CHAPTER VII.

5. It was he who built, avtos wxodoμntev. E. T. He hath built. The pronoun autos is, here, evidently emphatical, being otherwise unnecessary. It is only in some such way as taken in this version, that the emphasis can be expressed in Eng. Diss. XII. P. I. § 32.

2 Our synagogue, înv cvvaywynv n'μv. E. T. Us a synagogue. Had the expression in Gr. been cuvaywyn nw, without the arti cle, it could not have been more exactly rendered than as in the common translation; but, with the article, it evidently denotes, either that there was but one synagogue in that city, or that there was only one in which those elders were concerned. In either case, it ought to be our synagogue.

9. Admired him, εθαύμασεν αυτον. Vul. Miratus est; agree. ably to which version the Cam. and two other MSS. Omit AUTOV. The Sax. also omits the pronoun.

11. Accompanied by his disciples, συνεπορεύοντο αυτω οι μαθηται auty ixavor. E. T. Many of his disciples went with him. But ixave is wanting in three of the principal MSS. and in the Sy. Vul. Cop. Arm. and Sax. versions, there is no word answering to it, it is, therefore, rejected by some critics.

16. God hath visited his people, επεσκέψατο ο Θεος τον λαον But does not the Eng. visited sometimes mean punished? It does; and so does the Gr. TeaTo. The distinction between the favourable, and the unfavourable meaning, is, in both languages, made easily, though solely, by the words in connection.

29. All the people. I have marked this, and the following verse, as the words of Jesus. Some have, improperly, consider. ed them as spoken by the Evangelist, acquainting us that the people who heard what Jesus said at this time, concerning John, glorified God, by an immediate recourse to John for baptism. But this cannot be the sense, for John was then, as we learn from Mt. xi. 2. in prison, where he remained till his death, and so had it no longer in his power to baptize any. Besides, it was John's

office to bring disciples to Jesus, whose harbinger he not the office of Jesus to bring disciples to John.

2 Have honoured God, idinaoar Toy Ocov. E. T. Justified God. As this expression is obscure, some prefer, have acknowledged the justice of God; which, though favoured by etymolo. gy, does not reach the meaning. Aixxiow is doubtless from dia, but does not here imply a vindication of God's justice, more than of his wisdom or goodness. This clause is a proper contrast to that which follows. As those who refused John's baptism, dishonoured God, by rejecting his counsel, those who received John's baptism, honoured God, by following his counsel.

30. Have rejected the counsel of God with regard to themselves, την βάλην τ8 Θες ηθέτησαν εις έαυτες. Ε. T. Rejected the counsel of God against themselves; meaning, doubtless, they, against themselves (that is, to their own prejudice), rejected the counsel of God. This sense is good, but it is ambiguously expressed in the common translation. Our translators have also given, on the margin, another version, which is preferred by several. They rejected within themselves the counsel of God. I think, with Gro. that, of the three senses given above, the first is worthy of the preference. The preposition es, often denotes with regard to, in relation to. The second meaning, which is that of the common version, does not naturally arise from the words. And to say, they rejected within themselves, seems not very apposite to what follows in the sentence, which shows that the rejection was open and notorious.

31. Eine de ò Kugios. E. T. And the Lord said. But in Gr. this clause is wanting in almost all the MSS. both of great and of small account. It is in neither of the Sy. versions, nor in the Ara. Eth. Cop. and Sax. In many La. MSS. also, and ancient commentaries, it is not to be found. It is omitted by some of the best editors, and rejected by Gro. Mill, Wet. and other critics. If I might indulge a conjecture, as to what has given rise to the insertion of these words, I should say, that some reader, mistaking the two preceding verses for the words of the historian, has thought some such clause necessary for preventing mistakes, by showing that our Lord, in what followed, resumed the discourse. The strong evidence which we have, that this is an interpolation, proves also, in some degree, that there was no

interruption in our Lord's discourse, and that, consequently, the two preceding verses are part of it.

