THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
been used from remote antiquity as a condiment and flavoring. Lev. xiv. details its use in purification from leprosy; Num. xix. 6, 18 shows its use in purification from contact with the dead; Ex. xii. 21, 27 gives the details for its employment at the Passover; in Ps. li. 7 it is a synonym for purification from sin; and Ryssel suspects that the mention in John xix. 29 is intended to recall the resemblance between the Lamb of God and the Passover offering. The identification of the hyssop of the Old Testament has been sought in the most varied kinds of labiated flowers. Unfortunately, in part through a misunderstanding of I Kings iv. 33, it has been taken to be the Hyssopus officinalis. The passage in Kings expresses a contrast between a very common and comparatively valueless herb and the costly cedar. Hyssop has been identified with Capparis spinosa through the resemblance between the Hebrew name 'ezobh and the Arabic name for capparis, 'azaf -capparis; with the Hebrew should, however, be connected the Arabic zufa, the common name of which is za'tar or Origanum Maru. This plant is common enough in Palestine, is valued by the inhabitants for its aroma, serves well as a sprinkler on account of its scaly stems, yet is stiff enough to bear a sponge. R. Zehnpftjnd.
Bibliography: The most authoritative discussion is by G. E. Post in DB, ii. 442, and in his Flora of Syria, Palestine and Sinai, p. 616, Beirut, 1896. Consult also: E. Boissier, Flora orientalis, iv. 553, Geneva, 1867; L. Fonck, in Biblische Studien, v. 1 (1900), 105 sqq., 148: EB, ii. 2142. Post regards the commentators on the synoptic parallels to John xix. 29 as astray in their explanations.
HYSTASPES (Hydaspes): A fictitious Persian sage, the reputed author of a prophecy in circulation in early Christian times, an Oriental appendix to the Christian Sibylline Books. Justin is the first to mention these " oracles of Hystaspes," though he gives no key to their contents (ANF, i. 169, 178). But the following data are given by Clement of Alexandria (ANF, ii. 490): In the second century there was a Greek book that was circulated in Christian and heathen circles under the name of Hystaspes, in which the Christians discovered, even more clearly than in the Sibylline books, references to Christ and to his kingdom; especially to his divine sonship, to the sufferings ordained and still impending for him and his believers from the world and its rulers; though likewise to the persevering patience of the faithful, and the second coming of their Lord. Lactantius, too, referred twice to Hystaspes. According to him (ANF, vii. 213), Hystaspes prophesied the downfall of the Roman empire; again (ANF, vii. 215), the tribulations preceding the end of the world, in which he foretold that " the pious and faithful, being separated from the wicked, will stretch forth their hands to heaven with weeping and mourning, and will implore the protection of Jupiter: that Jupiter will look to the earth and hear the voices of men and will destroy the wicked." " All which things," Lactantius added, " are true, except one, that he attributed to Jupiter those things which God will do." There were, furthermore, certain eschatological prognostications adduced in Lactantius (ANF, vii. 2.r>5) which were declared to agree with those of Hystaspes, Hermes and the Sibyl, on the one hand, and
with Christian future hopes on the other. According to an unknown writer of the fifth century (ed. by Buresch in his Claros, pp. 87-126, Leipsic 1889), the revelations of Hystaspes treated " of the Savior's incarnation."
Neither Clement nor Justin gives any information about Hystaspes personally; but according to Lactantius he was a very ancient Median king before the Trojan war. Despite the confused chronology, he was probably confounded with the father of Darius I., about whom it was told (Ammianus Marcellinus, XXIIL, vi. 32-33) that he learned among the Brahmins the laws of the movement of the world and the constellations, together with his religious practises, which he then communicated to his Magi. At all events, it is reasonable to assume that the " oracles of Hystaspes " were based on reminiscences of Persian religious history and doctrine. The doctrines of Zoroastrianism as to the conflict between Ormazd and Ahriman; as to the grievous tribulations in the last times; as to the appearing of the Soshyant, " savior," and his millennial kingdom; as to the great universal conflagration, and the ultimate reign of peace — all these might well have impressed a Christian of the first centuries as being so many echoes of Christian ideas. For that matter, indeed, even Zoroaster was regarded as a prophet of Christ; and both an apocalypse and some alleged mystic or cryptic books were designated as " Zoroastrian " (Harnack, Litteratur, i. 163, 173, 662, 932). Possibly, again (cf. Harnack), we have to deal with an originally Jewish writing. The limited information on the subject is, unfortunately, insufficient for shaping a definitive verdict as to the origin, contents, form, and purpose of the " oracles." G. Keuger.
Bibliography: Schiirer, Geschichte, iii. 450-453, Eng. transl. II., iii. 292-294 (gives the literature); E. Kuhn, Eine zoroastrische Weissagung in christlichem Gewande, in Festgruss an Rudolf von Roth, p. 217, Stuttgart, 1893; DCB, iii. 189; Neander, Christian Church, i. 176.
HYVERNAT, EUGENE XAVIER LOUIS: French Roman Catholic; b. at St. Julien-en- Jarre t (7 m. n.e. of St. Etienne), Loire, June 30, 1858. He was educated at the Petit Seminaire de St. Jean, Lyons (bachellier es lettres, University of Lyons, 1876), Seminaire de St. Sulpice, Issy (1877-79), and Seminaire de St. Sulpice, Paris (1879-82). He was then chaplain of San Luigi de' Francesi, Rome, in 1882- 1885, and interpreter of Oriental languages for the Propaganda, Rome, in 1885-89, as well as professor of Assyriology and Egyptology in the Pontificio Seminario Romano, Rome, in 1885-88. In 1888-89 he was in Armenia as chief of a scientific mission of the French government. Since 1889 he has been chief of the department of Semitic and Egyptian literatures in the Catholic University of America, Washington, D. C. Besides his work as editor of the Coptic portion of the Corpus Scriptorum Christ tanorum Orientalium, he has written Les Actcs des martyrs de I'Egypte tires des manuscrits copies de la bibliotheque vaticane et du musce Borgia, i. (Pans, 1887); Album de paleographie copte pour servir a V introduction paleographique des actes des martyrs de I'Egypte (1888) ; and Du Caucase au golfe persique, a travers VArmenie, le Kurdistan et la Misopotamie (in collaboration with P. Muller-Simonis, 1S92).