Semitic Lanrnsses

THE NEW SCHAFF HERZOG

Provinces and Kashmir. Religiously they fall into two great divisions and many sects. The divisions are the Sahijdharis and the Singhs, the former re­jecting the baptism of Gobind Singh. Besides the schismatic Udasis and Minas referred to above, there are the Handalis, named after a convert of Amar Das, but not arising till about 1640. Their descend­ants, a small community, have their headquarters at Jandiala in the Punjab, where they are known as Niranjanie. As a religious sect the Sikhs are being absorbed by the dominant Hinduism, have lost al­most entirely the language of their sacred book, and are in many respects forgetting the distinguishing

practises which under their Gurus marked them as apart from the Hindus.

II. The Religion: The religious tenets of the Sikhs are exhibited in the Adi Granth (or Granth Sahib), consisting of the poetic utterances of the Gurus and of some Indian saints whose sayings the

Gurus approved. According to com 

a. The men conceptions, the Gurus, were in­Granth. carnations of deity, and, consequently,

the book is inspired. In its present arrangement the Granth serves the purpose of a bible and a liturgy. It is in six parts: (1) an intro­duction by Nanak; (2) extracts from two of the " rags " (see below) used in devotions at eventide; (3) a devotional chapter composed of extracts from one of the rags; (4) a chapter of extracts from three of the rags used as a prayer before retiring; (5) the Granth proper, of compositions in meter arranged under thirty one rags (musical measures to which the hymns were sung or chanted the result is much like a hymn book with the hymns arranged under the different meters, short, long, common, etc.); (6) a concluding portion by various authors, including Indian saints and fakirs. The extent is indicated by the fact that Trumpp's translation and notes (see bibliography) make a small quarto of 715 pages. The language of the Granth is obscure both as a dialect and because of the educational limita­tions of the Gurus. It was intended for the under­standing of the common people, and was therefore in the vernacular; on  this account the Brahmans remonstrated with the Gurus for putting in the com­mon speech what the former contended should not be imparted to the populace, such knowledge being too high for them. But the Gurus were aiming at the very evil of retaining the knowledge of religion within the command of a few, and desired therefore not only that their own people should have this knowledge in their own language (not the Sanskrit), but that other nations should learn of it, and so hoped for the translation of their works into many languages. Of its contents varying estimates exist; the literature of the East rarely appeals to the mind of the West, and it is hardly strange that a book which so abounds in figures, which reflects a life and ordinary conceptions so different from those of the western world, and which is more or less repe­titious should not appeal to those who have not breathed the inspiration of the East. Sir Lefel Griffin (formerly secretary of the Punjab govern­ment) remarks truly that it is scarcely possible to turn a single page without being struck with the beauty and originality of the figures and with the

RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA

Sikhs

Silos= Inscription

enlightened devotion of its language (in H. A. Giles and others, Great Religions of the World, New York, 1901). This book, like other sacred books, had its period of persecution at the hands of enemies of the religion. While the founder of the religion and writer of a considerable part of the Granth dis­claimed special sanctity, he asserted his authority in matters of faith and practise.

Sikh theology is naturally based on established and current Hindu conceptions. Thus the reason for the existence of the Sikh religion is that which explains the avatars of Vishnu when

2. Belief the world needs it, God vouchsafes a and new revelation. The new worship is

Practise. based on the old Hindu idea of the

efficacy of repeating devotionally the

name of God. God is one, but in the Hindu pan­

theistic sense. He alone is real, all the world is un­

real. He is formless, yet diffused throughout crea­

tion. God and his worshiper are in some sense one;

yet the Hindu distinction between paramatman

(supreme soul) and jivatman (individual soul) is

maintained, the latter being an emanation of the

former. Attempts have been made to show the in­

fluence of Christianity upon Sikh concepts and

teachings. Many of the ideas are very similar and

may possibly be of Christian origin; yet it must be

said that all can be paralleled from pre Christian

Hindu or Buddhistic sources. How similar these

ideas are to Christian teaching may be shown

by a few examples. Nanak resisted the tempta­

tion of the devil who offered him the wealth

of the worid to abandon his mission (cf. Matt.

iv. 8 10). He used to complain because when he

was silent the Brahmans called him an idiot, and

when he talked they said he chattered (cf. Matt.

xi. 18 19). Among the figures he used was the dis­

parity between the size of the seed of the Indian

fig tree and the tree itself (cf. Matt. xiii. 31 32).

