Jezebel, the wicked wife of Ahab, king of Israel, whose fate is recorded in 2 Kings ix. 30-37; gives name to a bold, flaunting woman of loose morals.
Jina (lit. the "victorious" one as contrasted with Buddha the merely "awakened" one) is in the religion of the Jainas (q. v.) a sage who has achieved omniscience, and who came to re-establish the law in its purity where it has become corrupted among men; one of a class, of which it appears there have been 24 in number, who have appeared at intervals after long periods of time, in shapes less imposing or awe-inspiring than at first, and after less and less intervals as time goes on The Jainas claim that Buddha was a disciple of the Jina, their founder, who had finished the faith to which the latter had only been awakened.
Jingo, a name, of uncertain derivation, given to a political party favourable to an aggressive, menacing policy in foreign affairs, and first applied in 1877 to that political section in Great Britain which provoked the Turco-Russian war.
Jinn, in the Arabian mythology one of a class of genii born of fire, some of them good spirits and some of them evil, with the power of assuming visible forms, hideous or bewitching, corresponding to their character.
Joab, the nephew and a general of David's; put to death by order of Solomon 1014 B.C.
Joachim, Joseph, a distinguished violinist, born near Presburg, in Hungary; famous as a youthful prodigy; was encouraged by Mendelssohn; has visited London every year since 1844, and has been principal leader in the Monday and Saturday Popular Concerts from the first, and became head of the Academy of Music at Berlin in 1869; the fiftieth anniversary of his first appearance was celebrated on March 17, 1889, when his admirers presented him with a magnificent violin; b. 1831.
Joachim, St., the husband of St. Anne, and the father of the Virgin Mary.
Joan, Pope, a woman who, in the guise of a man with male accomplishments, is said for two years five months and four days to have been Pope of Rome between Leo IV. and Benedict III. about 853-855, and whose sex was discovered by the premature birth of a child during some public procession. She is said to have been of English parentage, and to have borne the name of Gilberte. However, it is but fair to say that the story is of doubtful authenticity.
Joan of Arc, or Maid of Orleans, a French heroine, born at Domrémy, of poor parents, but nursed in an atmosphere of religious enthusiasm, and subject, in consequence, to fits of religious ecstasy, in one of which she seemed to hear voices calling to her from heaven to devote herself to the deliverance of France, which was then being laid desolate by an English invasion, occupied at the time in besieging Orleans; inspired with the passion thus awakened she sought access to Charles VII., then Dauphin, and offered to raise the siege referred to, and thereafter conduct him to Reims to be crowned; whereupon, permission being granted, she marched from Blois at the head of 10,000 men, whom she had inspired with faith in her divine mission; drove the English from their entrenchments, sent them careering to a distance, and thereafter conducted Charles to Reims to be crowned, standing beside him till the coronation ceremony was ended; with this act she considered her mission ended, but she was tempted afterwards to assist in raising the siege of Compiègne, and on the occasion of a sally was taken prisoner by the besieging English, and after an imprisonment of four months tried for sorcery, and condemned to be burned alive; she met her fate in the market-place of Rouen with fortitude in the twenty-ninth year of her age (1412-1431).
Joannus Damascenus, theologian and hymn-writer, born at Damascus; was a zealous defender of image-worship; was said to have had his right hand chopped off by the machinations of his foes, which was afterwards restored to him by the Virgin; d. 754, at the age of 70.
Job, Book of pronounced by Carlyle "one of the grandest things ever written with pen; grand in its sincerity, in its simplicity, in its epic melody and repose of reconcilement"; one perceives in it "the seeing eye, the mildly understanding heart, true eyesight and vision for all things; sublime sorrow and sublime reconciliation; oldest choral melody as of the heart of mankind; so soft and great as the summer midnight, as the world with its seas and stars"; the whole giving evidence "of a literary merit unsurpassed by anything written in Bible or out of it; not a Jew's book merely, but all men's book." It is partly didactic and partly biographic; that is to say, the object of the author is to solve a problem in part speculatively, or in the intelligence, and in part spiritually, or in the life; the speculative solution being, that sufferings are to prove and purify the righteous; and the spiritual, consisting in accepting them not as of merely Divine appointment, but manifestations of God Himself, which is accomplished in the experience of Job when he exclaims at last, "Now mine eye seeth Thee." It is very idle to ask if the story is a real one, since its interest and value do not depend on its historic, but its universal and eternal truth; nor is the question of the authorship of any more consequence, even if there were any clue to it, which there is not, as the book offers no difficulty to the interpreter which any knowledge of the author would the least contribute to remove. In such a case the challenge of Goethe is apropos, "What have I to do with names when it is a work of the spirit I am considering?" The book of Job was for long believed to be one of the oldest books in the world, and to have had its origin among a patriarchal people, such as the Arabs, but is now pretty confidently referred to a period between that of David and the return from the captivity, the character of it bespeaking a knowledge and experience peculiarly Jewish.
