He had the true Mosaic dislike of commerce and trade, of which, in the

whole law, no single instance of encouragement is found. Though Canaan

lay on the shore of the Mediterranean, and the example of their nearest

neighbours, the Phœnicians, encouraged the Israelites to commerce, it

was not the will of Jehovah that his people should devote themselves to

traffic; agriculture, on the contrary, was consecrated by its union with

religion, and all the great national festivals were as much agricultural

as historical. In this respect Israel resembled the Greeks more than the

Orientals, among whom commerce is usually held in high estimation,

constitutes an order of nobility, and engages even the prime ministers

of the state. The Greek, on the contrary, at least in the earliest and

purest times, considered such occupations as a surrender of his dignity,

and inconsistent with the magnanimity of a free man. Helon would fain

have seen the same spirit continuing to animate the Israelites, though

for a different reason. The constant intercourse with foreigners,

necessarily produced compromises and conformity, which diminished their

attachment to the law and usages of their forefathers. He disliked the

mercantile character of the Hellenists of Alexandria, as much as their

love of allegories, and deduced indeed from the former their neglect of

the law, their indifference to the temple on Moriah, and their endeavour

to pacify their conscience by allegorizing those precepts, which in

their literal acceptation too obviously rebuked their practices. If the

children of the captivity, he thought, had not taken up the pursuit of

commerce on the banks of the Euphrates and the Tigris, they would have

returned in much greater numbers, and so many of them would not have

been induced to prefer gain in a foreign land to the recovery of their

own. “And had they returned in greater numbers,” he exclaimed, “how soon

would the Samaritans have been expelled, Galilee purified, and the

Philistines been forced to bow their necks! Jerusalem would have been

inhabited by a totally different race of men, and the days of Solomon

might have returned!”

With such feelings, it was natural that he should turn away in disgust

from all that seemed to change the proper character of the festival.

This mixture of commerce with the religious solemnity was indeed not

new: it seemed almost to arise necessarily out of the circumstances of

the case. The festivals were not merely occasions of appearing before

Jehovah, for pious services, nor merely anniversary assemblages of the

people; they were also the great national fairs. One end of the court of

the Gentiles served as a market-place; the most extensive dealings

carried on in it were in cattle. Vast droves of sheep, goats, and

bullocks preceded the pilgrims on their way to the city, to supply the

sacrifices which were to be offered there. As the animals so offered

must all be clean, it was necessary that this branch of trade should be

wholly in the hands of Jews. The sheep came from the wilderness of

Judah; the bullocks from Galilee; Tekoah and Hermon furnished honey, and

Gilead its precious balm. Phœnicians also came to the festival, and

brought with them foreign merchandise, purple, Egyptian linen, &c.

Elisama was frequently among the merchants, and judged of their wares

with the eyes of one experienced in such matters, for he had himself

been a merchant. But Helon could never be persuaded to follow his

uncle’s occupation, and had been accustomed at Alexandria to take refuge

in the Bruchion, when exhorted to engage in commerce. “O! that a prophet

would appear,” he exclaimed one day in the temple, when his zeal was

more than ordinarily kindled, “who should overturn the tables of the

money-changers, and drive those who buy and sell from the courts of

Jehovah!”

These things however were only trivial diminutions of his pleasure,

small specks in the bright glory which invested the temple and its

services to his imagination. When he went up, morning or evening, and

entered by the Beautiful-gate, he hastened as speedily as possible from

the objects the sight of which displeased him, to reach a scene more

congenial to his feelings, to ascend the flight of steps which conducted

to the altar of burnt-offering, to wander in the spacious porticoes, to

follow with the eye the majestic steps of the high-priest, or listen to

the psalms of the Levites. He had not words to describe the delight in

which he thus passed his hours away. He inwardly resolved to become as

it was then called, a Chasidean, i. e. a perfectly righteous man. He

thanked Jehovah that he had so happily escaped from the meshes of the

Greek philosophy, and had so pure and ardent a love for the law of his

fathers. He prayed to the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, to be

enabled to fulfil the law in all its rigour, and he was conscious of a

warmth of attachment to it, and an energy of purpose, which left him no

doubt of succeeding.

The close of the festival was at hand; Helon could scarce refrain from

tears when, on the evening of the seventh day, the sound of the trumpets

announced that it was over. The last day, the twenty-first of the month

Nisan, was as holy as the first, and no work could lawfully be done on

either of them. The festival-offering was presented on this as on every

other of the seven days: the ashes from such a multitude of sacrifices,

never having been cleared away, had accumulated to a lofty heap upon the

altar. All those who had remained in Jerusalem had assembled in the

temple; in the afternoon they went to the synagogue, and with sunset the

feast of unleavened bread was over.

Helon went down from the temple, with slow and melancholy steps. The

pilgrims were preparing for their departure, and the citizens returning

to their ordinary occupations. On the following morning they were

present at the sacrifice, and returned thanks to Jehovah for permitting

them to join in the celebration of his Passover. The tents were then

struck; the different companies arranged themselves, and with the sound

of cymbals poured out from the different gates, after having taken a

hearty farewell of their respective friends.

Helon stood upon the roof, and saw the commotion in the streets and at

the gates. The city gradually became more empty and silent. He listened,

as the songs of the pilgrims died away in the distance, and when he

heard from the road to Bethlehem, where he had himself joined in the

chorus, the psalm which they were singing on their return, the sound

fell on his heart, like the knell of departed joy.

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

[Illustration]

BOOK I.

Page 4.—_Emancipation of servants._] The Mosaic law did not prohibit

domestic slavery, which, being universal in the ancient world, it would

have been impossible to banish from among any single people;—it only

endeavoured to mitigate those evils which slavery must bring with it,

especially among a people little softened by civilisation. In

particular, its regulations were directed to prevent the mischiefs which

resulted in other countries from the hostility against their master,

which is engendered in the minds of slaves, who see no prospect of any

termination to their miseries but that of their lives. Foreign slaves

might be purchased and retained during their whole lifetime in slavery;

(Lev. xxv. 45, 46.) but if a native Israelite had been reduced to

servitude by poverty, Josephus (Ant. iii. 12. xvi. 1.) adds, by crime,

he was to be set free at the end of seven years, or in the year of

Jubilee, if this occurred before his seven years of service had expired.

(Exod. xxi. 2-6. Lev. xxv. 39. Deut. xv. 12-18.) It would, however,

frequently happen that a servant would have formed an attachment to his

master’s house, which would make him unwilling to leave it, especially

as the children, who might have been born to him by a female slave in

the family, continued the property of his master. (Exod. xxi. 4.) In

this case he was allowed to bind himself to his service for ever: the

compact, to prevent false claims on the master’s part, taking place in

the presence of witnesses, with the ceremonies described in the text.

Josephus (Ant. iv. 8. 28.) appears to suppose, that even then he was

released in the fiftieth year. The time immediately preceding the

Passover is said to have been usually chosen for the manumission of

those who were to receive their freedom. (Reland, Ant. Sacr. Heb. 452.

Michaelis, Mos. Law, § 122-127.)

Page 6.—_Thavech._] היך (τὸ μεσὸν, Luke v. 19.) is a Hebrew word

denoting _the midst_, and applied to the court which formed the centre

of the buildings of the house. See Shaw’s Travels, p. 208.

Page 6.—_Presents for the host._] “It is counted uncivil to visit in

this country without a gift in the hand. All great men expect it, as a

kind of tribute due to their character and authority, and look upon

themselves as affronted, and indeed defrauded, when this compliment is

omitted. Even in familiar visits amongst inferior people you shall

seldom have them come, without bringing a flower, or an orange, or some

other such token of their respect to the person visited: the Turks in

this respect keeping up the ancient oriental custom hinted at, (1 Sam.

ix. 7.) ‘If we go, what shall we bring the man of God? there is not a

present to bring to the man of God—what have we?’ which words are

questionless to be understood as relating to a token of respect, and not

a price of divination,”—Maundrell’s Travels, p. 26.

Page 7.—Respecting the construction of the better kind of houses in the

east, the variegated marble pavements, the fountain with its cypress or

palm-trees, the awning stretched over it, &c. see Harmer’s Observations

on Scripture, i. 195. Ed. 1776. Russell’s Aleppo, i. 29. Shaw’s Travels,

207.

Page 8.—_Nard._] The costly liquid perfume, called _nardus_ by the

ancients, was obtained from the flowers of the Indian plant _Valeriana

Jatamensi_. (Roxburgh, As. Res. iv. No. 33.) From the resemblance of the

grains, with which the lower part of the stem is covered, to an ear of

corn, it obtained the name of νάρδου στάχυς, _spikenard_. (Mark xiv. 3.

John xii. 3.) When pure, a small quantity of it, such as could be

enclosed in a vase of onyx, was esteemed of great value.—Hor. Od. iv.

12.

Sed pressum Calibus ducere Liberum,

Si gestis, juvenum nobilium cliens,

Nardo vina merebere,

Nardi parvus onyx eliciet cadum; caet.

Page 8.—_Fish of the Nile._] Athen. vii. 312. φέρει δὲ ὁ Νεῖλος γένη

πολλὰ ἰχθύων καὶ πάντα ἤδιστα.—Diod. i. 36. The fish of Egypt are

regretted, along with its vegetables, by the murmuring Israelites.

(Numb. xi. 5.) In the hot weather the languid appetite relishes scarcely

any food but this.—Harmer, ii. 327.

Page 8.—_Posture at table._] “Cœnantes ita decumbebant, ut capite

leviter erecto, dorsoque pulvinis suffulto, lævo cubito inniterentur.

Singulos lectos terni solebant occupare; primus pedes dorso secundi,

secundus tertii dorso proximos habebat. Primus dicebatur summus, qui ad

hujus pedes tertius imus erat, qui medius inter illos accumbebat

dignissimus habebatur.”—Quistorpius de Terra Sancta; Fascic. Opusc. ix.

542.

Page 8.—_Blessing the bread._] The prayers of the Jews before their

meals beginning with the words ברוך אהה יהוה the word _to bless_,

(εὐλογεῖν) came to be used, as we find it F.pn +1 in the New Testament,

for giving of thanks before a meal, and was applied to the food itself,

though properly referring to God. (Kuinöel on Luke ix. 16.) What is here

said respecting the ceremonies with which the meal was accompanied must

be understood to rest on Rabbinical authority, or the practice of the

later Jews. See Calmet Dict. _Prayer_; Diss. sur le Manger des Hébreux,

i. p. 350. Buxtorf. Synagoga Judaica, 7.

Page 10.—“_Happy the people_,” &c.] These words will not be found in our

version of Psalm lxxxix. 15., but “Blessed is the people that know the

joyful sound.” The author has followed the version of Dathe and others.

“O beatum populum, qui novit clangorem tubæ.” “Israelitis dies solemnes

et festivi clangore tubæ annunciabantur, Lev. xxiii. 24. qui deinde ad

eos peragendos in loco sacro conveniebant. Laudat igitur poeta

felicitatem populi ex eo, quod hæc sacra ex præscripto Deo peragere

possit.” Dathe. The modern Jews repeat this verse, when the trumpet is

blown in the synagogue at the Feast of Trumpets.—Jenning’s Jewish Ant.

ii. 253.

