EPHOD

ephod, a hebrew word (_ephod_) of uncertain meaning, retained by the translators of the old testament. in the post-exilic priestly writings (5th century b.c. and later) the ephod forms part of the gorgeous ceremonial dress of the high-priest (see ex. xxix. 5 sq. and especially ecclus. xlv. 7-13). it was a very richly decorated object of coloured threads interwoven with gold, worn outside the luxurious mantle or robe; it was kept in place by a girdle, and by shoulder-pieces (?), to which were attached brooches of onyx (fastened to the robe) and golden rings from which hung the "breastplate" (or rather pouch) containing the sacred lots, urim and thummim. the somewhat involved description in ex. xxviii. 6 sqq., xxxix. 2 sqq. (see v. ryssel's ed. of dillmann's commentary on ex.-lev.) leaves it uncertain whether it covered the back, encircling the body like a kind of waistcoat, or only the front; at all events it was not a garment in the ordinary sense, and its association with the sacred lots indicates that the ephod was used for divination (cf. num. xxvii. 21), and had become the distinguishing feature of the leading priestly line (cf. 1 sam. ii. 28).[1] but from other passages it seems that the ephod had been a familiar object whose use was by no means so restricted. like the teraphim (q.v.) it was part of the common stock of hebrew cult; it is borne (rather than worn) by persons acting in a priestly character (samuel at shiloh, priests of nob, david), it is part of the worship of individuals (gideon at ophrah), and is found in a private shrine with a lay attendant (micah; judg. xvii. 5; see, however, vv. 10-13).[2] nevertheless, while the prophetical teaching came to regard the ephod as contrary to the true worship of yahweh, the priestly doctrine of the post-exilic age (when worship was withdrawn from the community at large to the recognized priesthood of jerusalem) has retained it along with other remains of earlier usage, legalizing it, as it were, by confining it exclusively to the aaronites. an intricate historical problem is involved at the outset in the famous ephod, which the priest abiathar brought in his hand when he fled to david after the massacre of the priests of nob. it is evidently regarded as the one which had been in nob (1 sam. xxi. 9), and the presence of the priests at nob is no less clearly regarded as the sequel of the fall of shiloh. the ostensible intention is to narrate the transference of the sacred objects to david (cf. 2 sam. i. 10), and henceforth he regularly inquires of yahweh in his movements (1 sam. xxiii. 9-12, xxx. 7 sq.; cf. xxiii. 2, 4; 2 sam. ii. 1, v. 19-23). it is possible that the writer (or writers) desired to trace the earlier history of the ephod through the line of eli and abiathar to the time when the zadokite priests gained the supremacy (see levites); but elsewhere abiathar is said to have borne the ark (1 kings ii. 26; cf. 2 sam. vii. 6), and this fluctuation is noteworthy by reason of the present confusion in the text of 1 sam. xiv. 3, 18 (see commentaries). on one view, the ark in kirjath-jearim was in non-israelite hands (1 sam. vii. 1 sq.); on the other, saul's position as king necessitates the presumption that his sway extended over judah and israel, including those cities which otherwise appear to have been in the hands of aliens (1 sam. xiv. 47 sq.; cf. xvii. 54, &c.). there are some fundamental divergencies in the representations of the traditions of both david and saul (qq.v.), and there is indirect and independent evidence which makes 1 kings ii. 26 not entirely isolated. here it must suffice to remark that the ark, too, was also an object for ascertaining the divine will (especially judg. xx. 26-28; cf. 18, 23), and it is far from certain that the later records of the ark (which was too heavy to be borne by one), like those of the ephod, are valid for earlier times. for the form of the earlier ephod the classic passage is 2 sam. vi. 14, where david girt in (or with) a linen ephod dances before the ark at its entry into jerusalem and incurs the unqualified contempt of his wife michal, the daughter of saul. relying upon the known custom of performing certain observances in a practically, or even entirely, nude condition, it seems plausible to infer that the ephod was a scanty wrapping, perhaps a loin-cloth, and this view has found weighty support. on the other hand, the idea of contempt at the exposure of the person, to whatever extent, may not have been so prominent, especially if the custom were not unfamiliar, and it is possible that the sequel refers more particularly to grosser practices attending outbursts of religious enthusiasm.