Apharsites

Easton's Bible Dictionary

Ezra 4:9

Holman Bible Dictionary

Ezra 4:9

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

APHARSITES ( Ezra 4:9 ). One of the nations transported to Samaria by the Assyrians. Otherwise unknown. The text is doubtful.

Morrish Bible Dictionary

An unknown Assyrian tribe as the preceding. Ezra 4:9 .

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

a -far´sı̄ts ( אפרסיא , 'ăphārṣāyē' ): A tribe transferred to Samaria by Asnappar of Assyria (Ezra 4:9 ). Rawlinson identifies them with the Apharsachites (which see), taking Apharsites to be an accidental repetition of the same word. He understands "the Persians" to be meant in both cases. Others identify them with a Median tribe mentioned in the inscriptions of Sennacherib as dwellers in the district of Parsua.

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

(Chald. Apharsaye', אֲפִרְסָיֵא; Sept. Ἀφαρσαῖοι ), the name of a tribe removed along with the Apharsachites (q.v.) to Samaria by the king of Assyria, and forming one of the opponents of the Jews after the captivity (Ezra 4:9). Hiller (Onomnast.) regards them as the Parrhasii, a tribe of Eastern Media, and Gesenius (Thes. Heb. p. 143) thinks they are the Persians, to whose name theirs certainly bears a much greater affinity, especially in the prolonged form of the latter found in Daniel 6:29 (Chald. Parsaya', פִּרְסָיָא ). The presence of the proper name of the Persians in Ezra 1:1; Ezra 4:3, must throw some doubt. upon Gesenius' conjecture; but it is very possible that the local name of the tribe may have undergone alteration, while the official and general name was correctly given.