DELMEDIGO, ELIJAH CRETENSIS BEN MOSES ABBA – Cretan philosopher and physician; born in Candia in 1460; died there March, 1497 (Grätz, "Geschichte," 3d ed., viii. 244, note). Elijah was instructed by his father in Bible and Talmud, and when scarcely more than a child he...
DELMEDIGO, ELIJAH BEN ELIEZER – Cretan rabbi and Talmudist; flourished in the second half of the sixteenth and in the first of the seventeenth century in Candia. He was widely known in his time as a Talmudic scholar. A halakic decision of his exists in Joseph...
DELMEDIGO, JOSEPH SOLOMON – Philosopher and physician; born at Candia June 16, 1591; died at Prague Oct. 16, 1655; son of Elijah, rabbi of Candia. Joseph received a thorough Jewish as well as secular education. At the University of Padua, which he entered...
DELMEDIGO, JUDAH B. ELIJAH – Italian Talmudist; born in Candia; son of the philosopher Elijah Cretensis Delmedigo; studied at Padua under Judah Minz; he then returned to his native city, where his reputation as teacher of the Talmud attracted many pupils,...
DELUGTAS, SAMUEL BEN MOSES – See Dlugosz, Samuel ben Moses.
DELVAILLE, ALBERT – French dramatic author; born at Neuilly-sur-Seine May 30, 1870. He studied at the Ecole Monge (afterward the Ecole Carnot), and then joined his father, who was a dealer in colonial wares. He soon, however, turned to writing...
DEMAI – 1. Agricultural produce, the owner of which was not trusted with regard to the correct separation of the tithes. The tribe of Levi, having been excluded from participating in the division of the land, obtained as compensation a...
DEMANDS – In law the rights which a person has to recover money or things of value from others, whether by contract or for wrongs sustained. In the Bible is applied to the debit as well as to the credit. The Mishnah, when speaking of...
DEMBITZ, LEWIS NAPHTALI – American lawyer, scholar, and author; born Feb. 3, 1833, at Zirke, in the province of Posen. Prussia; educated at the gymnasia of Frankfort-on-the-Oder, Sagan, and Glogau, in Prussia, and attended the law course for one semester...
DEMBITZER, ḤAYYIM NATHAN – Galician rabbi and historian; born in Cracow June 29, 1820; died there Nov. 20, 1892. His father, Jekuthiel Solomon, a scholarly merchant who claimed he was a descendant of R. Moses Isserles, died in 1833, aged forty-one. While...
DEMBO, ISAAC – Russian physician; born at Poneviezh, government of Kovno, in 1846. Dembo studied Hebrew and rabbinical literature under the direction of Samuel Salant and other Talmudic authorities until the age of fourteen, when he devoted...
DEMBOWSKI, NICOLAS – See Baruch Yavan; Frankists; Kamenetz-Podolsk.
DEMETRIUS – Son-in-law of King Agrippa I. When Mariamne II., daughter of Agrippa I. and sister of Agrippa II., had put away Archelaus, the son of Chelcias, she married Demetrius, who was by birth and wealth among the foremost Jews of...
DEMETRIUS – Chronicler; supposed to have lived at Alexandria in the third century B.C. In a work entitled Πεί'Ιουδαίων ("About Jews"), containing extracts from foreign authors, Alexander Polyhistor (80-40 B.C.) quotes fragments of...
DEMETRIUS I. SOTER – King of Syria 162-150 B.C.; son of Seleucus IV. Philopator. He was sent by his father as a hostage to Rome in place of Antiochus Epiphanes, after whose death he demanded in vain of the Senate that he be acknowledged as his...
DEMETRIUS II. NICATOR – King of Syria; son of Demetrius Soter. He was sent to Rome by his father as hostage for his fidelity. It was intended that he should work there against Alexander Balas, whose cause was promoted by Heraclides. He could achieve...
DEMETRIUS III. EUCERUS – King of Syria; son of Antiochus Grypus. He was pretender to the throne of Antiochus X., whom he supplanted in 95 B.C. after a severe struggle. He divided the authority with his brother Philip, keeping to himself apparently...
DEMIDOV, PAVEL PAVLOVICH – Prince of San-Donato, Russian jurist, and philanthropist; born in 1839; died in 1885. He was a member of a well-known Russian family of nobles whose pedigree is traced as far back as 1672. Soon after his graduation from the...
DEMONIACS IN BIBLE AND TALMUD – See Exorcism.
DEMONOLOGY – Biblical and Post-Biblical Data: Systematic knowledge concerning demons or evil spirits. Demons (Greek, δαίμονες or δαιμόνια; Hebrew, [Deut. xxxii. 17; Ps. cvi. 37] and [Lev. xvii. 7; II Chron. xi. 15; A. V. "devils"; Luther,...
DEMOPHON – Apparently an officer under Lysias' command; he was Syrian general in Palestine about 164 B.C., and as such harried the Jewish population, who were already worn out because of their many wars, and were then engaged in...
DEN – Russian Jewish weekly; published at Odessa (1869-71) by A. Zederbaum and I. Goldenblum, and edited by S. Ornstein. Among its collaborators were M. Morgulis, I. G. Orshanski, and L. Levanda.G. M. R.
DENARIUS – Roman silver coin, which derived its name from its being at first equal to ten asses; later this number was increased to sixteen. From the second century B.C. it was the chief silver coin of the commonwealth, and under the...
DENIS (DIONIS), ALBERTUS – One of the first members of the Portuguese community in Hamburg. On May 31, 1611, he with two others signed the agreement which assured to the community its cemetery in Altona. In 1612 he was with othersformally admitted to the...
DENMARK – A kingdom of northwestern Europe. The first mention of the Danes in Jewish literature occurs in the "Yosippon" (ed. Breithaupt, pp. 8, 547; compare Jerahmeel, transl. Gaster, p. 68), where the Dodanim mentioned in the Bible...