which he belonged, he ventured to let fall a few words in favour of Jesus, whose proceedings were then in question (John vii. 50); and that he took part with his colleague, Joseph of Arimathea, in rendering the last honours to the body of the crucified Redeemer (John xix. 39). Nothing further is known of Nicodemus from Scripture. Tradition, however, adds that after he had thus openly declared himself a follower of Jesus, and had been baptized by Peter, he was displaced from his office, and expelled from Jerusalem (Phot. Cod. p. 171). It is added that he found refuge in a country house of his cousin Gamaliel, and remained there till his death. Too strong an appreciation of the world's good opinion seems to have been the failing of Nicodemus. We do not lay much stress upon what he ventured to say in the Sanhedrim; for he suffered himself to be easily put down, and did not come forward with any bold avowal of his belief. Winer calls attention to the fact, that although he took part in the sepulchral rites of Jesus, he did not join Joseph in his application to Pilate for the body of his crucified Lord; and justly remarks that such characters usually require a strong external impulse to bring them boldly forward, which impulse was probably in this case supplied by the resurrection of Jesus. NICOLA'ITANS. This word occurs twice in the New Testament (Rev. ii. 6, 15). In the former passage the conduct of the Nicolaitans is condemned; in the latter, the angel of the church in Pergamus is censured because certain members of his church held their doctrine. Various traditionary accounts of the origin and practices of this sect have been given by the fathers, but none of them are entitled to any credit. It is evident from the accounts which they give, that the Nicolaitans with whom they were acquainted were Gnostics; since they impute to them the distinctive tenets and practices of the Gnostics. But in the short allusion in Rev. ii. 6, 15, there is nothing to identify the tenets or conduct alluded to with Gnosticism, even supposing that Gnosticism, properly so called, existed in the Apostolic age, which, to say the least, has not been proved to be the case. So that the conjecture mentioned by Mosheim, and which Tertullian appears to favour, may be regarded as probable, that the Nicolaitans mentioned in Revelation had erroneously been confounded with a party of Gnostics formed at a later period by one Nicholas. The ingenious conjecture of Michaelis is worthy of consideration, who supposes that by Nicolaitans (Rev. ii. 6, 15) the same class of persons is intended whom St. Peter (2 Ep. ii. 15) describes as followers of the way of Balaam; and that their name, Nicolaitans, is merely a Greek translation of their Hebrew designation. The only objection which occurs to us against this very ingenious and probable supposition, arises from the circumstance that, in the passage, Rev. ii. 14, 15, both they that hold the doctrine of Balaam,' and the Nicolaitans,' are specified, and are distinguished from each other: So hast thou also,' the Nicolaitans, as well as the Balaamites, mentioned in the previous verse. So that what ever general agreement there might be between those two classes of heretics-and their collocation in the passage before us seems to imply that NIGHT-HAWK there was such agreement-it appears equally evident that some distinction also must have separated them the one from the other. NICOLAS, a proselyte of Antioch, and one of the seven deacons (Acts vi. 5). Nothing further is known of him; but a large body of unsafe tradition has been connected with his name, under the supposition that he was the founder of the heresy of the Nicolaitans, stigmatised in Rev. ii. 6, 15. (See the preceding article.) NICOPOLIS, a city of Thrace, now Nicopi, on the river Nessus, now Karasou, which was here the boundary between Thrace and Mace donia; and hence the city is sometimes reckoned as belonging to the latter. In Titus iii. 15, Paul expresses an intention to winter at Nicopolis, and invites Titus, then in Crete, to join him there. NIGER. (SIMON.] NIGHT. The general division of the night among the Hebrews has been described under DAY; and it only remains to indicate a few marked applications of the word. The term of human life is usually called a day in Scripture: but in one passage it is called night, to be followed soon by day, the day is at hand' (Rom. viii. 12). Being a time of darkness, the image and shadow of death, in which the beasts of prey go forth to devour, it was made a symbol of a season of adversity and trouble, in which men prey upon each other, and the strong tyrannize over the weak (Isa. xxi. 12; Zech. xiv. 6, 7; comp. Rev. xx 23; xxii. 5). Hence continued day, or the a sence of night, implies a constant state of quit and happiness, undisturbed by the vicissitudes of peace and war. Night