_chief of the captives_. The Jews pretend that this was the title of him
who had the government of their people during the captivity of Babylon;
and they believe these princes or governors to have been constantly of
the tribe of Judah, and family of David. But they give no satisfactory
proof of the real existence of these Aichmalotarchs. There was no prince
of the captivity before the end of the second century, from which period
the office continued till the eleventh century. The princes of the
captivity resided at Babylon, where they were installed with great
ceremony, held courts of justice, &c, and were set over the eastern
Jews, or those settled in Babylon, Chaldæa, Assyria, and Persia. Thus
they affected to restore the splendour of their ancient monarchy, and in
this view the following account may be amusing. The ceremonial of the
installation is thus described: The spiritual heads of the people, the
masters of the learned schools, the elders, and the people, assembled in
great multitudes within a stately chamber, adorned with rich curtains,
in Babylon, where, during his days of splendour, the Resch-Glutha fixed
his residence. The prince was seated on a lofty throne. The heads of the
schools of Sura and Pumbeditha on his right hand and left. These chiefs
of the learned men then delivered an address, exhorting the new monarch
not to abuse his power; and reminded him that he was called to slavery
rather than to sovereignty, for he was prince of a captive people. On
the next Thursday he was inaugurated by the laying on of hands, and the
sound of trumpets, and acclamations. He was escorted to his palace with
great pomp, and received magnificent presents from all his subjects. On
the Sabbath all the principal people being assembled before his house,
he placed himself at their head, and, with his face covered with a
silken veil, proceeded to the synagogue. Benedictions and hymns of
thanksgiving announced his entrance. They then brought him the book of
the law, out of which he read the first line, afterward he addressed the
assembly, with his eyes closed out of respect. He exhorted them to
charity, and set the example by offering liberal alms to the poor. The
ceremony closed with new acclamations, and prayers to God that, under
the new prince, he would be pleased to put an end to their calamities.
The prince gave his blessing to the people, and prayed for each
province, that it might be preserved from war and famine. He concluded
his orisons in a low voice, lest his prayer should be repeated to the
jealous ears of the native monarchs, for he prayed for the restoration
of the kingdom of Israel, which could not rise but on the ruins of their
empire. The prince returned to his palace, where he gave a splendid
banquet to the chief persons of the community. After that day he lived
in a sort of stately oriental seclusion, never quitting his palace,
except to go to the schools of the learned, where, as he entered, the
whole assembly rose and continued standing, till he took his seat. He
sometimes paid a visit to the native sovereign in Babylon (Bagdad.) This
probably refers to a somewhat later period. On these great occasions his
imperial host sent his own chariot for his guest; but the prince of the
captivity dared not accept the invidious distinction, he walked in
humble and submissive modesty behind the chariot. Yet his own state was
by no means wanting in splendour: he was arrayed in cloth of gold; fifty
guards marched before him; all the Jews who met him on the way paid
their homage, and fell behind into his train. He was received by the
eunuchs, who conducted him to the throne, while one of his officers, as
he marched slowly along, distributed gold and silver on all sides. As
the prince approached the imperial throne, he prostrated himself on the
ground, in token of vassalage. The eunuchs raised him and placed him on
the left hand of the sovereign. After the first salutation, the prince
represented the grievances, or discussed the affairs, of his people.
The court of the Resch-Glutha is described as splendid. In imitation of
his Persian master, he had his officers, counsellors, and cup-bearers;
and rabbins were appointed as satraps over the different communities.
This state, it is probable, was maintained by a tribute raised from the
body of the people, and substituted for that which, in ancient times was
paid for the temple in Jerusalem. His subjects in Babylonia were many of
them wealthy.
AIJALON, a city of the Canaanites; the valley adjoining to which is
memorable in sacred history from the miracle of Joshua, in arresting the
course of the sun and moon, that the Israelites might have sufficient
light to pursue their enemies, Joshua x, 12, 13. Aijalon was afterward a
Levitical city, and belonged to the tribe of Dan; who did not, however,
drive out the Amorite inhabitants, Judges i, 35.
