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BY THE WORD OF THE LORD WERE THE HEAVENS MADE; AND ALL THE HOST OF THEM BY THE BREATH OF HIS MOUTH.-Psa. xxxiii. 6.

but the doors of the outer temple had posts of olive tree, and leaves of fir, 1 Ki. vi. 31, sq. Both doors, as well that which led into the temple as that which led from the holy to the Holy of holies, had folding leaves, which, however, seem to have been usually kept open, the aperture being closed by a suspended curtain, a contrivance still seen at the church doors in Italy, where the church doors usually stand open, but the doorways can be passed only by moving aside a heavy curtain. From 2 Chr. iii. 5, it appears that the greater house was also ceiled with fir. It is stated in ver. 9, that "the weight of the nails (employed in the temple) was fifty shekels of gold." And also that Solomon "overlaid the upper chambers with gold."

The lintel and side posts of the oracle seem to have circumscribed a space which contained onefifth of the whole area of the partition; and the posts of the door of the temple one-fourth of the area of the wall in which they were placed. Thus we understand the passage, 1 Ki. vi. 31-5, which also states that the door was covered with carved work, overlaid with gold.

"Within the Holy of holies stood only the ark of the covenant; but within the holy were ten golden candlesticks, and the altar of incense.

vi. ; 2 Chr. xxxvi. 22, sq. The first colony which returned under Zerubbabel and Joshua having collected the necessary means, and having also obtained the assistance of Phoenician workmen, commenced in the second year after their return, B.C. 534, the rebuilding of the temple. The Sidonians brought rafts of cedar trees from Lebanon to Joppa. The Jews refused the co-operation of the Samaritans, who being thereby offended, induced the king Artasashta (probably Smerdis) to prohibit the building. And it was only in the second year of Darius Hystaspis, B.c. 520, that the building was resumed. It was completed in the sixth year of this king, B.C. 516.-Comp. Ezr. v., vi.; Ha. i. 15. According to Josephus (Antiq. xi. 4,7), the temple was completed in the ninth year of the reign of Darius. This second temple was erected on the site of the former, and probably after the same plan. According to the plan of Cyrus, the new temple was sixty cubits high, and sixty cubits wide. It appears from Josephus, that the height is to be understood of the porch; for we learn from the speech of Herod which he records, that the second temple was sixty cubits lower than the first, whose porch was one hundred and twenty cubits high.-Comp. Joseph. Antiq. xv. 11. 1. The old men who had seen the first temThe temple was surrounded by an inner court, ple were moved to tears on beholding the second, which in Chronicles is called the court of the priests, which appeared like nothing in comparison with the and in Jeremiah the upper court. This again was It seems, therefore, surrounded by a wall consisting of cedar beams, first, Ezr. iii. 12; Ha. ii. 3, sq. that it was not so much in dimensions that the second placed on a stone foundation, 1 Ki. vi. 36, "And he built the inner court with three rows of hewed stone, temple was inferior to the first, as in splendour, and in being deprived of the ark of the covenant. and a row of cedar beams." This enclosure, according temple of Zerubbabel had several courts (avaí) and to Josephus (Antiq. viii. 3, 9), was three cubits high. cloisters or cells (pó@upa). Josephus distinguishes Besides this inner court, there is mentioned a great an internal and external ipóv, and mentions cloisters court, 2 Chr. iv. 9: "Furthermore he made the court in the courts. This temple was connected with the of the priests, and the great court, and doors for the town by means of a bridge (Antiq. xiv. 4). During court, and overlaid the doors of them with brass." It the wars, from B.c. 175, to B.c. 163, it was pillaged and seems that this was also called the outward court.desecrated by Antiochus Epiphanes, who introduced Comp. Eze. xliv. 17. This court was also more espe- into it idolatrous rites (2 Mac. vi. 2, 5), dedicating the cially called the court of the Lord's house, Je. xix. 14; temple to Jupiter Olympius, and the temple on xxvi. 2. These courts were surrounded by spacious mount Gerizim, in allusion to the foreign origin of buildings, which, however, according to Josephus its worshippers, to Jupiter, evós. The temple be(De Bell. Jud. v. 5, 1), seem to have been partly added came so desolate that it was overgrown with vegeat a period later than that of Solomon. The third tation (1 Mac. iv. 38; 2 Mac. vi. 4). Judas Maccaentry into the house of the Lord mentioned in Je. bæus expelled the Syrians and restored the sanctuary, xxxviii. 14, does not seem to indicate that there were B.C. 165. He repaired the building, furnished new three courts, but appears to mean that the entry into utensils, and erected fortifications against future the outer court was called the first, that into the attacks (1 Mac. iv. 43-60; vi. 7; 2 Mac. i. 18; x. 3). inner court the second, and the door of the sanctuary Alexander Jannæus, about B.C. 106, separated the the third. It is likely that these courts were quadri- court of the priests from the external court by a lateral..... The inner court contained towards the wooden railing (Joseph. Antiq. xviii. 5). During the east the altar of burnt-offering, the brazen sea, and contentions among the later Maccabees, Pompey ten brazen lavers; and it seems that the sanctuary attacked the temple from the north side, caused a did not stand in the centre of the inner court, but great massacre in its courts, but abstained from more towards the west. From these descriptions we learn that the temple of Solomon was not distin- plundering the treasury, although he even entered the Holy of holies, B.C. 63 (Joseph. Antiq. xiv. 4). guished by magnitude, but by good architectural Herod the Great, with the assistance of Roman proportions, beauty of workmanship, and costliness troops, stormed the temple, B.C. 37. of materials.

