ther of Benjamin, as inconsolable on account of a massacre per. petrated in a city of Judah, and aimed against one of that tribe.

2 Lamentation and weeping, and bitter complaint, Iprv☞ xxı κλαυθμός και οδυρμα πολυς. Vul. Ploratus et ululatus multus. In three Gr. copies Ip xa are wanting. All the three words are in the Sep. in the passage referred to, though there are but two corresponding words in the Heb. In most of the ancient versions there is the same omission as in the Vul.

22. Hearing that Archelaus had succeeded his farther Herod in the throne of Judea, he was afraid to return thither. Archelaus was constituted by Augustus ethnarch (that is, ruler of the nation, but in title inferior to king) over Judea, Samaria, and Idumea. The Orientals, however, commonly gave to such, and indeed to all sovereigns, the appellation of kings. The emperor is repeatedly so named in Scripture. And here the word CaσAevrey is applied to Archelaus, who succeded his father, not in title, but in authority, over the principal part, not the whole, of his dominions. But though Joseph was afraid to go into Judea, strictly so called, he still continued in the land of Israel ; for under that name, Galilee and a considerable extent of country lying east of the Jordan, were included. Prel. Diss. I. P. I. § 7. 23. That he should be called a Nazarene, iri Nawpaι xλndGITα. E. T. He shall be called a Nazarene. The words may be rendered either way. A direct quotation is often introduced with the conjunction 7. On the other hand, that the verb is in the indicative is no objection, of any weight, against translating the passage obliquely. The Heb. has no subjunctive mood, and therefore the indicative in the N. T. is often used subjunctively, in conformity to the Oriental idiom. And, as there is no place, in the Prophets still extant, where we have this affirmation in so many words, I thought it better to give an oblique turn to the expression.

2 Nazarene. To mark a difference between Nalwear, the term used here, and Nagagny, the common word for an inhabitant of Nazareth, Sc. and Dod. say Nazaræan, Wa. says Nazorean. But as the term Nalapa is, by this evangelist, (xxvi, 71) used manifestly in the same sense, and also by both Mr. and J. I can see no reason for this small variation. Some find a coincidence in the name with a Heb. word for a Nazarite; others for

!

a word signifying branch, a term by which the Messiah, in the judgment of Jews, as well as of Christians, is denominated, Isaiah xi. 1.

It is proper to observe that, in the Heb. exemplar of this Gospel which was used by the Ebionites, and called The Gospel according to the Hebrews, the two first chapters were wanting :the book began in this manner, It happened, in the days of Herod king of Judea, that John came baptizing, with the baptism of reformation, in the river Jordan. He was said to be of the race of Aaron the priest, and son of Zacharias and Elizabeth. But for this reading, and the rejection of the two chapters, there is not one concurrent testimony from MSS. versions, or ancient authors. It is true the Al. has not the two chapters; but this is no autho. rity for rejecting them, as that copy is mutilated, and contains but a very small fragment of Mt.'s Gospel. No fewer than the twenty-four first chapters are wanting, and the copy begins with the verb xeral, cometh, in the middle of a sentence, ch. xxv. 6. By a like mutilation, though much less considerable, the first nineteen verses of the first chapter are wanting in the Cam. which also begins in the middle of a sentence with the verb παραλαβειν, to take home. And in the Go. version all is wanting before the middle of the fifteenth verse of ch. v. It begins likewise in the middle of a sentence with the words answering to επι την λυχνίαν. Now if we abstract from these, which prove nothing, but that the words they begin with were preceded by something now lost; there is a perfect harmony in the testimonies, both of MSS. and of versions, in favour of the two chapters. The old Itc. transla tion and the Syr. were probably made before the name Ebionite was known in the church. Even so early a writer as Irenæus, in the fragment formerly quoted (Pref. § 7.), takes notice that Mt. began his history with the genealogy of Jesus. That the Nazarenes, (or Jewish christians, on whom, though disciples, the Mosaic ceremonies were, by themselves, thought binding) who also used a Heb. exemplar of this Gospel, had the two chap ters, is probable, as Epiphanius calls their copy very full, an pesatov, though, it must be owned, he immediately after expresses some doubt of their retaining their pedigree. Si. thinks it probable that they did retain it, as he learns from Epiphanius that Carpocras and Cerinthus, whose notions pretty much coincided with theirs, retained it, and even used it in arguing against their

adversaries. I might add to the testimony of versions, MSS. and ancient authors, the internal evidence we have of the vitiation of the Ebionite exemplar, the only copy that is charged with this defect, from the very nature of the additions and alterations it contains.

CHAPTER III.

1. In those days. As the thing last mentioned was the resi dence of Jesus with his parents at Nazareth, the words those days may be used with strict propriety of any time before he left that city. Now John was about six months older than Jesus; it may therefore be thought not improbable that he began his public ministry so much earlier, each in the 30th year of his age, agree. ably to the practice of the Levites, Num. iv. 3. But it must be owned that this is no more than conjecture: for as to the age of the Baptist, when he commenced preacher, scripture has been silent.

2 The Baptist, • Barring. per name.

A title from his office, not a pro

It is equivalent to the title given him, Mr. vi. 14. ¿ Bawray, the Baptizer. It is therefore improperly rendered into modern languages without the article, as Dio. has done in Itn. calling him Giovanni Battista, and all the Fr. translators I know (except L. Cl.), who call him Jean Baptiste.

