Difference between revisions of "Asnapper"

<p> '''Asnap'per.''' (swift). [[Mentioned]] in &nbsp;Ezra 4:10 as the person who settled the Cutheans in the cities of Samaria. He was probably a general of Esarhaddon. (B.C. 712). </p>

<p> (Chald. Osnappar', אָסְנִפִּר; some MISS. א סְנִפִּר, Asenappar', whence Sept. Ἀσσεναφάρ v. r. Ναφάρ; Vulg. Asenaphar), the name of an Assyrian king or satrap who is said to have planted colonies (probably from some distant conquered territory) in Samaria, or perhaps other parts of [[Palestine]] and [[Syria]] (&nbsp;Ezra 4:10). On the supposition that a king of Assyria is meant, and by comparison with &nbsp;2 Kings 17:24, many (with Grotius) identify him with Shalmaneser; others (as Rosenmuller, Alterth. I, ii, 109; Hengstenberg, Authent. Dan. p. 178) understand [[Esarhaddon]] (comp. &nbsp;Ezra 4:2; so Michaelis; but' see on the contrary Herzfeld, Gesch. d. Volkes Israel, i, 473); while most of the [[Jewish]] interpreters assume [[Sennacherib]] to be meant. He was probably, however, only a satrap of some of the Assyrian provinces (B.C. cir. 712), and the epithet applied to him in the passage in Ezra רִבָּא וְיִקִּירָא, the great and the excellent, i.e. most eminent [comp. κράτιστος, &nbsp;Luke 1:3]; Auth. Vers. "the great and noble") is apparently the usual title of persons in that capacity, being indeed perhaps the translation of the official title [[Osnapper]] itself (אָסְ =Sanscrit osna, great; פִּר = Sanscrit para, noble; see Luzath, Le Sanscritisme de la lngue Assyrienne, p. 38-40). Bohlen, on the other hand, compares Sanscrit Senapa, leader of an army; according to which the name would become merely a designation of an Assyrian general. </p>