Serry, Francois .Jacques Hvacinthe, a French theologian, was born at Toulon in 1659. He early en- tered the Order of St. Dominic, and was sent to Paris for an education, where he applied himself to philosophy and began preaching. In 1690 he went to Rome, and became theologian to cardinal Altieri, and was engaged on the Index. He returned to Paris in 1696, and the next j'ear took the degree of doctor, and was called as professor of theology to Padua, where he died, March 12, 1738. His works on ecclesiastical history and theology are enumerated in Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Gmerale, s. v. Among them are, De Christo ejusque Virgine Alatre (Venice, 1719) : — Historia Congregationum de Aux. Div. Grot, sub Summis Pontiff. Clfin. VI f I et Paulo V (in 4 libr. distributa, Louvain, 1700; Antw. 1709, fol.). See J'iirst, Bill. Jud. iii, 317; Winer, Handbuch der theol. Liter atur.
Se'rug (Heb. Serug', 51lb, branch [Gesen.], or strength [Flirst]; Sept. 'E.tpovx'i New Test. SojOoi'x^) " Saruch," Luke iii, 35 ; Josephus Sfpoi/yot;, A nt. i, 6, 5), one of the postdiluvian patriarchs, being the son of Reu, and the father of Nahor the grandfather of Abraham (Gen. xi, 20; 1 Chron. i, 6). B.C. 2352-2122. His age is given in the Hebrew Bible, at the above passages, as 230 years — thirty years before he begat Nahor and two hundred years afterwards. But in the Sept. 130 years are assigned to him before he begat Nahor (making his total age 330), being one of its systematic variations in the ages of the patriarchs between Shera and Terah. See Chronology. Bochart (Phakgj II, cxiv) conject- ures that the town of SeruJ, a day's journey from Char- rffi, in Mesopotamia, was named from tliis patriarch. Siiidas and others ascribe to him the deitication of dead benefactors of mankind. Epiphanius (^Adv. Hwres. i, 6, 8), who says that his name signifies "provocation," states that, though in his time idolatry took its rise, yet it was confined to pictures; and that the deification of dead men, as well as the making of idols, was subse- quent. He characterizes the religion of mankind up to Serug's days as Scythic; after Serug and the building of the Tower of Babel, the Hellenic or (ireek form of religion was introduced, and continued to the writer's time (see Petavius, A nim. adv. Epiph. Oper. ii, 13). The • account given by .lohn of Antioch is as follows: Serug, of the race of Japhet, taught the duty of honoring em- inent deceased men, either by images or statues {tiKoviQ and di'SpiavTtc, which, however, may here be used of pictures), o( \voT»h'\\t\t'u\^ them on certain anniversaries as if still living, of jjreserving a record of their actions in the sacred books of the priests, and of calling them
gods as being benefactors of mankind. Hence arose polytheism and idolatry (see Fragm. IJistoric. Grcec. iv, 345, and note). It is in accordance with his being call- ed of the race of Japhet that Epiphanius sends Phaleg and Reu to Thrace {Epist. ad Descr. Paul. § ii). — Smith. There is, of course, little or no historical value in any of these statements, beyond the fact that the charge of idolatry brought against Terah and the fathers beyond the Euphrates in Josh, xxiv, 2.
Seruk Mexachem. See Saruk,
Serumner, in Norse mythology, was the beautiful hall in Freya's dwelling of Folkwang, where she gath- ered about herself, in the Service of love and for the en- joyment of all the pleasures of life, half the heroes of the earth. The abode of all the Einheriars is either here or in the Valhalla. — Vollmer, Wortei'b. d. Mythol. s. v.
Servant (usually ini;, ebed, SovXoq, which are in- variablj' rendered thus in the A. V. or else " bondman;" but " servant" is occasionally the rendering of "IS"!, nd'ar, properly a lad or "young man;" or H'l^p, meshareth [Exod. xxxiii, 11; Numb, xi, 28; 2 Sarn.'xiii, 17, 18; Prov. xxix, 12], a minister, as elsewhere rendered; Gr. in like manner sometimes TraTf, SiaKovog, etc.). See Ebed. The Hebrew terms nd'ar and meshareth, which alone answer to our "servant," in so far as this implies the notions of liberty and voluntariness, are of compara- tively rare occurrence. On the other hand, ebed, which is common in the A. V., properly means a slave. In man}' passages the correct reading would add consider- able force to the meaning — e. g. in Gen. ix, 25, "Cursed be Canaan; a slave of slaves shall he be unto his breth- ren ;" in Deut. v, 15, " Remember that thou wast a slave in the land of Egypt ;" in Job iii, 19, " The slave is free from his master;" and particularly in passages where the speaker uses the term of himself, as in Gen. xviii, 3, " Pass not away, I pray thee, from thy slave." Slavery was, in point of fact, the normal condition of the under- ling in the Hebrew commonwealth, while the terms above given refer to the exceptional cases of young or confidential attendants. Joshua, for instance, is described as at once the nd'ar and meshareth of Moses (Exod. xxxiii, 11); Elisha's servant sometimes as the former (2 Kings iv, 12 ; v, 20), sometimes as the latter (iv, 43 ; vi, 15). Amnon's servant was a meshareth (2 Sam. xiii, 17, 18), wliile young Joseph was a nd\ir to the sons of Bilhah (Gen. xxxvii, 2, where instead of " the lad was with," we should read "he was the servant-boy to" the sons of Bilhah). The confidential designation mesha- reth is applied to the priests and Levites in their rela- tion to Jehovah (Ezra viii, 17 ; Isa. Ixi, 6 ; Ezek. xliv, 11), and the cognate verb to Joseph after he found favor with Potiphar (Gen. xxxix, 4), and to the nephews of Ahaziah (2 Chron. xxii, 8). In 1 Kings xx, 14, 15, we should substitute "servants" (iid'a?-) for "young men." — Smith. See Hireling; Slave.