This appearance of our Lord was not made, until after the return of the two that had been at Emmaus. And it will be of great use to us to attend to that history, as it stands in St. Luke's Gospel, ch. xxiv. 13–36.

"And behold two of them went that same day to a village, called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about threescore furlongs. And they talked together of all these things, which had happened. Whilst they communed together, and reasoned, Jesus drew near, and went with them. And they drew nigh unto the village, whither they were going. And he made as though he would have gone farther. But they constrained him, saying: Abide with us. For it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And he went in to tarry with them. And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them: [or as he was sitting down to table with them:] he took bread, and blessed it, and brake unto them. And their eyes were opened, and they knew him, and he vanished out of their sight :" that is, he retired, and went away. "And they rose up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together, and them that were with them. And they told what things were done in the way, and how he was known unto them in breaking of bread. And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them: Peace be unto you.'

――――
—

When they entreated Jesus to "abide with them," they said: "It is toward evening, and the day is far spent,” or has already begun to decline, οτι προς έσπέραν εςι, και κεκλικεν η ημερᾷ. It was past noon, and might be near our three afternoon. As they were sitting down to eat, looking more directly at Jesus, than they had yet done, they knew him. Our Lord thereupon retired, and they hastened to the disciples. Emmaus was about a two hours walk from Jerusalem. They might get thither more than an hour before sun-set. Soon after our Lord came in. He might have been there before them but he was willing that the disciples, and they that were with them, should be prepared for his appearing among them by the testimony of these two, added to the testimonies of Peter, and the women who had already seen him.

All this may be confirmed by the history of the miracle of the five loaves and five thousand. Matt. xiv. 15. And when it was evening, his disciples came unto him, saying: This is a desert place, and the time is now past." Mark vi. 35. "And when the day was now far spent, his disciples came unto him, and said: This is a desert place, and now the time is far passed." Says Mr. Macknight in his instructive and edifying account of this miracle, The five thousand men, beside women and children, were all fed with such expedition, that though the thing was not so much as proposed to the disciples, till about three, all was over by five of the clock in the 'afternoon.'

b

I have endeavoured to show, that St. John followed the Jewish computation of the hours of the day. I am not now concerned to reconcile him with the other Evangelists. Solutions of this difficulty may be found in Editors and Commentators. Some think, that St. John's original number was "the third hour," as in St. Mark: and that his number has been since altered. Others propose different solutions. But so far as I am able to judge, a solution, depending upon the supposition, that St. John followed the Roman computation of the hours of the day, is not likely to be right.

The learned men, with whom I have been arguing, think, that St. John wrote his Gospel very late, not before the year of our Lord ninety-seven, a little before his own death. But that is said without ground. It is more probable, that St. John wrote his Gospel, before the destruction of Jerusalem, about the year of Christ sixty-eight: though not till after the other three Evangelists, and after having read their Gospels, as all the Ancients testify. However, if he had written after the destruction of Jerusalem, it could not but be very proper to observe the Jewish computation in speaking of things done among the Jews, in their own country, and before that event.

See his Harmony of the Gospels. Sect. 60. p. 173.

b Vid. Mill. et Wetstein. Bengel. in Cris. et Gnomon. ad Jo.

с

xix. 20. Vid. et Grot. et Wolf. et Lampe in loc. et Bez. ad Marc xv. 29. Basnag. ann. 33. n. vii.

See vol. III. ch. ix. § 9, 10.

PAGE 141. Diss. xxxv.

larly that of our Saviour.'

The manner of embalming dead bodies among the Jews, and particu

Here it is said, p. 149, 150. The other Evangelists indeed take notice, that the women afterwards carried spices to the sepulchre. For, as Joseph and Nicodemus doubtless embalmed the body privately, after it was carried from the cross; the women, as they were not present, might know nothing of it. And considering the shortness of the time, they might imagine, that nothing had been done: and therefore were willing to do what they could themselves."

This is said by our learned author, for removing a difficulty, arising from what is said by St. John, and the other Evangelists. St. John says, ch. xix. 38-40. not only, that "Joseph of Arimathea," who is also mentioned by the other Evangelists, "besought Pilate, that he might take the body of Jesus, and that Pilate gave him leave:" but adds, "There came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight:" including as I imagine, the bandages as well as the spices. "Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes, with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury," meaning such persons as were of eminence and distinction.

Nevertheless St. Mark says, xvi. 1, 2. " And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might anoint him. And very early in the morning, the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulchre, at the rising of the sun." See also Luke xxiii. 55, 56. and chap. xxiv. 1, 2.

CHAP. IV.

As our Lord's female friends prepared spices, and brought them to the sepulchre; our author concludes that they knew nothing of what had been done by Joseph and Nicodemus.

