Silyand8

See Silas. SILVER (np| [Aram. 10?], ipyvpos, ipyipiov) comet next to gold in the list of precious metals. Iti SILVEB SIMEON 5i; Talue arises parti j' from its comparative rarity, and partly from its properties of resistance to corro- .aion, brilliant wliitL- lustre, malleability, ductility, and tlie like, ^Yhic'h make it a specially suitable material for artistic workmanship. The kuow- led''e and use of silver in classical and Bible lands go Lack to prehistoric times.

This metal appears in Homer as put to a great variety of purposes. Vessels and ornaments maile of it were found by Schlicmann at MyceinB. Silver la equally in evi- dence among the remains of the ancient Egyp- tians, Assyrians, and Hittites. It is repeatedly mentioned in the Tel el-Amarna tablets. Silver is rarely found in the native state, and has almost always to be extracted from some form of ore.

The principal Asiatic source of it in ancient times was in the mountains of Armenia and Kurdistan. Homer (II. ii. 857) refers to the special excellence of the silver brought from AlybS in Pontus. The mines of these regions have been wrought by the Turkish Government in modern times. In Europe the silver mines of Laurium in Attica were of considerable import- ance, and proved a rich source of wealth to Athens. There were also mines in Thrace and Epirus.

But the most abundant 8up|ilies of silver were obtained from Spain. The workings there were at lirst in the hands of the Carthaginians, and it was when the Iiomans obtained posse.ssion of them that silver first became plentiful in Italy, though it had previously been used in art by the Etruscans, who may have derived their supply of the metal from Gaul or from the Phoenicians.

Silver waa obUiined from its compounds by smelting along with other metallic ores, of which that of lead was essential to the process. At a high temperature the lead combined with the im- purities in the silver to form a heavj' 'slag,' which separated by its weight from the molten silver, lejiving the latter pure. The relative values of gold and silver varied in ancient times. As long as the supply was restricted to Asiatic sources, silver was scarcer than it after- wards became.

There are indications of a struggle for supremacy between the two metals at lirst, and even of a preference for silver to gold in some places. In Egypt silver is always mentioned before gold in the inscriptions, and silver objects are rarer than golden ones in the tombs. Kroni a fragment of Agatharcides it appears that in ancient Arabia silver was reckoned 10 times more valuable than gold. The laws of Menes in Egypt fixed the value of gold as 2J times that of silver. Herodotus (iii.

05) makes cold equal in value to 13 times its weight of silver. The Egyptian (ts-e/n (Gr. ^XexT/jof [or -os], Lat. elc'trum) was a highly prized alloy of gold and silver. Silver was an early form of currency, and at first was reckoned by weight (see MONEY, vol. iii. p. 418 (T.), coiii.-ige bein^ miknown among the Hebrews before the Exile. Hence in OT 155 is frequently tr. ipyvptov by LXX, and 'money' in EV. It is al.so oicasionally rendered ' price, and once (Is 7^) 'silverlings.'

Similarlj' in Apocr. and NT ifryupiov is often tr. 'money.' 'Piece of silver' stands in one passage (Lk 15^) for SpaxM, fi. The mention of silver in Scripture as a medium of exchange goes back to the time of Abraham (Gn 23"- '"). Silver is an item constantly enumer- ated in accounts of wealth, spoil, and tribute.

The wealth of Solomon is indicated by his making silver as plentiful as stone in Jerusalem (1 K 10", Sir 47"), and that of the restored Jerusalem is described in the promise, ' for iron I will bring silver' (Is CO"). So Tyre (Zee 9») and the wicked man (Job 27") are s-aid to ' heap up silver as dust." Idols were made of silver or plated with it. It WIS the material of various parts of the Taber- nacle (sockets, fillets, hooks, etc.)

, of the trumpets of the priests, and of many of the sacred ve-ssels of the temple. Vessels of silver were a form of votive ottering (Nu T passim), and were part of tho furniture of wealthj' private houses (2 Ti 2^). Josephs divining cup was of silver ((in 44^-). This metAl was used tor chains (Is 40'") and orna- ments ('jewels,' Gn24"; ' pictures,' Pr25"). Silver •shrines,' or models of the temple of Diana, werii largelj- made and sold at Ephesus (Ac 19").

Silvei mines are referred to in Job 28', and the process of refining is alluded to in Pr 17 27" 25^ Zee IS', Mai 3' etc. It is described with special fulness in Jer 6^" (where it is represented as fruitless) and in Ezk 22""*'. In both of these passages .special emphasis is laid on I he presence of lead among the other metallic ores. These other metals and the impurities combined with them are the ' dross ' of silver. 2 Ch 9" tells how Solomon obtained silver from Arabia.

