^;- THE FOUR GOSPELS, CranslatelJ from tlje (Sreeft. ¦WITH PRELIMINARY DISSERTATIONS, AND NOTES CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY. Bt GEORGE CAMPBELL, i>.T>. F.R.S. Edinburgh. FMNCIFAL OF THE MARISCHAL COLLEGE, ABERDEEN. IN FOUR VOLUMES. VOL. IV. SECOND EDITION, WITH THE AUTHOR'S LAST CORRECTIONS. MONH 0TTEON TH AAH0EIA, abf rlieen : Printed by J. Chalmers & Co. FOR T. tIADELL AND W. DAVIES, LONDOlJj W. CREECH, EDINBURGH; AND A. BROWN, ABERDEEN. 1804. ADVERTISEMENT. JLT is proper to observe that, in the following Notes, repetitions and unnecessary references are, as much as possible, avoided. When an useful illustration of any word or phrase is to be found in the Notes on one ofthe succeeding Gospels, the place is commonly re ferred to ; not so, when itis in one of the preceding, because it may probably be remembered ; and if it should not, the margin of the text will. direft to the places proper to be consulted. But when the explanation of a term occurs in the Notes on a preceding Gospel, on a passage not marked in the margin as parallel, the place is men tioned in the Notes. In words which frequently recur, it has been judged convenient to adopt the following ABBREVIATIONS. Al. Alexandrian manuscript Eng. English An C Anonymous Eng. transla- X tion in 1729 Er. Erasmus Xllla Eth. Ethiopic Ar. Arias Montanus Euth. Euthymius Ara. Arabic Fr. French Arm. Armenian G. E, Geneva English Be. Beza G.F. Geneva French Beau Beausobre and Lenfant Ger. German Ben. Bengelius Go. Gothic Cal. Calvin Gr. Greek Cam. Cambridge manuscript Gro. Grotius Cas. Castalio Ham. Hammond Cha. Chaldee Heb. Hebrew Chr. Chrysostom Hey. Hey lyn. Com. Complutensian edition J. John Cop. Coptic Ite. Italic Dio, Diodati Itn. Italian Diss. Dissertation L. Luke Dod. Doddridge La. Latin E. B 5 English Bible — in com- i mon use Lu. Luther L. Cl. Le Clerc E. T f English tranlation — the ¦ same. M. G Modern Greek Mr. Mark MS. ABBREVIATIONS. Manuscript Si. Matthew Sj. New Testament The. Old Testament Vat. Part Vui. Port Royal translation Wa. Persic Wes. Piscator Wet. Rhemish Wh. Saci Wor. Saxon Wy. Scott Zu. Septuagint MS. Mt. N. T. O.T.P. P. R. Per. Pise. Rh. Sa. Sax. Sc.Sep. If there be a few more contraftions not here specified, they arp such only as are in pretty general use. In terms which occur sel domer, the words are given at length. Simon Syriac TheophylaftVatican manuscript VulgateWakefield Wesley Wetstein WMtby Wor«tey Wynne Zuric translation. NOTES NOTES CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORT. THE GOSPEL BY MATTHEW. THE TITLE. i. HE title, neither of this, nor of the other, histories of our Lord, is to be ascribed to the penmen. But it is manifest, that the titles were prefixed in the earliest times, by those who knew the persons by whom, and the occasions on which, these writings were com posed. For the sense wherein the word Gospel is here used, see Prel. Diss. V. P. II. § i8i ^ Koe!* MoISaiovi according to Meitthew, of Matthew, or by Matthew. These are Synonymoiis, as has been evinced from the best authorities. Cas. rendered it authore Mcitthceo, properly enough. Nor is this, aS' Be. imagines, in the least repugnant to the claim of the Evangelists tb inspiration. Paul does not hesitate to Call the doftrine with which he was inspired his Gospel. Nor does any man at preserit stnjple to call the Epistles written by that Apostle, Paulas Epistles. 3 To K«I« Mx\9-aiot e!)«yysA(e». I have preferred this to every other title, because it is not only the briefest and the simplest, but incomparably the oldest, and therefore the most respcftable. All the ancient Gr. MSS. have it. The titlfes in the old La. version called Ite. were simply Eifungelium secuhdum Matthdeum — Secundum Marcum, &c. and in the raost ancient MSS. and even editions of the present Vulgate they are the saifle: From the writings of the Fathers, both Gr. and La. it appears that the title was retained everywhere in the same simplicity, as &r down as the fifth century. Afterwards, ^vhen, through a vitiated taste^ useless epithets came VOL. ir> ' A much 3 - NOTES ON, CH.I. much in vogue, ^ some could not endure the nakedness of so simple a title. It then became SatiBum Jesu Christi Evangelimti secundum- Matthceum, is'c. which is that used in the Vui. at present. The N. T. printed at Alcala (called the Complutensian Polyglot) Is the first Gi-. edition wherein a deviation was made. In this respeft, from the primitive siraplicity. The title is there in conformi ty to the Vulgate, printed along with it, Tm x«t« Mxidami k'/iov .ivayyiy.tav. This mode was adopted by some subsequent editors. Most of the translators into modern languages havejgone farther, and prefixed'' the same epithet to the name ofthe writer. Thus Dio. In lin. II santo evnngelioj &LC. secondo- S, Matteo. The tl'anslators of P. R. Si. Sa. Beau, and L. Cl. in Fr. Le sainte evangile, &c. selon Saint Matthieu. Our translators after Lu- have not given the epi thet to the Gospel, but have added it to the writer. Yet they have not prefixed this term to the names even of the Apostles in the titles of their Epistles. In this I think they are singular. The learned Wet. in his excellent edition of the Gr. N. T. remarks that though the term corresponding to Gospel occurs in that book upwards of seventy times, it is not once accompanied with the epithet holy. CllAP. I. I. The lineage, E. T. The hook of the generatioh. SilSXt; yi- ntnuq. This phrase, which corresponds tothe Heb. nilbin ISD ,- sepher tholdoth, is supposed, by some, to be the title of the first seventeen verses only ; by others, of the whole book.! The foi-mer In effeft translate it as I have done ; the latter The History. ' That in the first of these senses, and also for an ac count of- progeny, the Gr. phrase is used by Hellenist writers, is undeniable ; it is not so clear that It is used in the second, for a narrative of a man^s life. It is true we sometimes find ,it where it can mean neither genealogy nor list of descendants, as in that phrase in the Sep. BifiXoi yinnoi sg«vsis»«; ynt. Gen. ii. 4. the, meaning of which Is, doubtless, the origin and gradual produBion of the universe, which has plainly some analogy, though a remote ode, to an account of ancestiy. The quotations which have been produced on the other side, from the Pentateuch, Judith, and the Epistle of James, do not appear decisive of the question. Of still less weight is the riame Sepher toledoth Jesu, given to paltry, modem, Jewish CH.I. : S. MATTHEW. 3 Jewish. fiftions, vfrltten in opposition to the Gospel ; though this also has been urged as an argument. ' Christ, Xg(s-«f, without the article. Is here to be understood, not as an appellative, as it is in almost all other places of the Gospel, -but as a proper name. Into this use it came soon after our Lord's resurredtion, but not before. Some distinftion was necessary,^ as at that time the narae Jesus was common among the Jews. Diss. V. P. IV. § 7. 3 Scin, iitn indefinitely, not -as vm the son emphatically. The sense is rightly rendered by Cas. prognati Davide, a descendant of David. There is a modesty and simplicity in the manner in which the historian introduces his subjeft. He says no more than is ne cessary to make his readers distinguish the person of Whom he speaks, . leaving them to form their judgment of his^ mission and charafter, from a candid but unadorned narration of the fafts. 2. Judah, &c. My reason for preferring the O. T. orthography of propernames you have Diss. XII. P. III. J 6, &o. 6. By her who had been wife of Uriah. Ea rns t» Ov^m. Lite rally, By hef- of Uriah. Itis not just to say that the feminine ar ticle thus used denotes the wife. The relation is in this phrase nei ther expressed, nor necessarily implied, but is left to be supplied from the reader's knowledge of the subjeft. We have no idiom la . English entirely similar. That which comes nearest is svhen we give the names, but suppress the relation, on account of its notori ety. Thus, if h were said, that Dayid had Solomon hy Uriah'' s JSfl/z&j'Af^fl, every body would be sensible that the expression does . not necessarily iraply that Bathsheba was the ivife, more than the widow, the daughter, or even the sister of Uriah. We have an in stance In Mark xvi. I. M«gj« 'yi ts Ihku^h, where the void must be supplied by the word ^-nnig 'mother. The like holds of the masculine. In Afts, i. 13. losxa/Ss AXipajs, must be supplied by vt(^, son ; and in Luke, vi. 16. Is?s«a, Uk^/Ss, by «^eA(p«v, brother. What therefore is really implied, in any particular case, can be learnt only from a previous acquaintance with the subjeft. Hence we discover that the ellipsis in this place cannot be supplied by the word wife ; for ¦ when Uriah was dead, he could not be a husband. Those therefore who render sa m? ts Ou^is of Uriah'' s wife, charge the historian with " A 2 . ^. 4 . NOTES ON CK. r. a blunder of which he is not guilty, and mislead careless readers in to the notion that Solomon was begotten in adultery. The com mon version exhibits the sense with sufficient exaftness. 8- UoiOiiah,. -rn Otfci-i. So the Sep., renders this name in Gr. 2 Chr. xxvi.' 3. Whereas Aha'z.iah is by them, rendered 0;^;i>^(«f . Some names are omitted in the line, in whatever way it be rendered here ; for though Ahaziah was indeed the son of Joram, Uzziah was the father of Jotham. II. Some copies read, Josiah begat Jeholachin ; Jehoiachin had Jeconiah, &c. and this reading has been adopted into some editions. But there is no authority from ancient MSS. translations, or com mentaries, for this reading, which seems to Kave sprung from some over-zealous transcriber, who, finding that there were only thirteen in either the second series or the third, has thought it necessary thus to supply the defeft. For if Jeholachin be reckoned in the second series; Jeconiah may be counted the first of the third, and then the whole will be complete. But aS, in very early times, the Fathers found tlie same difficwlty in this passage which we do at present,. there is the greatest ground to susgeft the correftlon above men tioned. II, il. About the time of the migration into Babylon. After the migration into Babylon, sa-» ts; iKSToixsnccj BatiuA«v(^. Metos t>iv fiui- ¦ftiiiKridt'.'B'x^vXar^-. In the. La. versions, the word ^sTofxeo-ia is dif ferently translated. The Vui. Arias, and Leo de Juda, render it transmigratio. Be. transportatio. Pise, deportatio, Er. Cal. and Cas. exilium, Lu. In Ger. calls it gefanjfixtfg, Dio. in Itn. cattivita, Si^and L. Cl. itl Fr. transmigration. G. F. P. R. Beau, and Sa. adopt a cir- curalocutioh, employing the verb transporter. , Thc E. T. says, a- hout the time they were carried a-way to Babylon. After they ivere . Drought to Babylon. In nearly the same way the words are render ed by Sc. Dod. renders them, About the time of th§ Babylonish captivity. After the Babylonish captivity. Wa. says, the removal to Babylon. It is evident,, not only from the word employed by the sacred historian, but also from thie context, that he points to the aft of removing into Babylon, and not to the termination of the state wherein the people remained seventy years after their removal as the eventwhich concluded the second epoch, and began the third inentioned in the J7th ver?e. Whereas the La. exilium, Ger. CH.I. S. Jii AT THEW. 5 Befansnifsf, Itn. cattivita, and Eng. captivity, express the state of t'he people during all that period, and by consequence egreglously misrepresent the sense. They make the author say what is not true, that certain persons were begotten after, w'ho were begotten during, the captivity. Furth/sr, it deserves to be remarked that, as this Apostle wrote, in tTie opinion of all antiquity, chiefly for the converts from Judaism, he. carefully avoided giving any unnecessary offence to his countrymen. The ternis captivity, exile, transporta tion, subjeBion, were offensive, and, with whatever truth they iriight be applied, tbe Jews could not easily bear the. application. A .re markable instance of their delicacy in this respeft, the effeft of na tional pride, we have in J. viii. 33. where they boldly assert their uninterrupted freedom and indepehdency, in contradlftion, both to their own historians, and to their own experience at that very time. This humour had led them to express some disagreeable events, which they could not altogether dissemble by the softest names they could devise. Of this sort is fUTaixsirta, by which they expressed the most direful calamity that had ever befallen that nation. The word Sti'iftly signifies no more than passing from one place or Statte to another. It does not even convey to the mindrwhether the cljange was voluntary or forced. For this reason we must admit that Be. Pise. Beau. Sa. and fhe E. T- Tiave all departed, though not so far as Cas. Lu. Dlq. and Dod. from the more indefinite, and therefore more delicate expresdon of the originail, and even from that of the Vul. from which Sa''s ver sion is professedly made. For tlie -words used by all these imply compulsion. .Nor let it be imagined fhat, because fiir,atrui captivitas, and never 3(a»o^(S» transportatio, but by one or other of these gent ler names, }i,iytnt.ut, funomirut,, a-jcumia,, and a-umx-ui-i^, colonia, migra- tio, demigratio, incolatits seu hahitatio in terra aliena. On the '¦A3 ' -whole, 6 NOTESOSi cn. i. whole, the Vul. SI, L. Cl. and Wa. have hit the iraport of the o- rigirlal more exaftly than any of the other translators above men tioned. I did not think the term transmigration so proper in our language, that word being In a manner appropriated to the Oriental doftrine of the passage of the soul, after death, intp another body. Emigration is at present, I imagine, more commonly used, when the removal is voluntary. The simple term migration seems fully to express the meaning of the original. l6. Messiah, ^giros. For the import of the word, see Diss. V. p. IV. J 9. 1 8. Jesus Christ. The Vul. omits Jesu, and Is followed only by the Per. and Sax. versions. 