In the reign of Artaxerxes, near eighty years after the return of the first exiles, Ezra, a priest, went up from Babylon to Jerusalem, a journey which occupied him four months, and there went up with him nearly other 1800 males of his brethren, among whom were some priests and Levites, and singers, and porters, and Nethinims, for the service of the temple, which had been completed a considerable time before (Ezra vi. 14, 15; vii. 1-9; viii. 1-14).

Thirteen years after this, Nehemiah, who was cup-bearer to Artaxerxes, went up also to Jerusalem by the authority of that prince (Neh. i. 11; ii. 1-8). He does not speak of carrying up others of his brethren with him; so that we may here end our notices of the captivity. He remained at this time twelve years, Ezra being contemporary with him; and though he then returned to Persia, he came back again, but how long he remained is not known.

to have been carried captive, and consequently | brought down to the Amalekites, whose country that many must have been led into captivity of lay to the south of Canaan (1 Sam. xxx. 15, 16). whom we have no account, or at least that many In like manner, after receiving the account of must in some way or other have come to settle Samuel's death, he went down to the wilderness in the East. of Paran (1 Sam. xxv. 1), and Saul afterwards went down from Gibeah to the wilderness of Ziph, both these deserts lying to the south (1 Sam xxvi. 1, 2). So it is said of those who travelled from Palestine to Egypt that they went down to Egypt (Gen. xii. 10; xxvi. 2; xlvi. 3), and of those who journeyed in a contrary direction that they went up from Egypt (Gen. xlv. 25; l. 6, 7, 9, 14). Hosea reproaches Israel with going up to the king of Assyria for help (Hosea viii. 9). The upper coasts (Acts xix. 1) are those to the north. Silas and Timothy came from Macedonia, a northern province of Greece, down (кaтîλ@ov) to Corinth (Acts xix. 5; Rosen. Geog. i. 5, 6, 8). This phraseology, however, is not always adhered to. Where there was an actual declivity, the terms up and down are employed whether the places mentioned lay to the north or the south. Jerusalem stood on hilly ground, and hence it was common to speak of going up to Jerusalem (Ps. cxxii. 4). On the other hand, we read of going down to Jericho (Luke x. 30), and going down to Samaria, though both these places lay to the north of Jerusalem. We even read of coming down from Judæa to Antioch, and going up from Antioch to Jerusalem, though Antioch not only lay to the north, but very high land, including the mountains of Lebanon, intervened between Judæa and Jerusalem on the one hand, and that city on the other (Acts xv. 1, 2; xviii. 22). In like manner the sacred writers speak of going down to the sea or to a river (Ps. cvii. 23; Jonah i. 3; Exod. ii. 5), in accordance with universal usage founded upon the natural position of these objects in relation to the surrounding country (Rosen. Geog. i. 12).

CARBUNCLE. [PRECIOUS STONES.]

CAR'CHEMISH, a city situated on the Euphrates. It is mentioned among other places which had been subdued by an Assyrian monarch (Is. x. 9). Pharaoh-Necho, king of Egypt, subsequently came up to fight against it, on which occasion Josiah, king of Judah, went out against him, and was mortally wounded in the valley of Megiddo (2 Chron. xxxv. 20-24). Nebuchadnezzar here fought with Pharaoh, and appears to have completely defeated him. This was in the fourth year of the reign of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah (Jer. xlvi. 1-12). It is probable that the Hebrew name Carchemish points to a city which the Romans called Circesium, and which lay on the Euphrates, where it is joined by the River Chaboras. It was a large city, and was surrounded by strong walls. It was the remotest outpost of the Roman empire toward the Euphrates, in the direction of Persia (Rosen. Geog. ii. 188). There is in that quarter an Arabian village named Kirkasia, which is supposed to stand amid the ruins of Circesium.

CARDINAL POINTS. The four cardinal | points-east, west, north, and south-are called in Scripture the four quarters of heaven (Jer. xlix. 36), the four winds (Mark xiii. 27), the four corners (Rev. vii. 1), Palestine being considered as the central point.

The east is termed the rising, or place of the rising, of the sun. By the east the Hebrews meant not only Arabia and the country of the Midianites, Moabites, and Ammonites, but also Mesopotamia, Chaldæa, Assyria, Medea, Persia, and other countries lying eastward of Canaan. The west is termed the going down, or the place of the going down, of the sun.

