upon a smooth thin board slightly daubed over with whiting, which may be wiped off or renewed at pleasure. Such probably (for the Jewish children use the same,) was the little board or writing table that was called for by Zacharias.Burder's Oriental Customs, vol. ii. page 324.

II.—2. "And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria." The taxing under Cyrenius or Quirinius was not till eleven years after the birth of Christ. Wall, therefore, would render the passage thus: this enrollment was before (that taxing) when Cyrenius was governor of Syria. Also see the following in Mr. Horne's Introd. vol. i. page 595. "The taxing itself first took effect, or was carried into execution, under the presidency of Cyrenius or Quirinius; which had been suspended from the time of his procuratorship." It will be easily seen that the above agree in referring the decree of Cæsar Augustus to an enrollment preparatory to the taxing; which taxing itself did not take effect till eleven years after. II.—3. “And all went to be taxed." Namely, to be enrolled preparatory for the taxing.

II-5. "Espoused." The same Greek word is used here as at chapter i. 27. there it signifies espoused, but here married.-Ostervald.

II.-25. "Waiting for the consolation of Israel." The Jews often used to style the expected Messiah, the consolation; and, may I never see the consolation, was a common form of swearing among them. It was much used by R. Simeon ben Shetach, who lived before the time of Christ.-See Burder's Oriental Customs, vol. ii. page 325.

II. 34. "Set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel." And rising again: this does not refer to those who fall by taking offence at Christ, but to those identified in the general fall, and who should embrace Christ by faith and repentance. It is, therefore, better rendered-For the fall and rising up of many in Israel.

-49.

66

II.I must be about my Father's business." There is an ambiguity in the original: the Syriac seems to render it with much more propriety,—In my Father's house. -Ostervald.

III.—1. “In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Cæsar." This has always been considered a great chronological difficulty. with respect to our Saviour's age, as referred to the reign of Tiberius and the death of Herod. But there is no inconsistency in the account. The death of Herod, by certain historical evidence, must be assigned to the year of Rome 750. Christ's birth therefore could not have been earlier than 748, nor later than 749: See Matt. ii. 1. 27. Now if we assume the latter year, as most conformable to the whole tenor of sacred history, this would give us Christ's age at his baptism about thirty four years, but contrary to Luke's account. For Augustus having died August 19th, 767, the fifteenth of Tiberius would be 782. But Luke, who was intimately acquainted with the affairs of Judæa, the neighbouring states, and the Romans, could not be ignorant of the various modes of computing the reigns of their emperors Augustus and Tiberius the reign of Augustus being computed by some from the death of J. Cæsar, by others from his own first consulate, and by others from the battle of Actium. There was also a difference in reckoning the reign of Tiberius. Now it is evident that Luke adopted the mode of computation not from the sole empire of Tiberius, but from the time when he was admitted by Augustus colleague of the empire, two or three years before his death, either in 764 or 765, when this partnership was confirmed by a decree of the senate; from which the year of Christ's nativity being subtracted, 749, the remainder sufficiently agrees with St. Luke's latitude of expression, about thirty years of age, verse 23.-Valpy's Greek Testament.

III. 2. "Annas and Caiaphas being the high priests."

According to the institution of the Jewish religion, there could be only one high priest at a time, that minister being typical of the one mediator between God and man; but according to a note in Mr. Valpy's Greek Testament, "It was usual with the high priests at this time to have a senior, who had discharged that office, as coadjutor. Annas therefore was now the coadjutor of Caiaphas, his son-in-law, the reinging high priest; and on account of his age, rank, and consequence in the state, is named first. This was the reason that when our Lord was apprehended, he was first taken to the house of Annas, who sent him bound to Caiaphas, the high priest."

III.4. "The voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight." The roads which led to the Jewish cities of refuge were required to be kept good, that the slayer might flee to them without impediment. The Rabbis inform us, among other circumstances, that at every cross road was set up an inscription, asylum, asylum. Upon which Hottinger remarks, that it was probably in allusion to this custom that John the Baptist is described as the voice of one crying, &c.-Burder's Oriental Customs, vol. ii. page 325.

