az: Conj. and adverb (usually Greek hos hosper, kathos), designating: (1) Likeness: (a) between nouns (Gen 3:5; Jdg 6:5; Phil 2:8; Heb 11:27,29); (b) between verbs (Lk 6:36; Jn 5:30; 1 Cor 10:7); (c) between adjectives (1 Cor 15:48). (2) Limitation (with respect to a particular aspect or relation) (1 Pet 4:15,16). (3) Time (Lk 8:5; 15:25; Acts 8:36). (4) Cause (1 Cor 4:1). (5) Concession (Jn 7:10; 2 Cor 11:21). (6) Illustration, in numerous passages, beginning "as it is written," "as it is said," etc.
a'-sa ('aca', "healer"; Asa):
(1) A king of Judah, the third one after the separation of Judah and Israel. He was the son of Abijah and grandson of Rehoboam. Maacah, his mother, or rather grandmother, was daughter of Abishalom (Absalom) (1 Ki 15:1 ff). The first ten years of his reign were prosperous and peaceful (2 Ch 14:1). He introduced many reforms, such as putting away the sodomites or male prostitutes, removing idols from holy places, breaking down altars, pillars and Asherim. He even deposed the "queen mother" because of her idolatrous practices, and of the image which she had made for Asherah (1 Ki 15:12 ff; 2 Ch 14:3). Though the king himself, in the main, was a zealous reformer, his subjects did not always keep pace with him (1 Ki 15:17). With an army of 580,000 he repelled an attack of Zerah, the Ethiopian, and routed him completely at Mareshah in the lowlands of Judah (2 Ch 14:6 ff). Directed and encouraged by Azariah the prophet, he carried on a great revival. Having restored the great altar of burnt offering in the temple, he assembled the people for a renewal of their covenant with Yahweh. On this occasion 700 oxen and 7,000 sheep were offered in sacrifice. For the next twenty years there was apparently great prosperity and peace throughout his kingdom, but in the thirty-sixth year of his reign, Judah was attacked by Baasha, king of Israel, at all times hostile to Judah (1 Ki 15:32). Baasha continued to encroach and finally fortified Ramah as a frontier fortress. Asa, faint-hearted, instead of putting his entire trust in Yahweh, made an alliance with Ben-hadad, of Damascus. The Syrian king, in consideration of a large sum of money and much treasure from the temple at Jerusalem, consented to attack the northern portion of Baasha's territory. It was at this favorable moment that Asa captured Ramah, and with the vast building material collected there by Baasha, he built Geba of Benjamin and Mizpah (1 Ki 15:16-22). This lack of faith in Yahweh was severely criticized by Hanani the prophet. Asa, instead of listening patiently to this prophet of God, was greatly offended and enraged and Hanani was put in prison (2 Ch 16:1-10). Three years later, Asa was attacked by gout or some disease of the feet. Here again he is accused of lack of faith, for "he sought not to Yahweh, but to the physicians" (2 Ch 16:12). Having ruled forty-one years, he died and was buried with great pomp in a tomb erected by himself in the city of David, i.e. Jerusalem. On the whole his reign was very successful, but it is sad to chronicle that as the years rolled on he became less and less faithful to Yahweh and His law.
(2) A son of Elkanah, a Levite, who dwelt in one of the villages of the Netophathites (1 Ch 9:16).
W. W. Davies
as-a-di'-as (Asadias): An ancestor of Baruch (Baruch 1:1).
a'-sa-el, as'-a-el.
See ASIEL (Apocrypha).
as'-a-hel (`asah'el, "God hath made"; Asael):
(1) The brother of Joab and Abishai. The three were sons of Zeruiah, one of David's sisters (1 Ch 2:15,16; 2 Sam 2:18, etc.). The three brothers seem to have been from the beginning members of David's troop of strangely respectable brigands. Asahel was distinguished for his swift running, and this fact brought misfortune upon him and upon Israel. When Abner and the forces of Ish-bosheth were defeated near Gibeon, Asahel pursued Abner. Abner knew that he could outright Asahel, though he could not outrun him. He also knew that the time had come for making David king, and that a blood feud among the leaders would be a calamity. He expostulated with Asahel, but in vain. It came to a fight, and Abner slew Asahel (2 Sam 2:3). As a result the coming of David to the throne of all Israel was delayed; and when at last Abner brought it about, he himself was treacherously killed by Joab in alleged blood revenge for Asahel. Asahel is mentioned as sixth in the list of David's "mighty men" (2 Sam 23:24; 1 Ch 11:26). The earlier of the names in this list are evidently arranged in the order of seniority. If it be assumed that the list was not made till after the death of Asahel, still there is no difficulty in the idea that some of the names in the list were placed there posthumously. Asahel is also mentioned as the fourth of David's month-by-month captains (1 Ch 27:7). Superficial criticism describes this position as that of "commander of a division of David's army," and regards the statement, "and Zebadiah his son after him," as a note added to explain the otherwise incredible assertion of the text. This criticism is correct in its implication that the fourth captain was, as the text stands, the dead Asahel, in the person of his son Zebadiah. Coming from an annotator, the criticism regards this meaning as intelligible; is it any the less so if we regard it as coming from the author? In fact, the statement is both intelligible and credible. The second of David's month-by-month captains is Dodai, the father of the second of David's "mighty men"; and the fourth is Asahel, with his son Zebadiah. With these two variations the twelve month-by-month captains are twelve out of the nineteen seniors in the list of mighty men, and are mentioned in practically the same order of seniority. The 24,000 men each month were not a fighting army mobilized for war. The position of general for a month, whatever else it may have involved, was an honor held by a distinguished veteran. There is no absurdity in the idea that the honor may in some cases have been posthumous, the deceased being represented by his father or his son or by someone else.
