURBANIPAL.
Assyria
Assyria - a-sir'-i-a:
I. GEOGRAPHY
II. EARLY HISTORY
III. CLIMATE AND PRODUCTIONS
IV. POPULATION
V. TRADE AND LAW
VI. ART
VII. MECHANICS
VIII. FURNITURE, POTTERY AND EMBROIDERY
IX. LANGUAGE, LITERATURE AND SCIENCE
X. GOVERNMENT AND ARMY
XI. RELIGION
XII. EXCAVATIONS
XIII. CHRONOLOGY
XIV. HISTORY
1. Early Period
2. The Older Empire
3. The Second Empire
4. Last Period and Fall of the Empire
LITERATURE
Assyria, a Greek name formed from Asshur ('ashshur; 'Assour; Assyrian Assur): The primitive capital of the country.
I. Geography. The origin of the city (now Kala'at Shergat), which was built on the western bank of the Tigris between the Upper and Lower Zab, went back to pre-Sem times, and the meaning of the name was forgotten (see Genesis 2:14, where the Hiddekel or Tigris is said to flow on the eastern side of Asshur). To the North of the junction of the Tigris and Upper Zab, and opposite the modern Mossul, was a shrine of the goddess Ishtar, around which grew up the town of Nina, Ninua or Nineveh (now Kouyunjik and Nebi Yunus). Another early sanctuary of Ishtar was at Urbillu, Arbailu or Arbela, East of the Upper Zab. North of Nineveh was Dur-Sargina (now Khorsabad) where Sargon built his palace (720 BC). All this district was embraced in the kingdom of Assyria which extended from Babylonia northward to the Kurdish mountains and at times included the country westward to the Euphrates and the Khabur.
II. Early History. The whole region was known to the early Babylonians as Subartu. Its possession was disputed between Semitic Amurru or AMORITES (which see) and a non-Semitic people from the North called Mitannians. The earlier high priests of Assur known to us bear Mitannian names. About 2500 BC the country was occupied by Babylonian Semites, who brought with them the religion, law, customs, script and Semitic language of Babylonia (Genesis 10:11-12, where we should read "He went forth to Asshur"; see Micah 5:6). The foundation of Nineveh, Rehoboth-'Ir (Assyrian Rebit-Ali, "the suburbs of the city"), Calah and Resen (Assyrian Res-eni, "head of the spring") is ascribed to them. The triangle formed by the Tigris and Zab, which enclosed these cities, was in later times included within the fortifications of the "great city" (Genesis 10:12; Jonah 3:3). Assyria is always distinguished from Babylonia in the Old Testament, and not confounded with it as by Herodotus and other classical writers.
III. Climate and Productions. Assyria, speaking generally, was a limestone plateau with a temperate climate, cold and wet in winter, but warm during the summer months. On the banks of the rivers there was abundant cultivation, besides pasture-land. The apple of the North grew by the side of the palm-tree of the South. Figs, olives, pomegranates, almonds, mulberries and vines were also cultivated as well as all kinds of grain. Cotton is mentioned by Sennacherib (King, PSBA, December, 1909). The forests were tenanted by lions, and the plains by wild bulls (rimi, Hebrew re'emim), wild asses, wild goats and gazelles. Horses were imported from Cappadocia; ducks were kept, and mastiffs were employed in hunting.
IV. Population. The dominant type was Semitic, with full lips, somewhat hooked nose, high forehead, black hair and eyes, fresh complexion and abundance of beard. In character the Assyrians were cruel and ferocious in war, keen traders, stern disciplinarians, and where religion was concerned, intense and intolerant. Like the Ottoman Turks they formed a military state, at the head of which was the king, who was both leader in war and chief priest, and which offered a striking contrast to theocratic state of theBabylonians. It seems probable that every male was liable to conscription, and under the Second Empire, if not earlier, there was a large standing army, part of which consisted of mercenaries and recruits from the subject races. One result of this was the necessity for constant war in order to occupy the soldiery and satisfy their demands with captured booty; and the result, as in the Northern Kingdom of Israel, was military revolution, with the seizure of the throne by the successful general. As might be expected, education was confined to the upper classes, more especially to the priests and scribes.
V. Trade and Law. As far back as the age of Abraham, when Assyria was still a dependency of Babylonia, trade was carried on with Cappadocia and an Assyrian colony of merchants settled at Kara Eyuk near Kaisariyeh. Down the Euphrates came the silver, copper and bronze of Asia Minor, together with horses. Cedar wood was brought from Mount Amanus, and there was already trade, through Syria, with the Mediterranean. Nineveh itself was probably founded in the interests of the trade with the North. In later days commercial reasons had much to do with the efforts of the Assyrian kings to conquer eastern Asia Minor and the Mediterranean coast of Syria and Pal: under the Second Empire no pains were spared to obtain possession of the Phoenician cities and divert their commerce into Assyrian hands. Hence the importance of the capture of the Hittite stronghold, Carchemish, by Sargon in 717 BC, as it commanded the road to Syria and the passage across the Euphrates. Nineveh had at that time already become a great resort of merchants, among whom the Semitic Arameans were the most numerous. Aramaic, accordingly, became the language of trade, and then of diplomacy (compare 2 Kings 18:26), and commercial documents written in cuneiform were provided with Aramaic dockets. As in Babylonia, land and houses were leased knd sold, money was lent at interest, and the leading firms employed numerous damgari or commercial agents.
Assyrian law was, in general, derived from Babylonia and much of it was connected with trade. The code of Khammu-rabi (Code of Hammurabi) or AMRAPHEL (which see) underlay it, and the same system of judicial procedure, with pleading before judges, the hearing of witnesses, and an appeal to the king, prevailed in both countries.
VI. Art. Unlike Babylonia, Assyria abounded in stone; the brick buildings of Babylonia, accordingly, were replaced by stone, and the painted or tiled walls by sculptured slabs. In the bas-reliefs discovered at Nineveh three periods of artistic progress may be traced. Under Assur-nazir-pal the sculpture is bold and vigorous, but the work is immature and the perspective faulty. From the beginning of the Second Empire to the reign of Esar-haddon the bas-reliefs often remind us of embroidery in stone. Attempts are made to imitate the rich detail and delicate finish of the ivory carvings; the background is filled in with a profusion of subjects, and there is a marked realism in the delineation of them. The third period is that of Assur-bani-pal, when the overcrowding is avoided by once more leaving the background bare, while the animal and vegetable forms are distinguished by a certain softness, if not effeminacy of tone. Sculpture in the round, however, lagged far behind that in relief, and the statuary of Assyria is very inferior to that of Babylonia. It is only the human-headed bulls and winged lions that can be called successful: they were set on either side of a gate to prevent the entrance of evil spirits, and their majestic proportions were calculated to strike the observer with awe (compare the description of the four cherubim in Ezekiel 1:1-28).
In bronze work the Assyrians excelled, much of the work being cast. But in general it was hammered, and the scenes hammered in relief on the bronze gates discovered by Mr. Rassam at Balawat near Nineveh are among the best examples of ancient oriental metallurgy at present known. Gold and silver were also worked into artistic forms; iron was reserved for more utilitarian purposes. The beautiful ivory carvings found at Nineveh were probably the work of foreign artificers, but gems and seal cylinders were engraved by native artists in imitation of those of Babylonia, and the Babylonian art of painting and glazing tiles was also practiced. The terra-cotta figures which can be assigned to the Assyrian period are poor. Glass was also manufactured.
