but that He has remained indifferent toward his creation. Also, materialism and the never-ending quest for pleasure are imbued with the very spirit of Epicureanism. Moreover, the notion that “God is dead” and thus far removed from mankind and in no position to assist them mirrors the teaching of Epicurus.

EPILEPSY

A chronic disease of the central nervous system manifested in convulsions or in impairment or loss of consciousness, and perhaps both. This disorder is linked with abnormal electrical activities of the brain. A severely convulsive epileptic fit accompanied by unconsciousness is called grand mal, whereas the mild form, attacks of which are of very brief duration, is termed petit mal, these being two principal types of epilepsy. An epileptic is a person afflicted with epilepsy.

On the day following the transfiguration, Jesus Christ healed an epileptic that his disciples had been unable to cure. (Matt. 17:14-20) This boy had a “speechless and deaf spirit” that, among other things, periodically from childhood threw the victim into convulsions accompanied by foaming at the mouth. Jesus rebuked the demon, it came out, and the boy was thus healed.—Mark 9:14-29; Luke 9:37-43.

Though demon activity was associated with epileptic symptoms in this particular case, epilepsy normally has natural causes and the Scriptures do not infer that it is generally caused by demon possession. Rather, Matthew (4:24) reports that people brought Jesus ailing ones including “demon-possessed and epileptic” persons, drawing a distinction between these two types of individuals cured by Christ.

The English term “epilepsy” is derived from the Greek word e·pi·le·psiʹa, meaning “a seizure.” However, e·pi·le·psiʹa is not used in the Bible. Rather, for this disorder Matthew (4:24; 17:15) employed forms of the Greek word se·le·ni·aʹzo·mai, meaning, literally, “to be moonstruck.” Whereas AV uses “lunatick,” certain modern translations employ “epileptic(s)” at Matthew 4:24; 17:15.—AS; NW; RS.

Interestingly, The International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia (Vol. III, p. 1941) states: “The original meaning of the term selēniazomai, ‘moon-struck,’ is connected with the popular belief, widespread and of strange persistency, that the moon, in certain of its phases, is injurious to human beings, esp[ecially] in the case of diseases of a periodic or remittent character. There are no data by which to determine whether, in the N[ew] T[estament] times, this particular word represented a living and active belief or had passed into the state of usage in which the original metaphor disappears, and the word simply indicates the fact signified without reference to the idea embodied in the etymology. We still use the word ‘lunatic’ to signify a person mentally diseased, although we have long since ceased to believe in the moon’s influence in such cases.”

Hence, Matthew’s use of forms of se·le·ni·aʹzo·mai does not mean that he held any superstitious views associating such a disease with certain phases of the moon. Evidently, he was merely employing the Greek term that was then commonly used to denote an epileptic. Also, the symptoms Matthew, Mark and Luke describe as present in the boy’s case are certainly those associated with epilepsy.

EPSILON

[Ε, ε] (epʹsi·lon).

The fifth letter of the Greek alphabet. In the koi·neʹ Greek there were two sounds for the vowel “e”; and eʹpsi·lon had the short sound of “e,” as in the English “met.”—See ETA.

Eʹpsi·lon, as to its numerical value, represents five when it has the acute accent (εʹ), and 5,000 when it has the subscript (====ε).—See ALPHABET.

ER

[watching].

1. Judah’s firstborn son by his Canaanite wife. His father took Tamar as a wife for him, but, because Er proved to be wicked in the eyes of God, Jehovah put him to death before he was able to father any offspring.—Gen. 38:1-7; 46:12.

2. A son of Shelah the third son of Judah by his Canaanite wife.—Gen. 38:2-5; 1 Chron. 4:21.

3. An ancestor of Jesus Christ; the son of Jesus [Jose(s)] and the father of Elmadam.—Luke 3:28.

ERAN

(Eʹran) [watchful], Eranites (Eʹran·ites).

Eran was the son of Ephraim’s son Shuthelah and the forefather of the Eranites.—Num. 26:35, 36.

ERASTUS

(E·rasʹtus) [beloved].

1. A Christian who ministered to Paul on his third missionary tour and whom Paul sent from Asia to Macedonia along with Timothy. (Acts 19:22) Likely he is the Erastus who remained in Corinth at the time Paul wrote his second letter to Timothy.—2 Tim. 4:20.

