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No. 1359.-1 TIMOTHY i. 10.

For men stealers.

THERE were persons who made it their business to decoy servants and free-men, that they might steal and sell them for slaves. Against this practice there were particular laws enacted, Exod. xxi. 16. Deut. xxiv. 7. It was also condemned by the Flavian law among the Romans, and was not allowed of among the Greeks. The death with which such persons were punished, according to the Jews, was strangling.

No. 1360.-ii. 8. Lifting up holy hands.] The apostle alludes to a custom of the Jews, who always used to wash their hands before prayer. The account Maimonides gives is this: “a man must wash his hands up to the elbow, and after that pray. They do not make clean for prayer but the hands only, in the rest of prayers, except the morning prayer: but before the morning prayer a man washes his face, his hands, and feet, and after that prays.'

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No. 1361.-iii. 13. They that have used the office of a deacon well purchase to themselves a good degree.] Some commentators have thought that in these words the apostle alludes to various degrees which subsisted among the Levites. They passed through no less than four different degrees. From one month old to their twentieth year they were instructed in the law of God; from twenty to twenty-five, in the functions of their ministry; from thence to thirty they served a sort of apprenticeship, beginning to exercise themselves in some of the lower branches of the sacred service; and lastly, when

they had attained their thirtieth year, they were fully instituted in their office. Some have observed much the same degrees among the vestal virgins: thirty years they were bound to the strictest chastity; the first ten of which were spent in learning the mysteries of their profession: the second ten they ministered in holy things: and the last ten were employed in bringing up young novices. (Dionys. Halicarn. lib. 2.)

JENNINGS's Jewish Ant. vol. i. p. 274.

No. 1362.-2 TIMOTHY iv. 6.

For I am now ready to be offered.

"THIS is an allusion to that universal custom of the world of pouring wine or oil on the head of the victim immediately before it was slain: the apostle's emphatical word signifies, wine is just now pouring on my head, I am just going to be sacrificed to pagan rage and superstition."

BLACKWALL'S Introduction to the Classics, p. 128.

No. 1363.-TITUS iii. 11.

Knowing that he that is such is subverted and sinnetk, being condemned of himself.

"In order to induce the criminal to confess his crimes, they (the Jews) said to him, give glory to God, that is, confess the truth, and be your own judge. For the Jews were of opinion that criminals who confessed their crimes would partake in the happiness of a future state : and therefore they exhorted and pressed criminals not to draw down the hatred of God upon them, by obstinacy and stubbornness in concealing their crimes: St. Paul sometimes alludes to this custom; as when he says, happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth, Rom. xiv. 22. that is, who being convinced of the truth of a thing, is not weak enough to give testimony against himself, notwithstanding his conviction; and when he says, that a heretic is condemned of himself, Titus iii. 11."

LAMY's Apparatus Biblicus, p. 206.

No. 1364. HEBREWS ii. 15.

And deliver them who through fear of death were alt their life-time subject to bondage.

THE apostle describes the state of the Jews as a state of bondage through fear of death. The reason of this fear is given in the preceding verse; the devil had the power of death. Hence he was called the angel of death; and the destroying angel. They imagined that this destroying angel had a power over men even after death. The Midrash avers, that when a man is buried, the devil, the angel of death, comes and sits upon the grave, bringing with him a chain, partly of iron, partly of fire. Then causing the soul to return into the body, he breaks the bones, and torments variously both soul and body for a season. Thus one of their solemn prayers on the day of expiation is, that they may be delivered from this punishment of the devil in their graves. Their prayer to this purpose in their Berachoth is," that it may please thee, good Lord, to deliver us from evil decrees or laws; from poverty, from contempt, from all kinds of punishment, from the judgment of hell, and from beating in the grave." A similar form of prayer is still in use among the MahoPIRIE's Works, vol. iii. p. 151.

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No. 1365.-v. 7. When he had offered up prayers and supplications.] The word for supplications signifies branches of olive trees covered with wool: (Harpocratian Lex. p. 152. Alex. ab Alex. Genial. Dier. 1. v. c. 3.) which such as sued for peace carried in their hands, Hence it came to signify supplications for peace. GILL, in loc.

No. 1366. vi. 16. An oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife.] The manner in which an oath was taken amongst the Jews, and to which the apostle, writing to such, must be supposed to refer, was this: "He that swore took the book of the law in his hand, and stood and swore by the name of God, or by his surnames: the judges did not suffer any to swear but in the holy tongue and thus he said, behold, I swear by the God of Israel, by him whose name is merciful and gracious, that I do not owe this man any thing." Herodotus says that the Arabians, when they swore at making covenants, anointed the stones with blood. GILL, in loc.

No. 1367. vii. 26. And made higher than the heavens.] On the day of atonement the high-priest was carried to an upper chamber in the temple, called the chamber of abtines. In the account here given of the exaltation of Christ there may be an allusion to this circumstance. GILL, in loc.

No. 1368.-x. 35. Cast not away therefore your confidence.] By the confidence here spoken of may be intended a profession of faith, which ought to be bold and courageous, firm and constant: or it may signify the grace of faith in its full assurance, which, as a spiritual shield, Eph. vi. 16. ought by no means to be cast away. It was reckoned infamous in soldiers to cast away or lose their shield: with the Grecians it was a capital crime, and punished with death. (Alex. ab Alexand. Genial. Dier. 1. ii. c. 13.) Dr. Gill apprehends that the apostle may here allude to this circum

stance.

No. 1369.-xiii. 15. fice of praise to God.]

VOL. II.

By him let us offer the sacriAmong the Jews there was a

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