very different accounts have been given by ancient writers. Ctesias and
Diodorus Siculus affirm, that the Assyrian monarchy, under Ninus and
Semiramis, comprehended the greater part of the known world: but, if
this had been the case, it is not likely that Homer and Herodotus would
have omitted a fact so remarkable. The sacred records intimate that none
of the ancient states or kingdoms were of considerable extent; for
neither Chederlaomer, nor any of the neighbouring princes, were
tributary or subject to Assyria; and “we find nothing,” says Playfair,
“of the greatness or power of this kingdom in the history of the judges
and succeeding kings of Israel, though the latter kingdom was oppressed
and enslaved by many different powers in that period.” It is therefore
highly probable that Assyria was originally of small extent. According
to Ptolemy, this country was bounded on the north by part of Armenia and
Mount Niphates; on the west by the Tigris; on the south by Susiana; and
on the east by part of Media and the mountains Choatra and Zagros. Of
the origin, revolutions, and termination of Assyria, properly so called,
and distinguished from the grand monarchy which afterward bore this
appellation, the following account is given by Mr. Playfair, as the most
probable:--“The founder of it was Ashur, the second son of Shem, who
departed from Shinar, upon the usurpation of Nimrod, at the head of a
large body of adventurers, and laid the foundations of Nineveh, where he
resided, and erected a new kingdom, called Assyria, after his name, Gen.
x, 11. These events happened not long after Nimrod had established the
Chaldean monarchy, and fixed his residence at Babylon; but it does not
appear that Nimrod reigned in Assyria. The kingdoms of Assyria and
Babylon were originally distinct and separate, Micah v, 6; and in this
state they remained until Ninus conquered Babylon, and made it tributary
to the Assyrian empire. Ninus, the successor of Ashur, Gen. x, 11,
seized on Chaldea after the death of Nimrod, and united the kingdoms of
Assyria and Babylon. This great prince is said to have subdued Asia,
Persia, Media, Egypt, &c. If he did so, the effects of his conquests
were of no long duration; for, in the days of Abraham, we do not find
that any of the neighbouring kingdoms were subject to Assyria. Ninus was
succeeded by Semiramis, a princess bold, enterprising, and fortunate; of
whose adventures and exploits many fabulous relations have been
recorded. Playfair is of opinion that there were two princesses of this
name, who flourished at different periods: one, the consort of Ninus;
and another, who lived five generations before Nitocris, queen of
Nebuchadnezzar. Of the successors of Ninus and Semiramis nothing certain
is recorded. The last of the ancient Assyrian kings was Sardanapalus,
who was besieged in his capital by Arbaces, governor of Media, in
concurrence with the Babylonians. These united forces defeated the
Assyrian army, demolished the capital, and became masters of the empire,
B. C. 821.
“After the death of Sardanapalus,” says Mr. Playfair, “the Assyrian
empire was divided into three kingdoms; namely, the Median, Assyrian,
and Babylonian. Arbaces retained the supreme authority, and nominated
governors in Assyria and Babylon, who were honoured with the title of
kings, while they remained subject and tributary to the Persian monarchs
Belesis,” he says, “a Chaldean priest, who assisted Arbaces in the
conquest of Sardanapalus, received the government of Babylon as the
reward of his services; and Phul was intrusted with that of Assyria. The
Assyrian governor gradually enlarged the boundaries of his kingdom, and
was succeeded by Tiglath-pileser, Salmanasar, and Sennacherib, who
asserted and maintained their independence. After the death of
Assar-haddon, the brother and successor of Sennacherib, the kingdom of
Assyria was split, and annexed to the kingdoms of Media and Babylon.
Several tributary princes afterward reigned in Nineveh; but we hear no
more of the kings of Assyria, but of those of Babylon. Cyaxares, king of
Media, assisted Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, in the siege of
Nineveh, which they took and destroyed, B. C. 606.”
