rock, for having (as they said) aimed at tyranny. Further, the heads, hands, and feet of state criminals, were also frequently cut off, and fixed up in the most public places, as a warning to others. This punishment obtains among the Turks, and was inflicted on the sons of Rimmon (who had treacherously murdered Ishbosheth), by command of David: who commanded that the assassins' hands and feet should be hung up over the pool of Hebron, which was probably a place of great resort. Among the ancient Chaldæans, cutting off the nose and ears was a common punishment of adulterers. To this the prophet Ezekiel alludes. (xxiii. 25.) happy instances of this. They crucified Bomilcar, whom Justin calls their king, when they detected his intended design of joining Agathocles. They erected a cross in the midst of the forum, on which they suspended him, and from which, with a great and unconquered spirit, amidst all his sufferings, he bitterly inveighed against them, and upbraided them with all the black and atrocious crimes they had lately perpetrated. But this manner of executing criminals prevailed most among the Romans. It was generally a servile punishment, and chiefly inflicted on vile, worthless, and incorrigible slaves. In reference to this, the apostle, describ most opprobrious death, represents him as taking upon him the form of a servant (Phil. ii. 7, 8.), and becoming obedient to death, even the death of the cross. 11. CRUCIFIXION was a punishment which the ancientsing the condescension of Jesus, and his submission to this inflicted only on the most notorious criminals and malefactors. The cross was made of two beams, either crossing at the top at right angles, or in the middle of their length like an X. There was, besides, a piece on the centre of the transverse beam, to which was attached the accusation, or statement of the culprit's crime; together with a piece of wood that projected from the middle, on which the person sat as on a kind of saddle, and by which the whole body was supported. Justin Martyr, in his dialogue with Trypho the Jew, gives this description; and it is worthy of note, that he lived in the former part of the second century of the Christian era, before the punishment of the cross was abolished. The cross on which our Lord suffered was of the former kind, being thus represented on all ancient monuments, coins, and crosses. (2.) "It was universally and deservedly reputed the most shameful and ignominious death to which a wretch could be exposed. In such an exit were comprised every idea and circumstance of odium, disgrace, and public scandal." Hence the apostle magnifies and extols the great love of our Redeemer, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us, and for the joy set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame (Rom. v. 8. Heb. xii. 2.); disregarding every cir cumstance of public indignity and infamy with which such a death was loaded. "It was from the idea they connected with such a death, that the Greeks treated the apostles with the last contempt and pity for publicly embarking in the Crucifixion is one of the most cruel and excruciating cause of a person who had been brought to this reproachful deaths, which the art of ingeniously tormenting and extin- and dishonourable death by his own countrymen. The guishing life ever devised. The naked body of the criminal preaching of the cross was to them foolishness (1 Cor. i. 23.) ; was fastened to the upright beam by nailing or tying the feet the promulgation of a system of religion that had been taught to it, and on the transverse beam by nailing and sometimes by a person who, by a national act, had publicly suffered the tying the hands to it. Those members, being the grand in- punishment and death of the most useless and abandoned struments of motion, are provided with a greater quantity of slave, was, in their ideas, the last infatuation; and the preachnerves, which (especially those of the hands) are peculiarly ing of Christ crucified, publishing in the world a religion sensible. As the nerves are the instruments of all sensation whose founder suffered on a cross, appeared the last absuror feeling, wounds in the parts where they abound must be dity and madness.10 The heathens looked upon the attachpeculiarly painful; especially when inflicted with such rude ment of the primitive Christians to a religion, whose pubinstruments as large nails, forcibly driven through the ex-lisher had come to such an end, as an undoubted proof of quisitely delicate tendons, nerves, and bones of those parts. their utter ruin, that they were destroying their interest, comThe horror of this punishment will appear, when it is con- fort, and happiness, by adopting such a system founded on sidered that the person was permitted to hang (the whole such a dishonourable circumstance. The same inherent weight of his body being borne up by his nailed hands and scandal and ignominy had crucifixion in the estimation of the fert, and by the projecting piece in the middle of the cross), Jews. They indeed annexed more complicated wretcheduntil he perished through agony and want of food. There ness to it, for they esteemed the miscreant who was adjudged are instances of crucified persons living in this exquisite to such an end not only to be abandoned of men, but forsaken torture several days.3 The wise and adorable Author of of God. He that is hanged, says the law, is accursed of our being has formed and constituted the fabric of our bodies God. (Deut. xxi. 23.)