EAGLE, 70, Exod. xix. 4; Lev. x1. 13. The name is derived from a verb which signifies to lacerate, or tear in pieces. The eagle has always been considered as the king of birds, on account of its great strength, rapidity and elevation of flight, natural ferocity, and the terror it inspires into its fellows of the air. Its voracity is so great that a large extent of territory is requisite for the supply of proper sustenance; and providence has therefore constituted it a solitary animal: two pair of eagles are never found in the same neighbourhood, though the genus is dispersed through every quarter of the world. Its sight is quick, strong, and piercing, to a proverb. In Job xxxix. 27, the natural history of the eagle is finely drawn up : Is it at thy voice that the eagle soars ? He abides on the crag, the place of strength. His eyes discern afar off. Even his young ones drink down blood; And wherever is slaughter, there is he. Alluding to the popular opinion that the eagle assists its feeble young in their flight, by bearing them up on its own pinions, Moses represents Jehovah as saying, "Ye have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself," Exod. xix. 4. Scheuchzer has quoted from an ancient poet, the following beautiful paraphrase on this passage :— Ac velut alituum princeps, fulvusque tonantis Vesticipes crevere, vocat se blandior aura, Expansa invitat pluma, dorsoque morantes 2. When Balaam delivered his predictions respecting the fate that awaited the nations which he then particularized, he said of the Kenites, "Strong is thy dwelling, and thou puttest thy nest in a rock," Num. xxiv. 21; alluding to that princely bird, the eagle, which not only delights in soaring to the loftiest heights, but chooses the highest rocks, and most elevated mountains, as desirable situations for erecting its nest, Hab. ii. 9; Obad. 4. What Job says concerning the eagle, which is to be understood in a literal sense, Where the slain are, there is he," our Saviour turns into a fine parable: "Wheresoever the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together," Matt. xxiv. 28; that is, Wherever the Jews are, 66 E who have corruptly fallen from God, there will be the Romans, who bore the eagle as their standard, to execute vengeance upon them, Luke xvii. 37. 3. The swiftness of the flight of the eagle is alluded to in several passages of scripture; as, "The Lord shall bring a nation against thee from afar, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flieth," Deut. xxviii. 49. In the affecting lamentation of David over Saul and Jonathan, their impetuous and rapid career is described in forcible terms: "They were swifter than eagles; they were stronger than lions," 2 Sam. i. 23. Jeremiah, when he beheld in vision the march of Nebuchadnezzar, cried, “Behold, he shall come up as clouds, and his chariots shall be as a whirlwind. His horses are swifter than eagles. Woe unto us, for we are spoiled," Jer. iv. 13. To the wide-expanded wings of the eagle, and the rapidity of his flight, the same prophet beautifully alludes in a subsequent chapter, where he describes the subversion of Moab by the same ruthless conqueror: "Behold, he shall fly as an eagle, 40. In the same manner he describes the and spread his wings over Moab,” Jer. xlviii. sudden desolations of Ammon in the next chapter; but, when he turns his eye to the ruins of his own country, he exclaims, in still more energetic language, "Our persecutors are swifter than the eagles of the heavens," " Lament. iv. 19. Under the same comparison the patriarch Job describes the rapid flight of time: My days are passed away, as the eagle that hasteth to the prey," Job ix. 26. The surprising rapidity with which the blessings of common providence sometimes vanish from the grasp of the possessor is thus described by Solomon: "Riches certainly make themselves wings: they fly away as an eagle towards heaven." Prov. xxiii. 