ATER

N.W. of Diman. 2. A town on the S. border of the territory of the children of Joseph (Jos 162), called Ataroth-addar in v. », probably identical with ed-Darlyeh, U mile S.W. of Bethhoron the Lower. 3. A town not identified, towards the E. end of the same border (Jos 16'). 4. The name of a family (1 Ch. 2", RV Atroth-beth-Joab). w. Ewinq.

ATER. — 1. The ancestor of certain Temple porters who returned with Zerubbabel, Ezr 2i«- «, Neh T^'- «; of. Atar. 2. (AV Aterezias), l Es 5"; cf. Ezr 2i«. His sons returned with Zerubbabel.

ATETA (AV Teta), 1 Es 528=Hatita, Ezr2«, Neh 7«.

ATHACH, 1 S 30>».— Unknown town in the south of Judah.

ATHAIAH. — A man of Judah dwelling In Jerusalem (Neh 11<).

ATHALIAH. — 1. The only queen who occupied the throne of Judah. She was the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, and was married to Jehoram, son of Jehoshaphat. On the accession of her son Ahaziah she became queen- mother, second only to the king in power and influence. When Ahaziah was slain by Jehu, she could not bring herself to take an inferior position, and seized the throne for herself, making it secure, as she supposed, by slaying all the male members of the house of David so far as they were within her reach. One infant was preserved, and was successfully concealed in the Temple six years. The persons active in this were Jehosheba, sister of Ahaziah, and her husband Jehoiada, the chief priest. The story of the young prince's coronation by the body-guard is one of the most dramatic in Hebrew history. The death of Atbaliah at the hands of the guard forms the logical conclusion of the incident. The destruction of the temple of Baal, which is spoken of in the same connexion, indicates that Athaliah was addicted to the worship of the Phoenloian Baal, introduced by her mother into Israel (2 K 11). 2. See Gotholias. 3. A Benjamite (1 Ch 8»). H. P. Smith.

ATHARIH (Nu 21'). — Either a proper name of a place from which the route was named ; so RV ' the way of Atharim,' as LXX, — or, 'the way of tracks,' i.e. a regular caravan road. (The rendering of AV, ' way of the spies , ' follows Targ. and Syr.) The'way of Atharim' will then be that described in Nu. IS^'-^s.

ATHENOBnTS (1 Mac IS^s-").— A friend of Antiochus VII. Sidetes. He was sent to Jerusalem toremonstrate with Simon Maccabieus for the occupation of Joppa, Gazara, the citadel of Jerusalem, and certain places outside Judeea. Simon refused the terms proposed, and Atheno-bius was obliged to return in indignation to the king.

ATHENS. — In the earliest times, Athens, on the Gulf of iSgina, consisted of two settlements, the town on the plain and the citadel on the hill above, the Acropolis, where the population fled from invasion. Its name and the name of its patron-goddess Athene (Athenaia) are inextricably connected. She was the maiden goddess, the warlike defender of her people, the patroness of the arts. The city lies about 3 miles from the seacoast on a large plain. When Greece was free, during the period before B.C., 146 Athens was the capital of the district Attica, and developed a unique history in Greece. It first gained distinction by the repulse of the Persian invasions in b.c. 490 and 480, and afterwards had a brilliant career of political, commercial, literary, and artistic supremacy. It was in the 5th cent. b.c. the greatest of Greek democracies, and produced the greatest sculptures and literary works the world has ever seen. In the same century Socrates lived and taught there, as did later Plato and Aristotle. The conflict with Sparta, the effects of the Macedonian invasion, and ultimately the Roman conquest of Greece, which became a Roman province under the name 'Achaia' (wh. see), lessened the political importance of Athens, but as a State it received from Rome a position of freedom

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and consideration worthy of its undying merits. Athens remained supreme in philosophy and the arts, and was in St. Paul's time (Ac 17'»-18i, 1 Th 3') the seat of a famous university. A. Souter,

ATHLAI. — A Jew who married a foreign wife (Ezr 10"; called in 1 Es 9'' Emmatheis).

ATIPHA (1 Es 5'2).— See Hatipha.

ATONEMENT.— The word 'atonement' (at-one-ment), in English, denotes thp making to be at one, or reconciling, of persons who have been at variance. In OT usage it signifies that by which sin is 'covered' or 'expiated,' or the wrath of God averted. Thus, in EV, of the Levitical sacrifices (Lv 1* 4"- "■ "■ "s etc.), of the half-shekel of ransomrmoney (Ex 30"' >«), of the intercession of Moses (Ex 32"), of the zeal of Phinehas (Nu 25"), etc. In the NT the word occurs once in AV as tr. of the Gr. word katallagi, ordinarily and in RV rendered 'reconciliation' (Ro S"). The 'recon-ciliation' here intended, however, as the expression 'received,' and also v." ('reconciled to God through the death of his Son') show, is that made by the death of Christ on behalf of sinners (cf . Col l^" ' having made peace through the blood of his cross'). In both OT and NT the implication is that the 'reconciliation' or ' making-at-one ' of mankind and God is effected through expiation or propitiation. In its theological use, there-fore, the word 'atonement' has come to denote, not the actual state of reconciliation into which believers are introduced through Christ, whose work is the means to this end, but the reconciling act itself — the work accomplished by Christ in His sufiferings and death for the salvation of the world.

i. In the Old Testament. — In tracing the Scripture teaching on the subject of atonement, it is desirable to begin with the OT, in which the foundations of the NT doctrine are laid. Here several lines of preparation are to be distinguished, which, as OT revelation draws to its close, tend to unite.

1. The most general, but indispensable, preparation in the OT lies in its doctrines of the holiness, righteous-ness, and grace of God ; also, of the sin and guilt of man . God's holiness (including in this His ethical purity, His awful elevation above the creature, and His zeal for His own honour) is the background of every doctrine of atonement. As holy, God abhors sin, and cannot but in righteousness eternally react against it. His grace shows itself in forgiveness (Ex 34»- '); but even forgiveness must be bestowed in such a way, and on such conditions, that the interest of holiness shall not be compromised, but shall be upheld and magnified. Hence the bestowal of forgiveness in connexion with intercession (Moses, etc.), with sacrificial atonements, with signal vindications of the Divine righteousness (Phinehas). On man's side sin is viewed as voluntary, as infinitely heinous, as entailing a Divine condemnation that needs to be removed. All the world has gone astray from God, and the connexion in which each indi-vidual stands with his family, nation, and race entaUs on him a corporate as well as an individual responsibility.

2. A second important line of preparation in the OT is in the doctrine of sacrifice. Whatever the origins or ethnic associations of sacrifice, it is indisputable that sacrifice in the OT has a peculiar meaning, in accordance with the ideas of God and His holiness above indicated. From the beginning, sacrifice was the appointed means of approach to God. Whether, in the earliest narrative, the difference in the sacrifices of Cain and Abel had to do with the fact that the one was bloodless and the other an animal sacrifice (Gn 4'-'), or lay solely in the disposition of the offerers (v.'), is not clear. Probably, however, from the commence-ment, a mystic virtue was attached to the shedding and presentation of the sacred element of the blood. Up to the Exodus, we have only the generic type of the burnt-offering; the Exodus itself gave birth to