- Hence St. Paul, representing to the in such a merciful manner, that nothing violent is lasting. Galatians the grace of Jesus, who released us from that Friendly death sealed the eyes of those wretches generally in curse to which the law of Moses devoted us, by being three days. Hunger, thirst, and acute pain dismissed them made a curse for us, by submitting to be treated for our sakes from their intolerable sufferings. The rites of sepulture as an execrable malefactor, to show the horror of such a death were denied them. Their dead bodies were generally left as Christ voluntarily endured, adds, It is written in the law, on the crosses on which they were first suspended, and be- Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree! (Gal. iii. 13.) came a prey to every ravenous beast and carnivorous bird.4 And from this express declaration of the law of Moses con(1.) Crucifixion obtained among several ancient nations, cerning persons thus executed, we may account for that averthe Egyptians, Persians, Greeks, and Carthaginians. The sion the Jews discovered against Christianity, and perceive Carthaginians generally adjudged to this death their unfortu- the reason of what St. Paul asserts, that their preaching of nate and unsuccessful commanders. There are many un- Christ crucified was to the Jews a stumbling-block. (1 Cor. i. 23.) The circumstance of the cross caused them to stumble at the very gate of Christianity.2 66 Dionys. Halicarnass, lib. viii. cc. 78, 79 Harmer's Observations, vol. i. pp. 501, 502. This kind of punishment was in use in the time of Mohammed, who introduces Pharaoh as saying, I will surely cut off your hands and your feet on the opposite sides; that is first the right hand, and then the left foot; next the left hand, and then the right foot. Koran, ch. xx. 74. and xxvi. 49. (Sale's translation, pp. 259. 34, 4to. edit.) See additional examples of such mutilations in Burder's Oriental Literature, vol. ii. p. 186. Wilson's Travels in Egypt and the Holy Land, pp. 375–377. Dr. Adam Clarke on Matt. xxvii. 35. For the remainder of this account of the crucifixion the author is indebted to Dr. Lardner's Credibility of the Gospel History, part i. book i. c. 7. §§ ix-xvii., and Dr. Harwood's Introduction to the New Testament, vol. ii. pp. 336-353. • Pasces in cruce corvos. Horat. Epist. lib. i. epist. 16. ver. 48. Vultur, jumento et canibus, crucibusque relictis Ad fetus properat, partemque cadaveris affert. Juvenal, Satyr. 14. ver. 77, 78. Thucydides, lib. i. sect. 110. p. 71. edit. Duker. Justin, treating of the ars of Egypt, says: Concursu multitudinis et Agathocles occiditur, et uberes in ultionem Eurydices patibulis suffiguntur. Justin, lib. xxx. cap. 2 p. 578 edit. Gronovii. Herodoti Erato. p. 541. edit. Wesseling. 1763. See abi Thalia, p. 260. and Polyhyinnia, p. 617. Alexander crucified two thousand Tyrians. Triste deinde spectacu victoribus ira præbuit regis; duo millia, in quibus occidendi defecerat Tabes, crucibus adfixi per ingens litoris spatium, dependerunt. Q. Curtii, Ev. cap. 4. p. 197. edit. Snakenburgh, 1724. See also Plutarch in vita Alex and Justin, lib. xviii. cap. 3. Duces bella pravo consilio gerentes, etiamsi prospera fortuna subsecuta esset, crucí tamen suffigebantur. Valerius Maximus, lib. ii. cap. 7. 19. edit. Torren. Leidæ, 1726. Bomilcar rex Panorum in medio foro a Penis patibulo suffixus est De summa cruce, veluti de tribunali, Penorum scelera concionaretur. Justin, lib. xxii. cap. 7. p. 505. ed. Gronovii. 9 Fone crucem servo. Juvenal, Sat. 6. ver. 218. 10 "From this circumstance," says Justin Martyr, "the heathens are fully convinced of our madness for giving the second place after the immutable and eternal God, and Father of all, to a person who was crucified!" Justin Martyr, Apol. 2. pp. 60, 61. edit. Paris, 1636. Et qui hominem summo supplicio pro facinore punitum, et crucis ligna feralia ceremonias fabulatur, congruentia perditis sceleratisque tribuit altaria: ut id colant quod merentur. Minucius Felix, p. 57. edit. Davis. Cantab. 1712. Nam quod religioni nostræ hominem noxium et crucem ejus adscribitis, longe de vicinia veritatis erratis. Min. Felix, p. 147. 11 That this was the sentiment of the heathens concerning the Christians, St. Paul inforins us, and he exhorts the Philippians not to be discouraged by it. Philip. i. 28. Not intimidated in any thing by your adversaries; for though they looked upon your attachment to the gospel as an undoubted proof of your utter ruin, yet to you it is a demonstration of your salvation -a salvation which hath God for its author. 