(2) A Levite member of the commission of captains and Levites and priests which Jehoshaphat, in his third year, sent among the cities of Judah, with the book of the law, to spread information among the people (2 Ch 17:7-9).
(3) One of the keepers of the storechambers in the temple in the time of Hezekiah (2 Ch 31:13).
(4) The father of Jonathan who was one of the two men who "stood upon this," at the time when Ezra and the people appointed a court to consider the cases of those who had married foreign wives (Ezr 10:15). The text of the Revised Version (British and American) translates "stood up against this," while the margin has "were appointed over this."
Willis J. Beecher
as-a-hi'-a (`asayah, "Yahweh hath made"; the King James Version form; the Revised Version (British and American) ASAIAH): "The king's servant" sent by Josiah with Hilkiah, the priest, and others to inquire of Yahweh concerning the words of the book found in the temple (2 Ki 22:12,14; 2 Ch 34:20).
a-sa'-ya ([`asayah], "Yahweh has made," written Asahiah twice in the King James Version (2 Ki 22:12,14)):
(1) A Levite of the family of Merari, and one of those who helped bring the ark from the house of Obed-edom to Jerusalem (1 Ch 6:30; 15:6,11).
(2) A leading man of the tribe of Simeon. He was in the incursion which attacked and dispossessed the MEUNIM (which see), or the shepherd people, in the valley of Gedor (1 Ch 4:36).
(3) An officer of Josiah sent to Huldah the prophetess for advice regarding the law book found by Hilkiah (2 Ki 22:12,14; See ASAHIAH ).
(4) A Shilonite resident of Jerusalem (1 Ch 9:5). He is called Maaseiah in Neh 11:5.
W. W. Davis
as'-a-na (Asana, Assana) = Asnah (Ezr 2:50); omitted in Nehemiah. The sons of Asana (temple-servants) returned with Zerubbabel to Jerusalem (1 Esdras 5:31).
a'-saf ('acaph): Is the name of three men in the Old Testament, of whom one is the reputed author of Psalms 50 and 73 through 83. He was one of David's three chief musicians, the other two being Heman, and Ethan or Jeduthun, and we first hear of him when the ark was taken to Jerusalem (1 Ch 15:16-19). He conducted with cymbals the music performed in the tent where the ark was housed (1 Ch 16:4,5,7,37), while his two coadjutors discharged the same office at Gibeon (1 Ch 16:41,42). In 1 Ch 25:1 ff we are told that four of his sons were appointed to conduct under him detachments of the great chorus, the families of Heman and Jeduthun also furnishing leaders, and all took part at the dedication of the temple (2 Ch 5:12). A., H., and J. were called the king's seers (1 Ch 25; 2 Ch 35:15), no doubt an official title of rank or dignity. The "Sons of Asaph" are mentioned in later times. They formed a guild, and played a prominent part at each revival of the national religion.
James Millar
as'-a-ra (Asara; the King James Version Azara): The sons of Asara (temple-servants) returned to Jerusalem with Zerubbabel (1 Esdras 5:31). Omitted in Ezra and Nehemiah.
a-sar'-a-mel (Asaramel or Saramel): A name of uncertain origin occurring in 1 Macc 14:28, in the inscription set up in memory of Simon and the Maccabean family. "On the eighteenth day of Elul, in the hundred and seventy and second year, and this is the third year of Simon the high priest, in Asaramel, in a great congregation of priests and people and princes of the nation, and of the elders of the country," etc. The phrase "in Asaramel" has been taken as referring to a place, and as the name of a title of Simon. Ewald and others take it to be the equivalent of ba-chatsar `am 'el, "in the court of the people of God." Another reading is "in Saramel." The majority prefer to take the phrase as a title of Simon; the original phrase is then taken to have been wesar `am 'el, "and prince of the people of God," i.e. ethnarch. If the translator mistook the waw (w) for beth (b) and read 'en, he might have left the phrase untranslated because he supposed it to be the name of a place. Schurer disposes of the en by taking it as a corruption of segen = ceghen, which is equivalent to the Greek strategos (GVI, I, 197, note 17).
H. J. Wolf
a-sa'-re-el, a-sar'-e-el.
See ASAREL .
as'-ar-el ('asar'el, "God is ruler"; the King James Version Asareel): A descendant of Judah and a son of Jehallelel (1 Ch 4:16).
as-a-re'-la.
See ASHARELAH .
as-bak'-a-fath.
See ASBASARETH .
as-bas'-a-reth (Septuagint: Asbakaphath, or Asbasareth): The Greek rendering of the Assyrian Asshur-ach-iddina ("Esarhaddon") (1 Esdras 5:69; compare also Ezr 4:2,10).
See OSNAPPAR .
as'-ka-lon (Askalon): In Apocrypha, both the King James Version and the Revised Version (British and American) (Judith 2:28; 1 Macc 10:86; 11:60; 12:33).