Jocaste, the wife of Laius, king of Thebes, and mother of Oedipus; she afterwards married him not knowing that he was her son, and on discovery of the crime put an end to herself, though not till after she had become the mother of Etéocles, Polynices, Antigone, and Ismenë.
Jocelin de Brakelonda, an old 12th-century St. Edmundsbury monk, who left behind him a "Chronical" of the Abbey from 1173 to 1202, and which, published in 1840 by the Camden Society, gave occasion to the "Past and Present" of Thomas Carlyle; he had been chaplain to the Abbot Samson, the hero of his book, living beside him night and day for the space of six years, "an ingenious and ingenuous, a cheery-hearted, innocent, yet withal shrewd, noticing, quick-witted man"; d. 1211.
Jodhpur (2,522), largest Rajputana State, under British protection since 1818; is backward in government, education, agriculture, and manufactures; tin, lead, and iron are found; salt is made at Sambhar Lake. The state revolted at the Mutiny. Jodhpur (62), the capital, is 350 m. SW. of Delhi, and is connected by rail with Jeypore and Bombay.
Joe Miller, an English actor, the author of a book of jests (1684-1738).
Joel, a Hebrew prophet, author of a book of the Old Testament that bears his name, and which is of uncertain date, but is written on the great broad lines of all Hebrew prophecy, and reads us the same moral lesson, that from the judgments of God there is no outlet for the sinner except in repentance, and that in repentance lies the pledge of deliverance from all evil and of the enjoyment of all good.
Johannesburg (40), the largest town in the Transvaal, 30 m. S. of Pretoria, and 800 m. NE. of Cape Town; is the centre of Witwatersrand gold-mining fields. Until recently an ill-equipped town, it has made rapid progress. Since 1892 railways connect it with Delagoa Bay, Durban, Port Elizabeth, and Cape Town. Magnificent buildings and residential suburbs are springing up. The water-supply is bad, and dust-storms are frequent, otherwise the climate is very healthy. Johannesburg was the seat of the dissatisfaction among the Uitlanders in 1895, which led to Dr. Jameson's raid.
John, king of England from 1199 to 1216, was clever and vivacious, but the most vicious, profane, false, short-sighted, tyrannical, and unscrupulous of English monarchs; the son of Henry II., he married Hawisa of Gloucester, and succeeded his brother Richard I., being Richard's nominee, and the tacitly elect of the people; his nephew, Arthur, claimed the French dominions, and was supported by the French king, Philip; in 1200 he divorced Hawisa, and married Isabel of Angoulême, a child-heiress; this provoked the French barons; in the war that ensued Arthur was captured, and subsequently murdered either by John himself or by his orders; Philip invaded Normandy, and with the fall of the Château-Gaillard in 1204, most of the French possessions were lost to the English crown; then followed John's quarrel with Pope Innocent III. over the election of an archbishop of Canterbury; the Pope consecrated Stephen Langton; John refused to receive him; in 1208 the kingdom was placed under an interdict, and next year the king was excommunicated; John on his side confiscated Church property, exiled the bishops, exacted homage of William of Scotland, and put down risings in Ireland and Wales; but a bull, deposing him and absolving his vassals from allegiance, forced him to submit, and he resigned his crown to the Pope's envoy in 1213; this exaction on Innocent's part initiated the opposition to Rome which culminated in the English Reformation; the rest of the reign was a struggle between the king, relying on his suzerain the Pope, and the people, barons, and clergy, for the first time on one side; war broke out; the king was forced to sign Magna Charta at Runnymede in 1215, but the Pope annulled the Charter; the barons appealed for help to the Dauphin, and were prosecuting the war when John died at Newark (1167-1216).