19. Being a worthy man, ^tx.a.t(^ av. Some would have the word ^Mcit^, in this place, to signify good-natured, humane, merciful ; because, tp procure the infllftion of the punishment denounced by *the law, cannot be deemed unjust, without impeaching the law. Others think that it ought to be rendered, according to its usual signification, just ; and imagine that it was the wiriter's intention to remark two qualities in Joseph's charafter ; first, his strift justice, which would not permit him to live with an adulteress as his wife ; secondly, his humanity, which led hira to study privacy, in his me thod of dissolving the marriage. Herein, say they, there can be no ' injustice, because there are many things, both for compensation and punishment, which the law entitles, but does not oblige, a man to* exaft. Though this interpretation is specious, it Is not satisfaftoryj for if the writer had Intended to express two distlnft qualities in Jo seph's charafter, which dr£w him different ways, 1 think he would have expressed himself differently: as thus, Though Joseph was a just man, yet being unwilling, &c. whereas the manner in which he has connefted the clauses, seems to raake the latter explanatory of the former, rather than a contrast to it. It has indeed been said, that the participle m sometiraes admits being interpreted though. In proof of this. Mat. vil. 11. and Gal. ii. 3. have been quoted. But the construftion is not similar In either passage. Here the m is coupled with another participle by the conjunftion r-cti. In the' places referred to, it Is Immediately followed by,a verb in the In dicative. In such cases, to which the present has no resemblance, the CH.I, NOTES ON 7 the yif6rds connefted may give th'e force of an adversative to the participle. On the other hand, I have ngt seen sufficient evidence for rendering §(x«io; humane or merciful : for though these virtues be sometimes comprehended under the term, they are not specially indicated by it. I have therefore chosen a middle way, as more unexceptionable than either. Every body knows that the word ^x.iuoi admits two senses. The first is just, in the striftest accepta tion, attentive- to the rules of equity in our dealings, particularly what concerns our judicial proceedings. The second is righteous in the most extensive sense, including every essential part of a good charafter. In this sense it is equivalent, as Chr. remarks, to the e- pithet svagsTos, virtuous, worthy, upright. And in this not uncom mon sense of the word, the last clause serves to exemplify the cha rafter, and not to contrast it. ¦^ To expose her, avrA» itct^ct^w/fteilKrcct. E. T. to make her a pub lic example. In order to express things forcibly, translators of ten, overlooking the modesty of the original, say more than the au thor intended. It has not, however, been sufficiently adverted to. In this instance, that by extending the import of theword -Ttct^ciiuy- ftciltirttt, they diminish the charafter of benignity ascribed, by the historian, to Joseph. It was not the writer's intention to say bare ly, that Joseph was unwilling to drag her as a criminal before the judges, and get the ignominious sentence of death, warranted by law, pronounced against her, which few perhaps would have done more than he ; but that he was desirous to consult privacy in the man ner of dismissing her, that he' might, as little as possible, wound her reputation. The word appears to me to denote no more than making the affair too flagrant, and so exposing her to sharae. So the Syrian in terpreter, and the Arabian, understood the terra. I have tfi erefore chosen here to follow the example ofthe Vul. Leo. and Cal. who ren der the wrords, earn traducere, rather than that of Cast, and Pise. who render them, in eam exemplum edere, and eam exemplum facere, which have been followed by our translators. The expressions used by these naturally suggest to our minds a condemnation to suffer the rigour of the law. Yet the original word seems to relate solely to the disgrace resulting from the opinion of the public, and not to any other punishment, corporal or pecuniary. Infamy is, indeed, a commpn attendant on every sort of public punishment. Hence by a .A 4 synec 8 NOTES ON CH. I. synecdoche of a part for the whole, it has been sometimes employed to express a public and shameful execution. And this has doubtless occasioned the difficulty. But that it is frequently and most properly used, when no punishment is meant, but the publication of the crirae^ Raphelius, in his notes on the place, has, by his quotations from, the most approved authors, put beyond a doubt. I shall bring one out of many. It is from Polybius, Legat. 88. where he says, 'H h iruyxXtiT(^ p^^Ufiivyj T« xxi^a, Kat fiay^efuvn IIAPAAEirMATISAI tbs PoSis?, ctTTex^iiriv s|s€«A£v iis fi« r» e-vH}(,t rtivr». " The senate tak- " ing the opportunity, and willing to expose the Rhodians, pub- " lished their answer, whereof these are the heads." I shall only add, that Chr. one of the most eloquent of the Gr. fathers, under stood this passage in the Gospel as meaning no more ; accurately distinguishing between va^aSeryftali^eiv and KoXa^ets, exposing and punishing. Thus he argues concerning Joseph's conduft on this trying occasion : K»(T«ys a IIAPAAEirMATISMOY jkohoh ^v vinv^vi^ i Tciavrrf «A.Ai» »«( KOAAZE2)0AI eivr-0 o ve/a®,- ixiXevtt. AAA' « lutDjCp u fiivav TO fin^ov iKHVo, oKha, xat to eAcsttsv FavE^a^jjirs, tij» aio-^y- r/iV 8 y«g fiOMii « KOAASAI, «AA' ah IIAFAAEirMATISAI s6sAet». " Now such a woman (as Mary was then thought to be) was '' not only exposed to shame, but also by law subjefted to punish- **f ment. Whereas Joseph not only reraitted the greater evil, the '' punishment, but the less also, the ignominy ; for he determined " not only not to punish, but not even to expqse her." For the meaning of a term which occurs in so few places in Scripture, and those not unfavourable to the explanation given, a term witll which no ancient controversy was connefted, the authority of such a man as Chr. is justly held decisive. The verdift of Euth. is in effeft the same. This also is the sense which the translator into M. G. gives the term, saying, ft-ti S-sAovt*; ia iyi-i (pan^arni, adding as an il lustration on the margin, i/« tjjv wofts-Ei}'-.), to defame her. 3 To divorce her, aso-hva-ai av-rtiti. In the N. T. the word axoAu- «v is the ordinary term for divorcing a wife, and thereby dissolving the marriage. Nor did it make any difference in the Jewish com monwealth, that the parties were only betrothed to each other, and that the marriage was not completed by cohabitation. From the moment of their reciprocal engagement, all the laws in relation to m V. 20, his wife; the dissolution oftheir contraft is ex pressed by the same word that is uniformly used for the dissolutisn of marriage by the divorce pf the wife. I have prefetred here, and in other places, the term divorcing, to that of putting dway. The latter phrase is very ambiguous. Men are said to put away their wives, when they put them out of their houses, and will not live with them. Yet the marriage union still subsists ; and neither party is at Uberty to marry another. This is not what is meant by a-troXvuv T)i» yviaixa in the Gospel. Now a divorce with them might be very private. It required not, as with us, a judicial process. The de termination of the husband alone was sufficient. Deut. xxiv. i, 3. The utmost, in point of form, required by the rabbles, (for the law does not require so much) was that the writing should be delivered to the ¦wife, in presence of twp subscribing witnesses. It "was not even neces sary that they should know the cause of the proceeding. They were called solely to attest the faft. Now as the instrument itself made no mention of the cause, and as the praftice of divorcing, on the most trifling pretences, was become common, it hardly affefted a wo man's reputation, to say, that she had been divorced. I should in some places prefer the term repudiate, Vere It in more familiar use. 20. A messenger, ayysA®-. Diss. VIII, P. III. \ 9, &c. 22. Verified, -sr'K-ii(aH. 'E..T. fulfilled. Though it should be ad mitted, that the word srMg'i'in is here used in the striftest sense, to express the fulfilment of a prophecy, which pointed to this single event ; it cannot be denied that the general import of the verb arAji- ^oa, la the Gospel, is more properly expressed by the Eng. verb verify, than by fulfil. Those things are said arAnjaS-iiiiae*,. which ¦are no prediftions ofthe future, but mere affirmations concerning the present, or the past. Thus, ch.ii. 15. a declaration from the Pro phet Hosea, xi. I. which God made in relation to the people of Is rael, whom he had long before recalled from Egypt, is applied by the historian allusively to Jesus Christ, where all that is meant Is, that, with equal truth, or rather with much greater energy of sig nification, God might now say, Ihave recalled my Son out of Egypt. Indeed the import of the Greek phrase, as commonly used by the * sacred 13 NOTES ON CH. f. sacred writers. Is no more, as L. Cl. has justly observed, than that> such words of any of the Prophets may , be applied with truth tp ' such an event. For It is even used, where that which is said to be fulfilled is not a prophecy, but a command ; and where the event spoken of is not tbe obedience of the command (though the term is sometimes used In this sense also), but an event similar to the thing required; and which, ifl may so express myself, tallies with the words. Thus, in the direftians given about the manner of pre paring the paschal lamb, it Is said, Exod. xii. 46. None of his bones shall be broken. This saying tbe Evangelist J. xix. 36. finds veri fied in what happened to our Lord, when the, legs ofthe criminals, whp were crucified with him, were broken, and his were spared. ' But were not the recall of Israel from Egypt,- and the ceremonies ' of the passover, typical of what happened to pur Lord ?' I admit they were. But It is not the correspondence of the antitype to the type, that we call properly fulfilling : this English word, if I mistake not. Is, in striftness, applied only, either to an event to ¦which a prophecy direftly points, or to the performance ofa pro mise. Whereas the Greek word Is sometimes employed in Scrip ture, to denote little raore than a coincidence In sound. In this sense I think It is used, ch. ii. 23. We have an Instance of Its being employed by the Seventy, to denote verifying,, or confirming, the testimony of one, by the testimony of another, i Kings, i. 14. The word fulfilling. In our language, has a much more Hmited sig nification : and to employ It for all those purposes, is to give a han dle to cavillers, where the original gives none. It makes the sa cred penmen appear to call thosc things prediftions, which plainly were not, and wJiIch they never meant to denominate prediftions. 1 he most- apposite word that I could find in English is verify ; for, though it will not answer in eyery case. It answers In more cases than any other bf our verbs. Thus, a prophecy is verified (for the word Is strictly applicable here also), when it is accomplish ed ; a promise, when it is performed ; a testimony, when It is con firmed by additional testimofly, or other satisfaftory evidence ; a jnaxim or proverb, when it is exemplified ; a declaration of any kind may be said to be verified by any incident to which the words can- be applied. I acknowledge tlixit this word does not, in every case, correspond to s-Asigoa. A law- is fulfilled, not verified-, and if CH.I. S. MATTHEW. II if the import of the passage be tP denote that additional strength is given to it, It is better to say confirmed, or ratified. In some pla ces it means to fill up, in others to perfeB'y in others to make known. Thus ranch I thought it necessary to observe, in regard to my fre quent use of a verb which is but rarely to be found in other Eng. translations. - lm wX-^e^ah, literally, thatit might be verified. The conjunc tion, in all such cases, denotes no more, than that there was as ex aft a conformity between the event and the passage quoted, as there could have been, if the former had been effefted, merely for the acconiplishment of the latter. God does not bring about an event, because some Prophet had foretold it : but the Prophet was inspired to foretel it, because God had previously decreed the event. If such particles as Ua, or i-jra?, were to be always rigorously inter preted, we should be led into the most absurd conclusions. For instance, we should deduce from J. xix. 24. that the Roman sol diers. Pagans, who knew nothing of holy v/rit, afted, in dividing our Lord's garments, and casting lots for his vesture, not from any "desire of sharing the spoil, but purely with a view that the Scrip tures relating to the Messiah might be fulfilled ; for it is said that they resolved on this measure, trnx, n ygaip-/) s-Aji^a^ij i5 T^iyaa-et. — See Rote on ch. viii. 17. 3 In all this — was verified. tkIo Ss oAoh yiymu; ita jrAijgaSvi. Chr. and some others have considered this and v. 23. as spoken by the ingel to Joseph ; 1 consider these verses as containing a remark of the evangelist. By messages from heaven, particular orders are communicated, and particular revelations given. But I do not find this method taken, for teaching us how to interpret former revela tions: whereas such applications of scripture are common with the evangelists, and with none more than with Mt. The very phrase Ti(I« h oAo» yiytvev, with which this is introduced, he repeatedly employs in other places, (ch. xxi. 4. xxvi. ^6.) Add to all this, that the interpretation given of the narae Immanuel, God with us, IS more apposite, in the mouth of a man, than in that of an an gel- 23.' The -virgin, i ira^^iv®-', I do not say that the vartlcle is al ways emphatical, though It IS generally so ; or that there is a parti cular emphasis On it, in this passage, as It stands in the Gospel. But 12 NOTES ON CH.I. But the words are in tliis place a quotation ; and it is proper that the quotation should be exhibited,' when wi;rranted by the original, as it is in the book quoted. Both the Sep. and the Heb. in the passage of Isaiah referred to, introduce the name virgin with the article ; and as in this they have been copied by the Evangelist, the article ought doubtless to be preserved in the translation. 25. Her first-born san, r«» vioy aOrti; rev fr^aloTtxtv. As there were certain prerogatives, which, by the Jewish constitution, be lpnged to primogeniture, those entitled to the prerogatives were in variably denominated the first-born, whether the parents had issue afterwards or not. Nothing, therefore, in relation to this point, can be inferred from the epithet here used. The turn which Mr. Wes. and others, have given the expression in their versions, her son, the first-horn, though to appearance more Uteral, is neither so natural nor so just as the comraon translation. It is founded on the repetition of the article before the word first-born. But is it possible that they should not have pbserved, that nothing is more common in Gr. when an adjeftlve follows its substantive, especially ifa pronoun or other word intervene, than to repeat the article be fore the adjeftlve ? This is indeed so common, that it is accounted an idiom of the tongue, insomuch that, where it Is omitted, there .appears rather an ellipsis In the expression. Sc. in his notes on this verse, has produced several parallel expressions from Scripture, which it would be ridiculous to translate in the same manner ; and which therefore clearly evince that there is no emphasis in th^ idiom. 