Page mob with their fists, or staves, or stones, without mercy, or sentence of the judges, and that it often proved fatal. Whoever transgressed against a prohibition of the wise men, or of the scribes, that had its foundation in the law, was delivered over to the people to be used in this manner, and was called a son of rebellion. The frequent taking up of stones by the people to stone our Saviour, and the incursion upon him and upon Stephen for blasphemy, as they would have it, and upon Paul for defiling the temple, as they supposed, were of this nature. 225. John ix. 22. If any man did confess he was Christ, he should be put out of the Synagogue. There were three degrees of excommunication among the Jews, the first is what is called in the New Testament casting out of the Synagogue, and signifies a separation from all commerce or society, it was in force thirty days, but might be shortened by repentance. If the person persisted in his obstinacy after the thirty days were expired, they excommunicated him again, with the addition of a solemn curse. This is supposed by some to be the same with delivering him over to Satan The offence was published in the synagogue, and at this time the candles were lighted, and when the proclamation was ended, they were put out, as a sign that the person excommunicated was deprived of the light of heaven; his goods were confiscated; his male children were not admitted to circumcision; and if he died without repentance, by the sentence of the Judge a stone was cast upon his coffin or bier, to shew that he deserved to be stoned. He was not mourned for with any solemn lamentation. The last degree of excommunication was anathematizing, which was inflicted when the offender had frequently refused to comply with the sentence of the court, and was attended with corporal punishment, and sometimes with banishment or death.-Burder. 226. John ix. 32. Of one that was born blind. This was esteemed by the Jews a peculiar sign of the Messiah, that he should open the eyes of the blind, i. e. of those born blind; and was a miracle never known to be wrought by Moses or any other prophet.-Grotius. John ix. 34. Thou wast altogether born in sins, &c. The Rabbins held that evil affections prevailed in a man before he was born, and also that he might be contaminated by the sins of his parents. See John ix. 2, 3.-Willan. 227. John x. 3-11. From the great attention paid to flocks by the masters to whom they belonged, might originate the mode of stiling kings the shepherds of the people. In this character Christ is described by the prophets, and his application of it to himself shews that he was the person intended. The art of a shepherd in managing his sheep in the East was Page different from what it is generally among us. We read of his going before, leading, calling his sheep, and their following, and knowing his voice; this practice is alluded to by both Virgil and Theocritus. 229. Luke x. 18. Ibeheld Satan as lightning fall from Heaven. This destruction of his kingdom is described by a fall from heaven, in a phrase familiar both to sacred and profane writers. So of the king of Babylon, Isaiah xiv. 12. "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer!" And when Pompey was overthrown, he is said by Cicero to have fallen from the stars-Grotius and Le Clerc. 232. Luke xi. 5. At midnight. It is common in the east to tra vel by night, on account of the heat of the day. Luke xi. 12. A Scorpion. The body of a scorpion, especially of the white kind, as its head can scarcely be distinguished, bears a general resemblance to an egg. Bochart has produced testimonies to prove that the scorpions in Judea were about that size.-Macknight. 237. Luke xiv. 13. When thou makest a feast call the poor. Faint traces remain of indiscriminate invitation to oriental feasts. Dr. Pococke speaks of admission of the poor to the tables of the great The Arabs never set by any thing that is brought to the table; but calling in their neighbours and the poor, finish every thing. An Arab prince will often dine in the street, before his door, and call to all that pass, even beggars; who come and sit down-Harmer. 241. Luke xv. 15. To feed swine. A most hateful employment to a Jew, by whose law these animals were unclean. Newcome. 243. Luke xvi. 9. Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness. Mammon was the Syrian god of riches; whence the mammon of unrighteousness was used to signify worldly riches. The sense of the above passage is, By a proper use and distribution of the riches ye possess in this world, endeavour to obtain the favour and approbation of God, that hereafter ye may be received into the mansions of everlasting happiness.-Willan. 245. Luke xvi. 22. Into Abraham's bosom. John is said (John xiii. 23.) to have reclined on the bosom of our Saviour at supper, hence is borrowed the phrase of Abraham's bosom, as denoting a state of celestial happiness. Abraham being esteemed the most honourable person, and the father of the Jewish nation, to be in his bosom, signifies, in allusion to the order in which guests were placed at an entertainment, the highest state of felicity next to that of Abraham himself. Burder. Luke xvi. 23. Seeth Abraham afar off. Our Saviour adapts this to the popular opinion of the Jews. The Rab Page bins say that the place of torment and paradise are so situat ed, that what is done in the one may be seen from the other. Lightfoot. Luke xvi. 29. They have Moses and the Prophets, which were read in the synagogue every sabbath day. The Jews had the five books of Moses and eight of the Prophets, namely, Joshua, Judges, Samuel, the Kings, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Isaiah, and the twelve minor prophets as one book. Lightfoot. 251. Luke xviii. 10. To pray. "From the time of Moses down to the establishment of the great synagogue, there were no certain or fixed modes of prayer; but every man prayed for himself and to his own situation, according to his gift of knowledge, wisdom, or eloquence.' R. Becchai by Willan: 253. John. x. 22. The feast of the dedication. This feast was kept in the ninth month, the Jewish year beginning in March. It was instituted to commemorate the cleansing of the temple by Judas Maccabæus, after its pollution by Antioochus Epiphanes. See 1 Maccab. iv. 52-59.-Newcome. 256. John xi. 17. He had lain in the grave four days. It was customary among the Jews to go to the sepulchres of their deceased friends, and visit them for three days. After three days, if the visage began to change, as in that warm climate it generally did, all hopes of a return to life were at an end. About this period, or a little later, putrefaction generally takes place, and therefore Martha had reason to say that her brother's body (which appears by the context to have been laid in the sepulchre the same day on which he died) would now on the fourth day, have become offensive.