the contemptuous despisers of every thing that was virtuous. They profess that they know God, but in works they deny him, being abominable and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate. (Titus i. 16.) This testimony to the religious and moral character of the Jewish people, by Jesus Christ and his apostles, is amply corroborated by Josephus, who has given us a true estimate of their principles and manners, and is also confirmed by other contemporary historians.1 The circumstance of their nation having been favoured with an explicit revelation from the Deity, instead of enlarging their minds, miserably contracted and soured them with all the bitterness and leaven of theological odium. They regarded uncircumcised heathens with sovereign contempt, and believed them to be hated by God, merely because they were born aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and lived strangers to their covenant of promise. They would not eat with them (Acts xi. 3.), do the least friendly office for them, or maintain any social correspondence and mutual intercourse with them. The apostle comprises their national character in a few words, and it is a just one: They were contrary to all men.3 (1 Thess. ii. 15.) The supercilious insolence with which the mean and selfish notion of their being the only favourites of heaven and enlightened by God, inflated them as a people, and the haughty and scornful disdain in which they held the heathens, are in a very striking manner characterised in the following spirited address of St. Paul to them.--"Behold! thou art called a Jew, and restest in the law, and makest thy boast of God: and knowest his will, and approvest the things that are more excellent, being instructed out of the law, and art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, which hast the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law." (Rom. ii. 17-20.) This passage exhibits to us a faithful picture of the national character of this people, and shows us how much they valued themselves upon their wisdom and superior know

"I cannot forbear," says Josephus, "declaring my opinion, though the declaration fills me with great emotion and regret, that if the Romans had delayed to come against these wretches, the city would either have been engulphed by an earthquake, overwhelmed by a deluge, or destroyed by fire from heaven, as Sodom was: for that genesation was far more enormously wicked than those who suffered these calamities." Bell. Jud. lib. v. c. 13. p. 1256. "These things they suffered," says Origen, "as being the most abandoned of men." Origen contra Celsum, p. 62. Cantab. 1677. 2The Jews are the only people who refuse all friendly intercourse with every other nation, and esteem all mankind as enemies." Diod. Siculus, tom. ii. p. 524. edit. Wesseling, Amstel. 1746. "Let him be to thee as an heathen man and a publican." (Matt. xviii. 17.) Of the extreme detestation and abhorrence which the Jews had for the Gentiles we have a very striking example in that speech which St. Paul addresses to them, telling them in the course of it, that God had commissioned him to go to the Gentiles. The moment he had pronounced the word, the whole assembly was in confusion, tore off their clothes, rent the air with their cries, threw clouds of dust into it, and were transported into the last excesses of rage and madness. "He said unto me, Depart, for I will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles: they gave him audience," says the sacred historian, "until this word, and then lifted up their voice and said, Away with such a fellow from the earth; for it is not fit that he should live." (Acts xxii. 21.)

3 This character of the Jewish nation is confirmed by Tacitus, and expressed almost in the very words of the apostle, "Adversus omnes alios hostile odium." Tacit. Hist. lib. v. § 5. vol. iii. p. 261. edit. Bipont.

VI. Sect. III.] Jewish People at the Time of Christ's Birth. 375

ledge of religion, arrogating to themselves the character of lights and guides, and instructors of the whole world, and contemptuously regarding all the heathen as blind, as babes, and as fools!

Another ever memorable instance of the national pride and arrogance of this vain and ostentatious people is, that when our Lord was discoursing to them concerning their pretensions to moral liberty, and representing the ignoble and despicable bondage in which sin detains its votaries, they imagined this to be an indirect allusion to the present condition of their country; their pride was instantly in flames; and they had the effrontery and impudence openly to assert, that they had always been free, and were never in bondage to any man (John viii. 33.); though every child must know the history of their captivities, must know that Judea was at that very time a conquered province, had been subdued by Pompey, and from that time had paid an annual tribute to Rome!

Another characteristic which distinguishes and marks this people, was that kind of evidence which they expected in order to their reception of truth. Except they saw signs and wonders they would not believe! (John iv. 48.) If a doctrine proposed to their acceptance was not confirmed by some visible displays of preternatural power, some striking phenomena, the clear and indubitable evidences of an immediate divine interposition, they would reject it. In antient times, for a series of many years, this people had been favoured with numerous signal manifestations from heaven: a cloud had conducted them by day, and a pillar of fire by night: their law was given them, accompanied by a peculiar display of solemn pomp and magnificence; and the glory of God had repeatedly filled their temple. Habituated as their understandings had been, for many ages, to receive as truth only what should be attested and ratified by signs from heaven, and by some grand and striking phenomena in the sky, it was natural for them, long accustomed as they had been to this kind of evidence, to ask our Saviour to give them some sign from heaven (Matt. xvi. 1.), to exhibit before them some amazing and stupendous prodigy in the air to convince them of the dignity and divinity of his character. The Jews, says St. Paul, require a sign (1 Cor. i. 22.); it was that species of evidence to which their nation had been accustomed. Thus we read that the Scribes and Pharisees came to John, desiring him that he would show them a sign from heaven. Again, we read that the Jews came and said to Jesus, What sign showest thou unto us, seeing that thou dost these things? Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up! (John ii. 18, 19.) What kind of signs these were which they expected and what sort of preternatural prodigies they wanted him to display in order to authenticate his divine mission to them, appears from the following passages: They said therefore, unto him, What sign showest thou then, that we may see and believe thee? What dost thou work? Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven! (John vi. 30, 31.) This method, therefore, of espousing religious doctrines, only as they

