Page 4.—Emancipation of servants.] The Mosaic law did not prohibit domestic slavery, which, being universal in the ancient world, it would have been impossible to banish from among any single people;—it only endeavoured to mitigate those evils which slavery must bring with it, especially among a people little softened by civilisation. In particular, its regulations were directed to prevent the mischiefs which resulted in other countries from the hostility against their master, which is engendered in the minds of slaves, who see no prospect of any termination to their miseries but that of their lives. Foreign slaves might be purchased and retained during their whole lifetime in slavery; (Lev. xxv. 45, 46.) but if a native Israelite had been reduced to servitude by poverty, Josephus (Ant. iii. 12. xvi. 1.) adds, by crime, he was to be set free at the end of seven years, or in the year of Jubilee, if this occurred before his seven years of service had expired. (Exod. xxi. 2-6. Lev. xxv. 39. Deut. xv. 12-18.) It would, however, frequently happen that a servant would have formed an attachment to his master’s house, which would make him unwilling to leave it, especially as the children, who might have been born to him by a female slave in the family, continued the property of his master. (Exod. xxi. 4.) In this case he was allowed to bind himself to his service for ever: the compact, to prevent false claims on the master’s part, taking place in the presence of witnesses, with the ceremonies described in the text. Josephus (Ant. iv. 8. 28.) appears to suppose, that even then he was released in the fiftieth year. The time immediately preceding the Passover is said to have been usually chosen for the manumission of those who were to receive their freedom. (Reland, Ant. Sacr. Heb. 452. Michaelis, Mos. Law, § 122-127.)

Page 6.—Thavech.] ??? (t? es??, Luke v. 19.) is a Hebrew word denoting the midst, and applied to the court which formed the centre of the buildings of the house. See Shaw’s Travels, p. 208.

Page 6.—Presents for the host.] “It is counted uncivil to visit in this country without a gift in the hand. All great men expect it, as a kind of tribute due to their character and authority, and look upon themselves as affronted, and indeed defrauded, when this compliment is omitted. Even in familiar visits amongst inferior people you shall seldom have them come, without bringing a flower, or an orange, or some other such token of their respect to the person visited: the Turks in this respect keeping up the ancient oriental custom hinted at, (1 Sam. ix. 7.) ‘If we go, what shall we bring the man of God? there is not a present to bring to the man of God—what have we?’ which words are questionless to be understood as relating to a token of respect, and not a price of divination,”—Maundrell’s Travels, p. 26.

Page 7.—Respecting the construction of the better kind of houses in the east, the variegated marble pavements, the fountain with its cypress or palm-trees, the awning stretched over it, &c. see Harmer’s Observations on Scripture, i. 195. Ed. 1776. Russell’s Aleppo, i. 29. Shaw’s Travels, 207.

Page 8.—Nard.] The costly liquid perfume, called nardus by the ancients, was obtained from the flowers of the Indian plant Valeriana Jatamensi. (Roxburgh, As. Res. iv. No. 33.) From the resemblance of the grains, with which the lower part of the stem is covered, to an ear of corn, it obtained the name of ???d?? st????, spikenard. (Mark xiv. 3. John xii. 3.) When pure, a small quantity of it, such as could be enclosed in a vase of onyx, was esteemed of great value.—Hor. Od. iv. 12.

Page 8.—Fish of the Nile.] Athen. vii. 312. f??e? d? ? ?e???? ???? p???? ?????? ?a? p??ta ?d?sta.—Diod. i. 36. The fish of Egypt are regretted, along with its vegetables, by the murmuring Israelites. (Numb. xi. 5.) In the hot weather the languid appetite relishes scarcely any food but this.—Harmer, ii. 327.

Page 8.—Posture at table.] “Coenantes ita decumbebant, ut capite leviter erecto, dorsoque pulvinis suffulto, lÆvo cubito inniterentur. Singulos lectos terni solebant occupare; primus pedes dorso secundi, secundus tertii dorso proximos habebat. Primus dicebatur summus, qui ad hujus pedes tertius imus erat, qui medius inter illos accumbebat dignissimus habebatur.”—Quistorpius de Terra Sancta; Fascic. Opusc. ix. 542.

Page 8.—Blessing the bread.] The prayers of the Jews before their meals beginning with the words ???? ??? ???? the word to bless, (e????e??) came to be used, as we find it F.pn +1 in the New Testament, for giving of thanks before a meal, and was applied to the food itself, though properly referring to God. (KuinÖel on Luke ix. 16.) What is here said respecting the ceremonies with which the meal was accompanied must be understood to rest on Rabbinical authority, or the practice of the later Jews. See Calmet Dict. Prayer; Diss. sur le Manger des HÉbreux, i. p. 350. Buxtorf. Synagoga Judaica, 7.

Page 10.—“Happy the people,” &c.] These words will not be found in our version of Psalm lxxxix. 15., but “Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound.” The author has followed the version of Dathe and others. “O beatum populum, qui novit clangorem tubÆ.” “Israelitis dies solemnes et festivi clangore tubÆ annunciabantur, Lev. xxiii. 24. qui deinde ad eos peragendos in loco sacro conveniebant. Laudat igitur poeta felicitatem populi ex eo, quod hÆc sacra ex prÆscripto Deo peragere possit.” Dathe. The modern Jews repeat this verse, when the trumpet is blown in the synagogue at the Feast of Trumpets.—Jenning’s Jewish Ant. ii. 253.

Page 11.—History of the Jews in Egypt.] According to the account of Aristeas, to whom we owe the fable of the origin of the Greek version of the Old Testament, the Jews had settled in Egypt as early as the time of Psammetichus, 670 B. C. This, however, is not confirmed by ?more credible authors. Herodotus mentions only Ionian and Carian mercenaries, (ii. 152.) as having served Psammetichus; Diodorus (i. 66.) does indeed add Arabians, under whom Jews may have been included; but there is nothing in the sacred volume to countenance the supposition. After the capture of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, Gedaliah, whom the Babylonians had left in command over the remnant of the people, was murdered by Ishmael, a prince of the house of Judah, who had taken refuge with the king of Ammon. The people, fearing the vengeance of Nebuchadnezzar, determined to take refuge in Egypt. Jeremiah, who endeavoured to dissuade them from it, was compelled to accompany them in their flight, and probably died in Egypt. (Jer. xli. xlii. xliii.) The fugitives took up their abode in the country adjacent to Pelusium, (Jer. xliv.) at Memphis and Thebes. It was predicted by Jeremiah that they should be cut off, but we know not in what manner the prophecy was fulfilled: probably from this time to that of Alexander the Great, a considerable number of Jews remained in the principal cities of Egypt. Alexander, when he founded the city which bore his name, brought a great number of Jews to settle there, (Jos. Bell. Jud. ii. 18. 7. cont. Apion. ii. 4.) allowed them to be called Macedonians, and gave them a quarter of the city, adjoining the palace, for their peculiar residence, that they might observe their national customs without molestation. Ptolemy Lagi, the founder of the kingdom of Egypt, endeavoured to possess himself of Palestine, but was driven out by Antigonus, and in his retreat carried with him a great number of Jewish families; (B. C. 312) some of whom he placed in his garrisons, others he sent to Cyrene, (Jos. Apion. ii. 4.) but the greater part he settled at Alexandria, continuing to them the privileges which had been granted to them by Alexander. After the battle of Ipsus, (301) JudÆa remained in the hands of Ptolemy, and many more of the Jews were attracted to the new capital of Egypt. (Jos. Ant. xii. 1.) Their number must have been very great, if we could rely on the account given by Josephus, that 120,000 of them were ransomed from slavery by Ptolemy Philadelphus, (B. C. 277, Ant. xii. 2. 1.) when he caused the Jewish law to be translated into Greek. The succeeding princes of this family treated the Jews with great kindness, desirous probably of attaching their countrymen in Palestine, and thus securing their possession of that region, so eagerly contested between them and the kings of Syria.^[133] In the reign of Ptolemy Philometor, Onias, whose father, the third high-priest of that name, had been murdered, fled into Egypt, and rose into high favour with the king and Cleopatra, his queen. The high-priesthood of the temple of Jerusalem, which belonged of right to his family, having passed from it to the family of the Maccabees, by the nomination of Jonathan to this office, (B. C. 153) Onias used his influence with the court to procure the establishment of a temple and ritual in Egypt, which should entirely detach the Jews who lived there from their connection with the temple at Jerusalem. The king readily complied with the request, hoping thus to assimilate the Jews more completely with his subjects, and to retain at home the gifts and tributes which they sent to the temple at Jerusalem. It was a bold innovation on the Jewish law, which had prescribed that sacrifices should be offered at one place only, for which purpose Jerusalem had long been appropriated. But on the other hand it might be urged that this law was given only in the contemplation of the Israelites living altogether in their own land, and that the case of a large number of Jews dwelling in a foreign country, not having been in the view of the lawgiver, was to be provided for when it arose. To reconcile the Egyptian Jews to a second temple, Onias is said to have alleged a passage in Isaiah, (xix. 18, 19.) of which we shall have occasion to speak hereafter. The place which he chose for the purpose was a ruined temple of Bubastis, at Leontopolis, in the Heliopolitan nome, one hundred and eighty stadia from Memphis; and the king having granted it to him, he repaired it, built a city resembling Jerusalem in miniature, (Jos. Bel. Jud. i. 1.) and erected an altar in imitation of that in the temple, constituted himself high-priest, and appointed priests and Levites from among the Jewish settlers. The king granted a tract of land around the temple for the maintenance of the worship, and it remained in existence till destroyed by Vespasian. (Jos. Ant. xiii. 3. xx. 9. Bell. Jud. vii. 11.) The chief seat of the Jews in Egypt, after Alexandria, appears to have been the district in which this temple stood, and which was called, from the founder, ????? ???a. (Jos. Ant. xiv. 8.) Onias was also a great warrior, and jointly with another Jew, Dositheus, was intrusted by Ptolemy with the management of all his civil and military affairs. When, after the death of Philometor, a dispute arose between Cleopatra and Ptolemy Physcon about the succession, Onias raised an army of Jews, and came to her assistance. During the reign of this voluptuous and cruel prince, (145-117 B. C.) the Jews in Egypt probably suffered in common with the other inhabitants of Alexandria, who were more than once in open rebellion against him; but nothing particular is related respecting them, if we except the circumstance mentioned in the preceding note, which the Latin translation of Josephus contra Apionem refers to the reign of Ptolemy Physcon. His queen Cleopatra associated with herself in the kingdom her eldest son, Ptolemy Lathyrus, and they were jointly sovereigns of Egypt at the time when the pilgrimage of Helon is supposed to take place. Cleopatra, jealous of Lathyrus, whom she had been compelled to take as her partner in the regal power, instead of his younger brother Alexander, (Jos. Ant. xiii. 10. 4.) gave her whole confidence to Hilkias and Ananias, sons of that Onias, by whom the temple of Leontopolis was built, gave them the command of the army, and was guided in every thing by their advice. The attachment of the Jews appears to have been the great support of Cleopatra’s power, almost all the other persons whom she employed going over to the side of Ptolemy. Thus favoured by the ruling powers, the Jews seem to have increased in population and wealth, so as to form no inconsiderable proportion of the inhabitants of Alexandria. ??? t?? ??e?a?d???? p??e?? ?f???st? ??a ???? t? ???e? t??t?. Strabo ap. Jos. Ant. xiv. 7. 2. Philo, Leg. ad Caium, says they were ????de? p???a?. Besides the enjoyment of their own religion, they had their own Ethnarch, who administered justice among them, according to their own law; so that, according to Strabo, they formed a sort of independent community in the bosom of the state. (Jos. Ant. xix. 5. 2.) It seemed desirable to present the reader with this connected view of the origin and state of the Jews in Egypt, as it is disclosed only gradually, and by allusion, in the work itself.

