character of the teaching of John the Baptist as to this salvation, we have the

ing in his wings." Avaroλn is sometimes used by the LXX. to express the Hebrew

him."

Verse 78. The dayspring from on high. -This beautiful translation of our version has been objected to by some eminent critics. Campbell translates, "Who hath caused a light to spring from on high;" and Wetstein objects that the rising sun cannot be here understood by avaroλn, because the sun when he rises is always in the horizon, whereas this light is spoken of as coming from on high, e vous, and must therefore be rather vertical than horizontal! This critic surely never noticed the break of day, nor perceived how that before the sun appears above the horizon his light streams upwards, is caught by the lofty clouds, and reflected down to the earth; so that if it were necessary to take et vous, in the strict sense, and not as it manifestly signifies from "heaven," the celestial regions, the light would come upon us from a sufficient elevation to meet the objection. Avaron signifies sunrise, but comprehends the whole, from the dawn to the burst of the orb of day; and the term dayspring was happily chosen by our translators, inasmuch as the Saviour here spoken of was not indeed at that time actually born, but upon the point of being so. The birth of John, his forerunner, and all the supernatural circumstances which had occurred, indicated certainly his approach; and thus, as the dawn, the springing of the day, they were ushering in the almost immediate rising of "the Sun of Righteousness with heal

in the next verse it is plain, that the whole passage is expressed in metaphors taken from the breaking of the light of morning upon the darkness of night.

Verse 79. That sit in darkness.—To sit, is a Hebrew mode of expression for To BE; the shadow of death, not only expresses the deepest darkness but imminent danger; and both express helpless ignorance and misery, and a state of hopeless exposure to eternal death. Thus with equal eloquence and truth does the inspired Zacharias portray the glorious mission of the Son of God, of whom his own favoured John was to be the herald and forerunner. The tender mercy of God, onλayxva, the bowels of the divine compassion were moved towards our lost condition, and our Lord broke upon our state of ignorance and danger like the dayspring from heaven upon the steps of a wandering traveller bewildered in darkness, and entering the very region of the shadow of death: the darkness passes away, the true light of heavenly truth shines, the path of peace, the path which leads to peace, every kind of true felicity here and hereafter, which the Hebrews expressed by the term peace, opens before us, and the steps of every willing mind are infallibly guided into it. Wakefield strangely applies these words to John the Baptist, not to our Lord; and, being a Socinian, and therefore placing John and Jesus on the same level, he was not revolted at speaking of a mere man as the dayspring from on high, giving light and life and salvation to the souls of men. But this absurdity could not have been committed, had not the true meaning of the seventy-seventh verse escaped him,

John's

as it has done many others. office was not only to preach repentance, but to teach the knowledge of a SPIRITUAL salvation, such as consisted in the remission of sins, through that tender mercy of God, by whom the Saviour was provided for us, and who, in conformity with the prophetic representations, is compared to the light of morning, the rising sun which sheds light, and life, and healing upon all nature. This is the manifest connexion of the words.

Verse 80. And the child grew, &c.He grew up in his father's house; and waxed strong in spirit, remarkable for strength of intellect and boldness of resolution, and his attainments in religious knowledge, under the tuition of parents equally capable of instructing him, and disposed to that duty. And was in the deserts. Either it was his practice, from early youth, to frequent solitary places, which might easily be found in the "hill country of Juda," in which he was born; or, when arrived at manhood, he withdrew from society altogether, living upon the fruits, the locusts, and the wild honey of the wilderness, clothed in the simplest manner, and thus gave himself up to meditation and communion with God, until the day of his showing to Israel, when, being probably about thirty years of age, the age when the priests were admitted to their office, his warning voice broke upon a slumbering people from the depths of the wilderness in which he had so long hid himself, and he called them to "repent," urging that "the kingdom of heaven was at hand." Avadeicis is used for the entering upon an office to which any one has been previously appointed. Here, however, it seems simply to signify manifestation, or showing, as our translators have it, in opposition to the seclusion and absolute privacy in which he had kept himself. All the wonders connected with the birth of John, doubtless, served to keep awake the expectation of the

Still

pious and spiritual. They probably extended but little further; for though there was a general expectation of the appear. ance of Messiah about that time, this was, as to the Jews in general, produced by the approaching fulfilment of the times mentioned by Daniel, and especially by the visit of the Magi to Jerusalem. The knowledge of this event would be carried by those Jews who came up to the great feasts, into all parts where they were settled, and some account also of the less striking, but still very remarkable, event which had happened to Zacharias. the circumstances of John's birth were but little known, and could not contribute much to the general expectation. But there is a distinct class of persons marked out as "waiting for redemption," in a sense therefore different from that in which all the Jews might be said to wait for it: a class of spiritual persons, rightly interpreting the prophecies, and looking for a spiritual redemption. To this class of persons these events would be in the highest sense joyful and supporting. And as the memory of them would be revived when John began his ministry, they would serve to accredit his character. Notwithstanding the relationship of the families, it was so ordered that they had no intercourse with each other after the visit of Mary to Elizabeth. No doubt the parents of John had died some years before he entered upon his ministry; and as his dwelling was among the solitudes of the wilderness, no acquaintance could be formed between him and our Lord, who remained subject to his parents, in a distant part of the country. When, therefore, John was led forth by the Spirit to commence his ministry, and to bear testimony to the Messiah, he knew not his person; and hence he received an assurance that he should be acquainted with him by the visible descent of the Holy Spirit upon him, John i. 33.