See ASHKELON .
a-send': By derivation the English word implies motion from a lower place to (not merely toward) a higher one; and usage tends to restrict it to cases where the beholder is in the lower, not the higher, position. the King James Version uses it 39 times in all: (1) of the going up of vapor (Ps 135:7), flame (Jdg 20:40), or smoke (Rev 8:4); (2) of travel from one place to another (Acts 25:1) or of the course of a boundary (Josh 15:3); (3) of coming up from the underworld (1 Sam 28:13; Rev 11:7; 17:8); and (4) of the going up (of men, angels, our Lord) from earth to the skies or to heaven (Gen 28:12; Jn 3:13). the Revised Version (British and American) uses the appropriate form of "to go up" in all cases falling under (2) and (3); in those under (4) it retains "ascend" with an occasional change in tense; under (1) it retains "ascend" everywhere in Old Testament (Ex 19:18; Josh 8:20,21; Ps 135:7 parallel Jer 10:13 parallel 51:16) except Jdg 20:40, but substitutes "went up," "goeth up," in New Testament (Rev 8:4; 14:11). The like change in the Old Testament passages would make the usage of the Revised Version (British and American) uniform.
F. K. Farr
a-sen'-shun: Most modern Lives of Christ commence at Bethlehem and end with the Ascension, but Christ's life began earlier and continued later. The Ascension is not only a great fact of the New Testament, but a great factor in the life of Christ and Christians, and no complete view of Jesus Christ is possible unless the Ascension its consequences are included. It is the consummation of His redemptive work. The Christ of the Gospels is the Christ of history, the Christ of the past, but the full New Testament picture of Christ is that of a living Christ, the Christ of heaven, the Christ of experience, the Christ of the present and the future. The New Testament passages referring to the Ascension need close study and their teaching careful observation.
The Ascension is alluded to in several passages in the Gospels in the course of our Lord's earthly ministry (Lk 9:31,51; Jn 6:62; 7:33; 12:32; 14:12,28; 16:5,10,17,28; 20:17). These passages show that the event was constantly in view, and anticipated by our Lord. The Ascension is also clearly implied in the allusions to His coming to earth on clouds of heaven (Mt 24:30; 26:64).
If with most modern scholars we regard Mark's Gospel as ending with 16:8, it will be seen to stop short at the resurrection, though the present ending speaks of Christ being received up into heaven, of His sitting at the right hand of God, and of His working with the disciples as they went preaching the word (Mk 16:19,20). In any case this is a bare summary only. The close of the Third Gospel includes an evident reference to the fact of the Ascension (Lk 24:28-53), even if the last six words of Lk 24:51, "and was carried up into heaven" are not authentic. No difficulty need be felt at the omission of the Fourth Gospel to refer to the fact of the Ascension, though it was universally accepted at the time the apostle wrote (Jn 20:17). As Dr. Hort has pointed out, "The Ascension did not lie within the proper scope of the Gospels .... its true place was at the head of the Acts of the Apostles" (quoted Swete, The Ascended Christ, 2).
The story in Acts 1:6-12 is clear. Jesus Christ was on the Mount of Olives. There had been conversation between Him and His disciples, and in the course of it He was taken up; and a cloud received Him out of their sight (Acts 1:9). His body was uplifted till it disappeared, and while they continued to gaze up they saw two men who assured them that He would come back exactly as He had gone up. The three Greek words rendered "taken up" (eperthe) (Acts 1:9); "went" (poreuomenou) (Acts 1:10); "received up" (analemphtheis) (Acts 1:11); deserve careful notice. This account must either be attributed to invention, or to the testimony of an eye-witness. But Luke's historicity now seems abundantly proved.
The Ascension is mentioned or implied in several passages in Acts 2:33 ff; 3:21; 7:55 f; 9:3-5; 22:6-8; 26:13-15. All these passages assert the present life and activity of Jesus Christ in heaven.
In Rom 8:34 the apostle states four facts connected with Christ Jesus: His death; His resurrection; His session at God's right hand; His intercession. The last two are clearly the culminating points of a series of redemptive acts.
While for its purpose Romans necessarily lays stress on the Resurrection, Ephesians has as part of its special aim an emphasis on the Ascension. In 1:20 God's work wrought in Christ is shown to have gone much farther than the Resurrection, and to have "made him to sit at his right hand in the heavenly places," thereby constituting Him the supreme authority over all things, and especially Head of the church (1:20-23). This idea concerning Christ is followed in 2:6 by the association of believers with Christ "in the heavenly places," and the teaching finds its completest expression in 4:8-11, where the Ascension is connected with the gift of the heavenly Christ as the crowning feature of His work. Nothing is more striking than the complementary teaching of Romans and Ephesians respectively in their emphasis on the Resurrection and Ascension.
In Phil 2:6-11 the exaltation of Christ is shown to follow His deep humiliation. He who humbled Himself is exalted to the place of supreme authority. In 3:20 Christians are taught that their commonwealth is in heaven, "whence also we wait for a Saviour."
The emphasis placed on the second advent of Christ in 1 Thess is an assumption of the fact of the Ascension. Christians are waiting for God's Son from heaven (1:10) who is to "descend from heaven, with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God" (4:16).
