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PREFACE.

THE CYCLOPÆDIA OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE was designed to furnish a Dictionary of the Bible, not framed, as others had been, out of old materials, but embodying the products of the best and most recent researches in Biblical Literature, in which the scholars of this country and of the continent had been engaged. That work- the result of an immense labour and research, and enriched by the contributions of writers of distinguished eminence in the various departments of Sacred Literature has been, by universal consent, pronounced to be the first work of its class, and the one best suited to the advanced knowledge of the present day, in all the studies connected with Theological Science. But although that Cyclopædia is regarded as indispensable to the libraries of all Ministers and Theological Students, it has been concluded that a Compendious Abridgment of its contents, embracing all the matter suited to popular and general use, might be acceptable to very many whose studies have not created a need for the larger work, or whose means do not enable them to secure the possession of it. In the present volume an attempt has, therefore, been made to supply this want, by providing such a popular Abridgment of the Cyclopædia of Biblical Literature as may be suited to the use of the great body of the religious public, and which may be expected to be of essential service to parents and teachers in the important business of Biblical Education, while to many young persons it may serve as an introduction to the more extensive work.

The original publication is above twice the size of the present. The Epitome now offered for popular use has been prepared with much care and solicitude, by the condensation of most of the matter in the original work, and by the entire omission of some articles which were supposed to be of less interest to the general reader than to the Clergyman and the Theological

Student. In the work, as it here stands, is offered such an exhibition of the results of large research, without the details and authorities, as could not, it is believed, have been produced, had not the larger Cyclopædia previously existed, and its valuable materials been made available for this service. Drawn from such a source, it is believed that this Abridgment will possess the same superiority over POPULAR Cyclopædias of this class, as the original work confessedly does over those which aspire to higher erudition.

In the Cyclopædia of Biblical Literature the initials of the writers are annexed to their respective contributions. This has not been deemed necessary in the present Abridgment; but a list is given of all the writers who coöperated with the editor in the production of the original work, from which the present Compendium has been formed.

Many articles in the larger Cyclopædia, more especially in the department of Natural History, are treated under the Hebrew or Greek form of word; but, in the present popular Compendium, it has been judged better that these articles should appear under the names by which they are represented in the authorized version of the Scriptures, and take their place in the alphabetical position they hold under these names.

It remains only to be added, that although the editor has taken some part of the labour, and has supervised the whole operation, the substantial work of the Abridgment has been executed by the careful hands of the Reverend JAMES TAYLOR, D. D., of Glasgow.

JOHN KITTO.

LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS.

REV. W. L. ALEXANDER, D. D., Author of The Connexion and Harmony of the Old and New Testaments,' &c.

REV. G. BAUR, Ph. D., Extraordinary Professor of Evangelical Theology in the University of Giessen.

REV. J. R. BEARD, D. D., Member of the Historico-Theological Society of Leipzig. G. M. BELL, Author of Universal Mechanism,' &c.

REV. C. H. F. BIALLOBLOTZKY, Ph. D., Göttingen, Author of 'De Abrogatione Legis.'

REV. JOHN BROWN, D. D., Professor of Exegetical Theology to the United Presbyterian Church.

REV. GEORGE BUSH, Professor of Hebrew and Oriental Literature in the University of New York.

REV. JAMES D. BUTLER, Abbot Resident, Theological Seminary, Andover, United States.

K. A. CREDNER, D.D., Professor of Theology in the University of Giessen. REV. S. DAVIDSON, LL. D., Professor of Biblical Literature and Oriental Languages in the Lancashire Independent College.

REV. BENJAMIN DAVIES, D. D.

REV. J. F. DENHAM, M. A., St. John's College, Cambridge, F. R. S.

REV. J. W. DORAN, LL. D., Association Secretary of the Church Missionary Society REV. JOHN EADIE, LL. D., Professor of Biblical Literature to the United Presbyteriar Church.

G. H. A. VON EWALD, D. D., Professor of Theology in the University of Göttingen.
REV. F. W. GOтCH, M. A., Trinity College, Dublin.

H. A. C. HAVERNICK, D. D., Professor of Theology in the University of Königsberg.
E. W. HENGSTENBERG, D. D., Professor of Theology in the University of Berlin.
REV. J. JACOBI, of the University of Berlin.

REV. R. JAMIESON, M. A., Editor of 'Paxton's Illustrations of Scripture.'

REV. E. A. LAWRENCE, Haverhill, United States.

REV. ROBERT LEE, D. D., Edinburgh.

FREDERICK R. LEES, Ph. D., F. S. S. A.; Editor of The Truth-Seeker,' &c.

E. MICHELSON, Ph. D. of the University of Heidelberg.

REV. PETER MEARNS, Author of 'Tirosh,' &c.

REV. N. MORREN, M. A., Author of 'Biblical Theology,' and Translator of 'Rosenmüller's Biblical Geography.'

F. W. NEWMAN, late Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford, Professor of Latin Language and Literature in the University of London.

JOHN NICHOLSON, B. A., Oxford, Ph. D., Tübingen; Author of 'An Account of the Establishment of the Fatemite Dynasty,' Translator of 'Ewald's Hebrew Gram

mar.'

W. A. NICHOLSON, M.D.

REV. JOHN PHILLIPS POTTER, M. A., Oriel College, Oxford.

REV. BADEN POWELL, M. A., F. R. S., F. G. S., Savillian Professor of Geometry in the University of Oxford.

J. F. ROYLE, M. D., F. R. S., F. L. S., F. G. S., Member of the Royal Asiatic Socicties of Calcutta and London; Professor of Materia Medica and Therapeutics in King's College, London.

J. E. RYLAND, Translator of Neander's Church History,' and of 'Semisch's Justin Martyr.'

LIEUT.-COLONEL C. HAMILTON SMITH, K. H. and K. W., F. R. and L. S., President of the Devon and Cornwall Natural History Society, &c. &c.

REV. J. PYE SMITH, D. D., F. R. S., F. G.S.

REV. H. STEBBING, D. D., of St. John's College, Cambridge, Author of A History of the Church,' &c.

REV. A. THOLUCK, D. D., Professor of Theology in the University of Halle.

REV. DAVID WELSH, D. D., Professor of Divinity and Church History, New College, Edinburgh.

REV. LEONARD WOODS, D. D., Professor of Theology in the Andover Theological Seminary, United States.

REV. WILLIAM WRIGHT, LL. D. of Trinity College, Dublin, Translator of 'Seilor's Biblical Hermeneutics.'