The district of Acrabattine mentioned in 1 Mace, v, 3, and Josephus, Ant. xii, 8, 1, as lying on the frontier of Idumtea, toward the southern extremity of the Dead Sea, may have derived its name from this ridge. But Dr. Eobinson thinks that the toparchy referred to took its name from Akrabeh, now a large and flourishing village a little east of Nablous, the ancient Shechem (Bibliotheca Sacra, 1853, p. 132; and see the authori- ties in his Researches, iii, 103). This "Acrabattine" of the Apocrypha, however, was probably a different place. See Acrabattine.
Akrothinion (AicpoGivwv, from the top of the heap). This Greek word (usually in the plur. aspo- Sivia), which occurs in Heb. vii, 4, means the best of the (fruits of the earth, hence) spoils (Smith's Diet. <f Class. Ant. s. v. Acrothinion). The Greeks, after a battle, were accustomed to collect the spoils into a heap, from which an offering was first made to the gods ; this was the ciKpoOiviov (Xenoph. Cyrop. vii, 5, 35 ; Herodot. viii, 121, 122 ; Pind. Kem. 7, 58). In the first cited case, Cyrus, after the taking of Babylon, calls the magi, and commands them to choose the «/<•- poBhna of certain portions of the ground for sacred pur- poses (see Stephens, Thes. Graze, p. 15C0). See Spoil.
Akshub. See Adder.
Alabama, a diocese of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States coextensive with the state of the same name. In 1859 the diocese counted 32 clergymen and 38 parishes, and the following dioce- san institutions: missionary committee, ecclesiastical court, trustees of the bishops' fund, society for the relief of disabled clergymen and of the widows and orphans of the clergy. The first bishop of the diocese was Nicholas Hamner Cobbs (q. v.), consecrated in 1844, and the second, Eichard H. Wilmer, consecrated March 6, 1862. Alabama was one of the dioceses which, in 1862, organized "the General Council of the Confederate States of America."
Alabarch (A\ajian\ijc, a term compounded ap- parently of some unknown foreign word, and dn\w, to ride : also fl\«/3«0Yor), a term not found in Scripture, but which Josephus uses repeatedly, to signify the chief of the Jews in Alexandria (Ant. xviii, 6, 3; 8, 1 ; xix, 5, 1 ; xx, 5, 2; 7, 3). Philo calls this magis- trate TevapxHCi fffnarch (q. v.), and Josephus, in some places, ethnarch (q. v.), which terms signify the prince or chief of a nation. Some believe that the term alabarch was given, in raillery, to the principal magistrate or head of the Jews at Alexandria, by the Centiles, who despised the Jews. See Alexandria. The Jews who were scattered abroad after the cap- tivity, and had taken up their residence in countries at a distance from Palestine, had rulers of their own. See Dispersion. The person who sustained the high- est office among those who dwelt in Egypt was de- nominated alabarch ; the magistrate at the head of the Syrian Jews was denominated archon (q. v.). (See Jahn, Bibl. Archdol. § 239.) The dignity of alabarch was common in Egypt, as may be observed in Juvenal, Sat. i, 130. It was perhsps synonymous with chief tax-gatherer (comp. Sturz, Be Dial. Maced. p. 65 sq.). Thus Cicero (Kp. ad Attic. 17) calls Pompey an ula-
ALABASTER
129
ALABASTER
barch, from bis raising taxes ; but others here read arabrirrh (see Facciolati, Lat. Lex. s. v. Arabarehes). See Jews.
Alabaster (AXo/Sao-rpov) occurs in the N. T. only in the notice of the "alabaster lax," or rather vessel, of "ointment of spikenard, very precious," ■which a woman broke, and with its valuablo con- tents anointed the head of Jesus as he sat at supper, once at Bethany and once in Galilee (Matt, xxvi, 7; Mark xiv, 3 ; Luke vii, 37). At Alabastron, in Egypt, there was a manufactory of small pots and vessels for holding perfumes (Ptolem. iv, 5), which were made from a stone found in the neighboring mountains (Irwin's Travels, p. 382). The Greeks gave to these ves- sels the name of the city from which they came, calling them alabastra. This name was eventually extended
Alabaster Vessels. From the British Museum. The Inscrip- tion on the middle Vessel denotes the Quantity it holds.
to the stone of which they were formed ; and at length the term alabastron was applied without distinction to all perfume vessels of whatever materials they con- sisted. (Herod, iii, 20; iElian, Yar. Hist, xii, 18; Theocr. xv, 114; Lucian, Asin. 51; Petron. Sat. 60; Pliny, ix, 56; comp. Wetstein, i, 515; Kype, Obs. i, 188.) The material, although sometimes colored, was usually white, which was the most esteemed (Athen. xv, 686). Theocritus speaks of golden alabastra {Idyl. xv, 114); and perfume vessels of different kinds of stone, of glass, ivory, bone, and shells, have been found in the Egyptian tombs (Wilkinson, iii, 379). It does not, therefore, by any means follow that the alabastron which the woman used at Bethany was really of alabaster, but a probability that it was such arises from the fact that vessels made of this stone were deemed peculiarly suitable for the most costly and powerful perfumes (Plin. Hist. Ar«/. xiii, 2; xxxvi, 8, 24). The woman is said to have " broken" the ves- sel, which is explained by supposing that it was one of those shaped somewhat like a Florence oil-flask, with a long and narrow neck ; and the mouth being curiously and firmly sealed up, the usual and easiest way of getting at the contents was to break off the up- per part of the neck. The alabastrum mentioned in the Gospels was, according to Epiphanius, a measure containing one cotyla, or about half a pint (Smith's Diet, of Class. Antiq. s. v.). The word itself is, how- ever, properly the name of the substance of which the box was formed, and hence in 2 Kings xxi, 13, the Sept. use 6 akajiaarpoq for the Heb. Ftl^ {tsallach'- ath, a dish, patina, \>']Kv3roe,, ampulla). Horace {Od. iv, 12) uses onyx in the same way. Alabaster is a calca- reous spar, resembling marble, but softer and more easily worked, and therefore very suitable for being wrought into boxes (Pliny, iii, 20). The alabastra were not usually made of that white and soft gypsum to which the name of alabaster is now for the most part confined. Dr. John Hill, in his notes on Theo- T