these traditions is that recorded on tablets prepared by order of
Assur-bani-pal, the king of Assyria. These were, however, copies of older
records which belonged to somewhere about B.C. 2000, and which formed
part of the priestly library at Erech (q.v.), “the ineradicable remembrance
of a real and terrible event.” (See NOAH; CHALDEA.)
- DEMAS a companion and fellow-labourer of Paul during his first
imprisonment at Rome (Philemon 1:24; Colossians 4:14). It appears,
however, that the love of the world afterwards mastered him, and he
deserted the apostle (2 Timothy 4:10). - DEMETRIUS (1.) A silversmith at Ephesus, whose chief occupation was
to make “silver shrines for Diana” (q.v.), Acts 19:24,i.e., models either of
the temple of Diana or of the statue of the goddess. This trade brought to
him and his fellow-craftsmen “no small gain,” for these shrines found a
ready sale among the countless thousands who came to this temple from
all parts of Asia Minor. This traffic was greatly endangered by the
progress of the gospel, and hence Demetrius excited the tradesmen
employed in the manufacture of these shrines, and caused so great a tumult
that “the whole city was filled with confusion.”
(2.) A Christian who is spoken of as having “a good report of all men, and
of the truth itself” (3 John 1:12).
- DEMON See DAEMON.
- DEN a lair of wild beasts (Psalm 10:9; 104:22; Job 37:8); the hole of a
venomous reptile (Isaiah 11:8); a recess for secrecy “in dens and caves of
the earth” (Hebrews 11:38); a resort of thieves (Matthew 21:13; Mark
11:17). Daniel was cast into “the den of lions” (Daniel 6:16, 17). Some
recent discoveries among the ruins of Babylon have brought to light the
fact that the practice of punishing offenders against the law by throwing
them into a den of lions was common. - DEPUTY in 1 Kings 22:47, means a prefect; one set over others. The
same Hebrew word is rendered “officer;” i.e., chief of the commissariat
appointed by Solomon (1 Kings 4:5, etc.).
In Esther 8:9; 9:3 (R.V., “governor”) it denotes a Persian prefect “on this
side” i.e., in the region west of the Euphrates. It is the modern word pasha.