The incident of the needle related above (I., § 2)

reminds of Matt. xix. 21. Angad made the purity

and simplicity of children the quality of believers

which endeared them to the Creator. However,

the thoroughly Hindu foundation is unmistakable.

The doctrines of reincarnation and of karma are

held in their entirety; constantly in the teachings

of the Gurus inequality of fortune to desert is ex­

plained as the result of deeds done in a former in­

carnation. Belief in Nirvana is a tenet of the faith,

and the word is used in the twofold sense familiar

to students of Buddhism absorption into the Ab­

solute with resultant loss of personality, and a sense

cognate with that of " paradise." The sacred num­

ber is that of the Hindus five, and true Sikhs are

distinguished by reception of fivefold baptism and

by the wearing of five article long hair, comb,

sword, short drawers, and steel bracelet. The essen­

tials of Sikh practise are abstention from Hindu

pilgrimages, from idolatry and from offerings to

idols, from wine and tobacco; women are not to be

secluded nor is infanticide to be practised; the de­

nunciation of suttee (concremation of a widow) is

emphatic; observance of the caste system with its

load of defilements and purifications is prohibited;

and the duty of earning one's living is enforced.

Stress is laid upon the virtues of truth, honesty,

loyalty to the Guru and the religion, gratitude, char­

ity to members of the faith, evenhanded justice,

filial duty, humility, patience, distrust of self, free­

dom from superstition, and the recompensing of

good for evil. Most of the Granth is taken up with

metrical homilies upon these subjects and on the

duty of avoiding the corresponding vices. The Sikh

is to rise before day, to bathe, repeat part of the

scriptures, and meditate on the divine name. He

is to bear in mind that true sacrifice consists in be­

ing charitable to those who repeat God's name and

practise humility. His ordinary acts are to become

acts of devotion, and he is to pray for the extension

of the religion. GEO. W. GILMORE.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: As a source incomparably the best work is M. A. Maeauliffe, The Sikh Religion; its Gurus, sacred Writings and Authors, 6 vols., Oxford, 1908 (this trans­lates the Granth, placing the separate compositions after the accounts of the Gurus to whom they are credited. In the lives of the Gurus the author has used the native sources, and the flavor of the originals is preserved; un­fortunately, the matter is rather poorly arranged. The point of view is sympathetic to the religion). Next best is Adi Granth, transl. by E. Trumpp, London, 1877 (the transl. is inferior in its English the translator was a German  and is said to be inadequate from the point of view of fidelity to the original; its value is that it translates con­secutively; the introduction is extensive and has value). For the history of the Sikhs consult: J. D. Cunningham, A Hist. of the Sikhs from the Origin of the Nation to the Battles of the Sutlej, London, 1849; L. Griffin, The Rajahs of the Punjab, ib. 1873; idem, Ranjit Singh, ib. 1892; E. Trumpp, Nanak der Stifter der Sikh Religion, Munich, 1876. On the religion consult: H. H. Wilson, Religious Sects of the Hindus, Calcutta, 1846; Sakhi Namah. Sak­hee Book, or the Description of Gooroo Gobind Singh's Re­ligion and Doctrines, transl. . . by Sirdar Attar Singh, Benares, 1873; A. Barth, Religions of India, pp. 242 sqq., London, 1881; E. Trumpp, Die Religion der Sikhs each der Quellen, Leipsie, 1881; F. Pincott, in Religious Sys­tem of the World, London and New York, 1893; A. S. Geden, Studies in Eastern Religions, London, 1900 (ex­cellent); P. D. Chantepie de la Saussaye, Religionsge­schichte, ii. 155 157, Tabingen, 1905. Some magazine liter­ature is indicated in Richardson, Encyclopedia, p. 1013.
SILOAM INSCRIPTION: An inscription found in the conduit in Jerusalem leading from the Virgin's Fount (or Virgin's Spring or Fountain of Steps) to the Pool of Siloam (see JERUSALEM, II.). The in­scription was incised in the right hand wall of the conduit as one enters from the pool, and about nine­teen feet from the entrance. It occupied the lower part of an artificial niche so hewed as to form a rect­angular cartouche, and the upper part of this niche was left vacant. The inscription was discovered in the summer of 1880 by two boys. Dr. Schick, a German architect then resident in Jerusalem, having heard of the find, examined it, and had the water lowered in order to make a copy of the inscription. His efforts were not very successful, owing in part to his lack of skill as an archeologist, and in part to the fact that there was a deposit of lime over the place, and further because of confusion made by chance marks or cracks in the rock. Dr. A. H. Sayce of Oxford made the next copy in Feb., 1881, which was more nearly correct. In April of the same year a correct copy was secured by Dr. Her­mann Guthe, who removed the lime deposits by chemical means, made a cast from which squeezes were taken, and in this way removed all doubts as to the actual contents of the iLScription.

