Imatges de pàgina
PDF
EPUB

presents the miseries and evil consequences of impiety; it is a most remarkable history of the long-suffering of God towards the Israelites, in which we see the most signal instances of his justice and mercy al ternately displayed. The people sinned and were punished; they repented and found mercy. Something of this kind we find in every page and these things are written for our warning. None should presume, for God is JUST; none need despair, for God is MERCIFUL. From the scenes of civil discord and violence which darken this history, St. Paul has presented us with some illustrious examples of faith, in the characters of Gideon, Barak, Samson, and Jephthah.1 Independently of the internal evidences of its authenticity which are to be found in the style of this book, the transactions it records are not only cited or alluded to by other sacred writers besides Saint Paul, but are further confirmed by the traditions current among the heathen writers. Thus, we find the memorial of Gideon's actions preserved by Sanchoniatho, a Tyrian writer who lived soon after him, and whose antiquity is attested by Porphyry, who was perhaps the most inveterate enemy to Christianity that ever lived.3 The Vulpinaria, or feast of the foxes, celebrated by the Romans in the month of April, (the time of the Jewish harvest, in which they let loose foxes with torches fastened to their tails,) was derived from the story of Samson, which was conveyed into Italy by the Phoenicians and to mention no more, in the history of Samson and Delilah, we find the original of Nisus and his daughters, who cut off those fatal hairs, upon which the victory depended.5

SECTION IV.

ON THE BOOK OF RUTH.

I. Title and argument. II. Chronology. III. Author. - IV. Scope.-V. Synopsis of its contents.

I. THE book of Ruth is generally considered as an appendix to that of Judges, and an introduction to that of Samuel it is therefore placed, and with great propriety, between the books of Judges and Samuel. In the antient Jewish canon of the Old Testament, Judges

1 Dr. Gray's Key, p. 157.

2 Compare Psal. lxxviii. 56-66. lxxxiii.11, 12. cvi. 34-46. 1 Sam. xii. 9-11. 2 Sam. xi. 21. Isa. ix. 4. and x. 26.

3 He expressly affirms Sanchoniatho to have derived many of the facts related in his history, εκ των υπομνημάτων Ιερυμβαλου, from the memoirs of Jerumbalus, or Jerubaal, another name for Gideon. Bocharti Phaleg. lib. ii. c. vii.

4 Ovid, Fasti, lib. iv. v. 684. et seq.

5 Ovid, Metam. lib. viii. fab. 1. See also a curious extract from M. De Lavaur's Conference de la Fable avec l'Histoire Sainte, in Dr. A. Clarke's Commentary on. Judges xvi. in which it is shown that Samson, the judge of the Israelites, is the original and essential Hercules of pagan mythology; thus furnishing an additional proof how much the heathens have been indebted to the Bible.

6 Jerome (Prolog. Galeat.) expressly states that this was the case in his time; and Eusebius, when giving Origen's catalogue of the sacred books, confirms his account. Eccl. Hist. lib. vi. c. 25

and Ruth formed but one book; although the modern Jews separate it from both, and make it the second of the five Megilloth or volumes which they place together towards the end of the Old Testament. It is publicly read by them in the synagogues on the feast of weeks or of Pentecost, on account of the harvest being mentioned in it, the first fruits of which were offered to God on that festival. This book derives its name from Ruth the Moabitess, whose history it relates, and whom the Chaldee paraphrast supposes to have been the daughter of Eglon king of Moab but this conjecture is utterly unsupported by Scripture, nor is it at all likely that a king's daughter would abandon her native country, to seek bread in another land, and marry a stranger.