VII. Mechanics. The Assyrians were skilled in the transport of large blocks of stone, whether sculptured or otherwise. They understood the use of the lever, the pulley and the roller, and they had invented various engines of war for demolishing or undermining the walls of a city or for protecting the assailants. A crystal lens, turned on the lathe, has been found at Kouyunjik: it must have been useful to the scribes, the cuneiform characters inscribed on the tablets being frequently very minute. Water was raised from the river by means of a shaduf.
VIII. Furniture, Pottery and Embroidery. The furniture even of the palace was scanty, consisting mainly of couches, chairs, stools, tables, rugs and curtains. The chairs and couches were frequently of an artistic shape, and were provided with feet in the form of the legs of an ox. All kinds of vases, bowls and dishes were made of earthenware, but they were rarely decorated. Clothes, curtains and rugs, on the other hand, were richly dyed and embroidered, and were manufactured from wool and flax, and (in the age of the Second Empire) from cotton. The rug, of which the Persian rug is the modern representative, was a Babylonian invention.
IX. Language, Literature and Science. The Assyrian language was Semitic, and differed only dialectically from Semitic Babylonian. In course of time, however, differences grew up between the spoken language and the language of literature, which had incorporated many Summerian words, and retained grammatical terminations that the vernacular had lost, though these differences were never very great. Assyrian literature, moreover, was mainly derived from Babylonia. Assur-bani-pal employed agents to ransack the libraries of Babylonia and send their contents to Nineveh, where his library was filled with scribes who busied themselves in copying and editing ancient texts. Commentaries were often written upon these, and grammars, vocabularies and interlinear translations were compiled to enable the student to understand the extinct Sumerian, which had long been the Latin of Semitic Babylonia. The writing material was clay, upon which the cuneiform characters were impressed with a stylus while it was still moist: the tablet was afterward baked in the sun or (in Assyria) in a kiln. The contents of the library of Nineveh were very various; religion, mythology, law, history, geography, zoology, philology, mathematics, astronomy, astrology and the pseudo-science of omens were all represented in it, as well as poetry and legendary romance.
See NINEVEH, LIBRARY OF.
X. Government and Army. Assyria was a military kingdom which, like the Northern Kingdom of Israel, had established itself by a successful revolt from Babylonia. In contradistinction to Babylonia, which was a theocratic state, the king being subordinate to the priest, the Assyrian king was supreme. Whereas in Babylonia the temple was the chief public building, in Assyria the royal palace dominated everything, the temple being merely a royal chapel attached to the palace. The king, in fact, was the commander of an army, and this army was the Assyrian people. How far the whole male population was liable to conscription is still uncertain; but the fact that the wars of Assur-bani-pal so exhausted the fighting strength of the nation as to render it unable to resist the invaders from the North shows that the majority of the males must have been soldiers. Hence the constant wars partly to occupy the army and prevent revolts, partly for the sake of booty with which to pay it. Hence too, the military revolutions, which, as in the kingdom of Israel, resulted in changes of dynasty and the seizure of the throne by successful generals. The turtannu or commander-in-chief, who took the place of the king when the latter was unable or unwilling to lead his forces, ranked next to the sovereign. From the reign of Tiglath-pileser IV onward, however, the autocracy was tempered by a centralized bureaucracy, and in the provinces a civil governor was appointed by the side of the military commander. Among the high officials at court were the rab-saki or "vizier," and the rab-sa-risi or "controller," the rabhcaric (RAB-SARIS (which see)) of the Old Testament.
The army consisted of cavalry, infantry, bowmen and slingers, as well as of a corps of charioteers. After the rise of the Second Empire the cavalry were increased at the expense of the chariotry, and were provided with saddles and boots, while the unarmed groom who had run by the side of the horse became a mounted archer. Sennacherib further clothed the horseman in a coat of mail. The infantry were about ten times as numerous as the calvary, and under Sargon were divided into bowmen and spearmen, the bowmen again being subdivided into heavy-armed and light-armed, the latter being apparently of foreign origin. Sennacherib introduced a corps of slingers, clad in helmet and cuirass, leather drawers and boots. He also deprived the heavy-armed bowmen of the long robes they used to wear, and established a body of pioneers with double-headed axes, helmets and buskins. Shields were also worn by all classes of soldiers, and the army carried with it standards, tents, battering-rams and baggage-carts. The royal sleeping-tent was accompanied by tents for cooking and dining. No pains, in fact, were spared to make the army both in equipment and discipline an irresistible engine of war. The terror it excited in western Asia is therefore easily intelligible (Isaiah 10:5-14; Nahum 2:11-13; Nahum 3:1-4).
XI. Religion. The state religion of Assyria was derived from BABYLONIA (which see) and in its main outlines is Babylonian. But it differed from the religion of Babylonia in two important respects: (1) the king, and not the high priest, was supreme, and (2) at the head of it was the national god Asur or Assur, whose high priest and representative was the king. Asur was originally Asir, "the leader" in war, who is accordingly depicted as a warrior-god armed with a bow and who in the age when solar worship became general in Babylonia was identified with the sun-god. But the similarity of the name caused him to be also identified with the city of Asur, where he was worshipped, at a time when the cities of northern Babylonia came to be deified, probably under Hittite influence. Later still, the scribes explained his name as a corruption of that of the primeval cosmogonic deity An-sar, the upper firmament, which in the neo-Babylonian age was pronounced Assor. The combination of the attributes of the warrior-god, who was the peculiar god of the commander of the army, with the deified city to which the army belonged, caused Assur to become the national deity of a military nation in a way of which no Babylonian divinity was capable. The army were "the troops of Assur," the enemies were "the enemies of Assur" who required that they should acknowledge his supremacy or be destroyed. Assur was not only supreme over the other gods, he was also, in fact, unlike them, without father or wife. Originally, it is true, his feminine counterpart, Asirtu, the ASHERAH (which see) of the Old Testament, had stood at his side, and later literary pedants endeavored to find a wife for him in Belit, "the Lady," or Ishtar, or some other Babylonian goddess, but the attempts remained purely literary. When Nineveh took the place of Assur as the capital of the kingdom, Ishtar, around whose sanctuary Nineveh had grown up, began to share with him some of the honor of worship, though her position continued to be secondary to the end. This was also the case with the war-god Nin-ip, called Mas in Assyria, whose cult was specially patronized by the Assyrian kings.
See BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA,RELIGION OF .
XII. Excavations. Rich, who had first visited Mossul in 1811, examined the mounds opposite in 1820 and concluded that they represented the site of Nineveh. The few antiquities he discovered were contained in a single case in the British Museum, but the results of his researches were not published until 1836. In 1843-45 the Frenchman Botta disinterred the palace of Sargon at Khorsabad, 15 miles North of Nineveh, while at Nimrud (Calah) and Kouyunjik (Nineveh) Layard (1845-51) brought to light the ruins of the great Assyrian palaces and the library of Assur-bani-pal. His work was continued by Rassam (1851-54). Nothing more was done until 1873-75 when George Smith resumed excavations on the site of Assur-bani-pal's library; this was followed in 1877-79 by the excavations of Rassam, who discovered among other things the bronze gates of Balawat. At present a German expedition under Andrae is working at Kala'at Shergat (Assur) where the English excavators had already found the cylinder-inscription of Tiglath-pileser I (see SHERGHAT).
XIII. Chronology. The Assyrians reckoned time by means of limmi, certain officials appointed every New Year's day, after whom their year of office was named. The lists of limmi or "Eponyms" which have come down to us form the basis of Assyrian chronology. Portions of a "synchronous" history of Assyria and Babylonia have also been discovered, as well as fragments of two "Babylonian Chronicles" written from a Babylonian point of view. The "Eponym" lists carry back an exact dating of time to the beginning of the 10th century BC. Before that period Sennacherib states that Tiglath-pileser I reigned 418 years before himself. Tiglath-pileser, moreover, tells us that Samas-Ramman son of Isme-Dagon had built a temple at Assur 641 years earlier, while Shalmaneser I places Samas-Ramman 580 years before his own reign and Erisu 159 years before Samas-Ramman, though Esar-haddon gives the dates differently. Apart from the native documents, the only trustworthy sources for the chronology (as for the history) of Assyria are the Old Testament records. In return the "Eponym" lists have enabled us to correct the chronology of the Books of Kings (see KINGS, BOOKS OF).