AIR, that thin, fluid, elastic, transparent, ponderous, compressible
body which surrounds the terraqueous globe to a considerable height. In
Scripture it is sometimes used for _heaven_; as, “the birds of the air;”
“the birds of heaven.” To “beat the air,” and “to speak to the air,” 1
Cor. ix, 26, signify to fatigue ourselves in vain, and to speak to no
purpose. “The prince of the power of the air” is the head and chief of
the evil spirits, with which both Jews and Heathens thought the air was
filled.
ALABASTER, Ἀλάβαϛρον, the name of a genus of fossils nearly allied to
marble. It is a bright elegant stone, sometimes of a snowy whiteness. It
may be cut freely, and is capable of a fine polish; and, being of a soft
nature, it is wrought into any form or figure with ease. Vases or
cruises were anciently made of it, wherein to preserve odoriferous
liquors and ointments. Pliny and others represent it as peculiarly
proper for this purpose; and the druggists in Egypt have, at this day,
vessels made of it, in which they keep their medicines and perfumes.
In Matt. xxvi, 6, 7, we read that Jesus being at table in Bethany, in
the house of Simon the leper, a woman came thither and poured an
alabaster box of ointment on his head. St. Mark adds, “She brake the
box,” which merely refers to the seal upon the vase which closed it, and
kept the perfume from evaporating. This had never been removed, but was
on this occasion broken, that is, first opened.
ALBIGENSES. See WALDENSES.
ALEPH, א, the name of the first letter in the Hebrew alphabet, from
which the alpha of the Syrians and Greeks was formed. This word
signifies, _prince_, _chief_, or _thousand_, expressing, as it were, a
leading number.
ALEXANDER, commonly called the Great, son and successor of Philip, king
of Macedon, is denoted in the prophecies of Daniel by a leopard with
four wings, signifying his great strength, and the unusual rapidity of
his conquests, Dan. vii, 6; and by a one-horned he-goat running over the
earth so swiftly as not to touch it, attacking a ram with two horns,
overthrowing him, and trampling him under foot, without any being able
to rescue him, Dan. viii, 4–7. The he-goat prefigured Alexander; the
ram, Darius Codomannus, the last of the Persian kings. In the statue
beheld by Nebuchadnezzar in his dream, Dan. ii, 39, the belly of brass
was the emblem of Alexander. He was appointed by God to destroy the
Persian empire, and to substitute in its room the Grecian monarchy.
Alexander succeeded his father Philip, A. M. 3668, and B. C. 336. He was
chosen, by the Greeks, general of their troops against the Persians, and
entered Asia at the head of thirty-four thousand men, A. M. 3670. In one
campaign, he subdued almost all Asia Minor; and afterward defeated, in
the narrow passes which led from Syria to Cilicia, the army of Darius,
which consisted of four hundred thousand foot, and one hundred thousand
horse. Darius fled, and left in the hands of the conqueror, his camp,
baggage, children, wife, and mother.
After subduing Syria, Alexander came to Tyre; and the Tyrians refusing
him entrance into their city, he besieged it. At the same time he wrote
to Jaddus, high priest of the Jews, that he expected to be acknowledged
by him, and to receive from him the same submission which had hitherto
been paid to the king of Persia. Jaddus refusing to comply under the
plea of having sworn fidelity to Darius, Alexander resolved to march
against Jerusalem, when he had reduced Tyre. After a long siege, this
city was taken and sacked; and Alexander entered Palestine, A. M. 3672,
and subjected it to his obedience. As he was marching against Jerusalem,
the Jews became greatly alarmed, and had recourse to prayers and
sacrifices. The Lord, in a dream, commanded Jaddus to open the gates to
the conqueror, and, at the head of his people, dressed in his pontifical
ornaments, and attended by the priests in their robes, to advance and
meet the Macedonian king. Jaddus obeyed; and Alexander perceiving this
company approaching, hastened toward the high priest, whom he saluted.