III.-12. "Then came also publicans to be baptized." From this quotation, as well as from the history of Levi, or Matthew, (Luke v. 29.) and of Zaccheus (Luke xix. 2.) it appears that the publicans or tax-gatherers were frequently, at least if not always, Jews; which, as the country was then under a Roman government, and the taxes were paid to the Romans, was a circumstance not to be expected. That it was the truth however of the case, appears from a short passage of Josephus, De Bell. lib. ii. c. 14. sect. 45. "But, Florus not restraining these practices by his authority, the chief men of the Jews, among whom was John the publican, not knowing well what course to take, wait upon Florus, and give him eight talents of silver to stop the building."-Paley's Evidences of Christianity.

IV.—16. He came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up; and as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath-day, and stood up for to read." They who are acquainted with the Jewish literature, know that the five books of Moses having long ago been divided in such a manner, that by reading a section of them every sabbath, the whole is gone through in the space of a year. He that read in the synagogue was obliged to stand upright, and not suf fered so much as to lean against a wall.-Lamy.

The portions selected out of the prophetical writings are termed Haphtoroth. When Antiochus Epiphanes conquered the Jews, about the year 163 before the Christan æra, he prohibited the public reading of the law in the synagogues on pain of death. The Jews, in order that they might not be wholly deprived of the word of God, selected from other parts of the Sacred Writings, fifty-four portions, which were termed Haphtoras, from a word signifying, he dismissed, let loose, opened, for though the law was dismissed from their synagogues, and was closed to them by the edict of this persecuting king, yet the prophetic writings, not being under the interdict, were left open: and therefore they used them in place of the others.-See Horne's Introd. vol. iii. p. 244.

IV.- -17. "When he had opened the book." The sacred books were written antiently on skins of vellum sewed together, as Josephus asserts (Antiq. xii. ii. 11.) who adds, that the Hebrew copy of the law which was sent from Jerusalem to Ptolemy to be translated into Greek, was in letters of gold, upon skins of vellum wonderfully thin and fine; and that the suture, or conjunction of the several skins, was so artful as to be scarcely discoverable. And that the sacred books, thus written, were rolled up into volumes, like the modern Pentateuchs used in the Jewish synagogues, appears from this passage of St. Luke: The Greek word translated-he opened, is allowed to imply―he unfolded, or unrolled the volume. Kennicott.

IV.-20. "And he gave it again to the minister." For the maintenance of good order, there were in every synagogue certain officers whose business it was to see that all the duties of religion were decently performed therein. These were, 1st. The ruler of the synagogue (Luke xiii. 14. Mark v. 22.) It appears from Acts xiii. 15. collated with Mark v. 22. and John vi. 59. that there were several of these rulers in a synagogue. They regulated all its concerns, and gave permission to persons to preach. They were always men advanced in age, and respectable for their learning and probity. The Jews termed them Hacamim, that is, sages, or wise men, and they possessed considerable influence and authority. 2nd. An officer whose province it was to offer up public prayers to God for the whole congregation: hence he was called Sheliach Zibbor, or the angel of the church, because, as their messenger, he spoke to God for them. Hence also, in Rev. ii. 8. the ministers of the Asiatic churches were termed angels. 3rd. The Chazan appears to have been a different officer from the Sheliach Zibbor, and inferior to him in dignity. He seems to have been the person, who in Luke iv. 20. is termed the minister, and who had the charge of the sacred books. Horne's Introd. vol. iii. p. 242.

The

VI. 1. "On the second sabbath after the first." exact translation of the Greek word is, the first after the second.-L'Enfant.

The second prime sabbath, concerning which commentators have been so much divided, was the first sabbath after the second day of the paschal week: for the second day of the paschal week was the high day on which the Jews were required to offer the wave sheaf of the barley harvest; and from which they were to begin to reckon the seven weeks till Pentecost. -Valpy's Greek Testament.

VI.-12. "And continued all night in prayer to God." It is literally, In the prayer of God: the phrase is singular