CHAPTER V. 2. A ground near the edge, εςωτα παρά την λίμνην. E. T. Standing by the lake. The word iss, applied to a ship or boat, means either being at anchor, or being aground. The latter seems here the more probable meaning, for the following reasons: First, The λ, so often mentioned in the Gospel, though in the common version rendered ships, were, in reality (if we may judge from the account given of them by Josephus, who had good occasion to know, having had for some time the chief command in Galilee), but a sort of large fishing boats. What we are told, v. 7. that the fishes taken filled both the vessels, insomuch that they were near sinking, is a strong confirmation of what we learn from him concerning their size. I have, therefore, in this and other places, after the translators of P. R. Si. Sa. Beau. L. Cl. and other Fr. interpreters, rendered the word barks, distinguishing the diminutive agia by translating it boats. Even the largest of such vessels might easily be run aground or set afloat, as occasion required. Josephus calls them on, reckons about two hundred and thirty of them on the lake, and four or five men to each. Another reason for thinking that the word so here means rather aground than at anchor, is, because they are said to be, not ev n λiμvn, but waga . It is the same expression which is used in the preceding verse, concerning our Lord himself, and which, by conse quence, must mean beside the water, rather than in it. Thirdly, Our Lord's desire, expressed in the third verse, to put off a little from the land, when his sole purpose was to teach the people, shows that they were so close upon the multitude as to be incom. moded by them. This is also another evidence of the smallness of the vessels. 7. So that they were near sinking, åse ßubiĜetbui auta. E. T. So that they began to sink. Vul. Ita ut pæne mergerentur. The Sy. version is conformable to the Vul. Common sense indeed shows, that Bura cannot here be rigidly interpreted. In familiar language, words are often used with equal latitude. 9. For the draught of fishes which they had taken, had filled him and all his companions with terror, Jayap TEGIST XEV αυτον καὶ πάντας τες τυν αυτώ, επι τη άγρα των ιχθύων ή συνελαβον. Ε. T. For he was astonished, and all that were with him, at the draught of the fishes which they had taken. The word astonished, in the common version, is far too weak for expressing the effect which we find this miracle produced upon Peter, and which evidently had in it more of terror than astonishment. I have, in v. 8th, varied from my ordinary method, and rendered Kupis, Lord, though addressed to Jesus before his resurrection. I think the manner in which Peter appears to have been affected, and the extraordinary petition he presented to a person of whose benevolence and humanity he had been so oft a witness, will justify this alteration, as they clearly show that he discovered in his Master, on this occasion, something superior to human, which quite overwhelmed him with awe and fear. 10. Thou shalt catch men, avparas con Zwyear. Dod. Thou Zwyęwv. shalt captivate men. But captivate is never applied to fishes. Consequently, by this rendering, the trope is destroyed; for Carge is equally applicable to both. Besides, to catch expresses no more than an effect; and does not, of itself, imply any artifice in the means; just so wypsw expresses the effect, without either implying or excluding artifice. 26. Incredible things, wapadoža. E. T. Strange things. This expression is rather feeble. Vul. Mirabilia. Er. Zu. Cas. Incredibilia. Be. Inopinata. The import of the Gr. word is better hit by Er. Zu. and Cas. than by either of the other La. translators. The words used by Be. appears at first to be the most exact, because most conformable to etymology, waça any doğar, but is in fact the weakest of all, for inopinatus is no more than unexpected: now, to say a thing is unexpected, is not saying so much as it is strange. It may be observed in passing, that the term occurs in no other place of the N. T. and is not found in the version of the Seventy. CHAPTER VI. 1. On the Sabbath called second-prime, v Zabarw devrepoπρωτω. E. T. On the second Sabbath after the first. Vul. Er. Zu. Cas. Sabbato secundo primo. Among the different explanations which are given of the term devreponer I find nothing but conjecture, and therefore think it is the safest way to render the word by one similarly formed in our language. This is what all the best translators have done in La. In the Sy. there is no word answering to it. The common version has, in this instance, neither followed the letter, nor given us words which convey any determinate sense. 7. Watched, παρετηρὸν αὐτον. But auto is wanting in a very great number of MSS. the Al. and some others of principal note, in several of the best editions, in the Vul. Go. and Sax. versions, &c. It is rejected both by Mill and by Wet. 9. I would ask you, What is it lawful to do on the Sabbath? Good or ill? Επερωτησω ύμας τι Εξεςι τοις Σαββασιν αγαθοποιησαι, η κακοποίησαι. E. T. I will ask you one thing, Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good, or to do evil? But a great many MSS. and printed editions, read the sentence as pointed in this manner, Επερωτησω ὑμας· Τι εξεσι τοις Σαββασιν; αγαθοποιησαι, η κακοποιησαι; which, without any alteration on the words or letters, yields the sense here expressed. I have had occasion to observe that, in regard to the pointing, it cannot be denied that the critic is entitled to greater freedom of conjecture than in what concerns the words themselves. To show, however, that this manner of distinguishing the clauses is very ancient, it is proper to observe that both the Sy. versions and the Go. are made from