no angel was seen; that, on account of these peculiarities in the waters, which were supposed to be the effect of the power of the deity there worshipped, and from their being dedicated to him, the superstition of the ancient Canaanites, or the avarice of their priests, gave to them an imaginary efficacy in curing certain diseases, though, in reality, they possessed no such quality; that although the tradition of their healing efficacy had been kept up by the Jews, the successors to the Canaanites, even to the time of our Lord, it does not follow, that they were therein guilty of infidelity to Jehovah, as they only bathed there with a view of curing their bodily infirmities, without any reference to, or even idea of, the worship anciently performed there. The reasons which incline us to this conjecture, are as follow:

I. The descendants of Ham were particularly given to idolatry; and to the places where they settled they gave names derived from the objects of their adoration. Ham was the father of the Canaanites; and we have no occasion to observe that they were idolaters. Wherever there was any peculiarity of situation, no matter whether wholesome or unwholesome, there they abode; they were particularly devoted to the worship of the sun see Deut. iv. 15, 19; xvii. 3, 4, 5; 2 Kings, xxiii. 11; Job xxxi. 26-28; Selden de Diis Syr. Proleg. c. iii. Vossius de Idol. Orig. 1. vii. c. 1; Saubertus de Sacrificiis, c. xii. and Bryant's Mythology. Their temples were generally situated near hot springs, or else upon foul and fetid lakes and pools of bitumen: it is also not uncommon to find near them mines of salt and nitre; and caverns sending forth pestilential exhalations. It may appear wonderful, but the Amonians were determined in the situation both of their cities and temples by these strange phenomena. Wherever they found places with uncommon properties, they held them sacred, and founded temples near them. These were all dedicated to the sun, the representative of their great ancestor, and called by some of the titles of that luminary. Nor were those appellations confined to one particular sort of fountain or water; but all waters that had any uncommon property were in like manner sacred to this deity: and cold streams were equally so as those of a contrary nature.

In application of these remarks, which are extracted from various parts of Bryant's Mythology, we observe that the Pool of Bethesda had peculiarities, which, in our judgment, would have attracted the attention of the Canaanites, at their first settling in that country; for, according to Jerom, "this pool looked wonderful red, as it were with bloody waters."

Sandys, also, who visited it in 1611, says, "It is a great square profundity, green and uneven at the bottom; into which a barren spring doth drill between the stones of the northward wall, and stealeth away almost undiscovered. The place is for a good depth hewn out of the rock." Mr. Maundrell says, it is

"120 paces long, 40 broad, and 8 deep. At the west end are some old arches, now dammed up, which, though there are but three in number, some will have to be the five porches in which sat the lame, halt, and blind."

II. We have said that the Canaanites gave the names of their deities to the places in which they worshipped them. We have likewise conjectured, that Bethesda was the name of a temple that stood by the pool, of which only five porches remained in the evangelist's days. It was, perhaps, originally written ' BETH-ASADA, which we interpret The temple of the ruler, or goddess, of light, or heat. For this we offer the following reasons:

1st, n' BETH, is a house; when a sacred house, a temple.

2dly, w As, rendered Ees and Is, "related to light and fire, and was one of the titles of the sun. It is sometimes, in the names of those places sacred to him, compounded Ad-Ees, and Ad-Is; whence came the Hades of the Greeks, and Atis and Attis of the Asiatics, which were both titles of the same deity, the sun. Asia proper was of a most inflammable soil, and there were many fiery eruptions in it; hence, doubtless, the region had the name of Asia, or the land of fire. One of the names of fire among those in the East who worship it, is atesh, at this day," Bryant.

3dly, AD, "is a title which occurs very often in the composition of ancient names, Adorus, Adonis, Hadad, Hadadezer, &c. and signified a prince, or ruler. Among all the Eastern nations Ad was a peculiar title, and was originally conferred upon the The feminine of it was Ada; it was a sacred title, and appropriated by the Babylonians to their chief goddess," ibid.

sun.

