ner, it appears that God generally revealed himself to the prophets, clearly, by oral communication or spiritual inspiration, and to the seers, chozah, (from chaza) more obscurely in visions, or dreams, and by shadowings of types. We have said that God generally revealed him. self orally to the prophets; for it sometimes occurred that revelations were made to them also in visions, as in the case of Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Isaiah, &c., but most. frequently by oral communication, which is marked by such expressions as "The word of the Lord came to Hosea." (Hosea 1. 2.) "The prophet said in the word of the Lord." (1 Kings 20. 35.) "Hear ye now what the Lord saith." (Micah 6. 1.) I heard the voice of the Lord saying." (Isai. 6. 8.) "Now these be the last words of David. The spirit of the Lord spake by me, and his word was in my tongue." (2Sam. 23. 12.) But the seers had their communications mostly by visions, either awake, as in a trance, or in ecstasy, or asleep in dreams. The different ways in which the Lord made prophetic revelation is pointed out in Joel 2. 28, “And it shall come to pass afterwards that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy: your old men shall dream dreams: your young men shall see visions.”

To the different kinds of prophetic inspiration, St. Paul alludes (Heb. 1. 1,) “God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in times past unto the fathers by the prophets."

The prophets were a higher class than seers; the manner of their inspiration was clearer and nobler; the oral communication of the Lord: while that of the seers was necessarily a lesser and more obscure kind, by similitudes, and by visions. A strong proof of the superiority of oral inspiration over visionary is given in Numbers 12. 6,7,8, "If there be a prophet among you I the Lord will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream. My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all my house; with him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speech." Prophets named in conjunction with seers are always mentioned first. (Deut. 13. 1,) "If there arise a prophet or a dreamer of dreams." (Isai. 29. 10,) "The prophets and your rulers, the seers hath he covered." (2Chron. 9. 29,) "Nathan the prophet, and Iddo the seer."

The inspired persons of eminence, such as Isaiah, Ezekiel, Amos, Zechariah, &c., and Nathan, who was conspicuous in David's time, are called prophets. Those of minor note, of whom only the names are preserved to us, as Heman, (1Chron. 25. 5,) Iddo, (2Chron. 12. 15,) Asaph, (2Chron. 39. 30,) Jeduthun, (2Chron. 35. 15,) are seers: see also Amos 6. 12; when Amaziah opposes Amos, he calls the latter "Thou seer," not, thou prophet, as if giving him an inferior title in scorn. Prophets also were teachers, and were the heads of colleges of divinity, or schools for instruction in every thing relating to religion, and the service of God. (See art. SCHOOL.) Seers did not fill this office; we never read of the sons of the seers, as we do of the sons (i. e., disciples) of the prophets, nor the schools of the seers. Originally, in very early times, the word seer was used instead of prophet. (1 Sam. 9. 9,) "He that is now called a prophet (nabi), was before time called a seer.” But the Hebrew word thus used was not chozah, as above, but Nroch, from N raah, to see, to perceive mentally, as well as corporeally, as we say, "I see the meaning of such a thing." The original meaning of the word roch is a perceiver, a man who had prophetic perceptions. From the death of Moses to the era of Samuel, the gift of prophecy was very scarce in Israel. During all the time of the Judges, we read but of two

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prophets, Deborah, (Judges 4. 4,) and a prophet whose name is not given, (Judges 6. 8,) "The Lord sent a prophet unto the children of Israel." The Jews fancy this was Phineas, which is very unlikely; as Phineas, were he this prophet, must have been at least two hun dred years old, an age which men did not attain to in those days, besides, if he were such an eminent person, it is most probable his name would have been recorded. Whenever the Lord did then give prophetic revelations, it appears it was not by vision, for 1Samuel 3. 1, says, "there was no open vision," literally, "vision did not break forth," the revelation was oral; and that was very rare, for the verse above quoted says, "the word of the Lord was precious in those days, there was no open vision." Samuel was the first acknowledged prophet that had been for a long time; and he was distinguished by the title of roeh, (seer or perceiver,) which appellation (and never chozah) is regularly applied to him, as 1 Samuel 9. 9,11,19; 1Chronicles 26. 28; 1Chronicles 29. 29; 1Chronicles 9. 22.

