הנה העלמה הרה וילדת בן וקראת שמו עמנואל
Year of the saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation Nazareth.
Julian Pe- this should be.
riod, 4709.
Before the
Vulgar Æra,
5.
Matt. i. 23.—'Ida ý napdévos év | Isa. vii. 14.
γασρί έξει, και τέξεται διον, και ?
καλέσουσι το όνομα αυτού
'EMMANOYHA.
but varies from the Septuagint, from which the New Testament writers
80 often quote, in two words only—Matt. Eel-Sept. Interai-Matt.
Kalédovol-Sept. xaléoec. (9) Since the application of this passage
to the Christian Messiah, the Jews have been accustomed to refer the
words to other circumstances, than their ancestors had done. Noli Lec-
tor (says Schoetgen, vol. ii. p. 213,) banc diversitatem mirari-(I con-
sider myself as possibly addressing some of the sons of Israel in these
notes, and I omit therefore the next clause of the quotation)-Hic au-
tem Marcus Maripus, Censor a Pontifice constitutus, textas ad confir-
mationem religionis valentes corrupit. In loco Sanbedrin (fol. 98. 2.
had been just quoted) signum castrationis, lacuna scilicet, ubi vox
hyvin, impium omissa est, aperte conspicitur : in loco autem priore
longe plura deesse videntur. Dixit R. Giddell. Quare autem Hillel
excipiatur a consortio istias beatitudinis? Quia dixit: nullum amplius
Messiam Israeli expectandum esse: (Glossa Qaia Hiskias fugerit Mes-
sias, et de ipso dictæ sint Prophetiæ Ezek. xxix. 21. et Micha v. 3.)
Meuschen N. T. ex Talmude illust. 4to. Leipsic 1736. p. 30. (h) Hales'
Analysis of Chronology, vol. ii. p. 462, 463. (i) Lowth's Isaiah, notes,
4to. edit. p. 61. (k) Newcome's Minor Prophets in loc. (1) Comment
in Libros. Hist. N. T. vol. ii. p. 271. Apud Smith's Scripture Testi-
mony to Mess. vol. ii. p. 48... (m) Pearson on the Creed, Oxford edit.
8vo. vol. i. p. 270, and vol. ii. p. 201. It is not to be denied, he ob-
serves, that the proper signification of sad is circumdare, or cingere.
R. Judah has observed but one interpretation of the verb, and Kimchi
says that all the words which come from the root aad, signifying en-
compassing, or circuition. Those words therefore (Jerem. xxxi. 22.)
nap) 920 922 must literally import no less than that a woman
shall encompass or enclose a man: which, with the addition of a new
creation, may well bear the interpretation of a mirarulous conception.
On this account the Jews applied the passage determinately to the
Messiah. This appears in Berashith Rabba Parash. 89. where, shewing
that God doth heal, with that, with which, he woundeth, he saith, as he
punished Israel in a virgin, so would he also heal. By the testimony of
R. Hana, in the name of R. Idi, and R. Josuah, the son of Levi. And
again in Midrash Tillim, upon the second Psalm, R. Huna, in the
name of R. Iddi, speaking of the sufferings of the Messiah, saith,
nvnn gboa 77, Iste est rex Messias, that when his hour is come,
, :
“I must create him with a new creation;" “ and so (by virtue of
that new creation) he saith, this day have I begotten thee." From
whence it appeareth that this sense is of itself literally clear, and
that the ancient Rabbins did understand it of the Messias ; whence
it follows that the later interpretations are but to avoid the truth
which we profess, that Jesus was born of a virgin, and therefore is the
Christ. Vide also Schoetgenius, vol. ii. p. 99. Locum general : 50. 2.
In Sohar. Genes. fol. 13. col. 52. apud Schoetgen, vol. ii. p. 202, the words
71 220n japo are applied to the Charch. Die sexto applicat se
uxor (Ecclesia ) at presto sit maritosuo (Deo)qui vocatur justus, eique
die Sabbathi mensam instruat. Et hoc ipsum est, quod Scriptura innait,
dicens: (Creabit Dominus). Et hoc fit temporibus Messiæ, qui silnt dies
sextus. Dr. Blayney, in his new translation ofthe prophecies of Jeremiah,
renders the phrase " a woman shall put to the rout a strong man," and
defends this interpretation by observing, that the words (even if 220
be translated to encompass,) can only mean to contain or comprebend in
the womb; and as this is not a wonderful thing, he concludes the pas.
