nasi, or prince, sat on a throne at the end of the hall, having his deputy at his right hand, and his sub-deputy at his left; the other senators were ranged in order on each side.

The sanhedrim subsisted until the destruction of Jerusalem, but its authority was almost reduced to nothing, from the time in which the Jewish nation became subject to the Roman empire. The rabbins pretend, that the sanhedrim has always subsisted in their nation from the time of Moses to the destruction of the temple by the Romans; and they maintain that it consisted of seventy counsellors, six out of each tribe, and Moses as president; and thus the number was seventy-one but six senators out of each tribe make the number seventy-two, which, with the president, constitute a council of seventy-three persons, and therefore it has been the opinion of some authors that this was the number of the members of the sanhedrim. As to the personal qualifications of the judges of this court, it was required that they should be of untainted birth; and they were often of the race of the priests or Levites, or of the number of inferior judges, or of the lesser sanhedrim, which consisted of twenty-three judges. They were to be skilful in the written and traditional law; and they were obliged to study magic, divination, fortune-telling, physic, astrology, arithmetic, and languages. It was also required, that none of them should be eunuchs, usurers, decrepid or deformed, or gamesters; and that they should be of mature age, rich, and of good countenance and body. Thus say the rabbins.

The authority of the sanhedrim was very extensive. This council decided causes brought before it by appeal from inferior courts. The king, High Priest, and prophets were subject to its jurisdiction. The general officers of the nation were brought before the sanhedrim. How far their right of judging in capital cases extended, and how long it continued, have been subjects of controversy. Among the rabbins it has been a generally received opinion, that, about forty years before the destruction of Jerusalem, their nation had been deprived of the power of life and death. And most authors assert, that this privilege was taken from them ever since Judea was made a province of the Roman empire, that is, after the banishment of Archelaus. Others, however, maintain that the Jews had still the power of life and death; but that this privilege was restricted to crimes committed against their law, and depended upon the governor's will and pleasure. In the time of Moses, this council was held at the door of the tabernacle of the testimony. As soon as the people were in possession of the land of promise, the sanhedrim followed the tabernacle, and it continued at Jerusalem, whither it was removed, till the captivity. During the captivity it was kept at Babylon. After the return from Babylon, it remained at Jerusalem, as it is

said, to the time of the sicarii or assassins; afterwards it was removed to Jamnia, thence to Jericho, to Uzzah, to Sepharvaim, to Bethsamia, to Sephoris, and last of all to Tiberias, where it continued till its utter extinction. Such is the account which the Jews give of their sanhedrim. But, as stated above, much of this is disputed. Petau fixes the beginning of the sanhedrim to the period when Gabinius was governor of Judea, by whom were erected tribunals in the five cities of Judea, namely, Jerusalem, Gadara, Amathus, Jericho, and Sephoris Grotius agrees in the date of its commencement with the rabbins, but he fixes its termination at the beginning of Herod's reign Basnage places it under Judas Maccabeus and his brother Jonathan. Upon the whole, it may be observed, that the origin of the sanhedrim has not been satisfactorily ascer tained; and that the council of the seventy elders, established by Moses, was not what the Hebrews understood by the name of sanhedrim.

Before the death of our Saviour, two very famous rabbins had been presidents of the sanhedrim, namely Hillel and Schammai, who entertained very different opinions on several subjects, and particularly that of divorce. This gave occasion to the question which the pharisees put to Jesus Christ upon that head, Matthew xix. 3. (See Divorce.) Hillel had Menahem for his associate in the presidency of the sanhedrim. But the latter afterwards deserted that honourable post. and joined himself, with a great number of his disciples, to the party of Herod Antipas who promoted the levying of taxes for the use of the Roman emperors with all his might. These were probably the Herodians mentioned in the gospel, Matthew xxii. lâ To Hillel succeeded Simeon his son, whe by some is supposed to have been the person who took Jesus Christ in his arms Luke ii. 28, and publicly acknowledged him to be the Messiah. If this be the case, the Jewish sanhedrim had for president a person that was entirely disposed to embrace Chris tianity. Gamaliel, the son and successor of Simeon, seems to have been also of s candid disposition and character. There were several inferior sanhedrims in Pales tine, all depending on the great sanhedra at Jerusalem. The inferior sanhedrin co sisted each of twenty-three persons; 2 there was one in each city and town. say, that to have a right to hold a hedrim, it was requisite there should one hundred and twenty inhabitants in th place. Where the inhabitants came short the number of one hundred and twenty, they only established three judges. In the gr as well as the inferior sanhedrim were t scribes; the one to write down the suffrage of those who were for condemnation, the other to take down the suffrages of thes who were for absolution.