There was a treasury in the temple, in which much precious metal was collected for the maintenance of public worship. The gold and silver of the temple was, however, frequently applied to political purposes, I Ki. x7. 18, sq.; 2 Ki. xii. 18; xvi. 8; xviii. 15. The treasury of the temple was repeatedly plundered by foreign invaders. For instance, by Shishak, 1 Ki. xiv. 26; by Jehoash, king of Israel, 2 Ki. xiv. 14; by Nebuchadnezzar, xxiv. 13; and lastly, again by Nebuchadnezzar, who, having removed the valuable contents, caused the temple to be burned down, xxv. 9, sq., B.C. 588. The building had stood since its completion four hundred and seventeen or four hundred and eighteen years (Josephus has four hundred and seventy, and Ruffinus three hundred and seventy years). Thus terminated what the later Jews called W, the first house. 'In many writers on the temple the biblical statements concerning the first, or Solomon's temple, are confounded not merely with the temple in the prophetic visions of Ezekiel, but also with descriptions of the temple erected by Zerubbabel, and even with the later structures of Herod.

THE SECOND TEMPLE. In the year B. c. 536, the Jews obtained permission from Cyrus to colonize their native land. Cyrus commanded also that the sacred utensils which had been pillaged from the first temple should be restored, and that for the restoration of the temple assistance should be granted, Ezr. i., VOL. II.]

The

TEMPLE OF HEROD. Herod, wishing to ingratiate himself with the church and state party, and being fond of architectural display, undertook not merely to repair the second temple, but to raise a perfectly new structure. As, however, the temple of Zerubbabel was not actually destroyed, but only removed after the preparations for the new temple were completed, there has arisen some debate whether the temple of Herod could properly be called the third temple. The reason why the temple of Zerubbabel was not at once taken down, in order to make room for the more splendid structure of Herod, is explained by Josephus as follows (Joseph. Antiq. x7. 11, 2):-The Jews were afraid that Herod would pull down the whole edifice, and not be able to carry his intentions as to its rebuilding into effect; and this danger ap peared to them to be very great, and the vastness of the undertaking to be such as could hardly be accomplished. But while they were in this disposition, the king encouraged them, and told them he would not pull down their temple till all things were gotten ready for building it up entirely. 'And as Herod promised them this beforehand, so he did not break his word with them, but got ready a thonsand waggons, that were to bring stones for this building, and chose out ten thousand of the most skilful workmen, and bought a thousand sacerdotal garments for as many of the priests, and had some of them taught the arts of stonecutters, and others of

GIVE THANKS AT THE REMEMBRANCE OF HIS HOLINESS.-Psa. xcvii. 12.

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HE GATHERETH THE WATERS OF THE SEA TOGETHER AS AN HEAP: HE LAYETH UP THE DEPTH IN STOREHOUSES.-Psa. xxxiii. 7.

carpenters, and then began to build; but this not till everything was well prepared for the work.

'The work was commenced in the eighteenth year of the reign of Herod; that is, about the year 734-.35 from the building of Rome, or about twenty or twenty-one years before the christian era. Priests and Levites finished the temple itself in one year and a half. The out-buildings and courts required eight years. However, some building operations were constantly in progress under the successors of Herod, and it is in reference to this we are informed that the temple was finished only under Albinus, the last procurator but one, not long before the commencement of the Jewish war, in which the temple was again destroyed. It is in reference also to these protracted building operations that the Jews said to Jesus, Forty and six years was this temple in building,' Jno. ii. 20.

The whole of the structures belonging to the temple were a stadium square, and consequently four stadia (or half a Roman mile) in circumference. The temple was situated on the highest point, not quite in the centre, but rather to the north-western corner of this square, and was surrounded by various courts, the innermost of which was higher than the next outward, which descended in terraces. The temple, consequently, was visible from the town, notwithstanding its various high enclosures. The outer court was called, the mountain of the house, To Epos rou Lepoù (1 Mac. xiii. 52). According to Middoth, i. 3, this mountain of the house had five gates, two towards the south, and one towards each of the other quarters. The principal gate was that towards the east; it was called the gate Susan, and a representation of the town of Susa, sculptured in A relief, was affixed to it. This had been preserved from the days of Zerubbabel, when the Jews were anxious to express by all means their loyal submission to the Persian power. Most interpreters consider it the same which in Ac. iii. 2, 10, is called An pala, the beautiful gate. It seems, however, that besides these five principal gates there were some other entrances, because Josephus speaks of four gates on the west, and several on the south. Annexed to the outer wall were halls which surrounded the temple, and were thirty cubits wide, except on the south side, where the Baodin oroá, the royal hall, seems to have been threefold, or three times wider than the other halls. The roofs of these halls were of cedar-wood, and were supported by marble columns twenty-five cubits high. The Levites resided in these halls. There was also a synagogue where the Talmudic doctors might be asked questions, and where their decisions might be heard, Lu. ii. 46. These halls seem likewise to have formed a kind of lounge for religionists; they appear to have been spacious enough to afford opportunities for religious teachers to address knots of hearers. Thus we find that Jesus had there various opportunities for addressing the people and refuting cavillers.

