and his resurrection was an occasion of their salvation from famine and death. [127] Gen. xxxviii. 28, &c. "Zarah put his hand out first, but Pharez, from whom came Christ, broke forth before him." This imports much the same thing as Isaac's casting out Ishmael, as Jacob's taking hold of Esau's heel when they were born, and afterwards getting his birth-right of him, and as David's getting the kingdom from Saul. [407] Gen. xli. The history of Joseph's advancement in Egypt, &c. "The Apis and Serapis of the Egyptians seems to signify Joseph, because, 1. It was the mode of the Egyptians to preserve the memories of their noble benefactors by some significative hieroglyphics, or symbols; and the great benefits which the Egyptians received from Joseph in supplying them with breadcorn, is aptly represented under the form of an ox, the symbol of an husbandman. Thus Suidas (in Serapis) tells us, "that Apis, being dead, had a temple built for him, wherein was nourished a bullock, the symbol of an husbandman." According to which resemblance also, Minutius, a Roman tribune, was in very like manner honoured with the form of a golden ox, or bull. 2. Joseph is compared to a bullock in scripture, Deut. xxxiii. 17, "His glory is like the firstling of his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of unicorns: with them he shall push the people together to the ends of the earth; and they are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and they are the thousands of Manasseh." 3. The same may be evinced from the names Apis and Serapis, for Apis seems evidently a derivative from 8, Father, as Joseph styles himself, Gen. xlv. 8, "So now, it was not you that sent me hither, but God; and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt." As for Serapis, it was the same with Apis, and also a symbol of Joseph, which Vossius collects from this: 1. It had a bushel on its head, as a symbol of Joseph's providing corn for the Egyptians. 2. From the etimon of Serapis, which is derived either froin, an ox, or from, a prince, and Apis, both of which are applicable to Joseph." Gale's Court of Gen. p. 1, b. 2, c. 7, p. 93, 94. [128] Gen. xli. 14. "And they brought Joseph out of the dungeon." By Joseph's being cast into the dungeon, is signified the death of Christ; by his being delivered, his resurrection; and the ensuing great advancement of Joseph, to be next to the king, signifies the exaltation of Christ at the right hand of the Father. Joseph rose from the dungeon, and was thus exalted to give salva VOL. IX. 30 tion to the land of Egypt and to his brethren, as Christ to save his people. [103] Gen. xliv. 32, 33. "For thy servant became surety for the lad unto my father, saying, If I bring him not unto thee, then I shall bear the blame to my father for ever. Now, therefore, I pray thee, let thy servant abide instead of the lad, a bond man to my lord; and let the lad go up with his brethren." Judah is herein a type of his offspring, Jesus Christ. [382] Gen. xlviii. 21. "And Israel said to Joseph, Behold, I die, but God shall be with you." So Joseph, when he was near his death, said to his brethren after the like manner, Gen. 1. 24, "And Joseph said unto his brethren. I die; and God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land unto the land which he sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob." Thus the blessing of the presence of God with the children of Israel, and his favour and salvation, is consequent on the death of their Father, and their Brother, and Saviour: shadowing this forth, that the favour of God, and his presence, and salvation is by the death of Christ. He, when near death, said to his disciples, John xvi. 7, "It is expedient for you that I go away; for, if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you, but if I depart, I will send him unto you." And elsewhere he promises that the Father and the Son will come to them, and make their abode with them. Isaac's and Jacob's blessing their children before their death, and as it were making over to them their future inheritance, may probably be typical of our receiving the blessings of the cevenant of grace from Christ, as by his last will and testament. nant of grace represented as his testament. We find the coveChrist, in the xiv., xv., and xvi. chapters of John, does as it were make his will, and conveys to his people their inheritance before his death, particularly the Comforter, or the Holy Spirit, which is the sum of the purchased inheritance. "Silenus, so [403] Gen. xlix. 10. "Until Shiloh come.' famous among the poets, whom they place in the order of their gods, is derived from hence. Diodorus, lib. 3, says the first that ruled at Nisa was Silenus, whose genealogy is unknown to all, by reason of his antiquity, which is agreeable to what the scriptures say of the Messiah, Isai. liii. "Who shall declare his generation?" And elsewhere, "To us a Child is born, to us a Son is given, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the everlasting Father," and other passages. As for Nisa, where Silenus reigned, it seems to be the same with Sina, (as was showed elsewhere. See No. 401.) The Messiah dwelt there. It was he that dwelt there in the bush. And there he manifested himself and spake with Moses and the children of Israel. This is represented as his dwelling-place several times in scripture; and therefore, when God redeemed the children of Israel from Egypt, and brought them there, he is repressnted as bringing them to himself. Near this mountain was the altar called Jehovah-Nissi, which is a name Moses gave the Messiah. Of Shiloh it is said, and to him shall the p', the gathering, or the obedience, (as the word signifies,) of the people be. Thus Silenus is made by the poets to be the greatest doctor of his age, and he is called Bacchus's preceptor, i. e. according to Vossins's account, Bacchus was Moses, (see No. 401,) and Silenus, or Shilo, or Christ, instructed Moses on mount Sina, or Nysa, the place where Bacchus and Silenus were said to be. Bacchus and Silenus are made by the poets to be inseparable companions. Another attribute given to Silenus is, that he was carried for the most part on an ass, which Bochart refers to that of Genesis xlix. 11, "Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass's colt unto the choice vine; he washed his garments in wine and his clothes in the blood of grapes." The mythologists fable Silenus as a comrade of Bacchus, to be employed in treading out grapes; this Bochart refers to, Gen. xlix. "He washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes ;" and is agreeable to what is said of the Messiah elsewhere in the scripture, "I have trodden the wine-press alone, and of the people was none with me." They characterize Silenus as one that was always drunk, as it is supposed from what follows, Gen. xlix. 12, "His eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk," which Solomon makes the character of one overcome with wine. Prov. xxiii. 