EVIL SPIRITS – See Demonology.
EVOLUTION – Judaism and Evolution. The series of steps by which all existing beings have been developed by gradual modification; term generally applied to the theory concerning the origin of species and the descent of man connected with the...
EVORA – City in Portugal, and the seat of the rabbi of the province of Alemtejo. When the bride-elect of Don Alfonso, the only son of King John II., entered Evora (Nov. 27, 1490), the Jews of the city met her in solemn procession and...
EVREUX – Capital of the department of Eure, France. In the Middle Ages it was one of the centers of Jewish learning, and its scholars are quoted in the Tosafot on Beẓah 14b, 20b, 24b; on Ḳiddushin 27b, 39a et passim; on Soṭah 22a et...
EWALD, FERDINAND CHRISTOPHER – English clergyman; born near Bamberg, Bavaria, 1802; died in Norwood, London, Aug. 9, 1874; baptized at Basel when about 23 years of age; entered (1829) the service of the London Society for Propagating the Gospel Among the...
EWALD, GEORG HEINRICH AUGUST – Christian Biblical scholar; born at Göttingen Nov. 16, 1803; died there May 4, 1875; educated at the University of Göttingen, where he studied philology and especially Oriental languages. He became private tutor in 1824 and...
EWALD, JOHANN LUDWIG – German pedagogue and theologian, and advocate of the Jews; born at Hain-zur-Dreieich, grand duchy of Hesse, Sept. 16, 1747; died at Carlsruhe March 19, 1822. He held various positions as preacher and professor, and toward the...
EWE – See Sheep.
EWER, LEOPOLD – German physician; born Jan. 4, 1849, at Anklam, Pomerania. He studied from 1868 to 1873 at the University of Berlin (M.D. 1873). During the Franco-Prussian war he was assistant surgeon at the military hospitals at Berlin and...
EXCHANGE, BILLS OF – Instruments, generally in duplicate, ordering persons to pay money in distant parts. According to Hallam ("Europe in the Middle Ages," iii. 339), Jews were the first to issue orders of this kind addressed to particular persons....
EXCHEQUER, OF THE JEWS – A division of the Court of Exchequer in England (1200-90) in which the taxes and the law-cases of the Jews were recorded and regulated. It appears to have arisen out of the estate left by Aaron of Lincoln, which needed a...
EXCOMMUNICATION – The highest ecclesiastical censure, the exclusion of a person from the religious community, which among the Jews meant a practical prohibition of all intercourse with society. For the etymology of the Hebrew terms used in this...
EXECUTION – Carrying into effect the decision of a court. The word also denotes the writ entrusting some officer of the law with the duty of carrying the judgment into effect. For the manner of carrying out a criminal sentence see Capital,...
EXECUTORS – See Will.
EXETER – County-seat of Devon, England. The first Jew mentioned as living in Exeter, about 1181, paid a fine of 10 marks for the king to take charge of his bonds. A number of Jews are mentioned as paying 10 per cent of the debts...
EXILARCH – Title given to the head of the Babylonian Jews, who, from the time of the Babylonian exile, were designated by the term "golah" (see Jer. xxviii. 6, xxix. 1; Ezek. passim) or "galut" (Jer. xxix. 22). The chief of the golah or...
EXILE – The translation of "goleh" (II Sam. xv. 19) and "ẓo'eh" (Isa. li. 14) in the English versions; it also occurs as a translation of "galut" (Isa. xx. 4) and "golah" (Ezek. xii. 4, 11; Ezra viii. 35) in the Revised Version (where...
EXODUS – The departure, under the leadership of Moses, of the Israelites from the land of Egypt.—Biblical Data: Having multiplied in the land of Goshen, the Israelites were enslaved and oppressed in various ways by a "new king" who "knew...
EXODUS, BOOK OF – Biblical Data: The second book of the Torah or Pentateuch is called by the Jews , from the opening words, or briefly . The Greek name is ξοδος (in Philo also ξαγωγή), that is, "departure"; the Latin, "[Liber] Exodus." It...
EXOGAMY – See Marriage.
EXORCISM – The expulsion of evil spirits by spells; in Greek ἐκβάλλειν (Matt. viii. 16, 31; ix. 34, 38; Mark i. 34, 38; ix. 38; Luke xiii. 32; and elsewhere). See Demonology; and compare the sorcery-papyrus in Paris, line 1257, εκβαλειν...
EXPECTATION OF LIFE – The expected duration of life after any given age, estimated according to fixed tables of mortality based on the mean number of years which individuals, under various conditions, have been found to live. The earliest important...
EXPRESSION – See Types.
EYBESCHÜTZ, JONATHAN – German rabbi and Talmudist; born in Cracow about the year 1690; died in Altona Sept. 18, 1764. His father, Nathan (Nata), who was a grandson of the cabalistic author Nathan Spira, was called as rabbi to Elbenschitz, Moravia,...
EYE – Biblical Data: This important organ is mentioned more than 800 times in the Bible, but is described only in its external appearance and significance, according to the experience of daily life. The following parts are mentioned:...