The word nabi, translated prophet, was known before Samuel's time, and is applied to Abraham, (Gen. 20. 7,) bnt in those early times it signified properly an instructor, (which Abraham is said to have eminently been,) a preacher of righteousness, a person who spoke in a remarkable manner. (See art. SCHOOL.) In Exodus 7. 1, Aaron is appointed prophet, (nabi) i. e., spokesman, to Moses, as explained by Exodus 4. 14-16, “Is not Aaron the Levite thy brother? I know that he can speak well, and thou shalt speak unto him and put words in his mouth, and he shall be thy spokesman (Hebrew, 727 deber, thy word,) unto the people." Nabi, prophet, also means a revealer or declarer of God's word; but it always implies oral communications; and is applicable to Abraham, (vide supra) both because he preached righteousness and communicated God's will; and because God spake to him himself, as we read in several parts of Genesis.

Miriam is called a prophetess in Exodus 15. 20, both because she was skilled in sacred poetry, in which she probably instructed the Hebrew women, as she led their choir in their hymn of thanksgiving for the overthrow of Pharaoh, (Exod. 15. 21,) and also because she spoke utterances by the inspiration of the Lord. (Numb. 12. 1,2,) Miriam and Aaron rebelled against Moses, and said, "Hath the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses? Hath he not spoken also by us?" In process of time, when prophecy both by word and by vision became more usual, the application of titles to the persons favoured with it became more distinct, and more fixed. Roch for seer, became in a manner obsolete; and nabi, prophet, was applied to persons whose inspiration was chiefly oral, and chozeh, seer, to persons visited by visions. In 2Samuel 15. 27, David says to Zadoc the priest, "Art not thou a seer?" which is thought by good critics to be a faulty translation; as it does not appear that priests were ever called seers, but were a superior class of men; that instead of the noun, it is the verb that should be used, (particularly as the words "art not do not appear in the Hebrew,) and that it should be, "Behold! return thou into the city in peace." This view is taken by the LXXII, who render it Idere σκελιστρεφεις εις την πολιν εν ειρηνη.

of

In the New Testament, the characters of seer and prophet are combined with, and merged in, the more glorious one of Apostle, (the inspired messenger Christ,) whose office as much exceeded that of prophet and seer, as the Christian dispensation does the Mosaic; as the Gospel exceeds the Law. The Apostles, besides their special characters as Ambassadors of Christ, were prophets in the widest manner, not merely foretelling

SEIR is the name employed in various parts of the Old Testament Scriptures to designate the mountainous range that extends from the south of the Dead Sea nearly to Akaba, on the Elanitic branch of the Red Sea; running through the land of Idumea, or Arabia Petræa. It is also applied in a more general sense to the whole tract of country occupied by the Edomites:-" Ye are to pass through the coast of your brethren, the children of Esau, which dwell in Seir." (Deut. 2. 4.) Seir, the Horite, from whom the district took its appellation, must have lived at a very remote period; for in the days of Abraham, when Chedorlaomer made war upon the kings, his descendants were a powerful tribe. The only account of this patriarch of which we are in possession is contained in Genesis, ch. 36, from the 20th to the 30th verses: "These are the sons of Seir, the Horite, who inhabited the land: Lotan, and Shobal, and Zibeon, and Anah, and Dishon, and Ezer, and Dishan; these are the dukes of the Horites, the children of Seir, in the land of Edom." The mountains and adjacent country were held by Seir's posterity till they were expelled or extirpated by the Edomites: "The Horims also dwelt in Seir before time; but the children of Esau succeeded them, when they had destroyed them from before them, and dwelt in their stead." (Deut. 2. 12.) Reference is frequently made by the prophets to Idumea under its ancient name: "Son of man, set thy face against Mount Seir, and prophesy against it; and say unto it, Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, O Mount Seir, I am against thee, and I will stretch out mine hand against thee, and I will make thee most desolate, and thou shalt know that I am the Lord." (Ezek. 25. 3,4.) The prophecies against Seir, however, properly belong to Idumea, and for information as to their literal accomplishment, we refer to