Siloam Inscription silvester

THE NEW SCHAFF HERZOG

This inscription is in six lines, written in the early script very closely resembling that of the Moabite Stone (q.v.) and of the current Phenician inscrip­tions. The first line is mutilated at the end, and a small break intrudes in lines two to four. The lan­guage is idiomatic Hebrew, the text is unpointed, and the orthography is, in the technical sense, " de­fective " in that the letters Waw and Yod, used as vowels, are often omitted where in later Hebrew they are written to aid in the pronunciation. An attempt was made to steal the inscription, and in the process it was broken; the fragments are now in the museum at Constantinople. The casts, squeezes, and the original in full light combine to make possible a nearly complete translation of the oldest Israelitish inscription known of any consider­able length. Its date is by most scholars put not later than the reign of Hezekiah (714 686?), and it is placed in connection with II Kings xx. 20, where it is stated that Hezekiah " made a pool, and a con­duit," and with II Chron. xxxii. 30, R. V., " Heze­kiah stopped the upper spring of the waters of Gihon, and brought them straight down on the west side of the city of David." The following is the trans­lation of Dr. S. R. Driver (Notes on the Hebrew Text of . . . Samuel, p. xvi., Oxford, 1890).

1. [Behold] the piercing through I And this was the manner of the piercing through. Whilst yet [the miners were lifting up]

2. the pick each towards his fellow, and whilst yet there were three cubits to be [cut through, there was heard] the voice of each call 

3. ing to his fellow, :or there, was a fissure (?) in the rock on the right hand . . . And on the day of the

4. piercing through, the miners (lit. hewers) smote each so as to meet his fellow, pick against pick; and there flowed

5. the water from the source to the pool, 1200 cubits; and one hun 

6. dred cubits was the height of the rock over the

head of the miners. GEo. W. GILMORE.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: H. Guthe, in ZDMG, 1882, pp. 72'. 750

(the original publication by this scholar), and in ZDPV,

z ;iii (1890), 203 204, 286 288; C. R. Conder, in PEF,

Quarterly Statement, 1882, pp. 122 sqq.; P. Berger, in

Journal des d&ats, Apr. 16, 1882; Records of the Past, new

series, i. 168 175, London, 1889; W. F. Birch, in PEF,

Quarterly Statement, 1890, pp. 208 210; S. R. Driver, ut

sup., pp. xiv. xvi., xxxii., xxxv.; C. Clermont Ganneau,

Les Tombeaux de David et des rois de Judo et le tunnel­

aquedoc de Siloe, Paris, 1897; E. J. Pileher, in PSBA,

xix (1897), 165 182, xx (1898), 213 222, and PEF, Quar­

terly Statement, 1898, pp. 56 60; M. Lidzbarski Hand­

buch der nordsemitischen Epigraphik, Weimar, 1898; A.