is also put, as in our own language, for a time of ignorance and helplessness (Mic. iii. 6). In John ix. 4, night represents death, a necessary result of the correlative usage which makes life a day. NIGHT-HAWK (Lev. xi. 16; Deut. xiv. 15) is mentioned as one of the unclean birds in the Pentateuch, but so little characterized that no decided opinion can be expressed as to what species is really intended. Commentators incline to the belief that the name imports voracity, and therefore indicates a species of owl, which, how ever, we take to be not this bird, but the lilith; and as the night-hawk of Europe, or a species very nearly allied to it, is an inhabitant of Syria, there is no reason for absolutely rejecting it in this place, since it belongs to a genus highly con nected with superstitions in all countries; and though a voracious bird among moths, and other insects that are abroad during darkness, it is absolutely harmless to all other animals, and as wrongfully accused of sucking the udders of goats, as of being an indicator of misfortune and death to those who happen to see it fly past them after evening twilight; yet, beside the name of goat-sucker,' it is denominated night-hawk and night-raven,' as if it were a bulky species, with similar powers of mischief as those day birds possess. The night-hawk is a migratory bird, inferior in size to a thrush, and has very weak talons and bill; but the gape or mouth is wide; it makes now and then a plaintive cry and preys on the wing; it flies with the velocity and action of a swallow, the two genera being nearly allied. Like those of most night birds, the eyes are large and remarkable, and the plamage a mixture of colours and dots, with a pre NIMROD vailing grey effect; it is finely webbed, and entirely noiseless in its passage through the air. Thus the bright eyes, wide mouth, sudden and inaudible flight in the dusk, are the original causes of the superstitious fear these birds have excited; and as there are in southern climates other species of this genus, much larger in size, with peculiarly contrasted colours, strangely disposed feathers on the head, or paddle-shaped single plumes, one at each shoulder, projecting in the form of two additional wings, and with plaintive loud voices often uttered in the night, all the species contribute to the general awe they have inspired in every country and in all ages. NILE. [EGYPT.] NIM'RA. [BETH-NIMRA.] NIM'ROD, à son of Cush, the eldest son of Ham (Gen. x. 8-10). Five sons of Cush are enumerated in ver. 7 in the more usual manner of this chapter; but a change of phrase introduces Nimrod. This difference may indicate that while, in relation to the other five, the names have a national and geographical reference, this appellation is exclusively personal. It denotes intensively the extremely impious rebel. Hence we conceive that it was not his original proper name, but was affixed to him afterwards, perhaps even after his death, as a characteristic appellative. No other persons connected with this work must be considered as answerable for the opinion which the writer of this article thinks to rest upon probable grounds, that the earlier part of the book of Genesis consists of several independent and complete compositions, of the highest antiquity and authority, marked by some differences of style, and having clear indications of commencement in each instance. If this supposition be admitted, a reason presents itself for the citation of a proverbial phrase in ch. x. 9. The single instance of minute circumstantiality, in so brief a relation, seems to imply that the writer lived near the age of Nimrod, while his history was still a matter of traditional notoriety, and the comparison of any hero with him was a familiar form of speech. It is also supposed that those, not fragments, but complete, though short and separate compositions (of which eight or more are hypothetically enumerated in J. Pye Smith's Scripture and Geology, p. 202), were, under Divine authority, prefixed by Moses to his own history. Their series has a continuity generally, but not rigorously exact. If we place our selves in such a point of time, suppose the age succeeding Nimrod, which might be the third century after the Deluge, we may see how naturally the origination of a common phrase would rise in the writer's mind; and that a motive of usefulness would be suggested with it. But both these ideas involve that of nearness to the time; a period in which the country traditions were yet fresh, and an elucidation of them would be acceptable and consonant to general feeling. The following is a close translation of the passage in which mention is made of Nimrod:- And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a hero in the earth [or in the land]: he was a hero at the chace in the presence of Jehovah; on which