Keckermann, BAitTiioLOM.Kus, a reformed Ger- man theologian, was born at Dantzic in 1571, and edu- cated at Wittenberg, Leipsic, and Heidelberg. In the last place he became professor of the Hebrew language about 1592. In 1602 he accepted the rectorate of the gymnasium at Dantzic, where he died August 25, 1609. Keckermann wrote many theological and philosophical works, the most important of which are Systemti The- olor/ice (Berlin, 1()15, 4to), and Rhetorica Ecclesiasticce (Ilanau, 1600, 1613, 8vo). These are circulated vcrj' ex- tensively, and prove him to have been a writer of great originality and ability. He argued in behalf of a sep- aration of philosophy and theology, to ])revent any fur- ther miscliief to Cliristianity such as scholasticism had caused, and in his Systema Ethices (ibid. 1610, 8vo) he pleads for the separation of ethics, as a philosophical science, from theology ; the latter, he argues, must con- fine itself to the inner religious life, the former to the '^bonum civile" (0pp. ii, 233 sq.). In view of these, his own teachings, it is unjust to classify this \vritcr, as some
KEDAR
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KEDESH
have done, among the originators of Protestant scholas- ticism. Of vaUie, also, are Keckermann's speculations on the Trinity (comp. Baur, Dreieiniijkeitslehre, iii, 308 sqO. His works have been published entire {Opera Om- nia) at Geneva in lGl-1. See lleizog, Eeal-Enc^klojm- clie, vii, 463.
Ke'dar (Heb. Kedar', "I'll?, (7«/-i--skinned ; Sept. Ki]vun), the second son of Ishmael, and founder of the tribe that bore his name (Gen. xxv, 13). B.C. post 20(jl. The name is used in Scripture as that of the Budouins generally, whose characteristic traits are as- cribed to them (Cant, i, 5; Isa. xxi, 10; xhi, 11; Ix, 7; Jer. ii, 10 ; xlix, 28 ; Ezek. xxvii, 21) ; more fully, "sons of Kedar" ("i^i? "^Sa, Isa. xxi, 17); in Psa. cxx, 5, Ke- dar and Mesecli are put for barbarous tribes. Rabbin- ical writers expressly identify them with the Arabians (Pseudojon. on Gen. xxv, and the Targum on Psa. cxx ; comp. the Jewish expression "tongue of Kedar" for the Arabic language), and the Arabs acknowledge the pa- ternity (Pococke, Spec. 40). The Kedarenes (as they were called in later times) do not appear to have lived in the immediate neighborhood of Judaea (Jer. ii, 10; comp. Psa. cxx, 5). Jerome (Onomasi. s. v. MaStdi') places them in the Saracenic desert, on the east of the lied Sea, which identities them with the Cedrei of Pliny (v, 12) as neighbors of the Nabathreans (comp. Isa. xl, 7). Stephen of Byzantium reckons them {K-tSpaviTai) as inhabitants of Arabia Felix ; but Theodoret (on Psa. cix) assigns them a locality near Babylon (see Relaudj Pakest. p. 86 sq.). Ptolemy calls them Durrce {Geocj. vi, 7), evidently a corruption of the ancient Hebrew; and Forster supposes that it is the same peojile Arrian refers to as the Kanraita, which he thinks shoidd be read Kddraitce (Georjr. of Arah'ut, i, 247). A very an- cient Arab tradition states that Kedar settled in tlie Hejaz, the country round jNIecca and Medina, and that his descendants have ever since ruled there (Abulfeda Hist. Ante islamic a, ed. Fleischer, p. 192). Fnnn Kedar sprung the distinguished tribe of Koreish, to which Mo- hammed belonged (Caussin, Essai, i, 175 sq.). Of the histoiy of the head of the tribe little is known, but his posterity are described as being rich in flocks of sheep and goats, in which they traded with the Syrians (Ezek. xxvii, 21 ; Jer. xlix, 49), as dwelling in tents of black hair (Cant, i, 5), though some of them occupied cities and villages (D'^IS' and D'^IIiri; Isa. xliii, 11) in the midst of the wilderness of Arabia, apparently in a moun- tainous and rocky district, and as being sliilful in the use of the bow (Isa. xxi, 17) : particulars which emi- nently agree with all descriptions of the mamiers and mode of life of the nomade Arabs bordering Palestine on the cast, from the Red Sea to Asia Jlinor (Wellsted, Travels in Arabia, ii, 231 sq. ; Wallin.in the Journ. of R. Gcofj. Soc. vols. XX and xxiv). Sec Arabia.
Ked'emah (\\^\i.Ked'mah,T\'Z'^'^_,easticard; Sept. KfO;u«, but in Chron. v. r. Kftiwui), the last named of the sons of Ishmael, and probably head of an Arab tribe called by the same title (Gen. xxv, 15; 1 Chron. i, 31). B.C. post 2061.
Ked'emoth (Heb. Kedemoth', T'i'C'lp, heijinninfjs; Sept. KtOj^iw^, Kicii]i.iw^, but in Chron. KcioiiwSr v. r. Kni.ii]l)io^), a city in the tribe of Rcnbcn, assigned, with its suburbs ("villages"), to the Levites of tiie family of IMerari (Josh, xiii, 18 ; xxi, 37 ; 1 Chron. vi, 79 ; in all which passages it is mentioned between Jahazah and Mephaath), with a desert (n3"ir), open i)asture-groun(Js) of the same name adjacent, whence Moses despatched the messengers requesting of Sihon a peaceable pas- sage through liis dominions, which the Israelites were now entering, having crossed the river vVrnon (Deut. ii, 20). These indications (ix its locahty not far north- cast of Dibon-gad, possibly at the ruined village ed- Duleitat (Robinson, Researches, iii, Appeml. p. 170), east of Medeba (Van de Velde, il/o/)).
Ke'desh (Heb. id., "d'lp, sanctuary ; Sept. KeoiQ, but Kdticc in Josh, xxi, 32 ; K.uOtjg in Judg. iv, C, v. r. 9- Kf'!£f V. r. in 1 Chron. vi, 72), the name of three towns in Palestine.