12 Trypho the Jew every where affects to treat the Christian religion with contempt, on account of the crucifixion of its author. He ridicules its professors for centering all their hopes in a man who was crucified! Dialog, cum Tryphone, p. 33. The person whom you call your Messiah, says he, incurred the last disgrace and ignominy, for he fell under the greatest curse in the law of God, he was crucified! p. 90. Again, we must hesitate, says Trypho, with regard to our believing a person, who was so ignominously crucified, being the Messiah; for it is written in the (3.) The several circumstances related by the four evan-show: Agrippa being a Syrian, and king of a large country gelists as accompanying the crucifixion of Jesus were con- in Syria.' formable to the Roman custom in such executions; and, When Pilate had pronounced the sentence of condemnafrequently occurring in ancient authors, do not only reflect tion on our Lord, and publicly adjudged him to be crucified, beauty and lustre upon these passages, but happily corrobo- he gave orders that he should be scourged. Then Pilate took rate and confirm the narrative of the sacred penmen." We Jesus and scourged him. And when he had scourged Jesus, says will exhibit before our readers a detail of these as they are another of the evangelists, he delivered him to be crucified. specified by the evangelists. Among the Romans, scourging was always inflicted previEvery mark of infamy that malice could suggest was ac-ously to crucifixion. Many examples might be produced of cumulated on the head of our Redeemer. While he was in this custom. Let the following suffice. Livy, speaking of the high-priest's house, they did spit in his face and buffeted the fate of those slaves who had confederated and taken up him, and others smote him with the palms of their hands, say-arms against the state, says, that many of them were slain, ing, Prophecy unto us, thou Christ, who is he that smote thee? many taken prisoners, and others, after they had been whip(Matt. xxvi. 67, 68. Mark xiv. 65.) Pilate, hearing that ped or scourged, were suspended on crosses. Philo, relating our Lord was of Galilee, sent him to Herod; and before he the cruelties which Flaccus the Roman prefect exercised upon was dismissed by him, Herod, with his men of war, set him at the Jews of Alexandria, says, that after they were mangled nought; and mocked him, and arrayed him in a gorgeous robe. and torn with scourges in the theatres, they were fastened (Luke xxiii. 11.) He was insulted and mocked by the sol- to crosses. Josephus also informs us, that at the siege of diers, when Pilate ordered him to be scourged the first time; Jerusalem great numbers of the Jews were crucified, after that by that lesser punishment he might satisfy the Jews and they had been previously whipped, and had suffered every save his life, as is related by St. John. After Pilate had wanton cruelty. condemned him to be crucified, the like indignities were re- "After they had inflicted this customary flagellation, the peated by the soldiers, as we are assured by two evangelists. evangelist informs us that they obliged our Lord to carry to (Matt. xxvii. 27-31. Mark xv. 16-20.) And they stripped the place of execution the cross, or, at least, the transverse him, and put on him a scarlet robe, and when they had platted beam of it, on which he was to be suspended. Lacerated, a crown of thorns, they put it on his head, and a reed in his therefore, with the stripes and bruises he had received, faint right hand and they bowed the knee before him, and mocked with the loss of blood, his spirits exhausted by the cruel inhim, saying, Hail! king of the Jews. And they spit upon sults and blows that were given him when they invested him, and took the reed, and smote him on the head. him with robes of mock royalty, and oppressed with the inThese are tokens of contempt and ridicule which were in cumbent weight of his cross; in these circumstances our use at that time. Dio, among the other indignities offered Saviour was urged along the road. We doubt not but in to Sejanus the favourite of Tiberius (in whose reign our this passage to Calvary every indignity was offered him. Saviour was crucified), as they were carrying him from the This was usual. Our Lord, fatigued and spent with the senate-house to prison, particularly mentioned this,-"That treatment he had received, could not support his cross. The they struck him on the head." But there is one instance of soldiers, therefore, who attended him, compelled one Simon, ridicule which happened so soon after this time, and has so a Cyrenean, who was coming from the country to Jerusa great a resemblance to that to which our Saviour was ex-lem, and then happened to be passing by them, to carry it for posed, that it deserves to be stated at length. Caligula, the him. The circumstance here mentioned of our Lord bearing successor of Tiberius, had, in the very beginning of his reign, his cross was agreeable to the Roman custom. Slaves and given Agrippa the tetrarchy of his uncle Philip, being about malefactors, who were condemned to this death, were com the fourth part of his grandfather Herod's dominions, with pelled to carry the whole or part of the fatal gibbet on which the right of wearing