THE LORD BRINGETH THE COUNSEL OF THE HEATHEN TO NOUGHT: HE MAKETH THE DEVICES OF THE PEOPLE OF NONE EFFECT.-Psa. xxxiii. 10.

the court of the ,עזרת ישראל entrance to the

Here also the first Christians could daily assemble money-changers and cattle-dealers transacted a profitable business, especially during the time of passover. The priests took only shekels of full weight, that is, shekels of the sanctuary, even after the general currency had been deteriorated: hence the frequent opportunity of money-changers to accommodate for agio the worshippers, most of whom arrived from abroad unprovided with the right coin. The profaneness to which this money-changing and cattle-dealing gave rise caused the indignation of our Lord, who suddenly expelled all these sharks from their stronghold of business, Mt. xxi. 12, sq.; [Mk. xi. 15-7; Lu. xix. 45, .6;] § 83, pp. 276, ..8; Jno. ii. 13-7, § 12, p. 81.

with one accord, Ac. ii. 46. Within this outer court

'Higher up than this balustrade was a wall of the court called. This wall was from its foundation forty cubits high, but from within the court it appeared to be only twenty-five cubits high. To this higher court led a staircase and gate on the eastern side of the square. This staircase first led into the D3, 1979, γυναικωυῖτις, τὸ τῶν γυναικῶν περιτείχισμα, the court of the women, which was 135 cubits square. Again, fifteen steps higher up was the principal Israelites, i.e., the men, on the eastern side of the temple. On the other sides only five steps led up from the court of the women to that of the men. But the fifteen steps, each of which was lower than each of the five steps, seem to have terminated in the same level. Over the gates were structures more Each than forty cubits high, in which were rooms. of the gates was adorned with two columns, which were twelve cubits in circumference. In these gates were folding-doors, each of which was thirty cubits high and fifteen wide: they were plated with gold and silver. The gate towards the east, being the principal one, was of Corinthian brass, and was higher, larger, and more adorned with precious metal than the rest. Within the walls of this court were halls supported by beautiful columns. The court of the priests was separated from that of the Israelites by a low stone balustrade one cubit high. The whole space which was occupied by the court of the Israelites and that of the priests, together with the temple, was from east to west 187 cubits, and from north to south 135 cubits. Each of these courts was eleven cubits wide, in which measurement that of the halls seems not to have been included.-Comp. Middoth ii. 6. The court of the priests surrounded the whole temple. On the northern and southern sides were magazines of salt, wood, water, &c., and on the south side also was the place of meeting for the sanhedrim. Towards the east, with entrances from the court of the women, were two rooms in which the musical instruments were deposited; towards the north-west were four rooms in which the lambs for the daily sacrifices were kept, the shewbread baked, &c.-Comp. 1 Chr. ix. 31, 32. In the four corners of the court of the women were lazarettos and quarantine establishments for the reception of persons suspected of leprosy and other infectious diseases: there was also a physician appointed to treat the priests who were unwell. There were several alms-boxes within the various courts, which had the shape of trumpets, and which sometimes are called γαζοφυλάκια, or also collectively τὸ γαζοφυλάκιον. All the courts were paved with flat stones. From the various statements concerning the court of the women, it is evident that this appellation did not mean a place exclusively devoted to the women, but rather a place to which even women were admitted, together with other persons who were not allowed to advance farther. The temple itself, d vas, was fifteen steps higher than the court of the Israelites, and stood, not in the middle, but rather towards the north-western corner of the court of the priests. In the usual plans of the temple the passage in Middoth This passage clearly ii. 1, has been disregarded. states that the temple was not in the centre: "The greatest space was from the south, the next greatest from the east, the third from the north, and the least from the west. The foundations of the temple consisted of blocks of white marble, some of which were forty-five cubits long, six cubits wide, and five cubits high. The porch measured externally a hundred cubits in width; the remaining part of the building sixty or seventy cubits." Thus it appears that the porch projected on each side from fifteen to twenty cubits. The difference of measurement between Josephus and the Talmud may be accounted for by the difference of internal and external width. The projections of the porch were like shoulders wσTED Wμot. The whole building was a hundred or a hundred and ten cubits long, and a hundred cubits high. The internal measurement of the porch was fifty cubits by twenty, and ninety cubits in height. The holy was forty cubits by twenty, and sixty cubits high; the Holy of holies was twenty cubits square and sixty cubits high. According to Middoth the porch was only eleven cubits, the holy forty cubits, the Holy of holies twenty cubits, and behind this last there was a vestry of six cubits. The remaining twenty-three cubits were distributed among the diameters of the several walls, so that the whole was a hundred cubits long. In the eastern front, which THE LORD HATH MADE KNOWN HIS SALVATION:-Psa. xcviii. 2.