עלי לבראתו ברית חדשה וכן הוא אומר אני היום ילדתיך: ,God_shall say
Julian Pe 80 And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary; for Nazareth
riod, 4709. thou hast found favour with God.
Before the
Valgar Æra,
5.
sage bas some other meaning. But the fact is, that this encompassing
in the womb being called a wonderful thing, has been referred on that
very account to the miraculoas conception. He supposes the woman to
be the Jewish Charch, which should put to rout all its powerful ene-
mies. The word aad, in Hiphil or Pihil, may certainly signify to
cause to turn about, i.e. to repulse. But this was by no means a thing
so unusual, that it should be called a new thing in the earth; for the
Church of Israel had repeatedly overpowered, or been delivered from
its enemies in the most wonderful manner. The interposition of Provi-
dence for this cause was by no means a new thing in the earth. The
sense of repulse or put to the rout also, is very forced, and without suffi-
cient authority. Blayney's Jeremiah, 4to. 1784, Oxford, p. 86, and
notes 194. Calvin, an author always entitled to our most impartial ata
tention, comparing the passage with Isa. xliii. 19. interprets it to sig-
nify the triumph of the Jews over the Chaldeans. The woman, he inter-
prets to mean, the Jews—the man, the Chaldeans—the surrounding, to the
triumph of the Jewsover these, their enemies: and Luther once maintained
the same opinion. This interpretation, bowever, is entirely overthrown by
the recollection of the fact, that the Chaldeans or the Persians, or Medes,
were never conquered by the Jews, who were freely released from their
captivity. Not only does this fact overti row the interpretation given by
this eminent man, but the word nap is never used figuratively. Pfeiffer
adds many very curious interpretations of the passage. Vide Pfeiffer
dubia vexata, p. 760. The passage is interpreted by Christian divines
to refer to the miraculous conception. The woman is the mother of
Christ. The man encompassed (the 9972 5x of Isaiah ix. 5.) is the
Messiah ; the encompassing is the enclosure of the promised infant ore-
ated in the womb. The new thing in the earth is the oreation of the
infant by supernatural power, a circumstance unusual, unknown, un-
thought, and unheard of before. That this is the meaning of the passage
is gathered from the context, the former and latter passages connected
with it referring to the Messiah. This intelligence only could give
complete comfort to the pious Jews at the period when they were thus
distressed. They were assured not only that they should return to their
cities, but that the ancient promise should be accomplished, and the
seed of the woman be born. Three arguments have been adduced by
some against this mode of interpreting the passage. The first is that
naps is the epitbet applied only to the female sex in general, and not
to any individual. More especially, that the term is by no means appli-
cable to a virgin. To this it is answered, that the word is applied to an
individual in the following passages-Gen. i. 27. and v. 2.; Levit. ii. l.
and 6.; and iv. 28 and 32; xxvii. 4; Num. xxxi. 15 ; and that it is not
unusual to use the same word in sition to 701, an individual of
the other sex. And in Leviticus xii. 5. the word nap is applied to
a female infant, newly born. The second argument is that the word
793 is never used to denote a newly born male infant. The Targum
of Onkelos, however, on Gen. iv. 1. oses the word in this sense, and it
is also so applied in Isa. ix. 5. unto us a cbild is born, &c. &c.
naa 5. The third argument is, that 30 never refers to concep-
tion. The word, however, signifies in general to enclose, to surround;
and its use
in the present instance is sufficiently enforced and applicable.
Vide Pfeiffer dubia vexata, p. 760—762, anxt his references. (*) I will
notice but one objection which has lately heen again brought forward
against the doctrine of the immaculate conception, as it has frequently
been urged by the Socinian writers, and is so admirably answered by a
gentleman to whose valuable work I am much indebted. In his calm
inquiry into the Scripture doctrine of the person of Christ, Mr. Belsham
observes, “ If the relation given of the miraculons conception were
true, it is utterly unaccountable that these extraordinary events should
bave been wholly omitted by Mark and John, and that there should not
Julian Pe 31 And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and Nazareth.
riod, 4709. bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS.