He then adored God, whose name was engraven on a thin plate of gold,
worn by the high priest upon his forehead. The kings of Syria who
accompanied him, and the great officers about Alexander, could not
comprehend the meaning of his conduct. Parmenio alone ventured to ask
him why he adored the Jewish high priest; Alexander replied, that he
paid this respect to God, and not to the high priest. “For,” added he,
“whilst I was yet in Macedonia, I saw the God of the Jews, who appeared
to me in the same form and dress as the high priest at present, and who
encouraged me and commanded me to march boldly into Asia, promising that
he would be my guide, and give me the empire of the Persians. As soon,
therefore, as I perceived this habit, I recollected the vision, and
understood that my undertaking was favoured by God, and that under his
protection I might expect prosperity.”
Having said this, Alexander accompanied Jaddus to Jerusalem, where he
offered sacrifices in the temple according to the directions of the high
priest. Jaddus is said to have showed him the prophecies of Daniel, in
which the destruction of the Persian empire by Alexander is declared.
The king was therefore confirmed in his opinion, that God had chosen him
to execute this great work. At his departure, Alexander bade the Jews
ask of him what they would. The high priest desired only the liberty of
living under his government according to their own laws, and an
exemption from tribute every seventh year, because in that year the Jews
neither tilled their grounds, nor reaped their fruits. With this request
Alexander readily complied.
Having left Jerusalem, Alexander visited other cities of Palestine, and
was every where received with great testimonies of friendship and
submission. The Samaritans who dwelt at Sichem, and were apostates from
the Jewish religion, observing how kindly Alexander had treated the
Jews, resolved to say that they also were by religion Jews. For it was
their practice, when they saw the affairs of the Jews in a prosperous
state, to boast that they were descended from Manasseh and Ephraim; but
when they thought it their interest to say the contrary, they failed not
to affirm, and even to swear, that they were not related to the Jews.
They came, therefore, with many demonstrations of joy, to meet
Alexander, as far almost as the territories of Jerusalem. Alexander
commended their zeal; and the Sichemites entreated him to visit their
temple and city. Alexander promised this at his return; but as they
petitioned him for the same privileges as the Jews, he asked them if
they were Jews. They replied, they were Hebrews, and were called by the
Phœnicians, Sichemites. Alexander said that he had granted this
exemption only to the Jews, but that at his return he would inquire into
the affair, and do them justice.
This prince having conquered Egypt, and regulated it, gave orders for
the building of the city of Alexandria, and departed thence, about
spring, in pursuit of Darius. Passing through Palestine, he was informed
that the Samaritans, in a general insurrection, had killed Andromachus,
governor of Syria and Palestine, who had come to Samaria to regulate
some affairs. This action greatly incensed Alexander, who loved
Andromachus. He therefore commanded all those who were concerned in his
murder to be put to death, and the rest to be banished from Samaria; and
settled a colony of Macedonians in their room. What remained of their
lands he gave to the Jews, and exempted them from the payment of
tribute. The Samaritans who escaped this calamity, retired to Sichem, at
the foot of mount Gerizim, which afterward became their capital. Lest
the eight thousand men of this nation, who were in the service of
Alexander, and had accompanied him since the siege of Tyre, if permitted
to return to their own country, should renew the spirit of rebellion, he
sent them into Thebais, the most remote southern province of Egypt,
where he assigned them lands.
Alexander, after defeating Darius in a pitched battle, and subduing all
Asia and the Indies with incredible rapidity, gave himself up to
intemperance. Having drunk to excess, he fell sick and died, after he
had obliged “all the world to be quiet before him,” 1 Macc. i, 3. Being
sensible that his end was near, he sent for the grandees of his court,
and declared that “he gave the empire to the most deserving.” Some
affirm that he regulated the succession by a will. The author of the
first book of Maccabees says, that he divided his kingdom among his
generals while he was living, 1 Macc. i, 7. This he might do; or he
might express his foresight of what actually took place after his death.
