SHEKINAH, she-ki'nft (Late Heb. shakinah, from shaken, to reside or dwell). A term that belongs to Jewish theology of the period after the close of the 11 ehrew canon and was adopted by early Christian writers, expressing the pres ence of the divine majesty in heaven, among the people of Israel, or in the sanctuary. The origin both of the term and of the idea i, due to the tendency of post-exilic Judaism to avoid Con ceptions of God that seemed to attribute to Him human qualities or to apply limitations of any kind to His being. This led naturally to a view which removed the Deity from any direct contact with this world. and which kept Him, as it were. aloof—separated from mankind by a wide chasm, which. however, was in a measure bridged over 1w intermediary hypostases. such as the 'wisdom' in the Book of Wisdom and the Philonian Logos or 'Word of God.' as something distinct from God Himself. The Shekinah belongs to the same class of ideas. In its most specific sense, the Shekinah idea is derived from descriptions of Yahweh in the Old Testament, such as those which represent ilia as manifesting His presence by the desecut of a cloud over the tabernacle (Ex. xl. 34). Similar ly, a cloud rests on Mount Sinai for six dot s, and it was from the cloud that Yahweh on the seventh day called to 3loses to ascend (Ex. xxiv. 12), The term used to deseribe Divine presence is shtikan, 'to rest' ("the glory of Yah weh rested on Mount Sinai"), from which Sheki nab is a direct derivative. Hence Shekinah be came the term expressive of the Divine presence, and in the Jewish Targums (e. second century A.D.), where the term is first encountered, Sheki. nali is used as the equivalent of the Divine Being and served as a means of disguising such anthro pomorphic expressions as Yahweh 'sitting upon the cherubim' (1. Sam. iv. 4, etc.), or Yahweh dwelling in a certain place. In all such pas
sages the Targmn introduces the term Shekinah. It was a natural process that led to the personi fication of the Shekinah, as something distinct from God Himself, and this meaning is implied in the Talmudical view which makes Shekinah the source of inspiration, a kind of spirit sent out by God and carrying out Pis orders. As an active force the province of the Shekinah extends to Sheol, and when the wicked ascend out of Sheol, the Shekinah is pictured as marching at their head. The Shekinah accompanies Israel to Babylon, and indeed, according to the current view, is inseparable from God's people, although, in contradiction to this idea, it is maintained that. the Shekinah was not visible in the second temple, while others maintain that after the destruction of the temple by Titus the Shekinah rested behind the remaining western wall. Such contradictions illustrate at once the vagueness and variety of the conception regarding the Shekinah itself. In the New Testament and the later Apocryphal literature we find the Shekinah idea frequently introduced. the Greek word em ployed for it being doza, literally 'glory.' The term is used for God Himself, while phrases like `glory of the father' (e.g. Rom. vi. 4) and the 'spirit of glory' (I. Peter iv. 14) point likewise to the familiarity of the readers with the term and conception of the Shekinah. The conception lent itself likewise to mystical interpretations, and hence in the Cabbala the Shekinah• still more completely personified than in Rabbinical and early Christian writings, plays an important role. Consult: Weber, Judisehe Theologie (Leip zig, 1897) ; Langen. Jadenthune in Paliistina :;ur Zeit Christi, (Freiburg, 1868); Gfrtirer. Ur ehristcnthum (Stuttgart, 1838).