Susa–Taanathshiloh

(Esther 11:3; 16:18) [Shushan, Or Susa].

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

(a lily).

the father of Gaddi the Manassite spy. (Numbers 13:11)

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

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

[Oath]

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

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

[Arms, Armor]

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

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

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

the Greek form of the word Shechem. It occurs in (Acts 7:16) only. [Shechem]

properly Seventh a town of Egypt, on the frontier of Cush or Ethiopia, (Ezekiel 29:10; 30:6) represented by the present Aruan or Es-Suan.

(The Jewish form of the name Simon, used in the Revised Version of (Acts 15:14) and referring to Simon Peter.-ED.)

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

(with fate), a female member of the church of Philippi. (Philemon 4:2,3) (A.D.57).

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

is the term used throughout our version for the Hebrew Aram, as well as for the Greek Zupia . Most probably Syria is for Tsyria, the country about Tsur or Tyre which was the first of the Syrian towns known to the Greeks. It is difficult to fix the limits of Syria. The limits of the Hebrew Aram and its subdivisions are spoken of under Aram. Syria proper was bounded by Amanus and Taurus on the north by the Euphrates and the Arabian desert on the east, by Palestine on the south, by the Mediterranean near the mouth of the Orontes, and then by Phoenicia on the west. This tract is about 300 miles long from north to south, and from 50 to 150 miles broad. It contains an area of about 30,000 square miles. General physical features .—The general character of the tract is mountainous, as the Hebrew name Aram (from a roof signifying “height”) sufficiently implies. The most fertile and valuable tract of Syria is the long valley intervening between Libanus and Anti-Libanus. Of the various mountain ranges of Syria, Lebanon possesses the greatest interest. It extends from the mouth of the Litany to Arka, a distance of nearly 100 miles. Anti-Libanus, as the name implies, stands lover against Lebanon, running in the same direction, i.e. nearly north and south, and extending the same length. [Lebanon] The principal rivers of Syria are the Litany and the Orontes. The Litany springs from a small lake situated in the middle of the Coele-Syrian valley, about six miles to the southwest of Baalbek. It enters the sea about five miles north of Tyre. The source of the Orontes is but about 15 miles from that of the Litany. Its modern name is the Nahr-el-Asi, or “rebel stream,” an appellation given to it on account of its violence and impetuosity in many parts of its course. The chief towns of Syria may be thus arranged, as nearly as possible in the order of their importance: 1, Antioch; 2, Damascus; 3, Apamea; 4, Seleucia; 5, Tadmor or Palmyra; 6, Laodicea; 7, Epiphania (Hamath); 8, Samosata; 9, Hierapolis (Mabug); 10, Chalybon; 11, Emesa; 12, Heliopolis; 13, Laodicea ad Libanum; 14, Cyrrhus; 15, Chalcis; 16, Poseideum; 17, Heraclea; 18, Gindarus; 19, Zeugma; 20, Thapsacus. Of these, Samosata, Zeugma and Thapsacus are on the Euphrates; Seleucia, Laodicea, Poseideum and Heraclea, on the seashore, Antioch, Apamea, Epiphania and Emesa (Hems), on the Orontes; Heliopolis and Laodicea ad Libanum, in Coele-Syria; Hierapolis, Chalybon, Cyrrhus, Chalcis and Gindarns, in the northern highlands; Damascus on the skirts, and Palmyra in the centre, of the eastern desert. History.—The first occupants of Syria appear to have been of Hamitic descent—Hittites, Jebusites, Amorites, etc. After a while the first comers, who were still to a great extent nomads, received a Semitic infusion, while most Probably came to them from the southeast. The only Syrian town whose existence we find distinctly marked at this time is Damascus, (Genesis 14:15; 15:2) which appears to have been already a place of some importance. Next to Damascus must be placed Hamath. (Numbers 13:21; 34:8) Syria at this time, and for many centuries afterward, seems to have been broken up among a number of petty kingdoms. The Jews first come into hostile contact with the Syrians, under that name, in the time of David. (Genesis 15:18; 2 Samuel 8:3,4,13) When, a few years later, the