SHEKINAH, a Hebrew word meaning "that which dwells," or "the dwelling." An expression used in the Targums in place of "God." The word "Shekinah" is of constant occurrence in the Targums (q.v.). Great care was taken by the scribes to mitigate the anthropomorphic expressions applied to God in the Scriptures, and, by paraphrase, to prevent such expressions from giving rise to erroneous views in the popular mind as to God's personal manifes tation. Thus, whenever any indication of local limitation or action of God was implied or expressed, in the Hebrew text, the Tar gumists were careful to substitute some expression involving the use of "Shekinah." Thus Ex. xxix. 45 is rendered in the Targum (Onkelos) : "And I will cause my Shekinah to dwell," etc. All ex pressions implying God's local presence are similarly rendered : e.g., Habak. ii. 20 "Jehovah was pleased to cause His Shekinah to dwell." "To see" God is similarly paraphrased. Thus Is. xxxiii. 17 is rendered "Thine eyes shall see the Shekinah of the king of the worlds." So "hiding the face," when used of God is regularly paraphrased "remove His Shekinah" (Is. lvii. 17, viii. 17, lix. 2). Closely connected with the idea of the Shekinah is that of "the glory of the Lord." "Glory," indeed, in this connection was con ceived of as a property of the Shekinah (as, in fact, it is of God). For the divine "glory" as a property of the Shekinah, cf., e.g., Is. vi. 5 which is rendered "mine eyes have seen the glory of the Shekinah of the King," etc.
This Shekinah-glory is several times denoted in the New Testa ment by (WO. The most notable passage is Rom. ix. 4, where St. Paul, enumerating the list of Israel's privileges, says : "whose is the adoption, and the glory" (i.e., the Shekinah-glory) ; cf., Luke ii. 9. There is also an obvious allusion to the Shekinah in the de scription of the theophanic cloud of the transfiguration-narrative (St. Matt. xvii. 5 and parallels) the same verb being used as in the lxx. of Exod. xl. 34, seq. There can be no doubt too, that the word rendered "tabernacle" with the corresponding verb "to tabernacle" (0-Knvoi)v) is used in St. John i. 14, and
Rev. xii. 3, because of its likeness to the term "Shekinah." In St. John i. 14, there is an allusion to the Word (the mentra of the Targums) the Shekinah, and the Shekinah-glory, all of which the writer declares became incarnate in Jesus. Cf. also Heb. i. 3.
It is remarkable that the mentrii (Logos or "Word") of the Targums almost entirely disappears in the Midrashic literature and the Talmud, its place being taken by Shekinah. The Rabbis apparently dreaded the possibility of such terms becoming hypostasized into personal entities distinct from God. Against this they emphasized the Shekinah-idea. It is safe to say that wherever Shekinah is mentioned in Rabbinic literature it is God's direct action or activity that is thought of. Independent per sonality is never imputed to it. (Maimonides, however, regarded the Shekinah, like the memrii and "the glory" as a distinct entity.) It is probable that the use of the term was often in Rabbinic writings polemical (against Jewish Christians or gnostic sects). BIBLIOGRAPHY.—See "Shekinah" in J. Hastings, Dictionary of the Bible, 5 vols. (19oo—o4) ; Dictionary of Christ and the Gospels, 2 vols. (1906) and in I. Singer, Jewish Encyclopedia, 12 vols. (19o1, 1925) also I. W. Weber, Judische Theologie (1897, pp. 185-190). For the Targums in English see W. J. Etheridge, The Targums on the Pentateuch, 2 vols. (1862) ; C. W. Pauli, The Chaldee Paraphrase of the Prophet Isaiah (1871). (G. H. B.) SHELBY, a city of North Carolina, U.S.A., the county seat of Cleveland county; in the foothills of the Blue Ridge. Pop. 10,789 in 1930 (Federal census). Mineral springs and the natural beauty of the region have made the city a health and pleasure resort, and since 1900 it has been developing rapidly as an indus trial centre. Its textile mills had 76,000 spindles in 1928. The city was founded and incorporated in