The only allusion to the Ascension in the Pastoral Epistles is found in the closing statement of what seems to be an early Christian song in 1 Tim 3:16. He who was "manifested in the flesh .... received up in glory."
In Hebrews there is more recorded about the Ascension and its consequences than in any other part of the New Testament. The facts of the Ascension and Session are first of all stated (1:3) with all that this implies of definite position and authority (1:4-13). Christians are regarded as contemplating Jesus as the Divine Man in heaven (2:9), though the meaning of the phrase, "crowned with glory and honor" is variously interpreted, some thinking that it refers to the result and outcome of His death, others thinking that He was "crowned for death" in the event of the Transfiguration (Matheson in Bruce, Hebrews, 83). Jesus Christ is described as "a great High Priest, who hath passed through the heavens" (4:14), as a Forerunner who is entered within the veil for us, and as a High Priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek (6:20). As such He "abideth for ever," and "ever liveth to make intercession" (7:24,25). The chief point of the epistle itself is said to be "such a high priest, who sat down on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens" (8:1), and His position there implies that He has obtained eternal redemption for His people and is appearing before God on their behalf (9:12,24). This session at God's right hand is also said to be with a view to His return to earth when His enemies will have become His footstool (10:12,13), and one of the last exhortations bids believers to look unto Jesus as the Author and Perfecter of faith who has "sat down at the right hand of the throne of God" (12:2).
The only reference to the Ascension is in 1 Pet 3:22, where Christ's exaltation after His sufferings is set forth as the pattern and guarantee of Christian glorification after endurance of persecution.
VI. In the Johannine Writings.
Nothing is recorded of the actual Ascension, but 1 Jn 2:1 says that "we have an Advocate with the Father." The word "Advocate" is the same as "Comforter" in Jn 14:16, where it is used of the Holy Spirit. Christ is the Comforter "in relation to the Father," and the Holy Spirit is the Comforter dwelling in the soul.
All the references in the Apocalypse either teach or imply the living Christ who is in heaven, as active in His church and as coming again (Rev 1:7,13; 5:5-13; 6:9-17; 14:1-5).
VII. Summary of New Testament Teaching.
The New Testament calls attention to the fact of Ascension and the fact of the Session at God's right hand. Three words are used in the Greek in connection with the Ascension: anabainein (ascendere), "to go up"; analambanesthai (adsumi), "to be taken up"; poreuesthai "to go." The Session is connected with Ps 110, and this Old Testament passage finds frequent reference or allusion in all parts of the New Testament. But it is used especially in He in connection with Christ's priesthood, and with His position of authority and honor at God's right hand (Swete, The Ascended Christ, 10-15). But the New Testament emphasizes the fact of Christ's exaltation rather than the mode, the latter being quite secondary. Yet the acceptance of the fact must be carefully noticed, for it is impossible to question that this is the belief of all the New Testament writers. They base their teaching on the fact and do not rest content with the moral or theological aspects of the Ascension apart from the historic reality. The Ascension is regarded as the point of contact between the Christ of the gospels and of the epistles. The gift of the Spirit is said to have come from the ascended Christ. The Ascension is the culminating point of Christ's glorification after His Resurrection, and is regarded as necessary for His heavenly exaltation. The Ascension was proved and demanded by the Resurrection, though there was no need to preach it as part of the evangelistic message. Like the Virgin birth, the Ascension involves doctrine for Christians rather than non-Christians. It is the culmination of the Incarnation, the reward of Christ's redemptive work, and the entrance upon a wider sphere of work in His glorified condition, as the Lord and Priest of His church (Jn 7:39; 16:7).
We may summarize what the New Testament tells us of our Lord's present life in heaven by observing carefully what is recorded in the various passages of the New Testament. He ascended into heaven (Mk 16:19; Lk 24:51; Acts 1:9); He is seated on the right hand of God (Col 3:1; Heb 1:3; 8:1; 10:12); He bestowed the gift of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 4:9,33); He added disciples to the church (Acts 2:47); He worked with the disciples as they went forth preaching the gospel (Mk 16:20); He healed the impotent man (Acts 3:16); He stood to receive the first martyr (Acts 7:56); He appeared to Saul of Tarsus (Acts 9:5); He makes intercession for His people (Rom 8:26; Heb 7:25); He is able to succor the tempted (Heb 2:18); He is able to sympathize (Heb 4:15); He is able to save to the uttermost (Heb 7:25); He lives forever (Heb 7:24; Rev 1:18); He is our Great High Priest (Heb 7:26; 8:1; 10:21); He possesses an intransmissible or inviolable priesthood (Heb 7:24); He appears in the presence of God for us (Heb 9:24); He is our Advocate with the father (1 Jn 2:1); He is waiting until all opposition to Him is overcome (Heb 10:13). This includes all the teaching of the New Testament concerning our Lord's present life in heaven.
There are two questions usually associated with the Ascension which need our attention.
1. Relation to the Laws of Nature:
There is no greater difficulty in connection with the Ascension than with the Resurrection, or the Incarnation. Of our Lord's resurrection body we know nothing. All we can say is that it was different from the body laid in the tomb and yet essentially the same; the same and yet essentially different. The Ascension was the natural close of Our Lord's earthly life, and as such, is inseparable from the Resurrection. Whatever, therefore, may be said of the Resurrection in regard to the laws of nature applies equally to the Ascension.
