THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
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ZIMMERN, tsim’drn, HEINRICH: German Protestant; b. at Graben (20 m. s.w. of Heidelberg), Baden, July 14, 1862. He was educated at the universities of Leipsic (Ph.D., 1884) and Erlangen (1884-85); was curate in Baden (1885-87); a member of the staff of the university library at Leipsic (1887-88); privat-docent for Semitics successively at Konigsberg (1889-90) and Halle (1890-94); associate professor of Assyriology at Leipsic (1894- 1899); associate professor of Semitics at Breslau (1899-1900); and returned in 1901 to Leipsic to become professor of oriental languages. He has written Beitrdge zur Kenntnis der babylonischen Religion (3 parts, Leipsic, 1896-1901); and Vergleichende Grammatik der semitischen Sprachen (Berlin, 1898); and edited the Leipziger semitistische Studien (1904 sqq.).
ZIM’RI: Fifth king of Israel, usurper and successor of Elah, whom he slew. The source, I Kings xvi. 9-20, states that he was captain of half the chariots of Elah, that he killed his master while the latter was drinking and afterward exterminated the family; that he reigned only seven days, since the rest of the army, engaged in a campaign against the Philistines, chose Omri, the other army commander, for king and then besieged Tirzah, at that time the capital. When Zimri saw that the position was untenable, he fired the palace and perished in the flames. His deeds seem to have been regarded as unusually heinous even in a kingdom where change of dynasty by assassination was frequent (ef. IT Kings ix. 31).
The name appears also as the name of several Israelites: (1) son of Zerah (I Chron. ii. 6; but according to Josh. vii. 1 the name was Zabdi); (2) a Benjamite, descendant of Saul (I Chron. viii. 36, ix. 42). In Jer. xxv. 25 Zimri appears as the name of a region in connection with Elam and Media, but the locality and name have not been satisfactorily identified. (R. Krrret.) BIBLIOGRAPHY: Consult, besides the Bible dictionaries, the
literature on the period cited under AHAB; and ISRAEL,
HISTORY OF.
ZINZENDORF, tsin’tsen-derf, NICOLAUS
LUDWIG, COUNT.
Early Life and Education (§ 1).
Beginnings of Religious Activities (§ 2).
Relations with the Brethren; Theological Development (§ 3).
Activities as Leader of the Brethren (§ 4).
Last Years (§ 5).
Leading Idea; Literary Works (§ 6).
Count Nicolaus Ludwig Zinzendorf, founder of the Unity of the Brethren (q.v.), was born at Dresden May 26, 1700; d. at Herrnhut May 9, 1760. His ancestry on both sides was noble; his father, a
high Saxon official, died while the son
1. Early was a small infant; his early boyhood
Life and was passed under the care of his ma-
Education. ternal grandmother, who was a dis-
tinguished representative of Pietism,
and this influence became dominant in the formation of the boy’s character, since before his ninth year the aim of his life was the attainment of a living communion with Christ. Further education was gained at the Pidagogium at Halle (1710-16), where toward the end of his course he came into closer relations with Francke; the influence of this
period was also an abiding one, and the organization of societies of youth for the betterment of personal life and the diffusion of the Gospel gave promise of what he was later to accomplish. His own predilections were toward theology, but his family desired him to prepare himself for a career in the service of the State; he therefore took up the study of law at Wittenberg (1716-19), which did not prevent him from spending much time on the Bible, Luther’s works, and the writings of the Pietists. The years 1719-20 he spent in travel, in Holland coming into connection with prominent representatives of the Reformed theology and with those outside church circles. He came to an understanding of the bond which united all Christians, that which consisted in a relation of personal trust in Christ. In France a new circle of acquaintances was made, including the devout Cardinal Noailles, with whom the tie of their common love for Christ became a strong one. In the choice for personal lifework a career like that of Canstein in the orphan establishment was his preference; but his family was strongly opposed to this, and in deference to their wishes he took up his work as a counselor in Dresden in the late autumn of 1721. With a part of his patrimony he bought the estate of Berthelsdorf and as patron settled there the pastor and poet Johann Andreas Rothe; and in 1722 he married Countess Erdmute Dorothea, sister of his friend Heinrich, count of Reuss-Ebersdorf.
The way to the entrance upon official duties seemed at first to have been closed by Zinzendorf’s refusal to subscribe to the Formula of Concord, and
he was looking to service at the Da-
2. Begin- nish court when subscription was nings of waived and in 1721 he took up his Religious duties. But of his work there little is
Activities. known. His chief interest was in the formation of an ecclesiola like that of Spener’s, which found a nucleus on his own estate. With Friedrich von Watteville, Rothe, the pastor at Berthelsdorf, and Melchior Schiffer-Gorlitz he formed the ‘‘ Union of four Brethren ”’ bound to work for the interests of faith in Christ as a “ heartreligion.”’ Missions to the Jews and to the heathen were also in mind. In the winter of 1723-24 a building was begun which was intended to serve purposes like those of the Halle Pidagogium, which in 1727 became an orphan asylum. A printing-press was set up in order to further the proposed movement, and a series of tractates and two catechisms were issued. Those who were impressed by rationalism and were outside of church influences were sought through a weekly called Le Socrate de Dresde (1725-26), in which a sort of practical philosophy, proving religion to be a universal need, was expounded, reconciling a positive Christian piety with philosophic thought. The meetings at Gérlitz and at Dresden raised up opposition, and Zinzendorf sought to show the legitimacy of the assemblages by the Schmalkald Articles.
The Bohemian Brethren (q.v.) had spread from Bohemia and Moravia into Poland. The Bohemians had in 1609 formed a union with the Evangelical church of Bohemia, but in the Counter-Reformation the Bohemian and Moravian branches had become
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