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Cuth

(Encyclopedia)Cuth kyo͞oˈthə [key], ancient city of Mesopotamia, near Babylon. The inhabitants, when settled in Samaria, introduced the worship of Nergal. In later times the Jews called the Samarians Cuthites (2...

Felix, Antonius

(Encyclopedia)Felix, Antonius, fl. a.d. 60, Roman procurator of Judaea, Samaria, Galilee, and Peraea (c.a.d. 52–a.d. 60), a freedman of Claudius I. He was judge of the apostle Paul. He married Drusilla, a Herodia...

Haman

(Encyclopedia)Haman āˈ– [key], in the Bible, favored minister of Ahasuerus. He commanded that all Jews be put to death. Esther interceded for her people, and Haman was hanged on the gallows he had set up for Mo...

Grätz, Heinrich

(Encyclopedia)Grätz or Graetz, Heinrich both: hīnˈrĭkh grĕts [key], 1817–91, German Jewish historian. He was the first modern historian to write, from a Jewish perspective, a comprehensive history of the Jew...

Gordon, Judah Leon

(Encyclopedia)Gordon, Judah Leon, 1830–92, Russian-Hebrew novelist and poet, b. Vilna. As teacher and writer he was one of the leaders in the renaissance of a progressive culture among the Jews (see Haskalah) and...

Cairo geniza

(Encyclopedia)Cairo geniza kōˈrō gənˈēzə [key], archive of ancient Jewish manuscripts found in the synagogue of Fostat-Cairo, Egypt (built 882). In the 1890s western scholars visited the synagogue and remove...

Zaretan

(Encyclopedia)Zaretan zärˈthăn [key], in the Bible, unlocated place in the valley of the Jordan, associated with the crossing of the Jews. Variants, all probably referring to the same place, are Zartanah, Zereda...

Stephen, Saint, Christian martyr

(Encyclopedia)Stephen, Saint, d. a.d. 36?, first Christian martyr, stoned at Jerusalem. He was one of the seven deacons. Accused of blasphemy, he was brought before the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem. His speech defending ...

Decapolis

(Encyclopedia)Decapolis dēkăpˈəlĭs [key] [Gr.,=ten cities], confederacy of 10 ancient cities, all E of the Jordan, except Scythopolis. The others were (according to Pliny) Dion, Pella, Gadara, Hippos, Gerasa, ...

Albumazar

(Encyclopedia)Albumazar älˌbo͞omäˈzər [key], 805?–885, Arab astronomer, more fully Abu-Mashar Jafar ibn Muhammad. In his De magnis conjunctionibus he claimed that the world had been created when the seven p...