1 1 LIBRA-RY ] Theo logical Seminary. PRINCETON, N. J. Udsc Division ..li^..'^.. ..[.. Shelf ■ Section. ...n...(.jO..(c>... Book No, X.«..w. THE BIBLE EDUCATOE. THE BIBLE EDUCATOE. Edited by the REV. E. H. PLUMPTRE, M.A., TICAB OP BICKLET, PBEBENDABT OP ST. PAUL'S, AND PROFESSOR OF EXEGESIS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT, KINQ'f COLLEQE, LONDON. Vol. II. CaSSELL, PeTTER & GrALPIN: London, Paris l^- New York. LIST OF CONTEIBUTOES TO THIS VOLUME. Eev. A. S. AGLEN, M.A., Inctimbent of St. Ninian's, Alyth. Eev. W. BENHAM, B.D., Vicar of Margate. GEOEGE C. M. EIEDWOOD, M.D. Edin., India Mnsenm. W. CAEEUTHEES, F.E.S., Keeper of the Botanical Department, British Mnseum. F. E. CONDEE, C.E. Eev. SAMUEL COX, Nottingham. Eev. G. DEANE, B.A., D.Sc, F.G.S., Professor of Old Testament Exegesis and Natural Science in Spring Hill College, Birmingham. Eev. Canon ELLIOTT, M.A., Vicar of Winkfield, Berks. Eev. CHEISTLAN D. GINSBUEG, LL.D. Eev. J. B. HEAED, M.A., Cains College, Cambridge. Eev. WILLIAM HOUGHTON, M.A., F.L.S., Eeotor of Preston, Salop. Eev. STANLEY LEATHES, M.A., Vicar of St. Philip's, Eegent Street, and Professor of Hebrew, King's College, London. Eev. WILLIAM LEE, D.D., Eoxburgh. Eev. G. F. MACLEAE, D.D., Head Master of King's College School. Eev. W. MTLLIGAN, D.D., Professor of Divinity and Biblical Criticism in the University of Aberdeen. Eev. W. F. MOULTON, M.A., Professor of Classics, . Wesleyan College, Eichmond. Eev. H. W. PHILLOTT, M.A., Eeotor of Staunton- on-Wye, and Prselector of Hereford Cathedral. Eev. E. H. PLUMPTEE, M.A., Vicar of Bickley, and Professor of Exegesis of the New Testament, King's College, London. Eev. GEOEGE EAWLINSON, M.A., Camden Pro- fessor of Ancient History in the University of Oxford, and Canon of Canterbury Eev. T. TEIGNMOUTH SHOEE, M.A., Incumbent of Berkeley Chapel, Mayfair. Very Eev. E. PAYNE SMITH, D.D., Dean of Canterbury. Eev. H. DONALD M. SPENCE, M.A., Eeotor of St. Mary de Cryi)t, Gloucester, and Examining Chaplain to the Lord Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol. JOHN STAINES, M.A., Mus. D. Oxon, Organist of St. Paul's Cathedral. Eev. EDMUND VENABLES, M.A., Canon Eesi- dentiary, and Precentor of Lincoln Cathedral. Major WILSON, E.E. Ven. HENEY WOOLCOMBE, M.A., Archdeacon of Barnstaple, and Canon of Exeter. CONTENTS. PAGE ANIMALS OF THE BIBLE, THE. WOd Cattle .24 Sheep 45 Goats, Wild Goats 98 Chamois . 106 Hart and Hind 134 Antelopes 135, 167 Elephant 1C8, 198 Coney 201 EiKDS 244 The Vulture 247 The Bearded Vulture 294 Falconidse 294 Nocturnal Birds of Prey .... 314, 360 Sparrow 362 Swallow 362 Hoopoe 303 Cuckoo 363 ARK OF THE COVENANT, THE . . .144 BETWEEN THE BOOKS. Introduction ....... 203 The Jews under the Persian Monarchs . . 203 The Jews under the Kings of Egypt . . . 205 The Jews under the Kings of Syria . . 233, 234 BIBLICAL PSYCHOLOGY. The Psychology of Scripture Progressive . . 10 The Psychology of the Old Testament . . 126 The Psychology of the New Testament . 162, 191 BOOKS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT, THE. Judges, The Book jf 13 Isaiah ......... 32 BOOKS OP THE OLD TESTAMENT {continwid). Joel 52, 65, 92, 108, 140, 156 Jeremiah 74, 96 Ezekiel 195 Zephaniah .... 223, 251, 287, 3J6, 354 Samuel, The Books of 316 Daniel 369 COINCIDENCES OP SCEIPTtrRE, THE. The Herodian Family .... 29, 82, 145 Christ, and St. Peter and St. John at the Sanhe- drim 250 The Local Colouring of St. Paul's Epistles . 271, 376 CONTEASTS OF SCEIPTUEE. The Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Luke . . 257 DIFFICULT PASSAGES EXPLAINED. The Catholic Epistles : — St. John {continued) .... 81, 116, 333 The First Epistle to the Thessalouians . . 297 The Gospels : — St. Matthew . . 22, 38, 63, 131, 209, 285, 382 easteen geogeaphy of the bible. Babylon 55, 87, 177 Palestine 211 Nineveh 280, 330 ethnology of the bible, the. Palestine (2) : Origin of Israel . . 206, 236, 303 HISTOEY OF the ENGLISH BIBLE, THE 19, 122, 260, 300, 306 viii CONTENTS. PAGE FACE IDOLS OP MOAB, THK 138 PEEFUMES OF THE BIBLE, THE {continued). Saffron 152 ULUSTEATIONS FEOM EASTEEN MAKNEES AND CUSTOMS. Spikenard . Stacte 152 153 Early Attendance at tlie Sanctuary . . 119, 263 PLANTS OF THE BIBLE, THE. ELLUSTEATIONS OF HOLT SCRIPTUEE FEOM Order VIII. Eesedaces 40 COINS, MEDALS, AND INSCEIPTIONS . 85, 155, IX. Cistinesa 41 190,217 X. ViolaceEB 42 MEASUEES, WEIGHTS, AND COINS OF THE XI. PolygalacesB . 42 BIBLE. , XII. CaryophylleEB . 106 Linear Measnres 278 , xin. FraukeniaccEe 107 Hebrew Measures of Area 380 , XIV. , XV. Paronychiaceas Molluginese . 107 107 MTNEEALS OF THE BIBLE, THE. , XVI. TamariscineEB 173 Precious Stones 347 , XVII. Elatineaa 326 MUSIC OF THE BIBLE, THE. , XVIIL , XIX. Hyperioinea3 . Malvaceae 326 326 Wind Instruments ... 6, 70, 183, 229 XX. Tiliaceee 327 Instruments of Percussion 310 , XXI. Linear . 327 OLD TESTAMENT FULFILLED IN THE NEW, THE. POETET OP THE BIBLE, THE. Sacred Seasons {contimi.ed) . 42, 112, 170, 179, 273 Outlines of the History of Biblical Poetry . 58, 77, 322, 365 159, 219 PEEFUMES OP THE BIBLE, THE. Structure of the Verse .... 269, 339 Galbanum 151 SCEIPTUEE BIOGEAPHIES. Myrrh 151 Joshua 1, 17, 149, 165, 187 Onyclia 152 Sa muel . . 226, 242 THE BIBLE EDUCATOR. SCEIPTUEE BIOGEAPHIES. JOSHUA. BT THE EEV. EDMUND VENABLES, M.A., CANON KESIDENTIARY AND PKECENTOK OF LINCOLN. THE character of Joshua, Moses' minister and sHCcessor, the leader of Israel in their conquest of Canaan, is, confessedly, one of the ^andest and most spotless in the whole Bible. The greatness of the man is indeed to some extent over- shadowed by the greatness of the events through which he moved : we know him more as a conqueror than as a man. But so far as we do know him, he is almost absolutely faultless. He is one of the verj' few jiorsonages of holy writ of whom no evil is recorded. Free from all desire of self-aggrandisement or lust of gain, no taint of selfishness mars the simple nobility of Joshua's character. In whatever circumstances we find him placed, liis one desire is to know what the will of God is, and his one resolve to do it, at all costs. Of him, as of his true heart-brother Caleb, the unerring verdict of the Word of Truth is, " He wholly followed the Lord " (Numb, xxxii. 12). Who, then, was more worthy to be the first bearer of that " Name wliich is above cvei-y name," which in fulness of time was to be the hiunan designation of Him who was " holy, harmless, midefiled, and separate from sinners," Jesus, the Captain of His people's salvation in their conflict for the heavenly Canaan ? It is as a wan-ior that Joshua is first presented to us, and this is the character he chiefly maintains throughont the Scripture record. His gifts and virtues are those of the warrior. Dauntless courage, indomitable per- severance, cheerful confidence in the face of difficulties (Numb. xiv. 7 — 9 ; Exod. xvii. lO), promptitude of action (Josh. iii. 1; x. 9; xi. 7), high honour {x\. 25 ; ix. 26), unselfish disregard of his own interests (xix. 49, 50), unswerving rectitude (vii. 25 ; ix. 23 ; xviii. 10), care for the interests of those committed to liim — all built upon and based in faith in the Living God. Joshua, faultless and dauntless, without fear and without re- proach, is a tyiie of the liigh-minded, God-fearing soldier : the forerunner of the Napiers, Lawrences, and Havelocks of our own days. But it is not only as a soldier that Joshua's eminence is displayed. He was one who had learnt how to com- mand by having first learnt how to obey. We see in the earlier part of his histoiy faithful sei-vice to his master; zeal for his honour (Numb. xi. 28); a simple, VOL. II. sti-aightforward discharge of duty ; moral courage strengtliening him to stand fii-m wlien others faltered, and to declare unwelcome truths in the face of peril to life (Numb. xiv. 6 — 10) — qualities which sealed his fitness for the difficult post of the leadership of stiff- necked Israel, even before he had been designated as Moses' successor by the voice of the Most High. And when his duties as a general and a soldier wore over, and he had been called to enter on the less exciting task of settling the tribes in their new home, and allotting to each his portion of the conquered terri- tory, his statesmanlike qualities became equally con- spicuous. We see him diligently and lalioriously dis- triljutiug the land among its new occupants, and, while with complete unselfishness he defers his o\fTi claim to a share of the fruits of victory until all other claims had been satisfied, exliibiting the most scrupulous equity in his assignment of their portions to the several tribes. We watch him appeasing jealousies, calming rising feuds, checking arrogance, moderating overweening pre- tensions (.losh. x™. 14 — 18), and, with the magnanimity of real greatness and the calmness of conscious strength, executing in all its details the difficult task devolved upon him. And wlien the work of his life is done, and in extreme old age he gathers together the tribes, those whose fathers he had so often led to -victory, to receive his parting commission, how full of dignity is the reti- cence he observes with regard to liimseH and his own exploits (Josh, xxiiii., xxiv.). Natural as it would have been to have reminded them of what they owed to him as the leader and captain who had put them in possession of the goodly land which they were enjoying, pardonable as we should consider such a reference to liis military prowess, all he had done is omitted, and the wliole of the brilliant past is gathered up in one sentence. In which the entire glory is attributed to God : " Jehovah, your God, is he that hath fought for you ; "' and the human agent does not apjjcar .-it all. Let his people, for whom he had laboured and fought, only be tnie to tlieir covenant with their God, and Joshua would be content to be forgotten. The life of Jo.shua naturally divides itself into four sections. (1.) His youth and early manhood in Egypt, of which wo have no record in Scripture, (2.) The forty , 25 ^ THE BIBLE EDUOATOS. years interveniag between the Exodus and the death of Moses, in which he appears as Moses' attendant, and entrusted by liini with important commissions, ciril and military. (3.) The period between the crossing of Jordan and the complete subjugation of Canaan, in which period Joshua comes before us as the Divinely appointed captain and governor of Israel, including [a) the con- quest and (6) the settlement of the laud. (4) His calm and honom-ed old age, passed at Timnath-serah, of wliich ao events are recorded, except his closiug address of warning and counsel to the assembled tribes and theii- elders. I.— LIFE IN EGYPT. According to a Hebrew tradition, in which there is nothiug improbable, Joshua was bom B.C. 1537, and was, therefore, forty-six years old at the time of the exodus. According to this chronology, his bu-th must have taken place about the time of Moses' flight into the land of Midian. His father, named Nun, was a member of the gi'cat tribe of Eplu'aim. Wo may feel sure that the father of the future leader of God's people was not one of those who " defiled themselves with the idols of Egypt " (Ezek. xx. 8), but at a time when God seemed to have forgotten his people, and to have given them over into the hands of their oppressors, main- t-ained his faith in the promises made to his fathers, and trained up his son to expect their fulfilment in God's appointed time. The name given by Nun to his sou seems to embody his trust that deliverance would come, and almost to indicate a hope that his offspring might be its destined instrument. The name Hoshea, or Oshea, the same borne by the last king of Israel and the fii'st minor prophet, signifies deliverance, or salva- tion. To this name the sacred syllable expressive of the self-existent One, the Jah, the " I am that I am," was prefixed by Moses (Numb. xiii. 8, 16) : " And Moses called Oshea, the sou of Nun, Jchoshua," i.e., Jehovah's salvation, or Jehovah is salvation, thus iutimating tliat Israel's deliverance was to come from Jehovah, by the hand of him who bore the designation. But this deliver- ance was not to come yet. Many a weaiy year it had to be waited for. If not a slave liimseK, yet sm-rounded by those who wore tasting all the miseries of slavery in its harshest foi-m, the young Joshua would have grown up through boyhood and youth to manhood, witnessing the bondage of his down-trodden race growing harder and more crashing. The " sorriee with rigom- in mortar and brick," the ton of the brick-kiln, and of the field beneath the scorching Egyirtian sun, the burdens, the bastinado of the taskmaster, must all have been matters of daily familiarity with hun, if not of personal Experience. The "groaning" of his bretlu-en "by reason of the bondage " must have been an accustomed sound from his earliest childhood, if his own voice had not swelled it. As a man of forty, Joshua would have had his faith in the God of his fathers revived, and his hopes of de- liverance awakened, by the intervention of Moses in behalf of his enslaved countiymen. He must have ^vit- ncssed the assertion of the outraged majesty of God in the plagues of Egypt, and have been prepared, by their gi'owiug intensity, for the final and glorious triumph over the obstinate and besotted Pharaoh. Though the Scriptural record is silent, we cannot doubt that one who so immediately after the exodus was selected by Moses to lead the Israelites against Amalek, must have taken a prominent part in that mighty transaction, and have been employed by Moses as one of his chief suljordinates iu carrying out the arrangements of that vast migration, tho real signifi- cance and immense difficulty of which we are apt to overlook, from the calmness and even flow of the Scrii^tural narrative. He must have stood by his great master's side on the shores of tho Red Sea on that memorable night when " the Lord fought for Israel, and they held their peace ;" he must have seen the waters divide before the outstretched rod; have helped to marshal the hosts as they crossed the ch-ied bed of the Bed Sea; and have swelled the song of triumph which rose from the emancipated nation when they beheld " the Egyptians dead on the sea- shore," and at last felt themselves free. If the work for which Joslraa was destined was one calling for dauntless courage and unshaken faith iu God, in the face of apparently insurmountable obstacles, ho could not have had a better preparation for it than amid the marvels of the Exodus. II. — LIFE IN THE WILDEKNESS. With the exodus from Egypt begins our personal acqxiaintance with Joshua, as by anticipation we may be allowed for clearness to call him. With that direct- ness so characteristic of the sacred writings, and so indicative of truth, he is at once introduced by name. A few days only had elapsed since the passage of the Red Sea, and the mighty host had reached its fu-st great halting place, Rephidim, "the places of rest" (Exod. xvii. 1). Here, their tliirst being abundantly supplied by tho water miraculously called forth by Moses at God's command from the rock, the wearied multitude reposed for a few days to collect strength for their onward mai'ch to Sinai (ver. 6). But their repose was of short duration. The spectacle of the enormous herds of cattle and flocks of sheep which accompanied them had already awakened the cupidity of the native tribes of the desert, to whom then, as now. cattle-lifters by pi-ofession, the temptation was irresistible. Besides, when the precarious pasturage of those parched valleys had beeu " licked up " by the flocks of the invaders, what would be loft for theii" own cattle ? The attack was made by the Amalckites ; those bitter, implacable enemies of Israel, now appear- ing for the first time on the sacred page. As the host slowly wound its way beneath the granite precipices of the desert of Sinai, "faint and weary" with their toil- some march, they made a treacherous assault — dashing down, perhaps, from an ambush in a side ravine — on the feeble rear, the loose, disorganised fringe of the main body, " tho hindmost of thee, even all that were feeble behind thee " (Deut. xxv. 18). The success of this dastardly surprise was such as to encourage a second and more decided attack on the host, after they had en- JOSHUA. camped in Kephidiiii : " Theu camo Anialek, and fought with Israel in Rei^hitlim" (Exod. x-idi. 8). Accord- ing to Josephus, the king of Amalek had summoned all the forces of the distant tribes, from Petra to the Mediterranean, to crush the unwelcome intruders. The emergency was a grave one. It was the first battle fought by a nation of slaves, unaccustomed to the use of arms, and entire strangers to the tactics and ma- nceuvres on which mihtary success so greatly depends. Under such circumstances, nearly everything would depend on the skill and prowess of the commanding- officer. And this post of ilifficulty and danger is as- signed to the hitherto unmentioned warrior of Ephraim, Joshua the son of Nim. Confident not only in his corn-age and martial prowess, but also in his good judg- ment and j)0W3r of discrimiuatiou, Moses bids him select the troops to face the enemy. " And Moses said unto Joshua, Choose us out men, and go out and fight with Amalek " (ver. 9). Few scenes are more familiar to us than that which followed, when, on the next morning, the inexperienced commander led forth his imtried troops to battle ; while Mosos, with his wonder-working rod, plants himseK ou the top of the hill, in the double character of a general directing the movements of the army, and of a mediator interceding with " the Lord of hosts," " the God of battles," for the success of their arms. The circumstances are too well knoivu to all our readers to need repetition. Our mind at once recalls the image of the aged lawgiver standing aloft on the cliff's edge, stretching out " the rod of God "■ — that emblem of the cross, the sole pledge and instrument of the si^iritual victories of Christ's true Israel — con- spicuously visible to all the host as a token of the power and presence of God ; and beside him, staying up his hands as they fail from weariness, his brother Aaron, and Hur. And we are equally familiar \vith the issue, as described by our Christian poet : — " When Moses stood ivitll arms spread wide. Success was found on Israel's side ; But when through weariness they failed, That moment Amalek prevailed." The battle was evidently protracted and trying. Be- ginning in the morning, it lasted to " the going down of the sun" (ver. 12). The struggle was fierce and obstinate, marked with vicissitudes of success and dis- comfiture. Amalek, "that first of the nations" (Numb. xxiv. 20), was no enemy to be vanquished in a skirmish. But in the end victory was gained : " Joshua discomfited Amalek and his people witli tho edge of the sword " (Exod. xvii. 13). The memory of so signal an event was not to be allowed to die out. An altar was built by Moses, probably on the spot on the siunmit of the hill where he had stood, inscribed with the words, " Jehovah- nissi," " the Lord is my banner " (ver. 1.51 He was also expressly commanded by God to ■write an account of this battle in tlie book ho was instructed to draw up, as a record of God's dealings with his people, and " rehearse it in tho ears of Joshua," together with tho command, to be transmitted through him to after ages, for the complete extermination of the Amalekites. " Because the Loi'd hath sworn that the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation " (ver. 16). Thus early was the intimation given that Joshua was to be the successor of Moses, and carry on tho work that ho had begun. The Pentateuch records no more of Joshua's deeds as a warrior. For a long period he only appears in the luimble, imostentatious character of " Moses' minister," the constant attendant on the leader of his peoijle. Tliis is the first example of that connection between a prophet or teacher, and a yoimger companion, often, as in this case, destined to succeed him, of which the relation of Elisha to Elijah (1 Kings xix. 19), of Bariich to Jeremiah (Jer. xxxvi. 4, &c.), of John Mark to Paul and Barnabas (Acts xiii. 5), and sub- sequently, according to ecclesiastical tradition, of the same evangeUst to Peter (cf. 1 Peter v. 13), are familiar instances. The occasion on which this relation of Joshua to Moses is first definitely stated in Scripture is one of the greatest solenmity (Exod. xxiv. 13). It was when the Ten Commandments had just been given from Moimt Sinai, amid accompaniments of such awful majesty, and the lawgiver was proceeding to obey the Divine call that summoned him again to meet the Most High on the smnmit of tho mountain, and receive from his hands the tables of the law, that we first find Joshua in attendance ou Moses. " And the Lord said to Moses, Come up to me into the moimt, and l)e there : and I "will give thee tables of stone. . . . And Moses rose up, and his minister Joshua : and Moses went up into the mount of God " (Exod. xxiv. 12, 13). Though not expressly stated, it is evident that he accompanied his master to the summit of the mountain. Moses' command to the elders, who had partaken with him of the covenant feast, and beheld witli him the manifesta- tion of tho most high God (vs. 9 — 11), when he parts from them on the liiUsido, is, " Tarry ye here for us, until we come again unto you." We cannot suppose that ho entered with Moses " into the thick darkness where God was." Joshua woidd remain, dming the forty days he was in the mount, outside the immediate Presence, ready, when God " had made an end of communing with him," to accompany Moses once more to the camp. Tho circumstances of that descent, the startUng con- trast between the holy stUlness of the mountain of God and tho shouts of idolatrous revoliy which assail then- ears as Moses and his minister draw near tlie host, are familiar to us. To the soldier's oar, quick to receive tho sound of tho battle-field, the clamom- is full of alarm " He said unto Moses, There is a noise of war in the'camp " (Exod. xxxii. 17). " Had the Amalekites taken advantage of the absence of tho leader of the host, and the -captain of the army, to make another attempt on Israel? If so, it was time they should bo there." The keener and more chastened car- of Moses discerns the true nature of the wild uproar. As he had bi.en already apprised on tho momit, "the people ho had brought out of Egyi)t had corrupted themselves," had " made a molten calf," had " worshipped it and sacrificed thereunto." The din was not that of combatants, but THE BIBLE EDUCATOR. of revellers. " It is not the Toiee of them that shout for mastery, neither is it the voice of them that cry for being overcome ; bnt the noise of them that sing do I hear" (Exod. xxxii. 18). Wo well remember the holy indignation with which the lawgiver dashed to the gronud and broke in fragments the tables of the law when he lieheld the people so lately taken into covenant with God as " a holy nation." " His peculiar treasm-e above all people" (Exod. xix. 5, 6), circling with licen- tious dance and song, " njiked to then- shame " (xxxii. 2.5 ), the calf of gold ; and the signal punishment — iu which the wan-ior Joshua may well have taken part — with which their crime was visited, when the sword of the tribe of Levi laid 3,000 of the guilty ones dead on the ground. Another mark of the Divine displeasure follows, in connection with which we see Joshua once more acting as Moses' attendant. The tabernacle or tent already set up witliin the precincts of the camp, as the meeting-place between Jehovah and the representa- tives of the nation, was removed from the polluted neighbourhood, .and placed at a distance. " Moses took the tabernacle " (it ^viU be remembered that the " taber- nacle," properly so called, had not yet been constructed), '• and pitched it without the camp, afar oif from the camp" (Exod. xxxiii. 7). Thus the nation was made to feel that they had forfeited the Di^-ine presence, which was only restored to them on the intercession of their mediator. To this tent, Moses, attended by Joshua, goes forth, all eyes eagerly watching him, " every man at his tent door " (ver. 8), in aAvful suspense as to the issue ; ■and within it, when it has once more been hallowed by the descent of the cloudy pillar, Joshua is left to guard the consecrated spot, when Moses retunied after his intercourse with God. " And the Lord spake imto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh imto his friend. sAtid he turned again into the camp : but his sei-vant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle " (ver. 11). The zeal of the servant for his master's honour re- ceived a striking exemplification m an iucident occurring shortly after the host had quitted the wilderness of Sinai, narrated in Numb. xi. At a place known af tei-wards by the ill-omened name of Kibroth-hattaavah, "the graves of lust," " because there they buried the people that lu,eted," the mutinous conduct of the people, weary of the insipidity of the manna which formed their daily food, and recalling with keen relish the juicy and high- flavoured \'iands of plentiful Egypt, " the fish, and the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic, which we did cat freely," had driven Moses to passionate remonstrances, and complaints of the intolerable burden God had laid on him in the leadership of such a rebellious, stiff-necked nation (vs. 10 — 15). To relieve the overweighted ruler, the Didne sanction was given to the appointment of a permanent council of seventy elders. To qualify them for the exe- cution of their office, the gift of Divine illumination was promised them : " I will take of the spirit that is upon thee, and will put it upon them " (ver. 17). This gift was followed by outward signs. " And it came to pass, that, when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied." It happened that, for some unstated reason, two who had been enrolled in this body — Eldad and Medad, by name — had failed to accompany their brethren to the door of the tabernacle, where their office had been solemnly recognised, and the spiritual gift imparted. But, as subsequently, when Cornelius and his companions received spiritual gifts without laymg on of hands, and even before baptism, to show that God is not restricted to the use of the means He has been pleased to ordain, but "divideth to every man severally as He wUl," the gift granted to the others was exercised by them. " The spirit rested upon them, . . . and they pro- phesied in the camp " (ver. 26). Surprise was at once awakened. Men are over slow to believe that God can be larger in his dealings than their own naiTow minds. " There ran a young man. and told Moses, Eldad and Medad do prophesy in the camp." The indignation of the loyal-heiirted Joshua immediately blazes foi-th. This imauthorised " liberty of prophesying " seemed to him an infringement on his master's juidsdiction. All due subordin.ation was at an end if this independent action were permitted. " My lord Moses," he cries, " forbid them." '• En™st thou for my sake ?" is the mild rebuke of Moses, not unconscious. perhai)s, of the personal pique veiling itself under a regard for his master's honour. " Art thou displeased to behold the gifts hitherto peculiar to thy master dispersed so widely ? Not such is my temper. I rejoice to witness others sh.aring in my powers." " Woidd God that all the Lord's i)eople were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit upon them " (vs. 28, 29). A few stations from Kibroth-hattaavah brought the children of Israel to Kadesh-bamea, on the borders of the Promised Land. A wise precaution, suggested by the people themselves (Deut. i. 22), and avquiesced in by Moses, dictated the sending forth spies to search out the land, and bring back a report of it, and its inh.abi- tants. Of these, one was selected from each of the twelve tribes ; " every one a ruler " in his tribe, the "head" of a family. Joshua was the representative of the tribe of Ephraim (Numb. xiii. 2, 8, 16). The report presented by the spies on their return to the camp was of a twofold character. As regarded the land itself, nothing coidd be more satisfactoi-y. Its fertility even exceeded the report of it. The sample they brought — a huge cluster of gi'apes, as much as two men could can-y, with figs and pomegranates, the fruits of the land— confirmed their words. But the picture had another and less cheering side. "Nevertheless the people be strong that dwell in the land ; and the cities are waUed, and very great : moreover, we saw the children of Anak there " (ver. 28), the di-eaded descendants of the traditionary giants, whose very name inspired terror. The report filled the people with dismay. A nation only just emancipated from a degrading slavery, which had crushed out aU moral courage and patriotic feeling, and physically enfeebled them, they shrank from the pros- pect of having to contend with such formidable adver- saries. " If the goodly land were to be gained without a JOSHUA. struggle, or after just so much resistance as would euhauce tlio pleasure of possession, they would be glad enough to go up and possess it. But to have to fight for it, inch by inch, against such tremendous odds ; to stand up against giants ; to meet in battle tribes ac- customed to war from their youth ; to scale the walls of fortified cities ;— for this they had no mind." Not- withstanding all the proofs of the Divine protection they received, they were utterly destitute of any real faith in God. " Back to Egj-pt," is their cry. " Moses, the deceiver, is to be deposed ; another captain to be chosen in his room ; and they will return to the land of their bondage. If they had to labour hard there, they had at lea.st an abundance of rich and varied food, and were in no danger of losing their lives in battle." The attempt of Caleb to calm the people's fears and in- spire com'age, fails utterly. The disaffection increases, and swells into a \aolent insurrection. Again the noble-hearted Caleb, and Joshua, who is now associated with him by name, throw themselves into the breach. Regardless of theii- own personal danger, for " all the congregation bade stone them with stones " (Numb. xiv. 10), they boldly assert the truth, and use all their efforts to rouse the panic-stricken crowd from their despondency. " The land, which we passed through to seai'ch it, is an exceeding good land. K the Lord dehght in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us. . . . Only rebel not ye against the Lord, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us : their defence is departed from them, and the Lord is with us : fear them not " (vs. 7 — 9). In- censed beyond endm'ance by this attempt to thwart their rash resolve, the people are proceeding to open violence, when a Di^nne intei-positiou saves Joshua iuid Caleb from death. " The glory of the Lord appeared in the tabernacle of the congregation before all the children of Israel " (ver. 10). Immediately the Divine sentence is pronounced agaiust the rebellious nation. only spared once more from utter extermination by the intercession of Moses. They are condemned to atone for their rebellion, by a forty yeai's' wandering in the desert, until all who had " thought scorn of that pleasant land," and refused to give " credence unto his word " (Ps. cvi. 24), " from twenty years old and upward " (Numb. xiv. 29), should have died. Two, and two only, are exempted from the general doom, "Caleb, the son of Jej>huuneh, and Joshua, the son of Nun ; for they have wholly foUowed the Lord " (Numb, sxxii. 12). A more sudden sentence carries off their ten companions, whose want of faith in God's protection and help had been the original cause of the rebellion. "Those men that did biing up the evil report upon the land, died by the plague before the Lord ; but Joshua and Caleb lived still " (Numb. xiv. 37, 38) ; monuments of the Lord's just severity, and of his discriminating goodness. Absolute silence envelops Joshua during the fox-ty years of wandering in the desert. He does not I'e- appear till the close of that period when, on Moses entreating that after he should have been gathered to his people, God would not leave the congregation without a ruler and a guide, he is, by God's command, solemnly set apart, by lajnng on of Moses' hands, as his successor. " The Lord said unto Mosos, Take thee Joshua, the son of Nun, a man in whom is the spirit, and lay thine hand upon him; and set him before Eleazar the priest, and before all the congregation ; aiul give him a charge in their sight " (Numb, xxvii. 18, 19). But though thus recognised as Moses' successor, divinely commissioned to bring the children of Israel into the Promised Land, he was not to be Moses' equal. It was only " some" of his "houom- " that he Wiis to put upon hun (ver. 20). There was one point in which his inferiority was very strongly marked- Moses enjoyed unrestricted personal intercourse with God, " face to face." This iirivilege was denied to Joshua. Eleazar, the high priest, was to be his medium of commimication with God. Joshua was to bring his matters to the priest, and he was to inquire of God for him, through the ordinary means of obtaining the knowledge of God's will. " He shall stand before Eleazar the priest, who shall ask counsel for him after the judgment of Uriin before the Lord" (ver. 21). Even unrestrained independence of action was not allowed him. " At his (Eleazar's) word shall they go out, and at his word they shall come hi, both lie, and all the childi-en of Israel with him." In all other respects Joshua was to be what Moses had been to the children of Israel : " accoi-ding as they had hearkened unto Moses in all things, so were they to hearken unto him, and to fear him as they feared Moses all the days of his life " (Josh.^ i. 17 ; iv. 14). Moses next delivers his charge to his successor — warning him, with an emphasis which shows how much there was in the prospect to damit the spirit of the boldest, to " be strong, and of a good courage ;" " Fear not, neither be dismayed;" and encouraging him with the repeated assurance that " the Lord would bo with him," that " he would not fail or forsake him " (Deut. i. 38 ; iii. 22 ; xxxi. 7, 8). And then, in order that a visible Dirine recog- nition might not be wanting, Joshua and Moses are told to present themselves at the door of the tabernacle of the congi-egation, " and the Lord said imto Moses, Behold, thy days approach that thou must die : call Joshua, and present yourselves in the tabernacle of the congregation, that I may give him a charge " (Deut. xxxi. 14). There, in the sight of the assembled tliousands of Isriu^l, the Lord appears in the well-known sign, the pUlar of cloud standing over the door of the sacred tent, and J(]slma is solemnly inaugurated into his office (Dent. xxxi. 14. 15). He unites with Moses in rehearsing his parting song— those swanlike utterances of warnuig and encouragement which close his ministi-y— in the ears of tlie people, and teaching it to them that it might \)o "a witness for God against them " of the benefits they had received from him, and their own duties and responsibilities (Deut. xxxi. 19; xxxii. 44). This is the last act of a forty years' service. Moses ascends to the top of Pisgah to behold the land lie is forbidden to cuter, and to die. But lie ascends without, Iiuman oompanionship. Joshua is h-ft below to I'ontiuue his master's work, and to continue it aluue. THE BIBLE EDTJCATOR. MUSIC OF THE BIBLE. ET JOHN STAINER, M.A., MUS. D., MAGDALEN COLLEGE, OXFOED ; ORGANIST OF ST. PAUL'S CATHEDP.AL. WIND INSTEUMENTS. CHALIL OB HALIL (THE PIPE). ^^^^^HE iiniversal usage of musical instru- ments of tliis class renders it difficult to reduce an account of them to reasonable limits. It will he well to state at once that in all prohahility the word pipe — the i.v\6s of the Greeks, the tibia of the Romans — included two important divisions of modern instruments : namely, reed instruments, such as the ohoe or clarinet ; or simple flue pipes, such as the flute. That this must have been the case is evident from the fact, that while there is clarinet is, that the former has a double tongue which vibrates, the latter a single tongue. The derivations of some of the ancient names of flutes are very interesting : chalil or haliil, from a root signi- fying "pierced" or "bored;" tibia (Lat.), from the fact that it was often made of a shin-bone ; • atdos (au\os), from the root Siu, avc, "to blow," exactly cori'esi)onding to our flute, from the Lat. flo, " to blow," as also flageolet, from flatus ; calamus (k6.Auij.os), clialumeau, from the material, just as the Ai-abian flute is called nay, "a, reed," of which the Arabs have as many as ten varieties ; there ■-^^s^;^.^^ Fig. 46. rig. 47. Fig. 48. unquestionable o\adenco that many ancient instruments had reeds, no special name is set apai't for tliem as opposed to open tubes mthout reeds. The very existence of the word yAasaaoKaiiitov (tongue-box) shows that the player was accustomed to carry his tongues or reeds separately from his instrument, just as our modern oboists and clarinettists do. It must also bo borne in mind that both oboe and cki-lnet are children of one parent, and did not become distinct classes until the early part of the last century, the parent name being chalmiieau, from the Latin calamus, Greek KiXafnos, a cane or rood. But wlien clialumeau is translated " a reed-pipe," it must not be forgotten that the term is applied to the material of which the pipe is made (a cane), and not, as we always apply the term now, to a pipe containing a reed or tongue. Hence it will be seen that we are no nearer the discovery of distinctive names for these two classes of instruments, even when then- parent stock is found. It may be worth men- tioning that the real difference between an oboe and a was also a small Phoenician flute called gingra {ylyypa), which is probably connected with Sanskrit gri, "to sound." To which of these two classes did chalil belong ? Probably to the former. There is evidence from many sources that the Hebrews had oboes (see Lightfoot. who speaks, in his Temple Service, of oboes being used once in each month), and there seems to be no good reason for beHe^'ing that they had a distinctive term for them. Jalin thinks it prob.ible that they were j very similar to the znmr of the Arabs, of which there are three kinds, not differing essentially from each other, but only in size and pitch, the largest being called an.mr-al-kebyr ; the middle sized, as being most commonly used, zamr; and the smallest zamr-el-soghayr. Fig. 46 .shows two of these. It is probably known to the reader that large and small oboes have .always existed, .and are in use at the present day. Two sorts are used in the score of Bach's Passion Music (according to St. M.atthew), called re- spectively oboe d'amor (the love-oboe,) and oboe di caccia MUSIC OF THE BIBLE. (liimtmg-oboe) ; the part of tho former, the smaller of the two, cau be, and always is, played on the commou oboe ; that of tlie latter on the tenor oboe or tenoroou, commonly, but very improperly, termed corno-inglese, or the English horn. This last instrument does not terminate iu a direct bell ov pavilion, like those shown in Fig. 46, but has an upward turn, a form which, curiously enough, is found depicted on monuments two thousand years old. Of the pipes without reeds, like oiu' flutes, there always have been two kinds : one played by blowing in one end, hence held straight in front of the performer ; the other played by blowing in a hole in the side, hence held sideways. The former was called the fiute a bee, that is, the flute with a beak; the latter, flaiito traverso, that is, the oblique flute, or flute played crossways. Fig. 47 is an illustration of a flaie a bee in possession of tho author, wliich was ^brought from Egypt by a musical frioud. It was in the possession of a Mahometan pilgrim, who vowed that he valued it more than auytliiug he owned, but who was very willing to part vnth it at the sight of a small siun of money. It is of cane, and is rudely ornamented with simple patterns. It seems closely aUied to tlie souffarah of the Arabs. The next illustration (Fig. 48) shows an ancient Egyptian flauto traverso or piffera di canna (reed-flute), as it is described, in the museum at Florence. These instruments seem, judging from the specimens found in Egyptian sculpture or frescoes, to have been of various lengths, sometimes far exceeding tho size of the flute commonly used in our orchestras. This goes to prove that this nation was wise enough to make use of a family of flutes, just as we use a family of viols. And there are many musicians who think that we lose much by thus excluding flutes of deep sonority. Witliin the last few years an attempt has been made to revive these instnmieuts, a concert lla^^ng been given in London at which a quartett was played by four flutes, treble, alto, tenor, and bass. Tig. 49. Fig: 49 represents an Egyptian playing on one of these oblique flutes. The attitude will not strike a modem flautist as being either comfortable or con- venient, but there is no accounting for the convention- alities of art. One thing the ancients lacked which has been of inestimable benefit to us, the use of keys, ihat is, a simple system of leverage by which holes in the instrument, quite out of reach of the length of the ordinary human five fingers, can bo brouglit completely imder control, and can bo closed or opened without any great disturbance of the position of the hand. Tho thumb, which could not possibly close a hole at the top of the instrument in former times, is now able to do so. Thus both the compass of tho instrument and the ease with which it can lie manipulated have been largely increased. It must not be supposed that such improve- ments have been rapidly created. They are of om- oivn time, invented by Gordon, perfected by the ingenious Bochm. It is strange that tliis oblique flute should have been of comijaratively late revival iu Europe. All who have seen copies of the music of the last century must have observed how jjarticular ^Titers were to call it tho German flute, as if forsooth it had not been one of tho chief elements of sweet music many thousand years previously ! So often does it happen that mau- Fig. 50. kind strives unwittingly after a supposed novelty, un- aware that the same steps have been trod before, the same results a long time ago achieved. Two ancient Greek flutes, found in a tomb, are pre- sei-ved in the British Museum. Tlieir great age renders the wood from wliich they were made extremely frail, and any rough visage would probably reduce them to dust. (Fig. 50.) It is remarkable that flutes of the exact shape of these are not to be found on any known monument. Is it possible that artists were tempted to mould, if not an ideal form of instrument, one not of tho commonest kind ? But bo this as it may, the cmwed form of such in- struments was very common in tlie Middle Ages. Tlie cornetto curvo of the Italians seems to have been used in all European countries under different names. Two very beautiful instruments of this kind and shape were discovered in the cathedral of Christ Cliurch, Oxford, when the mnuiment-room was being removed for the purposes of restoration. They were probably in use in the sixteenth or beginning of the seventeenth century. Like most cornetti cvrvi, they are made of wood, covered with black leather, but so admirable is the workmanship that a casual glanco would lead any one to believe them to be of black wood. They have the usual number of holes, six above and one below, and are elegantly mounted in silver, on which is engraved tho arms of the college. Tliey doubtless were the chief support of the treble part, at funerals or any ceremonies where it was necessary to have a musical procession. In Germany (says Engol) they were still employed in tho beginning of the eighteenth century (under the name zinhen). when the town b.ands played chorales, on cortaiu occasions, from the tower of their parish church. THE BIBLE EDUCATOR. They were played witli reeds, probably of the oboe or double kiud. So, too, were these ancient Greek flutes (Pig. 50) reed iustruments, but Fctis is of opinion that they had single tongues, hko our clarinet, only he is ineUued to think that the tongue was of metal, not of wood, because iu a certain account given of a trial of musical skill, one player was luiable to compete because the reed of his instrument was lent. But it is probably assuming too much to say that such an accident could not have happened to a wooden tongue, and that, therefore, brass was the material of which it was made. One tiling, however, is certain, and that is, that in the earliest forms of calamus, the reed woidd naturally be of cane, because it would be simply formed by an incision in the surface of the cane itself, similar to that made by boys in a piece of straw, when constructing that toy instru- ment dignified by pastoral poets by the name of " oaten pipe." It is remarkable that the fiauto fraverso, or oblique flute, as shown in the Egyptian di-awing night when a holy solemnity is kept ; and gladness of heart, as when one goeth with a pipe (chalil) to come into the mountain of the Lord, to the mighty One of Israel " (I.sa. xxx. 29). The joy of the people when the cry "God savo king Solomon!" promised a peaceful and prosperous reign, was shown by their music ; " the people piped with pipes, and rejoiced with great joy, so that the earth rent with the sound of them " (1 Kings i. 40). The chalil is not so often mentioned in con- nection with the outpouring of prophetic gifts as in- struments of the harp class ; but yet when Samuel was describing to Saul how he shoidd meet a company of prophets ou his way to Gilgal, he described them as " coming down from the high place with a psaltery (nebel), with a tabret (toph), and a pijje (chalil), and a harp (kinnor) before them " (1 Sam. x. 5). But these in- struments were elsewhere to be met with than at the solemn processions of holy men, for the prophet Isaiah, in denouncing the drunkards who " rise up early in the I'JS. 61. ,,;;.™w>,,.,»w^i«;v,\V«!.»N.-"";saViW.;»*V."""' Fig. 52 (Kg. 49), is not to be found on any Assyrian or Chaldean monuments. If then the Jews used it, they must have adopted it from Egypt, which is also acknowledged to be the source from whence the Greeks obtained it. The chalil seems to have been used by the Jews on very similar occasions to those at which our ancient oboes played an important part, most oft«n during seasons of pleasure, but sometimes also at funerals. Two pipes at least had to be played at the death of a wife. The pipers, it wiU be remembered, were bidden to "give place" by our Lord, when he said, "The maid is not dead, but sleepeth " (Matt. ix. 24). One common use of the chalil was as an amusement and recreation when walking or travelling. The sohtaiy shepherd woidd cheerily pipe as ho traced out his long hUl-side walks, and the ijath of the caravan could be traced by the shrill echoes ever aud anon tossed from side to side as, at each new turn in its many windings, f rownuig rocks beat back the piercing sounds. Especially such was the case wheu thousands of persons were making those periodical jouriieys to Jerusalem, so rigidly pre- scribed by the law : " To shall have a song, as iu the morning to follow strong di-ink," describes then- wine feasts as being enlivened by the sounds of the nebel, Hnnor, toph, and chalil (Isa. v. 12). The prophet Jeremiiih, iu showing the utter desolation and destruc- tion of Moab, is inspu'ed to say, " I will cause to cease in Moab, saith the Lord, him that ofEereth in the high places, and him that burneth incense to his gods. Therefore mine heart shall sound for Moab like pipes, aud mine heart shall sound like pipes for the men of Kir-heres. . . . Tliere shall be lamentation generally upon all the house-tops of Moab, and in the streets thereof : for I have broken Moab like a vessel wherein is no pleasure, saith the Lord." Could any words describe more touchingly than these the degi-adation and loss of moral life which should overtake Moab H that it shoidd be wept over as one dead, piped over as a corpse ! There is no dii'cct evidence as to whether the Hebrews used the double flute. It is quite cert^iin they must have been aware of its existence, because it was kno^vn to Phcenicians, Assyrians, Egyptians, and Chaldees before it found its way into Greece. So common is it MUS-IO OF THE BIBLE. 9 iu Romau aud Greek sculpture and pottery, that all are iamiliar with its form. The word nechiloth is under- Btood by JiJm aud Saalchiitz to meau the double-flute, but, on the other hand, many others consider iiechiloth to be the collective term for wind instruments. Some consider that nekeb, which is derived from a root sigui- easily have given rise to the comparison implied between the two names. Such double-pipes are actually in use among the present inhabitants of Egypt. Two specimens, in the possession of the writer, are shown in Figs. 51 and 52. That iu the latter illustratiou has tlu-ee loose pieces. Fig. 53. ,-- <-\ -^=v Fis. 54. Fig. 55. Fig. 56. fjing " to perforate," stands for tiie double-flute ; but as this word is rendered fistula by Gesenius, it is not im- probable that it may be a syrinx. The two tubes forming the double-flute were called oddly enough male and female, but more commonly right aud left (dextra and sinistra). The former appeUatiou. no doubt, refers to the fact that one tube produces a deep note, which served as a drone or bourdon, while on the other was played the tune. The difference in the pitch might which may be added at pleasure to the " drone " tube of the instrument for the purpose of adjustiug it to the key of the tune to be played. That iu the former has two similarly constructed pipes, so that a simple melody may be performed iu two parts, much in the same way as on the double-flageolet, which at one time was some- what popidar iu England, but is now rarely seen or heard. Both these examples are of the simplest construction. The material of which they are made (mcluding the 10 THE BIBLE EDUCATOR. mouth-pieces and tongues) is of river reed, cut uito leno-ths, wliicli have to be inserted into each other before use. To prevent accidental loss, the separate parts are connected by common waxed cord. These instruments are called argJwol, and have distinguishing titles, according to tho length of the drone-tube. In rig. 53 tho iuequality in tho length of tho two pipes is very apparent. Fig. .54 shows that they were sometimes used in Egyptian processions of a solemn character. In Eig. 5.5 is shown the c(qnstnim, which Greeks and Romans wore to give sujiport to muscles of tho cheeks and face whilst blowing. In modern orchestras we are perfectly content with tho quantity of tone produced from our tube-instruments without the assistance of these head-bandages. An Assyrian is shown playing upon the double-flute in Fig. 56. It is much to bo regretted that no details as to the construction of these instriunents can be gleaned from the ancient bas-reliefs. No attempt seems to have been made to mai'k even the position of the holes. Tho use of the double- flute by nations with whom the Jews had constant intercourse having been shown, nothinqr more can be said. The reader must form his own opinion as to the probabUity of its being rightly enrolled amongst Hebrew musical instruments. The quaUty of tone produced by the reed-pipes was, probably, very coarse and shrill. Particular pains have been taken by modern instrument-makers to produce delicate- sounding oboes, clarinets, &c. And with regard to the open pipes, or flutes, of the ancients, it should be borne in mind that it must have been most difficult to produce a series of sounds, either similar in timbre, or perfectly true in pitch, without the aid of keys. Up to the last century certain holes in tho then existing flutes had to be only partially covered in order to produce certain notes in, tune. We must learn from this, not to place much confidence in conclusions drawn from actual ex- periments on old pipes. Suppose, for instance, it were attempted to discover the series of scale-soimds of such an instrument by jilacing it in the hands of a modern performer, it would be impossible to say whether any noticeable variations from known forms ought to be atti'ibuted to the intentional design of tho instrument itself, or to our loss of those traditions which influenced its use. But we may have to say something about the musical scales of the ancients when speaking further on of the vocal music of the Hebrews. BIBLICAL PSYCHOLOGY. ET THE EEV. J. B. HEARD, M.A., CAIUS COLLEGE, CAMBEIDGE. THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE PROGRESSIVE. ^j|^^«gHE law of progress rims through RevoLition as well as through Natui-e. It is always up- ward, from the germ to tho bud, from the blossom to tho fruit. We are not to look for the same teachings of psychology in the Old Testa- ment as in the New. Tho New Testament, as Augus- tine very well says, lies hid in the Old — the Old is un- folded in the New. The germ is in the one, and the f uli fruit in the other. Revelation, moreover, is not only pro- gressive as a whole ; it is also harmonious in its parts. There is a proportion or analogy of tho faith. Truths are disclosed gradually as the need of them occurs, and ono truth waits upon another. The relation between difierent truths is so intimate that it would be useless to disclose one wlulo the other is held back. As the work of tho Father prepared the way for that of the Son, and that of the Son again for the work of the Spurit, so equally there is the same succession of truths concerning man and his nature. As in tlieology wo apeak of tho subordination of tho Persons of the Blessed Trinity, so in connection witli anthropology there is somethmg liko a corresponding subordination of truths. Man's relation to God as his creature is the first truth— his redemption is the second— and his full adoption and restitution in tho Dirine image tho third. It would only make us proud and high-minded to know of our adoption imtil we have first received tho redemption, or again to know of redemption untU wo have felt our fall and ruin. This order must always be attended to : " How- beit that was not first that was pneumatical. but that which was psychical ; and afterward that which is pneu- matical " (1 Cor. XV. 46). As the first Adam was eartlily, and the second Adam heavenly ; so of the order in human nature : we first bear tho image of the earthly, and afterwards the image of the heavenly. This being the order of revelation from the lower to the higher, we are to expect this contrast between the psychology of tho Old Testament and that of the New. Creation, redemption, regeneration are tho three great truths of anthropology corresponding to tho three theo- logical truths of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Theology and anthropology advance step by step in Scripture and side by side. It would be contrary to the analogy of the faith to find an intimation of the spiri- tual faculty in man in anticipation of the work of that Blessed Person of the Trinity whoso special ofiice it is to discover man to himself as well as to reveal to him the deep things of God. Our Lord himself glances at this thought in tho words, " I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when Ho. tho Spirit of truth, is come. He will guide j'ou into all tho truth." Full truth {-Kaaav ttjv a.\iiB(iav). the whole truth with regard to ourselves or with regard to God, is to bo communicated by the Holy Ghost. If wo reflect on tho relation of the human to the Divine Pneuma, we shall see from the nature of the case that the knowledge of the one waits on that of the other. BIBLICAL PSYCHOLOGY. 11 What is inspiration without the sense of One to inspire and breathe into us thoughts deeper and more divine than any we coukl come by of ourselves ? So it is that the spiritual in man waits for the f uU dispensation of the Spirit, and it is vain to seek for it before its time in the order of revelation. There is, moreover, a certain correspondence between the manifestation of the pneumatical element in man in the Old Testament and iho action of tho Divine Spirit. In both cases it was occasional, not continuous. He is not as yet the abiding Comforter, such as is pro- mised to be with the people of Christ, to compensate them for liis bodily absence and to fill them with a sense of his spiritual presence. The Spirit in the Old Testament comes like angels' visits, few and far between. The Spirit of the Lord descends and acts mightily on a Samson, on a Saul, on an Elijah. While they are imdor this spiritual afflatus their strength is as that of ten men ; they run with horses, as Elijah, to the entering in of the gate of Jezreel, and are not weary ; they are found among the prophets, as Saul ; and under the sudden im- pulse of a new and divine hfe, they manifest powers not only beyond but out of the range of their natural capa- cities. The most striking instance of this action of the Divine Spirit not only elevating tho human si^irit. but actually guiiling it and carrying it whither it would not, is the case of Balaam. Balaam not only utters words boyoud liis consciousness, as all tho holy men of old did ; but this unholy man, probably as a pimishment for his taking tlie wages of iniquity, is made to utter words against his will — he is made to bless those whom ho was bribed to curse, and to curse those whom he wanted to bless. The miracle of the dumb ass speaking with man's voice is here a sign of what the Divine Spirit can do when the humao spirit, like an untuned pipe,- was about to give an imcertaiu sound. Tho dumb ass re- buked the madness of the prophet. There was tho deepest irony in this sign from heaven. The unmelodious bray of the ass was replaced by the utterance of articu- late sounds, or an impression equivalent to it, produced on the prophet's mind, teaching him. as a Last warning on his way to oppose God's wUl. that the human pneuma is only the pipe of the DiWne Pneuma, and that so mighty and powerful is that wind of God that it can breathe through the most reluctant instruments. It can make the wi-ath of men to praise Him. and then tho re- mainder of that wrath He will restrain. Balaam's case is a solemn lesson as to the dependence of man for inspiration from on high. This inspiration, it is true, does not change character. Ho that is holy will ho holy still, and lie that is filthy wiU bo filthy still. As a general rule, it is only holy men who are the subjects of heavenly inspiration, as it is the deliberately wicked in the other extreme who become devU-inspired (Sai/iomiiSris) (James iv. 15). But Balaam's is an apparent exception, intended, perhaps, to impress us the more as an exception. The warning was needed, perhaps, when prophecy was in its infancy, and men were tempted to seek inspiration from other sources than the pure fountain of truth. By one striking example men were taught that the human spirit was dependent on the Divine Spirit. As with the lower so with tho higher lifo in man — " Thou takestaway their breath, and they die, and thou renewost tho face of the earth." It was a true conception of the old heathen world that all inspiration was from God. The god of day was also the god of prophecy, of medicine. *' I am the eye by which the universe Beholds itself and knows itself divine. All harmony of instrument or verse, All prophecy, all medicine, are mine : All light of art or nature to my song, Victory and praise by their own right belong." There is a Pantheistic turn in these lines of Shelley, foreign to the simplicity of the ancient world. Still there is a substantial truth in tho thought th.at the God of natural life is also tho God of intellectual and spiri- tual lifo as well. In Him, from first to last, we live and move and have our being. It is instructive to trace tho connection between the pneumatical in man and the action of the Divine Pneuma. Man is everywhere dependent for inspiration from on high. Even Bezaleel and Aholiab only excel in what wo should call the mechanical arts by some suggestion from the fountain of wisdom. Mere cleverness, that Intellectual idol of our age, would be foreign to the sim- plicity of the Hebrew mind. Wliether wo are really gainers for having dropped those theological concep- tions of the source of genius as something impersonal and inspired, wo should be slow to decide. Certain it is that in the reaction from tho lUiiminism, or worship of tlie dry intellect in fashion last century, men have returned to something like tho old world theory of the dependence of tho human on the Di'vine Spu-it. Not to speak of supematui'alists and mystics like Lavater and Jung Stilling, we find Goethe, whose mind, to use a cant phrase, we should describe as of the Hellenist, not the Hebraic cast of intellect, taking a view of genius which is on the borders of the religious theory. He tells us in his autoliiography that while his mind was wan- dering about in seai-ch of a religious system, and thus passing over intermediate areas between various regions of theological belief, he met with a certain class of phenomena which seemed to belong to none of them, and which he used therefore to call demonic influence. It was not divine, for it seemed tmintellectual; nor human, for it was no result of understanding ; nor diabolic, for it was of beneficent tendency ; nor angelic, for you could often notice in it a certain mischiovousness. It resembled chance inasmuch as it demonstrated nothing, but was like Providence inasmuch as it showed symp- toms of continuity. Everything which fetters human agency seemed to yield before it, and it seemed to dispose arbitrarily of the necessary elements of existence. This magnetic influence, which Goethe is at a loss to account for, and which ho is not content to define .simply as genius, throws light on one of the profoundest questions in life — ^nz., the relation of the human to the Divine will, and our continual dependenco on God, the siiggestio continna of Malebr.anche. God may not be in all our thoughts consciously, and yet noverthelesa 12 THE BIBLE EDUCATOR. every deep and true thought is a thought of God : the formative impulse comes from Him ; it is shaped by ourselves, and as it passes into consciousness we so far forget ourselves as to forget that all things are of God ; we take the shaping of the thought which is the human element for its original suggestion which is divine. The dialectical faculty, the mere understanding, thus de- presses the pure reason or intuition. We set up to Ite thinkers, give ourselves au:s as " original," talk of genius as self -inspired, or use a phrase like this of Goethe's about a demonic influence which is neither human, divine, nor diabolic, but a strange medley of all three. Thus when we become wise in our own conceits it is the same as the poet says of the hardening effect of \-ice :— " Ob misery on't. The wise gods seal our eyes In our own filtli, drop our clear judgments, make us Adore our errors, laugh at us as we strut To our confusion.'' It is something in favour of our ago that our wiser minds have caught a glimmer of the great truth that all genius is inspiration. We are not prepared to admit in the same unqualified way the converse, that aU inspira- tion IS genius. The Hebrew and the Hellenic minds are not varieties of the same stock, as if human culture took the religious direction in one race, the artistic in another, in each case by a native impulse of its own. The Hebrews were by no means heaven-bom rehgionists, as the Hellenists were heaven-born artists. So far from this, they were stiff-necked and rebellious, ever starting back into idolatry; Mosaism and monotheism were ideas iu advance of, not merely abreast of, the Hebrew mind. The intuitional school have thus caught a glimpse of a great truth, but distorted it. The true -v-iew of the case is that all things are of God, and that God has not left himself without a witness in the heathen world, educating the human race, or rather prepariag them under peda- gogues for the true educator, which is Christ. K the Jaw given at the dispensation of angels was only a peda- gogue (Gal. iii. 24), much more that '" Moses Atticising," as Plato is called by Clement of Alexandria. Thus all genius is a kind of inspiration, but it is a dis- tortion of the truth to assert the converse, that all inspi- ration is only a mode of genius. To hold the balance on this question evenly between naturalism which con- founds the two, and supematuralism which too sharj>ly distinguishes them, is not easy. Nearly aU our errors in theology spring from not being able to trace the dividing line where nature passes into grace and the natural merges into the supernatural. These errors of theology have their root in a defective psychology. Su: W. Hamilton's dictum, that no question emerges in theo- logy which has not previously emerged in philosophy, is undeniable. Perhaps we should add this qualification, that these defective views in philosophy (or to define our meaning more exactly, in p.sychology) enter into and confuse our theology. Tlie popular psychology, which is dichotomist, has no place iu it for the religious in- stinct or the pueuma. This defective draft of human nature leaves a whole class of emotions and experiences which we call spiritual unaccounted for. There are those three convictions concerning sin, righteousness, and judgijient to come which it is the proper office of the Holy Spirit to convince the world of (John xvi. 8). But the world only judges by sense-experience, and cannot receive Him because it knoweth Hiin not, neither seetli Him. It should be the duty then of theology to recon- siruct psychology on a Christian, i.e. a spiritual basis, and thus to lead the woi-ld on from its ovni spiritual intuitions and the light of an awakened conscience to the deeper teaching of the Holy Spirit, thus comparing spiritual things with spiritual. This the Church, on account of its meagre and defective p.sychology founded on a dichotomy of man which omits the spiritual ele- ment altogether, to a great extent has failed to do. Through the prevalence of Augustinianism in the West, with its harsh line of separation between nature and grace, and with its Tertidlian-like rejection of aU rela- tion between God and the heathen world, and its quid philosojjMis ac Christianus cry, we have lost the link of connection between nature and grace in the spiritual faculties of man. The conscience of St. Paul's Epistles is the link between the two, the bridge across which the philosophy of Greece was to pass over to the rehgiou of Palestine. The Alexandrian school, as we may expect from their position midway between the two, saw this ■ connection, and held to it till theology lost itself in subtleties and word-quibbles such as the monophysite and monothelite controversies. In better times the cate- chetical school of Alexandria, led by a Clement and an Origen, might have built up a true theology on the foun- dations of a true psychology. But the Platonic was too strong for the Pauline element. Losing themselves in confusions between the Impersonal and Personal Logos, the A070S o-irep/nariicbs and Trpo(pof,tKbs, they opened the door to the ApoUinarian error (it is hard to describe it as a heresy), that the Divine Pneuma in Christ replaced the human, thus mutilating the conception of his entire himianity as perfect man, body, soul, and spirit. The denial of his humanity as it was called, and which has been thought parallel to the Arian denial of his true and proper divinity, led to a reaction. The true trichotomy of man into body, sold, and spirit fell into disfavour particularly in the West, where, under Augustine'-s in- fluence, it was so completely lost sight of that we find a Western creed (the creed very erroneously named after Athanasius) actually founding an argument for the co- existence of two natures in one person in Christ on the dichotomy of the reasonable soid and human flesh. " Nam sicut anima rationalis et caro unus est homo ; ita Deus et homo unus est Christus." The phrase is almost identical with an expression of Augiistiue, from whose writings it was probably taken verbaOy : " Sicut enim unus est homo anima rationalis et caro, sic unus est Christus Deuset homo." (For as the reasonable soul and flesh is one man, so God and man is one Christ.) (Aug. in Job. Evang. xiv., Tract lxx\-iii.). Hilary of Aries, to whom this creed is attributed by Waterland. has the same argument : " Sicut per naturam constitutam nobis a Deo originis nostrie prineipe corporis atque animse homo nascitur : ita Jesus Christus per virtutem suam JUDGES. 13 carnis atque animDe homo ac Deus esset liabens in se et totnm verumque quod homo est et totum verumque quod Deus est." (As by the nature giveu us by God, who is the author of our being, man is formed both of body and mind ; so Jesus Christ, iu virtue of his being constituted both in body and mind man as well as God, having in himself as well that which makes him entirely and truly man, and also and entirely and truly God.) Now, however orthodox this theology, it is founded on a psychology which Athanasius would have been the first to repudiate. The true conception of the conti-ast between psyche and pneuma was lost in the West from the times of Augustine almost down to the present day, and the loss has been one which has reacted on theology in all its branches. For want of a true psychology several theological truths are obscured or rendered almost meaningless. What, for instance, is the meaning of original sin unless we can point out tliat part in man's nature where the defect lies ? It is not iu the sensitive or natural part of his nature that the vitimn originis lies, unless we hold a Mauicheau theory of God being the author of evil. The defect is privative, not positive. It is the defect of the pneimia which accounts for that otherwise strange and repulsive doc- trine that man is born in sin. So, again, regeneration is another cardinal truth of the Christian scheme; but what do we mean by it ? Neither body nor mind can be regenerate unless a man shoidd, as Nicrd'nius asked, enter a second time into his mother's womb a id be born. To be born of the Spirit must mean that the dormant pneuma l)ecomes quickened by the DiWue Pnouma. Like produces like : "that whicli is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spii-it." So, again, the relation of spirit to sotd tlirows hght on the intermediate state which otherwise would be inconceivable. Again, the resuiTection of the body is intelligible on no other ground than this, that the animating principle of the body, which is now psychical, will then be pneumatical. These are some of the many theological truths on which a Christian psychology may be expected to tlirow light. Wliat wo contend for here is that the revelation of Scripture is progressive on this as on other subjects. Light is let in on the nature of man iu proportion as deeper discoveries are made of the character of God. Thus the theology and the p.sychology of the word of God are perfectly pro- portioned and harmonious. The fault lies in ourselves tliat we do not see them iu their true perspective. If we put ourselves at the right point of view, we shall see that in Scripture an " increasing purpose runs." From the simplest account of God as the great El or Creator, who has made man a living soul by breatliing into the dust the breath of life, we rise by regular stages of ad- vance to the Jehovist doctrine of a Covenant God, the Redeemer from sin. The law and the prophets in their turn lead on to that full revelation of grace and trutli I by Jesus Christ bj' whicli man is brought back into ' fellowship with God in and through the communion i of the Holy Ghost. Tlius God the Creator, the Redeemer, and the Sanctifier are the three theological stages corresponding to which are the psychological facta of body, soul, and spirit. Wlien man is thus sanctified wholly and entirely (5A.oT€\e?y kol 6\6kKt]poi, 1 Thess. V. 23), body, soul, and sijirit. then tlie revelation is I complete : God is glorified in us, and we are made ' perfect m Him. THE BOOKS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. THE BOOK OF JUDGES. BY THE REV. STANLEY LEATHES, M.A., PROFESSOR OF HEBREW IN KING'S COLLEGE, LONDON. Joshua. ^ HE Book of Judges takes up the thread of Israelitish history from the point at which the Book of Joshua drops it, carrying on the narrative of events after the death of In doing this, however, there is reason to believe that, by way of general introduction, it briefly reviews the condition of the people for a short time before ; and it is not improbalile that the \-isit of tlie angel to Bocliim (ii. 1) had taken place during the life- time of the conqueror. This appears to bo suggested by what is said (ii. 61, " And when Joshua liad let the people go." The book is named from the judges of Israel whose actions it records ; and in Hebrew the desig- nation of these rulers, Shofeiim, is the name also of the book. The first chapter depicts the actual condition of the people at the time when the history opens, and is quite consistent with those statements in Joshua which represent the whole land as being in possession of the Israelites, and j-et large portions of it as unsubdued. Tlie second chapter describes what was the persistent condition of the people during the whole period of the history of the judges. The third chapter commences with an enumeration of the unsubdued races ; and at ver. 8 the detailed history, properly speaking, begins. After this introductory portion the book naturally divides itself into two parts — the first extending to the end of chap, xvi., and the second consisting of the last five chapters. This second part has the character of an appendix to the i-est ; and instead of carrying on tlio history, appears rather to relate episodes which must have occurred in tlie earlier period of it. The space of time covered by Judges is that which elapsed between tlie death of Joshua and the death of Samson ; lower than this the history does not carry us. The book is connected on the one side with Joshua and the events immediately succeeding the occupation of Canaan and the exodus, and on the other with the First Book of Samuel, which opens with a state of things similar to that which is still in existence when Judges ends. The author's point of yieyf is very clearly indicated in chap. 14 THE BIBLE EDUCATOR. ii. 11 — 23. This is wortliy of study, not only as showrug us what he did not propose to do, but also what he aimed at doing and professed to do. For example, he did not propose to give a connected history of the nation for a definite period, or a picture of society, or a clear and fuU notion of the mode of government, or the like. All these subjects would have been deeply iute- restkig to the j)hilosopher, the sfcitesmau, the historian ; but they are almost entirely disregarded ; and, on the contrary, the -writer has undertaken to record the history of his nation from a point of view in which he claimed to bo conversant with the Divine purposes and the Divine judgment passed upon the conduct of the people. All that he relates is to illustrate this. And so the appendix records a gross instanpe of idolatry, and gives the narrative of a brutal crime, perhaps arising out of the prevalence of such idolatiy, together \vith the distinctive punishment that overtook the nation in con- sequence. It is the more important to notice this, because of its bearing upon what the Bible itself claims to be — namely, an account of national and human alf au's as they present themselves to the Divine mind. If there is reaUy no relation between the view thus given and that actually assumed in the Diidne judgment, it is impossible to acquit the writer of a pernicious and mis- guiding tendency. If, on the other hand, he had any authority for the view he took, then his narrative is worthy of the utmost deference. The difference of style between the two portions of Judges is probably as great, if not greater, than that wliich exists between any other portions of single books ; the ordinary and familiar use of the consecutive and being substituted by the use of the past tense and the subject abruptly without and, (see, e.g., xviii. 17, 22; six. 11, 22; xx. 43, &£.']. This is more CTOlent in the Hebrew than it is in the English, though it is quite perceptible even there. The chronological indications also vary — e.g., in chap. x^.-ii. 6 ; xviii. 1 ; xix. 1 ; xxi. 2-5, we ha.ve a frequently reciu'ring formula, which never occurs once in the former part, though wo might have had, " In the days of the judges," &o., as at Ruth i. I. Regarded natm-ally as a chapter only in the national history, the Book of Judges rcpresouts the efforts made by the people in the development of what afterwards became the monarchy. Moses and Joshua had been kings ui everything but the name ; Abimelech endea- voured, but with only partial success, to convert the judgeship of his father Gideon iuto an hereditary monarchy, and the book which carries on the histoiy of the judges shows us how the kingdom of Saul found its root iu the supremo judicial power of Samuel. Tlie period of the judges was naturally a transition period in which the real kingly power of Moses and Joshua was moulding and developing itself into the hereditary monarchy of David and Jeroboam. In tracing, liow- ever, this process of development, it is very difficult to eliminate altogether any agency which is not something more than merely human or natural. In a succession of twelve or fourteen deliverers who continually rose up at a period of great national depression and calamity to rescue the nation and retrieve its fortunes, the people may certainly be pardoned for seeing the finger of God rather than the operation of chance or the unassisted agency of man. It is in defiance of the whole spiiit of the Book of Judges if we do not acknowledge this, but still it may be well and instructive to note the human features and characteristics of which the deUver- ance was from time to time marked. For instance, the first judge was Othniel, the nephew of Caleb, the im- mediate companion of Joshua, and besides hun the only Israelite who had survived the exodus and the wander- ings. He was raised up in his capacity of dehverer in answer to prayer, and was prepared for his office of judge by the Si^u-it of the Lord comiug upon him. It is remarkable also that Israel's fu-st enemies after the occupation of Canaan arose in the same quarter as those who overthrew the monarchy — viz., iu the land of the north-east, in the country washed by the Tigris and Ein)hrates. Othniel, moreover, was of the tribe of Judah, and thus his exploits served to keep in memory the blessing of Jacob upon Judah, as well as to illus- trate the Di^Tno injimction which had before beea given, " Judah shall go up first." The next enemy that arose was Moab, and from that yoke Ehud the Beujamite saved his nation by slaying Eglon, the king of Moab. After him we hear of Sham- gar, the son of Anath, who delivered Israel from the Philistiues. The extent to which the unsubdued aboriginal inhabitants had been suffered to increase is shown very clearly in the next oppression of Israel. A powerful foe arose in the extreme north in the person of Jabin, who is called king of Canaan, and was master of 900 chariots of iron. For twenty years he mightily oppressed the children of Israel, imtO he was subdued by Barak, and skiin by the treachery of Jael, the ivife of Heber the Kenite. The other judges mentioned by name are Gideon; Abimelech, the son of his concubine, who attempted to make liimseK king by slaying all his brethren with the exception of Jotham who escaped; Tola, a man of Issachar ; Jair, a Gileadite ; Jephthah, Ibzan, Elou, Abdon, and Samson. Of these it is only Ehud, Deborah, Gideon, Abimelech, Jephthah, and Samson whoso doings are related at all in full. The time thus covered according to the history is as follows : — Tears. o In tbp time of Cbuslian-rishatliaim . . * „ Othniel 40 „ Eplon 18 Ehiul 80 ,, Jabiu . . , . . ,20 ,, Deborah 40 —206 Then we have under Midian, Anialek, and the children of the east . .... 7 Under Gideon 40 ,, Abimelech ...... 3 Tola 23 Jair 22 — 95 Again, there was a servitude under the Philistines and Ammonites , . , . . .18 Frotii which the nation was delivered hy Jephthah, who judged Israel 6 JUDGES. 15 Then there were — Years. Under Ibzau ....... 7 „ Elon 10 „ Abdon 8 Under the Philistines a servitude for . . .40 And iinally the judgeship of Samson, which lasted 20 —109 Making the complete total of 4,10 which, together with the forty years of Eli, brings the entire period of the judges to "about the space of 450 years, till Samuel the prophet," assigned to it by St. Paul at Autioeh (Acts xiii. 20). There is iu Judg. xi. 26 an independent mark of the general correctness of a large portion of this period, for we are told that from the occujiation of Heshbon till the time of Jephthah was 300 years, and the numbers given in the Book of Judges, from the invasion of Chushan- rishathaim till that of the Ammonites, make 301 years, so that the natural inference is that they are substantially accurate. It is to be observed, however, that we do not know the interval between the death of Joshua and the first invasion of the land by Chushan-rishathaim, nor the time that Shamgar was judge (clearly for some time, chap. v. 6), nor the period that elapsed between the death of Samson and the high-priesthood of Eli. The time at which the earlier pox-tion of the book was written is partly fixed by i. 21, which says " the Jebusites dwell with the children of Benjamin in Jerusalem unto this day." Now we know from 2 Sam. v. 6 — 9, that it was the expulsion of these Jebusites from the citadel of Jerusalem which made Zion the city of David, and con- sequently the statement in Judges must have been written before the eighth year of David when this took place, for at that time the state of things described as con- tinuing "unto this day " ceased. If the writer had lived under David, it is fair to assume that he woidd have related the capture of Jerusalem. He must have written before David's reign, and under, if not before, the time of Saul. The omission also of the histoiT- of Eli pro- bably shows either that the writer lived in his time, or else considered it so well known as to need no record from him. But as tho history of Eli embraced a j)oriod of foiiy years, and was followed by tho era of Samuel, the latter alternative appears improbaljle. Tho internal evidence, therefore, of tho book itself gives us no more than an indication of tho time after wliich the book could not liave been written. There is an expression used in Judg. viii. 14 which shows that a young man accidentally taken by Gideon on his march home, was able to write down the names of tho elders of Succoth. This is a clear proof, at that early date, of tho preva- lence of a fair amount of education among the people, and it is surely not too much to assume, iu the presence of such evidence, that in the time of the author of the Book of Judges there were sufficient contemporary memoranda of the cMef public events ready at hand to make use of. As to the time wlien tho appendix (x\Ti. — xxi.) was written, nothing is known or very clearly dis- coverable. A king may be presumed to have been reigning in Israel from tho recurrence of the phrase already referred to, but not iu Israel as distinct from Judah. Supposing the two portions of the book were written by one and the same author, this would leavo us free to conjecture the reign of Saul as a possible time for its composition. We have seen that it could not be later. The difference in stylo between the former and latter portions of the book may be easily explained on the supposition that contemporary documents of some kind existed and were freely used by the I'esponsible compiler, whoever ho was. The tone of regret which tho words "at that time there was no king in Israel," seem to express at the contrast of what had been with what was the condition of the people is, perhaps, hardly consistent with the idea which would otherwise readily occur to us, that Samuel, who had strenuously opposed the desire for a king, was the compiler of the book. And yet during that period there is no one else to whom we can with more appearance of reason assign it. It appears from xviii. 31 that when the second part was wi-itten the house of God was no longer in Shiloh. It was David who brought the ark to Jerusalem. Some have supposed that the omission of the name of the LeiHtc in chap. xix. is in consequence of the lapse of time. This, however, is improbable. We have a some- what uncertain guide to tho time at which the events related in the second part happened from two circum- stances : in Judg. xviii. 