Volume 1

The Jewish encyclopedia : a descriptive record of the history, religion, literature, and customs of the Jewish people from the earliest times to the present day / prepared ... under the direction of ... Cyrus Adler [and others] Isidore Singer ... managing editor.

Date:: 1901-1906

Credit: The Jewish encyclopedia : a descriptive record of the history, religion, literature, and customs of the Jewish people from the earliest times to the present day / prepared ... under the direction of ... Cyrus Adler [and others] Isidore Singer ... managing editor. Source: Wellcome Collection.

723/752 (page 665)

$ApUjioros unto eternity, there will be pious and upright men on earth. ” * This is also of rabbinical origin; for the rabbis teaeh that the world's e.xistence depends upon the presence of the pious in it; the only disagreement is in the necessary number of these “ pillars of the uni- verse.” -I- A fixed period is set for the world: “ For the world will exist for 6,000 years, like to the six days of the Lord, and then the Sabbath of God will begin ” (bom. ii. 13, p. 36, line 5). This millenuarian- ism is, however, not to be ascribed to rabbinical influence upon Aphraates; for it belongs to the oldest elements of Christianity, taken over from Judaism; indeed, Aphraates refers to “the tradition of our sages.” This is mentioned because it is characteris- tic of the whole method of Aphraates, who herein also teaches consonantly with the rabbis (compare Sanh. 97ff). The knowledge of Aphraates’ personal relations with Jews is limited to what may be learned from his writings. For instance, he maintains that the hom- ily “Upon Persecution” (horn, xxi.) owes its exist- ence to the arguments against Christianity made to him by a Jewish sage (the epithet “hak-kima ” here is not a title, like the old “hakam,” but “sage ” in general). His frequent vigorous attacks on Jew- ish sages and disputants also show that, in spite of the great influence that the rabbinical teach- ings exercised over him, he entered the lists against his teachers more than once. One-half of this collec- tion of homilies is an avowed defense of Christianity against Judaism; and his characteristic piinciple is that attack is the best defense. Therefore, he inveighs (horns, xi., xii., xiii., xv.) against Defends circumcision, Passover, the Sabbath, Christian- and dietary laws, the chief portions of ity Against the Jewish ceremonial law, in order to Judaism, proceed to the rejection of the doctrine of the “chosen people ” (horn, xvi,). In his apologetics for Christianity, next to tlie defense of tlie designation “Son of God” for Jesus (Iiom. -xvii.), it is celibacy that he mainly upholds against Jews and heathen (horn, xviii.). In horn. xix. he disproves the Messianic hopes of the Jews. But to his honor be it said, that, unlike other ancient Chris- tian apologetes, such as Origen and .Jerome, who owed much to Jewish teachers, his writings are almost entirely free from any bitterness toward them personally, a characteristic which Noldeke (“Gbt- tinger Gelehrte Anzeiger,” 1867, p. 1512) was the first to indicate. It should not be concluded that, because Aphraates attacked Judaism only in the last ten of his homilies (which veere compo.sed after the war be- tween the Persians and Romans in 337), this at- tack was the result of ill-feeling between Jews and Christians, the former favoring the Persians, the lat- ter opposing them. Aphraates showed not the slight- est traces of personal ill-feeling toward the Jews; and his calm, dispassionate tone proves that it was only his firm conviction of Christianity that caused him to assail Judaism. The fact that in the first half of his work he did not attack it is easily explained; the themes he treated, such as fasting, love, faith, prayer, etc., furnished no basis for polemics against Jews. Bibliography : Opera S. Jacobi Epiacopi Nisibeni, Arme- nian and Latin ed., Nic. Autonelli, Rome, 1756, Venice, 1765 ; in Latin, in Gallandi, Bibl. \'et. Pair. 1769, v., and in Arme- * Horn, xxiii. 455. Aphraates quotes in proof a Biblical verse which does not exist in our Bible. The quotation, p. 461, of which neither Wright nor Bert could find the source, is Psalm Ixxxix. 