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devil had thrown him in the midst, he came out of him, and hurt him not.”

II.4. "They uncovered the roof where he was." The most satisfactory interpretation of this passage may be obtained from Dr. Shaw, who acquaints us, that "the houses throughout the East are low, having generally a ground floor only, or one upper story, and flat roofed, the roof being covered with a strong coat of plaster of terrace. They are built round à paved court, into which the entrance from the street is through a gateway or passage-room, furnished with benches and sufficiently large to be used for receiving visits or transacting business. The stairs which lead to the roof are never placed on the outside of the house in the street, but usually in the gateway, or passage room to the court, sometimes at the entrance within the court. This court is now called in Arabic, Elwoost, or the middle of the house; literally answering to "the midst," of St. Luke v. 19. It is customary to fix cords from the parapet walls (Deut. xxii. 8.) of the flat roofs across this court, and upon them to expand a veil or covering, as a shelter from the heat. In this area probably our Saviour taught. The paralytic was brought on to the roof by making a way through the crowd to the stairs in the gateway, or by the terraces of the adjoining houses. They rolled back the veil, and let the sick man down over the parapet of the roof, into the area or court of the house, before Jesus."-See Burder's Oriental Customs, vol. i. page 291.

II.-26. "In the days of Abiather the high priest." It appears from 1 Sam. xxi. 1. that Abimelech was high priest at that time. As the event took place in the days of Abiather, and as he was high priest afterwards, he is named here in preference to Abimelech, probably from some circumstance which made him better known. Mr. Horne, however, thinks it probable that both Abimelech and Abiather might officiate in the high priesthood, and the name of the office- be indifferently applied to either.

III.-21.

"He is beside himself." This is a very offensive expression: it is highly improbable that Christ's friends should speak thus contemptuously of him. Dr. Whitby remarks, that the Greek word here rendered he is beside himself, signifies also, he is faint, having lately had no refreshment. Others are of opinion that our Lord's friends applied this expression to the mob, which the original, together with the context, will certainly allow the passage, therefore, would read thus, and when his friends heard of it, they went out to restrain it; for they said, it is beside itself.

IV. 21. "Under a bed." The Greek word here rendered a bed, signifies also a chair, or properly, a couch for reclining on at table.

IV. 36. 66 They took him even as he was in the ship." Even as he was: this is supposed by some to express, in the condition in which he was, as the Latin, ut erat disjecta capillos and Wetstein renders it, ut erat sine ullo ad iter' apparatu. By Bishop Pearce it is rendered, tired as he was with the labor of the day; for he fell asleep in the ship. The most satisfactory acceptation is, they take him along with them, when he was in the ship; i. e. having him in the ship, they set sail. Valpy's Greek Testament.

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V.2. A man with an unclean spirit." St. Matt. mentions two demoniacs, Mark and Luke only one. But according to Le Clerc's maxim, Qui plura narrat, pauciora complectitur; qui pauciora memorat, plura non negat. The reason assigned for this difference by Augustin, is, that one of these demoniacs was-persona clarior et famosior, quem regio illa maxime dolebat, et pro cujus salute plurimum satagebat. It may also be observed, that this is particularly mentioned as being the man whom the inhabitants could not bind.—Valpy's Greek Testament.

VI.-27. "And immediately the king sent an executioner and commanded his head to be brought." This

executioner was, probably, one of Herod's life-guards. The life-guards of the Asmonæan sovereigns, and subsequently of Herod and his sons, were foreigners: they bore a lance or long spear, whence they were denominated spiculatores.-See Horne's Introduction, vol. iii. page 94.

The custom of the Eastern monarchs of requiring the head of those, whom they ordered to be executed, to be brought to them, was, that they might be assured of their death.

VI. 56. "They laid the sick in the streets." Maximus Tyrius tells us, in his 40th. dissertation, page 477,-that the medical art, as reported, had its rise from the custom of placing sick persons on the side of frequented ways, that so those who passed along, inquiring into the nature of their complaint, might communicate the knowledge of what had been to themselves useful in the like case.-Burder's Oriental Customs, vol. ii. page 320.

