Of the permission to return to Palestine, which Cy- rus granted to tlie entire people (Ezra i, 5; vii, 13), Jews alone, in the first instance at least, availed them- selves (Ezra ii; Neh. vii; comp. Josephus, Ant. xi, 5, 2: "But the whole people of the Israelites remained in the same country . . . The ten tribes are beyond the Euphrates to this day, unknown and innumerable myriads"); for the return mentioned in Ezra ii, 1, is
EXINANITION
39G
EXODE
only of such exiles as had been carried away l>y Neli- nehadnezzar, and in the list tlierc following there are (besides priests and Lcvites) only recited Judahites and IJenjaniites; nor can "Israel" (ver. 59; compare Keh. vii, Ol) be there referred to tlie former kingdom so called. The indications of Jer. 1, 4 sq., 17, 19 ; Ezek. xxxvii, 11 sq., had, moreover, not at that time been fullilled (the date in 1 Chron. v, 26 is uncertain ; Keil, On Kiw/s^ p. 497, n.). (See Witsius, ^tKuipvXov, p. 344 s(i. ; Kitter, Erdk. x, 250.) Yet it cannot well be doul)ted tliat many of the exiles from the northern kingdom, who were likewise embraced in the decree of Cyrus, and at the time included in his dominions, did eventually join their Jewish brethren, if not in some of the homeward expeditions named in Scripture as having taken place under Ezra, Zerubbabel, and Kehemiah, yet in some smaller, later, or less distin- guished companies. This supposition is not onl}' jus- tified by the nature of the case, but fortified by the nu- merous intimations in the prophets (e. g. Jer. 1, 4, 5, 17-20, 33-35) coupling the i-eturn of both the kingdoms (see Meth. Quart. Review, July, 1855, p. 419 sq.), and is well-nigh established by the Palestinian occurrence in a late age of individuals from the northern tribes (e. g. Luke ii, 36; comp. Acts xxvi, 7). AVhat jiroportion thus returned we have no means of determining; it was doubtless small, as was indeed that of the exiles from the southern tribes compared with the great mass who still remained in the land of their captivitj^, now become their home. Community of lot must have drawn l)oth branches of the common stock of Israel nearer together during the captivity under the same heatlien government, and it is altogether likelj' that in a few centuries those who permanentlj^ remained lost all trace of the sectarian distinction that had once estranged " Judah and Ephraim." See Kestoration (of the Jews).
The descendants of those who did not return either centred at certain points, especially Babylon (q. v.), where they afterwards became celebrated for their Jewish schools of Rabbinical literature; or, as was chiefly the case, it may be presumed, with the more distant and earlier removed ten tribes, wandered still farther in numerous Jewish colonies into the Medo- Bahylonian provinces (Lightfoot, Append, to Ilor. Hehr. in Acts, p. 264 sq.), remnants of which have survived to a late day (Benj. of Tudcla, quoted in Bit- ter, Erdk. X, 241 sq.). It is possible even that the Samaritans maj' have owed their mongrel origin to some such source (Gesenius, De rented. Samar. p. 4), as they were transplanted to Palestine before the de- portation of the Jews, and j'et sufficiently late to have allowed a partial amalgamation with the heathen whence they came to have taken place, and especially as the}' had only the Pentateuch (Paul us, in Eich- horii's Bihlioth. i, 931). From the provinces of the Persian empire the Jewish colonists may i-eadilj- have spread into Arabia, India, and even Ciiina. Wild at- tempts at their discovery have been abundantly made, such as those of Adair (^History ofihe American Indians, Lond. 1775), Noah {The Amer. Indians the Descendants of the ten Lost Tribes of Israel, N. Y. 1835), and Grant {Nestoiians, or the Ij)st Tiibes, N. Y'. 1841). — "NA'iner, 1, 357. See Dispersed Jews.
Exinanition. See Christology (vol. ii, p. 281, col. 2).
Existence of God. Sec God.
Exocontians (or Exoucontiaxs, 'E^ovkovtioi), a name given to the strict Arians, because they main- fcuned that Christ was created t^ ovk uvtojv, before the begiiniing of things. They were also called Ano- mocans, Aetians. See these titles, and also Arians.
Exode OF THE ISRAELITES from Egypt to Canaan (usually referred to in Ileb. by the phrase
s?'^'? yi^'?. 5^?7''^'? "'.sa-rx nin^ i<'i:jin, '-The
Lord did bring the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt," Exod. xii,51; to which is often emphatical- ly added, n^rj 3 r'-iT3^ '^i;jr! ";;'2,"witha mighty hand and an outstretched arm," Deut. xxvi, 8, to ex- press the miraculous interventions of Providence in the series of events), the great national epoch of the Hebrew people, in fact their " independence daj'," and as such constantly referred to in all their subsequent history and vaticinations. Several of the Psalms are but a poetical rehearsal of its scenes (e. g. Psa. cxiv, cxxxvi) ; it is the burden of Ilabakkuk's lofty ode (Hab. iii) ; and besides the recapitulation of many of its incidents by Moses in Deuteronomy', it constitutes the main topic of one of the books of Scripture. The following account, w ith the exception of the date of the event, and the identifications of the place of cross- ing the Red Sea and of the stations in the desert, is chiefly compiled from the articles in Kitto and Smith. See Exodus.