John, the name of no fewer than 23 Popes. J. I., Pope from 523 to 526, was canonised; J. II., Pope from 532 to 535; J. III., Pope from 560 to 578; J. IV., Pope from 640 to 642; J. V., Pope from 686 to 687; J. VI., Pope from 701 to 705; J. VII., Pope from 705 to 707; J. VIII., Pope from 872 to 882; J. IX., Pope from 898 to 900; J. X., Pope from 914 to 928; J. XI., Pope from 931 to 936; J. XII., Pope from 956 to 964—was only 18 when elected, led a licentious life; J. XIII., Pope from 965 to 972; J. XIV., Pope from 984 to 985; J. XV., Pope in 985; J. XVI., Pope from 985 to 996; J. XVII., Pope in 1003; J. XVIII., Pope from 1003 to 1009; J. XIX., Pope from 1024 to 1033; J. XX., Anti-Pope from 1043 to 1046; J. XXI., Pope from 1276 to 1277; J. XXII., Pope from 1316 to 1334—a learned man, a steadfast, and a courageous; J. XXIII., Pope in 1410, deposed in 1415—was an able man, but an unscrupulous.
John, Epistles of, three Epistles, presumed to have been written by the author of the Gospel, from the correspondence between them both as regards thought and expression; the occasion of writing them was the appearance of Antichrist within the bounds of the Church, in the denial of Christ as God manifest in flesh, and the object of writing them was to emphasise the fact that eternal life had appeared in Him.
John, Knights of St., a religious order of knights, founded in 1048, and instituted properly in 1110, for the defence of pilgrims to Jerusalem; established a church and a cloister there, with a hospital for poor and sick pilgrims, and were hence called the Hospital Brothers of St. John of Jerusalem; the knights consisted of three classes, knights of noble birth to bear arms, priests to conduct worship, and serving brothers to tend the sick; on the fall of Jerusalem they retired to Cyprus, conquered Rhodes, and called themselves Knights of Rhodes; driven from which they settled in Malta and took the name of Knights of Malta, after which the knighthood had various fortunes.
John, Prester, a supposed king and priest of a mediæval kingdom in the interior of Asia; converted to Christianity by the Nestorian missionaries; was defeated and killed in 1202 by Genghis Khan, who had been tributary to him but had revolted; he was distinguished for piety and magnificence.
John, St., the Apostle, the son of Zebedee and Salome, the sister of the virgin Mary; originally a fisherman on the Galilæan Lake; after being a disciple of John the Baptist became one of the earliest disciples of Christ; much beloved and trusted by his Master; lived after His death for a time in Jerusalem, and then at Ephesus as bishop, where he died at a great age; he lived to see the rise of the Gnostic heresy, against which, as a denial that Christ had come in the flesh, he protested with his last breath as an utter denial of Christ; he is represented in Christian art as either writing his Gospel, or as bearing a chalice out of which a serpent issues, or as in a caldron of boiling oil.
John, The Gospel according to, the fourth Gospel, of which tradition alleges St. John was the author, and which is presumed to have been written by him at Ephesus about A.D. 78; its great design is to bear witness to the Son of God as having come in the flesh, as being not an ideal, therefore, but a real incarnation, and as in the reality of that being the light and life of man; whereas the scene of the other Gospels is chiefly laid in Galilee, that of John's is mostly in Judea, recording, as it does, no fewer than seven visits to the capital, and while it portrays the person of Christ as the light of life, it represents him as again and again misunderstood, even by those well disposed to Him, as if the text of his Gospel were "the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not"; the authenticity of this Gospel has been much debated, and its composition has by recent criticism been referred to somewhere between A.D. 160 and 170.
John Bull, a humorous impersonation of the English people, conceived of as well fed, good natured, honest hearted, justice loving, and plain spoken.
John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, third son of Edward III.; an ambitious man; vainly seized the crown of Castile; supported the Wycliffites against the clergy; married Blanche of Lancaster, and was made duke by Henry IV. (1340-1399).
