PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
McClintock & Strong Cyclopaedia — Volume 7
John McClintock & James Strong · 1,372,028 words · 1337 reading sections
Section 121
NIHILISM 92 NIHILISM convincing l<nowlcclge bj- thought. In the philosophy of I'lato, which has exercised a large and lasting infiu- ence upon Christian thought, the Idea, his fundamental conception, is pure archetypal essence, having an ob- jective and real existence, and not merely an existence in thought. In Plat…
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Kant, incited by Hume's scepticism, undertook, in his Kritik der reinen Vernunft, a more thorough exam- ination of the origin, extent, and limits of human knowledge than had hitherto been given. Its object was to establish the distinction between phenomena and real things, or " things-in-themselves." The latter have a …
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forms of thought by the mind the relations of cause and effect are assumed in this act as really and objec- tivelj' behjnging to it in the view of all beings. 13ut, according to the possibility suggested, the relation of cause and effect may be just as unreal in the operations of the mind itself as we may suppose it to…
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See Ueberweg, Hist, of Philnsophj, i, 76 sq., 205 sq. ; Porter, The Human Intellect; McCosh, Intuitions of the Mind; also Christianity and Positivism ; Blackie, Four Phases of Morals, p. 296 sq. II. In its second form nihilism is a certain theory of the incarnation. In this sense it is also called nihilian- ism. The n…
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NIHILISTS 95 NIKODIM Vogt, Mi)leschott, Blichner, and others, whose writings have had a pre-eminent influence in their doctrines. Tlie most influential promoter of these principles was Alexander Herzen, who in 1834, while a student at the University of Moscow, was arrested, with some of his associates, on account of…
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Nikiphor, a Russian prelate of note, flourished after the opening of the 12th century. He was a Greek by birth, and came to Russia in 1106. He rapidly rose to the highest ecclesiastical distinction, and finally became metropolitan of Kief and all Russia. He died in April, 1121. He is spoken of by contemporaries as a le…
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transl.) ; Basnage, History of the Jews, p. 685 (Taylor's translation); Griltz, Gesch. d. Juden. (Leips. 1873), vii, 253 sq. ; Jost, Gesch. d. Judenth. u. s. Sekten, ii, 300, 329, 362; Fiirst, Gesch. d. Karderthums, ii, 261 sq. ; Rule, IHstory of the Karaite Jews, p. 200 sq. ; Zeiger, Jiidische Zeitschrift, 1869, p. 19…
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archimandrite of the Novospasky convent at Moscow. A new career was thus suddenly opened to him : his in- fluence with the sovereign increased daily, and he took advantage of it to become the intercessor for poor widows, orplians, and the persecuted and oppressed. In 10-18 he acquired the dignity of metropolitan of Nov…
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Muscovites," as they are called by Syrian travellers, now gave way to the sweet chants of the Cossack chor- isters, brought partly from Poland, partlj' from Greece, and constitute the first beginnings of that vocal music which lias since been " the glory of the Russian worship" (Stanley). But chief of all ecclesiastica…
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Nile, the one great river of Egypt; constituting, in fact, that country by its alluvial banks. In treating of it we avail ourselves of whatever statements we find suitable in the dictionaries of Smith and Fairbairn. See EcjYPT. I. Names of the Nile in Scripture. — This word, the NfTXof,', A7/(/s, of the Greeks and Rom…
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2. Year, TIX^, "!!<% is the same as the ancient Egyp- tian ATUR, AUIJ, and the Coptic Eie?-o or Taro. It is important to notice that the second form of the ancient Egyptian name alone is preserved in the later language, the second radical of the first having been lost, as in the Hebrew form ; so that, on this double ev…
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6. The Nile is sometimes poetically called a sea, d"^ (Isa. xviii, 2 ; Nah. iii, 8 ; Job xli, 31 ; but we cannot agree with Gesenius, Thesaur. s. v., that it is intended in Isa. xix, 5) : this, however, can scarcely be considered to be one of its names. See Sea. 7. By some the Gihon, "(irT'S, one of the rivers of Eden…
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(Hugh Miller's Test, of the Roch% p. 412, 413). The bed of the Nile is cut through these layers of rock, which in some places confine it on both sides, and even obstruct its course, causing the formation of rapids and cataracts. For scarcely have the waters of the White Nile, which come from the very heart of Africa to…
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Of old the great river must have shown a more fair and busy scene than now. Boats of many kinds were ever passing along it, by the painted walls of temples, and the gardens that extended around the light sum- mer pavilions, from the pleasure-galley, with one great square sail, white or with variegated pattern, and many…
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As all the Avcalth of the country maj^ be said to de- pend on the inundation of the river, which Herodotus has condensed in this terse definition, "Egj'pt is the gift of the Nile," it is of the utmost importance to the inhabitants to register the periodical rise and fall of the overflow. This has been done for ages by …