Whoever considers the vast spread and firm footing which idolatry made in the land of Canaan, as well as other parts of the world, will not be surprised that many of the places where these idolators came, were named after the gods which they worshipped, or the ceremonies which they instituted to their honour. He will not be astonished, as the names of places are not easily altered, that some of these should remain even after the idols from whom they were called, are destroyed and forgotten; nay, even if some ancient ceremony should still in some shape exist, although the original intention of it has been long buried in oblivion.

Numberless instances might be brought to prove the latter position: we only observe to the English reader, that Easter was, originally, a feast sacred to a female idol of that name, worshipped by our Saxon ancestors, and kept about the time at which Easter is now observed.

Again, it is not unlikely, that the hilarity and chagrin, the disappointment and joy, which the Englishman causes and is subject to alternately on the first of April, was originally part of rites similar to

those of the Egyptian Osiris; perhaps the same. In these was probably commemorated the historical account of the deluge. The priests, attended by the people, sought the lost Osiris, or Noah, upon the sea side, among the waters, in the night, which was emblematical of the period during which he was in the ark. As they were dispersed upon the shore, some one would call out to the others that he had found the object of their search; and when he had collect ed a number of spectators, another would cry out that he had found him; till at last he was found in an ark, and borne away with rejoicing. It is true we have not the concluding point in view, or any regular festival; but this only proves the great antiquity of the custom the general ignorance of the origin of which is all that is here insisted on; and if a nation, so en lightened as it is the boast of ours to be, so long preserve and perpetuate the landmarks of the ignorance of their ancestors, is it astonishing this should be the case in a country where even trifling customs are like the laws of the Medes and Persians, which never alter, and where the ample page of knowledge, through the bigotry of the people, has never been unfolded? The bathing in the Pool of Bethesda for medical

purposes might originally have arisen from a superstitious supposition that the power of the god there worshipped would probably miraculously cure the afflicted bathers. These remarks are only to show that a custom, the intention of which is totally forgotten, may be innocently practised by succeeding generations.

We know we have, in this attempt to explain a difficult passage, gone out of the beaten track; but though this may be an argument to some why should they find fault, we submit it, such as it is, to the liberal and candid without fear.

We again repeat, that we do not imagine the Jews followed the practice from any other consideration than merely from the hope of obtaining relief in their various diseases, without any idea of the ancient idolatrous appropriation of the waters.

As it is likely John got his information from some waiting at the pool, and who believed the tradition concerning it, it is probable he gives that tradition in their own words. Vide article BETHESDA, in Dictionary, FRAGMENT, No. 66, and page 443 of this volume,

And seeing a fig-tree afar off, having leaves, he came if haply he might find any thing thereon; and when he came to it he found nothing but leaves, for the time of figs was not [yet.]

THIS passage, which infidelity has much cavilled at, is, we think, set in a very clear light by Dr. Markland, who, as he followed bishop Kidder's most ingenious illustration of the passage, frankly acknowledged the obligation; though Dr. Macknight, under the same obligation, had not the same candour. We take this from the Monthly Review of Bowyer's Critical Conjectures on the New Testament, with some few alterations, rather than from the work itself, for the sake of some of the remarks therein contained, and for their valuable quotation from the Theological Repository.

By the intervention of a parenthesis, undoubtedly connect it thus, He came if HAPLY he might find any thing thereon, FOR the time of GATHERING figs was not come. Thus Matthew, xxi. 34. o napos TWV xxx ww v (o kairos ton karpon) the time for GATHERING fruil. Exactly a similar phrase is used Athen. Deipnos. L. II. p. 65. Ed. 1597. And thus we call hopping time and gooseberry time, the season for picking hops and gooseberries. The intermediate words, and when he came, &c. are to be placed in a parenthesis, as Gen. xiii. 10; Numb. xiii. 20, 23; Josh. xxiv. 26; John i. 14. particularly Mark xvi. 3, 4. Who shall roll away the stone (and when they looked the stone was rolled away,) FOR it was great. And so Mark, xi.

