sels, when in imminent danger; and this method has been used even in modern times.2

Much ingenious conjecture has been hazarded relative to the nature of the rudder-bands, mentioned in Acts xxvii. 40. ; but the supposed difficulty will be obviated by attending to the structure of antient vessels. It was usual for all large ships, (of which description were the Alexandrian corn ships,) to have two rudders, a kind of very large and broad oars, which were fixed at the head and stern. The bands were some kinds of fastenings, by which these rudders were hoisted some way out of the water: for, as they could be of no use in the storm, and in the event of fair weather coming the vessel could not do without them, this was a prudent way of securing them from being broken to pieces by the agitation of the waves. These bands being loosed, the rudders would fall down into their proper places, and serve to steer the vessel into the creek which they now had in view.3

V. Commerce could not be carried on without coin, nor without a system of weights and measures.

Although the Scriptures frequently mention gold, silver, brass, certain sums of money, purchases made with money, current money, and money of a certain weight; yet the use of coin or stamped Money appears to have been of late introduction among them. Calmet is of opinion that the antient Hebrews took gold and silver only by weight, and that they regarded the purity of the metal and not the stamp. The most antient mode of carrying on trade, unquestionably, was by way of barter, or exchanging one commodity for another; a custom which obtains in some places even to this day. In process of time such metals as were deemed the most valuable, were received into traffic, and were weighed out; until the inconveniences of this method induced men to give to each metal a certain mark, weight, and degree of alloy, in order to determine its value, and save both buyers and sellers the trouble of weighing and examining the metal. The coinage of money was of late date among the Persians, Greeks, and Romans. The Persians had none coined before the reign of Darius the son of Hystaspes, nor had the Greeks (whom the Romans most probably imitated) any before the time of Alexander. We have no certain vestiges of the existence of coined money, among the Egyptians, before the time of the Ptolemies; nor

1 Raphelius and Wetstein, in loc. have collected numerous testimonies. 2 The process of under-girding a ship is thus performed: A stout cable is slipped under the vessel at the prow, which the seamen can conduct to any part of the ship's keel, and then fasten the two ends on the deck, to keep the planks from starting. As many rounds as may be necessary, may be thus taken about the vessel. An instance of this kind is mentioned in Lord Anson's voyage round the world. Speaking of a Spanish man-of-war in a storm, the writer says,--" They were obliged to throw overboard all their upper-deck guns; and take six turns of the cable round the ship, to prevent her opening." (p. 24. 4to. edit.) Bp. Pearce and Dr. A. Clarke, on Acts xxvii. 17. Two instances of under-girding a ship are noticed in the chevalier de Johnstone's Memoirs of the Rebellion in 1745-6, (London, 1822. 8vo.) pp. 421. 454.

3 Elsner and Wetstein, on Acts xxvii. 40

had the Hebrews any coinage until the government of Judas Maccabeus, to whom Antiochus Sidetes, king of Syria, granted the privilege of coining his own money in Judæa. Before these respective times, all payments were made by weight: this will account for one and the same word (shekel, which comes from shakal, to weigh) denoting both a certain weight of any commodity, and also a determinate sum of money.1

Weights and Measures were regulated at a very early period in Asia. Moses made various enactments concerning them for the Hebrews; and both weights and measures, which were to serve as standards both for form and contents, were deposited at first in the tabernacle, and afterwards in the temple, under the cognisance of the priests. On the destruction of Solomon's temple, these standards necessarily perished; and, during the captivity, the Hebrews used the weights and measures of their masters.

For tables of the weights, measures, and money, which are mentioned in the Bible, the reader is referred to No. II. of the Appendix to this volume.

1 Calmet's Dictionary, vol. ii. article, Money.

CHAPTER VIII.

ALLUSIONS TO THE THEATRES, TO THEATRICAL PERFORMANCES, AND TO THE GRECIAN GAMES, IN THE NEW TESTAMENT.

I. Allusions to the Theatres and to Theatrical Performances in the New Testament.-II. Allusions to the Grecian Games, particularly the Olympic Games.-1. Qualifications of the Candidates.-Preparatory Discipline to which they were subjected.-2. Foot-race.3. Rewards of the Victors.-4. Beautiful allusions to these Games in the New Testament, explained.

