keen dispute, and has been investigated with as much anxiety as if the
truth of the Gospel depended upon the manner in which it was decided.
Assuming, as we are here warranted to do, that real miraculous power was
conveyed in the way detailed by the inspired writers, it is plain, that
it may have been exercised in different countries, and may have
remained, without any new communication of it, throughout the first, and
a considerable part of the second century. The Apostles, wherever they
went to execute their commission, would avail themselves of the
stupendous gift which had been imparted to them; and it is clear, not
only that they were permitted and enabled to convey it to others, but
that spiritual gifts, including the power of working miracles, were
actually conferred on many of the primitive disciples. Allusions to this
we find in the epistles of St. Paul; such allusions, too, as it is
utterly inconceivable that any man of a sound judgment could have made,
had he not known that he was referring to an obvious fact, about which
there could be no hesitation. Of the time at which several of the
Apostles died, we have no certain knowledge. St. Peter and St. Paul
suffered at Rome about A. D. 66, or 67; and it is fully established,
that the life of John was much longer protracted, he having died a
natural death, A. D. 100, or 101. Supposing that the two former of these
Apostles imparted spiritual gifts till the time of their suffering
martyrdom, the persons to whom they were imparted might, in the course
of nature, have lived through the earlier part of the second century;
and if John did the same till the end of his life, such gifts as were
derived from him might have remained till more than the half of that
century had elapsed. That such was the fact, is asserted by ancient
ecclesiastical writers. Whether, after the generation immediately
succeeding the Apostles had passed away, the power of working miracles
was anew communicated, is a question, the solution of which cannot be
nearly so satisfactory. The probability is, that there was no such
renewal; and this opinion rests upon the ground that natural causes were
now sufficient to accomplish the end for which miracles were originally
designed; and it does not appear to have been any part of the scheme of
the blessed Author of our religion, that, solely for the purpose of
hastening that conversion of the nations which might gradually be
accomplished, miracles should be wrought, when these could be of no use
in establishing after ages in the faith.
MIRACULOUS CONCEPTION. By this is meant, that the human nature of Jesus
Christ was formed, not in the ordinary method of generation, but out of
the substance of the Virgin Mary, by the immediate operation of the Holy
Ghost. The evidence upon which this article of the Christian faith rests
is found in Matt. i, 18–23, and in the more particular narration which
St. Luke has given in the first chapter of his Gospel. If we admit this
evidence of the fact, we can discern the emphatical meaning of the
appellation given to our Saviour when he is called the seed of the
woman,” Gen. iii, 15; we can perceive the meaning of a phrase which St.
Luke has introduced into the genealogy of Jesus, Luke iii, 23, and of
which, otherwise, it is not possible to give a good account, ων, ὡς
ενομιζετο, ὑιος Ιωσηφ; [being, as was supposed, the son of Joseph;] and
we can discover a peculiar significancy in an expression of the Apostle
Paul, Gal. iv, 4, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman.” The
conception of Jesus is the point from which we date the union between
his divine and human nature; and, this conception being miraculous, the
existence of the person in whom they are united, was not physically
derived from Adam. But, as Dr. Horsley speaks in his sermon on the
incarnation, the union with the uncreated Word is the very principle of
personality and individual existence in the son of Mary. According to
this view of the matter, the miraculous conception gives a completeness
and consistency to the revelation concerning Jesus Christ. Not only is
he the Son of God, but, as the Son of man, he is exalted above his
brethren, while he is made like them. He is preserved from the
contamination adhering to the race whose nature he assumed; and when the
only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, was made flesh,
the intercourse which, as man, he had with God, is distinguished, not in
degree only, but in kind, from that which any prophet ever enjoyed, and
it is infinitely more intimate, because it did not consist in
communications occasionally made to him, but arose from the manner in
which his human nature had its existence.