5. The flight of this bird is as sublime as it is rapid and impetuous. None of the feathered race soar so high. In his daring excursions he is said to leave the clouds of heaven, and regions of thunder, and lightning, and tempest, far beneath him, and to approach the very limits of ether. There is an allusion to this lofty soaring in the prophecy of Obadiah, concerning the pride of Moab: "Though thou exalt thyself as the eagle, and though thou set thy nest among the stars, thence will I bring thee down, saith the Lord," Obad. 4. The prophet Jeremiah pronounces the doom of Edom in similar terms: "O thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, that holdest the height of the hill; though thou shouldest make thy nest high as the eagle, I will bring thee down from thence, saith the Lord," Jer. xlix. 16. The eagle lives and retains its vigour to a great age; and, after moulting, renews its vigour so surprisingly, as to be said, hyperbolically, to become young again, Psalm ci. 5, and Isaiah xl. 31. It is remarkable that Cyrus, compared, in Isaiah xlvi. 11, to an eagle, (so the word translated 66 ravenous bird" should be rendered,) had an eagle for his ensign accord ing to Xenophon, who uses, without knowing it, the identical word of the prophet, with only a Greek termination to it: so exact is the correspondence betwixt the prophet and the historian, the prediction and the event. Xenophon and other ancient historians inform us that the golden eagle with extended wings was the ensign of the Persian monarchs long before it was adopted by the Romans; and it is very probable that the Persians borrowed the symbol from the ancient Assyrians, in whose banners it waved, till imperial Babylon bowed her head to the yoke of Cyrus. If this conjecture be well founded, it discovers the reason why the sacred writers, in describing the victorious march of the Assyrian armies, allude so frequently to the expanded eagle. Referring to the Babylonian monarch, the prophet Hosea proclaimed in the ears of all Israel, the measure of whose iniquities was nearly full, "He shall come as an eagle against the house of the Lord," Hosea viii. 1. Jeremiah predicted a similar calamity: "Thus saith the Lord, Behold, he shall fly as an eagle, and spread his wings over Moab," Jer. xlviii. 40; and the same figure was employed to denote the destruction that overtook the house of Esau: "Behold, he shall come up and fly as the eagle, and spread his wings over Bozrah," xlix. 22. The words of these prophets received a full accomplishment in the irresistible impetuosity and complete success with which the Babylonian monarchs, and particularly Nebuchadnezzar, pursued their plans of conquest. Ezekiel denominates him, with great propriety, "a great eagle with great wings," because he was the most powerful monarch of his time, and led into the field more numerous and better appointed armies, (which the prophet calls, by a beautiful figure, "his wings," the wings of his army,) than perhaps the world had ever seen. The prophet Isaiah, referring to the same monarch, predicted the subjugation of Judea in these terms: "He shall pass through Judah. He shall overflow, and go over. He shall reach even to the neck; and the stretching out of his wings" the array of his army) "shall fill the breadth of thy land, O ́Immanuel," Isaiah vin. 8. The king of Egypt is also styled by Ezekiel, "a great eagle, with great wings, and many feathers;" but he manifestly gives the preference to the king of Babylon, by adding, that he had " 'long wings, full of feathers, which had divers colours;" that is, greater wealth, and a more numerous army. EAR, the organ of hearing. The Scripture uses the term figuratively. Uncircumcised ears are ears inattentive to the word of God. To signify God's regard to the prayers of his people, the Psalmist says, "His cars are open to their cry," Psalm xxxiv. 15. Among the Jews, the slave, who renounced the privilege of being made free from servitude in the sabbatical year, submitted to have his ear bored through with an awl; which was done in the presence of some judge, or magistrate, that it might appear a voluntary act. The ceremony took place at his master's door, and was the mark of servitude and bondage. The Psalmist says, in the person of the Messiah, "Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened." Heb. "Thou hast digged my ears." This either means, Thou hast opened them, removed impediments, and made them attentive; or, Thou hast pierced them, as those of such servants were pierced, who chose to remain with their masters; and therefore imports the absolute and voluntary submission of Messiah to the will of the Father. "Make the ears of this people heavy," Isaiah vi. 10; that is, render their minds inattentive and disobedient; the prophets being said often to do that of which they were the innocent occasion. EAR-RINGS and Nose-Jewels were favourite ornaments among the eastern females Both are frequently mentioned in scripture Thus the prophet Ezekiel : And I put a jewel on thy forehead," or, as it should have been rendered, on thy nose. This ornament was one of the presents which the servant of Abraham gave to Rebecca, in the name of his master: "I put," said he, the ear-ring upon her face;" more