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Ismachiah (continued) – Iheres
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Ismachiah (continued)
6. The reign of legalism. — With the beginning of the HasmonjEan dynasty (John Hyrcanus i.), the creative period of Judaism was over, and the leaders, gathering up the heritage of the past, were crystalUzing it into permanent form. This did not come about all at once, and its beginnings go back into the preceding period. The writers of the Priestly Law were the real intellectual ancestors of those ChaSldlm, or enthusiasts for the Law, out of whom the Maccabees sprang. Until after the Maccabsean struggle, however, the rehgious life was too varied, and the genius of the nation too creative, for the priestly conceptions to master everybody. The struggle of the Maccabees for the life of the Jevrish religion greatly strengthened the Cha^cRm, who early in the Hasmonsean rule developed into the Pharisees. More numerous than the Sadducees, and possessing among the country people a much greater reputation for piety, they soon became the dominant party in Palestine. Some, as the Essenea (wh. see), might split off from them, but they were too insignificant to shatter the Pharisees’ Influence. The aim of the Pharisees was to apply the Law to all the details of daily life. Some of its provisions were indefinite. It called on the Hebrew not to work on the Sabbath, but some work was necessary, if man would live. They endeavoured to define, therefore, what was and what was not work within the meaning of the Pentateuch. Similarly they dealt vrith other laws. These definitions were not for some centuries committed to writing. Thus there grew up an Oral Law side by side with the Written Law, and in due time the Pharisees regarded this as of Divine authority also. Thus their energies fastened the grip of external observance upon the religious life. The epoch was not creative. They dared not create anything. Everything was given out either as an Interpretation of the Law, or as the interpretation of some predecessor. There was development and growth, of course, but this was accomplished, not by creating the new, but by interpreting the old. In the Rabbinic schools, which were developed in the reign of Herod, this system fully unfolded Itself, and became the archetype of orthodox Judaism to the present day.
In the Rabbinic schools the method of teaching was by repetition. The sayings or interpretations of famous Rabbis were stated by the master and repeated again and again till they were remembered. Not originality but memory was the praiseworthy quality in a student. Thus when, centuries later, the Oral Law was committed to writing, it was called Mishna, or ‘Repetition.’
In thesynagogue(wh. see), where thepeopleworshlpped on the Sabbath, and where the children were taught, the inner religious life was fostered, but synagogues gradually became centres for the propagation of Pharisaism.
Beginning with the Maccabsean struggles, a new class of literature, the Apocalyptic, was called into existence. Prophecy was completely dead. No one had the creative genius to unfold in his own name the Divine purposes. For some centuries those who had a message for their contemporaries in persecution presented it as a vision which some ancient worthy, Enoch, Daniel, Baruch, or Ezra, had seen. The apocalyptists were only in a secondary sense creative. They moulded the utterances of the prophets and traditional material borrowed from Babylonia, so as to make them express the hopes which they would teach. No fewer than seven of these works were attributed to Enoch, and six to Baruch; one was ascribed to Moses, one to Isaiah, while each of the twelve sons of Jacob had his ‘Testament,’ and Solomon a ‘Psalter.’
In this literature the national consciousness of Judaism, in conflict first with S3rria and then with Rome, finds expression. The hopes for the long-delayed kingdom of which the prophets had spoken are portrayed. As one sees that kingdom fade (or brighten) from the earthly empire of the early apocalypses to the heavenly kingdom of some of the later ones, one follows the eschatological conceptions which were at this time being born in Judaism. The apocalyptic hopes were quite consistent with the Law; they pointed forward to that time when the faithful should have ability to serve God completely, and to the reward for all that they had suffered here.
The great idea of God expressed by the Priestly document pervaded and still pervades Judaism. The Divine unity and majesty were and are its watchwords. These as well as its Pharisaic ritual have been embodied in Talmud and Midrash, and transmitted to modern times. Judaism during the Christian centuries has had its history, its development, and its heresies. It has produced independent thinkers like Maimonides and Spinoza. In modern life the Reformed Jew is casting off the forms of Pharisaism, but through the lapse of all the centuries Judaism, as shaped by the Pharisees and held by their successors, has been the orthodox religion of that race which traces its lineage to Israel.
Geoboe a. Bakton.
