Thus in all the prophetic passages the only theory that easily and naturally tits mto the text is tliat wliich places Dedan on the south border of Edom, and regards the Dedanites as a Keturaean tribe, occupying a position alongside of other allied tribes in the north-west of Arabia. The only trace, therefore, that we have of a Cushite Dedan is in Gn 10'. It is quite impossible to conjecture with any confidence now it came about that both Shel>a and Dedan should be names recurring in two families so far removed from one anotlier as that of the Cushite Kaamah and that of the Keturican Jokshan. Possibly, a branch of the Keturajan Dedanites may have settled among Cushites near the Persian Gulf, and, while retain- ing their ancestral name, may have been included in the genealogy with their Cushite neighbours. It is, however, difficult to assume that the same had happened with respect to the sons of Sheba.
The Dedan of the Edomite border is placed by Eusebius in the neighbourhood of Phana on the east of Mount Seir, between I'etra and Zoar, the ancient Punon or Phunon, at which the Israelites encamped during their wanderings (Nu 33'"'-).
LrrrBATtiRC.— Besidea Dillmann and Delitzsch on On and la. and Davidnon on Ezk, see Winer. Re^VwifTUfbuch,^ 203 f., whoM article is much more Batiafactory than tliose of Sterner (Schenkel, BiMi«xvv)n, I. 59i f.) and Kautzsch (Riehm, Hand- wAr(«r6ucA, 2C6). See also Hommel, Anc. tlffi. Trad. 23y f.
J. MACrHEIlSON.
DEDICATION.— The idea of withdrawing (per- sons, places, things) from a common and setting apart to a sacred use, which seems to be the original connotation of the important Sem. root thp, is embodied in various expressions of EV, Bach as consecrate, dedicate, devote, hallow (holy, etc.), sanctify. Of the first two we may say that the general usage is to apply 'consecrate' and 'con- secration ' to the setting apart of persons, and 'dedicate' and 'dedication' to the setting apart of things. Accordingly, we read of silver being 'dedicated unto J"' (Jg 17'), so that it could no longer be used for other than sacred purposes, of 'vessels of silver, and ves.sels of gold, and vessels of briiss (nyn))' so dedicated or set apart by David (2SS'"-" = 1 Ch I8'«", 1 K7'"=2Ch5'), just as wo read of the dedication of a liowl 'of the first (quality) of copper (n^'nj)' to Haal-I.ebaiion {VIS, Tab. iv.; cf. Mesha's inscription, lines 17, 18, m.T -^^ vessels of J" dedicated to Cheinosli). The same Hob. word is used of the dedication of the 'tent of meeting' (Ex 29", EV 'sanctify'), of the altar of burnt-
oflering (Ex 29"), and of other parts of the fur- niture (Ex 40'"), all as described in Lv 8'""-. In another ref. to this dedication (so EV, but KVra dedication-gift, Nu 7»*. saj ^yg jj^gj meet with the ."ijjq Hdnuklcah (for wh. see Dillmann in loro, Jo. Selden, De Synedriis, 1679, bk. iii. p. 148 fi'., and the next art.). Other dedication ceremonies in OT are the dedication of Solomon's temple, related in detail, 1 K8 (where note v."" -^jri, {v^Kalviaii/, EV dedi- cate, but v.*'cnp,i77la<je>', EV hallow), the dedication of the second temple (Ezr 6'"")* and of the wall of Jerusalem (Neh 12^). The last passage is of in- terest, moreover, as showing that the completion of buildings of a more secular character was also the occasion of a dedicatory service. That this holds good, even of a private house, is to be in- ferred from Dt2(P. For much curious information on this practice among other ancient peoples, and on its continuation in later times, see Selden, op. cit. (cf. Consecration).
A. R. S. Kennedy. DEDICATION, The Feast of the (rb. c^raioia Jn
10^, 6 dyKaivta^o^ toO dvuiaar-qpiov 1 M.ac 4"*^), was instituted by Judas Maccabajus (B.C. 104) in com- memoration of the purification of the temple and altar after they had been [lolluted by Antiochus E])i[)hanes (1 Mac 4°"). It was to be 'kept from year to year by the space of eight days from the live and twentieth day of the month Chislev ' (about the time of the winter solstice). The Feast of the Ded. is only once mentioned in NT (Jn lO-''), and in this passage there is an incidental reference to the season of the year, apparently to explain why it was that Jesus was walking under cover instead of in the open air. This is one of the numerous instances in which the author of the Fourth Gospel shows a close acquaintance with Jewish customs. Westcott thinks that the title chosen by our Lord in Jn 9' may refer to the lighting of lamj)S at this feast, no less than to the ceremonies of the Feast of Tabernacles. This illumi- nation was so prominent a feature in the Feast of the Ded. that it was sometimes called the Feast of Lights (Jos. Ant. XII. vii. 7). Josephus, however, does not mention the illumination in private houses, which has been a marked feature of the feast from the end of the 1st cent, to the present time. According to Maimonides, every house should set up at least one light. Those who did honour to the command should set up a light for each person in the house, and those who aid mon^ honour still should begin with one light for each per.ion, and double the number each night (Liglitfoot, Hnr. Heb. in loc). Another school directed that eight lights should be used on the first night, and the number diminished by one each night. The feast lasted eight days. The reference in 2 Mac 10" seems to show that the points of resemblance between some of the ordinances of this feast and the Feast of Tabernacles were not accidental, but were designed from the first. The Feast of Dedication, however, was unlike the great feasts, in that it could be celebrated anywhere and did not require the worshipper to go up to Jerusalem.