Excerpt from Encyclopaedia Biblica, Vol. 1: A Critical Dictionary of the Literary, Political and Religious History, the Archaeology Geography and Natural History of the Bible; A to D Every year, in fact, expands the narrow horizons which not so long ago limited the aspirations of the biblical scholar. It is time, as Prof. Robertson Smith thought, to help students to realise this, and to bring the standard books on which they rely more up to date. It may seem hopeless to attempt this with an alphabetically arranged encyclopaedia, which necessarily involves the treatment of points in an isolated way. By an elaborate system of cross references, however, and by interspersing a considerable number of comprehensive articles (such as, in Part I, apocalyptic literature, cainites, dragon), it has been sought to avoid the danger of treating minute details without regard to their wider bearings. Many of the minor articles, too, have been so constructed as to suggest the relation of the details to the larger wholes. Altogether the minor articles have, one ventures to hope, brought many direct gains to biblical study. Often the received view Of the subject of a 'minor article' proved to be extremely doubtful, and a better view suggested itself. Every endeavour has been used to put this View forward in a brief and yet convincing manner, without occupying too much space and becoming too academic in style. The more com prehensive articles may here and there be found to clash with the Shorter articles. Efforts, however, have been made to mitigate this by editorial notes in both classes of articles. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.