always read in Hebrew; whence it became necessary, as soon as that language ceased to be vernacular among the Jews, to establish an interpreter, by whom the Jewish Scriptures were expounded in the Chaldee dialect, which was spoken by them after the return from the Babylonian captivity. The doctor, or reader, therefore, having the interpreter always by him, softly whispered in his ears what he said, and this interpreter repeated aloud to the people what had thus been communicated to him. To this custom our Saviour is supposed to have alluded when he said to his disciples, "What ye hear in the ear that preach ye upon the house tops."-Horne, vol. iii. page 246.

According to this practice some suppose we are to explain Exodus iv. 16. The tops of the houses antiently, were flat and covered with a strong plaster of terrace, upon which several offices of the family were performed.

X.- -34. "I came not to send peace, but a sword." Here, as in other places, we must distinguish between the cause and the consequences of it; for Christ really did come to send peace on the earth (Luke ii. 14.) but between those who enjoy it and those who do not, a wide breach exists, and a sword does, as it were, rend them asunder.

X.-38. "He that taketh not his cross." Wetstein shews that this is an allusion to the most degrading suffering, that of the punishment inflicted on slaves, who were whipped through the circus bearing a gallows (furca.)-Burder's Oriental Customs, vol. ii. page 301.

XI. 11. "He that is least in the kingdom of Heaven, is greater than he." John, the immediate messenger before Christ, is greater than any of the old prophets; but one, after the coming of Christ himself, who has the full doctrine of the Gospel, is greater than he.-Ostervald.

XI.—17. “We have piped unto you and ye have not danced," &c. It was the custom of children among the Jews,

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in their sports, to imitate what they saw done by others upon great occasions, and particularly the customs in festivities, wherein the musician beginning a tune on his instrument, the company danced to his pipe. So also in funerals, wherein the women beginning the mournful song, (as the præfice of the Romans) the rest followed lamenting and beating their breasts. These things the children acted and personated in the streets in play, and the rest not following the leader as usual, gave occasion to this speech,—we have piped unto you, &c.—Burder's Oriental Customs, vol. i. page 271.

XI.-25. "Jesus answered," &c. This is equivalent to-Jesus spake and said. Or, since no question appears to be waiting for his reply, he might answer from a reflection of the foregoing remarks.

XII. -4. "How he entered into the house of God, and did eat the shew-bread," &c. That is, he came to the priest's habitation, which was among those tents round the tabernacle, and which were reckoned as parts of the house of God; for that David did not go into the tabernacle itself, and take the shew-bread from the table that stood there, is evident from 1 Samuel, xxi. 6. where it is said that the shew-bread delivered by the priest to David, was indeed bread that had been hallowed, but was removed from before the Lord, other bread having been put in its place which was done every Sabbath day, according to the law Levit. xxiv. 8. So that the bread which was removed, belonging to the priest, came into his custody, and was properly under his hand, 1 Samuel xxi. 3. of which he gave David a share, whose present necessity justified the action.-See Horne, vol. iii. page 223.

XII.-27. “If I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your children cast them out?" As Christ gave his twelve apostles and seventy disciples a power of dislodging evil spirits, and which, it is said in some degree continued in the church about two hundred years, the sons of Scheva and

others, chiefly of the Papists, have wickedly attempted to counterfeit the same; but if at any time real effects followed the endeavours of such, it must have been owing to their magical collusion with Satan, or his with them.-Brown.

XII.-40. "For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale's belly," &c. This has been affirmed to be contrary to matter of fact; as the throat of a whale, it is well known, is capable of admitting little more than the arm of an ordinary man; and these fish are never found in the Mediterranean Sea. Mr. Bochart has long since proved that a great fish of the shark kind is here intended. It is a well attested fact that many of the shark species are not only of such a size and form, as to be able, without any miracle, to swallow a man whole, but also that men have been found entire in their stomachs and since it is a fact well known to physiologists, that the stomach has no power over substances endued with vitality, this circumstance will account in part for the miraculous preservation of the prophet Jonah in the belly or stomach of the great fish, in which he was for three days and three nights. Bochart is further of opinion, that the particular species of shark which followed the prophet Jonah, was the squalus carcharias or white shark, for its voracity termed by some naturalists lamia, and which is a native of the seas in hot climates, where it is the terror of navigators.-Horne, vol. i. page 604.

