fore they began supper, but in some interval of the meal, as appears from its being said of our Lord, that "he rose from supper, and laid aside his garments, and took a towel and girded himself," ver. 4. We conclude from hence, that the disciples had not washed their feet before supper; for it is highly improbable, that Christ should choose to set them an example of mutual condescension and benevolence by an action, which, if they had been washed before, was altogether needless*.

It is Godwin's apprehension, that the six water-pots of stone, mentioned on occasion of the marriage at Cana of Galilee, John ii, 6, and said to be "after the manner of the purifying of the Jews," were designed for these complimental washings. But as the word xalapiuos is commonly if not always used for the purifying or washing the whole body, as for the purifying of a woman after child-birth, Luke ii, 22, and of a leper after his cure, chap. v, 14; Mark i, 44; in both which cases the law prescribed that the body should be washed or bathed all over; some have thought it more probable, that these water-pots were such as were used for that purpose. And if we consider how many legal pollutions, unavoidably and frequently contracted, required this larger purification, especially among the women, it is likely, that all persons, who could provide conveniences for it, would keep sufficient quantities of water in their houses ready for such occasions. According to this opinion, these water-pots must have been large vessels. How large is not certain. The text says, they "contained two or three μETFτas apiece;" a word, which though it properly signifies a measure in the general, was yet doubtless in common use for some particular measure; otherwise, this account of the contents of these water-pots would be altogether indeterminate, and convey no idea at all. It is probable, therefore, that as the word rod, in English, which primarily signifies a stick to measure with, of any length, is yet appropriated to that particular measure of length which is most used in measuring lands, namely, five yards and an half, so the word usTnT was particularly appro

That washing the feet was not an usual preparatory ceremony, is shown at large by Buxtorf, in his Dissertations Philogico Theolog. dissert. vi, de Cænæ Domin. primæ ritibus et formâ sect. xxx, p. 302-306, Basil, 1662.

priated to that measure of capacity, which was most used by the Jews in measuring liquids, and that was the ra bath. This is still more probable, because the Septuagint renders the word, bath, by r, in the fourth chapter of the second book of Chronicles, ver. 5. Now the bath, according to Dr. Cumberland, contains seven gallons and a quarter. Each water-pot, therefore, may be supposed to contain about twenty gallons, and all of them, when filled to the brim, as they were when our Saviour turned the water into wine, about an hundred and twenty*.

As to the design of this miracle, we are not to suppose that Christ produced so great a quantity of wine, merely, or chiefly for use of the guests at that entertainment. Besides the grand purpose of displaying his divine power, he might hereby intend to make a handsome present to the new-married couple, as such a quantity of excellent wine undoubtedly was, in grateful return for their favour in inviting him and his disciples to the marriage feast.

As to the third preparatory ceremony, pouring out oil, I can find no sufficient evidence of this being in common use. The woman's anointing our Saviour's head with ointment, which St. Luke mentions, chap. vii, 37, 38, and to which Godwin refers, was without doubt an extraordinary case.

As to the barachah, or benediction of the bread and wine, from whence many others suppose, as well as Godwin, that our Saviour borrowed the rites which he used in the celebration of his supper; the authority of the rabbinical writers, who mention this barachah, is too precarious to furnish a certain conclusion, that it was in use among the Jews in our Saviour's time. The correspondence betwixt the sacramental rites and those of the Jewish barachah, as practised in the days of the talmudical rabbies, may be seen at large in Buxtorf on this subject+.

The last thing, which Godwin mentions as remarkable in the feasts of the Jews, was their table gesture. And this was

* See on this subject a Dissertation of Hostus, in the Critici Sacri, vol. ix. + Buxtorf. Dissertationes Philolog. Theolog. dissert. vi, de Cænæ Domin. primæ ritibus et formâ.

↑ Vid. Buxtorf. ubi supra, sect. xxxii-xl, p. 306—309; et Lightfoot, Horæ Hebr. in Matt. xxvi, 20.

reclining on couches after the manner of the Romans*, the upper part of the body resting upon the left elbow, and the lower lying at length upon the couch. When two or three reclined on the same couch, some say the worthiest or most honourable person lay first, Lightfoot says in the middle†. The next in dignity lay with his head reclining on the breast or bosom of the first; as John is said to have done on the bosom of Jesus at supper, John xiii, 23. And hence is borrowed the phrase of Abraham's bosom, as denoting the state of celestial happiness, Luke xvi, 22. Abraham being esteemed the most honourable person, and the father of the Jewish nation, to be in his bosom signifies, in allusion to the order in which guests were placed at an entertainment, the highest state of felicity next to that of Abraham himself.