13. as it should be printed. Vide Kidder's Demonstr. of the Messiah, part ii. chap. ii. p. 100. 8vo. A like position of the parenthesis see in Luke xx. 19; Mark xii. 12; chap. xvi. 4; John iii. 24; Joseph. Antiq. v. 8, 2; Lucian in Zeuxide, p. 582. Ed. Græv. Plut. in Pomp. p. 620. B. Markland. It is objected by Dr. Whitby and others, that when the fig-tree putteth forth leaves, the summer is nigh, Matth. xxiv. 32. and this transaction was but about five days before the passover, or Easter. Matthew speaks of the time when the generality of fig-trees put forth leaves; for Pliny tells us, there were different species of them, Nat. Hist. xv. chap. 13. præcoses, early ripe, or forward figs; serotinæ, late ripe figs; and hyemales, winter figs: the first cum MESSE maturescentibus, "ripe at harvest time." To which Isaiah alludes, chap. xxviii. 4. The glorious beauty of Ephraim shall be as the FIRST RIPE [fig] BEFORE the summer. Now, in Judea the harvest began at the passover. Whether it ended at Pentecost, as Fagius supposes, or when the wheat harvest only commenced, as Grotius, may be a matter of dispute. See Levit. xxiii. 10, 15. But at whichsoever of these two harvests figs were gathered, we may conclude, that they were of some size at the passover; eatable, if not ripe. In a country where all kinds of figs grew, our Lord came to tree, which he hoped was of the early sort, if haply he might find figs on it; for it had leaves, and therefore was regularly expected to have fruit, which was always prior to them. Those who will not be convinced that the tree should

have figs on it at the time of the passover, I send to Julian the Apostate, Ep. xxiv. p. 392. who observes, that the fig-trees of Damascus, particularly, bore figs all the year round; the last year's fruit remaining while that of the next succeeded. About Naples they have figs twice a year, in August or September, and about May; thence expressly called fico di pascha, or passover fig, as Mr. Holdsworth observes on Virg. Georg. ii. 149, 150. Dr. Shaw, in his travels, p. 335. ed. 4to. says, "The boccores, or first ripe figs, in 1772, were hard, and no bigger than common plums; though they have then a method of making them soft and palatable, by steeping them in oil. According to the quality of the season in that year, the first fruits could not have been offered at the time appointed, and therefore would have required the intercalating of the Veader, and postponing thereby the passover for at least the space of a month." In the most backward year, the early figs were of some size in spring, and kept company pretty nearly with the Palestine harvest.

A very ingenious writer in the Theological Repository, vide vol. i. p. 382. considering this miracle as an emblematical representation of the destruction that was shortly to be inflicted on the Jewish nation for its unfruitfulness, observes with abundant propriety, "That in order to see our Lord's design in working it in a proper light, we must consider it in connection with the discourses he soon after delivered in the

As the lunar year, which the Jews have been used to follow in their calculations, is shorter than the solar year by eleven days, which after three years make about a month, they then insert a thirteenth month, which they call Ve-adar, or a second Adar, which has twenty-nine days in it. This intercalation had the effect of postponing the great feasts, &c. for a whole month,

temple. Jesus knew what important and awful truths he was to deliver to the people assembled there, and desired to impress them deeply on the minds of his own disciples in particular. He therefore first pronounced a sentence of destruction on the barren fig-tree. Next morning, after the disciples had beheld and been astonished at the full effect of that sentence, he went with them, filled with admiration at what they had seen, into the temple; and, after having silenced the cavils of the chief priests and elders, delivered the three parables contained in Matth. xxi. 28. chap. xxii. to ver. 14. Now, in these circumstances, what impressions may we reasonably imagine to have been made on the minds of the disciples, when they heard their master deliver these parables with an awful dignity, and even severity of manner? especially when they heard him apply the first of them in these words, Verily, I say unto you, that the publicans and harlots go into the kingdom of heaven before you, &c. In the like manner, the second parable concluded thus, verses 43, 44. Therefore, I say unto you, the kingdom of heaven shall be taken from you and given to a nation bringing forth THE FRUITS thereof, &c. And in the third parable are these words. But when the king heard thereof he was wroth, AND SENT FORTH HIS ARMIES, AND DESTROYED THOSE MURDERERS, AND BURNT UP THEIR CITY. I say, when the disciples heard these things, how must they have been affected with them. Could they doubt one moment, whether what they had seen in the morning the miracle intended to exhibit beforehand a divine bore a relation to what they now heard? Or, whether attestation of the denunciations suggested in these parables?