2. Localization of the Spiritual World:
The record in Acts is sometimes objected to because it seems to imply the localization of heaven above the earth. But is not this taking the narrative in too absolutely bald and literal a sense? Heaven is at once a place and a state, and as personality necessarily implies locality, some place for our Lord's Divine, yet human person is essential. To speak of heaven as "above" may be only symbolical, but the ideas of fact and locality must be carefully adhered to. And yet it is not merely local, and "we have to think less of a transition from one locality than of a transition from one condition to another. .... the real meaning of the ascension is that .... our Lord withdrew from a world of limitations" to that higher existence where God is (Milligan, Ascension and Heavenly Priesthood, 26). It matters not that our conception today of the physical universe is different from that of New Testament times. We still speak of the sun setting and rising, though strictly these are not true. The details of the Ascension are really unimportant. Christ disappeared from view, and no question need be raised either of distance or direction. We accept the fact without any scientific explanation. It was a change of conditions and mode of existence; the essential fact is that He departed and disappeared. Even Keim admits that "the ascension of Jesus follows from all the facts of His career" (quoted, Milligan, 13), and Weiss is equally clear that the Ascension is as certain as the Resurrection, and stands and fails therewith (Milligan, 14).
IX. Its Relation to Christ Himself.
The Ascension was the exaltation and glory of Jesus Christ after His work was accomplished (Phil 2:9). He had a threefold glory: (1) as the Son of God before the Incarnation (Jn 17:5); (2) as God manifest in the flesh (Jn 1:14); (3) as the exalted Son of God after the Resurrection and Ascension (Lk 24:26; 1 Pet 1:21). The Ascension meant very much to Christ Himself, and no study of subject must overlook this aspect of New Testament teaching. His exaltation to the right hand of meant (1) the proof of victory (Eph 4:8); (2) the position of honor (Ps 110:1); (3) the place of power (Acts 2:33); (4) the place of happiness (Ps 26:11); (5) the place of rest ("seated"); (6) the place of permanence ("for ever").
X. Its Teaching for Christians.
The importance of the Ascension for Christians lies mainly in the fact that it was the introduction to our Lord's present life in heaven which means so much in the believer's life. The spiritual value of the Ascension lies, not in Christ's physical remoteness, but in His spiritual nearness. He is free from earthly limitations, and His life above is the promise and guarantee of ours. "Because I live ye shall live also."
The Ascension and Session are regarded as the culminating point of Christ's redemptive work (Heb 8:1), and at the same time the demonstration of the sufficiency of His righteousness on man's behalf. For sinful humanity to reach heaven two essential features were necessary: (a) the removal of sin (negative); and (b) the presence of righteousness (positive). The Resurrection demonstrated the sufficiency of the atonement for the former, and the Ascension demonstrated the sufficiency of righteousness for the latter. The Spirit of God was to convict the world of "righteousness" "because I go to the Father" (Jn 16:10). In accord with this we find that in the Epistle to the He every reference to our Lord's atonement is in the past, implying completeness and perfection, "once for all."
This is the peculiar and special message of He. Priesthood finds its essential features in the representation of man to God, involving access into the Divine presence (Heb 5:1). It means drawing near and dwelling near to God. In He, Aaron is used as typical of the work, and Melchizedek as typical of the person of the priest; and the two acts mainly emphasized are the offering in death and the entrance into heaven. Christ is both priest and priestly victim. He offered propitiation and then entered into heaven, not "with," but "through" His own blood (Heb 9:12), and as High Priest, at once human and Divine, He is able to sympathize (Heb 4:15); able to succor (Heb 2:18); and able to save (Heb 7:25).
See CHRIST AS KING ,PRIEST ,PROPHET .
The Ascension constituted Christ as Head of the church (Eph 1:22; 4:10,15; Col 2:19). This Headship teaches that He is the Lord and Life of the church. He is never spoken of as King in relation to His Body, the Church, only as Head and Lord. The fact that He is at the right hand of God suggests in the symbolical statement that He is not yet properly King on His own throne, as He will be hereafter as "King of the Jews," and "King of Kings."
In several New Testament passages this is regarded as the crowning point of our Lord's work in heaven (Rom 8:33,34). He is the perfect Mediator between God and man (1 Tim 2:5; Heb 8:6); our Advocate with the Father (1 Jn 2:1). His very presence at God's right hand pleads on behalf of His people. There is no presentation, or representation, or pleading, of Himself, for His intercession is never associated with any such relation to the sacrifice of Calvary. Nor is there any hint in the New Testament of a relation between the Eucharist and His life and work in heaven. This view popularized by the late Dr. William Milligan (The Ascension, etc., 266), and endorsed from other standpoints in certain aspects of Anglican teaching (Swete, The Ascended Christ, 46), does not find any support in the New Testament. As Westcott says, "The modern conception of Christ, pleading in heaven His passion, `offering His blood,' on behalf of man, has no foundation in this epistle" (Hebrews, 230). And Hort similarly remarks, "The words, `Still .... His prevailing death He pleads' have no apostolic warrant, and cannot even be reconciled with apostolic doctrine" (Life and Letters, II, 213). our Lord's intercession is He says as in what He is. He pleads by His presence on His Father's throne, and he is able to save to the uttermost through His intercession, because of His perpetual life and His inviolable, undelegated, intransmissible priesthood (Heb 7:24,25).