Ammonites determined on engaging in a war with David, and applied to the Syrians for aid, Zolah, together with Beth-rehob sent them 20,000 footmen, and two other Syrian kingdoms furnished 13,000. (2 Samuel 10:6) This army being completely defeated by Joab, Hadadezer obtained aid from Mesopotamia, ibid. ver. 16, and tried the chance of a third battle, which likewise went against him, and produced the general submission of Syria to the Jewish monarch. The submission thus begun continued under the reign of Solomon. (1 Kings 4:21) The only part of Syria which Solomon lost seems to have been Damascus, where an independent kingdom was set up by Rezon, a native of Zobah. (1 Kings 11:23-25) On the separation of the two kingdoms, soon after the accession of Rehoboam, the remainder of Syria no doubt shook off the yoke. Damascus now became decidedly the leading state, Hamath being second to it, and the northern Hittites, whose capital was Carchemish, near Bambuk, third. [Damascus] Syria became attached to the great Assyrian empire, from which it passed to the Babylonians, and from them to the Persians, In B.C. 333 it submitted to Alexander without a struggle. Upon the death of Alexander, Syria became, for the first time the head of a great kingdom. On the division of the provinces among his generals, B.C. 321, Seleucus Nicator received Mesopotamia and Syria. The city of Antioch was begun in B.C. 300, and, being finished in a few years, was made the capital of Seleucus’ kingdom. The country grew rich with the wealth which now flowed into it on all sides. Syria was added to the Roman empire by Pompey, B.C. 64, and as it holds an important place, not only in the Old Testament but in the New, some account of its condition under the Romans must be given. While the country generally was formed into a Roman province, under governors who were at first proprietors or quaestors, then procounsuls, and finally legates, there were exempted from the direct rule of the governor in the first place, a number of “free cities” which retained the administration of their own affairs, subject to a tribute levied according to the Roman principles of taxation; secondly, a number of tracts, which were assigned to petty princes, commonly natives, to be ruled at their pleasure, subject to the same obligations with the free cities as to taxation. After the formal division of the provinces between Augustus and the senate, Syria, being from its exposed situation among the province principis, were ruled by legates, who were of consular rank (consulares) and bore severally the full title of “Legatus Augusti pro praetore.” Judea occupied a peculiar position; a special procurator was therefore appointed to rule it, who was subordinate to the governor of Syria, but within his own province had the power of a legatus. Syria continued without serious disturbance from the expulsion of the Parthians, B.C. 38, to the breaking out of the Jewish war, A.D. 66. in A.D. 44-47 it was the scene of a severe famine. A little earlier, Christianity had begun to spread into it, partly by means of those who “were scattered” at the time of Stephen’s persecution, (Acts 11:19) partly by the exertions of St. Paul. (Galatians 1:21) The Syrian Church soon grew to be one of the most flourishing (Acts 13:1; 15:23,35,41) etc. (Syria remained under Roman and Byzantine rule till A.D. 634, when it was overrun by the Mohammedans; after which it was for many years the scene of fierce contests, and was finally subjugated by the Turks, A.D. 1517, under whose rule it still remains.—ED.)

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

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

(sandy), an ancient Canaanitish city whose king is enumerated among the thirty-one kings conquered by Joshua. (Joshua 12:21) It came into the half tribe of Manasseh, (Joshua 17:11; 21:25; 1 Chronicles 7:29) and was bestowed on the Kohathite Levites. (Joshua 21:25) Taanach is almost always named in company with Megiddo, and they were evidently the chief towns of that fine rich district which forms the western portion of the great plain of Esdraelon. (1 Kings 4:12) It is still called Ta’annuk, and) stands about four miles southeast of Lejjun and 13 miles southwest of Nazareth.

(approach to Shiloh), a place named once only— (Joshua 16:6)—as one of the landmarks of the boundary of Ephraim. Perhaps Taanath was the ancient Canaanite name of the place, and Shiloh the Hebrew name.