'There is little doubt that Egypt was the cradle of the arts and sciences. Thither men resorted from all other countries, who wished to become acquainted with the learning of the East. In ancient times, it possessed four colleges of great renown: Thebes, which Pythagoras visited; Memphis, where Thales and Democritus consulted the Egyptian priests; Heliopolis, where Plato studied; and Sais, where Solon learned the art of legislation.'1 The pyramids of Egypt have always ranked among the wonders of the world." Ptolemy Philadelphus, is a mixture of truth and fiction. This version was made B.C. 280, and acquired the highest authority among the Jews of Palestine. In proof of this, it may be observed that it was quoted in the New Testament, instead of the original. Though the introduction of Coptic or pure Egyptian words, and the rendering of Hebrew ideas in the Egyptian manner prove, beyond all doubt, that the translators were natives of Egypt, and though the difference of style evinces that the work could not be the production of one individual, but of several writers, yet it is of great importance, not only for correcting the Hebrew text, but also for ascertaining the meaning of particular modes of thought, and expression which we find in the New Testament.' (Dr. Ferguson.) i Christian Cyclopædia. 2 Near Memphis, at a place now called Geezeh, are the three celebrated pyramids; the largest, attributed by Herodotus to Cheops, was originally 756 feet square at its base and 480 feet high; it covered about the same space as Lincoln's Inn Fields; its dimensions are now reduced to 732 feet square and 460 feet high. The second, attributed to Chephren, was formerly 707 feet square and 454 feet high; its dimensions now being 690 and 446. The third, attributed to Mycerinus, whose coffin has been found there, was 354 feet square and 218 feet high; these are now reduced to 333 and 203.' (Student's Ancient Geography, 1867.) On the largest pyramid 100,000 men were constantly employed, and were relieved every three months by the same number. Ten complete years were spent in hewing out the stones, either in Arabia or Ethiopia, and in conveying them to Egypt; and twenty years more in building this immense edifice. There were expressed on the pyramid, in Egyptian characters, the sums it cost for garlic, leeks, onions, and other vegetables of this description, for the workmen; and the whole amounted to 1,600 talents of silver, i.e. about £200,000.' (Rollin.) 'It has been calculated by a French engineer, that the stones in the largest of the three, called the great pyramid, are six millions of tons, and would be sufficient to build a wall round the whole of France (about eighteen hundred miles), ten feet high, and one foot broad! Its summit, which, viewed from below, appears a point, is found to be a platform, each side of which is eighteen feet. Some of the stones of which this enormous edifice is built, are thirty feet long. These stupendous works of man were originally designed as tombs of their kings.' Lybia. In its more limited meaning, Libya embraced only that portion of Africa bordering on Egypt. This name was, however, used by the Greeks in reference to the whole country. Cyrene. The chief city of West Libya in North Africa. The district in which it stood was therefore occasionally called Libya Cyrenaica. As might have been expected from its proximity to Alexandria, this country contained many Jews. Their number was indeed so considerable, that they appear to have deemed it desirable to establish for themselves a syna gogue at Jerusalem.1 Cyrenians are mentioned among the earliest converts to Christianity. It was a man of Cyrene that carried our Saviour's cross to the place of crucifixion, and some critics have supposed that the Lucius of Cyrene mentioned in Acts xiii. 1, was none other than St. Luke the evangelist 3 About one hundred years before the Christian era, Cyrene was annexed to the Roman empire. 4 Five hundred years later it was reduced to a mass of ruins. Rome. At one time the renowned capital of the Roman empire; at present, the residence of the Pope, and consequently the grand centre of Roman Catholicism. It was built B.C. 753, and is situated in the Campagna di Roma, on the Tiber, Italy.5 1 Acts vi. 9. 2 Acts xi. 20. For this supposition there is no foundation whatever. The Latin form of Luke's name would be Lucanus not Lucius.' (Conybeare and Howson.) 