For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels.

A NEW and very ingenious explanation of this text, which has much puzzled the commentators, is offered to the public in Bowyer's Critical Conjectures, from a manuscript dissertation of the late Dr. Atwell, Rector of Exeter College, communicated by Dr. Ross, the bishop of Exeter. For exσiav exei exousian echein, &c. Dr. Atwell proposes to read Esra av exiousa an, for this cause ought the gifted woman, SHOULD SHE GO OUT, from her seat to the synagogue desk to pray or prophesy, to have her head covered. Now, lest the woman, when moved by the spirit to pray in public, should think herself superior to the men, and consequently exempt from the ordinary restraint of the sex, the apostle tells her, that she ought nevertheless to be covered, dix T8s aylenus dia tous angelous, with regard to, or in respect of the officiating ministers of the church, who, as they were moved by the same spirit, still retained their natural superiority to her even in her gifted state.

Dr. Owen is dissatisfied with the text itself, and makes little scruple of rejecting it as a spurious gloss, to save all trouble for the future! for, 1st, The sense seems to be complete without them. 2dly, By inserting them, the apostle's argument becomes disjointed. And, 3dly, Two different reasons that have no connection, for this cause, i.e. that in verse 9. and because of the angels, alleged for the same thing, appears odd in the same sentence. Perhaps then it is an early cautionary gloss, founded on the traditional intercourse between angels and women; for which see the Septuagint and Vulgate versions, together with the Targums on Gen. vi. 1, 4. and above all Whitby's Stricture patrum in Genesin. p. 5, &c.

Bishop Barrington on this text observes, that "its uncommon difficulty may perhaps be considerably lessened by interpreting power, the symbol of man's power over the woman, and on account of messengers, ministers of the church, whether prophets, evangelists, teachers," &c. This observation is not new. Theophylact gives the same interpretation. "On

account," says he, "or from the consideration of the things aforementioned in the chapter, the apostle says, that the woman ought to have on her head the symbol of being under the power of another; and that is a veil."

Mr. S. Weston proposes to read ež exxoias ex ekousias, i.e. of her own will, and xaтayyeλss kalangelous, i.e. accusers. The verse will then read, " For this cause the woman ought of her own accord to cover her head for fear of the accusers." In other words, the woman on this account should voluntarily submit to wear a veil for the sake of subordination, lest she be evil spoken of. Karayyerys katangelous, Καταγγελος

in its second sense means an informer or accuser. See Thucyd. l. vii. p. 476. ed. Wasse, and Herodian, lib. v. p. 224. ed. Bocher. The informers were those who watched the conduct of the Christians in their assemblies, with a view to calumniate them.

But Mr. Bowyer was of opinion that instead of ayyers angelous, we should read ayyeλaws angelaious, which signifies the vulgar.

Another conjecture is, that we should read, with a small alteration of the original, A woman ought to have a VEIL because of the YOUNG MEN, Jac. Gothofred. We leave the reader to his choice.

Behold I will send a blast... the king of Assyria. WITH regard to the destruction of the greater and better part of the army of Sennacherib, king of Assyria, by an angel of the Lord, there can scarce remain a doubt but that the immediate natural instrument, the power put in action by the angel of the Lord, and which, we may add, would not have operated on that precise occasion, but by being so brought forward by the influence of the obedient angel, was in reality the dreadful hot wind, the samiel, of which, from travellers and natural historians, we gather so many horrible accounts.

