The terms in which other references to sickness appear are extreraels' indefinite : do-ffec^? (cf. Ac 4"), addivcia (Ac 28"), aadevioi (Ja 5"), dSwaros (Ac 14»), Kd/ii'w (Ja 5'^), cLppwuTo! (1 Co IF"). The meaning here may be only lack of strength, or it may be an infirmity caused by sickness. In all these cases of specific diseases the trouble is described popularly by its leading symptoms, with the exception possibly of the ailment of Publius' father.
The only attempt to account for the cause of any sickness alluded to is by St. Paul in his advice to the Corintbi.ans concerning tlie Lord's Supper. He there intimates that sickness and even death are a Divine judgment on their flagrant abuse of the Eucharist. One may compare this Avith the theory of the supernatural cause of disease in Hebrew and Greek circles. A connexion between sickness and disease is suggested by Jesus in Jn 5". Two other implications as to the cause of abnormal conditions are contained in the Acts, both associ- ated with nervous derangement, yet without any con.scious diagnosis or ettbrt to account for tlic fact. In accord with the notions of the time, evil spirits are reported as going out from tliose whom they had possessed (Ac 19'-), a particular instance of which is in IB"'''^ Because the spirit Python possessed the damsel she became a ventriloquist- sooths.ayer. The demon was cast out by a word from St. Paul and the maid restored to mental equilibrium.
Tlie treatment of sickness in the Apostolic Cluirch, so far as suggested by the NT, is medicinal, therapeutic, psychotherapeutic, and miracuUms. The practice of anointing with oil (Ja 5'^ ; cf Mk 6'*) is not indeed without a magical association — ' in the name of the Lord ' — but its long history connects it with .a healing virtue ; wine also pos- sesses medicinal properties (1 Ti 5'^). The medicines used on the island of Malta are not specified, nor are the results of their use stated. The thera- peutic treatment of disease certainly underlies St. Paul's advice to the Corinthians. Psychotherapy is to be apjiealed to with reference to the healing of nervous disorders (cf. 1 Co 12^' **, ' gifts of heal- ing'). The cases of cure which are not otherwise
accounted for are regarded by the apostles a-s miraculous (cf. Ac 4'" 9'").
LiTKRATi'iiK.— J. R. Bennett, The DUeatet of the DMe^, 1890 ; T. H. Wright, art. ' UiB.iisc,' in DCG ; A. M.-icalister, an. 'Medicine,* in llDti; see also Literature untler I'nVf-H-iAN.
' G. A. liECKWITII.
SIDON (iltSiii-, ethnic SiSiivioi). — Sidon, called 'Great Zidon ' (Jos 11"), wa.s one of the maritime cities of PlRcnicia, about 25 miles N. of Tyre, its ' rival in magnitude, fame, and antiquity ' (Strabo, XVI. ii. 22). After the coming of Alexander the Great, wIkmu Sidon rapturously welcomed and Tyre frantically opposed, the two cities shared the same political fortunes, being for two centuries bones of contention between the Greek kings of Syria in the north and Kgypt in the south. So long, however, as their civic autonomy was secure, their factories busy, their overseas tratlic |)rosper- ous, the quarrels of tlicir alternate overlords did not gi-eatly trouble them. And, while their wealth was apparently almost as great as ever, they adileil a new interest to life by learning the language an<l assimilating the culture of Greece. They were not now a moreraceof merchant princes or pi^llars, wholly absorbed in getting and spending. Str.abo saj's that in his time — the beginning of our era — the Sidonians not only ' cultivate science .and study astronomy and arithmetic, to which they are led by the application of numbers and night sailing, each of which concerns the merchant and seaman,' but there are 'distinguished philosophers, natives of Sidon, as lioethus, with whom I studied the philosophy of Aristotle, and Diodotus liis brother' (XVI. ii. 24).
The two sister cities now consistently advocated a policy of peace with all their neighbours. Not possessing a fraction of the army and navy with wliich they once defied empires, they coiild no longer assert thcmsfdves e\"cn "when they were in the right. When Herod .■\gri]ipa was ' highly dis- pleased with the Tyrians and .Sidonians' (.\c 12-"), they indulged in no useless heroics. Kaising no question as to whether the king's displeasure was just or not, and facing the phiin f,act that ' their country was fed from the king's country,' they looked about for a friend at Court and humbly asked for peace. If there was any thought of peace with honour, it was suppressed. Dejicnd- ents could not aflbrd to be angry, and the king could do no wrong. To this bad great Sidon and proud Tyre now come.
No details are given of our Lord's visit to Sidon, though it is definitely stated that He came through it, or at least its surrounding territory (reailing oid not Kai in Mk 7^', with the best MSS), on His w,ay to Decapolis, which He jirobably reached by the higliw.ay over the Lebanon to Damascus (see H. J. Holtzmann, Die Synoptiko^, 1901 [Hand- konimentar ziim NT], and A. IJ. Hruce, EGT, 'Mark,' 1897, in loc). Nothing is known of tlie actual introduction of Christianity into .Sidon. One of its bishops attended the Council of Nica-a in A.D. 325.
'Sidoni.an' was originally an ethnic name like ' Hittite,' Sidon and Heth being n.amed together as .sons of Canaan in Cn 10'°. In Homer ' Sidoniji' is equivalent toP/to'H/rifiand'Sidonian'to I'/uenicinn. In the Latin poets, too, when the adject ivequ.alilies such words as ' Dido' (Virg. ^A'h. xi. 74), ' nauta',' 'rates,' 'raurex,' ' vestis,' 'chlamys,' it means Phcenidan. The modern town, called by the Arabs Saida, has about 15,000 inliabit.mts. Some very remarkable sarcoph.agi have been found in the necropolis to the S.E. of the town.