account the saying is, Like Nimrod, the hero of the chace, in the presence of Jehovah. And the chief [city] of his dominion was Babel; and [he founded] Ezek and Akkad, and Kalneh, in the land of Shinar.' Interpreters, with scarcely an exception, from the Septuagint and the Targums down to our own times, understand the whole case thus: that Nimrod was a man of vast bodily strength, and eminent for courage and skill in the arts of hunting down and capturing or killing the dangerous animals, which probably were both very numerous and frequently of enormous size; that, by these recommendations, he made himself the favourite of bold and enterprising young men, who readily joined his hunting expeditions; that hence he took encouragement to break the patriarchal union of venerable and peaceful subordination, to set himself up as a military chieftain, assailing and subduing men, training his adhe rents into formidable troops, by their aid subduing the inhabitants of Shinar and its neighbouring districts; and that, for consolidating and retaining his power, now become a despotism, he employed his subjects in building forts, which became towns and cities, that which was afterwards called Babel being the principal. Combining this with the contents of chapter xi., we infer that Nimrod either was an original party in the daring impiety of building the tower, or subsequently joined himself to those who had begun it. The former fact is positively affirmed by Josephus; but it is not probable that he could have any other evidence than that of the general interpretation of his countrymen. The late Mr. Rich, not thirty years ago, in the extensive plain where lie buried the ruins of Babylon, discovered the very remarkable mound with remains of buildings on its summit (of which see the figure in the article BABEL), which even now bears the name of Birs Nimrod; and this may well be regarded as some confirmation of the common opinion. As a great part of the ancient mythology and idolatry arose from the histories of chiefs and sages, decorated with allegorical fables, it is by no means improbable that the life and actions of Nimrod gave occasion to stories of this kind. Hence, some have supposed him to have been signified by the Indian Bacchus, deriving that name from Bar-Chus, son of Cush;' and, it is probable, by the Persian giant Gibber (answering to the Hebrew Gibbor, mighty man,' hero,' in Gen. x. 8, 9); and by the Greek Orion, whose fame as a mighty hunter' is celebrated by Homer, in the Odyssey, xi. 571-4. The Persian and the Grecian fables are both represented by the well-known and magnificent constellation. NIN'EVEH, meaning the dwelling of Ninus; a famous city of the ancient world, capital of the great Assyrian empire, which stood on the eastern bank of the river Tigris, opposite to the present Mosul; its actual site being most probably the same with that of Nunia and the tomb of Jonah, about three-fourths of a mile from the river, in the midst of ruins, N. lat. 36° 20′ 17′′; E. long. 43° 10′ 17′′. The Bible makes the city a sort of colony from Babylon or Babel, Shinar [see BABEL], stating (Gen. x. 11), out of that land (Babel, &c., in the land of Shinar) went forth Asshur and builded Nineveh.' After this simple statement the sacred record is for a long time entirely silent respecting Nineveh, which, we 6 may therefore presume, remained inconsiderable for many generations. At length, some fifteen hundred years after the first mention of the place, in the days of Jeroboam II., king of Israel (B.C. 825), Nineveh again enters by name on the Biblical record, having meanwhile grown into a mighty power. This re-appearance of Nineveh is accidental, and shows that the Bible does not profess to give any orderly and systematic history of the world. Other countries come on the scene and disappear, just as the course of events in the kingdoms of Judah and Israel seems to require or may chance to occasion. Nineveh is described in the book of Jonah as that great city,' an exceeding great city of three days' journey,' probably in a straight line through the place, as the large cities of Asia stood on a great extent of country, having gardens, and even fields, in the midst of them; and Jonah is said to ' enter into the city a day's journey' (ch. iii. 4) NINEVEH before he began to foretell its overthrow; that is. as is most likely, he penetrated into the heart of the place, as being that which was most suitable for delivering his burden. The magnitude of the place may also be gathered from what is said in the last verse of the book: That great city, wherein are more than six score thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand, and also much cattle (grazing).' The population of a place must have been immense in which there were no fewer than 120,000 children-young children the language employed