MIRIAM, sister of Moses and Aaron, and daughter of Amram and Jochebed,
was born about A. M. 2424. She might be ten or twelve years old when her
brother Moses was exposed on the banks of the Nile, since Miriam was
watching there, and offered herself to Pharaoh’s daughter to fetch her a
nurse. The princess accepting the offer, Miriam fetched her own mother,
to whom the young Moses was given to nurse, Exod. ii, 4, 5, &c. It is
thought that Miriam married Hur, of the tribe of Judah; but it does not
appear that she had any children by him, Exod. xvii, 10, 11. Miriam had
the gift of prophecy, as she intimates, Num. xii, 2: Hath the Lord
indeed spoken only by Moses? hath he not spoken also by us?” After the
passage of the Red Sea, Miriam led the choirs and dances of the women,
and sung with them the canticle, Sing ye to the Lord, for he hath
triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the
sea:” while Moses led the choir of men, Exod. xv, 21. When Zipporah, the
wife of Moses, arrived in the camp of Israel, Miriam and Aaron disputed
with her, speaking against Moses on her account, Num. xii. This conduct
the Lord punished by visiting Miriam with a leprosy. Aaron interceded
with Moses for her recovery, and besought the Lord, who ordered her to
be shut out of the camp seven days. We are acquainted with no subsequent
particulars of the life of Miriam. Her death happened in the first month
of the fortieth year after the exodus, at the encampment of Kadesh in
the wilderness of Zin, Num. xx, 1. The people mourned for her, and she
was there buried.
MIRRORS, usually, but improperly, rendered _looking glasses_. The
eastern mirrors were made of polished metal, and for the most part
convex. So Callimachus describes Venus as taking the shining brass,”
that is, to adjust her hair. If they were thus made in the country of
Elihu, the image made use of by him will appear very lively: Hast thou
with him spread out the sky, which is strong, and as a molten looking
glass?” Job xxxvii, 18. Shaw informs us that “in the Levant, looking
glasses are a part of female dress. The Moorish women in Barbary are so
fond of their ornaments, and particularly of their looking glasses,
which they bang upon their breasts, that they will not lay them aside,
even when, after the drudgery of the day, they are obliged to go two or
three miles with a pitcher or a goat’s skin, to fetch water.” The
Israelitish women used to carry their mirrors with them, even to their
most solemn place of worship. The word _mirror_ should be used in the
passages here referred to. To speak of looking glasses made of steel,”
and glasses molten,” is palpably absurd; whereas the term _mirror_
obviates every difficulty, and expresses the true meaning of the
original.
MISHNA, or MISNA, משנה, signifies _repetition_, and is properly the code
of the Jewish civil law. The Mishna contains the text; and the Gemara,
which is the second part of the Talmud, contains the commentaries: so
that the Gemara is, as it were, a glossary on the Mishna. The Mishna
consists of various traditions of the Jews, and of explanations of
several passages of Scripture. These traditions, serving as an
explication of the written law, and supplementary to it, are said to
have been delivered to Moses during the time of his abode upon the
mount; which he afterward communicated to Aaron, Eleazar, and his
servant Joshua. By these they were transmitted to the seventy elders; by
them to the prophets, who communicated them to the men of the great
sanhedrim, from whom the wise men of Jerusalem and Babylon received
them. According to Dr. Prideaux, they passed from Jeremiah to Baruch,
from him to Ezra, and from Ezra to the men of the great synagogue, the
last of whom was Simon the Just, who delivered them to Antigonus of
Socho. From him they came down in regular succession to Simeon, who took
our Saviour in his arms; to Gamaliel, at whose feet St. Paul was brought
up; and last of all to rabbi Judah the holy, who committed them to
writing in the Mishna. Dr. Prideaux, rejecting this Jewish fiction,
observes, that after the death of Simon the Just, about B. C. 299, arose
the Tannaim or Mishnical doctors, who by their comments and conclusions,
added to the number of those traditions which had been received and
allowed by Ezra and the men of the great synagogue. Hence toward the
middle of the second century after Christ, under the reign of the Roman
Emperor Antoninus Pius, it was found necessary to commit these
traditions to writing. This was requisite, because the traditions had
been so much increased that they could no longer be preserved by the
memory of man; and also because their country had suffered considerably
in the reign of the Emperor Adrian, and many of their schools being
dissolved, and their learned men cut off, the usual method of preserving
their traditions had failed. Lest, therefore, the traditions should be
forgotten and lost, it was resolved that they should be collected and
committed to writing. Rabbi Judah, who was at that time rector of the
school at Tiberias in Galilee, and president of the sanhedrim at that
place, undertook the work. He compiled it in six books, each consisting
of several tracts, which altogether form the number of sixty-three. Dr.