a diadem or crown. When he was they were destined to die. This constituted a principal part setting out from Rome to make a visit to his people, the em- of the shame and ignominy of such a death. Cross-bearer peror advised him to go by Alexandria as the best way. was a term of the last reproach among the Romans. The When he came thither he kept himself very private: but the miserable wretch, covered with blood, from the scourges that Alexandrians having got intelligence of his arrival there, and had been inflicted upon him, and groaning under the weight of of the design of his journey, were filled with envy, as Philo his cross, was, all along the road to the place of execution, says, at the thoughts of a Jew having the title of king. loaded with every wanton cruelty. So extreme were the They had recourse to various expedients, in order to mani- misery and sufferings of the hapless criminals who were fest their indignation: one was the following:-"There condemned to this punishment, that Plutarch makes use of it was," says Philo,2 "one Carabas, a sort of distracted fellow, as an illustration of the misery of sin, that every kind of that in all seasons of the year went naked about the streets. wickedness produces its own particular torment; just as He was somewhat between a madman and a fool, the com- every malefactor, when he is brought forth to execution, carmon jest of boys and other idle people. This wretch they ries his own cross. He was pushed, thrown down, stime brought into the theatre, and placed him on a lofty seat, that lated with goads, and impelled forward by every act of inso he might be conspicuous to all; then they put a thing made lence and inhumanity that could be inflicted. There is of paper on his head for a crown, the rest of his body they great reason to think that our blessed Redeemer in his way covered with a mat instead of a robe, and for a sceptre one to Calvary experienced every abuse of this nature, especially put into his hand a little piece of reed which he had just when he proceeded slowly along, through languor, lassitude, taken up from the ground. Having thus given him a mimic and faintness, and the soldiers and rabble found his strength royal dress, several young fellows with poles on their shoul- incapable of sustaining and dragging his cross any farther. ders came and stood on each side of him as his guards. Then On this occasion we imagine that our Lord suffered very there came people toward him, some to pay their homage to cruel treatment from those who attended him. Might not the him, others to ask justice of him, and some to know his will scourging that was inflicted, the blows he had received from and pleasure concerning affairs of state: and in the crowd the soldiers when in derision they paid him homage, and the were loud and confused acclamations of Maris, Maris; that abuse he suffered on his way to Calvary, greatly contribute being, as they say, the Syriac word for Lord, thereby inti- to accelerate his death, and occasion that speedy dissolution mating whom they intended to ridicule by all this mock at which one of the evangelists tells us Pilate marvelled? law, Cursed is every one who is hanged on a cross. Justin Martyr, Dialog. cum Tryphone, p. 271. edit. Jebb. London, 1719. See also pages 272. 283. 378. 392. See also Eusebii Hist. Eccl. pp. 171. 744. Cantab." 1 Various opinions have been offered concerning the species of thorn, intended by the sacred writers. Bartholin wrote an elaborate dissertation De Spinea Corona, and Lydius has collected the opinions of several writers in his Florun Sparsio ad Historiam Passionis Jesu Christi. (Analect. pp. 13-17.) The intelligent traveller Hasselquist says, that the naba or nabka of the Arabians "is in all probability the tree which afforded the crown of thorns put on the head of Christ: it grows very commonly in the East. This plant was very fit for the purpose; for it has many SMALL AND SHARP SPINES which are well adapted to give pain. The crown might easily be made of these soft, round, and pliant branches; and what in my opinion seems to be the greatest proof is, that the leaves very much resemble those of ivy, as they are of a very deep green. Perhaps the enemies of Christ would have a plant somewhat resembling that with which emperors and generals were used to be crowned, that there might be calumny even in the punishment." Hasselquist's Voyages and Travels in the Levant, pp. 288, 289. In Flacc. p. 970 "When the malefactor had carried his cross to the place s Multi occisi, multi capti, alii verberati crucibus affixi. Livii, lib. xxxiii. 36. Josephus de Bello Jud. lib. v. c. 2. p. 353. Havercamp. Bell. Judiac. lib. ii. cap. 14. $9. p. 182. Haverc. Vid. Justi Lipsii de Cruce, lib. ii. cap.6. p. 1180. Vesaliæ. O carnificium cribrum, quod credo fore: Plautus Mostel. Act. i. sc. 1. ver. 53. edit. var. 1684. ant per lusum. Lipsius de Cruce, tom. vi. p. 1180. Vesalia. whom Petronius Arbiter mentions, were crucified by order of execution, a hole was dug in the earth, in which it was See Dr. Benson's Life of Christ, p. 508. 