2 In regard to the preceding clause, Joseph knew her not, until £«5 'b ; all we can say, is, that it does not necessarily imply his knowledge of her afterwards. That the expression suggests the afiirmative rather than the negative, can hardly be denied by any candid critic. The quotations, produced in support ofthe contrary opmion, are not entirely similar to the case in hand, as has been proved by Dr. Wh. in his comraentary. And as there appears here no Hebraism, or peculiarity of idiom, to vindicate our giving 3 different turn to the clause, I cannot approve Beau.'s manner of rendering it, though not materially different in sense : Mais il ne P avoit point connu lors qu'^elle mit au monde son fils premier ne. The P. R. translation and Si.'s are to the same purpose. The only rea- cfj.ii. S. MATTHEW, 13 son which a translator could have here for this slight deviation, was a reason which cannot be justified; to render the Evangelist's ex pression more favourable, or at least less unfavourable, to his own sentiments. But there is this good lesson tp be learnt, even from the manner wherein some points have been passed pver by the sa- ^^'«*cred writers; namely, that pur curiosity in regard to them is im pertinent ; and that our controversies concerning them savour little ofthe knowledge, and less pfthe spirit, ofthe Gospel. CHAP. II. I. Eastern Magians, fiayot avro avarcXav. E. T. wise men from the East ; rendering the word ftayoi, as though it were synonymous with (Toipoi. This isnot only an indefinite, but an improper ver-' sion ofthe term. It is indefinite, because those called fnayot, were. a particular class, party, or profession among the Orientals, as much as Stoics, Peripatetics, and Epicureans, were among the Greeks. They originated in Persia, but afterwards spread into other coun tries, particularly into Assyria and Arabia, bordering upon Jiidea on the East. It is probable that the Magians here mentioned came from Arabia. Now to employ a term for specifying one seft, which may, with equa^ propriety, be applied to fifty, of totally different, or even contrary, opinions, Ls surely a vague manner of translating. It is also, in the present acceptation of the -word, improper. .For merly the term viise men denoted philosophers, or men of science and erudition ; it is hardly ever used so now, unless in burlesque. Dod. perhaps conies nearer, in using the term sages : as this term i» sometimes appropriated, though seldom seriously in prose, to men of study and learning : but it is still too indefinite and general, since it might have been equally applied to Indian Bramins, Gr. philosophers, and many others ; whereas the term here eraployed is applicable to one seft only. This is,' therefore, one of those cases wherein the translator, that he may do justice to his author, and not mislead his readers, is obliged to retain the original term. Diss. VIII. P. II, § I. Sc. and others say Magi; I have preferred, Prideaux's term Magians ; both as having more the form of an JEng. word, and as the singular Magian, for which there is occa- sion 14 NOTES ON CH. n. sion in another place, is much better adapted to our ears, especial ly when attended with an article, than Magus. The studies ofthe Magians seem to have lien, principally in astronomy, natural philo sophy, and theology. It is from them we derive the terms magic and magician, words which were doubtless used originally in a good, but are now always used in a bad, sense. 2. We have seen his star in the east country, Hio.ftiv avrss rov «5-£|«5 sv T» avanM. E. T. we have seen his star in the East. To see- either star or meteor in the East, means in Eng. to see it in the east quarter of the heavens, or looking eastwards.- But this Ts not the Apostle's meaning here. The meamng here manifestly is, that when the Magians themselves were in the East, they saw the star. So far were they from seeing the star in the East, according to the Eng. acceptation of the phrase, that they mUst have seen it in the West, as they were, by its guidance, brought out of the east coun try westwards to Jerusalem. Thus the plural of the same word, in the preceding verse, signifies the countries lying east from Judea, fiaym aTre ava\ii>,uv. Some render the phrase iv rti avaioXvi, at its rise. But, ist. The words in that case ought to have been, tv r-n KvaroM aum ; 2dly, The term is _ never so applied In Scripture to any of the heavenly luminaries, except the sun ; 3dly, It is very improbable that a luminous -body, formed solely for guiding the Magians to Bethlehem, would appear to perform the diurnal revo lution of the heavens from East to West. The expression used in Lu's version, tm ntorgentanB?, coincides entirely with that here em ployed. '* Jb do him homage, ^^os-xwtiirai aura. The homage of prostra tion, which is signified by this Gr. word, in sacred authors, as well as in profane, was, throughout all Asia, commonly paid to kings and other superiors, both b^ Jews and by Pagans. It was paid by Moses to his father-in-law, Exod. xviii. 7. called in the E, T. obeisance. The instances of this application are so numerous, both in the O. T. and in the N. as to render more quotations unneces sary. When God Is the objeft, the word denotes adoration in the highest sense. In old Eng. the term worship was Indifferently used of both. It is not commonly so now. 4. The chief priests, Ta; a^-^ag^^s. By the term a§;(j^a)C'i-t « IV toi; i)ys^oin> l8§«. E. T. Art not the least among the ¦princes of Judah, The term iyifcm, in' this place, denotes illustri ous, eminent. The metaphor prince, applied to city. Is rather harsh m -modern languages. It is remarked, that this quotation agrees not exaftly either with the Heb. text, or with the Gr. version. , There appears even a contradiftion in the first clause to both these, as In thera there is no negative particle. The most approved way of reconciling thera, is hy supposing that the words in the Prophet are an interrogation, which, agreeably to the idiom of most lan guages. Is eq-LiIvalent to a negation. On this hypothesis we must read in the O. T. Art thou the least ? And in written language, an interrogation is not always to be distinguished from a declaration; though in speaking it may, by the emphasis, be clearly distinguish able. But, whatever be in this, it ought to be- observed, that the quotation is only reported by the Evangelist, as part of the answer returned to Herod, by the chief priests and the scribes, 7. Procured from them exaB information, tix^i^us-i .-pra^ avruv. E. T . Inquired of them diligently. In conformity to this Is the great er part of modern translations. The Vul. renders it diligenter didicit ab eis, making very rightly the Import of the verb axgiSoa tp lie chiefly, not In the diligence of the enquiry,- but in the success ofit. Agreeable i6 NOTES ON > cH.ji. Agreeable to this are most of the ancient versions, particularly the Sy. and the Ara. Dod. and Sc. have preferred these, and rendered the wordsj Got exaB information from them. That this is more conformable to the import of the word, is evident from v. l6. where Herod raakes use of the information he had gotten, for direfting his emissaries in the execution of the bloody purpose on which they were sent ; according to the time (as our translators express it) -which he had diligently inquired of the wise men. This is not perfeftly in telUgible. It could not be the questions put by, Herod, but the answers returned by the Magians, which could be of use #r 4ireft- ing them. But, though the versions of Sc. and Dod. are preferable to the common one, they do not hit entirely the meaning of the Gr. word. It, signifies, indeed,^ to get exaft information, but not ac cidentally, or anyhow; it Is only in consequence of inquiry, orat lea;st of means used on the part of the informed. Be. has not badly rendered the verb, exquisivit, searched out, denoting both the means employed, and the effeft. The better to show that this was; his idea, he has given this explanation in the margin, Certo et explo- rate cognovit. ' ^ ' - 12. Being warned in a dream, ^g-njianir^hvref xal' eva^. E. T. Being warned of God in a dream. With this agree some ancient, , an4 most modern, translations, introducing the term response, oracle, divinity, or something equivalent. The Syr. has preserved the simplicity of the original, importing only, it was signified ta them in a dream, and is followed by L. Cl. That the warning came from God, there can be no doubt : but as this Is not expressed, but implied, in the original, it ought to be exhibited in the same man ner in the version. What is said explicitly in' the one, should be said explicitly in the ether ; what is conveyed only by implication in the one, should be conveyed only by implication in the other. Now that p^^;ifiari^ejv does not necessarily imply from God, more than the word warning does, is evident from the reference which, both in sacred authors and In classical, it often has to inferior a- gents. See Afts x. 22. where the name of God is indeed both un necessarily and improperly introduced in the translation, xl. 26. Rom. vii.. 3. Heb. xii. 25. For Pagan authorities, see Ra phelius, 16. Deceived, m-tat-j^ii. E. T, mocked. In the Jewish style, we CH.II. s. Matthew. ij we find often that any treatment which appears disrespeftful, comes under the general appellation of mockery. Thus, Potiphar's wife, in the false accusation she preferred against Joseph, of making Sn attempt upon her chastity, says that he came in to mock her. Gen. xxxix. 17. 'E,[t,irx.i%»i is the wprd era¬ployed by the Seventy. Ba laam accused his ass pf mocking him, when she wpuld not yield to his direftlon. Num. xxii. 22. And Dalilah said to Samson, Jud7 xvi. ro. Thou hast mocked (that is, deceived) me, and told me lies. As one who deceived them, appeared to treat them contemptuously, they we»e naturally led to express the former by the latter. But as we cannot do justice to the original, by doing violence to the lan guage which we write, I thought it better to give the sense of the author, than servilely to trace his idiom. ' Tbe male children, ts; ^raiJ*;. Thus also Dod. and others. E. T. The children. Sc. follows this version, but says in the notes, '' Perhaps male children ;" adding, " Not that the mascuUne ar- " tide ts; excludes female children : for had our historian intend- " ed to include both sexes under pne word, vaiiat, he would have '' prefixed the masculine article as now." But how does he know that ? In support of his assertion, he has not produced a single ex ample. He has shewn, indeed, what nobody doubts, that as 5r«(s Is of the comraon gender, the addition of «ggi)» or S-ijAw serves to distinguish the sex without the article. But it is also true, that the attendance ofthe article » or iS answers the purpose, without the addition of «§§«» or S-iiAu. Pueri and puella are not raore distin guished by the termination in Latin, than U ira^iq and ki ¦iaUm are distinguished by the article in Greek. I do not deny, that there may be instances wherein the ,term ii a-^i^s;, like ii uat, may mean children in general. The phrase, both in Hebrew and in Greek, is the sons of Israel, which our translators render, the children of Is rael, as nobody doubts that the whole posterity is meant. We ad dress an audience of men and women by the title brethren ; and un der the denomination, all men, the whole species is included. But in such examples, the universality of the appUcation is either pre viously known from comraon usage, or is raanifest from the subjeft or occasion. Where this cannot be said, the words ought to be striftly interpreted. Add to this, ist, That the historian seenis- here purposely to have changed the term Trai^nv, which is used for vot. IV. B cliild i8 NOTESON cn.li. ch'dd no fewer than nine times in this chapter ; as that word being neuter, and admitting only the neuter article, was not fit for mark ing the distinftion of sexes ; and to have adopted a term which he nowhere else employs fos infants, tbough frequently for men-ser vants, and once far youths or boys : 2dly, That the reason of the thing points to the interpretatioa I have given. It made no more for Herod's, purpose ta destioy female children, than to massacre grown mea a-nd women ; and, tyrant though he was, that he meant to- go no farther than, in bis. way of judging, his own security ren dered expedient, vs, evident from the instruftions be gav§ to his emissaries,, in regard to the age of the infants to be sacrificed to his jealousy,, that they might not exceeds such an age, or be under such another. 3 Erom those entering the second year, down to the time, «x» Jieisj xai, xararf^a^ xdla rt* jj|a»«». E., T. From t'wo years old and under, according to the time. There can be no doubt, that in this ^reftion Herod Inteaded to specify both, the age above whieh, and the age under wlttcb, infants were not ta be Involved in this massacre. But there is some scope for inquiry into the import of the desciiption gi- ven. Were those ofthe second year included, or excluded by it ? By the conimoH translatipn they are included ; by that given above, excluded. Plausible things raay be advanced on each side. The reasons whieh have determined roe, are as follows. The wprd Suth; Js one of those whicb, in scriptural criticism, we call eiva%, hiyofuva. It occurs in no other place of the N. T. nor in the Sep» It is ex plained by Hesychius and Phavoiinusi, that which Uves a whole year, St oAs ts> rt-s;. Amtho-j®' is also explained In our common lexicons, per tatwm annum durans, anniversarius ; and the verb ^ri^u is used by Aristotle for living a whole year. At the sara-e time It must be owned, tbat the explanation bimulus, biennis, i^ also given to the word Sietik, The term is therefore doubtless eqmvo- cal ; but what weighs with me here principally is, the ordinary rae thod used by the Jews In reckoning time ; which is to count the im perfeft days, months, or years, as though tbey were complete, speaking of a period begun, as if it were ended. Thus it is said. Gen. xvii. 1 2. The child that is eight days old among you shall be cir- ciwtcised ; and Lev, xii. 3. On the eighth day he shall be circumcis ed. No-,? It is evident, that in the way this precept was understood, it CH.II. S. MATTHEW, 19 it behnved them pften to circumcise their children when they were not seven days old, and never to wait till they were eight. For the day of the birth,' however Kttle ofit reinained, was reckoned the first; and the day of the circumcision, however little of it was spent, was reckoned the eighth. But nothing can set this matter In a stronger light tban what is recorded of our Lord's death and resur- reftion. We are told by himself, that he was to be three days and three nights in the bosom of the earth ; that his enemies would kill him, and that after three days he would rise again. Yet certain It is, that lour Lord was npt two days, or forty-eight hours (though still part of three days), under the power of death. He expired late on the sixth day of the week, and rose early on the first of the en suing week. Both these considerations lead me to conclude, with Wh. and Dod. that Herod, -by the instruftions given lo his messen gers, meant to make the highest lirait of their coraraission, those entering, not finishing the second year. The lowest we are not told, but only that it was regulated by the inforraation he had re ceived from the Magians ; for this I take to be the import pf the clause, xara rov x^ovov. He had probably concluded, that the star did not appear till the birth, though they might not see it ori its first appearance, and that, therefore, he could be in no danger froni children born long before, or at all after, it had been seen by them. Supposing then, it had appeared just half a year before he gave this cruel order, the import would be, that they should kill none above twelve raonths old, or under six. 18. In Ramah, E» Vx/ia. Ramah was a city on the confines of Benjamin, not far frora Bethlehem in Judah. As Rachel was the mother of Benjamin, she is here, by the Prophet Jeremiah, from whom the words are quoted, Introduced as most nearly concerned. It is trucj however, that in the Heb. the term rendered in Ramah, may be translated on high. And both Origen and Jerom were of opinion that it ought to be so translated. But the authors of tbe Sep. have thought otherwise ; and it is raore than probable that the Evangelist, or his translator, have judged it best to follow that ver sion. The mention pf Rachel as lamenting on this pccasion, gives 2L prpbability to the common version of the Prophet's expression. Otherwise It would have been more natural to exhibit Leah the mo ther of Judah, than Raichel the mother of Benjamin, as Inconsolable B 2 en 20 NOTES ON CH. ir. on account ofa massacre perpetrated in a city of Judah, and aimed agairist one of that tribe. 