30 it is stated that Jonathan tho son of Gershom, the son of Manasseh, was the fii-st priest of the graven imago sot up by the tribo of Dau. Now Gershom was the son of Moses, and in Hebrew the two names, Moses and Manasseh, when read without the vowels, are tho same but for tho insertion of an n. Moreover, the word Manasseh is a various reading, tho original word undoubtedly being Moses. There was, however, a strong prejudice against tho idea that the gi-andson of the great lawgiver should have been tho man to commence an idolatrous schism, and so tho alternative name was suggested ; but so great was tho reverence for tho traditional text that a note was added to tho effect that tho n was to be suspended, and so to this day it appears iu the best Hebrew Bibles printed in accordance with this du-ection " above the line : " thus, nf ?p Now, if tho settiug up of the graven image by tho tribe of Dan occirrred in the second generation after Moses, it is plain this nan-ative refers not to a time corresponding to its position in the Book of Judges, but to a period con- temporaneous with tho very earhest events recorded iu that book; and this, indeed, is probably the case. Again, the second episode recorded in chaps, xix. — xxi. appears, from xx. 28, to have occurred iu the time of Phiuehas, the son of Eleazar, which is also iu tho second generation after Moses and Aaron. Tho natural infer- ence, therefore, is that both these events recorded iu the second jwrtion of the book are to be referred in point of tune to the earlier chapters of the first portion. They show us veiy plainly that after the death of Moses and Joshua there was a great relapse in the moral life of the nation. Tho flow of the spiritual tide had risen to its height, and it was now retu-iug. The Book of 16 THE BIBLE EDUCATOR. Judges is itself a record of the strivings of God's Spirit to redeem and re-establish the nation. This was only effected by partial and spasmodic efforts recun-Lag through a period of many centuries till the rise of "Samuel the prophet." But it is impossible to watch those efforts, and not see that they were effected on a plan and with a definite purpose. Wo cannot even, by divesting them of all their supernatural accidents, reduce them to the dimensions of the merely ordinai-y and common-place ; and there are certain features in tho narrative of them which are hardly less significant. For example, the judges are termed " saviours," and the Lord is said to have " raised them up " (ii. 16, 18 ; iii. 9, 15 ; vii. 7 ; &c.). Four times we have the mysterious manifestation of a Divine angel, who reproves the people or raises up the deliverer — e.g., ii. 1 — 5 ; vi. 7, &c. ; x. 10 — 16 ; xiii. 3 — 23. And in like manner the Divine Spirit is four times said to have come upon his chosen agents (iii. 10 ; vi. 34 ; xi. 29 ; xiii. 24, 25). It has been observed, moreover, that these periods of revival diminished in intensity, tho deliverance of Othniel and Ehud being more effectual in its duration than that of Gideon, and that of Gideon more so than Jephthah's, and Jephthah's more than Samson's, the last being altogether of a lower and less .spiritual type, and effec- tual in the death rather than the life of its agent. On any interjiretation the history of the Book of Judges shows us the manifold grace of God condescending to employ manifold and diverse agencies to accomplish tho .salvation and regeneration of his people, and ever with the same recurring combination of success and failure : success as far as regards the deliverance achieved, but failure as regai'ds the meradieable tendency of the people to relapse and fall away. Another indication of the date of the composition of the book requires to be noticed. lu xviii. 30 Jonathan and his sons are stated to have been " priests to the tribe of Dan until tho day of the captivity of the land." At first .sight this looks like a reference to the captivity of Shahnaneser, or Esarhaddon, if not of Nebuchadnezzar, in which case, of course, a very late period of compo- sition might be assigned to Judges. But it is, to say the least, extremely douljtful wliether this is the most natural meaning of the phrase. For instance, the very next verse gives another note of time which, how- ever, can hardly be other than synchronous with the former one, and this is " all the time the house of God was in Shiloh." In Jer. xxvi. 6 Shiloh is used as a proverbial example of desolation, and from the way in which the captm'e of the ark is spoken of (1 Sam. iv. 22; vii. 2) it is most likely that tho captivity of the land, which involved the capture of the ark and the desolation of the tabernacle at Shiloh, is the capti-vdty here intended. (Comp. also Ps. Ixxviii. 60, &c., and 1 Chrou. xvi. 34, 35.) Indeed, it is hardly jiossible to imagine that a centre of idolatrous worship such as this in the tribe of Dan should have been permitted, though at tlic northern confines of the country, all the time of David and Solomon, not to s.ay of Hezekiah, and the other reforming kings. Wo conclude, thurefors, that there is no proof in this expression of a later origin than the proximate one already assigned to the Book of Judges. The Speaker's Commentary, however, takes a different view both of this matter and of the date of the book. That the writer, whoever he was, had access to original docimients of some kind is proved by his in- sertion of the song of Deborah : and the faitlif ulness ^vith which he made use of his materials is shown by the phrase x. 4 ; xii. 14, which is original in the song of Deborah (v. 10.) Several of the statements in Judges also are confirmed in other books {e.g., Judg. iv. 2, vi. 14, X. 1, in 1 Sam. xii. 9—12 ; Judg. ix. 53 in 2 Sam. xi. 21). Tho Psalms not only allude to Judges (cf. Ps. Ixxxiii. 11 and Judg. vii. 25), but copy from it entire portions, as Ps. kviii. 8, 9, and Ps. xcvii. 5, which are borrowed from Judg. v. 4, 5. Philo and Josephus knew the book and made use of it, and the New Testa- ment alludes to it in several passages (cf., e.g.. Matt. ii. 13 — 23 with Judg. xiii. 5; xvi. 17 : so also Acts xiii. 20 ; Heb. xi. 32). This recognition is otir warrant for its position in the canon. The intonial proofs of its veracity are also numerous. After the death of Joshua, the Hebrew nation had, by their repeated victories, gained courage, and the natural consequence of their position was security. Instead of exterminating their enemies, as they had been commanded, they put them under tribute, and turned their thoughts to agriculture and tho cultivation of the land. The natural result of this was the development of an unwarlike disposition, and efforts on the part of their enemies to throw off the yoke of conquest. In iii. 27 it is the hardy inhabi- tants of Mount Ephraim only who rise to the caU of Ehud, and many abode quietly with their herds when Barak ("the Hghtning-flash ") called to arms against Sisera (v. 14, 15, 17, 23). Gideon could use, or was allowed to use, only 300 out of 32,000. No writer at that early age could have taken off the characteristic features of tho people in this way so strictly according to fact, and therefore we conclude the book is, as it professes to be, a veritable history. Certain passages in Judges are almost identical with others in Joshua — e.g., the grant to Caleb (Judg. i. 10 —15, 20, 21) is repeated from Josh. xv. 14—19, 13, 63. So Judg. i. 27, 29 corresponds to Josh. xvii. 12, xvi. 10 ; Judg. ii. 7 — 9 to Josh. xxiv. 29 — 31. The conquest of Laish, related in Judg. xviii., is referred to in Josh, xix. 47, where, however, it is eaDed Leshem. The more differences of these passages, perhaps, show that they are independent records, or that they are borrowed iudepeudently from the same record. It is vain to specu- late ujion the actual case, and equally vain to dogmatise upon it as men have done. It is, however, to be observed that as the liistory of Judges claims to have occurred after tho time of Joshua, so tho composition of the work presupposes that of Joshua (cf ., e.g., Judg. ii. 20, 21 with Josh, xxiii. 16, 13 ; Judg. v. 17 with Josh. xiii. 29 — 31, xix. 20, 31 ; Judg. v. 20 with Josh. x. 11, &c. It is not pos- sible to conceive that the Book of Judges being written, tho Book of Joshua was compiled subsequently, to supply JOSHUA. 17 the gap iu the history. But even more evident is it that the entire history of the Pentateuch must have existed in substance as we now have it at the time when Judges was written, not to say at the time when the events recorded iu Judges occm-red. For example, the history and existence of the Pentateuch is involved iu the first two chapters of Judges. Whether we regard these as a preface to the rest of the book, and written subsequently to it or not, matters not. It is inconceiv- able that the writer of these chapters shoidd not have had the history of the Pentateuch, aud probably that of the Book of Joshua, bcfo:;e him. (Cf. Numb. xiv. 2-i ; Deut. i. 36 ; Josh. xiv. 9 — 14, for tlie antecedents of Caleb, vriih Judg. i. 20. Cf. Deut. vii. 2; xii. 3, with Judg. ii. 3. Cf. Deut. vii. 16—26 ; Exod. xxiii. 33.) The whole of the second chapter of Judges implies the written law, and Judg. iii. 4 exjjlicitly refers to it. With Judg. V. 4, 3 cf . Deut. xxxiii. 2 ; xxxii. 1, 3. The whole of Deborah's song is on the model of Gen. xlix. and Deut. xxxiii., and, if so recognised, is a proof of the existence of, aud acquaintance with, those highly poetical compo- sitions iu her time if the song is acknowledged as hers, or as coutomporaueous with her. Jndg. vi. 8 is a brief summary of the history of Exodus aud that of Joshua. Judg. xi. 13 refers expressly to events recorded m Numb. xxi. 2-i, 25, 26; Judg. xi. 17 to Numb. xx. 17; Judg. xi. 19 to Numb. xxi. 21, and Deut. ii. 26. The whole of this message of Jephthah is thick with references to the Pentateuchal history, aud if it is genuine, as there is no reason to doubt, it implies a knowledge of the facts in the king of Ammon also. But Judg. xi. 35 refers to the legal enactments of Numb. xxx. 2, and Judg. xiii. 5 implies the habitual practice of, and therefore a long acquaintance with, the law of the Nazarite in Numb. vi. 2. It seems very difficult to set aside the bond fide inde- pendent evidence that is involved here. Unless we reject the natural incidents of the story of Samson, we have proof that the enactments of the Pentateuch were in force then, were consequently iu existence then, and were then of sufficient antiquity to claim observance, in virtue of their association with the name of Moses, and the authority they derived from him, which would liave attached to no one else. It is needful to observe that, contrary to the view here taken, wldch is corroborated by St. Paul's sermon at Antioch, the history of the Judges, in the opinion of some critics, comprises a much shorter period of little more than 150 years. In this case it is understood that the various periods of rest and servitude which are specified were not consecutive but contemi)o- raneous, that they concerned different portions of the same countiy at the same time, aud that different judges were ruliug iu different parts aud districts at the same time. The wliole question of Biblical chronology is one of the most involved, aud it would be out of place to enter into it here. The expression of St. Paul probably represented the then traditional view, and the several difficulties arising- from genealogies and other dates given in Scripture, the long period of time involved, and the like, were, doubtless, not less obvious to him and his instructors than they are to ourselves now. SCRIPTURE BIOGRAPHIES. JOSHUA (coniinued). EY THE KEV. EDMUND VENABLES, SI.A., CANON BESIDENTIAKT AND PKECENTOK OF LINCOLN. III. — CONQTTEST AND SETTLEMENT OF CANAAN. )EVER, to quote an eloqneBt writer of our own time, who has done more than any living man — almost more than any mau of any age — to make Scrii)ture history a living, breathing reality' — "never, in the history of the chosen people, could there have been such a blank as that when they became conscious that ' Moses, the servant of the Lord, was dead.' He who had been their leader, their lawgiver, their oracle, as far back as their memory could reach, was taken from them at the very moment when they seemed most to need him. It was to fill up this blank that Joshua was called." " The lawgiver had done his part ; the warrior succeeded to the admmistration of aifairs, and to the directing inter- course with God."- He steps forward with cheerful courage as the mau of hope— the man of action. AU lurking diffidence is immediately dispelled by the assu- rance of God : " As I was with Moses, so I wiU be with thee : I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee." He at ^ Stanley, Lectures on the Jeieish Church, vol. i., p. 225. * Dean Milman, Eistortj of the Jews, bk. v, 26 — VOL. II. once assumes t!ie command, and issues his orders, an \ his position is recognised without hesitation. "All that thou commandest us we will do, and whithersoever thou sendest us, will we go " (.losh. i. 16). Tlie host of Israel was still on the eastern side of Jordan. Tlie first step in the fulfihnont of Joshua's commission was to carry the people over that river: " Arise," is God's first word to him, " go over this Jordan, thou, and all this people, unto the laud which I do give to them " (Josh. i. 21. The command does not seem to have been accompanied with any intimation of the manner in which the river, then at its full, was to bo crossed. But Joshua had long since learnt that whatever God enjoins he renders possible to those who in simple faith seek to obey. If Ho bade Israel go over the river, the way to do so would be opened when they set themselves to do his bidding. But there was something to be done before Joshua took Israel over the river. The crossing of Jordan, though in one sense an end, in another sense was only a beginning. It was the end of their forty years' wan- dei'ing in the wilderness, but it was the beginning of 18 THE BIBLE EDUCATOR. the conflict whicli was to put them in possession of Canaan ; and this conflict was likely to be a severe one. The Lord had promised to fight for them ; but they would none the less have to fight. The fulfilment of God's promise was coudition.al on their own jierform- ances. Jericho, the key of Western Palestine, would opiDOse the first obstacle to the onward march of Israel. Future success or failure would mainly depend on the result of their operations there. As a wise, far-sighted general, therefore, does Joshua, as a first step, send two spies to reconnoitre the strength of this city. They, like the lion-faced Gadites in David's days (1 Chron. xii. 8, 15), swam the swollen river, at the fords, and entered, not unobserved, the doomed city. Concealed, at the peril of her life, by the faithfid harlot, they returned to the camp with tidings full of encoiu'age- ment. "So the two men returned, and passed over, and came to Joshua the son of Nun, and told him aU things that befell them: and they said unto Joshua, Truly the Lord hath delivered iuto our hands all the land ; for even aU the inhabitants of the country do faint because of us" (Josh. ii. 23, 24). A demoralised enemy is a more than half-conquered enemy. The report of the spies decided Joshua to delay no longer, but to profit at once by the existing panic : and ho issued his orders for the immediate crossing of the river. The enormous host, amounting to more than two millions — 601,730 was the nimi'ber of adult males retm-ncd at the census in the plains of Moab (Kumb. xxvi. 51) — descends from Shittini, the acacia groves which line the upper terraces of the vaUey on either side of the river, to the bank of the surging stream (iii. 1). Arrived there, a delay of three days intervenes — an interval none too long for the com- pletion of the necessary preparations, now that they were about to quit the comparative security of the wildcrnei^s, and enter on a hostile territory. Wo can well picture to ourselves the wonder, not unmixed with dismay, with which the Israelites must have looked across the flooded river, filling the whole of the lower trough, and overflowing tho dense jimgle of tamarisks and willows wliich clothes the inferior terrace — " tho sweUilig of Jordan " of tho prophet Jeremiah ( Jer. xii. 5 ; xlLx. 19 ; 1. 44) — to the green terraces fringing the yellow desert plains beyond, and have asked how the passage was to be effected- " Sweet fields beyonfl tlio swelling flood Stand dressed in living grreen j So to the Jews old Canaan stood. While Jordau rolled between." At the end of these three days of suspense Joshua sent officers through the host to communicate his instruc- tioiLS. Tho passage was to be distinctly miraculous. " To-morrow the Lord wUl do wonders among you " (iii. 5). The visible agency was to be that of " the ark of the covenant;" — that was to lead tho van. The removal of the ark w.as to bo the signal for tho breaking np of the encampment. Wlien they saw that token of Jeliovah's presence, borne aloft on the shoulders of tho Levites, quit its place of greatest security in tho centre of the camp and advance towards the river, they were to " remove from their pLace, and go after it" (iii. 3). An order of deep significance was to be first obeyed : " Sanctify yourselves, for to-morrow the Lord will do wonders among you." Tho entrance of God's peculiar peoiJe into the Land of Promise must be prepared for by ceremonial purification. All outward pollution must bo put away. How forcibly does this recall warnings relating to that " better eoimtry, even a heavenly one," of which the earthly Canaan was but the type. How does tho external purity enjoined by Joshua, before the chUdi-en of Israel could be permitted to enter their earthly inheritance, remind us that " without holiness no man shall see the Lord ;" and that into the heavenly city " there shall in no wise enter anytMng- that defileth" (Heb. xii. 14; Rev. xxi. 27). The circumstances of the passage are too solemn, too instructive, to be hurried over. In all, Joshua, the type of Jesus, "the Captain of oui- salvation," appears as the leader and commander of the people. His is the directing mind^his the authoritative voice. The ark of the covenant — that symbol of the presence of Jehovah with his covenant people, that type of Jesus, the propitiation of a " better covenant " ' — preceded the host, borne on the shoulders of the Legates. The people remained behind, high up on the banks, nearly a mile in tho rear, following with eager eyes the sacred coffer, as its bearers descended into the ravine and ap- proached the rushing waters of the Jordan. Suddenly, as the feet of the Lovites " were dipped in the brim of the water," the whole river-bed was laid dry. " The waters which came down from above," held back in their rapid descent from the Lake of Galilee, and piled up by the almighty hand of God, "stood and rose up upon a heap." The waters that were going down to the J )ead Sea " failed and were cut off " from the source that supplied them, lea^-ing bare the whole channel, above and below, as far as the eye could reach. Down the green teiraces, across the oozy channel, among the huge stones that strewed its bed— some of which, at Joshua's command, were afterwards erected into a monumental cairn at Gilgal ; others forming a similar memorial on the spot where the priests' feet first touched the water . — the mighty host pass in safety, yet not without a natural fear. " The people h.asted and passed over," (iv. 10), each, as he was nearest to tho stream, hurrjnng doivn the sloping banks, and rtishing across to tho other side, lest he should be surprised by tho returning waters. Tlien, when tho whole multitude had passed over, tho ark, which had hitherto stood motionless on the eastenx bank, on the Levites' shoulders, descends into the bed and mounts the other side of the ravine. As soon as it has reached a i^lace of perfect security, and " tho soles of the priests' feet were lifted up imto the dry land " — the miracle ceasing the instant the necessity for it ce.ased — the imprisoned waters set free from the restraining Hand, "returned unto their place, ^ The word t\ao-T,/pu)v, siffaifyingr " the mercy-seat," and so translated in Heb. is. 5, is rendered " propitiation" when referring: to the sacrifice of Jesus (Rom. iii. 25). THE HISTORY OP THE ENGLISH BIBLE. 19 and flowed over all his banks, as ihoj did before " (chap. iv. 18). The importance of this miracle can liardly be over- estimated. The people were now about to cuter ou a fresh stage of their national existence, and that under a new leader. On the issue of the next few days or weeks would depend whether they should become the masters of that goodly land, "flowing with milk and honey," which had been the earliest dream of their childhood, or be crushed by its warlike inhabitants ; either reduced to slavery, or utterly destroyed, so that they should " be no more a people, and the name of Israel should be no more in remembrance." " Would the Lord be with them indeed ? Woidd he fight for them as of old ? Would ho work wonders for thorn by the hand of Joshua, as ho had done by the hand of Moses?" The assm-anco of the continued pi-esence and protection of Jehovah, afforded by the drying up of Jordan, was exactly what was needed to encourage their fainting hearts, and secure for Joshua, accredited by so mighty a sign, the loyal allegiance of the people. This is the light in which this miracle is set before us in the words of God to Joshua. " This day will I begin to magnify thee in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that, as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee " (iii. 7) ; and the result tallied with it. " On that day the Lord magnified Joshua in the sight of all Israel ; and they feared him, as they feared Moses, all the days of his life " (iv. 14). Another purpose to be answered by this exercise of the Divine power in behalf of Israel, was to deepen the feeling of discourage- ment already, as we have seen, existing in the minds of the Canaauites, and thus prepare for then' easier and complete overthrow. Tliat this was the effect of this miracle is plainly stated by the sacred liistorian. "And it came to pass, when all the kings of the Amoritos, which were on the side of Jordan westward, and aU tho kings of tho Canaauites, which were by the sea, heard that the Lord had dried up the waters of Jordan from before tho children of Israel, until we were passed over, that their hearts melted, neither was there spirit in them any more, because of the children of Israel." That was no idle or gratuitous display of power, which afforded to the Canaauites, to Israel, and to Joshua himself, such unmistakable evidence that " the living God, the Lord of all the earth," — no dead idol, or mere local deity — was among them, " and that he would not fail nor forsake them " (iii. 10, 11 ; i. 5). The first two acts of Joshua ou his entrance as the leader of Israel ou the Land of Promise wei-e of deep significance ; they intimate a distinct recognition of the new position of tho people. Hitherto, since their rebel- lion at Kadesh-barnea, they had been under a ban. By their hnpious resolve to return to Egypt rather than face the dangers of Canaan, they had rejected God, and thorefoFo God had, temporarily, rejected them. As a token that they were no longer regarded by him as his covenant people, the symbol of the covenant, the rite of circumcision, was suspended ; while, as an indication of displeasure at their determination to go back to tho land of slavery, the ordinance of the passover, the memorial of their deliverance from that heavy bondage, was dis- continued. But tho years of rejection were now at an end, and the ban was removed. Entered on tho Laud of Promise, God once more regarded them as his own cove- nant people, and therefore the sign of the covenant was renewed. At tho frontier fortress of Gilgal, entrenched by Joshua on the rising ground overlooking Jericho, about five miles from the banks of Jordan, Israel "cast off the slough of their wandering fife," and " roUed away the reproach of Egypt " (v. 9), by submitting once more, at the Divine command, to the distinguishing ordinance of circumcision. Knives of flint,' reserved in other countries for this and other religious rites, were used for the ceremony by which Joshua, " tho type of Him who alone gives the new circumcision " — the circum- cision of the heart " made without hands " (Col. ii. 11), readmitted Abraham's descendants to the covenant mado with their great ancestor. Thi-ee days after this national reconciliation of Israel, on tho 1-lth of Nisan (v. 10), the jiassover was celebrated. Never since its first institu- tion had its import been more powerfidly sho^vn. They were delivered from Egypt in order that they might hold possession of Canaan ; and now at last Canaan was reached. Tho memorial of what Jehovah had done for their fathers would quicken their faith, and fill them with confidence as to the issue of the conflict that lay before them. For though reached, Canaan was not conquered ; from the fortified camp at Gilgal, tho walls and towers of Jericho, "great and fenced up to heaven," would bo a stem but salutary reminder of tho nature of the struggle on which they were about to enter, and of the need of a strength not their own to secure a successful issue. ^ Chap. V, 2, margin. THE HISTOEY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE. BT THE KEV. W. F. MOULTON, JI.A., PROFESSOK OF CLASSICS, WESLETAN COLLEGE, KICHMOND. TTNDALE, " tho faithful 1 other liberal arts, as especially in the knowledge of the ILLIAM minister and constant martyr of Christ, was bom about the borders of Wales, and brought up from a child in the University of Oxford, where he, by long continn.ance, grow up and increased as well in the knowledge of tongues and Scriptures, whereunto his mind was singularly addicted. Insomuch that he, lying then at Magdalen Hall, read privily to certain students and fellows of Magdalen College somo parcel of divinity, instructing them in the kuowledgo and truth of the Scriptures. Whose 2C THE BIBLE EDUCATOR. mannors also and conversation, being correspondent to the same, were sncli that all they whicli knew him reputed and esteemed him to be a man of most \li'tuou3 disposition and of life unspotted. Thus he, in the University of Oxford, increasing more and more in learning and proceeding in degrees of the schools, sjiy- ing his time, removed from tlience to the University of Cambridge, where after he had likewise made his abode that in which Luther was born ; the place was cither North Nibley or (more probaljly) Slymbridge," near Berkeley, in Gloucestershire. As little known are the details of his university career. We can hardly sup- pose that he would proceed ta Oxford earlier than 1503. At that time, and for two years later, Colet was stUl delivering lectures on the Epistles of St. Paul; and we cannot doubt that Tyndale was one of the WILLIAM TYNDALE. S certain spare, being now further ripened in the know- ledge of God's word, leaving that university also ho resorted to one Master Welch, a knight of Gloucester- shire." Such is the brief account which John Foxe gives' of a period comprising more than two-thii-ds of Tjaidale's life. Unhappily we can add very little to fill up the outline here given. Even the lime and place of Tyn- dale's birth are not known with certainty. The most probable date appears to be 1484, the year following ' Acts and Monuments, vol. v., p. lit. many eager listeners to these fresh and ^^\■id exposi- tions. The reasons which induced T)Tih] ; Job vii. 8, 21 ; Ps. xxxvii. 30), it does not, of necessity, imply a state of non-existence, but may imply only the absence or change of place of the person with regard to whom it is used, as e.g., in Gen. v. 24, where it is used of the translation of Enoch ; in Gen. xlii. 36, in reference to Simeon; and, yet more deci- sively, in 1 Kings xx. 40, where it simply denotes escape out of custody." Hence, in the primary reference of the words, the prophecy may reasonably be supposed to have received its fulfilment in the event to which allusion has already been made, as it is related in Jer. si. 1. viz., the deporta- tion of a portion of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin into the land of Babylon. There were several places bearing, either in the same, or in a slightly modified form, the name of Ramah, a word which (like Aram) points to an elevated position.' This name is said to have been found 2 The Chaldee paraphrast explains the word "because they have gone into captivity." 3 This signification of the word suggests another explanation of the passage which has approved itself to some commentators — viz., that " Eamah" here points not to any one particular place, but to one 1 of those *'high places" which seem to have been chosen by the DIFFICULT PASSAGES EXPLAINED. 23 attached to the spot close to that in which Rachel is supposed to have been buried (Gen. sxxv. 18, 19) ; but the place moro commonly known by tliat name was about five miles to the north of Jerusalem, within the limits of the tribe of Benjamin. In either case, the distance from Rachel's sepulchi'e was not great; and the prophet, by tho use of a striking and highly poetical figure, represents tho mother of Benjamin, whose eager desire of offspring is distiuctly recorded in Gen. xsx. I, and whose death, at the birth of "the son of her sorrow," is so pathetically described in Gen. xxxv. 18, as personifying tho land, or as representing its bereaved mothers, when the Chaldeans burned the houses of the people, and Nebuzar-adan, the captain of the guard, carried away captive a number of tho inhabitants of Jerusalem and of Judah (i.e., of tho two tribes of Judah and Benjamin) into tho land of Babylon (Jer. xxxix. 8, 9 ; xl. 1). It was thus that the primary fulfilment of the pro- phecy took place in the days of the prophet who had delivered it ; and a striking testimony was given by Nebuzar-adah himself, who was the executioner of the Divine vengeance, to the truth of the inspired predic- tions respecting tho doom of the rebellious people, when in " looking well " to Jeremiah, as Nebuchad- nezzar had commanded him, and giving him permission to go or stay in the land, as the proi^het might him- self desire, he added, "The Lord thy God hath pro- nounced this evil upon this place. Now the Lord hath brought it, and done accordiag as ho hath said " (Jer. 3d. 2, 3). Much has been said about the sense in which it is afl5rmed by St. Matthew, "that that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet" vr&s fulfilled in the slaughter of the babes of Bethlehem and the "coasts thereof," i.e., the surrounding country. A different formula is hero used by the EvangeHst from that which occurs in vs. 15 and 23, and it has been argued, and perhaps not unrea- sonably, that all that tho words necessarily imply is that tho language of the prophet might well be applied, by way of accommodation, to tho event related in the pre- ceding verse. This explanation, however, will scarcely be deemed satisfactory to those who are accustomed to have regard, not so much to the design of tho human writer, or to his perception of tho moaning of his own words, as to tho mind of the inspiring Spirit. Nor is it unrea-souablo to suppose that just as the prophecy quoted in ver. 1.5 looked back to the exodus of the typical Israel, and foi-ward to tho return from Egypt of the true Israel, so tho words of Jeremiah may have had their primary and, so to speak, typical fulfilment in the IsraeliteB for special " weeping and supplications " (see Jer. iii. 21 ; Tii. 29 ; in both of which places, however, a different word is used for " high places"). This signification is supportedby the Chaldee paraphrast, in the Latin version, thus : " Vox in excelso mundi audita est, domus Israel flentis et gementis, post Jeremiam Pro- phetam, postquam misit eum Nebuzar-adan princeps occidentium a Kama." (A voice was heard, on a high place of the world, of the house of Israel weeping and groaning after Jeremiah the Prophet, after that Nebuzar-adan, the chief of the executioners, dismissed liim from Eamah.) deportation into Babylon, and their ultimate fulfilment in tho ovont recorded by St. Matthew. In some respects the latter of these two events seems moro fully to satisfy tho terms of the prophecy than the former. The mourning for the slaughter of the babes at Bethlehem may bo well conceived to have been more bitter than that for tho deportation into Babylon, inasmuch as the one was inflictod by an avowed enemy, whilst the other was inflicted by Israel's nominal king ; iuasmuch as in the one there was " hope that tho children should come again to their own border," whilst in tho other they were utterly destroyed ; and iuasmuch, lastly, as tho flight into Egypt must have remained unknown to many, and those who had hailed with joy tho bl.'th of the promised Deliverer may well have " refused to bo comforted," in the belief that "He was not." This personification in the person of Rachel of those who were "looking for the consolation of Israel," derives additional force and beauty from tho fact that in Ruth iv. 11 Rachel and Leah are represented as the common mothers of tho people of God ; and although Rachel was the mother of two only of tho sons of Jacob, she, as well as Leah, is described as " biuldiug the house of Israel." Again, although the word used by the prophet, which is translated " they were not," does not invariably imply the death of the person to whom it is applied, it more frequently bears that signification than any other. Once moro, it must not bo forgotten that tho whole of the context in which tho prophecy is found is, in the strictest and fullest sense of the words, a prophecy of the latter days, a jjrojjhecy including ui its wide embrace the entire compass of tho Christian dispensation, be- ginning (if wo may assume tho Messianic reference of ver. 22) with tho mu-aculous conception of our Lord, and ending with that glorious consummation which is described in the Epistle to tho Hebrews, with express reference to tho same chapter of the prophecies of Jeremiah as that from which St. Matthew quotes the words imder consideration, when " they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord : for all shall know mo, from the least to the greatest. For I itxU be mercifid to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no moro " (Hob. viii. 11, 12, cit«d from Jer. xxxi. 34). On these then, as well on other grounds which might be urged, it seems reasonable to infer that the prophetic personification of Rachel, mourning over hor lost or slain children, had a direct reference, in the mind of the inspiring Spirit, to the slaughter, in the days of Horod, of the babes of Bethlehem, and of the adjoining confines of Judah and of Benjamin ; and that in the lamentation of the bereaved mothers of those districts the words of Jeremiah received a yet fuller aceompfishmont than in the mourning at the deportation into Babylon : " A voice was heard in Ram.ah, lamentation, and bitter weeping ; Rahel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her chUdreu, because they were not." 21- THE BIBLE EDUCATOR. ANIMALS OF THE BIBLE. BY THE BEV. W. HOUGHTON, M.A., F. L.S., RECTOR OF PKESTON, SALOP. WILD CATTLE. [EAVING the domestic cattle, we come to the wild cattle of Palestine that appear to have roamed among the forests and hills of the country in Biblical times. In the English yersion we meet with two passages (Deut. xiv. 5, and Isa. li. 20) where the Hebrew words lope (Oryx leucoryx) of North Africa, Syria, &e. ; that the horus seen in profile appear as one, and hence the mistake of regarding it as a one-homed animal ; others have no hesitation in referring the unicorn to the one- horned rhinoceros {R. unicornis) of Asia. This is the opinion generally entertained at this day. Now all attempts to discover a one-horned animal that shall OETX LEUCORTX. ieo or to are represented by " wild ox " and " wild bull " respectively ; but it is probable that the animal denoted by the original word is rather some species of antelope tlian a bovine animal ; this question we shall consider at another time. There is another Hebrew word of frequent occurrence in the Bible — viz., reem, reeim, or reim, which our translators always translate " unicorn," but which there can lie no doubt means " wild buU," as we shewed ten years ago ; see the Annals and Maga- zine of Natural History, Nov., 1862, in a paper on the "Unicorn of the Ancients; " the Quarterly Review, on the " Natural History of the Bible." No. 227, &c. We here reproduce our remarks from the first mentioned : — " And first of aU there is the unicorn of the Bible. Pages upon pages have been written on this subject. Some have said the animal must have been the ante- represent the unicorn of our English Bible are beyond the mark entirely, and for this simple reason : the so-called unicorn is no unicorn at all; tho Hebrew word (reem) denotes a two-homed animal beyond the shadow of doubt. The ' unicorn ' of our English Bible owes its origin to the Septuagint and Vulgate versions.' In Deut. xxxiii. 17, which contains a por- tion of Joseph's blessing, it is said, ' His horns are like tJie horns of a reem.' Our translators, seeing the contradiction involved in the expression, 'horns of the Mjiicorn,' have rendered the Hebrew singular noun as if it were a plural form in the text, though they give the correct translation in the margin. Tho 1 MovoKeptat in all the passages but one, where the Septuagiat has uipoi. The Vulgate has wiicornis, aud sometimes rhinoceros. ANIMALS OF THE BIBLE. 25 two horns of the reem are ' the ten thousands of Jliphraim and the thousands of Manasseh,' and repre- sent the two tribes which sprang from one (viz., Joseph), just as two horns spring from one head. Tlie unicorn of the Bible, therefore, may be tlismissed at once, as being a very unhappy translation of the Hebrew two- horned reem, the animal denoted being, there cannot be much doubt, some species of ' wild ox,' as appears Palestine and Syria in Biblical times, as is clear frsm the numerous allusions to them in Holy Writ ; and it is interesting to note, as an additional pioof, that the late Dr. Rotii discovered bones of the lion in gravel near the Jordan. It is therefore quite probable that future in- vestigations in Palestine may result in the discovery of the bones of Bos primigenius, or Bison priscus, or some other formidable ox. All readers will remember the BISON B0NASSU3. pretty evident from a comparison of the different pas- sages where the word occurs in Holy Scripture. The reem was two-horned ; it is almost always mentioned with bovine animals ; it is said to push with its horns ; it must have been frequently seen roaming on the hiUs of Palestine, or in the woods of the Jordan valley, as is evident from the numerous allusions to it. It is true there is no wild ox at present known to exist in Pales- tine ; but this is no reason why, in early times, some mighty species, allied perhaps to the urns which Caesar saw in the Hercynian forest, should not have existed in that country. Lions were certainly not uncommon in beautiful description of the reem in the Book of Job. Now let us compare with it the accoimt Caesar gives of the fierce urus which in his time frequented the great Hercynian forest ; ' These uri are scarcely less than elephants in size, but in their nature, colour, and forms are bulls. Great is tlieir strength and great their sjiccd nor do they spare man or beast when they owce have caught sight of him. The hunters ai-e most careful to kill those which they take in pitfalls, wliUe the young men exercise themselves by this sort of hunting, and grow hardened by the toil ; those of them who kill most receive great praise when they exhibit in publio THE BIBLE EDUCATOR, the homs as tropaies of their success. These uri, how- ever, even when they are young, cannot be habituated to man and made tractable. The size and shape of their horns are very different from those of our oxen." The indomitable nature ascribed to these wild iiri exactly agrees with the description of the reem as given in chap, xxxix. of the Book of Job ; and the ap- parently imphed contrast whieli is made between the domestic ox and the wild urus finds an analogue in the above extract from Caesar. The same remark may he made with respect to the great size and strength of the Scriptural reeni when contrasted with the do- mestic oxen of Palestine, the ancient inhabitants of which land would naturally draw the same comparison between their domestic cattle and the mighty reem, as Caesar's legions did between then- cattle (-Bos longifrons) and the great Hercynian wild bidls (Bos primigenius), whose bones are now occasionally found, together with those of the elephant, hyaena, &c., in the Tertiary deposits of tliis country. Mention of the reeni is made iu the following pas- sages :— "God brought them out of Ejypt; lie hatb, as it were, the strength of a ream " (Numb, sxiii. 23 ; xxiv. 8). " His glory is like the firstling of his hullock^ And his horns are like the horns of a rccm; With them shall he push the people together To the ends of the earth j And they (the two horns) are the ten thousanas of Ephraim, And they are the thousands of Mauasseh " (Deut. sxiiii. 17). We liave already explained this passage ; which, in- deed, written in full, explains itself : we only now call attention to the parallelism : — i"; -an iniii) liin T:"1P D.V^ ^'2^^)^' Bel:6r sh6r6 hiiddf lo, Vekarnei r'em limiiaiv. The multitudes of the tribe of Ephraim are represented by the one horn, and tlie multitudes of the tribe of Manasseh by the other horn, of a bullock or wUd bull. The Hebrew word occurs three times in the Psalms : — " Save me from the hon's mouth, for thou hast heard me from the horns of the recms*' (ssii. 21). "He maketh them to skip like a calf: Lebanon and Sii-ion like a young recni " (rrix. 6), where the paralleMsm is again to bo noted. *' My horn shalt thou esalt like the horn of a reem " (xcii. 10). The animal is also mentioned iu Isaiah (xxxiv. 6, 7), where the parallelism of the whole passage is very striking : — " The sword of Jehovah is filled with blood ; It is made fat with fatuess ; With the blood of Iambs and poats, With the fat of the kidneys of rams ; Jehovah hatli a sacrifice iu Bozr.ih, And a great slaughter in the land of Edom ; And the reems shall come doivu ivith them. The o.rea and the strong} hulls." Under the imago of a great sacrifice of cattle to Jehovah, the prophet describes a terrible destruction that is to take place among Israel's enemies, especially the Edomites. The lambs and goats and rams, it is very probable, denote the people, while the reems, oxen, and strong bulls represent the chiefs and princes. A f idler description of the reem is given in the Book of Job :— ** Will the reem be willing to serve thee, Or will he abide by thy crib ? Canst thou bind the veem by his baud iu his furrow ? Or will he harrow the valleys after thee ? Wilt thou trust him, because his strength is great ? Or wilt thou leave thy labour to him ? Wilt thou believe him, tliat he will bring home thy seed, And gather it into thy barn ?" (xxxix. 9 — 12.) AU this exactly suits some fierce un- tamable urus or wild buU, but is inax>plicable to the buffalo, a common beast of burden in many countries ; besides, we have shown above that the btiffalo was certainly not known in Palestine in Biblical times, being comparatively a recent introduction from India. It may bo remembered that we stated our belief, some years ago, in the probability of future investiga- tions resulting in the discovery of the remains of some species of wild Bos or Bison. Our remarks appeared in the Quarterly Revieiv (ccxxvii., p. 53), as weU as in the Annals and Magazine of Natural History. Shortly aftei'wards Dr. Tristram ^dsited Palestine, and discovered in bone breccia in the Lebanon five teeth, which were submitted to examination by a high authority iu such matters, Mr. W. Boyd Dawkins, who said that four of the teeth belonged to some ox which cannot be distinguished from the aurochs (Bos primi- genius), and the other tooth probably to a bison. Dr. Tiistram, commenting on our prediction expressed in the Quarterly, says : " We may now congratulate him on the speedy verification of his anticipation, and on the further elucidation of an obscure Scriptural refer- ence " (The Land of Israel, p. 1'2). The sagacity of Mr. Layard some years ago led liim to think, from the occurrence of wild bulls on the Assyrian monuments, that the Hebrew reem was one of these animals. " I was at one time inclined to think," he writes, " that the bull of the sculptures might repre- sent the unicorn, or raim. so often alluded to in the Scriptures, as an animal renowned for its strength and ferocity, and typical of power and might " (Niiieveh and its Remains, vol. ii.. p. 429). Prom all that has been said above, it would seem almost certain that the Hebrew reenb denotes some fierce wild bidl, once not uncommon in Palestine, though long since extinct in that country. We are now going to furnish the reader with what we regard conclusive e\-idonce to prove that the Hebrew name reem not only signifies a wild buU, but that wild bulls actually did exist in Palestine aljout 800 years before Christ. The cuneiform inscriptions shall supply tliis e^'idenee. Figures of wild bulls of great size and strength occur iu the old monuments of Nimrud; the accom- panying woodcut (page 27), taken from a marble slab iu the British Museum, represents an AssyriiUi monarch, Assur-natsir-pal (" Asshur protects his son "), himtiug wild bulls, about B.C. 884. The ideogi-am for a wild AJSnUALS OF THE BIBLE. 27 bull, i^^jA (forming the syllabk am), is of frequent occui'rence on the sculptures. Assyrian scholars read the sign phonetically as rhn or rimu ; and that this is correct appears from the fact that sometimes the animal is expressed by syllables, thus, ri-i-mu or ri-mu. They interpret the word to mean " a wild ox." The following are passages where the rimti, or wild buE, is spoken of: — 1. " Mat-su kima alpi am (rtmi), a-dis" {i.e, "his country like oxen [wild bulls] I trod down ") (Non-is, Assyrian Diet., i., p. 21). The word alpi is the ordinary Assyrian word for "cattle." It is clearly the Hebrew eleph (pi. aldphim); its being followed by the ideogram given above helps to determine the meaning of rimu. 2. ''As-ru ru-su-qu, i-na niri ya ri-ma-nis at-ta-hiz" (p. 55) ("A difficult place on my feet like a wild bull the Hittites and at the foot of Lebanon he killed "). Thus it appears nothing- is wanting to show that the meaning of the Hebrew word reem is a wild boll, and that these animals existed in Palestine in historical times about 800 years before Christ. Wo ask the reader to pay attention to the form and size of the horns in the woodcuts of the domestic cattle of the Assyrians, and to compare them with the horns of the wUd bidl or reem. These last are much stronger and larger than those of the domestic animals. We might expect some reference to these large and power- ful horns in the Assyrian monuments ; and this, too, we absolutely find. The reem is not unfrequeutly expressed on the monuments as am'si, i.e. " the horned reem;" 'si being used ideographically for Jearnu, "a horn," the Hebrew keren. Ml ' I r-— r ^n,^^ -a. r?a '\\t\ V-- •n ilii '"' 'i'Vlfuf, ud^^^^ _UilJliL_..^l _, J ASSUR-KATSIE-PAl, KING OF ASSYRIA, HUNTING WILD BULLS, (ASSYBIAN.> T encountered"). The word ri-ma-nis is an adverb formed from the old plural of rimu in aii(it), like tulanis, "in heaps.'" 3. IV. hiichal rimi dan-nu-fe su-iu-ru-te na -pis-ta su-iiu ii-sak-ti (" Pour wild bulls, full-grown and fine, their lives I cut ofp ") (p. 81). The monuments also show that these rimi were hunted in Palestine. On the Broken Obelisk, pro- bably of Assur-natsir-pal, these words occur : — " Rimi sa pa-an Cha-at-te va in nir Lib-na-a- ni i-duh" ("WUd bulls which oj^posite the land of In the annals of Tiglath-pileser I. the following words occur: "X. am-' si bu-cha-U . . . In a-duk" (i.e., " ten full-grown horned wOd bulls I kiUed " (see Norris, Assyr. Diet., i., p. 81). Again, on the Broken Obelisk of Assur-natsu--pal : " Ani-'si ina iz-bam. (mitpanu) ra-san-Ut" (i.e, "horned wild bulls with his bow he brought down") (Norris, i., p. 311). Thus these wild cattle or mi are spoken of, being especially characterised by the strength and size of their horns. Since much of the above was written we have received a letter from Mr. A. H. Sayee, to whom we are much indebted for kind help in Assyrian and Accadian words, and who thus writes to us on this matter : — " It seems to me that you are right in thiukmg that the evidence is complete, that reem means a wild bidl, and that we have historical evidence of its former existence in Palestine." Both the urns and the bison had a vride geo- graphical range. They were to bo found from the Rhine to China, in Thrace, and Asia Minor ; while they or allied species are still found in Siberia and the 28 THE BIBLE EDUCATOR. forests both of Northern and Southern Persia ; while tho gigantic Oaur (Bibos fjanr) (of which animal we possess a magnificent jjair of horns), and several con- goners, are spread over aU the mountain wildernesses of India, and the Sheriffi-al-Wady ; and a further colossal species roams, with other wild bulls, in the valleys of Atlas (Hamilton Smith, in Kitto's Cyclop. Bib. Lit). Gigantic oxen belonging to the genera Bison and Bos once roamed at large in our own country, but we have no historical record of their existence. Skulls and horn-coros, and a few bones, chiefly metatarsal and metacarpal, whicli have been found in some places in -England and Scotland, sliow the existence of a large taurine race which was probably entii'ely destroyed by the old inhabitants before the invasion of Britain by Jnhus Csesar. Wlien the Roman armies penetrated the forests of Belgium and Germany, they found two large species of wild cattle, the Urus and the Bison. Of the urus, which was distinguished by the great length of the liorns, we have already spoken; the bison was dis- tiuguislied by its shaggy coat. "Germany," says Pliny (Nat. Hist. viii. 15), "though it has not very many animals, has some fine kinds of wild oxen, bisons with long manes, and uri of remarkable strength and speed" (Jiibatos bisontes, excellentiqiie vi et velocitate uros). Seneca briefly and characteristically describes these two species : — " Tibi cJant variEe pectora tigrea. Tibi villosi terga bisontes Latisqne feri coruibus uri " (Hipp. vi. 3). Tlio lu-us, which Professor Owen identifies ^vith the Bos priniigenius, whose remains liave been found in the allu\'ial beds of rivers and the newer Tertiaiy deposits of tliis country, in marlpits in Scotland, in drift sand overlying the Loudon clay, iu a tumulus of the Wilt-' shire downs, &c., has long become extinct, though it seems to have existed at later periods of the Roman Empire, and to liavo been occasionally, together with the bison, captured and exhibited alive in the shows of the amphitheatre. The genus Bos differs from the genus Bison in these particulars : — " The forehead of the ox (bos) is flat, and even slightly concave ; that of the auroclis (bison) is convex, though somewhat less so than the buffalo ; it is quadrate in the ox ; its lieight, taking the base between the orbits, being equal to its breadth ; in the aurochs, measured at the same place, the breadth greatly exceeds the height, in the propor- tion of 3 to 2. The horns are attached in the ox to the extremity of the highest salient line of the head, that which separates the forehead from the occiput; in the aurochs this lino is two inches behind the root of tlio liorns. The plane of the occiput forms an acute angle with the forelioad in tlio ox ; the angle is obtuse in tho aurochs. FmaUy, that plane of the occiput is quadrangular in the ox, but semicircular in the aurochs "' (Menagerie da Mas. (VHist. Nat., quoted from Owen). " Tho ribs never exceed in number thirteen pairs in any species of Bos pi-oper ; the European Bison or aurochs has fourteen, and the American Bison fifteen pairs of ribs" (British Fossil Mammals and Birds, pp. 492, 493). From the recent character of the osseous subst-ances of the skulls obtained from marlpits in Scotland, Pro- fessor Owen concludes that the Bos primiijeniiis main- tained its ground longest in Scotland. There may be found here aud there in history marks of the occui'rence of the uri in Germany subsequent to the time of Ccesar, Seneca, and Phny. It is related of Charlemagne that he used to hunt bisons and uri when in the humour. " Cum ecce quietis et otii impatientissimns Carolus ad venatum bisoutium vel urorum in nemus ire, et Persa- rum nuntios secum parat educere " (Sangall, lib. ii. Be Carolo M., c ii., quoted from Du Gauge's Gloas., a. v. " Urus ") Professor Owen writes, " It is remarkable that tho two kinds of gi-eat wild oxen recorded in the Niebelunrjen Lied of the twelfth century as ha\'ing been slain with other beasts of chase in the great hunt of the Forest of Worms, are mentioned imder the same names which they received from the Romans : — ' Dar nacli scbluch er scbiere einen Wlsent und einen Elch, Starcher l/rc vier, und einen griiumen Scbelch.' (* After this be straightway slew a Bison and an Elk, Of tbo strong Un four, and a single fierce Scbelch. 'J TliG image of the great urus in the full vigour of life is powerfully depicted in a later poem, destined perhaps to be as immortal as the Niehelungen : — * Mightiest of all the beasts of chase That roam in woody Caledon, Crashing the forest in bis race, The mountain bull comes thundering on.' But the following stanza shows that Scott drew his picture from the Chillingham wild cattle : — * Fierce, on the hunter's quiver'd band, He rolls his eyes of swarthy glow ; Spurns with black hoof and horn the sand. And tosses high his mane of snow ' (Scott, Ballai of Cadyow Castle)." We do not think Sir Walter Scott was thinking of the Chillingham wild cattle ; he doubtless had in view a passage from the Scotia; Descriptio of Lesley (p. 13), where a huge fierce wild bull is mentioned, very white in colour, with a mane like a Hon. The Bison has continued down to this day ; it is .still to be found in the forests of Litluiania, Moldavia, and the Caucasus. It lias never Ijeen domesticated, but herds are protected, to the number of about 800, in the forest of Bialowieza, under the direction of the Emperor of Russia. There is a very fine stuffed specimen of this aurochs in the British Museum, which was presented some years ago by the Emperor of Russia. Cffisar aud Pliny say that the large horns of the urus were anxiojisly sought after for making into cups to be used at splendid entertainments, or for ornaments, the tips being bound with silver. The ancient monarchs of Assyria also prized the horns of wild cattle for ornaments ; such sentences as tho fol- lowing occur on the monuments : " Silver, gold, lead, copper, iron, horns of wild oxen (ka am-si) without number I received them." " Their skins, their horns (hai sunu), with wild oxen alive to my city Assur, I carried " (Norris, Ass^jr. Diet, ii., p. 502). The figures THE COINCIDElSrCES OF SCRIPTURE. 29 of the wild bulls whicli occur on the As.;yriau mouu- ments exhibit strong animals ■svith loug powerful horns, and would indicate that they belonged to the genus Bos, and not to the genus Bison. Note.— The European Bison— the Bos Bison of Liunseus, the Bhoii Bonassus of Gray, the Bison priscit^ of Oweu, the Urochs, Auer-ochs, Wald-ochse, &c., of Germau writers— is no doubt iden- tical Kith the fossil Aurochs, these being the ancestors of tha animals now living in the forests cf Lithuania. THE COINCIDENCES OF SCRIPTURE. THE HEEODIAN FAMILY. BY THE EDITOK. St does not come within the scope of this paper to give a complete account of the rise and fall of this dynasty, and of the influence which it exercised for good or evil — mostly, it must be confessed, for evil — on the fortunes and character of Judaism. That account will come in its natural place, as part of the series of papers to which we have given the title of " Between the Books," and which will include the period that in- tervenes from the retm-n of the Jews from Babylon to the destruction of Jerusalem. There are, however, many points of interest to the general student of the Gospels in which the narrative of Josephus or other Jewish writers presents coincidences that at once illus- trate and confirm the records of the New Testament. They show that where those records come into contact with the history of the outside world, as forming the stage on which the Divine drama was being played out to its great issues, they breathe the very spirit of the time to which they purport to belong, and are accurate with an unconstrained accuracy which was not likely to be met with in documents that were the mythical after- growth of a later age. So far, then, the coincidences which will bo noticed here will have something, at least, of an evidential value. In not a few instances, it is believed, they will serve to throw a fresh light on passages the full significance of which is, for want of adequate knowledge, but half perceived by many readers. It will bo convenient to arrange the coinci- dences more or less chronologically. I. HEEOD THE GREAT. (1.) " Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days P" (John ii. 20.) " And as some spake of the temple, how it was adorned with goodly stones and gifts" (Luke xxi. .5). "As He went out of the temple, one of his disciples saith unto Him, Master, see what manner of stones and what buildings are here " (Mark xiii. 1). It was part of the policy of Herod, after ho had ob- tained the title and power of king of Judea through the murder of John Hyreanus, the last representative of the priestly Maccabaean dynasty, and the favour of the Emperor Augustus, to win the good-will of his subjects and the praise of other nations by works of a dazzling magnificence. Among these, which included a temple dedicated to Augustus at Paneas, near the sources of the Jordan, a theatre for gladiatorial games and chariot races at Caesarea, a temple of Apollo at Rhodes, public buildings at Kicopolis and at Antioch, and (strange combination!) the revival, in something of their old splendour, of the Olympic games, that which fixed itself most on the minds of the inhabitants of Palestine was the reconstruction of the Temple (B.C. 20). Ten thousand workmen were pressed into the service, a thou- sand priestly garments provided for the more solemn celebration of sacrifices and daily psalmody, the priests themselves trained to be overlookers of the works. The foundations were relaid on those of the older Temple in large white stones ; the Temple was surrounded ivith cloisters ; a golden vine covered the gateway with its branches and its clusters. The inauguration of the sanc- tuary took place a year and a half after the work had been begun, but the cloisters were not finished for eight years (Joseph., Ant. xv. II). The bounty of the king, however, did not end here. During the remainder of his life, from time to time, he adorned it -with costly gifts, in- cluding, in one memorable instance, a golden eagle, dedi- cated, we may well believe, in honour of the master of the Roman legions, which roused the zeal of the Jews, as bringing with it the pollution of the holy place by the worship of a graven image (Joseph., Ant. xvii. 6). His example was doubtless followed by the wealthier priests and citizens, by pilgrims who came from distant countries ; and from the date when the restoration was begun, B.C. 20, to that when our Lord began his ministry, A.D. 26 (a period of exactly forty-six years),' the work probably never entirely ceased. The multitude at Jeru- salem were strictly withru the letter when they described the building as having gone on for that period. It was upon the "goodly stones and gifts " thus brought together that the Galilean disciples gazed with admiration. (2). It was probably to the reign of this Herod that we have to ascribe the growth of the party or sect known as the Herodians. It is remarkable that the only men- tion of them by tliat name in the New Testament occurs in the Gospels of St. Matthew (xxii. 16) and St. Mark (iii. 6 ; xii. 1.3), and that they are not mentioned at all by Josephus or any other writer. The name was in its form, like Mariani, Pompeiani, and, we may add, Cliris- tiani (the followers of Marius, Pompeius, Christus), essentially Latin in its form, and implied that it was ' Our Lord was *' about thirty years of age " at the time of his baptism (Luke iii. 23). The actual date of the Nativity must be placed, however (the Christian era having been inaccurately reckoned when it first came to be emplo.ved), at B.C. 4, and tha commencement of his ministry coincides, therefore, uot with A.D. 30, but with A.D. 26. 30 TKE BIBLE EDUCATOR. given after Roman influences liad begun to tell upon the nation. The Herodians are obviously something more than a political piirty, something less than a religious sect. They differ from the Pharisees on the question whether it was lawful to pay tribute to Ceesar, as Herod and his sons had compelled their subjects to do (Matt. xxii. 16, 17). They coalesce with them, sometimes, as in the instance just referred to, under the guise of a simulated opposition, sometimes in open union against the Teacher in whom they saw a common enemy. The origin of the party as such is not very definitely marked. A movement which for a time threatened to break up the unity of the Pharisee party may, however, with some probability, bo regarded as its starting-point. The great Rabbi Hillel had at one time as his colleague a certain Menahem, identical probably with Manaen the Essone, of whom more hereafter. The former continued stedfast to the milder, wider forms of Pharisee tratlition, such as that of which Gamaliel was afterwards the repre- sentative, and watched with jealousy and disfavour the Hellenising, heathenising poUcy of the son of the Idu- mean Antipater. The latter, attracted by the hopes of advancement and the rising power of Herod, seceded from his party, and was followed by not less than eighty of his adherents among the Scribes. They adopted, as the outward badge of their new position, the luxurious habits and the gorgeous dress, glittering with gold em- broidery, in which the Herodian dynasty delighted (comp. Acts xii. 21). Such a body would obviously be regarded by the zealous Pharisees much in the same way as those among the high Anglican party who took the oath of allegiance to William and Mary were regarded by the Non-jurors, and yet would still retain points of contact with them, leading sometimes to actual co-opera- tion. The fact just mentioned throws anew light upon the words spoken by our Lord to the disciples of John the Baptist, " What went ye out into the wilder- ness to see? A reed shaken with the wind?" The preacher of repentance was not like those Scribes of shifty and supple nature, who veered about as the wind of court favour blew from this or that point of the com- pass. " But what went ye out for to see ? A man clothed in soft raiment? Behold, they that are gorgeously apparelled, and live delicately, are in king's houses" (Matt. xi. 7, 8 ; Luke vii. 24, 25). The Baptist was not like those renegade teachers who had sunk into the liveried parasites of a court. Both descriptions fit in with admirable precision to the character of the Hero- dians, to the followers of Menahem, and they do not fit in to any other party or set of teachers who could bo contrasted with the Baptist. And the probability of their being thus referred is strengthened, we may .add, by the fact, which we learn from a comparison of Luke vi. 11 with Mark iii. 6, that the coalition between the Herodians (whom St. Luke does not mention) and the Pharisees had all but immediately preceded the words of indignant scorn which St. Mark does not record. The coincidence in this case is one of that most interesting kind, ia which a fact mentioned altogether incidentally by one writer supplies the key to the right under- standing of words recorded by another. May we not believe that the studied mockery with which, when our Lord was brought before the Totrarch, he and his men of war " arrayed him in a gorgeous robe," was an act of vindictive maUce, seeking to revenge the scorn which the supporters of Herod had felt so keenly ? We know from Matt. xxii. 16 that the Herodians were at Jerusa- lem at the time, and we should naturally look for them among the prominent persons at their prince's court. (3.) The name of Menahem just mentioned connects itself with another set of facts in the histoiy of Herod the Great. In the chililhood of that king an Essene ■ who bore that name, and whose austerity of life had won for him the reputation of a prophet, had gi-eeted him, as by a divine impulse, as the fiiture king of the Jews, had warned hiin against his besetting vices, and predicted the punishment that would fall upon him if ho yielded to them. When the prophecy was half ful- fiUod. and Herod had gained the kingly title, he sent for the Essene prophet, and inquired how long he was to retaia possession of his power. The -eager question was not definitely answered, but as he held out a hope of twenty or thirty years at least, Herod dismissed him with, honour, and continued to favour the Essenes. Josephus, who records tlie story {Aiitiq. xv. 11, § 5), had at one time attached himself to the Essene communities, and his in- formation probably rested on what he had heard as ono of the traditions of the sect. It is obviously all but impossible to avoid connecting this narrative with the facts that there was a foster-brother of Herod the tetrarch, who bore the name of Manaen or Menahem (Acts xiii. 1), and that one of the same name was the loader of the seceding scribes who formed the nucleus of the Herodian party described in the last section. In some way or other, we may believe, Herod sought to show honour to the prophet by bringing up his son or grandson as a child of the palace, among his own sons. The influence which such an association may have had on the totrarch's character, and the other coincidences which connect themselves with it, will be noticed more fully below.' It is remarkable that at a later date, when Archelaus was summoned to Rome, and had a strange mysterious vision that perplexed him, ho too consulted a diviner of the sect of the Essenes, who was held in respect as an interjireter of dreams {Antiq. xvii. 11). (4.) Moro striking still, as illustrating what we are told in Matt. ii. of the suspicious temper and relentless cruelty of the king, is the picture drawn by Josephus of the old ago of Herod. Ono by one, all whom he sus- pected among his own children had fallen %-ictims to hia jealousy. But two years before the birth of Christ the sons of Mariamno, his best loved wife, Alexander and Aristobulus, were strangled at Sebasto in Samaria. A little later, in the wretchedness of an old age which re- minds us in its utter misery of that of Tiberius, his body devoured by ulcerous sores, his soul tormented by its remorse, after a haK-accomplished attempt at suicide, ' Compare also tho writer's Biblical Studios, Essay on Manaeo. THE COINCIDENCES OF SCRIPTURE. 31 he gave orders that Autipater, another son, should also bo put to death. Even the Emperor, who had long supported him, was weary of the ceaseless complaints brought by the tyrant against his o^vu chililren, and said, in the bitterness of his scorn, that it was better to be a swine of Herod's than a son. What was more likely than that all the suspicions of such a man should be roused by the tidings that men had como fi-om the East asking, "Where is he that is born king of the Jews ?"' that, with the usual craft of his nature, he should dissemble his jealousy, and feign a desii-e to do homage to the king whom his people were expecting P Wo must not forget too that in the interval between the Nativity and the arrival of the Magi there had occurred the presenta- tion in the Temple, and that it must already have been whispered in secret among those who " looked for re- demption iu Israel " that from the house and lineage of David, and the stir and throng of the first census of Quirinus (Cyrenius), One had been bom who should be " a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of his people Israel."' (5.) The imperial bon mot just mentioned connects itself with another fact in the Gospel history. The history of the Gadareno demoniacs shows that, at least in Galilee, it was not uncommon, though iu ilagraut violation of the Mosaic law, for large herds of swine to be kept, in order, we may believe, to supply the wants of the Roman soldiers into whose diet swine's iJesh, iu some form or other, entered so largely. How long that traffic had existed, or whether there was any demand for the forbidden flesh among the older inhabitants — remnants of the old Canaanite races and the like — of Galilee, wo cannot say. But the saying now before us shows that Herod at all events had sanctioned and extended it, and though not eating swine's flesh himself (his defiance of the religious scruples of his people docs not seem to have gone as far as that), to have sanctioned what he might make a source of profit, and to have compelled or persuaded his subjects to become herdsmen of the unclean beast. After the death of Archelaus, Jerusalem, with only occasional visits from the Procurator, became moro intensely Jewish ; Galilee, under Antipas, more thoroughly Romanised. The eastern shores of the Sea of Galilee were so in a pre-eminent degree, and it is in tliat region that we meet with a form of the peasant's life which in Judea would have been looked on with abhorrence, and which was taken, as iu the parable of the Prodigal Son, as the type of extremest degradation. II. ARCHELAUS. (1.) The position of Archelaus in the narrative of the Gospels is entirely a subordinate one. He is mentioned but once. When Joseph,' after hearing in Egypt of the death of Herod, rose and took the young child and his mother, and came into the land of Israel, ho " hoard that Archelaus did reign in JudKa in the room of his father Herod, and was afraid to go thither" (Matt. ii. 22). ' The chronology of the events connected with the Nativity is not without difficulty. Wieseler, the most thorough and accu- rate of harmonists, places the an-ival of the Magi immediately after the presentation in the Temple Two things are noticeable in this statement, (a) The fact of Archelaus being the successor of his father seems to have come upon Joseph as something unex- pected ; so, indeed, it might well do. The right of suc- cession in an Eastern monarchy like that which Herod had founded was somewhat unsettled, and, like that of tho Roman imjierium, was practically made to depend on the testamentary disposition of the present owner. It was characteristic of the i-apidly changing jealousies and suspicions of the later years of Herod's reign that no less than three such mils were made one after another ; the first aijpointiug Antipater, who was aftei-wards executed ; tho second Herod Antipas, afterwards the Tetrarch ; and lastly, one made just before his death, de- signating Archelaus. It may well have been, therefore, that one who had left Judaea before Herod's death would bo more sui-prised to find that prince ^vielding the sceptre. (6) The narrative imx^hes that Joseph thought there would be greater safety imdcr Herod Antipas iu Galilee than there was under Archelaus iu Judaea. This also would be in perfect accordance with the facts of the case. The evil nature of Antipas had not as yet fully shown itself. That of Archelaus rivalled, withiu a few months of his accession, the cruelty of his father. The Passover camo, and the streets of the city were crowded with pilgrims. An enthusiastic wish to do honour to the memory of two leaders, Judas and Matthias, who had died what was looked upon as a martyi'"s death against the heathenising en- croachments of Herod, took possession of the mul- titudes, and wrought them to a feverish excitement Archelaus gi-ew alarmed, sent in his horsemen to dis- perse them, and on meeting with resistance attacked them and slew not less than three thousand men. The remembrance of this massacre must have been fresh in the minds of men when Joseph found himself on his way back from Egypt, and may well have led him to seek a refuge in the sheltered home at Nazareth rather than in David's city, in which, as belonging to the house and liueage of D.avid, he probably possessed some patrimony. It may have helped to determine his course of action that while Archelaus was at that time actually governing in Jerusalem, Antipas had taken his departure for Rome iu the hope of obtaining, through the Emperor's favour, the confirmation of his father's second will which had assigned him the kingdom (Joseph., Aniiq. xvii. 2, §§ 6, 8, 9). (2). It is a remarkable feature in the parable of the Pounds, as recorded by St. liuko (xix. 13), that it begins with tho statement, " A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return," that after what we may call tho substance of the parable, which it has iu common with St. Matthew's parable of the Talents, it adds what that does not give us, the incident that his citizens hated him, and sent a message after him, saying, " We will not have this man to reign over us ;" that on his return in power he takes vengeance on his subjects, " Those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before mo." In any other period 32 THE BIBLE EDUCATOR. of Eastern rule, in any other state of society, such a picture, a nobleman gaining a kingdom as the result of a distant journey, would have been wanting in dramatic truthfulness. It was precisely the kind of imaginary history which the actual events of the reign of Arche- laus were likely to suggest. Immediately after the massacre above referred to, Autipas started for Rome to urge his claim to the throne ; Archelaus followed him, and scenes of accusation and recrimination followed. The Emperor reserved his decision, and during the interval a delegation of fifty envoys representing eight thousand citizens arrived, poui-ing out their complaints against Ai'chelaus and his father, and above all imploring that they might be delivered for the future from all kingly rule, especially from that of one so cruel and barbarous as Archelaus. The Emperor, true to the balancing policy of Roman rulers, took a midtUe course, gave Archelaus the actual government of Judaea with the title of ethnarch, and the promise of the higher name if he merited it by his allegiance to the Empire, and appointed Antipas to the tetrarchy of Galilee. Arche- laus returned to Palestine, revenged himself on the " enemies who would not that he should reign over them," and ruled with greater cruelty than ever. A second complaint addressed to the Emperor soon followed ; Archelaus was summoned to Rome to defend himseK, condemned, deposed, and banished to Vienne in Gaul (Joseph., Antiq. xvii. 9, § 11). (3). One more fact in the life of this king is not without its interest as bearing on the Gospel history. He too married his brother's wife (Glaphyra, the widow of Alexander, by whom he had three children), in direct defiance of the law, which, while it prescribed that marriage where there was no issue, forbade it in all other cases. It shocked the feelings of the better and more devout Jews. The youth of the Baptist must have been impressed with the horror which that unLawfid union had caused in the minds of Pharisees and priests. There is, however, no record of any protest having been made agaiust it. The old indignation must have been rekindled when a like crime, aggravated by the fact that in this instance the husband was stiU living, was pei-petrated by Antipas in the marriage of his brother Philip's wife. The witness which the preacher of repen- tance bore against the sin was the utterance of a very widely spread feeling against this breaking down of even one of the baniers which the Jews, with all their faults, looked on with reverence as safeguards of the purity of home. It may be worth wMle noting, for some readers, that the Philip who was thus wronged was not the tetrarch, but another son of Herod, who lived on liis own property near Jerusalem, and that Herodias, who thus passed from one brother to another, was herself the daughter of Aristobulus, and therefore niece to both her husbands, so that the marriage was doubly unlawful (Joseph., Antiq. xvii. 11 ; xviii. 5). BOOKS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. ISAIAH. BY THE VEKY EET. E. PAYNE SMITH, D.D., DEAN OF CANTERBnEY. jHE prophet Isaiah is by general consent the greatest of all Hebrew writers, and the foremost of the long list of seers who form so reniarkiible an element in the history of the Jewish race. And yet we know hut little of his personal history. His wiitings are Iiis great memorial, and these so fully describe the person and offices of the Messiah, that from the time of St. Jerome downward he has been known as the Evangelical Prophet. We cannot, however, understand his position without a cursory glance, first, at the state of prophecy in his days : and secondly, at that of Hebrew literature. At first, then, the prophets were the great orators of the Jews. Standing apart alike from the government and the priesthood, they were an irregular power, freely criticising and interfering both ^vith cluu-ch and state, originating and controlling the chief popular move- ments, and intervening in all the great crises of affairs with wonderful energy and success, but depending for their influence mainly upon the effect of their words. Tai the time of Samuel we hear but little of them, and we may be right in gathering from the circiunstauces connected with the ^isit of Saul to Samuel, to inquire about hia lost asses (1 Sam. ix.), that as a class the seers did not then stand very high in popular estimation or possess political power. Samuel's own position was very different. He was Eli's successor in the priest- hood, and it was p.art of the duties of the high priest to consult God b}' Urim and Thummim. Moreover, his personal qualities had led to his being acknowledged, from the day of the battle of Ebenezer (1 Sam. vii. 13 — 15), as the judge, or temporal ruler, of Israel. The addition to such a man of high prophetic power both largely influenced the people in their choice of him as their ruler, and ensured him their obedience. But among the measures taken by him for the restoration of Israel from the decay into which it had fallen, one, fraught with great results, was the introduction of the rudiments of education. Till his days probably none but priests of the noblest class could read or write ; but in the fields round his own house at Ramah he gathered a few young men of promise, whom he trained for em- ployment in church and state. Soon similar schools sprang up in several of the larger tovms, at Bethel for instance, and Jericho, and Gilg.al ; and as these were presided over by prophets, we find then- pupils both bearing the same name and growing into a numerous class, whose learning stood in such high esteem, that as ISAIAH. 33 cai-ly as David's time they Lad become the historians and chroniclers of the court. Unlike the priesthood, the propliofie olBoo was open to aU ; it d32iended neither upon birth nor station ; oven education and training in the proplielic schools was no certain stepping-stone to it. No d.iubt there were vast numbers of man who were prophets simply by education. Four hundred s-acli were found in Samaria, even after Jezebel's perse- cution, and prophesied in tlio name of Jehovah jjefore Ahab and Jehoshaphat (1 Kings xxii. 6). Even these belonged to no special caste, but were recruited from all ranks alike ; but above these, from time to time, there stood forth men instinct with Divine power — few in number, but vast in might and tlignity ; men who spake for God, and who were felt to be invested with sui^er- human awf ulness. It was in the northern kingdom that prophecy first rose to this colossal grandeur. The Mosaic institutions had fallen there into decay. Jeroboam had engrafted upon them the worship of the sim, as s^inbolised by the Egyi)tian bull Apis; Ahab and Jezebel tried to •crush them, and set up instead the worship also of the sun, as represented by the Sidouiau Baal. Were the powers of the state to be permitted thus to overthrow Jehovah's worship ? No ! God always grants his people a choice. The acceptance or rejection of his •worship must bo done by them, not for them ; and the prophets were his appeal to tlie national conscience. Elijah and Elisha stepped forth, therefore, in propor- tions as vast as the evil with which they had to struggle. But in vain. They delayed Israel's fall ; wrought a reformation among large masses of the people ; saved multitudes of souls; but idolatry gradually prevailed, end Israel was carried away into a captivity which to this day has been followed by no restoration. In Judcea the prophets never attained to so grand an elevation as in Israel. They always wi-ought within a narrower circle, and more as a literary tliau as a popular power. In the books of Chronicles we find the names of a largo number who compiled histories of the kings who reigned at Jerusalem; and while writing does not appear to have been an art much iiractised in Israel — though we find it mentioned in the days of Ahab — it is reasonably certain that from the time of David there was a large literary class at Jerusalem. The historians mentioned in Chronicles were the suc- cessors of Dan and Gad, who kept the records of David's court. In the palmy .days of the learned and versatile Solomon, the number of writers must have largely increased. Of this educated class, the priests and prophets formed the chief proportion ; and the many Psalms written in these two reigns, and the per- fection of style attained to in them, prove that the standard of literary excellence, even at this early period, was a very high one. But after the days of Solomon literature for a while decayed. The rupture of the two kingdoms, the loss of national power and glory, tho disastrous invasion of Shishak, and tho tyrannical nature of Rehoboam's government, all conspired to lower the national tone, 27 VOL. II. and turn its abOity into inferior channels. Still wo find Shemaiah and Iddo writing books (2 Ghron. xii. 16), but it was not till the time (jf Hczekiah that learning again attained to something like its ancient .proportions, or indeed surpassed them. During this intermediate time there was nothinn- to call forth great energy on tho part of the prophets. The kings were in general good, if often feeble, men. The nation was slowly ripening for its high purpose, and the revolt of the ten tribes had removed the two dangers of a despotic court at home, and a military policy abroad. First under Jchosliaphat, and then under Uzziah and Jotham, Judaja enjoyed great prosperity; and though the sixteen years' reign of the foolish Aliaz brought with it a bitter reverse of fortune, yet it was not enough to undo the effects of the able govemment of the kings who had preceded Mm ; and in Kezekiah's reign Jewish literature reached its Augustan at'e. It was a reign of very chequered events in political matters. The dark cloud long gathering on the Tigris burst with tremendous force upon the mountains of Judaea. The great AssjTian warrior Sennacherib, tho pictorial record of whoso numberless conquests has been so strangely diseutomlu'd for us within the last few years, that we are as familiar with his features as with those of Napoleon or Wellington, laid his heavy- hand upon Hezekiah's dominions ; but after many a severe struggle, there were still tranquil years in store for Judsa and hor king. And of this period many literary monuments remain. Many psalms, less vigorous and forcible, but more calmly beautiful, were ivritten, inscribed to Asaph and others of the minstrels of the Temple. A supplementary collection of the psalms of David was made, of which Ps. Ixxii. 20 is a record. Search was made for proverbs by Solomon (Prov. xxv. 1) ; Micah and other prophets flourished; but alwve all Isaiah wrote liis matchless poetry. Apparently he held a high rank in the city, for Hezekiah, when sending a deputation to him, chose his highest officers and the elders of the priests (2 Kmgs xix. 2). Many of the Rabbins assert that he was of royal lineage, and brother of King Araaziah ; but of this there is no proof. Still more unfounded is the idea of Clement of Alexandria, that he was son of the prophet Amos ; for his father's name is in the Hebrew quite diSi.'rent, though the same in Greek and English. Really wo know nothing of his parentage, but lus dwelling, we find, was not in tho city of Ziou, or in the Temple buddings, but in the lower town ; for such in the Hebrew is tho me.nning of the words translated in our version, " Afore Isaiah was gone out into the middle court " (2 Kings xx. 4). It is exceedingly pro- bable that he was the head and chief of tho prophetic order, holding in Jerusalem tho same rank which Elisha had held in the prophetic schools in Israel. To such a position his great talents as well as his high gift of prophecy would justly entitle him. And those gifts seem to have developed themselves at an early ago ; for ho was appointed to write tho annals of the great King Uzziah wlion scarcely more than a boy (2 Clu-on. xxvi. 34 THE BIBLE EDUCATOR. 