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J^L,.A. CALIFORNIA
THE
HISTORICAL EVIDENCES
truth or iii i : scwrn re
VATi >IM>S
S T \ T Kli \ N K W .
WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE To TIIK IKH'BTS AM>
DISCOVERIES OK MODERN TIMES.
i\
BOOT I.KfTIRES DEUVZRED IN TIIK OXPORD rSIVKRBITY II 1. 1 IT,
IN THE YF-AB K'.i.
THE Hampton ForNDATioN.
II V
GEORGE RAWLINS OX, M.A.,
I.ATK PKI.I.OW AXI> TUTOR OP EXETKK COI.I.K* 1 : : EDITOR OK
"TICK Hl-ToHY OP IIEROIMIT1 - ' KTl .
PROM THE LONDON EDITION, WITH THE NOTES TRANSLATED,
i-.v
RKV. A. X. ARNOLD.
NEW YORK
LOVELL, CORYELL & COMPANY
43, 45 AND 47 EAST TENTH STREET
2~ 39,t>i
THE
HISTORICAL EVIDENCES
TRUTH OF THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS.
7V) utv yao ahjQtl ninna ovvddti tu vjiao/ovra'
ca dt ytevdtl raxi) diaipwvel taki^tg. — ajustotle.
(for with the true all things that exist are in harmony;
bvt with the false the trv'fc at once disagrees.)
' O Xi}*JVOlS tVQVtiig. (TIME IS THE DISCOVERER.)
E X T It A C T
THE LAST WILL .\XD TESTAMENT
OF T II E
REV. JOHN BAMPTON,
C A X O X O I" S A L I S H L It Y .
... . " I give and bequeath my Lands and Estates to the Chancellor
Masters, and Scholars of the University of Oxford for ever, to have ami
to hold all and singular the said Lands or Estates upon trust, and to the
intents and purposes hereinafter mentioned; that is to say, I will and
appoint that the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford for the time
being shall take and receive all the rents, issues, and profits thereof, and
(after all taxes, reparations, and necessary deductions made) that he pay
all the remainder to the endowment of eight Divinity Lecture Sermons,
to be established for ever in the said University, and to be performed in
the manner following :
" I direct and appoint, that, upon the first Tuesday in Easter Term, a
Lecturer be yearly chosen by the Heads of Colleges only, and by no
others, in the room adjoining to the Printing-House, between the hours
of ten in the morning and two in the afternoon, to preach eight Divinity
Lecture Sermons, the year following, at St. Mary's in Oxford, between
VI KXTRACT I l:i)M CANON BAMPTOX'S WILL.
the rnnine:] anient of the last month ;n Lent T.".n:. iv.A the end of the
third week In Act Term.
" Also 1 direct and npnoint, that the eight Divinity Lecture Sermons
shall l>e pruached upon either of the following Subjects — to confirm and
establish t!io Christian Keith, and to confute all heretics and schismatics
— upon the divine authority of the holy Scriptures — upon the authority
of the writings of the primitive Fathers, as to the faith and practice of
the primitive Church — upon the Divinity of our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ — upon the Divinity of the Holy Ghost — upon the Articles of the
Christian Faith, as comprehended in the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds.
" Al.-o I direct, that thirty copies of the eight Divinity Lecture Sermons
shall Ik? always printed, within two months after they are preached, and
one copy shall be given to the Chancellor of the University, and one copy
to the Head of every College, and one copy to the Mayor of the city of
Oxford, and one copy to be put Into the Bodleian Library; and the
expense of printing them shall be paid out of the revenue of the Land or
Estates given for establishing the Divinity Lecture Sermons; and the
Preacher shall not \>e paid, nor be entitled to the revenue, before they are
printed.
" AlsC i direct and appoint, that no person shall be qualified to preach
the Di'inity Leot :.e Sermons, unless he hath taken the degree of Master
of Arts at least, in one of the two Universities of Oxford or Cambridge;
ami tliiit the some person shall never preach the Divinity Lecture Ser-
«ons twice."
PUBLISHERS' ADVERTISEMENT
THE AMERICAN EDITION
The present work, though it belongs to the same series,
and has the same general design, with Prof. Mansers Lec-
tures on the Limits of Religious Thought, deals with very
different materials, and employs very different modes of
reasoning. Instead of abstruse inquiries into the subtle
conditions and laws of thought, the business of our au-
thor is with the concrete facts of history, and the explicit
records of the past. The two works thus represent the
opposite poles of scientific inquiry. They are like- two
buttresses, built up of different materials, but of equal
strength, on opposite sides of the citadel of our Christian
faith.
Mr. Rawlinson has been peculiarly happy in the facili-
ties which he has enjoyed for combining with his own
extensive and accurate knowledge of the literary monu-
ments of antiquity the latest results of the remarkable
(7)
8 ADVERTISEMENT.
discoveries of his distinguished brother and other suc-
cessful explorers in those rich mines of history, more
precious than of gold, which have so recently been opened
in the valleys of the Euphrates and the Nile. Some gen-
eral knowledge of these results, as confirmatory of the
historical accuracy of the Sacred Scriptures, has already
been widely diffused ; but there was needed a thorough
and scholarly work upon this particular subject, which,
by combining a complete survey and a logical method
with copious specific proofs and illustrations, should stamp
with a more unquestionable certainty, and estimate with
a more critical exactness, these reputed confirmations of
Scripture history. This is the task which Mr. Rawlinson
has undertaken in these "Bampton Lectures;" and we
are confident that the verdict of his own countrymen, as
. to the signal ability and success with which he has ac-
complished it, will be fully indorsed by his American
readers.
But it would be unjust to the author to intimate that
the value of his book is measured only by the skilful and
exhaustive use which he has made of recent discoveries
in the East : the plan of his work covers a broader field,
including all the testimonies of ancient literature to the
facts of Christianity, and the verncity of the Inspired
Volume. But as most of these testimonies of Pagan,
Jewish, and Christian writers have become familiarly
ADVERTISEMENT. 9
known to those who have studied the Christian evidences,
the main interest of these Lectures, for a large class of
readers, will probably be found in the fresher contribu-
tion which they bring to this subject, from the recently
deciphered hieroglyphics of Egypt, and the still more
recent excavations on the sites of the ancient cities of
Assyria.
As this work promises, from its less abstract character,
to interest a larger proportion of the reading public than
the excellent volume by Prof. Mansel, there was a still
stronger reason than in the case of that work for making
the valuable Notes intelligible to all, by translating such
portions of them as were given in foreign languages in
the English edition. These Notes were mostly in tho
Greek language; and the translations have been made by
the Rev. A. N. Arnold, who was for many years a resi-
dent in Greece. The translator has not had access to all
the Greek and Latin writers from whom the author lias
quoted in his proofs; and hence it is not impossible that
some trifling inaccuracies have resulted from the want
of that light which the connection would have shed upon
these fragmentary sentences.
It is a happy omen, that, while so much of the litera-
ture of our times is marked by a tone of infidelity, and
especially by a disparagement of the evidences of the
authenticity and inspiration of the Scriptures, there is in
10 ADVERTISEMENT.
other quarters an increasing readiness to make the choicest
gifts of modern science and learning tributary to the
word of God. The eclipse of faith is not total. And
it is an additional cause for gratitude to the God of Prov-
idence and of Revelation, that, even at this remote dis-
tance of time from the date of the Sacred Oracles, new
evidences of their credibility and accuracy are continually
coming to light. How much may yet remain, buried
under barren mounds, or entombed in pyramids and cata-
combs, or hidden in the yet unexplored pages of some
ancient literature, it were vain to conjecture ; but of this
we may be sure, that if any new forms of evidence should
hereafter be needed, to meet any new forms of unbelief,
and authenticate afresh the word of truth, they will be
found deposited somewhere, waiting for the fulness of
time ; and God will bring them forth in their season,
from the dark hieroglyphics, or the desert sands, or the
dusty manuscripts, to confound the adversaries of his
word, and to "magnify it above all his name."
PREFACE.
These Lectures are an attempt to meet that latest
phase of modern unbelief, which, professing a reverence
for the name and person of Christ, and a real regard for
the Scriptures as embodiments of what is purest and
holiest in religious feeling, lowers Christ to a mere name,
and empties the Scriptures of all their force and practical
efficacy, by denying the historical character of the Bib-
lical narrative. German Neology (as it is called) has of
late years taken chiefly this line of attack, and has pur-
sued it with so much vigor and apparent success, that,
according to the complaints of German orthodox writers,
"no objective ground or stand-point" is left, on which
the believing Theological science can build witli any
feeling of security.1 Nor is the evil in question con-
fined to Germany. The works regarded as most effective
in destroying the historical faith of Christians abroad,
have received an English dress, and arc, it is t<> be
feared, read by numbers of persons very ill prepared by
historical studies to withstand their specious reasonings,
alike in onr own country and in America. The tone,
moreover, of German historical writings generally is
1 See Keil'a Preface to hi.« Comment on Joshua, quoted in Note XXIV. t.. Lecture I
12 PREFACE.
tinged w.ih' the prevailing unbelief; and the faith of the
historical student is liable to be undermined, almost
without his having his suspicions aroused, by covert as-
sumptions or* the mythical character of the sacred nar-
rative, in woiis professing to deal chiefly, or entirely,
with profane subjects. The author had long felt this to
be a serious and a growing evil. Meanwhile his own
studies, which ha\j lain for the last eight or nine years
almost exclusively in the field of Ancient History, had
convinced him moie and more of the thorough truthful-
ness and faithful accuracy of che historical Scriptures.
Circumstances had gi/en hini an intimate knowledge
of the whole course of recent cuneiform, and (to some
extent) of hieroglyphic discovery; and he had been
continually struck with »He removal of difficulties, the
accession of light, and the multiplication of minute points
of agreement between the jacred and the profane, which
resulted from the advances made in deciphering the
Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, and Egyptian records.
He therefore ventured, at the earliest moment which en-
gagements of long standing would allow, to submit to
the Heads of Colleges, electors to the office of Bampton
Lecturer under the will of the Founder, the scheme of
the following Discourses. His scheme having at once
met with their approval, it only remained for him to use
his best efforts in the elaboration of the subject which
he had chosen.
Two modes of meeting the attacks of the Mythical
School presented themselves. lie might make it his
PREFACE. 13
main object to examine the arguments of their principal
writers seriatim, and to demonstrate from authentic
records their weakness, perverseness, and falsity. Or
touching only slightly on this purely controversial ground,
he might endeavor to exhibit clearly and forcibly the
argument from the positive agreement between Scripture
and profane history, which they ignored altogether. The
latter mode of treatment appeared to him at once the
more convincing to young minds, and the more suitable
for a set of Lectures. For these reasons he adopted it.
At the same time he has occasionally, both in the Text
and in the Notes, addressed himself to the more im-
portant of the reasonings by which the school of Strauss
and De Wette seek to overthrow the historical authority
of the Sacred documents.
The Notes have run to a somewhat unusual length.
The author thought it important to exhibit (where possi-
ble) the authorities * for his statements in full; and o
collect into a single volume the chief testimonies to the
historical truth and accuracy of the Scripture records.
If in referring to the cuneiform writings lie lias on many
occasions stated their substance, rather than cited theif
exact words, it is because so few of them have as yet
been translated by competent scholars, and because in
most cases his own knowledge is limited to an acquaint-
ance with the substance, derived from frequent conversa-
tions with his gifted brother. It is to be hoped that no
long time will elapse before some one of the lour sttcan*,
Who have proved their capacity to render the ancient
2
14 . PREFA CE.
Assyrian,1 will present the world with a complete trans-
lation of all the historical inscriptions hitherto recovered.
The author cannot conclude without expressing his ac-
knowledgments to Dr. Bandinel, Chief Librarian of the
Bodleian, for kind exertions in procuring at his instance
various foreign works; and to Dr. Pusey, Professor Stan-
ley, and Mr. Mansel for some valuable information on
several points connected with the Lectures. lie is bound
also to record his obligations to various living or recent
writers, whose works have made his task easier, as Pro-
fessors Keil, Havernick, and Olshausen in Germany, and
in England Dr. Lardner, Dr. Burton, and Dean Alford.
Finally, he is glad once more to avow his deep obliga-
tions to the learning and genius of his brother, and to
the kind and liberal communication on his part of full
information upon every point where there seemed to
be any contact between the sacred history and the cunei-
form records. The novelty of the Lbctures will, he feels,
consist chiefly, if not solely, in the exhibition of these
points of contact and agreement ; and the circumstance
of his having this novelty to offer was his chief induce-
ment to attempt a work on the subject. It is his earnest
prayer that, by the blessing of God, his labors may tend
to check the spread of unbelief, and to produce among
Scripture students a more lively appreciation of the
reality of those facts which are put before us in the Bible,
Oxford, November 2, 1859.
1 See the Inscription of Tiglath-Pilcscr I., king of jis3yria, B. C. 1150, as translated
by Sir Henry Rawlinson, Fox Talbot, Ksq., Dr. Hincks, and Dr. Opnert; published by
the Royal Asiatic Society, London, Parker, 1857.
CONTENTS.
LECTURE I.
Historical character of Christianity as contrasted with other religions
— its contact, thence arising, with historical science — its liability to
be tried afresh by new tests and criteria, as historic science advances.
— Recent advance of historical science — rise of the new department
of Historical Criticism — its birth and growth — its results and ten-
dencies.— Application of Historical Criticism to Christianity to be
expected and even desired — the application as made — first, by the
mythical school of De Wette and Strauss — secondly, by the histori-
cal school — Niebuhr himself — Bunsen. — Intention of the Lectures,
to examine the Sacred Narrative on the positive side, by the light of
the true principles of historical science. — Statement of the principles
under the form of four Canons. — Corollaries of the Canons — com-
parative value of sources — force of cumulative evidence. — Further
Canon which some seek to add on the subject of miracles, examined
— possibility of miracles — contrary notion, Atheistic — peculiarities
of the modern Atheism. — Occurrence of miracles proved — creation
a miracle — counterfeit miracles prove the existence of genuine ones.
— Rejection of the additional Canon leaves the ground clear for the
proposed inquiry. — Two kinds of evidence to be examined — 1. That
of the Sacred Volume itself, considered as a mass of documents, and
judged by the laws of Historical Criticism — 1. The external evidence,
(15)
16 CONTENTS.
or that contained in monuments, in the works of profane authors, in
established customs and observances, and in the contemporary writ-
ings of believers. — Main purpose of the Lectures, to exhibit the
external evidence 25
LECTURE II.
Two modes of conducting ?n historical inquiry — the Retrospective and
the Progressive — advantages of each — preference assigned to the
latter. — Plan of the Lectures — division of the Biblical history into
five periods. — History of the first period, contained in the Pentateuch
— question of the genuineness of the Pentateuch — argument from
the unanimous testimony of the Jews — objections answered. — Writ-
ing practised at the time. — Heathen testimony to the genuineness. —
Internal testimony — difficulties of the opposite theory. — Authen-
ticity of the Pentateuch, a consequent of its genuineness — Moses an
unexceptionable witness for the history of the last four books. —
Authenticity of Genesis — the events, if purely traditional, would
have passed through but few hands to Moses. — Probability that
Genesis is founded on documents, some of which may have been
ante-diluvian. — External evidence of the authenticity — agreement
of the narrative with the best profane authorities. — Review of the
authorities — preeminence of Berosus and Manctho as historians of
ancient times — Egyptian and Babylonian monuments — mode in
which the monuments and histories have to be combined. — Com-
parison of the chronological schemes of Manetho and Berosus with
the chronology of Scripture. — Account of the Creation in Berosus —
its harmony with Scripture. — Account given by Berosus of the
Deluge — similar account of Abydenus — the difference between the
Scriptural and the profane account exaggerated by Niebuhr. — Post-
diluvian history of Berosus — his account of the tower of Babel, and
CONTENTS. 17
the confusion of tongues. — Ethnological value of the tenth chapter
of Genesis. — Heathen accounts of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, de-
rived from Jewish sources — estimate of their value. — Three points
only of great public importance in the history from Abraham to the
death of Moses — two of these confirmed from profane sources. —
Expedition of Chedor-laomer agrees with Berosus, and is distinctly
confirmed by the Babylonian monuments. — Exodus of the Jews
related by Manetho. — Historical arguments of importance, which
have been omitted for want of space — I . The argument furnished by
the conclusions of the historical sciences, such as Geology, Physi-
ology, Comparative Philology, Ethnology, &c. — 2. The argument
from the correctness of the linguistic, geographic, and etho logic
notices in the Pentateuch — modern discovery is continually adding to
this kind of evidence — geographical illustration. — Conclusion. . 19
LECTURE 111.
The period of Jewish history from Exodus to Solomon, comprises the
extremes of national depression and prosperity. — Books of Scrip-
ture, containing this portion of the history, are for the most part by
unknown authors. — Their value not diminished by this, being that
of State Papers. — Historical character of the books, considered sev-
erally.— The Book of Joshua written by an eye-witness, who pos-
sessed records. — The Book of Judges based upon similar documi nts.
— The Books of Samuel composed probably by writers contemporary
with the events related; via. Samuel. Gad, and Nathan. — The
Books of Kings and Chronicles derived from contemporary works
written by Prophets. — Commentary on the history furnished by the
Davidical Psalms. — Confirmation of this period of J wish history
from profane sources, during the earlier portion fit the period, rather
negative than positive. — Weakness of Egypt and Assyria at the
18 CONTENTS.
period, appears both from the Scripture narrative, and from the
monuments. — Positive testimony of profane writers to the conquest
of Canaan by Joshua — Moses of Chorene, Procopius, Suidas. ■ —
Supposed testimony of Herodotus to the miracle of the sun standing
still. — Positive testimony to the later portion of the period — Syrian
•war of David described by Nicolas of Damascus from the records of
his native city. — David's other wars mentioned by Eupolemus. —
Connection of Judaea with Phoenicia. — Early greatness of Sidon
strongly marked in Scripture and confirmed by profane writers —
Homer, Strabo, Justin. — Hiram a true Phoenician royal name. — A
prince of this name reigned at Tyre contemporaneously with David
and Solomon, according to the Phoenician historians, Dius and
Menander — their accounts of the friendly intercourse between Hiram
and these Jewish monarchs. — Solomon's connection with Egypt —
absence of Egyptian records at this time — Solomon contemporary
with Sheshonk or Shishak. — "Wealth of Solomon confirmed by
Eupolemus and Theophilus. — Indirect testimony to the truth of this
portion of the history — the character of Solomon's empire, the plan
of his buildings, and the style of their ornamentation, receive abun-
dant illustration from recent discoveries in Assyria — the habits of
the Phoenicians agree with the descriptions of Homer, Menander, and
others. — Incompleteness of this sketch. — Summary 78
LECTURE IV.
Period to be embraced in the Lecture, one of about four centuries, from
the death of Solomon to the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchad-
nezzar — importance of this period. — Documents in which the his-
tory is delivered. — Kings and Chronicles, compilations from the
State Archives of the two Kingdoms of Israel and Judah. — Objec-
tion answered. — Kings and Chronicles independent, and therefora
CONTENTS. 19
confirmatory, of each other. The history contained in them con-
firmed by direct and incidental notices in the works of contemporary
Prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos, &c. — Confirmation of the history
from profane sources. — The separate existence of the two kingdoms
noticed in the Assyrian Inscriptions. — The conquest of Judcea by
Sheshonk (Shishak) recorded in the great temple at Carnac. ^Zerah
the Ethiopian probably identical with Osorkon the Second. — Eth-
baal, the father of Jezebel, identical with the Ithobalus of Menander
— mention of a great drought in his reign. — Power of Benhadad,
and nature of the force under his command, confirmed by the in-
scription on the Nimrud Obelisk. — Accession of Hazael noticed on
the same monument. — Mention of Jehu. — Interruption in the
series of notices, coinciding with an absence of documents. — Pul,
or Phul, QPa/.u>x,') mentioned byBerosus, and probably identified with
a monumental king, who takes tribute from Samaria. — War of
Tiglath-Pileser with Samaria and Damascus recorded in an As-
syrian inscription. — Altar of Ahaz probably a sign of sub-
jection. — Shalmanezer's Syrian war mentioned by Menander. — ■
Name of Hoshea on an Assyrian inscription probably assigned to
him. — Capture of Samaria ascribed to Sargon on the monuments. —
Harmony of the narrative with Scripture. — Sargon' s capture of
Ashdod, and successful attack on Egypt. — Settlement of the Israel-
ites "in the cities of the Modes." — Expedition of Sennacherib
against Hezekiah — exact agreement of Scripture with Sennacherib's
inscription. — Murder of Sennacherib related by profane writ its —
Polyhistor, Abydenus. — Escape of the murderers " into Armenia"
noticed by Moses of Chorcnc. — Succession of Esar-haddon confirmed
by the monuments. — Indirect confirmation of the curious statement
that Manasseh was brought to him at Babylon. — Identification of
So. (Seveh,) king of Egypt, with Shekel;, or Sabaco — of Tirhakah
with Tchrak, or Taracus — of Xecho with Xcku, or NYchao — and of
Hopnra with liaifra, or Aprics. — Battle of Mcgiddo and caiamitoua
end of Apries confirmed by Herodotus. — Heign of Merodach-llala-
20 CONTENTS.
dan at Babylon confirmed by the Inscriptions. Berosus, and Ptolemy.
— Berosus relates the recovery of Syria, and Palestine by Nebuchad-
nezzar, and also his deportation of the Jews and destruction of Jeru-
salem.— Summary 101
LECTURE V.
Fourth period of the Jewish History, the Captivity and Return — Dan-
iel the historian of the Captivity. — Genuineness of Daniel doubted
•without sufficient reason. — Authenticity of the narrative, denied by
De Wette and others. — Examination of the narrative — the Captivity
in accordance with Oriental habits — confirmed by Berosus. — The
character of Nebuchadnezzar as portrayed in Scripture accords with
Berosus and Abydenus — notice of his prophetic gift by the latter. —
The length of his reign may be gathered from Scripture, and accords
exactly with Berosus and the monuments. — Condition of Babylonia
not misrepresented in Daniel — account of the "wise men" illus-
trated by recent discoveries — " satrapial organization " of the empire
possible, but not asserted in Scripture. — Internal harmony of Daniel's
account. — Mysterious malady of Nebuchadnezzar perhaps noticed
in an obscure passage of the Standard Inscription. — Succession of
Evil-Merodach confirmed by Berosus — difficulty with regard to his
character. — Neriglissar identified with " Nergal-Sharezer, the liab-
Mag." — Supposed irreconcilable difference between Scripture and
profane history in the narrative concerning Belshazzar — Discovery
that Nabonadius, during the latter part of his reign, associated in the
government his son, Bil-shar-uzur, and allowed him the royal title. —
Bil-shar-uzur probably the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar. — " Darius
the Mede " not yet identified. — Capture of Babylon by the Medo-
Persians, during a feast, and transfer of Empire confirmed by many
CONTENTS. 21
writers. — Solution of difficulties. — Chronology of the Capthity
confirmed from Babylonian sources. — Refistablishment of the Jews
in Palestine related in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah — their
authenticity generally allowed — no reason to doubt their genuine-
ness. — Book of Ezra in part based on documents. — Attacks upon
the authenticity of Esther — reply to them. — Author of Esther un-
certain. — The narrative drawn from the chronicles kept by the kings
of Persia. — Confirmation of this portion of the history from profane
sources. — Religious spirit of the Persian kings in keeping with
their inscriptions. — Succession of the kings correctly given. — Stop-
page of the building of the temple by the Pseudo-Smerdis, accords
with his other religious changes. — Reversal by Darius of his reli-
gious policy agrees with the Behistun Inscription. — Break in the
history as recorded by Ezra — book of Esther fills up the gap. — The
name Ahasuerus, the proper equivalent of Xerxes. — Truthfulness of
the portraiture, if Xerxes is intended. — Harmony of the history
with the facts recorded by the Greeks. — Intimate knowledge of
Persian manners and customs. — The massacre of their enemies by
the Jews has a parallel in the Magaphonia. — Character of Arta-
xerxes Longimanus — length of his reign accords with the statement
of Nehemiah. — Summary of the whole result, as regards the His-
tory of the Old Testament 130
LECTURE VI.
Plan of the three remaining Lectures — proposal to regard the period
covered by the New Testament History as a whole, and to consider
the evidence under three heads — 1 . The internal Evidence; 2. The
Evidence of Adversaries ; and, 3. The Evidence of the early Christian
converts.
22 CONTENTS.
The Internal Evidence. — Number and separateness of the documents.
— Doubts raised as to the authorship of the Historical Books. — The
doubts considered severally. — Weight of the external testimony to
the genuineness of the Gospels and the Acts. — Internal evidence to
the composition of the Acts, and of St. Luke's and St. John's Gos-
pels, by contemporaries. — St. Matthew's and St. Mark's Gospels must
have been written about the same time as St. Luke's. — No reason to
doubt in any case the composition by the reputed authors. — Our
four Gospels a providential mercy. — The first three wholly inde-
pendent of one another. — Their substantial agreement as to the
facts of our Lord's life and ministry, an evidence of great weight. — '
Failure of the attempt of Strauss to establish any real disagreement.
— The establishment of real discrepancies would still leave the writers
historical authorities of the first order. — Confirmation of the Gospel
History from the Acts of the Apostles. — Confirmation of the History
of the Acts from the Epistles of St. Paul — exhibition of this argument
in the Horce Paulina of Paley — the grounds of the argument not ex-
hausted. — Paley's argument applicable to the Gospels. — Confirma-
tion of the Gospel narrative from the letters of the Apostles. — Firm
belief of the Apostles in the Gospel facts from the first, evidenced in
the Acts and the Epistles. — Impossibility of the sudden growth of
myths in such an age and under such circumstances. — The mythic
theory devised in order to make Christianity untrue, without ascrib-
ing it to imposture — its failure in respect of this object. — No
alternative but to accept the statements of the Evangelists and Apos-
tles, or to regard them as conscious deceivers. — Unmistakable air
of veracity and honesty in the New Testament writings. — Conclu-
sion 155
CONTENTS. 23
LECTURE VII.
The Evidence of Adversaries. — Contrast between the Old and New
Testament — the former historical — the latter biographical. — Conse-
quent scantiness of points of contact between the main facts of the
New Testament narrative and profane records. — Their harmony
chiefly seen through the incidental allusions of the New Testament
writers. — Importance of this evidence. — Evidence of Heathens to
the main facts of Christianity, really very considerable. — That it is
not more must be regarded as the result of a forced and studied
reticence. — Reticence of Josephus. — Loss of heathen writings of
this period, which may have contained important direct evidence. —
Incidental allusions considered under three heads — (i.) The general
condition of the countries which were the scene of the history. "
Political condition of Palestine — numerous complications and
anomalies — faithfulness of the New Testament notices. — Tone and
temper of the Jews at the time. — Condition and customs of the
Greeks and Romans in Palestine, Asia Minor, Greece, and Italy. —
Condition and number of the foreign Jews — oratories — syna-
gogues, &c. (ii.) Representations with respect to the civil govern-
ment of the countries. — Names and order of the Roman Kmpi rors
— Jewish native princes — Roman Procurators of Palestine — Ro-
man Proconsuls — supposed "error" of St. Luke with regard to
the Greek Tetrarch, Lysanias. (iii.) Historical facts, of which, if
true, profane authors might have bun expected to make mention. —
Decree of Augustus — taxing of Cyrenius — rebellion of Theudas —
» uproar " of the Egyptian — famine in the days of < 'laudius, &c. —
Summary and conclusion '
24 CONTENTS.
LECTURE VIII.
The evidence of the early converts. — Its abundance, and real weight.
— Early Christians not deficient in education, position, or intellect.
— Historical witness of the Christian writers — of St. Barnabas — of
Clemens Romanus — of Ignatius — of Polycarp — of Hermas — of
Quadratus — of Justin Martyr — of subsequent writers. — Witness
of primitive Christian monuments, especially of those in the Roman
Catacombs — their genuine character — their antiquity. — Proof
which they afford of the enormous numbers of the Christians in the
first ages. — Proof which they afford of the sufferings and frequent
martyrdoms of the period. — Evidence which they furnish of the
historical belief of the time. — Weight of this whole testimony — the
Greeks and Romans not at this time credulous — not likely to think
little of the obligations incurred by professing Christianity — the
convert's sole stay the hope of the resurrection. — Evidence to the
truth of Christianity from the continuance of miracles in the Church
— proof of their continuance. — Testimony of the early Christians
enhanced by their readiness to suffer for their faith. — Conclu-
sion 206
Notes 229
Additional Note 441
Specification of Editions quoted, or referred to, in the
Notes 443
THE
HISTORICAL EVIDENCES
OF THE
TRUTH OF THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS.
LECTURE I.
LET ALL THE NATIONS BE GATHERED TOGETHER, AND LET THE PEOPLE
BE ASSEMBLED : WHO AMONG THEM C.VX DECLARE THIS, AM) SHOW IS
FORMER THINGS? LET THEM BRINO FORTH THEIR WITNESSES, THAT
THEY MAY BE JUSTIFIED : OR LET THEM HEAR, AND SAY, IT IS TRUTH.
— ISAIAH XLIII. 9.
Christianity — including therein the dispensation of
the Old Testament, which was its first stage — is in noth-
ing more distinguished from the other religions of tv. ■
world than in its objective <>r historical character. The
religions of Greece and Rome, of Egypt, India, Persia, and
the East generally, were speculative systems, which did not
even seriously postulate an historical basis, [f they seemed
to do so to some extent, if tor instance the mythological
ideas of the Greeks he represented under the form of a
mythological period, which moreover Mends gradually and
almost imperceptibly with the historical, still in the minds
of the Greeks themselves the periods were separate and
distinct, not merely in time, hut in character; and the "i>-
jeetive reality of the scenes and events described as he-
longing to each was not conceived of as parallel, or even
26 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OP THE LECT. L
similar, in the two cases. (J) The modern distinction be-
tween the legend and the myth, properly so called, (2) was
felt, if not formally recognized, by the Greek mind ; and
the basis of fact, which is of the essence of the former,
was regarded as absent from the latter, which thus ceased
altogether to be history. Mahometanism again, and the
other religious systems which have started with an indi-
vidual, and which so far bear a nearer resemblance to the
religions of Moses and of Christ, than those that have
grown up and been developed gradually out of the feeling
and imagination of a people, are very slightly, if at all,
connected with any body of important facts, the due attes-
tation of which and their accordance with other known
facts might be made the subject of critical examination.'
We may concede the truth of the whole story of Mahomet,
as it was related by bis early followers, and this concession
in no sort carries with it even the probable truth of the
religion. (3> But it is otherwise with the religion of the
Bible. There, whether we look to the Old or the New
Testament, to the Jewish dispensation or to the Christian,
we find a scheme of doctrine which is bound up with facts ;
which depends absolutely upon them ; which is null and
void without them ; and which may be regarded as for all
practical purposes established if they are shown to deserve
acceptance.
It is this peculiar feature of Christianity — a feature
often noticed by its apologists (4> — which brings it into
such a close relation to historical studies and investigations.
As a religion of fact, and not merely of opinion, — as one
whose chief scene is this world, and whose main doctrines
are events exhibited openly before the eyes of men — as
one moreover which, instead of affecting a dogmatic form,
•dopts from first to last, with very rare exceptions, the hjs-
Lect. L truth of the scripture records. 27
torical shape, it comes necessarily within the sphere of the
historical inquirer, and challenges him to investigate it ac-
cording to what he regards as the principles of his science.
Moreover, as Christianity is in point of fact connected in-
timately with certain records, and as those records extend
over a period of several thousands of years, and " profess
to contain a kind of abridgment of the history of the
world," (5) its points of contact with profane history are
(practically speaking) infinite; and it becomes impossible
for the historical inquirer to avoid the question, in what
light he is to view the documents which, if authentic, must
exercise so important an influence over his studies and con-
clusions.
Christianity then cannot complain if, from time to time,
as historical science advances, the question is raised afresh
concerning the real character of those events which form
its basis, and the real value of those documents on which
it relies. As an historical religion, it invites this species of
inquiry, and is glad that it should be made and repeated.
It only complains in one of two cases — when either prin-
ciples unsound and wrong in themselves, having been as-
sumed as proper criteria of historic truth, are applied to it
for the purpose of disparagement ; or when, right princi-
ples being assumed, the application of them, of which it is
the object, is unfair and illegitimate.
It is the latter of these two errors which seems to me to
be the chief danger of the present day. Time was — and
that not very long ago — when all the relations of ancient
authors concerning the old world wen- received with a
ready belief ; and an unreasoning and uncritical faith ac-
cepted with equal satisfaction the narrative of the cam-
paigns of Caesar and of the doings of Romulus, the account
of Alexander's inarches and of the conquests of Scmirnniis.
28 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OF THE LECT. L
We can most of us remember when in this country the
whole story of Regal Rome, and even the legend of the
Trojan settlement in Latium, were seriously placed before
boys as history, and discoursed of as unhesitatingly, and in
as dogmatic a tone, as the tale of the Catiline conspiracy,
or the conquest of Britain. " All ancient authors were " at
this time, as has been justly observed, "put upon the same
footing, and regarded as equally credible;" while "all parts
of an author's work were supposed to rest on the same
basis." (6> A blind and indiscriminate faith of a low kind
— acquiescence rather than actual belief — embraced equally
and impartially the whole range of ancient story, setting
aside perhaps those prodigies which easily detached them-
selves from the narrative, and were understood to be em-
bellishments on a par with mere graces of composition.
But all this is now changed. The last century has seen
the birth and growth of a new science — the science of
Historical Criticism. Beginning in France with the labors
of Pouilly and Beaufort, (7) it advanced with rapid strides
in Germany under the guidance of Niebuhr, f8> Otfried
Miiller, (9) and Bockh, (10) and finally, has been introduced
and naturalized among ourselves by means of the 'writings
of our best living historians. (n>
Its results in its own proper and primary field are of the
most extensive arid remarkable character. TLie whole
world of profane history has been revolutionized. By a
searching and critical investigation of the mass of mate-
rials on which that history rested, and by the application to
it of Canons embodying the judgments of a sound discre-
tion upon the value of different sorts of evidence, the vi^ws
of the ancient world formerly entertained have been in ^en
thousand points either modified or reversed — a new anti-
quity has been raised up out of the old — while much that
LECT. I. TRUTH OF THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 20
was unreal in the picture of past times which men had
formed to themselves has disappeared, consigned to that
"Limbo large and broad" into which "all tilings transitory
and vain" are finally received, a fresh revelation lias in
many cases taken the place of the old view, which has dis-
solved before the wand of the critic; and a firm and strong
fabric has arisen out of the shattered debris of the fallen
systems. Thus the results obtained have been both posi-
tive and negative; but, it must be confessed, with a pre-
ponderance of the latter over the former. The scepticism
in which the science originated has clung to it from first to
last, and in recent times we have seen not only a greater
leaning to the destructive than to the constructive side,
but a tendency to push doubt and incredulity beyond due
limits, to call in question without cause, and t» distrust
what is sufficiently established. This tendency has not,
however, been allowed to pass unrebuked ; (12> and viewing
the science as developed, not in the writings of this or that
individual, but in the general conclusions in which it has
issued, Ave may regard it :\.- having done, and as still pre-
pared to do, good service in the cause of truth.
It was not to be expected — nor was it, I think, to he
wished — that the records of past times contained in the
Old and New Testament should escape the searching
ordeal to which all other historical documents had been
subjected, or remain long, on account of their sacred char-
acter, jinscrutinizcd by the inquirer. Reverence may possi-
bly gain, but Faith, I believe, — real and true Faith —
greatly loses by the establishment of a wall of partition be-
tween the sacred and the profane, and the subtraction of
the former from the domain of scientific inquiry. As truth
of one kind cannot possibly be contradictory to truth of
another, Christianity has nothing to fear from scientific
3*
30 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OP THE LECT. L
investigations; and any attempt to isolate its facts and
preserve them from the scrutiny which profane history re-
ceives must, if successful, diminish the fulness of our assent
to them — the depth and reality of our belief in their
actual occurrence. It is by the connectior of sacred with
profane history that the facts of the former are most vividly
•apprehended, and most distinctly felt to be real ; to sever
between the two is to make the sacred narrative grow dim
and shadowy, and to encourage the notion that its details
are not facts in the common and every-day sense of the
word.
When therefore, upon the general acceptance of the
principles laid dow~, with respect to profane history by
Otfried Miiller and Niebuhr, theological critics in Germany
proceeded^ as they said, to apply the new canons of histori-
cal criticism to the Gospels and to the historical books of
the Old Testament, there was no cause for surprise, nor
any ground for extreme apprehension. There is of course
always danger when science alone, disjoined from religious
feeling, undertakes, with its purblind sight and limited
means of knowing, to examine, weigh, and decide matters
of the highest import. But there did not appear to be in
this instance any reason for special alarm. The great
Master-spirit, he to whom the new science owed, if not its
existence, yet at any rate its advancement and the estima-
tion in which it was generally held — had distinctly ac-
cepted the mass of the Scripture history as authentic, and
was a sincere and earnest believer. (13) It was hoped that
the inquiry would be made in his spirit, and by means of
a cautious application of his principles. But the fact has
unfortunately been otherwise. The application of the
science of historical criticism to the narrative of Scripture
has been made in Germany by two schools — one certainly
1 Lect. L truth of the scripture records. 31
far less extravagant than the other — but both wanting in
sound critical judgment, as well as in a due reverence tor
the Written Word. It will be necessary, in order to make
the scope of these Lectures clearly intelligible, to give an
account at some length of the conclusions and reasonings
of both classes of critics.
The portion of the Scripture history which was first
subjected to the application of the new principles was the
historical part of the Old Testament. It was soon de-
clared that a striking parallelism existed between this his-
tory and the early records of most heathen nations. (">
The miracles in the narrative were compared with the
prodigies and divine appearances related by Herodotus and
Livy. (15> The chronology was said to bear marks, like that
'of Rome and Babylon, of artificial arrangement ; the re-
currence of similar numbers, and especially of round num-
bers, particularly indicating its unhistorical character. (;6
The names of kings, it was observed, were frequently so
apposite, that the monarchs supposed to have borne them
must be regarded as fictitious personages, (17) like Theseus
and Numa. Portions of the sacred narrative were early
declared to present every appearance of being simply
myths ;(18) and by degrees it was sought to attach to the
whole history, from first to last, a legendary and unreal
character. All objections taken by rationalists or infidels
to particular relations in the sacred hooks being allowed as
.valid, it was considered a sufficient account of such rela-
tions to say, that the main source of the entire narrative
was oral tradition — that it first took a written shape many
hundreds of years after the supposed date of the circum-
stances narrated, the authors being poets rather than his-
torians, and bent rather on glorifying their native country
than on giving a true relation of facts — and that in places
82 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OF THE LECT. L
they had not even confined themselves to the exaggeration
and embellishment of actual occurrences, but had allowed
imagination to step in and fill up blanks in their annals. (19>
By some, attempts were made to disentangle the small ele-
ment of fact which lay involved in so much romance and
poetry from the mass in which it was embedded ; t20) but
the more logical minds rejected this as a vain and useless
labor, maintaining that no separation which was other
than arbitrary could be effected; and that the events
themselves, together with the dress in which they ap-
peared, "constituted a whole belonging to the province of
woetry and mythus." (21> It was argued that by this treat-
ment the sacredness and divinity, and even the substantial
truth of the Scriptures, was left unassailed ; (~2) the literal
meaning only being discarded, and an allegorical one sub-
stituted in its place. Lastly, the name of Origen Avas pro-
duced from the primitive and best ages of Christianity to
sanction this system of interpretation, and save it from the
'atal stigma of entire and absolute novelty. (33)
When the historical character of the Old Testament, as
sailed on all sides by clever and eloquent pens, and weakly
defended by here and there a single hesitating apolo-
gist, seemed to those who had conducted the warfare irre-
trievably demolished and destroyed, (24) the New Testament
became, after a pause, the object of attack to the same
school of writers. It was felt, no doubt, to be a bold thing
to characterize as a collection of myths the writings of an
age of general enlightenment (25) — nay, even of incredulity
and scepticism ; and perhaps a lingering regard for what
so many souls held precious, (26> stayed the hands of those
who nevertheless saw plainly, that the New Testament was
open to the same method of attack as the Old, and that an
iuexorable logic required that both should be received or
LECT. I. TRUTH OF THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 33
neither. A pause therefore ensued, but a pause of no long
duration. First, particular portions of the New Testament
narrative, as the account of our Lord's infancy, (27) and ot
the Temptation, C28) were declared to possess equal tokens
of a mythic origin with those which had been previously
regarded as fatal to the historical character of Old Testa-
ment stories, and were consequently singled out for rejec-
tion. Then, little by little, the same system of explanation
was adopted with respect to more and more of the narra-
tive ;("J till at last, in the hands of Strauss, the whole
came to be resolved into pure myth and legend, and the
historical Christ being annihilated, the world was told to
console itself with a "God-man, eternally incarnate, not an
individual, but an idea;"(30) which, on examination, turns
out to be no God at all, but mere man — man perfected by
nineteenth-century enlightenment — dominant over nature
by the railroad and the telegraph, and over himself by the
negation of the merely natural and sensual life, and the
substitution for it of the intellectual, or (in the nomencla-
ture of the school) the spiritual.
"In an individual," says Strauss, "the properties which
the Church ascribes to Christ contradict themselves; in the
idea of the race they perfectly agree. Humanity is the
union of the two natures — Cod become man, the infinite
manifesting itself in the finite, and the finite spirit remem-
bering its infinitude; it is the eliild of the visible Mother
and the invisible Father, Nature and Spirit; it is the
worker of miracles, in so far as in the course ol human
history the spirit more and more completely subjugates
nature, both within and around man, until it lies before
him as the inert matter on which he exercises his jictive
power; it is the sinless existence, for the course of its
development is a blameless one; pollution cleaves to the
34 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OF THE LECT. I
individual only, and does not touch the race or its history.
It is Humanity that dies, rises, and ascends to Heaven ; for
from the negation of its phenomenal life there ever pro-
ceeds a higher spiritual life ; from the suppression of its
mortality as a personal, national, and terrestrial spirit,
arises its union with the infinite spirit of the heavens. By
faith in this Christ, especially in his death and resurrec-
tion, man is justified before God ; that is, by the kindling
within him of the idea of Humanity, the individual man
partakes of the divinely human life of the species? '(31>
Such are the lengths to which speculation, professedly
grounding itself on the established principles of historical
criticism, has proceeded in our day; and such the conclu-
sions recommended to our acceptance by a philosophy
which calls itself preeminently spiritual. How such a phi-
losophy differs from Atheism, except in the use of a
religious terminology, which it empties of all religious
meaning, I confess myself unable to perceive. The final
issue of the whole seems to be simply that position which
Aristotle scouted as the merest folly, that " man is the
highest and most divine thing in the universe," C32) and that
God consequently is but a name for humanity when per-
fected.
More dangerous to faith, because less violent in its
methods, and less sweeping in the conclusions to which it
comes, is the moderate rationalism of another school, a
school which can with some show of reason claim to shelter
Hself under the gi-eat name and authority of Niebuhr. Not-
withstanding the personal faith of Niebuhr, which cannot
be doubted, and the strong expressions of which he made
use against the advocates of the mythical theory, (33) he
was himself upon occasions betrayed into remarks which
involved to a great extent their principles, and opened a
LECT. I. TRUTH OF THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 35
door to the thorough-going scepticism from which he indi-
vidually shrank with horror. For instance, in one place
Niebuhr says, with respect to the Book of Esther, " I am
convinced that this book is not to be regarded as his-
torical, and I have not the least hesitation in here stating
it publicly. Many entertain the same opinion. Even the
early fathers have tormented themselves with it ; and St.
Jerome, as he himself clearly indicates, was in the greatest
perplexity through his desire to regard it as an historical
document. At present no one looks upon the Book of
Judith as historical, and neither Origen nor St. Jerome did
so ; the same is the case with Esther ; it is nothing more
than a poem on the occurrences." (34) The great historical
critic here (so far as appears, on mere subjective grounds,
because the details of the narrative did not appear to him
probable) surrendered to the mythical inteipreters a book
of Scripture — admitted that to be "a poem and nothing
more" which, on the face of it, bore the appearance of
a plain matter-of-fact history — put a work which the
Church has always regarded as canonical and authoritative
on a par with one which was early pronounced apocryphal,
— not, certainly, moved to do so by any defect in the
external evidence^35) though a vague reference is made to
"early fathers;" but on account of internal difficulties,
either in the story itself, or in the manner of its narration.
I cannot see that it is possible to distinguish the princi-
ple of this surrender from that asserted by the mythical
school; or that the principle once admitted, any ground
can be shown for limiting its application to a single
book of Scripture, or indeed to any definite number of
such books. Let it be once allowed that we may declare
any part of Scripture which seems to us improbable,
or which does not approve itself to our notions ol wiiat
36 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OP THE LECT. I
revelation should be, "a poem and nothing more," and
what security is there against the extremest conclusions
of the mythologists? One book will naturally be sur-
rendered after another, (36) and the final result will not
be distinguishable from that at which the school of He
Wette and Strauss professedly aims — the destruction of
all trust in the historical veracity of the Scripture nar-
rative.
The partial scepticism of Xiebuhr has always had follow-
ers in Germany — men who are believers, but who admit
the principles of unbelief — who rationalize, but who think
to say to the tide of rationalism, "Thus far shalt thou go,
and no farther." I shall not detain my hearers with a long
array of instances in this place. Suffice it to adduce the
teaching of a single living writer, whose influence is very
considerable both in Germany and in our own country.
On the ground that Egypt has a continuous history, com-
mencing more than six thousand years before the Christian
era, we are required to reject the literal interpretation of
the sixth, seventh, and eighth chapters of Genesis, and to
believe that the Flood was no more than a great catas-
trophe in Western Asia, which swept away the inhabitants
of that region, but left Egypt and the greater part of the
world untouched. Ham, we are told, is not a person, but
the symbolical representative of Egypt; and he is the
elder brother, because Egyptian Hamitism is older than
Asiatic Semitism. The expression that Canaan is the son
of Ham "must be interpreted geographically;" it means,
that the Canaanitic tribes which inhabited historical
Canaan came from Egypt, where they had previously had
their abode. Nimrod is said to have been begotten by
Cush ; but he was no more a Cushite by blood than
Canaan was an Egyptian ; he is called a Cushite, because
LECT. I. TRUTH OF THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 37
the people represented by him came from the part of
Africa called Cash or Ethiopia (which they had held as
conquerors) back into Asia, and there established an
empire. C37^ Again, "the family tree of Abraham is an
historical representation of the great and lengthened
migrations of the primitive Asiatic race of man, from the
mountains of Armenia and Chahhea, through Mesopota-
mia, to the north-east frontier of Egypt, as far as Amalek
and Edom. It represents the connection between nations
and their tribes, not personal connection betioeen father and
son, and records consequently epochs, not real human
pedigrees? W> The early Scriptures are devoid altogether
of an historical chronology. When the sojourn of the
children of Israel in Egypt is said to have been four hun-
dred and thirty years, of which one half, or two hundred
and fifteen years, was from Abraham's going down into
Egypt to Jacob's, the other from Jacob's going down to
the Exodus, the number must be regarded as "conven-
tional and unhistorical ;" (39> as "connected with the
legendary genealogies of particular families ;"(4°) as formed,
in fact, artificially by a doubling of the tirst period; which
itself only "represents the traditionary accounts of the
primitive times of Canaan, as embodied in a genealogy
of the three patriarchs," (") and "cannot possibly be worthy
of more confidence than the traditions with regard to
the second period," which arc valueless. ('-< Of course
the earlier lists of names and calculations of years are
looked upon with still less favor. "The .Jewish tradition,
in proportion as its antiquity is thrown hack, bears on
its face less of a chronological character," so that "no
light is to be gleaned from it" for general purposes. W
Even in the comparatively recent times of David and Sol-
omon, there is no coherent or reliable chronology; tho
4
88 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OP THE LECT. I
round number forty being still mot with, which is taken to
be an indubitable sign of arbitrary and artificial arrange-
ment. (44>
Such are some of the results which have, in fact, fol-
lowed from the examination by historical critics, possessed
of more or less critical acumen, of those sacred records,
which are allowed on all hands to be entitled to deep
respect, and which we in this place believe to be, not
indeed free from such small errors as the carelessness or
ignorance of transcribers may have produced, but substan-
tially " the Word of God." I propose at the present time,
in opposition to the views which I have sketched, to
examine the Sacred Narrative on the positive side. Leav-
ing untouched the question of the inspiration of Scripture,
and its consequent title to outweigh all conflicting testi-
mony whatever, I propose briefly to review the historical
evidence for the orthodox belief. My object will be to
meet the reasoning of the historical sceptics on their own
ground. I do not, indeed, undertake to consider and
answer their minute and multitudinous cavils, which would
be an endless task, and which is moreover unnecessary,
as to a great extent the cavillers meet and answer one
another ;(45) but I hope to show, without assuming the
inspiration of the Bible, that for the great facts of revealed
religion, the miraculous history of the Jews, and the birth,
life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ, as well as
for his miracles and those of his apostles, the historical
evidence which we possess is of an authentic and satisfac-
tory character. I shall review this evidence in the light
and by the laws of the modern historical criticism, so far
as they seem to be established. Those laws appear to me
to be sound; and their natural and real bearing is to
increase instead of diminishing the weight of the Christian
LECT. I. TRUTH OF THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 39
evidences. It is not from a legitimate and proper applica-
tion of them that faith has suffered, but partly from their
neglect or misapplication, partly from the intrusion among
them of a single unproved and irrational opinion.
I am not aware that the laws in question have ever been
distinctly laid down in a compendious, or even in an
abstract form. They are assumed throughout the writings
of our best historians, but they are involved in their
criticisms rather than directly posited as their principles.
I believe, however, that I shall not misrepresent them
if I say, that, viewed on their positive side, they consist
chiefly of the four following Canons: —
1. When the record which we possess of an event is the
writing of a contemporary, supposing that he is a credible
witness, and had means of observing the fact to which he
testifies, the fact is to be accepted, as possessing the first or
highest degree of historical credibility. Such evidence is
on a par with that of witnesses in a court of justice, with
the drawback, on the one hand, that the man who gives it
is not sworn to speak the truth, and with the advantage, on
the other, that he is less likely than the legal witness to
have a personal interest in the matter concerning which he
testifies. (4fi)
2. When the event recorded is one which the writer
may be reasonably supposed to have obtained directly
from those who witnessed it, we should accept it as proba-
bly true, unless it be in itself very improbable. Such
evidence possesses the second degree of historical credi-
bility. («>
3. When the event recorded is removed considerably
from the age of the recorder of it, and there is no reason to
believe that he obtained it from a contemporary writing,
but the probable source of his information was oral tra-
40 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OP THE LECT. L
dition ; still, if the event be one of great importance, and
of public notoriety, if it affected the national life, or pros-
perity,— especially if it be of a nature to have been at
once commemorated by the establishment of any rite or
practice, — then it has a claim to belief as probably true, at
least in its general outline. (48) This, however, is the third,
and a comparatively low, degree of historical credibility.
4. When the traditions of one race, which, if unsup-
ported, would have had but small claim to attention,
and none to belief, are corroborated by the traditions of
another, especially if a distant or hostile race, the event
which has this double testimony obtains thereby a high
amount of probability, and, if not very unlikely in itself,
thoroughly deserves acceptance.^ The degree of his-
torical credibility in this case is not exactly commensurable
with that in the others, since a new and distinct ground of
likelihood comes into play. It may be as strong as the
highest, and it may be almost as weak as the lowest,
though this is not often the case in fact. In a general
-way we may say that the weight of this kind of evidence
exceeds that which has been called the third degree
of historical probability, and nearly approaches to the
second.
To these Canons may be added certain corollaries, or
dependent truths, — with respect to the relative value of
the materials from which history is ordinarily composed, —
important to be borne in mind in all inquiries like that
on which we are entering. Historical materials may be
divided into direct and indirect, — direct, or such as pro-
ceed from the agents in the occurrences ; indirect, or such
as are the embodiment of inquiries and researches made by
persons not themselves engaged in the transactions. The
former are allowed, on all hands, to be of primary impor-
LECT. I. TRUTH OF THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 41
tance. There is indeed a drawback upon their value,
arising out of the tendency of human vanity to exalt self
at the expense of truth ; but where the moral character of
the writer is a security against wilful misrepresentation, or
where the publicity of the events themselves would make
misrepresentation folly, the very highest degree of credit is
to be given to direct records. These may be either public
inscribed monuments, such as have frequently been set up
by governments and kings; state papers, such as we hear
of in the books of Ezra and Esther jt50) letters, or books.
Again, books of this class will be either commentaries, (or
particular histories of events in which the authors have
taken part;) autobiographies, or accounts which persons
have given of their own lives up to a certain point; or
memoirs ; i. e., accounts which persons have given of those
with whom they have had some acquaintance. These are
the best and most authentic sources of history ; and we
must either be content with them, or regard the past as
absolutely shrouded from our knowledge by a veil which is
impenetrable. Indirect records — the compilations of dili-
gent inquirers concerning times or scenes in which they
have themselves had no part — are to be placed on a much
lower footing; they must be judged by their internal char-
acter, by their accord with what is otherwise known of the
times or scenes in question, and by the apparent veracity
and competency of their composers. They often have a
high value; but this value cannot be assumed previously to
investigation, depending as it docs almost entirely on the
critical judgment of their authors, on the materials to
which they had access, and on the use that they actually
made of them.
The force of cumulative evidence has often been
noticed. No account of the grounds of historic belief
4*
42 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OF THE LECT. I.
would be complete, even in outline, which failed to notice
its applicability to this held of investigation, and its great
weight and importance in all cases where it has any place.
"Probable proofs," says Bishop Butler, "by being added, not
only increase the evidence, but multiply it." (51) When two
independent writers witness to the same event, the proba-
bility of that event is increased, not in an arithmetical but
in a geometrical ratio, not by mere addition, but by mul-
tiplication. C52) "By the mouth of two or three witnesses,"'
the word to which such witness is borne is " established." l
And the agreement is the more valuable if it be — so to
speak — incidental and casual; if the two writers are con-
temporary, and their writings not known to one another ;
if one only alludes to what the other narrates; if one
appears to have been an actor, and the other merely a
looker-on ; if one gives events, and the other the feelings
which naturally arise out of them : in these cases the con-
viction which springs up in every candid and unprejudiced
mind is absolute ; the element of doubt which hangs about
all matters of mere belief being reduced to such infinitesi-
mal proportions as to be inappreciable, and so, practically
speaking, to disappear altogether.
To the four Canons which have been already enumer-
ated as the criteria of historic truth, modern Rationalism
would add a fifth, an a priori opinion of its own — the
admission of which would put a stop at once to any such
inquiry as that upon which Ave are now entering. "No
just perception of the true nature of history is possible," we
are told, " without a perception of the inviolability of the
chain of finite causes, and of the iirqyossibility of mira-
cles? ^ And the mythical interpreters insist, that one
of the essential marks of a mythical narrative, whereby it
1 Deut. xix. 15.
Lect. L truth of the scripture records. 43
may be clearly distinguished from one which is historical,
is, its "presenting an account of events which are cither
absolutely or relatively beyond the reach of (ordinary)
experience, such as occurrences connected with the spir-
itual world, or its dealing in the supernatural." (54) Now,
if miracles cannot take place, an inquiry into the historical
evidences of Revealed Religion is vain ; for Revelation is
itself miraculous, and therefore, by the hypothesis, impossi-
ble. But what are the grounds upon which so stupendous
an assertion is made, as that God cannot, if He so please,
suspend the working of those laws by which He commonly
acts upon matter, and act on special occasions differently?
Shall we say that He cannot, because of His own immuta-
bility— because He is a being "with whom is no variable-
ness, neither shadow of turning?"1 But, if Ave apply the
notion of a Law to God at all, it is plain that miraculous
interpositions on fitting occasions may be as much a
legular, fixed, and established rule of His government, as
the working ordinarily by what are called natural laws. Or
shall we say that all experience and analogy is against mira-
cles? But this is either to judge, from our own narrow
and limited experience, of the whole course of nature, and
so to generalize upon most weak and insufficient grounds;
or else, if in the phrase "all experience" we include the
experience of others, it is to draw a conclusion directly
in the teeth of our data; for many persons well worthy of
belief have declared that they have witnessed and wrought
miracles. Moreover, were it true that all known experi-
ence was against miracles, this would not even prove that
they had not happened — much less that they are impos-
sible. If they are impossible, it must be either from some-
thing in the nature of things, or from something in the
1 James i. 17.
44 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OF THE LECT. I.
nature of God. That the immutability of God does not
stand in the way of miracles has been already shown ; and I
know of no other attribute of the Divine Nature which can
be even supposed to create a difficulty. To most minds it
will, if I do not greatly mistake, rather appear, that the
Divine Omnipotence includes in it the power of working
miracles. And if God created the world, He certainly
once worked a miracle of the most surpassing greatness.
Is there then any thing in the nature of things to make
miracles impossible ? Not unless things have an independ-
ent existence, and work by their own power. If they are
in themselves nought, if God called them out of nothing,
and but for His sustaining power they would momentarily
fall back into nothing ; if it is not they that work, but He
who works in them and through them ; if growth, and
change, and motion, and assimilation, and decay, are His
dealings with matter, as sanctification, and enlightenment,
and inward comfort, and the gift of the clear vision of
Him, are His dealings with ourselves; if the Great and
First Cause never deserts even for a moment the second
Causes, but He who " upholdeth all things by the word of
His power,"1 and is "above all and through all,"2 is also (as
Hooker says) "the Worker of all in all'M55) — then cer-
tainly things in themselves cannot oppose any impediment
to miracles, or do aught but obsequiously follow the Divine
fiat, be it what it may. The whole difficulty with regard
to miracles has its roots in a materialistic Atheism, which
believes things to have a force in and of themselves ;
which regards them as self-sustaining, if not even as self-
caused ; which deems them to possess mysterious powers of
their own uncontrollable by the Divine Will ; which sees
in the connection of physical cause and effect, not a
■Heb. i. 3. 2Eph. iv. 6.
LECT. I. TRUTH OF THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 45
sequence, not a law, but a necessity ; which, either positing
a Divine First Cause to bring things into existence, then
(like Anaxagoras) makes no further use of Him^56) or
does not care to posit any such First Cause at all, but is
content to refer all things to a " course of nature," which it
considers eternal and unalterable, and on which it lavishes
all the epithets that believers regard as appropriate to God,
and God only. It is the pectiliarity of Atheism at the
present day that it uses a religious nomenclature — it is no
longer dry, and hard, and cold, all matter of fact and com-
mon-sense, as was the case in the last century, — on the
contrary, it has become warm in expression, poetic, elo-
quent, glowing, sensuous, imaginative — the " Course of
Nature," which it has set up in the place of God, is in a
certain sense deified, — no language is too exalted to be
applied to it, no admiration too great to be excited by it —
it is "glorious," and "marvellous," and "superhuman," and
"heavenly," and "spiritual," and "divine" — only it is
"It," not "He," — a fact or set of facts, and not a Person ;
— and so it can really call forth no love, no gratitude, no
reverence, no personal feeling of any kind — it can claim
no willing obedience — it can inspire no wholesome awe —
it is a dead idol after all, and its worship is but the "Id
nature worship, — man returning in his dotage to the fol'
lies which beguiled his childhood —losing the Creator in
the creature, the Workman in the work of his hands.
It cannot therefore be held on any grounds but such as
involve a real, though covert Atheism, that miracles arc
impossible, or that a narrative of which supernatural occur-
rences form an essential part is therefore devoid of an his-
toric character. Miracles are to be viewed as in fact a part
of the Divine Economy, — a part as essential as any other,
though coming into play less frequently. It has already
4G HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OP THE LECr. I
been o; served, that the creation of the world was a* mira-
cle, or rather a whole array of miracles ; and any true his-
torical account of it must " deal in the supernatural." A
first man was as great a miracle — may we not say a
greater miracle ? — than a raised man. Greater, inasmuch
as to create and unite a body and soul is to do more than
merely to unite them when they have been created. And
the occurrence of miracles at the beginning of the Avorld
established a precedent for their subsequent occurrence
from time to time with greater or less frequency, as God
should see to br fitting. Again, all history aboundo in
statements that miracles have in fact from time to time
occurred; and though wc should sui-render to the sceptic
the whole mass of Heathen and Ecclesiastical miracles,
which I for one do not hold to be necessary, <57) yet still
fictitious miracles imply the existence of true ones, just as
hypocrisy implies that there is virtue To reject a narra-
tive, therefore, simply because it contains miraculous cir-
cumstances, is to indulge an irrational prejudice — a preju-
dice which has r.o foundation, either in a priori truths or
in the philosophy of experience, and which can only be
consistently held by one who disbelieves in God.
The rejection of this negative Canon, which a pseudo-
critical School has boldly but vainly put forward for the
furtherance of- its own views with respect to the Christian
scheme, but which no historian of repute has adopted since
the days of Gibbon, will enable us to proceed without fur-
ther delay to that which is the special business cf these
Lectures — the examination, by the light of those Canons
Whose truth has been admitted, cf the historic evidences
of Revealed Religion. The actual examination must, how-
ever, be reserved for future Lectures. Time will not per-
mit of my attempting to do more in the brief remainder of
Lect. L truth of the scripture records. 47
the present Discourse than simply to point out the chief
kinds or branches into which the evidence divides itself
and to indicate, somewhat more clearly than has as yet been
done, the method which will be pursued in the examina-
tion of if.
The sacred records themselves are the main proof of the
events related in them. Waiving the question of their
inspiration, I propose to view them simply as a mass of
documents, subject to the laws, and to be judged by the
principles, of historical criticism; I shall briefly discuss
their genuineness, where it has been culled in question,
and vindicate their authenticity. Where two or more
documents belong to the same time, I shall endeavor to
exhibit some of their most remarkable points of agree-
ment : I shall not, however, dwell at much length on this
portion of the inquiry. It is of preeminent importance,
but its preeminence has secured it a large amount of atten-
tion on the part of Christian writers; and I cannot hope
to add much to the labors of those who have preceded me
in this field. There is, however, a second and distinct
kind of evidence, which has not (I think) received of late
as much consideration as it deserves — I mean the ejrternal
evidence to the truth of the Bible records, whether con-
tained in monuments, in the works of piof'mc writers, in
customs and observances now existing or known to have
existed, or finally in the works of believers nearly contem'
porary with any of the events narrated. The evidence
under some of these heads has recently received important
accessions, and fresh light has been thrown in certain cases
on the character and comparative value of the writers. It
seems to be time to bid the nations of the earth once more
"bring forth their witnesses." and "declare" and "show
ns" what it is which they record of the "former things" —
48 TRUTH OP THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. LECT. L
that they may at once justify and "be justified" — in part
directly confirming the Scripture narrative, in part silent
but not adverse, content to " hear, and say, ' It is truth.' "
"Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord" — even "the blind
people, that have eyes; and the deaf, that have ears" —
"Ye are my witnesses — and my servant whom I have
chosen."1 The testimony of the sacred and the profane is
not conflicting, but consentient — and the comparison of
the two will show, not discord, but harmony.
1 Isaiah xliii. 8, 10.
LECTURE II.
INQUIRE, I PRAY THEE, OF THE FORMER AGE, AND PREPARE THYSELF
TO THE SEARCH OF THEIR FATHERS; (FOR WE ARE BUT OF YESTER-
DAY, AND KNOW NOTHING, BECAUSE OUR DAYS UPON EARTH ARE A
SHADOW;) SHALE NOT THEY TEACH THEE, AND TELL THEE, AND UTTER
WORDS OUT OF THEIR HEART? — JOB VIII. VERSES 8 TO 10.
Ix every historical inquiry it is possible to pursue our
researches in two ways : we may either trace the stream of
time upwards, and pursue history to its earliest source; or
we may reverse the process, and beginning at the fountain-
head follow down the course of events in chronological
order to our own day. The former is the more philosophi-
cal, because the more real and genuine method of proce-
dure: it is the course which in the original investigation of
the subject must, in point of fact, have been pursued: ti !
present is our standing point, and we necessarily view the
past from it; and only know so much of the past as wo
connect, more or less distinctly, with it. I5ut the opposite
process has certain advantages which cause it commonly to
be preferred. It is the order of the actual occurrence, and
therefore has an objective truth which the other lacks. It,
is the simpler and clearer of the two, being synthetic ami
not analytic; commencing with little, it proceeds by con-
tinual accretion, thus adapting itself to our capacities,
which cannot take in much at once; and further, it has the
advantage of conducting us out of comparative darkness
into a Light which brightens and broadens as we keep
60 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OF THE LECT. II
advancing, "shining more and more unto the perfect day."1
Its difficulties and inconveniences are at the first outset,
when we plunge as it were into a world unknown, and
seek in the dim twilight of the remote past for some sure
and solid ground upon which to plant our foot. On the
whole there is perhaps sufficient reason for conforming to
the ordinary practice, and adopting the actual order of the
occurrences as that of the examination upon which we are
entering.
It will be necessary, however, in order to bring within
reasonable compass the vast field that offers itself to us for
investigation, to divide the history which is to be reviewed
into periods, which may be successively considered in their
entirety. The division which the sacred writings seem to
suggest is into five such periods. The first of these ex-
tends from the Creation to the death of Moses, being the
period of which the history is delivered to us in the Penta-
teuch. The second extends from the death of Moses to
the accession of Rehoboam, and is treated in Joshua,
Judges, Ruth, the two Books of Samuel, and some por-
tions of the Books of Kings and Chronicles. The third is
the period from the accession of Rehoboam to the Captiv-
ity of Judah, which is treated of in the remainder of Kings
and Chronicles, together with portions of Isaiah, Jeremiah,
Ezekiel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, and
Zepha.wah. The fourth extends from the Captivity to the
reform of Xehcmiah ; and its history is contained in Dan-
iel, Ezra, Esther, and Xehemiah, and illustrated by Haggai
and Zechariah. The fifth is the period of the life of Christ
and the preaching and establishment of Christianity, of
which the history is given in the Xew Testament. The
first four periods will form the subject of the present and
'Proverbs iv. 18.
LECT. II. TRUTH OF THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 51
three following Lectures. The fifth period, from its supe-
rior importance, will require to be treated at greater
length. Its examination is intended to occupy the remain-
der of the present Course.
The sacred records of the first period have come down to
us in the shape of five Books, the first of which is introduc-
tory, while the remaining four present us with the history
of an individual, Moses, and of the Jewish people under his
guidance. Critically speaking, it is of the last importance
to know by whom the books which contain this history
were written. Now the ancient, positive, and uniform tra-
dition of the Jews assigned the authorship of the five
books, (or Pentateuch,) with the exception of the last
chapter of Deuteronomy, to Moses ;W and this tradition is
prima facie evidence of the fact, such as at least throws
the burden of proof upon those who call it in question. It
is an admitted rule of all sound criticism, that books are to
be regarded as proceeding from the writers whose nanus
they bear, unless very strong reasons indeed can be ad-
duced to the contrary. (2) In the present instance, the
reasons which have been urged are weak and puerile in
the extreme; they rest in part on misconceptions of the
meaning of passages, (3) in part, upon interpolations into
the original text, which are sometimes very plain and pal-
pable. W Mainly, however, they have their source in arbi-
trary and unproved hypotheses, as that a contemporary
writer would not have introduced an account of mira-
cles ; C*) that the culture indicated by the book is beyond
that of the age of Moses ;(r') that if .Moses had written the
book, he would not have spoken of himself in the third
person ;(7> that he would have given a fuller and more
complete account of his own history;^ and that he would
not have applied to himself terms of praise and expression!*
52 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OF THE LECT. IL
of honor. (9) It is enough to observe of these objections,
that they are such as might equally be urged against the
genuineness of St. Paul's epistles, which is allowed even by
Strauss (10) — against that of the works of Homer, Chancer,
and indeed of all writers in advance of their age — against
Caesar's Commentaries, and Xenophon's Expedition of
Cyrus — against the Acts of the Apostles, (n) and against
the Gospel of St. John. St. Paul relates contemporary
miracles ; Homer and Chaucer exhibit a culture and a tone
which, but for them, we should have supposed unattaina-
ble in their age; Caesar and Xenophon write throughout
in the third person ; St. Luke omits all account of his own
doings at Philippi ; St. John applies to himself the most
honorable of all titles — " the disciple whom Jesus loved." 1
A priori conceptions of how an author of a certain time
and country would write, of what he would say or not say,
or how he would express himself, are among the weakest
of all presumptions, and must be regarded as outweighed
by a very small amount of positive testimony to author-
ship. Moreover, for an argument of this sort to have any
force at all, it is necessary that Ave should possess, from
other sources besides the author who is being judged, a
tolerably complete knowledge of the age to which he is
assigned, and a fair acquaintance with the literature of his
period. (12) In the case of Moses our knowledge of the age
is exceedingly limited, while of the literature we have
scarcely any knowledge at all,(13) beyond that which is
furnished by the sacred records next in succession — the
Books of Joshua and Judges, and (perhaps) the Book of
Job — and these are so far from supporting the notion that
such a work as the Pentateuch could not be produced in
the age of Moses, that they furnish a very strong argument
1 John xiii. 23 ; xix. 26, &c.
Lect. IL truth of the scripture records. 58
to the contrary. The diction of the Pentateuch is older
than that of Joshua and Judges, (14) while its ideas are pre-
supposed in those writings, (15) which may be said to be
based upon it, and to require it as their antecedent. If,
then, they could be written at the time to which they are
commonly and (as will be hereafter shown) rightly as-
signed, (1G) the Pentateuch not only may, but must, be as
early as Moses.
Vague doubts have sometimes been thrown out as to
the existence of writings at this period. (17> The evidence
of the Mosaic records themselves, if the true date of their
composition were allowed, would be conclusive upon the
point; for they speak of writing as a common practice.
Waiving this evidence, we may remark that hieroglyphical
inscriptions upon stone were known in Egypt at least as
early as the fourth dynasty, or B. C. 2450, (lb) that inscribed
bricks were common in Babylonia about two centuries
later, <19) and that writing upon papyruses, both in the hie-
roglyphic and hieratic characters, was familiar to the Egyj)-
tians under the eighteenth and nineteenth dynasties, '*'>
which is exactly the time to which the Mosaic records
would, if genuine, belong. It seems certain that Moses, if
educated by a daughter of one of the Iiamesside kings, and
therefore "learned" (as we are told he was) " in all the
wisdom of Egypt," ' Mould be well acquainted with the
Egyptian method of writing with ink upon the papyrus ;
while it is also probable that Abraham, who emigrated not
earlier than the ninetecth century before our era from tin-
great Chahhean capital, Ur, would have brought with him
and transmitted to his descendants the alphabetic system
with which the Chaldeans of his day were acquainted. -p
There is thus every reason to suppose that writing was
' Acts vii. 22.
54 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OF THE LECT. IL
familiar to the Jews when they quitted Egypt ; and the
mention of it as a common practice in the books of Moses
is in perfect accordance with what we know of the condi-
tion of the world at the time from other sources.
To the unanimous witness of the Jews with respect to
the authorship of the Pentateuch may be added the testi-
mony of a number of heathen writers. Hecatseus of Ab-
dera, (,22> Manetho, C23^ Lysimachus of Alexandria, (24) Eupol-
emus,(^ Tacitus, (26) Juvenal, C37) Longinus, (2*> all ascribe
to Moses the institution of that code of laws by which the
Jews were distinguished from other nations ; and the ma-
jority distinctly (29) note that he committed his laws to
writing. These authors cover a space extending from the
time of Alexander, when the Greeks first became curious
on the subject of Jewish history, to that of the emperor
Aurelian, when the literature of the Jews had been thor-
oughly sifted by the acute and learned Alexandrians.
They constitute, not the full voice of heathenism on the
subject, but only an indication of what that voice was. It
cannot be doubted that if we had the complete works of
those many other writers to whom Josephus, Clement, and
Eusebius refer as mentioning Moses, (3°) we should find the
amount of heathen evidence on this point greatly increased.
Moreover, we must bear in mind that the witness is unani-
mous, or all but unanimous. (31> Nor is it, as an objector
might be apt to urge, the mere echo of Jewish tradition
faintly repeating itself from far off lands ; in part at least it
rests upon a distinct and even hostile authority — that of
the Egyptians. Manetho certainly, and Lysimachus proba-
bly, represent Egyptian, and not Jewish, views ; and thus
the Jewish tradition is confirmed by that of the only na-
tion which was sufficiently near and sufficiently advanced
in the Mosaic age to make its testimony on the point of
real importance.
LECT. II. TRUTH OF THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 55
To the external testimony which has been now adduced
must be added the internal testimony of the work itself,
which repeatedly speaks of Moses as writing the law, and
recording the various events and occurrences in a book,
and as reading from this book to the people. C32) The
modern rationalist regards it as a " most unnatural suppo-
sition," that the Pentateuch was written during the ] ^as-
sage of the Israelites through the wilderness;^ but this is
what every unprejudiced reader gathers from the Penta-
teuch itself, which tells us that God commanded Moses tu
"write" the discomfiture of Amalek "in a book;"1 that
Moses "wrote all the words of the law,"- and "took the
book of the covenant, and read it in the audience of the
people,"3 and "wrote the goings out of the people of Israel
according to their journeys, by the commandment of the
Lord;"4 and, finally, "made an end of writing the words
of the law in a book, until they were finished;"5 ami bade
the Levites, who bare the ark of the covenant, "take that
book of the law, and put it in the side of the ark of the
covenant of the Lord, that it might be there for a witness
against the people."" A book, therefore — a "hook of the
covenant" — a book out of which he could read the whole
law(34) — was certainly written by Moses; ami this book
was deposited in the ark of the covenant, and given into
the special custody of the Levites, who bare it, with the
stern injunction still ringing in their ears, "Ye shall not
add unto the word, neither diminish aught from it ;"' and
they were charged "at the end of every seven years, in the
year of release, in the feast of tabernacles, to read it before
all Israel in their hearing;"" and, further, a command was
1 Exod. xvii. 14. * Ibid. xxiv. 4. 3 Ibid. v.t. 7.
4 Numb, xxxiii. 2. s Dcut. xxxi. 24. 6 Ibid. vcr. 26.
7 Deut. iv. 2. b Ibid. xxxi. 10, 11.
56 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OP THE Lect. IL
given, that, when the Israelites should have kings, each
king should " write him a copy of the law in a book, out of
that which was before the priests the Levites, that he
might read therein all the days of his life."1 Unless, there-
fore, we admit the Pentateuch to be genuine, we must
suppose that the book which (according to the belief of
the Jews) Moses wrote, which was placed in the ark of
God, over which the Levites were to watch with such
jealous care, which was to be read to the people once
in each seven years, and which was guarded by awful
sanctions from either addition to it or diminution from
it — we must suppose, I say, that this book perished ; and
that another book was substituted in its place — by an
unknown author — for unknown objects — professing to be
the work of Moses, (for that is allowed,) (35> and believed to
be his work thenceforth, without so much as a doubt being
breathed on the subject either by the nation, its teachers,
or even its enemies, for many hundreds of years. (3G) It has
often been remarked, that the theories of those who assail
-Christianity, make larger demands upon the faith of such
as embrace them than the Christian scheme itself, marvel-
lous as it is in many points. Certainly, feAV suppositions
can be more improbable than that to which (as we have
seen) those who deny the Pentateuch to be genuine must
have recourse, when pressed to account for the phenomena.
It is not surprising that, having to assign a time for the
introduction of the forged volume, they have varied as to
the date which they suggest by above a thousand years,
while they also differ from one another in every detail with
which they venture to clothe the transaction. (3~)
I have dwelt the longer upon the genuineness of the
Pentateuch, because it is admitted, even by the extremest
1 Deut. xvii. 18, 19.
LECT. II. TRUTH OF THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 57
sceptics, that the genuineness of the work carries with it
the authenticity of the narrative, at least in all its main
particulars. " It would most unquestionably," says Strauss,
"be an argument of decisive weight in favor of the credi-
bility of the Biblical history, could it indeed be shown that
it was written by eye-witnesses." " Moses, being the leader
of the Israelites on their departure from Egypt, would
undoubtedly give a faithful history of the occurrences,
unless" (which is not pretended) "he designed to deceive."
And further, " Moses, if his intimate connection with Deity
described in these books" (i. e. the last four) "be histori-
cally true, was likewise eminently qualified, by virtue of
such connection, to produce a credible history of the earlier
periods." (37> If Moses indeed wrote the account which we
possess of the Exodus and of the wanderings in the wilder-
ness; and if, having written it, he delivered it to those
who knew the events as well as he, the conditions, which
secure the highest degree of historical credibility, so far at
least as regards the events of the last four books, are ob-
tained. We have for them the direct witness of a contem-
porary writer — not an actor only, but the leader in the
transactions which he relates — honest evidently, for he
records his own sins and defects, and the transgressions
and sufferings of his people; and honest necessarily, lor he
writes of events. which were public and known to all — we
have a work, which, by the laws of historical criticism, is
thus for historical purposes just as reliable as Caesar's Com-
mentaries or Xenophon's Retreat of the Ten Thousand —
we have that rare literary treasure, the autobiography of a
great man, engaged in great events, the head of his nation
at a most critical period in their annals; who commits to
writing as they occur the various events and transactions
in which he is engaged, wherever they have a national or
58 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OF THE LECT. IL
public character^38) We must therefore consider, even
setting aside the whole idea of inspiration, that we possess
in the last four books of the Pentateuch as reliable an ac-
count of the Exodus of the Jews, and their subsequent
wanderings, as we do, in the works of Caesar and Xeno-
phon, of the conquest of Britain, or of the events which
preceded and followed the battle of Cunaxa.
The narrative of Genesis stands undoubtedly on a dif-
ferent footing. Our confidence in it must ever rest mainly
on our conviction of the inspiration of the writer. Still,
setting that aside, and continuing to judge the documents
as if they were ordinary historical materials, it is to be
noted, in the first place, that, as Moses was on the mother's
side grandson to Levi, he would naturally possess that fair
knowledge of the time of the first going down into Egypt,
and of the history of Joseph, which the most sceptical of
the historical critics allow that men have of their own
family and nation to the days of their grandfathers. <39) He
would thus be as good an historical authority for the de-
tails of Joseph's story, and for the latter part of the life of
Jacob, as Herodotus for the reign of Cambyses, or Fabius
Pictor for the third Samnite War. Again, with respect to
the earlier history, it is to be borne in mind through how
very few hands, according to the numbers in the Hebrew
text, this passed to Moses. (4°) Adam, according to the
Hebrew original, was for two hundred and forty-three years
contemporary with Methuselah, who conversed for one
hundred years with Shem. Shem was for fifty years con-
temporary with Jacob, who probably saw Jochebed, Moses'
mother. Thus Moses might, by mere oral tradition, have
obtained the history of Abraham, and even of the Deluge,
at third hand ; and that cf the Temptation and the Fall,
at fifth hand. The patriarchal longevity had the effect of
LECT. II. TRUTH OF THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 59
reducing centuries to little more than lustres, so far as the
safe transmission of historical events was concerned ; tor
this does not depend either upon years or upon genera-
tions, but upon the number of links in the chain through
which the transmittal takes place. If it be granted, as it
seems to be, (41) that the great and stirring events in a
nation's life will, under ordinary circumstances, be remem-
bered (apart from all written memorials) for the space of
one hundred and fifty years, being handed down through
five generations, it must be allowed (even on mere human
grounds) that the account which Moses gives of the Temp-
tation and the Fall is to be depended on, if it passed
through no more than four hands between him and Adam.
And the argument is of course stronger for the more re-
cent events, since they would have passed through fewer
hands than the earlier. (42)
And this, be it remembered, is on the supposition that
the sole human source from which Moses composed the
Book of Genesis was oral tradition. But it is highly prob-
able that he also made use of documents. So much fanciful
speculation has been advanced, so many vain and baseless
theories have been built up, in connection with what is
called the " document-hypothesis " concerning (Jem-sis, -U)
that I touch the point with some hesitation, and beg at
once to be understood as not venturing to dogmatize in a
matter of such difficulty. But both </ priori probability,
and the internal evidence, seem to me to favor the opinion
of V itrinsra (44) and Cahnct, (,:,) that Moses consulted mouu-
ments or records of former ages, which had descended from
the families of the patriarchs, and by collecting, arranging,
adorning, and, where they were deficient, completing them,
composed his history. What we know of the antiquity of
writing, both in Egypt and Babylonia, <4C) renders it not
60 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OF THE LECT. II.
improbable that the art was known and practised soon after
the Flood, if it was not even (as some have supposed) a
legacy from the antediluvian world. (47) Abraham can
scarcely have failed to bring with him into Palestine a
knowledge which had certainly been possessed by the
citizens of Ur for several hundred years before he set out
on his wanderings. And if it be said that the art, though
known, might not have been applied to historical records in
the family of Abraham at this early date, — yet, at any rate,
when the Israelites descended into Egypt, and found writ-
ing in such common use, and historical records so abundant
as they can be proved to have been in that country at that
period, it is scarcely conceivable that they should not have
reduced to a written form the traditions of their race, the
memory of which their residence in a foreign land would
be apt to endanger. And these probabilities are quite in
accordance with what appears in the Book of Genesis
itself. The great fulness with which the history of Joseph
is given, and the minutiae into which it enters, mark it as
based upon a contemporary, or nearly contemporary, biog-
raphy ; and the same may be said with almost equal force
of the histories of Jacob, Isaac, and even Abraham.
Further, there are several indications of separate docu-
ments in the earlier part of Genesis, as the superscriptions
or headings of particular portions, the change of appella-
tion by which the Almighty is distinguished, and the like ;
which, if they do not certainly mark different documents,
at least naturally suggest them. If we then upon these
grounds accept Vitringa's theory, we elevate considerably
what I may call the human authority of Genesis. Instead
of being the embodiment of oral traditions which have
passed through two, three, four, or perhaps more hands,
previously to their receiving a written form, the Book of
LECT. II. TRUTH OF THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 61
Genesis becomes a work based in the main upon contem-
porary, or nearly contemporary, documents — documents
of which the venerable antiquity casts all other ancient
writings into the shade, several of them dating probably
from times not far removed from the Flood, while some
may possibly descend to us from the antediluvian race.
The sanction which the Book of Genesis thus obtains is
additional, it must be remembered, to what it derives from
Moses ; who is still the responsible author of the work ;
who selected the documents, and gave them all the con-
firmation which they could derive from his authority,
whether it be regarded as divine or human, as that of one
"learned" in man's "wisdom,"1 or that of an inspired
teacher — "a prophet, raised up by God."2
Thus far we have been engaged in considering the
weight which properly attaches to the Pentateuch itself,
viewed as an historical work produced by a certain indi-
vidual, under certain circumstances, and at a certain period.
It remains to examine the external evidence to the charac-
ter of the Mosaic narrative which is furnished by the other
ancient records in our possession, so tar at least as those
records have a fair claim to be regarded as of any real his-
toric value.
Records possessing even moderate pretensions to tho
character of historic are, for this early period, as we should
expect beforehand, extremely scanty. I cannot reckon in
the number either the primitive traditions of the Greeks
the curious compilations of the Armenians, (**) the histori-
cal poems of the Hindoos, (49> or the extravagant fables of
the Chinese. C50) A dim knowledge of certain irn-al events
in primeval history — as of the I)elug< may indeed In-
traced in all these quarters ;(:,1; but the historical element
1 Acts vii. 22. ' Dcut. xviii. 15.
62 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OF THE Lect. IL
to be detected is in every case so small, it is so overlaid by
fable, and intermixed with what is palpably imaginative,
that no manner of reliance can be placed upon statements
merely because they occur in these pretended histories ; nor
have they the slightest title to be used as tests whereby to
try the authenticity of any other narrative. The only re-
liable materials that we possess, besides the Pentateuch, for
the history of the period which it embraces, consist of some
fragments of Berosus and Manetho, an epitome of the
early Egyptian history of the latter, a certain number of
Egyptian and Babylonian inscriptions, and two or three
valuable papyri.
If it be asked on Avhat grounds so strong a preference is
assigned to these materials, the answer is easy. The
records selected are those of Egypt and Babylon. Now
these two countries were, according to the most trust-
worthy accounts, both sacred and profane, (52> the first
seats of civilization : in them writing seems to have been
practised earlier than elsewhere ; they paid from the first
great attention to history, and possessed, when the Greeks
became acquainted with them, historical records of an
antiquity confessedly greater than that which could be
claimed for any documents elsewhere. Further, in each of
these countries, at the moment when, in consequence of
Grecian conquest and the infusion of new ideas, there was
the greatest danger of the records perishing or being
vitiated, there arose a man — a native — thoroughly ac-
quainted with their antiquities, and competently skilled in
the Greek language, Avho transferred to that tongue, ana
thus made the common property of mankind, what had
previously been a hidden treasure — the possession of their
own priests and philosophers only. The value of the
histories written by Manetho the Sebennyte, and Berosus
Lect. IL truth of the scripture records, 63
the Chaldaean, had long been suspected by the learned ; W
but it remained for the present age to obtain distinct evi-
dence of their fidelity — evidence which places them,
among the historians of early times, in a class by them-
selves, greatly above even the most acute and painstaking
of the Greek and Roman compilers. Herodotus, Ctesias,
Alexander Polyhistor, Diodorus Siculus, Trogus Pompeius,
could at best receive at second hand such representations
of Babylonian and Egyptian history as the natives chose
to import to them, and moreover received these representa-
tions (for the most part) diluted and distorted by passing
through the medium of comparatively ignorant interpret-
ers. Manetho and Berosus had free access to the national
records, and so could draw their histories directly from the
fountain-head. This advantage might, of course, have been
forfeited by a deficiency on their part of either honesty or
diligence ; but the recent discoveries in the two countries
have had the effect of removing all doubt upon either of
these two heads from the character of both writers. The
monuments which have been recovered furnish the
strongest proof alike of the honest intention and of the
diligence and carefulness of the two historians; who have
thus, as profane writers of primeval history, a preeminence
overall others. (M) This is perhaps the chief value of the
documents obtained, which do not in themselves furnish a
history, or even its framework, a chronology ; (•'•*> but re-
quire an historical scheme to be given from without, into
which they may lit, and wherein each may find its true
and proper position.
If we now proceed to compare the Mosaic account of
the first period of the world's history with that outline
which may be obtained from Egyptian and Babylonian
sources, we are strc -k at first sight with what seems an
64 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OP THE LECT. II.
enormous difference in the chronology. The sura of the
years in Manetho's scheme, as it has come down to us in
Eusebius, is little short of thirty thousand ; (56) while that in
the scheme of Berosus, as reported by the same author, <57)
exceeds four hundred and sixty thousand ! But upon a
little consideration, the greater part of this difficulty van-
ishes. If we examine the two chronologies, we shall find
that both evidently divide at a certain point, above which
all is certainly mythic, while below all is, or at least may
be, historical. Out of the thirty thousand years contained
(apparently) in Manetho's scheme, nearly twenty-five thou-
sand belong to the time when Gods, Demigods, and Spirits
had rule on earth ; and the history of Egypt confessedly
does not begin till this period is concluded, and Menes, the
first Egyptian king, mounts the throne. t58) Similarly, in
the chronology of Berosus, there is a sudden transition
from kings whose reigns are counted by sossi and neri, or
periods respectively of sixty and six hundred years, to
monarchs the average length of whose reigns very little
exceeds that found to prevail in ordinary monarchies.
Omitting in each case what is plainly a mythic computa-
tion, we have in the Babylonian scheme a chronology
which mounts up no higher than two thousand four hun-
dred and fifty-eight years before Christ, or eight hundred
years after the Deluge, (according to the numbers of the
Septuagint ;) while in the Egyptian we have at any rate
only an excess of about two thousand years to explain and
account for, instead of an excess of twenty-seven thousand.
And this latter discrepancy becomes insignificant, i it
does not actually disappear, upon a closer scrutiny, \ e
five thousand years of Manetho's dynastic lists were re-
duced by himself (as we learn from Syncellus) to three
thousand five hundred and fifty-five years/59) doubtless
Lect. IL truth of the scripture records. 65
because he was aware that his lists contained in some eases
contemporary dynasties ; in others, contemporary kin^s in
the same dynasty, owing to the mention in them of various
royal personages associated on the throne by the principal
monarch. Thus near fifteen hundred years are struck off
from Manetho's total at a blow; and the chronological
difference between his scheme ami that of Scripture is
reduced to a few hundred years — a discrepancy of no
great moment, and one which might easily arise, either
from slight errors of the copyists, or from an insufficient
allowance being made in Manetho's scheme, in respect of
either or both of the causes from which .Egyptian chronol-
ogy is always liable to be exaggerated. Without taxing
Manetho with conscious dishonesty, we may suspect that
he was not unwilling to exalt the antiquity of his country,
if he could do so without falsifying his authorities; and
from the confusion of the middle or Ilyksos period of
Egyptian history, and the obscurity of the earlier times,
when there were as yet no monuments, he would have had
abundant opportunity for chronological exaggeration by
merely regarding as consecutive dynasties all these, which
were not certainly known to have been contemporary.
The real duration of the Egyptian monarchy depends en
tirely upon the proper arrangement of the dynasties into
synchronous and consecutive — a point upon which the
best Egyptologers are still far from agreed. Some of the
greatest names in this branch of antiquarian learning are in
favor of a chronology almost as moderate as the historic
Babylonian; the accession of Menes, according to them,
falling about 26G0 B. C, or more than six hundred years
after the Septuagint date for the Deluge. '
The removal of this difficulty open- the way to a consid-
eration of the positive points of agreement between the
G*
63 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OF THE LECT. II.
Scriptural narrative and that of the profane authorities.
And here, for the earliest times, it is especially Babylon
which furnishes an account capable of being compared
with that of Moses. According to Berosus, the world
when first created was in darkness, and consisted of a fluid
mass inhabited by monsters of the strangest forms. Over
the whole dominated a female power called Thalatth, or
Sea. Then Belus, wishing to carry on the creative work,
cleft Thalatth in twain ; and of the half of her he made the
earth, and of the other half the heaven. Hereupon the
monsters, wrho could not endure the air and the light, per-
ished. Belus upon this, seeing that the earth was desolate,
yet teeming with productive power, cut off his own head,
and mingling the blood which flowed forth with the dust
of the ground, formed men, who were thus intelligent, as
being partakers of the divine wisdom. lie then made
other animals fit to live on the earth : he made also the
stars, and the sun and moon, and the five planets. The
first man was Alorus, a Chaldaean, who reigned over man-
kind for thirty-six thousand years, and begat a son, Alapa-
rus, who reigned ten thousand eight hundred years. Then
followed in succession eight others, whose reigns were of
equal or greater length, ending with Xisuthrus, under
whom the great Deluge took place. (61> The leading facts
of this cosmogony and antediluvian history are manifestly,
and indeed confessedly, (m~> in close agreement with the
Hebrew records. We have in it the earth at first "without
form and void," and " darkness upon the face of the dee})." l
We have the Creator dividing the watery mass and making
the two firmaments, that of the heaven and that of the
earth, first of all; we have Light spoken of before the sun
and moon ; we have their creation, and that of the stars,
1 Genesis i. 2.
LECT. II. TRUTH OF THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 67
somewhat late in the series of events given ; we have a
divine element infused into man at his birth, and again we
have his creation "from the dust of the ground."1 Fur-
ther, between the first man and the Deluge are in the
scheme of Berosus ten generations, which is the exact
number between Adam and Xoah ; and though the dura-
tion of human life is in his account enormously exagger-
ated, we may see even in this exaggeration a glimpse of
the truth, that the lives of the Patriarchs were extended
far beyond the term which has been the limit in later ages.
This truth seems to have been known to many of the
ancients/63) and traces of it have even been found among
the modern Burmans and Chinese. (M)
The account which Berosus gives of the Deluge is still
more strikingly in accordance with the narrative of Scrip-
ture. "Xisuthrus," he says, "was warned by Saturn in a
dream that all mankind would be destroyed shortly by a
deluge of rain. He was bidden to bury in the city of Sip-
para (or Sepharvaim) such written documents as existed;
and then to build a huge vessel or ark. in length five fur-
longs, and two furlongs in width, wherein was to he placed
good store of provisions, together with winged fowl and
four-footed beasts of the earth; and in which he was him-
self to embark with his wife and children, and his close
friends. Xisuthrus did accordingly, ami the flood came at
the time appointed. The ark drifted towards Armenia;
and Xisuthrus, on the third day after the rain abated, sent
out from the ark a bird, which, after flying for a while over
the illimitable sea of waters, and finding neither food nor a
spot on which it could settle, returned to him. Some days
later, Xisuthrus sent out other birds, which likewise re.
turned, but with feet covered with mud. Sent out a third
* Genesis ii. 7.
68 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OF THE LECT. IL
time, the birds returned no more ; and Xisuthrus knew
that the earth had reappeared. So he removed some of
the covering of the ark, and looked, and behold the vessel
had grounded upon a high mountain, and remained fixed.
Then he went forth from the ark, with his wife, his daugh-
ter, and his pilot, and built an altar, and offered sacrifice;
after which he suddenly disappeared from sight, together
with those who had accompanied him. They who had
remained in the ark, surprised that he did not return,
sought him ; when they heard his voice in the sky, exhort-
ing them to continue religious, and bidding them go back
to Babylonia from the land of Armenia, where they were,
and recover the buried documents, and make them once
more known among men. So they obeyed, and went back
to the land of Babylon, and built many cities and temples,
and raised up Babylon from its ruins." (te)
Such is the account of Berosus ; and a description sub-
stantially the same is given by Abydenus, (66) an ancient
writer of whom less is known, but whose fragments are
generally of great value and importance. It is plain that
we have here a tradition not drawn from the Hebrew rec-
ord, much less the foundation of that record ;(fi7) yet coin-
ciding with it in the most remarkable way. The Baby-
lonian version is tricked out with a few extravagances, as
the monstrous size of the vessel, and the translation of
Xisuthrus ; but otherwise it is the Hebrew history down to
its minutiae. The previous warning, the divine direction
as to the ark and its dimensions, the introduction into it of
birds and beasts, the threefold sending out of the bird, the
place of the ark's resting, the egress by removal of the cov-
ering, the altar straightway built, and the sacrifice offered,
constitute an array of exact coincidences which cannot
possibly be the result of chance, and of which I see no
LECT. II. TRUTH OF THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 69
plausible account that can be given except that it is the
harmony of truth. Nor are these minute coincidences
counterbalanced by the important differences which some
have seen in the two accounts. It is not true to say (as
Niebuhr is reported to have said) that "the Babylonian
tradition differs from the Mosaic account by stating that
not only Xisuthrus and his family, but all pious men, were
saved; and also by making the Flood not universal, bin
only partial, and confined to Babylonia" (cc) Derosas does
indeed give Xisuthrus, as companions in the ark, not only
his wife and children, but a certain number of " close
friends;" and thus far he differs from Scripture; but these
friends are not represented as numerous, much less as " all
pious men." And so far is he from making the Flood par-
tial, or confining it to Babylonia, that his narrative dis-
tinctly implies the contrary. The warning given t«> Xisu-
thrus is that "mankind" (VoiV u^uw.toj?) is about to lie
destroyed. The ark drifts to Armenia, and when it is
there, the birds are sent out, and find "an illimitable sea
of waters," and no rest for the sole of their feet. When
at length they no longer return, Xisuthrus knows "that
land has reappeared," and leaving the ark, finds himself
"on a mountain in Armenia." It is plain that the waters
are represented as prevailing above the tops of the loftiest
mountains in Armenia, — a height which must have been
seen to involve the submersion of all the countries with
which the Babylonians were acquainted.
The account which the Chahhean writer gave of the
events following the Deluge is reported with some disa-
greement by the different authors through whom it has
come down to us. Josephus believed that Berosus was in
accord with Scripture in regard to the generations between
the Flood and Abraham, which (according to the Jewish
70 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OP THE LECT. U.
historian) he correctly estimated at ten.(67) But other
writers introduce in this place, as coming from Berosus, a
series of eighty-six kings, the first and second of whom
reign for above two thousand years, while the remainder
reign upon an average three hundred and forty-five years
each. We have here perhaps a trace of that gradual short-
ening of human life which the genealogy of Abraham
exhibits to us so clearly in Scripture ; but the numbers
appear to be artificial, W and they are unaccompanied by
any history. There is reason, however, to believe that
Berosus noticed one of the most important events of this
period, in terms which very strikingly recall the Scripture
narrative. Writers, whose Babylonian history seems drawn
directly from him, or from the sources which he used, give
the following account of the tower of Babel, and the con-
fusion of tongues — "At this time the ancient race of. men
were so puffed up with their strength and tallness of stat-
ure, that they began to despise and contemn the gods ; and
labored to erect that very lofty tower, which is now called
Babylon, intending thereby to scale heaven. But when
the building approached the sky, behold, the gods called in
the aid of the winds, and by their help overturned the
tower, and cast it to the ground. The name of the ruins
is still called Babel ; because until this time all men had
used the same speech, but now there was sent upon them
a confusion of many and diverse tongues." (69>
At the point which we have now reacherl, the sacred
narrative ceases to be general, and becomes special or par-
ticular. It leaves the history of the world, and concen-
trates itself on an individual and his descendants. At the
moment of transition, however, it throws out, in a chapter
of wonderful grasp and still more wonderful accuracy, a
sketch of the nations of the earth, their ethnic affinities,
LECT. II. TRUTH OF THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 71
and to some extent their geographical position and bounda-
ries. The Toldoth Beni Noah has extorted the admiration
of modern ethnologists, who continually find in it anticipa-
tions of their greatest discoveries. For instance, in the
very second verse the great discovery of Schlegel, (~°) which
the word Indo-European embodies — the affinity of the
principal nations of Europe with the Arian or Lido-Persic
stock — is sufficiently indicated by the conjunction of the
Madai or Medes (whose native name was Mada) with
Gomer or the Cymry, and Javan or the Ionians. Again,
one of the most recent and unexpected results of modern
linguistic inquiry is the proof which it has furnished of an
ethnic connection between the Ethiopians or Cushites, who
adjoined on Egypt, and the primitive inhabitants of Baby-
lonia ; a connection which (as we saw in the last Lecture)
was positively denied by an eminent ethnologist only a few
years ago, but which has now been sufficiently established
from the cuneiform monuments. (71) In the tenth of Gene-
sis we find this truth thus briefly but clearly stated — "And
Cush begat Nimrod," the "beginning of whose kingdom
was Babel."1 So we have had it recently made evident
from the same monuments, that "out of that land went
forth Asshur, and builded Nineveh"-' — or that the Semitic
Assyrians proceeded from Babylonia and founded Nineveh
long after the Cushite foundation of Babylon. (T2> Again,
the Hamitic descent of the early inhabitants of Canaan,
which had often been called in question, has recently come
to be looked upon as almost certain, apart from the evi-
dence of Scripture ; <73> and the double mention of Slieb.i,
both among the sons of Ham, and also among -those of
SheiV has been illustrated by the discovery that there are
1 Gen. x. 8 and 10. * Ibid, verse 11.
3 Ibid, verses 7 and 28.
72 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OF THE LECT. II
two races of Arabs — one (the Joktanian) Semitic, the
other (the Himyaric) Cushite or Ethiopic. (74> On the
whole, the scheme of ethnic affiliation given in the tenth
chapter of Genesis is pronounced "safer" to follow than
any other ; and the Toldoth Beni Noah commends itself to
the ethnic inquirer as " the most authentic recoi'd that we
possess for the affiliation of nations," and as a document
" of the very highest antiquity." (75>
The confirmation which profane history lends the Book
of Genesis from the point whei*e the narrative passes from
the general to the special character, is (as might be
expected) only occasional, and for the most part incidental.
Abraham was scarcely a personage of sufficient importance
to attract much of the attention of either the Babylonian or
the Egyptian chroniclers. We possess, indeed, several very
interesting notices of this Patriarch and his successors from
heathen pens ; (7C) but they are of far inferior moment to
the authorities hitherto cited, since they do not indicate a
separate and distinct line of information, but are, in all
probability, derived from the Hebrew records. I refer par-
ticularly to the passages which Eusebius produces in his
Gospel Preparation from Eupolemus, Artapanus, Molo,
Philo, and Cleodemus or Malchas, with regard to Abra-
ham, and from Demetrius, Theodotus, Artapanus, and
Philo, with respect to Isaac and Jacob. These testimonies
are probably well known to many of my hearers, since
they have been adduced very generally by our writers. (77>
They bear unmistakably the stamp of a Jewish origin; and
show the view which the more enlightened heathen took of
the historical character of the Hebrew records, when they
first became acquainted Avith them ; but they cannot boast,
like notices in Berosus and Manetho, a distinct origin, and
thus a separate and independent authority. I shall there-
LECT. II. TRUTH OF THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 73
fore content myself with this brief mention of them here,
which is all that time will allow ; and proceed to adduce a
few direct testimonies to the later narrative, furnished
either by the native writers, or by the results of modern
researches.
There are three points only in this portion of the narra-
tive which, being of the nature of public and important
events, might be expected to obtain notice in the Babylo-
nian or Egyptian records — the expedition of Chedor-laomer
with his confederate kings, the great famine in the days of
Joseph, and the Exodus of the Jews. Did we possess the
complete monumental annals of the two countries, or the
works themselves of Berosus and Manetho, it might fairly be
demanded of us that we should adduce evidence from them
of all the three. With the scanty and fragmentary remains
which are what we actually possess, it would not be sur-
prising if we found ourselves without a trace of any. In
fact, however, we are able to produce from our scanty stock
a decisive confirmation of two events out of the three.