John O' Groat's House, on the Caithness coast, 1¾ m. W. of Duncansby Head, marks the northern limit of the Scottish mainland; the house was said to be erected, eight-sided, with a door at each side and an octagonal table within, to compromise the question of precedence among eight branches of the descendants of a certain Dutchman, John o' Groot.
John of Leyden, originally a tailor; attained great power as an orator; joined the Anabaptists, and in 1534 established at Münster, in Westphalia, a society based on communistic and polygamic principles; but the bishop of Münster interfered, and next year John was put to death with great cruelty (1509-1536).
John of Salisbusy, bishop of Chartres, born at Salisbury, of Saxon lineage; was a pupil of Abelard; was secretary first to Theobald and then to Thomas á Becket, archbishop of Canterbury; was present at the assassination of the latter; afterwards he retired to France and was made bishop; wrote the Lives of St. Thomas and St. Anselm, and other works of importance in connection with the scholasticism of the time (1120-1180).
John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ, who baptized with water unto, or on the confession of, repentance, in anticipation of, and in preparation for, the appearance in the immediate future of One who would baptize with the Spirit and with fire; his fate is well known, and the motive of it.
John the Good, king of France from 1350 to 1364, succeeded his father Philip VI.; at the battle of Poitiers he was captured and carried to England; four years later he was allowed to return on leaving his son as hostage; the hostage made his escape; John chivalrously came back to London, and died in captivity (1319-1364).
John's Eve, St., a festival celebrated with fires on Midsummer Eve; very universally observed and with similar rites throughout Europe, in the Middle Ages, and the celebration of it was associated with many superstitious practices.
Johnson, Andrew, American President, born at Raleigh, N. Carolina; was entirely self-educated, and became a tailor; settling in Tennessee he entered the State legislature in 1839; he sat in Congress from 1843 till 1853; was for four years Governor of Tennessee, and sat in the Senate from 1857 to 1863; though in favour of slavery, he discountenanced secession and supported Lincoln, whom he succeeded as President in 1865, and whose policy he continued; but he lost the confidence of Congress, which indeed he treated somewhat cavalierly; his removal of Secretary Stanton led to his impeachment for violation of the Tenure of Office Act; he was tried before the Senate, but acquitted, and completed his term (1808-1875).
Johnson, Samuel, the great English lexicographer, born in Lichfield, the son of a bookseller; received his early education in his native town and completed it at Pembroke College, Oxford, in 1728; in 1736 he married a widow named Porter, who brought him £800; started a boarding-school, which did not prosper, and in the end of a year he removed to London along with David Garrick, who had been a pupil under him; here he became connected with Cave, a printer, the proprietor of the Gentleman's Magazine, with whom he had previously corresponded, and contributed to the pages of the magazine, earning thereby a meagre livelihood, eking out his means by reporting Parliamentary debates in terms which expressed the drift of them, but in his own pompous language; in 1740 he published a poem entitled the "Vanity of Human Wishes," and about the same time commenced his world-famous Dictionary, which was Published in 1755, "a great, solid, square-built edifice, finished, symmetrically complete, the best of all dictionaries"; during the progress of the Dictionary Johnson edited the Rambler, writing most of the contents himself, carrying it on for two years; in 1758 he started the Idler; in 1762 the king granted him a pension of £300, and by this he was raised above the straitened circumstances which till then had all along weighed upon him, and able to live in comparative affluence for the last 22 years of his life; five years after he instituted the Literary Club, which consisted of the most celebrated men of the time, his biographer, Boswell, having by this time been introduced to him, as subsequently the family of Mr. Thrale; in 1770 he began his "Lives of the English Poets," and in 1773 he made a tour in the Highlands along with Boswell, of which journey he shortly afterwards published an account; Johnson's writings are now dead, as are many of his opinions, but the story of his life as written by Boswell (q. v.) will last as long as men revere those qualities of mind and heart that distinguish the English race, of which he is the typical representative (1709-1783).
Johnston, Alexander Keith, cartographer, born at Kirkhill, Midlothian; was an engraver by trade, and devoted himself with singular success to the preparation of atlases; the "National Atlas" was published in 1843, and the "Royal Atlas of Geography" (1861) was the finest till then produced; he also executed atlases physical, geological, and astronomical, and constructed the first physical globe; honours were showered upon him by home and foreign geographical societies; he died at Ben Rhydding (1804-1871).