22). For as liis life was pro-ouged cei'tamly till towards the close of the reign of King Hezekiah, whose death is separated from that of Uzziah by a iieriod of no less than sixty years, at the utmost ho could have been but a young man when appointed to this task, and yet already in the year in which King TJzziah died ho had been called to the offico of prophet by a vision of sui-passing magnificence. The Rabbins have indeed a tradition that ho survived Hezokiah, and having provoked the anger of Manasseh by his opposition to his idolatries, was by his order enclosed in a hollow tree and sawn asunder. To this martyrdom of Isaiah the words in Heb. xi. 37 are often supposed to refer ; but really there is no authority for this legend, and it is scarcely probable that Isaiah could have lived to so great an age. There is no difficulty, howover, in supposing that Isaiah had but just arrived at manhood when he was appointed a prophet; for equally the call came to Jeremiah when still but a youth, or as less correctly rendered in our version, " a child " ( Jer. i. 6). But no more glorious vision is recorded in the Bible than that by which ho was inaugurated to his office. He saw in the Temple the Deity sitting enthroned among the seraiihim, and adored with thrice repeated cries of " Holy is Jehovah of hosts ! " Shrinking with natiu'al timidity from so heavy a responsibility, he is nevertheless solemnly dedicated to Jehovah's service by his lips being touched with a live coal from the altar, while withal he is warned that his mission would be apparently in vain. In the very acme of Uzziah's pros- perity the prophetic vision saw Judah wasted without inhabitant, the houses empty, the land desolate. Yet she could not perish. The Jew then as now bore a charmed existence. In Isaiah's days tho great piu'pose for which God had formed the nation was still altogether unaccomplished : even now there is part of the work as yet not done (Rom. xi. 15). And so the call of Isaiah ended in tho repetition of the old promise. The ty[)e of fallen Isi-ael is the oak in winter, stripped of the luxmuance of its summer foliage, but not dead. Its substance is yet in it, and in duo time it shall revive (Isa. vi. 13). So wonderful a picture of life in death, representing EG truly the intense vitality of the Jews under so long a series of national reverses, was a strange vision to greet the eye of the child-soor, called so yoimg and with such high gifts to his office ; aud it was the moro re- markable, as Isaiah was born and educated at a time of great and long-continued national XJrosxJerity. But ho lived to see tho beginning of those troubles which, coming from Nineveh aud Babylon and Rome, have literally fulfilled the vision's boding words. For a long time, as was natui'ally to be expected, tho youthful prophet does not seem to have taken much part in national affairs. His earliest prophecy is that cou- tained in cliaps. ii., iii., iv., thougii we must not suppose that his writings give us the record of the whole activity of his life. Even of this, his first prophecy, the date is uncertain ; but he describes the country as enjoying tho utmost prosperity (ii. 7), while the long list of articles of feminino adornment enumerated in chap. iii. shows how great was the luxury then prevalent, while the things themselves are as difficult to understand as would be a similar list of the toilet requisites of a West-end lady of the present day. But such luxury is just the theme which a youthful poet would lash with his satire, only Isaiah's indignation rises to nobler proportions than that of Juvenal, or of even those famous sermons of St. Chrysostom, launched against the foibles of the women of his days. A far more interesting question is tho relation o£ Isaiah to the prophet Micah ; for the prediction begins with three verses quoted vci'batun from Micah iv. 1 — 3, not omitting tho " and " at tho beginning (rendered in Micah, in our version, "but"). Now in Jer. xx\'i. 18, wo read that Micah uttered this prophecy in tho days of Hezokiah, and that it made a very great impression upon both king and people. Thus there is no little difficulty in harmonising the matter ; for we are distinctly told in Jeremiah that the prophecy is Micah's, and not Isaiah's. Next, the manner of quotation drives us to the same conclusion ; while, nevertheless, the general date of these three chapters cannot well be later than the days of Jotham. My own o^jinion is that they were pre- fixed to this prophecy at the time when Isaiah wroto chap, i., and placed it as a sort of preface to a collection of his works, published probably about 710 B.C., and containing chaps, i. — xxxv., with an historical appendix consisting of four chapters more. The quotation hangs loosely upon Isaiah's prophecy, whUo it is the very centre and core of Micah's, as subsequently it gives the key-note to some of Isaiah's own writings, as, for instance, to chap. xxv. Nothing was more natural than that Isaiah, when editing, as we should say, a collection of his prophecies in Hczekiah's days, should prefix to them words ^vith which all Jerusalem was then ringing, and should thus both himself solemnly reaffirm the appalling vision of Micah, and also add weight to his own warniugs by quotiug words so famous and so fear-inspiriug. Commentators constantly forget that the date of a prophecy as contained in the Scriptures is not merely that of the time at which the events referred to in it happened, but also that of the period when the author finally published it in a ^viitteu form. Most prophecies were, I imagine, published immediately in some form or other ; but when the author made a collection of such as had a lasting and permanent significancy, he would probably both omit what had served its purpose, and add, under the guidance of the Spirit, whatever would increase their usefulness. Such an addition seems to be this quotation from Micah prefixed to an older pi'o- phecy of Isaiah, at the time when the first chapter was written. lu that chapter wo have first a general title to tho works of Isaiah, in which they are called his A''isiou, with direct reference, doubtless, to the marvellous sight by which he was inaugurated to lus office (chap. vi.). We have, further, tho date given of Isaiah's labours, extending through the rcigus of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, ISAIAH. 35 and Hezekiah. The last name fixes generally the date when the volume was put forth in its written form ; it must have been at some time in Hezokiah's reign, and probably was about the middle of it, when Isaiah would be about sixty-five years of ago.- Its whole matter is prefatory, a sermon rather than a prediction, sharply rebuking princes and people for their sins, warning them that no amount of attendance upon Temple services, so magnificently restored by Hezokiah, would avail without personal repentance and holiness. But what decidedly fixes the date is the account of the Assyrian iuvasious. The whole country desolate, the fenced cities all captiu'ed, bauds of marauders roving without check far and wide over the land, Zion alone uncouquered, but even it shorn of its glory, and comi^ared to a booth of boughs put up for the temporary lodging of the keepers of a melon garden. But all this is past : a remnaut is left ; the Temple once again resounds with the tramp of worshippers ; sacri- fices of fed beasts tell of the restoration of agricultm-e. There has been time to recover from the worst effects of the invasions of Sennachei-ib. Now as the historical appendix ends with the account of the embassy from Merodach-baladan, itself a proof of the falliug power of Niueveh, and of Hezekiah's growing prosperity, and as this restoration of national weal is not obscurely indicated ia chap, i., it is not without grounds that we consider that this portion of Isaiah's works was collected by the prophet himself, arranged in order, and published about three or four years after the destruction of the Assyrian host. Isaiah may well have given new force to his former predictions by putting at their head the startling words with which Micah had alarmed all Jeru- salem ; and retm-uing power and prosperity may have made the warning more than ever necessary. It was probably their similarity in subject to the preface in chap^ i. that made Isaiah place the pro- phecy contained in chaps, ii., iii., iv., and that of the unfruitful vineyard (chap, v.), before the account of his inauguration to his office. Thus far all is general. It is the usual lesson of the preachei-— iind the prophets were Israel's preachers — Repent : for man is corrupt ; but God merciful. But the vision of the Almighty on his throne ushers in one of the most remarkable of all Isaiah's predictions — that contaiued in chaps, vii., viii., and ix. 1 — 7 ; and the importance of this prophecy was apparently the reason why Isaiah placed in front of it his own solemn call. Ahaz had probably been upon the throne of Judisa for two or three years when a powerful confederacy was formed against him by Pekah, king of Samaria, and Rezin, king of Damascus. And the league was at first only too successful. In one day there fell in battle 120,000 valiant warriors of Judah, and 200,000 women and children wore taken prisoners (2 Chron. xsviii. 6, 8). No wonder that, as the confederate kings marched upon Jerusalem with the avowed intention of utterly destroying it, " the heart of the people was moved as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind." With some show, nevertheless, of courage, the young king took measiu-es for the coming siege, and while visiting the works on the nortli-easteru side of the city, by which Jerusalem was supplied with water, and whore, too, an assaidt would probably be made upon the walls, the prophet went forth to meet him. His son was specially ordered to go with him, and we may notice how the names of the prophet's family contain the substance of his predictions. His own name means the " salvation of Jah," or Jehovah : Shear-jashub is " a remnant shall return." Chastise- ment there is to be, and national ruin, and dispersion, and captivity ; but never a total destruction. The other son has a name of less .significance, portending only the speedy fall and spoiling' of Samaria. Accompanied then by his elder son, Isaiah meets the idolatrous king, assures him of deliverance, and offers him a sign in proof thereof. But Ahaz had cast off his aUegiauce to Jehovah, and with a certain show of consistency wdl accept no sign from a Deity whom he no longer serves. But Judah is still Jehovah's people, and he grants them the sign rejected by the royal house. And hero we must notice that the word " sign " is oui" word " miracle." In St. John's Gospel the word rendered " mu'acle " in our version is constantly in the Greek "sign:" and thus what Isaiah offered was a miracle, that is, a sign of God's pi'eseuce, not in the ordinary workings of nature, but in some special and super- natm-al way. Ahaz wUl have no mn-acle : Isaiah gives him the miracle of the ^-ii-gin's child, the Immanuel. A mere ordinary event is not in Biblical language a sign. Tet tliis sign has an ordinary side to it. As far as Ahaz and unbelievers generally were concerned, there was nothing more than a plain promise, though couched in an obscure form, that within about two years all danger from the confederacy would have passed away. Who or what was the alniah, or vu-gin ; who or what the chUd ; and why the name " God with us : " with all this Ahaz had nothing to do. It was one of the dark sayings which Hebrew seers loved so well. But that the two kings woidd in two years bo swept away, of that the promise was clear. There was the clear threatening, too, of long and desolating invasions. By the eating- of cui'ds and honey is signified the cessation of all the ordinary processes of agricidture. There is no corn, no vintage, no olives, but such produce only as grows of itself. On the sloping hiU-sides, where there were wont to be vino- yards with a thousand vines, each worth a piece of silver, the scanty popuLition will come with bows and arrows to shoot the game which has fouud there an undisturbed covei-t, or to pasture the heifer, or two or three sheep, which are all they have managed to save from the invading foe (vii. 21 — 24). In the main this incture is ideal. The kind was not so wasted in the days of Ahaz, nor even when iu the tune of Hezekiah the hea^aer hand of Sennacherib lay upon the country. We must cany on oiu- minds to tho days when the Jews had gone into captivity at Babylon. Then agriculture did thus utterly cease, and the land enjoyed a sabbath-faUow for seventy yearSf 36 THE BIBLE EDUCATOR. But the moaning is probably quite general. For Ahaz there is the special prediction that -within two years the confederacy of Pekah and Bezin shall be utterly broken up. There is then a picture of deep and entire ruin ; of the land bare as if shorn by a hired razor ; of invading armies passing over it like a flood reaching to the very neck ; of the inhabitants " hardly bestead and hungry," and in desperation cursing alike their king on earth and God in heaven ; of troulilo and gloom, and " driven to darkness " of desolation. All tliis completely transcends the state of things in the time of Ahaz; nor when that king had refused to ask for a sign can we imagine the prophet doing more for him than granting the assurance that the danger which so bowed the heart of him and his people would pass away. Most certainly, then, da these considerations point to the conclusion that the promise of the ahnalis Child, of the Son on whose shoulder is the key of government, and whose aivful names are Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Father of Eternity, the Prince of Peace, cannot bo tied down to the times of Ahaz ; it rises to too grand proportions, is surrounded by repre- sentations of things with which Ahaz had nought to do, is a jewel set altogether in too ideal a framework, for any just-thinking commentator not to see in it the portraiture of Judah's ideal king, the Messiah, and of the light of the Gospel sliiuing forth ujjon man dwelling in the land of the shadow of death, and walking amid the deep darkness of sin. After a very interesting prophecy addressed to Samaria (is. 8 — x. 4), remarkable for being arranged in regular strophes, we next have a magnificent poem belonging to the time of Hezekiah (x. 5 — xii. 6). After a description of the pi-ide of Assyria, there is a wonder- fully vivid description of the march of Sennacherib on Jerusalem ; but just as he has reached tlio mountains that gird her round, and shakes liis hand against her in haughty exultation as if sure of victory, God smites him down. Like a cedar of Lebanon cut down mightily he falls, and the prophet without pause or break, so miserably caused in our version by the division into chapters, contrasts with him a feeble sucker that shall grow out of another hewn-down ti'ee. Tes, Judah is to fall too ; but not by Sennacherib. Hezekiah 's royal house is to fade away ; but from the stem of Jesse, not from Hezekiah 's descendants, but going back to the time when his ancestry were simple farmers at Be(h- lehem, there is to spring forth one in whom not David's kingdom, but an era of universal peace and happiness, is to revive. Again wo say that Isaiah's words cannot bo tied do^vn to the temporal fortunes of Juda3a. For Hezekiah there was nothing more than the assurance that Sennacherib would not capture Jerusalem. The very march is ideal, for Isaiah tells us that Sennacherib did not approacli the city (I93. xxxvii. 33), and appa- rently it was at Pelusiura, far enough from Jerusalem, that the Assyrian army was destroyed. There then follows, though in dim outline, a picture of Judah's dispersion, of the fall of her kings, to bo followed by an empire of peace, under a righteous king, on whom rests the Spirit of Jehovah, and who is Israel's Messiah, Christ our Lord. And now to the end of the twenty -fourth chapter we have a series of burdens, or rather sentences, decrees of God, against Babylon, in which, in chap, xiv., the pro- phet surpasses even himself in the magnificence of his jioetry; against Moab,V[ia,Ao doubly interesting by the discovery of the Moabite stone ; against the whole Nile- land, and specially Egypt ; against the Arabian penin- sula, called " the desert of the sea ; " a gainst Jerusalem, called "the valley of vision;" and against Tyre. In the next four chapters (chaps, xxiv. — xsvii.l, we havo a general picture of Messiah's kingdom, of the gathering back of the dispersed of Judah to worship in the holy mount, and of the resurrection of the dead. Then foUow looes (chaps, xxviii. — xxxiii.) : woe on Samaria ; woo on Ariel, that is, Jerusalem ; woe on those who looked to Egypt for deliverance ; woe on those who trusted not in God ; woe on the Assyrian spoilers. Then upon these follow the judgment of the heathen; and finally the establishment of Christ's kingdom and the happiness of Gospel times (chaps, xxxiv., xxxv.). In this, which forms the conclusion of the earlier col- lection of Isaiah's prophecies, as previously in chap, xxxii., in the midst of the woes addressed to apostate Judah, we have the same phenomenon as has been twico before mentioned. Isaiah, borne aloft by the spirit of prophecy, breaks away entirely from the present; ho leaves Hezekiah and his fortunes far behind, and mounts into an ideal region. But that region, ideal then, was the representation of Christ's kingdom. And that kingdom is in part ideal stiU. The prophet's vision describes what Christ really is, and what his kingdom ought to be. But his Church has only in part answered to Isaiah's glowing picture : too often only in small part. " We havo this treasure in earthen vessels," and church history shows us more of the vessels than of the treasure that is within. Attached to the book of prophecies, and probably published at the same time, is the history of the invasion of JudiEa by Sennacherib, the account of Hezcki.ih's sickness, a hymn of thanksgiving composed by that monarch himself, and, finally, the visit of Merodach- baladan's ambassadors, and the reproof that followed of Hezekiah's pride, with the terrible denunciation that liis seed should servo as eunuchs in the court of Baby- lon, a prediction painfully fulfilled in Daniel and others. Excepting Hezekiah's hymn, the rest is contaiued iu the Book of Kings, Isaiah having been restored in Heze- kiah's time to the office of chronicler, of which he had been depi-ived by Ahaz. And now we come to Isaiah's final prophecy, pub- lished by him some years afterwards, probably towards the end of the lives of both Hezekiah and himself. In it, leaving the temporal fortunes of Judah far behind, he soars onward and upward to Chi'ist and his kingdom. The criticism of these twenty-seven chapters has been the crux and opprobrium of modern schohirship. It started with the fuUest belief in the unity of this wonderful work, a unity evident to the judgment of every attentive ISAIAH. 37 reader ; but with equal confidence asserted that it was wi-itteu by some second Isaiah at the close of the Baby- lonian captivity, when the growing power of Cyrus justi- fied the use of his name in chap, xlv., as the probable conqueror of Babylon. But a close comparison between the words and plu-ases used in the fii'st thirty-nine and the last twenty-seven chapters showed a very extra- ordinary amount of resemblance. The language of tlio two portions is even ia minute particulars the same ; so, too, are the ideas. If this second part described Judtca as desolate, such was the most common picture m the first : if it represented Zion as a wilderness, and God's holy and beautiful house as burned with fire (chaj). Ixiv. 10, 11), though within a few versos it speaks of city and Temple as if still standing (Ixvi. 6), as just before it had described the watchman standing upon the walls of Jerusalem, so had the prophet sfcirted with a quotation from Micah, part of which was tliat Jerusalem was to become heaps of ruins, and the Temple site a desolate mountain-top. But in fact all is ideal, and the desola- tion of the city and the burning of the Temple refer rather to the times of the Romans, when the lineal Israel was removed that the spiritual Israel might take . its place, than to the capture of the city by Nebuchad- nezzar. In fact, in reading it through as modem critics have done to discover by internal evidence proofs of the period when it was wi-itten, only two certain facts ajjpear — the first, the mention of Cyrus ; the second that the prophecy was written in Judaea ; and that the people at the time when it was written were given to Molocli worship. This second fact is proved by chap. Ivii. 5, C. The Jews are there represented as sacrificing their children to Moloch in dried-up water-courses, the beds of what in the rainy season were rushing streams; for such is the meaning of the word tliere rendered " valleys." Now there were no such valleys in Bal)y- lonia, and no stones worn smooth by torrents, such as are common in Palestine ; for the whole region is alluvial, and watered by canals from the Euphrates. Nor is there the slightest proof, but the contrary, that the horrible fanaticism which drove the people to sacri- fice their offspring to Moloch in the days of Hezekiah and his successors, ever existed among the exiles at Babylon. Criticism has therefore changed its front, and instead of two portions of Isaiah, one a collection of the most remarkable predictions of his younger days, the other the calm outpouring of his later years, written at a time when ho had retired from active life, and was bowed down beneath the load of nearly eighty winters, it now dismembers all Isaiah, and distributes his mangled limbs among a host of prophets laiown and unknown, extending from Isaiah down to Maccjibajaa times. Manasseh did but saw him asunder, and this was iho sole feat attempted by modem critics at first. Haviiio;' found this simple process impossible, they now hack him into small pieces. Into this criticism we decline to follow them ; for it involves a detailed consideration of almost every chapter ; nor is there any agreement among the oritics themselves, who, for reasons so shadowy often that it is scarcely possible to underst^ind tliom, ascribe the same prophecy to men very miliko one another, and who lived at very different times. One tiling, however, we may notice, that they restore much of those last twenty-seven chapters to Isaiah, or to a prophet who did not live later than Manasseh's days.' Let me say, in conclusion, a few words upon the contents of these marvellous clmpters themselves. They begin with Jehovah's controversy mth idols. Now this was the great question in Hezekiah's days. The nation was making its choice whether it would serve a spiritual, unseen Deity, Jehovah, or the idols which ap- pealed to their senses, and whose worship were irai)ure orgies, which threw the cloak of religion over licentious pleasures. Vigorously Isaiah contrasts the powerless- ncss of idols, made, perhaps, out of the remnant of a log, of which the rest had been burnt as firewood, and which had to be carried on men's shoulders because they could not walk, and to bo nailed in their place ft>^ fear they should fall; vigorously he contrasts these with the God who measures the waters in the hollow of his hand, and metes out heaven with the span, and compre- hends the dust of the earth in a measure. But Isaiah is not content with this. Ho appeals not only to God's works in Nature, but also to his fore- knowledge (xli. 22, 23), and thus the specific prophecy of the fall of Babylon by the hand of Cyi'us forms an integral part of the pi-oof. If this appeal was made after the fact, the whole prophecy is a sham, and the claim that Jehovah fnistrates the pretensions of diviners and of the wise men of the earth, while He con- firms the words of his own messengers (xliv. 26) is manifestly dislionest, and to be rejected with scorn. We find, however, from this time frequent allusions to Isaiah's arguments. Jeremi;vh, the least original of all the prophets, reproduces tliem in chap. x. They are reproduced also in Ps. cxv., where also, in vcr. 17, there is an unmistakable allusion to Hezekiah's prayer, sug- gesting to us that the writer had both that prayer and the second part of Isaiah before him. And, in short, they were the strong armoury whence arguments against idokitry were di-awn; and at Babylon they prevailed. There was henceforth no controversy among the Jews between Jehovah and idols : the nation utterly rejected tliem, and chose instead Pharisaism as its sin. The twenty-seven chapters are divided into three portions of nine chapters each by a refrain occurring at the ends of chaps, xlviii. and Ivii. In the second part Isaiah leaves behind the controversy with idols and all allusion to Babylon, and whereas before ho had spoken of Israel as being Jehovah's servant, ho now describes the person and offices and sufferings of Christ, to whom 1 For a more full discussion of this question, .see my Bnmpton Lectures, Pro)t}iccy a Preparation for ChrUt. ed. sec, p. 2Dt; and Professor Stnnley Leathes' It'itiiesic of the OUl Testament to Christ, p. 25-4. Also iny Messianic Inlcrjwelation, of tin: Projihec:es of Jsainh, p. 90; for the Almah, ib. 301 ; and on the iiioiition of Cjriis by name, ib, 101. 38 THE BIBLE EDUCATOR. tlio title really belongs. For the name " servant of i Jeliovali," in Oriental phrase, means the vicegerent or i representative of Jehovah on earth, and hence is but ; rarely bestowed. It was the title of Moses (Dent. ! xxxiv. 6), becanso lie represented God to the Israelites ; I it was the title of the Israelites (Isa. xliv. I), because they represented God to the heathen nations round; it is especially Christ's title (Isa. lii. 13), because he represents God to all mankind (John i. 18 ; xiv. 9). Starting, then, with I'eferences to Israel, to their coming capti\'ity and deliverance, to the great ques- tion then debated among them, whether they should servo God or idols, the prophet goes on to descriljo their duties as the depositaries of God's true doctrine ; and then, warming with his subject, ho dwells upon Christ's work for man, and the founding of his Church. With many a lesson for the long-waiting time before Christ came, vfith fuUer warnings and riclier hopes for us, there is still in it a glorious -vision not yet fulfilled, when the religion of the Gospel shall fill all hearts with love, when the voice of weeping shall no longer be heard on earth, nor the voice of crying, but aU be gentleness, and happiness, and peace; because Christ has seen of the travail of his soul and been satisfied. DIFFICULT PASSAGES EXPLAINED. THE GOSPELS :-ST. MATTHEW. BT THE EEV. C. J. ELLIOTT, M.A., VICAR 01? WINKPIELD, BEEKS. ** Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jord.an unto John, to be taptized of him. But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest tliou to me ? And Jesus ansv;eriug said uuto him, Suffer it to be so now : for thus it hecooieth us to fulfil all i-ighteousuesa. Then he suffered him."— Matt. iii. 13 — 15. ^^3 r^^^s HE difficulties connected with the baptism fl I's)'' ? "-^ John, and more particularly with our dM^ Lord's baptism at his hands, are not sBc?^ inconsiderable, either in their nature or in their number. Amongst these the following naturally suggest them- selves : — Was tlie rite of baptism commonly observed in the reception of Jewish proselytes .'' or was it some- thing hitherto imknown ? In what sense are we to imderstaud the distinction drawn by John the Baptist between his own baptism and that of Christ ? and in what resiJccts, if any, does the sacrament of baptism, as afterwards instituted by Christ, correspond wit]i or differ from the baptism of John? How are we to reconcile John's unwUHugness to baptise our Lord, on account of liis own unworthiuess, and of the dignity of Christ, with his repeated assertion in John i. 31, 33, with reference to this very time and event, that he did not know Him ? In what sense are we to interpret the words, "us," "now," and "righteousness," in our Lord's reply ? And lastly, what was the nature and design of the miraculous attestation to Christ which immediately followed upon his baptism ? Now, it is obvious, as well from the special design of the ministry of the Baptist, as from the naiTatives of the Evangelists, that the baptism of John immediately preceded the beginning of the public ministry of Christ : and inasmuch as our Lord was " about tliirty ye.irs of age" (Luke iii. 23) at the time of his baptism, we may reasonably conclude, independently of other chrono- logical indications, that the baptism of John, who was six months older than our Lord, began at the time at which he had attained the age prescribed in Numb. iv. 3, 23, 47, for the Levites to enter upon " the service of the ministry." Much has been advanced on both sides of the controversT respecting the initiation of proselytes into the Jewish Church ))y means of bai^tism. Those who are acquainted with the extreme difficulty of acquir- ing reliable information from Jewish sources respecting any rites or observances practised amongst them pre- viously to the formation of the Christian Church, will best appreciate the degree of value to be assigned to later testimony on this su])ject. Such testimony, how- ever, is so abimdant, and so explicit, not only in the wiitings of Maimonides, and other earlier and later rabbins, but also in the Jerusalem and Babylonian Talmud, that it seems unreasonable to suppose that it was altogether an invention of a later period. This presumption is confirmed by the consentient (as we believe) Jewish opinion that Israel was sanctified to the Lord by means of circumcision, baptism,' and sacrifice ; and that as the same rites were requisite in the admis- sion of proselytes, so long as the Temple stood, and wUI bo necessary again, when the Temple shall be rebuilt, so, during the intermission of sacrifice, baptism, as well as circumcision, is the proper method of initiation into Judaism. It must not be overlooked, however, that the same Jewish authorities which prescribe the necessity of baptism as a rite of initiation for proselytes deny the necessity of its obsen-ance in the case of the children of those who have been fully initiated; holding that, in like manner as the original lustration of the entire nation superseded the necessity of its rejjetition in the case of the descendants of the Israehtes themselves, so the baptism of the parents or ancestors, iu the case of the admission of proselytes to Judaism, rendered un- necessary the i-enewal of the same rite in the case of their children. Whilst, then, the observance of the ordi- ' The washing cf the clothes enjoined upon the Israelites pre- viously to the promulijation of the law from Mount Sinai (£xod. sis. 11) is interpreted here, as elsewhere, as esteudinjr to the lusti'ation of the entire person. The whole nation, moreover, had already been " baptised unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea" (1 Cor. X. B). DIFFICULT PASSAGES EXPLAUvTED. 39 nance of baptism, in the reception of proselytes amongst the Jews, might servo to account for the absence of all expression of surprise at its adojitiou by Jolm tho Baptist in the case of proselytes from tho heathen, it will scarcely suffice, of itself, to account for the general concourse to the Jordan of " Jerusalem and all Judea," including " many of the Scribes and Pharisees" them- selves. If, then, we would seek for any other explanation of tho fact beyond the general expectation which un- doubtedly prevailed at this period of tho advent of some great prophet, and the pro\'idential preparation of men's minds for his reception, we must seek it, as it appears to us, in those numerous pro2)hecies of tlio Old Testament Scriptures which describe the blessings of the new covenant under the figure of sprinkling, or washing with pure water (Isa. xliv. 3 ; Ezek. xxx'S'i. 25 ; Zech. xiii. 1), and in the fact of which we have un- questionable evidence, both as regards tho doctrine and practice, of the existence of "divers wasliLugs" (or b.ap- tisms, Heb. vi. 2; ix. 10) amongst the Jews, rather than in any formal adoption by the Baptist of their traditional rites and ceremonies. With regard to the next point which suggests itself for discussion, it is obvious th.it it is an easier matter to assert in general terms — what few will be disposed to deny — the inferiority of the baptism of John to the sacrament of Christian baptism, as administered upon, -and subsequently to the day of Pentecost, than it is to lay down in precise terms the nature and extent of tlie difference between the two. That the primary distinction to which the Baptist refers when he contrasts his own baptism " with water " with Christ's baptism " with fire and the Holy Ghost," is not a distinction between two kinds of water baptism, seems to follow from the following facts : (1) that our Lord did not baptise in his own person (John iv. 2) ; and (2) that the prophecy received its litei-al and un- questionable accomplishment, as foretold by our Lord himself (Acts i. 5), in the miraculous descent of tho Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. This inference appears to be supported by the fact, that whilst, on the one hand, we read in Acts xix. 3 of the administration of Christian baptism at Ephesus to some who had already received the baptism of Jolm, we read of no general command to the same effect ; nor is there any reason to suppose that, in the ease of the apostles themselves, the baptism with water, received at the hands of John, was repeated, after the reception of tho higher baptism " with the Holy Ghost." It was whilst the Baptist was discharging his ap- pointed office as Christ's forerimner, an office the design of which was the manifestation of the Messiah (John i. 31), that He, whose hour for that manifestation had now come, presented himself at the banks of tho Jordan, to be baptised of John. " But John forbad him,' saying, I have need to be baptised of thee, and comest thou to me?" These words, at first sight, un- ^ The word employerl, dt€Ka<\v€i', js a very stronjj oue, deuotini?, probably, as Deaa Alford suggests, a preventing by gesture, hand, or voica. doubtedly appear to be inconsistent with the twice- repeated assertion of tlie Baptist (John i. 31,33), "And I knew him not." The diiiiculty, when ■i'iewed only in reference to the relationsliip of our Lord to tho Baptist, might be overcome, as has been suggested, by the con- sideration of the remoteness of the -wilderness of Judeea from Nazareth. It is obvious, however, that this con- sideration does not meet the real clifficulty, wliich con- sists in reconeUiug the knowledge of our Lord's person involved in the words, " And John forbad him," with the express and repeated assertion, " And I knew him not." It would be possible, indeed, to explain the apparent inconsistency by the supposition that the revelatioli of the Messiah was made to John, not before, but at the veiy time of His baptism. And, to a certain extent, this appears to be the true interpretation, inasmuch as whilst the reluctance of the Baptist to impart to One from whom he needed rather to receive, implies a certain amount of knowledge of the person and claims of Christ, on the other hand, it was the visible descent of the Spu'it upon our Lord (John i. 33) which was the pledge and assurance given to him that Jesus was " tho Son of God," and which imparted to liim a fuller know- ledge than any wliich he had heretofore possessed of the real natiu-e of tho person and work of Christ. Nor is it hard to adduce both from the Gospel of St. John, and also from tlie Apocalypse, abundant evidence that the words "I knewhun not" are fairly capable of being thus interpreted. Thus, e.g., in John vii. 2S, our Lord told the Jews that they "both knew Him," and that " they knew whence He was ;" whereas in -STii. 19, He assures them plainly that they " neither knew Him nor his Father." Again, whereas in chap. vii. 27 the Jews declare, "We know this man whence he is," we find them in chap. ix. 29 declaring, as expressly, " As for this fellow, we know not from whence he is." And, in like manner, we find St. John (Rev. xix. 12) testifj-ing concerning the name which lie had seen written (pro- bably upon the brow of the Son of God), that " no man knew (it) but He himself ;" where (as in Exod. xi. 3) it seems absolutely essential to understand the knowledge to which reference is made, as involving something beyond the seeing with the eye, or the hearing with the ear. If this intei-pretation of the words " I knew him not " be accepted, the narratives of St. Matthew and of St. John appear to be in entire accordance. Whether ' personally known or unknown to tho Baptist heretofore, it was not until the begiuniug of our Lord's public ministry that the true natm-e and dignity of His person was revealed to him. When first our Lord approached the Jordan there was a recognition by the Baptist of His majesty, like that which, thirty years previously, had accompanied the salutation of the Virgin (Luke i. 44) — something which convinced St. John of liis own im- worthiness, and which led him to shrink from baptising with water Oue who liad come to baptise with the Holy Ghost ; but it was not until after the baptism in tho Jordan that the crowning .attestation was given of the Messiahship, and that the Biiptist was not only led 40 THE BIBLE EDUCATOR. to acknowledge Jesus of Nazareth as tho Son of the living God, but also to point his disciples to Him as " the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of tho world " (John i. 29).' The fii'st official woi'ds of Christ, " Suffer it to bo so now, for thus it becomoth us to fulfil all righteousness," are words the full import of which a volume could not explain, aud wliich eternity a loue cau uufold. Its full temporal meaniug must bo given to the adverb " now," as denoting that John's acknowledgment of inferiority was well grounded, aud that Christ's superiority would afterwards be displayed. Nor must the plural pronoun " us " be overlooked ; inasmuch as it is the key to the whole of our Lord's coming both " by water and blood," not only " in the likeness of sinful flesh," but as One who condescended to be " made sin for us." And inasmuch as the baptism of John was indeed " from heaven," aud nut " of men," therefore it behoved j Him who came to bring in an everlasting righteousness i for men, and to fulfil all righteousness in His own i person, in order " that we might be made the righteous- ness of God in Him," to submit himself to the baptism of water, who was about to baptise us with the baptism of the Spirit — not that He might obtain cleansing from 1 The exact correspondence of the history, as thus understood, with the Jewish tradition, as expounded in the " Dialogue of Justin Martyr witli Trypho," is too remarkable to be overlooked. "Christ" (says Trypho) " is unknown, nor does he as yet know hioiself . . . until Elias comius shall have anointed him, and made him manifest to all" (c. vili.). it, but that Ho might impart cleansing to us. " Ipse Dominus noster Jesus Christus non tarn mundatus est in lavacro, quam lavaoro suo universas atj^uas mun- darit." - The time .appointed by the Father for the manifes- tation of the Son had now come, and He who was ever well pleased in his beloved Son {evoonricra.), proclaimed that good pleasure iu a voice from heaven, which voice was heard by the Baptist, and of which he bare record to his disciples. In a visible form the Holy Spirit then descended upon Jesus of Nazareth ; the dove, as the emblem of purity (aud, like the lamb, having a sacrificial import), being the outward form selected to denote tho anointing of the Redeemer for his appointed work. It was thus that the resemblance between the appoint- ment and consecration of the typical and of the true Israel was sustained ; and as the one was " baptised unto Moses " in the Rod Sea, sanctified in the wUder- uess of Sinai, aud, in the person of their representatives, the priests (after they had, as a nation, renounced the priestly chax-acter), anointed for their high office, so the Other was baptised iu the Jordan, visibly " anointed with the Holy Ghost and with power;" and finally, " not by water only, but by water and blood," con- secrated to His eternal priesthood, for the discharge of which He entered in once, " by his own blood," into tho true holy of holies, " having obtained eternal redemp- tion for us." S. Uieron. advcrsus Lwci/frianoe, torn, iii., fol. 62. 1516. THE PLANTS OF THE BIBLE. BY W. OAKRUTHSKS, F.R.S., KEEPER OF THE BOTANICAL DEPARTMENT, BRITISH MOSEUM. ORDERS VIII. — XI. — RESEDACE«, CISTINE^S:, VIOLACE^, AND POLTGALACE^. HE Mignonette famUy consists of a small and unimportant group of plants, con- fined to the Old World, and chiefly to the Mediterranean region, though two species are indigenous to Britain — vi-A., Reseda htteola, Linn., .and B. lutea, Luin. The fii-st is the dyer's weed, which was at one time extensively cultivated as a dye stuff, supplying, according to the different mordaunt employed, a gTcen, yellow, or blue colour. Both species are without odom*. and in this respect they are in striking contrast to B. odorata, Linn., the remarkable fragrance of which has given it a fore- most place in our gardens for more than a century. This plant is cultivated everj^vhere in Palestine as with us ; and, though met vfith as an outcast from gardens, has not been observed in a mid state. It is said to be a native of Egypt. Eour other species occur in Palestine, one of which, B. lutca, Linn., is a British species, and another, B. alba, Linn., is naturalised in maritime localities in England. Several other species of this family, belonging to the sub- tropical flora of the soutli. creep up from Arabia and Egypt to tlio desert borders of Palestine, and ono with a berry fruit {Ochradetms haccaius, Del.) is foimd as far nortli as Jericho, as well as in the localities- ■ around the Dead Sea. The plants of the Rock-rose family are most .abun- dant in the countries arouud tlie Mediterranean ; a few species cccm* iu North Am'-rica. They are smaU shrubs, witli simple leaves, and largo briglitly-coloured flowers, wliich open only once, and then perish. They consequently never last longer than a day. expanding under the influence of the bright srm in the morning, and perishing with tho sotting sun of the evening. They do not open in dull we.athei-, when there is no sunshine. Tlie largest gi'iius iu the family receives its name, Hcliaiitliomum (sitn-jlovjer), from this obvious characteristic. Tlieir large pink or yellow flowers make many of the species favourites in our gardens ; but as they are southern plants, they are not quite hardy, and require protection in the winter. The iudigeuous flora of Britain contains four speeio=. all belonging to tho THE PLANTS OF THE BIBLE. 41 genus Helianthomum. Three of these aro rare and local plimts, but the fourth adorns our dry pastures with its bright yellow flowers all through the summer months. Ten species aro mot with in Palestine ; tho large and beautiful flowers of several of them supply a more striking feature to the landscape than their humbler representatives at home. The largo pink flowers of Cistus villosus, Liuu.. are said to give a glow to Moimt Carmel in April whicli is not inferior to that produced by the heather on tho moimtains of Scotland. And tho yellow flowers of C. salvimf alius, Linn., are often massed together in the landscape. Tho leaves and branches of these two plants produce a fragrant resinous gum, which was formerly iu great repute for its supposed medieiual qualities. It was employed as a stimulant, then it was licld to bo a valuable expecto- rant, and now it is collected almost en- tirely for its use by the Tm'ks as a con- stituent of some of theu- perfumes. This gimi is a black homogeneous and tenacious substance, yielding to the pressure of the fingers. It is called Gum Ladaniuu ; sometimes incor- rectly written Lab- danum. Although the Rock-roses aro not referred to in tho Bible, it is gencr.ally believed that this odoriferous product is the substance referred to under the name -ih {lot), rendered "myrrh" in our Authorised Version. The word occurs only twice in the Old Testament, and both times in tho Book of Genesis. In the one passage we are told that tho Ishmaelite merchants, to whom Joseph was sold by his brethren, were on their way from Gilead, " with their camels bearing spicory and balm and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt " (chap, xxxvii. 25). Tho other uso of tho word occurs in the narrative where, under tho pressure of a terrible famine, Jacob permitted his sons to return to Egyjjt for com, and to take Benjamin with them ; and in order to secure the favour of the Egyptian ruler, he sent with Cistus vd.'ktsjLs, Linn., anJ C. salvi(2folius, Linn. H:i]f the natural size, which yield the myrrh referred to in Gen. xsxvii. 2j. them, as " a present, a little balm, and a little honey, spices, and myrrh, nuts, and almonds " (chap, xliii. 11). The substances mentioned in these passages were evi- dently products of Palestine, and the plants producing them must be sought for among those which constitute tho indigenous flora of that country. There have been, as in regard to most other Bible plants, no lack of suggestions as to the plant intended. The resemblance in sound between the Hebrew word and the name of the lotus lily has led some authors to suppose that it is meant. But no explanation has been offered wliy such a plant should have been included among these pre- sents. Besides, the lotus was well known in Egyjit, while it is not at present found in Palestine, and there is no reason for be- lieving that it ever grew there. Chest- nuts and pistachio- nuts, as well as different kinds of spices, have also been suggested, but modern writers generally agree in identifying it with the resinous gum of the cistus. Tho Greek words, AoSoi'oi', for the gum, and A^Sos, for tho plant, aro derived from the Arabic ladun, and tliis has {ho same root as tho Hebrew lot. Ac- cording to Hero- dotus, this gum was originally obtained from Arabia, and was first got by the- shepherds from the beards of the goats, whish browsed on tho cistus. Rakes with leathern thongs, made in imitation of the goat's beard, were then used for collecting it. The coUoctors shortly after sunrise beat the bushes until the thongs were coated with tho gum. The morning was selected, because the gum was then free from the dust and sand ivitli which the winds were likely in tho course of tho day to coat it. Tho largo amount of sand and other impurities mixed with it has considerably influenced its disuse, and the name has been transferred to tho tincture of opium, which has similar but more powerful medical properties than the gum of the cistus. Few plants are greater favourites in the garden or The plants 42 THE BIBLE EDUCATOR. the field tlian the Violets. Our native flora contains eiflit species, the best known of which is the sweet violet, that in early spring scents the hedge-banks of the east of England, and finds a corner in almost every garden. This species extends through Europe to Asia Minor, but has not yet been seen nearer to Palestiuo than Aleppo. Four species are, however, included in the indigenous vegetation of the Holy Land, but they ■belong to that iiorthem flora wHch finds its southern limits in the mountain regions of the country. They are small plants, and are only met ^vith on the Lebanon and anti-Lebanon ranges, and there high up among the cedars. The Milkworts belong also to the same northern type of floi-a as the Violets. They are i-epresented in Britain by three small plants, one of wliich {Polygala vulgaris, Linn.) oi-naments our heaths and grassy banks through- out the length and breadth of the land, with its blue, white, or pink blossoms. In Palestine there are two similar species, which occur in Lebanon, coming farther down the mountain-sides than the 'violets, and almost reaching the shore at Sidon. THE OLD TESTAMENT FULFILLED IN THE NEW. I. SACKED SEASONS {continued). BT THE KEV. WILLIAM MILLIQAN, D.D., PKOFESSOK OF DIVINITT AND BIBLICAL CRITICISM IN THE UNFVEESITT OP ABERDEEN. 'HE second of the three annual Jewish feasts was that of Pentecost, known also by the name of the " Feast of Har- vest " (Exod. xxiii. 16), and the " Feast of Weeks" (Exod. xxxiv. 22). It received the name of the " Feast of Weeks," and in later times of "Pen- tecost" (the fiftieth day), from the manner in which the period of its obser\-ance was fixed; while the name " Feast of Harvest " was assigned to it from the rela- tion in which it stood to the then completed gi-aiu- iarvest of the year. Seven fuU weeks were reckoned from the presenting of the first sheaf of barley upon the second day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread ; and the day following, the fiftieth day, was the Feast of Pentecost. The day was one of "holy convocation" — in this respect resembling the first and last days of the Feasts of Unleavened Bread and Tabernacles ; and the distinguishing feature of its ser\'ices was the presenting to the Almighty of two loaves of fine flour baked with leaven. These loaves wore not laid upon the altar, but ■were waved before the Lord in token of dedication to his service, and were then given to the priests to eat. Like the first sheaf of barley, they were a national, and not an individual or a family offering. They might probably be taken for the purpose from one family one year, and from another family the next. But, whatever might be the arrangement upon this point, it is of im- portance to observe that two loaves only were offered, and that, not for the family out of which they were brought, but for all the families of Israel considered as one wliole. With ■ tliese loaves were associated as a part of the same festal offering seven lambs without blemish of the first year, one young bullock, and two rams for a burnt-offering, with their appropriate meat and drink offerings, one kid of the goats for a sin- offering, and two lambs of the first year for a sacrifice of peace-offerings (Lev. xxiii. 17 — 19). Other offerings also were presented, upon wliich it is unnecessary to dwell. As in the case of the other gi-eat feasts, the Feast of Pentecost was attended by innumerable crowds. " An immense multitude," says the Jewish historian, speaking of it on one occasion, " ran together out of Galilee and Idumea, and Jericho, and Perea that was beyond Jordan." ' The mention of the multitudes assembled at the Pentecost, spoken of in the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, is familiar to all. Finally, it may bo noted as an important point of dis- tinction between this feast and the two other great festival seasons of the Jewish year, that it lasted only for a single day. In inquu'ing into the meaning of the Feast of Pen- tecost, the first thing to be observed regarding it is its independent character. That it was not, as often imagined, merely tlie closing service of the Easter feast delayed for fifty days, in order to embrace the con- clusion of a harvest whose opening had been already cele- brated, is ob^-ious from the simple cu-cumstance that it is described as one of the tln-ee feasts at which all the males of Israel were annually to appear. It is thus ranked as parallel to the two others, and not as subor- dinate to one of them. Further, the last day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread had been a day of " holy convocation." With it, the~ef ore, that festival had been closed in, and the " holy convocation " of Pentecost points immistakably to another and a separate feast. The services of the day, too, were characterised by such marked peculiarities that it is unpossible to regard them as a simple continuation of services previously begun. While, however, thus independent, we have next to ask as to the relation which Pentecost actually occupied to the earlier festival of the year. If such relation existed, it is ob\"ious that the point of connection is to be found in the presenting of the first sheaf of barley, for it was from tlie day upon which this was done that the fifty days to Pentecost were reckoned. Was it, then, the feast of the closing, as the second day of Unleavened ' Bread was that of the opening, harvest F And were the two loaves now waved before the Lord to be regarded I 1 Josephus, Jewish Wars, ii. 3, § 1. SACRED SEASONS. 43 as the first-fniits of the later, as the barley sheaf had been the first-fruits of the earlier grain ? To these questions we must answer, No. For in that case no reason can be imagined why the offering of the time should have Ijoen loaves. The harmonious symbolism of tlie Old Testament would have required that it should have taken the shape of two sheaves or omers of ■wheat. Nor is this all ; for, just as the week of Un- leavened Bread was the fii-st-f ruits of all the weeks of the year, so the first sheaf of the crop then offered was the first-fruits of the whole crop, and not merely of a part of it. It is true that by the time Pentecost arrived all the gi'ain had rijiened and been gathered in, while, fifty days before, only the barley was rijie. But the first sheaf of barley was not on that account the first-fruits of tlie bai'ley alone. It was a part of the whole, and, as such, an acknowledgment when presented in God's house that the whole was his. There was no room, therefore, for a fresh offering of fii-st-fruits of the grain. The same conclusion is forced upon us when we re- member that the offering at Pentecost is itself called an offering of first-fruits, " the first-fruits of thy labours wliich thou hast sown in the field " (Exod. xxiii. 16), and that the day was known as the " day of the first-fruits" (Numb, xxviii. 26). Now, according to the ideas embodied in the Mosaic economy, an offering of first-fruits was not so much a thanksgiving for past mercies, as a dedication to God of all the blessings of which the first-fruits were a part. The waving of the two loaves, therefore, before the Lord must have had a ■prospective rather than a retrospective reference. It must have been a dedication to God, not of the harvest in itself, but of the fruits of harvest regarded under some other point of view. The in-esistible proof, how- ever, that the Feast of Pentecost, strictly considered, had relation to something altogether different from the harvest alone is to be found in the provision tliat the offering of that day was to be one of leavened loaves ; that is, it was to be an offering of the fi-uits of the ground, not in the shape in which they had just been gathered in, but in the shape which they assumed •when prepared as food for man. Hence also the injunction that these loaves should be " brought out of their habitations" (Lev. xxiii. 17). The barley sheaf had been taken from the field where it gi-ew, because it represented the grain. The loaves were taken from the houses where they had been baked for family use, because they represented the means of family support. Here, then, lay the main point of distinction between the second day of Unleavened Bread and Pentecost. In the one we have the dedication of harvest con- sidered simply as harvest ; in the other we have the dedication of harvest as actually applied to the pur- pose for which it was intended — the sustenance of the people. We have reached, therefore, a higher stage than that at which we previously stood. The Feast of Pentecost is an advance upon that second day of the first festival of the year, by a reference to which the time of its occurrence has been determined. It takes note of the fruits of the ground in a still nearer relation to man than when they existed only as grain. It is concerned with them as the expression of a still higlier degree of that protection and care and favour which Israel enjoys at the hands of God. The other special features of the feast bear out and con-espond ivith this account of it. It will be re- membered that ou the day of first-fruits immediately f oUowiug the Passover, the quantity of barley presented was an omer (Exod. xvi. 36), and that this quantity was waved as a single sheaf or measm'o. Now, however, the quantity was doubled. Instead of the single sheaf, we have two loaves, and the express provision that these loaves shall be baked of two omers instead of one (Lev. xxiii. 17). In the symbolism of the Hebrews, however, a higher gradation was always expressed by doubling,' and the greater imiiortance and solemnity of the latter offering were thus brought into -s-iew. Further, with the barley-sheaf there had been connected as a bumt- offering only the oft'ering of a single lamb, together with its meat and drink-offerings. With the two loaves of Pentecost was connected the much larger number of offerings of which mention has been ah-eady made. This increase alone would mark out the latter solemnity as the higher ; but the point of increase most especially worthy of our notice is, that, while only a burnt- off eiTng accompanied the sheaf of barley, a peace-offering also accompanied the loaves. We know, however, that the ' peace-oft'erings were the highest in the ritual of sacrifice, that they were expressive of the closest possible relation between the offerer and God, that they sjinbolised the offerer's participation in all the blessings of a Divine communion. If, therefore, the burnt-oft'ering of the earlier festival set forth Israel's dedication to Him who had redeemed it, the peace-offering of the later set forth the blessed fruits of the dedication made. Here was something more than the fact that the people had offered themselves. The offering had been accepted, and a spiritual intercourse had been established between God and them. With what has now been said it may seem diSicult to reconcile the fact that the Feast of Pentecost lasted only one day, whOe that of Unleavened Bread lasted seven days. But the gi-ound of this is to be sought in the consideration that Pentecost commemorated no great era in Israel's religious fife. Efforts have indeed been made to connect it with the ratification of the covenant at Sinai, and the later Jews certainly adopted this idea. There is, however, no trace in Scripture of any such connection. And, in truth, the Feast of Pentecost was not the following up and advancing of the whole Easter feast; it was the following up and advancing only of its second day. The ideas of Unleavened Bread as a whole stretched forward not to Pentecost only, but over aU the year thus begun ; and expressing as they did a religious revolution in Israel, the new spirit of the covenant life, they were fitly embodied in the sacred number of seven days, and did not uocd to be repeated until a new year began. It is only mth the second day 1 Kurz, SacHJicvll Wonhip of the Old Testament. Clai-k's Traiis- IttUon, p. 378. 44 THE BIBLE EDUCATOR. of Unleavened Bread that Pentecost must be brought into comparison, and in tliat comparison the festival is obviously a heightened one. j What, then, are the ti-uths of the New Testament dispensation, or of the Christian life in which the Feast of Pentecost is fulfilled ? In answering this question our main guide must be the narrative in the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, where we learn that on the day of Pentecost there took place that great outpouring of the Spirit for which the apostles had been instructed to wait iu Jerusalem. It was not, we may well believe, without a special purpose that that day in particular had been fixed on. Nor can we doubt that the reason of the choice must have lain in ideas connected with the time itself, and not in the mere fact that there would then be gathered together in the holy city " devout men out of every nation under heaven " (Acts ii. 5). Such a correspondence was already to be found in the two great events, the crucifixion and resurrection of our Lord. On the very day whose opening evening had seen the Paschal lambs slain, and the Jews engaged in celebrating their Paschal supper, Jesus, the spotless Lamb of God, had died upon the cross of Calvary, the purchaser of a still more glorious redemption thau that which lived in the grateful recol- lections of Israel. On the very day when the first sheaf of harvest was presented in the Temple, He who was " the first-fruits of them that sleep," " the first-begotten of the dead," had burst the bonds of death, and come forth from the grave, not alone, but as the first sheaf of a ripened harvest, embracing all the members of His body. Should the selection of Pentecost for the next act of the triumphal drama have been without a special meaning ? Must there not have been something iu that festival which rendered it a time peculiarly appropriate for the Lord again to work ? Such questions, we imagine, can only be answered iu the affirmative. A connection between the events there must have been, whether enough has been revealed to enable us to discover it or not. Keeping, however, by the two points already g.ained, first, that the offering of the first-fruits of the Di\'ine bounty, appropriated and used for food, is the special Pentecostal idea to which the Mosaic ritual refers us ; secondly, that on the day of Pentecost the Spirit was poured out upon the Chiu-ch, the Christian fulfilment of Pentecost seems to rise to view. It is in the gift of the Spirit that it is to bo found ; but not so much iu the mere giving on the part of God, as in the reception, the appropriation of the gift by those on whom it is bestowed ; aud first of all, by tlie Lord Jesus Christ our Sa\'iour himself. For not only did God bestow upon Him the Spirit " \vithout measure,"' but the Spirit was recjeived by Him with all the openness of a filial lieart that offered no hindrance to its Father's dealing with it. It was appropriated by Him in all its fulness, every power of the mind aud faculty of the sold and affection of the heart being presented liy Him as an open channel to the Father, through which the streams of Divine grace might be poured in all their quickening aud life-giving influences. The highest and noblest gift of the Divine love, that in which not the New Testament only, but the Old, sees the realisation of the most precious blessings of Messianic times, was ever in the soul of Jesus, inspirmg his words, regukting his actions, filling liim with holy joy amidst the dark jiroblems that met Htm in his errand of mercy to mankind (John iii. 3-1; Luke iv. 14; Matt. xi. 25. Comp. Luke x. 21). His was a constant Pentecost, the Spirit not merely offered, but accepted, and presented again by Him to the God fi'om whom it came, so that He coidd say, " I do always the things that please him;" "I and my Father are one." Again, however, we cauuot rest here. What belongs to the Head belongs also to the members. The sap that rises in the stem circidates through every twig and leaf and blossom and grape of the vine. Clu'istians, there- fore, have also their Pentecost, when their eyes are opeued to their position, and they are endeavouring to realise it as they ought. They have it in the same manner as their Lord. It is not the offer of the Spirit only that constitutes the privilege which they enjoy; nor is it in magnifying this fact, or in praising God for it, that they walk worthy of the festival privileges of Israel now fulfilled to them. It is in the appropriation of the Spirit that they do so, in the taking of the Spirit into their hearts in such a way that it becomes the ruling principle, the leavening power, the regulating influence of their new and better life. " For by ono offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanc- tified. Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us : for after that he had said before, This is tlie covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord> I will jjut my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I vrrite them " (Hcb. x. 14 — 16) : and again, " For- asmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God ; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart " (2 Cor. iii. 3). And once more, even iu Old Testament prophecy, this part of the dispensation of the SiJirit had been plainly set forth : " And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you ; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give fhcm an heart of flesh : that they may walk iu my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them : and they shall be my people, and I will be their God" (Ezck. xi. 19, 20). Here then, we imagine, is the "fulfilment" in the Christian system of the idea of Pentecost to be found, not iu the fulness of the Di\'ino bounty only, but in the conscious reception and application to its proper pur- pose of that bounty on the part of man. The harvest is indeed now complete. The gifts of God, summed up in the gift of the Spirit, ai-o now bestowed. But fhcy are not only bestowed by him, they are also appro- priated by his people. They have been taken home by believers to their hearts and houses, and they aro made the strength and nourishment of their whole cha- racter and daily life. All their future course is to bo run in the power thus conveyed to them. As they aro redeemed by grace, they five through gi-ace. A Divine communion between them and the Father of their spirits ANIMALS OF THE BIBLE. 45 is not only rendered possible, but is actually consum- mated. " Tlioir f eUowslup is with the Father, and with Ills Son Jesus Christ ;" and just as bread digested and assimilated is the staff of the natural life, so the Spirit of God received, assimilated, introduced into every faculty of the miud and affection of the heart, is the stafE of that higher life which they lead in Jesus. Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, they have dedi- cated themselves and their possessions to the Almighty as their first stop, and in the first week of their spiri- tual year. That was their spiritual Passover, together with their spiritual feast of Unleavened Bread. Tlioir next step is their spiritual Pentecost, when, as members of Christ's body, they ai-e made fuU partakers of his Spirit, and are sent forth to theu- Christian work and race, endued with " power from on high." On one point further it seems desirable to say a single word before we close. It has boon alre-idy stated that Pentecost in Israel was a national festival. It had reference to all the families of the people. All were liable to its duties ; aU yiere interested in its privileges. It was associated with no favoured order, with no chosen few. Ai-e the events of the Christian Pentecost to be regarded as giving the key to the fulfilment of Israel's Pentecost in the Christian Church ? — then surely, reading the antitype in the type, we are led to the conclusion that the gift of the Spirit tlaat day bestowed belongs not to apostles only, but equally to the whole Church of God. It appears, indeed, almost upon the face of the narrative, that it was so, for it is hardly possible to think that the " all " of Acts ii. 1 can refer to the apostles alone. It must refer to the company of " disciples " spoken of in Acts i. 15, of whom it is .said that " the number of the names together were about an hundred and twenty." If so, then the tongues of fire sat upon " each," not only of the twelve, but of the whole company, and the words of ver. 4 apply to every member of the latter, as well as of the former : " And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance." No two lines of duty or privilege come before us here, one belonging especially to apostles, the other to members of the Church. One line alone appears, that pertain- ing to Christ's body as a whole, in the ideal con- ception of which, as there is neither Jew nor Greek, neither male nor female, so also there is neither .apostle, nor bishop, nor minister, nor elder; all are one in Christ Jesus. The same consecration belongs to the humblest believer in Jesus that belongs to the mo.st exalted dignitary in his church. To none can more bo given than that he be " filled with the Holy Ghost." There are differences of function, there are distinctions of order, but the gi-ace of Pentecost does not make these. It finds them existing in the nature of things, requii'ed by the necessities of the case, and it hallows them ; the gi-aee itself is the same to all. The Christian Pentecost knows of but one gift of the Spirit, although the gift may fill many different agencies ; and although the members are many, the body is one. ANIMALS OF THE BIBLE. BY THE EEV. W. HOUGHTON, M.A., KECTOK OF PRESTON, SALOP. SHEEP. ^HE following Hebrew words occur as the names of this useful animal:— r^v';);, a collective noun to express "a flock of sheep or goats ; " seh, " a single sheep or " a ram," so called from its strength, according to some authorities (others connect the word witli a root having the sense of twldiiig or rolling, in allusion to the twisted horns of the ram) ; rdch'l, " a ewo ;" hebes or hibsali, " a lamb," " yearling sheep," or "one from the first to the third year;" tukh, '"a young lamb " [compare 1 Sam. vii. 9, teleh chdh'ib, "a sucking lamb ;" in Arabic the word means .any young animal, especially " a yoimg gazelle ;" tala, in Ethiopic, means "a kid" — the Syriac taleetha, " a young girl;" hence our Lord's words to the daughter of Jairus, TalUha cumi, "Young girl, arise!" (Mark v. 41)] Another word, kar {kdrim pi.) occurs several times ; it appears to denote " a sheep fattened in the pastures." We give the following principal Biblical allusions to these well-known domestic animals which from the e,ai-liest periods of ci\'ilisation have contributed so abundantly to the wants of mankind. Next in value and importance to cattle came sheep in the estimation of the ancient Hebrews ; the ram, being the type of strength and boldness, was held in especial honour in the sacrifices. " It was presented as a holocaust or a thank-offering by the whole people (Lev. ix. 4, 18 ; wi. 5 ; Numb, xxviii. 11 — 14) or its chiefs (Numb. vi. 14, 17 ; vii. 15, 21, 27, &c.) ; by the high priest or an ordi- nary priest (Lev. viii. 18, 22 ; ix. 2 ; xvi. 3), and by the God-devoted Nazarite (Numb. vi. 14), but never by a common Hebrew ; and as it was primitively employed for a medium of exchange and barter it was the ordinary .aiumal for the trespass-offering instituted to expiate eolation of the rights of property (Lev. v. 15, 18 ; xix. 21 ; Numb. v. 8). Tlio lamb (kehes), the usual animal food of Eastern tribes, was regularly employed for the daily piMic holocausts (Exod. xxix. 38 — 12; Numb, xxviii. 3 — 8), presented on festivals in increased numbers, and accompanied by bullocks and rams (Numb, xxviii. 11, 19, 27) ; and very often for private burnt and thank-offerings, for sin, trespass, and purifi- cation offerings (Lev. i. 10 ; iii. 7 ; iv. 32 ; v. 6 ; xii. 6 — 8; xiv. 10; Numb. vi. 12, 14). The gradation in the choice of the victims is plainly manifest from the 46 THE BIBLE EDUCATOR. precepts as to sin-oSeiungs : the high priest of the whole commimity required a bullock ; a chief of the people a male kid of the goats ; aud a common Israelite a female kid of the goats or a female lamb " (Kalisch's Commentary on Leviticus, part i., pp. 83, 84). A very youQg lamb was not allowed to be sacrificed until it was eight days old ; the same prohibitioa applied to cattle and goats (see Lev. xxii. 27) ; neither was it lawful to kill cow and calf or ewe aud lamb together in one day (ver. 28). Sheep and lambs were used as food by the ancient Hebrews, but not as with us in Western Em-ope, where mutton or lamb is daily eaten by hundreds of thousands of consumers. Sheep as food were usually .slaughtered only on great occasions and special festivities, and the Jews did not indulge in flesh meat at their ordinary meals, but, as Dr. Tristram tells us, like the Orientals at the present day, they always welcomed a friend or a stranger as guest with the kid or the lamb. There are not many allusions to sheep as used for food ; but com- pare 1 Sam. XXV. 18 ; 1 Kings i. 19 ; iv. 23 ; Ps. xliv. 11 ; 2 Sam. xii. 4 ; Amos vi. 4. The milk was considered perhaps the most usefid produce of the sheep, and was daUy consumed. In its fresh state it was called chdldb, in a sour or coagulated one it was called chemdh. In Deut. xxxii. 14, we i-ead of chemath bdkdr vachaleb tson, i.e., " curdled milk of cattle, and fresh milk of sheep." St. Paul asks, " Who f eedoth a flock, aud eateth not of the milk of the flock .'' " (1 Cor. ix. 7.) " Ewes' milk," Dr. Tristram teUs us, " is held in higher esteem than that of cows in the East, and is considered peculiarly rich for leben, or soui-ed curds. For butter goats' milk is pi-eferred, but ordi- narily the sheep and goats are milked indiscriminately, the lambs and kids being penned up from them in the night that their owners may get the first share of the milk. We found it considered highly tlishonourable among the Bedouins to sell milk. A draught from the flock was spontaneously offered to the passing stranger, but payment was j)romptly refused by men who just before had been begging from us, aud who would take the first opportunity of robbing us " {Nat. Hist. Bib., p. 136). The wool of the sheep is another most important product of the animal, and was much prized by the Hebrews. " Woollen garments " are mentioned in Lev. xiii. 47 ; see also Deut. xxii. 11, whore it is ordered that no garment made of wool and linen should be worn. Job appeals to liis kindness in having constantly clothed the poor in distress : " If I have seen any perish for want of clothing, or any poor without covering ; if his ioins have not blessed me, and if he were not warmed with the fleece of my sheep ; then let mine arm fall," &c. (Job xxxi. 19, 20, 22). lu the Proverbs we read, " Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks, and look well to thy herds The sheep [A. v., 'lambs,' chebdsini,'] are for thy clothing" (xxvii. 23, 26). The wtuous woman '■ seeketh wool and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands " (xxxi. 13). Mosha, king of Moab (whoso record of his own exploits was a few years ago discovei-ed in that land), was a great slieep-master, and had been in the habit of paying a large tribute of sheep and " rams with the wool" (eylim tsdmer) to some of the kings of Israel (2 Kings iii. 4). The mention of the wool with the animals shows the importance of that commodity. Damascus was noted for the excoUenee of its white wool, and supplied Tyre therewith. " Damascus was thy merchant in the multitude of the wares of thy making . . . aud in white wool " (Ezek. xxvii. 18). " At present the quality of the Syrian wools varies as widely as do those of the merino aud of the black-faced Highland breeds. There is a very fine soft wool grown, in the Belka and in Moab, and the fleeces of some of the short-wooled Lebanon sheep are choice, while the middle districts of Palestine produce a long-woolod but rather coarse fleece." The art of dyeing wool and other materials was understood by the Hebrews. The Tyi'ians were celebrated throughout the world for their purple and scarlet dyes. " Rams' skins dyed red " wore used as one of the coverings for the tabernacle (Exod. XXV. 5). There ai-e several references in the Bible to sheep- shearing. Dr. Tristram well remarks : " What the harvest was to an agricultui-al, that the sheep-shearmg was to a pastoral people : celebrated by a festival corresponding to our harvest home, marked often by the same reveh-y and merry-making." It was when Laban was occupied with liis sheep-shearing that Jacob took the opportunity of going off with his wives, cattle, and provisions. Judah, after the death of his wife, " was comforted, and went up unto his sheep-shearers to Timnath, he and his friend Hirah the Adullamite " (Gen. xxxviii. 12). The stoiy of Nabal the chuid is told in 1 Sam. xxv., how he had three thousand sheep in Carmel, gathered thither from the southern wilderness for the shearing ; and how when David and his men, wlw had been a wall to them both by night and day when encamped in the wilderness, applied to share in the festivities, Nabal replied, " Shall I then take my bread and my water, and my flesh that I have killed for my shearers, and give it imto men whom I know not whence they be ?" (1 Sam. xxv. 11.) And Nabal " held a feast in his house like the feast of a king, and Nabal's heart was merry within him, for ho was very drunken " (ver. 36). Amnon was killed by the order of his brother Absalom at a feast held after sheep-shearing, when his heart was " men-y with wine " (2 Sam. xiii. 28). In Joshua (vi.4) we read of " rams' horns " being used as trumpets. There seems good reason for believiug that the Hebrew words shvpheruth hayyobelim do not denote " trumpets of rams' homs," but " trumpets of prolonged soimdings ;" in ver. 5 we have, as synony- mous, Iceren hayyobel, " horn of long soundings." The etymology of 'Jjv is uncertain ; the Talmud refers it to an Arabic word; Eiirst, of modern authorities, agrees with this view; but Gesenius and others, with greater probability, think that ''?i' (yobil) coincides with ^Tf (yubal), " jubilee," and that it is the trumpet with which originally the year of jubilee and subse- ANIMALS OF THE BIBLE. 47 quently other festivals or natioual convocations were proclaimed. The author of the Commentary on Joshua in the Speaker's Bible, while adopting this ex- planation, observes that " the horn of the ram is solid, and not at aU suitable for being used as a cornet." But surely the ram is one of the hollow-horned rumi- nants. Rams' horns were probably used for carrying the anointing oil. " Then Samuel took the hom of oU, and anointed him [David] iu the midst of his brethren " (1 Sam. xvi. 13) ; see also 1 Kings i. 39 — " Zadok the priest took an hom of oU out of the tabernacle, and anointed Solomon." Such horns were no doubt used for vai'ious other pm'poses, amongst others as a kind of lady's toUet-bottle, for holding heuua paint, &c., for the eyebrows and eyelashes. This seems to bo imphed in the name of Job's tliird daughter, Keren-hwppuch, i.e., " horn for jiaint." Jarchi expressly says that this name was given her " from the name of the horn in which they put paint and soap," stibium et sniegina (Jarchi, Comment, in Hiobum, xlii. 14, ed. Breithaupt). Rams' horns, Dr. Tristram tells us, are still iu constant use as flasks amongst Ai-abs, especially for gunpowder. Unta,nned sheep-skins are worn by the shepherds of Palestine, both in the south country of Judea and in the Lebanon ; some such a rude covering, perhaps, was used by Elijah and John the Baptist, and the perse- cuted saints of old, who " wandered about in sheep- skins and goat-skins " (Heb. xi. 37). Immense numbers of sheep were reared in Palestine in Biblical times, as is the case to this day in some portions of the countiy. The patriarchs were very rich in cattle and sheep ; Job possessed 7,000 before and 14,000 after his troubles. The Reubenites conquered the Hagarites, and took from them 250,000 sheep (see 1 Chron. V. 21). Mesha, king of Moab, a coimtry emi- nently adapted for sheep pasturing, possessed 100,000 sheep of the pasture Ckdrim) and 100,000 " rams with the wool " (see 2 Kings iii. 4). Dr. Tristram sat under the tent of a Beni Sakk'r sheikh, who pastured his sheep in the ancient plains of Moab, and boasted of counting 30,000 m his flocks. In the time of Asa the people gathered themselves together at Jerusalem to a great sacrifice, at which 7,000 sheep were offered at ouo time (2 Chron. xv. 11). " Hczekiah king of Judah did give to the congregation a thousand bullocks and seven thousand sheep, and the princes gave to the congregation a thousand bullocks and ten thousand sheep " (2 Chron. xxx. 24). Solomon's consumption of sheep for the royal household is said to have been one himdred daily, besides numbers of other animals (1 Kings iv. 23) ; whUo at the feast of the dedication of the Temple sheep and oxen were sacrificed " that could not be told nor numbered for midtitude " (1 Kings viii. 5). Especial mention is made of the sheep of Bozrah, in the land of Edom, and Bashan and GUead; and largo parts of these districts are at the present time "at the proper seasons alive ■svith coimtless flocks " (Dr. Thomson. The Land and the Booh. p. 205). Dr. Tristram speaks of the immense number of sheep his party saw on the east of Jordan. " No coimtry," he says, " could be conceived more adapted by natm-e for flocks than the rich plateaux where the feeders of the Jabbok rise in the ancient Ammou. Tlie land is almost treeless, and well watered everywhere. Never did I see such a display of pastoral wealth as met our eyes in the neighbourhood of desolate Rabbah. It was the early spring, when the grass was shooting forth in its first freshness. The sheep of the great tribes of the Adwan and Beni Sakk'r had gathered hero from far and near, and mile after mde we rode through flocks countless as the sand, while winding up the gently- sloping valley, at the head of wliich stand the magnifi- cent but lovely ruins of the great city. To the open spaces among the temples the sheep and goats were driven at night, and thou- bleating was almost deafen- mg" {Nat. Hist. Bib., p. 135). We read in Ezekiel that sheep and goats were im- ported into Tyre from Arabia. " Arabia, and aU the princes of Kedar, they occupied [traded] with thee in sheep of the pastures (kdrim), rams and he-goats" (xx^-ii. 21). The projihet Isaiah mentions sheep of Arabia, which in some parts abomided in sheep and cattle : " All the flocks of Kedar shall bo gathered together imto thee, the rams of Nebaioth shall minister unto thee " (Ix. 7). In 2 Chron. xvii. 11, we read that the Arabians brought Jehoshaijhat presents of flocks of sheep, " seven thousand and seven hundred rams, and seven thousand and seven himdred he-goats." Kedar and Nebaioth are mentioned as two sons of Ishmael, that settled in Arabia (Gen. xxv. 13) ; in Isaiah they will represent two nomad pastoral tribes. The word hSdar means "having a black skin;" compare with this etymology Cant. i. 5 — " I am black, but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Kedar," alluding to the dark goat or camel-skin tents of the Ai-abians, like those of the modem Bedawee. Hence benei kedar, " children of Kedar," denote a nomad tribe which, like tliat of Nebaioth, dwelt in Northern Arabia, and possessed abundant flocks. The Assyrian monuments also testify to the enormous numbers of sheep possessed by the Arabians. In the account of Assur-bani-pal's expedition against Arabia, to punish Vaiteh the king, who had rebelled against the Assyrian monarch, express mention is made of the numbers of sheep and other cattle which were captured. " Nisi, imiri, gammali, va tseni, chubus sunu ina la mini achbuta" (" men, asses, camels, and sheei^, their plunder without number I carried off") (Smith's Assur- bani-pal, p. 270). The flocks were protected from wild beasts — wolves being the especial enemies — by shepherd- dogs at night ; but these dogs of Syria are not like tho intelligent colleys of our country; they are "usually kept iu some numbers, not less than six together ; they lie outside the fold, and raise their defiant bark when- ever the jackal's howl is heard. Notwithstanding their use, they are hardly treated, kicked, and half-starved ; yet their fidehty is unswervmg " (Nat. Hist. Bih., p. 141). From a passage iu Job, as well as from the general way in which the dog is spoken of in Scripture, it would appear the poor animal was always treated with con- 43 THE BIBLE EDUCATOR. tempt : " But now the7 that are younger than I have me in derision, -vrhoso fathers I would have disdained to have set with tho dogs of my flock " (Job xxx. 1). Shepherds in Palestine and other parts of the East do not drive their sheep, but always lead them, without the aid of a dog ; they also gave names to their sheep, just as in this country we do to our cattle. This illus- trates our Lord's parable of the good shepherd: "He that cntereth not by tho door into the sheepfold, but climboth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber ; but ho that entereth in by tho door is the shep- herd of the sheep. To him the porter openeth, and the sheep hoar his voice ; and he calleth Ms own sheep by rounded him ; then to climb the rocks — the goats pursued him ; aud finally, all the flock formed in a circle, gam- bolling around him" {Nat. Hist. Bib., p. 140). To tho same effect Dr. Thomson writes : " I never ride over these hills, clothed with flocks, without meditating upon this delightful theme of the good shepherd. Our Saviour says that the good shepherd when ho putteth forth his own sheep gocth before them, and they follow. This is true to the letter. They are so tame and so trained that they folloio their keeper with the utmost docility. He leads them forth from the fold, or from their houses in the villages, just where he pleases. As there are many flocks in such a x^lace as this, each one takes a different I U < r' '"^ ' //C f?