A'kan (Heb. Akan , '^'J, twisted; Sept. 'lovKafi), the last named of the three sons of Ezer, son of the Horite Seir of Idumaea (Gen. xxxvi, 27) ; elsewhere called Jakan (1 Chron. i, 41). See Jaakan.
Akbar. See Mouse.
Akbara. See Achabara.
Akiba, a learned Jewish rabbi of the second centu- ry. He was president of the seminary at Bene Berak (Josh, xix, 45), near Jamnia. As a teacher he wield- ed great influence, especially in developing and dif- fusing the Talmudic learning and the Cabbala. Among his scholars were Rabbi Meir, one of the originators of the Mishna, and Rabbi S. ben-Joehai, author of the Cabbalistic work Zohar. He is said to have joined the rebel Barchochebas, and to have been taken and Hay- ed by the Romans in his 120th year. See Jost, Ge- schichte d. Israeliten, p. 252 ; Fiirst, Bib. Jud. i.
Akins, James, one of the early Methodist minis- ters, was born in Ireland 1778, removed to America
AKKAB1SH
128
ALABARCH
in 1792, and entered the itinerant ministry in 1801. He labored for over twenty years with success, chiefly In Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, and died at Haverstraw, Aug. 9, 1823. — Minutes of Conferences, lt24, p. 439.
Akkabish. See SriDER.
Akko. See Goat.
Ak'kub (Heb. Akkub' , Wp?, a contracted form of Jacob ; Sept. 'Aicovji, sometimes 'Ak-koiI/3 v. r. usu- ally 'Aicovft), the name of at least three men.
1. The head of one of the families of Nethinim that returned from Babylon (Ezra ii, 45), B.C. 536 or ante.
2. One of the Levitical gatewardens of the Temple on the return with many of his family from the cap- tivity (1 Chron. ix, 17; Ezra ii, 42; Neh. vii, 45; ix, 19 ; xii, 25) ; and probably one of those who expound- ed the law to the people (Neh. viii, 7), B.C. 53G-440.
3. The fourth named of the seven sons of Elioenai or Esli, a descendant of David (1 Chron. iii, 24), B.C. cir. 410. •
Akrab. See Scorpion.
Akrab'bim (Heb. Akrabbim', C2^pi', scor- pions, as in Ezek. ii, G; Sept. 'Aicpafiiv, ' kKoafttiv), only in the connection Maaleh-acrabbim (q. v.), i. e. Scorpion-Height (Josh, xv, 3; "ascent of Akrab- bim" Num. xxxiv, 4; "going up to Akrabbim," Judg. i, 36), an ascent, hill, or chain of hills, which, from the name, would appear to have been much in- fested by scorpions and serpents, as some districts in that quarter certainly were (Dent, viii, 15; comp. Volney, ii, 256). It is only mentioned in describing the frontier-line of the promised land southward in the region of the Amorites (Num. xxxiv, 4; Josh, xv, 3; Judg. i, 36). Shaw conjectures that Akrabbim may be the same with the mountains of A kabah, by which he understands the easternmost range of the " black mountains" of Ptolemy, extending from Paran to Ju- daea. This range has lately become well known as the mountains of Edom, being those which bound the great valley of Arabah on the east (Travels, ii, 120). More specifically, he seems to refer Akrabbim to the southernmost portion of this range, near the fortress of Akabah, and the extremity of the eastern gulf of the lied Sea; where, as he observes, "from the bad- ness of the roads, and many rocky passes that are to be surmounted, the Mohammedan pilgrims lose a num- ber of camels, and are no less fatigued than the Israel- ites were formerly in getting over them." Burck- hardt (Syria, p. 509) reaches nearly the same conclu- sion, except that he rather refers "the ascent of Akrabbim" to the acclivity of the western mountains from the plain of Akabah. This ascent is very steep, '• and lias probably given to the place its name of Akabah, which means a cliff or steep declivity." But the south-eastern frontier of Judah could not have been laid down so far to the south in the time of Moses and Joshua. The signification of the names in the two languages is altogether different. M. Do Saulcy finds this " Scorpion-steep" in the Wad;/ es-Zuu-eirah, running into the S.W. end of the Dead Sea; a pre- cipitous, zigzag ascent, up which a path marked with ancient ruins is cut in the flanks of the hard rock, and which is peculiarly infested with scorpions (Narrative, i, 361, 41*. 121 I. Schwarz, on the other hand, locates it at the Wady eLKurahy, running into the south-east- ern extremity of the Dead Sea (Palest, p. 22). Both these litter positions, however, seem as much too far north as the preceding are too far south, since the place in question appears to have been situated just beyond the point where the southern boundary of Palestine turned northward; and we know from the localities of several towns in Judah and Simeon (e. g. Kadesli, Beersheba, etc.) that the territory of the promised land extended as far southward as the ridfie bounding the depressed level of the desert et-Tih.
The conclusion of Dr. Eobinson is, that in the absence of more positive evidence the line of cliffs separating the Ghor from the valley of the Akabah may be re- garded as the Maaleh-Akrabbim of Scripture (Re- searches, ii, 501). This, however, would be a descent and not an ascent to those who were entering the Holy Land from the south. Perhaps the most feasible sup- position is that Akrabbim is the general name of the ridge containing the steep pass cs-Snfih, by which the final step is made from the desert to the level of the actual land of Palestine. As to the name, scor- pions abound in the whole of this district. The same spot may be that alluded to in the Mishna (Maaser Sheni, v. 2), as "Akrabah (iTZ^V) on the south."