MATTHEW, XVII. 24.

"And when they were come to Capernaum, they that received tribute money came to Peter, and said, Doth not your Master pay tribute?"

In the Greek the tribute is named from its amount, “The Didrachm," which tells us that it was the ancient poll-tax for the maintenance of the temple, of half a shekel, ordered in Exod. xxx. 15. This sacred tax the conquerors of the nation, whether Greeks or Romans, had turned aside from its holy purpose, and claimed for themselves; and therefore its collection was particularly hateful to the Jews. A tax-collector, called in the Authorised Version a publican, if a Jew, was looked upon as an apostate. It was levied not only in Judea, but on all Jews throughout the Roman empire. The tax-gatherer's power of dragging a man before the magistrate on the charge of being a Jew, was a cause of many complaints in the countries away from Judea, and when it was repealed by Nerva in Italy, the Emperor's humanity was commemorated on the above coin with the inscription, "Calumnia fisci Judaici sublata :"-The accusation respecting the Jewish Tax is disallowed.

MATTHEW, XXII. 19.

"And they brought Him a penny [or a denarius]. And He saith to them, Whose image and superscription is this? And they say unto Him, Cæsar's."

H

The tribute, here called in the original by its Latin name, the Census, may very possibly have been a different tax from that of the last Note, called the Didrachm. The Didrachm was a poll-tax, and therefore levied on Jesus and His followers; the Census was probably a landtax, and therefore payable only by the rich.

Above is a silver Denarius of Tiberius, weighing about sixty grains, and worth sevenpence halfpenny. On one side is the head of the Emperor Tiberius Cæsar, with the letters, "TI. CAESAR. DIVI. AVG. F. AVGVSTVS . ;” and on the other side a female seated; with his title, 66 PONTIF. MAXIM."-From Madden's Jewish Coinage.

MATTHEW, XXIV. 15.

"When ye, therefore, shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place (whoso readeth let him understand), then," &c.

The Abomination of Desolation is simply the Hebrew phrase for the idolatrous ensigns of conquest. The military standards of most of the ancient nations were representations of sacred objects, and were worshipped by the soldiers; and, like our modern flags, were placed upon the walls of a captured city by the conquerors. The above is copied from Trajan's Column, and represents the Roman standards planted on the walls of a conquered town in Dacia.

The Jews, in former conquests of Jerusalem, had smarted under the same insult of having the foreign ensigns placed upon the walls of the temple, as described in Ps. lxxiv. 3, 4

"Lift up thy feet unto the perpetual desolations, even all that the enemy hath done wickedly in the sanctuary. Thine enemies roar in the midst of thy congregations; they set up their ensigns for signs."

In Note on Exod. viii. 25, we have seen the sacred bull, the god Apis, called the "Abomination of the Egyptians."

MATTHEW, XXVII. 28.

"And they stripped Him, and put on Him a scarlet robe."

The robe here spoken of was a Chlamys, or soldier's cloak. That worn by the general was distinguished from those of the soldiers and officers of lower rank by its

scarlet colour.

Such also was the cloak worn by the Roman Emperor, and, no doubt, by all the kings of the family of Herod. Therefore, when the Roman soldiers would laugh at Jesus as a pretended king, they put this dress upon Him, together with a crown of thorns, and a reed for a sceptre.

The illustration is an officer in the Roman army on Trajan's Column, wearing his chlamys, which has an ornamental fringe.

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MARK, IV. 21.

And He said unto them, Is a candle brought to be put under a bushel, or under a bed? and not on a candlestick ?"

In the original our text speaks of a lamp being