II. Augustine1 refers the time of his history to the regal government of the Israelites; Josephus the Jewish historian, and some others of later date, to the time of Eli; Moldenhawer, after some Jewish writers, assigns it to the time of Ehud; Rabbi Kimchi and other Jewish authors conceive Boaz, who married Ruth, to have been the same person as Ibzan, who judged Israel immediately after Jephthah; Junius, comparing the book of Ruth with Matt. i., is of opinion, that the events recorded in this history took place in the days of Deborah; and the learned Archbishop Usher, that they happened in the time of Shamgar. As the famine which caused Elimelech to leave his country, 66 came to pass in the days when the Judges ruled" (Ruth i. 1.), Bishop Patrick has referred the beginning of this history to the judicature of Gideon, about the year of the world 2759, at which time a famine is related to have happened. (Judg. vi. 3-6.) Considerable difficulty has arisen in settling the chronology of this book, in consequence of its being mentioned by Saint Matthew (i. 5, 6.) that Salmon the father of Boaz (who married Ruth) was married to Rahab (by whom is generally understood Rahab the harlot, who protected the spies when Joshua invaded the land of Canaan); and yet that Boaz was the grandfather of David, who was born about three hundred and sixty years after the siege of Jericho, a length of time, during which it is difficult to conceive that only three persons, Boaz, Obed, and Jesse, should have intervened between Rahab and David. But this difficulty may readily be solved, either by supposing that some intermediate names of little consequence were omitted in the public genealogies copied by the evangelist, (as we know to have been the case in some other instances); or by concluding with Archbishop Usher, that the ancestors of David, being men of extraordinary piety, or designed to be conspicuous because the Messiah was to descend from them, were blessed with longer life and greater strength than ordinarily fell to the lot of men in that age. It is certain that Jesse was accounted an old man, when his son David was but a youth (see 1 Sam. xvii. 12.): and, since Boaz is represented as the great

1 De Doct. Christ. lib. ii. cap. 8.

2 Josephus, Ant. Jud. lib. v. c. 9. § 1. Seder Olam, c. xii. Moldenhawer, Introd. ad Libros canonicos Vet. et Nov. Test. p. 43. Kimchi on Ruth, c. i. Junius, Anno. tat. in Ruth i. Bishop Patrick on Ruth i. 1. Leusden, Philol. Heb. pp. 18, 86. 3 Chronologia Sacra, pars i. c. xii. pp. 69, 70. ed. Geneva, 1722, folio.

grandfather of the royal Psalmist, it is evident that the date of the history of Ruth cannot be so low as the time of Eli assigned by Josephus, nor so high as the time of Shamgar: the most probable period therefore is that stated by Bishop Patrick, viz. during the judicature of Gideon, or about the year of the world 2759, B. c. 1241.

III. Like the book of Judges, Ruth has been ascribed to Hezekiah, and also to Ezra : but the most probable, and indeed generally received opinion, is that of the Jews, who state it to have been written by the prophet Samuel. From the genealogy recorded in iv. 17— 22. it is evident that this history could not have been reduced into its present form before the time of Samuel.

IV. The scope of this book is, principally, to delineate part of Christ's genealogy in David's time. (Compare Ruth iv. 18-22. with Matt. i. 5, 6.) It had been foretold to the Jews that the Messiah should be of the tribe of Judah, and it was afterwards further revealed that he should be of the family of David: and therefore it was necessary, for the full understanding of these prophecies, that the history of the family, in that tribe, should be written before these prophecies were revealed, to prevent the least suspicion of fraud or design. And thus this book, these prophecies, and their accomplishment, serve to illustrate each other. The adoption of Ruth, a heathen converted to Judaism, into the line of Christ, has generally been considered as a pre-intimation of the admission of the Gentiles into the church. A further design of this book is to evidence the care of Divine Providence over those who sincerely fear God, in raising the pious Ruth from a state of the deepest adversity to that of the highest prosperity. The whole narrative is written with peculiar simplicity; and the interviews between Boaz and Ruth display the most unaffected piety, liberality, and modesty; and their reverent observance of the Mosaic law, as well as of antient customs, is portrayed in very lively and animated colours.

V. The book of Ruth, which consists of four chapters, may be conveniently divided into three sections; containing,

SECT. 1. An account of Naomi, from her departure from Canaan

into Moab, with her husband Elimelech, to her return thence into the land of Israel with her daughter-in-law Ruth. (ch. i.) B. C. 1241-1231.

SECT. 2. The interview of Boaz with Ruth, and their marriage. (ii. iii. iv. 1-12.)

SECT. 3. The birth of Obed, the son of Boaz by Ruth, from whom David was descended. (iv. 13-18.)

1 Bedford's Scripture Chronology, book v. c. 5.

SECTION V.

ON THE TWO BOOKS OF SAMUEL.

I. Title. II. —Authors.

[ocr errors]

III. Argument, scope, and analysis of the first book of Samuel. IV. Argument, scope, and analysis of the second book of Samuel. V. General observations on these two books.