29, 30, "Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes? They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine." They ascribe to Silenus for his meat cow's milk, which Bochart makes to be traduced from Gen. xlix. 12. "And his teeth white with milk." That Silanus is the same with Shilo, further appears from that of Pausanius Eliacon 2. Εν γαρ τη Εβραιων Χώρα Σιληνού μνημα, the monument of Silenus remains in the country of the Hebrews." See Gale's Court of Gen. p. 1, b. 2, c. 6, p. 67, 68, 69. [383] Exod. i. 6, 7. "And Joseph, and all his brethren, and all that generation, and the children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty, and the land was filled with them." After the death of Christ, our Joseph, his spiritual Israel began abundantly to increase, and his death had an influence upon it. It was like the sowing of a corn of wheat, which, if it die, bringeth forth much fruit. John xii. 24, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." From the call of Abraham, when God first told him he would make of him a great nation, to the deliverance of his seed out of Egypt, was 430 years, during the first 215 of which they were increased but to 70, but in the latter half, those 70 multiplied to 600,000 fighting men; so sometimes God's providence may seem for a great while to thwart his promises, and go counter to them, that his people's faith may be tried, and his own power the more magnified; and though the performance of God's promises is sometimes slow, yet it is always sure; at the end it shall speak, and not lie, Heb. ii. 3. shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him?" "How [432] Exod. ii. Concerning Moses. Clennus Alexandrinus, Strom. I., reports, out of the books of the Egyptian priests, that an Egyptian was slain by the words of Moses; and Strom. V., he relates some things belonging to Moses, out of Artapanus, though not very truly. Justin, out of Tragus Pompeius, says of Moses, "He was leader of those that were banished, and took away the sacred things of the Egyptians; which they, endeavouring to recover with arms, were forced by a tempest to return home; and Moses being entered into his own country of Damascus, he took possession of mount Sinai." And what follows is a mixture of truth and falsehood, where we find Arvas written in him, it should be read Arnas, who is Aaron, not the son of Moses, as he imagines, but the brother, and a priest. The Orphic verses expressly mention his being taken out of the water, and the two tables that were given him by God. The verses are thus So was it said of old, so he commands, Who's born of water, who received of God The double Tables of the Law. The great Scaliger, in these verses, instead of hulogenes, with a very little variation of the shape of a letter, reads hudogenes, born of the water. The ancient writer of the Orphic verses, whoever he was, added those lines after he had said, that there was but one God to be worshipped, who was the Creator and Governor of the world. Palemon, who seems to have lived in the time of Antiochus Epiphanes, has these words: "In the reign of Apis the son of Phoroneus, part of the Egyptian army, went out of Egypt and dwelt in Syria, called Palestine, not far from Arabia." Several things are related about his coming out of Egypt, from the Egyptian writers, Monethro, Lysimachus, Choremon. The places are in Josephus against Apion, with abundance of falsities, as coming from people who hated the Jews; and from hence, Tacitus took his account of them. But it appears from all these compared together, that the Hebrews descended from the Assyrians, and possessing a great part of Egypt, led the life of shepherds, but afterwards being burdened with hard labour, they came out of Egypt under the command of Moses, some of the Egyptians accompanying them, and went through the country of the Arabians unto Palestine, Syria, and there set up rites contrary to those of the Egyptians. Diodorus Siculus, in his first book, where he treats of those who made the gods to be the authors of their laws, says, "Amongst the Jews was Moses, who called God by the name Jaw, i. e. Jehovah," which was so pronounced by the oracles, and in the Orphic verses mentioned by the ancients, and by the Syrians. 66 Strabo, in his sixteenth book, speaking of Moses as an Egyptian priest, (which he had from the Egyptian writers, as appears in Josephus) says, " many who worship the Deity agreed with him, (Moses,) for he hath said that the Egyptians did not rightfully conceive of God, when they likened him to wild beasts and cattle; nor the Lybians, nor the Greeks, in resembling him to a human shape; for God is no other than the Universe which surrounds us, the earth and the sea, and the heaven, and the world, and the nature of things, as they are called by us. Who, says he, (i. e. Moses,) that has any understanding, would presume to form any image like to those things that are about us? Wherefore we ought to lay aside all carved images, and worship him in the innermost part of a temple worthy of him, without any figure." He adds that this was the opinion of good men-He adds also that sacred rites were instituted by him, which were not burdensome for their costliness, nor hateful as proceeding from madness. He mentions circumcision, the meats that were forbidden, and the like; and after he had shown that man was naturally desirous of civil society, he tells us, it is promoted by divine and human precepts, but more effectually by divine. Pliny, book xxx. ch. 1, says, "There is another party of magicians which sprung from Moses." Juvenal, has these lines- They learn, and keep, and fear the Jewish law, Tacitus, Hist. V., according to the Egyptian fables, calls Moses one of them that were banished. |