The monumental records of Babylonia bear marks of an
interruption in the line of native kings, about the date
which from Scripture we should assign to Chedor-laomer,
and "point to Elymais (or Klam) as the country from
which the interruption came." (~*) We have mention of a
king, whose name is on good grounds identified with
Chedor-laomer, (~9) as paramount in Babylonia al this time
— a king apparently of Elamitic origin — ami this monarch
bears in the inscriptions the unusual ami significant title of
Apdu MarttL, or "Ravager of the West." Our (raiment-;
of Berosus give us no names at this period; hut his dynas-
ties exhibit a transition at about the date required, M,)
which is in accordance with the break indicated by the
monuments. We thus obtain a doiihle witness to tho
74 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OP THE LECT. IL
remarkable fact of an interruption of pure Babylonian
supremacy at this time; and from the monuments we are
able to pronounce that the supremacy was transferred to
Elam, and that under a king, the Semitic form of whose
name would be Chedor-laomer, a great expedition wag
organized, which proceeded to the distant and then almost
unknown west, and returned after "ravaging" but not,
conquering those regions.
The Exodus of the Jews was an event which could
scarcely be omitted by Manetho. It was one however of
such a nature — so entirely repugnant to all the feelings of
an Egyptian — that we could not expect a fair representa-
tion of it in their annals. And accordingly, our fragments
of Manetho present us with a distinct but very distorted
notice of the occurrence. The Hebrews are represented as
leprous and impious Egyptians, who under the conduct of
a priest of Heliopolis, named Moses, rebelled on account of
oppression, occupied a town called Avaris, or Abaris, and
having called in the aid of the people of Jerusalem, made
themselves masters of Egypt, which they held for thirteen
years ; but who were at last defeated by the Egyptian king,
and driven from Egypt into Syria. (81> We have here the
oppression, the name Moses, the national name, Hebrew,
under the disguise of Abaris, and the true direction of the
retreat ; but we have all the special circumstances of the
occasion concealed under a general confession of disaster;
and we have a claim to final triumph which consoled the
wounded vanity of the nation, but which Ave know to
have been unfounded. On the whole Ave have perhaps as
much as Ave could reasonably expect the annals of the Egyp-
tians to tell us of transactions so little to their credit ; and
we have a narrative fairly confirming the principal facts,
as well as very curious in many of its particulars. C88)
LECT. II. TRUTH OF THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 75
I have thus briefly considered some of the principal of
those direct testimonies which can be adduced from ancient
profane sources, in confirmation of the historic truth of the
Pentateuch. There are various other arguments some
purely, some partly historic — into which want of space for-
bids my entering in the present Course. For instance, there
is what may be called the historico-scientific argument,
derivable from the agreement of the sacred narrative with
the conclusions reached by those sciences which have a
partially historical character. Geology — whatever may be
thought of its true bearing upon other points — at least
witnesses to the recent creation of man, of whom there is
no trace in any but the latest strata. W Physiology
decides in favor of the unity of the species, and the proba-
ble derivation of the whole human race from a single
pair. (84> Comparative Philology, after divers fluctuations,
settles into the belief that languages will ultimately prove
to have been all derived from a common ba«is. C85) Ethnol-
ogy pronounces that, independently of the Scriptural
record, we should be led to fix on the plains of Shinar as a
common centre, or focus, from which the various lines of
migration and the several types of races originally radi-
ated. C86) Again, there is an argument perhaps more con-
vincing than any other, but of immense compass, dedueible
from the indirect and incidental points of agreement
between the Mosaic records and the best profane authori-
ties. The limits within which I am confined compel me to
decline this portion of the inquiry. Otherwise it might be
shown that the linguistic, geographic, and ethologie notices
contained in the books of .Moses are of the most veracious
character/87' stamping the whole narration with an unmis-
takable air of authenticity. Ami this, it may be remarked,
is an argument to which modern research is perpetually
76 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OF THE LECT. II.
adding fresh weight. For instance, if we look to the
geography, we shall find that till within these few years,
"Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar"1 — ■
Calah and Resen, in the country peopled by Asshur2 —
Ellasar, and " Ur of the Chaldees," 3 were mere names ;
and beyond the mention of them in Genesis, scarcely a
trace was discoverable of their existence. C8^ Recently,
however, the mounds of Mesopotamia have been searched,
and bricks and stones buried for near three thousand years
have found a tongue, and tell us exactly where each of
these cities stood, (89) and sufficiently indicate their impor-
tance. Again, the power of Og, and his " threescore cities
all fenced with high walls, gates, and bars, besides unwalled
towns a great many,"4 in such a country as that to the east
of the Sea of Galilee, whose old name of Trachonitis indi-
cates its barrenness, seemed to many improbable — but
modern research has found in this very country a vast
number of walled cities still standing, which show the
habits of the ancient people, and prove that the population
must at one time have been considerable. W So the care-
ful examination that has been made of the valley of the
Jordan, which has resulted in a proof that it is a unique
phenomenon, utterly unlike any thing elsewhere on the
whole face of the earth, (91> tends greatly to confirm the
Mosaic account, that it became what it now is by a great
convulsion ; and by pious persons will, I think, be felt as
confirming the miraculous character of that convulsion.
Above all, perhaps, the absence of any counter-evidence —
the fact that each accession to our knowledge of the
ancient times, whether historic or geographic, or ethnic,
helps to remove difficulties, and to produce a perpetual
1 Gen. x. 10. 2 Ibid, verses 11 and 12.
3 Ibid. xi. 31 ; xiv. 1. 4 Deut. iii. 5.
LECT. II. TRUTH OF THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 77
supply of fresh illustrations of the Mosaic narrative ; while
fresh difficulties are not at the same time brought to light
— is to be remarked, as to candid minds an argument for
the historic truth of the narrative, the force of which can
scarcely be over-estimated. All tends to show that we
possess in the Pentateuch, not only the most authentic
account of ancient times that has come down to us, but a
histoiy absolutely and in every respect true. All tends to
assure us that in this marvellous volume we have no old
wives' tales, no "cunningly devised fable;"1 but a "treas-
ure of wisdom and knowledge"- — as important to the his-
torical inquirer as to the theologian. There may be
obscurities — there may be occasionally, in names and
numbers, accidental corruptions of the text — there may
be a few interpolations — glosses which have crept in from
the margin ; but upon the whole it must be pronounced
that we have in the Pentateuch a genuine and authentic,
work, and one which — even were it not inspired — would
be, for the times and countries whereof it treats, the lead-
ing and paramount authority. It is (let us be assured)
"Moses," who is still "read in the synagogues every
sabbath day;"3 and they who "resist" him, by impugning
his veracity, like Jannes and Jainhres of old, " resist the
truths *
1 2 Tot. 5. 16. * Col. ii. 3.
3 Acts xv. 21. 4 2 Tim. iii. 8.
LECTURE III.
WHEN HE HAD DESTROYED SEVEN NATIONS IN THE LAND OF CHANAAN,
HE DIVIDED THEIR LAND TO THEM BY LOT. AND AFTER THAT HE
GAVE THEM JUDGES ABOUT THE 8PACE OF FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY
YEAKS, UNTIL SAMUEL THE PROPHET. AND AFTERWARD THEY DE-
SIRED A KING. — ACTS XIII. 19-21.
The period of Jewish history, which has to be considered
in the present Lecture, contains within it the extremes of
obscurity and splendor, of the depression and the exalta-
tion of the race. The fugitives from Egypt, who by divine
aid eifected a lodgment in the land of Canaan, under their
great leader, Joshua, were engaged for some hundreds of
years in a perpetual struggle for existence with the petty
tribes among whom they had intruded themselves, and
seemed finally on the point of succumbing and ceasing
altogether to be a people, when they were suddenly lifted
up by the hand of God, and carried rapidly to the highest
pitch of greatness whereto they ever attained. From the
time when the Hebrews "hid themselves in holes,"1 for
fear of the Philistines, and wrere without spears, or swords,
or armorers, because the Philistines had said, "Lest the
Hebrews make themselves swords or spears," 2 to the full
completion of the kingdom of David by his victories over •
the Philistines, the Moabites, the Syrians, the Ammonites,
and the Amalekiter, together with the submission of the
Idumaeans,3 wras a space little, if at all, exceeding half a
1 1 Sam. xiv. 11. s Ibid. xiii. 19-22. 3 2 Sam. viii.
(78)
JZCI. III. TRUTH OP THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. *M
century. Thus wore brought within the lifetime of a nan
the highest glory and the deepest shame, oppression and
dominion, terror and triumph, the peril of extinction and
the establishment of a mighty empire. The very men who
"hid themselves in caves and in thickets, in rocks, and in
high places, and in pits," ' or who fled across the Jordan to
the land of Gad and Gilead,2 when the Philistines "pitched
in Michmash," may have seen garrisons put in Damascus
and " throughout all Edom," 3 and the dominion of David
extended to the Euphrates.4
The history of this remarkable period is delivered to us
in four or five Books, the authors of which are unknown,
or at best uncertain. It is thought by some that Joshua
wrote the book which bears his name, except the closing
verses of the last chapter ;(') and by others, (2) that Samuel
composed twenty-four chapters of the first of those two
books which in our Canon bear the title of Books of
Samuel ; but there is no such uniform tradition W in either
case as exists respecting the authorship of the Pentateuch,
nor is there the same weight of internal testimony. On
the whole, the internal testimony seems to be against the
ascription of the Book of Joshua to the Jewish leader ; W
and both it, Judges, and Ruth, as well :is Kings and Chroni-
cles, are best referred to the cluss of tfifiila udicnttTa, or
books the authors of which are unknown to us. The im-
portance of a history, however, though it may he enhanced
by our knowledge of the author, docs not necessarily de-
pend on such knowledge. The Turin Papyrus, the Parian
Marble, the Saxon Chronicle, are documents of the very
highest historic value, though we know nothing of the
persons who composed them ; because there is reason to
1 1 Sam. xiii. 6. : Ibid, vorsr 7.
3 2 Sam. viii. 14. * Ibid, vers* 3.
80 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OF THE LECT. IIL
believe that they were composed from good sources. And
so it is with these portions of the Sacred Volume. There
is abundant evidence, both internal and external, of their
authenticity and historic value, notwithstanding that their
actual composers are unknown or uncertain. They have
really the force of State Papers, being authoritative public
documents, preserved among the national archives of the
Jews so long as they were a nation ; and ever since cher-
ished by the scattered fragments of the race as among the
most precious of their early records. As we do not com-
monly ask who was the author of a State Paper, but ac-
cept it without any such formality, so we are bound to act
towards these writings. They are written near the time,
sometimes by eye-witnesses, sometimes by those who have
before them the reports of eye-witnesses ; and their recep-
tion among the sacred records of the Jews stamps them
with an authentic character.
As similar attempts have been made to invalidate the
authority of these books with those to which I alluded in
the last Lecture, as directed against the Pentateuch, it will
be necessary to state briefly the special grounds, which
exist in the case of each, for accepting it as containing a
true history. Having thus vindicated the historical char-
acter of the Books from the evidence which they them-
selves offer, I shall then proceed to adduce such confir-
mation of their truth as can be obtained from other, and
especially from profane, sources.
The Book of Joshua is clearly the production of an eye-
witness. The writer includes himself among those who
passed over Jordan dryshod.1 He speaks of Rahab the
harlot as still " dwelling in Israel " when he writes ; 2 and
of Hebron as still in the possession of Caleb the son of
1 Josh. v. 1. 2 Ibid. vi. 25. »
LECT. III. TRUTH OF THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 81
Jephunneh.1 lie belongs clearly to the "elders that
outlived Joshua, which had known all the works of the
Lord that he had done for Israel ; " - and is therefore as
credible a witness for the events of the settlement in
Palestine, as Moses for those of the Exodus and the pas-
sage through the wilderness. Further, he undoubtedly
possesses documents of authority, from one of which (the
Book of Jasher) he quotes;3 and it is a reasonable supposi-
tion that his work is to a great extent composed from such
documents, to which there are several references,4 besides
the actual quotation. (5)
The Book of Judges, according to the tradition of the
Jews, was written by Samuel. (°) There is nothing in the
work itself that very distinctly marks the date of its com-
position. From its contents we can only say that it must
have been composed about Samuel's time; that is, after
the death of Samson, and before the capture of Jerusalem
by David. 0) As the events related in it certainly cover a
space of some hundreds of years, the writer, whoever he
be, cannot be regarded as a contemporary witness for more
than a small portion of them. lie stands rather in the
position of Moses with respect to the greater part of
Genesis, being the recorder of his country's traditions dur-
ing a space generally estimated as about equal to that
which intervened between the call of Abraham and the
birth of Moses. W Had these traditions been handed down
entirely by oral communication, still, being chiefly marked
and striking events in the national lite, they would have
possessed a fair title to acceptance. As the ease actually
stands, however, there is every reason to believe that
national records, which (as we have seen) existed in the
1 Josh. xiv. 14. ' Ibid. xxiv. 31.
2 Ibid. x. 13. " Ibid, xviii. U ; xxiv. 26.
82 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OP THE LECT. IIL
days of Moses and Joshua, were continued by their suc-
cessors, and that these formed the materials from which the
Book of Judges was composed by its author. Of such
records we have a specimen in the Song of Deborah and
Barak, an historical poem embodying the chief facts of
Deborah's judgeship. It is reasonable to suppose that
there may have been many such compositions, belonging to
the actual time of the events, of which the historian could
make use ; and it is also most probable that chronicles were
kept even at this early date, like those to which the writers
of the later historical books refer so constantly.1
The two Books of Samuel are thought by some to form,
together with the two Books of Kings, a single work, and
are referred to the time of the Babylonish captivity ; (9>
but this view is contrary both to the internal and to the
external evidence. The tradition of the Jews is, that the
work was commenced by Samuel, continued by Gad,
David's seer, and concluded by Nathan the prophet ; (10>
and this is — to say the least — a very probable supposi-
tion. We know from a statement in the First Book of
Chronicles, that "the acts of David the king, first and last,
were written in the book of Samuel the seer, and in the
book of Nathan the prophet, and in the book of Gad the
seer ; " 2 and these writings, it is plain, were still extant in
the Chronicler's time. If then the Books of Samuel had
been a compilation made during the Captivity, or earlier,
it would have been founded on these books, which could
not but have been of primary authority ; in which case the
compiler could scarcely have failed to quote them, either by
name, as the Chronicler does in the place which has been
1 1 Kings xi. 41 ; xiv. 19 and 29; xv. 7 ; xvi. 5, 14, 20, 27, &c;
1 Chron. xxvii. 24 ; 2 Chron. xii. 15 ; xiii. 22 ; xx. 34, &c.
8 J Chron. xxix. 29.
LECT. III. TRUTH OF THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 83
cited, or under the title of "the Chronicles of David," as
he seems to do in another.1 But there is no quotation,
direct or indirect, no trace of compilation, no indication of
a writer drawing from other authors, in the two Books of
Samuel, from beginning to end. In this respect they con-
trast most strongly with both Chronicles and Kings, where
the authors at every turn make reference to the sources
from which they derive their information. These books
therefore are most reasonably to be regarded as a primary
and original work — the work used and quoted, by the
Chronicler for the reign of David — and a specimen of
those other works from which the authors of Kings and
Chronicles confessedly compiled their histories. We have
thus, in all probability, for the times of Samuel, Said, and
David, the direct witness of Samuel himself, and of the two
prophets who were in most repute during the reign of
David.
The writer of the first Book of Kings derives his account
of Solomon from a document which he calls " the Book of
the Acts of Solomon;"- while the author of the second
Book of Chronicles cites three works as furnishing him
with materials for this part of his history — "the book of
Nathan the prophet, the prophecy of Abijah the Shilonite,
and the visions of Iddo the seer against Jeroboanf the son
of Nebat."3 These last were certainly the works of con-
temporaries ;(") and the same may be presumed of the
other; since the later compiler is not likely to have pos-
sessed better materials than the earlier. We may therefore
conclude that we have in Kings and Chronicles the history
of Solomon's reign — not perhaps exactly in the words of
contemporary writers — but substantially as they delivered
it. And the writers were persons who held the same high
1 1 Chron. xxvii. 24. * 1 Kin^s xi. 41. '2 Chron. ix. 2LJ.
84 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OF THE LeCT. IIL
position under Solomon, which the composers of the Books
of Samuel had held under Saul and David.
It is also worthy of remark, that we have the histories
of David and Solomon from two separate and distinct
authorities. The writer of Chronicles does not draw even
his account of David wholly from Samuel, but adds various
particulars, which show that he had further sources of in-
formation. (I2) And his account of Solomon appears not
to have been drawn from Kings at all, but to have been
taken quite independently from the original documents.
Further, it is to be noted that we have in the Book of
Psalms, at once a running comment, illustrative of David's
personal history, the close agreement of which with the
historical books is striking, and also a work affording
abundant evidence that the history of the nation, as it is
delivered to us in the Pentateuch, in Joshua, and in
Judges, was at least believed by the Jews to be their true
and real history in the time of David. The seventy-eighth
Psalm, which certainly belongs to David's time, is sufficient
proof of this : it contains a sketch of Jewish history, from
the wonders wrought by Moses in Egypt to the establish-
ment of the ark in mount Zion by David, and refers to not
fewer than fifty or sixty of the occurrences which are de-
scribed £ft length in the historical writings. (13) It is cer-
tain, at the least, that the Jews of David's age had no
other account to give of their past fortunes than that
miraculous story which has come down to us in the Books
of Exodus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, and
Samuel.
We have now further to consider what amount of con-
firmation profane history lends to the truth of the sacred
narrative during the period extending from the death of
Moses to the accession of Rehoboam. This period, it has
LECT. III. TRUTH OF THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 85
been observed above, comprises within it the two most
opposite conditions of the Jewish race : during its earlier
portion the Israelites were a small and insignificant people,
with difficulty maintaining themselves in the hill-country of
Palestine against the attacks of various tribes, none of
whom have made any great figure in history : while
towards its close a Jewish Empire was formed — an Empire
perhaps as great as any which up to that time had been
known in the Eastern world, and which, if not so extensive
as some that shortly afterwards grew up in Western Asia,
at any rate marks very distinctly the period when the
power and prosperity of the Jews reached its acme.
It was not to be expected that profane writers would
notice equally both of these periods. During the obscure
time of the Judges, the Jews could be little known beyond
their borders; and even had Assyria and Egypt been at
this time flourishing and aggressive states, had the armies
of either or both been then in the habit of traversing
Palestine in the course of their expeditions, the Israelites
might easily have escaped mention, since they occupied
Only a small part of the country, and that part the least
accessible of the whole. (M) It appears, however, that in
fact both Assyria and Egypt were weak during this period.
The expeditions of the former were still confined within
the Euphrates, or, if they crossed it on rare occasions, at
any rate went no farther than Cappadocia and lTpper
Syria, or the country about Aleppo and Antioch.(i:,) Ami
Egypt from the time of Harnesses the third, which was not
long after the Exodus, to that of Shishak, the contem-
porary of Solomon, seems to have sent no expeditions lit
all beyond its own frontier. ("'' Thus the annals of the
two countries are necessarily silent concerning the Jews
during the period in question ; and no agreement between
8
86 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OP THE L.ECT. IIL
them and the Jewish records is possible, except that tacit
one which is found in fact to exist. The Jewish records
are silent concerning Egypt, from the Exodus to the reign
of Solomon ; which is exactly the time during which the
Egyptian records are silent concerning the Jews. And
Assyria does not appear in Scripture as an influential power
in Lower Syria and Palestine till a time considerably later
than the separation of the kingdoms ; while similarly the
Assyrian monuments are without any mention of expedi-
tions into these parts during the earlier period of the em-
pire. Further, it may be remarked that from the mention
of Chushan-Rishathaim, king of Aram-Naharaim, (or the
country about Harran,) as a powerful prince soon after the
death of Joshua, it would follow that Assyria had not at
that time extended her dominion even to the Euphrates ;
a conclusion which the cuneiform records of perhaps two
centuries later entirely confirm, (17) since they show that
even then the Assyrians had not conquered the whole
country east of the river.
Besides the points of agreement here noticed, which,
though negative, are (I think) of no slight weight, we
possess one testimony belonging to this period of a direct
and positive character, which is among the most curious of
the illustrations, that profane sources furnish, of the vera-
city of Scripture. Moses of Chorene, the Armenian his-
torian, (18) Procopius, the secretary of Belisarius, (19) and
Suidas the Lexicographer, t20) relate, that there existed in
their day at Tingis, (or Tangiers,) in Africa, an ancient in-
scription to the effect that the inhabitants were the de-
scendants of those fugitives who were driven from the
land of Canaan by Joshua the son of Nun, the plunderer.
It has been said that this story " can scarcely be any thing
but a Rabbinical legend, wdiich Procopius may have heard
LECT. III. TRUTH OP THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 87
from African Jews." (21) But the independent testimony of
the three writers, who do not seem to have copied from
one another, is an argument of great weight ; and the
expressions used, by Procopius especially, have a precision
and a circumstantiality, which seem rather to imply the
basis of personal observation. "There stand," he says, "two
pillars of white marble near the great fountain in the city
of Tigisis, bearing an inscription in Phoenician characters,
and in the Phoenician language, which runs as follows." I
cannot see that there would be any sufficient reason for
doubting the truth of this very clear and exact statement,
even if it stood alone, and were unconfirmed by any other
writer. Two writers, however, confirm it — one of an earlier
and the other of a later date ; and the three testimonies
are proved, by their slight variations, to be independent
of one another. There is then sufficient reason to believe
that a Phoenician inscription to the effect stated existed at
Tangiers in the time of the Lower Empire; ami the true
question for historical criticism to consider and determine
is, what is the weight and value of such an inscription.^
That it was not a Jewish or a Christian monument is
certain from the epithet of "plunderer" or "robber"
applied in it to Joshua. That it was more ancient than
Christianity seems probable from the language and charac-
ter in which it was written. <2:,) It would appear to have
been a genuine Phoenician monument, of an antiquity
which cannot now be decided, but which was probably
remote; and it must be regarded as embodying an ancient
tradition, current in this part of Africa in times anterior to
Christianity, which very remarkably confirms the Hebrew
narrative.
There is another event of a public nature, belonging to
this portion of the history, of which some have thought to
88 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OP THE LECT. III.
find a confirmation in the pages of a profane writer.
"The Egyptians," says Herodotus, C24) "declare that since
Egypt w:ts a kingdom, the sun has on four several occa-
sions moved from his wonted course, twice rising where
he now sets, and twice setting where he now rises." It
has been supposed t25) that we have here a notice of that
remarkable time when " the sun stood still in the midst of
heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day ; " l
as well as of that other somewhat similar occasion, when
"the sun returned ten degrees" on the dial of Ahaz.2 But
the statement made to Herodotus by the Egyptian priests
would very ill describe the phenomena of these two occa-
sions, however we understand the narratives in Joshua and
Kings ; and the fact which they intended to convey to him
was probably one connected rather with their peculiar
system of astronomical cycles, than with any sudden and
violent changes in the celestial order. If the narrative in
Joshua is to be understood astronomically, of an actual
cessation or retardation of the earth's motion, (2C) we must
admit that profane history fails to present us with any
mention of an occurrence, which it might have been
expected to notice with distinctness. But at the same
time we must remember how scanty are the remains which
we possess of this early time, and how strictly they are
limited to the recording of political events and dynastic
changes. The astronomical records of the Babylonians
have perished ; and the lists of Manetho contain but few
references to natural phenomena, which are never intro-
duced except when they have a political bearing. No
valid objection therefore can be brought against the literal
truth of the narrative in Joshua from the present want of
any profane confirmation of it. Where the records of the
1 Jqsh. x. 13. * Isa. xxxviii. 8.
LECT. Ill TRUTH OF THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 89
past are so few and so slight, the argument from mere
silence lias neither force nor place.
The flourishing period of Jewish history, which com-
mences with the reign of David, brought the chosen people
of God once more into contact with those principal nations
of the earth, whose history has to some extent come
down to us. One of the first exploits of David Mas that
great defeat which he inflicted on the Syrians of Damascus,
in the vicinity of the Euphrates, when they came to the
assistance of Hadedezer king of Zobah — a defeat which
cost them more than twenty thousand men, and which was
followed by the temporary subjection of Damascus to the
Israelites; since "David put garrisons in Syria of Damas-
cus, and the Syrians became servants to David, and
brought gifts."1 This war is mentioned not only by Eu-
polemus^27) who appears to have been well acquainted with
the Jewish Scriptures, but also by Nicolas of Damascus,
the friend of Augustus Caesar, who clearly draws his his-
tory from the records of his native place. "After this,"
says Nicolas, "there was a certain Hadad, a native Syrian,
who had great power: he ruled over Damascus, and all
Syria, except Phoenicia. lie likewise undertook a war
with David, the king of Judaea, and contended against him
in a number of battles; in the last of them all — which was
by the river Euphrates, and in which he suffered defeat —
showing himself a prince of the greatest courage and
prowess." C38) This is a testimony of the same nature
with those already adduced from Berosus and Manctho;
it is a separate and independent notice of an event in
Jewish history, which has come down to us from the other
party in the transaction, with particulars not contained in
the Jewish account, yet compatible with all that is so
1 2 Sum. viii. 6. Comp. 1 Chr. xviii. 6.
8*
90 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OF THE LECT. III.
contained, and strictly corroborative of the main circum-
stances of the Hebrew narrative.
The other wars of the son of Jesse wei-e with enemies
of inferior power and importance, as the Philistines, the
Moabites, the Ammonites, the Idumjeans, and the Ama-
lekites. Eupolemus mentions most of these successes ; f29)
but otherwise we have no recognition of them by profane
writers, which cannot be considered surprising, since there
are no ancient histories extant wherein these nations are
mentioned otherwise than incidentally. We have, how-
ever, one further point of contact between sacred and
profane history at this period which is of considerable
interest and importance, and which requires separate con-
sideration. I speak of the connection, seen now for the
first time, between Jmkea and Phoenicia, which, separated
by natural obstacles, C30) and hitherto, perhaps, to some
extent by intervening tribes, only began to hold relations
with each other when the conquests of David brought
Judoea into a new position among the powers of these
regions. It was necessary for the commerce of Phoenicia
that she should enjoy the friendship of whatever power
commanded the great lines of inland traffic, which ran
through Coele-Syria and Damascus, by Hamath and Tad-
mor, to the Euphrates. (31> Accordingly we find that upon
the "establishment" and " exaltation" of David's kingdom,1
overtures were at once made to him by the chief Phoeni-
cian power of the day ; and his good will was secured by
benefits of the most acceptable kind — the loan of skilled
artificers and the gift of cedar-beams " in abundance " 2 —
after which a firm friendship was established between the
two powers,3 which continued beyond the reign of David
into that of Solomon his son.4 Now here it is most
1 2 Sam. v. 11, 12. 2 1 Chr. xxii. 4.
3 1 Kings v. 1. 4 Ibid, verse 12.
LECT. III. TRUTH OF THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 91
interesting to see whether the Hebrew writer lias cor-
rectly represented the condition of Phoenicia at the time ;
whether the name which lie has assigned to his Phoenician
prince is one that Phoenicians bore or the contrary ; and
finally, whether there is any trace of the reign of this par-
ticular prince at this time.
With regard to the first point, it is to be observed, that
the condition of Phoenicia varied at different periods.
While we seem to trace throughout the whole history a
constant recognition of some one city as predominant
among the various towns, if not as sovereign over them,
we do not always find the same city occupying this posi-
tion. In the most ancient times it is Sidon which claims
and exercises this precedency and preeminence ; C32) in
the later times the dignity has passed to Tyre, which is
thenceforward recognized as the leading power. Homer
implies^33) Strabo (34> and Justin t35) distinctly assert, the
ancient superiority of Sidon, which was said to have been
the primitive settlement, whence the remainder were
derived. On the other hand, Dius (3fi) and Menander, t37)
who drew their Phoenician histories from the native
records, clearly show that at a time anterior to David,
Tyre had become the leading state, which she continued
to be until the time of Alexander. (**) The notices of
Phoenicia in Scripture are completely in accordance with
what we have thus gathered from profane sources. While
Sidon alone appears to have been known to Moses,1 and
Tyre occurs in Joshua as a mere stronghold in marked
contrast with imperial Sidon, ("great Zidon," as she is
called more than once)-' — whose dominion seems to
extend along the coast to Cannel, (M) and certainly reaches
inland as far as Laish s — in Samuel and Kings the case is
> Gen. x. 15; xlix. 13. * J<»>h. xi. 8 ; xix. 28.
3 Judges xvii. 7 anil 28.
92 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OF THE LECT. IIL
changed ; Sielon has no longer a distinctive epithet ; ' and
it is the "king of Tyre" who on behalf of his countrymen
makes advances to David, and who is evidently the chief
Phoenician potentate of the period.
Further, when we look to the name borne by this prince
— the first Phoenician mentioned byname in Scripture —
we are at once struck with its authentic character. That
Hiram was really a Phoenician name, and one which kings
were in the habit of bearing, is certain from the Assyrian
Inscriptions W and from Herodotus, (41) as well as from the
Phoenician historians, Dius and Menander. And these last-
named writers not only confirm the name as one which a
king of Tyre might have borne, but show moreover that it
was actually borne by the Tyrian king contemporary with
Solomon and David, of whom they relate circumstances
which completely identify him with the monarch who is
stated in Scripture to have been on such friendly terms with
those princes. They do not indeed appear to have made
any mention of David ; but they spoke distinctly of the
close connection between Hiram and Solomon ; adding
facts, which, though not contained in Scripture, are remark-
ably in accordance with the sacred narrative. For instance,
both Menander and Dius related that "hard questions"
were sent by Solomon to Hiram to be resolved by him ;(42)
while Dius added, that Hiram proposed similar puzzles to
Solomon in return, which that monarch with all his wisdom
was unable to answer. (43> We may see in this narrative,
not only a resemblance to the famous visit of the " Queen
of the South,"2 who, "when she heard of the fame of Solo-
mon, came to prove him with hard questions;"3 but also
an illustration of the statement that "all the earth sought
to Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God had put in his
1 2 Sam. xxir. 6. * Matt. xii. 42. 3 1 Kings x. 1.
LECT. III. TRUTH OF THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 93
heart."1 Again, Menander stated that Hiram gave his
daughter in marriage to Solomon. C44) This fact is not
recorded in Scripture; but still it is illustrative of the state-
ment that "King Solomon loved many strange women,
together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Mo-
abites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Ilittites. . . .
And lie had seven hundred wives, princesses."'2 One of
these we may well conceive to have been the daughter of
the Tyrian king.
The relations of Solomon with Egypt have received at
present but little illustration from native Egyptian sources.
Our epitome of Manetho gives us nothing but a bare list of
names at the period to which Solomon must belong; and
the Egyptian monuments for the time are particularly
scanty and insignificant. (45) Moreover the omission of the
Jewish writers to place on record the distinctive name of
the Pharaoh whose daughter Solomon married, forbids his
satisfactory identification with any special Egyptian mon-
arch. Eupolemus indeed professed to supply this omission
of the older historians/4'') and enlivened his history with
copies of the letters which (according to him) passed be-
tween Solomon and Vaphres or Apries, king of Egypt ; but
this name is clearly taken from a later portion of Egyptian
history, and none at all similar to it is found either on the
monuments or in the dynastic lists for the period. The
Egyptian marriage of Solomon, therefore, ami his friendly
connection with a Pharaoh of the twenty-first dynasty, have
at present no confirmation from profane sources, beyond
that which it derives from Eupolemus; lint the change in
the relations between the two courts towards the (•!<»•.• of
Solomon's reign, which is indicated by the protection ex-
tended to his enemy Jeroboam by a new king, Shishak,
1 1 Kin^s x. 24. * Ibid. xi. 1-3.
94 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OP THE LFXT. Ill
receives some illustration and confirmation both from the
monuments and from the native historian. Shishak makes
his appearance at a suitable point, so far as chronology is
concerned/47^ in the lists of Manetho, where he is called
Sesonchis or Sesonchosis/48) and his name occurs likewise
in the sculptures of the period under its Egyptian form of
Sheshonk. (49) The confirmation which the monuments
lend to the capture of Jerusalem by this king will be con-
sidered in the next Lecture. At present, we have only to
note, besides the occurrence of the name at the place
where we should naturally look for it in the lists, the fact
that it occurs at the commencement of a new dynasty — a
dynasty furnished by a new city, and quite of a different
character from that preceding it — which would therefore
be in no way connected with Solomon, and would not be
unlikely to reverse the policy of the house which it had
supplanted.
The wealth and magnificence of Solomon were celebrated
by Eupolemus and (5°)Theophilus,(-'5lHhe former of whom gave
an elaborate account of the temple and its ornaments. As,
however, these writers were merely Avell-informed Greeks
who reported to their countrymen the ideas entertained of
their history by the Jews of the third and fourth centuries
B. C, I forbear to dwell upon their testimonies. I shall
therefore close here the direct confirmations from profane
sources of this portion of the Scripture narrative, and pro-
ceed to consider briefly some of the indirect points of
agreement, with which this part of the history, like every
other, abounds.
First, then, it may be observed, that the empire ascribed
to David and Solomon is an empire of exactly that hind
which alone Western Asia was capable of producing, and
did produce, about the period in question. The modern
LECT. III. TRUTH OF THE SCRirTURE RECORDS. 95
system of centralized organization by which the various
provinces of a vast empire are cemented into :i compact
mass, was unknown to the ancient world, and has never
been practised by Asiatics. The satrapial system of gov-
ernment, or that in which the pi evinces retain their indi-
viduality, but are administered on a common plan by
officers appointed by the crown — which has prevailed gen-
erally through the East since the time of its first introduc-
tion— was the invention of Darius Hystaspis. Before his
time the greatest monarchies had a slighter and weaker
organization. They were in all cases composed of a num-
ber of separate kingdoms, each under its own native king;
and the sole link uniting them together and constituting
them an empire, was the subjection of these petty mon-
archs to a single suzerain. (52> The Babylonian, Assyrian,
Median, and Lydian, were all empires of this type — mon-
archies, wherein a sovereign prince at the head of a power-
ful kingdom was acknowledged as suzerain by a number of
inferior princes, each in his own right sole ruler of his own
country. And the subjection of the interior princes con-
sisted chiefly, if not solely, in two points; they were bound
to render homage to their suzerain, and to pay him annu-
ally a certain stated tribute. Thus, when we lien that
"Solomon reigned over all tin kin ;/<!>>/, is from the river
(Euphrates) unto the land of the Philistines and unto the
border of Egypt"1 — or again, that "he had dominion ove"
all the region on this side the river, from Tiphsah (or
Thapsacus on the Euphrates) to Azzah, (or (iaza, the most
southern of the Philistine towns,) over <dl tin kings on this
side the river"2 — and that "they brought jr's^nts"* — " :.
rate year by year"* — and "served Solomon all the days of
1 1 Kings iv. 21. * Ibid vrrw 24.
3 Ibid, verse 21. * Ibid x. 25.
90 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OF THE LECT. III.
liis life,"1 wc recognize at once a condition of things with
which we are perfectly familiar from profane sources; and
we feel that at any rate this account is in entire harmony
with the political notions and practices of the day.
Similarly, with respect to the buildings of Solomon, it may
he remarked, that they appear, from the description given
of them in Kings and Chronicles, to have belonged exactly
to that style of architecture which we find in fact to have
prevailed over Western Asia in the earliest times, and of
which we have still remains on 'the ancient sites of Nineveh,
Susa, and Persepolis. The strong resemblance in general
structure and arrangement of the palace of Esar-haddon to
that which Solomon constructed for his own use, has been
noticed by our great Mcsopotamian excavator ; (53) and few
can fail to see in the "house of the forest of Lebanon,"2
with its five-and-forty cedar pillars forming the "forest"
from which the palace derived its name, a resemblance to
the remarkable structures at Susa and Persepolis, in each
of which the pillars on which the entire edifice rested form
a sort of forest, amounting in number to seventy-two. It
is true that in the Persian buildings the columns are of
stone ; but this is owing to the advance of art. The great
chambers in the Assyrian palaces had no stone columns,
but are regarded by those who have paid most attention to
the subject, as having had their roofs supported by pillar?
of cedar. (M) Nor does the resemblance of which I am
speaking consist only in the multiplicity of columns. The
height of the Persepolitan columns, which is forty-four
feet, C55) almost exactly equals the " thirty cubits " of Solo-
mon's house ; and there is even an agreement in the general
character of the capitals, which has attracted notice from
-^rae who have written upon the history of art. (56)
1 1 Kings iv. 21. 2 Ibid. vii. 2.
LECT. III. TRUTH OF THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 97
Again, the copious use of gold in ornamentation,1 which
seems to moderns so improbable, (57) was a practice known
to the Phoenicians, the Assyrians, and the Babylonians. (58>
The brazen pillars, Jachin and Boaz, set up in the court of
the temple,2 recall the pillar of gold which Hiram, accord-
ing to Menander, (59> dedicated in the temple of Baal, and
the two pillars which appear in the coins of Cyprus before
the temple of the Phoenician Venus. C60) The " throne of
ivory"3 has its parallel in the numerous ivory carvings
lately brought from Mesopotamia, which in many cases
have plainly formed the covering of furniture. (61) The
lions, which stood beside the throne,4 bring to our mind at
once the lions' feet with which Assyrian thrones were
ornamented, (62^ and the- gigantic sculptured figures which
commonly formed the portals of the great halls. In these
and many other points the state and character of art,
which the Hebrew writers describe as existing in Solomon's
time, receives confirmation from profane sources, and
especially from those remains of a time not long subse-
quent, which have been recently brought to light by the
researches made in Mesopotamia.
Once more — the agreement between the character of
the Phoenicians as drawn in Kings and Chronicles, and
that which we know from other sources to have attached
to them, is worthy of remark. The wealth, the enterprise,
the maritime skill, and the eminence in the arts, which
were the leading characteristics of the Phoenicians in
Homer's time, are abundantly noted by the writers of
Kings and Chronicles; who contrast the comparative
ignorance and rudeness of their own nation with the
science and "cunning" of their neighbors. "Thou
1 1 Kings vi. 20, 21, 28, 30, 32, &c. 5 Ibid. vii. 15-22.
a Ibid. x. 19. * Ibid, verses ll>and20.
9
98 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OP THE L,ECT. Ill,
knowest," writes king Solomon to Hiram, " that there is
not among us any that can skill to hew timber like the
Sidonians." 1 " Send me a man," again he writes, " cunning
to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass, and in iron, and
in purple, and crimson, and blue, and that can skill to grave
with the cunning men which are with me in Judah and in
Jerusalem, whom David my father did provide."2 And
the man sent, "a man of Tyre, a worker in brass, filled with
wisdom, and understanding, and cunning to work all works
in brass, came to king Solomon, and wrought all his
work? 3 So too when Solomon " made a navy of ships in
Ezion-geber, on the shore of the Red Sea," Hiram " sent in
the navy his servants, shipmen that had knowledge of the
sea, with the servants of Solomon." 4 It has been well re-
marked, C68) that "we discover the greatness of Tyre in
this age, not so much from its own annals as from those
of the Israelites, its neighbors." The scanty fragments of
the Phoenician history which alone remain to us are filled
out and illustrated by the more copious records of the
Jews ; which, with a simplicity and truthfulness that we
rarely meet with in profane writers, set forth in the
strongest terms their obligations to their friendly neighbors.
These are a few of the indirect points of agreement be-
tween profane history and this portion of the sacred nar-
rative. It would be easy to adduce others ; (63) but since,
within the space which an occasion like the present allows,
it is impossible to do more than broadly to indicate the
sort of evidence which is producible in favor of the
authenticity of Scripture, perhaps the foregoing specimens
may suffice. It only remains therefore to sum up briefly
the results to which we seem to have attained.
1 1 Kings v. 6. * 2 Chron. ii. 7.
1 1 Kings vii. 14. * Ibid. ix. 26, 27.
Lect. ILL truth of the scripture records. 99
We have been engaged with a dark period — a period
when the nations of the world had little converse with one
another, when civilization was but beginning, when the
knowledge of letters was confined within narrow bounds,
when no country but Egypt had a literature, and when
Egypt herself was in a state of unusual depression, and
had little communication with nations beyond her borders.
We could not expect to obtain for such a period any great
amount of profane illustration. Yet the Jewish history of
even this obscure time has been found to present points of
direct agreement with the Egyptian records, scanty as they
are for it, with the Phoenician annals, with the traditions
of the Syrians of Damascus, and with those of the early in-
habitants of Northern Africa. It has also appeared that the
Hebrew account of the time is in complete harmony with all
that we otherwise know of Western Asia at the period in
question, of its political condition, its civilization, its arts and
sciences, its manners and customs, its inhabitants. Illustra-
tions of these points have been furnished by the Assyrian
inscriptions, the Assyrian and Persian palaces, the Pluenician
coins and histories, and the earliest Greek poetry. Nor is
it possible to produce from authentic history any contra-
diction of this or any other portion of the Hebrew records.
When such a contradiction has seemed to hi' found, it has
invariably happened that in the progress of historical
inquiry, the author from whom it proceeds has lost credit,
and finally come to he regarded as an utterly untrust-
worthy authority. C64) Internally consistent, externally
resting upon contemporary or nearly contemporary docu-
ments, and both directly and indirectly continued by the
records of neighboring nations, the Hebrew account of this
time is entitled to be receive. 1 as a true and authentic his-
tory on almost every ground upon which such a claim can
100 TRUTH OF THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. Lect. IJL
be rested. It was then justly and with sufficient reason
that the Proto-martyr in his last speech,1 and the great
Apostle of the Gentiles, in his first public preaching as an
Apostle,2 assumed as certain the simple, literal, and historic
truth of this portion of the sacred narrative. Through
God's good providence, there is no break in that historic
chain which binds the present with the past, the new
covenant with the old, Christ with Moses, the true Israel
with Abraham. A "dark age" — a time of trouble and
confusion, undoubtedly supervened upon the establishment
of the Israelites in Canaan ; but amid the gloom the torch
of truth still passed from hand to hand — prophets arose at
intervals — and the main events in the national life were
carefully put on record. Afterwards — from the time of
Samuel — a more regular system was introduced ; events
were chronicled as they occurred ; and even the sceptic
allows that "with the Books of Samuel, the history
assumes an appearance far more authentic than that of the
contemporary history of any other ancient nation.'^63)
This admission may well be taken to render any further
argument unnecessary, and with it we may properly con-
clude this portion of our inquiry.
1 Acts vii. 45-47. * Ibid. xiii. 19-22.
LECTURE IV.
AND AHIJAH SAID TO JEROBOAM, TAKE THEE TEN PIECES : FOR THUS
8AITH THE LORD, THE GOD OF ISRAEL, BEHOLD, I WILL REND THE
KINGDOM OUT OP THE HAND OF SOLOMON, AND WILL GIVE TEN
TRIBES TO THEE: BUT HE SHALL HAVE ONE TRIBE FOR MY SERVANT
DAVID'S SAKE. — 1 KINGS XI. 31,32.
The subject of the present Lecture will be the history
of the chosen people from the separation of the two king-
doms by the successful revolt of Jeroboam, to the comple-
tion of the Captivity of Judah, upon the destruction of
Jerusalem, in the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar, king
of Babylon. The space of time embraced is thus a period
of about four centuries. Without pretending to a chrono-
logical exactitude, for which our data arc insufficient, we
may lay it down as tolerably certain, that the establish-
ment of the two kingdoms of Israel and Judah on the ruins
of Solomon's empire is an event belonging to the earlier
half of the tenth century before our era; while the destruc-
tion of Jerusalem may be assigned with much confidence
to the year B. C. 586.
These centuries constitute a period second in importance
to none of equal length. They comprise the great devel-
opment, the decadence and the fall of Assyria — tin' sudden
growth of Media and Babylon — the Egyptian revival
under the Psammetichi — the most glorious time of the
Phoenician cities — the rise of Sparta and Athens to pre-
eminence in Greece — the foundation of Carthage anil of
<j . (101)
102 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OP THE LECT. IV.
Rome — and the spread of civilization by means of the
Greek and Phoenician colonies, from the Palus Mteotis to
the Pillars of Hercules. Moreover, they contain within
them the transition time of most profane history — the
space within which it passes from the dreamy cloud-land
of myth and fable into the sober region of reality and fact,
exchanging poetic fancy for prosaic truth, and assuming
that character of authenticity and trustworthiness, which
is required to n't it thoroughly for the purpose whereto it
is applied in these Lectures. Hence, illustrations of the
■acred narrative, hitherto somewhat rare and infrequent,
will now crowd upon us, and make the principal difficulty at
the present stage that of selection. Egypt, Assyria, Baby-
lon, Phoenicia, Greece, will vie with each other in offering
to us proofs that the Hebrew records, for this time, contain
a true and authentic account of the fortunes of the race ;
and instead of finding merely a few points here and there
to illustrate from profane sources, we shall now be able to
produce confirmatory proof of almost every important
event in the history.
Before entering, however, on this branch of the inquiry,
some consideration must be given to the character of
the documents in which this portion of the history has
come down to us, and to the confirmation which those
documents obtain from other Books in the Sacred
Canon.
It was observed in the last Lecture, that the Books of
Kings and Chronicles are compilations from State Papers
preserved in the public archives of the Jewish nation, ^ the
authors of those papers being probably, in most cases,
the Prophets in best repute at the time of their com-
position. This is particularly apparent from the Second
Book of Chronicles, where the author, besides citing in
LECT. IV. TRUTH OP THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. lOo
several places1 "the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings
of Israel and Judah," particularizes no fewer than thirteen
works of prophets, some of which he expressly states to
have formed a portion of the general "Book of the Chroni*
cles,"2 while most of the others may be probably con
eluded to have done the same. The Books of Samuel,
of Nathan, and of Gad, the Prophecy of Ahijah the Shi-
lonite, and the Visions of Iddo the seer, which are among
the works quoted by the Chronicler, have been already
noticed. (2) To these must now be added, "the Book ot
Shemaiah the Prophet,"3 "the Book of Iddo the seer, con-
cerning genealogies,"4 "the Story or Commentary of the
Prophet Iddo,"5 "the Book of Jehu the son of Hanani,""
"the Acts of Uzziah by Isaiah,"7 "the Vision of Isaiah,"8
and the book of "the Sayings of the Seers"9 — all works
which served as materials to the Chronicler, and to which
he refers his readers. We found reason to believe, in the
last Lecture, that our Book (or Books) of Samuel is the
very work which the Chronicler quotes under the three
names of the Book of Samuel, the Book of Nathan, and
the Book of Gad. Similarly the Book of the Acts of Sol-
omon10 would seem to have been composed of a Book of
Nathan, a Book of Ahijah the Shilonite, and a portion
of a Book of Iddo the seer." And the Book, or rather
the two Books, & of the Chronicles of the Kings of
Israel and Judah, would appear to have been carried on in
the same way; first, by Iddo, in his "Story," or "Com-
1 2 Chron. xvi. 11 ; xxv. 2G ; xxvii. 7 ; xxviii. 2G ; xxxii. 32 ; xxxiii.
18 ; and xxxv. 27.
1 Ibid. xx. 34 ; and xxxiii. 32.
3 Ibid. xii. 15. * Ibid. * Ibid. xiii. 22-
6 Ibid. xx. 34. " Ibid. xxvi. 22. " Ibid, xxxii. 32.
9 Ibid, xxxiii. 19. "' 1 Kings xi. II. " 2 Chron. ix. 29.
104 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OP THE LECT. IV.
mentary;" then by Jehu, the son of Hanani, in the Book
which we are told was made to form a part of the Book
of the Kings of Israel ; W and afterwards by other prophets
and seers, among whom were certainly Isaiah and Jere-
miah. That Isaiah wrote the history of the reign of
Uzziah is expressly stated ; x and it is also said that his
account of the acts of Hezekiah formed a portion of the
Book of the Kings of Judah ; (5> besides which, the close
verbal agreement between certain historical chapters in
Isaiah and in Kings, (°) would suffice to prove that this
part of the state history was composed by him. A similar
agreement between portions of Kings and of Jeremiah,
leads to a similar conclusion with respect to that prophet. 0)
Thus Samuel, Gad, Nathan, "Ahij ah, Shemaiah, Iddo, Jehu,
Isaiah, Jeremiah, and other prophets contemporary with
the events, are to be regarded as the real authorities for
the Jewish history as it is delivered to us in Kings and
Chronicles. " The prophets, who in their prophecies and
addresses held forth to the people, not only the law as a
rule and direction, but also the history of the past as the
mirror and example of their life, must have reckoned the
composition of the theocratic history among the duties of
the call given to them by the Lord, and composed accord-
ingly the history of their time by noting down public
annals, in which, without respect of persons, the life and
conduct of the kings were judged and exhibited according
to the standard of the revealed law."(8) With this judg-
ment of a living German writer, there is sufficient reason
to concur; and we may therefore conclude that the history
in Kings and Chronicles rests upon the testimony of con-
temporary and competent witnesses.
The only objection of any importance that Rationalism
1 2 Chron. xxvi. 22.
LECT. IV. TRUTH OF THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 105
makes to the conclusion which we have here reached, is
drawn from the circumstances of the time when the books
were composed ; which is thought to militate strongly
against their having been drawn directly from the sources
which have been indicated. The authority of the writers
of these Books, we are told, W " cannot have been the offi-
cial annals" of the kingdoms; for these must have perished
at their destruction, and therefore could not have been
consulted by authors who lived later than the Captivity.
It may be granted that the mass of the State Archives are
likely to have perished with Samaria and Jerusalem, if we
understand by that term the bulky documents which con-
tained the details of official transactions : but there is no
more difficulty in supposing that the digested annals which
the prophets had composed escaped, than there is in under-
standing how the Prophecy of Isaiah and the rest of the
Sacred Volume were preserved. At any rate, if there be a
difficulty, it is unimportant in the face of the plain and
palpable fact, that the authors of the two Books speak of
the annals as existing, and continually refer their readers to
them for additional information. However we may ac-
count for it, the "Books of the; Chronicles of the Kings of
Israel and Judah," the different portions of which had been
written by the prophets above mentioned, were still extant
when the authors of Kings and Chronicles wrote their his-
tories, having escaped the dangers of war, and survived the
obscure time of the Captivity. It is not merely that the
writers in question profess to quote from them; hut they
constantly appeal to them as books the contents of which
are well known to their own readers.
The confirmation which the Books of Kings and Clin, ni-
cies lend to each other, deserves some notice while we are
engaged with this portion of the inquiry. Had the later
106 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OF THE LECT. IV.
composition uniformly followed, and, as it were, echoed the
earlier, there would have been but little advantage in the
double record. We should then only have known that the
author of the Book of Chronicles regarded the Book of
Kings as authentic. But the Chronicler — I use the term
in no offensive sense — does not seem really in any case
merely to follow the writer of Kings. (10) On the contrary,
he goes straight to the fountain-head, and draws his mate-
rials partly from the sources used by the earlier writer,
partly (as it seems) from contemporary sources which that
writer had neglected. He is thus, throughout, a distinct
and independent authority for the history of his nation,
standing to the writer of Kings as Africanus stands to
Eusebius, in respect of the history of Egypt. 01' As the
double channel by which Manetho's Egyptian history is
conveyed to us, renders our hold upon that history far
more firm and secure than would have been the case had
we derived our knowledge of it* through one channel only,
so the two parallel accounts, which we possess in Kings
and Chronicles, of the history of Solomon and his succes-
sors, give us a hold upon the original annals of this period
which we could not have had otherwise. The Chronicler,
while he declines to be beholden to the author of Kings
for any portion of his narrative, and does not concern him-
self about apparent discrepancies between his own work
and that of the earlier writer, confirms the whole general
course of that writer's history, repeating it, illustrating it,
and adding to it, but never really differing from it, except
in such minute points as are readily explainable by slight
corruptions of the text in the one case or the other. (12)
Further, the narrative contained in Kings and Chronicles
receives a large amount of illustration, and so of confirma-
tion, from the writings of the contemporary Prophets, who
LFXT. IV. TRUTH OF THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 107
exhibit the feelings natural under the circumstances de-
scribed by the historians, and incidentally allude to the
facts recorded by them. This point has been largely illus-
trated by recent writers on the prophetical Scriptures, who
find the interpretation of almost every chapter "bound
up with references to contemporary events, political and
social," and discover in this constant connection at once a
" source of occasional difficulty," and a frequent means of
throwing great additional light on the true meaning of the
prophetical writers. W The illustration thus afforded to
prophecy by history is reflected back to history from proph-
ecy; and there is scarcely an event in the Jewish annals
after the reign of Uzziah — which is the time of the earliest
of the extant prophetical writings C14) — that is not illumi-
nated by some touch from one prophet or another. To take
the case of a single writer — Isaiah mentions the succession
of Jewish kings from Uzziah to Hezekiah,1 the alliance of
Rezin, king of Syria, and Pekah, the son of Remaliah, king
of Israel, against Ahaz,2 the desolation -of their country
which shortly followed,3 the plunder of Damascus, and the
spoiling of Samaria at this time,4 the name of the then
high priest,* the Assyrian conquests of Hamath, Aradus,
and Samaria,0 the close connection about this time of
Egypt and Ethiopia,7 the inclination of the Jewish mon.
archs to lean on Egypt for support against Assyria," the
conquest by Sennacherib of the "fenced cities" of Judaic
the embassy of Rabshakeh,10 the sieges of Libnah ami
1 Isaiah i. 1. * Ibid. vii. 1, 2. 3 Ibid, verso 10.
4 Ibid. viii. 4. Compare 2 Kin^s xvi. 9.
5 Ibid, verse 2. Compare 2 Kinsjs xvi. 10-1G.
•Ibid. x. 9-11. 7 Ibid. xx. 3-5.
8 Ibid. xxx. 2, 3, &c. ; xxxi. 1-3. ' Ibid, xxxvi. 1.
w Ibid, verses 2-22.
108 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OF THE LECT. IV.
Lachish,1 the preparations of Tirhakah against Sennache-
rib,8 the prayer of Hezekiah,8 the prophecy of Isaiah in
reply,4 the destruction of Sennacherib's host,5 the return of
Sennacherib himself to Nineveh,6 his murder and the
escape of his murderers/ Hezekiah's illness and recovery,8
and the embassy sent to him by Merodach-Baladan, king
of Babylon;0 — he glances also at the invasion of Tiglath-
Pileser, and the destruction then brought upon a portion
of the kingdom of Israel,10 at the oppression of Egypt
under the Ethiopian yoke,11 at the subjection of Judsea to
Assyria during the reign of Ahaz,12 and at many other
events of less consequence. About half the events here
mentioned are contained in the three historical chapters of
Isaiah,13 which are almost identical with three chapters of
the second Book of Kings:14 but the remainder occur
merely incidentally among the prophecies ; and these afford
the same sort of confirmation to the plain narrative of
Kings and Chronicles, as the Epistles of St. Paul have been
shown to furnish>to the Acts.(15) Jeremiah, Amos, Hosea,
Micah, and Zephaniah, contain numerous allusions of a
similar character, illustrative of the history at this time and
subsequently. Jeremiah, in particular, is as copious in
notices bearing upon Jewish history for the time extending
from Josiah to the GajDtivity, as Isaiah is for the reigns of
Ahaz and Hezekiah.
Having thus briefly noticed the character of the docu-
ments in which this portion of the history has come down
to us, and drawn attention to the weight of the scriptural
1 Isaiah xxxvii. 8. 2 Ibid, verse 9. 3 Ibid, verses 15-20.
4 Ibid, verses 22-35. 5 Ibid, verse 36. 6 Ibid, verse 37.
7 Ibid, verse 38. H Ibid, xxxviii. 9 Ibid, xxxix. 1, 2.
10 Ibid. ix. 1. " Ibid. xix. 4, itc. 12 Ibid. xiv. 24-28.
13 Chaps, xxxvi. xxxvii. and xxxviii. ,4 Chaps, xviii. xix. and xx.
LECT. IV. TRUTH OF THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 109
evidence in favor of its authenticity, I proceed to the con-
sideration of that point which is the special subject of
these Lectures — the confirmation which this part of the
narrative receives from profane sources.
The separate existence of the two kingdoms of Israel
and Judah is abundantly confirmed by the Assyrian in-
scriptions. Kings of each country occur in the accounts
which the great Assyrian monarchs have left us of their
conquests — the names being always capable of easy
identification with those recorded in Scripture, and occur-
ring in the chronological order which is there given. (16>
The Jewish monarch bears the title of " King of Judah,"
while his Israelitish brother is designated after his capital
city; which, though in the earlier times not called Sama-
ria, is yet unmistakably indicated under the term Beth-
JChumri^17' "the house or city of Omri," that monarch
having been the original founder of Samaria, according to
Scripture.1
The first great event in the kingdom of Judah after the
separation from Israel, was the invasion of Judaea by Shi-
shak, king of Egypt, in the fifth year of Rehoboam. Shi-
shak came up against Jerusalem with "twelve hundred
chariots and threescore thousand horsemen," besides a
Lost of footmen who were "without number."2 He "took
the fenced cities which pertained to Judah," and was pro-
ceeding to invest the capital, when Iiehoboam made his
submission, delivered up the treasures of the temple, ami
of his own palace, and became one of the " servants " or
tributaries of the Egyptian king:' This success is found to
have been commemorated by Shishak on the outside of
the great temple at Karnac ; and here in a long list of
••antured towns and districts, which Shishak boasts of
1 1 Kings xvi. 24. s 2 Chron. xii. 3. 3 Ibid, verse 8.
10
110 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OP THE LECT. IV,
Having added to his dominions, occurs the "Jfelchi Yiicla"
or kingdom of Judah, (18> the conquest of which by this
king is thus distinctly noticed in the Egyptian records.
About thirty years later Judaea was again invaded from
this quarter. " Zerah the Ethiopian," at the head of an
army of "a thousand thousand"1 — or a million of men —
who were chiefly Ethiopians and Libyans,2 made war upon
Asa, and entering his kingdom at its south-western angle,
was there met by the Jewish monarch and signally defeated
by him.3 In this case we cannot expect such a confirma-
tion as in the last instance ; for nations do not usually put
on record their great disasters. It appears, however, that
at the time indicated, the king of Egypt was an Osor-
kon (19) — a name identical in its root consonants with
Zerach / and it appears also that Egypt continued to
decline from this period till the time of Psammetichus, a
natural residt of such a disaster as that which befell the
invading host. The only difficult)' which meets us is the
representation of Zerah as an Ethiopian — a fact not at
present confirmed by the monuments. Perhaps, though
an Egyptian, he was regarded as an Ethiopian, because he
ruled over Ethiopia, and because his army was mainly com-
posed of men belonging to that country. Or perhaps,
though M*e have no positive evidence of this, he may
have been really of Ethiopian extraction. Osorkon the
Second, who is the natural contemporary of Asa, was not
descended from the earlier kings of the dynasty. He was
the son-in-law of his predecessor, and reigned in right of
his wife. It is therefore not at all impossible that he may
have been an Ethiopian by birth, and have ruled over both
countries.
In the succeeding generation, the records of the other
' 2 Chxon. xiv. 9. 2 Ibid. xvi. 8. * Ibid. xiv. 12, 13.
LECT. IV. TRUTH OF THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. Ill
kingdom present us with some points of contact between
the Jewish and the Phoenician annals, in which again wo
have all the agreement that is possible. Ahab, king of
Israel, is represented as having sought to strengthen him-
self in the position which his father had usurped, by a mar-
riage with a foreign princess, and as having made choice
for the purpose of "Jezebel, daughter of Eth-baal, king of
the Zidonians." l Here again not only have we a genuine
Phoenician name, but we have the name of a king, who is
proved by the Tyrian history of Menander to have been
seated upon the throne exactly at this time. Eithobalus,
the priest of Ashteroth (or Venus,) Avho by the murder of
his predecessor, Pheles, became king of Tyre, mounted the
throne just fifty years after the death of Hiram, the con-
temporary of Solomon. C20) Ahab mounted the throne of
Israel fifteen or twenty years later, and was thus the
younger contemporary of Eithobalus, or Eth-baal, who
continued to reign at Tyre during a considerable portion
of Ahab's reign in Israel. The only objection that can be
taken to this identity — which is generally allowed (9I —
turns upon the circumstance that Eth-baal is called in
Scripture, not king of Tyre, but "king of* the Zi<loIlians.,,
Sidon, it is probable, although a dependency of Tyre at this
time, had her own line of kings; and if Eth-baal was one of
these, the coincidence between his name and that of the
reigning Tyrian monarch would be merely accidental, and
the confirmation here sought to be established would fall
to the ground. But the fact seems to be that the Jewish
writers use the term w Zidonians " in two senses, one spe-
cific, ami the other generic, — sometimes intending by it
the inhabitants of Sidon alone, sometimes the Phoenicians
generally. (~) And it is prohibit/ in this latter sense that
1 1 Kings xvi. 31.
112 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OF THE LECT. IV.
the title "king of the Zidonians" is applied to the father
of Jezebel.
Menandcr also related that during the reign of Eth-baal,
which (as we have seen) coincided in a great measure with
that of Ahab in Israel, there was a remarkable drought,
which continued in Phoenicia for the full space of a year, t23)
This drought is fairly connected with the still longer one
in the land of Israel, which Elijah announced to Ahab,1
and which led to the destruction of the priests of Baal
upon Mount Carmel.*
The most remarkable feature in the external history of
Israel during the reign of Ahab, is the war which raged
towards its close between the Israelites and the Syrians of
Damascus. The power and greatness of the Damascene
king, who bears the name of Ben-hadad, are very strikingly
depicted. lie comes against Samaria at the head of no
fewer than thirty-two subject or confederate "kings,"" with
"horses" and with "chariots,"4 and a "great multitude."5
Though defeated with great slaughter on his first attempt,
he is able to bring into the field another army of equal
strength in the ensuing year.6 The exact number of his
troops is not mentioned, but it may be conjectured from
the losses in his second campaign, which are said to have
amounted to one hundred and twenty-seven thousand
men/ Even this enormous slaughter does not paralyze
him: he continues the war for three years longer; and in
the third year fights the battle in which Ahab is slain.8
Now, of this particular struggle we have no positive con-
firmation, owing to the almost total loss of the ancient
Syrian records. (24> But we have, in the cuneiform annals
1 1 Kings xvii. 1. 2 Ibid. chap, xviii. 3 Ibid. xx. 1.
4 Ibid. * Ibid, verse 13. 6 Ibid. xx. 25.
7 Ibid, verses 28 and 29. 8 Ibid. xxii. 1-36.
LECT. IV. TRUTH OF THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 113
of an Assyrian king, a very cuiious and valuable confirma-
tion of the power of Damascus at this time — of its being
under the rule of a monarch named Ben-hadad, who was
at the head of a great confederacy of princes, and who
was able to bring into the field year after year vast armies,
with which he repeatedly engaged the Avhole force of
Assyria. We have accounts of three campaigns between
the Assyrians on the one side, and the Syrians, Ilittites,
Hamathites, and Phoenicians, united under the command
of Ben-hadad, upon the other/25) in which the contest is
maintained with spirit, the armies being of a large size, and
their composition and character such as we find described
in Scripture. (26>
The same record further verifies the historical accuracy
of the Books of Kings by a mention of Hazael as king of
Damascus immediately after Ben-hadad, (2?) ami also by the
synchronism which it establishes between this prince and
Jehu, who is the first Israelite king mentioned by name
on any Inscription hitherto discovered. Jehu appears by
the monument in question to have submitted himself to
the great Assyrian conqueror/28) and it may be suspected
that from this date both the Jewish and the Israelitish
kings held their crowns as fiefs dependent <>n the will
of the Assyrian monarch, with whom it formally lay to
"confirm" each new prince "in his kingdom."1
A break now occurs in the scries of profane notices,
which have extended, without the omission of a genera-
tion, from the time of David to that of Jehu. During the
century which follows on the death of that monarch we
are able to adduce from profane sources no mure than one
or two doubtful illustrations of the Sacred Narrative.
Here, however, it is to be remarked, that the absence of
1 2 Kin^s xiv. 5 ; xv. 11).
10 *
114 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OF THE LECT. I\
profane confirmation is coincident with, and must fairly b
regarded as resulting from, a want of sufficient material^
There is a great dearth of copious Assyrian inscriptions
from the time of the monarch who made Jehu tributary to
that of the Tiglath-Pileser of Scripture. C29) For this time,
too the Tyrian records are an absolute blank, (3°) while the
Egyptian are but little better; and moreover there seems
to have been no political contact between these countries
and Palestine during the period in question. We cannot
therefore be surprised at the deficiency here noted ; nor
would it be right to view it as having the slightest tern,
dency to weaken the force of our previous reasoning.
The Hebrew annals touch no foreign country, of which
we have any records at all, from the time of Jehu to that
of Menahem. In the reign of this latter prince occurs
the first direct mention of Assyria as a power actively
interfering in Palestine, and claiming and exercising
political influence. We are told that in the reign of
Menahem, "Pul, the king of Assyria, came up against
the land ; and Menahem gave Pul a thousand talents of
silver, that his hand might be with him, to confirm the
kingdom in his hand." * There is some difficulty in iden-
tifying the Assyrian monarch here mentioned, who not
only took this large tribute, but (as appears from Chroni-
cles) 2 led a portion of the nation into captivity. In the
Hebrew Scriptures he appears as Pul, or rather Phul ; and
this is also the form of the name which the Armenian
Eu8ebius declares to have been used by Polyhistor, <3!) who
followed Berosus ; but in the Septuagint he is called Pha-
loch, or Phalos, C32) a form of which the Hebrew word
seems to be an abbreviation. The Assyrian records of the
time present us with no name very close to this ; but there
1 2 Kings xv. 19. 2 1 Chron. v. 26=
LECT. IV. TRUTH OF THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 115
is one which has been read variously, as Phal-hiklia, Vid-
lukha, and Iva-lush, wherein it is not improbable that we
may have the actual appellation of the Biblical Phul, or Pha-
loch. The annals of this monarch are scanty ; but in the
most important record which we possess of his reign, there
is a notice of his having taken tribute from Beth-KJaunri,
or Samaria, as well as from Tyre, Sidon, Damascus, Idu-
maea, and Philistia. t33) Neither the name of the Israelitish
king, nor the amount of his tribute, is mentioned in the
Assyrian record ; but the amount of the latter, which may
to many appear excessive, receives illustration, and a cer-
tain degree of confirmation, from a fact which happens to
be recorded on the monument — namely, that the Assyrian
monarch took at this time from the king of Damascus a
tribute considerably greater than that which, according to
the author of Kings, he now exacted from Menahem.
From Menahem he received one thousand talents of silver;
but from the Damascene king the tribute taken was
twenty-three hundred of such talents, together with three
thousand talents of copper, forty of gold, and five thousand
of some other metal. C34)
The expedition of Pul against Menahem is followed by a
series of attacks on the independence of the two kingdoms,
which cause the sacred history to be very closely con-
nected, for the space of about a century, with the annals of
Assyria. The successors of Pul arc presented to us by the
Biblical writers, apparently in a continuous and uninter-
rupted line — Tiglath-Pileser, Shalmaneser, Sargon, Sen-
nacherib, and Esar-haddon, all of them carrying their arms
into Palestine, and playing an important pari in the history
of the favored race. It happens most fortunately (may we.
not say, providentially?) that records of all these monarchs
— the greatest which Assyria produced — have been recov-
216 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OF THE LECT. IV.
evcd ; and these in some cases are sufficiently full to
exhibit a close agreement with the sacred narrative, while
throughout they harmonize with the tenor of that narra-
tive, only in one or two cases so differing from the Hebrew
text as to cause any difficulty. I shall proceed to exhibit
this agreement with the brevity which my limits necessi-
tate, before noticing the confirmation which this portion of
the history derives also from the Egyptian and Babylonian
records.
The chief events related of Tiglath-Pileser in Scripture
are his two invasions of Israel — once when he "took Ijon,
and Abel-beth-maachah, and Janoah, and Kedesh, and
Ilazor, and Gilead, and Galilee, and all the land of Naph-
tali, and earned them captive to Assyria;"1 and again,
when he came at the invitation of Ahaz, and not only chas-
tised Pekah, but " took Damascus, and slew Kezin."2 Of
the first of these two campaigns we have no profane con-
firmation ; but some account of the second is given in an
Assyrian fragment, where Tiglath-Pileser speaks of his
defeating Rezin, and capturing Damascus, and also of his
taking tribute from the king of Samaria. The monarch
indeed from whom he takes the tribute is called Menahem,
instead of Pekah; and this constitutes a discrepancy — the
first that we have found — between the Assyrian and the
Hebrew records : but the probability is that Pekah is
intended, and that the official who composed, or the work-
man who engraved, the Assyrian document made a mis-
take in the name.C3-^
Tiglath-Pileser is also stated in Scripture to have been
visited at Damascus by the Jewish king Ahaz; and the
result of this visit was that Ahaz set up a new altar in the
temple at Jerusalem, according to the pattern of an altar
1 2 Kings xv. 29. 3 Ibid. xvi. 7-9.
LECT. IV. TRUTH OF THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 117
which he had seen at Damascus.1 It has been generally
supposed that this altar was Syrian ; (36> and its establish
ment has been connected with the passage in Chronicles,
where Ahaz is said to have " sacrificed to the gods of
Damascus, which smote him;"2 but few things can be
more improbable than the adoption of the gods of a foreign
nation at the moment when they had been proved powerless.
The strange altar of Ahaz was in all probability not Syrian,
but Assyrian ; and its erection was in accordance with an
Assyrian custom, of which the Inscriptions afford abundant
evidence — the custom of requiring from the subject na-
tions some formal acknowledgment of the gods and wor-
ship of the sovereign country, t37)
The successor of Tiglath-Pileser seems to have been
Shalmaneser — a king, whose military exploits in these
regions were celebrated by Menander in his history of
Tyre. (WJ He appears, from the narrative in Kings, to
have come up twice against Hoshea, the last king of Israel,3
— on the first occasion merely enforcing the tribute which
w:is regarded as due, but on the second proceeding to ex-
tremities, in order to punish Hoshea for contracting an
alliance with Egypt, laying siege to Samaria, and continu-
ing to prosecute the siege for the space of three years. The
records of Shalmaneser have been so mutilated by his suc-
cessors, that they furnish only a very slight confirmation of
this history. The name of Hoshea, however, king of Sama-
ria, is found in an inscription, which has been with reason
assigned to Shalmaneser;^ and though the capture of
Samaria is claimed by his successor, Sargon, as an exploit
of his own in his first year/,0> yet this very claim confirms
the Scriptural account of Shahnaneser's commencing ihe
1 2 Kings xvi. 10-1G. * ? Chron. xxviii. 23.
J 2 Kings xvii. 3 und 5.
118 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OF THE 1,ECT. IV.
siege, which begun three years before the capture;1 and it
is easily brought into harmony with the Scriptural account
of the actual capture, either by supposing that Sargon
claimed the success as falling into his own reign, (which
had then begun at Nineveh,) though Shalmaneser was the
real captor ; or by regarding (as we are entitled to do) the
king of Assyria, who is said to have taken Samaria in the
Book of Kings, as a distinct person from the king who
commenced the siege. (41)
Of Shalmaneser's successor, Sargon, Scripture contains
but one clear historic notice. In the twentieth chapter of
Isaiah, we are told that " in the year that Tartan came unto
Ashdod, (when Sargon, the king of Assyria, sent him,) and
fought against Ashdod, and took it,"[2 certain directions
were given by the Lord to the prophet. It was formerly
supposed that Sargon was another name for one of the
Assyrian monarchs mentioned in the Book of Kings ;(42> but
since the discovery that the king of Assyria, who built the
great palace at Khorsabad, actually bore this appellation,
which continued to attach to its ruins until the Arab con-
quest, (43> it has been generally admitted that we have in
Isaiah a reference to an Assyrian ruler distinct from all
those mentioned in Kings, and identical with the Khorsa-
bad monarch, who was the father of Sennacherib. Now of
this monarch we find it related in his annals that he made
war in Southern Syria, and took Ashdod.W Thus the
sole fact which Scripture distinctly assigns to the reign of
Sargon is confirmed by the native records; which likewise
illustrate the two or three other facts probably intended to
be assigned to him by the sacred writers. Isaiah appar-
ently means Sargon in the fourth verse of his twentieth
chapter, when he prophesies that " the king of Assyria shall
1 2 Kings xvii. 3, 5, and xviii. 9, 10. 2 Isaiah xx. 1.
LECT. IV. TRUTH OF THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 119
lead away the Egyptians prisoners, and the Ethiopians cap-
tives, young and old, naked and barefoot, even with their
buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt." If this be
aliowed, we obtain a second illustration of Sargon's reign
from the monuments ; which represent him as warring with
Egypt, and forcing the Pharaoh of the time to become his
tributary, and which also show that Egypt was at this time
in just that close connection with Ethiopia C45) which the
prophet's expressions indicate.1 Again, if we may presume
that Sargon is intended by the king of Assyria who took
Samaria,2 and carried the Israelites away captive;15 then
there is derivable from the monuments a very curious illus-
tration of the statement of Scripture, that the monarch,
who did this, placed his captives, or at least a portion of
them, "in the cities of the Medes."4 For Sargon seems to
have been the first Assyrian monarch who conquered Me-
dia ; and he expressly relates that, in order to complete its
subjection, he founded there a number of cities, which he
planted with colonists from other portions of his domin-
ions. (4C>
The Assyrian monarch who appears in Scripture as most
probably the successor of Sargon is Sennacherib, whom the
monuments show to have been his son. Two expeditions
of this prince against Hezekiah are related ; and each of
them receives a very striking confirmation from a profane
source. The sacred writers tell us that on the first occa-
sion, Hezekiah having thrown off the allegiance' which the
kings of Judah appear to have paid to Assyria at least from
the time of Ahaz' message to Tiglath-Pileser,fi " Sennache-
rib, king of Assyria, came up against all the fenced cities of
Judaic and took them: and Hezekiah, king <>f Judah, sent
1 Ieaiab xx. 3 and 4. - 2 Kin<js xvii. 0. 3 Ibid, xviii. 11.
* Ibid. 5 Ibid, xvii. 7. * Ibid. xvi. 7.
120 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OF THE LECT. IV.
to the king of Assyria to Lachish, saying, 'I have offended;
return from me : that which thou puttest upon me, I will
bear:' and the king of Assyria appointed unto Hezekiah,
king of Judah, three hundred talents of silver and thirty
talents of gold'."1 The annals of Sennacherib contain a full
account of this campaign. "And because Hezekiah, king
of Judah," says Sennacherib, "Mould not submit to my yoke,
I came up against him, and by force of arms and by the
might of my power I took forty-six of his strong fenced
cities; and of the smaller towns which were scattered
about, I took and plundered a countless number. And
from these places I captured and carried off as spoil two
hundred thousand one hundred and fifty people, old and
young, male and female, together with horses and mares,
asses and camels, oxen and sheep, a countless multitude.
And Hezekiah himself I shut up in Jerusalem, his capital
city, like a bird in a cage, building towers round the city
to hem him in, and raising banks of earth against the gates,
so as to prevent escape. . . . Then upon this Hezekiah there
fell the fear of the power of my arms, and he sent out to
me the chiefs and the elders of Jerusalem with thirty tal-
ents of gold, and eight hundred talents of silver, and divers
treasures, a rich and immense booty. . . . All these things
were brought to me at Nineveh, the seat of my govern-
ment, Hezekiah having sent them byway of tribute, and as
a token of his submission to my power." (47> It is needless to
particularize the points of agreement between these narra-
tives. The only discrepancy is in the amount of the silver
which Sennacherib received ; and here we may easily con-
ceive, either that the Assyrian king has exaggerated, or
that he has counted in a portion of the spoil, while the
1 2 Kings xyiii. 13,. 1}. Compare Isaiah xxxvi. 1, and 2 Chron.
xxxii. 1-8.
LECT. IV. TRUTH OF THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 121
sacred writer has merely mentioned the sum agreed to be
paid as tribute. C48)
The second expedition of Sennacherib into Syria seems
to have followed very shortly upon the first. In neither
case was Judaea the sole, or even the main object of attack.
The real purpose of both expeditions was to weaken Egypt ;
and it was by his Egyptian leanings that Hezekiah had
provoked the anger of his suzerain.1 No collision appears
to have taken place on this second occasion between the
Assyrians and the Jews. Hezekiah was threatened ; but
before the threats could be put in execution, that miracu-
lous destruction of the Assyrian host Mas effected which
forms so striking a feature of this portion of the sacred nar-
rative. " The angel of the Lord went out, and smote in
the camp of the Assyrians" (which was at Libnah on the
borders of Egypt) "a hundred fourscore and five thou-
sand ; and when they arose early in the morning, they
were all dead corpses."2 It has been generally seen and
confessed, that the marvellous account which Herodotus
gives of the discomfiture of Sennacherib by Sethos >49) is
the Egyptian version of this event, which was (naturally
enough) ascribed by that people to the interposition of its
own divinities.
The murder of Sennacherib by two of his sons,'1 though
not mentioned in the Assyrian Inscriptions, (which have
never been found to record the death of a king,) appears to
have been noticed by Berosus; from whom were derived in
all probability the brief allusions to the event which are
met with in the fragments of Alexander Polyhistor and
Abydcnus.C49) The escape of the murderers into Armenia4
is in harmony with what is known of the condition of that
1 2 Kings xvui. 21 ami 24. * Ibid. xix. 35.
3 Ibid, verse 37. 4 Ibid.
11
122 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OF THE LECT. IV.
country at the time; for it appears as an independent state
generally hostile to the Assyrian monarchs, in the cunei-
form records of this period ;(50) and it is further perhaps
worthy of remark, that the Armenian traditions spoke dis-
tinctly of the reception of the two refugees, and of the
tracts respectively assigned to them.C51)
Esarhaddon is distinctly stated in Scripture to have been
the son and successor of Sennacherib.1 As usual, the mon-
uments are in complete accordance. (52> Esarhaddon every
where calls himself the son of Sennacherib ; and there is no
appearance in the native records of any king having inter-
vened between the two.(53-) The events belonging to the
reign of Esarhaddon, which are introduced by the sacred
writers into their narrative, are but few. As his father was
contemporary with Hezekiah, we naturally regard him as
falling into the time of Manasseh ; and it has therefore
been generally felt that he should be the king of Assyria,
whose captains "took Manasseh among the thorns, and
bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon?1 *
The monuments confirm the synchronism which Scripture
implies, by distinctly mentioning "Manasseh, king of
Judah," among the tributaries of Esarhaddon ; <54) and
though no direct confirmation has as yet been found of the
captivity and restoration of the Jewish monarch, yet the
narrative contains an incidental allusion which is in very
remarkable harmony with the native records. One is
greatly surprised at first hearing that the generals of an
Assyrian king, on capturing a rebel, carried him to Baby-
lon instead of Nineveh — one is almost inclined to suspect
a mistake. 'What has a king of Assyria to do with Baby-
lon?' one naturally asks. The reply is, that Esarhaddon,
1 2 Kings xix. 37. Compare Isaiah xxxvii. 38.
8 2 Chron. xxxiii. 11.
LECT. IV. TRUTH OF THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 12o
and he only of all the Assyrian kings, actually was king
of Babylon — that he built a palace, and occasionally
held his court there C55) — and that consequently a captive
was as likely to be brought to him at that city as at the
metropolis of Assyria Proper. Had the narrative fallen
under the reign of any other Assyrian monarch, this ex-
planation could not have been given ; and the difficulty
would have been considerable. Occurring where it does, it
furnishes no difficulty at all, but is one of those small points
of incidental agreement which are more satisfactory to a
candid mind than even a very large amount of harmony in
the main narrative.
With Esarhaddon the notices of Assyria in the sacred
history come to an end. Assyria herself shortly afterwards
disappears^56) and her place is taken by Babylon, which
now for the first time becomes a great conquering power.
This transfer of empire is abundantly confirmed by profane
authorities ; (5~) but, as the historical character of the Bibli-
cal narrative in this respect has always been allowed, it is
unnecessary in this place to dwell upon it. I proceed to
consider the agreement between the sacred narrative and
the native Egyptian and Babylonian records during the
later times of the Hebrew monarchy.
Egyptian and Jewish history touch at four points during
this period. Hoshea, the contemporary of Shalmaneser,
makes a treaty with So, king of Egypt,' shortly before the
capture of Samaria, or about the year B.C. 7*2;"). Sennache-
rib, not very long afterwards, on attacking the depend-
encies of Egypt, learns that Tirhakah, king of the Ethio-
pians, is gathering together an army to oppose him.'' Nearly
a century later, Pharaoh-Necho invades .Iinhea, defeats
and kills the Jewish king Josiah, presses forward to the
1 2 Kings xvii. 4. * Ibid. xix. 9.
124 . HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OF THE LECT. IV.
Euphrates, takes Carchemish and Jerusalem, leads Jehoa-
liaz the son of Josiah into captivity, and establishes his
dominion over the whole of Syria ; but is shortly afterwards
defeated by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and dispos-
sessed of all his conquests.1 Finally, about twenty years
after this, Pharaoh-IIophra is spoken of as encouraging the
Jews to resist Nebuchadnezzar, and threatened with the
wrath of that monarch, into whose hands it is Baid he will
be delivered.2
Here, then, within about one hundred and forty years,
we have the names of four kings of Egypt, one of Avhom is
also the sovereign of Cush or Ethiopia. Let us see whether
the Egyptian annals recognize the monarchs thus brought
under our notice.
Neither Manetho nor the monuments present us with
any name which at all closely resembles the word " So."
If, however, we look to the Hebrew literation of that name,
we shall find that the word is written with three letters,
which may be (and probably are) all consonants. They
may be .read as S, V, II ; and the name of the monarch
thus designated may most properly be regarded as Se-
vehA58) Now a king of the name of Sevech, or Seveehus,
appears in the proper place in Manetho's lists; and the
monuments show that two monarchs, (who seem to have
been a father and a son,) Shebek I. and Shebek II., ruled
Egypt about this period. (59) The former of the two is
familiar to us under the name (which Herodotus assigns to
him) of Sabaco ; C60) and it is probably this prince of whom
the Hebrew writer speaks. The fact that he came into
contact with Assyria is confirmed by the discovery of his
seal at Koyunjik ; it had probably been affixed to a treaty
1 2 Kings xxiii. 29-35 ; xxiv. 7. Compare 2 Chron. xxxv. 20.
2 Jerem. xliv. 30 ; xlvi. 13-26. *
LECT. IV. TRUTH OF THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 125
which, in consequence of his machinations, he had been
forced to make with the triumphant Assyrian monarch. (61)
Tirhakah, who appears as king of the Ethiopians, yet at
the same time as protector of Egypt, in the second Book of
Kings, is manifestly the Tarcus or Taracus of Manetho, (°2)
the Tearchon of Strabo,^) and the Tehrak of the monu-
ments. (M) He succeeded the second tihebtk, and is proved
by his remains to have been king of both countries, but to
have held his court in Ethiopia.
In the Pharaoh-Necho of Kings and Jeremiah,1 it is im-
possible not to recognize the famous Egyptian monarch
whom Manetho calls Nechao,'65) Herodotus Neco/66) and
the monuments N^eku^1^ the son and successor of the first
Psammetichus. The invasion of Syria by this prince, and
his defeat of the Syrians in a great battle, are attested by
Herodotus ; who only commits a slight and very venial
error, when he makes Magdolum instead of Megiddo the
scene of the encounter. C08) It has been usual to regard
Herodotus as also confirming the capture of Jerusalem by
Necho;(69> but too much uncertainty attaches to the pre-
sumed identity of Cadytis with the Jewish capital, to make
it wise that much stress should be laid on this imagined
agreement. (70> We may with more confidence appeal for
a confirmation of this fact, and of the captivity of Jehoahaz,
to the fragments of Manetho, who is reported both by Afri-
can us and by Eusebius to have mentioned these Egyptian
successes.'71)
Not less certain and unmistakable is the identity of the
Scriptural Pharaoh-Hophra with Manetho's ITaphris, Herod-
otus1 s Apries, and the monumental llaifm-hct or Hai-
fra.O-'> Egyptian chronology makes this prince contempo-
rary with Nebuchadnezzar ;<73) and if we may trust the
1 Jerem. xlvi. 2-12.
11*
126 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OP THE L.ECT. IV.
•abstracts which Eusebius and Africanus profess to give ol
Manetho, that writer mentioned the flight of the Jews into
Egypt upon the destruction of their city, and their recep-
tion by Uaphris or Hophra.C74) The miserable end of
Hophra, predicted by Jeremiah, is related from Egyptian
traditions by Herodotus ; and though it may be doubted
whether his account of the occurrence is in its minuter cir-
cumstances altogether correct^75) yet at any rate the facts
of the deposition and execution of the Egyptian king must
be accepted on his testimony ; and these are the facts which
especially illustrate the statements of Scripture.
Babylonian and JeAvish history come into contact only
at two points in the period under consideration. We are
told that in the reign of Hezekiah, Merodach-Baladan, king
of Babylon, sent letters and a present to that prince, partly
because he had heard that he was sick,1 partly because he
wished to inquire concerning the wonder that had been
done in the land,2 when the shadow went back ten degrees
on the dial of Ahaz. The name of Merodach-Baladan does
not at first sight appear to be contained in the authentic
list of Babylonian kings preserved to us in Ptolemy. But
it is probable that the king in question does really occur in
that list under the appellation of Mardoc-empad, or Mardoc-
empal;(76) and there is abundant evidence from the inscrip-
tions, not only of the existence of such a monarch, but of
his having been contemporary with the Jewish king in
whose reign his embassy is placed. (7~) The fact of the em-
bassy— which seems improbable if we only know the gen-
eral condition of Babylon at the period to have been one of
subjection to Assyria — becomes highly probable when we
learn — both from Berosus(78> and the monuments^ —
that there was a fierce and bitter hostility between Mero-
1 2 Kings xx. 12. 2 2 Chron. xxxii. 31.
LECT. IV. TRUTH OF THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 127
dach-Baladan and the Assyrian monarchs, from whose op-
pressive yoke he more than once freed .his country. The
ostensible motive of the embassy — to inquire about an
astronomical marvel — is also highly probable in the case of
a country where astronomy held so high a rank, where the
temples were observatories, and the religion was to a great
extent astral. C80)
About a century later, Babylon is found in the Scripture
history to have succeeded to the position and influence of
Assyria over Palestine, and we have a brief relation, in
Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Kings, of several campaigns con-
ducted by Nebuchadnezzar in these regions. Profane ac-
counts are in accordance. The reconquest of Syria and
Palestine from Necho by Nebuchadnezzar, which is men-
tioned by Jeremiah,1 and glanced at in Kings,2 was related
at length by Berosus ;<81) his prolonged siege of Tyre, which
is spoken of by Ezekiel,8 was attested by the Tyrian his-
torians, who said that it lasted thirteen years ; C82? while his
destruction of the temple at Jerusalem, and his deportation
of vast bodies of Jewish captives, were noticed by the na-
tive historian, who said that the captives were settled in
convenient places in Babylonia. (83> As the rest of the acts
of Nebuchadnezzar fall into our next period, the present
review here comes to an end, and we may now close this
portion of the inquiry with a brief summary of the evidence
adduced in the course of it.
The period with which we have been dealing is one of
comparative light. We possess, it is true, no continuous
history of it besides that which the Sacred Volume fur-
nishes; but we have abstracts of the writings of Berosus
and Manetho, which contained the annals of Egypt and of
Babylon during the space; we have considerable fragments
1 Jcrcra. xlvi. 1-12. * 2 Kin^s xxiv. 7. 3 Ezck. x.vix. 18.
128 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OF THE LECT. IV.
of the Tyrian histories of the time ; and in the latter por-
tion of it we begin to Cnjoy the advantage of those investi-
gations which the inquisitive Greeks pushed into the anti-
quities of all the nations wherewith they became acquainted.
Above all we possess the contemporary records — often in
a very copious form — of all the great Assyrian monarchs
whose reigns fell within the period in question, Avhile we
derive likewise a certain amount of information from the
monuments of Egypt. All these sources have been exam-
ined, and all have combined to confirm and illustrate the
Scriptm-al narrative at almost every point where it was
possible — or at any rate where it was probable — that they
would have a bearing upon it. The result is a general con-
firmation of the entire body of leading facts — minute con-
firmation occasionally — and a complete absence of any
tiling that can be reasonably viewed as serious discrepancy.
A few difficulties — chiefly chronological C84) — meet us; but
they are fewer in proportion than are found in the profane
history of almost any remote period ; and the faith must be
weak indeed to which they prove a stumbling-block. Gen-
erally, throughout this whole period, there is that " admira-
ble agreement^' which Nicbuhr observes upon towards its
close, (85) between the profane records and the accounts of
Scripture. "We have not for the most part by any labored
efforts to harmonize the two — their accord is patent and
striking; and is sufficiently exhibited by a mere juxtaposi-
tion of passages. The monarchs themselves, the order of
their names, their relationship where it is indicated, their
actions so far as they come under notice, are the same in
both the Jewish and the native histories; which present
likewise, here as elsewhere, numerous points of agreement,
connected with the geography, religion, and customs of the
various nations. C86) As discovery proceeds, these points of
LECT. IV. TRUTH OF THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 120
agreement are multiplied ; obscurities clear up ; difficulties
are solved ; doubts vanish. It is only where profane rec-
ords are wanting or scanty, that the Sacred Narrative is
unconfirmed and rests solely upon its own basis. Perhaps
a time may come when through the recovery of the com-
plete annals of Egypt, Assyria, and Babylon, we may obtain
for the whole of the Sacred History that sort of illustration,
which is now confined to certain portions of it. God, who
disposes all things "after the counsel of his own will,"1 and
who has given to the present age such treasures of long
buried knowledge, may have yet greater things in store for
us, to be brought to light at His own good time. When
the voice of men grows faint and feeble, then the very
"stones" are made to "cry out."2 "Blessed be the name
of God forever and ever; for wisdom and might are his. . . .
lie revealeth the deep and secret things : lie knoweth what
is in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with Him."3
1 Eph. i. 11. « Luke xix. 40. 3 Dan. ii. 20, 22.
LECTURE V.
BY THE RIVERS OF BAEYLON, THERE WE SAT DOWN, YEA, WE WEPT,
WHEN WE REMEMBERED ZION. WE HANGED OUR HARPS UPON THE
WILLOWS IN THE MIDST THEREOF. FOR THEY THAT CARRIED US
AWAY CAPTIVE REQUIRED OF US A SONG: AND THEY THAT WASTED
US REQUIRED OF US MIRTH, SAYING, " SING US ONE OF THE SOXGS
OF ZION." HOW SHALL WE SING THE LORD'S SONG IN A STRANGE
LAND? — PSALM CXXXVII. 1—4.
We are brought now by the course of our inquiry to the
fourth and closing period of the Old Testament History —
a period which subdivides itself into two portions offering
a marked contrast to each other, the time of the Captivity,
or servitude in Babylon, and the time of the Return, or
gradual reestablishment of the Jews in their own country.
From the direct historical writings of the chosen people
the former time is omitted. The harp of the Historic
Muse refuses to sound during this sad season ; and it
would form a blank in the Hebrew annals, did we not pos-
sess in the writings of one of the Prophets a personal nar-
rative, which to some extent fills up the gap left between
Kings and Ezra. Conformably with a custom which we
find also in Isaiah and Jeremiah, Daniel combines history
with prophecy, uniting in a single hook the visions where-
with he was favored and an account of various remarkable
events which he witnessed. He does not, however, con-
fine himself strictly to the precedent which those writers
had set him ; but, as if aware that on him had devolved the
(133)
LECT. V. TRUTH OF THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 131
double office of Prophet and Historian, and that future ages
would learn the circumstances of this period from his pen
only, he gives to the historical element in his work a
marked and very unusual prominence. Hence we are still
able to continue through the period in question the com-
parison (in which Ave have been so long engaged) between
the History of the Jews as delivered by their own writers,
and the records of those nations with which they came in
contact.
If the book of Daniel be a genuine work, the narrative
which it contains must possess the highest degree of his-
torical credibility. The writer claims to be a most compe-
tent witness. He represents himself as having lived at
Babylon during the whole duration of the Captivity, and
as having filled situations of the highest trust and im-
portance under the Babylonian and Medo-Persic monarchs.
Those who have sought to discredit the Hook, uniformly
maintain that it is spurious, having been composed by
an uninspired writer, who falsely assumed the name <>f
an ancient prophet, 0) — or, according to some, of a mythic
personage, (2) — but who lived really under Antiochus
Epiphanes. The supposed proof of this last assertion
is the minuteness and accuracy of the predictions, which
tally so exactly with the known course of history, that it is
said they must have been written after the events had hap-
pened. This objection, which was first made in the third
century of our era by the heathen writer Porphyry, n has
been revived in modern times, and is become the favorite
argument of the Rationalists, <4> with whom Prophecy
means nothing but that natural foresight whereby the con-
sequences of present facts and circumstances arc antici-
pated by the prudent and sagacious. I shall not stop at
this time to examine an argument which can only persuade
132 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OF THE LECT. V.
those who disbelieve in the prophetic gift altogether. (5*
Suffice it to observe, that the book of Daniel, like the
books of Ezra and Jeremiah, is written partly in Hebrew
and partly in Chaldee, which peculiarity may fairly be said
to h'x its date to the time of the Captivity : (0) and that it
was translated into Greek in the reign of Ptolemy Phila-
delphus, more than seventy years before the accession of
Epiphanes. (7) There is therefore every reason to believe
that it belongs to the age in which it professes to have
been composed ; while no sufficient ground has been shown
for doubting that its writer was the Daniel whose history
it records*8) — the prince,^ — whose extraordinary piety
and wisdom were commended by his contemporary, Eze-
kiel.1 0°)
The authenticity of the narrative has been denied on
the ground that ft is irreconcilable with what we know of
profane history. According to De Wette, the book of
Daniel is full of "historical inaccuracies, such as are con-
tained in no other prophetical book of the Old Testa-
ment." (n> These pretended inaccuracies will best be con-
sidered in connection with that general comparison of the
sacred narrative with the profane records of the period
in question, on which (in pursuance of the plan uni-
formly adopted throughout these Lectures) we have now
to enter.
The fundamental fact of the time — the Captivity itself
— is allowed on all hands to admit of no reasonable doubt.
Not only do we find, from the monuments of the Assyrian
kings (I2) and the subsequent history of Persia,*13) that such
transfers of whole populations were common in the East
in Ancient times; but Ave have the direct evidence of
Josephus to the fact, that Berosus mentioned the carrying
1 Ezck, xiv. 14 and 20 xxviii. 3.
LECT V. TRUTH OF THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 133
off of the Jews by Nebuchadnezzar and their settlement in
parts of Babylonia. (14) Profane evidence, however, on this
point is unnecessary ; since it cannot be thought that any
people would have invented a tale with regard to them-
selves which redounded so little to their credit, and
from which it was impossible that they could gain any
advantage.
The character of Nebuchadnezzar, the length of his
reign, and the fact of his having uttered prophecies, are
points in which there is a remarkable agreement between
the sacred record and profane authorities. The splendor
and magnificence which this prince displayed, his military
successes, his devotion to his gods, and the pride which he
took in adorning Babylon with great buildings, are noted by
Berosus and Abydenus ; (15> the latter of whom has a most
curious passage, for the preservation of which we are in-
debted to Eusebius, on the subject of his having been
gifted with prophetic powers. "The Chaldoeans relate,"
says Abydenus, "that, after this, Nebuchadnezzar went ii]>
to his palace, and being seized with a divine afflatus,
prophesied to the Babylonians the destruction of their city
by the Medes and Persians, after which he suddenly dis-
appeared from among them." (I(n The details are incorrect ;
but it is at least remarkable that the particular prince, who
alone, of all the heathen monarchs with whom the Jews
were brought into contact, is said in Scripture to have had
the future made known to him by God,1 is also the only
one of those persons who is declared to have had the pro-
phetic gift by a profane writer.
The length of Nebuchadnezzar's reign is stated without
any variety by Berosus, Polyhistor, and Ptolemy, (,7> at
forty-three years. The Babylonian monuments go near to
1 Dan. ii. 28-9.
12
134 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OF THE LECT. V.
prove the same ; for the forty-second year of Nebuchad-
nezzar has been found on a clay tablet. ^18) Here Scripture
is in exact accordance ; for as the first year of Evil-Mero-
dach, the son and successor of Nebuchadnezzar, is the
thirty-seventh of the captivity of Jehoiachin,1 who was
taken to Babylon in Nebuchadnezzar's eighth year,2 it is
evident that just forty-three years are required for the
reign of the great Chaldsean monarch. (19) This agreement,
moreover, is incidental ; for Evil-Merodach is not said in
Scripture to have been the successor of Nebuchadnezzar :
we only know tliis fact from profane sources.
It has been maintained that the book of Daniel misrep-
resents the condition of Babylonia under Nebuchad-
nezzar ; (20) the points to which objection is especially
taken being the account given of the Babylonian wise men,
the admission of Daniel among them, and the apparent
reference to something like a satrapial organization of the
empire. (2]) With respect to the first point, it would really
be far more reasonable to adduce the descriptions in ques-
tion as proof of the intimate knowledge which the writer
possessed of the condition of learning among the Baby-
lonians, than to bring them forward as indications of his
ignorance. The wise men are designated primarily by a
word which exactly suits the condition of literature in the
time and country — a word derived from the root cheret,
which means "a graving tool," exactly the instrument
wherewith a Babylonian ordinarily wrote, t22) They are
also termed Chasdim or Chaldaeans, whereby a knowledge
is shown beyond that of the earlier prophets — a knowledge
of the fact that the term " Chaldaean " was not properly
applied to the whole nation, but only to a learned caste o>
1 2 Kings xxv. 27 ; Jer. lii. 31.
* 2 Kings xxiv. 12. Compare Jer. xxv. 1.
LECT. V. TRUTH OF THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 135
class, the possessors of the old wisdom, which was written
in the Chaldaean tongue. C23)
The objection raised to the admission of Daniel among
the " wise men," is based on the mistaken notion that they
were especially a priestly caste, presiding over the national
religion; whereas the truth seems to be that they were a
learned class, including the priests, but not identical with
them, and corresponding rather to the graduates of a uni-
versity than to the clergy of an establishment. (-') Into
such a class foreigners, and those of a different religion,
might readily be admitted.
With respect to what has been called the "satrapial
organization " of the empire under Nebuchadnezzar,1 (and
again under Darius the Mede,2) it is to be observed in the
first place, that nothing like a general organization of the
kind is asserted. We are told of certain "rulers of prov-
inces," who were summoned to worship the golden image
set up in the plain of Dura;' and we find thai Judaea
itself, after the revolt of Zedekiah, was placed under a
"governor."4 But the latter case was exceptional, being
consequent upon the frequent rebellions of the. Jewish peo-
ple: and in the former we are probably to understand the
chiefs of districts in the immediate vicinity oi* Babylonia,
who alone would be summoned on such an occasion — not
the rulers of all the conquered nations throughout the
empire. Further, we must remark, that the system of
Babylonian administration is but very little known to us;
and that it may (<> some extent hurt* been satrapial.
Berosus, at any rate, speaks expressly of "the Satrap ap-
pointed by Xabopolassar to govern Phoenicia, Cade-Syria,
and Egypt; "(^ and it is not impossible that Darius
1 Dan. iii. 2, &c. * Ibid. vi. 1, &c. 3 Ibid, in 1,2.
* 2 Kings xxv. 22. Compare Jlt. xl. ami xli.
13G HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OF THE LECT. V.
Hystaspis, who is usually regarded as the inventor of the
system, may have merely enlarged a practice begun by the
Babylonians. (2,i)
There is thus no ground for the assertion that the
general condition of Babylonia under Nebuchadnezzar is
incorrectly represented in the book of Daniel. Daniel's
representation agrees sufficiently with the little that we
know of Babylon at this time from any authentic
source, C27) and has an internal harmony and consistency
which is very striking. We may therefore resume our
comparison of the particulars of the civil history, as it is
delivered by the sacred writers, and as it lias come down to
us from the Babylonians themselves.
Berosus appears to have kept silence on the subject of
Nebuchadnezzar's mysterious malady. I cannot think, with
Hengstenberg, t28) that either he or Abydenus intended
any allusion to this remarkable fact in the accounts which
they furnished of his decease. It was not to be expected
that the native writer woidd tarnish the glory of his
country's greatest monarch by any mention of an affliction
which was of so strange and debasing a character. Nor is
it at all certain that he would be aware of it. As Nebu-
chadnezzar outlived his affliction, and was again "estab-
lished in his kingdom," l all monuments belonging to the
time of his malady would have been subject to his own re-
vision ; and if any record of it was allowed to descend to
posterity, care would have been taken that the truth was
not made too plain, by couching the record in sufficiently
ambiguous phraseology. Berosus may have read, without
fully understanding it, a document which has descended to
modern times, in a tolerably complete condition, and which
seems to oqn^ain, an allusion to the fact that the great king
1 Dan. iy. 3(j.
LKCT. V. TRUTH OF THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 137
was for a time incapacitated for the discharge of the royal
functions. In the inscription known as the " Standard
Inscription " of Nebuchadnezzar, the monarch himself re-
lates, that during some considerable time — four years ap-
parently— all his great works were at a stand — "he did
not build high places — he did not lay up treasures — he
did not sing the praises of his Lord, Merodach — he did
not offer him sacrifice — he did not keep up the works of
irrigation." C29) The cause of this suspension, at once of
religious worship and of works of utility, is stated in the
document in phrases of such obscurity as to be unintelligi-
ble ; until therefore a better explanation is offered, it can-
not but be regarded as at least highly probable, that the
passage in question contains the royal version of that
remarkable story with which Daniel concludes his notice
of the great Chaldasan sovereign.