Prideaux computes, that the Mishna was composed about A. D. 150. Dr.
Lightfoot, however, says, that rabbi Judah compiled the Mishna about A.
D. 190, in the latter end of the reign of Commodus; or, as some compute,
A. D. 220. Dr. Lardner is of opinion, that this work could not have been
finished before A. D. 190, or later. Thus the book called the Mishna was
formed; a book which was received by the Jews with great veneration, and
which has been always held in high esteem among them. Their opinion of
it is, that all the particulars which it contains were dictated by God
himself to Moses upon Mount Sinai, as well as the written word itself;
and, consequently, that it must be of the same divine authority, and
ought to be as religiously observed. See CABBALA, GEMARA, JEWS.
MITE. See MONEY.
MITYLENE, the capital of the island of Lesbos, through which St. Paul
passed as he went from Corinth to Jerusalem, Acts xx, 14.
MIZPAH, or MIZPEH, a city of the tribe of Benjamin, situated in a plain,
about eighteen miles west of Jerusalem. Here Samuel dwelt; and here he
called Israel together, to observe a solemn fast for their sins, and to
supplicate God for his assistance against the Philistines; after which
they sallied out on their enemies, already discomfited by the thunders
of heaven, and gave them a total defeat, 1 Sam. vii. Here, also, Saul
was anointed king, 1 Sam. x, 17–25. It appears that between this and the
time of Asa, king of Judah, Mizpah had suffered probably in some of the
intervening wars, as we are told that Asa built it with the stones and
timber of Ramah, 1 Kings xv, 22. There was another Mizpeh in Gilead; on
the spot where Jacob set up the pillar or heap of stones, to commemorate
the covenant there made between him and Laban, Gen. xxxi, 49. (See
_Gilead_.) There was also a third Mizpeh, in the land of Moab, where
David placed his father and mother, while he remained in his retreat at
Adullam, 1 Sam. xxii, 3. It is to be observed, that Mizpeh implies a
beacon or watch tower, a pillar or heap of commemoration; and at all the
places bearing this name, it is probable that a single pillar, or a rude
pile, was erected as the witness and the record of some particular
event. These, subsequently, became altars and places of convocation on
public occasions, religious and civil.
MIZRAIM, or MESRAIM, son of Ham, and father of Ludim, Anamim, Lehabim,
Naphtuhim, Pathrusim, and Casluhim, Gen. x, 6. Meser or Misor was father
of the Mizraim, the Egyptians; and he himself is commonly called
Mizraim, although there is very strong probability that Mizraim, being
of the plural number, signifies rather the Egyptians themselves, than
the father of that people. Mizraim is also put for the country of Egypt:
thus it has three significations, which are perpetually confounded and
used promiscuously, sometimes denoting the land of Egypt, sometimes him
who first peopled Egypt, and sometimes the inhabitants themselves.
Cairo, the capital of Egypt, and even Egypt itself, are to this day
called Mezer by the Arabians. But the natives call Egypt Chemi, that is,
the land of Cham, or Ham, as it is also sometimes called in Scripture,
Psalm lxxviii, 12; cv, 23; cvi, 22. The Prophet Micah, vii, 15, gives to
Egypt the name of Mezor, or Matzor; and rabbi Kimchi, followed in this
by several learned commentators, explains by Egypt what is said of the
rivers of Mezor, 2 Kings xix, 24; Isaiah xix, 6; xxxvii, 25.
MOAB was the son of Lot, and of his eldest daughter, Gen. xix, 31, &c.