[3] the favourite view that the ephod was also an image rests partly upon 1 sam. xxi. 9, where goliath's sword is wrapped in a cloth in the sanctuary of nob _behind the ephod_. but it is equally natural to suppose that it hung on a nail in the wall, and apart from the omission of the significant words in the original septuagint, the possibility that the text read "ark" cannot be wholly ignored (see above; also g.f. moore, _ency. bib._ col. 1307, n. 2). again, in the story of micah's shrine and the removal of the sacred objects and the levite priest by the danites, parallel narratives have been used: the graven and molten images of judg. xvii. 2-4 corresponding to the ephod and teraphim of ver. 5. throughout there is confusion in the use of these terms, and the finale refers only to the graven image of dan (xviii. 30 sq., see 1 kings xii. 28 sq.). but the combination of ephod and teraphim (as in hos. iii. 4) is noteworthy, since the fact that the latter were images (1 sam. xix. 13; gen. xxxi. 34) could be urged against the view that the former were of a similar character. finally, according to judg. viii. 27, gideon made an ephod of gold, about 70 lb. in weight, and "put" it in ophrah. it is regarded as a departure from the worship of yahweh, although the writer of ver. 33 (cf. also ver. 23) hardly shared this feeling; it was probably something once harmlessly associated with the cult of yahweh (cf. calf, golden), and the term "ephod" may be due to a later hand under the influence of the prophetical teaching referred to above. the present passage is the only one which appears to prove that the ephod was an image, and several writers, including lotz (_realencyk. f. prot. theol._ vol. v., s.v.), t.c. foote (pp. 13-18) and a. maecklenburg (_zeit. f. wissens. theol._, 1906, pp. 433 sqq.) find this interpretation unnecessary. archaeological evidence for objects of divination (see, e.g., the interesting details in ohnefalsch-richter, _kypros, the bible and homer_, i. 447 sq.), and parallels from the oriental area, can be readily cited in support of any of the explanations of the ephod which have been offered, but naturally cannot prove the form which it actually took in palestine. since images were clothed, it could be supposed that the diviner put on the god's apparel (cf. _ency. bib._ col. 1141); but they were also plated, and in either case the transference from a covering to the object covered is intelligible. if the ephod was a loin-cloth, its use as a receptacle and the known evolution of the article find useful analogies (foote, p. 43 sq., and _ency. bib._ col. 1734 [1]). finally, if there is no decisive evidence for the view that it was an image (judg. viii. 27), or that as a wrapping it formed the sole covering of the officiating agent (2 sam. vi.), all that can safely be said is that it was certainly used in divination and presumably did not differ radically from the ephod of the post-exilic age. see further, in addition to the monographs already cited, the articles in hastings's _dict. bible_ (by s.r. driver), _ency. bib._ (by g.f. moore), and _jew. encyc._ (l. ginsburg), and e. sellin, in _oriental. studien: theodor noldeke_ (ed. bezold, 1906), pp. 699 sqq. (s. a. c.) footnotes: [1] cf. the phrase "ephod of prophecy" (_testament of levi_, viii. 2). the priestly apparatus of the post-exilic age retains several traces of old mythological symbolism and earlier cult, the meaning of which had not altogether been forgotten. with the dress one may perhaps compare the apparel of the gods marduk and adad, for which see a. jeremias, _das alte test. im lichte des alten orients_, 2nd ed., figs. 33, 46, and pp. 162, 449. [2] the ordinary interpretation "_linen_ ephod" (1 sam. ii. 18, xxii. 18; 2 sam. vi. 14) is questioned by t.c. foote in his useful monograph, _journ. bibl. lit._ xxi., 1902, pp. 3, 47. this writer also aptly compares the infant samuel with the child who drew the lots at the temple of fortuna at praeneste (cicero, _de divin._ ii. 41, 86), and with the modern practice of employing innocent instruments of chance in lotteries (_op. cit._ pp. 22, 27). [3] it is not stated that the linen ephod was david's sole covering, and it is difficult to account for the text in the parallel passage 1 chron. xv. 27 (where he is clothed with a robe); "girt," too, is ambiguous, since the verb is even used of a sword. on the question of nudity (cf. 1 sam. xix. 24) see robertson smith, _rel. sem._^2 pp. 161, 450 sq.; _ency. bib._ s.vv. "girdle," "sackcloth"; and m. jastrow, _journ. am. or. soc._ xx. 144, xxi. 23. the significant terms "uncover," "play" (2 sam. vi. 20 sq.), have other meanings intelligible to those acquainted with the excesses practised in oriental cults. ephor (gr. [greek: ephoros]), the title of the highest magistrates of the ancient spartan state. it is uncertain when the office was created and what was its original character. that it owed its institution to lycurgus (herod. i. 65; cf. xen. _respub. lacedaem._ viii. 3) is very improbable, and we may either regard it as an immemorial dorian institution (with c.o. muller, h. gabriel, h.k. stein, ed. meyer and others), or accept the tradition that it was founded during the first messenian war, which necessitated a prolonged absence from sparta on the part of both kings (plato, _laws_, iii. 692 a; aristotle, _politics_, v. 9. 