"

But it is manifest from all the Evangelists, that the women, who attended our Lord's crucifixion, attended also his interment. St. John himself says, ch. xix. 25. "Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene." And St. Matthew, ch. xxvii. 55–61. " And many women were there, beholding afar off Among whom was Mary Magdalene, and Mary, the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of Zebedee's children. Joseph of Arimathea- went to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock: and he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre and departed. And there was Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, sitting over against the sepulchre." And St. Mark expressly says, xv. 47. "And Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of Joses, beheld where he was laid." See likewise ch. xvi. 1-3. From which two Evangelists, and also from Luke xxiv. 1, 2. it appears, that the women knew every thing concerning our Saviour's interment, to the placing of the stone at the door of the sepulchre. But they knew nothing of the watch or guard of soldiers, set there afterwards, as related, Matt. xxvii. 62-66. And St. Luke says, ch. xxiii. 52-56, "That Joseph having begged the body of Jesus, took it down, and wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a sepulchre that was hewn in stone, wherein never man was laid And "the women also, which came with him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulchre, and how the body was laid." Or, as in Dr. Clarke's paraphrase, And the women of Galilee, who had stood at a distance, seeing the crucifixion, followed the body of their Lord, when it was taken away, and observed where 'Joseph laid it.'

·

To imagine therefore, that these women knew nothing of what had been done by Joseph. and Nicodemus, is to suppose them extremely negligent about an object that engaged all their attention. I am not for obviating, or removing difficulties, by denying any parts of a history that are manifest. Nor do I recollect one Commentator who has been of opinion, that these good women were unacquainted with the embalming of our Lord's body, so far as it had been done, before he was laid in the sepulchre.

Matt. xxvii. 57-60. Mark xv. 42-46. Luke xxiii. 50-53.

We may conceive of the case in this manner. When Pilate, at the request of the Jews, had given leave, "that the legs of the two malefactors might be broken," for hastening their death, and "that they might be taken away :" and when, at the request of Joseph of Arimathea, Pilate had also given leave "for taking away the body of Jesus;" the crucifixion was over, and the crowd would disperse. And the women, who before had stood at some distance, would come nearer. They must have been exceedingly solicitous about the disposal of the body of their beloved Lord, as no preparations had been made for his burial. And the coming of Joseph and Nicodemus, with their attendants, bringing a fine linen cloth, and rollers or bandages, and myrrh and aloes, must have afforded them much satisfaction. When the body was taken down from the cross, they would follow those who carried it away. Nor would they lose sight of the body, or at least of those who took care of it. They were not now agents, but spectators, or standers-by. But they would be as near to those, who were employed in embalming the body, or in swathing it with rollers, as they could be, without interrupting them. And it may be well supposed, that Joseph and Nicodemus, and their attendants, whether their own servants, or perfumers and apothecaries, would be civil to them, and not be at all offended at the respect which they showed

to Jesus.

Where the precious body was washed from the blood of the wounds, and embalmed, and wrapped up in the rollers, may not be easy for us to say: whether in a shed, or lodge of the garden, or in the sepulchre itself, or before the door, at the entrance of it. But this last seems to me as likely as any. Wherever it was done, the women were near the place, and saw, or at least knew what was done. They sat over against the sepulchre, and saw where, and how the body was laid:" and that a great stone was rolled at the door of it.

66

After which they went away: and when the sabbath was over, they bought spices, and came with them to the sepulchre early on the first day of the week. The reason of their so doing is differently assigned by learned Commentators.

с

Grotius and Beza were of opinion, that our Lord's body was not anointed or embalmed: that is, Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, did not make use of the spices, but laid them by in the sepulchre, intending to come again to complete the embalming. Lampe does not approve of that account. Nevertheless he is obliged to own, that what was now performed, was done in haste. As Lucas Brugensis is not in many hands, I shall transcribe a part of what he says, for showing what these good women aimed at by their kind offices. And I shall refer to Theophylact, who speaks to the like purpose.

d

e

What these women intended to do, we cannot say particularly. Nor can it be reasonably expected that we should be able to determine: because it cannot be supposed, that any now are fully acquainted with the various methods of embalming among the Jews, or the whole process of their embalming. But that there was somewhat wanting, somewhat left to be done by respectful and affectionate friends, may be argued from the shortness of time, and great haste, in which our Lord was embalmed and buried: and likewise from the concurring concern of several women, who may be justly supposed to have been as attentive, and as discreet, and understanding, as any of their sex. And it has seemed to me, that our Lord foresaw, that, for want of opportunity, there would happen a defect in that respect, which might otherwise have been shown him at his

death.

Of the woman that anointed Jesus at Bethany with precious ointment, he said to those who

b

• Cum aromatibus.'] Non unxerunt, ob temporis angustias, sed aromata apposuerunt, uncturi primo commodo tempore. Grot. in Jo. xix. 40.