35. But wisdom is justified by all her children, xas edixaιwon ή σοφία απο των τεκνων αυτής παντων. Cas. Ita suis omnibus aliena sapientia. This most extraordinary interpretation that author defends in a note on the parallel passage, Mt. xi. 19. The examples which he produces show, indeed, that dixas sometimes means to release or deliver from evil or danger; and to this its most common signification is nearly related. To justify, (which is, originally, a law term, and coincides with to acquit, to ab. solve), necessarily implies deliverance from the evil of a crimi nal accusation, and the danger of punishment. But this is very different from the sense given, in his translation, of this verse, which is, alienated from, averse to. Had his rendering been liberata, or soluta est sapientia, his quotations would have been a little more to the purpose. Elsner goes still farther, and maintains that idixawon ought here to be rendered, is condemned. And for this signification he produces, as vouchers, Euripides and Thucydides, the purity of whose language, if that concerned the present question, will not be disputed. But it is surprising, that though dixiv is one of the most common verbs in the N. T. in the Gr. version of the Old, and in the Apocryphal books, written in the idiom of the synagogue, a single example has not been found in any of these to support an interpretation so foreign to the manner of the sacred writers, who confessedly, in every other instance, employ the term in a favourable meaning, and with very little difference of signification. The uniformity on this head is, indeed, so great, that it is not easy to conceive any one of them using it in a sense so contrary to its universal acceptation among them, without, at the same time, supposing him to have intended either to mislead his readers, or to express himself so as not to be understood by them. For, must he not have been sensible that, if he had intended to say justified, vindicated, Edixawon is the very term he would have used? We have all the reason in the world to think so from their uniform practice. Now, could any man in his senses, who seriously designed to speak intelligibly, use the same term for expressing things so opposite as to justify, and to condemn? Was it that the language afforded no term appropriated to this last signification? The want of proper words sometimes, no doubt, occasions the recourse

to such as are equivocal. But there was no want here; rataκρίνειν, καταδικάζειν, καταγινωσκειν, were quite suitable, and in familiar use. To conclude; the gross impropriety of using dia here for to condemn, would have been the more glaring, as the same verb had been used in this very discourse, v. 29. (a passage to which the present bears a manifest reference) in its ordinary acceptation. I need scarcely add, that I am of the opinion of Gro. on this point, that what is called the counsel of God, v. 30. is here denominated wisdom, and that by her children are not meant the wise and learned, in the world's account, such as their scribes and doctors of the law, a race remarkably arrogant and contemptuous; but the unassuming, the humble, and the pious inquirers into the will of God. This interpretation, which is the most obvious to a translator, because resulting from the most common acceptation of the words, appears to me the most per. spicuous in itself, and the best suited to the scope of the dis

course.

2

38. Standing behind. Diss. VIII. P. III. § 3, 4, 5, 6. Weeping, κλαίεσα. This word is wanting in one Gr. MS. and is not rendered in the Vul. nor the Sax.

45. Since she entered, aq ns ICEλDOV. E. T. Since the time I came in. I have, in this instance, ventured to give the preference to the reading which has the weaker support of MSS. (for they are but a few, and not the most considerable, which read λ); first, on account of the authority which the most ancient and respectable translations give it; for thus the Vul. both the Sy. and the Cop. read: Secondly, because the difference in writing is so inconsiderable, that the smallest inadvertency, either in copying, or in attending to what is dictated by another, may account for it; the whole arising from the mistake of one small letter for another, the for the .: Thirdly, because there is greater internal probability in the reading of the Vul. from its agreeing better with the context, which represents the woman as coming to Simon's house (v. 37.) after she had learnt that Jesus was there. Now, if Jesus was there before her, the action could be dated only from her entering, not from his. slight a circumstance as this in the connection is very apt to be overlooked in the hurry of transcribing, especially when the words themselves read well enough either way. But, where the

So

difference in writing is more considerable, a reading ought not to be so easily admitted in favour of the scope of the place, against a great plurality of MSS. because, in this case, the alteration cannot be so plausibly charged on oversight.

47. Therefore her love is great, ori nyaænce modu. E. T. For she loved much. Beau. C'est pour cela qu'elle a tant aimé. The whole context shows that the particle it is illative and not causal in this place. The parable of the debtors clearly represents the gratuitous forgiveness as the cause of the love, not the love as the cause of the forgiveness. And this, on the other hand, is, v. 50th, ascribed to her faith. This interchange of the conjunc tions or and dior, in the scriptural idiom, has been well illustrated by Ham. Wh. and Markland. See Bowyer's conjectures.

CHAPTER VIII.

1. Proclaiming the joyful tidings of the reign of God, ungueσων και ευαγγελιζόμενος την βασιλείαν τ8 Θεδ. The import of both the participles here used is fully expressed in the version; only the latter points more directly to the nature of the message, joy. ful tidings, the former to the manner of executing it, to wit, by proclamation. Diss. VI. P. V.

15. Persevere in bringing forth fruit, xaproɖogyriv ev úπoμovr. E. T. Bring forth fruit with patience. 'Yoμovn is, in the com. mon version, generally rendered patience, for the most part, feebly, and in this and some other places, improperly. Patience, in the ordinary acceptation, is a virtue merely passive, and consists in suffering evil with equanimity. The Gr. μm implies much more; and, though the sense now mentioned is not excluded, it generally denotes an active quality, to wit, constancy in purpose and practice. It corresponds exactly to what is with us called perseverance. The word, in Scripture, which strictly answers to the Eng. term patience, is maxgobvia, commonly ren. dered long-suffering, and but twice patience. In several such instances, when an Eng. appellative is directly formed from the La. our translators, with other moderns, have implicitly follow. ed the Vul. which says here, Fructum afferunt in patientia ;