Page 14.—Irhaheres, Leontopolis.] Isaiah xix. 18. This is the passage which Onias is said to have alleged, in order to induce the Jews to acquiesce in the erection of the temple at Leontopolis. The words which stand in our common Hebrew Bibles are these, ???? ???? ???? ???? rendered in our translation “One shall be called, the City of Destruction.” Those who impute a misapplication of the passage to Onias, suppose that he read it ??? ????, which, according to the meaning which the word bears, (Job ix. 7.) would signify City of the Sun, i. e. Heliopolis; and some modern interpreters consider this as the more probable reading. See Vitringa in loc. It is supported by Symmachus, who renders it p???? ?????? and Jerome “Civitas Solis vocabitur una.” The rendering of the Seventy is different from either, p???? ?sed?? ?????seta? ? ?a p????, as if they had read ????, whence Prideaux (Conn. Book iv. p. 377. Ann. 149.) infers that the translation of this prophet was made by the Jews who worshipped at Leontopolis, and that they corrupted the text to pay a compliment to the temple there. Our author has followed an interpretation different from any of the above, which is thus given by Dathe, who has adopted it in his translation: “QuÆ sit ??? ???? incertum non est, postquam Ikenius in Diss. Philol. Diss. xvi. p. 258, plane demonstravit eam esse Leontopolim; origo nominis superest in lingua Arabica, in qua ??? leonem significat. Templum vero illud OniÆ IV. de quo sine dubio propheta loquitur, in nomo Heliopolitano ad urbem Leontopolim extructum esse Josephus diserte testatur Antiq. xiii. 3.”

It may be observed that the prophecy of Isaiah might naturally be considered as a justification of the erection of a temple in Egypt, without either corruption or mistranslation, as it certainly speaks of an altar to Jehovah there.

Page 20.—The Alijah.] See Shaw’s Travels, p. 214.; Taylor’s Heb. Concord. sub voce (????). It appears to have been the chamber over the gate, to which David (2 Sam. xviii. 33.) retired to weep for Absalom, and the ?pe???? (Acts ix. 37.) in which the corpse of Tabitha was laid.

Page 21.—The Panium.] ?st? d? ?a? ???e???, ???? t? ?e???p???t??, st?????e?d??, ?fe??? ???? pet??de?, d?a ??????? t?? ???as?? ???? ?p? d? t?? ????f?? ?st?? ?p?de?? ???? t?? p???? ?p??e????? ??t? pa?ta???e?? Strabo, xvii. p. 795. The Bruchium (a corruption of p?????e???, granary) was situated at the north-eastern angle of the city. See the plan of Alexandria, ancient and modern, in St. Croix Examen des Historiens d’Alexandre, ed. 2. p. 288. Alexandria had two principal harbours, the Great Harbour to the east, on which the Bruchium stood, and the Port of Eunostus to the west. The separation between them was made by the shallows between the Pharos and the land, afterwards covered by the mole of the Heptastadium. The modern city of Alexandria stands on the ground which has accumulated about the Heptastadium.

The Museum, where men of letters lived in common and at the royal charge, (Strabo, xviii. 794. Gillies’ Hist. of the World, i. 496.) was founded by Ptolemy Lagi, and the library enlarged by Philadelphus and succeeding kings, till it amounted to 400,000 volumes. The Serapeum contained 300,000 more. The library in the Bruchium was burnt in the wars of CÆsar; that in the Serapeum suffered much in the religious dissensions, and what remained was destroyed by the Saracens.

That the population of Alexandria has not been overrated by the author, at 600,000 souls, may be inferred from what Diodorus says, that when he was in Egypt, (60 B. C.) it appeared from the registers that there were 300,000 free men in Alexandria. Now in ancient cities the slaves were commonly at least double the number of the free inhabitants. Hume Ess. i. p. 442. It was the second city of the Roman world after Rome itself. Diod. xvii. 52.

Page 23.—AramÆan Jews.] Aram, in its largest sense, comprehended Syria, Mesopotamia, and Palestine, all whose languages are closely allied. (Deut. xxvi. 5. Ezra iv. 7.) Though politically distinguished from Syria, Palestine has no geographical demarcation, and hence was often reckoned to belong to it. (Reland, Pal. p. 42.) Of the hatred which the Jews of Palestine bore to those of Egypt, who had attached themselves to the temple, see Maimonides de Reg. Hebr. c. 5. and the commentary in the Fascic. Hist. and Phil. Sacr. ix. p. 63. seq. The Greek learning was as odious to the zealous AramÆans, as to Cato himself. Ernesti op. Phil. xxiii. “Ut gliscenti malo, quod genuisse Ægyptiacas synagogas querebantur, obicem ponerent, sanxere Maledictus esto quisquis filium suum sapientiam GrÆcanicam edoceat.” (Brucker, ii. 705.) The inveteracy of the two sects against each other appeared immediately in the Christian church. Acts vi. 1. Wetstein in loc.

Page 23.—Of the origin of the love of allegory among the Jews of Alexandria, from their acquaintance with a corrupted form of the Platonic and Pythagorean philosophy, see Brucker, Hist. Phil. ii. 690. “Cum reliquÆ GrÆcorum sectÆ a Judaica theologia nimis distare crederentur, et nec Peripatetica mundi Æternitas, nec Stoica mundi anima cum placitis Mosaicis, etiam allegoriarum ope satis conciliari posse videretur, sola Pythagorico-Platonica doctrina saniora et digniora Mosaicis prÆceptis afferre existimata est, eo quod sublimius de Deo divinisque et spiritualibus substantiis philosophari putabatur. Ast magnum cum esset inter Pythagorico-Platonica dogmata et legem Mosaicam discrimen, adhibita est regionis docendi methodus, et allegoriÆ beneficio in concordiam ire jussa sunt prÆcepta longe diversissima.” Eichhorn Allge. Bibl. v. 233.

Page 26.—Doctrine of reminiscences.] Plato’s doctrine, that the soul’s present knowledge is only a remembrance of a former state, is the basis of much of his reasoning in favour of the immortality of the soul in his PhÆdo, sect. xviii. ed. Forster. ?? ??, that which is, is the real nature of things, the knowledge of which it is the highest flight of philosophy to attain.

Page 26.—A wise Jew who was also a Platonist.] In this description, the author evidently refers to Philo, (Brucker, ii. 193.) who lived a little after the time of our Saviour, but may be fairly presumed not to have been the founder of this system of Platonico-Mosaic allegory, since he speaks of it himself as old; Op. p. 1190, Ed. Par. although he was so eminent in it, that Photius, ciii. says of him, ?? ?? ??a? ?a? p?? ? ??????????? t?? ??af?? ?? t? ?????s?? ????? ?s?e? ?????. The author supposes Philo to have conceived of the ????? as a being distinct from the mind of God—yet strongly as many passages in his works favour this opinion, all seems at other times to resolve itself into a personification of a divine attribute and energy. See Mosheim ad Cudw. Syst. Int. i. 835. “Vocabulorum et nominum quibus hunc ????? JudÆus noster multis in locis ornat ea vis et ratio est, ut si ex usÛ et recepta loquendi consuetudine Æstimantur, notionem personÆ, summo licet Numine inferioris, in animis pariant—Ego vero vehementer metuo, ne si umbrÆ dissipantur quibus dictionem suam obscuravit Philo, idem nobis de hoc verbo dicendum sit, quod de binis potentiis ejus de quibus antea egimus.—Qui de hominum cogitationibus tam argute ac figurate philosophatur, is si Dei sapientiam et rationem aut divina decreta et cogitata primogenitum Dei filium vocat, nihil ab institutis suis alienum admittat.” On the other side of the question may be consulted, Kidder’s Demonstration of the Messiah, P. iii. ch. 5, 6.; Bull, Def. Fid. Nic. i. 1. 16.

Page 28.—God only can be our instructor in things relating to himself.] See Plato, Rep. vii. init. Leland’s Necessity of Revelation, i. 270.

Page 34.—An Egyptian Jew.] The book of Tobit was probably composed before the time of our Saviour, but when, or where, is very uncertain. (Eichhorn, Einl. ins A. T. 4. 410.) Alexandria, however, was the great workshop of the Jewish apocryphal writings, and probably produced this.