that head. Mount Hor formed part of the range of Seir. When the Edomites refused the children of Israel a passage into Canaan, the latter, who had proceeded northward, on the western side of Seir, as far as Mount Hor, retraced their steps to Ezion-Geber, now Akaba; from thence they took a north-eastern course, and, passing to the eastward of Seir, "compassed the land of Edom." The mountains of Seir are called by the Arabs Djebel Hesma and Djebel Sheraz. P.

seel,

SELAH, This word occurs seventy-one times in the Psalms, and thrice in Habakkuk; but commentators have not agreed respecting its signification. In the Septuagint it is rendered 4tavaλμa, which, according to Suidas, means a change of music or tune. It occurs for the most part in the Psalms which have the title Mizmór, a name indicating that they were sung to an instrumental accompaniment. If, as is most probable, no be derived from 50 salal, "to exalt," its formation must be from the noun "exaltation," with as an adverbial suffix; it consequently signifies "in a higher or louder tone," and is probably addressed both to the musicians and the singers. Gesenius is of opinion that it intimated a direction "to repeat the preceding verse in a louder strain, so as to direct the attention of the congregation to some important prayer, sentiment, or assertion." The Targum explains "selah" by y le-hilmon, "for ever;" and a Rabbinical commentator adds, that it gave notice for the congregation to join in a choral interruption of "for ever and ever," similar to the "in sæcula sæculorum" of the Latin Church. It is remarkable that the word is altogether omitted in the Vulgate translation. T.

the kings Manasseh and Amon (2Kings 21.), and the sepulchre of Joseph of Arimathea (John 19.); or in some part of the house, as that of Samuel. (1 Sam. 26.)

Sepulchral Vaults.

These sepulchres were either caves, or excavations in the ground arched and lined with stones, or caves cut out of the rock. All these sepulchres had in front an inclosed court, within which was the cave, which, if intended for a family burial place, contained niches hollowed within the sides, to contain the bodies at full length; these niches the Rabbins called ' kokin. The mouth of the tomb or burial cave within the court was closed by a large stone, which fitted in, and was closed up with mortar. In the outer court the bier was set down, and the body carried through the mouth, or narrow entrance, into the tomb, and placed in its niche. In the Greek New Testament, the words μvnua and μvnμacov express the sepulchre in general, including the court and the inner burial place; Tapos is used by St. Matthew to designate the tomb wherein the body was placed. Marks were placed over sepulchres, not only as monumental, in memory of the dead, but also to warn passengers of their vicinity, that they might avoid pollution. There are two words in the Scriptures to designate these sepulchral marks; the first is 23 matzab, or matzbah, from 13 jatzab, to place; it signifies a memorial set up. This word is used to express the pillar set up by Jacob over Rachael's grave. (Gen. 35. 20), and also the pillar set up by Absalom in his own life time, as a memorial of himself; "for he said, I have no son to keep my name in remembrance." (2Sam. 18. 18.) This word is also used by modern Jews to indicate their monumental stone and epitaph, and it is rendered in the Septuagint ornλny, a pillar. The other word used in the Hebrew Scriptures for the mark over graves is ziun; this expresses merely a mark or sign, indicating that a grave, or something belonging to a dead person, lay there; it is the word used in 2 Kings 23. 17, and in our version rendered "title:" "Then he (Josiah) said, What title (ziun) is that I see? and the men of the city told him, It is the sepulchre of the man of God which came from Judah." The Septuagint here renders it σKоTEλov, a sign, or something elevated.