The history of Assyria, deduced from Scripture, and acknowledged as the
only authentic one by Sir Isaac Newton and many others, ascribes the
foundation of the monarchy to Pul, or Phul, about the second year of
Menahem, king of Israel, twenty-four years before the æra of Nabonassar,
1579 years after the flood, and, according to Blair, 769, or, according
to Newton, 790, years before Christ. Menahem, having taken forcible
possession of the throne of Israel by the murder of Shallum, 2 Kings xv,
10, was attacked by Pul, but prevented the hostilities meditated against
him by presenting the invader with a thousand talents of silver. Pul,
thus gratified, took the kingdom of Israel under his protection,
returned to his own country, after having received voluntary homage from
several nations in his march, as he had done from Israel, and became the
founder of a great empire. As it was in the days of Pul that the
Assyrians began to afflict the inhabitants of Palestine, 2 Kings xi, 9;
1 Chron. v, 26, this was the time, according to Sir Isaac Newton, when
the Assyrian empire arose. Thus he interprets the words, “since the time
of the kings of Assyria,” Nehem. ix, 32; that is, since the time of the
kingdom of Assyria, or since the rise of that empire. But though this
was the period in which the Assyrians afflicted Israel, it is not so
evident that the time of the kings of Assyria must necessarily be
understood of the rise of the Assyrian empire. However, Newton thus
reasons; and observes, that “Pul and his successors afflicted Israel,
and conquered the nations round about them; and upon the ruin of many
small and ancient kingdoms erected their empire; conquering the Medes,
as well as other nations.” It is farther argued, that God, by the
Prophet Amos, in the reign of Jeroboam, about ten or twenty years before
the reign of Pul, (see Amos vi, 13, 14,) threatened to raise up a nation
against Israel; and that, as Pul reigned presently after the prophecy of
Amos, and was the first upon record who began to fulfil it, he may be
justly reckoned the first conqueror and founder of this empire. See 1
Chron. v, 26. Pul was succeeded on the throne of Assyria by his elder
son Tiglath-pileser; and at the same time he left Babylon to his younger
son Nabonassar, B. C. 747. Of the conquests of this second king of
Assyria against the kings of Israel and Syria, when he took Damascus,
and subdued the Syrians, we have an account in 2 Kings xv, 29, 37; xvi,
5,9; 1 Chron. v, 26; by which the prophecy of Amos was fulfilled, and
from which it appears that the empire of the Assyrians was now become
great and powerful. The next king of Assyria was Shalmaneser, or
Salmanassar, who succeeded Tiglath-pileser, B. C. 729, and invaded
Phœnicia, took the city of Samaria, and, B. C. 721, carried the ten
tribes into captivity, placing them in Chalach and Chabor, by the river
Gazon, and in the cities of the Medes, 2 Kings xvii, 6. Shalmaneser was
succeeded by Sennacherib, B. C. 719; and in the year B. C. 714, he was
put to flight with great slaughter by the Ethiopians and Egyptians. In
the year B. C. 711 the Medes revolted from the Assyrians; Sennacherib
was slain; and he was succeeded by his son Esar-Haddon, Asserhaddon,
Asordan, Assaradin, or Sarchedon, by which names he is called by
different writers. He began his reign at Nineveh, in the year of
Nabonassar 42; and in the year 68 extended it over Babylon. He then
carried the remainder of the Samaritans into captivity, and peopled
Samaria with captives brought from several parts of his kingdom; and in
the year of Nabonassar 77 or 78 he seems to have put an end to the reign
of the Ethiopians over Egypt. “In the reign of Sennacherib and
Asser-Hadon,” says Sir I. Newton, “the Assyrian empire seems arrived at
its greatness; being united under one monarch, and containing Assyria,
Media, Apolloniatis, Susiana, Chaldea, Mesopotamia, Cilicia, Syria,
Phœnicia, Egypt, Ethiopia, and part of Arabia; and reaching eastward
into Elymais, and Parætæcene, a province of the Medes; and if Chalach
and Chabor be Colchis and Iberia, as some think, and as may seem
probable from the circumcision used by those nations till the days of
Herodotus, we are also to add these two provinces, with the two
Armenias, Pontus, and Cappadocia, as far as to the river Halys: for
Herodotus tells us that the people of Cappadocia, as far as to that
river, were called Syrians by the Greeks, both before and after the days
of Cyrus; and that the Assyrians were also called Syrians by the
Greeks.” Asser-Hadon was succeeded in the year B. C. 668 by
Saosduchinus. At this time Manasseh was allowed to return home, and
fortify Jerusalem; and the Egyptians also, after the Assyrians had
harassed Egypt and Ethiopia three years, Isa. xx, 3, 4, were set at
liberty. Saosduchinus, after a reign of twenty years, was succeeded at
Babylon, and probably at Nineveh also, by Chyniladon, in the year B. C.
