Imatges de pàgina
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tween the two evenings d; at which time the pafchal lamb fhall be killed (D), and the festival continued, till the oneand-twentieth day of the fame month at evening.

a Ibid. ver. 6. See the margin of our Bible.

March and April. The expreffion between the two evenings is variously taken. Some reckon the first evening to be between noon and funfet (1), others between two and fix (2); but the most rational opinion, and the most received, is, that the first evening is that which immediately follows funfet, and that the fecond begins when that planet is fo far funk below the horizon, that the ftars vifibly appear above it (3).

The computation of this new year began at the first newmoon that happened nearest, or upon, the vernal equinox, with this rule, that the preceding full-moon, how near foever to it, belonged to the laft month of the former year, Now as they had no aftronomical tables to regulate those conjunctions, but were forced to guide themselves by the first appearance of the new moon, all their diligence in fending out people to obferve it from high places at funfet, could not prevent great irregularities happening in their months and years; because sometimes it is not to be seen till the fecond or third night, nor even then, if clouds interpofe. Add to this, that they were in all other refpects fo negligent of their

THE

chronology, that it is no wonder if fo many learned men have laboured fo much to correct and adjust it (4), and with fo little fuccefs. However, as to the new-moons, and thofe festivals which depended upon them, and indeed all other computations of time, they were committed to the care of the priests and judges, and the people were obliged to abide by their calculations, whether they proved right or wrong (5).

(D) This ordinance of the pafchal lamb our learned Spençer thinks to have been one of thofe which GOD exprefly appointed, in oppofition to the Zabian and Egyptian worship, in order to cure, as he expreffes it, the Ifraelites of their itch of idolatry, because the ram among them was facred to Jupiter. He adds alfo, that the ceremony of killing, dreffing, and eating of it, namely, neither boiled nor raw, but roasted, with the head, and all the other appurtenances, that a bone of it should not be broken, &c. were in like manner oppofite to those that were used in facrifices by thofe idolaters (6).

As to the Egyptians, we fhall have frequent occafion to fhew, that this pretended contrariety is at beft but very

(2) Calm. dict. fub voc. Paque. (4) Vide

(1) D. Kimebi, ap. Munft. in loc. (3) Mof. Gerund. Åbenezr. Salom. & al. in loc. Scaliger. ubi fup. Vignier. Genebr. Uffer. Sir If. Newt. Bedford, & al. (5) Vide prac. affirm. 46. (6) De leg, rit. Hebr. 1. ii, 6, 24.

lame

THE first and last day fhall be kept holy, and free from all fervile work, even as the Sabbath, except only, that on the former victuals may be dreffed, but not on the latter 2;

a Compare Exod. xii. 16. with xxxv. 3.

lame and imperfect. 1. Becaufe, as they, instead of sheep, facrificed goats to him, fo here Mofes ordains the killing either a lamb, or a kid ; and, 2. because even they once a year killed a ram in honour of their god, and cloathed his golden ftatue with the skin of it (1); fo that there was nothing in this pafchal lamb so very proper to obliterate that piece of idolatry in the worship of Jupiter.

As for the fect of the NY Tzeboim, or 'NAD Sebaim, we will venture to fay, that it is at least a very bold affumption in our author to make it more antient than Mofes, when he tells us himself in another place (2), that nothing is more obfcure and uncertain than its origin and antiquity, and that there are as many opinions as authors, and errors as opinions, about it. He quotes everywhere the teftimony of Ben Maimon, who tells us, among other things (3), that he came to understand the defign and meaning of a great number of Mofes's laws, by being converfant with the religion, worship, and ceremonies, of the Zabeans; from which he adds, that Abraham, who was brought up in them, had been converted..

