Seven Sleepers-Ship
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THE AGES DIGITAL LIBRARY REFERENCE CYCLOPEDIA of BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL and ECCLESIASTICAL LITERATURE Seven Sleepers- Ship by James Strong & John McClintock To the Students of the Words, Works and Ways of God: Welcome to the AGES Digital Library. We trust your experience with this and other volumes in the Library fulfills our motto and vision which is our commitment to you: MAKING THE WORDS OF THE WISE AVAILABLE TO ALL — INEXPENSIVELY. AGES Software Rio, WI USA Version 1.0 © 2000 2 Seven Sleepers the heroes of a celebrated legend, first related by Gregory of Tours at the close of the 6th century (De Gloria Martyrum, c. 96); but the date of which is assigned to the 3d century and to the persecution of the Christians under Decius. According to the narrative, seven Christians of Ephesus took refuge in a cave near the city, where they were discovered by their pursuers, who walled up the entrance in order to starve them to death. A miracle, however, was interposed in their behalf, they fell into a preternatural sleep, in which they lay for nearly two hundred years. The concealment is supposed to have taken place in 250 or 251, and the sleepers to have been reanimated in 447. Their sleep seemed to them to have been for only a night, and they were greatly astonished, on going into the city, to see the cross exposed upon the church tops, which but a few hours ago, as it appeared, was the object of contempt. Their wonderful story told, they were conducted in triumph into the city; but all died at the same moment. Seven Spirits And Orders Of The Clergy. The Roman Catholics of the Western Church, in general, abide firmly by the principle established by the schoolmen, that the priesthood is to consist of seven classes, corresponding to the seven spirits of God. Of these the three who are chiefly employed in the duties of the ministerial office compose the superior order SEE CLERGY, 3; and the four whose duty it is to wait upon the clergy in their ministrations, and to assist in conducting public worship, belong to the inferior order. See Coleman, Christ. Antiq. p. 73. Sevenfold Gifts, the gifts of the Holy Spirit; so called from their enumeration in <231101>Isaiah 11:1-6. There is an allusion to them in the hymn Veni, Creator Spiritus in the Ordinal (q.v.), thus — “Come, Holy Ghost, our souls inspire, And lighten with celestial fire: Thou the anointing Spirit art, Who dost thy sevenfold gifts impart.” In a prayer of the Order of Confirmation these gifts are specified as follows: “Daily increase in them thy manifold gifts of grace — the spirit of 3 wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and ghostly strength, the spirit of knowledge and true godliness; and fill them, O Lord, with the spirit of thy holy fear.” Seventh-day. SEE SABBATH. Seventh-day Baptists. SEE BAPTISTS. Seventh-Day Baptists (German). SEE BAPTISTS. Seventy (µ y[æb]væ, shibim), as being the multiple of the full number seven and the perfect number ten, shares in the sacredness or conventionality of the former in Scripture. SEE SEVEN. They are sometimes put in contrast in the complete phrase “seventy times seven” (<010424>Genesis 4:24; <401821>Matthew 18:21). Some of the most remarkable combinations of this number are specified below. Seventy Disciples Of Our Lord (<421001>Luke 10:1, 17). These seem to have been appointed in accordance with the symbolism of the seventy members of Jacob’s household (<020105>Exodus 1:5) and, likewise, the seventy elders of the Jews (24:1; <041116>Numbers 11:16). See SANHEDRIM. The following is the traditionary list of their names (see Townsend, New Test.; and the monographs cited by Danz, Worterb. s.v. “Lucas,” Nos. 60-63; and by Hase, Leben Jesu, p. 165): 1. Agabus the prophet. 2. Amphias of Odyssus, sometimes called Amphiatus. 3. Ananias, who baptized Paul, bishop of Damascus. 4. Andronicus of Pannonia, or Spain. 5. Apelles of Smyrna, or Heraclea. 6. Apollo of Caesarea. 7. Aristarchus of Apamea. 8. Aristobulus of Britain. 9. Artemas of Lystra. 4 10. Asyncritus of Hyrcania. 11. Barnabas of Milan. 12. Barnabas of Heraclea. 13. Caesar of Dyrrachium. 14. Caius of Ephesus. 15. Corpus of Berytus in Thrace. 16. Cephas, bishop of Konia. 17. Clemens of Sardinia. 18. Cleophas of Jerusalem. 19. Crescens of Chalcedon in Galatia. 20. Damus, a priest of idols. 21. Epenetus of Carthage. 22. Epaphroditus of Andriace. 23. Erastus of Paneas, or of the Philippians. 24. Evodias of Antioch. 25. Hermas of Philippi, or Philippolis. 26. Hermes of Dalmatia. 27. Hermogenes, who followed Simon Magus. 28. Hermogenes, bishop of the Megarenes. 29. Herodion of Tarsus. 30. James, the brother of our Lord, at Jerusalem. 31. Jason of Tarsus. 32. Jesus Justus, bishop of Eleutheropolis. 