2 Lamentation and weeping, and bitter complaint, S-^nv©' xat xAeroS-- |K®- x«( o^v^ftl^ jroAi/;. VuI. Ploratus et ululatus multus. In three Gr. copies ^w^f xat ate wanting. All the three words are in the Sep. in the passage referred to, though there are but two correspond ing words in the Heb. In raost of the ancient versions there is the same omission as in the Vul. 22. Hearing that Archelaus had succeeded his father Herod in the throne of Judea, he was afraid to return thither. Archelaus was constituted by Augustus ethnarch (that is, ruler of the nation, but in title Inferior tP king) pver Judea, Samaria, and Idumea. The Orientals, however, commonly gave to such, and indeed to all, so vereigns', the appellation of kings. The emperor is repeatedly so named In Scripture. And here the word sSasnAEac-Eii is applied to Archelaus, who succeeded his father, not in title, but in authority, over the principal part, not the whole, of his dominions. But thongh Joseph was afraid to go into Judea, striftly so called, he still continued in the land of Israel ; for under that name, Galilee and a considerable extent of country lying east of the Jordan, were included. Prel. Diss. I. P. I. J 7. 23. That he should be called a Nazarene, on Na^a^ai©-' xAxStist- T»i. E. T. He shall be called a Nazarene. The words may be rendered either way, A direft quotation is often introduced with the conjunftion on. On the other hand, that the verb is in the in dicative is no objeftion, of any weight, against translating the pas sage obliquely. The Heb. has no subjunftive mood, and therefore the indicative in tke N. T, is often used subjunftively. In confor mity to the Oriental idiom. And, as there is no place, in the Pro phets still extant, where we have this affirmation in so many -vvords, I thought it better tp give an oblique turn to the expression, 2 Nazarene. To mark a difference between N^^agcei®-, the term used here, and N«^«gsiv®,', the coramon word for an Inhabitant of Nazareth, Sc. and Dod. say Nazarcean, Wa. says Nazorean. But as the term N«^ag«j®- is, by this evangeUst, (xxvi. 71) used mani festly in the same sense, and also by both Mr. and J. I can see n» reason for this small variation. Some find a coincidence in the name with a Heb. Vvord for a Na.^arite ; others for a word signifying branch,. OH. II. S. MATTHEW. 21 hranch, a term by whioh the Messiah, in the judginent of Jews,, as well as of Christians, is denominated, Isaiah xi. i. It is proper to observe that, in the Heb. exemplar of this Gospel which was used by the Ebionites, and called The Gospel according to the Hebrews, the two first chapters were wanting : — the book began in this manner, It happened, in the days df Herod king of Ju den, that John came baptising, with the baptism of reforynation, in the river Jordan. He was said to be of the race of Aaron the priest, and son of 'Zacharias and Elizabeth. But fpr this reading, and the rejeftlon of the two chapters, there is not one concurrent testimony from MSS. versions, or ancient authors. It is true the Al. has not the two chapters ; but this is no authority for rejefting them, as that copy is mutilated, and contains but a very small fragment of Mt.'s Gospel. No fewer than the twenty-four first chapters are wanting, and the copy begins with the verb i^^at, cometh, in the middle of a sentence, ch. xxv. 6. By a Uke mutilation, though much less con siderable, the first nineteen verses of the first chapter are wanting in the Cam. which also begins In the -middle of a sentence with the -verb w«g«A«€a», to take home. And in the Go. -version all is wanting be fore the raiddle of the fifteenth verse of ch. v. It begins likewise in the raiddle of a sentence with the words answering to t3-< rw Ai);j;- -viav. Now if we abstraft from these, which prove nothing, but that the words they begin with were preceded by something now lost ; there is a perfeft harmony in the testimonies, both of MSS. and of versions, in favour of the two chapters. The old Ite. tran slation and the Syr. were probably made before the name Ebionite was known in the church. Even so early a writer as Ireneus, in the fragment formerly quoted (Pref. J 7.), takes notice that Mt. began his history with the genealpgy of Jesus. T^^^t the Nazarenes, (or Jewish christians, on whora, thpugh disciples, ,the Mosaic ceremo nies were, by themselves, thought binding) who also used a Heb. exemplar of this Gospel, had the two chapters, Is probable, as Epi phanius calls their copy very full, a-Angsralov, though, it must be owned, he immediately after expresses some doubt of their retaining their pedigree. Si. thinks it probable that they did retain it, as he learns from Epiphanius that Ca^pocras and Cerlnthus, whose notioris pretty much coincided with theirs, retained it, and even used it in arguing against their adversaries. I might add to the testimony of B 3 versions, 22 NOTESON , '^"" "*' versions, MSS. and ancient authors, the internal evidence we have of the vitiation of the Ebionite exemplar, the only copy that is charged with this defeft, from the very nature of the additions and alterations it contains. CHAP. III. I. In those days, As the thing last mentioned was the residence of Jesus^ with his parents at Nazareth, the wprds those days may be used with strift propriety of any time before he left that city. Now John was about six months older than Jesus ; it may therefore be thought not iraprobable that he began his public rainistry so much earlier, each in the 30th year of his age, agreeably to the praftice of the Levites, Num. iv. 3. But it raust be owned that this is no more than conjefture : for as to the age of the Baptist, when he commenced preacher, scripture has been silent. 2 The Baptist, 0 B«5rT(«-i);. A title frora his office, not a proper narae. It is equivalent tp the title given him, Mr. vi. 14. 0 Batw- rit,av, the Baptiser. It Is therefore improperly rendered into mpdern languages without the article, as Dio. has done in Itn- calling him Giovanni Battista., and all the' Fr. translators I know (except L. CL), who call him Jean Baptiste, 3 Cried, xn^vo-o-av. Diss. VI. P. V. 4 TVilderness, s^yi/m). Mr. i. 3. N. 2. Reform, furavosire. Diss. VI. P. III. ? Reign, ^o-iXeta. Diss. V. P. I. 4. Of camel's hair, not of the fine hair of that animal, whereof a'n elegant kind of cloth Is made, which is thence called camlet (in Imlt-atlon of which, though made of wool, is the EngHsh camlet), but of the long and shaggy hair of camels, which is in the East ma nufaftured into a coarse stuff, anciently worn by monks and ancho- rets. It is only when understood In this way that the words suit the description here given of John's manner of life. 2 Locusts, ax^ihg. 1 see no ground to doubt that it was the ani mal so named that is meant here. Locusts and grasshoppers are among the things allowed by the law to be eaten, Lev. xi. 22, and are, at this day, eaten in Asia, by the poorer sort ; I have never had satisfaftory evidence that the word Is susceptible of any other interpretation. CH. III. S. MATTHEW, 5, The to-untry along the Jordan, i 5reg(;(;«g©^ ts logJavs. Mr. i. 28. N. 7. From the impending vengeance, a-iro r-/ig /bsAAsc-j); ogya;. E. T. From the ivrath to come. lAiXXav often means not only future, but near. There is just such a difference hetween Erai and jkeAA« eotsit- S-«i, in Gr. as there is between it will be and it is ahout to be, in Eng. This holds particularly in threats and warnings. Er«i A(/t(^ is erit fames ; jtssAAa sirsS-«( Xift^ is imminet fames. In Job iii. 8. a Heb. word signifying ready, prepared, is rendered by the Seventy |usAA£». Besides, its conneftion with the verb cpuyav In this verse ascertains the Import of the word. We think of fleeing only when pursued. The flight itself naturally suggests to speftators that the enemy is at hand. In cases however wherein no more appears to be intended than the bare prediftion of an event, or declaration of some purpose, we are to consider It as equivalent to an ordinary fu ture, ch. xvii. 22. N. The words, the wrath to come, appear to Umit the sense to what Is striftly called the future judgment. ' . 8. The froper fruit of reformation, ¦x.agtrsq «|»a; td; furavMag. E. T. fruits meet for repentance. Vul. fruBum dignum pcenitentice . A very great number of MSS. read xa^-Kov m^iov, amongst which are some of the oldest and most valued ; likewise several ancient ver sions, as the Ara. the -second Sy. Cop. Eth. and Sax. It appears too, that some of the earliest fathers read in the same manner. Of the moderns, Lu. Gro. Si. Ben. Mill, and Wet. have approved It. Jt is so read in the Com. and some other old editions. Kagys; ^|.iv, they after I;{o-s;, This was the second answpr which Jesus raade, on this occasion, to the devil. It is not easy to say in what sense the words quoted can be said to have been written again. The punftuatlon is not of divine authority, any more than the divi sion into chapters and verses. 2 Thou shalt not put the Lord thy God to the proof, ax sxir«g«o-B5 Kuj(o» To» 0Eo» ira. E, T, Thou shalt not tempt the- Lord thy God. What we commonly mean by the word tempting, does not suit the sense of the Gr, word sxarsigo^w in this passage. The Eng. word meansproperly either to solicit to evil, or to provoke ; whereas the import of the Gr. verb Inthis and several other places is to assay, to try, to put to the proof . It is thus the word is used, Gen, xxii, i, where God is said to have tempted Abraham, coraraanding him to offer up his son Isaac for a burnt offering. God did not solicit the patriarch to evil, for, in this sense, as the Apostle James tells us, i. 13. he neither can be tempted, nor tempteth any man. But God tried Abrahara, as the word ought manifestly to have been rendered, putting his faith and obedience to the proof. His ready coraplianee, so far frora being evil, was an evidence of the sublimest virtue. It . was in desiring to have a proof of God's care of them, and presence with 30 NOTES ON CH. IV. witb them,, that the children of Israel are said to have tempted ihe Lard at Messa, saying. Is 'jbe Lord among us sr not ? Ex. xvn. 7. And on the present occasion, it was God's love to him, and faith fulness in the performance of his p-romise, tbat tbe devil desired our Lord, by throwing himself headlong from a precipice, to make trial af. As, bowever, it has been objefted that this last phrase, which I at first adopted, is somewhat ambiguous, I bave changed it for one which caniaot he mistaken. 14; On the Jordan, 7rtt»* rs It^ami. "&."[. Beyoitd Jordan. The Heb, word laPB megheber, rendered by. the Seventy in^ar, signi fies indifferently on this side, or en the other side. In Num. xxxii. 19. the word Is used in both meanings in the same sentence. Un less tberefore some oth-er word o-r phrase is added, as »«T awooloAas, or xaia iaT^aa-a-av, to ascertain the sense, it ought to be rendered as in the test, or as in verse 25th. Zebulon and Naphtali were on the same side ofthe Jordan witb Jerusalem and Judea, where Isaiah ex- excised his prophetical office. ^ Near the sea, oSo» ^Aosjtto;. E. T. By the way. of the sea. This expression is tather indefinite and obscure. There Is an ellip sis in theoriginal, but I have given the sense. What is here called se» is, p«ope«ly, nst a sea, but a lake. It was custoraary with the Hebrews to dencwiiinate a lairge extent of water, though fresh water, and encompassed vvith land, by the name sea. Both Ml, and Mr. denominate this the sea of Galilee ; J. calls it the sea of Tiberias ; L. more properly, the Me of Giennesareih. Tt was pn thislake that Capernaum, and some pther towns of note, were situ ated. Here also Peter aad Andrew, James and John, before tbey vjere called to the apostleship, exercised tbe occupation of fishers. The sea ofGalile»^ and the sea of Tiberias ,/, ane become. In scripture - style, so much like proper names, that it might lopk affefted to change them, for the lake of Galilee, and the lake of Tiberias. Besides, wheie it can conveniently be done, these sraall differences In phraseology, v,-hlch diversify the styles of the Evangelists, in the original, ought So be pucserved, in. the translation. 16. A region ef the shade? of death, y,a^a -£ai a-xta iava-n. Inthe Sep. in the passage referred to, the words are x^f* <"«'«? feeyccTS, li terally from the Heb. of the prophet, mn Vs 'pN arets tsal-moth. Tsal-moth, it vvas obser^-ed'. Diss, VI. P. II. J 2. and sheol, are nearly CK. V. S. MATTHEW. -i synonymQUs, and answer to i%nf in the N. T. which signifies tha invisible world, or the state of the dead. The expression Is here ^evidently metaphotiqal, and represents the ignorance or s^piritual daikness in which the people of tbat region, whp were intermixed with the heathen, lived, before they received the Ught of the Gospel. > - 17. Began ta proclaim, n^^avt xtt^vro-av, Mr.v. 17. N. 18. A drag, »ft(piQ^itr^ov. E. T. A net. The word is not the same here that is in -verse 20th ; there itis iAov, which i take to be the name of the genus, and properly rendered net. The name here is that of a species answering to what we call a drag. The . sarae historian, xiii. 47. uses the word iraytiv-/i, which in the com mon translation Is also rendered net. It is not very material, but neither ought It to be altogether overlooked, to make, when possi ble in a consistency with propriety, the phraseology of the version both as various, and as special, as that of the original. Diss. XII. P. I. § 9-13. 21. In the bark, iv ra -n-Xota. E. T. In a ship. L. v. 2. N. * Mending, xalx^n^ovrag. Mr. i. 19. N. / CHAP. V. 3. Happy, ftaxa^HH. E. T. Blessed. I agree -with those transla tors who chuse generally tp render feaxa^i®' happy, si/AoyoT®* and eoAoynjKEvt^ blessed. The common version rarely makes a distinc tion. '^ Happy the poor, ftaxce^ioi it -jfla^u. E.T. Blessed are the poor. It has more energy in these apboristical sentences, after the exampte of the original, and all the ancient versions, to orait the substantive- verb. The IdSom of our language admits this freedom as easily as the Itn. and more so than the Fr. None pfthe La, versions express the vetb. _Dio.'s Itn. does not ; nor do the Fr. versions of P. R. L. Cl. and Sa. — Si. expresses it in the first beatitude, but not in the following ones. Another reason which induced me to adopt this manner is to render these aphorisms, in regard! tp happiness, as si milar in form as they are In the original, to the aphorisms in regard to wretchedness, which are, L. vi. contrasted with them, wa toyou 32 N0T£S ON CH. v^ that are. rich — for I shall show. In the note on that passage, that the verb to be suppUed is In the indicative mood equally in both. 3 Happy the poor who repine not, ftaxa^ioi ii ifla^oi ra wiv/tali. E.T. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Ihave assigned ray reason. Diss. XI. P. I. § i8. for thinking that it is as much the business of a translator to translate phrases as to translate words. An idiomatic phrase stands precisely on the same footing with a compound word. The meaning is commonly learnt frora the usual application of the whole word, or of the whole phrase, and not by the detached raean ings of the several parts, which. In another language, conjoined, in the same raanner, may convey either no meamng at all, or a mean ing very different from the author's. Such, in a particular raanner, is the meaning which the phrase poor in spirit' naturally conveys to English ears. Poor-spirited, which to appearance Is coincident wi|h it, is always employed in a bad sense, and denotes mean, dastardly, servile. Poorness of spirit is the same ill quality in the abstraft. The phrase, therefore, in our language, if it can be said to suggest any sense, suggests one different from the sense of the text. In sup port of the interpretation here given, let the following things be at tended to : First, That It ii literally the poor that Is meant, raay be fairly concluded from the parallel place, L. vi. 20. where the like declaration Is pronounced of the poor siraply, without any Ij- raitatlon, as in this passage. And this is of considerable weight, whether we consider the discourse recorded by L. as the sarae, or different, since their coincidence in raany things, and similarity in others, are confessed on all sides. Now what puts it beyond a .doubt, that it is the poor in the proper sense that Is raeant there, is the charafters contrasted to those pronounced happy. These begin V. 24. Woe unto you that are rich. It is also not without its weight, that our Lord begins with the poor on both occasions ; but especi ally that the sarae beatitude is ascribed to both : Theirs is the king dom of heaven. \ might urge further that. If the poor be not meant here, there is none ofthese maxims that relates to them. Now this omission is very improbable, in ushering in the laws of a dispensa tion which was entitled, many ages before, glad tidings to the poor ; to announce which was one great end ofthe Messiah's mission. And the fulfilment of this prophecy in him, is what our Lord falls not to observe on more occasions than one. I cannot theiefore agree with Wh. CH. V. S. MATTHEW. 3J Wh. and others, in thinking that -xlajioi ra wivfcdli means humble. The quotations produced by that critic, in support of his opinion, are more foreign to his purpose than any thing' I have yet discover ed In his learned Coraraentaries. " The usual expression," says he, " by wrhlch the Scriptut«s [meaning the O. T.J and the Jewish " writers represent the humble man is, that he is shephal ruach, " i. e. poor, low, or contrite in his spirit." And of this he brings some examples. It is- true, the raeaning of shephal is hurable, and of ruach is spirit. But because, in Scripture, raen hurable of spi rit raeans hurable raen, must therefore the poor in spirit also mean humble men ? To make the inconclusiveness of this reasoning pass unobserved, he has inserted the word poor, araongst others, in his explanation of the word shephal. But that it ever means poor, I have not found so much as a single exaraple. It is never translated by the Seventy -kIux^ ; but either Tastrav©-, or by sorae word of like import. As to the phrase shephal ruach, it occurs but thrice in Scripture. In one place it is rendered a-^auiuft,®', in another -raTTHM^^av, and In the third oXiyo-^u-jf,®-. Should any objeft, that to exclude tbe humhle from a place here, will seem as unsuitable to the teraper of Pur religiori, as tp exclude the poor -^ 1 answer, that I understand the humble tn be comprehended under the third beati tude : Happy the meek. Not that I look upon the twp wprds as striftly synonyraous, but as expressing the sarae disposition under different aspefts; humility, in the contemplation of self as in the divine presence ; meekness, as regarding the conduft towards other raen. This temper Is accordingly opposed to pride as well as to anger. The words seem to have been often used indiscriminately, Humhle in the Heb. is once and again by the Seventy rendered meek,, and conversely ; and they are sometimes so quoted in the N. T. Nay, the very phrase for lowly in spirit, above criticised, shephal ruach, is at one time rendered v^auiuft®-, meek-spirited, at another raTravotp^av, humble. But should it be asked, what then does ra -Trvivfioli add to the sense of oi -jfla^ot ; I think the phrase to which Wh. recurs will furnish us with an answer. Shephal is properly raTvesv®', humilis ; the addition of ruach is equivalent to ra 5r»£u^«I(. Such an addition therefore as is raade to the sense of ra-Ti-etv®' in the one phrase by ra Trvtuftdli, such also is raade to the sense of Trla^®, In the other, by the same words superadded. It vOl, IV. C may 34 NOTES ON ch. v. may be thought that no addition is made to the first, the simple term remeiv®- expressing a quality of the mind ; but this is a mis take arising frora the application of the Eng. word humble, which does not entirely coincide with the aforesaid terms in the ancient tongues. In all these the word properly refers to the meanness of condition. In the few instances wherein raitav®' signifies humble, and ra-Tmarif humility, there may be justly said to be an ellipsis or rn xa^ia or ra -irvivfidli. The proper word for humhle is ra-retntf^v, for humility r»-!r&;vat. As therefore ra'ii-avo(p^a>, raTretv®- rn xa^tia, and rsea-an®- ra ?rvivftali (for this expression also occurs in the Sep. Ps. xxxiv. i8.), denote one whose mind is suited to thc lowness of his station, so Trlax®' ra ¦Trviuf/.aili denotes one whose mind is suited to the poorness of his circumstances. As the fonner im ports unambitious, unaspiring after worldly honours or the applause of men ; the latter imports unrepining, not covetous of earthly trea sure, easily satisfied, content with little. This and huraiUty are in deed kindred virtues, but not the same. Wet. is singular in thinking that the words ought to be construed thus : fMCKit^iot ra wtvft,ali — oi ^a^oi. He understands irviv/ia to mean the Spirit of God, and renders it into La. Beati spiritui pau peres ; as if we should say, Hiappy in the Spirit's account are tbe poor. He urges that vlax" '"^ ^rvivftaii is unexampled. But is it more so than fiaxa^tot ra trvtufiali ? Or do we find any thing in Scrip ture analogous to this phrase in the manner he has explained it ? I have shown that there is at least one phrase, ra-iren®' ru -irvivftaji, perfeftly similar to the other, which may well serve to explain it, and remove his other objeftion, that it ought to raean a bad qua lity. Besides, I would ask, whether we are to understand in verse Sth, TD »(»g3(« as likewise construed with fiaxa^iot ; for nothing can be more similar than the expressions fiaxa^isi oi ^a^oi ra wvtvftcili kad fiaxa^ioi oi xa^a^oi to xa^gia ? 5. They shall inherit, auloi xX-n^tvoiiniraG-i. Vul. Ipsi possidebunt. The La. -vioxA possidebunt sufficiently corresponds to the Gr. xAit|«M- fi-/iirairt : which generally denotes possessing by any title, by lot, succession, purchase, conquest, or gift ; I therefore think that Cas. judged better in following the Viil. than Be. who expresses the sen timent by a circumlocution which appears too positively to exclude possession of every other kind. Ipsi terram heereditario jure obt ine- bunt. CH.v. S. MATTHEW. 35 biint. But as the speciality which the word sometiraes conveys may be more simply expressed in Eng. I have with the comraon version preferred inherit to possess. It happiily accords tp the style of the N. T. in regard both tp the present privileges and tp the future prps- pefts pf Gpd's pepple. They are here denpminated sons of God ; and if sont, as the Appstle argues, then heirs, heirs ofGod, and co heirs with Christ. The future recompense is called a birth-right, an inheritance. Diss. XII. P. I. § 17. 2 The land, mt yn*. E, T, The earth. That the word is sus ceptible of either sense cannot be doubted. The question is, which is the genuine sense in this passage ? Let it be observed, that it had, long befpre then, becorae custpmary, ampng the most enlightened of the Jewish nation, to adopt the phraseology which the sacred wri ters had employed, in reference to cereraonial observances and tem poral proraises, and to affix to the words a raore sublime meaning, as referring to moral qualities, and to eternal benefits. This might be illustrated, if necessary, from raany passages pf the N. T. as well as from the oldest Jewish writers. The expression under ex araination is an instance, being a quotatipn frpra Ps, xxxvii, 11. Npw, in prder tp determine the sense ofthe word here, its meaning there shnuld first be ascertained. Every person conversant in the Heb. knows that the word there used (and the same raay be said of the Gr. and La. words by which it is rendered) sometiraes means the earth, [sometimes a particular land or country. Coraraonly the context, or some epithet, or the words in construftion, remove the arabiguity. That, in the passage referred to, it signifies the land, naraely Canaan, promised to the Patriarchs, is hardly called in ques tion. - As for the earth, it was gi'Ven, says the Psalmist, to the children of men ; even the idolatrous and prpfane were not excluded. Whereas this peculiar, this much favpured land, God reserved for the patrimony of Israel, whom he honoured with the title of his son, his first-born. To this, the ancient promises given to the Is raeUtes had all a manifest reference. It is true, our translators have reridered the word, in the passage of the Psalms alluded to, the earth, merely, I imagine, that it might be conformable to what they understood to be the sense of the expression, in this place. A strong proof of this Is that they have oBserved no uniforraity, in their manner of translating it, in this very Psalm. The word occurs C 2 sis 3^ NOTES ON CH.v. s'lK times. Thrice they translate It the land, and thrice the earth. Yet there is not the shadow of a reason for this variation,; for no two things can be more similar than the expressions so differently rendered. Thus, v. ii. The meek shall inherit the earth ; v. 29. The righteous shall inherit the land. Indeed nothing can be plainer to one who reads this sacred ode with attention, than that It ought to be rendered land, throughout the whole. Peace, security, and plenty, in the land which the Lord their God had given thera, are the piwport of all the promises it contains. ' But,' it raay be said, ' admit this were the meaning of the Psalmist, are we to imagine ' that the evangelical promise given by our Lprd, is to be confined, ' in the same manner, to the possession ofthe earthly Canaan ?' By no raeans. Nevertheless our Lord's promise, as he manifestly in tended, ought to be expressed, in the same terms. The new cove nant, which God has made wkh us, by Jesus Christ, is founded on better promises than that which he made with the Israelites, by Mo ses. But then, the promises, as well as the other parts pf the Mo saic covenant, are the figures or shadows, as the writer to the He- . brews well observes (dh- x. i.), ofthe corresponding parts ofthe Christian covenant. Even the holy men under that dispensation were taught, by the Spirit, to use the same language, In regard to blessings infinitely superior to those to which the terms had been origi nally appropriated. David warns the people, in his time, ofthe danger of provoking God, to swear concerning them, as he had sworn con cerning their fathers in the desert, that they should not enter into his rest. Yet the people were at that -«, be dispossessed of every thing, by the aspiring and the violent } and so ofthe rest, 4, J, In the Vul, and the Cara. these verses are transposed. The Vul, is the only version, and the Cam, the only MS, where this ar- rangeraent is found. ¦6. 'Who hunger and thirst for righteousness, hi -XHVuvltt xat 'ie^uvltf r-nv hxauirvvtif. In the ordinary interpretation to hunger and thirst denotes to have an ardent desire, Maldonate was of opini maov u ts; a-go^iila;. E. T. To destroy. Of the different senses which have been assigned to the verb xaraXurai, one is, when applied to a law, to break Or violate. Though this is the sense of the simple verb Aaa, V, 19. it cannot be the sense of the compound here. Nobody cpuld suppose that it needed a divine mission to qualify one to trans gress the law, which so many, merely from, the depravity of their own rainds, flagrantly did every day. Another sense, which suits better 42 NOTES ON CH.v, better the context, is authoritatively to repeal or abrogate. This appears proper as applied to the law, but harsh as applied to tbe prophets, though by the prophets are meant, by a common meto nymy, the prophetical writings. Eut even these we never speak of abolishing or abrogating. To destroy is rather saying too much, and is raore in the railitary style thun in the legislative. If every copy and scrap of these writings were obliterated or burnt, we cpuld not say raore than that they were destroyed. The context, in ray opinion, shows that the import of the word here is not direftly to Rescind or repeal, but indireftly to supersede a standing rule by the substitution of another ; which, though it does not, formally, annul the preceding, may be said, in effeft, to subvert xX.. This appears fully to express the sense, and is equally adapted to both terms, the law and the prophets. ^ But to rat'ify, oKha TrXTi^arai. E. T. But to fulfil. The sense of the verb wAngoia is ascertained by xaraf^ua. We have seen that the meaning of this word cannot be to break, and therefore it is highly probable that the other raeans more than to obey. The pro per opposite of weakening afid subverting a law is confirming and ratifying it. See N. onch. Hi. 15. Some of great narae translate it here to complete, perfeft, or fill up, and think it alludes to the precepts, as it ^vere, superadded in this discourse. I own there is a plausibility in this explanation ; some of our Lord's precepts being, to appearance, improvements on the law. Yet I cannot help think ing, that these divine sayings are to be regarded rather as explana tory of the law, in showing its extent and spirituality, than as addi tions to it, not binding' on men before, but deriving their power to oblige, purely from their promulgation by Jesus Christ. Besides, I find no example of the sense to fill up in any passage that can be reckoned analogous to the present. For the phrase fill up fhe mea sure of your fathers cannot surely be accounted ofthe number. The wprd measure there leaves no room to hesitate. It is otherwise here. The Interpretation, make fully kno-am, given by Benson (Essay . concerning abolishing of the Ceremonial Law, ch. ii. seft. 2.), tho' not implausible, does not make so exaft a contrast to the preceding word subvert, nor is it, in this application, so well established by use. 18. 'Verily I say unto you, a/nriv Kiya ii^h. As Mt, has retained the «H.v. S. MATTHEW. 43 the Heb. word amen, in such affirmations, and is, in this, followed by the other Evangelists, though less frequently by L. than by the rest, it is not improper here, where the word first occurs, tP en quire into its impprt. Its prpper signification is true, verus, as spoken of things, observant of truth, verax, as spoken of persons, sometimes truth in the abstraft. In the O; T. it is soraetiraes used adverbially, denoting a concurrence in any wish or prayer, and is tendered by the Seventy ys»«/I», so be it. In this appUcation the word has been adopted into most European languages. In the N. T. it is frequently used in affirmation. Now as L. has been more sparing than the other Evangelists, in the use of this Oriental terra, it is worth while to observe, when he is relating the sarae passages of our Lprd's history with thera, what wprd he has substituted fpr the amen, as this will shew in what raanner he understood the Heb. adverb. The same prediftion which in Mt. xvi. 8, is' ushered in by the words aft-mv Xtya vfttv is thus introduced. L. ix. 27. Asyw vftit aAn- &ui, which answers to truly or verily with us. Another example efthis interpretation we find, on comparing Mr. xii. 43. with L. xxi. 3. The only other example, In passages entirely parallel,* is Mt. xxiii. 