VII.-3. "Except they wash their hands oft.". The Greek word is here erroneously rendered oft; a mistake, probably, founded on the Vulgate, which reads crebrò. It should have been rendered with the fist, or with a handful; hence Beza "Nisi pugno laverint manus, non edunt." Burder in his 2nd vol. on Oriental Customs, page 320. has the following remark: "The Jews, when they washed, held up their hands, and contracting their fingers, received the water that was poured on them by their servants, (who had it for a part of their office, 2 Kings iii. 2.) till it ran down their arms, which they washed up to their elbows."

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VII.—11. “It is Corban." Mr. Horne, on the article of voluntary or free oblations, vol. iii. page 286, has the following remark :-"The voluntary or free oblations were either the fruits of promises or of vows; but the former were not considered so strictly obligatory as the latter, of which there were two kinds: 1st. The vows of consecration, when any thing was devoted either for sacrifice, or for the service

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of the temple, as wine, wood, salt, &c. and 2nd. The vows of engagement, when persons engaged to do something that was not in itself unlawful, as not to eat of some particular meat, nor to wear some particular habits, nor to drink wine, nor to cut their hair, &c. When the Jews made a vow, they made use of one of these two forms: "I charge myself with a 'burnt offering" or "I charge myself with the price of this animal for a burnt offering." Besides these, they had other shorter forms; for instance, when they devoted all they had, they merely said,-" all I have shall be Corban," that is, "I make an oblation of it to God." Among other false doctrines taught by the Pharisees, who were the depositaries of the sacred treasury, was this, that as soon as a person had pronounced to his father or mother this form of consecration or offering, be it Corban (that is, devoted,) whatsoever of mine shall profit thee, he thereby consecrated all he had to God, and must not thenceforth doany thing for his indigent parents if they solicited support from him.”

VII.-26. "The woman was a Greek, a Syrophenician by nation." Another translation reads, the woman was a Gentile. The greater part of Syria was, in our Saviour's time, called Greece by the Jews.-Ostervald.

VIII.- -10. "And came into the parts of Dalmanutha." St. Matthew calls it Magdala, because these two places were near each other.-Ostervald.

VIII.15. "Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the leaven of Herod." The leaven of the Pharisees was hypocrisy; that of Herod in disbelieving a future state, for, by comparing this passage with St. Matt. xvi. 6. we find that Herod was a Sadducee.

VIII. 23. And he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the town." The reason of this might be, as Grotius thinks, to intimate his just displeasure against the inhabitants of Bethsaida for their ingratitude and infidelity;

and he would not permit them to be eye witnesses of this miracle, or even suffer the person who received the cure to go back thither to proclaim it.

IX. -31. "The son of man is delivered into the hands of men." The following extract from professor Lee's Hebrew Grammar, page 353. in reference to the use of the past tense for the future, may be applied here, as also in some other places of the New and Old Testament: "It seems to me," continues Mr. Lumsden, "that most of the preceding rules have their basis in the following principle: that the occur rence of a future event is naturally a matter of great uncertainty, and generally speaking, will be so considered, if expressed by the future tense of the verb. Past events having already occurred, are subject to no uncertainty at all. And hence it happens, that a Persian, having occasion to speak of a future event, which he believes to be of certain occurrence, will naturally enough employ the past tense of the verb: by the use of which he means to apprize his auditor, that the occurrence of the event, though still future, is, in his opinion, not less certain, than if it were past."

.... IX.—43. "Into the fire that never shall be quenched." This is a periphrasis of hell, and is an allusion to the valley of Hinnom, from whence hell has its name here and elsewhere. Kimchi on Psalm xxvii. 13. says, "that it was a place in the land near to Jerusalem, and was a place contemptible; where they cast things defiled and carcases; and where there was a continual fire to burn polluted things and bones; and therefore the condemnation of the wicked, in a parabolical way, is called Gehinnom."-Burder's Oriental Customs, vol. ii. p. 321. IX. 49. "Every one shall be salted with fire.” The Holy Ghost is often represented to us by fire; thus St. John says, that our Saviour shall baptize with the Holy Ghost, and with fire, to purify and enliven the souls of believers; and St. Luke says, Acts ii. 3. the Holy Ghost appeared in the shape

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