Encyclopaedia Biblica

Last updated

Encyclopaedia Biblica: A Critical Dictionary of the Literary, Political and Religion History, the Archeology, Geography and Natural History of the Bible (1899), edited by Thomas Kelly Cheyne and J. Sutherland Black, is a critical encyclopedia of the Bible. In theology and biblical studies, it is often referenced as Enc. Bib., or as Cheyne and Black.

Contents

Description

An image illustrating the article 'Ethiopia' - one of the Nubian pyramids at Meroe C+B-Ethiopia-Fig3-PyramidOfMeroe.PNG
An image illustrating the article 'Ethiopia' – one of the Nubian pyramids at Meroe

It has an article for every single name and place both in the Bible and in its traditional Apocrypha, as well as for each of the books of these, together with many improper nouns appearing in these (such as nebi'im, 'mole', 'owl') and other more general subjects (such as 'music', 'tents', etc.). Many of these articles are given in great detail, and usually include mention of the various spellings for each word as used by the Masoretic Text, Septuagint (differentiating between each of the most important ancient manuscripts), and by other ancient versions; the largest article is that on the Gospels, which is over 5 MB in size, despite being almost completely plain text (and therefore over half a million words long). It is thus an extremely large work – in PDF form it constitutes a total of about 190 MB of mostly plain text (this would equate to nearly 20 million words, even at 10 characters per word).

It is frequently referenced by other respected Bible-related encyclopedias of the period, such as the Catholic Encyclopedia , [1] and 11th Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica [2] for example. The Jewish Encyclopedia has some articles ('marriage' for example) which quote large sections from it nearly verbatim. It is also referenced by works such as the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia . [3] It is hence, indirectly, also a source for some articles of the English Wikipedia, mainly related to the Judaeo-Christian religion.

A measure of its importance of some of the contributors is gained from the fact that the Jewish Encyclopedia dedicates the majority of the article 'Jerahmeel' to discussing Cheyne's theory of the Jerahmeelites, despite regarding it as arbitrary.

The articles are still of value and interest to modern scholars [4] [5] and Islamic writers, [6] however, modern archaeological research and discoveries have made portions of it obsolete, and modern interpretations are of even older material is likely to be very different. For example, the Jerahmeelite/Arabian theory (see below) has long been ignored. It is no longer restricted by copyright and has become available online.

Authors and contributors

The authors of the articles include many of the most respected biblical scholars at the time it was written. Several held senior professorships at important universities and many held the highest academic qualification – the Doctor of Divinity. The contributors were:

Cheyne's 'surprising' theory about the Jerahmeelites

Emil G. Hirsch and George A. Barton wrote in the Jewish Encyclopedia : [8]

From the foregoing references the natural inference is that the Jerahmeelites were a Judean clan, to the south of whose habitat a part of the Negeb extended. But professor Cheyne put forth a surprising theory concerning the Jerahmeelites. In his view they were a powerful north-Arabian tribe, with which the Hebrews came into conflict on their first approach to the land. A part of the Jerahmeelites was absorbed by the Hebrews, but there were many contests between the Israelites and the main body of the Jerahmeelites all through the period of the Kings. Even among the post-exilic opponents of Nehemiah, the Jerahmeelites appear again. Cheyne believes that echoes of these conflicts once reverberated throughout the Old Testament, but that, owing to the corruption of the Masoretic Text, they must now be reawakened by conjectural emendation of the text.
Carrying out this idea, Cheyne finds the chief elements of Israel's origin, religion, and history in Jerahmeel. Babylonia and Assyria sink into insignificance beside Jerahmeel in so far as influence on the Old Testament is concerned. "Amalekites" is a corruption of "Jerahmeelites"; "Beer-lahai-roi" (Gen. xvi. 14) is a corruption of "Well of Jerahmeel"; "Ephraim" is often a corruption of "Jerahmeel." The epithet of Jericho, "city of palm-trees," is a corruption of "city of Jerahmeel"; the names of Saul, of Kish, his father, and of most of the sons of Saul are held to be corruptions of "Jerahmeel"; and Isaiah's "Maher-shalal-hash-baz" is held to be a corruption of "Jerahmeel will be deserted." "Jerahmeel" has been displaced by "Babylon" in Isa. xiii. and xiv.; and Ezekiel's three wise men were "Enoch, Jerahmeel, and Arab." This list might be continued indefinitely.
The ingenuity of Cheyne's method may be admitted; but the thesis must be rejected as altogether arbitrary. That it has received serious attention is owing solely to the great service rendered by its sponsor in other departments of Old Testament research.

By the same principle, he derives other names from "Rehoboth", "Zarephath", "Mizraim", and "Arab"; he does not equate "Mizraim" with Egypt (the usual interpretation). The vast majority of names of places and people in the bible are connected by Cheyne to Jerahmeel, or one of these.

Cheyne frequently mentions this theory in his Encyclopaedia articles, often appending his view to articles written by people with more mainstream interpretations. He does, however, detail the alternative (and therefore mainstream) views, while doing so. Hence the articles are respected, as long as Cheyne's theory about these names is ignored.

See also

Related Research Articles

The Rev. Francis Brown was an American Semitic scholar born in Hanover, New Hampshire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Henry Green</span> American academic

William Henry Green, was an American scholar of the Hebrew language. He was born in Groveville, near Bordentown, New Jersey.