The surface of this outer court was paved with stones of various colours. A stone balustrade, 0, which according to some statements was three cubits high, and according to Middoth ten hands high, was several steps higher up the mountain than this outer court, and prevented the too near approach of the heathens to the next court. For this purpose there were also erected columns at certain distances within this balustrade, on which there were Greek and Latin inscriptions, interdicting all heathens, under penalty of death, to advance farther, Joseph. De Bell. Jud. vi. 2, 4; Philo, Opera, ii. 577.-Comp. Ac. xxi. 28, where Paul is accused of having brought Greeks into the temple, and thus polluting the holy place. 270]

[VOL. II.

BLESSED IS THE NATION WHOSE GOD IS THE LORD; AND THE PEOPLE WHOM HE HATH CHOSEN FOR HIS OWN INHERITANCE.-Psa. xxxiii. 12.

THERE IS NO KING SAVED BY THE MULTITUDE OF AN HOST: A MIGHTY MAN IS NOT DELIVERED BY MUCH STRENGTH.-Psa. xxxiii. 16.

was a hundred cubits square, was a proportionate | by an inspector, yakupóλak, 11, and it contained gate, seventy cubits high and twenty-five cubits wide. Above the holy and Holy of holies were upper rooms. On the summit of the temple, xarà Kopvphy, were spikes 638λot, which resembled our conductors in shape, and were intended to prevent birds from settling on the temple. Middoth, iv. 6, calls these spikes, which were one cubit long, y, scare-crows, or literally scare-ravens. It seems that the roof was flat, and surrounded by a balustrade three cubits high. On the north and south side of the temple were three stories of chambers, which were much higher than those of the Solomonic temple, but did not entirely conceal the temple itself, because it projected above them. The spaces on the north and south side of the porch contained the apparatus for slaughtering the sacrifices, and were

.the house of knives בית החילפות called

the great sums which were annually paid in by the Israelites, each of whom paid a half-shekel, and many of whom sent donations in money, and precious vessels, àva@huara. Such costly presents were especially transmitted by rich proselytes, and even sometimes by pagan princes, 2 Mac. iii. 3; Joseph. Antiq. xiv. 16, 4; xviii. 3, 5; xix. 6, 1; De Bell. Jud. ii. 17.3; v. 13, 6; c. Apion. ii. 5; Philo, Opp. ii. 59, $q.; 569. It is said especially that Ptol. Philadel phus was very liberal to the temple, in order to prove his gratitude for having been permitted to procure the Septuagint translation, Aristeas, De Translat. LXX., 109, sq. The gifts exhibited in the temple are mentioned in Lu. xxi. 5; we find even that the rents of the whole town of Ptolemais were given to the temple, 1 Mac. x. 39. There were also preserved historical curiosities, 2 Ki. xi. 10, especially the arms of celebrated heroes (Joseph. Antiq. xix. The Holy of holies was entirely empty, Exaro ovde 6, 1): this was also the case in the tabernacle. as iv aure, Joseph. De Bell. Jud. v. 5, 5; however, The temple was of so much political importance there was a stone in the place of the ark of the cove- that it had its own guards, φύλακες τοῦ ἱεροῦ, which nant, called, on which the high-priest were commanded by a σтрaτnyos. placed the censer. Before the entrance of the Holy 'Twenty men were required for opening and shutof holies was suspended a curtain, which was torn by ting the eastern gate, Joseph. De Bell. Jud. vi. 5, 3; the earthquake that followed after the crucifixion. c. Apion. ii. 9; Antiq. vi. 5, 3; xvii. 2, 2. The orpaThe rabbis talk of two curtains, between which was rnyós had his own secretary, Antiq. xx. 6, 2; 9, 3, and a space of one cubit, suspended before the Holy of had to maintain the police in the courts.-Comp. Ac. holies. The folding doors between the porch and iv. 1; v. 24. He appears to have been of sufficient the holy were twenty cubits high and ten cubits dignity to be mentioned together with the chief wide; but the entrance itself, with its mouldings, priests. It seems that his Hebrew title was was fifty-five cubits high and sixteen cubits wide. These doors stood open; there were, however, be-, the man of the mountain of the house. hind them some other doors which were shut, and before which a splendid Babylonian byssus curtain was suspended, in colours and workmanship similar to that of the Solomonic temple. The entrance to the porch was externally seventy cubits high and twenty-five cubits wide, with folding doors of forty cubits high and twenty cubits wide. These doors were usually kept open. This entrance to the porch 'During the final struggle of the Jews against the Romans, A.D. 70, the temple was the last scene of the was adorned by a colossal golden vine, 12, tug of war. The Romans rushed from the tower whose grapes were as big as men (Jani. De vite Autonia into the sacred precincts, the halls of which aurea templi Hierosolymitani, in Ugolino, tom. ix.) were set on fire by the Jews themselves. It was This vine was a symbolical representation of the "noble vine," Je. ii. 21; Eze. xix. 10; Joel i. 7, and against the will of Titus that a Roman soldier threw of the vineyard, Is. v., under which the prophets a firebrand into the northern outbuildings of the represent their nation. It is very likely that this temple, which caused the conflagration of the whole structure, although Titus himself endeavoured to vine also gave an opportunity to the parable of the extinguish the fire, Joseph. De Bell. Jud. vi. 4. vine, Jno. xv., and to the strange misconception of pagan scribblers that the Jews worshipped Bacchus.

