RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Ninck Nitschmann
NIRVANA. See Buddhism, § 4. NISAN. See Yeae.
NISROCH, nis'rec: The name of a deity in whose temple (or perhaps the name of the temple itself), according to II Kings xix. 37 and its parallel Isa. xxxvii. 38, Sennacherib was slain (see Assyria, VI., 3, § 12). The difficulties raised by the passage are three in number: the identity of the deity or the temple, the form of the name, and the place of the occurrence. The Biblical passages distinctly assert that Nisroch was Sennacherib's god; it would therefore be expected that the deity's name would be found in the Assyrian texts. But no such deity is known in Assyria or Babylonia, the nearest approach to the form being the name of the god Nusku (see Assyria, VII., § 6), which in the early alphabet in the form Nusuk might easily be misread for Nisrok, the form which the name takes in both passages of the Hebrew. In considering the form it is to be noted that the Greek versions in various manuscripts read Esdrach, Esthrach, Esorach, Asrach, Asarach, Asarak, and Nasarach; the Syriac and Vulgate follow the Hebrew and read, the former nswrk and nsrk, the latter Nesroch. The clear indication of all the Greek forms except one (which may have resulted from a late correction from the Hebrew) is that the reading before the translators lacked the initial N. But the variety of the forms given in the Greek indicates also a great uncertainty of reading in the original which does not promise a ready solution. Most of these forms point to a consonantal base composed of srh, 'srh, srk, or 'srk, in which the last letter creates great difficulty.
Attempts have been made to derive the word from the name of the god Asshur (see Assyria, I.), and in this one count is that such a derivation might suggest the reappearance of the original N which was assimilated to the following sh, though this is very unlikely. It has been supposed that to the form Asshur was added Aku, a Sumerian name for the moon-god. Against this it is to be urged that such a compound as Asshw-Aku is otherwise unknown; that the form Eriaku is not a parallel, this form being equal to the Semitic Ebed-Aku, " servant of Aku," and not a compound name; moreover, by the time of Sennacherib Asshur as a deity had assumed a majesty so great that composition with another deity, and, above all, a moon-deity, is hardly thinkable. The fact that the moon-god's name Sin is a component in the name of Sennacherib (Pinches, in DB, iii. 555) is hardly pertinent. An explanation has also been attempted by deriving the name so as to mean " the eagle god " from a root represented by the Arabic Nasr and Assyrian Nashru, " eagle, hawk." But no such deity has thus far been discovered in Assyrian environment. The Koran (Surah lxxi.; Palmer's transl., Am. ed., p. 303, cf. preface, p. xii.) knows of an idol Nasr worshiped by antediluvian Arabs, while the word figures on a South Arabian inscription (ZDMG, xxix. 600 sqq., 1875, and liii. 100, 1899). But neither of these provides for the Hebrew ending -ok or for the Greek -ach or -ak.
Cheyne proposes to read Marduk for the Hebrew Nisrok (Isaiah, in SBOT, p. 114, 1899), a suggestion
favored in Schrader, KAT, p. 396. This solution is a possibility, for although the two forms differ in the square character, in the forms in use before the square character came in the two words might easily be mistaken. But the difficulty here is that the Biblical narration clearly implies that Sennacherib met his death in Nineveh, while it is open to serious question whether Marduk ever had a temple or chapel in Nineveh. If it be assumed that the Hebrew writer either did not mean to imply Nineveh as the place of death, or that he left the matter open, Babylon is the likely place of the occurrence if Nisroch be a mistaken reading for Marduk. There is some probability that Sennacherib's return from his Egyptian expedition shortly before his death was in part due to a new rebellion in his Babylonian realm, and an inscription cited by Winckler (in Schrader, KAT, p. 85) seems to support this location of the event, which implies that Sennacherib's grandson Asshurbanipal took revenge in Babylon. But the entire construction is exceedingly problematic.
But one other proposal merits consideration. The Greek forms generally are not very remote from the name of the temple in the city of Asshur, which reads E-shara. The guttural at the end of the Greek forms might easily have arisen through a misunderstanding of the pronunciation of the final syllable of the Assyrian name. Geo. W. Gilmore.
Bibliography: J. Selden, De dis Syris, ii. 10, Amsterdam, 1680; L. Kulenkamp, De Nisroch idolo, Bremen, 1747; F. C. Movers, Religion und Gottheiten der Phbnizier, Bonn, 1841; P. Scholz, Gbtzendienst und Zavberwesen bei den alten Hebraern, pp. 391-393, Regensburg, 1877; J. Meinhold. Die Jesajaerzahlung, pp. 72-73, Gottingen, 1898; DB, iii. 555-556; EB, iii. 3424-25.
NITSCHMANN, nich'man, DAVID: Pioneer missionary and first bishop of the Unitas Fratrum; b. at Zauchtenthal (125 m. n.e. of Vienna), Moravia, Dec. 27, 1696; d. at Bethlehem, Pa., Oct. 8, 1772. In consequence of severe persecutions, he fled from his native country to Herrnhut (1727), and became a leader in the evangelistic work of the Moravians. Accompanied by Leonard Dober, he set out afoot for Copenhagen on Aug. 21, 1732, which day constitutes the anniversary of the beginning of Moravian missions. From Copenhagen they sailed to St. Thomas, where they arrived on Dec. 13, and began to preach the Gospel to the negro slaves. Nitschmann returned to Europe in the following year, and on Mar. 13, 1735, was consecrated to the episcopacy by Bishop Daniel Ernst Jablonsky at Berlin. Soon after, the new bishop led a body of Moravians to Georgia. John and Charles Wesley were on board the vessel which bore these immigrants across the Atlantic, and were much impressed by the piety and earnest simplicity of the Brethren. In the course of his life Nitschmann undertook many journeys on land and on sea in the interests of his church and for the spread of the kingdom of God. He labored in Germany, Livonia, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, in Great Britain, and in Georgia, North Carolina, New York, and Pennsylvania.
Bibliography: E. de Schweinitz, Fathers of the American Moravian Church, Bethlehem, 1881; J. Taylor Hamilton, A Hist, of the Moravian Church, chaps, iii.— xi., ib.,
1900.
Nitzsch Noah