Bi 



SYHEL- 



SYBEL, Hnxiucn vov, German historian, was and Vulgate translations give the word its usual 

 born at Dilsseldorf. Dec. 2, 1817. He was a pupil of meaning in this jwssage (rat i^rrar ; 

 Rankfl, at Berlin, though he was chiefly educated at /Mi); and the meaning is entirely consistent with 

 the L' i Bonn, where be became professor the context. The burning of tho sanctuary was virt- 



fxtraordinary'in 1844. In 1841 he had published a ually the burning of all the solemnities that hod 

 ffth'- First t'nitiitl.; <-\]x>.sing some jxipular centred there. But even if the word mnnlii be hero 

 errors in regard to that movement After pub- taken in the unusual meaning of ' appointed places," 

 lishing his essay on the Origin n/ t/in German or "places of assembly," there i.s nothing to estab- 

 Kii"/<i"'nx he was* called, in 1845', to Marburg as pro- lish an identity between these and tho fully de- 

 foasor of histor/. In 1847 he began his political veloped synagogue, or to justify the as^eition that 

 career as representative of the university in the " such synagogues existed in all parts of Judira in 



.n parliament and was sent to the Congress of the time of Ps. Ixxiv. 8, or to prove that this i 

 Erfttrtk. Duke Maximilian II. of Bavaria called was written after synagogues became a recognized 

 him i Munich, where ho founded the first institution. 



historical seminary in Germany, and published an Ttte Great Synagogue. The statement that J. 

 historical review, "in 1K<H Von Sybel returned to tradition assigns to tl-a so-called Great Synagogue 

 B inn as professor and was soon sent as deputy to the j "supreme religious authority from the cessation of 

 .in chamber. In 1867 he was elected" to tho prophecy to the time of the high priest Simeon tho 

 :;nent diet of the North Gorman Confederation, j Just" needs modification. The traditions (see Mai- 

 a>id took an active part in Bismarck's struggle with the ! monides in Ugolino, vol. i., col. 12; also 0tem in 

 Ultramontane party. In 1874 he was elected to the . Megil., fol. 70, col. 4, cited in Lightfoof, Pitman's 

 ,tag, and in the next year was made director of | ed., x. 525, and elsewhere) include among the men 

 the State archives at Berlin. His edition of these : of the Great Synagogue Daniel and his three coin- 

 important historical documents, commenced in 1878, panions, with Haggai, Zcchariuh, Ezra, Neheiniah, 

 is expected to comprise 70 volumes. Von Sybel's and Malachi, and speak of other prophets, i, 

 great work is GeschiclU der lifrolutiimt zf.it von 1789 siderable numbers, as also included. It is necessary 

 fiit 1795 (5 vols., 1853-67), which has passed through to distinguish between what the traditions say of 

 several editions and has been translated into Eng- the Great Synagogue as on organization and what 

 lish. It was based upon a faithful study of the they say of the men of the Great Synagogue as 

 archives in Berlin, Vienna, London, and The Hague. | persons. Much of what is said in regard to the or- 

 Von Svbel has also published Die Krhabuny Eurofxis ganization is apocryphal enough, especially with tho 

 ' Niipoleon (1860), and numerous historical j interpretation put upon it by some modern writers ; 



but no men whose names appear in history are more 

 real than those just mentioned and their associates. 

 Whatever Kueneu or others may have shown as to 

 the organization sometimes described as the Great 

 Synagogue, or as to tho original meaning of the 

 name, neither he nor anyone else doubts that most 

 of those who are called the men of the Great Syna- 

 gogue were veritable men, who actually did literal y 

 work in connection with the Old Testament ; and it 

 is certain that the traditions concerning this work, 

 however distorted or exaggerated some of them 

 may be, have a basis of truth, and that parts of tha 

 tnrih can bo disentangled from the fiction. In par- 

 ticular, tho most important Old Testament questions 

 connected with tho men of the Great Synagogue aro 

 questions that have nothing to do with the organiza- 

 tion, but only with the. men. 



This succession of men maintained itself for sev- 

 eral generations after the succession of the prophets 



ised, and in this sense the men of the ' 

 Synagogue are later than the prophets; but it 

 should not be forgotten that they were also for sev- 

 eral generations contemporary with the later proph- 

 ets, and included these prophets among their num- 

 ber. 



The statement that only modern writers since 

 Elias Levita attribute to the men of the Great Syna- 

 gogue the completing of the Old Testament canon is 

 perhaps true, if applied strictly to the alleged or- 

 ganization of that name; but it breaks down if ap- 



,- .n -.-;. 



SYLVESTER. JAMBS JOSEPH, English mathemati- 

 cian, was born in London, Sept. 3, 1814. His early 

 education was at private schools in that city and at 

 the Royal Institution, Liverpool. His later training 

 ws at St. John's College, Cambridge ; but, being a 

 Jew, he could not receive a degree, though in 1837 

 he was second wrangler, and in 1839 was elected a 

 Fellow of the Royal Society. In 1872, however, the 

 degrees then denied him were finally bestowed ; lie is 

 >I A. of Dublin and Oxford, LL. D. of Dublin 

 and Edinburgh, and D. C. L. of Oxford. He studied 

 law at the Inner Temple and was called to the bar 

 in 1850. He was made professor of natural philosophy 

 nt University College, London, and in 18;V2 was 

 called to the chair of mathematics in the University 

 of Virginia. Returning to England in 1862, he !>- 



professor in the Royal Military Academy nt 

 \Vool\vich, which |x>st ho held for five, years. On tho 

 < r^inizutioii of the Johns Hopkins University at 

 Biltimore. in 1-S77, Sylvester was made professor of 

 in ith -matics there, lint at the end of 1H83 he wns 



1 S.iviliati professor of geometry at Oxford, 

 which chair he has since held. Although ho has 

 published no separate work of importance, his con- 

 tributions to mathematical periodicals have been 

 of the highest merit His pm>e.rs number altoge- 

 ther 250, and relate to every department of mathe- 

 matics, but especially to higher algebra, which he 

 greatly enlarged by his theory of reciprocals. He 

 is also the inventor of the plagiograph and other 



geometrical instruments. Some sonnets and other 

 from his pen attest the versatility of his 

 us. 



il of M'lt/itmfitic* (founded in 

 second president of the London Mathenmtic.il So- 

 ciety. 



SYNAGOGUE. The word leaiexrtti, tho proper 



plied to the men oT thf < In-at Synagogue, as distin- 

 guished from the organization. Tho traditions at- 



. __ . __ __ tribute to Ezra, Neheiniah, and other men of the 



He was the first editor of the A ' Meat Synagogue a vast amount of work on the Old 



>/ MMftMfte (fmudod in 1878), and Testament books, including the " writing" (that is, 



in many cases, the editing) of a'l the latest of them. 

 In the sense, therefore, that the canon was actually 

 complete the moment the latest writings included in 



Ani 



Hebrew word for synagogue, is pmba- 

 pmt-biblieal. nnd certainly does 



Tho 



it were finished, the traditions attribute to the im n 

 of tin- Great Synagogue the completing of the can- 



not occnr in th Old Testament. Tho on; it may perhaps be tine that these traditions, 

 word used in Ps. Ixxiv. 8 is not knit- when rigidly sifted, recognize no other "fixing" of 

 but moetlh, the word commonly employed to the canon than this, but this is (he determinat i ' 

 the irri-at festivals: The Passover. the pen- it that is iill-im)iortant. See, e.g., liuba linli'i (Ven. 

 tocost, the Feast of Tabernacles. The Sop'.uagint . cd. of 1520), fol. 14u. (w. i. B.) 



