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rectly contrary to the opinion and practice of some of the antient idolaters, and particularly the Persians. From a notion that married people were peculiarly happy in a future state, they used often to hire persons to be espoused to such of their relations as had died in celibacy.-See Burder's O. Customs, vol. ii. p. 308.

XXII. 32. "I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob," &c. The force of this argument goes to prove a future state of existence; which the Greek word at the 23rd verse, erroneously rendered "resurrection," strictly means.-See remark at Acts xxiii. 8.

35.

XXII. "A lawyer asked him a question." Lawyers and scribes appear to be synonymous terms, importing one and the same order of men; as St. Matt. (xxii. 35.) calls him a lawyer whom St. Mark (xii. 28.) terms one of the scribes. Dr. Macknight conjectures the scribes to have been the public expounders of the law, and that the lawyers studied it in private: perhaps, as Dr. Lardner conjectures, they taught in the schools.-Horne, vol. iii. p. 367.

XXIII.2. "The scribes and pharisees sit in Moses' seat." They were the successors of Moses in expounding the law, which they were accustomed to do sitting.

XXIII.-5. "They make broad their phylacteries." These were four sections of the law written on parchments folded up in the skin of a clean beast, and tied to the head and hand. The four sections were the following: Exodus xiii. 2-11. Exodus xiii. 11—17. Deut. vi. 4—10. Deut. xi. 13-22. Those that were for the head were written and rolled up separately, and put in four distinct places in one skin, which was fastened with strings to the crown of the head towards the face. Those that were for the hands were written in four columns on one parchment, which being rolled up, was fastened to the inside of the left arm between the shoulder and the elbow, that it might be over against the heart.-Burder's O. Customs, vol. ii. p. 308.

XXIII. 6. "The chief seats in the synagogues." In speaking of the synagogues, Mr. Horne says, vol. iii. p. 241. "The seats were so disposed that the people always sat with their faces towards the elders, and the place where the law was kept; and the elders sat in the opposite direction, that is to say, with their backs to the ark and their faces to the people. The seats of the latter, as being placed nearer the ark, were accounted the more holy, and hence they are in the New Testament termed the chief seats in the synagogue; which the pharisees affected; and for which our Lord inveighed against them."

XXIII.- -9. "Call no man your father upon the earth." Namely, in the sense of the Scribes and Pharisees, which was that men should follow them ignorantly and implicitly in the traditions which they taught.

XXIII. -13. 66 Hypocrites." This word, in its most exact application, signifies players, who antiently acted a part under a mask.-More's Theological Works.

XXIII. -15. "Ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte." To this practice of the Jews Horace alludes,

veluti te

Judæi cogemus in hanc concedere turbam.

Lib. i. Sat. iv. line 142.

XXIII. 24. "Ye strain at a gnat." Rather, strain out a gnat: a fly being reckoned an unclean animal, the Pharisees would not drink any liquor till it had been strained through a linen cloth.-See Ostervald.

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XXIII.-27. "Ye are like unto whited sepulchres,' &c. The graves of the principal persons were distinguished by square rooms with cupolas built over them, which being constantly kept clean, white washed and beautified, they continue to this day an excellent comment upon this expression of our Saviour. They were thus whitened, that

people might discern they were polluted places and consequently avoid coming near them.-Shaw.

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XXIII. 35. "Zecharias son of Barachias." probably that Zecharias who is expressly said to have been slain in that remarkable manner, between the temple and the altar 2 Chron. 24. 21. And as to his being here called the son of Barachias and not of Jehoiada, it must be observed that it was usual among the Jews for persons to change thei names for others of much the same signification: Barachias signifies one that blesses the Lord, Jehoiada, one that confesses him.-Ostervald.