literally, I put the ring on her nose. They wore ear-rings besides; for the household of Jacob, at his request, when they were preparing to go up to Bethel, gave him all the ear-rings which were in their ears, and he hid them under the oak which was by Shechem. Sir John Chardin says, "It is the custom in almost all the east for the women to wear rings in their noses, in the left nostril, which is bored low down in the middle. These rings are of gold, and have commonly two pearls and one ruby between them, placed in the ring; I never saw a girl, or young woman in Arabia, or in all Persia, who did not wear a ring after this manner in her nostril." Some writers contend, that by the nose-jewel, we are to understand rings, which women attached to their forehead, and let them fall down upon their nose; but Chardin, who certainly was a diligent observer of eastern customs, no where saw this frontal ring in the east, but every where the ring in the nose. His testimony is supported by Dr. Russel, who describes the women in some of the villages about Aleppo, and all the Arabs and Chinganas, (a sort of gipsies,) as wearing a large ring of silver or gold, through the external cartilage of their right nostril. It is worn, by the testimony of Egmont, in the same manner by the women of Egypt. Two words are used in the scriptures to denote these ornamental rings, and by. Mr. Harmer seems to think they properly signified ear-rings; but this is a mistake; the sacred writers use them promiscuously for the rings both of the nose and of the ears. That writer, however, is probably right in supposing that nezem is the name of a much smaller ring than agil. Chardin observed two sorts of rings in the east; one so small and close to the ear, that there is no vacuity between them; the other so large, as to admit the fore-finger between it and the ear; these last are adorned with a ruby and a pearl on each side, strung on the ring. Some of these ear-rings had figures upon them, and strange characters, which he believed were talismans or charms; but which were probably the names and symbols of their false gods. We know from the testimony of Pliny, that rings with the images of their gods were worn by the Romans. The Indians say, they are preservatives against enchantment; upon which Chardin hazards a very probable conjecture, that the ear-rings of Jacob's family were perhaps of this kind, which might be the reason of his demanding them, that he might bury them under the oak before they went up to Bethel. EARTH is used for that gross element which sustains and nourishes us by producing plants and fruits; for the continent as distinguished from the sea, "God called the dry land earth," Gen. i. 10; for the terraqueous globe, and its contents, men, animals, plants, metals, waters, &c. "The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof," Psalm xxiv. 1; for the inhabitants of the earth, or continent, "The whole earth was of one language," Genesis xi. 1; for Judea, or the whole empire of Chaldea and Assyria. Thus Cyrus says, Ezra i. 2, "The Lord God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth." The restriction of the term "earth" to Judea is more common in scripture than is usually supposed; and this acceptation of it has great effect on several passages, in which it ought to be so understood. Earth in a moral sense is opposed to heaven, and to what is spiritual. "He that is of the earth is earthy, and speaketh of the earth; he that cometh from above is above all," John iii. 31. "If ye then be risen with Christ, set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth," Col. iii. 1, 2. EARTHQUAKE. The scripture speaks of several earthquakes. One happened in the twenty-seventh year of Uzziah, king of Judah, in the year of the world 3221. This is mentioned in Amos i. 1, and in Zechariah xiv. 5. Josephus says that its violence divided a mountain, which lay west of Jerusalem, and drove one part of it four furlongs. A very memorable earthquake is that which happened at our Saviour's death, Matt. xxvii. 51. Many have thought that this was perceived throughout the world. Others are of opinion that it was felt only in Judea, or even in the temple at Jerusalem. St. Cyril of Jerusalem says, that the rocks upon Mount Calvary were shown in his time, which had been rent asunder by this earthquake. Maundrell and Sandys testify the same, and say that they examined the breaches in the rock, and were convinced that they were the effects of an earthquake. It must have been terrible, since the centurion and those with him were so affected by it, as to acknowledge the innocence of our Saviour, Luke xxiii. 