sion of the solar light in this country, we cannot easily determine. Was it a cometary body passing so near the earth as to hide the face of the sun for a time? Was it a body of clouds extremely dense? was it a foggy exhalation rising from the earth, and enveloping the atmosphere in gloom and obscurity? These, and many other conjectures might be offered, but they could only be conjectures after all. Some learned astronomers have calculated the situation of the heavens for the day of Christ's crucifixion; but this, could we ascertain it, would not solve the question. It may be rationally inquired, whether the cause of this darkness was not in the earth, or in its atmosphere, much rather than in the sun, or occasioned by any celestial body? Is it quite certain, that the word scotos, used by three of the evangelists, signifies an eclipse of the sun? Might not such dense vapours, as our fogs sometimes are, vide on Exod. chap. x. 21. cause an obscurity impenetrable by the solar light, or at least very little penetrable by it? Are we bound to suppose a pitch darkness? I think not: and therefore, upon the whole, venture to incline in opinion, that our earth, or its atmosphere, or both, furnished the principles of that interposing medium, which shadowed Jerusalem, at this time, by keeping off the rays of the sun from that city, and its neighbourhood. VERSE 52. The resurrection of the dead persons from their tombs, is among the most extraordinary attendants on the crucifixion: that tombs should be opened by an earthquake, is not extremely wonderful; whether these tombs were buildings above ground, in rocks above ground, or were graves below ground. If they were cut in rocks, then, only those stones which closed their entrances might be displaced, and the interior chambers would admit the light of day if they CHAPTER VII. VERSE 22. were small buildings, then their openings were of a different kind. Perhaps they were not all of the same kind; be that as it might, my wish is, to restrict these persons thus wonderfully revived, to such as had lately been interred. I see no use, nor any propriety, in reckoning among them the ancient patriarchs; says Scheuzer, "Abraham, Isaac, Jacob," forgetting that these were buried [in the cave of Machpelah,] far enough from Jerusalem; as most probably also, were "Zachariah, Elizabeth, and John.' As it is said that they went into the holy city, i.e. Jerusalem, and appeared unto many; no doubt they were persons well known in that city, and to those whom they visited. They must therefore have been contemporaries; and this reduces their number greatly, since Jerusalem could not have furnished many recently dead. We know, that it is equal to the Divine Power to revive twenty as two, or an hundred as one single person : but we are not to judge by what Divine Power can do; that principle has occasioned many errors, under the weak application of human minds; we are to determine from the narration, the expressions used, and the proprieties connected with the subject. If I saw the least use in supposing the revival of all the patriarchs and prophets, from Adam to Zachariah, far be it from me to doubt the possibility of it: but how should these be known in the holy city? How should even David and Solomon themselves be known? and if not known, where is the use or the effect of their being raised, and of their visits in the city? Of what advantage to the then living inhabitants of Jerusalem could be the revivification of persons whose features had long perished from remembrance? Did they announce themselves, who could believe them? who could ascertain them? And conceal themselves they could not, they did not; they appeared, says the text, unto many: then certainly they were acquainted with many, and many with them. MARK. FROM within, out of the heart, proceed evil thoughts ... an EVIL EYE. It is most probable that our Lord here refers to a grudging, envious, malignant, disposition of mind, which in the countenance shews itself by a certain perversion of the organs of vision, a kind of askance look; which is much more easily imagined or noticed than described: gloomy jealousy, unhallowed repining at another's welfare, are most probably what our Lord here censures. But there is in the East a very strong persuasion that an evil eye has power to do great mischief to the person it dislikes; and many are the precautions taken against its effects, as quoted below. It must certainly be acknowledged that when "Saul evil-eyed David, from that day forward," there wanted but little to instigate his aversion into action, to the chace of his faithful servant, like "a partridge on the mountains:" no doubt the observation of a similar progress in evil in many other instances, contributed to establish the opinion of an evil eye's influence. "They have a great notion of the magic art; have books about it, and think there is much virtue in talismans and charms, but particularly are strongly possessed with an opinion of the evil eye; and when a child is commended, except you