He was born about the same time as Isaac, A. M. 2108, and was father of
the Moabites, whose habitation lay beyond Jordan and the Dead Sea, on
both sides of the river Arnon. Their capital city was situated on that
river, and was called Ar or Areopolis, or Ariol of Moab, or Rabbah Moab,
that is, the capital of Moab, or Kir-haresh, that is, a city with brick
walls. This country was originally possessed by a race of giants called
Emim, Deut. ii, 11, 12. The Moabites conquered them, and afterward the
Amorites took a part from the Moabites, Judges xi, 13. Moses conquered
that part which belonged to the Amorites, and gave it to the tribe of
Reuben. The Moabites were spared by Moses, for God had restricted him,
Deut. ii, 9. But there always was a great antipathy between the Moabites
and the Israelites, which occasioned many wars between them. Balaam
seduced the Hebrews to idolatry and uncleanness, by means of the
daughters of Moab, Num. xxv, 1, 2; and Balak, king of this people,
endeavoured to prevail on Balaam to curse Israel. God ordained that the
Moabites should not enter into the congregation of his people, because
they had the inhumanity to refuse the Israelites a passage through their
country, nor would they supply them with bread and water in their
necessity. Eglon, king of the Moabites, was one of the first that
oppressed Israel after the death of Joshua. Ehud killed Eglon, and
Israel expelled the Moabites, Judges iii, 12, &c. Hanun king of the
Ammonites having insulted David’s ambassadors, David made war against
him, and subdued Moab and Ammon; under which subjection they continued
till the separation of the ten tribes. The Ammonites and the Moabites
continued in subjection to the kings of Israel to the death of Ahab.
Presently after the death of Ahab the Moabites began to revolt, 2 Kings
iii, 4, 5. Mesha, king of Moab, refused the tribute of a hundred
thousand lambs, and as many rams, which till then had been customarily
paid, either yearly, or at the beginning of every reign; which of these
two is not clearly expressed in Scripture. The reign of Ahaziah was too
short to make war with them; but Jehoram, son of Ahab, and brother to
Ahaziah, having ascended the throne, thought of reducing them to
obedience. He invited Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, who, with the king of
Edom, then his vassal, entered Moab, where they were near perishing with
thirst, but were miraculously relieved, 2 Kings iii, 16, &c.
It is not easy to ascertain what were the circumstances of the Moabites
from this time; but Isaiah, at the beginning of the reign of King
Hezekiah, threatens them with a calamity, which was to happen three
years after his prediction, and which probably referred to the war that
Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, made with the ten tribes and the other
people beyond Jordan. Amos, i, 13, &c, also foretold great miseries to
them, which, probably, they suffered under Uzziah and Jothan, kings of
Judah, or under Shalmaneser, 2 Chron. xxvi, 7, 8; xxvii, 5; or, lastly,
in the war of Nebuchadnezzar, five years after the destruction of
Jerusalem. This prince carried them captive beyond the Euphrates, as the
prophets had threatened, Jer. ix, 26; xii, 14, 15; xxv, 11, 12; xlviii,
47, &c; xlix, 3, 6, 39; l, 16; and Cyrus sent them home again, as he did
the rest of the captives. After their return from captivity they
multiplied, and fortified themselves, as the Jews did, and other
neighbouring people, still in subjection to the kings of Persia. They
were afterward conquered by Alexander the Great, and were in obedience
to the kings of Syria and Egypt successively, and finally to the Romans.
There is a probability, also, that in the later times of the Jewish
republic they obeyed the Asmonean kings, and afterward Herod the Great.
The principal deities of the Moabites were Chemosh and Baal-peor.
The prophecies concerning Moab are numerous and remarkable. There are,
says Keith, abundant predictions which refer so clearly to its modern
state, that there is scarcely a single feature peculiar to the land of
Moab, as it now exists, which was not marked by the prophets in their
delineation of the low condition to which, from the height of its
wickedness and haughtiness, it was finally to be brought down.
