of the animal heat; sometimes the walls are of reeds, or brush plastered with clay. Around Aleppo, the people have their apartments elevated a foot or so above those of the animals, though all enter at the same door. Some of the huts are mud cones, looking like hay-stacks, having a hole at the apex for the egress of smoke, and a low door at one side for entrance on the knees. In many parts, the hovels are half subterranean, being built on the hill-sides.'

40. vπèρ уováτшv (B. V. c. iv. § 13). The Kurds all wear just such vests to this day, extending down below the hips nearly to the knees. They are very thick, and are a protection both from heat and cold. They cover their heads with pointed woollen caps (helmets), around which numerous many-colored kerchiefs are wound.

41. yeppa (B. IV. c. vii). Some of the mountaineers still use small shields — iron bars (radii) covered with white raw hides, the hair remaining upon them. I have seen some used by the Arabs made of the hide of the hippopotamus. These shields are swung over the shoulders on a march. Horsemen carry the spear: a chief has attached to his, near the point, a huge black tuft, its size depending on his dignity, which depends upon the number of enemies he has killed. Every native, in Assyria, travels armed. Some have guns, some pistols and swords, some spears; others, war-clubs and daggers.

42. Éπì Tòν íπTоv åvéßaλλev (B. IV. c. iv. §4). Not only kings, but pashas, judges, and other dignitaries, are lifted on to their horses, and, though the saddles have stirrups big enough for the whole foot, an attendant walks by the horse's left side, with his right hand on his master's back, while pipebearers and cawasses, armed with pistols and swords, walk before and behind, to ensure due respect from all. A man's standing is determined by his retinue.

1 For a full and accurate description of these huts and their inhabitants, and especially of those in the region alluded to by Xenophon, see Dr. Perkins's Residence in Persia, pp. 117, 118. On p. 97 may be found a few lines on the bush from which the honey which so troubled Xenophon's troops (B. IV. C. viii.), was extracted.

43. Tоi avтois dédevraι (B. III. c. iv. § 35). Horses are generally shackled by the two fore-feet; and an additional chain, to which is attached an iron pin to be driven into the ground, is also passed around one leg. No trees or stakes are found in Turkey or Persia to which horses may be fastened. Caravan animals are tied to a rope made fast by iron spikes in the form of a square, and close to the ground.

44. τῇ κρήνῃ γυναῖκας καὶ κόρας (Β. IV. c. v. § 9). Bringing water is yet the business of females in the Orient. I have sometimes seen half a dozen drawing a rope (to which was attached a great skin of water, passing over a fixed cylinder), by walking a few rods, in a direct line, from the well. They generally use large two-handled jars, which are easily slung over the shoulders. At Mosul, the Arab women carry their water from the river in skins, the throat and legs of which are tied up for the purpose. A few wells supply a whole village; sometimes a single one. They are generally a short distance from the town. Cisterns abound in Mesopo

tamia the relics of the past. "broken cisterns that can hold no water." The females always make an attempt to conceal their faces at the fountains, on the plains; but the Kurdish women are less careful: indeed, they are almost as indifferent as their husbands and fathers to the gaze of strangers. It is strange that so much should still be said of the dignity, grace, and beauty of these water-carriers. Lamartine must be expected to make a picture, but it is time travellers stated facts. The village women of the East are generally, in the eyes of their husbands, but one remove from the brute;- would that this estimation were not justified by the actual truth! She is a slave. There has been little change for the better in her condition since the time of Xenophon. The present Protestant movement in the Orient is, however, beginning to elevate her to a state of companionship with man—a movement demanding the sympathies and aid of all true Christians.

22*

ARTICLE II.

REMARKS UPON SOME PASSAGES IN THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES.

By Professor R. D. C. Robbins, Middlebury College, Vt.

THE circumstances which attended the conversion of the Apostle Paul, his journey to Damascus with authority and with the full purpose to persecute the new sect, which was everywhere springing up around him, the appearance of the Lord to him on the way, and its influence upon his subsequent course of life, are too familiar to all to require repetition or remark. They are three times repeated in the Acts: once by the Evangelist Luke, in the regular course of his narrative, ch. ix; and twice in the words of the Apostle himself — first, in defending himself before the people at Jerusalem, from the steps of the castle of Antonia, ch. 21: 40 and ch. xxii; and then before King Agrippa at Cæsarea, when he and Bernice had come, "with great pomp, and was entered into the place of hearing, with the chief captains and principal men of the city," ch. 25: 22 seq. and ch. xxvi. But our present object is principally to speak of the apparent discrepancies which occur in these three different accounts, as exhibited in the verses above quoted in the original, accompanied by our common English Version.

