THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA
527
assjissinatfd in his palace by a band of conspirators composed of his own servants; but the peoph' avenKcil his death l)y slayinic the conspirators and
Anion on the throne. the pirdeii of I'/./.a. where his father liad been buried Itefore liini (II Kings, xxi. IH). C. J. M. imttini;
the liinir'sson, .losiah,
was buried
in
In Rabbinical Literature The fact tliat Amon
was {II
the
most sinful of
ChroM. xxxiii.
'i'.i)
the wicked kings of .Tudah brought out in the Talmud
all is
(Sanh. lli;W)as follows: Almz sns)ienii)*tl the siuTlllfial
worsliip. Mannsseli tore down |rcivered It witll cdliwi-lisl Almz wiiIihI up llii- sctiiIIs ut the I.uw Isa. vlll. Hi), iiui ihf sjirn-d luiinf. Anion linrrit the srrn)ls alt<>Manassch cnl (rether Iniinpare Si'chT lllalii. It. xxlv. This Is iIitIvciI (n>in the.stiiry of the llmllntf of Ihi- Hook of the Law. II Knitrs, xxll. »] ; Ahiih pennillc'il Incesl. Mana-ssch coniiriKIi'il It himself. Anion acted as Nero wius said to ha e doni* toward his mother A(rripi)lna. And vi'l, ont of respect for his son .losiah. Anion's name was not jilaced on the list of the klnns excluded from the tlleultnr.
Annul
liiiule
It
il
pliii-e cif (lescpliitli)n
I
world locome
A
(Sanli.
UWdl.
fragment preserved in the Apostolical which appears to follow an acConstitutions, ii. count of the repentance of 5Ianassch according to a lost .Jewish apocryphal writing, reads: niidnisliie
'.ilj,
"No
sin Is ni'ire prli'v<nis than Idolatry, for It Is treason Vei cviMi this has ta'cn toiirlvcn uiion sliici-re reatcalnst (Jod. pentance hilt he that sins from a mere spliii i>f ojiposlUon, to see whether (iod will punish the wicked, shall llnd no paril<m, alihoiiifh he .say In his heart, " 1 shall have peace In the end (hy evil repeiitlnui. though I walk In the stuhltornness of heart " (lieiit. xxlx. liM. such a one was Anion, the son of ManiLsseh. for the lApocryiihali Scripture says: " And Anion reasoned an evil rea.sonin^r of tmnstrresslon and .said ' My father from his childhood was a i-'real tntns(.'res.sor. and he lepenled So will 1 nipw walk after the lust of my soul and in Ills old ai.'e. mmitied more I'vil in afterward return to the I/ird.' And In the siirlit •f the l.oid than all that were hefoie him; hut the Ami his I.onli.>"l siieecllly cMit him oiT from this u'ooil land. .servants conspired airainst him and slew Uim iu iiLs own house, and he reigned two yeai^s only."
my
'
It is
ment
noteworthy tlmt
casts light
this
very midrashic frag-
upon the emphatic teaching of the "
Who.soever siys, 'I will viii. !l): and repent thereafter,' will not be grunted the K. lime for rejientance." Jlishimli (Voiiui.
sin
View
nither unfortunate that so reign of Anion, king of .Jiidah; for he lived evidently in a critical period. The endeavors of the prophets to establish a pure form of YIIWII worship had for a short time lieen triuniplmnl in Ilezekiah's reign; but a reaction against them set in after the latt<-r's (iealh, and both Manassehand his son Anion appear to have followetl the popular trend in reestablishing the old Caimiinilish form of cull, including the .sliera and Moloeh Whether Maliasseh "repented," as the worship. There is chronicle t<lls us, is more than doubtful. no record of this in the book of Kings, and absolutely no indication of such a change in the suliseThe people clearly were (pient course of events. not yet prepared for the higlier religions ideas; and the eoiistaiil dread that .lerusalcm would encounter the same late as Samaria so lioldly proclaimed by the prophets instead of li'ading the people clo.ser to VIIWH made them fiel Unit the natiiaial deity had deserted thiiii. It was in times of popular unrest that refuge wa.s taken in the old rites, which appeared lietler able to stand the test of distres.sful In any case it is events and impending tlisastir. signitieant that .Xmon'sdeatli was caused bya])idace inliHgiie. and that the " people of the land." as the account directly states (II Kings, xxi. 2:1). gathered to aveiiL'e his death. Il is liiit fiur to conclude from
Critical
little
is
known
—
of
It is
the
—
this that till' king stiaid high in popular favor, and that his death was not only regretted by his subjects at large, but made so ilecp an impression as to lead
to a poi)ulur
movement which succeeded
iu securitig
Amolo
Amora
the succession for Anion's son, .losiah. under whom the party of religiotis reform, guided by pro]ilietical teacliings, was destined to gain a permanent victory. For a more detailed view of the religious and political conditions prevailing before and subse(pient to Anion's reign, see JLxasseh and Josiah. Klltel, ry(w(i.<(. Hd.n/ir, 1SKS,1S!I2, ll.314-.'?30; (inthe, In flr.sfh.il. I'n'hcs Isrnrh Issl-HK, pp. 2i«> LMO; Stade, <it»ch. (I. Viilhis Israel, pp. ffiJi-tMl ; C. F. Kent, llchrcu- llitUini, ThelMvidcd Klnydtim, pp. 172, 173.