SAPPHIRE, DD, Exod. xxiv. 10; v

18; Job xxviii. 6, 16; Cantic. v. 14; Isai. liv. 11: Ezek. i. 26; x. 1; xxviii. 13, σáwpepos, Rev. xxi. 19, only. That this is the sapphire, there can be no doubt. The Septuagint, the Vulgate, and the general run of commentators, ancient and modern, agree in this. The sapphire is a pellucid gem. In its finest state it is extremely beautiful and valuable, and second only to the diamond in lustre, hardness, and value. Its proper colour is pure blue; in the choicest specimens it is of the deepest azure; and in others varies into paleness, in shades of all degrees between that and a pure crystal brightness, without the least tinge of colour, but with a lustre much superior to the crystal. The oriental sapphire is the most beautiful and valuable. It is transparent, of a fine sky colour, sometimes variegated with veins of a white sparry substance, and distinct separate spots of a gold colour. Whence it is that the prophets describe the throne of God like unto sapphire, Ezek. i. 26; x. 1. Isaiah liv. 11, 12, prophesying the future grandeur of Jerusalem, says, "Behold, I lay thy stones in cement of vermillion, And thy foundations with sapphires: And I will make thy battlements of rubies, And thy gates of carbuncles;

And the whole circuit of thy walls shall be of precious

stones."

"These seem," says Bishop Lowth," to be general images to express beauty, magnificence, purity, strength, and solidity, agreeably to the ideas of the eastern nations; and to have never been intended to be strictly scrutinized, or minutely and particularly explained, as if they had each of them some precise moral or spiritual meaning." Tobit, xiii. 16, 17, in his prophecy of the final restoration of Israel, describes the New Jerusalem in the same oriental manner: "For Jerusalem shall be built up with sapphires, and emeralds, and precious stones; thy walls and towers, and battlements, with pure gold. And the streets of Jerusalem shall be paved with the beryl and carbuncle, and with stones of Ophir." Rev. xxi. 18-21.

SARAH, the wife of Abraham, and his sister, as he himself informs us, by the same father, but not the same mother, Gen. xx. 12. See ABRAHAM.

SARDIS, a city of Asia Minor, and formerly the capital of Croesus, king of the Lydians. The church of Sardis was one of the seven churches of Asia, to which the writer of the Apocalypse was directed to send an epistle, Rev. iii. 1-3.

SARDIUS, 78, so called from its redness, Exod. xxviii. 17; xxxix. 10; Ezek. xxviii. 13; σápdios, Rev. xxi. 20; a precious stone of a blood-red colour. It took its Greek name from Sardis, where the best of them were found.

SARDONYX, σapdóvu, Rev. xxi. 20. A precious stone which seems to have its name from its resemblance partly to the sardius and partly to the onyx. It is generally tinged with black and blood colour, which

are distinguished from each other by circles or rows, so distinct that they appear to be the effect of art.