Page 36.—A righteous man.] See Godwin’s Moses and Aaron, lib. i. c. 9. respecting the distinction between the ??????, who to the obedience of the law added many other observances, designed to show their zeal for it; and the ??????, who contented themselves with keeping the written law. From the books of the Maccabees (1 Mac. ii. 42. vii. 13.) where the ?ss?da??? are mentioned, it is clear that this name was given to those who were zealous for the law; the existence of the others as a distinct class is more doubtful. Prideaux supposes that as the Chasidim gave rise to the Pharisees, so did the Tsadikim to the Karaites, who reject all tradition. Conn. vol. iii. An. 107.

Page 37.—The Tallith.] See Calmet’s Dictionary, Art. Taled. The fringes were designed to be worn on the ordinary garments, but the Jews in later times affixed them to this mantle, which they wore only in prayer.

Page 38.—Ceremonies of Prayer.] See Calmet’s Dict. Art. Phylactery. Surenh. Mishna i. 9. The use of them was at least as old as the time of our Saviour; but in describing the particular mode of making and wearing them, our author has followed Leo of Modena’s account of the modern Jews. Kri Schma, or Kiriath Shema, is derived from the word ??? (“Hear, O Israel,”) with which the passage in Deuteronomy begins. See Vitringa, Synagoga i. 279; CÉrÉmonies des Juifs traduites de l'ltalien de Leo de Modene, par Simonville, p. 30.; Prid. Connect. P. i. B. i. 6. vol. ii. 545. Some have supposed that when Christ asked the lawyer (Luke x. 26.) “What is written in the law? how readest thou?” he pointed to the phylactery on which Deut. vi. 4. seq. was written. See KuinÖel ad locum.

Page 40.—Taking food early in the morning.] “Woe unto thee, O land, when thy princes eat in the morning.” (Eccles. x. 16.) The Talmud prescribes eleven o’clock in the forenoon, as the time when it is proper to take the first meal. See Calmet’s Dict. Art. Eating. On the sabbath, and all festival days, it was usual to fast till noon. See Hammond on Acts ii. 15.

Page 41.—And thinks of the way to Jerusalem.] There is no mention of Jerusalem in the text of this passage. (Ps. lxxxiv. 5.) Our author follows Dathe, who renders

Page 42.—Egypt abounds with horses.] The horse appears to have been used by the Egyptians long before it was common among the Jews, or even the Arabians, though Arabia has been supposed to be the native country of this animal. Horses formed no part of the riches of the patriarchs: it is only in connection with Egypt that we find them mentioned in early Scripture history. See Mich. Mos. Law § 166, and Appendix. It was forbidden the Israelites to breed many horses, (Deut. xvii. 16.) a mountainous country being indeed ill adapted for this purpose. Solomon, when he married the daughter of Pharaoh, in violation of this law, procured horses from Egypt, (1 Kings x. 28, 29. 2 Chron. i. 16, 17.) and even carried on a traffic in them. And when Zedekiah (Ezek. xvii. 15.) is about to rebel, he sends to Egypt for cavalry. It is true that the Egyptian horses do not appear to have been highly valued for their qualities by the Greeks and Romans; and that Egypt is never mentioned by those who have treated of the places in which this animal is found in the greatest perfection. See Bochart HierozoicÖn, ii. 9. Yet, even in later times, when the great increase of canals had both lessened the necessity for the employment of horses, and had made the use of them difficult, (Herod. ii.) we find from Appian that the Ptolemies kept on foot 40,000 cavalry, Rom. Hist. PrÆf. 10.

Page 43.—Sabbath-day’s journey.] In the remainder of his work the author generally uses the sabbath-day’s journey as equivalent to somewhere about three quarters of an English mile.

Page 43.—Branches of the Nile.] Alexandria lying beyond the Canopic, the westernmost mouth of the Nile, all the seven branches of the river would, of course, be crossed by our travellers, in order to reach Pelusium, which was situated beyond the easternmost. The greater Delta is the whole country lying between these two branches; the lesser, that which is included between the Bubastic (or Pelusiac) and the Busiritic (or Phatnitic) channel, itself a branch of the Bubastic. Champollion, ii. 13. The distance from Alexandria to Pelusium, according to the Itinerary of Antoninus, was two hundred and thirteen miles. Naucratis stood on the eastern bank of the Canopic branch: it was for a long time the only place to which the jealousy of the Pharaohs allowed foreign merchants to resort; and under Amasis the Greeks were permitted to establish themselves there. (Herod. ii. 178.) Sais, one of the most celebrated cities of the Delta, stood about two leagues eastward from the Canopic branch: the goddess Naet, (or Neitha) who was worshipped there, was identified by the Greeks with their own Athene. See Jablonski Panth. Æg. lib. i. c. 3. Busiris was near the centre of the Delta, and on the western bank of the Phatnitic branch, distant twenty leagues from the apex of the Delta, and an equal number from the sea. Tanis, the Zoan of Scripture, was situated on the eastern bank of a subordinate branch of the Pelusiac, which from it took the name of Tanitic. Josephus describes it as having dwindled into an insignificant place, but the remains of several obelisks attest its ancient magnificence. Champollion, ii. 101.

Page 45.—Little wine was produced in Egypt.] Herodotus, iii. 16. says that wine was brought from Greece and Phoenicia into Egypt. Phoenicia was celebrated for its wines:

Herodotus (ii. 77.) says that Egypt produced no wine, and his testimony is confirmed by Plutarch, who says (De Iside et Osir. 6.) that before the time of Psammetichus no wine was drunk in Egypt nor offered to the gods. The mention of vines in Egypt in the book of Genesis (xl. 10.) shows that the assertion of Herodotus is to be taken with some limitation, but there can be no doubt that it was generally true. The level plains of Egypt are not suited to the cultivation of the vine—apertos Bacchus amat colles—and are besides overflowed precisely at that time when the vintage should ripen and be gathered. What wine therefore is grown in Egypt is beyond the inundations, in Fayoum, or on the border of the lake Mareotis; and perhaps Herodotus only meant to apply his remark to what he calls ? spe?????? ????pt??, i. e. the country which was annually overflowed.

Page 46.—Marshes around Pelusium.] This was the last town of Egypt on the side of Asia, and from its strength (for which reason it is called by Ezekiel, xxx. 15. Sin, the strength of Egypt) was the key of the whole country. The Greek name, ?????s???, (Strabo, xvii. 802.) the Hebrew ??? (Boch. Geogr. Sac. iv. 27.) the Arabic Thineh, and the Coptic Feromi, (Champollion, ii. 86.) all denote the marshy soil in which it stood.

Page 47.—Order of the caravan.] The principal circumstances mentioned in the text are derived from Pitt’s account of the Mecca Caravan. See Harmer, i. 465.

Page 49.—Gerrha.] According to the Tabula Peutingerana, distant eight miles from Pelusium. Cellarius Geogr. ii. Africa, p. 26. Josephus who (Bell. Jud. iv. 11.) describes the route of Titus from Pelusium to Gaza, makes his first day’s march to have been as far as the temple of the Casian Jupiter. But the speed of a Roman army and a caravan are very different. Philo, Vit. Mos. p. 627, represents Canaan as two days’ journey from Egypt.

Page 50.—A round piece of leather.] This is still the common substitute for a table in travelling in these countries. Volney, Voyage en Syrie, ii. 244.

Page 51.—The laws respecting clean and unclean animals are found in Lev. xi. and Deut. xiv. Michaelis, in his Commentaries on the Laws of Moses, § 200 et seq. has shown that the foundation of the distinction was the practice already established by the usage of centuries among the Israelites, and in most points also among the kindred nations in their neighbourhood, of using certain animals for food to the exclusion of others. It has been doubted whether the hare ruminates or not; it was the opinion of ancient naturalists that it did not; Arist. Hist. Anim. iii. 16. ed. Schneid. Blumenbach, Comp. of Nat. Hist. Lepus, inclines to the opinion that both the hare and the rabbit ruminate. The poet Cowper, who had the best opportunities of observing, also pronounces the hare to ruminate; and Dr. Shaw confirms it from dissection of the animal. See Wellbeloved’s Notes on Lev. xi. 6.

Page 53.—Moriah.] Josephus (Ant. vii. 10.) observes, that the threshing-floor of Araunah, where David determined to build his temple, was the place where Abraham was about to offer Isaac, 2 Chron. iii. 1.

Page 60.—Use made by the philosophers of the Mosaic history.] See Huet. Dem. Evang. Prop. iv. Many of the statements on which he relies are very questionable; but they show what was the opinion of the Jews, from whom the Christian fathers also derived it.

Page 67.—The Magi of Persia.] Kleuker, in his edition of the Zend-Avesta, Append. vol. ii. P. i. p. 39, observes, that the name of Abraham is well known to the Ghebers, from their intercourse with the Mahometans, but is unknown to the Parsees, the fire-worshippers of Guzerat. This correction must be applied to the accounts given by Prideaux, Conn. P. i. Book iv. An. 486, and others, (see Calmet’s Dict. Abraham) of the veneration in which Abraham is held by the followers of Zoroaster. There can be no doubt however, that the tradition of his power, wisdom, and virtue, has been handed down from the earliest times, among those nations which Scripture represents to have sprung from him. See D'Herbelot Bibl. Orient. i. 65.

Even the profane historians speak of him. Justin, xxxvi. 2.

Page 70.—Casium.] ?st? t? ??s??? ????d?? t?? ??f?? ????t???????, ???d???, ?p?? t?? ??p????? t?? ?????? s?a ?e?ta?, ?a? ???? ?st?? ?e??? ?as???. Strabo, xvi. p. 760. There was another Mons Casius, which must not be confounded with this, near Seleucia in Syria, and to the latter belong the medals inscribed ?e?? ??s???. The ancients fabled that Typhon had been buried under the Casian mount, or in the lake Sirbonis, which is near it. (Herod. ii. 6.) According to Herodotus, this mountain was the eastern boundary of Egypt.

