THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
was more successful, for it ia clear from the Moabite Stone of Mesha (q.v.) that Omri occupied the land of Medeba " during his days and half the days of his son, forty years."
In the Assyrian inscriptions Omri, though not directly mentioned, is often implied, since the kingdom of Israel is frequently termed " the house of Omri," to which even Jehu is made by Shalmaneser to belong. This phrase clearly shows that Israel first came within the ken of Assyria during the reign of Omri. Although it is not known that Omri came into direct contact with the Assyrians, it seems probable that the marriage of his son Ahab (who came into hostile relations with Assyria) with the Tyrian princess Jezebel was due to political measures of his father's connected with the growing Assyrian peril. The failure rightly to estimate the power of Assyria, and the attempt to oppose it by a Phenician alliance, were destined to cost Omri's dynasty dear, for its overthrow by Jehu was doubtless inspired by, and effected under the protection of, Assyria. (R. Kittel.)
Bibliography: Consult the pertinent sections of the literature given under Ahab; Israel, History of; and Moabitb Stone; also the articles in the Bible dictionaries, especially DB, iii. 620-621.
ON: A city of ancient Egypt and capital of a district, called by the Greeks Heliopolis. Its insignificant ruins are located at the village Matariyah, about six miles northeast of Cairo. The local deities are the hawk-headed sun-god, Re-Harmachis (whence the Greek name of the city) and the human-headed Atum manifested in the sacred black bull Mnevis. Amenemhet I., first king of the twelfth dynasty, rebuilt an ancient temple to these deities in front of which his successor Sesostris I. erected two obelisks of which one yet stands. The priests of On were far-famed for the religious Egyptian literature that they produced and were celebrated even in the time of the Greeks for their wisdom. Joseph's wife was Asenath, the daughter of Potipherah, priest of On (Gen. xli. 45, 50, xlvi. 20) and On was one of the most important cities of Egypt (Ezek. xxx. 17). (G. Steindorff.)
Bibliography: J. H. Breasted, Ancient Records of Egypt, 4 vols., New York, 1906-07; idem, Hist, of Egypt, ib. 1905; idem, Hist, of the Ancient Egyptians, ib. 1908.
ONCKEN, enk'en, JOHANN GERHARD: Founder of the Baptist congregations in Germany; b. at Varel (35 m. n.w. of Bremen) Jan. 26, 1800; d. at Zurich Jan. 2, 1884. After his father had fled from under the yoke of the French to England, the boy was educated in the house of his grandmother, but received very little instruction, and owing to the prevailing rationalism only scanty religious impressions. In 1814 he became the apprentice of a Scotch merchant, and remained nine years in Scotland and England. He came in contact mainly with the independent congregations, was mightily influenced by the rich Christian life of Great Britain, and became familiar with the various works of charity and the flourishing work of the Sundayschools. After his conversion, he returned to Hamburg in 1823, in the service of the Continental Society, for the purpose of evangelizing. Together
with Pastor Rautenberg he rented a large hall and preached to constantly increasing crowds of people; and perceiving the desolate condition of schoolchildren in the poorer parts of Hamburg, he founded a Sunday-school society, like those of England whence he derived the funds, and on Jan. 9, 1825 the first Sunday-school was opened. The movement spread also to Bremen, where similar institutions were founded. Soon after his arrival he became a member and secretary of the Lower Saxon Tract Society, organized a temperance union, and in 1828, became agent of the Edinburgh Bible Society. In the minds of Oncken and bis little band of disciples, there arose doubts concerning the baptism of infants, and in 1834 he, together with his wife and five other persons, were immersed by the Baptist Barnas Sears. In this way the first Baptist congregation on the European continent was founded. Taunted as an " Anabaptist," and losing his former support and his connection with the tract society, he was taken up in 1835 by the American Baptist Missionary Society through the recommendation of Sears. The congregation grew to the number of sixty-eight members in 1836, among whom Julius Kobner was one of the most prominent. Through the distribution of religious literature and his travels, his views on baptism became widely known; so that in 1837 a small congregation was founded in Berlin, under the leadership of Gottfried Wilhelm Lehmann. The same year, because of a public disturbance, Oncken was imprisoned four weeks at Hamburg and his followers were scattered; but the refugees became propagandists wherever they went. Thus new congregations resulted; namely, in Stuttgart and Oldenburg, 1838, and the first Baptist congregation in Denmark, 1839-40, so the way was open for the expansion of the society in Sweden. In 1849, at a general conference at Hamburg, there were fifty-six delegates, representing thirty-seven Baptist congregations, with over 2,000 members, and here Oncken effected the organization of the United Congregations of Baptized Christians in Germany and Denmark, after the order of the Independents. Oncken now traveled throughout England and America, and carried his journeys even as far as Russia, collecting a building-fund for a central chapel at Hamburg. This chapel was enlarged and rebuilt in 1867. When the quarter-centennial was celebrated in 1859, the original seven had increased to 1,288 members. The latter part of Oncken's life was overshadowed by a controversy over church polity. In contrast with that of the Independents and Baptists in England and America, Oncken was intent upon a closer union of the German congregations, but in spite of all his efforts in this direction he could not stem the tide of decentralization. His following was threatened with division for a while, but at last a separation was averted, when Oncken yielded to the opposition. (G. GlESELBUSCH.) Bibliography: T. Dupree, Leben und Wirken von J. 0. Oncken, Cassel, 1900; J. Lehmann, Geschichte der deutschen Baptisten, 2 vols., Hamburg and Cassel, 1896-1900; G. Ecke, Die evangelischen Landeskirchen Deutschlands an 19. Jahrhundert, pp. 109-110, Berlin, 1904; J. H. Cooke, Johann Gerhard Oncken. His Life and Work, London, 1908.