2. The city steward of Corinth whose greetings Paul includes in his letter to the Romans. (Rom. 16:23) During excavations in Corinth in 1929 Professor T. L. Shear discovered a pavement with the Latin inscription: “ERASTVS. PHO. AED. S. P. STRAVIT” (“Erastus, procurator and aedile, laid this pavement at his own expense”). Although it is not known whether this is the Erastus mentioned by Paul, interestingly, the pavement is believed to have existed in the first century C.E. It has been suggested that the city steward was also Paul’s traveling companion (see No. 1, above). However, since it would have been difficult for Erastus to accompany Paul and at the same time care for his duties as city steward, those who favor this identification generally conclude that Erastus held this official position at an earlier time and therefore Paul refers to him by this title.

[Picture on page 528]

Inscription bearing the name Erastus, from Corinth

ERECH

(Eʹrech).

One of the four cities constituting the “beginning of [Nimrod’s] kingdom” in the land of Shinar. (Gen. 10:10) Erech is today represented by a cluster of mounds at the site called Warka by the Arabs and known as Uruk to the ancient Akkadians of Mesopotamia. It is situated about a hundred and ten miles (177 kilometers) SE of Babylon on the W bank of the old bed of the Euphrates (the Shattek-Kar), or some four miles (6.4 kilometers) E of the present course of that river. An ancient ziggurat has been uncovered here, along with many mounds and coffins that seem to indicate that Erech was once a burial ground of the Assyrian kings.

Inhabitants of Erech (“Archevites,” AV) were among those peoples transported to Samaria by Assyrian Emperor Asenappar.—Ezra 4:9, 10.

ERI

(Eʹri) [watchful, vigilant], Erites (Eʹrites).

The fifth-named son of Gad, Eri, was the forefather of the Erites.—Gen. 46:16; Num. 26:16.

ESAR-HADDON

(Eʹsar-hadʹdon) [Asshur has given brother(s)].

A younger son and successor of Sennacherib, king of Assyria. In one of his inscriptions Esar-haddon confirms the Scriptural account of his father’s death (Isa. 37:37, 38), saying: “A firm determination fell upon my brothers. They forsook the gods and turned to their deeds of violence, plotting evil. . . . To gain the kingship they slew Sennacherib their father.”

Esar-haddon states that, prior to his father’s death, he had already been selected as heir apparent (after due consultation of the gods and liver-divination), and he seems to have served as viceroy at Babylon before becoming king of Assyria. Following his father’s assassination, Esar-haddon tells of pursuing the murderers to Armenia (the “land of Ararat,” 2 Ki. 19:37), where he defeated them. His official reign is considered to have lasted twelve years.

Early in his reign Esar-haddon began the restoration of Babylon, which Sennacherib had destroyed. The temple of Esagila was restored and, of the city itself, Esar-haddon says: “Babylon I built anew, I enlarged, I raised aloft, I made magnificent.”

His records recount military operations against the Gimirrai or Cimmerians, believed to be the descendants of Gomer. (Compare Genesis 10:2; Ezekiel 38:6.) He also sacked the city of Sidon, setting up a new city on a nearby site, which he named Kar—Esar-haddon. In one of his inscriptions he lists some twenty vassal kings, including Manasseh of Judah (Menasi king of Yaudi).

The record at 2 Chronicles 33:10-13 shows that Manasseh was captured by “the chiefs of the army that belonged to the king of Assyria” and taken to Babylon. In the past some have thought this reference to Babylon to be in error, considering Nineveh to be the place to which Manasseh would be taken. However, as has been seen, Esar-haddon, whose inscriptions show him to have been contemporaneous with Manasseh, had rebuilt Babylon and is said to have been “much less interested than any other Assyrian king in the embellishment of his capital, Nineveh.” (The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, Vol. 2, page 125) If it was during Esar-haddon’s reign that Manasseh was captured, there would be nothing incongruous about his being taken to Babylon, about whose restoration Esar-haddon so proudly boasted. It may be noted, however, that Esar-haddon’s son Ashurbanipal also makes reference to Manasseh as tributary during his reign.

THE “SIXTY-FIVE YEARS”

At the time of the rebuilding of the temple at Jerusalem some of the non-Israelite inhabitants of the land referred to their having been brought to Palestine by “Esar-haddon the king of Assyria.” (Ezra 4:2) That the Assyrian transplantation of people to and from Palestine continued till his reign is viewed by some as a clue to the understanding of the period of “sixty-five years” stated at Isaiah 7:8 with regard to the desolation of Ephraim (with its capital at Samaria). The interval extending from the reign of Tiglath-pileser III (who initiated the deportation of people from the northern kingdom of Israel shortly after Isaiah’s prophecy) to that of Esar-haddon would allow for such a sixty-five-year period until the complete ‘shattering to pieces’ of Ephraim “so as not to be a people.”