Johnston, James Finlay Weir, agricultural chemist, born at Paisley, educated at Glasgow; acquired a fortune by his marriage in 1830, and devoted himself to studying chemistry; after some years in Sweden he was chosen lecturer in Durham University, but he resided in Edinburgh, and wrote his "Catechism of Agricultural Chemistry," since translated into most European languages, and his "Chemistry of Common Life"; he died at Durham (1796-1855).
Johnstone (10), a Renfrewshire manufacturing town, on the Black Cart, 3½ m. W. of Paisley; has flax, cotton, paper, and iron industries.
Johnstown (22), a city of Pennsylvania, engaged in iron and steel manufactures; was overwhelmed by the bursting of a reservoir, May 31, 1889.
Johore (200), a Mohammedan State in the S. of the Malayan Peninsula, 15 m. N. of Singapore; half the population are Chinese; exports gambier, pepper, and coffee.
Joinville, Jean, Sire de, French chronicler, seneschal of Champagne, born in Châlons-sur-Marne; author of the "Vie de St. Louis"; followed Louis IX. in the crusade of 1248, but refused to join in that of 1270; he lived through six reigns, and his biography of his sovereign is one of the most remarkable books of the Middle Ages; his "Vie de St. Louis" deals chiefly with the Crusade, and is, says Prof. Saintsbury, "one of the most circumstantial records we have of mediæval life and thought"; it is gossipy, and abounds in digressions (1224-1319).
Jokai Maurice or Moritz, Hungarian novelist and voluminous author, born at Komorn; published his first novel, "Working Days," in 1845; in 1848 took a prominent part in the Hungarian struggle, but afterwards devoted himself to literature; wrote over 300 books, novels, romances, dramas, essays, and poems, and edited several newspapers; his work resuscitated Hungarian literature; was in his old age an able debater in the House of Representatives; b. 1825.
Jonah, a Hebrew prophet, who, born in Gathhepher, belonged to the northern kingdom of Israel; prophesied in the reign of Jeroboam II., and whose special mission it was, at the bidding of the Lord, to preach repentance to the people of Nineveh; his book, which records his mission and the story of it, written apparently, as by God's dealings with the Ninevites he had himself been, to admonish the Jews that the heathen nations whom they regarded as God's enemies were as much the objects of His mercy as themselves.
Jonathan, Brother, an impersonation of the American people, given to them from the name of one Jonathan Trumbull, in whose judgment Washington had great confidence, and whom he said he would have to consult at a crisis of his affairs.
Jones, Ebenezer, poet, born in Islington; author of "Studies in Sensation and Event," fraught with genuine poetic feeling; published a pamphlet on "Land Monopoly," in which he advocated the nationalisation of land, apparently as a disciple of Carlyle (1820-1860).
Jones, Edward Burne. See Burne-Jones.
Jones, Ernest, Chartist leader and poet, born at Berlin, of English parentage, educated at Göttingen; came to England in 1838, and six years later was called to the bar; in 1845 he threw himself into the Chartist movement, and devoted the rest of his life to the amelioration and elevation of the working-classes, suffering two years' (1848-1850) solitary imprisonment for a speech made at Kensington; he wrote, besides pamphlets and papers in the Chartist cause, several poems; "The Revolt of Hindostan" was written in prison, with his own blood, he said, on the fly-leaves of a prayer-book; he never succeeded in getting into Parliament (1819-1869).
Jones, Henry Arthur, dramatist, born at Grandborough, Bucks; author of the "Silver King," "Judah," the "Dancing Girl," and many other plays; b. 1831.
Jones, Inigo, architect, born in London, son of a cloth-worker; studied in Italy, and, returning to England, obtained the patronage of James I., and became chief architect in the country; the Royal Chapel at Whitehall is reckoned his masterpiece; Heriot's Hospital, Edinburgh, is from his design; his style follows Palladio of Venice (1573-1652).