SATAN signifies an adversary or enemy, and is commonly applied in the scriptures to the devil, or the chief of the fallen angels. By collecting the passages where satan, or the devil, is mentioned, it may be concluded, that he fell from heaven with his company; that God cast him down from thence for the punishment of his pride; that by his envy and malice, sin, death, and all other evils came into the world; that, by the permission of God, he exercises a sort of government in the world over subordinate apostate angels like himself; that God makes use of him to prove good men, and chastise bad ones; that he is a lying spirit in the mouth of false prophets and seducers; that it is he, or his agents, that torment or possess men, and inspire them with evil designs, as when he suggested to David, the numbering of the people, to Judas to betray his Lord and Master, and to Ananias and Sapphira to conceal the price of their field; that he is full of rage like a roaring lion, and of subtilty like a serpent, to tempt, to betray, to destroy, and to involve us in guilt and wickedness; that his power and malice are restrained within certain limits, and controlled by the will of God; in a word, that he is an enemy to God and man, and uses his utmost endeavours to rob God of his glory, and men of their souls. See DEVIL, and DEMONIACS.

SAUL, the son of Kish, of the tribe of Benjamin, the first king of the Israelites, 1 Sam. ix. 1, 2, &c. Saul's fruitless journey when seeking his father's asses; (see Ass ;) his meeting the prophet Samuel; the particu lars foretold to him, with his being anointed as king, about A. M. 2909; his prophesying along with the young prophets; his appointment by the lot; his modesty in hiding him. self; his first victory over the Ammonites; his rash sacrifice in the absence of Samuel; his equally rash curse; his victories over the Philistines and Amalekites; his sparing of king Agag, with the judgment denounced against him for it; his jealousy and persecution of David; his barbarous massacre of the priests and people of Nob; his repeated confessions of his injustice to David, &c., are recorded in 1 Sam. ix.-xxxi. He reigned forty years, but exhibited to posterity a melancholy example of a monarch, elevated to the summit of worldly grandeur, who, having cast off the fear of God, gradually became the slave of jealousy, duplicity, treachery, and the most malignant and diabolical tempers. His behaviour towards David shows him to have been destitute of every generous and noble sentiment that can dignify human nature; and it is not an easy task to speak with any moderation of the atrocity and baseness which uniformly mark it. His character is that of a wicked man, "waxing worse and worse;" but while we are shock

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ed at its deformity, it should be our study to profit by it, which we can only do by using it as a beacon to warn us, lest we also be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin." SCARLET, yb1n, Gen. xxxviii. 28; Exod. xxv. 4. This tincture or colour expressed by a word which signifies worm-colour, was produced from a worm, or insect which grew in a coccus, or excrescence of a shrub of the ilex kind, which Pliny calls coccus scolecius," the wormy berry, and Dioscorides terms " a small dry twig, to which the grains adhere like lentiles:" but these grains, as a great author observes on Solinus, are within full of little worms or maggots, whose juice is remarkable for dying scarlet, and making that famous colour which we admire, and with which the ancients were enraptured. We retain the name in the cochineal, from the opuntia of America; but we improperly call a mineral colour "vermilion," which is derived from vermiculus, a little worm. The shrub on which the cochineal insect is found is sometimes called the "kermez-oak," from kermez, the Arabic word both for the worm and the colour; whence carmasinus," the French "cramoisi," and the English "crimson." SCEPTRE, a word derived from the Greek, properly signifies, a rod of command, a staff of authority, which is supposed to be in the hands of kings, governors of a province, or of the chief of a people, Gen. xlix. 10; Num. xxiv. 17; Isai. xiv. 5. The sceptre is put for the rod of correction, and for the sovereign authority that punishes and humbles, Psalm ii. 9; Prov. xxii. 15. The term sceptre is frequently used for a tribe, probably because the prince of each tribe carried a sceptre, or a wand of command, to show his dignity.

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xii. 11, 14; 2 Chron. x. 11, 14: Ezek. ii. 6. σnopios, Luke x. 19; xi. 12; Rev. ix. 3; Ec. clus. xxvi. 7; xxxix. 30. Parkhurst derives the name from py, to press, squeeze, and 21, much, greatly, or 17p, near, close. Calmet remarks, that "it fixes so violently on such persons as it seizes upon, that it cannot be plucked off without difficulty;" and Martinius declares: Habent scorpii forfices seu furcas tanquam brachia, quibus retinent quod apprehendunt, postquam cauda aculeo punserunt: " Scorpions have pincers or nippers, with which they keep hold of what they seize after they have wounded it with their sting."