647. This Chyniladon is supposed by Newton to be the Nebuchadonosor
mentioned in the book of Judith, i, 1–15, who made war upon Arphaxad,
king of the Medes; and, though deserted by his auxiliaries of Cilicia,
Damascus, Syria, Phœnicia, Moab, Ammon, and Egypt, routed the army of
the Medes, and slew Arphaxad. This Arphaxad is supposed to be either
Dejoces or his son Phraortes, mentioned by Herodotus. Soon after the
death of Phraortes, in the year B. C. 635, the Scythians invaded the
Medes and Persians; and in 625, Nabopolassar, the commander of the
forces of Chyniladon in Chaldea, revolted from him, and became king of
Babylon. Chyniladon was either then or soon after succeeded at Nineveh
by the last king of Assyria, called Sarac by Polyhistor. The authors of
the Universal History suppose Saosduchinus to have been the
Nebuchadonosor of Scripture, and Chyniladon or Chynaladan to have been
the Sarac of Polyhistor. At length Nebuchadnezzar, the son of
Nabopolassar, married Amyit, the daughter of Astyages, king of the
Medes, and sister of Cyaxares; and by this marriage the two families
having contracted affinity, they conspired against the Assyrians.
Nabopolassar being old, and Astyages dead, their sons Nebuchadnezzar and
Cyaxares led the armies of the two nations against Nineveh, slew Sarac,
destroyed the city, and shared the kingdom of the Assyrians. This
victory the Jews refer to the Chaldeans; the Greeks, to the Medes;
Tobit, xiv, 15, Polyhistor, and Ctesias, to both. With this victory
commenced the great successes of Nebuchadnezzar and Cyaxares, and it
laid the foundation of the two collateral empires of the Babylonians and
Medes, which were branches of the Assyrian empire; and hence the time of
the fall of the Assyrian empire is determined, the conquerors being then
in their youth. In the reign of Josiah, when Zephaniah prophesied,
Nineveh and the kingdom of Assyria were standing; and their fall was
predicted by that Prophet, Zeph. i, 3; ii, 13. And in the end of his
reign, Pharaoh-Necho, king of Egypt, the successor of Psammitichus, went
up against the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates, to fight against
Carchemish, or Circutium; and in his way thither slew Josiah, 2 Kings
xxiii, 29; 2 Chron. xxxv, 20; and therefore the last king of Assyria was
not yet slain. But in the third and fourth years of Jehoiakim, the
successor of Josiah, the two conquerors having taken Nineveh, and
finished their war in Assyria, prosecuted their conquests westward; and,
leading their forces against the king of Egypt, as an invader of their
right of conquest, they beat him at Carchemish, and took from him
whatever he had recently taken from the Assyrians, 2 Kings xxiv, 7; Jer.
xlvi, 2; “and therefore we cannot err,” says Sir Isaac Newton, “above a
year or two, if we refer the destruction of Nineveh, and fall of the
Assyrian empire, to the third year, of Jehoiakim,” or the hundred and
fortieth, or, according to Blair, the hundred and forty-first year of
Nabonassar; that is, the year B. C. 607.
Of the government, laws, religion, learning, customs, &c, of the ancient
Assyrians, nothing absolutely certain is recorded. Their kingdom was at
first small, and subsisted for several ages under hereditary chiefs; and
their government was simple. Afterward, when they rose to the sublimity
of empire, their government seems to have been despotic, and the empire
hereditary. Their laws were probably few, and depended upon the mere
will of the prince. To Ninus we may ascribe the division of the Assyrian
empire into provinces and governments; for we find that this institution
was fully established in the reigns of Semiramis and her successors. The
people were distributed into a certain number of tribes; and their
occupations or professions were hereditary. The Assyrians had several
distinct councils, and several tribunals for the regulation of public
affairs. Of councils there were three, which were created by the body of
the people, and who governed the state in conjunction with the
sovereign. The first consisted of officers who had retired from military
employments; the second, of the nobility; and the third, of the old men.
The sovereigns also had three tribunals, whose province it was to watch
over the conduct of the people. The Assyrians have been competitors with
the Egyptians for the honour of having invented alphabetic writing. It
appears, from the few remains now extant of the writing of these ancient
nations, that their letters had a great affinity with each other. They
much resembled one another in shape; and they ranged them in the same
manner, from right to left.