XIV. History. 1. Early Period: Assyrian history begins with the high priests (patesis) of Assur. The earliest known to us are Auspia and Kikia, who bear Mitannian names. The early Semitic rulers, however, were subject to Babylonia, and under Khammurabi (AMRAPHEL) Assyria was still a Babylonian province. According to Esar-haddon the kingdom was founded by Bel-bani son of Adasi, who first made himself independent; Hadad-nirari, however, ascribes its foundation to Zulili. Assyrian merchants and soldiers had already made their way as far as Cappadocia, from whence copper and silver were brought to Assyria, and an Assyrian colony was established at Kara Eyuk near Kaisariyeh, where the Assyrian mode of reckoning time by means of limmi was in use. In the age of Tell el-Amarna Letters (1400 BC) Assur-uballid was king of Assyria. He corresponded with the Egyptian Pharaoh and married his daughter to the Bah king, thereby providing for himself a pretext for interfering in the affairs of Babylonia. The result was that his son-in-law was murdered, and Assur-uballid sent troops to Babylonia who put the murderers to death and placed the grandson of the Assyrian king on the Babylonian throne. Babylonia had fallen into decay and been forced to protect herself from the rising power of Assyria by forming an alliance with Mitanni (Mesopotamia) and Egypt, and subsequently, when Mitanni had been absorbed by the Hittites, by practically becoming dependent on the Hittite king. Shalmaneser I (1300 BC), accordingly, devoted himself to crippling the Hittite power and cutting it off from communication with Babylonia. Campaign after campaign was undertaken against the Syrian and more eastern provinces of the Hittite empire, Malatiyeh was destroyed, and Carehemish threatened. Shalmaneser's son and successor Tukulti-Mas entered into the fruits of his father's labors. The Hittites had been rendered powerless by an invasion of the northern barbarians, and the Assyrian king was thus left free to crush Babylonia. Babylon was taken by storm, and for seven years Tukulti-Mas was master of all the lands watered by the Tigris and Euphrates. The image of Merodach was carried to Assur as a sign that the scepter had passed from Babylon to the parvenu Assyria. A successful revolt, however, finally drove the Assyrian conqueror back to his own country, and when he was murdered soon afterward by his own son, the Babylonians saw in the deed a punishment inflicted by the god of Babylon.
2. The Older Empire: A few years later the Assyrian king Bel-kudur-uzur lost his life in battle against the Babylonians, and a new dynasty appears to have mounted the Assyrian throne. About 1120 BC the Assyrian king was Tiglath-pileser I, whose successful wars extended the Assyrian empire as far westward as Cappadocia. In one of his campaigns he made his way to the Mediterranean, and received presents from the king of Egypt, which included a crocodile. At Assur he planted a botanical garden stocked with trees from the conquered provinces. After his death the Assyrian power declined; Pitru (Pethor, Numbers 22:5) fell into the hands of the Arameans and the road to the Mediterranean was blocked. A revival came under Assur-nazir-pal III (884-860 BC) who rebuilt CALAH (which see) and established the seat of the government at Nineveh, where he erected a palace. Various campaigns were carried on in the direction of Armenia and Comagene, the brutalities executed upon the enemy being described in detail by their conqueror. He then turned westward, and after receiving homage from the Hittite king of Carchemish, laid the Phoenicians under tribute. The road to the West was thus again secured for the merchants of Assyria. Assur-nazir-pal was succeeded by his son Shalmaneser II (859-825 BC), who, instead of contenting himself, like his father, with mere raids for the sake of booty, endeavored to organize and administer the countries which his armies had subdued. The famous bronze gates of Balawat were erected by him in commemoration of his victories. In his reign the Israelites and Syrians of Damascus first came into direct relation with the Assyrians. In 854 BC he attacked Hamath and at Qarqar defeated an army which included 1,200 chariots, 1,200 cavalry and 20,000 infantry from Ben-hadad of Damascus, 2,000 chariots, and 10,000 infantry from. "Ahab of Israel," besides considerable contingents from Ammon, Arvad, Arabia and elsewhere. In 842 BC Shalmaneser penetrated to Damascus where Hazael, the successor of Ben-hadad, who had already been defeated in the open field, was closely besieged. The surrounding country was ravaged, and "Jehu son of Omri" hastened to offer tribute to the conqueror. The scene is represented on the Black Obelisk found at Nimrud and now in the British Museum. Shalmaneser's campaigns were not confined to the West. He overran Armenia, where the kingdom of Van had just been established, made his way to Tarsus in Cilicia, took possession of the mines of silver, salt and alabaster in the Taurus mountains among the Tabal or Tubal, and obliged the Babylonian king to acknowledge his supremacy. In his later days, when too old to take the field himself, his armies were led by the turtannu or commander-in-chief, and a rebellion, headed by his son Assur-danin-pal (Sardanapalus) broke out at home, where Nineveh and Assur were jealous of the preference shown for Calah. Nineveh, however, was captured and the revolt suppressed after two years' duration by another son, Samas-Ramman IV, who shortly afterward, on his father's death, succeeded to the throne (824-812 BC). His chief campaigns were directed against Media. His son Hadad-nirari III (811-783 BC) was the next king, whose mother was Sammu-ramat (Semiramis). He claims to have reduced to subjection the whole of Syria, including Phoenicia, Edom and Philistia, and to have taken Mari'a, king of Damascus, prisoner in his capital city. After this, however, Assyria once more fell into a state of decay, from which it was delivered by the successful revolt of a military officer Pulu (Pul), who put an end to the old line of kings and took the name of Tiglath-pileser IV (745-727 BC).
3. The Second Empire: Tiglath-pileser founded the second Assyrian empire, and made Assyria the dominant power in western Asia. The army was reorganized and made irresistible, and a new administrative system was introduced, the empire being centralized at Nineveh and governed by a bureaucracy at the head of which was the king. Tiglath-pileser's policy was twofold: to weld western Asia into a single empire, held together by military force and fiscal laws, and to secure the trade of the world for the merchants of Nineveh. These objects were steadily kept in view throughout the reigns of Tiglath-pileser and his successors. For the history of his reign, see TIGLATH-PILESER. In 738 BC Tiglath-pileser put an end to the independent existence of the kingdom of Hamath, Menahem of Samaria becoming his tributary, and in 733 BC he commenced a campaign against Rezin of Damascus which ended in the fall of Damascus, the city being placed under an Assyrian governor. At the same time the land of Naphtali was annexed to Assyria, and Yahu-khazi (Ahaz) of Judah became an Assyrian vassal, while in 731 BC, after the murder of Pekah, Hoshea was appointed king of Israel (compare 2 Kings 15:1-38 through 17). In 728 BC Tiglath-pileser was solemnly crowned at Babylon and the following year he died. His successor was another military adventurer, Shalmaneser IV (727-722 BC), whose original name was Ulula. While engaged in the siege of Samaria Shalmaneser died or was murdered, and the throne was seized by another general who took the name of Sargon (722-705 BC). Sargon, for whose history see SARGON, captured Samaria in 722BC , carrying 27,290 of its inhabitants into captivity. A large part of his reign was spent in combating a great confederation of the northern nations (Armenia, Manna, etc.) against Assyria. Carchemish, the Hittite capital, was captured in 717 BC, a revolt of the states in southern Palestine was suppressed in 711 BC and Merodach-Baladan, the Chaldean, who had possessed himself of Babylonia in 722 BC, was driven back to the marshlands at the head of the Persian Gulf. In 705 BC Sargon was murdered, and succeeded by his son SENNACHERIB (which see). Sennacherib (705-681 BC) had neither the military skill nor the administrative abilities of his father. His campaign against Hezekiah of Judah in 701 BC was a failure; so, also, was his policy in Babylonia which was in a constant state of revolt against his rule, and which ended in his razing the sacred city of Babylon to the ground in 689 BC. Nine years previously his troops had been called upon to suppress a revolt in Cilicia, where a battle was fought with the Greeks.