XXIV.-2. "There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down." It seems exceedingly improbable that the events here foretold by Jesus Christ, should happen in that age, when the Jews were at perfect peace with the Romans; and the strength of their citadel was such, as constrained Titus to acknowledge that it was the singular hand of God that compelled them to relinquish fortifications which no human power could have conquered. Our Saviour's words also were almost literally fulfilled, and scarcely one stone was left upon another. The temple was a building of such strength and grandeur, of such splendour and beauty, that it was likely (as it was worthy) to be preserved, for a monument of the victory and glory of the Roman empire. Titus was accordingly very desirous of preserving it, and protested to the Jews, who had fortified themselves within it, that he would preserve it even against their will. He had expressed the like desire of preserving the city too, and repeatedly sent Josephus and other Jews to their countrymen, to persuade them to a surrender. But an overruling Providence directed things otherwise. The Jews themselves first set fire to the porticos of the temple, and then the Romans. One of the soldiers neither waiting for any command, nor trembling for such an attempt, but urged by a

certain divine impulse, threw a burning brand in at the golden window, and thereby set fire to the buildings of the temple itself. Titus ran immediately to the temple and commanded his soldiers to extinguish the flame. But neither exhortations nor threatenings could restrain their violence. They either could not hear, or would not hear; and those behind encouraged those before to set fire to the temple. He was still for preserving the holy place. He commanded his soldiers even to be beaten for disobeying him: but their anger, and hatred of the Jews, and a certain warlike vehement fury overcame their reverence for their general, and their dread for his commands. A soldier in the dark set fire to the doors; and thus, as Josephus says, the temple was burnt against the will of Cæsar. It is recorded by Maimonides, and likewise in the Jewish Talmud, that Terentius Rufus, an officer in the army of Titus, with a plough-share tore up the foundations of the temple, and thus remarkably fulfilled the words of the prophet Micah iii. 12. The city also shared the same fate, and was burnt and destroyed together with the temple.-See Horne's Introduction, &c. vol. i. page 629.

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XXIV.-9. -9. "And ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake." The following extract from Horne's Introduction, vol. i. p. 625. remarkably illustrates this: "It was nominis prælium, as Tertullian terms it; it was a war against the very name. Though a man was possessed of every human virtue, yet it was crime enough if he was a christian: so true were our Saviour's words, that they should be hated of all nations for his name's sake. Hence arose that common saying among the heathens-Vir bonus Caius Sejus; tanquam modo quod christianus :-Caius Sejus is a good man, only he is a christian.”

XXIV.-15.

"The abomination of desolation," &c.

The abomination which causeth the desolation, mentioned by Daniel the prophet, was the Roman armies with their stan

dards, whereon the images of their gods and emperors were painted; for the armies were an abomination to the Jews on account of their idolatry, and caused a desolation wherever they came.-Ostervald.

And now the Romans, says Josephus, upon the flight of the seditious into the city, and upon the burning of the holy house itself, and of all the buildings round about it, brought their ensigns to the temple and set them over against its eastern gate, and there did they offer sacrifices to them, and there did they make Titus imperator, with the greatest acclamations of joy.-De Bell. Jud. lib. vi. c. vi, s. 1.

XXIV.—17. “Let him who is on the house top not come down to take any thing out of his house." The following extract from Willyam's Voyage up the Mediterranean, will serve to illustrate this mode of escape: "The houses in this country are all flat-roofed, and communicate with each other: a person there might proceed to the city walls and escape into the country without coming down into the street." Mr. Harmer endeavours to illustrate this passage, by referring to the eastern custom of the staircase being on the outside of the house but Mr. Willyam's representation seems to afford a more complete elucidation of the text.-See Burder's Oriental Customs, vol. ii. page 310.

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XXIV.-20. "Pray ye that your flight be not on the sabbath day." The law forbad a journey of more than a mile on the sabbath.

XXIV. 41. "Two women shall be grinding at the mill," &c. Modern travellers have thrown much light upon passages of this kind in Scripture. Dr. Shaw says, that two women will seat themselves over against each other, with two portable mill-stones between them, the uppermost of which they turn round by a small handle of wood or iron, that is placed in the rim. And Dr. Clarke saw two women at Nazareth grinding at the mill in a manner most forcibly, says he,

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