Page 72.—A stranger of the gate.] The Jewish writers (not however those of the New Testament) speak of two kinds of proselytes, the ??? ??? Proselytes of Righteousness, and ??? ??? Proselytes of the Gate. The former were those who submitted to circumcision, and in every respect conformed to the Mosaic law. (Exod. xii. 48.) The proselyte of the gate, so called from the expression “the stranger who is within thy gates,” frequent in the Mosaic law, was one who lived among the Jews; generally it should seem in a servile or menial capacity, only so far conforming to the law, as not to offend against any of its sacred and fundamental principles—not sacrificing to any false God, perhaps not working on the sabbath-day. Jennings’s Jew. Ant. i. 144. Others suppose that the proselytes of the gate were bound to observe the seven precepts imposed on the descendents of Noah. See Calmet’s Dict. Art. NoachidÆ, and the commentators on Acts xv. 20. In the earlier times of Jewish history, none would embrace their religion but those who were domiciliated among them; but when they became dispersed over the world, and their doctrines more generally known, many appear to have attached themselves to the worship of the one God, without further conformity to the Mosaic institutions. Many learned men, however, suppose that only one kind of proselytes was known among the Jews, namely, those who had received circumcision. See Lardner, Works, vi. 523.

Page 72.—Goshen.] Respecting its situation see Jablonski, Diss. de Terra Gosen; Opusc. ii. 77. seq. According to him it was the Heracleotic name, an island in the Nile, above Memphis, and answering to the modern Fayoum. His reasons, however, seem insufficient to counterbalance the strong presumption (arising from the absence of all mention in the Exodus of crossing any branch of the river) that the abode of the Israelites must have been in Lower Egypt and beyond the Nile. Such is the general opinion of commentators.

Page 73.—The martyr Stephen (Acts vii. 6.) appears to speak of the captivity of Israel in Egypt as lasting four hundred years. So Jos. Ant. i. 10. 3. ii. 9. 1. In Exod. xii. 40. their sojourning is said to have been four hundred and thirty years; Gen. xv. 13. it is foretold by God to Abraham, that his seed should be afflicted in a foreign land four hundred years, to which it is soon after subjoined, (ver. 16) “and in the fourth generation they shall come hither again.” It is, however, generally supposed, that the sojourning of Abraham and his descendents in Canaan, where they were strangers, is included in the four hundred, or four hundred and thirty years. Accordingly Usher reckons the first period at two hundred and fifteen years, and the Egyptian bondage at about the same number. The difficulty remains that only four generations, inclusive, elapsed from the going down into Egypt to the Exodus; for Moses and Aaron were sons of Amram, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi; this the author solves, by reference to the prolonged term of human life in those ages.

Page 74.—Egyptian horror of pastoral tribes.] Gen. xlvi. 34. ????pt???? ?pe??????? ?? pe?? ???? a?ast??fes?a?. Jos. Ant. ii. 7. 5. It is generally supposed that this horror arose from the shepherds killing the sacred animals of the Egyptians; others regard it as a piece of policy on the part of the Egyptian priests to keep up a horror of the nomadic tribes, in order to confine the people to agriculture; others, as the effect of what the country had suffered from the irruptions of these tribes, especially that of the Hycsos or Shepherd kings. Jos. c. Apion. i. 15.

Page 88.—Mosaic imitation of the Egyptian polity.] Whether any part of the Jewish laws and institutions were borrowed by Moses from the Egyptians, is a question of which the affirmative side has been maintained, with great learning, by Spencer, in his treatise De Legibus HebrÆorum; and the negative by Witsius in his Ægyptiaca. Witsius, not denying many of the coincidences, alleges, that many things in which the Egyptians and the Jews agreed, may have been borrowed by the former from the latter. Considering that Egypt was a civilized, populous, and wealthy country, when Israel had not even become a people, this seems not probable. Some of those customs and rites which were observed by both nations, do not appear to have exclusively belonged to either, e. g. the remarkable custom of circumcision, the hereditary succession of the priesthood, the dress of the priests, the multiplicity of purifications, &c. Customs either exactly corresponding or nearly analogous to these, may be found in other nations; they had their origin from wants and feelings common to all, or had been handed down from primeval times. In regard to the coincidence between the civil laws of the Egyptians and the Jews, Michaelis well observes, “Without in the least degree derogating from his divine mission, I may be allowed to conjecture, that he may have adopted from other nations what he found among them deserving of imitation. If it be no presumption against his prophetic character, that he changed the traditionary usages of the nomadic Israelites into laws; neither is it any that he incorporated with his code the wisest civil regulations of the most civilized people.” Mos. Law, § 4. The grand peculiarity of the system of Moses, the unity, spirituality, and providence of God, he could have learnt neither from the wisdom of the Egyptians, nor that of any other nation; and on this argument may we safely rest the proof that he was really a prophet of the Most High. Compare Prichard’s Analysis of Egyptian Mythology, ch. iv.

Page 90.—Only in the state of divine inspiration.] Plato quoted by Leland, Necess. of Rev. i. 258.

Page 94.—Drifted sand.] “The lake Sirbonis is bordered on each side with hills of sand, which, borne into the water by the wind so thicken the same, as not by the eye to be distinguished from part of the continent, by means whereof whole armies have been devoured.” Sandys’ Travels, p. 107.

Page 94.—Larish.] So Baumgarten writes the word commonly and more correctly spelt El-Arish, Churchill, i. 411.

Page 94.—Ostracine.] It was distant, according to the Itinerary, sixty-six miles from Pelusium. Cell. Geogr. Afr. ii. 28. The lake Sirbonis was parallel to the sea, a space of not more than fifty stadia lying between them, where the interval was the broadest. It was connected with the sea by a narrow channel, called ?????a, (Strabo, lib. xvi. 760.) now choked up. Sandys, p. 107. Ostracine was so remarkably destitute of water, that to ask water from an inhabitant of Ostracine was a proverb for a vain request. Rel. Pal. p. 60. The ancient route passed between the lake Sirbonis and the sea; the modern keeps on the southern side of the lake; hence the exact position of Ostracine has not been ascertained.

Page 95.—The river of Egypt.] This appears to have been between Rhinocolura and Pelusium; whence the Septuagint (Isa. xxvii. 12.) renders ??? ????????????. Our author follows D’Anville, who says that the entrance of a ravine into the Sirbonian pool, receiving the waters of many torrents from the Arabian desert, is the Torrens Egypti of the Scriptures. Shaw, Travels, p. 181, contends that it was the Nile. The name of El-Arish (celebrated in the history of the late war) appears to be Arabic and modern. El-Arish and Casium (Katieh) are the only places between Raphia and the eastern branch of the Nile which produce any vegetation useful for man. The rest is moving sand or a desert strongly impregnated with salt. Pref. to Burckhardt’s Travels in Syria, p. viii. note. The deserts of Asia, however, are much less dreary and destitute of vegetable life than those of Africa. See Irby and Mangles’ account of their journey from Egypt to Palestine, Travels, p. 169.

Page 99.—The Nethinim.] These, so called from the Hebrew ??? (to give) were the menial servants of the sanctuary, who fetched the water and hewed the wood for the service of the temple. In the history of the conquest of Canaan by Joshua, (ix. 23.) the Gibeonites are said to be made hewers of wood and drawers of water for the house of God; but the name of Nethinim is never given to them; and Ezra (viii. 20.) says that David and the princes had appointed the Nethinim for the service of the Levites. It is probable that when the service of God was renewed, and its rites performed with more order and magnificence under David, the Gibeonites, who had become mingled with the body of the people, were found insufficient, and the Nethinim were appointed; perhaps from among the captives made in the wars of David.

Page 104.—Translation of the Books of Kings.] The first translation of the Hebrew Scriptures made by the Greeks of Alexandria included only the Pentateuch; (Jos. Ant. Prooem. 3.) the other historical books were translated at various times; (see Hody, Vers. GrÆc. ii. 9.) the prophets probably soon after the time when the Jews of Palestine began to read them in their Synagogue, as a substitute for the reading of the law, forbidden by Antiochus Epiphanes. Eichhorn Einl. i. d. A. T. i. 342. ed. 3.

Page 117.—Rhinocorura.] This place, sometimes spelt Rhinocolura, as observed before, is El-Arish. It is said to have taken its Greek name from the mutilation of the nose which a king of Ethiopia, when master of Egypt, inflicted on those whom he sent to reside here, Strabo, xvi. p. 759. It was twenty-six miles from Ostracine.

Page 125.—“Three sins have I passed by.”] The words with which Amos prefaces his denunciations have been variously explained. Literally they are, “For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four will I not avert it.” Our author supposes an ellipsis, “For three transgressions I did avert the punishment, but for four I will not avert it.” Others with more probability suppose, that three and four are used here for an indefinite number, as six and seven, Job v. 19.

Page 145.—Traces of melancholy.] The author has applied to the first destruction of Jerusalem, what the modern Jews say of themselves with reference to the second. Buxtorf. Syn. Jud. 124. 479.

Page 147.—Raphia.] “The name is still retained in Rafa, six hours’ march to the south of Gaza, where there are many remains of ancient buildings, and among them two columns of granite, which are supposed by the natives to mark the boundary of Asia and Africa.” Pref. to Burckh. p. viii. note. It was distant, according to the Antonine Itinerary, twenty-two miles from Rhinocolura, Cellar. Book iii. cap. 13. p. 372. The battle of Raphia was fought between Ptolemy Philopater and Antiochus, B. C. 217, and the result was that Antiochus, being totally defeated, was obliged to yield Coele-Syria and Palestine to Ptolemy.

Page 155.—An Israelitish maiden was Xerxes’ queen.] That Xerxes was the Ahasuerus of Scripture was the opinion of Scaliger. It is examined and opposed by Prideaux, Conn. P. i. Book iv. An. 465. Usher thought that he was Darius Hystaspis; Prideaux himself, Artaxerxes Longimanus. The subject is embarrassed with difficulties apparently inextricable, though there can be little doubt that the author of the Book of Esther intended some Artaxerxes by the name of Ahasuerus. Jos. Ant. xi. 6.