™ & A W-^o ■^ 'ft '''i* Ws*i- DOMESTIC GOATS AND BKOAD-TAILED SHEEP. (iSSTEIAN.) name, and Icadeth them out. And when he putteth forth his own shcop, he goeth before them, and tho sheep follow him: for they know his voice. Aud a stranger will they not follow, but will floe from liim ; for they know not the voice of strangers " (John x. 1 — 5). The old r.-ims are often decorated with Ijclls, and share the shepherd's confidence in a special degree. " On tho hill-side he searches out the choicest morsels of herbage, and calls Uie sheei> to partake of them.' They have tho attachment of a dog to their master. Wo once observed a shepherd phxying with his flock. He pre- tended to run away — ^the sheep ran after him aud sur- 1 We may add that tlie attachment of the Eastern shepherd to his flock is exhibited in the Hebrew word for shepherd, viz., roc/i, or ru't, from the root ni'tili, "to look with pleasure on," "to delight iu," especially "to feed;" hence in Ps. xxiii, 1, Ycliiimh lo'i lo triisrir ("Jehovah is my shepherd [feeder], I shall not puffer want"). Conipari also tho Greek iroi/ivi-, from io.>, "grass," aud Laliu pnslor, from jiasco, " I feed." path, aud it is his business to find pasture for them. It is necessary, therefore, that they should bo taught to follow, and not to stray away into the uuf eueed fields of corn which lie so temptingly on cither side. Any one that thus wanders is sure to get into trouble. The shepherd calls sharply from time to time, to remind them of his presence. They know his voice and follow on ; but if a stranger calls they stop short, lift up their heads hi alarm, aud if it is repeated they turn and flee, because tliey know not tho voice of a stranger. This is not the fiinclful costume of a parable, it is sunple fact. I have made the experiment repeatedly. Tho shepherd goes before, not merely to point out the way, but to see that it is practicable aud safe. Ho is aruu-d iu order to defend his charge, and in this ho is very courageous. Many adventures with wild beasts occur They not unfrcqucntly attack tho flock in the very presence of the shepherd, and ho must be ready to do THE ANIMALS OF THE BIBLE. 49 battle at a moment's warning And wlien tho tliiof and tho robber come (and come they do), the faithful shepherd has often to put his lifo in his hand to defend his flock. I have known more tlian one case in which ho had literally to lay it down in the contest. A poor faitliful follow, last spring, between Tiberias and Tabor, instead of fleeing, actually fought three Bedawin robbers until he was hacked to pieces with their khaujars, and died among the sheep he was defending " {The Land and the Book, 202, 203). All this very beautifully and very strikingly illustrates tho Biblical allusions : '" Thou leddost thy people like a flock by tho baud of Moses and Aaron." " Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a flock " (.Ps. Ixxvii. names to their sheep. In an idyl of Theocritus, which Virgil in his third Eclogue has partly imitated, a goat- herd and a shepherd are singing for a wager, reclining on the grass where their flocks are grazing ; some of tho sheep approach too near io tho young olive-trees, and are addi'cssed by name by the shepherds. COMATAS. *' From the wild olive, bleatera ! Feed at will "Where grow the tamarisks, ou the sloping hill. Lacon. Off from that oak, Cycffitha and Conarus ! Feed eastward — yonder where you see Phalaros." (Chapman's Greek Pastoral Poetry, 47, 48.) Of the manner of tending sheep 'm Palestine, and of THE MOUFFLON (CapTovis Muiir.wn). 20, and Ixxx. 1). '■ I am the good Shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine " (John x. 14). " The thief Cometh not, but for to steal, and to kUl, and to destroy" (ver. 10). "I am the good Shepherd: tho good Shepherd giveth his lifo for the sheep " (ver. 11). Not only in Palestine was it the custom to give names to the slieep, it was also usual in Greece. " Passing Ijy a flock of sheep, I asked the shepherd to caU one of his sheep. He did so, and it instantly left its pasturage and companions, and ran up to the hand of tho shepherd with signs of pleasure and with a prompt obedience which I had never before observed in any other animal. The shepherd told me that many of his sheep are still wild, tliat fliey had not yet learned their names, but that by teaching thoy would all learn them. The others which knew their names he called tame " (Hartley's Researches in Greece and the Levant). Tho ancient Greeks, as well as tho modern, gave 28 — VOL. It an Eastern shepherd's life. Dr. Tristram gives us a graphic account. " The sheep districts consist of wide ojien wolds or downs, reft here and there by deep I ravines, in whose sides lurk many a wild beast, tho I enemy of the flocks. During the day the slieep roam i at will over a wide extent of common pasture, only kept I from encroaching on tho territory of another tribe. In the evening they are gathered into folds. These folds are in most parts of the coimtry the natural caves or old dwellings of tho Horites, adapted for tho purpose, with a low wall buUt outside them, as may bo seen in Mount Quarantania, near Jericho, in tho glens near the Lake of Galilee, and in the hill country of Jud;ili. Elsewhere a simple boimdary wall, with an entrance, is built in tho open ground. Owing to the multitudo of jackals and wolves, the shepherds are obliged to keep watch over their flocks by night. Thus tho sliepherds of Bethlehem were ' abiding in tho field, keeping watch 50 THE BIBLE EDUCATOR. over their flock by night ' when the angel of the Lord came and announced to them the ' good tidings of great joy to all people ' (Luke ii. 8, &e.)- The same practice contiaues to this day. Even on the highest ridges of Lebanon, far above human habitations, are found little depressions where the shepherds had contrived sleeping places for themselves, inside of which rushes were col- lected for bedding. These simple beds were arranged in a circle, and sticks and roots were collected in the centre for a fire ; .a few pots or pans stood by them, and the sheep-skins and old rugs were left in their places under the guardianship of three or four faithful watch- dogs, whose vigilance was sufficient protection whUo their masters wandered during the day with their flocks. We often met the shepherds nules away from their stations. It is their ordinary summer habit to live thus in the open air, as they do in the soutli throughout the year. In the open district east of Jordan there ai-e no caves, and so the children of Reuben said to Moses, ' "We will build slieepfolds here for our cattle ' (Numb. xxxii. 16). To these sheepfolds Reuben still continued devoted, and forgot the troubles of his brethren. 'Why abodest thou among the sheepfolds, to hear the bleatings of the flocks ? For the divisions [in the divisions, i.e., family tlinsions, tribes] of Reuben there were gi'eat searchiugs of heart ' ' ( Judg. v. 16). But in the hill country of Judah the folds were in caves. Thus Saul, when in search for David, ' came to the sheepcotes by the way where was a cave' (1 Sam. xsiv. 3). In such folds Da\-id had passed his youth. ' I took thee from the sheepcote, from following the sheep, to be rider over my people, over Israel ' (2 Sam. vii. 8 ; Ps. Ixxviii. 701. And as the traveller passes over the Philistian plains, and sees the ruined cities, with rxido hovels and slieepfolds built of their fragments, who can forget the denunciation of the prophet : ' The sea-coast shall be dwellings and cottages for shepherds, and folds for flocks ?'' (Zeph. ii. 6)." (Nat. Hist. Bib., pp. 138, 139.) In our own country sheep do net as a general rule require water to drink, the succident natiu-e of their food being sufficient to prevent thirst; still in droughty seasons, when the herbage is scorched from great and prolonged heat, sheep will di'ink with avidity. But what is the exception in England is the rule in the East, where watering the flocks is a necessary and common operation. When Jacob met his cousin Rachel for the first time in his eventful history it was at the well-side. 1 There is a sarcastic irony in Deborah's rebuke of Eeuben which it is uot very easy to express. *' In the divisions, or, amon^r the brooks" {as some translate tlie Hebrew word) *' o£ Keuben, there were deep deliberatious, solemn thoughts as to helping their brethren. "Why then did Reuben abide anion;;: the sheepfolds, lazily listcninpc to shepherds piping on their reeds, instead of eugagin-^ in brave fight and clamour of war ? Oh ! yes, there must have been great deliberations indeed." There can bo no doubt that the Hebrew words s/tcri/ioth aMrhn refer to s/ieplu-rds VihisiVmg on their jn'jifs, and not to the bleatings of the sheep. Shdrali means " to whistle on a pipe," " to hiss and make a shrill noise." The word, like our English "hiss," is probably onomato- poetic, and would be :u the highest degree inappropriate to cs]>ress the bleatings of sheep. So interpret Gesenius, Eoscnmilller, and Turst; the latter adding that 111? {t-'Ur), "a flock," here = 111* li*\^ {ish ddey), man of the Hock, i.e., " shepherd." So too lieil and Belitzsch, '* the pipings of the flocks." Jacob looked, " and behold a well in the field, and, lo, there were three flocks of sheep lying by it ; for out of that well they watered the flocks : and a great stone was upon the well's mouth. And thither were all the flocks gathered : and they rolled the stone from the well's mouth, and watered the sheep, and put the stone again upon the well's mouth in his place " (Gen. xxix. 2, 3). When Moses fled from Egypt into Midian, he sat down by a well there. " Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters : and they came and di-ew watei', and filled the troughs to water then- father's flock. And the sheplierds came and drove them away : but Moses stood up and helped them, and watered their flock. And when tliey came to Reuel their father, he said. How is it that ye are come so soon to-day ? " (Exod. ii. 16 — 19.) The operation must have taken some time, for the water was drawn out by means of rope and bucket, and poured into the troughs or reservoirs, which were generally of stone, that were round the margin of the Eastern wells. Hence there was time for a little chattering and gossiping, and not imfrequently a little love-making; indeed, the well seems to have been a recognised place where to seek a wife. Thus Abraham's servant went to Mesopotamia, to the city of Nalior, to find a wife for Isaac amongst the daughters of the land who came out of the city to draw water from tho well. The steward sat down, and the camels, thirsty from their long jouraey, rested ; a maiden approaches, nnVeUed, very beautiful, with the bloom of innocence on her countenance, altogether enchanting; her name is Rebekah, or Eihlcah, that is, "the girl who ensnares men l)y her beauty," from the Arabic word ribkali, " a rope having a noose." She draws water for her own camels, and then the active obliging gu'l di"aws water for the camels of Abraham's steward. The result is well known ; Rel)ekah became Isaac's wife, " and ho loved her, and Isaac was comforted after his mother's death." It was at the weU-side where Jacob, as we have already seen, first met Rachel, who afterwards became his wife. The old scenes are repeated to this day, as Dr. Tristram tells us : — " And .still the ' places of di-awing" water,' when tho land is free from the ' noise of archers,' are the spots where the youth and girls of Bedouin life congregate ; and at the wells alone is Oriental courtship carried on to this day. The Syi-ian girl, especially if a Druse or Christian, unlike the secluded diiughterof tho towns, is frequently entnisted, like Rachel or Zipporah, with the care of her father's flock. The well — the most precious of possessions — is carefully closed with a heavy slab until aU whose flocks are entitled to share its water have gathered. The time is noon. The first comers gather, and report the gossip of the tribe. The story of Gen. xxix. is, in its most minute details, a transcript of the Ai-ab life of to-day. ' It is yet high day, neither is it time that the cattle shoidd be gathered together [i.e„ to be folded for the night] : water ye the sheep, and go and feed them. And they said. We cannot until all tho flocks be gathered together, and tiU they roU the stone from the well's mouth ; then we water the sheep ' (vs. THE ANIMALS OF TKE BIBLE. 51 7, 8). Then follow the arrival of Rachel, the ekim of relationship, and the brotherly kiss, with the homo found in Laban's house. Though Mohammedanism has sadly degraded woman, and restricted her freedom, yet the daughters of the desert can still choose indu-ectly for themselves among their comrades at the well ; and they are always eager to offer the stranger, though no Mohammcd:xn, a draught of milk" {Nat. Hist. Bib., pp. 142, 143). There appear to be two breeds of sheep in Palestine, each of them merely a variety of the common sheep of this country, Ovis aries ; one wliich occurs in the northern hills is said to be "not unlike tho merino, with short., fine wool, well shaped, short and flue legs." This would seem to be a variety of the Ovis Hispanicus of LinnffiuS; Sheep are subject to almost endless varia- tions. Dr. Gardiner, in his jommey from Pernambuco to Crato, passed through a flock of several hundred sheep. " Tho excessive heat of the climate liad vprought a remarkable change in their appearance, their skin being totally destitute of wool, and replaced by a short hah- not unUke that of a cow" {Trav., p. 163). Again, in the form and even in the nimiber of the hoims, as well as in the texture of their clothing, sheej) offer many varieties. Sheep may have four horns, or even eight in nimiber; they may have a pair, or none at all. The ordinai-y sheep of Palestine, which is tho sheep of the southern parts of the country, and which probably was the sheep of the land in Biblical times, is the fat-tailed sheep of the East, the Ovis laticaudata of Erxleben, the Ovis laticanda platyceros s. Arabica of Linnffius, the Ovis orientalis of LudoK, who iu his History of Ethiopia (Bk. i., cap. x., pi. 14), has figured this sheep drawing his long fat tail iu a cart (" caudam adiposam XL. et ampHus libramm in plosteUo trahens "). In the same plate Ludolf figures another sheep, with a tail not so long, but excessively broad and fat. There are several forms of this fat-tailed variety known to naturalists, but we need not take any notice of them. This variety was known both to Aristotle and Hero- dotus ; tho former speaks of Syrian sheep with tails a cubit long ; and Herodotus meutions a similar kind found in Arabia. The story of sheep drawing their large tails behind them, in a little carriage, first men- tioned by Herodotus (iii. 113), repeated by Leo Africa- nus iu tho fifteenth century, and again by Ludolf in the seventeenth, has sometimes been ridiculed as a mere traveller's tale. "When this story is applied to the sheep near Aleppo," Dr. Russell .says, " it may certainly be ascribed to exaggeration ; for thougli increase of size might expose the tail to be injiu-ed by tho thistles or bushes, and render the expedient of the board neces- sary, where wheels could be of little sendee, no increase of bulk could well bi-ing it to trail on the groimd. But the necessity of carriages for the tails of the African sheep, mentioned by Herodotus, Ludolphus, and other writers, is real. Tho tail of that anim.al when fat actually trails, not being tucked up like that of tho Syrian sheep. I have seen some at Aleppo brought from Egypt, and kept as curiosities, which agreed exactly with tho figure given by Ludolplius " {History of Aleppo, ii., p. 149). At present these enormous tails, a mere mass of fat, are used for grease, lamps, and for cooking. Dr. Tristram does not speak highly of their flavour. The Arabs fry them in slices, and consider them delicacies, but he compares the flavom- to that of fried tallow. He adds : " The enormous development of the tail apxiears to abstract both flesh and fat from the rest of the body. Though the carcase does not weigh more than fifty or sixty pounds, the tail will average ten pounds, and I have kno^vn it fourteen pounds." The fat tail of the Ovis laticaudata was part of ' tho sacrifice of the peace-offering made by fire unto Jehovah " (Lev. iii. 9) ; " the fat thereof, and the whole fat tail, it shall he take off hard by the backbone . . . . and the priest shall bum it upon the altar." The ordinary Hebrew word for an aninial's fail is IJJ {zdndb) ; but in those passages which refer to tho fat tail of the Syrian sheep another word, n'bN [ahjdh), is used from the root dldli, " to ))e round " or " thick," " to have a fat tail." The ordinary colour of the sheep is white, " white as wool " (Isa. i. 18) ; " Jehovah giveth snow like wool " (Ps. cxlvii. 16) ; "-the hair of his head like wool " (Dan. vii. 9 ; Rev. i. 14) ; but black and white, spotted, and black or dark brown sometimes occurred, as com- monly now, amongst (Iifferent breeds of sheep. Sheep have been domesticated from a very remote period, and it is impossible to say from what original animal the numerous breeds have proceeded. They existed in tho Stone jieriod, for M. Riitimeyer found then- remains in the Swiss hake-dwellings, of small size, fine legs, short and goat-like horns, resembling in some particulars northern and mountain varieties of the present day, as those of the Shetlands, Orkneys, Welsh Mils, and parts of the Alps. In one place M. Riiti- meyer found traces of a sheep with largo horns. There is a wild sheep, called Aovdnd or Kcbsch, occun-ing in North Africa, and also in Sinai, Ethiopia, and Abyssinia, whose figm-e occurs on the Egyptian monuments. " The sheep was sacred in Upper Egypt, particularly in the vicinity of Thebes and Elephantine. The Lycopolites, however, sacrificed and ate this animal, ' because the wolf did so, whom they revered as a god ; ' and the same was done by the people of the Mcndesian nome ; though Strabo would seem to couflno the sacrifice of sheep to the nome of Nitriotis. In tho Thebaid it was considered not merely as an emblem, but I'anked among the most sacred of all animals. It was dedi- cated to Neph, one of tho greatest deities of tho Thebaid, who was represented with the head of a ram, . . . and the inhaldtants of th.at district deemed it unlawful to eat its flesh or to sacrifice it on their altars. According to Herodotus, they sacrificed a ram once a year at Thebes, on the festival of Jupiter, the only occasion on which it was permitted to kill this sacred animal ; and after having clad tho statue of the god in the skin, the people made a solemn lamentation, striking themselves as they walked around the temple. They afterwards buried the body in a sacred coffin. Tho 52 THE BIBLE EDUCATOR. saorod boats or arks of Neph were oruamonted with the head of a ram, aud brouzo figures of this animal were made by tlie Thebaus, to be worn as amulets, or kept as guardians of the house, to which tlioy probably paid thoir adorations in private, invoking them as inter- cessors for the aid of tlie deity they represented '' {Ancient Egyptians, v., p. 191). Numerous mummies of sheep are found at Thebes, where largo flocks wore kept ; for though tliey wore neither eaten nor sacrificed, their wool was of the highest importance to the people. Diodorus ascribes the high honour in which the sheep was held to the benefits which mankind derive from it. The woodcut (p. 49) represents the moufilou {Caprovis Musimon), the Capra Ammon of Linnaeus, the wild sheep of Sardinia, Corsica, aud Crete, where it is now only found. It is said to have been formerly common in Spain and the Greek mountains, and to have extended across Circassia to Persia ; aud probably at one time was found in the Lebanon. Tlie moufflon appears to differ only in size and in the smallness of the horns of the female from the great argali (Caprovis Argali) of Siberia and the snowy barriers of liigh Asia, an animal which attains the stature of a fallow deer. Some have supposed that the innumerable breeds of our domestic sheep have been derived from the moufflon or argali, but this is very doubtful. BOOKS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. JOEL. BT THE KEV. SAMUEL COX, NOTTINGHAM. the names. INTEODrrCTION. 'ANY of the Hebrew prophets are rather voices to us than men — voices crying in the past, and saying, "Repent." Of the men themselves we know nothing but At times we can fix neitlier their date nor place. They live, and tell upon the world, simply in virtue of the words they wore moved to speak. Possi- bly their words take an added power from the dark- ness from which they sound forth, voices in the dark being commonly impressive, and easily stirring us to ■wonder and awe. And as wo stand peering into the gloom of antiquity, and hear voice after voice take up a strain of mingled warning and promise, each confirming aud expounding the one Divine message which all pro- claim, we may be the more moved by them because we can see no form, because the very darkness itself seems to have become vocal. Indeed, it is characteristic of Revelation throughout that it is, to a wonderful extent, independent of person aud time and place. Even of our Lord himself, although wo have four memoirs of him, we cannot be sure in what year he was born, or even in what season of the year ; nay, the very day of his death is still in dispute. Eternal truths do not depend on scene and date for their value or for their effect. That God is angry with the wicked ; that He forgives and restores tlie penitent ; that He blesses the righteous and exalts the humble ; that He is over seek- ing to win the sinful to contrition aud the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; that his judgments are forms of mercy, aud are designed to bring in a golden age of righteousness and peace ; — these are spiritual facts which are true in all ages and in all lands ; and these are the sum and substance of the prophetic message : this is the single tlieuie which the prophetic choir pursue through endless variations, and enrich with harmonies ever now. And this music may touch us all the more profoundly because we stand, as it were, outside the antique temple in which they worship, and cannot soo the men who sing. Of Joel, for example, we know absolutely nothing but what may bo gathered from his prophecy ; and that teUs us neither when nor where ho flourished, save by hints and implications which are still %'ariously read. That ho lived iu Judah, probably in Jerusalem, wo may infer from the facts that ho never mentions the northern kingdom of Israel, and that he shows himself familiar with the Temple, the priests, the ordinances of worship : he moves tlirough the sacred city and the temple of the Lord as one who is at homo iu them, as one who is native and to the manner born. On this point the commentators are pretty well agreed ; but no sooner do we ask, " When did Joel five and prophesy ? "' than we receive the most diverse and contradictory replies. He has been moved along the chronological lines of at least two centuries, and fixed now here, now there, at almost every point. For myself, I prefer, on the whole, the theory whieli holds him to have been the earliest of the prophets whoso writings have come down to us. There are hints in his poem, or prophecy, which indicate, I think, that it must have been written in the ninth century before Christ (circa 870 — 860), more than a hundred years before Isaiah " saw the Lord sitting on his throne, high and lifted up," and some fifty years after EUjah was carried " by a whirlwind into heaven." Tradition has always assigned Joel an early date, although his place in the Old Testament canon might seem to indicate a different conclusion. That place, however, was determined, not by any doubt of his having lived before Isaiah aud Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and Hosea, but simply by the fact that his scrip- ture is shorter than theirs. The arrangement of the prophetical books is not chronological, but an arrange- ment of convenience. First come tho major or longer prophets ; then the minor or shorter prophets ; and JOEL. 53 even these minor prophets do not succeed each other strictly according to their dates : indeed, it is not easy to discover on what principle they are aiTanged. In reading the Old Testament we need constantly to bear in mind that the order in which the books are found is no index to the order in which they were written. Job, one of the most ancient scriptures, comes after Esther, one of the latest scriptures ; and Joel, one of the most ancient prophets, comes after Daniel, one of the latest. With some confidence we may place Joil first on the list of written prophecies ; but if we try to define its date more exactly, we shall have to trust to the uncer- tain guidance of very slight, though pregnant hints. The only enemies of the chosen race meutioued by the prophet Joel are the Phceuicians, the Philistines, the Edomites, the Egyptians : he does not once mention the Assyrian, or even the Aramajau invasions. Now had ho lived sub- sequently to these invasions, the probability is that, like the prophets who came after him, he woidd have re- ferred to them and to the judgments they executed in the land. It seems incredible, for instance, that we should have had no allusion to it, had he lived after that fatal Aramaean war which, in the later years of his reign, cost King Joash not only the treasures of the Temple and his palace, but his very life, and in which many fair cities were captiu-ed, and " a very great host," and " all the pi-inces of the people," were destroyed. Had so great a catastrophe recently occurred, Joel would surely have used it to point the warning, to illus- trate the judgment lie was sent to denounce. But if from his silence respecting the Aramaean invasion we may infer that he lived before it, that wiU kind him at least as far back as the early years of Joash, king of Judah, some 870 years before Christ. Tliis inference is confirmed by his style, which belongs to the earlier period of the prophetic activity. A singular and significant cliange passed on the style of the Hebrew prophets in the eighth and seventh centuries before Christ. As their spirit grew more catholic, and they set themselves to appeal aud persuade rather than to judge, the ancient strictness, terseness, and vigour of their style relaxed : if it grew more picturesque and elaborate, it also grew more diffuse. Joel's style is that of the earlier age. So marked, indeed, is " the antique vigour and imperativeness of his language," that pm-ely on this ground, Ewald, whose fine critical instinct deserves a respect which his dog- matism often averts, places him without a doubt first in the rank of the earlier prophets, and makes him the contemporary of Joash. The inference is still further confirmed by the pro- vailing tone aud spirit of his prophecy, in which he differs greatly from " the goodly fellowship " to which he belongs. He does not once refer to the idolatrous rites and customs which they perpetually rebuke. Though the Hebrews are a siufid nation, and by their guilt have provoked Divine judgment, yet, in the pages of Joel, Jehovah is still recognised as their God and King ; the simple but stately worship of the Temple is maintained, priests and people keep the feasts and ob- sei-ve the ordinances to do them. Now, curiously enough, this exceptional state of general conformity to the law and ritual of Moses obtained in the years which preceded the Aramaean invasion, the earlier years of Joash's reign, aud in hardly any other period to which Joel has been assigned. So that the absence of allusion to foreign wars and invasions, the antique severity of his style, aud the rehgious condition reflected from his pages, combine to indicate the earlier half of King Joash's reign as the period of Joel's projjhetic activity. Yet it would not be wise to lay too much stress on any one of these arguments, or on all combined. Joel may have been one of the earlier prophets, as his style indicates, and yet not have been cotemporaiy with Joash. The Aramaeans, at least in their assault on Judah, may, as Ewald suggests, have appeared simply as auxiliaries of the Philistines ; aud Joel does mention the Philistines. Aud many of the religions conditions of the time are not reflected in Joel's pages. The reform initiated by Joash, though general, was by no means profound. Of a weak impidsive character, taking his tone from the advisers who had his ear, Joash " did that which was right in the sight of the Lord all the days wherein Jehoiada instructed him ; " but no sooner was the high priest gone, than he fell into the hands of evil counsellors, and " served groves and idols." Of so little weight in the state, that even the priests neglected his ordinance to repair the house of the Lord, till Jehoiada endorsed it (2 Kings xii.), the reformation ho set on foot was but superficial, and broke down the moment the good priest who had made a covenant "between all tho people and between the king, that they should be the Lord^s," was taken to his rest. Such a condition as this outward conformity, undermined by inward indifference to the ser-idce of Jehovah, was, one should have thought, the very condition to provoke pungent rebuke from a prophet of the Lord. And it is by no means easy to say why, if Joel laboured during the first threo- and-twenty years of Joash's reign, we do not find tho religious conditions of the time more clearly reflected in his words. We must not dogmatise, then. AH we can say is, that in all probability the son of Pethuel lived in Jerusalem during the reign of Joash ; that ho aided Jehoiada, the high priest, in urging the citizens to repair the Temple and to recur to the service of Jehovah ; aud that his prophecy is the oldest in our hands, and was written in that comparatively calm and pure interval in which Jerusalem was free from the bloody rites aud licen- tious orgies of the Baalim worship. That the prophet was an accomplished and gifted man is proved by his work. His style is pure, severe, animated, finished, full of happy rhythms and easy graceful turns. " He has no abrupt transitions, is every- where connected, and finishes whatever he takes up. In description he is graphic and perspicuous, in arrange- ment lucid; in imagery original, copious and varied." Even in this early poem we find some instances of the tender refrains and recurring " burdens " which cha- 5i THE BIBLE EDUCATOR. racteriso mucii of the later Hebrew poetry.' lu short, there are marks Ijotli of the scholar and of the artist in his stj'lc, which distinguish him very clearly from Amos the shepherd aud Haggai the exile. It is ahnost beyoud a doubt that he was a practised author, of whose many poems and discourses only one has come down to us. EwalJ does not hesitate to say of him that " he was in early times the highest model " of literary com- position iu the prophetic fellowship ; so that his suc- cessors all followed his elevated precedent. The prophecy itself is, beyond all others, independent of local circumstances ; it is singularly free from his- torical, iiolitical, geographical allusions, and interprets itself. It dirides itself easily and naturally into two IJarts. In the first part (chap. i. 2 — ii. 17), wo have Joel's description of a terrible judgment which fell on ihe land — viz., a plague of locusts, accompanied by years of di'ought. In this judgment the prophet sees the dawn or harbinger of the great day of doom, and sum- mons men to repent that the judgment may be averted. In the second part (chap. ii. 18 to chap. iii. 21), we have the promise that if, or Iiiecause, men repent, the Lord wiU have mercy on them, deliver them from judg- ment .ind through judgment, and bring in an era of universal righteousness and peace. For the most part, this simple series of thoughts is presented in forms so simplfe and general that the prophecy might hai-e been uttered in any ago and of any Oriental race. AU that localises it in time and space are the few allusions to the Temple, to the covenant, to the special enemies of tho Helirow people. And, so far as I know, there is only one disputed cpiestion in the whole book, though it must be admitted that this question is a sufficiently im- portant one. AU the commentators are agreed that the earlier half of tho prophecy contains the most graphic and " fearsome " description of a plague of locusts ever penned. So terrible is the description that till quite recently it was held to be too terrible for a mere plague of locusts ; it was maintained that the image of a locijst- plague was used to set forth an invasion by some mighty host of armed men. Nay, so ingenious were the com- mentators, that iu the four kinds of locust mentioned by Joel — " the gnawer, the multiplier, the licker, and the dovoiu'or '' — ^they saw four successive invasions by the Assyrians, or even four successive periods in the history of the people of God — tho Babylonian, the Mace- donian, the Roman, and the Antichristian. But now that travellers and naturalists have made us better acquaiutcd with the phenomena which attoud a flight of locusts and tho horrible ruin they leave behind them, it is generally admitted that Joel's description is no whit exaggerated; that we need not invent or supply armies and invasions to accoimt for the terror aud misery which his language breathes. "VSTiere tho locust swarms descend, all vegetation instantly vanishes ; they spare neither bark nor root, much less le.af and flower. They darken the air, so that the sun, and even men at a little 1 Examples of the tis2 of sncli refrains will bo found iu chap. i. 10 ami chap. iii. 15, aud iu vs. 2d aud 27 of chap, ii distance, become invisible. They advance iu a close military array, which yields to no o))staolo of stream or fire. As they advance a pecidiar roaring noise is heard, like that of a torrent or a waterfall. No sooner do they settle to eat, than, as Volney puts it, the gratmg sound of their mandibles reminds one of "the foraging of an invisible army." Indeed, no army of men could well work a devastation so complete as that wrought by an interminable flight of locusts, such as visits the lands of the far East, and even Algeria, to this day. And as the locusts are an adequate explanation of even the strongest phrases of Joel, we need seek no other. Indeed, we shall do well to remember that the prophets of Israel and Judah were patriots aud statesmen to whom uothiug that afl:ected the national welfare was alien or indifferent. If any great dearth were to afflict England, if any of our food-crops were suddenly to fail, how many speeches would our public men make upon it, how many pamphlets woidd they publish on its origin, on its probable, recurrence, and on the best methods of meeting it aud guarding against it. The Hebrew projjhets were the jiublic men, the oi-ators and councillors, " the tribunes " of the Hebrew people. When any calamity befell, when any danger threatened, it was their part to point out its cause, to bid men repent and renoimce the sins which had provoked it, to assure them that God was merciful even when He judged, and sent his judgments only to bring them to a better mind, to a purer and happier life. Nor were tho prophets only patriots, statesmen, poets. They had a far liigher inspiration than that of character and genius. Their hearts were moved, their eyes opened, their tongues set on fii-e by the Divine Spirit ; so that they could see the set and flow of present events more clearly than their fellows, and the issues in which they would result in the future. Holding in their heart of hearts the great moral prineijjles of the Divine law, holding them as ruling personal convictions, belieilng that the lives and fortunes of men were really controlled and shaped by these principles, they were immoved by the temporaiy success of triumphant wickedness, or tho passing mis- fortunes of the righteous and the good. They saw and- foresaw that, in the end. tho latent miseries of wicked- ness must break out like a consuming fire; that the peace and joy latent in all good actions and customs must, at last, bring forth their pleasant fruit. Basing themselves on those convictions, the veils of human life grow luminous to them ; they could see men as they wore, and as they would be — tho men themselves, and not tho " vain shows " in which they walked. Faithful students of tho past, they could project themselves into the future ; and as they stood peering into tho years to be, what they needed to see was shown them by the Inhabitant of Eternity, to whom all the years of time are present. Taught by Him, they taught aud warned then- brethren, often speaking woi'ds that wore wiser, than they knew, often "searching what, and what manner of time the Spirit that was in them did signify." Two mistakes, as it seems to me, are current about EASTERN GEOGRAPHY OF THE BIBLE. 55 the Hebrew prophets, against wliicli we need to be on our guard. The one is, that they were for ever pre- dicting wliat form and fashion the futui'e would take ; ihe other is, that they never preilicted the things that were to come to pass : and for us, probably, the former of those mistakes is the more dangerous of the two. The truth the prophets spake was emphatically what St. Peter calls '' the present truth," the truth which the men of their time most needed to hear. Perhaps wo most truly conceive them when we tliink of them as religious statesmen — men who, vmder the inspiration of the Almighty, honestly and reverently applied the broad moral i^rinciples of the Law to all the public questions of then' day, and passionately besought the people to carry a religious spirit into all their actions, public and domestic. This was their common work, their main work, as wo may see for ourselves, as I hope wo shall seo. But we ought also to see that these holy men were at times raised above themselves ; that, in the stillness of profound meditation, or in the ecstacy of a faith that grew to vision, their spirits took a forward or an upward flight ; that, carried by the Spirit of God to some pinnacle of the Eternal Temple, they beheld from it all the kingdoms of the world, all the years of time, seeing them dimly perhaps, not able to utter in gross human words the half of what tlity saw; but stiU having a true vision of the future, and speaking words concerning it which after centmies fulfilled and will yet fulfil. In this double character, as mainly a teacher of righteousness to his own generation, but also as a seer, catching at times glimpses of a larger and more heavenly kingdom than that of Judali, and of a happier and more gracious time than the world has ever yet seen, Joel comes before us, and speaks to us across a gulf of nearly three thousand years. EASTEEN GEOGRAPHY OF THE BIBLE. BY THE EEV. H. W. PHILLOTT, 3I.A., KECTOR Or STAUNTON- ON-WTE, AND PKJILECTOK OF HEKEFOKD CATHEDEAL. BABYLON. A.VING pointed out the sites, so far as they can at present be ascertained, ©f the Hll t? plftPPs in the land ef Shinar in which l^B^ the kingdom of Nimrod is said to have liad its beginning, Erech, Accad, and Calueh, together with Ur and EUasar, we proceed now to investigate the site and indicate the remains of the city of Babylon, ihe greatest of them all. We may remark in the outset that, with the exception of ISTineveh, no ancient city that we know of has ever approached Babylon in size, and very few places have done so iu what we may call Bilj- lical importance ; but that it has met with a destruction even more complete than that of Nineveh, partly from a cause which will appear in the course of our survey. After speaking of the beginning of Nimrod's king- •dom, the Scripture naiTative proceeds to mention the city and tower whose building was interrupted by Divine visitation, and to which the name Babel ("confusion") was given, in consequence of the confusion, or rather the dispersion of languages, which took place at the same time (Gen. xi. 9). From this time, with three exceptions, we have no mention of Babylon until the time of the captivity of the ten tribes of Israel. These exceptions, which in themselves contain the elements of a good deal of history indicated though not described at length, are (1) the invasion of Canaan by the king of Shinar (Gen. xiv. 1) ; (2) the mention of the " Babylonish garment," about 1580 B.C. (Josh. vii. 21 ; see Vol. I., p. 263) ; (3) the subjection of Israel to Chushan-risha- thaim, king of Mesopotamia, but not necessarily of Baby- lon, about 1558 B.C. (Judg. iii. 8). At the time of that eaptii'ity Babylon was subject to Assyi-ia, for wo read that the king of Assyria, probably Esarhaddon, brought peojilo from Babylon and other places in the neighbour- hood to settle in Samaria (2 Kings xvii. 24). From this time, for about 170 years, 700—530 B.C., Babylon occu- pies a large share in the history of Scripture, both narrative and prophetical, and not only is the greatness of its power durisg the time of its prosperity described, as well as the rapidity and severity of its downfall, but we may add that both of these features are taken as the groundwork of figurative description applied to other objects so late as the Book of Revelation in the first century A.D. (See 2 Kings xx. — xxv. ; 2 Clu-on. xxxvi. ; Isa. xiii., xiv. ; Jer. 1., li. ; Rev. xiv. 8 ; xviii. 2, 10, 21.) "Wliat then do we know about Babylon, and what information do the existing featm'es and monuments of the counti-y f m-nish us concerning its former greatness ? From what we have already seen concerning Chaldsean cities it is clear that at an early period some veiy impor- tant architectural worts were bcgim, if not completed, in Babylonia: have we any remains of them? Now if, speaking in a general sense,' it bo true that there is no place of which we know whereabouts it stood more certainly than Babylon, there is, perhaps, none whose ruin has more completely effaced the definite form and character of its plan and structure. The prophecies of Isaiah and Jeremiah have been verified to the letter, and thus the task of identification, though in a general view most easy, is in details full of difficulty. To begin then with the gi-eat ruin, which by many travellers has for many years been regarded as the most probable representative, if not the ruin of tho tower itself, of Babel. There is, perhaps, no ancient building of which oiu- childish imiiginafion has formed a more dcfiuite idea. We all remember the picture in tho old Bible dictionaries so familiar from childhood, of the fcipering but ti-uncat«d tower, pierced with numberless openings and girdled with ascending causeways ; and in all times the marvellous nature of its history has no doubt led people eagerly to appropriate its name to more than ono 56 THE BIBLE EDUCATOR. existing ruin within the Babylonian region. One, how- ever, among them has usually been selected as possessing most exteraal claim to attention. Our description of it is gathered from various authors, whom, for convenience' sake, we quote freely without special distinction. In our sketch map in Vol. I., page 96, the town of Hillah will be seen marked, a town of some 10,000 inhabitants, about 216 miles from Korna, built on both sides of the river Euphrates, and having its two portions connected by a crazy bridge of boats. The river is there about 200 yards wide and fifteen feet deep, a noble stream through one-third of its height. The mound is of an oblong form, 762 yards in circumference, and rising at the western end to the height of 198 feet, which with tho height of the tower makes a total of 235 feet. " The diy nitrous earth of the parched plain," wo are now quoting Mr. Layard, " driven before the furious soutli wind, has thro^vn over the huge mass a thin covering of sou in which no herb or green thing cajj find nourish- ment or take root. Thus, unlike the grass-clothed mounds of the more fertile districts of Assyria, the Birs Nimroud is ever a bare and yellow heap. Neither ^ IftElL THE liESOPOTAMIAN PLAIN, V7ITH DISTANT VIEW OP EIBS NIMrOUD. with a gentle current, well fitted for steam !i.avigation. Such was the river which flowed through Babylon, for it is in the neighbourhood of Hillah that the traces of Babylon are to bo found in greater or less abundance and magnitude. About six miles south-west of Hillah on tho west side of the river, and on the edge of the great marsh formed by the overflowing waste of the Hindiyeh canal already described, is a gigantic mound or mass of ruin, visible many miles off on the treeless plain like a conical mountain. The mound at its eastern end is cloven by a deep furrow, but at the west it rises into a sort of tower of brickwork thirty-seven feet high and twenty-eight broad, diminishing in thickness to the top, which is broken and rent l)y a fissure extending the original form nor object of the edifice, of \vhich it is the ruin, have hitherto been determined. . . . It is pierced by square holes, apparently made to admit air through tho compact structure." The tower on the top is built of fine burnt bricks laid so firmly in mortar that it is almost impossible to extract oue of them whole. The other parts of the mound are occupied by immense fragments of brickwork lying like blocks of granite on tho summit, fused into \'itrified masses as if from the action of fire. The buildiug is supposed, when entire, to have been erected in stages ; it bears the name, as we have seen of Bies Nimeoud— a ijhraso which is explained to mean "the palace or prison of Nimrod,"' for the word Birs has no definite meaning in EASTERN GEOGRAPHY OF THE BIBLE. 57 Arabic — and for many years it was regarded as the ruin of the true Tower of Babel. A short distance from it ou the east side is another mound, of inferior dimen- sions, said in popular tradition to be the place at which, as already mentioned, Abraham was cast into the fire by Nimrod (see Vol. I., page 75). grove of palm-trees twelve miles distant, overshadowing the supposed tomb of the prophet Ezekiel, to which the Jews of Baghdad, Hillah, and other towns of Chaldisa still annually make pilgrimage, as they did in the days of Rabbi Benjamin. It was said to have been erected by Jechoniah, king of Judah, and the 35,000 Jews who BIRS NIMKOUD. The Birs Nimroud is described by the Jewish traveller, Benjamin of Tudcla, in the twelfth century, as the tower built by " the dispersed generation." The heavenly fire which struck the tower split it to its very founda- tions. From the summit, he says, there is a prospect of twenty miles. Among the objects thus visible, which consist chiefly of Arab huts just raised above the surrounding marshes, a scene of intense desolation, is a went along with him, when Evil-merodach released him: from his prison. The noble Mohammedans also resort thither to pray, because they hold the prophet Ezekiel in great veneration, and they call this Dar Meliclia, " the affreeable abode ;" the sepulchre is also visited by all devout Arabs. Within b.alf a mile of the synagogue are the sepulchres of Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. Even in times of war p.cither Jew nor Mohammedan 58 THE BIBLE EDUCATOR. ventures to despoil and profane the sepulelire of Ezekiel. Yv''e have given tliis accoiiut to show the beliuf prevalent in Rabbi Benjamin's day, which has lasted in full force even to our own. The reader may form his own opinion as to tho degree of credence to be attached to it, but the tomb seems in any ca.se to be a feature in the Babylonian landscape, and in the history of the country, too striking and too closely conuectmg tho pi'esent with the past to be omitted in our description. To return to the Birs Nimroud. " Its appearance," says Sir B. Porter, " is sublime even in its ruins." Its recesses are inhabited by lions ; three were quietly basking on its heights when he approached it, and scarcely intimidated by tlie cries of the Arabs, gradually and slowly descended into ilie plain. Thus the wo;:ds of the prophet have been iulfilled : " Wild beasts of the desert shall lie there ; owls shall fill their houses, ostriches shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there- Jackals shall howl in their i^aLices, and wild hounds in theu' pleasant places." But although this mass of ruin may veiy possibly stand on the same ground as tho original Tower of Confusion, there can be no doubt that in its present form it belongs to the age of the great building monarch Nebuchadnezzar, for every brick that has yet been examined is inscribed with his name. It is now generally thought to stand ou the site of the town called Borsippa, to which Berosus tells us that Nabonnedus, king of Babylon, or rather the survivor of the two kings reigning at the time of the siege of that city by Cyrus, retu-ed after its capture. We are also informed that when Alexander the Great was warned by the Chaldsean soothsayers of the danger which they said awaited liim when he entered Babylon, he took up his residence at Borsippa. The name Bor- sijjpa is a Greek adaptation of a Chaldrean name Borsip, which, according to the Talmud, was the name of a place near the tower. The building itseU appears to have been a temple dedicated to the heavenly bodies. It wag erected in eight stages, of which each one of the first seven was approjjriated, and coloured accordingly, to a planet; and the eighth, at the top, was a dweUing for the priests. Cuneiform inscriptions upon the cylinders, found according to custom built into the corners of each stage, record that Nebuchadnezzar repaired, or rather rebuilt the edifice, which had fallen into decay after its original erection by Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria. THE POETEY OF THE BIBLE. BY THE KEV. A. S. AGLEIf, M.A., INCDMEEMT OP ninian's, ALTTH, N.B. OUTLINES OF THE EISTOET OF BIBLICAL POETEY. § 1. — PBIMITIVB TIMES. 'he oldest literary compositions which have come down to us are poetical. This might have been expected from the nature of tilings. For tho earliest eiiorts to give expression to thought and feeling naturally take some form of verse, which flows spontaneously from the attempt to make language coiTespond to the emotion of the moment. In the same manner every impulse of the mind lias a certain tone of voice, and a certain gesture of the body adapted to it, so that the sister arts of music, d.ancing, and song are in early stages intimately connected. The rhythm of verse, the time of music, and the movement of the dauce, were born together and from the same affections of the mind. The preservation of ancient fragments of song, where every other record of primitive life has perished, indi- cates another reason for the early appearance of poetry. Verse not only lends itself with charming effect to the expressions of passionate thought, but gives it perma- nence as well. It is easily retained in the memory, and, by the fixed form imposed by its rules, it defies tho corruptions of accident or design, as well as those of time.' A ballad or popidar song wiU often preserve 1 So fiiitllfiil a preserver of truth is metre, that wliat is liable to be chauged, augmeuted, or violated almost daily in prose, may coutiuue for ages in verse, without variatiou, without even a change iu tho obaolete phraseology. (Michaehs, Note in Lowtb, Lect, iv.) the correct features of an event which tradition has distorted or allowed altogether to pass into oblivion. From a sense of its usefidness as a vehicle of jiublicity and preservation, the ancients employed verse for all the most important purxioses of religion and politics. The Grecian oracles were delivered iu hexameter verse. " Tho laws themselves were metrical, and adaptt.'d to certain musical notes ; such were the laws of Charondas, which were sung to the banquets of the Athenians; such were those whicli were delivered by the Cretans . to the ingenuous youth to learn by rote, with accom- paniments of musical melody, iu order that, by the en- chantment of harmony, the sentiments might bo more forcibly impressed upon their memories."- Tlie early history of many other nations oif crs instances of a like kind. Some scholars have traced among tho enact- ments of the Mosaic code specimens of metrical laws. But we do not need this e\'idence to the fact of the antiquity of poetic composition amid the Semitic tribes, for tho Book of Genesis cont.ains fragments of song wliich have sumved from a time, compared with which even tho Exodus seems recent. Tlie present seems the proper place for speakmg of these .ancient relics, for while they can hardly be said to belong to Hebrew poetry, being only a rude .and imperfect prelude to it, they yet exhibit in so remarkable a manner the germ - Lowtb, Lect. iv. THE POETRY OF THE BIBLE. 59 of tho pecidiar features of its versification that tliey cannot be passed altogether by. The earliest of these, probably the most ancient poetical composition extant, a solitary specimen of antediluvian poetry, is the address of Lamech to his Tvives, contained in the fourth chapter of Genesis. It came do\vu, perhaps, as, a popidar song, preserved by its form amid the traditions of the patriarchal times, and Tras at length inserted in the written history. Short as the fragment is, it contains expressions of great obscu- rity, and has never been quite satisfactorily explained. The version given hero is taken from Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, Art. " Lamech :" — " Ad.ih and Zillah ! hear my voice, Ye wives of Lauiech, give ear unto my speecb ; For D man had I slain for smiting me, And a youth for wounding me : Surely sevenfold shall Cain he avenged. But Lamech seventy and seven." There are two main lines of interpretation, according as the words of Lamech are understood to relate an {ictual fact, or only to utter a threat of vengeance if injury should be offered him. In the former case the explanations differ cousidei-ably. Some sujipose Lamech to be a murderer driven to make this confession of his guilt to ease his conscience ; others, that the .appeal is that of a man who has innocently shed blood, and therefore deserves a still greater protection tlian was promised Cain. There is a tradition that Cain himself was the victim. Lamech, it is said, was blind, and was led about by his son Tubal-caiu. who, seeing in a thicket what he supposed to be a wild beast, directed his father to shoot an arrow, which killed Cain. In alarm and in- dignation Lamech killed his own son, and hence his wives refused to associate with him. Ho therefore ex- cuses himself to them as having acted without a vengeful or murderous ptirposo. The tradition must have been formed on the voi'ses, and in ignorance of tlie prmciple of then- construction. The student should notice that the composition consists of thi-ee pairs of short lines, each line constituting a sentence in itself, and the second ropeatiug the first \nih some addition or alteration, or resembling it in form and sound. This construction has received from Bishop Lowth the name of paralleUsm, and wlU be shown to belong essentially, in some of its forms, to the genius of Hebrew poetry. Attention to it in the present case shows us that only one death is mentioned. The line, " And a youth for wounding me," repeats the statement of tlie fii'st member of the distich, "Eor a man had I slain for smiting mo," inth tho additional information that tho man was voung.' But the other mode of interpretation seems on the whole preferable. It is due to Herder,- who connects the song with the invention of metals by Tubal-eain. just as we have already seen it may be connected with tho invention of musical instruments by Jubal. According to this suggestion the words of Lamech form a threat, and have a future sense, and the whole composition is * Ydcd, primarily, " a newly-bom child" (see Vol. I., page 29). - GcUt iJUr EhraisdiCH Pocsio. a song of exultation at the possession of a new weapon, and the power which it confers. Thus .an ai-t which was afterwards to bo conseci-ated to such high and lioly uses had for its earliest associations vengeance and war, and the first song of the Bible was " the song of the sword." But we shaU find a martial strain running through nearly all Hebrew poetry, and we may not im- properly compare with Lamech's primitive song tho words of Israel's greatest lyric poet (Ps. xviii. 34) : " He teacheth mine hands to fight. And mine arms shall break even a bow of steel." Some importance attaches to this ancient fragment of poetry from the bearing it has on the literary relations of Israel with Egy[)t. Vfhen the essential element of Hebrew versification is found in a piece of such un- doubted pre-Mosaic origin, it can scarcely be maintained that the art of poetic composition was unknown to tho Semitic race before the Egyptian period. Even i£ 2Kirallelism can be shown to be common to Hebrew poetry and that of Egypt, Lamech's song throws back the period at which it passed from the one race to tho other to a time long anterior to Moses. One other very early fragment is extant, which, though it f. alls rather ''into the rhythmical and alliterative form into which the more solemn utterances of antiquity commonly fell " than into poetry, should be mentioned here because it is the first instance of that patriarchal prediction which in the blessings of Jacob and Moses rose to such a sublime height. " And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger sou had done unto him : and he said — • Cursed be Canaan, A slave of slaves shall be be to bis brethren.* And he said — 'Blessed be Jehovah, God of Shem, And let Canaan be their slave ! May God enlarge Japhet, And let him dwell in the tents of Shem, And Idt Canaan be their slave !' " (Gen. is. 25—27.) The benedictions of Isaac (Gen. xxvii. 27 — 30) are far more x'oetical examples of the same kind of com- position. The parallelism is distinctly marked, and there breathes throvigh the lines that keen, glad sense of tho beauty and freshness of Nature which is one of the most dehghtful features of the poetry of this race, carrying us otit with them to drink " the dew of heaven," and rejoice in the " fatness of the earth " and the " smell of the field which God hath blessed." The patriarchal benedictions may, perhaps, owe the form in which they have been preserved to later hands. But the substance of them, the thought and feeling, belong to the age of the fathers themselves. It was an age pei-vaded with a poetic spirit,-* as the traditions ui which this primitive history is embodied amply testify. "We learn, too, that occasions of family rejoicing were celebrated with music and song, for Laban complains that Jacob had stolen away, instead of being sent from his house " with mu'th and with songs, and with 3 Speaking of these times. Herder says, " The whole relation is now au idyll, now a kind of heroic saying." {Gciit dtr Ebr, Poisie.) 60 THE BIBLE EDUCATOR. tabret and -with hai-p " (G«n. xxii. 27). That we have no specimens of this domestic minstrelsy slioukl make us prize more highly those precious fragments which have preserved some, at least, of the features of the poetry of those distant times. The history of Hebrew poetry proper falls con- veniently into three well-marked periods, occupying altogether about ten centuries. The first of tliese periods extends from Moses to David, including both those great names. Taking the common chronology, vre may reckon this period at 450 years from the middle of the fifteenth century to B.C. 1000, about the time of the completion of the Temple of Solomon. The second period extends from Solomon to the death of Hezekiah (B.C. 697), covering about 300 years, and ending with the fall of the northern kingdom, and close of the eighth century. From tliis date, 250 years carry us over the decline of Judah, the overthrow of Jerusalem, the exile and restoration, down to B.C. -159, when Ezra was collecting the Jewish Scriptures, and beginning the formation of the canon.' A glance away from Hebrew history to the fortunes of other nations shows that in 4S0 B.C.. when .lEschylus, who had already several times gained the prize for tragedy at Athens, was in the zenith of his fame. Euripides was born ; that Pindar was celebrating the deeds of victors in the sacred g,ames of Greece, in odes which remain unrivalled, till they are compared with the lyric triumphs of Deborah and Da-sad; while Rome was only just beginning to feel her strength in battle with the rival cities of Latium and Etruria, and had to wait two long centuries for the dawn of her literature. § 2. — THE MOSAIC AGE. The birth of Israel as a nation, and of the national lyric song, dates from Moses. We trace his influence throughout the whole history and literature of the people which he formed, especially in the hymns which they sang to Jehovah in times of victory and national rejoicing. Herder finds three signs of tliis influence : one in the great events of which, as lawgiver and leader, Moses was the spirit ; another, in the impulse which he gave to prophecy ; and the third in his own poetry and song. The first of these will meet us at every step in our studies ; but it will be brought into more prominent notice when we iaquire into the chief sources from which Hebrew poetry drew its inspiration. Prophetic poetry will also claim a treatment by itself. The actual poetic remains of the Mosaic age and the half century following the Exodus may be briefly considered here. First both in order a.id importance is the triumphal ode, called the Song of Moses and Miriam, which cele- brates the overthrow of Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea (Exod. xv. 1 — 21). It is the earliest specimen of purely lyrical poetry which we possess, and is. both in form and spirit, worthy to rank with the highest 1 This reckoning takes no ncconnt of the psnlms which were (possibly) composed during the Maccahean period, nor of the apocryphal writings and the es.auiples of lyrical poetry in the New Testament. efforts which human geu;us has made in this direction. It is the oldest Hebrew hymn, and re-echoes throi^gh all hymns of the following ages, and also through the PiSalter." Ewald thinks it formed a Paschal hymn, which during hundreds of years must have been sung at the yearly festival, and thus became the pattern for all later songs of rejoicing. The arrangement in stro2]hes or stanzas which completed the artistic development of this kind of composition, and which we see alreiidy approximating its perfection in Deborah's song, is indeed almost wanting in the Mosaic poetiy. But in aU other respects this ode may be studied with advantage, as combining the chief excellences of tho lyi'ical poetry of the Bible. " Every part of it breathes the spirit of nature and passion ; joy, admiration, and love, united with piety and devotion, burst forth spon- taneously in their native colours."^ The images are in the truest sense sublime, and flash upon us with a sudden a; d ^^vid reality which only Hebrew poetry can produce. We see the right hand of Jehovah stretched out, the blast of the breath of his nostrils sounds in our ears, and we feel it sweeping by to heap up tho waters, and congeal them in the depths of tho sea. With the same di'amatic power are delineated the pride and pomp of the pursuing enemy, and their sudden overthrow, and the consternation of the surrounding tribes, as in a moment Egyjjt's power is swept away, and Israel stands safe, triumphant, and exulting on tho shore. These circumstances are all expressed in. language suitable to the emotions produced, abrupt, fervid, concise, animated, dramatic, with the frequent repetition of the same impassioned burst of thanks- giving which forms the chorus of the song — " I will sing unto Jehovah, for he hath triumphed gloriously; The horse and his i-ider hath he thrown into the sea." The Authorised Version has so well kept the spirit ef tho ode, and exhibits the parallelism so distinctly, that it will be enough to refer the reader to Exod. xv. It cannot be better dismissed than with tho following .admirable remarks from Professor Perowne's Essay on the Lyi-ic Poetry of the Hebrews : — " It is the grandest ode to liberty that was ever sung; and it is this, because its homage is rendered, not to some ideal spirit of liberty, deified by a people in tho moment of that passionate and frantic joy which follows the success- ful assertion of their independence, but because it is a thanksgiving to Him who is tho one only Giver of victory and freedom. Both in form and spirit it possesses the same characteristics which stamp all later Hebrew poetry. Although \vithout any regular strophical division, it has the chorus, 'Sing ye to Jehovah,' &c. ; it was sung evidently in antiphonal measure, chorus answering to chorus, and voice to voise ; it was sung accompanied by dancing, and to the mtisic of the maidens playing upon the timbrels. Such is its form. In its spirit, it is like all the national songs of - Of. especially ver. 2 with Ps. cxviii. 14, and the whole ode with the historical portions of Ps. Ixsvii. and I.tsviii. ; cf. also the hymn of Hahakkiilc (chap. ii.). 3 Lowth, Led., )j7. THE POETRY OF THE BIBLE. 61 the people, a hymn simg to the glory of Jehovah. No word celebrates the prowes;-; of the armies of Israel or of their leadoi-s : ' Thy right hand, O Jehovah, is become glorious iu power : thy right hand, O Jehovah, hath dashed in pieces the enemy.' Thus it commemorates that wonderful victory, and thus it became the pattern after which all later odes of victory were written."' There are two words used in Exod. sv., which are both translated " song." One of them is shir (fem. shirah), the most common term of the kind, and em- bracing all forms of lyrical poetry; the other, zimrah, which under its other form of inizmor forms the title of many psalms. At the licad of some psalms the two words occur together, and arc apparently interchangeable, since sometimes one appears first in the combination, sometimes the other (see Ps. xxx., Ixvii., xlviii., Ixvi., &c.). The Authorised Version usually employs " song " for slur, " psalm" for mizmor. The LXX. employ ij>5^ for shir, the Vulgate canticum, keeping " psalm " for mizmor. All forms of lyric song, religious and warlike, national songs of rejoicing, and hymns expressing individual feelings, whether of sorrow and repentance, or thanksgiring and joy, are embraced under these terms.- But there are other names used, which have regard either to the subject of the poem or to the nature of the musical accompani- ment. These will be noticed in connection with the Psalter. One of them, Tehillah, or " praise," which is a title given to tlie whole book of Psalms, is more especially applicable to festival odes which embody a nation's sense of gratitude to God their Redeemer, such as the songs of Moses and Deborah. Perhaps the best English term to express them is the word " ode " adopted from the Greek, for while it originally included any lyrical piece adapted to music, it has by long use appro- priated a style of its own. In modem poetry the ode is distinguished from a song by a more complicated and apparently irregular construction,^ as well as by its loftier conceptions, and more intense and passionate emotions. " The form of the ode is by no means con- fined to any certain rule for the exact and accurate dis- tribution of the parts. It is lively and unconstrained ; when the subject is sublime it is impetuous, bold, and sometimes might almost deserve the epithet licentious, as to symmetry and method."* There is usually an exordium, or proem, which strikes the key-note of the whole, and sometimes forms the chorus or refrain. The after arrangement depends on the subject of the poem and the nature of the passions delineated, and the highest art of the poet is displayed in keeping this motive steadily in view through imagery and illustration, which cannot be too gi-and, copious, and varied. The language of tlie ode is abrupt, concise, and energetic, and the metres and cadences often change with the varying thoughts and emotions. If it is added that the ode is a form of 1 Perowne, Psalnis, vol. i., Introduction. " Shir is used even for such a composition as the parable in Isa. v. •^ This is not uuiversiil. Some of tlie finest English odes, as Milton's Kijvin on the Naiiv'd'j, Shelley'.s Skylarlc, "Wordsworth's Ode to Duty, consist of regular stanzas. Horace's Odes were also regular. * Lowth, Lect, composition in which the poet conceives of all Nature as animated, and instead of speaking about tilings and persons, calls them iuto his presence and addresses them, wo shall see the fitness of the name to designate those magnificent hymns in which the Hebrews pour out, as at the very throne of God, their gladness and sorrow, their feelings of gratitude, hope, and praise. The best English odes are all too long for quotation. Tli?y are, however, well kno'wn, and should be read for the purpose of comparison with the odes of tlie Bible. Dryden's Alexander's Feast, CoUins's OJe to Liberty, Gray's Bard, Coleridge's Ode to the Departing Year, Wordsworth's great ode on Immortality, would supply ample material for this comparison. But nothing will be found in t'ae best examples, ancient or modem, to surpass the Song of Deborah, at whose great design, combining dignity, fire, and pathos, and making it, with its well-ordered and beautiful execution, a pattern of triumphal song, we may well wonder, remembering the epoch which produced it, 800 years before Pindar. Although it is anticipating the history, it is inserted hero, that it may follow the Song of Moses. the song of deboeah.'' Prelude. " For the leading of the leaders in Israel, For the free self-offering of the people. Praise Jehovah ! Hear, O kings ; give ear, O princes; I to Jehovah, even I will sing. Will sound the harp to Jehovah, the God of Israel. The Exodus. "0 Jehovah, when thou weutest out of Seir, When thou marchedst out of the field of Edom, The earth trembled, the skies also dropped. The clouds also dropped water. The mountains melted from before the face of Jehovah, Sinai itself from before the face of Jehovah, the God of Israel. The Dismay. " In the daj-s of Shamgar, the son of Anath, In the days of Jael, ceased the roads ; And they that walked on highways, walked on crooked reads. There ceased to be heads in Israel, ceased to be. Till I, Deborah, arose ; Till I arose, a mother in Israel. The Change. " They chose gods that were new. Then there was war in the gates ; Shield was there none, or spear. In forty thousand of Israel. My heart is towards the lawgivers of Israel, "Who offered themselves willingly for the people. Praise Jehovah ! Te that ride on white dappled she-asses. Ye that sit on rich carpets, Ye that ride iu the way. Meditate the song ! From amidst the shouting of the dividers of spoils. Between the water-troughs, There let them rehearse the righteous acts of Jehovah, The righteous acts of his headship iu Israel ; Then went down to the gates the people of Jehovah. Awnke, awake, Deborah ! Awake, awake, utter a song ! Arise, Barak ! and lead captive thy captives. Thou son of Abiuoam. s This translation and arrangement is taken from Stanley's Lectures on Jeu'ish History, vol. ii., p. 332, v.here see note. 62 THE BIBLE EDUCATOR. The Gathering. ** Then came down a remnant of the nobles of the people. Jehovah came down to me among the heroes. Out of Ephraim came those whose root is in Amalefc, After thee, O Benjamin, in thy people ; Out of Machir came down lawgivers. And out of Zebnlun they that handle the staff of those that number the host ; And the princes of Issachar with Deborah, and Issachar as Barak, Into the valley he was sent on his feet. The Recreants. " By the streams of Eeuhen great are the divisions of heart. "Why sittest thou between the sheepfolds. To hear the piping of the flocks ? At the streams of Reuben great are the searchings of heart. Gilead beyond the Jordan dwells. And Dan why sojourns he in ships ? Asber sits at the shore of the sea. And on his harbours dwells. The Battle and the Flight. " Zebnlun is a people throwing away its soul to death. And Naphtali on the high places of the field. There came kings and fought ; Then fought kings of Canaan ; At Taanach, on the waters of Megiddo; Gain of silver took they not ; From heaven they fought, The stars from their courses Fought with Sisera. The torrent of Kishon swept them away. The anoient torrent, the torrent Kishon. Trample down, O my soul, their strength. Then stamped the hoofs of the horses, From the plungings and pluugings of the mighty ones. The Flight. " Curse ye Meroz, said the messenger of Jehova h ; Curse ye with a curse the inhabitants thereof ; Because they came not to the help of Jehovah, To the help of Jehovah with the heroes. The Destroyer. " Blessed above women be Jael, The wife of Heber the Kenite, Above women in the tent, blessed ! Water he asked, milk she gave ; In a dish of the nobles she offered him curds. Her hand she stretched out to the tent-pin. And her right hand to the hammer of the w orkmen ; And hammered Sisera, and smote his head. And beat and struck through his temples. Between her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay. Between her feet he bowed, he fell ; Where he bowed there he fell down slaughtered. The Mother. ** Through the window stretched forth and lamented The mother of Sisera through the lattice : * Wherefore delays his car to come ? Wherefore tarry the wheels of his chariots ?' The wise ones of her princesses answer her. Tea, she repeats their answer to herself : * Surely they are finding, are dividing the prey, One damsel, two damsels for the head of each hero. Prey of divers colours for Sisera, Prey of divers colours, of embroidery, One of divers colours, two of embroidery for the neck (of the prey).'^ The Triumph. " So perish all thy enemies, O Jehovah ; But they that love thee are as the sun when he goes forth like a giant." These wonderful songs, preserced from saich an early I SlicIIal, " prey," is the reading of the Eeceived Test, for which Ew.ald proposes to substitute sJiojal (the queen). Otherwise the connection of the word "prey" must be supplied. (Stanley's note.) period, are evidence of the high state of culture attained by Israel even at the time of the Exodus. Hebrew scholars say the language of them has the rigidity and hardness to be expected in compositions so ancient, that they are iu many points of expression and artistic esceUcnco surpassed by later models.- As war-songs, however, they remain imequalled. and sliow how won- derful an inspiration the leaders of the nation caught from faith iu an .Mmighty King, ever ready to take command of his hosts, and lead them to -s^ctory. Some fragments contained iu the Book of Numbers let us see the more imperfect forms in which the same spirit manifested itself. We can trace some of the stages through which the high culture was reached. Two of these (Exod. xvii. 16 ; xxxii. 18), the one a frag- ment of a war-song, the other a spontaneous burst of lyric indignation, are from Moses himself. The others (Numb. xxi. 14, 15 ; 27 — 30) derive additional interest from the happy chance that the compiler of the history has named the sources of his information. The fii-st of them is cited from a book called the " Book of the Wars of Jehovah." which, it has been conjectured, was a collection of ballads and war-songs, composed on dif- ferent occasions by the watch-fires of the camp, and commemorating for the most part, though not perhaps exclusively, the victories of the IsraeKtes over their enemies.^ Its title confii'ins the impression of the deep religious feeling of the Hebrews in the conduct of their wars, wliich is given by the whole history. The second fragment is derived from another source. It refers to certain people who spoke "in proverbs" {hamoshelan). But the word, as will be seen hereafter, has a fiu- more extended meaning than our word "proverb." It is applied to many kinds of poetry, and may perliaps not improperly be translated " IjaUad- singers." It is doubt - ful if the verses in question are an original Hebrew composition. Some interpreters consider them to be a translation of an old Amorito ballad. If, however, it has a Hebrew origin, the song affords the first instance of that mocking or taunting .speech (melitsah)* which some of the prophets use with such tremendous effect. Ewald thinks this is even implied in the reference to " they that speak in proverbs," sLuco such people may' easily become satirists.* A strong vein of satire cer- tainly runs through much of the Book of Proverbs.*' According to this interpretation the victors sing in a mocking tone — " Come home to Heshhon ! Let the city of Sion he built up and restored !" "Rebuild if you can the city we have destroyed." A second voice then takes up the strain. " Tet surely this is the same city of Heshbon out of which onco bm-st forth the devouring flame of battle against Moab," &c. At the conclusion the general result of the victory- is announced : — = Ewald, Dklttcr dcs A. B. 3 Smith's DicS.oiiorj; o/ tho BMc, art. " Numbers."' •1 Micah ii. 4; Hali. ii. 6; I.-ia. siv. 4; Pa. xhv. 14. 5 Histoni of Isrnd, vol. i. 200. '' Prov. i. 23, 27 J xxvi., &c. DIFFICULT PASSAGES EXPLAHSTED. 63 " We liave burned them — Hesbbon bas perished uuto Dibon ; ' And laid tbem waste even uuto Nophab, With fire unto Medeba." Tlio otlier relic contained in this precious 21st chapter of Niunbors is of a totally different kind. It is the "Song of the Well" (vs. 17, 18), first sung at the digging of it, and afterwards used, no doubt, to beguile the labours of the maidens who came to draw watei'. The little carol is bright, fresh, and sparkling as the water of the well itself, and has a peculiar charm from the insight it gives us into the happy relations of the leaders of the young community with the people. This confidence in the sympathy and help of their rulers gave promise of the grand futm-e of Israel, and the lively little verse in which the feeling is enshrined is a perfect type of the true "people's song" {volksUed) : — " Spring up, O well ! sing to it : Well which the princes dug. Which the nobles of the people bored With sceptre of office, with their staves." One other phase of the early poetic spirit of the Hebrews survives from the desert wanderings. It contains the germ of the future magnificent Temple poetry. Ali'eady the art which David was afterwards to bring to such elaborate perfection, and consecrate to the service of the sanctuary, was called in to adorn the primitive worship of the tabernacle. When the ark set forwai'd in the morning, Moses said — " Eise up, Jehovah, and let thine enemies be scattered."! And in the evening when it rested, he said — " Return, O Jehovah, unto the ten thousand thousands of Israel." The priestly blessing (Numb. vi. 24 — 26), also falls into the form of verse. It is a triplet, and. according to Jewish belief, was pronounced witli a corresponding- triple division of the fingers of the upraised hand." It was chanted with the hand lifted above the head ; 1 Cf. Ps. Ixviii. 1, 2 ; CMxii. 8. 2 Stanley, Lectures on Jcxnish Clmrch, ii. 419. The ancient melody of the chant is supposed to be preserved in Spanish and Portugese synagogues. {Ibid.) or, if the high priest performed the ceremony, above the shoulders, and the word " Jehovah," which in later days was elsewhere altered to "Adonai," in this solemn act was retained unchanged, as if in a sacred charm : — " Jehovah bless thee and keep thee ; Jehovah make bis face to shine upon thee, and be gracious uuto thee ; Jehovah lift up his countenance upon thee, and give, thee peace." From these originals the national and religious poetry of the Hebrews was developed. But there are stiU be- longing to the time of tlie Exodus two great compo- sitions wliich can only be mentioned here (Ps. xc. and Deut. sxxii.). Both are ascribed to Moses, and even those scholars who refer them to a later date confess that in their spirit, and the truth with which they re- flect the circumstances of the desert wanderings, they are truly Mosaic. These complete the principal types of the psahn form — the hymnic, the elegiac, and tho prophetico-didactic. The stormy period which followed the first occupation of Canaan was favourable only to one species of poetry, which we have already seen developed to a truly grand height in the song of Deborah. Tlie Book of Jasher, or " the upright," which was i^rob.ably a collection of poems celebrating the deeds of heroes, from which Joshua's address to the sun and moon is quoted, may have contained odes and "wai'-songs of equal power. One only has been preserved from it — a poem of rare beauty and pathos — the elegy or lament of David over Saul and Jonathan (2 Sam. i. 19 — 27). Samuel, however, must have given an impulse to the more peaceful and religious side of lyi-ic poetry in tho schools which lie estalilished for tr,iining- young men in tho prophetic office, where song and music formed a great part of the course of instruction (1 Sam. x. 5). The results of this are seen in David, with whom begins the great era of 2'sahnody, by which name wo desig- nate that kind of lyric song which now put forth its utmost strength and .attained to a truly Divine height of splendour and power. DIFFICULT PASSAGES EXPLAINED. THE GOSPELS:— ST. MATTHEW: THE SEEMON ON THE MOUNT. BY KEV. C. J. ELLIOTT, M.A., VICAE OF WINKPIELD, EEKKS. ^HERE is enough of general agreement in the circumstances under which the Sermon on the Mount, as recorded by St. Matthew, and the discourse contained in St. Luke vi. 20 — 19, were delivered, to warrant the con- clusion that the occasion was one and the same, and that the origin of the differences obseiTablo in the two accounts must be sought in the objects respectively proposed by tho two Evangelists. Our Lord, having descended from that higher part of the hill-coimtry (ri opo9) whither He had retired for meditation and prayer before the selection of the twelve, by whom He was then accompanied (St. Luke vi. 17), took up his jiosition on some level spot in that district (eV! ToTTov TreSiuov),^ where tho multitude whieli had thronged iiround Him, not only " from all Judaea and Jerusalem." but also "from the sea-coast of Tyre and Sidon," could more conveniently listen to His words. ' It de-^erves notice, as pointed out by Bishop Wordsworth, that the Septuapint version of Isa. siii. 2 contains an csact description of the spot selected by our Lord for the Sermon on the Mount, combining, as it does, the descriptions given of it by the two Evangelists, en opouc Tredtvov, 64 THE BIBLE EDCJCATOR. St. Matthew, in conformity with the general design and character of his gospel, dwells with particular prominence upon those portions of the discoui'se which vindicate the precepts of the Leritical law from the false and pernicious glosses of its appointed interpreters ; whUst St. Luke, in conformity with the general scope of his gospel, omits those parts of the discourse which correct the current misconceptions of the meaning of the Jewish law, and records only those portions which enforce the distinctive principles and precepts of the law of Christ. The difficulties which exist in St. Matthew's account of this discourse are of two kinds. The one class of difficulties consists in allusions to Jewish customs, and in the adoption of forms of sijeoch current amongst the Jews, which were familiar to those whom our Lord addressed, but which, without explanation, ai-e almost un- intelligible amongst ourselves. The second class con- sists in the nature and extent of the contrast drawn by our Lord between the Jewish and the Christian law ; and more p?.rticularly in determining how far the maxims and traditions then prevalent among the Jews are to be regarded in the light of just expositions of the Mosaic law, or in that of false glosses, and of unauthorised additions. Wo propose to deal, in the first instance, vnih the former of these difficulties. The first passage which seems to call for explanation is found in v. 21, 22, and it is as follows : — " Te Iiave he.ird [or, " Te heard," ' HKotjaare] that it was said by [or rather, as the marginal readiug is, to] them of old time. Thou slialt not kill ; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment ; but I say imto you. That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall bo in danger of the judgment ; and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council : but whosoever shall say. Thou fool, shall be in danger of lieU fire." It is possible, as has been suggested, that our Lord refers, in these words, to the recently delivered discourse of some Jewish rabbi, in which case the words follow- ing the sixth commandment might bo regarded as the addition of the speaker. Inasmuch, however, as these words are nothing more than a summaiy of Jewish law respecting the murderer; and further, inasmuch as in vs. 27, 33, and 38 a similar reference is made cither to the precise words of the law or their near equivalents, it seems more reasonable to suppose that our Lord here refers directly to the Mosaic law itself tban to any recent rabbinical exposition of its require- ments. Our Lord then proceeds, not by way of disparage- - mcnt of the Jewish law, but by an exposition of its latent and spiritual meaning, to enforce the higher code of the Gospel, as reaching not only to the outward acts, but also to tlie intents of tlie heart, and to the utter- ance of the lips. In language more intelligible to tliose to wliom it was immediately atldressed than it is to us, our Lord describes the guilt and the coudo;nnation incurred by tlioso wlio cherish in their hearts tlio emotions of sinful anger. There is, indeed, an anger, i.e., a holy indigna- tion against sin, wliich om- Lord himself experienced (St. Mark iii. 5), and which His apostle St. Paul repre- sents as capable of being indulged without gmlt (Ei>h. iv. 26). But the anger which is here forbidden is the anger of unruly passion, stirred by animosity, and prompting to revenge. He who thus sins against his "brother" (for it is at this early period in our Lord's ministry that the true " fraternity " of the Gospel began to be incidcated) is represented by our Lord as ren- dei-ing himself obnoxious to the same jurisdiction to which, in accordance with Jewish law, murderers wore amenable. The second case adduced by our Lord is the applica- tion to a " brother " of the word Baca. This word is de- rived from one which means " empty." It is of common occurrence amongst the Talmudists. Its meaning was explained to St. Augustine, by a Jew of whom he made inquiry, as " merely expressing the emotion of an angry mind." It is explained by Buxtorf as equivalent to the German der BiJsewicht — i.e., yilluiu. The expression employed by our Lord in describing the third exhibition of anger is of more doubtful signi- fication. It may be a Greek word, in which case it is correctly rendered, " Thou fool ; " or it may be the Hebrew word used by Moses and Aaron at Kadesh, " Hear now, ye rebels," when they incurred the penalty of exclusion from the Laud of Promise (Numb. xx. 10). The obvious import of the verse is that a gr.adation is denoted both of sin and of punishment, which will appear more cleai-ly from a brief consideration of the meaning of the words " judgment," " council," and " Gehenna," or " heU fire." The first of these three words seems designed to denote those ordinaiy courts of justice established in every town or village which had not less than 120 representative men, and which consisted of 23 members appointed by the great Sanhedrim. Against the decision of these inferior courts there seems to have been no right of appeal ; and it appears to have been only when a division of opinion existed on the part of the judges, or when, in the opinion of those judges, the magnitude of the case so required, that it was relegated to the higher court, which we shall now describe.' The " council," or amiiptov — i.e., the great Sanhe- drim, or supreme court of justice — consisted of seventy members, chosen from three classes of the people — viz., the priests, the elders, and the scribes, or lawyers. In accordance with the requirement of Dent. xvii. 8, it was held in Jerusalem, and, in all probability, in some place nearly adjoining the Temple. This assembly pos- sessed and exercised both legislative and admmistrative 1 The words of the Jewa recorded iu St. John iviii. 