1 = p. 1313 a 26; plut. _cleomenes_, 10; so g. dum, g. gilbert, a.h.j. greenidge). there is no evidence for the theory that originally the ephors were market inspectors; they seem rather to have had from the outset judicial or police functions. gradually they extended their powers, aided by the jealousy between the royal houses, which made it almost impossible for the two kings to co-operate heartily, and from the 5th to the 3rd century they exercised a growing despotism which plato justly calls a _tyrannis_ (_laws_, 692). cleomenes iii. restored the royal power by murdering four of the ephors and abolishing the office, and though it was revived by antigonus doson after the battle of sellasia, and existed at least down to hadrian's reign (_sparta museum catalogue_, introd. p. 10), it never regained its former power. in historical times the ephors were five in number, the first of them giving his name to the year, like the eponymous archon at athens. where opinions were divided the majority prevailed. the ephors were elected annually, originally no doubt by the kings, later by the people; their term of office began with the new moon after the autumnal equinox, and they had an official residence ([greek: ephoreion]) in the agora. every full citizen was eligible and no property qualification was required. the ephors summoned and presided over meetings of the gerousia and apella, and formed the executive committee responsible for carrying out decrees. in their dealings with the kings they represented the supremacy of the people. there was a monthly exchange of oaths, the kings swearing to rule according to the laws, the ephors undertaking on this condition to maintain the royal authority (xen. _resp. laced._ 15. 7). they alone might remain seated in a king's presence, and had power to try and even to imprison a king, who must appear before them at the third summons. two of them accompanied the army in the field, not interfering with the king's conduct of the campaign, but prepared, if need be, to bring him to trial on his return. the ephors, again, exercised a general guardianship of law and custom and superintended the training of the young. they shared the criminal jurisdiction of the gerousia and decided civil suits. the administration of taxation, the distribution of booty, and the regulation of the calendar also devolved upon them. they could actually put _perioeci_ to death without trial, if we may believe isocrates (xii. 181), and were responsible for protecting the state against the helots, against whom they formally declared war on entering office, so as to be able to kill any whom they regarded as dangerous without violating religious scruples. finally, the ephors were supreme in questions of foreign policy. they enforced, when necessary, the alien acts ([greek: xenelasia]), negotiated with foreign ambassadors, instructed generals, sent out expeditions and were the guiding spirits of the spartan confederacy. see the constitutional histories of g. gilbert (eng. trans.), pp. 16, 52-59; g. busolt, p. 84 ff., v. thumser, p. 241 ff., g.f. schomann (eng. trans.), p. 236 ff., a.h.j. greenidge, p. 102 ff.; szanto's article "ephoroi" in pauly-wissowa, _realencyclopadie_, v. 2860 ff.; ed. meyer, _forschungen zur alten geschichte_, i. 244 ff.; c.o. muller, _dorians_, bk. iii. ch. vii.; g. grote, _history of greece_, pt. ii. ch. vi.; g. busolt, _griechische geschichte_, i.^2 555 ff.; b. niese, _historische zeitschrift_, lxii. 58 ff. of the many monographs dealing with this subject the following are specially useful: g. dum, _entstehung und entwicklung des spartan_. _ephorats_ (innsbruck, 1878); h.k. stein, _das spartan_. _ephorat bis auf cheilon_ (paderborn, 1870); k. kuchtner, _entstehung und ursprungliche bedeutung des spartan_. _ephorats_ (munich, 1897); c. frick, _de ephoris spartanis_ (gottingen, 1872); a. schaefer, _de ephoris lacedaemoniis_ (greifswald, 1863); e. von stern, _zur entstehung und ursprunglichen bedeutung des ephorats in sparta_ (berlin, 1894). (m. n. t.) ephorus (c. 400-330 b.c.), of cyme in aeolis, in asia minor, greek historian. together with the historian theopompus he was a pupil of isocrates, in whose school he attended two courses of rhetoric. but he does not seem to have made much progress in the art, and it is said to have been at the suggestion of isocrates himself that he took up literary