ASTROLOGY, the art of foretelling future events, from the aspects,
positions, and influences of the heavenly bodies. The word is compounded
of ἀϛὴρ star, and λόγος, discourse; whence, in the literal sense of the
term, astrology should signify no more than the doctrine or science of
the stars. Astrology judiciary, or judicial, is what we commonly call
simple astrology, or that which pretends to foretel mortal events, even
those which have a dependence on the free will and agency of man; as if
they were directed by the stars. This art, which owed its origin to the
practice of knavery on credulity, is now universally exploded by the
intelligent part of mankind. Judicial astrology is commonly said to have
been invented in Chaldea, and thence transmitted to the Egyptians,
Greeks, and Romans; though some will have it of Egyptian origin, and
ascribe the invention to Cham. But we derive it from the Arabians. The
Chaldeans, and the Egyptians, and indeed almost all the nations of
antiquity, were infatuated with the chimæras of astrology. It originated
in the notion, that the stars have an influence, either beneficial or
malignant, upon the affairs of men, which may be discovered, and made
the ground of certain prediction, in particular cases; and the whole art
consisted in applying astronomical observations to this fanciful
purpose. Diodorus Siculus relates, that the Chaldeans learned these arts
from the Egyptians; and he would not have made this assertion, if there
had not been at least a general tradition that they were practised from
the earliest times in Egypt. The system was, in those remote ages,
intimately connected with Sabaism, or the worship of the stars as
divinities; but whether it emanates from idolatry or fatality, it denies
God and his providence, and is therefore condemned in the Scriptures,
and ranked with practices the most offensive and provoking to the Divine
Majesty.
ASTYAGES, otherwise, Cyaxares, king of the Medes, and successor to
Phraortes. He reigned forty years, and died A. M. 3409. He was father to
Astyages, otherwise called Darius the Mede. He had two daughters,
Mandane and Amyit: Mandane married Cambyses, the Persian, and was the
mother of Cyrus; Amyit married Nebuchadnezzar, the son of Nabopolassar,
and was the mother of Evilmerodach.
ASTYAGES, otherwise called Ahasuerus in the Greek, Dan. ix, 1, or
Cyaxares in Xenophon, or Apandus in Ctesias, was appointed by his father
Cyaxares governor of Media, and sent with Nabopolassar, king of Babylon,
against Saracus, otherwise called Chynaladanus, king of Assyria. These
two princes besieged Saracus in Nineveh, took the city, and dismembered
the Assyrian empire. Astyages was with Cyrus at the conquest of Babylon,
and succeeded Belshazzar, king of the Chaldeans, as is expressly
mentioned in Daniel, v, 30, 31, A. M. 3447. After his death Cyrus
succeeded him, A. M. 3456.
ASUPPIM, a word which signifies gatherings, and the name of the treasury
of the temple of Jerusalem, 1 Chron. xxvi, 15.
ATHALIAH, the daughter of Omri, king of Samaria, and wife to Jehoram,
king of Judah. This princess, being informed that Jehu had slain her son
Ahaziah, resolved to take the government upon herself, 2 Kings xi; which
that she might effect without opposition, she destroyed all the children
that Jehoram had by other wives, and all their offspring. But Jehosheba,
the sister of Ahaziah, by the father’s side only, was at this time
married to Jehoiada, the high priest; and while Athaliah’s executioners
were murdering the rest, she conveyed Joash the son of Ahaziah away, and
kept him and his nurse concealed in an apartment of the temple, during
six years. In the seventh year, his uncle Jehoiada being determined to
place him on the throne of his ancestors, and procure the destruction of
Athaliah, he engaged the priests and Levites, and the leading men in all
the parts of the kingdom in his interest, and in a public assembly
produced him, and made them take an oath of secrecy and fidelity to him.
He then distributed arms among the people, whom he divided into three
bodies, one to guard the person of the king, and the other two to secure
the gates of the temple. After this, he brought out the young prince,
set the crown on his head, put the book of the law into his hand, and
with sound of trumpet proclaimed him; which was seconded with the joyful
shouts and acclamations of the people. Athaliah, hearing the noise, made
all haste to the temple; but when, to her astonishment, she saw the
young king seated on a throne, she rent her clothes and cried out,
“Treason!” But, at the command of Jehoiada, the guards seized and
carried her out of the temple, putting all to the sword who offered to
rescue or assist her; and then taking her to the stable gate belonging
to the palace, there put her to death, A. M. 3126.
