DICTIONARY OF THE MOST IMPORTANT NAMES, OBJECTS, AND TERMS FOUND IN THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. INTENDED PRINCIPALLY FOR SUNDAY SCHOOLS AND BIBLE CLASSES, AND AS AN AID TO FAMILY INSTRUCTION. BY HOWARD MALCOM, D. D., PRESIDENT OF "LEWISBURG UNIVERSITY," PROFESSOR OF MORAL AND WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS. BOSTON: GOULD AND LINCOLN, 59 WASHINGTON STREET. NEW YORK: SHELDON, BLAKEMAN & CO. 1856. University of Wisconsin-Madison 74,632 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1853, by GOULD AND LINCOLN, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the District of Massachr-etts RECEIVED AUG 15 1892 WIS. HISTORICAL SOO: Stereotyped by BOSTON. 'M24 1856 PREFACE. THE Author engaged heartily in Sunday Schools at their first i troduction, in the present form, into the city of Philadelphia; and, from that time to the present, his estimate of their value has constantly increased. In his labors as teacher, superintendent and pastor, he was early made to feel the need of a dictionary, arranged expressly for the constantly increasing class of investigators of God's word, produced by Sunday-school influence; but there was none. At length, in 1824, he undertook to supply the desideratum; and, after devoting, for six years, all the time he could command for the purpose, the result was published. The reception of the work was highly flattering. Beside an immediate, rapid, and wide-spread sale in this country, it was republished in London, and still continues to be largely circulated in Great Britain. As successive editions were called for, each was laboriously improved. All the works of Bible illustrators, such as Calmet, Whitby, Wells, Brown, Carpenter, Wood, Paxton, Harmer, Harris, Jones, and others, were carefully consulted; besides gazetteers, geographies, reports of missionaries, voyages and travels, &c. Much aid was also obtained from distinguished biblical scholars; and one friend patiently went over the entire mass of scripture references, making it an evening exercise in his family to look out in the Bible every quotation; by which process hundreds of errors were detected in quotations, transferred from works consulted. In fine, no pains, labor, or expense was spared to make the work as complete as possible within the size deemed desirable, till the sixth edition, when it was stereotyped. The work, from its first appearance, received the unqualified commendation of a large number of ecclesiastical bodies, leading periodicals, and clergymen. A still more satisfactory evidence of its general acceptableness is the fact of its steady sale for nearly twenty-five years, and its circulation reaching the extraordinary number of 130,000 copies, notwithstanding the publication of several other works of like aim, during this period. The stereotyping of his book did not induce the author to discontinue his labors upon it. Having become deeply interested in this department of study, his investigations were continued, and an interleaved copy of the book kep at hand, in which were made constant altérations, corrections, and additions, as his reading or travels enabled him. A year ago, the publishers having resolved to stereotype the work anew, and to adopt a larger page, allowing considerable addition to the reading matter, the work of improvement was resumed systematically. Every line has been revised, authorities researched, and very valuable additions made from entirely new sources, such as Kitto, Robinson, Smith, Lynch, Layard, Bayard Taylor, and others. The result of all is, that scarcely an article has not been improved, more than half have been enlarged, and nearly a hundred new ones, with a very complete Har mony of the Four Gospels, have been added. The publishers also have incurred the expense of a new and more complete map of Palestine, and a large number of new illustrations. Thus it is essentially a new work. |