No. DCCXXVII. SEPULCHRAL BREVIATE, APPLIED IN THE first inference from this ancient document is, the justification it affords to what we conceived might be the sentiments of Job. It exemplifies the nature of those sepulchral breviates at which we could previously only glance by induction. It contains an act of the defunct; a part of his history while in the land of the living; it is a testimony carried with him to his tomb; and if he had been called in question on the subject of this purchase, whether by popular out-cry or by judicial process, he directs its preservation, that when produced on his behalf before the gods, the judges of the dead, it may become evidence of his integrity, or, in another word, his righteousness. Who does not see in this, the very intention of the pious Patriarch? He wished that his scroll were written, that his sentiments were recorded, that his conviction of future retribution were inscribed for perpetual duration; and he appeals to what would be his feelings when the great day of investigation should arrive, and the personage whom he calls his Redeemer should come to judge both the quick and the dead." We need extend the comparison no farther: it is enough that the intention we have attributed to Job, does not militate against the customs and opinions ascribed to his age, and to his character. 66 No. DCCXXVIII. CURSIVE CHARACTERS ANCIENT: ST. PAUL WROTE THEM BADLY. WE now direct our attention to other consequences attending the discovery of this most ancient, and most singular record. The reader will recollect that it is written in cursive Greek characters, not as if they were novelties, but as characters in common and popular usage, and that it is dated more than a century before A. D. Now this is three or four hundred years prior to the time in which the learned have supposed these smaller letters were coming into use. We risk nothing, therefore, in considering them as current in the first age of the gospel; and, as they are so interlaced, so very perplexed, so intricate, as to be all but insuperably unintelligible, in this official document, where they should be most distinct-we may ask, What they would be, what they must be, in the penmanship of a man whose hand trembled from the consequences of a nervous affection? The reader perceives the allusion to the case of the apostle Paul. It is no impeachment of his character or powers, to say, he could not write this kind of current hand intelligibly; or, to imagine what miserable effect must have followed the attempt to read his letters, so written, in public assemblies, when the reader must have paused at every other line, and at every other sentence must have been totally foiled! He directs that his epistles should be communicated to all the holy brethren; but, unless he could have added a special gift of inspiration to speaker and hearers, they would have been the very reverse of edifying to the church at large, and to visitors also, whether friends or foes. We see now the reason why Paul employed an amanuensis; and what was the office of Tertius, Rom. xvi. 21: "I Tertius who wrote this epistle "-who copied off into capital letters what the apostle had composed in a running hand, not proper for sending to you, or for general publication. And we have to confirm the distinction between epistles (moróla) and letters (yрáμμara) as used by this writer, Gal. vi. 11: "Ye see how large a letter I have written to you, with my own hand." No; the apostle uses the term epistles seventeen times to denote his works; but never the term letters; and therefore, we must coincide with the opinion that renders "Ye see that I have written this to you in large letters with my own hand." Writing, probably, at a place where he had no proper person with him to copy off his very indifferent manuscript, and therefore he was obliged to transcribe it into literæ quadra, or uncials (nλíka ypáμμara) as well as he could. Under the article PAPYRUS, in the Dictionary, the reader may see a conjecture, that the books referred to by St. Paul, consisted of papyrus sheets, containing first draughts, whereas the membrana contained finished performances. The antiquity under consideration supports that conjecture; as it proves that this cursive manner of writing was not only extant but was ordinary in the days of the apostle. We think too, it may afford a glimpse of reason why the minor Epistles of John, and that to Philemon, were not received into the ecclesiastical canon, in the early ages: being addressed to friends, they might be written in this familiar, this unofficial kind of character-proof enough that they were not intended by the writers for general publicity: yet as they became better known, and obtained sanction as undoubted productions of the authors to whom they were attributed, they gradually obtained places among their other works in Scripture. The "Christian Researches in the Mediterranean," by Rev. W. Jowett, recently published, afford additional evidence on that subject. That gentleman says, "There are on the island of Elephantina [in the Nile, near Syene], singular memorials of the Roman troops, which have been quartered here. Many broken pieces of red earthen-ware, shreds of the potsherd, are found, which appeared to have served as tickets to the soldiers, assigning them their portion of corn. The name of Antoninus was found on some of them. They are written in Greek, and in black; in a running hand, very similar to that which is used in a Greek letter at this day. They are in small pieces, about half the size of a man's hand; and each one appears complete, though it is difficult to decypher them." p. 140. Difficult enough! we are sure, if they resemble the running hand of a modern Greek letter: of which whoever has seen either an original or a fac simile will need no additional proof. No. DCCXXIX. ST. LUKE, IN DATING HIS GOSPEL, EGYPTIANIZES. THE reader cannot but have observed the extra precision that characterizes the date of this curious manuscript :-" Under Cleopatra and Ptolemy-the 12th year which is the 9th-under the pontiff at Alexandria-under Berenice Euergetes and Arsinoe Philadelphe-under the priests of both sexes who are at Ptolemais," &c.