There is a peculiar use of the terms employed to denote the north and south. The Hebrews regarded what lay to the north as higher, and what lay to the south as lower. Hence, they who travelled from south to north were said to go up, while those who went from north to south were said to go down. Thus David was

CAR'MEL. 1. A mount in the west of Palestine, but though commonly spoken of as a single mountain, it is in fact a mountainous range about eighteen miles in length, the whole of which is known by the name of Carmel, while to one part of it, more elevated than the rest, the name was usually applied by way of eminence (Amer. Miss. Her., 1837, p. 295; Jahn's Bib. Ant. 13; Stanley's Sinai, 344). The foot of this, the northern part, approaches the Mediterranean Sea; so that, seen from the hills northeast of Acre, Mount Carmel appears as if dipping his feet in the sea. Further south it retires more inland, so that between the mountain and the sea there is an extensive plain covered with fields and olive-trees. It is the only great promontory on the coast of Palestine, and helps to form the Bay of Accho. At its foot runs the brook Kishon, so celebrated in Deborah's song (Judg. v. 21). To Mount Carmel were gathered together, by desire of Elijah, the prophets of Baal, and here he and they offered up sacrifices with the view of determining the question whether Jehovah or Baal was God; and the question having been decided in his favour by fire from heaven consuming his sacrifice, he or dered the prophets of Baal to be slain (1 Kings xviii. 17-40). Both Elijah and Elisha appear to have resorted to Carmel (xviii. 42; 2 Kings ü.

CASSIA

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25; iv. 25). The mountain is of the lime- | being considerably weaker, and in abounding stone formation; and, as is usual in that forma- more in mucilaginous matter. tion, there are in it numerous caves and caverns, many of them of great length and very tortuous, and so furnishing great means of concealment. Hence probably that declaration: Though they hide themselves on the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out thence' (Amos ix. 3). In the present day one of them is shewn as the cave of Elijah. It appears to have been anciently distinguished for the richness of its pastures and other productions (Is. xxxiii. 9; xxxv. 2; Jer. 1 19; Amos i. 2). Though stripped of much of its ancient glory, there are still striking memorials of that 'excellency' for which it was so highly extolled; but as to this the accounts of travellers widely differ, much depending on the season of the year at which they happen to visit it. The height of the ridge is very various: the highest part of it is towards the east end, where, according to the measurements of the English engineers, it is 1728 feet above the level of the sea. The view from it is exceedingly grand and beautiful, embracing the coasts of the Mediterranean, the mountainous ranges of Lebanon, the plain of Esdraelon, and the hills of Samaria, Galilee, Judah, and Bashan (Wilson, ii. 93, 242; Robinson, Res. iii. 190).

Cassia-buds are the flower-buds of the tree, which are gathered and dried before they expand. They are about the size of a peppercorn, of a brown colour, and have the smell and taste of cinnamon (Duncan, Dispensatory, 293; Thomson, Mat. Med. i. 205).

CASTOR and POLLUX were reckoned the sons of Jupiter; they were supposed to have some peculiar power over storms, and hence they became the tutelar deities of sailors. The phosphoric exhalations which sometimes appear at sea they took for them; and if but one appeared at once they thought the voyage was to be unlucky. Their figures were the sign of the ship in which Paul sailed to Rome (Acts xxviii. 11).

CATHOLIC EPISTLES. Under this designation are included the Epistle of James, the two Epistles of Peter, the three of John, and that of Jude. The name is ancient, and several explanations have been given of it, but none of them is satisfactory. The First Epistle of Peter and the First of John were among the books which were generally received as canonical; but the Epistle of James, the Second Epistle of Peter, the Second and Third of John, and that of Jude, were among those which were doubted of or disputed by many. After the 4th century, however, the whole of these epistles were re

2. A city in the south of Judah, about 8 or 10 miles south-east of Hebron. Here Nabal the Carmelite had possessions (1 Sam. xxv. 2, 3); and here, it is said, the Romans, many ages after, had a garrison. The place is still recog-ceived by the Greek and Latin churches genenised under the name of Kurmal. Here are considerably extensive ruins. They lie around the head and along the two sides of a valley of Some width and depth. They consist chiefly of foundations and broken walls of dwellings and other edifices, scattered in every direction, and thrown together in mournful confusion and desolation. Among the ruins there are those of a castle, and the remains of two or three churches, one of them of considerable size. Eusebius and Jerome describe Carmel in their day as a village 10 miles from Hebron (Robinson, Res. ii. 196200).

rally, and are in the catalogues of canonical Scripture composed by councils and learned men (Euseb. Eccl. Hist., B. iii. c. 3. 24, 25; Lardner, Works, vi. 503). Of these epistles we shall here give a few notices.