composition and the study of history. the fruit of his labours was his [greek: historiai] in 29 books, the first universal history, beginning with the return of the heraclidae to peloponnesus, as the first well-attested historical event. the whole work was edited by his son demophilus, who added a 30th book, containing a summary description of the social war and ending with the taking of perinthus (340) by philip of macedon (cf. diod. sic. xvi. 14 with xvi. 76). each book was complete in itself, and had a separate title and preface. it is clear that ephorus made critical use of the best authorities, and his work, highly praised and much read, was freely drawn upon by diodorus siculus[1] and other compilers. strabo (viii. p. 332) attaches much importance to his geographical investigations, and praises him for being the first to separate the historical from the merely geographical element. polybius (xii. 25 g) while crediting him with a knowledge of the conditions of naval warfare, ridicules his description of the battles of leuctra and mantineia as showing ignorance of the nature of land operations. he was further to be commended for drawing (though not always) a sharp line of demarcation between the mythical and historical (strabo ix. p. 423); he even recognized that a profusion of detail, though lending corroborative force to accounts of recent events, is ground for suspicion in reports of far-distant history. his style was high-flown and artificial, as was natural considering his early training, and he frequently sacrificed truth to rhetoric effect; but, according to dionysius of halicarnassus, he and theopompus were the only historical writers whose language was accurate and finished. other works attributed to him were:--_a treatise on discoveries; respecting good and evil things; on remarkable things in various countries_ (it is doubtful whether these were separate works, or merely extracts from the _histories_); _a treatise on my country_, on the history and antiquities of cyme, and an essay _on style_, his only rhetorical work, which is occasionally mentioned by the rhetorician theon. nothing is known of his life, except the statement in plutarch that he declined to visit the court of alexander the great. fragments in c.w. muller, _fragmenta historicorum graecorum_, i., with critical introduction on the life and writings of ephorus; see j.a. klugmann, _de ephoro historico_ (1860); c.a. volquardsen, _untersuchungen uber die quellen der griechischen und sicilischen geschichten bei diodor_. _xi.-xvi._ (1868); and specially j.b. bury, _ancient greek historians_ (1909); e. schwartz, in pauly-wissowa, _realencyc._ s.v.; and article greece: _history_: ancient authorities. footnote: [1] it is now generally recognized, thanks to volquardsen and others, that ephorus is the principal authority followed by diodorus, except in the chapters relating to sicilian history. ephraem syrus (ephraim the syrian), a saint who lived in mesopotamia during the first three quarters of the 4th century a.d. he is perhaps the most influential of all syriac authors; and his fame as a poet, commentator, preacher and defender of orthodoxy has spread throughout all branches of the christian church. this reputation he owes partly to the vast fertility of his pen--according to the historian sozomen he was credited with having written altogether 3,000,000 lines--partly to the elegance of his style and a certain measure of poetic inspiration, more perhaps to the strength and consistency of his personal character, and his ardour in defence of the creed formulated at nicaea. an anonymous life of ephraim was written not long after his death in 373. the biography has come down to us in two recensions. but in neither form is it free from later interpolation; and its untrustworthiness is shown by its conflicting with data supplied by his own works, as well as by the manner in which it is overloaded with miraculous events. the following is a probable outline of the main facts of ephraim's life. he was born in the reign of constantine (perhaps in 306) at or near nisibis. his father was a pagan, the priest of an idol called abnil or abizal.