A. M. 4034, sermon was faithfully reported. The present minister of the parish of Bervie has been &c. or 5439. known to preach in the afternoon, without missing or altering a word, and preach from memory, an elegant sermon, which he could not have composed, and had never read but duVulg. Er. 28. ring the short interval between the morning and evening services of the established church

Ann. Dom.

30, &c.

of Scotland, and of which the style and arrangement were such as he could not imitate *. The accuracy with which the late Mr Woodfall reported the speeches in parliament, is, I believe, universally admitted; but even these instances of wonderful powers of memory are greatly inferior to that displayed by the late Professor Porson, when he repeated, to his friend Dr Vincent and others, a whole page of a newspaper, consisting of nothing but advertisements, after reading it but once over. The fact I believe is very generally known, and was reported to me by a clergyman, who was in the company-a man of honour, and under no conceivable temptation to misrepresent it. There is indeed no evidence, and very little probability, that the apostles and evangelists possessed by nature such powers of memory as any of these men; but they heard perhaps every one of their Lord's dis courses which were pronounced in public, repeated in private, and when long afterwards they had occasion to make use of them in the discharge of their own apostolic duties, they were "brought to their remembrance by the Holy Ghost the Comforter," (a) in the identical words probably in which they were originally spoken.

This very common opinion therefore may be correct, for there is no distinct remembrance of notions or ideas entirely separated from words: but without calling in question the supernatural aid received from the Holy Ghost, and without which they certainly could not have written such books as the Gospels on any hypothesis that has yet been framed, I am myself decidedly of opinion, that the apostles, and such of the evangelists as were present, took notes of their Lord's discourses at the time when they were delivered. Even St Paul himself, all accomplished as he was, and endowed, perhaps, beyond any of them, with the gifts of the Holy Ghost, seems not to have trusted entirely to his own memory for the preservation of that knowledge of the gospel, which, as he informed the Galatians, he was taught by the revelation of Jesus Christ. The parchments which he left with Carpus at Troas, he desired Timothy to bring with him in preference even to the books of the Old Testament (ra Bibxía-the books xa x), if he could not bring both; but what could these parchments contain of equal value with the books of Moses and the prophets, if not a summary of the Gospel of Christ?

There is yet one difficulty remaining, which we must endeavour to remove, before we can completely set aside the copying hypothesis, together with that which supposes the materials of the three first Gospels to have been extracted from one common document under various forms. It will be objected to the account which I have presumed to give of the harmony, which, combined with discrepancies, prevails in the three first Gospels, that the language in which Christ taught in the temple and in the streets of Jerusalem was not Greek, in which the Gospels are written, but Syriac, or a dialect of Hebrew; and that therefore the evangelists have not made use of his words in reciting his discourses and in relating his miracles. Their narratives are translations of his words; and in the opinion of the zealous advocates for the copying system, it is utterly impossible, or at least in the highest degree improbable, that two translators, writing independently of each other, should render a number of Syriac words into the very same Greek words-and some of those words occurring but rarely in the Greek language*2.

(See Brit. Crit. vol. xl. p. 293.) Unfortunately for the hypothesis, movies is the only word of the eight that is not employed in the same sense by different classical authors of Greece. Exoris indeed, is not to be found in such authors; but when this learned person shall have accounted for its use by St Matthew, it will perhaps be no difficult matter to do the same for its use by St Luke.

Luke vi. 1.

All this may be granted in the case of ordinary translations from one language into From the be another, of which the knowledge of one or both has been acquired by study in the usual ginning of the Gospels to way. In such cases the object of the translator is not to render the words of his author ver- Matth. ix. 8. batim, but, whilst he conveys the sense as he believes faithfully, to make that author express Mark ii. 23. his sentiments in such a style as he supposes he would have written, had the language into which his work is translated been his native tongue. Here there is room for much fanciful and groundless conjecture; but even in such cases, where the sole object of the translator is fidelity to the original, there is sometimes a wonderful coincidence of terms among different versions of the same passages of foreign writings by different translators, who all acquired their knowledge of the language by study. Such men render their original, word for word, into the language of the translation, without attempting to make an ancient Jew or Greek write in the idiomatical style of any modern language; and therefore when they are equally masters of both languages, and equally desirous to avoid all misrepresentation of the sense of their author, they fall naturally into the use of the same terms. Of this no other instance need be given than what is to be found in our authorised version of the four gospels, which was certainly made by different men. They indeed compared their different versions together, and were undoubtedly anxious to render the harmony among them as complete as fidelity to the original would permit them to make it; but such a verbal harmony as pervades all the versions of our Lord's doctrines, and of the different accounts of his miracles, could not have prevailed through the English Gospels, had not the translators wisely sacrifised all idomatic elegance to their desire to exhibit faithfully and without mistake the sense of the original. But would not the evangelists be as desirous of translating literally into Greek their Syriac or Hebrew originals, as were our translators of rendering their Greek literally into English? Undoubtedly they would, even had there been nothing in their case which rendered it morally impossible that they should render the same Syriac words into different Greek words: but strange as it may appear to some readers, I do not hesitate to affirm, that the harmony which prevails among the three first Gospels, though written by dif ferent authors unconnected with each other, is much less extraordinary, than would have been three different accounts of the same doctrines and miracles of their Master in terms different from each other. That verbal harmony which is so very striking, and has to some appeared as evidence that the second evangelist wrote with the Gospel of the first, and the third with the Gospels of both first and second lying before him, appears to me perfectly natural and almost unavoidable in their case.