There is an intimate and essential connection between the Ascension of Christ and the descent of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was given to Christ as the acknowledgment and reward of His work done, and having received this "Promise of the Father" He bestowed Him upon His people (Acts 2:33). By means of the Spirit the twofold work is done, of convincing sinners (Jn 16:9), and of edifying believers (Jn 14:12; see also Jn 14:25,26; 16:14,15).
It is in connection with the Ascension and our Lord's life in heaven that we understand the force of such a passage as "Lo, I am with you always" (Mt 28:20). "He ever liveth" is the supreme inspiration of the individual Christian and of the whole church. All through the New Testament from the time of the Ascension onward, the one assurance is that Christ is living; and in His life we live, hold fellowship with God, receive grace for daily living and rejoice in victory over sin, sorrow and death.
Our Lord's life in heaven looks forward to a consummation. He is "expecting till his enemies be made his footstool" (Heb 10:13 the King James Version). He is described as our Forerunner (Heb 6:18 ff), and His presence above is the assurance that His people will share His life hereafter. But His Ascension is also associated with His coming again (Phil 3:20,21; 1 Thess 4:16; Heb 9:28). At this coming there will be the resurrection of dead saints, and the transformation of living ones (1 Thess 4:16,17), to be followed by the Divine tribunal with Christ as Judge (Rom 2:16; 2 Tim 4:1,8). To His own people this coming will bring joy, satisfaction and glory (Acts 3:21; Rom 8:19); to His enemies defeat and condemnation (1 Cor 15:25; Heb 2:8; 10:13).
Reviewing all the teaching of our Lord's present life in heaven, appearing. on our behalf, interceding by His presence, bestowing the Holy Spirit, governing and guiding the church, sympathizing, helping and saving His people, we are called upon to up "lift our hearts," for it is in occupation with the living that we find the secret of peace, the assurance of access, and the guaranty of our permanent relation to God. Indeed, we are clearly taught in He that it is in fellowship with the present life of Christ in heaven that Christians realize the difference between spiritual immaturity and maturity (Heb 6:1; 10:1), and it is the purpose of this epistle to emphasize this truth above all others. Christianity is "the religion of free access to God," and in proportion as we realize, in union with Christ in heaven, this privilege of drawing near and keeping near, we shall find in the attitude of "lift up your hearts" the essential features of a strong, vigorous, growing, joyous Christian life.
LITERATURE.
Milligan, Ascension and Heavenly Priesthood of our Lord; Swete, The Appearances of the Risen Lord; The Ascended Christ; Lacey, The Historic Christ; Lives of Christ, by Neander, B. Weiss, Edersheim, Farrar, Geikie, Gilbert; Fairbairn, Studies in the Life of Christ; Knowling, Witness of the Epistles; Bernard in The Expositor T, 1900-1901, 152-55; Bruce in The Expositor. Greek Test, I; Swete, Apostles' Creed; Westcott, Historic Faith, chapter vi; Revelation of the Risen Lord, chapters x, xi; Epesians to Hebrews; article "Ascension" in Hastings, Dictionary of the Bible (five volumes); Paget, Studies in the Christian Character, sermons xxi, xxii; Findlay, Things Above; article. "Priest" in Hastings, Dictionary of the Bible (five volumes) (in New Testament), "Hebrews"; Davidson, Hebrews, special note on "Priesthood of Christ"; Dimock, Our One Priest on High; The Christian Doctrine of Sacerdotium; Perowne, Our High Priest in Heaven; Rotherham, Studies in He; Soames, The Priesthood of the New Covenant; Hubert Brooke, The Great High Priest; H. W. Williams, The Priesthood of Christ; J. S. Candlish, The Christian Salvation (1899), 6; G. Milligan, The Theol. of Ep. to Heb (1899), 111; R. C. Moberly, Ministerial Priesthood (1897); A. S. Peake, "Hebrews" in Century Bible; Beyschlag, New Testament Theol., II, 315; article "Ascension" in Hastings, Dictionary of Christ and the Gospels; article "Assumption and Ascension" in HDRE; article "Ascension" in JE; Charles, The Book of Enoch; The Slavonic Secrets of En; The Book of Jub; The Apocalypse of Bar; The Ascension Isaiah.; Assumption of Moses; M. R. James, "Testament of Abraham" TS, II, 2, 1892; Martensen, Christian Dogmatics.
W. H. Griffith Thomas
See APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE .
a-sent':
(1) The rendering in the King James Version twice, the Revised Version (British and American) 14 times correctly, of Hebrew ma`aleh, "ascent," "pass," as a geographical term (the King James Version Nu 34:4; 2 Sam 15:30; the Revised Version (British and American) Josh 10:10; Jdg 8:13, etc.).
(2) The rendering in the King James Version and the Revised Version (British and American) of `olah in 1 Ki 10:5, "his ascent by which he went up unto the house of Yahweh"; but `olah everywhere else means "burnt-offering," and all ancient versions support the Revised Version, margin, "his burnt-offering which he offered" (caused to go up), etc.
(3) In 2 Ch 9:4 (parallel 1 Ki 10:5) a very slight textual correction (supported by Septuagint) gives us the same words as in 1 Ki instead of the difficult `aliyah, "upper chamber," not "ascent" as the King James Version and the Revised Version (British and American) render it against all usage elsewhere.
