3. The original name of Jehoiakim (q. v.), king of Judah (2 Kings xxiii, 34 ; 2 Chron. xxxvi, 4j.
4. Son of Abiud and father of Azor, of the poster- ity of Zerubbaljel (i\Iatt. i, 13). He is probably iden- tical with the SiiECHANiAH (q. v.) of 1 Chron. iii, 21 (Strong's Harinovy and Expos, of the Gospels, p. 11). See Genealogy (of Christ).
5. A priest in the days of Nehemiah, who assisted at the dedication of thcnew wall of Jerusalem (Neh. xii, 41). B.C. 446.
Eli'ali ('EX(«Xi v. r. 'EXiaXti, Vulg. Dielus), one of "the sons of Maani" who divorced his Gentile wife after the exile (1 Esdr. ix, 34); apparently a corrup- tion for the Bixxui (q. v.) of the Heb. text (Ezra x, 38).
E'liam [usually Eli'am'] (Heb. Eliam' , C^'^'r^, God is {\\iir\ peo])le, i. a. friend; Sept. 'EXta/3, Vulg. Eliam), the father of Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah and afterwards of David (2 Sam. xi, 3). In the list of 1 Chron. iii, 5, the names of both father and daugliter are altered, the former to the equivalent A>I3iiel (q. v.), and the latter to Bathshua, both the latter names being also those of non-Israelite persons, while Uriah was a Hittite (comp. Gen. xxxviii, 12; 1 Chron. ii, 3; also 2 Sam. xvii, 27). The same name Eliam also oc- curs as that of a Gilonite, the son of Ahithophel, and one of David's "thirty" warriors (2 Sam. xxiii, 34). It is omitted in the list of 1 Chron. xi, but is now prob- ably discernible as "Aiii.tah the Pelonite" (ver. 36) (see Kennicott, Dissertation, p. 207). The ancient Jewish tradition preserved by Jerome {Qfi. Ilehr. on 2 Sam. xi, 3, and 1 Chron. iii, 5) is that the two Eliams are the same person. An argument has been founded
ELIAONIAS
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ELIASAPH
on this to account for the hostility of Ahithophel to king David, as having dishonored his house and caused the death of his son-in-law (Blunt, Coincidences, \)t. ii, x). liut he would perhaps have rather been proud of this alliance with royalty. B.C. 104G.— Smith, s. v.
Eliao'iiias [many Eliaoni'as] ('EXtnwt'incVulg. ModUUunis, including the preceding name), a son of Zaraias of Pahath-iloab, leader of two hundred exiles from Babylon (1 Esdr. viii, 31) ; evidently the Eli- HOENAi (q. V.) of the Heb. text (Ezra viii, 4).
Eli'as (HXirtc, ill Maccabees, elsewhere and in N. T. 'llXi'rtcYulg. Ellas, but in Cod. Amiat. Uelias), the GraH-ized form in which the name of Elijah (q. v.) is given iu the A. V. of the Apocrypha and N. T. (Ecclus. xlviii, 1, 4, 12 ; 1 Mace, ii, 68 ; Matt, xi, 14 ; xvi, 14 ; xvii, 3, 4, 10, 11, 12 ; xxvii, 47, 49 ; Mark vi, 15 ; viii, 28 ; ix, 4, 5, 11, 12, 13 ; xv, 35, 3G ; Luke i, 17 ; iv, 25, 26 ; ix, 8, 10, 30, 33, 54 ; John i, 21, 25 ; liom. xi, 2 ; James v, 17). In Kom. xi, 2, the refer- ence is not to the prophet, but to the portion of Scrip- ture designated by his name, the words being iv 'HXig, "in Elias," not as in A.V. "of Elias."'^ — Smith, s. v.
Elias Levita (properly Elijah the Lerite, son of Ashey-), one of the greatest Jewish scholars of mod- ern times, was born in the latter half of the fifteenth century. Both the year and the place of his birth have Vieen the subject of literary controvcrs}'. The former point seems to have been settled by the learn- ed Rossi (see below), who showed that Elias was born in 1471 or 1472, not, as Hirt maintains, in 1460, or, as Nagel undertook to prove, in 1477. The second point is still a point of dispute, both Italians and Germans being desirous to claim this great writer for their country. The chief argument of the former is that Elias, in one of his works, speaks of Italj^ as "my country" and Venice as "my city;" the chief argu- ments of the Germans are that Elias, on the title- pages of several of his books, calls himseli A shkenazi ("i:2">rX), or "the German," and that, according to the express testimonj'- of his friend and pupil, Sebas- tian Miinster (q. v.), he was born at Neustadt, on the Aich, not far from Nuremberg. The margrave of Neustadt expelled Elias, together with several other Jews, from that town. He then went to Italy, lived in several places as teacher of the Hebrew language, especialh' (from 1504) at Padua, where he lectured on the Hebrew grammar of Moses Kimchi, and Avrote a commentary on it. When Padua, in 1509, was cap- tured and plundered, Elias lost all his property and went to Venice, which city, in 1512, he again left for Rome. There he met with a very fi-iendly reception from cardinal Egidio of Viterbo, who even received him and his familj'' into his own house. For mau}^ years Elias instructed the cardinal in the Hebrew lan- guage, who, in turn, made him l)etter acquainted with the classical languages. Through Egidio, Elias en- tered into intinuite relations with a number of other cardinals and bishops, who so warmly recommended him that he received an honorable call from king Franriiis I of France, which he, however, declined. When Rome, in 1527, was plundci-cd l)y tlie troops of Karl V, Elias again lost his wluile pro]ierty. lie again went to Venice, where he remained until 1540, when he accepted a call from Paul Fagius to assist him in the establishment of a new Hebrew printing- oflice, and in the publication of several Hebrew liooks, at Isny, in Suabia. He reniaine<l in Isny until 1547, when he returned to Venice, where he died iu 1549. Elias rejected many of tlie Jewisli traditions, and al- ways spoke ftxvorably of the Christians ; but he ex- pressly denied that he had secretly become a Chris- tian, and averred that, "thanks to God, he was still a Jew." He was universally esteemed both for his character and his extraordinary scholarship ; only some fanatical Jews hated him, as thej' suspected his fidelitv to Judaism, His celebrated works on Hebrew