4 The last of the Cyrenæan kings, Apion, bequeathed his country to the Romans, B.C. 95, who gave the cities their freedom, but, in consequence of their dissensions, reduced it to a province (probably in B.C. 75), and united it with Crete, B.c. 67. In Constantine's division it was constituted a distinct province.' (Student's Ancient Geography, 1867.) 5 Modern Rome. 'Residence of the Pope and the college of cardinals; 3,500 clergy; covers a large space, but includes gardens, meadows, vineyards, and waste places; soil raised twenty or thirty feet above the former level. On the old Forum, palaces, huts, shops, cloisters, and old ruins stand side by side. 365 churches. St. Peter's, 600 feet long, and 450 feet high, the most beautiful in the world; St. John Lateran, much less beautiful, but the metropolitan church, of which the Pope himself is minister; St. Mary's church (called the Rotunda), formerly the Pantheon; the Vatican, a huge, heavy building, containing several thousand rooms, and two museums, very rich in works of art, ancient and modern, and a library, with near 20,000 manuscripts; fresco paintings, by Michael Angelo and Raphael. Among the remains of antiquity, the Amphitheatre, called, from its immense size, the Colosseum (enclosing a space of more than five acres), capable of containing In A.D. 61, Paul was conveyed thither as a prisoner, and was there detained for two whole years in his own hired house, under the strict guardianship of a Roman soldier.1 In A.D. 64, the city was destroyed by fire, and the Emperor Nero, who himself had caused the conflagration, endeavoured to turn the attention of the multitude from himself, by fixing the odium upon the Christians, who must therefore, even at that early date, have formed a considerable body within that city. During the heat of the dreadful persecution which followed (some particulars of which are preserved by Tacitus), 2 Paul retraced his footsteps towards the capital once more, and about the same critical period the city was also visited by Peter. As might have been expected, the prominent position which they held in the Christian Church caused them to be marked objects of the emperor's displeasure, and they were accordingly soon numbered amongst the victims of his tyranny. The latter was crucified with his head downwards, but the former was reserved for a punishment which was deemed more honourable, viz. that of a Roman citizen. To await their doom, they are said to have been confined together for a time in the Mamertine dungeon, which dismal cell is still pointed out to the enquiring traveller.3 80,000 persons; Trajan's pillar; the arch of Titus, ornamented with sculptures, commemorative of his conquest of the Jews; arch of Constantine; vast baths, aqueducts, drains, statues of Apollo Belvedere, Laocoon, Antinous, the dying Gladiator, the two colossal horses before the papal palace Monte Cavallo; equestrian statue, in bronze, of Marcus Aurelius. Paintings-the last judgment, by Michael Angelo; and the Transfiguration of Christ, by Raphael, usually considered the finest paintings in the world.' (J. Cornwell, Ph. D.) : Acts xxvii. 16-30. 2 Vide p. 54.-Tac. Ann. xv. 44. The Mamertine prison is still pointed out as the scene of St. Paul's incarceration. It is considered the oldest relic and building in the city, deriving its name from Ancus Martius, the fourth king of ancient Rome. It is reached in the present day by a vault under the church of St. Giuseppe, where the visitor finds himself in two dismal cells; the lower is only six and a half feet in height, and the stones of which it is built are strangely united by cramps of iron. There was a circular opening or aperture above, through which prisoners, on their condemnation, were lowered, either to starve or to be strangled to death. Jugurtha suffered the former of these cruelties within these terrible walls. No wonder Paul wrote so anxiously for his winter cloak to protect him from the pestilential damps and cold of such a place.' (Footsteps of St. Paul.) 'A more horrible place for the confinement of a human being can During the persecution of Domitian, John, the beloved disciple, appears to have but narrowly escaped from the fate of those to whom I have already alluded. According to Tertullian, he was led to that part of the city named Porta Latina, and plunged into a cauldron of boiling oil. Many stories of the like nature might easily be added, which for good reasons I purposely omit.2 Paul's epistle to the Romans was written probably in a.d. 58, and sent from Corinth. Proselytes.