Non est tamen pollinctum Christi cadaver, mulieribus alioqui non accessuris post alterum diem ad illud ungendum. Sed tumultuarie fuit, propter instantem, et quasi jam præsentem parasceven, in illo monumento proximo civitati positum, cum aromatibus a Nicodemo allatis, dilatâ in alterum a sepulto diem integrâ funeris pollincturâ Bez. in loc.

Leviora sane sunt, quibus persuadere vult, Dominici corporis unctionem quidem susceptam esse, sed non datam exsecutioni. Larupe in Jo T. III. p 644.

d Prius nullius est momenti, quia raptim et festinanter Jesum esse unctum, facile concedimus. Id. ib.

·

tuum

e Emerunt' a pharmacopolis aromata,' vi exsiccandi et fragrantiam addendi prædita ut ungerent' Jesum morNeque vero ignorabant, corpus Jesu a Nicodemo non parce unctum fuisse, centum inquam libris myrrhæ et aloes, quæ præsentes adfuerant, cum ungeretur, quamquam forte suis oculis non viderant. Sed habebat consuetudo, ut carissima capita, et quæ plurimi fierent cadavera, non semel tantum ungerentur, sed sæpius, pluribusque continuis diebus, donec exsiccato, et absorpto vi aromatum omni reliquo humore, imo tabefactâ carne aridâ, et quasi æneâ redditâ, diu servari possent integra, et immunia a putrefactione, &c. Vid. Gen. L. 23. Luc. Brug. in Marc. xvi.

f

Theoph. in Marc. xvi. 1.

were uneasy at the expence: Matt. xxvi. 12. "For in that she hath poured this ointment upon any body, she did it for my burial,” προς το ενταφιάσαι με. Mark xiv. 8. "She has done what she could. She is come before hand, to anoint my body to the burial." EIS TOV EVTRŢizopov. John xii. 7. "Let her alone. Against the day of my burying has she kept this."

To

Φιασμό με.

But learned interpreters say, that the original word, made use of by all the Evangelists, does not so properly denote burial, as the preparations made for burial, and particularly, the costly preparations made for persons of distinction.

2

b

The meaning therefore is: "In that she has poured this ointment upon my body, she has done it," as it were, "for my embalming," or to embalm me. And this part of our Lord's apology for that pious woman may be paraphrased in this manner, as indeed it was formerly: You may 'consider this anointing as an embalming of me. And it may so happen, that neither she, nor any others, shall have an opportunity to lay out all the rich spices and ointments upon me, when ' dead, which they may be disposed to make use of.'

"

CHAP. V.

PAGE 155. Diss. xxxvii. Whom are we to understand by the Grecians and Hebrews mentioned,'

Acts vi. 1.

It will be worth the while to put down here the words of the text at length. "And in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration."

I am of opinion, that by Hebrews are meant native Jews, descendants of Abraham and Israel, and that by Grecians are meant proselytes to the Jewish religion. This I shall endeavour to make out by an induction of particulars, and by numerous quotations from the Old Testament.

Ebrew, or Hebrew. It is a very honourable, and the most ancient denomination of the Jewish people. Abraham himself is called "a Hebrew," or "the Hebrew," Gen. xiv. 13. as is Joseph in Egypt, Gen. xxxix. 14, 17. chap. xli. 12. The Hebrews are mentioned more than once in his history. Gen. xl. 15. and xliii. 32. In particular, the country inhabited by Jacob and his family, whence Joseph is brought, is called "the land of the Hebrews," Gen. xl. 15. God himself, when he sent Moses to deliver the children of Israel from Egyptian bondage, took upon himself this title and character, "The Lord God of the Hebrews," Ex. iii. 18. Which character is often mentioned in the accounts of Moses's appearances before Pharaoh. Ex. v. 3. vii. 16. ix. 1. x. 3.

с

I do not now inquire into the origin of this name, though the disquisition might be curious.. I had rather, for the sake of brevity, refer to others. Whatever was the origin of the name, it was early known, and seems to have been peculiar to Abraham and his descendants, by Isaac and Jacob, when Moses was sent to conduct the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt. And "the Lord God of the Hebrews," and "the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob," are used as equivalent. Ex. iii. 6, 15, 16, 18. iv. 5.

It was a common denomination of the children of Israel, when they dwelt in Egypt: And

voculam prudenter hic,
addidit Syrus interpres.
dies quasi pollincturæ.
b See p. 230.

Vid. Bochart. Geo. S. P. i. 1. 2. c. 14. Scalig. Not. in Græca Eusebii. p. 410. Voss. de Orig. Idol. 1. 3. c. 44. p.. 356. Br. Walton Proleg. iii. Huet. Dem. Ev. Prop. iv. cap. 13. Jo. Cleric. Comm. in Gen. x. 21. xiv. 13. et Disserta. de Ling. Hebr.

ut et in hac apud Marcum historiâ, Et Johanni uepa evrapiaoμa est. Grot. in Matt. xxvi. 12.