Tarshish is named as the source of the metal in 2 Ch Q'", Jtr 10', Ezk 27'^ the second of these passages referring specially to the silver being ' spre.id into plates.' In 1 Mac 8' the acquisition of the Spanish mines by tho Romans is mentioned. Silversmiths are mentioned in \Vis 15" (apyvpoxios) and Ac 19'''* (ipyvpoKdiros). Tliere was a guild of this craft at Ephesus, of which in St. Paul's day Demetrius was a leading member. In LXX ipyiipoKbiros is the tr.

of "Ji's ('founder,' Jg 17*) and of '■y^ (AV ' founder,' RV [as inf. abs.] ' refine,' Jer 6^, where also fif = ipr/vpoKOTretv), ' Silver plate' is the equivalent of apyipa^a in J tli 12' 15", 1 ^Iac 15'^ The plumage of doves in snnlifjht is described in Ps GS'^ as ' wings covered with silver.' Wisdom and instruction are frequently compared for preciousness to pure silver, as are also the words of God (Ps 12"). The refining of silver is a figure for the discipline of tiie righteous (Ps 06"', cf.

also Is 48'"). Silver turned to dross is a metaphor for moral deterioration (Is l'", Jer &"). For questions connected with currency and coin- age see Money. LiTEKATrRB.— Polybios, xxxlv. e ; Pliny, nS xxxiiL 23, 81 ; Enn;iM, Life in Ancimt Kf/i/pt, 461 ; Layardj SineL't'h, iL 264; Perrot and Chipiez, But, 0/ Art in Sardinia^ Judcea, etc. ii. 2ta ; lluMiilton, Knearchet, L 2S4 ff. ; Del Jlar, Hist, of Precimu MefaU, tilSL ; Sdirader aud Jevous, Prthietoric Antiquities, isufl. James Patrick.

8ILVERLING.— See Money in vol. iiL p. 432*. SIMEON d'll'c?'; LXX and NT SuMeiix, whence RV form usually employed in NT, Syraeon). — A common name amongst the Jews, esp. in its later (Greek) form Simon (see art. Peter (Simon), ad init.) The Heb. name is used of — 1. The second son of Jacob and Leah, Gn 29". The etymology, or at all events the original signification of the name, is unknown. J, in Gn 29"''", characteristi- ca'ly derives it from j;';?' ( = 'hear'), and reports that ' Leah said.

Because the Loiu) hath heard (shdmd) that I am hated, he hath therefore given me this son also, and she called hLs name Simeon (Shinidn).' Only two incidents in the history of Simeon are related in the Book of (ienesis. In conjunction with his brother Levi he is said to have mas.sacred the Shechemites in revenge for the dishonour of his sister Dinah (Gn 34). The details of the story are obscure, and are drawn from several sources, whose standpoint is not always the same.

The real significance of this narrative we shall seek to appreciate in art. SiMicoN (TninE). The other occa.sion upon which Simeon b mentioned is when Joseph determined to detain one of his brothers in Egypt as security that tliey would return with Benjamin (Gn 42**). From tho circum- stance that Simeon is selected for this purpose, it has been supposed that the narrator means to insinuate that he had been the chief actor in the 518 SIMEON SIMEON tragedy that led to .

Joseph's servitude in E^'ypt. The truciJeut character of Simeon, as vouched lor by the massacre at Sheclieiii, miglit also be sup- posed to furnish the justilication for his severe treatment; but it is questionable whether the narrator (E) of his detention in Egypt had any sucli reference in his mind, seeing that among the sources of Gn 34 E has no place, and consequently he may have been ignorant of that story.

It is more probable that in Gn 42'-^ Simeon the second son of Jacob is detained as a hostage rather than Keuben the firitborn, because the latter, according to E (Gn 37'^), had acted a more friendly part than tlie rest of Joseph's brethren, and had sought to deliver him out of their hands. The rape of Diiiah and the massacre of the Shechemites were commemorated in verse by the Jewish or Samaritan poet Theodotus (c. 200 B.C.)

It is instructive to compare the judg- ment pxssed uitoii the act of the two brothers in Gn 49 (cf. 34% with what we find in some of the literary productions of post- exilian Judaism. Words of disapproval and severe censure ^'ive place in th.- latter to hearty approval and warm eulogr>*.

The con- trast is strikin^dy displayed in the Uook of Judith, whose heroine belongs to the tribe of Simeon, and whose estimate of the char- acter and conduct of her progenitor is as different from that ascribed to Jacob in Genesis as her language is oSeiuive to good taste (Jth O-f- ; cf. Book oj Jubilees, ch. 30). 2. The great-grandfather of Judas MaccabiBns, 1 Mac 2'. 3. An ancestor of Jesus, Lk S^". 4. The 'righteous and devout' (6(/coios xal cuXa/?^!)

man who took the infant Jesus in his arms and blessed Him, on the occasion of the presentation in the temple (Lk ^''■). The notion that this Simeon is to be identified with a Rabbi who was the son of Hillel and the father of Gamaliel I. is as precarious as the apocryphal legends about his two sons Charimis and Leucius ; see Nicodemus (Gospel OF). The ven* existence of a Rabbi Simon ben Hillel is doubtful (see Schiirer, HJP II. i.

363), and in any case he was not, as late legends assert, piesident of the Sanhedrin, an office which in the time of Christ was always held by the high priest (see Sanhedrin, p. 401). If the Simeon of St. Luke had been HiHel's son, is it conceivable that he would have been introduced simply as ' a man in Jenisalem whose name was Simeon'? 5. A prophet and teacher at Antioch, whose surname was Niger (Ac 13'). 6. Ac 15", 2 P 1' (RVm). See Peter (Simon), vol. liL p. 756. J. A. Selbik.