But of what weight the opinion of a Jew, and him far from a ftrict one, can be, to account for the design of the Mofaic laws, or of what authority his teftimony can be. who lived but in the 12th century, to prove the Zabeans to have been fo confiderable a sect in Abraham's, or even in MoJes's time, that God fhould take fuch care to preserve his people from their idolatry, by giving them a great number of ceremonies that were oppofite to theirs, we fubmit to the reader. Dean Prideaux seems indeed very fond of Maimon's notion, and wonders that any one should mislike it (4); but brings neither proof nor testimony fufficient to back it. However, as to the pafchal lamb, we may more juftly wonder, that any Chriftian fhould fetch its origin from fo dark and muddy a fource, when the writers of the New Teftament have pointed to us one that is fo much clearer, and more divine, its being a type of CHRIST. We fhall find a more proper place to speak of the nation, or rather fect, of the Zabeans, and to fhew how little their boasted antiquity is to be depended upon.

(1) See vol. i. p. 474 (2) Ubi fup. c. 1. §. 1, 2, & feq. (3) More Nevoch. part iii. c. 29, & 40. Hevedab Zarb. c. 11, 12, & alib. passi

(4) Connect. part i, l. iii.

C 4

thofe

thofe two days fhall likewife be folemnized by an ho convocation b(E).

No leaven of any kind fhall be used, or even kept in th houfe, during thofe feven days; whofoever ufeth an leaven on those days fhall be cut off from Ifrael: all lea ven therefore fhall be removed out of the house before th pafchal lamb is killed d.

On the first day of the paffover fhall be offered a burnt facrifice of two young bullocks, one ram, and feven lamb of the first year, with fome inferior offerings; and on the fecond day of the feaft fhall be offered, befides the ufual fa crifices, a fheaf of the firft-fruit of that year's harveft; no new corn fhall be eaten in any way, before the firft fhea has been prefented unto the LORD (F). Some other or

Ibid. ver. 15, 19.'

с

dinances

dIbid. ver.

b Exod. xii. ver. 16. 15, & alib. Vide præc. aff. 347. Numb. xxviii. 19, & feq. Levit. xxiii. 10, & feq. '

(E) The 5 intermediate days are to be spent in mirth, and lawful recreations: they injoin all, especially the women, to wear the gayeft apparel, to eat flesh, fish, and fowl, and to drink wine. Weddings are forbid during this and the other two grand feftivals, left the joy that attends the former fhould make them forget the occafion of the latter. However, they all agree, that women may fhave and wash themselves, or even their cloaths, upon fome occafions (1). There is one Atrange injunction of theirs, that obliges every man and woman, though they be fo poor as to live by alms, to drink at least four bumpers of wine on the firft night of the paffover, whilft they are rehearsing the wonders wrought by GOD in Egypt, and at the Red Sea (2) with

fome more of the like nature, not worth repeating (3).

(F) We fhall have occafion to fpeak of all the different kinds of first-fruits which were to be offered to GoD as a token of their fubmiffion, gratitude, and dependence, and the manner of offering them, when we come to speak of offerings in general. As for this theaf we are now speaking of, it was to be of barley, because that is the first corn that is ripe about this time in that country. It was reaped on the evening of the 15th day of Nifan, and was to be offered up in the name of the whole nation. Thus far the text. The Jews add, that as foon as the evening of the first day of the paffover was come, at which time the second began, and in which fome kind of works might be done,

(1) Vide præc. neg; 75; (2) Pr. aff. 40.

(3) Pr. neg. 77,& feq.

the

dinances of lefs moment about this and other feftivals are interfperfed in the pentateuch; which we therefore omit.

THIS

The feaft of the weeks, or pentecoft.

HIS feaft was inftituted in memory of the law being The feaft given upon mount Sinai, fifty days after the exod (G), of weeks. and to oblige the people to appear before the LORD, to offer the firft-fruits of their harveft, viz. two leaves of the new wheat, which was then ripe, as an acknowlegement of his abfolute right and dominion over them and their land, and of their dependence upon him.

