think that he gave up the doctrine of the fiovapxla as long as he admitted a riding, all-powerfid principle, and ascribed to God such a supremacy over the Hyle. He regarded the Hyle as altogether undetermined, predi- cateless, in which all the contrarieties that afterwards appeared in the world were as yet unseparated and im- developed ; neither motion nor rest, neither flowing nor standing stiU, but an inorganic conliision. It was the receptive, God alone the creative; his formative agency called forth from it determinate existence. But mth this organization there Avas a residuum which withstood the divine formative power. Hence the defective and the offensive in natiu-e ; hence also evil. Had he been logical he must have admitted a creation without a be- ginning; he coidd not have regarded it as a single and transitive act of God, hut as immanent, and resulting immediately from the relation of God to matter. He said God was always a ruler, consequently he must al- ways have had dominion over matter" (Neander, Hist, of Dogmas, Ryland's transl., i, 118). The account in Hippolytus, Kara iraaihv a'tpiatwv (bk. xxiv), agrees, in the main, with that given above, and adds that Her- mogenes taught that Christ, after his resurrection, when he "ascended to heaven, leaving his body in the smi, pro- ceeded himseK to his Father." See Augustine, De Hcer. xli; Tertullian, adv. Hermogenem, passim; Ritter, Ge- schichte d. Philosophie, v, 178 ; Neander, Ch. Hist. (Tor- rey's),i, 568; Mosheim, Cotmh?, vol. i ; Lardner, IFori-s, ii, 203 ; viii, 579 ; Hagenbach, History of Doctrines, vol. i, §47.
Her'mon (Heb. Chcrmon', "TO'ntl, according to Ge- senius, from the Arabic Charmun, a ^jeai ,• Sept. 'Asp- pihv), a mountain which formed the northernmost boun- dary (Josh, xii, 1) of the country beyond the Jordan (Josh, xi, 17) which the Hebrews conquered from the Amorites (Deut. iii, 8), and which, therefore, must have belonged to Anti-Libanus (1 Chron. v, 23), as is, indeed, implied or expressed in most o/ the other passages in Avhich it is named (Deut. iv, 48 ; Josh, xi, 3, 17 ; xii, 5 ; xiii, 5, 1 1 ; Psa. Ixxxix, 12 ; cxxxiii, 3 ; Cant, i v, 8). It has two or more summits, and is therefore spoken of in the plur. (ai3b-iri, Psa. xlii, 7; Sept. 'Efiuvui/^, Engl. Vers. " Hermonites"). In Deut. iii, 9 it is said to have been called by the Sidonians Sirion {'^'^yc), and by the Amorites Shenir (T^5'^), both of which words sig- nify "a coat of mail," as glittering in the smi. In Deut. iv, 48 it is called Mount Sion ("I'Xib), meaning "an elevation," "a high moimtain" — which it was well enti- tled to be designated by way of excellence, being (if cor- rectly identified with Jebel es-Sheik) by far the highest of all the mountains in or near Palestine. In the later books of the Old Testament, however (as in 1 Chron. v, 23 ; Sol. Song, iv, 8), Shenir is distinguished from Her- mon properly so called. Probably different summits or parts of this range bore different names, which were ap- plied in a wider or narrower acceptation at different times (see Schwarz, Palestine, p. 56). See IIivitk.
Hermon was a natural landmark. It coidd be seen from the " plains of ]\Ioab" beside the Dead Sea, from the heights of Nebo, from every prominent spot, in fact, in Moab, Gilead, and Bashan— a pale blue, snow-cajiped peak, terminating the view on the northern horizon. When the people came to know the country better — ;\hen not merely its great physical features, but its townis and villages became familiar to them, then Baal- Gad and Dan took the jilace of Hermon, both of them being situated just at the southern base of that moun- tain. Hermon itself was not embraced in the country conquered by IMoses and Joshua; their conquests ex- tended only to it (see Josh, xi, 17; Deut. xxxiv, 1 ; 1 Sam. iii, 20). Hermon was also the north-western bomidary of the old kingdom of Bashan, as Salcah was the south-eastern. We read in Josh, xii, 5 that Og " reigned in IMount Hermon, and in Salcah, and in aU Bashan :" i. e. in all Bashan, from Hermon to Salcah.
HERMON
209
HEROD
Another notice of Hermon shows the minute accuracy of the topograph)' of Joshua. He makes " Lebanon to- wards the sun-rising," that is, the range of Anti-Leba- non, extend from Hermon to tlie entering into Hamath (xiii, 5). Every Oriental geographer now knows that Hermon is the southern and culminating point of this range. The beauty and grandeur of Hermon did not escape the attention of the Hebrew poets. From nearly every prominent point in Palestine tlie moimtain is vis- ible, but it is when we leave the hill-country of Samaria and enter the plain of Esdraelon that Hermon appears in all its majesty, shooting up on the distant horizon behind the graceful rounded top of Tabor. It was prob- ably this view that suggested to the Psalmist the words " The north and the south thou hast created them : Ta- bor and Hermon shall rejoice in thy name" (Ixxxix, 12). The "dew of Hermon" is once referred to hi a passage which has long been considered a geographical puzzle — "As the dew oi' Hermon, the dew that descend- ed on the mountains of Zion" (Psa. cxxxiii, 3). Some have thought that Zion ("i*^) is used here for Sion ("X^ w'), one of the old names of Hermon (Deut. iv, 48), but tliis identification is unnecessary. The snow on the summit of this mountain condenses the vapors that float during the summer in the higher regions of the atmos- phere, causing light clouds to hover around it, and abundant dew to descend on it, while the whole country elsewhere is parched, and the whole heaven elsewhere cloudless. One of its tops is actually called Ahu-Nedy, i. e. "father of dew" (Porter, llundb. ii, 403).