"Levites caused the people to understand the Law: "and the people stood in their place. So they read "in the Book, in the Law of God distinctly, and gave "the sense, and caused them to understand the reading." (Nehemiah viii. 1-8.)

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Some Jewish writers are of opinion, that the origin of publickly reading the Law on the Sabbath Day is of much greater antiquity than the date here assigned to it. Josephus, who no doubt delivers the sentiments of his contemporaries, thus expresses himself. "Moses, that he might not leave the Jews any pre"text for ignorance, introduced an admirable mode "of instruction. The Law, which they were bound "to obey, was not simply read to them once or twice, but he commanded them to leave their work every Sabbath Day, and to meet together to hear "the Law read. A circumstance in which all other legislators have been deficient *.”

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Whenever Josephus speaks of things, which came under his own immediate knowledge, great respect is due to his testimony. But these, and such like sentiments, are calculated rather to flatter the national pride of the Jews, than to give us a fair representation of facts: For where does it appear in the

*Josephus cont. Ap. 1. ii. c. 17.

+ Philo likewise, in a passage recorded by Eusebius, tells us, that the public reading of the Law every Sabbath Day, was ordained by Moses. He goes further, and describes the manner in which Moses commanded the law to be read and expounded on those days. From the words of Philo we may collect what was the

Mosaic Law, that the people were commanded to meet together on the Sabbath Day for the purpose of hearing that Law either expounded or read to them? The leading, direct, and positive injunctions, are, "And these words which I command thee this day, "shall be in thine heart. And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of "them when thou sittest in thy house, and when "thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, "and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind "them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be

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as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt

general custom in the time of our Saviour, and when Philo lived ; but they prove nothing more.--- -Videtur Philo Judæorum morem in synagogis disserendi, antiquitate donare voluisse, quem a Christo et apostolis observatum legimus. The remark of Salvian, (Annot. A. M. 2546.) may, on this occasion, with equal justice be applied to Josephus. In the days of Moses there was no place set apart for religious uses but the tabernacle; and how the people that were dispersed through the country, could assemble every Sabbath Day before the tabernacle, (or temple afterward,) we leave Philo and Josephus to determine.—If the people met weekly to be taught the law, the Levitical visitation, instituted for that very purpose by Jehoshaphat, was unnecessary. (See p. 148.)Had it been customary to read the law every Sabbath Day, could the religious Josiah be unacquainted with the custom; or would he have regarded the discovery of a copy among the ruins of the temple, as a very extraordinary event? In short, if the Law was then read every week to all the people, where was the occasion for gathering together the elders of Judah and Jerusalem," for the purpose of reading in their ears all the words of the book? Kings xxi. 11. xxii. 1. &c.

"write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy 'gates." Deut. vi. 6-9.

So far as regards the duty of diligently studying the Law, these expressions are indeed pointed and conclusive. But they go no further than to enjoin, that masters of families were to meditate upon the Law in private; that it was to be made a subject of conversation with their friends; and that they should be careful to teach it to their children and domestics. This is the utmost extent of the Mosaic injunction; and that it was received in any other sense, no where appears from the history of the Jews. In the reigns of David, Solomon and the succeeding kings, we have no account of any public meeting held on the Sabbath Day, for the purpose of hearing the Law read, or of receiving religious instruction. We find it indeed recorded, that in the reign of Jehoshaphat, Levites by his command "went about throughout all the cities of "Judah, and taught." 2 Chron. xvii. 9. But this appears to have been a very extraordinary case, owing to the great neglect of the Law in the preceding reign, which made a deviation from the established usage necessary; and it is not in the least intimated that the people were taught in religious assemblies, but in such manner as the Levites might choose to adopt.

The only instance of any precept being given by the Jewish Legislator for the public reading of the Law, is contained in the following passage of Deuteronomy, ch. xxxi. 10. 13. "And Moses commanded

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them," (the Levites and the Elders of the people)

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saying, At the end of every seven years, in the solemnity of the year of release, in the feast of tabernacles, when all Israel is come to appear before "the Lord thy God, in the place which he shall "choose; thou shalt read this Law before all Israel, "in their hearing. Gather the people together, men "and women and children and the stranger that is "within thy gates, that they may hear, and that

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they may learn and fear the Lord your God, and "observe to do all the words of this Law; and that "their children, which have not known any thing,

may hear and learn to fear, the Lord your God, " as long as ye live in the land whither ye go over "Jordan to possess it."

Now had Moses commanded the Law to be read every Sabbath Day in public, the injunction to read it at the feast of tabernacles, at the end of every seven years, in the solemnity of the year of release, would have been less necessary. But the truth is, that no mention is made of the practice of reading the Law on the Sabbath Day, prior to the return from the Babylonish captivity. After this era, we have already seen a very particular account of the manner, in which that custom was introduced. But it is not there, either stated or suggested to have been the continuance or revival of an ancient custom. On the contrary, it seems to have arisen from the necessity of the case. The people were become unable either to read or understand the original language of their own law ; and therefore "the Levites read in the book, and

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gave the sense, and caused them to understand the meaning."

Either in the time of Ezra *, or soon after, synagogues were first erected; and one was built in every place, where there were ten persons properly qualified to attend the Service. The qualifications were, that they should be free and of competent age. From this period to the coming of Christ, the custom of reading and expounding the Scripture in the synagogues on the Sabbath Day was strictly observed t. Yet during this interval a remarkable change is said to have taken place. Hitherto the Law only had been read and expounded in public ‡. About the year 170

*See Prideaux, Old and New Testament connected.

If we date this institution of Ezra, A. M. 3610, (Nehemiah c. viii.) that is, nearly 500 years before the first council of Jerusalem, St. James is warranted in affirming that " Moses of old time "had in every city, them that preached him," the Law having then, for more than 450 years been " read in the Synagogues every Sabbath Day." (Acts. xv. 21.)

+ For this purpose the Pentateuch was divided into 50 sections, (or rather into 54, on account of the intercalar year) that the whole might be read over once every year. The Sections were distinguished, as they still continue to be, in the Hebrew copies, by the letter Pe, or Phe, the initial of Pharasha, which signifies separation or division. This I apprehend was the original reason for adopting the inverted black P [,] which is retained in our translation of the Bible to mark paragraphs or transitions. The division of the Old and New Testament into chapters is a modern practice, and the subdivision of chapters into verses still more modern in the translation of the New Testament by Tyndal, and