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years, came behind him, and touched the hem of his garment,' Xpared to pans, Matt. ix, 20. Again, the inhabitants of Gennesaret are said to have brought unto him their diseased, and to have "besought him, that they might only touch the hem of his garment," pasmedov re uane, Matt. xiv, 36. Κράσπεδον το ιμάτια is, in both these passages, very improperly translated the “hem of his garment." It should have been rendered the fringe; and it should seem the people imagined there was some peculiar virtue or sanctity in the fringe of our Saviour's garment above any other part, from their expectation of a miraculous cure by touching it. It appears, indeed, the later Jews placed a great deal of sanctity in these fringes. Rabbi Menachem, on the fifteenth chapter of Numbers, saith, when any man is clothed with a fringe, and goeth out therewith to the door of his habitation, he is safe, and God rejoiceth, and the destroying angel departeth from thence, and that man shall be delivered from all hurt, and from all destruction*.

Concerning the form of this fringe, we can only frame an uncertain guess from the two Hebrew words by which it is expressed, namely, tsitsith, Numb. xv, 38, 39, and

gedhilim, Deut. xxii, 12, which is likewise rendered by the Chaldee paraphrast on cheruspedhin. The former tsitsith is used for a lock of hair, Ezek. viii, 3, the latter for a rope, such as Dalilah bound Sampson with, Judg. xvi, 11, 12. From hence it is inferred, that these fringes consisted of many threads, which hung like hair, and were twisted like a rope. It was also ordered by the law, that they should put upon the fringe a ribband of blue, or a thread, as the word

pathil seems to be properly rendered in a passage of the book of Judges, where it is said concerning Sampson, that he" broke the withs," with which he was bound," as a thread, pethil, of tow is broken when it toucheth the fire," Judg. xvi, 9; or else it may signify lace, as it is rendered in a passage of the book of Exodus, chap. xxxix, 31, where the string, which fastened the holy crown to the high priest's mitre, is expressed by the same word used for this blue thread, or lace, upon the fringe of their garments. Whether, therefore, it was a blue thread twisted with a white

* R. Menachem on Numb. xv, quoted by Ainsworth on Numb. xv, 39.

through the whole fringe, whether it was a blue lace, by which the fringe was fastened to the edge of the garment, or whether it was sewed along the head of the fringe, is what we cannot take upon us to determine.

The use of this fringe is said to be, "that they might look upon it, and remember all the commandments of the Lord and do them," Numb. xv, 39. Some conceive the fringe was to be a distinguishing badge, which God ordered the people of Israel to wear on their clothes, in the nature of a livery, that they might be known for his servants, who was not ashamed to own them for his peculiar people; as he had before, for the same purpose, ordered them to wear a distinguishing mark in their flesh, namely, circumcision. This account well agrees with the reason given for their wearing the fringe, "that they might look upon it, and remember all the commandments of the Lord to do them;" that is, that it might remind them, that as the servants of Jehovah, whose livery they wore, they were bound to do all that he had commanded them. And as by this badge they were to be distinguished from the servants of all other gods, so it was to be a guard upon them from idolatry; accordingly it follows, "that ye seek not after your own hearts, and your own eyes, after which you used to go a whoring."

Le Clerc indeed suggests, that the Jews borrowed this fashion of wearing fringes from the Egyptians, because Herodotus, speaking of the Egyptians, says, evdedunaoi niðuras λινες περι τα σκελέα θυσσανωίες, induli sunt tunicis lineis circa crura fimbratist. But why might it not as well be supposed, the Egyptians learnt it from the Jews, as the Jews from the Egyptians?

After all there are some, Calvin in particular, who suppose these fringes to be nothing but strings, with tassels, at the four corners of their upper garment, which was made of a square piece of cloth, in the same fashion that was afterwards worn by the Greeks and Romans.

* Clerici Annot. in Num. xv, 38.

+ Herodot. Euterp. cap. lxxxi, p. 118, edit. Gronov. Lugd. Bat. 1716. ↑ Calvini Comment. in Deut. xxii, 12, Oper. tom. i, p. 522, Amstel.

