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النشر الإلكتروني

INACCURACY OF PARISH REGISTERS.

I

TO THE EDITOR OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCHMAN'S

SIR,

MAGAZINE.

BEG leave to call your attention to a fubje&t in which I deem the happiness of many to be moft materially concerned, I mean the inaccuracy of parish registers.

If the

It is with concern I am able to ftate, that in many places they are kept in a moft fhameful, carelefs, and inaccurate manner. In my official capacity as curate of a very populous and extenfive parifh in Kent, repeated applications have been made to me for extracts from the regifter, particularly for thofe which relate to baptifms, and which repeatedly, from the inaccuracy of the entry, I have been under the painful neceffity of refufing;* though in my own mind I was at the moment fully perfuaded that the parties applying did not mean to impofe upon me. name of John is entered infead of that of George, or Sarah inftead of that of Elizabeth, how can the officiating minifter confcientiously grant the certificate required? Where property is in queftion, how dreadfully detrimental to the interested party is this difgraceful inaccuracy!-In looking over the baptifmal regifter of my parish, I find that for feveral years paft, the name of the child has been only entered together with that of the father, whereas that of the mother has been wholly omitted-in this manner- -John, fon of Thomas Gordon, born 15th March, 1708. Baptized 15th April. Does it not appear from hence, that the child was illegitimate, from the name of the mother being entirely fuppreffed ?-As this is the cafe, fhould not fome ferious notice be taken of it?

But a circumstance has lately been mentioned to me and which I think truly diftreffing, as by it the legitimacy of the children of a very refpectable family is called in question, and that by very high legal authority. The parties to whom I allude were legally married (by licence) in a church in the country,

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*We know not by what right, or on what plea of necessity, any clergyman is justified in such a refusal. ED.

country, and proper witneffes attended the fame; the clergyman however who performed the ceremony was totally blind, and the ufual entry was not made of the marriage in the regifter. Property to a confiderable amount was left to the parties by will. Of courfe the executors required a certificate of their marriage, the clergyman who performed the ceremony was no more, and though the relatives who were prefent at the marriage offered to fwear to the truth of its having taken place, yet as a certificate was not to be had, it was by ftrong legal authority declared that the perfons could not be entitled to the property claimed, as only a prefumptive, but not a pofitive proof of their marriage exifted. Under this decifion then, to which I am willing to pay every deference and respect, the children must be cruelly deemed illegitimate. *

This may be law, but how far it may be confiftent with equity I could wish to know from fome of your numerous and intelligent correspondents.

I remain, Sir,

Your humble Servant,

CLERICUS CANTIENSIS.

Not if the license be in existence, and witnesses can prove the celebration of the marriage. ED.

ON THE CROWN OF THORNS.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCHMAN'S
MAGAZINE.

SIR,

Mx

Y correfpondence in your ufeful and inftructive Mifcellany, which, for fome time past, has, from various caufes, been unavoidably interrupted, I am happy in being enabled to renew.

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The conjecture of your correfpondent, in the 25th page of your laft Magazine, refpecting the "Crown of Thorns,' is, as you have juftly obferved, by no means a novel one. The proposed tranflation was fuggefted, many years ago, by

the

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the learned Dr. Pearce, bishop of Rochefter, in his Commentary on the paffage in Matt. xxyii, 29. and, notwithftanding he feems inclined to think that this crown was not platted with thorns, yet he candidly acknowledges, that it was a point in which there was not fufficient evidence, and therefore concludes by faying, that he leaves it almoft in the fame state of uncertainty in which he found it.

The only difficulty in which this question appears to be involved, is, whether the word axavow be the plural genitive cafe of anaven or axavos? and this, in my opinion, may be easily removed, when it is confidered, that the word axxvdos does not fo much as once occur in the verfion of the Seventy, whilft, on the contrary, that of axavba is found in not less than twentytwo paffages of the Greek tranflation.* This is a circumftance which clearly fhews that this word was, at that time, in use amongst the Jews, and the fenfe in which it was generally understood by them may be readily afcertained, by a reference to the original words which have been refpectively rendered by it. Thefe, on confulting that most excellent and accurate Concordance of Trommius, I find to be feven in number, each of which, confidered feparately, relates to fome tree, plant, or fhrub, which is of a thorny and prickly nature. In our English Bible, the Hebrew word Kouts has, in nine feveral places, been tranflated 'thorns; and, in each of the correfponding paffages, the Seventy have uniformly rendered it by-xxxvx. Now this word, according to Dr. Taylor, fignifies, a troublesome, difagreeable thorn of any kind; and this I take to be the true import of the word anavla. That it is fo, is further evident from the teftimony of Theodoret, who speaking of the Hebrew Atad, the Rhamnus or Buckthorn, defcribes it thus," H de pauros axayθα μεν εσι μεγιση και τον καλεποτατον βαλλεσα.-The Rhamnus is the largest of thorns, and fhoots forth the fharpest spine." The Jews, therefore, used it as a general term for thorns; and Leigh has, accordingly, in his "Critica Sacra," rightly reprefented it to be "taken not only for thorns, but likewife for briers and brambles, and any thing that hath pricks."§ In this fenfe, and in no other, I am firmly perfuaded, it was ufed by the Evangelift in the paffage in queftion, and for the following reafons.