Jones, Paul, a naval adventurer, whose real name was John Paul, born in Kirkcudbright, Scotland, son of a gardener; took to the sea, engaged in the slave-trade, settled in Virginia, threw in his lot with the colonists and against the mother-country, and offered his services as a sea-captain in the war with a ship of 18 guns; he in 1778 infested the British coast, and made a descent on the shores of his native county; his sympathies were with the French in their struggles for liberty, and he fought in their service as well, making the "proud Forth quake at his bellying sails," and capturing two British war-vessels off Flamborough Head; he died in Paris, where he languished in poverty, but the National Assembly granted him a "ceremonial funeral," attended by a deputation; "as good," reflects Carlyle in his apostrophe to him—"as good had been the natural Presbyterian kirk-bell, and six feet of Scottish earth, among the dust of thy loved ones" (1747-1792).
Jones, Sir William, English Orientalist, born in London; passed through Oxford to the English bar in 1774, and was made a judge in Bengal in 1783; early devoted to Eastern languages and literature, he published numerous translations and other works, concluding with "Sakuntala" and "The Laws of Manu"; he founded the Asiatic Society at Calcutta, where he died (1746-1794).
Jongleurs, were mediæval minstrels of Provence and Northern France, who sang and often composed songs and tales, but whose jesting and buffoonery distinguished them from the knightly troubadours and trouvères.
Jonson, Ben, dramatist, born at Westminster, posthumous son of a clergyman of Scottish descent; was in his youth first a bricklayer, afterwards a soldier in the Netherlands, whence he returned about 1592; married a shrew, and became connected with the stage; he was one of the most learned men of his age, and for forty years the foremost, except Shakespeare, in the dramatic and literary world; killing his challenger in a duel nearly cost him his life in 1598; he was branded on the left thumb, imprisoned, and his goods confiscated; in prison he turned Catholic, but twelve years later reverted to Protestantism; the opening of the century brought an unpleasant difference with Dekker and Marston, and saw the famous Mermaid Club at its zenith; for nine years after Shakespeare's death he produced no dramas; in 1619 he received a degree, M.A., from Oxford, the laureateship, and a small pension from the king; now a widower, he founded with Herrick, Suckling, Carew, and others the Apollo Club at the Devil Tavern; in the new reign he turned again to dramatic work with sadly diminished power; he died in poverty, but was buried in Westminster Abbey, his tombstone bearing the words "O rare Ben Jonson"; he wrote at least sixteen plays, among them "Every Man is his Humour" (1598), in which Shakespeare acted, "The Poetaster" (1601), which vexed Dekker, the tragedy of "Sejanus" (1603), "The Silent Woman" (1609), a farcical comedy, Dryden's favourite play, and his most elaborate and masterly work, "The Alchemist" (1610); he wrote also thirty-five masques of singular richness and grace, in the production of which Inigo Jones provided the mechanism; but his best work was his lyrics, first of which stands "Drink to me only with thine eyes," whose exquisite delicacy and beauty everybody knows (1573-1637).
Joppa, an ancient town and seaport, now Jaffa, on the coast of Palestine, 35 m. NW. from Jerusalem; a place of note in sacred and mediæval history; here Jonah took ship to Tarshish.
Jordaens, Jakob, a Dutch painter and engraver, born at Antwerp; was a friend of Rubens, and ranks next him among the Flemings (1615-1678).
Jordan, a river of Palestine, which rises on the western side of Mount Hermon, and flows S. below Cæsarea-Philippi within banks, after which it expands into lagoons that collect at length into a mass in Lake Merom (Huleh), 2 m. below which it plunges into a gorge and rushes on for 9 m. in a torrent, till it collects again in the Sea of Galilee to lose itself finally in the Dead Sea after winding along a distance of 65 m. as the crow flies; at its rise it is 1080 ft. above and at the Dead Sea 1300 ft. below the sea-level.
Jordan, Mrs. Dorothea, the stage name of Miss Bland, daughter of an actress, born at Waterford; played first in Dublin, then in Yorkshire, and appeared at Drury Lane in "The Country Girl" in 1785; her popularity was immense, and she maintained it for thirty years in the roles of boys and romping girls, her wonderful laugh winning lasting fame; she attained considerable wealth, and was from 1790 to 1811 the mistress of the Duke of Clarence, who, when William IV., ennobled her eldest son; she died, however, in humble circumstances in St. Cloud, near Paris (1762-1816).