Vulgar Æra,
5.
be a single allusion to them in the New Testament, and particularly that
in John's history, Jesus should be so frequently spoken of as the son of
Joseph and Mary, without any comment, or the least hint that this state-
ment was erroneous." This objection, says Dr. P. Smith, is plausible :
but we ask a fair attention to the following considerations. The fact in
question was of the most private and delicate nature possible, and, as
to haman attestation, it rested solely on the word of Mary herself, the
person most deeply interested. Joseph's mind was satisfied with regard
io her honour and veracity, by a divine vision, which, in whatever way
it was evinced to him to be no delusion, was still a private and personal
affair. But this was not the kind of facts to which the first teachers of
Christianity were in the habit of appealing. The miracles on which they
rested their claims were such as bad multiplied witnesses to attest
them, and generally enemies not less than friends. Here then, we see a
reason why Jesus and his disciples did not refer to this circumstance, so
pecaliar, and necessarily private. The account in Matthew had probably
been transmitted through the family of Joseph and Mary; and that in
Luke, through the family or intimates of Zacharias and Elisabeth; a sup-
position which furnishes a reason why the two narratives contain so little
matter in common. It is objected also that this doctrine is not alluded
to in the other books of the New Testament. The same reason will
account for the absence of reference to this miracle in the epistolary
writings of the New Testament, if that absence be admitted to the fullest
extent: for there is, at least, one passage which appears to carry an
implication of the fact. The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews, in
explaining the symbolical representations by which it pleased the Holy
Spirit, under the former dispensation, to prefigure the blessings of
Christianity, seems to put the interior sanctuary, or “ holy of holies,"
as the sign of the heavenly state; and the outer tabernacle as that of
“ the flesh,” or human nature of the Messiah. As the Aaronical high-
priest, on the great anniversary of expiation, was first to officiate in ihe
tabernacle, offering the sacrifices and sprinkling the blood of symbolical
pardon and purification, and then was to advance, through that taber-
nacle, into the most holy place, the representation of the divine pre-
sence; so Christ, our « Great High-Priest,” and “ Minister of the
sanctuary and of the true tabernacle,"-"entered into the sanctuary,-.
through the greater and more perfect tabernacle-bis own blood."
Now, of this tabernacle it is declared that “the Lord pitched it, and
not man ;" that it was “ not made with hands, that is not of this crea-
tion.” The expression in Scripture “ not made with hands,” denotes
that which is effected by the immediate power of God, without the in-
tervention of any inferior agency. It, therefore, in the case before us,
intimates that the fleshly tabernacle of our Lord's humanity was formed,
not in the ordinary way of nature, but by the immediate exercise of Om-
nipotence.-Smith's Scripture Testimony to the Messiah, vol. ii. p. 17-
19. Many modern interpreters, it is true, understand the tabernacle”
in these passages as signifying the heavenly state. Yet these writers
make " the sanctuary also to signify the same object; thus confound-
ing two very distinct images. The propriety of the figures, the argu-
ment of the connexion, and the frequent use of ornvog and orývwua
to denote the human body, (2 Cor, v. 1-4. 2 Pet. i. 13, 14. and this use
of at least orñvog is common in Greek writers: see Wetstein on
2 Cor. v. 1. and Schleusneri Lex.) satisfy me of the justness of the inter-
pretation of Calvin, Grotius, Jaines Cappel, Dr. Owen, &c. It is no
objection that in Heb. x. 20. “ the veil' is the symbol of the Messiah's
human nature : for the veil, as one of the boundaries of the tabernacle,
in a natural sense belonged to it; and the passage relates to our Lord's
death, so that the veil is very fitly introduced, marking the transition out
of life into another state. The text was partially quoted above, for the
sake of presenting alone the clauses on which the argament rests. It
is proper here to insert it at length. The reader will observe the appo-
Julian Pe 32 He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of Nazareth.
riod, 4709.
Before the
VulgarÆra,
5.
sition of “the tabernacle” and the “ blood.” “But Christ, having
presented himself, a High-Priest of the blessings to come, through the
greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands (that is, not
of this creation,) and not through the blood of goats and calves, but
through bis own blood, entered once (i. e. once for ever, never to be
repeated,) into the sanctuary, having acquired eternal redemption."
Grotius's note is so judicious and satisfactory that it deserves to be in-
serted. “ The design of the writer is to declare that Christ entered
the highest heavens, through his sufferings and death. To keep up the
comparison with the high-priest under the law, his object is to declare
that Christ entered through his body and blood; for the body is very pro-
perly pat by metonymy for bodily sufferings; and it is common in all
languages to use the term blood to denote death, as death follows upon
any very copious effusion of blood. Yet he does not express the body
by its proper word, but uses
a symbolical description suitable for car-
rying on the comparison. The IIebrews were accustomed to call
the body a tabernacle : and from them the disciples of Pythagoras
deduced the expression. In particular the body of Christ is called
a temple, on account of the indwelling divine energy : John ii. 21.