placed.

Within the porch were a golden and a marble table, on which the priest who entered the sanctuary daily deposited the old and the new shewbread. Before the porch, towards the south, were the 7, brazier or fire-pan, and the altar for burnt-offerings; towards the north were six rows of rings attached to the pavement, to which the sacrifices to be killed were fastened; also eight low columns overlaid with cedar beams, from which the beasts that had been killed were suspended in order to be skinned. Between these columns stood wwwnnw, marble tables, on which the flesh and entrails were deposited. On the western side of the altar stood a marble table, on which the fat was deposited, and a silver table, on which the various utensils were The temple was situated upon the south-eastern corner of mount Moriah, which is separated to the east by a precipitous ravine and the Kidron from the mount of Olives: the mount of Olives is much higher thau Moriah. The temple was in ancient warfare almost impregnable, from the ravines at the precipitous edge of which it stood; but it required more artificial fortifications on its western and northern sides, which were surrounded by the city of Jerusalem; for this reason there was erected at its northwestern corner the tower of Antonia, which although standing on a lower level than the temple itself, was so high as to overlook the sacred buildings with which it was connected, partly by a large staircase, partly by a subterraneous communication. This tower protected the temple from sudden incursions from the city of Jerusalem, and from dangerous commotions among the thousands who were frequently assembled within the precincts of the courts; which also were sometimes used for popular meetings. 'The temple treasury, & lepòs encaupos, was managed

VOL. II.]

The priests themselves kept watch on three dif ferent posts, and the Levites on twenty-one posts. · The various office bearers in the temple were called στρατηγοί τοῦ ἱεροῦ, captains or oficers of the temple, Lu.xxii. 52, § 88, p. 421, while their chief was simply designated orpaτNYOS.

AN HORSE IS A VAIN THING FOR SAFETY: NEITHER SHALL HE DELIVER ANY BY HIS GREAT STRENGTH.-Psa. xxxiii. 17.

'The sacred utensils, the golden table of the shewbread, the book of the law, and the golden candlestick, were displayed in the triumph at Rome. The place where the temple had stood seemed to be a dangerous centre for the rebellious population, until, in A.D. 136, the emperor Hadrian founded a Roman Z colony, under the name Elia Capitolina, on the ruins of Jerusalem, and dedicated a temple to Jupiter Capitolinus on the ruins of the temple of Jehovah. Henceforth no Jew was permitted to approach the site of the ancient temple, although the worshippers of Jehovah were in derision compelled to pay a tax for the maintenance of the temple of Jupiter. Under the reign of Constantine the Great some Jews were severely punished for _having_attempted to restore the temple.-Comp. Fabricii Lux Evangelii, p. 124.

'The emperor Julian undertook, A.D. 363, to rebuild the temple; but after considerable preparations and much expense, he was compelled to desist by flames which burst forth from the foundations. Repeated attempts have been made to account for these igneous explosions by natural causes; for instance, by the ignition of gases which had long been pent up in subterraneous vaults. A similar event is mentioned by Josephus, Antiq. xvi. 7, 1, where we are informed that Herod, while plundering the tombs of David and Solomon, was suddenly frightened by flames which burst out and killed two of his soldiers. 'A splendid mosque now stands on the site of the temple. This mosque was erected by the caliph Omar after the conquest of Jerusalem by the Saracens, A.D. 636. It seems that Omar changed a christian church, that stood on the ground of the temple, into this mosque, which is called El Aksa, the outer, or northern, because it is the third of the most celebrated mosques, two of which, namely those of Mecca and Medina, are in a more southern latitude.'-Kitto's Bib. Cyclo., art. 'Temple,' pp. 833-.42.

COMMIT THY WAY UNTO THE LORD;-Psa. xxxvii. 5.

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THIS IS A FAITHFUL SAYING, AND THESE THINGS I WILL THAT THOU AFFIRM CONSTANTLY,

ADDEND A.

Tit. iii.

ON THE DAY OF THE PROCESSION TO THE TEMPLE. 'The resort of the Jews to Bethany, to see Jesus and Lazarus, who was also there, could not have been prior to his arrival, and was doubtless produced by the news of the arrival itself. Yet it could not have begun on the day of that arrival; first, because the arrival, as we have proved, was either on the sabbath, or one hour after its close.....

