The present Greek text, was doubtless published at a very early period; who the translator was cannot, at this distance of time, be determined; probably it was the Evangelist himself. As to the language also of Mark, some critics have contended for a Latin original, because of the several Latin words found in it, such as spechulator, Ch. vi. 27; And ackenturion, xv. 39, 44, 45; sussemon, xiv. 44. cording to Dr. Lardner, Luke was by birth a Jew, who probably wrote in Hebrew. But that John's Gospel was originally written in Greek, is the general and most likely opinion.

See Dr. A. CLARKE'S Preface to the Gospels.

4699. [Matt. xiv. 17.] The books of the old Mahometan theologists prescribe, that the fish to be eaten by the Faithful, must be gathered with the hand, fresh; just when the water, ebbing away, leaves the shores dry. Matt. xvii. 27. See NIEBUHR's Descrip. Arabie, p. 159. Fr. Edit.

4700.

RIESBECK. Pinkerton's Coll. part xxiii.p. 111.

more like our rolls thau loaves.

Loaves in the East are very small; and Dr. GEDDES.

4701. [

-

25, 31.] A peculiarity of the Dead Seawater, is its specific gravity found to be 1,211; a degree of density scarcely to be met with in any other water. STRABO states that men could not dive in this water, and in going into it, would not sink lower than the navel; and Poco KE, who bathed in it, relates that he could lie on its surface, motionless, and in any attitude, without danger of sinking. These peculiarities are fully confirmed by Mr. GORDON of Clunie, who recently travelled into that country: he also bathed in the lake, and experienced all the effects just related. - Dr. MARCET, who analyzed the waters of the Dead Sea and of the River Jordan, found their saline ingredients, so nearly alike, that, in his opinion, the same source of impregnation might be common to both. That'source' is the Sea of Tiberias, on whose dense' waters Jesus was now walking. See Phil. Trans. for 1807, pp. 296,-314.

The water of the Dead Sea is very clear, but is extremely salt, and withal bitter and nauseous: so that I do not at all wonder, says THOMPSON (in his Travels through Asia, &c.), at the prevailing tradition, that no Fish, or other animals, can live in it.

4703. [Matt. xv. 2.] The bread, throughout all Curdistan and frequently in Persia, was light and excellent, consisting of flat cakes, very white and well baked: the hands, how'ever, served in lieu of either spoons, knives, or forks according to the custom of Persia.

PETRO DELLE VALLE, Pinkerton's Coll. vol. ix. p. 15.

4704. [3. Why do even ye transgress &c.] Not also; for that would be to admit guilt on his part.

4705. [4.] At Canton in China, if a parent be brought to poverty and want, and have not brought his son up to some calling, whereby he may get his living, the son is not obliged to assist his father; but otherwise he is.

Captain HAMILTON, Pinkerton's
Coll. part xxxiii. p. 506.

4706. [5.] Origen on this passage says, he should never have understood it, had it not been for the information which he received from a Jew, who told him that it was the custom with some of their usurers, when they had a tardy debtor, to transfer the debt to the poor's box; by which means he was obliged to pay it, or bring on himself the imputation of cruelty to the poor and impiety towards God; and that children would sometimes so transfer what was due to their parents.

See BURDER'S Oriental Customs, vol. ii. p. 303. Christ here notices a vow common in his time, whereby a man consecrated what he was bound to apply to the support of his parents; and He declares it as so impious, that we cannot possibly hold it as acceptable to God. Smith's MICHAELIS, vol. ii. p. 264.

4707. [11. Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man] These words have not a general, but a limited sense, thus: - - Not a little soil or filth taken into the mouth by eating with unwashen hands, can defile a man; but evil thoughts, and other evils of the heart, when expressed in speech, and realized in act, are (verse 19) the things that defile the man.

4708. [ 19.] The whole of thought enters from within; but not from without, though it appears so. It is contrary to order, that what is posterior should flow into what is prior, or what is crasser into what is purer; as if body could flow into soul.