Page 11.—_History of the Jews in Egypt._] According to the account of

Aristeas, to whom we owe the fable of the origin of the Greek version of

the Old Testament, the Jews had settled in Egypt as early as the time of

Psammetichus, 670 B. C. This, however, is not confirmed by ֖more

credible authors. Herodotus mentions only Ionian and Carian mercenaries,

(ii. 152.) as having served Psammetichus; Diodorus (i. 66.) does indeed

add Arabians, under whom Jews may have been included; but there is

nothing in the sacred volume to countenance the supposition. After the

capture of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, Gedaliah, whom the Babylonians

had left in command over the remnant of the people, was murdered by

Ishmael, a prince of the house of Judah, who had taken refuge with the

king of Ammon. The people, fearing the vengeance of Nebuchadnezzar,

determined to take refuge in Egypt. Jeremiah, who endeavoured to

dissuade them from it, was compelled to accompany them in their flight,

and probably died in Egypt. (Jer. xli. xlii. xliii.) The fugitives took

up their abode in the country adjacent to Pelusium, (Jer. xliv.) at

Memphis and Thebes. It was predicted by Jeremiah that they should be cut

off, but we know not in what manner the prophecy was fulfilled: probably

from this time to that of Alexander the Great, a considerable number of

Jews remained in the principal cities of Egypt. Alexander, when he

founded the city which bore his name, brought a great number of Jews to

settle there, (Jos. Bell. Jud. ii. 18. 7. cont. Apion. ii. 4.) allowed

them to be called Macedonians, and gave them a quarter of the city,

adjoining the palace, for their peculiar residence, that they might

observe their national customs without molestation. Ptolemy Lagi, the

founder of the kingdom of Egypt, endeavoured to possess himself of

Palestine, but was driven out by Antigonus, and in his retreat carried

with him a great number of Jewish families; (B. C. 312) some of whom he

placed in his garrisons, others he sent to Cyrene, (Jos. Apion. ii. 4.)

but the greater part he settled at Alexandria, continuing to them the

privileges which had been granted to them by Alexander. After the battle

of Ipsus, (301) Judæa remained in the hands of Ptolemy, and many more of

the Jews were attracted to the new capital of Egypt. (Jos. Ant. xii. 1.)

Their number must have been very great, if we could rely on the account

given by Josephus, that 120,000 of them were ransomed from slavery by

Ptolemy Philadelphus, (B. C. 277, Ant. xii. 2. 1.) when he caused the

Jewish law to be translated into Greek. The succeeding princes of this

family treated the Jews with great kindness, desirous probably of

attaching their countrymen in Palestine, and thus securing their

possession of that region, so eagerly contested between them and the

kings of Syria.[133] In the reign of Ptolemy Philometor, Onias, whose

father, the third high-priest of that name, had been murdered, fled into

Egypt, and rose into high favour with the king and Cleopatra, his queen.

The high-priesthood of the temple of Jerusalem, which belonged of right

to his family, having passed from it to the family of the Maccabees, by

the nomination of Jonathan to this office, (B. C. 153) Onias used his

influence with the court to procure the establishment of a temple and

ritual in Egypt, which should entirely detach the Jews who lived there

from their connection with the temple at Jerusalem. The king readily

complied with the request, hoping thus to assimilate the Jews more

completely with his subjects, and to retain at home the gifts and

tributes which they sent to the temple at Jerusalem. It was a bold

innovation on the Jewish law, which had prescribed that sacrifices

should be offered at one place only, for which purpose Jerusalem had

long been appropriated. But on the other hand it might be urged that

this law was given only in the contemplation of the Israelites living

altogether in their own land, and that the case of a large number of

Jews dwelling in a foreign country, not having been in the view of the

lawgiver, was to be provided for when it arose. To reconcile the

Egyptian Jews to a second temple, Onias is said to have alleged a

passage in Isaiah, (xix. 18, 19.) of which we shall have occasion to

speak hereafter. The place which he chose for the purpose was a ruined

temple of Bubastis, at Leontopolis, in the Heliopolitan nome, one

hundred and eighty stadia from Memphis; and the king having granted it

to him, he repaired it, built a city resembling Jerusalem in miniature,

(Jos. Bel. Jud. i. 1.) and erected an altar in imitation of that in the

temple, constituted himself high-priest, and appointed priests and

Levites from among the Jewish settlers. The king granted a tract of land

around the temple for the maintenance of the worship, and it remained in

existence till destroyed by Vespasian. (Jos. Ant. xiii. 3. xx. 9. Bell.

Jud. vii. 11.) The chief seat of the Jews in Egypt, after Alexandria,

appears to have been the district in which this temple stood, and which

was called, from the founder, Ὀνίου Χώρα. (Jos. Ant. xiv. 8.) Onias was

also a great warrior, and jointly with another Jew, Dositheus, was

intrusted by Ptolemy with the management of all his civil and military

affairs. When, after the death of Philometor, a dispute arose between

Cleopatra and Ptolemy Physcon about the succession, Onias raised an army

of Jews, and came to her assistance. During the reign of this voluptuous

and cruel prince, (145-117 B. C.) the Jews in Egypt probably suffered in

common with the other inhabitants of Alexandria, who were more than once

in open rebellion against him; but nothing particular is related

respecting them, if we except the circumstance mentioned in the

preceding note, which the Latin translation of Josephus contra Apionem

refers to the reign of Ptolemy Physcon. His queen Cleopatra associated

with herself in the kingdom her eldest son, Ptolemy Lathyrus, and they

were jointly sovereigns of Egypt at the time when the pilgrimage of

Helon is supposed to take place. Cleopatra, jealous of Lathyrus, whom

she had been compelled to take as her partner in the regal power,

instead of his younger brother Alexander, (Jos. Ant. xiii. 10. 4.) gave

her whole confidence to Hilkias and Ananias, sons of that Onias, by whom

the temple of Leontopolis was built, gave them the command of the army,

and was guided in every thing by their advice. The attachment of the

Jews appears to have been the great support of Cleopatra’s power, almost

all the other persons whom she employed going over to the side of

Ptolemy. Thus favoured by the ruling powers, the Jews seem to have

increased in population and wealth, so as to form no inconsiderable

proportion of the inhabitants of Alexandria. Τῆς τῶν Αλεξανδρέων πόλεως

ἁφώριστο μέγα μέρος τῷ ἔθνει τουτῷ. Strabo ap. Jos. Ant. xiv. 7. 2.

Philo, Leg. ad Caium, says they were μυριάδες πόλλαι. Besides the

enjoyment of their own religion, they had their own Ethnarch, who

administered justice among them, according to their own law; so that,

according to Strabo, they formed a sort of independent community in the

bosom of the state. (Jos. Ant. xix. 5. 2.) It seemed desirable to

present the reader with this connected view of the origin and state of

the Jews in Egypt, as it is disclosed only gradually, and by allusion,

in the work itself.

Footnote 133:

A tale, not very credible, is related by the author of what is called

the Third Book of the Maccabees, of Ptolemy Philopater’s attempting to

compel the Jews in Egypt to forsake their religion. Josephus takes no

notice of it in his Antiquities; it is found in the Latin translation

of the Treatise against Apion. It may have had its foundation in some

persecution raised against them by that king. See Prideaux’s

Connection, under the year 216 B. C.

Page 14.—_Irhaheres, Leontopolis._] Isaiah xix. 18. This is the passage

which Onias is said to have alleged, in order to induce the Jews to

acquiesce in the erection of the temple at Leontopolis. The words which

stand in our common Hebrew Bibles are these, עִיר ההרס יאמר לאחת

rendered in our translation “One shall be called, the City of

Destruction.” Those who impute a misapplication of the passage to Onias,

suppose that he read it ציר החרס, which, according to the meaning which

the word bears, (Job ix. 7.) would signify _City of the Sun_, i. e.

Heliopolis; and some modern interpreters consider this as the more

probable reading. See Vitringa in loc. It is supported by Symmachus, who

renders it πόλις ἡλίου· and Jerome “_Civitas Solis_ vocabitur una.” The

rendering of the Seventy is different from either, πόλις Ασεδὲκ

κληθήσεται ἡ μία πόλις, as if they had read הצדק, whence Prideaux (Conn.

Book iv. p. 377. Ann. 149.) infers that the translation of this prophet

was made by the Jews who worshipped at Leontopolis, and that they

corrupted the text to pay a compliment to the temple there. Our author

has followed an interpretation different from any of the above, which is

thus given by Dathe, who has adopted it in his translation: “Quæ sit עיר

ההרם incertum non est, postquam Ikenius in Diss. Philol. Diss. xvi. p.

258, plane demonstravit eam esse _Leontopolim_; origo nominis superest

in lingua Arabica, in qua דרם _leonem_ significat. Templum vero illud

Oniæ IV. de quo sine dubio propheta loquitur, in nomo Heliopolitano ad

urbem Leontopolim extructum esse Josephus diserte testatur Antiq. xiii.

3.”

It may be observed that the prophecy of Isaiah might naturally be

considered as a justification of the erection of a temple in Egypt,

without either corruption or mistranslation, as it certainly speaks of

an altar to Jehovah there.

Page 20.—_The Alijah._] See Shaw’s Travels, p. 214.; Taylor’s Heb.

Concord. sub voce (עליה). It appears to have been the chamber over the

gate, to which David (2 Sam. xviii. 33.) retired to weep for Absalom,

and the ὑπερῶον (Acts ix. 37.) in which the corpse of Tabitha was laid.

Page 21.—_The Panium._] Ἔστι δὲ καὶ Πάνειον, ὕψος τὶ χειροποίητον,

στροβιλοειδὲς, ἐμφερὲς οχθῳ πετρώδει, δια κοχλίου τὴν ἀνάβασιν ἔχον ἀπὸ

δὲ τῆς κορυφῆς ἔστιν ἀπιδεῖν ὅλην τὴν πόλιν ὑποκειμὲνην ἀυτῷ πανταχόθεν·

Strabo, xvii. p. 795. The Bruchium (a corruption of πυρουχεῖον, granary)

was situated at the north-eastern angle of the city. See the plan of

Alexandria, ancient and modern, in St. Croix Examen des Historiens

d’Alexandre, ed. 2. p. 288. Alexandria had two principal harbours, the

Great Harbour to the east, on which the Bruchium stood, and the Port of

Eunostus to the west. The separation between them was made by the

shallows between the Pharos and the land, afterwards covered by the mole

of the Heptastadium. The modern city of Alexandria stands on the ground

which has accumulated about the Heptastadium.

The Museum, where men of letters lived in common and at the royal

charge, (Strabo, xviii. 794. Gillies’ Hist. of the World, i. 496.) was

founded by Ptolemy Lagi, and the library enlarged by Philadelphus and

succeeding kings, till it amounted to 400,000 volumes. The Serapeum

contained 300,000 more. The library in the Bruchium was burnt in the

wars of Cæsar; that in the Serapeum suffered much in the religious

dissensions, and what remained was destroyed by the Saracens.

That the population of Alexandria has not been overrated by the author,

at 600,000 souls, may be inferred from what Diodorus says, that when he

was in Egypt, (60 B. C.) it appeared from the registers that there were

300,000 free men in Alexandria. Now in ancient cities the slaves were

commonly at least double the number of the free inhabitants. Hume Ess.

i. p. 442. It was the second city of the Roman world after Rome itself.

Diod. xvii. 52.

Page 23.—_Aramæan Jews._] _Aram_, in its largest sense, comprehended

Syria, Mesopotamia, and Palestine, all whose languages are closely

allied. (Deut. xxvi. 5. Ezra iv. 7.) Though politically distinguished

from Syria, Palestine has no geographical demarcation, and hence was

often reckoned to belong to it. (Reland, Pal. p. 42.) Of the hatred

which the Jews of Palestine bore to those of Egypt, who had attached

themselves to the temple, see Maimonides de Reg. Hebr. c. 5. and the

commentary in the Fascic. Hist. and Phil. Sacr. ix. p. 63. seq. The

Greek learning was as odious to the zealous Aramæans, as to Cato

himself. Ernesti op. Phil. xxiii. “Ut gliscenti malo, quod genuisse

Ægyptiacas synagogas querebantur, obicem ponerent, sanxere _Maledictus

esto quisquis filium suum sapientiam Græcanicam edoceat_.” (Brucker, ii.