It is certain, that a partition was made of Alexander’s dominions among
the four principal officers of his army, and that the empire which he
founded in Asia subsisted for many ages. Alexander died, A. M. 3684, and
B. C. 323, in the thirty-third year of his age, and the twelfth of his
reign. The above particulars of Alexander are here introduced because,
from his invasion of Palestine, the intercourse of the Jews with the
Greeks became intimate, and influenced many events of their subsequent
history.
On the account above given of the interview between Alexander and the
Jewish high priest, by Josephus, many doubts have been cast by critics.
But the sudden change of his feelings toward them, and the favour with
which the nation was treated by him, render the story not improbable.
ALEXANDRIA, a famous city of Egypt, and, during the reign of the
Ptolemies, the regal capital of that kingdom. It was founded by
Alexander the Great: who being struck with the advantageous situation of
the spot where the city afterward stood, ordered its immediate erection;
drew the plan of the city himself, and peopled it with colonies of
Greeks and Jews: to which latter people, in particular, he gave great
encouragement. They were, in fact, made free citizens, and had all the
privileges of Macedonians granted to them; which liberal policy
contributed much to the rise and prosperity of the new city; for this
enterprising and commercial people knew much better than either the
Greeks or the Egyptians how to turn the happy situation of Alexandria to
the best account. The fall of Tyre happening about the same time, the
trade of that city was soon drawn to Alexandria, which became the centre
of commercial intercourse between the east and the west; and in process
of time grew to such an extent, in magnitude and wealth, as to be second
in point of population and magnificence to none but Rome itself.
Alexandria owed much of its celebrity as well as its population to the
Ptolemies. Ptolemy Soter, one of Alexander’s captains, who, after the
death of this monarch, was first governor of Egypt, and afterward
assumed the title of king, made this city the place of his residence,
about B. C. 304. This prince founded an academy, called the Museum, in
which a society of learned men devoted themselves to philosophical
studies, and the improvement of all the other sciences; and he also gave
them a library, which was prodigiously increased by his successors. He
likewise induced the merchants of Syria and Greece to reside in this
city, and to make it a principal mart of their commerce. His son and
successor, Ptolemy Philadelphus, pursued the designs of his father.
In the hands of the Romans, the successors of the Macedonians in the
government of Egypt, the trade of Alexandria continued to flourish,
until luxury and licentiousness paved the way, as in every similar
instance, for its overthrow.
Alexandria, together with the rest of Egypt, passed from the dominion of
the Romans to that of the Saracens. With this event, the sun of
Alexandria may be said to have set: the blighting hand of Islamism was
laid on it; and although the genius and the resources of such a city
could not be immediately destroyed, it continued to languish until the
passage by the Cape of Good Hope, in the fifteenth century, gave a new
channel to the trade which for so many centuries had been its support;
and at this day, Alexandria, like most eastern cities, presents a mixed
spectacle of ruins and wretchedness,--of fallen greatness and enslaved
human beings.
Some idea may be formed of the extent and grandeur of Alexandria, by the
boast made by Amrou: “I have taken,” said he, “the great city of the
west. It is impossible for me to enumerate the variety of its riches and
beauty. I shall content myself with observing, that it contains four
thousand palaces, four thousand baths, four hundred theatres or places
of amusement, twelve thousand shops for the sale of vegetable foods, and
forty thousand tributary Jews.”