3 Cried, κηρύσσων. Diss. VI. P. V.

• Wilderness, spnμw.

2. Reform, μɛTAVOEITE.

2 Reign, βασιλεία.

Mr. i. 3. N.

Diss. VI. P. III.
Diss. V. P. I.

4. Of camel's hair, not of the fine hair of that animal, whereof an elegant kind of cloth is made, which is thence called camlet (in imitation of which, though made of wool, is the English camlet), but of the long and shaggy hair of camels, which is in the East manufactured into a coarse stuff, anciently worn by monks and anchorets. It is only when understood in this way that the words suit the description here given of John's manner of life.

2 Locusts, anpides. I see no ground to doubt that it was the animal so named that is meant here. Locusts and grasshoppers are among the things allowed by the law to be eaten, Lev. xi. 22. and are, at this day, eaten in Asia, by the poorer sort; I have never had satisfactory evidence that the word is susceptible of any other interpretation.

5. The country along the Jordan, ǹ wigixwpos tu lopdava. Mr. i. 28. N.

7. From the impending vengeance, año тns μerλsons oprns. E. T. From the wrath to come. Μελλων often means not only fu ture, but near. There is just such a difference between 5 and μedλet egetDai, in Gr. as there is between it will be and it is about to be, in Eng. This holds particularly in threats and warnings. Εται λιμος is erit fames ; μελλει εσεθαι λιμος is imminet fames. In Job iii. 8. a Heb. word signifying ready, prepared, is rendered by the Seventy EλAY. Besides, its connection with the verb QuYew in this verse ascertains the import of the word. We think of fleeing only when pursued. The flight itself naturally suggests to spectators that the enemy is at hand. In cases however wherein no more appears to be intended than the bare prediction of an event, or declaration of some purpose, we are to consider it as equivalent to an ordinary future, ch. xvii. 22. N. The words, the wrath to come, appear to limit the sense to what is strictly called the future judgment.

8. The proper fruit of reformation, xaprès ağıus TNG METAVOIAS. E. T. fruits meet for repentance. Vul. fructum dignum pœni. tentiæ. A very great number of MSS. read xaprov αžiov, amongst which are some of the oldest and most valued; likewise several ancient versions, as the Ara. the second Sy. Cop. Eth. and Sax. It appears too, that some of the earliest fathers read in the same manner. Of the moderns, Lu. Gro. Si. Ben. Mill, and Wet. have approved it. It is so read in the Com. and some other old editions. Kaρç ağı is universally allowed to be the genuine reading in L. Some ignorant transcriber has probably thought proper to correct one Gospel by the other. Such freedoms have been too often used.

2

10. Turned into fuel. Ch. vi. 30. N.

11. In water-in the Holy Spirit, εν ύδατι εν άγιω πνευματι. E. T. with water-with the Holy Ghost. Vul. in aqua-in Spiritu Sancto. Thus also, the Sy. and other ancient versions. All the modern translations from the Gr. which I have seen, render the words as our common version does, except L. Cl. who says, dans l'eau-dans le Saint Esprit. I am sorry to observe that the Popish translators from the Vul. have shown greater veneration for the style of that version than the generality of Protes

tant translators have shown for that of the original. For in this the La. is not more explicit than the Gr. Yet so inconsistent are the interpreters last mentioned, that none of them have scrupled to render av Ta lopdan, in the sixth verse, in Jordan, though nothing can be plainer, than that if there be any incongruity in the expression in water, this in Jordan must be equally incongruous. But they have seen that the preposition in could not be avoided there, without adopting a circumlocution, and saying, with the water of Jordan, which would have made their devia. tion from the text too glaring. The word Barry, both in sacred authors, and in classical, signifies, to dip, to plunge, to immerse, and was rendered by Tertullian, the oldest of the La. fathers, tingere, the term used for dying cloth, which was by immersion. It is always construed suitably to this meaning. Thus it is, εν ύδατι, εν τω Ιορδανη. But I should not lay much stress on the preposition, which, answering to the Heb. 5, may denote with as well as in, did not the whole phraseology, in regard to this ceremony, concur in evincing the same thing. Accordingly the baptised are said avacbawew, to arise, emerge, or ascend, v. 16. año 18 idaros, and Acts viii. 39. Ex T8 idaros, from or out of the water. Let it be observed further, that the verbs pava and pavrig, used in scripture for sprinkling, are never construed in this manner. I will sprinkle you with clean water, says God, Ezek. xxxvi. 25. or as it runs in the E. T. literally from the Heb. I will sprinkle clean water upon you, is in the Sept. Parva εφ' ύμας καθαρον ύδωρ, and not as βαπτίζω is always construed. Þava iμas ev xxdapa idarı. See also Exod. xxix. 21. Lev. vi. 27. xvi. 14. Had Carrig been here employed in the sense of βαινω I sprinkle (which as far as I know, it never is, in any use, sacred or classical) the expression would doubtless have been Ey μεν βαπτίζω εφ' ὑμας ύδωρ, or απο τα ύδατος, agreeably to the examples referred to. When therefore the Gr. word santiga is adopted, I may say, rather than translated into modern languages, the mode of construction ought to be preserved so far as may conduce to suggest its original import. It is to be regretted that we have so much evidence that even good and learned men allow their judgments to be warped by the sentiments and customs of the sect which they prefer. The true partizan, of whatever denomination, always inclines to correct the diction of the spirit, by that of the party.