1M net nos quoque non parum evangelista, qui quatuor numerat milites digentes, scilicet juxta quatuor membra figenda. Quod clarum etiam ex tunicae partitione, quæ quatuor militibus facienda erat. Cornelii Ce de Clavis Dominicis, p. 35. edit. Antwerpiæ, 1670. The four soldiers eparted his garments, and cast lots for his vesture, were the four who ed him to the cross, each of them fixing a limb, and who, it seems, for service had a right to the crucified person's clothes. Dr. Macknight, second edition, 4to. Credo ego istoc examplo tibi esse eundum actutum extra portam, dismanibus patibulum quem habebis. Plautus in Mil. Glor, act. ii. The last circumstance to be mentioned relative to the crucifixion of our Saviour, is the petition of the Jews to Pilate, that the death of the sufferers might be accelerated, with a view to the interment of Jesus. All the four evange lists have particularly mentioned this circumstance. Joseph of Arimathea went to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus; then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered. And when Joseph had taken the body, he laid it in his own new tomb. (Matt. xxvii. 58-60. Mark xv. 45, 46. Luke xxiii. 50-53. John xix. 38-40.) And it may be fairly concluded, the rulers of the Jews did not disapprove of it: since they were solicitous that the bodies might be taken down, and not hang on the cross the next day. (John xix. 31.) The Jews therefore, says St. John, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain on the cross on the Sabbath-day (for Quum interim imperator provinciæ latrones jussit crucibus adfigi, se. cundum illam eandem casulam, in qua recens cadaver matrona deflebat Satyr. c. 71. • Quid enim attinuit, cum Mamertini more atque instituto suo crucem fixisset post urbem in via Pompeia; te jubere in ea parte figere, quæ ad fretum spectaret? In Verr. lib. v. c. 66. n. 169. 7 Dion Cassius, lib. liv. p. 732. edit. Reimar, 1750. See also Suetonius in Caligula, c. 32. Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. lib. v. p. 206. Cantab. 1720, Josephus, de Bell. Jud. lib. vi. c. 2. § 4. • See instances in Suetonius, in Caligula, c. 34.; and in Domitian, c. 10. 10"It is with much propriety that Matthew calls this air accusation: for it was false, that ever Christ pretended to be king of the Jews, in the sense the inscription held forth: he was accused of this, but there was no proof of the accusation; however, it was affixed to the cross." Dr. A. Clarke on Matt. xxvii. 37. 1 Miles cruces asservabat, ne quis corpora ad sepulturam detraheret. Petronius, Arbiter, cap. 111. p. 513. edit. Burman. Traject. ad Rhen. 1709. Vid. not. ad loc. 12 The Roman soldiers, says Dr. Huxham, drank posca (viz. water and vinegar) for their common drink, and found it very healthy and useful. Dr. Huxham's Method for preserving the Health of Seamen, in his Essay on Fevers, p. 263. 3d edition. See also Lamy's Apparatus Biblicus, vol. ii. p. 278. See also Macknight in loc. that Sabbath-day was an high day), besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. Burial was not always allowed by the Romans in these cases. For we find that sometimes a soldier was appointed to guard the bodies of malefactors, that they might not be taken away and buried.' However it seems that it was not often refused unless the criminals were very mean and infamous. Cicero reckons it one of the horrid crimes of Verres's administration in Sicily, that he would take money of parents for the burial of their children whom he had put to death. Both Suetonius3 and Tacitus represent it as one of the uncommon cruelties of Tiberius, in the latter part of his reign, that he generally denied burial to those who were put to death by his orders at Rome. Ulpian, in his treatise of the duty of a proconsul, says, "The bodies of those who are condemned to death are not to be denied to their relations :" and Augustus writes, in the tenth book of his own life," that he had been wont to observe this custom;" that is, to grant the bodies to relations. Paulus says, "that the bodies of those who have been punished [with death] are to be given to any that desire them in order to burial." It is evident, therefore, from these two lawyers, that the governors of provinces had a right to grant burial to the bodies of those who had been executed by their order: nay, they seem to intimate that it ought not usually to be denied when requested by any. Hence it appears, that burial was ordinarily allowed to persons who were put to death in Judæa: and the subsequent conduct of Pilate shows that it was seldom denied by the Roman governors in that country. There is, moreover, an express command in the law (of which we know that the latter Jews were religiously observant), that the bodies of those who were hanged should not be suffered to remain all night upon the tree. (Deut. xxi. 23.)7 "On this account it was, that, after the crucifixion, a number of leading men among the Jews waited on Pilate in a body, to desire that he would hasten the death of the malefactors hanging on their crosses. (John xix. 31.) Pilate, therefore, despatched his orders to the soldiers on duty, who broke the legs of the two criminals who were crucified along with Christ; but when they came to Jesus, finding he had already breathed his last, they thought this violence and trouble unnecessary; but one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, whose point appears to have penetrated into the pericardium, or membrane surrounding the heart; for St. John, who says he was an eye-witness of this, declares that there issued from the wound a mixture of blood and water. This wound, had he not been dead, must necessarily have been fatal. This circumstance St. John saw, and has solemnly recorded and attested.” CHAPTER IV. ON THE JEWISH AND ROMAN MODES OF COMPUTING TIME, MENTIONED IN THE SCRIPTURES. L. Days.