I. NOTHING seems more foreign to the manners of the Israelites than theatres, public shows, or those exercises in which gladiators fought naked, and hazarded their lives for the sake of diverting a multitude of spectators,—a barbarous amusement, which has happily been abolished by the beneficent influence of the Gospel. There were in the cities of the heathens certain places appointed for public sports. The theatres held a great number of persons, and were so contrived that all could conveniently see. In the performances there exhibited the Gentiles took great delight: and this circumstance accounts for so many theatres being erected in Judæa, soon after it became subject to a foreign dominion. The theatres also appear to have been places of public meeting on particular occasions. Thus, at Ephesus, Gaius and Aristarchus, Paul's companions in travel, were taken to the theatre; but the apostle was prevented from entering in among them for fear of increasing the tumult of the people. (Acts xix. 29, 30.)

"In all countries the stage has ever furnished different languages with the most beautiful metaphors that adorn them.2 In every tongue we read of the drama of human life; its scenes are described as continually shifting and varying: mortal life is represented as an intricate plot, which will gradually unfold and finally wind up into harmony

1 See Lamy, De Tabernaculo, lib. iv. c. 7. § 3.

2 For the following account of the theatrical representations, and of the Grecian games, alluded to in the New Testament, the author is indebted to Dr. Harwood's Introduction, vol. ii. sections 1. and 4., collated with Bruning's Compendium Antiquitatum Græcarum e profanis Sacrarum, pp. 352-376., from which treatise Dr. H. appears principally to have derived his materials.

Σκηνη πας ό βιος, και παιγνιον" η μαθε παιζειν,

Την σπουδήν μεταθεις, η φερε τας οδύνας.-Epigram in Antholog.

Quomodo fabula, sic vita; non quàm diu, sed quàm bene acta sit, refert. Nihil ad rem pertinet, quo loco desinas: quocunque voles desine: tantùm bonam clausulam impone. Seneca, epist. lxxvii. tom. ii. p. 306. edit. Elz. 1672. Olov & sopodov απολύει της σκηνής & παραλαβών σρατηγος αλλ' ουκ ειπον τα πέντε μέρη, αλλά τα τρία, καλως είπας' εν μέντοι τῷ βίῳ τα τρια λον το δραμα έσι. Mar. Antoninus, lib. xii. p. 236. edit. Oxon. The words of the Psalmist,-" we spend our days as a tale that is told,"have been supposed to be an allusion to a dramatic fable. The imagery, considered in this view, would be striking, did we know that the early Jews ever had any scenical representations. 62

VOL. III.

and happiness and the world is styled a magnificent theatre, in which God has placed us,-assigned to every man a character,-is a constant spectator how he supports this character,-and will finally applaud or condemn according to the good or bad execution of the part, whatever it is, he has been appointed to act. The drama was instituted to exhibit a striking picture of human life, and, in a faithful mirror, to hold up to the spectator's view that miscellany of characters which diversify it, and those interchanges and reverses of fortune which chequer it. It is scarcely necessary to remark, though the observation is proper for the sake of illustrating a very beautiful passage in one of St. Paul's Epistles, that a variety of scenes is painted, which, by means of the requisite machinery, are very frequently shifting, in order to show the characters in a variety of places and fortunes. To the spectator, lively and affecting views are by turns displayed, sometimes, for example, of Thebes, sometimes of Athens,3 one while of a palace, at another of a prison; now of a splendid triumph, and now of a funeral procession,-every thing, from the beginning to the catastrophe, perpetually varying and changing, according to the rules and conduct of the drama. Agreeable to this, with what elegance and propriety does St. Paul, whom we find quoting Menander, one of the most celebrated writers of the Greek comedy, represent the fashion of this world as continually passing away, and all the scenes of this vain and visionary life as perpetually shifting! "The imagery," says Grotius, "is taken from the theatre, where the scenery is suddenly changed, and exhibits an appearance totally different.”5' And as the transactions of the drama are not real, but fictitious and imaginary, such and such characters being assumed and personated, in whose joys or griefs, in whose domestic felicities or infelicities, in whose elevation or depression, the actor is not really and personally interested, but only supports a character, perhaps entirely foreign from his own, and represents passions and affections in which his own heart has no share: how beautiful and expressive, when considered in this light, is that passage of Scripture wherein the apostle is inculcating a Christian indifference for this world, and exhorting us not to suffer ourselves to be unduly affected either by the joys or sorrows of so fugitive and transitory a scene! (1 Cor. vii. 29-31.) But this I say, brethren, the time is short.