Israelite
Israelite (Ju ). This is the only instance of the use of the word ‘Israelite’ in the Gospels. It has the particular significance, suggested by the story of Jacob in . of one belonging to the Jewish race, with special reference to the privileges conferred by God on His people: ‘whose is the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the temple service, and the promises’ (). Its use (eis distinct from ‘Jew’ and ‘Hebrew’) became closely associated with belief in the Messianic hope (cf. ). and the expression ‘Israelite indeed,’ addressed to Nathanael, breathes that sense of tragedy so apparent in the Fourth Gospel, inasmuch as those who were specially ‘His own’ received Him not. We may compare the attitude of ‘the Jews,’ in ch. 6, who blindly claimed race privileges, and yet were enemies of Christ, and who cherished the very prejudice that Nathanael overcame {cf. Ju with . where the objection in both cases is to the commonplace origin of Jesus), when he readily responded to Philip’s invitation, ‘Come and see.’ It is in this sense that Nathanael is ‘without guile.’ He does not allow his devout sense of privilege to destroy openness of heart towards the claim of Jesus of Nazareth. His action shows that he is sincere, frank, and without sinister aim (cf. . ). To Jesus, therefore, he is an object of surprise.
R. H. Steachan.
Issachar
The fifth son of Leah, born after Gad and Asher, the sons of Zilpah, and the ninth of Jacob’s sons ( [E], cf. [p]). The name (in Heb. Yiss-askar) is peculiar in form, and of uncertain signification; but it is quite probable that it has arisen from a coiruption of ‘ish-sakhar as Wellhausen (Sam. 95) suggests, and further, that the latter element is the name of a deity. Ball (SBOT, ad loc.) suggests the Egyptian Memphi te god Sokar. The name would then correspond to the name ‘ish-Gad by which the Moabites knew the Gadites. J and E, however, both connect it with the root sSkhar,’ to hire’: J, because Leah ‘hired’ Jacob from Rachel with Reuben’s mandrakes; E, because she gave Zilpah to Jacob. The difference shows that the traditions are of little value as linguistic guides. , also appears to play upon the root sakhar in its description of Issachar as ‘a servant under task work.’ This would harmonize with the interpretation ‘hired man’ or ‘labourer.’ It has, however, little to commend it.
P’s census at Sinai gives the tribe 54,400 (). and at Moab 64,300 () cf. . For the clans see and ff.:
The original seat of the tribe appears to have been S. of Naphtali and S.E. of Zebulun, ‘probably in the hills between the two valleys which descend from the Great Plain to the Jordan (Wady d-Bireh and iVoftr Oalud)’ (Moore, Judges, 161). On the N.W. it touched upon Mt. Tabor, on the S. upon Mt. Gilboa. Eastward it reached to the Jordan. P’s lot () assigns to the tribe sixteen cities and their villages, scattered throughout the eastern end of the rich Plain of Esdraelon and the Valley of Jezreel, The tribe participated in the war against Sisera (). and Deborah perhaps belonged to it. The ‘with’ before Deborah might be read ‘people of; but the verse is evidently corrupt. Baasha, the son of Ahijah, who succeeded Nadab, was’ of the house of Issachar’; and, possibly, also Omri, who gave his name to the Northern Kingdom. The references in the Blessing of Jacob (Gn49) would indicate that during the early monarchy Issachar lost both its martial valour and its independence. On the other hand, in the Blessing of Moses (, ) great commercial prosperity is indicated, and the maintenance of a sanctuary to which ‘the peoples’ fiock to the sacrificial worship. Tola the judge, the grandson of Dodo, was a man of Issachar (). This name Dodo, occurring on the Mesha stele as that of a divinity, has led to the suggestion that he may have been worshipped in early times by the tribe. According to the Talmud, the Sanhedrin drew from Issachar its most intellectually prominent members. See also Tribes op Israel.
Jambs A. Craio.
Isshiah
1. One of the heads of the tribe of Issachar (). 2. A Korahite who joined David at Ziklag (). 3. The son of Uzziel ( ). 4. A Levite ().
Isshijah
One of those who had married a foreign wife () called in 1 Esdras 9:32 Aseas.
Issue
See Medicine, p. 600.