—Stackhouse. 259. John xi. 48. The Romans shall come, &c. Because the people will make this man their king, the Romans will send their armies and destroy us.Newcome. 266. Matt. xix. 24. It is easier for a camel, &c. The Rabbins, as well as Arabs, were accustomed, in describing an impossibility, or a high degree of improbability, to say, it will not happen before a camel or an elephant has crept through the eye of a needle.--Michaelis. 267. Matthew xix. 30. But many that are first shall be last, and the last shall be first. This verse evidently ought to begin this next chapter, as the parable which follows is an illustration of it. 271. Matthew xx. 20. Mark x. 35. These two accounts are no ways contradictory, the mother and children being together, they jointly put up their petitions. Besides, nothing is more common in the style of eastern nations than to say, a man hath done a thing himself, when he hath caused it to be done by another. The sons of Zebedee having Page therefore got their mother to make this request, are said by Mark to have done it themselves.--Beausobre and Lenfant. See note on page 95. 273. § 108. Various elucidations or solutions have been given by different commentators, respecting the beginning of this section. A reference to the latter part of the note of § 51. page 137, will point out what may be principally said upon the subject. As this, and the similar circumstance referred to, occur in Matthew, it may not be inapplicable to introduce in addition what Michaelis has said on the subject; premising that it has been a matter of great uncertainty, and is not yet determined, in what language the gospel of Matthew was originally written. "If the dialect in which St. Matthew wrote was the Syriac, this contradiction may be ascribed to the translator. For in Syriac, when a noun is in what is called the status emphaticus, it has the very same orthography in the singular, as it has in the plural number, the difference being merely in the punctuation; and even in the verb the third person plural is sometimes written like the third person singular."-Marsh's Michaelis, vol. iii. 156. 282. Matt. xxi. 8, 9. These two verses contain the various ceremonies and rejoicing of many of the Jews on the acknowoutledgment of the Messiah as their king. That the spreading of their garments was usual on this occasion, appears 2 Kings ix. 13. Then they hasted and took every man his gar. ment, and put it under him (Jehu) at the top of the stairs, and blew with trumpets, saying, Jehu is king"; and the strewing of flowers and branches were not uncommonly used before great men of the east. The word Hosanna, signifying, "Save, I beseech thee," was a form of acclamation used by the Jews at their feast of Tabernacles, and on any great or unusual occasion of rejoicing. 1 Maccab. xiii. 51. By these ceremonies, the people acknowledged Jesus to be the Messiah or Shiloh, whom they expected, "He that cometh or was sent of God;" thus also completing the prophecy of Zechariah. See Zech. ix. 9. and Matt. xxi. v. 283. Luke xix. 40. The stones would immediately cry out. A proverbial expression, to denote the moral impossibility that his kingdom should not be acknowledged by some.-Grotius. 286. John xii. 24. Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die. See 1 Corinth. xv. 36. Unless it die according to appearance; the body of the seed actually wasting, and the germ alone springing up. But perhaps the word is used figuratively, for being consigned to the earth, as a human body is when dead.-Newcome. 296. Matt. xxi. 33. Digged a wine press. Chardin found wine. presses in Persia, which were hollow places in the ground, Îined with stone-work.-Harmer. Page 298. Matt. xxi. 44. And whosoever shall fall on this stone, c. In this passage Christ is supposed to allude to the different methods of stoning to death then practised. When a criminal was stoned to death, they threw him headlong from an eminence, in such a manner as to dash him against some great stone; if this did not dispatch him they threw another upon him, thereby to crush him in pieces.-Lamy. 300. Matt. xxii. 11. Had not on a wedding garment. It was a custom for the bridegroom to furnish, at the marriage feast, garments suitable for his guests. 306. Matt. xxii. 36. The great commandment in the law. They not only wrote this commandment on their phylacteries, and houses and door posts; but they made the last Hebrew letter of the words which began and ended the sentence much larger than usual in their copies of the law.-Hammond. 308. Matt. xxii. 44. Till I make thine enemies thy footstool. Chardin says, "Chairs are never used in Persia (it being their general custom to sit on floors, carpets, or mattresses) but at the coronation of their kings. The king is seated in a chair of gold, set with jewels, three feet high. The chairs, which are used by the people in the East, are always so high as to make a footstool necessary. And this proves the propriety of the style of scripture, which always joins the footstool to the throne." Isaiah lxvi. 1. 2 Chron. ix. 18. This passage, which is taken from Psalm cx. 1. is strongly expressive of the exaltation of our Lord, when the depression of his enemies is denoted by their becoming his footstool. Lowth and Newcome. This passage may 312. Matt. xxiii. 24. Strain at a gnat, &c. with more propriety be read, strain out a gnat, &c. It is an allusion to a custom amongst the Jews of straining or filtering their wine, lest they should swallow any small animal forbidden by the law as unclean. It is probably their nicety in this respect might become proverbial for their exactness in small matters. Matt. xxiii. 27. Te are like whited sepulchres. Shaw in his travels gives a general description of the different sorts of tombs and sepulchres in the East, concluding with this paragraph. "Now all these, with the very walls of the inclosure, being always kept clean, white-washed, and beautified; they continue to this day to be an excellent comment upon the expression of our Lord, where he mentions the garnishing of the sepulchres, Matt. xxiii. 29. and compares the Scribes and Pharisees to "whited sepulchres." 315. Luke xxi. 5. How it was adorned with goodly stones. Josephus asserts, that the marble of the temple was so white, that it appeared to one at a distance like a mountain of snow, and the gilding of several of its external parts, which he there |