SEMLER 



SEMPACH 



311 



the Pentateuch, and Jonathan on the Prophets, 

 which were finally edited and fixed in the 4th or 

 5th century A.D. in Babylonia. Somewhat later are 

 some Midrashes, the Jerusalem Targums, and the 

 Jerusalem Talmud. Of the 4th or 9th century are 

 Palestinian translations of the Gospel. SAMA- 

 RITAN is another hrauch of western Aramaean, 

 written in a Hebrew alphabet older than the 

 Captivity, and spoken about 432 B.C. by an 

 Aramaean people with Israelitish blood in them, 

 who were desirous of conforming in speech as in 

 religion to the Hebrew usage of northern Palestine. 

 Arabic soon expelled western Aramaean after the 

 Mohammedan conquest, though a faint echo of it 

 still lingers in the Anti-Libanus. The Babylonian 

 Talmud shows the common eastern Aramaean of 

 Babylonia from the 4th to the 6th century. The 

 language of the Mandaean sect resembles it. In 

 the 2d century the Edessan dialect of Aramaean, 

 which we call SYRIAC, began to be the language 

 of eastern Christendom for all purposes ; but for 

 popular use it was slowly supplanted by Arabic 

 after the Mohammedan conquest, becoming a dead 

 and almost entirely ecclesiastical language. In the 

 mountain regions of ancient Assyria Aramaean is 

 still represented by several local dialects among 

 Christians and even Jews. ASSYRIAN, so called 

 by us modems because discovered by us in Assyria, 

 is more correctly named BABYLONIAN. It is written 

 in the difficult, cumbrous, and inadequate cuneiform 

 character received from the Turanian natives. It 

 shows scarcely any sign of a preterite tense. In 

 popular use it early gave way to Aramaean. 

 ETHIOPIC, a sister tongue to Arabic, in some 

 respects resembles more closely Hebrew and 

 Aramaean even in the most ancient form of the 

 language known to us. 



For more detailed information as to the several 

 Semitic peoples and their languages and literatures, 

 tee AI.PHABKT, ARABIA, ASSYRIA, CARTHAOE, ETHIOPIA, 

 HEBREW LANGUAGE, JEWS, PHOENICIA ; MOHAMMED, 

 KOBAN, CALIF, ic. Semitic scholars are Gcsenius, 

 Ewald, Halevy, Fiirst, Lane, Dozy, J. de Goeje, Dill- 

 mano, P. de Lagarde, Land, Delitzsch, Haupt, Strags- 

 maier, Menant, Oppert, George Smith, Kawlinson, Lenor- 

 mant, Chwolsohn, Kenan, Niildeke, Hommel, Fleischer, 

 Rodiger, A. B. Davidxon, Robertson Smith, Wright, 

 Payne Smith, Badger, Sayce, Salmon*, Wiistenfeld, 

 Socin, Kantsch, Bottclier, Peteriuann, Nestle, W. H. 

 Green, Driver, Cheyne, Schrader, Schr6der, Wellhausen, 

 Baethgen. The ' Record* of the Past ' give many valuable 

 translations of ancient writings. See Wright's Compara- 

 tive Grammar of the Semitic Languayet, edited by 

 Bobertson Smith (1890). 



S'iiilcr, JOHANN SALOMO, one of the most 

 influential German theologians of the 18th cen- 

 tury, was born 18th December 1725, at Saalfeld in 

 Thuringia, and educated at Halle. After editing 

 for a year the Coburg official Gazette, and lecturing 

 on philology and history at Altdorf for six months, 

 he was in 1752 appointed professor of Theology at 

 Halle, where he taught with great success. He 

 died at Halle on 14th March 1791. For many years 

 he enjoyed a wonderful popularity as a teacher, 

 and exercised so wide and profound an influence as 

 pioneer of the historical method that he has been 

 called the 'father of Biblical Criticism.' Yet, of 

 course, he contributed little to the science ; his 

 chief merit is to have pointed out the way and 

 indicated the right metnods to those who came 

 after. He was distinctively a rationalist, and one of 

 the most influential in emancipating theology from 

 the fetters of tradition. But ne sincerely believed 

 in revelation ; and he lost favour through his 

 opposition to the Wolfenbuttel Fragments, and his 

 adverse criticism of the ' naturalism ' or extreme 

 rationalism of Bahrdt. Both friends and enemies 

 found it difficult to reconcile his defence of revela- 

 tion with his own critical freedom. In insisting on 



the distinction of the Jewish and Pauline types of 

 Christianity he (possibly influenced by the deists 

 Toland and Morgan ) clearly anticipated a main posi- 

 tion of the Tubingen school. As a thinker he was 

 deficient in philosophical consistency and breadth 

 of view ; and as a writer he possessed no literary 

 skill or grace. He wrote a vast number of books ; 

 but none is of much value at the present day. 