Here, this body is said to be “not made with hands,” and the
writer explains his meaning, by adding," that is, not of this crea-
tion,” understanding by creation the asual order of nature ; as the Jews
apply the Talmudical term Beriah (creation, any thing created): for the
body of Christ was conceived in a supernatural manner. “In this sense
he properly employs the term not made with hands, because in the He-
brew idiom any thing is said to be made with hands which is brought to
pass in the ordinary course of nature. See v. 23. and Mark xiv. 58.
Acts vii. 48. xvii. 24. Eph. ii. 11. The Prophets frequently give to
idols the appellation made with hands, as the opposite to any thing
divine." Grotii Annot. in Heb. ix. 11.-Dr. P. Smith's Messiah, vol. ii.
p. 29, 30. Archbishop Magee, on the Atonement. Horsley's Tracts.
Works of Bishop Bull. Scott's Christian Life. Archbishop Lawrence.
Veysie. Rednell. Nares. Layman's Vindication of the Disputed
Chapters of St. Matthew and St. Luke. Notes of Scott; Gill; Mant
and D'Oyly. Wardlaw's Socinian Controversy. Dr. P. Smith's Ser-
mon on the Atonement.
9 ON THE SALUTATION OF MARY.
The learned Joseph Mede remarks on the salutation of the
angel, “ Hail thou that art highly favoured,” xaīpe kexapıtw-
pivn-that it must be rendered, not as Dr. Hammond and the
Vulgate represent it, Hail thou that art full of grace, but in the
same sense in which the house of Levi was highly favoured
above the rest of the tribes of Israel. The word op (holy)
does not always mean “ holy in life,” but “ holy to the Lord,”
which implies a relative holiness, and as the word ton, which
sometimes is considered a synonym of vip, is used in the same
twofold sense, be concludes the salutation of the angel ought
so to be understood in this place. The sermon in which Mede
expresses this opinion, is upon Deut. xxxiii. 8.-Let thy Urim
and thy Thummim be with thy holy one. The Hebrew is be
with 77'on, which Junius expounds, with thy favoured one;
not ανδρί οσίω σε, as the Septuagint, but κεχαριτωμένω σε. The
word, says Lightfoot, (vol. i. p. 411, fol. edit.) is used by the
Greek scholiast to express yon ay, metà kexapıtwuéve
xapırwonon, Ps. xviii. 25. in the sense of xápis, mercy or favour,
as Ephes. i. έχαρίτωσεν ημάς. The salutation of the angel
means, therefore, hail thou that art the especially elected and
favoured of the Most High, to attain to that honour which the
Jalian Pe. the Highest : and the Lord God shall give unto him the Nazareth. riod, 4709. throne of his father David : Before the Vulgar&ra, 33 And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for 5.
ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.
34 Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man!
35 And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee; therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.
36 And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age : and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren.
37 For with God nothing shall be impossible.
38 And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord ; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her.
Interview between Mary and Elisabeth.
LUKE i. 39-56. Before Vul
39 And Mary arose in those days, and went into the Hebron. zar Era, 5. hill country with haste, into a city of Juda'';
Jewish virgins, and the Jewish mothers, bave so long desired
thou shalt be the mother of the Messiah. For an account of
the peculiar manner in whicb the Jewish women desired off-
spring, in the hope that they might be the mother of their pro-
mised Messiah-ỹide Allix's Reflections on the Books of Moses,
Mede's Works, fol. edit. London, 1677. p. 181. Lightfoot, vol. i.
folio edit. p. 411. See also Kuinoel and Rosenmüller in loc.
10 There is very little doubt but that Hebron was the city
here spoken of. In Joshua xxi. 13. we read that Hebron, with
her suburbs, was given to the children of Aaron the priest, and
in ver. 11 of the same chapter, and in chap. xi. 21. it is de-
scribed as a city in the hill country of Judah. After the return
from the captivity of Babylon, the priests were anxious to take
up their abodes in their appointed heritage. Hebron is cele-
brated for many events. Here Abraham received the promise
of the miraculous birth of Isaac. Here circumcision was pro-
bably first instituted, (many being of opinion it was known
before the time of Abrabam), here Abraham had bis first land,
and David his first crown. John was born at Hebron, and
here he first appointed, and practised as a permanent institution
the ordinance of baptism (a).
The Talmudists (b) inform us of a very singular custom in the Temple service, which had a reference to Hebron. Before the morning sacrifice was offered, the President of the Temple was used to say every morning-Go and see, if it be time to kill the
|