RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Eastern Church Etaer
EATON, ARTHUR WENTWORTH HAMILTON:
Protestant Episcopalian; b. at Kentville, Nova Scotia, Dec. 10, 1849. He was educated at Harvard College (A.B., 1880), and was ordered deacon in 1884 and ordained priest in the following year. After being rector of St. Andrew's, Chestnut Hill, Mass. (1885-86), he spent two years in Europe, and since 1888 has been head of the department of English literature in the Cutler School, New York City. In theology he is a Broad-churchman of the Maurice and Phillips Brooks type. He has written The Heart of the Creeds ; Historical Religion in the Light of Modern Thought (New York, 1888); Acadian Legends and Lyrics (1889); The Church of England in Nova Scotia and the Tory Clergy of the Revolution (1891); Tales of a Garrison Town (in collaboration with C. L. Betts; 1892); Acadian Ballads (New York, 1905); and Poems of the Christian Year (1905). He has also edited several works of English literature.
EBED JESU, i'bed ji'su. : Nestorian theologian; b. in Mesopotamia about the middle of the thirteenth century; d. at Nisibis, in Armenia, Nov., 1318. He became bishop of Sinjar (60 m. w. of Mosul) about 1285, and in 1291 metropolitan of Nisibis. His importance is principally of a literary character, since he is regarded as the last great writer of the Nestorians. The most important of his works is the metrical " Catalogue " of Syriac authors, in which in four books he treats of the writings of the Old and the New Testament, of translations from the Greek into Syriac, and of works originally written in Syriac, especially Nestorian productions. Other works of note are " The Pearl," a dogmatic work, in five parts; the Nomocanon, a collection of the canons of synods; and Paradisus Eden, a collection of poems. Other works have been lost.
The name is frequent among the Syrians, and is pronounced by them Abdisho or Odisho. A martyr of this name is referred to in H. Feige's Geschichte des Mar Abhdiso (Kiel, 1889), while a bishop of the name, a convert to Romanism, was present at the last session of the Council of Trent and is pictured at the entrance to the Sistine Chapel at Rome (cf. G. E. Khayyath, Syri orientates, p. 124, Rome, 1870). E. Nestle.
Bibliography: The " Catalogue " was edited by Abraham Ecchellensis, Rome, 1653; by J. S. Asseman, with Latin transl. and commentary, in Bibliotheca orientalis. Hi. 1, pp. 1-362, Rome, 1728; an Eng. transl. appears in Appendix A of G. P. Badger's Nestorians and their Ritual, ii. 361- 379, London, 1852, which contains also a transl. of " The Pearl," ii. 380 sqq.; " The Pearl " is also in A. Mai, Scriptorum veterum nova collectio, ii. 317 sqq., 10 vols., Rome, 1825-38, where (pp. 169 sqq.) will be found also the Nomocanon. The poems were edited by H. Gismondi at Beirut, 1888 (cf. Noldeke in ZDMG, 1889, xliii. 675, and Zingerle, in the same, 1875, xxix. 496). Consult: W. Wright, A Short Hist, of Syriac Literature, pp. 285 sqq., London, 1894; R. Duval, La Litterature syriaque, Paris, 1900.
EBEL, e'bel, JOHANN WILHELM: German preacher; b. at Passenheim (75 m. s.s.e. of Konigsberg), East Prussia, Mar. 4, 1784; d. at Hoheneck, near Ludwigsburg (9 m. n. of Stuttgart), Wurttemberg, Aug. 18, 1861. After his graduation at Konigsberg, he became acquainted with Johann Heinrich
Schonherr (q.v.), and espoused his views of relative dualism. His pronounced evangelical views, and eloquent advocacy of practical Christianity, were distasteful to the rationalistic and dead orthodox clergy of the province, who tried, from the beginning of his ministerial career at Hermsdorf (1807-09), to awe him into submission, and, upon his removal to Konigsberg as preacher and teacher (1810), resented his growing popularity by charging him with heresy. The charge, however, was dismissed as unfounded, while Ebel was chosen preacher of the Old Town Church at Konigsberg, the largest in the city, in 1816, and filled that high position until his deprivation in 1842.
In 1826 a ministerial rescript, directed against mysticism, Pietism, and separatism, was eagerly seized by Schon, the provincial governor, an unchristian and unprincipled man, and other opponents of Ebel and Heinrich Diestel, his brother minister and friend, as an opportunity for the trumped-up charge of having founded a sect which held secret meetings and advocated tenets of perilous and immoral tendency. The consistory decided the case against the accused, and, in 1835, arbitrarily and illegally suspended them ab officio. On appeal the action of the consistory was canceled, but Ebel, though acquitted of the charge of having founded a sect, was not reinstated, on the alleged ground of neglect of duty. The prosecution, originating in theological hatred, took place at a time when the judicial process in Prussia was still private. To-day it would be impossible to bring such a case to the cognizance of a jury. After his deprivation, Ebel lived at Griinefeld (1842-48), at Meran in the Tyrol (1848-50), and at Hoheneck (1850-61). J. I. Mombekt.
Bibliography: The most important of the works of Ebel are: Die Weisheit von Oben, Konigsberg, 1823; Gedeihliche Erziehung, Hamburg, 1825; Die apostolische Predigt ist zeitgemass, Hamburg, 1835; Die Treue, Konigsberg, 1835; Verstand und Vernunft (in company with G. H. Diestel), Leipsic, 1837; Zeugniss der W ahrheit (by the same), ib. 1838; Grundzilge der Erkenntniss der Wahrheit, ib. 1852; Die Philosophie der heiligen Urkunde des Christenthums, Stuttgart, 1854-56. For his life consult: J. I. Mombert, Faith Victorious, being an Account of the Life and Labours and of the Times of J. Ebel, London, 1882; H. Wagener, Ueber J. W. Ebel, Ludwigsburg, 1861. Consult also: E. Hahnenfeld, Die religiose Bewegung zu Konigsberg, Braunsberg, 1858; E. Kanitz, Aufklarung nach Actenquellen uber den Konigsberger {1835—42), Religionsprozess, Basel, 1862; Bibliotheca Sacra, vol. xxvi., 1869.
EBER. See Table of the Nations.
EBER, e'ber, PAUL: German theologian and Reformer; b. at Kitzingen (11 m. e.s.e. of Wtirzburg) Nov. 8, 1511; d. at Wittenberg Dec. 10, 1569. He received his first education at home, and attended the schools of Nuremberg, then entered the University of Wittenberg on June 1, 1532, where his teachers were Luther and Melanchthon, and in 1537 was made a member of the faculty, being appointed regular professor four years later, first of Latin and then of physics. His lectures comprised the wide range of the liberal arts, although his chief attention was devoted to Latin, history, natural science, and even to anatomy. A versatile literary activity was the result. With the aid of Melanchthon he wrote his Contexta populi Judaici historia
Eber Ebionites