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270 THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Athletes

"Already

in

Bible the figures introduced as and Esau are by no means presented in a favorable light." Of Esau it is safe to assume, from the characterization of him recorded in Gen. xxv. 27, that he was regarded as more crafty in the chase, though less rethe

devoted hunters

Notable

"Mighty" Men.

— Nimrod

—

nowned, than Nimrod. Jacob, Esau's brother, although a quiet man dwelling in tents (Gen. ib.), is represented as having possessed great strength for when lie saw Rachel, the daughter of Laban, come to

water her

flock,

he rolled away a great stone that

was upon the well's mouth (Gen. xxix. 10). It was he who also wrestled with a man "until the breaking of the day

"

(Gen. xxxii. 25 [A. V. 24]). Undoubtedly the greatest of all the mighty men

was Samson, who, soon after he had reached man's estate, rent a lion "as he would have rent a kid " in the vineyards of Timnath (Judges xiv. 6). His might is attributed to spiri-

to war, so that a

bow

270 of steel

is

broken by mine arms

"

(Ps. xviii. 33, 34).

Biblical references to running point to the swiftness

In II Sam. i. 23 David laments the deaths of Saul and Jonathan, who were " swifter than eagles " in Ps. xix. 6 [A. V. 5] the reference is "rebut the joiceth as a strong man to run a race " Preacher declares " that the race is not to the swift of the Israelites.





(Eecl. ix. 11).

After the defeat by Joab of Abner's army at GibAbner retreated, he tried in vain to deter Asahel, Joab's brother, from pursuing him, as he shrank from a blood-feud with Joab. Asahel, howand Abner " with the ever, would not be deterred hinder end of the spear smote him under the fifth rib, that the spear came out behind him " (II Sam. eon, as



of Biblical times

ii.

tual strength, not to "brute natural strength" (Faus-

Jehu w as an expert archer who " drew a bow with his full strength and smote Jehoram between his arms, and the arrow went out at his heart " (II Kings ix. 24). The tribe of Benjamin was re-

23). T

set,

nowned

Book

of

"Bible Cyclopedia," a. v.). This is shown in the of Judges, which introduces his achievements with the words "and the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him " (xiv. 6) and the same words are used in verse 19 (A. V.). Other Biblical mighty men were Shamgar (Judges iii. 31), Saul, Jonathan, David, Joab, Abishai, Asahel, Jashobeam the Hachmonite, Eleazar. and Shamnan. Saul is said to have gathered around him strong and valiant men, and encouraged physical develop;

ment among his subjects. The career of Jonathan embodies a noteworthy incident of his entering the camp of the Philistines accompanied only by an armor-bearer. Here on a " half acre of land which a yoke of oxen might plow," he and his companion fell on the enemy, "and that first slaughter, which Jonathan and his armorbearer made, was about twenty men " (I Sam. xiv. 14). Jonathan is also described as an expert archer (I Sam. xx. 20), where he says to David: "I will shoot three arrows on the side thereof [of the stone Ezel], as though I shot at a mark," and again in the lamentation of David (II Sam. i. 22): "From the blood of the slain, from the fat of the mighty, the bow of Jonathan turned not back, and the sword of His skill was also Saul returned not empty." acknowledged in David's words, "How are the mighty fallen, and the weapons of war perished " !

(ib.

i.

27).

In his youth David showed himself "mighty, valand withal "prudent" (I Sam. xvi. 18). Before he set out against the Philistine Goliath, David said to Saul, in reply to the latter's warning that he (David) was but a youth, and his opJonathan ponent a man of war: "Thy servant

iant,"

there came and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock And I went out after him, and smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth and when he arose against me, I caught him by his beard, and smote him, and slew him. Thy servant slew both Of his the lion and the bear " (I Sam. xvii. 34-36). fleetness and strength David himself sang praises to God. " He maketh my feet like hinds' feet, and setteth me upon my high places. He teacheth my hands

and David, kept his father's sheep, and a

lion,





for the dexterity of its left-handed slingers,

whom

" there were seven hundred chosen men, every one could sling stones at an hair breadth, and not miss " (Judges xx. 16), and for the efficiency of its archers (I Chron. xii. 2). .

Swimming was known among the ancient Hebrews and practised by them (sometimes with the aid of skins) according to the hand-over-hand method (see " And he shall spread forth his hands Isa. xxv. 11). midst of them, as he that swimmeth spreadeth forth his hands to swim," which Fausset [I.e. under "Swimming," p. 667, col. 2] interprets " the swimmer beating down with his hands i. e., bringing in the



down each hand

forcibly."

Evidence that racing also was practised is found "If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with horses 1 " in Jer. xii. 5



F. H. V.

E. c.

Post-Biblical,

Times: The

Medieval,

origin of Athletics

is

and

Modern

to be traced to the

among whom bodily strength and agility were so highly esteemed that in their society the athlete held a prominent position. With the spread of Hellenism among the Jews the first to feel its effects were the upper classes, whose more ambitious members strove to remodel Jewish Greeks,

life

according to Hellenistic principles.

The first attempt in this direction seems to have been made by Menelaus, brother of Jason, the high who, in order that he might ingrahimself with the king Antiochus Epiphanes, established a gymnasium, modeled on Gym- the Greek plan, close to the Temple at nasium at Jerusalem, where men and boys might Jerusalem, practise wrestling, boxing, ball-playing, throwing, slinging, archery, jumping, riding, swimming, diving, etc., under the supervision of a gymnasiarch. The opposition of the conservative element among the Jews to the gymnasium became, however, so strenuous that devout Jews began to look upon the exercises with horror, especially because most of them were practised "in puris naturalibus," and the Covenant of Abraham had become an object of deripriest (170 B.C.), tiate

A