The Hebrew word ziun. It is used in Ezekiel 39.15, to signify a mark to show where the remains of a carcase lay: "When any seeth a man's bone, then shall they set up a sign by it till the buriers have buried it in the valley of Hamon Gog." In Jeremiah 31. 21, it is used for a way-mark. It was usual annually to refresh and beautify the monumental marks, and also to whitewash them, in order to render them more conspicuous, that men might know and avoid them. The Talmudists

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fix the 15th of February for the performance of this work. To this custom Our Lord alludes in Matthew 23. 27: "Woe unto you, scribes and pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness." At the funerals of persons of rank and wealth, quantities of spices and aromatics were used; some were burned, others buried with the body. (2Chron. 16. 14.) "And they buried him (Asa) in his own sepulchre.

and laid him in the bed (the niche), which was filled with sweet odours and divers kinds of spices prepared by the apothecaries' art, and they made a very great burning for him." This custom probably arose from the embalming of Jacob in Egypt. (Gen. 50.)

Thus, though Our Lord had been executed as a criminal, he received after death the funeral honours of the illustrious, for Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea placed a quantity of spices round his body (John 19.40); and the pious women who believed on him brought spices on the morning of his resurrection, to burn in his honour in the outer court, for they could not expect to penetrate into the actual tomb, knowing it had been closed by the chief-priests.

Our Lord's sepulchre was hewn in a rock, and appears to have been intended by Joseph of Arimathea for himself alone, and not for a family vault, for only the one receptacle or niche has been found in it. Mary Magdalene was in the outer court when she perceived that the stone had been rolled from the tomb or cave in which the body had lain. (John 30. 1.) John came to the sepulchre, but only went to the door of the tomb (not inside), and looked into the grave, or receptacle, which seems to have been below the floor of the court where he stood, for he stooped down. (John 19. 5.) Peter, however, went through the no longer closed entrance into the tomb, in which he saw the linen clothes lie, empty; then John came in to him from the court, and witnessed the same, and they retired. Mary Magdalene stood without, in the court, weeping, and, stooping down at the entrance to the tomb, saw the two angels sitting, one at the head, and the other at the feet of the grave, or kok, who announced to her the resurrection.

The burial place of Lazarus was a cave. (John 11.38.) It does not appear in St. John's account of the raising of Lazarus that Christ went farther than the court, where standing, he ordered the stone to be removed from the tomb, and cried out to Lazarus, who was enabled to come out of the kok, or niche, as far as the mouth of the tomb, or entrance into the court; but being clothed in grave-clothes, and with the customary cloth, or sudarium, over his face, Jesus commanded the bystanders to loose him, and let him go at large.

The sepulchre of Our Lord as now existing is a kind of grotto in the natural rock. The part in which is this grotto was insulated from the rest by the workmen of the Empress Helena. The tomb-chamber is nearly shaped like a horse-shoe; its height is eight feet one inch; breadth, fifteen feet ten inches; the entrance is four feet high, and two feet four inches wide. The place where the body lay is now raised above the floor, by the alterations of time; the whole has been incrusted with white marble. A magnificent church was built over the whole, which has been burnt more than once; but the Holy Sepulchre itself remains uninjured.

The sepulchres near Jerusalem called the Tombs of the Kings, but which are more properly the sepulchres of the sons of David, exhibit the remains of a magnificent edifice. The approach is through a passage cut in the rock into an open square (the usual outer court)

of rock, in the west side of which is excavated a porch, | with beautiful sculpture of fruits and flowers; on the left is the entrance to the inner chamber, which has three doorways and three different sides leading to the outer chambers, in which are hewn niches, and in the floor of one are sunk quadrangular niches. The doors appear from the accounts of early travellers to have been of stone, highly polished, and the panels beautifully cut. The doors turned on tenons of one piece with themselves, resting on sockets in the rock.

According to Josephus, great treasures were buried in David's sepulchre, which Hyrcanus opened and took out 3000 talents of silver. And afterwards Herod making search there for money found none, but some golden vessels, which he took away. It is probable that sepulchres might have been used for treasuries, as places of particular safety, on account of the religious opinions held concerning them. M.

