BS 440 .S63 1868 303279 v.l Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1868, by in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York. RIVERSIDE, CAMBRIDGE: STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY GIFT PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. THE reputation of Dr. William Smith's "Dictionary of the Bible" is now too well established to need any special commendation. It contains, by universal consent, the fruit of the ripest Biblical scholarship of England, and constitutes a library of itself (superseding the use of many books otherwise necessary) for the study and illustration of the Scriptures. As a whole, it is unquestionably superior to any similar Lexicon in our language, and cannot fail to maintain this rank for a long period to come. In this American edition, the Publishers reprint the entire work, without abridgment or change, except the correction of typographical errors, or an occasional verbal inaccuracy, and of mistakes in quotation and reference. At the same time, the reprinting of this Dictionary, after the lapse of several years since its first publication, and of a still longer time since the preparation of many of the articles, affords an opportunity to give to it some new features, required by the progressive nature of Biblical science, and adapting it more perfectly to the wants of students of the Bible in our own country. Among the characteristics in which the American edition differs from the English, are the following: 1. The contents of the Appendix, embracing one hundred and sixteen pages, and treating of subjects overlooked or imperfectly handled in the first volume, have been inserted in their proper places in the body of the work. 2. The numerous Scripture references, on the accuracy of which he value of a Bible Dictionary so much depends, have all been verified anew. The corrections found necessary in these references, and silently made, amount to more than a thousand. Many other mistakes in quotation and reference have been corrected during the revision of the work. 3. The system of cross-references from one article to another, so indispensable for enabling us to know what the Dictionary contains on related but separated subjects, has been carried much further in this edition than in the English. 4. The signification of the Hebrew and, to some extent, of the Greek names of persons and places has been given in English, according to the best authorities (Simonis, Gesenius, Dietrich, Fürst, Pape) on this intricate subject. We have such definitions occasionally in the original work. but on no consistent plan. The Scripture names reveal to us a striking peculiarity of the oriental mind, and often throw light on the personal history and the geography of the Bible. 5. The accentuation of proper names has required adjustment. Dr. Smith's - Concise Dictionary of the Bible" differs here widely from the larger work; and in both, forms perfectly analogous are differently accented, in many instances, without apparent reason. In the present edition, this subject has received careful attention; and in respect to that large class of names whose pronunciation cannot be regarded as settled by usage, an attempt has been made to secure greater consistency by the application of fixed principles. 6. The English edition, at the beginning of each article devoted to a proper name, professes to give the corresponding forms in the Hebrew, Greek, and Vulgate, together with the variations in the two great manuscripts of the Septuagint, which are often curious and worthy of notice." But this plan has been very imperfectly carried out so far as relates to the forms in the Septuagint and Vulgate, pecially in the first volume. The readings of the Vatican manuscript are very |