NEHEMIAS

this is accepted, Ezra's visit and work of reform fall in the year 398. Kosters goes much further than this.

' According to him, a return of exiles in the second year of Cyrus did not take place at all; the building of the Temple and the walls was rather the work of the population that had remained behind in the land "(2 K 25*2), of whom Zembbabel and Nehemiah were govemora; Ezra's visit and work of reform fall in the second governorship of Nehe-miah, after the events narrated in Neh 13^-3^. Ezra arrived for the first time after 433; first of all the community was reconstituted by the dissolution of the mixed marriages, and then solemnly bound to the observance of the Law which had been brought with him by Ezra : the first return- journey under Zerubbabel, with all those who joined them-selves with him, has been invented by the Chronicler, who reversed the order of events. Finally, according to Torrey, the "I " passages, with the exception of Neh 1 . 2 (mainly) and 33a_6i9 (mainly), have been fabricated by the Chronicler, who in them created his masterpiece; and Nehemiah also belongs to the reign of Artaxerxes n.' (ComiU).

Kosters' theory has been energetically opposed by Wellhausen, and since Ed. Meyer's demonstration of, the essential authenticity of the documents embodied in Ezra 4-7, the extreme form of the critical theory may be regarded as having lost most of its plausibiUty.

G. H. Box.

NEHEMIAS,— 1. 1 Es 58 =Nehemiah, Ezr 2' Neh 7'. 2. 1 Es S'°, Nehemiah the contemporary of Ezra.

NEHILOTH.— See Psalms, p. 772".

NEHUDI. — One of the twelve heads of the Jewish community (Neh 7') ; prob. a scribal error for Rehum of Ezr 2'; called in 1 Es 5» Roimus.

NEHUSHTA. — Wife of king Jehoiakim and mother of Jehoiachin (2 K 24*). She was taken a prisoner to Babylon with her son in 597 (2 K 2412).

NEHUSHTAN.— See Sebpent (Bbazen). NEIEL.— See Neah.

NEKODA. — 1. Eponym of a family of Nethinim (Ezr 2" =Neh 7™); called in 1 Es S^i Noeba. 2. Name of a family which returned from the Exile, but were unable to prove their Israelitlsh descent (Ezr 2i'i'=Neh 7'2); called in 1 Es 5" Nekodan.

NEKODAN (1 Es 5") =Nekoda, Ezr 2«», Neh 7«.

NEMUEL. — 1. See Jemuel. The patronymic Nemuelites occurs in Nu 2612. 2. A Reubenite (Nu 26')

NEPHEG.— 1. Son of Izhar and brother of Korah (Ex 6"). 2. One of David's sons (2 S 5" = lCh 3' 145).

NEPHEW. — In AV 'nephew' means 'grandson.' It occurs in Jg 12n, Job 18", Is I422, 1 Ti 5*.

NEFHILIM. — A Heb. word, of uncertain etymology> retained by RV in the only two places where it occurs in OT(AV 'giants'). In Gn 6« we read: •TheNephilira were in the earth in those days, and also afterwards, when the sons of God went in to the daughters of men and they bare to them; these are the heroes which were of old, the men of renown.' The verse has the appear-ance of an explanatory gloss to the obscure mythological fragment which precedes, and is very difficult to under-stand. But we can hardly be wrong in supposing that it bears witness to a current belief (to which there are many heathen parallels) in a race .of heroes or demi-gods, produced by the union of divine beings ('sons of Go3 ') with mortal women. The other notice Is Nu 13^', where the name Is applied to men of gigantic stature seen by the spies among the natives of Canaan. That these giants were popularly identified with the demi-gods of Gn 6*, there is no reason to doubt. See also art. Giant. J. Skinner.

NEPHISHESIM, NEPHISIM.— See Naphish.

NEPHTHAI.— See Nephthab.

