WYN.
Mar'sena (Heb. Marsena', XJp'^'p, according to Benfey, the Sanscrit viarsluu noble, with the Zend ending n<t,>nan; Sept. Mapo-fva, but most copies omit; Vulg. Marsana), one of the seven Medo-Persian satraps or viziers of Xerxes (Esth.i, 14). B.C. 483. Joscphus un- derstands that they had the office of interpreters of the laws(.lH^xi, 6, ij.
Mars' Hill CApiiog Troyoc, coUis Martins, Acts xvii, 22, the Areojxigus, as in ver. 19 ; so called, accord-
ing to Pausan. i, 28, 5, from the fact that Mars was first judged there), a limestone hill in Athens, north-west of the Acropolis (Herod, viii, 52), and considerably lower (Pococke, Fust, iii, tab. G5), where (even down to the time of the Koman emperors, GeU. xii, 7) the most an- cient and boasted Atheni.an supreme tribunal (Tacitus, Anncil. ii, 55) and court of morals (^schyl. Eumen. 701 ; Senec. Trunq. 3 ; Val.Max. ii,G,4), composed of the most honorable and upright citizens (Athen. vi, p. 251), and held in the highest regard not only throughout Greece, but even among foreigners (comp. Wetstein, ii, 565), had its sessions, to discuss cases of civil and criminal offences, originally according to the sole law of its own discre- tion (comp. Aristot. /"o/iV. ii, 10 ; v, 12; Macrob. ASfl^urn. vii, 1, p. 204; Quintil. Institut. v, 9 ; ^lian, T'. //. v, 15). After having continued for many centuries in full au- thority, it fell under some restrictions in the times of the New Test.; but the date of its extinction is un- known. (See Pauly, Feeil-EncyHo]}. i, 700 sq. ; Doder- lein, in the Hall. Eneyliop. v, 193 sq. ; also Meursii A^-e- opariits, Ludg. Bat. 1624; Biickh, De Areojxtgo, Berol. 1826.) From some part of that hill, but not before the judges (for there is no trace of a regular judicial pro- cedure in the entire narrative), Paul delivered his fa- mous address (Acts xvii, 19 sq.) to his hearers upon the steps and in the valley (comp. Kobinson, Reseai-ches, i, 10 sq.). See Areopagus.
Marsh ()f-'Zv,ge'he, a collection of waters, Ezek. xlvii, 11 ; elsewhere a cistern or reservoir, rendered " pit," Isa. XXX, 14; Jer. xiv, 3), a swamp or wet piece of land. The passage in Ezekiel speaks of the future blessings of the Jews after their restoration under the figure of drainage of land useless by its dampness : " But the miry places thereof, and the marisfies thereof, shall not be healed : they shall be given to salt" (xlvii, 11) ; that is, the part in question shall be reserved for the ])roduction of salt by the evaporation of the waters (see Henderson, Comment, ad loc). It is supposed that the '"valley of salt" in the neighborhood of the Dead Sea is here refer- red to, for there the Kedron, the course of which the prophet describes the holy waters as following, empties. This plain or valley has been traversed and described by captains Irby and Mangles in terms appropriate to the prophecy. Lieut. Lj-nch, in coasting around the south- ern extremity of the Dead Sea, fomid not only the Ghoi to be an immense marshy flat, but the bottom of the lake itself a nuiddy shoal, scarcely allowing the boat to be rowed through it. The salt hills around presented a scene of unmitigated desolation (^Expedition,]). 310).
Marsh, Francis, a noted Irish prelate, flourished in the second half of the 17th centurj-. He was made bishop of Limerick in 1667 ; was transferred to Kilmore and Ardagh in 1673 ; in 1682 became archbishop of Dub- lin, and died in 1693. But little is accessible to gather a detailed accoimt of his life and work. Lawrence B.- Phillips (Diet. Bioff. Bef.) refers to Cotton, Fasti Eccle- siw Bibernicce (Dubl. 1849, 5 vols. 8vo), and to D'Alton, Lives of the A rchbishops of Dublin (Dublin, 1838, 8vo).
Marsh, Herbert, an Enghsh theologian and prel- ate, '• one of the acutest and most truh' learned divines of his day," was born in London in 1757, and was edu- cated at St. John's College, Cambridge; graduated with great distinction ; was made fellow, and became M.A. in 1782. He then went to the Continent, and stud- ied at the University of Gottingen, and later at Leip- sic. He returned to England in 1800, and in 1807 be- came professor of divinity at Cambridge. In 1816 he was appointed bishop of Llandaff, and bishop of Peter- borough in 1819. He died May 1, 1839. He published several religious and controversial treatises, and fur- nished an excellent English translation of Michaelis's Introduction to the Xew Testament, with notes. "A dis- sertation on the genuineness of 1 John v, 7, included in Michaelis's Avork, drew from Mr. Travis, archdeacon of Chester, ' Letters to Edward Gibbon, Esq.,' in defence of the genuineness of the passage, which bishop Marsh
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answered, in vindication of Michaelis and himself, in his celebrated 'Letters to Archdeacon Travis' — an able and critical production, but which did not, as seme eminent scholars have supposed, settle the question. He has also published several parts of a Course of Divinity Lect- ures, witli a historical view of the progress of theo- logical learning, and notices of authors. This work, en- titled Lectures on Divinity, with an Account of the jmn- cipal Authors who have excelled in Theological Learning (7 parts, Cambr. 1809-23; Lond. 1838), includes 'Lect- nres on Sacred Criticism and Interpretation,' which have been published separately, and are, as is well kno^vn to Biblical scholars, of the highest value" (Home, in Bihl. Bib. 1839, p. 160 sq.). His other works are Essay on the Usefulness and Necessity of Theological Learning to those designed for Holy Orders (1792) : — Comparative Vieio of the Churches of England and Home (Lond. 1841, 8vo). See Allibone, Diet, of Brit, and Amer. Auth. ii, 1225 ; Blackwood's Magazine, xxix, 69 sq.