Las Casas. See Casas.
La'sha (Heb. Le'sha, "'^h.Jissure, in pause "d^; Scjit. AamuYulg. Lesa). a place mentioned last in de- fining the border of the Canaanites ((ien. x, 19), and apparently situated east of the Dead Sea. According to Jerome (Qumst. in Gen.), Jonathan (where "'il'lbp is doubtless an erroneous transcrii>tion for ''Tilbp). and the Jems. Targum, it was the spot afterwards known as Callirr/ioe, famous for its warm springs, just beyond Jordan (Josephus, ^m^ vii, 6, 5; \Var,i, 33, 5; compare Ptolemy, v, IG, 9), on the eastern shore of the Dead Sea, where Machaerus lay (Pliny, v, 15). These springs were visited by Irby and jNLangles {Travels, p. 4G7 sq.) ; they lie north of the Anion (Kosenmiiller, Alterth. II, i, 218). Sehwarz says that ruins as well as the hot springs are still found at the mouth of ivadtj Zurka {['(destine, p. 228). Bochart {Geoep: Sacr. iv, 37) less correctly identifies the name with the Arabic Lusa (Rebuid, PuLrst. p. 871). Lieut. Lynch visited the out- let of tluse springs tlirough the wady Zurka, which he describes as a rajjid stream twelve feet wide and ten inches deep, with a temperature of 9P, having a slight sulphurous taste. The bed is a chasm 122 feet wide, worn through perpendicular cliffs, and fringed with canes, tamarisks, and the castor-bean {Narrative of the U. S. Expedition to the Jordan, p. 370). Irby and Man- gles found several warm sidpliiir springs discharging themselves into the stream at various points, being, no doubt, tliose visited by llcrod iu liis last sickness. See CAi.i.iKijiioii. The place is apparently also the Zii- RETH-SHAHAR (q. V.) of Josh. xiii, 19-
Lash'aron [many Lasha'ron] (Heb. Lashsharon', "I'l'ni'b, signif. unknown; Sept. Aiaapuv, but almost all copies omit ; Vulg. Saron, but iu the Benedictine text Lassaron), one of the Canaanitish towns whose kings were killed by Joshua (Josh, xii, 18). "Some differ- ence of opinion has been expressed as to whether the first syllable is an integral part of the name or the He- brew preposition with the art. implied (see Keil, Josiia, ad loc). But there seems to be no warrant for suppos- ing the existence of a particle before this one name, which certainly does not exist before either of the other thirty names in the list. Such, at least, is the conclusion of Bochart {Hieroz. i, ch. 31), Reland {Palcesf. 871), and others, a conclusion supported by the reading of the Targum, and the Arabic Version, and also by Jerome, if the Benedictine text can be relied on. The ojjposite conclusion of the Vulgate, given above, is adopted by Gesenius {Thesaurus, p. 642, b), but not on very clear grounds, his chief argument being apparently that, as the name of a town, Sharon woidd not require the arti- cle affixed, which, as that of a district, it always bears. The name has vanished from both the Vat. and Alex. MSS. of the Sept., unless a trace exists in the '0<peKrrj- crapcoK of the Vat." (Smith). Masius supposes Lasha- ron to be the place mentioned in Acts ix, 35, where the reading of some MSS. is 'Aaadpwva instead of 'S.apwi'a ; but there is no evidence to support such a view. From the fact that in Joshua it is named between Aphek and Madon, a writer in Fairbairn's Dictionary argues ibr a position at the modern Saruneh, south-east of Tiberias (Robinson, Bibl. Res. iii, Appendix, p. 131) ; but the rea- soning is wholly inconclusive, and the location utterly out of the question. Lasharon was possibly the same place with the Lasha of Gen. x, 19.
Lashers. See Kiilystie.
Lasitius, John, a noted Polish Protestant ecclesi- astical writer, often mistaken, formerly, for the cele- brated John a Lasco, fiourislied in the second half of the IGth centnr}-. He Avas born of a noble family about 1534, and, as was the custom of his day, was early sent abroad to pursue a course of studies at the high-schools of Basle, Borne, Geneva, and Strasburg. After quit- ting the university he taught for a short time in a pri- vate family of one of the most celebrated noble fatnilies of Poland, .Tohn Krotowsky, an ardent follower of the Moravian Brethren. (.)f a restless nature, and greatly addicted to study, he soon took up his wandering-staff again, and roamed nearly over all Europe, bringing up, most generally, at some place noted for its university. First we meet him in Paris, next in Basle, next iu Ge- neva, and next in Heidelberg, etc., until, in 15G7, he brings up again in Paris, and holds a disputation on the Trinity with the Romish theologian Genebrard {Chro- noloff. lib. iv, a. a. 1582, p. 786). After 1575 Lasitius seems to have settled in his native country, but frequent- ly, even after this date, he went abroad, not for liis own gratification, however, but in the interests of the State and the Church. He early became an admirer of the jMoravians, and is by many (e. g. Gieseler, Kirchencjesch, ii, 4. p. 4G0) supposed to have joined their communion ; but, however uncertain his membership, certain it is that Lasitius greatly favored tiie Moravians, and that he was engaged on a history of them. He was one of the most energetic and indefatigable workers among the Poles for the union of all his Protestant brethren into one common bond, and in 1570 finally saw his efforts crowned with success at the Synod of Sendomir. See Poland. He died July 12, 1599. His history of the Moravians Lasitius enlarged after the union of the Prot- estants, but it was never published entire. In 1649 Amos Comenius published an outline of the larger one under the title Johannis Lasitii, nobilis Poloni, historiee de oriffine et rebus ffeslis Eratrnm Bohemicorum liber oc- tavits, qui est de moribus et institutis eorum. Ob preFseii- tem 7-erum statum seorsim editus. Adduniur tamen reli- quorum vii libi-orum argumenta et particularia qucedam