the Week of Proper 26 / Ordinary 31
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Bible Encyclopedias
Eleazar
Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
or Elea´zar (God-helped). This was an exceedingly common name among the Hebrews, being borne by a considerable number of persons in Scripture (as well as in the Apocrypha and Josephus), of whom the principal are the following.
Eleazar, 1
Eleazar, eldest son of Aaron (; ), who acted in his father's lifetime as chief of the tribe of Levi (), and at his death succeeded him in the high-priesthood (, sq.). His pontificate was contemporary with the military government of Joshua, whom he appears to have survived. A perfectly good understanding seems at all times to have subsisted between Eleazar and Joshua, as we constantly trace that cooperation and mutual support which the circumstances of the time and of the nation rendered so necessary. Eleazar is supposed to have lived twenty five years after the passage of the Jordan, and the book of Joshua concludes with a notice of his death and burial.
Eleazar, 2
Eleazar, who was set apart to attend upon the ark while it remained under the roof of his father Abinadab ().
Eleazar, 3
Eleazar, one of the three most eminent of David's heroes, who 'fought till his hand was weary' in maintaining with David and the other two a daring stand against the Philistines after 'the men of Israel had gone away.' He was also one of the same three when they broke through the Philistine host, to gratify David's longing for a drink of water from the well of his native Bethlehem (; ).
Eleazar, 4
Eleazar, the fourth of the Maccabean brothers, sons of the priest Mattathias (). He was crushed to death by the fall of an elephant which he stabbed under the belly in the belief that it bore the king, Antiochus Eupator ().
Eleazar, 5
Eleazar, an aged and venerable scribe who, 'as became his age, and the excellency of his ancient years, and the honor of his gray head,' chose rather to submit to the most cruel torments than conform to the polluting enactments of Antiochus Epiphanes ().
Public Domain.
Kitto, John, ed. Entry for 'Eleazar'. "Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature". https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/kbe/e/eleazar.html.