For the space of time intervening between the recovery
of Nebuchadnezzar from his affliction and the conquest of
Babylon by the Medo-Persians, whicll was a period of
about a quarter of a century, the Biblical narrative sup-
plies us with but a single fact — the release from prison
of Jehoiachin by Evil-Merodach in the year that lie as-
cended the throne of his father. It has been already re-
marked that the native historian agreed exactly in the
name of this prince and the year of his accession ; lie
added, (what Scripture does not expressly state,) that
Evil-Merodach was Nebuchadnezzar's son. (:t0) With re-
gard to the character of this monarch, there seems at first
sight to be a contrast between the account of Berostis and
the slight indications which the Scripture narrative fur-
nishes. Berosus taxes Evil-Merodach with intemperance
and lawlessness ; (:tl' Scripture relates that he hail com-
passion on Jehoiachin, released him from prison, and
12*
138 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OF THE LECT. V.
" spake kindly unto him " ' — allowed him the rank of king
once more, and made him a constant guest at his table,
thus treating him with honor and tenderness during the
short remainder of his life. Perhaps to the Babylonians
such a reversal of the policy pursued by their great mon-
arch appeared to be mere reckless "lawlessness;" and Evil-
Merodach may have been deposed, in part at least, because
of his departure from the received practice of the Babylo-
nians with respect to rebel princes.
The successor of this unfortunate king was his brother-
in-law, Neriglissar; who, although not mentioned in Scrip-
ture as a monarch, has been recognized among the "princes
of the king of Babylon"2 by whom Nebuchadnezzar was
accompanied in his last siege of Jerusalem. A name there
given, Nergal-shar-ezar, corresponds letter for letter with
that of a king whose remains are found on the site of Baby-
lon, t32' and who is reasonably identified with the Neriglissar
of Berosus and the Nerigassolassnr of Ptolemy's Canon.
Moreover, the title of "Rab-Mag," which this personage
bears in Jeremiah, is found attached to the name of the
Babylonian monarch in his brick legends (33) — a coin-
cidence of that minute and exact kiud which is one of the
surest indications of authentic history.
Of the son of Neriglissar, who was a mere child, and
reigned but a few months, Scripture certainly contains no
trace. Whether his successor, the last native king of the
Canon, whose name is there given as Nabonadius, and
who appears elsewhere as Nabannidochus, Nabonnedus,
or Labynetus C34) — whether this monarch has a place in
the Scriptural narrative or no, has long been a matter of
dispute among the learned. That there is no name in the
least resembling Nabonadius in the Bible, is granted. But
1 2 Kings xxv. 28. 2 Jerem. xxxix. 3 and 13.
LECT. V. TRUTH OP THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 139
it has been by many supposed that that prince must be
identical with Daniel's Belshazzar C30) — the last native
ruler mentioned in Scripture. The great diversity, how-
ever, of the two names, coupled with the fact that in every
other case of a Semitic monarch — whether Assyrian or
Babylonian — the Hebrew representative is a near expres-
sion of the vernacular term, has always made this theory
unsatisfactory ; and Rationalists, finding no better explana-
tion than this of the acknowledged difficulty, C36) have been
emboldened to declare that Daniel's account of Belshazzar
is a pure invention of his own, that it contradicts Berosus,
and is an unmistakable indication of the unhistorical char-
acter which attaches to the entire narrative. (37> It was
difficult to meet the arguments of these objectors in former
times. Not only could they point to the want of confir-
mation by any profane writer of the name Belshazzar, but
they could urge further "contradictions." Berosus, they
could say, made the last Babylonian monarch absent from
the city at the time of its capture by the Persians. He
spoke of him as taken prisoner afterwards at Borsippa, and
as then not slain, but treated with much kindness by
Cyrus. Thus the two narratives of the fall of Bahylon
appeared to be wholly irreconcilable, and some were
driven to suppose two falls of Babylon, to escape the seem-
ing contrariety. C38) But out of all this confusion and
uncertainty a very small and simple discovery, made a tc\v
years since, has educed order and harmony in a very
remarkable way. It is found that Nabonadius, the last
king of the Canon, associated with him on the throne
during the later years of his reign his son, liil-shnr-uzur,
and allowed him the royal title. ^ There can be little
doubt that it was this prince who conducted the defence
of Bahylon, and was slain in the massacre which followed
1-10 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OF THE L.ECT. V.
upon the capture; while his father, Who was at the time
in Borsippa, surrendered, and experienced the clemency
which was generally shown to fallen kings by the Persians.
If it he still objected that Belshazzar is, in Scripture,
not the son of Nahonadius, but of Nebuchadnezzar,1 and
of the Nebuchadnezzar who carried off the sacred vessels
from Babylon,2 it is enough to reply, first, that the word
" son " is used in Scripture not only in its proper sense,
but also as equivalent to " grandson," or indeed any
descendant ; (4°) and secondly, that JBilshar-uztcr (or Bel-
shazzar) may easily have been Nebuchadnezzar's grandson,
since his father may upon his accession have married a
daughter of Nebuchadnezzar, and Belshazzar may have
been the issue of this marriage. (Al> A usurper in those
days commonly sought to strengthen himself in the gov-
ernment by an alliance with some princess of the house, or
branch, which he dispossessed.
There still remains one historical difficulty in the book
of Daniel, which modem research has not yet solved, but
of which Time, the great discoverer, will perhaps one day
bring the solution. We can only at present indulge in
conjectures concerning "Darius the Mede," who "took the
kingdom" after Belshazzar was slain.3 He has been identi-
fied with As.tyages,^43) with Cyaxares, a supposed son of
Astyages, C43) with Neriglissar/44) and with Nabonadius ; (45>
but each of these suppositions has its difficulties, and per-
haps it is the most probable view that he was a viceroy set
up by Cynis, of whom there is at present no trace in pro-
fane history. (1G)
The fact of the sudden and unexpected capture of Baby-
lon by a Medo-Persic army during the celebration of a
festival, and of the consequent absorption of the Babylo
1 Dan. v. 11, 18, &c. * Ibid, verse 2. 3 Ibid. v. 31.
LECT. V TRUTH OP THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 141
nian into the Medo-^Persic Empire, is one of those mani-
fest points of agreement between Scripture and profane
authors (4~) which speak for themselves, and on which all
comment would be superfluous. The administration of
the realm after the conquest by "the law of the Modes and
Persians which altereth not," ' is at once illustrative of that
unity of the two great Arian races which all ancient his-
tory attests, (48) and in harmony with that superiority of law
to the king's caprice, which seems to have distinguished the
Persian from most Oriental despotisms. <49) With respect
to the "satrapial organization of the Empire," which is
again detected in Daniel's account of the reign of Darius
the Mede/50) and which is supposed to have been trans-
ferred to this time from the reign of Darius Hystaspis by
an anachronism, it may be observed, that the "one hundred
and twenty princes" which "it pleased Darius to set over
the kingdom,"2 are not the satraps, perhaps not even pro-
vincial governors at all, but rather a body of councillors
resident in or near the capital, and accustomed to meet
together,3 to advise the monarch. It is a mistake to sup-
pose that Darius the Mede, like the Ahasuerus of Esther,
with whom he has been compared,^'1) rules over the East
generally. He "was made king over tht realm of (he
ChcUdceam"* — that is, he received from Cyrus, the true
conqueror of Babylon, the kingdom of Babylonia Proper,
which he held as a fief under the Medo-Persic Empire.
The one hundred and twenty princes are either his council,
or at the most provincial governors in the comparatively
small kingdom of Babylon; and the coincidence (if such it.
is to be considered) between their number and th.it of the
one hundred and twenty-seven provinces of Ahasuerus,
1 Dan. vi. S. ' Uriel, verse 1.
3 Ibid, verses 4-6. 4 Ibid. ix. 1.
142 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OF THE LECT. V.
extending from Ethiopia to India,1 is purely accidental.
There is no question here of the administration of an
Empire, but only of the internal regulations of a single
province.
We have now reached the time when the Captivity of
Judah approached its close. "In the first year of Darius,
the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes," - Daniel,
who naturally counted the Captivity from the time when
he was himself carried off from Jerusalem,'5 perceiving that
the period fixed by Jeremiah for the restoration of the
Jews to their own land approached, " set his face to seek
by prayer and supplications, with fastings, and sackeloth,
and ashes," * that God would " turn away his fury and
anger from Jerusalem," 5 and " cause his face to shine upon
his sanctuary," c and " do, and defer not." "' It is evident
therefore that, according to the calculations of Daniel, a
space little short of seventy years had elapsed from the
capture of Jerusalem in the reign of Jehoiakim to the first
year of Darius the Mede. The close agreement of this
chronology with the Babylonian is very remarkable. It
can be clearly shown from a comparison of Berosus with
Ptolemy's Canon, that, according to the reckoning of the
Babylonians, the time between Nebuchadnezzar's first con-
quest of Judasa in the reign of Jehoiakim, and the year
following the fall of Babylon, when Daniel made his
prayer, was sixty-eight years, (52> or two years only short of
the seventy which had been fixed by Jeremiah as the dura-
tion of the Captivity.
Attempts have been made to prove a still more exact
agreement ; ^ but they are unnecessary. Approximate
1 Esther i. 1. a Dan. ix. 1. 3 Ibid. i. 1.
4 Ibid. ix. 3. 5 Ibid, verse 16. 6 Ibid, verse 17.
' Dan. ix. 19.
LECT. V. TRUTH OP THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 143
coincidence is the utmost that we have any right to expect
between the early chronologies of different nations, whose
methods of reckoning are in most cases somewhat differ-
ent ; and in the present instance the term of seventy years,
being primarily a prophetic and not an historic number, is
perhaps not intended to be exact and definite. (54>
The restoration of the Jews to their own land, and their
fortunes till the reform of Nehemiah, are related to us in
the three historical books of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther;
and receive illustration from the prophecies of Zechariah,
Haggai, and Malachi. The generally authentic character
of the books of Ezra and Nehemiah has never been ques-
tioned. They disarm the Rationalist by the absence from
them of any miraculous, or even any very marvellous
features; and the humble and subdued tone in which they
are written, the weakness and subjection which they con-
fess, mark in the strongest possible way the honesty and
good faith of their composers. Under these circumstances
the question of their genuineness becomes one of minor
importance. If the relations are allowed to be true, it is of
little consequence who was their author. I sec, however,
no reason to doubt that in the main the two books are the
works of the individuals whose names they bear in the
Septuagint and in our own Version. That some portions
of the book of Ezra were written by Ezra, and that Nehe-
miah wrote the greater part of the book of Xehemiah, is
allowed even by I)e Wette ; who has not (I think) shown
sufficient, ground for questioning the integrity of either
composition/55^ unless in respect of a single passage. The
genealogy of the high priests in the twelfth chapter of
Nehemiah1 is a later addition to the book, which cannot
have been inserted into it before the time of Alexander. •'' >
1 Verses 10 to 22.
144 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OP THE LECT. V.
It stands to the rest of Nehemiah as the genealogy of the
Dukes of Edom ! stands to Genesis, or that of the descend-
ants of Jechoniah 2 to the rest of Chronicles. (57) But apart
from this passage there is nothing in Nehemiah which may
not have been written by the cupbearer of Artaxerxes
Longimanus; while in Ezra there is absolutely nothing at
all which may not easily have proceeded from the pen of
the "ready scribe" who was in favor with the same mon-
arch. It is objected that the book sometimes speaks
of Ezra in the third, sometimes in the first person ;
and concluded from this fact that he did not write the
parts in which the third person is used. (58) But the
examples of Daniel (5°) and Thucydides t00) are sufficient
to show that an author may change from the one person to
the other even more than once in the course of a work ;
and the case of Daniel is especially in point, as indicating
the practice of the period. The same irregularity (it may
be remarked) occurs in the Persian inscriptions. <61) It be-
longs to the simplicity of rude times, and has its parallel in
the similar practice found even now in the letters of unedu-
cated persons.
If then the books of Ezra and Nehemiah are rightly re-
garded as the works of those personages, they will possess
the same high degree of historical credibility as the later
portions of the Pentateuch. Ezra and Nehemiah were
chief men in their nation — the one being the ecclesiastical,
the other the civil head ; and they wrote the national his-
tory of their own time, for which they are the most com-
petent witnesses that could possibly have come forward.
Ezra, moreover, resembles Moses in another respect ; he
not only gives an account of his own dealings with the
Jewish people, but prefaces that account by a sketch of
1 Gen. xxxvi. 31-43. * 1 Cnron. iii. 17-24.
LECT. V. TRUTH OP THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 145
their history during a period with which he was personally
unacquainted. As this period does not extend farther
hack than about eighty years from the time when he took
the direction of affairs at Jerusalem, (62) and as the facts
recorded are of high national importance, they would de-
serve to be accepted on his testimony, even supposing that
he obtained them from mere oral tradition, according to
the Canons of historical credibility which have been laid
down in the first Lecture. C63) Ezra's sketch, however, (as
many commentators have seen,) bears traces of having
been drawn up from contemporary documents ; (G4> and we
may safely conclude, that the practice of " noting down
public annals," which we have seen reason to regard as a
part of the prophetic office under the Kings, (|i;') was re-
vived on the return from the Captivity, when Haggai and
Zechariah may probably have discharged the duty which at
an earlier period had been undertaken by Jeremiah and
Isaiah.
While the historical authority of the books of Ezra and
Nehemiah is recognized almost universally, that of Esther
is impugned by a great variety of writers. Niebuhr's re-
jection of this book has been already noticed. (f,c> Dc
Wette regards it as "consisting of a string of historical
difficulties and improbabilities, and as containing a number
of errors in regard to Persian customs."' (°~) CEder, Mi-
chaelis, Corrodi, Bertholdt, and others, throw more or less
doubt upon its authenticity. C68' The Jews, however, have
always looked upon it, not only as a true and authentic
history, but as a book deserving of special honor ;(fi!,) and
it seems impossible to account for its introduction into
their Canon on any other ground than that of its historic
truth. The feast of Purim, which the dews still celebrate,
and at which the book of Esther is always read, must be
13
146 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OF THE LECT. V.
regarded as sufficiently evidencing the truth of the main
facts of the narrative ; (7(n and the Jews would certainly
never have attached to the religious celebration of that
festival the reading of a document from which the religious
element is absent, or almost absent, (71> had they not be-
lieved it to contain a correct account of the details of the
transaction. Their belief constitutes an argument of very
great weight ; to destroy its force there is needed some-
thing more than the exhibition of a certain number of
"difficulties and improbabilities," such as continually pre-
sent themselves to the historic student in connection even
with his very best materials. 0-)
The date and author of the book of Esther are points
of very great uncertainty. The Jews in general ascribe it
to Mordecai; but some say that it was written by the
High Priest, Joiakim ; while others assign the composition
to the Great Synagogue. (~3) It appears from an expression
at the close of the ninth chapter — "And the decree of
Esther confirmed these matters of Purim, and it teas
written in tJie book" 1 — that the whole affair was put on
record at once; but "the book" here spoken of is probably
that "book of the Chronicles of the kings of Media and
Persia,"2 which had been mentioned more than once in
the earlier part of the narrative.3 To this work the actual
writer of our book of Esther — whoever he may have been
— evidently had access; and it is a reasonable supposition
that in the main he follows his Persian authority. Hence
probably that omission of the name of God, and of the
distinctive tenets of the Israelites, which has been made an
objection by some to the canonicity of this book. (~4)
"We have now to examine the narrative contained in
Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther, by the light which profane
1 Esther ix. 32. 2 Ibid. x. 2. 3 Ibid. ii. 23 ; and vi. 1.
LECT. V. TRUTH OF THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 147
history throws on it, more particularly in respect of those
points which have been illustrated by recent discoveries.
There are probably few things more surprising to the in-
telligent student of Scripture than the religious tone of the
proclamations Avhich are assigned in Ezra to Cyrus, Darius,
and Artaxerxes. " The Lord God of heaven" says Cyrus,
"hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he hath
charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is
in Judah. Who is there among you of all his people?
His God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem,
which is in Judah, and build the house of the Lord God
of Israel (he is the God) which is in Jerusalem." ' "I make
a decree," says Darius, "that these men be not hindered . . .
that which they have need of . . . for the burnt-offerings of
the God of heaven . . .let it be given them day by d;iy
without fail ; that they may offer sacrifices of sweet savors
unto the God of heaven, and pray for the life of the king
and of his sons."- "Artaxerxes, king of kings," writes
that monarch, " unto Ezra the priest, the scribe of the law
of the God of heaven, perfect peace, and at such a time . . .
Whatsoever is commanded by the God of* heaven, let it be
diligently done for the house of the God of heaven ; for
why should there be wrath against fl" realm of tin king
and his sons ?" 3 Two things are especially remarkable in
these passages — first, the strongly marked religious char-
acter, very unusual in heathen documents; and secondly,
the distinctness with which they assert the unity of God,
and thence identify the God of the Persians with the <J<>d
of the Jews. Both these points receive abundant illustra-
tion from the Persian cuneiform inscriptions, in which the
recognition of a single supreme God, Ormazd, and the
1 Ezra i. 2, 3. Compare 2 Chron. xxxvi. J3.
* Ibid. vi. 8-10. 3 Ibid. vii. 12, 23.
148 HISTORICAL EVIDEN'CES OF THE LECT. V.
clear and constant ascription to him of the direction of all
mundane affairs, are leading features. In all the Persian
monuments of any length, the monarch makes the acknowl-
edgment that "Ormazd has bestowed on him his empire." (75>
Every success that is gained is "by the grace of Ormazd."
The name of Ormazd occurs in almost every other para-
graph of the Behistun inscription. No public monuments
with such a pervading religious spirit have ever been dis-
covered among the records of any heathen nation as those
of the Persian kings ; and through all of them, down to the
time of Artaxerxes Ochus, the name of Ormazd stands
alone and unapproachable, as that of the Supreme Lord of
earth and heaven. The title "Lord of Heaven," which
runs as a sort of catchword through these Chaldee transla-
tions of the Persian records, is not indeed in the cuneiform
monuments distinctly attached to him as an epithet ; but
the common formula wherewith inscriptions open sets him
forth as " the great God Ormazd, who gave both earth and
heaven to mankind." C76)
It is generally admitted that the succession of the Per-
sian kings from Cyrus to Darius Ilystaspis is correctly
given in Ezra.(~7> The names of the two intermediate
monarchs are indeed replaced by others — and it is difficult
to explain how these kings came to be known to the Jews
as Ahasuerus and Artaxerxes, instead of Cambyses and
Smerdis(78) — but the exact agreement in the number of
the reigns, and the harmony in the chronology (79> have
caused it to be almost universally allowed that Cambyses
and Smerdis are intended. Assuming this, we may note
that the only Persian king who is said to have interrupted
the building of the temple is that Magian monarch, the
Pseudo-Smerdis, who was .opposed to the pure Persian
religion, and who would therefore have been likely to
LECT. V. TRUTH OF THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 149
reverse the religious policy of his predecessors. The Sa-
maritans " weakened the hands of the people of Judah and
troubled them in building"1 during the reigns of Cyrus and
Cambyses; but it Avas not till the letter of the Pseudo-
Smerdis was received, that "the work of the house of God
ceased."2 The same prince, that is, who is stated in the
inscriptions to have changed the religion of Persia, (80> ap-
pears in Ezra as the opponent of a religious work, which
Cyrus had encouraged, and Cambyses had allowed to be
carried on.
The reversal by Darius of the religious policy of the
Magian monarch, and his recurrence to the line of conduct
which had been pursued by Cyrus, as related in Ezra, har-
monize completely with the account which Darius himself
gives of his proceedings soon after his accession. " I re-
stored to the people," he says, "the religious worship, of
which the Magian had deprived them. As it was before,
so I arranged it."(81) Of course, this passage refers prima-
rily to the Persian Court religion, and its reestablishment
in the place of Magism as the religion of the state; but
such a return to comparatively pure principles would
involve a renewal of the old sympathy with the Jews and
with the worship of Jehovah. Accordingly, while the let-
ter of the Magus'5 is devoid of the slightest reference to
religion, that of Darius exhibits — as has been already
shown — the same pious and reverential spirit, the same
respect for the God of the Jews, and the same identifica-
tion of Him with the Supreme Being recognized by the
Persians, which are so prominent in the decree of Cyrus.
Darius is careful to follow in the footsteps of the great
founder of the monarchy, and under him "the house of
1 1 Ezra iv. 4. * Ibid, verse 21. 3 Ibid. iv. 17 to 22.
13*
150 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OF THE LECT. V.
God at Jerusalem," which Cyrus Mas "charged" to build,1
is finally "builded and finished."2
A break occurs in the Biblical narrative between the
sixth and seventh chapters of Ezra, the length of which is
not estimated by the sacred historian, but which Ave know
from profane sources to have extended to above half a cen-
tury. C82) Into this interval falls the whole of the reign of
Xerxes. The Jews in Palestine appear to have led during
this time a quiet and peaceable life under Persian govern-
ors, and to have disarmed the hostility of their neighbors
by unworthy compliances, such as intermarriages;"' which
would have tended, if unchecked, to destroy their distinct
nationality. No history of the time is given, because no
event occurred during it of any importance to the Jewish
community in Palestine. It is thought, however, by many
— and on the whole it is not improbable — that the history
related in the Book of Esther belongs to the interval in
question, and thus fills up the gap in the narrative of Ezra.
The name Ahasuerus is undoubtedly the proper Hebrew
equivalent for the Persian word which the Greeks repre-
sented by Xerxes. (83) And if it was Kish, the ancestor of
Mordecai in the fourth degree, who was carried away from
Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, together with Jeconiah,4 the
time of Xerxes would be exactly that in which Mordecai
ought to have flourished. C84) Assuming on these grounds
the king intended by Ahasuerus to be the Xerxes of Greek
history, we are at once struck with the strong resemblance
which his character bears to that assigned by the classical
writers to the celebrated son of Darius. Proud, self-willed,
amorous, careless of contravening Persian customs; reck-
less of human life, yet not actually bloodthirsty ; impetu-
1 Ezra i. 2. 2 Ibid. vi. 14.
3 Ibid. ix. 2, &c. 4 Esther ii. 5, 6.
LECT. V. TRUTH OF THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 151
ous, facile, changeable — the Ahasuerus of Esther corre-
sponds in all respects to the Greek portraiture of Xerxes,
which is not (he it observed) the mere picture of an Orien-
tal despot, but has various peculiarities which distinguish it
even from the other Persian kings, and which — I think it
maybe said — individualize it. Nor is there — as might
so easily have been the case, were the book of Esther a
romance — any contradiction between its facts and those
which the Greeks have recorded of Xerxes. The third
year of his reign, when Ahasuerus makes his great feast at
Shushan (or Susa) to his nobles,1 was a year which Xerxes
certainly passed at Susa, (85^ and one wherein it is likely
that he kept open house for " the princes of the provinces,"
who would from time to time visit the court, in order to
report on the state of their preparations for the Greek war.
The seventh year, wherein Esther is made queen/ is that
which follows the return of Xerxes from Greece, where
again we know from the best Greek authority (8,;) that he
resumed his residence at Susa. It is true that " after this
time history speaks of other favorites and another wife of
Xerxes, namely Amestris," (8~) who can scarcely have been
Esther,^) since the Greeks declare that she was the
daughter of a Persian noble; — but it is quite possible that
Amestris may have been in disgrace for a time, and that
Esther may have been temporarily advanced to the dig-
nity of Sultana. We know far too little of* the domestic
history of Xerxes from profane sources to pronounce the
position which Esther occupies in his harem impossible
or improbable. True again that profane history tells us
nothing of Haman or Mordeeai — but we have absolutely
no profane information on the subject of who were the
great officers of the Persian court, or who had influence
with Xerxes after the death of Mardonius.
1 Es-.J.— i. 2, 3. * Ibid. ii. 10.
152 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OP THE LECT. V.
The intimate acquaintance which the Book of Esther
shows in many passages with Persian manners and cus-
toms, has been acknowledged even by De Wette,(89) who
regards it as composed in Persia on that account. I think
it may be said that we have nowhere else so graphic or so
just a portraiture of the Persian court, such as it was in
the earlier part of the period of decline, which followed
upon the death of Darius. The story of the Book is no
doubt in its leading features — the contemplated massacre
of the Jews, and the actual slaughter of their adversaries —
wonderful and antecedently improbable ; but these are
exactly the points of which the commemorative festival of
Purim is the strongest possible corroboration. And it
may lessen the seeming improbability to bear in mind that
open massacres of obnoxious persons were not unknown to
the Persians of Xerxes' time. There had once been a
general massacre of all the Magi who could be found ; (9°)
and the annual observance of this day, which was known
as " the Magophonia," would serve to keep up the recollec-
tion of the circumstance.
Of Artaxerxes Longimanus, the son and successor of
Xerxes, who appears both from his name and from his time
to be the monarch under whom Ezra and Nehemiah flour-
ished, (91) wre have little information from profane sources.
His character, as drawn by Ctesias, is mild but wreak, (<J2)
and sufficiently harmonizes with the portrait in the first
chapter of Nehemiah. He reigned forty years — a longer
time than any Persian king but one ; and it is perhaps
worthy of remark that Nehemiah mentions his thirty-
second year ; * for this, which is allowable in his case, Avould
have involved a contradiction of profane history, had it
occurred in connection with any other Persian king men-
tioned in Scripture, excepting only Darius Hystaspis.
1 Nehcm. v. 14 ; xiii. 6.
LECT. V. TRUTH OF THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 153
The Old Testament history here terminates. For the
space of nearly five hundred years — from the time of
Nehemiah and Malachi to that of St. Paul — the Jews pos-
sessed no inspired writer; and their history, when recorded
at all, was related in works which were not regarded by
themselves as authoritative or canonical. I am not con-
cerned to defend the historical accuracy of the Books of
Maccabees; much less that of Judith and the second
Esdras, which seem to be mere romances. (93> My task, so
far as the Old Testament is concerned, is accomplished.
It has, I believe, been shown, in the first place, that the
sacred narrative itself is the production of eye-witnesses, or
of those who followed the accounts of eye-witnesses, and
therefore that it is entitled to the acceptance of all those
who regard contemporary testimony as the main ground of
all authentic history. And it has, secondly, been made
apparent, that all the evidence which we possess from pro-
fane sources of a really important and trustworthy charac-
ter tends to confirm the truth of the history delivered
to us in the sacred volume. The monumental records
of past ages — Assyrian, Babylonian, Egyptian, Persian,
Phoenician — the writings of historians who have based
their histories on contemporary annals, as Manetho, LJero-
sus, Dins, Menander, Nicolas of Damascus — the descrip-
tions given by eye-witnesses of the Oriental manners and
customs — the proofs obtained by modern research of the
condition of art in the time and country — all combine to
confirm, illustrate, and establish the veracity of the writers,
who have delivered to us, in the Pentateuch, in Joshua,
Judges, Samuel, Kings and Chronicles, Ezra, Esther, and
Nehemiah, the history of the chosen people. That history
stands linn against all the assaults made upon it; and the
more light that is thrown by research and discovery upon
154 TRUTH OF THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. LECT. V.
the times and countries with which it deals, the more
apparent becomes its authentic and matter-of-fact charac-
ter. Instead of ranging parallel with the mythical tradi-
tions of Greece and Koine, (with which some delight to
compare it,) it stands, at the least, on a par with the ancient
histories of Egypt, Babylon, Phoenicia, and Assyria; which,
like it, were recorded from a remote antiquity by national
historiographers. Sound criticism finds in the sacred
writings of the Jews documents belonging to the times of
which they profess to treat, and on a calm investigation
classes them, not with romantic poems or mythological
fables, but with the sober narratives of those other ancient
writers, who have sought to hand down to posterity a true
account of the facts which their eyes have witnessed. As
in the New Testament, so in the Old, that which the
writers "declare" to the world is in the main "that which
they have heard, which they have seen with their eyes,
which they have looked upon, and which their hands have
handled."1 It is not their object to amuse men, much less
to impose on them by any " cunningly devised fables;"2
but simply to record facts and " bear their witness to the
truth." 3
1 1 John i. 1. 2 2 Pet. i. 16. 3 John xriii. 37.
LECTURE VI.
THAI WHICH WAS FROM THE BEGINNING, WHICH AVE HAVE HEARD,
WHICH WE HAVE SEEN WITH OUR EYES, WHICH WE HAVE LOOKED
UPON, AND OUR HANDS HAVE HANDLED, OF THE WORD OF LIFE ;
(FOR THE LIFE WAS MANIFESTED, AND WE H'VVE SEEN IT, AND BEAR
WITNESS, AND SHOW UNTO YOU THAT ETERNAL LIFE, WHICH WAS
WITH THE FATHER, AND WAS MANIFESTED UNTO US;) THAT WHICH
WE HAVE SEEN AND HEARD DECLARE WE UNTO YOU. — 1 JOHN I. 1— S\
The period of time embraced by the events of which we
have any mention in the New Testament but little exceeds
the lifetime of a man, falling short of a full century. The
regular and continuous history is comprised within a yet
narrower space, since it commences in the year of Koine
748 or 749, and terminates about sixty-three years later, in
the filth of Xero, Anno Domini f>K.(') If uniformity of plan
were a thing of paramount importance, it would be my
duty to subdivide this space of time into three portions,
which might lie treated separately in the three remaining
Lectures of the present Course. Such a subdivision could
be made without any great difficulty. The century natu-
rally breaks into three periods — the time of our Lord's life,
or that treated of in the Gospels; the time of the rapid and
triumphant spread of Christianity, or that of which we have
the history in the Acts; and the time of oppression and
persecution without, of defection and heresy within, or that
to which we have incidental allusions in the later Epistles
and the Apocalypse. Or, if we confined our view to the
1155)
156 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OP THE LECT. VI.
space of time which is covered by the historical Books, and
omitted the last of thefe three periods from our considera-
tion, we might obtain a convenient division of the second
period from the actual arrangement of the Acts, where the
author, after occupying himself during twelve chapters with
the general condition of the Christian community, becomes
from the thirteenth the biographer of a single Apostle,
whose career he thenceforth follows without interruption.
But on the whole I think it will be more convenient, at
some sacrifice of uniformity, to regard the entire space
occupied by the New Testament narrative as a single pe-
riod, and to substitute, at the present point, for the arrange-
ment of time hitherto followed, an arrangement based upon
a division of the evidence, which here naturally separates
into three heads or branches. The first of these is the
internal evidence, or that of the documents themselves,
which I propose to make the subject of the present Lec-
ture ; the second is the testimony of adversaries, or that
borne by Heathen and Jewish writers to the veracity of
the narrative ; the third is the testimony of believers, or
that producible from the uninspired Christian remains of
the times contemporary with or immediately following the
age of the Apostles. The two last named branches will be
treated respectively in the seventh and eighth Lectures.
The New Testament is commonly regarded too much as
a single book, and its testimony is scarcely viewed as more
than that of a single writer. No doubt, contemplated on
its divine side, the work has a real unity, He Mho is with
His church "always"1 having designed the whole in His
Eternal Counsels, and having caused it to take the shape
that it bears ; but regarded as the work of man, which it
also is, the New Testament (it should be remembered) is a
1 Matt, xxviii. 20.
LECT. VI. TRUTH OF THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 157
collection of twenty-seven separate and independent docu-
ments, composed by eight or nine different persons, at sep-
arate times, and under varied circumstances. Of these
twenty-seven documents, twenty-one consist of letters writ-
ten by those who were engaged in the propagation of the
new Religion to their converts, four are biographies of
Christ, one is a short Church History, containing a general
account of the Christian community for twelve or thirteen
years after our Lord's ascension, together with a particular
account of St. Paul's doings for about fourteen years after-
wards ; and one is prophetical, containing (as is generally
supposed) a sketch of the future state and condition of the
Christian Church from the close of the first century, when
it was written, to the end of the world. It is with the his-
torical Books that we are in the present review primarily
concerned. I wish to show that for the Scriptural narra-
tive of the birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension of
Christ, as well as for the circumstances of the first preach-
ing of the Gospel, the historical evidence that we possess is
of an authentic and satisfactory character.
As with that document which is the basis of Judaism, (*•>
so with those which are the basis of Christianity, it is of
very great interest and importance to know by whom they
were written. If the history was recorded by eye-wit-
nesses, or even by persons contemporaneous with the
events narrated, then it is allowed on all hands that the
record containing it must have a very strong claim indeed
to our acceptance. "But the alleged ocular testimony,"
we are told, " or proximity in point of time to the events
recorded, is mere assumption — an assumption originat-
ing from the titles which the Biblical books bear in our
Canon." C3^ "Little reliance, however, can be placed on
these titles, or on the headings of ancient manuscripts
14
158 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OF THE Lect. VL
generally." (4> "The early Jewish and Christian writers' —
even the most reputable — published their works with the
substitution of venerated names, without an idea that they
wrere guilty of falsehood or deception by so doing." (5> In
"sacred records" and "biblical books" this species of for-
gery obtained "more especially;"^) and the title of works
of this kind is scarcely any evidence at all of the real
authorship. Further, the actual titles of our Gospels are
not to be regarded as intended to assert the composition
of the Gospel by the person named; all that they mean to
assert is, the composition of the connected history " after
the oral discourses, or notes," of the person named in the
title. This is the true original meaning of the word trans-
lated by " according to ; " which is improperly understood
as implying actual authorship. (7)
Such are the assertions with which we are met, when we
urge that for the events of our Lord's life we have the tes-
timony of eye-witnesses, whose means of knowing the truth
were of the highest order, and whose honesty is unim-
peachable. These assertions (which I have given as nearly
as possible in the words of Strauss) consist of a series of po-
sitions either plainly false, or at best without either proof or
likelihood ; yet upon these the modern Rationalism is con-
tent to base its claim to supersede Christianity. This end
it openly avows, and it admits that, to make its claim good,
the positions above given should be established. Let us
then consider briefly the several assertions upon which we
are invited to exchange the Religion of Christ for that of
Strauss and Schleiermacher.
Tt is said, that "the alleged ocular testimony is an
assumption originating from the titles which the Biblical
books bear in our Canon." I do not know if any stress is
intended to be laid on the last clause of this objection ; but
LECT. VI. TRUTH OF THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 159
as it might mislead the unlearned, I may observe in pass-
ing, that the titles which the liooks bear in the modern
authorized versions of the Scriptures are literal translations
from some of the most ancient Greek manuscripts, and
descend to us at least from the times of the first Councils ;
while titles still more emphatic and explicit are found in
several of the versions which were made at an early
period. (8) Our belief in the authorship of the writings,
no doubt, rests partly on the titles, as does our belief in
the authorship of every ancient treatise ; but it is untrue to
say that these headings first originated the belief-, for
before the titles were attached, the belief must have
existed. In truth, there is not the slightest pretence for
insinuating that there was ever any doubt as to the author-
ship of any one of the historical books of the New Testa-
ment; which are as uniformly ascribed to the writers
whose names they bear as the Return of the Ten Thou-
sand to Xenophon, or the Lives of the Caesars to Sueto-
nius. There is indeed for better evidence of authorship in
the case of the four Gospels and of the .Vets of the Apos-
tles, than exists with respect to the works of almost any
classical writer. It is a very rare occurrence for classical
works to be distinctly quoted, or for their authors to be
mentioned by name, within a century of the time of their
publication. (9> The Gospels, as we shall find in the sequel,
are frequently quoted within this period, and the writers of
three at least out of the four are mentioned within the
time as authors of works corresponding perfectly to those
which have come down to us as their compositions. Our
conviction then of the genuineness of the Gospels does not
rest exclusively, or even mainly, mi the titles, but on the
unanimous consent of ancient writers and of the whole
Christian church in the first aires.
160 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OF THE LECT. VI
In the next place we are told that " little reliance can be
placed on the headings of ancient manuscripts generally."
Undoubtedly, such headings, when unconfirmed by fur-
ther testimony, are devoid of any great weight, and may
be set aside, if the internal evidence of the writings them-
selves disproves the superscription. Still they constitute
important prima facie evidence of authorship ; and it is to
be presumed that they are correct, until solid reasons be
shown to the contrary. The headings of ancient manu-
scripts are, in point of fact, generally accepted as correct
by critics ; and the proportion, among the works of an-
tiquity, of those reckoned spurious to those regarded as
genuine, is small indeed.
But it is said that in the case of " sacred records " and
"biblical books" the headings are "especially" untrust-
worthy. This, we arc told, " is evident, and has long since
been proved." (10) Where the proof is to be found, we are
not informed, nor whence the peculiar untrustworthiness
of what is "sacred" and "biblical" proceeds. We are
referred, however, to the cases of the Pentateuch, the book
of Daniel, and a certain number of the Psalms, as well
known instances ; and we shall probably not be wrong in
assuming that these are selected as the most palpable cases
of incorrect ascription of books which the Sacred Volume
furnishes. We have already found reason to believe that
in regard to the Pentateuch and the book of Daniel no
mistake has been committed ; (n) they are the works of the
authors whose names they bear. But in the case of the
Psalms, it must be allowed that the headings seem fre-
quently to be incorrect. Headings, it must be remem-
bered, are in no case any part of the inspired Word ; they
indicate merely the opinion of those who had the custody
of the Word at the time when they were prefixed. Now
LECT. VI. TRUTH OF THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 161
in most cases the headings would be attached soon after
the composition of the work, when its authorship was
certainly known ; but the Psalms do not appear to have
been collected into a book until the time of Ezra, i12) and
the headings of many may have been then first affixed,
those who attached them following a vague tradition or
venturing upon conjecture. Thus error has here crept in;
but on this ground to assume that " sacred records" have a
peculiar untrustworthiness in this respect, is to betray an
irreligious spirit, and to generalize upon very insufficient
data.
But, it is said, " the most reputable authors amongst the
Jews and early Christians published their works with the
substitution of venerated names, without an idea that they
were guilty of falsehood or deception by so doing." What
is the proof of this astounding assertion? What early
Christian authors, reputable or no, can be shown to have
thus acted? If the allusion is to the epistles of Hennas
and Barnabas, it must be observed that the genuineness of
these is still matter of dispute among the learned; if to
such works as the Clementines, the interpolated Ignatius,
and the like, that they are not "early" in the sense implied,
for they belong probably to the third century. 1:,) The
practice noted was common among heretical sects from the
first, but it was made a reproach to them by the ortho-
dox^") who did not themselves adopt it till the teaching
of the Alexandrian School had confused the boundaries of
right and wrong, and made "pious frauds" appear defensi-
ble. There is no reason to suppose that any orthodox
Christian of the first century — when it is granted that our
Gospels were written — would have considered himself
entitled to bring out under a "venerated name" a work, of
his own composition.
14*
162 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OF THE LECT. VI
Lastly, it is urged, " the titles of our Gospels are not
intended to assert the composition of the works by the per-
sons named, but only their being based upon a groundwork
furnished by such persons, either orally, or in the shape of
written notes." (15> "This seems to be the original meaning
attached to the word x«-u," we are told. No example,
however, is adduced of this use, which is certainly not that
of the Septuagint, where the book of Nehemiah is referred
to under the name of " The Commentaries according to
Nehemiah;"1 and it cannot be shown to have obtained at
any period of the Greek language.
It cannot therefore be asserted with any truth that the
titles of the Gospels do not represent them as the composi-
tions of the persons named therein. Nothing is more cer-
tain than that the object of affixing titles to the Gospels at
all was to mark the opinion entertained of their authorship.
This opinion appears to have been universal. We find no
evidence of any doubt having ever existed on the subject
in the early ages.(16> Iremeus, Tertullian, Clement of Alex-
andria, and Origen, writers in the latter half of the second
or the beginning of the third century, not only declare the
authorship unreservedly, but indicate or express the univer-
sal agreement of the Church from the first upon the sub-
ject. (1?) Justin, in the middle of the second century, sj)eaks
of the "Gospels" which the Christians read in their
Churches, as having been composed "by the Apostles of
Christ and their companions;" and he further shows by
his quotations, which are abundant, that he means the Gos-
pels now in our possession. (18> Papias, a quarter of a cen-
tury earlier, mentions the Gospels of St. Matthew and St.
Mark as authoritative, and declares the latter writer to have
derived his materials from St. Peter. Thus we are brought
1 2 Mac. ii. 13.
Lf.CT. VI. TRUTH OF THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 163
to the very age of the Apostles themselves; forPapias was
a disciple of St. John the Evangelist. (19)
Further, in the case of three out of the five Historical
Books of the Xew Testament, there is an internal testimony
to their composition by contemporaries, which is of the last
importance. "And he that saw «7," says St. John, " bare
record, and his record is time, and he knoweth that he saith
true, that ye may believe."1 And again, still more expli-
citly, after speaking of himself and of the circumstances
which caused it to be thought that he would not die —
" This is the disciple which testifieth of these things and
icrote these things: and we know that his testimony is
true."2 Either therefore St. John must be allowed to have
been the writer of the fourth Gospel, or the writer must be
taxed with that "conscious intention of fiction," which
Strauss with impious boldness has ventured to allege
against him. C20)
That the Acts of the Apostles and the third Gospel have
"a testimony of a particular kind," which seems to give
them a special claim to be accepted as the works of a con-
temporary, is admitted even by this Prince" of Sceptics.
The writer of the Acts, he allows, "by the use of the first
person identifies himself with the companion of St. Paul,"
and the prefaces of the two hooks make it plain that they
"proceeded from the same author." (-l> This evidence is felt
to be so strong, that even Strauss does not venture to deny
that a companion of St. Paul may hart written the two
works. lie finds it "difficult" to believe that this was act-
ually the case, and "suspects" that the passages of the Acts
where the first person is used "belong to a distinct memo-
rial by another hand, which the author of the Acts has
incorporated into his history." But still he allows the
1 John xix. 35. a Ibid. xxi. 24.
164 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OF THE LECT. VL
alternative — that "it is possible the companion of Paul
may have composed the two works" — only it must have
been "at a time when he was no longer protected by apos-
tolic influence from the tide of tradition," and so was
induced to receive into his narrative, and join with what
he had heard from the apostle, certain marvellous (and
therefore incredible) stories which had no solid or substan-
tial basis. C22) To the objection that the Acts appear, from
the fact of their terminating where they do, to have been
composed at the close of St. Paul's first imprisonment
at Pome, A. D. 58, (or A. D. 63, according to someC23)
writers,) and that the Gospel, as being "the former trea-
tise,"1 was written earlier, Strauss replies, "that the break-
ing oft' of the Acts'at that particular point might have been
the result of many other causes; and that, at all events,
such testimony standing alo/ie is wholly insufficient to de-
cide the historical worth of the Gospel." t34) He thus
assumes that the testimony "stands alone," forgetting or
ignoring the general voice of antiquity on the subject of
the date and value of the Gospel, C25) while lie also omits to
notice the other important evidence of an early date which
the Gospel itself furnishes — the declaration, namely, in the
preface that what St. Luke wrote was delivered to him by
those "which from the beginning were eye-witnesses and
ministers of the Word."2
If the third Gospel be allowed to have been composed
by one who lived in the apostolic age and companied with
the apostles, then an argument for the early date of the
first and second will arise from their accordance with the
third — their resemblance to it in style and general char-
acter, and their diversity from the productions of any other
period. The first three Gospels belong so entirely to the
1 Acts i. 1. 2 Luke i. 2.
LECT. VI. TRUTH OP THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 165
same school of thought, and the same type and stage of
language, that on critical grounds they must be regarded
as the works of contemporaries ; while in their contents
they are at once so closely accordant with one another, and
so full of little differences, that the most reasonable view
to take of their composition is that it was almost simul-
taneous. (2C) Thus the determination of any one out of the
three to the apostolic age involves a similar conclusion
with respect to the other two ; and if the Gospel ascribed
to St. Luke be allowed to be probably his, there can be no
reason to question the tradition which assigns the others to
St. Matthew and St. Mark.
On the whole, therefore, we have abundant reason to be-
lieve that the four Gospels are the Avorks of persons who
lived at the time when Christianity was first preached and
established. Two of the writers — St. Luke and St. John
— fix their own date, which must be accepted on their
authority, unless Ave will pronounce them impostors. The
two others appear alike by their matter and their manner
to be as early as St. Luke, and are certainly earlier than
St. John, whose Gospel is supplemental to the other three,
and implies their preexistence. Nor is there any reason-
able ground for doubting the authorship which Christian
antiquity with one voice declares to us, and in which the
titles of the earliest manuscripts and of the most ancient
versions agree. The four Gospels are assigned to those
four persons, whom the Church has always honored as
Evangelists, on grounds very much superior to those on
which the bulk of classical works are ascribed to particular
authors. The single testimony of Irenaeus is really of more
Weight than the whole array of witnesses commonly mar-
shalled in proof of the genuineness of an ancient classic ;
and, even if it stood alone, might fairly be regarded as
166 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OF THE L,ECT. VL
placing the question of the authorship beyond all reason-
able doubt or suspicion.
It' then the Gospels are genuine, what a wonderful his-
torical treasure do we possess in them! Four biographies
of the great Founder of our religion by contemporary
pens, two of them the productions of close friends — the
other two written by those who, if they had no personal
acquaintance with the Saviour, at least were the constant
companions of such as had had intimate knowledge of
Him. How rarely do we obtain even two distinct original
biographies of a distinguished person ! In the peculiar and
unexampled circumstances of the time it is not surprising
that many undertook to "set forth in order a declaration
of the things'" which constituted the essence of the new
religion, namely, the life and teaching of Christ ; but it is
remarkable, and I think it may fairly be said to be provi-
dential, that four accounts should have been written pos-
sessing claims to attention so nearly equal, that the Church
felt bound to adopt all into her Canon, whence it has hap-
pened that they have all come down to us. We should
have expected, alike on the analogy of the Old Testa-
ment, (2T) and on grounds of a priori probability, a single
record. If an authentic account had been published early
— that is, before the separation of the Apostles, and the
formation of distinct Christian communities — it is probable
that no second account would have been written, or at any
rate no second account confirmatory to any great extent of
the preceding one. A supplementary Gospel, like that of
St. John, might of course have been added in any ease;
but, had the Gospel of St. Matthew, for instance, been
really composed, as some have imagined, (28) within a few
years of our Lord's ascension, it would have been carried
1 Luke i. 1.
LECT. VI. TRUTH OF THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 107
together with Christianity into all parts of the world ; and
it is very unlikely that in that case the Gospels of St. Mark
and St. Luke, which cover chiefly the same ground, would
have been written. The need of written Gospels Mas not
felt at first, while the Apostles and companions of Christ
were in full vigor, and were continually moving from place
to place, relating with all the fulness and variety of oral
discourse the marvels which they had seen wrought, and
the gracious words which they had heard uttered by their
Master. But as they grew old, and as the sphere of their
labors enlarged, and personal superintendence of the whole
Church by the Apostolic body became difficult, the desire
to possess a written Gospel arose; and simultaneously, in
different parts of the Church, for different portions of the
Christian body, the three Gospels of St. Matthew, St. Mark,
and St. Luke, were published. This at least seems to be
the theory which alone suits the phenomena of the
case ; (-■'> and as it agrees nearly with the testimony of Ire-
iiR'iis, (:,l)) who is the earliest authority with regard to the
time at which the Gospels were composed, it is well
deserving of acceptance.
If this view of the independent and nearly simultaneous
composition of the first three Gospels be admitted, then we
must be allowed to possess in their substantial agreement
respecting the life, character, teaching, miracles, prophetic
announcements, sufferings, death, resurrection, and ascen-
sion of our Lord, (•") evidence of the most important kind,
and such as is scarcely ever attainable with respect to
the actions of an individual. Attempts have been made
from time to time, and recently on a large scale, to inval-
idate this testimony by establishing the existence of mi-
nute points of disagreement between the accounts of the
three Evangelists. (:,2> But the differences adduct-d consiwi-
108 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES* OF THE LFXT. VI.
almost entirely of omissions by one Evangelist of what is
mentioned by another, such omissions being regarded by
Strauss as equivalent to direct negatives. (33) The weak
character of the argument a silenpio is now admitted by all
tolerable critics, who have ceased to lean upon it with any
feeling of security except under very peculiar circum-
stances. In ordinary cases, and more particularly in cases
where brevity has been studied, mere silence proves abso-
lutely nothing; and to make it equivalent to counter-
assertion is to confuse two things wholly different, and to
exhibit a want of critical discernment, such as must in the
eyes of all reasonable persons completely discredit the
writer who is so unfair or so ill-judging. Yet this, I con-
fidently affirm, is the ordinary manner of Strauss, who
throughout his volumes conceives himself at liberty to
discard facts recorded by one Evangelist only on the mere
ground of silence on the part of the others. Whatever an
Evangelist does not record, he is argued not to have
known ; and his want of knowledge is taken as a proof that
the event could not have happened. It seems to be for-
gotten, that, in the first place, eye-witnesses of one and the
same event notice a different portion of the attendant cir-
cumstances ; and that, secondly, those who record an event
which they have witnessed omit ordinarily, for brevity's
sake, by far the greater portion of the attendant circum-
stances which they noticed at the time and still remember.
Strauss's cavils could only have been precluded by the
mere repetition on the part of each Evangelist of the exact
circumstances mentioned by every other — a repetition
which would have been considered to mark collusion or
or unacknowledged borrowing, and which would have thus
destroyed their value ag distinct and independent wit-
nesse°
LECT. VI. TRUTH OF" THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 1G9
It lias boon Avell observed, (34) that, even if all the diffi-
culties and discrepancies, which this writer lias thought to
discover in the Gospels, were real and not merely apparent
— if we were obliged to leave them as difficulties, and
could offer no explanation of them C35* — still the general
credibility of the Gospel History would remain untouched,
and no more would be proved than the absence of that
complete inspiration which the Church has always believed
to attach to the Evangelical writings. The writers would
be lowered from their preeminent rank as perfect and infal-
lible historians, whose every word may be depended on;
but they would remain historical authorities of the first
order — witnesses as fully to be trusted for the circum-
stances of our Lord's life, as Xcnophon for the sayings and
doings of Socrates, or Cavendish for those of Cardinal
Wolsey. The facts of the miracles, preaching, sufferings,
death, resurrection, and ascension, would therefore stand
firm, together with those of the choice of the Apostles, the
commission given them, and the communication to them of
miraculous powers; and these are the facts which establish
Christianity, and form its historical basis — a basis whioi
can be overthrown by nothing short of a proof that the
New Testament is a forgery from beginning to end, or that
the first preachers of Christianity were a set of impostors.
For the truth of the Gospel facts does not rest solely
upon the Gospels — they are stated with almost equal dis-
tinctness in the Acts, and are implied in the Epistles. It
is not denied that a companion of St. Paul may have writ-
ten the account of the early spread of the Gospel which is
contained in the Acts of the Apostles. But the Acts
assume as indisputable the whole series of facts which form
the basis on which Christianity sustains itself. They set
forth "Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God by
15
170 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OF THE LECT. VI.
miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by Him
in the midst of you, as you yourselves also know " ' — a
man ''who went about doing good, and healing all that
were oppressed of the devil"- — who "beginning from
Galilee, after the baptism which John preached, published
the word throughout all Judaea;3 whom yet "they that
dwelt at Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they knew
him not, nor yet the voices of the Prophets which are read
every Sabbath day, condemned, finding no cause of death
in him, yet desiring of Pilate that he should be slain"4 —
who was "taken and crucified by wicked hands"' —
"hanged upon a tree and slain"0 — then "taken down from
the tree and laid in a sepulchre,"7 but " raised up the third
day, and showed openly,"8 "by many infallible proofs
during the space of forty days,"9 "not to all the people,
but unto witnesses chosen before of God, who did eat and
drink with him after he rose from the dead"10 — and who,
finally, "while his disciples beheld, was taken up into
heaven, a cloud receiving him out of their sight."11 The
Acts further show that to the chosen " witnesses" — the
Apostles to whom "the promise of the Father"1- had been
given, and to those whom they associated with them in the
direction of the infant Church miraculous gifts were commu-
nicated, so that they prophesied,13 cured lameness by a word
or a touch,14 spake languages of which they had no natural
knowledge,15 restored the bedridden to health,10 handled
serpents,17 cast out devils,18 inflicted blindness,1'-' raised the
> Acts ii. 22. 2 Ibid. x. 38. 3 Ibid, verse 37.
4 Ibid. xiii. 27-8. 6 Ibid. ii. 23. 6 Ibid. x. 39.
7 Ibid. xiii. 29. 8 Ibid. x. 40. 9 Ibid. i. 3.
10 Ibid. x. 41. ;i Ibid. i. 9, 10. 12 Ibid, verse 4.
13 Ibid. v. 9 ; vi. 27, &c. u Ibid. xiv. 10, and iii. 7.
v" Ibid. ii. 4-13. >« Ibid. ix. 34. ,7 Ibid, xxviii. 5.
w Ibid. xvi. 18, &c. 19 Ibid. xiii. 11.
LECT. VI. TRUTH OP THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 171
dead to life,1 and finally even in some eases cured men by
the touch of their shadows- or by handkerchiefs and aprons
from their persons.3
The substantial truth of the history contained in the
Acts — so far at least as it concerns St. Paul — has been
excellently vindicated, by a writer of our own nation and
communion, from the undesigned conformity between the
narrative and the Epistles ascribed to the great Apostle.
Without assuming the genuineness of those Epistles, Paley
has most unanswerably shown, that the peculiar nature of
the agreement between them and the history of the Acts
affords good reason to believe that "the persons and trans-
actions described are real, the letters authentic, and the
narration in the main true."(3°) The Jlorce Paulino estab-
lish these positions in the most satisfactory manner. I do
not think that it is possible for any one to read them atten-
tively without coming to the conclusion that the Epistles
oi'St. Paul and the Acts of the Apostles bring us into con-
tact with real persons, real scenes, real transactions — that
the letters were actually written by St. Paul himself at the
time and under the circumstances related in the history —
and that the history was composed by one who had that
complete knowledge of the circumstances which could only
be gained by personal observation, or by intimate acquaint-
ance with the Apostle who is the chief subject of the nar-
rative. The effect of a perusal of this masterly work will
scarcely be neutralized by the bare and unsupported asser-
tion of Strauss, that "the details concerning Paul in the
Book of the v\cts are so completely at variance with Paul's
genuine epistles, that it is extremely difficult to reconcile
them with the notion that they were written by a compan-
1 Acts ix. 37-41 ; xx. 9-1 2.
2 Ibid. v. 1 o. 3 Ibid xix. 12.
172 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OF THE LECT. VI.
ion of the Apostle." C37) The Hone PauUnce should have
been answered in detail, before such an assertion was
adventured on. Boldly and barely made, without a tittle
of proof, it can only be regarded as an indication of the
litter recklessness of the new School, and of its striking
deficiency in the qualities which are requisite for a sound
and healthy criticism.
It is further to be remarked, that Paley's work, excellent
and conclusive as it must be allowed to be, is far from
being exhaustive. He has noticed, and illustrated in a very
admirable way, the most remarkable of the undesigned
coincidences between the Acts and the Pauline Epistles ;
but it would not be difficult to increase his list by the addi-
tion of an equal number of similar points of agreement,
which he has omitted, t38-1
Again, it is to be remarked, that the argument of Paley
is applicable also to other parts of the Xew Testament.
Undesigned coincidences of the class which Paley notes
are frequent in the Gospels, and have often been pointed
out in passing by commentators, though I am not aware
that they have ever been collected or made the subject of
a separate volume. When St. Matthew,1 however, and St.
Luke,2 in giving the list of the Apostles, place them in pairs
without assigning a reason, while St. Mark, whose list is not
in pairs,'5 happens to mention that they were sent out "two
and two,"4 we have the same sort of recondite and (hu-
manly speaking) accidental harmony on which Paley has
insisted with such force as an evidence of authenticity and
truth in connection with the history of the Acts. It Avould
be easy to multiply instances; but my limits will not allow
me to do more than briefly to allude to this head of evif
1 Matt. x. 2-4. 9 Luke vi. 14-16.
3 Mark iii. 16-19. 4 Ibid. vi. 7.
LECT. VI TRUTH OF THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 173
deuce, to which full justice could not be done unless by an
elaborate work on the subject. (39)
Finally, let it be considered whether the Epistles alone,
apart from the Gospels and the Acts, do not sufficiently
establish the historic truth of that narrative of the life of
Christ and foundation of the Christian Church, which it has
been recently attempted to resolve into mere myth and
fable. The genuineness of St. Paul's Epistles, with one or
two exceptions, is admitted even by Strauss ; (4()) and there
are no valid reasons for entertaining any doubt concerning
the authorship of the other Epistles, except perhaps in the
case of that to the Hebrews, and of the two shorter Epis-
tles commonly assigned to St. John. (41> Excluding these,
we have eighteen letters written by five of the principal
Apostles of Christ, one by St. John, two by St. Peter, thir-
teen by St. Paul, one by St. James, and one by St. Jude,
his brother — partly consisting of public addresses to bodies
of Christians, partly of instructions to individuals — all
composed for practical purposes with special reference to
the pefculiar exigencies of the time, but all exhibiting casu-
ally and incidentally the state of opinion and belief among
Christians during the half century immediately following
our Lord's ascension. It is indisputable that the writers,
and those to whom they wrote, believed in the recent
occurrence of a set of facts similar to, or identical with,
those recorded in the Gospels and the Acts — more partic-
ularly those which are most controverted, such as the trans-
figuration, the resurrection, and the ascension. "Great is
the mystery of godliness," says St. Paul. "God was mani-
fest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels,
preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world,
received up into glory."1 "Christ," says St. Peter, " suf-
1 1 Tim. iii. 16.
15*
174 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OF THE Lect. VL
fered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that lie might
bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quick-
ened in the spirit."1 "He received from God the Father
lienor and glory, when there came such a voice to him from
the excellent glory, 'This is my beloved Son in whom I am
well pleased;' and this voice which came from heaven we
hoard, when we were with him in the holy mount."2 "God
raised up Christ from the dead, and gave him glory"8 —
" He is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God,
angels and authorities and powers being made subject to
him."4 "Remember," again St. Paul says, "that Jesus
Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead"5 —
"If Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and
your faith also is vain"G — "I delivered unto you first of
all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our
sins according to the Scriptures ; and that he was buried,
and that he rose again the third day according to the
Scriptures ; and that he was seen of Cephas, then of the
twelve — after that he was seen of above five hundred
brethren at once . . . after that, he was seen of James, then
of all the apostles."7 These are half a dozen texts out of
hundreds, which might be adduced to show that the writers
of the Epistles, some writing before, some after the Evan-
gelists, are entirely agreed with them as to the facts on
which Christianity is based, and as strongly assert their
reality. We are told, that " the Gospel myths grew up in
the space of about thirty years, between the death of Jesus
and the destruction of Jerusalem." (4'2> But in the Epistles
and the Acts there is evidence that throughout the whole
of this time the belief of the Church was the same — the
1 1 Pet. iii. 18. ■ 2 Pet. i. 17, 18. 3 1 Pet. i. 21.
4 Ibid. iii. 22. 5 2 Tim. ii. 8. 6 1 Cor. xv. 14.
~: Ibid, verses 3-7.
LECT. VI. TRUTH OF THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 175
Apostles themselves, the companions of Christ, maintained
from the first the reality of those marvellous events which
the Evangelists have recorded — they proclaimed them-
selves the " witnesses of the resurrection"1 — appealed to
the "miracles and signs'-'2 which Jesus had wrought — and
based their preaching altogether upon the facts of the Gos-
pel narrative. There is no historical ground for asserting
that that narrative was formed by degrees ; nor is there
any known instance of a mythic history having grown up
in such an age, under such circumstances, or Avith such
rapidity as is postulated in this case by our adversaries.
The age was an historical age, being that of Dionvsius,
Diodorus, Livy, Velleius Paterculus, Plutarch, Valerius
Maximus, and Tacitus — the country was one where
written records were kept, and historical literature had
long flourished ; it produced at the very time when the
New Testament documents were being written, an historian
of good repute, Josephus, whose narrative of the events of
his own time is universally accepted as authentic and
trustworthy. To suppose that a mythology could be
formed in such an age and country, is to contuse the char-
acteristics of the most opposite periods — to ascribe to a
time of luxury, over-civilization, and decay, a phase of
thought which only belongs to the rude vigor and early
infancy of nations.
There is in very deed no other alternative, if we reject
the historic truth of the. New Testament, than that em-
braced by the old assailants of Christianity — the ascrip-
tion of the entire religion to imposture. The mythical ex-
planation seems to have been invented in order to avoid
this harsh conclusion, which the moral tone of the religion
and the sufferings of its first propagators in defence of it
1 Acts i. 22 ; iv. 33, &c. 2 Ibid. ii. 22.
176 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OP THE LECT. VI.
alike contradict. The explanation fails, however, even in
this respect ; for its great advocate finds it insufficient to
explain the phenomena, and finally delivers it as his
opinion, that in many places the authors of the Gospels
consciously and designedly introduced fictions into their
flarratives. (43) If then we feel sure that in the hooks of
the New Testament we have not the works of impostors,
testifying to have seen that which they had not seen, and
knew that they had not seen ; if Ave are conscious in read-
ing them of a tone of sincerity and truth beyond that of
even the most veracious and simple-minded of profane
writers ; if we recognize throughout an atmosphere of fact
and reality, a harmony of statement, a frequency of un-
designed coincidence, an agreement like that of honest
witnesses not studious of seeming to agree ; we must pro-
nounce utterly untenable this last device of the sceptic,
which presents even more difficulties than the old unbelief.
We must accept the documents as at once genuine and
authentic. The writers declare to us that which they have
heard and seen.1 They were believed by thousands of
their contemporaries, on the spot where they stated the
most remarkable of the events to have taken place, and
within a few weeks of the time. They could not be mis-
taken as to those events. And if it be granted that these
happened — if the resurrection and ascension are allowed
to be facts, then the rest of the narrative may well be re-
ceived, for it is less marvellous. Vain are the " profane
babblings," which ever " increase unto more ungodliness,"
of those whose " word doth eat like a canker . . . who con-
cerning the truth have erred" — denying the resurrection
of Christ, and "saying that the resurrection" of man "is
past already," thus "overthrowing the faith of some."2
1 1 John i. 3. 2 2 Tim. ii. 16-18.
LECT. VI. TRUTH OF THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 177
" The foundation of God standeth sure/' * " Jesus Christ
of the seed of David was raised from the dead"2 — Jesus
Christ, the God-Man, is "ascended into the heavens."3
These are the cardinal points of the Christian's faith.
On these credentials, which- nothing can shake, he accepts
as certain the divine raicsion of hie Saviour.
1 2 Tim. ii. 19. 2 Ibid, verse 8. 3 Acts ii. 34.
LECTURE Vil.
IN THE MOt'TH OF TWO OR THREE WITNESSES SHALL EVERY WORD BE
ESTABLISHED. — 2 CORINTHIANS XIII. 1.
The historical inquirer, on passing from the history of
the Old Testament to that contained in the New, cannot
fail to be struck with the remarkable contrast which exists
between the two narratives in respect of their aim and
character. In the Old Testament the writers seek to set
before us primarily and mainly the history of their nation,
and only secondarily and in strict subordination to this
object introduce accounts of individuals. O Their works
fall under the head of History Proper — History, no
doubt, of a peculiar cast, — not secular, that is, but sacred
or theocratic, — yet still History in the strictest sense of
the term, — accounts of kings and rulers, and of the vicis-
situdes through which the Jewish nation passed, its suffer-
ings, triumphs, checks, reverses, its struggles, ruin, and
recovery. In the Historical Books of the New Testament,
on the contrary, these points cease altogether to engage
the writers1 attention, which becomes fixed on an individual,
whose words and actions, and the effect of whose teaching,
it is their great object to put on record. The authors of
the Gospels are biographers of Christ, not historians of
their nation ; they intend no account of the political con-
dition of Palestine in their time, but only a narrative of
the chief facts concerning our Lord — especially those of
(178)
Lect. VII. TRUTH OF THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 179
his public life and ministry. (2> Even the Evangelist, who
in a second treatise carries on the narrative from the
Ascension during the space of some thirty years to the
first imprisonment of St. Paul at Rome, leaves untouched
the national history, and confines himself (as the title of
his work implies) to the "acts" of those who made the
doctrine of Christ known to the world. Hence the agree-
ment to be traced between the sacred narrative and pro-
fane history in this part of the Biblical records, consists
only to a very small extent of an accord with respect to
the main facts related, which it scarcely came within the
sphere of the civil historian to commemorate ; it is to be
found chiefly, if not solely, in harmonious representations
with respect to facts which in the Scriptural narrative are
incidental and secondary, as the names, offices, and char-
acters of the political personages to whom there happens
to be allusion ; the general condition of the Jews and
heathen at the time; the prevalent manners and customs;
and the like. The value of such confirmation is not, how-
ever, less, hut rather greater, than that of the more direct
confirmation which would result from an accordance with
respect to main facts — in the first place, because it is a
task of the extremest difficulty for any one but an honest
contemporary writer to maintain accuracy in the wide
field of incidental allusion ;(3^ and secondly, because exact-
ness in such matters is utterly at variance with the mythi-
cal spirit, of which, according to the latest phase of unbe-
lief, the narrative' of the New Testament is the product.
The detail and appearance of exactness, which character-
izes the Evangelical writings, is of itself a strong argu-
ment against the mythical theory; if it can be shown that
the detail is correct and the exactness that of persons in-
timately acquainted with the whole history of the time
180 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES 01* THE LECT. VII.
and bent on faithfully recording it, that theory may be
considered as completely subverted and disproved. It will
be the chief object of the present Lecture to make it
apparent that this is the case with respect to the Evangeli-
cal writings — that the incidental references to the civil
history of the time of which they treat, and to the condition
of the nations with which they deal, are borne out, for the
most part, by Pagan or Jewish authors, and are either
proved thus to be correct, or are at any rate such as there
is no valid reason, on account of any disagreement with
profane authorities, seriously to question.
Before entering, however, on this examination of the
incidental allusions or secondary facts in the Xew Testa-
ment narrative, it is important to notice two things with
regard to the main facts ; in the first place, that some of
them (as the miracles, the resurrection, and the ascension)
are of such a nature that no testimony to them from pro-
fane sources was to be expected, since those who believed
them naturally and almost necessarily became Christians ;
and secondly, that with regard to such as are not of this
character, there docs exist profane testimony of the first
order. The existence at this time of one called by his fol-
lowers Christ, the place of his teaching, his execution by
Pontius Pilate, Procurator of Judea under Tiberius, the
rapid spread of his doctrine through the Roman world, the
vast number of converts made in a short time, the persecu-
tions which they underwent, the innocency of their lives,
their worship of Christ as God — are witnessed to by
Heathen writers of eminence, and .would be certain and
indisputable facts, had the New Testament never been writ-
ten. Tacitus, Suetonius, Juvenal, Pliny, Trajan, Adrian,^
writing in the century immediately following upon the
death of Christ, declare these things to us, and establish,
LECT. VII. TRUTH t>F THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 181
so firmly that no sceptic can even profess to doubt it, the
historical character of (at least) that primary groundwork
whereon the Christian story, as related by the Evangelists,
rests as on an immovable basis. These classic notices com-
pel even those who set no value on the historical Christ, to
admit his existence ; (5) they give a definite standing-point
to the religion, which might otherwise have been declared
to have no historical foundation at all, but to be purely
and absolutely mythic ; they furnish, taken by themselves,
no unimportant argument for the truth of the religion,
which they prove to have been propagated with such
zeal, by persons of pure and holy lives, in spite of punish-
ments and persecutions of the most fearful kind ; and they
form, in combination with the argument from the historic
accuracy of the incidental allusions, an evidence in favor of
the substantial truth of the New Testament narrative
which is amply sufficient to satisfy any fair mind. As they
have been set forth fully and with admirable argumenta-
tive skill by so popular a writer as Paley, I am content to
make this passing allusion to them, and to refer such of
my hearers as desire a fuller treatment of the point to the
excellent chapter on the subject in the first part of Paley's
Evidences. <■''''>
If an objection be raised against the assignment of very
much weight to these testimonies of adversaries on account
of their scant number and brevity; and if it be urged, that
supposing the New Testament narrative to be true, we
should have expected far more frequent and fuller notices
of the religion and its Founder than the remains of anti-
quity in fact furnish, — if it be said (for instance) that
Josephus ought to have related the miracles of Christ,
and Seneca, the brother of Gallio, his doctrines; that
tlu' observant Pausanias, the voluminous Plutarch, the
1G
182 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OV THE LECT. VIL
copious Dio, tlu' exact Arrian, should have made fre*
quent mention of Christianity in their writings, instead
of almost wholly ignoring it ; (7) let it be considered,
in the first place, whether the very silence of these writers
is not a proof of the importance which in their hearts
they assigned to Christianity, and the difficulty which
they felt in dealing with it — whether in fact it is not
a forced and studied reticence — a reticence so far from
being indicative of ignorance that it implies only too much
knowledge, having its origin in a feeling that it Avras best
to ignore what it was unpleasant to confess and impossi-
ble to meet satisfactorily. Pausanias must certainly have
been aware that the shrines of his beloved gods were in
many places deserted, and that their temples were falling
into decay, owing to the conversion of the mass of the
people to the new religion ; we may be sure he inwardly
mourned over this sad spirit of disaffection — this madness
(as he must have thought it) of a degenerate age ; but no
word is suffered to escape him on the painful subject ; he
is too jealous of his gods' honor to allow that there are any
who dare to insult them. Like the faithful retainer of a
falling house he covers up the shame of his masters, and
bears his head so much the more proudly because of their
depressed condition. Again, it is impossible that Epic-
tetus could have been ignorant of the wonderful patience
and constancy of the Christian martyrs, of their marked
contempt of death and general indifference to worldly
things — he must, one would think, as a Stoic, have been
moved with a secret admiration of those great models of
fortitude, and if he had allowed himself to speak freely,
could not but have made frequent reference to them. The
one contemptuous notice, which is all that Arrian re-
ports, (8> sufficiently indicates his knowledge ; the entire
LECT. VII. TRUTH OF THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 183
silence, except in this passage, W upon what it so nearly
concerned a Stoical philosopher to bring forward, can only
be viewed as the studied avoidance of a topic which would
have been unpalatable to his hearers, and to himself per-
haps not wholly agreeable. The philosopher who regarded
himself as raised by study and reflection to an exalted
height above the level of ordinary humanity 'would not be
altogether pleased to And that his elevation was attained
by hundreds of common men, artisans and laborers,
through the power of a religion which he looked on as
mere fanaticism. Thus from different motives, — from
pride, from policy, from fear of offending the Chief of the
state, from real attachment to the old Heathenism and ten-
derness for it — the heathen writers who witnessed the
birth and growth of Christianity, united in a reticence,
which causes their notices of the religion to be a very
insufficient measure of the place which it really held in
their thoughts and apprehensions. A large allowance is to
be made for this studied silence in estimating the value of
the actual testimonies to the truth of the New Testament
narrative adducible from heathen writers of the first and
second centuries. 0°)
And the silence of Josephus is, more plainly still, wilful
and affected. It is quite impossible that the Jewish histo-
rian should have been ignorant of the events which had
drawn the eyes of so many to Judsea but a lew years
before his own birth, and which a large and increasing sect.
believed to possess a supernatural character. Jesus of
Nazareth was, humanly speaking, at least as considerable a
personage as John the Baptist, ami the circumstances of
his life and death must have attracted at least as much
attention. There was no good reason why Josephus, if he
had been an honest historian, should have mentioned the
184 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OF THE LECT. VII.
latter and omitted the former. He had grown to manhood
during the time that Christianity was being spread over the
world ;(n) lie had probably witnessed the tumults excited
against St. Paul by his enemies at Jerusalem;1 he knew
of the irregular proceedings against " James the Lord's
brother ;"-'('-) lie must have been well acquainted with the
various persecutions which the Christians had undergone
at the hands of both Jews and heathen ;(13> at any rate he
could not fail to be at least as well informed as Tacitus on
the subject of transactions, of which his own country had
been the scene, and which had fallen partly within his own
lifetime. When, therefore, we find that he is absolutely
silent concerning the Christian religion, and, if he mentions
Christ at all, mentions him only incidentally in a single
passage, as, "Jesus, who was called Christ," (14) without ap-
pending further comment or explanation ; when we find
this, we cannot but conclude that for some reason or other
the Jewish historian practises an intentional reserve, and
will not enter upon a subject which excites his fears, (15) or
offends his prejudices. No conclusions inimical to the his-
toric accuracy of the New Testament can reasonably be
drawn from the silence of a writer who determinately
avoids the subject.
Further, in estimating the value of that direct evidence
of adversaries to the main facts of Christianity which
remains to us, we must not overlook the probability that
much evidence of this kind has perished. The books of the
early opponents of Christianity, which might have been of
the greatest use to us for the confirmation of the Gospel
History, (1C5 were with an unwise; zeal destroyed by the first
Christian Emperors.C17! Other testimony of the greatest
importance has perished by the ravages of time. It seems
1 Acts xxi. 27, et seqq. ; xxii. 22, 23 ; xxiii. 10. 2 Gal. i. 19.
LECT. VII. TRUTH OF THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 185
certain that Pilate remitted to Tiberius an account of the
execution of our Lord, and the grounds of it ; and that this
document, to which Justin Martyr more than once alludes, (18)
was deposited in the archives of the empire. The "Acts of
Pilate," as they were called, seem to have contained an
account, not only of the circumstances of the crucifixion,
and the grounds upon which the Roman governor regarded
himself as justified in passing sentence of death upon the
accused, but also of the Miracles of Christ — his cures per-
formed upon the lame, the dumb, and the blind, his cleans-
ing of lepers, and his raising of the dead.C9) If this valua-
ble direct testimony had been preserved to us, it would
scarcely have been necessary to enter on the consideration
of those indirect proofs of the historical truth of the New
Testament narrative arising from the incidental allusions
to the civil history of the times which must now occupy
our attention.
The incidental allusions to the civil history of the times
which the writings of the Evangelists furnish, will, I think,
be most conveniently reviewed by being grouped under
three heads. I shall consider, first of all, such as bear upon
the general condition of the countries which were the
scene of the history; secondly, such as have reference to
the civil rulers and administrators who are represented as
exercising authority in the countries at the time of the nar-
rative; and, thirdly, such as touch on separate and isolated
facts which might be expected to obtain mention in profane
writers. These three heads will embrace all the most im-
portant of the allusions in question, and the arrangement
of the scattered notices under them will, I hope, prove con-
ducive to perspicuity.
I. The political condition of Palestine at the time to
which the New Testament narrative properly belongs, was
16*
186 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OP THE LECT. VIL
one curiously complicated and anomalous ; it underwent
frequent changes, but retained through all of them certain
peculiarities, which made the position of the country
unique among the dependencies of Home. Not having
been conquered in the ordinary way, but having passed
under the Roman dominion with the consent and by the
assistance of a large party among the inhabitants, it was
allowed to maintain for a while a species of semi-independ-
ence, not unlike that of various native states in India which
are really British dependencies. A mixture, and to some
extent an alternation, of Roman with native power resulted
from this arrangement, and a consequent complication in
the political status, which must have made it very difficult
to be thoroughly understood by any one who was not a
native and a contemporary. The chief representative of
the Roman power in the East — the President of Syria, the
local governor, whether a Herod or a Roman Procurator,
and the High Priest, had each and all certain rights and a
certain authority in the country. A double system of tax-
ation, a double administration of justice, and even in some
degree a double military command, were the natural conse-
quence ; while Jewish and Roman customs, Jewish and
Roman words, were simultaneously in use, and a condition
of things existed full of harsh contrasts, strange mixtures,
and abrupt transitions. "Within the space of fifty years
Palestine was a single united kingdom under a native
ruler, a set of principalities under native ethnarchs and
tetrarchs, a country in part containing such principalities,
in part reduced to the condition of a Roman province, a
kingdom reunited once more under a native sovereign,
and a country reduced wholly under Rome and governed
by procurators dependent on the president of Syria, but
still subject in certain respects to the Jewish monarch of a
LECT. VII. TRUTH OP THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 187
neighboring territory. These facts we know from Jose-
phust*20) and other writers, who, though less accm-ate, on
the whole confirm his statements ;(2l> they render the civil
history of Judaea during the period one very difficult to
master and remember ; the frequent changes, supervening
upon the original complication, are a fertile source of con-
fusion, and seem to have bewildered even the sagacious
and painstaking Tacitus. C22) The New Testament narra-
tive, however, falls into no error in treating of the period ;
it marks, incidentally and without effort or pretension, the
various changes in the civil government — the sole king-
dom of Herod the Great,1 — the partition of his dominions
among his sons,2 — the reduction of Judaea to the condition
of a Roman province, while Galilee, Ituraea, and Trachonitis
continued under native princes,3 — the restoration of the old
kingdom of Palestine in the person of Agrippa the First,4
and the final reduction of the whole under Roman rule,
and reestablishment of Procurators'"' as the civil heads, while
a species of ecclesiastical superintendence was exercised
by Agrippa the Second.6 C83) Again, the New Testament
narrative exhibits in the most remarkable way the mixture
in the government — the occasional power of the president
of Syria, as shown in Cyrenius's "taxing;"7 the ordinary
division of authority between the High Priest and the Proc-
urator;" the existence of two separate taxations — the civil
and the ecclesiastical, the "census "J and the "didrachm;"1'
1 Matt. ii. 1 ; Luke i. -5.
2 Ibid. ii. 22, and xiv. 1 ; Luke iii. 1.
3 Luke iii. 1, et passim. * Acts xii. 1, ot soqq.
* Ibid, xxiii. 24 ; xxiv. 27, &c. B Ibid. xxv. 14, et seqq.
7 Luke ii. 2. Compare Acts v. 37.
8 Matt, xxvii. 1, 2 ; Acts xxii. 30 ; xxiii. 1-10.
"Ibid. xxii. 17. I0 Ibid. xvii. 24.
188 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OF THE LkCT. VII.
of two tribunals,1 two modus of capital punishment/34) two
military forces,- two methods of marking time;3 at every
turn it shows, even in such little matters as verbal expres-
sions, the coexistence of Jewish with Roman ideas and
practices in the country — a coexistence, which (it must be
remembered) came to an end within forty years of our
Lord's crucifixion. The conjunction in the same writings
of such Latinisms as xevivqltov* Xeyswp,5 7i;jtn.nbt>tot>]'' xovutui-
dlitj xr]voo;,B xodouviyg* dr/vuytov,10 uf/aii^io*',11 (TTzexoukuTioo,1*
yguyeXldxjag,13 and the like/25) with such Hebraisms as
xofjSuy,1* ()(tSpouv!,i5 dvo dvu,K Tiouaiul nouuiul,1' 70 3diXv//Ju
I John xviii. 28, 32, &c. • Matt, xxvii. G4, Go. 3 Luke iii. 1.
4 Lat. ce>itwio = ~E\\g. "centurion." (Mark xv. 39, 44, 45.)
5 Lat. frjr/o = Eng. "legion." (Matt. x.wi. 53; Mark v. 9; Luke
viii. 30.)
c Lat. prrrtorium, translated " common hall " in Matt, xxvii. 27 ;
"judgment hall," or "hall of judgment," in John xviii. 28, 33;
xix. 9; Acts xxiii. 35; "palate," in Phil. i. 13; "pra-torium," in
Mark xv. 16.
7 Lat. custodia = Eng. "watch." (Matt, xxvii. G5, GG ; xxviii. 11.)
8 Lat. census=~Eng. "tribute." (Matt. xvii. 25 ; xxii. 17, 19 ; Mark
xii. 14.)
9 Lat. quadrant =Eng. " farthing." (Matt. v. 26 ; Mark xii. 42.)
10 Lat. denarius = Eng. "penny." (Matt, xviii. 28; xx. 2, 9, 10,
13 ; xxii. 19 ; Mark vi. 37 ; xii. 15 ; xiv. 5 ; Luke vii. 41 ; x. 35 ; xx.
24 ; John vi. 7 ; xii. 5 ; Rev. vi. 6.)
II Lat. assarius = Eng. "farthing." (Matt. x. 29 ; Luke xii. 6.)
12 Lat. sp< culator — Tin™, "executioner." (Mark vi. 27.)
13 A participle of the verb (j>payi)./.ovv, formed from the Latin verb /?o<7-
ellarc = to scourge, or from the noun fiagellum = a scourge. It is
translated, " when he had scourged." (Matt, xxvii. 26 ; Mark xv. la.)
14 Ileb- ISl^p = "corban." (Mark vii. 11.)
15 Rabboni, John xx. 16, translated "Lord" in Mark x. 51.
16 Literally, "two, two;" translated "by two and two" in Mark
yi. 7. The repetition is a Hebraism.
17 Literally, " onion-beds, onion-beds," that is, " in squares," like a
LECT. VII. TRUTH OF THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 180
77]c tQrjfHbaewg* (26) was only natural in Palestine during the
period between Herod the Great and the destruction of
Jerusalem, and marks the writers for Jews of that time and
country. The memory of my hearers will add a multitude
of instances from the Gospels and the Acts similar in their
general character to those which have been here adduced
— indicative, that is, of the semi-Jewish, semi-Roman con-
dition of the Holy Land at the period of the New Testa-
ment narrative.
The general tone and temper of the Jews at the time,
their feelings towards the Romans and towards their neigh-
bors, their internal divisions and sects, their confident ex-
pectation of a deliverer, are represented by Josephus and
other writers in a manner which very strikingly accords
with the account incidentally given by the Evangelists.
The extreme corruption and Avickedness, not only of the
mass of the people, but even of the rulers and chief men, is
asserted by Josephus in the strongest terms ;C37) while at
the same time he testilies to the existence among them of
a species of zeal for religion — a readiness to attend the
feasts/28) a regularity in the offering of sacrifice/29) an
almost superstitious regard for the temple, &°) and a fanatic
abhorrence of all who sought to 'change the customs which
Moses had delivered."- The conspiracy against Herod the
Great, when ten men bound themselves by an oath to kill
him, and having armed themselves with short daggers,
which they hid under their clothes, entered into the theatre
where they expected Herod to arrive, intending if he
garden-plot ; translated " by companies." (Mark vi. 40.) The repeti-
tion is Hebraistic, as in the previous instance.
1 "The abomination of desolation." (Matt. xxiv. 15; Mark xiii. 1-1.7
Borrowed from Dan. xi. .'Jl ; xii. 11.
2 Acts vi. 14.
190 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OP THE Lect. VII.
came to fall upon him and despatch him with their
"weapons, (3I) breathes the identical spirit of that against St.
Paul, which the promptness of the chief captain Lysias
alone frustrated.1 Many such close resemblances have been
pointed out. (3-) We find from Josephus that there was a
warm controversy among the Jews themselves as to the
lawfulness of "giving tribute to Caesar ; " - (;t3) that the
Samaritans were so hostile to such of the Galiheans as
had their " faces set to go to Jerusalem," 3 that, on one
occasion at least, they fell upon those who were journeying
through their land to attend a feast, and murdered a large
number ; (34) that the Pharisees and Sadducees were noted
sects, distinguished by the tenets which in Scripture are
assigned to them ; (3:>) that the Pharisees were the more
popular, and persuaded the common people as they pleased,
while the Sadducees were important chiefly as men of high
rank and station ; (3fi) and that a general expectation,
founded upon the prophecies of the Old Testament, existed
.among the Jews during the Roman war, that a great king
was about to rise up in the East, of their own race and
country. (37) This last fact is confirmed by both Sue-
tonius C38) and Tacitus, <39) and is one which even Strauss
does not venture to dispute. (4°) Important in many ways,
it adds a final touch to that truthful portraiture of the
Jewish people at this period of their history, which the
Gospels and the Acts furnish — a portraiture alike free
from flattery and unfairness, less harsh on the whole than
that of Josephus, if less favorable than that of Philo. (41>
It would be easy to point out a further agreement be-
tween the Evangelical historians and profane writers with
respect to the manners and customs of the Jews at this
period. There is scarcely a matter of this kind noted in
1 Acts xxiii. 12-31. 2 Matt. xxii. 17. 3 Luke ix. 51.
LECT. VII. TRUTH OP THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 191
the New Testament which may not be confirmed from
Jewish sources, such as Josephus, Philo, and the Mishna.
The field, however, is too extensive for our present consid-
eration. To labor in it is the province rather of the Com-
mentator than of the Lecturer, who cannot effectively ex-
hibit arguments which depend for their force upon the
accumulation of minute details.
The points of agreement hitherto adduced have had
reference to the Holy Land and its inhabitants. It is not,
however, in this connection only that the accuracy of the
Evangelical writers in their accounts of the general condi-
tion of those countries which are the scene of their history,
is observable. Their descriptions of the Greek and Roman
world, so far as it comes under their cognizance, are most
accurate. Nowhere have the character of the Athenians
and the general appearance of Athens been more truth-
fully and skilfully portrayed than in the few verses of the
Acts which contain the account of St. Paul's visit.1 The
city "full. of idols" (xurf/(W.o;)2 — in "gold, and silver, and
marble, graven by art and man's device,'"'' recalls the
■ni'iki; 'oi.i, fiuiuu;, oA/y Bvuu ftfot; xul <bv<i8ijuu * of Xenophon, (''-)
the "Atheme simulachra deorum hominumque habentes,
omni genere et materia! et artium insignia"5 of Livy.C43)
The people — "Athenians and strangers, spending their
time in nothing else but hearing or telling of some new
thing"" — philosophizing and disputing <>n Mars' Hill and
in the market-place,7 glad to discuss though disinclined to
1 Arts xvii. 15, ct scqq. ! Ibid, xvii. 1G. 3 Ibid, verse 29.
* The whole city is an altar — the whole a sacrifice to the gods and an
oblation.
5 Athens, which has famous images of gods and men, of every variety
both of material and style of art.
6 Acts xvii. 21. 7 Ibid, verse 17.
192 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OF THE L.ECT. VIL
believe,1 and yet religions withal, standing in honorable
contrast with the other Greeks in respect of* their reverence
tor things divine,- are put before us with all the vividness
of life, just as they present themselves to our view in the
pages of their own historians and orators, t44"1 Again, how
striking and how thoroughly classical is the account of the
tumult at Ephesus,3 where almost every word receives
illustration from ancient coins and inscriptions, (45) as lias
been excellently shown in a recent work of great merit on
the Life of St. Paul! Or if we turn to Rome and the
Roman system, how truly do we find depicted the great
and terrible Emperor whom all feared to provoke W — the
provincial administration by proconsuls and others chiefly
anxious that tumults should be prevented C47"1 — the con-
temptuous religious tolerance (4S) — the noble principles of
Roman law, professed, if not always acted on, whereby
accusers and accused were brought " face to face," and the
latter had free "license to answer for themselves concern-
ing the crimes laid against them"4(49) — the privileges of
Roman citizenship, sometimes acquired by birth, sometimes
by purchase (5°) — the right of appeal possessed and exer-
cised by the provincials (51) — the treatment of prisoners <52)
— the peculiar manner of chaining them (5:n — the employ-
ment of soldiers as their guards C54) — the examination by
torture C55'* — the punishment of condemned persons, not
being Roman citizens, by scourging and crucifixion (56) —
the manner of this punishment C57"1 — the practice of bearing
the cross, C58) of affixing a title or superscription, (5y) of pla-
cing soldiers under a centurion to watch the carrying into
effect of the sentence, (6t)) of giving the garments of the
sufferer to these pe'-sons, (61> of allowing the bodies after
i Act? wii. 39, 33. 2 Ibid, verse 22.
* Ibw+ ~[y. jz:1> ot seqq. * Ibid. xxv. 16.
LECT. VII. TRUTH OF THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 193
death to be buried by the friends f62) — and the like! The
sacred historians are as familiar, not only with the general
character, but even with some of the obscurer customs of
Greece and Rome, as with those of their own country.
Fairly observant, and always faithful in their accounts, they
continually bring before us little points which accord
minutely with notices in profane writers nearly contem-
porary with them, while occasionally they increase our
knowledge of classic antiquity by touches harmonious with
its spirit, but additional to the information which we de-
rive from the native authorities. C63)
Again, it has been with reason remarked, (6,> that the
condition of the Jews beyond the limits of Palestine is
represented by the Evangelical writers very agreeably to
what may be gathered of it from Jewish and Heathen
sources. The wide dispersion of the chosen race is one of
the facts most evident upon the surface of the New Testa-
ment history. " Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and
dwellers in Mesopotamia and Judaea and Cappadocia,
Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt, and the
parts of Libya about Cyrene, strangers of Koine, Creted,
and Arabians,"1 are said to have been witnesses at Jerusa-
lem of the first outpouring of the Holy Ghost. In the
travels of St. Paul through Asia Minor and Greece there
is scarcely a city to which he comes hut has a large body
of Jewish residents. C65) Compare with these representa-
tions the statements of Agrippa the First in his letter to
Caligula, as reported by the .Jewish writer, Philo. "The
holy city, the place of my nativity," he says, "is the
metropolis, not of Jmhea only, but of most other countries,
by means of the colonies which have been sent out of it
from time to time — some to the neighboring countries oi
1 Acts ii. 9-11.
IT
19-1 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OF THE LECT. VIL
Egypt, Phoenicia, Syria, and Coelesyria — some to more dis-
tant regions, as Pamphylia, Cilicia, Asia as far as Bithynia
and the reeessoc 01 Pontus ; and in Europe, Thessaly,
Boeotia, Macedonia, JEtolia, Attica, Argos, Corinth, together
with the most famous of the islands, Eubcea, Cyprus, and
Crete ; to say nothing of those who dwell beyond the
Euphrates. For, excepting a small part of the Babylonian
and other satrapies, all the countries which have a fertile
territory possess Jewish inhabitants ; so that if thou shalt
show this kindness to my native place, thou wilt benefit
not one city only, but thousands in every region of the
world, in Europe, in Asia, in Africa — on the continents,
and in the islands — on the shores of the sea, and in the
interior." (C6) In a similar strain Philo himself boasts, that
" one region does not contain the Jewish people, since it is
exceedingly numerous ; but there are of them in almost all
the flourishing countries of Europe and Asia, both conti-
nental and insular." (G~) And the customs of these dis-
persed Jews are accurately represented in the New Testa-
ment. That they consisted in part of native Jews, in part
of converts or proselytes, is evident from Josephus ; C68) that
they had places of worship, called synagogues or oratories,
in the towns where they lived, appears from Philo ; that
these were commonly by the sea-side, or by a river-side, as
represented in the Acts,1 is plain from many authors ; (69>
that they had also — at least sometimes — a synagogue be-
longing to them at Jerusalem, whither they resorted at the
time of the feasts, is certain from the Talmudical wri-
ters ;(7°) that at Rome they consisted in great part of
freedmen or "Libertines" — whence "the synagogue of
the Libertines"2 — may be gathered from Philo (71) and
Tacitus. (72) Their feelings towards the apostolic preachers
1 Acts xvi. 13. 2 Ibid. vi. 9.
Lect. VIL truth of the scripture records. 195
are such as we should expect from persons whose close
contact with those of a different religion made them all the
more zealous for their own ; and their tumultuous proceed-
ings are in accordance with all that we learn from profane
authors of the tone and temper of the Jews generally at
this period. (73)
II. 1 proceed now to consider the second of the three
heads under which I proposed to collect the chief inciden-
tal allusions to the civil history of the times contained in
the New Testament.
The civil governors and administrators distinctly men-
tioned by the New Testament historians are the following
— the Roman Emperors, Augustus, Tiberius, and Claudius
— the Jewish kings and princes, Herod the Great, Arche-
laus, Herod the tetrarch, (or, as he is commonly called,
Herod Antipas,) Philip the tetrarch, Herod Agrippa the
first, and Herod Agrippa the second — the Roman gov-
ernors, Cyrenius (or Quirinus,) Pontius Pilate, Sergius
Paulus, Gallio, Festus, and Felix — and the Greek tetrarch,
Lysauias. It may be shown from profane sources, in
almost every case, that these persons existed — that they
lived at the time and bore the office assigned to them —
that they were related to each other, where any relation-
ship is stated, as Scripture declares — and that the actions
ascribed to them are either actually such as they per-
formed, or at least in perfect harmony with what profane
history tells us of their characters.
With regard to the Roman Emperors, it is enough to
remark, that Augustus, Tiberius, and Claudius occur in
their right order, that St. Luke in plaeing the commence-
ment of our Lord's ministry in the fifteenth year of Tibe-
rius1 and assigning to its duration a short term — probably
11 Luke iii. 1.
196 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OF THE LECT. VIL
three years — is in accord with Tacitus, who makes Christ
suffer under Tiberius (74> — and that the birth of our Lord
under Augustus,1 and the accession before the second jour-
ney of St. Paul of Claudius,2 are in harmony with the date
obtainable from St. Luke for the crucifixion, and sufficiently
suit the general scheme of profane chronology, which
places the accession of Augustus forty-four years before
that of Tiberius, and makes Claudius reign from A. D. 41
to A. D. 54. No very close agreement can be here exhib-
ited on account of the deficiency of an exact chronology,
which the Gospels share with many of the most important
historical writings ; but at any rate the notices are accord-
ant with one another, and present, when compared with
the dates furnished by j^rofane writers, no difficulty of any
real importance. (75>
The Jewish kings and princes whose names occur in the
New Testament narrative, occupy a far more prominent
place in it than the Roman Emperors. The Gospel narra-
tive opens " in the days of Herod the king," 3 who, as the
father of Archelaus,4 may be identified with the first monarch
of the name, the son of Antipater, the Idumaean. (76> This
monarch is known to have reigned in Palestine contempo-
raneously with Augustus, who confirmed him in his king-
dom, (77) and of whom he held the sovereignty till his
decease. (78) Cunning, suspicion, and cruelty are the chief
traits of his character as depicted in Scripture, and these
are among his most marked characteristics in Joscphus. (79)
It has been objected to the Scriptural narrative, that
Herod would not have been likely to inquire of the Magi
at what time they first saw the star, since he expected
them to return and give him a full description of the
1 Luke ii. 1-7. 2 Acts xviii. 2.
3 Matt. ii. 1 ; Luke i. 5. * Ibid. ii. 22.
Lect. VIL truth of the scripture records. 197
child ; (80) but this keen and suspicious foresight, where his
own interests were (as he thought) concerned, is quite in
keeping with the representations of Josephus, who makes
him continually distrust those with whom he has any deal-
ings. The consistency of the massacre at Bethlehem with
his temper and disposition is now acknowledged ;(8]) scepti-
cism has nothing to urge against it except the silence
of the Jewish writers, which is a weak argument, and one
outweighed, in my judgment, by the testimony, albeit
somewhat late, and perhaps inaccurate, of Macrobius. C82)
At the death of Herod the Great, his kingdom (accord-
ing to Josephus) was divided, with the consent of Augus-
tus, among three of his sons. Archelaus received Judaea,
Samaria, and Idumaea, with the title of ethnarch ; Philip
and Antipas were made tetrarchs, and received, the latter
Galilee and Peraea, the former Trachonitis and the adjoin-
ing regions. (^ The notices of the Evangelists are confess-
edly in complete accordance with these statements. C84) St.
Matthew mentions the succession of Archelaus in Judaea,
and implies that he did not reign in Galilee;1 St. Luke
records Philip's tetrarchy ;2 while the tetrarchy of Antipas,
who is designated by his family name of Herod, is dis-
tinctly asserted by both Evangelists:' Moreover, St. Mat-
thew implies that Archelaus bore a bad character at the
time of his accession or soon afterwards, which is consist-
ent with the account of Josephus, who tells us that he was
h;ilcd by the other members of his family, C85) and that
shortly after his father's death he slew three thousand
Jews on occasion of a tumult at Jerusalem, t86) The first
three Evangelists agree as to the character of Herod
Antipas, which is weak rather than cruel or bloodthirsty;
and their portraiture is granted to be "not inconsistent with
1 Matt ii. 22. 2 Luke iii. 1. 3 Ibid. ; Matt. xiv. 1.
17*
198 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OF THE LECT. VIL
his character, as gathered from other sources." (8?) The
fads of liis adultery with Herodias, the wife of one of his
brothers, (88) and of his execution of John the Baptist for no
crime that could be alleged against him, ^°) are recorded
by Josephus ; and though in the latter case there is some
apparent diversity in the details, yet it is allowed that the
different accounts may be reconciled. (90)
The continuance of the tetrarchy of Philip beyond the
fifteenth, and that of Antipas beyond the eighteenth of
Tiberius, is confirmed by Josephus, (91> who also shows that
the ethnarchy of Archelaus came speedily to an end, and
that Juda?a was then reduced to the condition of a Roman
province, and governed for a considerable space by Procu-»
rators. C92) However, after a while, the various dominions
of Herod the Great were reunited in the person of his
grandson, Agrippa, the son of Aristobulus and brother of
Herodias ; who was allowed the title of king, and was in
favor with both Caligula and Claudius. (93> It cannot be
doubted that this person is the "Herod the king "of the
Acts,1 whose persecution of the Church, whose impious
pride, and whose miserable death are related at length by
the sacred historian. My hearers are probably familiar
with that remarkable passage of Josephus in which he
records with less accuracy of detail than St. Luke the
striking circumstances of this monarch's decease — the
"set day" — the public assemblage — the "royal dress" —
the impious flattery — its complacent reception — the sud-
den judgment — the excruciating disease — the speedy
death. (94) Xowhere does profane history furnish a more
striking testimony to the substantial truth of the sacred
narrative — nowhere is the superior exactness of the latter
over the former more conspicuous.
1 Acts xii. 1.
LECT. VII. TRUTH OF THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 199
On the death of Herod Agrippa, Judaea (as Josephus
informs us) became once more a Roman province under
Procurators/95) but the small kingdom of Chalcis was, a
few years later, conferred by Claudius on this Herod's son,
Agrippa the Second, who afterwards received other terri-
tories. W This prince is evidently the "king Agrippa"
before whom St. Paul pleaded his cause.1 The Bernice
who is mentioned as accompanying him on his visit to Fes-
tus,2 was his sister, who lived with him and commonly
accompanied him upon his journeys. C97) Besides his sep-
arate sovereignty, he had received from the Emperor a
species of ecclesiastical supremacy in Judaea, where he had
the superintendence of the temple, the direction of the
sacred treasury, and the right of nominating the High
Priests. t98) These circumstances account sufficiently for
his visit to Judaea, and explain the anxiety of Festus that
lie should hear St. Paul, and St. Paul's willingness to plead
before him.
The Roman Procurators, Pontius Pilate, Felix, and Fes-
tus, are prominent personages in the history of Josephus,
where they occur in the proper chronological position, ("J
and bear characters very agreeable to those which are
assigned them by the sacred writers. The vacillation of
Pilate, his timidity, and at the same time his occasional
violence/100) the cruelty, injustice, and rapacity of Felix, (101)
and the comparatively equitable and mild character of Fes-
tus/1*2) are apparent in the Jewish historian; and have
some sanction from other writers. C103' The character of
Gallio, proconsul of AchaiaC1") and brother of the philoso-
pher Seneca, is also in close accordance with that which
may be gathered from the expressions of Seneca and Sta-
tins, who speak of him as "delightful" or " charming." <los'
1 Acts xxv. 13, et seqq. 2 Ibid.
200 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OP THE LSCT. V1L
Of Quirinus (or Cy renins) it is enough to say that he was
President of Syria shortly after the deposition of Arche-
laus, and that he was certainly sent to effect a "taxing" or
enrolment of all persons within his province, Palestine
included. (106) Sergius Paulus is unknown to us except
from St. Luke's account of him;1 hut his name is one which
was certainly home by Romans of this period, (107) and his
office is designated correctly. (108)
The Greek tetrarch, Lysanias, is the only civil governor
mentioned in the New Testament about whom there is any
real difficulty. A Lysanias held certainly a government in
these parts in the time of Antony ; (109) but this person was
put to death more than thirty years before the birth of
Christ, (110) and therefore cannot be the prince mentioned
as ruling over Abilene thirty years after Christ's birth. It
is argued that St. Luke " erred," being misled by the cir-
cumstance that the region continued to be known as " the
Abilene of Lysanias" down to the time of the second
Agrippa.C111) But, on the other hand, it is allowed that a
second Lysanias might have existed without obtaining men-
tion from profane writers ; (112) and the facts, that Abilene
was in Agrippa's time connected with the name Lysanias,
and that there is no reason to believe that it formed any
part of the dominions of the first Lysanias, favor the view,
that a second Lysanias, a descendant of the first, obtained
from Augustus or Tiberius an investiture of the tract in
question. (113>
III. It now only remains to touch briefly on a few of the
remarkable facts in the New Testament narrative which
might have been expected to attract the attention of pro-
fane historians, and of which we should naturally look to
have some record. Such facts are the "decree from Caesar
1 Acts xiii. 7-12.
LECT. VII. TRUTH OF THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 201
Augustus that all the world should he taxed"1 — the "tax-
ing" of Cyrenius'-' — the preaching and death of John the
Baptist — our Lord's execution as a criminal — the adultery
of Herod Antipas — the disturbances created by the impos-
tors Theudas and Judas of Galilee3 — the death of Herod
Agrippa — the famine in the days of Claudius4 — and the
"uproar" of the Egyptian Mho "led out into the wilderness
four thousand men that were murderers."5 Of these events
almost one half have been already shown to have been
recorded by profane writers whose works are still ex-
tant. C114) The remainder will now be considered with the
brevity which my limits necessitate.