The scorpion, el-akerb, is generally two inches in length, and resembles so much the lobster in form, that the latter is called by the Arabs akerb d'elbahar, the "sea-scorpion." It has several joints or divisions in its tail, which are supposed to be indicative of its age; thus, if it have five, it is consi dered to be five years old. The poison of this animal is in its tail, at the end of which is s small, curved, sharp-pointed sting, similar to the prickle of a buck-thorn tree; the curve being downwards, it turns its tail upwards when it strikes a blow. The scorpion delights in stony places and in old ruins. Some are of a yellow colour, others brown, and some black. The yellow possess the strongest poison, but the venom of each affects the part wounded, with frigidity, which takes place soon after the sting has been inflicted. Dioscorides thus describes the effect produced: "Where the scorpion has stung, the place becomes inflamed and hardened; it reddens by tension, and s painful by intervals, being now chilly, now burning. The pain soon rises high, an rages, sometimes more, sometimes less. A sweating succeeds, attended by a shivering and trembling; the extremities of the boy become cold; the groin swells; the har stands on end; the visage becomes pale, and the skin feels, throughout it, the sens tion of perpetual prickling, as if by nee dles." This description strikingly illustrates Rev. ix. 3—5, 10, in its mention of "the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man."

Some writers consider the scorpion as a species of serpent, because the poison of it equally powerful: so the sacred writers c monly join the scorpion and serpent toge ther in their descriptions. Thus Moses, his farewell address to Israel, Deut. viii. 15. reminds them, that God "led them throug the great and terrible wilderness, where were fiery serpents and scorpions." " find them again united in the commission our Lord to his disciples, Luke x. 19," give you power to tread upon serpents scorpions, and over all the power enemy;" and, in his directions concerni the duty of prayer, Luke xi. 11, 12, "F father, will he give him a stone? or if he son shall ask bread of any of you that is

of the

shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?"

The scorpion is contrasted with an egg, on account of the oval shape of its body. The body of the scorpion, says Lamy, is very like an egg, as its head can scarcely be distinguished; especially if it be a scorpion of the white kind, which is the first species mentioned by Ælian, Avicenna, and others. Bochart has produced testimonies to prove that the scorpions in Judea were about the bigness of an egg. So the similitude is preserved between the thing asked and given. The Greeks have a proverb, ἀντὶ πέρκης σκορ. lov, instead of a perch, or fish, a scorpion. SCOURGE, or WHIP. This punishment was very common among the Jews, Deut. XXV. 1-3. There were two ways of giving the lash; one with thongs, or whips, made of ropes' ends, or straps of leather; the other with rods, or twigs. St. Paul informs us, that at five different times he received thirty-nine stripes from the Jews, 2 Cor. xi. 24, namely, in their synagogues, and before their courts of judgment. For, according to the law, punishment by stripes was restricted to forty at one beating, Deut. xxv. 3. But the whip, with which these stripes were given, consisting of three separate cords, and each stroke being accounted as three stripes, thirteen strokes made thirty-nine stripes, beyond which they never went. He adds, that he had been thrice beaten with rods, namely, by the Roman lictors, or beadles, at the command of the superior magistrates.

