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original is onvágrov, in Latin, denarius, and with the Romans did value the eighth part of an ounce, which, after five shillings the ounce, amounteth unto sevenpence halfpenny of our money.

Lastly, whereas it might be conceived that they ate the passover, standing rather than sitting, or lying down, according to the institution, Exodus xii, "Thus shall you eat with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand;" the Jews themselves reply, this was not required of succeeding generations, and was not observed but in the passover of Egypt. And so also many other injunctions were afterward omitted: as the taking up of the paschal lamb from the tenth day, the eating of it in their houses dispersed, the striking of the blood on the door-posts, and the eating thereof in haste;-solemnities and ceremonies primitively enjoined, afterward omitted; as was also this of station: for the occasion ceasing, and being in security, they applied themselves unto gestures in use among them.

Now in what order of recumbency Christ and the disciples were disposed, is not so easily determined. Casalius, from the Lateran triclinium, will tell us, that there being thirteen, five lay down in the first bed, five in the last, and three in the middle bed; and that our Saviour possessed the upper place thereof. That John lay in the same bed seems plain, because he leaned on our Saviour's bosom. That Peter made the third in that bed, conjecture is made, because he beckoned unto John, as being next him, to ask of Christ who it was that should betray him? That Judas was not far off, seems probable, not only because he dipped in the same dish, but because he was so near that our Saviour could hand the sop unto him.1

Now in what order, &c.] This paragraph was added in 2nd edition.

CHAPTER VII.

Of the Picture of our Saviour with Long Hair.

ANOTHER picture there is of our Saviour described with long hair, according to the custom of the Jews, and his description sent by Lentulus unto the senate. Wherein indeed the

Another picture, &c.] A very beautiful head of our Saviour has recently been engraved in mezzotint, by J. Rogers. It is a copy from a gem, said to have been executed by order of Tiberius Cæsar, and subsequently to Pope Innocent VIII by the emperor of the Turks as a ransom for his brother.

Another error has been noticed by some commentators in representing our Lord with a crown of long thorns, whereas it is supposed to have been made of the acanthus, or bears-foot, a prickly plant, very unlike a thorn. See Dr. Adam Clarke, in loc.

3 his description sent by Lentulus, &c.] Or rather said to have been sent by Lentulus, &c.; for this letter is now known to have been a forgery. The supposed author was a Roman governor of Syria; of whom it was pretended that he was a follower of our Lord, and that he gave a description of his person in a letter to the senate. This was however obviously insupposeable at a period when the governors of provinces addressed the emperor, and no longer the senate; to say nothing of the style, which is by no means Augustan. The fact is, as has been remarked to me, that when publick opinion had been made up as to the probable appearance of our Lord's person, this letter comes out to settle the point. In No. 7026-4 of the Harleian MSS. is preserved a copy of this letter, on vellum, in the beautiful handwriting of the celebrated German dwarf. Math. Buchinger, which he sent to his patron, Lord Oxford. It contains also a portrait agreeing with the description given in the letter. This letter has been translated into English, and occurs, Christ. Mag. 1764, p. 455, and other places.

Perhaps the most celebrated of the reputed original portraits of the Redeemer,

is that said to have been received by Abgarus, King of Edessa, mentioned by Evagrius. Eusebius gives a letter sent by the said Abgar to Jesus Christ, professing the conviction which the Redeemer's miracles had wrought in his mind of the divine character of our Lord, and entreating him to come to Edessa and cure a disease under which the king had long laboured ;-together with our Lord's answer, declining to come, but promising to send a disciple to heal the king. For these letters see Hone's Apocryphal New Testament. In his Everyday Book, Jan. 13th, he gives a woodcut of the portrait. In the London Literary Gazette of Nov. 29, 1834, is a much better account of the circumstance, in a review of Baron Hubboff's History of Armenia, published by the Oriental Translation Society. I subjoin his account of the picture. "Abgar sent a painter to take the likeness of the Saviour, if he would not vouchsafe to visit Edessa. The painter made many vain attempts to draw a correct likeness of our Saviour. But Jesus, being willing to satisfy the desire of King Abgar, took a clean handkerchief and applied it to his countenance. In that same hour, by a miraculous power, his features and likeness were represented on the handkerchief." The picture thus miraculously produced, is said to have been the means of delivering the city from the siege laid to it by Chosroes, the Persian, 500 years afterwards. Thaddeus went to Edessa after Christ's ascension and healed Abgar.

See also Mr. W. Huttman's Life of Christ, where will be found a copious account of the portrait of Jesus Christ, published in prints, coins, &c. Mr. Huttman spells the name of the King of Edessa, Agbar.

hand of the painter is not accusable, but the judgment of the common spectator: conceiving he observed this fashion of his hair, because he was a Nazarite; and confounding a Nazarite by vow, with those by birth or education.

