ian writers (ably edited by Assemani, Bihl. Or. iii, 1, p. 1-3C'2), at the close of which his own writings are also given. — Iloefer, Nouo. Bing. Gen. xv, 594 ; Herzog, iii, G13 ; Assemani, Bibl. Oiient. iii, part i. (J. H. AV.)
Ebed-Je.su, a Chalda^an patriarch and Syrian writer, lived about the middle of the IGth century. He received his education at Gozarta, and was after- wards bisliop of that place. In 1554 he was elected as the successor of Sulaka, first patriarch of the Nes- torians, and confirmed l)y the Pope in 1562. Ebed- Jesu was a man of great erudition ; he was familiar with the writings of all the Greek and Latin fatliers, and was also master of the Arabic, Chaldee, and the Syriac. Manj' of the Nestorians were converted by him, and the numbers of the Chaldees were augment- ed under his administration. He died a few years after his visit to Rome (15G2), in a monastery at the village of Seert in Mesopotamia. We have from him a poem in three parts : Sur le voyage a Rome, le retour et la mort de Sulaka ; Poi'me a la louange de Pie IV; a Confession of Eaith, read at the 22d session of the Council of Trent. — Assemani, Bibl. Onent. i, 538; iii, p. 3, 325 ; Hoefer, Nouv. Biographie Genevale, xv, 595. (J. H. W.)
E'bed-me'lech (Heb. E'bed-Me'lek, "b-c-n;:;,;, sei'vant o/" the king, i. q. Arabic Abd el-Mdlek, Sept. 'A/3c)6/isA£Y5 Vulgate Abdemelech), an Ethiopian at the court of Zedekiah, king of Judah, who was instrumen- tal in saving the prophet Jeremiah from death b}' fam- ine (Jer. xxxviii, 7-13), and -vvho, for his humanity in this circumstance, was promised deliverance when the citv should fall into the enem3-'s hands (Jer. xxxix, 15-18). B.C. 589. See Jerejiiah. He is there styled a eunuch (©"^"lO ^"'N), and he probablj^ had charge of the king's harem (comp. xxxviii, 22, 23), an office which would give him the privilege of free pri- vate access to the king ; but his name seems to be an official title :^ King's slave, i. e. minister. See Euxuch.
Ebeh. See Reed.
Ebel. See Taljiud.
Ebel, Joiiann Wilhelm, a Protestant mystic and theosophist, was born in 1784 at Passenheim, in the province of Eastern Prussia. In 1809, while a preach- er in the Established Church of Prussia, he attracted the attention of his ecclesiastical superiors on account of his connection with the theosophist Schonherr (q. v.). Subsequentlj' he was appointed preacher at Koe- nigsberg, where he gathered around him a circle of enthusiastic followers, among them a few noble men and a larger number of noble women. Foremost among the latter were the countess of Kanitz and the countess von der Grtiben. In 1837, at the request of the Consistory of that city, a suit was instituted against him and his friend Diestel, which belongs among the most remarkable trials of the kind in mod- ern times. He was in 1842 acquitted from the chief charge of the estalilishment of a new sect, but deposed from office for violating his official duties bj' commu- nicating to others theosophic and philosophical views differing from the doctrines of the Church. He died in 1861, at the villa of his friend the countess von der Groben. Ebel wrote a number of works, chiefly of a mystic nature, among which are the following : Z^/e Weisheit von Ohon (1822) -.—Der Tagesaribruch (1824):— I)ie gedeililiche Erziekung (1825) : — Bibelirorte ti. Winke (1827) -.—Die Philnsophie der heil Urhinde (1854-56). A full account of Eliel, his doctrines and followers, is given in Dixon, Spiritual Wives (London and Pliila- deljihia, 1868), where is also printed for the first time a paper by professor Sachs, which was the chief evi- dence used against Ebel. See also Diestel, Das Zeu- genverhor in d. Processe wider d. Prediger Ebd u. Diestel (Leipz. 1838), and Ernst count von Kanitz (follower of Ebel), A vf kid rung nach Actenquellen, etc. (Basel, 1862). (A. J. S.)
EBEN-
20
EBERLIISr
Eben- ("|2S, e'ben, stone), stands as a prefix in several geographical names, which designate monu- ments set up to coniniemorate certain events [see Stone]; e. g. Eben-bohan ; Euen-ezel; Eeen- liZEU ; Eben-zoheleth.
Eben-bohan. See Bohan.
Eben-ezel. See Ezel.
Eb'en-e'zer (Heb. with the art. E'ben ha-E'ezer, "K'n '2N, stone of the kelp; Sept. 'AfitveZip; Jose- phus translates Xi^oi; r'(T\;(j()(J<.), the name given to a place marked by a monumental stone which Samuel set up as a memorial of the divine assistance iu battle obtained against the Philistines (1 Sam. vii, 12). See Pillar. Twenty years before this, the same spot (mentioned in the history under the same name by anticipation of its subsequent designation) witnessed the discomfiture of the Hebrew hosts, the death of the liigh-pi-iest's sons, and the capture of the sacred ark bj' the Philistines (1 Sam. iv, 1; v, 1). Its position is carefully defined (1 Sam. vii, 12) as between Mizpeh — "the watch-tower," one of the conspicuous eminences a few miles N. of Jerusalem — and Shen, "the tooth" or "crag," apparently some isolated landmark. Nei- ther of these points, however, has been identified with certainty — at least not the latter. According to Jose- phus's record of the transaction (^Ant. vi, 2, 2), the stone was erected to mark the limit of the victory, a spot which he calls Corrhwn, but in the Hebrew Beth- car (q. v.). Eusebius and .Jerome affirm (Onomast. s. V. 'AjiiviTin, Alientzer) that it laj' between Jerusa- lem and Ashkelon, near (7r\);fTi'oj', juxta) Bethshe- mesh. Now Bethshemesh stands on a low ridtje on the south side of the rich valley of Sorar. On the op- posite side of this vallej^ on a rising ground, about three miles north-West of Bethshemesh, are the ruins of an old village called Beit-far. The situation an- swers in every respect to that assigned to Beth-car; and the name may possibly be an Arab corruption of the latter. It lies in the direct route from Mizpeh to the plain of Philistia, and is just on the borders of the latter province, where a pursuing army would halt (Porter, Handbook for Syr. and Pal. p. 283). But, as this is verj' far from the probable site of IMizpeh I Neb}'- Samwil), it is liardly ])Ossible to fix the position of Eben-ezer at that of Beth-car. The monumental stone in question may rather have been set up at the point where tlie enemy ber/an to flee, and we may therefore seek its locality nearer the Israelitish metropolis, pos- sibly at the modern village Biddii, a short distance west of Neby-Samwil (Kobinson, Researches, ii, 133, note). See Shex.