Except St Luke, who probably acquired his knowledge of the Greek language by study and travelling, all the evangelists were instantaneously inspired with their knowledge of that language, on the day of Penticost, when they with many others were filled with the Holy Ghost," and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance." But how were they inspired with the knowledge of these different languages? Was it with the single terms of each and their various significations? or were their minds, in addition to this knowledge, stored at the same time with all those phrases and idioms which constituted the elegancies of each language, where it was vernacular? The extravagance and absurdity of this last opinion has been shewn with such clearness and cogency of reasoning, (a) that I believe it is now maintained by no man; but if they were inspired only with Greek words or terms corresponding to the Syriac and Hebrew words or terms in which they had been accustomed to speak, and, let me add, to think, can any thing be more natural-I might say unavoidable, than to infer, that he who infused into their minds those words and terms, made them all express by the very same words, those ideas, notions, and relations, which constituted the subject of our Lord's discourses, and of which I believe them to have taken memorandoms in his own

(a) See Warburton's Doctrine of Grace, book 1st, Chap. 8.

&c. 5439,

A. M. 4034, words at the very time when these discourses were spoken. Perspicuity and consistency, cor, not elegance, were absolutely necessary to the success of the apostles preaching and writing; and surely nothing could contribute more to produce these qualities, than to Vulg. Ar. 28. make all the inspired preachers and writers render in the same Greek terms the Syriac

30, &c.

terms which had been made use of by our Saviour in those discourses, which, at a dis-
tance from each other, they were translating for the instruction of the world at large.
St Luke, who appears to have studied the Greek language in the usual way, by reading
classical Greek books, and probably by travelling into Greece, or at least into some
Greek colony, writes a much purer and more elegant style than St Matthew or St.
Mark; but even he makes use of some Greek words, unusual in classic authors, in com-
mon with these two evangelists, as well as of Syriac idioms and phrases, either to ex-
press notions and doctrines, for which, as they were unknown to the inhabitants of
Greece, no idiomatical Greek phrase was to be found, or perhaps because no man ever
yet wrote in perfect purity a language in which he was not accustomed to think.

If this view of the origin of the three first Gospels be correct, it may tend perhaps
to decide the question, which has been so long agitated; whether St Matthew wrote
his Gospel in Hebrew or in Greek? The early fathers of the church declare so unani-
mously that he wrote in Hebrew, that it is difficult to suppose that they had not some
foundation for what they say; and yet his Greek Gospel has to me so much the appear-
ance of an original composition, that all the weight of Michaelis's authority cannot induce
me to believe it a translation. I would therefore, with Dr Townson, rather receive
both his Gospels, if he really wrote in Hebrew, as originals, than suppose either of
them to be a translation by some unknown hand; though I am decidedly of opinion,
that had not the Greek Gospel been a more perfect composition than the other, the He-
brew Gospel could not have been so little known as it appears to have been to men so
learned as were Origen and Jerome. I am therefore strongly inclined to believe, that St
Matthew wrote his Greek Gospel long after the apostles had left Jerusalem and disper-
sed themselves in the discharge of the duties of their office; but that he left, at his de-
parture, with the church of Jerusalem, or at least with some of its members, the He-
brew or Syriac memorandums of our Lord's doctrines and miracles which he had made
for his own use, at the time when those doctrines were taught and those miracles per-
formed. This, I confess, is a mere conjecture respecting a point of comparatively little
importance; but I think, as framers of conjectures always flatter themselves, that it
receives some countenance from the terms in which Eusebius, when giving his own opi-
nion, mentions St Matthew's Hebrew Gospel. "Matthew, says that historian, having
first preached to the Hebrews, delivered to them, when he was preparing to depart to
other countries, his Gospel composed in their native language, that to those from whom
he was sent away, he might by his writing supply the loss of his presence May not
what he delivered to them have been the notes containing the substance of what they
had so often heard him preach? I am inclined to think likewise that the Gospel by St
Mark contains little more than similar notes or memorandums which had been made by
St Peter, which will sufficiently account for so many of the ancients calling it St Peter's
Gospel. That St Mark was with that apostle at Rome when he suffered martyrdom
cannot reasonably be called in question. If he received the notes or memorandums in
time to permit him to digest them into order before St Peter suffered, it is natural to
suppose that the apostle revised the digest; and supposing them not to have come in-
to the evangelist's hands till after St Peter's death, St Mark's Gospel will still be stamp-
ed with apostolical authority.