SCRIBES. The scribes are mentioned very early in the sacred history, and many authors suppose that they were of two descriptions, the one ecclesiastical, the other civil. It is said, "Out of Zebulon come they that handle the pen of the writer," Judges v. 14; and the rabbins state, that the scribes were chiefly of the tribe of Simeon; but it is thought that only those of the tribe of Levi were allowed to transcribe the holy scriptures. These scribes are very frequently called, wise men, and counsellors; and those of them who were remarkable for writing well were held in great esteem. In the reign of David, Seraiah, 2 Sam. viii. 17, in the reign of Hezekiah, Shebna, 2 Kings xviii. 18, and in the reign of Josiah, Shaphan, 2 Kings xxii. 3, are called scribes, and are ranked with the chief officers of the kingdom; and Elishama the scribe, Jer. xxxvi. 12, in the reign of Jehoiakim, is mentioned among the princes. We read also of the "principal scribe of the host," or army, Jer. lii. 25; and it is probable that there were scribes in other departments of the state. Previous to the Babylonian captivity, the word scribe seems to have been applied to any person who was concerned in writing, in the same manner as the word secretary is with us. The civil scribes are not mentioned in the New Testa

ment.

It appears that the office of the ecclesiastical scribes, if this distinction be allowed,

was originally confined to writing copies of the law, as their name imports; but the knowledge, thus necessarily acquired, soon led them to become instructers of the people in the written law, which, it is believed, they publicly read. Baruch was an amanuensis or scribe to Jeremiah; and Ezra is called "a ready scribe in the law of Moses, having prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments," Ezra vii. 6, 10; but there is no mention of the scribes being formed into a distinct body of men till after the cessation of prophecy. When, however, there were no inspired teachers in Israel, no divine oracle in the temple, the scribes presumed to interpret, expound, and comment upon the law and the prophets in the schools and in the synagogues. Hence arose those numberless glosses, and interpretations, and opinions, which so much perplexed and perverted the text instead of explaining it; and hence arose that unauthorized maxim, which was the principal source of all the Jewish sects, that the oral or traditionary law was of divine origin, as well as the written law of Moses. Ezra had examined the various traditions concerning the ancient and approved usages of the Jewish church, which had been in practice before the captivity, and were remembered by the chief and most aged of the elders of the people; and he had given to some of these traditionary customs and opinions the sanction of his authority. The scribes, therefore, who lived after the time of Simon the Just, in order to give weight to their various interpretations of the law, at first pretended that they also were founded upon tradition, and added them to the opinions which Ezra had established as authentic; and in process of time it came to be asserted, that when Moses was forty days on Mount Sinai, he received from God two laws, the one in writing, the other oral; that this oral law was communicated by Moses to Aaron and Joshua, and that it passed unimpaired and uncorrupted from generation to generation, by the tradition of the elders, or great national council, established in the time of Moses; and that this oral law was to be considered as supplemental and explanatory of the written law, which was represented as being in many places obscure, scanty, and defective. In some cases they were led to expound the law by the traditions, in direct opposition to its true intent and meaning; and it may be supposed that the intercourse of the Jews with the Greeks, after the death of Alexander, contributed much to increase those vain subtleties with which they had perplexed and burdened the doctrines of religion. During our Saviour's ministry, the scribes were those who made the law of Moses their particular study, and who were employed in instructing the people. Their reputed skill in the scriptures induced Herod, Matt. ii. 4, to consult them concerning the time at which the Messiah was to be born. And our Savi