705.) The inveteracy of the two sects against each other appeared

immediately in the Christian church. Acts vi. 1. Wetstein in loc.

Page 23.—Of the origin of the love of allegory among the Jews of

Alexandria, from their acquaintance with a corrupted form of the

Platonic and Pythagorean philosophy, see Brucker, Hist. Phil. ii. 690.

“Cum reliquæ Græcorum sectæ a Judaica theologia nimis distare

crederentur, et nec Peripatetica mundi æternitas, nec Stoica mundi anima

cum placitis Mosaicis, etiam allegoriarum ope satis conciliari posse

videretur, sola Pythagorico-Platonica doctrina saniora et digniora

Mosaicis præceptis afferre existimata est, eo quod sublimius de Deo

divinisque et spiritualibus substantiis philosophari putabatur. Ast

magnum cum esset inter Pythagorico-Platonica dogmata et legem Mosaicam

discrimen, adhibita est regionis docendi methodus, et allegoriæ

beneficio in concordiam ire jussa sunt præcepta longe diversissima.”

Eichhorn Allge. Bibl. v. 233.

Page 26.—_Doctrine of reminiscences._] Plato’s doctrine, that the soul’s

present knowledge is only a remembrance of a former state, is the basis

of much of his reasoning in favour of the immortality of the soul in his

Phædo, sect. xviii. ed. Forster. Τὸ ὄν, that which is, is the real

nature of things, the knowledge of which it is the highest flight of

philosophy to attain.

Page 26.—_A wise Jew who was also a Platonist._] In this description,

the author evidently refers to Philo, (Brucker, ii. 193.) who lived a

little after the time of our Saviour, but may be fairly presumed not to

have been the founder of this system of Platonico-Mosaic allegory, since

he speaks of it himself as _old_; Op. p. 1190, Ed. Par. although he was

so eminent in it, that Photius, ciii. says of him, ἑξ οὖ οἶμαι καὶ πᾶς ὁ

ἀλληγορικὸς τῆς γραφῆς ἐν τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ λόγος ἔσχεν ἀρχὴν. The author

supposes Philo to have conceived of the Λόγος as a being distinct from

the mind of God—yet strongly as many passages in his works favour this

opinion, all seems at other times to resolve itself into a

personification of a divine attribute and energy. See Mosheim ad Cudw.

Syst. Int. i. 835. “Vocabulorum et nominum quibus hunc λόγον Judæus

noster multis in locis ornat ea vis et ratio est, ut si ex usû et

recepta loquendi consuetudine æstimantur, notionem _personæ_, summo

licet Numine inferioris, in animis pariant—Ego vero vehementer metuo, ne

si umbræ dissipantur quibus dictionem suam obscuravit Philo, idem nobis

de hoc verbo dicendum sit, quod de binis potentiis ejus de quibus antea

egimus.—Qui de hominum cogitationibus tam argute ac figurate

philosophatur, is si Dei sapientiam et rationem aut divina decreta et

cogitata _primogenitum Dei filium_ vocat, nihil ab institutis suis

alienum admittat.” On the other side of the question may be consulted,

Kidder’s Demonstration of the Messiah, P. iii. ch. 5, 6.; Bull, Def.

Fid. Nic. i. 1. 16.

Page 28.—_God only can be our instructor in things relating to

himself._] See Plato, Rep. vii. init. Leland’s Necessity of Revelation,

i. 270.

Page 34.—_An Egyptian Jew._] The book of Tobit was probably composed

before the time of our Saviour, but when, or where, is very uncertain.

(Eichhorn, Einl. ins A. T. 4. 410.) Alexandria, however, was the great

workshop of the Jewish apocryphal writings, and probably produced this.

Page 36.—_A righteous man._] See Godwin’s Moses and Aaron, lib. i. c. 9.

respecting the distinction between the חסידים, who to the obedience of

the law added many other observances, designed to show their zeal for

it; and the צדיקים, who contented themselves with keeping the written

law. From the books of the Maccabees (1 Mac. ii. 42. vii. 13.) where the

Ἀσσιδαῖοι are mentioned, it is clear that this name was given to those

who were zealous for the law; the existence of the others as a distinct

class is more doubtful. Prideaux supposes that as the Chasidim gave rise

to the Pharisees, so did the Tsadikim to the Karaites, who reject all

tradition. Conn. vol. iii. An. 107.

Page 37.—_The Tallith._] See Calmet’s Dictionary, Art. _Taled._ The

fringes were designed to be worn on the ordinary garments, but the Jews

in later times affixed them to this mantle, which they wore only in

prayer.

Page 38.—_Ceremonies of Prayer._] See Calmet’s Dict. Art. _Phylactery._

Surenh. Mishna i. 9. The use of them was at least as old as the time of

our Saviour; but in describing the particular mode of making and wearing

them, our author has followed Leo of Modena’s account of the modern

Jews. _Kri Schma_, or _Kiriath Shema_, is derived from the word שמע

(“_Hear, O Israel_,”) with which the passage in Deuteronomy begins. See

Vitringa, Synagoga i. 279; Cérémonies des Juifs traduites de l'ltalien

de Leo de Modene, par Simonville, p. 30.; Prid. Connect. P. i. B. i. 6.

vol. ii. 545. Some have supposed that when Christ asked the lawyer (Luke

x. 26.) “What is written in the law? how readest thou?” he pointed to

the phylactery on which Deut. vi. 4. seq. was written. See Kuinöel ad

locum.

Page 40.—_Taking food early in the morning._] “Woe unto thee, O land,

when thy princes eat in the morning.” (Eccles. x. 16.) The Talmud

prescribes eleven o’clock in the forenoon, as the time when it is proper

to take the first meal. See Calmet’s Dict. Art. _Eating._ On the

sabbath, and all festival days, it was usual to fast till noon. See

Hammond on Acts ii. 15.

Page 41.—_And thinks of the way to Jerusalem._] There is no mention of

Jerusalem in the text of this passage. (Ps. lxxxiv. 5.) Our author

follows Dathe, who renders

O beatum hominem! qui spem suam in te collocat;

Qui perpetuo de viis _ad ædem tuam_ cogitat.

Page 42.—_Egypt abounds with horses._] The horse appears to have been

used by the Egyptians long before it was common among the Jews, or even

the Arabians, though Arabia has been supposed to be the native country

of this animal. Horses formed no part of the riches of the patriarchs:

it is only in connection with Egypt that we find them mentioned in early

Scripture history. See Mich. Mos. Law § 166, and Appendix. It was

forbidden the Israelites to breed many horses, (Deut. xvii. 16.) a

mountainous country being indeed ill adapted for this purpose. Solomon,

when he married the daughter of Pharaoh, in violation of this law,

procured horses from Egypt, (1 Kings x. 28, 29. 2 Chron. i. 16, 17.) and

even carried on a traffic in them. And when Zedekiah (Ezek. xvii. 15.)

is about to rebel, he sends to Egypt for cavalry. It is true that the

Egyptian horses do not appear to have been highly valued for their

qualities by the Greeks and Romans; and that Egypt is never mentioned by

those who have treated of the places in which this animal is found in

the greatest perfection. See Bochart Hierozoicön, ii. 9. Yet, even in

later times, when the great increase of canals had both lessened the

necessity for the employment of horses, and had made the use of them

difficult, (Herod. ii.) we find from Appian that the Ptolemies kept on

foot 40,000 cavalry, Rom. Hist. Præf. 10.

Page 43.—_Sabbath-day’s journey._] In the remainder of his work the

author generally uses the sabbath-day’s journey as equivalent to

somewhere about three quarters of an English mile.

Page 43.—_Branches of the Nile._] Alexandria lying beyond the Canopic,

the westernmost mouth of the Nile, all the seven branches of the river

would, of course, be crossed by our travellers, in order to reach

Pelusium, which was situated beyond the easternmost. The _greater_ Delta

is the whole country lying between these two branches; the _lesser_,

that which is included between the Bubastic (or Pelusiac) and the

Busiritic (or Phatnitic) channel, itself a branch of the Bubastic.

Champollion, ii. 13. The distance from Alexandria to Pelusium, according

to the Itinerary of Antoninus, was two hundred and thirteen miles.

Naucratis stood on the eastern bank of the Canopic branch: it was for a

long time the only place to which the jealousy of the Pharaohs allowed

foreign merchants to resort; and under Amasis the Greeks were permitted

to establish themselves there. (Herod. ii. 178.) Sais, one of the most

celebrated cities of the Delta, stood about two leagues eastward from

the Canopic branch: the goddess Naet, (or Neitha) who was worshipped

there, was identified by the Greeks with their own Athene. See Jablonski

Panth. Æg. lib. i. c. 3. Busiris was near the centre of the Delta, and

on the western bank of the Phatnitic branch, distant twenty leagues from

the apex of the Delta, and an equal number from the sea. Tanis, the Zoan

of Scripture, was situated on the eastern bank of a subordinate branch

of the Pelusiac, which from it took the name of Tanitic. Josephus

describes it as having dwindled into an insignificant place, but the

remains of several obelisks attest its ancient magnificence.

Champollion, ii. 101.

Page 45.—_Little wine was produced in Egypt._] Herodotus, iii. 16. says

that wine was brought from Greece and Phœnicia into Egypt.

Phœnicia was celebrated for its wines:

Vina mihi non sunt Gazetica, Chia, Falerna,

Quæque Sareptano palmite missa bibas.—Sidonius, xvii. 15.

Herodotus (ii. 77.) says that Egypt produced no wine, and his testimony

is confirmed by Plutarch, who says (De Iside et Osir. 6.) that before

the time of Psammetichus no wine was drunk in Egypt nor offered to the

gods. The mention of vines in Egypt in the book of Genesis (xl. 10.)

shows that the assertion of Herodotus is to be taken with some

limitation, but there can be no doubt that it was generally true. The

level plains of Egypt are not suited to the cultivation of the

vine—_apertos Bacchus amat colles_—and are besides overflowed precisely

at that time when the vintage should ripen and be gathered. What wine

therefore is grown in Egypt is beyond the inundations, in Fayoum, or on

the border of the lake Mareotis; and perhaps Herodotus only meant to

apply his remark to what he calls ἡ σπειρομένη Ἄιγυπτος, i. e. the

country which was annually overflowed.

Page 46.—_Marshes around Pelusium._] This was the last town of Egypt on

the side of Asia, and from its strength (for which reason it is called

by Ezekiel, xxx. 15. _Sin_, the strength of Egypt) was the key of the

whole country. The Greek name, Πηλούσιον, (Strabo, xvii. 802.) the

Hebrew סין (Boch. Geogr. Sac. iv. 27.) the Arabic _Thineh_, and the

Coptic _Feromi_, (Champollion, ii. 86.) all denote the marshy soil in

which it stood.

Page 47.—_Order of the caravan._] The principal circumstances mentioned

in the text are derived from Pitt’s account of the Mecca Caravan. See

Harmer, i. 465.

Page 49.—_Gerrha._] According to the Tabula Peutingerana, distant eight

miles from Pelusium. Cellarius Geogr. ii. Africa, p. 26. Josephus who

(Bell. Jud. iv. 11.) describes the route of Titus from Pelusium to Gaza,

makes his first day’s march to have been as far as the temple of the

Casian Jupiter. But the speed of a Roman army and a caravan are very

different. Philo, Vit. Mos. p. 627, represents Canaan as two days’

journey from Egypt.

Page 50.—_A round piece of leather._] This is still the common

substitute for a table in travelling in these countries. Volney, Voyage

en Syrie, ii. 244.

