Eleutherus or Eleutherius, a native of Nicop- ; olis, elected bishop of Rome after the death of Soter, May 3, 177. He is previously (168) mentioned as a ; deacon of bishop Anicetus of Rome. He opposed with much zeal the errors of the Yalentinians during his : tenure of office. Two events are reported to liave rendered his pontificate memorable : the glorious death of the martyrs of Lyons and Vienne (Eusebius, HisI.Ec- cles. V, 4), and an embass}' from Lucius, king of Great Britain, to demand a missionary- to teach the Britons the Christian religion (Bede, Hist. Eccl. iii, 25 ; Collier, i Eccl. Hist, i, 35). The churches of Lyons and Vienne j sent to him tlie acts of those of their members who had I just suffered martyrdom. Their messenger was the ! presbyter Irentcus, subsequently celebrated as one of the pillars of the Church in Gaul. As the letter of these churches to Eleutherus warns against the Mon- tanists, some have inferred, though without being sup- ported by any other proof, that Eleutherus was an ad- herent of tlie jSIontanist sect. The legend about the embassy of king Lucius, and the subsequent mission of two Roman missionaries to England, is doubted by many historians. Eleutherus died A.D. 192. He is connnemorated in the Church of Rome as a saint on the 26th of May. See Mosheim, Comment, i, 273 ; Neandcr, Phmtirif/ and Training, ii, 518 ; Smith, Relig- ion of Ancient Britain, p. 121, 122; Herzog, Real-En- cykLiii, 753. (A. J. S.)
Elha'nan {llch.Ehhanan', '2nbx,whom God has graciously bestowed [compare Hananeel, Hanananiah, Johanan, Phcen. Hannibal; also Baal-hanan, etc.] ;
ELHANAN"
13?
ELI
Sept. 'E\Eavdv ; Vulg. Adeodatus, but Ckanan, Elcha- nan, in Chron.), a distini^uislied warrior in the time of king David, who performed a niemoralile exploit against the Philistines, though in what that exploit exactly consisted, and who the hero himself was, it is not easy to determine. B.C. cir. 1020.
1. 1 Sam. xxi, 19, saj's that he was the "son of Ja- are Orcgim the Bethlehemite," and that he "slew Goliath the Gittite, the staff of whose spear was lilie a weaver's beam." Here, in the A. V., the words "the brother of" are inserted, to bring the passage into agreement with,
2. 1 Chron. xx, 5, whicli states that "Elhanan, son of Jair (or Jaor), slew Liilimi, the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the staff of whose spear," etc.
Of tliese two statements the latter is probably the more correct, the differences between them being much smaller in the original than in English (see Kennicott, Disiertaiiim, p. 78). See Lahmi.
(a.) The word Oregim (q. v.) exists twice in the verse in Samuel, first as a proper name, and again at the end — "weavers." The former has probably been taken in b}' an earh' transcriljer fi'om the latter, i. e. from the next line of the MS. To the end of the verse it certainly belongs, since it is found in the par- allel passage of Chronicles, and also forms part of what seems to have been a proverbial description of Goliath (comp. 1 Sam. xvii, 7).
(6.) The statement in Samuel is in contradiction to the naiTative of! Sam. xvii, according to which Goli- ath the Gittite was killed hy David. True, Ewald (JJcsfh. iii, 91 sq.) — from the fact that David's antago- nist is, with only three exceptions (one of them in the doubtful verses, xvii, 12-32), called "the Philistine," and for other linguistic reasons- — has suggested that Elhanan was the real victor of Goliath, and that after David became king the name of Goliath was attached to the nameless champion whom he killed in his youth. But against this is the fact that Goliath is named thrice in 1 Sam. xvii and xxi — tlirice only though it be ; and also that Elhanan's exploit, from its position both in Samuel and in Chronicles, and from other indications, took place late in David's reign, and when he had been so long king, and so long renowned, that all the brilliant feats of his youth must have been brought to light, and well known to his people. It is recorded as the last but one in the series of encounters of what seems to have been the closing struggle with the Phi- listines. It was so late that David had acquired among his warriors the fond title of "the light of Israel" (2 Sam. xxi, 17), and that liis nephew Jonathan was old enough to perform a feat rivalling that of his illustri- ous uncle years liefore. It was certuinlj' after David was made king, for he goes down to the fight, not with his "young men," as when he was leading his band during Saul's life, but with his "servants," literallj^ his "slaves," a term almost strictly reserved for the subjects of a king. The vow of his guard, on one of these occasions, that it should be his last appearance in the field, shows that it must have been after the great Animonitish war, in which David himself had led the host to the storming of Kabbah (2 Sam. xii, 29). It maj' have been l)etween this last event and the liattle with Absalom be3^ond Jordan, though there arc other obvious reasons why David staid within the walls of iMahanaim on that occasion. See David.