It was in Alexandria chiefly that the Grecian philosophy was engrafted
upon the stock of ancient oriental wisdom. The Egyptian method of
teaching by allegory was peculiarly favourable to such a union: and we
may well suppose that when Alexander, in order to preserve by the arts
of peace that extensive empire which he had obtained by the force of
arms, endeavoured to incorporate the customs of the Greeks with those of
the Persian, Indian, and other eastern nations, the opinions as well as
the manners of this feeble and obsequious race would, in a great
measure, be accommodated to those of their conquerors. This influence of
the Grecian upon the oriental philosophy continued long after the time
of Alexander, and was one principal occasion of the confusion of
opinions which occurs in the history of the Alexandrian and Christian
schools. Alexander, when he built the city of Alexandria, with a
determination to make it the seat of his empire, and peopled it with
emigrants from various countries, opened a new mart of philosophy, which
emulated the fame of Athens itself. A general indulgence was granted to
the promiscuous crowd assembled in this rising city, whether Egyptians,
Grecians, Jews, or others, to profess their respective systems of
philosophy without molestation. The consequence was, that Egypt was soon
filled with religious and philosophical sectaries of every kind; and
particularly, that almost every Grecian sect found an advocate and
professor in Alexandria. The family of the Ptolemies, as we have seen,
who after Alexander obtained the government of Egypt, from motives of
policy encouraged this new establishment. Ptolemy Lagus, who had
obtained the crown of Egypt by usurpation, was particularly careful to
secure the interest of the Greeks in his favour, and with this view
invited people from every part of Greece to settle in Egypt, and removed
the schools of Athens to Alexandria. This enlightened prince spared no
pains to raise the literary, as well as the civil, military, and
commercial credit of his country. Under the patronage first of the
Egyptian princes, and afterward of the Roman emperors, Alexandria long
continued to enjoy great celebrity as the seat of learning, and to send
forth eminent philosophers of every sect to distant countries. It
remained a school of learning, as well as a commercial emporium, till it
was taken, and plundered of its literary treasures by the Saracens.
Philosophy, during this period, suffered a grievous corruption from the
attempt which was made by philosophers of different sects and countries,
Grecian, Egyptian, and oriental, who were assembled in Alexandria, to
frame, from their different tenets, one general system of opinions. The
respect which had long been universally paid to the schools of Greece,
and the honours with which they were now adorned by the Egyptian
princes, induced other wise men, and even the Egyptian priests and
philosophers themselves, to submit to this innovation. Hence arose a
heterogeneous mass of opinions, under the name of the _Eclectic
philosophy_, and which was the foundation of endless confusion, error,
and absurdity, not only in the Alexandrian school, but among Jews and
Christians; producing among the former that specious kind of philosophy,
which they called their _Cabala_, and among the latter innumerable
corruptions of the Christian faith.
At Alexandria there was, in a very early period of the Christian æra, a
Christian school of considerable eminence. St. Jerome says, the school
at Alexandria had been in being from the time of St. Mark. Pantænus,
placed by Lardner at the year 192, presided in it. St. Clement of
Alexandria succeeded Pantænus in this school about the year 190; and he
was succeeded by Origen. The extensive commerce of Alexandria, and its
proximity to Palestine, gave an easy entrance to the new religion, and
when Adrian visited Egypt, he found a church composed of Jews and
Greeks, sufficiently important to attract the notice of that inquisitive
prince. The theological system of Plato was introduced into both the
philosophical and Christian schools of Alexandria; and of course many of
his sentiments and expressions were blended with the opinions and
language of the professors and teachers of Christianity.
Alexandria was the source, and for some time the principal stronghold,
of Arianism; which had its name from its founder, Arius, a presbyter of
the church of this city, about the year 315. His doctrines were
condemned by a council held here in the year 320; and afterward by a
general council of three hundred and eighty fathers, held at Nice, by
order of Constantine, in 325. These doctrines, however, which suited the
reigning taste for disputative theology, and the pride and
self-sufficiency of nominal Christians, better than the unsophisticated
simplicity of the Gospel, spread widely and rapidly notwithstanding.
Arius was steadfastly opposed by the celebrated Athanasius, bishop of
Alexandria, the intrepid champion of the catholic faith, who was raised
to the archiepiscopal throne of Alexandria in 326.
This city was, in 415, distinguished by a fierce persecution of the Jews
by the patriarch Cyril. They who had enjoyed the rights of citizens, and
the freedom of religious worship, for seven hundred years, ever since
the foundation of the city, incurred the hatred of this ecclesiastic;
who, in his zeal for the extermination of heretics of every kind, pulled
down their synagogues, plundered their property, and expelled them, to
the number of forty thousand, from the city.
It was in a ship belonging to the port of Alexandria, that St. Paul
sailed from Myra, a city of Lycia, on his way to Rome, Acts xxvii, 5, 6.
Alexandria was also the native place of Apollos.