"the king of Egypt spake to the Hebrew midwives"And he said: "When ye do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women, if it be a son, ye shall kill him——And the midwives said unto Pharaoh because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women," Ex. i. 15, 16, 19. When Pharaoh's daughter found Moses, she said: "This is one of the Hebrews' children. Then said his sister unto Pharaoh's daughter: Shall I go, and call thee a nurse of the Hebrew women?" Ex. ii. 6, 7. Afterwards, "when Moses was grown, he went out unto his brethren, and espied an Egyptian smiting an Hebrew, one of his brethren-[And] when he went out the second day, behold two men of the Hebrews strove together," ver. 11-13.

Hebrew, or Hebrews, is often used in the first book of Samuel, as equivalent to Israelites, or the people of Israel. 1 Sam. iv. 6, 9. xiii. 3, and elsewhere.

When the mariners in the ship said to Jonah, i. 8, 9. "What is thy occupation? and whence camest thou? What is thy country? and of what people art thou? He said unto them: I am an Hebrew. And I fear the Lord God of heaven, which made the sea and the dry land.”

This denomination is seldom found in the later books of the Old Testament. However, it is in Jeremiah, ch. xxxiv. The place is remarkable, and will be of use to us in the present inquiry. This is the word, that came unto Jeremiah from the Lord-That every man should let his man-servant, and every man his maid-servant, being a Hebrew or Hebrewess, go free: that none should serve himself of them, to wit, of a Jew his brother Then they obeyed, and let them go. Afterwards they caused them to return, and brought them into subjection for servants, and for handmaids Therefore the word of the Lord came unto Jeremiah, saying: Thus saith the God of Israel: I made a covenant with your fathers, saying: At the end of seven years, let yego every man his brother, an Hebrew, which has been sold unto thee

""

Let us therefore observe the laws, which are here referred to. Ex. xxi. 2, "If thou buy a Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve thee: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing." Deut. xv. 12. "If thy brother, an Hebrew man, or an Hebrew woman, be sold unto thee, and serve thee six years; then in the seventh year thou shalt let him go free from thee." Lev. xxv. 44-46. "Both thy bond-men, and thy bond-maids, which thou shalt have, shall be of the heathen, [or the nations] that are round about thee. Of them shall ye buy bondmen, and bond-maids. Moreover of the children of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy, and of their families that are with you, which they beget in your land: and they shall be your possession. And ye shall take them for an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit them for a possession. They shall be your bond-men for ever. But over your brethren, the children of Israel, you shall not rule one over another with rigour."

66

By strangers sojourning among them," I understand proselytes, men circumcised after the manner of the Mosaic law. We here therefore see the great difference between the children of Israel, or native Jews and strangers, or proselytes. And in speaking of this matter, for preventing ambiguity, the words Hebrew and Hebrewess are used by Jeremiah, as certainly denoting the descendants of Abraham and the other patriarchs.

In the laws, just transcribed from the books of Moses, there are clearly mentioned three sorts of persons: "Hebrews, [or] Children of Israel," that is, native Jews: then "strangers sojourning among them," or proselytes: lastly," heathens," that is, the nations, or Gentiles. The prophet demands liberty after six years servitude for the first only, not for any of the others. The law of Moses did not empower him to do more. And the command of God, by the prophet, certainly, is agreeable to his own laws, first delivered by the hand of Moses.

b

I shall just observe, as we go along, that Josephus says of himself, he was a Hebrew by birth. And Eusebius says of Moses, that he was a great divine, and a Hebrew of Hebrews. He also observes the antiquity of this name, and says, that Joseph was a Hebrew of Hebrews, but there were yet no Jews. Which is very true. For the people of Israel were not called Jews, till about the time of the Babylonish captivity. After that, a man of any nation, who embraced the religion of the Jews, and was circumcised after the manner of Moses, became a But he never could be a Hebrew, that denomination being peculiar to the descendants of the ancient patriarchs.

Jew.

&

Yeval 'Espaios. De B. J. 1. i. pr. 1.

b Ο τοίνυν μεγας θεολόγος Μωσης, Εβραιος αν εξ Εξελίων,

ει και τις αλλος. κ. λ. Pr. Ev. 7. c. 7. p. 305.

* Πλη, αλλα και έτος Εβραιος, εξ Εξ αιαν, και δε Ιεδαίος,

ότι μηδε ην πω τα Ιεδαίων. Ib. cap. 8. p. 312.

Josephus dates the origin of this name after their return from the Babylonish captivity. Ant. 1. 11. v. 7.