EPISTLES, which occur under the same Hebrew word with books, namely, ספר, are mentioned the more rarely, the farther we go back into antiquity. An epistle is first mentioned, 2 Sam. xi, 14, &c. Afterward, there is more frequent mention of them; and sometimes an epistle is meant, when literally a messenger is spoken of, as in Ezra iv, 15–17. In the east, letters are commonly sent unsealed. In case, however, they are sent to persons of distinction, they are placed in a valuable purse, which is tied, closed over with wax or clay, and then stamped with a signet, Isaiah xxix, 11; Job xxxviii, 14. The most ancient epistles begin and end without either salutation or farewell; but under the Persian monarchy the salutation was very prolix. It is given in an abridged form in Ezra iv, 7–10; v, 7. The Apostles, in their epistles, used the salutation customary among the Greeks; but they omitted the usual farewell at the close, namely, χαίρειν, and adopted a benediction more conformable to the spirit of the Christian religion. St. Paul, when he dictated his letters, wrote the benediction at the close with his own hand, 2 Thess. iii, 17. He was more accustomed to dictate his letters than to write them himself.
The name Epistles is given, by way of eminence, to the letters written by the Apostles, or first preachers of Christianity, to particular churches or persons, on particular occasions or subjects. Of these the Apostle Paul wrote fourteen. St. James wrote one general epistle; St. Peter two; St. John three; and St. Jude one.
An epistle has its Hebrew name from its being rolled or folded together. The modern Arabs roll up their letters, and then flatten them to the breadth of an inch, and paste up the end of them, instead of sealing them. The Persians make up their letters in a roll about six inches long, and a bit of paper is fastened round it with gum, and sealed with an impression of ink, which resembles our printers’ ink, but is not so thick. Letters, as stated above, were generally sent to persons of distinction in a bag or purse; but to inferiors, or those who were held in contempt, they were sent open, that is, unenclosed. Lady M. W. Montagu says, the bassa of Belgrade’s answer to the English ambassador going to Constantinople was brought to him in a purse of scarlet satin. But, in the case of Nehemiah, an insult was designed to be offered to him by Sanballat, in refusing him the mark of respect usually paid to persons of his station, and treating him contemptuously, by sending the letter open, that is, without the customary appendages when presented to persons of respectability. “Futty Sihng,” says Mr. Forbes, “sent a chopdar to me at Dhuboy, with a letter of invitation to the wedding, then celebrating at Brodera at a great expense, and of long continuance. The letter, as usual, from oriental princes, was written on silver paper, flowered with gold, with an additional sprinkling of saffron, enclosed under a cover of gold brocade. The letter was accompanied with a bag of crimson and gold keem-caub, filled with sweet-scented seeds, as a mark of favour and good omen.”
EPOCH, a term in chronology signifying a fixed point of time, from which the succeeding years are numbered. Scaliger says it means “a stop,” because “in epochs stop and terminate the measures of times.” It now usually denotes a remarkable date; as, the epoch of the destruction of Troy, B. C. 1183, &c. The first epoch is the creation of the world, which, according to the Vulgate Bible, Archbishop Usher fixes in the year 710 of the Julian period, and 4004 years before Jesus Christ. The second is the deluge, which, according to the Hebrew text, happened in the year of the world 1656. Six other epochs are commonly reckoned in sacred history: the building of the tower of Babel, which was, according to Dr. Hales, B. C. 2554; the calling of Abraham, B. C. 2153; the departure of the Israelites out of Egypt, B. C. 1648; the dedication of the temple, B. C. 1027; the end of the Babylonish captivity, B. C. 536; and the birth of Jesus Christ, A. D. 1. In profane history are reckoned five epochs: the founding of the Assyrian empire, B. C. 1267; the era of Nabonassar, or death of Sardanapalus, B. C. 747; the reign of Cyrus at Babylon, B. C. 556; the reign of Alexander the Great over the Persians, B. C. 330; and the beginning of the reign of Augustus, in which our Saviour was born, B. C. 44.
ERA. The term era (not æra, as incorrectly written) is Spanish, signifying time, as in the phrase, de era en era, “from time to time.” It was first used in the Era Hispanica, instituted B. C. 38, in honour of Augustus, when Spain was allotted to him in the distribution of the provinces among the second triumvirate, Augustus, Anthony, and Lepidus. It now usually denotes an indefinite series of years, beginning from some known epoch; and so differs from a period which is a definite series: as the era of the foundation of Rome, the era of the Olympiads, the era of Nabonassar, &c. See [Epoch].
ESAR-HADDON, son of Sennacherib, and his successor in the kingdom of Assyria: called Sargon, or Saragon, Isa. xx, 1. He reigned twenty-nine years. He made war with the Philistines, and took Azoth, by Tartan, his general: he attacked Egypt, Cush, and Edom, Isa. xx, xxxiv; designing, probably, to avenge the affront Sennacherib his father had received from Tirhakah, king of Cush, and the king of Egypt, who had been Hezekiah’s confederates. He sent priests to the Cuthæans, whom Salmaneser, king of Assyria, had planted in Samaria, instead of the Israelites: he took Jerusalem, and carried King Manasseh to Babylon, of which he had become master, perhaps, because there was no heir to Belesis, king of Bayblon. He is said to have reigned twenty-nine or thirty years at Nineveh, and thirteen years at Babylon; in all forty-two years. He died A. M. 3336.