Page 51.—The laws respecting clean and unclean animals are found in Lev.

xi. and Deut. xiv. Michaelis, in his Commentaries on the Laws of Moses,

§ 200 et seq. has shown that the foundation of the distinction was the

practice already established by the usage of centuries among the

Israelites, and in most points also among the kindred nations in their

neighbourhood, of using certain animals for food to the exclusion of

others. It has been doubted whether the hare ruminates or not; it was

the opinion of ancient naturalists that it did not; Arist. Hist. Anim.

iii. 16. ed. Schneid. Blumenbach, Comp. of Nat. Hist. _Lepus_, inclines

to the opinion that both the hare and the rabbit ruminate. The poet

Cowper, who had the best opportunities of observing, also pronounces the

hare to ruminate; and Dr. Shaw confirms it from dissection of the

animal. See Wellbeloved’s Notes on Lev. xi. 6.

Page 53.—_Moriah._] Josephus (Ant. vii. 10.) observes, that the

threshing-floor of Araunah, where David determined to build his temple,

was the place where Abraham was about to offer Isaac, 2 Chron. iii. 1.

Page 60.—_Use made by the philosophers of the Mosaic history._] See

Huet. Dem. Evang. Prop. iv. Many of the statements on which he relies

are very questionable; but they show what was the opinion of the Jews,

from whom the Christian fathers also derived it.

Page 67.—_The Magi of Persia._] Kleuker, in his edition of the

Zend-Avesta, Append. vol. ii. P. i. p. 39, observes, that the name of

Abraham is well known to the Ghebers, from their intercourse with the

Mahometans, but is unknown to the Parsees, the fire-worshippers of

Guzerat. This correction must be applied to the accounts given by

Prideaux, Conn. P. i. Book iv. An. 486, and others, (see Calmet’s Dict.

_Abraham_) of the veneration in which Abraham is held by the followers

of Zoroaster. There can be no doubt however, that the tradition of his

power, wisdom, and virtue, has been handed down from the earliest times,

among those nations which Scripture represents to have sprung from him.

See D'Herbelot Bibl. Orient. i. 65.

Even the profane historians speak of him. Justin, xxxvi. 2.

Page 70.—_Casium._] Ἔστι τὸ Κάσιον θινωδης τις λοφος ἀκρωτηριάξων,

ἄνυδρος, ὅπου τοῦ Πομπηι΅ου τοῦ Μάγνου σῶμα κεῖται, καὶ Δίος ἔστιν ἱερον

Κασίου. Strabo, xvi. p. 760. There was another Mons Casius, which must

not be confounded with this, near Seleucia in Syria, and to the latter

belong the medals inscribed Ζεύς Κάσιος. The ancients fabled that Typhon

had been buried under the Casian mount, or in the lake Sirbonis, which

is near it. (Herod. ii. 6.) According to Herodotus, this mountain was

the eastern boundary of Egypt.

Page 72.—_A stranger of the gate._] The Jewish writers (not however

those of the New Testament) speak of two kinds of proselytes, the גדי

צדק Proselytes of Righteousness, and גרי שער Proselytes of the Gate. The

former were those who submitted to circumcision, and in every respect

conformed to the Mosaic law. (Exod. xii. 48.) The proselyte of the gate,

so called from the expression “the stranger who is within thy gates,”

frequent in the Mosaic law, was one who lived among the Jews; generally

it should seem in a servile or menial capacity, only so far conforming

to the law, as not to offend against any of its sacred and fundamental

principles—not sacrificing to any false God, perhaps not working on the

sabbath-day. Jennings’s Jew. Ant. i. 144. Others suppose that the

proselytes of the gate were bound to observe the seven precepts imposed

on the descendents of Noah. See Calmet’s Dict. Art. _Noachidæ_, and the

commentators on Acts xv. 20. In the earlier times of Jewish history,

none would embrace their religion but those who were domiciliated among

them; but when they became dispersed over the world, and their doctrines

more generally known, many appear to have attached themselves to the

worship of the one God, without further conformity to the Mosaic

institutions. Many learned men, however, suppose that only one kind of

proselytes was known among the Jews, namely, those who had received

circumcision. See Lardner, Works, vi. 523.

Page 72.—_Goshen._] Respecting its situation see Jablonski, Diss. de

Terra Gosen; Opusc. ii. 77. seq. According to him it was the Heracleotic

name, an island in the Nile, above Memphis, and answering to the modern

Fayoum. His reasons, however, seem insufficient to counterbalance the

strong presumption (arising from the absence of all mention in the

Exodus of crossing any branch of the river) that the abode of the

Israelites must have been in Lower Egypt and _beyond_ the Nile. Such is

the general opinion of commentators.

Page 73.—The martyr Stephen (Acts vii. 6.) appears to speak of the

captivity of Israel in Egypt as lasting four hundred years. So Jos. Ant.

i. 10. 3. ii. 9. 1. In Exod. xii. 40. their sojourning is said to have

been four hundred and thirty years; Gen. xv. 13. it is foretold by God

to Abraham, that his seed should be afflicted in a foreign land four

hundred years, to which it is soon after subjoined, (ver. 16) “and in

_the fourth generation_ they shall come hither again.” It is, however,

generally supposed, that the sojourning of Abraham and his descendents

in Canaan, where they were strangers, is included in the four hundred,

or four hundred and thirty years. Accordingly Usher reckons the first

period at two hundred and fifteen years, and the Egyptian bondage at

about the same number. The difficulty remains that only four

generations, inclusive, elapsed from the going down into Egypt to the

Exodus; for Moses and Aaron were sons of Amram, the son of Kohath, the

son of Levi; this the author solves, by reference to the prolonged term

of human life in those ages.

Page 74.—_Egyptian horror of pastoral tribes._] Gen. xlvi. 34.

Ἀιγυπτίοις ἀπειρημένον ἤν περὶ νομὰς αναστρέφεσθαι. Jos. Ant. ii. 7. 5.

It is generally supposed that this horror arose from the shepherds

killing the sacred animals of the Egyptians; others regard it as a piece

of policy on the part of the Egyptian priests to keep up a horror of the

nomadic tribes, in order to confine the people to agriculture; others,

as the effect of what the country had suffered from the irruptions of

these tribes, especially that of the _Hycsos_ or Shepherd kings. Jos. c.

Apion. i. 15.

Page 88.—_Mosaic imitation of the Egyptian polity._] Whether any part of

the Jewish laws and institutions were borrowed by Moses from the

Egyptians, is a question of which the affirmative side has been

maintained, with great learning, by Spencer, in his treatise _De Legibus

Hebræorum_; and the negative by Witsius in his _Ægyptiaca_. Witsius, not

denying many of the coincidences, alleges, that many things in which the

Egyptians and the Jews agreed, may have been borrowed by the former from

the latter. Considering that Egypt was a civilized, populous, and

wealthy country, when Israel had not even become a people, this seems

not probable. Some of those customs and rites which were observed by

both nations, do not appear to have exclusively belonged to either, e.

g. the remarkable custom of circumcision, the hereditary succession of

the priesthood, the dress of the priests, the multiplicity of

purifications, &c. Customs either exactly corresponding or nearly

analogous to these, may be found in other nations; they had their origin

from wants and feelings common to all, or had been handed down from

primeval times. In regard to the coincidence between the civil laws of

the Egyptians and the Jews, Michaelis well observes, “Without in the

least degree derogating from his divine mission, I may be allowed to

conjecture, that he may have adopted from other nations what he found

among them deserving of imitation. If it be no presumption against his

prophetic character, that he changed the traditionary usages of the

nomadic Israelites into laws; neither is it any that he incorporated

with his code the wisest civil regulations of the most civilized

people.” Mos. Law, § 4. The grand peculiarity of the system of Moses,

the unity, spirituality, and providence of God, he could have learnt

neither from the wisdom of the Egyptians, nor that of any other nation;

and on this argument may we safely rest the proof that he was really a

prophet of the Most High. Compare Prichard’s Analysis of Egyptian

Mythology, ch. iv.

Page 90.—_Only in the state of divine inspiration._] Plato quoted by

Leland, Necess. of Rev. i. 258.

Page 94.—_Drifted sand._] “The lake Sirbonis is bordered on each side

with hills of sand, which, borne into the water by the wind so thicken

the same, as not by the eye to be distinguished from part of the

continent, by means whereof whole armies have been devoured.” Sandys’

Travels, p. 107.

Page 94.—_Larish._] So Baumgarten writes the word commonly and more

correctly spelt El-Arish, Churchill, i. 411.

Page 94.—_Ostracine._] It was distant, according to the Itinerary,

sixty-six miles from Pelusium. Cell. Geogr. Afr. ii. 28. The lake

Sirbonis was parallel to the sea, a space of not more than fifty stadia

lying between them, where the interval was the broadest. It was

connected with the sea by a narrow channel, called Ἔκρηγμα, (Strabo,

lib. xvi. 760.) now choked up. Sandys, p. 107. Ostracine was so

remarkably destitute of water, that to ask water from an inhabitant of

Ostracine was a proverb for a vain request. Rel. Pal. p. 60. The ancient

route passed between the lake Sirbonis and the sea; the modern keeps on

the southern side of the lake; hence the exact position of Ostracine has

not been ascertained.

Page 95.—_The river of Egypt._] This appears to have been between

Rhinocolura and Pelusium; whence the Septuagint (Isa. xxvii. 12.)

renders ἕως Ρινοκορόυρων. Our author follows D’Anville, who says that

the entrance of a ravine into the Sirbonian pool, receiving the waters

of many torrents from the Arabian desert, is the _Torrens Egypti_ of the

Scriptures. Shaw, Travels, p. 181, contends that it was the Nile. The

name of El-Arish (celebrated in the history of the late war) appears to

be Arabic and modern. El-Arish and Casium (Katieh) are the only places

between Raphia and the eastern branch of the Nile which produce any

vegetation useful for man. The rest is moving sand or a desert strongly

impregnated with salt. Pref. to Burckhardt’s Travels in Syria, p. viii.

note. The deserts of Asia, however, are much less dreary and destitute

of vegetable life than those of Africa. See Irby and Mangles’ account of

their journey from Egypt to Palestine, Travels, p. 169.

Page 99.—_The Nethinim._] These, so called from the Hebrew נתן (_to

give_) were the menial servants of the sanctuary, who fetched the water

and hewed the wood for the service of the temple. In the history of the

conquest of Canaan by Joshua, (ix. 23.) the Gibeonites are said to be

made hewers of wood and drawers of water for the house of God; but the

name of Nethinim is never given to them; and Ezra (viii. 20.) says that

David and the princes had appointed the Nethinim for the service of the

Levites. It is probable that when the service of God was renewed, and

its rites performed with more order and magnificence under David, the

Gibeonites, who had become mingled with the body of the people, were

found insufficient, and the Nethinim were appointed; perhaps from among

the captives made in the wars of David.

Page 104.—_Translation of the Books of Kings._] The first translation of

the Hebrew Scriptures made by the Greeks of Alexandria included only the

Pentateuch; (Jos. Ant. Proœm. 3.) the other historical books were

translated at various times; (see Hody, Vers. Græc. ii. 9.) the prophets

probably soon after the time when the Jews of Palestine began to read

them in their Synagogue, as a substitute for the reading of the law,

forbidden by Antiochus Epiphanes. Eichhorn Einl. i. d. A. T. i. 342. ed.

3.

Page 117.—_Rhinocorura._] This place, sometimes spelt Rhinocolura, as

observed before, is El-Arish. It is said to have taken its Greek name

from the mutilation of the nose which a king of Ethiopia, when master of

Egypt, inflicted on those whom he sent to reside here, Strabo, xvi. p.