give it some blessing, if they are not very well assured of your good will, they use charms against the evil eye; and particularly when they think any ill success attends them on account of an evil eye, they throw salt into the fire," Pococke's Travels in Egypt, vol. i. p. 181. CHAPTER XIV. VERSE 51. "It is almost a general custom among the Arabs and Mahometans, natives of this country, to wear a large blanket, either white or brown; and in summer a blue and white cotton sheet, which the Christians constantly use in the country; putting one corner before, over the left shoulder, they bring it behind, and under the right arm, and so over their bodies, throwing it behind over the left shoulder, and so the right is left bare for action. When it is hot, and they are on horseback, they let it fall down on the saddle round them; and about Faiume, I particularly observed, that the young people especially, and the poorer sort, had nothing on but this blanket. It is probable the young man was clothed in this manner who followed our Saviour when he was taken, having a linen cloth cast about his naked body; and when the young men seized him, he left the linen cloth, and fled from them naked. Joseph's garment might also be of this kind, Gen. xxxvii. 3," Pococke's Travels in Egypt, vol. i. p. 190. CHAPTER XI. VERSE 11. LUKE. IF a child ask a fish, will his father give him a serpent? or, if he ask an egg, will he give him a scorpion? Many fishes are as long in shape as some serpents are; but eels are probably the fish more particularly alluded to, as they might easily be substituted for serpents; and we see, by the figure and size of some kinds of scorpions, that they are oblong, and thick, though not white, like an egg: but the comparison probably intends a child incapable of discerning one from the other by their proportions; a young child, desirous, but not judicious. [Vide on Isai. xi. 14. plate.] CHAPTER XV. VERSE 16. He desired to fill his belly with the HUSKS which the swine did eat. St. Luke calls these husks keratia: this word is equivocal, and denotes those external coverings which include the seeds, &c. of vegetables; perhaps, too, the bran. Besides this, it signifies plants, and even a tree is called keration by Dioscorides, lib. i. cap. 159. because its fruit resembles little horns. Galien and Eginetus call it keratomia; the modern Greeks, xylo kerata. This tree loves warm situations: it rises very high, on a thick trunk, and spreads strong, large, and solid branches. Its leaves are wing shaped, somewhat roundish, three inches broad or more, and rather longer. Its flowers are milk white; the fruit is in pods, longer, and thicker than a finger, somewhat crooked and flat; sweet and edible. This tree is common in the Calabrias, Sicily, Egypt, and Palestine, and near Jerusalem. It has been called St. John's bread, from a supposition that the forerunner of the Messiah made this fruit his food. Vide on Matth. iii. 4. Dioscorides characterizes this fruit as incommoding the stomach, and relaxing the belly, while fresh ; but when dried, as strengthening the stomach, and bowels. Pliny, lib. xxiii. cap. 8. says the same. The Egyptians, according to Alpinus, extract from these pods a very sweet honey, which the Arabs use for a seasoning instead of sugar. This honey also is employed instead of bee honey, for clysters; and some even give it as food, to relax the bowels. It is probable, therefore, that the prodigal ate this fruit, in a time of scarcity, as we might do acorns, &c. in England. The Syriac reads charub; the Arabic charuub. It is known among us by the name of the ca rob-tree. CHAPTER XIX. VERSE 34. JOHN. BUT one of the soldiers, with a spear, pierced his side, and forthwith came there out BLOOD AND WATER. This is an interesting circumstance: it is testified by the evangelist in solemn terms; " and he who saw it bare record; and his record is true: and he know eth that he saith true, that ye might believe." Every word here is important; "and he, seeing it, did testify it;" i.e. immediately, either at the very time, he remarked it to some other, for observation; or, directly after the circumstance, while it was yet fresh in his mind; and now he repeats this declaration : averring his own knowledge and conviction, for your conviction also, that ye may believe believe what? the real death of the person so pierced. This wound was made in the side of Jesus; whether the right side or the left side is not mentioned; yet, according to which side it was, depends what internal, viscera, parts were wounded. The instrument also deserves notice; it was a short lance, not a horseman's spear; but one carried by a class of foot soldiers, who were lightly armed. The word used is longche, λoyx, a name given, says Pollux, to the iron head of a lance: those pretorian soldiers who carried these lances were called Longchophoroi; by the by, here we see the root of the name Longinus, by which the soldier who pierced our Lord is called in ancient martyrologies. These circumstances confirm the