of a division in Da^^d's army (1 Ch 27'). He wai slain by Abner (2 S 2'*-^). 2. A Levite, who with other ten Levites and priests went throughout all the cities of Judah and taught the people in the reign of Jehoshaphat (2 Ch 17"). 3. A subordinat« collector of offerings and tithes in the reign oi Hezekiah (2 Ch 31"). 4. Jonathan, son of A., opjiosed Ezra's action in connexion with the divorce ot foreign wives (Ezr 10"). W. MuiB.
ASAIAH (n;^i4 'J" hath made').— 1. One of the deputation sent by Josiah to consult Huldah the proj.hetess, 2 K 22"- )« (AV Aaahiah), 2 Ch 34» 2. One of the Simeonite princes who attacked the shepherds of Gedor, 1 Ch 4*". 3. A Merarite who took part in bringing the ark to Jerus., 1 Ch e" 15«- ". i. The first-born of the Shilonites, 1 Ch 9», called in Neh 11' Maaseiah. J. A. Selbib.
ASANA (A 'kaavi., B 'A-aa-), 1 Es 5".— His de- scendants were among the 'temple sen'ants' or Nethiuim who returned with Zerubbabel : he is called Asnah (nj9g, 'A.afvi), Ezr 2". Nehemiah omits. H. St. J. Thackeray.
ASAPH (If? 'gatherer').—!. The father of Joah, the 'recorder' or chronicler at the court of Hezekiah (2 K IS'*-" etc.). 2. The * keeper of the king's forest,' to whom king Artaxerxes addressed a letter directing him to supply Nehemiah with timber (Neh 2*). 3. A Korahite (1 Ch 26'), same as Abiasaph (wh. see). 1. The eponym of one of the three guilds which conducted the musical services of the temple in the time of the Chronicler (1 Ch 15'"- etc.). The latter traces this arrange- ment to the appointment of David, in whose reigii Asaph, who is called 'the seer' (2 Ch 29*"), is supposed to have lived. We really know practi- cally nothing about the worship in the first temple, although the probability that the musical service was even then to a certain extent organised, is witnessed to by the fact that at the return from exile 'the singers, the sons of Asaph' (Neh "'", Ezr 2"), are mentioned as a class whose functions were recognised and well established. At first the Asaphites alone seemed to have formed the temple choir, and in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah (wherever we have the memoirs of the latter in their original form) they are not yet reckoned among the Levitts. At a later period they share the musical service with the ' sons of Korah ' (see KORAHITES). When the latter become porters and doorkeepers, the guild of Asaph appears supple- mented Dy those of Heman ana Ethan ; and as, in the estimation of the Chronicler (c. 250 B.C.), Levitical descent is necessary for the performance of such functions, the geneaJogies of Asaph, Heman, and Ethan are traced respectively to Gershom, Kohath, and Merari, the sons of Levi (1 Ch 6»-"). W. R. Smith (OTJC p. 204, n.) remarks that the ' oldest attempt to incorporate the Asaphites with the Levites seems to be found in the priestly part of the Pentateuch, where Abiasaph, " the father of Asaph," or in other words the eponym of the Asaphite guild, is made one of the three sons of Korah (Ex 6").' Pss 50 and 73-83 have the superscription Ifx^ which means in all probability that they once belonged to the hymn- book of the Asaphite choir (see PsALMS).
LiTEBATUBl!.— Kuenen, Bd. of Irrael, Ii. 204, ili. 77: Onif, OrschUIU. H. da A.T. 223, 239 ff.; Wellhausen, GesdlichU, 162, n. ; Herzfeia. GeschichU ilea VUka Isra-l, I. 887 f. ; Schllr»r, UJP u. 1. 225 f., 271 f. ; Cheyne, Origin of Ptalter, 101, 111.
J. A. Selbib. ASARA ('Acrapd, AV Azara), 1 Es 5".— His sons were among the temple servants or Nethinim who returned under Zerubbabel : omitted in the parallel lists in Ezr and Neh. H. St. J. THACKERAY.
ASARAMEL
asce:nsion
Ibl
ASARAMEL ("AffapaA-A k V, Sapo^A A, AV Baramel). — A niiino whose meaning ia quite uncertain (1 Mac 14*). See KVra.
ASAREL (*?!<-!;•!!, AV Asareel). — A son of Jehallelel, I Ch 4". See Genealogy.
ASBASARETH (1 Es S®).— A king of Assyria, probably a corrupt form of the name Esjirhaddoii, which 18 found in the parallel passa^'c Ezr 4-. AV form Azbazareth comes from the Vulg. ; LX\ has 'A<rjJciKa(p<ie B, 'Aajiaaapid A; Syr. AsiIDA*] (AsUtakphath). H. A. White.
ASCALON Jth 2«. 1 Mao 10« ll" 12»», for
A.SHKELO.N.
ASCENSION. — Ascension is the name given to that linal withdrawal of the Risen Christ from His diseiple.i wliich is described in Ac I"*-. There is no account of anything exactly like it in the OT, though the same word has been applied to the de- parture of Enoch and of Elijah from this life. In Sir 44" as in He 1 1° Enoch's removal is called a tran.^lation (/xereWfl);), but in Sir 49" as in Ac 1" it is an assumption (d^fXiJ/i^^T) diri ttjs y^s). This last alone seems to be employed of Elijah. In the LXX of 2 K 2" we have aveX-hijL'per, HXioi) iv fvcctiaiiLf (ij tit riv oipaii6y, and in Sir 48" Elijah is 6 ifaXrjfKpSelt iv XaiXoiri vvpbs. Cheyne's Hnlluwing of Criticism treats this last as ' the grandest prose poem in the OT,' but, even so, it opened the mind to the idea that human life might have another is-sue than that which awaits it in the ordinary course of nature.