759. It was twenty-six miles from Ostracine.

Page 125.—“_Three sins have I passed by._”] The words with which Amos

prefaces his denunciations have been variously explained. Literally they

are, “For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four will I not

avert it.” Our author supposes an ellipsis, “For three transgressions _I

did avert the punishment_, but for four I will not avert it.” Others

with more probability suppose, that three and four are used here for an

indefinite number, as six and seven, Job v. 19.

Page 145.—_Traces of melancholy._] The author has applied to the first

destruction of Jerusalem, what the modern Jews say of themselves with

reference to the second. Buxtorf. Syn. Jud. 124. 479.

Page 147.—_Raphia._] “The name is still retained in Rafa, six hours’

march to the south of Gaza, where there are many remains of ancient

buildings, and among them two columns of granite, which are supposed by

the natives to mark the boundary of Asia and Africa.” Pref. to Burckh.

p. viii. note. It was distant, according to the Antonine Itinerary,

twenty-two miles from Rhinocolura, Cellar. Book iii. cap. 13. p. 372.

The battle of Raphia was fought between Ptolemy Philopater and

Antiochus, B. C. 217, and the result was that Antiochus, being totally

defeated, was obliged to yield Cœle-Syria and Palestine to Ptolemy.

Page 155.—_An Israelitish maiden was Xerxes’ queen._] That Xerxes was

the Ahasuerus of Scripture was the opinion of Scaliger. It is examined

and opposed by Prideaux, Conn. P. i. Book iv. An. 465. Usher thought

that he was Darius Hystaspis; Prideaux himself, Artaxerxes Longimanus.

The subject is embarrassed with difficulties apparently inextricable,

though there can be little doubt that the author of the Book of Esther

intended some Artaxerxes by the name of Ahasuerus. Jos. Ant. xi. 6.

Page 159.—_Manasseh became high-priest._] It must be observed that

Nehemiah only says that one of the sons of Joiada the high-priest was

son-in-law to Sanballat, but does not call him Manasseh. Josephus, under

the reign of Darius Codomannus, (Ant. xi. 7, 8.) relates the marriage of

Manasseh, grandson of Joiada, with the daughter of Sanballat, and his

being appointed high-priest of the newly-built temple in Gerizim. As

there is a difference of between seventy and eighty years between the

date of Scripture and that of Josephus, some (see Hudson’s note on

Josephus, Ant. xi. 7.) suppose two Sanballats, having daughters married

to sons of the Jewish high-priests. This cheap but dangerous expedient

of multiplying historical personages is justly rejected by Prideaux,

Conn. An. 409.

Page 161.—_Alexander acknowledged the merits of Israel._] The narrative

of Alexander’s expedition to Jerusalem is contained in Jos. Ant. xi. 8.

According to him, Alexander, while occupied in the siege of Tyre,

ordered Jaddua the high-priest to send him supplies, and as he refused

on the ground of having sworn allegiance to Darius, Alexander, incensed

at the refusal, set out as soon as he had finished the sieges of Tyre

and Gaza to punish the Jews. He had advanced as far as Sapha, on his way

to Jerusalem, when he was met by the high-priest and the whole

sacerdotal order. On seeing the name of Jehovah, which was inscribed on

the high-priest’s tiara, Alexander prostrated himself before him; and

when Parmenio asked him how he, whom the rest of mankind adored, should

prostrate himself before the Jewish pontiff, he replied that he

recognised in his figure and vestments the person who had appeared to

him in a dream before he left Macedonia, and had encouraged him to

undertake the expedition, by assuring him that he should overturn the

throne of Darius. Accompanying the high-priest to Jerusalem, he was

shown by him the prophecy of Daniel, in which it was clearly marked that

he should overthrow the Persian monarchy. Before he left the city, he

promised to the Jews that they should be governed by their own laws and

exempted from tribute every seventh year.

The truth of this narrative has been severely attacked by Moyle, Works,

ii. 26. and others, see Hudson’s note, p. 503; and defended by Chandler

on Daniel, and Prideaux, An. 332, St. Croix, Examen Critique, ed. 2. p.

547. Besides the suspicion which is thrown upon it, by its being

unnoticed by the historians of Alexander, it contains circumstances both

improbable and contradictory. The high-priest, who shows to Alexander

the prophecy of Daniel, in which he is foretold as the conqueror of

Persia, refuses submission to him, because he had sworn allegiance to

Darius. But can it be believed that if he had known that Alexander was

the person predicted long before by Jehovah, as his instrument for

overthrowing the dominion of Persia, he would have been withheld by an

oath of allegiance to the sovereign, whose reign the prophetic word

declared to be ended? So little scruple was there on this subject, that,

according to Josephus, many Jews enrolled themselves in his army to

fight against Darius. Alexander too is made to know at once, that the

characters inscribed on the tiara of a high-priest were the names of

Jehovah; and Parmenio asks him why he, who was adored by all,

(προσκυνόυντων αὐτον ἁπάντων) adored the Jewish high-priest; though

Alexander never received these honours till his overthrow of Darius at

Arbela had intoxicated his mind. The circumstance of the dream certainly

_may_ be true; but it has much the air of a romantic fiction. On the

whole it appears most probable that the Jews made their submissions to

Alexander as Justin says the princes of Syria generally did, (x. 10.)

either during the siege of Tyre, or afterwards, when Curtius tells us

that he reduced the neighbouring cities which refused his yoke, iv. 5.

Page 162.—_Hecatæus of Abdera._] According to Josephus (Cont. Ap. i.

22.) he was a contemporary of Alexander the Great, and a friend of

Ptolemy Lagi. He wrote a treatise expressly relating to the Jews, and

mentioned especially the firmness with which they adhered to their laws

in the midst of persecution. He shows so much more knowledge of Judaism,

and speaks of it so much more respectfully, than the heathens commonly

did, that the work has been suspected to have been the forgery of some

Hellenistic Jew. See Origen, cont. Cels. lib. i. p. 13, ed. Spencer.

This was the opinion of Scaliger. Spencer, in his note on the passage in

Origen, defends its authenticity. The reader will observe the sarcasm,

in Myron’s mention of Hecatæus as a native of Abdera, a town proverbial

for the dulness of its inhabitants; _Abderitanæ pectora plebis habes_.

Page 162.—_Antigonus of Socho._] See Prideaux, Conn. An. 263. He was the

first of the Mishnical school of Jewish doctors, who taught that the law

and the traditions were of equal obligation. The founder of the sect of

Sadducees was his son. Socho, from which he took his name, was a small

town half way between Jerusalem and Eleutheropolis. Reland, Palæst.

1018. 2 Chron. xi. 5.

Page 163.—_Favour shown by Antiochus the Great to the Jews._] See Jos.

Ant. xii. 3. 3.

Page 163.—_Antiochus Epimanes._] Τὸν Ἐπιφανῆ Ἀντίοχον, ὅν διὰ τὰς

πράξεις Πολύβιος Ἐπιμανῆ καλεῖ. Athen. ii. 23. The history of the

persecution of the Jews by Antiochus will be found in Joseph. Ant. Jud.

xii. 5. seq. xiii. 1-9. The first book of the Maccabees, after a brief

notice of the empire of Alexander the Great, takes up the Jewish history

(i. 10.) at the accession of Antiochus Epiphanes, and continues it to

the death of Simon, a period of about forty years.

Page 167.—_Modin._] The site of the birthplace of the Maccabees is not

exactly known: it must have been near the sea, since their monument was

a mark to sailors, 1 Macc. xiii. 30. Eusebius places it near Diospolis

or Lydda. Reland, p. 901. Maundrell says he passed near it in an

excursion from Bethlehem to the convent of St. John; but this is

probably a mistake.

Page 168.—_Judas surnamed Maccabeus._] Different etymologies of the name

_Maccabee_ are assigned. That which derives it from מקבת a hammer, (q.

d. _Martel_) seems more probable than the common one; (according to

which it originated in their inscribing on their standards the initial

letters of Exod. xv. 11.) because it appears to have been the surname of

Judas before the war began. See 1 Macc. ii. 4.

Page 170.—_Festival of the new altar._] Jos. Ant. xii. 11. 7. It is this

which the Jews of Jerusalem exhort the Jews of Egypt to observe, in the

epistles which begin the second book of the Maccabees. But this book is

of little authority, and the epistles in particular manifest forgeries.

See Prideaux, An. 166.

Page 170.—_Alexander Balas._] He claimed the throne of Syria, as a son

of Antiochus Epiphanes, and had been supported by Jonathan, the Jewish

high-priest. When he had defeated Demetrius and seated himself on the

throne, he married Cleopatra, sister of Ptolemy Philometor, king of

Egypt. It was at the celebration of these nuptials (B.C. 150) that

Jonathan was distinguished in the manner related in the text. 1 Macc. x.

60. Jos. Ant. xiii. 4. 2.

Page 171.—_Era of freedom._] The Jews were long without any proper era

for the computation of time, though we find traces of the departure from

Egypt, Num. i. 1. 1 Kings vi. 1., the building of Solomon’s temple, 2

Chron. viii. 1., the commencement of the captivity, Ezek. xxxiii. 21.,

being used as points from which to reckon; but without that uniformity

of use which could make any of them properly an era. When they came

under the dominion of Syria, they made use of what is called the era of

the Contracts, A. M. 3692, B. C. 312, beginning with the establishment

of the dynasty of the Seleucidæ in Syria. When Demetrius granted the

privileges of an independent sovereign to Simon, the Jewish people

“began to write in their instruments and contracts, ‘In the first year

of Simon the high-priest, the governor and leader of the Jews.’” Jos.

Ant xiii. 6, 7. Mac. xiii. 41. This is remarkably confirmed by the

inscription of the coins of Simon. See Eckhel Doct. N. Vet. iii. 468.

This era begins in the year B. C. 143, and is called the Asmonean; the

era of the Seleucidæ however still continued in use. Wähneri Ant. Hebr.

ii. 47. The modern Jews reckon from the creation; the present year 1824

is 5584 of their reckoning. Reland Ant. 428.

Page 173.—_Ptolemy Physcon._] He was the seventh king of Egypt, named by

his subjects Κακεργέτης. By his cruelties he drove nearly all the men of

letters and science from Alexandria, and by that means very much revived

literature in Greece and the Grecian islands, (Athen. iv. 83.) in which

they took refuge.

Page 175.—_The Romans._] The connection between the Jews and the Romans

appears to have begun by an embassy from Judas Maccabeus (B. C. 161) to

Rome. Nothing could be more acceptable to the Romans than to raise up an

independent power within the dominions of the kings of Syria; and they

readily granted the Jews their friendship, and commanded Demetrius to

abstain from hostilities against them. As they extended their power in

the east, they continued carefully to cultivate this alliance, and

renewed their treaties with Simon, (B. C. 139) with John Hyrcanus, (B.

C. 128.) The weakness of the Syrian monarchy, and the protection of the

Romans, are the real causes of the independence which Judæa enjoyed till

the year B. C. 63; when Hyrcanus and Aristobulus, sons of Alexander

Jannæus, disputing about the succession, appealed to Pompey, who placed

Hyrcanus on the throne, but in a state of complete dependence on Rome.

BOOK II.

Page 181.—_Gaza._] From Raphia to Gaza was a distance of twenty-two

miles. Gaza had been taken, after a siege of two months, by Alexander,

(B. C. 332) the inhabitants reduced to slavery, and the city repeopled

by a colony from the adjacent country. Arr. ii. 27. Strabo (xvi. p. 522)

speaks of it as entirely abandoned; but it is evident from the history

of the Maccabees (1 Macc. xi. 61. xiii. 43.) that it was still a place

of strength. In Strabo’s own time indeed it was as he describes it,

having been totally destroyed (B. C. 96) by Alexander Zerbina. Reland,

p. 787. St. Croix, 285.