This opinion very well agrees with the precept in Deuteronomy, Thou shalt make thee fringes upon the four quarters," wings, as the margin renders it, or rather corners "of thy vesture, wherewith thou coverest thyself," Deut. xxii, 12. And the proper use of these strings was to tie the corners together. Such strings the modern Jews have to their veils, and each string has five knots in it, besides the tassel, signifying the five books of the law. The rabbies observe, that each string consists of eight threads, which, added to five, the number of knots, and likewise to the numeral value of the letters in the word ny tsitsith, amounts to six hundred and thirteen, the number, according to them, of the precepts of the law. From hence they infer the importance of the command concerning the tsitsith, he who observes it, they say, in effect observing the whole law*.

The Pharisees are censured by our Saviour for enlarging these fringes of their garments, which we may suppose they did partly from pride and partly from hypocrisy, as pretending thereby an extraordinary regard for the law. It is reported by Jerome, as quoted by Godwin, that they used to have fringes extravagantly long, sticking thorns in them, that by pricking their legs as they walked, they might put them in mind of the law.

From the same corrupt fountain whence we have derived the other superstitions and corruptions of the Pharisees, even their attachment to the traditions, we may also trace their most unreasonable and malicious opposition to our Saviour. For having learnt to interpret the prophecies of the Messiah in a carnal sense, and being strongly tinctured with the notion of his being designed to be a temporal prince and deliverer, no miracles could overcome their prejudices against the meanness of Christ's appearance, and persuade them that a person,

Buxtorf. Synag. Jud. cap. ix, p. 164, edit. iii, Basil. 1661, et Lex. Talmud. in voc. yy.

+ Concerning the fringes, see Ainsworth on Numb. xv, 38, 39; Deut. xxii, 12; Buxtorfii Synag. Judaic. cap. ix, p. 160-170; et Lexic. Talmud. in voc. ; Drusius de Sectis Judæor. lib. ii, cap. xvi, p. 267, edit. Trigland; et Leusden. Philolog. Hebræo-Mixt. dissert. xvii, p. 118, 119, edit. 2, Ultraject. 1682.

who made no pretence to civil authority and military power, could possibly be "Messiah the prince," the "son of David, and the Saviour of Israel." They got him, therefore, apprehended, condemned, and executed as an impostor*.

* See an account of the Pharisees in Drusius de Tribus Sectis Judæorum, lib. ii, cap. xii, ult.; in Lightfoot, Hora Hebr. Matt. iii, 7; in Basnage's History of the Jews, book ii, chap. x, xi; in Clerici Ecclesiast. Histor. Prolegom. sect. i, cap. ii, p. 5—12; and in Prideaux's Connect. part. ii, book v, vol. iii, p. 479-483, edit. 10.

CHAP. XI.

OF THE SADDUCEES AND SAMARITANS.

As for the Sadducees, Epiphanius derives the name from PTY tsedhek, justitia*, but that derivation neither suits the word sadducee, nor the true character of the sect. For so far were they from being eminently righteous, that they are commonly said to be the most wicked and profligate of all the Jews; neither were they given to boast of their own righteousness, as the Pharisees were.

Another etymology, which Theophylact mentions together with the formert, is therefore esteemed to be the more probable one, that their name was derived απο αιρεσίαρχο Σαδωκ. This he borrowed from the Talmud, which tells us, that Sadoc was a scholar of Antigonus Sochæus, president of the sanhedrim about two hundred and sixty years before Christ; who having inculcated upon his scholars, that they ought to serve God out of pure love to him, and not in a servile manner, either for fear of punishment or hope of reward; Sadoc, not understanding this spiritual doctrine, concluded there was no future state of rewards and punishments, and accordingly taught and propagated that error after his master's death. However that be (for I must confess with me talmudical stories have but little credit), this is said to have been the doctrine of the Sadducees. That they denied the resurrection, and that there are angels and spirits, appears from the account given of them in the New Testament, Matt. xxii, 23; Acts xxiii, 8. According to Josephus, they rejected the traditions of the

* Epiphan. adversus Hæres. lib. i; hæres. xiv, p. 31. C. edit. Petav. Colon. 1682.

+ Theophylact. Comment. in Matt. iii, 7, p. 18.

† Mishn. tit. Pirke Abhoth, cap. i, sect. iii, et Maimon. in loc. See Lightfoot, Hora Hebraic. in Acts xxiii, 8.

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