Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 08.djvu/216

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
LEFT
172
RIGHT

SADDUCEES 172 SAFE name was the priest who declared in favor of Solomon when the High Priest Abiathar adhered to Adonijah (I Kings i. 32-45). His descendants had a subse- quent pre-eminence (Ezek. xl. 46, xliii. 19, xliv. 15, xlviii. 11). Not that the Sadducees became a party so early, or that Zadok was their founder; but that some of them may have been his descen- dants, and all admired his fidelity to the theocratic government, even when the head of the priesthood had gone astray. It was their desire to be equally faithful. All the Jews admitted that the Mosaic law was given at Sinai by Jehovah Him- self. Most of the people, with the con- currence and support of the Pharisees, believed that an oral law of Moses had similarly come from God. The Sadducees rejected this view, and would accept nothing beyond the written word. They were the Protestants of the older economy. Certain consequences followed. In the Mosaic law there is no reference to a state of rewards and punishments in a future world. When Jesus proves the resurrection from the Pentateuch, He does so by an inference, there being no direct passage which He can quote (Matt, xxii. 31, 32). The Sadducees therefore denied the resurrection from the dead (verse 23). The doctrine of a future world is taught in some passages of the Old Testament, especially in Dan. xii. 2, 3, etc., which should have modified their belief. That it did not do so can be ex- plained only by supposing that they at- tributed a higher inspiration to the Mo- saic law than to other parts of the Old Testament. Epiphanius (Hoeres., xiv.) and some other of the fathers assert that the Sadducees rejected all the Old Testa- ment but the Pentateuch. Probably, how- ever, these writers confounded the Sad- ducees with the Samaritans. In Acts xxiii. 8, it is stated that they say that "there is neither angel nor spirit." How they could ignore all the angelic ap- pearances in the Pentateuch (Gen. xvi. 7, 11, xix. 1, etc.) is hard to understand. Perhaps they may have believed that, though angelic appearances once took place, they had now ceased. It is sur- prising that a sect with these views should, at least at one time, have almost monopolized the highest places in the priesthood; yet such was the case, at least temporarily (Acts iv. 1-6). But, with all their sacred office and worldly rank, they could have had no hold on the common people. It is probable that, when Christianity spread — even among its Jew- ish opponents — a belief in the resurrec- tion, the Sadducees must have still further lost ground; but they ultimately revived, and still exist, under the name of Kara- ites (q. v.). SADI, or SAADI, the most celebrated didactic poet of Persia; born in Shiraz, Persia, about the end of the 12th cen- tury. In his youth he visited Hindustan, Syria, Palestine, Abyssinia, and made several pilgrimages to Mecca and Me- dina. While in Syria he was taken by the Crusaders, and forced to labor on the fortifications of Tripoli. After about 50 years of wandering he returned to his native city. The best of his works are: "Gulistan" (Garden of Roses), a moral work, comprising stories, anecdotes, and observations and reflections in prose and verse; and "Bostan" (the Orchard), of much the same character. He died about the end of the 13th century. SADOWA. See Koniggratz. SAENZ, PENA ROQTJE, an Argentine statesman, born at Buenos Ayres, in 1851. He studied law in the University of Buenos Ayres, and in 1876 was elected to the Chamber of Deputies, becoming in the course of a year president of the Chamber. When the war with Peru broke out in 1879 he joined the army and was wounded and taken prisoner. Re- turning to his native city in 1881 he became Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs. Meanwhile he had entered jour- nalism and founded the review "Sud America." He became minister to Ura- guay and served as ambassador to Spain in 1906, and to Italy 1907-10. In 1910 he was elected president of the republic and as such promoted the A. B. C. (Ar- gentine, Brazil, Chile) entente. He died in 1914. SAFE, a receptacle for valuables, of iron or steel, or both combined. A safe to answer all requirements should be fire, explosive, acid, drill, and wedge proof. A fireproof safe need only be so constructed that, though exposed to the intense heat of a conflagration, its inner recesses re- main at a sufficiently low temperature to prevent combustion of the contents. A burglar-proof safe needs many other safe- guards, and the history of safe-making is mainly a record of struggles between the safe manufacturer and the burglar; the result is that safes can now be ob- tained which are all but impregnable. The safe consists of an outer _ and an inner wall, the space between being filled with some fire-proof material such as asbestos, silicate cotton, gypsum, etc. The outside casting, which may be single or compound, naturally receives the greatest attention, and various are the devices of manufacturers to render it sufficiently hard and solid to resist the finely tem- pered drills of the burglar. To prevent wrenching, the door is secured _ by bolts moving straight or diagonally into slots