 The more important were Apparatus ad liberalem 

 Veteris Testamenti Interjtretationem (Halle, 1773), 

 Abhandlung von freier [Inters uchung des Kanont 

 (4 vols. 1771-75), De Dannoniatis (1760), Selecta 

 Capita Historice Ecclesiastic<e (3 vols. 1767-69). 



See his own Lebensbeschreibung (1781-82); Schmid, 

 Theologie Semlers (1858); Tholuck, in his Vermischte 

 Sehriften ; and for the influence of the Deists, an article 

 by David Patrick on ' English Forerunners of the Tubin- 

 gen School ' in the Theological Review for 1877. 



Sciilliki. a river of equatorial Africa, flowing 

 north-east into Albert Nyanza. It was discovered 

 by Stanley in 1888. 



Semlin (Hung. Zimony), a frontier town of 

 Hungary, stands on a tongue of land at the junction 

 of the Save and the Danube, on the right bank of 

 the latter, opposite Belgrade. It contains the 

 ruined castle of John Hunyady, who died here. 

 The town is the great seat of the Turco- Austrian 

 transit trade, and the principal quarantine station 

 for travellers from the Balkan states. Pop. 11,836, 

 mostly Servians. See Kinglake's Eothen. 



Srimnrriiiii. a mountain on the borders of 

 Styria and Austria, 60 miles SW. of Vienna, and 

 4577 feet above the asa, over which the Vienna, 

 Gratz, and Trieste Railway has been carried by a 

 series of ingenious engineering contrivances. The 

 railway, built in 1850-53 at a cost of 2,000,000, 

 sweeps up the steep face of the mountain in many 

 curves, and descends its southern slope, after having 

 passed through 15 tunnels and numerous galleries, 

 and crossed 16 viaducts. It extends from Glogg- 

 nitz on the north to Mtirzzuschlag on the south, a 

 distance of 25 miles, traversed by quick trains in 

 1 hour and 37 minutes ; by slow in 2 hours 17 

 minutes. The greatest elevation is reached at 

 2940 feet in the Semmering tunnel (4692 feet long). 

 The steepest gradient for any distance is 1 in 40. 



St'iiunrs. RAPHAEL ( 1809-77 ). See ALABAMA. 



Semnopithe'CHS, the genus of monkeys to 

 which the En tell us Monkey (q.v. ) belongs. 



Semolina, an article of food consisting of 

 granules of the floury part of wheat. The name 

 semolina is often applied to the larger sizes of 

 ' middlings ' made in the process of flour-milling 

 (see MILL), and these products are sometimes sola 

 under the name semolina in the granular state 

 after thorough cleaning, instead of being ground 

 into flour. Semolina is chiefly used for making 

 puddings and soups. 



Srmicicli. a small town of Switzerland, 9 miles 

 by rail N\V. of Lucerne, on the east shore of the 

 lake of Sempach. Under its walls Leopold, Duke 

 of Austria, with 4000 men, was met on 9th July 

 1386 by the confederated Swiss to the number of 

 1500. The nature of the ground being unfitted for 

 the action of cavalry, the horsemen ( 1400 in number ) 

 dismounted, and formed themselves into a solid 

 and compact body, which was at once charged by 

 the Lucerners ; but the wall of steel was impene- 

 trable, and not a man of the Austrians was even 

 wounded, while many of the bravest of the Swiss 

 fell. But, as the legend runs, Arnold von Winkel- 

 ried, a knight of Unterwalden, seized with a noble 

 inspiration, rushed forward, grasped with out- 

 stretched arms as many pikes as he could reach, 

 buried them in his bosom, and bore them by his 

 weight to the earth. His companions rushed over 