NEPHTHAR.— The name given by Nehemiah to a 'thick substance' which was found in a dry pit after the return from Babylon (2 Mac I's-as). The legend

652

NERO

relates how certain priests, before the Captivity, took the sacred fire and hid it. On the Return, when a search was made, there was found in its place this highly inflammable substance, which seems not to have differed much from the naphtha of commerce. Some of it was poured over the sacrifice, and was ignited by the great heat of the sun and burned with a bright flame. The name nephthar or nephthal [v.^] has not been satisfactorily explained, although it is said by the writer to mean 'cleansing.'

T. A. MoxoN.

NEPHTOAH. — A town on the boundary between Judah and Benjamin (Jos 15« 18"), usually identified with Lifta, about 2 miles N.W. of Jerusalem (so Tobler, Baedeker-Socin, Guthe, etc.). The Talmud identifies Nephtoah with Etam, the modern 'Ain 'Atam, at what are popularly called the Pools of Solomon, S. of Bethlehem (Neubauer, Giog. du Talm. p. 146). This latter is favoured by Conder, who would place Eleph at Lifta. The phrase 'the fountain of the waters of Nephtoah' would lead us to expect abundant supplies of water. In this respect the claim of 'Ain 'Ata-m is certainly stronger than that of Lifta. W. Ewing.

NEPHUSHESm, NEPHUSni.— See Naphisi.

NER.— The father of Abner (1 S li^"- 26=- " etc.).

NEREUS. — A Roman Christian, to whom, along with his sister, St. Paul sends greeting in Ro 16". The expression 'and all the saints that are with them' seems to point to some community of Christians accustomed to meet together. Mobley Stevenson.

NERGAL.— The god of the city of Cutha in Baby-lonia, hence worshipped by the captive Cuthffians who were transplanted to Samaria by Sargon (2 K 17"'). In the Bab.-Assyr. pantheon he was a god of war and pestilence, and of hunting, and the planet Mars was sacred to him.

The name Nergal is probably of Sumerian origin, namely, Ner~nal — 'great warrior.' The god is sometimes in the non-Semitic texts called Ner-unu-gal, 'hero of the lower world,' evidently indicating his connexion with death and destruction. W. M. Nesbit.

NERGAL-SHAREZEB. — The Bab. Nergal-shar-uzur 'Nergal preserve the king,' the Rab-mag (wh. see), who, with Nebuzaradan and Nebushazban, released Jeremiah from prison (Jer 39'- "). It is tempting to suppose that he was the Nergal-shar-uzur who married a daughter of Nebuchadrezzar, and later came to the throne of Babylon, and is known from classical writers as Neriglissar (b.c. 559-556). C. H. W. Johns.

NEBI. — An ancestor of Jesus (Lk 3").

NERIAH. — The father of Baruch (Jer 32i2- " 36<- '■ a^ 433- 8 451 515'). In Bar 1' the Greek form of the name, Nerias, is retained.

NERIAS.— See Nebiah.

NERO is not mentioned by name in the NT, but his connexion with St. Paul's trial (Ac 25-28, where ' Caesar ' is Nero), the mention of his household (Ph 4?'), and the general consensus of opinion that the number of the Beast 666 (Rev 13'8) is a cypher indicating Nero Kesar (the Gr. way of pronouncing the Emperor's name), are sufficient reasons for including him here. Lucius Domi-tius Ahenobarbus, son of Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus (consul 32 (died 40) a.d.) and lulia Agrippina, daughter of Germanicus (the adopted son of the Emperor Tiberius), who became wife of the Emperor Claudius in 48 a.d., was born on IS Dec. in the year 37 a.d. On adoption by his step-father on 25 Feb. 50 he received new names, by one of which, Nero, he has since been known. On the murder of Claudius his sole rule began in 54, and during it he was officially known as Imperator Nero Claudius Csesar Augustus Germanicus. His death took place on 9 June, 68, in his thirty-first year.

Nero inherited evil qualities from his father and mother, which for the first five years of his reign, when