4. Last Period and Fall of the Empire: His son Esar-haddon, who succeeded him (681-669 BC) after his murder by two other sons on the 20th Tebet (compare 2 Kings 19:37), was as distinguished a general and administrator as his father had been the reverse. For his history see ESARHADDON. Under him the Second Empire reached the acme of its power and prosperity. Babylon was rebuilt and made the second capital of the empire, Palestine became an obedient province, and Egypt was conquered (674 and 671 BC), while an invasion of the Cimmerians (Gomer) was repelled, and campaigns were made into the heart of both Media and Arabia. Esar-haddon died while on his way to repress a revolt in Egypt, and his son Assur-bani-pal succeeded him in the empire (669-626 BC), while another son Samas-sum-ukin was appointed viceroy of Babylonia. Assur-bani-pal was a munificent patron of learning, and the library of Nineveh owed most of its treasures to him, but extravagant luxury had now invaded the court, and the king conducted his wars through his' generals, while he himself remained at home. The great palace at Kouyunjik (Nineveh) was built by him. Egypt demanded his first attention. Tirhakah the Ethiopian who had headed its revolt was driven back to his own country, and for a time there was peace. Then under Tandamane, Tirhakah's successor, Egypt revolted again. This time the Assyrian punishment was merciless. Thebes--"No-amon" (Nahum 3:8)--was destroyed, its booty carried away and two obelisks transported to Nineveh as trophies of victory. Meanwhile Tyre, which had rebelled, was forced to sue for peace, and ambassadors arrived from Gyges of Lydia asking for help against the Cimmerians. Elam still remained independent and endeavored to stir up disaffection in Babylonia. Against his will, therefore, Assur-bani-pal was obliged to interfere in the internal affairs of that country, with the result that the Elamites were finally overthrown in a battle on the Eulaeus beneath the walls of Susa, and the conquered land divided between two vassal kings. Then suddenly a revolt broke out throughout the greater part of the Assyrian empire, headed by Assur-bani-pal's brother, the viceroy of Babylonia. For a time the issue was doubtful. Egypt recovered its independence under Psammetichus, the founder of the XXVIth Dynasty (660 BC) who had received help from Lydia, but Babylonia was reconquered and Babylon after a long siege was starved out, Samas-sum-ukin burning himself in the ruins of his palace. Elam remained to be dealt with, and an Assyrian army made its way to Susa, which was leveled to the ground, the shrines of its gods profaned and the bones of its ancient kings torn from their graves. Then came the turn of northern Arabia, where the rebel sheikhs were compelled to submit. But the struggle had exhausted Assyria; its exchequer was empty, and its fighting population killed. When the Cimmerians descended upon the empire shortly afterward, it was no longer in a condition to resist them. Under Assur-etil-ilani, the son and successor of Assur-bani-pal, Calah was taken and sacked, and two reigns later, Sin-sar-iskun, the last king of Assyria, fell fighting against the Scythians (606 BC). Nineveh was utterly destroyed, never again to be inhabited, and northern Babylonia passed into the hands of Nabopolassar, the viceroy of Babylon, who had joined the northern invaders. Assur, the old capital of the country, was still standing in the age of Cyrus, but it had become a small provincial town; as for Nineveh and Calah, their very sites were forgotten.
LITERATURE.
See G. Rawlinson, Five Great Monarchies of the Eastern World, 1862-67; Perrot and Chipiez, Histoire de l'art dans l'antiquite, II, 1884; Maspero, Struggle of the Nations, and Passing of the Empires, 3 volumes, 1894-1900; Rogers, A History of Babylonia and Assyria, 1900; Johns, Assyrian Deeds and Documents, 1898; Schrader, KAT, English translation by Whitehouse, 1885; Pinches, The Old Testament in the Light of the Historical Records of Assyria and Babylonia, 1902.
A. H. Sayce
Assyria and Babylonia, Religion of
Assyria and Babylonia, Religion of - See BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA,RELIGION OF .
Assyrian and Babylonian Libraries
Assyrian and Babylonian Libraries - See NINEVEH, LIBRARY OF.
Assyrians
Assyrians - a-sir'-i-ans ('ashshur): The inhabitants of Assyria. In Hebrew the name of the people is the same as that of the country.
See ASSYRIA.
Astad
Astad - as'-tad: The reading of the English versions of 1 Esdras 5:13 for the name which appears as Azgad in Ezra 2:12 and Nehemiah 7:17. In the different Greek copies of 1esdras the name varies.
Astaroth
Astaroth - as'-ta-roth.
See ASHTAROTH.
Astarte; Astoreth
Astarte; Astoreth - as-tar'-te.
See ASHTAROTH.
Astath
Astath - as'-tath (Astath):The form given in 1 Esdras 8:38 to the name which in Ezra 8:12 appears as Azgad.
See AZGAD.
Astonished; Astonied
Astonished; Astonied - as-ton'-isht, as-ton'-id (shamem, "astonished," the root idea being "silent," i.e. struck dumb with amazement; ekplessomai, "to be struck with astonishment," as if by a blow or a shock; existemi, "to amaze," "to throw into wonderment"; thambeomai, "to astonish" to the point of fright): The state of being surprised, startled, stunned by some exceptional wonder, some overwhelming event or miracle, as e.g. Nebuchadnezzar's amazement at the miracle in the burning fiery furnace (Daniel 3:24) (tewah, "astonished"); of the passer-by at the desolation of Babylon (Jeremiah 50:13). The personality, teaching and works of Jesus were so wonderful, Divine, supernatural, as to awaken emotions of surprise and awe never before known in the presence of man. The people "were astonished out of measure" at His doctrine (Mark 10:26 the King James Version); "astonished with a great astonishment" at His raising the dead (Mark 5:42 the King James Version). The gift of the Holy Ghost to the Gentiles was in like manner a source of astonishment to those Jews who believed through the power of Peter's preaching (Acts 10:45 the King James Version). The miracle of regeneration today, which renews and transforms debased and fallen men into saints, makes the same impression on an observing world.
Dwight M. Pratt
Astonishment
Astonishment - as-ton'-ish-ment: Amazement; mental surprise, excitement, wonder; often the cause of the startled emotion, as in Deuteronomy 28:37: "Thou shall become an astonishment." The chosen people, visited with calamities for idolatry would become a source of amazement to all nations (Jeremiah 25:9, 11, 18); Solomon's' lofty and beautiful temple would be "an astonishment" (2 Chronicles 7:21 the King James Version). For original terms and fuller study see ASTONISHED.
Astray
Astray - a-stra' (ta`ah, "to wander," "to err"; planaomai, "to go astray," each carrying the idea of being lost): With one exception (Exodus 23:4 "his ass going astray") used metaphorically of moral wandering, going astray in paths of error and sin, like "sheep going astray" (1 Peter 2:25 the King James Version; Isaiah 53:6; Psalms 119:176). This wandering may be due (1) to inherent evil (Psalms 58:3); (2) to false shepherds (Jeremiah 50:6); contrast the beautiful and classic passage, Matthew 18:12-13, the Son of man (verse 12) seeketh that which is gone astray. No word more vividly portrays sin as a straying, a separation from God. To be morally "astray" is to be "lost."