Page 159.—Manasseh became high-priest.] It must be observed that Nehemiah only says that one of the sons of Joiada the high-priest was son-in-law to Sanballat, but does not call him Manasseh. Josephus, under the reign of Darius Codomannus, (Ant. xi. 7, 8.) relates the marriage of Manasseh, grandson of Joiada, with the daughter of Sanballat, and his being appointed high-priest of the newly-built temple in Gerizim. As there is a difference of between seventy and eighty years between the date of Scripture and that of Josephus, some (see Hudson’s note on Josephus, Ant. xi. 7.) suppose two Sanballats, having daughters married to sons of the Jewish high-priests. This cheap but dangerous expedient of multiplying historical personages is justly rejected by Prideaux, Conn. An. 409.

Page 161.—Alexander acknowledged the merits of Israel.] The narrative of Alexander’s expedition to Jerusalem is contained in Jos. Ant. xi. 8. According to him, Alexander, while occupied in the siege of Tyre, ordered Jaddua the high-priest to send him supplies, and as he refused on the ground of having sworn allegiance to Darius, Alexander, incensed at the refusal, set out as soon as he had finished the sieges of Tyre and Gaza to punish the Jews. He had advanced as far as Sapha, on his way to Jerusalem, when he was met by the high-priest and the whole sacerdotal order. On seeing the name of Jehovah, which was inscribed on the high-priest’shigh-priest’s tiara, Alexander prostrated himself before him; and when Parmenio asked him how he, whom the rest of mankind adored, should prostrate himself before the Jewish pontiff, he replied that he recognised in his figure and vestments the person who had appeared to him in a dream before he left Macedonia, and had encouraged him to undertake the expedition, by assuring him that he should overturn the throne of Darius. Accompanying the high-priest to Jerusalem, he was shown by him the prophecy of Daniel, in which it was clearly marked that he should overthrow the Persian monarchy. Before he left the city, he promised to the Jews that they should be governed by their own laws and exempted from tribute every seventh year.

The truth of this narrative has been severely attacked by Moyle, Works, ii. 26. and others, see Hudson’s note, p. 503; and defended by Chandler on Daniel, and Prideaux, An. 332, St. Croix, Examen Critique, ed. 2. p. 547. Besides the suspicion which is thrown upon it, by its being unnoticed by the historians of Alexander, it contains circumstances both improbable and contradictory. The high-priest, who shows to Alexander the prophecy of Daniel, in which he is foretold as the conqueror of Persia, refuses submission to him, because he had sworn allegiance to Darius. But can it be believed that if he had known that Alexander was the person predicted long before by Jehovah, as his instrument for overthrowing the dominion of Persia, he would have been withheld by an oath of allegiance to the sovereign, whose reign the prophetic word declared to be ended? So little scruple was there on this subject, that, according to Josephus, many Jews enrolled themselves in his army to fight against Darius. Alexander too is made to know at once, that the characters inscribed on the tiara of a high-priest were the names of Jehovah; and Parmenio asks him why he, who was adored by all, (p??s??????t?? a?t?? ?p??t??) adored the Jewish high-priest; though Alexander never received these honours till his overthrow of Darius at Arbela had intoxicated his mind. The circumstance of the dream certainly may be true; but it has much the air of a romantic fiction. On the whole it appears most probable that the Jews made their submissions to Alexander as Justin says the princes of Syria generally did, (x. 10.) either during the siege of Tyre, or afterwards, when Curtius tells us that he reduced the neighbouring cities which refused his yoke, iv. 5.

Page 162.—HecatÆus of Abdera.] According to Josephus (Cont. Ap. i. 22.) he was a contemporary of Alexander the Great, and a friend of Ptolemy Lagi. He wrote a treatise expressly relating to the Jews, and mentioned especially the firmness with which they adhered to their laws in the midst of persecution. He shows so much more knowledge of Judaism, and speaks of it so much more respectfully, than the heathens commonly did, that the work has been suspected to have been the forgery of some Hellenistic Jew. See Origen, cont. Cels. lib. i. p. 13, ed. Spencer. This was the opinion of Scaliger. Spencer, in his note on the passage in Origen, defends its authenticity. The reader will observe the sarcasm, in Myron’s mention of HecatÆus as a native of Abdera, a town proverbial for the dulness of its inhabitants; AbderitanÆ pectora plebis habes.

Page 162.—Antigonus of Socho.] See Prideaux, Conn. An. 263. He was the first of the Mishnical school of Jewish doctors, who taught that the law and the traditions were of equal obligation. The founder of the sect of Sadducees was his son. Socho, from which he took his name, was a small town half way between Jerusalem and Eleutheropolis. Reland, PalÆst. 1018. 2 Chron. xi. 5.

Page 163.—Favour shown by Antiochus the Great to the Jews.] See Jos. Ant. xii. 3. 3.

Page 163.—Antiochus Epimanes.] ??? ?p?fa?? ??t?????, ?? d?? t?? p???e?? ??????? ?p?a?? ?a?e?. Athen. ii. 23. The history of the persecution of the Jews by Antiochus will be found in Joseph. Ant. Jud. xii. 5. seq. xiii. 1-9. The first book of the Maccabees, after a brief notice of the empire of Alexander the Great, takes up the Jewish history (i. 10.) at the accession of Antiochus Epiphanes, and continues it to the death of Simon, a period of about forty years.

Page 167.—Modin.] The site of the birthplace of the Maccabees is not exactly known: it must have been near the sea, since their monument was a mark to sailors, 1 Macc. xiii. 30. Eusebius places it near Diospolis or Lydda. Reland, p. 901. Maundrell says he passed near it in an excursion from Bethlehem to the convent of St. John; but this is probably a mistake.

Page 168.—Judas surnamed Maccabeus.] Different etymologies of the name Maccabee are assigned. That which derives it from ???? a hammer, (q. d. Martel) seems more probable than the common one; (according to which it originated in their inscribing on their standards the initial letters of Exod. xv. 11.) because it appears to have been the surname of Judas before the war began. See 1 Macc. ii. 4.

Page 170.—Festival of the new altar.] Jos. Ant. xii. 11. 7. It is this which the Jews of Jerusalem exhort the Jews of Egypt to observe, in the epistles which begin the second book of the Maccabees. But this book is of little authority, and the epistles in particular manifest forgeries. See Prideaux, An. 166.

Page 170.—Alexander Balas.] He claimed the throne of Syria, as a son of Antiochus Epiphanes, and had been supported by Jonathan, the Jewish high-priest. When he had defeated Demetrius and seated himself on the throne, he married Cleopatra, sister of Ptolemy Philometor, king of Egypt. It was at the celebration of these nuptials (B.C. 150) that Jonathan was distinguished in the manner related in the text. 1 Macc. x. 60. Jos. Ant. xiii. 4. 2.

Page 171.—Era of freedom.] The Jews were long without any proper era for the computation of time, though we find traces of the departure from Egypt, Num. i. 1. 1 Kings vi. 1., the building of Solomon’s temple, 2 Chron. viii. 1., the commencement of the captivity, Ezek. xxxiii. 21., being used as points from which to reckon; but without that uniformity of use which could make any of them properly an era. When they came under the dominion of Syria, they made use of what is called the era of the Contracts, A. M. 3692, B. C. 312, beginning with the establishment of the dynasty of the SeleucidÆ in Syria. When Demetrius granted the privileges of an independent sovereign to Simon, the Jewish people “began to write in their instruments and contracts, ‘In the first year of Simon the high-priest, the governor and leader of the Jews.’” Jos. Ant xiii. 6, 7. Mac. xiii. 41. This is remarkably confirmed by the inscription of the coins of Simon. See Eckhel Doct. N. Vet. iii. 468. This era begins in the year B. C. 143, and is called the Asmonean; the era of the SeleucidÆ however still continued in use. WÄhneri Ant. Hebr. ii. 47. The modern Jews reckon from the creation; the present year 1824 is 5584 of their reckoning. Reland Ant. 428.

Page 173.—Ptolemy Physcon.] He was the seventh king of Egypt, named by his subjects ?a?e???t??. By his cruelties he drove nearly all the men of letters and science from Alexandria, and by that means very much revived literature in Greece and the Grecian islands, (Athen. iv. 83.) in which they took refuge.

Page 175.—The Romans.] The connection between the Jews and the Romans appears to have begun by an embassy from Judas Maccabeus (B. C. 161) to Rome. Nothing could be more acceptable to the Romans than to raise up an independent power within the dominions of the kings of Syria; and they readily granted the Jews their friendship, and commanded Demetrius to abstain from hostilities against them. As they extended their power in the east, they continued carefully to cultivate this alliance, and renewed their treaties with Simon, (B. C. 139) with John Hyrcanus, (B. C. 128.) The weakness of the Syrian monarchy, and the protection of the Romans, are the real causes of the independence which JudÆa enjoyed till the year B. C. 63; when Hyrcanus and Aristobulus, sons of Alexander JannÆus, disputing about the succession, appealed to Pompey, who placed Hyrcanus on the throne, but in a state of complete dependence on Rome.

Page 181.—Gaza.] From Raphia to Gaza was a distance of twenty-two miles. Gaza had been taken, after a siege of two months, by Alexander, (B. C. 332) the inhabitants reduced to slavery, and the city repeopled by a colony from the adjacent country. Arr. ii. 27. Strabo (xvi. p. 522) speaks of it as entirely abandoned; but it is evident from the history of the Maccabees (1 Macc. xi. 61. xiii. 43.) that it was still a place of strength. In Strabo’s own time indeed it was as he describes it, having been totally destroyed (B. C. 96) by Alexander Zerbina. Reland, p. 787. St. Croix, 285.