ATHANASIANS, the orthodox followers of St. Athanasius, the great and
able antagonist of Arius. The Athanasian Creed, though generally
admitted not to be drawn up by this father, (but probably, as Doctor
Waterland says, by Hilary, bishop of Arles, in the fifth century,) is
universally allowed to contain a fair expression of his sentiments. This
creed says, “The Catholic faith is this: that we worship One God in
Trinity, and Trinity in Unity: neither confounding the persons, nor
dividing the substance. For there is one person of the Father, another
of the Son, and another of the Holy Ghost. But the Godhead of the
Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, is all one; the glory equal,
the majesty co-eternal. Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such
is the Holy Ghost;” namely, “uncreate, incomprehensible, eternal,” &c.
The true key to the Athanasian Creed lies in the knowledge of the errors
to which it was opposed. The Sabellians considered the Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit as one in person;--this was “confounding the persons:” the
Arians considered them as differing in essence--three beings;--this was
“dividing the substance:” and against these two hypotheses was the creed
originally framed. And since every sect was willing to adopt the
language of Scripture, it was thought necessary to adopt scholastic
terms, in order to fix the sense of Scripture language. Many, however,
hold the doctrine of the Athanasian Creed, and approve its terms, who
object to its damnatory clauses. See ARIANS.
ATHANASIUS, the celebrated patriarch of Alexandria, resisted Arius and
his erroneous doctrines; and his sentiments as to the Trinity are
embodied in the creed which bears his name, though not composed by him.
At the Council of Nice, though then but a deacon of Alexandria, his
reputation for skill in controversy gained him an honourable place in
the council, and with great dexterity he exposed the sophistry of those
who pleaded on the side of Arius. Notwithstanding the influence of the
emperor, who had recalled Arius from banishment, and upon a plausible
confession of his faith, in which he affected to be orthodox in his
sentiments, directed that he should be received by the Alexandrian
church, Athanasius refused to admit him to communion, and exposed his
prevarication. The Arians upon this exerted themselves to raise tumults
at Alexandria, and to injure the character of Athanasius with the
emperor, who was prevailed upon to pronounce against him a sentence of
banishment. In the beginning of the reign of Constantius he was
recalled; but was again disturbed and deposed through the influence of
the Arians. Accusations were also sent against him and other bishops
from the east to the west, but they were acquitted by Pope Julius in
full council. Athanasius was restored to his see upon the death of the
Arian bishop, who had been placed in it. Arianism, however, being in
favour at court, he was condemned by a council convened at Arles, and by
another at Milan, and was obliged to fly into the deserts. He returned
with the other bishops whom Julian the apostate recalled from
banishment, and in A. D. 362, held a council at Alexandria, where the
belief of a consubstantial Trinity was openly professed. Many now were
recovered from Arianism, and brought to subscribe the Nicene Creed.
During the reign of Jovian also Athanasius held another council, which
declared its adherence to the Nicene faith; and with the exception of a
short retirement under Valens he was permitted to sit down in quiet and
govern his affectionate church of Alexandria. Athanasius was an eminent
instrument of maintaining the truth in an age when errors affecting the
great foundation of our faith were urged with great subtlety. He was by
his acuteness able to trace the enemy through his most insidious modes
of attack; and thus to preserve the simple and unwary from being misled
by terms and distinctions, which, whilst they sounded in unison with the
true faith of the Gospel, did in fact imply, or at least open the door
to, the most deadly errors. The Scripture doctrine of the Trinity, as
explained by him, at length triumphed over the heresies which at one
time met with so much support and sanction; and the views of Athanasius
have been received, in substance, by all orthodox churches to the
present time.
ATHEIST, in the strict and proper sense of the word, is one who does not
believe in the existence of a God, or who owns no being superior to
nature. It is compounded of the two terms, α negative, and Θεὸς, God,
signifying _without God_. Atheists have been also known by the name
infidels; but the word infidel is now commonly used to distinguish a
more numerous party, and is become almost synonymous with Deist. He who
disbelieves the existence of a God, as an infinite, intelligent, and a
moral agent, is a direct or speculative Atheist; he who confesses a
Deity and providence in words, but denies them in his life and actions,
is a practical Atheist. That Atheism existed in some sense before the
flood, may be suspected from what we read in Scripture, as well as from
Heathen tradition; and it is not very unreasonable to suppose, that the
deluge was partly intended to evince to the world a heavenly power, as
Lord of the universe, and superior to the visible system of nature. This
was at least a happy consequence of that fatal catastrophe; for, as it
is observed by Dean Sherlock, “The universal deluge, and the confusion
of languages, had so abundantly convinced mankind of a divine power and
providence, that there was no such creature as an Atheist, till their
ridiculous idolatries had tempted some men of wit and thought, rather to
own no God than such as the Heathens worshipped.”