Marcus Hleromonachus, said by Oudin to have been a monk of the convent of St. Saba, near Jerusalem, flourished in the opening of the 11th centurj'. He wrote ^i'vrayija fit,- tu diropovfiti'a rov tvttikov, De Dubiis quK ex Typico oriuntur, contained in the Typi- cum, or ritual directory of the Greek Church (Ti^ttikov ai'v ^(({i uyioj irapnxov ■Kaaav ri'iv Siara^tp rt/c tK- KXtauKTTiKtjg aKoXov^iaQ tov xpuvon liXoi', Typiciim, favente Deo, continens integrum Officii Ecclesiastid Ordi- nem per totum Annuni). See a description of the work in Cave, Hist. Lift. vol. ii ; Dissert, ii, 38. This commen- tary is adapted to the arrangement of the Tyjncum, as- cribed to St. Saba, but which Oudin supposes to have been drawn by jNIarcus himself, and produced by him as the work of St. Saba, in order to obtain for it an au- thority which, had it appeared in his own name, it would not have secured. A Life of Gregory of Agrigentum is supposed to be by the same author as the Typicum. See Cave, Jlist. Litt. vol. ii; Dissert, i, 13; Oudin, De Scriptorib. Eccles. ii, col. 584, etc. ; Fabricius, Bibl. Grcec. X, 232, G78 ; Smith, Diet, of Biog. and Mythol. s. v.
Marcus, bishop of Otranto, probably of the 8th centuPi\ Allatius says he was ceconomus or steward of the great Church of Constantinople before he be- came bishop, which seems to be all that is known of him. He wrote Tip fnydXtfi aafijiaTti) y aKpodTixic, Hymnus Acrostichus in Magnum Sabbatiun, s. In Magno Sab- bato Capita T'e/'SMiw?, published by Aldus Manut ins, with a Latin version, in his editions of Prudentius and other early Christian poets (Venice, 1501, 4to). A Latin ver- sion of the hymn is given in several editions of Bibli- otheca Patrum. — Fabricius, Bibl. Grac. xi, 177, G77; Cave, Hist. Litt. ad ann. 750, i, 630; Smith, Diet, of Gr. and Rom. Biog. and Mythol. s. v.
MardochcB'us (Mnp^oxaTor), the Sept. or Greek equivalent of Mordecai (q. v.), in the Apocrypha; namely, {a.') the uncle of Esther, in the apocryphal ad- ditions (Esth. X, 1 ; xi, 2, 12 ; xii, 1-6 ; xvi, 13 ; 2 Mace. XV, 3C). The 14th of the month Adar. on which the feast of Purim was celebrated, is called in the last pas- sage '• jNfardochffius's day" (// Mapcoxa'K)) ypfpa). (b.) A .Je\v who returned with Zerubbabel and Joshua (1 Esdr. V, 8 ; conip. Ezra ii, 2).
Mardochai, a name borne by many rabbins and Jewish savans. The most renowned of them are the following :
1. 3lAi;i)OcirA"i Asiikenast, a fanatical adherent of Saljbathai Zewi, tlourished very near the middle of the 17th century. A man of prepossessing appearance, and remarkably talented as a pulpit orator, he travelled through Ihnigary, IVIoravia, and Bohemia, everj-where preaching the Saljbathical doctrines, and declaring him- self a ])ro))het. insisted u]ion the duty of his people to welcome Sabbathai Zewi as the veritable Jlcssiah. The persecutions which were so-frequent at that time in Ger- many, France, and Spain had softened the hearts of the poor Jews, and they were anxiously looking for relief from some quarter. Finding that liis declarations were favorably received, Mardochai finally announced that he
himself was the risen Zewi, who had been dead three years, and actually found many adherents, especially in Italy and in Polanil. He is said to have lost liis reason, and to have died, a ijoor and forsaken \vretch, somewhere in Poland, about 1682. See Griitz, Gesch. d. Juden, x, 334 sq. ; and Ixii, in Appendix.
2. MARDOCHAif bex-Eleasar Coming (or Coniiano) flourished in the second half of the 15th century (1460 -1490), first at Constantinople, later at Adrianople. A thorough master of mathematics and astronomy, he fell in with the writings of Aben-Ezra (q. v.), and be- came one of his most ardent admirers and devoted fol- lowers. He commented on the sacred writings, and by his generous ways secured the love and admiration of both Karaites and Rabbinites. He also studied the Aris- totelian philosophy, introduced by the works of ]Moses Maimonides, and thus as a philosopher secured no mean reputation. He wrote iTmn ^TD, a Commentary on the Pentateuch (1460) ; a Commentary on Aben-Ezra's Xt1?2 ^101 ; a Commentary on Ezra's ClTtl ""iSD ; a Commentary on Ezra's "inxn 1ED ; a Commentary on Maimonides's Logik, and other logical writings, etc.
3. Mardochai bex-Hillel, a German rabbi, who, while a resident of Nuremberg, was accused of insulting the Christian faith and defending the cabalistic writ- ers, and was visited with the death penalty for his hasty conduct in 1310. He wrote Mardochai Magnus, a com- mentary on Alphesius's Compendium Talmudicum (Kiva, 1559, 4to; Cracow, 1598, folio, and often): — De Ritibus mactaiionis (Venice, 8 vo). See Auerbach, i?e>t7 yl 6?-a- ham, p. 15; Wiirfel, //fs^ Nachricht von der Judenge- meinde in IViirtiberg.
4. Mardochai ben-Nissan, a Polish rabbi, flourished at Crosni-osthro, in Galicia, in the second half of the 17th century. He wrote 121173 111, or " the friend of Mardochai" (Hamb. 1714 and 1721, 4to, with a Latin transl. by Wolf, in JVotitia Karaiorum), a work which contains a complete expose of the doctrines of the Ka- raites. IMardochai was himself a Karaite, and wrote this work by special request of the learned Trigland, who afterwards translated this valuable contribution to the history of the Karaite Jews. Mardochai ben-Nis- san wrote also T^zb'Ci 11)133 (published by Neubauer), another work on Karaism. See Wolf, Bibl. Hebr. ; Fiirst, Jiibl. Juduica ; Griitz, Gesch. d. Juden, x, 301, and note 5 in the Appendix.