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(3.) The nature of the "mixed multitude" which accompanied the caravan of Israel, clearly appears in this ex

tract.

(4.) The exact number of men, carriages, mules, &c. This we find was the custom also, in the time of Moses; as the returns made and registered in the book of Numbers, sufficiently demonstrate.

(5.) The time necessary for the formation of a caravan, justifies the inference, that the Israelites did not leave Egypt in that violent hurry which has been sometimes supposed; they must have had time to assemble; many, no doubt, from distant parts, which would require several days: they might be expelled in haste from the royal city; but to collect them all together at the place of rendezvous, must have been a work of time.

(6.) Another consideration, not unimportant, arises from the nature, the departments, and the powers of these officers. It appears from various passages of Scripture, that the LORD, or JEHOVAH, was considered as the chief guide, conductor, or commander of the Israelites, at the time of their exodus from Egypt. He therefore, was understood to be-(1.) Caravan Bachi to this people: in His name Moses acted; being, at the same time (2.) Captain of the March; (3.) Hur might be Captain while resting; (4.) Joshua, Captain of the distribution; and (5.) Aaron, Treasurer, or Pay-master.

This distribution of these offices appears probable, because Joshua is ordered (ch. xvii.) to go and fight Amalek, who attacked Israel, while encamped. Now, fighting appears to be part of the duty of No. 4; and who fitter for this than Joshua? That Hur should be Captain of the resting seems likely, from his being left in authority in conjunction with Aaron (ch. xxiv. 14), while Moses and Joshua went up into the mount to what more proper person, or officer, could this charge be intrusted? As Hur's office was suspended while the people were fighting under Joshua, he could be well spared with Aaron, to hold up the hands of Moses.

It remains, that Aaron could only fill a secondary, and subordinate, but equally important office: he, like others, while on the march, was under the authority and orders of the captain of the march; while at rest, he was under the authority and orders of the captain of the resting. If this be the fact, then we may fairly presume, that he acted but a subordinate part in the transactions of the camp; and, by consequence, in that famous one of the golden calf. It seems clear, that the people forced Aaron in that business. If the authority of the captain of the rest, or that of the captain of

the march, though now not on duty, supported the request of the people, how could Aaron, their treasurer only, not, as afterwards, the high priest, suppress it? Whence was he to get powers against "a people set on mischief?" Besides, if Aaron were concerned no further than by his office of treasurer, i. e. taking the money, the materials, and giving. them to the workmen, some other principal officer might promote the making of the image, might direct and expedite it; and, in short, might get it completed before Aaron saw it, as appears credible from the order of the narrative, which stands thus (Ex. xxxii. 3, 4),—he took the ear-rings, &c. bound them in a bag, or bags (or valued, and placed them as purses, according to the present Turkish phrase); then, he made that into a calf by fusion (comp. ver. 35, 66 THEY made the calf"); then," THEY said, these be thy Gods; — and when Aaron saw it," &c. Now had Aaron made it himself, personally, he must have seen it before the people saw it. It should seem, therefore, that Aaron had given the gold, of which he had the custody, to a workman appointed by the people; that he followed the people throughout this transaction; and, that he endeavoured to guide (perhaps even to controul) their opinion, in varying and appointing to the honour of JEHOVAH, what many, at least "the mixed multitude," would refer to the honour of the gods they had seen in Egypt. In this view, his expression deserves notice-"To-morrow is a solemnity to JEHOVAH:" not to Apis, or to any other god, but to JEHOVAH. Aaron, then, was less a principal in this crime than has been supposed; consequently, in one sense, he was less unfit for the office of priest, afterwards conferred on him. Moreover, if he were treasurer, then part of his duty was to keep accurate JOURNALS of all material incidents, &c. Is it very unlikely, then, that he assisted his brother in writing some parts of the books, now bearing the name of Moses? or, at least, that as he also kept journals of public transactions, these were made use of by Moses in compiling his history? If this be admissible, then we can account at once for what difference of style appears in these books, and for such smaller variations in different places, as would naturally arise from two persons recording the same facts. It accounts also for the third person being sometimes used, especially in the early books, when speaking of Moses: perhaps, too, for some of the praise and commendation bestowed upon Moses, which is most remarkable where Aaron is most in fault.

The reader will observe other particulars for himself: those here suggested, are offered but as hints to lead the enquiry;

and this is not the place to enlarge on them. The remark, however, is obvious, that the most intricate transactions appear perfectly easy, when set in their proper light; and that what we now find obscure, is evidently, not from any real obscurity in the original narration, but from our want of acquaintance with proper accompaniments, which might conduct our judgments. How greatly this applies to establish the authenticity and authority of Scripture, must be obvious to every reflecting mind.*