It has been asserted that no "taxing of all the world" —
that is, of the whole Roman Empire — took place? in the
time of Augustus ;(115) but as the opposite view is main-
tained by Savigny(nc) — the best modern authority upon
Roman law — this assertion cannot be considered to need
examination here. A far more important objection to St.
Luke's statement is derived from the time at which this
"taxing" is placed by him. Josephus mentions the exten-
sion of the Roman census to Judaea under Cyrenius, at least
ten years later — after the removal of Archelaus,("7) and
seems to speak of this as the first occasion on which his
countrymen were compelled to submit to this badge of sub-
jection. It is argued that this //tttvt have been the first
occasion; and the words of St. Luke (it is said) — "this
taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of
Syria" — show that he intended the taxing mentioned by
Josephus, which lie consequently misdated by a decade of
years. (llrt) But the meaning of the passage in St. Luke is
doubtful in the extreme; and it admits of several explana-
1 Luke ii. 1. * Ibid, verso 2. 3 Arts v. 30, 37.
4 Ibid. xi. 28. 5 Ibid. xxi. 38.
202 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OF THE LECT. VIL
tions which reconcile it with all that Josephus says. (ny)
Perhaps the best explanation is that of Winston (,20> and
Prideaux (121) — that the design of Augustus was first fully
executed (Lyiveio) when Cyrenius was governor, though
the decree went forth and the enrolment commenced ten
years earlier.
The taxing of Cyrenius of which St. Luke speaks in this
passage, and to which he also alludes in the Acts,1 is (as we
have seen) very fully narrated by Josephus. It caused the
rebellion mentioned in Gamaliel's speech, which was
headed by Judas of Galilee, who "drew away much people
after him," but " perished," — all, as many as obeyed him,
being '■'■dispersed.'''12 This account harmonizes well with
that of* Josephus, who regards the followers of Judas as
numerous enough to constitute a sect, <122) and notes their
reappearance in the course of the last Avar with Home, by
which it is shown that though scattered they had not
ceased to exist. (123)
The disturbance created by a certain Theudas, some
time before the rebellion of Judas of Galilee, seems not to
be mentioned by any ancient author. The identity of name
is a very insufficient ground for assuming this impostor to
be the same as the Theudas of Josephus, C24) who raised
troubles in the procuratorship of Cuspius Fadus, about ten
years after Gamaliel made his speech. There were, as
Josephus says,(125) "innumerable disturbances" in Judaea
about this time ; and it is not at all improbable that within
the space of forty years, during which a number of impos-
tors gathered followers and led them to destruction, two
should have borne the same name. Nor can it be consid-
ered surprising that Josephus has passed over the earlier
Theudas, since his followers were only four hundred, and
1 Acts v. 37. 2 Ibid, verse 36.
LECT. VII. TRUTH OF THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 203
since the historian evidently omits all but the most impor-
tant of the troubles which had afflicted his country.
The " uproar " of the Egyptian who " led out into the
wilderness four thousand men that were murderers," *
is described at length by the Jewish writer, (126) the only
noticeable difference between his account and that of St.
Luke being that Josephus in his present text calls the
number of this impostor's followers thirty thousand. From
internal evidence there is reason to think that igiGfiigioi is
a corrupt reading; (12~) but even as the text stands, it does
not contradict St. Luke ; for the four thousand of St'. Luke
are the number whom the impostor "led out into the wil-
derness," while the thirty thousand of Josephus are the
number whom he " brought from the wilderness" to attack
Jerusalem.
The " famine in the days of Claudius " 3 is mentioned by
several writers. Josephus tells us that it was severe in
Palestine in the fourth year of this emperor; Dio, Tacitus,
and Suetonius, speak of it as raging somewhat later in
Rome itself. (ia8> Helena, queen of Adiabene — the richest
portion of the ancient Assyria — brought relief to the Jews
on the occasion, as St. Barnabas and St. Paul did to the
Christians.3 The agreement is here complete, even if the
words of Agabus's prophecy are pressed — for the scarcity
seems to have been general throughout the Empire.
This review — imperfect. as it necessarily is — will proba-
bly be felt to suffice for our present purpose. We have
found that the New Testament, while in its main narrative
it treats of events with which heathen writers wire not likely
to concern themselves, and which they could not represent,
truly, contains — inextricably interwoven with that main
narrative — a vast body of incidental allusions to the eivij
1 Acts xxi. 38. 2 Ibid. xi. 28. 3 Ibid, verses 29, 30.
204 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OP THE LECT. VII.
history of the times, capable of being tested by comparison
with the works of profane historians. We have submitted
the greater part — or at any rate a great part — of these
incidental allusions to the test of such comparison; and we
have found, in all but some three or four cases, an entire
and striking harmony. In no case have we met with clear
and certain disagreement ; sometimes, but very rarely, the
accounts are difficult to reconcile, and we may suspect
them of real disagreement — a result which ought not to
cause us any astonishment. Profane writers are not infalli-
ble; ahd Josephus, our chief profane authority for the time,
has been shown, in matters where he does not come into
any collision with the Christian Scriptures, to " teem with
inaccuracies." (129) If in any case it should be thought that
we must choose between Josephus and an Evangelist,
sound criticism requires that we should prefer the latter to
the former. Josephus is not entirely honest : he has his
Roman masters to please, and he is prejudiced in favor of
his own sect, the Pharisees. He has also been convicted
of error, (130> which is not the case with any Evangelist.
His authority therefore is, in the eyes of an historical critic,
inferior to that of the Gospel writers, and in any instance of
contradiction, it would be necessary to disregard it. In
fact, however, we are not reduced to this necessity. The
Jewish writer nowhere actually contradicts our Scriptures,
and in hundreds of instances he confirms them. It is
evident that the entire historical framework, in which the
Gospel picture is set, is real; that the facts of the civil his-
tory, small and great, are true, and the personages correctly
depicted. To suppose that there is this minute historical
accuracy in all the accessories of the story, and that the
story itself is mythic, is absurd ; unless we will declare the
Apostles and their companions to have sought to palm
LECT. VII. TRUTH OF THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 205
upon mankind a tale which they knew to be false, and to
have aimed at obtaining credit for their fiction by elaborate
attention to these minutiae. From such an avowal even
Rationalism itself would shrink; but the only alternative is
to accept the entire history as authentic — as, what the
Church has always believed it to be, the Truth. "All
truth is contained in the Gospel." (131> " It is but just, that
he who was worthy of the title of an Evangelist, should be
exempt from all suspicion of either negligence or false-
hood." ('^ "The Evangelists had perfect knowledge, . . .
and if any one docs not yield his assent to them, he contemns
those who were partners of the Lord, he contemns Christ
himself, he contemns also the Father." x(133) Such has been
the uniform teaching of the Church of Christ from the first
— and modern Rationalism has failed to show any reason
why we should reject it.
' " Veritas omnis in Evangelio continctur." " Ab hoc, qui Evange-
lista esse meruit, vel negligentiae vel mendacii suspicioncm aequum est
propulsari." •• Evangelistaj habuerunt perfectam agnitionem . . . qui-
bus si quis non assentit. sp°rni*. quidem partieipes Domini, spcrnit c*
ipsum Christum, sperm*, pt PV<rem."
18
LECTURE VIII.
THE PHARISEES THEREFORE SAID UNTO HIM, THOU BEAREST RECORD OP
THY8ELFJ THY RECORD IS NOT TRIE. JESUS ANSWERED AND SAID
INTO THEM, THOUGH I REAR RECORD OF MY8ELF, YET MY RECORD IS
TRUE. — JOHN VIII. 13,14.
If the evidence from profane sources to the primary
facts of the New Testament narrative be, as was admitted
in the last Lecture, disappointingly scanty, the defect is
more than made up to us by the copious abundance of
those notices which early Christian writers have left us of
the whole series of occurrences forming the basis of our
Religion. It has been customary with Christian apologists
to dwell more especially on the profane testimony, despite
its scantiness — doubtless because it has been felt that a
certain amount of suspicion is regarded as attaching to
those who " bear record of themselves," and that the evi-
dence of Christian witnesses to the truth of Christianity is
in some degree a record of this nature. But our Lord's
words teach us that self-witness, however unconvincing to
the adversary, may be valid and true; and certainly it
is difficult to conceive how the full acceptance of the
Christian facts, and conformity of the profession and life
thereto, renders a witness unworthy of belief, whose testi-
mony would have been regarded as of the highest value if
he had stopped short of such acceptance, and while admit-
ting the facts to a certain extent had remained a Heathen
(206)
LECT. VIII. TRUTH OF THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. £07
or a Jew. Had Justin Martyr, for instance, when he in-
quired into Christianity, found the evidence for it such as
he could resist, and lived and died a Platonic philosopher,
instead of renouncing all for Christ and finally sealing his
testimony with his blood, what a value would have been
set upon any recognition in his writings of the life and
miracles of Christ or the sufferings of the early Christians !
It is difficult to see why he deserves less credit, because he
found the evidences for the Christian doctrine so strong
that he felt compelled to become a believer. O At any
rate, if for controversial purposes the argument derivable
from the testimony of Christians be viewed as weak, it
must possess a weight for those who believe far exceeding
that of the witness of Jews and Heathens, and must there-
fore deserve a place in any summary that is made of the
Historical Evidences to the truth of the Christian Religion.
It has been sometimes urged that the early Christians
were persons of such low rank and station, so wanting in
refinement, education, and that critical discernment which
is requisite to enable men fairly to judge of the claims of a
new religion, that their decision in favor of Christianity is
entitled to little respect — since they must have been quite
unable to appreciate the true value of its evidences. (2)
This objection claims to base itself on certain admissions
of the earliest Christian preachers themselves, who remark
that "not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty,
not many noble, were called."1 But such expressions are
not to be pressed too far. In their very letter 'they do but
declare the general condition of the converts; while they
imply that there were, even in the first, times, some excep-
tions— persons to whom the terms, "wise men after the
flesh, mighty, and noble," might have been properly ap-
1 1 Cor. i. 26,
208 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OF THE L.ECT. VIII.
plied; and the examples of St. Paul himself, of Dionysius
the Areopagite, of the Ethiopian eunuch, of "Erastus the
chamberlain of the city,"1 and of the cor <erts from " Caasar's
household," 2 are sufficient to show th;:,t the Gospel found
its own in every rank and grade of society, and if it waa
embraced most readily by the poor and despised, still
gathered to it "chosen vessels"3 from among the educated,
and occasionally from among the rich and great. The
early Christians furnished, for their number, a considera-
ble body of writers ; and these writers will bear compari-
son in respect of every intellectual qualification with the
best Heathen authors of the period. Justin Martyr, Athe-
nagoras, Tertullian, Origen, Clement, would have been
reckoned authors of eminence, had they not been "Fathers,"
and are at least as good evidence for the historical facts of
the age immediately preceding their own, as Tacitus, Sue-
tonius, and Dio. It will be my object in the present
Lecture to show that these writers, and others of the same
age or even earlier, bear copious witness to the facts re-
corded in the historical books of the New Testament, and
are plainly as convinced of their reality as of that of any
facts whatever which they have occasion to mention.
The Epistle ascribed to St. Barnabas by Clement of
Alexandria (3) and Origen, W whether really the work of
that pei-son or no, is at any rate one of the most ancient of
the uninspired Christian writings, belonging as it does to
the first, or to the early part of the second century. (5)
The writer's object is to explain the spiritual meaning of
the Old Testament ; and in the course of his exposition he
mentions as undoubted facts the miracles of Christ — his
appointment of his apostles — their number, twelve — his
scourging — his being smitten on the face — his being set
1 Rom. xvi. 23. a Philipp. iv. 22. 3 Acts ix. 15.
LECT. VIII TRUTH OF THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 209
at nought and jested upon — his being arrayed in a scarlet
robe — his crucifixion — his receiving gall and vinegar to
drink — his death — the casting of lots upon his garment —
his resurrection on the first day of the week — and his
final ascension into heaven. (6> All these notices moreover
occur in a small tract, chiefly concerned with the Old Tes-
tament, and extending to no more than ten or twelve
ordinary pages.
An Epistle of St. Clement, Bishop of Rome, to the
Corinthians, is allowed on all hands to be genuine. (7) This
work was certainly composed in the first century, before
some of the writings of St. John ; and its author, the
" fellow-laborer " of St. Paul,1 must have had frequent com-
munication with those who had Avitnessed the great events
in Judaaa which formed the foundation of the new religion.
The object of the Epistle is to compose existing dissensions
in the Corinthian Church, and its tone is from first to last
hortatory and didactic. Historical allusions only find a
place in it casually and incidentally. Yet it contains a
mention of Christ's descent from Jacob, of his great power
and regal dignity, his voluntary humiliation, his sufferings,
the character of his teaching, his death for man, his resur-
rection, the mission of the apostles, their inspiration by the
Holy Ghost, their preaching in many lands, their ordination
of elders in every city, the special eminence in the Church
of Saints Peter and Paul, the sufferings of St. Peter, the
hardships endured by St. Paul, his distant travels, his many
imprisonments, his flights, his stoning, his bonds, his testi-
mony before rulers. (H) The fact of St. Paul's having
written an Epistle to the Corinthians is also asserted ; W
and an allusion is made, in connection with that Epistle, to
the early troubles and divisions which the great Apostle
1 Philipp. iv. 3.
18*
210 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OF THE LECT. VIII.
had composed, when the several sections of the newly-
planted Church strove together in a jealous spirit, affirming
themselves to he "of Paul," or "of Apollos," or "of
Cephas," or even " of Christ."
Ignatius, second Bishop of Antioch, who succeeded to
that see in ahout the year of the destruction of Jerusa-
lem, (10) and was martyred nearly forty years later, A. D.
107, C11) left behind him certain writings, which are quoted
with great respect by subsequent Fathers, but the existence
of which at the present day is questioned. Writings under
the name of Ignatius have come down to us in various
shapes. Three Epistles, universally regarded as spu-
rious, (12) exist only in Latin. Twelve others are found in
Greek, and also in two ancient Latin versions ; and of
these, seven exist in two different forms — a longer, and a
shorter one. Most modern critics accept these seven, in
their shorter form, as genuine. C3) They are identical with
the seven mentioned by Eusebius and Jerome/14) and they
are thought to be free from the internal difficulties, which
cause suspicion to attach to the longer recension, as well as
to the Epistles which those writers do not name. Doubts
have, however, been recently started even with respect to
these seven. The discovery in a very ancient MS. of a
Syriac version of three Epistles only out of the seven,
and these three in a still briefer form than that of the
shorter Greek recension, together with the remarkable fact
that the few early references which we possess to the writ-
ings of Ignatius are to passages in exactly these three
compositions — has induced some learned men of our own
day to adopt the view, that even the shorter Greek recen-
sion is largely interpolated, and that nothing beyond the
three Epistles of the Syriac version can be depended upon
as certainly written by the Antiochian Bishop. (15) If we
LECT. VIII. TRUTH OP THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 211
adopt this opinion, the testimony of Ignatius to the histori-
cal truth of the New Testament narrative will be somewhat
scanty — if we abide by the views generally prevalent be-
fore the Syriac version was discovered, and still maintained
since that discovery by some divines of great learning and
excellent judgment, <16) it will be as full and satisfactory as
that borne by St. Clement. In the seven Epistles we find
notices of the descent of Christ from David — his concep-
tion by the Holy Ghost — his birth of a virgin — her name,
Mary — his manifestation by a star — his baptism by John
— its motive, "that he might fulfil all righteousness"1 —
his appeals to the Prophets — the anointing of his head
with ointment — his sufferings and crucifixion under Pon-
tius Pilate and Herod the tetrarch — his resurrection, not
on the Sabbath, but on the " Lord's day " — the resurrec-
tion through his power of some of the old prophets — hi;
appearance to his disciples and command to them to "han-
dle him and see"2 that he was not a spirit — his eating and
drinking with them after he had risen — the mission of the
Apostles — their obedience to Christ — their authority over
the Church — the inclusion of Saints Peter and Paul in
their number.*17) If, on the contrary, we confine ourselves
to the Syriac version — by which the entire writings of St.
Ignatius are comprised in about five pages C18) — we lose the
greater portion of these testimonies, but we still retain those
to the birth of Christ from the Virgin Mary — his manifesta-
tion by a star — his many sufferings — his crucifixion — and
the apostolic mission of Saints Peter and Paul.
Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, a disciple of St. John, and
a younger contemporary of Ignatius, left behind him a sin-
gle Epistle, addressed to the Philippians, which we possess
in the original Greek, with the exception of three or four
1 Mutt. iii. 15. 2 Luke xxiv. 3'J.
212 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OF THE LECT. VIIL
sections, where the Greek text is wanting, and we have
only a Latin version. (19) In this Epistle, which is a short
composition, and, like the other remains of early Christian
antiquity, of a hortatory character, we find allusions to the
humble life of Christ, his ministering to those about him,
the character of his preaching, his sufferings, death upon
the cross, resurrection, and ascension to heaven ; his prom-
ise to " raise up his disciples at the last day " J — the suffer-
ings of St. Paul and the other Apostles, the preaching of
St. Paul at Philippi, and the fact of his having written an
Epistle to the Philippians.t20) We also learn from Irenams
that this Father used to relate his conversations with St.
John and others, who had seen the Lord, and to repeat
what they had told him both of the teaching and miracles
of Jesus. (21>
A work of the first or earlier half of the second century
has come down to us under the name of "The Shepherd of
Hennas." Eusebius and Jerome ascribe it to the Hennas
who is saluted by St. Paul at the end of Ins Epistle to the
Romans 5^) but there are reasons for assigning it to a later
Hennas — the brother of Pius, who was the ninth bishop
of Rome. C23) This work is an allegory on a large scale, and
consequently cannot contain any direct historical testimony.
Its tone is consonant with the Christian story, and it con-
tains some allusions to the mission of the Apostles, their trav-
els for the purpose of spreading the truth over the world,
and the sufferings to which they were exposed in conse-
quence;^4) but on the whole it is of little service towards
establishing the truth of any facts.
It was not until the Christian writers addressed them-
selves to the world without — and either undertook the task
of refuting the adversaries of the truth, or sought by Apolo-
1 John vi. 40.
LECT. VIII. TRUTH OF THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 213
gies to recommend the new religion to their acceptance —
that the facts of the Christian story came naturally to oc-
cupy a prominent place in their compositions. Quadratus,
Bishop of Athens in the early part of the second century,
was, so far as we know, the first to write a defence of
Christianity addressed to the Heathen, which lie seems to
have presented to the Emperor Adrian C25' about the year
A. D. 122. This work is unfortunately lost, but a passage
preserved by Eusebius gives us an indication of the sort of
evidence which it would probably have furnished in abun-
dance. " The works of our Saviour," says Quadratus, " were
always conspicuous, for they were real; both they which were
healed and they which were raised from the dead ; who were
seen not only when they were healed or raised, but for a long
time afterwards ; not only while he dwelt on this earth, but
also after his departure, and for a good while after it ; inso-
much that some of them have reached to our times." (26)
About twenty-five years after Quadratus had presented
his "Apology" to Adrian, his younger contemporary, Jus-
tin, produced a similar composition, which he presented to
the first Antonine, probably about A. D. 148. <27) Soon
afterwards he published his "Dialogue with Tryphon" —
an elaborate controversial work, defensive of Christianity
from tin; attacks of Judaism. Finally, about A. D. 165, or
a little earlier, he wrote a second "Apology," which he pre-
sented to Marcus Aurelius and the Roman Senate.C28) It
has been truly observed, that from the writings of this
Father — "the earliest, of whose works we possess any con-
siderable remains" t29) — there "might be collected a tolera-
bly complete account of Christ's life, in all points agreeing
with that which is delivered in our Scriptures."1:30) Justin
declares the marriage of Mary and Joseph — their descent
from David — the miraculous conception of Christ — the
214 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OF THE LECT. VIIL
intention of Joseph to put away his wife privily — the ap-
pearance to him of an angel which forbade him — the
angelic determination of the name Jesus, with the reason
assigned for it — the journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem
— the birth of our Lord there — his lying in a manger — his
circumcision — the extraordinary appearance of a star —
the coming of the Wise Men — their application to Herod
— their adoration and gifts — the warning to them not to
return to Herod — the descent into Egypt — the massacre
of the Innocents — the death of Herod and accession of
Archelaus — the return from Egypt — the obscure early
life of Christ, and his occupation as a carpenter — his bap-
tism by St. John the Baptist in Jordan — the descent of
the Spirit upon him in the form of a dove — the testimony
borne to his greatness by John — his temptation by the
devil — the character of his teaching — his confutation of
his opponents — his miracles — his prophecies of the suffer-
ings which should befall his disciples — his changing Si-
mon's name to Peter, and the occasion of it — his naming
the sons of Zebedee, Boanerges — his triumphal entry into
Jerusalem riding upon an ass — his institution of the Eu-
charist — his singing a hymn with his disciples — his visit
to the Mount of Olives on the eve of his crucifixion, accom-
panied by the three favored apostles, and the prayer there
offered to the Father — his silence before Pilate — his being
sent by Pilate to Herod — his sufferings and crucifixion —
the mockery of those who stood by — the casting of lots
I'ov the garment — the flight of the apostles — the words on
giving up the ghost — the burial at eventide — the resur-
rection on the third day — the appearances to the apostles
— the explanation to them of the prophecies — the ascen-
sion into heaven as they were looking on — the preaching
jf the apostles afterwards — the descent of the Holy Ghost
LECT. VIII. TRUTH OF THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 215
— the conversion of the Gentiles — the rapid spread of the
Gospel through all lands. (31) No one can pretend to doubt
but that in Justin's time the facts of the New Testament
History were received as simple truth — not only by him-
self, but by Christians generally, in whose name his Apolo-
gies were written and presented to the Roman Emperors.
It is needless to carry this demonstration further, or to
produce similar lists from Athenagoras, Tertullian, Irenaeus,
Origen, and others. From the time of Justin the Church
of Christ can show a series of writers, who not only exhibit
incidentally their belief of the facts which form the basis
of the Christian Religion, but who also testify explicitly
to the universal reception among Christians of that narra-
tive of the facts which we possess in the New Testament
— a narrative which, as was shown in the last Lecture, (32>
they maintain to be absolutely and in all respects true.
Those who assert the mythic character of the New Testa-
ment history, must admit as certain that its mythic charac-
ter was unsuspected by the Christians of the second century,
who received with the most entire and simple faith the
whole mass of facts put forth in the Gospels and the Acts,
regarding them as real and actual occurrences, and appeal-
ing to profane history for their confirmation in various most
important particulars. To fair and candid minds the evi-
dence adduced from uninspired writers of the first century,
though comparatively scanty, is (I think) sufficient to show-
that their belief was the same as that of Christians in the
second, and that it was just as firm and undoubting.
The arguments hitherto adduced have been drawn from
the literary compositions of the first ages of Christianity.
Till recently these have been generally regarded as pre-
senting the whole existing proof of the faith and practice of
the early Church : and sceptics have therefore been eager to
210 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OP THE Lect. VIIL
throw every possible doubt upon them, and to maintain
that forgery and interpolation have so vitiated this source
of knowledge as to render it altogether untrustworthy. C33)
The eftbrts made, weak and contemptible as they are felt
to be by scholars and critics, have nevertheless had a cer-
tain influence over the general tone of thought on the sub-
ject, and have caused many to regard the early infancy of
Christianity as a dim and shadowy cloud-land, in which
nothing is to be seen, except a few figures of bishops and
martyrs moving uncertainly amid the general darkness.
Under these circumstances it is well that attention should
be called — as it has been called recently by several publi-
cations of greater or less research C34) — to the monumental
remains of early Christian times which are still extant, and
which take us back in the most lively way to the first ages
of the Church, exhibiting before our eyes those primitive
communities, which Apostles founded, over which Apos-
tolic men presided, and in which Confessors and Martyrs
were almost as numerous as ordinary Christians. As when
we tread the streets of Pompeii, we have the life of the old
Pagan world brought befoi*e us with a vividness which
makes all other representations appear dull and tame, so
when we descend into the Catacombs of Rome we seem to
see the struggling persecuted community, which there, "in
dens and caves of the earth," l wrought itself a hidden
home, whence it went forth at last conquering and to con-
quer, triumphantly establishing itself on the ruins of the old
religion, and bending its heathen persecutors to the yoke
of Christ. Time was when the guiding spirits of our Church
not only neglected the study of these precious remnants of
an antiquity which ought to be far dearer to us than that of
Greece or Pagan Home, of Egypt, Assyria, or Babylon —
1 Ueb. xi. 3^.
LECT. VIII. TRUTH OF THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 217
but even ventured to speak of them with contempt, as the
recent creations of Papal forgers, who had placed among
the arenarice or sandpits of heathen times the pretended
memorials of saints who were never born, and of martyrs
who never suffered. (3:') But with increased learning and
improved candor modern Anglicanism has renounced
this shallow and untenable theory; and it is at length
admitted universally, alike by the Protestant and the
Romanist, that the Catacombs themselves, their present
contents, and the series of inscriptions which have been
taken from them and placed in the Papal galleries, are
genuine remains of primitive Christian antiquity, and
exhibit to us — imperfectly, no doubt, but so far as their
evidence extends, truly — the condition and belief of the
Church of Christ in the first ages.
For it is impossible to doubt that the Catacombs belong
to the earliest times of Christianity. It was only during
the ages of persecution that the Christians were content to
hide away the memorials of their dead in gloomy galleries
deep below the earth's surface, where i'ew eyes could ever
rest on them. With liberty and security came the practice
of burying within, and around, the churches, which grew
up on all sides; and though undoubtedly the ancient burial
places would not have been deserted all at once, since
habit and affection would combine to prevent such disuse,
yet still from the time of Constantine burying in the Cata-
combs must have been on the decline, and the bulk of the
tombs in them must be regarded as belonging to the first
three centuries. The fixed dates obtainable from a certain
number of the tombs confirm this view; and the style of
ornamentation and form of the letters used in the inscrip-
tions, are thought to be additional evidence of its cor-
rectness.
19
218 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OF THE LECT. VIII.
What then is the evidence of the Catacombs? In the
first place, it is conclusive as to the vast number of the
Christians in these early ages, when there was nothing to
tempt men, and every thing to disincline them, towards em-
bracing the persecuted faith. The Catacombs are calcu-
lated to extend over nine hundred miles of streets, and to
contain almost seven millions of graves ! (3C) The Roman
Christians, it will be remembered, are called by Tacitus " a
vast multitude" — (ingens multitudo) — in the time of
Nero ; (3?) by the age of Valerian they are reckoned at one
half the population of the city ;(38> but the historical records
of the past have never been thought to indicate that their
number approached at all near to what this calculation —
which seems fairly made (39) — would indicate. Seven mil-
lions of deaths in (say) four hundred years would, under
ordinary circumstances, imply an average population of
from five hundred thousand to seven hundred thousand —
an amount immensely beyond any estimate that has hith-
erto been made of the number of Roman Christians at any
portion of the period. Perhaps the calculation of the
number of graves may be exaggerated, and probably the
proportion of deaths to population was, under the peculiar
circumstances, unusually large ; but still the evidence of
vast numbers which the Catacombs furnish cannot wholly
mislead ; and we may regard it as established beyond all
reasonable doubt, that in spite of the general contempt and
hatred, in spite of the constant ill-usage to which they were
exposed, and the occasional "fiery trials" which proved
them, the Christians, as early as the second century,
formed one of the chief elements in the population of
Rome.
In the next place, the Catacombs afford proof of the
daggers and sufferings to which the early Christians were
LECT. VIII TRUTH OF THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 219
exposed. Without assuming that the phials which have
contained a red liquid, found in so many of the tombs,
must have held blood, and that therefore they are certain
signs of martyrdom, and without regarding the palm-
branch as unmistakable evidence of the same t40' — we may
find in the Catacombs a good deal of testimony confirma-
tory of those writers who estimate at the highest the num-
ber of Christians who suffered death in the great persecu-
tions. The number of graves, if we place it at the lowest,
compared with the highest estimate of the Christian popu-
lation that is at all probable, would give a proportion of
deaths to population enormously above the average — a
result which at any rate lends support to those who assert
that in the persecutions of Aurelius, Decius, Diocletian,
and others, vast multitudes of Christians were massacred.
Further, the word Martyr is frequent upon the tombs ; and
often where it is absent, the inscription otherwise shows
that the deceased lost his life on account of his religion. <41>
Sometimes the view opens on us, and we see, besides the
individual buried, a long vista of similar sufferers — as when
one of Aurelius's victims exclaims — "O unhappy times,
in which amid our sacred rites and prayers, — in the very
caverns, — we are not safe ! What is more wretched than
our life? What more wretched than a death, when it is
impossible to obtfin burial at the hands of friends or
relatives? Still at the end they shine like stars in Heaven.
A poor life is his, who has lived in Christian times !'" (42)
Again, the Catacombs furnish a certain amount of evi-
dence with respect to the belief of the early Christians.
1 "O temporal infausta! quibus inter sacra et vota no in eavernis
quidem salvari possimus. Quid miserius vita ? Sed quid miserius in
morte, cum ab amicis et parentibus sepeliri nequeant ? Tandem ia
ccelo coruscant ! l'arum vixit qui vixit in Christianis temporibus."
220 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OF THE LECT. VIII.
The doctrine of the resurrection is implied or expressed on
almost every tombstone which has been discovered. The
Christian is not dead — lie "rests" or "sleeps" — lit* is not
buried, but "deposited" in his grave (43) — and he is always
"at peace," (in pace.) The survivors do not mourn Ins loss
despairingly, but express trust, resignation, or moderate
grief. C4) The Anchor, indicative of the Christian's " sure
and certain hope," is a common emblem ; and the Phoenix
and Peacock are used as more speaking signs of the Resur-
rection. The Cross appears, though not the Crucifix ; and
other emblems are employed, as the Dove and the Cock,
which indicate belief in the sacred narrative as we possess
it. There are also a certain number of pictures in the Cata-
combs; and these represent ordinarily historical scenes
from the Old or New Testament, treated in a uniform and
conventional way, but clearly expressive of belief in the
facts thus represented. The Temptation of Eve — Moses
striking the rock — Noah welcoming the return of the
Dove — Elijah ascending to heaven — Daniel among the
lions — Shadrach, Meshech, and Abednego in the fiery
furnace — Jonah under the gourd — Jonah swallowed by
the whale — and Jonah vomited out on the dry land, are
the favorite subjects from the Old Testament; while from
the New Testament we find the Adoration of the Wise
Men — their interview with Herod — the Baptism of Christ
by John the Baptist — the healing of the Paralytic — the
turning of the water into wine — the feeding of the five
thousand — the raising of Lazarus — the Last Supper —
Peter walking on the sea — and Pilate washing his hands
before the people. (45> St. Peter and St. Paul are also fre-
quently represented, and St. Peter sometimes bears the Keys,
in plain allusion to the gracious promise of his Master.1
1 Matt. xiv. 19.
LECT. VIII. TRUTH OF THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 221
The parabolic teaching of our Lord is sometimes em-
bodied by the artists, who never tire of repeating the
type of the " Good Shepherd " — and who occasionally
represent the Sower going out to sow, and the parable of
the Wise and Foolish Virgins. In this way indirect evi-
dence is borne to the historic belief of the early Church,
which does not appear to have differed at all from that of
orthodox Christendom at the present day.
If it be still said — Why are we to believe as they? —
why are we in this enlightened nineteenth century to re-
ceive as facts, what Greeks and Romans in an uncritical
and credulous age accepted without inquiry, or at least
without any searching investigation? — the answer is two-
fold. Allowing that the bulk of men in the first and second
centuries were uncritical and credulous with respect to
remote times, and to such tales as did not concern action
or involve any alteration of conduct, we may remark that
it is untrue to represent them as credulous where their
worldly interests were at stake, or where any practical
result was to follow upon their belief of what they heard.
They are not found to have offered themselves a ready
prey to impostors, or to have allowed themselves to be car-
ried away by the arts of pretenders, where such weakness
would have brought them into trouble. We do not find
that Simon Magus or Apollonius of Tyana had many fol-
lowers. When the slave Clemens gave himself out to be
Posthumus Agrippa, though the wishes of most men must
have been in favor of his claims, very few appear to have
really believed in them.*46) The Romans, and still more
the Greeks, had plenty of shrewdness; and there \v:is no
people less likely than they to accept on slight grounds a.
religion involving such obligations as the Christian. It is
important to bear in mind what conversion really meant in
10*
222 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OF THE LECT. VIII.
the early times. It meant the severing of family and social
tics — the renunciation of worldly prospects — abstinence
from all gayeties and amusements — perpetual exposure to
insults — cold looks, contemptuous gestures, abusive words,
injurious suspicions, a perpetual sense of danger, a life to
lead which was to "die daily."1 "The early Christians," it
has been well said, " were separate from other men. Their
religion snapped asunder the ties of a common intercourse.
It called them to a new life ; it gave them new sentiments,
hopes, and desires, a new character ; it demanded of them
such a conscientious and steady performance of duty as
had hardly before been conceived of; it subjected them to
privations and insults, to uncertainty and danger ; it re-
quired them to prepare for torments and death. Every
day of their lives they were strongly reminded of it by
the duties which it enforced and the sacrifices which it cost
them."(47) Before accepting such a position, we may be
well assured that each concert scanned narrowly the evi-
dence upon which he was invited to make a change in
every way so momentous. When they first heard the doc-
trine of the resurrection, the Athenians "mocked."2 Yet
after a while Dionysius and others "clave to Paul and be-
lieved"'1— surely because they found the evidence of the
resurrection of Christ such as could not be resisted. It
must be remembered that the prospect of his own resur-
rection was all that the new convert had to sustain him.
" If in this life only we have hope, we are of all men most
miserable," says St. Paul.4 And the prospect of his own
resurrection was bound up inseparably with the" fact of
Christ's having risen. If Christ were not risen, preaching
was vain, and faith was vain 5 — then all who fell asleep in
1 1 Cor. xv. 31. 2 Acts xvii. 32. 3 Ibid, verse 34.
4 1 Cor. xv. 19. 5 Ibid, verse 14.
LECT. VIII. TRUTH OP THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 223
Christ perished.1 The Christian was taught to base his
hope of a happy future for himself solely and entirely upon
the resurrection and ascent to heaven of Jesus. Surely the
evidence for these facts must have been thousands of times
closely sifted by converts who could fairly demand to have
the assurances on the point of eye-witnesses.
Further, we must not forget that the early converts had
a second ground of belief, besides and beyond their convic-
tion of the honesty and trustworthiness of those who came
forward to preach the Gospel, declaring themselves wit-
nesses of the "mighty works"9 which Christ had wrought,
and preeminently of his resurrection. These preachers per-
suaded, not merely by their evident truthfulness and sin-
cerity, but by the miraculous powers which they wielded.
There is good evidence that the ability to work miracles
was not confined to the apostolic age. The bishops and
others who pressed to see Ignatius on his way to martyr-
dom, "expected that he would communicate to them some
spiritual gift,"W Papias related various miracles as having
happened in his own lifetime — among others that a dead
man had been restored to life. <49) Justin Martyr declares
very simply that in his day both men and women were
found who possessed miraculous powers. f505 Quadratus, the
Apologist, is mentioned by a writer of the second century
as exercising them.(51) Irenaeus speaks of miracles as still
common in Gaul when lie wrote, C58) which was nearly at
the close of the second century. Tertullian, Theophilus of
Antioch, and Minucius Felix, authors of about the same
period, are witnesses to the continuance to their day of at
least one class of miracles. W Thus the existence of these
powers was contemporaneous with the great spread of the
Gospel; and it accounts for that speedy conversion of
1 1 Cor. xv. 18. a Mark vi. 2.
224 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OF THE LECT. VT1L
thousands upon thousands — that rapid growth of the
Church in all quarters — which would be otherwise so
astonishing. The vast number of the early converts and
the possession of miraculous powers — which are both
asserted by the primitive writers C54) — have the relation of
effect to cause, and lend countenance to one another. The
evidence of the Catacombs, and the testimony of Pagans,
confirm the truth of the representations made in the one
case. Unless we hold miracles to be impossible, we cannot
reasonably doubt them in the other.
But the possession of miraculous powers by those who
spread the Gospel abroad in the first ages, would alone and
by itself prove the divinity of the Christian Religion. God
would not have given supernatural aid to persons engaged
in propagating a lie, nor have assisted them to palm a de-
3eit upon the world in His name. If then there be good
evidence of this fact — if it be plain from the ecclesiastical
writers that miracles were common in the Christian Church
for above two centuries — we have herein an argument of
an historical character, which is of no small weight and im-
portance, additional to that arising from the mere confirma-
tion by early uninspired writers of the Sacred Nasrative.
We find in their statements with respect to these contem-
porary facts, to which they are unexceptionable witnesses, a
further evidence of the truth of the Religion whereof they
were1 the ministers — a further proof that Christianity was
not of man, but of God.
And here let me notice that in judging of the value
which is to be attached to the testimony of the early Chris-
tians, we should constantly bear in mind that all in will,
and most in fact, sealed that testimony with their blood.
If civil justice acts upon a sound principle, when it assigns
special weight to the depositions of those who have the
LECT. VIII. TRUTH OP THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 225
prospect of immediate death before their eyes, Christians
must be right to value highly the witness of the first ages.
The early converts knew that they might at any time be
called upon to undergo death for their religion. They
preached and taught with the sword, the cross, the beasts,
and the stake ever before their eyes. Most of those in
eminent positions — and to this class belong almost all our
witnesses — were martyred. Ignatius, Polycarp, Papias,
Quadratus, Justin, Irenaeus, certainly suffered death on ac-
count of their religion ; and every early writer advocating
Christianity, by the fact of his advocacy, braved the civil
power, and rendered himself liable to a similar fate. When
faith is a matter of life and death, men do not lightly take
up with the first creed which happens to hit their fancy;
nor do they place themselves openly in the ranks of a per-
secuted sect, unless they have well weighed the claims of
the religion which it professes, and convinced themselves of
its being the truth. It is clear that the early converts had
means of ascertaining the historic accuracy of the Christian
narrative very much beyond ourselves ; they could exam-
ine and cross-question the witnesses — compare their sev-
eral accounts — inquire how their statements were met by
their adversaries — consult Heathen documents of the time
— thoroughly and completely sift the evidence. To assume
that they did not do so, when the issue \vas of such vast im-
portance— when, in accepting the religion, they set their
all upon the cast, embracing as their certain portion in this
life, shame, contempt, and ignominy, the severance of fam-
ily ties, exclusion from all festal gatherings, loss of friends,
loss of worldly position, loss of character, — and looking
forward to probable participation in the crueiest sufferings
— the rack, the scourge, the pincing-irons, the cross, the
stake, the ravening beasts of the amphitheatre — to assume
226 HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OF THE 1.ECT. VIII.
this, is to deny them that average common sense and
instinctive regard for their own interests which the mass of
mankind possess in all times and countries — to look upon
them as under the influence of an infatuation, such as can-
not be shown to have at any time affected large bodies
of civilized men. If we grant to the early converts an
average amount of sense and intellect, we must accord
to their witness all the weight that is due to those, who,
having ample means of investigating a matter in which
they are deeply concerned, have done so, and determined
it in a particular way.
The inquiry in which we have been engaged here termi-
nates. We have found that the historical Books of the
New Testament are the productions of contemporaries
and eye-witnesses — that two at least of those who wrote
lives of Christ were his close and intimate friends, while
the account of the early Church delivered in the Acts was
written by a companion of the Apostles — that the truth
of the narrative contained in these writings is evidenced by
their sober, simple, and unexaggerated tone, and by their
agreement, often undesigned, with each other — that it is
further confirmed by the incidental allusions to it which
are found in the speeches of the Apostles and in their epis-
tolary correspondence with their converts — that its main
facts are noticed, so far as it was to be expected that they
would be noticed, by profane writers, while a comparison
of its secondary or incidental facts with the civil history of
the times, as otherwise known to us, reveals an agreement
which is at once so multitudinous and so minute as to con-
stitute, in the eyes of all those who are capable of weighing
historical evidence, an overwhelming argument in proof of
the authenticity of the whole story — that the narrative
was accepted as simple truth, soon after it was published,
LECT. VIII. TRUTH OF THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. 227
in most parts of the civilized world, and not by the vulgar
only, but by men of education and refinement, and of good
worldly position — that it was received and believed, at the
time when the truth of every part of it could be readily
tested, by many hundreds of thousands, notwithstanding
the prejudices of education, and the sacrifices which its
acceptance involved — and finally, that the sincerity of
these persons' belief was in many cases tested in the most
searching of all possible' ways, by persecutions of the
crudest kind, and triumphantly stood the test — so that
the Church counted her Martyrs by thousands. We have
further seen, that there is reason to believe that not only
our Lord Himself and His Apostles, but many (if not most)
of the first propagators of Christianity had the power of
working miracles ; and that this, and this only, will account
for the remarkable facts, which none can deny, of the rapid
spread of the Gospel and the vast numbers of the early
converts. All this together — and it must be remembered
that the evidence is cumulative — constitutes a body of
proof such as is seldom producible with respect to any
events belonging to remote times; and establishes beyond
all reasonable doubt the truth of the Christian Story. In
no single respect — if we except the fact that it is miracu-
lous— has that story a mythic character. Tt is a single
story, told without variation, C5-") whereas myths are fluc-
tuating and multiform; it is blended inextricably with the
civil history of the times, which it every where represents
with extraordinary accuracy, whereas myths distort or
supersede civil history; it is full of prosaic detail, which
myths studiously eschew; it abounds with practical instruc-
tion of the plainest and simplest kind, whereas myths teach
by allegory. Even in its miraculous element, it stands to
some extent in contrast with all known mythologies —
where the marvellous lias ever a predominant character of
228 TRUTH OF THE SCRIPTURE RECORDS. LECT. VIIL
grotesqueness, •which is entirely absent from the New
Testament miracles. C56) Simple earnestness, fidelity, pains-
taking accuracy, pure love of truth, are the most patent
characteristics of the Xew Testament writers, who e\ i-
dently deal with facts, not with fancies, and are employed
in relating a history, not in developing an idea. They
write " that we may know the certainty of those things " 'L
which. were "most surely believed " 2 in their day. They
bear record of what they have seen,3 and assure us that
their "testimony is true."4 "That which they have heard,
which they have seen with their eyes, which they have
looked upon, which their hands have handled of the Word
of Life, that was manifested unto them — that which they
have seen and heard " declare they unto us.5 And such as
were not eye-witnesses, deliver only " that which they also
received."6 I know not how stronger words could have
been used to preclude the notion of that plastic growing
myth which Strauss conceives Christianity to have been
in Apostolic times, and to convince us of its Historic char-
acter. And the declarations of the Sacred writers are con-
firmed by modem research. In spite of all the efforts of
an "audacious criticism" — as ignorant as bold — the truth
of the Sacred Narrative stands firm, the stronger for the
shocks that it has resisted; "the boundless store of truth
and lite which for eighteen centuries has been the aliment
of humanity" is not (as Rationalism boasts) "dissipated." (57>
God is not " divested of his grace, or man of his dignity "
— nor is the " tie between heaven and earth broken."
The " foundation of God " — the " Everlasting Gospel " 7 —
still " standeth sure"8 — and every effort that is made to
overthrow, does but more firmly establish it.
1 Luke i. 4. 2 Ibid, verse 1. 3 John xix. 35.
4 Ibid. xxi. 24. s 1 John i. 1-3. " 1 Cor. xv. 3.
7 Rev. xiv. 6. 8 2 Tim. ii. 19.
NOTES
NOTES.
LECTURE I.
Note I., p. 26.
Herodotus, whose easy faith would naturally lead him to accept
the Greek myths without difficulty, still makes a marked distinction
between Mythology and History Proper. See b. hi. ch. 122, where
the dominion of the sea of Polycrates is spoken of as something dif-
ferent in kind from that of the mythical Minos ; and compare a some-
what similar distinction between the mythic and the historical in
b. i. ch. 5, and again in b. ii. ch. 44, ad fin. A difference of the
same kind seems to have been made by the Egyptian and Babylonian
writers. See Lecture II., page 64.
Note II., p. 26.
This distinction was, I believe, first taken by George in his work
Mi/thus und Sage ; Versuch einer wissenschaftlichen Enticicklung dieser
Begriffe und ihres Verhdltnisses zum christlichen Glauben. It is adopted
by Strauss, (Leben Jesu, Einleitung, § 10 ; vol. i. pp. 41-3, Chapman's
Translation,) who thus distinguishes the two: •« My thus is the crea-
tion of a fact out of an idea ; legend the seeing of an idea in a fact,
or arising out of it." The myth is therefore pure and absolute imagi-
nation ; the legend has a basis of fact, but amplifies, abridges, or modi-
fies that basis at its pleasure. De Wette thus expresses the difference :
"The myth is an idea in a vestment of facts; the legend contains facts
pervaded and transformed by ideas." {Einleitung in das alt. Test.
$ 136, d.) Compare Professor Powell's Third Series of Essays, Essay
iii. p. 340. "A myth is a doctrine expressed in a narrative form ; an
ubstract moral or spiritual truth dramatized in action and personifica-
tion, where the object is to enforce faith, not in the parable, but in
the moral,"
-32 NOTES. Lect. I.
Note III., p. 26.
"The mission of the ancient prophets," says Gibbon, "of Moses
and of Jesus, had been confirmed by many splendid prodigies ; and
Mahomet was repeatedly urged by the inhabitants of Mecca and
Medina to produce a similar evidence of his divine legation ; to call
down from heaven the angel or the volume of his revelation, to
create a garden in the desert, or to kindle a conflagration in the
unbelieving city. As often as he is pressed by the demands of the
Koreish, he involves himself in the obscure boast of vision and proph-
ecy, appeals to the internal proofs of his doctrine, and shields him-
self behind the Providence of God, who refuses those signs and
wonders that would depreciate the merit of faith, and aggravate
the guilt of infidelity. But the modest or angry tone of his apologias
betrays his weakness and vexation; and these passages of scandal es-
tablish beyond suspicion the integrity of the Koran. The votaries
of Mahomet are more assured than himself of his miraculous gifts,
and their confidence and credulity increase as they are further removed
from the time and place of his spiritual exploits." Decline and Fall,
>ol. v. ch. 1. p. 210. Compare with this acknowledgment on the part
of an enemy of Christianity, the similar statements of its defenders.
(Butler, Analogy, Part II. ch. vii. ; Paley, Evidences, Part II. ch. ix.
§ 3 ; White, Hampton Lectures, Sermon vi. p. 254 ; Forster, Mahome-
tanism Unveiled, vol. i. p. 32 ; and Dr. Macbride, Mohammedan Religion
Explained, pp. 28-9.) Ockley, a very unprejudiced writer, observes,
that " when the impostor was called upon, as he often was, to work
miracles in proof of his divine mission, he excused himself by various
pretences, and appealed to the Koran as a standing miracle." (Life
of Mohammed, pp. 65-6, Bonn's Ed.) He also remarks, that there was
no proof of his visions or intercourse with angels beyond his own
assertions ; and that, on the occasion of the pretended night-journey
to heaven, Ayesha testified that he did not leave his bed. (Ibid. p.
20, note.)
Note IV., p. 26.
See Butler's Analogy, Part II. ch. vii. ; Paley's Evidences, Part III.
ch. viii. ; and Itev. 11. Michell's Bampton Lectures, Lecture iv. pp.
121—129. Dr. Stanley tersely expresses the contrast between the
Lect. I. NOTES. I?33
Christian and other religions in this respect, when he says of Chris-
tianity, that it " alone, of all religions, claims to be founded not on
fancy or feeling, but on Fact and Truth." (Sinai and Palestine, ch.
ii. p. 155.)
Note V., p.' 27.
Butler's Analogy, Part II. ch. vii. p. 311.
Note VI., p. 28.
See Sir G. C. Lewis's Inquiry into the Credibility of the Early Roman
History, vol. i. Introduction, p. 2.
Note VII., p. 28.
M. de Pouilly's Dissertation sur Vincertitude et Vhistoire des guatre
premiers sitcles de Rome, which was published in the ninth volume
of the Memoires de V Acadimie des Itiscriptions, constitutes an era in
the study of ancient history. Earlier scholars had doubted this or
that narrative of an ancient author ; but M. de Pouilly seems to have
been the first to "lay down with clearness and accuracy the princi-
ples" by which the historic value of an author's accounts of early
times is to be tested. His " Dissertation " was read in December,
1722 ; and a second Memoir on the same subject was furnished by
him to the Mimoires soon afterwards, and forms a part of the same
volume. (See Sir G. C. Lewis's Inquiry, vol. i. ch. i. p. 5, note 11.)
M. de Beaufort, who has generally been regarded as the founder
of the modern Historical Criticism, did not publish his " Dissertation
sur 7 incertitude des cing premiers sitcles de Vhistoire Romaine " till six-
teen years after Pouilly, as this work first appeared at Utrecht in
1738. His merits are recognized to some extent by Niebuhr, (Hist,
of Rome, vol. i. pref. of 1826, p. vii. E. T. ; and Lectures on lioman
History, vol. i. p. 148, E. T.)
Note VIII., p. 28.
Nicbuhr's views are most fully developed in his " Roman History,"
(first published in 1811-1812, and afterwards reprinted with large
additions and alterations in 1827-1832,) and in his Lectures on the
20*
231 NOTES. LECT. I.
History of Rome, delivered at Bonn, and published in 184G. They
also appear in many of his Kleine Schriften, and in his Lectures on
Ancient History, delivered at Bonn in 1826, and again in 1829-1830,
which were published after his decease by his son. Most of these
works have received an Engljsh dress, and are well known to stu-
dents.
Note IX., p. 28.
So early as 1817, Karl Otfried Muller, in a little tract, called JEgi-
netica, gave promise of excellence as an historical critic. His Orcho-
memts rind die Minyer soon followed, and established his reputation. He
is perhaps best known in England by his Dorians, (published in 1824,
and translated into English by Mr. H. Tufnell and Sir G. C. Lewis
in 1830,) a work of great value, but not free from minor blemishes.
(See Mr. Grote's History of Greece, vol. ii. p. 530, &c.)
Note X., p. 28.
Bockh is best known in England by his book on the Public Econ-
omy of Athens, (StaatshaushaUung der Athener,) published in Berlin
in the year 1817, and translated into English in 1828, (London, Mur-
ray.) But his great work is the Corpus Inscriptionum Grcecarum, in
four large folio volumes, published at Berlin between 1825 and 1832.
In this he shows himself an historical critic of the first order.
Note XI., p. 28.
I refer especially to Bishop Thirlwall, Mr. Grote, Colonel Mure,
Mr. Merivale, and Sir G. C. Lewis. The name of Dr. Arnold should
also be mentioned as that of one to whom historical criticism in Eng-
land owes much.
Note XII. p. 29.
See Colonel Mure's Remarks on Two Appendices to Mr. Grote's History
of Greece, (London, Longman, 1851 ;) and an excellent article in the
Edinburgh Review for July, i856, (No. 211, Art. I.,) in which the
extreme conclusions of Sir G. C. Lewis on the subject of early Roman
History are ably combated.
Lect. I. NOTES. 235
Note XHL, p. 30.
The subjoined extract from the correspondence of Niebuhr has
been already given in the work of my immediate predecessor in the
office of Bampton Lecturer, (see the notes to Mr. Mansel's Lectures,
pp. 321-2 ;) but its importance is so great, that I cannot forbear to
cite it here. " In my opinion," wrote Niebuhr in the year 1818,
"he is not a Protestant Christian who does not receive the histor-
ical facts of Christ's early life, in their literal acceptation, with all
their miracles, as equally authentic with any event recorded in his-
tory, and whose belief in them is not as firm and tranquil as his
belief in the latter ; who has not the most absolute faith in the arti-
cles of the Apostles' Creed, taken in their grammatical sense ; who
does not consider every doctrine and every precept of the New Tes-
tament as undoubted divine revelation, in the sense of the Christians
of the first century, who knew nothing of a Theopneustia. More-
over, a Christianity after the fashion of the modern philosophers and
pantheists, without a personal God, without immortality, without
human individuality, without historical faith, is no Christianity at
all to me ; though it may be a very intellectual, very ingenious phi-
losophy. I have often said that I do not know what to do with a
metaphysical God, and that I will have none but the God of the
Bible, who is heart to heart with us." l The general orthodoxy of
Niebuhr with respect to the Old Testament History is plain from
his Lectures on Ancient Ilistonj, (vol. i. p. 20, 37, 128, 132, &c. ;)
though, as will be noticed hereafter, he is not always quite consist-
ent on the point. See below, Notes XXXIV. and XXXVI.
Note XIV., p. 31.
Eichhorn, in his examination of the Wolfenbtlttcl Fragments, (Re-
cension der nbrigen, noch ungedruckten Werke des WolfenbUttlischen Frag-
mentisten, in Eichhorn's AUgemeiner Bibliothek for 1787, vol. i. parts i.
and ii.,) was, I believe, the first to draw this comparison. "Divine
interpositions," he argued, " must be alike admitted, or alike denied,
in the primitive histories of all people. It was the practice of all
' Lift and Lrttrrs of B. G. JViebuhr, vol. ii. p. 123. Compare Letter cexxxi. vol. ii.
pp. 103-5, and Letter ccexxiz. vol. ii. p. 315.
230 NOTES. LECT. 1,
nations, of the Grecians as well as the Orientals, to refer every unex<
pected or inexplicable occurrence immediately to the Deity. The sages
of antiquity lived in continual communion with superior intelligences.
Whilst these representations were commonly understood, in reference
to the Hebrew legends, verbally and literally, it had been customary to
explain similar representations in the Pagan histories by presupposing
either deception and gross falsehood, or the misinterpretation and cor-
ruption of tradition. But justice evidently required that Hebrew and
Pagan history should be treated in the same way." See the summary
of Eichhorn's views and reasonings in Strauss' s Leben Jesic, § 6, (vol.
i. pp. 15-18, E. T.) The views thus broached were further carried
out by Gabler, Schelling, and Bauer. The last-named author re-
marked, that "the earliest records of all nations were mythical : why
should the writings of the Hebrews form a solitary exception ? —
whereas in point of fact a cursory glance at their sacred books proved
that they also contain mythical elements." See his Hebraische Mytho-
logie des alien und neuen Testaments, published in 1820.
Note XV., p. 31.
See the works above cited, and compare an article in Bertholdt's
Kritische Journal, vol. v. $ 235. See also Theodore Parker's De Wette,
vol. ii. p. 198.
Note XVI. , p. 31.
So Vatke (Religion des Alien Testamentes, § 23, p. 289 et seqq.) and
De Wette, Archaologie, $ 30-34. Baron Bunsen takes the same view.
See below, Notes XXXIX. and XLIV.
Note XVII., p. 31.
Vatke (1. s. c.) regards the " significant names " of Saul, David,
and Solomon, as proof of the legendary character which attaches to
the Books of Samuel. Von Bohlen argues similarly with respect to
the ancestors of Abraham. (Alte Indien, p. 155.)
Note XVIII., p. 31.
Semler, towards the close of the last century, pronounced the his-
tories of Samson and Esther to be myths; Eichhorn, early in the
Lect. I. NOTES. 237
present, assigned the same character to the Mosaic accounts of the
Creation and the Fall. (See Strauss's Introduction; Leben Jesu, vol.
u pp. 21 and 24, E. T.)
Note XIX. p. 32.
" Tradition," says De Wette, " is uncritical and partial ; its tendency
is not historical, but rather patriotic and poetical. And since the patri-
otic sentiment is gratified by all that natters national pride, the more
splendid, the more honorable, the more wonderful the narrative, the
more acceptable it is ; and where tradition has left any blanks, imagina-
tion at once steps in and Jills them up. And since," he continues, " a
great part of the historical books of the Old Testament bears this
stamp, it has hitherto been believed possible," &c. (Kritik der I&rael-
itischen Geschichte, Einleitung, § 10.) Compare Vater's Abhandlung
ilber Moses nnd die Verfasser des Pentateuchs in the third volume of his
Comment, ilber den Pentateuch, § 660.
Note XX., p. 32.
This was the aim of the School, called technically Rationalists, in
Germany, of which Eichhorn and Paulus were the chief leaders. See
Eichhorn's Eink-itung in das Alte Testament, and Paulus's Commentar
ilber das neuc Testament, and also his Ijeben Jesu, in which his views are
more fully developed. More recently Ewald, in his Geschichte Volkes
Israels, has composed on the same principle a complete history of the
Jewish people.
Note XXI., p. 32.
See Strauss, Ijsben Jesu, $ 8, vol. i. p. 29, E. T. This same view was
taken by De Wette, Krug, Gabler, Horst, and others.
Note XXII., p. 32.
An anonymous writer in Horfholdt's Journal (vol. v. § 23.5) objects
to the rationalistic method of Paulus, that it " evaporates all sacred-
ness and divinity from the Scriptures ; " while the mythical view, of
which he is an advocate, " leaves the substance of the narrative unas-
sailcd," and «' accepts the whole, not indeed as true history, but as a
sacred legend." Strauss evidently apnroves of this reasoning. (I^ben
Jesu, § 8, vol. i. p. 32, E. T.)
238 notes. Lect. L
Note XXITL, p. 32.
Strauss, Leben Jesu, Einleitung, § 4. The weakness of this argument
from authority is indeed allowed by Strauss himself, who admits that
Origcn "does not speak out freely," (p. 9,) and that "his rule was to
retain the literal together with the allegorical sense," (p. 6) — a rule
which he only broke in "a few instances," (p. 12.) He also allows
that "after Origen, that kind of allegory only which left the historical
sense unimpaired was retained in the Church ; and where, subse-
quently, a giving up of the verbal meaning is spoken of, this refers
merely to a trope or simile," (p. 9, note 14.) It is doubtful whether
Origen himself ever really gave up the literal and historical sense.
That the heretics who sheltered themselves under his name (Origenists)
did so is certain ; but they are accused of interpolating his writings.
(See Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History, b. i. ch. hi., note1 ad fin. vol. i.
p. 288, E. T.)
Since the above was in type, I have observed that Professor Powell,
relying (as it would seem) on the bold assertions of the infidel "Wool-
ston,1 taxes not Origen only, but the Fathers generally, with an aban-
donment of the historical sense of Scripture. " The idea," he says,
" of the mythic origin of the Gospel narrative had confessedly been
applied by some writers, as Rosenmilller and Anton,. to certain portions
of the Gospels ; and so limited, was acknoicledged to possess the sanction
of the Fathers." {Third Scries of Essays, Essay iii. p. 338.) But the
opposite view of Strauss is far more consonant with the facts. The
whole subject was elaborately, and, I believe, honestly discussed in one
of the celebrated Tracts for the Times, (Tract 89, § 3 ; vol. vi. pp.
38-70 ;) and the Fathers generally were completely exonerated from the
false charge so commonly preferred against them.
Note XXIV., p. 32.
The more recent writers of the mythical School, as De Wette,
Strauss, and Theodore Parker, assume that the mythological char-
acter of great part of the Old Testament history is fully established.
(See De "Wette's Einleitung in das Alt. Test. § 136; Strauss, Leben
Jesu, Einleitung, § 9, et seqq. ; Theodore Parker's Enlarged Transla-
1 Siz Discourses on the Miracles of tur Saviour, publisher! in 1727. J728. and 1729.
LECT. I. NOTES. 289
tion of De "Wette, vol. ii., pp. 23-7, et passim.) German orthodox
writers bear striking witness to the effect which the repeated attacks on
the historical character of the Old Testament narrative have had upon
the popular belief in their country. " If," says Keil, " the scientific
theology of the Evangelical Church is anxious to strengthen its foun-
dations again, it must force rationalism away from the Old Testament,
where till the present time it has planted its foot so firmly, that many
an acute theologian has doubted whether it is possible to rescue again
the fides hutnana et divina of the historical writings of the ancient
covenant." (Commentar liber das Bitch Josua, Vorwort, p. ii. " Will
daher die wissenschaftliche Theologie der evangelischen Kirche sich
wieder fest grtlnden, so muss sie den llationalismus aus dem Alten
Testamente verdritngen, in welchem derselbe bis jetzt so festen Fuss
gefasst hat, dass nicht wenige tQchtige Theologen daran verzweifeln,
die fides humana et divina der historischen Schriften des altes Bundes
noch retten zu konnen.") And he complains that the Rationalistic
"mode of treating the Old Testament History has been very disadvan-
tageous to the believing theological science, inasmuch as it can now find
no objective ground or statui- point free from uncertainty ; " (dass sie kcinen
objectiv sichern Grund und Standpunkt gewinnen kann. Ibid. 1. c.)
Note XXV., p. 32.
Strauss evidently feels this difficulty, {Jjcben Jesu, Einleitung, § 13 ;
vol. i. p. 64, E. T.) He endeavors to meet it by suggesting that "the
sun does not shine on all parts of the earth at once. There was en-
lightenment in Italy and Greece about the time of the establishment of
Christianity, but none in the remote Judaea, where the real nature of
history had never even been rightly apprehended." In this there is, no
doubt, some truth ; but Strauss forgets that, though Judaea was the
scene of the Gospel story, the Evangelical writings were composed
chiefly in Greece and Italy ; and he omits to notice, that being written
in (J reek — the literary language of the time — they addressed them-
selves to the enlightened circles of Athens, Corinth, Ephesus, and
Home itself, far more than to the rude provincials of Palestine. The
miracles, too, by which Christianity was spread, were not alone those
which occurred in Judaea ; many had been wrought in Home and in
the various cities of Greece ; where they challenged the attention of the
most civilized and enlightened classes. In Judaea itself, if the Jews
240 NOTES. Lect. I.
generally were not " enlightened," in the modern sense of the word,
the Roman Governors, and their courts, were. And among the Jews,
it must be remembered, the sect which had most power was that of the
Sadducees — sceptics and materialists.
Note XXVI., p. 32.
The subjoined passage from Strauss seems to show something of
this feeling : " The results of the inquiry which we have now brought
to a close, have apparently annihilated the greatest and most valuable
part of that which the Christian has been wont to believe concerning
his Saviour Jesus, have uprooted all the animating motives which he
has gathered from his faith, and withered all his consolations. The
boundless store of truth and life which for eighteen centuries has been
the aliment of humanity, seems irretrievably dissipated ; the most sub-
lime levelled with the dust, God divested of his grace, man of his dig-
nity, and the tie between Heaven and Earth broken. Piety turns axcay
icith horror from so fearful an act of desecration, and, strong in the im-
pregnable self-evidence of its faith, pronounces that, let an audacious
criticism attempt what it will, all which the Scriptures declare and the
Church believes of Christ, will still subsist as eternal truth, nor needs
one iota of it to be renounced." (Leben Jesu, § 144, vol. ii;. p. 396,
E. T.)
Note XXVIL, p. 33.
See Bauer's Hebraische Mythohgie des alten und neuen Testaments,
Erstc Theil, Einleitung, § 3, with Gabler's criticism of it in his Journal
filr auserlesene theolog. Literatur, ii. 1, § 58. Compare Strauss, Leben
Jesu, {§ 33-43.
Note XXVIIL, p. 33.
Eichhorn, Einleitung in das neue Testament, § 422 ; Theile, Zur Bio-
graphie Jesu, § 23.
Note XXIX., p. 33. '
See the account which Strauss gives of the " Development of the
Mythical point of view," in his Leben Jesu, §§ 9-11. "The mythus,"
he observes, " when once admitted into the New Testament, was long
detained at the threshold, namely, the history of the infancy of Jesus,
every farther advance being contested. Ammon, the anonymous E. F.
Lect. I. notes. 241
in Henke's Magazine, and others, maintained a marked distinction be-
tween the historical worth of the narratives of the public life and those
of the infancy of Jesus. . . . Soon, however, some of the theologians
who had conceded the commencement of the history to the province
of tnythus, perceived that the conclusion, the history of the ascen-
sion, must likewise be regarded as mythical. Thus the two extrem
ities were cut off by the prunmg-knife of criticism," (§ 11, pp. 44-5.)
Finally the essential body of the history was assailed, and the Gos-
pels— especially the first three — were "found to contain a contin-
ually increasing number of mythi and mythical embellishments."
(} 9, p. 86.)
Note XXX., p. 33.
febenJesu, § 151 ; vol. iii. p. 437, E. T.
Note XXXI., p. 34.
Ibid. pp. 437-8.
Note XXXII., p. 34.
Eth. Nic. vi. 7, § 4 : «« For it is absurd that any one should regard
the science of politics, or prudence, as the most important, unless man
is the noblest being in the universe."
Note XXXIII., p. 34.
See above, Note XIII.
Note XXXIV., p. 35.
Vortrttgc fiber altr Geschichte, vol. i. pp. 158-9. " Dass das Much
Esther nicht ah ein liistorisclws zu betrachten sei, davon bin ich (iber-
zeugt, und ich stehe nicht im Mindesten an dies hiermit offentlich
nuszusprechen ; Vielc sind derselben Meinung. Schon die Kirchen-
vatcr haben sic damn geplagt, und der heilige Hieronymus, wie or klar
andeutet, in der grossten Verlogenheit befunden, wenn er es als his-
torisch betrachten wollte. Gegenwftrtig wird Niemand die Geschichte
in Buohe Judith fur historisch ansehen, und wedcr Ori^enes nodi
Hieronymus haben dies gethan ; ebrit so rerhtllt es sich mit dem liuche
Lither ; es ist ein (Jedicht fiber diese verh/tllnusc."
242 NOTES. Lect. L
Note XXXV., p. 35.
On the weight of the external testimonies to the authenticity of the
Book of Esther, see Lecture V., Note LXIX.
Note XXXVI., p. 36.
There is reason to suspect that Niebuhr would have surrendered the
Book of Daniel, as well as the Book of Esther, to the assailants of
Scripture, since he nowhere refers to it as an historical document in his
Lectures. Such reference would have been natural in several places.
Note XXXVII. , p. 37.
See M. Bunsen's Philosophy of Universal History, vol. i., pp. 190-
191, E. T.
Note XXXVIII. , p. 37.
See the same author's Egypt, vol. i., p. 182, E. T.
Ibid. p. 173.
Ibid. p. 174.
Ibid. p. 173.
Ibid. p. 181.
Ibid. p\ 180.
Note XXXIX., p. 37.
Note XL., p. 37.
Note XLL, p. 37.
Note XLIL, p. 37.
Note XLIIL, p. 37.
Note XLIV. p. 38.
Ibid. p. 179 ; and compare p. 170.
Note XLV., p. 38.
German scepticism commenced with the school called the Xaturalists,
who undertook to resolve all the Scripture miracles into natural occur-
rences. The mythical School, which soon followed, very effectually
Lect. I. NOTES. 243
demolished the natural theory, and clearly demonstrated its " unnat-
uralness." (See Strauss, Leben Jesu, Einleitung, § 9 and $ 12.) The
mythical writers themselves oppose one another. Strauss frequently
condemns the explanations of Gabler and Weisse ; and Theodore
Parker often argues against De "SVette. That the Scripture History is
a collection of myths, all of them are agreed ; when and how the myths
grew up, at what time they took a written form, when they came into
their present shape, what amount of fact they have as their basis, on
these and all similar points, it is difficult to find two of them who hold
the same opinion. (See below, Lecture II., Note XXXVII.)
Note XL VI., p. 39.
" Historical evidence," says Sir G. C. Lewis, «« like judicial evidence,
is founded on the testimony of credible witnesses. Unless these wit-
nesses had personal and immediate perception of the facts which they
report, unless they saw and heard what they undertake to relate as
having happened, their evidence is not entitled to credit. As all ori-
ginal witnesses must be contemporary with the events which they attest,
it is a necessary condition for the credibility of a witness that he be a
contemporary ; though a contemporary is not necessarily a credible
witness. Unless therefore an historical account can be traced, by prob-
able proof, to the testimony of contemporaries, the first condition of
historical credibility fails." (Credibility of Early Roman History, Intro-
duction, vol. i. p. 16.) Allowing for a little rhetorical overstating
of the case, this is a just estimate of the primary value of the testimony
borne by contemporaries and eye-witnesses.
Note XL VII., p. 39.
It is evident that an historian can rarely have witnessed one half the
events which he puts on record. Even writers of commentaries, like
Ca?sar and Xenophon, record many facts which they had not seen, and
which they knew only by information from others. Ordinary histo-
rians, who have not had the advantage of playing the chief part in the
events which they relate, are still more indebted to inquiry. Hence
History seems to have received its name, (iirropiu.) When the inquiry
appears to have been carefully conducted, and the judgment of the
writer seems sound, we give very nearly as full credence to his state-
244 NOTES. Lect. I.
merits founded upon inquiry, as to those of an eye-witness. We trust
Thucydides almost as implicitly as Xenophon, and Tacitus almost as
entirely as Csesar. Sir G. C. Lewis allows that accounts . . . derived,
directly or indirectly, from the reports of original witnesses . . . may
be considered as presumptively entitled to credit." (Credibility, &c,
ch. ii. { 1 ; vol. i. p. 19. Compare p.x 25, and pp. 81-2 ; and see also
his Met/tods of Observation and Reasoning in Politics, ch. vii. § 2 ; vol.
i. pp. 181-5.)
Note XL VIII., p. 40.
The tendency of the modern Historical Criticism has been to dimin-
ish greatly the value formerly attached to this sort of evidence. Mr.
Grote in some places seems to deny it all weight. (History of Greece,
vol. i. pp. 572-577 .) Practically, however, as Col. Mure has shown,
(Remarks on Tiro Appendices, &c, pp. 3-6,) he admits it as sufficiently
establishing a number of very important facts. Sir G. C. Lewis re-
gards oral tradition as a tolerably safe guide for the general outline of
a nation's history *' for a period reaching back nearly 150 years."
(Credibility, &c, ch. iv. § 2 ; vol. i. p. 100.) Special circumstances
might, he thinks, give to an event a still longer hold on the popular
memory. Among such special circumstances he notices " commemo-
rative festivals, and other periodical observances," as in certain cases
serving to perpetuate a true tradition of a national event, (ibid. p. 101.)
Note XLIX., p. 40.
The modern historical critics have not laid much stress on this head
of evidence in their discussions of the abstract principles of their
science ; but practically they often show their sense of its importance.
Thus Niebuhr urges against the theory of the Etruscans being colonists
from Lydia, the fact that it had no Lydian tradition to rest upon.
(History of Rome, vol. i. p. 109, E. T.) Mr. Kenrick and others
regard it as decisive of the question, whether the Phoenicians migrated
from the Persian Gulf, that there was a double tradition in its favor,
(Kenrick's Phoenicia, ch. iii. p. 46, et seqq.,) both the Phoenicians them-
selves and the inhabitants of the islands lying in the Gulf agreeing as
to the fact of the emigration. The ground of the high value of such
evidence lies in the extreme improbability of an accidental harmony,
and in the impossibility of collusion.
LECT. I. NOTES. 245
Note L., p. 41.
Ezra i. 1 ; v. 17 ; vi. 1-12. Esther ii. 23 ; iii. 14 ; vi. 1.
Note LI., p. 42.
Analogy, Part II. ch. vii. p. 329.
Note LIL, p. 42.
Let it be ten to one that a certain fact is true upon the testimony of
one witness, and likewise ten to one that the same fact is true upon the
evidence of another, then it is not twenty to one that the fact is true on
the evidence of both, but 130 to one. And the evidence to the same
point of a third independent witness of equal credibility with the others
would raise the probability to 1330 to one.
Note LIII., p. 42.
See Strauss, Leben Jesu, § 13, (vol. i. p. 64, E. T.) For a com-
plete refutation of this view — "the shallowest and crudest of all the
assumptions of unbelief " ' — see the Bampton Lectures of my prede-
cessor, Lecture VI. pp. 170-181, [Am. Ed.]
Note LIV., p. 43.
See Bauer's llebraische Mythologie des Alien und Xeuen Testaments,
quoted by Strauss, Leben Jesu, § 8, (vol. i. p. 25, E. T.)
Note LV., p. 44.
Ecclesiastical Polity, Book I., ch. 3, $ 4. "Those things which Na-
ture is said to do, are by Divine art performed, using nature as an
instrument ; nor is there any such art or knowledge divine in nature
herself working, but only in the Guide of Nature's work. . . . Unto
us there is one only guide of all agents natural, and He both the
Creator and Worker of all in all, alone to be blessed, adored, and
honored by all forever." Compare Dean Trench, Notes mi the Miracles
of or.ir Lord, ch. ii. pp. 9-10.
1 Mausel'a Ikimplon Iscturts, Lecture VI. p. 177, [Am. VA
21*
24G NOTES. LECT. I.
Note LVI., p. 45.
Plato's Pha?do, \ 46-7. "Now when I once heard a pcr-on read-
ing from a book, as he said, of Anaxagoras, and affirming that there
is a mind which disposes all things, and is the cause of all, I was
delighted with this view of the cause of things ; and it commended
itself to my judgment, &c. Indeed, my expectations were raised to the
highest pitch ; and having with great pains obtained the book, I im-
proved the very first opportunity to read it, that I might know as soon
as possible the best and the worst. But my wonderful expectations,
() my friend, met with a woful disappointment ; for as I read on I saw
that the man made no mention of this mind, even when he was assign-
ing certain causes for the disposition of tilings, but assigned as causes
air, and ether, and water, and many other absurd things." The " Ves-
tiges of Creation," and other works of the same stamp, are the modern
counterparts of these Anaxagorean treatises.
Note LVII., p. 46.
On the latter subject see Mr. J. H. Newman's Essay prefixed to a
portion of Fleury's Ecclesiastical History, and also published in a
separate form, (Oxford, Parker, 1843 ;) and compare the views of Dod-
well, (Dissertat. in Irerueum, ii. 28, et seqq.,) Burton, (Ecclesiastical His-
tory of the First Three Centuries, vol. ii. pp. .5, 230-3, &c.,) and Kaye
(Tertullian, p. 104; Justin Martyr, p. 121.) On the supernatural ele-
ment in Heathenism, see Mr. Newman's Arians, veh. i. § 3, pp. 87-
91 ;) and compare Trench, Notes on the Miracle*, ch. iii. pp. 21-3 ;
Alford's Greek Testament, vol. ii. p. 164 ; Hue's Vor»jje dans la Tartar ie,
vol. i. pp. 295-G ; and Havernick, Handbuch de> distorisch-kritischen
Einleitung in das Alte Testament, § 23, p. 244, £. T
Lect. II. NOTES. 247
LECTURE II.
Note I., p. 51.
See Home's Introduction to the Critical Study and Knoxcledye of Holy
Scriptures, ch.ii. § 1 ; vol. i pp. 51-6, sixth edition; Graves, Lectures on
the Pentateuch, Lecture I ; Havemick, Handbuch der Historisch-kritis-
chen Einleituny in das Alte Testament, vol. i. ch. ii. \ 108 ; Stuart's
Defence of the Old Testament Canon, § 3, p. 42, &c. This fact is not
denied by those who oppose the Mosaic authorship. (See De Wette's
Einleituny in das Alte Testament, § 163 and § 164, pp. 203-5.)
Note II., p. 51.
The history of the controversy concerning the authorship of the Iliad
will illustrate what is stated in the text. It cannot but be allowed that
arguments of very considerable weight have been adduced by Wolf and
others in disproof of the Homeric authorship. Yet the opposite be-
lief maintains its ground in spite of them, and is regarded by the latest
Critic as fully and finally established. (See Gladstone's Homer and the
Homeric Aye, vol. i. pp. 3, 4.) The reason is, that the opposing argu-
ments, though strong, are pronounced on the whole not strong enough to
overcome the force of a unanimous tradition.
Note III., p. 51.
For instance, De Wette repeats the old objection of Spinoza, that the
author of the Pentateuch cannot be Moses, since he uses the expression
•* beyond Jordan " as a dweller in Palestine would, whereas Moses
never entered Palestine. {Einleituny, &c, \ 147, a 4.) Hut all toler-
abb Hebraists are aware that the term 1??2 is ambiguous, and may
mean on either side of a river. Huxtorf translates it, "rw, ultra,
trans." (lexicon lhbraicum et Chaldaicum, p. 527, ad voc. "123? ■)
So Gesenius and others. Even De Wette admits in a note that the
expression has the two senses ; but the objection maintains its place in
his text notwithstanding.
De Wette's translator and commentator, Mr. Theodore Parker, re-
peats the objection, and amplifies it. He remarks, that in the Penta-
NOTES. LECT. II.
teuch the expression " beyond Jordan " meanr or. the east side of
that river," while "this side Jordan" means "to the west of that
river." (Vol. ii. p. 41.) Apparently he is not aware that in the
original it is one and the same expression (~C52) which has been
rendered in the two different ways.
Note IV., p. 51.
Examples of interpolations, or insertions into the text by another
hand, are, I think, the following: Gen. xxxvi. 31-9; Exod. xvi. 35-6,
and perhaps Deut. iii. 14.) (See Graves, Lectures on the Pentateuch,
vol. i. p. 342, pp. 345-6, and p. 349.) The first of these cannot have
Deen, and the others probably were not, written by Moses. They are
supplementary notes of a similar character to the supplementary chap-
ter of Deuteronomy, (ch. xxxiv.,) in which every commentator recog-
nizes an addition to the original document. (Graves, vol. i. pp. 349,
350 ; Havernick, Handbuch, &c, § 134, sub fin. vol. i. p. 549; Home's
Introduction, &c, vol. i. p. 62 ; &c.)
The other passages, which have been regarded as interpolations, such
as Gen. xiii. 8, xxii. 14; Deut. ii. 10-12, 20-23, iii. 9, 11, &c,
may (I think) have all been written by Moses. Havernick (1. s. c.)
maintains, that even the passages mentioned in the last paragraph are
from the pen of the Lawgiver, and holds that the Pentateuch is alto-
gether " free from interpolation " — the last chapter of Deuteronomy
alone being from another hand, and constituting an Appendix to the
Pentateuch, or even an Introduction to Joshua. He seems to think
that if interpolation be once admitted, all is rendered uncertain.
" From interpolation to revision," he says, "is so short a step, espe-
cially if we conceive of the latter according to the sense and spirit of
the East, that we should find it impossible to oppose any barrier to the
latter supposition, if the former could be proved." But it is our busi-
ness to be guided not by the exigencies of controversy, but by the
demands of Reason and Truth. It would be strange if in a book as
old as the Pentateuch there were not some interpolations. And all
reasonable men will readily see that a few interpolations, whether made
by authority, or glosses which have crept in from the margin, do not
in the slightest degree affect the genuineness of the work as a whole.
(See Home's Introduction, vol. i. ch. ii. p. 62; Graves's Lectures, Ap-
pendix, § 1, p. 346, and pp. 355-361 ; RosenmQller's Prolegomena,
Lect. II. notes. 249
p. 36; Eichhorn's Einleitung in das Alte Testament, § 434, &c. ; Jahn's
Einleitung unci Beitrtige zur Vertheid. der Aechtheit des Pentateuchs, p.
60 ; and Fritzsche's Prufung der Grilnde, &c, p. 135.)
Note V., p. 51.
De Wette, Einleitung, § 145 ; pp. 168, 16-9.
Note VI., p. 51.
Ibid. § 163, p. 204. " Against the authorship by Moses the entire
analogy of the language and literary history of the Hebrews bears wit-
ness. ... It is folly to suppose that one man could have created in
advance the epic-historical, the rhetorical, and the poetical styles in
their fullest compass, and also these three departments of Hebrew liter-
ature in their contents and spirit, and have left nothing but imitation to
all succeeding writers."
Note VII., p. 51.
Hartmann, Historisch-kritische Forschungen ilber d. Bildung, &c. des
Pentateuchs, p. 545, et alibi. Norton, Genuineness of the Gos]iels, vol.
ii. p. 444, second edition. The objection is as old as Spinoza. (See
his Tractatus Theologico- Politicus, eh. viii. p. 154.)
Note VIII., p. 51.
De Wette, Einleitung, { 144, p. 167.
Note IX., p. 52.
Hartmann, 1. s. c. So Spinoza, Tractatus Theologico- Politicus, eh.
viii. pp. 154-5.
Note X., p. 52.
I*ben Jesu, Einleitung, § 13, vol. i. p. 60, E. T. The genuineness
of the First Epistle to the Corinthians, which contains so many refer-
ences to miracles,1 is specially acknowledged, § 140; vol. vii. p. 367,
E. T.
1 See especially ch. xii. verses 9, 10, and 28-30, ch. xiv. 2, 5, 6, 13, Ac, and cli. xv. 3.
250 NOTES. Lect. II.
Note XI., p. 52.
Strauss allows, though with evident reluctance, that the Acts are, or
at least may be, the work of St. Luke {Leben Jesu, § 13, vol. i. p. 60,
E. T.) He regards it as "not a little remarkable, that the author
makes no distinct allusion to his connection with the most distin-
guished of the Apostles." It is certainly very remarkable how com-
pletely St. Luke keeps himself, and his own actions, in the back-
ground, while engaged in recording the history of events in which he
himself took part. But this reticence is a feature of that humility
which characterizes the Sacred Writers generally.
Note XII., p. 52.
It was the existence of considerable remains of Greek literature, ear-
lier in date than the latter half of the sixth century B. C and an exact
acquaintance with it, which enabled Bentley so thoroughly to establish
the spuriousness of the alleged Epistles of Phalaris. In the Homeric
controversy, on the other hand, the want of any contemporary litera-
ture has rendered the argument, that a single man in such early times
could not possibly have composed both the Iliad and the Odyssey, so
weak and inconclusive that the opposite opinion still maintains its
ground, and on the whole seems tending to become the estabbshed
one. (See above, Note II.)
Note XHL, p. 52.
The only remains of ancient literature which are even supposed to
reach as high as the age of Moses, are certain Hieratic Papyri found in
Egypt, belonging to the nineteenth or even to earlier dynasties. Two
of these have been translated by the Vicomte de Rouge,1 and several
others by the Rev. J. D. Heath.2 But it is very doubtful whether
these translations give much real insight into the originals. As Mr.
Goodwin observes, {Cambridge Essays, 1858, p. 229,) "Egyptian phi-
lology is yet in its infancy. Champollion got little farther than the
accidence of the language ; and since his time not much has been done
l See the Rerue Jlrcheolosrique for May 1852. anil the Rtvut Contcmporaine for 185&
* The Exoiiuj Papyri, London, 1835.
LECT. II. NOTES. 2.">1
in the investigation of the syntax. . . . With an incomplete knowledge
of the syntax, and a slender vocabulary, translation becomes guesswork,
and the misconception of a single word or phrase may completely con-
found the sense." Hence Mr. Goodwin and Mr. Heath often differ as
to the entire subject and bearing of a document. (See Mr. Goodwin's
Essay, pp. 249, 259, 261, &c.)
Note XIV., p. 53.
The antiquity of the diction of the Pentateuch has been denied by
some critics,1 among others by Gesenius. (See his Geschichte der
llebrdisehen Sprache unci Sc/irift, § 8.) But Jahn seems to have estab-
lished the point beyond any real controversy. (See Jahn's contribu-
tions to Bengel'a Archiv., vol. ii. p. 578, et seqq. ; vol. iii. p. 168, et
seqq. Compare Fritzsche, Prufung der Grtlnde, Sec, p. 104. et seqq. ;
and see also Marsh's Authenticity of the Five Books of Moses, p. 6, et
seqq. ; and Stuart's History and Defence of the Old Testament Canon,
pp. 12-13.) At least De Wette, writing after both Jahn and Gese-
nius, is constrained to admit that archaisms exist in considerable num-
ber, and has to account for them by supposing that they were adopted
from the ancient documents of which the Compiler, who lived later
than Solomon, made use. (Einleitung, § 157. See also § 163, where
he allows that the linguistic, as distinct from the literary argument,
against the Mosaic authorship, is weak.)
Note XV., p. 53.
This is abundantly shown by Ilavernich, (Handluch, &c, $ 136 ;
pp. 554-564.)
Note XVI., p. 53.
See Lecture III., pp. 80 and 81.
Note XVII., p. 53.
Mr. Norton is the writer who in recent times has urged this point
with the greatest distinctness, and has given it the most prominent
1 Vater, Jlblinndlung ilber Moses. Sec \ 393; Norton, Authenticity of Ute Gospels,
Vol. ii. pp. 441, 442.
2/>2 NOTES. LECT. II.
position. In Ins section, headed " Some general considerations re-
specting the Authorship of the Pentateuch," he begins his argument
against the genuineness with this objection. Moses, he says, lived
probably in the fifteenth century before Christ ; certainly not much
later. " There is no satisfactory evidence that alphabetical writing was
known at this time. If known to others, it is improbable that it was
known to the Hebrews. They could not, during their residence in Egypt,
have learnt alphabetical writing from the Egyptians ; for the mode of
representing ideas to the eye, which the Egyptians employed till a
period long subsequent, was widely(?) different from the alphabetical
writing of the Hebrews. If they were acquainted with the art, they
must have brought it with them into the country. But we can hardly
suppose that it was invented, or acquired except by tradition, in the
family of Isaac, or in that of Jacob before his residence in Egypt, en-
gagt-d as they both were in agriculture and the care of cattle. We
must then go back, to Abraham at least for what traditionary knowl-
edge of it his descendants in Egypt may be supposed to have possessed.
But it would be idle to argue against the supposition that alphabetical writ-
ing was known in the time of Abraham." '
That writing was unknown to the Hebrews till the time of the
Judges, was, at one period of their lives, maintained by Gescnius and
l)e Wette. (See Gesenius, Geschichte der HebrOischen Sprache und
Schrift, § 140, et seqq., and De Wette's Archdologie, § 277.) Both,
however, saw reason to change their opinion, and admitted subse-
quently that it must have dated at least from Moses. See Gesenius'
Hebrew Grammar, Excursus I. p. 290, (English Translation, 13th edi-
tion,) and De Wette's Einleitung, § 12, p. 13. The bulk of modern
German critics, whether rationalist or orthodox, acquiesce in this latter
opinion. See Ewald, Geschichte Volkes Israel, pp. 64-69, Von Een-
gerke, Kttnaan, p. xxxv., Havernick, Einleitung in das Alte Testament,
{ 44, &c. ; and compare the American writer, Stuart, Old Testament
Canon, $ 3, pp. 40, 41.
Note XVIIL, p. 53.
See the statements of Sir Gardner Wilkinson in the author's He-
rodotus, vol. ii. p. 311, and pp. 43-4. The date assigned to the
fourth dynasty rests upon the same authority.
1 Genuine/tens of the OospeU; vol. ii., Appendix, Note D., $ 3 ; pp. 43*-441.
Lect. IL notes. 253
Note XIX., p. 53.
Sir Henry Rawlinson regards the earliest inscribed bricks in the
Babylonian series as dating from about B. C. 2200. (See the author's
Herodotus, vol. i. pp. 435 and 440O
Note XX., p. 53.
See "Wilkinson's statements on this subject in the author's Herodotus,
Vol. i. pp. 306, 321, &c. He regards the hieratic character as having
come into use " at least as early as the 9th dynasty," (p. 306,) which
he places about B. C. 2240. A considerable number of hieratic papyri
belonging to the 19th dynasty, and one or two of a still earlier date,
arc now in the British Museum. (See Cambridge Essays for 1858, pp.
229, 230.)
Some writers urge, that the Jews could not have learnt alphabetic
writing from the Egyptians, since " the mode of representing ideas to
the eye, which the Egyptians employed till a period long subsequent,
was widely different from the alphabetical writing of the Hebrews."
(Norton, 1. s. c. Compare Havernick, Einleitung, § 42-43.) But the
difference was really not very great. It is a mistake to suppose that
the Egyptian writing was, except to a small extent, symbolical. Both
in the hieroglyphic and the hieratic, as a general rvde, the words are
spelt phonetically first, and are then followed by a symbol or symbol,
(Sec Mr. Goodwin's Essay, p. 227, and compare Wilkinson, Herodotus,
vol. ii. p. 317.)
Note XXI., p. 53.
Ur, or Hur (-i^s). the modern Mugheir, has furnished some of the
most ancient of the Babylonian inscriptions. (See the author's He-
rodotus, vol. i. p. 435 ; and compare Loftus's Chald&a and Susiana, eh.
xii. p. 130.) It seems to have been the primeval capital of Chaldiea.
The inscriptions, which arc either on bricks or on clay cylinders, and
which are somewhat rudely executed, have been assigned to about the
22d century before Christ, (see the Herodotus, vol. i. p. 440,) which is
at least three centuries before Abraham.
Attempts have sometimes been made to determine the questions,
whence exactly and when exactly the Hebrews obtained their alpha-
254 NOTES. Lect. II.
bctic system. (See Havernick's Einleitung, § 44.) It k consider-
ably different both from that of Egypt and that of Babylon, -while
it is almost identieal with that of Phoenicia ; whence it is inferred
that the Hebrews learnt it from the Phoenicians. Of this, how-
ever, there is no evidence, since the Phoenicians may equally as well
have learnt of them. (See the statement of Eupolemus, quoted in
Note XXV.) The probability seems to be, that the family of Abraham
brought an alphabetic system from Ur, which may have been modified
in Canaan and again in Egypt,1 and which may not have assumed a
settled shape until the writings of Moses fixed it for after ages. The
system which they brought may have been either originally common to
them with the Aramaic, Phoenician, and other cognate races ; or it may
have gradually spread from them to those people.
Note XXII. , p. -54.
Hecatreus of Abdera lived in the fourth century before Christ.
He was a friend of Alexander the Great, and wrote a work upon
the history and religious antiquities of the Jews. The following is
his testimony to Moses : —
"When in ancient times Egypt was visited with a pestilence,
most of the people referred the cause of the calamity to the divinity.
For since many foreigners and strangers dwelt in the country, who
used diverse customs in regard to rites and sacrifices, it came to pass
that the worship of the gods was very much neglected among them.
Therefore the native inhabitants of the country conceived the idea,
that there would be no end to their calamities, unless they should
rid themselves of the foreigners. They accordingly banished them
without delay. The most illustrious and energetic of them betook
themselves, as some say, into Greece ; . . . but the mass of th&
people fled into what is now called Judea, a country which is mtu-
ated not far from Egypt, and which was at that time nothing bu)
a desert. The colony was led by a man named Moses, who was dis-
tinguished for his great prudence and courage. This man, having
taken possession of the country, founded, among otner cities, that
one called Jerusalem, which is now very celebrated. He built also
1 It seems scarcely possible that the resemblance between the Hebrew shin and the
Ejyptian »A can be accidental. A fainter similarity may be traced in some other
letters.
LECT. II. NOTES. 200
the temple which is so greatly honored by them, and appointed the
sacred rites in honor of the divinity, and organized and regulated
their civil affairs." After giving an account of the chief points of the
law, Hecatams adds, "It is also written at the end of the laws, that
Moses heard these things from God, and spake them to the Jews."
(See the fragments of Hecataeus in Mons. C. Mailer's Fragmenta RiS'
toricoruni Urcecorum, vol. ii. p. 392, Fr. 13.)
Note XXIII., p. 54.
Manetho, the Egyptian, was also contemporary with Alexander,
and wrote his Egyptian History under the first Ptolemy. His words,
as reported by Josephus, are, " Now it is said that their state was
organized, and their laws established by a priest, a Heliopolitan by
birth, named Osarsiph, from Osiris, a god who was worshipped in
Heliopolis ; and that when he joined himself to this people, his name
was changed, and he was called Moses." (Fragmenta Hist. Grcec. vol.
ii. p. 580, Fr. 54.)
Note XXIV., p. 54.
Lysimachus of Alexandria, a writer (probably) of the Augustan age,
abused Moses and his laws. See Josephus, (contr. Apion. ii. 14 :)
"Lysimachus and some others, partly through ignorance, but more
from ill-will, have discoursed concerning our lawgiver, Moses, and
concerning his laws, in a manner which is neither just nor true,
calumniating him as a juggler and impostor, and affirming that his
laws teach us lessons of vice, and not of virtue."
Note XXV., p. 54.
Eupolemus is by some thought to have been a Jew ; but the liber-
ties which he takes with Scripture seem to mark him for a heathen.
Josephus evidently considers him such, since he couples him with
Demetrius Phalereus, and speaks of him as unable to follow exactly
the sense of the Jewish Scriptures. (Contr. Apion. i. 23.) Ho lived
m the latter half of the second century before Christ, and wrote n
rt-ork in Greek on the history of the Jews, which was largely quoted
Ny Alexander Polyhistor, the contemporary of Sylla. (See Eusebiu*
256 NOTES. Lect. II.
Prtrparatio Evangelica, vol. ii. pp. 370-3, 394, 423-433, &c") Polyhistor
thus reported his testimony concerning Moses : —
«" Eupolemus says that Moses was the first wise man, and that he
first taught the Jews letters ; — that the Phoenicians received them
from the Jews, and the Greeks from the Phoenicians ; and also that
Moses was the first who wrote laws for the Jews." {Fragmenta Hist.
Grac. vol. ii. p. 220, Fr. 13.)
Note XXVI., p. 54.
Histor. T. 4 : " Moses, in order that he might firmly attach the people
to himself for the time to come, gave them new rites, contrary to those
of the rest of mankind."
Note XXVII., p. 54.
" Some, having descended from a father who reverenced the Sabbaths,
worship nothing but the clouds and the divinity of heaven, and think
that the swine's flesh, from which their father abstained, is no dif-
ferent from human flesh. Besides, they also remove the foreskin.
And they are accustomed to despise the Roman laws, while they
commit to memory, and observe and reverence, the Jewish law,
whatever it be, which Moses delivered to them in a secret volume."
Satir. xiv. 9-1026.
Note XXVIII., p. 54.
Longinus does not mention Moses by name, but it cannot be doubted
that he intends him in the famous passage where he speaks of " the
Jewish legislator " as a person historically known, and as the writer
of Genesis. "Thus also the legislator of the Jews, who was no ordi-
nary man, since he worthily comprehended and declared the power
of the gods, writing thus at the very introduction to his laws, says,
« And God said ' — what ? ' Let the light be ; and it was ; let the earth
be ; and it was.' " De Sublimitate, § 9.
Note XXIX., p. 54.
Hecatseus, Eupolemus, Juvenal, and Longinus. See above, Notes
XXII., XXV., XXVIL, and XXVTIL Nicolas of Damascus may be
added as a witness to the composition of the Pentateuch by Moses.
Lect. II. NOTES. 257
Speaking of a certain man as saved in the Ark at the time of the
Great Deluge, he says, "This may also have been he whose history
is narrated by Moses, the lawgiver of the Jews." (See Josephus, Antiq.
Jud. i. 3, § 6.)
Note XXX., p. 54.
According to some writers, Hellanicus, the contemporary of Herodo-
t*us, mentioned Moses. (Justin Martyr, Cohortatio ad Gentes, § 8, p.
13, D. "Those who have written the annals of the Athenians, Hellan-
icus, and Philochorus, the Atthidae, Castor, and Thallus, and Alexander
Polyhistor, • . . have mentioned Moses as a very early and ancient
ruler of the Jews." Cyrillus Alexandrinus, Contra Julianum, i. p. 15, D,
"Now that Moses was well known to the Greek historians, may be
easily seen, from those things which they have written. For Pole-
mon has mentioned him in the first book of his Grecian History,
and Ptolemy the Mendesian,1 and also Hellanicus, and Philochorus, and
Castor, and others besides these.") As he wrote a work entitled Con-
cerning the Nations, or Barbaric Customs, there is no improbability
in this statement. It is less easy to see what could have led Philocho-
rus (B. C. 300) to speak of him, but we are scarcely entitled on this
ground to pronounce (as Mons. C. Muller does, Fr. Hist. Gr. vol. i. p.
385) that Justin misunderstood his author, rolemon of Ilium (ab.
B. C. 200) seems to have spoken of Moses leading the Israelites out
wf Egypt. (Africanus ap. Euseb. Pr<pp. Ev. x. 10; vol. ii. p. 512:
"Now some of the Greeks also relate, that Moses lived at the same
time. Polemon, in the first book of his Grecian History, says, ' In the
reign of Apis, the son of Phoroneus, a division of the army of the
Egyptians deserted Egypt, and settled in what is called Syrian Palestine,
iv-jt far from Arabia ; these were they who were with Moses.' " Comp.
Cyril. Alex. 1. s. c. ; Justin Martyr, Cohort, ad Centex, p. 11 ; Syncellus,
vol. i. p. 116.) Apollonius Molo, Cicero's instructor in rhetoric, (about
B. C. 80) called Moses a juggler and an impostor, and gave r. very in-
correct account of his legislation. (Josephus, Contra Apionem, ii. 14.
Vide supra, note 24.) Trogus Pompcius (ab. B. C. 20) spoke of him
at some length, but he did not give his readers very correct infor-
mation, if we may judge by the epitome of Justin. Justin says, " His
1 MendoR was a city of Kgypt, situated in the Delta. It gave its name to one of tin
souths of the Nile.
22*
258 NOTES. Lect. 1L
son (i. e. Joseph's) was Moses, who, besides inheriting his father's
knowledge, was recommended also by the beauty of his person. But
the Egyptians, when they were suffering from the itch and tetter, in
obedience to the response of an oracle, in order that the disease might
not become general, drove him, together with those affected by the
disease, out of the Egyptian territory. Being made therefore the
leader of the exiles, he carried off by stealth the sacred images of
the Egyptians. The Egyptians attempted to recover these by force,
but were compelled by storms to return home. Moses, therefore, seek-
ing again his ancient country Damascus, took possession of Mount
Sinai. When he came thither at length, with his people, wearied
with a seven days' journey through the desert of Arabia without food,
he consecrated as a day of perpetual fasting the seventh day, called, in
the language of that people, Sabbath, because that day had put an end
to their famine and their wanderings. . . . After Moses his son Aruas,
who had been a priest of the Egyptian worship, was next made king."
(Hist, xxxvi. 2.) The Egyptian historians Apion, (B. C. 30,) Cseremon
(A. D. 50,) and Ptolemy of Mendes — the last an author of uncertain
date, probably of the first century after Christ — noticed the fact of
his leading the Jews out of Egypt. (See Tatian, Oratio adversus
Gracos, § 37, p. 273: "Now there are accurate records of the Egyp-
tian chronicles. And Ptolemy, who was an interpreter of their litera-
ture, — not the king of that name, but the priest of Mendes, — in set-
ting forth the acts of their kings, says that in the time of Amosis, king
of Egypt, the Jews marched out of Egypt, and went into whatsoever
countries they chose, under the command of Moses." Compare Clem.
Alex. Sr'.romata, i. p. 379 ; Cyril. Alex. 1. s. c. ; Euseb. Prerp. Ev. x.
11 ; vol. ii. p. 519, &c. And for the testimonies of Chperemon and
Apion, which will be adduced in Note LXXXL, see Joseph, c. Apion.
i. 32, and ii. 2.) It is also probable that Moses was mentioned by
Castor the chronologer, (about B. C. 160,) and by Thallus, the freed-
man of Tiberius. (Sec the passages from Justin Martyr and Cyril
quoted at the beginning of this note.) Numenius, the Pythagorean
philosopher, who lived in the age of the Antonines, called Moses " a
man very powerful with God through prayer," and mentioned his
contest with the Egyptian magicians, Jannes and Jambres. (Sec
Euseb. Prtrp. Ev. ix. 8; vol. ii. p. 358: "Afterwards, at the time
when the Jews were driven out of Egypt, there nourished Jannes
Lect. 1L notes. 259
and Jambres, the Egyptian sacred scribes, men who were reputed
inferior to none in magical arts. These were the persons who were
judged worthy by the Egyptian populace to withstand even Mousaeus,
the leader of the Jews, a man who was very powerful with God in
prayer ; and they were found able to remove the heaviest of the calam-
ities which Mousaeus brought upon Egypt.") (Compare Pliny, Hist.
Nat., xxx. 1, § 2.) Nicolas of Damascus also mentioned Moses, and
called him " the Jewish lawgiver." (See the passage quoted in
Note XXIX.)
Note XXXI., p. 54.
The only classical writer, so far as I am aware, who expresses any
doubt with respect to the Mosaic origin of the Jewish law is Strabo, a
very untrustworthy authority in the field of ancient history. Strabo
ascribes the establishment of Monotheism and of the moral law to
Moses, but believes the ceremonial law to have been added by his suc-
cessor. (Geographica, xvi. 2, $ 35-37 : " For Moses, one of the Egyptian
priests, dissatisfied with the established order of things, made great in-
novations in every direction ; and many of those who honored the divin-
ity joined his secession. Now this man said and taught that the Egyp-
tians, and likewise the Libyans, were in error in likening the divinity to
beasts and cattle. He also censured the Greeks as well, for represent-
ing their gods in human form. For he maintained that God was
nothing else but that which comprehends us all, and the earth and the
sea — that which we are wont to call heaven, and the world, and the
nature of things ; and that those who live virtuously and justly may
always expect good gifts from God, and tokens of his favor ; but that
others could have no such expectation. Thus this man became popu-
lar, and established his authority very firmly ; for all those who were
about him were easily induced, by his personal influence, and by the
benefits proposed, to fall in with his views. Now those who came
after him continued for a time in the same course, practising justice
and showing true piety ; but afterwards there were introduced into the
priesthood, first superstitious, and then tyrannical men. The former
established the prohibitions from food, which they arc accustomed to
observe at the present day, and the circumcisions and excisions, and
whatever else of this kind has been instituted amon<; them ; and the
latter introduced oppressive exactions.") It is to be remarked that
260 NOTES. Lect. II.
Strabo quotes no authority, whence it may be suspected that his
account is based rather on his own views of probability, and of the
natural sequence of events in such cases, than on the statements of any
earlier writers. (See his words at the opening of the next section.)