Ματθαῖος μὲν γὰρ πρότερον ̔Εβραίοις κηρύξας ὡς ἔμελλε παρουσίας) τούτοις ἀφ ̓ ὧν ἐστέλλετο δια τῆς γραφῆς ἀποπλής
καὶ ἐφ ̓ ἑτέρους ἰέναι, πατρίῳ γλώττῃ γράφῇ παραδοὺς τὸ κατορου. Eccles. Hist. Lib. 3. Cap. 24.
αὐτὸν ἐυαγγέλιον, τὸ λεῖπον τῇ (al, τῆς) αὐτοῦ παρουσία (al.

Gospels to

These, however, are discussions of comparatively little importance; but if I have con- From the betributed in any degree to prove, that St Luke knew nothing of St Matthew's or St ginning of the Mark's Gospel when he wrote his own; that the several evangelists did not transcribe Matth. ix. 8. from each other; and that there is no necessity to call in the aid of a common docu- Mark ii. 23. ment to account either for the harmony or the discrepancies which prevail in the three first Gospels, this long Dissertation will not have been written in vain.]

Luke vi. 1.

CHAPTER II.

FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE SECOND PASSOVER TO OUR
LORD'S TRANSFIGURATION. IN ALL, ONE YEAR AND ABOUT
FOUR MONTHS.

THE HISTORY.

i. M. 4035.

xii. 1. Mark il.

OUR Blessed Saviour was now in the second year of his public ministry, when the From Matth. near approach of the passover † (which was the second after his baptism) called him to 23. Luke vi. 1. Ann. Dom. Jerusalem. On the south-east side of the city there was a famous pool †, and an hos- John v. 1. to pital called Bethesda +3, which consisted of five porticos, in which lay a great multi- Mark ix. 14.

tc. or 5410.

81. &c.

Matth. xvii. 14.

Luke ix. 37.

himself had been at Jerusalem) makes mention of John vii. 1.
two reservoirs, one filled with the rains that fall in the
winter, and the other with water of a deep red co-
lour, as if it still retained a tinge of the victims that
formerly were washed in it; and that Mr Maundrell,
in his Travels, p. 107. informs us, that when he was
there he saw still remaining what was reputed the
Pool of Bethesda, whereof he gives us the particular
dimensions, and tells us, that at its west end, there
seem to be some old arches, not unlikely the porches
in which sat that multitude of lame, halt, and blind,
which are mentioned by St John, ch. v. Dr Pearce's
Vindication of our Saviour's Miracles, and Wells's
Geography of the New Testament, chap. iv.

+3 Some will have this word to signify a drain or
sink-house, because the water which came from the
temple, and the place where the victims were wash-
ed, by subterraneous passages ran into it; but most
interpreters expound it an house of mercy, so called,
say some, because the erecting of baths was an act
of great kindness to the common people, whose in-
dispositions in hot countries required frequent ba-
thing; though the generality father think, that it
P

+ From the time that our Lord first began his ministry, to the conclusion of it, there had been four passovers held at Jerusalem; all, except the last, are not mentioned by the three first evangelists, but St John has been mindful to set every one down. The first, chap. ii. 13.; the second, chap. v. 1.; the third, chap. vi. 4.; and the fourth, chap. xiii. 1. Pool's Annotations.

The word Koλuutea signifies any pool or head of water that is deep enough for a man to swim in : but, as in hot countries more especially, the use of constant bathing was highly necessary, for which purpose it was usual in every great city to have public baths erected, some have imagined that this pool was a large bason of water of this kind; and that the porticos about it were places made for the conveniency of dressing or undressing in the shade for those that were minded to bathe. However this be, it is certain, that in ancient times there were two pools within the compass of the mount on which the temple stood, the one called the Upper Pool, 2 Kings xviii. 17. and the other the "Pool of Siloam, by the king's garden," Neh. iii. 15. That St Jerom (who VOL. III.

Ann. Dom.

31. &c.

