Ueneral view ci the Cedars.
CEDRON
172
CEILING
grove \b at the very upper part of the valley, ahoat 15 railes from the sea, 6000 feet above that level, and their poeition is moreover above that of all other arboreous vegetation. Belon, who traveled in Syria about 1560, found the cedars about 28 in number, in a valley on the sides of the mountains. RauwoU^ who visited the ce- dars in 1574, ** could tell no more but 24, that stood round about in a circle ; and two others, the branches whereof are quite decayed from age." De la Roque, in 1688, found but 20. Maundrell, in 1696, found them reduced to 16 ; and Dr. Pococke, who visited Syria in 1744 and 1745, discovered only 15. " The wood," he says, '* does not differ from white deal in appearance, nor does it seem to be harder. It has a fine smell, but is not so fragrant as the juniper of America, which is commonly called cedar, and it also falls short of it in beauty." M. Lamartine, in 1892, says, '* These trees diminish in every succeeding age. There are now but 7. These, however, from their size and general appearance, may fiturly be presumed to have existed in biblical times. Around these ancient witnesses of ages long since past there still remains a little grove of yellow cedars, appearing to me to form a group of from 400 to 500 trees or shrubs. Every year, in the month of June, the inhabitants of Beshierai, of Eden, of Kandbin, and the other neighboring valleys and vil- lages, climb up to these cedars and celebrate mass at their feet." Dr. Graham gives the following meas- urements of the twelve largest cedars : the circumfer- ences of the trunk at the base respectively 40 feet, 38, 47, 18i, 80, 22}, 28, 25^, 88}, 29}, 22, 29f ; the largest having thus a diameter of nearly 16 feet (Jordan and the JRhmA, p. 26). Within a few years past a chapel has been erected there (Robinson, Later Ru. p. 590, 591 ; Stanley, Sinai and Pal. p. 140). See Trew's treatuee, Cedror, Libani Hist, and Apolo^ de cedro TJb. (Norimb. 1757 and 1767) ; P«Miy Cyclop, s. v. Abies; Thomson, Land and Book, i, 292 sq. ; especially Dr. Hooker, in the Nat. History Review, Jan. 1862, p. 11-18 ; and Mr. Jessup, in the Hours at Home, March and April, 1867.
Ce^'dron, the name of a place and of a rivulet
1. (i) KeSputv V. r. Kidpio.) A place fortified by Cendebsus, under the orders of king Antiochus (Side- tes), as a station from which to command the roads of Judiea (1 Mace, xv, 89, 41 ; xvi, 9). It was not fax froip Jamnia (Jabneh), or from Azotus (Ashdod), and had a winter-torrent or wady (x^ifiajipovi) on the east- ward of it, which the army of tiie Maccabees had to cross before Cendebsus could be attacked (xvi, 5). These conditions are well fulfilled in the modem place Katra or KtUrah, which lies on the maritime plain be- low the river Rubin, and three miles south-west of Akir (Ekron). Schwarz (Palest, p. 119) gives the modem name as Kadrun, but this wants confirmation. Ewald (Isr. Gesch. iv, 890, note) suggests Tell-Turmus, five or fix miles farther south. The Syriac has Hebron^ and the Vulg. Gedor, which some compare with the village Gedrus (Kk^ovc), mentioned by Eusebius and Jerome (Onomast. 8. v. ViSovp^ 6a)dur) as lying ten miles from Diopolis, toward Eleutheropolis.
2. In this form is given in the N. T. the name of the brook Kidron CC^^lp bns = " the black torrent") in the ravine below the eastern wall of Jerusalem (John xviii, 1). Lachman, with codices A and D, has xc(/iaA^vc Tov KiSputv ; but the Rec. Text with B has rutv Kk- ^poiv, i. e. "the brook of the cedars" (so, too, the Sept. in 2 Sam. xv, 28). Other MSS. have the name even so fiu* corrupted as rov icidpov (so K), cedri, and ra>v ^kvSpwv. The word, however, has no connection with '^ cedar." In English, the name in this form is often erroneously pronounced (as if written Kedron) with a hard C. — Smith, s. v. See Kidbon.
Cei'^lan (KtXav,Vulg. Ciaso\ a person named (1 Esdr. V, 15) as the family head (in connection with Azetas) of seventy-seven Israelites who returned from
Babylon ; but the Heb. texts (Ezra ii, 16 ; Keh. Tii, 21) do not contain either name.
Ceiling. There are three Heb. words employed in the Old Test, which our translators have rendoed " ceiled" or '* ceiling." 1. Mcn (clug>kak', to cover or overlay^ as it is elsewhere rendered) occurs 2 Chnm. ill, 5, where it is said, " He ceiled the greater house with fir-tree." 2. *{tO (sapkan% to wamseot or plan)L ; elsewhere rendered ** cover," once *' seat," Deut. igcxiii, 21) occurs Jer. xxii, 14 : ** It is cefled with ce- dar, and painted with vermilion." Houses finished in this manner were called ** ceiled houses" (Hag. i, 4). The ^'ceiling" of the walls itself is likewise spoken of CjDp, sipptm', 1 Khigs vi, 15). In Ezek. xli, 16, the word rendered "ceiled" is P]*^ri^ (skach^% from be- ing hewed thin), a board simply, used for that purpose. These ceilings were adorned with ornaments in stucco, with gold, silver, gems, and ivory. Oriental houses appear to have been the reverse of such as we inhabit, the ceiling being of wood richly ornamented and paint- ed, and the fioor plaster or stucco, the walls being gen- erally wainscoted. The Egyptian monuments stQ] exhibit elegant specimens of painted ceilings, no doubt