SHION (shi'on). A. V. SHIHON (Josh. xix:19). SHIP (ship), (Heb. on-ee-yaw', conveyance; sefee-naw', a vessel celled with a deck; ]sec, a ship).
In few things is there greater danger of modern associations misleading the reader of the Scrip tures than in regard to the subject of the present article. Both the ships and the navigation of the ancients, even of the most maritime states, were as dissimilar as things of the same kind can well be to the realities which the terms now represent. Navigation confined itself to coasting, or, if neces sity, foul weather, or chance drove a vessel from the land, a regard to safety urged the commander to a speedy return, for he had no guide but such as the stars might afford under skies with which he was but imperfectly acquainted. And ships, whether designed for commercial or warlike pur poses, were small in size and frail in structure.
The Jews cannot be said to have been a seafar ing people; yet their position on the map of the world is such as to lead us to feel that they could not have been ignorant of ships and the business which relates thereunto. Phcenicia, the north western part of Palestine, was unquestionably among, if not at the head of the earliest cultivat ors of maritime affairs. Then the Holy Land itself lay with one side coasting a sea which was anciently the great highway of navigation, and the center of social and commercial enterprise. With in its own borders it had a navigable lake. The Nile, with which river the fathers of the nation had become acquainted in their bondage, was an other great thoroughfare for ships. And the Red Sea itself, which conducted towards the remote East, was at no great distance even from the capi tal of the land. Then at different points in its long line of seacoast there were harbors of no mean repute. Let the reader call to mind Tyre and Sidon, in Phcenicia, and Acre (Arco) and Jaffa (Joppa), in Palestine. Yet the decidedly agricultural bearing of the Israelitish constitution checked such a development of power, activity, and wealth, as these favorable opportunities might have called forth on behalf of seafaring pursuits. It is evident that the Israelites must have only partially improved their local advantages, since we find Hiram, king of Tyre, acting as carrier by sea for Solomon, engaging to convey in floats to Joppa the timber cut in Lebanon for the Temple. and leaving to the Hebrew prince the duty of transporting the wood from the coast to Jerusa lem. And when, after having conquered Elath
and Ezion-geber on the further arm of the Red Sea, Solomon proceeded to convert them into naval stations for his own purposes, he was still, Ancient Ship. (From a Painting Found in Pompeii.) whatever he did himself, indebted to Hiram for `shipmen that had knowledge of the sea' (1 Kings ix :26; x :22).
The reader of the New Testament is well aware how frequently he finds himself with the Savior on the romantic shores of the sea of Gennesaret. There Jesus is seen, now addressing the people from on board a vessel (Matt. xiii :2 Luke v :3) ; now sailing up and down the lake (Matt. viii :23 ; ix :1; xiv :13 ; John vi :17). Some of his earliest disciples were proprietors of barks which sailed on this inland sea (Matt. iv :21; John xxi :3 ; Luke v:3). These 'ships' were indeed small, though they were not mere boats.
The vessels connected with Biblical history were for the most part ships of burden, almost indeed exclusively so, at least within the period of known historical facts. In a ship of this kind was Paul conveyed to Italy. They (naves oncrarizr) were, for the purposes to which they were destined, rounder and deeper than ships of war, and sometimes of great capacity. in consequence of their bulk, and when laden, of their weight, they were impelled by sails rather than by oars. On the prow stood the insignia from which the ship was named, and by which it was known. These in Acts (xxviii :it) are called parasamon, 'sign,' which it appears consisted in this case of figures of Castor and Pollux lucida sidera—brilliant constellations, auspicious to navigators (Horst. Od., i, 3; Liv. xxxvii, 92; Tac. Ann. vi, 34; Ovid, Fast, i, To, i). Each ship was provided with a boat, intended in case of peril to facilitate escape, skapha (Acts xxvii:i6, 31, 32; Cic. De Invent. ii, 51) ; and several anchors (Acts xxvii :29, 4o; Ces. Civ. i, 25) ; also a plumb line for sounding (Acts xxvii :28 ; Isidor. Orig. xix, 4). Among the sails one bore the name of artcmon, translated in Acts xxvii:4o, by 'main sail ;' but possibly the word may rather mean what is now termed the 'topsail' (Schsl. ad Iuven. xii, 68). In great danger it was customary to gird the vessel with cables, in order to prevent her from falling to pieces under the force of wind and sea (Acts xxvii :17; Polyb. xxvii. 3, 3 ; Athen.