should be confirmed by some signal and indubitable interposition of the deity, and their cherishing the vanity and presumption that heaven would lavish its miraculous signs whenever they called for them, constitute a striking and very distinguishing feature in the national character of this people.

So exceedingly great was the fecundity of the Jewish people, that multitudes of them had occasionally been constrained to emigrate from their native country; hence, at the time of our Saviour's birth, there was scarcely a province in the Roman empire in which they were not to be found, either serving in the army, engaged in the pursuits of commerce, or exercising some lucrative arts. They were maintained, in foreign countries, against injurious treatment and violence, by various special edicts of the emperors and magistrates in their favour; though from the peculiarities of their religion and manners, they were held in very general contempt, and were not unfrequently exposed to much vexation and annoyance from the jealousy and indignation of an ignorant and superstitious populace. Many of them in consequence of their long residence and intercourse with foreign nations, fell into the error of endeavouring to make their religion accommodate itself to the principles and institutions of some of the different systems of heathen discipline: but, on the other hand, it is clear that the Jews brought many of those among whom they resided to perceive the superiority of the Mosaic religion over the Gentile superstitions, and were highly instrumental in causing them to forsake the worship of a plurality of gods. Although the knowledge which the Gentiles thus acquired from the Jews respecting the only true God, the Creator and Governor of the universe, was doubtless both partial and limited, yet it inclined many of them the more readily to listen to the subsequent arguments and exhortations of the apostles of our Saviour, for the purpose of exploding the worship of false deities, and recalling men to the knowledge of true religion. All which, Mosheim observes, with equal truth and piety, appears to have been most singularly and wisely directed by the adorable hand of an interposing Providence; to the end that this people, who were the sole depository of the true religion and of the knowledge of the one supreme God, being spread abroad through the whole earth, might be every where, by their example, a reproach to superstition, contribute in some measure to check it, and thus prepare the way for that fuller display of divine truth which was to shine upon the world from the ministry and Gospel of the Son of God.2

1 In proof of this observation, Mosheim refers to Jacobi Gronovii Decreta Romana et Asiatica pro Judæis ad cultum divinum per Asia Minoris urbes securè obeundum. Lugd. Bat. 1712, 8vo. See also Dr. Lardner's Credibility, part i. book i. ch. viii. (Works, vol. i. pp. 164-201), where numerous valuable testimonies are adduced. 2 Mosheim's Commentaries, vol. i. p. 106. Eccl. Hist. vol. i. p. 52. edit. 1806. Besides the authorities cited in the preceding chapter, the Jewish sects, &c. are largely discussed by Pritius, introd. ad Nov. Test. chap. xxxii.-xxxv. pp. 249-275. Prideaux, Connection, book v. vol. ii. pp. 335–368. Relandi Antiq. Sacr. Hebræ orum, p. 276. et seq. Ikenius. Antiq. Hebr. pp. 33-42. Schachtii Dictata in Ikenium, p. 241. et seq. Dr. Macknight's Harmony, vol. i. disc. 1. Lamy's Apparatus Biblicus, vol. i. pp. 225-243. Dr. Lardner's Credibility, part i. book i. ch. 4. Leusden's Philologus Hebræo-Mixtus, pp. 138-170. Buddei Hist. Philosophie Hebræorum, p. 86. et seq. Schulzii Archeologia Hebraica, pp. 170—183.

PART IV.

DOMESTIC ANTIQUITIES

OF THE JEWS, AND OF OTHER NATIONS INCIDENTALLY MENTIONED IN THE SCRIPTURES.

CHAPTER I.

ON THE DWELLINGS OF THE JEWS.