Page 184.—_Dagon._] See 1 Sam. v. 4. the last clause of which should be

rendered, “only the _fish-part_ was left.” Dagon was the same divinity

with Atargatis, Derceto, the Syrian Venus. See Selden de Dis Syris Synt.

3. c. 3.

Page 188.—_The stream of Besor._] 1 Sam. xxx. 10. Sephela, signifying in

Hebrew hollow or level ground, was applied as a proper name to the level

country along the shore from Gaza to Joppa, in which Eleutheropolis

stood. It was bordered on the east by the hills of Judah. The easier

road by the plain of Sephela has been so generally preferred by

travellers, that, with the exception of Baumgarten, I hardly remember

one who has gone by Hebron to Jerusalem. They commonly go to the north,

as far as Jaffa, before they turn off.

Page 190.—_Latter rains._] The early and latter rains are frequently

spoken of in Scripture. After the dry months of summer it begins to rain

in Palestine in October. These are the _early_ rains (יורה). Again a

considerable quantity falls in the month of March and the beginning of

April; this is the מלקרש or latter rain. Buhle’s Calend. Œcon.

Palestinæ. Without the former the grain would not spring, without the

latter it would not swell and ripen.

Page 191.—_The sweet water of the Nile._] It was as celebrated in

ancient as in modern times. “Hic quum apud Ægyptum milites vinum

peterent respondit _Nilum habetis et vinum quæritis_? Si quidem tanta

illius fluminis dulcedo, ut accolæ vina non quærant.” Spartianus Pesc.

Niger. Hist. Aug. i. 663. with Casaubon’s note. Βυβλίνων ὀρῶν ἄπο Ἴησι

σέπτον Νεῖλος εὔποτον ῥέος. Æsch. Prom. v. 837. Athenæus (ii. 67.)

mentions that it used to be sent to the kings of Persia for their

drinking, though their own “Choaspes’ amber stream” was so highly

prized; and (ii. 45.) that Ptolemy Philadelphus, whose daughter was

married to Antiochus, king of Syria, used to send her the water of the

Nile. Of the estimation in which the modern Egyptians hold it, see

Harmer, vol. ii. chap. ix. “It is a common saying among the Turks, that

if Mahommed had drunk of it, he would have begged of God not to have

died that he might always have done it.” According to Dr. Clarke (v.

283.) it is remarkably pure, and better adapted for chymical purposes

than any other.

Page 196.—Sitting cross-legged, or on the hams or heels, on mats or

carpets, is now the general practice at meals in the east. Harmer (ii.

66. iii. 338.) gives some reasons for supposing that it was not

universal in ancient times, among the Orientals. In the older books of

Scripture, as in Homer, guests are described as _sitting_ at table; Amos

ii. 8. is the first passage in which mention is made of reclining.

Brüning’s Antiq. p. 299. In our Saviour’s time the recumbent posture was

very common, a couch or divan being used for this purpose, or cushions

laid upon the floor.

Page 190.—Sandys (p. 117) thus describes this country. “We passed this

day through the most fragrant and pleasant valley that ever I beheld. On

the right, a ridge of high mountains, whereon stands Hebron; on the left

the Mediterranean sea, bordered with continued hills, beset with variety

of fruits. The champaign between them (the plain of Sephela) full of

flowery hills ascending leisurely and not much surmounting their

vallies, with groves of olives and other fruits dispersedly adorned.”

Page 198.—_Hebron._] See in Josephus, Ant. xii. 12. 1 Macc. vi. 65. 2

Macc. x. the account of the capture of Hebron by the Maccabees. Eusebius

makes its distance from Jerusalem twenty-two miles; an Itinerary, quoted

by Reland, thirty-one. Christian travellers have scarcely ever proceeded

to the south of Bethlehem; and Captains Irby and Mangles and Mr. Bankes,

appear to have been the first Englishmen who had visited Hebron for a

long series of years. Travels, 342. It is held in high veneration by the

Mahometans, as the burying-place of Abraham, and called El Khalil, _the

holy_.

Page 199.—_Terebinth of Mamre._] Reland, p. 711, seq. has made an ample

collection of passages from Josephus (Jos. B. J. iv. 9.) and other

authors relative to this celebrated tree. It was alleged by some to have

stood there since the creation, by others to have shot up from the staff

of one of the angels entertained by Abraham. So great was the veneration

paid to it that an altar stood beneath its shade, on which sacrifices

used to be offered, till Constantine ordered an oratory to be erected

instead of the altar. There can be no doubt that it was a tree of most

venerable antiquity, the terebinth being from its longevity as much an

object of reverence where it prevails, as the oak formerly in Gaul and

Britain. See Harris’s Nat. Hist. of the Bible, p. 309.

Page 200.—_Does it begin to be light towards Hebron?_] “Judæi in Talmud

Joma, cap. 3. et Maimonides in eum locum referunt, missum quolibet mane

fuisse, qui ex summo templo ortum diei pro sacrificio offerendo

observaret; cui acclamarint, ‘_Num lux usque Hebronem sit_;’ hoc est num

ita lux fugaverit tenebras, ut qui ortum spectet etiam Hebronem videre

possit.” Cellar. lib. iii. c. 13. p. 345. Lightfoot, i. 943. The reader

must not expect to find that every trait in this account of the going up

to the Passover can be warranted by quotation from Jewish authors. That

it was the custom to go up in large companies on this occasion,

accompanied with song and music, (Is. xxx. 29. Harmer iii. No. lxxx.)

there can be no doubt. See Luke ii. 14. John vi. 4.[134] In the

description of the psalms which were sung, and other circumstances by

which the picture is filled up, the author has allowably indulged his

imagination.

Footnote 134:

This explains the connection between the fourth and fifth verses, and

may remove the suspicion of a corruption or interpolation of the

fifth, alleged by Pearce, Mann, and Priestley.

Page 206.—_Bethshur_ (Josh. xv. 58.) was on the road from Jerusalem to

Hebron, at the distance of twenty miles from the former. It is

frequently mentioned in the books of the Maccabees and in Josephus as a

fortress of great strength. Jos. Ant. xiii. 9. 1 Macc. vi. 7. In the

second book of Maccabees, xi. 5. it is said to be only five stadia from

Jerusalem, but this is evidently a false reading. See Reland, p. 658.

Cell. iii. 13. 344.

Page 208.—_Etham._] Ἡν δὲ χωρίον τι ἄπο δύο σχόινων Ἱεροπολύμων, ὁ

καλεῖται μὲν Ἠθαμ, παραδείσοις δὲ καὶ ναμάτων ἐπιῤῥοίαις ἐπιτερπὲς ὁμοῦ

καὶ πλόυσιον· εις τοῦτο τὰς ἐξόδους ἀιωρούμενος ἐποιεῖτο. Jos. Ant.

viii. 7. 3. speaking of Solomon. An account of the modern state of these

reservoirs may be seen in Maundrell, p. 88. Pococke, ii. 42. Buckingham,

224.

Page 211.—_No beggar among you._] The reader will not suppose that these

words occur in the law of Moses, in whose writings, as Michaelis

observes, (Mos. Law, § 142.) the name of _beggar_ is not found, or any

allusion to such a class of society: but that the spirit of his

institutions excluded beggary. The laws respecting the treatment of the

poor are found, Deut. xiv. 28, 29. xv. 1-11. xxiv. 19-22. xxvi. 11-15.

Lev. xix. 9, 10. xxiii. 22.

Page 211.—_Tekoah._] This town, the birthplace of Amos, lay six miles to

the south of Bethlehem, (Maundrell, p. 88, says nine) and on the very

edge of the desert. 1 Macc. ix. 33. “Ultra nullus est viculus, ne

agrestes quidem casæ, et furnorum similes, quas Afri appellant mapalia.

Et quia humi arido et arenoso nihil omnino frugum gignitur, cuncta sunt

plena pastoribus, ut sterilitatem terræ compensent pecorum multitudine.”

Hieron. Prolog. ad Amos. Op. v. 208. “The mountains of Palestine,”

observes Shaw, (p. 338) “abound with thyme, rosemary, sage, and aromatic

plants of the like nature, which the bee chiefly looks after.”

Bethcherem, the name of which (_villa vineæ_) implies its productiveness

of grapes, is mentioned by Jeremiah, (vi. 1.) as in the vicinity of

Tekoah. Hieron. in loc. Op. iv. 533.

Page 214.—_Ziph._] It lay eight miles eastward from Hebron. Josh. xv.

24. Reland, 1064.

Page 219.—_Valley of Rephaim._] The Rephaim, from whom this valley took

its appellation, were the supposed gigantic inhabitants of Canaan,

whence the valley is called by the Seventy κοιλὰς Τιτάνων, Josh. xv. 13.

It stretched from mount Moriah to Bethlehem, and the road now goes

through it, Maund. 87. Bethlehem itself has been so frequently described

by travellers, that it is unnecessary to quote any thing from their

works. Josephus gives thirty stadia for its distance from Jerusalem,

somewhat less than four miles, or six sabbath-days’ journies; Eusebius

and Jerome six miles, Reland, 445. 645. The course of the Kedron to the

Dead Sea appears from Pococke’s description to be considerably

north-east of Bethlehem, ii. 34.

Page 222.—See Maundrell, p. 87. Clarke, 4. 419. The building now called

Rachel’s tomb is evidently very modern.

Page 226.—Respecting the hospitality exercised at Jerusalem at the time

of the Passover, see the commentators on Matt. xxvi. 18. Surenhusius

Mishna. 4. 467. “Mercede non elocabant incolæ Hierosolymis domos ad

festa accedentibus, sed gratis concedebant.” Lightfoot. Among the ten

wonders, the Rabbins reckon that “no man did ever say to his fellow, I

have not found a bed in Jerusalem to lie in.” Lightfoot’s Works, i. 951.

Hasselquist, p. 103, mentions with surprise the little inconvenience

produced in Cairo by the entrance of the caravan of Mecca, containing

100,000 persons.

Page 228.—_On the tenth of the month._] Exod. xii. 3. it is commanded

that the lamb should be taken on the tenth of the month, and kept till

the fourteenth; but the Jewish authors are not agreed whether this

referred to that Passover exclusively, or was to be a perpetual rule.

See Lightfoot’s Works, i. 952.

Page 232.—_The Galileans obstructed by the Samaritans._] Josephus (Ant.

xx. 5. Bell. Jud. ii. 12. 3.) relates an instance in which the

Galileans, passing through Samaria, were attacked by them and several

persons killed. Comp. Luke ix. 52. Samaria was the shortest way from

Galilee to Jerusalem; the journey required three days, Jos. Vit. 52.

Page 234.—_Searching for leaven._] This part of the paschal ceremonies

was not ordained by the Mosaic law. See the Rabbinical authorities

collected by Lightfoot, Works, i. 963.

Page 237.—_The temple rose above the rest of the city._] The hill of

Acra had been reduced in height by Simon, (Ant. Jud. xiii. 6. 6.) that

the temple might be higher than all the surrounding buildings. This and

the solidity of its construction made it an almost impregnable fortress

in the war with the Romans.

Page 231.—Josephus (Bell. Jud. vi. 9.) makes a calculation of the number

of persons present at the Passover from the number of lambs killed. They

were 256,000; and as each was to be eaten (Exod. xii.) by not fewer than

ten persons, and usually was so by more, he reckons that 2,700,000

persons must have been in Jerusalem. In Bell. Jud. ii. 14. he reckons

all the inhabitants at the time of the Passover at 3,000,000.

