MIDDLETON, THOMAS FANSHAW: Church of England bishop of Calcutta; b. in Kedleston (4 m. n.w. of Derby) Jan. 26, 1769; d. in Calcutta July 8, 1822. He was graduated with honors from the University of Cambridge (B.A., 1792; M.A., 1795; D.D.,1808); was appointed curate of Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, 1792; rector of Tansor, Northamp tonshire, 1795; of Little and Castle Bytham, Lin colnshire, 1802; a prebend at Lincoln, 1809; vicar of St. Pancras, London, 1811; archdeacon of Hunt ingdon, 1812; and was consecrated first bishop of Calcutta, 1814. At Calcutta he founded in 1820 the Bishops' College, for the training of mission aries and clergymen for Asia. Dr. Middleton is justly famed for his Doctrine of the Greek Article applied to the Criticism and Illustration of the New Testament (London, 1808; 2d ed. by Rev. James Scholefield, 1828, 5th ed., 1855). A posthumous volume of Sermons, Charges, etc., with Memoir, was issued by H. K. Bonney (London, 1824).

Bibliography: Besides the Memoir in his Sermons, ut sup., consult: C. W. Le Bat, Life of T. F. Middleton, 2 vols., London, 1831; C. M. Yonge, Pioneers and Founders; or, recent Workers in the Mission Field, ib. 1871; DNB, xxxvii. 383-385.

MIDIAN: The name of a people or stock (not of a country) which comes into especial prominence in the story of Gideon (Judges vi.-viii.). In the Old Testament the relations between them and Israel are in part friendly, though more often they are hostile. In the time of Gideon Midianitea appear as ravaging nomads who cross the Jordan from the east and seize the produce and cattle of the Hebrews. They seem to be a belated part of the same migration as that to which the Israelites belonged, and Judges viii. 11 indicates that their home was the desert. The narrative in chap. viii. belongs in the main to a different narrator (J) from that in vi.-vii., and gives a slightly different view. When Ex. ii. 15 speaks of a "land of Midian," the reference is not to a region generally so named, but to a district named after a definite tribe which lived there. From Ex. ii.-iv. (and perhaps Num. x. 29 32) all that can be gathered of the region is that it was east of Egypt and south of the Jordan. Ptolemy (Geographike, vi. 7), and Eusebius and Jerome (Oso mastica, 136; 276) knew of ti Madiama or Madiam, east of the Red Sea and south of the Roman prov ince of Arabia, mentioned by Arab geographers as Madyan, identified by R. F. Burton in 1878 with the region about the ruins of Magha'ir ahu'sib, or " caves of Jethro "-a region called by its present inhabitants and madyan, " land of Midian," having its northern boundary not far from the site of Elath and its southern near the coast fortress al Muwelih. This modern district is about 45 miles from north to south and from twenty-three to thirty-four miles in width. There are still trams of mining operations for copper, silver, and gold.

The relation of friendship between the two peoples is illustrated by the case of Moses, who fled to the country and entered the family of "Hobab son of Raguel" (Num. x. 29, of. Judges iv. 11, and "Reuel" Ex. ii. 18) or Jethro (Ex. iii.l, xviii. 1, cf. "Jether" Ex. iv. 18, margin). Hobab is called a Kenite in Judges iv. 11, and Stade suspects that the Kenites were in early times associated with the Midianitre (see Cain, Kenites). Num. x. 29-32 suggests not a settled people but a nomadic tribe. Other Old-Testament passages raise the question whether settled, semi-nomadic, or nomadic peoples were in mind. Gen. (xxxvii. 28, 36) implies not Bedouin but a settled people carrying wares to the north and in the contrary direction; Isa. Ix. 6 must refer to nomads; Num. xxii., xxv. and xxxi. are not clear on the point, though Winckler, relying on Gen. xxxvi. 35 (cf. I Kings xi. 14-22), looks on these chapters as implying a pre-Moabitic and abiding possession of the region, a conclusion not wholly warranted by the text. The narrative in Num. xxxi. is not so reliable as to permit from the mention of "kings of Midian" (verse 8) the deduction that the Midianites were a settled people.

Genealogical details concerning the Midianites are not easy to interpret, partly because only a few names are given, partly because the nomadic tribes were so mobile that the same names appear from the Euphrates to the Red Sea. Gen. xxv. 1-6 derives them from Keturah and gives five branches of the stock. Of these Ephah is by Delitzsch placed in North Arabia as known to Tiglath Pileser III. Knobel equates Epher with the Ghifar of Mohammed's age, who tented near Medina. For the time when they came into contact with Israel they are to be regarded as. Aramaic nomads. With Israel's regal period they vanish from history; the Ishmaelites of Judges viii. 24 may be the same people (see Ishmael). From the occurrence of Jether, Jethro, and Raguel among Hebrew names, a coalescence with the Hebrews has been suspected.

(H. Guthe.)

Bibliography: T. Nöldeke, Die Amalakiter and . . . cin- ders NadAbarotilker der Israeliten, Göttingen, 1884; R. F. Burton, The Land of Midian, 2 vols., London, 1878-79 (contains collections of ancient materials); F. Delitssch, Wo lap das Paradiest, Leipsic, 1881; E. Glaser, Skisw der Geschichte und Geographic Arabiena, ii. 445 sqq., Berlin, 1890; H. Winckler, Geschichte Israel#, i. 47 sqq. et pas sim, Leipsic, 1895; Schrader, KAT, i. 143, 145; DB, iii. 385-366; EB, iii. 3079-82; JE, viii. 547-548.