I. Tents.-II. Houses-their arrangement-materials-and conveniences.-III. Furniture.-IV. Čities, Gates, and Markets. I. AS men, in the primitive condition of society, were unacquainted with the arts, they of course were not able to build themselves houses; they abode therefore necessarily under the shade of trees. It is probable that when mankind began to multiply on the earth, they dwelt in caves, many of which, in the Holy Land, are both capacious and dry. Thus, Lot and his daughters abode in a cave, after the destruction of Sodom. (Gen. xix. 30.) Antient historians1 contain many notices of troglodytes or dwellers in caves, and modern travellers have met with them in Barbary and Egypt, as well as in various other parts of the East. The Horites, who dwelt on Mount Seir, the Zamzummim, and the Emims or Anakim, are supposed to have resided in caves. In succeeding ages, they abode generally in tents, as the Arabs of the Desert do to this day. The invention of these is ascribed to Jabal, the son of Lamech, who is therefore termed the father of such as dwell in tents. (Gen. iv. 20.) The patriarchs pitched their tents where they pleased, and, it should seem, under the shade of trees whenever this was practicable. Thus, Abraham's tent was pitched under a tree in the plains of Mamre (Gen. xviii. 4.), and Deborah the prophetess dwelt under a palm tree between Ramah and Bethel, in Mount Ephraim. (Judg. iv. 5.) In the East, to this day, it is the custom in many places to plant about and among their buildings trees, which grow both high and broad, and afford a cooling and refreshing shade. It appears from 1 Kings iv. 25. that this practice antiently obtained in Judea, and that vines and fig trees were commonly used for this purpose. These trees furnished two great articles of food for their consumption, and the cuttings of their vines would be useful to them for fuel. The tents of the emirs and sovereigns of the East, are both large and magnificent, and furnished with magnificent hangings. Those of the Turkomans

1 Herodotus, lib. iii. c. 74. Diod. Sic. lib. iii. c. 31. Quintus Curtius, lib. v. c. 6. Josephus, Ant. Jud. lib. xv. c.4. § 1 49

VOL. JII.

are said to be white: and those of the Turks, green: but, according to D'Arvieux, Dr. Shaw, and M. Volney, the tents of the Bedouins, or Arabs of the Desert, are universally black, or of a very dusky brown. To these the bride in the Canticles compares herself (i. 5.), -I am black (or, tawny) as the tents of Kedar, but comely, or beautiful as the curtains of Solomon. In the East, those who lead a pastoral life, frequently sit (as Abraham did) in the tent door in the heat of the day. (Gen. xviii. 1.) The more opulent Arabs always have two tents, one for themselves, and another for their wives, besides others for their servants; in like manner, a particular tent was allotted to Sarah. (Gen. xxiv. 67.) When travelling, they were careful to pitch their tents near some river, fountain, or well. (1 Sam. xxix. 1. xxx. 21.) II. In progress of time men erected houses for their habitations: those of the rich were formed of stone or bricks, but the dwellings of the poor were formed of wood, or more frequently of mud, as they are to this day in the East Indies. In Egypt, Bengal, and Ceylon, houses are constructed with this material; which is but ill calculated to resist the effects of the impetuous torrents, that descended from the mountains of Palestine. Our Lord alludes to this circumstance at the close of his sermon on the mount. (Matt. vii. 26, 27.) In the Indies also, nothing is more common than for thieves to dig or break through these mud-walls, while the unsuspecting inhabitants are overcome by sleep, and to plunder them.3 To similar depredations Jesus Christ appears to allude, when he exhorts his disciples not to lay up their treasure where thieves BREAK THROUGH and steal. (Matt. vi. 19, 20.) In the holes and chinks of these walls, serpents sometimes concealed themselves. (Amos v. 19.) In Egypt, it appears from Exod. v. 7., that straw antiently entered into the composition of bricks; and some expositors have imagined that it was used (as with us), merely for burning them; but this notion is unfounded. The Egyptian bricks were a mixture of clay, mud, and straw, slightly blended and kneaded together, and afterwards baked in the sun. Philo, in his Life of Moses, says, that they used straw to bind their bricks.4 The straw still preserves its original colour, and is a proof that these bricks were never burnt in stacks or kilns.5 Part of the bricks of the celebrated tower of

1 Dr. Davy's Account of the Interior of Ceylon, p. 256. See also Harmer's Observations, vol. i. pp. 265. 285.

2 See instances of the frailty of these tenements in Dr. Shaw's Travels, vol. i. p. 250., Belzoni's Researches in Egypt, p. 299., and Ward's View of the History, &c. of the Hindoos, vol. ii. p. 335.

3 Ward's History, &c. of the Hindoos, vol. ii. P. 325.

4 Philonis Opera, tom. ii. p. 86. (edit. Mangey.)

5 Shaw's Travels, vol. i. p. 250. Mr. Belzoni, in his late researches in Egypt, found similar bricks in an antient arch which he discovered at Thebes, and which he has engraved among the plates illustrative of his Researches in Egypt, Nubia, &c. Plate xliv. No. 2. In and near the ruins of the antient Tentyra, Dr. Richardson also found huts built of sun-dried brick, made of straw and clay. (Travels, vol. i. pp. 185. 259.) They are thus described by the Rev. Mr. Jowett, as they appeared in February 1819.-Speaking of the remains of antient buildings in that part of Egypt, he says:- These