CASSIA, one of the ingredients employed in forming the holy oil or ointment for anointing the Tabernacle (Exod. xxx. 23, 24). It appears to have been also employed along with other aromatics in perfuming clothes (Ps. xlv. 8). It was one of the articles of merchandise brought to the market of Tyre (Ezek. xxvii. 19). Though the word cassia is found in the E. T. in all the passages now referred to, yet in the original a different word is used in Ps. xlv. 8 from that in the other two passages, and it may be questioned whether it should not be translated differently. The cassia tree is very similar to the cinnamon, but yet it has been generally considered by botanists as of a different species, though this has been called in question of late. The bark, which is brought from Ceylon, India, and China, has a great resemblance to cinnamon, from which it is only distinguishable by being thicker and coarser, and by its breaking short and smooth, while the cinnamon breaks fibrous and shivery. It resembles cinnamon still more nearly in its aromatic flavour and pungency than in its external appearance, and seems to differ from it in

JAMES. It has been made a question by whom this epistle was written. There are two apostles mentioned in the N. T. of the name of James, one the brother of John, the other the son of Alpheus. It could scarcely be written by the former, for he was put to death by Herod so early as about A.D. 44, before we can well suppose there to have been occasion for the writing of such a letter. There is no reason indeed to doubt that it was written by the latter, who appears to have passed his life at Jerusalem, and who may therefore well be supposed to have taken a special interest in his brethren who were scattered abroad.

To whom the epistle was written has also been made a question. It is addressed to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad.' These words it is natural to understand of the

Jews generally who lived in other countries than Palestine, and so they are explained by some critics. Others think that the epistle was designed only for such Jews in foreign countries as had embraced Christianity. To us it appears that the two opinions may be combined; that while the whole epistle contains much that may be useful to both believers and unbelievers, the early part of it proceeds on the assumption that those to whom it was addressed made a profession of Christianity, and was specially designed for such persons (see i. 2-4, 12; ii. 1, 57), and that the latter part, or at least portions of it, were specially addressed to unconverted Jews (see iv. 1-4, 8, 9; v. 1-6). The close of

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the epistle closes: 'Little children, keep yourselves from idols' (v. 21).

To whom these two epistles were addressed has given rise to considerable variety of opinion. The Second Epistle is addressed to EKλEKTY KUρią, which our translators render to the elect lady.' Others translate the words 'the lady Electa,' and others, again, the elect Kuria.' Lardner notices other opinions, but concludes by saying: It is not easy for me to decide in such a variety of views, each one of which is supported by great patrons. The arguments for a proper name, Eclecta or Kyria, are plausible and specious. But it is an object of some moment that this was little, if at all, known to the ancients. If it had, they would not have supposed that St. John here writes to the church of Christ in general, or to some Christian church in particular' (Lardner, Works, vi. 597).