31, " It is not lawful for us to put nuy man to death," ore in exuct accordance with the statement of the Jerusalem Talmud (Saiilictirin, 1, be- einnirs;: \-n. 21. thnt "forty years before the destruction of the Temple, the power of iunictius capital punishment was taken away from Israel ; " but it is the opinion of Dr. Ginsbursj (iu the article "Sanhedrim" in Kitto's Diciionarii) that the moaning of both these statements is that the sentence of the Sanhedrim required the couiirmation of the Roaiau procurator. JOEL. 65 functions, and by it tlie highest and most momeutous questions respecting the interpretation and the execu- tion of the law were determined. The third degree of punishment to which our Lord refers is described as the "Gehenna of fire." The word Gehenna is the Greek form of tlio two Hebrew words njTP: (Ge-liinnom), i.e., the valley of Hinnom. Li this valley, which lay to the south-east of the city of Jerusalem, the idolatrous Jews used to burn their children, in honour of the god Molech. The pious king Josiah polluted the vaUoy,' and it became a place for the Ijuruing of offal, and for the corpses of cri- miuals. Isaiah speaks of this valley under its name of " Tophot," as ■• ordained of old." " The pile thereof," he writes, " is fii-e and much wood ; the breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it."- And in reference, as it would seem, to the same valley, he writes thus in chap. Ixvi. 24 : " And they shall go forth, and look upon the carcases of the men that have transgressed against me : for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched." It was not, then, without cause that the Jews used the name of this "vaUey to denote the place of future torment. It can scarcely admit of doubt that our Lord in these verses describes, in language adapted, in accord- 2 Kings xxiii. 10. 2 laa. i. 33. ance with Oriental usage, to the capacities and modes of thought of His hearers, the criminal nature, and the fatal results of the indulgence of feelings of hatred and revenge. The simple consideration that our Lord himself uses the word rendered " fools " in His twice- repeated address to the scribes and Pharisees, "Ye fools (A'topol) and blind," of which He condemns the use when spoken under emotions of hatred and re- venge, furnishes a sufficient clue to the general di'ift of His meaning. That meaning is to be extracted by a due consideration of the spirit, rather than of the lettei', of His words. There may be, iudeod, and there probably is, a designed gradation to bo traced, alike in the guilt which He describes and in the punishment which He threatens. But the fact to which allusion has just been made, that our Lord himself employs, in reference to the Scribes and Pharisees, the very word which He here represents as exposing liim who uses it to the highest degree of punishment, is, of itself, a conclusive proof that in the interpretation of these, as of all other words which jjroceeded from His lips, we must ever bear in mind the fundamental canon of interpretation furnished by Himself when He said, " The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life" (John vi. 63), a canon of interpretation which is thus exi^lained and enforced by St. Paul, " The letter killeth, but the spirit giveth hfo " (2 Cor. iii. 6). THE BOOKS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. JOEL (contiiiueil). BY THE KEV. SAMUEL COX, NOTTINGHAM. PntST PART. THE JUDGMENT (CHAP. I. 2 — II. 17). ?HE prophecy opens with a lamentation over the land laid waste and bare by suc- cessive swarms of locusts — a lamentation in which Joel describes this terrible cala- mity in the most graphic terms, urging the nation to lay it to heart, and finally breaks into a pathetic prayer for deliverance (chap. i. 2 — 20), so that the openi»g verses of this inspired poem take an elegiac form. In studying the elegy we commence at the second, verse, since that which stands as the first verso in our Autho- rised Version is, obviously, the general title prefixed to the whole prophecy. We need not linger over this title, save to make a single remark on the meaning of the proper names. Joel, or Yoel, is compounded of the two sacred names most commonly used in the Old Testament — of a con- tracted form of Jehovah, such as Jah, and of El : it moans either " Jehovah is God," or " whose God is Jehovah." Joel is " the son of Pethuel," but who Pethuel was we do not know ; his name, which means "the openheartedness or sincerity of God," may be added simply in accordance with the Oriental usage which demands that a man should be described as the 29 — VOL. II. son of So-and-so, or to mark off the prophet from cotemporaries who bore the same name. Verses 2 — i contain an animated introduction to the theme of the elegy. The prophet calls on the old men taught by long experience, accustomed to take note of what seems contrary to the usual course of nature ; nay, he calls on all the inhabitants of Judah, whatever the district they occupy, and whatever the calamities they have witnessed, to say whether, in tlieir own days or the days of their fathers, there had ever befallen a calamity so terriUe as tliat which had re- cently swept over the land. The motive of his appeal is, that he may suggest to tkem his conviction that a calamity so imheard of, so unparaUeled, must be a visitation of God, a judgment from offended Heaven ; for then, as now, men were wont to find God in the exceptional rather than in the ordinary events of life — in the marvel or mh-aclo rather than in the law. He commands them to tell their sons of this terrible plague, to recount the story of it through three gene- rations ; not as supposing that there is any need for the command, for the memory of so unparalleled a disaster was sure to live in the mouths of men as long as that ; but in order to impress on his readers a sense of the vastness and terror of a disaster which 66 THE BIBLE EDUCATOR. woTild darken tlio national memory for so long a period. The four names by wliich (in ver. 4) the prophet designates the locusts which had wrought so fearful a devastation in the land, have been variously interpreted ; but there is now no doubt that they denote various species of grylli, various kinds of locusts, although our Authorised Version renders three of them by " pahner- worm, cankerworm, and caterpillar." It has been proposed to render them by " young locTist, old locust, fledged locust, flying locust," and indeed in many other ways. On the whole, it seems better to fall back on the etymology of the four names, gdzdm, 'arheh, yeleq, and chdzil. Now gdzam is from a verb that means to " cut or bite off ;" 'arhch is from a verb which means " to be or to become many ;" yeleq is from a verb which means "to lick "or "to lick off;" and chdzil is from a verb which means " to eat up," " to consume," " to devovir." To preserve the etymological meanings of these names, we must render ver. 4 — " what was left by the gnawer the multiplier ate ; And what was left by the multiplier the licker ate ; And what was left by the licker the devourer ate j" for thus wo get as nearly as possible English equiva- lents for the Hebrew names of the locust. There is no reason to suppose that Joel used them in any exact scientific sense, as distinguishing one species from another, or in any exact historical sense, as moaning that the order in which he names them was the chrono- logical order in which they darkened over the land. All he means is, I suppose, to affirm that successive swarms of the locust brood fell on the land, and that among them they consiuned every green thing. Some critics will have it that four is the sign of universahty ; and that the prophet mentions four swarms and no more, to indicate tliat the judgment swept in all directions over the whole coimtry. The thought is not so absurd or far-fetched as at first it might seem to be ; since^ throughout the Bible, beyond all question numbers are used in a symbolical or mystical sense. And now, having annoimeed his theme, instead of narrating the several kinds of ruin -wrought by the locusts, tlie prophet, like a true poet, throws verve, fire, dramatic force into his description by a series of appeals, each of which is a little picture in itself, to the various classes of Judah — to the lovers of tlie wine-cup, to the vine-dressers and husbandmen, to the priests and ministers of the altar, and to the personified nation. The series commences with an appeal to the bons vivants, to the lovers of good wine (vs. 5 — 7). Even the wine-bibbers, wrapped in careless self-in- dulgence, arc to wake up to a recognition of the hand of God. The last, if left to themselves, to discern and trouble themselves about national calamities, they are the first to whom the prophet addresses himself. Tliey are to " weep and wail,'' for indeed the judgment has come homo to them ; it has touched what they most love. They are " drinkers of wine ; " and the term here used for " wine " includes the intoxicating drinks that were expressed from barley and honey, from figs and dates, as well as the juice of the grape : and " the new wine," the juice of the grape or other fruit, which when first pressed out is remarkable for its sweetness and strength, has been " cut off from their mouth." It has boon cut off by an invading " nation," " strong and iunumcrable," with teeth like " lions' teeth." Each of these epithets is admirably chosen. The locusts are strong, for nothing can stop them. They are innumerable, succeeding each other in " infi- nite swarms " flying " millions thick," and have been known to cover an area of "two thousand EiUes." And their teeth are like the teeth of a lion, not simply because of the terrible devastation they effect, but also because "the denticulated jaw of the locust re.sembles, to the naturalist's eye, the type of the lion." These are the hostile and warlike nation which have " come up over my land," "kid waste my vine, and broken down my fig-tree." In King Solomon's time, we are told, "every man sat under liis vine and imder his fig-tree, none daring to make him afraid "' — a plirase which impKes how com- mon these two trees were, how much the people prized them. It was natural, therefore, that Joel, some two centuries after Solomon, shoidd select these as in some sense the trees of Judaea, and lament their destruction. The vino is marked as the chief of the two in a way many readers wUl omit to note. Observe, then, that having said of the locust nation, " It hath laid waste my vine, And broken down my fig-tree," the prophet does not continue, " it hath utterly peeled them, their branches have grown white ;" but, " It hath utterly peeled Tier and cast it away. So that her branches have grown white." So to speak, he drops the fig-tree out of his verse, and retains only the vine, as the more characteristic and precious of the two. And though the fig, which is in- tligenous to Palestine and gi'ows there in great luxuri- ance, yields a food of the sweetness and value of which we, who eat only the dried fig, can have no conception ; yet the ^ono is both a nobler and more valuable tree. JFi-om time immemorial it has flourished in Palestine, often attaining a marvellous size and fruitfulness. It has been known to tlirow a stom, nearly five feet in circumference, to a height of thii-ty feet, and to spread branches over a circle of ninety or a lumdred feet. Its clusters often weigh ten or twelve pounds, and its single gi-apes are at times as large as our damsons. To have these noble trees destroyed was nothing short of a public calamity to a nation whose common di-iuk was wine. And with a poet's quick eye for grai^hic touches, Joel describes tlio locusts as peeling the \'ine, by gnaw- ing off its bark, so that the branches grow white— smelj a very picturesque verse. It is as accurate as it is picturesque ; for, tough as is the fibre of the vine-bark, the locusts eat clean through it, and thus injure tlie tree for more than a single yoair, sometimes destroying its very life. JOEL. 67 This is oiu" first tiny picture, then. A company of wine-bibbers, witli the wiue-cup dashed from their lips, weeping' and wailing as they look out on the drooping vines, with their whitening trunks and leafless branches. The second appeal is to the impersonated nation (vs. 8 — 10). Judiea, Judoea desolata, is to lament like "a virgin girded with sackcloth'' over " the husband," the lord, the beloved " of her youth," whom that " chiu'l Death " has rapt from her side. She is to lament ■with the utter passion, abandonment, despau- of a young girl who sees her life bhghted, and the desire of her eyes taken away at a sti-oke, who clothes her tender limbs in rough sackcloth, and casts lierself weeping on the ground. And for what is Judaea to abandon herself to this passion of woe ? Because the Temple mourns ; because " the priests, the ministers of Jehovah, mourn ; " because "offering and Hbation have perished from the hoiise of the Lord," now that the locusts have eaten up the vine, the olivo, the wheat, and there is no longer meal, oil, wine, incense for the altar of Jehovah, and the service of his House ; because the land mourns as well as the Temple — Nature sympathising in the woe of man ; because " the field,'' the open uniuclosod country, " is laid waste," and " the ground," the rich red soil fenced for culture, "lameutoth" over "the corn" that has perished from its bosom, and over "the new wine " dried up in the very veins of the vine, and over "the oil" that has " sickened" or "languished" in the nngathered olive. A ravaged land and an abandoned Temple — for Grod was supposed to have left the Temple when his altar-table was not duly furnished forth; a land smitten with judgments by the God who had forsaken his sanctuai-y — it was for this that Judsea was to lament hko a virgin over the bridegroom of her youth. This, then, is om- second picture. The daughter of Zion, clothed in sackcloth, weeping in passionate aban- donment, as a virgin for the " lord " of her youth, as a bride awakening to widowhood, over a land despoiled, a temple forsaken by God and man — by God, because he is incensed against the nation ; by man, bec2Cor.v. 11. 2 Ibid. V. 10. MUSIC OF THE BIBLE. ET JOHN STAINEB, II.A., MUS. D., MAGDALEN COLLEGE, OXPOED ; ORGANIST OP ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL. WIND ENSTEUMENTS {cmtinued). MACHOL, OB MAHHOL. ,HIS word is found in several passages of Holy Scriptiu-e associated with the tqph or timbrel. In the Authorised Version it is almost always rendered by " dances " or "dancing: " — "And Miriam the pro- phetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances "' (Exod. xv. 20) ; and again, " Jephthah came to Mizpeh unto his house, and, behold, his daugliter came out to meet him with timbrels and with dances." In thus rendering machol, our translators have simply followed the Septuagint, in which the corresponding expression is in Tufi-ravois icai xopoh ; the same too iu the Vulgate, " cum tympauis ot choris." The German, like our own version, foUowstho Septuiigint — " mit Pauken uud Beigen," that is, with " drums and chain-dauees,'' dances ivith linked hands. Although in modern German orchestral scores pauken signifies " kettledrums," it must not be supposed that more is here meant than a common timbrel. That dances took place on these and many other occasions in which timbrels were used there can be no doubt. But may not machol signify a small flute ? If so, the ex- pression with toph and machol would exactly correspond to om- old English pipe and tahor, to the sounds of which instruments many a rustic dance was merrily footed. They are stdl the conunon accompaniment of village festivities in many parts of Em-ope. In some of thePyrenean districts may be seen gathered on the grceu, roimd which their homesteads are clustered, the gaily attired villagers dancmg to the sounds of a pipe wliich the seated musician plays with his left hand, while with his right hand he beats a sort of tambour, consisting of six strings stretched across a resonance-box, which rests on his knees. The arguments in favour of the theory that machol is a flute, are founded on the fact that many authors, amongst them Pfeifer, consider the word itscM to be derived from the same root as chalil, signifying, as before mentioned, "bored through;" and also, that in the Syi'iac version the word is translated by rephaah, which is the name of a flute still to be found in Syi-ia. On the other hand, some authors have traced chalil to a root hhalal, " to dance ; " and, of course, if this be a correct derivation, machol would more naturally signify a dance than a flute. Saalchiitz is of opinion that it implies a combination of music, poetry, and dancing, and is not the name of any special musical instrument. Much can be said in favour of this view. We have words in our own language which have a very simiUr meaning : for instance, roundelay, which may be taken as a song, a danco, or a piece of poetry. But there seems to be but little necessity for forcing such a mixed meaning from the word machol. To say that on a joyous occasion men or women went forth with " pipe and tabret," is enough to imply that they danced ; and therefore, if our translators would have more properly rendered machol by a "pipe," they have none the less conveyed the real sense of the context by rendering it " dancing." But by assimiing the former of these in- terpretations much force is given to that beautiful passage iu the Book of Lamentations (v. 15) : " The joy of our heart is ceased ; our pipe is turned into mourning;" as if the prophet had said, "The meriy pipe which once did lead the dance, has now given place to MUSIC OP THE BIBLE. 71 that whose plaintive notes recall our saddest griefs." As the Psalmist in his joy uses just the converse of this expression, in Ps. xxx. 11, " Thou hast turned for me my mourning iuto dancing (machol) : thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded mo with gladness," so does the prophet himself, joying over the restoration of Israel (,Jer. xxxi. 4 and 13). The only other passage in which the Psalmist uses the word is in Ps. cl. 4, " Praise him with the timbrel and dance." It was the noise of the pipe and tabrot which Moses heard as he descended the holy mount to find the people, whom Jehovah had but just highly honoiu-od by the gi\Ting of the Law, dancing round a golden calf. We may, then, for two reasons, believe the machol to have been a flute used specially for dancing, first, because it is higlily probable that an instrument was used in conjunction with the tabret ; and next, because such a supposition does not exclude the idea of dancing, and in no case seems to do violence to the text. MAHALATH, OK MACHALATH. A word allied both to chalil and machol occurs in the title of two Psalms (liii. and Ixxxviii.), the former being inscribed to the " chief musician upon Mahalath," the latter to the " chief musician upon Mahalath Leannoth." Each of these is called also a " MaschU," a. title generally thought to designate a poem of a moral or typical import. " Sing ye a maschil with the understanding," sings the Psalmist in Ps. xlvii. 7. Many learned writers trace mahalath to the same root as chalil (" perforated," " bored "). If a musical direction then, this word clearly points out the class of instruments which is to accompany the singers of the psahn — namely, chalil. The addition leannoth, from the fact that it means " to answer," most probably is a special order for an antiphonal treatment. Some authors have, in the case of these two psalms, as with regard to many others, considered these and other titular words as the names of special tunes. Gesenius considers mahalath to mean a " lute." If this be so, it would stUl be a musical direction, but would refer to stringed instead of wind instruments. HTIGGAB, OITGAB OK UGAB. Having spoken of the pipe, and of the possibility that the Hebrews knew of the double jiipe, we natu- rally come to those instruments which place a number of pipes under the control of the performer. And first it shoidd bo remarked that there is an essential difference between the flute a bee, or flute ivith a beak, and the flauto traverse, which it was unnecessary to point out when these instruments were previously mentioned. It is this. In the former class, the per- former has only to blow into the end, and the soimd is produced by the air being led by the form of the in- terior against the sharp edge termed the upper lip. In the_/JftM Fig. 60. hut eight or nine or even more are occasionally found. Was the ugab a syrinx or an organ ? As the former seems to have been the more ancient of the two, and as ugah is mcluded in the very first allusion to musical instnmients in the Bible, it would seem reasonable to say at once that it was a syrinx, especially as this instnmieut was, and is to this day, commonly met with in various parts of Asia. Yet it would indeed bo strange i£ such im instrument were selected for use in Divine worship; and that the ugab was so used is proved beyond a doubt by its mention in Ps. cl., " Praise Fig. 61. I worthy of mention by the side of a term for the whole string-power of Divine worship ? Even if it be msisted that the first-mentioned ugah ' was nothing more than a syrinx, are we, therefore, ^ forbidden to believe that the mere name might have I been retained while the instrument itself was gradually undergoing such alterations and improvements as to render it in time a veritable organ ? That men's minds have from the earliest time striven to find out iu what I way many pipes could be brought under the control of ! a single player, there are indubitable x>roofs. Acassagein MUSIC OF THE BIBLE. 73 the Talmud, describing an instnunent called a magrepha, which was Siiid to be used in the Temple, is exceedingly interesting. This oi^an, for it is entitled to the name, had a wind-chest containing ten holes, each communi- cating with ten pipes; it therefore was capable of Let us now trace the various stages through which the organ has passed, while developing from what wo should now consider a toy, to that noble instrument wliich makes our beautiful cathedrals and churches ring again with sweet sounds, and whose duty it is to guide and Tig. 62. producing 100 sounds. These were brought under the control of the player by means of a clavier, or key- board. Its tones were said to be audible at a very great distance. Supposing that the whole of this account is apocryphal, it still shows that in the second centuiy such an instru- ment was not only considered possible, but believed, rightly or wrongly, to have actually existed at some previous period. support the combined voices of many hundreds, or it may be, thousands of hearty hymn-singers. Assuming that a series of wood or metjil jhdes a bee had been constructed so as to give in succession the notes of a scale, and also that the wind-chest was pierced -with liolcs to receive them, the first thing re- quired by the player would be a contrivance for allow- ing him to make any one he wished speak separately. As might bo supposed, the simplest method of doing 74 THE BIBLE EDUCATOR. this is to place little slips of wood in such a positioa that they can cither be pushed under the foot of the pipe, and so stop the current of air from passing into it, or be palled out so as to admit the air. Fig. 59 exhibits this most simple piece of mechanism, and very possibly shows what the ugah might have been at some period of its existence. A pipe at the side of the wind-chest points out the fact that the commonest bellows of tho period was thought capable of supplying the required current of air. The whole construction is in a more advanced state in the instrument depicted in Fig. (jO. Not only are its pipes more numerous, but it has bellows specially adapted to its requirements. While one bellows is being replenished, the other is stiU able to support the sounds, so there is no awkward pause while the instrument is taking breath. In the next illustration (Fig. 61), which is from a MS. Psalter of Eadwine, in the library of Trinity CoUego, Cambridge, tho organ has begun to assume a more dignified form. There is an attempt at an orna- mental case, and judging from the number of blowers required, the music must have beenrapid, or the sounds powerful. As soon as these instruments became large and not easily movable, tho terms positive and portative oi-gan came into existence ; the former being an instrument which, owing to its size, had to remain stationary ; the latter one that could be carried about. In the six- teenth century, these portable organs were called regals, the exact derivation of which is somewhat uncertain. They formed a very important element in ecclesiastical processions, as their cases were frequently elegantly decorated. Fig. 62 is an illustration of a German organ positive of the sixteenth century, tho shutters of which are also elaborately painted. This instniment has iron handles, by which it can be moved, but it is too large to have been of tho portative class. The bellows, which are behind it, and so not seen in tho figure, are very similar both in position and shape to those seen in Fig. 60. Some further remarks on ancient organs must bo reserved for our next chapter. THE BOOKS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. JEEE MIAH. BY THE VBBT KEY. K. PAYNE SMITH, D.D., DEAN OF OANTEKBURY. ;HB character of Jeremiah is in many respects the exact opposite of that of Isaiah. Possessed of no great literary power, writing in a timid, hesitating style, yet often with a plaintive sweetness ; borrowing con- stantly the thoughts and even the very words of others, as if glad to have their authority in his support ; melan- choly in temperament, brooding constantly on the diffi- culties in his path, till ho even cursed the hour of his birth, he yet in his moral qualities rises to the veiy highest elevation, and is not unworthy of the place he held in tho estimation of tho Jews, who regarded him as tho chief of all the prophets. There is even in his call to his office this same mix- ture of strength and weakness. There is no glorious vision as in Isaiah's case : notliing of that awful and superhuman grandeur which characterises Ezekiel's summons to the prophetic dignity. The images are tame and simple ; but there is a strength of purpose indicated by tliem and a decisiveness in action, which were tlie real secret of Jeremiah's strength. In ago but a lad, probably jnst arrived at raanliood — for forty years of active labour were before him, and finally, as is too probable, a martyr's death — called tlius in tho early beauty of youth, he sees first a branch of an almond-tree (cliap. i. 11), and next a pot boiling upon a fire of thorns, and just ready to overturn from the un- equal consumption of tho blazing fuel. But the words that accompany these ordinary images are of startling strength. Jeremiah is set over kingdoms and nations as God's deputy on earth, with authority to " root out. and to pidl down, and to destroy, and to throw down, and to Iniild, and to plant " (chap. i. 10) : and because in tho execution of these awful powers he would have to confront the whole land, with its king, its princes and people, God promises to make him fii-m and defiant as a defenced city, and an iron pOIar, and brazen walls. Young in years, shy in character, despondent in -temper, God yet gives him a commission of wider and fuller authority than any ever conferred before, except it be that of Moses. But even to Moses the commission was to build up and form the Jewish nation : Jeremiah's is one chiefly of condemnation and destruction. Four verbs of ruin come fu-st in his instructions, and then two only of restoration. For such a commission no- thing less seems necessary than the energy and self- devotion of a Paul ; but Jeremiah proved not unworthy of it. No man ever felt diificidtios more : no man ever faced them with braver resolution, or more unflinchingly did his duty. We have in tho 15th chapter a deeply interesting picture of Jeremiah's mental state. He tells us thero that when first appointed prophet, he received his com- mission with joy : " Thy words were found, and I did eat them ; and thy word was unto me tho joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for thy name is called upon me, Jeho- vah, God of hosts." There was nothing in his commis- sion to warn him that all his efforts would apparently be in vain, as had been the case with tho more sauguino Isaiah. For Jeremiah there was a struggle, hard and fierce, Init ^vith the promise that his enemies should not prevail. And so he entered with fii'm hopo on his JEREMIAH. 75 duties, and readily gave wp, as was a prophet's duty, the ordinary pleasures of life. " I sat uot in the assembly of the meriy-makers, nor rejoiced ; I sat alone because of thy hand : for thou hast filled mo with indignation." A righteous zeal for God had taken full possession of him, and Ids one thought was to vindicate Jehovah's honour agaiust tho sinful generation among whom he had been placed. This state of feeling may have lasted more or less duiing the eighteen years of his prophetic career under Josiah; and then followed the severer struggle and sharper contest under the tyrant Jehoiakim, and with it disappointment. He laboured, and none heeded him. In spite of all his efforts tilings grew worse and worse: opposition he could have endured, but there Was something far harder to boar — derision and contempt ; and bitterly he accuses God of betray- ing him. '• Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which rofuseth to be healed ? wilt thou bo altosrether as a Uar unto me, and as waters that fail ? " Tho Divine word seemed to him as the mirage of the desert, over promising cool refreshment, ever en- couraging to new exertions, ever at last making only tenfold more cruel the agonies of thirst. Wicked as was such accusation of God, it yet brought no condemnation. It was the struggle of a strong but melancholy nature, trying to cast oif the Divine yoke, and yet doing so with entire and real trust and devotion to God. There was nothing of disobedience in it : in spite of others, and what was far harder, in spite of himself, Jeremiah was determined to do his duty. And so his loving Master sought rather to abate the agony of his feelings, and calm down the tempest of his soul, by again promising liim that he should have strength to bear all that was laid upon him : " I will make thee unto this people a fenced brazen waU : and they shall fight against thee, but they sliall not prevail against thee " (chap. xv. 20). And so again when Pashur, the deputy high-priest, scourged the prophet, and put him into the stocks, tho same tempest of excited feelings overpowers him. The burden of his cry again is, that God has deceived him (chap. XX. 7). There has been no fruit of his labours. Ho speaks, but only to bo mocked and derided. All around him he saw nothing but contempt joined to fierce anger at the poUtical course he was taking. The word con- stantly in his mouth — his motto as it were — was Magor- missabib, " fear on every side." And again God comforts him ; but tliough ho pi-aises Jehovah for his deliverance, nevertheless tho chapter ends with bitter execrations on the day wherein ho was bonx (taken from Job iii.). He wishes that he had been slain at his birth, or that his mother had been his grave. " Wherefore," he asks indignantly, "came I forth out of the womb to see labour and sorrow, that my days should be consumed with shame?" Now what was there to justify these excited feelings? Or, as no doubt thoy were sinful, what was there to call them forth and explain their intensity p Pkiuly Jeremiah was placed in a position of extra- ordinary difficulty. His office was to condemn in the most emphatic manner the whole public policy of his country. When Isaiah had to oppose Ahaz, it was the . king's personal conduct which called forth reproof, while as regarded the struggle against tho two con- federate kings, Isaiah was entii-ely on his side, and could promise him deliverance. But no sooner was good King Josiah dead, than Jeremiah's real work began. Till that time he had been but preparing for his office ; but no sooner was Jehoiakim on the thi'one, than he had to denounce, and struggle against, and seek in every way to render void the whole policy of the king and of tho largo mass of the nobles and people. The personal character of the king he does not spare. He represents him as a tyrant and oppressor ; as one who, indifferent to the misery of the jieople, in the midst of the general rmn, had the heart to build for himself magnificent palaces by forced labour ; with earnest indignation ho contrasts the equity and justice of his father's reign with his iniquity. " Thine eyes and thine heart are not but for thy covetousnoss, and for to shed innocent blood, and for oppression, and for violence, to do it." And therefore he predicts the utter failure and extinc- tion of his seed, and that he should die a dishonourable death, and his body be cast into a ditch without burial in the fields about Jerusalem (chap. xxii. 13 — 19). It was no slight matter thus to speak of a monarch who was as fierce and despotic as he was bad, and one of whose first acts had been to send men to Egypt to arrest there the prophet Urijah, and bring him to Jeru- salem, and put him to death (chap. xxvi. 20 — 23). But it was not the fear of death which preyed so heavily on Jeremiah's mind ; it was the general indig- nation felt against him by the great mass of the people. A small party among the princes, headed by Aliikam, the son of Shaphan, approved of his conduct, but all the rest condemned it bitterly. It was unpatriotic, mean, degrading to his country. Prophets before had even urged the people to resistance. They had said, " Trust in Jehovah, and he will deliver you from your enemies." But Jeremiah wanted king and people to remain quiet under the Babylonian yoke ; while they were entirely for rebellion, and looked to an alliance with Egypt as the panacea for all their troubles. Now let us look for a moment at the political state of things when Jeremiah gave this advice. Babylon and Egypt were the two gi-eat world-powers at that time, and Judffia, situated midway between them, oscillated back- wards and forwards, inclining now to the one, and then to tho other, as occasion served. In Josiah's time the struggle was undecided, and Pharaoh-necho was on his march agaiust Babylon, when Josiah met him as a true vassal of the Chaldees, and in the unequal encounter was defeated and slain. Upon this Necho turned aside from his march, and having removed Jehoahaz, who had been put upon the throne by the party who held Jeremiah's ^iews, substituted for him Jehoiakim, anotlier son of Josiah, but one opposed to his father's policy ; and weakened probably by the losses sustained in the battle of Megiddo, withdrew to Egyi)t and aban- doned for the present tho war with Babylon. 76 THE BIBLE EDUCATOR. It was in the fourtli year of the new king's reign that Baruch wrote, at Jeremiah's mouth, the famous roll (chap, xxxvi.), in wliich the prophet showed how consis- tently the word of Jehovah had declared, even from the days of Josiah, that the king of Babylon would destroy the land, and make man and beast— the cattle, that is, used in agriculture — to cease from it. Egypt could not help ; if they repented of their sins, Jehovah could and would still save them; but they must remain in true allegiance to Babylon till the storm was overpast. Already thus early Jeremiah's life was in danger. " I am shut up," he says, "and cannot go into the house of Jehovah ; " but the roll was to be read iu the audience of all the people coming to the Temple upon the fasting day. The fame of it reached Jehoiakim's ears, and the roll was brought before him; but when only a small part of it had been read, he cut it in angry contempt into pieces, and burnt it in the fire. And the roll would have cost the prophet and his scribe Baruch theu- lives, had they not hastily gone into a place of hiding before it was taken into the king's presence. In what way Jeremiah regarded Nebuchadnezzar, we learn in chap. xxv. He was Jehovah's servant, his viee-gerent (sjh Review, starts, or rather revives the hypothesis that the Esseues were in fact Christians, and supports the conjecture by a considerable number of superficial resemblances — their purity, abstemiousness, voluntai-y poverty, aversion to the use of oaths, and the like. What has been mentioned in these papers shows, I need scarcely say, that the theory is untenable. The resemblances are only such as are to be found in all communities which aim at a devout, contemplative, yet industrial life. And there is the one insuperable difficulty that the Esseues are men- tioued by Josephus, as in the case of the elder Monaen, as existing^ even in the childhood of Herod the Great, sixty years or so before the birth of Christ ; that the fuU account of their mode of life is given by him as belonging to the time of Judas of Galilee j and that the historian himself joined the sect when he was about sixteen years of age, and therefore some years before there was a body of Christian disciples. It is probable enough, of course, that many of the order followed the example of Mauaen, and that they formed an important element in the Jewish Christian Church; but the assumption that the Esseues, as such, were Christians, is simply an anachronism. THE COINCrOElSrCES OF SCRIPTURE. 83 precisely what might be expected from one who had been more or less imdor influences like that of the Essones. Commentators, assuming that, like most of the wealthy and powerful, ho belonged to the Sadducees, or at least held their tenets, have, for the most part, seen in these words either the irony of a mocking scorn, or else the reaction of a superstition which he could not shake off, against the scepticism of a sect wliich denied that there was any resurrection or spirit. The view which has been here taken presents, it is believed, a much more natural explanation. The Essenes taught, as the Pharisees did, that the soul was immortal, and that when released from the burden of the flesh, it gained a new power and blessedness. Though they do not seem to have held, as the Pharisees did, a distinct doctrine of transmigration (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, ii. 8), yet the two beliefs were so closely linked together, that Ln the mind of the conscience-stricken tetrareh, the one would naturally suggest the other. ^ The old Essene belief would fill his mind with vague fears and fore- bodings. It was in no mood of scoru, but of real per- plexity, that he accepted the popular solution of the fact that mighty works were wi-ought by One who seemed to him to bo doing the same work, with yet more mighty signs of power, as had been done by the Baptist. 2. The glimpses whicli wo get in the Gospel history of the character of Herodias point to her as having a stronger will for evil than her husband. She is to him as Jezebel was to Ahab, as Lady Macbeth, in Shake- speare's teiTible creation, is to the Scottish thane. What we read of her in other records brings this cha- racteristic into yet greater prominence. Even in the marriage, which stamps the name of the tetrareh with such an eternal infamy, she appears to have been as much the temptress as the tempted. She agreed to leave cue uncle-husband for another in the hope of gaining greater power and a higher title ; stipulated that the tetrareh, as the condition of the incestuous adultery, should put away his former wifo, the daughter of Aretas, an Arabian chief ; and then urged on her new husband in the path of ambition which she had marked out for him (Joseph., Antiq. xviii. .51. The career of crime was marked at every step by now disasters. The death of John the Baptist, imprisoned as he had been at Machajrus, shocked the feelings of the groat body of his subjects, who had acquiesced, though with sup- pressed indignation, in the man-iage itself, and involved Herod in a war with the father of the wife whom he had, without any ostensible cause, so insolently repu- diated. Traces of that war, which ended in the disas- trous defeat of Herod's troops, are to be found in two memorable passages of the Gospel history. (1.) "We read in St. Luke's account of the Baptist's ministry that among those who flocked to his preaching, seeking a aew rule of hfo, were " soldiers," whom he counselled to " do violence to no man, to accuse no man falsely, and to bo content with their wages" (Luke iii. 14). The word so translated, however [aTparfvo/ieyoL), means more than soldiers by profession. They were men actually on service, marching (for we know of no other warfare in which Herod was engaged at the time) against Aretas, the father of the injured princess. It is a noteworthy featm-e in the teaching of the Baptist, that IJreaching to such men at such a time, ho forebore to speak to them of the gmlt of the master whom they served, and contented himself with teUing them what was their plain and simple duty. It was not theu-s to decide on the causes of the war. Each was simply to do his duty even to such a master, and to keep his own hands and heart clear from the sins to which warfare tempted him. (2.) We find, if I mistake not, an allu- sion to the same campaign in our Lord's illustration of spiritual truths, in Luke xiv. 31, 32 : " Wliat king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not doivn first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand ? Or else, whUo the other is yet a great way off, ho sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace." The words of the Teacher, who adapted his instructions always to the thoughts and experience of those wlio heard Him, may well be thought of as point- ing tlie lesson in this case from the history which was so recent. Herod Antipas had not calculated his re- sources, had been ignominiously defeated, and had been compelled to appeal to Tiberius, and solicit his armed intervention. The ambition of Herodias, however, was not yet satisfied. When her brother Agi-ippa (of whom more hereafter) had obtained, through the favour of Caligula, for whom ho had helped to secure the succession to the empire, the title of king, she was indignant to find her husband in a position of inferiority. Again the stronger ynH overpowered the weaker. She urged him to go to the imperial city, as Agrippa had done, and gain the emperor's favour. " Let us go to Rome, and spare no pains or expense either in gold or sUver, since they cannot be kept for any better use than for the attain- ment of a kingdom." At fii-st (to quote the words of Josephus) the tetrareh " opposed her request, out of the love of ease, and having a suspicion of the trouble ho shoidd have at Rome. But the more she saw him draw back, tho more she pressed him to it, and desired him to leave no stoue unturned in order to be king." And at last her importunity prevailed. They started on their journey to Rome with a magnificent retinue. But their rival was beforehand with them. Agrippa sent a messenger with a letter accusing Antipas of treason, and in particular for ha'S'ing stored up arms for seventy thousand men. Tho tetrareh, who had, after his fashion, acted this time on the counsel implied in our Lord's words, was compelled to admit the fact : and the emperor, not satisfied with his explanations, deprived him of his tetrarchy, and banished him to the same province as that in which Archelaus was diMggiug on his life of exile. It is the one redeeming feature in the character of the \ricked woman who was the author of his fall, that when the emperor offered to pardon her for the sake of her brother, she refused the in- dulgence which would have separated her from her THE BIBLE EDUCATOR. husband, and preferred to share his misfortunes as she had before shared his prosperity (Joseph, tbid.). 3. St. Luke, here as elsewhere, obviously having had access to information connected with the Herods which the other Evangelists did not possess, reports two facts which brought the tetrarch into contact with Pontius Pilate, the procurator of Judaja. "There were present at that season some that told him (our Lord) of the GaUleans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices" (xiii. 1). The history of Josephus, though it does not record a massacre of Galileans as such, relates an incident with which the event mentioned in St. Luke was probably identical. Pilate, with a Roman's instinct for material improvements, undertook the construction of an aqueduct for the water-supply of Jerusalem, and for this purpose, with the assent or acquiescence of the priests, made use of the "corban," or consecrated treasure of the Temple, in which the gifts of pilgrims of all nations were accumulated. The people, however, looked on this as an act of sacrilege : it came into col- lision with the teaching of the Pharisees as to the sin of applying any dedicated gift (Mark rii. 11 — 13), and the multitude clamoured vehemently against it. Thousands were gathered together, and Pilate thought it necessary to send in a large number of his troops, in the common dress of the country, and with their arms concealed, and a large number of the defenceless crowd were slaughtered (Joseph., Aniiq. x\'iii. 3). It will be observed that there is no mention of the Galileans here. On the other hand, from the days of Judas of Galilee onwards, the people of that province were always the most excitable on questions which aifected their religion (of. Antiq. xvii. 10, § 2), and they were not likely to be passive on such an occasion as this. The assump- tion that one of the incidents of the uproar was the slaughter of some of Herod's subjects is at least pro- bable, and it seems to explain the " enmity " which for some time before the crucifixion had existed between the procurator and the tetrarch. What greater com- pliment could the Roman magistrate pay to the offended prince than scrupulously to recognise his jurisdiction in any case where a Galilean wore concerned ? (Luke xxiii. 6, 7.) 4. Three other coincidences connect themselves, with more or less probability, with the same series of events. (1.) The fall of the tower of SUoam (Luke xiii. i) was manifestly spoken of as a Divine judgment for some supposed Clime. If, as is probable, it stood near the pool or conduit of that name, it may have been con- nected with the structure of the aqueduct just referred to. Assuming this, wo can easily understand how the excited feeling of the multitude woidd see in its fall a proof of the Divine displeasure, and how naturally the mention of a catastrophe on one side would suggest a reference to an equal disaster on the other. The words of the Teacher gain a new force if we think of them as dealing with two cases, each of which was referred to by opposite parties, the one iuvoh-iug the death of those who opposed, the other of those who took part in, the construction of the tower, and proclaiming that in the order of God's government these things came alike uj)on the just and the unjust. (2.) We have seen reason to connect our Lord's re- ference to the folly of the king who plunges into a war for which he is unprepared, with the local histoi-y of the time. I venture to suggest that the parallel in- stance may have a like reference. Pilate was obliged to abandon his enterprise when the resoui'ces on which he rehed were cut off, and the unfinished portions of towers and arches must have been the object of a some- what derisive scorn to all the Jews who gazed on them. What more likely to become a bye-word and a proverb ? May we not think of this as the substratum of the parable : " Which of you, iatending to build a tower, sitteth not dowu first, and coimteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it ? Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, saying, This man began to buUd, and is not able to finish " (Luke xiv. 28 — 30). (3.) The incident referred to also affords an explana- tion (I follow Ewald, the great historian of Israel, in this conjecture) of the strange popukrity of Barabbas. It was no common robber, like the two who were led forth to crucifixion, that thus attracted the enthusiasm of the people. His very name, looked at as being a patronymic, like Bartimisus or Barjonah, implies that he was looked on as the son of one who was re- garded as a " father in Israel," priest, it may be, or scribe ; and if we receive the reading of some of the most ancient MSS., his own name was identical with that of our Lord. The multitude had to make their choice between Jesus of Nazareth and Jesus Barabbas, between the son of the carpenter and the son of some man of mark at Jerusalem. And we are not without a clue to the motives that determined their choice. Their favourite was a " notable " i.e.. an illustrious prisoner ; he had been cast into prison " for a certain sedition made in the city, and for murder" (Luke xxiii. 19). He " lay bound with them that had made insurrection with him, who liad committed murder in the insurrection " (Mark XV. 7). So far as the history of Josephus guides us, there had been no insurrection at Jerusalem of any moment since that the story of which has been told above. The supposition that Barabbas had been a conspicuous leader in that tumult, that he had tlius made himself the representative of the excited feelings of the multi- tude, the Pharisees, and the larger portion of the priests, affords the most natural explau.ation possible of the choice made by the midtitude, whether of Jerusalem or Galilee, when they cried out, " Not this man, but Barabbas " — not he who bids us render to CiEsar the things that be CiEsar's, but he who has suffered bravely in the cause we hold so sacred. 5. Ouo or two points remain to be noticed in con- nection ivith the tetrarch 's administration. It was his policy, we have seen, as it had been that of his father, to court the favour of the emperor, aud no form of flattery was found more efficacious than that of founding or re- buUdiug a city in honour of the emperor himself, or of some member of his family. So a change of nomen- ILLUSTRATIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE PROM COINS, MEDALS, ETC. 85 claturo passed over the country precisely at the period with which the Gospel history brings us into contact. What had been the Sea of Gemicsaret became the Sea of Tiberias, from the city of that name which Antipas built on its western shore, and of which we still hear the echo in the modem name of the lake, as Bahr Tubariyeh. So one of the two Beth-saidas (" House of Fish," " Fish-town " as we might caU it), that at the north-eastern extremity of the lake, received in addition the name of Jidias, in honour of the daughter of Augustus. Philip, the tetrarch of Ituraa, not to bo behind his brother, rebuilt the city near the source of the Jordan, wliich had first been known as Laish ; then, when conquered by a portion of that tribe, as Dan (Judg. xviii. 29) ; then, after the legends of Greek my- thology had overspread the land, as Paneas, from the grotto dedicated to Pan,' near which Herod the Great had built a marble temple to Augustus, and gave it the new name of Ceesarea, to which, in order to distinguish it from the city built by his father on the coast, he added the epithet PhUippi. Seme traces of this Romanising influence on the customs and speech of the Galilean peasants have been already pointed out. The denarius, the as, the quadrans are the common coins by which the people reckon the wages of a day's labour, and the price of sparrows in the market. "Centurion" becomes a familiar word. Even the demoniac sees in the " legion" the embodiment of resistless force. The napkin that 1 It is right to add tliat this identification is disputed by Bean Howson and other eminent geographers. goes round the neck or loins is known as the sudarium. Yet more strikingly is that influence seen in the nar- rative of the tetrarch's great crime. It was not the custom of the Jews to keej) royal birthdays. Festivals. from their point of view, wore to be in honour of God only, and they grouped such feasts as that which Herod held, with the Saturnalia and other heathen abomina- tions. Herod, however, followed the Roman fashion. The accession and the birthday of the emperor wore feast days in the Roman calendar. The feast itself was therefore an offence against the religious feeling of the people. The dance of Salome, the daughter of Herodias, was yet more so. To the Hebrews, dancing was a solemn as well as a joyful thing, the expression in rhythmic motion of tho feelings which found utterance also in melody and song. So David and the priests and Levitos had danced before the ark ; so Miriam had led the women of Israel with timbrels and dances ; so, in a later age, those women had welcomed Said and David on their return from conquest. Men and women danced apai't ; and the imion of both in the same dance wotUd have been an outrage on the Jew's sense of decency. But it was yet more so, that a princely maiden should come by herself, and dance with more or less lascivious pantomime (as girls did at the Capraean banquets of Tiberius) before the gaze of revellers flushed with wine, and thus stimulate the voluptuousness which craved for ever-new excitement. It was perhaps the very novelty of the stimulus that made the sensual prince willing to reward this iuventress of a fresh pleasure with even tho half of his kingdom, or the head of a righteous victim. ILLUSTEATIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTUEE FROM COINS, MEDALS, AND INSCRIPTIONS. ET THE BEV. CANON EAWLINSON, M.A., CAMDEN PBOrESSOB OF ANCIENT HISTOET IN THE UNIVEESITT OF OXFORD. is the God" (hti ha-Elohim) in ver. 3. The mono- theism is apparently complete. It is not like that of Nebuchadnezzar, who combines a special devotion to one God (who is " his god ") with a worship of many other powers, equal or not much inferior — who calls Daniel's God " a God of gods," and holds that " there is none other god that can deliver after this sort " (Dan. iii. 29). It is a monotheism in which the One God stands at an inconceivable distance from all other beings, same of whom may perhaps bo called " gods," but who are at the best angelic intoUigenees set by the Supreme Being over different portions of his creation. Now, tho in- scriptions of the early Persian monarchs show them distinctly to have been monotheists, and not only so, but monotheists of exactly this sort. Tho monarchs term the Supreme Being Ahura-mazda (Ormazd), " the much-giving " or " much-knowing Spirit.'"' Tho usual mode in which they speak of him is the following : — ' See BrockLi\us, Teniidad-Saiic, pp. 3t7 and 385. The verb da in old Persian had the two meanings of " to know " and " to give." Compare the Greek iuuj, and iiiw/si (Lat. iltir«J. I N the last chapter of the Second Book of Chronicles (ver. 23), we have a part ef a decree, and in the first chapter of Ezra (vs. 2 — i), we have the whole of a decree of Cyrus the Great, king of Persia, which re- ceives a good deal of illustration from the inscriptions set up at Behistun, Persepolis, and elsewhere, by some of this monarch's early successors. The decree is very remarkable, first, from its monotheistic character ; secondly, from the fact that it identifies the grea,t god of tho Persians with Jehovah, the God of the Jews ; and, thirdly, from its claiming for Cyrus that ho has a di^dne mission to re-establish the Jews in their country and to rebuild their Temple at Jerusalem. There are also particular expressions in it which arc unusu.al, and which wUl be found to resemble expressions in the early Persian inscriptions. I. Tho monotheistic character of the decree appears in the phrases, " The Lord God of heaven " (or literally, "Jehovah, the God of heaven"), in ver. 2; and "He 86 THE BIBLE EDUCATOR. " A great god is Ahura-mazda. He it is that gave (i.e., made) tlus earth, that gave that heaven, that gave man- Hud, that gave life (?) to mankind, that made . . . king, both the king of the people and the lawgiver of the people."' Ahiira-mazda alone they invoke; to Ahura-mazda alone tliey ascribe their victories and successes. "WTulo they mention him perpetually in all their inscriptions, it is only hero and there that they admit the existence of any other divine being. Occa- sionally such beings are glanced at. Ormazd is " the greatest of the gods" {mathista haganam)? He is coupled sometimes with the deities that protect the royal honse.^ Ho is united in one instance with the sun-god, Mithra.'' But, excepting in haJf-a-dozen ]5as- sages, he reigns supreme and alone, the god to whom each monarch addresses his prayers, to whom he attributes his past prosperity, from whom he expects future favours, whom he invokes alike in prayers and in imprecations, whom he is never weary of acknow- ledging. So near an approach to pure monotheism is very unusual among the nations of antiquity ; and it is strongly indicative of the accui-acy of the sacred wiiters that they ascribe such views to exactly the nation which appears by its own records to have cherished them.* II. The identification of Ahura-mazda with Jehovah, the God of the Jews, is very remarkable. In general the Persians felt the utmost contempt towards the gods of alien nations. Then* wars were in a great measure rchgious wars f it was thou- great object to show that Ahura-mazda alone was the tnie God, and that he was infinitely superior to the divinities worshipped by other races. They usually insidted the religion of each con- quered nation, and strove to cover it with ridicule. But the decree of Cyrus, and the other Hebrew records of the relations between the Jews and the Persians, distinctly prove that towards the Jews thoir conduct was whoUy diiforont. In this single instance they showed respect for an alien religion, approved it, sym- pathised with it, and went so far as to accept its God as identical with their own, and to regard Jehovah as another name for Oi-mazd. Here the inscriptions do not directly confirm the sacred narrative, since they contain no mention of Jehovah or of tho Jews ; but they are in complete harmony with the Biblical accounts, and so indirectly confirm them. The cha- racter of tho Persian religion, as represented upon the momiments, is such that we can readily understand the nation sympathisrug with tho Jews. If the Persian conception of Ahura-mazda is not, as it is not, "per- fectly identical with the notion of Eloliim, or Jehovah, which we find m +he books of the Old Testament,"? it 1 Seo Sir H. Eawlinsou's Porsia.i Cuneiform InscrMions, vol. i., rp. 285, 291, 3in, 33:5, 4o. 2 Ibid., pp. 273, 319, aud 331. > Ibid., p. 275. Compare p. 321. •" Ibid., p. 342. 5 Soo further, ou this subject, tho autlior'a Ancient STonoroIiies, VDl. iii., pp. 96—98. « Ibid., vol. iv., pp. 339, 390, 452, &c. 7 This is the positiou maintained by Dr. Martin Hnug {Bssaus on (he Sacrci Languaije, IFritinss, aiiij lietijion ci the Parsees, p. is, at any rate, so near to it that, when the two peoples came to understand each other's views, the resemUance coidd not but have been recognised, and a sympathy could not but have arisen. Thus the Scriptural nar- rative of what actually happened is the natural out- come of the quasi-identity of religious belief which the inscriptions, compared with tho Jewish Scriptures, indicate. in. The determination of Cyrus to rebuild the Temple at Jerusalem, and especially his declaration that " Jehovah, the God of heaven, had cliarged him to buUd the house " (Ezra i. 2), have been thought surprising, owing to the statement of Herodotus and others that " the Persians had no images of tho gods, no temples nor altars, and considered the use of them a sign of f ony."** It is, indeed, admitted that the later Persians had temples ;' but their use is supposed to be an innovation, the produce of corrupt times, and a de- parture from the purer practice of antiquity. Hero the inscriptions come in, and completely remove the supposed dilficulty by showing us that tho Greeks wero mistaken on tho point, and that the Persians of tho purest times worshipped Ormazd in temples, and re- garded them as rightful, if not necessary, buildiugs. Darius Hystasjiis, tho restorer of pure Zoroastrianism, tells us that when he had dethroned Gomates, tho Magian, it was his first care to " rebuild the temples," which that usurper had destroyed,'" and which, con- sequently, must have existed under Cambyses, and almost certainly had existed under Cyrus. With regard to tho special mission of Cyrus to rebuild the Jewish temple, we cannot explain it from the inscriptions ; but it would seem to bo not improbable that, on his capture of Babylon, his attention was called to the prophecy of Isaiah (xliv. 28 — "That saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure : even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built ; and to tho temple. Thy foundations shaU be laid"), and that he accepted this prophecy as a Divine command, which it was his duty to obey. IV. The expression, "the God of heaven," which occurs both in 2 Clu'on. xxxvi. 23 and in Ezra i. 2, is one almost absent from the earlier Scriptures, and, with one exception," may perhaps be said to bo first brought before us by the edict of Cyrus. It should, therefore, be a Persian phrase. Now, thougli tho inscriptions do not absolutely contain it, they throw light on it. They show us that the formula usitata with respect to Ormazd — occurring in the inscriptions of almost evoiy king — put prominently fonvard the idea that ho was 257), It has been combated by Professor Pusey {Xfaiiiel the Proplu't. pp. 530—532). 9 Herod, i. 131. Compare Strab. xv. p. 733. ^ Creuzer, Symbol., vol. i., p. 651 ; Bahr ad Herod, i. 131. Compare Polyb. v. 10, § 8 ; x. 27, § 12, &o. '^ Behist. Inscrip., col. i., par. 14, § 5. See Spiegel's comment on the word amdana in his KeiUnscliriflen, p. 83 ; and note that In the Babylonian transcript of the inscription tho expression used is hiti sa ihii, "the houses of the goda" (Journal of Asiatic Socieiy, vol. xiv., p. Ixxvi.). 11 The one clear exception is Jonah i. 9. Daniel also uses the phrase lii. 18, 19, 37, 44) ; but it is not certain that this chapter was written before the decree of Cyrus. EASTERN GEOGRAPHY OP THE BIBLE. 87 the " maker of heaven." The formula has been already ^ven (see page 86). It is usual for a Persian monarch to commence a doeiimont ■mth. an acknowledgment that he derives his royal authority from Ormazd. The opening clause of the edict of Cyrus, " The Lord God of heaven hath given mo all the kingdoms of tho earth," rims parallel with such an initial sentence as tho following, " The great god Ormazd, who is tho chief of the gods, ho established Darius as kmg ; lie granted him tho empire ; by the gi'aco of Ormazd is Darius king."' It may be 1 See Sir H. Eawlinsou's Cunflt/orm, Itiscriptioiis, vol. i., p. 273. objected that in this formula, and others similar to it, no such ^aolent exaggeration is used as that of the edict, " The Lord God hath given me all the Tcingdoms of the earth." Darius, however, and Xerxes continually speak of themselves as " supporters of this great world,"- and both Artaxerxes Mnomon and Artaxerxes Ochus call themselves expressly "kings of this earth." ^ Thus the exaggeration, which is quite in tho Oriental style, is one not unknown to Persian monarehs. - Ibid., pp. 287, 292, 320, 324, &e. ^ Ibid., p. 3-i2j Loftus, ClialdiEa and Susiajifi, p. 372, EASTERN GEOGEAPHY OF THE BIBLE. BT THE REV. H. W. PHILLOTT, M.A., BECTOK OP STAT7NT0N-0N-WTE, AND PE^LECTOK OF HEEErOED CATHEDEAL, BABYLON (continued). ?UT it is on the eastern side of the river, a short distance above Hillah, that tho principal remains of tho great city are apparent. Most travellers who havo do- scribed the ruins have ajiproachod them from Baghdad, on the Tigris, which place lies between fifty and sixty miles to tho north-east of the city wliich it may be said to havo succeeded, if not in maguitudo, yet in comparative importance. Tho space between the rivers is naturally a level plain, intersected by numerous canals, most of them now dry, but attesting by their remains tho skill and industry of past generations and tho neglect of those who havo como after. It is strewn, also, in evei-y direction with moimds and heaps of chifted soU, covering tho walls and foundations of ruined buildings. Near tho vUlage of Mahowill, about ten miles north of HUlah, a canal is crossed which still conveys water to distant gardens, and on its southern bank is a line of earthen ramparts believed to be the most northern remains of Babylon. Five mUes further to the south, rising squarely above the plain, about 950 yards from tho Euphrates, which here winds its course for some mUes between fringes of palm-trees, is a huge mound, in form and size resembling a natural hill rather than tho work of men's hands; but on nearer approach its table-like though imeven top and perpen- dicular sides, rising abruptly from the jilain, reveal its artificial construction. This is the Miijelihe, i.e., " the overturned," or, as the Arabs call it, Babil. for the former of these terms is applied to more than one of the ruined heaps of Babylon. It is the most imposing of the thi-eo great masses of ruin which lie in succession from north to south, between Mahowill and HiUah, and is marked A upon plan No. 1 fpago 90). The Mujelibe is about 200 yards long on the north side, about 218 on tho south, 182 on the east, and 136 on the west. It is about 141 feet in height, and is composed of sun-dried bricks inscribed with Nebuchadnezzar's name; it has tho appearance of a platform on wlaeh other buildings once stood, and from it the best view of the other ruins is obtained. Tho interior is full of holes and ravines, the haunt of wild animals, the '"satyrs" and " dragons" of wliich prophecy had said that after its destruction the houses and "pleasant palaces" of Babylon should 1)6 full (Isa. xiii. 21, 22; Jer. 1. 39). Many coffins also have been foimd there, and many remains of glass and earthenware vessels, but none of very ancient date. The angles of the structure, as was observed by Pietro deUa VaUe, point nearly to the principal quarters of the compass. The bricks are firmly cemented together, and tho reeds laid between the coiu'ses so strong and fresh as to offer a firm resistance to force when used to detach them. Though Babil stands pre-eminent above the plain, on all sides shapeless heaps of rubbish bestrew its surface, and masses of marble, fragments of pottery and glass are miugled with that peculiar nitrous and blanched soU, which, bred from the remains of ancient habitations, checks or destroys vegetation, and renders the site of Babylon a naked and hideous waste. Besides the jackals and other " doleful creatures " mentioned above, owls, sometimes in flocks of one hundred in number, are seen to start from the low shrubs and scanty thickets among the ruins. Southward of Babil, for nearly three miles, extends an almost iminterruptcd line of mounds, the juins of vast edifices, enclosed by earthen ramparts, the remains of a line of walls which stretched inwards, as seen in the l)lan (page 90), to a distance of about two mUes from the bed of tho Euphrates, and there nearly converging from the apex of a sort of triangle of which the river itself is tho base. That base may bo estimated at about 2 miles 200 yards in length, while the perpendicular, so to call it, of the triangle is about 2 mUes 600 yards long. About half a mile to the south of Babil, close to the river, is the second mass of ruin called by the Arabs El-Kasr, "the palace," marked b on tho jilan. Tills also is sometimes called Mujelibe : it consists of a square of about 700 yards each way, and its structure is much more elaborate than that of any of the other buildings. Tlie bricks are of tho finest kind. THE BIBLE EDUCATOR. THE MUJELIBE. baked, not in the Bnn but in the firo, each bearing on its lower ride an inscription of the name Nebuchad- nezzar. The principal part of the mound consists of loose bricks, tiles, and fragments of stone, but nearly in the centre is a solid mass of masonry, still entire, and retaining traces of architectural ornament. Piers, buttresses, and pilasters may bo traced, but the work i of destru«tion is too complete to decide whether they belonged to the interior or the exterior of a palace. This wonderful piece of masonry is so perfect and fresh in colour, that, notwithstanding its great antiquity, and the rude treatment it has received, it seems but the work of yesterday. Many of the bricks are coloured in red, yellow, blue, white, and black hues, and covered with a thick enamel or glaze, on which the traces of figures and ornaments are clearly visible, a cu-eumstance which agrees with the statements of ancient writers, that the walls of ancient Babylon were painted with figures of men and animals. Amid the ruins is the sculptured figure of a lion standing over a man, roughly executed in black basalt, nine feet long and six in height. The mound on which the Kasr stands is full of holes, which, as elsewhere in this land of ruins, are haunted by jackals. A single tree, of the tamarisk kind, stands on the northern edge, dying, if not now dead, which, tradition says, was saved at the destruc- tion of the city from the famous hanging gardens by divine interposition, in order that Ali, the fourth caliph, might tie his horse to it after the destruction of his enemies in the great battle of Hillah. Some shoots from this tree have been planted in the garden of the British Resident at Baghdad, and also in the British cemetery there. From the ruins Mr. Layard was able to excavate a fragment of limestone on which were portions of two figures, of a character resembling that of the Assyrian so familiar to us in the monuments of Nineveh. About half a mile south of the Kasr is the third of the three great masses of ruin (marked c in the plan, page 90). which goes by the name of the TeU-Amram, or Hill of Amriim, so called from the name of a Moham- medan saint whose tomb stands upon it. It is of a triangular form, about 100 feet high, and Larger than the Kasr, but, except the modern tomb just mentioned, has no distinct building upon it. It is a shapeless mass of bricks, mortar, and cement, broken into deep ravines and long winding furrows. Within it were discovered by Mr. Layard some interesting remains relating to the Jewish Captivity, bearing inscriptions in the Chaldee langu.age which were evidently intended to be charms against evil spirits, and whose use recalls to our mind some of the machinery of the Book of Tobit. They EASTERN GEOGRAPHY OF THE BIBLE. THE KASE. arc noiv in the British Mnsenm, but the description of thom (loos not belong to our present subject. The three masses of ruin which we have described are the principal ones of the Babylonian remains which appear to represent definite structures witliin the city, but besides there are some very remarkable ridges or mounds, of which mention has already been made, and which may wcU be supposed to have formed part of its original defences, exterior and interior. Besides the lines which seem to represent external walls are two parallel ridges running north and south, of which the one nearest to the river is broken by an opening. They have been thought to be the walls of a great reservoir of water, perhaps the one which Semiramis is said to have made. Outside the triangular space of which we have spoken another line runs in a somewhat curved shape, about two and a half miles in length. There are also detached mounds, most of them, though not all, on the eastern side of the river, which belong to the general mass of ruins, but which it is not necessary to describe separately. Such are the existing remains, concerning which little or no doubt can be entertained that they belonged to the city of Babylon. Tliey represent to us a city of great size and importance, and if we had no records of Babylon except those wliich Holy Scripture has left us, both in history and prophecy, we might be content, after due allowance made for the processes of destruc- tion and of natural decay, to believe that they represent to us all that those records comprehend. But when we compare them with the accounts of the city given by other writers, a dif&culty arises which it is not easy to resolve. Let us see in what it consists. We possess four accounts which, in some sense at least, may be called contemporary, though they have not aU come down to us in their original form ; and besides them, a few words from Aristotle, which, though they tell us little, derive importance from his great authority and our knowledge of the sources of his information. 1. The first is the Greek historian Herodotus, who is generally thought to have himself visited Babylon, though the writer of this article is inclined to have con- siderable doubt upon this point. If so. ho probably saw the city about eighty years after its capture by Cyrus, i.e., about B.C. 460, and he describes it and its situation minutely. It was, he says, in the form of a square, each of whose sides was 120 stadia,' or rather more than 131 miles in length, and whose circumference consequently amounted to 480 stadia, or nearly 56 miles. A ditch full of water ran all round, and within the ditch 1 A stadium was 606 feet 9 iuches. 90 THE BIBLE EDUCATOR. an outer wall 200 royal cubits' high aud 50 cubits wide, made of bricks dug out of the ditch and baked in kilns. Bitumen, which came from Is, now Hit, on the Eu]5hrates, was used for mortar, aud at certain intervals the courses of bricks were bonded together with reeds. On each of the edges of the summit of the walls there was a line of single-roomed houses, and in the space between them there was room for a four-horse chariot to tiu-n. The river was crossed by a bridge, and lined on each side by quays, aud the city was laid out in streets crossing each other at right angles, which were closed at the river- side by gates. Within the outer wall was another, not so wide as the first one, and in each of the two portions of the city there was a forti- fied space, in one of which spaces was a royal palace, and in the other a temple to Belus, which existed in the 2. Next comes Ctesias, a Greek physician of Cnidus, who was attached to the court of the Persian king, Artaxerxes Mnemon, and was with him in the battle of Cunaxa, B.C. 401 ; Cimaxa was about forty miles north of Babylon, and there can be little doubt that Ctesias knew the city itself well. Unfortunately, how- ever, our knowledge of his work is derived only from statements founded upon it which are given by Diodorus the Sicilian, who wrote in the first century A.D. On his authority Diodorus toUs us that Semiramis, having collected 2,000,000 men for her work, built a city 360 stadia in circumference, and that its walls were 50 fathoms (300 feet) in height. Diodorus, however, adds that in his opinion this height was incredible, and that some later writers gave it as 50 cubits, and broad enough at the top to allow two chariots to pass each NO. 1.' — PLAN OF KDINS OF BABYLON. Eefkkences to Plan.— a. MujeliW. B. Kasr. C. Tel-Amram. time of Herodotus, square in form and two stadia in circumference. It was biult in eight stages, and was ascended from without. The buildiags of Babylon were due to two queens, Semiramis (about 7-47 B.C.) and Nitoeris (about 580 B.C.). He tells us further that the Babylonian country was intersected by canals, and that one connecting the Euphrates with the Tigris was navigable for ships. He mentions the wonderfid fer- tility of the soil, the reed boats covered with skins used to convoy goods to Babylon, and tells us how the city was taken by stratagem during a festival, and that owing to its great size the people at one end know not that the other was in possession of the enemy. This point is noticed by Aristotle, who says that for throe days the inhabitants of one part of the city wore not aware of the capture of the other parts. (Herod, i. 178—195 ; Arist., Pol. iii. 3, 5. Jer. 1. 24 ; li. 31.) I The lengtli of the cubit will be discussed elsewhere. other. Between the outer walls and the houses there was a space of 200 feet. She also built a bridge, and quays, and two palaces, one on each side of the river, and excavated a lake to receive the waters of inunda- tions, whoso flood-gates remained tUl the time of the Persian dominion. She also built a temple to Bolus, which had since fallen down. Near the citadel were the hanging gardens, not the work of Semiramis, but of later date. (Died. ii. 7.) 3. Our next authority is Berosus, whoso statements we know only through the medium of Josephus. He attributes a great part of the fortification of Babylon to Nebuchadnezzar, who employed for that purpose the spoils of Egyjjt and Palestine. He constructed the famous gardens for the pleasure of his wife, who was a Median princess. Berosus says also that the river defences were biult by Nabonnedus, the thml sovereign from Nebuchadnezzar, and that in his time Cyrus took Babylon. Nabonnedus retired to Borsippa, but sur- EASTERN GEOGRAPHY OF THE BIBLE. 91 rendered to Cyrus, and was removed by him to Oar- mania. (Beros., p. 66 ; Joseph., Ant. x. 11, § 1.) 4. Lastly, we liave Xenophon the Athenian, who served in the army of the younger Cyrus, and who, like Ctesias, was present at the battle of Ounaxa. So far as we know, he never saw Babylon, but in his work, the Expedition of Cyrus, he describes many of the f eatiircs of the country ; among others the great canal which stm exists, and is called Nahr malcha, or royal broad, buUt of bricks, near which was a stone pyramid, and also to a city called Mespila, 18 mUes iu circum- ference, having walls 160 feet high and 50 feet wide. (Xen., Anab. i. 7 ; iii. 4, 10 ; Cyrop. vii. 5, 32 ; viii. 6, 22.) Besides those writers, who may bo presumed to have pos.sessed direct, or at least contemporaneous informa- tion on the subject, we have later accounts based more or loss on their statements. Of these Quintus Cm-tius, 120 stadia (Berosus). 120 stadia. NO. 2. — PLAN SHOWING THE EXTENT OP BABYLON ACCORDING TO HEEODOTUS AND CTESIAS. river, probably the " river of Chebar " of the prophet Ezekiol. In another work, entitled the Education of Cyrus, ho describes the capture of Babylon diuing a festival, and tells us that the impious king, whose name he does not give, was killed iu the affray. He also says that after the capture it was Cyrus' custom to reside seven months of every year at Babylon. We may add here that in his Expedition he mentions that the Greek army, during their march of retreat after the battle of Cunaxa, came to a deserted city on the Tigris called Larissa, which had walls 100 feet high and 25 a Roman writer of the first ccntm-y A.D., says that Babylon was founded by Belus, whose palace is still shown; that the city wall was of baked brick, 100 cubits high and 32 feet vride, so that two chariots could pass each other. The city was 365 stadia in circum- ference, but the buildings were not close to tho walls, but an acre dist-jut from them ; nor was the area f uU of buildings, but that only about 80 stadia wore inhabited, and the rest cultivated for food during a siege. He also mentions the citadel and the hanging gardens. (Curt. V. 1, 26.) 