our speaks of them as sitting in Moses's seat, Matt. xxiii. 2, which implies that they taught the law; and he foretold that he should be betrayed unto the chief priests and unto the scribes, Matt. xvi. 21, and that they should put him to death, which shows that they were men of great power and authority among the Jews. Scribes, doctors of law, and lawyers, were only different names for the same class of persons. Those who in Luke v. are called pharisees and doctors of the law, are soon afterwards called pharisees and scribes; and he who, in Matt. xxii. 35, is called a lawyer, is, in Mark xii. 28, called one of the scribes. They had scholars under their care, whom they taught the knowledge of the law, and who, in their schools, sat on low stools just beneath their seats; which explains St. Paul's expression that he was "brought up at the feet of Gamaliel," Acts xxii. 3. We find that our Saviour's manner of teaching was contrasted with that of those vain disputers; for it is said, when he had ended his sermon upon the mount, "the people were astonished at his doctrine; for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes," Matt. vii. 29. By the time of our Saviour, the scribes had, indeed, in a manner, laid aside the written law, having no farther regard to that than as it agreed with their traditionary expositions of it; and thus, by their additions, corruptions, and misinterpretations, they had made "the word of God of none effect through their traditions," Matt. xv. 6. It may be observed, that this in a great measure accounts for the extreme blindness of the Jews with respect to their Messiah, whom they had been taught by these commentators upon the prophecies to expect as a temporal prince. Thus, when our Saviour asserts his divine nature, and appeals to "Moses and the prophets who spake of him, the people sought to slay him," John v. ; and he expresses no surprise at their intention. But when he converses with Nicodemus, John iii., who appears to have been convinced by his miracles that he was "a teacher sent from God," when he "came to Jesus by night," anxious to obtain farther information_concerning his nature and his doctrine, our Lord, after intimating the necessity of laying aside all prejudices against the spiritual nature of his kingdom, asks, "Art thou a master in Israel, and knowest not these things?" that is, knowest not that Moses and the prophets describe the Messiah as the Son of God? And he then proceeds to explain in very clear language the dignity of his person and office, and the purpose for which he came into the world, referring to the predictions of the ancient scriptures. And Stephen, Acts vii., just before his death, addresses the multitude by an appeal to the law and the prophets, and reprobates in the most severe terms the teachers who misled the people. Our Lord, when speaking of "them of old time," classed the "prophets, and wise men,

and scribes," together, Matt. xxiii. 34; but of the later scribes he uniformly speaks with censure and indignation, and usually joins them with the pharisees, to which sect they in general belonged. St. Paul asks, 1 Cor. i. 20, "Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world?" with evident contempt for such as, "professing themselves wise above what was written, became fools."

SCRIPTURE, a term most commonly used to denote the writings of the Old and New Testament, which are sometimes called The Scriptures, sometimes the sacred or holy writings, and sometimes canonical scripture. See BIBLE.

SEA. The Hebrews gave the name of sea to all great collections of water, to great lakes or pools. Thus the Sea of Galilee, or of Tiberias, or of Cinnereth, is no other than the Lake of Tiberias, or Gennesareth, in Galilee. The Dead Sea, the Sea of the Wilderness, the Sea of the East, the Sea of Sodom, the Sea of Salt, or the Salt Sea, the Sea of Asphaltites, or of bitumen, is no other than the Lake of Sodom. The Arabians and orientals in general frequently gave the name of sea to great rivers, as the Nile, the Euphrates, the Tigris, and others, which, by their magnitude, and by the extent of their overflowings, seemed as little seas, or great lakes. In Isaiah xi. 15, these words particu larly apply to the Nile at the Delta.

SEAL. The ancient Hebrews wore their seals, or signets, in rings on their fingers, or in bracelets on their arms, as is now the custom in the east. Haman sealed the decree of king Ahasuerus against the Jews with the king's seal, Esther iii. 12. The priests of Bel desired the king to seal the door of their temple with his own sea! The spouse in the Canticles, viii. 6, wishes that his spouse would wear him as a signet on her arm. Pliny observes, that the use of seals or signets was rare at the time of the Trojan war, and that they were under the necessity of closing their letters with several knots. But among the Hebrews they are much more ancient. Judah left his seal as a pledge with Tamar, Gen. xxxviii. 25. Moses says, Deut. xxxii. 34, that God keeps sealed up in his treasuries, under his own seal, the instruments of his vengeance. Job says, ix. 7. that he keeps the stars as under his seal, and allows them to appear when he thinks pro per. He says also, "My transgression sealed up in a bag," Job xiv. 7. When they intended to seal up a letter, or a book, ther wrapped it round with flax, or thread, thes applied the wax to it, and afterwards the seal. The Lord commanded Isaiah to tie p or wrap up the book in which his prophecies were written, and to seal them till the time he should bid him publish them, Isaiah VEL 16, 17. He gives the same command to Daniel, xii. 4. The book that was shown to St. John the evangelist, Rev. v. 1, vi. 1, 2, &c., was sealed with seven seals. It was