'It may be taken for granted, then, that the time of the resort belongs, at the earliest, to the ensuing day, the morning of the ninth of Nisan, Sunday in Passion-week, and the thirty-first of the Julian March: a conclusion which the interposed account of the supper, if that be regular, demonstrates beyond a question. If the resort was after that supper, it must have been on the ninth of Nisan.

All this day, Jesus continued in Bethany; and if we consider the proximity of that village to Jerusalem, the pre-existing impatience of the people to see our Lord, Jno. xi. 55, .6, § 81, p. 252, and the prodigious numbers which, in addition to its own population, were always present in Jerusalem at the time of the Passover, we shall not doubt that this passing to and fro would quickly begin, and when begun would go on with such bustle and celerity, as to attract the notice of the Sanhedrim, whose eyes all along had been Axed on Jesus; and, as being produced in part by the desire of seeing Lazarus, the living witness of his own resurrection, would speedily induce them to deliberate on the best mode of removing him also. The probable absence of Lazarus from Jerusalem until now, . . . . is a sufficient reason why this resolution should not have been conceived before; and his return at this time in company with Jesus, followed by the curiosity which his presence excited, as naturally accounts for it now. The sensible proof of so stupendous a miracle, furnished by his personal reappearance on the spot, made as many converts as the preaching of our Lord himself.

It will follow from this conclusion, that the day of the procession to the temple, which Jno. xii. 12, denominates Thraupiov, the day after this resort, must have been the second day of the week, the Jewish tenth of Nisan, and the Julian first of April. If so, this procession is erroneously assigned to the Sunday in Passion-week, thence commonly called Palm Sunday; and does in reality belong to the Monday.....

If Jesus was to suffer on the Friday, he must keep his own Passover on the Thursday; he could not both keep it himself, and fulfil it by suffering upon the feast day at the same time. And if he was to keep his own Passover on the Thursday, he must take leave of the people, and formally close his ministry, on the Wednesday; he could not both be employed on the next day, as he had been for the two days before, and keeping his Passover also. Nor is it improbable that the three days thus spent in public, from Monday in Passion-week to Wednesday inclusive, during which he was conversant in the temple before his enemies as well as his friends, contained a secret reference to the three years of his ministry previously. Each, reckoned on the principle of the Jewish computation, would terminate alike the day before he consummated the final purpose of his mission itself; viz., on the thirteenth of the Jewish Nisan. For he proceeded to the temple on Monday, and he finally quitted it on the Wednesday; upon the morning of the Jewish tenth of Nisan in the one case, and on the evening of the Jewish thirteenth in the other. We may observe also a further analogy between these three days and the three years of the christian ministry. On the first our Lord went to the temple amidst the acclamations of the people, and welcomed by all as their Messiah: on the second he was received with ambiguous favour, and minds wavering between faith and unbelief: on the third this feeling was still more increased; and at the close of that day, his enemies, as we shall see hereafter, concerted with Judas the scheme of his death. The same description of the effect, mutatis mutandis, might apply to the three years of his ministry.

The Gospel of St. John, which has hitherto gone by itself, it is manifest still stands alone from xii. 12,

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to 13, where the proceedings of Monday, the tenth of Nisan, and the first of April, begin to be related. The fact of the resort from Jerusalem to Bethany, produced by the news that our Lord was coming to the city, and the specifical circumstance that his procession set out from Bethany, are peculiar to his account see p. 259. Bethphage, indeed, through which the three other evangelists make it to pass, lay upon the slope of mount Olivet (Euseb. et Hieron. De Situ et Nominibus.), as well as Bethany, and nearer to Jerusalem than it; in which case, a procession from Bethany towards Jerusalem would pass through or by Bethphage.

The reason, however, why Bethphage, in St. Mark and in St. Luke, is placed before Bethany is probably this-that as, according to Epiphanius, Oper. i. 340, atá the high road from Jericho, ayovaa els Ispovratn 2 Sa. Στ. 23, 30; xvii. 22; φύσει (γὰρ) λεωφόρος ἦν παι TOROV iGTOPOUGL-Bethphage lay upon the direct line διά τοῦ ὄρους τῶν ̓Ελαιῶν, οὐκ ἄγνωστος οὖσα τοῖς καὶ τὸν of this route, but Bethany did not; so that one tra velling from Jericho, as they suppose our Lord to be travelling previously, would come to Bethphage first, and would have to turn off to Bethany. It is possible also that they were almost contiguous; or little more it is certain that our Lord's procession stopped at than divisions of the same village; and, in any case, Bethphage, and it was thence that he continued his route under those circumstances which, as being the phecy now supplied, all the evangelists are more or most illustrious instance of the fulfilment of proless careful to record.