CAVES, large cavities in the earth or rocks, often capable of holding great numbers of men. The other two epistles which bear the name of In an early and rude state of society men not John were among the books which were doubted unnaturally betook themselves to caves for lodgof or controverted in ancient times; but thoughing in; they were dwellings ready-made to their objected to by some they were received by hand. Such people were anciently called Trogothers, and since the 4th century they have lodytes, or dwellers in caves, as the word imbeen generally admitted into the canon. In ports, and they are still to be met with in the accordance with the prevailing tone of antiquity East and other parts of the world. The geois the internal evidence. The manner, senti- logical formation of Palestine, consisting chiefly ments, and language bear the impress of John of limestone, is exceedingly favourable to the the apostle. These cannot but remind the production of caves and caverns. Hence the reader of the writer of the Gospel which bears great number of them which are found in that his name, and of his First Epistle. country. When Lot left Zoar, after escaping from Sodom, he betook himself to the mountain, and his two daughters with him; and he dwelt in a cave, he and his two daughters' (Gen. xix. 30). Abraham purchased the cave of Machpelah at Hebron for a burying-place; and there he, and Sarah his wife, and afterwards Isaac and Rebekah, and Leah and Jacob, were all interred (xxiii.; xxv. 9, 10; xlix. 31; 1. 13). In a cave at Makkedah the five Canaanitish kings, who had entered into a confederacy to oppose Joshua, hid themselves after their defeat, and when they were slain their bodies were cast into it, and great stones were laid at its mouth (Josh. x. 1-5, 15, 27). In caves and similar other places, the Israelites hid themselves from the Midianites (Judg. vi. 2), and from the Philistines (1 Sam. xiii. 6). David, when he fled from Saul, escaped to the cave of Adullam, and he probably lodged there for some time, and also the band of about 400 men who had now collected to him (1 Sam. xxii. 1-5). We afterwards find him in strong. holds in a mountain in the wilderness of Ziph' (xxiii. 14). We next find him dwelling in strongholds at Engedi.' Saul having set out in pursuit of him, came where was a cave, and he went in to cover his feet, and David and his men remained in the sides of the cave,' so that it must have been very capacious to contain such a number of men, and for the whole to remain undiscovered (xxiii. 29; xxiv. 1-3). Engedi was a city on the west side of the Dead Sea, not far from its southern point, and there is no reason to doubt that the 'strongholds at Engedi' were in that quarter. On all sides the country is full of caverns, which might then serve as lurking-places for David and his men, as they do for outlaws in the present day' (Robinson, Res. ii. 203). In two caves Obadiah hid and nourished an hundred prophets of the Lord (1 Kings xviii. 2). In a cave at Mount Horeb Elijah lodged when he fled from that wicked woman Jezebel (xix. 8, 9). In a cave near Bethany Lazarus was buried, and a stone lay upon it' (John xi. 38). The apostle speaks of some of whom the world was not worthy, who wandered in deserts and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth' (Heb. xi. 38). This was to escape from their fellow-men, their persecutors. The prophet Isaiah represents the worshippers of idols as seeking in this way to escape from the judgments of God: They shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth' (Is. ii. 19).

The Third Epistle is addressed to Gaius, but who he was it is difficult to say. In the N. T. there is mention of two or three of that name. We have Gaius of Macedonia (Acts xix. 29), Gaius of Derbe (xx. 4), Gaius at Corinth (1 Cor. i. 14); but whether they were all different persons is not certain. 'I see no reason to think,' says Lardner, that Gaius or Caius to whom St. John writes was one of them. He seems to have been an eminent Christian who lived in some city of Asia not far from Ephesus, where St. John chiefly resided after his leaving Judæa. For at ver. 14 the apostle speaks of shortly coming to him, which he could not well do if Caius lived at Corinth or any other remote place. Indeed it cannot be thought strange that in the times of the apostles there were several Christians of this name, which seems to have been as common a name among the Greeks and Romans as any name whatever' (Lardner, Works, vi. 598).

JUDE. Who the writer of this epistle was has been matter of considerable debate, but we think there need be little doubt that he was one of the apostles. In the commencement of the epistle he calls himself Jude, the brother of James' (i. 1); and in Luke vi. 16, and in Acts i. 13, we find Judas, the brother of James,' in the list of the apostles; but in the two latter passages, it is to be remarked, brother' is a supplement, though it is probably a correct supplement.

The Epistle of Jude was among the controverted books. There are, however, many quotations from it in early writers while some questioned it, others received it; and Eusebius informs us that it was commonly used in the churches, together with the rest' (Lardner, Works, vi 613, 617). Since the 4th century it has been held as one of the canonical books of Scripture.

6

6

In later, and even in modern times, we have

examples of the inhabitants of the country, both on the east and the west of the Jordan, betaking themselves to the caves as dwelling-places, or as places of refuge. Josephus represents those in Trachonitis as the haunts of robbers and banditti (Antiq. xii. 11. 1; xv. 10. 1; Wars, i. 16. 2-4), and Porter appears to apply his description of it to its condition in the present day (Journ. Sac. Lit., July 1854, 298).

CEDAR, THE, of Lebanon is a species of pine. Though named from, it is not confined to Lebanon. It grows also on the ranges of Amanus and Taurus, in Asia Minor; but it does not attain there the height nor the strength of that of Lebanon. Full-grown cedars have, at some distance, the look of large wide-spreading oaks. The main trunk is short, and branches soon shoot out from it. The beauty of the cedar consists in the strength and symmetry of its wide-spreading boughs. The oldest trees are known by the circumstance of the foliage and small branches being found only at the top. The sacred writers speak of the cedars of Lebanon in terms which convey lofty ideas of them. They are called cedars of God' (Ps. lxxx. 10, marg.), which, according to a common Hebrew idiom, denotes something pre-eminently great and excellent. Some such idea is very commonly implied in passages of Scripture where the cedar of Lebanon is mentioned, as in 1 Kings iv. 33; Ps. xcii. 12; Ezek. xxxi. 1-9. There is scarcely any other kind of timber which combines so many advantages for building as cedar. It is hard and free from knots, is not liable to be worm-eaten, and is withal so durable that some have supposed it to be incorruptible. It was employed greatly in the house built for David (2 Sam. v. 11; vii. 2); in the temple of Solomon (1 Kings vi. 9, 10, 15, 16, 18, 20, 36); and in the house of the forest of Lebanon (1 Kings vii. 2, 37). The Tyrians made the masts of their ships of cedar; and 'chests of rich apparel made of cedar were among their merchandise' (Ezek. xxvii. 5, 24). [LEBANON.]