SWEDENBORG, Arcana, n. 3219.

4709. [Matt. xvi. 2, 3.] KALM, the Swedish Traveller, was told by experienced observers in North America, that, when you see clonds in the horizou in the south-west, about sunsetting; and when those clouds sink below the horizon, in an hour's time, such appearances prognosticate rain the next day, though all the forenoon be fair and clear: but that, if some clouds be seen in the south-west, in the horizon at sunset, and these rise shortly after, you may expect fair weather the next day. Pinkerton's Coll. part liv. p. 535.

4710.

The sufferings of the Continent by the ravages of war, have been aggravated in some provinces, by the calamities of the season. The forests in the Tyrol have been ravaged by conflagrations, occasioned by the intense heats of the summer. Sixty-four villages, innumerable cattle, harvests and vineyards, have been destroyed, and twenty-four thousand peasants driven sheiterless and famishing into the fields. The forest of Riamner, seven miles in extent, caught fire on the 26th of July, and had not ceased burning on the 4th of August. In various parts of Silesia, Poland, and Lithuania, the wheat, oats and barley have been scorched to the ground, the streams have disappeared, the trees have been stripped of their leaves, and the earth has become as iron, and the sky as brass,' with the excessive drought. Cottages have been struck with lightning, and the hamlets in which they stood were burnt to ashes for want of water to cheek the contagion and quench the fury of the flames. At Munster, on the 12th of August, a dreadful fire broke out, and speedily the whole town appeared one burning mass. Two convents, with their churches, the roof of the parish church and its steeple, and more than 300 houses, became a prey to the flames. In Russia, the town of Kioff is reported to have been totally destroyed by fire; 3000 houses, many hundreds of the inhabitants, and property to an incalculable amount have been consumed. Public Prints for 1811.

Who cannot in these things see the hand of a correcting Providence?

See No. 1206, 1362.

4711. [Matt. xvii. 1. A high mountain] Mount Tabor. BOYLE, on the High Veneration Man's Intellect owes to God, p. 93.

Verse 2.] Faith is the spirit of the Christian Heaven; Charity, that of the Jewish; Wisdom, that of the Noaich; and Love, that of the Adamic.

4712. [15.] In every eclipse of the moon, Lord Chancellor BACON was seized with a sudden fit of fainting;

which left him, without any remaining weakness, as soon as the eclipse ended.

See His Life, by Mallet, p. 98 As the duration of the winds, which have such a powerful influence not only over the various products of the earth, but on our bodies also, is measured in general by the several phases or aspects of the Moon; and as we say one quarter is rainy, and another hot, we readily impute that to the moon, which, in fact, proceeds only froin the air. Nat. Delin. vol. i. p. 290.

Being directed to turn his eyes from time to time towards the quarter on which it stood, he perceived with amazement, that, as the day advanced, the hill gradually sunk towards the horizon, and at length totally disappeared.

See his Travels in Southern Africa, p. 107.

4716. [Matt. xvii. 25.] Among the Mahometans, tribute was paid only by those who professed a different religion. See Modern Univer. Hist. vol. i. p. 205.

4713. [Matt. xvii. 20.] Speaking of the Meteors in Greenland, Nothing," says KRANTZ, ever surprised me more, than, on a fine summer's day, to perceive the islands that lie four leagues west of our shore, putting on a form quite different from what they are known to have. As I stood gazing upon them, they appeared, at first, infinitely greater than what they naturally are; and seemed as if I viewed them through a large magnifying glass. They were thus not only made larger, but brought nearer to me. I plainly descried every stone the land, and all the furrows filled with ice, upon as if I stood close by. When this illusion had lasted for a while, the prospect seemed to break up, and a new scene of wonder to present itself. The islands seemed to travel to the shore, and represented a wood, or a tall cut hedge. scene then shifted, and shewed the appearance of all sorts of curious figures; as ships with sails, streamers, and flags; antique elevated castles, with decayed turrets; and a thousand forms, for which faney found a resemblance in Nature. When the eye had been satisfied with gazing, the whole group of riches seemed to rise in air, and at length vanish into nothing. At such times the weather is quite serene and clear; but compressed with such subtle vapors, as it is in very hot weather; aud these appearing between the eye and the object, give it all that variety of appearances which glasses of different refrangibilities would have done." See Acts. x. 11-16.