Dwight M. Pratt
Astrology
Astrology - as-trol'-o-ji:
I. THE DESIRE TO FORECAST THE FUTURE
1. Methods of Soothsaying
2. Divination
3. Looking in the Liver
4. The Astrologers, or Dividers of the Heavens
5. The Stargazers, or Seers of the Constellations
6. The Monthly Prognosticators, or Men Who Knew the Omens of the New Moon
II. THE WORSHIP OF THE HEAVENLY BODIES THE FORM OF IDOLATRY TO WHICH THE ISRAELITES WERE MOST PRONE
1. Chiun, Certainly the Planet Saturn
2. Saturn or Moloch Worship
3. Mazzaloth, or Planet Worship
4. Gadh and Meni or Star Worship
5. Lucifer, the Shining Star
III. SYSTEMS OF ASTROLOGY
1. Names of the WeekDays, Due to an Astrological System
2. Origin of Modern Astrology
3. "Curious Arts" of Ephesus
LITERATURE
I. The Desire to Forecast the Future. The desire to penetrate the future and influence its events has shown itself in all lands and ages. But it is clear that a knowledge of the future does not lie within the scope of man's natural powers; "divination" therefore has always been an attempt to gain the help of beings possessing knowledge and power transcending those of man. The answer of the Chaldeans to King Nebuchadnezzar when he demanded that they should tell his dream was a reasonable one: "There is not a man upon the earth that can show the king's matter: .... there is no other that can show it before the king, except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh" (Daniel 2:10-11). "Divination," therefore, in all its forms is but an aspect of polytheism.
It was for the twofold reason that the arts of divination were abominable in themselves, and gave to their votaries no knowledge of the will of God, that such arts were forbidden in the Law (Deuteronomy 18:9-15). Israel was to be perfect with God and He would reveal to them His will perfectly through that prophet like unto Moses whom He would send. Keil and Delitzsch in commenting on this passage well remark: "Moses groups together all the words which the language contained for the different modes of exploring the future and discovering the will of God, for the purpose of forbidding every description of soothsaying, and places the prohibition of Molochworship at the head, to show the inward connection between soothsaying and idolatry, possibly because februation, or passing children through the fire in the worship of Moloch, was more intimately connected with soothsaying and magic than any other description of idolatry" (Commentary on the Pentateuch, III, 393).
1. Methods of Soothsaying: The forms of soothsaying mentioned in this catalogue are as follows: "One that practiceth augury" (me`onen) is of uncertain etymology, but the tabbins connect it with `ayin, "an eye"; literally therefore one who ogles, or who bewitches with the evil eye. "An enchanter" (menachesh), sometimes supposed to be a snakecharmer, is probably one who fascinates like a snake; in other words a mesmerist or hypnotist. The word occurs in connection with Joseph's divining-cup, and such cups were employed both in Babylon and Egypt, and their use was akin to the more modern crystal-gazing, the hypnotic state being induced by prolonged staring, as in the fascination ascribed to serpents. On this account, snakes were sometimes figured upon such cups. Thus in Talmud we read: "If one finds vessels with delineations of the sun, the moon, or of a serpent upon them, let him cast them into the salt sea" (`Abho-dhah-Zarah, fol 42, Colossians 2). "A sorcerer" (mekhashsheph) is one who mutters incantations or speaks in ventriloquial whispers, as if under the influence of the spirits of the dead. "A charmer" (chobher chebher), is one who inflicts a spell by weaving magical knots. "A consulter with a familiar spirit" ('obh), denotes one who is possessed of a python or soothsaying demon. Such were the woman of Endor whom Saul consulted on the eve of the battle of Gilboa (1 Samuel 28:1-25) and the pythoness of Philippi out of whom Paul cast the spirit (Acts 16:16-18). The word ('obh) means "bottle" and either indicates that the medium was the receptacle of the spirit or is a relic of the old tradition that genii (jinns) might be enslaved and imprisoned in bottles by means of magical incantations. "A wizard" (yidh`oni) means a wise man, "a knowing one." The word in Old Testament is always used in connection with 'obh, and denotes a man who could interpret the ravings of the medium. "A necromancer" (doresh 'el ha-methim) is one who calls up the spirits of the dead and has intercourse with them. "Consulting the teraphim" (Ezekiel 21:21) may have been a form of consulting the dead, if, as is probable, the teraphim were ancestral images, raised by superstition to the rank of household gods. The manner of consultation we do not know; but as an illustration of the use of the image of a dead person, we may remember that a modern medium will often ask for a portrait of a deceased relative for the alleged purpose of entering into communication with the departed spirit.
It will be seen that these forms of soothsaying are allied to the arts which in modern times bear the names of hypnotism and mediumship. They are more briefly referred to in Isaiah 8:19, "When they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits and unto the wizards, that chirp and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? on behalf of the living should they seek unto the dead?" Here again mediumship and spiritism are connected with the ventriloquial whispers and mutterings, which are supposed to be characteristic of the utterances of the dead.
2. Divination: But the first term in the catalogue, "one that useth divination" (qecem) is of wider application. It signifies a "divider" and refers to the practice which men have followed in an infinite variety of ways for trying to get light upon the future by resorting to what seems to them the arbitrament of chance. The results of a battle and of the fall of dice are alike unknown beforehand. But the second can be tested, and men assume that the result of the first will correspond to the second. Any chance will serve; the shuffling of a pack of cards; the flight of birds; the arrangement of dregs in a cup; nothing is too trivial for the purpose. The allotment of a particular interpretation to a particular sign was of course purely arbitrary, but the method could be applied in an infinite number of ways, every one of which could be worked out to an extent only limited by the limits of the misdirected ingenuity of man. Two such forms of "divination," that is of "dividing," are mentioned by Ezekiel in his description of the king of Babylon: "The king of Babylon stood at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination (qecem): he shook the arrows to and fro, he consulted the teraphim, he looked in the liver" (Ezekiel 21:21). The arrows were either marked to represent certain courses of action, and one was drawn out or shaken out, or else they were thrown promiscuously up into the air, and the augury was deduced from the way in which they fell.
3. "Looking in the Liver": "Looking in the liver" is one of the most venerable forms of divination. Here again it was a question of "division." Each of the various parts of the liver, its lobes, the gall bladder, the ducts and so forth, had a special significance allotted to it, theory, apparently, being that the god to whom the animal was sacrificed revealed his will by the way in which he molded the organ which was supposed to be the seat of the victim's life.
It will be noted that no explicit mention is made of astrology in this catalogue of the modes of soothsaying. But astrology was, as will be shown, closely connected with Moloch-worship, and was most directly a form of "divination," that is of division. Morris Jastrow the Younger indeed considers that astrology rose from hepatoscopy, and points out that, the common designation for "planet" amongst the Babylonians is a compound ideograph, the two elements of which signify "sheep" and "dead." He considers that the sacrificial sheep was offered to the deity specially for the purpose of securing an omen. Hence, when the planets were used as omens, this name of "slain sheep" was naturally applied to them, even as "augury," divination by the flight of birds, came to represent amongst the Romans all kinds of divination. "On the famous bronze model of a liver found near Piacenza and which dating from about the 3rd century BC was used as an object-lesson for instruction in hepatoscopy, precisely as the clay model of a liver dating from the Hammurabi period was used in a Babylonian temple school, we find the edge of the liver divided into sixteen regions with names of the deities inhabiting them corresponding to divisions of the heavens in which the gods have their seats, while on the reverse side there is a line dividing the liver into `day' and `night.' Professor Korte, in a study of this remarkable object, summing up the results of many years of research, explains this by showing that the liver was regarded as a microcosm reflecting the macrocosm, or, in other words, the liver of the sacrificial animal from being originally a reflection of the soul or mind of the god to whom the animal was offered, was brought into connection with the observation of the heavenly bodies revealing the intention of the gods acting in concert" (Morris Jastrow, Jr., "Hepatoscopy and Astrology in Babylonia and Assyria," in Proc. Amer. Phil. Soc., 665-66).
