THE IMPERIAL BIBLE-DICTIONARY, HISTORICAL, BIOGRAPHICAL, GEOGRAPHICAL, AND DOCTRINAL: INCLUDING THE NATURAL HISTORY, ANTIQUITIES, MANNERS, CUSTOMS, AND RELIGIOUS RITES AND CEREMONIES MENTIONED IN THE SCRIPTURES, AND AN ACCOUNT OF THE SEVERAL BOOKS OF THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS. BLACKIE AND SON, PATERNOSTER ROW; AND GLASGOW AND EDINBURGH. PREFACE. NEARLY twelve years have elapsed since this Bible-Dictionary was projected, and an understanding come to between the Editor and the Publishers respecting its execution. Circumstances, however, occurred to prevent the actual commencement of the undertaking so early as was intended; and unforeseen delays have occasionally arisen during the progress of publication, prolonging the period of completion considerably beyond the time originally contemplated. When the design was formed Kitto's Cyclopædia was the only English work of the kind, in which the later results of biblical scholarship were applied to the elucidation of Scripture; and though others have appeared since-in particular the learned and comprehensive work edited by Dr. Smith-yet from the plan on which this Dictionary was projected, and the distinctive aims it was intended to realize, there still seems to be a place left which it may without presumption or needless rivalry endeavour to fill. The circle through which religious inquiry-so far at least as regards an intelligent study of the sacred records-has spread itself in this country, is a progressively expanding one. There is a constantly growing class of persons in different grades of society, who, without any professional study of the languages and literature of the Bible, are yet possessed of sufficient culture, and intelligent interest in sacred things, to dispose and enable them to profit by works in which biblical subjects are handled in the light of modern learning and research, if not overloaded with scholastic forms of expression, or entering into very minute and lengthened investigations. To a certain extent, and as regards all the greater topics and interests of the Bible, the wants of such persons do not materially differ from those of a vast proportion of the ministers of the gospel, who with limited resources, and with comparatively little time for independent research and continuous study, require to have at command a store-house of knowledge on biblical subjects in a compendious form. And in an age like the present, in which knowledge generally is so much increased, in which also speculation in divine things is so rife, and weapons are so busily plied within as well as without the pale of the visible Church to undermine the foundations and pervert the teaching of the Word of God, it is of the greatest moment that helps of the kind now indicated should be amply provided—such helps especially as combine with the fruits of enlightened and careful inquiry sound principles of Scriptural interpretation, and are not too voluminous or expensive to be accessible to an extensive circle of readers. It was with such views and aims that this Bible-Dictionary was undertaken, and has been carried out; and with reference to these it ought to be judged. It were vain, however, to expect that it could preserve throughout a method equally appropriate to one and all of its readers. Embracing such a manifold variety of topics, and topics that stand related to such distant climes and remote ages, it could scarcely fail that, in the hands even of a single writer, some articles would run out to points that may seem to a class needlessly minute, others bearing too much the impress of a learned antiquarianism, or an argumentative theology; and with the employment of a number of writers the probability that such may occasionally happen naturally becomes greater. It should not, therefore, excite any surprise, if articles on certain subjects should be found which will scarcely be interesting, or in some parts altogether intelligible, except to those who have made biblical learning their proper study. The work would not accomplish its purpose, without grappling with the questions and the difficulties which inevitably require articles of such a description-while still it will be found that they form no great proportion of the whole, and that the work in its general tenor and substance is adapted to the use of persons who have enjoyed a good ordinary education. Above all other books the Bible stands pre-eminent for its profoundly ethical character and aim; keeping constantly in view, amid all its variety of matter and form, the high purposes of a revelation from heaven. This it has been the endeavour also of the writers of this work to bear in mind, convinced that no defence or elucidation of Scripture will adequately serve its purpose, apart from an insight into the spiritual design as well as the supernatural character of revelation. The work, therefore, is based on the inspiration of the sacred volume, as the unerring record of God's mind and will to men; and while it does not needlessly obtrude, yet neither does it evade, the topics which more peculiarly distinguish it as such a revelation; it takes them in their proper order, as forming an integral and essential part of the volume which it has for its object to explain and vindicate. In the lives, also, of the more prominent actors in sacred history respect has commonly been had to the spiritual meaning of their course, and the relations they respectively held to the higher purposes of the divine administration. The method, no doubt, carries with it certain difficulties and perils; for in the present divided state of Christendom it is impossible to traverse thus the wide domain of Scripture without occasionally striking on the cherished convictions of some most intelligent and conscientious believers. It should be enough, in such a case, if no needless offence is given (as none such, it is hoped, will be found here); for it were an unworthy compromise, and unlike the spirit of the Bible, for the sake of a few minor differences to practise a general reserve on the great themes of salvation, and treat the several parts of revelation merely as the component items or accidental accompaniments of an external and lifeless framework. In the carrying out of such a plan it will be understood there is at once a general and an individual responsibility-the one that of the Editor, the other that of the several contributors. The Editor is responsible for whatever may be said to bear on the professed scope and distinctive principles of the undertaking: the blame is his if anything should appear at variance with the divine character and teaching of Scripture, inconsistent with the great principles of truth and duty, or palpably defective and erroneous in the discussion even of comparatively common topics. But within these limits each writer is responsible for his own contributions; and as it is of the utmost importance that every article should bear the stamp of its author's vein of thought and untrammelled convictions, so there may be occasional expressions of opinion, and occasional interpretations of texts, to which the Editor does |