CHAPTER II. Verse 1. In those days. -A little after the birth of John, and just before the birth of our Lord.

All the world. — Πασαν την οικουμένην properly signifies the habitable earth, but was frequently used of the Roman empire. Its meaning here cannot be extended beyond this; and many confine it to Judea, in the sense of country or region. Prideaux, Wall, Archbishop Newcome, and others think that the enrolment extended throughout the whole Roman empire; that Augustus had three of these enrolments during his reign; and that this mentioned by Luke was the middle one, in the consulship of C. Marcius Censorinus, and C. Asinius Gallus, about three years before the birth of Christ, the enrolment having occupied three years before it extended to Judea, a remote province of the empire." Lardner, however, thinks that the census mentioned by St. Luke was only of the dominions of Herod king of Judea, with whom Augustus was at that time offended, and so proceeded to treat him as a subject, and his dominions as a province, by enrolment, in order to the imposition of a poll-tax. That an oath of fidelity to Cæsar was about this time exacted from the whole Jewish nation, appears from Josephus, which was no doubt connected with this enrolment, in which also the return of persons, ages, and property was made upon oath. Nothing can be more

strikingly in proof that the sceptre was departing from Judah, and the sovereignty of Herod was rather nominal than real. Julian the apostate objected to Christ's claim, that he was by virtue of this very enrolment born one of Cæsar's subjects; not knowing how truly this illustrated the ancient prophecy of Jacob, that his birth and the departing of the sceptre from Judah should be coincident.

Should be taxed.-Απογραφεσθαι rather signifies "to be enrolled with reference to being taxed." In fact, the levying of the tax did not take place until some years afterwards; Herod, according to Josephus, having found means to set himself right with Augustus. Still the enrolment being made, and the lists preserved to be acted upon at pleasure, was a sufficient proof of the subjection of Herod and his dominions to the power of Rome.

Verse 2. And this taxing was first made, &c.-A great difficulty has here exercised the skill of commentators: the passage as it stands in our translation makes the tax or enrolment take place when Cyrenius was governor of Syria, which was not till some years after the birth of Christ. Archbishop Newcome translates with Lardner, "This was the first enrolment of Cyrenius, afterwards governor of Syria;" which, by making the phrase,

of their beasts, could not greatly differ. There appears to have been but one such place at Bethlehem, which was a reduced town; and at this time of public concourse it was crowded. The parvη was probably the stable of this inn, the place where the cattle of travellers were separately accommodated; and it might be either an enclosed court, or a collection of caves or stalls in the rock, according to tradition. That it was not a manger derives confirmation from the angel giving it as a sign to the shepherds, that they should find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, and lying ev Tη patvη. Now of mangers, if they were used at all for cattle, there must have been many at Bethlehem; but as there was there but one inn, there would be but one stabulum, or parin, connected with it, and so it would easily be found. There was also but one babe in this inhospitable place of accommodation, and that was Christ the Lord! It was not indeed poverty which drove the holy family into this stable, but the circumstance that the inn was full of guests; yet was this also ordered by a higher power, that the entrance of the incarnate Saviour into our world should be one of marked humiliation, that he might so begin his course as to show, says one, "the vanity of earthly distinctions, and to consecrate suffering."

Verse 8. Shepherds abiding in the field, &c. Here again the pride of man was trampled upon, and the heavenly host sent to announce the fact, neither to the crowd at Bethlehem, nor to the select opulent and influential few who might be collected there by the enrolment, nor to the officers of Cæsar who conducted the census, but to shepherds in the solitude of the fields.

The country about Bethlehem was famous for pasturage; there David had kept his father's flock, and from its "sheep-folds" was he called to be king

over Israel. Of their cattle the Jewish writers observe, that those which lie out in the pastures, "the cattle of the wilderness," do so "all the days of cold and heat, and do not go into the cities, until the rains descend." So that they were sent into the open fields about the passover, and were kept there till the first rains, which fell in the early part of our November. From this it has been plausibly concluded that our Lord was born not earlier than March, nor later than the beginning of November; for these shepherds were probably not nomadic tribes like the Arabs, who remained out all the year. The precise month is not, however, to be determined; but if any importance had been attached, under the Christian dispensation, to the anniversary celebration of the events, the times of their occurrence would have been as accurately marked in the New Testament as in the Old. Neither the day nor the month of the birth of Christ can be fixed with any certainty.

Keeping watch over their flock.-Literally, "watching the watches of the night over their flock." The night was divided into four watches of three hours, or sometimes into three of four hours long. The shepherds probably relieved each other at the watches, and thus a part of them watched through the watches of the night. This was necessary to prevent the flock from being scattered, and to guard it against robbers and beasts of prey.

Verse 9. Angel of the Lord came upon them. &c.-This celestial messenger appeared suddenly and at once, as the word imports, and was made visible, no doubt, by that glory of the Lord which shone round about them. By "the glory of the Lord" some understand a very splendid glory, as goodly cedars are called " cedars of the Lord;" but it is more analogous to many scripture facts, as well as more