Hill, William, D.D., a Presbyterian minister, was born in Cumberland Co., Ya., March 3, 17G9. In 1785 he entered Hampden Sidney College. While there he em- braced reliicion, and decided to study for the ministry. He graduated in 1788, and was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Hanover July 10, 1790. After acting for two years as missionary, he settled in Berkeley, Va., and in January, 1800, assumed charge of the Presbyteri- an Church in Winchester. In February, 1831, he be- came pastor of the Briery Presbyterian Church in Prince Edward Co., where he remained only two years, when impaired health obliged him to resign, and he returned to Vv'inchester to pass the last days of liis life. He died there Nov. 16, 1852. Dr. HiU was engaged on a History of the Presbyterian Church in the United States, intended to make two 8vo vols. He decided to publish it in num- bers, but only a single number of it appeared. " In the great contest that issued in the division of the Church, Ur. Hill's judgment, sjTnpathies, and acts were fully with the New School." — Fresh. Quarterly Revieic, 1853 ; Sprague, .1 unuls. iii, 5(53. (J. II. W.)
Hilla or Hillel Codex of the O. T. See Man-
USCUIl'TS.
Hil'lel (Heb. IlilleV, b):ri, j^raisiny ; Sept. 'EAX//X, Josephus, "E/\\»;\ot,), a Pirathonite, father of the judge Abdon (Judg. xii, 13, 15). B.C. ante 1233.
Hillel I, Ha-Zakex (IpTrt, or the Great), ben-Si- Jiox, was born at Babylon about B.C. 75. He was one of the most eminent Jewish rabbis, founder of a school which bore his name, and by his self-denying, holy life, and great wisdom and learning, exercised a very remark- able influence both upon the theology and literature of liis nation. About B.C. 3G he came to Jerusalem, where, while obliged to work for his daily bread, he attended at the same time the lectures of Sheniaja and Abtalion, then the presiding officers of the Sanhedrim. About B.C. 30 he was himself chosen president of the Sanhe- drim. This office he held for forty years with great suc- cess. Etheridge says : " His administration, along with his coadjutor Shammai, forms an era in the history of rabbinical learning. His scholars were numbered by thousands. The Talmud commemorates eighty of them j by name, among whom are the celebrated R. Jochanan ben-Zachai, and Jonathan ben-Uziel, the Chaldee Tar- gumist on the Prophets." Some have asserted (Gins- burg in Kitto, among others) that by his teachings he prepared his people for the coming of Christ, but we are inclined to believe that, while Hillel was a most noble leader of the Jews, teaching as he did that the cardinal doctrine and aim of life is " to be gentle, sho^vlng all meekness to all men," and " when reviled not to revile again," yet his views of the prophecies rather inclined him to give warning to his nation — especially prepared, j by their social and political discomfort, to look more in- tently for the coming of that mysterious king who, ac- : cording to their idea, was to free them from the oppres- | sion of Herod as well as C;esar, and establish in the land | IV.-K
of Judah a throne that should have supremacy over all others — by asserting that "no such king will ever ap- pear" {Sanhedrim). But it is undoubtedly true that he foresaw the dispersion of his nation, for the Talmud in- forms us that he drew up civil and political ordinances intended to regulate their relation to each other after their separation. While president of the Sanhedrim, his great aim was to give greater precision to the study of the law. Before his time tradition-learning had been divided into six hundred, or, as some have it, seven hundred sections. He simplified the subject by arrang- ing this once complicated mass under six (Sedarim) treatises— the basis, really, of the future Jlishna labors of Akiba, Chijja, and Jehuda Hakkodesh in this depart- ment. Hillel was also the first who laid down definite hermeneutical rules for the interpretation of the O.T. They are very important for a proper understanding of the ancient versions (iVIidrash). His colleague, the vice-president of the Sanhedrim, Shammai, became dis- pleased with the liberality of Hillel's mind, and this finally resulted in the establishment of " the school of Shammai" by the side of " the school of Hillel." Their points of difference related to questions of jurisprudence and Church discipline, not to dogmas, yet their disputes caused great excitement among the Jews. Hillel's par- ty finally prevailed, in consequence, it is said, of a bath kol (q. v.) in his favor. Jerome and some other writeirf have considered Hillel as the founder of the sect oi Pharisees, and Shammai as the first Scribe. This, how- ever, is an error, for the Scribes and Pharisees did not constitute two distinct sects, and, moreover, were ante- rior to these two teachers. Hillel died when Jesus was about ten years of age. It seems strange that Josephus makes no mention of Hillel. Arnold (in Herzog, J'eal- EncyUop.\i\, 97, thinks that Pollio {Ant. xvi, 1, 1, 10) stands for Hillel. To the school of Hillel is attributed the authorship of Meyillath Beth Hushmonaim, a work on the history of the Maccabees, now lost. See Barto- locci, Magna Biblioth. Rabbin, ii, 783-79G ; G. E. Geiger et H. Giessman, Bi-evis Commentatio de Ilillele et Scham- mai, etc. (Altdorf, 1707, 4to) ; Hoefer, Nom: Bioy. Gene- rale, xxiv, G86; Enyl. Cyclojmdia; Fiirst, Kultur-yesch. i, 13 ; Etheridge, fntrod. to Ilebr. Literat. p. 33 ; Griitz, Gesch. d. Juden, viii, 207 ; Jost, Gesch. d. Israel, i, 254 ; Kitto, Cyclop, of Bib. Liter, ii, 303 ; Wolf, Biblioth. Hebr. ii, 824-8. (J. H. W.)