ESAU, son of Isaac and Rebekah, born A. M. 2168, B. C. 1836. When the time of Rebekah’s delivery came, she had twins, Gen. xxv, 24–26: the first-born was hairy, therefore called Esau; that is, a man full grown or of perfect age; but some derive Esau from the Arabic gescha or gencheva, which signifies a hair cloth. Esau delighted in hunting, and his father Isaac had a particular affection for him. On one occasion, Esau, returning from the fields greatly fatigued, desired Jacob to give him some red pottage, which he was then preparing. Jacob consented, provided Esau would sell him his birthright. Esau complied, and by oath resigned it to him, Gen. xxv, 29–34. Esau, when aged forty, married two Canaanitish women, Judith, daughter of Beeri, the Hittite; and Bashemath, daughter of Elon, Gen. xxvi, 34. These marriages were very displeasing to Isaac and Rebekah, because they intermingled the blood of Abraham with that of Canaanite aliens. Isaac being old, and his sight decayed, directed Esau to procure him delicate venison by hunting, that he might give him his chief blessing, Gen. xxvii. The artifice of his mother, however, counteracted his purpose; and she contrived to impose upon Isaac, and to obtain the father’s principal blessing for her son Jacob. Esau was indignant on account of this treachery and determined to kill Jacob as soon as their father should die. Rebekah again interposed, and sent Jacob away to her brother Laban, with whom he might be secure. During the period of separation, which lasted several years, Esau married a wife of the family of Ishmael; and, removing to Mount Seir, acquired great power and wealth. When Jacob returned, after long absence, to his father’s country, with a numerous family, and large flocks and herds, he dreaded his brother’s displeasure; but they had an amicable and affectionate interview. After their father’s death, they lived in peace and amity; but, as their possessions enlarged, and there was not sufficient room for them in the land in which they were strangers, Esau returned to Mount Seir, where his posterity multiplied under the denomination of Edomites. (See [Edom].) The time of his death is not mentioned; but Bishop Cumberland thinks it probable that he died about the same time with his brother Jacob, at the age of about one hundred and forty-seven years, Gen. xxv-xxxvi.
2. On the most important part of this history, the selling of the birthright, we may observe, (1.) That although it was always the design of God that the blessing connected with primogeniture in the family of Abraham should be enjoyed by Jacob, and to exercise his sovereignty in changing the succession in which the promises of the Abrahamic covenant might descend; yet the conduct of Rebekah and Jacob was reprehensible in endeavouring to bring about the divine design by the unworthy means of contrivance and deceit; and they were punished[punished] for their presumption by their sufferings. (2.) That the conduct of Esau in selling his birthright was both wanton and profane. It was wanton, because he, though faint, could be in no danger of not obtaining a supply of food in his father’s house; and was therefore wholly influenced by his appetite, excited by the delicacy of Jacob’s pottage. It was profane, because the blessings of the birthright were spiritual as well as civil. The church of God was to be established in the line of the first-born; and in that line the Messiah was to appear. These high privileges were despised by Esau, who is therefore made by St. Paul a type of all apostates from Christ, who, like him, profanely despise their birthright as the sons of God. See [Birthright].
ESDRAELON, Plain of, in the tribe of Issachar, extends east and west from Scythopolis to Mount Carmel; called, likewise, the Great Plain, the Valley of Jezreel, the Plain of Esdrela. Dr. E. D. Clarke observes, it is by far the largest plain in the Holy Land; extending quite across the country from Mount Carmel and the Mediterranean Sea to the southern extremity of the Sea of Galilee; about thirty miles in length, and twenty in breadth. It is also a very fertile district, abounding in pasture; on which account it has been selected for the purposes of encampment by almost every army that has traversed the Holy Land. Here Barak, descending with his ten thousand men from Mount Tabor, which rises like a cone in the centre of the plain, defeated Sisera, with his “nine hundred chariots of iron, and all the people that were with him, gathered from Harosheth of the Gentiles unto the river of Kishon; and pursued after the chariots and after the host unto Harosheth of the Gentiles; and all the host of Sisera fell upon the edge of the sword; and there was not a man left,” Judges iv. Here Josiah, king of Judah, fell, fighting against Necho, king of Egypt, 2 Kings xxiii, 29. And here the Midianites and the Amalekites, who were “like grasshoppers for multitude, and their camels without number as the sand of the sea,” encamped, when they were defeated by Gideon, Judges vi. This plain has likewise been used for the same purpose by the armies of every conqueror or invader, from Nabuchodonosor, king of Assyria, to his imitator, Napoleon Buonaparte, who, in the spring of 1799, with a small body of French, defeated an army of several thousand Turks and Mamelukes. Jews, Gentiles, Saracens, Christians, crusaders, and antichristian Frenchmen, Egyptians, Persians, Druses, Turks, and Arabs, warriors out of every nation which is under heaven, have pitched their tents in the Plain of Esdraelon; and have beheld the various banners of their nations wet with the dews of Tabor and of Hermon. And it is to this day generally found to be the place of encampment of large parties of Arabs.
ESDRAS, the name of two apocryphal books which were always excluded the Jewish canon, and are too absurd to be admitted as canonical by the Papists themselves. They are supposed to have been originally written in Greek by some Hellenistical Jews; though some imagine that they were first written in Chaldee, and afterward translated into Greek. It is uncertain when they were composed, though it is generally agreed that the author wrote before Josephus.