the sentence divided in the manner just now exhibited. As to the im. port of the question it contains, see Mr. iii. 4. N. 12. In an oratory, ev în wpocsvxn 78 £8. E. T. In prayer to God. It is plain that, by the known rules of construction, the words do not admit this interpretation. The common significa. tion of προσευχη is indeed prayer; but both προσευχή and dentis, a term of nearly the same import, are always, in the N. T. construed with the preposition ę before the object addressed. See Acts xii. 5. Rom. x. 1. xv. 30. Heb. v. 7. And when either term is followed by the genitive of a word, denoting a person, it is invariably the person praying, not the person prayed to. See Jam. v. 16. Rev. v. 8. viii. 3. Though the words occur in the Sep. and in the N. T. times without number, the genitive is not, in a single instance, employed to denote the being to whom supplication is made. Such a mode of interpreting would be subversive of the analogy of the language. The only way of avoid ing this error here is by assigning another meaning to the word go, and translating it a house, or place of prayer, an oratory. That there is undoubted authority for this meaning of the word, is shown by the examples produced by Wet. from Philo, Josephus, and others. L. uses it again in the same sense, Acts xvi. 13. 16. As the word, thus applied, peculiarly regarded the Jewish worship, it was as much appropriated as the word σuvaywyn. In this acceptation, La. writers transferred it into their language. That line of Juvenal is well known, Sat. III. "Ede ubi consistas, in qua te quæro proseucha." Now, when the meaning is a house of prayer, the expression WPOTEVYN TY DEX is analogous to oix 78 98, the house of God, and to ispov T8 :8, the temple of God. The definite article » prefixed, though proper in the historian, speaking of a place known to those to whom his history was immediately addressed (for we generally say the church, where there is but one church), it is not necessary in a translator to retain; for, to his readers, such circumstances must rather appear indefinite. The addition of 78 was necessary in Gr. to prevent ambiguity, its import is implied in the word oratory in Eng. These oratories, according to some, were enclosures fenced with walls, but without roof, not like the synagogues, and the temple, i va, strictly so called; but in the open air, like the courts of the temple, which were comprehended under the general name pov, and in respect of their destination, were also oratories or places of prayer. (Lewis, Orig. Heb. B. iii. Ch. 9.) Oratories were not erected in cities and villages, but in the fields, nigh some river, or in the mountains. They appear to have been more ancient than synagogues, and perhaps even than the temple. 15. Called the zealous, тov xxλsμevov Znλwryv. E. T. Called zelotes. As the Sy. word Canaanite, used in the parallel place in Mt. is susceptible of the same interpretation with the Gr. word used here, which may be understood either as an epithet or as a surname; and as it was not uncommon, in writing Gr. to translate the Oriental names by a word of the same import (thus Cephas is translated Peter, Thomas Didymus, Tabitha Dorcas); it is very probable that this has happened in the present case. It is the more so, as there was, about that time, a party in Palestine, who distinguished themselves by the title was, and who though, perhaps, actuated by a pious intention in the beginning, soon degenerated, and became, at last, the greatest scourge of their country, and the immediate cause of its ruin. But, at the time referred to by the Evangelist, as they had not perpetrated those crimes with which they are charged by the historian, nay, were favoured by the people as patriots, and men who burnt with zeal for religion; I thought it better to render λ here the zealous, according to the meaning of the word; as it appears to have been the intention of the writer to acquaint us that this Simon had belonged formerly to the party so denominated. I have said the zealous, rather than the zealot, as this last term is never used by us but in a bad sense. And though, indeed, the atrocious actions of the are brought at last the very name into disgrace, there is no reason to think that the mention of it here carries any unfavourable insinuation along with it. Mt. x. 4. N. E. T. Cast 22. Separate you from their society, apgirar pas, that is, Expel you from the synagogue, excommunicate you. 2 Defame you, εκβάλωσι το όνομα ὑμῶν ὡς πονηρον. out your name as evil. L. Cl. Beau. Vous diffamera. These Fr. translators have, in my opinion, expressed the full import of this clause. The phrase sm hotsia shem rang, Deut. xxii. 19. (which corresponds to the Gr. expression above quoted) is a Heb. circumlocution for defaming, or raising and propagating an evil and false report. This interpretation, beside being more perspicuous, makes the words exactly coincide in sense with the parallel passage, Mt. v. 11. Now there is ground to think that the sentiment conveyed in both places is the same. For whether the Evangelists have given us two discourses, delivered at different times, or accounts a little diversified of the same discourse, the general coincidence of the sentiments is evident. It may be objected to the interpretation, here given, that there is, in one point, a dissimilarity in the expression used by Moses and that employed by L. there being nothing in the Heb. corresponding to the Gr. s. But a small difference in the application of the phrases accounts entirely for this variation. In the passage quoted from the Pentateuch, there is no occasion for a pronoun; the expression is general and indefinite, Because he hath brought up (strictly, set forth) an evil name on a virgin |