notion, that the cross on which Christ suffered was but little elevated. It is every way credible that his feet were not above twenty or thirty inches from the ground; so that, a soldier, in piercing his side, needed neither a long lance, nor any great action in raising his arm: so that, what Jesus said from the cross to his mother and to John, was not spoken very loud, but in an ordinary tone of voice: yet, as what he said was certainly heard by the soldiers, he might not choose to call his mother by that name, lest he should bring her into trouble, as participating in his treason; neither does he call John by his name, but says to one, "Behold thy son;" to the other, "Behold thy mother;" and both understood his meaning, though too obscurely expressed to be laid hold of by the bystanders, whether military or casual. Observe the remarkable escape from falsification, so to term it, of the Scripture expression, "a bone of him shall not be broken;" for the course of this lance to reach the heart of Jesus must needs have passed very close to some or other of the ribs, if not indeed between certain of them; and had we seen the action, we should, no doubt, have supposed that some of them must have been broken; but Providence ordered otherwise; our Lord was at such a height above the person who struck him, that probably, the stroke was under the sternum, or the false ribs, so as just to escape them; while, being struck with force, it reached his heart. I think there is no doubt that it reached his heart, because the blood and water was furnished from thence; the water from the pericardium, or bag which surrounds the heart, and which always contains a quantity of that fluid; the blood from the heart itself, that grand reservoir of the circulating life of man. Had water only issued, it might have been thought that the point of the lance had stopped short of the heart itself; but both water and blood were seen to follow the lance, perhaps to run down it, as an indisputable token that it was the heart which received this wound; since no other part of the body, internal or external, could, at that moment, have furnished these two fluids, in a state of separation. It was this state of separation which rendered them so noticeable to the apostle John: this he says he saw he was within hearing; he was also within seeing and we have no reason to discredit his testimony, unless we mean to deny the real death of Jesus; which was denied by some in the early ages; and to oppose that sentiment, John, here, in the most direct terms, asserts his unequivocal and perfect knowledge of this decisive fact. : CHAPTER XIX. VERSE 39. Nicodemus brought a mixture of MYRRH and ALOES, about an hundred pound weight. These ingredients, myrrh and aloes, are, no doubt, the same as we have often already mentioned in the course of these remarks. The quantity they brought has been exclaimed against by certain Jews, as being enough for 50 bodies: I think this may be doubted; and that several mixed preparations, such as were used for embalmment, are included under the terms. Whether we might wish to read decaton for ekaton, 10 lbs. for 100 lbs. is mere conjecture. ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. CHAPTER VII. VERSE 33. PUT off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place where thou standest is holy ground. Customs of countries, and modes of shewing respect, differ greatly though the intent be the same, yet the action varies. Among ourselves, uncovering the head is a token of respect; in the East, uncovering the feet answers the same purpose: as we should think it strange to be required to take off our shoes, so would an Oriental to be required to take off his turban. Does this simple subject stand as an instance, that circumstances of divine worship may lawfully differ in different countries; and that mutual allowances and forbearances are indispensable among professors of the same religion? We are accustomed to consider as somewhat of an hardship the direction to priests serving the altar, that they should be barefooted; and Josephus says, that some of them contracted disorders, lameness, &c. in their feet and legs. The Talmud tells us, too, that there was in the temple a heated marble flooring, whereon the barefooted priests might stand, to recover the warmth of their feet. I am inclined, however, to doubt these accounts, as I think persons in the habit of going without shoes could very well walk on marble itself, without injury. This is done all the year round in the streets of Edinburgh; and if so far north, why not in Judea, a much warmer climate? It is still customary in the East, and the same kind of respect is paid to the presence, and to the dwelling of a superior, as was practised anciently. I say the dwelling, whether the party be really at home or not. Virgil describes the spur by the phrase "an iron heel," Eneid, lib. ii. verse 714. Quadrupedemque citum ferrata calce fatigat ; Ferrata calce atque effusa largus habena "The poor spread the floor with straw matts, and the