Socin, Die Siloah Inschrift, Freiburg, 1899; T. H. Weir,

Short Hisl. of the Text of the O. T., London, 1899; G. A. Cooke, Text Book of North Semitic Inscriptions, ib. 1903; DB, iv. 515 516; JE, xi. 339 341.

SILVERIUS, sit vt'ri us: Pope 536 537. The pon­tificate of Silverius, who was the son of Pope Hormisdas, fell during the period of the struggle between the Goths and the eastern Empire and of the discussion as to the value of the Chalcedonian decrees. According to the Liber pontificalis, he owed his elevation to the favor, won by money, of Theo­datus, the Gothic king, and there was no formal election, his enthronement taking place June 8, 536. The speedy success of Belisarius in Italy made diffi 

cult the position of Silverius as the protkg6 of the

Gothic king. By agreement Belisarius occupied

Rome Dec. 9, 536; but the agreement was short­

lived, for Silverius incurred the hostility of Empress

Theodora by siding with the deposed Patriarch An­

thimus. The pope soon renewed his relations with

the Goths, and he was charged with purposing to

admit them to Rome; this seems not improbable, in

spite of the denial of his biographer, for from the

Goths Silverius had most to expect. In Mar., 537,

Belisarius deposed Silverius and banished him as

a monk to Patara in Lycia. His successor was

Vigilius, whose subserviency in dogmatic matters

secured the favor of Theodora. The case against

Silverius was reopened, and he was brought back

to Italy, only to be banished to the island of Ponza

in the Tyrrhenian Sea, where he died at a date

unknown. (A. HAUCK.)

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Liber pontificalis, ed. Mommsen in MGH.

Gast. Pont. Rom., i (1898), 144; Jaft, Repesta, i. 115;

Proeopius, De bello Gothieo, i. 25, printed in Muratori,

Seriptores, i. 1. pp. 247 369; J. Langen, Geschichte der

romischen Kirche, ii. 341 sqq., Bonn, 1885; F. Gregoro 

vine, Hist. of the City of Rome, i. 369, 395 398, London,

1894; Bower, Popes, i. 344 347; Milman, Latin Chris­

tianity, i. 461; Hefele, Conciliengeschichte, u. 571, Fr.

tranal., ii. 2, p. 873.

SILVESTER: The name of two popes and two antipopes.

Silvester L: Pope 314 335. The important events falling during the pontificate of this pope were the conversion of Constantine [and the alleged " donation " of that emperor] and the beginning of the Arian and the Donatistic controversies, though in neither of them had he direct participation. Eusebius (Vita Constantini, III., vii.) reports that he was represented at the Council of Nicaea and also at the Synod of Arles, the latter of which sent its canons to him. The period of his pontificate is given by the Catalogus Liberianus.

(A. HAUCK.)

B(BLrooRAPuY: Li3er pontihcalis, ed. Mommsen in MGM,

Gest. pont. Rom., i (1898), 47; JaffE, Regesta, i. 28 29; R. A. Lip®ius, Chronologie der rtimischen Bischoofe, p. 259, Kiel, 1869; Bower, Popes, f. 45 54; Milman, Latin Christianity, i. 94 95.

Silvester II. (Gerbert): Pope 999 1003. Gerbert was possibly a native of Aurillac in Auvergne, and his birth year probably falls between 940 and 950; his education he received at the monastery of Aurillac, remaining in connection with the Abbot Gerald and his successor Raymond, and there mani­festing his talent. Later he went to Spain and studied mathematics, astronomy, and music under Bishop Hatto of Vich in Catalonia, with whom in 970 he went to Rome, where his accomplishments led John XIII. to recommend him to Otto the Great. From Rome (c. 972) he went to Reims to receive instruction in dialectics from a celebrated archdea­con of that place, where he came into relations with Archbishop Adalbero, a man of great eminence in political as well as in ecclesiastical life. The arch­bishop stimulated Gerbert to teach as well as to learn; this he did, dealing with the " Introduction " of Porphyry, the " Categories " of Aristotle, rnd with writings of Cicero and Boethius. His pupils read the poets, and received training in the conduct of discussions. The course led up to the study of