—It was certainly proper to notice the years of the reigning sovereigns, and it might be well enough, perhaps, to mention the priests residing at Ptolemais: but, why advert to priests in a civil transaction? and especially, why insert any reference to Alexandria, and to priests and priestesses in office there? That city was far from Ptolemais, and had no jurisdiction in the premises. But see the force of habit, and association of ideas: when St. Luke determined to compose his history of the gospel, he acts on the very same Egyptian notions: his date is a fair counterpart to this before us." In the fifteenth year of Tiberius Cæsar-Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea-Herod being tetrarch of Galilee -his brother Philip being tetrarch of Iturea-Lysimachus being tetrarch of Abilene -Annas and Caiaphas being high-priests."- It might pass for a rehearsal of the date to the contract of Ptolemais, excepting only the "gods and goddesses." As St. Luke is the only evangelist who affects this precision, it proves that he was of a different country from the others: that he was accustomed to different forms; and that those forms were Egyptian. After this evidence, is it possible to doubt whether Lucius of Cyrene be our St Luke? His country was connected with Egypt: he might even take his medical education in Egypt, which was famous as a school of medicine; but, if not, the same customs might obtain in Cyrenaica as in Egypt, and these the evangelist adopts as proper in themselves, and moreover, as a matter of course. The whole forms a very singular confirmation of the authenticity of the Gospel of Luke; and the more it is investigated the stronger will that confirmation appear. No. DCCXXX. OF SIMEON NIGER; THAT IS, THE BLACK. MOREOVER, there is something very striking in the description of the parties to this deed, by their persons, their complexions. Pamouthes is specifically described as being of "a black complexion:" not a negro: but dark, swarthy, sun-burnt. We cannot suppose, that in this official register any degradation of his person was intended: the colour of his countenance is merely a mark of identity. Exactly the same is the mark of identity attached by St. Luke to Simeon, surnamed Niger, that is, the dark, swarthy, or sun-burnt. The evangelist not only Latinizes, as we formerly observed [No. DCXXXVI.], but he Egyptianizes; and this, while it shews his familiarity with the customs of Africa, affords no slight proof that this Simeon was of Cyrene, as well as himself: but the Antiocheans were accustomed, as it should seem, to denote one by his complexion, modo Egyptiaco, the other by his country. St. Luke certainly was not of black complexion; but, he might be "yellow," as were the other parties to this contract. "There is nothing new under the sun," says Solomon: a modern practice of describing travellers, &c. on their passports, by their personal features and stature, may now plead antiquity in its favour; and derive all the dignity of which it is susceptible, from the institutions of the Ptolemies, and, perhaps of the much more ancient Pharaohs. No. DCCXXXI. EVIDENCES HIDDEN FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS. ANOTHER word ere we close this subject. In No. LXXX. we have supposed that the evidences of Jeremiah's purchase of a field might, by proper care, being deposited in the ground, be preserved as evidences to be adduced after the expiration of the captivity-seventy years. If that field in which they were buried were dry—if there were in that field any rocky part, or other opening, affording a natural security against the access and action of water, then the purpose might easily be accomplished. We see, by the instance before us, that such a conveyance might be legible much longer than seventy years after its execution, which is attributed very much to the dryness of the sepulchre in which the document was found: admitting, therefore, the other circumstances of the case to be coincident, the heritors of Jeremiah's property might well enough avail themselves of the private deposition; and enter, with little trouble, on possession of the purchase of their ancestor, and so fulfil his prophecy. No. DCCXXXII. PRICE OF LAND ANCIENTLY. THE value of land, compared with that of money in ancient days, is an interesting but intricate subject of inquiry. Apparently, land was very cheap; or money was very choice. Six hundred and one pieces of copper money, would not purchase the smallest plot of ground, however waste, in any modern metropolis. We cannot estimate them at more than three pounds sterling. The same may be thought of the "Potter's Field," at Jerusalem, bought for thirty pieces of silver, less than four pounds; and