Note XXXII., p. 55.
See Exod. xvii. 14 ; xxiv. 4, 7 ; Numb, xxxiii. 2 ; Deut. xvii. 18,
et seqq. ; xxviii. 58, et seqq. ; xxix. 20, 27 ; and xxxi. 9, 24, et seqq.
Note XXXIII., p. 55.
Strauss, Leben Jesu, § 6 ; vol. i. p. 20, E. T.
Note XXXIV., p. 55.
See particularly Deuteronomy xxviii. 58, and xxix. 20, 27. Haver-
nick's comment on these and other kindred passages deserves the atten-
tion of the student. (See his Handbuch dss Historisch-critischen Einlei-
tung in das Alio Testament, § 108 ; { 4, pp. 14-19, Clark's Translation.1)
Note XXXV., p. 56.
" The Deuteronomist," says De Wette, " will, as it appears, have his
•whole book regarded as the composition of Moses." (Einle.itung in das
Alte Testament, § 162, d, p. 203.) Hartman makes a similar assertion
with respect to " the author of the last four books." (Forschungen ilber
d. Pentateuch, p. 538.)
Note XXXVI., p. 56.
The earliest writers whom De "Wette can quote as doubting the gen-
uineness of the Pentateuch, are Celsus the Neo-Platonist, (A. D. 130,)
and Ptolemy, the Valentinian Gnostic, a writer of the third century.
(See his Einteitung, § 164, a ; p. 205 ; and for the passages to which he
refers see Origen, Contra Celsum, iv. 42, and Epiphanius, Adversus
Hareses, xxxiii. 4, p. 207.) Apion, and the other adversaries whom
Josephus answers, all admitted the Pentateuch to be the work of
Moses.
1 Hutonco- Critical Introduction to the Pentateuch, Edinburgh, Clark, 1850.
LKCT. II. NOTES. 261
Note XXXVII., p. 56.
The differences in the rationalistic views of the time when the Pen-
tateuch was composed, are thus summed up by Professor Stuart,1
" Almost every marked period from Joshua down to the return from
the Babylonish exile, has been fixed upon by different writers, as a
period appropriate to the production of the work. To Ezra some have
assigned the task of producing it ; in which, if we may hearken to
them, he engaged in order that he might confirm and perpetuate the
ritual introduced by him. To Hilkiah the priest, with the connivance
of Josiah, Mr. Norton and others have felt inclined to attribute it, at
the period when a copy of the Law is said to have been discovered in
the Temple. Somewhere near this period, Gesenius and De Wette
once placed it ; but both of them, in later times, have been rather
inclined to recede from this, and to look to an earlier period. The
subject has been through almost boundless discussion, and a great
variety of opinions has been broached respecting the matter, until
recently it has taken a turn somewhat new. The haut ton of criticism
in Germany now compounds between the old opinions and the new
theories. Ewald and Lengcrke both admit a groundwork of the Penta-
teuch. But as to the extent of this they differ, each one deciding ac-
cording to his subjective feelings. The leading laws and ordinances of
the Pentateuch are admitted to belong to the time of Moses. Ewald
supposes that they were written down at that period. Then we have,
secondly, historical portions of the Pentateuch, written, as Ewald
judges, not by prophets, but before this order of men appeared among
the Hebrews. . . . Then came next, according to him, a prophetic order
of historical writers, about the time of Solomon. . . . Next comes a
narrator . . . who is to be placed somewhere near the period of Eli-
jah. . . . Then comes a fourth narrator, whom we cannot place earlier
than about the middle of the eighth century B. C. He was followed by
the Deuteronomist . . . some time during the latter half of Manasseh's
reign. . . . Then just before the Babylonish exile the great Collect uiwum
or Corpus Auctorum omnium, was brought to a close.
Lengerke . . . admits a groundwork ; but, with the exception of some
laws, it was not composed till the time of Solomon. Next comes a
• Critical History and Defence ofUie Old Testament Canon, \ 3, pp. 43, 44.
2G2 NOTES. Lkct. II.
supplementary, who must have lived some time in the eighth century.
Then comes the Dcuteronomist, as in Ewald ; but he is assigned by
Lengcrke to the time of Josiah, about B. C. 624.
Each of these writers is confident in his critical power of discrimina-
tion. . . . Each is sure that he can appreciate all the niceties and slight
diversities of style and diction, and therefore cannot be mistaken. Each
knows, in his own view with certainty, how many authors of the Pen-
tateuch there are ; while one still reckons six and the other three. . . .
I will not now ask, Who shall decide when Doctors disagree ? "
Compare also Havernick, Handbuch, &c, § 145 ; $ 41, pp. 442-444,
E. T.
Note XXXVII. b, p. 57.
Leben Jesu, § 13 ; pp. 55-56, E. T.
Note XXXVIII. , p. 58.
The purpose of Moses is to write not his own history, nor even the
civil history of his nation, but the theocratic history of the world up to
his own time. This is the clew to all those curious insertions and
omissions which have astonished and perplexed mere historians. (See
Havernick, Handbuch, &c, § 106 ; § 2, pp. 1-7, E. T. ; and compare
Lecture VII., p. 178.) Still, his own history to a certain extent, and
the public history of his nation, up to his time, do in fact form the
staple of his narrative.
Note XXXIX., p. 58.
Sir G. C. Lewis says, "The infidelity of oral tradition, with respect
to past occurrences, has been so generally recognized, that it would be
a superfluous labor to dwell upon it. For our present purpose, it is
more material to fix the time during which an accurate memory of his-
torical events may be perpetuated by oral tradition alone. Newton, in
his work on Chronology,1 fixes it at eighty or a hundred years for a
time anterior to the use of writing ; and Volney says that, among the
Red Indians of North America, there was no accurate tradition of facts
which were a century old. Mallet, in his work on Northern Anti-
1 Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms amended, (1728, 4to,) Introduction, p. 7.
Lect. II. NOTES. 203
quities,1 remarks that, among the common class of mankind, a son
remembers his father, knows something about his grandfather, but never
bestows a thought on his more remote progenitors. This would carry
back a man's knowledge of his own family for about a hundred years ;
and it is not likely that his knowledge of public affairs, founded on a
similar oral tradition, could reach to an earlier date." (Credibility of
Early Roman History, vol. i. pp. 98, 99.)
Note XL., p. 58.
See Home's Introduction to the Critical Study and Knoioledge of the
Holy Scriptures, ch. ii. § 1, vol. i. p. 54. "In the antediluvian world,
when the life of man was so protracted, there was comparatively little
need for writing. Tradition answered every purpose to which writing,
in any kind of characters, could be subservient ; and the necessity of
erecting monuments to perpetuate public events could scarcely have
suggested itself; as, during those times, there could be little danger
apprehended of any important fact becoming obsolete, its history hav-
ing to pass through very few hands, and all these friends and relatives
in the most proper sense of the terms ; for they lived in an insulated
state, under a patriarchal government. Thus it was easy for Moses to
be satisfied of the truth of all he relates in the 13ook of Genesis, as the
accounts came to him through the medium of very few persons. From
Adam to Noah there was but one man necessary to the transmission of
the history of this period of 1656 years. Adam died in the year of the
world 930, and Lamech, the father of Noah, was born in the year 874 ;
so that Adam and Lamech were contemporaries for fifty-six years.
Methusaleh, the grandfather of Noah, was born in the year of the
world 687, and died in the year 1656, so that he lived to see both
Adam and Lamech — from whom ( Adam ?) doubtless he acquired the
knowledge of this history, and was likewise contemporary with Noah
for 600 years. In like manner Shem connected Noah and Abraham,
having lived to converse with both ; as Isaac did with Abraham and
Joseph, from whom these things might be easily conveyed to Moses by
Amram, who was contemporary with Joseph. Supposing then all the
curious facts recorded in the Nook of Genesis to have had no other
authority than the tradition already referred to, they would stand upon
i Ch. ii.
2G4 NOTES. Lect. II.
a foundation of credibility superior to any that the most reputable of
the ancient Greek and Latin historians can boast."
Note XLI., p. 59.
See Sir G..C. Lewis's Credibility, &c., vol. i. > 101. "In a nation
which has no consecutive written history, leading events would be per-
haps preserved, in their general outlines, for about a hundred years.
Special circumstances might, however, give to an event a larger hold on
the popular memory." He instances, 1. The attempt of Cylon at
Athens, the circumstances of which were remembered in B. C. 432,
one hundred and eighty years after, (Thucydid. i. 126 ;) and 2. The battle
of the Allia, the memory of which continued (he thinks) among the
common people at Rome to the time of the earliest annalists, or one
hundred and fifty years.
Note XLIL, p. 59.
The force of this argument is, no doubt, weakened, but it is not
destroyed, by a preference of the Septuagint or of the Samaritan num-
bers to those of the Hebrew text. The Septuagint numbers, which
are the most unfavorable to the argument, would make the chain between
Adam and Moses consist of eight links — viz. Mahalaleel, Noah, Salah,
Reu, Nahor, Abraham, Jacob, and Jochebed.
Note XLHL, p. 59.
See above, Note XXXVII. ; and compare Havernick, Handbuch, &c,
§ 111, (§ 7, pp. 45-48, E. T.,) and Home, Introduction, &c, ch. ii. $ 1,
vol. i. pp. 64-56.
Note XLIY., p. 59.
Having argued that the Patriarchs were almost sure to have com-
mitted to writing the chief facts of the early history, especially those of
the Creation, the Fall of Man, the promise of Redemption, and the
various revelations which they received from God, Vitringa says —
" We believe, indeed, that Moses collected these writings and papers
of the patriarchs, preserved among the Israelites, arranged them, pre-
pared them, filled up their deficiencies, and out of them made up the
first ef his own books." {Obso-cationes Sacra, i. 4, § 2 ; p. 36.)
Lect. II. NOTES. 2C>5
Note XLV., p. 59.
Commentaire Littkrale, Preface, vol. i. p. xiii. " Although, strictly
speaking, it is not impossible that Moses might have learned from oral
tradition all that he has told us concerning the Creation of the World,
the Deluge, and the times of the Patriarchs, . . . yet it is highly prob-
able that this Lawgiver had access to records and documents -which had
been preserved in the families of the Jews. The detailed account of
genealogies, the dates of events, and their circumstances, the number
of the years of the lives of the Patriarchs, — all these things could
hardly be learned in a manner so precise and exact, except from writ-
ten documents." Compare Havernick, {Handbuch, &c, § 115 ; § 11, pp.
81-2, E. T.,) who, while he maintains that the narrative of Genesis
"has its origin primarily in oral tradition," still allows it to be probable
" that in the time of the writer a part of the oral tradition had been
already committed to writing," and that " the author makes use of
certain older monuments."
Note XLVL, p. 59.
See above, Notes XIX., XX., and XXI. In estimating the antiquity
of alphabetic writing, we must remember, that the earliest extant speci-
mens of the Babylonian (which have been assigned to about the 22d
century P. C) present indications of previous stages having been
passed through, which must have each occupied some considerable
period. It is certain that the Babylonians, like the Egyptians, began
with picture-writing.1 But in the most ancient remains this stage has
been long past : a few letters only still bear a resemblance to the ob-
jects : while the bulk have lost all trace of their original form. The
•writing too has ceased altogether to be symbolical, and (with the
exception of certain determinatives) is purely phonetic, having thus
passed the second stage of the art. In Egypt, the hieroglyphics of the
Pyramid period, (B. ('. 2450-2300.) sometimes "written in the cursive
character, prove that writing had been long in tise." (See Wilkinson's
Appendix to Book ii. of the author's Herodotus, eh. viii. § 9 ; vol. ii. p.
344.)
1 See Sir H. Raniinson'a Essay. " On the Early Ifistory of Babylonia," in the first
Tolum* of the author's Herodotus, Essay vi. pp. 44."., 444.
23
20G NOTES. Lect. II.
Note XLVIL, p. 60.
See Bishop Gleig's Introduction, in his edition of Stackhouse's His-
tory of the Bible, vol. i. p. 20. Compare the article on whiting in
Kitto's Biblical Cyclopccdia, vol. ii. pp. 971, 972.
Note XLVIIL, p. 61.
The Armenian History of Moses of Chorene commences from Adam.
Taking the Hebrew* Scriptures for his basis, he endeavors to blend and
harmonize with them the traditions of primeval times recorded by
Berosus, Abydenus, and especially by a certain Mar Ibas, or Mar Abas,
a learned Syrian, said to have lived about B. C. 150. He identifies
Adam with the Babylonian Alorus, (i„3,) Noah with Xisuthrus, (ibid.,)
Shem with Zervan, who (he says) is the same as Zoroaster, (i. 5. ;)
Ham with Titan, whence the Titans are the descendants of Ham, (ibid.,)
and Nimrod with Belus, (i. 6.) Armenian history is regarded as com-
mencing from this time. Hafcus or HaTg, the fifth descendant of
Japhet, son of Thaclath or Togarmah, revolts from Belus, or Nimrod,
and withdraws from Babylon to Armenia, where he establishes himself.
War follows : Hafcus is attacked by Belus, but makes a successful
resistance, and Belus falls in the battle, (i. 9, 10.) From this point
Moses seems in the main to follow native traditions, which do not
appear to have possessed much historical value. It has been conjectured
with good reason that "the earliest literature of Armenia was a series
of national poems," and that these compositions furnished Moses of
Chorene with a great part of his materials. (See Priehard's Physical
History of Mankind, vol. iv. p. 2.55 ; and compare Neumann's Versuch
eincr Ueschichte der Artnenischen Litcratur, published at Leipsic in
1836.) Michael Chamich and other Armenian writers have chiefly
copied from Moses.
Note XLIX., p. 61.
The two Epic poems, the Ramayana and the MahabhArata, profess
to be historical, but are not thought by the best modern authorities to
contain more than some "shadow of truth." They are assigned to
about the third century B. C. (See Professor H. H. Wilson's Intro-
duction to his translation of the Rig- Yeda-Sanhita, pp. xlvi., xlvii.) The
attempt to construct from them, and from other Sanscritic sources of
Lect. II. NOTES. 2(37
even worse character, by the aid of Megasthenes and of a large amount
of conjecture, a chronological scheme reaching to B. C. 3120, which
M. Bunsen has made in the third volume of his Egypt, (pp. 518-564,)
appears to me a singular instance of misplaced ingenuity.
Note L., p. Gl.
The Chinese, like the Hindus, carry back the history of the world for
several hundred thousand years. Their own history, however, as a
nation, does not profess to commence till about B. C. 2600; and
authentic accounts, according to the views of those who regard their
early literature with most favor, go back only to the 22d century B. 0.
(See R6musat, Nouveaux Milanges Asiatiques, vol. i. p. 65. "The
history of China runs back \flth certainty to the twenty-second
century before our era, and some respectable traditions permit us to
carry back the point of departure four centuries earlier, to the year
2637 before Jesus Christ." Compare Mailla, Histoire Gi.nt.ralc de la
Chine, vol. i. ; Grosier's Discours Preliminaire prefixed to his Descrip-
tion de la Chine, published at Paris in 1818-1820 ; and M. Bunsen's
Egypt, vol. iii. pp. 379-407.) The entire isolation of China, and the
absence of any points of contact between it and the nations of Western
Asia, would render this early history, even if authentic, useless for the
purposes of the present Lectures. I confess, however, that I put little
fuith in the conclusions of modern French antiquarians ; and that I
incline to look with suspicion on all Chinese history earlier than the
time of Confucius, B. C. 550-480, when it is admitted that contem-
porary records commence. (See Priehard's Physical History of Man-
kind, vol. iv. pp. 475-t) ; and compare Asiatic Researches, vol. ii. p.
370.)
Note LI., p. 61.
The evidences on this head were carefully collected by Mr. Stanley
Fabcr in his Hampton lectures for the year 1801, afterwards published
as Horcn Mosaicm, ch. iv. pp. 130-184. The most remarkable tradition
is *Viat of the Hindus. In the Bhagavat it is related that in the reign
of Saliavrata, the seventh king of the Hindus, mankind became almost
universally wicked, only Satiavrata and seven saints continuing pious.
The lord of the universe, therefore, loving the pious man, and intend-
ing to preserve him from the sea of destruction caused by the deprav-
2G8 N 0 T E s . Lect. II.
lty of the age, thus told him how he was to act. " In seven days from
the present time, O thou tamer of enemies, the three worlds will be
plunged in an ocean of death ; but in the midst of the destroying
waves, a large vessel, sent by me for thy use, shall stand before thee.
Then shalt thou take all medicinal herbs, all the variety of seeds ; and
accompanied by seven saints, encircled by pairs of all brute animals,
thou shalt enter the spacious ark and continue in it, secure from the
flood on one immense ocean without light, except the radiance of thy
holy companions. . . . Then shalt thou know my true greatness,
rightly named the supreme Godhead ; by my favor all thy questions
shall be answered, and thy mind abundantly instructed." After seven
days, the sea overwhelming its shores, deluged the whole earth ; while
the flood was augmented by showers from immense clouds ; when
Satiavrata saw the vessel advancing, and entered it with his compan-
ions, having executed the commands of God. After a while the deluge
abated, and Satiavrata, having been instructed in all divine and human
knowledge, was appointed the seventh Menu, and named Vaivaswata
by the Supreme Being. From this Manu the earth was repeopled, and
from him mankind received their name Manudsha. (See an Article by
Sir W. Jones in the 1st volume of the Asiatic Researches, pp. 230-4.
Compare Faber's Horce Mosaicre, eh. iv. pp. 139, 140; Carwithen's
Hampton lectures, III. pp. 87, 88 ; and Kalisch's Historical and Critical
Commentarij on the Old Testament, vol. i. p. 138, E. T.)
The Chinese traditions are said to be less clear and decisive. They
speak of a "first heaven" — an age of innocence, when "the whole
creation enjoyed a state of happiness ; when every thing was beautiful,
every thing was good ; all beings were perfect in their kind ; " whereto
succeeded a " second heaven," introduced by a great couvulsion.
"The pillars of Heaven were broken — the earth shook to its founda-
tions — the heavens sunk lower towards the north — the sun, the moon,
and the stars changed their motions — the earth fell to pieces ; and the
iraters enclosed within its bosom burst forth with violence, and overflowed it.
Man having rebelled against heaven, the system of the Universe was
totally disordered. The sun was eclipsed, the planets altered their
course, and the grand harmony of nature was disturbed." (Faber,
Horte Mosaica, ch. iv. pp. 147, 148.)
The Armenians accept the Scriptural account, which they identify
with the Chaldaean. They can scarcely be said to possess any special
Lect. II. notes. 269
national tradition on the subject, except that which continues to the
present day — the belief that the timbers of the ark are still to be seen
on the top of Ararat. The Greek tradition concerning the Hood of
Deucalion needs only to be mentioned. Curiously enough it takes the
form most closely resembling the Mosaic account in the pages of
Lucian,1 the professed scoffer. Traditions of a great deluge were also
found in all parts of the new world, and in some of the islands of the
Pacific. (Faber, llorce Mosaicce, ch. iv. ; Kalisch, vol. 1. p. 140, E. T.)
Note LIL, p. 62.
Sec Gen. x. 10 ; xi. 2-5 ; xxxix., ct seqq. Compare Herod, i. 7 ; ii.
2, 109-142 ; Plat. Tim. p. 22, B. ; Diod. Sic, books i. and ii. ; Justin,
i. 1 ; &c. Joscphus well expresses the grounds on which the Egyptian
and Babylonian annals are to be preferred to those of all other heathen
nations. He ranks the Phoenician histories decidedly below them.
(Sec his work Contra Apionem, i. 6: "Now that among the Egyptians
and the Babylonians, from the most ancient times the charge of prepar-
ing the public records was committed, among the former people, to the
priests, who were skilled in this business, and among the Babylonians
to the Chaldeans ; and that of the nations which held intercourse with
the Greeks, the Phoenicians were the most familiar with letters ; — all
this, I think, will be granted to me, since it is conceded by all.")
Note LIII., p. 63.
Scaliger was the first to draw the attention of scholars to the writ-
ings of Berosus and Manetho. In his work De Emendations Temporum
he collected their fragments and supported their authority. The value
of Manetho was acknowledged by Ilecren, {Handbuch der Gcschichtn dcr
Stouten des Altcrtltums, i. 2, p. 54, E. T.,) Marsham, {Canon Chronicus,
Pref. p. 2, &c.,) and others, before much progress had been made in
deciphering the inscriptions of Egypt. Berosus, always quoted with
respect by our Divines, did not find much favor with German histor-
ical critics till his claims were advocated by Niebuhr. (See t**~ ''ortrtige
ilber Alte Ueschichle, vol. i. pp. 16-19.)
i De Deh Sfridi, $ 12.
270 NOTES. Lect. IL
Note LIV., p. 63.
One other ancient writer, had his work come down to us in a com-
plete form, or had we even possessed a fragment or two of its earlier
portion, might have deserved to be placed nearly on a level with
Bcrosus and Manetho : viz., Menander of Ephesus ; who living prob-
ably about the same time with them, and having access to the archives
of the only nation which could dispute with Egypt and Babylon the
palm of antiquity and the claim of inventing letters, composed in
Greek a Phoenician history ; which seems, from the few fragments of
it that remain, to have been a work of the very highest character. Of
these fragments, however, none touch the period between the Creation
and the death of Moses ; and it may even be suspected that Menan-
der's history did not go back so far. At any rate, if it did, we are
completely ignorant what representation he gave of the early times.
(See the Fragments of Menander in Mons. C. Mailer's Fragmenta His-
toricorum Grmcorum, vol. iv. pp. 445-8, and the testimony to his value
borne by Niebuhr, Vortrdge ilbcr Altc Geschichte, vol. i. p. 17, and p.
93, note1.)
Nothing has been said here of Sanchoniathon, in the first place
because it seems more than probable that the work ascribed to hiin was
the mere forgery of Philo Byblius ; and secondly, because, though
called a " Phoenician History," the fragments of the work which re-
main show it to have been mainly, if not entirely, mythological. (See
Movers, Jahrbitcher ftir Thcologisch. und Christlich. Philosophic, 1836,
rol. i. pp. 51-91 ; Lobeck, Aglaoph., p. 1264, ct seqq. ; Niebuhr,
Yortrttgc ilbcr alte Geschichte, vol. i. p. 93, note 1 ; and C. Mailer,
Fragmcnta His, Gr., vol. iii. pp. 560-1.)
Note LV., p. 63.
M. Bunsen, speaking of the Egyptian monuments, says, " Such
documents cannot indeed compensate for the want of written History.
Even Chronology, its external framework, cannot be elicited from
them." {Egypt's Place in Cnirersal History, vol. i. p. 32, E. T.) This
may be said with at least as much truth of the Babylonian and Assyr-
ian records.
Lect. IL notes. 271
Note LVL, p. 64.
The following is Manetho's chronological scheme, according to Euse-
bius, (Chronica, i. 20, pp. 93-107, cd. Mai. :) —
Years.
Reign of Gods 13,900
Reign of Heroes 1,255
Reign of Kings 1,817
Reign of 30 Memphite Kings 1,790
Reign of 10 Thinite Kings 350
Reign of Manes and Heroes 5,813
24,925
Thirty dynasties of Kings (about) 5,000 '
29,925
Note LVTL, p. 64.
The following was the scheme of Berosus, if we may trust Eusebius.
(See his Chronica, i. 1, and 4 ; p. 5, and p. 18 :) —
Tears.
1. Ten kings from Alorus to Xisuthrus reigned . . . 432,000
2. Eighty-six kings from Xisuthrus to the Median conquest 33,080 2
3. Eight Median kings 224
4. Eleven kings [48J3
5. Forty-nine Chaldean kings 458
6. Nine Arabian kings 215
7. Forty-five kings down to l'ul 526
466,581
Note LVIII., p. 64.
Vide supra, Note LVL M. Bunscn (Egypt's Place, ftc, vol. i. p. 70,
E. T.) accuses Eusebius of having changed the order of Manetho's
numbers, and by a dexterous transposition he seeks to transfer to the
1 Baron Runner) given the sum of tlio yearn of the 30 dynasties as 4922, 49M, or 6329,
arvording to variations of reading or statement. (Egypt, vol. i. p. R2, K. T.)
2 In the Armenian the ntimher here is 33,001, tint thia may be corrected from £yn-
•ellus. (Fragm. Hist. Or., vol. ii. p. 503.)
* This number is only given in the margin, and is very doubtful.
272 notes. Lect. IL
human period a space of nearly 4000 years. He would make the divine
period consist of the following : —
Years.
1. Reign of Gods 13,900
2. Iteign of Heroes 1,255
3. Reign of Heroes and Manes together . . . 5,813
20,968
The human period he represents thus : —
1. Kings (no capital mentioned) 1,817
2. Thirty Memphite kings 1,790
3. Ten Thinite kings 350
4. Thirty Dynasties (say) 5,000
8,957
But there is absolutely no ground, beyond gratuitous conjecture, for
making this change ; which involves Manctho in the contradiction, that
Mattes, the Ghosts of Mortals, exist before there have been any mortals.
(See the Fragmenta Historicorum Grwconon of Mons. C. Mtlller, vol. ii.
p. 528, where M. Bunsen's theory is rejected.)
Note LIX., p. 64.
Chronograph ia, p. 52, D. M. Bunscn was the first to call attention
to this passage. {Egypt's Place, &c, vol. i. p. 86.) If sound, it is of
very great importance, as indicating that Manetho knew and allowed
that his kings and dynasties were not always consecutive. It has been
recently denied that Manetho did this, and it has been proposed to
amend the passage of Syncellus by introducing into it the name of
another writer, Anianus, who (it is supposed) made the reduction in
question. (See an Article in the Quarterly Review for April, 1859 ;
Art. IV. pp. 395-6.) But this emendation is quite inadmissible ; for
the clear object of Syncellus in the passage is to show that Manetho's
own numbers were at variance with Scripture. Whether Syncellus
rightly reports Manetho or no, is another question. If he does not,
the argument in the text, so far, falls to the ground ; and we must
admit that Egyptian Chronology — as represented by Manetho — was
about 2000 years in excess of the Chronology of Scripture. Still we
Lect. II. notes. 273
must bear in mind, that, -whether Manetho allowed it or not, his
dynasties were in fact sometimes contemporary, as is proved by the
Egyptian monuments. (Wilkinson in the author's Herodotus, vol. ii.
pp. 343, 349, &c. Stuart Poole, Horcc JEgyptiacce, pp. 110, 112, 123,
&c.) If therefore he did not in his chronology make any allowance
on this account, he could not fail to be in considerable excess of the
truth.
Note LX., p. 65.
See the latest conclusions of Sir Gardner Wilkinson in the author's
Herodotus, vol. ii. pp. 342-3 ; and compare Mr. Stuart Toole's Horce
JEgij})tiac(?, p. 97. See also the extracts from Professor Rask's Egyp-
tian Chronology, contained in Dr. Prichard's Historical Records of
Ancient Egypt, § 6, pp. 91-111.
A slight error has crept into the calculation on which the date given
in the text (B. C. 2660) is founded. Sir G. Wilkinson places the ac-
cession of the 4th dynasty about B. C. 2450, and allows to the 1st, on
which he considers the 4th to have followed, 241 years. The date of
Menes, according to his views, should therefore have been given as
B. C. 2690, instead of B. C. 2660.
Note LXL, p. 66.
See the fragments of Berosus in Mons. C. Mdller's Fragmenta Histor-
icorum Grepcorum, vol. ii. p. 496, Frs. 1, and 5. "lie says there was
a time when the universe was but darkness and water, and in these
were generated monstrous animals, of strange forms. . . . And besides
these there were fishes and reptiles, and a vast number of other won-
derful animals. . . . And over all these nded a woman, whose name
was Homoroka : now this word in the language of the Chaldees is
translated Thalath, but in Greek Thalassa, (i. e. the Sea.) Now, while
all things were in this condition, Belus returned, and cutting the
■woman asunder in the midst, made of the one half of her the earth, and
of the other half the heaven, and destroyed the animals. lie says that
this is an allegorical cosmogony. For when the universe was in a fluid
state, and animals were generated in it, this god cut off his own head,
and the other gods mixed the blood which flowed from it with the
earth, and so formed men ; whence it came to pass that they are intel-
ligent, and partake of the divine wisdom. Then Belus, divining the
27 1 NOTES. Lsct. II.
darknoss, separated the earth and the heaven from each other, and
brought the world into order ; and the animals that could not endure
the power of the light were destroyed. Then Belus, seeing that the
place was desolate, though fruitful, commanded one of the gods to
cut off his own head, and to mix the flowing blood with the earth,
and to form [men and] beasts able to breathe the air. Belus also
formed the stars, and the sun, and the moon, and the seven planets."
(Ap. Syncell. Chronograph, pp. 29, 30.)
"After saying these things, he proceeds to enumerate the kings of
Assyria, individually and in order, — namely, ten from Alorus, who
was the first, down to Xisuthrus, in whose reign occurred that first
great deluge which Moses also mentions." (Ap. Euseb. Chronica, i. 1,
p. 5, ed. Mai.)
Note LXIL, p. 66. ■
See Niebuhr's Vortrtlge ilber Alte Gcschichte, (vol. i. p. 20, note.)
where he notices the abuse of the parallel mude by some, who main-
tained that the Mosaical account of the Creation was derived from
the Babylonian.
Note LXIIL, p. 67.
See the well-known passage of Josephus, where, after remarking
on the longevity of the Patriarchs, he says, ' ' All those who have
written on the subject of antiquities, both among the Greeks and
among the Barbarians, bear witness to the truth of my words. For
Manetho, who wrote the chronicles of the Egyptians, and Berosus,
who collected those of the Chaldeans, and Molus [read Mofon] and
Hestiams, and besides these Hieronymus the Egyptian, and those
who composed the Phoenician annals, agree with what I have said.
Ilesiod also, and Hecatsrus, Hellanicus and Acusilaus, and besides
these Ephorus and Xicolaus, relate that the ancients used to live a
thousand years." (Antiq. Jud. i. 3.)
Note LXIV., p. 67.
See Faber's Horcp Mosatcee, eh. iii. pp. 119, 120; and Home's Intro-
duction, vol. i. p. 158.
Lect. IL notes. 275
Note LXV., p. 68.
Fragmenta Historicorum Grcecorum, vol. ii. p. 501, Fr. 7. "In the
reign of Xisuthrus there "was a great deluge. The account is given as
follows : ' Kronos, appearing to him in his sleep, declared that on the
15th day of the month Daesius, men would be destroyed by a flood.
He commanded the king therefore to commit to writing an account
of the principles and progress and issues of all things, and to bury
it in Sippara, the city of the sun ; and then to construct a vessel,
and to embark in it with his kindred and his intimate friends; also
to deposit therein food and drink, and to take in birds and quadrupeds;
and having put all things in order to set sail. . . . He therefore,
obeying the command, constructed a vessel, whose length was five
stadia, and its breadth two stadia ; and after he had gathered into it
all things as directed, he embarked with his wife and children and
intimate friends. But when the flood came, and forthwith ceased,
Xisuthrus let go some of the birds. Not finding, however, any food,
or any place to alight, they came again to the ship. After some days,
Xisuthrus let loose the birds again ; but they again came back to the
ship, having their feet covered with mud. But being let go a third
time, they returned no more to the ship. Xisuthrus then understood
that the land had appeared, and passing through a certain part of the
seams of the ship, and seeing that it had grounded on a certain moun-
tain, he went forth, with his wife and daughter, and the pilot, and
saluted the ground ; and when he had built an altar, and sacrificed
to the gods, he and those who came out of the ship with him disap-
peared. Now those who remained in the ship, when Xisuthrus and his
companions did not return, went forth to seek him, calling his name
aloud. But Xisuthrus himself was never more seen by them ; there
came, however, a voice from the air, which commanded them to be
dutiful woi>hippers of the gods, since he, in consequence of his piety,
had gone to live with the gods. ... It also directed them to go
again to Babylon, and, according as it had been decreed, to take up
the letters from Sippara, and communicate them to men whom they
would find in the country of Armenia. . . . Tiny accordingly came
to Babylon, dug up the letters which had been buried at Sippara,
restored the temples, and rebuilt Babylon." (Ap. Syncell. Chron., pp.
30, 31. Compare Euseb. Chronica, i. 3, pp. 11-16.)
276 NOTES. Lect. U.
Note LXVI., p. 68.
fragment. Hist. Gr., vol. iv. p. 280, Fr. 1. "After Euedoreschus,
several others reigned, among whom was Sisithrus, whom Kronos
forewarned that there would be a great abundance of rain on the
loth of Ihcsius. And he commanded him to hide every thing which
pertained to letters in Ileliopolis, in Sippara. Sisithrus, having per-
formed all these things, immediately sailed towards Armenia. And
what the god had foretold straightway came to pass. Now on the
third day, when the rain had ceased, he let loose some birds, to try
whether they could find any land above the water. But finding noth-
ing save a wide-yawning sea, where there wras no place for them to rest,
they came back to Sisithrus. He sent forth others afterwards, with the
same result. But when on the third trial he succeeded, (for the birds
returned with their feet covered with mud,) the gods snatched him from
the view of men, and the vessel, from the fragments of its planks used
as amulets, furnished to the inhabitants of Armenia effectual antidotes
against poison." (Ap. Syncell. Chronograph., p. 70, A. ; compare Euseb.
Chronica, i. 7 ; p. 22, ed. Mai.)
But little is known of Abydenus. He is first quoted by Eusebius in
the fourth century after Christ ; on which account it has been generally
supposed that he did not write till the second or third century of our
era. (See Niebuhr's Kleine Schriften, p. 187, note 4 ; and C. Moller's
Fragm. Hist. Gr., vol. iv. p. 279.) Some, however, regard him as a
contemporary and pupil of Berosus, and therefore as not much later
than the time of Alexander, (Bauer in Ersch and Gruber's Encyclopedia,
s. v. Abydenus ; C. O. Moller, History of Greek Literature, vol. ii. p.
490, E. T.) His use of the Ionic dialect favors the earlier date.
Note LXVII. p. 68.
Buttmann, (Mythologus, i. pp. 190, 200, &c.,) Von Bohlen, (Alte Indian,
p. 78, et seqq.,) and Hartmann (Forschungen ilber d. Pentateuch, p. 795.
et seqq.) maintain that the story of the flood " sprang up in the soil of
India, whence it was brought to the Hebrews through Babylon, after
having first received a new coloring there." (See Havernick's Einlei-
tung, §120, pp. 266, 267; §16, p. 112, E. T.) But the absence of
exaggeration and of grotesqueness from the Hebrew account suffi-
Lect. II.
NOTES.
277
ciently disproves this theory. It might be argued with much more
plausibility that the Babylonians obtained their knowledge from the
Jews.
Note LXYI. b., p. 69.
See Niebuhr's Vortrdge liber Alte Geschichte, vol. i. p. 23. "This ac-
count differs from the Noachian, so far as it allows to be saved not
only the family of Xisuthrus, but all pious persons, and supposes not
a universal, but only a Babylonian deluge."
Note LXVII. b., p. 70.
Antiq. Jud. i. 7, § 2 : Berosus mentions our father Abraham, not by
name, but after this manner: " In the tenth generation after the flood,
there was among the Chaldeans a righteous and great man, who was
also skilled in the knowledge of the heavens."
Note LXVIII., p. 70.
I: has been acutely suggested that the actual scheme of Berosus was
probably the following : —
Years.
B. C.
1. Antediluvian dynasty of 10 kings
4*2,000
466,618 to
31,618 to
34,618 *
2,458
W
2. Dynasty of 86 kings (Chaldeans ?) .
34,080
3. Dj -nasty of 8 Median kings . . .
324
2,458 to
2,234 I
4. Dynasty of 11 kings (Chaldeans?) .
[258] 1
2,231 to
1,976
5. Dynasty of 49 Chaldean kings . .
458
1.976 to
1,518
re
C. Dynasty of 9 Arabian kings . . .
215
1,518 to
1,273
► s
7. Dynasty of 45 kings (Assyrians?) .
520
1,273 to
747 '
8. Dynasty of 8 (?) Assyrian kings . .
122
717 to
625
9. Dynasty of CChaldiran kings . . .
87
625 to
538 ,
36,000
1 Tins numW fills up trio Wank in Kuseb. Ckron. 1. 4. p. 18. where 48 Is absurdly
suggested In the margin. .«ee above. Note LVII. It is conjectural, but it seems re-
quired by the native tradition that Babylon was founded 1903 before Alexander's cap-
ture of It, or 11. C. 2234.
24
278 NOTES. Lect. IL
(See Gutschmidt in the Rheinisches Museum, vol. viii. p. 252 ; who is
followed by Brandis, Rerum Assyriarum Tempora Emendata, p. 17 ; and
Sir II. Rawlinson in the Journal of the Asiatic Society, vol. xv. part 2 ; p.
218.) If this be a true representation, it would follow that the number
34,080 is purely artificial, being simply the number required to make
up the great Babylonian year or cycle of 36,000 years, in conjunction
with, the years of the real historical dynasties. The first number, 432,000,
is made up of 12 such cycles, (36,000 X 12 = 432,000.)
Note LXIX., p. 70.
See the Fragments of Abydenus in Midler's Fragm. Hist. Gr., vol. iv.
p. 282, Fr. 6: "At that time the men of antiquity are said to have
been so puffed up with strength and haughtiness, that they despised
even the gods, and undertook to build that lofty obelisk which is now
called Babylon. And when they had already built it up into the heavens
almost as high as the gods, the gods, by the help of the winds, smote
the well- contrived but futile work, and prostrated it to the ground.
And that rubbish took the name of Babel. For up to that time men
relied upon the use of one language ; but then a various and discordant
confusion of tongues was sent by the gods upon those who had hereto-
fore used but one language." (Ap. Euseb. Chronica, i. 8, p. 24.) Com-
pare also the subjoined passage, which Syncellus quotes from Poly-
histor : " Now the Sibyl says, that when all men were of one speech,
some of them built a huge tower, that they might ascend up to heaven.
But God caused a wind to blow, and overthrew their design, and gave
to each a different language ; wherefore the city was called Babylon.
(Chronograph., p. 81, C.)
Note LXX., p. 71.
The affinity of the Sanskrit with the Persian, Greek, Latin, and Ger-
man languages was first remarked by our own countryman, Sir W.
Jones ; but it remained for F. Schlegel in Germany and for Dr. Prichard
in England to make a scientific use of the material thus provided for
them. Schlegel's " Essay on the Language and Philosophy of the
Hindoos," and Dr. Prichard's inaugural " Dissertation on the Varieties
of the Human Race," were published almost simultaneously ; but
Schlegel's work is regarded as the more advanced production. (See
Bunsen's Philosophy of Universal History, vol. ii. p. 50.)
Lect. II. NOTES. 279
Note LXXL, p. 71.
In 1854 M. Bunsen wrote: " Geographically then, and historically,
it is true that Canaan was the son of Egypt ; for the Canaanitic tribes
which inhabited historical Canaan came from Egypt. In the same sense,
Nimrod is called a Kushitc, which means a man of the land of Rush.
The Bible mentions but one Rush, ./Ethiopia ; an Asiatic Kitsh exists
only in the imagination of the interpreters, and i.s the child of their despair.
Now, Nimrod was no more a Kushite by blood than Canaan was an Egyp-
tian ; but the Turanian (Transoxanian) tribe, represented by him, came
as a devastating people, which had previously conquered that part of
Africa, back into Asia, and there established the first great empire."
(Philosophy of Univ. History, vol. i. p. 191.) But in 1858, Sir Henry
R&wlinson, having obtained a number of Babylonian documents more
ancient than any previously discovered, was able to declare authorita-
tively, that the early inhabitants of Southern Babylonia " were of a
cognate race with the primitive colonists both of Arabia and of the
African Ethiopia." (See the author's Herodotus, vol. i. p. 442.) He
found their vocabulary to be " undoubtedly Cushite or Ethiopian," be-
longing to that stock, of tongues which in the sequel were every where
more or less mixed up with the Semitic languages, but of which we
have the purest modern specimens in the Mahra of Southern Arabia,
and the Gallu of Abyssinia." (Ibid, note 9.) lie found also that
"the traditions both of Babylonia and Assyria pointed to a connection
in very early times between Ethiopia, Southern Arabia, and the cities
on the Lower Euphrates." (Ibid.) He therefore adopted the term
Cushite as the most proper title by which to distinguish the earlier
from the later Babylonians; and reestablished beyond all doubt or
question the fact of "an Asiatic Ethiopia," which probably no one
now would be hardy enough to deny. (See, besides the Essay referred
to above, Essay xi. of the same volume, p. 655, and an elaborate Ar-
ticle in the Journal of the Asiatic Society, vol. XV. part 2, pp. 215-259.)
Note EXXIL, p. 71.
The monuments give distinct evidence of the early predominance of
Babylonia over Assyria, of the spread of population and civilization
northwards, and of the comparatively late founding of Nineveh. (See
280 NOTES. Lect. IL
the author's Herodotus, vol. i. pp. 448, 455, 456, &c.) They do not
exactly prove the colonization of Assyria by Semites from Babylonia,
but they favor it. (Ibid. pp. 447 and 647.)
Note LXXIII., p. 71.
The Hamitic descent of the Canaanites is energetically denied by M.
Bunsen, (Philosophy of Univ. Hist., vol. i. pp. 190 and 244,) who iden-
tifies them with the Phoenicians, and regards their Semitic character as
established. But the researches of Sir H. Rawlinson have convinced
him, that the Canaanites proper were not Semites. lie holds that they
had a "common origin" with the Egyptians, Ethiopians, and Libyans,
— an origin which he calls indifferently Scythic or Hamite. " All
the Canaanites," he says, " were, I am satisfied, Scyths ; and the inhab-
itants of Syria retained their distinctive ethnic character until quite a
late period of history. According to the inscriptions the KJiatta, or
Hittites, were the dominant Scythic race from the earliest times, and
they gave way very slowly before the Aramaeans, Jews, and Phoeni-
cians, who were the only extensive Semitic immigrants." (Journal of
Asiatic Society, vol. xv. part 2, p. 230, note.)
Note LXXIV., p. 72.
* See M. Bunsen's Philosophy of Univ. Hist., vol. i. pp. 221-230,
where, though classing the Himyaric with the Semitic languages, he
admits its close resemblance, both in vocabulary and in grammatical
forms, to the Ethiopic ; and compare the author's Herodotus, vol. i. p.
447, note 4, and pp. 659, 660.
Note LXXV., p. 72.
See Sir H. Rawlinson, in the Asiatic Society's Journal, 1. s. c. "The
Toldoth Beni Noah is undoubtedly the most authentic record we possess
for the affiliation of those branches of the human race which sprung
from the triple stock of the Noachidae." And again, p. 215, note 3 :
"The fragment which forms the tenth chapter of Genesis bears the
Hebrew title of Toldoth Beni Noah, or the Genealogies of the Noa-
chidae, and is probably of the very greatest antiquity." Compare also
the author's Herodotus, (vol. i. p. 445,) where the same ethnologist
Lect. II. NOTES. 281
remarks : " We must be cautious in drawing direct ethnological infer-
ences from the linguistic indications of a very early age. It will be far
safer, at any rate, in these early times to follow the general scheme of
ethnic affiliation which is given in the tenth chapter of Genesis."
Note LXXVL, p. 72.
The passages to which reference is here made will all be found in the
second volume of Dr. Gaisford's edition of the work of Eusebius, pp.
370-392. They were derived by Eusebius from the "Jewish History"
of Alexander Polyhistor, a heathen writer. It is thought that some of
Polyhistor's authorities, as Artapanus, Cleodemus, Demetrius, and
Eupolemus, were Jews. (See the remarks of C. Mtlller in his preface
to the fragments of Polyhistor, Fragment. Hist. Gr„ vol. iii. p. 207.)
If this be allowed, the weight of heathen testimony is of course pro tanto
diminished. But reasons have been already given for regarding Eupol-
emus as a heathen. (See above, Note XXV.) And the religious char-
acter of the other three is at least doubtful.
To the writers mentioned in the text may be added. Nicolas of Da-
mascus, who spoke of Abraham's emigration from Chaldoea and settle-
ment in Canaan. (See the Frag. Hist. Or., vol. iii. p. 373.)
Note LXXVIL, p. 72.
See especially Faber's Horce Mosaics, ch. v. pp. 225-228 ; and com-
pare Patrick's Commentary on the Historical Books of the Old Testament,
vol. i. p. 58 ; Home's Introduction to the Critical Study and Knotcledge
of Holy Scripturu, vol. i. p. 174, &c.
Note LXXVIII., p. 73.
Sir II. Rawlinson, in the author's Herodotus, vol. i. Essay vi. p.
446.
Note LXXIX., p. 73.
The name of the king whom Sir II. ltawlinson identifies with
Chedor-laomer is, in the native (Hamitic) Babylonian, Kudur-Mabuk.
Mabuk in Hamitic is found to be the exact equivalent of Laumer in
Semitic. This is a very recent discovery.
'24 •
282 NOTES. Lect. II.
Note LXXX., p. 73.
By means of certain monumental notices it has been proved, with a
near approach to certainty, that a Babylonian monarch, whose name is
read as Ismi-dagon, reigned about B. C. 1860. Kudur-Mabuk is evi-
dently, by the type of writing which he uses, and the position in which
his bricks are found, considerably earlier. Now in the year B. C. 1976
— a century before Ismi-dagon — occurs one of the breaks in Bero-
sus' list ; and this break moreover occurs within 60 years of the date
(B. C. 1917) commonly assigned to the expedition of Chedor-laomer.
These chronological coincidences strongly confirm the argument from
the identity of name.
Note LXXXL, p. 74.
This passage is probably known to most students, but as it is too
important to be omitted from the present review of the historical evi-
dences, I subjoin it entire.
" Manetho . . . introducing a supposititious king, Amenophis, says
that he desired to see the gods, as Orus had done, one of those who
reigned before him. lie expressed this desire to his namesake Amen-
ophis, the son of Paapis, who had the reputation of being a partaker
of the divine nature, on account of his wisdom and knowledge of the
future. His namesake accordingly told him that he would be able to
see the gods, if he should purge the whole country of lepers, and all
other polluted men. Delighted with this promise, the king gathered
out of Egypt all who had any bodily defect, and placed them in the
quarries, on the east side of the Nile, that they might work in them,
and be separate from the rest of the Egyptians. He says also that there
were among them some of the learned priests afflicted with the leprosy ;
but that Amenophis, the wise man and prophet, feared the anger of the
gods towards himself and the king, if they should see the gods without
their consent. He also declared, that certain men would form an alli-
ance with these polluted persons, and would get possession of Egypt,
and hold it for thirteen years. But not daring to tell these things to
the king, he committed them all to writing, and then destroyed him-
self, to the great grief of the king. After this he writes thus, word for
word. ' But when those who were sent to the mines had endured their
misery for a long time, the king consented to assign to them, for their
Lect. II. NOTES. 283
abode and protection, the city Avaris, which had then been abandoned
by the shepherds. Now this city, according to the ancient theology,
is the city of Typhon. Entering into this city, and having it for a
centre of their rebellion, they appointed as their prince one of the
priests of the Heliopolitans, named Hosarsiphus, and they took an
oath to obey him in all things. He gave them, first of all, this law,
not to worship the gods, nor to abstain from any of those animals
esteemed most sacred in Egypt, but to kill and destroy them all ; and
not to have intercourse with any but those who had taken the oath.
Having established these laws, and many others exceedingly contrary
to the Egyptian customs, he commanded that many hands should be
employed in repairing the wails of the city, and that they should make
themselves ready for war with King Amenophis. Then, joining with
him the other priests and polluted persons, he sent ambassadors to the
shepherds who had been driven out by Tethmosis, to the city called
Jerusalem. He declared to them the treatment which he, and those
who shared in his dishonor, had received, and asked them to join all
their forces in an expedition against Egypt. He promised first of all
to lead them back to Avaris, their ancestral city, to furnish their army
abundantly with all things necessary, to fight for them, if need should
require, and easily to make the country subject to them. The shep-
herds were overjoyed, and all eagerly sallied forth, to the number of
200,000, and soon came to Avaris. But Amenophis, the king of
Egypt, when he was apprised of their invasion, was not a little
troubled, remembering the prediction of Amenophis the son of Paapis.
And in the first place gathering the multitude of the Egyptians, and
taking counsel with their rulers, he sent for the sacred animals that were
chiefly worshipped in their temples to be brought to him, and com-
manded the priests in different places to hide the images of the gods as
securely as possible. His son Sethos, called also Ramcses, from his
father Rhampses, being a child of five years old, he consigned to his
friend. He then passed on with the rest of the Egyptians, amounting
to 300,000 men skilled in war. When he met the enemy, however, he
did not engage in battle with them, but, thinking that this would be
to fight against the gods, he turned back, and came to Memphis.
Then taking Apis, and the other sacred animals which had been sent
thither, he immediately departed into Ethiopia. For the king of the
Ethiopians was under obligations to him ; wherefore he received the
284 NOTES. Lect. IL
whole multitude, and furnished them with such necessaries of life as
the country afforded, and gave them cities and villages sufficient for
them to dwell in during the predetermined period of thirteen years while
Amenophis was expelled from his kingdom. lie moreover put the
Ethiopian army at the service of King Amenophis, for the defence of
the frontiers of Egypt. Thus far concerning the Ethiopians. But the
Jerusalemites came down with the polluted Egyptians, and treated men
with such impious cruelty, that their rule seemed to them who beheld
their impieties the very worst possible. For they not only burned
cities and villages, and sacrilegiously abused the images of the gods,
but, not content with this, they used these images in roasting the animals
that were reverenced as sacred, and compelled the priests to be the
sacrificers and slaughterers of these animals, and then drove them naked
out of the country. It is said also that the priest who gave them their
laws, and ordered their civil officers, who was by birth a Heliopolitan,
named Osarsiph, from Osiris, the god of Heliopolis, when he had joined
himself to this race of men, changed his name, and was called Moses.'
" Such things the Egyptians relate concerning the Jews, and many
more which I pass over for the sake of brevity. And Manetho says
again, that after these things Amenophis came from Ethiopia with a
great force, and his son Rhampses with him, he also having an army ;
and the two together, engaging in battle with the shepherds and the
polluted men, defeated them, and having slain many, drove them even
to the borders of Syria." (Joseph. Contra Apionem, i. 26, 27.)
Compare with this the briefer account of Cha?remon, who said, —
"Isis appeared to Amenophis in his sleep, and blamed him because
her temple had been destroyed in the war. But Phritiphantes, the
sacred scribe, told him that all cause of alarm would be removed, if
he should purify Egypt from men who were polluted. Whereupon he
gathered 250,000 of these obnoxious persons, and banished them.
Over these were the scribes, Moses and Joseph, who was also a sacred
scribe. Their Egyptian names were, of Moses, Tisithen, and of
Joseph, Peteseph. These came to Pelusium, and found there 380,000
persons, who had been left by Amenophis, because he did not wish to
bring them into Egypt. Forming an alliance with these, they marched
against Egypt. But Amenophis, without awaiting their attack, fled
into Ethiopia, leaving his wife, who was pregnant. She hid herself in
a certain cave, where she brought forth a son, whose name was
Lect. n. NOTES. 285
Mcsscnes. He, after he grew up to manhood, drove the Jews, who
were about 200,000, into Syria, and brought back his father from
Ethiopia." (Joseph., 1. s. c. ch. 32.)
Note LXXXIL, p. 74.
The name Osarsiph, which, according to Manetho, was the Egyptian
appellation of Moses, seems to be a corruption of Joseph, whom Chaere-
mon made Moses' companion and fellow-helper. The statement that
Moses was "a priest of Heliopolis" — which was also made by Apion
(Josephus, Contra Apionem, ii. 2) — is either a perversion of the Scrip-
tural fact of Joseph's marriage with " the daughter of Potipherah,
priest of On," ' or possibly an indication of a fact not recorded in
Scripture, that Moses gained his knowledge of the Egyptian wisdom
at that seat of learning. The fear of Amenophis for his son's safety
recalls to our thoughts the last of the plagues : the forced labor of
the Jews in the stone quarries is not very different from the compul-
sory brick-making ; the cry of pollution is probably connected with
the earlier plagues, or perhaps it is only an exaggeration of the feeling
which viewed "every shepherd" as "an abomination." (Gen. xlvi.
34.) The mention of Jerusalem, or rather Salem, (the Salemites,) at
this time, confirms Gen. xiv. 18 ; and the occurrence of Rameses as a
family name in the dynasty harmonizes with its use as a local designa-
tion. (Gen. xlvii. 11 ; Exod. i. 11, and xii. 37.)
Note LXXXIII., p. 75.
See Sir Charles Lyell's Principles of Geology, vol. i. p. 240. " I need
not dwell," he says, "on the proofs of the low antiquity of our species,
for it is not controverted by any exjicrienccd geologist ; indeed, the real
difficulty consists in tracing back the si^ns of man's existence on the
earth to that comparatively modern period when species, now his con-
temporaries, began to predominate. If there be a difference of opinion
respecting the occurrence in certain deposits of the remains of man and
his works, it is always in reference to strata confessedly of the most modern
order; and it is never pretended that our race co-existed with assem-
blages of animals and plants, of which all or even a great part of the
species are extinct."
This remark will, I conceive, hold good, whatever judgment is ulti-
i Gun. xli. 45.
286 NOTES. Lect. II.
matcly formed by science of the results which have been recently
obtained by Mr. Horner in Egypt, ' by M. Boucher de Perthes in
France,2 and by Mr. Prestwich and others in our own country. The
strata examined and said to contain the most ancient human remains
hitherto found, are the alluvium of Egypt, and the diluvium or "drift"
of Europe ; which are both, geologically, strata of a comparatively
modern origin. The rashness of the conclusions as to the minimum
antiquity of our race in Egypt, which Mr. Horner drew from his
researches, has been ably exposed by a writer in the Quarterly Review,
(April, 1859, No. 210, pp. 419-421.)
Note LXXXIV., p. 75.
The researches and arguments of Blumenbach, Haller, Cuvier, ana,
above all, of Dr. Prichard, {Physical History of Mankind, vol. i. pp.
114-376,) have established this point beyond all reasonable doubt.
Even the author of the Vestiges of Creation admits " the result, on the
whole, of inquiries into what are called the physical history of man,"
to be, "that conditions such as climate and food, domestication, and
perhaps an inward tendency to progress under tolerably favorable
circumstances, are sufficient to account for all the outward peculiarities
of form and color" observable among mankind. {Vestiges, p. 262, tenth
edition.)
Note LXXXV., p. 75.
"Physiological Ethnology," says Professor Max Milller, "has ac-
counted for the varieties of the human race, and removed the barriers
which formerly prevented us from viewing all mankind as the members
of one family, the offspring of one parent. The problem of the variety
of language is more difficult, and has still to be solved, as we must
include in our survey the nations of America and Africa. But over
the languages of the primitive Asiatic Continent of Asia and Europe
a new light begins to dawn, which, in spite of perplexing appearances,
reveals more and more clearly the possibility of their common origin."
(See M. Bunsen's Philosophy of Universal History, vol. i. p. 474 ; and
compare pp. 478, 479.)
1 Account of some recent Researches near Cairo, (first published in the Philosophical
Transactions,) l>y Leonard Horner, Esq., Parts i. and ii. London, 1855 and 1858.
- Jlntiquites Ccltiqu.cs et Antt-diluviennes, par M. Boucher de Perthes, Paris, 1847.
Lect. n. NOTES. 287
Note LXXXVL, p. 75.
"It is pleasing to remark," says Sir H. Rawlinson, speaking of the
different races in Western Asia, "that if we were to be guided by
the mere intersection of linguistic paths, and independently of all
reference to the Scriptural record, we should still be led to fix on the
plains of Shinar, as the focus from ichich the various lines had radiated."
(Journal of Royal Asiatic Society, vol. xv. part 2, p. 232. Compare the
statements of the same writer in the author's Herodotus, vol. i. p. 586.)
Note LXXXVII., p. 75.
The only case in which we can form a judgment of the linguistic
accuracy of the Pentateuch is that of the Egyptian terms, since here
only have we any sufficient knowledge of the language spoken in the
country at the time. I'nder this head come the following : —
1. Pharaoh, (ri>**B<) as the title of Egyptian kings (Gen. xii. 15, xl.
2 ; Ex. i. 11,) which has been explained as Ph-ouro, "the king;" but
which is more probably Ph-rah, " the Sun," a title borne by the Egyp-
tian monarchs from very early times. (Wilkinson, in the author's
Herodotus, vol. ii. p. 182, note 1.)
2. Potiphar, (lEiCIB,) or Potipherah, OnE-'S'iE.) which is Pcte-
ph-re, " belonging to the Sun " — a name common upon the monu-
ments, (Ilosellini, Monumenti Storici, i. 117; Champollion, Precis, Table
Gencrale, p. 23,) and specially appropriate to a Priest of On, or Heli.
opolis. Compare the name Peteseph, "belonging to Seb, (Chronos,) "
which, according to Chicremon, was the Egyptian name of Joseph.
(Supra, Note LXXXI.)
3. Asenath, (r:21X,) which is, according to Jablonsky, (Opuscula, ii.
208,) Asshe-nrith, " worshipper of Neith," or more probably, as Gese-
nius observes, (Thesaurus, ad voc.,) As-neith, " quae Neithffi (est,)"
"belonging to Neith." It has been doubted whether Neith was wor-
shipped at this early date ; but she seems to have been really one of
the primitive deities of Lower Egypt. (Bun sen, Egypt's Place, vol. i.
p. 389.) Her name forms an element in that of Nitocris, (Xcith-akri,)
a queen of the sixth dynasty. (Wilkinson, Herodotus, vol. ii. p. 165,
noie 2.)
4. Zaphnath-Paancah, (w.sZ'TZZI^) the name which Pharaoh gave
288 NOTES. Lect. IL
to Joseph, is best explained through the Septuagint Psontho-mphanech,
which closely corresponds to the Coptic Psont-mfaneh, " sustainer of
the age," or as Jerome says, a little freely, " salvator mundi." (See
Gesenius, Thesaurus, p. 1181.) The first two letters have been trans-
posed in the Hebrew, either by accident, or to suit Jewish articulation,
and at the same time to produce a name significant to Jewish ears.
5. Moses (fTOft) was undoubtedly an Egyptian name, since it was
selected by Pharaoh's daughter, (Ex. ii. 10.) ^Ve are told that it was
significant, being chosen "because she drew him out of the water."
The real etymology was long since given fully by Josephus, (Ant. Jud.
ii. 9, $ 6,) partially by Philo, (De vita Mosis, i. Op. vol. ii. p. 83,) and
Clemens Alexandrinus, (Strom, i. p. 412.) Josephus — "The Egyptians
eall water mo, and those who are rescued from the water uses."
Philo — " The Egyptians call water mos." Clem. Alex. — " The
Egyptians call water moti." The last of these forms is the best.
Moil is still "water" in Coptic, and the old Egyptian word — given
by Bunsen as muau ' — was similar. According to Jablonsky (Opus-
cula, i. 152) oushe in Coptic is "to save." I am not aware whether
this root has been found yet in the ancient Egyptian.
6. Besides these names, a certain number of Egyptian words have
been detected in the language of the Pentateuch. Such are ^ns<» (or
^HIS* i LXX. axa>) which Jablonsky found to signify in Coptic " every
green thing which is produced in a pool," (Opuscula, vol. i. p. 45 ;)
perhaps i"QFl> (LXX. Qijin,) the word used both for Noah's Ark, and
for the small ark in which Moses was placed, (La Croze, Lexicon Egyp-
tiacum, sub voc. ;) and "fj13S» which is explained from the Coptic as
au-rek, "bow every one," or ape-rek, "bow the head." (See Gesenius,
Hebrdisches und Chalddisches HandicOrterbueh, ad voc, p. 10, E. T., and
compare de Rossi, Etym. Egypt., p. 1.)
The geographic accuracy of the Pentateuch has been illustrated by a
number of writers. Dr. Stanley, one of the most recent and most calm-
judging of modern Oriental travellers, observes with respect to the
Mosaic accounts of the Sinaitic desert — " Even if the precise route of
the Israelites were unknown, yet the peculiar features of the country
have so much in common that the history would still receive many
remarkable illustrations. . . . The occasional springs, and wells, and
1 B«nsen\s Egypt, vol. i. p. 471, No. 31?
Lect. II. notes. 289
brooks, are in accordance with the notices of the ' waters ' of Marah,
the ' springs ' of Elim, the ' brook ' of Horeb ; the ' well ' of Jethro's
daughters, with its • troughs ' or tanks. The vegetation is still that
which we should infer from the Mosaic history," &c. (Sitiai and Pales-
tine, pp. 20, 21 ; compare pp. 22, 24, 129, &c.) In the account of
Egypt the accuracy is seen not only in the general description of the
territory — its rich meadows and corn-lands ; its abounding river,
edged with flags and bulrushes, (Ex. ii. 3 ;) its wealth of waters derived
therefrom, «' streams and rivers, and ponds, and pools of water," (Ex.
vii. 19;) its wheat, and rye, and barley, and flax, (ib. ix. 31, 32,) and
green trees (palm-trees r) yielding fruit, (ib. x. 15 ;) but also in the
names and sometimes in the sites of towns. On, (r$,) Pithom, (~'ps,)
Harnesses, (cC£y-|>) Zoan, (y^^i) and Migdol, (;~3^>) which are among
the few Egyptian towns mentioned by Moses, are all well-known places.
Of On, the Greek Hcliopolis, it is unnecessary to speak. Pithom is the
1 atumus of Herodotus, (ii. 158,) the city of Thmei, (Justice,) called
«' Thmuin " in the Itinerary of Antonine, (p. 9.) Ramesses is Beth-
Ranicses, a city of which we have a description in a hieratic papyrus of
the 18th or 19th dynasty. (See Cambridge Essays, 1858, Art. VI.
p. 254.) Zoan, the Tanis of the EXX. — whence the " Tanitic nome "
of Herodotus, (ii. 166,) and the "Tanitic mouth" of later authors, is
the modern San or Zan, evidently a great town in the time of the Rames-
side monarchs. (Wilkinson, Ancient Egypt, i. p. 449.) Migdol, the
Magdolus of Hecatreus, (Fr. 282,) retains its name in the Itinerary j?
Antonine, (p. 10,) and appears in the position assigned by Moses, on
the north-east frontier, near Pelusium. Again, the name by which
Egypt itself is designated, Mizraim, (~*~l"',:>) has a peculiar geographi-
cal significancy. The dual form marks the two Egypts — " the upper
and the lower country " — as they are termed in the inscriptions.1
Equally significant is Padan-nram, (~*S~"|1 5 ,) " the plain Syria " — the
country stretching away from the foot of the hills, (Stanley's Palestine,
p. 128, note 1,) where Harran stood, which was so different a tract from
the mountainous Syria west of the Euphrates. Again, the expression,
*' the entrance of Hamath," (Numb. xiii. 21,) shows a conversance with
the geography of Upper Palestine, whereof this " entrance " is so
1 The common hieroglyphic si^n* f"r the wholn of Keypt are two crowns, tiro water-
plants, or tro layers of earth. (Lcpsius, Sur V.llphabct Ilicroglyphiqur, I'lunche 1.
Groups vii. col. C.
25
290 NOTES. Lect. IL
striking a feature, (Stanley, p. 399,) and with the existence of Hamath
at the time, which may be proved from the hieratic papyri of the period.
(See Cambridge Essays, 1858, p. 268.) Some further geographical points
will be touched in Note LXXXIX.
The ethological accuracy of the Pentateuch as respects Oriental man-
ners and customs generally, has never been questioned. The life of the
Patriarchs in Canaan, the habits of those who dwell in the desert, the
chiefs and followers, the tents, the wealth in cattle, the " sitting in the
door," the salutations and obeisances, the constant migrations, the
quarrels for pasture and water, the marriages with near relatives,
the drawing of water from the wells by the young maidens, the troughs
for the camels, the stone on the well's mouth, the camels kneeling with
their burdens and waiting patiently till the troughs are full, the pur-
chase by weight of silver, the oaths accompanied by peculiar ceremonies,
the ox unmuzzled as he treads out the corn, — these and ten thousand
similar traits are so true to nature and to fact, even at the present day,
(for the East changes but little,) that travellers universally come back
from Syria deeply and abidingly impressed with roe reality and truth-
fulness of the Pentateuch in all that respects Eastern manners. Ration-
alism, in order to meet in any degree the weight of this argument, is
forced to betake itself to Egypt, where an artificial system existed in
the time of Moses which has now completely passed away. Von Bohlen
maintains that in many respects the author of the Pentateuch shows a
want of acquaintance with the customs of Egypt, e. g., in his mention
of eunuchs at the Egyptian court, {Commentar, p. 360,) in his represen-
tation of Pharaoh's daughter as bathing in the Nile, (ibid.,) and in his
making wine a product of Egypt, (p. 374.) The objections taken are
not particularly happy. (See llosellini as quoted by Hengstenberg,
jEgypten una1 Mose, p. 23 ; and Wilkinson, Ancient Egyptians, vol. hi.
p. 389 ; Herodotus, vol. ii. p. 126.) Were they more important, they
would be greatly outweighed by the multitude of passages where an
intimate acquaintance with Ancient Egypt may be discerned. The
position of the Egyptians with respect to foreigners — their separation
from them, yet their allowance of them in their country, their special
hatred of shepherds, the suspicion of strangers from Palestine as spies —
their internal government, its settled character, the power of the King,
the influence of the Priests, the great works, the employment of for-
eigners in their construction, the use of bricks, (cf. Herod, ii. 136, with
Lect. H. NOTES. 291
Wilkinson's note ad loc.,) and of bricks with straw in them, (Wilkin-
son, 1. s. c. and Camb. Essays, 1858, p. 259,) the taskmasters, the
embalming of dead bodies, the consequent importation of spices, (Gen.
xxxvii. 25,) the violent mournings, (Herod, ii. 85,) the dissoluteness
of the women, (ibid. ii. Ill ; Camb. Essays, 1858, p. 234,) the lighting
with horses and chariots, (Wilkinson on Herod, ii. 108 ; Camb. Essays,
1858, pp. 240, 241,) — these are a few out of the many points which
might be noted marking an intimate knowledge of Egyptian manners
and customs on the part of the author of the Pentateuch. (For a full
treatment of the question, see the work of Hengstenberg quoted above,
which exhibits a very good acquaintance with the works of modern
Egyptologers.)
Note LXXXVIII., p. 76.
The uncertainty of geographers as to the sites of these cities, and the
weak grounds upon which identifications of them were attempted, will
be seen by reference even to works so recent as Winer's RealwOrterbuch
(1848) and Kitto's Biblical Cyclopedia, (1856.) Ur was thought by
some (Hitter, Kitto) to be Orfa or Edessa (so even Bunsen, Egypt, vol.
iii. p. 366 ;) which according to others (Winer) was Erech : Calneh
was supposed to be Ctesiphon, Calah to be Hoi wan ; Ellasar, which
should have been in Lower Babylonia, was thought to be the Larissa
of Xenophon, on the middle Tigris ; while Accad was cither Sacada or
Nisibis. Any slight resemblance of name — any late authority of a
Talmudical or Arabic writer — was caught at, in order to fix what the
scanty remains of primeval geography left completely unsettled.
Note LXXXIX., p. 76.
The following sites seem to have been determined beyond all rea-
sonable doubt by the Babylonian and Assyrian Inscriptions : —
1. Ur of the Chaldces, at Mughcir, on the right bank of the Eu-
phrates, not very far above its junction with the S/iat-rl- 1 fie. This is
the true Chaldrea of Scripture and of History, an Armenian Chald.ea
being a fiction of the Greeks.
2. Calah at Nimrud, on the left bank of the Tigris, a little above its
junction with the Greater Zab. (The Halah of 2 Kings xvii. 6, is a
292 notes. Lect. IL
different place.) The province in which it stands long continued to be
called Calachene, (Strab. xvi. 1, § 1 ; Ptol. vi. 1.)
3. Erech at Warka, (the Greek '0(>/6t;,) on the left bank of the
Euphrates, and at some distance from the river, about 35 miles N. W.
of Ur.
The following identifications, if not certain, are at least highly prob-
able : — 1. Resen with Kilch-Sherghdt, on the right bank of the Tigris,
not very far from its junction with the Lesser Zab. 2. Accad with a
town in Lower Babylonia, called Kinzi Accad in the Inscriptions, the
site of which is not yet determined. 3. Ellasar with Senkereh, 15
miles S. E. of Warka, on the same side of the Euphrates. 4. Calneh
with Niffer, in the same tract with Senkereh and Warka, but much
nearer Babylon, and about midway between the two streams. (See the
author's Herodotus, vol. i. pp. 313, 447, 592, &c.)
Eor a description of the ruins of Ur and Erech, see Mr. Loftus's
Chaldcea and Susiana, pp. 128-134, and 162 et seqq. ; for those of
Calah, see Mr. Layard's Nineveh and its Remains, ch. ii. et seqq. ;
some account is given of Resen {Kileh-Sherghaf) in the same work, ch.
xii. ; and of Calneh (Niffer) in the same writer's Nineveh and Babylon,
ch. xxiv.
Note XC, p. 76.
See the account which Mr. Cyril Graham has given of his travels in
this region in the Cambridge Essays for 1858, pp. 157-162. Compar*
Dr. Stanley's Si?iai and Palestine, p. 118.
Note XCL, p. 76.
See Commander Lynch* s Narrative of the United States Expedition to
the River Jordan, and also his Official Report. Compare the Journal
of the Geographical Society, vol. xviii. Artt. 8, 9, and 10, and vol.
xx. Art. 15. For a summary of the facts, see Stanley's Sinai and
Palestine, pp. 276-279, and the Essays appended to the first volume of
the author's Herodotus, Essay ix. pp. 548, 549. Commander Lynch
gives the following account of the impression made upon himself and
his friends by their careful examination of the River and of the Lake
in which it ends: — " It is for the learned to comment on the facts
which we have laboriously collected. Upon ourselves, the result is a
Lect. m. NOTES. 293
decided one. We entered upon this sea with conflicting opinions. One
of the party was sceptical, and another, I think, a professed unbe-
liever of the Mosaic account. After twenty-two days' close investi-
gation, if 1 am not mistaken, we were unanimous in the conviction of the
truth of the Scriptural account of the destruction of the cities of the
plain." (Narrative, ch. xvii. p. 253.)
LECTURE III.
Note I., p. 79.
See Konig, Alttestament. Studien, p. G3, et seqq. ; Jahn, Einleitung,
ii. 1, p. 160; and Home's Introduction, vol. v. p. 35.
Note II., p. 79.
See Carpzov, Introductio ad libros Canonicos Veteris Testamenti, part
i. p. 213, who gives the following list of writers by whom this view
has been taken : Thcodoret, Procopius, Gregory the Gnat. Isidore,
Eucherius, among the ancients ; among the moderns, Walther. Calo-
vius, Hugo, I)e Lyra, Cajetan, Vatable, Sixtus Sinensis, Sanctius, Se-
rarius, and Cornelius a Lapide."
Note III., p. 79.
There is no reference to the Book of Joshua as the work of Joshua in
Scripture. It is first assigned to him in the Talmud. The Fathers aro
divided in opinion as to its authorship. Athanasius, for instance,
includes it among the books "not written by the persons whose names
they bear and of whom they treat." (Synops. S. S. § 10; Opera, vol.
ii. p. 139, B.)
Note IV., p. 79.
Sec the summary of the arguments in Keil's Commentar liber d. Buch
Jo.iua, Einleitung, § 3, p. xlvii. Keil's conclusion is, " that the histor-
ical references and the peculiarity of style completely disprove the
25*
294 notes. Lect. IIL
supposition that the Book of Joshua was written during the captivity ;
that they do not point to the times of Samuel, or Saul, or David, as
the date of its composition, but rather to those after Joshua, and within
a generation of his death. "Who then," he asks, "was the author?
Most probably one of the elders, who lived for some time after Joshua,
and who had seen all the works of Jehovah which he did for Israel,
occupied himself at the close of his life with writing down, partly from
recollection, partly from contemporary documents and other written
notices, the things which he had himself Avitnessed, and thus composed
the work which we possess under the name of Joshua." ' I should be
disposed to acquiesce in this view.
Note V., p. 81.
De "Wette boldly denies this. " The book," he says, " nowhere con-
tains any separate contemporary documents," (nicht einmal einzelne
gleichzeitige Eestandtheile enthalt es. Einleitung, § 169, p. 213.) But
RosenmUller, Jahn, and others, seem to have reason on their side when
they urge, that the accounts of the boundaries of the tribes, (xv.
21-62 ; xviii. 21-28 ; xix. 1-48,) and of the cities of the Levites, (xxi.
13-40,) have all the appearance of such documents. Such a document
is also, as it seems to me, the list of slaughtered kings in chapter xii.,
(verses 9-24.) It appears by ch. xviii. 1-10, and xxiv. 26, that such
records were in use at the time ; and it is a reasonable supposition that
they formed the basis upon which the author, who quotes them, com-
posed his work. Eichhorn observed long ago — " The account of the
division of the land bears in many places the marks of a protocol, which
from its very nature never gives at once a brief sketch of the whole
arrangement, but describes its gradual progress, and relates, one after
another, all the alterations, improvements, and additions, that were
made from time to time." {Einleitung, vol. iii. p. 36-5.) Keil remarks
recently — " When we come to the second part of the book, and observe
the things of which it particularly treats ; how the history which it
contains of the division of Canaan amongst the tribes is accompanied
with full descriptions of the boundaries of the territory of each tribe,
with catalogues of cities, and so on, we are necessarily led to the
1 In the quotations from Professor Keil's learned and sensible work, I follow the
Translation of Mr. J. Martin, which forms the fourteenth volume of Clark's Foreign
Theolug-ical Library, New Series, (Edinburgh, 1857.)
Lect. m. NOTES. 295
conclusion, that the writer availed himself of written records, if not o!
official documents." (Commentar, Einleitung, § 4 ; p. 47, E. T.) Com-
pare Home, Introduction, vol. v. pp. 36, 37.
Note VI., p. 81.
t
See Carpzov, Introductio ad Libros Canonicos Veteris Testamenti, p.
172, et seqq. ; and compare the quotation from Baba-Bathra in The-
odore Parker's Translation of De Wette, vol. i. p. 31. See also Home's
Introduction, vol. v. p. 42.
Note VII., p. 81.
Compare Judges i. 21 with 2 Sam. v. G-9. This passage, it is ad-
mitted, " seems to belong to the time of David." (Parker's De Wette,
yol. i. p. 20G.)
Note VIII., p. 81.
The chronology of the Book of Judges is involved in great imccr-
tainty. Several periods are unestimated, as the time between the death
of Joshua and the first servitude, the judgeship of Sham'gar, and some
portion of the reign of Abimelech. The servitudes added together
occupy 111 years, and the periods during which the land was at rest or
under Judges occupy apparently 299 years, or if Samson's judgeship
be included in the last servitude, (Jud. xv. 20,) 27!) years. The total is
thus 410, or 390.' But in 2 Kings vi. 1, the entire period between the
Exodus and the Dedication of the Temple is declared to have been no
more than 480 years. Now if we take the lower of the two numbers
derivable from Judges, and add the sojourn in the wilderness, (40
years,) the time of Joshua's judgeship, (say 20 years,) the interval
between Joshua's death and the 1st servitude, (say 5 years,) the judge-
ships of Eli, (10 years,) and of Samuel, (more than 20 years, 1 Sam.
vii. 2,) the reigns of Said, (10 years,) of David, (10 years,) and the
three years of Solomon's rci^n before the Dedication, we obtain the
result of (390 -f- 40 -f 20 + .J -4- 10 -f- 20 -f- 10 -I- 40 + 3 = ) .'598 years.
•r more than a century beyond the estimate in Kin^s. It is therefore
1 With this nearly agrees St. Paul's estimate of 450 years from the division of the
land by lot to Samuel the prophet. (Arts xfil.20;) for 390 + 40 (the time of Eli's jndfte-
ship) + 20 (a not improbable estimate for the time between the death of Moses and (he
1st Servitude) = 450 years.
29G notes. Lect. III.
thought that the period of the Judges must be reduced ; and the term
ordinarily assigned to them, exclusive of Eli and Samuel, is from 300
to 350 years. (See the marginal dates in the English Bible, and com-
pare Clinton, Fasti Ilellenici, vol. i. p. 313, note ".) M. Bunscn, with
his usual boldness, reduces the time still further, making the period
from the death of Joshua to that of Samson no more than 173 years.
(See his Egypt, vol. iii. p. 288.) This is effected by giving Othniel and
Deborah 8 years each instead of 40, by reducing the time between the
2d and 3d servitudes from 80 years to 7, by shortening Gideon's pres-
idency from 40 years to 10, and by regarding the line of Judges from
Tola to Abdon as double, whereby 94 years are compressed into 48 !
If chronology be treated in this spirit, it is to be feared that it -will
shortly come to be regarded pretty nearly in the same light as the
etymology of the last century, in which, it was said, " VoavcIs are good
for nothing, and consonants of small account." —
Note IX., p. 82.
Jahn, Einleitung, § 46, vol. ii. p. 232, et seqq. Ilerbst, Einlcitung,
vol. ii. p. 139, et seqq. ; Graf, Dissertatio de librorum Samuelis et llegum
compost tume, &c. A good refutation of Jahn's theory will be found in
Kitto's Cyclopadia, in the article on the " Books of Samuel," vol. ii. p.
68 o.)
Note X., p. 82.
See Carpzov, Introductio, &c, p. 213. Modern critics mostly take the
view that the Books of Samuel were merely founded on these doc-
uments. (See Ililvcrniek, Einleitung, § 161 ; Stuart, History of the Old
Testament Canon, \ fi, p. 134 ; Rev. J. Eadie in Kitto's Cyclopcedia, vol.
ii. p. 684 ; &c.) Home, however, with Carpzov (p. 215) and Span-
heim, {Opera, vol. i. p. 367,) holds to the ancient view. (See his
Introduction, vol. v. p. 48.) The difference between the two views is
not great
Note XI., p. 83.
Ahijah the Shilonite is mentioned as a contemporary of Solomon
in 1 Kings xi. 29. As the visions of Iddo the seer were "against Jer-
oboam the son of Nebat," he must have been, at the latest, contempo.-
rary with Solomon's successor.
Lect. III.
NOTES
297
Note XII., p. 84.
De "Wctte says correctly — ' ' The history of David, contained in
1 Chron. x.-xxix., is in parts entirely consistent with that in the
books of Samuel ; but it is distinguished from that by having severed
accounts peculiar to itself, and especially by its Levitical accounts."
(Einleitung, § 188, p. 241 ; vol. ii. p. 261, of Parker's Translation.}
Such accounts are particularly the following — 1. The lists of those
who joined David at Ziklag and at Hebron, (ch. xii.) 2. David's
imstructions to Solomon and the princes with regard to the temple,
(ch. xxii. and ch. xxviii.) 3. His offerings and those of the people,
(ch. xxix. 1-9.) 4. His thanksgiving, and prayer, (ibid. 10-19.) 5. His
great sacrifice and installing of Solomon as king for the second time,
(ibid. 20-25.) And, 6. The lists of the Levites, Priests, singers, por-
ters, captains, &c, as made out or appointed by David, (chs. xxii.-
xxvii.) The remainder of the first book of Chronicles follows Samuel
closely, in most passages almost to the letter ; e. g.
1 Chuon. x. 1-10.
Now the Philistines fought a-
gainst Israel ; and the men of Is-
rael fled frcjm before the Philis-
t.nes, and fell down slain in mount
Gilboa. And the Philistines fol-
lowed hard after Saul, and after
his sons ; and the Philistines slew
Jonathan, and Abinadab, and Mal-
chi-shua, the sons of Saul. And
the battle went sore against Saul,
and the archers hit him, and he
was wounded of the archers, &c,
&c.
1 Sam. xxxi. 1-10.
Now the Philistines fought a-
gainst Israel : and the men of Is-
rael lied from before the Philis-
tines, and fell down slain in mount
Gilboa. And the Philistines fol-
lowed hard upon Saul and upon
his sons ; and the Philistines slew
Jonathan, and Abinadab, and Mel-
chi-shua, Said's sons. And the
battle went sore against Saul, and
the archers hit him ; and he was
sore wounded of the archers, &c,
&c.
Note XIII., p. 84.
That the seventy -eighth Psalm is a work of David's time, is apparent
from its bringing the history down to him, and then closing abruptly.
The title, •* Maschil of Asaph," is an external confirmation of this view-
298 notes. Lect. IIL
Even Dc "Wette appears to allow that Asaph was the author. (Einici~
twig, § 271, p. 36G.) In this Psalm are mentioned the following his-
torical facts : (1.) The giving of the law by Jehovah, (verse .5 ;) (2.)
The command that it should be made known by fathers to their chil-
dren, (verses 5, 6; compare Deut. iv. 9, &c. ;) (3.) the miracles
wrought in Egypt, (verse 12 ;) (4.) the turning of the rivers, and (5.)
other waters, into blood, (verse 44;) (6.) the plague of flies, (v. 4.3 ;)
(7.) of frogs, (ib. ;) (8.) of locusts, (v. 46;) (9.) of hail, (v. 47 ;) (10.)
the destruction by the hail of cattle as well as trees, (v. 48 ;) (11.) the
death of the first-born, (v. 51 ;) (12.) the employment of angels in this
destruction, (v. 49;) (13.) the divine leading of the Israelites out of
Egypt, (v. 52 ;) (14.) the pillar of cloud (15.) by day, (v. 14;) (16.)
the pillar of fire (17.) by night, (ibid. ;) (18.) the division of the Red
Sea, (v. 13;) (19.) the standing of the water in a Jieap, (ibid.; com-
pare Ex. xv. 8 ;) (20.) the divine guidance of the Israelites through
the sea, (v. 53 ;) (21.) the overwhelming of the Egyptians, (ib. ;) (22.)
the frequent murmuring in the wilderness, (verses 17-20;) (23.) the
bringing forth of water from the rock. (v. 15 ;) (24.) in vast abun-
dance, (v. 16;) (25.) the asking for meat, (v. 18;) (26.) the kindling
of a fire against the people, (v. 21 ; compare Numb. xi. 1 ;) (27.) the
manna, (v. 24 ;) (28.") its coming down from heaven, (v. 23 ; compare
Ex. xvi. 4 ;) (29.) the ampleness of the supply, (v. 25 ;) (30.) the giv-
ing of quails, (v. 27;) (31.) which were brought by a wind, (v. 26;
compare Numb, xi. 30,) (32.) and let fall "round about their habita-
tion," (v. 28; compare Numb. xi. 31;) (33.) the destructive plague
which followed, (v. 31,) (34.) "while the meat was yet in their
mouths," (v. 30 ; compare Numb. xi. 33 ;) (35.) the various further
provocations, (vv. 32, 37, &c. ;) (36.) the punishment by "consuming
their days" in the wilderness, (v. 33 ;) (37.) the mercy of God in "not
stirring up all his wrath," (v. 38 ;) (38.) the frequent repentances after
punishment, and frequent relapses, (vv. 34-42 ;) (39.) the divine con-
duct to the border of the Holy Land, (v. 54 ;) (40.) the casting out of
the Heathen before them, (v. 55 ;) (41.) the division of the inheritances,
(ib. ;) (42.) the cowardice of Ephraim, (v. 9; compare Josh. xvi. 10;
Judges i. 29;) (43.) the backsliding and idolatry in Canaan, (vv. 56-
58 ;) (44.) the placing of the tabernacle at Shiloh, (v. 60 ;) (45.) its
capture, (v. 61 ;) (46.) the great slaughter at the same time, (v. 62 ;)
(47.) the slaughter of priests in the battle, (v. 64 ;) (48.) the punish-
Lect. III. notes. 299
ment of the captors by emerods, (v. 66 ;) (49.) the choice of the terri-
tory of Judah for the final resting-place of the tabernacle, (v. 68 ;)
(50.) the choice of Mount Zion as the place where it should be set up,
(ib. ;) (51.) the selection of David to be king, (v. 70 ;) (52.) his being
taken " from the sheep-folds," (ibid. ;) and (53.) the integrity and
excellence of his rule, (v. 72.)
Note XIV., p. 85.
Stanley's Sinai and Palestine, pp. 132, 133.
Note XV., p. 85.
M. Bunsen supposes that Assyria, from the commencement of its
independence in B. C. 1273, was not only a powerful kingdom, but a
great empire, holding Syria, Palestine, and even occasionally Egypt in
subjection, {Egypt, vol. hi. pp. 269, 289, . &c.) But this view rests
entirely upon Ctesias, a writer (as M. Bunsen confesses ') of very low
authority ; or rather it rests upon an odd jumble between the facts (?)
of Ctesias and the dates of Herodotus and Berosus. Nothing is more
plain from the Assyrian inscriptions, the authority of which M. Bunsen
admits,2 than the gradual rise of Assyria to power during the 520 (526)
years assigned by Herodotus to the Empire. Tiglath-Pileser I., Avhose
date is fixed, with a near approach to certainty, in the latter part of the
eleventh century B. C, gives a list of his four ancestors and predeces-
sors which must reach back at least to B. O. 1200, wherein he calls the
first of them "the king who first organized the country of Assyria;"
the second and third kings who were «• established in the government
of Assyria;" and the fourth, his father, "the Bubduer of foreign coun-
tries ;" while he calls himself " the illustrious prince who has pursued
after the enemies of Asshur and has subjugated all the earth." Yet his
campaigns are only in the Kurdish mountains, in Armenia, Cappadocia,
and upper Syria about Carchemish. lie does not penetrate to Hamath,
to Phoenicia, or to Damascus, much less to Palestine ; while he con-
stantly declares that he is engaged with tribes and countries which
none of the Assyrian kings had ever before reached. (See the Great
1 EgWt, vol iii. p. 433. * Ibid. p. 430.
300 NOTES. Lect. IIL
Inscription, published by the Royal Asiatic Society,1 pp. 22, 21, 34,
42, &c.)
Note XVI., p. 85.
See Wilkinson in the author's Herodotus, vol. ii. pp. 374-376. Com-
pare Bunsen, Egypt, vol. hi. pp. 210, 211, 219-221, &c.
Note XVII., p. 86.
See above. Note XV. Chushan-llishathaim is placed by most Bibli-
cal chronologists between B. C. 1400, and B. C. 1350. M. Bunsen
puts him a century later. {Egypt, vol. iii. p. 272.) Even according
to this latter view, he preceded Tiglath-Pileser I. by above a century.
It is quite a gratuitous supposition of M. Bunsen's, that Chushan-
Rishathaim was " a Mesopotamian satrap," (1. s. c.,) — " the Assyrian
satrap of Mesopotamia," (p. 289.) Scripture calls him " king ; " and
besides, the cuneiform monuments make it perfectly clear that Assyria
did not extend her dominion to Aram-Naharaim (the Aramaic portion
of Mesopotamia, or the country between the Khabour and the Eu-
phrates) till the middle of the twelfth century. M. Bunsen says,
"There can never have been an empire in Eastern Syria coexistent with
Assyria and Babylonia," (p. 293.) Why can there not? If the Assyr-
ian and Babylonian kingdoms of the early period be rightly appre-
hended, there is no more difficulty in supposing a powerful Aramaean
state in Western Mesopotamia, than in imagining the country divided
up, as we must otherwise regard it, among a number of petty princi-
palities. Chushan-Rishathaim, however, it is to be observed, reigned
probably before the Assyrian independence was established.
Note XVIII., p. 86.
Moses says, "When he (i. e. Joshua) was destroying the Canaanites,
some fled to Agra, and sought Tharsis in ships. This appears from an
inscription, carved on pillars in Africa, which is extant even in our
own time, and is of this purport : ' We, the chiefs of the Canaanites,
fleeing from Joshua the Robber, have come hither to dwell.' " Hist.
Arrnen., i. 18.
1 Printed by J. W. Tarker, West Strand, London, 1857.
LECT. III. NOTES. 301
Note XIX., p. 86.
Procopius expresses himself as follows. Having mentioned Tigisis,
(Tangiers,) a city of Numidia, he proceeds — " "Where there are two
columns, made of white stone, near the great fountain, having carved
upon them Phoenician letters, which read thus in the language of the
Phoenicians : — * We are they who fled from the face of Joshua the ltob-
ber, the son of Nun.' " (L>e Ecllo Vandalico, ii. 10.) This is clearly
the language of an eye-witness. Procopius, it must be remembered,
had accompanied lielisarius to Africa.
Note XX., p. 86.
(Suidas ad voc. Xaraitv — Canaan.) "And there arc up to the present
time such slabs in Numidia, containing the following inscription : — ' We
are Canaanites, whom Joshua the Ilobber drove out.' "
Note XXI. p. 87.
Kcil, Commentar liber d. Buck Josua, Einlcitung, § 4, p. Ii. ; p. 51,
E. T.
Note XXII., p. 87.
Mr. Kcnrick, who admits the existence of an inscription supposed to
have the meaning given to it by the writers above quoted, decides that
the inscription must have been mistranslated. {Phoenicia, p. 68.) lie
remarks that the explanations of the hieroglyphical and cuneiform in-
scriptions which were furnished by those who professed to understand
them to the inquisitive Greeks, read us a lesson of distrust ; and suggests
that a monument of the time of Joshua would have been unintelligible
even to learned archaeologists in the days of Justinian. Hut the monu-
ment may have been national and genuine without its dating from with-
in a thousand years of the time of Joshua ; and if the cuneiform and
hieroglyphical inscriptions were not accurately rendered to the Greeks,
it was less through ignorance than through malice that they were per-
verted. In this case the translation given by the natives is clearly an
honest one ; and its peculiarities seem to me in its favor. The Arama-
ism, " in nocownou," l is admitted to be "a plausible argument for the
1 From tho face.
26
302 NOTES. Lect. IIL
correctness of the interpretation," (Kenrick, 1. s. c.) The form of the
inscription, in which certain persons, not named or described, speak in
the first person plural, which is said to be " wholly unlike that of genu-
ine lapidary documents," (Kenrick, p. 67,) is no doubt unusual; but
as certainly it is not impossible. The early cuneiform documents are
commonly in the first person. And if the inscription were set up in a
public place in Tingis, it would be sufficiently evident that by " we "
was meant the people of the city. Besides, we are not sure that this
was the whole of the inscription. The authors who report it are only
concerned with a particular passage. There may have been a context,
which would have taken away all appearance of harshness and abrupt-
ness from the record.
Note XXIII. p. 87.
Very few Phoenician inscriptions have been found in Africa of a later
date than the age of Augustus. (See Gesenius's Monximenta Scriptures
Lingiuequc Phoenicia;, pp. 13, 313-328.) The Latin language appears
to have by that time almost entirely superseded the Carthaginian for all
public purposes.
Note XXIV., p. 88.
Herod, ii. 142. " Within this period, they say that the sun has four
times departed from his usual course, rising twice where he now sets,
and setting twice where he now rises."
Note XXV., p. 88.
" When Herodotus, the father of profane history, tells us, from the
priests of Egypt, that their traditions had informed them, that in very
remote ages the sun had four times departed from his regular course,
having twice set where he ought to have risen, and twice risen where
he ought to have set, — it is impossible to read this most singular tradi-
tion without recollecting the narrative in the book of Joshua, which
relates, ' that the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hastened
not to go down about a whole day ;' and the fact related in the history
of Hezekiah, « that the sun went back ten degrees on the dial of Ahaz.' "
(Home, Introduction to the Critical Study and Knou-ledge of Holy Scrip-
ture, vol. i. p. 176. Compare Goguet, Origines Legum et Artium, vol
iii. p. 300.)
Lect. UI. NOTES. 303
Note XXVI., p. 88.
Three other explanations of the narrative in Joshua have been sug-
gested. Grotius, Isaac Peyrerius, Spinoza, and others, conjecture that
a miracle was wrought, but not an astronomical one. Divine power
caused, they think, an extraordinary refraction of the sun's rays, by
which it continued to light up the field of battle long after its disk had
sunk below the horizon. Michaelis, Sehultt:, Hess, and Dathe believe
that nothing strange took place with regard to the sun, but that it con-
tinued to lighten all night, in consequence of which the Israelites were
able to continue the pursuit. Finally, Keil has suggested that nothing
marvellous or out of the common course is intended in the narrative.
The words of Joshua, " Sun, stand thou still," &c, (or " Sun, wait
thou," as he translates it,) were, he thinks, spoken in the morning; and
the prayer was simply that the sun might not set till the people had
avenged themselves upon their enemies. The whole passage from verse
12 to verse 15 inclusive, he considers to be quoted from the poem
known as "the book of Jasher;" and therefore he feels justified in
explaining its language poetically: "If we had had before us simple
prose or the words of the historian himself," it would have been neces»
Bary to admit that the day was miraculously lengthened. But the
words of a poet must be understood poetically. He remarks, that
there is no reference to the miracle in the rest of Scripture (for he fairly
enough questions whether Hab. iii. 11 is such a reference) — a strange
silence, if so great a miracle a-* that commonly understood at the pres-
ent day, was really wrought on the occasion. These views on the part
of a learned Hebraist, and of one who has no prejudice against mira-
cles, seem to deserve attention. (See Keil's Commentar uber d. Buch
Josua, ch. x. pp. 177-1U3 ; pp. 231-209, E. T.)
Note XXVII., p. 89.
Ap. Euseb. Pra>p. Ev. is. 30. "After this arose the prophet Samuel.
Then, by the will of God, through the agency of Samuel, Saul was
chosen king ; and he died after having reigned twenty-one years. Then
David, his son, took possession of the kingdom, and discomfited the
Syrians, icho dwell by the river Euphrates, and subdued Commagene, and
the Assyrians and Phoenicians of Galadene."
304 NOTES. Lect. Ill
Note XXVIIL, p. 89.
Fragmenta Hist. Grcrc, vol. iii. pp. 373, 374, Fr. 31 : " Now a great
■while after this, one of the inhabitants of the country, whose name was
Adad, reigned over Damascus, and the rest of Syria except Phccnice. He
made war with David, king of Judaea, and contended with him in many
battles : but in the last, fought on the banks of the Euphrates, in which
he was defeated, he showed himself the foremost of kings in strength
and valor. It may be said that Nicolas, being the friend of Herod the
Great, would have ready access to the sacred books of the Jews, and may
have drawn his narrative thence. But the fragments of Nicolas do not
indicate this. In the very few places where he touches ancient Jewish
history, it is always in connection with his own country, and from a
Damascene point of view. It is also to be remarked, that while he
omits main features of the Jewish narrative, as the fact that the Syrians
took part in the war against David as allies of the king of Zobah, he
adds features not contained in that narrative ; as the name of the Syrian
king, the extent of his dominions, and the occurrence of several battles
before the last disaster. These points are quite compatible with the
Jewish narrative, but they could not be drawn from it."
Note XXIX., p. 90.
Eupolemus said, in continuation of the passage above quoted: "He
also made expeditions against the Idumeans, and Ammonites, and
Moabites, and Itura?ans, and Nabatseans, and Nabdacans." (Euscb.
Prcep. Ev. 1. s. c.)
Note XXX., p. 90.
See Dr. Stanley's Sinai and Palestine, pp. 262-264.
Note XXXI., p. 90.
See Heeren's Asiatic Nations, vol. ii. pp. 119-126; and Kenrick's
Phoenicia, pp. 201-205.
Note XXXIL, p. 91.
The superior antiquity and preeminence in early times of Sidon over
Tyre has been disputed. Niebuhr in his Lectures ( Vortrage fiber Alte
Lect. IIL notes. 305
Geschichtc, vol. i. p. 94 ; p. 78, E. T.) speaks of it as doubtful. And
the writer of the article on Phoenicia, in Dr. Smith's Dictionary of
Greek and Roman Geography, endeavors to prove the contrary, (vol. ii.
p. 609.) But his arguments do not appear to me very cogent. It is
easy to understand how Tyre, which in later tunes completely eclipsed
her neighbor, should have assertors of her superior antiquity in the
days of her glory, without supposing that her claim was founded in
justice ; but is inexplicable that Sidon should in her lowest depression
have succeeded in maintaining her claim against Tyre, unless there had
been truth on her side. Mr. Kenrick appears to me to decide the con-
troversy aright, when he concludes, that "Tyre was probably at first
only a dependency of Sidon." (See his Pliamicia, pp. 340-342.)
There is one important argument in favor of the early preeminence
of Sidon, which is not noticed either by Mr. Kenrick, or the writer
in Smith's Dictionary. Sidon takes precedence of Tyre in the early
Egyptian lists. (See M. Bunsen's Egypt, vol. iii. p. 214 ; and Cam-
bridge Essays for 1858, Art. vi. p. 257.)
Note XXXIII., p. 91.
Homer makes no mention at all of Tyre or the Tynans, while he
speaks of Sidon and the Sidonians repeatedly. (Sec Horn. II. vii.
289, 290 ; xxiii. 741-744 ; Od. iv. G18; xv. 117, and 425.) He also in
one passage uses " Sidonia " as the name of Phoenicia in general.1 It
has been suggested that he preferred "Sidon" and " Sidonian " to
"Tyre" and " Tyrian," because the words are more "sonorous."
(See Diet, of Greek and Roman Geography, 1. s. c.) But he would
scarcely on that account have so determinedly excluded Tyre, the
more important city of the two. at the time when he wrote, from all
mention in either of his poems.
Notf. XXXIV., p. 91.
Strabo in one place (xvi. 2, $ 22) speaks somewhat obscurely on the
subject ; but in another (i. 2, $ 33) he distinctly calls Sidon the mother
city (rfiv nrjTpoitoXiv) of all Phoenicia.
1 "They have embarked and k°"o away to populous Sidonia, but I am li'ft behind with
an aching heart." (Od. xiii. 285, 286.)
26*
306 NOTES. Lect. III.
Note XXXV., p. 91.
Justin says, " The nation of the Tyrians was founded by the Phoeni-
cians, who, being annoyed by earthquakes, left their native country,
and dwelt first in the Assyrian marsh, but afterwards on the sea-coast.
Here they built a city, which they named Sidon, from the abundance
of fish ; for Sidon is the Phoenician name for Jish. Many years after-
wards, being overcome by the king of the Ascalonians, (i. e. the in*
habitants of Ashkelon.) they took to their ships, and landing at Tyr*
founded a city there, a year before the overthrow of Troy." (Historian
xviii. 3.) Tyre is here made an actual colon}- from Sidon. (Compare
Isaiah xxiii. 12, where Tyre is addressed as " daughter of Sidon.")
Note XXXVL, p. 91.
Josephus calls Dius " a man who is believed to have been very exact
in Phoenician history." {Contra Apion. i. 17.) He probably lived soon
after the time of Alexander.
Note XXXVII., p. 91.
Josephus distinctly states that Menander drew his Phoenician history
from native sources. See his treatise Contra Apion., i. 18 : " Now this
man wrote an account of the acts performed among the Greeks and the
Barbarians, under each of their kings, taking great pains to learn thh.
history from the national literature of each people." (Compare Ant.
Jud. ix. 14.)
Dius and Menander appear to have been silent about Sidon, and to
have made their Phoenician histories little more than histories of Tyre.
(See their fragments in C. Mailer's Fragm. Hist. Gr., vol. iv. pp. 398 and
445-447.)
Note XXXVHI., p. 91.
The preeminence of Tyre over the other Phoenician cities from the
time of David to the close of Phoenician history, has never, I believe,
been denied. It is indicated in Scripture by the uniform tenor of the
prophecies, (Is. xxiii. 1-18 ; Jer. xxv. 22, xlvii. 4 ; Ez. xxvi.-xxviii.,
&c. ;) on the monuments by the precedency assigned to Tyre in the
lists of Phoenician towns, (Layard, Nineveh and Babylon, p. 356 ; Sir
Lect. IIL notes. 307
II. Rawlinson's Commentary on the Inscriptions of Babylonia and Assyria,
p. 30 ; compare the author's Herodotus, vol. i. p. 470,) and in profane
history by the constant mention which is made of Tyre, and the few
and scattered notices of Sidon which occur during this period. The
only remarkable exception to this consensus is Herodotus, who seems
impressed with the superiority of Sidon. (See book vii. ch. 98, where
the Sidonian king is given the post of honor ; and chaps. 44, 96, 99,
100, &c, where the Sidonian ships are represented as excelling all
the rest.) Perhaps he is unconsciously biassed by his Homeric learn-
ing ; or perhaps Sidon did temporarily recover the preeminence from
about B. C. 580 to B. C. 480, in consequence of Nebuchadnezzar's
siege and destruction of Tyre. Tyre, however, was manifestly once
more the leading city at the time of the invasion of Alexander. (Ar-
rian, Exped. Alex., ii. 15, et seqq.)
