Check out these related baby name lists for even more options: Encyclopedia Britannica. They were regarded as maritime hazards located close enough to each other that they posed an inescapable threat to passing sailors; avoiding Charybdis meant passing too close to Scylla and vice versa. Jesus of Nazareth embodied the eternal and divine Word of God, but even though this Word itself never changes or is ever incomplete, the embodiment of this Word in human flesh was received and allowed to grow like a single seed into maturity. Paul, Silas, and Timothy are listed as co-authors of the two New Testament letters to the Thessalonians, though the authorship is disputed. Be our patron for as little as one dollar a month: https://www.abarim-publications.com/Meaning/Silas.html, Alternative etymologies of the name Silas, See the full Dictionary article and Biblical Concordance , The Passion of the Christ and the Theory of Everything, Stars and fractals: the many hearts of wisdom, How the Bible relates to Homer like Ape to Dog, How circumcision created the modern world, The many Hebrew roots of the Greek language. The harassers followed the trio to Berea, threatening Paul's safety, and causing Paul to separate from Silas and Timothy. Popularity of the Name Silas. A well-known Greek and Latin name, Silas means "wood" or "forest." A wise man would rather be envied than miserable. Illustration by Gosia Herba. Byron notes that the slave girl in the story is not named; rather, she is known by her ability to tell the future: We are never told the slave-girls name, only that she has a gift for fortune-telling. Douay-Rheims Bible AND he came to Derbe and Lystra. [9], In works of Latin poetry and art, Silvanus always appears as an old man, but as cheerful and in love with Pomona. The temple for Apollo, set up at Delphi, housed an oracle possessed with the spirit of the god and able to see the future. Your email address will not be published. But when, slowly but surely, different kinds of behavior arise, due to emerging qualitative differences in the particles (or vice versa; it's a chicken or egg thing), the symmetry breaches and two groups of very distinct particles arise: particles that are on the whole very different but still share a common origin and have many defining qualities in common. Victor Hugo uses the equivalent French idiom (tomber de Charybde en Scylla) in his novel Les Misrables (1862), again in a political context, as a metaphor for the staging of two rebel barricades during the climactic uprising in Paris, around which the final events of the book culminate. She was sometimes identified with the Scylla who betrayed her father, King Nisus of Megara, out of love for Minos, king of Crete. Christian Martyrdom. Byron clarifies that although many English translations, including the NRSV quoted above, say that the slave girl had a spirit of divination, the original Greek says she had a spirit of python. This connects her fortune-telling ability to Python from Greek mythology and the oracle at Delphi. Saul, as everybody knows, is also the name of Israel's first king, and ostensibly, Saul of Tarsus came from the same tribe as Saul the king, namely the tribe of Benjamin. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. The name Silvnus (Classical Latin:[swa.ns]) is a derivation from Latin silva ('forest, wood'). Silas Was First Mentioned in Acts 15:22. However, beyond thatand her owners anger over this losswe dont know what happens to her. It was during the second mission that he and Paul were imprisoned briefly in Philippi, where an earthquake broke their chains and opened the prison door. He is often depicted as a bearded man with a shield full of hail-stones. [2] Silas is thus often identified with Silvanus of the Seventy. He traveled with Saint Paul and Saint Barnabas to Jerusalem to spread the news that Christ is the Messiah. Erasmus recorded it in his Adagia (1515) under the Latin form of evitata Charybdi in Scyllam incidi (having escaped Charybdis I fell into Scylla) and also provided a Greek equivalent. He uses a technique derived from what physicists call a breach in symmetry (and biologists punctuated equilibrium): when a great many particles (or animals) behave in the same way, there is perfect symmetry and the particles (or animals) are really the same beasts. Likewise the command to create a highway for the Lord in the desert has nothing to do with Jeeps and Land Rovers and everything with growing smarter as a natural people and finally bringing forth formal science (or language or technology). In Greek mythology, Hylas was the son of King Theiodamas of the Dryopians and the nymph Menodice, daughter of Orion. Photo: Richard Stracke/CC by-NC-SA 3.0. Pelias ( / pilis / PEE-lee-ass; Ancient Greek: ) was king of Iolcus in Greek mythology. The son of Hera and Zeus, Ares was one of the twelve Olympians and the Greek god of war and courage. This action, which deprives her of her fortune-telling ability, angers her owners and lands Paul and his companion Silas in prison. Zeus was regarded as the sender of thunder and lightning, rain, and winds, and his traditional weapon was the thunderbolt. After Heracles killed Theiodamas in battle, he took on Hylas as his arms-bearer and taught him to be a warrior. Probably a short form of Silvanus. Silvanus or Apollo according to other versions[28][29] was in love with Cyparissus, and once by accident killed a pet hind belonging to Cyparissus. Sallu, the Straight-Highway-Maker, to do what Bar-Jesus so miserably failed at. 2023 Dotdash Media, Inc. All rights reserved, Verywell Family uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. His mother was also a follower. While in Jerusalem, he helped establish the Christian Church there and is known as being one of its founding members. From at least the time of Homerwho established him as the son of the chief god, Zeus, and Hera, his consortAres was