Jortin, John, English divine, born in London, of Huguenot descent; held various appointments, was a prebend of St. Paul's, wrote on ecclesiastical history (1698-1770).
Jorullo, a volcano in Mexico, 150 m. SW. of Mexico city, rose one night from a high-lying plateau on Sept. 8, 1759, the central crater at a height 4625 ft. above the sea-level.
Joseph, the name of four persons in Scripture. 1, Joseph, the son of Jacob and Rachel, and the story of whose life is given in Genesis. 2, Joseph, St. the carpenter, the husband of the Virgin Mary and the reputed father of Jesus. 3, Joseph Of Aramathea, a member of the Jewish Sanhedrin, who begged the body of Jesus to bury it in his own tomb. 4, Joseph, surnamed Barsabas, one of the disciples of Jesus, and deemed worthy to be nominated to fill the place vacated by Judas.
Joséphine, the Empress of the French, born in Martinique; came to France at the age of 15; was in 1779 married to Viscount Beauharnais, who was one of the victims of the Revolution, and to whom she bore a daughter, Hortense, the mother of Napoleon III.; married in 1796 to Napoleon Bonaparte, to whom she proved a devoted wife as well as a wise counsellor; she became empress in 1804, but failing to bear him any children, was divorced in 1809, though she still corresponded with Napoleon and retained the title of Empress to the last, living at Malmaison, where she died (1763-1814).
Josephus, Flavius, Jewish historian, born at Jerusalem, of royal and priestly lineage; was a man of eminent ability and scholarly accomplishments, distinguished no less for his judgment than his learning; gained favour at Rome; was present with Titus at the siege of Jerusalem, and by his intercession saved the lives of several of the citizens; he accompanied Titus back to Rome, and received the freedom of the city; devoting himself there to literary studies, wrote the "History of the Jewish War" and "Jewish Antiquities"; he was of the Pharisaic party, but his religious views were rationalistic; he discards the miraculous; takes no note of the rise of Christianity or of the person of its Founder (37-98).
Joshua, a Jewish military leader, born of the tribe of Ephraim, the minister and successor of Moses, under whose leadership the Jews obtained a footing in the Land of Canaan.
Joshua, The Book of, a book of the Bible, is closely connected with the Pentateuch, and now regarded as the continuation and completion of it, constituting along with it what is called the Hexateuch, or sixfold book; it covers a period of 25 years, and contains a history of Israel under the guidance of Joshua, commencing with his appointment as leader and concluding with his death.
Josiah, a king of Judah from 639 to 609 B.C.; was zealous for the restoration of the Jewish worship according to the ritual of Moses, as recently come to light in the discovery by Hilkiah the high-priest of the "Book of the Law"; he fell in battle before an invading Assyrian host.
Joss, a Chinese god or his idol.
Jötunheim, the abode of the Jötuns in the Norse mythology, as Asenheim is that of the Norse deities.
Jötuns, a race of giants in the Norse mythology, "huge, shaggy beings of a demonic character, representing the dark hostile Powers of Nature, such as Frost, Fire, Sea-tempest, who dwelt in Jötunheim, a distant, dark chaotic land ... in perpetual internecine feud with the gods, or friendly powers, such as Summer-heat and the Sun, and who dwelt far apart."
Joubert, Barthélemi, French general; distinguished himself in the Rhine and Italian campaigns, and fell mortally wounded at the battle of Novi; one of the most promising generals France ever had (1769-1799).
Joubert, Joseph, author of "Pensées," born in Montignac, Périgord; educated in Toulouse, succeeded to a small competency, came to Paris, got access to the best literary circles, and was the most brilliant figure in the salon of Madame de Beaumont; his works were exclusively pensées and maxims, and bear at once on ethics, politics, theology, and literature; "There is probably," Professor Saintsbury says, "no writer in any language who has said an equal number of remarkable things on an equal variety of subjects in an equally small space and with an equally high and unbroken excellence of style and expression;... all alike have the characteristic of intense compression; he describes his literary aim in the phrase 'tormented by the ambition of putting a book into a page, a page into a phrase, and a phrase into a word'" (1754-1824).