Three well-marked classes of astrology, that is to say of divination by the heavenly bodies, are mentioned in Isaiah 47:13, as being practiced in Babylon. "Let now the astrologers, the star-gazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save thee."
4. The Astrologers, or Dividers of the Heavens: The astrologers are the "dividers of the heavens" (hobhere shamayim); that is to say the significance of any stellar conjunction was made to depend upon the division of the heavens in which it occurred. The earliest of such divisions appears to have been into the four quarters, North, South, East, West, and astrological tablets of this character have been discovered in considerable numbers. Thus tablet W.A.I. III, 56, 1, gives a table of eclipses for each day of the month Tammuz up to the middle of the month, and the significance of the eclipse is connected with the quarter in which it was seen. On the first day the eclipse is associated with the South, on the second with the North, on the third with the East, and on the fourth with the West (Sayce, Astronomy and Astrology of the Babylonians, 222). Tablets of this description are very instructive since they prove that those who drew up such lists of omens had not even a rudimentary knowledge of astronomy. For the Babylonian months were intended to be natural months, yet at this time it was not realized that an eclipse of the sun could only take place when the moon was invisible, that is to say about the 28th or 29th day of the month, if the calendar was correct. Further, it was not realized that neither sun nor moon can ever be in the North in the latitude of Babylon. Such tables of omens then were not derived, as has sometimes been supposed, from a striking event having occurred near the time of an observed eclipse, but they must have been drawn up on an entirely arbitrary plan.
The same principle of "division" was applied to the moon itself for the purpose of drawing omens from its eclipses. Thus in R. C. Thompson's Reports of the Magicians and Astrologers of Nineveh and Babylon we read in No. 268, "The omens of all lands. The right of the moon is Akkad, the left Elam, the top Aharru, the bottom Subartu." The constellations of the zodiac also had omens allotted to them in a similar manner.
5. The Star-gazers, or Seers of the Constellations:
The astrologers mentioned in the Book of Daniel ('ashshaphim) were not "dividers of the heavens," but mutterers of incantations. The star-gazers or seers of the stars or constellations (chozim ba-kokhabhim) may be illustrated from two of Thompson's Reports. No. 216, "Saturn has appeared in Leo. When Leo is obscured, for three years lions and jackals .... and kill men"; and No. 239, "When Mars (apin) approaches Scorpio the prince will die by a scorpion's sting and his son after him will take the throne." It may be remarked that as the planet Saturn takes three years to pass through the constellation Leo, the ravages of lions are predicted to last for that time.
At a later date we find a complete system of astrology based upon the constellations of the zodiac which happen to be rising at the moment when the stars were consulted. Examples of this form of divination are found in the works of Zeuchros of Babylon, who flourished about the beginning of our era. By his day the system had received a considerable development. Twelve signs did not give much scope for prediction, so each sign had been divided into three equal portions or "decans"; each decan therefore corresponding nearly to the part of the ecliptic which the sun would pass through in a decade or "week" of 10 days of the Egyptians. A yet further complexity was brought about by associating each one of the 36 decans with one of the 36 extra-zodiacal constellations, and a further variety was obtained by associating each zodiacal constellation with its sunanatellon, or constellation rising with it; that is, at the same time; or with its paranatellon, or constellation rising beside it; that is, a constellation on the same meridian. At what time these particular forms of augury by the constellations came into use we do not know, but the division into the decans is distinctly alluded to in the 5th tablet of the Bah Creation Epic: "4. For the twelve months he (Marduk) fixed three stars."
6. The Monthly Prognosticators, or Men Who Knew the Omens of the New Moon:
The monthly prognosticators were the men who knew the omens of the new moon (modhi`im le-chodh-ashim). At one time the error of the calendar was made the basis of prediction. This is seen in the great astrological work based on the omens drawn up for Sargon of Agade, and entitled from its opening phrase Enuma anu Bel, "When the heaven god Bel" (the "Illumination of Bel"), as, for instance, "The moon as on the 1st day is seen in its appearance on the 27th day; evil is fixed for the land of Elam"; and "The moon as on the 1st day is seen on the 28th day: evil is fixed for the land of the Ahurru." Other omens were drawn from the position of the horns of the new moon when first seen; the right horn being assigned to the king and the left to his enemies, as in Thompson's Reports, No. 25: "When at the moon's appearance its right horn is high (literally, "long") and its left horn is low (literally, "short") the king's hand will conquer land other than this." The "monthly prognosticators" had not learned that the righthand horn is always the higher and that the amount of its elevation depends on the time of the year, or they kept the knowledge to themselves.
II. The Worship of the Heavenly Bodies the form of Idolatry to Which the Israelites Were Most Prone.
As we should naturally expect, the earliest astrological tablets relate chiefly to omens dependent upon the two great lights, the sun and moon. There is no evidence at present available to fix the date when the planets were first recognized as distinct from the fixed stars. Probably this discovery was intimately connected with the formation of the constellations; it cannot have been long delayed after it. Certainly planet-worship, and as connected with it, planetary divination, prevailed in the Euphrates valley at a very early period.
1. Chiun, Certainly the Planet Saturn: One planet is certainly mentioned in Old Testament, and we may safely infer that the other four were known, since this particular planet is the least conspicuous both in brightness and in motion, and was therefore probably the last to be discovered. The reference to Saturn occurs in Amos 5:25-26: "Did ye bring unto me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel? Yea, ye have borne the tabernacle of your king (the King James Version Moloch) and the shrine of (the King James Version Chiun) your images, the star of your god, which ye made to yourselves." This passage was quited from Septuagint by Stephen in his defense, "And they made a calf in those days, and brought a sacrifice unto the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their hands. But God turned, and gave them up to serve the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets,
"Did ye offer unto me slain beasts and sacrifices
Forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?
And ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch,
And the star of the god Rephan,
The figures which ye made to worship them"
The difference between the names Chiun and Rephan, is due either to Rephan being local Egyptian name for the planet Saturn, and therefore used by the Septuagint as its equivalent, or to an actual error of transcription in the text from which they were translating: the initial of the word being taken as resh (r) when it should have been kaph (k), r instead of k. The word should therefore be transliterated Kaivan, which was the name of the planet Saturn amongst the ancient Arabs and Syrians, while kaimanu, "constant" or "regular," was its name with the Assyrians. The English Revised Version in Amos 5:26 adopts the reading of the King James Version margin, "Siccuth your king," Moloch meaning king; but the authority of the Septuagint and the parallelism of the text and its general line of thought support the reading given by some of the ancient versions and followed by the King James Version.
2. Saturn or Moloch Worship: The difficulty of the passage is that both Amos and Stephen appear to represent the worship of the golden calf as identical with the worship of Moloch and of the planet Saturn; yet though Kaivan is only mentioned here, the nature of the reference would imply that this deity was one familiar both to speaker and hearers. The difficulty vanishes at once, if the plain statement of Stephen be accepted, that when God permitted Israel to "go after the stubbornness of their heart, that they might walk in their own counsels" (Psalms 81:12) He "gave them up to serve the host of heaven." The worship of the golden calf was star worship; it was the solar bull, the constellation Taurus, in which the sun was at the time of the spring equinox, that was thus represented. The golden calf was therefore analogous to the familiar symbol of the Mithraic cult, the bull slain by Mithra, Sol Invictus, if indeed the latter did not take its origin from this apostasy of Israel.