From this time forward St. John's account begins to be joined by that of the rest; and, as might be expected in a supplementary gospel, it dwells henceforth upon nothing but what they had passed over in comparative silence, or what was necessary to explain them, and to apply his own accounts to theirs. Of his conciseness, where he touches upon a circumstance which had been fully related before, xii. 14, is an apposite proof; and of the application of his accounts to theirs, ver. 16 and 17. The miracle of Lazarus, indeed, as one of the most recent, and certainly one of the most memorable, instances of power which the disciples had witnessed, must undoubtedly have been alluded to, Lu. xix. 37; but the propriety of the allusion in St. Luke appears only from St. John.

The news of our Lord's intention to visit Jerusalem on this day, was probably carried thither by some of the many visitors to Bethany the same morning. The consequent procession of the Jews from the country, Jno. xii. 12, which set out from the city to meet him, must have set out of their own accord; and perhaps first joined him when he was still at Bethphage. The hosannas, then, which Jno. xii. 13, ascribes to the attendants of Jesus, are manifestly the hosannas of the whole of his attendants; and not, like those in the other evangelists, the hosannas of a part. The branches of palm, a species of tree which is among the first in the East to put forth its verdure, were carried for a purpose, left unexplained by St. John, but ascertained. by the rest, viz., to strew in the road before Jesus; a mark of respect which would be paid to none but persons of acknowledged rank and dignity-in unison, consequently, with the strong expectation now entertained that the kingdom of the Messiah was at hand, and with the personal hosannas addressed to our Lord as King..... Similar to these acts in design, but a still more striking declaration of the personal feelings of the agents (not, however, until our Lord had mounted upon the ass' colt, and resumed his procession with something of the state of a King, as well as with the humility of a Prophet), was the act, ascribed by the rest of the evangelists to the greater part of the multitude present, the act of spreading their garments on the ground beneath his feet; for this was directly to acknowledge him as King (Aut. Jud. ix. vi. 2; 2 Ki. ix. 13).

'Between Bethphage and Jerusalem on the same slope of mount Olivet, though not necessarily in the same line of descent, there must have lain another village; a circumstance by no means improbable;

LET US HOLD FAST OUR PROFESSION.-Heb. iv. 14.

[VOL. II.

THAT THEY WHICH HAVE BELIEVED IN GOD MIGHT BE CAR

BY HIM THEREFORE LET US OFFER THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE TO GOD CONTINUALLY,

for the suburbs of Jerusalem were scattered with such villages in every direction. To this village were the two disciples despatched from Bethphage for the ass and the colt, upon which Jesus designed to enter Jerusalem. Though their names are not mentioned, yet we may conjecture that these two were Peter and John; and in order to point out the fulfilment of a remarkable prediction, the fact of their mission is specified by all the evangelists. The account of St. Mark, however, is much the most particular; which, if Peter was one of the messengers, would be easily explained; and next to St. Mark's St. Luke's. But St. Matthew, with his usual attention to this kind of argument, has noticed, the most distinctly of any, the conformity of the event to its prediction by Zechariah, ix. 9.

Nor is there any difference in the terms of the several accounts, further than what concerns the precise statement of the orders of the messengers; in which St. Matthew comprehends both a she-ass and her colt: St. Mark and St. Luke, though by mentioning a colt as such they virtually include also its dam, yet specify only the colt. The true reason of which distinction is not that both were not sent for, but that our Lord, though he sent for the dam also, intended to ride solely on the colt, and actually rode only on the colt.

The first of these facts is implied in the very terms of the order relating to the colt, as recorded by St. Mark and by St. Luke, though omitted by St. Matthew—ἐφ ̓ ὃν οὐδεὶς πώποτε ἀνθρώπων ἐκάθισε, Lu. xix. 30. This circumstance would not have been so distinctly specified, if our Lord had not himself intended to sit upon it now for the first time: and the fulfilment of the prophecy, which had predicted in the first place his riding upon an ass, and in the next to shew that it was an ass as yet unbroken or put to any common use, on a colt, the foal of an ass, was rendered hereby so much the more striking. The second of the same facts is proved directly by the testimony of St. Mark and of St. Luke, who both affirm that he rode upon the colt; and implicitly by that of St. John, whose use of the term, ovápiov, xii. 14, shews that the animal was a young one of its kind.

distant from the city, and had not yet crossed the valley and the brook of Cedron (Relandi Palæst. i. 291, 351), which bounded the mountain at its base. The quarter, from which they proceeded, was our Lord's own disciples; and Hosannas or Hallelujahs, raised upon the grounds which are specified, Lu. xix. 37, could have begun with none so fitly as with them. Both the fact of their commencement in this quarter, and the propriety with which they had begun there, are illustrated by the remonstrance arising out of the one, and by the answer which vindicates the other, ver. 39, 40. Such a rebuke would hardly have been levelled against them in particular, if they had been following the example of others, and not setting an example to the rest themselves. St. John indeed shews that this example was speedily imitated, espebered the raising of Lazarus; so that John xii. 17, .8, cially by those who had seen, and who still rememwill ensue consecutively on Lu. xix. 37, .8, and then the remonstrance of the Pharisees, with its answer, ver. 39, 40, upon that.