[ocr errors]

I. IN the Jewish canon of Scripture these two books form but one, termed in Hebrew the Book of Samuel, probably because the greater part of the first book was written by that prophet, whose history and transactions it relates. The books of Samuel appear to have derived their appellation from 1 Chron. xxix. 29.: where the transactions of David's reign are said to be written in the book (Heb. words) of Samuel the seer. In the Septuagint version they are called the first and second Book of Kings, or of the Kingdoms; in the Vulgate they are designated as the first and second Book of Kings, and, by Jerome, they are termed the Books of the Kingdoms; as being two of the four books in which the history of the kings of Israel and Judah is related.

II. Jahn is of opinion, that the books of Samuel and the two books of Kings were written by one and the same person, and published about the forty-fourth year of the Babylonish captivity: and he has endeavoured to support his conjecture with much ingenuity, though unsuccessfully, by the uniformity of plan and style which he thinks are discernible in these books. The more prevalent, as well as more probable opinion, is that of the Talmudists, which was adopted by the most learned fathers of the Christian church (who unquestionably had better means of ascertaining this point than we have): viz. that the first twenty-four chapters of the first book of Samuel were written by the prophet whose name they bear; and that the remainder of that book, together with the whole of the second book, was committed to writing by the prophets Gad and Nathan, agreeably to the practice of the prophets who wrote memoirs of the transactions of their respective times. That all these three persons were writers is evident from 1 Chron. xxix. 29. ; where it is said: Now the acts of David, first and last, behold they are written in the book of Samuel the seer, and in the book of Nathan the prophet, and of Gad the seer: the memoirs of these prophets are here referred to as distinct books: but it would be natural for Ezra, by whom the canon of Jewish Scripture was completed, to throw all their contents into the two books of Samuel. It is certain that the first book of Samuel was written before the first book of Kings; a circumstance related in the former book being referred to in the latter. (1 Sam. ii. 31. with 1 Kings ii. 27.)

The first acts of David declared in 1 Chron. xxix. 29. to have been recorded by Samuel, were such as happened before the death of Samuel and these end with the twenty-fourth chapter of the first book of Samuel. What parts of the remaining history of David were

written by Nathan, and what by Gad, it is at present very difficult to distinguish with exactness. Mr. Reeves has conjectured, with great probability, that as it appears from 1 Sam. xxii. 5. that Gad was then with David in the hold or place where he kept himself secret from Saul; and since it is thought that Gad, being bred under Samuel, was privy to his having anointed David king, and had therefore resolved to accompany him during his troubles; it has, from these circumstances, been supposed that the history of what happened to David, from the death of Samuel to his being made king at Hebron over all Israel, was penned by the prophet Gad. He seems

the most proper person for that undertaking, having been an eyewitness to most of the transactions. This part of David's history takes up the seven last chapters of the first book of Samuel, and the four first chapters and the former part of the fifth chapter of the second book.

The first mention of the prophet Nathan occurs in 2 Sam. vii. 2. a short time after David was settled at Jerusalem. Nathan is frequently mentioned in the subsequent part of David's reign; and he was one of those who were appointed by David to assist at the anointing of Solomon. (1 Kings i. 32.) As this event took place not long before David's death, it is probable Nathan might survive the royal psalmist and, as he knew all the transactions of his reign from his settlement at Jerusalem to his death, it is most likely that he wrote the history of the latter part of David's reign; especially as there is no mention of Gad, after the pestilence sent for David's numbering the people, which was about two years before his death, during which interval Gad might have died. Gad must have been advanced in years, and might leave the continuation of the national memoirs to Nathan. For these reasons, it is probably thought that Nathan wrote all the remaining chapters of the second book of Samuel, after the five first.1

III. The FIRST BOOK of Samuel contains the history of the Jewish church and polity, from the birth of Samuel, during the judicature of Eli, to the death of Saul the first king of Israel; a period of nearly eighty years, viz. from the year of the world 2869 to 2949. Its scope is more immediately to declare the religious and political state of the Israelites under their last judges Eli and Samuel, and their first monarch Saul, and the reason why their form of government was changed from an aristocracy to a monarchy; thus affording a strong confirmation of the authenticity of the Pentateuch, in which we find that this change had been foretold by Moses, in his prophetic declaration to the assembled nation, a short time before his death, and upwards of four hundred years before the actual institution of the regal government. This book also exhibits the preservation of the church of God amidst all the vicissitudes of the Israelitish polity, and its transmission to posterity; together with signal instances of the divine mercy towards those who feared Jehovah, and of judgments inflicted upon his enemies. It consists of three parts or sections: viz.

[blocks in formation]
« AnteriorContinua »