Note XXXIX., p. 91.
See Kenrick's Phoenicia, p. 58.
Note XL., p. 92.
A " Hiram, king of Tyre," is mentioned in an inscription of Tiglath-
Pileser II. (See the author's Herodotus, vol. i. p. 470.)
Note XLI., p. 92.
"Mapen, the son of Sirom," (or Hirom,) was king of Tyre at the
time of Xerxes's expedition against Greece, (Herodot. vii. 98.) The
name also occurs among the Phoenicians of Cyprus, (ib. v. 104.)
Note XLIL, p. 92.
The following is the passage of Menander concerning Hiram which
Josephus has preserved to us : — " Now when Abibalus died, his son
Hiram succeeded to the kingdom. He lived fifty-three years, and
reigned thirty-four. He raised a bank on what was called ' the broad
place,' and set up the golden pillar in the temple of Jupiter. Moreover
he went and cut timber from the mountain called Lebanon, for cedar beams
for the roofs of the temples ; and tearing down the ancient temples
he built new ones- and consecrated the groves of Hercules and Astarte,
308 NOTES. Lect. IIL
and built the temple of Hercules first in the month Peritius, and after-
wards that of Astartc, when he had marched against the Tityans, who
refused to pay tribute. Having subdued them, he returned. In his
reign there was one Abdemon, a very young man, who solved the prob-
lems which Solomon, King of Jerusalem, proposed." (Contra Apion.,
i. 18.)
Note XLIIL, p. 92.
The words of Dius, as reported by Josephus, are — " On the death of
Abibalus, his son Hiram became king. This man raised banks in the
eastern part of the city, and made it larger, and united to it the temple
of Olympian Jupiter, which before stood on an island by itself. He
built a causeway between, and adorned this temple with golden offerings.
Moreover, he icent up into Lebanon, and cut timber to build temples.
Now they say that Solomon, who ruled over Jerusalem, sent riddles to
Hiram, and asked to receive riddles from him, on the condition that the
one who could not solve them should pay a sum of money to the one
who solved them. When Hiram had agreed to this, and was not able
to solve the riddles, he paid a large sum of money as a forfeit. The
account states, moreover, that one Abdemon, a man of Tyre, solved
the riddles proposed, and proposed others himself, which Solomon
being unable to solve, he forfeited a large sum to Hiram. (Contra
Apioix., i. 17.)
Note XLIV., p. 93.
See Clem. Alex. Stromata, i. p. 386 : " Hiram gave his own daughter
to Solomon ... as Menander of Pergamus says." Compare Tatian,
Adrcrsus Grcecos, 37, p. 273. Mr. Kenrick thinks this was a mere
" popular tradition," to which the intimate friendship between the two
kings gave rise. He argues that Hiram would not have married his
daughter to Solomon, " since she could only have been a secondary
wife," and he further urges the silence of Scripture. (See his
Phoenicia, p. 356.) The latter is always a weak ground, and in the
present instance is not fully sustained, since among Solomon's seconda-
ry wives are mentioned " Sidonian (i. e. Phoenician) princesses." The
force of the former argument will depend on the relative greatness
which we assign to the two princes. I should be inclined to regard the
power of Solomon as greater, and that of Hiram as less, than Mr.
Kenrick imagines.
£ect. IIL notes. 309
Note XLV., p. 93.
Wilkinson, in the author's Herodotus, vol. ii. p. 375 ; Bunsen, Egypt,
vol. ill. pp. 206, 207.
Note XL VI., p. 93.
See Euseb. Prcpp. Et\, ix. 31-34. The passage is also given among
the fragments of Polyhistor, in Muller's Fragmenta Historicorum Graco-
rum, vol. iii. pp. 225, 226, Fr. 18.
Note XLVH., p. 94.
Egyptian chronology has been made out with tolerable certainty from
the Apis stelae discovered by M. Mariette, as far as the accession of
Tirhakah, which appears to have been in B. C. 690. ("Wilkinson, in
the author's Herodotus, vol. ii. pp. 380, 381.) Manetho's dynasties place
between Tirhakah and the commencement of the 22d dynasty a space
of about 275 years. This would give B. C. 965 as the date of Shi-
shak's (or Sesonchis') accession. Assuming from the Canon of
Ptolemy B. C. 651 as the date of Evil-merodach's accession, we obtain,
by following the line of the kings of Judah, B. C. 976 for the acces-
sion of Rehoboam, and B. C. 1016 for that of Solomon. This is as
near an agreement as we could reasonably expect, between two chro-
nologies both of which are somewhat uncertain.1
Note XLVIII., p. 94.
Sesonchis is the form used by Africanus, Sesonchosis that adopted
by Eusebius. (See the Fragments of Manetho, collected by Mons. C.
Muller, in his Fragmenta Hist. Gr., vol. ii. p. 590, Frs. 60 and 61.)
Note XLIX., p. 94.
See Wilkinson, in the author's Herodotus, vol. ii. p. 377, and Bunsen,
Egypt, vol. iii. p. 241.
i The dates furnished by the Apis stela prove that Manetho's lists, as we havo them,
are not wholly to ho depended on. In the Scripture chronology of the time, ouo
element of doubt is furnished by the difference which sometimes exists between tho
I,X \. and the Hebrew text. Another arises from the want of exact agreement botwoou
the chronology of the Israelite and of the Jewish kings.
310 NOTES. LECT. III.
The 21st, or first Tanite dynasty, belonged to the sacerdotal caste,
and in various respects bore a peculiar character. "With Sheshonk, the
first king of the 22d, or first Eubastite, dynasty, we have a return to
the old character of Egyptian monarchs. (Wilkinson, in the author's
Herodotus, vol. ii. pp. 375, 376; Bunsen, Egypt, vol. iii. pp. 220, 221,
and 241.)
Note L., p. 94.
See Euseb. Prcpp. Ev., ix. 34.
Note LI., p. 94.
Ibid. 1. s. c. " Now Theophilus says, that Solomon sent the surplus
of gold to the king of the Tyrians, and that this last made a life-like
statue of his daughter, of full length, and for a covering to the statue
a hollow pillar of gold."
Note LIL, p. 95.
See the author's Herodotus, vol. i. Essay vii. pp. 490, 491. Compare
Layard's Nineveh and Babylon, pp. 634, 635.
Note ML, p. 96.
Xineveh and Babylon, ch. xxvi. pp. 650 and 655. For an account of
the structures at Susa and Persepolis, see Mr. Loftus's Chald&a and
Susiana, ch. xxviii. pp. 364-380, and Mr. Fergusson's elaborate work,
The Palaces of Xineveh restored, pp. 95-190.
Note LIV., p. 96.
Fergusson's Palaces of Xineveh restored, pp. 272-276 ; compare
Layard's Xineveh and Babylon, ch. xxvi. pp. 649, 650.
Note LV., p. 96.
Ker Porter says, "The total height of each column is 60 feet; the
circumference of the shaft is sixteen ; the length from the capital to the
tor, forty-four feet." {Travels, vol. i. p. 633.) In another part of the
LECT. III. NOTES. 311
rums, he measured two pillars, the total height of which, including
capital and tor, was forty-Jive feet. (Ibid. p. 590.) The measurements
adopted by Mr. Fergusson are, for the palace of Darius, 20 feet ; for
the hall of the Hundred Columns, 25 feet ; for the Propylaeum of
Xerxes 46 feet, 9 inches; and for the Hall of Xerxes, 64 feet. {The
Palaces of Nineveh restored, pp. 108, 125, 158, and 177.)
Note LVL, p. 96.
See Kugler's Handbuch der Kunstgeschichte, p. 81.
Note LVII., p. 97.
Even Mr. Layard, while admitting that " some of the Assyrian
sphinxes may have been overlaid with gold, like the cherubim in Sol-
omon's temple," adds in a note, "I cannot, however, but express my
conviction that much of the metal called gold both in the sacred writ-
ings and in profane authors of antiquity, was really copper, the ori-
chalchum of the Greeks, such as was used in the bowls and plates dis-
covered at Nimroud." [Nineveh and Babylon, p. 652.) But metal of
this slight value would hardly have been torn with violence from a
sacred building, as the plating appears to have been from the fourth
stage of the Bits Nitnrud. It is further to be remarked, that in the
classical accounts the golden beams, &c, are distinctly said to have been
far less numerous than the silver ones. Polybius says of the palace at
Ecbatana — for although it was built entirely of cedar-wood and
cypress, yet none of the wood work was exposed, but the beams, and
the panels, and the columns in the porches and peristyles were plated,
some with silver and some icith gold, and the tiles were all of sih-er.
And again, the temple . . . had columns covered with gilding, and
there were very many silver titles in it, and there were a fete golden
plinths, but a great many silver ones remained. (Bk. x. ch. 27, { 10 and
§12.)
Note LVIIL, p. 97.
For the use of gold in ornamentation by the Phoenicians, see above,
Notes XLIII. and LI. ; and compare Kenrick's Phoenicia, p. 252, and
O. Muller's Handbuch der Archdologie der Kutist, p. 273, 2d edition.
312 NOTES. Lect. IIL
For its use by the Assyrians, see Mr. Layard's Nineveh and Babylon,
pp. 651, 652. For its use by tbe Babylonians, see the last Note, and
compare the author's Herodotus, vol. i. p. 243, note 5.
Note LIX., p. 97.
Menander, Fr. 1 : "This man (i. e. Hiram) raised a bank on -what
was called ' the broad place,' and set up a golden pillar in the temple
of Jupiter." Compare Theophilus, as quoted in Note LI.
Note LN., p. 97.
See Mr. Kenrick's Phoenicia, p. 252.
Note LXL, p. 97.
Layard's Nineveh and Babylon, pp. 195, 196.
Note LXIL, p. 97.
Ibid. p. 150.
Note LXIL b, p. 98.
See Mr. Kenrick's Phoenicia, p. 354.
Note LXIIL, p. 98.
The geographic accuracy of this portion of Scripture is even more
striking than that of the Pentateuch. Dr. Stanley says, " It is impos-
sible not to be struck by the constant agreement between the recorded
history and the natural geography both of the Old and New Testament.
To rind a marked correspondence between the scenes of the Sinaitic
mountains and the events of the Israelite wanderings is not much, per-
haps, but it is certainly something towards a proof of the truth of the
-whole narrative. . . . The detailed harmony between the life of Joshua
and the various scenes of his battles, is a slight but true indication that
we are dealing not with shadows, but with realities of flesh and blood.
Such coincidences are not usually found in fables, least of all in fables
of Eastern origin." (Sinai and Palestine, Preface, p. xviii.) And
Lect. III. NOTES. 313
this detailed harmony he exhibits in his fourth, seventh, and eleventh
chapters.
Among minute points of agreement brought to light by recent re-
searches may be mentioned (1.) the position of the Hagarites or Ha-
garenes to the east of the land of Gilead, towards or upon the
Euphrates, (1 Chron. v. 9, 10 ;) which is the exact locality where they
are found three or four centuries later, in an inscription of Sennacherib.
(See the author's Herodotus, vol. i. p. 476.) (2.) The existence of
female sovereigns among the Arabs about this period, which is shown
by the mention of certain " Queens of the Arabs" in the inscriptions
of Tiglath-Pileser and others. (Ibid. pp. 470 and 473.) (3.) The
continued importance of the Moabites and Ammonites which appears
by the occurrence of their names ' in the inscriptions among the ene-
mies of Assyria.
Note LXIV., p. 99.
The great Assyrian Empire of Ctesias, which was said to have ex-
tended from Egypt to India, and to have lasted about 1300 years, from
about B. C. 2182 to B. C. 876, is one of the most palpable contradic-
tions of Scripture which profane history furnishes. Hence it was
generally accepted and maintained by the French historians of the last
century. Equally opposed to Scripture is the Median Empire of
Ctesias, commencing in B. C. 876 with the destruction of Nineveh,
and continuing to the time of Cyrus. It was for a long time considereu
doubtful among historical critics whether the authority of Ctesias or
that of Herodotus was to prevail ; but as time went on, as the impor-
tance of Berosus's history came to be recognized, and more especially
when the cuneiform monuments began to be deciphered, the star of
Ctesias began to pale and his credit to sink. Niebuhr long ago re-
marked, that his Assyrian history was " wholly to be rejected."
(VorMJge liber Alt. CJe.sc/, ic/tt., vol. i. p. 16 ; p. 12, E. T.) M. Bunsen,
even while making use of him, allows that he was "a confused and
uncritical writer." {Egypt, vol. iii. p. 432.) Col. Mure (Lanr/Hage
and Literature of Ancient Greece, vol. v. p. 484) calls him "an author
of proverbially doubtful veracity." Even his apologias can now say
1 Moab appears as Makab, (Heb. — SO"^.) Ammon as Brth-Ammon, which is probably
the chief city, the Kabbah or Rabbatli-Ainnioti of Script an1.
27
314 NOTES. LECT. IV.
little more in his defence, than that "there is no positive evidence for
charging him -with wilfully falsifying history." (See the article on
Ctesias in Dr. Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography, vol. i.
p. 899.)
Note LXV., p. 100.
See Norton's Disquisition on the Old Testament in his Genuineness
of the Gospels, vol. ii. p. 498. De Wette, after objecting to the miracles
and prophecies recorded in Samuel, says, "Elsewhere the narrative
bears the marks of a genuine history, and where it is not partly derived
from contemporary documents — as it is in some places — it is yet
drawn from an oral tradition, very lively and true, and is only dis-
turbed and confused here and there." {Einleitung, § 178, p. 222 ;
Parker's Translation, vol. ii. p. 210.) He also finds "authentic his-
torical accounts " in the books of Kings. (Ibid. § 183, p. 232 ; vol. ii.
p. 230, E. T.)
LECTURE IV.
Note I., p. 102.
See Lecture III., page 80.
Note II., p. 103.
Ibid. p. 83.
Note III., p. 103.
The author of Chronicles refers us either to " the book of the
Kings," (2 Chr. xxiv. 27,) or more explicitly to "the book of the
Kings of Israel and Judah," (2 Chr. xxvii. 7 ; xxviii. 26 ; xxxii. 32 ;
xxxv. 27.) But the author of Kings throughout distinguishes between
" the book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah," (1 Kings xiv. 19 ;
xv. 7, 23 ; xxii. 46 ; 2 Kings viii. 23 ; xii. 19 ; xiv. 18, &c.,) and " the
book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel (I Kings xiv. 19;
xv. 31 ; xvt. 5, 14, 20, 27 ; xii. 39 ; 2 Kings i. 18; x. 34 ; xiii. 8,
Lect. IV. NOTES. 315
12 ; &c.) The most probable explanation of this difference is, that the
two documents were originally separate, having been drawn up in and
for the two different kingdoms ; but that by the time of the writer of
our books of Chronicles they had been united in one, and were known
to the Jews under the title which he uses. (See Keil, Apologetischer
Versuch liber die BUcher der Chronik, p. 252, et seqq. And compare his
Coinmentar Uber die Bilcher der KOnige, Einleitung, § 3 ; p. 18, E. T.1)
Note IV., p. 104.
This seems to be the real meaning of the difficult passage in Chron-
icles, (2 Chr. xx. 34,) which our translators have rendered incorrectly
in the text, but correctly, so far as the letter goes, in the margin ; —
•' Now the rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat, first and last, behold, they
are written in the words of Jehu, the son of Hanani, who was made
to ascend into the book of the kings of Israel " H3Sn ""I3K
balia? "^ift *lpD"l33> — i. e. who (the author being identified with his
work) was transferred or removed to the book of the Kings of Israel.
The LXX. interpreters paraphrase rather than translate when they say,
" who wrote a book of the Kings of Israel " (oc xuriyQaipt (lipXtof
(iaotkiuiv 'laoui'/*..') Compare Keil, 1. s. c.
Note V., p. 104.
See 2 Chron. xxxii. 32. Our translators have destroyed the force of
the passage by following the LXX. and interpolating the word " and."
"The rest of the acts of Hezekiah," they say, "and his goodness,
behold, they are written in the vision of Isaiah the prophet, the son of
Amos, and in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel." But in the
original there is no «• and : " the passage runs, " the rest of the acts of
Hezekiah, and his goodness, behold, they are written in the vision of
Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amos, in the book of the kings of Judah
and Israel."
Note VI., p. 104.
The 36th, 37th, and 38th chapters of Isaiah are almost identical with
a part of the 18th, the 19th, and the 20th chapters of the second Book
1 Commentary on the Books of Klnjfs, by Karl Frledrich Keil, D. D., translated by
James Murpby, LL. D. Edinburgh, Clarlc, 1867.
316
NOTES.
Lect. IV.
of Kings. The slightness of their differences Avill best be seen by pla-
cing an extract or two in parallel columns : —
2 Kings.
Chap, xviii. 17-20. And the
King of Assyria sent Tartan and
Rabsaris and ltab-shakeh from
Lachish to King Hezekiah, with
a great host against Jerusalem.
And tliey went up and came to Jeru-
salem. And when they icere come
up, they came and stood by the
conduit of the upper pool, which
is in the highway of the fuller's
field. And icJwn tliey had called to
the king, there came out to them
Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, which
■was over the household, and Sheb-
na the scribe, and Joah the son of
Asaph the recorder. And Rab-
shakeh said unto them, Speak ye
"now to Hezekiah, Thus saith the
great king, the King of Assyria,
AVhat confidence is this wherein
thou trustest ? Thou sayest — but
they are but vain words — I have
counsel and strength for the war.
Now on whom dost thou trust,
that thou rebellest against me ?
Chap. xix. 15-19. And Heze-
kiah prayed before the Lord, and
said, O Lord God of Israel, which
dwellest between the cherubims,
thou art the God, even thou alone,
of all the kingdoms of the earth :
thou hast made heaven and earth.
Lord, bow down thine ear and
Isaiah.
Chap, xxxvi. 2-5. And the
King of Assyria sent ltab-shakeh
from Lachish to Jerusalem unto
King Hezekiah with a great army.
And he stood by the conduit of
the upper pool in the highway of
the fuller's field. Then came forth
unto him Eliakim, Hilkiah's son,
which was over the house, and
Shebna the scribe, and Joah,
Asaph's son, the recorder. And
Rab-shakeh said unto them, Say
ye now to Hezekiah, Thus saith
the great king, the King of Assyr-
ia, "What confidence is this wherein
thou trustest r / say, [sayest thou,]
but they are but vain words, I have
counsel and strength for war : now
on whom dost thou trust, that
thou rebellest against me ?
Chap, xxxvii. 15-20. And Hez-
ekiah prayed unto the Lord, saying,
O Lord of hosts, God of Israel,
that dwellest between the cher-
ubims, thou art the God, even thou
alone, of all the kingdoms of the
earth ; thou hast made heaven and
earth. Incline thine ear, O Lord,
Lect. IV.
NOTES
317
hear ; open, Lord, thine eyes, and
see ; and hear the word of Sen-
nacherib, which hath sent him to
reproach the living God. Of a
truth. Lord, the kings of Assyria
have destroyed the nations and
their lands, and have cast their
gods into the fire, for they were
no gods, but the work of men's
hands, wood and stone : therefore
they have destroyed them. Now,
therefore, O Lord our God, / be-
seech thee, save thou us out of his
hand, that all the kingdoms of the
earth may know that thou art the
Lord God, even thou only.
and hear ; open thine eyes, O
Lord, and see ; and hear all the
words of Sennacherib, which hath
sent to reproach the living God.
Of a truth, Lord, the kings of
Assyria have laid waste all the
lands and their countries, and have
cast their gods into the fire, for
they were no gods, but the work
of men's hands, wood and stone;
therefore they have destroyed them.
Now, therefore, O Lord our God,
save us from his hand, that all the
kingdoms of the earth may know
that thou art the Lord, even thou
only.
Note VII., p. 104.
This agreement is chiefly between the last chapter of Jeremiah and
the 24th and 25th chapters of the second Book of Kings. It is fully
equal to that above exhibited between Kings and Isaiah.
Note VIII., p. 104.
Keil, Commentar liber die BUcher der KOnigc, Einleitung, § 3 ; p. 19,
E. T.
Note IX., p. 105.
De "Wette, Einleitung, § 184, p. 234 ; vol. ii. p. 241, Parker's Trans-
lation.; Bertholdt, Einleitung, vol. iii. p. 154, et seqq.
Note X., p. 106.
This has been well shown by Hilverniek, (Einleitung, $ 176. vol. ii.
p. 201, ct seqq.,) and Kcil, (Vcrsuch Uber die Bilchcr der Chronik, p.
190, ct seqq.) Kcil, however, appears to me to go too far when he
denies that the author of Chronicles made any use at all of Kings,
27*
318
NOTES
Lect. IV.
(Commenlar ilber die Btichcr der KOnige, Einleitung, § 3 ; p. 17, note
1, £. T.) Such passages as the subjoined show something more than
the mere use of a common authority : —
2 Chron. i. 14-17.
And Solomon gathered chariots
and horsemen : and he had a thou-
sand and four hundred chariots,
and twelve thousand horsemen,
1 Kings x. 26-29.
And Solomon gathered together
chariots and horsemen : and he
had a thousand and four hundred
chariots, and twelve thousand
which he placed in the chariot horsemen, whom he bestoiccd in
cities, and with the king at Jeru- the cities for chariots, and with
salem. And the king made silver the king at Jerusalem. And the
arid gold at Jerusalem as plenteous king made silver to be in Jerusa-
as stones, and cedar trees made lem as plenteous as stones, and
he as the sycamore trees that are cedars made he to be as the syca-
in the vale for abundance. And more trees that are in the vale for
Solomon had horses brought out abundance. And Solomon had
of Egypt, and linen yarn : the horses brought out of Egypt, and
king's merchants received the linen linen yarn : the king's merchants
yarn at a price. And they fetched received the linen yarn at a price.
up and brought forth out of Egypt And a chariot came up and xocnt out
a chariot for six hundred shekels of Egypt for six hundred shekels
of silver, and a horse for a hun- of silver, and a horse for a hun-
dred and fifty : and so brought dred and fifty : and so for all the
they out [horses] for all the kings kings of the Hittites, and for the
of the Hittites, and for the kings kings of Syria, did they bring them
of Syria, by their means. out by their means.1
Compare also 2 Chron. xiv. 1-4 with 1 Kings xv. 11, 12 ; 2 Chron.
XTi. 11-14 with 1 Kings xv. 23, 24 ; 2 Chron. xxii. 10-12 with 2 Kings
xi. 1-3 ; 2 Chron. xxiii. 1-21 with 2 Kings xi. 4-20 ; and 2 Chron.
xxxiv. 8-33 with 2 Kings xxiii. 5-20. In almost all these passages,
however, the Chronicler introduces points not mentioned by the author
of Kings, so that he evidently does not trust to him as his sole
authority ; e. g.
1 In the original the resemblance is even closer than in our translation. Tt is the
same word which is translated as " placed," and as " bestowed," and the same roots are
used where we have to say in the one case "fetched up and brought forth," in the other
'" came up and went out."
Lect. IV.
NOTES.
319
2 Ciiron. xvi. 11-14.
And, behold, the acts of Asa,
first and last, lo, they are written
in the book of the kings of Judah
and Israel. And Asa in the thirty
and ninth year of his reign was dis-
eased in his feet, until his disease
was exceeding great ; yet in his dis-
ease he sought not to the Lord, but to
the physicians. And Asa slept with
his fathers, and died in the one and
fortieth year of his reign ; and they
buried him in his own sepulchres
which he had made for himself in
the city of David, and laid him in
the bed which was filled with sxceet
odors and divers kinds of sjnees pre-
pared by the apothecaries' art; and
they made a very great burning for
him. And Jehoshaphat, &c.
1 Kings xv. 23, 24.
The rest of the acts of Asa, and
all his might, and all that he did,
and the cities which he built, are
thejr not written in the book of
the Chronicles of the kings of
Judah ? Nevertheless, in the time
of his old age he was diseased in
his feet. And Asa slept with his
fathers, and was buried with his
fathers in the city of David his
father ; and Jehoshaphat his son
reigned in his stead.
Note XI., p. 106.
See the remarks of Mons. C. Mailer, prefixed to his collection of the
fragments of Manetho in the Fragmcnta Historicorum Gretcorum, vol. ii.
pp. 514, 515.
Note XII., p. 100.
The discrepancies between the books of Chronicles, on the one hand,
and the books of Samuel and Kings, on the other, have been largely, il
not forcibly, stated by De Wette, {Einlcitung, § 190, p. 244, et seqq.,)
and his commentator, Mr. Theodore Parker, (vol. ii. pp. 266-305.) A
satisfactory explanation of the greater number will be found in Keil's
Apologetischer Versuch, to which the student is referred, as well as to
Bertheau's Commentar, of which a translation has recently appeared.'1
Some, however, as the difference of numbers and names, cannot but
1 This translation forms the latter portion of the loth volume of Clarke Foreign
Theological Library, New Series., Edinburgh, 1857.
320 NOTES. Lect. IV.
remain discrepancies ; in these we may be allowed to suspect corrup-
tions of the original text, by carelessness in transcription, or by the
insertion of marginal addenda. (See the excellent remarks of Professor
Stuart, Defence, of the Old Testament Canon, § 6, pp. 143-145 ; and
compare the article on Chronicles, in Kitto's Cyclopedia.')
Note XIII., p. 107.
See Mr. Vance Smith's Prophecies relating to Nineveh and the Assyri-
ans, p. 76. The special object of this work is to elucidate a certain
portion of the prophecies by the light thrown upon them from the con-
nected histories of the Assyrians and the Hebrews. Similar efforts have
been made in Germany by Hitzig.1 Otto Strauss,2 and others.
Note XIV., p. 107.
Jonah is commonly placed somewhat earlier ; but his work (if it be
his, which is doubtful) belongs rather to the historical than the pro-
phetical Scriptures.
Note XV., p. 108.
By Paley, in his Ilorce Paulina, a work which for closeness, clear-
ness, and cogency of reasoning, has never been surpassed, and rarely
equalled.
Note XVI., p. 109.
The kings of Israel and Judah mentioned in the Assyrian Inscrip-
tions are, Jehu, Menahem, Hezekiah, and Manasseh. Jehu's name
appears on the Black Obelisk in the British Museum, a monument of
the Old Empire, dating probably from about B. C. 870 ; Menahem is
mentioned by Tiglath-Pileser II., the first monarch of the New Empire,
who began to reign in B. C. 747 ; Hezekiah occurs among the enemies
of Sennacherib, who did not ascend the throne till about B. C. 700 ;
and Manasseh is found among the tributaries of Sennacherib's son,
Esarhaddon. No doubt the Scriptural names have helped to determine
the date of the monuments ; but putting these names aside, and look-
1 Zwblf Kleinen Propheten erklart, Lcipsic, 1838.
2 Nahumi de Nino Vaticinium, Berlin, 1853.
Lect. IV. NOTES. 321
ing merely to forms of language, style of writing, character of sculp-
ture, and position of the monuments when in situ, I believe no cunei-
form scholar would hesitate as to the relative antiquity to be assigned
to them.
Note XVII., p. 109.
The practice of calling cities after the names of their founders has
always prevailed in the East. Perhaps the earliest known instance is
that of Ramesses — the Beth-Barneses of the Hieratic Papyri. (See
Note LXXXVIL, on Lecture II., p. 287.) That the Assyrians were
acquainted with the practice we know from the case of Sargon, who
called the city which he built a little to the north of Nineveh, Beth'
Sargina, or Dur- Sargina, "the abode of Sargon." Esarhaddon too, in
one of his Inscriptions, says, "A city I built. City of Esarhaddon 1
called its name." ' In more recent times the names Ahmed-abad,
Shereef-abad, Hyder-abad, &c, have had a similar origin.
Samaria is only called Beth-Khumri in the earlier inscriptions. Frcm
the time of Tiglath-Pileser II., the term used is Tsamirin.
Ncte XVIII., p. 110.
So Wilkinson, in the author's Herodotus, vol. ii. p. 376. M. Bunsen
reads the legend Jutah Malk, and translates (not very intelligibly)
«' Judah, King." (See his Egypt, vol. iii. p. 242.) He agrees, how-
ever, as to its intention, and views it as a proof of Sheshonk's having
made an expedition to Jerusalem.
Note XIX., p. 110.
There were three Osorkons in the 21st dynasty, according to the
monuments, though Manetho mentioned but one. Osorkon I. was the
son and successor of Shishak. It is just possible that he may have been
the assailant of Asa." Sir fi. Wilkinson, however, regards Osorkon
II., who married the great granddaughter of Shishak, as more natu-
rally the contemporary of Asa, the ^rcat grandson of Solomon, since
Solomon and Shishak were contemporaries. (See the author's Herodo-
tus, vol. ii. p. 378.)
1 Sec Mr. Fox Talbot's Assyrian Tats translated, p. 1L
* This ia M. Buasen's view, Kgypt, vol. iii. p. 308.
322 n o t :: s . Lect. IV.
Note XX., p. 111.
Menander said — " On the death of Hiram, his son Balcazai
(read Balthazar) succeeded to the kingdom. lie lived 43 years, and
reigned 7. After him came his son Abdastratus, (read Abdastar-
tus,) who lived 29 years, and reigned 9. Against this man the four
sons of his nurse conspired, and slew him, whereupon the eldest
of these brothers reigned 12 years. After these came Astartus,
the son of Deleastartus, who lived 54 years, and reigned 12. His
brother Aserymus succeeded him, living 54 years, and reigning 9.
He was slain by his brother Pheles, who took possession of the
kingdom, but reigned only 8 months, when he was murdered, in
the 50th year of his age, by Ithobalus, (i. e. Ethbaal,) the priest of
Astarte, who reigned 32 years, and lived 68." (Ap. Joseph. Contra
Apionem, i. 18.) We have thus from the death of Hiram, which can-
not have taken place till the 26th year of Solomon's reign (1 Kings
ix. 10-14,) the following series — Balthazar, 7 years; Abdastartus,
9 years; his successor, 12 years; Astartus, 12 years; Aserymus, 9
years ; Pheles, eight months ; total 49 years and eight months. In
Ahab's case we have Jeroboam, 22 years ; Nadab, 2 years ; Baasha,
24 years; Elah, 2 years; Omri, 12 years; total 62 years; to which
must be added some 10 or 12 years for the excess of Solomon's reign
over Hiram's. It thus appears that Ahab ascended the throne about 20
•r 25 years after Eth-baal.
Note XXL, p. 111.
See Kenrick's Phwnicia, p. 362; Bunsen's Egypt, vol. iii. p. 428;
Ken's Commentar, (p. 259, E. T.,) &c.
Note XXII. , p. 111.
The term " Zidonians " seems to bear the generic sense in 1 Kings
xi. 1 and 5 ; and 2 Kings xxiii. 13 ; but the specific in Judges x.
12, and xviii. 7. The early preeminence of Sidon (see Note XXXII.
to Lecture III.) sufficiently accounts for the generic use, which was
well known to the Greek and Latin poets, (Horn. Od. xiii. 285 ; Sopn.
Fr. lxxxii. ; Eurip. Hel. 1429 ; Virg. 2En. i. 446, &c.)
Lect. IV. NOTES. 323
Note XXIII., p. 112.
See Josephus, Ant. Jicd. viii. 13 : " Menander also mentions thi3
drought, writing thus in the Acts of Ithobalus, king of the Tyrians :
• Under this man there was a want of rain from the month Hyper-
beretseus to the same month of the following year. But when he
made supplication, there was a violent thunder storm.'" May we con-
nect the " supplication " in tli? last clause with that of Elijah on Mount
Carmel, (1 Kings xviii. 42, 43,) which overhung the Tyrian territory ?
Note XXIV., p. 112.
No continuous history of Syria has come down to us. Nicolas of
Damascus, whose influence with Herod the Great and with Augustus
must have given him access to any archives that Damascus or the other
Syrian towns may have posc?ssed, appears to have introduced a short
sketch of ancient Syrian history into the fourth book of his great
work, which treated mainly of the early Lydian kings. (See Mailer's
preface to the fragments of Nicolas, in his Fragm. Hist. Gr., vol. hi.
p. 345.) Of this sketch, i.owever, we unfortunately possess but
three short fragments, preserved to us by Josephus.1 The first of
these relates the sojourn of Abraham at Damascus, on his way from
Chaldaea to Canaan — a sojourn deriving some support from the fact
that Abraham's steward was a Damascene (Cien. xv. 2) — but absurdly
makes Abraham " king of Damascus " during his stay, (Fr. 30.) The
second has been given at length in the notes on Lecture III. (Note
XXVIII.) The third i.: interpreted by Josephus as bearing upon the
Syrian war of Ahab ; but its true reference is to that of Baasha. It
runs thus : " Now when he died (i. e. Hadad I.) his posterity reigned
for ten generations, each one inheriting from his father, together with
the roynl authority, the same name also, like the Pharaohs in Egypt.
But the third, who wa3 the mightiest of all these, wishing to avenge
his grandfather's defeat, marched against the Jews, and took the city
now called Samaria." (Fr. 31.) It is evident that Hadad III., who
was the grandson of David'** antagonist, cannot have contended against
Ahab, 140 years afterwards. Nicolas undoubtedly intends the antag-
onist of Baasha, half a centurv earlier, whose inroad was completely suc-
- Mnt. Jud. vii. 5.
324 notes. Lect. IV.
cessful, and who reduced Samaria to a sort of subjection, (1 Kings xv.
20 ; xx. 34.) With respect to the continuance of the name and family
of Hadad on the Damascene throne for ten generations, Nicolas ap-
pears to be at variance with Scripture. Seemingly he takes no account
of the break in the line caused by the usurpation of Hazael. Perhaps
in Syrian history this was glossed over, and Hazael regarded as having
had a claim of blood. At any rate it is remarkable that he adopted
the family name of the preceding dynasty for his son, who is called
Ben-hadad in 2 Kings xiii. 3.
Note XXV., p. 113.
See the Black Obelisk inscription, which has been very accurately
translated by Dr. Hincks, in the Dublin University Magazine for Octo-
ber, 1853. Compare the author's Herodotus, vol. i. pp. 464, 465.
Note XXVI., p. 113.
" Benhadad, the king of Syria, gathered all his host together ; and
there were thirty and tiro kings with him, and horses, and chariots."
(1 Kings xx. 1.) "Number thee an army like the army which thou
hast lost, horse for horse, and chariot for chariot." (Ibid, verse 25.)
The Syrian armies appear in the Black Obelisk inscription to be com-
posed to a very large extent of chariots. As many as 1100 are taken
on one occasion. The multitude of petty princes mentioned is also in
accordance with the inscriptions generally, which represents the whole
country between the Euphrates and Egypt as divided up among a
number of tribes and nations, each under its own king or chief.
Note XXVII., p. 113.
The Black Obelisk king, in his 6th, 11th, and 14th years, contends
with Benhadad, but in his 18th his adversary is Hazael. {Dublin Univ.
Mag., October, 1853, pp. 422, 423, and 424.)
Note XXVIII., p. 113.
The Obelisk contains no account of any war with Jehu ; but men-
tions him among those who paid tribute to the Assyrian monarch.
He is styled " Yahua, the son of Khumri" — Jenu, the son of Omrif
Lect. IV. NOTES. 325
which causes some difficulty. Jehu is said in Scripture to have been
the son of Jehoshaphat, and grandson of Nimshi, (2 Kings ix. 2, 14.)
It is possible, however, that he may have been on the mother s side de-
scended from Omri. Or the story of his being so descended may have
been invented by the Samaritans, and believed by foreign nations. Or,
finally, the Assyrians may merely have assumed that he was a descend-
ant of Omri, since he sat on his throne, and ruled in the city known to
them by his name. (See above, Note XVII.) His tribute consisted of
silver, gold, and articles of various kinds manufactured from gold.
Note XXIX., p. 114.
Che only remains of this period are an inscription set up by the son
of the Black Obelisk king, relating his military exploits during the first
four years of his reign, and two or three brief inscriptions of the time
of his successor, the most important of which is that noticed below,
(Note XXXIII.) The campaigns of the earlier king are in Babylonia,
Media, Armenia, and along the flanks of Taurus, but do not touch
Syria or Palestine.
Note XXX., p. 114.
See Kenrick's Phoenicia, p. 367 : " Our knowledge of the history of
Tyre ceases with Dido's flight, at the end of the ninth century, B. C,
and we hear nothing of its internal state till the reign of Elula-us, the
contemporary of Shalmaneser." In fact we have nothing authentic for
the early period but the fragments of Menander, and these fail us en-
tirely from the reign of Pygmalion to that of Elulaeus.
Note XXXI., p. 114.
See Euseb. Chronica, i. 4 ; p. 18, ed. Mai. " After these, he says
there was a king of the Chalda-ans whose name was Pul."
Note XXXII., p. 114.
In 2 Kings xv. 19, the LXX. interpreters render Pul by Phua, (4>o«rf,)
where the terminal a is probably a false reading arising out of the
resemblance of A to A. In 1 Chron. v. 26, the reading of the Vatican
and most MSS. is VaXu^, but some copies have QaXws.
28
320 NOTES. Lect. IV.
Note XXXIII., p. 115.
A full account of this inscription, first deciphered by Sir H. Ilaw-
linson, will be found in the Atheneeum, No. 1476, p. 174. A general
summary of its contents is given in the author's Herodotus, vol. i.
«\ 467.
Note XXXIV., p. 115.
See Sir H. Rawlinson's letter in the Athenaeum, 1. s. c.
Note XXXV., p. 116.
•
The conjunction of Rezin with Pekah, and the capture and destntc-
tion of Damascus, which are noted in the inscription, seem to prove
that it is the second expedition that is intended. Whether it be the
first, however, or the second, the name of Menahem must equally be
rejected. (See 2 Kings xv. 29, and xvi. 9.) It is easily conceivable,
that, if the sculptor had been accustomed to engrave the royal annals,
and had often before entered the name of Menahem as that of the Samar-
itan king, he might engrave it here in his haste, without consulting his
copy. Or possibly, Pekah may have taken the name of Menahem, to
connect himself with the dynasty which he had displaced.
Note XXXVL, p. 117.
The older interpreters, as Keil remarks,1 proceeding on the supposi-
tion that the altar was Syrian, and dedicated to the Syrian gods, en-
deavored to answer the question why Ahaz chose the gods, not of the
victorious Assyrians, but of the vanquished Syrians — a question to
which it was very difficult to give a satisfactory reply. Among recent
writers. Berthcau, (Commentar iiber d. BUoh. d. Chronik, p. 421, E. T.,)
Ewald, (Gcschichte des Volkes Israel, vol. hi. pp. 325, 326,) and Vance
Smith, (Prophecies concerning Assyria, p. 27.) follow the old view.
Keil himself regards the qu^tion as unimportant, since he supposes
that no idolatrous rites or ide is were connected with the altar. Ahaz,
according to his view, having seen a pattern which he fancied better
1 Commentar iiber d. Bvch. d. Kbnige, \ 2; vol. ii. p. 45, E. T.
Lect. IV. NOTES. 327
than that of Solomon's altar, adopted it ; and his sin was " a silly will-
worship." (So Buddseus, Hist. Eccles., vol. ii. p. 428.)
Note XXXVII., p. 117.
See the great inscription of Tiglath-Pileser I., pp. 30, 38, 40, 44, 48,
&c. ; and compare the author's Herodotus, vol. i. p. 495.
Note XXXVIII., p. 117.
Josephus says of Shalmaneser : "The name of this king is inscribed
in the archives of the Tyrians. For he made an expedition against
Tyre, when Eluleus was king over them. To this we have the testi-
mony of Menander, who wrote an account of their chronicles, and
translated their archives into the Greek language." (Antiq. Jiid.,
ix. 14.)
Note XXXIX., p. 117.
See the author's Herodotus, vol. i. p. 471, note 7.
Note XL., p. 117.
Ibid. p. 472.
Note XLL, p. 118.
Scripture states that Shalmaneser " came up against Hoshea," and
besieged Samaria, (2 Kings xviii. 9 ;) but Scripture nowhere expressly
states that Shalmaneser took the city. "The king of Assyria," it is
said in one place, "took it," (ib. xvii. G ;) in another, "they (i. e. the
Assyrians) took it," (ib. xviii. 10.) That Shalmaneser was the captor
is only an inference from Scripture — a natural inference undoubtedly,
but not a necessary one.
Note XLII., p. 118.
Sargon has been identified with Shalmaneser by Vitringa, Ofrenhaur.,
Prideaux, Eichhorn, Hupfeld, Gumpach, and M. Niebuhr ; ' with Sen-
nacherib by Grotius, Lowth, Keil, and Schrber ; with Esarhaddon by
Perizonius, Kalinsky, and Michaelis. (Sue Winer's RealwOrterbuc/i, ad
1 (jtschirhtc Jissun und Babels seil Phul, p. 160.
328 notes. Lect. IV.
•voc. Sargon.) His separate personality is now generally admitted.
(See Brandis, Rerum Assyriarum Tempora Emendata, p. 64, and Tab.
Chron. ad fin. Oppert, Rapport d'une Mission Scientifique en Angleterre,
p. 38 ; Vance Smith, Prophecies, &c., pp. 31, 32 ; Ewald, Geschichte des
Volkes Israel, vol. iii. pp. 333, 334 ; Layard, Nineveh aitd Babylon, pp.
618-620, &c.)
Note XLIIL, p. 118.
See Sir H. Rawlinson's Commentary on the Inscriptions of Babylonia
a?id Assyria, p. 19, note 2, where a passage proving this is quoted from
Yaciit, the famous Arabian geographer.
Note XLIV., p. 118.
See the author's Herodotus, vol. i. p. 473, note 4 ; and compare Vance
Smith's Prophecies, &c, p. 35.
Note XLV., p. 119.
When Sargon took Ashdod, its king (he tells us) fled to Muzr,
(Mizraim or Egypt.) which was subject to Mirukha, (MeroC or Ethio-
pia.) See the author's Herodotus, vol. i. p. 474.
Note XLVI., p. 119.
Ibid. p. 473.
Note XL VII., p. 120.
The translation in the text has been read by Sir H. Rawlinson before
various Societies and Public Meetings ; but it has remained, I believe,
hitherto unpublished. It will be found to agree in all important points
with Dr. Hincks's version, as given by Mr. Layard, {Nineveh and Baby-
lon, pp. 143, 144.)
Note XLVITL, p. 121.
Mr. Layard gives a slightly different explanation, (Nin. and Bab., p.
14-5 :) "There is a difference of 500 talents, as it will be observed, in
the amount of silver. It is probable that Hezekiah was much pressed
by Sennacherib, and compelled to give him all the wealth that he could
Lect. IV. notes. 329
collect, as we find him actually taking the silver from the house of the
Lord, as well as from his own treasury, and cutting off the gold from
the doors and pillars of the temple to satisfy the demands of the Assyr-
ian king. The Bible may therefore only include the actual amount ot
money in the 300 talents of silver, whilst the Assyrian records comprise
all the precious metal taken away."
Note XLIX., p. 121.
Herodot. ii. 141. This testimony was first adduced by Josephus,
{Ant. Jud. x. 1,) from whom it passed on to the Christian commenta-
tors generally. The "chief difficulty" in reconciling Herodotus with
Scripture has been generally said to be the scene of the destruction.
(See Joseph. 1. s. c., Prideaux's Connection of Sacred and Profane His-
tory, vol. i. p. 18; M. Niebuhr's Geschichte Assurs tind Babels, p. 179;
Vance Smith's Prophecies relating to Assyria, Introduction, p. 43.) It
has been commonly assumed that the scene was the immediate neigh-
borhood of Jerusalem ; but this assumption is not only, as Mr. Vance
Smith has shown, {Prophecies, &c, p. 213,) without warrant from
Scripture, but it is actually contradictory to Scripture. God's promise
to Ilezekiah through Isaiah was : " He (Sennacherib) shall not come
into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shield,
nor cast a bank against it. By the way that he came, by the same shall
he return, and shall not come into this city, saith the Lord." (2 Kings,
xix. 32, 33 ; compare Is. xxxvii. 33, 34.)
Note XLIX. b., p. 121.
Eusebius says of Polyhistor — "Having already described the rest
of the acts of Senecherim, he adds, that he lived [as king] 18 years.
. . . until he teas destroyed by a plot formed against him by his son
Ardumazan." {Chronica, i. 5 ; p. 19, ed. Mai.)
Abydenua gives the name of one of the murderers more correctly,
but represents the murder as committed, not on Sennacherib, but on
his successor. " Next after him (i. e. Sennacherib) reigned Nergil,
whom his son Adramelech slew ; and he in his turn was slain by his
brother Axerdis." (Esar-haddon ■) (Ap. Euseb. Chronica, i. 9, p. 25.)
28*
330 NOTES. Lect. IV.
Note L., p. 122.
Both Sennacherib and Esarhaddon led hostile expeditions into
Armenia, which appears to have been at no time thoroughly subjected
by the Assyrian monarchs. (See the author's Herodotus, vol. i. pp.
478-481.)
Note LI., p. 122.
Mos. Choren. i. 22: "When his sons, Adrammelech and Sanasar,
had slain him, (i. e. Senacharim,) they fled to us. One of whom,
Sanasar, our most illustrious ancestor Sacordius placed near the borders
of Assyria, in that part of our country which lies between the west and
south ; and his descendants . . . filled . . . that mountain." But Ar-
gtunozan obtained a settlement in the same region, between the East
and the South. From him this historian (Mar-Abas) reports that the
Arzerunii and the Genunii were descended.
Note LIE, p. 122.
Esarhaddon in his inscriptions frequently speaks of Sennacherib as
his father. (See Fox Talbot, Assyrian Texts translated, p. 13, and else-
where.) The relationship is also witnessed to by Polyhistor, following
Berosus. (Ap. Euseb. Chron. i. v. p. 19 ; compare p. 20, where Euse-
bius says, " Having gone through with all this, Polyhistor proceeds
anew to relate some of the acts of Senecherib also ; and concerning his
son he iciites in quite the same maimer as the books of the Hebrews."
Note LIIL, p. 122.
Abydenus interpolates a reign between Sennacherib and Esarhaddon,
which he assigns to a certain Xergilus, of whom no other trace is to be
found. Nergal was one of the Assyrian deities, (2 Kings xvii. 30 ; and
see the author's Herodotus, vol. i. pp. 631-633; compare also Dublin
Univ. Mag., (Oct. 1853, p. 420,) and cannot therefore have been a king's
name. The Assyrian royal names contain most commonly a god's name
as an element, but are never identical with the names of deities. It
was otherwise in Phoenicia, where Baal and Astartus were monarchs.
The account of Abydenus seems therefore unworthy of credit.
Note LIV., p. 122.
" Manasseh, King of Judah," is mentioned among the subject princes,
•who lent Esarhaddon workmen for the building and ornamentation o!
LECT. IV. NOTES. 331
his palaces. (See the author's Herodotus, vol. i. p. 483.) It is not sur-
prising that we have no account of the expedition against Manasseh,
since we do not possess the annals of Esarhaddon, but only some occa-
sional inscriptions.
Note LV., p. 123.
The Assyrians ordinarily governed Babylon through native viceroys.
(See Berosus, Fr. 12 ; and the inscriptions, passim.) But Esarhaddon
appears to have reigned there in his own person. Bricks found on the
site of Babylon show that he repaired temples and built himself a
palace there. Consequently in the authentic list of Babylonian kings
preserved by Ptolemy, (Magn. Syntax, v. 14,) his name occurs, under
the Grecized form of Asaridinus. A Babylonian tablet has been found,
dated by the year of his reign — a sure indication that he was the actual
ruler of the country. No similar facts can be proved of any othel
Assyrian monarch.1 (See the author's Herodotus, vol. i. p. 482.)
Note LVL, p. 123.
There is one only mention of Assyria in the historical Scriptures later
than the reign of Manasseh, namely, the statement in 2 Kings xxiii. 29,
that in the days of Josiah " Pharaoh-Necho, king of Egypt, went up
against the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates." If this expression
is to be taken strictly, we must consider that Assyria maintained her
existence so late as B. C. 610. I believe, however, that the word
" Assyria" is here used, somewhat negligently, for " Babylonia." (C'f.
Keil, ad loc, p. 154, E. T.,) and that the Assyrian empire was destroyed
in B. C. 625. (See Niebhur, Vortrdge ilber Alte Geschichte, vol. i. p. 47.)
The first clear indication which Scripture gives of the destruction is
found in Ezekiel xxxi. 3-17 —a passage written B. C. 58.5. A more
obscure notification of the event is perhaps contained in Jeremiah xxv.
15-26, where the omission of Assyria from the general list of the idol-
atrous nations would seem to imply that she had ceased to exist. This
passage was written about B. ('. 605.
1 It has been suggested by Dr. Hinc^ and others that the " Arceanus" of Ptolemy's
list is Sar^on. But thin in a mere conjecture grounded upon a certain decree of resem-
blance in the names. No traces of Sargon have been found in Babylonia.
332 NOTES. Leot. IV.
Note LVIL, p. 123.
Compare Herod, i. 106 and 178; Ctesias ap. Diod. Sic. ii. 26-28;
Abydenus ap. Euseb. Chronica, i. 9, p. 25 ; Joseph. Ant. Jud. x. 5. See
also Tobit xiv. 15.
Note LVIIL, p. 124.
The slight authority of the present "pointing" of the Hebrew text
is generally admitted. The pointing from which our translators took
their rendering of " So " is HID ; if the word were pointed thus — &10
— it would have to be rendered by " Seveh." (See Keil on 2 Kings
xri. 4-6, pp. 52, 52, E. T. ; and compare the author's Herodotus, vol. i.
p. 472, note 2.)
Note LIX., p. 124.
See Mr. Birch's note in Layard's Nineveh and Babylon, eh. vi. pp.
156-159. Compare Wilkinson, in the author's Herodotus, vol. ii. pp.
217, 218, and 379 ; and Bunsen, Egypt's Place, &c., vol. ii. p. 597.
Note LX., p. 124.
Herod, ii. 137. Most moderns incline to the view that the second
Shebek is the So of Scripture. (See Winer's RealwOrterbuch, ad voc.
So ; Keil, Com?ne?itar liber die Bilcher der KOnige, 1. s. c. ; Layard,
Nineveh and Babylon, p. 157 ; Gesenius, Comment, in Jes., vol. i. p. 696,
&c.) The question is one of exact chronology. Tirhakah, it is argued,
came against Sennacherib in the 14th year of Hezekiah, and So made
a league with Hoshea in Hezekiah's third or fourth year. This then
must have been in the reign of the second Shebek, to whom Manetho
gave not less than 12 years. (See Keil, 1. s. c.) But, in the first place,
So's league cannot be fixed to Hezekiah's third or fourth year. A space
of several years may intervene between the 4th and 5th verses of 2 Kings
xvii. And, secondly, Manetho's numbers (as they have come down
to us) cannot be trusted absolutely. According to them Tirhakah
reigned 18 or 20 years. (Frs. 64 and 65.) But the monuments dis-
tinctly assign him 26 years. (See Wilkinson, in the author's Herodotus,
vol. ii. p. 381.) They also appear to fix his accession to the year B. C.
690. The reign of Hoshea was from B. C. 729 to B. C. 721, and his
Lect. IV. NOTES. 333
league with the Egyptians cannot have been later than B. C. 724.
This is 34 years before the accession of Tirhakah, which is certainly
too long a time to assign to the second Shebek. I therefore regard
the So of Kings as Shebek I.
The difficulty with respect to Tirhakah's chronology will be consid-
ered in Note LXIV.
Note LXL, p. 125.
See Mr. Layard's Nineveh and Babylon, pp. 156-159.
Note LXII., p. 125.
Tarcus is the form given as Manetho's by Africanus, Taracus that
given by Eusebius. See the fragments of Manetho, in Mttller's Fr.
Hist. Gr., vol. ii. p. 593 ; Frs. 64 and 65.) The Hebrew word is
nplTlt) ; the LXX. give Oapa<6.
Note LXIII., p. 125.
Strabo, Geogrnph., i. 3, § 21 ; xv. i. § 6.
Note LXIV., p. 125.
This is the reading of Sir Gardner Wilkinson. (Sec the author's
Herodotus, vol. ii. p. 380.) Bunsen reads Taharuka, {Egypt, vol. ii. p.
598 ;) Rosellini, Tahraka. The consonants, T, II, R, K, are certain,
but the vowels doubtful.
If Tirhakah did not ascend the Egyptian throne till B. C. 690, how
(it may be asked) could he be contemporary with Hezekiah, whose last
year was about B. C. 697, or B. C. 696 ? And how, especially, could
he oppose Sennacherib, about the middle of Hezekiah' 8 reign, or B. C.
703 ? I venture to suggest that Tirhakah, when he marched against
Sennacherib, may not yet have been king of Egypt. He is called
"king of Ethiopia;" and he may have ruled in Ethiopia, while the
Shcbeks, under his protection, held Egypt. I venture further to
doubt whether we can fix the year of Sennacherib's contact with
Tirhakah from Scripture. His first invasion of Judeea is said to have
been in Hezekiah's 14th year, (2 Kings xix. 13;) but it seems to be
a second invasion, falling some years later, which is described in verses
334 NOTES. Lect. IV.
17 to 36. In the marginal notes to our Bible, the two invasions are
made to be three years apart. But the number three is purely con-
jectural ; and perhaps thirteen or fourteen is as likely. (See the
author's Herodotus, p. 479, notes 1, 2, and 9.)
Note. LXV., p. 125.
Fragmenta Hist. Gr., vol. ii. pp. 593, 594 ; Frs. 66 and 67. The
form used is Ht^ad.
Note LXVL, p. 125.
Herodotus (ii. 158) uses the form Nfituif, where the $ is the Greek
nominative, and may therefore be cancelled.
Note LXVIL, p. 125.
Rosellini expressed the monumental name by Neko, but M. Bunsen
reads it Nckau or Neku. (Egypt, vol. ii. pp. 604, 605.)
Note LXVITI., p. 125.
On the frequent confusion between the names Migdol 0n3>2> yiay&aXa,
MayM.ov) and Megiddo (i'la^j May«c5<5w, Wlayi&iAv,) see Dr. Stanley's Sinai
and Palestine, p. 375, note l. Herodotus was not acquainted with the
interior of Palestine, or he would have seen how much more suited for
the site of a great battle was Megiddo in the plain of Esdraelon, than
Magdolum on the shores of the Sea of Galilee.
Note LXIX., p. 125.
See Prideaux's Connection, &c, vol. i. pp. 56, 57 ; Bunnell's Geography
of Herodotus, pp. 245 and 683 ; Heeren's Asiatic Nations, vol. ii. ch.
4 p. 109, note 2, E. T. ; Dahlmann's Life of Herodotus, ch. iv. p. 55,
E. T. ; Bahr's Excursus on Herod, ii. 159, vol. i. pp. 922, 923 ; Smith's
Diet, of Greek and Roman Geography, vol. ii. p. 17 ; Keil's Commentar
liber d. Bilch. d. KOnige, ch. xxiiif p. 159, E. T. ; Home's Introduction,
vol. i. p. 208 ; and Kenrick's AncS^nt Egypt, vol. ii. p. 406.
Lect. IV. NOTES. 335
Note LXX., p. 125.
That the Cadytis of Herodotus was not Jerusalem, but a town upon
the Syrian coast, is now generally admitted by scholars, and seems to
follow necessarily from Herod, hi. 5. The best authorities incline to
identify it with Gaza, or Ghuzzeh, called in the Assyrian Inscriptions
Khazita. (See Hitzig, Disputatio de Cadyte urbe Herodotea ; and compare
Wilkinson, in the author's Herodotus, vol. ii. p. 246, note 2 ; Ewald,
Geschichte des Volkes Israel, vol. hi. p. 418, note ' ; Sir H. Rawlinson,
Outlines of Assyrian History, &c. ; and Bertheau, Commentar Uber d.
Bitch, d. Chronik, § 17, ad fin. ; p. 457, E. T.
Note LXXI., p. 125.
Africanus and Eusebius both report Manetho to have said of Necho,
" This man took Jerusalem, and carried Jehoahaz the king captive into
Egypt. (See the fragments of Manetho in the Fraym. Hist. Gr., vol. ii.
pp. 593, 594 ; Frs. 66 and 67.)
Note LXXn., p. 125.
So Sir Gardner "Wilkinson reads the name on the monuments, (Herod-
otus, vol. ii. p. 248, note *.) Rosellini read it as Hophre. M. Bunsen
gives the strange form, Ra-uah-hat, (Egypt, vol. ii. pp. 604, 605.)
Note LXXIII., p. 125.
Egyptian chronology placed the accession of Amasis 48 years before
that of Darius Hystaspis ; for Amasis, according to the consentient
testimony of Herodotus, (iii. 10,) Manetho, (ap. Synccll. p. 141, C.,)
and the monuments, (Wilkinson, in the author's Herodotus, vol. ii. p.
387,) reigned 44 years, Psammetichus his son, half a year ; Cambyses,
(in Egypt,) 3 years,' and the Pseudo-Smerdis a little more than half a
year. The last year of Apries would thus be the 49th before Darius.
Babylonian chronology made Nebuchadnezzar's last year the 41st before
that king. (See the Canon.) As Nebuchadnezzar reigned 43 years,
1 Or six years. (i'ee. Bunsen'* F.gypl, toI. ii. pp. 610, 611.)
336 NOTES. Lect. rv,
and Apries only 19, (or at the utmost 25,) the reign of the latter must
nave been entirely included within that of the former. Nebuchadnezzar
reigned from B. C. 604 to B. C. 561; Apries, probably from B. C. 588
to B. C. 569.
Note LXXIV., p. 126.
Manetho is reported to have said of Hophra, (Uaphris,) that he -was
the king " with whom the remnant of the Jews took refuge, after Jeru-
salem was captured by the Assyrians." (Fragm. Hist. G>:, vol. ii. pp.
593, 594; Frs. 66 and 67.)
Note LXXV., p. 126.
Herodotus was altogether misinformed about the rank and position
of Amasis, who (according to him) deposed Apries and put him to
death. (See Wilkinson, in the author's Herodotus, vol. ii. pp. 386, 387.)
It is therefore less surprising that he should have been kept in igno-
rance of the part which, it is probable, Nebuchadnezzar played in the
transaction. The Egyptians would naturally seek to conceal from him
the fact, that the change of sovereigns was brought about by foreign
influence. But nothing is more unlikely than that they should have
invented the deposition and execution of one of their monarchs. Thus
the passage, •' I will deliver Pharaoh-Hophra into the hands of his ene-
mies, and into the hands of those who seek his life" (Jer. xliv. 30,) is
confirmed by an unimpeachable testimony.
Note LXXVL, p. 126.
M. Bunsen was, I believe, the first to suggest that the d in this name
had taken the place of /, through the resemblance of A to J. (See his
Egypt, vol. i. p. 726.) The restoration of the I brings the two names
into close accordance, the only difference then being that in the Greek
form one of the original elements of the name, adan or iddan, is sup-
pressed. Such suppression is not uncommon. It may be traced in Pul
for Phaloch, in Bupalussor for Nabopolassar, (Abyden.,) in Asaridanus
for Assur-aM-iddan or Esar-/(addon, and probably in Saracus for
Assw-akh-uzur, or some similar word.
The identity of the Mardocempadus of the Canon with the Marduk-
bal-icidan of the Inscriptions is certain ; and no reasonable aoubt can
Lect. IV. NOTES. 337
be entertained of the identity of the latter with the Merodach-Baladan
of Scripture. These views are now generally accepted. (See Brandis,
Rerum Assyr. Temp, emend., p. 45 ; Oppert, Rapport, &c, pp. 48, 49 ;
Hincks in Dubl. Univ. Mag., No. 250, p. 421 ; Layard, Nineveh and
Babylon, p. 140 ; Keil on 2 Kings xx. 12-19 ; p. 118, E. T. ; &c.)
Note LXXVII., p. 126.
Merodach-Baladan had two reigns, both noted in the Inscriptions.
One of them is marked in Ptolemy's Canon, where it occupies the years
B. C. 721-709. His other reign does not appear, since it lasted but six
months, and the Canon marks no period short of a year. Polyhistor
says (ap. Euseb. Chronica, i. 5) that it immediately preceded the reign
of Elibus or Belibus, and the Inscriptions show that it was in the earlier
part of the same year. This was the year B. C. 702, according to the
Canon. As Hezckiah appears to have reigned from about B. C. 726 to
B. C. 697, both reigns of Merodach-Baladan would have fallen within
the time of his rule. (See the author's Herodotus, vol. i. pp. 502-504.)
Note LXXVIIL, p. 126.
Fragm. Hist. Gr., vol. ii. p. 504 ; Fr. 12.
Note LXXIX., p. 126.
Sargon relates, that in his twelfth year he made war upon Merodach-
Baladan, who had been for twelve years king of Babylon, defeated him,
and drove him out of the country. The expelled monarch took refuge
in Susiana, with a number of his partisan , ; and Sarijon continued to
contend against him and his allies for three years more at the least.
(See the author's Herodotus, vol. i. pp. 474 and 503.) Siiinachcrib
says, that immediately after his accession he invaded Babylonia, de-
feated and expelled Merodach-Baladan, and placed Belib over the land
as ruler. (Ibid. p. 476 ; Eox Talbot's Assyrian Texts, pp. 1-2.)
Note LXXX., p. 127.
The Babylonian Gods may be to a great extent identified with the
heavenly bodies. San or Sansi is the Sun ; Hurki, the Moon ; AVfco is
Mercury; Ishtar, Venus; Nergal, Mars; Merodach, Jupiter; and proba-
29
338 notes. Lect. IV.
bly Nin (or Bar) Saturn. (See the Essay of Sir H. Rawlinson on the
Assyrian and Babylonian religious systems, in the first volume of the
author's Herodotus, Essay x. pp. 584-642.) The dedication of the great
temple at Borsippa to the Seven Spheres shows a similar spirit. Mr.
Loftus has found that the temple platforms are so placed that their an-
gles exact!;/ face the four cardinal points, which seems to be a sufficient
proof that they were used for astronomical purposes. (See his Chalda^a
and Susia?ia, ch. xii. p. 128.) On the astronomical skill of the Babylo-
nians, see Herod, ii. 109 ; Simplicius ad Avistot. De Cceh, ii. p. 123 ;
Pliny, Hist. Nat. vii. 56 ; Yitruvius, ix. 9, &c.
Note LXXXL, p. 127.
Berosus said: "When Nabopolassar his father (i. e. the father of
Nebuchadnezzar) heard that the Satrap appointed over Egypt and the
regions of Coele- Syria and Phoenice had rebelled against him, being no
longer able himself to endure hardship, he intrusted a certain portion of
his army to his son Nebuchadnezzar, who was of age, and sent him
against the rebel. Nebuchadnezzar, meeting the rebel, and engaging
in battle with him, was victorious, and reduced the rebellious country
into subjection to himself. . . . Not long after, Nebuchadnezzar, having
heard of the death of his father, when he had settled the affairs of Egypt
and the adjacent region, and had arranged with certain of his friends to
bring to Babylon the captives of the Jeics, and Phoenicians and Syrians
and nations near Egypt, came himself, with great haste and with a
small company, through the wilderness to Babylon." (Ap. Joseph.
Ant. Jud. x. 11.)
Note LXXXIL, p. 127.
See Josephus, Contra Apion., i. 21 : "I will add also the records of the
Phoenicians ; for even the superabundance of proofs ought not to be
omitted. This is the reckoning of the time. ' Under the king Ithoba-
lus, Nebuchadnezzar besieged Tyre for thirteen years.' "
Note LXXXIIL, p. 127.
In continuation of the passage cited in Note LXXXL, Berosus said :
" Assuming the administration of affairs, which had been under the
Lect. IV. NOTES. 339
management of the Chaldseans, and the kingdom which had been kep'
for him by the most eminent one among them, he succeeded to all his
father's dominion ; and when the captives arrived, he appointed colo-
nies for them in the most suitable parts of Babylonia."
Note LXXXIV., p. 128.
The chief chronological difficulty which meets us is connected with
the reign of Hezekiah. Scripture places no more than eight years
between the fall of Samaria and the first invasion of Judaja by Senna-
cherib, (2 Kings xviii. 9 and 13.) The monuments place at least eigh-
teen years between the two events ; for Sargon says he took Samaria in
his first year, and then gives his annals for fifteen years, while Senna-
cherib says that he attacked Hezekiah and took his fenced cities in his
third year. Ptolemy's Canon, taken in conjunction with the monu-
ments, raises the interval to twenty-two years. According to this, if
the capture of Samaria was in Hezekiah's sixth year, the accession of
Sennacherib must have fallen in his twenty-fifth, and the first attack of
Sennacherib in his 27th year. But our present text of Kings (2 Kings
xviii. 9) and of Isaiah (xxxvi. 1) calls it his 14th year. I have sug-
gested elsewhere that the original number may have been altered under
the idea that the invasion of Sennacherib and the illness of Hezekiah
were synchronous, whereas the expression "in those days" was used
by the sacred writers with a good deal of latitude. (See the author's
Herodotus, vol. i. p. 479, note *.)
Minor difficulties are the synchronism of Tirhakah with Hezekiah,
and of So with Hoshea, of which I have already spoken. See Notes
LIX. and LXIV.
Note LXXXV., p. 128.
Vortrdge liber Altc Geschichte, vol. i. p. 126 ; p. 106, E. T.
Note LXXXVI., p. 128.
A few instances may be noted under each head, as specimens of the
sort of agreement.
1. Geographic, (a) In 2 Kings xvii. 6 (compare xviii. 11) it is said
that the captive Israelites were placed by the conqueror " at Halah and
34t7 NOTES. LECT. IV.
Ilabor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes." Misled by
the last clause, various commentators have struggled vainly to find
Ilabor, Halah, and Gozan in or near Media. (See Bochart, Geograph.
Sac, iii. 14; Kitto, Bibl. Cyclopedia, ad voc. Gozan; Keil on 2 Kings
xvii. 6 ; pp. 54-58, E. T., &c.) But this attempt is quite unnecessary.
The true position of Gozan may be gathered from 2 Kings xix. 12,
■where it is coupled with Ilaran, the well-known city of Mesopotamia.
In this locality all the names may be found, not only in old geographers,
but even at the present day. The whole tract east of Ilarran about
Nisibis, was anciently called Gauzanitis or Gozan, (Ptolemy, v. 18,) of
which the better known name Mygdonia is a corruption ; ' the great
river of this tract was the Aborrhas or Chaboras, (Habor ;) and adjoin-
ing it (Ptol. 1. s. c.) was a district called Chalcitis, (Halah.) Of this
district a probable trace remains in the modern Gla, a large mound in
these parts marking a ruined city, (Layard, Nin. and Bab., p. 312,
note ;) while the river is still known as the Khaboiu; and the country
as Kausha?i.2 The author of Chronicles (1 Chron. v. 26) adds Hara to
the places mentioned in Kings, which is clearly Ilaran, or Ilarran,
known to the Romans as Carrhte. Undoubtedly the bulk of the Isra-
elites were settled in this country, while Sargon selected a certain num-
ber to colonize his new cities in Media, (b) In 2 Kings xvii. 24,
Cuthah, Ava, Hamath, and Sepharvaim are mentioned together as
cities under the Assyrian dominion, and as furnishing the colonists who
replaced the transplanted Israelites. Of these Hamath is familiar to us,
but of the other cities little has been known till recently. "The site
of Cutha," says Winer,3 " is wholly uncertain." And so Keil : *
" The situation of Cuthah cannot be determined with certainty " The
discovery, however, of an ancient Babylonian city of the name, at the
distance of about 15 miles from Babylon itself, where, moreover, Nergal
was especially worshipped, (2 Kings xvii. 30.) seems to remove all
doubt on the subject. Cuthah was most certainly the city, whose ruins
1 Mygdonia represents Gozan, with the adjectival or p:\rticipial )2 prefixed. The
Greek writers always substituted their J for the Semitic z. Hence Gaza became Cadytis,
Achzib became Ecdippa, the river Zab became the ZJiaba; and so M'gozan became
Mygdon.
2 So at least Winer says, but I do not know on what authority. (Rcalworterbuck,
ad voc. Gosan.)
8 Realvortcrbuch, vol. i. p. 237.
* See Keil on 2 Kings xvii. 24 ; vol. ii. p. 67, E. T.
Lect. IV. NOTES. 341
are now called Ibrahim. (See the author's Herodotus, vol. i. p. 632,
and vol. ii. p. 587.) With almost equal confidence may -\ve pronounce
on the position of Ava, of which Winer says, that it is most probably a
Mesopotamian town. " of which no trace remains in ancient authors or
in modern Oriental topography."1 Ava, (S^>,) or Ivah, (St^lS,) is a city
dedicated to the god Hea, (Xeptune,) which was on the Euphrates at
the extreme northern limit of Babylonia. It is called by the Talmudi-
cal writers Ihi, ("\-p») or with an epithet Ihi-dakira, (ja~pfiTinp>) by
Herodotus 7s, ("It,) by the Egyptians 1st, by the Turks and Arabs of
the present day Hit. The first corruption of the name may be traced
in the Ahava (stinst) of Ezra, (viii. 15, 21 ; compare the river Is of
Herodotus,) where the Jews encamped on their way from Babylon to
Jerusalem. (See the remarks of Sir H. Rawlinson in the author's
Herodotus, vol. i. p. 602.) Sepharvaim has less completely baffled the
geographers, who have seen that it must be identical with the Sippara
or Sipphara of Ptolemy (v. 18) and the city of the Sipparenes of Aby-
denus, (Fr. 9.) See Winer and Kitto ad voc. They have not, how-
ever, been aide to fix the site ; which the Inscriptions show to have
been at Mosaib, a town on the Euphrates between Hit and Babylon.
Nor have they given any account of the dual form, Sepharva/m,
(Z — £0 ;) which is explained by the fact, noted in the Inscriptions,
that the city was partly on the right, partly on the left bank of the
Euphrates, (c) With Sepharvaim are connected, in 2 Kings xix. 13,
the two cities of Hena and Ivah. It is implied that they had recently
been united under one king : we must seek them therefore in the same
neighborhood. As Ivah, like Sepharvaim, was upon the Euphrates
above Babylon, and as the towns in this tract have always been
clustered along the banks of the streams, we must look for Hena
(Heb. 7:n ; LXX. 'Ar<5) in a similar position. Now on the Euphrates
in this region is found in the Inscriptions an important town, Anah or
Anat ; which has always borne nearly the same name, and which is
even now known as Anah. Hena is thus identified almost to a cer-
tainty.
2. Religious, (a) The worship of Baal and Astarte by the Phoeni-
cians, almost to the exclusion of other gods, is strongly suggested by
the whole history from Judges to Ahaz. (See Jud. x. G ; 1 Kings xi.
• Realirilrterbuch, vol. i. p. 118.
29*
342 NOTES. Lect. IV.
5 ; xvi. 31, &c.) A marked confirmation of this exclusive, or nearly
exclusive, worship is found in the names of the Tyrian kings and judges,
which, like those of the Assyrian and Babylonian monarehs, compre-
hend almost always a divine element. Their names, so far as they
are known, run as follows : Abibaal, Hiram, iia/eazar, Abdastartus,
Astartus, Aserymus, Pheles, Eth&aa/, Balezar, Matgen, Pygmalion,
Eluloeus, ILth-baal II., Baal, Eeni&aa/, Chelbes, Abbarus, Mytgon,
Iterator, Geraitartus, Meria/, and Hiram H. Farther confirmation is
derivable from the few authentic notices of the religion which remain,
as from the fragments of Dius and Menander, where these two are the
only deities mentioned.1 (&) It has been already noticed that Xergal,
who is said to have been worshipped by the Cuthites in Samaria,
(2 Kings xvii. 30,) is found in the inscriptions to have been the special
god of Cutha. (c) So too it appears from them that the city of Sephar-
vaim was under the special protection of two deities, conjointly wor-
shipped, Shamas or San, the Sun, and his wife Gula or Anunit. Here
we have evidently the Adrammelech and Anammelech of 2 Kings xvii.
31; Adrammelech, "the Fire-king," and Anammelech, "Queen Anu-
nit " — the latter name being assimilated to the former with insolent
carelessness. (See Sir H. Rawlinson in the author's Herodotus, vol. i.
pp. 611, 612.) (d) If a satisfactory explanation cannot be given from
Babylonian mythology of Succoth-Benoth, Nibhaz, and Tartak, (2 Kings
xvii. 30, 31,) it is probably because they are not really the names of
Babylonian gods. The first seems to mean "tents of daughters," or
small tabernacles in which were contained images of female deities.
The second and third are most likely scornful modifications of certain
Babylonian names, which I should suspect to have been Nebo and Tir
■ — the latter a title by which Nebo was sometimes called. Or they may
possibly be gods which have yet to be discovered.
3. Manners, customs, &c. (a) The whole character of the Assyrian
wars, as represented in Kings and Chronicles, is in close accordance
with what we gather from the Inscriptions. The numerical force of
their armies, the direction of them by the monarch in person, the mul-
titude of their chariots, (2 Kings xix. 23,) their abundant cavalry,
1 Mr. Kenrick gives the Phoenicians three " national deities," Astarte, Bolus, Her-
cules. (Phanicia, p. 345.) But Movers has shown satisfactorily that Melcarth (the
Tyrian Hercules) was only another name for Baal.
Lect. IV. N 0 T K s . 843
(2 Kings xviii. 23,) their preference of the bow as a weapon,1 (ib. xix.
32,) the manner of their sieges by "easting banks" against the walls
of ciries,2 (ibid.,) and again the religious enthusiasm with which the
wars were carried on, the antagonism maintained between the Assyrian
gods and those of the invaded countries, (2 Kings xviii. 33, 34, &e.,)
and the practice of carrying off as plunder, and therefore probably of
melting down, the idols of the various nations, (2 Kings xix. 18,) are
all distinctly marked in the sacred history, and might be abundantly
illustrated from the monuments.3 (6) No less harmonious with Scrip-
ture is the representation which the monuments give of the Assyrian
political system. Something has been already said on this point.
(Lecture III., pp. 94-96.) The empire is one made up of a number
of petty kingdoms. ("Are not my princes altogether kings?" Is. x.
8.) Absorption of the conquered districts is not aimed at, but only
the extension of suzerainty, and government through native tributary
monarchs. Rebellion is promptly punished, and increased tribute is
its natural consequence. (2 Kings xviii. 14.) Finally, transplantation
is made use of when other means fail — sometimes on a larger, some-
times on a smaller scale, as the occasion requires.4 (c) The continued
power of the Ilittites, the number of their princes, and their strength
in chariots, which appears from 1 Kings x. 29, and again remarkably
from 2 Kings vii. 6, is strikingly confirmed by the Black Obelisk in-
scription, where we find twelve kings of the Khatti, allied with Syria
and Hamath, and fighting against the Assyrians with a force whose
chief strength seems to be chariots. Many similar points of minute
agreement might be adduced, but this note has, I fear, already extended
itself beyond the patience of most readers.
1 Thin appears sufficiently on the sculptures ; but it is even more strikingly evinced
in the language of the Inscriptions where the phrase which has to he translated,
''killed in battle," is constantly "'killed villi arrows." (See Dubl. Univ. Mag., 'So.
250, p. 42 J.)
* Seo Layard's Nineveh and Babylon, p. 140. Describing a bass-relief of Sennacherib's,
he says, " Against the fortifications had been thrown up at many as ten banks or mound.*,
compactly built of stones, bricks, earth, and branches of trees."
3 Set' the Great Inscription of Tigla'h Pileter /., pp. 23. SO, 38, Ac. : Dubl. Univ.
Mag., No. 250. pp. 423. 421: Fox Talbot's .fa;ri«n Tezts, pp. 1, 3, 4, 11,29, Ac. Com-
pare the author's JFrrodutus, Vol. i. p. 496.
4 See the author's Herodotus, vol. i. p. 493.
344 N O T E S . Lect. V.
LECTURE V.
Note I., p. 131.
So Ewald, Die Propheten des Alten Bundes, p. 560.
Note II., p. 131.
This is the theory of De Wette (Einleitung, \ 253, p. 342 ; vol. ii. p.
485, E. T.,) who bases the view on the passages of Ezekiel, where
Daniel is so highly commended. See below, Note X.
Note III., p. 131.
See the statements of Jerome concerning Porphyry in the preface to
his Comment, in Daniel. {Op., Arol. iii. pp. 1073, 1074.)
Note IV., p. 131.
It is urged by Ewald, (Propheten des Alt. Bundes, p. 565 ;) by Knobch
Prophetismus der IJebrder, ii. p. 401 ; by Strauss, (Leben Jesu, § 13 ; vol.
i. p. 56, E. T. ;) by De Wette, (Einleitung, § 255 b, p. 346 ;) and by Mr.
Theodore Parker, (Translation of De Wette, vol. ii. pp. 491 and 501.)
Hence Auberlen observes with justice, " The true argument of all others,
even in modern criticism, lies in the dogmatic doubt of the reality oi
miracles and predictions." (Prophecies of Daniel, Introduction, p. 10,
E. T.1) And Stuart, " Nearly all the arguments employed to disprove
the genuineness of Daniel, have their basis, more or less directly, in
the assumption, that miraculous events are impossibilities. Of course,
all the extraordinary occurrences related in the book of Daniel, and all
the graphic predictions of events, are, under the guidance of this as-
sumption, stricken from the list of probabilities, and even of possibili-
ties." (History and Defence of the Canon, § 4, pp. 110, 111.)
1 The Prophecies of Daniel and the Revelation of St. John viewed in their mutual
relation by C. A. Auberlen, Ph. D. Translated by the Rev. A. Saphir; Edinburgh,
Clark, 1866.
Lkct. V. NOTES. 345
Note V., p. 132.
Undoubtedly a peculiar character attaches to the prophecies of Daniel,
if they are compared with those of the other prophets. As Auberlen
observes, " his prophecies abound, above all the rest, in historical and
political detail." (Prophecies of Daniel, Introduction, p. 3, E. T.) But
to make this an objection to the authenticity of the Book is to assume,
either that we have an a priori knowledge of the nature and limits of
prophetical inspiration, or else that the law of such inspiration may be
gathered inductively from the other Scriptures, and then applied to
exclude the claims of a Book which has as much external sanction as
any other. But induction should be from all the instances ; and to
exclude the Book of Daniel by a law drawn from the rest of Scripture,
is first to assume that it is not Scripture, and then to prove that it is
not by means of that assumption. We are quite ignorant beforehand
to what extent it might please the Omniscient to communicate to any
of his creatures the knowledge of the future, which He possesses in
perfection ; and we have no means of determining the question but by
a careful study of all the facts which the Bible sets before us. "We
have no right to assume that there will be a uniform law, much less
that we shall be able to discover it. It is a principle of the Divine
Economy that " there is a time for every thing; " and the minute exact-
ness which characterizes some of the Prophecies of Daniel may have
been adapted to peculiar circumstances in the history of God's people
at some particular time,1 or have otherwise had some special object
which we cannot fathom.
Note VI., p. 132.
See Hengstenberg, Authentic des Daniel, p. 303, et seqq. . The alter-
nate use of Hebrew and Chaldee, which is the main linguistic peculiar-
ity of Daniel, is only natural at a time when both languages were cur-
rently spoken by the Jews ; and is only found in writings of about this
period, as in Ezra and Jeremiah. De Wctte's answer to this argument,
that both languages were known to the learned Jews at a later date,
1 Auberlen thinks that the minuteness, which Is chiefly in chs. viil. and xi., was
" necessary to prepare the people for the attacks ami artful machinations of Antiochus,"
and that "the glorious struggle, of the Maccabees, so far as it was a pure and righteuui
•ne, was a fruit of this book."' (pp. 04, 05.)
34(5 NOTES. Lect. V.
(Einleitung, § 255 c, p. 349,) is a specimen of the weak grounds on which
men are content to rest a foregone conclusion. The Hebrew Scriptures
were not written for the learned ; and no instances at all can be found
of the alternate use, (as distinct from the occurrence of Chaldaisms in
Hebrew, or Hebraisms in Chaldee,) excepting at the time of the Cap-
tivity.
Note VII., p. 132.
I have here followed the ordinary tradition, which rests on the au-
thority of Aristeas, Philo, Justin Martyr, Josephus, Epiphanius, &c.
It is questioned, however, if the Greek version of Daniel was made so
early. The book of Esther, according to the subscription to it, was net
translated till the fourth year of Ptolemy Philometor, B. C. 178 or 177,
a year or two before the accession of Epiphanes. And it is possible
that Daniel may have been translated still later. (See Home's Introduc-
tion, &c, vol. hi. p. 44.)
If the argument in the text is weakened by this admission, it may
receive the following important accessions : — 1. Passages of Daniel are
referred to by Jesus the son of Sirach, who must have written as early
as B. C. 180, or before the time of Epiphanes.1 (See Ecclus. xvii. 17,
compared with Dan. x. 20, 21 ; xii. 1 ; and Ecclus. x. 8, compared
with Dan. viii. 23, &c.) And, 2. Daniel's prophecies were shown to Al-
exander the Great in the year B. C. 332, and inclined him to treat the
Jews with special favor. (Joseph. Ant. Jiul. xi. 8.) The authority of
Josephus as to the main fact is not discredited by the circumstance, that
" the narrative of Josephus is not credible in all of its particulars." (De
Wette, Einleitung, \ 255 c, p. 349.)
Note VIII., p. 132.
The fundamental arguments in favor of this are, 1. The constant
representation of Daniel as the author from ch. vii. to the end ; and, 2.
Our Lord's words, "the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel
the Prophet," (Matt. xxiv. 15.) De Wette's arguments to the contrary,
besides those noted in the text, seem to be the following, — 1 . The mira-
cles are grotesque. 2. The apocalyptic tone is unlike that of the proph-
1 Even De Wette admits this. (Einleitung, \ 316, p. 419. " As we maintain at the
time of its composition., d. J. 180. v. Chr.")
Lect. V. notes. 347
ets belonging to this period. 3. Honorable mention is made of Daniel
himself in the book. 4. The language is corrupt, containing Persian
and Greek words. 5. The book is placed by the Jews among the
Hagiographa, and is therefore later than Malachi. 6. The angelology,
christology, and asceticism, mark a late date.1 Of these the first and last
may be simply denied ; the second is reduced to a shadow by De Wette
himself when he admits that the style of Ezekiel's and Zechariah's
prophesying is not very unlike ("nicht ganz fremd") Daniel's; the
third is an objection equally to the Pentateuch, the Gospel of St. John,
and some of St. Paul's Epistles, and rests merely upon an a priori con-
ception of how prophets should write, not borne out by experience ;
the fourth is not urged with any confidence, since it is allowed to be
" certainly possible that the Greek words may have been known to the
Babylonians at the time," (p. 347 ;) and if so, a fortiori, the Persian
words ; and the fifth argument, if it has any weight at all, would make
the Book of Job, and the Proverbs of Solomon, later than Malachi !
No wonder Professor Stuart should say — "Beyond the objections
founded on the assumption, that miracles and predictions are impossi-
bilities, there is little to convince an enlightened and well-balanced crit-
ical reader, that the book is supposititious." (History and Defence of
the Canon, p. 111.)
Note IX., p. 132.
See Dan. i. 3. Josephus says that Daniel was of the seed of Zedekiah.
Ant. Jud. x. 10.)
Note X., p. 132.
Ewald contends, that the Daniel commended by Ezekiel must have
been an ancient hero, like Job and Noah, (Propheten des Alt. Bundes, p.
660,) of whose wisdom and righteousness he knew from some sacred
book, with which both himself and the Jews of his time were well ac-
quainted. We are not told what has become of this book, or what
proof there is of its existence. Nor is it explained how this " ancient
hero " comes not to be mentioned in the historical Scriptures at all, or
by any writer earlier than Ezekiel. Doubtless if we had no means of
knowing to the contrary, we should naturally have supposed from
Ezek. xiv. 14 and 20, that Daniel was an ancient historical personage
I Einlettung. I 265, pp. 346, 347.
348 NOTES. Lect. V.
in Ezekiel's time, having lived between Noah and Job ; but as this is
impossible from the absolute silence of the historical books, Ezekiel's
mention of him at all can only be accounted for by the fact that he was
the great Jew of the day, and that his wisdom and virtue were known
to those for whom Ezekiel wrote, — the Chaldcean Jews,1 be it remem-
bered, (Ezek. i. 2, 3,) — not historically, or from any book, but from
personal acquaintance and common rumor. Why Daniel precedes Job,
is still a question. Perhaps, because Daniel and Noah are actual men,
while Job is not ? Or because the two former are viewed as Jews, Job
as a Gentile ?
Note XL, p. 132.
Einleitung, § 255 a, p. 344 ; " full of improbabilities, and even of his-
torical errors, such as no other prophetical book of the Old Testament
contains." Compare p. 349.
Note NIL, p. 132.
See above, Note LXXXVI. on Lecture IV. Sargon seems to have
been the first king who introduced this practice on a large scale. He
was followed by Sennacherib, (Fox Talbot's Assyrian Texts, pp. 3, 4, 7,
&c. ;) and Esarhaddon, (ibid. pp. 11 and 17.)
Note XIII., p. 132.
See Herod, iv. 181 ; v. 15; vi. 20 and 119; Ctes. Pers., § 9; Arrian.
Exp. Alex., iii. 48 ; and compare the author's Herodotus, vol. ii. pp. 563,
564. The practice continues to modern times. (See Chardin's Voyage
en Perse, vol. iii. p. 292 ; and Ferrier's Caravan Journeys, p. 395.)
Note XIV., p. 133.
Lee Lecture IV., Note LXXXIII.
1 It has been usual to regard Ezekiel as writing in Mesopotamia, the Chebar being
supposed to be the Khabour. But we have no right to assume the identity of the
words "!33 and "113H. The Chebar is probably the N'ahr Malcha, or Royal Canal,
the great /-03'\ cutting of Nebuchadnezzar. See the article on Chebar iu Smith's
(forthcoming) Biblical Dictionary.
Lect. V. NOTES. 349
Note XV., p. 133.
See the fragments of these writers in the Fragmenta Hist. Gr., vol. ii
pp. 506, 507 ; and vol. iv. p. 284. Compare with the expression 14
Daniel, •' Is not this great Babylon which I have built r " (Dan, iv.
30,) the statement of Berosus. Nebuchadnezzar . . . repaired the city
which had existed from the first, and added another to it ; and in order
that besiegers might not again be able, by turning aside the course of
the river, to get possession of the city, he built three courses of walls
around the inner city, and as many around the outer. Both statements
are confirmed by the fact that nine tenths of the inscribed bricks from
the site of Babylon are stamped with Nebuchadnezzar's name.
Note XVI., p. 133.
Ap. Euseb. Prepp. Ev. ix. 41, pp. 441, 442. " Afterwards, as is said by
the Chaldaeans, he went up into his palace, where he was seized by some
divine influence, and littered these words : ' O Babylonians, I Nebu-
chadnezzar announce to you this future calamity. . . . There shall come
a Persian mule, using our divinities as allies : he shall bring us into
bondage : leagued with him shall be the Mode, the boast of Assyria.'
Having uttered these predictions, he immediately disappeared."
Note XVII., p. 133.
Beros. ap. Joseph. Contr. Apionem, i. 20 ; Polyhist. ap. Euseb. Chron-
ica, i. 5, § 3, p. 21 ; Ptol. Mag. Syntax., v. 1 1.
Note XVIII., p. 134.
These tablets are commonly orders on the imperial treasury, dated in
the current year of the reigning monarch, like modern Acts of Parlia-
ment. They give a minimum for the length of each monarch's reign.
but of course by the nature of the case they cannot furnish a maximum.
Still, where they are abundant, as in Nebuchadnezzar's case, they raise
a strong probability that the highest number found was not much ex-
ceeded.
30
350 NOTES. Lect. V.
Note XIX.. p. 134.
The eighth year of Nebuchadnezzar being the first of Jehoiachin's
captivity, (2 Kings xxiv. 12,) we must place the beginning of Nebuchad-
nezzar's reign seven years earlier ; and the 37th of the captivity being
the first of Evil-Merodach, (Ibid. xxv. 27,) the 36th would be Nebu-
chadnezzar's last complete year. Now 36 -f- 7 = 43.
Note XX., p. 134.
So De Wette, (Einleitung, § 255 a ; p. 345 c.,) who quotes von Len-
gerke, Hitzig, and others, as agreeing with him. Ewald also compares
Daniel to Judith, on account of its confusing together various times
and countries. (Prqpheten des Alt. Bundes, p. 562.)
Note XXI., p. 134.
De "Wette gives the first place among his " historical inaccuracies,"
to the " erroneous representations concerning the wise men of Baby-
lon," and the "inexplicable admission of Daniel among the same; " the
second to the "mention of the Persian arrangement of Satrapies under
Nebuchadnezzar and Darius the Mede." {Einleitung, 1. s. c.)
Note XXII., p. 134.
The word which we translate "magicians" in Dan. i. 20, ii. 2, 10,
&c, is chartummim, or khartummim, (fi^Tap")!"!,) which is derived from
cheret, or kheret, (w~!>"I,) " a graving-tool." (See Buxtorf's Lexicon He-
braicum'et Chaldaicum, ad voc.) Babylonian documents are sometimes
written on clay, where the character has been impressed, before the clay
was baked, by a tool with a triangular point ; but they are also fre-
quently on stone — large pebbles from the Euphrates's bed — in which
case they have been engraved with a fine chisel.
Note XXIDI., p. 135.
The Chaldseans in Kings, Chronicles, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and even
Ezekiel, are simply the inhabitants of Chaldaea, which is the name ap-
plied to the whole country whereof Babylon is the capital. But in
Lect. V. NOTES. 351
Daniel the Chaldaeans are a special set of persons at Babylon, having a
"learning" and a " tongue " of their own, (Dan. i. 4,) and classed with
the magicians, astrologers, &c. Stvabo notes both senses of the term,
(xvi. i. § 6 ;) and Berosus seems to use the narrower and less common
one, when he speaks of Nebuchadnezzar as finding on his arrival at
Babylon after his father's death, that affairs were being conducted by
the Chaldaeans, and that their chief was keeping the throne vacant for
him, (" assuming the administration of affairs, which had been under the
management of the Chaldaeans, and the kingdom which had been kept
for him by the most eminent one among them, he succeeded," &c, Fr.
14,) while elsewhere (as in Frs. 1, § 1 ; 5, 6, 11, &c.) he employs the
generic and more usual sense. Compare Herod, i. 181, and vii. 63.
The inscriptions show that the Chaldaeans (Kaldi) belonged to the
primitive Scythic inhabitants, and that the old astronomical and other
learning of the Babylonians continued to be in this language during the
later Semitic times. (See Sir H. Rawlinson's note in the author's
Herodotu*, vol. i. p. 319, note 8.)
Note XXIV., p. 135.
Compare an article on the Chaldaeans in Smith's (forthcoming) Bibli-
cal Dictionary.
Note XXV., p. 135.
See above, Lecture IV., Note LXXXI.
Note XXVI., p. 136.
I do not intend to assert that this urn* the case. We have no satis-
factory proof that the Babylonians ever approached more nearly to the
Satrapial system than by the appointment in exceptional cases of a
native "governor" in lieu of an hereditary king, as in the case of
Gedaliah. The maintenance of Jehoiakim, Jehoiaehin, and Zedekiah
on the throne of Judaea seems to indicate the general character of their
government. It may even be suspected that Berosus's " Satrap of
Egypt and Syria" was really Pharaoh-Necho, whose position Baby-
lonian vanity represented in that light. The LXX. translate Daniel's
" princes " (&*2E"Hrni<) by oarpanai, but this cannot be regarded as
an argument of much weight. Babylonian historical inscriptions arc so
352 NOTES. Lect. V.
scanty that we can derive little assistance from them towards determin-
ing the question.
Note XXVII., p. 136.
The extent of the kingdom, (Dan. iv. 22,) the absolute power of the
king, (ib. ii. 5, 13, 48 ; iii. 29, &c.,) the influence of the Chaldseans,
(ib. ii. 2 ; iii. 8, &c.,) the idolatrous character of the religion, the use of
images of gold, (ib. iii. 1 ; compare Herod, i. 183,) are borne out by
profane writers, and (so far as their testimony can be brought to bear)
by the monuments. The building (rebuilding) of Babylon (Dan. iv.
30) by Nebuchadnezzar, is confirmed in every way. (See above,
Note XV.) Again, there is a curious notice in Daniel of a certain
peculiarity which may be remarked in Nebuchadnezzar's religion, viz.,
his special devotion to a particular god. Nebuchadnezzar throughout
his inscriptions presents himself to us as a devotee of Merodach.
" Merodach, his lord," is the chief — almost the sole object of his wor-
ship and praise — invocations, prayers, and thanksgivings are addressed
to him, and him only. (See Sir II. Rawlinson's remarks in the author's
Herodotus, vol. i. pp. 628, 629, and compare the Inscription of Nebu-
chadnezzar in the same work, vol. ii. pp. 585-587.) This peculiarity is
casually and incidentally noticed by Daniel, when he says that Nebu-
chadnezzar carried the sacred vessels of the temple " into the land of
Shinar, to the house of his god; and brought the vessels into the
treasure-house of his god." (i. 2.)
Note XXVITL, p. 136.
See his Beitrdge zur Einleitung in das Alt. Test., p. 105. Hengsten-
berg has on his side the authority of Eusebius, who so understood the
passage, (Chronica, i. 10, p. 21 ;) but Eusebius's arguments appear to
me very weak.
Note XXIX, p. 137.
See Sir II. Rawlinson's translation of the Standard Inscription in
the author's Herodotus, vol. ii. pp. 585-587. The passage to which
reference is made in the text runs as follows — " Four years (?) . . .
the seat of my kingdom in the city . . . which . . . did not rejoice my
heart. In all my dominions I did not build a high place of power ; the
precious treasures of my kingdom I did not lay up. In Babylon,
Lect. V. notes. 353
buildings for myself and for the honor of my kingdom I did not lay
out. In the worship of Merodach my lord, the joy of my heart, (?) in
Babylon the city of his sovereignty and the seat of my empire, I did
not sing his praises, (?) and I did not furnish his altars (with victims),
nor did I clear out the canals." Other negative clauses follow. From
this literal rendering of the passage, only one or two words of which
are at all doubtful, the reader may judge for himself to what event in
his life it is likely that the monarch alludes. He should perhaps bear
in mind that the whole range of cuneiform literature presents no simi-
lar instance of a king putting on record his own inaction.
Note XXX., p. 137.
Berosus ap. Joseph. Contr. Ap., i. 20 : "Now Nebuchadnezzar, just
as he began to build the aforesaid wall, fell sick, and died, after having
reigned 43 years. His son, Evil-Merodach, became master of the
kingdom." Compare Abyden. ap. Euseb. Chron., i. 10, p. 28 ; and
Polyhist. ap. eund. i. 5, § 3 ; p. 21.
Note XXXI., p. 137.
Berosus continues after the passage above quoted — "This man, hav-
ing used his authority in a lawless and dissolute manner, was slain by
conspirators."
Note XXXII., p. 138.
The Babylonian name is read as Nergal-shar-uzitr ; the Hebrew form
Cl2»^E~ba~i:) is exactly expressed by our authorized version, which
gives Nergal-shar-ezer. The Greek renderings are far inferior to the
Hebrew. Berosus, as reported by Josephus, (1. s. c.,) called the king
Neriglissoor ; Polyhistor called him Neglissar, (Euseb. Chron., i. 5 ;
p. 21 ;) Abydenus, Niglissar, (Armen. Euseb.,) or Neriglissar, (Euseb.
Prop. Ev., ix. 41 ;) Ptolemy, {Mag. Si/nt., 1. s. c.,) Nerigassolassar.
Note XXXHL, p. 138.
The Babylonian vocalization somewhat modifies the word, which is
read—as in the Inscriptions as Rubu-emga. (See Sir H. Rawlinson's
note in the author's Herodotus, vol. i. p. 518, note3.) With this the
30*
354 NOTES. Lect. V.
Hebrew Rub-mag (W^) is identical in all its consonants ; and there
can be no reasonable doubt that it is the same term. Gesenius has
translated the title as " Chief of the Magi," (Lexicon, p. 388, E. T. ;)
but the Babylonian word which represents the Persian Magi in the
Behistun Inscription bears no resemblance at all to the emga of this
title. Sir H. Rawlinson believes the signification to be " Chief Priest,"
but holds that there is no reference in it to Magism.
Note XXXIV., p. 138.
Abydenus has the form Nabannidochus, (ap. Euseb. Chron. i. 10,
p. 28,) with which may be -compared the Naboandelus (probably to be
read Naboandcchus,) of Josephus, {Ant. Jud. x. 11.) Berosus wrote
Nabonnedus (Joseph. Contr. Ap. i. 20 ;) Herodotus, Labynetus, (i. 77,
188.) The actual name seems to have been Kabu-nahit in Semitic,
Nabu-induk in the Cushite Babylonian.
Note XXXV. p. 139.
So Josephus, (Ant. Jud. 1. s. c. ;) Perizonius, (Orig. Babylon, p. 359 ;)
Heeren, Manual of Ancient History, p. 28, E. T. ; Des Vignoles,
(Euires, vol. ii. p. 510, et seqq. ; Clinton, F. H. vol. ii. pp. 369-371 ;
the author of L Art de Verifier les Dates, vol. ii. p. 69 ; Winer, Real-
tcOrterbuch ad voe. Belshazzar ; Kitto, Biblical Cyclopedia ad voc.
eand. ; &c.
Note XXXVI., p. 139.
It has been almost universally concluded, by those who have regarded
the book of Daniel as authentic, that the Belshazzar of that book must
be identical with one or other of the native monarchs known from
Berosus and Abydenus to have occupied the throne between Nebuchad-
nezzar and Cyrus. Each monarch has been preferred in his turn.
Conringius, Bouhier, Larcher, Marsham, Hupfcld, Havernick, and
others, have identified Belshazzar with Evil-Merodach ; Eusebius,
Syncellus, and Hales, with Neriglissar ; Jackson and Gatterer, with
Laborosoarchod ; but the bulk of commentators and historians with
Nabonadius. (See the last note.) In every case there was the .same
difficulty in explaining the diversity of name, as well as in reconciling
Lect. V. NOTES. 355
the historical facts recorded of the monarch preferred with what Scrip-
ture tells us of Belshazzar. On the whole, perhaps the hypothesis of
Conringius was the least objectionable.
Note XXXVU., p. 139.
So De Wette, Einleitung, § 255 a, p. 345.
Note XXXVIII., p. 139.
This view was maintained by Sir Isaac Newton. (See his Chronol-
ogy, pp. 323-330.)
Note XXXIX., p. 139.
Sir H. Rawlinson made this important discovery in the year 1854,
from documents obtained at Mugheir, the ancient Ur. (See Mr. Lof-
tus's Chaldma and Susiana, ch. xii. pp. 132, 133 ; and compare the
author's Herodotus, vol. i. p. 525.)
Note XL., p. 140.
Jehu, though ordinarily called " the son of Nimshi," was really his
grandson, (2 Kings ix. 2.) Merodach-Baladan, " the son of Baladan,"
according to Isaiah, (xxxix. 1,) is in the Inscriptions the son of Yaghia.
Baladan was probably one of his more remote ancestors. In Matt. i. 1,
our Blessed Lord is called " the Son of David, (who was) the son of
Abraham."
Note XLL, p. 140.
Such marriages formed a part of the state policy of the time, and
were sought with the utmost avidity. When Zedekiah's daughters
were committed to Gedaliah, (Jcrem. xli. 10,) it was undoubtedly that
he might marry them, in order (as Mr. F. Newman justly observes ')
*« to establish for his descendants an hereditary claim on Jewish allegi-
ance." So Amasis married a daughter of Psammctik III. ; * and
Atossa was taken to wife both by the Pscudo-Smerdis and by Darius,
the son of Hystaspes, (Herod, iii. 68 and 88.) On the same giounds
1 Hebrew Monarchy, p. 361.
' Wilkinson in the author's Herodotus, vol. ii. p. 387.
356 NOTES. Lect. V.
Herod the Great married Mariamne. (See Joseph. De Bell. Jud. i. 12,
§ 3.) An additional reason for suspecting that such a marriage as that
suggested in the text was actually contracted by Nabonadius, is to be
found in the fact, which may be regarded as certain, that he adopted
the name of Nebuchadnezzar among his own family names. That he
had a son so called, is proved by the rise of two pretenders in the reign
of Darius, who each proclaimed himself to be " Nebuchadnezzar, the
son of Nabonadius." {Behistun Inscr. Col. i. Par. 16 ; and Col. iii.
Par. 13.)
Note XLII., p. 140.
Syncellus, Chronograph, p. 438, B ; Apoc. Dan. xiii. ad fin. ; Jack-
son, Chronolog. Antiq. vol. i. p. 416; Marsham, Can. Chron. p. 604, et
6eqq. ; Winer, Realwfirterbuch ad voc. Darius ; &c.
Note XLHL, p. 140.
This was the view of Josephus, {Ant. Jud. x. 11, § 4 ;) and from him
it has been adopted very generally. See Prideaux's Connection, &c,
vol. i. p. 95 ; Hales's Analysis of Chronology, vol. ii. p. 508 ; Offerhaus,
Spicileg. Hist. Chron., p. 265 ; Bertholdt, Exc. ziun Daniel, p. 483 ; Heng-
stenberg, Authentic des Daniel, § 48 ; Von Lcngerke, Das Buch Daniel,
§ 92 ; Hooper's Palmoni, pp. 278-283 ; and Kitto's Biblical Cyclopedia,
ad voc. Darius. But Xenophon is the sole authority for the existence
of this personage ; and Herodotus may be quoted against his exist-
ence, since he positively declares that Astyages " had no male off-
spring." (Herod, i. 109.)