47. Phlegon, Adrian's freedman, relates that, together with the eclipse, which happened at noon-day, in the fourth year of the two hundred and second Olympiad, or A.D. 33, a very great earthquake was also felt, principally in Bithynia. The effects of God's power, wrath, and vengeance are compared to earthquakes, Psalm xviii. 7; xlvi. 2; cxiv. 4. An earthquake signifies also, in prophetic language, the dissolution of governments and the overthrow of states. EAST, one of the four cardinal points of the world; namely, that particular point of the horizon in which the sun is seen to rise. The Hebrews express the east, west, north, and south by words which signify before, behind, left, and right, according to the situation of a man who has his face turned towards the east. By the east, they frequently describe, not only Arabia Deserta, and the lands of Moab and Ammon, which lay to the east of Palestine, but also Assyria, Mesopotamia, Babylonia, and Chaldea, though they are situated rather to the north than to the east of Judea. Balaam, Cyrus, and the wise men who visited Bethlehem at the time Christ was born, are said to come from the east, Num. xxiii. 7; Isaiah xlvi. 11 ; Matt. ii. 1. EASTER, the day on which the Christian church commemorates our Saviour's resurrection. Easter is a word of Saxon origin, and imports a goddess of the east. This goddess was Astarte, in honour of whom sacrifices were annually offered about the passover time of the year, the spring; and hence the Saxon name 66 æaster" became attached by association of ideas to the Christian festival of the resurrection. EATING. The ancient Hebrews did not eat indifferently with all persons: they would have esteemed themselves polluted and dishonoured by eating with people of another religion, or of an odious profession. In Joseph's day they neither ate with the Egyptians, nor the Egyptians with them, Gen. xliii. 32; nor, in our Saviour's time, with the Samaritans, John iv. 9. The Jews were scandalized at Christ's eating with publi cans and sinners, Matt. ix. 11. As there were several sorts of meats, the use of which was prohibited, they could not conveniently eat with those who partook of them, fearing to receive pollution by touching such food, or if by accident any particles of it should fall on them. The ancient Hebrews, at their meals, had each his separate table. Joseph, entertaining his brethren in Egypt, seated them separately, each at his particular table; and he himself sat down separately from the Egyptians, who ate with him; but he sent to his brethren portions out of the provisions which were before him, Gen. xliii. 31, &c. Elkanah, Samuel's father, who had two wives, distributed their portions to them separately, 1 Sam. i. 4, 5. In Homer, each guest has his little table apart; and the master of the feast distributes meat to each. We are assured that this is still practised in China; and that many in India never eat out of the same dish, nor on the same table, with another person, believing that they cannot do so without sin; and this, not only in their own country, but when travelling, and in foreign lands. The ancient manners which we see in Homer we see likewise in scripture, with regard to eating, drinking, and entertain. ments: we find great plenty, but little delicacy; and great respect and honour paid to the guests by serving them plentifully. Joseph sent his brother Benjamin a portion five times larger than those of his other brethren. Samuel set a whole quarter of a calf before Saul. The women did not appear at table in entertainments with the men: this would have been an indecency; as it is at this day throughout the east. The present Jews, before they sit down to table, carefully wash their hands: they speak of this ceremony as essential and obligatory. After meals they wash them again. When they sit down to table, the master of the house, or the chief person in the company, taking bread, breaks it, but does not wholly separate it; then, putting his hand on it, he recites this blessing: Blessed be thou, O Lord our God, the King of the world, who producest the bread of the earth." Those present answer, "Amen." Having distributed the bread among the guests, he takes the vessel of wine in his right hand, saying, "Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, King of the world, who hast produced the fruit of the vine." They then repeat the twenty-third Psalm. Buxtorf, and Leo of Modena, who have given particular accounts of the Jewish ceremonies, differ in some circumstances: the reason is, Buxtorf wrote principally the ceremonies of the German Jews, and Leo, those of the Italian Jews. They take care that, after meals, there shall be a piece of bread remaining on the table; the master of the house orders a glass to be washed, fills it with wine, and, elevating it, says, "Let us bless Him of whose benefits we have been partaking:" the rest answer, "Blessed be He who has heaped his favours on us, and by his goodness has now fed us." Then he recites a pretty long prayer, wherein he thanks God for his many benefits vouchsafed to Israel; beseeches him to pity Jerusalem and his temple, to restore the throne of David, to send Elias and the Messiah, to deliver themt out of their long captivity, &c. All present answer, "Amen;" and then recite Psalm xxxiv. 9, 10. Then, giving the glass with the little wine in it to be drunk round, he drinks what is left, and the table is cleared. See BANQUETS. Partaking of the benefits of Christ's passion by faith is also called eating, because this is the support of our spiritual life, John vi. 53, 56. Hosea reproaches the priests of his time with eating the sins of the people, Hosea iv. 8; that is, feasting on their sinofferings, rather that reforming their manners. John the Baptist is said to have come "neither eating nor drinking," Matt. xi. 18; that is, as other men did; for he lived in the wilderness, on locusts, wild honey, and water, Matt. iii. 4; Luke i. 15. This is expressed, in Luke vii. 33, by his neither eating “bread,” nor drinking "wine." On the other hand, the Son of Man is said, in Matt. xi. 19, to have come eating and drinking;" that is, as others did; and that too with all sorts of persons, pharisees, publicans, and sinners. EBAL, a celebrated mountain in the tribe of Ephraim, near Shechem, over against Mount Gerizim. These two mountains are within two hundred paces of each other, and separated by a deep valley, in which stood the town of Shechem. The two mountains are much alike in magnitude and form, being of a semi-circular figure, about half a league in length, and, on the sides nearest Shechem, nearly perpendicular. One of them is barren; the other, covered with a beautiful verdure. Moses commanded the Israelites, as soon as they should have passed the river Jordan, to go directly to Shechem, and divide the whole multitude into two bodies, each composed of six tribes; one company to be placed on Ebal, and the other on Gerizim. The six tribes that were on Gerizim were to pronounce blessings on those who should faithfully observe the law of the Lord, and the six others on Mount Ebal were to pronounce curses against those who should violate it, Deut. xi. 29, &c. ; xxvii. and xxviii.; Joshua viii. 30, 31. This consecration of the Hebrew commonwealth is thought to have been performed in the following manner: The heads of the first six tribes went up to the top of Mount Gerizim, and the heads of the other six tribes to the top of Mount Ebal. The priests, with the ark, and Joshua at the head of the elders of Israel, took their station in the middle of the valley which lies between the two mountains. The Levites ranged themselves in a circle about the ark; and the elders, with the people, placed themselves at the foot of the mountain, six tribes on a side. When they were thus disposed in order, the priests turned towards Mount Gerizim, on the top of which were the six heads of the six tribes who were at the foot of the same mountain 66 and pronounced, for example, these words:"Blessed be the man that maketh not any graven images." The six princes who were upon the top of the mountain, and the six tribes who were below at its foot, answered, Amen." Afterwards, the priests, turning towards Mount Ebal, upon which were the princes of the other six tribes, cried, with a loud voice, "Cursed be the man that maketh any graven image ;" and were answered by the princes opposite to them and their tribes, "Amen." The scripture, at first view, seems to intimate that there were six tribes upon one mountain, and six on the other; but besides that it is by no means probable that the tribes of the Israelites, who were so numerous, should be able to stand on the summits of these two mountains, it would not have been possible for them to have seen the ceremony, nor to have heard the blessings and curses in order to answer them. Moveover, the Hebrew particle, in the original, signifies, near, over against, as well as at the top, Joshua viii. 33. Accordingly, we may say, that neither Joshua, nor the priests or tribes, went up to the top of the mountains, but the heads