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As the river Nile, especially during the inundation, is always impregnated with alluvium, which it deposits on the soil at the rate of nearly five inches in a century, an attempt has been made by some of the sceptical school to show that man has been a denizen of this earth for many thousand years prior to the time whi…
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Syria, that he used to send her water from the Nile, which alone she was able to drink. III. Divine Honors paid to the Nile. — Considering the immense importance of the Nile in every point of view, it was not unnatural for the ancient Egyptians to re- gard the river in very much the same light as that in which the Gan…
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" Papyriferi septemflua flumiua Nili." The monuments of the early dynasties represent the Nile as a stream bordered by Hags and papyrus-reeds, the covert of innumerable wild fowl, and bearing on its waters the flowers of the various-colored lotus. At the present time there are scarcely any reeds or water-plants to be …
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Niles, Nathaniel, a Congregational minister, was born April 3, 1741, at South Kingston, K. I. He grad- uated at the College of~New Jersey in 1776 ; studied the- ology under Dr. Bellamy ; entered the ministry, but never settled in any place as pastor. Kesiding for some time in Norwich, Conn., he was several times sent t…
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tians is still preserved among the Arabs who have set- tled in Egypt, and who are accustomed to speak of the river as most holy. Mr. Bruce, in his travels in Abys- sinia, mentions that it is called by the Agows Gzeir, Geesa, or Seir, the lirst of which terms signifies a god. It is also called A b, " father," and has ma…
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Miracle of St. Nilus. (From a Fresco at Grotta Ferrata.) jeet for art. Crescentius was consul at this time, and John XVI, who was a Greek like St. Nilus, was pope. Then Otho III came to Kome and made a new pope, with the title of (Gregory V. He put out the e3'es of pope John, and laid siege to the castle of St, Angelo…
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Antique Representation of the Cure of the Palsied Miin. but not as their invariable attribute till the 7th cen- tury (see Buonarotti, Vasi Anlichi). What must seem strange, however, is that the nimbus does not appear at all on the sarcophagi, the most ancient of Christian monuments. This, together with the fact that t…
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Nimetulahites, an order of Turkish monks, so called from their founder, Nimetu-lahi, famous for his doctrine and the austeritj^ of his life. The Nimetula- hites originated in the 777th j'ear of the Hegira, and are now quite extensively spread in Mohammedan countries. Thej'' assemble once a week to sing hymns in praise …
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NIMROD 109 NIMROD the strangest opinion is that of Yon Bohlen (^Genesis, p. 120), who makes him the same with Mcrodach-Ba- ladan ! (comp. Tuch, Gen. p. 233 ; Gesen. Thes. ii, 818, note). — Winer, ii, 157. The only subsequent notice of the name Nimrotl occurs in Mic. v, 6, where the '• land of Nimrod" is a synonyme e…
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Concerning the later life of Nimrod, the Scriptures give not the slightest information, nor even ground for conjecture. But, after seventeen or more centuries, a dubious and supposititious narrative got into credit, of which the earliest promoter that we know was Ctesias, but which, variously amplified, has been repeat…
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2. The earliest seat of empire was in the south part of the Babylonian plain. The large mounds which for a vast number of centuries have covered the ruins of ancient cities have already yielded some evidences of the dates and names of their founders, and we can assign the highest antiquity to the towns represented by t…
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Nine-Days' Devotion. See Novena. Nine Lections is the name of a liturgical service in the Romish and Anglican churches. Three lections are said on each of the three nocturns : the first three taken from Holy Scripture ; the second from the acts of a saint ; the third from homilies of the fathers. Justin IMartyr allude…
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The kingdom of Assyria and of the Assyrians is re- ferred to in the O. T. as connected with the Jews at a very early period ; as in Numb, xxiv, 22, 24, and Psa. Ixxxiii, 8 : but after the notice of the foundation of NINEVEH 112 NINEVEH Nineveh in Genesis no further mention is made of the city until the time of the …
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There is no mention of it in the Persian cuneiform in- scriptions of the Achaemenid dynasty. Herodotus (i, 193) speaks of the Tigris as " the river upon which the town of Nineveh formerly stood." He must have passed, in his journey to Babylon, very near the site of the city — perhaps actually over it. So accurate a rec…
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The political history of Nineveh is that of Assyria (q. v.). It has been observed that the territory included within the boundaries of the kingdom of Assyria proper was comparatively limited in extent, and that almost within the immediate neighborhood of the capital pet- ty kings appear to have ruled over semi -indepen…