Note XLIV., p. 140.
By Larcher, (Hirodote, vol. vii. p. 175,) Conringius, Adversar. Chron.
c. 13,) and Bouhier, {Dissertations sur Hirodote, ch. iii. p. 29.)
Note XLY., p. 140.
Syncellus regarded Darius the Mede as at once identical with Astya-
ges and Nabonadius. (Chronograph, pp. 437, 438.)
Lect. V. NOTES. 357
Note XL VI., p. 140.
That Cyrus placed Medes in situations of high trust, is evident from
Herodotus, (i. 156 and 162.) He may therefore very possibly have
established Astyages, his grandfather (?), as vice-king of Babylon, where
the latter may have been known to the Jews as Darius the Mede. The
diversity of name is no real objection here ; for Astyages (Asdahages =
Aj-dahak) is not a name, but (like Pharaoh) a title. And if it be said
that Darius the Mede was the son of Ahasuerus or Xerxes, (Dan. ix. 1,)
while Astyages was the son of Cyaxares, it may be answered that, ac-
cording to one explanation, Cyaxares is equivalent to Kei-Axares, or
King Xerxes. There is still an objection in the age of Darius Medus,
who was only 62 in E. C. 538, (Dan. v. 31,) whereas Astyages (it would
seem) must have been 75 at that time. (See the author's Herodotus,
vol. i. pp. 417, 418.) But as the numbers depend here on the single
authority of Herodotus, whose knowledge of Median history was not
very great, perhaps they are not greatly entitled to consideration.
If, however, it be thought that, for this or any other reason, Darius
Medus cannot be Astyages, we may regard him as a Median noble, in-
trusted by Cyrus with the government of Babylon. Scripture makes
it plain that his true position was that of a subordinate king, holding
his crown of a superior. Darius the Mede, we are told, (Dan. v. 30,)
"took the kingdom" — SCttSb?? b?P — that is, "accepit regnum."
(Buxtorf. ad voc. JupO "received the kingdom at the hand of an-
other." And again we read in another place, (Dan. ix. 1,) that he
"was made king over the realm of the Chaldseans ; " where the word
used is "ilbfcn, the Hophil of Tjb^, the Iliphal of which is used when
David appoints Solomon king, and which thus means distinctly, " was
appointed king by another."
Note XLVII., p. 141.
Herod, i. 191 ; Xen. Instit. Cyr. vii. 5, § 15.
Note XLVHI., p. 141.
See the author's Herodotus, vol. i. pp. 401-403.
358 NOTES. Lect. V.
Note XLIX., p. 141.
Even the tyrant Cambyses, when he wished to marry his sister, be-
cause he was intending to do an unusual thing, called together the
royal judges, and asked them ij there was any law which allowed one
who wished, to marry his sister. (Herod, iii. 31.) And Xerxes, when
he had been entrapped, like Herod Antipas, into making a rash prom-
ise, feels compelled to keep it, being restrained by the law, namely, that
it is not allowable that one who makes a request at the time of a royal
feast should be denied. (Ibid. ix. 111.)
Note L., p. 141.
See De Wette, Einleitung, § 255 a, p. 345. Compare Mr. Parker's
Translation, (vol. ii. p. 490,) where it is suggested that the author has
copied and exaggerated what Herodotus ascribes to Darius Hystaspis.
Note LI., p. 141.
See Clinton's Fasti Hellenici, vol. ii. p. 372 : "The one hundred and
twenty princes appointed by Darius (Dan. vi. 1) correspond to the one
hundred and twenty-seven provinces of Ahasuerus, (Esth. i. 1,) and to
the enlarged extent of the empire."
Note LIL, p. 142.
Nebuchadnezzar's first conquest of Judaea in the reigr. of Jehoiakim
— which was the occasion on which Daniel became a captive (Dan. i. 1)
— fell, as appears from the fragment of Berosus quoted in Note LXXXI.
to Lecture IV., in his father's last year, which, according to Ptolemy's
Canon, was B. C. G05. Nebuchadnezzar then reigned himself 43 years,
Evil-Merodach, his son, reigned two years, Neriglissar three years and
some months, Laborosoarchod three quarters of a year, Nabonadius 17
years, and Darius the Mede one year. Consequently Daniel's prayer
" in the first year of Darius the Mede" (Dan. ix. 1-3) fell into the year
B. C. 538, or C8 years after the first conquest of Judaea by Nebuchad-
nezzar in B. C. G05.
Lect. V. NOTES. 359
Note LIIL, p. 142.
See Clinton's Fasti Hellenici, vol. ii. pp. 366-368 ; and Mr. Hooper's
Palmoni, p. 390.
Note LIV., p. 143.
In Daniel's prophecy of the weeks, we have (I think) the term of
seventy years used first (Dan. ix. 24) as a round number, and after-
wards explained — accuracy being of especial importance in this proph-
ecy— as 68i weeks, (ibid. 25-27.) In Ezekiel, the forty years' desola-
tion of Egypt (Ez. xxix. 11-13) can scarcely be understood to extend
really to the full term. Prophecy is, as Bacon says, " a kind of histo-
riography;" but it does not ordinarily affect the minuteness and strict
accuracy of human history.
Note LV., p. 143.
Einleitung, § 196, 197, pp. 260-265. It is obvious that the insertion
of documents, such as the proclamation of Cyrus, (Ez. i. 24,) the list of
those who came up with Zorubbabcl, (ib. ii. 3-67 ; Neh. viii. 7-69 ;)
the letters of the Samaritans, the Jews, the Persian kings, (ib. iv. 11-22,
&c.,) and the like, does not in the slightest degree affect the unity and
integrity of the works. But De Wette does not appear to see this,
(§ 196 a, p. 260.)
Note LVI., p. 143.
The number of generations from Joshua to Jaddua, which is six,
(Neh. xii. 10-12,) should cover a space of about 200 years. This
would bring Jaddua to the latter half of the fourth century B. C. Ex-
actly at this time there lived the well-known high priest Jaddua,
who received Alexander at Jerusalem, and showed him the prophecies
of Daniel. (Joseph. Ant. Jud. xi. 8.) At this time too there was a
Darius (Darius Codomannus) upon the Persian throne, as noted in
verse 22. The Jaddua of Nehemiah must therefore be regarded as the
contemporary of Alexander.
Havernick allows this, but still thinks that Nehemiah may have writ-
ten the whole book, since lie may have lived to the time of Jaddua !
But as Nehemiah was old enough to be sent on an important mission in
360 NOTES. Lect. Y,
B. C. 445, (Neb. ii. 1-8,) he would have been considerably above a
hundred before Jaddua can have been priest, and 130 or 140 before the
accession of Codomannus.
Note LVII., p. 144.
Eight Dukes or Kings are mentioned in Genesis xxxvi. 31-39, as
having reigned over Edom, "before there reigned any king in Israel."
This last clause must have been written after the time of Saul, the first
Israelite king ; and it has commonly been regarded as an interpolation.
(Graves's Lectures on the Pentateuch, vol. i. p. 346 ; Home, Introduc-
tion, vol. i. p. 64 ; &c.) But the real interpolation seems to be from
verse 31 to verse 39 inclusive. These kings, whose reigns are likely to
have covered a space of 200 years, must come down later than Moses,
and probably reach nearly to the time of Saul. The whole passage
seems to have been transferred from 1 Chr. i. 43-50.
In 1 Chronicles iii. 17-24, the genealogy of the descendants of
Jechoniah is carried on for nine generations, (Jcchoniah, Pedaiah,
Zerubbabel, Hananiah, Shekaniah, Shemaiah, Neariah, Elioenai, and
Hodaiah,) who must have occupied a period not much short of three
centuries. As Jechoniah came to the throne in B. C. 597, this portion
of Chronicles can scarcely have been written before B. C. 300. See De
Wette, Einleitung, § 189, p. 242, whose argument here appears to be
sound. He remarks, that the occurrence of a Shemaiah, the son of
Shekaniah, among the contemporaries of Nehemiah, (Neh. iii. 29,) con-
firms the calculation, and indicates that the genealogy is consecutive.
Note LVIIL, p. 144.
De Wette in one place admits that Ezra may have written a chapter
(ch. x.) in which the third person is used, but pronounces against his
having written the opening passage of ch. vii., (verses 1-10,) chiefly on
this ground. (Einleitung, § 196 a, p. 261.) Bertholdt and Zunz go
farther, and deny that Ezra can have written ch. x. Professor Stuart
concludes, chiefly on account of the alternation of persons, that "some
one of Ezra's friends, probably of the prophetic order, compiled the
book from various documents," among which were some written by
Ezra himself. (Defence of the Old Testament Canon, § 6, p. 148.)
LEOT. V. NOTES. 361
Note LIX., p. 144.
The third person is used through the first six chapters of Daniel, and
at the opening of the seventh. The first then takes its place to the end
of ch. ix. The third recurs in the first verse of ch. x. ; after which the
first is used uninterruptedly.
Note LX., p. 144.
Thucydides begins his history in the third person, (i. 1. ;) but changes
to the first after a few chapters, (i. 20-22.) Further on, in book iv.,
he resumes the third, chs. 104-106.) In book v. ch. 26, he begins in
the third, but runs on into the first, which he again uses in book viii.
ch. 97.
Note LXI., p. 144.
See Sir H. Rawlinson's Memoir on the Persian Cuneiform Inscriptions,
vol. i. pp. 279, 286, 287, 292, 293, 324, 327, &c.
Note LXII., p. 145.
The " first year of Cyrus," (Ez. i. 1,) by which we must understand
his first year in Babylon, was B. C. 538. The seventh year of Arta-
xerxes, when Ezra took the direction of affairs at Jerusalem, (ib. vii. 8,)
was B. C. 459 or 458. (See Clinton's Fasti Hellenici, vol. ii. p. 378.)
Note LXIII., p. 145.
See above, Lecture I. page 39, and compare p. 244, Note XL VIII.
Note LXIV., p. 145.
De Wette, Einleitunt), $ 19G a, p. 260; vol. ii. p. 324, Parker's
Translation ; Stuart, Defence of the. Canon, § 6, p. 148 ; Home, Intro-
duction, vol. v. pp. 64, 65.
Note LXV., p. 145.
See Lecture IV., p. 104.
31
3G2 NOTES. Lect. V.
Note LXVL, p. 145.
See Lecture I., pp. 34, 35 ; and p. 241, Note XXXIV.
Note LXVIL, p. 145.
" Die Erzahlung," says De Wette, " besteht aus einer Reihe geschicht-
licher Schweirigkeiten und Unwahrschein-lichkeiten, und enthalt mehrere
Verstosse gegen die Persischen Sitten." (Einleitung, § 198 a, p. 266.)
Note LXVUL, p. 145.
CEder, Freien Untersuchungen ilber d. Kanon des Alt. Test., p. 12, et
seqq. ; Michaelis, Orient. Bibliothek, vol. ii. p. 35, et seqq. ; Corrodi,
Beleucht. d. Geschicht. d. Jild. Kanona, vol. i. p. 66, et seqq. ; and
Bertholdt, Historisch-Kritische Einleitung in sttmmt. kano?i. und apokr.
Schriften d. Alt. und Neuen Testaments, p. 2425.
Note LXIX., p. 145.
See Carpzov's Introductio, xx. § 6, pp. 365, 366, where he shows that
the Jews place the Book of Esther on a par with the Pentateuch, and
above all the rest of Scripture.
Note LXX., p. 146.
Even De Wette allows it to be "incontestable (tmstreitig) that the
feast of Purini originated in Persia, and was occasioned by an event
similar to that related in Esther." (Einleitung, § 198 b, p. 267 ; vol. ii.
p. 339, Parker's Translation.) Stuart says very forcibly — "The fact
that the feast of Purim has come down to us from time almost im-
memorial, proves as certainly that the main events related in the Book
of Esther happened, as the declaration of independence and the cel-
ebration of the fourth of July prove that we (Americans) separated
from Great Britain, and became an independent nation." (History and
Defence of the O. T. Canon, § 21, p. 308.)
Note LXXL, p. 146.
It is remarkable that the name of God is not once mentioned in
Esther.. The only religious ideas introduced with any distinctness are
Lect. V. NOTES. 3G3
the efficacy of a national humiliation, (Esth. iv. 1-3,) the certainty that
punishment will overtake the wicked, (ib. verse 14,) and a feeling of
confidence that Israel will not be forsaken, (ibid.) Various reasons
have been given for this reticence, (Carpzov, Introduct. p. 369 ; Baum-
garten, De Fide Lib. Estheris, p. 58 ; Home, Introduction, vol. v.
p. 69, &c. ;) but they are conjectural, and so uncertain. One thing
only is clear, that if a Jew in later times had wished to palm upon his
countrymen, as an ancient and authentic narrative, a work which he
had composed himself, he would have taken care not to raise suspicion
against his work by such an omission. (See the remarks of Professor
Stuart, Defence of the Canon, p. 311.)
Note LXXIL, p. 1 16.
The grounds upon which the historical character of the Book of
Esther is questioned, are principally the following : — (1.) The Persian
king intended by Ahasuerus seems to be Xerxes. As Esther cannot be
identified with Amestris, the daughter of Otanes, who really ruled
Xerxes, the whole story of her being made queen, and of her great
power and influence, becomes impossible. (2.) Mordecai, having been
carried into captivity with Jechoniah, (in B. C. 588,) must have beeu
120 years old in Xerxes' twelfth year, (B. C. 474,) and Esther must
have been " a superannuated beauty." (3.) A Persian king would
never have invited his queen to a carousal. (4.) The honors paid to
Mordecai are excessive, (5.) The marriage with a Jewess is impossi-
ble, since the queens were taken exclusively from the families of the
seven conspirators. (6.) Esther's concealment of her Jewish descent,
and Hainan's ignorance of her relationship to Mordecai, are highly
improbable. (7.) The two murderous decrees, the long notice given,
and the tameness ascribed to both Jews and Persians, are incredible.
(8.) The massacre of more than 75,000 Persians by the Jews in a day,
without the loss (so far as appears) of a man, transcends belief, and is
an event of such a nature that " no amount of historical evidence would
render it credible." (See Mr. Parker's additions to De Wette, vol. ii.
pp. 340-345.) It is plain that none of these objections are of very
great weight. The first, second, and last are met and refuted in the
text. To the third it is enough to answer, in De Wette's own words,
lEinleilung, § 198 a, p. 267, that such an invitation is " possible on
364 NOTES. Lect. V.
account of the advancing corruption in Xerxes' time, and through the
folly of Xerxes himself." To the fourth we may reply, that the honors,
being analogous (as I)e Wette observes) to those paid to Joseph, are
thereby shown to be not greater than under some circumstances were
assigned to benefactors by Eastern monarchs. Nor would any one
acquainted with the East make the objection. The fifth objection is
met by observing, that when Cambyses wished to marry his sister,
which was as much against the law as marrying a Jewess, and con-
sulted the royal judges on the point, they told him, that there was no
law, so far as they knew, which allowed a man to marry his sister, but
that there was a law to this effect, that the Persian king might do what
he pleased. The sixth objection scarcely needs a reply, for its answer is
contained in the preceding objection. If it was contrary to Persian
law that the king should marry a Jewess, the fact of Esther's national-
ity would be sure to be studiously concealed. Finally, to the seventh
objection we may answer, that the murderous tenor of the decrees is
credible (as De Wette confesses) on account of the " base character and
disposition of Xerxes " — that the length of notice in the first instance
was the consequence of llaman's superstition, while the length of the
notice in the second instance followed necessarily upon the first — and
that no "tameness"is proved by the mere silence of Scripture as to
the number of Jews who fell in the struggle. "The author of the
book," as Professor Stuart observes, "is wholly intent upon the vic-
tory and the deliverance of the Jews. The result of the encounter he
relates, viz., the great loss and humiliation of Persian enemies. But
how much it cost to achieve this victory he does not relate. . . . We
can scarcely doubt that many Jews were killed or wounded." (History
and Defence of the U. T. Canon, § 21, pp. 309, 310.)
Note LXXIIL, p. 146.
Carpzov, Introductio, c. xx. § 4, pp. 360, 361.
Note LXXIV., p. 146.
Carpzov, § 6, pp. 368, 369. This was probably the ground of Lu-
ther's objections to the Canonicity of Esther. (De Servo Arbitrio, p.
118, et alibi.) It may also have caused the omission of Esther from
some lists of the canonical books in the fathers. (Athanas. Ep. Festal.,
Lect. V. notes. 365.
vol. i. p. 963 ; Synops. S. S., vol. ii. p. 128 ; Mclito ap. Euseb. Hist.
Eccl., iv. 26, &c. In recent times the objection has not been much
pressed.
Note LXXV., p. 148.
See Sir H. Rawlinson's Memoir on the Persian Cuneiform Inscriptions,
vol. i. pp. 197-200, 273, 274, 280, 286, 291, 299, 320, 324, 327, 330.
335, 338, and 342.
Note LXXVL, p. 148.
Ibid., pp. 285, 291, 319, 323, &c.
Note LXXVII., p. 148.
Ewald, Geschichtc d. Volkes Israel, vol. iii. part ii. p. 118; Winer,
RealwOrterbuch, ad voce. Ahasnerus and Artachschaschta ; Kitto, Bib~
Heal Cyclopaedia, vol. i. pp. 98 and 229, &c.
Note LXXVIIL, p. 148.
The Pseudo-Smerdis seems to have been known by several names.
According to Darius, {Behist. Inscr., col. i. par. 11,) his true name was
Gomates, (Gaumata,~) and he gave himself out for Smerdis, (Bardiya.)
According to Justin, (i. 9, { 9,) he was called Oropastes. As Arta-
xerxes means " Great King, Great Warrior," (see the author's Herodotus,
vol. iii. p. 552,) it may perhaps have been in common use as an epithet
of any Persian monarch. The application to Cambyses of the name
Ahasucrus (= Xerxes) is still more curious. Cambyses was known
as Kembath in Egypt, Kahujiya in Persia, Ka/j/?uo>;c in Greece. It is cer-
tainly very remarkable that the Jews should only know him as Xerxes.
Perhaps the theory of Mr. Howes {Pictorial Bible, ad loc.) with respect
to the Ahasucrus of Ezra iv. 6, viz., that Xerxes is intended, might be
adopted, without the adoption of his view that the Artaxerxes of the
next verse is Artaxerxes Longimanus. The author may go on in verse
6 to a fact subsequent to the time of Darius, whom he has mentioned
in verse 5, and then return in verse 7 to a time anterior to Darius.
But Mr. Howes's view of the Artaxerxes of verse 7 is incompatible
with the nexus of verses 23 and 24.
81*
366 NOTES. Lect. V.
Note LXXIX., p. 148.
The reigns are in each case four — Cyrus, Cambyses, Smerdis the
Mage, Darius Hystaspis, in profane history — Cyrus, Ahasuerus, Ar-
taxerxes, Darius, in Ezra. The harmony of the chronology is best
seen from Zechariah. That prophet implies that 70 years were not
completed from the destruction of Jerusalem in the second year of
Darius, (Zech. i. 7 and 12 ;) but that they were completed two years
later, in the fourth year of that prince, (ib. vii. 5.) He therefore, it
would seem, placed the completion in Darius's 3d or 4th year ; i. e.
in B. C. 519 or 518. Taking the latter date, and counting back by the
years of the Astronomical Canon, Ave find the first of the seventy
years to fall into B. C. 587. Now this appears by the same Canon to
have been the 18th of Nebuchadnezzar, which was the exact year of
the destruction of Jerusalem, (Jer. lii. 29.)1 Thus the two chronolo-
gies harmonize exactly.
Note LXXX., p. 149.
See the Behistun Inscript., col. i. par. 14.
Note LXXXL, p. 149.
Behist. Inscr., 1. s. c.
Note LXXXIL, p. 150.
The length of the Persian kings' reigns from the time of Darius
Hystaspis to that of Darius Nothus is fixed beyond the possibility of
doubt. Besides the Greek contemporary notices, which would form a
very fair basis for an exact chronology, we have the consentient testi-
mony on the point of Babylonian and Egyptian tradition, preserved to
us in the Astronomical Canon and in Manetho, as reported by Euse-
bius. From both it appears, that from the sixth year of Darius to the
seventh of Artaxerxes (Longimanus) was a period of 58 years.
1 In 2 Kings xxv. 8, we find the nineteenth year mentioned as that of the destruction,
instead of the eighteenth. I believe the cause of this difference to be, that some reck-
oned the reign of Nebuchadnezzar to hare commenced in B. C. 605 — the last year of
Nabopolassar — when Nebuchadnezzar came into Palestine as his father's represen-
tative, defeated N echo, and made Jehoiakim tributary. (See Lecture IV., Note LXXXI.)
Lect. V. NOTES. 367
Note LXXXIIL, p. 150.
The Persian word is read as Khshayarsha. Ahasuerus (SITI'fn^)
only differs from Khshayarsha by the adoption of the prosthetic ^,
which the Hebrews invariably placed before the Persian Iihsh, and the
substitution of ^ for i, a common dialectic variation. Gesenius,
(Thesaurus, vol. i. p. 75,) and Winer (ReahcOrterbuch, ad voc. Alias-
uerus) admit the identity of the words.
Note LXXXIV., p. 150.
The construction of Esther ii. 5, 6, is ambiguous. The word
"who," (">TK,) at the commencement of verse 6, may refer either to
Mordecai, the chief subject of the narrative, or to Kish, the last indi-
vidual mentioned in verse 5. If Kish was carried off by Nebuchad-
nezzar about B. C. 597, we should expect to find his great grandson
living in B. C. 485-465, four generations or 130 years afterwards.
Note LXXXV., p. 151.
See Herod, vii. 19, 20.
Note LXXXVL, p. 151.
Ibid. ix. 108.
Note LXXXVII., p. 151.
De Wette, Einleitung, § 198 a, p. 267 ; vol. ii. p. 337, Parker's
Translation.
Note LXXXVHI., p. 151.
Amestris was the daughter of Otanes, according to Herodotus,
(vii. 61 ;) according to Ctesias, of Onophas, or Anaphes, (&rc. Pers.,
§ 20.) It has been maintained, that she was Esther by Scaliger and
Jahn ; but, besides other objections, the character of Amestris makes
this very improbable. (See Herod, vii. 114; ix. 112; Ctes. %xc.
Pers., § 40-43.)
368 NOTES. Lect. V.
Note LXXXIX., p. 152.
Einleitung, § 199 ; p. 268. The following points of exact knowledge
are noted by De Wette's Translator (vol. ii. p. 346) more distinctly
than by De Wette himself: — 1. The unchangeableness of the royal
edicts ; 2. The prohibition of all approach to the king without permis-
sion ; 3. The manner of publishing decrees ; 4. The employment of
eunuchs in the seraglio ; 5. The absence of women at banquets ; 6. The
use of lots in divination ; and, 7. The sealing of decrees with the royal
signet. (Compare Herod, iii. 128.) To these may be added, 1. The
general character of the Persian palaces, (i. 5, 6 ; compare Loftus's
Chaldaa and Susiana, pp. 373-375 ;) 2. The system of posts, (viii. 10 ;
Herod, viii. 98 ;) 3. The law that each wife should go in to the king in
her turn, (ii. 12 ; Herod, iii. 69 ;) 4. The entry in " the book of records "
of the names and acts of royal benefactors, (ii. 23 ; vi. 1, 2 ; Herod, vii.
194 ; viii. 85, 90, &c. ;) and, 5. The principle that all such persons had
a right to a reward, (vi. 3 ; Herod, iii. 140 ; viii. 85 ; ix. 107.)
Note XC, p. 152.
Herod, iii. 79 ; Ctes. Exc. Pers., § 15.
Note XCL, p. 152.
Some writers have supposed that the Artaxerxes who befriended Ezra
was really Xerxes. So Josephus, (Ant. Jud. xi. 5 ;) who is followed by
J. D. Michaelis, (ad loc.,) Jahn, (Einleitung, vol. ii. p. 276,) and others.
But there seems to be no good reason for supposing him to have been a
different person from the Artaxerxes of Nehemiah, who is allowed on
all hands to be Longimanus. (See the article on Artaxerxes in
Kitto's Biblical Cyclopaedia, where the question is ably argued.) That
the Artaxerxes of Nehemiah is Longimanus, appears from the length
of his reign, (Neh. v. 14,) combined with the fact that he was contem-
porary with the grandsons or great-grandsons of those who were con-
temporary with Cyrus.1
1 The length of his reign, 32 years at the least, shows him to have been either Lon-
gimanus or Mnemon. But as Eliashib, the grandson of Jeshua, who went from Babylon
as high-priest in the first year of Cyrus, (B. C. 538.) is still alive in the 32d year of Nehe-
miah's Artaxerxes, (Neh. xiii. 6, 7.) it seems quite impossible that he can be Mnemon,
whose 3Sud year was B. C. 374. (See the author's Herodotus, vol. iv. pp. 2o0, 251, note 13.)
Lect. VL notes. 369
Note XCIL, p. 152.
Ctesias ap. Phot. BMiothec, pp. 115-124.
Note XCIII., p. 153.
On the non-historical character of the Book of Judith, see the
author's Herodotus, vol. i. p. 245, note 8.
LECTURE VI.
Note I., p. 155.
On the different views entertained as to the exact year of our Lord's
birth, see Olshausen's Biblischcr Commentar, vol. ii. pp. 619-622 ; vol.
iv. pp. 334-337, E. T.1 On the testimonies which determine the death
of Herod the Great to the year of Rome 750, see Clinton's Fasti Hel-
lenici, vol. iii. pp. 254 and 256. The Nativity thus falls at least as
early as A. U. C. 749, and the vision of Zachariah as early as A. U. C.
7 48. Some important astronomical reasons are assigned by Dean
Alfortl (Greek Testament, vol. i. p. 7) for believing that the actual year
of the Nativity was A. U. C. 747, or seven years before the Christian era.
The termination of the history of the Acts has also been variously
placed, in A. I). 58, 59, 61, 62, 63, 64, and 65. (See Olshausen, 1. s. c.)
I prefer the shorter reckoning on the grounds stated by Dr. Burton.
(Ecclesiastical History of the First Three Centuries, vol. i. pp. 277, 278.)
Note II., p. 157.
See Lecture II., p. 51.
Note III., p. 157.
Strauss, Leben Jesu, § 13 ; p. 56, E. T.
1 Commentary on the Gospels and the JlcU, by Hermann Olsliausen, P. P. Translated
by the Rev. IL B. Creak, A. M. Thinl edition. Ediuburgh, Clarke, 1807.
370 NOTES. Lect. VL
Note IV., p. 158.
Strauss, Lcben Jesit, 1. s. c.
Note V., p. 158.
Ibid. § 14 ; p. 84, E. T.
Note VI., p. 158.
Ibid. § 13 ; p. 56, E. T.
Note VII., p. 158.
Ibid. 1. s. c. ; pp. 62, 63, E. T.
Note VIII. , p. 159.
In the Syriac Version of Matthew, which is undoubtedly very old,
■net which some regard as of nearly equal authority with the Greek
uospel,1 the title runs, " The Gospel, the Preaching of Matthew." The
.rersian has, " The Gospel of Matthew ; " and the Arabic, " The Gos-
pel of Saint Matthew the Apostle, which he wrote in Hebrew by the in-
spiration of the Holy Spirit." (See Home's Introduction, vol. i. pp.
260, 261.;
Note IX., p. 159.
Herodotus, for example, is quoted but by one author (Ctesias) with-
in this period-, (B. C. 450-350.) In the next century (B. C. 350-250)
he is also quoted by one author, Aristotle ; in the century following
(B. C. 250-150) he is not quoted at all; in the fourth century, he for
the first time musters two witnesses, Scymnus Chius and Cicero ; 2 it it
not till the fifth century from the time of his writing his history, that
he is largely ana commonly cited by writers of the day. (See Mr.
Isaac Taylor's recent work on the Transmission of Ancient Books to
1 See Dr. Cureton's recent work, Remains of a very Ancient Rectnsion of the four
Gospels in Syriac, London, 1858.
2 I'osidonius should perhaps be added as a third witness belonging to this period, lie
quoted Herodotus, not very correctly, in his Treatise concerning the Ocean. (Fr. Hist.
Or., vol. iii. p. 279.)
LECT. VI. NOTES. 871
Modem Times, pp. 295-299.) The first distinct quotation ' of Thu-
cydides seems to be that by Hermippus, Fragm. Hist. Gr., vol. iii. p. 48,
Fr. 54,) who lived about B. C. 200, nearly two centuries after him.
Posidonius, writing about B. C. 75, first quotes Polybius, who wrote
about B. C. 150. Livy is, I believe, only quoted by Quinctilian among
writers of the century following him ; Tacitus, though mentioned as a
writer by the younger Pliny, is first cited — nearly a century after his
death — by Tertullian. If the reader will cast his eye over the " Testi-
monies," as they are called, prefixed to most old editions of the classics,
he will easily convince himself of the general truth of the assertion
upon which I have ventured in the text. The argument is one ad-
vanced, but without proof, by Paley. {Evidences, Part i. ch. 10 ; p.
104.)
Note X., p. 160.
Strauss, Leben Jesu, § 13 ; p. 56, E. T.
Note XI., p. 160.
See Lecture II., pp. 51-56; and Note VIIL on Lecture V., pp. 346,
347.
Note XII., p. 161.
See Home's Introduction, vol. v. p. 113; Kitto, Biblical Cyclopedia,
vol. ii. p. 582.
Note XIII., p. 161.
Sec Grabe, Spicilcgium Valium, vol. ii. p. 225 ; Pearson, Vindicu*
lgnatian(F, Pars i. c. 6 ; Burton, Ecclesiastical History, vol. ii. pp. 29,
30 ; and p. 152.
Note XIV., p. 161.
Constitutiones Apostoliccr, vi. 16; Ircnauis, adv. Uteres, i. 20; &c.
Note XV., p. 162.
Strauss, Lehen Jem, § 13 ; pp. 62, 63 ; E. T. Some writers have main-
tained that the expression, " according to Matthew," is exactly equiv-
alent to the genitive of Matthew. (See Home's Introduction, vol. v. p.
1 Crntippui alluded tu the fact that there were no speeches in the Inst Iwk. nnd tliiit
the work was left unfinished; hut he did not (so far as wo know) make any ((notation.
(Fr. Jlitt. Or., vol. ii p. 76.)
372 NOTES. Lect. VI.
260.) Olshausen observes more correctly, that the expression is am-
biguous. It may mark actual and complete authorship, as in the pas-
sage quoted from 2 Maccab. in the text ; or it may mean editorship, as
in the phrase " Homer according to Aristarchus." The unanimous testi-
mony of the early Christian writers proves that, as applied to the
Gospels, it was used in the former sense. If it be asked why the
simple genitive was not used, Olshausen replies, (rightly, as it seems to
me,) because the Gospel was known as "the Gospel of Jesus Christ."
Piety, therefore, made the use of such phrases as " Gospel of Matthew,"
"Gospel of Mark," "impossible." (Biblischer Commentar, Einleitung,
$ 4 ; p. 11, note.)
Note XVI., p. 162.
Faustus, the Manichacan, did indeed attempt to prove that the first
Gospel was not the work of St. Matthew ; but, 1 . He wrote late in the
fourth century ; and, 2. It seems that he could find no flaw in the ex-
ternal evidence, since he based his conclusion on an internal difficulty
— the use of the third instead of the first person by the supposed
writer, (Matt. ix. 9.) Eichhorn, having ventured on the assertion, that
" many ancient writers of the Church doubted the genuineness of many
parts of our Gospels," is only able to adduce in proof of it this instance
of Faustus. (See his Einleitung in das N. Test., vol. i. p. 145.)
Note XVII., p. 162.
Irenaeus says — " Now Matthew published his treatise on the Gos-
pel among the Hebrews, in their own dialect, while Peter and Paul
were preaching in Rome, and founding the church there. But after
their death, Mark, the disciple and interpreter of Peter, also wrote
down what Peter had preached, and delivered it to us. And Luke
also, the follower of Paul, wrote out in a book the Gospel which was
preached by that Apostle. Afterwards John, the disciple of the Lord,
who also leaned upon his breast. — he too published a Gospel, while he
was living at Ephesus in Asia." (Ackers. Hares., iii. 1.) And again, —
" These things are in accordance with the Gospels, in which Christ is
enshrined. For that of John relates his princely birth and glorious
lineage from the Father, saying, ' In the beginning was the Word,' &c.
And that of Luke, as being more of a sacerdotal character, begins with
the priest Zacharias, burning incense to God. . . . Matthew declare*
Lect. VI. NOTES. 373
his human birth, saying, ' The book of the generation of Jesus Christ,'
&c. Mark, as partaking more of the prophetic spirit, begins by say-
ing, 'The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ,' &c." (Ibid. hi. 11,
§11.)
Clement — "The digest of the contents of the Gospels should be pre-
ceded by an account of their origin. The Gospel of Mark had its origin
in this way : When Peter was preaching the word publicly in Rome,
and proclaiming the gospel under the inspiration of the Spirit, many
of those who heard him besought Mark, as having been his follower
for a long time, and as having in remembrance what he had heard, to
write out the things spoken by Peter. Having thus composed a Gospel,
he gave it to those who had requested it. When Peter knew this, he
neither strictly forbade nor positively approved. But John, the last
one, perceiving that what related to the outward had been exhibited in
the (other) Gospels, in compliance with the solicitations of his friends,
and under the promptings of the Divine Spirit, wrote a spiritual
Gospel." (Ap. Euseb. Hist. Eccles. vi. 14.)
Tertullian writes — "In fine, if it is evident that what is most
ancient is truest, that what is from the beginning is most ancient,
and that what is from the Apostles is from the beginning, then
it will be equally evident, that what has been sanctioned among the
churches of the Apostles is handed down from the Apostles. Let us see
what milk the Corinthians imbibed from Paul ; according to what
rule were the Galatians corrected ; what did the Philippians read,
the Thessalonians, the Ephesians ; what do the nearer Romans say,
to whom both Peter and Paul left a gospel sealed with their blood.
We have also churches that were under the tuition of John. ... I say
therefore that among these, — I do not mean the Apostolical churches
merely, but among all which are united with them in sacramental com-
munion, — this Gospel of Luke, which we regard with the highest rev-
erence, has been received from the time when it was first published.
. . . The same authority of the Apostolical churches supports also the
other Gospels which we have received from them, and which we esteem
just as they esteem them ; I mean those of John and Matthew ; that
also which Mark published we may be allowed to call Peter's, for
Mark was his interpreter. Indeed Luke's digest also is commonly
ascribed to Paul. For what the disciples publish is regarded as com-
ing from the master." (.!</(•. Marcion., iv. 5.)
32
374 NOTES. Lect. VI.
Origen — "I learned from tradition about the four Gospels, which
alone are indisputable in the church of God under the whole heaven; —
how that first Matthew, who was originally a tax-gatherer, but after-
wards an apostle of Jesus Christ, published his, composed in the He-
brew language, for those who had believed from among the Jews ; and
secondly, Mark, writing it according to Peter's dictation ; and thirdly,
Luke, the Gospel which was praised by Paul, composing it for the
converts from the Gentiles ; and to crown all, that according to John."
(Ap. Euseb. Hist. Eccles., vi. 25.)
Of course these passages do not form a hundredth part of the testi-
mony borne by these writers to the authority of the four Gospels. They
use them with the same frequency and deference as modern divines.
They appeal to them alone in proof of doctrine, making the most
marked difference between them and such apocryphal " Lives of
Christ" as they mention. The student will find this portion of the
Christian evidences drawn out most fully by Lardner, in his great
work on the Credibility of the Gospel History, vol. i. pp. 283, et seqq.
A good selection from the evidence is made by Mr. Norton, (Genuine-
ness of the Gospels, vol. i. pp. 83-105.) Paley's Synopsis also deserves
the attention of the student. (Evidences, part i. ch. 10, § 1.)
Note XVHL, p. 162.
Justin's ordinary expression is " the Memoirs of the Apostles, (t6
anofU'ti^ovcLnaTa twv anoordXiuv ;) but in one place he identifies these Me-
moirs with the Gospels by adding, a /calami evayyiha, " which are
called Gospels." (Apol., i. p. 83, 13.) He appears to prefer the former
term in addressing the heathen, as more classical. In his Dialogue
with Trypho he sometimes uses the term (bayyihov simply. (Opera,
p. 195, D.) These Memoirs, or Gospels, he says, were composed " by
the Apostles of Christ and their companions," (*« the memoirs, I mean
those which were composed by his Apostles and their followers." )' It
has been questioned by Bishop Marsh and others whether the quota-
tions are really from our Gospels ; but the doubt, if it deserves the
name, has (I think) been wholly set at rest by Bishop Kaye, (Account
of the Life and Opinions of Justin Martyr, ch. viii. pp. 132-152,) and
Mr. Norton, (Credibility, &c, vol. i. note E, pp. 316-324.) The careful
1 Compv^b Luka i. 1 : "It seemed good to me alao, having had perfect knowledge."
Lect. VI. NOTES. 375
analysis of the latter writer exhausts the subject, and deserves attentive
perusal.
Note XIX., p. 163.
Papias said — "Now Matthew composed his book in the Hebrew
dialect ; and each one interpreted it as he was able. And Mark, who
was the interpreter of Peter, wrote accurately whatever he remembered,
but not an orderly account of what was said and done by Christ."
(Ap. Euseb., Hist. Eccles. iii. 39.)
It has been questioned whether Papias w$s really a disciple of the
apostle John, (Strauss, Leben Jesu, § 13,) or only of a certain John the
Presbyter, whom he calls "a disciple of our Lord." It appears from
Eusebius (1. s. c.) that he did not himself claim to have received his
knowledge of Christianity from the apostles themselves. Still the testi-
mony of Irenaeus is express, (" Papias, who was a hearer of John, and
a companion of Polycarp," Euseb. 1. s. c.,) and cannot without violence
be understood of any one but St. John the Evangelist.
Note XX., p. 163.
Leben Jesu, { 14. " It is however by no means necessary to attribute
this same freedom from all conscious intention of fiction to the authors
of all those narratives in the Old and New Testament, which must be
considered as unhistorical. . . . The authors of the Homeric songs
could not have believed that every particular which they related of their
gods and heroes had really happened ; . . . and exactly as little may
this be said of all the unhistorical narratives of the Gospels, as for
example, of the first chapter of the third, and many parts of the fourth
Gospel." (pp. 83, 84, E. T.)
Note XXI., p. 163.
Ibid. § 13 ; p. 60, E. T.
Ibid. 1. s. c.
Note XXII., p. 164.
Note XXIII., p. 164.
See above, Note I. The date A. T). 63 is preferred by Bertholdt,
Feilmoser, Dean Alford, Mr. Birks, and others.
376 NOTES. Lect. VL
Note XXIV., p. 164.
Leben Jesu, § 13 ; p. 61, E. T.
Note XXV., p. 164.
See above, Note XVII.
Note XXVI., p. 165.
This is Burton's conclusion, (Eccles. Hist., vol. i. p. 25.5,) deduced
from the discrepancies in the external evidence. Dean Alford's unan-
swerable argument in favor of the independent origin of the first three
Gospels, deduced from their internal character, implies the same.
The first three Gospels were probably all written within the space
A. D. 58-65.
Note XXVII., p. 166.
The Old Testament furnishes us with but one instance of even a
second record — viz., that of Chronicles; which deals with the period of
history already treated in Samuel and Kings. Elsewhere we have
throughout but a single narrative.
Note XXVIII., p. 166.
Theophylact and Euthymius placed the composition of St. Mat-
thew's Gospel within eight years of the Ascension ; Nicephorus placed
it 15 years after that event ; Cosmas Indicopleustes assigned it to the
time of the stoning of Stephen. (See Alford's Greek Testaynent, Pro-
legomena, vol. i. p. 26.) In modern times Bishop Tomline, Le Clerc,
Dr. Owen, Dr. Townson, and others, incline to a date even earlier than
that fixed by Theophylact.
Note XXIX., p. 167.
On the various theories to which the combined resemblances and
differences of the first three Gospels have given birth, see Home's In-
troduction, vol. v. Appendix, pp. 509-529 ; Alford's Greek Testament,
vol. i. Prolegomena, ch. i. § 2, 3 ; and Norton's Genuineness of the
Gospels, vol. i. Note D, pp. 239-296. The last-named writer, after
LECT. VI. NOTES. 377
having proved that no one of the first three Evangelists copied front
another, observes with much force — "If the Evangelists did not copy
one from another, it follows, that the first three Gospels must all have
been written about the same period ; since, if one had preceded another
by any considerable length of time, it cannot be supposed that the
author of the later Gospel would have been unacquainted with the work
of his predecessor, or would have neglected to make use of it ; espe-
cially when we take into view, that its reputation must have been well
established among Christians." And he concludes, " that no one of
the first three Gospels was written long before or long after the year
60." (Genuineness, &c, vol. i. pp. 297, 298.)
Note XXX., p. 167.
See the passage quoted above, Note XVII., page 372. Irenams,
it will be observed, makes St. Matthew write his Gospel while St.
Peter end St. Paul were founding the Church at Rome, i. e. during the
term of St. Paul's imprisonment, (probably A. D. 56-58.) He writes
it "among the Hebrews" — i. e. in Palestine. After the two great
apostles left Rome, and separated — soon after, he seems to mean —
their respective companions, Mark and Luke, are said to have written.
At least this is declared positively of Mark ; less definitely of Luke,
whose Gospel had perhaps b.een composed a year or two earlier, and
sent privately to Theophilus.
Note XXXI., p. 167.
It is unnecessary to prove this agreement ; which \s such, that each
of the three writers has been in turn accused of copying from one or
both of his fellow-Evangelists. (See Home's Introduction, vol. v.
Appendix, pp. 509, 510.)
Notk XXXII., p. 167.
This is one of the main objects at which Strauss aims in the greater
portion of his work. See Sections 21, 24, 39, 46, 53, 57, 59, &c. &c.
32*
378 NOTES. Lect. VI.
Note XXXIII., p. 168.
If we take, for example, the second of the sections in which the
"disagreements of the Canonical Gospels" are expressly considered,
(§ 24,) we find the following enumeration of " discrepancies," in rela-
tion to the form of the Annunciation. "1. The individual who
appears is called in Matthew an angel of the Lord ; in Luke, the angel
Gabriel. 2. The person to whom the angel appears is, according to
Matthew, Joseph ; according to Luke, Mary. 3. In Matthew, the
apparition is seen in a dream, in Luke while awake. 4. There is a
disagreement with respect to the time at which the apparition took
place. 5. Both the purpose of the apparition, and the effect, are dif-
ferent." In this way five " discrepancies" are created out of the single
fact, that St. Matthew does not relate the Annunciation to the Virgin,
while St. Luke gives no account of the angelic appearance to Joseph.
Similarly in the section where the calling of the first Apostles is exam-
ined, (§ 70,) " discrepancies" are seen between the fourth and the first
two Evangelists in the following respects — "1. James is absent from
St. John's account, and instead of his vocation, we have that of Philip
and Nathaniel. 2. In Matthew and Mark the scene is the coast of
the Galilaean sea ; in John it is the vicinity of the Jordan. 3. In each
representation there are two pairs of brothers ; but in the one they are
Andrew and Peter, James and John ; in the other, Andrew and Peter,
Philip and Nathaniel. And, 4. In Matthew and Mark all are called by
Jesus ; in John, Philip only, the others being directed to him by the
Baptist." Here again we have four discrepancies made out of the cir-
cumstance, that the first two Evangelists relate only the actual call of
certain disciples, while St. John informs us what previous acquaintance
they had of Jesus. So from the mere silence of Matthew, Strauss
concludes positively that he opposes St. Luke, and did not consider
Nazareth, but Bethlehem, to have been the original residence of our
Lord's parents, ($ 39 ;) from the omission by the three earlier writers
of the journeys into Juda-a during our Lord's Ministry, he pronounces
that they "contradict" St. John, who speaks of such journeys, (57 ;)
he finds a " discrepancy " between this Evangelist's account of the
relations between the Baptist and our Lord, and the account of the
others, since he gives, and they do not give, the testimony borne by the
former to our Lord's character, ($ 46 ;) he concludes from St. Luke's
LECT. VI. NOTES. 379
not saying that St. John was in prison when he sent his two disciples to
our Lord, that he considered him as not yet cast into prison, (ibid. ;)
he finds St. Luke's and St. Matthew's acccounts of the death of Judas
" irreconcilable," because St. Luke says nothing of remorse, or of
suicide, but relates what has the appearance of a death by accident,
($ 130 ;) he regards the presence of Nicodemus at our Lord's interment
as a "fabrication of the fourth Evangelist," simply because it is un-
noticed by the others, ($ 80 ;) he concludes from their silence as to the
raising of Lazarus that " it cannot have been known to them," and
therefore that it cannot be true, (§ 100 ;) and in other instances, too
numerous to mention, he makes a similar use of the mere fact of
omission.
Note XXXIV., p. 169.
See Norton's Credibility of the Gospels, vol. i. pp. 74, 75.
Note XXXV., p. 169.
In point of fact there is scarcely a difficulty brought forward by
Strauss which has not been again and again noticed and explained by
biblical commentators. Mr. Norton correctly says of his volumes —
"They present a collection from various authors of difficulties in the his-
tory contained in the Gospels, to which their expositor should par-
ticularly direct his attention." The critical portion of them presents
little which is novel.
Note XXXVI., p. 171.
See Paley's Horee Paulina;, ch. i. p. 1.
Note XXXVIL, p. 172.
Leben Jem, § 13 ; vol. i. p. 60, E. T.
Note XXXVIII., p. 172.
If we take, for example, the earliest of St. Paul's Epistles, the first
to the Thessalonians, we shall find that the following little coincidences
between it and the Acts are unnoticed by Paley : —
I. The identity in the order of names, "Paul, and Silvanus, and
380 NOTES. Lect. VL
Timotheus," (I Thess. i. 1 ; compare Acts xvii. 10, 15 ; xviii. 5.) This
was the order of dignity at the time, and was therefore naturally used ;
but had the Epistle been forged after St. Paul's death, Timothy would
probably have taken precedence of Silas, since owing to the circum-
stance of St. Paul addressing two Epistles to him, his became the name
of far greater note in the Church.
2. The peculiarly impressive mention of the Thessalonians as objects
of the divine election (i. 4 ; " knowing, brethren beloved, your election of
God ") seems to be an allusion to the fact of the vision which summoned
St. Paul into Macedonia, (Acts xvi. 9,) whereby the Macedonians were
" chosen out " from the rest of the Western world to be the first Euro-
pean recipients of the Gospel. The term inkoyh is a rare one in Scrip-
ture, and is absent, except in this instance, from all St. Paul's earlier
Epistles. It had been used, however, of St. Paul himself in the vision
seen by Ananias, (Acts ix. 15,) with special reference to his similar
selection by miraculous means as an object of the Divine favor.
3. The great success of the Gospel at Thessalonica is strongly asserted
in verse 5, ("our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in
power," &c.) Compare Acts xvii. 4 : " And some of them (the Jews)
believed, and consorted with Paul and Silas, and of the devout Greeks
a great multitude, and of the chief women not a few."
4. The aorist tenses in eh. i. verses 5 and 6, and elsewhere, (Jyivfidri,1
iyiviiOnniv,9 iyevi)6ijTi,3 if^n/iivot,4 fKnpiiufifv,5 k. r. /..,) point naturally, but
very unobtrusively, to a single visit on the part of St. Paul, which by
the history of the Acts is exactly what had taken place.
5. The peculiar nature of the Apostolic sufferings at Philippi is hinted
at, without being fully expressed, in the term vppioOivTts,6 (ii. 2.) It was
vflpis 7 to scourge a Roman citizen.
6. The statement that while at Thessalonica St. Paul toiled and
labored, that he might not be chargeable or burdensome to the con-
verts, (ii. 6, 9,) though not directly confirmed by the history of the
Acts, is in harmony with the fact that at Corinth, a few months after-
wards, he wrought at his craft with Aquila and Priscilla, (Acts xviii.
3,) having the same object in view, (1 Cor. ix. 12 ; 2 Cor. xi. 9 ; xii.
13, &c.)
7. The reference to the hinderance offered by the Jews to St. Paul'3
1 Came. v. 5. 2 We were. v. 5. 3 Ye became, v. 6. * Having received, v. 6.
6 We preached, ii. 9. « Were shamefully treated. • Shameful treatment.
LECT. VI. NOTES. 381
preaching the ciospel to the Gentiles, (ii. 16,) accords both -with the
general conduct of the Jews elsewhere, (Acts xiii. 45, 50, &c.,) and es-
pecially with their conduct at Thessalonica, where " being moved with
envy" (^.ciaan-fj) at the conversion of the Gentiles, they " set all the
city on an uproar." (Acts xvii. 5.)
8. The expression, " we would have come unto you — even I, Paid —
once and again," derives peculiar force from the circumstance related in
the Acts, (xvii. 14-16,) that after leaving Macedonia he was for some
time alone at Athens, while Silas and Timothy remained at Beroca.
9. The mention of " the brethren throughout all Macedonia," in ch.
iv. 10, harmonizes with the account in the Acts that St. Paul had
founded churches at Philippi and lkreea as well as at Thessalonica.
(Actsxvi. 12-40; xviii. 10-12.)
10. The "affliction and distress " in which St. Paul says he was
(hi. 7) at the time of Timothy's return from Macedonia, receive illus-
tration from Acts xviii. 4-6, where we find that just at this period he
was striving, but vainly, (" persuaded," Acts xviii. 4,) to convert the Jews
of Corinth, " pressed in spirit," and earnestly testifying, but to no pur-
pose, so that shortly afterwards he had to relinquish the attempt. What
•' affliction " this would cause to St. Paul we may gather from Romans
ix. 1-5.
Note XXXIX.„ p. 173.
I was not aware, at the time of delivering my sixth Lecture, that any
work professedly on this subject had been published. My attention has
since been directed to a very excellent, though very unpretending,
treatise, by the Kev. T. R. Mirks, entitled, Ilora; Apostolicee,1 and at-
tached to an annotated edition of the Ilora; Paulina of Paley. The
first chapter of this treatise contains a supplement to Paley' s examina-
tion of the Pauline Epistles. It will well repay perusal ; though it is
still far from exhausting the subject. Chapter ii. is concerned with the
internal coincidences in the Acts of the Apostles; and chapter iii. with
those in the Gospels. The treatment of this latter point is, unfortu-
nately, hut scanty. No more than twenty-five pages arc devoted to it,
the author remarking, that " in his present supplementary work, this
' Ilora Paulina, by William Paley, D. D., with notes, and a Supplementary Treatise,
entitled Ilora Jlpostolica, by the Rev. T. K. Birks, A. M., late Fellow of Trinity College,
Cambridge : London, KeligioiiR Tract Society. 1S50.
382 NOTES. Lect. VII.
branch of the subject is confined, of necessity, within narrow limits ;
since its complete investigation would demand a distinct treatise, and the
prosecution of some deep and difficult inquiries." (^llora Apostolices,
p. 188.)
Note XL., p. 173.
Leben Jcsu, § 13 ; vol. i. p. 60, E. T.
Note XLL, p. 173.
See on these points Home's Introduction, vol. v. pp. 422-435, and
pp. 487, 488 ; Kitto's Cyclopedia, vol. i. pp. 163-166, and 826-832 ;
and Alford's Greek Testament, vol. iv. part i. Prolegomena, pp. 1-62.
Note XLII., p. 174.
Strauss, Leben Jcsu, § 14, sub fin. vol. i. p. 84, E. T.
Note XLIIL, p. 176.
Ibid. 1. s. c. See above, Note XX. ; where a passage to this effect is
quoted at length. "
LECTURE VII.
Note I., p. 178.
The only exception to this general rule, among the strictly historical
books, is the Book of Ruth, which is purely biographical. It belongs
to the Christology of the Old Testament, but it has no bearing on the
history of the nation.
Note II., p. 179.
So Lardner — " It is plainly the design of the historians of the New
Testament to write of the actions of Jesus Christ, chiefly those of his
public Ministry, and to give an account of his death and resurrection,
and of some of the first steps by which the doctrine which he had
Lect. VII. NOTES. 383
taught, made its way in the world. But though this was their main
design, and they have not undertaken to give us the political state or
history of the countries in which these things were done ; yet in the
course of their narration they have been led unavoidably to mention
many persons of note ; and to make allusions and references to the
customs and tenets of the people, whom Jesus Christ and his apostles
were concerned with." {Credibility, &c, vol. i. p. 7.)
Note III., p. 179.
Hence the certainty with which literary forgeries, if historical, are
detected, in all cases where we possess a fair knowledge of the time
and country to which they profess to belong. The alleged "Epistles
of Phalaris," the pretended Manetho, the spurious Letters of Plato and
of Chion, were soon exposed by critics, who stamped them indelibly
with the brand of forgery, chiefly by reason of their failure in this par-
ticular. It is important to bear in mind, in this connection, the fact
that there is no period in the whole range of ancient history, whereof
we possess a more full and exact knowledge than we do of the first
century of our era. •
Note IV., p. 180.
These testimonies have been adduced by almost all writers on the
Evidences of the Christian Religion ; but I do not feel justified in
omitting them from the present review. They are as follows : —
Tacitus says, speaking of the fire which consumed Home in Nero's
time, and of the general belief that he had caused it, " In order there-
fore to put a stop to the report, he laid the guilt, and inflicted the
severest punishments, upon a set of people who were holden in abhor-
rence for their crimes, and called by the vulgar, Christians. The
founder of that name was Christ, who suffered death in the reign of Tibe-
rius, under his procurator Pontius Pilate. This pernicious superstition,
thus checked for a while, broke out again ; and spread not only over
Judea, where the evil originated, but through Home also, whither all
things that are horrible and shameful find their way, and are practised.
Accordingly the first who were apprehended confessed, and then on
their information a vast multitude were convicted, not so much of the
crime of setting (Rome) on fire, as of hatred to mankind. And when
384 NOTES. Lect. VIL
they were put to death, mockery was added to their sufferings ; for
they were either disguised in the skins of wild beasts, and worried to
death by dogs, or they were crucified, or they were clothed in some
inflammable covering, and when the day closed were burned as lights to
illumine the night. Nero lent his own gardens for this exhibition, and
also held the shows of the circus, mingling with the people in the dress
of a charioteer, or observing the spectacle from his chariot. Where-
fore, although those who suffered were guilty, and deserving of some
extraordinary punishment, yet they came to be pitied, as victims not
so much to the public good, as to the cruelty of one man." (Annal.
xv. 44.)
Suetonius says briefly in reference to the same occasion, " The Chris-
tians were punished, a set of men of a new and mischievous superstition."
{Vit. Neron., § 16.) And with a possible, though not a certain, refer-
ence to our Lord, " [Claudius] expelled from Rome the Jews, who
were continually exciting disturbances, at the instigation of Chrcstus."
{Vit. Claud., § 25.)
Juvenal, with a meaning which cannot be mistaken,1 when the pas-
sage of Tacitus above quoted has once been read, remarks : —
" Expose Tigellinus ; you will blaze in that torch where, with throats
confined and emitting froth, they stand and burn ; and you do but draw
a broad furrow in the midst of the sand." {Sat., i. 155-157.)
Pliny writes to Trajan, "It is my custom, sir, to refer to you all
things about which I am in doubt. For who is more capable of direct-
ing my hesitancy, or instructing my ignorance ? I have never been
present at any trials of the Christians ; consequently I do not know
what is the nature of their crimes, or the usual strictness of their exam-
ination, or severity of their punishment. I have moreover hesitated not
a little, whether any distinction was to be made in respect to age, or
whether those of tender years were to be treated the same as adults ;
whether repentance entitles them to a pardon, or whether it shall avail
nothing for him who has once been a Christian to renounce his error ;
whether the name itself, even without any crime, should subject them
1 Compare the observations of the old Scholiast on the passage, "In the public shows
of Nero living men were burnt ; for he ordered them to be covered with wax, that they
might give light to the spectators." And again, "He covered certain mischievous men
(compare Suetonius' ' mischietoxis superstition ') with pitch, and paper, and wax, and then
commanded fire to be applied to them, that they might buri."
Lect. VII. NOTES. 385
to punishment, or only the crimes connected with the name. In the
mean time, I have pursued this course towards those who have been
brought before me as Christians. I asked them whether they were
Christians ; if they confessed, I repeated the question a second and a
third time, adding threats of punishment. If they still persevered, I
ordered them to be led away to punishment ; for I could not doubt,
whatever the nature of their profession might be, that a stubborn and
unyielding obstinacy certainly deserved to be punished. There were
others also under the like infatuation ; but as they were Roman citi-
zens, I directed them to be sent to the capital. But the crime spread,
as is wont to happen, even while the prosecutions were going on, and
numerous instances presented themselves. An information was pre-
sented to me without any name subscribed, accusing a large number of
persons, who denied that they were Christians, or had ever been.
They repeated after me an invocation to the gods, and made offerings
with frankincense and wine before your statue, which I had ordered to
be brought for this purpose, together with the images of the gods ; and
moreover they reviled Christ ; whereas those who are truly Christians,
it is said, cannot be forced to do any of these things. I thought, there-
fore, that they ought to be discharged. Others, who were accused by
a witness, confessed that they were Christians, but afterwards denied
it. Some owned that they had been Christians, but said they had
renounced their error, some three years before, others more, and a few
even as long ago as twenty years. They all did homage to your stati. 9
and the images of the gods, and at the same time reviled the name of
Christ. They declared that the whole of their guilt or their error was,
that they were accustomed to meet on a stated day before it was light,
and to sing in concert a hymn of praise to Christ, as God, and to bind
themselves by an oath, not for the perpetration of any wickedness, but
that they woidd not commit any theft, robbery, or adultery, nor vio-
late their word, nor refuse, when called upon, to restore any thing
•ommittcd to their trust. After this they were accustomed to separate,
and then to reassemble to eat in common a harmless meal. Even this,
however, they ceased to do, after my edict, in which, agreeably to your
commands, I forbade the meeting of secret assemblies. After hearing this,
I thought it the more necessary to endeavor to find out the truth, by put-
ting to the torture two female slaves, who were called ' deaconesses.'
But I could discover nothing but a perverse and extravagant supersti-
33
386 NOTES. Lect. VIL
tion ; and therefore I deferred all further proceedings until I should eon-
suit with you. For the matter appears to me worthy of such consulta-
tion, especially on account of the number of those who are involved in
peril. For many of every age, of every rank, and of either sex, are
exposed and will be exposed to danger. Nor has the contagion of this
superstition been confined to the cities only, but it has extended to the
villages, and even to the country. Nevertheless, it still seems possible
to arrest the evil, and to apply a remedy. At least it is very evident,
that the temples, which had already been almost deserted, begin to be
frequented, and the sacred solemnities, so long interrupted, are again
revived ; and the victims, which heretofore could hardly find a pur-
chaser, are now every where in demand. From this it is easy to ima-
gine what a multitude of men might be reclaimed, if pardon should be
offered to those who repent." (Tlin. Epist., x. 97.)
Trajan replies, " You have pursued the right course, my dear Pliny,
in conducting the case of those Christians who were brought before
you. Nor is it possible to adopt one uniform and invariable mode of
proceeding. I would not have you seek out these persons ; if they are
brought before you, and are convicted, they must be punished ; yet
with this proviso, that he who denies that he is a Christian, and con-
firms this denial by actually invoking our gods, however he may have
been suspected in time past, shall obtain pardon upon his repentance.
But informations without the accuser's name subscribed, ought not to
be received in prosecutions of any kind ; for they are of the worst
tendency, and are unworthy of the age in which we live." (Ibid.
x. 98.)
Adrian, in his rescript addressed to Minucius Fundanus, the Proconsul
of Asia, says,1 "To Minucius Fundanus : I have read a letter addressed to
me by Serenius Granianu?, a most illustrious man, and your predecessor'
in office. The matter seems to me to require examination, in order that
peaceable people may not be disturbed, and that occasion of evil-doing
may be taken away from calumniators. If, therefore, in accusations of
this sort, the people of the province can clearly affirm any thing against
the Christians, so as to bring the case before the tribunal, to this only let
them have recourse, and not to informal accusations and mere clamors.
For it is much more suitable, if any one wishes to bring an accusation,
1 The Latin original is lost, and we possess only Kusebius's translation.
Lect. VIL notes. 387
that it should come under your adjudication. If, therefore, any one
accuses them, and proves that they have done any thing contrary to the
laws, do you determine accordingly, in proportion to the greatness of
the offence : but, by Hercules, if any one brings forward such an accu-
sation slanderously, take him and punish liim for his impudence." (Ap.
Euseb. Hist. Eccles., iv. 9.)
Note V., p. 181.
I refer especially to Strauss and his school, who attach no impor-
tance at all to the existence of Christ, but still allow it as a fact which
is indisputable. (See the Leben Jcsu, passim.)
Note VI., p. 181.
Ch. ii. pp. 24-30.
Note VII., p. 182.
One slight reference is found, or rather suspected, in Seneca, (Epist.
xiv.,) one in Dio Chrysostom, (Orat. Corinthiac., xxxvii. p. 463,) none
in Pausanius, one (see the next note) in the Epictetus of Arrian.
Note VIII., p. 182.
Epictet. Disserted, iv. 7, §$ 5. 6 : " If any one now should so regard
his possessions, as this man regards his body, and his children, and his
wife, &c, what tyrant would any longer be terrible to him ? What
soldiers, or what weapons of theirs, would he fear ? Under the influ-
ence of madness, one may so regard these things ; and the Galikeans do
it under the influence of custom."
Note IX., p. 183.
The passage in the second book of the Discourses, (c. 9, { 20,) which
has been supposed by some to refer to Christians, seems really to in-
tend only those whom it mentions — viz., the Jews. (See Lardner,
Credibility, &c., vol. iv. p. 49; Fabricius ad Dion, xxxvii. 17.)
Note X., p. 183.
This point has been slightly touched by Paley, {Evidences, Tart i. ch.
388 NOTES. Lect. VII.
5, pp. 70, 71,) and insisted on at some length by Lardner. {Credibility,
&c. vol. iv. pp. 50, 78, 160, &c.)
Note XI., p. 184.
Josephus was born in A. D. 37, the first year of the reign of Calig-
ula, and the fourth after our Lord's ascension. He was bred up at
Jerusalem, where he seems to have continued, with slight interruptions,
till he was 26 years of age. He would thus have been, as boy and
man, a witness of the principal occurrences at Jerusalem mentioned in
the Acts, subsequently to the accession of Herod Agrippa.
Note XII., p. 184.
See Joseph. Ant. Jud. xx. 9, § 1. This passage has been much dis-
puted, and its genuineness is disallowed even by Lardner. {Credibility,
&c, vol. iii. pp. 352-354.) But I agree with Burton. {Eccles. Hist., vol.
i. p. 287,) and Palcy, {Evidences, Part i. ch. 5, p. 69,) that there is no
sufficient reason for the suspicions which have attached to the passage.
Note XIII., p. 184.
Josephus went to Rome in his 27th year, A. D. 63, and remained
there some time. Probably he witnessed the commencement of the
Neronic persecution in A. D. 64, after the great fire which broke out
in July of that year. (See above, Note IV., page 383.)
Note XIV., p. 184.
"Ananus . . . called the council of judges, and bringing before them
James, the brother of Jesus who icas called Christ, and certain others,
he accused them of transgressing the laws, and delivered them up to be
stoned." {Ant. Jud. xx. 9, § 1.) According to Eusebius, {Hut. Eccles.
ii. 23,) Josephus had the following also in another place : " These
things came upon the Jews as an avengement of James the Just, who
was the brother of Jesus called Christ ; for the Jews slew him, although
he was the most righteous of men."
I regard the arguments which have been brought against the famous
passage in our copies of Josephus concerning our Lord's life and teach-
Lect. VII. notes. 389
ing (Ant. Jud. xviii. 3, § 3) as having completely established its spuri-
ousness. (See Lardner, Credibility, vol. iii. pp. 537-542 ; and, on the
other side, Home, Introduction, vol. i. Appendix, ch. vii.)
Note XV., p. 184.
See Paley's Evidences, Part i. ch. 7, p. 71 ; and Dr. Traill's Essay o?i
the Personal diameter of Josephus, prefixed to his Translation, pp. 19, 20.
Note XVI., p. 184.
The probable value of these writings may be gathered from the frag-
ments of Celsus, preserved by Origen. Celsus quotes from all the Gos-
pels, allows that they were written by the disciples of Jesus, and con-
firms all the main facts of our Lord's life, even his miracles, (which he
ascribes to magic ;) only denying his resurrection, his raising of others,
and his being declared to be the Son of God by a voice from heaven.
A collection of the "testimonies" which his fragments afford will be
found in Lardner. {Credibility, &c, vol. iv. pp. 115, et seqq.)
Note XVII., p. 184.
See Socrat. Hist. Eccles. i. 9, p. 32 ; Justinian, Nov. 42, c. 1 ; Mnj-
heim, De Rebus Christ, ante Constantin. Magn. p. 5G1.
Note XVIII., p. 185.
Apolog. i. p. 65, and p. 70.
Note XIX., p. 185.
So at least Justin believed. (Apol. i. p. 70.) Tertullian adds, that
they contained an account of our Saviour's resurrection, of his appear-
ances to his disciples, and his ascension into heaven before their eyes.
(Apolog. c. 21.) Eusebius (Hist. Eccles. ii. 2) and Orosius (vii. 4)
bear nearly similar testimony. As Dr. liurton remarks, (Ecctes. Hist.
vol. i. p. 34,) "It is almost impossible to suppose that the Fathers
were mistaken in believing some such document to be preserved in tho
archives." Their confident appeals to it show that they believed its
substance not to be unfavorable to our Lord's character. 'Whether
33*
390 NOTES. Lect. VII.
they exactly knew its contents, or no, must depend primarily on the
question, whether the documents of this class, preserved in the State
Archives, were generally accessible to the public. They were certainly
not published ; and as they were of the nature of secret communica-
tions to the Emperor, it may be doubted whether it was easy to obtain
a sight of them. Still, perhaps, the Christians may have learnt the
contents of Pilate's "Acts," from some of those members of the Im-
perial household (Phil. iv. 22) or family, (Burton, Eccl. Hist., vol. i. p.
367,) who became converts at an early period.
Note XX., p. 187.
On the extent of the dominions of Herod the Great, see Joseph. Am.
Jud. xiv. 14-18. He died, as we have already seen, (supra, Lecture
VI. Note I.,) in the year of Rome 750. On his death, there was a
division of his territories among his sons, Archelaus receiving Juda?a,
Samaria, and Idumaea ; Antipas, Galilee and Pera-a ; Philip, Trach-
onitis and the adjoining countries. (Joseph. De Bell. Jud. i. 33, $ 8,
and ii. 6, $ 3.) Ten years later (A. D. 8) Archelaus was removed, and
his dominions annexed to the Roman Empire, being placed under a
Procurator, (Coponius,) who was subordinate to the President of Syria,
(Joseph. Ant. Jud. xviii. 1, § 1,) while Philip and Antipas continued to
rule their principalities. Thirty-three years after, (A. I). 41,) Herod
Agrippa, by the favor of Claudius, reunited the several provinces
of Palestine under his own government, and reigned over the whole
territory which had formed the kingdom of Herod the Great. (Ibid.
xix. 5, § 1.) At his death, A. D. 44, the Roman authority was estab-
lished over the whole country, which was administered by a Procura-
tor holding under the President of Syria. To the younger Agrippa,
however, king of Chalcis, a power was presently intrusted (A. D. 48)
of managing the sacred treasury at Jerusalem, superintending the tem-
ple, and appointing the Jewish High Priests. (Ibid. xx. 1.)
Note XXL, p. 187.
Tacitus sacrifices accuracy to brevity in his sketch of these changes .'
— ' ' The victorious Augustus enlarged the kingdom given by Antony
to Herod. After the death of Herod, one Simon, without waiting foi
LECT. VII. NOTES. 3(J1
any action on the part of the Emperor, assumed the royal title.
Quintilius Varus took possession of Syria, and punished him ; and the
children of Herod governed the nation thus brought into subjection,
dividing its territory into three districts. Under Tiberius, they re-
mained quiet ; but afterwards, when they were ordered by Caius
Caesar (i. e. Caligula) to place his statue in the temple, they preferred
tc take up arms. The death of the Emperor put a stop to this revolt.
Claudius, after the kings had cither died or been reduced to subjection,
intrusted the government of the province of Judaea to Human knights,
or freedmen." (Hist, v. 9.)
Elsewhere, he sometimes falls into actual error, as where he assigns
the death of Agrippa, and the reduction of Judaea into the form of a
Roman province, to the 9th of Claudius, A. D. 49. (Annul, xi. 23.)
Dio's notices are very confused. lie seems scarcely able to distin-
guish one Herod from another. (Hist. Rom. xlix. p. 405, E. ; liii. p.
526, D. ; lv. p. 567, B. ; and lx. p. 670, B.)
Note XXn., p. 187.
See the last note. Tacitus appears, in both the passages, to place
the first reduction of Judaea into the position of a Roman province
under Claudius, upon the death of Agrippa. Yet he elsewhere notices
the procuratorship of Pontius Pilate, in the reign of Tiberius. (Ann.
xv. 44, quoted in Note IV.)
Note XXIII. , p. 1S7.
Joseph. Ant. Jnd. xx. 1, { 3. It has not always be^n seen that Fcstus
referred (uvfOiro) St. Paul's case to Agrippa on account of his occupy-
ing this position. Dean Alford, however, distinctly recognizes this
feature of the transaction. (Greek Testament, vol. ii. p. 252.)
Note XXIV., p. 188.
It has been questioned whether the Jews themselves had any right of
capital punishment at this time. (I.ardner, Credibility, &c, vol. i. pp.
21-48; Olshausen, Bihlischer Commentar, vol. ii. p. 501.) Josophus
certainly represents the power as one which the Romnns reserved to
themselves from the first establishment of the procuratorship. (Do
•392 notes. Lect. VII.
Bell. Jud. ii. 8, § 1 ; compare Ant. Jiid. xx. 9, § 1.) But, as Dean
Alford remarks, the history of Stephen and of the " great persecution,"
(<5<wy,jds liiyus,) soon after, seems to show "that the Jews did, by
connivance of, or in the absence of the Procurator, administer summary
punishments of this kind." [Greek Testament, vol. ii. p. 75 ; compare
Joseph. Ant. Jud. 1. s. c.)
Note XXV., p. 188.
See Matt. y. 26 ; x. 29 ; xvii. 25 ; xviii. 28 ; xxvi. 53 ; xxvii. 26, 27,
and 65 : Mark vi. 27 ; &c. The terms, it will be observed, are such as
either belong to the military force, the revenue, or the office of gov-
ernor. They are such therefore as would naturally be introduced by a
foreign dominant power.
Note XXVL, p. 189.
See Mark vi. 7, and 40 ; vii. 11 ; x. 51 ; xiii. 14 ; &c. The number
of instances might of course be greatly increased. Among the most
noticeable are Matt. v. 18, (Iwra ev !) niaxtgala j1) v. 22, (/Wd;2) v. 29,
(yffna;3) vi. 24, (jianwas ; 4 conf. Luke xvi. 9, &c. ;) Mark hi. 17,
(poavepyts ; 5) V. 41, (rahOa Koufti ; 6) vii. 34, (!<l«ptiQ(i ;7) xi. 9, (waavv6 ; 8)
John i. 43, (x-^n?.9) Compare also the thoroughly Hebrew character
of the Canticles in Luke i. and ii.
Note XXVII., p. 189.
Joseph. De Bell. Jud. vii. 8, § 1 : " For that time was fruitful
among the Jews in all sorts of wickedness, so that they left no evil
deed undone ; nor was there any new form of wickedness, which any
one could invent, if he wished to do so. Thus they were all corrupt,
both in their public and their private relations ; and they vied with
each o;her who should excel in impiety towards God and injustice to
men. The more powerful oppressed the common people, and the
common people eagerly sought to destroy the more powerful ; for the
former class were governed by the love of power, and the latter by the?
desire to seize and plunder the possessions of the wealthy." Compare'
Ant. Jud. xx. 7, § 8 ; Bell. Jud. v. 13, § 6 ; and 10, § 5.
1 One jot, or one tittle. * Raca. 3 Gehenna, (translated hell.)
4 Mammon. 5 Boanerges. 6 Talitha cumi.
7 Ephphatha. 8 Hosanna. » Cephas.
Lect. VII. NOTES. 393
Note XXVIII., p. 189.
Joseph. Ant. Jud. xvii. 9, § 3 ; xx. 4, § 3 ; Bell. Jud. ii. 19, § 1 ; &c.
On one occasion it appears that more than two and a half millions of
persons had come up to Jerusalem to worship. {Bell. Jud. vi. 9, § 3.)
Note XXIX., p. 189.
Ant. Jud. xv. 7, § 8 : "In Jerusalem there were two fortresses, one
belonging to the city itself, and the other to the temple. Whoever held
these had the whole nation in their power ; for without the command
of these, it was not possible to offer the sacrifices ; and no Jew could
endure the thought that these should fail to be offered : they were even
ready sooner to lay down their lives, than to omit the religious sacri-
fices which they were accustomed to offer to God."
Note XXX., p. 189.
Not only was Caligula's attempt to have his statue set up in the tem-
ple resisted with determination, (Joseph. Ant. Jud. xviii. 8,) but when
the younger Agrippa, by raising the height of his house, obtained
a view into the temple courts, the greatest indignation was felt,
(ittv&f ixalt'ratvov.) The Jews immediately raised a wall to shut out
his prospect, and when Festus commanded them to remove it, they pos-
itively refused, declaring that they would rather die than destroy any
portion of the sacred fabric, (£n*' y<>p oi'x, l>*oiUvtiv,nuQatptOivTos mi, fi{pov(
tou icpoS.) See Ant. Jud. xx. 8, § 11 ; and on the general subject, com-
pare Philo, De Legat. ad Caium, pp. 1022, 1023.
Note XXXI., p. 190.
Ant. Jud. xv. 8, §{ 1-4.
Note XXXII., p. 190.
See Lardner's Credibility, &c, book i. ch. 9 ; vol. i. pp. 110-121.
Note XXXIII., p. 190.
Josephus tells us, that when Cyrenius came to take the census of
men's properties throughout Juda>a, a controversy arose among the
394 NOTES. Lect. VIL
Jews on the legality of submission to foreign taxation. Judas of Gal-
ilee (see Acts v. 37) maintained that it was a surrender of the theo-
cratic principle ; while the bulk of the chief men, including some
considerable number of the Pharisees, took the opposite view, and
persuaded the people to submit themselves. {Ant. Jitd. xviii. 1, § 1.)
Note XXXIV., p. 190.
Ant. Jitd. xx. 6, § 1 : " Now there arose an enmity between the
Samaritans and the Jews, from the following cause : The Galileans
were accustomed, in going up to the feasts that were held in Jerusalem,
to pass through the country of the Samaritans. At this time there was
on the road which they took a village called Ginea, situated on the
boundary between Samaria and the great plain. When the Galileans
came to this place, they were attacked, and many of them killed."
Note XXXV., p. 190.
Ibid, xviii. 1, §$ 3 and 4. Note especially the following: Of the
Pharisees — " They believe that souls have an immortal vigor, and that
beyond the grave there are rewards and punishments, according as
they follow a virtuous or a vicious course of life in this world." Of
the Sadducees — " But the doctrine of the Sadducees is, that the soul
is annihilated together with the body." Compare Acts xxiii. 8.
Note XXXVI., p. 190.
Ibid. 1. s. c. [The Pharisees] " are very influential with the people ;
and whatever prayers to God or sacrifices are performed, are performed
at their dictation. The doctrine [of the Sadducees] is received by but
few ; but these are the men who are in the highest authority."
Note XXXVII., p. 190.
Bell. Jud., vi. 5, § 4. " But that which most of all roused them to
undertake this war, was an ambiguous oracle, . . . found in their
sacred books, that at that time a man of their country should rule
over the whole earth."
Lect. VII. notes. 395
Note XXXYIIL, p. 190.
Sueton. Vit. Vespasian., § 4: "An ancient and settled opinion had
prevailed throughout the whole East, that fate had decreed that at that
time persons proceeding from Judaea should become masters of the
world. This was foretold, as the event afterwards proved, of the
Roman Emperor ; but the Jews applied it to themselves, and this was
the cause of their rebellion." Compare Vit. Octav., § 94, and Virg.
Eclog., iv.
Note XXXIX., p. 190.
Tacit. Histor., v. 13 : "These things [the prodigies that occurred just
before the capture of Jerusalem by the Romans] were regarded by a
few as alarming omens ; but the greater number believed that it was
written in the ancient books of the priests, that at that very time the
East, should become very powerful, and that persons proceeding from
Judaea should become masters of the world."
Note XL., p. 190.
Leben Jem, § 34 ; vol. i. p. 220, E. T.
Note XLL, p. 190.
See Philo, De Legationc ad Caium, p. 1022, D. E. For the portrait-
ure of Josephus, see above, Note XXVII.
Note XLII., p. 191.
This passage is given by Wetsten (Arou. Test. Gr., vol. ii. p. 563) and
Dean Alford (Greek Testament, vol. ii. p. 17-)) as from Xenophon De
Itep. Athenian*, I have not succeeded in verifying the reference.
Note XLIII., p. 191.
Liv. xlv. 27, ad fin.
Note XLIV., p. 192.
How attractive to strangers Athens was, even in her decline, may be
seen from the examples of Cicero, (iermanicus, Pausanias, and others.
396 notes. Lect. VII.
(See Conybeare and Howson's Life of St. Paul, vol. i. pp. 398, 399.)
On the greediness of the Athenians after novelty, see Dcmosth. Philipp.
i. p. 43, ("Or tell me, do you wish to go about asking eaeh other in
the market place, ' What is the news ? ' And can there be any thing
newer, than that the man of Macedon," &e. ;) Philip]}. Epist. pp. 156,
157 ; -Elian. Var. Hist., v. 13 ; Schol. ad Thucyd. hi. 38, &c. On
their religiousness, compare Pausan. i. 24, § 3, (the Athenians are more
serious than others in the worship of the gods ;) Xen. Rep. Atheniens.
iii. $ 1, and $ 8 ; Joseph. Contra Apion. ii. 11, ("All say, that the Athe-
nians are the most religious of the Greeks ; ") Strab. v. 3, § 18 ; JElian.
Var. Hist. v. 17 ; Philostrat. Vit. Apollon. vi. 3 ; Dionys. Hal. De Jud.
Thicc, \ 40 ; and among later authors, see Mr. Grote's History of Greece,
vol. iii. pp. 229-232.
Note XLV., p. 192.
See the Life and Epistles of St. Paul, by Messrs. Conybeare and IIow-
son, vol. ii. pp. 66, et seqq. (1.) The " Great Goddess, Diana," is found
to have borne that title as her usual title, both from an inscription,
(Boeckh. Corpus Inscript., 2963 C,) and from Xenophon, (Ephes. i. p.
15 : "J invoke our ancestral God, the great Diana of the Ephe-
sians.T') (2.) The "Asiarchs" are mentioned on various coins and
inscr ^tions. (3.) The "town-clerk" (yon^arnj) of Ephesus is like-
wise mentioned in inscriptions, (Boeckh, No. 2963 C, No. 2966, and
No. 2990.) (4.) The curious word vfuxopos, (Acts xix. 35,) literally
" sweeper " of the temple, is also found in inscriptions and on coins,
as an epithet of the Ephesian people, (Boeckh, No. 2966.) The " silver
shrines of Diana," the "court-days," the "deputies" or "proconsuls"
(di-Otirnroi) might receive abundant classical illustration. The temple
was the glory of the ancient world ' — enough still remains of the
"theatre" to give evidence of its former greatness.
Note XL VI., p. 192.
Compare Luke xxiii. 2; John xix. 12-15; Acts xxv. 12 and 26;
xxvi. 32 ; 2 Tim. iv. 17 ; 1 Pet. ii. 13 and 17.
1 Plin. xxxt 21 ; Strab. xiv. 1 ; Phil. Byz. De Sept. Orb. Spectacuiis.
Lect. VII. NOTES. 397
Note XL VII., p. 192.
The Roman .rovmces under the empire were administered eitker by
proconsuls, or legates, or in a few instances by procurators. The tech-
nical Greek name for the proconsul is difli/iraroj, (Polyb. xxi. 8, § 11,)
as that for the consul is Ciraroj. Proconsuls are mentioned by St. Luke
in Cyprus, (Acts xiii. 7,) at Ephesus, (ib. xix. 38,) and at Corinth, (ib.
xviii. 12, where the verb " to be a proconsul" expresses the office of
Gallio.) In every case the use of the term is historically correct. (See
below, Notes CIV. and CVIII.) Other officers are not so distinctly
designated. Legates do not occur in the history ; and the Greek pos-
sessing no term correspondent to procurator, such officers appear only
as i/yiiiovff, (governors,) a generic term applicable to proconsuls also.
(See Luke ii. 2 ; iii. 1 ; Matt, xxvii. 2 ; Acts xxiii. 24 ; xxvi. 30, &c.)
The anxiety to avoid tumults may be observed in the conduct of
Pilate, (Matt, xxvii. 24 ;) of the authorities at Ephesus, (Acts xix.
35-41 ;) and of Lysias, (Acts xxi. 32 ; xxii. 24.) The governors were
liable to recall at any moment, and knew that they would probably be
superseded, if they allowed troubles to break out.
Note XLVIIL, p. 192.
See especially Gallio's words, (Acts xviii. 14-16.) Compare Acts
xxiii. 29 ; and xxviii. 30, 31. On the general tolerance of the Romans,
see Lardner's Credibility, vol. i. p. 95, et seqq.
Note XLIX., p. 192.
In a Rescript of Severus and Caracalla, {Digest, xlviii. 17, 1,) we
read, " We have also this law, that the absent must not be condemned ;
for indeed the rule of justice does not allow any one to be condemned
without having his cause heard." Compare Dionys. Hal. vii. 53, p.
441. The odium incurred by Cicero for proceeding without formal
trial against the Catiline conspirators, (£jjp. ad Famil., v. 2, p. 60, b,) is
an indication of the value attached to the principle in question.
Note L., p. 192.
Acts xxii. 28. Dio says of Antony, " He collected money from
private individuals, selling to some the right of citizenship, and to
34
398 NOTES. Lect. VII.
others exemption from taxes." And of Claudius, " Since the Romans
were, so to speak, in all things preferred to foreigners, many addressed
their petitions directly to him, [for the privilege of citizenship,] and
others purchased it ©f Messalina, and of the Emperor's favorites," (lx.
17, p. 676, C.) Citizenship by birth on the part of a foreigner might
arise (1.) from his being a native of some colony or municipium ; (2.)
from a grant of citizenship, on account of service rendered, to his
father, or a more remote ancestor ; or (3.) from his father, or a more
remote ancestor, having purchased his freedom. Dio speaks, a little
before the passage last quoted, of many Lycians having been deprived
of their Roman citizenship by Claudius. That Jews were often Roman
citizens appears from Josephus. {Ant. Jud. xiv. 10, §§ 13, 14, 16, &e.)
Note LI., p. 192.
Acts xxv. 11. Suetonius says of Augustus, "The appeals of liti-
gants belonging to the city he referred every year to the prnctor ; but
those of persons belonging to the provinces, to men of consular dignity,
of whom he had appointed a separate one over the affairs of each pro-
vince." {Vit. Octav. c. 33.) Pliny probably refers to cases where the
right of appeal had been claimed, when he says of the Bithynian Chris-
tians, "There were others under the same infatuation; but as they
were Roman citizens, I directed them to be sent to the capital." (£/>.
ad Traj. x. 97.)
Note LIL, p. 192.
The humane treatment of prisoners is an occasional feature of the
Roman system. (See Acts xxiv. 23, and xxviii. 16 and 30.) Lardner
{Credibility, vol. i. p. 128) observes that the treatment of Herod Agrip-
pa I. closely illustrates that of St. Paul. Soon after his first imprison-
ment, by the influence of Antonia, his friends were allowed free access
to him, and permitted to bring him food and other comforts. (Joseph.
Ant. Jud. xviii. 6, § 7.) On the death of Tiberius, whom he had
offended, Caligula enlarged him further, permitting him to return and
live in his otcn house, where he was still guarded, but less strictly than
before. (Ibid. § 10 : "He commanded that Agrippa should be removed
from the camp to the house in which he had lived before he was impris-
oned ; so that now he was free from anxiety with regard to his situa-
tion ; for it was, to be sure, one of custody and surveillance, but with
Lect. VII. NOTES. 309
much liberty as to his mode of life." Compare the order of Felix with
regard to St. Paul — "commanding a centurion to keep him, and to let
him have liberty," &c. Acts xxiv. 23.)
Note LIIL, p. 192.
On one occasion we find St. Paul "bound with two chains," (Acts
xxi. 33 ;) but commonly we hear of his "chain" (a).wis) in the singu-
lar. (Acts xxviii. 20; Ephes. vi. 20; 2 Tim. i. 16.) Now, it is abun-
dantly apparent from Seneca {De Tranquitt. 10, Epist. 5) and other
writers, {Tacit. Ann. iv. 28, &c.,) that prisoners were commonly fas-
tened by a chain passed from their right wrist to the left wrist of their
keeper. Where greater security was desired, a prisoner had two keep-
ers, and a second chain was passed from his left wrist to the second
keeper's right. The keeper to whom a prisoner was bound was called
co-bondman.
Note LIV., p. 192.
Matt, xxvii. 27; Acts xx. 6; xxiv. 23; xxviii. 1, 16. The military
custody {custodia militaris) of the Romans is well known to writers on
antiquities. Ulpian says, that when a person was arrested, it was the
business of the proconsul to determine "whether the person should be
committed to prison, or delivered to the custody of a soldier, or placed
in the care of his sureties, or, finally, left to take care of himself." {Di-
gest, xlviii. Tit. 3. De Ctustod. et Exhib. Rcor. § 1.) Examples of the
military custody will be found in Tacitus, {Ann. iii. 22 ;) Josephus,
{Ant. Jud. xviii. 6, § 7 ;) Ignatius, {Ep. ad Roman, v. p. 370 ;) Martyr.
Ignat., (ii. p. 450 ; v. p. 544,) &c.
Note LV., p. 192.
Examining free persons by scourging (Acts xxii. 24) or other torture,
was against the spirit, and indeed against the letter, of the Roman law.
"The Divine Augustus made a law that the torture should not be
applied." {Digest. 48. Tit. 18, $ 1.) liut arbitrary power often broke
this law, both at Rome and in the provinces. Suetonius says of Au-
gustus, " And he took Quintus Gallius, the prrctor, from the tribunal,
and put him to the torture, as if lie had been a slave." {Vit. Octav.
§ 27.) Tacitus of Nero, "Thinking that the body of a woman would
400 NOTES. Lect. VIL
not be able to endure the pain, he ordered Epicharis to be scourged."
(Annal. xv. 57.) This examination was in part by scourging.
Note LVL, p. 192.
See Livy xxxiii. 36, (" After they had been scourged, he fastened
them to crosses ; ") Val. Max. i. 7, § 4 ; Joseph. Bell. Jud. ii. 14, § 9,
(" Florus chastised many with scourges, and afterwards crucified them.
He had the boldness to scourge men of equestrian rank before the judg-
ment-seat, and then to nail them to the cross ; ") &c. These last notices
show the practice on the part of the Roman governors of Palestine.
Note LVIL, p. 192.
The crucifixion of the Orientals has more commonly been impaling,
than nailing to a cross. (See Ctesias, ap. Phot. Bibl. Cod. LXXIL, p.
122; Casuabon. Exerc. Antibaron. xvi. 77.) The Romans fastened the
body to the cross either by cords or nails. (See Smith's Dictionary of
Gr. and Rom. Antiq. p. 370.) It is evident from Josephus, that nailing
was the common practice in Palestine. (See the last note, and com-
pare Bell. Jud. vi. : "The soldiers, through rage and hatred, fastened
their captives to crosses, some in one manner, and some in another, in
mockery ; and on account of the great number, there was not room
enough for the crosses, nor crosses enough for the bodies.") St. Au-
gustine speaks as if nailing was the ordinary Roman method. {Tractat.
xxxvi. in Johann. Opera, vol. ix. p. 278 : "When men are tormented
with very severe pains, they call them ex-cruciati?iff, a term derived
from the cross, (a cruce.) For they who are crucified, being sus-
pended on the wood, and being fastened to it with nails, undergo a
lingering death.")
Note LVIIL, p. 192.
Plutarch, de Sera Numinis Vindicta, ii. p. 554, A. : " And each of the
malefactors sentenced to capital punishment, carries his own cross."
Compare Artemidor. Oncirocrit. ii. 61 : " The cross is also a symbol of
death, and he that is about to be nailed to it, first carries it along."
Lect. VIL N t) t e s . 401
Note LIX., p. 192.
The practice of attaching a small board or placard to criminals, with
a notification of the nature of their offence, is mentioned by several
writers, and there are many allusions to it in the poets. The technical
name of this placard was in Latin " titulus." (Compare the title ot
John xix. 19.) See Sucton. Vit. Calig. § 34: "At a public feast in
Rome, when a slave had stolen a piece of silver from one of the couches,
he delivered him at once to the executioner, and his hands being cut
off, and hanging upon his breast, suspended from his neck, he was led
about through the throng of guests at the feast, carrying before him a
title which declared the cause of his punishment." Vit, Domitian. § 10 :
" He dragged from the theatre a master of a family, because he had
said that a Thracian was equal to a gladiator, but unequal to a master
of the shows, and cast him to the dogs in the arenas with this title : ' a
Parmularian ' who has spoken impiously.' " Dio Cass. liv. p. 523 ;
•' When the father of Caepio therefore released one of the slaves who
had been banished along with his son, because he had tried to defend
the deceased, but led the other one, who had betrayed him, through
the midst of the market place, irith a writing declaring the cause of his
death, and afterwards crucified him, he was not displeased." Ovid.
Fasti, vi. 190, 191 : " He lived that he might die convicted of a crime
against the state. Advanced age conferred upon him this title." Com-
pare Trist. iii. 1, 47. We have no classical proof that the "titulus"
was ordinarily affixed to the cross, unless we may view as such the
statement of Hesychius — "A board, a door, a plastered tablet, on
which accusations against malefactors were written at Athens. It was
also placed upon the cross."
Note LX., p. 192.
Seneca speaks of the " centurion who had the charge of inflicting
punishment" as an ordinary thing. (Dc Ira, c. 10, p. 3 J.) Petronius
Arbiter says, "A soldier watched the crosses, lest some one should
carry off the bodies for burial." (Satyr, c. 111.)
i This word meniif", "nn adherent of the party of the Thraciaus, who were armed
with a small round shield, called ' parma.' "
34*
402 NOTES. Lect. VIL
Note LXL, p. 192.
So Alford (vol. i., p. 617) — "The garments of the executed were by-
law the perquisites of the soldiers on duty." Cf. Digest, xlviii. Tit.
20, § 6.
Note LXIL, p. 193.
Ulpian says, "The bodies of those -who surfer capital punishment
are not to be refused to their friends. And the Divine Augustus
writes, in the tenth book of his life, that he also observed this rule.
But at this day, the bodies of the persons in question are not buried,
unless permission has first been sought and granted. And sometimes
it is not granted, especially in the case of those condemned for trea-
son." (Digest, xlviii. Tit. 21. De Cadav. Punit. § 1.) And again —
"The bodies of those who suffer punishment are to be given to any re-
questing them for interment." (Ibid. § 3.) So Diocletian and Maximian
declare, " We do not forbid that those who are guilty of crimes, after
they have been duly punished, should be consigned to burial." The
practice of the Jews to take bodies down from the cross and bury them
on the day of their crucifixion, is witnessed to by Josephus — " lie pro-
ceeded to such a degree of impiety, as to cast out bodies unburied,
although the Jews took so much care in regard to burials, that they even
took down and buried, before the sun went doicn, those who had been
condemned and crucified." (De Bell. Jud. iv. 5, $ 2.)
Note LXIIL, p. 193.
Among minute points of accordance may be especially noticed the
following: — 1. The geographical accuracy. («) Compare the divisions
of Asia Minor mentioned in the Acts with those in Pliny. Phrygia,
Galatia, Lycaonia, Cilicia, Pamphylia, Pisidia, Asia, Mysia, Bithynia,
are all recognized as existing provinces by the Roman geographer, writ-
ing probably within a few years of St. Luke. (//. N. v. 27, ct seqq.)
(b) The division of European Greece into the two provinces of Mace-
donia and Achaia, (Acts xix. 21, &c.,) accords exactly with the arrange-
ment of Augustus noticed in Strabo, (xvii. ad fin.) (c) The various
tracts in or about Palestine belong exactly to the geography of the
time, and of no other. Juda?a, Samaria, Galilee, Trachonitis, Itunea,
Lect. VII. NOTES. 403
Abilene, Decapolis, are recognized as geographically distinct at this
period by the Jewish and classical writers. (See Plin. II. N. v. 14, 18,
23 ; Strab. xvi. 2, §§ 10, 34 ; Joseph. Ant. Jud. xix. 5, § 1, &c.)
(rf) The routes mentioned are such as were in use at the time. The
" ship of Alexandria," which, conveying St. Paul to Rome, lands him
at Puteoli, follows the ordinary course of the Alexandrian corn-ships,
as mentioned by Strabo, (xvii. 1, § 7,) Philo, (In Flacc. pp. 968, 969,)
and Seneca, (Epist. 77,) and touches at customary harbors. (See
Sueton. Vit. Tit. § 25,) Paul's journey from Troas by Neapolis to
Philippi presents an exact parallel to that of Ignatius, sixty years later,
(Martyr. Ignat. c. 5.) His passage through Amphipolis and Apollonia
on his road from Philippi to Thessalonica, is in accordance with the
Itinerary of Antonine, which places those towns on the route between
the two cities, (p. 22.) (e) The mention of Philippi as the first city of
Macedonia to one approaching from the east, (" the chief city of that part
of Macedonia," Acts xvi. 12,) is correct, since there was no other be-
tween it and Neapolis. The statement, that it was " a colony," is also
true, (Dio Cass. li. 4, p. 445, D ; Plin. //. N. iv. 11 ; Strab. vii. Fr. 41.)
2. The minute political knowledge, (a) We have already seen the
intimate knowledge exhibited of the state of Ephesus, with its pro-
consul, town-clerk, Asiarchs, &c. A similar exactitude appears in the
designation of the chief magistrates of Thessalonica as " the rulers of the
city," (Acts xvii. 6,) their proper and peculiar appellation. (Boeckh,
Corp. Inner. No. 1967.) (b~) So too the Roman governors of Corinth
and Cyprus are given their correct titles. (See Notes CIV. and CVIII.)
(c) Publius, the Roman governor of Malta, has again his proper tech-
nical designation, (" the chief man of the island," Actsxxviii. 7.) as ap-
pears from inscriptions commemorating the chief of the Melitans, or
•* Melitensium primus." ' (See Alford, ii. p. 282.) (d) The delivery
of the prisoners to the "captain of the (Praetorian) guard" at Rome,
is in strict accordance with the practice of the time. (Trajan, ap. Plin.
Ep. x. 65 : " He ought to be sent bound to the praefects of my
Praetorian guard." Compare Philostrat. vit. Sophist, ii. 32.)
Among additions to our classical knowledge, for which we are in-
debted to Scripture, it may suffice to mention, 1. The existence of an
Italian cohort (the Italian band) as early as the reign of Tiberius, (Acts
1 The Latin anil the Greek arc precisely equivalent.
404 NOTES. Lect. VIL
x. 1.) 2. The application of the term Zifiaarii (Augustan) to another
cohort, a little later, (Acts xxviii. 1.) 3. The existence of an Altar at
Athens with the inscription, " To the unknown God," (Acts xvii. 23,)
which is not to be confounded with the well-known inscriptions to un-
known gods. 4. The use of the title arpaTnyo] (Praetors) by the Duum-
viri, or chief magistrates of Philippi, (Acts xvi. 20.) We know from
Cicero, (De Leg. Agrar. 34,) that the title was sometimes assumed in
such eases, but we have no other proof that it was in use at Philippi.
Note LXIV., p. 193.
Lardner, Credibility, &c., vol. i. p. 60.
Note LXV., p. 193.
See Acts xiii. 5, 14 ; xiv. 1 ; xvi. 3, 13 ; xvii. 1, 10, 17 ; xviii. 4
xix; 8, &c.
Note LXVL, p. 194.
" Now, in regard to the holy city, there are some things which I ought
to say. It is, as I have said, the place of my nativity ; and it is the
metropolis, not of the single country of Judiea, but of a great many
countries, by means of the colonies which it has sent out from time to
time, — some to the neighboring countries of Egypt, Phcenice, Syria
proper, and that part called Coele- Syria ; — and some planted in the
more distant regions of Pamphylia, Cilicia, and many parts of Asia, as
far as Bithynia and the recesses of Pontus ; in like manner also in
Europe, in Thessaly, Bceotia, Macedonia, -Etolia, Attica, Argos, Cor-
inth, and many of the best parts of the Peloponnesus ; and not only
are the continental countries full of Jewish colonies, but also the most
famous islands, as Euboea, Cyprus, and Crete ; not to speak of those
beyond the Euphrates. For excepting a small part of Babylon, and of
the other satrapies, all the places which have a fertile territory around
them have Jewish inhabitants ; so that if my country shall receive this
favor from thee, not one city only, but ten thousand others, situated in
every region of the habitable world, will be benefited ; those in Europe,
and Asia, and Africa ; those on the continents and in the islands, on
the sea shore and in the interior. (Philo Jud. Legal, ad Caium, pp.
1031, 1032.)
Lect. VII. NOTES. 405
Note LXYIL, p. 194.
«• For no single country contains the Jews, but they are exceedingly
numerous ; on which account they are distributed through nearly all
the most flourishing countries of Europe and Asia, both insular and
continental ; and they all regard the sacred city as their metropolis."
(Ibid. In Flacc. p. 971, E.)
Note LXVIII., p. 194.
Joseph. Ant. Jud. xx. 2 ; De Bell. Jud. vii. 3, § 3 ; Contr. Apion. ii.
36, &c.
Note LXIX., p. 194.
Philo frequently mentions the synagogues under the name of "places
of prayer." (In Flacc. p. 972, A. B. E. ; Legal, in Caium, p. 1014, &c.)
Their position by the sea-side, or by a river-side, is indicated, among
other places, in the Decree of the Halicarnassians reported by Josephus,
{Ant. Jud. xiv. 10, § 23,) where the Jews are allowed to offer prayers
by the sea-side, according to their national custom. See also Philo,
Legat. in Caium, p. 982, D. ; Tertull. ad Nat. i. 13 ; De Jejun. c. 16 ;
and Juv. Sat. iii. 13.
Note LXX., p. 194.
Lightfoot, Hebraic, et Talmudic. Exercitat., not. in Act. Apost. vi. 8 ,
Works, vol. ii. p. 664.
Note LXXI., p. 194.
See Legat. in Caium, (p. 1014, C. D.,) where Philo speaks of Transti-
berine Home as imrr^o/i/wji' kuI o'tKovftiviiv 7rp6$ '\uviuiuv,1 and then adds,
'Vuiftaloi &' ?idav (j't itXiiovs iniXtvOipuOlvrtf .*
Note LXXII., p. 194.
Annal. ii. 85 : " The question of banishing the sacred rites of the
Egyptians and of the Jews was also determined ; a decree was made by
1 Occupied and inhabited by Jews.
* But the greater part of them were Roman freedmen.
40G NOTES. Lect. VIL
the fathers, that four thousand of the class offreedmen, who were tainted
with that superstition — those being selected who were of suitable age
— should be transported to the island of Sardinia."
Note LXXIIL, p. 195.
For the tumultuous spirit of the foreign Jews, see Sueton. vit. Claud.
p. 25 ; Dio Cassius, lx. 6 ; Joseph. Ant. Jud. xviii. 8, § 1 ; 9, § 9 ; xx.
1, § 1; &c.
Note LXXIV., p. 196.
Annal. xv. 44. Tiberius reigned (as sole emperor) 23 years. (Suet.
vit. Tib. § 73.) His principatus, however, may date from three years
earlier, when he was associated by Augustus. (Tacit. Ann. i. 3 ; Suet.
vit. Tib. §21.)
Note LXXV., p. 196.
If our Lord was born in the year of Rome 747, (see above, Lecture
VI., Note I.) he would have been three years old at Herod's death ;
and 32 years old when he commenced his ministry, in the fifteenth year
from the associated principate of Tiberius. This is not incompatible
with St. Luke's declaration, that he was about thirty years of age (i«i
frwv tpi6kovto) when he began to preach ; for that expression admits of
some latitude. (See Alford's Greek Testament, vol. i. pp. 323 and 327.)
Note LXXVL, p. 196.
Joseph. Ant. Jud. xiv. 7, § 3 ; xvii. 8, § 1 ; Nic. Damasc. Fr. 5.
Note LXXVH., p. 196.
Joseph. Ant. Jud. xv. 6, § 7 ; Tacit. Hist. v. 9. "The victorious
Augustus enlarged the kingdom given to Herod by Antony."