The samiel is, as we are informed by that intelligent traveller, Mr. Ives, Travels, p. 76, 77, 275. a noxious blast to which travellers are sometimes exposed in passing the deserts of Arabia, in the months of July and August. In some years it does not blow at all; but in others it comes six or eight times; but seldom continues more than a few minutes at a time; and passes with the quickness of lightning where it produces its effects. It flies in streams of no great breadth; so that some persons, at no great distance from each other, may escape, and others at a few miles distance, be exposed to different samiels. The blast occasions instantaneous death to every man or beast that happens to be with his face toward it, and after death, the limbs, on being pulled, will separate from the body; so absolute is the dissolution. Those who are used to the country, perceive, providentially, a short warning by a thick haze in the horizon, and by a sensible alteration of the air; on which occasion the only means of escape is for travellers to be prostrate with their faces close to the ground and their feet toward the samiel, and to continue so till it is passed. It is known in all the deserts of Arabia, and particularly between Bagdad and Aleppo.

A similar account we have from Niebuhr, one of whose servants perished by it; though, by means of using the above mentioned precaution, not more than four or five other persons died by it, of the whole caravan with which he journeyed, Descrip. de l'Arabie, p. 7, 8.

But Maillet, Letter XIV. p. 228, 232. speaks of near one thousand five hundred persons out of another caravan going from Egypt to Mecca, on which road it is also met with, having lost their lives by it.

Chardin, tom. ii. p. 9. says it sometimes makes a hissing noise, and appears red and fiery.

And the curious Mr. Harmer very fairly suggests, Obs. vol. iv. p. 319. that this might be the dreadful burning that consumed the Israelites who were in the uttermost parts of the camp at Taberah, Numb. xi. 1.

As therefore, from what we read, it should seem that Sennacherib, after he had departed from Lachish to Libnah, again changed his course, and marched to meet Tirhaka, king of Ethiopia, 2 Kings, xix. 9; Isai. xxxvii. 9. we may very justly conclude, that on his way toward Egypt, he might meet with the streaming blasts of this terrible samiel, brought in a most extraordinary manner, and in a most astonishing degree, by the command of the angel of the Lord; which streaming blasts destroyed the greater part of the Assyrian army, and obliged him to return with disgrace and confusion.

It is very remarkable, that the very words of the denunciation of this punishment, convey an idea that it was in this very manner; for we read, 2 Kings, xix. 7. and Isai. xxxvi. 7. Behold I will send a blast upon him. Vide FRAGMENT, No. 4, and King's Morsels.

It is probable that this wind is had in view in the following passages: Psalm ciii. 16; Isai. xxxii. 2; Jer. xxii. 22. and li. 1.

There shall not be found among you...a consulter with familiar spirits.

THIS law is also contained in Levit. xx. 27.

The

Hebrew literally is, a consulter of Oh. When speaking of this as the oracle consulted by Saul at Endor, see p. 485, we promised to resume that part of the

subject: we now fulfil our engagement; considering that a knowledge of those things which the Jews were prohibited may not only be instructive but entertaining.

It has been proved, in the article above referred to, that N, AUB or оB, signified a serpent; that there were deities worshipped under that form and title; that he was esteemed prophetic, and his temples applied to as oracular. It was also proved in that note that this was the oracle consulted by Saul.

In addition to this information we select the following from the same valuable work on Mythology, by Mr. Bryant; a work which, in our opinion, should be digested by every one desirous of acquainting himself with ancient history, or with the origin of the false worship which has universally prevailed.