92 THE BIBLE EDUCATOR. ANCIENT BABYLON. Strabo, also of the first century A.D., says that Nineveh was much larger than Babylon ; that Babylon had a circuit of 385 stadia, with walls 32 feet thick, wide enough for two chariots to pass each other. He mentions the temple of Belus which Xerxes overthrew, but which Alexander intended to rebuild. After his death the city went to decay, chiefly through the neglect of the Macedonians, who built Seleucia on the Tigris, which is now, he says, larger than Babylon. (Strabo, xvi. 7G4.) Pliny, at the end of the first century A.D., speaks of Babylon as 60 mUes in circumference, having walls 200 feet high and 50 feet wide, each foot being three fingers longer than the Roman foot. He says the temple of Belus still exists. (Plin., E. N., vi. 26.) Lastly AiTian, iu the second century A.T)., who had access to the works of writers cotemporary with Alex- ander, speaks of the temple of Belus which Xerxes had thrown down, as built of baked brick cemented with bitumen. (Arr., Exp. Alex., vii.) BOOKS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. JOEL (continued). BY THE KET. SAMUEL COX, NOTTINGHAM. FIRST PART (concluded). jROM judgment in general, the poet passes to the special judgment of the time, and enters on a second description of the locust swarms. He calls them " a great people and a strong;" just as in chap. i. 6 he had previously called them " a nation Strong and innu- merable ;" and he compwas their advent to "the dawn spread upon the mountaius." At fii-st, we are tempted to pronounce that a singularly unhappy comparison, since again and again he tells us that the locusts ob- scure the whole heaven, insomuch that " the sun turns dark, and the stars refuse to shine." How. then, can they resemble the bright dawn of day? Does the prophet simply mean that they spread over the land as swiftly as the dawn sweeps down the mountain slopes ? No, he means much more than that ; and _ the comparison, which looks so inexact, is really a very JOEL. 93 close and happy one. For the sun's rays reflected from the wings and wing-cases of the locusts produce a yellow glimmering lustre which may fairly be com- pared to the "unearthly" light of dawn. So marked and characteristic a feature is this lustre that travellers have dwelt upon it with much emphasis. Thus, for example, Francis Alvarez, in his Journey through Abyssinia, writes : " The day before the an-ival of the locusts we could infer that they were coming, from a yeUow reflection in the sky, proceeding from their yellow wings. As soon as this light appeared, no one had the slightest doubt that an enormous swarm of locusts was approaching." More than once he saw this "dawn" upon the Abyssinian moimtaius, this " light " heralding the locusts' approach. So that Joel's comparison is fully vindicated. The locusts, with this yellow iU-omened lustre preceding them, do come like the dawn which sweeps down the mountains, announcing the advent of day. But are we to take the closing phrases of this verse as literally true ? " There hath not been its lite from all eternity, Nor shall be after it for eoer and ever," "We are accustomed, as we meet with such words in the prophetic or other books of Scripture, to construe them with a litei-al precision, as if the inspiration of the book in which they are found would be imperilled by any modification of their meaning. We may, however, perhaps be permitted to remember that Joel was a poet, and tliat, like most poets, when strongly moved, he used strong words — words that conveyed his thought indeed, but which we must not take as literally as though he were a logician arg^uing the problems of an exact science. It will bo weU, too. I venture to submit, if, from this poetic use of the terms " eternity" and " for ever and ever," we learn a lesson of caution in inter- preting them wherever they occur in the poetical books of the Bible, and refuse to push them toO far or too hard. All Joel means by them here is, evidently, that the plague was unparalleled in his experience ; that he had never seen or heard, and never expected to see or hear, of locust swarms so numerous and so destructive. So numerous and destructive were they, that the goodly land, " flowing with milk and honey," the land of pasture and wood, fau' and prolific as the Garden of Eden, was turned into " a desolate wilderness ;" swarm followed swarm, so that " even that which " seemed to have " escaped them, did not escape ;" wliat the gnawer left, the multiplier ate — what the multiplier left, the licker ate — what the licker left, the devourer ate ; the land blackened as they passed, as though a devouring- flame had swept over it (ver. 3). As the poet strives to depict them, all warlike images rise before his mind. And, first, he seizes on a point of physical resemblance. Theodoret and Jerome long since pointed out the resomblanco of a locust's head to that of the horse. The resemblance is very close, .as wo see the moment we look at the head of the grasshopjier, our English locust. To this day the Germans call these insects heupferde (hay-horses), and the Italians cavaletti (little horses). Joel says (ver. 4), " Their aspect is as the aspect of horses, and they rush like chargers."' The noise of their wings and legs when they leap resembles tluit of the ancient war-chariots bountliug over tlie rough hill-roads ; it is like the crackling of the flame as it sweeps over a field in stubble ; it is like the clashing of arms with which, in antique times, military hosts used to fire themselves for battle (ver. 5). They inspire a terror as universal, as ahject, as that felt before a conquering aJid invading army; " before them the nations tremble ; all faces go pale " (ver. 6). That holds good to this day ; it is with a paralysiag agony -of despair that an Oriental people awaits their approach. At this point, indeed, tho comparison of tho locusts to an invading host grows marvellously graphic and minute. "They charge like heroes" assailing a forti- fied city, with a courage that nothing can daunt. In unbroken military array "they scale the wall," "each going forward in his own line." Like David's army, "they know how to keep rank." They do not diverge to the right hand or tho left, and therefore they do not " thrust each other," or impede each other in the advance. " The locusts have no king," says Agur, " yet they go forth in orderly bands." And Jerome, who spent many yeai-s in Palestine, says, " When the swarms of locusts come and fill the whole atmosphere between earih and sky, they fly in such order . . . that they preserve an exact shape, just like the squares drawn on a tesselated pave7nent, not diverging on either side by, so to speak, so much as a finger's breadth." They close up as their comrades fall, not breaking rank, whatever havoc tho weapons may make among them (vs. 7, 8). And having surmounted the exterior fortifications, " they rush through tho city, run up the wall, climb up the houses, creep through the windows," storming and sacking the place (ver. 9). Of course, there is a military image in these verses ; nevertheless, they are true to nature. In plain prose Theodoret says pretty imich what Joel says in poetic verse; "Tou may see the locusts, like a hostile army, ascending the walls, and advancing along the streets, not suffering any difficulty to disperse them, but steadily moving forward, as if according to some concerted plan : ... by creeping along the walls [they] pass thi-ough the windows into the houses themselves." All this he affirms that he himself h.ad frequently seen. The 10th verse looks difficult ; for one does not see how " the earth should quake aud the heavens tremble" before the locusts, except in the imagination of the appalled sufferers ; although " Sun and moon turn dark, And the stars refuse to shine," might be only a poetical description of the obscuiity caused by swarms of locusts filling the whole atmo- sphere. But the difficulty disappears if we connect it. 1 The Hebrew word pirdsMm means " steeds," riding horses in general ; but here Joel probably had chargers, or cavalry horses, in his mind. S4r THE BIBLE EDUCATOR. as we sliould, with ver. 11. For there we have indica- tions that Jehovah, riding on a storm, comes to lead his "great army;" and under the storm the heavens may well tremble and the earth quake. The Ai-abs say that the tiny cross-lines on the wings of the locust form letters, and comi^ose the legend, " We are the anny of the livinp' God !" "Lord of the Locusts," is one of the Divine names in the Mohammedan literature. And, in the same spu-it, Joel calls the locusts the " army " and the " camp " of God ; and affirms that — " Jehovah thundereth before his army," uttering his commands in thunder, because " his camp is very large," because he intends this day of judgment to be so " great " and " terrible " as that none " can abide it " unmoved. It is with this vivid and tragic conception in his mind — Jehovah riding on a tempest, beneath which the eternal heavens tremble and the solid earth quakes, and utteiing his commands to an innumerable and irresistible host which delights to do his will — that the prophet falls back on that summons to repentance and supplication which we have already heard (chap. ii. 1, and chap. i. 14). Now ho blends and expands the two previous calls, teaching the guilty aiilicted nation more exactly what it is the Lord their God requires of them ; and to give his smumong gi'eater weight, he speaks in the name of Jehovah himself (vs. 12 — 17). The real- meaning of judgment is mercy. The locusts have come, inflicting 60 much misery, suggesting portents of such ten-or, only that men may turn unto the Lord with all their hearts, sincerely repenting them of the sins because of which the judgment has come. This penitence is to be shown in fasting, in tears, in mouraing, in amendment. Lest they should content themselves "with the outward signs and trappings of woe, the words — " Eend your hearts, and not your garments," remind them that God requires the inward grace of spiritual contrition — reqmi-es " that within which passeth show." To induce this spiritual and godly sorrow, to suggest its power with God, the prophet recalls the most solemn proclamation of the Divine nature and mercy ever made to their fathers. On Moimt Sinai the Lord God had descended in cloud and storm, through a trembling heaven to a quaking earth, that he might pass before Moses, proclaiming his name, " Jehovah, Jehovah El, mei'ci/M.J and gracious, long-svffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means always leave unpunished." '■ It is an echo of that voice from Sinai which sounds in ver. 13 : — ** For he is gracious and merciful, Slow to an^er, and of great kindness. And repenteth him of the evil." If they return to Him with genuine contrition, may they not hope that He, whose very name suggests a long- suffering grace and mercy, wiU show his great kindness and forgive their sin. If Ho repents of the evils they have compelled Him to inflict, may not they well repent 1 Exod. Kxsiv. 6, 7. of the evils by which they have compelled Him to judge and punish .►" Eor himself the prophet has little doubt — no doubt, I suspect, though he will not be too eonfldeut, lest they shoidd grow careless. " Who knowcth ?" he asks, and the que.stion is equivalent to " perad venture." " Who knoweth ? He may return and repent, and leave behind him a blessing," even on tliis visit of judgment; and such a blessing, such ample stores of corn and wine and oU, that once more there will be " offering and libation," joy and gladness, solemn services and meiTy feasts, in the house of the Lord. Once more, therefore, he demands that a time be sanc- tified (set apart) for a public fast, that " a restraint " from labour bo proclaimed, that the whole congregation assemble in the Temple. Before, he had been content to say (chap. i. 14), " Gather the elders — all the inhabitants of the land." .^/b^o, he is more precise, more full. None are to be exempted. The "children," the very "suck- lings," ai'o to come, as well as the men and the " elders." Even "the bride " and the "bridegroom," in the first rapture of love, are to cease from then- delights, to array themselves in moiu-ning, to fast and weep, to rend their hearts over the sins and miseries of the time ; and when all without distinction are gathered in the court of the Lord's House, the ministers and representatives of the people are to " stand between the porch and the altar " — i.e., immediately in front of the holy place in which Jehovah was enshrined, and with tears of peni- tence are to pour forth the national sorrow, and to utter the supplication of the people. For this solemn occasion the prophet adds a new form to the Hebrew litiu-gy, prescribing the very words the priests were to utter in the presence and on behalf of the congregation : — ** Spare thy people, O Jehovah, And deliver not thy heritage to reproach. That the nations should scoif at them. "Wherefore should men say among the nations, "Where is their God ? " There are those to whom even the Lord's Prayer is wanting in sphitual fervour and evangelical sentiment ; and to these, probably, Joel's prayer "will not seem a very spu-itual outpouring of contrition and desu-e. But- Ho who reads our hearts in our woi-ds, and rather than oiu- words, surely pledged himself to listen to the prayer which He himself inspired. And, after all, this one cry, " Spare thy people, Lord," coming from the broken heart of a people con"riueod of sin by judgment, may mean much. " Spare us, not because of our sorrow, nor because we have deserved mercy, but because, despite our sins, we are thy people ; because the nations know that Thou hast chosen us for thyself ; because if they should see our bairen fields and wasted pastm-es, our ravaged "vineyards and sickening orchards, our moulder- uig garners and falling- barns, they will scoff at Thee as well as at us, deeming Tliee to be as one of the gods whose eyes see not, and whose ears hear not, in whose hand is no succour, in whose heart no grace. For thy name's sake, spare us, O Lord, even us unworthy ! " That I take to be the gist of the prayer with which the fii-st part of this inspired poem comes to a close. JEREMIAH. 95 BOOKS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. JEREMIAH (continued}. BY THE VERY KBV. E. PAYNE SMITH, D.D., DEAN OF CANTEREDBY. ) PON Jehoiakim's death Jeremiah returned to Jerusalem, and renewed his patriotic attempts at saving his countiy. Nebu- chadnezzar had placed upon the throne another son of Josiah, and changed his name from Mattaniah to Zedekiah. He was half-brothor to Jehoi- akim, hut fuU brother to tho Jehoahaz who had been made khig upon Josiah's death, and thus probably belonged to the Chaldaean party. But as he was but tweuty-ono years old when the crown was placed upon his head, ho coidd have been but sUghtly iufluonced by personal remembrances of his father. He was an amiable and weU-meaniug man, but weak and irresolute, and so all his time vacillated between Jeremiah, who urged hiui to be true to Nebuchadnezzar, and the restless princes who were eager for an alliance with Egypt, and a combiued attempt at throwing off the Chaldiean yoke. Early in Zedekiah's reign we find ambassadors at Jerusalem from Edom, Moab, Ammon, Zidon, and Tyre (chap, xxvii. 3), met probably for ihe purpose of forming a general confederacy against Babylon, nor did there want prophets who m-ged this upon king and people as a rehgious duty (chap, xxviii.), and whom Jeremiah stoutly resisted. Wo can, how- ever, easily imagine that to a nation used to the idea that they were Jehovah's chosen people, and that he woidd interfere miraculously in their behalf, the words of these false prophets were more pleasing than the truthful denunciation of their conduct by one who really had the Divine command to speak in Jehovah's name. But the death of Hananiah, in accordance with Jeremiah's prediction, for tho pi-esent confirmed the feeble king in his obedience to the right, though pro- bably it had but slight effect on the zealots who formed the mass of the people ; but apparently in his eighth year the zealots prevailed, and Zedekiah entered into a treaty of alHanco with Egypt. To punish this act of overt i-ebeUion, the Chaldaean army moved upon Judaea, and rapidly made themselves masters of the whole country. And now the prophet records an act which shows the almost incredible baseness of the Jewish nobility. When all the towns except Lachish and Azekah, two fortresses in the country on the west of the city, had been captured, Jeremiah urged upon the king the wickedness of tho people in keeping their brethren in slavery. His words for the time prevailed ; a solemn covenant was made with Jehovah,- and a crowd of Hebrews, male and female, were set free. But soon afterwards the news arrived that an Egyptian army was moving onwards to the rescue of Jerusalem. Tho threatened siege for the time was raised, and the one use which these wretched princes and wealthy men made of tho respite gi-anted them was to force all these unhappy persons, whom lately they had set free, to return to slavery. When one reads in Lamentations (iv. 5), " They that did feed delicately are desolate in the streets : they that were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills," hoping to find there some garbage with which to maintain life, one's pity is checked by the thought of the baseness with which they had treated the jjoor wretches whom poverty had compelled to become their slaves. Armies in those days moved but slowly, and probably many months were occupied by the Ohaldajans in their march upon the plain of Philistia, where Josephus tells us they utterly defeated the Egyptian host. Surely, however, if slowly, they moved again ui>on Jerusalem ; on tho tenth day of the tenth month of Zedekiah's ninth year — about the middle of July — its walls were again invested, and for sixteen months tho unhappy people had to endure tho horrors of a blockade. During this time the position of Jeremiah was wretched in tho extreme. His counsel was to discontinue all resistance, which ho asserted would bo in vain ; to accept what- ever terms Nebuchadnezzar offered, and which even to the last would have saved tho city from destruction : and all this tho princes regarded as rank treason (chap. xxxviii, 4), and therefore throw the prophet into prison, and even tried to put him to a miserable death, from which he was rescued only by the intervention of a negi-o eunuch of the king (chap, xxxviii. 7 — 13). At length the catastrophe came. On tho ninth day of the fourth month tho Chaldasans effected a breach in the strong walls of the city. The moon, nine days old, had simk, as Josephus tells us, behind the western hUls, when the besiegers, silently entering the sleeping city in the darkness, seized the Temple and posted them- selves there on the high vantage-ground. And quickly the alarm spread far and wide, and Zedekiah, with the poor remains of his army, fled through the op2>osite gate towards Jericho, hoping to find safety on the other side of tho Jordan. But deserters brought tidings of his ihght to the Chaldceans, and though he had several hours' start, they overtook him before he had reached the town, though not twenty miles from Jerusalem, and carried him to Nebuchadnezzar at Biblah, a place in the Lebanon thirty-five miles beyond Baalbec, and about ten days' march from Jerusalem; and there, with a refinement of cruelty, Nebuchadaszzar fu-st slew his sons before his face, and then put out the eyes of the imhappy father, loaded him with fetters of brass, and sent him prisoner to Babylon (chap, xxxix. (i, 7). During these miserable eleven years of Zedekiah's reign, the prophet had consistently declared that not the" kmg and the nobles and people of Jerusalem were God's true Israel, but the exiles carried captive to Babylon with Jcconiah. In chap. xxiv. he compares these to a basket of very good figs, like those first ripe, 96 THE BIBLE EDUCATOR. while Zedekiah and his people wore but the refuse, " very naughty figs, which could not be eaten, they were 80 bad." I need not say how irritating such a method of treatment would be to both king and nobles ; but at Babylon it had a different effect. Jeremiah, though not without opposition (chap. sxix. 20 — 32), became the great authority there. He wrote the exiles also a letter (chap, xxix.), directing them to settle quietly at Babylon, and build houses, and plant gardens, and take wives, and in all things prepare for a lengthened sojourn of seventy years. They were even " to seek the peace of Babylon," and settle down as loyal and industrious citizens. And then God would grant them a return to their land ; in them the fortunes of Israel would revive ; for they were Jehovah's people, the possessors of-the promise, and not Zedekiah and his court, and the dwellers at Jerusalem, for whom Jeremiah predicts nothing but evil and misery, and again contemptuously calls them " vile figs, too bad to be eaten " (chap. xxix. 17). As time roUed on, and the destruction of Jerusalem confirmed the truth of the prophet's words, his predic- tion of a restoration after seventy years became the great solace of the oxilos. They read with pleasure how God had chosen them as the depositories of the promise, even whdo Jerusalem was still standing ; they saw that that promise was not bound up so much with places and things as with true and believing hearts. And gradually a change passed over them. No doubt among the exiles wore many men whose characters had been formed by Jeremiah, and who wrought heartily for the same ends. The children of the men who had stood by Josiah in his reforms wore those who were dominant at Babylon. And thore they prevailed. Instead of the old longing for idolatry, a passionate devotion to the one true spiritual God became in- wrought deeply into their hearts. And Jeremiah they felt to bo, as in truth he was, the deliverer of their nation. The man who in life had been branded as a traitor and falsehearted, became the object of their fervent love. Legend even surrounded him with a halo of romance. When Jerusalem was burnt, he had hid, they said, tabernacle and ark in a cave (2 Mace. ii. 1 — 8). He was not dead, but resting somewhere iu a trance, and at the appointed time would waken up, to restore temple and kingdom to their old magnificence. Even in their dreams they saw him as a "man with gray hairs, and exceeding glorious, who was of a wonderful and excellent majesty," and who gave uuto Judas Maccabeus a sword of gold, by which he wrought his victories (2 Mace. xv. 13 — 16). Far difPerent in real life were the actual fortunes of the prophet. To the last it was his lot to speak the words of truth, only to be disbelieved. When the Chaldasans had destroyed the city, and carried the miserable remnants of the people into captivity, Nebucliadnezzar appointed Gedaliah governor over the depopulated land. Ho was son of Jeremiah's old pro- tector Ahikam, and belonged to a family famous for its fidelity to Jehovah, and consistent in its opposition to the Egyptian pohcy of those who, even from the days of Isaiah (Isa. xxx. 1 — 3), had looked for national safety, not in abiding firmly by the principles of the theocracy, but in political aUiances. Recognised at Ramah by Nebuzar-adan among the captives, he had been freed from his chains, and the choice given him either to dwell in honour at Babylon, or to remain with Gedaliah. Nobly he chose the latter, tliat he might stiU labour for his country's good. Gradually the people gathered round Gedaliah, and a sense of security now began to return. Many of the captains, too, and men of war gave in then' allegiance to him; but danger was at hand. Islimael, a member of the royal family, who had taken refuge at the court of Baalis, king of tho Ammonites, was bent upon his murder. He grudged, probably, to see one not of the seed royal sot as governor over the land, and with the king's daughters given into his charge. As one, too, who had always opposed tho Egyptian alliance, and advised submission to tho Chaldees, ho counted him as a traitor ; and, intlifferent to tlie ruin he was bringing upon the land, set out with ten men to slay him. In vain had Gedaliah been warned. Johanan, one of his captains, cognisant of Ishmael's intentions, had pro- posed to put him quietly out of the way, but Gedaliah was too honourable to consent to such a purpose. And even when this base conspirator came to him at Mizpeh, ho took no precautions for his safety, and Ishmael foully murdered him, and all tho men of war with him, and carried the residue away with him as captives, and among them probably Jeremiah himself. When the evil news got abroad, tho captains pursued after Ishmael and recovered the prisoners, but the murderer himself escaped. And now they were in great fear. A nation so cruel as the Chaldees would, they thought, ruthlessly avenge the murder of tho governor whom they had appointed over the land. And so at a hospice or caravanserai for travellers (chap. xli. 17) erected near Bethlehem by Chimham, sou of tho aged BarzUlai, who so hospitably entertained David, they took counsel as to their future course. Should they seek a refuge in Egyi)t, or should they remain iu Judsea ? Solemnly they asked Jeremiah's counsel, and after ten days, spent probably in prayer, the word of Jehovah came to him. They were not to go down to Egypt ; if they did, the sword and famine and pestilence would follow them thither. It would bo Nebuchadnezzar's next conquest, and they would only be mixing them- selves up in new miseries ; whereas if they abode in tho land, they would have peace and prosperity. Gedaliah's murder would not bo nsited upon them ; and they would be doing good service in maintaining some sort of order and show of government among tho scanty remnant of the people who still survived. The one chance for Judaea was their remaining in it: wliafc made it so miserable a waste till the exiles returned from Babylon was this general flight into Egypt. But Johanan and tho captains did as men usually do. They asked for advice with a great show of deference ; JEREMIAH. 07 if tlio advioe had agreed with their own wishes, they would have received it graciously. It was the reverse, and they rejected it, saying that it was not really the word of Jehovah, but the evil suggestion of Baruch, who had made Jeremiah his tool. And so they went down into Egypt, in spite of Jeremiah's warnings ; and there we have one last record of his eventful life. At Tahpanhes, the Daphnse of Herodotus, a town on the eastern border of Egypt, great numbers of Jews were settled, having been kindly received by Pharaoh-hophra, their aUy. But chastisement had taught them nothing. Unlike the exiles at Babylon, they were rank idolaters. As of old at Jerusalem (chap. vii. 18), so now, they burnt incense to the queen of heaven, the moon-goddess, answering to the Roman Diana, and ascribed to her whatever prosperity they enjoyed. In vain Jeremiah rebuked them for their sin. In vain he took stones, and in the sight of the men of Judah hid them in the clay of the brick-kiln close by the palace of Pharaoh- hophra, at Tahpanhes, and predicted that upon them Nebuchadnezzar would set up his throne as the con- queror of Egypt, and hold solemn inquest there, delivering such as were for death to death, and such as were for captivity to captivity. Small mercy would there be then for fugitive Jews, whom the king would count as implacable enemies, whose resistance nothing could tame. And now Jeremiah's histoi-y suddenly ceases. What was his end we know not, but an old tradition, recorded by Tortullian and Jerome, avers that the exiles at Tahpanhes finally stoned him in a sudden outburst of fury at his constant rebukes. V/o can quite under- .stand that the Jews would carefully conceal a fact so discreditable to them, especially when so shortly after- wards Jeremiah became the chief of the prophets in their eyes. Still there is no actual evidence for it ; but nothing is more probable than that he did end his troubled days about this time liy a violent death, with- out ever enjoying a period of repose : and certainly his whole life was one worthy of the martyr's crown. What makes such an end probable is the utter con- fusion in which Jeremiah's works have come down to us. Unlike those of Isaiah, so arranged as that first there come general subjects, then the great prophecies called out by the invasions of Pekah and Sennacherib, then " burdens," then " woes," and so on ; unlike those of Ezekiel, which follow one another in strict chrono- logical order, Jeremiah's works are mixed up in hopeless disarray, and with the headings sometimes manifestly wrong, as where, for instance, in cliap. xx^ni. the first year of Jehoiakim is put for the first year of Zedokiah. And yet the title (chap. i. 1 — i) shows that some sort of arrangement had once been attempted, as far at least as regards the eai'ly prophecies ; and then when verse 3 was inserted — for the title is one that plainly has been altered and added to — no doubt it was intended to pub- lish a collection of all that the prophet had spoken, down to the capture of the city. Of the first collection dis- tinct ti-aces may be recognised, but none of the second. 31 — VOL. II. Probably the design was never carried out ; for though several prophecies were written in tho early part of the siege, yet, as time wore on, Jeremiah was in no position to attend to literary matters. When simply in prison, Baruch may have received many instructions at his mouth, but things grew from bad to worse, and at last he was in constant danger of death. And when Jeru- salem fell, wo find him at Ramah, included in a gang of captives cliained to one another to prevent the pos- sibility of escape. Under such circumstances it is im- possible to suppose that ho could have had any personal baggage with him. But being at length recognised and set free, doubtless he returned to Jerusalem, which was but five miles distant, and made search for all such property and documents as in the pillage of the city had been spared. Or it is even possible that Baruch, his scribe, who accompanied him into Egypt (chap, xliii. 6), may have been tho means of sa^dng these precious memorials. While under Gedaliah's protection, Jeremiah may have made preparations for publishing his prophecies, and for this purpose have written the narrative of tho events which oc<;urred in Zedekiah's later years (chaps. xxx™. — xxxix.), and also liave altered tho title to suit his present purpose. But then came the murder of Gedaliah, and the forced march into Egypt, and the struggle with the Jews at Talipanhes, and soon after- wards his death. Then possiljly Baruch, his faitliful companion, gathered all his writings together, but ap- parently did not venture to alter the order in which ho found them. Possibly he never exactly published them, but copies of the documents in his possession were made as occasion required, and no arrangement attempted, and so tho order is an accidental one. Curiously enough, but confirmatory of this view, we find placed last of all (chap, li.) the letter sent by tho hands of Baruch's ovra. brother Seraiah to the exiles at Babylon in the fourth year of Zedekiah, and of which he probably obtained the copy from Seraiah himself. At the end of it some later hand has added the note, '• Thus far are the words of Jeremiah." It is an in- stance of the pervcrseness of commentators that many, nevertheless, ascribe chap. Hi. to the prophet, though it brings down the history to a time when Jeremiah would have been nearly a hundred years of age. Probably this chapter was added as an historical appendix by Ezra and the men of tho Great Synagogue, who care- fully, however, warned the reader that tho words were no longer Jeremiah's words. It is remarkable that the Septuagint translation was evidently nuido from a text different from that in our Bibles, both in many details, and after chap. xxv. in substituting a completely dissimilar arrangement. And this, again, is in accordance with what has gone before. Had Jeremiah himself arranged and published his own prophecies, no person would have dared to interfere with it. But even our text, though probably put forth by Baruch, shows no signs of any attempt at a systematic arrangement on his part. As the prophet's scribe, tho manuscripts were in his keeping, and as Jeremiah's 98 THE BIBLE EDUCATOR. reputation grew, copies of them would be made and multiplied for the exiles at Babylon, and so what at first was merely accidental became their fixed order. In Egypt his fame also grew, though more slowly, and copies were doubtless made of such of his prophecies as were found there, wliUe the rest were brought piece- meal, perhaps, from Babylon and elsewhere, and so, at length, an Egyptian edition grew into shape, and, naturally, tlio translators of the Septuagint, working at AJexandi'ia, made their version from the text current among themselves. This twofold edition has a most important bearing upon Biblical criticism, and gives us fii'm standing-ground for the defence, not merely of the genuineness of the wi-itiugs of Jeremiah, but of the whole collection of prophetical books. A few words must be added about Barueh. The office of servant to a prophet was a high one, and often, as in the case of Elisha, led to his being invested with prophetic powers. To such an elevation Barueh pro- bably looked forward, especially as he was a man of high birth and dignity, his grandfather, Maaseiah, having been governor of the city in Josiah's time (2 Ohrou. xxxiv. 8), and his brother, Seraiah, King Zcdekiah's chamberlain. But disappointment was to be his lot, and Jeremiah, in a prophecy (chap, xlv.) addressed to him in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, warned liim of it, bidding him not to " seek liigh tilings for himself," but comforting him under this tiial, and giving him the promise of personal safety in the coming storm. It is curious that many Oriental legends represent Barueh as 80 vexed at this disappointment that he apostatised, they say, from the faith, and, under the name of Zoi-oaster, introduced the Magian religion. How little truth there is in these stories we gather from the Bible narrative, which tolls us that he was with Jeremiah in Egypt, faithful and devoted as ever, nineteen or twenty years after the date of the prophecy addressed to him. But that he had hoped to be invested with prophetical powers, and was greatly distressed when he f oimd that such was not to be the case, is the most probable ex- planation of the expression, " Seekest thou high things for thyself ? " in chap. xlv. 5. It remains only to say that Jeremiah was by birth a priest, and that many suppose that his father, Hilkiah, was the good high priest of that name in Josiah's days. His home was at Anathoth, a priestly city in the tribe of Benjamin, where, too, he had lauded property. In the early years of liis office he dwelt there, but the people fully shared the general indignation at his seeming want of patriotism, and tried to mm'der liim (chap. xi. 21). He then moved to Jerusalem, and when, years afterwards, he was shut up in prison, he bought his uncle's estate at Anathoth, just as the Romans bought and sold the land on which Hannibal's camp was pitched, in token that " houses and lands and vineyards should be pos- sessed again in the land " (chap, xxxii. 15). On cahuly reviewing the life of Jeremiah, we cannot wonder that many of the Fathers saw in him a type of Christ. His bodily and mental agonies; his entire subjection to the wiU of God, though the prophet had to overpower the revoltings of his human will ; his lamentations over the coming troubles of his country, the general opposition to his teaching, and the union of priest and people in seeking his death, all form an interesting parallel ; and the idea was naturally sug- gested by his describmg himself as "a lamb or an ox that is brought to the slaughter" (chap. xi. 19). No doubt he was emphatically " a man of sorrows." But the comparison must not be pressed too far. Still, this we may say, that of all the prophets, none rises to a higher or more spiritual elevation than Jeremiah, and none is more worthy of such a comparison; and yet even more true would it be to say thjit he is an exem- plification of the Gospel principle that " God's grace is sufficient " for a man, because God's " strength is made perfect in weakness " (2 Cor. xii. 9). AJTIMALS OF THE BIBLE. ET THE BEV. W. HOUGHTON, M.A., F. L.S., KECTOR OF PRESTON, SALOP. GOATS, WILD GOATS. 'EXT in importance and value to oxen and sheep come goats, in the estimation of the ancient Hebrews. Numerous are the allu- sions in the Bible to the domestic animal, whQo references to tho wild goat, as inh.abiting the rocks and the high hills of P.alestine, occasionally occur. As several Hebrew words for the goat, expressing either sex or age, are found in the Bible, it will be well to notice briefly these names at once. They are as follow: — ez, 'attnd, tsdphir, siVir, tayish, and gedi. Ez (w) occurs several times, and generally, if not .-ilw.ays, me'ans " a she-goat ; " the name is distinguished from gedi (na), "a kid." being applied to an animal from one to three years old ; compare Gen. xv. 9, " Take me a she-goat (ez) of three years old ;" and Numb. xv. 27, "a she-goat {ez) of the first year." The word is pro- Ijably derived from cizaz, " to become strong," denoting an animal that has already acquired some strength, in contradistinction to a yoimg kid not long born or " cast out " (gdddh) of the body. In Exod. xxxv. 26, 'izzini (lit., "goats") is used for goats'-hair, of which coverings for cushions or bolsters wore made ; see 1 Sam. xix. 13 — 16, in which passage occurs a very cm-ious ren- dering by the Septuagint. In om* version, which is correctly ti-ansl.ated, we read (vor. 13), "And Michal took an image, .and laid it in the bed, and put a pillow of goats' hair for his bolster (Heb. 7neraasluitdiv ; lit., ' at his head '), and covered it with a cloth," where in the LXX. we read, "And Melchol took images and laid ANIMALS OF THE BIBLE. 99 them on tbe bed, and she put the liver of a goat by his head, and covered them with clothes." Josephus {Antiq. vi. 11, § 41, who also reads " liver," tells us of its uso on this occasion. When Saul, Michal's father, sent mes- sengers to seize David, his wife " showed them the bed covered, and made them believe, by the leaping of the liver, which caused the bed-clothes to move also, tliat David breathed hke one that was asthmatic " (!) — iho Hebrew word 7ve6iV (i"33), "a covering," or "pillow," being read as 153 (kdbkl), "the liver." 'AttAd (iin») denotes a "he-goat," from a root mean- ing "to make ready," "prepare," from the idea of a he-goat taking the lead of the flock ready for action. " Remove out of the midst of Babylon, and go forth out of the laud of the Chaldeans, and bo as the ho- goats before the flocks " (Jer. 1. 8). The word occurs in a figurative sense in Zech. x. 3. as princes leadiug the people—" Mine anger was kindled aguinst tlie shepherds, and I punished the he-goats ;" and in Isa. siv. 9, " It stirreth up the dead for thee, even all tho chief ones (lit., ' he-goats') of the earth." Ts{'q}hir (">'?s), " a he-goat," is a word of uncertain origin ; it appears to be a late Hebrew or Chaldaic form of tho word sd'ir, " a rough one " or " he-goat " (a term of constant occurrence in Leviticus), though tsdphir occurs with sd'ir in Dan. vni. 21 : "And the goat, the rough one, is the king of Javau " (A. V., " Grecia "). Sd'ir (TS'ii?) literally means "rough" or "hairy," and is tlio word which Jacob applied to his brother Esau : " Behold, my brother is an hairy man " {isli sd'ir) ; hence the term was used of " a goat," especially of " a he- goat;" precisely similar is the Latin hircus, "a he- goat," from kirtus or hirsutus, '' hairy. The word sd'ir occurs frequently in the books of Numbers and Leviticus as the goat of the sin-oileriug. " Take yo a kid of tho goats f or a siu-oii'eruig " (Lev. ix. 3, 1.5 ; x. 16 ; see also Numb. XT. 24, 27 ; xxix. 11, &c.). The Hebrew name occurs in Isaiah to denote some kind of mythological creatures, goat-like in form, supposed to inhabit deso- late places in company with liUth. tho night fau-y, that was supposed to lay wait for children. Lilifh will be considered mulcr the article " Owl." Tlie prophet, speaking of Babylon says, " It shall never bo inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation. . . . But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there ; and then- houses shall be full of doleful creatures ; and owls shall dwell there, and satyi-s (se'irrm) shall dance there " (Isa. xiii. 21). " As Rich heard in Bagdad, the ruins [of Babylon] aro stiU regarded as a rendezvous for ghosts: Sit'iV when contrasted with ''attful signifies the full-grown shaggy buck-goat; but here (Isa. xiii. 21) se'irim is applied to demons in the shape of goats, as in chap, xxxiv. 14. According to the Scriptures, the desert is the abode of unclean spirits, and such unclean spirits as the popular belief or mythology pictured to itself were se'irim. Virgil, like Isaiah, calls them saltantes satyros. It is remarkable that Wolf. the traveller or missionary to Bokhara, saw pilgrims of the sect of TeziiUs (or de\-il- worshippers) upon the ruins of Babylon, who performed strange and horrid rites by moonlight, and danced extraordinary dances with singular gestures and sounds. On seeing these ghost-like, howling, moonhglit pilgrims he very naturally recalled to mind tho daucing se'irim of pi-ophecy" (Dclitzsch's Isaiah). A similar pictm'O of desolation is di'awn by the same prophet concerning Edom. " Thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof : and it shall bo an habitation of dragons (jackals), and a coui-t for owls. The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the wild beasts of the island, and the .satyr shall cry to his fellow, lilith also shall rest there, and find for herself a place of rest " (xxxiv. 13, 14). That the word desig- nates some demon of goat-like form, and is rightly translated " satyrs " in om- version, is evident from the fact that the Israelites had been in tho habit of wor- shipping such demons. " And they shall no more offer their sacrifices imto de^als " (se'irim) (Lev. xvii. 7). " They provoked him to jealousy with strange gods, with abominations provoked they him to anger. They sacrificed unto destroying demons [A. V., ' devils,' shedhn], that were not God; to gods whom they knew not, to new gods that came newly up, whom your fathers feared not" (Deut. xxxii. 16, 17). " They served their idols, which were a snare unto them ; yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters uuto devils " (shedim) (seePs. evi. 37). It seems very probable that the shedim in these two last passages denote tho se'irim of Levi- ticus in the passage quoted. That some malignant demon is intended by shedim appears from Ps. xci. 6, where pestilence is spoken of as " causing destruc- tion " {shiid = shddad, " to be violent," " to destroy ") ; but in 2 Chron. xi. 15, tho seirim are again definitely spoken of as idols. Jeroboam " ordained him priests for the high places, and for the de\'ils (se'irim, ' goat idols '), and for the calves which he had made." From this it would appear that the king of the revolting tribes set up images of the goat as wefl as of the calf. The super- stition of worshipping a goat, a sort of Pan with a, goat's head and feet, was probably a relic of Egyjjtian idolatiy. Those who maintain tliat tho Book of Levi- ticus does not date earlier than the PersLau period, are of opinion that in this goat-worship we have a combi- nation of both Persian aud Egyptian ideas. " There can bo no doubt," says Kaliseh, " that after their return from Babylon, the Jews of Palestine maintained an active intereoiu-se with the Eastern Empire aud with Egypt, and were familiar vrith the institutions of both ; thus notions borrowed from the Persian creed were com- bined with Egyptian conceptions. Of this amalgamation we li.ave a remarkable instauee in the Book of Job, which was wi-itten about the same period, and which on the one hand introduces the Persian Sat.au and councU of angels, and on tho other descrilies the hippopotamus and the crocodile in a manner as they can ouly bo de- scribed by one who personally observed them in their native Egypt. Therefore, while we believe that tho ' he-goats ' of our text, like Azazel, who periodically received a sbi-laden goat, are chiefly meant for Persian demons or satyrs, wildly daucing and yelling in deserts lOO THE BIBLE EDUCATOR. and on ruins, they also include the goats which were held sacred among the Egyptians, and which were by the Hebrews understood as pagan symbols " (Comment, on Levit. xvii.). Some writers have thojight that the se'irim of Isaiah siguify some kind of monkpy, Macactis .or Cynoccphalus. Dr. Tristram lias figured the Cyno- cephalus mormon, the raaudriU, an animal found only in Guinea, West Africa, as the C. hamadryas of Arabia and Abyssinia. According to the old versions and nearly all the commentators, the se'irim denote demons of •desert places, half men, haK goats ; and our Authorised Version of " satyrs " must retain its place. Not so, how- •cvor, with the 'azazel (see margin) of Lev. xvi. 8, 10, 26, wrongly i-cndercd by "scaps-goat" in our version. sent away into the wilderness, and which in the Hebrew language is named Azazel, was none other than this," i.e., " the destroying angel, the Aovil " (see Origon, Con- tra Cels., vi. cap. 43). This view is generally adopted by modern scholars. The author of the notes iu the SjJeahcrs Commentary makes the following remarks, which are well worthy of our attention ; — " Taking then Azazel as the evil one, the important question remains, in what capacity was the goat dismissed to him ? Was he sent as a sacrifice to bribe or mollify him ? (Spencer, Gesenius, Rosenmiiller, &c.) Against this it is justly argued that the two goats formed together one sin- offering, and, as such, had been presented to Jehovah : and also tliat anything like the worship and sacrifice of yj^-' . ■- [-,SMfeSigi^@B, ' a reptUo '], and this is an insult to tho God of Jacob "' (see Dr. David- son's Hebrew Text Revised, p. 17). A similar addition is found in some copies of the Septuagint : — " For ho who does tliis acts as if he sacrificed a lizard, which is a poUutiou to the God of Jacob." There is evidence for tho existence of a certain heathen custom of boiling a young kid in its mother's milk, and sprinkling the broth over fields, fruit-trees, and gardens, as a charm to secure plentiful crops in the ensuing year. This operation, which was done after harvest, is spoken of by Abarbanel and by Cudworth (Ore the Trite Notion of the Lord's Siqyper, p. 36). The latter quotes fi-om an anonymous manuscript work of a Karaite Jew, who mentions this magical practice (see Kalisch's Gomm. on Levit., part ii., p. 29, note). " Can it be sm-prising, then," asks Dr. Kalisch, " that the Hebrew \vi-iter, who taught that fruitfulnoss and sterility are in the hands of God alone, and that he sends the one and the other according to his decrees and the deserts of men, should have looked with severe disapproval upon a heathen usage that attributed reality and effect to vain super- stitions ? " This is all quite true, and a very probable explanation of the prohibition ; but we entirely agree with Kalisch, when he says, the " aspect of the ques- tion is totally altered if wo consider the context in which tho precept is introduced for the third time in Deuteronomy. . . . Hero it is obviously treated as a law of diet." We believe that the precept originated from humane feelings, and that characteristic seutunent amongst the Jews as to the peculiar fitness and pro- priety of tilings : thus they did not like the idea of, and forbade by a positive enactment, the killing of a cow and its calf, of a ewe and a lamb, the samo day ; they might take birds' nests, but not the old bu-d \nih the young. " If a bu-d's nest chance to be before thee in the way in any tree, or on tho ground, whether they be young ones, or eggs, and the chim sitting upon the young, or upon the eggs, thou shalt not take the 104 THE BIBLE EDUCATOR. dam with the young : but thou shalt in any wise let the dam go, and take the young to thee ; tliat it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest prolong thy days" (Dout. xxii. 6, 7). They might not plough with an ox and an ass yoked together : such thiugs savoured of cruelty, of opposition to the unity and harmony of nature, " as a perversion of the eternal order of things, and as a culpable contempt of 'the relation that God ordained to exist between the mother and her yoimg." That tliis sentiment w;us firmly grounded in the Jewish mind is evident, not only from the various enactments relating to kind treatment of animals, but from the especial words of Philo on this very subject (see PhUo, De Humanitate, cap. xviii.). by the Arabs, who say proverbially of a beautiful woman, " She is more lovely than an ibex." It is the Capra Ibex (Baedon) of Forskal, Capra Nuhiana of F. Cuvier, the Capra Sinaitica of Ehrenborg. The ibex is common in Arabia Peti-sea. The Rev. F. W. Holland writes : " They are frequently shot by the Bedouins, who charge about 6s. for a full-grown one, and from Is. 6d. to 2s. for a live young one ; but they are very difficult to rear. I had three, but thoy all died, and one of the monks told me that the year before he had twenty, but had lost them all. The Beden, being very shy and wary, keeping to the moun- tiiins, and also from their colour very difficult to be seen, are not often detected by travellers, and have ■.--:-;-.r'^:-.'i.-?^W/,^>>.j>.^.^^;lvl^i',W^>-T.,>i'WS^'v rm i^^ayi"; Yi'll w ^-v^->:>*^ ■"■^■^ OlJ.-^'.! '■^f 7,H;iA^.'j,,oy.ji^ ^. /,^i;)i'^' : ;'^~Sf^i:Tf~^,. .lip ^I .3 WILD GOATS AND YOUNG. (ASSYKIAN.) We have only space to give a short account of the wild goats mentioned in three places in the Bible. Saul and three thousand men " went to seek David and liis men upon the rocks of the wild goats " {tsurei hayye'clim) (see 1 Sam. xxiv. 2) ; " Knowest thou where the wild goats bring forth ? " (Job xxxix. 1) ; " The high hills are a refuge for the wild goats, and the rocks for the conies {hyrax)" (Ps. civ. 18). It will be noticed that the animal in question is always associated with rocks and hills. Tlio Hebrew word (yd'el, plural ye'elim) is derived from a root meaning "to climb," "to ascend," and fitly describes tlie ibex, or wild goat, which is found in the Peninsula of Sinai and in Palestine. This animal, which is a relative of the Swiss ibex or stoinbock, is now called the Beden, or Jaela ; the former being the specific Arabic name, the latter the Hebrew, though the latter word is also used therefore been supposed to be much more scarce thau tliey really are. The kids, before they are able to accompany the old ones, are concealed by the mother under some rock, and apparently are only visited at night. I once caught a little one which ran out from under a rock as I was climbing a mountain. The poor little creature had evidently heard me coming, and ran out thinking I was its mother. The Arab who was with me was very anxious to wait near it tiU evening to shoot the old one, and ho said there must be another kid close by, as two were always dropped at a birth, but we faUed to find a second. Their warning cry is a shrill kind of whistle." According to Dr. Tristram, the Beden is not so rare in Palestine as has been supposed. " In the neigh- bourhood of Engedi, while encamped by the Dead Sea shore, wo obtained several fine specimens, and very ANIMALS OF THE BIBLE. ASSYRIAN DEITT HOLDING A GOAT AND AN EAK OF COKN. (nOBTH-WESTEEN PALACE OF NIMEOUD.) interesting it was to find tliis graceful creature by the veiy fountain to which it gave name (Engedi, i.e., ' fountain of the kid '), and in the spot where it roamed of old, while Darid wandered to escape the persecutions of Saul When clambering on the heights above Engedi I often, by the help of my glass, saw the ibes at a distance, and once, when near Marsaba, only a few miles from Jerusalem, started one at a distance of 106 THE BIBLE EDUCATOR. 400 yards. At the south end of the Dead Sea they were common, and I have picked up a hom both near Jericho on the hills, and also on the hills of Moab on the eastern side. At Jericho, too, I obtained a young one, which I hoped to rear, but which died after I had had it for ten days, owing, I believe, to the milk with which it was fed being sour. Further north and west we did not find it, thouo-h I have reason to believe that a few linger on the mountains between Samaria and the Jordan, and perhaps also on some of the spurs of Lebanon. "Wo found its teeth in the breccia of bone caverns in the Lebanon, proving its former abundance there. The wild goat has one, or more generally two, yoimg at a birth, and the horns of the female are much smaller than those of the male, which in fine specimens are three feet long, with large round lings or ridges on tho front face. The flesh of tho Beden is excellent venison, far superior to the dry meat of the gazelle, and is pro- bably the venison which Esau went to hunt for his father in tho wilderness of Judffia.' The horus of the ibex are in much request at Jerusalem for knife-handles and other manufactures " [Nat. Hist. Bib., pp. 96, 97). Another Hebrew word, aTchu, occurs in Deut. xiv. 5, as one of the animals allowed for food ; it is rendered "wild goat" in our version, but what this name denotes is i)ure conjecture. Figures of the ibex are common on the Assyrian monuments, where they are represented as being hunted and shot with bows and arrows, and sometimes in the hands of some Assyrian deity. In the inscription of the broken obeUsk, which gives an account of the wild animals hunted (killed or cap- 1 This is extremely uncertain ; the Hebrew word tsayid or tseydah denotes "what is taken in hunting," "game of any kind," '* food." We suspect the gazelle would have been more easily killed than the ibes, which is one of the most wary of all animals. tured afive) by Assur-natsir-pal, mention is made of armi, turdchi, ndli, and yaeli. What the three first- named animals denote is matter of conjecture, but the Assyrian word ya-e-li closely resembles the Hebrew, and very probably denotes " ibexes " (see Rawlinson's West Asia Inscriptions, vol. i., pi. 28, line 20 ; and Norris's Assyrian Dictionary, vol. ii., p. 453). CHAMOIS. The rendering of the Hebrew zenier occurs only in the list of animals allowed for food (Deut. xiv. 5). The Septuagint and the Vulgate give " camel-leopard " as the animal intended. It certainly is not tho camel-leopard, an animal of South and Central Africa, for though representations of the giraffe occur in the Egyptian monuments, as tribute from Ethiopia, it is not possible that it shoidd have been named as lawful food for the Israelites, whether in Palestine or the Sinaitic peninsula. Tlie word is derived from a root meaning " to spring," " to jump," and this is the only clue, which, as it would apply to wUd goats, sheep, deer, or antelopes, is obviously too vague even to form a conjecture from. It is probably not the chamois, which does not now occur in Palestine ; it may have occurred at one time, though there is no o^-idence of its former existence in that country. Tlie chamois is said to be found in all the high mountain chains of Western Asia. Zemer has been supposed by some to denote the aoudad or kebsch (Ammotragus tragelaplms, Gray) of North Africa and Arabia Petrsea. This goat- like animal is really a wild sheeiJ, very active, an inhabitant of high and inacces- sible places, with strong horns of groat size curving backwards. Its figure occurs on the Egyptian monu- ments, and it is quite j)ossiblo the animal itself was known to the ancient Jews ; but it is impossible to do more than form conjectures. THE PLANTS OF THE BIBLE. OEDEES XII.— XIV. CAETOPHTLLEa:, FEANKENIACE^, PAEONYCHIACE^, AND MOLLUGINE.S;. ET W. CAEKUTHEES, F.E.S., KEEPEE OF THE BOTANICAL DEPAETMENT, BRITISH MUSEUM. j\HE plants of the four orders here grouped together, while they exhibit mauy im- portant points of difference, are yet re- lated to each other by so many essential characters, that they naturally arrange themselves in one great family. Tlio position of the stamens, and the presence or absence of the corolla, which genei-aUy supply valuable characters for classification, are of importance hero only in relation to the minor groups in which the plants are arranged. Tho Pink family {CaryophyllecB) consist of rather more than a thousand species of, for tho most part, inconspicuous annual or perennial herbs, found in tho temperate and frigid regions of the world, chiefly in tho northern hemisphere. Dianthus caryophyllus (Linn.) is the source of the innumerable varieties of cloves and carnations found in our gardens. Many species of Dianthus and Silcne have handsome flowers, and the abundant star-like blossoms of some stitch- worts whiten our hedge-banks in early summer; but the majority of the plants of the order are small, and have incon- spicuous flowers. The British flora contains nearly sixty species, some being the most common weeds in cultivated grounds and waste places, and by the waysides, such as the chick- weeds, catch-flies, spurrys, and stitch-worts. Boissier records eighty-five species from Palestine, the principal portion of which are found only on the high mountains of the north; a few are desert weeds which occur in the Dead Sea region, and the remainder are mot with THE PLANTS OF THE BIBLE. 107 in stouy places and cultivated fields over Palestiuo. Among these common plants are many that are familiar to us in Britain, such as tho common chickweed {Stel- laria media, Linn.), mouse-ear {Cerastium glomeratmn, ThuU.), and soapwort {Saponaria officinalis, Linn.). The translators of the Authorised Version have introduced into the text the name of a plant belonging to the Pink faraOy — the cockle — as their interpretation of the Hebrew new? (hacshah) in Job xxxi. 40 : " Lot thistles grow instead of wheat, and cockle instead of barley." Various attempts have been made to connect this word with a special plant. The Seventy in their translation rendered it by Baros, the " bramble bush ;" the Vulgate, Syriac, and some other early versions have translated it vaguely as " thorn." Celsius considers it to be the aconite, while the hemlock and the nightshade have each been advocated by others. Lady Callcott sees no reason for giving up the authorised translation, and consequently considers that our pink-flowered cockle, a veiy troublesome weed to English farmers, or one of its varieties, is the plant intended. Our British plant is indeed found within the Palestine area, but only as an advanced member of the northern flora, and it is not met with further south than the mountain ranges of Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon, and consequently not m the eorn-fields of the country. The Hebrew word is durived from a root meaning " fetid " or " bad," and this has induced Tristram to recognise in it a plant not only useless or hurtful, but one that is also offensive to the smell. He accordingly suggests that a diseased condition of the barley itself may bo meant, in which tho starch of the grain is re- Jilaced by a minute black dust, consis* ig of the ■. yoros of a fungus {Tilletia caries, Tul.), that have n. very offensive odour, like that of decayed fish. The stinking Arums which are not infrequent in Palestine might also, he thinks, suit the derivation of the word. It seems, however, more probable that " noisome weeds," the marginal reading in our English Bible, is as precise an interpretation as can be given to this woi-d. And this is confirmed by the use of what is generally considered to be the plural form cil\>j3 (heuMin) in Isa. V. 2 and 4, where it is translated " wild graj r:; ' "My well-beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hiU: and he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with tho choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a wine- press therein : and ho looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth loild qrapes." Hasselqx;ist believed that the prophet here referred to the hoary nightshade (Solanum sanctum, Linn.), which he found to be a common plant in Egypt, Pales- tine, and the East. It may be said to resemble the vine in haiing a shrubby stem, and received the Arabian name of Aneb-el-dil, or " wolf's grapes," no doubt from its bunches of tempting luscious-looking, but really poisonous berries that are not unlike in general appear- ance a cluster of grapes. He found this pernicious plant springing up as a noxious weed in the vineyards, and saw in it a singular fitness for the figure in the prophet's parable. Jerome rendered it labruscoe, the small dark-red grapes of the wild ■tine (not the Vitis labrusca, Linn., which is a North American plant), which are very sour and useless. In this he was followed by the translators of our Authorised Version, by Rosenmiillor and others. It wiU be observed, however, that tho narrative of the parable requires not the fruit of an intruding pernicious or worthless plant, but the obnoxious fruit borne by a carefully selected and precious vino. The vineyard is planted with the vine of Sorek, a famous variety, and it is well cared for by the husbandman. To its lord, however, it yields not the fruit which the quality of the plant led him to expect, but worthless and obnoxious grapes. So the lord threatens to throw do^vn the walls, and only when thus unprotected do the briers and thorns spring up where only precious vines were found before. With this agi'ees also the exposition ot the parable as given in a succeeding verso : " The vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and tho men of Judah his pleasant plant : and he looked for judgment, but behold oppression ; for righteousness, but behold a cry." It accords then better with the context, in both passages where the word is used, to consider it as an adjective, with its substantive understood : in the one passage tho singular feminine expresses a worthless weed in opposition to tho nutritious barley; in the rther, the plural mascidine expresses the obnoxious grapes instead of the grapes of Sorek. The Sea-heath family (Franheniacece) contains some thirty species of small plants chiefly found on the coasts < f temperate or warm countries. They probably belong to a single genus. In our British flora tho family is represented by one species, a small plant spreading close on the groimd, with wiry stems, numerous tutted leaves and inconspicuous rose-coloured flowers, found chiefly in the salt marshes on tho south-eastern coast of England. Two species of similar-looking plants are toimd in Palestine, on the shores of the Levant. The Whitlow-worts (Paronychiacew) ai'o a larger family, consisting of somewhat over one hundred species of humble tufted plants with small leaves and miimte flowers, occurring generally in sandy places. Six species are f(nmd in Britain, and about the same number in the sandy fields of Palestine. Tho tamUy is more numer- ously represented m the Sinai region, and in tho deserts to the south of the Holy Land. Tlio Caqjet-weeds (Molluginece) aro a similar group of small inconspicuous weeds found in tho warmer regions of the world, -svithout a representative in Britain, and having but one species in Palestine — a glaucous i plant, with small white flowers, found in the northern parts of tho country. 108 THE BIBLE EDUCATOR. BOOKS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. JOEL (continued). BY THE KEV. SAMUEL COX, NOTTINGHAM. \ SECOND PART. CHAP. II. 18-III. 21. OT in vain did Joel plead with the alarmed and conscience-stricken people of Jeru- Sv^\ Icf salem and Judaea. They listened to liis 5 S^<^ voice ; they accepted correction ; they put thoir trust in Jehovah ; they drew near to their God. At the prophet's command they turned unto tJie Lord j with fastiug, and with mourning, and with weeping, j A fast was sanctified, a restraint proclaimed ; all the inhabitants of the land, from the elder to the suckling, were assembled in the Temple ; bride and bridegroom I exchanged their festive garments for sackcloth, their joy for mourning ; and the priests, standing between the porch and the altar, wept out the prayer, " Spare tby people, O Jehovali ;'* and, as the prophet had foretold, the Lord hearkened and heard, and repented Him of the evil, and returned and left beloind Him a blessing. Jealous for their fair repute among the nations (chap. ii. 18), " He had compassion on liis people," and answered their prayer ; promising that they should no more be a " reproach among the nations," who were so ready to " scoff at " them ; that men should not a.sk in derision, " Where is their God ? " since the land should once more bo covered with a waving wealth of corn, and He would send them bread and wino and oil tOl they were satis- fied therewith. In short, the answer of vor. 19 is a simple and exact response to the prayer of ver. 17. And in the succeeding verses of the chapter this promise of good is defined and expanded. The Di\'iuo Voice lingers on the details of the coming benediction, as though in his mercy God were patiently seeking to comfort the weary and despondent heai-ts of his people, to meet and remove every suggestion of despair, to recover them to the strength of hope. First of all. He promises to deliver them from that pest of locusts, that great army before which aU faces had gone pale. But the promise is couched in terms which have given rise to much controversy (ver. 20). *' I send the northerner far away from you, And drive him into the land of drought and desert. His van toward the Eastern Sea, And his rear toward the Western Sea ; An^ his stench shall rise up. And his ill savour ascend." Who is this "northerner?" The locusts, as Jerome and all the commentators tell us, commonly came from the south, not from the north of Judea ; whereas the Assyrian was frequently designated " the Northerner," or •' him of tlie north," by the Hebrew prophets. Must not Joel have been thinking of the Assyrian army when hu wrote this verse, and not of a flight of locusts ? It is uat safe to dogmatise on the question ; but on the whole, the probabilities are, I think, that it was the locusts he had in liis mind, not the Assyrians. There are at least four reasons for this conclusion. (1.) AU other indications of time point, as we have seen, to the reign of Joash as the data of Joel's prophetic activity, and the Assyrians did sot begin their career of conquest tUl after Joash had been long gathered to his fathers. To permit those other indications, some of which are tolerably plain, to bo overruled by a single hint, and this hint so obscure as that suggested by the verse before us, would be to violate one of the simplest and most reasonable canons of interpretation. (2.) The entire prophecy seems to be a description of the con- sequences, physical and moral, of a plague of locusts un- paralleled in the history of man : it dues not contain a solitary clear aUusion to an invasion by the Assyrians or by any other hostile race. (3.) Even to this verse the Assyrian hypothesis is a lamentably iusuificient key. It explains only the first line, and makes mere nonsense of the lines that follow. Eor when was the main body of an Assyrian army driven — i.e. blown — into the Arabian desert, its van into the Dead Sea, and its rear into the Mediterranean, and left to rot till its stench went up and its Ul savour ascended to poison the air ? And (4.) the fact that, as Jerome says, " the swarms of locusts are more generally brought by the south winds than the north," implies that they did sometimes come from the north. And, indeed, more recent travellers assure us that in Palestine " locusts come and go with all winds," and that swarms of them are often found in the Syrian desert on the north of Galilee. On all these grounds we .shall do well, I think, to conclude that " the northerner " is hero a prophetic designation of locust swarms that fell on Judaja from the northern deserts, and that the comparative infroqueney of such an event lent a new accent of terror to the tones in which men spoke of it, and led them to recognise it more clearly as a judgment from Heaven. That which came from the north is to be driven away by the north wind, or rather, by a wind which veers through all the northern jjoints of the compass — north, north-west, and north-cast ; so tkat while the main body of locusts are blown into the southern deserts of Arabia to perish in the arid burning wastes, their van is to be blown into the Salt or Dead Sea on the east, and then- rear into the blue waters of the Mediterranean on the west. Commenting on this verse, St. Jerome says, " Even in our own time wo have seen the land of Juda;a covered by swarms of locusts, which, so soon as the whid rose, were precipitated into" the Dead Sea and the Mediterranean. " And when tho shores of both were filled with heaps of dead locusts, which the waters had thrown up, their corruption and stench became so noxious, that even the atmosphere was polluted, and JOEL. 109 both men and beasts suffered from the consequent pesti- lence." In the last line of this verse, Joel assigns as a reason for the doom on the locust flight, " He doeth great things." It is worth while to mark this phrase, and to compare it with the closing line of the next verse (ver. 21), " for Jehovah doeth great things," since we thus get a capital instance of the necessity of reading pro- phecy as poetry, and of mixing a little imagination with common sense as wo read it. A very prosaic person, if he deigned to notice tlie identity of phrase in these two lines, could not fail to be puzzled by it. He would say, " The locusts have done great things, and therefore they are doomed to destruction; Jehovah has done great things, and therefore the Jews are to trust and praise Him! Can a fountain send out of the same jet sweet water and bitter ? How can it be both wrong and right to do gi-eat things ? How can it both provoke doom and deserve praise ? " But if, remembering that Joel was a poet, wo put a little imagination at his service — and so much wo are bound to do for every poet — wo shall easUy understand that, to the poet's eye, the eagerness with which the locusts pounced on every green thing would seem like a cruel exultation in the ruin they wrough^, as if they were boasting themselves in their might ; and that mth a somewhat rueful irony he would say of tliem, " They do great things ! A miglity achievement this of theirs ! " We shall easily under- stand that when, with a sudden revulsion of mood, ho turned to contemplate the Divine deliverance, and saw the land rejoicing in its recovered beauty and fruitful- ness, he would use the very same words to express his pride in the power and mercy of God, and say, " Jehovah in very deed doeth great things ! Ho breathes on the locTists, and they are gone ! He smiles on the wasted blackened land ; and, lo ! the pastures are green with springing verdure, the fields yellow with corn, the hill- sides purple with loaded vines." " Jehovah was jealous for his land," we are told (ver. 18), " and had compassion on his ixople ; " and now He addresses words of encouragement to the land, and to the beasts that roamed over it, and to the men who tilled it. The whole land had "lamented" under its wasted fields and withered harvest and sickening orchards, under crumbling garners and barns falling to decay (chap. i. 10 — 12, 17) ; and now, to the mourning land, there comes tho message — *' Fear not, lanl, rejoice and be glad." The cattle liad " groaned," the herds of oxen had been " bewildered," because they could find no pastures, and because the water-courses were dried up ; the flocks of sheep had " mourned tho guilt " whicli had provoked a judgment 80 terrible (chap. i. 12) ; and to them there now comes the message — "Fear not, yo leastsof the field. For the pastures of the wildemesa grow greeu. For the tree beareth its fruit, Fig-treo and vine do yield their Ftren^th." AU the inhabitants of the hnd had trembled ; tho hus- bandmen had " blenched," the vine-dressers " wailed," the ministers of tho altar kid " wejit " (chap. i. 11 — 13) ; and to them now comes the message — ■ " And ye, yo sons of Zion, rejoice and be glad in Jehovah your God." The blessing is to be as wide as the judgment had been, tho joy as the sorrow : as land and beasts and men had lamented and cried unto tho Lord, so land and beasts and men wore to be glad and to rejoice in Him (chap. ii. 21—23). Tho Divine blessing was to assume two forms. There was to be a down-pour of rain ; there was also to be an outpouring of the Spirit : happier times were coming, so also was a character more pure, and lofty, and spiritual in its tone (vs. 23 — 32). " Drought never yet brouglit dearth to England ;" but under the fervid sun of tho East, dearth is almost always a consequence of drought. If the early rain — that is, the autumn rain, the rain of sowing-time — is withheld, or the latter rain — that is, the spring rain, which fills the ears before harvest — tho com is commonly burned up from the roots, the pastures turn brovra, man and beast are exposed to famine ; and only too frequently tho famine is made moro deadly Ijy pestUenco. Tho plague of locusts had been accompanied by a plague of drought, and between them they had re- duced the land, goodly and fertile as " the garden of Eden," to a desolate wilderness. The only hope of re- covery lay in copious and abundant rain. And in the East the effects of rain are as rapid and marvellous as tho effects of drought. In a few days the streaming showers transform the face of the land as by enchant- ment ; tho bare parched earth clothes itself in robes of living green ; the trees rustle with foliage ; the lovely wild flowers clothe tho grass with beauty and fill the air with fragrance ; and tho despondent husbandmen and vine-dressera glow with renewed activity and hope. Such a transformation was now to pass over tho land which tho drought had parched and tho locusts stripped. Bain is promised, with an iteration which would be most grateful to an Oriental ear. " Te Bona of Zion, rejoice and be glad in year God, For He giveth you the early rain when it is due,' And causeth copious rains to come down on you, Early and latter rain — this, first of all." > By a little violence done to the Hebrew, the phrase rendered " Ho giveth you the eavly rain irlien it is due," may be rendered, " He giveth you the teacher of righteousness" Some of the com- mentators prefer the latter rendering, although they differ widely in their interpretations of it. Abarbanel explains " the teacher of righteousness" thus : *' He is the King Messiah, who should teach them the way in which they should walk, and the works that they should do." Others understand Joel to be *' tho teacher ;" others find in this title " the ideal teacher, or the collective body of mes- sengers from God." Delitzsch even includes all these explanations in his interpretation of the term. But not to insist on the diffi- culties of such a construction of the Hebrew, it seems to me that two reasons are f.atal to this rcuderiug. (1) The word morch, which does at times mean " teacher," is used twice in the verse ; and on tho second occasion, as all scholars are agreed, it means " rain." Unless there were very strong reasons to the contrary, it would not be wise, if it were lawful, to read the same word in the same sentence and construction in two widely different senses. And (2) there is surely a strong reason for taking it in the sense of *' rain." Tho whole tone of the passage implies that Joel is about to set forth one blessing /irst (mark the force of " this, first of all," in ver. 23, as compared with " afterward," in ver, 28) ; and that afterward he is about to describe a second blessing— viz., the outpouriug of the Spirit and the consequent exaltation of the national cliaracter. To 110 THE BIBLE EDUCATOR. So seasonable and so abundant are the rains to be that the laud is to take fertility again, "the bams" are to "grow full of grain, " tlia vats " are to " run over with new wine and with oil ;" " the years which the locust hath eaten " — a fine and boldly picturesque figure for the produce of tlio years — are to be " made good," and every trace of the groat ruin wrought by the great " camp " of God is to disappear (vs. 23 — 25). This is the first blessing — the blessing of happier out- ward conditions. But there is a second, and far greater, blessing to come. The showers of rain are but a pre- lude to the outpouring of the Spirit, and the recovered beauty and fertility of the land are but a type of tho heightened spiritual character, vigour, and f ruitf nlness of the redeemed people. Tho description of this second benediction commences in verse 28, but in verses 26, 27 we have an artistic and most graceful transition from the lower to the higher theme, from the first to the second blessing. It is just one of these touches whicli wo should admire in any but an inspired poet. Why should we not also admire it in a poet inspired from above ? The first blessing, seasonable and copious rain, is to bring an abundance of grain, oil, and wine ; and tho people are to eat their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising and blessing God. It was to induce this devout and thankful recognition of the Divine presence that tho judgment had been sent. Dulled by routine, blinded by uso and wont, the Jews had como to regard the succession of tho seasons and the bounty of the year in a hard mechanical way, as though Nature were a mere engine or machine — a vast mill, grinding out cortain very convenient supplies, but with no Divine power in it, no Divine Person to control and regulate it. Harvests were a matter of course. Tou sowed so much seed; the rains fell, tho sun shone, "and there you were." It was all a question of human toil and natural law. God might indeed have mado men and ordained laws iiges ago; but He had nothing to do with the re- sults of these laws as manipulated by human skill and labour month by month and year by year. It was to convince them of a Divine Presence immanent in Nature, to make them pure and strong and happy by drawing their hearts to Himself, that God interrupted tho usual sequence of events — first, by disasters over which tlicy had no control ; hy plagues (literally. " blows "), which they understood as judgments; and then, by acts of grace and goodwill, which they understood as signs of His returning favour. This gracious design, we are now told, was, or was to be, accomplished. Terrified by dis- asters over which they had no power, attracted by bless- ings which they could not secure, which at least seemed to them to be answers to repentance and supplication, as they " ate and were satisfied," tho people "praised the name of Jehovah their God, who had dealt wondrously with them ; " they felt, they acknowledged, that " He was in the midst of them," in their fields and in their vine- read " teacher of righteousness " in ver. 23, therefore, where ivo inny read " early raiu wheu it is due," appears to bo a sin against the tone and order of the propliet'a thought, tho gratuitous intro- duction of an obscurity into a passage which in itself is clear. yards as well as in tho Temple, and that He, " Jehovah, was their God and none else," since only He could send them rain and f ruitf id seasons and fill their hearts \vith gladness. By this natural and graceful transition, Joel rises from the temporal to tho spu-itual blessing, from the showers of rain to the descent of tho Spirit. He had seen in the plague an emphatic call to repentance ; and he had taught the people to see and to obey it. In the restored fertility of the land ho sees a proof that corn and oil and wine are the immediate gifts of God ; and ho teaches the people to see this also, and to give God thanks for his bounty. Redeemed from the chain of custom, awakened from their dull reliance on use and wont to a vivid recognition of the Divino presence and activity, they are in just that condition, in that mood of the soul, in which they can receive larger spiritual gifts and bo raised to a higher spiritual level. Joel foresees and predicts this crisis in the sjjiritual history of the nation. Ho afiirms that there is to be an effusion of spiritual energy, an outpouring of spiritual influence, such as had never been known before, as unparalleled as the plague wluch preceded it ; and that even this groat blessing would be a judgment, a test, by which tho spii-its of men would bo tried — fuU of terror for those who set themselves against the new tide of in- fluence, full of life and promiso for those who took it at tho flood, sailing with it and welcoming it. But if we would clearly imderstand verses 28 — 32, in which tho second and greater blessing is foretold, we must a little consider some of the torms which the pro- phet employs, and the suggestions they would carry to the ears of an Hebi-ew audience. For instance, under the Mosaic dispensation, the leading and most authorita- tive form of Divine revelation was the prophetic form ; tho power of seeing and speaking forth the truths of God as they bore on the facts of human life, whether in the past, the present, or tho future. Prom the days of Moses until Joel, the prophet was the highest spiritual authority, tho man most directly and obviously inspired of God. If, therefore, there was to bo a notable and unparallolod outpouring of Divine energy, Joel woidd natui-ally anticipate that this energy would como in its highest known form, that is, in the prophetic form. This prophetic gift or power, again, had two leading phases or aspects — -idsions and dreams. " If there is a prophet of Jehovah among you, I make myself known to him in a vision, I speak to him in a dream."^ So that we can easily apprehend why, when foretelling an unexampled effusion of tho Divdno Spirit, Joel would say — " Your sons and your daughters will propUcsy, Your old meu will dream dreams. Your young men will sea visions," Moreover, up to this period the Divino gift had been limited to a select few, to tho more finely uatured and eminent men through whom God spake to the nation at large. But a time was now approaching in which the Spirit of Jehovah would como down like a copious rain- fall, sweeping over all barriers, quickening tho vivid 1 Numb. xii. 6. JOEL. Ill energies of life in all classes — in children and old men, in yonng men and maidens. No slave had as yet re- ceived the proi^hetic impulse and gift ; but in the new time that was coming, " even the bondsmen and the bondswomen," as the prophet marks with natural sur- prise, are to share in the power of the Holy Ghost. Nay, the Spirit is not to be confined to one race, it is to extend to all races ; it is not to bo confined to the pious and devout, it is to seize upon those who had hitherto been deemed incapable of spiritual life. The words '* I will pour out my Spirit on all flesli " have a history. They point us back oven to the times before the Flood. Then, when men liad become " evil, only evil, and that continually," God had said, " My spii'it shall not rule in the human race {hdaddm), be- cause it has become /es7i {bdsdr)."^ Now Ho says, " My Spirit shall be poured out on all flesh" (Jcol bdsdr). This word "flesh" (bdsdr), as contrasted with "the Spirit," denotes human nature so sunk in bondage to its lower elements as to bo incapable of spiritual life. But, according to Joel, even this impenetrable " flesh " is to be penetrated by the DiWne Spirit; even the " natural man " is to be ti-ansformod into a " spiritual man ;" even the incorrigible are to be recovered to obedience. When God thus descends in the fulness of his power, shall there not be wonders in the heavens above and in the earth beneath? Joel foresees that there will be wonders like those which of old attended his steps when He came to redeem Israel from the bondage of Egypt, and when He gave them the law on Sinai ; on the earth, " blood and fire, and columns of smoke ;" in the heavens, a darkened sun, a bloody and portentous moon ; such wonders, in short, as men have always held to be omens and heralds of approaching change. These prodigies, however, will have no terror for those who " invoke the name of Jehovah," who make Him their sanctuary, who find in Him the sacred and august reality of which "Mount Zion"was a type to the Jew ; and even among those who had not yet taken sanctuary in Hun " there would bo those whom Jehovah will call " from their sins to find security and peace in Him. So largo a promise naturally awakens inquiry. We ask, "When was it, or wiU it bo fulfilled?" Joel expected, and I suppose saw, a fulfilment of it in his day. Peter saw a fulfilment of it on the Day of Pentecost. We are still straining forward through the ages, and looking for a distant day of judgment and redemption on which the promise will be finally and exhaustively ful- filled. If any ask, " To which of these f uLfilraents does Joel, or the Spirit which spake by Joel, refer ? " we reply, " Why should He not refer to all these days, and to many more?" Every true prophecy m7is< liave many fulfilments. For what is a prophecy ? It is a Dirine reading of human facts ; it is a declaration of the results which the DiWne laws are sure to work out from any given set of conditions, any sequence of events. Here is a man, or a race, in certain circumstances, of a certain moral temper, with this or that sin heavily pressing upon 1 Gen. vi. 3. them. And the prophet says, " In your circumstances, with your character, the Divine laws will infallibly pro- duce such and such results from your repeutance and amendment." As the Divine laws ai-o eternal and know no change, whenever the same facts recur in tho life of a man or of a race, the same results are sure to follow ; whenever similar facts recur, similar results vrill follow. And sincG men walk very much in a narrow round of custom and action, tho facts and conditions of human life must constantly repeat themselves; and every prophecy, therefore, must have many fulfilments. In Joel's time the Hebrew people went uj) to the Temple to worship, but they had forgotten what their worship meant : they gave their first-fruits to God, but not tho harvest ; they saw Him in tho Sanctuary and the ordinances of the Sanctuary, but not in the fields and in the laws of Nature. And therefore tho regular order, tho beneficent order of Nature was broken, or seemed to them to be broken, by unexpected calamities, by ad- verse forces before which they were helpless. This in- terruption of the usual sequence of events they took as a judgment on their sins, as a caUto repentance. They did repent, they learned that God was " in tho midst of them ;" for a time they lived in a constant and thankful recognition of His presence, His bounty. Their hearts were cjuickened to a new life ; there was what we call " a reformation of religion." It is at such periods that the Spii-it of God descends on men with unaccustomed power, when, viz., their hearts are quick and tender. And as a rule, it is the humble and meek to whom, at such times, there is given " greater insight into the past, greater foresight of that which is to come," the power to SCO visions, and dream dreams, and declare the will of the Lord. To the proud and disobedient snc-h times are times of testing and judgment; they oppose them- selves to the new movement of thought, to the better spirit of the age ; they adjudge themselves unwoi-thy of the life which has been quickened in the hearts of their neighbours. This was the sequence of results which Joel saw and forcsiiid ; this was how he read the facts of his time, and the bearing of the Divine laws upon them. Were not the same conditions repeated in St. Peter's time with the like results ? Was there not, therefore, good ground for his finding in tho Pentecostal facts a fulfilment of Joel's prophecy ? Then, once more, the Jewish people came up to the Temple to worship, but failed to recog- nise the God, and the duty to God, to which their wor- ship bore witness. Wlien " God made manifest in the flesh" stood before them, they did not recognise Him as God, neither were thankful. Judgment came upon them. They were permitted to lay " lawless hands " on Him who was both their Lord and Christ. They awoke to tho consciousness of their sin when they saw tho humble Galileans quickened to now life and power. They repented and turned unto the Lord. And the Spirit came upon them. They too saw visions, and dreamed di-eams, and prophesied in the name of tho Lord. And this new accession of spiritual life was a judgment to the men of that imtoward generation — 112 THE BIBLE EDUCATOR. trying what manner of spirit tliey were of, revealing how e\^l was the spirit by which they were animated who still opposed themselves to the power and grace of God. St. Peter might well say, "This is that which is spoken by the prophet Joel.'" And none the less may we say it at every new crisis of the religious life, whether 1 Acta ii. 16—21. in a man, or in a race, or in the world. In all ages the same sequence recurs — sin, judgment, repentance, anew spirit, and in this new spirit a new test and criterion to which men are brought, and by which they are either approved or condemned. But the genesis and signifi- cance of this prediction of Joel's will bo still further developed in a brief excursus which it now becomes de- sirable and even necessary to make on " What Joel learned from Moses." THE OLD TESTAMENT FULFILLED IN THE NEW. I. SACRED SEASONS (continued). BY THE KEV. WILLIAM HILLIOAN, D.D., PR0FE330E OF DIVINITY AND BIBLICAL CKITICISM IN THE UNIVEBSITY OF ABEEDEEN. interesting. " Te shall take you," it is said, " on the first day the fruit of beautiful trees, branches of palm- trees, and the boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook. Te shall dwoU in booths seven days ; all that are Israelites bora shall dwell in booths" (Lev. xxiii. 