The land of Moab lay to the east and south-east of Judea, and bordered
on the east, north-east, and partly on the south of the Dead Sea. Its
early history is nearly analogous to that of Ammon; and the soil, though
perhaps more diversified, is, in many places where the desert and plains
of salt have not encroached on its borders, of equal fertility. There
are manifest and abundant vestiges of its ancient greatness: the whole
of the plains are covered with the sites of towns, on every eminence or
spot convenient for the construction of one; and as the land is capable
of rich cultivation, there can be no doubt that the country now so
deserted once presented a continued picture of plenty and fertility. The
form of fields is still visible; and there are the remains of Roman
highways, which in some places are completely paved, and on which there
are mile stones of the times of Trajan, Marcus Aurelius, and Severus,
with the number of the miles legible upon them. Wherever any spot is
cultivated the corn is luxuriant; and the riches of the soil cannot
perhaps be more clearly illustrated than by the fact, that one grain of
Heshbon wheat exceeds in dimensions two of the ordinary sort, and more
than double the number of grains grow on the stalk. The frequency, and
almost, in many instances, the close vicinity of the sites of the
ancient towns, prove that the population of the country was formerly
proportioned to its natural fertility. Such evidence may surely suffice
to prove that the country was well cultivated and peopled at a period so
long posterior to the date of the predictions, that no cause less than
supernatural could have existed at the time when they were delivered,
which could have authorized the assertion with the least probability or
apparent possibility of its truth, that Moab would ever have been
reduced to that state of great and permanent desolation in which it has
continued for so many ages, and which vindicates and ratifies to this
hour the truth of the Scriptural prophecies. The cities of Moab were to
be desolate without any to dwell therein;” no city was to escape: Moab
was to flee away.” And the cities of Moab have all disappeared. Their
place, together with the adjoining part of Idumea, is characterized, in
the map of Volney’s Travels, by the ruins of towns. His information
respecting these ruins was derived from some of the wandering Arabs; and
its accuracy has been fully corroborated by the testimony of different
European travellers of high respectability and undoubted veracity, who
have since visited this devastated region. The whole country abounds
with ruins; and Burckhardt, who encountered many difficulties in so
desolate and dangerous a land, thus records the brief history of a few
of them: The ruins of Eleale, Heshbon, Meon, Medaba, Dibon, Aroer, still
subsist to illustrate the history of the Beni Israel.” And it might with
equal truth have been added, that they still subsist to confirm the
inspiration of the Jewish Scriptures, or to prove that the seers of
Israel were the prophets of God; for the desolation of each of these
very cities was a theme of a prediction. Every thing worthy of
observation respecting them has been detailed, not only in Burckhardt’s
Travels in Syria,” but also by Seetzen, and, more recently, by Captains
Irby and Mangles, who, along with Mr. Bankes and Mr. Leigh, visited this
deserted district. The predicted judgment has fallen with such truth
upon these cities, and upon all the cities of the land of Moab far and
near, and they are so utterly broken down,” that even the prying
curiosity of such indefatigable travellers could discover among a
multiplicity of ruins only a few remains so entire as to be worthy of
particular notice. The subjoined description is drawn from their united
testimony: Among the ruins of El Aal (Eleale) are a number of large
cisterns, fragments of buildings, and foundations of houses. At Heshban,
(Heshbon,) are the ruins of a large ancient town, together with the
remains of a temple, and some edifices. A few broken shafts of columns
are still standing; and there are a number of deep wells cut in the
rock. The ruins of Medeba are about two miles in circumference. There
are many remains of the walls of private houses constructed with blocks
of silex, but not a single edifice is standing. The chief object of
interest is an immense tank or cistern of hewn stones, which, as there
is no stream at Medeba,” Burckhardt remarks, might still be of use to
the Bedouins, were the surrounding ground cleared of the rubbish to
allow the water to flow into it; but such an undertaking is far beyond
the views of the wandering Arabs.” There is also the foundation of a
temple built with large stones, and apparently of great antiquity, with
two columns near it. The ruins of Diban, (Dibon,) situated in the midst
of a fine plain, are of considerable extent, but present nothing of
interest. The neighbouring hot wells, and the similarity of the name,
identify the ruins of Myoun with Meon, or Beth Meon of Scripture. Of
this ancient city, as well as of Araayr, (Areor,) nothing is now
remarkable but what is common to them with all the cities of Moab, their
entire desolation. The extent of the ruins of Rabba, (Rabbath Moab,)
formerly the residence of the kings of Moab, sufficiently proves its
ancient importance; though no other object can be particularized among
the ruins, than the remains of a palace or temple, some of the walls of
which are still standing, a gate belonging to another building, and an
insulated altar. There are many remains of private buildings, but none
of them is entire. There being no springs on the spot, the town had two
birkets, the largest of which is cut entirely out of the rocky ground,
together with many cisterns. Mount Nebo was completely barren when
Burckhardt passed over it, and the site of the ancient city had not been
ascertained. Nebo is spoiled.”