Page 239.—_Papyrus._] The process of preparing the papyrus is here

described after Pliny, N. H. xxx. 12. A drawing of the plant, on a large

scale, may be seen in Hayter’s Report on the Herculaneum MSS. The book

of Jesus the son of Sirach was evidently written by a Jew of Palestine,

(xxiv. 10. l 25.) who had seen the high-priest Simon, son of Onias, (ch.

l.) probably the second; the author may have lived a short time before

the commencement of the cruelties of Epiphanes, or about 180 B. C.

(Eichh. Einl. 4. 36. seq.) According to the same author, the translation

was made by his grandson a little more than a century before Christ. Ib.

p. 41.

Page 240.—_Travellers coming from a heathen land._] John xviii. 28. The

law imposes no such purification; but it was agreeable to the spirit of

the times to require it. (Acts x. 28.) Perhaps the purifications of Paul

(Acts xxi. 24.) may have reference to this. The Rabbins speak of

intercourse with idolaters as equal to Levitical uncleanness, from which

every one must be purified before the Passover. John xi. 55.

Page 241.—The word Jehoshaphat signifies _Jehovah judgeth_; and it is

very doubtful whether in this passage any place so denominated was

intended, and not rather some spot, which, by being the scene of

Jehovah’s judgment, would deserve this name. “Judæi arbitrantur ultimo

tempore quando Hierusalem fuerit instaurata, sævissimas gentes Gog and

Magog contra Dei populum esse venturas et in valle Josaphat quæ ad

orientalem portam templi sita est, esse sævituras.” Hieron. in Joel.

iii. 12. There is in the valley, through which the Kedron runs, a

sepulchre, which is now shown to travellers as that of Jehoshaphat,

(Maund. p. 103) but without any warrant from antiquity. It appears,

however, that a great many sepulchres were excavated in the rocks which

form the eastern side of this valley. See Clarke, 4. 333. 349. It is

still the most earnest desire of the Jews to be buried in the valley of

Jehoshaphat.

Page 243.—_Five sabbath-days’ journies._] Pococke (ii. 7.) says, the

ancient Jerusalem was four miles in circumference, the modern only two

and a half. Hecatæus of Abdera says, the circuit of the ancient city was

fifty stadia; about six miles, Jos. c. Ap. ii. 4. Various other

estimates may be seen in the Essay on the Topography of Jerusalem, by

D’Anville, appended to the second volume of Chateaubriand’s Travels.

Page 244.—_Topography of Jerusalem._] The reader is requested to refer

to the map of D’Anville, as the best elucidation of this description of

Jerusalem. The valley of Gihon, which our author describes as bordering

the whole city on the western side, is not there laid down. The fountain

of Gihon is said to have been the same as Siloah; (Reland, 859.

Lightfoot on John, v. 2.) this fountain, which was situated near the

_eastern_ end of the valley which separates the Upper from the Lower

City, (the φάραγξ Τυροποῖων of Josephus) can hardly have given its name

to the valley which skirted the city on the western side. According to

Maundrell (p. 108) and other travellers, the name of _Mount Gihon_ is

given to a place where is a reservoir, on the western side of the city:

I suspect that גיחון from גחן _alveus_, may have been a generic name for

a stream, which will account for its being applied to Siloah as well as

to the proper Gihon on the opposite side of the city. The chief

authority for the topography of Jerusalem is Joseph. Bell. Jud. v. 4.

combined with various passages in the narrative of the war. Tacit. Hist.

v. 11, 12. Reland, 832. seq. Cellarius, lib. iii. 13. p. 329. seq.

Page 245.—_Bezetha_] בית חדתה, Καινόπολις, or the New City, was without

walls till the time of Agrippa, who began to fortify it, but desisted,

fearful of exciting the jealousy of Claudius; the building was

afterwards resumed and carried up to the height of twenty cubits, Jos.

Bell. Jud. v. 4. 2.

Page 245.—_The city had twelve gates._] The gate of Ephraim and the

Corner-gate are not mentioned, Neh. iii. Godwin (Moses and Aaron, p. 73)

reckons only nine. The whole subject is involved in great obscurity.

Jennings’s Jewish Antiquities, ii. 76. Lightfoot’s Harmony John v. 2.

Anc. Universal History, vol. iv. 234. The ordinary population of

Jerusalem is estimated by Hecatæus, Jos. c. Apion. ii. 4., at 120,000.

Page 248.—_Analogy of the city to the camp._] “Ad rationem castrorum in

deserto, quod a porta Hierosolymæ ad montem ædis intercedebat spatium,

id respondebat castris Israelitarum. Quod autem a porta montis ad portam

Nicanoris id Levitarum respondebat castris. Et quod spatium erat citra

portam atrii castra Dei representabat.” Maimonides de Ædif. Templ. xi.

Page 251.—The description of the temple, as it existed just before its

destruction, will be found in Jos. Bell. Jud. v. 5. c. Ap. ii. 7. The

author appears to have most nearly followed Prideaux’s account, Conn. i.

200. See also Calmet, _Temple_. Lightfoot’s Works, i. 1049. seq.

Page 252.—The sanctuary, comprising the holy and holy of holies, was

called emphatically the _house_, Luke xi. 51. by Josephus ναὸς. Ern. Op.

Phil. et Crit. p. 350.

Page 253.—_Chel._] The enclosure ֫חל which is here spoken of is

mentioned by the Rabbinical writers, and from them introduced by

Prideaux into his ichnography of the temple. See too Lightfoot, i. 1089.

Page 254.—Of the multitude of persons from all countries of the

dispersion who came up to Jerusalem at the Passover, see Acts ii. 9. Ἡν

τῶν Ιουδαίων φύλη ἐις πᾶσαν πόλιν ἤδη παρεληλύθει, καὶ τόπον ὀυκ ἔστι

ραδίως εὑρεῖν τῆς οἰκουμένης, ὁς ὁυ παραδεδεκται τοῦτο τὸ φῦλον, μηδ’

ἐπικρατεῖται ὑπ’ ἀυτοῦ. Strabo ap. Jos. Ant. xiv. 7.

Page 256.—The law enjoins that the Passover shall be killed, בין הערבים

Exod. xii. 6. _between the evenings_, an expression which by comparison

with Num. xxviii. 4. where the same phrase is used of the time of the

evening sacrifice, (three P. M. according to Josephus, Ant. xiv. 4. 3.)

appears clearly to have meant generally the latter part of the day. It

has been much disputed what the _evenings_ here mentioned are. The

Greeks divided the decline of day into two evenings, one answering to

what we call afternoon; the other, the time about sunset. The Jewish

writers also distinguish between מנחה גדולה, _the great evening_,

beginning half an hour after mid-day; and קטנה _the lesser evening_,

beginning in the middle of the tenth hour or half past three P. M.

Fascic. Hist. and Phil. Sacr. vi. 426. It appears from Josephus, (Bell.

Jud. vi. 9.) that the paschal lambs were killed between the ninth and

the eleventh hour, i. e. from three o’clock till five. In Deut. xvi. 6.

the command is to sacrifice the passover at sunset; and hence the

Karaite Jews, who reject all Rabbinical traditions, kill it at twilight,

and eat it after dark. See Jennings’s Jew. Ant. ii. 181. Lightfoot’s

Works, i. 955. Ikenii. Diss. ix-xii. Of the ceremonies used in killing

the paschal lamb, see Lightfoot, i. 957. and the Tract _Pesachim_, in

Surenhus. Mischn. T. ii. 134. seq.

Page 257.—_The father of the family killed the paschal lamb._] Ἐν τῇ

ἑορτη οὐχ οἱ μὲν ἰδίωται προσάγουσι τῷ βωμῷ τὰ ἱερεῖα, θύουσι δε οἱ

ἱερεῖς, ἄλλα νομοῦ προστάξει συμπᾶν τὸ ἔθνος ἱερᾶται κατὰ μέρος ἑκάστου

τὰς ὑπὲρ ἀυτοῦ θυσίας ἀναγόντος τότε καὶ χειρουργοῦντος. Philo. Vit.

Mos. p. 686. So the Mishna; “Mactat Israelita, excipit sanguinem

sacerdos.” Surenh. ii. 153.

Page 258.—_The priests blew the trumpet._] The trumpet here spoken of,

and elsewhere, was the חצוצר (_tuba_.) Joseph. Ant. xiii. 12. 6.

straight and of metal, opposed to the שופר (_cornu._) Vitringa, Syn. i.

203. The trumpets are represented on the Jewish coins, and on the

triumphal arch of Titus.

Page 259.—_Roasting in deep ovens._] See Pococke’s description of the

ovens now used in Palestine, ii. 40.

Page 260.—_Fifteenth of the month Nisan._] The Jewish ecclesiastical

year began with the month Nisan or Abib, (the month of the ears of

corn.) Exod. xii. 2. As the Jews reckoned by lunar years, Nisan,

beginning with the first new moon after the vernal equinox, would

sometimes fall in the end of March, sometimes in April; and hence it is

impossible to assign any of the Jewish months exactly to corresponding

months of the Roman calendar. The Passover was always to be accompanied

by the offering of the first-fruits, or the new barley; and as this

would not, ordinarily, be ripe before the middle of April, (Shaw p. 335)

an additional month was intercalated, whenever the difference between

the solar and lunar year had become so great, that this part of the law

could not be complied with. See Michaelis Mos. Law, § 199. De mensibus

Hebræorum. Comm. xi.

The Jewish months followed in this order; the times assigned to them in

our calendar must be understood with the limitation above-mentioned.

1. Nisan, or Abib 30 days, March and April.

2. Jiar, or Siv 29 April and May.

3. Sivan 30 May and June.

4. Tammus 29 June and July.

5. Abh 30 July and August.

6. Elul 29 August and September.

7. Tisri, or Ethanim 30 September and October.

8. Marchesvan (or Bul) 30 and 29 October and November.

9. Kisleu 29 and 30 November and December.

10. Tebheth 29 December and January.

11. Shebat 30 January and February.

12. Adar 29 and 30 February and March.

When an intercalary month was necessary, it was added after Adar, and

called _Veadar_. Only four of the months, Abib, Exod. xiii. 4. Siv, 1

Kings vi. 37. Ethanim, 1 Kings viii. 2. Bul, 1 Kings viii. 38., are

mentioned by name before the captivity. The civil year began with Tisri,

at the autumnal equinox. Wähner, Ant. Heb. ii. 15.

Page 261.—_Ceremonies of eating the Passover._] The laws of Moses

respecting this rite are found Exod. xii. 1-20. 43-49. Deut. xvi. 1-8.

Exod. xxxiv. 25. Lightfoot (Works, i. 959. seq.) has collected the

passages from the Rabbinical writings, which describe the manner of

eating it so fully, that it is unnecessary to do more than refer to him

for all that is here related. See also Maimonides de Sol. Pasch. Fasc.

Hist. Sacr. vii. 837. What our author says of their standing around the

table, appears doubtful: the Israelites ate their first Passover,

undoubtedly, in this way; but in our Saviour’s time they appear to have

used the ordinary recumbent posture, and this is agreeable to the

accounts of the Rabbins.

Page 262.—_The divan._] This is a raised platform, about four feet wide

and six inches high, from the floor in the houses of Aleppo, according

to Russel, (p. 27) running round the head and sides of the room, close

to the wall, on which mats and cushions are spread. It serves as the

ordinary seat of the Orientals, instead of our chairs.

Page 263.—_The table in the east is low._] Mariti (ii. 144.) describes a

table at which he dined, as raised about a hand’s breadth from the

floor, and two feet broad.

Page 272.—_Hyrcanus unites in himself the three offices_ _of the

Messiah, prophet, prince, and priest._] Josephus (Bell. J. i. 2. 8. &c.)

gives several instances of the prophetic inspiration of Hyrcanus, Ant.

xiii. 10. 7. 12. 1.