40 — 42). These booths were very different from what is generally understood to be meant by tabernacles or tents. They were constructed not with skins or cloths of goats' hair like the latter, but with branches of trees, and were of the most temporary and fragile character ; so frail and open that Jonah, when he made him a booth over against Nineveh, and sat under it in the shadow, was yet exceeding glad of the gourd which God prepared, because it afforded him a shelter that the booth itself was unable to supply (Jonah iv. 6, 6). Such booths were, during the Feast of Tabernacles, to be the habita- tions of Israel. On all the open places of the city — in the courts, in the streets, in the squares, on the flat roofs of the houses, in the fore-court, of the Temple itself they were erected; and there, in that warm and genial clime, before the autumn rains or the cold of winter had begim, under leafy boughs and branches of fruit-trees from which the fruit yet hung, the people took up their abode. But it was not only the dwelling in such booths that marked the feast Ijefore us. Tho sacrifices of the time also merit our attention. We have already seen what these were at the earlier festivals of tho year. At the Feast of Tabernacles they were greatly increased in number. On each of the fij'st sev( n days there were offered two rams and fourteen lambs of the first year, with their appropriate meat and drink offerings for a burnt-offering, and in addition throughout the seven days, seventy bullocks in all. The bullocks, indeed, were not like the r.ims and the lambs, equally distri- buted over tho several days of tho feast, ten to each day. The remarkable provision existed, th.at on the first day there should be offered thirteen, on the second twelve, on tho third eleven, and so on, diminishing each day one until the seventh day, when there were offered only seven. But the number seventy in all, ten multiplied by tho sacred number seven, was thus made up. Tliat, in addition to these, peace-offerings wore 5^ra|HE third and kst of tho great Jewish ■h\\l ,fS» ■ -pg|jgj.g ^yjjg ^jjgj. of Tabernacles, or, as it should rather be called, of booths ; wliile in various passages of the Old Testa- ment it receives tho name also of the Feast of In- gathering at the year's end (Exod. xxxiv. 22 ; xxiii. 16). It was celebrated in the seventh month, corresponding with the end of September and beginning of October in this country, when all the labours of the field for the year had closed, when the harvest — not of grain only, but of fruits and oil and wine — had been gathered in. and when the toils of agriculture in providing for the next season's crop had not yet begun. Again, as in tho month Nisan, the first days of Tisri, the seventh month, were the days of the crescent moon. Again, as at both the previous festivals of which we have already spoken, groups of pilgrims gathered to Jerusalem, often, per- iiaps, t.aking advantage of tho increasing moonlight to wend their way, by night as well as day, over tho hills and tlu-ough the valleys of Palestine to the holy city. And again, when they arrived there at the beginning of the feast, and had, owing to tho overcrowding of the city, to pitch their tents without the walls, they could do so beneath tho briUianco of an Eastern full moon. For, on the fifteenth day of tho month, the moon would be at the full, and on that day the festival began. Seven days (in this respect it corresponded with the feast of Unleavened Broad) wore allotted to its more peculiar services (Lev. xxiii. 41). Of these the first was a day of " holy convocation," when religious meet- ings were held and no servile work might be done. But it was a peculiarity of the Feast of Tabernacles that to the seven days an eighth was added, which was once more a day of " holy convocation," and which, at least in later times, came to bo considered " tlio great day of tho fe.ist " ( Jolm vii. 37). AU, however, that was peculiarly distinctive of tho festival had ceased tho day before, and tho eighth day was probably added simply that, in its holy rest and convocation, it might form a solemn close to tho whole festival season of the year, and a point of transition to the more ordinary period now to begin. The arrangements connected with the seven days were in a high degree marked and SACRED SEASONS. 113 ako presented can hardly admit of doubt. No express mention, indeed, seems to be made of them in the law, but the words of Deut. xvi. 14, 15, compared with xii. 18, " And thou shalt rejoice in thy feast, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy man-servant, and thy maid-servant, and the Lovito, the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are within thy gates. Seven days shalt thou keep a solemn feast unto the Lord thy God in the place where he shall choose," must be understood to have reference to the sacrificial meal which was connected with them alone. At the same time, if, as seems almost certain from a comparison of 1 Kings viii. 2 and 2 Chron. vii. 8 — 10, the dedication of the Temple took place at the Feast of Tabernacles, peace- offerings in extraordinary profusion are spoken of in connection with jthat event (1 Kings viii. 63). It is somewhat singular that wa find in the law no distinct provision, such as existed in connection with the second day of Unleavened Bread and Pentecost, for the offering of first-fruits at this feast. Yet we may certainly con- clude that they would bo offered, because we know that the feast was one of " ingathering at the end of the year," and that it was, amongst its other characteristics, a thanksgiving for a completed harvest. The absence of any specific regulations upon the point must, how- ever, be regarded as a proof that this aspect of the feast was subordinate to that under which it either commemorated Israel's i^ast or shadowed forth its future. Such were the provisions of tho Mosaic law with regard to the Feast of Tabernacles, but various other ceremonies were added by the Jews of later times, and, as two of these appear to be recognised Lu the New Testament, it wiU be well to notice them. They are clssely associated with that fulfilment of the feast of which we are more particularly in search. The first was the ceremony witli the water of Siloam. On each o-f the seven days of the feast it was the practice to repair to the Temple at the time of the morning sacri- fice, when all who could be admitted within its court marched in procession round the altar of burnt-offering, carrying garlands of the palm, the myrtle, and the willow, known by the name of lulahs, in their hands. Prayers and singing accompanied the act, and whenever the word Hosannah occurred the people shook their lulahs. At the same time a pi-iest descended to tho pool of Siloam in the vicinity of the Temple, drew water in a golden urn, and entering again by the water- gate, which seems to have received its name from this circumstance, brought it amidst incense and the sound of trumpets into the court. It was there received by another priest singing with loud voice, in which the assembled multitude joined, the words of Isa. xii. 3 : " With joy shall ye draw water out of wells of salva- tion." The priest last spoken of then bore the water to the altar, which ho passed round from left to right ; poured a small portion of it into the wine destined for the drink-offering ; then mixed the whole together in a silver basin ; and finally discharged it by a pipe which, communicating with the altar, carried it down to the 32 — VOL. II. Kidron. During the whole ceremony the great Hallel, ' Ps. cxiii. — cxviii., was simg. On the seventh day the ceremony was heightened. It was the culminating point of the festival. All tho glories of their past, all the expectations of their future, swelled the breasts of . Israel at that moment ; and the burst of praise and prayer went up to heaven in one loud acclaim : " O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good, because his mercy cndm'eth for ever ; " " Save now, I beseech thee, O Lord; O Lord, I beseech thee, send now prosperity ; " " O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endureth for ever." On the eighth day it seems most probable, although there is some doubt upon the point, that this bringing of water from Siloam did not take place. The second ceremeny we have alluded to took place at night. At the close of the first day of the feast, golden candlesticks of great height, or candelabra with golden arms, were set up in the court of the women, and were lighted by four sons of priests. The illumination was repeated each night of the festival, and it was the boast of the Jews that a light was thrown over the city as clear as that of day. It is vain to inquire whence these arrangements proceeded, or at what particular time they took their rise. They had become, like many additions to the Passover, constituent parts of the festival in the days of Christ, and they were referred to by him as points of connection for truths he had come to unfold, if not as actvially symbolical of his mission. It remains for us to inquire into the meaning and fulfilment of them all. First, as to the commemoration of historical circum- stances in the life of Israel, it was not so much the trials of the wilderness that the feast brought to view as the covenant care of God for his people amidst these trials, the time when their "shoes" were " iron and brass," and when their strength was made equal to their day (Deut. xxxiii. 25). That journeying in the wilderness had not been a season of affliction only. It had rather been one of triumph over affliction, when the people were "persecuted but not forsaken, cast down but not de- stroyed." God himself was in the midst of them. His tabernacle was in their camp. The pillar of cloud went before them by day, and the pLUar of fire by night. The free air of the desert blew around them. Liberty, not bondage, was their portion. Their old enemies had been desti-oyed in the Red Sea ; they had beheld them sink as " les-d in the mighty waters." There was no time in all their history when the Almighty showed more clearly that his favour compassed them as a shield. The feast, therefore, commemorated not burdens alone, but bui'dens borne away ; net want, but want replaced by marvellous supplies ; not sorrow, but sorrow turned ^ into joy. If the iirst of the three annual feasts was a proclamation on the part of Israel's King, " Te shall 1)0 my people," the last of tho three proclaimed not less loudly, " I will be your God." With this the second aspect of the feast before us, as a thanksgiving festival for a completed harvest, beauti- 114 THE BIBLE EDUCATOR. f iiUy harmonised. Wo have ah-eady seen that Unleavened Bread and Pentecost had such a reference, and with a similar reference Tabernacles now camo into the festal scale. The fii-st was a thanksgiving for the corn as com ; the second for that corn as turned into bread and applied to the sustenance of life ; the tliird for fruits, and oil, and wine, the last productions of the year. The last, yet not only the last but also the most joyful : " oil to make man's face to shine," " wine that strengtheneth man's heart," the two growths of the soil which are always in Scriiitiire the symbols of God's best and highest gifts, not only supporting but brightening our existence. Theii- first-fruits must therefore bo also laid upon the altar. Hence also, in all probability, the reason why the sacrifices were so greatly multiplied at the Feast of Tabernacles. The year was crowned with God's goodness. His paths di'ojiped fatness. All the promises of his covenant were sealed. A far larger than ordinary profusion of gifts became the time. In the same liglit, if our remarks upon the peace-offerings of this season were correct, we see the groimd upon which they were presented as they were. At Unleavened Bread there eeems to have been no peace-offering. At Pentecost there was, but the two lambs then thus offered fell wholly to the priests, and there was no sacrificial meal on the part of the offerer and his friends. At the Feast of Tabernacles, however, the whole cere- monial of peace-offerings appears to have been com- pleted, and Israel rejoiced before the Lord, he and his son, and his daughter, and Ms maidservant, and the Levite that was within his gates, and tlie stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow (Deut. xvi. 13, 1-1). The gifts of God were not only bestowed by Him and appropriated by His people ; they were also distri- buted by them to others. Still further, there is a third aspect of this feast, in its prospective rather than its retrospective reference, which has for it the clear authority of the Word of God. In two parts of its ceremonial it was tyjiical of the work of Christ. The first of these is set before us by St. John when he says, " In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying. If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believe th on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive : for tlie Holy Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified " (John vii. 37 — 39). It is true that on the eighth day of the feast the pouring out of the water from Siloam docs not appear to have taken place, but the moment was thereby rendered only the more appropriate for the Saviour's words. For seven days previous the multitude had collected in the Temple to witness the ceremony, and on the last day they were gathered once more together, excited by the high soleumities throngli which they had been passing, and longing, as their whole ritual taught them to long, for tho fulness that had been only shadowed fortli. They wore gathered together, but there was no water di-awn, no sounding of tho trumpets, no singing of tlie HaUel. The peculiar services of the time were over. The festal booths had been taken down. "Where," we can imagine the assembled multitude looking each other anxiously in the face and saying, " where is the fulness that we have been looking for, where the sub- stance that these rites have been teaching us to expect ?" At that instant Jesus stood in tho Temple and cried, " If any man thirst, let him come imto Me and drink ; ho that Ijelieveth on Me, as the Scriptm-e hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." And then tho Evangelist adds in explanation, " This spake he of tho Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive." Assuming, as with every commen- tator on the passage we are entitled to assume, that in these words of our Lord there is a reference to the ceremony with the waters of Siloam, we have in them a distinct allusion to a gift of the Spirit which these waters typified. The allusion, too, was natural and intelligible. It is found in the Old Testament when the prophet says, " I will pour water upon him that is thu'sty, and floods upon the dry groimd : I will pour my spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring " (Isa. xliv. 3) ; and Lightf oot tells us that " in the Jerusalem Talmud it is expounded that they di-aw the Holy Spirit, for a divine breathing is upon the man through joy" (on John vii. 38). With this idea then the Saviour connected his invitation and promise ; and, bidding as it were the assembled Israefites mark how quickly the waters di-awn for them for seven days in succession had disappeared, he calls them to •' come " to him. With him were the true streams of refreshing, streams of living water, not flowing only in a trifling riU, but in rivers, the fulness of the Spirit and of spiritual blessings bestowed along with it. Tet we are carefully to observe that it is not the appropria- tion, it is tho diffusion of the Spirit that is here referred to, " out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." A second part of tho ceremonial was also typical ; for it is almost impossible not to interpret in this manner the words of Jesus iu John viii. 12, " I am the light of tho woi'ld : he that f oUoweth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the liglit of life." The words were spoken when the minds of the people were still full of the proud and joyful recollections of the si^lendour of that iUumiuatiou which each night of the feast had witnessed, and when they were perhaps dwelling mourn- fully on the thought that it was over. No brillianfc radiance from tho Temple height shoidd again at that time send its rays over Jerusalem. Tho moon, too, was upon tho wane ; and with sunset a darkness which none of the last eight days had seen would settle upon tho holy city. But just as Jesus had promised rivers of living water to those who were looking in vain for tho waters of Siloam, so now he promises the light of life to those who wore thinking sadly of the coming gloom. Thus, then, we are prepared to mark the fulfilment of tho Feast of Tabernacles. Like the Feasts of Un- leavened Bread and Pentecost, it is fulfilled first of all in Christ himself. His was a life upheld amidst all its SACRED SEASONS. 115 sufferings by his Heavenly Father's care. Ho dwelt m God and God in him. Ho conquered the sorrows of the world, and death, and heU. Ho left nothing that He had imdedicated to hia Father's glory, and, notwith- standing his trials. He could so speak of " my peace," "my joy," as to show that his path, even in this wilder- ness, was a path of triumph. With Him, too, was the residue of the Spirit, and He was, and is, the Light of life. Nor are the Spirit and the light his only that He may himself enjoy them. They are his for the good of man. To bestow the Spirit, to shod light into a dark world, was the great purpose of his mission, and is now his reward, " Therefore being by the right' hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, He hath shed forth this, which ye see and hear ;" and again, " Wherefore He saith, Wlien he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men ; " and once more, " To as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God " (Acts ii. 33 ; Eph. iv. 8 ; John i. 12). But the feasi is fulfilled also in his people, in that Church which is "his body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all." For, whatever be the Church's trials in the wilderness, she is " more than conqueror through Him that loved her." As she has dedicated herself wholly to Him, so He has accepted the dedication, and has betrothed her to himself in righteousness. He makes "his grace sufficient" for her, He makes his " strength perfect in weakness, so that she rather glories in her infirmities, that tlie power of Christ may rest upon her. Therefore she takes pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake; for when she is weak then she is strong " (2 Cor. xii. 9, 10). " The tabernaclo of the Lord," too, " is again with her," and the Lord has created " upon every dwelling-place of Mount Zion, and upon all her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shiniug of a flauung fii'e by night," so that her path is made straight before her, and she rejoices even in sorrow. Nor is even this all. For, as in her Pentecost she re- ceives the Spirit, so in her Tabernacles she diffuses it. The Spirit is given her, not only to quench her own thirst, to relieve her own wants, but to flow forth from her to others. The Church is the temple of the Lord, every believer is a lively stone in it; and from the temple as a whole, from each lively stone in part, flows forth that water which, instead of disappearing in a moment like the water brought from SUoam in the urn, proves a living and everywhere life-giving river. The picture will bo still more complete if, as seems not im- probable, we may connect the Churcli's diffusion of the Spirit with one of the most stiiking visions of Ezekiel. " Afterward," says the prophet, " ho brought me again unto the door of the house ; and, behold, waters issued out from under the threshold of the house eastward : for the forefront of the house stood toward the east, and the waters came down from under from the right side of the house, at the south side of the altar. Then brought he me out of the way of the gate northward, and led mo aboiit tho way without imto the utter gate by the way tliat looketh eastward ; and, behold, there ran out waters on the right side. And when the man that had the line in his hand wont forth eastward, he measured a thousand cubits, and he brought mo through the waters; the waters were to the ankles. Again he measured a thou- sand, and brought me through the waters ; the waters were to the knees. Again ho measured a thousand, and brought me through ; the waters were to the loins. Afterward he measured a thousand, and it was a river that I could not pass over : for the waters were risen, waters to swim in, a river that could not be passed over " (Ezek. xlvii. 1—5). Wliat waters are these thus issuing from under the threshold of the house eastward, coming down from the right side of the house at the south side of the altar H To none can they be with so much pro- bability referred as to the waters poiu-ed out beside the altar at the Feast of Tabernacles. If so, not only is that river of the water of life which flows in the Church living and life-giv-ing; it is also a constantly increasing river. It spreads from individual to individual, from family to family, from one people to another; not losing itself in the desert, but deepening, wideuuig as it flows, causing the wilderness to rejoice, and making the valley, whose salt and brimstone soil was the emblem of the curse of God, send up ti-eos " whose leaf shall not fade, neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed, but the fruit thereof shall be for meat, and the leaf thereof for medicine" (Ezek. xlvii. 12). How beautiful the picture of the influences of God's Holy Spirit when, not only appropriated but sent forth by a living Church over the world, they everywhere awaken sijiritual life in its vigour and beauty, supply aU wants, heal all dis- orders, change barrenness into fruitfulness, and death itself into life. That is the fidness for which Israel waited in its Feast of Tabernacles. Finally, the Church of Christ, hke her Lord, ought to be, and when faithful is, the Mglit of the world. In communion and fellowship with Jesus that light which He has is kiudled in liis people. They " have the lio-lit of life." They themselves illuminate, themselves are a source of light to others. Christ in them and they in Him, there is an abiding iUumiuation upon the Temple mount, and never again, either by day or night, shall there be darkness in Christ's New Jerusalem. 116 THE BIBLE EDUCATOR. DIFFICULT PASSAGES EXPLAINED. THE CATHOLIC EPISTLES :-ST. JOHN. BZ THE EEV. H. D. M. SPENCE, M.A., BECTOR OF ST. MART DE CRYPT, GLOUCESTER, AND EXAMINING CHAPLAIN TO THE LORD BISHOP OP GLOUCESTER AND BRISTOL. THE THREEFOLD WITNESS. TEiT OF ATJTHORISED VERSION REVISED. 6. Tins is he that came by water and blood, fiten Jesua Christ ; not in the water only, but in the water and in the blood : and it is the Spirit that is bearing witness, because the Spirit is the truth. 7. "For there are three who are bearing witness, 8. The spirit, and the water, and the blood : and these three agree in one. — 1 Jokn v. 6, 7, 8. TEXT OF AUTHORISED VERSION. 6. This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth. 7. For there are three that bear record {_in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost : and these three are one. 8. And there are three that bear witness in earth'}, the spirit, and the water, and the blood : and these three agree in one.— 1 JoHX V. 6, 7,6. ,BOUT a century and a half ago that leaiTiod and devout commentator, Bcngel, rehietant to pivo up what he deemed a powerful and weighty testimony to a great -truth, defended with groat ingenuity the famous state- ment contained iu the 7tli verse of the received text of the passage wo are about to discuss^the alleged testi- mony of the heavenly witnesses — " the throe that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and tbe Holy Ghost." As a critical scholar, it is clear Bengel felt that the words must bo expunged, but he surmounted the difficulty by indulging in tlie hope that as critical investigation into the text of the New Testament — then, comparatively speaking, in its infancy — proceeded, fresh •evidence for the disputed words in question might be discovered. Since tlio great expositor wrote, a vast amoimt of materials towards the restoration of tlie true text of the Greek (New) Testament has been brought to Mght, and investigated by the patient unwearied labours of a few groat scholars. But Bongel's hope as regards this particular verso has been vain.' As yet the testimony in favour of the passage relating to the " heavenly witnesses " has been found in no ancient Greek MS. No Greek father has been fairly proved to have cited it. It evidently exists in some of the Latin versions ; but oven hero some of the best and most trustworthy omit it. The words in question were, no doubt, originally written at a very eai-ly date on the margin of some of the Latin translations of the New Testament, probably in North Africa, in some great centre, such as Carthage, and from the fourth century downwiirds forced their way gradually into the original text of St. John. The verso iu all ages has been considered by many theologians as a most weighty and com]>endiou3 state- ment of the doctrine of the Trinity, and this has, no ' A brief summary of the evidence for and against the integrity of this passage will be found at the end of this paper. doubt, favoured its later adoption as an integi'al J>art of the text of the chapter in which it appears, although, as we hope to show in our exposition of the whole passage, the ilisputed words literally destroy the sense, while they give to the whole argument a colouring of unreality. Having cleared the way by exijunging words which, though true in themselves, have no place whatever in the argument of St. John, we proceed to inquu'e what we are to understand by the apparently strange statement that Jesiis Christ came by water and by blood. Now the very many interpretations which theologians of difforeut ages have given to the "water" and the " blood" may bo divided roughly into two schools: — The first, which looks upon these expressions as purely symbolical ; The second, which refers the " water and the blood " primarily to circumstances in the life of Christ wliich are still bearing testimony to his " Messiahsliip." And, first, those expositors who urge the purely sym- bolical reference, explain water as representing " purity," " innocence." So Grotius understood the most pure life of Jesus as signified (comp. Ezok. xxxvi. 25); others, such as Clement of Alexandria, tell us that under the figure of water regeneration and faith are signified. The " blood " is rightly explained by tho m.ajority of divines of both schools by a reference to the death of Christ ; but the symbolical school of expositors even here understand the blood as simply equivalent to "expiation" or "redemption." Many see tho enduring testimony of the water under tho sacrament of baptism, the testimony of the blood imder the sacrament of tho Lord's Supper. But this school of interpretation, which only can see a symbolical reference in the water and tho blood, never gives, after all, a satisfactory sense to this great passage of St. John. Wliile by no means entirely denying tho symbolical reference, we must primarily refer the water and the blood, by which Jesus Christ came, to circumstances recorded to have taken place during our Lord's life on eai-fh. which circumstances, in some way or other, as we shall presently see in verses 7 and 8, must still bo witnessing among us to the truth of the Messiahship of Jesus. "Without hesitation, then. w6 explain " water " as signifying baptism, which our Lord not only instituted, and carried out during his earthly ministiy (John iv. 1, 2), but commanded to be con- tinned among all nations after the resurrection (Matt. xxviii. 19). The pr.actice of the Lord has been followed, and tho command obeyed; for during the eighteen Christian centuries it has always been, and still is, the distinguishing mark iu all nations of admission into the Christian community. The "blood" points un- DIFFICULT PASSAGES EXPLAINED. ]17 mistakably to tho death of Ckrist — ^the life-blood poured out on tho cross : it is the " blood of sprinkling " (Heb. xii. 21). The argument tlieu runs ; — This is ho — Jesus the Messiah — whoso cUstinguishing signs then, as now, were the water of haptism, and tho blood poured oat on tho cross ; and here, with all the awful mystic signification of the latter (the blood) pressing upon him, the apostlo ts, " not ^vith water only " — for the memory of tho Baptist, and perhaps of other servants of the Most High before him, whose distinguishing sign had been the water of baptism — " not with water only," he repeats, but with water and blood, thus urging that tho sign of the Messiahship of Jesus was not only that sacred purifying water of baptism, Imt his having imdergono that cross-death when ho poured out his life-blood for us. The concluding sentence of tho verse proceeds to teU us how the Si)u'it (that is, the Holy Ghost) is ever bearing witness. Now the Spii-it which bears witness here undoubtedly is the Holy Ghost. Two questions, however, naturally present themselves : — 1. To what is tho Spirit bearing witness ? 2. The uatm-e of the witness which proceeds from the Spirit ? The first is easy to answer. Witness is being borne to the fact that he that came by water and by blood is Jesits tlie Christ, or Messiah (ver. 6), the Son of God (ver. 9). The second is harder at first sight. What is the nature of tlio witness emanating from the Spmt ? This witness is of two kinds — (a) an outward witness ; (6) an inner witness. (a) The outward witness consists in those manifesta- tions of tho Spirit related to us in the sacred wi'itings : for example, the descent of the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, when, after the Spirit had descended on the disciples in the form of cloven tongues of fire, they on whom the gift liad been bestowed bore their witness in various languages to the crucified Saviour (see Acts ii. 4) ; and the descent of tho Spirit on Cornelius and his companions (Acts x. 44, 4.5 ; xi. 15, 16). Compare also, as an instance of an outward historical manifesta- tion of the Spirit, St. Matt. iii. 16, where tho Holy Spunt was visibly present at the Lord's baptism in Jordan. (6) An inner witness. Here the Spirit guides men into all truth, leads them to Christ, creates in them a longing for, and then gives them the power to lead a holy life, teaclimg them that the holy life can only be found in Christ, by those who walk in light, as He is in the light. It is in this work, carried on in the heart of every faithful seeker after Christ, that the Spirit is bearing its perpetual, its daily witness ; and St. John adds as tho reason why tho Spirit is ever bearing this mighty outer and inner witness, " because the Spirit is the truth : " " the truth,'' since, as Estius well says, " the Spirit is God, who can neither deceive or be de- ceived" (quum sit Deus adeoque nee faUi possit nee faUere). So far "the water" and "the blood" have come before us as the distinguishing characteristics in St. John's mind of the Messiahship of Jesus, and "the Spu'it " has been specified as tho ivituess to this great truth. Now, as ijerpetually witnessing to the Messiah- ship of Jesus in verso 7, " the water " and " the blood " are associated in their testimony with the Holy Spirit, and the three are set forth as the united witness of God concerning his Son Jesus (see ver. 10). The argument, then, of verses 7 and 8 is as follows : Not only is the Spirit (the Holy Ghost) bearing its everlasting witness, for (on) three are bearing their testimony — viz., that Spu-it of which wo have already spoken of above as "ivitnessing, and that blood and water of which we liave written as elements in that conception of tho Messiah which is placed before us in these Epistles. That blood and water, wo declare, are ever witnessing to the same eternal truth. The Spu'it naturally occupies the first place in this triad of witnesses. Without it neither the water nor tho blood could in any real sense be understood as witnesses. Wo have discussed above the manner of the Spirit's Avitness, and have still to speak very shortly of tho witness of the other two — the water and tlie blood. The water of holy baptism is the outward tyjio of the sinner being born again, becoming tlie heir of eternal life and the inheritor of Christ's kingdom. Water is the witness to every Christiaa man and Vfoman that Jesus Christ is the king of the realm of grace — the kingly, triumphing Messiah of the prophecies of the Old Testament. By tho blood tho believer daily washes away his sins, daily purges out the stains and defilements he ever and again contracts in liis life's journey. Tho blood is his witness, telling liim that Jesus is Christ, tho Lamb of God and his Redeemer. And in the two sacraments, baptism and tho Lord's Supper, wliich the Lord ordained, and in which all true believers love to share, John the divine saw then, as we see now, the perpetual witnesses among men to the Sonship and Messiahship of Jesus ; while the Holy Spirit, sanctifying the waters of baptism to the mystical washing away of sin — sanctifying, too, the eucharistic elements in tho heart of tho faitliful recipient — com- pletes the triad of witnesses, whoso witness, varied though it be, unites in the establishment of the OBff eternal truth — Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. Tho considerations wliich belong to tho omission of tho famous passage relating to tho " three heavenly witnesses " in verse 7 may be roughly divided into — a. Exegesis. ^ 6. Verbal peculiarities, c. Textual criticism. a. Exegesis. — Where, now, in tho groat argument discussed above is there room for the testimony of tho heavenly witnesses ? In tho revised text printed at the- head of this paper, tho argument, as wo have shown, flows on clear and uniuterrapted. First, " the water and tlio blood " are set forward as distinguishing characteristics of tho Messiahship and 118 THE BIBLE EDUCATOR. Sonship of Jesus, and the Spirit is set before us as testifying to the truth of -that Messialiship. Secondly, we are tokl "the Spirit" is not the only witness, for " the water and the blood." too, associated in the same glorious testimony with "the Spirit," are ever bearing to men on earth their weighty witness. Now, to insert the words of verse 7 which appear in the received text would interrupt this chain of statement and argument, and would introduce a new and here totally irrelevant element — viz., the testimony of the Trinity in heaven to the Messialiship of Jesus ; and the new element thus introduced, besides, would iuten-upt the two steps of tho argument.' Bengel (compare Alford's note) and certain MSS. of the Vulgate, to avoid this break, place verso 8 before verse 7. 6. Verbal Peculiarities. — St. John in his writings never combines the exjiressions " the Eathcr " and " the Word," should he have occasion to use the title Logos, "Word," in relation to Christ; we find it combined with 6 Qe'os, " God,' as in the Gospel of St. John i. 1 and following verses, " In the beginning was tlie Word, and the Word was with God ; '" and Rev. xix. 13, " His name is called the Word of God." Again, " the Holy Ghost" (Spirit), rh ayiov Xlvivfia., is not an expression found in the Epistle. Wo find here "the Spirit" simply ^vithout the predicate " Holy," as, for instance, chap. iii. 24, iv. 13, and here in verses 6 and 8. Lastly, the very difficult and complicated question suggests itself. Is the Spirit (-KVivixa) bearing witness on earth with the water and the blood (vs. 6 — 8) identical with the Holy Ghost or Spirit (rh ayiov nyevfia) of verse 7 bearing witness in heaven with the Father and the Son? c. Textual Criticism. — The omitted words of verse 7 are not met with in any of the extant uncial Greek MSS. Of the versions, neither the Syriac (the Peshito or Philoxenian), or the Thebaic, Memphitic, Ethiopic, or Arabic contain the disputed clause. No Greek father has been proved to have cited it in any form whatever. It rests alone on certain Latin authorities. It is found in most (but not in tho best) MSS. of the Vulgate, and in one MS. of the old Latin, containing extracts from the New Testament. Tliis MS. is of the sixth or seventh century, and is a " Speculum " ascribed to St. Augustine, and is in the monasteiy of Santa Croce at Rome. Attention was called to it by Dr. Wiseman in his famous " Two Letters " defending 1 John V. 7. The African fathers, Vigilius of Thapsus and Fulgontius of Ruspte, quote the disputed words as a genuine portion of St. John's first Epistle. It was also used in a confession of faith drawn up by Eugenius, Bishop of Carthage, at tho end of the fifth century. But, what is of greater importance than any of these, there is little doubt that Cyprian, before the middle of ' In the received test, verso 8 takes up the sequence of thousht mterrupted by the testimony of the Trinity, and completes th»^ statement begun iu verse 6 of the witness of the Spirit, the water, and the blood. the third century, knew of the passage and quoted it as the genuine words of St. John. From the com- mencoment of the sixth century the testimony of the heavenly witnesses was generally received in the Latin Church. Erasmus excluded the passage from his first two editions, but inserted it in his thu'd edition in con- sequence of a declaration he had made to certain persons who had objected to his having omitted it from his early editions. He undertook, if the famous clause, 1 John v. 7, could be found in aiiy Greek MS., he would insert it in his Greek Testament. A curious MS. of the fifteenth century was brought forward con- taining tho words. Erasmus has described it as "Codex Britannicus apud Anglos repertus." There is now little doubt that the MS. in question is identical with the Cod. Mimfortianus in tho library of Trinity College, Dublin. Upon the fifth edition of Erasmus, which contains the words in dispute, R. Stephens seems in great measure to have based bis third edition (A.D. 1.550) of tho New Testament.- This third edition of Stephens is the standard of the received text iu England (compare Scrivener's Introduction, and Liieke, Diister- dieck, and Alford's Commentaries on the 1st Epistle of St. John). The interpolated words were pro- bably, as suggested above, originally written by some early writer of the North African Church iu the m.argin of his MS. containing the 1st Epistle of St. John opposite the passage which treats of " the Spu-it, and the water, and the blood." In the three bearing their perpetual witness, agreeing in one, he saw a symbol which required no great effort of the imagi- nation to be construed as a symbol of the ever-blessed Trinity. That the Latin Church of North Africa loved to trace such symbolism, and to see these alle- gorical allusions, we have fair proof in such writings as Tertullian's treatise against Praxeas and in his tract De Ptidicitid. From the margin the words gradually found their way into the text, and evidently began to be well known iu the thu-d century. It cannot be denied that some devout reverent minds may, perhaps, shrink from the deliberate rejection of this famous text, which has been so often quoted in support of a great doctrine of Christianity. Surely, though, such fears are groimdless, for the great doctrines of our faith rest on foundations too massive to be shaken by the rejection of any single text, how- ever weighty and conclusive. The doctrine of the Trinity set forward in this most ancient but clearly interpolated passage rests on no sohtary statement of apostle or prophet or evangelist, but on evidence col- lected from the whole canon of Scripture — evidence, too, interpreted M-ith one mind by the Catholic Church in all lands for well nigh eighteen centuries. - K. Stephens made also great use of the Ccmplutensiau Polygrlott of Cardinal Xiraenes, published at Alcala, in Spain, A.D. 1514 — 1520. The famous verse in this great edition was actually acknowledged to have been translated from the X^atin, and not derived from any Greek MS. Stephens also collated, with more or less care, fifteen IdSS. ; but it has never been shown with the least probability that he found the disputed verse iu any Greek uncial MS. ILLUSTRATIONS TROM EASTERN MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 119 TABLE SHOWING THE MORE IMPOETANT CEITICAL EVIDENCE FOE AND AGAINST THE DISPUTED WOEDS IN 1 JOHN V. 7. The words are omitted iu the undermeutioned uncialMSS. CENT. N Codes Sinaiticus IV. B „ Vaticauus IV. G orL „ Angelicus") or [ IX. PassioneiJ K „ Mosquensis IX, Omitted in 188 cursives which have been collated, besides some 60 Lectionaries. (Comp. Scrivener, Introduction, and Alf., Apparatus Criticus to Vol IV., Partii.) The words are pound in no uncial, and only in a very fuw cursive MSS. of late date. They are contained in the following cursives : — CENT. Codes Monfortiauus XVI. j Vaticanus *' \ Ottobouiauus XV. Omitted in all ancient versions except those mentioned ^&' They are contained in 1 MS. of the old Latiti, the Speculum of St. Ang-. spoken of above, and in most though not in the best MSS. of the Vulgate. FATHERS. No Greelc Father has everliCL-u shown to have quoted the dis- puted text. Certain Latin fathers quoted the words. CENT. Cyprian Vigilius of "1 Thapsus J Eugeuius, Bp. ) _ of Carthage J Fulgentiua 1 of Ruspse ) have III. V. (end of) ( .. ) VI. ( ) It will be seen from this table that the evidence for the text in question is extremely scanty, and entirely from the Latin Chui-eh. It is found only in a few cursive MSS. of lato date, and is quoted only by Latin fathers. ILLUSTEATIONS FEOM EASTEEN MANNEES AND CUSTOMS. BY THE KEV. C. D. GINSBUBG, LL.D. III. — EARLY ATTENDANCE AT THE SANCTUARY BOTH MORNING AND EVENING. rE have already seen that at the ago of thirteen the Hebrew youth is inducted as a member of the congfregation of Israel. The early attendance, therefore, at a place of worship, both morning and evening, which consti- tutes the third of the decade of duties, was considered of paramoimt importance, inasmuch as thereby he openly professed Ids faith in tlie God of his fathers, and acknowledged his responsibility to keep up the organised religious and social life which was to a great extent regulated by the synagogue. Now, among all the Jewish institutions, there is none which fui-nishes so many interesting illustrations of different passages of the New Testament as the synagogue. Not only was the synagogue the scene where Christ first ap- peared in public as a teacher (Matt. iv. 23; Mark i. 21 ; Luke iv. 15) ; but he continued frequenting it and preaching in it, on the Sabbath day (Matt. ix. 35 ; xiii. 54; Mark vi. 2 ; Luke iv. 44; ri. 6; xiii. 10 ; John vi. 59; viii. 20), healing the sick (Matt. xii. 9, &c. ; Mark i. 23 ; iii. 1 ; Luke vi. 6), and rebuking the abuses practised in it, both at prayer and in the administration of charity (Matt. vi. 2, 5). Ho refers to the chief seats coveted by those who seek after distinction (Matt, sxiii. 6 ; Mark xii. 39 ; Luke xi. 43 ; xx. 46), and teUs his disciples that for his sake they shall bo brought before and scom-ged in the synagogue (Matt. x. 17 ; xxiii. 34 ; Mark xiii. 9; Luke xii. 11; xxi. 12). The apostles, too, delivered many of their discourses and performed many of their deeds in the synagogues. It was to the synagogue of Damascus that Said obtained letters from the high priest at Jerusalem to persecute " the disciples of the Lord " (Acts ix. 1), and it was in these very synagogues that St. Paul preached his first sennons (ibid. ver. 20). Hence, to understand the fuU force of many of these allusions, we must examine the origin, structure, and internal arrangement of the synagogue. Tradition, which is never at a loss to account for any- thing, solemnly assures us that Shem, the son of Noah, and the progenitor of that branch of the Noachic family from whom the Hebrews descended, founded these houses for contemplation and prayer. It is only when we bear this tradition in mind that we can understand why the passage, " God .shaU enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem " (Gen. ix. 27), has been paraphrased in the so-called Jerusalem Targum, " God vriU make beautiful the territory of Japheth, and his sons shall become proselytes, and abide in the houses of contemplation of Shem;" and why the words "and she (Rebekah) went to inquire of the Lord " (Gen. xxv. 22). are translated in the same Targum, " and she went to the house of contemplation of Shem, the cider, to pray for mercy from liofore the Lord." It was but natural that if Shorn, who was simply the remote head of that branch of the family from wliich the Jews came, was most obviously for this reason made to build synagogues, Moses, who gave them the very law, the symbol of the Divine manifestation, around which the worshipping Israelites congregated, should pre-eminently be constituted tho father of synagogues in 'Egypt. Hence Josephus tolls us that Moses had tho Jews "assembled together for the hearing of the law and learning it exactly, and this not once or twice or oftener, but every week " {Af/ainst Ajtion, ii. 18). We are there- fore not surprised to find Benjamin of Tudola, whose pilgriniiigo extended from A.D. 1159 to 1173, assure us that "in "the outskirts of the city [near tho pyramid.s] is the very ancient synagogue of our great master Moses.''' 1 Compare The liinerarii o/ Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela, vol. p. 153, ed, Asher, London, ly-tO. 120 THE BIBLE EDUCATOR. Tins celebrated traveller also tells us that ho saw the synagogues built by David, Obadiah, Nahum, and Ezra. Without attaching any more importance to the state- ment of Benjamin of Tudela that the synagogue, which stUl existed in the Middle Ages, in the neighbourhood of Cairo, was the edifice which Moses erected for Divine worship, than to the solemn assurance that the skeleton of the enormous fish, and the house exhibited at Jaffa, are the remains of the veritable whale that swallowed Jonah, and of the abode of Simon the tanner, still the fact that the tradition about the founding of places of worship and instruction by the great lawgiver existed before the time of Christ, explains the remark of St. James, " Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath day " (Acts xv. 21). Whatever may be the obscurity about the precise date as to when synagogues were first established, there are undoubted traces that, as far back as the days of Elisha, the devout Jews were in the habit of assembling in the abodes of prophets and men of God for instruc- tion and meditation. This is clearly indicated in the question which the husband asked the Shunammite, who wanted a servant and an ass to take her to the man of God. " Wherefore," inquired her husband, " wilt thou go to him to-day ? It is neither new moon nor Sabbath " (2 Kings iv. 23). This unquestionably shows that on Sabbath days and new moons it was customary for both men and women to resort to the houses of acknowledged authorities for religious exercises. The cause of their assembling at the house of the prophet rather than con- aresiatinsr amonsr themselves, is to be sought in the fact that the reading and the exposition of the law consti- tuted the principal part of the service. A copy of the law, however, at that time was of the greatest rarity. The possession of such a codex was a fortune, and could only be acquired by the very wealthiest of the nation, and by the monarchs. Hence when Jehoshaphat ordered the Levites to go through the different cities of Judea, to instruct the people in the law of God, these teachera were obliged to take a copy with them (2 Cliron. xvii. 9), whilst Hilkiah could only find one in the Temple (2 Kings xxii. 8 ; 2 Cliron. xxxiv. 14). As the men of God who had acquired a national reputation were those who knew the law by heart, the devout Jews, who on these occasions wanted to hear the law recited and ex- plained, had, therefore, to assemble around the reputed depository of the law. Hence the private house or a secluded spot in the open air belonging to the possessor of the law, either actually or orally, was originally the place of assembly or the synagogue. It must not, however, be supposed that the Jews, prior to the Babylonish captivity, assembled tliemselves every Sabbath or new moon, at a particular place set apart for religious worsliip. Besides tho obligation to appear throe times a year in tho sanctuary at Jerusalem, the Old Testament does not enjoin meeting together in any other place. It left the matter quite optional. If the people felt that they ought to meet together in any locality where the kw could bo recited, rather than worship God at home at the head of their respective families, tho Old Testament did not forbid it. The in- crease of places of meeting, therefore, was gradual, and kept pace with the increased demand on the part of the Jews to become more intimately acquainted with the contents of the law, and to hear words of comfort and consolation from those who possessed the gift of pro- jjhecy. Hence it was only in later times, when the grinding oppression of foreign powers began to be felt by the Hebrews, that they met more frequently to listen to the recital of those cheering promises made to their fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and to learn more- accurately the precepts of the law, the neglect of which had brought these sufferings upon them. It is for this reason that systematic meetings on days of humiliation and for instruction became prevalent during the exUe, when the Temple worship was in abeyance (Zoch. vii. 3, 5 ; viii. 19 ; Ezra x. 1 — 9 ; Neh. viii. 1 — 3 ; ix. 1 — 3 ; xiii. 1 — 3 1. These "assemblies of God," as the Old Testa- ment calls them, or " houses of assembly," as they are called in post-Biblical Hebrew, in the course of time became both very popular and numerous. Heuce the Psalmist, who mourns over the rejection of his people by God, and the general devastation of the country by tho onemy, at the time of the Maceabeans, enumerates,, amongst other dire calamities, that they have burnt " all tho assemblies of God " (Ps. Ixxiv. 8). The Authorised Version, therefore, which foUows the Geneva Bible (1560), has rightly appreciated the import of this phrase by translating it " the synagogues of God." It is, how- ever, to be borne in mind that this is the only instance- in which " synagogue " occurs in King James's version of the Old Testiiment, and, indeed, the only passage in which it could be justified in the technicjil sense of the word. Tho earliest date which we possess of the building of such a house of prayer is circa 217 — 215 B.C., when we are told that the Alexandrkn Jews built on& at Ptolemais to commemorate their deliverance from the contemplated massacre of their people decreed by Ptolemy IV. (PhUopator) (3 Mace. vii. 20). When synagogues became a permanent institution, and multiplied wherever the Jews resided, l)efore and at tlie time of Christ, tho spiritual guides of the nation found it necessary to enact certain laws to regulate tho eligibility of a site, the structure of the building, and the internal arrangements. As it was ordained that wherever ten Jews resided who were of that age when they became responsible members of the congregation of Israel, they were boimd to constitute themselves a worshipping body or an ecclesia in the technical sense {Berachoth, 21 6); it stands to reason that their place of assembly or synagogue was of a very humble character. An upper chamber in the house of one of tho members where they assembled .themselves was the legal synagoguff, just as it is to this day, whenever ten Jews happen to sojourn in any town, one of them gives up one of his rooms for tho meeting. It was in such an upper cliamber in a private house that the eleven disciples, just one above tlie minimum number legally required to con- stitute a worshipping congregation, assembled together ILLUSTRATIONS FROM EASTERN MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 121 INTEBIOB or A MODERN STNAGUUUE. for prayer (Acts i. 13, 14). Outside the city, however, it was deemed more desirable to have tlio hoiiso of prayer by the river-side, because the worshippers could have the use of the wafer for immersions, and because they could more easily engage in the Divine service with- out distraction. Hence in the decree of the Halicamas- seans the Jews were allowed to " make their proseucha; [houses of prayer] at the sea-side, according to the custom of their fathers " ( Josephus, Antiq. xiv. 10, § 23). This explains the remark that St. Paul and his fellow- labourer, when at Philippi, " went on the Sabbath out of the city by a river-side, where prayer was wont to be made ; and we sat down and spoke to the women which resorted thither " (Acts x\-i. 13) ; or as it ought to be translated, " where, according to custom, was a place of prayer." Like the Temple, these houses of prayer or synagogues were frequently without a roof, which, of coiu-se, obtained in those countries whore the rain rarely falls and is confined to certain seasons of the year. Hence the remark of Epiplianius, " There were anciently places of prayer without the city, both among the Jews and the Samaritans. . . . There was a place of prayer at Sichem, now called Neapolis, without the city, in the fields, in the form of a theatre, open to the air, and without covering, built by the Samaritans, who in all things imitated the Jews " (Contr. Hceres. iii. ; Hercs. 80). In the towns, however, where the Jews wore both numerous and wealthy, the synagognes were massive and imposing edifices, and were built iu accordance with the canons laid down by the spiritual authorities. They 122 THE BIBLE EDUCATOR. were generally erected on an elevated place or on a summit, since the Temple was so situate, and because, according to the traditional explanation, Prov. i. 21 says that Divine wisdom " crieth on high places," and Ezra ix. 9 declares that God " hath extended mercy unto us in the sight of the kings of Persia, to give us a re^-iving, to set up [on high] the house of our God." Takuig the Mosaic tabernacle and the Solomonic Temple as the prototype, the door of the synagogue was on the east, aiid tiie ark containing the scrolls of the law and the windows were in the western wall, so that on entering the Israelites might at once face the front. Hence the people praying in the synagogue, Uko the worshippers in the tabernacle and in the Temple, stood with their faces to the west. The position of the ark at the west, and the turning of the face at prayer in that direction, we are told, were in opposition to those nations who worshipped the sun. These had the entrance into their temples at the west, and turned their faces to the east where the sun rises.' Hence to tui'n one's face to the east, and thus to turn one's back to the Temple, became in the Bible a description of those who forsook the worship of the true God. Thus Hezekiah, iu describing the idolatrous worship of the Jews, says that " they had done e\il iu the eyes of the Lord our God, and have turned their faces from the habitation of the Lord, and turned their backs to it " (2 Chron. xxix. 6). Still more strikingly and explicitly is this practice described by the prophet Ezekiel (viii. 16), "Behold, .at the door of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the Lord, and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun toward the 1 Comp. Maimonides, More Nchnclutn, iii. iS. east." This practice gave rise to the phrases " They have txirned their back to me and not their face " (Jer. ii. 27 ; xxxii. 33), " They have cast me behind their back " (Ezek. xxiii. 3.5), to describe gi^'ing up allegiance to the God of their fathers. It is, however, to be remarked that those syna- gogues only which were buUt in the localities east of Jerusalem had the entrances in the east wall. The canon laid down for those who dwell in other parts of the world is that "all the wor.shippers in Israel are to have their faces turned to that part of the world whore Jei-usalem, the Temple and the Holy of Holies are" {Berachoth, 30 a). Hence those Jews who reside in Europe place the door in the west, and have the ark and the windows in the east wall, whither they turn then- faces during prayer. The practice of the wor-shippers turning their faces in all parts of the world to the central sanctuary is of extreme antiquity. The Psalmist, already, when pray- ing, " lifted up his hands towards the Holy of Holies " (Ps. ixviii. 2). In the dedication prayer of the Temple, Solomon asks God to hear his people in time of calamity whenever " they spread forth their hands towards the sanctuary " (1 Kings viii. 38). Daniel prayed with his face to Jerusalem (Dan. x\. 10). Any one who enters an orthodox Jewish house in the present day wiU see a picture with the name Mizrach on it hung on the eastern wall, to which every member of the family turns his face when reciting the daily morning and evening prayer. Mohammed, who has borrowed so much from the Jews, has also ordained that the faith- fid should turn their faces to the temple at Mecca (Koran, Stira ii.), which is called Kibia, that is, f,urning the face, imitating the very sound of the word used in Daniel (I'kabel Jemshalayim). THE HISTOKY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE. BT THE REV. W. F. MOULTON, M.A., PROFESSOR OP CLASSICS, WESLEYAN COLLEGE, RICHMOND. Ii F Tyndale's movements dm-ing the first year of his Continental life wo have very scanty information. It appears certain that he arrived in Hamburg in May, 1524 ; that he was in the same city in the early spring of the following year ; and that a few months later he was superintending the printing of his New Testament at Cologne. It is very possible that Tyndalo remained in Hamburg for a year, engaged in tlie preparation of his translation : the fact that Hamburg did not then possess a printing press' can hardly be regarded as conclusive against this view. On the other li.and, we have contemporaiy evidence that Tyndalo visited Luther about this time. Sir Thomas More assei-ts that "Tyn- dalo, as soon as he got him hence, got him to Luther straight;" that at the time of his translation of the Now Testament ho was with Luther at Wittcmberg ; ' Demaus, Life of Tyndale, p. 92. and that the confederacy between him and Luther was a thing well known. Tyndalo, in reply, simply denies tlie last charge, that he w.as confederate ivith Luther. It is needless to C|Uoto other statements to the same effect. Clear and definite as they appear to be, they may perhaps be explained away, as suggested by the pre- vailing tendency to associate all work similar to Luther's with this Reformer himself. On the whole, however, it is safer to accept the evidence of contemporaries, and to assume that either in 1-524 or in 1525 Tyndale spent I some time at Wittemberg. Another question wliich has been much discussed is of considerable interest. W.as any portion of the New Testament published in the course of this year ? There is some reason to beliovo that Tyndale gave to the world his translation of the first two Gospels before the middle of 1525 ; but tho j evidence adduced is somewhat uncertain, and the verdict I must be " not proven." THE HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE. 123 We reach firm groimd in the autumn of 1525. Our information is deriyed from an enemy, who triumphantly records liis success in embarrassing and partially frus- tratmg Tj-ndale's work. In 1525, John Dobcnek, better known as Cochlseus, was living in. exile at Cologne, engaged in literary labours. Becoming intimate with the printers of Cologne, he heard them boast at times, in their cujis, that England would soon become Lutheran. He heard, moreover, that in Cologne were lurking two Eno-lishmen, learned and eloquent men, well skilled in languages ; but aU his efforts to gain a sight of these strangers were without avail. At last, plying one of the printers with wine, Cochlseus drew from him the secret of the Lutheran design on England. The two Englishmen were apostates' who had learnt the German language at Wittomberg, and had rendered Luther's Testament into English. This English Testament they had brought to Cologne, that it might be multiplied by the printers into many thousands, and, concealed among other merchandise, might find a way into England. So great was their confidence that they had sought to have 6,000 copies printed ; but through the timidity of the printers only 3,000 were issued from the press. These copies, in quarto, had already heen priuted as far as tlio letter K (that is, as far as the tenth sheet, probably a little beyond the end of St. Matthew's Gospel). The expense was met by English merchants, who had also engaged to convey the work secretly into England, and to diffuse it widely in that country. On receiving this information, Cochlajus lost no time in revealing the plot to Hermann Rinck, a nobleman of Cologne, well known to Henry VIII. and to the Emperor Charles V. Having convinced himself of the correctness of the account received, Rinck went to the senate, and obtained an interdict of the work. On this the two Englishmen, carrying off the printed sheets, fled hastily from Cologne, and went up the Rhine to Worms. Their enemies could do no more than send letters to Henry, Wolsey, and Fisher, warning them of the danger at hand." Worms was a city in every way suitable for Tyndale's purpose. Cologne was devoted to the Romish faith Worms was all Lutheran : both cities enjoyed consider- able intercourse with England. In comparative quiet Tyndale now pursued and completed his work, carrying it farther than he had at first designed. The edition commenced by Quentel, the Cologne printer, was in quarto : at Worms Tyndale not only completed this edition, but also brought out an edition in octavo.^ Of each of these editions, which will be described in detail hereafter, 3,000 copies were printed. No copy that we possess contains the title-page, but we know on 1 The second apostate was 'Williain Eoye, who for some tirao acted as Tyudale*s amnmieusis. - The letters of CocblEeus in the original Latin, with a transla- tion by Mr, Anderson, are given by Arher, Facsimile, pp. 18 — 24. 3 See Westcott's Hisforj; of the English Bihle^ pp. 32, 33 ; Arber, pp. 26, 27, 65, G6. It may now be considered certain that the Worms printer was P. Schoeffer, son of the great printer of tliat name, who was in partuerslup with Fust. Tyndale's own atithority* that the work was issued without the translator's name. The Testaments reached England probably in the spring of 1526. Cochlaeus was not the only one who gave notice of their coming. Leo, the king's ahnoner (afterwards Archbishop of York), wrote t« Henry in December, 1525, that, according to certain information received by him while passing through France, " an Englishman, at the solicitation and instance of Luther, with whom he is, hath translated tho New Testament into English, and within few days inteudeth to arrive with the same imprinted in England." There was no lack of willingness on the part of tho authorities to take this warning, but we have no record of any public action until the autumn of 1526. Wo hear then of a meeting of bishops to deliberate on the measm-es to bo adopted. Our account is taken from a poem by Roye, Tyndale's former companion, which contains " A brefo Dialoge betwene two prestes servauntes, named Watkyn and Jeffraye^:" — " Jif. But uowe of Standisshe'' accusaciou Erefly to malie declaracion, Thus to the Cardiuall he spake: * Pleaseth youre honourable Grace, Here is chaunsed a pitious cace. And to the Churche a grett lacke. The Gospell in cure Englisshe tonge. Of' laye men to be red and songe, Is nowe bidder come to remayne. Which many heretykes shall make, Except youre Grace some waye take By youre authorite bym to rostrayue.' Wat, But what sayde the Cardiuall hero at? Jof. He spake the wordes of Pilat, Sayinge, ' I fynde no fault therin.' Howe be it, the bisshops assembled, Amonge theym he examened, What was best to determyu ? Then answered bisshop Cayphas,^ That a grett parte better it was The Gospell to be condemned ; Lest their vices manyfolde Shulde be knowen of yougo and olde, Their estate to be contenipned. The Cardiuall then incontinent-' Agayust the Gospell gave judgement, Sayiuge to breune he deserved. Wherto all the bisshoppis cryed, Answerynge, ' It cannot be deuyed He is worthy so to be served.' Jef. They sett nott by the Gospell a flye : Diddest thou nott heare whatt villany They did vnto the Gospell ? Wiii. Why, did they as^aynst liym couspyre? Jqf. By my trothe they sett bym a fyre Openly in London cite. Tr^t. Who caused it so to be done ? .7('/. In sothe the Bisshoppe of London, With the Cardinallis authorite: Which at Paulis crosse eruestly Denounced it to be heresy That the Gospell shuld come to lyght ; '* See his Parable of tfie Wielded Mammon, in his TToW.-s, vol. i., p. "7 (Parker Society). ■J Which *' represents at least the popular opinion as to the parts played by the several actors.'' (Westcott, p. 36.) ■• Standish, Bishop of St. Asaph. ' By. '^ Tnnstall, Bishop of London. 3 Immediately. 124 THE BIBLE EDUCATOR. Callynge them heretikes execrable Whiohe caused the Gospell venerable To come vnto laye mens syght. He declared ther-? iu his furiousnes, That be fownde erroures more and les Above thre thousaude in the translacion. Howe be it, when all cam to i)cs, I dare saye vnable he was Of one erroure to make probacion."! The utmost efforts were used to prevent the intro- duction of the forbidden books into England, and to discover and destroy the copies which were already iu circulation. Miuiy copies were bought up for largo Slims of money, which afforded means for reprints and new editions : accordingly as many as three editions were issued by Antwerp printers iu 1526 and the two following years. The detailed narratives of search and persecution are fidl of interest, but they lie beyond the limits of our .space." lu the midst of tliis turmoil Tyndale quietly pursued his labours. At first he was not recognised in England as the author of tho obnoxious translation, which bore no name on the title-page. The secret, however, coidd not long be kept. Wolsey, connecting Tyndale with the satiro published (by Roye) against hhnseK,' used vigorous efforts to get him into his power. Tyndale now found it necessary to leave Worms. In 1527, probably, ho removed to Marburg in Hesse Cassel, wliere ho spent tho greater part of the four years following, leaving Marburg for Antwerp early in 1531. At Marburg his principal doctrmal and controversi;d works were printed, at the press of Hans Luf t ; as his Parable of the Wicked Mammon (1528), his Treatise 07i the Obedience of a Christian Man (1528), the Practice of Prelates (1530). The work of translation, however, was not neglected. After the New Testament, Tyndale devoted himself to tho Old, commencing with the Pen- tateuch. Eoxe's statement is as follows : " At what time Tyndale had translated the fifth book of Moses, called Deuteronomy, minding to print the same iu Hamburg, he sadcd tliitherward ; where by the way, upon tho coast of Holland, he suffered shipwreck, by which he lost all his books, -ivritiugs, and copies, and so was compelled to begin all again anew, to his hindrance and doubling of his labours. Thus, having lost by that ship both money, his copies, and his time, he came in another ship to Hamburg, where, at his appointment. Master Coverdale tarried for him, and helped him in tho translating of the whole five Books of Moses, from Easter tUl December, in tho house of a worshipful widow. Mistress Margaret Van Emmerson, A.D. 1529 ; a great sweating sickness being at the same time in tho town. So, having dispatched liis business at Hamburg, he returned afterwards to Antwerp again."^ It is hard to reconcile evoi-y particular of this narrative with what we loai-n f rom other sources, and from Poxe himself; 1 Nearly 300 lines of this satire are given by Arber, pp. ^9 — 32. - One narrative especially we exclude with regret, as too lengthy for quotation. This is the *' Story of Thomas Garret, and things done in Oxford, reported by Antony Delaber : " see Fose, vol. v., pp. 421 — 127; Arber, pp. 57 — (13. ■* Demaus, p. IGO. * Foxe, vol. v., p. 130. Compare Demaus, pp, 22D, 230. but there is little doubt that it is in tho main correct- The Pentateuch appears to have been published at Mar- burg in 1530 or 1531 : a second edition was issued in 1534. The Pentateuch was foUcf^ved, in 1531, by tho Book of Jonah, probably printed at an Antwerp press. At this period Tyndale was involved in active con- troversy ^vith Sir T. More, who had violently attacked his translation of the New Testament and his other writings. The only part of the controversy with which we are here concerned is that which relates to Tyndale's accuracy as a translator: More's strictures will be noticed presently. The year 1534 is especially memor- able for tlie publication of Tyndale's revised translation of the New Testament, " imprinted at Antwerp by Marten Emperowr." The title runs thus : " The newe Testament dylygently corrected and compared with the Greke by WiUyam Tindale, and fynesshed in tho yero of ouro Lorde God a.m.d. & xxsiill. in the moneth of Nouember." Besides the New Testament, this volume contained a translation of " the Epistles taken out of the Old Testament, which are read in the Church after the use of Salisbury upon certain days of the year." These " Epistles " include 78 verses from the Penta- teuch ; 51 from 1 Kings, Proverbs, and the Song of Solomon; 147 from tho Prophetical Books (chiefly from Isaiah) ; and 43 from the Apocryjdia (chiefly from. Ecclesiasticus).^ The work of revision and translation occupied Tyndale's attention to the last. Very shortly before (or perhaps even after) his arrest appeared a third edition of his New Testament, bearing marks of assiduous labour. In a recently discovered letter written during his Imprisonment, Tyndale begs that he may be allowed the use of his Hebrew books, Bible, grammar, and dictionary. There is good reason for believing that he left behind him in manuscript a translation of the Books of the Old Testament from Joshua to 2 Chronicles inclusive. The touching details of Tyndale's treacherous betrayal, while residing in the house of his warm and true friend Thomas Poyntz, of Antwerp, cannot be given here. In May, 1535, he was committed to tho castle of Vilvorde, near Brussels. Notwithstanding all tho efforts of his friends in England and In tho Low Countries to procure for him protection, ho was con- demned to death. On Friday, October 6th, 1636, he was strangled at tho stake, and his body burnt to ashes. His last words were, " Lord ! open the king of England's eyes." " And here to end and coucludo this history with a few notes touching his private behaviour in diet, study, and especially his charitable zeal and tender relieving of the poor : First, he was a man very frugal and spare of body, a great student, and earnest labourer, namely [especlidly] iu the setting forth of the Scriptures of God. He reserved or hallowed to himself two days in the week, which he named his days of pastime, and those days were Monday the first day in the week and Saturday the last day in the week. On the Monday he 5 Westcott, p. 48. THE HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE. 125 visited all such poor men and women as were fled out of England by reason of persecution into Antwerp; and those, well understanding their good exercises and qualities, ho did very liberally comfort and relieve ; and in like manner pro^aded for the sick and diseased persons. On the Saturday he walked round about the town in Antwerp, seeking out every corner and hole whoro he suspected any poor person to dwell (as God knoweth there are many); and where he found any to be well occupied, and yet overburdened with children, or fruitfully, sweetly, and gently from him (much like to the writing of St. John the Evangelist), that it was a heavenly comfort and joy to the audience to heai' him read the Scriptures : and in like wise after dinner he spent an hour in the aforesaid manner. Ho was a man without any spot or blemish of rancour or malice, full of mercy and compassion, so that no man living was able to reprove him of any kind of sin or crime ; albeit his righteousness and justification depended not there- upon before God, but only upon the blood of Christ and TC tlje woibc of 0(06 is vtiberftobc / the^ re hit m\)ttiplicrfi7 maWtlj t\}i poepU better, \9bcre hit is .mot T>i6eTftobe/th» «at4 Ijit bscrfiftfiil} Tmakxth tbepocple cutcft|)el)ouffe/anbratttytb«rccr))^t/atitm05 " ■' d)epe(iple rcfortc"!) vnito l)im/fo Sretlj) tlpQt 1)4 xoit anb fatiit a f ^jjppf/anV) all l^j pcof Ic ftobeontlje '|)»re.2(nbb2 fpatc waiiy tt);ngf t»ll)«nT infimiHtuW/fa* Vinge: bcl)olbe./tlt)8-fown»ciil fortl) toforcc/ant) a5l) tocb/ foTdfc fell by t\)i roap^ f))be/2 i\)t foxsllf ca/anb bevou? TebUuppe. 0'cmcfellapoti f>oii)igro«nbetDbereitl)abnott jiiocl)eeTtl)/anb atronit ffrottgcnppc/tcfatife it Vo noSe^ pl)t C)fertl;):veb a.v>a'^i,Qi)mt [fill amoiigc tboV^ ms / at)b t^« t^omcs arofc /aTibcl}ciffFebit. parte (ell in gcobcgrotitibe/atib broQljt foritjscob frutr. foTncaii|)Via'' breb folb/fome f$ftf folb/fom« tl)5>rt)' folbe,tX)l)oro?t)cr f)atl) cor«5 to b?are/lct pint i)ec.Ye» ir2(tTbbV'5 bifciplcB cam /ajib fft>b« to \^m t Q?[)x) fpeafcft tbovt tot^eminpaTO-bles: b?anft»er€bc<.Tifefaibei»titot()«ini J^it is gcvcn vnto -jou to f no rot tl)e fecratf of tb^ ^^SbOi Ynt of bcvcn/but to tbcm it is tott gtvim. for t»l)ofomcver l)aU)/tD bim ft) all bit be^cven : anb be [ball bave abounban-- *''"' nee: But toijofoever batt) nott: from bim fbalbe td^na. xoa.^i ^-'e tbat fame tbat bftbatb.Sberforefpeaft 3 to tbem infimibtub-f ; j'or l^ongbtbev fe/tbcy fonott: anb bearvngc tbejJbcaTenotmctbcrvtibetftonbe.^nbititbcm^^s fijlfylkb efa.vi. tbf propbcfy ofcfav/isbicbpropb^fi fo.j'tb : witb voorccarcs y^fboU bMre/anb f ball not onb erf lobe/ anb toitl) yoaniyt& j)ef ball fe/anbf ball notp^rceave Jottljis peoples berths FAC-SIMILE OF ST. MATT, XIII. 1 — 15 IN TTNDALK's FIKST TESTAMENT (OCTAVO EDITION). else were aged or weak, those also he plentifully relieved. And thus he spent his two days of pastime, as he called them. And truly his almose [alms] was very large and great ; and so it might well bo, for his exhibition that he had yearly of the English merchants was very much; and that for the most part ho bestowed upon the poor, as aforesaid. The rest of the days in the week he gave him wholly to his book, wherein most diligently he travailed. When the Sunday came, then went he to some one merchant's chamber or other, whither came many other merchants ; and unto them would ho road some one parcel of Scripture, either out of the Old Testament or out of the New ; the which proceeded so his faith upon the same, in which faith constantly he died, as is said at VUvordo, and now resteth with the glorious company of Christ's martyrs blessedly in the Lord, who be blessed in all his saints. Amen.'"' Some recent writers have endeavoured to place his character in a very diilerout light. It may bo acknow- ledged that in controversy Tyndale frequently used Language which cannot be defended, especially when (with or without sufficient reason) he suspected an adversasry to be actuated by corrupt motives ; but those who best know the eharacter of the times in which ho 1 Fose'a Ii/e of ryndnlc. See Arber, pp. 17, 13. 126 THE BIBLE EDUCATOR. lived will judge most leniently of this excess. Certainly it is not possible to condemn Tyndale on this charge and absolve his opponents. His fervent zeal for tho truth may have led liini into extremes, but it was free from any taint of selfish considerations. " I assui-e you," he says' (at a time when overtures were made to him to retiu-n to England), " if it would stand with the king's most gracious pleasure to grant only a bare text of the Scripture to be put forth among his people, like as is put forth among tho subjects of the emperor in these parts, and of other Christian princes, be it of the translation of what person soever shall please his 1 Demaus, p. 308, Majesty, I shall immediately make faithful promise never to write more, nor abide two days in these parts after the same ; but immediately to repair into his realm, and there most humbly submit myself at the feet of his Royal Majesty, oifering my body to suffer what pain or torture, yea, what death his Grace will, so that this be obtained." Of the value of his work we shall speak hereafter when we examine it in detail. Whether we look at his work or at his life, it is impos- sible not to admire and reverence " the worthy vii'tues and doings of this blessed martyr, who, for his painful travails and singular zeal to his country, may be called an apostle of Eugland."- - Foxe, Acii and Monuments^ vol, v., p. 139. BIBLICAL PSYCHOLOaT. BT THE KEV. J. B. HEABD, M.A., CAIUS COLLEGE, CAMBBIDQE. THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. ' E have already remarked on the progress of doctrine in Scripture, and that its psycho- logy is always abreast of its theology. With a clear grasp of these two thoughts — first, that inspiration is an organic, not a me- chanical whole, with the principle of gi-owt,h in it ; and, secondly, that in this growth there is always a perfect proportion of parts — we shall easily see the con- trast between the psychology of the Old and the New Testaments. On this subject we have one decisive text : " Howbeit that was not &st which was pneumatical [A. v., spu-itual], but that which was psychical [A. V., natural], and afterward that wliich was pneumatical" (1 Cor. XV. 46). As redemption truths are founded ou those of creation, so a basis must be laid for the higher theology of man's becoming partaker of the Divine nature in the elementary facts of his being part of God's handi- work — the last and noblest of all his creatures. In tho same way the higher psychology of the indwelling of the Divine Pneuma in the human, a mystery corresponding as it does and growing out of that of the incarnation, must be preceded by those humbler conceptions of man as clay, animated by a breath indeed of the DivJne Spirit, but that only resulting in a nephesli chayah, or "living soul" (Gen. ii. 7), such as animates all other creatui-es of God. Sound views of creationism must thus precede those spiritualist conceptions of God's relation to man which we find in the Now Testament. It is a mistake to press on to the higher till wo have been well grounded in tho lower forms of truth. This is a mistake of our age. Much of what is caUod tho higher Pantheism is only spiritual theology erected ou an insufficient basis of creationism. As the Elohist precedes the Jehovist dis- pensation, so the knowledge of God in Nature (to use the language of the old school) must go before the knowledge of God in grace. The intuitional school in philosophy leans to a Pantheistic conception of the rela- tion of God to the universe. God is in eveiything, antl I everything Hves only in God. It is almost as much a mistake to speak of " matter," as to speak of " mind." Language itself must be reconstructed to accommodate ' itself to this new school of deep thinkers. The old dualistic conceptions of object and subject, thought and things, mind and matter, must ch.sappear in one higher generalisation, call it matter, call it mind. There is but one substance, and that is God ; light is his nature, the sun and moon his eyes, and the stars the dust of his chariot-wheels. We unconsciously thus pass into Orien- talisms to express a mode of thought which is Oriental, and which is only naturahsed in the West, as exotics are, with care and cidture. Tins new school of spiritualism, as it works out a theology of its own, so its psychology is equally advanced. The incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ, so far from being a unique, and, as we should say, a supernatural fact, is from their point-of view only the highest instance of tho continued Indwelling of the Divine in the human. Instead of the Word being made flesh, they teach that flesh became the Word. In direct contradiction to the teaching of St. John, that " no man liath ascended up to heaven, but He that came down from heaven, oven the Son of man wliich was in heaven," the new school approach tho subject from an inverted order. They begin where they shoidd end, and their conception of Christ is that of a Man-God, not that of a God-man. The distinction is not a verbal one, as it seems at first sight. Scldeiermacher and Rotho, for instance, seem to lay great stress on the incarnation ; but tested by the uneniug standard of trutli, the teaching of John the tlivine, their teaching is seen to bo humanitarian, however disguised in phrases wliich conceal the real departure from " the faith once delivered to the saints." An incarnation which is not unique, and therefore supernatural, in the strict sense of the word, is not the doctrine of the New Testament with regard to the person of our Lord. On this subject we cannot be too thankful that no phase of opinion can jiossibly arise wliich has not arisen and been condemned by the BIBLICAL PYSCHOLOGY. 