36. and L. xi. 51. where the ttfinv of the former is, by the lat ter, rendered by the affirmative adverb vai. I have not observed any passage in the O. T. wherein the word amen is used in affirraing ; and therefore I consider this Idiom in the Gospels as more properly a Syria sm than a Hebraism. Indeed some derivatives from amen 'Wften occur in affirraation. Such as amenah. Gen. xx. 12. Jos. vii. 20. rendered in the Sep. «A»iS-«r;. Such also Is amenam, which oc curs oftner, and is rendered a-f,y&-ag, sa-' osA^i^wa;, tv «A>)Sif,na, rm apavav — ar®- fityug xhtiS-na-irai. E. T. He • shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven— he shall he called great. To be called great and to be cal led Utile, for to be esteemed and to be disesteemed, Is so obvious a metonvmv 46 NOTES ON ch. ». metonymy of *^w effeft for the cause, that it naturally aiggests itself to every discemiug reader. By rendering tberefore fiecriXmc. rat st^tomt, agreeably to its meaning in mpst places, tbe reigu of beaven, that is, the Gospel dispensatioD, there Is not the smallest difficulty in thc passage. But if this phrase be rendered the kingdom of bea ven, as referring to the state of the blessed, and if he shall be called ibe least in that kingdom mean, as some explain it, be shall never be admitted into it, a most unnatural figure of speech is iBtrodnced, whereof I do not recolleft to haye seen an ei^mple in any author, sacred or profane. 20. Excel, ^cttfirireoini. E. T. Exceed. The original word ex presses a superiority either in quantity or in kind. The latter dif ference suits the context at least as -well as the former. 21. Tbat it -was said to tbe ancients. In s^jsSt! to(; og^iwo;?. E. T. That it was said by them of old time. Be. DiBum fuisse a vete. ribus. Be. was the first interpreter of the N. T. who made the an cients those by whom, and not those to whpm, the sentences here qupted were spoken. These other La. versinns, the Vul. Ar. Er. Zu. Cas. CaL and Pise, are all against him. Ampng the Protestant translators into modern tongues. Be. whose work was much in vogue -with the reformed, had his imitators. Dio. in Itn. rendered it che fu detto dagli antichi; the G. F. qu''il a ete dit par les anciens. So also the common Eng. Bnt all the Eng. veraons of an older date, even that executed at Geneva, say to tbem of old time. Lu. in like manner, in his Ger. translation says, ju Sen altnt. I have a Protes tant translation in Itn. and Fr. publisbed by Giovan Luigi Paschalc in 1555, the year before the first edition of Be.'s (the place not mentioned), which renders it in the same way with all preceding translators', without exception, agli-antichi, and aux anciens. AIT the late translators, Fr. and Eng. have retamed to the uniform sense of antiqiuty, rendering it to, not by, the ancients. For the mean ing of a word or phrase, which frequently occurs in scripture, the first recourse ought to be tothe sacred writers, especially the -vTriter ofthe book where the passage occurs. Now the verb (tti (and the same maybe observed of Its smonymas) in the passive voice, where the speaker or speakers are mentioned, has uniformly the speaker In the genitive case, preceded by the preposition W» or tut. And in no book does this occur oftner than Ln Mt. See ch. ii. 15. 1-. 23. CH.V. S. MATTHEW. 4, iii. 13.' iv. 14. viii. 17. xii. 17. xiii. 35. xxi. 4. xxiv. 15. xxvii. 9. xxii. 31. In this last we have an example both of thpse tP whom, and of hira by whom, the thing was said, the former in the dative, the latter in the genitive with the preppsition ia-e. When the per sons spoken to are raentioned, they are invariably in the dative. Rom. ix. 12. 26. Gal. iii, 16. Apoc, vi, 11. ix. 4, With sucha number of exaraples on one side (yet these are not all), and not one from Scripture on the opposite, I should think it very assuraing in a translator, without the least necessity, to rejeft the exposition given by all who had preceded him. It has been pleaded that something like an example has been found in the construftion of one or two o- ther verbs, neither synonymous nor related in meaning. Thus a-g®* TO iioBrnai avltig ch. v'l: I, raeans to be seen by thera. 0t»ou»i In Gr. answers to videor ir. La. And the argument would be equally strong in regard to La. to say,, because visum est illis signifies it appeared to them, that is, it -was seen by them ; diBum est illis must also signify it was said by them. The authority of Herodotus (who wrpte in a ^style somewhat resembling, but in a dialeft exceedingly unlike, that of the N. T.), In regard to a word in frequent use in Scripture, appears to rae of no conceivable weight in the question. Nor can any thing account for such a palpable violence done thc sacred text, by a raan of Be.''s knowledge, but that he had too rauch ofthe polemic spirit (the epidemical disease of his time) to be in all respefts a faithful translator. Diss. X. P. V. § 5. 21, 22. Shallbe obnoxious to, tvox®' t^ai. E. T. shall be in dan ger of. To be in danger of evil of any kind, is one thing, to be obnoxious to it. Is another. The most innocent person may be ia danger of death, it Is the guilty only who are obnoxious to it. The interpretation here given is the only one which suits both the iraport of the Gr. word, and the scope of the passage. 22. Unjustly, etxvi. This word is wanting In two MSS. one ofthem the Vat. of great antiquity. There is no word answering to it in the Vul. nor in the Eth. Sax. and Ara. versions, at least in the copies of the Ara. transcribed in the Polygots, which Si. observes to have been correfted on ,the Vul. and which are consequently of no autho rity as evidences. Jerora rejefted It, imagining it to be an Interpo lation of some transcriber desirous to soften the rigour of the senti ment, and, in this opinion, was followed by Augustine. On the other 48 NOTES ON ch, v. other hand, it is in all the other Gr, MSS. now extant. A corres ponding word was in the Ite. or La. Vul. before Jerora. The same can be said of these ancient versions, the Sy. Go. Cop. Per. and the unsuspefted edition of the Ara. published by Erpenius. Chrysostora read as we do, and coraraents on the word «xn. The eariiest Fathers, both Gr. and La. read It. This consent of the most ancieut ecclesiastic writers, the two oldest versions, the Ite. and the Sy. the almost universal testimony of the present Gr. MSS. taken together, give ground to suspeft that the exclusion of that ad verb rests ultimately on the authority of Jerom, who muft have thought this limitation not ofa piece with the strain ofthe discourse, I was of the same opinion, for some time, and strongly inclinable to rejeft it ; but, on maturer refleftion, judged this too vague a princi ple to warrant any alteration which common sense, and the scope of the place, did not render necessary. Mr. Wes. rejefts this adverb, because, in his opinion, it brings our Lord's instruftions on this head, down to the Pharisaic model ; for the Serlbes and Pharisees, he says, would have condemned causeless anger as well as Jesus Christ. No doubt they would. They would have also conderaned the indulgence of libidinous thoughts and looks. [See Lightfoot, Horae Hebralcse, isfc. on v. 28. J But the difference consisted In this, the generality of the Scribes, at that time, considered such an- ^ry words, and Impure looks, and thoughts, as being of little or no account, in theraselves, and to be avoided solely, frora motives of prudence. They might ensnare men Into tbe perpetration of atroci ous aftions, the only evils which, by their doftrine, were transgres sions of the law, and consequently, could expose them to the judg ment of God. The great error which our Lord. In this chapter, so severely reprehends, is their disposition to consider the divine law, as extending merely to the criminal and overt afts expressly raention ed in it. From these afts, according to thera, if a raan abstained, he was, in the eye of the law, perfeftly Innocent, and nowise exposed to divine judgment. We are not, however, to suppose that this manner of treating the law of God was universal araong them, though doubtless then very prevalent. The writings of Philo in that age, and sorae of their Rabbles since, sufficiently show that the Jews have always had some moralists among thera, who, as well as sorae Christian CH.V. S. MATTHEW. 49 Christian casuists, could refine on the precepts Of their religion, by stretching them, even to excess. ' To the council, ru ^ to s, s. It Is but just that we avail purselves pf this passage of the disciple, tP assist us in explaining the words of his Master. It was a proverbial manner 3mpng the Jews (see Wet.) pf charafterising a man pf strift prp'bity and gppd faith, by saying, his yes is yes, and his no is no ; that is, you raay depend uppn his wprd, as he declares, sp it is, and as he proraises, so he will do. Our Lord is, theref(H:e, to be contidered D 2 here. 53 NOTES ON 'JH-'^' here, not as prescribing the precise terras wherein we are to affirm or deny, in which case It would have suited better the siraplicity of his style, to say barely vai xai a, without doubling the words ; but as enjoining such an habitual and' inflexible regard to truth, as would render swearing unnecessary. That this raanner of converting these adverbs into nouns. Is in the Idiora of the sacred penraen, we have another instance, 2 Cor. i. 20. For all the proraises of God in him are yea, and in him amen ; sv »u\a to vai, xat tv aviu ro afi-nV that is, certain and Infallible truths. It is Indeed a common Idiom of the ' Gr. tongue, to turn, by means of the article, anyof the parts of speech into a rioun. And, though there Is no article in the passage under review, it deserves to be remarked that Chr. in his comraen taries, writes It with the article, to >eti, var j^ to s, s* as m the pas sage of James above quoted. Either he raust have read thus in the copies then extant, or he must have thought the expression el liptical, and In this way supplied the ellipsis. , Whichsoever of these be true, It shows that he understood the words in the raanner above explained. Indeed they appear to have been always so under stood by the Gr. Fathers. Justin Martyr, in the second century, quotes the precept in the sarae mariner, in his second apology, es-a os Ifiuv to vai, mf >^ to s, a. And to shew that he had the same meaning, he introduces it with signifying, that Christ gave this In- junftion to fhe end that we might never swear, but always speak truth, fin oftvuHV oXu;, r aX-/t6ti ?s Asyav «a. Now, in the way it is commonly interpreted, it has no relation to the speaking of truth ; whereas the above explanation gives a raore eraphatical import to the sentence. Thus understood, it enjoins the rigid observance of truth as the sure raethod of superseding oaths, which are never used, in our mutual communications, without betraying a consciousness of some latent evil, a defeft In veracity as well as in piety. In like raanner Clemens Alexandrinus, in the beginning of the third century, Stro- mata, lib. v. quotes these words as our Lord's : uftav ro vai, vai' xai TO a, s. The sarae also is done by Epiphanius in the fourth century, Ub. I. contra Ossenos. Philo's sentiraents pn this subjeft (in his book IIs§i T»v Sek« Aoyiiwv) Is both excellent In Itself, and here very apposite. It is to this effeft, that we ought never to swear, but to be so unl« forraly observant of truth in our conversation, that our word raay always be regarded as an oath. K«AA(s-ov, ««* /itu^iXtralov, 1^ k^- fto-flou CH.V. S. MATTHEW. 53 fto-rlov Xoytxn ^virii, to «v«|«oIov, 'st*); ah-ithuHV i of P. R. Si. Sa. Beau, or L. Cl. who concur in rendering it, Combien seront grandes les tenebres memes ? nor the Ger. of Lu. who says, tBie grossi toirti tenn tie ftnstenitsi* setter sejn ? The only foreign versions I have seen, which translate this passage in the sarae manner with the Eng. are the G. F. Com bien grandes seront ice//es tenebrfis lo .? and the Itn, and Fr. versions of Giovan Luigi Paschale. In the former of thera it is. Esse tene bre quanto saranno grandi ? in the latter, Combien grandes seront icelles tenebres ? Let it be observed, that there is nothing in the ori ginal answering to the pronoun (hot, which in this place mars the sense, instead of illustrating it. The concluding word dorkness, it raakes refer to the eye, whereas it certainly refers to the body, or all the other members as contradistinguished to the eye. Those who explain it of ,f;6e fjif, represent our Saviour i^&ayv\g,.Ifthineeyebe dark, ho-w dari is thme eye ? the raeaning .of which I have no con ception of. In ray apprehension, our Lord's argument stands thus ; ' The eye is the lamp of the body ; frora it all the other members derive ' their Ught, Now if that which Is the light of the body be darken- • ed, how raiserable will be fhe state of the body ? how great will ' be the darkness-of those merabers which have no light .of*their ' own, but depend entirely on the eye i" And to show that this ap plies equally in the figurative or mOral, as In the literal sense : ' If ' the conscience, that mental light which God has given to man for • regulating his moral' conduft, be itself vitiated; what will be the ' state of the appetlt-es and passions, which .are naturally blind and ' precipitate ?' Or, to take the thing in another view : ' You, my ' disciples, I have called the Ught ofthe world, because destined for ' instrue- CH.VI. S. MATTHEW. 63 • instruftors and guides tathe rest of mankind ;. but if ye should * come, through ignorance and absurd prejudices, to mistake evil ' for good, and good for evil, how dark and wretched vy-IU be the ' condition of those who depend on the instruftions they receive from ' you, for their guidance and direftlon ?' 24. Mammon, that is, riches. Mararann is a Sy. word, which the EvangeUsts have retained, as serving better to cpnvey the ener gy pf our Lord's expressipn. Wealth is here perspnified, and re presented as a raaster whp rivals God in pur hearts. The word is become farailiar enough to nur ears to answer the sarae purpose. 25. Be not anxious, (mi fit^iftvali. E. T. Toke no thought. Ido not think there is, in the coraraon version, a more palpable devlatinn than this frora the sense pf the priginal. Paul says, Eph. v. 18. fin fiiBvirxtirS-i oiva. Be not drunk with wine. Should one translate this precept. Drink no wine, the departure from the sense of the author wpuld, in my ppinipn, be neither greater, nnr mnre evident. MsSd does not more clearly signify excess thari fii^ifiva does ; the former in Indulging a sensual gratification, the other in cherishing an inordi nate concern about the things of this life. Paul has suggested the bounclarles, in his admonition to the Philippians, iv, 6. Be careful for nothing, fiv^tv fit^tftvali^ but in every thing by prayer and supplica tion, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. Even here the phrase would have been better rendered, Be anxious about nothing ; for doubtless we ought not to be careless about what ever is worthy tP be the subjeft of a request to God. Tp take no thought abput what cuncerns our own suppprt, and the support of those who depend upon us, would inevitably prove the source of that improvidence and inaftion, which are in the N. T. branded as cri rainal in a very high degree. See i Tim. v. 8. 