The name Jerahmeel appears several times in the Tanakh. It means "He will obtain mercy of God", "God pities", "May God have compassion", "May God pity", or "Moon from God".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Dick Wilson</span> American linguist and Bible scholar

Robert Dick Wilson, PhD, DD was an American linguist and Presbyterian Old Testament scholar who devoted his life to prove the reliability of the Hebrew Bible. In his quest to determine the accuracy of the original manuscripts, Wilson learned 45 languages, including Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, as well as all the languages into which the Scriptures had been translated up to 600 AD.

Henry Preserved Smith was an American biblical scholar.

"Generations of Adam" is a genealogical concept recorded in Genesis 5:1 in the Hebrew Bible. It is typically taken as the name of Adam's line of descent going through Seth. Another view equates the generations of Adam with material about a second line of descent starting with Cain in Genesis 4, while Genesis 5 is taken as the "generations of Noah".

Ian Howard Marshall was a Scottish New Testament scholar. He was Professor Emeritus of New Testament Exegesis at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland. He was formerly the chair of the Tyndale Fellowship for Biblical and Theological Research; he was also president of the British New Testament Society and chair of the Fellowship of European Evangelical Theologians. Marshall identified as an Evangelical Methodist. He was the author of numerous publications, including 2005 Gold Medallion Book Award winner New Testament Theology.

James Barr was a Scottish Old Testament scholar, known for his critique of the notion that the vocabulary and structure of the Hebrew language may reflect a particular theological mindset. At the University of Oxford, he was the Oriel Professor of the Interpretation of Holy Scripture from 1976 to 1978, and the Regius Professor of Hebrew from 1978 to 1989.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frank Moore Cross</span> American scholar and academic

Frank Moore Cross Jr. was the Hancock Professor of Hebrew and Other Oriental Languages at Harvard University, notable for his work in the interpretation of the Dead Sea Scrolls, his 1973 magnum opusCanaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic, and his work in Northwest Semitic epigraphy. Many of his essays on the latter topic have since been collected in Leaves from an Epigrapher's Notebook.

Gerald "Gary" Neil Knoppers was a professor in the Department of Theology at University of Notre Dame. He wrote books and articles regarding a range of Old Testament and ancient Near Eastern topics. He is particularly renowned for his work on 1 Chronicles, writing I Chronicles 1 – 9 and I Chronicles 10 – 29, which together comprise a significant treatment of the work of the Chronicler. In May 2005 the Canadian Society of Biblical Studies granted the R. B. Y. Scott Award to Knoppers for his two-volume Anchor Bible commentary on I Chronicles

Mark Stratton John Matthew Smith is an American Old Testament scholar and professor.

David Toshio Tsumura is a linguist, Old Testament scholar, dean of faculty, and professor of Old Testament professor at Japan Bible Seminary. His degrees are M.Div., M.A., Ph.D. He is a chairman of the Tokyo Museum of Biblical Archaeology, editor of Exegetica: Studies in Biblical Exegesis, chairman of the New Japanese Bible(新改訳)Publishing Association, and author of the volume on 1 Samuel in the New International Commentary on the Old Testament series.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Merlin Powis Smith</span> American academic (1866–1932)

John Merlin Powis Smith was an English-born, American orientalist and biblical scholar.

Michael B. Shepherd is an assistant professor of Biblical Studies at Cedarville University who specializes in Hebrew/Aramaic language and exegesis. Before joining Cedarville in 2015, Shepherd held the John and Allie Fogleman Assistant Professor of Old Testament and Hebrew at Louisiana College in Pineville, Louisiana, as well as professor of Old Testament and Hebrew at the Caskey School of Divinity.

F. W. "Chip" Dobbs-Allsopp is a biblical scholar, epigrapher, and literary theorist. Currently professor of Old Testament, or Hebrew Bible, at Princeton Theological Seminary, he has taught and written extensively on Semitic languages, the origins of alphabetic writing, biblical poetry, poetics, and literary criticism.

Leslie C. Allen is an Old Testament scholar. He is Senior Professor of Old Testament at Fuller Theological Seminary's School of Theology, where he teaches in the Hebrew Prophets, OT 'Writings' and OT Exegesis in Lamentations and Psalms. He is the author of a number of scholarly books, most notably the commentary on the books of Joel, Obadiah, Jonah and Micah in the New International Commentary on the Old Testament series. Also numbers of scholarly journals, biblical encyclopedias and academic religious periodicals have included articles by Allen.

Peter Runham Ackroyd was a British Biblical scholar, Anglican priest, and former Congregational minister. From 1961 to 1982, he was the Samuel Davidson Professor of Old Testament Studies at the University of London. He was also President of the Society for Old Testament Study in 1972.

Patrick William Skehan was an American Old Testament semitic scholar.

Robert Donald Miller II OFS was an Old Testament theologian and biblical archaeologist at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. He was also known for his Great Courses series Understanding the Old Testament. "Chieftains of the Highland Clans: A History of Israel in the Twelfth and Eleventh Centuries B.C.", published in 2005, is cited as among his best-known works.

References

  1. for example, it is a source for the article 'Eve' in the Catholic Encyclopedia
  2. Smith, William Robertson; Robinson, Henry Wheeler (1911). "Hosea"  . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica . Vol. 13 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 784–786.
  3. the article on Aaron, for example
  4. As reading material suggested by the University of Calgary, for example:
  5. As a source for the archaeology department at Tel Aviv University
  6. e.g.
  7. Davies, T. Witton (1950). "Van Manen, William Christian". In Jackson, Samuel MacAuley (ed.). New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, Vol. XII. Michigan: Baker Book House. p. 140 via CCEL.
  8. Emil G. Hirsch, George A. Barton Jerahmeel // Jewish Encyclopedia

Further reading