-Gentiles who had embraced Judaism. Crete. The Hecatompolis of Homer-modern Candia―á large, and at one time, very fruitful island, in the Mediterranean-so fertile indeed, that it was occasionally called,' the happy island.' But since it became subject to the Turks in 1669, its ancient grandeur and luxuriance have vanished. St. Paul touched at this island when a prisoner on his way from Cæsarea to Rome; and in his epistle to Titus, whom he had appointed to arrange the affairs of the Cretan church, he sums up the character of its inhabitants in the words of 'one scarcely be imagined. There are two apartments, one above the other, to which there was no entrance, except by a small aperture in the upper roof; and a similar hole in the upper floor led to the cell below. There was no staircase to either. The upper prison is twenty-seven feet long by twenty feet wide; the lower, which is elliptical, is twenty feet by ten. The height of the former is fourteen feet, of the latter, seven feet. These served as the state prisons; and only persons of distinction had the privilege of occupying them. Jugurtha was among the number.' Sallust, in his description of this place, remarks, that from uncleanliness, darkness, and a foul smell, the appearance thereof is disgusting and terrific.' Tradition says that St. Peter was confined here; which, considering the accusation against him, is not very likely. The pillar is shown to which he was fastened, and also a well of water, which appeared miraculously for the baptism of his gaolers, Processus and Martinianus, and forty-seven companions! The prison itself, with a small chapel in front, is now consecrated to him; and over it is the church of S. Giuseppe de' Falegnami, built in 1539.' (Burton's Antiquities of Rome.) A little chapel, now quite neglected, commemorates the event.' 2 Take, for example, the following: Of the relics preserved in this church (St. John Lateran), the most remarkable are, part of the cradle, of the vest without seam, of the barley loaves and fishes, the table of the last supper, part of the purple robe, and of the reed with which Christ was smitten! (Burton's Antiquities of Rome.) 'In B.C. 67 Crete was reduced by Q. Metellus Creticus, and was annexed to Cyrene as a Roman province. This union remained in force until the time of Constantine, when they were constituted distinct provinces.' (Student's Ancient Geography, 1867.) of their own prophets,' 'The Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies.' 1 Arabia.-An extensive peninsula, bounded on the east by the Euphrates and the Persian Gulf, on the west by the Red Sea, on the north by Syria, and on the south by the Indian Ocean. The Arabians are mentioned as paying tribute to Jehoshaphat from their flocks and herds;2 and their kings are said to have supplied Solomon with much gold and silver.3 It will also be remembered that St. Paul, soon after his conversion, retired into Arabia to prepare for the important duties which had now devolved upon him as a promoter of the faith which once he attempted to destroy.4 15. Third Hour of the day; viz., 9 A.M. The Jewish day was divided into twelve equal parts, commencing at sunrise and ending at sunset. Morning prayer=3rd hour=9 A.M. Evening prayer 9th hour=3 p.m. 22. Jesus of Nazareth. This was the name by which our Lord was most commonly known. Nazareth was a small town in Galilee, about six miles north-west of Tabor, and was built on the side of a hill. Here Joseph and Mary usually resided, and for that reason it was here also that our Lord spent most of his time before the commencement of his public ministry. 'Since we meet with several important testimonies in Josephus the Jewish historian, concerning John the Baptist, the forerunner of Jesus of Nazareth, concerning Jesus of Nazareth Himself, and concerning James the Just, the brother of Jesus of Nazareth; and since the principal testimony, which is that concerning Jesus of Nazareth Himself, has of late been greatly questioned by many, and rejected by some of the learned as spurious, it will be fit for me,5 who have ever declared my firm belief that these testimonies were genuine, to set down fairly some of the original evidence and citations I have met with in the first fifteen centuries concerning them;6 1 Tit. i. 12. 'This is the description given by Epimenides also and Callimachus.' 2 2 Chron. xvii. 11. 82 Chron. ix. 14. 4 Gal. i. 17. 5 Whiston, The authors quoted are the following, viz. : A.D. 110. Tacit. Ann. xv. 44. 147. Just. Mart. Dial. cum Tryph. p. 230. A.D. 230. Orig. Com. in Matt. p. 234. 250. Id. cont. Cels. lib. i. pp. 35, 36. |