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171 ;

which of the PtoU'nican kings of Egypt gave the

new

Acquittal Acrostics

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

171

nanio J^nlemain to the city

is

doubtful (usually

Ptolemy

I.. Soter, is assumefl). The !;rcat importance of tlic city as a port on the liailioiicss coast of Palestine was manifest, especially in t he wars of the JIaecabees, when it was repeatedl_v the basis of operations against Palestine (I Mace. v. Demetrius could offer no 15-22. .i. 22. xiii. 12). greater induecnient in order to win lie Jews than to ])romi.se I'loliniaisas a gift to the Temple of JerusaI

lem (compare 1 Mace. x. 3!)). The jiopvilation showed a specially intense liatred toward the Jews (II Mace. -iii. 2.")). Jonathan the Maccalne was treacherously murdered there b_v Try phon I Mace. xii. 41^). Alexander Jannaus vainly attempteil to concpier it (

Ptolemy X. and (Josephus, ".Vnt." xiii. 12, ^ 2). Ins mother. Cleopatra 111.. dispited its |)ossession with each other until ChMijialra handed it over to the iSyrian king as the dowry of her daughter Seleue. Tigrancs plundered it 70 B.C. Under the emperor Claudius, Acco "received the lights of a Homan colony " (Pliny, 5, IT). Comiuered by the Arabs in CC8, the city reached its Ingliest importance during the Crusades as a base of operations for the Christians. It was. for a time, tlui seat of the Latin kingdom of JiTUsalem and, until 12!)I, of tin' Knights of St. John, who transformed its name to St. Jean d'Acre. In modern limes its successful defense by the Turks and Knglish against Honaparte in ITili), itseon(iuest by the Egyptians under Ibrahim Pasha in 1H;{2. and its recapture with European aid in 1840 are the most notable events. W. il. M.

ACROSTICS:

Compositions,

usually

rhyth-

mical, in uliicli certain letters (generally the first or last of each line), taken consecutively, form a name, phrase, orsentence. Several instancesof alphabetical Acrostics occur in the Hebrew Bible. According to Pcsikta Habbati. i; 4. ed. Friedmann. p. 187, the first verse of Ps. xcii. is an acrostic on the name Jloses. Acrostics are usually held to be of late dale, but if Bickelland (iunkel have rightly detected traeesof an alphabetical arrangement in Nalium, i. ii. and iii.. it follows that th(^ Hebrew acrostic is at least as old as the seventh  ii.c). See Lagarde, "Symmicta." i. 107; Guiikel. in Stade's "Zeitschrift.'' xiii. 224: Clievne, "Origin and Helig-

ioiisContentsof thePsidter."|). 228, New York, lst»l; compare " Theologisehe Literaturzeituug," lbU2, No. 2C, col.

<):i7.

The alphabetical .Vcrostics of the Bible (on which see Driver, " Introiluclion," ]k :!:!7) are contined to the Psjilms, Proverbs, and I.amenlation.s. They include Psalms ix.-x. (incomplete): xxv. (extni verseatend. 1 line missing); xxxiv. (res<>mbles xxv.. hut luTc llie EJ verse s<M'ms originally to have prereih'd the j; verse; otherwise there is no subject to IpyV in verse 18, unless il refers to "the doers of evil" in verse 17: thinks that mn' in verse 2!} belongs to the author's name): xv.w ii. ty verse missing, but Jierhaps to be resloird from the long verse 28): cxi. and cxii. (a half-verse to each leiur); cxix. (eight verses to eacli letter); and cxlv. (3 line mis.sIng. but supplieil in thi' Si'plimginl). In all these P-ialms the alphabetical arrangement seems to have

Duhm

been cliosen as an artificial link between verses not logically connected. Besides the Psalms, the two other books above mentioned contain passages alphabetically arranged. Prov. xxxi. 10-31 is alphabetical (in the Septuagint the S luececles the J, and if. as Bickell assumes, chap. Ii. of Kcelus. (Sirach) contained an alphabet, this woidd liedue to imitation of Provciiis. The Cairene f ragmen of Sirach discovered by PiofessorSchecliler does not present a complete alphabet (see Seliecliter and Taylor. "The Wisdom of Ben Sira," pp. Ixxvi. et aeq.). Lam. i.-iv. are alphabelical; chap. iii. is a I

In ii.-iv. the 3 line prececles the j;. not al]ihal)etical. but it contains twentytwo verses. In Lamentations the alphabetical order is associated with a detineil elegiac measure. It should lie ad<led, finally, that 11. P. Cliajes has lately advanced the very improbable view that in their original form chaps, x.-xxii. IG of the Biblical Book of Proverbs were arranged alphabetically ("Proveriiia-Studicn." Beriin, 18i)'J). Beginning with the gaonic age. Acrostics, either (1) alphabetical, (2) nominal (giving the author's name), or (3) textual (giving a Biblical quotation), are triple acrostic.

Chap.

v. is

frei|Uently found in Hebrew literature. The Jlidrasli (Cant. K., beginning) ascribes to King Solomon the composition of Acrostics; but elsewhere the Midrasli alludes to Greek Acrostics Post-Bib- {a7.(pajiipapm) (Eccl. R. to vii. 8). lical. These Greek Acrostics were probably used in the ancient oracles, and were afterward adopted by the Christian Greek writers (Krunibachcr. "Geschichte der Bymintinischcn Litleratur," ])p. (i97<? .«'/.). Acrostics were also |io]iular in e.arly Syriac literature. Eiihraini of Ede.>isa(3tlT373) wroli' alphabetical [loems; and ataliout the s;ime )ieriod Aphraates arranged his homilies under the twenty-two letters of the Syriac alphabet. Tliis may be comiiared with the method of the Karaite Jiidali Iladassi, whose"Eslikol ha-Kofer" (written in 1148) is arranged in an cl:iborate series of alphabets. The medieval Church was fond of alphabetical hymns " Hyninology," pp. 3, 4 it .«"/.). These "abeccdaria" were sometimes compo.scd for dogmatic purposes (Bingham, "Works," v. 17). Acrostics obtaincil a linn hold on Hebrew winters in the gaonic peri<id. The letters of that age often open with Acrostics on the writer's name; and later the same fact may la^ noted in luefaees to treatises. The liturgy was soon embellished with acrostic pass:iges, and this independently of the introduction of rime. Tln' earliest acrostic prayers are collected in Zunz. "(Jottesdleiislliche Vortrilge," 2d ed., p. 391. Sometimes iiatriarchal names are thus intniduced. as Abraham in n3nC": Isaacand Bebekali in (.lulian.

Q'lj;" »33.

(originally

The order

im^XD

of the lines in

'D)

was

"En Kclohenu"

inireniously disarranged

to iiilrodiice the acrostic riDS "jnapX; the words JONJ I^O ^X inserted before the Sheina' also form the

"Amen." The extent to which val Hebrew liturgical

acrostic

Acrostics were used Jiocts (.see

PlVfT)

is

by medienot easily

great name among

determined. Kalir. the tii-sl them, was followed in Ibis, as in other iioints. by his imitators; but the Spanish ]ioels. ciiually willi ihe A large numKalirian, were victims to the fancy. ber of Jiidah liaLevi's hymns and secular verses are Acroslics on his name; most fre(|uenlly he tisi-s

minv

1ml ^ometimes the fuller form

'l^in

rm,T

':s

-Vbnihani ilin E/ra wrote m:iiiy ptn ^KIDL" 13 Acrostics on his name Dm3N: ocensioiially. like oilier p4>ets. he introduced into his letters llie name

PK of

Ills

corix'spomleut.