seems to denote. It also appears from the same book that the state of society was highly complex, organized in divers ranks from the king and the noble to the peasant; and, if we may argue from the exactness with which the number of children is given, we should be justified in asserting that the people were in an advanced stage of civilization, seeing that their social sta tistics were well attended to and carefully preserved. Civilization, however, had brought luxury, and luxury corruption of morals, for their wickedness had gone up before God' (ch. i. 2). Yet was not their iniquity of the lowest kind, for the Ninevites repented at the preaching of Jonah. A few years later we find the prophet Nahum intrusted with the burden of Nineveh.' From this book it would appear that the repentance of the city, if sincere, was not durable. Therefore was the anger of Jehovah about to fall upon it and make it a perpetual waste. The impending destruction of this great city' was also foretold by Zephaniah (ii. 13), and by Isaiah (xiv. 24) in language which gives a striking view of its commercial greatness (it was the entrepôt for the trade of Eastern and Western Asia), its surpassing opulence, its high culture, its immense popula and deep criminality (see Nahum, chap. iii., [Nineveh.] and Ezek. chap. xxxi.). From Strabo we learn that the place was much greater than even Baby, lon; and from Diodorus Siculus, that it measured 480 stadia in circumference, having very high and broad walls, which, aided by the river, rendered it impregnable. This safety was, however, merely imaginary. Sardanapalus, who had a full share of the vices of his subjects, endured in the eighth century before Christ a siege of three years' duration at the hands of the Medes, under Arbaces, which led to the overthrow of the city (Diod. Sic. ii. 26). But so large and so powerful a capital was not easily destroyed. Nineveh was the seat of an Assyrian kingdom till the year B.C. 625, when it was taken by Nabopolassar of Babylon, and Cyaxares, king of the Medes, which led to the destruction of the Assyrian kingdom. Nineveh flourished no more. Strabo represents it as lying waste; though in the times of the Roman emperors some remains of it seem to have NITRE survived, as a Nineveh on the Tigris is mentioned, in Tacitus, and is characterized as a fort, probably some small fortification raised out of the ruins of the city for predatory purposes. The present remains comprise a rampart and foss, four miles in circuit, with a moss-covered wall about twenty feet in height. The ruins at first sight present a range of hills. From these hills large stones are constantly dug out, from which probably a bridge over the Tigris has been built. Jonah's connection with the city is still preserved in a tomb which bears his name; but how far back in antiquity this building runs, it is now impossible to say. The tomb stands on a hill, and is covered by a mosque which is held in great veneration. Bricks, partly whole, partly in fragments, and pieces of gypsum with inscriptions in the arrow-head character, are found from time to time. Landseer, in his Sabaan Researches, gives an engraving of cylinders dug up at Nineveh, which he states to be numerous in the East, and supposes to have been employed as signets: they are of jasper, chalcedony, and jade, and bear astronomical emblems, the graving of which, especially considering the hardness of the materials, shows a high state of art. Mosul, with which Nineveh is commonly identified, stands on the opposite, or western bank of the Tigris, and lies so near the river that its streets are often flooded. This place, like its great prototype, carries on a trade (though to a small extent) between the East and the West. The climate is stated to be very healthy; the average temperature of summer not exceeding 66 Fahr.; but in spring, during the floods, epidemics are common, though not fatal. NI'SAN, the first month of the Hebrew civil year. Abib, by which name this month is called in the Pentateuch (Exod. xiii. 4; xxiii. 15; Deut. xvi. 1), means an ear of grain, a green ear; and hence the month Abib' is the month of green ears.' It thus denoted the condition of the barley in the climate of Egypt and Palestine in this month. Nisan, otherwise Abib, began with the new moon of April, or, according to the Rabbins, of March [MONTH]. NIS'ROCH, an idol of the Ninevites (2 Kings xix. 37; Isa. xxxvii. 