It may seem extraordinary, that the worship of the serpent should have ever been introduced into the world; and it must appear stili more remarkable, that it should almost universally have prevailed: yet so we find it to have been. In most of the ancient rites there is some allusion to the serpent. In the orgies of Bacchus, the persons who partook of the ceremony used to carry serpents in their hands, and with horrid screams call upon Eva, Eva. They were often crowned with serpents, and still made the same frantic exclamation, Clem. Alex. Coh. p. 11; Austin. Civ. Dei. l. iii. c. 12, and l. xviii. c. 15. One part of the mysterious rites of Jupiter Sabazius was to let a snake slip down the bosom of the person to be initiated, which was taken out below. Arnobius, 1. 5. These ceremonies, and this symbolic worship, began among the Magi, who were the sons of Chus; and by them propagated in various parts. Epiphanius thinks, that the invocation, Eva, Eva, related to the great mother of mankind, and the account of the serpent in the third chapter of Genesis; but I should think that Eva was the same as Eph, Epha, Opha, which the Greeks rendered opis ophis, and by it denoted a serpent. Clemens acknowledges, that the term Eva, properly aspirated, had such a signification.

Olympias, the mother of Alexander the Great, was very fond of these orgies, in which the serpent was introduced. Plutarch mentions that rites of this sort were practised by the Edonian women near mount Hamus, in Thrace; and carried on to a degree of madness. Olympias copied them closely in all their frantic manoeuvres. She used to be followed with many attendants, who had each a thyrsus, a wand, or javelin, with serpents twined round it. They had also snakes in their hair, and in the chaplets which they wore; so that they made a most frightful appearance. Their cries were very shocking; and the whole was attended with a continual repetition of Evoe, Saboe, Hues Attes, Attes Hues, which were titles of the god Dionusus. He was particularly named Ts Hues, and his priests were the Hyades

and Hyantes. He was likewise styled Evas. This we learn from Demosthenes.

In Egypt was a serpent named Thermuthis, which was looked upon as very sacred; and the natives are said to have made use of it as a royal tiara, with which they ornamented the statues of Isis, Ælian. Hist. Anim. I. 10. c. 31. We learn from Diodorus Siculus, that the kings of Egypt wore high bonnets, which terminated in a round ball; and the whole was surrounded with asps. The priests likewise upon their bonnets had the representation of serpents.

I take Abaddon, as it is mentioned in the Revelation, to have been the name of the same Ophite god, with whose worship the world had been so long infected. He is termed by the evangelist, the angel of the bottomless pit, that is, the prince of darkness; in another place he is described as the dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil and satan. Hence I think that the learned Heinsius is very right in the opinion which he has given upon this passage, when he makes Abaddon the same as the serpent Ob or Pytho. It is said, Euseb. Prep. Evan. l. i. p. 42. that in Persia, and in other parts of the East, they erected temples to the serpent tribe, and held festivals to their honour, esteeming them the supreme of all the gods, and the superintendants of the whole world. The worship began among the people of Chaldea. They built the city Ophis upon the Tigris, Herod. l. ii. c. 189. also Ptolemy, and were greatly addicted to divination, and to the worship as the serpent. Maimonides and Selden. From Chaldea the worship passed into Egypt, where the serpent deity was called Can-oph, Can-eph, and C'neph. It had also the name of Ob, or Oub, and was the same as the Basiliscus, or royal serpent; the same also as the Thermuthis: and in like manner was made use of by way of ornament to the statues of their gods.

The chief deity of Egypt is said to have been Vulcan, also styled Opas, as we learn from Cicero. He was the same as Osiris, the sun, and hence was often called Ob-El, and there were pillars sacred to him, with curious hieroglyphical inscriptions, which had the same name. They were very lofty, and narrow in comparison of their length; hence among the Greeks, who copied from the Egyptians, every thing tapering to a point was styled obelos, whence we name a pillar of the like description obelisk.

As the worship of the serpent was of old so prevalent, many places, as well as people, from thence received their names. Those who settled in Campania were called Opici; we meet also with places called Opis, Ophis, Ophitea, Ophionia, Ophioessa, Ophiodes, Ophiusa, &c. There were also places denominated Oboth, Obona, and reversed Onoba, from Ob.

Buffon says that of all serpents the gerenda of the East Indies is the most honoured and esteemed. To this animal, which is finely spotted with various col