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NINEVEH 114 NINEVEH character in wliich these are inscribed is so ancient and so mixed with Babylonian forms tliat they are assigned to tliis period, though the same effects might possibly have been produced at a later period of Babylonian as- cendencj'. After these names, we are enabled to trace a continuous line o…
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Shalmanu-bar was the founder of the central palace at Nimrud, and probably reigned from about 900 to 850 or 800. He was succeeded by his second son Shamas- iva, his eldest having made a revolt during the lifetime of his father, which probably lost him the succession, and was with difficulty quelled by his younger broth…
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clay tablet, but it is uncertain when his second expedi- tion to Syria was undertaken ; some, however, consider his two Syrian expeditions to have been identical. The object of the second was to recover the cities of Lachish and Libnah, which had again fallen under the power of Egypt. While he was warring against Lachi…
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[ed. Miiller], p. 13fi). The only difficulty is to determine which ruins are to be comprised within the actual limits of the ancient city. 1. The northern extremity of the principal collection of mounds on the eastern bank of the Tigris may be fixed at She- rif Khan, and the southern at Nimrud, about six and a half mi…
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(2.) Nimrud consists of a similar enclosure of con- Plan of Kuyunjik and Nebbi Yuuus. by dams, of which traces still exist. In addition, one or more ramparts of earth were thrown up, and a moat excavated between the inner walls and the Khosr, the eastern bank of which was very considerabh' raised by artificial means.…
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The excavations subsequently carried on bj' MM, Place and Fresnel at Khorsabad led to the discovery, in the enclosure below the platform, of propylaea, flanked by colossal human-headed bulls, and of other detached buildings forming the approaches to the palace, and also of some of the gateways in the enclosure-waUs, or…
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Khan are the ruins of a temple, but nc7 sculptured slabs have been dug up there. It was founded by Senna- cherib, and added to by his grandson. At Selaniij-ah no remains of buildings nor any fragments of sculpture or inscriptions have been discovered. 3. The most recent explorer in this field is Mr. George Smith, of t…
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The arrival of the antiquities in England called forth great interest in the results of the expedition, and the trustees of the British Museum directed Mr. Smith to return to Mosul, setting aside a sum of £1000 for the enterprise. On this occasion he left London Nov. 25, 1873, and, traversing his former route, arrived …
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NINEVEH 121 NINEVEH temporary with the kings of Judah and Israel. On the comparative chronology of the Assyrian and Jewish kingdoms, Mr. Smith's expeditions have added nothing to our previous knowledge. Of the later Babylonian period — the time of Nebuchadnezzar and his successors — there are a few new dated documen…
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Among the small objects, undoubtedly of the Assyrian period, found in the ruins, were copper vessels (some embossed and incised with figures of men and animals and graceful ornaments), bells, various instruments and tools of copper and iron, arms (such as spear and arrow heads, swords, daggers, shields, helmets, and fr…
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dwellings of the mass of the population, either collected in groups, or scattered singly in the midst of fields, or- chards, and gardens. There are still sufficient indica- tions in the country around of the sites of such habi- tations. The fortified enclosures, while including the residences of the king, his family or…
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V. Prophecies relating to Nineveh, and Illustrations of the 0. T. — These are exclusively contained in the books of Nahum and Zephaniah; for although Isaiah foretells the downfall of the Assyrian empire (ch. x and xiv), he makes no mention of its capital. Nahnm threatens the entire destruction of the city, so that it s…
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The interior decorations of the Assyrian palaces is de- scribed by Ezekiel, himself a captive in Assyria and an eye-witness of their magnificence (xxiii, 14, 15): "She saw men of sculptured workmanship upon the walls; likenesses of the Chaldeans pictured in red, girded with girdles upon their loins, with colored ilowin…
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The art of the Nineveh monuments must in the pres- ent state of our knowledge be accepted as an original and national art, peculiar, if not to the Assyrians alone, to the races who at various periods possessed the coun- try watered by the Tigris and Euphrates. As it was undoubtedly brought to its highest perfection by …
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NINEVEH 127 NINEVEH Assyrian character of these objects is very remarkable. The two pillars and " chapiters" of brass had ornaments of lilies and pomegranates; the brazen sea was support- ed on oxen, and its rim was ornamented with flowers of lilies, while the bases were graven with lions, oxen, and cherubim on the …
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Little is known of the dwellings of the people : they easily fell into ruin, and lay buried in the mass — the bricks or mud of which they were built fast dissolving into earth or soil. Nor do the monuments throw light on the subject, for thej- are filled with scenes from the chase or war — fields, trees, and fortresses…
