RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Segneri Selah
parents were Moravian, but he became a student in Pennsylvania College, Gettysburg, 1839-41, without graduating; and his theological study was mostly private. He became pastor at Martinsburg and Shepherdstown, Va., 1843; Cumberland, Md., 1847; Baltimore, Md., 1852; of St. Johns, Philadelphia, 1858; and of Holy Communion, Philadelphia, 1874. He was one of the most eloquent preachers of the country, possessing a style that was clear, ornate, and forceful. He was one of the founders of the General Council, and one of the committee which made its Church Book. He edited Prophetic Times, a monthly, 1863-75; was joint editor of The Lutheran, 1860-61 ; of The Lutheran and Missionary, 1861-73; editor of the latter, 1873-79; and traveled in Europe and the East, 1864-65. He was the author of Lectures on Epistles to the Hebrews (Baltimore, 1846) ; Baptist System Examined (Philadelphia, 1854); Digest of Christian Doctrine (1855) ; Last Times (1856); Holy Types (1860); Book of Forms (1860); Evangelical Psalmist (1860); Parable of the Ten Virgins (1862); Ecclesia Lutherana (1867); Plain Words, sermons (1869); Lectures on the Apocalypse (3 vols., 1870-84; 6th ed., 1900); The Javelin, by a Lutheran (1871) ; Uriel, Occasional Discourses (1874); Church Song (1875-81); Lectures on the Gospels (2 vols., 1876); A Miracle in Stone (1877); Recreation Songs (1878); Thirty-three Practical Sermons (1879); Voices from Babylon (1879); Blossoms of Faith, sermons (1880); The Golden Altar, manual of private devotions (New York, 1882); Gospel in the Stars (Philadelphia, 1882) ; Luther and the Reformation (1883) ; Lectures on the Epistles (2 vols., 1885); Right Life (1886); Letters of Jesus (1889); Beacon Lights (1900); The Christ and his Church (1902); and Recent Sermons (1904).
SEITZ, saits, ANTON: German Roman Catholic; b. at Windsheim (30 m. s.e. of Wiirzburg), Bavaria, May 27, 1869. He was educated at the universities of Leipsic and Munich (1887-88), and then studied theology at Wiirzburg from 1888 to 1892, after which he was curate at Hammelsburg. From 1895 to 1897 he studied philosophy at Munich (Ph.D., 1897), and in 1902 became privat-docent at Wiirzburg. Since 1904 he has been professor of apologetics at the University of Munich. Among his works are: Die Apologie des Christentums bei den Griechen des vierten und filnften Jahrhunderts in historisch-systematischer Darstellung (Wiirzburg, 1895); Die Willensfreiheit in der Philosophie des Christian August Crusius gegenuber dem Leibnitz-Wolff schen Determinismus in historisch-psychologischer Begrundung und systematischen Zusammenhang (1899) ; Willensfreiheit und moderner psychologischer Determinismus (Cologne, 1902); Die Heilsnotwendigkeit der Kirche nach der altchristlichen Literatur bis zur Zeit des heiligen Augustinus (Freiburg, 1903); Christuszeugnisse aus dem klassischen Alter turn von ungldubiger Seite (Cologne, 1906); and Das Evangelium vom Gottessohn. Eine Apologie der wesenhaften Gottessohnschaft gegenuber der Kritik der modernsten deutschen Theologie (1908).
SELAH (SELA): The former capital of Edom (q.v.), mentioned II Kings xiv. 7 and Isa. xvi. 1. X.— 22
The name means " rock " (cf. Gk. Petra, and Judges i. 36; Isa. xlii. 11). It is situated sixty miles north of Elath and seventy miles south from the Dead Sea, in the Wadi Musa, a deep cleft of the Mount- Seir range, near the foot of Mount Hor. It is approached through a narrow defile on the east, a mile and a half long, called the Sik (" cleft ") of Wadi Musa. The rock of red sandstone towers to a height of from 100 to 300 feet above the floor of the wadi, and in places the way is so narrow that the traveler can almost touch the sides on either hand. Once the way was paved, and bits of the pavement can be seen. Abruptly the traveler comes upon the so-called Khaznet Fir'aun (" treasury of Pharaoh "), really a temple cut from the living rock, with a facade eighty-five feet high, beautifully sculptured, and in remarkable preservation. Two hundred yards farther along the valley, which widens considerably at this point, is the amphitheater, also entirely from the rock, thirty-nine yards in diameter, and with thirty-three tiers of seats, accommodating from 3,000 to 4,000 spectators. Farther on there are curious tombs, some very elaborate, other temples, chief of which is the Kasr Fir'aun (" palace of Pharaoh "), a ruined basilica, and a triumphal arch.
Besides the Biblical passages noted above, reference to this place may perhaps be seen in the work " rock " in II Chron. xxv. 11, 12; Jer. xlix. 16-18; Ob. 3. Nothing definite is known of the history of the place before its capture by Amaziah (II Kings xiv. 7), who renamed it Joktheel. The Nabatseans conquered the region c. 300 B.C., and made Selah, under its Greek form Petra, their capital. The city rose into prominence, being upon the high-road between Arabia and Syria, and so important for the caravan trade. The Seleucidae made vain attempts to take it. Pompey captured the whole region called by Greek writers Arabia Petraea, i.e., Arabia whose capital is Petra. In Petra, Hyrcanus II. and his son Herod, afterward Herod the Great, found a hiding-place (Joseph, Ant., XIV., i. 4; War, I., vi., 2, xiii. 8). In the first Christian centuries Petra was the capital of a Roman province, and it is from this period that the ruins most in evidence date. It became an episcopal see, and its bishops are mentioned as late as 536 a.d. It was destroyed by the Mohammedans probably between 629 and 632, was lost to knowledge till rediscovered by the Egyptian rulers in the thirteenth century, and then again sank completely out of notice until Seetzen, in 1807, visited it, and gave the world the wondrous tale. It is now quite often visited by tourists and other travelers.
Bibliography: K. Baedeker, Palestine and Syria, pp. 176- 183, Leipsic, etc., 1906; J. L. Burckhardt, Travels in Syria and the Holy Land, London, 1822; L. de Leborde, Journey through Arabia Petr&a, London, 1838; E. H. Palmer, Desert of the Exodus, pp. 366 sqq., 440 sqq., Cambridge, 1871; E. Hull, Mount Seir, Sinai, and Western Palestine, London, 1885; J. Barth, in American Journal of Semitic Languages, xiii (1896-97), 267-268; J. Lagrange, in Revue biblique internationale, vi (1897), 208— 230, vii (1898), 165-182; T. Noldeke, in ZA, xii (1897), 1-7; M. de Vogue, in Revue biblique internationale, vi (1897), 231-238; JBL (1899), 132 sqq.; DB, iv. 430-431; EB, iv. 4344-45; and the literature under Edom.
Selab SeleucidsB