-II. Hours.-Watches of the Night.-I. Weeks.-IV. Months.-V. Years, civil, ecclesiastical, and naturalJewish Calendar.—VI. Parts of the Time taken for the Whole.-VII. Remarkable Eras of the Jews. It is well known that, in the perusal of ancient authors, we are liable to fall into many serious mistakes, if we consider their modes of computing time to be precisely the same as ours and hence it becomes necessary that we observe their different notations of time, and carefully adjust them to our own. This remark is particularly applicable to the sacred writers, whom sceptics and infidels have charged with various contradictions and inconsistencies, which fall to the ground as soon as the various computations of time are considered and adapted to our own standard. The knowledge of the different divisions of time mentioned in the Scriptures will elucidate the meaning of a multitude of passages with regard to seasons, circumstances, and ceremonies. I. The Hebrews computed their DAYS from evening to evening, according to the command of Moses. (Lev. xxiii. 32.) It is remarkable that the evening or natural night precedes the morning or natural day in the account of the creation (Gen. i. 5, &c.): whence the prophet Daniel employs the compound term evening-morning (Dan. viii. 14. marginal reading) to denote a civil day in his celebrated chronological prophecy of the 2300 days; and the same portion of time is termed in Greek νυχθημεριν. The Romans had two different computations of their days, 1 See the passage cited from Petronius Arbiter, in note 11, p. 71. Rapiunt eum ad supplicium dii patrii: quod iste inventus est, qui e complexu parentum abreptos filios ad necem duceret, et parentes pretium pro sepultura posceret. In Ver. lib. i. cap. 3. 3 Nemo punitoruin non et in Gemonias adjectus uncoque tractus. Vit. Tiber. c. 61. 6. c. 29. Et quia damnati, publicatis bonis, sepulturà prohibebantur. Ann. lib. • Corpora eorum qui capite damnantur cognatis ipsorum neganda non sunt: et id se observasse etiam D. Aug. lib. x. de vita sua, scribit. Hodie autem eorum, in quos animadvertitur, corpora non aliter sepeliuntur, quam si fuerit petitum et permissum; et nonnunquain non permittitur, maxime majestatis causâ damnatorum. 1. i. ff. de cadaver. Punit. Corpora animadversorum quibuslibet petentibus ad sepulturam danda sunt. 1. iii. eod. See an instance, incidentally mentioned by Josephus. De Bell. Jud. lib. iv. c. 5. §2. And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true; and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe. John xix. 35. Tacitus, speaking of the ancient Germans, takes notice that their account of time differs from that of the Romans; and that instead of days they reckoned the number of nights. De Mor. Germ. c. 11. So also did the ancient Gauls (Cæsar de Bell. Gall. lib. vi. c. 17.); and vestiges of this ancient practice still remain in our own country. We say last Sunday se'n night or this day fortnight. The practice of computing time by nights, instead of days, obtains among the Mashoos, an inland nation, dwelling in the interior of South Africa. Travels by the Rev. John Campbell, vol. i. p. 182 (London, 1822. 8vo.) and two denominations for them. The one they called the civil, the other the natural day; the civil day was from midnight to midnight; and the natural day was from the rising to the setting sun.10 The natural day of the Jews varied in length according to the seasons of the year: the longest day in the Holy Land is only fourteen hours and twelve minutes of our time; and the shortest day, nine hours and forty-eight minutes. This portion of time was at first divided into four parts (Neh. ix. 3.); which, though varying in length according to the seasons, could nevertheless be easily discerned from the position or appearance of the sun in the horizon. Afterwards the natural day was divided into twelve hours, which were measured from dials constructed for that purpose. Among these contrivances for the measurement of time, the sun-dial of Ahaz is particularly mentioned in 2 Kings XX. 11. Jahn thinks it probable that Ahaz first introduced it from Babylon.12 II. The earliest mention of HOURS in the Sacred Writings occurs in the prophecy of Daniel (iii. 6. 15. v. 5.); and as the Chaldæans, according to Herodotus,13 were the inventors of this division of time, it is probable that the Jews derived their hours from them. It is evident that the division of hours was unknown in the time of Moses (compare Gen. xv. 12. xviii. 