THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
element in proper names among Sabians, and possibly among place-names in Judea and Midian. On zur as a divine name cf. A. Wicgand, in ZATW, 1S90, pp. So sqq. Geo. W. Gilmore.
Bibliography: Benzinger, Arch&ologie, pp. 314 sqq. et passim; Nowack, Arch&ologie, i. 90-93, ii. 17-21; Smith, Rel. of Scm., passim; idem, Kinship, pp. 292 sqq.; G. Baur, Geschichte der alttestamentliche Weissagung, i. 128- 131, Giessen, 1N61; F. Lenormant, in Comptes rendus de Vacademie des inscriptions et belles-lettres, 1868, pp. 318- 322; idem, in Revue de Vhistoire des religions, iii (1881), 31-53; W. von Baudissin, Studien zur semitischen Religionsgeschichte, vol. ii., Leipsic, 1S7S; Falconnet, in Memoires de Vacademie des inscriptions et belles-lettres, vi (1729), 513-532; F. Munter, Ueber die von Himmel gefallenen Steine, Leipsic. 1805; F. von Dalberg, Ueber den Meteor- Cullus der Alten, Heidelberg, 1811; C. R. Conder, Heth and Moab, pp. 190-267, London, 1883; idem, Syrian Stone Lore, ib. 1S86; R. Pietsehmann, Geschichte der Phimizier, pp. 205-213, Berlin, 1889; H. Schultz, O. T. TheoU"iy, i. 209-210, London, 1892; A. von Gall, Altisraelitische Kultsldtten, Giessen, 1898; A. S. Palmer, Studies on Biblical Subjects, no. II., London, 1899; S. I. Curtiss, Primitive Semitic Religion To-day, New York, 1902; P. Torge, Ashera und Astarte, pp. 29-35, Greifswald, 1902; E. B. Tylor, Primitive Culture, chap, xv., London, 1903; J. G. Frazer, Attis, Adonis and Osiris, London, 1906; Jane Ellen Harrison, Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion, Cambridge, 1908; Folk Lore, vi. 24 sqq.; Wellhausen. Heidenthum; the literature under Altar; DB, i. 75-77, iv. 2S9-290. 617-619.
MEMPHIS. See Noph.
MEN OF UNDERSTANDING. See Homines
Intelligently.
MEN AHEM: Sixteenth king of Israel, son of Gadi, usurper and successor of Shallum. His dates according to the old chronology are 772-763 B.C.; according to Kamphausen, 740-738; according to Curtis, 741-737 {DB, i. 401); according to Kittel, 740-737 The narrative in II Kings xv. 14-22 makes Menahem march from Tirzah and kill Shallum in Samaria, and then waste the region about Tappuah (so the corrected text) because that town had declined to receive him. Tirzah, the old capital of the northern kingdom, was doubtless well fortified, and Menahem was its commandant. He may have been the head of one of the two portions into which the kingdom split after the death of Jeroboam. His victory over Shallum must have been the result of a severe conflict, and Tappuah was doubtless the center of the opposition to Menahem (cf. Isa. ix. 19-20; Hos. vii. 7, viii. 4). The Biblical narrative also states that Pul (Tiglath- Pileser, see Assyria, VI., 3, § 9) came against the land and that Menahem paid him a tribute of 1,000 talents to be recognized as king. This does not involve that it was at Menahem's invitation that Tiglath-Pileser came, but it appears that the Assyrian had been in Syria as early as 740 B.C., that his intervention in Israel was a part of his general plan to reduce that land to a province of his empire, and that Menahem took advantage of the situation. It is hardly possible to allow to Menahem the full ten years assigned to his reign in II Kings xv. 17. His tribute to Pul belongs to the year 738, and he can not have reigned long after this to allow for the other reigns which fell before the destruction of Samaria •n "22. (R. Kittel.)
Bibliography: The sources are II Kings xv. 14 22. Consult: R. Kittel, Geschichte der Hebraer, ii, 46S-472, Gotha, 1909; DB, iii. 340; EB, iii. 3019-20; JE, viii. 465- 4m,, and the pertinent sections of the literature given under Ahab; and Israel, History of.
MENAION, me-nai'en: The breviary of the later Greek Church. It contains the prayers and hymns appointed for each feast and holy day of the year, together with short lives of the saints and martyrs. When it became too bulky, it was divided into twelve volumes, one for each month (whence the name, Gk. men, "month"), which are still extant, both in manuscript and in printed editions dating from the sixteenth century to the present time. They were published first at Venice, later elsewhere. (Philipp Meyer.)
Bibliography: Krumbacher, Geschichte, pp. 181, 1S5, 658- 659; Analecta Bollandiana, xiv (1895), 396-434; P. .Meyer, Die theologische Litteratur der griechischen Kirche, pp. 148 sqq., Leipsic, 1899; E. Legrand, Bibliographie hellenique, Paris, 1894-96.
MENANDER, me-nan'der: One of the oldest Gnostics . He was, according to Justin (A NF, i. 1 7 1 ) , born at Capparateia, a village in Samaria, and taught in Antioch. According to Irenseus (ANF, i. 348), he was a pupil of Simon Magus. He taught that there was a supreme power unknown to all, and pretended to have been sent from the invisible eons for the salvation of men. The world, according to him, was made by the angels who emanate from Mind. To those baptized by him he promised power over the world — creating angels, immortality, and eternal youth. He was the teacher of Saturninus or Saturnilus and of Basilides. It is not known whether this Samaritan-Syriac gnosis preceded and led to the Hellenistic variety, or whether the Hellenistic developed independently. If the former is the case the importance of Menander would lie in the fact that he formed the transition from Oriental to Hellenistic gnosticism. (G. Uhlhorn1\)
Bibliography: The sources are indicated in the text. Consult DCB, iii. 902.
MENDELSSOHN, MOSES: German Jewish philosopher; b. at Dessau (67 m. s.w. of Berlin) Sept. 6, 1729; d. in Berlin Jan. 4, 1786. He came of poor parents and pursued his studies in the Bible, the Talmud, Maimonides, and afterward modern languages and literatures, under great privations. In 1750 he became tutor in the family of a rich Jewish manufacturer in Berlin, in 1754 bookkeeper, and, later, partner in the firm. From about the same time date his intimate acquaintance with Lessing, Nicolai, Abbt, etc., an earnest study of the philosophy of Locke, Shaftesbury, Spinoza, and Wolff, and the beginning of his long and varied literary activity. His Phwdon, oiler von. der Unslerblichkeit der Seele (Berlin, 17(17; Fng. transl., Phaedon; or, the Death of Socrates, London, 17S1D, and M orgenstunden (1786), lectures on the existence of God and immortality, procured for him fame as a philosopher. He also deserves well for his efforts for the elevation, mental and moral, of his coreligionists in Germany, and especially in Berlin. Among his many books may be mentioned: Pope, ein Metajihysikcr (in collaboration with Lessing; 1755); Brief c fiber die Empfuutunijen (1755); Jem-