(4) In the Revised Version (British and American) Ezek 40:31,34,37; Neh 12:37, of a flight of steps, stairs.
(5) In the Revised Version (British and American) (Hebrew `aliyah), Neh 3:31,32, margin "upper chamber" is to be preferred to text "ascent."
F. K. Farr
ash'-e-naz.
See ASHKENAZ .
a-se'-as (Asaias = Isshijah (Ezr 10:31)) A son of Annas, who put away his "strange wife" (1 Esdras 9:32).
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 (Ezr 8:18).
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 (Ezr 8:19).
as'-e-nath (Aseneth): The wife of Joseph, daughter of Potiphera, mother of Manasseh and Ephraim (Gen 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
a'-ser (Aser): the King James Version: Greek form of Asher (thus the Revised Version (British and American)) (Lk 2:36; Rev 7:6).
as'-e-rer
See SERAR .
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" (Isa 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
(Bear).
See ASTRONOMY .
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 Ki 8:11; see also 2 Sam 10:5; 2 Ki 2:17; Ezr 8:22). (2) Innocence not capable of shame: "both naked .... and .... not ashamed" (Gen 2:25; See SHAME ); the redeemed no occasion for (Ps 34:5 the King James Version; 1 Jn 2:28); Christ not of "brethren" (Heb 2:11); nor Christian of gospel (Rom 1:16); nor God of men of faith (Heb 11:16); nor they who trust in God (Isa 50:7; 54:4; Joel 2:26). (3) Sense of guilt: "I am ashamed .... for our iniquities" (Ezr 9:6); "of thy lewd way" (Ezek 16:27,61); ascribed to idolaters chagrined at worthlessness of idols (Isa 1:29; 44:9,11; 45:16; Jer 2:26); to enemies (Ps 6:10); to wicked (Ps 31:17); to all who forsake God (Jer 17:13); to those who trust in human help, as Israel of Egypt and Assyria, and Moab of Chemosh (Jer 2:36; 48:13); to a mother of wicked children (Jer 50:12). (4) Repentance causes shame for sin (Jer 31:19; Rom 6:21). (5) Calamities also, and judgments (Jer 14:3,4; 15:9; 20:11). (6) Capacity for shame may be lost through long-continued sin (Jer 6:15; 8:12; compare 3:3), exceptionally striking passages on the deadening power of immorality, suggestive of 1 Tim 4:2; Titus 1:15. (7) The grace of Christ delivers from the shame of moral timidity (Rom 1:16; 2 Tim 18,12,16; 1 Pet 4:16). (8) At Christ's second coming His followers will "not be ashamed before him" (1 Jn 2:28); at the final judgment He will be ashamed of all who have been ashamed of Him (Mk 8:38; Lk 9:26; compare Mt 10:33; Heb 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 (Isa 33:9); so great is God's glory in the new Jerusalem that "the sun (is) ashamed" in His presence (Isa 24:23), explaining the glorious figure in Rev 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
a'-shan (`ashan): An unknown site in the domain of Judah (Josh 15:42), possessed by Simeon (Josh 19:7), and mentioned among the priests' cities in 1 Ch 6:59. (44) = Josh 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 Sam 30:30), is the same as Ashan.
ash-a-re'-la ('asar'elah): One of the Asaphites appointed by David to the temple service (1 Ch 25:2); in 1 Ch 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)."
ash'-be-a, ash-be'-a ('ashbea`): "The house of Ashbea," a family of linen-workers mentioned in 1 Ch 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.
ash'-bel, ash'-bel-it ('ashbel): The gentilic name "Ashbelite" is found in Nu 26:38, second son of Benjamin (Gen 46:21). In 1 Ch 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 Hos 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 Ch 8:1 the three names Bela, Ashbel, Aharah (= Ahiram) are taken from Nu 26:38, however, without change.
H. J. Wolf
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 (Josh 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 (Josh 13:3; 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 Sam 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 Ch 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 (Isa 20:1). Amos had prophesied such a calamity some years before (1:8), and Jeremiah refers to "the remnant of Ashdod" as though it had continued weak until his day (Jer 25:20). Zephaniah (Zeph 2:4) refers to the desolation of Ashdod and Zechariah to its degraded condition (Zec 9:6). It continued to be inhabited, however, for we find the Jews intermarried with them after the return from Babylon (Neh 13:23,24). In the Maccabean period we are told that Judas and Jonathan both took it and purified it of idolatry (1 Macc 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
ash'-dod-its, ash'-doth-its: Inhabitants of ASHDOD (which see) (Josh 13:3; the King James Version Ashdothites, Neh 4:7).
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 Josh 10:40; 12:8, 'Ashedoth, translated "springs" in the King James Version, is "slopes" in the Revised Version (British and American) (Dt 3:17; Josh 12:3; 13:20).
See PISGAH .
ash'-er ('asher; Aser).
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 (Gen 35:26). With four sons and one daughter he went down into Egypt (Gen 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 (Gen 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" (Gen 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" (Dt 33:24). His family prospered in Egypt, and at the Exodus the tribe of Asher is numbered at 41,500 adult males (Nu 1:41). At the second census the number is given 53,400 (Nu 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 (Nu 2:27 ff). Among the spies Asher was represented by Sethur (Nu 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 Ch 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 (Jdg 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" (Jdg 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 Ch 30:11 the King James Version). To this tribe belonged the prophetess Anna (Lk 2:36 ff).