Istalcurus
Istalcurus (1 Esdras 8:40). ‘Uthi the son of Istalcurus’ here stands for ‘Uthai and Zabbud’ in .
Italian Band
See Band.
Italy
This word varied in sense from time to time. It first signified only the Southern (the Greek) part of the peninsula; later it included all the country south of the Lombard plain; and finally, before the time of Christ, it had come to bear the meaning which it has now. Its central position in the Mediterranean, the conformation of its coast, and the capabilities of its soil under proper cultivation, fitted it to be the home and centre of a governing race. In the 1st cent. A.D. there was constant communication between the capital Rome and every part of the Empire, by wellrecognized routes. Among the routes to the E., which mainly concern the NT student, was that from Rome along the W. coast of Italy to Campania, where it crossed the country and eventually reached Brundisium. From the harbour there the traveller either sailed across the Adriatic to Dyrrhachium, and went by the Egnatian road to Thessalonica and beyond, or sailed across to the Gulf of Corinth, transhipped from Lechaeum to Cenchreae (wh. see), and from there sailed to Ephesus or Antioch or Alexandria, as he desired.
2 D The best account of a home journey is in . The Jews poured into Italy, especially to Rome, and had been familiar to the Italians long before Christianity came. A. Souter.
Itch
See Medicine, p. 599.
Ithai
See Ittai, 2.
Itha
Itha jyiAR. — The fourth and youngest son of Aaron and Elisheba ( etc.); consecrated priest (Ex ff.) forbidden to mourn for Nadab and Abihu (Lv ). or to leave the Tent of Meeting () afterwards entrusted by Moses with priestly duties ( ff.) and rebuked by him for neglect () set over the Gershonites and the Merarites in connexion with the service of the Tent of Meeting ( f., cf. also ) ancestor of Eli (cf. with ; Jos. Ant. VIII. i. 3). The family in David’s time was only half the size of Eleazar’s (). It was represented among the returned exiles ().
W. Taylob Smith.
Ithiel
1. A Benjamite (). 2. One of two persons to whom Agur addressed his oracular sayings, the other being Ucal (). Neither LXX nor Vulg. recognizes proper names here, and most modern commentators point differently and tr. ‘I have wearied myself, O God, I have wearied myself, O God, and am consumed.’ So RVm.
Ithlah
A town of Dan, near Aijalon (). The site is unknown.
Ithmah
A Moabite, one of David’s heroes ().
Ithnan
A city in the Negeb of Judah () site uncertain.
Ithra
The father of Amasa, and husband of Abigail, David’s sister. He is described as an Israelite in . but the better reading is ‘Jethei the IshmaeUte’ ().
Ithran
1. Eponym of a Horite clan (, ). 2. An Asherite chief (). probably identical with Jether of the following verse.
ITHREAM, — The sixth son of David, born to him at Hebron (. ).
Ithrite, the
A gentilic adjective applied to the descendants of a family of Kiriath-jearim (). amongst whom were two of David’s guard (. Ira and Gareb). Possibly, however, the text of and should be pointed ‘the Jattirite,’ i.e. an inhabitant of Jattir (mentioned in as one of David’s haunts) in the hill-country of Judah ( ). See Jattir.
Its
It is well known that this word occurs but once in AV, . and that even there it is due to subsequent printers, the word in 1611 being ‘it’ — ‘that which groweth of it owne accord.’ The use of ‘it’ for ‘its’ is well seen in Shaks. King i. 160,
‘Go to it grandam, child: Give prandam kingdom, and it grandam will Give It a plum, a cherry, and a fig.’ The form ‘its’ was only beginning to come into use about 1611. The usual substitutes in AV are ‘his’ and ‘thereof.’ Thus ‘But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness,’ where Tindale has ‘the rightwisnes thereof (RV takes the pronoun to be masculine, referring to God, not kingdom, and retains’ his’).
Ittai
1. A Gittite leader who, with a following of six hundred Philistines, attached himself to David at the outbreak of Absalom’s rebellion. In spite of being urged by David to return to his home, he determined to follow the king in his misfortune, affirming his faithfulness in the beautiful words: ‘As the Lord liveth. and as my lord the king liveth, surely in what place my lord the king shall be, whether for death or for life, even there also will thy servant be’ (). He therefore remained in the service of David, and soon rose to a position of great trust, being placed in command of a third part of the people (). 2. A Benjamite, son of Ribai, who was one of David’s mighty men (, [in the latter Ithai]). W. O. E. Oesteklet.