of Jeremiah's purchase at Anathoth-seventeen shekels of silver, say two guineas, the price for a field! All this seems very strange. No. DCCXXXIII OF DOUBLE DATES, AND PARTS OF YEARS. THE conjoint reigns of two sovereigns, who may not begin their reigns at the same time, naturally gives occasion to a double date; and though we have found it impossible to acquiesce in the statements of Mr. Baruh, yet, it is far from our intention to invalidate what may be correctly argued on the application of this notion in elucidation of certain passages of Scripture. We say then, that if a writer should be found affirming that such an event happened in the twelfth year of some Egyptian sovereign, while another of equal credit assigned the same event to a ninth year; we are not instantly to accuse either of these historians of falsification; as the contract of Ptolemais evinces that both might be perfectly accurate. Nor is this an unparalleled circumstance: on the medals of Antioch in Syria, (PLATE VII. Nos. 9. 10.), we have two instances of it. In No. 9. we read in the circular inscription, HK. 28. in the field of the medal we read, IB. 12. The difference between these dates is sixteen years. It might. therefore, so happen, that two writers should differ no less than sixteen years in placing the same incident; yet both be justifiable. In No. 10. we have the date, A. 36. also another, AN 54. Now the difference between these dates amounts to eighteen years; yet it is clear that both medals refer to the same æras, although there are two years, apparently different, between them. The probability is, that the medal in one instance was struck before the expiration of the years calculated by; whereas, the other medal was struck after the expiration of the full term marked on it. This certainly applies distinctly to sundry enumerations of years in Scripture in which parts of a year are sometimes reckoned for whole years; sometimes not; probably, according to the beginning of the year, intended by the writer. Vide YEAR in the Dictionary. On the medal of Askalon, PLATE XIV. No. 3. we have also, two dates; set close together, evidently by design, with lines between them-rather to mark a separation than to affect their value as numerals. N. 56. and PB. 102. The difference between these dates is forty-six years: and it is, evidently, impossible to account for this discrepancy without obtaining such acquaintance with the history of the town as may enable us to comprehend the intention of the medalist. In the explanation of these medals, the reader will find the sentiments of the learned on this subject: that it should have its difficulty, as it certainly has its obsurity, cannot be wondered at. Perhaps, more correctly, it is rather wonderful that we can understand these duplicities at all. FRAGMENTS ILLUSTRATIVE OF VARIOUS PARTICULARS IN THE IDOLATRY MENTIONED IN HOLY WRIT. THIS article will not be extensive; its purpose being merely to introduce additional observations which have struck our attention en passant. It is well known, that the subject of the gods of Syria, with which are connected the gods of Egypt, and others mentioned in Scripture, has given occasion to large and learned works. The inquiry is by no means exhausted; the discoveries made by our countrymen in India, the researches of the curious in parts of Egypt and Africa, formerly unexplored, the greater attention paid to remains of antiquity in the north as well as in the south; the diligence with which the evidence afforded by these has been combined and drawn into inference, all contribute additional light on the subject. We may remark, also, that the deities of the later ages of Scripture are now become, as it were, familiar to us. By means of statues, busts, medals, and representations, no longer confined to the cabinets of the curious, we are able to point out many particulars, and to explain many difficulties, formerly thought insuperable. In the mean while, we are under great obligations to those Literati who have investigated the ancient languages of the countries principally connected with our inquiries. If there still remain many things obscure and embarrassing, what they have elucidated is so much gain; and the others may, in time, meet with equal good fortune. The talents and industry of our countrymen and others have been directed into channels analogous to biblical inquiry, the connections formed by our establishments, commercial and political, contribute to the same general consequence, the disposition of the ingenious inclines to the same point, and the spirit of inquiry being excited, it is not the character of Britons to stop at half-measures. We venture to predict, that a few years will justify many expectations of the learned; and will afford means of a more complete system than has yet been seen. To that distinction the present observations make no pretensions: they are at best but loose hints, or cursory suggestions, and in that humble sense are submitted to the reader. No. DCCXXXIV. GILGAL. EVERY thing leads to the conclusion that the religion of mankind was originally the same, in its objects, its principles, and its rites: and that, to wherever the original tribes of men migrated, with their natural fathers at their head, or wherever they settled, they retained those religious customs, notions, and references, which they had received as part of their patrimony, in the land of their primary PART XXX. Edit. 5. 3 T |