38). The word is now usually supposed to mean 'great eagle.' This bird was held in peculiar veneration by the ancient Persians; and was likewise worshipped by the Arabs before the time of Mohammed." NITRE occurs in Prov. xxv. 20; Jer. ii. 22; where the substance in question is described as effervescing with vinegar, and as being used in washing; neither of which particulars applies to what is now, by a misappropriation of this ancient name, called nitre,' and which in modern usage means the saltpetre of commerce, but they both apply to the natron, or true nitrum of the ancients. Natron, though found in many parts of the East, has ever been one of the distinguishing natural productions of Egypt. The principal natron lakes now found in that country, six in number, are situate in a barren valley about thirty miles westward of the Delta, where it both floats as a whitish scum upon the water, and is found deposited at the bottom in a thick incrustation, after the water is evaporated by the heat of summer. It is a natural mineral alkali, composed of the car bonate, sulphate, and muriate of soda, derived from the soil of that region. Forskal says that it is known by the name atrun, or natrun, that it effervesces with vinegar, and is used as soap in washing linen, and by the bakers as yeast, and in cookery to assist in boiling meat, &c. Combined with oil it makes a harder and firmer soap than the vegetable alkali. NO, or NO-AMMON. [THEBES.] NOAH, the second father of the human race, was the son of the second Lamech, the grandson of Methuselah, and the tenth in descent from Adam. The father of Noah must not be confounded with the Lamech who was the fourth in descent from Cain. The two Lamechs have one remarkable circumstance in common; to each of them a fragment of inartificial poetry is attached as his own composition. That of the Cainitic Lamech is in Gen. iv. 23, 24. That of the Sethite now comes before us in ch. v. 28, 29:- Lamech lived 182 years, and then begat a son, and he called his name NOAH, saying This shall comfort us From our labour, And from the sorrowful toils of our hands; Which Jehovah hath cursed.' The allusion is undoubtedly to the penal consequences of the fall in earthly toils and sufferings, and to the hope of a Deliverer excited by the promise made to Eve. That this expectation was grounded upon a divine communication we infer from the importance attached to it, and the confidence of its expression. That the conduct of Noah corresponded to the faith and hope of his father we have no reason to doubt. The brevity of the history satisfies not human curiosity. He was born six hundred years before the Deluge. We may reasonably suppose that through that period he maintained the character given of him :-'Noah found favour in the eyes of the Lord. Noah was a just man, and perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God' (ch. vi. 8, 9). These words declare his piety, sincerity, and integrity, that he maintained habitual communion with the Father of Mercies, by the exercises of devotion, and that he was an inspired instrument of conveying the will of God to mankind. The wickedness of the human race had long called upon the wisdom and justice of God for some signal display of his displeasure, as a measure of righteous government and an example to future ages. For a long time, probably many centuries, the better part of men, the descendants of Seth, had kept themselves from society with the families of the Cainite race. The former class had become designated as 'the sons of God,' faithful and obedient: the latter were called by a term evidently designed to form an appellation of the contrary import, daughters of men,' of impious and licentious men. These women possessed beauty and blandishments, by which they won the affections of unwary men, and intermarriages upon a great scale took place. As is usual in such alliances the worse part gained the ascendancy. The offspring became more depraved than the parents, and a universal corruption of minds and morals took place. Many of them became giants, the mighty men of old, men of renown,' apostates (as the word implies), 622 the tabernacle was stationed in the time of Saul (1 Sam. xxi. 2; xxii. 9, 11, 19; Neh. xi. 32; Isa. x. 32). From the last of these texts it would appear that Jerusalem was visible from Nob, which, therefore, must have been situated somewhere upon the ridge of the Mount of Olives, north-east of the city. heroes, warriors, plunderers, filling the earth | Jerusalem, belonging to the priests, and where with violence.' God mercifully afforded a respite of one hundred and twenty years (ch. vi. 3; Pet. iii. 20; 2 Pet. ii. 5), during which Noah sought to work salutary impressions upon their minds, and to bring them to repentance. Thus he was a preacher of righteousness,' exercising faith in the testimony of God, moved with holy reverence, obeying the divine commands, and, by the contrast of his conduct, condemning the world (Heb. xi. 7): and probably he had during a long previous period laboured in that benevolent and pious work. At last the threatening was fulfilled. All human kind perished in the waters, except this eminently favoured and righteous man, with his three sons (born about a hundred years before) and the four