BiBLKKiKAPIIV:
J.
AMORA sigiiilyiiig
(|ilural.
Amoraim, D'SION): A
Ju. w-ord
"llie speaker," or " llir inlerjireter,"
de-
rived from the Hebrew and Aramaic verb niiirir {" to .say," or " to speak "). It is used in the Talmud in a twofold sense (1) In a limited sense, it signifies the officer who stood at he side of the lecturer or presiding teacher in the academy and in meetings for pubTbe Amora lie instruction, and announced loudly, as Metur- and explained to the large assembly in geman. an oratorical manner, what the teacher had just expres.sed briefly and in a low voice. While the lecturer generally pronounced his sentences in the academic language, which was chiefly Hebrew, the Amora gave his explanations in Aramaic, the pojiular idiom (see Haslii on Yoma, I
original term for such an office was me("the translator, or "the interpreter"), which term, even later on, was often interchanged with that of Amora (M. K. 2lri, Sanh. Ih, Kid. 31i). Some of these officers are mentioned liy name, as
'ZOh).
The
tiiri/iiiian
H. Huziiit. the interpreter at the academy of Habban 11. Ber. 27//); Abdon. the inter]ireter apjioiiileil by the patriarch K. .Jiidah (Ver. Ber. iv. Ic); R. IVdat.'lhe itilerpieter of R. ,Jose; Kar "^'esliita, the interjireter of R. Abbahu (Yer. Meg. iv. T.5r); .Tudah liar Nal.imani. the interpreter of R. Simeon b. Lakish On his return from Palestine the cele(Ket. Wi). (ianuiliel
(
Rab( Abba Areka). while still unknown Babylonia, in the absence of the regular Amora acted on one occasion as Amora in the academy of It having been discovered R. Sliilii (Y'oma, 2(A). that younger incumbents of this responsible office, in their endeavors to shine as orators (Solali. 40((), often failed to interpret the ideas of the presiding teaclier correctly, R. Abbahu established the rule that no one under the age of fifty should be appointed to linited teacher ill
the position (Hag. liti). (2| In a wider sense the term Amora was applied, in Palestine as well as in Babylonia, to all the teacliers that lloiirisheil during a period of Amoraim as about three hundred years, from the Expounders time of the death of the patriarch R. .ludah I. (21!H to the coiii|iletion of the of the Mishnah. Babylonian Talmud (about .lOO). The activity of the teachers during this period was devoted principally to expounding the Misliimli— the compilation of the luitriareh R. .ludah which became the authoritative code of the oral This aelivity was developed as well in the law. academies of Tiberias, Sepphoris, Casarea. and others in Palestine, as in those of Ncliardea. Sum, and later of I'umbedita. and in some other seats of In these iicademies the main learning in Babylonia. object of the lectures and discussions was to interpret till' often very lirief and concise expres.sion of the Mishnah, to investigate its reasons and ,soiirces, to reconcile seeming contradictions, to com|iare its cnnonswith llios<> of Ihe Harailot. anil to apply its decisions to. and establish principles for, new ca.scs, tiotli real and tictitious. not aliiiuly provided for in The t<'acliers that were engaged in the Mishnah. which tlutilly beaime embodied iu the this work
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