Note LXXVIIL, p. 196.
See Lardner's Credibility, vol. i. pp. 148-151 ; and compare Joseph.
Be Bell. Jud. i. 27, § 1 ; 29, § 2 ; 33, § 8 ; Appian. De Bell. Civ. v. p.
1135.
LECT. VII. NOTES. 407
Note LXXIX., p. 196.
The cruelties, deceptions, and suspicions of Herod the Great, fill
many chapters in Josephus. {Ant. Jud. xv. 1, 3, 6, 7, &c. ; xvi. 4, S,
10 ; xvii. 3, 6, 7, &c.) His character is thus summed up by that writer :
— " He was a man cruel to all alike, yielding to the impulses of pas-
sion, but regardless of the claims of justice ; and yet no one was ever
favored with a more propitious fortune." {Ant. Jud. xvii. 8, § I.) His
arrest of the chief men throughout his dominion, and design that on
his own demise they should all be executed, (ibid. G, § o ; Bell. Jud. i.
33, § 6,) shows a bloodier temper than even the massacre of the Inno-
cents.
Note LXXX., p. 197.
Strauss, Leben Jesu, § 34 ; vol. i. p. 222, E. T.
Note LXXXL, p. 197.
Strauss grants the massacre to be " not inconsistent with the disposi-
tion of the aged tyrant to the extent that Schleiermacher supposed,"
(Leben Jesu, 1. s. c. p. 228, E. T .,) but objects, that " neither Josephus,
who is very minute in his account of Herod, nor the rabbins, who
were assiduous in blackening his memory, give the slightest hint of this
decree." (1. s. c.) He omits to observe, that they could scarcely nar-
rate the circumstance without some mention of its reason — the birth
of the supposed Messiah — a subject on which their prejudices neces-
sarily kept them silent.
Note LXXXII., p. 197.
Macrob, Saturnal. ii. 4 : " When Augustus had heard, that among the
children under tiro years of age. whom Herod, the king of the Jews, had
commanded to be slain in Syria, there was also one of the king's own
sons, he said it was better to be the sow,' than the son of Herod."
Strauss contends, that "the passage loses all credit by confounding the
execution of Antipater, who had gray hairs, with the murder of the
1 There is in tbe original a play upon the similarity of the Greek words for "ho;;"
and "sou," which is partly, at hast, preserved in translation by taking license to sul sti-
tute the feminine for the masculine in this word.
108 NOTES. LECT. VII.
infants, renowned among the Christians ; " but Macrobius says nothing
of Antipater, and evidently does not refer to any of the known sons of
Herod. He believes that among the children massacred was an infant
son of the Jewish king. It is impossible to say whether he was right
or wrong in this belief. It may have simply originated in the fact that
«i jealousy of a royal infant was known to have been the motive for the
massacre. (See Olshausen, Biblsch. Comment, vol. i. p. 72, note ; p. 67,
E. T.)
Note LXXXIH., p. 197.
Josephus says, " "When Ca?sar had heard these things he dissolved the
assembly ; and a few days afterwards he appointed Archelaus, not in-
deed king, but ethnarch of half the country which had been subject to
Herod, . . . and the other half he divided, and gave it to two other
sons of Herod, Philip and Antipas ; ... to the latter of whom he
made Penea and Galilee subject, . . . while Batana>a with Trachonitis,
and Auranitis with a certain part of what is called the House of Zeno-
dorus, were subjected to Philip ; but the parts subject to Archelaus
were Idumea and Judiea and Samaria." (Antiq. Jud. xvii. 11, § 4.)
Compare the brief notice of Tacitus : "The country which had been
subdued, was governed, in three divisions, by the sons of Herod."
(Hist. v. 9.)
Note LXXXIV., p. 197.
Strauss says, "Luke determines the date of John's appearance by
various synchronisms, placing it in the time of Pilate's government in
Juda-a ; in the sovereignty of Herod, (Antipas ;) of Philip and of Ly-
sanias over the other divisions of Palestine ; in the high-priesthood of
Annas and Caiaphas ; and moreover precisely in the loth year of the
reign of Tiberius, which, reckoning from the death of Augustus, cor-
responds with the year 28-29 of our era. With this last and closest
demarcation of time all the foregoing less precise ernes agree. Even that
uhich 7nakes Annas high-priest together with Caiaphas appears correct, if
we consider the peculiar influence which that ex-high-priest retained."
(Lebeii Jesu, $ 44 ; pp. 300, 301, E. T.)
Note LXXXV., p. 197.
Joseph. Ant. Jud. xvii. 11, § \. "But all vvho. were of the kindred
Lect. VII. NOTES. 409
of Archelaus refused to join themselves to him, on account of their
hatred towards him." Compare 13, §2.
Note LXXXVL, p. 197.
Joseph. Be Bell. Jud. ii. 1, §3.
Note LXXXVH., p. 198.
Strauss, Leben Jesu, § 48 ; vol. i. p. 346, E. T.
Note LXXXVIII., p. 198.
Josephus says, " Herod the tetrarch had married the daughter of
Aretas, and had now lived with her a long time. But having made a
journey to Rome, he lodged in the house of Herod, his brother, but not
by the same mother. For this Herod was the son of the daughter of
Simon, the high-priest. Now he fell in love with Herodias, this man's
wife, who was the daughter of Aristobulus their brother, and the sister
of Agrippa the Great ; and he had the boldness to propose marriage.
She accepted the proposal, and it was agreed that she should go to live
with him, whenever he should return from Rome." (Ant. Jud. xviii. 5,
§ 1.) And again: "Herodias, their sister, was married to Herod, the
son of Herod the Great, who was born of Mariamne, the daughter of
Simon the high-priest, who had also a daughter Salome ; after the birth
of whom, Herodias, in shameful violation of the customs of our nation,
allowed herself to marry Herod, the brother of her former husband
by the same father, separating from him while he was living. Now
this man [whom she married] held the office of tetrarch of Galilee."
(Ibid. J 4.)
Note LXXXIX., p. 198.
Ant. Jud. xviii. 5, $2: "Now some of the Jews thought that the
army of Herod had been destroyed by God, in most righteous ven-
geance for the punishment inflicted upon John, surnamed the Baptist.
For lie taught the Jews to cultivate virtue, and to practice righteous-
ness towards each other, and piety towards God, and so to come to
baptism. For he declared that this dipping would be acceptable to
Him, if they used it, not with reference to the renunciation of certain
35
410 NOTES. Lect. VII.
situ, but to the purification of the body,1 the soul having been purified
by righteousness. And when others thronged to him, (for they were
profoundly moved at the hearing of his words,) Ilerod feared that his
great influence over the men would lead them to some revolt, (for they
seemed ready to do any tiling by his advice ;) he therefore thought it
much better to anticipate the evil, by putting him to death, before he
had attempted to make any innovation, than to allow himself to be
brought into trouble, and then repent after some revolutionary move-
ment had conmenced. And so John, in consequence of the suspicion oj
lloxxl, teas sent as a prisoner to the af ore-mentioned castle of Macheerus,
and was there put to death." The genuineness of this passage is admit-
ted even by Strauss. {Leben Jesu, § 48 ; vol. i. pp. 344-347, E. T.)
Note XC, p. 198.
Strauss, Leben Jesu, 1. s. c. The chief points of apparent difference
are the motive of the imprisonment and the scene of the execution.
Josephus makes fear of a popular insurrection, the Evangelists offence
at a personal rebuke, the motive. But here (as Strauss observes) there
is no contradiction, for "Antipas might well fear that John, by his
strong censure of the marriage and the whole course of the tetrarch's
life, might stir up the people into rebellion against him." Again, from
the Gospels we naturally imagine the prison to be near Tiberias, where
Herod Antipas ordinarily resided ; but Josephus says that prison was
at Machaerus in Peraea, a day's journey from Tiberias. Here, however,
an examination of the Gospels shows, that the place where Antipas
made his feast and gave his promise is not mentioned. It only appears
that it was near the prison. Now, as Herod was at this time engaged
in a war with Arctas, the Arabian rrince, between whose kingdom and
his own lay the fortress of Machierus, it is "a probable solution" of
the difficulty, that he was residing with his court at Machaerus at this
period. (Strauss, § 48, ad fin.)
Note XCL, p. 198.
Philip is said to have retained his tetrarchy till the 20th year of Tibe-
1 Dr. Burton acutely remarks on this expression, that it is a covert allusion to the
Christian doctrine of "a baptism for the remission of sins," and shows the acquaintance
of Josephus with the teuets of the Christians. (Eccles. Hist. vol. i. p. 199.)
LECT. VII. NOTES. 411
rius. (Ant. Jud. xviii. 5, § 6.) Herod Antipas lost his government in
the first of Caligula. (Ibid. ch. 7.)
Note XCIL, p. 198.
Ant. Jud. xvii. 12 ; xviii. 1 ; Be Bell. Jud. ii. 8, § 1. " Now, when the
territory of Archelaus was formed into a province, a certain procurator,
of equestrian rank among the Romans, Coponius by name, was sent to
govern it, receiving from Ca\sar the power of life and death." The
procurators for this period, mentioned by Josephus, are Coponius, M.
Ambivius, Annius Rufus, Valerius Gratus, and Pontius Pilate. (Ant.
Jud. xviii. 2, § 2.)
Note XCHL, p. 198.
Joseph. Ant. Jud. xviii. 6, §§ 10, 11 ; 8, § 7 ; xix. 5, § 1 ; Philo, In
Flacc, p. 968, D. E.
Note XCIV., p. 198.
Joseph. Ant. Jiul. xix. 8, § 2 : " Now, after he had reigned three full
years over the whole of Judsca, he was at the city of Casarca, which was
formerly called Strato's Tower. And there he held public shows in
honor of Caesar, having learned that a certain festival was celebrated at
that time, to make vows for his safety. Now, at that festival there were
assembled a multitude of those who were first in office and authority in
the province. On the second day of the shoics, putting on a robe made
entirely of siker, the texture of which was truly wonderful, he came
into the theatre early in the morning. When the first beams of the sun
shone upon the silver, it glittered in a wonderful manner, flashing forth
a brilliancy which amazed and awed those who gazed upon him.
"Whereupon his flatterers immediately cried out, (though not for his
good,) one from one place and one from another, — addressing him as a.
god, — ' Be propitious to us ; ' and adding, ' Although we have here-
tofore feared thee as a man, yet henceforth we acknowledge thee to be
of more than mortal nature.' The king did not rebuke them, nor reject
their impious flattery. A little after, therefore, looking up, he saw an
owl sitting upon a certain rope over his head ; and he immediately un-
derstood that it was a messenger of evil, as it had formerly been of
good ; whereupon he was overcome with a profound sadness. There
412 NOTES. LECT. VII,
was also a severe pain in his bowels, which began with a sudden vio-
lence. Turning therefore to his friends, he said, — ' I, your god, am
now commanded to end my life ; and fate immediately reproves the false
shouts that were just now addressed to me : and so I, whom you call
immortal, am now snatched away by death. But we must accept the
fate which God ordains. And indeed we have not lived ill, but in the
most brilliant good fortune.' When he had said this, he was overcome
by the intensity of the pain. He was therefore quickly carried to the
palace, and the report went abroad to all, that he must inevitably soon
die. . . . Being consumed thus for five days in succession with the pain
in his belly, he departed this life."
Note XCV., p. 199.
Ibid. xix. 9, § 2 : " [Claudius] therefore sent Cuspius Fadus as i
procurator over Judaea, and all the kingdom."
Note XCVI., p. 199.
Ibid. xx. 5, § 2 ; 7, § 1 ; and 8, { 4. Agrippa II. bore the title of
king. (De Bell. Jud. ii. 12, § 8.)
Note XCVII., p. 199.
Antiq. Jud. xix. 9, § 1 ; xx. 7, § 3. The evil reports which arose
from this constant companionship are noticed by Josephus in the latter
of these passages. They are glanced at in the well-known passage of
Juvenal, (Sat. vi. 155-169.) "That well-known diamond, made even
more precious by being worn on the finger of Berenice. This jewel the
barbarian formerly gave to that unchaste woman, and Agrippa gave it
to his sister, in that country where kings keep the Sabbath festival with
naked feet, and an ancient indulgence allows the old men to eat pork."
Compare Tacit. Hist. ii. 2 and 81.
Note XCVIII., p. 199.
Joseph. Ant. Jud. xx. 8, § 8 ; 9, § 7 : " The king had been intrusted
by Claudius Ca?sar with the care of the temple." In one passage {Ant.
Jud. xx. 1, § 3) Josephus says that these privileges continued to be
LECT. VII. NOTES. 413
exercised by the descendants of Herod, king of Chalcis, from his de-
cease to the end of the war. But he here uses the term "descendants"
very loosely ; or he forgets that Agrippa II. was the nephew, and not
the son, of this monarch. (See the note of Lardner, Credibility, vol. i.
p. 18, note 8.)
Note XCIX., p. 199.
The procuratorship of Pilate lasted from the 12 th year of Tiberius
(A. I). 26) to the 22d, (A. D. 36.) See Joseph. Ant. Jud. xviii. 3, § 2,
and 4, § 2. Felix entered upon his office as sole procurator in the 12th
year of Claudius, (A. D. 53,) and was succeeded by Porcius Festus
early in the reign of Nero. (Ant. Jud. xx. 7, § 1 ; and 8, § 9.)
Note C, p. 199.
The vacillation and timidity of Pilate appear in his attempt to estab-
lish the images of Tiberius in Jerusalem, followed almost immediately
by their withdrawal. (Ant. Jud. xviii. 3, § 1.) His violence is shown
in his conduct towards the Jews who opposed his application of the
temple-money to the construction of an aqueduct at Jerusalem, (ibid.
$ 2,) as well as in his treatment of the Samaritans on the occasion
which led to his removal. (Ibid. 4, § 1.) Agrippa the elder speaks of
the iniquity of his government in the strongest terms, (ap. Philon. Ijeg.
ad Caium, p. 10S4 : "he feared lest they should examine and expose
the misdeeds of his former procuratorship, the taking of bribes, the acts
of violence, the extortions, the tortures, the menaces, the repeated mur-
ders without any form of trial, the harsh and incessant cruelty.")
Note CI., p. 199.
Tacitus says of Felix, " Antonius Felix exercised the royal author-
ity in a manner agreeable to the baseness of his disposition, with all
cruelty and wantonness." (Hist. v. 9.) And again : "But his father,
whose surname was Felix, did not conduct himself with the same mod-
eration. Having been a long time governor of Judiea, he thought lie
could commit all crimes with impunity, relying upon his great power."
(Ann. xii. 54.)
Josephus gives a similar account of his government. (Ant. Jud.
xx. 8.) After he quitted office he was accused to the emperor, and
35*
414 NOTES. LECT. VII.
only escaped a severe sentence by the influence which his brother Pallas
possessed with Nero.
Note CIL, p. 199.
See Ant. Jud. xx. 8, §{ 10, 11 ; Bell. Jud. ii. 14, § 1. In the latter
passage Josephus says, " Now Festus, having succeeded this man in
the office of procurator, relieved the country of its greatest scourge.
For he captured a large number of the robbers, and destroyed not a
few. But Albinus, who succeeded Festus, did not govern after the
same manner. For it is not possible to mention any form of evil-doing
which he omitted to practise."
Note CIIL, p. 199.
See above, Notes C. and CI.
Note CIV., p. 199.
Here the accuracy of St. Luke is very remarkable. Achaia, though
originally a senatorial province, (Dio Cass. liii. p. 503, E.,). had been
taken into his own keeping by Tiberius, (Tacit. Ann. i. 76,) and had
continued under legates during the whole of his reign. Claudius,
-however, in his fourth year restored the province to the senate, (Suet.
vit. Claud. § 35,) from which time it was governed by proconsuls. St.
Paul's visit to Corinth fell about two years after this change.
Note CV., p. 199.
Seneca says of Gallio, " I used to say to you, that my brother
Gallio, (whom every body loves as much as I do, although no one can love
him more,) while he was free from all other vices, had a special hatred
to this." And again: "No other mortal is so dear to any one, as he
is to all." (Quasi. Nat. iv. Pracfat.) Statius uses the same epithet,
(Sy/v. ii. 7, 11. 32, 33:) "This is more than to have given Seneca
to the world, or to have been the parent of dear Gallio."
Note CVL, p. 200.
See Joseph. Ant. Jud. xvii. 12, § 5 ; xviii. 1, § 1. " Moreover Cyre-
nius came also into Judea, which had been annexed to Syria, to make a
Lect. VII. NOTES. 415
valuation of their property, and to dispose of the money of Areheltus.
But the people, although at first they could hardly endure to hear of
an enrolment, at length submitted," &c. The difficulty with respect
to the time of the taxing will be considered in Note CX1X.
Note CVII., p. 200.
There was a Sergius Paulus who bore the office of consul in the year
A. D. 94. Another held the same office in A. D. 168. This latter is
probably the Sergius Paulus mentioned by Galen. (Anat, i. 1, vol. ii.
p. 218 ; De Prcnwt. § 2 ; vol. xiv. p. 612.)
Note CVIII., p. 200.
Cyprus was originally an imperial province, (Dio Cass. liii. p. 504,
A.,) and therefore governed by legates or propraetors, (Strab. xiv. 6,
§ 6 ;) but Augustus after a while gave it up to the Senate, from which
time its governors were proconsuls. (See Dio, liv. p. 523, B. "At
that time therefore he gave up Cyprus and Gallia Narbonensis to the
people, as having no further need of his arms ; and so proconsuls began
to be sent to those nations.") The title of proconsul appears on
Cyprian coins, and has been found in a Cyprian Inscription of the
reign of Claudius. (Boeckh, Corp. Inscript. No. 2632.)
Note CIX., p. 200.
Joseph. Ant. Jtid. xiv. 13, § 3 ; De Bell. Jud. i. 13, § 1 ; Dio Cass,
xlix. p. 411, B. This Lysanias was the son of Ptolemy, son of Mcn-
naeus, and setms to have been king of Chalcis and Itura\i, inheriting
the former from his father, and receiving the latter from Mark Antony.
See the passages above cited.
Note CX., p. 200.
Lysanias, the son of rtolemy, was put to death by Antony, at the
instigation of Cleopatra, (Joseph. Ant. Jud. xv. 4, § 1, certainly before
the year of Rome 719, B. C. 35. (See Dio Cass. 1. s. c.)
Note CXI., p. 200.
So Strauss, Lcben Jest(, § 44; vol. i. p. 302, E. T.
416 NOTES. Lect. VIL
Note CXIL, p. 200.
Ibid. p. 301. «« We cannot indeed prove that, had a younger Lysa-
nias existed, Josephus must have mentioned him," &c.
Note CXIIL, p. 200.
Strauss assumes, without an atom of proof, that Abila (or Abilene)
■was included in the kingdom of Lysanias, the contemporary of An-
tony. It is never mentioned as a part of his territories. Indeed, as
Dr. Lee has remarked,' it seems to be pointedly excluded from them.
Agrippa the First received "the Abila of Lysanias" from Claudius,
at the very time when he relinquished the kingdom of Chalcis, which
formed the special territory of the old Lysanias. (Joseph. De Bell,
Jud. ii. 12, § 8 ; Ant. Jud. six. 5, § 1.) Thus it would appear that
Josephus really intends a different Lysanias from the son of Ptolemy in
these two passages. Even, however, if this were not the case, his
silence would be no proof that a second Lysanias had not held a
tetrarchy in these parts at the time of John's ministry. That Abila
formed once a tetrarchy by itself seems implied in the subjoined pas-
sage from Pliny — " Tetrarchies, each forming a sort of province, inter-
sect these cities, and bind them together, and these again are united
into kingdoms, as the tetrarchy of Trachonitis, of Paneas, of Abila,"
&c. (11. N. v. 18, ad fin.)
Note CXIV., p. 201.
See above, Notes IV., LXXXIX., and XCIV.
Note CXV., p. 201.
Strauss, Leben Jesu, § 32 ; vol. i. p. 301, E. T.
Note CXVL, p. 201.
See the Zeitschrift ftlr geschichtliche Rechticissenschaft, vol. vi., quoted
by Olshausen in his Biblischer Commentar, (vol. i. p. 125 ; p. 116, E. T.)
On the general question, see Alford's Greek Testament, vol. i. p. 315.
1 See hi? Inspiration of Holy Scripture, Lecture VIII., p. 403, note*. I am indebted to
my friend, Mr. Mansel, for my knowledge of this excellent work.
LECT. VII. NOTES. 417
Note CXVII., p. 201.
Ant. Jud. xviii. 1, § 1. See above, Note CVI.
Note CXVIII.. p. 201.
Strauss, Leben Jesn, § 32, p. 204, E. T.
Note CXIX., p. 202.
The following explanations of Luke ii. 2, have been proposed : (1.)
It has been proposed to take itpdri] ' with iizoypa^fi,9 to regard Kup^w'ou3 as
a genitive dependent on dnoypaQt),* and f/yiiiovitovros* as equivalent to
hyindvoi6 or hyeov'toavTou1 The passage is then translated, "This was
the first assessment of Cyrenius, once governor of Syria." (See Lard-
ner, Credibility, vol. i. pp. 173-175.)
(2.) Only slightly different from this is the view of Beza8 and others,
which takes " first " in the same way, but regards fjytfiovtiovroi Kup^w'ou 9 as
a genitive absolute, and renders the verse, "This first assessment was
made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria." Both these explana-
tions suppose that Cyrenius made two assessments, one before he was
actual President of Syria and one afterwards. The former regards
Cyrenius as designated by his subsequent title ; the latter supposes that
he may have been called " governor " when strictly speaking he was
not so, but had a certain degree of authority. Two objections lie
against both views. 1. The ordo verborum does not allow us to take
"first" with "taxing." 2. No writer hints at Cyrenius having been
twice employed to make a census in Palestine.
(3.) A third explanation is, that rpiinj'0 is for wpor/pa," and that the
genitive Kvpnviov 12 depends upon it, the construction used being analo-
gous to that of St. John, in irp<ir<5< fiov f>,13 (i. 15.) The meaning is,
then, " This assessment was made before the time when Cyrenius was
governor of Syria." (Lardncr, Credibilitij, vol. i. pp. 165-173 ; Alford,
Greek Testament, vol. i. p. 314.)
'First. * Taxing, or enrolment. * Cyrenius. 'Taxing.
• Governing, or lining goyernor. * Governor. 1 Having been governor.
8 See Lanlner, Credibility, vol. i. p. 171. note d.
• Cyrenius governing, or when Cyrenius was governor. ,0 First.
11 Former. n Of Cyrenius. " For he was before me.
418 NOTES. Lect. VII.
^4.) Finally, it is maintained that iyiviro* should be regarded as
emphatic — and that St. Luke means, as I have suggested in the text,
that while the enrolment was begun a little before our Lord's birth,
it was never fully executed until Cyrenius carried it through. Both this
and the preceding explanation seem to be allowable — they are compat-
ible with the Hellenistic idiom, and do no violence to history. As
Lardncr has shown, there is abundant reason to believe that an enrol-
ment was actually set on foot shortly before the death of Herod. (See
the Credibility, vol. i. pp. 151-159.)
Note CXX., p. 202.
See his Short View of the Harmony of the Evangelists, Prop. xi. pp.
145-149.
Note CXXL, p. 202.
Connection of Sacred and Profane History, vol. ii. p. 505.
Note CXXIL, p. 202.
Ant. Jud. xviii. 1, § 1. After speaking of Cyrenius as sent from
Rome for the express purpose of effecting a census, Josephus adds,
" Now Judas, a Gaulonite, of the city named Gamaia, taking as his
accomplice the Pharisee Sadduc, rushed into rebellion, saying that the
imposing of the tribute was nothing short of downright slavery, and
summoning the people to a struggle for freedom." He then speaks of
the success of Judas's efforts, and his formation of a sect, which Jo-
sephus puts on a par with those of the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and
the Essenes. " Of the fourth of these sects of philosophy, Judas the
GaliUtan became the leader." (Ibid. § 6.)
Note CXXHL, p. 202.
De Bell. Jud. ii. 17, \ 8. The followers of Thcudas '« were scattered
and brought to nought," (Acts v. 36,) but those of Judas the Galilseap
" were dispersed." (Ibid, verse 37.) It is in exact accordance with
this distinction that the latter reappear in the Jewish war, while of the
former we hear nothing. See Dean Alford's note ad loc.
• Was made, or took place.
LfcCT. VEL NOTES. 419
Note CXXIV., p. 202.
Antiq. Jud. xx. 5, § 1.
Note CXXV., p. 202.
lb. xvi. 10, § 4 : " But at this time Judaea was agitated by ten thou-
sand other tunudts, and many from all quarters rushed to arms, either in
the hope of their own advantage, or out of enmity to the Jews."
Note CXXVI., p. 203.
De Bell. Jud. ii. 13, § 5 : " But the Egyptian false prophet brought
upon the Jews a heavier woe than this. For this impostor came into
the country, and persuaded the people that he was a prophet, and
assembled about 30,000 misguided men. Leading them about from the
wilderness to the mount called the Mount of Olives, he thought he
would be able from that position to force an entrance into the city, and
having overpowered the Roman garrison, to oppress the people, with
the help of the soldiers that would break into the city with him. But
Felix, meeting him with his Roman soldiers, anticipated his attack, and
all the people joined him in his defensive operations ; so that when an
engagement took place, the Egyptian fled with a small company, and
the greater part of those who were with him were either destroyed or
captured. But the rest of the multitude were dispersed, and each
sought his own home as secretly as possible." Compare Antiq. Jud.
xx. 8, $ 6.
Note CXXVII., p. 203.
In the parallel passage of the Antiquities, (1. s. c.,) Josephus says
that Felix slew 400 and captured 200 of the Egyptian's followers. If
he had really estimated their whole number at 30,000, he would scarcely
have said, that " very many (zhiaroi) were killed or taken prisoners,"
when the loss in both ways was no more than 600 men. It has been
sagaciously conjectured that the reading rpiaftvpior^ should be replaced
by TirpaKia-^iXlovf,2 having arisen from the ready confusion of,.*3 with i,4
or ,A3 with ,&.* (Lardner, Credibility, vol. i. p. 227.)
1 80,000. ' 4,000. > The Creek letter which stands for 30,000.
* The Greek letter which stands for J,0(X>.
420 NOTES. Lect. VIII.
Note CXXVIIL, p. 203.
Ant. Jud. xx. 2, § 6. Compare Dio Cassius, lx. pp. 671, 672 ; Tacit
Ann. xii. 43 ; Sueton. vit. Claud. § 18. Eusebius mentions a famine
in Greece during the same reign. {Chronica, pars. ii. p. 373, Ed. Mai.)
Josephus calls the famine in Judaea, to which he refers, " the great
famine." {Ant. Jud. xx. 5, § 2.)
Note CXXIX., p. 204.
Alford, Greek Testament, vol. ii. p. 53.
Note CXXX., p. 204.
See an article " on the Bible and Josephus," in the Journal of Sacred
Literature for October, 1850.
Note CXXXI., p. 205.
S. Ambrose, Comment, in Psalm, cxviii. § 37. {Opera, vol. i. p.
1206.)
Note CXXXIL, p. 205.
Ibid. Explic. Luc. x. § 171. {Opera, vol. i. p. 1542.)
Note CXXXIII., p. 205.
Irenaeus, Advers. Hceres. iii. 1. {Opera, vol. ii. p. 6.)
LECTURE VIII.
Note I., p. 207.
Of all our writers on the Evidences, Lardner is the only one who
appears to be at all duly impressed with a feeling of the value of Chris-
tian witnesses. He devotes nearly two volumes to the accumulation of
their testimonies. (See his Credibility, vols. i. ii. and iii.) Paley does
Lect. VIII. NOTES. 421
not make any use of Christian writers to prove the facts of Christianity ;
he only cites them as witnesses to the early existence and repute of our
Historical Scriptures. Butler in a general way refers to the evidence
of the "first converts," (Analogy, part ii. ch. 7, p. 291 ;) but omits to
"enlarge on the point. And this is the general spirit of our Apologists.
Note II., p. 207.
So Celsus, (ap. Origen. Contr. Cels. iii. 44.) Strauss endeavors to
diminish the authority of the Apostles, and first preachers of Chris-
tianity, by contrasting the darkness of Galilee and Judaea with the
enlightenment of "highly civilized Greece and Rome." (Leben Jesu,
§ 13, sub fin. ; vol. i. p. 64, E. T.)
Note III., p. 208.
Stromata, ii. pp. 464, 489, 490 ; v. p. 677 ; vi. p. 770. Clement
believes the writer to be the companion of St. Paul. (See Strom, ii.
p. 489 : "I have no need to multiply words, for I have the testimony
of the Apostolic Barnabas. Now he was one of the seventy, and was a
co-worker with Paid." He then quotes from the extant Epistle.)
Note IV., p. 208.
Contra Celsum, i. § 63 ; p. 378, B. ; De Princip. iii. 2, § 4 ; p. 140, E.
Note V., p. 208.
Professor Norton assigns the Epistle of Barnabas to " the middle of
the second century," (Genuineness of the Gospels, vol. i. p. 347 ;) but on
very insufficient evidence. Lardner gives A. D. 71 or 72 as the proba-
ble date of its composition. (Credibility, vol. i. p. 285.)
M. Bunsen, while rejecting the view that it was written by the com-
panion of St. Paul, puts its composition "about 15 years before that of
the Gospel of St. John," or some time before the close of the first
century. (Hippolytus and his Aye, vol. i. p. 54.)
The genuineness of the Epistle has been well defended by Dr, Lee,
who thoroughly exposes the common fallacy, that, if the work of the
Apostle, it must have formed a portion of Canonical Scripture. (See his
Lectures on the Inspiration of Holy Scripture, Appendix E., pp. 472-477. J
3G
422 NOTES. Lect. VIIL
Note VI., p. 209.
See the subjoined passages — "In fine, by teaching Israel, and per-
forming such wonders and sig?is, and preaching, he showed his great love
to Israel. But when he chose his own Apostles, to preach his gospel . . .
then he showed himself to be the Son of God." ($ 5, p. 15.) "Now
the servant? who perform this sprinkling, are they who preach to us the
remission of sins, and the purification of the heart. For he gave them
authority to proclaim the gospel ; and they are twelve in number, for a
testimony to the tribes ; for the tribes of Israel are twelve." (§ 8, p. 25.)
" He himself wished to suffer thus . . . for he who prophesied of him said
. . . ' Behold, I hare given my back to the scourges, and my checks to buf-
fetings.'" (§ 5, p. 1C.) "Then they shall see him in that day, having
about his body the scarlet robe reaching down to the feet, and they shall
Fay, • Is not this he whom we set at nought, and cmcified, and pierced,
and mocked?' " (§ 7, p. 24.) " The Son of God suffered, that his wound
might give us life ; . . . moreover, when he was crucified, they gave him
vinegar and gall to drink." (§ 7, pp. 20, 21.) " And again Moses made
a type of Jesus, [showing] that it was necessary that he, whom they
believed to have perished, should suffer, and should so become the author
of life." (§ 12, p. 39.) " What then does the prophet say? 'The as-
sembly of the wicked encompassed me ; they surrounded me, as bees
around the comb ; and they cast lots upon my raiment.' Thus were
foreshown the sufferings of him who was about to be manifested and to
suffer." (§ 6, p. 18.) " Wherefore we spend the eighth day in gladness,
on which also Jesus rose from the dead ; and when he had shown him-
self, he ascended to heaven." (§ 15, p. 48.)
Note VII., p. 209.
Lardner, Credibility, vol. i. p. 289, et seqq : Burton, Eccles. History,
vol. i. pp. 342, 343 ; Norton, Genuineness, &c, vol. i. pp. 336-338 ;
Bunsen, Hippolytus, vol. i. pp. 44-47 ; Jacobson, Prcefat. ad S. Clem.
Ep. p. x.-xvii., prefixed to his Patres Apostolici.
Note VIII., p. 209.
The following are the passages to which reference is made in the
text: " From him (i. e. Jacob) came the Lord Jesus Christ, as to his
Lect. VIIL notes. 423
flesh." (§ 32, p. 114.) "The sceptre of the majesty of God; our Lord
Jesus Christ came not with noisy boasting and pride, although lie could
have done so, but with humility." (§ 16, pp. 60, 62.) " His sufferings
were before our eyes." ({ 2, p. 12.) " Especially when we remember the
words of the Lord Jesus, which he spake, teaching gentleness and long-
suffering. For thus he spake : ' Be merciful, that ye may receive
mercy ; forgive, that ye may be forgiven ; as ye do, so shall it be done
to you ; as ye give, so shall it be given to you ; as ye judge, so shall ye
be judged ; as ye show kindness, so shall kindness be shown to you ;
with what measure ye measure, with the same shall ye be measured.' "
(§ 13, p. 52.) "Let us look to the blood of Christ, and let us observe
how precious to Gnd is his blood, which was shed for our salvation."
(§ 7, p. 34.) " For the love which he had to us, our Lord Jesus Christ
gave his blood for us, according to the will of God, and his flesh for
our flesh, and his soul for our souls." (§ 49, p. 178.) "That there should
be a future resurrection, of which he made our Lord Jesus Christ the
first-fruits, by raising him from the dead." (§ 24, p. 98.) " Now Christ
was sent by God, and the Apostles by Christ." (§ 42, p. 148.) " With the
full assurance of the Holy Spirit, the Apostles went forth, preaching that
the kingdom of God was about to come. Preaching thus through many
countries and cities, from the first fruits of their labors, after having
proved them by the Spirit, they appointed bishops and deacons." (ibid. pp.
148, 150.) "Through jealousy and envy, the greatest and inost just
pillars were persecuted, and came to a violent end. Let us set before
our eyes the good apostles. Peter, through an unrighteous envy, suf-
fered, not one, nor two, but many troubles, and so becoming a martyr at
last, he went to the fitting place of glory. Through envy also Paid
won the reward of patience, seven times wearing bonds, being compelled
to fee, being stoned, becoming a preacher to the East and to the West; and
he gained a noble renown by his faith, having taught righteousness to
the whole world ; and having penetrated to the farthest west, he suffered
martyrdom under the emperors," &c. ({ 5, pp. 24, 28.)
Notk IX., p. 209.
Ep. ad Cor. § 47, p. 168 : " Take up the Epistle of the blessed
Apostle Paul. "What did he write to you first, in the very beginning
of the gospel. Truly he gave you a spiritual charge concerning him-
424 notes. Lect. MIL
self, and Cephas, and Apollos ; for even then ye were given to par-
tialities." Comp. 1 Cor. i. 10-12.
Note X., p. 210.
See Burton's Ecclesiastical History of the First Three Centuries, vol. i.
pp. 197 and 357.
Note XI., p. 210.
Ibid. vol. ii. p. 23. Compare Pearson's Disputatio de Anno quo S.
Ignatius a Trajano Antiochiee ad Bestias erat condemnatus, (printed in Dr.
Jacobson's Patres Apostolici.) vol. ii. pp. 524-529. Pearson places the
Martyrdom in A. D. 116 ; M. Bunsen in A. D. 115. {Hippolytus and
his Age, vol. i. p. 89.)
Note XII., p. 210.
Two of these Epistles are addressed to St. John, and the third to the
Virgin Mary. They exist in several MSS., and were printed at Paris
as early as A. Ti. 1495. Burton says of them, "Two Epistles to St.
John and one to the Virgin Mary, which only exist in Latin, do not
deserve even to be mentioned." (Eccles. Hist. vol. ii. p. 29, note.) So
far as I know, they are not now defended by any one.
Note XIII., p. 210.
Lardner, Credibility, vol. i. pp. 314, 315 ; Burton, Eccles. Hist. vol.
ii. pp. 29, 30 ; Schrockh, Christl. Kirch. Geschichte, vol. ii. p. 341, et
seqq. ; Neander, Geschichte der Christl. Religion, vol. ii. p. 1140; Kiste
in Illgen's Zeitschrift filr historische Theologie, II. ii. pp. 47-90 ; Jacob-
son, Patres Apostolici, vol. ii. pp. 262-470 ; Hefele, Patrum Apostolico-
rum Operc, 3d edition, Prolegomena, p. lviii.
Note XIV., p. 210.
Euseb. Hist. Eccle.t. iii. 36 ; Hieronym. De Viris Illustr. c. xvi., (Op.
vol. ii. p. 841, ed. Vallars.) The brief account given m the text of a
very complicated matter, requires a few words of elucidation, and per-
haps, to some extent, of correction. The twelve Epistles in their
longer form exist both in Greek and in an ancient Latin version.
Eleven Epistles out of the twelve are found in a second Latin version,
Lect. VIII. NOTES. 425
likewise ancient, which presents numerous important variations from
the other, and is in general considerably shorter. Of these eleven Epis-
tles, the first seven, and a fragment of the eighth, were found in Greek
in the famous Medicean manuscript, which evidently gave the original
text of the shorter Latin translation. The seven (complete) Epistles of
the Medicean MS. are nearly, but not quite, identical with the seven
Epistles mentioned by Eusebius and Jerome. They consist, that is, of
six out of the seven (viz., the Epistles to the Ephesians, Magnesians,
Trallians, Philadelphians, Smyrnseans, and Polycarp,) together with a
letter to a Christian woman, Maria Cassobolita ; and there is also in
the MS. a fragment of the Epistle to the Tarsians. The Epistle to the
Romans, which is placed at the end of the shorter Latin recension, is
not in the Medicean MS. ; but this is explained by the fact that that
MS. is a fragment. As it observes the exact order of the shorter Latin
version, and seems to be the text — oidy somewhat corrupt — from
which that version was made, we may conclude, that it contained ori-
ginally the same eleven letters. Thus we cannot base any argument on
the identity of the Eusebian and Medicean Epistles. It is not an exact
identity ; and the approach to identity is perhaps an accident-
Note XV., p. 210.
See Dr. Cureton's Corpus Ignatianum, Introduction, pp. xxxiv.-
lxxxvii. ; Bunsen, Hippolytus and his Age, vol. i. pp. 98-103.
Note XVI., p. 211.
Sec Dr. Jacobson's Preface to the third edition of his Patres Apos-
tolici, p. liv. ; Hefele's Prolegomena, 1. s. c. ; Professor Hussey's Univer-
fity Sermons, Preface, pp. xiii.-xxxix. ; Vhlhorn in Niedner's Zeitschrifl
fUr historische Theologie, xv. p. 247, et seqq., and ('anon Wordsworth in
the English Review, No. viii. p. 309, et seqq. The shorter Greek Recen-
sion is also regarded as genuine by the present Regius Professor of He-
brew in the University of Oxford.
Note XVII., p. 211.
The subjoined are the most important of the Ignatian testimonies to
the facts of Christianity: "Come together in one faith, even in Jesus
30*
426 NOTES. Lect. VIIL
Christ, who was of the family of David according to the flesh, the Son
of man and Son of God." (Ep. ad Eph. xx. p. 302.) " For Jesus Christ
our God was born of Mary, according to the appointment of God, of the
seed of David, but by the Holy Spirit. He was born, and teas baptized,"
&c. &c. (Ibid, xviii. pp. 296-298.) "Three notable mysteries were kept
secret from the prince of this world, the virginity of Mary, and the
birth and death of the Lord." (Ibid. xix. p. 298.) " How then was he
manifested to the ages? A star shone in heaven, brighter than all the
other stars, and its lustre was indescribable, and the novelty of its ap-
pearance caused great wonder." (Ibid. xix. p. 300.) " Our Lord . . .
was truly born of a virgin, baptized by John, that all righteousness might
be fulfilled by him, and was truly nailed to the cross in the flesh for us,
under Pontius Pilate and Herod the tetrarch." (Ep. ad Smyrn. i. p. 410.)
"We love the prophets also, because they too announced gospel tidings,
and hoped in him, and waited for him ; in whom also they believed,
and were saved in the unity of Jesus Christ, being holy men, and
worthy of love and admiration, to whom also Jesus Christ bore testimony."
(Ep. ad Philadelph. v. pp. 394-396.) " On this account the Lord received
the ointment upon his head, that he might breathe upon his church the
odor of immortality." (Ep. ad Ephes. xvii. p. 296.) " He suffered truly,
as he also truly raised himself from the dead." (Ep. ad Smyrn. ii. p. 418.)
" We no longer keep the Sabbath, but we live a new life on the Lord's
day, on which also our life arose with him." (Ep. ad Magnes. ix. p. 324.)
"The prophets looked for him us their teacher : and therefore he whom
they justly expected, when he came, raised them from the dead." (Ibid.
1. s. c.) "For I saw him in the flesh even after his resurrection, and
I believe that he still exists. And when he came to Peter and his com-
panions, he said to them, ' Take, and handle me, and see that I am not a
bodiless spirit.' And immediately they touched him, and believed."
(Ep. ad Smyrn. iii. p. 420.) "Now after his resurrection he ate with
them and drank with them, as one in the flesh." (Ibid. 1. s. c.) " Sub-
mit yourselves to the bishop and to one another, as Jesus Christ to the
Father, in his human nature, and as the Apostles to Christ and to the
Father and to the Spirit." (Ep. ad Magnes. xiii. p. 328.) " It is neces-
sary therefore to submit to the company of presbyters, as to the Apos-
tles." (Ep. ad Trail, ii. p. 334.) " Not as Peter and Paul do I command
you : they were Apostles, I am a man under sentence." (Ep. ad Rom.
iv. p. 368.)
LECT. VIII. NOTES. 427
Note XVIII., p. 211.
See Dr. Cureton's Corpus Ignatianum, pp. 227-231 ; and M. Bunseris
Hippolytus, vol. i. pp. 92-98.
Note XIX., p. 212.
See Jacobson's Patres Apostolici, vol. ii. pp. 484-512. This work is
admitted to be genuine, even by M. Bunsen. {Hippolytus, vol. i. pp.
225-227.)
Note XX., p. 212.
See especially the following passages : " Servants . . . walking ac-
cording to the truth of the Lord, who became the servant of all." (§ 5, p.
494.) " We remember also what the Lord said in his teaching, ' Judge
not, that ye be not judged .- forgive and it shall be forgiven you : be merciful,
and ye shall receive mercy : with what measure ye measure, it shall be
measured back to you : ' and, ' blessed are the poor, and they who are
persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of God.' "
(§ 2, pp. 488-490.) " Christ Jesus, who bore our sins in his men body
on the tree ; who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth; but
he endured all for us, that we might live through him." ($ 8, p. 502.)
" Whosoever shall not confess the testimony of the cross, is of the
devil." ({ 7, p. 500.) •' Our Lord Jesus Christ, who endured to be
brought even to death for our sins ; whom God raised, loosing the pains
of Hades." ($ 1, p. 486.) " We believe in Him who raised our Lord
Jesus Christ from the dead, and gave him glory, and a throne at his right
hand." ($2, p. 48G.) "Whom (i. e. the Lord) if we shall please in
this present world, we shall receive also the future world, as he promised
us, that he would raise us from the dead." (§5, p. 496.) "I beseech
you all therefore ... to exercise all patience, which also ye see exempli-
fied before your eyes, not only in the blessed Ignatius, Zosimus, and
Rufus, but also in others among you, and in Paul himself, and the rest
of the Apostles. For ye may be assured that none of these ran in vain,
but that they are all in the place that is fitting for them, with the Lord,
for whom also they suffered." (§ 9, pp. 502-504.) " The blessed and
illustrious Paul, who visited in person the men that then lived among
you, and taught the word of truth in a correct and certain manner,
and also, ichen he was absent, wrote you a letter," &c. (J 3, p. 490.)
428 NOTES. LECT. VIII.
Note XXL, p. 212.
See the Epistle of Irenscus to Florinus, preserved in Eusebius's Ec-
clesiastical History, (v. 20; vol. i. pp. 359, 360:) — "The lessons of
childhood are incorporated with the mind, and grow with its growth,
so that I can tell even the very place where the blessed Polycarp used
to sit and discourse, and his going out and coming in, and the nature
of his life, and the appearance of his person, and the discourses which
he delivered to the multitude, and how he related his intercourse vrith
John, and with the rest of those tcho had seen the Lord, and how he
remembered their words, and what he had heard from them concerning
the Lord, and concerning his miracles ; — how Polycarp declared all
these things in a manner agreeable to the Scriptures, as he had received
them from those who were eye witnesses of the word of life."
Note XXII., p. 212.
Euseb. Hist. Eccles. iii. 3 ; vol. i. p. 147 ; Hicronym. De Viris Illustr.
x. p. 831, ed. Vallars. Compare Origen. ad Rom. xvi. 13.
Note XXIIL, p. 212.
See the " Canon" published by Muratori in his Antiquitates Italics
Medii JEvi,1 where the writer (Hegesippus ?) says, that -'the book of
the Shepherd was written very lately, in our own times, by Hermas,
while his brother Pius presided over the Roman Church as bishop."
And compare Burton, Eccles. Hist. vol. ii. p. 104 ; Alford, Greek Testa-
ment, vol. ii. p. 441 ; Bunsen, Hippolytus, vol. i. p. 184 ; and Norton,
Genuiiwiess of the Gospels, vol. i. pp. 341, 342.
Note XXIV., p. 212.
Hermas mentions the mission of the Apostles — " Such are they who
believed the apostles, whom God sent into all the world to preach." (Past.
iii. 9, § 25, p. 122.) Their travels throughout the world— "These
twelve mountains which you see are twelve nations which occupy the
whole earth. The Son of God therefore is preached among them, by
1 Vol. iii. pp. 853, 854.
Lect. VIII. NOTES. 420
those whom he sent to them." (Ibid. § 17, p. 120.) Their sufferings
are indicated in the following passage : "I said to him, ' Sir, I wish to
know what they have endured.' 'Hear, then,' he said — ' wild beasts,
scourges, prisons, crosses, for the sake of his name.' " (Ibid. i. 3, § 2,
p. 78.)
Note XXV., p. 213.
See Burton's Eccles. Hist., vol. ii. p. 73 and p. 496.
Note XXVI., p. 213.
Ap. Euseb. Hist. Eccles. iv. 3 ; vol. i. p. 230 : " Now the works of
our Saviour were always conspicuous ; for they were real. They who
■were healed, and they who were raised from the dead, were seen not
only when they were healed, and when they were raised, but they were
always visible afterwards ; not only while the Saviour sojourned among
us, but also after he departed, and for a long time, insomuch that some
of them have reached even to our own times."
Note XXVII., p. 213.
Burton, Eccles. Hist. vol. ii. p. Ill ; Norton (Genuineness of the
Gospels, vol. i. p. 126) says A. D. 150. So the Benedictine Editors.
Bunsen and others date it eleven years earlier, A. D. 139. (See Hip-
polytus and his Age, vol. i. p. 216. Compare Bishop Kayc, Account of
the Writings and Opinions of Justin Martyr, pp. 11, 12; who, however,
declines to decide between the earlier and the later date.)
Note XXVIIL, p. 213.
Burton, E. II., vol. ii. pp. 128, 129. According to its title, the
second Apology was addressed to the Senate only, (to the Senate of the
Romans ;) but it contains expressions which imply that it was addressed
to an emperor, and Eusebius tells us that it was actually offered to M.
Aurelius.
Note XXIX., p. 213.
Kaye, Writings and Opinions of Justin Martyr, ch. i. p. 3.
480 NOTES. Lect. VIII.
Note XXX., p. 213.
Paley, Evidences, part i. ch. vii. p. 75. Professor Norton remarks
" From these works of Justin might be extracted a brief account of
the life and doctrine of Christ, corresponding with that contained in
the Gospels, and corresponding to such a degree, both in matter and
words, that almost every quotation and reference may be readily as-
signed to its proper place in one or other of the Gospels."
Note XXXI., p. 215.
The following are among the most important of Justin's testi-
monies : —
1. " Now Joseph, who was espoused to Mary, wished at first to put
away his betrothed, thinking that she had become pregnant by inter-
course with a man, that is to say, by fornication. But he was com-
manded in a dream not to put away his wife ; and the angel who
appeared to him told him, that what she had conceived was by the
Holy Ghost. Struck with awe, therefore, he did not put her away ;
but when there was an enrolment in Judaea, which then took place for
the first time under Cyrenius, he went up from Nazareth, where he
dwelt, to Bethlehem, whence his family originated, in order to be
enrolled ; for his family was of the tribe of Juda, which inhabited that
part of the land. And he, together with Mary, was commanded to go
forth into Egypt, and to be there with the child, until they should
receive divine direction to return to Judaea. Now the child was born
at that time in Bethlehem, and since Joseph had not any place to lodge
in that village, he lodged in a certain cave, in the neighborhood of the
village. Thus, then, it happened, while they were in that place, that
Mary brought forth Christ, and put him in a manger; where the Magi
from Arabia found him when they came; . . . and when the Magi
from Arabia did not return to Herod, as he had requested them to do,
but departed into their own country another way, as they were com-
manded, and when Joseph, with Mary and the child, had already gone
into Egypt, as they were divinely directed, Herod, not knowing the
child which the Magi had come to worship, commanded the children in
Bethlehem to be destroyed without distinction." (Dialog, cum Tryphon.
k 78, p. 175.)
LECT. VIII. NOTES. 431
2. "It was necessary that [the sacrifices] should cease, according to
the will of the Father, at the coming of his Son Jesus Christ, who was
born of a virgin of the race of Abraham, and the tribe of Judah, and
the family of David." (Ibid. § 43, p. 139.)
3. " The power of God came upon and overshadowed the virgin,
and caused her, though a virgin, to conceive ; and the angel of God,
who was sent to this virgin at that time, announced to her glad tidings,
saying, « Behold, thou shaH conceive in thy womb by the Holy Ghost,
and shalt bring forth a son, and he shall be called the Son of the Most
High, and thou shalt call his name Jesus ; for he shall save his people
from their sins." (Apolog. i. § 13, p. 64.)
4. " Then said Trypho, ' So you grant to us, that he was circumcised,
and observed the other rites enjoined by Moses.' I answered, ' I have
granted it, and I grant it now.' " {Dial, cum Tryphon. $ 67, p. 164.)
5. "Now this king Herod inquired of the elders of your people,
when the Magi from Arabia came to him, and said ' We have learned,
from a star that has appeared in heaven, that a king has been born in
your country, and we have come to worship him.' Then the elders
said that it should take place in Bethlehem, because it is thus written
in the prophet : « And thou, Bethlehem,' &c. Now when the Magi from
Arabia came to Bethlehem, and had worshipped the child, and offeree]
him gifts, gold, and frankincense, and myrrh, inasmuch as by a revela-.
tion from heaven . . . they were commanded not to return to. Herod,"
&c. (Ibid. § 78, pp. 174, 17-5.)
6. " And there (i. e. in Egypt) [Joseph and Mary] remained ir\
exile, until Herod, who slew the children in Bethlehem, had died, an<\
Archelaus had succeeded him." (Ibid. § 103, p. 198.)
7. " Now that the Christ, who was born, should be unknown tQ
other men until he should be grown, as it actually happened, hear what
was foretold on this point." (Apolog. i. § 35, p. 65.)
8. " Jesus, when he came to Jordan, was supposed to be the son of
Joseph the carpenter, and was regarded as a carpenter, for he performed
the works of a carpenter when he was among men, making ploughs,
and yokes," &c. (Dial, cum Trijj>hon. § 88, p. 186.)
9. " And then, when Jesus came to the river Jordan, where John wnx
baptizing, Jesus went down into the water, and a fire was kindled in the
Jordan, and as he came up out of the water, his apostles have testified
in writing, that the Holy Spirit, in the form of a dove, lighted upon
him." (Ibid. § 88, pp. 185, 186.)
432 NOTES. Lect. VIIT.
10. "For while John was making his abode on the banks of the
Jordan, and preaching the baptism of repentance, wearing only a leathern
girdle and a garment of camel's hair, and eating nothing but locusts
and wild honey, men suspected that he was the Christ. But he cried
out to them, ' I am not the Christ, ' but the voice of one crying ; for
he that is mightier than I will come, whose shoes I am not worthy to
bear.' " (Ibid. 1. s. c. p. 186.)
11. "Now when [Christ] became a man, the devil came to him, that
is to say, that power which is called the Serpent and Satan, tempting
him, and striving to cause him to fall, by demanding that he should
worship him. But on the contrary he was himself destroyed and cast
down, for Jesus proved him to be wicked, in demanding, contrary to
the Scriptures, to be worshipped as God, whereas he was an apostate
from the will of God. For he answered him, ' It is written, Thou shalt
worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.' " (Ibid:
§ 125, p. 218.)
12. " Now that it was foretold of our Christ that he should heal all
diseases, and raise the dead, hear the words that were spoken. They
were these : ' At his coming the lame shall leap as a hart, and the
tongue of the stammerers shall speak plainly : the blind shall see, and
the lepers shall be cleansed, and the dead shall be raised, and walk.'
Now that he did these things, you can learn from the acts that were
drawn up under Pontius Pilate." (Apolog. i. § 48, p. 72.)
13. " And from these things we know that Jesus had foreknowledge
of what was to be after him, and also from many other things which he
ioretold as about to occur to those who believed on him, and confessed
him to be the Christ. For even what we suffer, in having all things
taken from us by our kindred, this he foretold as about to come upon
us, so that in no respect does there appear to be any failure in his
word." (Dial, cum Tryphon. § 35, p. 133.)
14. "For Christ the Son of God, knowing by revelation from his
Father, one of his disciples formerly called Simon, gave him the name
of Peter." (Ibid. § 100, p. 195.)
15. "For his changing the name of Peter, one of the Apostles, . . .
as well as his changing the names of two other brothers, who were sons
of Zebedee, and whom he called ' Boanerges,' which means ' sons of
thunder, was a significant intimation that he was the Messiah." (Ibid
i 106, p. 201.)
Lect. VIII. NOTES. 433
16. "A certain foal of an ass was standing at the entrance of a vil-
lage, tied to a vine. This he commanded nia friends to bring to him at
that time ; and when it was brought he sat upon it, and came into Jeru-
salem." (Apolog. i. § 32, p. 63.)
17. "The apostles, in the Memoirs composed by them, which are
called Gospels, have reported to us that Jesus enjoined this upon them.
Taking bread, he gave thanks, and said, ' This do in remembrance of
me : this is my body ; ' and taking the cup likewise, he gave thanks,
and said, ' This is my blood.' And he distributed these to them only."
(Ibid. § 66, p. 83.)
18. " On the day on which he was about to be crucified, taking three
of his disciples to the mount called the Mount of Olives, which lies near
to the temple in Jerusalem, he prayed, saying, ' Father, if it be possible,
let this cup pass from me.' And after this he said in his prayer, ' Not
as I will, but as thou wilt.' " {Dial, cum Tryphon. § 99, p. 194.)
19. "The power of this same mighty word . . . had a suspension;
. . . for he was silent, and did not wish to answer any one a word,
when he was examined before Pontius THate." (Ibid. § 102, p. 197.)
20. "Now Herod succeeded Archelaus, and assumed the authority
that was conferred upon him. To him rilate, in order to do him a
favor, sent Jesus bound," &c. (Ibid. § 103, p. 198 ; compare Apolog.
i. § 40, p. 67, C.)
21. "Now Jesus Christ, when he was crucified by the Jews, had his
hands extended, ... as said the prophet, . . . ' They pierced m/
hands and my fcet,' referring to the nails by which his hands and his
feet were fastened to the cross. And after he was crucified, they cast
lots upon his raiment." (Ibid. $ 35, p. 65 ; compare $ 38, p. 66.)
22. "After he was crucified, and all his friends had forsaken and
denied him, — after that, having risen from the dead, and being seen by
them, he taught them to study the prophecies, in which it was foretold
that all these things should come to pa*s ; and when they had seen him
ascend to heaven, and believed, and had received from thence the power
which he sent upon them, they went to men of every race, and taught
these things, and were called Apostles." (Ibid. $ 50, p. 73.)
23. "And when he yielded up his spirit on the cross, he said,
'Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit.'" {Dial, cum Tryphon.
§ 105, p. 300.)
37
434 NOTES. Lect. VIII.
24. " For the Lord remained upon the tree almost until the evening ;
and towards evening they buried him : afterwards he arose, on the third
day." (Ibid. § 97, p. 193.)
25. «' For there is no race of men whatever, whether barbarians or
Greeks, or by whatsoever other name they may be called, whether liv-
ing in wagons, or houseless wanderers, among whom there are not
offered prayers and thanksgivings to the Father and Maker of all,
through the name of the crucified Jesus." (Ibid. § 117, p. 211.)
Note XXXII., p. 215.
See pages 204 and 205.
Note XXXIII., p. 216.
See especially Baur, in the Tubinger Zeitschrift filr Theohgie, 1836,
fasc. iii. p. 199 ; 1838, fasc. iii. p. 119 ; and in a pamphlet Ueber den
Crsprung des Episcopats, Tubingen, 1838, pp. 148-185. Also compare
his work, Die Ignatianischen Briefen tmd ihr ncuester Kritiker, eine
Streitschrift gegcn Hemn Bunsen, 8vo., Tobingen, 1848. Schwegler and
others have followed in the same track.
Note XXXIV., p. 216.
I refer especially to the labors of Signor Marchi and Mons. Ferret —
the former in his Monument i delle AUe Cristiane Primitive nella Metropoli
del Cristiancsimo, (lto, Rome, 1844,) the latter in his magnificent work,
Lea Catacombes de Borne, (6 volumes folio, Paris, 1852-1857.) In our
own country two useful little works have appeared on the subject — Dr.
Maitland's Church in the Catacombs, (London, 1847,) and Mr. Spencer
Northcote's Boman Catacombs, (London, 1857.) An able Article in
the Edinburgh Bevietc for January, 1859, (Art. iv.,) — to which I must
here express myself as under considerable obligations — has made the
general public familiar with the chief conclusions established by modern
inquiry.
Note XXXV., p. 217.
See Bishop Burnet's Letters from Italy and Switzerland in 1685 and
1686, (llotteraam, 1687,) pp. 209-211.
Lect. VIII. NOTES. 435
Note XXXVI., p. 218.
Spencer Northcote, Roman Catacombs, p. 4.
Note XXXVII., p. 218.
See Note IV. on Lecture VII., p. 383.
Note XXXVIII., p. 218.
Edinburgh Review No. 221, p. 106.
Note XXXIX., p. 218.
The grounds upon which Mr. Spencer Northcote bases his calcula-
tion are these : 1. The incidental notices in the old missals and office
books of the Roman church, and the descriptions given by ancient
writers, mention no less than sixty different Catacombs on the different
sides of Rome, bordering her fifteen great consular roads. Of these
about one third have been reopened, but in only one case has there
been any accurate measurement. Father Marchi has carefully meas-
ured a portion of the Catacomb of St. Agnes, which he calculates at
one-eighth of the entire cemetery, and has found the length of all its
streets and passages to be about two English miles. This gives a
length of 16 miles to the St. Agnes' Catacomb ; and as that is (appar-
ently) an average one — certainly smaller than some as well as larger
than some — the 60 Catacombs would contain above 900 (960) miles
of streets. 2. The height of the passages varies in the Catacombs, and
the layers of graves are sometimes more, sometimes less numerous,
occasionally not above three or four, in places thirteen or fourteen.
There are also interruptions to the regular succession of tombs from the
occurrence of chapels, and monuments of some pretension, (arcosolia.)
Allowing for these, it is suggested that we may take an average of ten
graves, five on each side, to every seven feet of street ; and this calcula-
tion it is, which, applied to the 900 miles of street, produces the result
of nearly seven millions of graves.
Note XL., p. 219.
Perret, Catacomb*-* de Rome, vol. vi. p. 101, et scqq.; Spencer North-
cote, Roman Catacombs, pp. 29, 30. For arguments to the contrary, see
Maitland's Church in the Catacombs, pp. 142-151.
436 NOTES. Lect. VIIL
Note XLL, p. 219.
Thus we find such inscriptions as the following : — "In the time of
the Emperor Adrian, the young man Marius, a general in the army,
who lived long enough, since he sacrificed his life for Christ by a bloody
death, rested at last in peace ; and was buried with merited tears and
respect." (Maitland, p. 128.) And, " The wave of death has not dared
to deprive Constans of the crown to which he was entitled by giving
his life to the sword." (Ibid. p. 129.) And again,
eHCrwPAHANYCfAAAHENYNCIIYC
HYrrAATYCnPw<l>HAECYM*AMHA
HArwTAQYIlECCYNTHNnAKE
TEaxMIAAANCHAAA'tECHT
which may be thus explained —
OtjC Toipirjavv; Ta).Xt]t vvvCrjVf
tjvyvXaTVf irpw <pt)fa cvfi tf>aftt]X-
rja Tiiira qvrjtacvvr t)v iraxt
TtoxpriXa avCijXXa <ptCrjT.
Hie Gordianus, GaUim nxtnciiix,
Jugulatus pro Jide, cumfamil-
ia tota, quiescunt in pace.
Theophila aiicillufecitJ (Perret, vol. vi. p. 152.)
Note XLII., p. 219.
The entire inscription runs as follows: — " Alexander is not dead,
but lives above the stars, and his body rests in this tomb. He ended
his life under the Emperor Antoninus, who, when he saw himself much
surpassed in conferring benefits, returned hatred for kindness. For
when he was bending the knee to offer the sacrifice of prayer to the true
God, he was led away to punishment. O what times ! " See Dr.
Maitland's Church in the Catacombs, pp. 32, 33.
Note XLIIL, p. 220.
" Dormit," * " quiescit," 3 " depositus est," 4 are the terms used ; and
1 Here Gordian. the courier from Gaul, strangled for the faith, with his whole family,
rests in peace. The maidservant Theophila erected this.
8 lie sleeps. 3 He rests. * He is laid away.
Lect. VIII. notes. 437
from the same idea burial-places are called by the name which has
since become common in Christian lands, viz., Kotptir/ipia, " cemeteries"
or " sleeping-places." See Marchi's Monumenti delle Arte Cristiani
Primitive, &c, p. 63 ; Spencer Northcote, Catacombs, p. 162. " In
pace" occurs, either at the beginning or at the end of an inscription,
almost as a necessary formula.
Note XLIV., p. 220.
Northcote's Catacombs, p. 163. The contrast in this respect between
Christian and Heathen monuments of the same date is very striking.
See Maitland's Church in the Catacombs, pp. 42, 43.
Note XLV., p. 220.
Northcote's Catacombs, pp. 50-64. Compare M. Perret's splendid
work, Les Catacombes de Rome, where these subjects are (almost with-
out exception) represented. The subjoined are the most important ref-
erences. Temptation of Eve, (vol. iv. PI. 31 ; v. PI. 12;) Moses strik-
ing the Rock, (vol. i. PI. 34, 57 ; ii. PI. 22, 27, 33 ; iii. PI. 2, 6 ; iv. PI.
28 ;) Noah welcoming the Dove, (vol. ii. PI. 53, 61 ; iv. PI. 25, &c. ;)
Daniel among the Lions, (vol. ii. PI. 42, 61 ; iii. PI. 7, 36 ;) the Three
Children, (vol. ii. PI. 36, 39 ; iii. 7 ;) Jonah under the Gourd (vol. i.
PI. 67 ; vol. ii. PI. 22, 23, 39; vol. iii. PI. 2, 5, &c. ;) Jonah and the
Whale, (vol. iii. 16, 22; vol. v. PI. 40, 57;) Adoration of the Magi,
(vol. v. PI. 12 ;) Magi before Herod, (vol. ii. PI. 48 ;) Baptism of Christ
by John, (vol. iii. PI. 52, 55 ;) Cure of the Paralytic, (vol. ii. PI. 34,
48 ;) Turning of Water into Wine, (vol. iv. PI. 28, No. 67 ;) Feeding of
the Five Thousand, (vol. i. PI. 27 ; iv. PI. 29, No. 73 ;) Raising of Laz-
arus, (vol. i. PI. 26 ; vol. ii. PI. 61 ; vol. iii. PI. 7, 36; vol. iv. PI. 25,
31, 32 ; vol. v. PI. 13, &c. ;) Last Supper, (vol. i. PI. 29 ;) Peter walk-
ing on the Sea, (vol. iv. PI. 16, No. 85;) Pilate washing his Hands,
(Maitland, p. 260.) To the historical subjects mentioned in the text
may be added the following: — The Nativity, (Perret, vol. iv. PI. 16,
No. 84 ;) the Conversation with the Woman of Samaria, (ibid. vol. i. PI.
81;) and the Crucifixion, (ibid. vol. i. PI. 10; vol. iv. PI. 33, No. 103.)
The only unhistorical scenes represented, besides the parabolic ones,
are Tobias and the Angel, (Perret, vol. iii. PI. 26,) and Orpheus charm'
ing the Beasts, which is frequent.
37*
438 NOT E s . Lect. VIII.
Note XL VI., p. 221.
Tacit. Annul, ii. 39, 40 ; Suet. vit. Tib. § 25 ; Dio Cass. lvii. p. 613, C.
Tacitus indeed says, in speaking of the claim made by Clemens, " cred-
ebatur Roma:;" but it was a faint belief, which Tiberius thought of
allowing to die away of itself. And though his constitutional timidity
prevented him from taking this course, he showed his sense of the nu-
merical weakness of the dupes, by bringing Clemens to Rome, when he
might have had him assassinated at Ostia. Nor did his execution cause
any tumult, either at Rome or in the provinces.
Note XL VII., p. 222.
Norton's Genuineness of the Gospels, vol. i. p. 100.
Note XLVIIL, p. 223.
Martyr. Tgnat. § 3, p. 542 : " The cities and churches of Asia received
the saint, by their bishops, and presbyters, and deacons ; and they all
crowded around him, that they might if possible obtain sortie portion of
spiritual gifts,"
Note XLIX., p. 223.
So Eusebius, who had the works of Papias before him, relates. Hist.
Eccles. iii. 39, p. 224. " [Papias] relates that a dead man was raised in
his time, and moreover that another wonderful thing occurred to Jus-
tus, who was surnamed Barsabas, namely, that he drank a deadly poi-
son, and suffered no unpleasant effects, on account of the grace of the
Lord."
Note L., p. 223.
Dialog, cum Tryphon. § 88, p. 185 : " Among us ako you may see
both males and females possessing gifts from the Spirit of God." (Com-
pare Apolog. ii. § 6, p. 93.) "For many of our Christian people, exor-
cising in the name of Jesus Christ, who was crucified under Pontius
Pilate, have cured, and are even now curing, many demoniacs in your
own city and in all parts of the world, though these persons could not
be cured by all other exorcists, and enchanters and sorcerers. But
LECT. VIII. NOTES. 439
oun have overcome and driven out the demons that possessed these
men.'' See also Tryphon. § 39, p. 136 ; § 76, p. 173, and § 85, p. 182.
Note LI., p. 223.
Miltiades ap. Euseb. Hist. Eccles. v. 17, pp. 351, 352.
Note LIL, p. 223.
Adversm Hareses, ii. 32, § 4, (vol. i. pp. 374, 375 :) " On this account
also his true disciples, receiving grace from him, perform miracles in his
name for the benefit of men, as each of them has received the gift from
him. For some truly and really expel demons ; . . . and others have
foreknowledge of the future, and visions, and prophetic utterances.
Others heal the sick and make them well, by the imposition of their
hands. And even now, as we have said, the dead have also been
raised, and have remained with us many years." And v. 6, (vol. ii.
p. 334 :) "As also we have many brethren in the church having pro-
phetic gifts, and speaking in all foreign tongues, and bringing to light
the secrets of men, for a good purpose."
Note LIII., p. 223.
See Tertullian, Apolog. § 23 ; Theophilus, Ad Autolyc. ii. 8, p. 254,
C. D. ; Minucius Felix, Octav. p. 89. These passages affirm the con-
tinuance of the power of casting out devils to the time of the writers.
On the general question of the cessation of miracles, Burton's remark
(£. //., vol. ii. p. 233) seems just, that " their actual cessation was im-
perceptible, and like the rays in a summer's evening, which, when the
sun has set, may be seen to linger on the top of a mountain, though they
have ceased to fall on the level country beneath."
Note LIV., p. 224.
The vast number of the Christians is strongly asserted by Tertullian,
Apolog. § 37 : "We are of yesterday, and yet we fill all your places,
your cities, islands, castles, towns, courts, your very camps, your tribes,
your decuria?, your palace, your senate, your markets. We have left
you only your temples. What wars we might wage, and with what
energy, even against superior forces, we who are so willing to be sluin.
440 NOTES. Lect. VIII.
if it was not a part of our discipline, that it is better to be killed than
to kill ! We might also, unarmed and without making any rebellion,
but only disagreeing with you, contend against you with the hostility
of separation only. For if so great a multitude of men as we are should
suddenly separate from you, and retire to some distant quarter of the
earth, truly the loss of so many and such citizens would undermine
your dominion : yes, it would even inflict upon you an absolute deso-
lation. "Without doubt you would be dismayed at your solitude, at the
general stillness, and the dulncss as if of a dead world. You would
look about for some to command ; you would have more enemies left
than citizens : but now you have few enemies, in comparison with the
multitude of Christians." See also Justin Martyr, Dialog, cum Try-
plum. § 117, (pp. 210 211,) quoted in note 31, § 25, p. 528
Note LV., p. 227.
The attempts of Strauss to prove variations in the story — irrecon-
cilable differences between the accounts of the different Evangelists —
appear to me to have failed signally. See above, Note XXXIII. on Lec-
ture VI., p. 378.
Note LVL, p. 228.
Strauss himself admits this difference to a certain extent, {Leben Jem,
Einleitung, § 14; vol. i. p. 67, E. T.,) and grants that the Scripture
miracles are favorably distinguished by it from the marvels of Indian
or Grecian fables ; but he finds in the histories of Balaam, Joshua, (!)
and Samson, a similar, though less glaring, impropriety. Certainly the
speaking of the ass is a thing sui generis in Scripture, and would be
grotesque, were it not redeemed by the beauty of the words uttered,
and the important warning which they contain — a warning still only
too much needed — against our cruel and unsympathetic treatment of
the brute creation.
Note LVII., p. 228.
Strauss, Leben Jesxi, § 144 ; vol. iii. p. 396, E. T. The entire passage
has been given in Note XXVI. on Lecture I.
ADDITIONAL NOTE TO LECTURE V.
On the Identification of the Bekhazzar of Daniel with Bil-shar-uzur son
of Nabu-nahit.
Since the foregoing sheets were in type, my attention has been called
by an anonymous correspondent to a difficulty in the proposed identifi-
cation of Belshazzar with Bil-shar-uzur, son of Nabu-nahit, arising
from his probable age at the time of the siege of Babylon. If Nabu-
nahit, (Nabonadius,) as suggested in the text,1 married a daughter of
Nebuchadnezzar after his accession to the throne, as he only reigned
seventeen years in all, Bil-shar-uzur, supposing him the son of this wife,
could have been no more than sixteen years of age when left to ad-
minister affairs at Babylon. This, it is said, is too early an age for him
to have taken the chief command, and to have given a great feast to
" his princes, his wires, and his concubines." s The difficulty here started
does not appear to me very great. In the East manhood is attained far
earlier than in the West,3 and husbands of fourteen or fifteen years of
age are not uncommon. Important commands are also not unfrequently
intrusted to princes of no greater age ; as may be seen by the instances
of Herod the Great, who was made governor of Galilee by his father at
fifteen ; 4 of Alexander Severus, who became Emperor of Home at
seventeen ; * and of many others. There is thus nothing unusual in the
possession of regal dignity, and an establishment of wives, on the part
.of an Oriental prince in his sixteenth or seventeenth year. If Nabona-
dius married a daughter of Nebuchadnezzar as soon as he came to the
throne, and had a son born within the year, he may have associated him
1 Vtige 171. a Dan. v. 2.
> " He had now becomo a man," stays Mr. Layard of a young Bedouin, " for ho was
about fourteen yearn old." (J\~inerek and Babylon, p. 2(5.)
* Joeeph. Ant. Jud. xiv. '.>. ? '-'.
» Gibbon, Decline and Fall, ch. vi. vol. i. p. 182.
(441)
442 NOTES.
in the government when he was fourteen, which would have been in his
own fifteenth year. This youth would then, in the seventeenth and last
year of his father's reign, have entered on the third year of his own
joint rule, as we find recorded of Belshazzar in Daniel.1
Another way of meeting the difficulty has been suggested. Nabona-
dius, it is said, may have been married to a daughter of Nebuchadnez-
zar before he obtained the crown. It is only an inference of Abydenus,
and not a statement of Berosus, that he was entirely unconnected with
Laborosoarchod. This is undoubtedly true. But the inference, which
Abydenus drew from the text of Berosus, seems to me a legitimate one.
Berosus, who has just noticed the relationship of Neriglissar to the son
of Nebuchadnezzar, whom he supplanted, would scarcely have failed
to notice that of Nabonadius to his grandson, if he had known of any
relationship existing. At any rate he would not have called the new
king, as he does, "a certain Nabonnedus of Babylon," (Xo(?ov»f^ ml
tu>* me Ba/iu/(iio{,) had he been the uncle of the preceding monarch.
My attention has been further drawn to a very remarkable illustra-
tion which the discovery of Belshazzar's position as joint ruler with his
father furnishes to an expression twice repeated in Daniel's fifth chapter.
The promise made 2 and performed 3 to Daniel is, that he shall be the
" third ruler" in the kingdom. Formerly it was impossible to explain
this, or to understand why he was not the second ruler, as he seems to
have been under Nebuchadnezzar,4 and as Joseph was in Egypt,5 and
Mordecai in Persia.6 It now appears, that, as there were two kings at
the time, Belshazzar, in elevating Daniel to the highest position tenable
by a subject, could only make him the third personage in the Empire.
This incidental confirmation of what was otherwise highly probable, is
a most valuable and weighty evidence.
1 Dan. viii. 1. s Verse 16. s Verse 29.
* Dan. ii. 28. » Gen. xli. 41-43. « Esth. x. 3.
INDEX OF AUTHORS,
SPECIFICATION OF THE EDITIONS QUOTED OR REFERRED TO IN THE
FOREGOING NOTES.
A.
Abydenus, Fragments of, in C. Mailer's Fragm. Hist. Gr. vol. iv. ed. Didot,
Paris, 1851.
_<Elian, Hist. Var. ed. Ltlnemann, Gottingen, 1811.
Alexander Polyhistok, Fragments of, in the Fragm. H. Gr. vol. h.
Paris, 1848.
Alfokd, Dean, Greek Testament, London, Rivingtons, 1849, &c.
Ambrose, S., Opera, (Benedictine Edition,) Paris, 1686.
Apfian, Opera, ed. Tollius, Amsterdam, 1760.
Aristotle, Opera, ed. Tauchnitz, Leipsic, 1831, &c.
Arrian, Exped. Alex. Magn. ed. Tauchnitz, Leipsic, 1829.
Artkmidorus, Oneirocritica, Paris, Morel), 1603.
Asiatic Researches, Calcutta, 1788, &c.
Athanasius, S., Opera, (Benedictine Edition,) Paris, 1698.
Auberlen, Prophecies of Daniel, (translated by Saphir,) Edinburgh,
Clark, 1856.
Augustine, S., Opera, (Benedictine Edition,) Antwerp, 1700.
B.
Barnabas, S., Epistola, in Cotelerius's Patres Apostolici (vol. i.), ed. 2da,
Amsterdam, 1724.
Baubr, Hebraischc Mythologie, Leipsic, 1802.
Baumoarten, De Fide Libri Esthertr, Halo>, 1839.
Beaufort, Incertitude de l'Histoire Romaine, Utrecht, 1738.
(443)
444 INDEX OF AUTHORS.
Bexgel, Archiv, Tubingen, 1816-1821.
Berosus, Fragments of, in the Fragm. Hist. Gr. vol. ii. Paris, 1848.
Bkktheav, Comment on Chronicles, (translated by Martin,) Edinburgh,
Clark, 18.57.
Beutholpt, Einleitung in sammtliche kanonische und apocryphische
Schriften des Alt. und Neu. Test., Erlangen, 1812-1819.
Biuks, Hora; Apostolical, attached to his edition of Paley's Horse Paulinae,
London, 1850.
Bochart, Geographia Sacra, ed. 4ta, Leyden, 1707.
Boeckh, Corpus Inscriptionum Graecarum, Berlin, 1828-1843.
Bouhier, Recherches sur l'histoire d'Hcrodote, Dijon, 1746.
Braxdis, Rerum Assyriarum Temp. Emendata, Bonn, 1853.
Buddeus, Historia Ecclesiastica Veteris Testamenti, Halae Magd. 1744-
1752.
Bixsex, Egypt's Place in Universal History, (translated by Cockerell,) Lon-
don, 1818, &c.
lii'NSF.s, Hippolvtus and his Age, London, Longman, 1854.
BrxsKN, Philosophy of Universal History, London, Longman, 1854.
Burnet, Bishop, Letters from Italy and Switzerland in 1685 and 1686, Rot-
terdam, 1687.
Burton, Canon, Eccles. History of the First Three Centuries, Oxferd,
Parker, 1833.
Butler, Bishop, Analogy of Religion, Oxford, 1833.
Buttmanx, Mythologus, Berlin, 1828, 1829.
Blxtorf, Lexicon Hebraicum et Chaldaicum, Basle, 1676-
c.
CaLMET, Commentaire Litteral, Paris, 1724-1726.
Carpzov, Introductio ad libros canonicos Vet. Test., Leipsic, 1721.
Carwithbx, Bampton Lectures, Oxford, 1809.
Casauhon, L, Exerc. Antibaror.., folio edition, London, 1614.
Cn amtollion, Precis du Systeme Hieroglyphique des Anciens Egyptiens,
Paris, 1828.
Chardix, Voyage en Perse, Amsterdam, 1735.
Cicero, Opera, ed. Priestly, London, 1819.
Clemens Alexaxdrixus, ed. Potter, Venice, 1757.
Clemens Romaxvs, in Jacobson's Patres Apostolici, Oxford, 1840.
Clixtox, Fasti Hellenici, Oxford, 1830-1841.
INDEX OF AUTHORS. 445
CoxRlNGlt'S, Adversar. Chronolog. in Gravius's Syntagma variarum Disser-
tationum rariorum, Ultraj. 1701.
Constitutiones Apostolicse, in Cotelerius's Patres Apostolici, (vol. i.,) ed. 2da.
Amsterdam, 1724.
Conybeare and Howson, Life and Letters of St. Paul, London, Long-
man, 1850.
Cokkodi, Versuch einer Beleuchtung der Geschichte des jtldischen und
christlichen Bibelkanons, Halle, 1792.
Cratippcs, Fragments of, in the Fragm. Hist. Gr. vol. ii. Paris, 1848.
Ctesias, Fragmenta, ed. Bahr, Frankfort, 1824.
Ci'RETON, Canon, Corpus Ignatianum, London, Rivingtons, 1849.
Cyrilias Alexandrinus, ed. Aubert, Paris, 1638.
D.
Dahlmann, Life of Herodotus, (translated by Cox,) London, 1845.
Demosthenes, ed. Dindorf, Oxford, 1846-1849.
Des Vionoles, Chronologic de l'Histoire Sainte, Berlin, 1738.
De Wette, Einleitung in das Alt. Testament, 7th edition, Berlin 1852.
De Wette, translated by Theodore Parker. (See Parker.)
De Wette, Archaologie, 3rd edition, Berlin, 1842.
Digesta seu Pandecta, Florence, 1553.
Dio Cassiis, Hist. Roman., Hanover, 1606.
Dio CHRY80STOM, ed. Morell, Paris, 1604.
Diodorts Sicrtrs, ed. Wtsseling, Bipont. 1793, &c.
Dionysivs Hamcarnassvs, folio edition, Oxon. 1704.
Dirs, Fragments of, in the Fragm. Hist. Gr. vol. iv. Paris, 185 J
Dodwell, Dissertat. in Irenoeum, Oxford, 1689.
E.
Eichhorn, Allgcmeinc Bibliothek, Leipsic, 1787-1800.
Eichhokn, Einleitung in das Alt. Testament, Leipsic, 1787.
Eichhohn, Einleitung in das Neu. Testament, Leipsic, J 804-181*.
EpiCTETrs, Dissertationes, ed. Schweigha-user, Leipsic, 1796-1800.
EPIPHANIVS, Opera, ed. Schrey et Meyer, Cologne, 1682.
Ersch and Grvber, Algeineine Encyclopadie der Wissenschuft und Kunst,
Leipsic, 1818, &c.
EV8EP.IU8, Chronica, ed. Mai, Milan, 1818.
Evsebivs, Historia Ecclesiastica, ed. Burton, Oxford, 1838.
38
446 INDEX OF AUTHORS.
ErsEBirr, . ra*pnratio Erangelica, cd. Gaisford, Oxford, 1843.
Ewald, Oeschichte des Volkcs Israel, 2nd edition, Gottingen, 1851-1858.
EWALD, Propheten des Alten Bundes, Stuttgart, 1840.
F.
Faber, Horae Mosaica?, Oxford, 1801.
Feilmoser, Einleitung in die Btlcher d. Neues Testaments, Tubingen,
1830.
Ferousson, Palaces of Nineveh Restored, London, Murray, 1851.
Ferrier, General, Caravan Journeys, London, Murray, 1856.
Forster, Mahometanism Unveiled, London, 1829.
Fritzsche, Aechtheit der Bucher Mosis, Rostock, 1814.
G.
Galen, Opera, ed. Kuhn, Leipsic, 1821-1833.
George, Mythus und Sage, Berlin, 1837.
Gesenius, Geschichte der Hebraische Sprache und Schrift, Leipsic, 1815.
Gesenius, Lexicon Hebraicum, (Engl. Translation,) Cambridge, 1852.
Gesenius, Hebrew Grammar, (Engl. Translation,) London, Bagster, 1846.
Gesenius, Scriptures Lingua>que Phoenicia? Monumenta, Leipsic, 1857.
Gesenius, Thesaurus Pbilologicus Ling. Hebr. Leipsic, 1829.
Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, 3rd edition, London,
1777-1788.
Gladstone, Homer and the Homeric Age, Oxford, 1858.
Grabe, Spicilegium Patrum, editio altera, Oxford, 1714.
Graves, Lectures on the Pentateuch, 2nd edition, London, Cadell, 1815.
Grosifr, Description de la Chine, Paris, 1818-1820.
Grote, History of Greece, London, Murray, 1846-1856.
H.
Hales, Analysis of Chronology, London, 1809-1812.
Hartmann, Forschungen flber d. Pentateuch, Rostock, 1831.
Haevernick, Handbuch des historisch-kritischen Einleitung in das Alt
Testament, Erlangen, 1837.
Haevernick, Introduction to the Old Testament, (English Translation,}
Edinburgh, Clark, 1852.
Haevernick, Introduction to the Pentateuch, (English Translation,) Edin-
burgh, Clark, 1&50.
INDEX OP AUTHORS. 447
Hecatveus Abderita, Fragments of, in the Fragm. Hist. Gr. vol. ii.
Paris, 1848.
Heerex, Asiatic Nations, (English Translation,) Oxford, Talboys, 183°.
Heerex, Manual of Ancient History, (English Translation,) Oxford, Tal-
boys, 1833.
Hefei.e, Patrum Apostolicorum Opera, 3rd edition, Tubingen, 1847.
Hexostexberg, Aegypten und Mose, Berlin, 1840.
Hexcstexberg, Egypt, &c, (translated by Mr. Robbins, with additional
notes by Dr. Cooke Taylor,) Edinburgh, Clark, 1845.
Hexgstexbeug, Authentic des Daniel und Integritiit des Secherias, Ber-
lin, 1831.
Herbst, Historisch-kritische Einleifur.g in d. heilig. Schriften des Alt.
Testaments, (published by Welte after his decease,) Karlsruhe, 1840-1844.
Hermas, Pastor, in Cotelerius's Patres Apostolici, (vol. ii.,) ed. 2da, Am-
sterdam, 1724.
Hermippl'8, Fragments of, in the Fragm. Hist. Gr. vol. iii. Paris, 1849.
Herodoti \s, ed. Bahr, Leipsic, 1830-1835.
Herodotus, (translated by the Author,) with copious Notes and Appen-
dices, London, Murray, 1858-9.
Hesychivs, Lexicon, ed. Albert, Leyden, 1746.
Hixcks, Dr., Translation of Black Obelisk Inscription, in Dublin Univer-
sity Magazine for October, 1853.
Hieronymis, Opera, Benedictine Edition, Paris, 1693.
Hitzio, De Cadyte urbe Herodotea, Gottingen, 1829.
Hitzio, Zwolf Kleinen Propheten erklart. Leipsic, 1838.
Homer, Iliad, ed. Heyne, Leipsic, 1802.
HOMER, Odyssey, ed. Lowe, Leipsic, 1828
Hooker, Ecclesiastical Polity, ed. Keble, Oxford, 1836.
Hoover, Palmoni, an Essay on the Chronological and Numerical Systems
of the Jews, London, Longman, 1851.
HoRNE, Introduction to the Critical Study and Knowledge of the Holy
Scriptures, Cth edition, London, Cadell, 1828.
Hue, Voyage dans la Tartaric, Paris, 1853.
Hissey, Sermons mostly Academical, Oxford, Parker, 1849.
I. J.
Jarloxsky, Opuscula, Leyden, 1804.
Jackbox, Chronological Antiquities, London, 1752.
448 INDEX OF AUTHORS.
Jaiin, Acchthcit dcs Fcntateuch, in Bengel's Archiv, (vol. iii. part i.,) TO>
bingcn, 1816-1821.
Jahn, Einleitung in das alte Testament, Vienna, 1792.
IoxATli'8, S., in Jacobson's Patres Apostolici, (vol. ii.,) Oxford, 1840.
Inscription, Behistun, in the Author's Herodotus, vol. ii. (See Hehodotvb.)
Inscription of Tiglath-Pileser I., as translated by Sir Henry Rawlinson, Mr.
Fox Talbot, Dr. Hincks, and Dr. Oppert, published by Royal Asiatic
Society ; London, Parker, 1857.
Inscription, Nebuchadnezzar's Standard, in the Author's Herodotus, vol.
iii. (See Herodotus.)
Inscription on the Nimrud Obelisk, translated by Dr. Hincks. (See Hincks.)
Inscriptions of three Assyrian Kings, translated by Mr. Fox Talbot. (See
Talhot.)
Inscriptiones Gra'cac, BOckh's Corpus Ins. Gr. (See Boeckh.)
JoSEPHl'S, Opera, ed. Havercamp, Amsterdam, &c, 1726.
Josefucs, translated by Dr. Traill, with notes and essays, published in
I parts, London, 1847.
Iken.eus, Advers. Hareses, ed. W. W. Harvey, Cambridge, 1857.
Itinerarium Antoninum, in Bertius's Ptolemy. (See Ptolemy.)
Justin, Epitome of Trogus Pompeius, ed. Gronovius, Leyden, 1760.
Justin Martyr, Opera, Hague, 1742.
Juvenal, ed. Ruperti, Leipsic, 1819-1820.
K.
Kalisch, Historical and Critical Commentary, English edition, London,
Longman, 18.55, &c.
Kate, Bishop, Account of the Writings and Opinions of Justin Martyr,
3rd edition, London, Rivingtons, 1853.
Kaye, Bishop, Ecclesiastical History of the Second and Third Centuries,
illustrated from the Writings of Tertullian, 2nd edition, Cambridge, 1829.
Keil, Commentar uber das Buch Josua, Erlangen, 1847.
Keil, Commentary on Joshua, (translated by Martin,) Edinburgh, Clark,
1857.
Keil, Apologetischer Versuch uber die Bucher der Chronik, Berlin, 1833.
Keil, Commentar uber die Btlcher der KOnige, Berlin, 1846.
Keil, Commentary on the Books of Kings, (translated by Murphy,) Edin-
burgh, Clark, 1857.
Kenkick, Ancient Egypt under the Pharaohs, London, 1850.
INDEX OP AUTHORS. 449
Kexrick, Phoenicia, London, 1855.
Ker Pouter, Sir R., Travels, London, Longman, 1821-1822.
Kitto, Biblical Cyclopaedia, (Burgess's edition,) Edinburgh, Black, 1856.
K.XOBEL, Der Prophetismus der Hebraer, Breslau, 1837.
Kioi.er, Handbuch der Kunstgeschichte, Stuttgart, 1842.
L.
Lacroze, Lexicon ^Egyptiaco-Latinum, Oxford, 1775.
Larcher, Histoire d'Herodote, Paris, 1786.
Lardner, Dr., Credibility of the Gospel History, Works, London, 1815.
L'Art de verifier les Dates, 8vo edition, Paris, 1819-1844.
Layard, Nineveh and its Remains, London, Murray, 1849.
Lavard, Nineveh and Babylon, London, Murray, 1853.
Lee, Dr., Inspiration of Holy Scripture, 2nd edition, London, Riving
tons, 1857.
Lepsius, Dr., Lettre sur l'Alphabet Hieroglyphique, Rome, 1837.
Lewis, Sir G. C, Credibility of Early Roman History, London, Parker, 1855.
Lewis, Sir G. C, Methods of Observation and Reasoning in Politics, Lon-
don, Parker, 1852.
Liohtfoot, Dr., Works, folio edition, London, 1684.
Livy, ed. Twiss, Oxford, Talboys, 1840.
Loheck, Aglaophamus, Regimont, 1829.
Loftvs, Chalda.'a and Susiana, London, Nisbet, 1857.
Loxoixrs, De Sublimitate, Edinburgh, 1733.
Lucian', Opera, cd. Hemsterhuis, Bipont. 1789, &c.
LyeLL, Sir C, Principles of Geology, 4th edition, London, Murray, 1835.
LYNCH, Capt., Narrative of the United States' Expedition to the River Jor-
dan and the Dead Sea, London, Bentley, 1852.
Lysimachus, Fragments of, in the Fragm. Hist. Gr. vol. iii. Paris, 1819.
M.
MaCBRIDE, Dr., Mohammedan Religion Explained, London, IS57-
Mackoiuts, Saturnalia, cd. Gronovius, Leyden, 1670.
Maitland, Dr., The Church in the Catacombs, London, Longman, 1846.
Manetho, Fragments of, in the Fragm. Hist. Gr. vol. iii. Paris, 1849.
M ansel, Bampton Lectures for 1858, London, Murray, 1858.
Marchi, Monumenti delle Arti Cristiane primitive nella Metropoli del
Cristianesimo, Rome, 1844.
38*
450 INDEX OF AUTHORS.
Marsh, Bishop, Authenticity of the Five Books of Moses, in his Lectures
on Divinity, London, 1810-1823.
Maksham, Canon Chronicus, folio edition, London, 1672.
Martyrium Ignatii, in Jacobson's Patres Apostolici, (vol. ii.,) Oxford,
1840.
Memoires de l'Academie des Inscriptions, Paris, 1729, &c.
Menander, Fragments of, in the Fragm. Hist. Gr. vol. iv. Paris, 1851.
Michaelis, J. D., Orientalische und exegetische Bibliothek, Frankfort,
1771-1783.
Michell, Bampton Lectures for 1849, Oxford, Parker, 1849.
Minucius Felix, Octavius, Oxford, 1627.
Moses Chorenensis, Armenian History, ed. Whiston, (Armenian and
Latin,) London, 1736.
Mosheim, Historia Ecclesiastica, editio altera, Helmstadt, 1764.
Mosheim, De rebus ante Constantin. Magn. gestis, Helmstadt, 1753.
Movers, Die Phonizier, Berlin, 1849, &c.
Mueller, C. O., History of Greek Literature, completed by Dr. Donaldson,
London, Parker, 1858.
MuRATORl, Antiquitates Italicoe Medii JEri, Milan, 1740.
Mure, Col., Literature of Ancient Greece, London, Longman, 1850, &c.
Mure, Col., Remarks on Two Appendices to Mr. Grote's History of Greece,
London, Longman, 1851.
N.
Neaxder, Allgemeine Geschichte d. Christliche Religion und Kirche, 4th
edition, Hamburg, 1847, &c.
Neumaxn, Versuch einer Geschichte der Armcnisch. Literatur, Leipsic,
1836.
Newman, F., History of the Hebrew Monarchy, London, Chapman, 1847.
Newman, J. H., The Arians of the Fourth Century, London, Rivingtons,
1833.
Newman, J. H., Essay on Miracles, Oxford, Parker, 1843.
Newton, Sir I., Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms amended, London, 1728.
Nicolaus Damascenus, Fragments of, in the Fragm. Hist. Gr. vol. iii.
Paris, 1849.
Niebuhr, B. G , History of Rome, (Hare and Thirlwali's translation,)
Cambridge, 1831-1842.
Niebuhr, B. G., Kleine Schrifter.. Bonn, 1828.
INDEX OF AUTHORS. 451
Niebuhr, B. G., Lectures on Ancient History, (translated by Dr. Schraitz.j
London, 1852.
Niebuhk, B. G., Life and Letters of, London, Chapman, 1852.
Niebuhk, B. G., Vortrage Ober Alte Geschichte, Berlin, Reimer, 1847.
Niebuhk, Makccs, Geschichte Assurs und Babels seit Phul, Berlin, 1857.
Northcote, J. Spencer, The Roman Catacombs, second edition, London,
1859.
Norton, Professor, Evidences of the Genuineness of the Gospels, 2nd
edition, London, Chapman, 1847.
o.
Ockley, Life of Mohammed, in his History of the Saracens, London,
Bohn, 1847.
Offerhaus, Spicilegia Historico-Chronologica, Groningae, 1739.
Olshausen, Biblischer Commentar uber sammtl. Schriften d. Neuen Testa-
ments, 3rd edition, KOnigsberg, 1837.
Olshausen, Commentary on the Gospels, (translated by Fosdick,) 3rd edi-
tion, Edinburgh, Clark, 1857.
Oppert, Dr., Rapport d'une Mission scientifique en Angleterre, Paris.
1856.
Orioen, Opera, Benedictine edition, Paris, 1733-1759.
OR08IU8, Historia adv. Paganos, Cologne, 1536.
Ovid, ed. Soc. Bipontina, Strasburg, 1807.
P.
Paley, Evidences of Christianity, 25th edition, Glasgow, 1816.
Paley, Horse Paulina;; Works, edited by Rev. R. Lynam, vol. i. London,
1828.
Parkf.r, Theodore, Enlarged Translation of De Wette's Einleitungin das
Alt. Test., Boston, 1843.
Patrick, Bishop, Commentary on the Historical Books of the Old Testa-
ment, 4th edition, London, 1732.
Pausanius, ed. Siebelis, Leipsic, 1822.
Pearson, Vindicice Epistolarum S. Ignatii, Cambridge, 1672.
Perizonius, Origines Babylon ica: et ^Egyptiaca?, editio altera, Duker,
Utrecht, 1736.
Perret, Les Cataconibes de Rome, folio, 6 volumes, Paris, Gide, 1851-1855
Petronius Arbiter, ed. Burmann, Utrecht, 1709.
452 INDEX OP AUTHORS.
Philo Jrn.T.rs, ed. Hoeschcl, Frankfort, 1691.
Philostkatis, ed. Olcarius, Leipsic, 1709.
Photics, Bibliothcca, cd. Hoeschcl, Rouen, 1653.
Plato, Phtrdo, ed. Stanford, Dublin, 1834.
Pliny, Hist. Nat., (ex Otficiis Hack.,) Leyden and Rotterdam, 1G69.
Pliny the younger, Epistola>, ed. Cortius, Amsterdam, 1734.
Phtarcii, Opera, ed. A. Stephanus, Paris, 1624.
PoLYBirs, ed. Schweigha-uscr, Oxford, Baxter, 1823.
Polycakp, Epist., in Jacobson's Patres Apostolici, (vol. ii.,) Oxford, 1840.
Poole, R. Stuart, Hora? JEgyptiaca?, London, Murray, 1851.
Powell, Professor, Order of Nature considered in reference to the Claims
of Revelation, a Third Scries of Essays, London, Longman, 1859.
Phichakd, Dr., Physical History of Mankind, 3rd edition, London, 1836.
Pkichakd, Dr., Historical Records of Ancient Egypt, London, 1838.
Prideaix, Dr., Connection of the History of the Old and New Testament,
4th edition, London, 1718.
Procovivs, Opera, in the Corpus Hist. Byz., ed. Dindorf, Bonn, 1833-1838.
Ptolemy, Geograph., ed. Bertius, Amsterdam, 1618.
Ptolemy, Magna Syntaxis, Basle, 1538.
R.
Rask, Professor, Egyptian Chronology, in Prichard's Records of Ancient
Egypt. (See Pkichakd.)
Rawlinsox, Sir II. C, Memoir on the Persian Cuneiform Inscriptions,
published by the Royal Asiatic Society, London, Parker, 1846-1849.
Rawlinsox, Sir H. C, Commentary on the Inscriptions of Assyria and
Babylon, London, Parker, 1850.
Rawlixsox, Sir H. C, Notes en the Early History of Babylonia, in the
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. xv. part ii. London, Parker,
1856.
Ravlinson, Sir H. S., Notes and Essays in the Author's Herodotus. (See
Herodotus.)
Remusat, Nouveaux Melanges Asiatiques, Paris, 1829.
Rexxell, Geography of Herodotus, 4to edition, London, 1800.
Rosei.lixi, Monumenti dell' Egitto, parte prima, monumenti storici, Pisa,
1832-1841.
Rosexmueller, Scholia in Vet. Test., Leipsic, 1821, &c.
Rossi, Etymologia: -Sgyptiacae, Rome, 1808.
INDEX "OF AUTHORS. 453
Scaliger, De Emendatione Temporum, folio, Geneva, 1629.
Seneca, ed. Elzevir, Amsterdam, 1672.
SiMPLlClUS, Comment, ad Anstot. De Coelo, folio, Venice, 1526.
Smith, Dr. W., Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, 2nd edition,
London, 1853.
Smith, Dr. W., Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography, London, 1850.
Smith, Dr. W., Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, London, 1854.
Smith, G. Vance, Prophecies relating to Nineveh, London, Longman, 1857.
Sockates, Hist. Ecclesiastica, Cambridge, 1720.
Sophoci.es, ed. Valpy, London, 1824.
Si'anheim, Introductio ad Chronologiam et Historiam Sacrain, Amster-
dam, 1694.
Spinoza, Tractatus theologo-politicus, 2nd edition, (no place or publisher's
name,) 1674.
Stackhotse, History of the Bible, Gleig's edition, London, Longman, 1817
Stanley, Professor, Sinai and Palestine, London, Murray, 1856.
Status, pocket edition, Amsterdam, 1624.
STKABO, ed. Kramer, Berlin, 1847-1852.
Stkaiss, Leben Jesu, 4th edition, Tubingen, 1840.
S thai 88, The Life of Jesus, translated into English, London, Chapman, 1846.
StiarT, Professor, History and Defence of the Old Testament Canon, ed-
ited by the Rev. P. Lorimer, London, 1849.
Sietonii s, ed. Baumgarten-Crusius, Leipsic, 1816.
Sdidas, Lexicon, ed. Gaisford, Oxford, 1834.
Svnci.i.i.i s, in the Corpus Hist. Byzant., ed. Dindorf, Bonn, 1829
T.
Tacitis (Brotier's), ed. Valpy, London, Whittakcr, 1823.
TAI.BOT, H. Fox, Assyrian Texts translated, London, 18ofi.
Tatian, Oratio adv. Grn-cos, (with Justin Martyr,) Hague, 1742
Taylor, Transmission of Ancient Books, London, 1859.
Tertvllian, Opera, ed. Rigaltius, Paris, 1675.
Tf.kti i.m AN, Bishop Kaye's, Ecclesiastical Hist., illustrated from Tertul-
lian. (Sec KaYE.)
Theii.i:, Zur biographic Jesu, Leipsic, 1 HTJ7-
THEormi.ts, ad Autolycum, (with Justin Martyr,) Hague, 1742.
454 INDEX OF AUTHORS.
Tut cvninES, ed. Bekker, Oxford, Parker, 1824.
Trench, Dean, Notes on the Miracles, London, Parker, 1846.
V.
V.U.EUIV8 Maximts, Leyden, 1670.
Vater, Commentar Qber den Pentateuch, Halle, 1802-1806.
Vatke, Religion des Alt. Testaments nach den kanonischen Buchern
entwickelt, Berlin, 1835.
Vestiges of Creation, 10th edition, London, 1853.
Vitringa, Observationes Sacra?, Franequerae, 1711, 1712.
Vitrlvius, ed. De Laet, Amsterdam, Elzevir, 1649.
Von Bohlen, Alte Indien, Konigsberg, 1830.
Von Lenoerke, Kenaan, Konigsberg, 1844.
Von Lenoerke, Das Buch Daniel, Konigsberg, 1835.
w.
Wetstein, Nov. Testament. Grsecum, Amsterdam, 1751, 1752.
Whiston, Short View of the Harmony of the four Evangelists, Cambridge.
1702.
White, Bampton Lectures for 1784. Oxford, 1784.
Wilkinson, Sir G., Ancient Egyptians, London, Murray, 1837-1841.
Wilkinson, Sir G., Notes and Essays in the Author's Herodotus. (See
Hr.HODorrs.)
Wilson, Professor H. H., Translations from Rig-Veda-Sanhita, London,
1850.
Winer, Biblisches Realworterbuch, 3rd edition, Leipsic, 1847, 1848.
Woollston, Six Discourses on the Miracles of our Saviour, London, 1727-
1729.
X.
Xenophon, Opera, ed. Schneider et Dindorf, Oxford, 1817, &c.
THE END.
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