[1] during his boyhood ephraim showed a repugnance towards heathen worship, and was eventually driven by his father from the home. he became a ward and disciple of the famous jacob--the same who attended the council of nicaea as bishop of nisibis, and died in 338. at his hands ephraim seems to have received baptism at the age of 18 or of 28 (the two recensions differ on this point), and remained at nisibis till its surrender to the persians by jovian in 363. probably in the course of these years he was ordained a deacon, but from his humble estimate of his own worth refused advancement to any higher degree in the church. he seems to have played an important part in guiding the fortunes of the city during the war begun by shapur ii. in 337, in the course of which nisibis was thrice unsuccessfully besieged by the persians (in 338, 346 and 350). the statements of his biographer to this effect accord with the impression we derive from his own poems (_carmina nisibena_, 1-21). his intimate relations with bishop jacob were continued with the three succeeding bishops--babu (338-?349), vologaeses (?349-361), and abraham--on all of whom he wrote encomia. the surrender of the city in 363 to the persians resulted in a general exodus of the christians, and ephraim left with the rest. after visiting amid (diarbekr) he proceeded to edessa, and there settled and spent the last ten years of his life. he seems to have lived mainly as a hermit outside the city: his time was devoted to study, writing, teaching and the refutation of heresies. it is possible that during these years he paid a visit to basil at caesarea. near the end of his life he rendered great public service by distributing provisions in the city during a famine. the best attested date for his death is the 9th of june 373. it is clear that this chronology leaves no room for the visit to egypt, and the eight years spent there in refuting arianism, which are alleged by his biographer. perhaps, as has been surmised, there may be confusion with another ephraim. nor can he have written the funeral panegyric on basil who survived him by three months. but with all necessary deductions the biography is valuable as witnessing to the immense reputation for sanctity and for theological acumen which ephraim had gained in his lifetime, or at least soon after he died. his biographer's statement as to his habits and appearance is worth quoting, and is probably true:--"from the time he became a monk to the end of his life his only food was barley bread and sometimes pulse and vegetables: his drink was water. and his flesh was dried upon his bones, like a potter's sherd. his clothes were of many pieces patched together, the colour of dirt. in stature he was little; his countenance was always sad, and he never condescended to laughter. and he was bald and beardless." the statement in his life that ephraim miraculously learned coptic falls to the ground with the narrative of his egyptian visit: and the story of his suddenly learning to speak greek through the prayer of st basil is equally unworthy of credence. he probably wrote only in syriac, though he may have possessed some knowledge of greek and possibly of hebrew. but many of his works must have been early translated into other languages; and we possess in mss. versions into greek, armenian, coptic, arabic and ethiopic. the greek versions occupy three entire volumes of the roman folio edition, and the extant armenian versions (mainly of n.t. commentaries) were published at venice in four volumes in 1836. it was primarily as a sacred poet that ephraim impressed himself on his fellow-countrymen. with the exception of his commentaries on scripture, nearly all his extant syriac works are composed in metre. in many cases the metrical structure is of the simplest, consisting only in the arrangement of the discourse in lines of uniform length--usually heptasyllabic (ephraim's favourite metre) or pentasyllabic. a more complicated arrangement is found in other poems, such as the _carmina nisibena_: these are made up of strophes, each consisting of lines of different lengths according to a settled scheme, with a recurring refrain. t.j. lamy has estimated that, in this class of poems, there are as many as 66 different varieties of metres to be found in the works of ephraim. these strophic poems were set to music, and sung by alternating choirs of girls. according to ephraim's biographer, his main motive for providing these hymns set to music was his desire to counteract the baneful effects produced by the heretical hymns of bardaisan and his son harmonius, which had enjoyed popularity and been sung among the edessenes for a century and a half. the subject-matter of ephraim's poems covers all departments of theology. thus the roman edition contains (of metrical works) exegetical discourses, hymns on the nativity of christ, 65 hymns against heretics, 85 on the faith against sceptics, a discourse against the jews, 85 funeral hymns, 4 on freewill, 76 exhortations to repentance, 12 hymns on paradise, and 12 on miscellaneous subjects. the edition of lamy has added many other poems, largely connected with church festivals. it must be confessed that, judged by western standards, the poems of ephraim are prolix and wearisome in the extreme, and are distinguished by few striking poetic beauties. and so far as they are made the vehicle of reasoning, their efficiency is seriously hampered by their poetic