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1814. In 1822 was printed the first of his ISl.clclics of the Irish Bar, a keen and witty pic- ture of the life and manners of the time. The next year he joined the ■Catliolie Association,' and in 1825 was sent to oppose its suppression as joint advocate with Daniel O'Coniiell before I'arliament. He soon became known as a politi- cal agitator and brilliant orator; was elected to Parliament in 1S20; aided OX'onnell in the Re- peal agitation, but, changing his position, took ollice imder the Melbourne Jlinistry, and in 1S50 was sent to the Tuscan Court as British Am- bassador. He died at Florence. He wrote sev- eral tragedies, of which the most successful were The Apostate (produced at Covent Garden in 1817) and Evadne (181U). Consult JlcCuUagh; Memoirs of Riehurd Lalor liheil (London. 1855). SHEK'EL (Heb. sheqel, from shagal, At. iha- qahi. Assyr. sJiCK/dl, to weigh). An ancient weight and monetary unit. According to the system employed by the Babylonians (iO shekels were equal to one mina. and 60 minas to one talent. The weight of the shekel in the 'common' standard was about 126 grains, or, according to a system in which double weights were used, 252 grains ; and according to the "royal' standard 130 or 260 grains. For weighing precious metals, a talent of 3000 and a mina of 50 shekels were em- jiloyed ; for silver, to adjust the ratio to gold, the sliekel was taken as 168 or 330 grains. In Phoenicia a silver shekel of about 112 (or 224) grains was employed. Among the Hebrews the oOOO-shekel talent and oO-shekel mina were used. (Cf. Ex. xxxviii. 25-26.) The shekel was subdivid- ed as follows: a half shekel was called a beha', a twentictli part of a shekel a gvrCih. The Hebrew gold sliekel had the same weight as the 'common' Babylonian shekel ; the silver shekel was the same as the Phoenician silver shekel. The intrin- sic value of the Hebrew (heav_y) gold shekel was somewhere near $10, and of the silver shekel somewhat less than 75 cents. The Jews did not actually coin money before the time of Simon the JIaccabee (died B.C. 135), to Avhom Antiochus VII. gave the power of so doing (1. JIacc. xv. 6), and it has been doubted whether this right was actually exercised before the time of Simon's successor, .John Hyrcanus. Consult: Madden, Coins of the Jews (London, 1881) ; the Hebrew archaeologies of Nowack and Benzinger; and the article "Money," by Kennedy, in the Hastings Bible Dictionary, vol. iii. (Xew York, 1900). SHEKINAH, she-kl'mi (Late Heb. shckhiah, froDi slii'ihan. to reside or dwell). A term that belongs to Jewish theology of the period after the close of the Hebrew canon and was adopted by early Christian writers, expressing the pres- ence of the divine majesty in heaven, among the people of Israel, or in the sanctuary. The origin both of the term and of the idea is due to the tendency of post-exilic Judaism to avoid con- ceptions of God that seemed to attribute to Hira human qualities or to apply limitations of any kind to His being. This led naturally to a view «liich removed the Deity from any direct contact with this world, and which kept Him. as it were, aloof — separated from mankind by a wide chasm, which, however, was in a measure bridged over by intermediary hypostases, such as the 'wisdom' in the Book of Wisdom and the Philonian Logos or 'Word of God.' as something distinct from God Himself. The Shekinah belongs to the same class of ideas. In its most specific sense, the Shekinah idea is derived from descriptions of Yahweh in the Old Teslanient, such as those which represent Him as nuuiif<'sting His presence by the descent of a cloud over the tabernacle (Ex. xl. 34). Similar- ly, a cloud rests on Mount Sinai for six dajs, and it was from the cloud that Yiihweli on the seventh day called to Moses to ascend ( Ex. xxiv. 12). The term used to describe this Divine presence is sMkan, 'to rest' ("the glory of Yah- weh rested on Mount Sinai"), from which Sheki- nah is a direct derivative. Hence Shekinah be- came the term expressive of the Divine presence, and in the Jewish Targums (c. second century A.D. ), where the term is first encountered, Sheki- nah is used as the equivalent of the Divine Being and served as a means of disguising su<'h anthro- pomorphic expressions as Yahweh 'sitting upon the cherubim' (I. Sam. iv. 4, etc.), or Yahweh dwelling in a certain place. In all such pas- sages the Targum introduces the term Shekinah. It was a natural process that led to the personi- fication of the Shekinah, as sonething distinct from God Himself, and this meaning is implied in the Talnuulical view which makes Shekinah the source of inspiration, a kind of spirit sent out by God and carrying out His orders. As an active force the province of the Shekinah extends to Sheol, and when the wicked ascend out of Sheol, the Shekinah is pictured as marching at their head. The Shekinah accompanies Israel to Babylon, and indeed, according to the current view, is inseparable from God's people, although, in contradiction to this idea, it is maintained that the Shekinah was not visible in the second temple, while others maintain that after the destruction of the temple by Titus the Shekinah rested behind the remaining western wall. Such contradictions illustrate at once the vagueness and variety of the conception regarding the Shekinah itself. In the New Testament and the later Apocryphal literature we find the Shekinah idea frequently introduced, the Greek word era- ployed for it being doxa, literally 'glory.' The term is used for God Himself, while phrases like 'glory of the father' (e.g. Rom. vi. 4) and the 'spirit of glory' (I. Peter iv. 14) point likewise to the familiarity of the readers with the term and conception of the Shekinah. The conception lent itself likewise to mystical interpretations, and hence in the Cabbala the Shekinah. still more completely personified than in Rabbinical and early Christian writings, plays an important role. Consult: Weber. Jiidiselie Theolor/ie (Leip- zig, 1897) ; Langen, Judenlhum in PaUistina zur Zeit Christi (Freiburg, 1866); Gfrorer, Ur- ehristenthiim (Stuttgart, 1838). SHEL′BURNE, William Petty Fitz-Maurice, Earl of (1737-1805). An English states- man. He was bnrn in Dublin: received his early education at Christ Church. Oxford (1753), but left without a degree, intending to follow a mili- tary life. He returned from the Continent, a colonel, to enter the Commons, in 1701, but his father's death in the same year transferred him to the House of Lords. He entered George Gren- ville's Administration in 1763. at the head of the Board of Trade. Before the close of the year he became a member of the opposition and a de- voted follower of the elder Pitt, In Chatham's second Ministry (1766) Shelburne became Secre- tary of State for the Southern Department, but.
