Elna'than [some El'nathan'\ (Heb. Elnathan', "rDSX, whom God has given; compare John, Theodore, Diodati^, the name of four leading men.
1. An inhabitant of Jerusalam, father of Nehushta, the mother of king Jehoiachin (2 Kings xxiv, 8, Sept. 'EXvac^civ V. r. 'EWavaa^di^. B.C. ante 598. He was perhaps the same with the son of Achbor, sent by Jehoiakim to bring the prophet Urijah out of Egypt (Jcr. xxvi, 22, Sept. 'EXca^dr'), and in whose presence the roll of Jeremiah was read, for the preservation of which he interceded with the king (Jer. xxxvi, 12, 25, Sept. TsaBdi' v. r. 'lioi'a^dt'). B.C. 605.
2, 3, 4. (Sept. 'EXi'ciSrdp, N«^«i', and 'EXra^dv re- spectivelv). Three of the Israelites, of established prudence and integritj', sent by Ezra to invite the priests and Levites to accompany him to Jerusalem (Ezra viii, 16). B.C. 459.
Ellora, a decaj'ed town in the dominions of the Nizam, not far from the city of Dowlatabad, in lat. 20° 2' N., and long. 75° 13' E. (This article is taken from Chambers's Enryclopaclia.) It is celebrated for its wonderful rock-cut temples. Their number has not been precisely ascertained, but Erskine reekoned 19 large ones, partly of Hindu and partlj' of Buddhist ori- gin. Some are cave-temples proper^ — i. e. chambers cut out in the interior of the rock — but others are vast buildings hewn out of the solid granite of tlie hills, having an exterior as well as an interior architecture, and lieing, in fiict, magnificent monoliths. In execu- ting the latter, the process was first to sink a great
1 emplc called kailasn, it LUoia Fiom rei^Bus-on'a Ilandiouk of AichUecturc
ELOHEVI
169
ELPHINSTON
quadrangular trench or pit, leaving the central mass standing, and then to hew and excavate this mass into :i temple. The most beautiful of these objects is the Hindu temple Kailasa. At its entrance the trav- eler passes into an antechamber 138 feet wide bj' 88 deep, adorned by numerous rows of pillars. Thence he proceeds along a colonnade over a bridge into a great rectangular court, which is 247 feet in length and 150 broad, in the centre of which stands the tem- ple itself, a vast mass of rock richly hewn and carved. It is supported by four rows of pilasters, with colossal elephants beneath, and seems suspended in the air. The interior is about 103 feet long, 50 broad, and 17 high, but the entire exterior forms a pyramid 100 feet high, and is overlaid with sculpture. In tlie great court are numerous ponds, obelisks, colonnades, sphinxes, and on the walls thousands of mythological figures of all kinds, from ten to twelve feet in height. Of the other temples, those of Indra and Dumarheyna are little inferior to that of Kailasa. Kegarding their antiquity and religious significance, authorities are not agreed; but at all events they must be subsequent to ths epic poems Ramayana or Mahahharata, because they contain representations taken from these poems, and also to the cave-temples at Elephanta, because they exhibit a richer and more advanced stjde of ar- chitecture.
Elohim is the Heb. plural (Elohim', Cn^*^)- of which tlie sing, form, iH'SX, Elo'cih, is also emplo3'ed to designate in general any deitj', but likewise the true God. The word is derived, according to Gese- nius (llies. Ileh. p. 94), from an obsolete root, l^^X, alah' , to revere; but is better referred by Furst (//e6. Handle, p. 90) to the kindred ?X [see El-], the name of God us mighty (from the extensive root tlPX or PIN, to bejirrn) ; and has its equivalent in the Arabic Allah, i. e. God. The plur. Elohim is sometimes used in its ordinary sense oi gods, whether true or false (e. g. of the Egyptians, Exod. xii, 12; xxxv, 2, 4; Deut. XX, 18 ; xxxii, 17 ; including Jehovah, Psa. Ixxxvi, 8 ; Exod. xviii, 11; xxii, 19; or distinctively of actual deity, Isa. xliv, 6 ; xlv, 5, 14, 21 ; xlvi, 9 ; 1 Chron. xiii, 9) ; once of kings (Psa. Ixxxii, 1, G) ; but Gese- nius thinks not o{ angels (Psa. viii, 6; xci,7; cxxxviii, 1), nor judges (Exod. xxi, G ; xxii, 7, 8). But it is es- pecially spoken of one true God, i. e. Jehovah, and in this sense it is alwaj's construed us a sing., especially when it has the article prefixed (Ctl'SXtl). See Suck, Commentatt. theol. hist. (Bonn, 1821), i ; Keinhard, I)e notionc Dei, etc. (Vitemb. 1792) ; Edzard, Utrum '^Eloldm" a Canaanms or/g. ducet (ib. 169G) ; Michae- lis, N'lim Dens dicatur D'^n'SN; inito feedere (ib. 1723); Sennert, Exercitt. jjhilol. (ib. 1G78). Comp. Gon.
Elollist, tlie name technically given in theology and sacred criticism to the assumed authors of those parts of the Pentateuch (q. v.) in which the Deity is styled Eloiiiji rather than Jehovah (q. v.).
Elo'i (t\ioi for Aramajan "tlPX, my God), an ex- clamation quoted thus by our Saviour (Mark xv, 34) on the cross from Psa. xxii, 2 (where the Sept. has o Snog //Oil), for the Heb. ibx, which is more literally Gra3cized r'/Xi, Eli, by jNIatthew (xxvi, 4G).
E'lon, a name occurring in two forms in the Heb. (but both having the primitive sense of oak [q. v.]), as that of a place, and also of three men.
1. (Heb. Eylon', "ib^X ; Sept. •EXwv.) A city of Dan, mentioned between Jethlah and Tininath (Josh. xix, 43) ; proliably the same elsewhere (1 Kings iv, 9) more full}- called Elon-betii-ii.vnan (q. v.).