127 early Church. The Christian consciousness (to use Neaader's phrase) has worked itself clear of those turbid couceptions, which, like the glacier water of the upper Rhone, must flow on for some space before it recovers its original pmity. The stream is purest either at the foimtaiu-head or after it has passed thi-ough the Lake of Geneva, and there deposited its detritus from the glacier. In the same way \vith Christology : the cathohc conception of Chi-ist is also the truest, and is the most primitive. The Gnostic — of which modern spirituahsm is only a new phase — is like that turbid interval between the soiuxe of the Rhone in the Alps and its true starting-point as a river after it leaves the Lake of Geneva. The tap-root of Gnosticism in the early Church was contempt of the Old Testament and a misconception of its teaching as introductory to the New. The God of the Old Testament, the Demiurge of Marcion and others, was degraded, as if by liis contact with matter he had soiled the original spuutuality of his being. He was a kind of intermediate between thought and things, and some of the baseness supposed to inhere in matter was reflected in him. The remedy for this false spiritualism is a return to the true Old Testament conception of God and of his relation to the world. That relation is transcen- dental, not immanent, as the modern school teach. There is no disguising the fact that the Deistic account of the relation of God to the world, and not the Pantheistic, is that of the Old Testament. Hence the disjjai-aging view of the Old Testament taken by these modern Gnostics. We may take it or leave it, but we cannot alter or twist it into a meaning to suit our preconceptions. If our philosophy does not square with our theology, and one of the two must give way, it is both more modest and reverent to suppose that the error is with us rather than with a Book wliich bears many infaUible proofs of being from God. Such being the case, we tm-u to that Book to learn how it approaches the subject of man, and we find, as wo might expect, its psychology in admirable harmony with its theology. It is creationist fii'st, and spiritualist only afterwards. The Deistic or transcen- dent conception of God prepares the way for the mys- tical or immanent. It is the same with its psychology. In Genesis, and through the Old Testament generally, it speaks of man from the dichotomist point of view corresponding to its creationism. Man is body and soul, vnttx spiritual capacities, however, as yet generally undeveloped ; as such ho is God's creature, often his ser- vant ; once or twice, as Abraham, the friend of God ; or as David, the man after his own heart ; or as Moses, the one who speaks face to face with God ; or as Isaiah, who sees a vision of Jehovah ; but ho is nowhere as yet the son of God. The expression was too august to be lightly used of any individual man, however favom-ed. Israel collectively might be a dear son, a pleasant eluld, but this is only the language of metaphor — a variation of that other metaphor of marriage between Jehovah and his redeemed people. Thus creationism is the key to the theology of the Old Testament and equally to its psychology. In ac- cordance with this view, when we turn to the earliest record of all, we find an Elohist and a Jehovist account of the creation of man side by side, or in close conjimction. The Elohist account seems the most dignified of the two, the one which favours most those later and higher intimations of man's destiny as a partaker of the Divine natm'e. It perplexes us at first to find the Jehovist record, which we might anticipate would be trichotomist, bearing apparently the other way. Man is clay, and the breath of God, or the union point of this, is the nepliesh or " soul " (psyche). Thus the psychical life is the pro- minent fact in the Jehovist record ; whereas the Elohist, which is not a covenant but a creationist record, is of the two the most spiritual. It implies a council in the mind of the Deity, " let us make," and the result of that eouncU in the fact that man appears stamped with the Divine image and likeness. Tliis is fairly pei-jjlexing : to find spirituahsm where we might have looked only for the creationist account of man as the last and noblest of God's works ; and, on the other hand, to find creationism in that other record where the covenant name of God impUes his covenant relationship to man. This is perplexing at first sight, but the difficulty dis- appears when we look at it more closely. Rightly regarded, the contrast between these two records melts away, and we see unity underlying their variety. In the Elohist record man is spoken of, as in the 8th Psalm, not so much as he is in himself as in liis official position to the universe. He is a creature, it is true — the work of the sixth day, and has that in common with the higher mammalia, which are the work of the forenoon as he is of the afternoon of the day which precedes the Sabbath. But as God is about to enter on his rest he ajipoints a viceroy and representative on earth. To lend dignity to that viceroy, he invests him with some of his own attributes ; he stamps liis image and superscription on liim. As Joseph was given Pharaoh's chain and made to ride in Pharaoh's chariot, and thus shown to Egypt as the next to the king in all the land, his deputy and mouthpiece, so with man. This is the meaning of the Elohist record, and explains why it ajiparenviy goes out of its way to speak of man's dignity rather than of his dependent nature. Though the last of the mammalia, he is here made a little lower than the angels, and crowned with glory and honour, all the works of God being made subject to him. But when we turn to the Jehovist record, as its purpose is different, so its way of introducing the creation of man is also different. The Jeho-vdst record takes up the ethical side of man as the Elohist does the external. It has to deal \vith the problem of death and sin, grace and redemption ; it must give an account, therefore, of mau in himself, not merely of Ids official relation to the rest of God's creatui-es. As the pm'pose differs, so the mode of accounting for man's beginning must also sUghtly differ. It is only the same difference without disagreement wliich we see in the Gospels. The Synoptists (the fii-st three) begin with the human, John the divine with the pre-existent glory of Christ. Tliis is why, of the two records, the Jehovist, which is redemptive, gives the most strictly creational 128 THE BIBLE EDUCATOR. account of the origin of the race. Man is dust of the earth, which prepares us for the sentence that, should he disobey, "dust to dust" must be his punishment. This is highly consistent with the covenant account of God's deaUngs with man. Any other, such as a pure spiritualist, would be out of place here. Let us imagine the two narratives displaced, and we shall see what misconcojjtions would arise. Were the Elohist, or creationist, account of man capped with the narrative of the kneading of dust and breath into a " living soul," wo might fairly ask. Is this all ? is man only the last link of a long chain ? In that case could we say that the Sabbath drew on P On the other hand, suppose the Elohist account of man in the image and likeness of God had sUpped out of its place into the Jehovist record, and how perplexed we shoidd be ; we might then say with Longfellow, that " ' dust to dust ' was not spoken of the soul." Thus tho apparent paradox that the spiritualist side of man appears in the creationist record, and the creationist in the spiritualist, is liighly consistent if we look at each from the point of view from wliich it was written. Passing over, then, the Elohist record of Gen. i. — not as unimportant, but as irrelevant to psychology proper — we turn to the Jehovist record of Gen. ii. Here we find the true psychology of man, and that from a creationist point of view. Our key to understand it is the word of tho Apostle, that the psychical is first, and afterward that which is "spiritual." Following that order, and remembering that tho Old Testament keeps to tho psychical, though it flashes with intimations of a future spiritual stage, aU is consistent and of a piece. In no language of metaphor, but in strict and sober truth, man is said to be of the dust. God took and kneaded clay. The Hebrew word used implies that the work- manship is of pre-existent materials. Man's bodily organism is of matter, which comes from the inorganic world and returns to it again. Made up in equal pro- portions of gases and eartlis, his flesh and fibres, bones and blood, are all, as that of the lower animals, of " the earth, earthy." Such is the first Adam. His very name, so called from red earth, with reference, as some etymologists think, to the redness of the blood, Adam, from dam, " blood," or, as others, from the ruddiness of the skin, as the Chinese represent man to be kneaded of yeUow earth, and the red Indians speak of his being made of red clay — his very name indicates liim as " dust of tlie earth." The derivation of Adam, as if from the Hebrew demuih, " the image or likeness of God," is plainly fanciful ; the attempt to import into the Jehovist record the Eloliist account of man as the lord of creation and the viceroy of Heaven's eternal King is plainly inconsistent and out of place. The intention of the second narrative is to describe man as he is in himself, not in his official relation to the universe in general. Hence we may pass by the first, and con- fine ourselves almost exclusively to the second. Tho Elohist account of man is theological, the Jehovist psychological. By that wo mean, that if we \nsh to determine man's place in relation to God and Ms werks, we may turn to Gen. i. ; if we wish to determine what man is in himself, and the purposes which God has in regard to him, we must study Gen. ii. Tho first is the ideal man, the second the actual. The structure of tho narrative itself coniirms that vievr. The singidar form of expression, "we will make man," not " let us make man," as if the Deity were rousing himself to an effort, whatever it means — whether a covert reference to the Trinity, as the fathers and schoolmen hold, or an address to Nature as Maimonidos thought — " God directly and sovereignly. Nature mediately and obediently througli the Divine Word combining in the formation of man " — in either case wo have man regarded on the ideal side. It confirms that view to find that tho creation of woman is implied, not assorted. " Male and female created he them." If wo had the Elohist record only to go by, wo should know nothing of the unity of the human race, of the propagation of mankind from a single pair, and we should at once be relieved of many difficulties which science throws in the path of theology, while at the same time we shoidd lose that grand har- mony which runs throughout Revelation, and which is brought out by St. Paul in his doctrine of the first and second Adam, Rom. v. ; 1 Cor. xv., and elsewhere. It is clear, then, that the creationist narrative of Gen. i. is not so much the foundation of Scripture psycho- logy as the Jehovist or redemptive record of Gen. ii. Turning to that we find two factors in human nature meeting in the " living soul," the punchim indifferens of two lives, one from above, another from beneath. The Hebrew verb is rightly rendered " became," not " was." The German wcrden, " to become," exactly catches the sense of that meeting-point between being and non-being at which the human soul is placed — " Und also ward der Mensch eine lebendige Secle." Luther, who is always vigorous, and who, if he sometimes misses the exact sense, seldom fails to catch the general sph-it, throws in also. " Consequently in this order and manner man became a living sold." Otherivise the contrast between tho "living soul" in man and in other animals would be lost. Tho differentia between him and them is this Di\'ine breath; it is right to mark, then, by an emphatic word that man became a living soul only by the breath of God entering his nostrils in a special way, such as is said of no other li^dng creature. The expression " dust of the earth," suggests its own meaning: man is xoi'"" (1 Cor. xv. 47), " of the earth, earthy," as homo is derived from hiimus. And as h^lmas is not so much earth in general as the earth soil when adapted for cultivation, so Adam is from adamah, the soil of cultivation in its paradisiacal state — not the mere earth (aretz), which is a distinct word. With regard to his body, man is flesh (hasar) ; he has this in common with the animal world. " AU flesh " is a common Hebraism for the whole world in its mere animal side. When used in reference to man there is a covert reproach in it ; we are reminded by it of our sin and shame. Flesh and spirit are contrasted as in that passage : " The Egyptians are men, and not God ; and their horses flesh, and not spirit " (Isa. xxxi. 3). To depend BIBLICAL PSYCHOLOGY. 129 on man, or to put trust in liim, is to depend on an arm of flesh. Basar, in this ethical connection, is always used as a term of reproach. It is exactly equivalent to our contrast between sense and spirit. It is no reproach to a man to judge by means of sense-perecptions, for these are the data on which mind must work ; but to leave off ■with these is a reproach. The two adjectives " sensual " and "sensuous" exactly mark these distinctions. Art is sensuous ; it raises impressions tlu-ough the senses ; and according as these impressions are degrading or elevating, is it sensual or spiritual. So unconsciously do ethical conceptions glide in and mingle themselves ■with iBsthetieal, that the question has been raised whether art should have anything to say to morals or not. The answer is obvious — consciously, no ; but unconsciously, yes. What we mean is that art is not to teach pro- fessedly — its end and aim is to delight and refine. But in that aim there must be hidden a moral purpose of one kind or tlie other — hidden as Cleopatra's adder in the basket of fruit ; and it is the duty of the moralist to question art as it crosses the threshold, and to refuse admission to it if the serpent be foiind lurking among its fruits and flowers. In Scripture, where the ethical import is predominant, the bodily side of man's nature is generally referred to as the fames peccati, the fuel of the fire of sin. The tongue in St. James, the eye in St. John, the feet swift to shed blood of the Psalmist, the hands and the heart frequently elsewhere are spoken of as the instruments of sin. The body is thus, to refer to a well- known Rabbinic fable, the partner with the soul in sin, and must bo raised up for this reason to receive its separate punishment. It is foreign to the simplicity of the Hebrew mind to dwell on the soul as the exclusive source of good and evil. Luther, in one of his sermons on Gen. ii., rightly remarks that by " living soul " we are to understand living body ; and Tertullian, in the same way, in his treatise De Anima (cap. vii.l, lays stress on the essential corporeity of the soul. Man in Scripture psychology is not a soul in a body. Tliis is the school dichotomy which has entered into our popular theology and somewhat distorted our conceptions of man's place and duty here and hereafter. Man in Scripture is a body or organism which has two poles, sarx and pnemna, flesh and spirit. According as he inclines to the one pole or the other is he carnal or spiritual. In his fallen state, and as the consequence of the fall, he is carnal, sold under sin. What enhances his misery is that he knows it. He is a "reed who thinks," as Pascal puts it ; let us add, a reed who quivers with a sense of his own misery. The purpose of redemption is to remove him from the one xiole of sense to the other pole of sjjirit. That redemption is begun now, but is mcom- plete until his full adoption, to wit, the redemption of the body. When the body itself, which is now psycliical at best, i.e., with the animal and appetitive elements predominant, shall become pneumatical, i.e., with the organs of assimOation and reproduction at rest, .and those of apprehension and action elevated and intensified (of which the transformation of insects furnishes a wonderful analogy), then shall be brought to pass the 33— voi,. II. saying that is written, "Death is swallowed up in victory." Thus the psychology of the Old Testament is of a piece with that of the New, the only difference being that, as the plan of redemption unfolds itself, the psychical element becomes more pneumatical, and the sarx, or flesh, sinks into the background as the part to be mortified or subdued. Man begins in the flesh, rises to psychical conceptions, and is only redeemed and regenerated when the psyche becomes subservient to the pneuma, as the sarx is to the psyche. Psyche is the centre point where the conflict goes on. In every man there is a choice of Hercules, between soul and flesh. But in the case of the regenerate and redeemed there is a stUl higher conflict and a yet more decisive choice. They are called on to subdue the desires of the mind as well as of the flesh — to yield their wills and affec- tions up to God as they yield the members of the body up to the guidance of reason. This higher stage of dis- cipline lies out of the range of mere "culture." The morahst as such knows nothing of it, for it lies within the spiritual world, and this hes outside Ms ken and cognisance. He can only guess at it, as Goethe in his conjectures about a demonic influence, which is not genius or God, but something between the two. When we speak, then, of the trichotomy of Scripture, and particularly of the Old Testament, we do not mean that man is of three natm-es joined in one, much less tliat, after the analogy of the Trinity, there are three substances in one person, instead of three Persons in one substance. The homo imago Trinitatis of Augus- tine is a misleading metaphor, and, what is worse still, it " djirkens counsel by words without knowledge." Man is not body and soul and spirit as the Godhead is Father and Son and Holy Ghost. Man is strictly only au organism with two tendencies, and in this sense it is as correct to speak of the dichotomy as the trichotomy. These tendencies are flesh and spirit, and hence the account in Gen. ii. is so accurate when the dust of the earth and the breath of lives met in the living soul of man as their imiting point. These tendencies of flesh and spirit were marked in no other creature in the same way. In the animal there is the one factor — the dust of the earth, animated, it is true, by a certain breath of God, for He is the Life of life, as He is the God of gods and Light of lights. But the spiritual factor is not there : in man alone do flesh and spirit join. The i>syche is the synthesis of which body and spirit are .the thesis and antithesis respectively. In this point of ^-iew it is as incorrect to speak of man as made up of three parts, as to speak of water as made up of oxygen, hydrogen, and a fluid called water, seeing tluit water is only the result of the gases uniting in certain definite propor- tions. Both terms, " dichotomy " and " trichotomy," are therefore, strictly spealriug, incorrect, although, in order, to guard ourselves againsttho phrases " body" and "soiil," growing out of the old duahsm of miud and matter, we speak of man as a hving soul with two natures, an animal and a spiritual. It is in tliis sense only that man is in the trichotomist phrase made of spirit, soul, and body, 130 THE BIBLE EDUCATOR. tliougli it -would be equally correct to speak of Mm as made up of an animal frame united to a psyche-prietima. Indeed, as in the earlier stage of infancy body and soul exist togctlier with a dormant or undeveloped spirit, so, during the intermediate state, we iind conversely the psyche-pnetima existing out of the body. Further, with regard to the psychology of the Old Testament, we must bear in mind that the language is popular and accommodated to the unscientific conceptions then current. In modern language we speak of the head as the seat of intelligence, and the heart as that of the feelings and aifections. It is the head tliat thinks, the heart that bleeds, or weeps, or rej»-e'"'if« and the resurrection of the body was given. But tlie preparation was complete. A Jew, who knew his own Scriptures and nothing else, might have much to learn, but happily nothing to un- learn. If he had not mixed up these conceptions of truth with the philosophies of the East, or of Greece, he might pass at once, as the discii)les did, from John to Jesus, without a struggle or a pang. LTnfortunately, however> this was seldom the case. What with Oriental and CabaUstic notions ou the one hand, and Alexandiian and Platonist fancies on the other, the transition was seldom so simple. Philosophical theoi-ies of the soul, its con- nection with matter, and its eternity a parte ante or post, mixed themselves up ■n-itli the simple narrative of God's deahngs with man ; the specidative overbore the practical. But, nevertheless, the Word of God could not be broken. A higher truth superseded one more elementary, as we shall presently see, but it did not con- tradict it — nay, it confirmed it. There was progression throughout — calm, orderly, and according to a plan: first the eai'thly Adam, then the heavenly; this is the theological stage of j)rogross : first the psychical, and afteiTvards the pneumatical ; this is the psychological order corresponding to it. DIFFICTILT PASSAGES EXPLAINED. THE GOSPELS:— ST. MATTHEW. BY THE EEV. C. J. ELLIOTT, M.A., VICAK OF WINKFIELD, EEKKS. '• It hath been said, Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a bill of divorcement: but I say unto you, That whoso- ever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery : and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced oommitteth adultery."— St. Matt. v. 31, 32. ^^HE proper rendering of the first clause of these verses, according to the best MSS., is, " But it was said. Whosoever shall put away his wife," &c. The words thus rendered must clearly be understood in connection with something which has gone before, aud are sugges- tive, as Lightfoot has obsen'ed, of " a silent objection." In verses 27, 28, our Lord reliearses the letter, and expounds the meaning of the seventh commandment : " To liave heard," He says, "that it was said " {i.e., by the mouth of Moses; for the words " by" or "to them of old time" are not found in the best MSS.), "Thou shalt not commit adultery.'' By the Jewish system of divorce — a system tolerated under their law, by reason of the hardness of the hearts of the people — the true import of this command was evaded, and in vii-tue of that system, as explained by many of their most dis- tinguished teachers, a door was opened for the indul- gence of then- unbridled lusts and passions. Our Lord, contrasting his own teaching, not, as some would represent, with that of the Mosaic kw, but with the unauthorised expositions of that law then current amongst a large section of the Jews, takes occasion to enforce the nature aud obligations of the primeval law of marriage, as instituted in Eden, and as renewed in the Decalogue. He meets the objections which arose within the miuds of liis hearers, though utterance may not have been given to them by th^- lip?, by not only 132 THE BIBLE EDUCATOR. admitting but affirming the existeuce of difficulties in the way of salvation, and by asserting, in figurative but most expressive language (deriving much of its force from cui-rent forms of Jewish phraseology,' and from the local allusion to the Valley of Hinnom), the abso- lute necessity of incurring any risk, of enduiing any suffering, of submitting to any saci-ifice, rather than by the indulgence of sensual passions to become liable to eternal perdition. " It is better for thee," He says to his hearers (i.e., it is more to your true and enduring interests), "that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body shoidd be cast into hell." Those who are aware of the manner iu which tlie subject of divorce has been treated in the Talmud will readily understand how many and how subtle were those evasions of the seventh commandment whicli would natm-ally suggest themselves to the minds of tliose wlio listened to these words ; and it is to these that our Lord seems to make tacit allusion in the verses now under consideration : " But it has been said, Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorce- ment." It has been inferred from these words, and still more from those which occur in Matt. xix. 7, " Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorce- ment, and to put her away ? " that the Jews, iu the days of our Lord, misunderstood or perverted the nature and the design of the Levitical law, as recorded in Dent. xxiv. I — i, to which allusion is here made." These words may be translated as follows: "If a man shall take a wife and marry her, it shall come to pass if she find not favour in his eyes because he has found iu her some uncleanness, then let him write her [or, as some render the words, ' and he write her '] a bill of divorcement, and put [it] iu her hand, and send her away from his house ; and when she is departed out of his house she may go and be another man's wife ; and if [or, and she depart from liis house, and go and become the wife of another ; and] the latter husband hate her, and write her a bill of divorcement, and put [it] in her hand, and send her away from his house ; or if the latter husband who has taken her to him to wife, die ; [then] her former husband who sent her away shall not bo able to take her again to be his wife, after that she has been defiled, for that is abomination before the Lord."-' This precept, so far from being designed to cujoiu, or oven to encourage divorce, was evidently framed with a direct -^-iew to its restraint. Whatever may be the meaning of the disputed phrase which is rendered in > See Lightfoofs Heh. and Tiiliiiud. Exercitaliom upon St. Matthai:, vol. xi., p. 115. 1823. 2 It must be observed, however, that in Mark x. i the word used is JirtTpe^ev, not e>tTti.\uTo, i.e., " jvei-mitted," not "commanded." • There w.as no command given by Moses to divorce the wife. The command was that the divorce should, in every case, he made in accordance with a duly prescribed form. 3 If the apodosis begins, as in the A, V., with the words " then let him write her a bill of divorcemeut," it becomes necessary to trans- late the words which follow, as in the A.V., " she may go out/' &c. If, on the contrary, the apodosis begins at verse 4, there is no occa- sion for such a departure from the uniformity of the translation. the Authorised Version " some uncleanness," the per- mission of divorce is restricted to that sLuglo case. The necessity, moreover, of placing in the hands of the rejected wife a written instrument^ woidd, for the most part, involve recourse to the priests or Le^-ites, and thus involve delay, and check action upon sudden im- pulse. The absolute prohibition, also, of a return to the first husband, after the contraction of a second maiTiage, would, of itself, operate as a powerfid motive against yielding to the influence of momentaiy passion or pre- judice. Nor must the ground of that prohibition be overlooked. It is made to consist in the defilement contracted by the second marriage ; and it should be obser\'ed that the verb employed is the same which is used to denote the pollution or defilement of adultery and of idolatry (e.g. Ezek. xxxiii. 26; xxxvi. 18). But notwithstanding the check tlms interposed upon the multiplication of divorces, they had become of such common occurrence in the time of our Lord, and they were given upon such slight and insufficient gi-ounds, that wo find it maintained by tlie school of HUlol, a celebrated rabbi who died shortly after the Christian era, that if the wife cook her husband's food batUy, she was to bo put away;' whilst Rabbi Akibah taught that "if any sees a woman handsomer than his wife, he may put her away; because it is said, " K she find not favour in his eyes.''^ Another school, however, that of Shammai, the colleague of Hillol, maintained tliat the only ground of divorce under the Jewish law was that which our Lord himself distinctly recognises iu the words under consideration — viz., that of iucoutiuence. It may be urged, indeed, in opposition to this view, that by the law prescribed iu Dent. xxii. 22, the adulteress was to be punished by death, and conse- quently that there was no place left for divorce. On the other hand, it has been thought that pro^-isiou was thus made for a mitigation of the severity of the law respecting adultery, so that that crime, though punish- able with death, if established, need not necessarily be thus visited, whilst, at the same time, provision was made for the i-elief of the injui-ed husband by the legal severance of the nuptial bond.'' Important as the correct determination of the mean- iug of these words is in their bearing upon tlie question of the re-marriage of the guilty person, it is one which probably does not admit of determination with any absolute amount of certainty. And now, I'eturniug to the direct consideration of the words of our Lord, it deserves notice that these words ■1 The copy of a hill of divorce will be found in Lightfoofs Works, vol. xi., p. 123. 1823. 5 Gittin, c. ix. 6 3ft,s/t7ia, ult. in Gittin, c. ix. 7 It is deserving of observation that although under the Jewish law the betrothed virgin was regarded as the wife of him to whom she was betrothed, and the punishment of incontinence was the same as in the case of a married woman ( Dcut. xxii. 23. 21), it was the intention of Joseph to put away his betrothed wife privily, and not to jirocced against her criminally. It must be remembered, however, that the Jews, at the time in question, were undoubtedly subject to the supremacy of Roman law; and it is a question of extreme difficulty to determine to what extent that supremacy interfered with the execution of the Levitical law. DIFFICULT PASSAGES EXPLAINED. 133 are repeated, -witli some verbal alterations, in the 19th chapter of this Gospel ; again in Mark x. 11,12; and oueo more in Luke x-\-i. 18. The variations in tliese several places are of sulficient importance to make a literal translation of the four passages desirable, \\Hth a view to the coiTect apprehension of the law enforced in all. The following is, it is believed, a correct rendering of these four passages, according to the reading of the bestMSS.:— (1.) "Every man who puttoth away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causes her to become an adulteress (/noixeu9i>ai'), and whosoever shall marry (one) put away, commits adultery." (Matt. v. 32.) (2.) " Whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adidtory, [and he who marrieth (one) put away com- mitteth adultery]."' (Matt. xix. 9.) (3.) '• Whosoever shall put away his wife and marry another, committeth adultery against her; and if she put away her husband and marry another, she com- mitteth adidtery." (Mark x. 11, 12.) (4.) " Whosoever putteth away his wife and man-ieth another, committeth adultery ; and he who marfieth (one) put away from (her) husband, committeth adultery." (Luke xvi. 18.) The following ai-o some of the points which seem to call for observation in the comparison of these passages : I. Whereas in two of the passages cited, the one and only ground of la\vful divorce is mentioned— viz., that of iueoutinence — in the two last it is omitted. It has been inferred from this omission tliat divorce, under any circumstances, is only permitted, never enjoined. Wliether this inference be or bo not fairly drawn from the omission in question, it can scarcely admit of doubt (1) that the words supplied in the two places of St. Matthew's Gospel must be understood as implied iu the parallel places of St. Mark and St. Luke ;- (2) that those early writers were in error who held that the putting away of a wife, even in the case of adultery, was obligatory ; and (3) that those who in early and later times have maintained that marriage is in all cases indissoluble, are still further removed from a right apprehension of the law of Christ resiiecting it. II. Wliereas it was needless, in the case of the Jews, to lay down any regulation respecting tlie divorce of a husliaud by a wife, a necessity arose for prescribing the duty of the wife as well as of the husband, in the case of laws pertaining aUke to all nations. Moreover, in the law prescribed in Mark x. 11, 12, the wife appears to be jjlaced, in regard to the right of divorce, upon the same footing as the husband ; and inasmuch as I Tliis clause is omitted in many MSS. ' It is somcwlmt remarkable that Augustine, in bis interpretation of this passage, reverses the sound canon which be has elsewhere laid down — viz., that the shorter and more incomplete passage is to receive its interpretation from the longer and fuller ; and finds in the parallel passages of St, Mark and St. Luke a limitation of the fuller record of our Lord's words, as contained in the Gospel of St. Matthew. In his " Retractations," however, he confesses his dissatisfaction with what he had previously written, and records bis conviction that he had not aiTived at a satisfactory solution of the difficulty. the clause of permission of divorce and of re-marriage which is expressed in Matt. v. 32, and xix. 9, with regard to the husband, in the case of adultery, must necessarily be understood in Mark x. 11, and iu Luke xvi. 18, every sound canon of interpretation seems to demand that the same permission must be regarded as conceded to the wife which the passages above cited concede to the husband. III. We have reseiwed to the last the discussion of the important question, whether the prohibition of the re-marriage of a divorced woman is alisolute and uni- versal, or whether that prohibition is restricted to the case of one divorced on insufficient grounds. In support of the former of these interpretations appeal is made, and perhaps not altogether without reason, to the absence of the article in Matt. v. 32, xix. 9, and Luke xvi. 18, before the word arro\e\vfi.evriv i.e., "put away," or "divorced;" and it is argued that the prohibition applies not only to the woman who has been divorced on insufficient grounds, but also to any woman who has been put away, wliether lawfully or unlawfully, from her husband. It has been argued, further, that the word airoAeXu^teVi)!/ must be understood as ha\'iug primary reference not to a woman imlawfully separated from her husband, but to one in whose case the vinculmn matrimonii — i.e., the marriage bond — has been absolutely broken ; and, inas- much as this bond can bo broken only by the act of adultery, that the reference must be primarily to the case of one who has been separated on this ground from her husband. To this latter argument it seems sufficient to reply that the same word cannot be so interpreted in the former claiise of the verses in question; and, conse- quently, tliat as the primary subject of the discourse is the putting away of a wife on insufficient grounds, the same word in the latter clause of the verse must, of necessity, be interpreted as susceptible of that meaning wliich it undoubtedly bears in the former. It seems, moreover, but reasonable to suppose that this is the primary sense in which the word anoKeKv- IJiivriv ought to be understood iu this place. For, inde- pendently of the consideration already noticed, that divorces on insufficient grounds f(3rm the primary subject of discourse, and consequently that it is but reasonable to presume tliat such divorces must be regarded as primarily contemplated throughout it, there are other grounds for the belief that the re-marriage of a woman divorced on the ground of adultery is not the cas S it has been supposed that the statement about the migrations of the ark, in Vol. I., page 80 of The Bible Educatoe, was intended as a full account of its wander- ings, whereas only those two places. Nob and Giboon, were mentioned where, as at Shiloh, a tabernacle was set up and the rites of the national religion i^ractised, it has been thought advisable to give a somewhat fuller account of the matter. At Shiloh, then, in the tribe of Ephraim, the ark was placed by Joshua, and continued there, surrounded by all the accessories of Divine worship, till the time of Eli. Yet even during this period it was not altogether stationary. Tor in Judg. xx. 18, 26, there is little doubt that instead of " the house of God," the right translation is, " The children of Israel arose, and went up to Bethel, and asked counsel of God." As Bethel was a sacred spot, and situated only six miles from Gibeah, the ark (see verso 27) was probably carried thither, from Shiloh, for the purposes of the war waged by the tribes on Benjamin. But Shiloh was jjlainly its usual Lome (I Sam. i. 3) till the first battle of Ebenezer (1 Sam. iv.), when the Philistines destroyed it, apparently with such ruthless cruelty, that the very mention of it in after times sufficed to make the heai-ts of the people thrill with horror. (See Jer. vii. 12 ; xxvi. 6 — 9 ; Ps. Ixxviii. 60 — 64.) It was probably this feeling which prevented ShUoh from being ever chosen again as the national sanctuary ; and which made even Jeroboam prefer Bethel, a few miles distant from it, as one of the seats of his idolatry. The captured ark, after being can-ied about for some months among the Phihstines, was restored to Israel, and after the disasters at Beth-shomesh placed in the house of Abiuadab at Kirjath-jearim, where it abode for twenty years (1 Sam. vii. 2). In 2 Sam. vi. 2 we still find the ark at Baalo of Judah — i.e., at Kirjath-jearim, in the house of the same Abiuadab on the hill (see the margin), but an interval of eighty years separates the two texts. There has been in the meantime the judge- ship of Samuel and the reign of Saul, besides nine or ten years of David's own i-eign. It is noteworthy that though Abinadab must have been long since dead, the house still boars liis name. Now it is in this interval that we find the ark at Nob, not in a private house, but ministered to by the high priest, and with no less than fourscore and five priests in attendance upon it (1 Sam. xxi. 1 ; xxii. 18). Nob itself was a sacerdotal town in the tribe of Benjamin not far from Jerusalem, and if we look at the dates we shall see that the twenty years during which the ark abode at Kirjath-jearim end about five years before Saul was made king. What can be more plain or more probable than that Samuel, himself brought up at Shiloh, and with many an affectionate remembrance of his early years, removed the ark to Nob, placed there once again the tabernacle of Moses for its reception, and restored as much as possible of the old ceremonial observed in Eli's days ? But a fate as hard as that of Shiloh also befell Nob. Doeg the Edomite, at Saul's command, not only mur- dered the priests, but smote the city with the edge of the sword, both men and women, cliildren and sucklings, and made it an utter ruin. From this scene of devasta- tion pious hands carried back the ark to its old resting- place, and there apparently it remained even longer than at first. At length, about ten years after Saul's death, and when David had now for three years been king over Israel as well as Judah, ho determined to bring up the ark into the city which he had conquered from the Jebusites, and called by his own name. On the way occurred the breach of Uzzah, and the ark was deposited for three months in the house of a Levite, Obed-edom. With more punctual observance [of tho Levitical law, the king then once again attempted its removal, and it was brought happily into tho city of David (2 Sam. vi.). And now there occurs a remarkable separation between the ark and the tabernacle, which was not described with sufficient care in tho previous article. The ark remained in Zion, but the tabernacle of Moses and the brazen altar made by Bezaleel were placed at Gibeon. Gibeon, and not Zion, was the seat of tho national worship. To it Joab fled for refuge (1 Kings ii. 28) ; and to it Solomon went in royal state, and offered in sacrifice a thousand burnt-offerings (1 Kings iii. 4). But though until the Temple was built Gibeon was the centre of the Levitical worship, yet there was also a service of music before the ark. The priest Zadok and his brethren ministered at Gibeon, and offered there morning and evening the appointed sacrifices. It was about six miles from Jerusalem, whereas Nob lay close to its walls, and many inconveniences must have arisen from the distance. Yet there the priests were stationed with Heman and Jeduthun to conduct the psalmody. But Asaph and his brethren, and Obed-edom with a numerous staff of porters, were in attendance upon the ark in Zion (1 Chron. x\-i. 37 — 42), and it was not tUl the tenth or eleventh year of Solomon that this strange separation between the ark and tabernacle was put an end to. Then it was that Solomon gathered all the nobles of his realm, and with great joy Ijrought the ark up from tho city of David unto Mount Moriah, and placed it in the Holy of Holies in the Temple. From that time not Giboon but Jerusalem was tho national sanctuary, and the ark, though not quite always undisturbed, remained in the place prepared for it by Solomon till Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the Temple, when probably the ark perished with it. THE COINCIDENCES OF SCRIPTURE. 1-15 THE COINCIDENCES OF SCRIPTUEE. THE HEEODIAN FAMILY (,concluded). BY THE EDITOR. HEEOD AGEIPPA I. ^HE name of this prince meets us for the first time in the history of the New Testament in Acts xii. 1. His previous career, however, presents many points of contact both with it, and with the wider history of the time. His very name reminds us of the policy which led his grandfather and liis unclos to court the favour of ihe Roman emperor. His father, Aristobulua, one of the sons of Herod's favourite ivife Mariamne, was put to death in one of the fits of jealous suspicion which marked the close of tliis tyrant's life, in B.C. G. Tlie precise date of the bii-th of Agrippa is not ascertained, but as he was at Rome before the death of Herod the Great (Joseiih., Atitiq. xrai. 6, § 1), wo may infer that Le was sent there to be out of the reach of his grand- father's cruelty, aud must therefore have been born before the death of the great minister of Augustus, Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, in B.C. 12 ; and it is reason- able to assume that the name was bestowed on him as a compliment to the man who was so high in the emperor's favour, aud whose support it was so desirable to secure. His position at Rome brought him into contact with some of the more jirominent members of the imperial family. His mother, Bernice (a name which ho after- wards bestowed on one of his own daughters. Acts xxv. 13), was on terms of intimate friendship with Antonia, the wife of Drusus and mother of Germauicus, and the youth of Agrippa was passed in companionship with Caius, the son of Germauicus, better known afterwards as the Emperor CaUgiila. We trace his remembrance of the family in the name DrusiUa, which he gave to another of his daughters (Acts xxiv. 24).' His friend- ship with Caligula exercised a marked influence over both his fortunes and his character. Without following those fortunes in their successive stages, the spendthrift life at Rome, tho heavy debts which made him return to Judaja to escape his creditors, his marriage with Kypros his cousin, we come to tho time in which ho comes into contact with the two members of the family who appear so prominently in the Gospel history. At first (this was after the death of Archelaus, and pro- bably about the time when John the Baptist began liis ministry) Herodias, who, it will be remembered, was hi,'? sister, received him kindly, and, under her influence, the tetrarch made him ruler of Tiberias, aud assigned him a salary. The good-will was not of long continu- ance. The tetrarch reproached his brother-in-law >vith his poverty and dependence, and the latter, resigning his post, but still embarrassed ivith many difficulties, made his way to Italy. Tho memory of liis unpaid -' A son who died young bora tho namo of Brusaa. 34 — VOL. II. debts weighed against him with the Emperor Tiberius, but the tact and winning manners which always dis- tinguished him enabled him to ingratiate himself with all the imperial family. He was tho guest of Tiberius at Capreffi, borrowed 300,000 drachma; of Claudius, tho futm-e emperor, was ajipointcd as a sort of tutor over the emperor's grandson (Tiberius, the sou of Drusus, who died yoimg), and continued to be the boon com- panion of Caligula. Soon, however, all this glitter and pomp were changed for the confinement of a prison. As the two friends were ritling in a chariot, Agi'ippa gave utterance to the wish that tho emperor might soon die, and that Caius might succeed him. The incautious words were overheard by the chariot-driver, a freedman of Agrippa's, and reported by him to others. They came at last to the ears of Tiberius. The emperor was still at CapreiB. Agrippa was summoned to defend himself, and was at once, clothed in puiiile as he was, bound with ii'on chains, and thrown into prison. During his con- finement there happened, according to Josephus, whose sources of information at this stage of his histoiy seem to have been singularly full, a striking incident which, from the historian's pomt of view, was connected with the strange aud startling manner of Agrippa's death. It chanced that one day, wliilo Agrijjpa and other prisoners were taking their scanty measure of exercise before the impeirial palace, he leant, in utter despondency, upon the trunk of a tree. An owl sat upon its branches. One of his fellow-prisoners, a German, asked who he was, and on learning his history, came to him with words of comfort, told him that the presence of the bird was an augury of good, that within a short time he would rise to the highest prosperity, but warned him that should he ever see the self- same bird again it would come as a messenger of death, and that within five days after it his end would come. As Josephus tells the story of his death, it was in tho midst of the pomp and pageantry of the scone at Cajsarea that he saw the bird of evO omen perched over his head, and as the sudden stroke of agony fell on him, told his friends that he knew that the hour of his death was not far off (Joseph., Aniiq. xvdii. 6, aud xix. 8). For the time, however, the omen was fulfilled for good. The rigours of imprisonment were mitigated at the intercession of Antonia. Friends were allowed free access, and were permitted to bring tho garments aud food which belonged to the prisoner's rank. After a few months of expectation, one of those friends, Marsyas, probably a Jew, rushed into his prison, and cried out in Hebrew that " the licJn was dead."- Caligula, - The phrase has a special interest as illustrating St. Paul's language in 2 Tim. iT. 17, " I was deliYered out of the mouth of the lion." It not only justifies us in interpreting that language of St. Paul's trial before Nero, but shows that this way of speaking 146 THE BIBLE EDUCATOR. designated by the emperor's will, was received as his successor, and Agi-ippa soon reaped the fruits of liis favour, was released from prison, appointed to the tetrarchy of Iturea that bid been held by Philip, but with the title of king, and afterwards to Abilene, that of Lysanias (Luke iii. 1). As a complimentary memo- rial of what he had undergone on the emperor's account, he received a chain of gold of the same weight as the iron one he had worn in his prison. The jealousy which was excited in the minds of his sister Herodias and her husband when Agrippa re- appeared in Palestine with his new title has been already dwelt on. It ended, as has been seen, in the downfall of Herod Antipas, and the power of Agrippa wa.s increased Ijy the addition of the tetrarchy of Galilee, and the private estates both of the tetrarch and of Herodias. He seemed to bo in a fair way to equal his grandfather both in wealth and temporal power as well as name. The power gained under Caligida was, however, but the st-epping-stone to a yet higher position. Agrijspa remained at Rome after the incidents thus narrated, and was there when the emperor's mad career was terminated by the dagger of Chorea. It was his strange destiny to bo the fu'st to pay fimoral honours to the body of the dead emperor, and to persuade Clautlius not to lose the opportunity thus offered him of succeed- ing to the piirplo. The residt was that the new emperor treated him with special honour, added Judasa and Samaria to the territory over which he pre\'iously ruled, and so, superseding for a time by this restored monarchy the functions of tlie Roman procurator of Jiidsea, brought Agi-ijipa for tlie first time into direct cont,ict with the new society which wo know as the Church of Christ, but which to Mm, doubtless, presented itself as the sect of the Nazarenes. In many respects he used the power thus gained in a just and beneficent spirit, and sought in i^articnlar (and here we come to tliat which connects itself with the history of Acts xii.) to con- ciliate the religious feelings of the people, which had been so constantly outraged by his grandfather and Antipas. The golden chain was dedicated as a thank- offering in the Temple. At the Feast of Pentecost he appeared among the multitude, bringing Ms own basket of first-fruit offerings. When the law was read at the Feast of Tabernacles, and lie heard the words from Dent. xvii. 15, " One from among thy brethren shalt thou set Mng over thee ; thou shalt not set a stranger over thee," he biu-st into tears at the thought of Ms own Idumcau descent, till the people, whose affection ho had gained, met Ms gi-ief with the cry, " Trouble not thy- self, Agi-ippa ; thou also art our brother." A striking instance of Ms desire to gain over the more devout of the tyrants who disjjrraoed the purple was already established, and that there is no need to adopt M. Reuan's somewhat fantastic hypothesis {L'Antachrist, p. 179), that Nero hecame " the boast" of the Apocalyijse because he appeared on the arena of the amphi- theatre in the disguise of a lion. The imagery of the Apocalypse was indeed ready at hand in the visions of Ezekiel (sit. 1, 9) and Daniel (vii. 8). The language of Marsyas and St. Paul shows how easy and natural it was to reproduca it with this apphcation. among his subjects to Ms side was seen in the fact that when Caligula, in one of Ms fits of insane vanity, issued the command that Ms statue should be set up in the Temple of Jerusalem, and there worshipped, and the people dared only oppose by a passive martyr-Hke re- sistance, Agrippa, who had retmrned to Rome and taken up his abode there, had the courage, when CaUgula offered to bestow on Mm any gift that ho might choose to ask, to pray, not for fresh territory or increased treasm-es,' but that the emperor would recede from Ms frantic outrage on the religion of his countrymen, and succeeded in averting the dreaded evil. With a real or affected zeal, when he returned to his kingdom, he adopted precisely the same means for conciliatmg the devotees of Jerusalem as those which were afterwards practised by St. Paid, and associated liimsolf with those who had taken on themselves the vow of Nazarites, and apparently " was at charges with them that they might shave then- heads " (Acts xxi. 2't). Josephus, who represents the not over-zealous type of Pharisee wMch was likely to be soothed with this exter- nal conformity, speaks of him in terms of the higliest praise : " Agrippa's temper was mild and equally liljcral to all men. He was humane to foreigners, and made them sensible of his liberality. He was in like manner of a gentle and compassionate temper. He loved to live continually at Jerusalem, and was exactly careful in the observance of the laws of his country. He therefore kept liimself entu-ely pure, nor did any day pass over Ms head without its appointed sacrifice" (4 (liig. xix. 7, § 3). Such wa.s the prince who was now brought face to face with the disciples of Jesus. A German Je^vish historiiin' has ventured on the strength of these facts to suggest that the narrative m Acts xii., which ascribes to liim a systematic policy of persecution, is unintelligible, and therefore iucreilible. The statement is, I believe, the very reverse of the truth. Those who sit loose to religious zeal are quite as likely to adopt a policy of per- secution, when they \vish to gain the favom* of a perse- cuting party, as men who are themselves in earnest. Assuming that the devotion of wMeh Josephus speaks so Mghly was not altogether fictitious, its character was precisely that which takes its tone from the atmo- sphere in which it lives. It was well, we may believe, for the Christian Clrarch that it had time to strike its roots into the ground and spread out its branches whUe Judaja was still imder the government of a Roman procurator. Wlien Agrippa arrived he must have found all the religious parties into wMcli Ms subjects were di^-ided — Pharisees, SadduceoS, Zealots, whatever remained of the old Herodians — watching the gi-owth of the new society 'n-ith fear and suspicion. What more ready way of gaining their favour was there than to make himself tlio representative of their zeal, and to crush the innovators ? Coming as he did from Rome, where, there is reason to believe, the faitli of Christ had already made such progress that Clauihus but a few years afterwards was led to banish all the Jews, in ' Jost, Gischkhk des Judenthums, i., p. 121. THE COINCIDENCES OP SCRIPTURE. 147 order to stop the disturbances which were coutumaUy occurring between the believing and the non-lielie^Tug portions of the population of the Jewish quarter,' it is probable euoiigh, -indeed, that ho came ivith a temper already adverse to the disciples of Jesus, and disposed to look on them as dangerous. It was in every way natural that James, the son of Zebedeo, should be the first victim, not only as one of the fom- whose names always stand first in the hst of the Apostles, but from the antecedents of his personal history. To one who had lived and rided at Tiberias, the names of the two " Sons of Thunder " could hardly have boon imkuown, and James, as in all likelihood the elder of the two, would attract his first notice rather than the younger and more contemplative John. That there was no real humanity in his nature to restrain him from such action may bo inferred from the fact that ho iutrodussd into his kingdom the most detestable of all the forms of the brutal indifference to life wliich characterised the empire, and sent condemned criminals, to the number oi fourteen hundred in one batch, to butcher each other, as gladiators and convicts did at Rome, in the amphi- theatre which he had buUt at Berytus (Joseph., Antiq. xix. 7, § 5). The execution of theguai-ds who had been set to keep watch over Peter, though not more rigorous than usage might justify, is, at least, a sufficient imli- cation of severity. The death of Agrippa, three years after JudtBa had been added to his dominions, put a stop to the persecu- tion, and gave the chm-ches of Judisa time to breathe freely. The circumstances of that death, as told both by St. Luke and Josephus, were eminently characteristic. Agrippa, we are told by the former, was on the very verge of war, and full of hostile purposes, with the neighboui-ing cities of Tyi-e and Sidon. They, with their crowded population and but a narrow and un- productive coast-land, were largely dependent on the plains of Samaria and Galilee for their daily supplies of food, as they had been in the days of Solomon, when in exchange for the timber which the ships of Tyi-e brought from Lebanon he gave Hu-am " twenty thou- sand measures of wheat for food for his household, and twenty measures of oU, year by year " (1 Kings v. 11) ; and in those of Ezekiel, when the merchant city traded \vith " Judah and the laud of Israel " for " wheat of Miuuith, and Pannag, and honey, and oil, and balm " (Ezek. xxvii. 17). Tlie features which Josephus adds to the pictm-e are not less striking. Tho legates of Tyre and Sidon had apparently selected what seemed a favourable opportimity for their request. Agrippa was celebrating games in honour of the emperor, ac- companied with special prayers for his safety. After the fashion which prevailed at Rome, where Caligula disidayod hunseU, even when he personated Hercules, in gold-embroidered dresses, the king appeared before the people ui a robe of silver (tho royal or imperial apparel of Acts xii. 21). which glittered in the morning sun, and made an oration to the people. The servile ' Cjiincidences of Scripture," Vol. I., p. 151. crowd, accustomed to the extravagant homage paid to the emperors, and not sharing tho horror of the more rigorous zealots of Jerusalem at the apotheosis of a fiving CaHgula, raised the cry, " It is the voice of a god, and not of a man." They begged him as a god to be merciful to them, and protect them. And he " gave not God the glory." The blasphemous praise fell on pleased and willing eai's. That had been granted to him which had been refused to Caligula. He accepted the honour against wliich he had then protested. As Joseplms tells tho story, he saw the owl, which re- minded him of the old augury, sitting over his head, knew that his end was come, had sense enough to reprove his flatterers, and to prepare for death, con- gratulating himself, as Augustus had done, that he had played Ms part in the drama of life well, and surroimded by the pageantry and pomp of sovereignty. No sooner, however, had the cm-tain fallen on that tlrama, than those who seemed to be such admu'iug and applaudiug spectators gave vent to the hatred and scorn which lay beneath the sm'f ace, kept high festival in exultation at his death, hurled the vilest reproaches on his memory, and insiilted to the utmost of their power the children whom he had left behind. HEEOD AGRIPPA II. AND BEENICE. Of the four cluldren who were thus left fatherless, three — Agrippa II., Beniice, and DrusiUa — come before us as brought into contact with the history of the Apostohc Church. The son, who was only seventeen at the time of his father's death, had been brought up in the court of Claudius, and was thex'e at the time. The emperor thought liim too yoimg to be entrusted with power, and was probably glad to use the ojipor- tunity of once more placing Judcea under the direct control of a Roman procurator. On the death of Herod, King of Chalcis, a brother of Agrippa I., how- ever, Claudius assig-ned his territory, with the title of king, to the young prince, and afterwards added the two tetrarchies which at the commencement of our Lord's ministry were under Philip and Lysanias. Over Galilee, Samaria, and Judasa he exercised no authority, and was therefore, as compared with his father, httle more than a titular monarch. It is remarkalde that when he appears in the Acts it is in company with Beruiee, as though she shared his power, and though his sister aad not his wife, was recognised as queen. So she appears in Josephus {Wars of the Jews, ii. 16, § 3) as with her brother at Jerusalem, standing by his side, joining her tears with his, so as to soothe the agitation of the people, and again as obtaining by her intercession tho life of a condemned criminal {Life, § 65). There were not wanting those who surmised that the taint of the vices of Caliguhi had infected the children of his friend, and that this ostentatious display implied the existence of an incestuous passion between the two. She, like Herodias, had begun by being the wife of an uncle, the King of Chalcis, just mentioned. After his death she married, chiefly in order to give the lie to 'he dark rumours of her guilt, Polemon, a king of Cilicia, who 148 THE BIBLE EDUCATOR. for her sake became a proselyte, and submitted to cir- cumcision. Tlje marriage was not a liappy one, and her return to her brother increased the suspicions which were floating in men's minds, so that even Roman historians and satirists took the guilt as proven. The fasciuation of her beauty, and probably also of lier ability, wa.s strong enough to win tlie love of the Emperor Titus, and the last glimpse of the life of the Herodian princess is that which displays her as living with him at Rome in the imperial palace as his mistress. Ho was for a time spell-bouud by her, as Cassar and Antony had been by Cleopatra. The amount of public feeling, however, was as strong against the influence of the foreign, the " barbarian " mistress then, as it had been in the earlier case, and Titus, characteristically placing his public duties above his private affections, vrithdrew from her society. " Dimisit iuvitus invitam " is the touching comment of the historian Suetonius.' Tor one memorable day the young king was brought into contact with the great Apostle of the Gentiles, and the circumstances, as recorded by St. Luke, present many striking coincidences with what we know of the man, and of his character, from external sources. He came on a visit of compliment to Eestus, and the history of Josephus shows us that the two liad already been on terms of intimacy at Jenisalom. Agi-ippa had thro^^^l out a banqueting-haU from the old palace of the Asmonajan kings, from the portico of which lie could command a view of the courts of the Temple. The priests and people, knowing something, it may be, of the character of Agrijipa and his guests, resented this, as exposing the services of the sanctuary to the gaze of profane eyes, and ran up a high wall which entirely blocked out the view. The king, in his turn, backed by the authority of Festiis, commanded the wall to be pulled dovm, and woidd have succeeded in demolishing it, had not the Jews .sent an embassy to Nero, and partly on the plea that the wall was part of the Temple, partly through the influence of Poppsea, after her strange fashion a proselyte to Judaism, obtained an order that tho wall should be left as it was. It was not strange that in the interval between the two stages of this transaction, the two men should be found meeting on terms of reciprocated courtesies. We may note, finally, that the " great pomp " of Agrippa was in exact keeping witli his character. Tlie tone of St. Paul's address to Agrippa is one of marked respect throughout. This was, we may beheve, only part and parcel of the demeanour that characterised the great Apostle. But there is ob-i-iously a special stress laid on one aspect of his character. St. Paul welcomes the opportunity of speaking before him, as one who is " expert in all customs and questions which ' The late Dean Alforcl, in the article " Bernioe," in Smith's Diclionori; 0/ the Bible, speaks of her as having been sucoessivclj the mistress both of Vespasian and of his sou Titus. There is nothing, however, in the passage of Tacitus to which he refers (Hist, ii. 81) to lead us to impute to her so shameless a guilt. His words, which state that she won the father's favour by the liberality of her gifts ("Seui quoque Vespasiano muniflceutia munerum grata''), imply, indeed, the very reverse. are among the Jews." He knows that in the question, " Believest thou the prophets ?" he can, without risk of error, assume the answer, " I know that thou believest " (Acts xxvi. 2, 26). There are not a few intimations in Josephus that this character was one which Agrippa especially affected. At liis mtercession, the Emperor Clauilius conceded to the Jews the right of keeping the sacred vestments under their own custody {Antiq. xx. 1, § 2), instead of that of the Roman procurator. The care of the Temple was specially committed to liim by the same emperor. When the Levites, who formed tho choir of the Temple, were anxious to secure the honour of wearing the same linen garments as the priests, it was to Agrippa they applied ; and he accordingly convened a meeting of the Sanhedrim, urged their claim, and so obtained for them the concession on which they had set their hearts. He had displayed just the kind of interest in matters affecting the religion of his subjects which justified the language of St. Paul. The memorable words which, as rendered in our version, have so often furnished preachers vrith a text, " Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian " (Acts xxvi. 28), are now acknowledged by all competent scholars to have no such meaning. Rightly Lntei-preted, as meaning " With a little, sc., with but scanty measure of proof, thou persuadest me to be a Christian," the words are far more strikingly characteristic. He uses for the name of tho new sect that which was essentially Latin in its form, and which had probably by tliis time passed into common currency at Rome. And he speaks alto- gether in the tone of sceptical sarcasm which we might expect to fijid in one who had been the friend of Nero. It wanted something more than an incredible story, as he must have deemed it, of visions and revela- tions of the Lord, such as the experienced governor looked upon as a sign of madness, to induce him to cast in his lot with tho strange sect who bore the new name. Nothing in the king's after life indicates that the words of the Apostle made tho sUghtost impression on him. When the Jewish war broke out, after vainly endeavouring to dissuade the people from their insane resistjince, he unreservedly took the side of the Romans, found an asylum in Rome, corresponded with Josephus, assisted him in compiling his history of the revolt of Judaea and the destruction of Jerusalem, and at last died, A.D. 100, in the early years of tho reign of Trajan. DBUSILXA. One more member of the Herodian family reniains to be noticed, as connected ivith the history of the New Testament. When Paul stood before Felix, tho pro- curator who preceded Festus, and " reasoned of right- eousness, temperance, and judgment to come," the pro- curator had come, we are told, to Ccesarea, accompanied by his vdto " Drusilla, who was a Jewess "' (Acts xxiv. 24), and she was with him when ho sent for tho Apostle and heard him. Here, also, as iu the case of Beniice, there wf.s a beauty of singular attractiveness, and there JOSHUA. 149 liad been a strange career of adventures. During her father's lifetime she had been betrothed to an Eastern piinee, Epiphanes, the son of Antiochus of Commagone, on condition of his becoming a proselyie to Judaism. On the death of the elder Agrippa, that prineo refused to fulfil the condition, and her brother gave her in marriage to Azizus, king of Emesa, who was willing to comply with it. Then Felix appeared on the stage, brother of Pallas, the favoured freedman of the Em- peror Claudius, already conspicuous as having married two princesses, and through the agency of a Cyprian sorcerer named Simon (whom some have identifiiLd with Simon Magus of Acts viii.), prevailed on her to leave her husband, and to live with him. It was not strange that one whose life had been a strange combination of the cruelty of a tyrant with the subser^deucy of a slave, should have trembled, as the burning words of the Apostle fell on his startled oar. They had, however, no permanent effect. The extortionate greed of gain, which was his dominant characteristic, asserted itself immediately in his treatment of the Apostle. He con- tinued to Hve with her, and a son who bore the family name of Agrippa perished in the great eruption of Vesuvius, A.D. 79. SCEIPTUEB BIOGEAPHIES. JOSHUA (continued). BT THE REV. EDMUND VENABLES, M.A., CANON RESIDENTIARY AND PKECENTOK OF LINCOLN. 'he Jordan had now been crossed. The covenant had been renewed. The feet of Israel were at last treading the land promised to their forefathers. The work for which Joshua had been specially commissioned was opening before him. And this work was likely to be long and difficult. Canaan was in the possession of a powerful and warlike people, prepared to resist to the uttermost the attempts of the invaders to dislodge them. Every part of the land bristled -ivith fortresses, " cities liigh and fenced up to heaven." One of the chief of these fortresses, the strong and opulent city of Jericho, now confronted Joshua. Its walls and towers were seen rising above the palm-tree groves, from which it took its distinctive name, " the city of palm- trees" (Dent, xxxiv. 3). The formidable strength of its fortifications might well awaken anxiety evea in the mind of so dauntless a loader. How could his nomad tribe, fresh from desert life, utterly unprovided with engines of war, and destitut-e of the knowledge and skill necessary for the storming of a walled town, hope to take this impregnable fortress P Still, what he could do, Joshua did, and did at once. If he could not storm Jericho, ho miglit starve it into submission. So he beleaguered the city, and commenced a strict blockade, and " Jericho was straitly shut up because of the children of Israel : none went out, and none came in " (Josh. vi. 1). But this siege must necessarily occupy a long time, and all seemed to depend on Israel striking a sudden and decisive blow. Wliile the Israelites were lingering here, might not the other kings of the CajQaanitos gather their armies and come down upon them with irresistible might, and crush the invasion at the outset P And thou, as ever, just when it is most needed, came the renewed assurance of the presence and protection of the Most High. As Joshua was " by Jericho " (Josh. v. 13 — 15), having left the camp it should seem alone, and unaccompanied, to recoimoitre the fortress, and devise means of assault, he was suddenly conscious of the presence " over against him " of an armed warrior, " with his sword drawn in his hand." With characteristic courage he chal- lenged the formidable stranger, and demanded whether he came as friend or foe : " Art thou for us, or for our adversaries?" The unexpected answer, that it was as " captain of the host of the Lord," ' " the Prince of angels," that he had come, and the command, the same given to his great master in Horeb, to " loose his shoe from off his foot " before ho trod ground conse- crated by the Di\'ine Presence, revealed the true nature of this mysterious stranger. Awe-stricken, he fell on his face and worshipped, and heard from Jehovah the assurance which would at once dispel his fears, and remind him that " tho battle was the Lord's," not Israel's — that he had " given into his hand Jericho, its king, and its mighty men of valour" (Josh. vi. 2)» and received the instructions for the capture of the city. In compliance with the Divine command, Joshua mar- shalled his host, not for assault, but for orderly march. For six days — careless of the derisive taunts that may have reached them from tho fighting men on the walls of Jericho, strong in faith that, however unlikely the means employed, God would be true to His promise — did the strange procession circle the doomed city. First marched the warriors, picked men, probably .as representatives of each tribe ; then, blowing the cornet* 1 Tliat " the cnptain of the host of the Lord" was aot a created angel is evident from (1) Joshua receiving from him the same command, to remove his shoes, given to Moses by Jehovah ; (2) his being called Jehovah (vi. 2) ; and (3) bis attributing to himself the delivery of Jericho into Joshua's hand : " Sec, I have given into thy band Jericho." That we have here a manifestation of the Divine Word, the Second Person of the Trinity, was the opinion of the early Jewish Church, and has been held liy many of the Christian fathers— e.g., Justin M.artyr, Eusebius, and Origeu. The real import of this passage has been obscured by the unfor- tunate division of chaps, v., vi. These chapters should liiivo been run on without a break, the first verse of chap. vi. being merely parenthetical, and the words, " And the Lord said unto Joshua, &c." (vi. 2), following in sense " and Joshua did so," at the end of chap, v. isa THE BIBLE EDUCATOR. of jubilee,' eouie the seveu priests, preceding tlio ark, that sacred symbol and seat of Jehovah's presence, borne on the Levites' shoulders, and guarded by " the roar- ward," an armed detachment wliich closed the long line. No sound but that of the priestly triimpets broke the solemn stillness of the array. The host marched in silence. The circuit completed, as it must have seemed, without puri^ose and without i-esult, the army returned to their tents. The ark of God was replaced in its tabernacle. On the seventh day the mocking gazers from the wall became cogiiisant of a changed procedure. To secure time for the gi-eat events which that day was to witness, the procession began at day-break. The fii-st cu-cuit was succeeded by a second ; the second by a third, a fourth, a fifth, a sixth. What was the meaning of this change ? Was some mighty event at hand, for which all that preceded was the preparation P They had not long to wait for the issue. At the com- pletion of the seventh cu'cuit, the blast of the trumpets, which had been suspended for an interval, was renewed. This was the signal for a shout from the entire host. At once the whole circumference of the walls was laid prostrate, and, the barrier removed, " the people wont up into the city, oveiy man straight before him, and they took the city " (vi. 20). As the fii-st-fruits of the guilty land, the whole city Avith all that was Ln it was " devoted " as a sacrifice to the Lord. The whole population was put to the sword, with every living thing the city contauied, " both man and woman, young and old, and ox, and sheep, and ass." Only the faithful harlot, Rahab, with her household was spared, according to the promise of the spies. The city itself was burnt ; the houses, with all their furniture and goods, rich draperies, and costly garments forming a vast funeral pyi'e for the coi-pscs of the slain. The indestructible booty, "the silver and gold, and vessels of brass and iron," was consecrated to the service of the sanctuary. The voi-y site was placed under a ban. A curse was jironounced on any one who should presumptuously dai-e to rebuild the walls which Jehovah had overthrown (vi. 21 — 26). Notliing was omitted that could enforce on the Israelites the truth that they were fighting not for themselves, but for Him; not for wealth or self -aggrandisement, but for Jehovah's glory. The same lesson was taught them by the alarming reverse that attended Joshua's next military operation. Among the confused ravines that run iip westwards from the valley of the Jordan, not very far from Bethel — its exact position is lost — stood the small town of Ai, already known to us in Abraham's history.^ On the report of the reconnoitring pai-ty sent by Joshua, that a small force would suffice, as the inhabitants were 1 The renderinj in the Englisli Bible " tnimpeta of rams' horus," is probably incorrect. It is derived from a statement of Eabbi Akiba that jobel in Arabic means " a ram," whicli Bochart stigmatises as " a mere Rabbinical fable," no Bucb word, according ti) tbe best scholars, existing in tbe language. Johel, from which comes "jubilee," is probably a word formed to express the sound. - Gen. xii. 8 ; xiii. 3. The identity of the places is obscured by a capricious variation in the spelling — one of the blots of our Authorised Version. " Hoi " and " Ai " both represent the same llebrew word. " but few," a detachment of somo 3,000 men was dispatched to take the place. They reached the gate unmolested. But the men of Ai making a sudden sortie, a panic fcU on the Israelite forces, who fled precipitately down the steep descent, without waiting for actual conflict. " Tliey chased them from before the gate, . . . and smote them in the going down " (Josh. vii. 5). The loss was small in amount — only thirty-six men — but its disheartening effect was most serious ; " the hearts of the people melted, and became as water." Even Joshua himself was carried away by the tide of dismay. Only on this one occasion we find his courage, usually so imshaken, giving place to deepest despondency. ThiB was the first time tliat the Israelites had met the Canaanites in actual warfare, and if, almost before a blow was struck, they fled before the warriors of a small town, what would be the issue of the more for- midable engagements which were before them ? Over- whelmed ^^^th shame and apprehension, he " rent his clothes, and fcU to the earth upon hi3 face before the ark of tlie Lord until the eventide, ho and the elders of Israel, and put dust ujiou their heads " (Josh. vii. 6). With the same holy boldness that characterised the appeals of Moses in like distress, he expostulated ■svith God, pleading with Him what He had done for His people in former times, and the disgrace that would redotmd to the cause of the li\-ing God if He permitted His servants to fall before the heathen : " What wilt Thou do for Thy great name ?" Tlie answer of the Most High recalls His words to Moses in a like emergency (Exod. xiv. 15). It was a time for action, not for pas- sionate appeal. Israel had sinned in the person of one of its members, and that sin must be searched out, dis- covered, and put away, before the presence and the help of Jehovah could be again expected : '■ I wiU not be with you any more, except ye destroy the accursed from among you" (^ii. 13). The sin was not theft merely, but sacrilege. That which was to have been wholly devoted to the Lord had been appropriated by one of those whom God had appointed to execute his wiU; "they," the whole nation being compromised by the guilty deed of one, " have even taken of the accursed thing, and have also stolen, and dissembled also, and they have also put it among their own stuff." The lot was to be resorted to, to determine the guilty party. Once more, with that characteristic promptitude we have so often occasion to remark in huu, Joshua " rose up early in the morn- ing," and gathered all Israel together " by then- tribes," fur the solemn decision. Gradually the circle narrowed. Fu-st the tribe ; then the family ; then the household ; then the man was taken ; and " Achan, the son of Zabdi, the sou of Zerah, of the tribe of Jiidah," was declared as " the troubler of Israel." In answer to the solemn adjuration of Joshua, as the father of the nation, to acknowledge the truth,^ the unhappy man makes frank 3 Joshua's appeal to Achan to " give glory to the Lord " by confessing the truth, shows the real meaning of the much mis- understood passage, "give God the praise" (literally, "glory") (John ix. 21). The object of the Pharisees was not to lead the blind man to give God, not Jesns, the glory of his cure ; but by PERFUMES OF THE BIBLE. 151 and fiiU confession of his crime. A rickly embroidered robe from the jilain of Shinar, two hundred shekels of silver, and an ingot of gold among the spoils, had proved an irresistible temptation. He had seen, he had coveted, he had taken thorn. " Behold, they were hidden in the earth in the midst of his tent," Messengers run with all speed, remove the earth at the spot indi- cated, "and behold, it was hid ui the tent, and the silver under it," Sentence and its execution follow immediately, Joshua, with the grim humour of wliicli the Oriental mind is so fond, playing on the similarity of the word acluir, " to trouble," and the name Achan, said, " Why hast thou troubled us ? the Lord shall trouble thee this day," The whole nation had shared in the imputation of guilt and its disastrous conse- quences, and therefore the whole nation, through its representatives, must now take part iu its expiation, "Joshua and all Israel took Achan, and stoned him with stones," To mark more deeply God's detestation of his crime, and its spreading, clinguig taint, hi.s children, who may probably have Ijeen the accomplices of his crime, his cattle, and all that he had, share iu his doom. The corpses are consumed with fire, together with his tent, and the accursed things it had once vainly sought to hide. A great heap of stones, after the manner of primitive peoples, was raised over the spot, which took the name of the Valley of Achor,' i.e. " trouble." And the guilt being thus put away by sacrifice, " the Lord turned from the fierceness of his anger " (vii. 26). defaming our Lord's character, " we know that this man is a sinner," to frighten him into confessing that his was a made-up tale, and that he had never been blind at all. " Make confession unto the Lord" (Ezra x. 11) is literally, "Give praise to Jehovah." Indeed, the Hebrew verb ^''-'^ah, *' to praise," signiiies also, in one of its moods, " to confess." 1 How deeply the memory of this transaction was imprinted on the national mind is evidenced by the references iu the Prophets to " the valley of Achor," as proverbial for a place of trouble. " I will give her the valley of Achor for a door of hope " {Hos. ii. 15) ; *' The valley of Achor shall bo a place for herds to lie down iu " (Isa. Ixv. 10). The renewal of the attack on Ai was not long . deferred. But Joshua would seem to have needed an express command from God, and an assurance of the success of his enterprise, before he could shake of£ the discouragement of the late calaniifies, and prepare himself for action. " Fear not," said the Lord to Joshua, " neither bo thou dismayed ; arise, go up to Ai : see, I have given into thy hand the king of Ai and his people, and his city and liis land" (viii. 1). The plan of the engagement was to be changed. All the men of war— not, as before, a mere detachment — were to join iu the expedition. Instead of the whole booty being burnt, as at Jericho, the soldiers were to be rewarded with the ordinary spoils of victory. The former disaster rendered the most c.iroful generalship necessary. Stratagem was to be employed. A body of soldiers, dispatched overnight, was placed in ambush in a ra\'ine to the rear of the city. Early the- f oUovring morning Joshua followed with his troops to tho neigh- bourhood of Ai. Arrived there, ho posted the main body of the army among the hills to the north, and descended himself by night with, some picked men to the valley immediately below tho walls. Descried with the first dawn, they were promptly attacked by the king of Ai. Their feigned flight promised again an easy victory. Then Joshua detaching himself from tho fugitives as they hastened down the valley, climbed a height from wliich he would be readily ■(•isible to tho various portions of the divided forces, and at God's command, gave the appointed signal l)j' stretching out his spear. The ambush rushed do^^Ti on the city, and pouring iu through its open gates, set it on fire. The retreating party turned round and faced the disconcerted foe ; the main body issued from their place of conceal- ment, and the whole population of Ai were hemmed in and cut to pieces. The city was pillaged and burnt. Its king, who had fallen alive into Joshua's hands, was " hanged on a tree " — probably crucified — and a huge cairn piled over his grave (viii. 10 — 29). THE PEEFUMES OF THE BIBLE. BY GEOEGE 0. M. BIKDWOOD, M.D. EDIN., INDIA MUSEUM. ^ ALBANUM, in Hebrew cheJhenah (Exod. xsx. 31). — Galljanum is yielded by at least two plants of the UmbelliferEe, Ophoidia galbanifera, Don, of Khorassan, and Galhanuiii officinale, Don, of Syi-ia. The passage in Exodus prolmbly refers to the product of the Syrian species, as Dioscorides says tliat x«^/3at'r; is the ix^Tunnov growing in Syria, the -nauiKis iv Supia of Theophrastus. MxEEH, in Hebrew m&i- (Exod. xxx. 23 ; Ps. xlv. 8 ; Prov. vii. 17 ; Song of Songs i. 13 ; v. 6 ; Esth. ii. 12; Matt. ii. 11 ; Jolin xis. 30 ; Mark xv. 23), and lot (Gen. xxx-vii. 25 ; xliii. 11). Truo myrrh, i.e., mur, the Greeks called afiipi/a and li-i^fia (^olic), and Diosco- rides observes that the Troglodytic was esteemed the best. Vaughan distinctly states that myrrh is produced in Arabia, and that in the Soumali countiy, besides tho true myrrli, a kind which the Arabs call baisahol and tlio Soumalis liehbalchadc is obtained. The Bombay inferior myrrh is called baisahol. Ehrenberg dis- covered it t« be the product of the plant named Balsmn- odendron mijrrlui by Nees von Esenbeck. Our positive information on the question has been admirably stated recently by Hanbui-y, tho greatest li\Tng authority on tho bibliography and historical identity of drugs, and of their botany, iu a short paper on the "Botanical Origin and Country of Myrrh," in the PhannaceuticalJournal for April 19th, 1873, and reprinted from Ocean High- ways of the same month. The myrrh, i.e., lot of Gen. 152 THE BIBLE EDUCATOR. xxxvii. 25 and xliii. 11, is ladamtm, in Arabic ladan, the i-esinous exudation of Cistus creticus, C. ladaniferus, and other species of rock roses, which have been iden- tified with the " rose of Sharon." Ontcha, in Hebrew shecheleth (Esod. xxx. 34), and translated by the LXX. 6yv^, "a nail," is the celebrated " odoriferous shell" of the ancients, the operculum of a species of Strombus. I once saw a largo quantity of it as quoted by Sahna-sius in his Plinianw Exercitationes. Another Hebrew word, shuliam, is translated "onyx stone" in Gen. ii. 12 ; Exod. xxviii. 9, 20 ; 1 Chron. xxix. 2 ; Job xxviii. 16 ; and Ezek. xxviii. 13. Saffron, in Hebrew harhoni (Song of Songs iv. 14), the harhum and zafran of the Arabs, Sanscrit Itwa- Icuma, and Kp6K0i of Homer and the Greeks. A native of Cashmere, the Hindu-Kush, and the Caucasus, the Liquidanibar Altingia, Blume. Bolsomodendron Myrrha, Nees von Esenbeck. Weighed out of the Custom House scales in Bombay, and under a native name signifying finger " naUs," but never in fourteen years could get any of it again. It was not perceptibly aromatic, and was probably rather used to bring out in burning the fragrance of other perfumes than on account of its own odoriferous quality. Pliny says of Bactrian bdellium that it " is shining and diy, and covered with numerous white spots, resembling the finger nails." And a pSeWn om^ is described by Damoeritus, an obscure medical writer quoted by Saracenusin his Scholia in Dioscoridis, and by Galen, saffron crocus has been associated with the earliest history of man, and ha-s followed his migration every- where throughout temperate Europe. Crocus, as Lem- priere tells us, was a beautiful youth, enamoured of a beautiful njTnph. and turned into this beautiful flower. Spikenard, in Hebrew nerd (Song of Songs i. 12, and iv. 13, 14), tho i-apSos of the New Testament (Mark xiv. 3, and John xii. 3). Spikenard, quasi spica nardi, is tho root of the Nardostachys Jafamansi, De C, a valerian wort, and a native of Nepaul and Bootan, at great elevations. There can be no doubt that tho PERFUMES OF THE BIBLE. 153 nared or nerd of the Song of Songs, and St. Mark also, iu writing fdfiSoi/ iricrTiKr/s Tro\vTe\ovs (" uardi spicati pretiosi," Vulgate), refer to the Jatamansi or Sumbul root of the Hindoos, which Sir William Jones was the first to identify with spikenard. Dioscorides un- equivocally specifies Jatamansi v&pSos 'IvSik)], called also, as he states, "Gangetic, from the river Ganges." vipSos 'ivSiKri ; (2) sumbul-itaHoo7i,oi uklete {i.e.,K(\TiK7i); (3) sumbul-jiballee (ipetv^); and {4) sumbul-farsee (i.e, 2uptaK-fi). The synonyms of stimbul-hindee they give as narden, Greek; -nardoom, Latin; and jatamansi, Indian: and, moreover, the