2: The world is built upon mercy” (A. V. Mercy shall be built up forever ”). t See Suk. 46h, where the number is placed at 36; hut in Toma, 38h, one is held sufficient. See Monatsschrift.” l.c., p. 546, and the passages quoted from Diogenes and Justin Martyr. man, Constantinople, 1824; W. Wright, The Hmnilies of Aphremtex. the Pcrxiaii Sage, London, 1869 (this is the edU tio prlnccps of the original Syriac text); Patrologia Sgriaca, Pans, 1894, vol. i., Syriac and Latin (the last homily omitted); (r. Bert, Aphraates, des Persischen Weisen, Homilien, am dern Sgrischen Ubersetzt., Leipsic, 1888, in Gebhardt and Har- uack, Texte und Untersuchuiigen, iii. 3, 4; J. Gwynn, The Nice He and Post-Nicene Fathers, second series, xiii. (145-412 (only a few homilies translated into English); S. Funk. Die Haggadisehea FAemente in den Homilien des Aphraates, Vienna, 1891; L. Ginzherg, Die Haggada b. d. Kirchen- vatern, part i. Amsterdam, 1899; idem. Die Haggada b. d. Kirchenviitern ^uid in der Apokrgphischen Literatur, in Monatsschrift, 1899; Herzog, RealencgklopUdie filr Pro- testantlsche Theologie, 3d ed., Leipsic, 1896, s.v.; Forget, De Vita et Scri])tis Aphraatis, Louvain, 1882; Duval, La Lit- terature Sgriaqve, pp. 2,55-229, Paris, 1899. L. G. APHRASCHUS RACHMAILO'WICZ. See Affras Raciimaelovich. APHRODITE: Greek name for the goddess of love. Among Orientals, addicted to sensuality, she was worshiped under many formsand figures. The word 'Atppoderr/ (ApJdoret, Aphrotet, Aplirodet), which can not be satisfactorily derived from Greek, plainly shows its Semitic origin; for upon closer inspection it is proved to be identical with Ashtoret (mnK’Jl) (F. Hommel, “Neue Jahrbiicher,” exxv. 176; H. I.ievy, “Die Scmitischen Fremdwbrter im Griechischen,” Berlin, 1895, p. 250). Aphrodite was considered so peculiar to Syria that she was worshiped there as ’A^podhri Ivpia, or the Syrian Aphrodite (see Patily- Wissowa, “ Realencyklopildie der Klassischen Alter thums Wissenschaft,” i. 2774). There existed in Palestine a recognized Aphrodite eiilt: (1) in Jaffa (Pliny, “Historia Naturalis,” v. 129); (2) in Acre (ancient Acco), which city possessed a bath adorned with a painting of the goddess, where even the patriarch Gamaliel did not on that account refuse to bathe (Mishnah ‘Ah. Zarah, iii. 4; Yalkut, Deut. 888); (3) in Bozrah at the time of R. Simeon ben Lakish (Talmud Yerushalmi. Sheb. viii. 385). These cities were for the most part inhabited by pagans. When, under Emperor Hadrian, even Je- rusalem became a pagan city with the name Hilia Capitolina, the strong heathenish inclination of its inhabitants displayed itself in the erection of a tem- ple to Venus upon Mount Golgotha just outside the city (Sozomeu, “ Hist. Eccl. ii, 1; Jerome, “Epis- tolie,” xiii. Probably connected with the worship of Aphrodite was the bird which, it is alleged, was worshiped by the Samaritans and which maj have been the dove, an attendant of the goddess of love. Bibliography; Gratz, Geschichte der Juden, 3d ed., iv. 155; Schiirer. Geschichte des Jildischen Volkes im Zeitalter Jesu Christi, i. 565 and 584. S. Kr. APIKOROS (pi. APIKORSIM): In common Jewish parlance this word is used to signify that a man is a heretic, unsound in his belief, or lax in his religious practise. The word is derived from the Greek ’EircK'upog, but Maimonides (Commentary on the Mishnah, Sanh. xi. 1), deriving it from the New Hebrew “ipSH = freedom, explains it to mean one who refuses obedience to the Law. In the Mishnah (see also Acts, xvii. 18) the word DIDp’QN evidently means an adherent of the Epicurean philosophy: the context shows this clearly. It reads: “All Israelites have a share in the future world. The following, however, have no share in the future world: He who says there is no resurrection [the words mirin [0 are, as Rabbinowitz has proved, interpolated], he who says the Law has not been given by God, and an DVilp'SN ” (Sanh. x. 1, Gem.90q). There can be no doubt that Apikoros, in this connection, refers to a man who refuses to believe in life after death. In$