HEBREWS 



2756 



HEBRON 



century to the end of the Babylonian Exile, 

 and a century or so beyond that epoch. M.J. 



HEBREWS, hc'brooz. See JEWS. 



HEBREWS, EPISTLE TO THE, one of the 

 books of the New Testament. It is a letter 

 addressed to the Jewish Christians of a certain 

 church where the people were in danger of 

 returning to Judaism. The author exhorts 

 them to hold fast to their new faith, to which 

 they were early converts, urging the thought 

 of the High Priesthood of Jesus as replacing 

 the Jewish priestly system. The letter, al- 

 though addressed to a particular church, is a 

 general appeal to the Hebrews to press on to 

 the fullness of spiritual growth, since it is "by 

 His faith that the righteous shall live." The 

 authorship of the book has been much disputed ; 

 it has been attributed to Barnabas, Apollos, and 

 others ; the current view that it was written by 

 the Apostle Paul is of late origin, and cannot 

 be traced back further than the fourth cen- 

 tury. M.J. 



HEBRIDES, heb'rideez, the "Western Isles" 

 off the west coast of Scotland, is a group which 

 long possessed a peculiar interest because of 



THE HEBRIDES 



the primitive customs and manner of life which 

 prevailed after the neighboring regions became 

 thoroughly civilized. In all, there are over 

 five hundred of these islands, but some of 

 them are mere dots on the surface of the 

 ocean, and fewer than one-fourth are inhab- 



ited. The total area is 2,812 square miles, over 

 two and a half times that of Rhode Island, 

 and the population is about 80,000. Geograph- 

 ically, the islands are classified in two groups, 

 the Outer and the Inner Hebrides; politically, 

 they are divided among the four Scotch coun- 

 ties of Argyll, Bute, Inverness and R6ss. 

 Best known of the individual islands is perhaps 

 Skye, far-famed for the little, long-haired Skye 

 terrier, which originated there and was named 

 for the island. 



The people are not Scotch, but a more 

 primitive people, who speak Gaelic and who 

 have only in recent years come into any real 

 contact with the. rest of the world. Though 

 the islands have belonged to Scotland since 

 1266, small attention was ever paid to them, 

 and they were not better known than the 

 cannibal isles of the South Pacific until Sam- 

 uel Johnson visited them in 1773 and roused 

 interest in them by his Journey to the Western 

 Isles. Later Sir Walter Scott cast a glamour 

 about them by his Lord of the Isles, and Wil- 

 liam Black in his novels made the world feel 

 the peculiar charm of the rugged region he 

 knew so well. To-day tourists flock to the 

 Hebrides to enjoy the scenery, the climate and 

 the picturesqueness of the people, no longer so 

 unconscious as formerly, but of interest still; 

 and wealthy sportsmen from Great Britain 

 pay heavily for the privilege of shooting on 

 the moors. 



Mountainous in the main, the Hebrides pre- 

 sent some wonderful scenery, most of it grand 

 and picturesque rather than beautiful. The air 

 is damp, but the climate, which is surprisingly 

 mild because of the influence of the Gulf 

 Stream, is very healthful. Sheep, cattle and 

 horses, all of the smaller breeds, thrive well on 

 the pasture lands, while on the cultivable land, 

 which includes less than one acre in seven, are 

 grown barley, potatoes and the oats which are 

 so inevitable in Scotland. A.MC c. 



HE'BRON, in the hilly country of Judah, 

 about nineteen miles southwest of Jerusalem, is 

 one of the oldest towns in the world which is 

 still inhabited. It existed as early as the days 

 of Abraham, for his wife, Sarah, died there and 

 he purchased the cave of Machpelah from the 

 Hittites for her sepulcher. In the present town, 

 which is called EL-KHALIL, stands a great 

 mosque named El-Haram. Within the walls 

 of this mosque is a cave, supposed to be the 

 ancient sepulcher, in which not only Sarah, but 

 also Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Rebecca were 

 buried. It was in Hebron that David was 