5. We may not close this section without noticing the preparations which were made for the journeyings of Eastern monarchs. Whenever they entered upon an expedition, or took a journey, especially through desert and unfrequented countries, harbingers were sent before them, to prepare all things for their passage, and pioneers to open the passes, to level the ways, and to remove all impediments. In allusion to this practice, John Baptist is represented as "The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain," Is. xl. 3, 4; Matt. iii. 3. The account which Diodorus has given of the march of Semiramis into India and Persia will give us a clear notion of the preparation of the way for a royal expedition. "In her march to Ecbatana she came to he Zarcean mountain; which, extending many furlongs, and being full of craggy precipices and deep hollows, could not be passed without taking a great compass about. Being therefore desirous of leaving an everlasting memorial of herself, as well as of shortening the way, she ordered the precipices to be digged down, and the hollows to be filled up; and at a great expence, she made a shorter and more expeditious road, which, to this day, is called from her, the road of Semiramis. Afterwards she went into Persia, and all the other countries of Asia, subject to her dominion; and wherever she went, she ordered the mountains and precipices to be levelled, raised causeways in the plain country, and, at great expence, made the ways passable."+

* Calmet's Bib. Ency. art. " Aaron," and Fragments, No. 1.

+ Dr. A. Clarke, on Matt. iii. 3; Critica Biblica, vol. i. pp. 460, 461; Fragments to Calmet, No. 171.

591

SECTION VIII.

THE JEWISH MANNER OF TREATING THE SICK AND THE

DEAD.

1. Modes of treating the sick.-2. Preparations for the funeral.

- 3. Lamentations for the dead. 4. Funeral rites.-5. Cemeteries. 6. Jewish notions of a future state.

1. The theory of physic seems never to have made any considerable advances in Judea. With regard to their treatment of the sick and indisposed, and the expedients they employed to assuage or expel disease, they appear to have proceeded by an invariable system, and uniformly to have practised certain rules and methods of cure, which had nothing to recommend them but the sacred prescription and sanction of antiquity. * They seem to have regarded oil as a more efficacious remedy than any other discovery for mitigating or extirpating the various disorders of the human frame. The sick, whatever the distemper might be, they appear to have anointed with oil, as the most powerful preservative they knew from the further progress of the disease, and the most effectual remedy for the recovery and re-establishment of their health. We have one of the medical prescriptions which is in this form. "He who is afflicted with pains in his head, or eruptions in his body, let him anoint himself with oil." Oil was deemed of such supreme efficacy, that one of the rabbies gave his dispensation for anointing the sick with it even on the sabbath. § To this common custom of treating sick persons, which obtained among the Jews, the two following passages in Scripture refer. We find that the apostles, whom our Lord invested with a divine commission, endowed with spiritual gifts and miraculous powers, and dispatched into the towns and villages of Judea to preach the Gospel, treated all the sick they found in the various places they visited, in the same manner in which all the Jews were accustomed to treat them: they ANOINTED THEM WITH OIL and healed them, Mark vi. 13.

* Thus, Diodorus Siculus informs us that the Egyptian physicians administered medicines by a certain practised old formulary, from which they were not to depart, on pain of death, vol. i. p. 93.

c. 6.

+ Lamy has given a list of the diseases mentioned in Scripture, App. Bib. b. iii, Wetstein in Marc. vi. 13.

§ Ibid.

In conformity also to this general practice, the Apostle James, writing to the twelve tribes of Israel in their dispersion, ordains, that when any were sick among them, they should call together the elders of the church, pray over the indisposed, ANOINTING HIM WITH OIL in the name of the Lord, Jam. v. 14. Not that this unction, either in the former or latter case, contributed any thing to the miraculous cure, which the immediate power of God alone could effect: it served only as a striking external sign to the sick person and to every spectator, to raise and engage the attention, and to impress their minds with the deepest conviction that the miracle was wrought to attest the divine authority and truth of the Gospel. The Jews considered a natural death as the expiation of all sins; and Buxtorf has given a formulary for the confession of sin at this time.*

2. When the principle of life was extinguished, and the eyes were closed in death, the first funeral office among the Jews was the ablution of the corpse, with a warm infusion of camomile flowers and dried roses. See Acts ix. 37. After washing the corpse they embalmed it, by laying all around it a large quantity of costly spices and aromatic drugs, in order to imbibe and absorb the humours, and by their inherent virtues to preserve it as long as possible from putrefaction and decay. Thus Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pounds weight, to perform the customary office to the deceased Saviour. This embalming was usually repeated for several days together (Gen. i. 2, 3), that the drugs and spices thus applied might have all their efficacy in the exsiccation of the moisture and the future conservation of the body. They then swathed the corpse in linen rolls or bandages, closely enfolding and enwrapping it in that bed of aromatic drugs with which they had surrounded it. Thus we find that Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus took the body of Jesus and wrapt it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury, John xix. 40. Thus, when our Lord had cried with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come forth!" it is said the dead came forth, bound hand and foot, in grave clothes! John xi. 44. We learn also from this place, that about the head and face of the corpse was folded a napkin, which was a separate thing, and did not communicate with the other bandages in which the body was swathed. Thus the face of Lazarus was bound about with a napkin— and when our Lord was risen, Peter, who went into the sepulchre, saw the linen clothes lie, and the napkin that had been folded

* Syn. Jud. c. 49.

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