Jouffroy d'Abbans, Claude, Marquis de, is claimed by the French as the first inventor of the steamboat; he made a paddle-steamer ply on the Rhône in 1783, but misfortunes due to the Revolution hindered his progress, till he was forestalled by Fulton on the Seine in 1803 (1751-1832).
Jougs, an iron collar hung by a chain in some public place, was fastened round a culprit's neck, who was thus exposed in a sort of pillory; in use in Scotland from the 16th to the 18th centuries.
Joule, James Prescott, a celebrated physicist, born at Salford; was a pupil of Dalton's, and devoted his time to physical and chemical research; made discoveries in connection with the production of heat by voltaic electricity, demonstrated the equivalence of heat and energy, and established on experimental grounds the doctrine of the conservation of energy (1818-1889).
Jourdan, Jean Baptiste, Comte von, marshal of France, born at Limoges; gained for the Republic the victory of Fleurus in 1794, but was in 1795 defeated at Höchst, and subsequently by the Archduke Charles of Austria; served under Napoleon, and became Governor of the Hôtel des Invalides under Louis Philippe (1762-1833).
Jowett, Benjamin, Master of Balliol College, Oxford, born at Camberwell; was a fellow and tutor of his college till his election to the mastership in 1870; his name will always be associated with Balliol College, where his influence was felt, and made the deepest impression; he wrote an article "On the Interpretation of Scripture" in the "Essays and Reviews," and a commentary on certain epistles of St. Paul, but he achieved his greatest literary successes by his translations of Plato's "Dialogues," the "History" of Thucydides, and the "Politics" of Aristotle (1817-1893).
Juan, Don, a poem of Byron's, a work which, as Stopford Brooke remarks, "was written in bold revolt against all the conventionality of social morality, religion, and politics, and in which—escaped from his morbid self, he ran into the opposite extreme—he claimed for himself and others absolute freedom of individual act and thought in opposition to the force of society which tends to make all men after one pattern."
Juan Fernandez, a mountainous island 3000 ft. high, off the Chilian coast, 420 m. W. of Valparaiso; was the lonely residence of Alexander Selkirk (1704-1709) (q. v.); was used as a penal settlement from 1819 to 1835, and is inhabited by a few seal and sea-lion hunters.
Juarez, Benito, president of Mexico, born in Oaxaca, of Indian extraction; was elected to the Presidency twice over, in 1861 and 1867 (1806-1872).
Juba, a great river rising in the Abyssinian mountains and flowing S. into the Indian Ocean, with a town of the same name at its mouth; marks the northern limit of British East Africa.
Jubilee, a festival among the Jews every fiftieth year in celebration of their emancipation from Egypt.
Jubilee, Year of, a year during which it was required that all land which had passed out of the original owner's hands during the 50 years preceding should be restored, all who during that time had been forced to sell their liberty should be released, and all debts contracted in that period should be remitted, a requirement, however, which does not appear to have been very rigorously or regularly observed.
Judæa, a southern district of Palestine extending in one direction between Samaria and the desert of Arabia, and in the other between the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea.
Judah, Kingdom Of, the kingdom in the S. of Palestine of the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin that remained true to the house of David after the revolt of the other ten under Jeroboam, who formed what was called the kingdom of Israel, a larger, but a weaker.
Judaizers, a party, called also Ebionites, in the primitive Church who sought to overlay the simple ordinances of Christianity with Judaic observances and rites, "a yoke which neither they nor their fathers were able to bear."
Judas, surnamed Iscariot, one of the twelve Apostles of Christ, who from some infatuation that unaccountably possessed him, and to his everlasting infamy, betrayed his Master to His enemies for 30 pieces of silver; was designated by Christ as the Son of Perdition.
Judas Maccabæus, a son of Mattathias (q. v.), who succeeded his father in the leadership of the Jews against the Syrians in the war of the Maccabees, and who gave name to the movement, a man of chivalric temper, great energy, firm determination, dauntless courage, and powerful physique; who, with the elect of his countrymen of kindred spirit encountered and overthrew the Syrians in successive engagements, till before a great muster of the foe his little army was overwhelmed and himself slain in 160 B.C. See Maccabees.