4714.

The

In the memoirs of the French Academy of Sciences we learn, "the mountains of Corsica, seen from the coasts of Genoa and Provence, seem at certain hours to plunge into the sea."

4718. [27.] As the Hebrew word shekel comes from shakal, to weigh, and as the Greeks had at this time a coin, named (apo tou isasthai, ab appendendo) stater, the Jews had adopted this stater for their shekel, which they coined in silver, of the same weight, that is, the weight of half an ounce (Loth) nearly. Now one half of this shekel, highly raised as was its standard, they had each to pay every year to the Temple, as a capitation tax.

4719.

Smith's MICHAELIS, vol. iii. p. 12.

This piece the Greek calls stater, and the Hebrew astira; it was equal to the double shekel, and worth about half a crown of our money.

4720.

Univer. Hist. vol. x. p. 343.

The stater was equal to a shekel, (verse 26), or to two shillings three pence farthing, half farthing, the tribute for two.

Essay for a New Trans. part ii. p. 36. The didrachma, or the half drachma, was in value fifteen pence. See Luke xv. 8.

4728. [10. The angels of them] This passage appears to intimate, that the Angels, now in glory, are the departed souls and spirits of infants, as well as of just men made perfect.

4729. [—— 20.] In the Pirke Avoth, chup. iii, the son of Kalaptha is introduced as saying, "Wheresoever two or three are sitting together and conferring about the Law, there the Shechinah will be with them"- In this sense our Saviour may be understood to say, Where soever two or three are gathered together in social worship, there am I, the Christian Shechmah, in the midst of them by my in-dwelling Presence, or special exibition of Myself (in and around all true worshippers) by manifest signs of spiritual blessing and grace.— Some enlightened Heathens have said: God is the centre of all things, especially of all men.

See Dr. GREGORY's Presence of God in Holy
Places, pp. 136, 140.

In Africa, not only the effects of the insolvent, but even the insolvent himself, is sold to satisfy the lawful demands of his creditors.

MUNGO PARK's Trav. p. 296.

In the middle ages, when it was customary for creditors to seize and sell the wives and children of a debtor, they were not empowered to take his widow: the connection was dissolved, and she was no longer his property; though her sous and daughters were, and might be taken and sold accordingly.

Dr. W. ALEXANDER's Hist. of Women, vol. ii. p. 294.

4739. [Matt. xix. 4. 5.] Whatever were the ceremonies of marriage in the primitive ages, it appears plain from the most antient traditions, that the commerce between the sexes began to be regulated by the first sovereigns and law-givers. Menes, who is said to have been the first king of Egypt, is also said to have been the first that introduced matrimony, and fixed the laws concerning it. The Greeks give the honor of this institution to Cecrops; the Chinese to Fo Hi, their first sovereign; the Peruvians to Manco-capac; and the Jews to God Almighty Himself. Nor does it only seem that matrimony was early introduced, but that its first introduction among most nations, was that of one woman only being destined to one man. Dr. W. ALEXANDER's Hist. of Women, vol. ii. p. 190.

See No, 161.

4741.

Genuine conjugial love cannot possibly exist but between two; that is, in the marriage of one man - and of one wife. In no wise can it be between more than two at one time. The reason is, that conjugial love is mutual and reciprocal; and the life of one conjugial partner is in that of the other reciprocally, so that they can be as it were vitally one. Such union may exist between two, but not between more a plurality of wives, or husbands, would rend it asunder.

SWEDENBORG, Arcana, n. 2740.