one of the . Heres more information about Saint David: Silas is one of those Apostles who was around in the early days of the Christian church. Scylla was a supernatural female creature, with 12 feet and six heads on long snaky necks, each head having a triple row of sharklike teeth . Written by Greek Boston in Greek Orthodox Religious Information For more than a millennium, people sought the prophecies of Apollos famous oracle at Delphi: Pythia, a priestess at the temple, who was said to have the spirit of the god. In particular the initiation rituals of the evocati appear to have referenced Silvanus as a protective god of raiding for women and cattle, perhaps preserving elements of earlier Etruscan worship. In some accounts, his father was Euphemus or King Ceyx of Trachis.. Mythology Heracles. When they had brought them before the magistrates, they said, These men are disturbing our city; they are Jews and are advocating customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to adopt or observe. The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates had them stripped of their clothing and ordered them to be beaten with rods. The names Silas and Silvanus apply to a single New Testament character, and although Silas is obviously short for Silvanus (the way Dick is short for Richard, and Bill for William), the name Silas has a distinct Semitic ring to it, whereas Silvanus (or Silouanos) leans more toward the Latin sound of things. Silas and Judas are mentioned as being leaders among the brothers, prophets and encouraging speakers. The story of Hylas and the nymphs is alluded to in Book 3 of Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene, Canto XII, Stanza 7: Or that same daintie lad, which was so deare Some translations, including the New International Version, call him "Silas" in the epistles. They knew about relativity theory (see our article on the verb , nahar, to shine or flow). Some may be surprised that a passage in the Bible has a connection to Python from Greek mythology. Sila (mythology) Sila ( Arabic: alternatively spelled Si'la or called Si'lat literally: "Hag" or "treacherous spirits of invariable form" pl. Paul and the Slave Girl. Hylas is also mentioned in Christopher Marlowe's play Edward II: "Not Hylas was more mourned for of Hercules / Than thou hast been of me since thy exile" (Act I, Scene I, line 142-3), and in Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 11: "and gilded a boy that he might serve at the feast as Ganymede or Hylas.". derived from Saul hebrew meaning = "the youngest" Transcription to Late Latin Silas, from Greek Silas, from Aramaic: Region of origin: Greek: Other names; Related names: Sylvanus, Silvanus, Sylvain , Silvan (Dutch, German), Silvano : Silas is a common given name and a lesser-known surname. To further explore the biblical episode of Paul and the slave girl from Philippi, see John Byrons Biblical Views column Paul, the Python Girl, and Human Trafficking, published in the May/June 2019 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review. The Second Epistle to the Corinthians mentions Silas as having preached with Paul and Timothy to the church in Corinth (1:19), and the First Epistle of Peter describes Silas as a "faithful brother" (5:12). Pauls dual roles as a Christian missionary and a Pharisee. A shield emblazoned "Neutrality" hangs on the ship's thwarts, referring to how Palmerston tried to maintain a strict impartiality towards both combatants in the American Civil War. (Acts 13:10) Bar-Jesus goes blind (like Paul himself some years earlier), Sergius Paulus believes, Saul assumes the name of his host and becomes Paul(us), Barnabas and Barsabbas do their switcheroo, and Paul continues with Silas, a.k.a. "22 Then the apostles and elders, with the whole church, decided to choose some of their own men and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. The lives of the saints are no doubt an important part of Orthodox Christianity. Hence, where Luke adorns the prologue to the birth of Christ with shepherds abiding in the field (Luke 2:8), Matthew has magi come out of the East (Matthew 2:1). Being between Scylla and Charybdis is an idiom deriving from Greek mythology, which has been associated with the proverbial advice "to choose the lesser of two evils". Thank you, {{form.email}}, for signing up. FREE ebook: Paul: Jewish Law and Early Christianity. Comments Off on Orthodox Saint Silas History and Name Day Information. All this is really rather spectacular, also because Luke, the author of the story of Silas, switches to a first-person plural delivery in Acts 16:10 ("God had called us to preach the gospel in Macedonia") and keeps it up until Acts 16:17, the encounter with the divinatory slave girl ("following after Paul and us, she kept crying out"). Their first stop is Cyprus (where Barnabas was from), where they meet the Roman proconsul Sergius Paulus, and that's the first time the name Paul(us) occurs in the Bible. Judah). Required fields are marked *, COPYRIGHT 2023 BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGY SOCIETY 5614 Connecticut Ave NW #343, Washington DC 20015-2604. He fild with Hylas name; the Nymphes eke "Hylas" cryde. And: "Go through, go through the gates, clear the way for the people. In season 8, Sirens are actually featured in our world's greek mythology (The Oddysey). According to Homer's account, Odysseus was advised to pass by Scylla and lose only a few sailors, rather than risk the loss of his entire ship in the whirlpool. [4] Acts 16:25-37. Anne Catherine Emmerich recounts in her visions that Silas' original name was Sela, and that he was one of the three "secret disciples," along with Hermas, who had later accompanied Jesus on his trip to the Three Kings' homeland near Ur, and thence to Heliopolis, and whose parents had come with the caravan of the Three Kings.[7]. Doppleganger mythology exists in our world too.