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with great faith and humility, applied to Jesus for the miraculous cure of his servant (Matt. viii. 5-13). Another, seeing the earthquake and other circumstances which attended his death, feared greatly, and said, "Truly this was a Son of God' (Matt. xxvii. 54). A third was honoured to be the instrument of introducing the gospel among the Gentiles (Acts x.)

CESAR, the surname of Caius Julius Cesar, who, though never emperor himself, may be considered the founder of the Roman empire. As he was deemed one of the greatest men whom Rome ever produced, it became the common appellation of the emperors of Rome. In the N. T. the emperor for the time being is called Cesar, sometimes with a distinctive appellation, as Cesar Augustus (Luke ii. 1); Tiberius Cesar (iii. 1); Claudius Cesar (Acts xi. 28); but more commonly withLuke xxiii. 2; John xix. 12, 15; Acts xvii. 7; out any such appellation, as in Matt. xxii. 17, 21; In the latter verse the XXv. 8, 11, 21, etc. name Augustus is also given to Nero, though it was originally that of the first emperor.

CESARE'A, a city on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, to the south of Mount Carmel. It was built by Herod the Great, at a place where was a tower called Strato's Tower, and he gave it the name of Cesarea, in honour of the Emperor Augustus. It was built in a style of great magnificence. Josephus says the private houses, as well as the palaces, were all built of marble. But the most remarkable part of it was the harbour, which was on the same scale as the Piræus at Athens, and afforded complete protection to shipping, which was much required on that coast. To effect this ob ject, he gave orders to form a mole in the shape of a half-moon, and of a size sufficient to accommodate a numerous shipping. In forming it, he directed stones of immense dimensions to be sunk in twenty fathoms of water. Some of these stones, Josephus says, were 50 feet long, 18 broad, and 9 thick, and some were even larger. The mole was partly intended as a break water. Besides other magnificent buildings, Herod erected a temple dedicated to Cesar, a theatre, and amphitheatre. Nothing was wanting that could contribute to the amusement and the health of the inhabitants. The whole was completed in about twelve years (Antiq. XV. 9. 6). He further states that Cesarea was one of the largest cities in Palestine, and that it was inhabited chiefly by Greeks; but some thousands of Jews also living in it, there were frequent bitter, and even bloody, contentions between them (Wars, ii. c. 13. 7; c. 14. 4, 5; c. 18. 1).

CENCHRE'A, a seaport on the east side of the Isthmus of Corinth. It was nearly nine miles from that city, and was considered its eastern port, while Lechæum, on the west side of the isthmus, was considered its western port. As they both possessed excellent harbours at no great distance from the capital, and had easy access to both the Egean and Ionian Seas, they became the greatest emporiums of trade of any places in Greece. There appears to have been early a church at Cenchrea, for Paul, in his Epistle to Cesarea was the scene of many interesting the Romans, commends unto them 'Phebe our transactions mentioned in the N. T. Here the sister, a servant of the church which is at Cen- middle wall of partition between Jews and chrea' (Rom. xvi. 1). In Cenchrea the apostle Gentiles was first broken down by the admission had his head shorn, agreeably to a vow he had made; and he afterwards sailed from thence for Here Herod Agrippa, arrayed in royal apparel of Cornelius into the Christian Church (Acts x.) Ephesus on his way to Jerusalem (Acts xviii. and seated on his throne, probably in the mag18, 19). The situation of the place is still nificent amphitheatre built by his father, was pointed out by the modern Kikries, where some remains of the ancient town are visible (Cony-some disease, because when the people offered smitten by the angel of the Lord with a loathbeare, ii. 201).

CENTURION, a Roman officer who commanded an hundred soldiers. One of them,

him something like worship, he gave not God the glory' (xii. 21-23). Here Paul concluded his voyage from Ephesus, and saluted the church; and he again made it his landing-place