Page 184.—Dagon.] See 1 Sam. v. 4. the last clause of which should be rendered, “only the fish-part was left.” Dagon was the same divinity with Atargatis, Derceto, the Syrian Venus. See Selden de Dis Syris Synt. 3. c. 3.

Page 188.—The stream of Besor.] 1 Sam. xxx. 10. Sephela, signifying in Hebrew hollow or level ground, was applied as a proper name to the level country along the shore from Gaza to Joppa, in which Eleutheropolis stood. It was bordered on the east by the hills of Judah. The easier road by the plain of Sephela has been so generally preferred by travellers, that, with the exception of Baumgarten, I hardly remember one who has gone by Hebron to Jerusalem. They commonly go to the north, as far as Jaffa, before they turn off.

Page 190.—Latter rains.] The early and latter rains are frequently spoken of in Scripture. After the dry months of summer it begins to rain in Palestine in October. These are the early rains (????). Again a considerable quantity falls in the month of March and the beginning of April; this is the ????? or latter rain. Buhle’s Calend. Œcon. PalestinÆ. Without the former the grain would not spring, without the latter it would not swell and ripen.

Page 191.—The sweet water of the Nile.] It was as celebrated in ancient as in modern times. “Hic quum apud Ægyptum milites vinum peterent respondit Nilum habetis et vinum quÆritis? Si quidem tanta illius fluminis dulcedo, ut accolÆ vina non quÆrant.” Spartianus Pesc. Niger. Hist. Aug. i. 663. with Casaubon’s note. ??????? ???? ?p? ??s? s?pt?? ?e???? e?p?t?? ????. Æsch. Prom. v. 837. AthenÆus (ii. 67.) mentions that it used to be sent to the kings of Persia for their drinking, though their own “Choaspes’ amber stream” was so highly prized; and (ii. 45.) that Ptolemy Philadelphus, whose daughter was married to Antiochus, king of Syria, used to send her the water of the Nile. Of the estimation in which the modern Egyptians hold it, see Harmer, vol. ii. chap. ix. “It is a common saying among the Turks, that if Mahommed had drunk of it, he would have begged of God not to have died that he might always have done it.” According to Dr. Clarke (v. 283.) it is remarkably pure, and better adapted for chymical purposes than any other.

Page 196.—Sitting cross-legged, or on the hams or heels, on mats or carpets, is now the general practice at meals in the east. Harmer (ii. 66. iii. 338.) gives some reasons for supposing that it was not universal in ancient times, among the Orientals. In the older books of Scripture, as in Homer, guests are described as sitting at table; Amos ii. 8. is the first passage in which mention is made of reclining. BrÜning’s Antiq. p. 299. In our Saviour’s time the recumbent posture was very common, a couch or divan being used for this purpose, or cushions laid upon the floor.

Page 190.—Sandys (p. 117) thus describes this country. “We passed this day through the most fragrant and pleasant valley that ever I beheld. On the right, a ridge of high mountains, whereon stands Hebron; on the left the Mediterranean sea, bordered with continued hills, beset with variety of fruits. The champaign between them (the plain of Sephela) full of flowery hills ascending leisurely and not much surmounting their vallies, with groves of olives and other fruits dispersedly adorned.”

Page 198.—Hebron.] See in Josephus, Ant. xii. 12. 1 Macc. vi. 65. 2 Macc. x. the account of the capture of Hebron by the Maccabees. Eusebius makes its distance from Jerusalem twenty-two miles; an Itinerary, quoted by Reland, thirty-one. Christian travellers have scarcely ever proceeded to the south of Bethlehem; and Captains Irby and Mangles and Mr. Bankes, appear to have been the first Englishmen who had visited Hebron for a long series of years. Travels, 342. It is held in high veneration by the Mahometans, as the burying-place of Abraham, and called El Khalil, the holy.

Page 199.—Terebinth of Mamre.] Reland, p. 711, seq. has made an ample collection of passages from Josephus (Jos. B. J. iv. 9.) and other authors relative to this celebrated tree. It was alleged by some to have stood there since the creation, by others to have shot up from the staff of one of the angels entertained by Abraham. So great was the veneration paid to it that an altar stood beneath its shade, on which sacrifices used to be offered, till Constantine ordered an oratory to be erected instead of the altar. There can be no doubt that it was a tree of most venerable antiquity, the terebinth being from its longevity as much an object of reverence where it prevails, as the oak formerly in Gaul and Britain. See Harris’s Nat. Hist. of the Bible, p. 309.

Page 200.—Does it begin to be light towards Hebron?] “JudÆi in Talmud Joma, cap. 3. et Maimonides in eum locum referunt, missum quolibet mane fuisse, qui ex summo templo ortum diei pro sacrificio offerendo observaret; cui acclamarint, ‘Num lux usque Hebronem sit;’ hoc est num ita lux fugaverit tenebras, ut qui ortum spectet etiam Hebronem videre possit.” Cellar. lib. iii. c. 13. p. 345. Lightfoot, i. 943. The reader must not expect to find that every trait in this account of the going up to the Passover can be warranted by quotation from Jewish authors. That it was the custom to go up in large companies on this occasion, accompanied with song and music, (Is. xxx. 29. Harmer iii. No. lxxx.) there can be no doubt. See Luke ii. 14. John vi. 4.^[134] In the description of the psalms which were sung, and other circumstances by which the picture is filled up, the author has allowably indulged his imagination.

Page 206.—Bethshur (Josh. xv. 58.) was on the road from Jerusalem to Hebron, at the distance of twenty miles from the former. It is frequently mentioned in the books of the Maccabees and in Josephus as a fortress of great strength. Jos. Ant. xiii. 9. 1 Macc. vi. 7. In the second book of Maccabees, xi. 5. it is said to be only five stadia from Jerusalem, but this is evidently a false reading. See Reland, p. 658. Cell. iii. 13. 344.

Page 208.—Etham.] ?? d? ?????? t? ?p? d?? s?????? ?e??p?????, ? ?a?e?ta? ?? ??a, pa?ade?s??? d? ?a? ?a?t?? ?p?????a?? ?p?te?p?? ??? ?a? p???s???? e?? t??t? t?? ???d??? ??????e??? ?p??e?t?. Jos. Ant. viii. 7. 3. speaking of Solomon. An account of the modern state of these reservoirs may be seen in Maundrell, p. 88. Pococke, ii. 42. Buckingham, 224.

Page 211.—No beggar among you.] The reader will not suppose that these words occur in the law of Moses, in whose writings, as Michaelis observes, (Mos. Law, § 142.) the name of beggar is not found, or any allusion to such a class of society: but that the spirit of his institutions excluded beggary. The laws respecting the treatment of the poor are found, Deut. xiv. 28, 29. xv. 1-11. xxiv. 19-22. xxvi. 11-15. Lev. xix. 9, 10. xxiii. 22.

Page 211.—Tekoah.] This town, the birthplace of Amos, lay six miles to the south of Bethlehem, (Maundrell, p. 88, says nine) and on the very edge of the desert. 1 Macc. ix. 33. “Ultra nullus est viculus, ne agrestes quidem casÆ, et furnorum similes, quas Afri appellant mapalia. Et quia humi arido et arenoso nihil omnino frugum gignitur, cuncta sunt plena pastoribus, ut sterilitatem terrÆ compensent pecorum multitudine.” Hieron. Prolog. ad Amos. Op. v. 208. “The mountains of Palestine,” observes Shaw, (p. 338) “abound with thyme, rosemary, sage, and aromatic plants of the like nature, which the bee chiefly looks after.” Bethcherem, the name of which (villa vineÆ) implies its productiveness of grapes, is mentioned by Jeremiah, (vi. 1.) as in the vicinity of Tekoah. Hieron. in loc. Op. iv. 533.

Page 214.—Ziph.] It lay eight miles eastward from Hebron. Josh. xv. 24. Reland, 1064.

Page 219.—Valley of Rephaim.] The Rephaim, from whom this valley took itsits appellation, were the supposed gigantic inhabitants of Canaan, whence the valley is called by the Seventy ?????? ??t????, Josh. xv. 13. It stretched from mount Moriah to Bethlehem, and the road now goes through it, Maund. 87. Bethlehem itself has been so frequently described by travellers, that it is unnecessary to quote any thing from their works. Josephus gives thirty stadia for its distance from Jerusalem, somewhat less than four miles, or six sabbath-days’ journies; Eusebius and Jerome six miles, Reland, 445. 645. The course of the Kedron to the Dead Sea appears from Pococke’s description to be considerably north-east of Bethlehem, ii. 34.

Page 222.—See Maundrell, p. 87. Clarke, 4. 419. The building now called Rachel’s tomb is evidently very modern.

Page 226.—Respecting the hospitality exercised at Jerusalem at the time of the Passover, see the commentators on Matt. xxvi. 18. Surenhusius Mishna. 4. 467. “Mercede non elocabant incolÆ Hierosolymis domos ad festa accedentibus, sed gratis concedebant.” Lightfoot. Among the ten wonders, the Rabbins reckon that “no man did ever say to his fellow, I have not found a bed in Jerusalem to lie in.” Lightfoot’s Works, i. 951. Hasselquist, p. 103, mentions with surprise the little inconvenience produced in Cairo by the entrance of the caravan of Mecca, containing 100,000 persons.

Page 228.—On the tenth of the month.] Exod. xii. 3. it is commanded that the lamb should be taken on the tenth of the month, and kept till the fourteenth; but the Jewish authors are not agreed whether this referred to that Passover exclusively, or was to be a perpetual rule. See Lightfoot’s Works, i. 952.

Page 232.—The Galileans obstructed by the Samaritans.] Josephus (Ant. xx. 5. Bell. Jud. ii. 12. 3.) relates an instance in which the Galileans, passing through Samaria, were attacked by them and several persons killed. Comp. Luke ix. 52. Samaria was the shortest way from Galilee to Jerusalem; the journey required three days, Jos. Vit. 52.

Page 234.—Searching for leaven.] This part of the paschal ceremonies was not ordained by the Mosaic law. See the Rabbinical authorities collected by Lightfoot, Works, i. 963.