rich with fine carpets. No person even enters a room, without having first put off his shoes." A And Silius Italicus, lib. vii. 696. Frenchman boasts of having "maintained the honour of his nation," by wearing his shoes in the governor of Mecca's hall of audience. It is just such another boast, as if an Arabian envoy should vaunt of trampling on the chairs of an European lord," Niebuhr, vol. ii. p. 221. "Some Greeks had hinted to us, that the Mussulmen thought Christians unworthy of making this voyage in company with the pilgrims who were journeying to the holy city; and upon this account we should not go aboard with shoes upon our feet. But to be obliged to walk without shoes upon the deck was not an humiliating distinction, confined to Christians; it was a restraint to which all on board were subjected. Nobody in those vessels but must walk upon deck without shoes," Niebuhr, vol. i. p. 213. Many of them, however, walk with bare feet upon the scorching sand, which renders their skin at length insensible," ibid. It should seem, by this remark, and it is confirmed by many other writers, that it is not the cold, or chill of the places trodden on which is most feared in these countries, but the heat; accordingly, those Europeans who have lately visited Egypt, mention the heat, the burning of the sands, as acting through the strongest soles of their boots, in the most distressing manner the marble pavements of the temples in Egypt being heated to a degree of which we can have no conception. This accounts for the choice of the shade of trees, as places of devotion; the coolness of which was felt by the feet, no less than by the rest of the per son. CHAPTER IX. VERSE 5. It is hard for thee to kick against the PRICKS. There are two questions which arise respecting these pricks; 1st, whether they mean spurs, intended to drive forward a horse, and used by the rider for that purpose? or, whether they mean goads, used by a person to drive forward the oxen, with which he is ploughing. The original word is kentra. I shall submit an extract on the first notion, that of a spur. It has indeed been said, that the ancients did not use spurs; and to this objection Montfaucon replies: "But the ancients had spurs ; Cicero uses the word calcar, to signify spurs. Nay, he uses the term in a metaphorical sense, too; as "such a person wants a bridle, such another person wants a spur," to intimate that one is too slow, the other too quick; which shews that the use of spurs, according to the common meaning of the word, was frequent in those times. And yet, though we have many monuments of horsemen, not one of them has the least trace or mark that they wore a spur. I can easily imagine these spurs were only small pricks of iron, fastened to a little iron plate fixed in the shoe, at the heel; for I have seen such used by our country people: such a small iron pin, or prick, might be omitted in sculpture. The Greeks called the spur xevTpov; whence ποτὶ κεντρον δε τοι λακλιζεμεν τελέθει ολισθηρος διμος ; the way is dangerous when you kick against the pricks: which phrase is also used in the Acts of the Apostles: "It is hard to kick against the pricks," says our translation. It is evidently this writer's opinion, that the spur is the subject intended by the word kentron; and what is remarkable, he has quoted one of those passages which are usually brought in favour of a goud; as may be seen in Parkhurst, from whom the following is partly extracted. To kick against the goads, or pricks, is a prover bial expression, taken from unruly beeves, and applied to those who, by impotent rage, hurt themselves. This proverb is used by Greek and Roman writers. Eschylus, in Agamemnon, v. 1620. Kick not against the pricks, lest thou be hurt. I would with offerings supplicate the god, How mad it is to kick against the pricks! says Terence, Phormio, act i. scene 2. using the word calces. Bochart observes, that Moses had used the same simile, Deut. xxxii. 15. saying, "Jeshurun had waxed fat, and kicked." The reader will now judge between the probabilities that a spur, for a steed, or a goad, for a beeve, is intended. The meaning of the passage is clear enough either way; but yet much might be said on both sides, and perhaps without effectively concluding the subject. VERSE 18. And immediately there fell from the eyes of Saul, as it had been SCALES. I have ever thought those scales which fell from the eyes of Paul, were the external coat of the eye, blasted, as it were, by the splendour of that light, which aggere a Proseucha, I construe thus, "Fruiterer on the causey of the Oratory:" one who took care of an orchard or garden, by the causey; otherwise, one who sold fruit there. they had been unable to endure. I would just remark here, that this is one of those associates with a miracle, which, though they come in the last place of the history, are yet of the first importance; because they are so many securities against delusion. No "Proscucha means the same as poreux, that is, ordinary power could have dislocated the thigh