And Moloch the king, the idol of the Ammonites and Phoenicians, was intimately connected both with the solar bull and the planet Saturn. According to the rabbins, his statue was of brass, with a human body but the head of an ox. On the Carthaginian worship of Moloch or Saturn, Diodorus (book xx, chapter i) writes: "Among the Carthaginians there was a brazen statue of Saturn putting forth the palms of his hands bending in such a manner toward the earth, as that the boy who was laid upon them, in order to be sacrificed, should slip off, and so fall down headlong into a deep fiery furnace. Hence it is probable that Euripides took what he fabulously relates concerning the sacrifice in Taurus, where he introduces Iphigenia asking Orestes this question: `But what sepulchre will me dead receive, shall the gulf of sacred fire me have?' The ancient fable likewise that is common among all the Grecians, that Saturn devoured his own children, seems to be confirmed by this law among the Carthaginians." The parallelism of the text therefore is very complete. The Israelites professed to be carrying the tabernacle of Yahweh upon which rested the Shekinah glory; but in spirit they were carrying the tabernacle of the cruelest and most malignant of all the deities of the heathen, and the light in which they were rejoicing was the star of the planet assigned to that deity.
Moloch then was the sun as king, and especially the sun as he entered upon what might be considered his peculiar kingdom, the zodiac from Taurus to Serpens and Scorpio, the period of the six summer months. The connection of the sun with Saturn may seem to us somewhat forced, but we have the most direct testimony that such a connection was believed in by the Babylonians. In Thompson's Reports, obverse of No. 176 reads: "When the sun stands in the place of the moon, the king of the land will be secure on his throne. When the sun stands above or below the moon, the foundation of the throne will be secure." The "sun" in this inscription clearly cannot be the actual sun, and it is explained on the reverse as being "the star of the sun," the planet Saturn. No. 176 rev. reads: "Last night Saturn drew near to the moon. Saturn is the star of the sun. This is the interpretation: it is lucky for the king. The sun is the king's star." The connection between the sun and Saturn probably arose from both being taken as symbols of Time. The return of the sun to the beginning of the zodiac marked the completion of the year. Saturn, the slowest moving of all the heavenly bodies, accomplished its revolution through the signs of the zodiac in about 30 years, a complete generation of men. Saturn therefore was in a peculiar sense the symbol of Time, and because of Time, of Destiny.
3. Mazzaloth, or Planet Worship: The connection between the worship of the golden calves, of the heavenly host and of Moloch, and of these with divination and enchantments, is brought out very clearly in the judgment which the writer of the Book of Ki pronounces upon the apostate ten tribes: "They forsook all the commandments of Yahweh their God, and made them molten images, even two calves, and made an Asherah, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served Baal. And they caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire, and used divination and enchantments" (2 Kings 17:16-17). The sin of apostate Judah was akin to the sin of apostate Israel. In the reformation of Josiah, he put down the idolatrous priests that "burned incense unto Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets (mazzaloth), and to all the host of heaven" (2 Kings 23:5). He also destroyed the 'asherah and he "defiled Topheth .... that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech" (2 Kings 23:10). "Moreover them that had familiar spirits, and the wizards, and the teraphim, and the idols, and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, did Josiah put away" (2 Kings 23:24). The idolatries to which the Israelites of both kingdoms were especially prone were those of the heavenly bodies, and inextricably woven with them was the passion for employing those heavenly bodies as omens, and in consequence for every kind of divination and witchcraft.
The word translated "planets" in 2 Kings 23:5 is mazzaloth, closely akin to the mazzaroth of Job 38:32. This rendering probably reproduces correctly the meaning of the original. R. C. Thompson in his introduction to the Reports writes (xxvii): "The places where the gods stood in the zodiac were called manzalti, a word which means literally `stations,' and we are probably right in assuming that it is the equivalent of the mazzaloth mentioned in 2 Kings 23:5. The use of the word in late Hebrew is, however, somewhat more vague, for mazzal, though literally meaning a constellation of the zodiac, is also applied to any or every star, and in the Ber'shith Rabba', cx, it is said `One mazzal completeth its circuit in thirty days, another completeth it in thirty years.' " The two bodies referred to are evidently the moon with its lunation of about 30 days, and Saturn with its revolution of about 30 years; these being the two planets with the shortest and longest periods respectively. By a natural metonymy, mazzaloth, the complete circuit of the zodiac, came also to mean mazzaloth, the bodies that performed that circuit, just as in the present day we speak of a railway, which means literally the "permanent way," when we really mean the trains that travel upon it.
4. Gadh and Meni or Star Worship: The references in Old Testament to the planets other than Saturn are not so clear. In Isaiah 65:11 two deities are apparently referred to: "Ye that forsake Yahweh, that forget my holy mountain, that prepare a table for Fortune (Gad), and that fill up mingled wine unto Destiny (Meni); I will destine you to the sword, and ye shall all bow down to the slaughter." It is clear that Gad and Meni are the titles of two closely associated deities, and Gesenius identifies them with Jupiter and Venus, the Greater and Lesser Good Fortunes of the astrologers; But as I have suggested in the Astronomy of the Bible (133, 217), if any of the heavenly bodies are here intended (which cannot as yet be considered certain), it is more probable that they are the two beautiful starclusters that stand on the head and the shoulder of the Bull at the old commencement of the zodiac, as if they marked the gateway of the year--the Hyades and Pleiades. Both groups were considered traditionally as composed of seven stars; and the two names Gadh (the Hyades) and Meni (the Pleiades) taken together give the meaning of the "Fortunate Number," i.e. seven. The lectisternia--the spreading the table and mingling the wine to Gadh and Meni--at the beginning of the year to secure good fortune throughout its course, were therefore held about the time of the Passover, as if in parody, if indeed they were not a desecration of it: heathen rites added to one of the most solemn services of Yahweh.
5. Lucifer, the Shining Star: The planet Venus is more distinctly referred to in Isaiah 14:12: "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!" (the King James Version). The word here rendered Lucifer, that is, "light-bearer," is the word helel corresponding to the Assyrian mustelil, "the shining star," an epithet to which the planet Venus has a preeminent claim.
Mars and Mercury, the two remaining planets, are not mentioned as such in Old Testament, but the deities connected with them, Nergal = Mars (2 Kings 17:30) and Nebo = Mercury (Isaiah 46:1), both occur.
III. Systems of Astrology. 1. Names of the Week-Days, Due to an Astrological System:
In astrology the planets were regarded as being 7 in number, but the idea that the number 7 derived its sacredness from this fact is an inversion of the true state of the case. It was that 7 being regarded as a sacred number, the number of the planets was artificially made to correspond by including in the same class as the five wandering stars, bodies that differed so widely from them in appearance as the sun and moon. So artificial a classification cannot have been primitive, and it is significant that in Genesis 1:14 the sun and moon are presented as being (as indeed they appear to be) of an altogether different order from the rest of the heavenly bodies. Yet there is one feature that they have in common with the five planets: all move among the stars within the band of the zodiac; each of the seven makes the circuit of the mazzaloth.