33. Linus of Rome. 34. Luke the Evangelist. 35. Lucius of Laodicea in Syria. 36. Mark, who is also John, of Biblopolis, or Biblus. 37. Mark the Evangelist, bishop of Alexandria. 38. Mark, the nephew of Barnabas, bishop of Apollonia. 39. Matthias, afterwards the apostle. 40. Narcissus of Athens. 41. Nicanor, who died when Stephen suffered martyrdom. 42. Nicolaus of Samaria. 43. Olympius, a martyr at Rome. 44. Onesiphorus, bishop of Corone. 45. Parmenas of the Soli. 46. Patrobulus, the same with Patrobas (<451614>Romans 16:14) of Puteoli, or, according to others, of Naples. 5 47. Philemon of Gaza. 48. Philemon, called in the Acts Philip, who baptized the eunuch of Candace, of Trallium, in Asia. 49. Philologus of Sinope. 50. Phlegon, bishop of Marathon. 51. Phigellus of Ephesus, who followed Simon Magus. 52. Prochorus of Nicomedia, in Bithynia. 53. Pudens. 54. Quartus of Berytus. 55. Rhodion, a martyr at Rome. 56. Rufus of Thebes. 57. Silas of Corinth. 58. Sylvanus of Thessalonica. 59. Sosipater of Iconium. 60. Sosthenes of Colophon. 61. Stachys of Byzantium. 62. Stephen, the first martyr. 63. Tertius of Iconium. 64. Thaddaeus, who carried the epistle of Jesus to Edessa, to Abgarus. 65. Timon of Bostra of the Arabians. 66. Trophimus, who suffered martyrdom with Paul. 67. Tychicus, bishop of Chalcedon, of Bithynia. 68. Tychicus of Colophon. 69. Urbanus of Macedonia. 70. Zenas of Diospolis. Seventy Weeks Of Daniel’s Prophecy (<270925>Daniel 9:25-27). This is so important a link in sacred prediction and chronology as to justify its somewhat extensive treatment here. We first give an exact translation of the passage. “Seventy heptads are decreed [to transpire] upon thy nation, and upon thy holy city, for [entirely] closing the [punishment of] sin, and for sealing up [the retributive sentence against their] offenses, and for expiating guilt, and for bringing in [the state of] perpetual righteousness, and for sealing up [the verification of] vision and prophet, and for anointing holy of holies. And thou shalt know and consider, [that] from [the time of] a command occurring for returning and building [i.e. for rebuilding] Jerusalem till [the 6 coming of] Messiah prince, [shall intervene] seven heptads, and sixty and two heptads; [its] street shall return and be built [i.e. shall be rebuilt], and [its] fosse, and [that] in distress of the times. And after the sixty and two heptads, Messiah shall be cut off, and nothing [shall be left] to him; and people of the coming prince shall destroy the city and the holy [building] and his end [of fighting shall come] with [or, like] a flood, and until the end of warring [shall occur the] decreed desolations. And he shall establish a covenant towards many [persons during] one heptad, and [at the] middle of the heptad he shall cause to cease sacrifice and offering; and upon [the topmost] corner [of the Temple shall be reared] abominations [i.e. idolatrous images] of [the] desolator, and [that] till completion, and a decreed [one] shall pour out upon [the] desolator.” In ver. 24 we have a general view of the last great period of the Jewish Church (see the middle line in the diagram). It was to embrace four hundred and ninety years, from their permanent release from Babylonian bondage till the time when God would cast them finally off for their incorrigible unbelief. SEE WEEK. Within this space Jehovah would fulfil what he had predicted, and accomplish all his designs respecting them under their special relation. The particulars noted in this cursory survey are, first, the conclusion of the then existing exile (expressed in three variations, of which the last phrase, “expiating guilt,” explains the two former, “closing the sin” and “sealing up offenses”); next, the fulfilment of ancient prophecy by ushering in the religious prosperity of Gospel times; and, lastly, as the essential feature, the consecration of the Messiah to his redeeming office. Picture for Seventy The only “command” answering to that of ver. 25 is that of Artaxerxes Longimanus, issued in the seventh year of his reign, and recorded in the seventh chapter of Ezra, as Prideaux has abundantly shown (Connection, s.a. 409), and as most critics agree. At this time, also, more Jews returned to their home than at any other, and the literal as well as spiritual “rebuilding of Jerusalem” was prosecuted with unsurpassed vigor. The period here referred to extends “till the Messiah” (see the upper line of above diagram); that is, as far as his public recognition as such by the voice at his baptism, the “anointing” of the previous verse; and not to his death — as is commonly supposed, but which is afterwards referred to in very 7 different language — nor to his birth, which would make the entire compass of the prophecy vary much from four hundred and ninety years.