Itur
Itur iEA [the name is probably derived from Jetur, who is mentioned in and as a son of Ishmael], with Trachonitis, constituted the tetrarchy of Philip (). But whether ‘Itursea’ is employed by the Evangelist as a noun or an adjective is a disputed point. Ramsay contends (Expositor, Jan., Feb., Apr., 1894) that no Greek writer prior to Eusebius in the 4th cent. A.D. ever uses it as the name of a country. The Iturseans as a people were well known to classical writers. According to Cicero (Philipp. u. 112), they were a ‘predatory people’; according to Csesar (Bell. Afr. 20), they were ‘skilful archers’; according to Strabo (xvi. ii. 10 etc.), they were ‘lawless.’ They seem to have migrated originally from the desert to the vicinity of Southern Lebanon and Coele-Syria. Both Strabo and Josephus (Ant. xiii. xi. 3) locate them in these parts. The Romans probably caused them to retreat towards the desert again shortly before the Christian era. Lysanias the son of Ptolemy is called by Dio Cassius (xlix. 32) ‘king of the Iturseans.’ He was put to death by Mark Antony in B.C. 34. Zenodorus his successor died in b.c. 20, whereupon a part of his territory fell into the hands of Herod the Great; and when Herod’s kingdom was divided, it became the possession of Philip (Jos. Ant. xv. x. 3). Whether Ituraea and Trachonitis overlapped (as Ramsay thinks), or were two distinct districts (as Strabo), is uncertain; G. A. Smith in his art. ‘Ituraea’ in Hastings’ DB is non-committal. The passage in Luke seems to favour a distinct and definite district, which was probably somewhere N.E. of the Sea of Galilee.
George L. Robinson.
Ivort
Ivort (sliSn, lit.’ tooth ‘; and shenhabbim,’ elephants’ teeth’ [but reading doubtful], . ). Ivory has been valued from the earliest times. In Solomon’s day the Israelites imported it from Ophir () it was used in the decorations of palaces (). The ‘tower of ivory’ () may also have been a building decorated with ivory. Solomon had a throne of ivory (). ‘Beds of ivory,’ such as are mentioned in . were, according to a cuneiform inscription, included in the tribute paid by Hezekiah to Sennacherib. E. W. G. Masterman.
Ivvah
A city named in . . along with Sepharvalm and Hena, as conquered by the Assyrians. Its real name and location are both uncertain. It is frequently identified with A wa of . Some would make it the name not of a city but of a god. See, further, art. Hena.
Ivy
This plant (Hedera helix) grows wild in Palestine and Syria. It is mentioned in 2 Maccabees 6:7. See Dionysia.
lYE-ABARIM (‘lyim of the regions beyond," distinguishing this place from the lira of ). — The station mentioned in (in lyim alone) and described () as’ in the wilderness which is before Moab toward the sun-rising,’ and more briefly () as ‘in the border of Moab.’ Nothing is known as to its position beyond these indications.
lYIM (‘heaps’ or ‘ruins’). — 1. Short form of lye-abarim in . 2. Jos \S" (AV and RV incorrectly lim), a town in Judah, one of the ‘uttermost cities toward the border of Edom.’
Iyyar
See Time.
Izhar
1. Son of Kohath the son of Levi (Ex 6". 21, , , , , ) patron. Izharltes (, , ). 2. A Judahlte ().
Izliah
A Benjamite chief ().
Izrahiah
A chief of Issachai ().
Izrahites
Gentillc name in , possibly another form of Zerahites, vv."- ".
Izri
Chief of one of the Levitical choirs () ; called in v.> Zeri.
Izziah
One of those who had married a foreign wife () called in 1 Esdras 9:26 leddias.
Iheres
One of the seven princes and counsellors of Ahasuerus ().
James Hastings (ed.), with John A. Selbie and John C. Lambert, Dictionary of the Bible (Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1909). Public domain. Scan of Cornell University Library’s copy from the Internet Archive; text from its OCR, with the Bible references read again from the page images.