SEVEN weeks, or fifty days, were to be reckoned from the fixteenth day of the month Nifan, which was the fecond of the paffover, and the fiftieth day was to be the first day of this feftival (H).

thebeth-din, or great council, affembled, and deputed three men to go and gather the fheaf with a kind of folemnity, at which great crouds from the neighbouring cities flocked to Jerufalem, within whofe territories it was to be gathered. Thefe deputies asked three times whether the fun was fet, and were as often anfwered by the by-ftanders in the affirmative. They then asked three times leave to reap the fheaf, and it was no fooner granted, than they entered into three different fields, each with a fickle in his hand, and gathered each a distinct parcel, which they put into three different boxes, and brought them to the temple. Here they were threfhed, winnowed, and parched; and an homer, which contains about 3 pints, was filled with them, and prefented to the priest, who poured a quancity of oil, and threw fome incenfe, upon it; and, having

(1) Vide Deut. xxvi. & al. & Jegg.

heaved it to the LORD towards
the four points of the compafs,
threw fome part of it on the
fire of the altar, and the rest
he kept for himself. After
this ceremony, it was lawful
for every man to begin his har-
vest (1).

(G) The reader may re-
member that the Ifraelites came
out of Egypt on the 15th of the
first month Abif, or Nifan (2),
and came to Sinai on the third
day of the third month; two
days after which the law, or
decalogue, was given in the pre-
fence of all the people (3).

(H) It is therefore called, in the original, nya ar chag hebugnoth, or the feaft of weeks, from the feven weeks which were reckoned from that paffover; as from the 50 days the Greeks gave it the name of pen, tecoft. As for their other ceremonies on those days, the read er may see them in Leo de Modena (4).

Maimon. EDIDI
(2) Exod. xii. 3, 6, 41, 51.
(4) Carem. Jud. part iii. c. 4.

TAN .D. Abenexr. in
(3) Ibid. xix. 1, 13,

THE

THE facrifices ordained upon this day were to be, befides the two loaves, feven lambs of the first year, one young bullock, and two rams, for a burnt-offering; together with their ufual meat and drink-offerings, and likewife a kid for a fin-offering, and two lambs for a peaceoffering (I). No fervile work was to be done on that day, fave that victuals might be dreffed; and an holy convocation was to be called, as on other folemn festivals g.

The feaft TH

of tabernacles.

The feaft of the tabernacles.

'HIS feftival was ordained in memory of the 40 years abode of the Ifraelites in the wilderness; for which reafon it is called the feaft of the tabernacles, or tents (K); not only because they lived in tents, or booths, during all that time, but because it was to be celebrated in fuch

8 Levit. xxiii. 15, 16, 18, 19. xxviii. 27, & alib.

Exod. xxxiv. 22. Numb.

(K) The original calls it

chag balukoth, the חג הסוכות

feast of the tents, or booths; from which the Greeks gave it the name of unvonɣia skenopegia (5). Though the text fays it was appointed in memory of their abode in the wilderness, yet the Chaldee paraphraft feems to have underftood it not of their living in tents, but in the open air, when he renders the word ni fuccoth, tents, by abun

(I) There is fome difference between the facrifices that are ordered on this feftival, in Leviticus and in Numbers (1). Jofephus joins them all together (2); but whoever compares them, will rather think, that there is fome error of the tranfcriber, either in one or the other of these places. Buxtorf tells us, that the Jews were fo afraid left they should be miftaken in their calculation of this festival, and that of the paffover, that they kept it two y the shade of the clouds. days inftead of one. He in- It is likewife thought to have stances in one place in Judith been inftituted as a feast of (3), in which the Greek feems thanksgiving for the conclufion to confirm his affertion; and by of their harveft and vintage, that means removes the diffi- which generally ended there culty which has been ftarted of about this time, which answers our SAVIOUR's eating the paff to the beginning of our Ocover one day before the rest of tober. the Jews (4).

(1) Comp. Levit. xxiii. 18, 19. & Numb. xxviii. 27. (2) Ant. l. iii. c. 10. (3) Judith viii. 6. (4) Synag. Jud. Vide & Cyril. Alex. in Job. xiii. Chryfoft. komil. 82. Epiphan. Euthym. Paul. Burg. P. de Midelb. Scalig. Fanfen. Maldon. & al. mult. (5) LXX. & 1 Maccab. x. 21. 2 Maccab. i. 9,& aliad

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