The Nazarite by vow is declared, Numbers vi; and was to refrain three things, drinking of wine, cutting the hair, and approaching unto the dead; and such an one was Sampson. Now that our Saviour was a Nazarite after this kind, we have no reason to determine; for he drank wine, and was therefore called by the Pharisees, a wine-bibber; he approached also the dead, as when he raised from death Lazarus, and the daughter of Jairus.

The other Nazarite was a topical appellation, and appliable unto such as were born in Nazareth, a city of Galilee, and in the tribe of Napthali. Neither, if strictly taken, was our Saviour in this sense a Nazarite, for he was born in Bethlehem in the tribe of Judah; but might receive that name because he abode in that city, and was not only conceived therein, but there also passed the silent part of his life after his return from Egypt; as is delivered by Matthew," And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, he shall be called a Nazarene." Both which kinds of Nazarites, as they are distinguishable by Zain, and Tsade in the Hebrew, so in the Greek, by Alpha and Omega: for, as Jansenius observeth,* where the votary Nazarite is mentioned, it is written, Na【αgaños, as Levit. vi and Lament. iv. Where it is spoken of our Saviour, we read it, Nawgaños, as in Matthew, Luke, and John; only Mark, who writ his gospel at Rome, did Latinize and wrote it Ναζαρηνός.

* Jans. Concordia Evangelica.

CHAPTER VIII.

Of the Picture of Abraham sacrificing Isaac.

In the picture of the immolation of Isaac, or Abraham sacrificing his son, Isaac is described as a little boy; which notwithstanding is not consentaneous unto the authority of expositors, or the circumstance of the text. For therein it is delivered that Isaac carried on his back the wood for the sacrifice, which being an holocaust or burnt-offering to be consumed unto ashes, we cannot well conceive a burthen for a boy; but such a one unto Isaac, as that which it typified was unto Christ, that is, the wood or cross whereon he suffered, which was too heavy a load for his shoulders, and was fain to be relieved therein by Simon of Cyrene.5

Again he was so far from a boy, that he was a man grown, and at his full stature, if we believe Josephus, who placeth him in the last of adolescency, and makes him twenty-five years old. And whereas in the vulgar translation he is termed puer, it must not be strictly apprehended, (for that age properly endeth in puberty, and extendeth but unto fourteen,)

4 as a little boy.] More absurd representations have been made of this event. Bourgoanne notices a painting in Spain where Abraham is preparing to shoot Isaac with a pistol! Phil. Rohr, (Pictor Errans,) mentions one in which Abraham's weapon was a sword.

5 too heavy a load, &c.] Some painters have accordingly represented Christ and Simon of Cyrene as both employed in carrying the cross.-some have supposed as Lipsius notices, that only a part (probably the transverse portion) of the cross was borne by our Lord.-Lipsi Opera, vol. iii, p. 658.

6 puer.] In the Greeke the word [as] is ambiguous and, as wee say, polysemon, signifying diverselye according

VOL III.

to the subject to which it relates: as when it relates to a lord and master it signifies a servant, and is to bee soe translated: where itt relates to a father itt signifyes a sonne. The old translation is therefore herein faulty, which takes the word in the prime grammatical sense for a child, which is not always true. In the 4th cap. of the Acts, vers. 25. itt renders Δαβίδ τοῦ παιδός σου, David pueri tui, and in the 27th waîdá σou'Inooɔ̃v puerum tuum Iesum, in both places absurdly : which Beza observed and corrected; ren

dering the first by the word servant, and the later by the word sonne rightlye and learnedlye. Wr.

I

but respectively unto Abraham, who was at that time above six score. And therefore also herein he was not unlike unto him, who was after led dumb unto the slaughter, and commanded by others, who had legions at command; that is, in meekness and humble submission. For had he resisted, it had not been in the power of his aged parent to have enforced; and many at his years have performed such acts, as few besides at any. David was too strong for a lion and a bear; Pompey had deserved the name of Great; Alexander of the same cognomination was generalissimo of Greece; and Annibal, but one year after, succeeded Asdrubal in that memorable war against the Romans.

CHAPTER IX.

Of the Picture of Moses with Horns.

In many pieces, and some of ancient bibles, Moses is described with horns. The same description we find in a silver medal; that is, upon one side Moses horned, and on the reverse the commandment against sculptile images. Which is conceived to be a coinage of some Jews, in derision of Christians, who first began that portrait.

The ground of this absurdity was surely a mistake of the Hebrew text, in the history of Moses when he descended from the mount, upon the affinity of kæren and karan that, is, an horn, and to shine, which is one quality of horn. The vulgar translation conforming unto the former; Ignorabat quòd cornuta esset facies ejus.* Qui videbant faciem Mosis esse cornutam. But the Chaldee paraphrase, translated by Paulus Fagius, hath otherwise expressed it: Moses nesciebat quòd multus esset splendor gloriæ vultus ejus. Et viderunt

* Exod. xxxiv, 29, 30.

7 In many pieces, &c.] And in Michael Angelo's Statue of Moses in St. Peter's at Rome.

8 The same description, &c.] This sentence was first added in 2nd edition.

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