We owe the names of the days of the week to this astrological conception of the planets as being 7 in number, and some writers (e.g. R. A. Proctor in his Myths and Marvels of Astronomy, 43-47) have supposed that the week of 7 days owed its origin to this astrological conception and that the 7th day--Saturn's Day--became the Sabbath, the Day of Rest, because Saturn was the planet of ill-omen and it was then unlucky to undertake any work. The way in which the allotment of the planets to the days of the week was arrived at was the following. The Greek astronomers and mathematicians concluded that the planet Saturn was the most distant from the earth and that the others followed in the descending order of Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon. In the progress of astrology there came a time when it was found necessary to assign a planet to every hour so as to increase the number of omens it could afford. Starting then with Saturn as presiding over the first hour of the first day, each planet was used three times over on that day, and three planets were used a fourth time. The sun, the fourth planet, took therefore the first hour of the second day, and gave it its name, so that Sunday followed Saturday. In like manner the third day became the moon's day, and so on with the other planets which followed in the order Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, and again Saturn. This idea of the relative distances of the planets was that arrived at by the astronomers of Alexandria, and was necessarily subsequent to the reduction of the planetary motions to a mathematical system by Eudoxus and his successors. The division of the day implied was one of 24 hours, not of 12; the Egyptian division, not the Babylonian. But the Egyptian week was one of 10 days, the 7-day week was Semitic, and the week implied in the system is the free week, running on continuously, the Jewish week, not the Babylonian. For the Babylonians, though they paid some attention to the 7th day, began their reckoning afresh at the beginning of each month. This particular astrological system therefore owed its origin to four distinct nationalities. The conception of the influence of the planets was Babylonian; the mathematical working out of the order of the planets was exclusively Gr; the division of the day into 24 hours was Egyptian; the free continuous 7-day week was particularly Jewish. These four influences were brought together in Alexandria not very long before the Christian era. Here therefore and at this time, this particular system of astrology took its origin.
This form of astrology was readily adopted by the Jews in their degenerate days, as we find from references in Talmud. Thus, Rabbi Chanena said to his disciples, "Go and tell Ben Laive, the planetary influence does not depend upon days but hours. He that is born under the influence of the sun (no matter on what day) will have a beaming face"; and so the rabbi went through the whole list of the planets (Shabbath, fol 156, Colossians 1). The above was spoken as a criticism of Rabbi Shimon Ben Laive who had written, "Whoever is born on the first day of the week will be either a thoroughly good or a thoroughly bad man; because light and darkness was created on that day"; and the rabbi spoke similarly for the other days. We get a relic of this superstition in our nursery rhyme, "Monday's child is full of grace; Tuesday's child is fair of face," etc.; and some present-day astrologers still use the system for their forecasts. It will of course be noted that the system takes no account of the actual positions of the heavenly bodies;. the moon does not shine more or less on Monday than on any other day.
2. Origin of Modern Astrology: It was from Alexandrian astrology that modern astrology immediately derived its form; but the original source of all astrology in the ancient world lay in the system of planetary idolatry prevalent in the Euphrates valley, and in the fact that this idolatry was practiced chiefly for the purpose of divination. At one time it was supposed that a real astronomy was cultivated at an early time in Babylonia, but Jastrow, Kugler and others have shown that this idea is without basis. The former writes, "The fact however is significant that, with perhaps some exceptions, we have in the library of Ashurbanipal representing to a large extent copies from older originals, no text that can properly be called astronomical ..... It is certainly significant that the astronomical tablets so far found belong to the latest period, and in fact to the age following on the fall of the Babylonian empire. According to Kugler the oldest dated genuinely astronomical tablet belongs to the 7th year of Cambyses, i.e. 522 BC" ("Hepatoscopy and Astrology in Babylonia and Assyria," in Proc. Amer. Phil. Soc., 667).
The conquests of Alexander the Great brought into close connection with each other the Babylonian and Greek systems of thought, and Babylonian astrology was introduced to the Greeks by Berosus the Chaldean priest. In Greek hands, astrology was changed from its character of an oriental religion into the appearance of a science. In Babylonia the stars had been consulted for the benefit of the king as representing the state; amongst the Greeks, with their strong individualistic tendency, the fortunes of the individual became the most frequent subject of inquiry, and the idea was originated of determining the character and fortune of a man from the position of the stars at his birth--genethlialogy--a phase of astrology which never existed in the Euphrates valley. This extension rendered it necessary to increase greatly the complexities of the omens, and the progress which the Greeks had made in mathematics supplied them with the means of doing so. Thus came into existence that complex and symmetrical system of divination of which we have the earliest complete exposition in the writings of Claudius Ptolemy about 130 AD; a system which, though modified in details, is in effect that in use today.
3. "Curious Arts" of Ephesus: Since this mathematical astrology did not come into existence until about the commencement of the Christian era, it is clear that there could not be any reference to its particular form in the Old Testament. We may probably see one reference in the New Testament (Acts 19:19). Of the converts at Ephesus it is written, "Not a few of them that practiced magical arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all; and they counted the price of them, and found it 50,000 pieces of silver." Books of magical incantations and prescriptions were certainly included, but it is also likely that the almanacs, tables and formulas, essential to the astrologer for the exercise of his art, were also in the number. It was of course impossible then, as now, for the convert to Christianity to consult astrologers or to practice astrological divination. Partly because it was an absurdity, for the divisions of the heavens upon which the predictions are based, are purely imaginary; the "signs" of the zodiac, and the "houses" have nothing whatsoever correspending to them in Nature; such division is exactly that denounced by the prophets of old as qecem, "divination." Next, and of more importance, it ascribes to mere creatures, the planets or the spirits supposed to preside over them, the powers that belong to God alone; it was and is essentially idolatrous. As one of the chief living astrologers puts it, "The TRUE astrologer believes that the sun is the body of the Loges of this solar system, `in Him we live and move and have our being.' The planets are his angels, being modifications in the consciousness of the Loges" (Knowledge, XXIII, 228). Astrology is indeed referred to in the Old Testament, with other forms of divination, and the idolatry inherent in them, but they are only mentioned in terms of the most utter reprobation. The Jews alone of all the nations of antiquity were taught by their religion neither to resort to such arts nor to be afraid of the omens deduced from them. Isaiah knew the Lord to be He that "frustrateth the signs of the liars, and maketh diviners mad" (Isaiah 44:25), and Jeremiah declared, "Thus saith Yahweh, Learn not the way of the nations, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the nations are dismayed at them" (Jeremiah 10:2). And what held good for the Jews of old holds good for us today. Above all, astrology is an attempt to ascertain the will of God by other means than those which He has appointed--His Son, who is the Way and the Truth and the Life, and His Holy Scriptures in which we learn of Him, and which are able to make us "wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus" (2 Timothy 3:15).
LITERATURE.
Franz Boll, Sphaera: Neue griechische Texte und Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der Sternbilder, 1903; Kugler, Kulturhistorische Bedeutung der babylonischen Astronomie, 1907; Sternkunde und Sterndienst in Babel; E. W. Maunder, Astronomy of the Bible, 1908; The Bible and Astronomy, Annual Address before the Victoria Institute, 1908; E. W. Maunder and A. S. D. Maunder, "Note on the Date of the Passage of the Vernal Equinox from Taurus into Aries," in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, LXIV, 488-507; also three papers on "The Oldest Astronomy" in Journal of the British Astronomical Association, VIII, 373; IX, 317; XIV, 241; R. A. Proctor, Myths and Marvels of Astronomy; R. C. Thompson, Reports of the Magicians and Astrologers of Nineveh and Babylon; G. V. Schiaparelli, Astronomy in the Old Testament; also two papers, "I Primordi" and "I Progressi dell' Astronomia presso i Babilonesi," in Rivista di Scienzia, 1908; C. Virolleaud, L'astrologie chaldeenne. Le livre intitule "Enuma Anu Bel," 1908, 1909.
E. W. Maunder