* Plutarchi Sympos. lib. v, problem. vi, p. 769, 780, edit. Francofurt, 1620. See the accubitus of the Romans described, with a delineation from some antique marbles, by Hieron. Mercurialis, de Arte Gymnast. lib. i. cap. xi, Amstel. 1672.

+ Hora Hebr. John xiii, 23.

CHAP. III.

OF THE SABBATH.

THE word sabbath, from now shabath, quievit, is used in scripture, in a limited sense, for the seventh day of the week, which by the Jewish law was peculiarly consecrated to the service of God; and in a more extensive sense for other holy days, as for the annual fast, or day of atonement, on the tenth of the month Tizri, Lev. xxiii, 32; and in the New Testament the word caßßarov is sometimes used for a week: "I fast twice in a week," Νηςεύω δις το σαββατο,” Luke xviii, 12, and "μa σaßßαтwy" signifies the first day of the week, Matt. xxviii, 1. But commonly the word sabbath is peculiarly appropriated to the seventh day.

In the sixth chapter of St. Luke, we read of the raßßarwy SEUTEρOTρWTOV, Luke vi, 1, the explaining of which has given the critics and commentators not a little trouble. Some allege there were two sabbaths in the year, each of them called the first, in respect to the two different beginnings of the year, the civil and the sacred. That the Jews had some peculiar regard to the first sabbath in the year, appears from a passage in Clemens Alexandrinus, εαν μη σεληνη φανη, σαββατον εκ αγεσι το λεγόμενον, πρωτον*, “ Nisi luna appareat, sabbatum non celebrant quod primum dicitur," &c. Now, as their year had two different beginnings, one with the month Tizri in autumn, the other with the month Nisan in spring, there were consequently two first sabbaths, of which this, according to the computation of the civil year, was the second, and is therefore called dεUTEρorρwтov, or the second-first sabbath.

Grotius, whose opinion is followed by Dr. Hammond, conceives, that when any of the solemn yearly feasts fell on the sabbath day, that sabbath had a special respect paid to it, and was called μɛya, or (which Dr. Hammond saith is the same

* Strom. lib. vi, p. 636, A, edit. Paris, 1741.

thing) raßßarov πрwтоv. Now, of these prime or first sabbaths there were three in the year, at the passover, at pentecost, and at the feast of tabernacles. The first of them, that is, when the first day of the passover fell on the sabbath day, was called πρωτοπρωτον σαββατον, or the first prime sabbath. The second, that is, when the day of pentecost fell on the sabbath, was called dεUTEрoπρшTOY, which, he apprehends, was the sabbath here intended*. But as neither Grotius nor Hammond have produced any passage, in which either the word πρωτοπρωτον οι τριτοπρωτον occurs, this interpretation remains doubtful and uncertain. Sir Isaac Newton imagines this σαββατον δευτερόπρωτον was the second great day of the feast of the passover; as we call Easter day high Easter, and its octave low Easter, or Low Sunday, so it seems St. Luke styles the feast, on the seventh day of the unleavened bread, the second of the two prime sabbaths. To this sense Dr. Doddridge objects, that though the seventh day of unleavened bread was to be an holy convocation, yet the law expressly allowed the Jews to dress victuals on it, Exod. xii, 16, and therefore the pharisees could have had no pretence for charging Christ's disciples with breaking the sabbath by their plucking and rubbing the ears of corn on that day, as they did, Luke vi, 2.

Theophylact, who is followed by J. Scaliger§, Lightfoot ||, and Whitby, makes the σαββατον δευτερόπρωτον to be the first of the seven sabbaths betwixt the passover and pentecost, or the first sabbath after the second day of unleavened bread, from whence the fifty days to pentecost were computed, Lev. xxiii, 15, 16. There want only instances of the word δευτεροδευτερον being used for the second, and δευτεροτριτον for the third of these sabbaths, to confirm this sense beyond dispute. However, though it be not quite free from uncertainty, it seems to stand as fair in point of probability as any of them¶. * Grotii et Hammondi Annot. in loc.

+ Sir Isaac Newton's Observations on the Prophecies of Daniel and the Revelation, p. 154.

↑ Comment. in loc.

§ Scalig. de Emendat. Temp. lib. vi, p. 557. edit. Colon. Allobr. 1621. || Lightfoot, Horæ Hebraic, in loc. et in Matt. xii, 1.

See Whitby and Doddridge in loc.