Page 273.—_First watch of the night._] According to the original

division of time among the Jews, there were only three watches in the

night. See Judges vii. 19. They afterwards borrowed from the Romans the

division into four watches. Matth. xiv. 25. Mark xiii. 35. See Lewis,

Hebrew Republic, Book vii. chap. 2. The water-clock, or clepsydra, was

invented by Ctesibius, (Vitruv. ix. 9. Athen. lib. iv, p. 174) a native

of Alexandria, in the reign of Ptolemy Physcon. In earlier times the

dial appears to have been the only measurer of time among the Hebrews.

Page 274.—_Great Hallel._] “Quarto epoto poculo, nihil amplius tota

nocte libare præter nisi aquam licebat, nisi quis vellet super quintum

poculum cantare ilium eximium hymnum qui incipit _confitemini dominum_

(Psalm cxxxvi.) et pertinet ad usque _super flumina Babylonis_.” (Psalm

cxxxvii.) Maim. de Sol. Pasch. Fascic. Hist. et Phil. Sacr. vii. 897.

Page 275.—_Soon after midnight._] Τῶν ἀζύμων τῆς εορτῆς ἀγομένης, ἐκ

μέσης νυκτὸς ἐν ἔθει ἤν τοῖς ἱερεῦσι ἀνοιγνύναι τοῦ ἱερου τοὺς πυλῶνας.

Jos. Ant. xviii. 2.

Page 276.—_Usual morning sacrifice._] Exod. xxx. 7. 9. xxix. 38-46.

Numb. xxviii. 1-8. The special offering for the Passover, Numb. xxviii.

16-25.

Page 277.—_Garments of the high-priest._] See Exod. xxviii. xxxix. 1.

39. Jos. Bell. Jud. v. 57.

Page 282.—_Music of the Levites._] According to Josephus, Ant. vii. 12.

3. the instruments of the Levites were a ten-stringed instrument, called

_Cinyra_, struck with the plectrum; a twelve-stringed, _Nabla_, played

with the fingers; and cymbals. The Rabbins say (Lightfoot, i. 921.) that

a flute, or hautboy, was used on particular days, of which the Passover

was one.

Page 284.—_Gesture of the high-priest in blessing._] See Vitringa, Lib.

de Syn. iii. 2. 20. p. 1119. Lightfoot, i. 947.

Page 285.—_A thank-offering._] Thank-offerings, freewill-offerings, and

offerings for vows, went under the general denomination of

peace-offerings. The laws respecting them are found Lev. iii. vii.

11-34. xix. 5-8. xxii. 17-33. The thank-offering was to be wholly

consumed on the same day; the freewill-offering on the same or the

following day.

Page 286.—_Ceremonies with which the first sheaf was cut._] See

Lightfoot, i. 969. Reland, Ant. Heb. 466. The climate of the valley of

the Jordan is much warmer than that of Jerusalem. Justin, xxxvi. 3.

Shaw, 335. Jos. B. Jud. iv. 8, 3. The law for the offering of the

first-fruits is found Lev. xxiii. 9-14.

Page 292.—_The offering of the appearance before Jehovah._] It was

grounded on Exod. xxiii. 15. “None shall appear before me empty-handed.”

It was called _Corban Raajah_. ראיה. See Lightfoot, i. 968. It was a

voluntary offering, no penalty being annexed to the omission. The

general law of burnt-offerings is found Lev. i. 1-13. vi. 8-13. vii. 8.

Page 294.-_-Schools of the prophets._] See Vitringa Syn. lib. i. p. 2.

chap. 6, 7.

Page 295.—_Synagogue._] See Calmet, sub. voc. Vitringa, i. 1. 8.

Lightfoot’s Works, i. 610.

Page 296.— _Any one who chose might teach._] Lightfoot (i. 612.) denies

this liberty of teaching; and supposes that our Saviour, though not an

appointed preacher, was allowed to speak from the fame of his miracles:

but throughout this author’s account of the synagogue, he seems to have

had in view the controversies on church discipline of his own time, and

to have leant to a rigorous exclusion of all but ordained teachers. But

the invitation to Paul and Barnabas at Antioch, in Pisidia, (Acts iii.

15.) where they were strangers, proves that the account given in the

text is correct.

Page 302.—_Approach of the sabbath._] The interval time between three

o’clock on Friday afternoon and six, when the sabbath began, was called

the _Parasceue_ of the sabbath. Augustus exempted the Jews from

appearing in a court of justice after three o’clock P. M. on Friday.

Lewis, iv. c. 16. Of the six blasts of the trumpet, see Reland, Ant.

Heb. 520.

Page 303.—The custom of the Jews to celebrate their sabbath by the

lighting of lamps, was remarked in ancient times by the heathens. See

the Scholiast on Pers. v. 180. Respecting the lighting of the

sabbath-lamp by the mother of the family, see Vitringa, Syn. i. 195. Of

the sabbath-psalm, see Lightfoot, i. 923.

Page 304.—_To take a family meal was the first thing done._] The Romans

very falsely supposed that the Jews fasted on their sabbath. Sueton.

Oct. 76. Justin, 36. 2.

Page 310.—_Additional sacrifice for the sabbath._] See Numb. xxviii. 9,

10.

Page 312.—_Not fewer than 100,000 men._] Some idea may be formed of the

vast multitudes assembled in the temple at the great solemnities, by

what Josephus says, Ant. xx. 4. 3. Bell. Jud. ii. 12. 1. that on one

occasion 10,000, on another 20,000 men were trodden to death in the

gates, when they were endeavouring to escape from an apprehended attack

of the Romans.

Page 312.—_The thirteen chests._] Respecting the Gazophylacia, or

treasure chests in the temple, see Lightfoot, i. 1095. This was the tax

demanded of our Lord, Matth. xvii. 24. The law of Moses does not appear

to have contemplated an annual capitation tax; this meaning was given to

it after the captivity. Mich Mos. Law, § 173.

Cyrene abounded with Jews, who had been settled there by Ptolemy Lagi.

Jos. Ant. xii. 1. Ap. ii. 4. Prid. An. 307. Wetstein on Matth. xxvii.

31. In the reign of Trajan, they massacred above 200,000 of the

inhabitants of Cyrene, and possessed themselves for a time of the

country.

Page 314.—_Jewish shekel._] When Antiochus, the son of Demetrius,

granted to Simon the principality of Judea, (b. c. 140) he conceded to

him the right of coining money, a prerogative of sovereignty most

jealously guarded. 1 Macc. xv. 6. Καὶ ἐπέτρεψά σοι ποιῆσαι κόμμα ἴδιον,

νόμισμα τῇ χώρᾳ σου. Simon availed himself of this permission; and many

coins have come down to our time, bearing his name, with the device and

inscription mentioned in the text. As the legends of all these coins are

in the old Hebrew character, which, from being used in the Samaritan

Pentateuch, was called Samaritan, many learned men were disposed to deny

their genuineness; as Basnage, History of the Jews, vi. 24. Reland, and

Wise, in his Catalogue of the Medals of the Bodleian. Within the last

fifty years, a severe attack was made upon them by the celebrated

Orientalist, O. G. Tychsen.[135] They were defended by Bayer, archdeacon

of Valencia;[136] and the result of the controversy has completely

established their genuineness. See Rasche, Lexicon Rei Numariæ, T. iv.

P. 2, p. 1720; Eckhel. Doctr. Num. Vet. iii. 455. Hence the important

fact is established, that the Jews continued to use the old Hebrew

character, till within a century of our Saviour’s birth.[137]

Footnote 135:

Unächtheit der Jüdischen Münzen, Rostock, 1779.

Footnote 136:

De Numis Hebræo-Samaritanis, Valentiæ, 1781.

Footnote 137:

Possibly much later; for in the rebellion of the Jews under Trajan,

they placed their own Maccabæan stamp over the imperial coin; so that

the two impressions are still visible, mixed together. These

inscriptions are also in the Samaritan character. Eckhel, iii. 472.

Josephus (Ant. iii. 8. 2.) says, that the Hebrew shekel was equal to the

Attic tetradrachm; and Philo indirectly agrees with him: but he has

reckoned it too high; for, according to the accurate experiments of

Barthelemy, (Eckhel, Proleg. cap. ix.) the greatest weight of a shekel

is 271¾ grains; the average of the Attic tetradrachms, 320 grains.

Jerome has more accurately stated the value of the shekel at twenty

oboli: as the Attic drachma contains six oboli, the shekel will be equal

to 3⅓ drachmas. Eckhel, iii. 464. The Attic drachma and Roman denarius

were worth about seven pence. Besides the rod of Aaron, the Hebrew

shekels exhibit a palm or vine branch, a view of the temple, a citron

and a bundle of boughs, and two trumpets. (Num. x. 2.) It may be

observed, that the coins with inscriptions in what is now called the

Hebrew, or Chaldee character, are recent forgeries.

Page 316.—Of the discouragement of foreign commerce by Moses, (Jos. c.

Ap. i. 12.) see Michaelis, Mos. Law, § 39. He has, at the same time,

shown how much the Jewish festivals tended to encourage internal

commerce, § 198. The caravan of Mecca is always accompanied by a large

body of merchants. Hasselquist, p. 82. What is said in the text of the

dislike of the Greeks to commerce, must be restricted to the heroic

times, or to nations which, like Sparta, retained the manners and

notions of those times. Ionia, Corinth, Athens, and other Grecian

states, were active in commercial pursuits.

END OF VOL. I.

---------------------------------------------------------

London: Printed by A. Applegath, Stamford-street.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Footnotes

----------------------------------------------------------------

Transcriber’s Note

There a number of minor errors in the ‘Notes and Illustrations’ at the

end of the text.

On p. 344, the phrase noted on p. 90 actually occurs on the following

page.

On p. 354, the endnote referencing p. 190 seems misplaced in the list,

occurring between references to p. 196 and p. 198. The locale being

described on p. 190 is not mentioned by name, but the description from

Sandys (p. 117), which describes an area below Hebron, would seem to

agree. There seems to be no reasonable referent on pp. 196-198.

Likewise, on p. 359, the reference to p. 231 correct, but is

misplaced.

These notes remain in their printed positions.

The brief Hebrew phrases cannot always be exactly confirmed by modern

sources. They have been retained as printed, using those sources only to

confirm those characters which seem ambiguous.

The printer frequently misplaced the circumflex in words containing the

εῖ diphthong, using it on the epsilon rather than the iota. The

circumflex is used only on the second letter, and has been corrected

here, with no further comment.

Errors deemed most likely to be the printer’s have been corrected, and

are noted here. The references are to the page and line in the original.

The following issues should be noted, along with the resolutions.

61.19 Abram the son of[ ]Terah Inserted.

113.4 the epigrams and scolia of Solomon.[”] Added.

128.2 to the neighbour[bour]hood of the river Chebar Redundant.

130.4 and the Levites in their occupations.[”/’] Replaced.

140.33 in the day of his anger.[”] Added.

151.7 for the house of God at Jerusalem.[’] Added.

151.21 both gold and silver.[’”] Removed.

167.23 and sacrifi[c]ed to the idol Inserted.

178.16 “Amen!” exclaimed Helon.[”] Removed.

191.14 [“]Thou lookest down upon our land Added,

207.7 exactly as with the child.[”] Added.

209.19 “A garden enclosed is my sister, my Replaced.

spouse[:/;]”

214.11 They [past] by a company of men _sic_

273.10 “It will be a happy day,” said Helon,[”] Removed.

289.2 without finding any resting[ ]place. Inserted.

348.12 inscribed on the high-priest[’]s tiara Inserted.

358.4 from whom this valley took it[s] appellation Added.