413 RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA Siloam Inscription

Silvester

arithmetic, music, astronomy, and geometry, and

the teacher became celebrated in France, Germany,

and Italy. Some time during this period he held

from Otto II. the abbey of Bobbio near Pavia, not

later than the beginning of 983. As such he had a

high position and took part in politics. Yet his

position as abbot was rendered unpleasant by the

possessions of the abbey, which made many his

enemies. At the death of Otto II., he left the abbey,

seeming to see decadence in Church and State, and

went to Reims, intending to take up again his be­

loved studies. He again began to teach, having

assembled a rich library; but he desired ecclesias­

tical activity, and became secretary of Adalbero

and so participator in political affairs. The arch­

bishop was engaged heartily in the service of pro­

tecting and safeguarding the interests of Otto III.,

in which he was ably assisted by Gerbert. Adalbero

was interested also in France; and in the elevation

of Hugh Capet to the throne, after the death of

Louis V., the influence of the archbishop and of

Gerbert was seen. After the death of Adalbero,

Gerbert naturally expected to be chosen to the see

of Reims, but was passed over in favor of Arnulf,

who soon became a partizan of the Lothringians,

which led to the accusation of treason being lodged

against Arnulf and his trial before a synod, where

the question was raised concerning the jurisdiction

of a synod over a bishop. Eventually Arnulf re­

signed his see and Gerbert was elected in his place.

After this event, Gerbert because pronouncedly

anti papal, turning against the pope the saying

" man must obey God rather than man," and de­

claring that if the pope sinned against a brother

and did not listen to the Church, he is to be regarded

as a heathen and a publican. Gerbert did not abide

by his principles, however. In 991 John XV. sent

as his representative to France and Germany Abbot

Leo of St. Boniface in Rome, that he might investi­

gate the affairs of the see of Reims. At a synod

called by Leo, June 2, 995, only four German bish­

ops were present, and the French bishops held aloof.

The apology delivered here by Gerbert marks the

beginning of his backward tendency, and attempted

to show that part of the trouble arose through

Rome's delay in answering. Gerbert was prohibited

from exercising the duties of his office until decision

was made. At a new synod of July 1, 995, Gerbert

was sure of French support and therefore was bolder;

but no decision was reached, and Gerbert thought

things favorable to himself and went to Rome to

carry out his plan of defense. Meanwhile John had

died and Gregory V. had taken his place, and was

engrossed with the idea of reform of the Church.

The prospect was therefore not altogether favorable

to Gerbert, and in France his support had grown

lukewarm. But Gerbert was in close relations with

Otto III., who admired his learning and valued his

services and was admired and praised by Gerbert

for his character and power.

The favor of Otto was used with the pope in

Gerbert's interests, and the latter was made arch­

bishop of Ravenna, 998, where he appeared as the

furtherer of Gregory's plans for reform, taking part

in synods concerned with that business. The death

of Gregory in Feb., 999, led to the elevation of Ger 

bert to the papal chair as Silvester II., through the favor of Otto. Gerbert turned his back upon his past, recognized Arnulf as archbishop of Reims, assisted the emperor in carrying out his plans for reconstituting his kingdom, plans which were essen­tially anti German. Yet pope and emperor were not entirely at one, Rome was committed to neither, and the death of Otto, Jan. 23, 1002, broke the prospects of realization of Silvester's plans and his further hopes of greatness. The next year the latter also died.

Silvester's writings included the subjects of dia­lectics, mathematics, and theology. His De corpore et sanguine Domini inquires whether the Eucharist and the historical body of Christ are identical. Silvester's reputation was principally for great learn­ing, which was so great that he was accounted a sorcerer. He was not creative, however. He was an idealist in politics, and this gave an air of insin­cerity to his attempts, while self seeking is not to be eliminated from the motives which ruled his ac­tion. As a consequence his pontificate is memorable for nothing of achievement in Church or State.

(A. HAUCK.)