There appears, at first view, to be two almost direct contradictions in these verses: first, in 9: 7 it is said: "the men which journeyed with him stood speechless," and in 26: 14, "when we were all fallen to the earth;" so that the companions of Paul should seem to stand erect and fall to the earth at the same time. And then in 9: 7 we read, "hearing a voice," and in 22: 9, "but they heard not the voice of him that spake to me;" so that they are made both to hear and not to hear the same thing.

The first apparent discrepancy is frequently accounted for by supposing that Luke in his narrative, ch. 9: 7, had in mind a point of time subsequent to that indicated in ch. 26:14; and that they had first fallen to the ground, and afterwards risen and stood on their feet. This is the interpretation of Valla, adopted by Kuinoel and others. Kuinoel says: sed evanescit difficultas, si cum Valla ad 22:9, statuimus comites Pauli ad primum pavorem prolapsos fuisse, continuo vero surgentes stetisse. Others understand it in inverse order that they first stood still, and afterwards fell to the ground. So Bishop Bloomfield says: "It should seem that the best solution will be to suppose that Paul's companions at first stood fixed and mute with astonishment; and then, struck with awe at what they regarded as indicating the presence, however invisible, of a supernatural Being, fell with their faces to the ground, as Saul had done." Either of these would be a sufficient explanation and reconciliation of the two passages, if no better one were at hand.

The whole difficulty seems, however, to result from the manner in which the Greek work eiστýkeiσav is rendered in our English Version. It is made to designate the act of standing, as opposed to sitting, reclining, or prostrating one's self upon the ground; whereas ornu, in the 2 Aor., Perf., Pluperf., and fut. Perf., has the primary meaning to place one's self, to be placed, and from this, to stand. Hence it is frequently used, even in classical Greek, as an emphatic elvai, to be, exist, as, to be in a certain state, condition. Cf. Soph., Ajax 1084; Tr. 1145. Homer's Od. B. VII. 1. 89 et al. So, in the N. Test. it is used to indicate a standing still,

See Matt. 20: 32, σTÀS
Luke also uses it, in a

stopping, as opposed to moving on. ó 'Inooûs; and cf. also Mark 10: 49. similar signification, in his Gospel, 7: 14: oi dè Baotáľovtes στŋo av, and 19: 40, in the Passive. And in Acts 8: 38, ἐκέλευσε στῆναι τὸ ἅρμα, “ He commanded the chariot to stand still." In accordance with classical usage, it might be interpreted here with évveoí, as only more emphatic, but yet parallel with the phrase eμpoßoɩ éyévovтo, 22: 9, they were or became speechless (from fear). But it is most probable that Luke, intended to indicate that they were arrested, stopped in their course, as well as rendered speechless. And this use is entirely in accordance with the passages quoted above from his Gospel and the Acts, and not at all at variance with the declaration in 26: 14, that they all fell to the ground, πάντων καταπεσόντων ἡμῶν εἰς τὴν γῆν.

The second discrepancy has also been variously explained. Some, as Vitringa, Rosenmueller, and others, suppose that pwvýv, in 9:7, signifies noise or sound, while in 22: 9 it indicates a voice, connected words. Now there cannot be much doubt that the former is a legitimate meaning of pwvý. See Mem. I. 4, 6, τὸ δὲ τὴν ἀκοὴν δέχεσθαι μὲν πάσας φωνάς, where it is used of sound generally. So often in the LXX., as in Dan. 3: 5, 7, 10, of the sound of a musical instrument; and, in the N. Test., as of the wind, in John 3: 8; of thunder, Rev. 6: 1. 14: 2, et al. saep.; so that if this apparent discrepancy occurred in a classical writer, as in Plato or Xenophon, this would be a sufficient vindication of the consistency of the writer with himself, although the change of signification should occur in contiguous and nearly related passages. But we have no occasion, here, to rely upon this explanation. Neither would we place very much stress upon the use of the Genitive in 9: 7, which might have a partitive signification: they heard of the voice, i. e. had a partial perception of the utterance, but not a full comprehension of its import, although this is an authorized use of the Greek Genitive; for, in 22:7 we have a similar construction of the Genitive, ἤκουσα φωνῆς, where it cannot have this meaning.