'It is in the nature of enthusiastic emotions to be rapidly propagated among large bodies. The acclamations of the disciples, therefore, were soon caught and re-echoed by the multitudes, according to St. Matthew and St. Mark, who went before and who followed after; and the difference, if there is any, in their several Hosannas may consequently be accounted for thus:-in St. Luke these are the acclamations of the immediate followers of Jesus; in St. Matthew and in St. Mark (nearly agreeing together) they are the acclamations of the promiscuous multitude, distinct from them. The strain indeed of all may have been very much alike; though, for the sake of his Gentile readers, St. Luke would purposely omit such expressions as Hosanna; Hosanna, for the Son of David; the kingdom of our father David; and the like; which were intelligible only to Jews, or resolvable into Jewish pre-possessions.

'Subsequently to the commencement of these acclamations, but before our Lord was arrived at Jerusalem-probably while he was still on the mount of Olives, with the city and the temple to the westward in view before his eyes-the affecting scene of his weeping over it, accompanied by the most lively, It was not possible that Jesus could ride on both minute, and circumstantial prediction of its siege and the dam and her colt at once; nor probable that he desolation, anywhere in scripture, must have taken would ride first upon the one, and then upon the place, Lu. xix. 41-4: the contrast between which, rendered more impressive as it was by his own signiother. When, therefore, St. Matthew says that the ficant emotion, and the false enthusiasm of the surdisciples, having brought the ass and her colt, put their own robes ináva avrov, xxi. 7, this may be ex-rounding multitude, is too remarkable to escape our notice. Yet could it not have damped the ardour of plained by the simple consideration that, as both had been sent for, they might think both were wanted, or the spectators; nor therefore have been rightly comas yet they did not know which Jesus designed to prehended by them at the time; for the same demonuse; or, like Matthew xxvii. 44, or Herodotus ii. 121 strations of joy and exultation, which had attended (ἐπιθέντα δὲ τὸν νέκυν ἐπὶ τοὺς ὄνους), it may be resolved Jesus to Jerusalem, accompanied him also into it. into the mere compendium of speech. But when he adds, Kal Kádiory (ó 'Inσovs) éπáva oiτāv, no one can doubt that he means this to be understood of his sitting on the garments which served as the ephippia or housing for the occasion. In the first three evangelists the act in question is distinctly attributed to the disciples; and even in the last it is so implicitly, Jno. xii. 16: Now these things the disciples understood not at the first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written in allusion to him, and these things they had done for him. This observation is intended of their personal agency in bringing them to pass. The presence of the ass, then, as well as of her colt, may perhaps be accounted for either by supposing that, if the colt was still a young one and following the dam, it could not be separated from it; or rather because as the female or mother ass being mentioned in the prophecy, the female or mother ass was concerned also in the fulfilment of it. The colt could not be distinctly recognised for such, except by means of its relation to the dam. Nor is it improbable that, while Jesus himself rode on the one, something belonging to him-perhaps his upper or outer garment-might be carried on the other."

'In this state would he set out from Bethphage towards the city; nor could he have proceeded far before the enthusiasm of his attendants broke out into Hosannas, and Hallelujahs; and St. Luke seems to have critically pointed out both the place where they began to be raised, and the quarter from which they first proceeded. The place was the foot, or as he calls it the xaráßaois, of the mount of Olives, when the procession would still be five or six stades VOL. II.]

The whole city, as St. Matthew next observes, was shaken, or agitated; agitated by the bustle and fer. ment of so large a procession, by the joint acclamations of the multitude and of the disciples, and by the natural impulse of curiosity to know what this could mean. As is usual under such circumstances, the train of our Lord would acquire fresh accessions the further it proceeded; and in his progress to the temple, the crowded streets of Jerusalem, where millions of souls at this time were collected in attendance. upon the feast, would swell prodigiously the concourse of his followers. Here, then, we may best insert that observation of the Pharisees among themselves, Jno. xii. 19, not merely as a consequence of the failure of their previous remonstrance, but as a distinct admission of their own inability to arrest the tide of the popular feeling; which is most naturally accounted for by supposing that feeling to be now arrived at its height. From the place assigned to it in the context, it could not long have preceded the request of the Hellenes to see Jesus; as neither did that request the departure of Jesus for the night. But this brings us to the consideration of the time when our Lord entered the temple, and what stay he may be supposed to have made there.

'That we may waive, for the present, the further question whether he cleansed the court of the temple on this occasion or not (a question which has nothing to do with the first of those two points, and but little with the second), St. Mark's account of the proceedings, after the entrance into the city, is simply thisthat our Lord went into the temple, looked round on the state of things there, and then departed with the Twelve to Bethany for the night. And it is assigned,

TO HIM BE GLORY AND DOMINION FOR EVER, ETC.-1 Pet. v. 11.

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THAT IS, THE FRUIT OF OUR LIPS GIVING THANKS TO HIS NAME.-Heb. xiii. 15.

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