of prayer; and sometimes signifies the place where they Jacob; Jacob, therefore, had a suffering conviction made their prayers, or an oratory, as Eusebius, that no delusion had deceived him, in what had pre- Hist. Eccl. lib. ii. p. 43. and Epiphanius, Hær. 20. viously passed. No ordinary power could command use the word, where he says, "The Massalians had fire out of a rock, by merely striking it with the end large places for oratories, which they called poreuxas of a staff: Manoah, therefore, had ample conviction proseuchas." I do not know whether we meet this that no power merely human, or capable of deceiving word proseuchas, in Latin, used in this sense any him, had been conversing with him. No effect of fancy where else. It certainly signifies the same as sacelcould deprive Zachariah of voice and hearing, while lum, ædicula, or sacrarium, places where they used it invigorated other parts of his person. And now, to say their prayers. There are reckoned up at Rome when Saul, after having felt his blindness, after being above a thousand temples, or chapels, or oratories, fully aware of that fact, and thoroughly convinced of where they used to go to pray to the gods; and as it, when he, being restored to sight, saw the scales there was certainly a great number of temples not menwhich had fallen from his eyes, he must be more and tioned by writers, there must have been a great many more convinced that it was no phenomenon of nature more proseuchas. So superstitious a people made which had struck him. Lightning might, no doubt, have oratories, or little temples, upon the least occasion." blinded him; but could he have recovered his sight in three days, had he been so blinded? Certainly not. Would the outer coat of the eye have shelled off after such a stroke? Certainly not. Would the remaining coats of the eye have been fit for their uses in vision? Certainly not. Could other persons have been convinced of the story told of a great light seen in the way, in any better manner, than by such evident memorials of a most extraordinary visitation, and a recovery beyond all credibility, if referred to natural events only? We have, in Scripture, histories of persons blind for a time, but no such accompanying marks of recovered sight; and when disease blinds some patients for a time, the tokens of restoration are not these scales, not the indurated covering of the cornea, nor any external coating from it. CHAPTER XVI. VERSES 13, 16. And on the Sabbath we went out of the city by a river side, WHERE PRAYER was wont to be made. And, as we went to PRAYER... I believe it is univserally agreed, that the word proseucha used here, and Luke vi. 12. signifies, not the act of prayer, but the place of prayer: an edifice, or enclosure at least, adapted to the purpose of prayer to God. The following extract from Montfaucon may confirm this opinion. "The other urn was made by Quintus Salustius Hermes. The inscription is, "Dis Manibus. Publico Corfido Signino Pomario de aggere A PROSEUCHA. Quintus Salustius Hermes amico bene merenti, et numerum ollarum decem." "To the gods Manes, and to Publius Corfidius Signinus, Fruiterer on the causey of the Oratory, Quintus Salustius Hermes, hath made this Monument for his deserving Friend, and added ten cinerary urns." Pomario de If then it was customary to construct oratories on occasions of no great magnitude, there need be no question, whether the Jews also did not construct such for themselves; and that they would wish their oratory to be at some distance from those of the town itself, or from those of other strangers, we need not doubt, knowing the character of that people. Josephus cites a decree of the Halicarnasseans, Antiq. lib. xiv. cap. 10. which gives the Jews liberty to build oratories, proseuchas, by the sea side, according to the custom of their nation." The ancient Syriac version, accordingly, renders this passage an house of prayer. And we may remark, though these proseuchus were not confined to a station by the sea side, or by running water, yet that the proscucha in Luke, being on a mountain, was separated, by its distance, from the probability of pollution by its neighbours; and therefore coincides with the ideas above suggested. There is an article on this subject in CALMET. These principles would subject this passage to the following corrections: "We went out to a house of prayer, and as we went to the house of prayer" CHAPTER XIX. VERSE 35. And The great goddess Diana, the image which FELL DOWN FROM JUPITER. We have several accounts of statues, whose worshippers claimed for them the honour of having fallen down from heaven. very lately, the possibility of a nearer approach to matter of fact, and to rationality in this expression, has been shewn by a learned and curious history of stones, said to have fallen from the clouds: such have been found in various parts of the world; and, what is remarkable, they agree in character and composition, though no stone similar to them may be within great distances. Now, if one of these stones |