There is also a seeming difference between this prediction and the time during which the body of our Lord was actually interred. Now this difference is naturally and easily obviated by considering, that it was the custom of the Orientals to reckon any part of a day of twenty-four hours for a whole day, and to say it was done after three or seven days, &c. if it were done on the third, or seventh day from that last mentioned. Compare 1 Kings xx. 29. and Luke ii. 21. And, as the Hebrews had no word exactly answering to the Greek

word to signify a natural day of twenty-four hours, they used night and day, or day and night for it, so that to say a thing happened after three days and three nights, was the same as to say that it happened after three days, or on the third day. Horne, vol. i. page 554.

XII. 42. "The queen of the South shall rise up in the judgment," &c. This is spoken in allusion to a custom among the Jews and Romans, which was, for the witnesses to rise from their seats when they accused criminals, or gave any evidence against them.-Burder's Oriental Customs, vol. i. page 271.

XIII.- -4. "And the fowls came and devoured them up." This circumstance has no difficulty in our conception of it, but it would strike an Eastern imagination more forcibly than our own. For Thevenot informs us, "on that road ī observed a pretty pleasant thing, which is practised in all that country, as far as Bender Abassi; I saw several peasants running about the corn fields, who raised loud shouts, and every now and then clacked their whips with all their force; and all this to drive away the birds, which devour all their corn. When they see flocks of them coming from a neighbouring ground, that they may not light on theirs, they redouble their cries to make them go farther, and this they do every morning and evening. The truth is, there are so many sparrows in Persia that they devour all things: and scarecrows are so far from frightening them, that they will perch upon them."-Burder's Oriental Customs, vol. ii. page 302.

XIII.-14. "Is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias," &c. The design of the sacred penmen of the New Testament in reference to the persons for whom they chiefly wrote is strikingly apparent in their manner of quoting from the Old Testament. "It is further to be observed," says Horne in his Introduction, vol. ii. page 435. "that the very same quotations are often contracted by some of the evangelists and as

often enlarged by others. This difference in quoting may be accounted for by the different occasions on which they are introduced, and the different ends which they were intended to serve. Thus, Luke who wrote his gospel for the instruction of Gentile converts, quotes (iii. 4-6) not less than three verses from the prophet Isaiah; while Matthew (iii. 3.) and Mark (i. 3.) quote only the first of them. But it was necessary to Luke's purpose that he should proceed so far, in order to assure the Gentiles that they were destined to be partakers of the privileges of the Gospel, and to see the salvation of God. On the other hand, Matthew (xiii. 14. 15.) and Paul (Acts xxviii. 26. 27.) when reproving the Jews for their incredulity, which Isaiah had long before predicted, introduce the prophecy at full length, whereas Mark. (iv. 11. 12.) and Luke (viii. 10.) only refer to it briefly. Mark, whose Gospel was written for a mixed society of Jewish and Gentile converts, has many peculiarities belonging to him, which are not specified by the other evangelists. Of these peculiarities we have an instance in his manner of citing the passage of Isaiah just noticed."

XIII.32. "Which indeed is the least of all seeds." That is, of all those seeds with which the Jews were then acquainted: for our Lord's words are to be interpreted by popular use; and we learn from St. Matthew xvii. 20. that, like a grain of mustard seed, was a proverbial expression to denote a small quantity.-Horne, vol. ii. page 623.

XIV.-6. "When Herod's birth-day was kept." The birth-day of a prince and the day of his accession to the throne, were kept with great pomp amongst the Gentiles. It was usual with the Egytians, Gen. xl. 20. the Persians, and Romans, but not with the Jews, who reckoned these among the feasts of Idolators.-Burder's O. Customs, vol. ii. p. 303. XIV. "And he sent and beheaded John in the prison." Decapitation, or beheading, though not a mode of

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