Literature. — A. Harnack, Bible Reading in the Early Church, 1912; A. H. Charteris, The Church of Christ, 1905, under 'Education' and 'Teaciiers'; P. Monroe, Text-Book in the History of Education, 1905 ; art. ' Bible in the Church ' by E. von Dobschiitz in ERE ii. 579. THOMAS NiCOL.
EGYPT [MyvwTo^]. — NT references to Egypt occur mostly in historical retrospects. As the land which was friendly and hospitable to tlie Hebrews in the time of Joseph, but cruel and oppressive in that of Moses, it is mentioned twelve times in Stephen's address before the Sanhedrin (Ac 7), once in St. Paul's speech at Lystra (13'''), and four times in Hebrews (3'^ 8^ ll-^'--'^). _ There is a single allusion to contemporary Egypt in the account of the first Christian Pentecost : among the Jews and prose- lytes who were ' sojourning in Jerusalem,' and who formed St. Peter's audience, were ' the dwellers (oi KaroiKovvres) . . . in Egypt ' (Ac 2^* '**).
Philo estimated that there were not fewer than a million Jews in Egvpt in his time {in Flaccum, 6; see Schurer, HJF il. ii, [1885] 229). The movement from Palestine into Egypt, partly by voluntary emigration and partly by forcible deportation, had been going on for six centuries. Aristeas (Epist. 13) states that Psammeticus (pro- bably the Second, 594-586 B.C.) had Jewish mer- cenaries in his army. A company of Jews fled to Egypt after the Fall of Jerusalem in 586 B.C. ( Jer 42-43). Some Aramaic papyri found at Assuan and ElephantinS show that a colony of Jews Avas settled at this garrison and trading post (590 miles S. of Cairo) in the 6th and 5th centuries B.C., and that they had built a temple to Jahweh. Many Jews were attracted to Alexandria at the time of its foundation by the ofler of citizenship (Jos. c. Ap. ii. 4, Ant. xix. v. 2). Ptolemy Lagi carried a vast
number of Jews captive to Egypt (Aristeas, Epist. 12-14). Philo mentions that two of the five quarters into which Alexandria was divided were called ' the Jewish' (in Flaccum, 8). In no country were the Jews so prosperous, so influential, so cultured as they were in Egypt, where some of them held im- portant offices of State under the Ptolemys (Jos. c. Ap. ii. 5, Ant. XIII. x. 4, xiii. 1, 2), and where an attempt was made to fuse Hellenic with Hebrew ideals.
History gives no trustworthy account of the evangelization of Egypt. The statement found in Eusebius [HE ii. 16) that St. Mark was the first missionary who went thither, and that he preached there the Gospel which he had written, is con- fessedly legendary, and the idea that Apollos had some share in the enlightenment of his native city is no more than a natural conjecture. There are few materials to fill the gap between apostolic times and the beginning of the 3rd cent., when Alexandria [q.v.), the home of Clement and Origen, became the intellectual capital of Christendom. Even till the days of Constantine the progress of Christianity in Egypt was almost confined to this one Hellenistic city.
' The great city which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt' (Rev 11*) is probably Jerusalem, regarded as the latter-day enemy of righteousness and of God's people, such as Sodom and Egypt had been in ancient times. The alternative view is that Rome is the great city which is allegorically or mystically named. If the addition ' where also their Lord was crucified ' were original, it would of course decide the point ; but this may be a gloss.
Literature. — A. Harnack, The Mission and Expansion of Christianity in the First Three Centuries^, Eng. tr., 1908; A. H. Sayce and A. E. Cowley, Aramaic Papyri discovered at Assouan, Oxford, 1906 ; artt. in SDB, DCG, EBi, and HDB, with the Literature there cited. J AMES SXRAH AN.
EGYPTIAN, THE.— See Assassins.
ELAMITES.— Elamites are mentioned in Ac 2» among the sojourners in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost. Jews settled in Elam during the post- exilic period, whence they and their descendants came up to the Holy City for the annual religious festivals. Elam lay due east of Babylonia and the lower Tigris, and corresponds to the modern Khuzistan. Its ruling cities were Shushan (or Susa) and Ansan (or Anzan), and the earliest native rulers called themselves^atois, or ' viceroys,' in acknowledgment of dependence upon Babylonia. The native Elamites had been gradually en- croached upon, from the west, by invading Semites, who brought their own system of writing with them. This system was adopted by the Elamite princes for many of their votive tablets and in- scribed monuments. For a brief period after 2300 B.C. Elamite chieftains ruled in Babylonia, but their power was broken by Hammurabi, whose son Samsu-iluna finally restored Babylonian supremacy.
Literature.— L. W. King: and H. R. Hall, Egypt and Western Asia in the Light of Recent Discoveries, 1907, eh. v. ; H. Winckler, History of Babylonia and Assyria, Eng. tr., 1907, ch. ii. ; artt. ' Elam' in PRE'^ and JE, and ' Elam, Elamites ' in
HDB. A. W. Cooke.
ELDER. — ' Elder ' preserves better than ' presby- ter ' the history of the title, which goes back to the fact that tribes were governed by the heads of their component families. ' Elder ' is probably the earliest name, after 'apostle,' for a Christian official (Ac IP"). See Bishop and Church Govern- ment. A. Plummer.