1. xix. 1. 15. 23.); nor is any notice taken of them by the most ancient of the profane poets, who mentions only the morning or evening or mid-day.14 With Homer corres ponded the notations of time referred to by the royal Psalmist, who mentions them as the times of prayer. (Psal. Iv. 17.) The Jews computed their hours of the civil day from six in the morning till six in the evening: thus their first hour cor responded with our seven o'clock; their second to our eight; their third to our nine, &c. The knowledge of this circumstance will illustrate several passages of Scripture, particularly Matt. xx., where the third, 10 Pliny, Hist. Nat. lib. ii. c. 77.; Censorinus de Die Natali, c. 23. ; Macro bius Saturnal. lib. iii. c. 3. See also Dr. Ward's Dissertations on several passages of Scripture, p. 126.; and Dr. Macknight's Harmony, vol. i. Prelim. Obs. v. Adam's Roman Antiquities, p. 305. 11 Few topics have caused more discussion among biblical commentators than the sun-dial of Ahaz. As the original word signifies, properly, steps or stairs, many have imagined that it was a kind of ascent to the gate of the palace, marked at proper distances with figures showing the division of the day, rather than a regular piece of dial-work. On this subject the reader will find some very ingenious and probable illustrations, together with a diagram, in Dr. A. Clarke's Commentary, on 2 Kings xx. 12 Jahn, Archæol. Hebr. § 101. 13 Lib. ii. c. 109. - Ήως, η δειλή, η μισον ήμαρ. - Hom. h. lib. xxi. 3. 14 sixth, ninth, and eleventh hours (ver. 3. 5. 6. 9.) respectively our passover," the antitype of the paschal lamb, "expired at the ninth hour, and was taken down from the cross at the eleventh hour, or sunset."8 III. Seven nights and days constituted a WEEK; six of these were appropriated to labour and the ordinary purposes of life, and the seventh day or Sabbath was appointed by God to be observed as a day of rest, because that on it he had restea from all his work which God had created and made. (Gen. ii. 3.) This division of time was universally observed by the descendants of Noah; and some eminent critics have conjectured that it was lost during the bondage of the Israelites in Egypt, but was revived and enacted by Moses agreeably to the divine command. This conjecture derives some weight from the word Sabbat or Sabbata, denoting a week among the Syrians, Arabians, Christian Persians, and Ethiopians, as in the following ancient Syriac Calendar, expressed in Hebrew characters:9 ...One of the Sabbath, or Week...Sunday. ... Two of the Sabbath.. ..Monday. naw-nn... Three of the Sabbath. .Tuesday. NN... Four of the Sabbath.. Nav-NYON... Five of the Sabbath.. ער־שנתא Eve of the Sabbath.... nav. The Sabbath... Wednesday. .Thursday. .Friday. .Saturday. During the time of our Saviour, the night was divided into four watches, a fourth watch having been introduced among The high antiquity of this calendar is evinced by the use the Jews from the Romans, who derived it from the Greeks. of the cardinal numbers, one, two, three, &c. instead of the The second and third watches are mentioned in Luke xii. 38.; ordinals, first, second, third, &c. following the Hebrew idiom; the fourth in Matt. xiv. 25.; and the four are all distinctly as in the account of the creation, where we read in the origi mentioned in Mark xiii. 35. Watch, therefore, for ye know nal," one day-two day-three day," &c.; where the Sepnot when the master of the house cometh; at EVEN (4, or the tuagint retains it in the first, calling it up. It is relate watch), or at MIDNIGHT (TIC), or at the COCK-CROW-markable that all the evangelists follow the Syriac calendar, ING (ZATeppanas), or in the MORNING (T, the early watch). both in the word ou6bara, used for "a week," and also in reHere, the first watch was at even, and continued from six till taining the cardinal number μz σ2662τav, “one of the week," nine; the second commenced at nine and ended at twelve, or to express the day of the resurrection. (Matt. xxviii. 1. Mark midnight; the third watch, called by the Romans gallicinium, xvi. 2. Luke xxiv. 1. John xx. 1.) Afterwards Mark adopts lasted from twelve to three; and the morning watch closed at the usual phrase, porn σ166178, "the first of the week" (Mark six. A double cock-crowing, indeed, is noticed by St. Mark xvi. 9.), where he uses the singular 26627 for a week; and (xiv. 30.), where the other evangelists mention only one. so does Luke, as NOT is тe σabbaтe, " I fast twice in the (Matt. xxvi. 34. Luke xxii. 34. John xiii. 38.) But this week." (Luke xviii. 12.) may be easily reconciled. The Jewish doctors divided the cock-crowing into the first, second, and third; the heathen nations in general observed only two. As the cock crew the second time after Peter's third denial, it was this second or principal cock-crowing (for the Jews seem in many respects to have accommodated themselves to the Roman computation of time) to which the evangelists Matthew, Luke, and John refer. Or, perhaps, the second cock-crowing of the Jews might coincide with the second of the Romans.5 It may be proper to remark that the word hour is frequently used with great latitude in the Scriptures, and sometimes implies the space of time occupied by a whole watch. (Matt. XXV. 13. xxvi. 40. Mark xiv. 37. Luke xxii. 59. Rev. iii. 3.) Perhaps the third hour mentioned in Acts xxiii. 