suffers his bread to bake after the sabbath is begun. If he has sinned knowingly, he must leave his bread there, and fast to expiate his fault. Nothing but ignorance is ground sufficient to permit them taking wherewith to subsist their family for twenty-four hours. But how is this bread to be taken out? They must not make use of a peal but a knife, and do it so nicely as not to touch the stones of the oven, for that is a crime. Such are the questions that arise upon the entrance of the sabbath." (History of the Jews, p. 443.) Similar superstitions are related by this author concerning other particulars which affect the Jews.

No. 469.—v. 13. He conveyed himself away.] Doddridge (in loc.)translates the word εževevcev, slipped away, and observes from Casaubon, that it is an elegant metaphor borrowed from swimming; it well expresses the easy unobserved manner in which Jesus as it were glided through them, while, like a stream of water, they opened before him, and immediately closed again, leaving no trace of the way he had taken.

No. 470.-v. 35. He was a burning and a shining light.] This character of John the Baptist is perfectly conformable to the mode of expression adopted by the Jews. It was usual with them to call any person who was celebrated for knowledge, a candle. Thus they say that Shuah, the father-in-law of Judah (Gen. xxxviii. 2.) was the candle or light of the place where he lived, because he was one of the most famous men in the city, enlightening their eyes; hence they call a rabbin, the candle of the law, and the lamp of light.

LIGHTFOOT'S Works, vol. ii. p. 550.

No. 471.-vi. 27. Him hath God the father sealed.] Some have ingeniously conjectured that this may allude

to a custom which princes might have when making grand entertainments, to give a commission under their hand and seal, or perhaps to deliver a signet to those whom they appointed to preside in the management of them. (See Elsner, vol. i. p. 311.) Though it may possibly be sufficient to say, that to seal is a general phrase for authorizing by proper credentials, whatever the purpose be for which they are given, or for marking a person out as wholly devoted to his service whose seal he bears. DODDRIDGE, in loc.

No. 472.-vii. 37. That great day of the feast.] The last day grew into high esteem with the nation, because on the preceding seven days they held that sacrifices were offered, not so much for themselves, as for the whole world. They offered, in the course of them, seventy bullocks for the seventy nations of the world; but the eighth was wholly on their own behalf. They had then this solemn offering of water, the reason of which is this:-at the passover the Jews offered an omer to obtain from God his blessing on their harvest; at Pentecost, their first fruits, to request his blessing on the fruits of the trees; and in the feast of tabernacles they offered water to God, partly referring to the water from the rock in the wilderness (1 Cor. x. 4.) but chiefly to solicit the blessing of rain on the approaching seed-time. These waters they drew out of Siloah, and brought them into the temple with the sound of the trumpet and great rejoicing. "He who hath not seen the rejoicing on the drawing of this water hath seen no rejoicing at all." (Succah, fol. li. 1.)(Lightfoot.) Christ, alluding to these customs, proclaims, if any man thirst, let him come unto me. He takes, as very usual with him, the present occasion of the water brought from Siloah, to summon them to him as the true fountain.

No. 473.-viii. 36. If the son make you free.] This alludes to a custom in some of the cities of Greece, and elsewhere, whereby the son and heir had a liberty to adopt brethren, and give them the privileges of the family.

No. 474.-viii. 59. Then took they up stones to cast at him.] After describing various punishments which were inflicted by the Jews upon offenders and criminals, LEWIS (in his Origines Hebrææ, vol. i. p. 85.) says, "there was another punishment, called the rebels beating, which was often fatal, and inflicted by the mob with their fists, or staves, or stones, without mercy, or the sentence of the judges. Whoever transgressed against a prohibition of the wise men, or of the scribes, that had its foundation in the law, was delivered over to the people to be used in this manner, and was called a son of rebellion. The frequent taking up of stones by the people to stone our Saviour, and the incursion upon him and upon St. Stephen for blasphemy, as they would have it, and upon St. Paul for defiling the temple, as they supposed, were of this nature."

No. 475.-x. 11. I am the good shepherd.] That this allusion was very pertinent with regard to the persons to whom Christ addressed his discourse, the condition and custom of the country may convince us. The greatest part of the wealth and improvement there consisted in sheep, and the examples of Jacob and David in particular are proofs, that the keeping of these was not usually committed to servants and strangers, but to men of the greatest quality and substance. The children of the family, nay the masters and owners themselves, made it their business, and esteemed the looking to their flocks an employment no way unbecoming them. Hence probably came the frequent metaphor of

styling kings the shepherds of their people; hence also the prophets described the Messiah in the character of a shepherd; and Christ, to shew that he was the person intended, applies the character to himself. The art of the shepherd in managing his sheep in the East was different from what it is among us. We read of his going before, leading, calling his sheep, and of their following and knowing his voice. Such methods were doubtless practised by them, but have not obtained amongst us in the management of our flocks.

No. 476.-xi. 16. Thomas, which is called Didymus.] It was customary with the Jews, when travelling into foreign countries, or familiarly conversing with the Greeks and Romans, to assume to themselves a Greek or Latin name of great affinity, and sometimes of the very same signification with that of their own country, as those of Thomas and Didymus, one in the Syriac and the other in the Greek, do both signify a twin. He no doubt was a Jew, and, in all probability, a Galilean, as well as the other apostles; but the place of his birth, and the nature of his calling, (unless we should suppose that he was brought up to the trade of fishing) are things unknown.

No. 477.-xi. 17. He had lain in the grave four days.] It was customary among the Jews to go to the sepulchres of their deceased friends, and visit them for three days, for so long they supposed that their spirits hovered about them; but when once they perceived that their visage began to change, as it would in three days in these countries, all hopes of a return to life were then at an end. After a revolution of humours, which in seventy-two hours is completed, the body tends naturally to putrefaction; and therefore Martha had reason to say, that her brother's body (which appears by the

context to have been laid in the sepulchre the same day that he died) would now on the fourth day, become offensive.

STACKHOUSE'S Hist. of the Bible, vol. ii. p. 1386.

No. 478. xi. 31. She goeth unto the grave to weep there.] Authors that speak of the eastern people's visiting the tombs of their relations, almost always attribute this to the women; the men, however, sometimes visit them too, though not so frequently as the other sex, who are more susceptible of the tender emotions of grief, and think that propriety requires it of them; whereas the men commonly think that such strong expressions of sorrow would misbecome them. We find that some male friends came from Jerusalem to condole with Mary and Martha on account of the death of their brother Lazarus, who, when they supposed that her rising up and going out of the house was with a view to repair to his grave to weep, followed her, saying, she goeth unto the grave to weep there.

It is no wonder that they thought her rising up in haste was to go to the grave to weep, for Chardin informs us, that the mourning in the East does not consist in wearing black clothes, which they call an infernal dress, but in great outcries, in sitting motionless, in being slightly dressed in a brown or pale habit, in refusing to take any nourishment for eight days running, as if they were determined to live no longer. Her starting up then with a sudden motion, who, it was expected, would have sat still without stirring at all, and her going out of the house, made them conclude that it must be to go to the grave to weep there, though, according to the modern Persian ceremonial, it wanted five or six days of the usual time for going to weep at the grave: but the Jews possibly might repair thither sooner than the Persians do.

HARMER, vol. iii. p. 459.