ASSUMPTION

assumption, feast of. the feast of the "assumption of the blessed virgin mary" (lat. _festum assumptionis, dormitionis, depositionis, pausationis b. v. m._; gr. [greek: koimaesis] or [greek: analaephis taes theotokou]) is a festival of the christian church celebrated on the 15th of august, in commemoration of the miraculous ascent into heaven of the mother of christ. the belief on which this festival rests has its origin in apocryphal sources, such as the [greek: eis taen koimaesin taes uperagias despoinaes] ascribed to the apostle john, and the _de transitu mariae_, assigned to melito, bishop of sardis, but actually written about a.d. 400. pope gelasius i. (492-496) included them in the list of apocryphal books condemned by the _decretum de libris recipiendis et non recipiendis_; but they were accepted as authentic by the pseudo-dionysius (_de nominbus divinis c. 3_), whose writings date probably from the 5th century, and by gregory of tours (d. 593 or 594). the latter in his _de gloria martyrum_ (i. 4) gives the following account of the miracle: as all the apostles were watching round the dying mary, jesus appeared with his angels and committed the soul of his mother to the archangel michael. next day, as they were carrying the body to the grave, christ again appeared and carried it with him in a cloud to heaven, where it was reunited with the soul. this story is much amplified in the account given by st john of damascus in the homilies _in dormitionem mariae_, which are still read in the roman church as the lesson during the octave of the feast. according to this the patriarchs and adam and eve also appear at the death-bed, to praise their daughter, through whom they had been rescued from the curse of god; a jew who touches the body loses both his hands, which are restored to him by the apostles; and the body lies three days in the grave without corruption before it is taken up into heaven. the festival is first mentioned by st andrew of crete (c. 650), and, according to the byzantine historian nicephorus callistus (_hist. eccles._ xvii. 28), was first instituted by the emperor maurice in a.d. 582. from the east it was borrowed by rome, where there is evidence of its existence so early as the 7th century. in the gallican church it was only adopted at the same time as the roman liturgy. but though the festival thus became incorporated in the regular usage of the western church, the belief in the resurrection and bodily assumption of the virgin has never been defined as a dogma and remains a "pious opinion," which the faithful may reject without imperilling their immortal souls, though not apparently--to quote melchior cano (_de locis theolog._ xii. 10)--without "insolent temerity," since such rejection would be contrary to the common agreement of the church. by the reformed churches, including the church of england, the festival is not observed, having been rejected at the reformation as being neither primitive nor founded upon any "certain warrant of holy scripture." see herzog-hauck, _realencyklopadie_ (ed. 3), s. "maria"; mgr. l. duchesne, _christian worship_ (eng. trans., london, 1904); wetzer and welte, _kirchenlexikon_, s. "marienfeste"; the _catholic encyclopaedia_ (london and new york, 1907, &c.), s. "apocrypha," "assumption." assur (auth. vers. _asshur_), a hebrew name, occurring in many passages of the old testament, for the land and dominion of assyria.[1] the _country_ of assyria, which in the assyro-babylonian literature is known as _mat assur_ (_ki_), "land of assur," took its name from the ancient city of _assur_, situated at the southern extremity of assyria proper, whose territory, soon after the first assyrian settlement, was bounded on the n. by the zagros mountain range in what is now kurdistan and on the s. by the lower zab river. the kingdom of assyria, which was the outgrowth of the primitive settlement on the site of the city of assur, was developed by a probably gradual process of colonization in the rich vales of the middle tigris region, a district watered by the tigris itself and also by several tributary streams, the chief of which was the lower zab.[2] it seems quite evident that the _city_ of assur was originally founded by semites from babylonia at quite an early, but as yet undetermined date. in the prologue to the law-code of the great babylonian monarch khammurabi (c. 2250 b.c.), the cities of nineveh and assur are both mentioned as coming under that king's beneficent influence. assur is there called _a-usar_ (_ki_),[3] in which combination the ending _-ki_ ("land territory") proves that even at that early period there was a province of assur more extensive than the city proper. it is probable that this non-semitic form _a-usar_ means "well watered region,"[4] a most appropriate designation for the river settlements of assyria. the problem as to the meaning of the name assur is rendered all the more confusing by the fact that the city and land are also called _assur_ (as well as _a-usar_), both by the khammurabi records[5] and generally in the later assyrian literature. furthermore, the god- and country-name _assur_ also occurs at a late date in assyrian literature in the forms _an-sar, an-sar_ (_ki_), which form[6] was presumably read _assur_. in the creation tablet, the heavens personified collectively were indicated by this term _an-sar_, "host of heaven," in contradistinction to the earth = _ki-sar_, "host of earth." in view of this fact, it seems highly probable that the late writing _an-sar_ for _assur_ was a more or less conscious attempt on the part of the assyrian scribes to identify the peculiarly assyrian deity _asur_ (see assur, the god, below) with the creation deity an-sar. on the other hand, there is an epithet _asir_ or ashir ("overseer") applied to several gods and particularly to the deity _asur_, a fact which introduced a third element of confusion into the discussion of the name _assur_. it is probable then that there is a triple popular etymology in the various forms of writing the name _assur_; viz. _a-usar_,[7] _an-sar_ and the stem _asaru_, all of which is quite in harmony with the methods followed by the ancient assyro-babylonian philologists.[8] see also a.h. layard, _discoveries in the ruins of nineveh and babylon_ (1853); g. smith, _assyrian discoveries_ (1875); r.w. rogers, _history of babylonia and assyria_, i. 297; ii. 13; ii. 30, 76, 102; j.f. m'curdy, _history, prophecy and the monuments_, ss 74, 171 f., 247, 258, 283; 57, 59 f. (on the god). (j. d. pr.) footnotes: [1] the name assur is not connected with the asshur of 1 chron. ii. 24; ii. 45. note that it is customary to spell the god-name _asur_ and the country-name _assur_. [2] cf. rassam, _asshur and the land of nimrod_, 250-251, and many other works. [3] robert harper, _code of hammurabi_, pp. 6-7, lines 55-58. [4] thus already delitzsch, _wo lag das paradies?_ p. 252. the element _a_ means "water," and in _u-sar_ it is probable that _u_ also means "water," while _sar_ is "park, district." see prince, _materials for a sumerian lexicon_, s.v. _usar_. [5] the name appears as _as-sur_ (_ki_) and _as-su-ur_ (_ki_). see king, _letters and inscriptions of hammurabi_, iv. p. 23, obv. 27; and nagel, _beitrage zur assyriologie_, iv. p. 404; also _cun. texts from bab. tablets_, vi. pl. 19, line 7. [6] meissner-rost, _bauinschrift sanheribs_, k. 5413a; k. 1306, rev. 16. [7] see on this entire subject, morris jastrow, jr., _journal amer. orient. soc._, xxiv. pp. 282-311; also _die religion bab. u. assyr._, pp. 207 ff. [8] on the philological methods of the ancient babylonian priesthood, see prince, _materials for a sumerian lexicon_, introduction.