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.
The boundaries of the territory are given in considerable detail in Josh 19:25 ff (compare Jdg 1:31 f; Josh 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
ash'-er ('asher):
(1) See preceding article.
(2) A town on the southern border of Manasseh (Josh 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 .
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.
Her "image" is mentioned in the Old Testament (1 Ki 15:13; 2 Ki 21:7; 2 Ch 15:16), as well as her "prophets" (1 Ki 18:19) and the vessels used in her service (2 Ki 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.
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" (Dt 16:21; See Jdg 6:25,28,30; 2 Ki 23:6). Accordingly the symbol made for Asherah by his mother was "cut down" by Asa (1 Ki 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 (Jer 17:2; see 2 Ki 17:10). Manasseh introduced one into the temple at Jerusalem (2 Ki 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 Hos 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
ash'-er-its (ha-'asheri): The descendants of Asher, Jacob's eighth son (Jdg 1:32).
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 Sam 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" (Neh 9:1), and when the people of Nineveh repented in sackcloth and ashes at the preaching of Jonah (Jon 3:5,6; compare 1 Macc 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" (Jer 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" (Ezek 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 (Gen 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
ash'-ur (ashchur, the King James Version Ashur): The "father of Tekoa" (1 Ch 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 Sam 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 Sam 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 Jdg 1:32). The term would, then, denote the country to the West of Jordan above Jezreel.
Samuel Cohon
a-shi'-ma, ash'-i-ma ('ashima'; Asimath): A deity worshipped at Hamath (2 Ki 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.
ask'-ke-lon, esh'-ka-lon, as'-ke-lon (the King James Version Eshkalon, (Eshkalonites; Josh 13:3); Askelon, (Jdg 1:18; 1 Sam 6:17; 2 Sam 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 (Josh 13:3), and the city was taken by the tribe of Judah (Jdg 1:18). One of the golden tumors (the King James Version "emerods") sent back with the ark by the Philistines was from Ashkelon (1 Sam 6:17). David couples Ashkelon with Gath in his lament over Saul and Jonathan (2 Sam 1:20) indicating its importance, and it is joined with Gaza, Ashdod and Ekron in the denunciations of Amos (1:7,8). It is referred to in a similar way by Jeremiah (Jer 25:20; 47:5,7). 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 Macc 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
ash'-ke-lon-its (Josh 13:3): The people of Ashkelon, who were Philistines.
ash'-ke-naz ('ashkenaz): The name occurs in Gen 10:3; 1 Ch 16, in the list of the sons of Japheth as a son of Gomer. See TABLE OF NATIONS . It occurs also in Jer 51:27 (the King James Version "Ashchenaz") in connection with the kingdoms of Ararat and Minni, which suggests a location about Armenia.
ash'-na ('ashnah): Two sites, (1) Josh 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) Josh 15:43 an unknown site farther south.
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 Dan 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
ash'-re-el.
See ASRIEL .
Plural of Ashtoreth.
See ASHTORETH .
ASHTAROTH; ASHTEROTH-KARNAIM; BEESHTERAH
ash'-ta-roth, as'-ta-roth (`ashtaroth; the King James Version Astaroth; Astaroth, the city of Og, king of Bashan (Dt 14, etc.); `ashteroth qarnayim, the scene of the defeat of the Rephaim by Chedorlaomer (Gen 14:5): (be`eshterah) a Levitical city in Manasseh East of the Jordan (Josh 21:27)): The name probably means "house" or "temple of Ashtoreth." It is identical with Ashtaroth of 1 Ch 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?" (Am 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 Macc 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
ash'-te-rath-it, ash-ter'-ath-it (ha-`ashterathi): A native of Ashtaroth: Uzzia, one of David's heroes (1 Ch 11:44).
ash'-te-roth kar-na'-im: I.e. "Ashteroth of the two horns," mentioned in Gen 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 Macc 5:43,44; 2 Macc 12:26).
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
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 Macc 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.
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.
Hence there were as "many Ashtoreths" or Ashtaroth as Baals. They represented the various forms under which the goddess was worshipped in different localities (Jdg 10:6; 1 Sam 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 Sam 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 (Dt 23:18) and formed part of the idolatrous practices which the Israelites were called upon to extirpate.
A. H. Sayce
ash'-ur.
See ASHHUR .
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 (Ezr 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 Ch 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
ash'-ur-its (ha-'ashuri): According to the Massoretic Text of 2 Sam 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 Sam 3:3; 13:37). For similar reasons we cannot think of Assyria (Hebrew Asshur) nor of the Arabic Asshurim of Gen 25:3.
ash'-vath (`ashwath): A man of Asher, of the house of Japhlet (1 Ch 7:33).
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; 19:10,27). 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
a'-shi-a mi'ner:
Introductory
2. Phrygian and Bithynian Immigrations
3. Lydians, Greeks and Persians
4. Alexander and his Successors
III. ASIA MINOR IN THE 1ST CENTURY AD
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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).
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 (Rev 1 through 3).
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.
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).
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 .
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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 (