2 Thess. iii. 8. Thera, is not an apparent only, but a real, cpntradiftipn In the Apostle's sentiraents to pur Lprd's precepts, as they appear in the cpramon version, but not the shadow of a repugnancy to them,- as expressed by the Evangelist. Tp be without anxiety, is most commonly the attendant of industry in our vocation, joined with an habitual trust in Providence, and acquiescence in its dispensations. The Vul. renders the words very properly, Ne soliciti sitis, and in this Is fol lowed by Er. Zu. Cal. Be. Pise, and Cas. Ar. has adopted the bar barous word anxiemini, in preference to the classical cogitetis (as the 64 . NOTES ON ch.vi. the latter does not reach the sense), that he raight express in one word in his version, what was expressed in one word in Gr. It is true, that in v. 27. the Vul. renders the word fit^ifivav, cogitans. ¦But one who considers the taste in which the greater part of that version; is composed, can be at no loss to assign the reason of his changing the word.' The translatpr, though not so extravagantly attached to the letter, as Arias and Pagnln, yet was attached to it, even to excess ; and having no participle from the same root with . solicitus, to ans-.ver to fn^ifivm, chose rather to change the word for a weaker, and say cogitans, than either to alter the participial forra ofthe expression, or to adopt a barbarous-terra. The latter ofthese methods was afterwards taken by Ar. who said, anxiatus ; the for mer, which was the better method, by the rest. Er. Zu. PIsc. and Ee. say, solicite cogitando. Cal. anxie curando. Cas. sua solicitu dine. No foreign version that I know, angient or raodern, agrees with the Eng. in this particular. As to. latter Eng. translations, ' suffice, it to observe, that Wes.''s alone expepted, there is none of those I have seen, that does not use either anxious or solicitous. I have preferred the former, both as coming nearer the sense of the ori ginal, arid as beirig In more familiar use. It may not be improper to observe, that Wy. has employed the terra over-solicitous; which I think faulty in the other extreme Solicitude, as I understand it, implies excess, and consequently sorae degree of distrust in Provi dence, and want of resignation. To say, Be not over-solicitous, is in effeft to say, Ye raay be solicitous. If ye do not carry your soli- citude too far ; a speech unbefitting both the speaker and the occa sion. Dio. a very good translator, is perhaps reprehensible for the same error. Non siate con ansieta sollecite. We have, however, a most harraonious suffrage of translators, ancient and raodern, against ourpommon version In this Instance. Some would say, that even Wes. might be Included, who does not say, Take no thought, but. Take not thought ; for there is some difference between these ex pressions. * What ye shall eat, or -what, ye shall drink, n cpaynli xai ri m-nri. 1 he words, xai n Trinit, are wanting In two MSS. Likewise the Vul. Sax. and Eth. versions, have not this clause. But these are of no weight, compared with the evidence on the othe^ side. It adds to this considerably, that when our Lord, in the conclusion of h argu- CH. vr. S. MATTHEW. 65 argument, v. 31st, expresses, for the last time, the precept he had been enforcing, both clauses are found in all the MSS, and ver sions. * Or, xat. This is one example in which the conjunftion xai is/ with equal propriety, translated into Eng. or. When the sentence contains a prphibitlpu of twp different things, it pften happens that either way will express the sense. When the copulative, and, is used, the verb is understppd as repeated. Thus : Be not anxipus what ye shall eat : and be npt anxious what ye shall drink. When the disjunftive, or, is used, it expresses with us rather more strong ly, that the whole fprce ofthe prohibition equally affefts each of the things mentioned; as. Be not anxious either what ye shall eot, or what ye shall drink. In the conjunftion, and. In such cases, there is sometimes a slight ambigvuty. Both the things mentioned may be prohibited, taken jpintiy, when it is not raeant to prohibit them se verally. Anpther instance of this kind, not perfeftly similar, the critical reader will find, ch. vii. 6. I shall here observe, by the way, that there are two extreraes, to one or other of which most interpreters lean, in translating the in struftions given by our Lord. Some endeavour to soften what to their taste is harsh ; and seem afraid of speaking out to the world, what the sacred historian has authorised thera to say. Others, pn the cpntrary, iraagining that raoral precepts cannot be too rigorouSj give generally the severest and raost unnatural interpretation to eve ry word that can adrait raore than one, and soraetiraes even affix a meaning (whereof ftt^ifcva Is an instance) for which they have no authority, sacred or profane. There is a danger on each side, against which a faithful interpreter ought to be equally guarded. Our Lord's precepts are in the Oriental manner, concisely and proverbially expressed ; and we acknowledge, that all of them are not tO be ex pounded by the raoralist, striftly according to the letter. But, whatever allowance may be made to the expositor or commentator, this is what the translator has no title to expeft. The charafter just now given of our Lord's precepts, is their charafter in the original, as they were written by the inspired penmen for their contempora ries ; it is the translator's business to give them to his readers, a^ rauch as ppssible, stamped with the same signature with which they were given by the Evangelists to theirs. 'Those methods, therefore, vot. IV. , E of 66 . ' NOTES ON ch.vi. of enervating the expression, to render the doftrine more palatable to us moderns, and better suited to the reigning sentiments and manners, are not to be approved. I have given an Instance of this fault in Wy. and Dio. I shall add another frora the pious Dod. v. 39. Eya Ss Xiyu vfiiv, fin avli^nvat ru TTovii^a, he renders thus: But I say unto. you, that you do not set yourselves against jhe injurious person. In this he is followed by Wor. and Wa. The phrase, do not set yourself against a man. If it mean any thing, raeans, do not hecome his enemy, or do not aft the part of an enemy ; a sense neither suit ed to the words, nor to the context. To, pretend to support it from etymology, Is no better than it would be to contend that intelligo should be translated, / read between, and manumttto, I send with the hand ; or (to recur to our own language, which answers equally well) to explain / understand, as denoting / stand under, or / re- fieB, as implying I bend back. The attempt was the moi-e futile here, as every one ofthe three following examples, whereby our Lord illustrated his precept, sufficiently shows that the meaning of fflvlirnv*! (had the word been equivocal, as it is not) could be noth ing else th'an as it Is comraonly rendered, resist, or oppose. The anonymous translator 1729, seems likewise to have disrelished this precept, rendering It, Don''t return evil for evil ; a Christian precept doubtless, but not the precept of the text. Our Lord says express ly, and the whole context vouclies his meaning. Do not resist ; his translator will have him to say, Do not resent. Jesus manifestly warns us against opposing an injury offered ; his interpreter will ' have him only to dissuade! us from revenging an Injury committed. Yet In the very Interpretation which he gives of the following words, he has afforded an irrefragable evidence against himself, that it Is ofthe former that Christ Is speaking, and not of the latter. But it must be owned, that there is danger also on the other side, to which our translators have, in rendering sorae passages, evidently leaned. It is In vain to think to draw respeft to a law, by straining it ever so little beyond what consistency and right reason will war rant. " Expeft no good," says the Bishop of Meaux, -" from " those who overstrain virtue." Ne croyez jamais rien de bon de ceux qui outrent la vertu. Hist, des Variations, &c. liv. II. ch. 60. Nothing can be better founded than this raaxira, though it raay justly surprise us to read it in that author, as nothing can be more sub- VJ. 5. MATTHEW. 67 sii|)yersive of the whole fabric of monachism. There is not, howe- \ei', a more effeftual raethod, than by such immoderate stretches, of acording a shelter and apology for transgression. And when pnce the plea of imprafticabillty Is (though not avowedly, tacitly) ad mitted in some cases, it never fails to be gradually extended to other cases, and comes at last to undermine the authority of the whole. That this, to the great scandal of the Christian name, is become too much the way. In regard to our Lord's precepts, in all sefts and denominations of Christians, is a truth too evident to admit a questipn. 27. Prolong his life one hour, L. xii. 25. N. 28. Mari the lilies of the field. How do they grow ? K,alaftaS-ili ra x^tva ra ayga isag au^ava' Sp it is cpraraonly pointed in the printed editions. But in the old MSS. there is nu pointing. Nor are the points to be considered as resting on any other than human authority, like the division into chapters and verses, I agree, there fore, with Palairet, who thinks that there should be a full stop after ay^a, and that the remaining words should be marked as an interro gation, thus, KalaftaS-tri ra xgiva ts oeygs. Tlug av^ava ; This per feftly suits both the scope of the place, and the vivacity of our Lord's manner, through the whole discourse. 30. The herbage, tov ;k<'?''"'- E. T, Tbe gross. But lilies are not grass ; neither Is grass fit for heating an oven. That the lily is here Included under the term %ogI©.>, Is (if there were no other) sufficient evidence, that more is meant by It than is signified with us by the term grass. I acknowledge, however, that the classical sense pf the Gr. word is grass, or hay. It is a just remark of Gro. that the Hebrews ranked the whole vegetable system under two classes, i'y ghets, and 21!?y ghesheb. The first is rendered |uAov, or JsvS'gov, tree ; to express the second, the Seventy have adopted ¦)(,o^®', as their common way was to translate one Heb. word by one Gr. word, though not quite proper, rather than by a circumlocu tion. It Is accordingly used In their version. Gen. i. 11. where the distlnftion first occurs, and in most other places. Nor is it with greater propriety rendered grass in Eng. than xo^®' in Greek. The sarae division occurs Rev, vlil, 7, where our translators have in like manner had recourse to the term grass. I have adopted, as E 2 com- 68 NOTES ON ch.vi. coming nearer the meaning of the sacred writer, the word herbage, which Johnson defines herbs colleftively. Under the name herb is comprehended every sort of plant which has not, like trees and shrubs, a perennial stalk. That raany, if not all sorts of shrubs, were in cluded, by the Hebrews, under the denoraination tree, is evident from Jotham's apolpgue pfthe trees chusing a king, Jud. Ix, 7, where the bramble Is raentioned as one, 2 Into the oven, «; tov xAiSavov. Wes. into the still. But pn what authority, sacred or profane, xXtfiav®' is raade a still, he does not acquaint us. For my part, I have not seen a vestige of evidence in any ancient author, that the art of distillation was then known. The only objeftion of moraent, against the coraraon version of «A(- fiav®^, is removed by the former part of this note. Indeed, the scarcity of fewel in those parts, both formerly and at present, fully accounts for their having recourse to withered herbs for heating their ovens. It accounts, also, for the frequent recourse of the sacred penraen to those similitudes, whereby things, found unfit for any nobler purpose, are represented as reserved for the fire. See Har- mer's Observations, ch. Iv. obs. vi. As to the words to-day and to- morrow, every body knows that this is a proverbial idiora, to denote that the transition is sudden, 3 0 ye distrustful .' oXiyo-rirot. E.T. 0 ye of little faith I Itis quite in the genius of the Gr. language, to express, by such com pound words, what In other languages Is expressed by a raore siraple, term. Nor do our translators, or indeed any translators, always judge it necessary to trace, in a periphrasis, the several parts ofthe coraposition. In a few cases, wherein a single word entirely adequate cannot be found, this raethod is proper, but not otherwise, I have seen no version which renders oXtyo-^'vx.oi, they of little soul, or ftax^oSufiia, length of mind, or (p(A6aXfteig Iftav. E. T. pricks in your eyes ; the Heb. terra; to which (rxoXoTrtg answers, means no more than the Eng. raakes It. The Gr. word is similarly rendered In the N. T. sJo^n fioi o-xoAo-iJ/ ev ira^xi; there -was given to me a thorn in the fiesh. The like raay be reraarked of /3oA(;, answering to the La. -viot&s jaculum, sagitta, and to the Eflg. missile weapon,' oi whatever kind, javelin, dart, or arrow. But In the Hellenistic use, it sometimes corresponds to Heb. words, denoting no more than prickle or thorn. Thus in Jos. xxiii. 13. «; fiaXi'^ag tv Tot; o(f>6aXfioig l/iuv ; E. T. thorns inyour eyes, the word /3oA(; is put for a Heb. term which striftly raeans thorn. It Is therefore evident that ^ex^ is used here by. the same trope, and in the sarae raeaning vrith o-xoAo-vf' and /SoAi; In the places above quoted. And It is not raore remote from our idiom to speak of a pole or a javelin than to speaik of a beam in the eye. Nor is a greater liberty taken in rendering 'hax®' thorn, than In rendering /80A;; or o-xoAo-if' in that manner. 6. Or, xat. This is one of the cases wherein xat is better render ed or in our language than and. The two evils mentioned are not ascribed oH.viii S. MATTHEW, 71 ascribed to both sorts of animals ; the latter Is doubtless applied to the dogs, the former to the s-.vine. The conjunftion and would here, therefore, be equivocal. Though the words are not In the natural order, the sense cannot be mistaken. "8. For whosoever asketh obtaineth; -whosoever seeketh findeth. Diss. XII. P. I. § 29. 9. J^-7.w amongst you men, ng trit e| ufim avS^a^®^. E. T. JVhat man is there of you. There js evidently au emphasis in the word avifu-x-®- ; otherwise, It Is superfluous ; for t«; tri» e| iftav is all that is necessary; its situation at the end of the clause Is another proof of the same thing. The word avS^ws-®- here makes the intended il lustration of the goodness of the celestial Father, from the conduft of even huraan fathers, with all their imperfeftlons, much more ener getic. I think this not sufficiently marked in the common version ; for what man Is hardly any more than a translation of ti;. 