Smith's Bible Dictionary.pdf - Online Christian Library

Smith's Bible Dictionary
(judged, acquitted), the daughter of Jacob by Leah. (Genesis 30:21) (B.C. about 1751.) She
accompanied her father from Mesopotamia to Canaan, and, having ventured among the inhabitants,
was violated by Shechem the son of Hamor, the chieftain of the territory in which her father had
settled. Gen. 34. Shechem proposed to make the usual reparation by paying a sum to the father and
marrying her. (Genesis 34:12) This proposal was accepted, the sons of Jacob demanding, as a
condition of the proposed union, the circumcision of the Shechemites. They therefore assented;
and on the third day, when the pain and fever resulting from the operation were at the highest,
Simeon and Levi, own brothers of Dinah, attacked them unexpectedly, slew all the males, and
plundered their city.
Dinaites
(Ezra 4:9) the name of some of the Cuthaean colonists who were placed in the cities of Samaria
after the captivity of the ten tribes.
Dinhabah
(Genesis 36:32; 1 Chronicles 1:43) the capital city, and probably the birthplace, of Bela, son
of Beor king of Edom.
Dionysius
(devoted to Dionysus, i.e., Bacchus) the Areop’agite, (Acts 17:34) an eminent Athenian,
converted to Christianity by the preaching of St. Paul. (A.D. 52.) He is said to have been first bishop
of Athens. The writings which were once attributed to him are now confessed to be the production
of some neo-Platonists of the sixth century.
Diotrephes
(nourished by Jove), a Christian mentioned in (3 John 1:9) but of whom nothing is known.
Disciple
[APOSTLES]
Diseases
[Medicine]
Dishan
(antelope), the youngest son of Seir the Horite. (Genesis 36:21,28,30; 1 Chronicles 1:38,42)
Dishon
(antelope)
•The fifth son of Seir. (Genesis 36:21,26,30; 1 Chronicles 1:38)
Dispersion, The Jews Of The
or simply THE DISPERSION, was the general title applied to those Jews who remained settled
in foreign countries after the return from the Babylonian exile, and during the period of the second
temple. At the beginning of the Christian era the Dispersion was divided into three great sections,
the Babylonian, the Syrian, the Egyptian. From Babylon the Jews spread throughout Persia, Media
and Parthia. Large settlements of Jews were established in Cyprus, in the islands of the AEgean,
and on the western coast of Asia Minor. Jewish settlements were also established at Alexandria by
Alexander and Ptolemy I. The Jewish settlements in Rome, were consequent upon the occupation
of Jerusalem by Pompey, B.C. 63. The influence of the Dispersion on the rapid promulgation of
Christianity can scarcely be overrated. The course of the apostolic preaching followed in a regular
progress the line of Jewish settlements. The mixed assembly from which the first converts were
gathered on the day of Pentecost represented each division of the Dispersion. (Acts 2:9-11) (1)
Parthians...Mesopotamia; (2) Judea (i.e. Syria)...Pamphylia; (3) Egypt...Greece; (4) Romans..., and
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William Smith