Tlie serpent referred to is without doubt the Naja haje, or small hooded Egyptian cobra, which, though not found in the cultivated parts of Palestine, is well known in the downs and plains S. of Beersheba (cf. Tristram, Natural History of the Bible, p. 270), and frequents old walls and holes in the rocks (cf. Is IP : 'And the sucking-child shall play on the hole of the asp'). It does not belong to the viper tribe ( Viperidce) but to the Colubridce, which includes the ordinary • But see Lightfoot, Apostolic Fathers, pt. ii. vol. iii. p. 412 £E.
British grass-snake. The chief peculiarities of cobras are : (a) a clearly defined neck, which they can dilate at ■noil, and (b) the equality in size of the scales on the back with those on the other parts of the body. There are about ten diflerent species, of which the Naja haje, or Egyptian asp, and the ±iaja tripudians, or Indian cobra, are the best known. The latter is the species upon which Indian snake-charmers usually practise their skiU, while the Naja haje is used for this purpose in Egypt. See also Serpent, Viper.
LrrERATtiRE. — H. B. Tristram, Natural History of the Bibleio, London, 1911, p. 270 f. ; SWP vii. 146: R. Lydekker in The Concise Knowledge Natural History, 1S97, p. 424 ; Bae- deker's Palestine and Syria^, 1912, p. Ivi ; W. Aldis Wright, The Bible Word-Book^, 1S84, p. .oO, for the use of the word ; cf. also Sanday-Headlam, Romans^, 1902, p. 79 ; Driver, Deuteronomy'^, 189(3, p. 372 ; HDB, vol. iv. p. 459 ; EBi, voL iv. col. 4394 ; Murray's £>B, p. 67; SUB, p. 837.
P. S. P. Handcock.
ASSASSINS (or, more properly, Sicarii [cf. Ac 21^], 'dagger-men'). — The name given, according to Josephus, to a body of radicals in the Jewish Messianic agitation which culminated in the out- break of A.D. 66. The name was derived from the short daggers worn by the members of the body {sica, a short, curved, possibly Persian sword), which they kept concealed in their clothing and used to stab people among the crowds. The Sicarii seem to have appeared first during the procurator- ship of Felix, although Josephus in BJ VII. viii. 1 might be interpreted as ascribing their origin to a somewhat earlier period. He has a number of references to these men, whom he describes as follows {BJ n. xiii. 3) :
' There sprang up another sort of robbers in Jerusalem who were called Sicarii, who slew men in the daytime in the midst of the city, especially at the festivals, when they mixed with the multitude, and concealed little daggers under their gar- ments, with which they stabbed those that were their enemies ; and when any fell down dead, the murderers joined the by- standers in expressing their indignation, so that from their plausibility they could by no means be discovered. The first man who was slain by them was Jonathan the high priest, after whom many were slain every day, and the fear men were in ot being so treated was more harassing than the calamity itself, everybody expecting death every hour, as men do in war. So men kept a look-out for their enemies at a great distance, and even if their friends were commg, they durst not trust them any longer, but were slain in the midst of their suspicions and precautions. Such was the celerity of the plotters, and so cunning was their contrivance against detection.' See also BJ vn. X. 1.
It is difficult to say whether these Sicarii at first constituted an organized body, although such a view would seem to be implied by Josephus {BJ VII. viii. 1). They joined the Zealots {ib. II. xvii. 7), and inaugurated the reign of terror which filled Jerusalem after the outbreak of the Revolution. Subsequently they seized the great fortress of Masada {ib. rv. vii. 2), and there maintained them- selves by plundering the neighbouring country, until they were besieged by the Romans under Flavins Silca. Their commander was one Eleazar {ib. VII. viii. 1), whom Josephus describes as an able man and a descendant of that Judas who had led the revolt against the census under Quirinius. After a considerable siege the Romans were on the point of taking the fortress when the Sicarii massacred themselves, one old woman alone escaping.
In Ac 21=^ they have 'the Eg3rptian' as a leader. Josephus mentions this Egyptian as having ap- peared during the procuratorship of Felix, but does not connect the Sicarii with him {Ant. XX. viii. 6 ; BJ II. xiii. 5). The Sicarii seem to have dispersed after the Roman war and to have dis- appeared from history, the references to Sicarii in the IMishna {Bikkur. i. 2, ii. 3 ; Gittin v. 6 ; Machsh. i. 6) probably being to robbers ii: treneral.
104
ASSEMBLY
ASSOS
LiTERATURB. — See E. Schiirer, GJV^i. [Leipzig, 1901] p. 674, n. 31 (UJP I. ii. 178), where further references will be found.
Shailer Mathews.
ASSEMBLY.— In the Acts and EpLstles (AV and liV) the English word 'assembly' occurs as follow.s, but in each instance a different Greek noun is translated by it.
1. In Ac 1932.39.41 'assembly' {^KKXrjaia) stands for the tumultuary mob gathered by Demetrius and his fellow-gildsmen in Ephesus to protest against the teaching of St. Paul, which was destroying the business of the shrine-makers. Though eKK\r]<Tla strictly denotes an assembly of the citizens summoned by the crier (KTjpv^), this was a mere mob, with all a mob's unreasonable- ness : ' Some cried one thing, and some another, for the assembly was confused, and the more part knew not wherefore they were come together.' So runs St. Luke's ' logical, complete, and photo- graphic' narrative. (For a similar description of a Roman gathering, cf. Virgil, yE7i. i. 149 : ' Saevit- que animis ignobile vulgus.') In Ephesus the man revered for his piety and worth was the Secretary of the City (ypajifiorevs [see ToWN Clerk]), who calls the gathering a riot (o-rdcrts), and a concourse {ffv(rTpo<p7]). If Demetrius and his gildsmen had just ground of complaint, they should have carried their case before the proper court, over wliich the proconsul presided, for the present gathering was outside the law, and had ' no power to transact business.' He, therefore, referred them to the lawful (AV) or regular (RV) assembly (^ ^wo/xos ^KK\ri<Tia), which is ' the people duly assembled in the exercise of its powers ' (Ramsay). The Re- visers' change of ' lawful ' into ' regular ' is perhaps hypercritical ; for in practice, under the Roman rule, the distinction is not appreciable.