CONQUEST OF EGYPT, AND ESAR-HADDON’S DEATH

Esar-haddon’s outstanding military accomplishment was the conquest of Egypt, overcoming the Egyptian army under Ethiopian ruler Tirhakah (mentioned as the “king of Ethiopia” at 2 Kings 19:9) and taking the city of Memphis. Esar-haddon thus added to his many titles that of “King of the kings of Egypt.”

Although Esar-haddon organized Egypt into districts and placed Assyrian governors over the princes of these districts, within a couple of years revolt developed. The Assyrian king set out on a second campaign to crush the rebellion, but died at Haran while on the way. In his inscriptions Esar-haddon had said: “I am powerful, I am all powerful. I am a hero, I am gigantic, I am colossal.” Yet, like all other imperfect humans, he was shown to be but an enslaved subject of the rule of Kings Sin and Death, who now claimed him.—Compare Psalm 146:3, 4; Ecclesiastes 9:4; Romans 5:21.

Before his death Esar-haddon had made arrangements to ensure a smooth succession to the throne by proclaiming his son Ashurbanipal as crown prince, while assigning another son, Shamash-shum-ukin, as king of Babylon. Thus, upon Esar-haddon’s death, Ashurbanipal became Assyria’s next monarch.

ESAU

(Eʹsau) [hairy].

The firstborn of Isaac and Rebekah; the twin brother of Jacob and the forefather of the Edomites. He was given the name Esau because of his unusual hairy appearance at birth, but got the name Edom (red, ruddy) from the red lentil stew for which he sold his birthright.—Gen. 25:25, 26, 30.

Even before the birth of the twins in 1858 B.C.E., when Isaac was sixty years of age, the infants struggled in their mother’s womb. Answering Rebekah’s inquiry concerning the meaning of this, Jehovah revealed to her that two national groups would be separated from her inward parts, and that he older would serve the younger.—Gen. 25:22, 23.

DISDAIN FOR SPIRITUAL MATTERS

Esau became a skilled and adventurous hunter, “a wild man.” Unlike his brother, “blameless” Jacob, Esau was fleshly-minded and materialistic. (Gen. 25:27, NW ftn., 1953 ed.) But Isaac loved Esau, “because it meant game in his mouth.”—Gen. 25.28.

One day Esau, tired and hungry, came along from the field while Jacob was boiling up some stew. At Esau’s request, “Quick, please, give me a swallow of the red—the red there,” Jacob asked him to sell his birthright. Having no appreciation for sacred things, namely, the promise of Jehovah to Abraham respecting the seed through whom all nations of the earth would bless themselves, Esau impetuously, by sworn oath, sold his birthright to Jacob for one meal of lentil stew and bread. By thus despising the birthright, viewing it as of little value, Esau showed a complete lack of faith. He perhaps wanted no part in suffering the fulfillment of God’s word concerning Abraham’s seed: “Your seed will become an alien resident in a land not theirs, and they will have to serve them, and these will certainly afflict them for four hundred years.”—Gen. 15:13; 25:29-34; Heb. 12:16.

At the age of forty Esau made his own arrangements for marriage. By choice he became a polygamist and, unlike his father Isaac, who had let his father Abraham arrange for a wife from the worshipers of Jehovah, Esau took two pagan Hittite women, Judith (Oholibamah?) and Basemath (Adah?), as wives. These women proved to be a source of bitterness of spirit to both Isaac and Rebekah.—Gen. 26:34, 35; 36:2; 24:1-4, 50, 51; see BASEMATH No. 1; JUDITH.

BESTOWAL OF JACOB’S BLESSING

When Isaac was advanced in years he desired to give his blessing to his favorite son Esau and therefore directed Esau to hunt some venison and to make a tasty dish for him. This Esau proceeded to do, though he actually was no longer entitled to the blessing by reason of his having sold his birthright. Thus, he was willing to break his oath-bound covenant made at the sale of the birthright. Consequently, Rebekah intervened, advising Jacob to present himself before his father as Esau and thus procure the blessing that was rightfully his. Since Isaac’s eyes were too dim to see and Jacob was dressed in Esau’s garments, with the skins of kids on his hands and on the hairless part of his neck, Isaac did not recognize him.—Gen. 27:1-23.

No sooner had Isaac finished blessing Jacob than Esau came in from the hunt and proceeded to prepare a tasty dish for his father. On coming in before his father to receive the blessing dishonestly and learning that Isaac had blessed Jacob, “Esau began to cry out in an extremely loud and bitter manner.” Earnestly, but with selfish motive, he sought a blessing from his father, but even his breaking out in tears did not