A. M. 4035, tude of poor impotent people, with distempers of all kinds, waiting for the moving of &c. or 5440. the water; for at certain times an angel came from heaven, and putting the pool in a fermentation, conveyed such a medicinal virtue into it, that the first person who enVulg Er. 29. tered it, after such commotion, was cured of whatsoever distemper he had. On the Sabbath-day our Saviour came to this place; and seeing a poor paralytic †, who had been in that condition for the space of eight and thirty years, and lain there a long while in expectance of a cure, but all in vain, because, whenever the water was moved, some one or other always stepped in before and prevented him; † he immediately healed him with a word's speaking, and at the same time f3 ordered him to take up his bed and walk home; but while he was doing this, the Jews exclaimed against him for bearing a burden on the Sabbath-day, which was + directly (a) contrary to their

more properly had that name from God's great good-
ness shewn to his people in giving this healing virtue
to these waters. Pool's Annotations, and Pearce's
Vindication of our Saviour's Miracles.

+ The word cvsie, which we render infirmity or weakness, is indeed a general name for almost all distempers, but here it is so limited in its signification, by the circumstances occurring in the man's history, that it can properly denote no other disease than what we call a confirmed palsy: For, besides that the symptoms of no other distemper do so exactly agree with the description given of this infirmity, both in point of its long continuance and extreme weakness, the very word weakness, in its most obvious sense, answers exactly to such a relaxation of the nervous system as the palsy is known to be, and (what is no mean circumstance) our Saviour makes use of the same form and method of cure to this very man that he applies to another paralytic, "Rise, take up thy bed, and walk," Matth. ix. 6.

+ If it be asked, how it came to pass, that of the multitude of infirm people who lay at this pool, our Saviour should think fit to cure but one? The answer is obvious, because he was an object most to be compassionated of any in the place, not only because he was too feeble to step into the water himself, and too poor to have any to assist him, but more especially because he had been now a long while in this condition, and yet still depended upon the good Providence of God for an opportunity to be cured at one time or other. To cure at once whole multitudes, indeed, sounds more popular, and carries the face of more extensive goodness; but, besides that our Saviour might, in this case, very probably conform to the rule of cure established providentially at Bethesda, which was to heal but one person at one time, his great design in every action of this kind was to prove his character and commission from God, to which end one single and incontestible miracle was as sufficient an evidence as a thousand. The short is, since our Lord was at liberty "to do what he would with his own," or to bestow his favours where he pleased, his goodness was conspicuous in chusing the most helpless object, and his wisdom no less manifest in leaving the rest to the standing miracle of the pool. Bishop Smallbroke's Vindication of our Saviour's Miracles, p. 525:

+3 It is very observable, that whenever our Lord did any miracle, he generally adjoined some circum

stance or other to denote the truth and reality of it. Thus, after his multiplication of the loaves and fishes, he ordered his disciples to gather up the fragments, which amounted to twelve baskets full. Upon his changing the water into wine at Cana, he commanded the servants to carry it to the ruler of the feast for him to taste it. When he had healed the leper near Capernaum, he sent him to present his oblation in testimony of his cure; and here, for the same reason, viz. The demonstration of the completeness of his cure, he bids the paralytic "take up his bed, and go home." But why did he this on the Sabbath-day? Even to make his Divine power and mission more universally known, especially in Jerusalem, the capital of the nation, and centre of the Jewish church, by first working this miracle on the Sabbath day, when there were more people at liberty to view and consider it; and then sending his patient along the streets in a very uncommon manner, and, to make the people more inquisitive, with his bed upon his back. Calmet's Commentary.

The prohibition runs in these words:" Thus saith the Lord, Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the Sabbath-day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem, neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath day, neither do ye any work, but hallow ye the Sabbath-day, as I commanded your fathers," Jer. xvii. 21, 22. and, according to the Jewish canons, those who did this were punishable either by death or scourging. It must be acknowledged, therefore, that our Saviour's injunction to the late impotent man was contrary to the letter of the law, but then it may be justly said that it was not contrary to the sense and intention of it. The law only probibited civil labour, and restrained men from carrying such burdens as they were wont to do in the way of their trade; but it did not forbid the doing of any thing that might be a testimony of God's mercy or goodness to mankind. As therefore the Sabbath was made for the honour of God, and this action was a public monument of his mercy and power, the man, properly speaking, did not break the Sabbath, neither did our Lord deserve any censure from the Jews; especially considering that, as he was a prophet, even by their own rules he had power to require what was contrary to the ceremo nial rest of the Sabbath. Pool's and Whitby's Annotations, and Calmet's Commentary. (a) Jer. xvii. 21.