The

Trommii Concordant. Græc. Vol. i. 53.
+ Hebrew Concordance, Vol. ii. Root 1661,
Parkhurst's Heb. Lexicon, 4th Edit. p. 13..
Critica Sacra, 3d. Edit. p. 10.

The word axava appears to have been used about ten times by the facred writers in the New Teftament, and in its ufual acceptation. In the Gospel of St. Matthew, we meet with it in three preceding paffages, in one of which (cap. vii. 16.) it is in the very fame cafe and number as in the prefent inftance; it is, moreover, twice used in the like cafe and number by St. Luke; (cap. vi. 44.-viii. 7.) and that in each of these paffages, it is the oblique cafe of axavba, a doubt cannot poffibly be entertained. Had, then, the Evangelift, in defcribing the materials of which the crown was compofed, intended any other word than axava, we may be certain, that fuch his intention would have been clearly and diftinctly marked, so that the poffibility of any misapprehenfion refpecting it would have been wholly precluded; and, "had a crown of acanthus been meant, the original would," as you have very juftly remarked, "have been pavov z axavou and not ακανθων.”

The common Acanthus, or Brank Urfinæ, is fupposed to be a native of Italy; it is a plant of a fomewhat delicate and tender nature; and is called by Virgil, mollis acanthus; it is not, as Dr. Pearce has obferved, of the thorny kind of plants, and it was ufually cultivated in the garden.* Travellers, however, have noticed it as growing in certain parts of Palestine; but as it has not once been named in the Scriptures, it may well be concluded, that it was not a very common plant in and about Jerufalem, fo that the foldiers could not readily have had recourfe to it for the purpose in queftion. I rather think, from the feverity of the weather which generally prevailed in Judea, during the night and the early part of the morning, at that season of the year in which this tranfaction took place,t that the foldiers, as the fervants and officers of the high priest had already done, ‡ having made a fire, took of the thorns which were then commonly used for the kindling of fires, and which, on that account, might be depofited near the hall of the Roman governor, where they, with the whole band, were affembled, and platted therewith the crown which they put upon the head of Jefus. The wearing of this crown, the foldiers well knew, would cause the most painful fenfations; and that it was their intention to add cruelty to infult is evident, from their ftriking our Lord

*Pearce's Comment. Vol. i. 196.

+ Frost and snow have been frequently known in Judea, at the time of the Passover. LIGHTFOOT'S WORKS, Vol. ii. 610.

Luke xxii, 55. John xviii. 18.

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Lord on the head, at the time he wore it, with the reed or cane, another mark of their derifion and contempt, which they had put into his hand.

Ás to the filence of the Apoftolical Fathers, I confider it to be wholly in favour of the common tranflation: the general meaning of the word axxvwv was fufficiently underftood; and had any misconception respecting it been known at the time, they would, no doubt, have been anxious to rectify it. Chriftian writers in the fucceeding ages, take no notice whatever of any diverfity of opinion which had previously fubfifted in regard to the materials of which this crown was compofed; but whenever it is occafionally mentioned, they have uniformly represented it to have been a crown of thorns.

Tertullian, the most ancient of the Latin Fathers, whose skill in Greek was so confiderable, that he is said to have written several books in that language, was born about the middle of the second century; and towards the close of it, he fpeaks, in certain of his writings, of the crown that was worn by our Lord, and defcribes it to have been made, ex fpinis et tribulis, of thorns and brambles.* Cyprian, too, not many years afterwards, having occafion in his Tract on Patience, to enumerate the many and cruel indignities which were borne by Chrift, mentions this as one of them that" Coronaretur fpinis, qui martyres floribus coronat æternis-He fhould be crowned with thorns, who crowns his martyrs with never-fading flowers."+-In like manner Lactantius, who lived in the third and fourth centuries, alluding to the fufferings of our Lord, fays that he was "fpinis coronatum," crowned with thorns. At the end of the fourth century the "Corona ex vepribus contextaplatted crown of thorns," is likewife exprefsly mentioned by Chryfoftom in his eighty-eighth Homily on St, Matthew's Gofpel. §

Since, therefore, not a fingle inftance, in the whole Bible, can be produced of the ufe of the word axavlos; fince a doubt has not, that I know of, been once expreffed by the Fathers, whether the word axavows, in this paffage, had not its ufual fignification; and fince, moreover, no various reading of axavde for axavour, has, at any time, been difcovered in the most

Tertull. de corona Militis.

+ Cyprian. Op. Edit. Brem. Tract. p. 213. Lactant. Op. Lib. iv. Sect. 18, 26.

Chrysostom. Op. Edit, Paris. Vol, ii. 592. 1291.

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