1 Epicteti Enchirid. cap. xvii. p. 699. Upton. Epicteti Dissertationes ab Arriano. lib. iv. p. 580. Upton.

2 M. Antoninus, lib. xi. § vi. p. 204. edit. Oxon. Modò me Thebis, modo ponit Athenis.

3

Horat. Epist. lib. ii. ver. 213.

4 1 Cor. vii. 31. Παραγει γαρ το σχήμα του κοσμου τούτου. 5 Dicitur, Tapayer to oxua is oknens, ubi scena invertitur, aliamque planè ostendit faciem. Grotius ad loc. Mais comme Grotius remarque que cette reflexion de l'Apôtre est empruntée du théâtre, et que le mot Grec expa, que l'on traduit la figure, signifie proprement un personnage de théâtre, ou une décoration dans Euripide et dans Aristophane, et que les Grecs disoient pour marquer le changement de scène, ou de décoration du théâtre παράγει το σχημα της σκηνής, on croit qu'il faudroit traduire, La face de ce monde change, ce qui convient parfaitement an dessein de l' Apôtre dans cette conjoncture. Projet d'une Nouvelle Version, par le Cone. p. 674. Rotter. 1696.

It remaineth that both they that have wives be as though they had none: and they that weep as though they wept not: and they that rejoice as though they rejoiced not: and they that buy as though they possessed not: and they that use this world as not abusing it. For the fashion of this world passeth away. If we keep in mind the supposed allusion in the text (the fashion of this world passeth away) we shall discern a peculiar beauty and force in his language and sentiment. For the actors in a play, whether it be comedy or tragedy, do not act their own proper and personal concerns, but only personate and mimic the characters and conditions of other men. And so when they weep, in acting some tragical part, it is as though they wept not; and there is more show and appearance, than truth and reality, of grief and sorrow in the case. On the other hand, if they rejoice in acting some brighter scene, it is as though they rejoiced not; it is but a feigned semblance of joy, and forced air of mirth and gaiety, which they exhibit to the spectators, no real inward gladness of heart. If they seem to contract marriages, or act the merchant, or personate a gentleman of fortune, still it is nothing but fiction. And so when the play is over, they have no wives, no possessions or goods, no enjoyments of the world, in consequence of such representations. In like manner, by this apt comparison, the apostle would teach us to moderate our desires and affections towards every thing in this world; and rather, as it were, to personate such things, as matters of a foreign nature, than to incorporate ourselves with them, as our own proper and personal concern."

"The theatre is also furnished with dresses suitable to every age, and adapted to every circumstance and change of fortune. The persons of the drama, in one and the same representation, frequently support a variety of characters: the prince and the beggar, the young and the old, change their dress according to the characters in which they respectively appear, by turns laying aside one habit and assuming another, agreeably to every condition and age.3 The apostle Paul seems to allude to this custom, and his expressions, regarded in this light, have a peculiar beauty and energy, when he exhorts Christians to PUT OFF the OLD MAN with his deeds, and to PUT ON THE NEW MAN. (Coloss. iii. 9, 10. and in Eph. iv. 22, 23, 24.) That ye PUT OFF, concerning the former conversation, the OLD MAN, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts: and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and that ye PUT ON THE NEW MAN, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.

"It is, moreover, well known, that in the Roman theatres and am

1 Καταχρωμένοι is very unhappily rendered abuse. It is here used in a good sense, as the whole passage requires. From the transiency of human life the apostle observes, that those who are now using this world's happiness will soon be as those who had never enjoyed it. The Greek writers use Παραχράομαι oι Αποχραομαι το

abuse.

2 Brekell's Discourses, p. 318..

3 Ειναι γαρ όμοιον τῳ αγαθῷ ὑποκριτη του σοφον ις αν τε Θερσίτου αν τε Αγαμέμνονος προσωπον αναλάβη, εκατερον ὑποκρίνεται προσηκοντως. Diogenes Laertius, lib. vii. p. 463. edit. Meibomii. 1692.

4 Mihi quidem dubium non est quin hæc loquendi ratio ducta sit ab actoribus,