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Ancient As>^vriau rioU''h. rising from the centre seem a contrivance intended for sowing the seed in drills. The plough is supposed to have been drawn by two oxen moving in line, the one before the other. Scales and weights are also pictured on the monuments; many metallic weights have been found ; and there appears …
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VHI. Race and Language. — Sprung from Asshur, the Assyrians were a Shemitic race, whatever may have been the original connection of Nineveh with the Cush- ite Nimrod. Herodotus (vii, G3) says of them, " By the Greeks they were called Sj'rians, and by the barbarians Assyrians." This blunder has been repeated even by Nie…
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Inscribed Cylinders. 1. Terra-cotta cyliniler, con- taining the annals of the reign of Sargon, king of Assyria, about the year B.C. 721.— From Khorsa- bad. 2. Hexagonal terra - cotta, containing annals of the first eight years of the reign of 'Sennacherib (B.C. 102 to 694), with an account of the expedition against H…
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'^.^^■viig/ Impressions of the Signets of the Kings of Assyria and Egypt. (Original size.) chamber at Kuyunjik, and are now deposited in the British Museum. They appear to include historical documents, vocabularies, astronomical and other calcu- lations, calendars, directions for the performance of re- ligious ceremo…
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ing of the conversion of the Northern Picts, mentions a tradition to the effect that the Southern Picts had been converted by the preaching of bishop Nynian, a Briton, who had been educated at Rome. Yet Bede further states that the Picts only joined the Romish Church in the 8th century, and that the British Christians …
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Niobe (Ni()/3//) is the name of a Greek female deity. She was the daughter of Tantalus (according to the most popular version of the story), the sister of Pelops, and was the wife of Amphion, king of Thebes. She was so proud of the number of her children that she boasted herself as superior to Leto (Latona), who had bu…
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Nirenpan, the word used by the Siamese to denote the Niri-una (q. v.) of the Buddhists. Nirmalas, one of the divisions of the Sikhs (q. v.), who profess to practice the strictest seclusion of relig- ious asceticism. They lead a life of celibacy, and dis- regard their personal appearance, often going nearly naked. They…
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"Although this is the orthodox view of Nirvana, ac- cording to the oldest Buddhistic doctrine, it is necessarj^ to point out two categories of different views which have obscured the original idea of Nirvana, and even induced some modern writers to believe that the final beatitude of the oldest Buddhistic doctrine is n…
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"1. That though the Abhidliamnia Pitaka favors the negative view, the affirmative may easily be jiroved from the Sutta and Viuaya, and especially from the Dhamma- pada. 2. That the Abhidhamnia is of no authority, and contains the notion, not of Buddha, bnt of his l"i)llowers. 3. Tliat it is stated that Buddha saw his d…
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Nisbet, Charles, D.D., a noted Presbyterian di- vine and educator, was born at Haddington, Scotland, Jan. 21, 173G. His father's worldly circumstances were so straitened that he was barely able to pay the ex- pense of fitting Charles for college ; but the youth sur- mounted all diflSculties, and finally entered the Uni…
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Nis'roch (Heb. Nisrok', T|"ip?, nsually referred to the root Tij.3, eayle, with Persian ending och or ac^, in- tensive, i. q. great eagle ; but, according to Bohlen, per- haps a Sanscrit word, from 7tis, '-night," and ro'gis, NISROCH 136 NISSIM '•light," i. q. Ilie lirjht ofmrjlit, i.e. the moon [see Gesen. Thesaur…
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NISSIM 137 NITRE Nissini ren-Reuben ben-Nissiji {Genindi, so called from his native place, Gerona, in Barcelona), one of the best Talraudic scholars of his time, flourished about 13-10-1380, as chief rabbi of Barcelona. He also practiced medicine, and knew something of astronomy ; but he opposed Jewish mysticism, an…
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Nitoes is the name of imaginary daemons or genii whom the inhabitants of Jlolucca, Amboyna, etc., con- sult on every affair of importance. On these occasions twenty or thirty persons assemble, and then they sum- mon the Nito by the sound of a little consecrated drum, while some of the company light up several wax taper…
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Nitiiaii Manuscript (Codex Nitriexsis, des- ignated as K of the Gospels, No. 17,211 of the Additions in the British Museum) is a valuable palimpsest frag- ment of the N. T. in uncials not later than the 0th cen- tury, written over by a Syriac translation of the Mono- physite treatise of Severus of Antioch against Gram-…
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Public-domain 19th-century biblical, theological, and ecclesiastical reference work; OCR text from Internet Archive. Historical scholarship and terminology reflect its era; OCR may contain errors. Verify quotations and current scholarly claims independently.
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Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.