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vocabulary there are few qualifying or restrictive terms. In their view of the universe they refer everything to direct supernatural agency. “Hence they leave little scope to the individual human will, and a circumscribed choice of action to them- selves. They know of but two types of govern- ment, the one a development of the other: the patriarchal and the absolute monarchical. They follow but few occupations, and their work is divided among hereditary guilds. For the like fundamental reason, they are quite limited in their view of human merits and allotments; men are to them either absolutely good or absolutely bad; and their destiny is to be either beatific or hopelessly wretched. ith such mental and moral qualities, they have been, according to the light which they have seen and the course to which they have been driven, the most beneficent or the most noxious of our species. There are two consummate forms and modes of Sem. faith and practice—Judaism and Mohammedanism. The one, with all its inevitable limitations, was incomparably the greatest gift of God to the world in ancient times. The other, in spite of the truth which it has appropriated, is one of the greatest evils of the world’s later days, one of the most perverse and malignant, one of the most perplexing and disheartening.
LitERATURE.—On possible relations between the Semites and other races, see Benfey, Verhdilt. d. dgypt. Sprache z. semit. Sprachstamm (1844) ; Friedr. Delitzsch, Indogerm.-Semit. Wur- zelverwandtschaft (1873) ; McCurdy, Aryo-Semitie Speech (1881) ; Brugsch, Hierogl.-demot. Wérterb. (1867), Introduction. On the question of the original seat of the Semites and their classi- fication, essays have been written by von Kremer, Guidi, and Hommel in favour of the theory of a migration from the N.E. ; by Sprenger, Schrader, and de Goeje approving of the view that Arabia was the starting-place. See the summation in favour of the latter hypothesis in Wright, Compar. Gramm. of Sem. Languages (1890), p. 5ff.; and comp. Néldeke, art. ‘Semitic Languages,’ in Encyc. Brit.2 Hommel’s latest classification, as based on language, may be found in AHT (1897). The genius and character of the Semites are discussed in Hommel, Die semit. Volker und Sprachen (1883), p. ¥1ff., where the views of Renan, Ewald, Chwolson, Grau, and Sprenger are also cited and criticised. On the religion of the Semites, see W. R. Smith, RS; Baudissin, Studien zur sem. Religionsgeschichte; and Baethgen, Beitrdge z. sem. Religionsgeschichte. For the history of the Semites, see Max Duncker, Hist. of Antiquity (tr. from the German [1879], vols. i.-iii.); Meyer, Gesch. des Alterthums (1884), vol. i.; Maspero, Hist. anc. des peuples de lOrient; Lenormant, Hist. anc. de ’Orient; G. Rawlinson, The Five Great Monarchies of the Ancient Hastern World; Sayce, The Ancient Empires of the East; McCurdy, HPM. See also artt. ASSYRIA and BaByLonia in vol. i. andin the Hncyc. Bibi., and the Literature there referred to; and add on the Sumerian question, Weissbach, Die swmer. Frage (1898).
J. F. McCurpy.
DIASPORA.—
Introduction.
i. Extent of the Diaspora: in (1) the Euphrates districts ; (2) Syria; (3) Arabia; (4) Asia Minor; (5) Egypt; (6) Cyrenaica ; (7) North Africa ; (8) Macedonia and Greece ; (9) Rome ; (10) the rest of Italy, and Spain, Gaul, Ger- many.
ii. Greshiestion of the communities: certain features com- mon to them everywhere ; differences as to (1) the name of the community, (2) the officials. Constitution of the Jewish communities akin to that of the Greek communes.
. Toleration and recognition by the State anthorities. Three forms of political existence: (1) as a colony of foreigners (zaro:zi«); (2) as private societies or ‘unions’; (3) as more or less independent corpora- tions alongside the communal bodies. Toleration of the Jewish cultus a main essential. Right of adminis- tering their own funds, and jurisdiction over their own members. The question of military service. The cult of the Emperor; advantage of the Jews in this matter over the Christians. Varying attitude of different Emperors towards the Jews. | 7 au ,
iv, Rights of citizenship, and social standing. Citizenship possessed by the Jews especially in recently founded cities like Alexandria and Antioch, or in those whose constitution had been reorganized like the cities of Western Asia Minor. In such instances the Jews formed a gvaq by themselves. Many Jews enjoyed even Roman citizenship. Social standing of the Jews. The offices of alabarch and ‘head physician,’ ;
vy. Religious and intellectual life. Danger of syncretism and philosophic indifference. The Synagogue a safe-
ii
guard. The Greek language used in the Synagogue
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services. The temple at Leontopolis. Payment of dues to the temple at Jerusalem. Pilgrimages to the festivals. Greek influences. Pedagogic part played by the Diaspora in relation to Christianity.
Literature.
Amongst the causes that contributed to the rapid spread of Christianity during the Apostolic and post-Apostolic periods, one of the most important was the circumstance that Judaism was already dispersed as a powerful force throughout the whole extent of the Roman Empire, nay even beyond it. Everywhere the preachers of the gospel found Jewish communities, which furnished them with the starting-point for their proclamation of the advent of the Messiah. And, even if their success was not very marked within the pale of the com- munities themselves, it must be assumed to have been all the greater in the circles of ‘ God-fearing’ Gentiles, who in many places had attached them- selves as an appendage to the community of Jews. Through these circles being won over by the Jewish propaganda to a worship that was mono- theistic and determined by ethical interests, the soil was loosened for the seed of the gospel to be scattered on it.