Page 237.—The temple rose above the rest of the city.] The hill of Acra had been reduced in height by Simon, (Ant. Jud. xiii. 6. 6.) that the temple might be higher than all the surrounding buildings. This and the solidity of its construction made it an almost impregnable fortress in the war with the Romans.

Page 231.—Josephus (Bell. Jud. vi. 9.) makes a calculation of the number of persons present at the Passover from the number of lambs killed. They were 256,000; and as each was to be eaten (Exod. xii.) by not fewer than ten persons, and usually was so by more, he reckons that 2,700,000 persons must have been in Jerusalem. In Bell. Jud. ii. 14. he reckons all the inhabitants at the time of the Passover at 3,000,000.

Page 239.—Papyrus.] The process of preparing the papyrus is here described after Pliny, N. H. xxx. 12. A drawing of the plant, on a large scale, may be seen in Hayter’s Report on the Herculaneum MSS. The book of Jesus the son of Sirach was evidently written by a Jew of Palestine, (xxiv. 10. l 25.) who had seen the high-priest Simon, son of Onias, (ch. l.) probably the second; the author may have lived a short time before the commencement of the cruelties of Epiphanes, or about 180 B. C. (Eichh. Einl. 4. 36. seq.) According to the same author, the translation was made by his grandson a little more than a century before Christ. Ib. p. 41.

Page 240.—Travellers coming from a heathen land.] John xviii. 28. The law imposes no such purification; but it was agreeable to the spirit of the times to require it. (Acts x. 28.) Perhaps the purifications of Paul (Acts xxi. 24.) may have reference to this. The Rabbins speak of intercourse with idolaters as equal to Levitical uncleanness, from which every one must be purified before the Passover. John xi. 55.

Page 241.—The word Jehoshaphat signifies Jehovah judgeth; and it is very doubtful whether in this passage any place so denominated was intended, and not rather some spot, which, by being the scene of Jehovah’s judgment, would deserve this name. “JudÆi arbitrantur ultimo tempore quando Hierusalem fuerit instaurata, sÆvissimas gentes Gog and Magog contra Dei populum esse venturas et in valle Josaphat quÆ ad orientalem portam templi sita est, esse sÆvituras.” Hieron. in Joel. iii. 12. There is in the valley, through which the Kedron runs, a sepulchre, which is now shown to travellers as that of Jehoshaphat, (Maund. p. 103) but without any warrant from antiquity. It appears, however, that a great many sepulchres were excavated in the rocks which form the eastern side of this valley. See Clarke, 4. 333. 349. It is still the most earnest desire of the Jews to be buried in the valley of Jehoshaphat.

Page 243.—Five sabbath-days’ journies.] Pococke (ii. 7.) says, the ancient Jerusalem was four miles in circumference, the modern only two and a half. HecatÆus of Abdera says, the circuit of the ancient city was fifty stadia; about six miles, Jos. c. Ap. ii. 4. Various other estimates may be seen in the Essay on the Topography of Jerusalem, by D’Anville, appended to the second volume of Chateaubriand’s Travels.

Page 244.—Topography of Jerusalem.] The reader is requested to refer to the map of D’Anville, as the best elucidation of this description of Jerusalem. The valley of Gihon, which our author describes as bordering the whole city on the western side, is not there laid down. The fountain of Gihon is said to have been the same as Siloah; (Reland, 859. Lightfoot on John, v. 2.) this fountain, which was situated near the eastern end of the valley which separates the Upper from the Lower City, (the f??a?? ????p???? of Josephus) can hardly have given its name to the valley which skirted the city on the western side. According to Maundrell (p. 108) and other travellers, the name of Mount Gihon is given to a place where is a reservoir, on the western side of the city: I suspect that ????? from ??? alveus, may have been a generic name for a stream, which will account for its being applied to Siloah as well as to the proper Gihon on the opposite side of the city. The chief authority for the topography of Jerusalem is Joseph. Bell. Jud. v. 4. combined with various passages in the narrative of the war. Tacit. Hist. v. 11, 12. Reland, 832. seq. Cellarius, lib. iii. 13. p. 329. seq.

Page 245.—Bezetha] ??? ????, ?a???p????, or the New City, was without walls till the time of Agrippa, who began to fortify it, but desisted, fearful of exciting the jealousy of Claudius; the building was afterwards resumed and carried up to the height of twenty cubits, Jos. Bell. Jud. v. 4. 2.

Page 245.—The city had twelve gates.] The gate of Ephraim and the Corner-gate are not mentioned, Neh. iii. Godwin (Moses and Aaron, p. 73) reckons only nine. The whole subject is involved in great obscurity. Jennings’s Jewish Antiquities, ii. 76. Lightfoot’s Harmony John v. 2. Anc. Universal History, vol. iv. 234. The ordinary population of Jerusalem is estimated by HecatÆus, Jos. c. Apion. ii. 4., at 120,000.

Page 248.—Analogy of the city to the camp.] “Ad rationem castrorum in deserto, quod a porta HierosolymÆ ad montem Ædis intercedebat spatium, id respondebat castris Israelitarum. Quod autem a porta montis ad portam Nicanoris id Levitarum respondebat castris. Et quod spatium erat citra portam atrii castra Dei representabat.” Maimonides de Ædif. Templ. xi.

Page 251.—The description of the temple, as it existed just before its destruction, will be found in Jos. Bell. Jud. v. 5. c. Ap. ii. 7. The author appears to have most nearly followed Prideaux’s account, Conn. i. 200. See also Calmet, Temple. Lightfoot’s Works, i. 1049. seq.

Page 252.—The sanctuary, comprising the holy and holy of holies, was called emphatically the house, Luke xi. 51. by Josephus ?a??. Ern. Op. Phil. et Crit. p. 350.

Page 253.—Chel.] The enclosure ??? which is here spoken of is mentioned by the Rabbinical writers, and from them introduced by Prideaux into his ichnography of the temple. See too Lightfoot, i. 1089.

Page 254.—Of the multitude of persons from all countries of the dispersion who came up to Jerusalem at the Passover, see Acts ii. 9. ?? t?? ???da??? f??? ??? p?sa? p???? ?d? pa?e?????e?, ?a? t?p?? ??? ?st? ?ad??? e??e?? t?? ?????????, ?? ?? pa?adede?ta? t??t? t? f????, ?d’ ?p???ate?ta? ?p’ ??t??. Strabo ap. Jos. Ant. xiv. 7.

Page 256.—The law enjoins that the Passover shall be killed, ??? ?????? Exod. xii. 6. between the evenings, an expression which by comparison with Num. xxviii. 4. where the same phrase is used of the time of the evening sacrifice, (three P. M. according to Josephus, Ant. xiv. 4. 3.) appears clearly to have meant generally the latter part of the day. It has been much disputed what the evenings here mentioned are. The Greeks divided the decline of day into two evenings, one answering to what we call afternoon; the other, the time about sunset. The Jewish writers also distinguish between ???? ?????, the great evening, beginning half an hour after mid-day; and ???? the lesser evening, beginning in the middle of the tenth hour or half past three P. M. Fascic. Hist. and Phil. Sacr. vi. 426. It appears from Josephus, (Bell. Jud. vi. 9.) that the paschal lambs were killed between the ninth and the eleventh hour, i. e. from three o’clock till five. In Deut. xvi. 6. the command is to sacrifice the passover at sunset; and hence the Karaite Jews, who reject all Rabbinical traditions, kill it at twilight, and eat it after dark. See Jennings’s Jew. Ant. ii. 181. Lightfoot’s Works, i. 955. Ikenii. Diss. ix-xii. Of the ceremonies used in killing the paschal lamb, see Lightfoot, i. 957. and the Tract Pesachim, in Surenhus. Mischn. T. ii. 134. seq.

Page 257.—The father of the family killed the paschal lamb.] ?? t? ???t? ??? ?? ?? ?d??ta? p??s????s? t? ?? t? ?e?e?a, ????s? de ?? ?e?e??, ???a ???? p??st??e? s?p?? t? ????? ?e??ta? ?at? ???? ???st?? t?? ?p?? ??t?? ??s?a? ??a???t?? t?te ?a? ?e?????????t??. Philo. Vit. Mos. p. 686. So the Mishna; “Mactat Israelita, excipit sanguinem sacerdos.” Surenh. ii. 153.

Page 258.—The priests blew the trumpet.] The trumpet here spoken of, and elsewhere, was the ????? (tuba.) Joseph. Ant. xiii. 12. 6. straight and of metal, opposed to the ???? (cornu.) Vitringa, Syn. i. 203. The trumpets are represented on the Jewish coins, and on the triumphal arch of Titus.

Page 259.—Roasting in deep ovens.] See Pococke’s description of the ovens now used in Palestine, ii. 40.

Page 260.—Fifteenth of the month Nisan.] The Jewish ecclesiastical year began with the month Nisan or Abib, (the month of the ears of corn.) Exod. xii. 2. As the Jews reckoned by lunar years, Nisan, beginning with the first new moon after the vernal equinox, would sometimes fall in the end of March, sometimes in April; and hence it is impossible to assign any of the Jewish months exactly to corresponding months of the Roman calendar. The Passover was always to be accompanied by the offering of the first-fruits, or the new barley; and as this would not, ordinarily, be ripe before the middle of April, (Shaw p. 335) an additional month was intercalated, whenever the difference between the solar and lunar year had become so great, that this part of the law could not be complied with. See Michaelis Mos. Law, § 199. De mensibus HebrÆorum. Comm. xi.

The Jewish months followed in this order; the times assigned to them in our calendar must be understood with the limitation above-mentioned.

When an intercalary month was necessary, it was added after Adar, and called Veadar. Only four of the months, Abib, Exod. xiii. 4. Siv, 1 Kings vi. 37. Ethanim, 1 Kings viii. 2. Bul, 1 Kings viii. 38., are mentioned by name before the captivity. The civil year began with Tisri, at the autumnal equinox. WÄhner, Ant. Heb. ii. 15.