14. How strait is the gate. In the common Gr. we read, oti s-svii i TTuXn. But in a very great number of MSS. some of them of great antiquity, the reading is rt, not on. This reading is confirraed by the Vul. ^uam angusta porta, and by most of the ancient versions, particularly by the old Ite. both the Sy. the Ara. the Cop. the Go. and the Sax. It was so read by Chr. The. and the most eminent Fathers, Gr. and La. and is received by Wet. and some ofthe best modern critics. 15. False teachers, ¦^lu'^iiTr^o^niav. E. T. False prophets. Eat xjofijln; not only raeans a prophet, in our sense of the word, one di vinely inspired, and able to foretel future events, but also a teacher in divine things. When It Is used in the plural with the article, and refers to those of former times, it always denotes the prophets in the Striftest sense. On most other occasions It means simply teacher of religious truths, and consequently ¦^fj^a-ir^t^piil^g a false teacher in reUgion. This Is especially to be regarded as the sense, in a w-arning which was to serve for the instruftlon ofhis disciples in every age. I have, for the sarae reason, translated ir^ot^i-.Tiurau-v, v. 22. taught ; which, notwithstanding Its conneftion with things really miraculous, is better rendered thus in this passage, because to promote the know ledge of the Gospel Is a matter of higher consequence, and would E ,f therefore /f -n 1% NOTESON cH.vit. therefore seem more to recommend men than to foretel things future. « In the garb of sheep, sv evJujK«o-; 3-jo€«t»v. Si. renders it, Cou- verts de peaux de brebis, and says in a note, " It is thus we ought ^' to translate indum^ntis ovium, because the prophets were clothed " with sheep-skins.'''' It is true the authpr of the epistle to the He brews, xi, 37, in enumerating the great things which have been done and suffered, through faith, by prpphets and pther righteous persons, mentions this, that they wandered about in sheep-skins and goat- k'lns, IV finXulatg xat aiyetoig tigfiartv, being destitute, affliBed, tor mented, alluding to the persecutions to which raany of them were exposed frora idolatrous princes. That Elijah -was habited in this manner, appears from 2 Ki. I. 7, 8. compared with ch. ii. 13. and i KI. xix. 13. in which two last places, the word rendered in Eng. mantle, Is^ in the Sep. translated p.,-iiKa\n. But I have not seen any reason to think that this was the coraraon attire of the prophets. The first of the three passages serves as evidence, rather of the contrary, inasrauch as Elijah seeras to have been distinguished by his dress, not only frora pther raen, but from other prophets. That some in deed came afterwards hypocritically to affeft a sirailar garb, in order to deceive the siraple. Is raore than probable, from Zech. xiii. 4. But, whatever be in this, as ivivfta does not signify a skin, there is no reason for raaking the expression in the translation more limited than in the original. 17. Evil tree, ra-jr^ov JsvJgov. E. T. Corrupt tree. The word a-a-T^®' does not always raean ratten or corrupted, but is often used as synonyraous to Ts-ovn^®-, evil. Trees of a bad kind produce bad fruit, but not In consequence of any rottenness or corruption. See ch. xui. 48. where, In the sirailitude of the net, which enclosed fishes of every kind, the worthies?, which were thrown away, are called TM (ra-Kga, rendered in the comraon version the bad. No thing can be plainer than that this epithet does not denote that those fishes were putrid, but solely that they were of a noxious or poiso nous quality, and consequently useless. 23. / never ine-ip you ; that is, I never acknowledged you for mine. 2 Ye who praBise iniquity, it i^ya^ofitvot t»v avo/iiav. Be. ^i operam datis iriiqu'itati. Diss. X. P. V. \ 12. 38, cn. VIII. S. MATTHEW. 73 28. At his manner of teaching, tvt rn hiajil aula. E. T. At his doBrtne. The word iiiax^ denotes often the doBrine taught, some times tbe oB of teaching, and sometimes even tbe manner of teach ing. That this is the import of the expression here, is evident from the verse iraraediately following. 29. As the Scribes. The Vul. Sy. Sax. and Arra. versions, with one MS. add, and the Pharisees. CHAP. VIIL 4. The Sy. says, the priests, but in this reading is singular. * For notifying the cure to the people, «; ftaqrv^iov aurotg. E. T. For a testimony unto them. Both the sense and the conneftion shew that the them here raeans the people. It could not be the priests, for it was only one priest (to wit, the priest then entrusted with that business) to whom he was coraraanded to go. Besides, the oblation could not serve as an evidence to the priest. On the contrary, it was necessary that he should have ocular evidence by an accurate in- speftion in private, before the man was admitted into the temple and allowed to make the oblation ; but his obtaining this permission, and the solemn cereraony consequent upon it, was the public testimony of the priest, the only legal judge, to the people, that the raan's uncleanness was reraoved. This was a matter of the utmost conse quence to the raan, and of some consequence to them. Till such testimony was given, he Uved In a most uncomfortable seclusion from society. No man durst, under pain of being also secluded, admit hira Into his house, eat with hira, or so rauch as touch him. The antecedent therefore to the pronoun them, though not expres sed. Is easily supplied by the sense. To rae it Is equally clear, that the only thing meant to be attested by the oblatipn was the cure. The suppositions of some commentators on this subjeft are quite ex travagant. Nothing can be more evident than that the person now ^ cleansed was not permitted to give any testlmonyto the priest, or to any other, concerning the manner of hU cure, or the person by whora It had been performed. 'Oga fin^tn «»-iis. See thou tell nobody. The prohibition is expressed by the Evangelist Mr. in still stronger terms. Prohibitions of this kind were often transgressed by those who received them ; but that is not a good reason for representing pur Lord as giving contvadiftory orders. 6. 74 NOTESON CH. VIII. 6. AffiBed, fiaTttvi^ofttvog. E. T. Tormented. The Greek word is not confined, especially In the Hellenisric idiom, to this significa tion, but often denotes simply (as has been observed by Gro. and Ham.) a'ffliBed, or distressed. Palsies are not attended with tor ment. 13. That instant, sv ti) oigos £Kav»i. E. T. In the self same hour. But fflga does not always mean hour. This Is Indeed the meaning when It is joined with a number, whether ordinal or cardinal ; as. He went out about the third hour, and, Are there not twelve hours in the day ? On other occasions It more commonly denotes the pre-' cise time, as. Mine hour is not yet come. 15. Him. The coramon Gr. copies have aulotg them. But the reading is aula in a great number of MSS. several of them ancient; it is supported also by some ofthe old versions and fathers, is appro ved by Mill and Wet. and is more agreeable than the other to the words in construftion, none but Jesus having been raentioned In the preceding -words. 17. Verifying the saying of the prophet. We have here a remark able exaraple of the latitude In which the word -rXn^oa is used. Ch. 1. 22. N. In our s,ense of the term fulfilling, we should rather call that the fulfilment of this prophecy, which is raentioned i Pet. iv. 24. Ihave, in translating the quotation, rendered iXaQt carried off, of which the original Heb. as well as the Gr. Is capable, that the ¦words, as far as propriety adraits, raay be conforraable to the appli cation. 18. To pass to the opposite shore. Let it be remarked, once for all, that passing or crossing this lake or sea, does, not always de note sailing from the east side to the west, or inversely ; though the river Jordan, both above and below the lake, ran southwards. The lake was of such a form, that, without any Irapropriety, It might be said to be crossed in other direftlons, even by those who kept on the same side ofthe Jordan. 19. Rabbi, ^t?,ofiai occurs pretty often, and always In the same sense, not one of those Interpreters who in this passage find It so wonderfully emphatical, judge it proper always to adhere to their raethod of rendering adopted here, but render It barely I have com. passion. CH.IX. S. MATTHEW. 8i passion. Even Wes. who has been raore uniform than the rest, has thought fit to desert his favourite phrase, in translating Mr. ix. 22. where the man who brought his son to Jesus to be cured, says, as he renders it, If thou canst do any thing, bave compassion on us, 5-TA*y;6»'o-3"8i5 ei%Hfi; and Habakkuk, for a Uke reason, Is Afifiaxafc. On how raany of the Heb. names ofthe O. T. is a rauch greater change raade in the N. in regard to which we find no different reading In the MSS.? I suppose, however, that the reason of the preference given by our translators, was not because the sound was raore conforraable to the Oriental word, a thing of no consequence to us, but because, through the universal use of the Vul. before the Reformation, men were ac customed to the one name, and strangers to the other. The word Beelzebub raeans the Lord of files. It Is thought to be the name of sorae Syrian idol, but whether given by the worshippers themselves, or, as was not unusual, by the Jews In contempt. Is to us matter on ly of conjefture. 26. Therefore, fear them not. 'M.n av (po/SjiS-nls aulag' Dr. Syraonds asks (p. 74) " Could our Saviour mean, that the reason why his " apostles had no just grounds of fear, was because they were sure " to meet with barbarous treatment ?'' I answer, ' No ; but because ' they could meet with no treatment, however bad, which he had ' not borne before, and which they had not been warned, and, should ' therefore be prepared, to expeft. This meaning results more natU- ' rally frora the scope of the place, than that given by hira.' 27, From the house-tops. Their houses were all flat-roofed. 29. Apenny. Diss. VIII. P. I. \ 10. 31. Ye are much more valuable than sparrows, ttoXXuv cpa^tm $taipigt1t uftag. E.T. Ye are of more value than many sparrows. One MS. and the Com. read sroAAw for ttoXXuv. This, I acknow ledge, eH.x. S. MATTHEW. ^ 89 ledge, is of no weight. The same sense is conveyed either way. Cas. Longe passeribus antecelltlis vos. This expression is more con formable to modern idioras. 34. I came not to bring peace, but a sword. -\ An energetic 35. / am come to make dissension. S raode of ex pressing the certainty of a foreseen consequence of any measure, by representing it as the purpose for which the measure was adopted, Th s idiom Is famiUar to the Orientals, and not unfrequent in other authors, especially poets and orators. 38. He wbo -will not tate bis cross and follo-w me. Every one condemned by tbe Romans to crucifixion, was corapelled to carry the cross on which he was to be suspended, to the place of execution. In this raanner our Lord himself was treated . Properly, it was not the whole cross that was carried by the convlft, but the cross-beara. The whole ivas raore than suited the natural strength ofa raan tp car ry. The perpendicular part probably remained in the ground ; the tranverse beam (here called the cross) was added, when there was an execution. As this was not a Jev,-Ish but a Roman punishraent, the raention pf it pn this occasion raay justly be looked on as the first hint given by Jesus of the death he was to suffer. If it had been usual in the country to execute criminals in this raanner, the expres sion might have been thought proverbial, for denoting to prepare for the worst. 39. He who frreservetb his life shall lose it. There Is in this sen tence a kind of paronomasia, whereby the same word is used in dif ferent senses, in such a manner as to convey the sentiment with greater energy to the attentive. 'He who, by making a sacrifice ' pf his dnty, preserves temppral Ufe, shall lose eternal Ufe ; and ' contrariwise,' The like trope our Lord employs in that expres sion, ch. viii. 22. Let the dead bury their dead. Let the spiritually dead bury the naturally dead. Seealsu ch. xiii. 12. In the present instance, the trppe has a beauty In the priginal, which we cannot give it in a version. The word -^•j'/s'-. Is equivocal, signifying both life ar;d soul, and consequently is much better fitted for exhibiting ¦with entire perspicuity, the two raeanings, than the Eng. word life. The Syro-Chaldaic, which was the language then spoken in Pales tine, had, in this respeft, the same advantage with the Gr, CHAP. «»c NOTESON CH, IX, CHAP. XI. I. Give warning. Diss. VL P. V. § 2, &c. » In the cities, tv ratg leoXttriv a^lav. E. T. In their cities. It Is not uncoraraon in the Oriental dialefts, to eraploy a pronoun where the antecedent, to which it refers, is not expressed, but understood. In this way aulav is here used ; for it must refer to the Galileans, in whose country they then were. But as the pronoun is nPt neces sary in Eng. and as In pur ears It wpuld appear tu refer tp disciples, and SP raight mislead, it Is better oraitted. 2. Of the Messiah, ts X^irs. A few MSS. and the Eth. version, read ts Ido-s. It is not In Itself iraprobable, that this Is the true reading, though too weakly supported to authorize an alteration in the. text. Ii)o-s;, Kvgi©-, ©s©-, and X^tr®-, having been anciently alraost always written by contraftlon, were raore liable to be raista ken than the other words. If, however, the common reading be just, it deserves to be remarked, that the word X§»s-®- is never, when alone, and with the article, used in the Gospels, as a proper name. It is the name of an office. The import of the expression must therefore be, ' When John bad heard that those works were ' performed by Jesus, which are charafterlstlcal of the Messiah, he ' sent.' Diss. V. P. IV. J 6—9. 3. He that cometh, i tg-)(,oft,iv®'. E.T. He that should come. I thought it better to render this literally, because it is one of the titles by which the Messiah was distinguished. It answers in Gr. to the Heb. Xin haba, taken from Psal. cxviii. 26. where he is denominated. He that cometh in the name ofthe Lord. The be ginning of a description is usually eraployed to suggest the whole. Indeed the whole is appUed to hira, ch. xxi. 9. Mr. xi. 9. L. xix. 38. J. xii. 13. and sometimes the abbreviation, as here, and inj. vi. 14. Heb. X. 37, i ig-)(,ofi.tv®' seems to have been a title as much ap propriated as 0 X^if®.', and 0 hi®' ts -Aa/ii^. J. Good news is hrought. Diss. V. P. II. 6. To whom I shall not prove a stumbling-block, ig tav fin trxavia- XirB-n sv iftot. Ch. V. 29. N. 7f CH.XI. S.MATTHEW. 91 7. A reed shaken by the wind S A proverbial expression; imply ing, ' It is surely nnt fpr any trifling raatter that ye have gpne * thither.' 8. AvB-gaiFov IV ftaXaxotg ifidliaig Hft^tta-fitvov — oAa ftaXaxa (ptgavllg It was pbserved (Diss. X. P. V. § 2.) that, wben a particular spe cies was denpted by an adjeftlve added to the general name, the article, on occasion of repeating the name, is raade to supply the place of the adjeftlve ; but here -we have an exaraple wherein, on rejefting the adjeftlve, the substantive is supplied by prefixing the article ra fiaXaxa for ftaXaxa ifuolia. There is evidently, therefore, neither redundancy nor irapropriety in using the article here, as some have -vainly Iraagined. Either it or the repetition of the noun was necessary. In point of precision. 10. AngeL Diss. VIII. P. III. § 9, &c. 12. Invaded. The coraparison is here to a country invaded and ponquered, or to a city besieged and taken by storm. 13. Were your instruBors, rgai