only, who in their persons might represent all the tribes. EBENEZER, the name of that field wherein the Israelites were defeated by the Philistines, when the ark of the Lord was taken, 1 Sam. iv. 1; also a memorial stone set up by Samuel to commemorate a victory over the Philistines. The word signifies the stone of help; and it was erected by the prophet, saying, "Hitherto the Lord hath helped us." ÉBIONITES, a sect of the first two or three centuries; but it is not certain whether they received their name from a leader of the name of Ebion, (whom Dr. Lardner considers as a disciple of Cerinthus,) or from the meaning of the Hebrew word ebion, which implies poverty; and if the latter, whether they assumed the name, as affecting to be poor, like the Founder of Christianity; or whether it was conferred on them by way of reproach, as being of the lower orders. The use of the term, also, according to Dr. Horsley, was various and indefinite. Sometimes it was the peculiar name of those sects that denied both the divinity of our Lord, and his miraculous conception. Then its meaning was extended, to take in another party; who admitted the miraculous conception of Jesus, but still denied his divinity, and questioned his previous existence. At last, it seems, the Nazarites, whose error was rather a superstitious severity in their practice, than any deficiency in their faith, were included by Origen in the infamy of the appellation. Dr. Priestley, claiming the Ebionites as Jewish Unitarians, considers the ancient Nazarenes, that is, the first Jewish converts, as the true Ebionites; these, he thinks, were called Nazarenes, from their attachment to Jesus of Nazareth; and Ebionites, from their poor and mean condition, just as some of the Reformers were called Beghards, or beggars. The doctor cites the authorities of Origen and Epiphanius, to prove that both these denominations related to the same people, differing only, like the Socinians, in receiving or rejecting the fact of the miraculous conception; and neither, as he assures us, were reckoned heretics by any writers of the two first centuries. To this Dr. Horsley replies, that both Jews and heathens called the first Christians Nazarenes, in allusion to the mean and obscure birth-place of their Master, Jesus of Nazareth, Matthew ii. 23; Acts x. 38; but insists, and answers every pretended proof to the contrary, that the term Nazarenes was never applied to any distinct sect of Christians before the final destruction of Jerusalem by Adrian. Dr. Semler, a German writer, gives the following opinion: "Those who more rigidly maintained the Mosaic observances, and who were numerous in Palestine, are usually called Ebionites and Nasaræans. Some believe that they ought not to be reckoned heretics; others think that they were united in doctrine, differing only in name; others place them in the second century. It is of little consequence whether we distinguish or not the Nazarenes, or Nazaræans, from the Ebionites. It is certain that both these classes were tenacious of the Mosaic ceremonies, and more inclined to the Jews than to the gentiles, though they admitted the Messiahship of Jesus in a very low and Judaizing manner. The Ebionites held in execration the doctrine of the apostle Paul." Dr. J. Pye Smith, who quotes this passage from Dr. Semler, adds, "Such, it is apprehended, on grounds of reasonable probability, was the origin of Unitarianism; the child of Judaism misunderstood, and of Christianity imperfectly received." 2. On this controversy great light has, however, been since thrown by Dr. Burton. It is well known to those who have studied the Unitarian controversy, that it has been often asserted that the Cerinthians and Ebionites were the teachers of genuine Christianity, and that the doctrine of Christ's divinity, and of universal redemption through his blood, were the inventions of those who corrupted the preaching of the apostles. If this were so, we must convict all the fathers, not merely of ignorance and mistake, but of deliberate and wilful falsehood. To suppose that the fathers of the second century were ignorant of what was genuine and what was false in Christianity, would be a bold hypothesis; but if Irenæus, the disciple of Polycarp, asserted, as a matter of fact, that St. John wrote his gospel to refute the errors of Cerinthus, it is idle, or something worse, to say that Irenæus did not know for certain if the fact was really so. As far, then, as the testimony of the fathers is concerned, the Cerinthians and Ebionites were decidedly heretics. The Unitarians, on the other |