it; and that there were likewise five porticoes, erected without doubt for the reception of those who were sick and infirm. That this was the object of the porticoes is the opinion expressed both in the Peshito and by Suidas.

THE ANGEL THAT TROUBLED THE BATH.

It is related, (John, v. 2—4, 6, 7,) in respect to this bath, that an angel of the Lord descended at certain times and troubled the water, and that the person, who, after this operation first stepped into the water, was healed of whatever infirmity he might labour under.

This account of the descent of an angel, and of the consequent restoration of the first one who entered the water after his descent, is omitted in certain Greek and Latin manuscripts, and likewise in the Armenian version. It is pointed out to the particular notice of the reader in some Greek manuscripts, sometimes by an obelus or dagger [+], and sometimes by an asterisk. The genuineness of the whole passage, therefore, is justly liable to suspicion.

On the supposition that the whole narration is a genuine one, the bath in question might have been an animal bath, which has a beneficial influence in certain diseases, and which, in the present case, was furnished with blood from the temple, by means of a subterranean passage. Accordingly, when the blood flowed into it, the water might be said with no impropriety to be disturbed, especially on festival days, when it received a greater quantity than usual.

Or it might have been, (and most probably was,) a mineral bath, which derived its salutary powers from the mineral particles that were intermixed with the mud at the bottom. Accordingly, when the water was more than usually disturbed or put in motion by some external cause; for instance, by showers or by subterranean heat, it is natural to suppose that it was the more strongly impregnated with minerals, and of course more than usually efficacious. The sick and infirm, therefore, wished to enter it at this period, before the mineral particles had subsided, and the water had returned to its ordinary state. Eusebius, in his Onomasticon, under the word Belabá, confirms the last hypothesis, for he states, that in his time there were at that place, viz. Bethesda, two contiguous receptacles of water which were

dry except when rains fell. They were then slightly tinged with a red colour, a proof that the bottom was impregnated with mineral particles. Consult Richteri Dissertatio Medic. Theol. de Balneo Animali, p. 107. Goetting. 1775, and Mead, Medic. Sacr. 6. 8.

The descent of the angel, and the healing of the first person who entered into the water, are statements founded in the prevalent popular opinions. The reason why the historian did not make a statement of his own on the subject, but chose rather, in the fourth and sixth verses, to give the popular belief, was, that the reader might understand the reply of the sick man in the seventh verse.

§. 199. ON Paralytics.

The palsy of the New Testament is a disease that is of very wide import. Many infirmities, as Richter has demonstrated in the seventy-third and the following pages of the treatise referred to in the preceding section, were comprehended under the word which is rendered palsy in the New Testament.

I. THE APOPLEXY, a paralytic shock which affected the whole body.

II. THE HEMIPLEGY, which affects and paralyses only one side of the body.

III. THE PARAPLEGY, which paralyses all the parts of the system below the neck.

IV. THE CATALEPSY. It is caused by a contraction of the muscles in the whole or part of the body, (e. g. in the hands,) and is very dangerous. The effects upon the parts seized are very violent and deadly. For instance, when a person is struck with it, if his hand happens to be extended, he is unable to draw it back. If the hand is not extended when he is struck with the disease, he is unable to extend it. It appears diminished in size and dried up. Hence the Hebrews were in the habit of calling it a withered hand, 1 Kings, xiii. 4—6; Zech. xi. 17; Matt. xii. 10-13; John, v. 3.

V. THE CRAMP. This in oriental countries is a fearful malady, and by no means unfrequent. It is caused by the chills of the night. The limbs when seized with it remain immoveable; sometimes turned in, and sometimes out, in the same position as when they were first seized. The person afflicted resembles a

man undergoing the torture, Baoavilouévy, and experiences nearly the same exquisite sufferings. Death follows this disease in a few days, Matt. viii. 9, 10; comp. Luke, vii. 2; 1 Mac. ix. 55-58.

NOTE. The disease, denominated in Matt. ix. 20; Mark, v. 25, and Luke, viii. 43, an issue of blood, is too well known to require any particular explanation. It may be well, however, to make this single observation, that physicians themselves acknowledge that it is a disorder which is difficult to be cured, Mark, v. 26.

§. 200. THE DEATH OF JUDAS ISCARIOT. Judas Iscariot, i. e. Judas, the man of Karioth, ON, (Josh. xv. 25; Jer. xlviii. 41; Amos, ii. 2,) we are informed in Matt. xxvii. 5. (ánykaτo,) hung himself. We are further informed in Acts, i. 18, (πρηνής γενόμενος ἐλάκησε μέσος, καὶ ἐξεχύθη Távта τà σпλáyxva aiтou, that he fell headlong, burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out. These two statements, which exhibit the appearance of being not altogether harmonious, have occasioned various opinions among the learned.

