inting eastwards, It is about 10 miles long b
. and §., and 6 broad along its northern end. Its much indented coastline is 37 miles round ; according to Pliny, 30 Roman miles. It consists of three main masses of volcanic hills which, at their highest point, Hagios Elias, rise toover 800 ft. In the Middle Ages its palms won it the name of Palmosa, but under Turkish rule its vegetation, trade, and inhabitants have mg es disappeared. The ancient capital occupied an isthmus connect- ing what are now called the inlets of La Scala and Merika. Its ruins are still visible, and the Cyclo- ean work of the citadel denotes great mp ie
he chief feature of the modern island is the monastery of St. John, dominating with its battle- ments the modern town, which lies a mile and a half south of La Scala, the landing-place. This monastery was founded in 1088 under Alexius Comnenus by St. Christodulos. Whether the
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‘cave of the apocalypse’ halfway up the hillside now shown as the spot at which St. John receive his revelation, was already famous before that date, is not known. The monastery contains a poor remnant of the valuable library which was once there. Mai, in his Nova Bibliotheca, νι. ii. p. 537, has published from a Vatican MS a list of the books preserved there in the 13th cent. It was here that the English traveller E. Ὁ, Clark pur- chased of the monks, in Oct. 1814, the great 9th cent. codex of Plato now in the Bodleian. It remains to add that, according to an uncertain tradition reserved in Irensus, v. 30; Eusebius, ΠΕ iii. 18; lieronymus, de Ser. il. ο. 9, and others, St. John was exiled to Patmos in the 14th year of the emperor Domitian, and returned thence to Ephesus A.D. 96 under Nerva. A modern traveller, Mr. Theodore Bent, has suggested that the natural scenery of the island determined some features of the imagery of the Apocalypse: a suggestion which Dean Stanley in his Sermons in the East had already made.
Lireraturs.—H., F. Tozer, The Islands of the <2gean, 1890, PP. 178-195 ; Tournefort, Relation d'un Voyage, Lyon, 1717; Valpole, Turkey, London, 1820, vol. ii. 43; E. Ὁ. Olark, Travels, London, 1818, vol. vi. ch. 2; Ross, Reisen, Stuttgart, 1840, vol. ii.; Guérin, Description de PIle de Patmos, Paris, 1856. Among ancient authorities Patmos is mentioned by Thuoyd. iii. 833; Pliny, Nat. Hist. iv. 23; Strabo, bk. x. ch. δ.
F. C. CONYBEARE.
PATRIARCHS.—The discussion of this subject falls naturally into two parts, viz., a few general remarks, and a more detailed examination of the immense age ascribed to the individual members of this class,
i. General Remarks.—When the title ‘ patriarch’ is applied to a biblical character, it is usually understood to mean one of the earliest fathers of the human race, or one of the three great progeni- tors of Israel, namely, Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob. In the NT it is extended so as to embrace the sons of Jacob (Ac 78:9) and David (Ac 2%), The LXX, from which the title comes, favours the less restricted use. At 1 Ch 24°! πατριάρχαι (Heb. x niaym) are heads of the Levites; at 1 Ch 27” π. τῶν φυλῶν "Ic. (‘: 028 IY) are the chief officials of the kingdom ; at 2 Ch 198 τῶν π. "Ic. (Ὁ niayq Wx) are leading men, fit to serve as judges ; at 2Ch 23” τοὺς a. (nixog Wy) are the captains of hundreds; at 2 Ch 2613 x, τῶν δυνατῶν (19 ‘11525 nizyq We) are officers in Uzziah’s army; 4 Mac 7 speaks of ol π. ἡμῶν "AS. "Ic. Ἰακώβ, and 4 Mac 16” of ᾽Αβ. καὶ Ἶσ. καὶ "Iax., καὶ πάντες ol x. In this article we shall not need to say anything about the later patriarchs: for them the articles ABRAHAM, etc., should be consulted. We have to deal only with two classes —the antediluvian patriarchs, and those who are
laced between the Flood and the birth of Abra- ham.
Of the former we possess two lists: a Cainite, in Gn 47-18, ascribed to J ; and a Sethite, Gn 5°-*!, the work of P. They cover the same ground, Lamech being the terminus ad quem in both cases ; but the former begins with Cain, the latter with Seth. They run as follows :—
Gn 417.18 Gn 63-31 Oain Seth Enoch Enosh Irad Kenan Mehujael Mahalalel Methushael Jared Lamech Enoch Methuselah Lamech
The editors to whom we owe the Book of Genesis in its present form evidently understood the Lamech of ch. 4 to be the same person as the Lamech of ch. 5. Yet one and the same man cannot have been the descendant in the direct line of two individuals so sharply distinguished from
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each other as Cain and Seth. And there is a striking Sorel | between some of the names on the one side and on the other, com mr us to conclude that P altered Irad into Jared, Mehujael into Mahalalel, Methushael into Methuselah. Baa; further, the separate articles on these names.
The 11th chapter of Genesis carries us from the Flood to the birth of Abraham. MT and Sam. have here alist of nine names: LXX (followed by Lk 3"), obviously for the sake of reaching the number ten, as in Gn 5, inserts Cainan between hshad and Shelah, and attributes to him precisely the same age at the birth of his firstborn and at death as toShelah. Many of the names in this genealogy have been identified (but see Dillm. ad doc.) as those of localities in Mesopotamia.