Aphe'kah (Ileb. Ap>hekah', i"!£EX, fern, of Aphek; Sept. 'Abated v. r. <£>aKovK~), a city in the mountain tract of Judah, mentioned between Beth- tappuah and Humtah (Josh, xv, 53). Raumer (Pa- last, p. 170) and others confound this with the Aphek of Josh, xii, 18; but the Heb. accentuation of the names is different. Schwarz (Palest, p. 106) finds it in the village Abik, 4 miles east of Jannuth ; but this position is entirely out of region of the associated names, which require a locality near Hebron, perhaps between that place and Tappuah ( Keil, Comment, in loc), possibly at the ruined site Slbta (Van de Velde, Map i.
Apher'ema, Apherima. See Apii.erema.
Apher'ra ('A^tppa), one of "the servants of Sol- omon" whose sons are said to have returned from Babylon (1 Esdr. v, 34); but the genuine text (Ezra ii, 51) has no such name.
Aphi'ah (Heb. Aphi'ach, ffSX, blown upon; Sept. '\oi\ v. r. \-,\), the father of Bechorath, a Benjamite, ancestor of King Saul (1 Sam. ix, 1). B.C. considerably ante 1093.
A'phik (Heb. Aphik', pEX, strong; Sept. 'A0£Kd), one of the cities from which the Asherites were unable to expel the Canaanites (Judg. i, 31); doubtless the same as the Aphek (q. v.) of Josh, xiii, 4 ; xix. 30.
Aph'rah (Heb. Aphrah', ir^SS), another form of the name Ophrah (Mic. i, 10). See Beth-le- Aphrah.
Aph'ses, or, rather, PIZ'ZEZ (Heb. Pitstsets' ', j'SQ, dispersion, with the art., VXEri, hap-Pitsets ; Sept. 'A<ptooi) v. r. 'Atyivi) ; Vulg. Aphses), the head of the eighteenth sacerdotal family of the twenty-four into which the priests were divided by David for the service of the Temple (1 Chron. xxiv, 15). B.C. 1014.
Aphthartodoceta3 (from ufQaproq, incorrupti- ble, and CoKtw, to think'), a sect of Monophysites, who affirmed that the body of our Lord was rendered in- corruptible in consequence of the divine nature being united with it. These were again divided into par- ties, who debated whether the body of Christ was created or not. Others of them asserted that our Lord's body was indeed corruptible, but that the di- vine nature prevented its actual corruption. The heresy spread widely in the Cth century, and, in 563, Emperor Justinian issued a decree, which, by favor- ing this doctrine, sought to reconcile the Monophysites with the orthodox Church. — Hase, Ch. Hist. § 115; Farrar, Eccl. Diet. s. v. See Monophysites.
Apion('A7n'wi',/enre), a Greek grammarian, against whose attacks upon Jewish history Josephus wrote the treatise Contra Apionem. Some writers call him a son of Pleistonices, while others more correctly state that this was only his surname, and that he Avas the son of Poseidonius (Gell. vi, 8 ; Seneca, Epist. 88 ; Euseb. Prap. Evanr/. x, 10). He was a native of Oasis, but used to say that he was born at Alexandria, where he studied under Apollonius and Didymus (Suidas, s. v. ; Josephus, Apion, ii, 3, etc.). He afterward settled at Rome, where he taught rhetoric during the reigns of Tiberius and Claudius. In the reign of Caligula he travelled in Greece. About A.D. 38, the inhabitants of Alexandria having sent complaints to the emperor against the Jews residing there, Apion headed the embassy that made the prosecution, the defence by the Jews being made by Philo. According to his enemy Josephus (Ap. ii, 13), he died of the effects of his dissolute mode of life. He appears to have en- joyed an extraordinary reputation for his extensive knowledge and versatility as an orator, but the an- cients are unanimous in censuring his ostentatious vanity (Gell. v, 14 ; Pliny, Hist. Nat. pra-f. and xxx, G ; Josephus, Ap. ii, 12). Besides the treatise named above, of which we only know what Josephus relates, he wrote commentaries upon Homer, a history of Egypt, a eulogy of Alexander the Great, and several historical sketches, of all of which there remain only the fragmental stories about Androclus and the lion, and about the dolphin near Dicffiarchia, preserved by Gellius. — Smith's Diet, of Class. Biog. s. v.
Apis ('Attic), the sacred bull of Memphis, worship- ped by the ancient Egyptians, who regarded it as a symbol of Osiris, the god of the Nile, the husband of Isis, and the great divinity of Egypt (Pomp. Mela, i, 9; /Elian, Hist. An. xi, 10; Lucian, De Sacrif. 15).
nui the Egyptian ilmunients.
APOCALYPSE
289
APOCRYPHA
A sacred court or yard was set apart for the residence of Apis in the temple of Ptah at Memphis, where a numerous retinue of priests waited upon him, and sac- rifices of red oxen were offered to him. His move- ments, choice of places, and changes of appetite, were religiously regarded as oracles. It was an understood law that Apis must not live longer than twenty-five years. When he attained this age he was secretly put to death, and buried by the priests in a sacred well, the popular belief being that he cast himself into the water If, however, he died a natural death, his body was embalmed, and then solemnly interred in the temple of Serapis at Memphis. The burial-place of the Apis bulls has lately been discovered near Mem- phis (Wilkinson, Ancient Egyptians, abridgm. i, 292). As soon as a suitable animal was found for a new Apis, having the required marks — black color with a white square on the brow, the figure of an eagle on the back, and a knot in the shape of a cantharus under the tongue. — he was led in triumphal procession to Nilopolis at the time of the new moon, where he re- mained forty days, waited upon by nude women, and was afterward conveyed in a splendid vessel to Mem- phis. His Theophany, or da)r of discovery, and his birth-day were celebrated as high festivals of seven days' duration during the rise of the Nile (Herod, iii, 28). The worship of the golden calf by the Israel- ites in the wilderness, and also the employment of golden calves as symbols of the Deity by Jeroboam, have been very generally referred to the Egyptian worship of Apis. — Smith's Diet, of Class. Mythol. s. v. See Calf (goldex).