wives [DELUGE]. NOBLEMAN. The word so rendered in John iv. 46, probably signifies one belonging to the court. This person was, therefore, probably of the court of Herod Antipas, who reigned over Galilee and Peræa. NOD, the land to which Cain withdrew, and in which he appears to have settled (Gen. iv. 16). While the site of paradise itself remains undeter mined, it is useless to seek for that of the land of Nod. This land, wherever it was, could not have had a name till Cain went to it; and it was doubtless called Nod (which signifies flight, wandering, from the circumstance that Cain fled to it. NOPH. [MEMPHIS.] At the appointed time this terrible state of the earth ceased, and a new surface was disclosed for the occupation and industry of the delivered family. In some places that surface would be washed bare to the naked rock, in others sand would be deposited, which would be long uncultivable; but by far the larger portion would be covered with rich soil. With agriculture and its allied arts the antediluvians must have been well acquainted [ADAM]. The four men, in the vigour of their mental faculties and bodily strength, according to the then existing scale of human life, would be at no loss for the profitable application of their powers. Immediately after the desolating judgment the merciful Jehovah gave intimations of his acceptance of the sacrifice and thanksgivings of Noah and his family, and of his gracious purposes revealed in the form of a solemn covenant for the continual benefit of them and their posterity. The beautiful phenomenon of the rainbow was put to a new and significant use. As infallibly certain as is the production of a rainbow under certain conditions of the atmosphere, so certain and sure of fulfil-13). 4. It seems used as the conventional name ment are the promises of Jehovah. As the flood affected equally the common ancestry of mankind, all nations that have not sunk into the lowest barbarism would be likely to preserve the memory of the chief person connected with it; and it would be a natural fallacy that every people should attach to itself a principal interest in that catastrophe, and regard that chief person as the founder of their own nation and belonging to their own locality. Hence we can well account for the traditions of so many peoples upon this capital fact of ancient history, and the chief person in it;-the Xisuthrus of the Chaldæans, with whom is associated a remarkable number of precise circumstances, corresponding to the Mosaic narrative; the Phrygian Noë of the celebrated Apamean medal, which, besides Noah and his wife with an ark, presents a raven, and a dove with an olive-branch in its mouth; the Manes of the Lydians; the Deucalion of the Syrians and the Greeks, of whose deluge the account given by Lucian is a copy almost exactly circumstantial of that in the book of Genesis; the many coincidences in the Greek mythology in respect of Saturn, Janus, and Bacchus; the traditions of the aboriginal Americans, as stated by Clavigero, in his History of Mexico; and many others. NOB, a city of Benjamin, in the vicinity of NORTH. The Shemite, in speaking of the quarters of the heavens and of the earth, supposes his face turned towards the east, so that the east is before him, the west behind, the south on the right hand, and the north on the left. Hence the words which signify east, west, north, and south signify also that which is before, behind, on the right hand, and on the left. The Hebrew word translated north, occurs in the five following senses:-1. It denotes a particular quarter of the heavens; thus, 'fair weather cometh out of th north' (Job xxxvii. 22; see also Eccles. i. 6, and Ezek. i. 4). 2. It means a quarter of the earth (Ps. cvii. 3; Isa. xliii. 6; Ezek. xx. 47; XXX 30; comp. Luke xiii. 29). 3. It occurs in the sense of a northern aspect or direction, &c.; thus, looking north' (1 Kings vii. 25; 1 Chron. ix. 24; Num. xxxiv. 7); on the north side' (Ps xlviii. 2; Ezek. viii. 14; xl. 44; comp. Rev. xxi. for certain countries, irrespectively of their true NOSE-JEWEL. [WOMEN.] NOVICE, or NEOPHYTE, one newly converted (literally newly planted), not yet matured in Christian experience (1 Tim. iii. 6). The word continued to be in use in the early church; but it gradually acquired a meaning somewhat dif ferent from that which it bore under the Apostles. when newly converted' and 'newly baptized described, in fact, the same condition, the con verted being at once baptized. For when, i subsequent years, the church felt it prudent to put converts under a course of instruction before admitting them to baptism and the full privileges of Christian brotherhood, the term Novices was sometimes applied to them, although more usually distinguished by the general term of Catechu mens. NUMBERS is the appellation given to the fourth book of Moses. |