Eth'anim (Ileb. Eijtlmnim' , CJ^'^S;, perennial streams; Sept. 'Xaainv), another name for tlie month TiSRi (q. V.) ; so called from the fulness of the hruohs at that time of the j'ear, being swelled with the au- tumnal rains (1 Kings viii, 2). See Calendar.
Eth'baal (Heb. Ethbadl, ^?2rX, with Baal, i. e. enjoying his favor and help; Sept. '£7/?rtrt\), a king of Sidon, father of the infamous Jezebel, the wife of Ahah (1 Kings xvi, .'il). According to Josephus {Ant. viii, 1:5, 1 and 2; .ipion, i, 18), Elhbaal is called Itho- b:i'us (l.^o/SaXoc or Ei9ibf3a\oc, i. e. b^"2'r,X = 5aaZ with him) by Menander, who also saj-s that he was a priest of Astarte, and, having put the king Pheles to deatli, assumed the sceptre of Tyre and Sidon. lived sixty-eight years, and reigned thirty-two (comp. Theo- phil. .intol. iii, p. 132). As fifty years elapsed between the daaths of Hiram and Pheles, the date of Ethbaal's reign may he given as about B.C. 940-908. The wor- ship of liaal was no doubt closely allied to that of As- tartc, and it is even possible that a priest of Astarte might have been dedicated also to the service of Baal, and borne his name. We here see the reason why Jez- ebel, tile daughter of a priest of Astarte, was so zeal- ous a promot;;r of idolatry, the taint of which, with its attend int tyranny, eventually extended to the throne of Jud.di in the person of Athaliali ; and as, twenty- one years after the death of Ethbail, Jiis granddauLdi- ter Dido built Carthage, and founded that celebrated commonwealth (Josephus, as above), we may judge what sort of a spirit animated the females of this royal family. See AiiAB. Another Phoenician king of the same name ('I^c'i/iriXoc or Ei^MfiaXor) appears as a contemporary of Nebuchadnezzar (.losephus, Ant. x, 11, 1 ; .'\pion, i, 21 ; Eusebius, Chron. Armen. i, 74). See PhceniciA.
Ethelbert, king of Kent, was born A.D. 545 or 552, and succeeded to the thione about A.D. 5G0 (?). About A.D. 590 he was acknowledged as Bratwalda (president of the Heptarchy). In 570 he married Ber- tha, a Christian, and daughter of Charibert, a Prank- ish king. It had been agreed before her marriage that she should be allowed to enjo}' her own religion. The most important event of his reign was the introduction of Christianity into his kingdom by Auguj^tinc, who landed in Kent in 596. See Augustine (vol. i, p. 544), In 597 the king himself was baptized. He founded the bishopric of Kochester, and, with his nephew Sebert, king of Essex, erected the church of St. Paul's in Lon- don. Ethelbert died in G16. — Maclear, Christian Mis- sions during the Middle A<jes (I860), chap, v ; Collier, Ecclesiastical History of Great Britain, i, 156 sq.
Ethel^wold, the principal reformer of monastic orders in England, was born in Winchester about 925. From early youth he distinguished himself by his learning, and obtained the fovor of king Athelstan. He was ordained priest simultaneously with Dunstan, and when the latter became abbot of Glastonburj'-, aljout 947, Ethelwold entered his monastery and be- came a companion of his studies. He distinguished himself as a poet, grammarian, and theologian. He is also reported to have been familiar with tiie mechan- ical arts, and to have constructed two bells. When he declared his intention to go to France, in order to perfect himself in his studies, king Edred, who wished to retain him in England, refused to him permission to travel, and appointed him abbot of Abingdon. This monastery was then in ruins, and was rebuilt by Ethel- wold. In 963 king Edgar appointed him bishop of Winchester. The great task of his life henceforth was the reorganization of the Anglo-Saxon monas- teries, -which were at that time administered by sec- ular priests (clerici, canonici, pre.djijteri^. The disci- pline in tlie monastery was anytlnng but severe, and many of tlie priests were married. Ethelwold substi- tuted for the secular priests regular monks, and dis-- played great activity in rebuilding the monasteries that had been destroyed h\ the Danes, and in repeo- pling those that had been abandoned. The monastery of Winchester, under his direction, became a celebrated school, from which proceeded several distinguished ab- bots and bishops. He died Aug. 1, 984, at Winches- ter. The chief work of Ethelwold is an Anglo-Saxon translation of the Latin rule of St. Benedict. It has never been printed. He also wrote a mathematical treatise, still extant in manuscript. — Iloefer, Nouv. Biogr. Gencrale, xvi, 598 ; Wright, Blog. Brit. Lit. 435 sq. (A. J. S.)
E'ther (Heb. id. "iT", abundance), one of the cit- ies in the plain (She])helah) of Judah (mentioned be- tween Libnah and Ashan, Josh, xv, 42, Sept. "ASfp v. r. 'I^«^•), eventually assigned to Simeon (mentioned between Remmon and Ashan. Josh, xix, 7, Sept."A^fp V. r. 'ItS'tn). In the parallel list of the towns of Sim- eon in 1 Chron. iv, 32, Tociien is substituted for Ether. In the Onomastlcon Euseliius and .Jerome men- tion it twice (s. V. 'K^t'n, Ether; 'It^.ip, Jether — in the latter case confounding it witli Jattih, a city of priests, which contained friends of David during his troubles under Saul), and state that it was then a considerable place (jcwut] i-iiyirm/), retaining the nair« of .Trthira ('It3f(pfJ, I(5op«), ver}' near JIalatlia, in the interior of the district of Daroma, that is, in the desert country below Hel)ron and to the east of B^ersheba. At Beit- Jibrin Van de Velde heard of a tell Athar in this neigh- borliood, but could not learn its distance or direction {.Ifemoir, p. 311). For the present, we maj' conjoctu- rally place it at Beit-. if. wa, in the vicinity of the asso- ciated localities, S. of Beit-Jilirin and AV. of Heljron; a ruined village, covering low hills on both sides of the path, and exhibiting foundations of hewn stones,