afterwards to anoint the feet of their parents. The Saviour was in the circumstances of a traveller; he had no home to wash and anoint himself in, before he went to Simon's house, and therefore, had a right to complain that his entertainer had failed in the respect that was due to him as a stranger, at a distance from the usual place of his residence. The Jews regularly washed their hands and their feet before dinner; they considered this ceremony as essential, which discovers the reason of their astonishment, when they observed the disciples of Christ sit down at table without having observed this ceremony : "Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? for they wash not their hands when they eat bread." After meals, they wash them again; for, says the evangelist, "the Pharisees and all the Jews, except they wash their hands oft, eat not, holding the tradition of the elders."" When they washed their hands themselves, they plunged them into the water up to the wrists; but when others performed this office for them, it was done by pouring it upon their hands.▾ The same custom prevailed in Greece, for Homer says the attendants poured water on the hands of their chiefs: Αυτίκα κηρυκες μεν ύδως επι χειρας εχευσαν. Il. lib. ix, 1. 174. This was a part of the service which Elisha performed for his master Elijah; and in every instance under the law, where water was applied to the body by another, it was done, not by plunging, but by pouring or sprinkling. The t Matth. xv, 2. " Mark vii, 3, 4. Iliad, lib. x, l. 577. The Hindoos observe the same custom still; one servant holds the bason, another pours the water upon the master's hands and those of his guests, and a third offers a clean napkin. Forbes's Orient. Mem. vol. ii, p. 397.—It is also the uniform practice in Persia. Hanway's Trav. part iii, ch. 33, vol. i, p. 151. ancient Romans also washed before meals; and at public entertainments the attendants supplied the guests with water for their hands: "Dant famuli manibus lymphas.” Æn. lib. i, 1. 700. According to Virgil's arrangement, this ablution was performed after the guests had taken their places on the purple beds. The feet were washed by their servants or wives; and in order to this, they put off their shoes or sandals before they sat down to meat; and it is probable, they did not resume them till they had finished their meal, and were preparing to leave the apartment. In Greece, they seemed to have followed the same rule; and their feet being most exposed, were oftener washed and anointed than other parts of the body; the ablution was generally performed by women, both in the heroic and in later ages. To wash the feet was a mean and servile office, and therefore, generally performed by the fe male servants of the family. Thus Ulysses declares to Penelope that it was by no means agreeable to him to have his feet washed; and that not one of her female servants should touch his foot : - 808 yuvn πόδος αψεται ημετέριο Ταων, αι τοίδωμα κατα δρησίειραι ξασιν. Odyss. lib. xix, l. 344, 345. It was occasionally performed, however, by females of the highest rank; for the daughter of Cleobulus, one of the Grecian sages, and king of Lindus, a city on the southeast part of Rhodes, was not ashamed to wash the feet of her father's guests." And it was customary for them to kiss the feet of those to whom they thought a more than common respect was due; for the daughter of Philocleon, in Aristophanes, washed her father, anointed his feet, and stooping down, kissed them: Clementis Alexandrini, Strom. iv, 19. και πρωτα μεν θυγατηρ με Απονίζη και το ποδ ̓ αλειφη και προσκυψασα φίληση. Vespis. p. 473. Thus Mary acted strictly according to established custom, when at a public entertainment she performed these offices to her Saviour. The feet of kings and princes in some parts of the east were washed in basons of pure gold. Herodotus informs us that Amasis an Egyptian king had a golden bason in which he and all his guests constantly washed their feet.a Persons of inferior station used vessels of silver, earthenware, or wood, according to their wealth. The lower classes among the Jews contented themselves with the last of these, (2) which were of an oblong shape, in which they commonly washed their household utensils. Such it is probable, from all the circumstances stated by the apostle John, was the bason employed by our Lord, when by an act of singular and amazing condescension, he washed the feet of his disciples. The towel which was used to wipe the feet after washing, was considered through all the east, as a badge of servitude. Suetonius mentions it as a sure mark of the intolerable pride of Caligula, the Roman emperor, that when at supper he suffered senators of the highest rank, sometimes to stand by his couch, sometimes at his feet, girt with a towel. Hence, it appears that this honour was a token of the deepest humiliation, which was not, however, absolutely degrading and inconsistent with all regard to decency. Yet our blessed Redeemer did not refuse to give his disciples and Judas Iscariot himself, that wonderful proof of his love and humility. On the very night in which he was betrayed into the hands of his enemies, while his thoughts were intensely occupied with a Lib. ii, cap. 172. b C. 26. the glory which he had with his Father before the creation of the world, to which he knew well he was in a few days to return, triumphant over all his foes, he resolved to neglect no service which might soften the heart of Judas, and confirm and encourage his other disciples in their duty; he condescended to stoop down and wash those feet which had followed him in many a long and fatiguing journey, giving his faithful followers in that significant action, a pledge of the high honour which awaited them, and the pure and elevated joy which was to cheer their hearts in his service, and crown their labours after they had finished their appointed course. The example of humility which he set them on this occasion was absolutely incomparable: no instance ever occurred among the Jews of a lord or master washing the feet of his servants or disciples. Besides, the son of God was not ignorant that the Father had committed all things into his hands; and that a name was soon to be given him, at which every knee should bow, and every tongue confess. Yet he did not hesitate to wash the feet of his own servants; proving by this very act, that he "came not to minister unto, but to minister." Nor did he humble himself to the hosts of heaven; but to sinful and miserable men, and even to his most atrocious betrayer. "Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he was come from God and went to God; he riseth from supper, and laid aside his (upper) garments; and took a towel and girded himself. After that he poureth water into a bason, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded. c John xiii, 3-5. The Romans always began their feasts with prayers and libations to their gods; the same custom, the relic of a pure religion, was invariably observed among the Greeks; so great was their sense of a Divine Providence, to whom they were indebted for every blessing, that they thought it unlawful to eat till they had first offered a part of their provision as a sort of first fruits to the gods. This cuscustom was so religiously observed in the heroic ages, that Achilles, though disturbed by the ambassadors of Agamemnon at midnight, refused to taste food till an oblation was offered: Θεοισι δε θυσαι ανωγεια Πατροκλον ἐν εταίρου, ὀδ' εν πυρι βαλλε θυηλας. Lib. ix, 1. 220. And Ulysses, and his fellow-soldiers, were not unmindful of this duty even in the den of Polyphemus : Ενθαδε πως καιον]ες εθυσαμεν, ηδε και αυτοί Τυρων αινομενοι φαγόμενο Odyss. lib. ix, 1. 231.d The Romans too ended their repasts in the same manner as they began them, by libations and prayers. To neglect this act of homage was accounted a very great impiety, of which none but Epicurus, and those who worshipped no gods at all, would be guilty. Among the ancient Hebrews the master of the family, or chief person in the company, always began the meal with a solemn blessing on the bread and the wine, and then they repeated the twenty-third psalm. They took care that after meals there should be a piece of bread remaining on the table. The master of the house ordered a glass to be washed, filled it with wine, and elevating it, said, Let us bless him of whose benefits we have been partaking; d See also lib. iii, 1. 43, 55. * Potter's Gr. Antiq. vol. ii, p. 382, 400. Adam's Rom. Antiq. p. 459. |