The most easy and natural reconciliation of them is this:-Peter, in his discourse, (Acts, i. 18,) did not deem it necessary to give a full narration of an event which was perfectly well known; he, therefore, merely mentions the circumstance of his fall, and bursting asunder in the midst. The fall probably originated in the breaking or the cutting of the rope by which he was suspended. This very simple supposition, which gives a solution of the whole difficulty, appears to me preferable to any far-fetched hypothesis.

§. 201. BLINDNESS OF THE SORCERER BAR JESUS.

BAR JESUS, the sorcerer, otherwise called Elymas, a wise or learned man, was struck blind by Paul, Acts, xiii. 6-12. The blindness in this instance is properly denominated in Greek axλùs, and was rather an obscuration than a total extinction of the sight. It was occasioned by a thin coat or tunicle of hard substance, which spread itself over a portion of the eye, and interrupted the power of vision. Hence the disease is likewise called KTO, or darkness. It was easily cured, and sometimes

medical prescription.

even healed of itself, without resort to any
Hence Paul adds, "not seeing the sun for a season.”

§. 202. DISEASE OF HEROD Agrippa.

Josephus (Antiq. lib. xix. c. viii. §. 2.) and Luke (Acts, xii. 23.) attribute the disease with which Herod died to the immediate agency of God; because he so readily received the idolatrous acclamations of the people, who hailed and honoured him as a divinity. Josephus says the disease was in the intestines. But he perverts his statement by the intermixture of certain superstitious and incredible notions.

Luke, who was a physician, says more definitely and accurately, that Herod was consumed with worms, which in eastern countries frequently prey upon the intestines. Josephus observes that he died on the fifth day after the attack.

CHAPTER XIII.

CONCERNING DEATH, BURIALS, AND MOURNING.

§. 203. ON DEATH.

THE Hebrews regarded life as a journey, as a pilgrimage on the face of the earth. The traveller, as they supposed, when he arrived at the end of this journey, that is, at his death, was received into the company of his ancestors, who had gone before him, Gen. xxv. 8; xxxv. 29; xxxvii. 35; Ps. xxxix. 12; comp. Heb. xi. 13, 15; Eccles. xii. 7. Reception into the presence of God at death is asserted in only two passages of the Old Testament, viz. Eccles. xii. 7, and Haggai, ii. 23.

Opinions of this kind, (viz. that life is a journey, that death is the end of that journey, and that, when one dies, he mingles with the hosts who have gone before,) are the origin and ground of such phrases as the following; to be gathered to one's people, , Gen. xxv. 8; xxxv. 29; xlix. 29; Numb. xx.

24, 26; Deut. xxxii. 50; one's fathers,

Jer. viii. 2; xxv. 33; and to go to siz, Gen. xv. 15; xxxvii. 35. This

visiting of the fathers has reference to the immortal part, and is clearly distinguished, in many of the passages above quoted, from the mere burial of the body. See Gen. xxxvii. 35.

A person when dying was said to go, to depart, or to be dismissed, πορευέσθαι, βαδίζειν, ἀπολυέσθαι, 27, 21, Tob. iii. 6, 13; John, vii. 33; viii. 21; xvi. 16, 17; 2 Cor. v. 6-9; Philip. i. 23; 2 Tim. iv. 6; Luke, ii. 29; xxii. 22; comp. the Septuagint in Gen. xv. 2, 15, and Numb. xx. 26. In those parts of the Bible which were written at a comparatively recent period, there occur such expressions as the following; to sleep among one's fathers, 2, 2 Sam. vii. 12; 1 Kings, xi. 21; and in all parts of the Bible, such as the following, to give up the ghost, and no longer to be or exist, in Hebrew 1,, Gen. xlii. 13; Numb. xx. 3, 29; Ps. xxxvii. 10, 36; xxxix. 13; ciii. 16; Mark, xv. 37.

Some suppose that the expressions and descriptions which occur in Gen. v. 24, 2 Kings, ii. 12, Wisd. iv. 10, Ecclus. xliv. 16, and Heb. xi, 5, are of a poetical character, which convey, when truly interpreted, no other idea than that of natural death.

Sometimes the Hebrews regarded death as a friendly messenger; but they were more frequently inclined to dread him as a formidable enemy. Impressed with a sense of the terrors which were the consequence of his visitations, their imaginations imparted to him a poetical existence in the character of a hunter, armed him with a dart or javelin, Kévτpov; with a net,, and

Thus equipped, this fearful invader commenced his artifices against the children of men; and when he had taken them captive, slew them, 2 Sam. xxii. 6; Ps. xviii. 5, 6; cxvi. 3; 1 Cor. xv. 55, 56.

The wild fancy of some of the poets went still further, and represented Death, , as the king of the Lower World, and fitted up for him a subterranean palace, denominated SHEOL

b [For some well-written and learned remarks on the meaning which was attached by the ancient Hebrews to the term SHEOL, the reader is referred to Dr. Campbell's Preliminary Dissertations to the Gospels, Diss. vi. Part 2.

The subject of the Devil and of wicked angels in general is examined in the Biblical Theology of Storr and Flatt, recently translated into English by pro