form. on the other hand, it is fair to remember that the taste of ephraim's countrymen in poetry was very different from ours. as duval remarks: "quant a la prolixite de saint ephrem que nous trouvons parfois fastidieuse, on ne peut la condamner sans tenir compte du gout des syriens qui aimaient les repetitions et les developpements de la meme pensee, et voyaient des qualites la ou nous trouvons des defauts" (_litter. syriaque_, p. 19). he is no worse in these respects than the best of the syriac writers who succeeded him. and he surpasses almost all of them in the richness of his diction, and his skill in the use of metaphors and illustrations. of ephraim as a commentator on scripture we have only imperfect means of judging. his commentaries on the o.t. are at present accessible to us only in the form they had assumed in the _catena patrum_ of severus (compiled in 861), and to some extent in quotations by later syriac commentators. his commentary on the gospels is of great importance in connexion with the textual history of the n.t., for the text on which he composed it was that of the diatessaron. the syriac original is lost: but the ancient armenian version survives, and was published at venice in 1836 along with ephraim's commentary on the pauline epistles (also only extant in armenian) and some other works. a latin version of the armenian diatessaron commentary has been made by aucher and mosinger (venice, 1876). using this version as a clue, j.r. harris[2] has been able to identify a number of syriac quotations from or references to this commentary in the works of isho'dadh, bar-kepha (severus), bar-salibi and barhebraeus. although, as harris points out, it is unlikely that the original text of the diatessaron had come down unchanged through the two centuries to ephraim's day, the text on which he comments was in the main unaffected by the revision which produced the peshitta. side by side with this conclusion may be placed the result of f.c. burkitt's[3] careful examination of the quotations from the gospels in the other works of ephraim; he shows conclusively that in all the undoubtedly genuine works the quotations are from a pre-peshitta text. as a theologian, ephraim shows himself a stout defender of nicaean orthodoxy, with no leanings in the direction of either the nestorian or the monophysite heresies which arose after his time. he regarded it as his special task to combat the views of marcion, of bardaisan and of mani. to the modern historian ephraim's main contribution is in the material supplied by the 72 hymns[4] known as _carmina nisibena_ and published by g. bickell in 1866. the first 20 poems were written at nisibis between 350 and 363 during the persian invasions; the remaining 52 at edessa between 363 and 373. the former tell us much of the incidents of the frontier war, and particularly enable us to reconstruct in detail the history of the third siege of nisibis in 350. of the many editions of ephraim's works a full list is given by nestle in _realenk. f. protest. theol. und kirche_ (3rd ed.). for modern students the most important are: (1) the great folio edition in 6 volumes (3 of works in greek and 3 in syriac), in which the text is throughout accompanied by a latin version (rome, 1732-1746); on the unsatisfactory character of this edition (which includes many works that are not ephraim's) and especially of the latin version, see burkitt, _ephraim's quotations_, pp. 4 sqq.; (2) _carmina nisibena_, edited with a latin translation by g. bickell (leipzig, 1866); (3) _hymni et sermones_, edited with a latin translation by t.j. lamy (4 vols., malines, 1882-1902). many selected homilies have been edited or translated by overbeck, zingerle and others (cf. wright, _short history_, pp. 35 sqq.); a selection of the _hymns_ was translated by h. burgess, _select metrical hymns of ephrem syrus_ (1853). of the two recensions of ephraim's biography, one was edited in part by j.s. assemani (b.o. i. 26 sqq.) and in full by s.e. assemani in the roman edition (iii. pp. xxiii.-lxiii.); the other by lamy (ii. 5-90) and bedjan (_acta mart. et sanct._ iii. 621-665). the long poem on the history of joseph, twice edited by bedjan (paris, 1887 and 1891) and by him attributed to ephraim, is more probably the work of balai. (n. m.) footnotes: [1] it is true that in the _confession_ attributed to him and printed among his greek works in the first volume of the roman edition he speaks (p. 129) of his parents as having become martyrs for the christian faith. but this document is of very doubtful authenticity. [2] _fragments of the commentary of ephrem syrus upon the diatessaron_ (london, 1895). [3] "ephraim's quotations from the gospel," in _texts and studies_, vol. vii. (cambridge, 1901). [4] there were originally 77, but 5 have perished.