Page 261.—Ceremonies of eating the Passover.] The laws of Moses respecting this rite are found Exod. xii. 1-20. 43-49. Deut. xvi. 1-8. Exod. xxxiv. 25. Lightfoot (Works, i. 959. seq.) has collected the passages from the Rabbinical writings, which describe the manner of eating it so fully, that it is unnecessary to do more than refer to him for all that is here related. See also Maimonides de Sol. Pasch. Fasc. Hist. Sacr. vii. 837. What our author says of their standing around the table, appears doubtful: the Israelites ate their first Passover, undoubtedly, in this way; but in our Saviour’s time they appear to have used the ordinary recumbent posture, and this is agreeable to the accounts of the Rabbins.

Page 262.—The divan.] This is a raised platform, about four feet wide and six inches high, from the floor in the houses of Aleppo, according to Russel, (p. 27) running round the head and sides of the room, close to the wall, on which mats and cushions are spread. It serves as the ordinary seat of the Orientals, instead of our chairs.

Page 263.—The table in the east is low.] Mariti (ii. 144.) describes a table at which he dined, as raised about a hand’s breadth from the floor, and two feet broad.

Page 272.—Hyrcanus unites in himself the three offices of the Messiah, prophet, prince, and priest.] Josephus (Bell. J. i. 2. 8. &c.) gives several instances of the prophetic inspiration of Hyrcanus, Ant. xiii. 10. 7. 12. 1.

Page 273.—First watch of the night.] According to the original division of time among the Jews, there were only three watches in the night. See Judges vii. 19. They afterwards borrowed from the Romans the division into four watches. Matth. xiv. 25. Mark xiii. 35. See Lewis, Hebrew Republic, Book vii. chap. 2. The water-clock, or clepsydra, was invented by Ctesibius, (Vitruv. ix. 9. Athen. lib. iv, p. 174) a native of Alexandria, in the reign of Ptolemy Physcon. In earlier times the dial appears to have been the only measurer of time among the Hebrews.

Page 274.—Great Hallel.] “Quarto epoto poculo, nihil amplius tota nocte libare prÆter nisi aquam licebat, nisi quis vellet super quintum poculum cantare ilium eximium hymnum qui incipit confitemini dominum (Psalm cxxxvi.) et pertinet ad usque super flumina Babylonis.” (Psalm cxxxvii.) Maim. de Sol. Pasch. Fascic. Hist. et Phil. Sacr. vii. 897.

Page 275.—Soon after midnight.] ??? ????? t?? e??t?? ???????, ?? ?s?? ???t?? ?? ??e? ?? t??? ?e?e?s? ????????a? t?? ?e??? t??? p????a?. Jos. Ant. xviii. 2.

Page 276.—Usual morning sacrifice.] Exod. xxx. 7. 9. xxix. 38-46. Numb. xxviii. 1-8. The special offering for the Passover, Numb. xxviii. 16-25.

Page 277.—Garments of the high-priest.] See Exod. xxviii. xxxix. 1. 39. Jos. Bell. Jud. v. 57.

Page 282.—Music of the Levites.] According to Josephus, Ant. vii. 12. 3. the instruments of the Levites were a ten-stringed instrument, called Cinyra, struck with the plectrum; a twelve-stringed, Nabla, played with the fingers; and cymbals. The Rabbins say (Lightfoot, i. 921.) that a flute, or hautboy, was used on particular days, of which the Passover was one.

Page 284.—Gesture of the high-priest in blessing.] See Vitringa, Lib. de Syn. iii. 2. 20. p. 1119. Lightfoot, i. 947.

Page 285.—A thank-offering.] Thank-offerings, freewill-offerings, and offerings for vows, went under the general denomination of peace-offerings. The laws respecting them are found Lev. iii. vii. 11-34. xix. 5-8. xxii. 17-33. The thank-offering was to be wholly consumed on the same day; the freewill-offering on the same or the following day.

Page 286.—Ceremonies with which the first sheaf was cut.] See Lightfoot, i. 969. Reland, Ant. Heb. 466. The climate of the valley of the Jordan is much warmer than that of Jerusalem. Justin, xxxvi. 3. Shaw, 335. Jos. B. Jud. iv. 8, 3. The law for the offering of the first-fruits is found Lev. xxiii. 9-14.

Page 292.—The offering of the appearance before Jehovah.] It was grounded on Exod. xxiii. 15. “None shall appear before me empty-handed.” It was called Corban Raajah. ????. See Lightfoot, i. 968. It was a voluntary offering, no penalty being annexed to the omission. The general law of burnt-offerings is found Lev. i. 1-13. vi. 8-13. vii. 8.

Page 294.--Schools of the prophets.] See Vitringa Syn. lib. i. p. 2. chap. 6, 7.

Page 295.—Synagogue.] See Calmet, sub. voc. Vitringa, i. 1. 8. Lightfoot’s Works, i. 610.

Page 296.— Any one who chose might teach.] Lightfoot (i. 612.) denies this liberty of teaching; and supposes that our Saviour, though not an appointed preacher, was allowed to speak from the fame of his miracles: but throughout this author’s account of the synagogue, he seems to have had in view the controversies on church discipline of his own time, and to have leant to a rigorous exclusion of all but ordained teachers. But the invitation to Paul and Barnabas at Antioch, in Pisidia, (Acts iii. 15.) where they were strangers, proves that the account given in the text is correct.

Page 302.—Approach of the sabbath.] The interval time between three o’clock on Friday afternoon and six, when the sabbath began, was called the Parasceue of the sabbath. Augustus exempted the Jews from appearing in a court of justice after three o’clock P. M. on Friday. Lewis, iv. c. 16. Of the six blasts of the trumpet, see Reland, Ant. Heb. 520.

Page 303.—The custom of the Jews to celebrate their sabbath by the lighting of lamps, was remarked in ancient times by the heathens. See the Scholiast on Pers. v. 180. Respecting the lighting of the sabbath-lamp by the mother of the family, see Vitringa, Syn. i. 195. Of the sabbath-psalm, see Lightfoot, i. 923.

Page 304.—To take a family meal was the first thing done.] The Romans very falsely supposed that the Jews fasted on their sabbath. Sueton. Oct. 76. Justin, 36. 2.

Page 310.—Additional sacrifice for the sabbath.] See Numb. xxviii. 9, 10.

Page 312.—Not fewer than 100,000 men.] Some idea may be formed of the vast multitudes assembled in the temple at the great solemnities, by what Josephus says, Ant. xx. 4. 3. Bell. Jud. ii. 12. 1. that on one occasion 10,000, on another 20,000 men were trodden to death in the gates, when they were endeavouring to escape from an apprehended attack of the Romans.

Page 312.—The thirteen chests.] Respecting the Gazophylacia, or treasure chests in the temple, see Lightfoot, i. 1095. This was the tax demanded of our Lord, Matth. xvii. 24. The law of Moses does not appear to have contemplated an annual capitation tax; this meaning was given to it after the captivity. Mich Mos. Law, § 173.

Cyrene abounded with Jews, who had been settled there by Ptolemy Lagi. Jos. Ant. xii. 1. Ap. ii. 4. Prid. An. 307. Wetstein on Matth. xxvii. 31. In the reign of Trajan, they massacred above 200,000 of the inhabitants of Cyrene, and possessed themselves for a time of the country.

Page 314.—Jewish shekel.] When Antiochus, the son of Demetrius, granted to Simon the principality of Judea, (b. c. 140) he conceded to him the right of coining money, a prerogative of sovereignty most jealously guarded. 1 Macc. xv. 6. ?a? ?p?t?e?? s?? p???sa? ??a ?d???, ???sa t? ???? s??. Simon availed himself of this permission; and many coins have come down to our time, bearing his name, with the device and inscription mentioned in the text. As the legends of all these coins are in the old Hebrew character, which, from being used in the Samaritan Pentateuch, was called Samaritan, many learned men were disposed to deny their genuineness; as Basnage, History of the Jews, vi. 24. Reland, and Wise, in his Catalogue of the Medals of the Bodleian. Within the last fifty years, a severe attack was made upon them by the celebrated Orientalist, O. G. Tychsen.^[135] They were defended by Bayer, archdeacon of Valencia;^[136] and the result of the controversy has completely established their genuineness. See Rasche, Lexicon Rei NumariÆ, T. iv. P. 2, p. 1720; Eckhel. Doctr. Num. Vet. iii. 455. Hence the important fact is established, that the Jews continued to use the old Hebrew character, till within a century of our Saviour’s birth.^[137]

Josephus (Ant. iii. 8. 2.) says, that the Hebrew shekel was equal to the Attic tetradrachm; and Philo indirectly agrees with him: but he has reckoned it too high; for, according to the accurate experiments of Barthelemy, (Eckhel, Proleg. cap. ix.) the greatest weight of a shekel is 271¾ grains; the average of the Attic tetradrachms, 320 grains. Jerome has more accurately stated the value of the shekel at twenty oboli: as the Attic drachma contains six oboli, the shekel will be equal to 3? drachmas. Eckhel, iii. 464. The Attic drachma and Roman denarius were worth about seven pence. Besides the rod of Aaron, the Hebrew shekels exhibit a palm or vine branch, a view of the temple, a citron and a bundle of boughs, and two trumpets. (Num. x. 2.) It may be observed, that the coins with inscriptions in what is now called the Hebrew, or Chaldee character, are recent forgeries.

Page 316.—Of the discouragement of foreign commerce by Moses, (Jos. c. Ap. i. 12.) see Michaelis, Mos. Law, § 39. He has, at the same time, shown how much the Jewish festivals tended to encourage internal commerce, § 198. The caravan of Mecca is always accompanied by a large body of merchants. Hasselquist, p. 82. What is said in the text of the dislike of the Greeks to commerce, must be restricted to the heroic times, or to nations which, like Sparta, retained the manners and notions of those times. Ionia, Corinth, Athens, and other Grecian states, were active in commercial pursuits.