23. was a military watch of the night." The Jews reckoned two evenings: the former began at the ninth hour of the natural day, or three o'clock in the afternoon; and the latter at the eleventh hour. Thus the paschal lamb was required to be sacrificed between the evenings (Exod. xii. 6. Lev. xxiii. 4.); which Josephus tells us, the Jews in his time did, from the ninth hour until the eleventh. Hence the law, requiring the paschal lamb to be sacrificed "at even, at the going down of the sun" (Deut. xvi. 6.), expressed both evenings. It is truly remarkable, that "Christ During the siege of Jerusalem, the Jewish historian relates that the priests were not interrupted in the discharge of their sacred functions, but ecntinued twice a day, in the morning, and at the ninth hour (or at three clock in the afternoon), to offer up sacrifices at the altar. The Jews rarely, if ever, ate or drank till after the hour of prayer (Acts x. 30.), and Sabbath-days not till the sixth hour (twelve at noon, Josephus, de vita a): which circumstance well explains the apostle Peter's defence of those on whom the Holy Spirit had miraculously descended on the day of Pentecost. (Acts ii. 15.) Dr. A. Clarke on Exod. xiv. 11. Thus the 134th psalin gives an instance of the temple watch: the whole s' is nothing more than the alternate cry of two different divisions of the watch. The first watch addresses the second (ver. 1, 2.) reminding Car of their duty; and the second answers (ver. 3.) by a solemn blessing. The address and the answer seem both to be a set form, which each indial proclaimed or sung aloud, at stated intervals, to notify the time of the night. Bishop Lowth's Isaiah, vol. ii. p. 357. See Homer, Iliad, lib. x. v. 252, 253. Livy, lib. vii. c. 35. and Zenophon, Asab lib. iv. p. 250. (edit. Hutchinson.) Lightfoot, Hor. Heb. on John xiii. 38. (Works, vol. ii. p. 597.) Grotius and Whitby on Matt. xxvi. 34. Dr. Hales's Analysis of Chronology, vol. 112 By which writers various passages of classical authors are cited. See also Mr. Townsend's Harmony of the New Testament, vol. i. pp. Fragments annexed to Calmet's Dictionary, No. cclxiii. P. 164. VOL. II. K 66 The Syriac name for Friday, or the sixth day of the week, is also adopted by Mark, who renders it pra66arov, “sabbatheve" (xv. 42.), corresponding to panan," preparation-day. (Matt. xxvii. 62. Mark xv. 42. Luke xxiii. 54. John xix. 31.) And Josephus also conforms to this usage, except that he uses a66ara in the singular sense, for the Sabbath-day, in his account of a decree of Augustus, exempting the Jews of Asia and Cyrene from secular services, σ66201, ταυτης παρασκευή, από της ώρας εννάτης. "On the Sabbath-day, or on the preparation-day before it, from the ninth hour."10 The first three evangelists also use the plural a66ara, to denote the Sabbath-day. (Matt. xii. 5-11. Mark i. 21. and ii. 23. Luke iv. 16, &c.) Whereas John, to avoid ambiguity, appropriates the singular are to the Sabbath-day, and the plural acara to the week. (John v. 9-16. vii. 22, &c. xx. 1.) The second Sabbath after the first (Luke vi. 1.), dareр:& pater, or rather the second prime Sabbath, concerning which comthe first Sabbath after the second day of unleavened bread or mentators have been so greatly divided, appears to have been of the passover week. Besides weeks of days, the Jews had weeks of seven years (the seventh of which was called the sabbatical year); and weeks of seven times seven years, or or of forty-nine years, which were reckoned from one jubilee to another. The fiftieth or jubilee year was celebrated with singular festivity and solemnity." IV. The Hebrews had their MONTHS, which, like those of all other ancient nations, were lunar ones, being measured by the revolutions of the moon, and consisting alternately of twenty-nine and thirty days. While the Jews continued in the land of Canaan, the commencement of their months and years was not settled by any astronomical rules or calculations, but by the phasis or actual appearance of the moon. As soon as they saw the moon, they began the month. Persons were therefore appointed to watch on the tops of the mountains for the first appearance of the moon after the change: as soon as they saw it, they informed the Sanhedrin, and public notice was given, first, by the sounding of trumpets, to which there is an allusion in Psal. lxxxi. 3.; and after • Dr. Hales's Analysis of Chronology, vol. i. p. 114. In the two following pages, he illustrates several apparently chronological contradictions between the evangelists with equal felicity and learning. • This calendar is taken from Bp. Marsh's Translation of Michaelis's Introduction to the New Testament, vol. i, p. 136. 10 Antiq. lib. xvi. c. 6. § 2. 11 Dr. Hales's Analysis of Chronology, vol. i. p. 120. |