SERAPAII. A proper name belonging to several persons mentioned in the Old Testament, but none of any note.

saraph, to שרפ from שרפים ,SERAPHIM

burn;" and hence Kimchi interprets it by NONS malakey-esh, "angels of fire," in allusion to the kabód, or "glory," which surrounded angelic beings; but, as this glory was common to all angels, the explanation, though generally received, is not quite satisfactory.

sar, in Hebrew, and seraph in the cognate Semitic languages, such as the Arabic and Ethiopic, signifies "a chief or noble," and was applied to the higher order of archangels. The seraphim described by Isaiah (6.2) had each six wings; with two covered the face; with two the feet, and with two they flew. They also cried one to another and said, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts! the whole earth is full of his glory!" See ANGEL. T.

SERPENT, 2 nachash. The verb from which this noun is derived signifies literally "to augur or predict from the appearance of serpents," a mode of divination common among the ancient nations, to which they gave the name of opioμavтeía. The late Dr. Adam Clarke having thought fit to oppose all preceding translators and commentators in his explanation of the circumstances recorded in the third chapter of Genesis, and having thus unwarily given new strength to the sceptical cavils raised against the Scriptural account of the Fall, it becomes necessary to enter at some length into an examination of the Biblical narrative, and to point out some singular confirmations of its veracity derived from the records of profane antiquity. It is stated that "the serpent ( nachash) was more subtle than any beast of the field;" and, in allusion to this declaration, Christ advises his disciples "to be wise as serpents." Dr. Adam Clarke, however, chooses to deny that the serpent is conspicuous either for subtilty or wisdom; to this we may answer, that the extraordinary power of fascination exerted by various kinds of serpents is a display of subtilty, and of a powerful instinct which may be well called "animal wisdom," superior to any other portion of the animal creation. In fact, the Vishnú Púrana, clearly alluding to their great intelligence, declares that serpents sprung from the head of Brahma. There can, however, be little doubt that the term nachash is applied in Scripture, like the generic phrase “reptile," to a great variety of animals, but chiefly to those of the serpent-tribe. It must also be observed, that in the Hebrew, and in other Semitic

dialects, w nachash, is used to signify "brass;" and that it is difficult to assign a satisfactory reason for this connection in etymology between the compound metal and serpents; two causes have been assigned,-1, the similarity of colour; and 2, the use made of both in divination.

It is of more importance to remark that in the tra ditions of most Pagan nations, which have been embodied in their mythology, the serpent appears as the enemy of man, and a triumph over this enemy is usually described as the greatest achievement of a popular deity. The Egyptian Horus is frequently represented piercing the head of some terrific serpent with his spear. From this source the Greeks and Romans adopted the fable of Apollo and the serpent Python, which is thus narrated by Ovid.

Of new monsters Earth created more Unwillingly, but yet she brought to light Thee, Python, too, the wondering world to fright And the new nations with so dire a sight: So monstrous was his bulk, so large a space Did his vast body and long train embrace. Him Phoebus basking on a bank espied, And all his skill against the monster tried; Though every shaft took place, he spent the store Of his full quiver, and 'twas long before The expiring serpent wallowed in his gore. Lok, one of the favourite heroes of the Northern mythology, is represented as a destroyer of serpents; an a legend, similar to the classic story just quoted, represents him as destroying a monstrous serpent with his hammer or mace. The similarity of all these accounts to the Scriptural narrative is obvious; but a still more striking parallel has been discovered in the Mexican mythology by Baron Humboldt; he says,

the

"The groupe represents the celebrated serpent-woman Chinacohuatl, called also Quilaztli, or Tonacacihua, 'Woman of our flesh;' she is the companion of Tonacatenetli. The Mexicans considered her as the mother of the human race, and after the god of the celestial paradise, Ometenetli, she held the first rank among divinities of Anahual; we see her always represented with a great serpent. Other paintings exhibit to us a feather-headed snake cut in pieces by the great spirit Tezcatlipoca, or by the sun personified, the god Tonatiuh. These allegories remind us of the ancient traditions of Asia. In the woman and serpent of the Aztecks we think we perceive the Eve of the Semitie nations, in the snake cut in pieces the famous serpent Raliya, or Kalinaga, conquered by Vishnu when he took the form of Krishna. The Tonatiuh of the Mexicans appears also to be identical with the Krishna of the