cium," or the juice of unripe grapes); and gall, xoλn (according to Michaelis, lolium temulentum-Oedman, colocynth), both obviously in mockery, since the Psalmist complains of it. But the offering to Jesus, on the contrary, was meant as a relief. Pliny speaks of wines flavoured with myrrh, as having been frequently used.* The Jewish writers agree that their criminals were accustomed to receive wine mingled with frankincense,† of which myrrh was an ingredient. And Mark says, that, immediately before the crucifixion, they offered to Jesus wine mingled with myrrh. If the vinegar offered afterwards were something different, it seems still to have been only what the Roman soldiers were accustomed to drink themselves. Matthew alone speaks of vinegar mingled with gall; but it has been seen that there is reason to suspect that he accommodated his description purposely to the Psalm.

John xix. 33-36: "They brake not his legs. . . . For these things were done that the Scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken."

Exodus xii. 46: "In one house shall it (the lamb) be eaten; thou shalt not carry forth ought of the flesh abroad out of the house, neither shall ye break a bone thereof." Although Jesus might resemble the paschal lamb in this last respect, in many others there was no resemblance whatever, as in the eating of it, and the sprinkling of its blood on the door-posts. A spiritual resemblance, however to this, and to the lambs used in the sacrifices, was supplied by the doctrines of transub

* Hist. Nat. xiv. 15.

† Babyl. Sanhed. fol. 43, "Prodeunti ad supplicium capitis, potum dederunt, granumque thuris in poculo vini, ut turbaretur intellectus ejus."-See Rosenmüller in Matt. xxvii.

The incense described, Exod. xxx. 34, contained stacte, which Pliny and Dioscorides spoke of as being fresh or liquid myrrh. Rosenm. in Matt. xxvii.

stantiation and the atonement; and it is worthy of consideration whether the disposition of the disciples, to find types of Jesus in animals so commonly used in the Jewish sacred rites, did not lay the main foundation for these doctrines.

John xix. 37: "And again another Scripture saith, They shall look on him whom they pierced."

Zech. xii. 10: "And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication; and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his first born." The God of Israel promises a restoration of Jerusalem, and describes the bitter repentance which the Jews will then feel for piercing or blaspheming and injuriously treating himself. A word, signifying properly to pierce, is used in the sense of blaspheming, Levit. xxiv. 11. To express the first person by the third after the intervention of a relative is a common Hebraism.* Το 66 mourn as for an only son," was only a proverbial phrase for excessive mourning. See Jer. vi. 26; Amos viii. 10.

It is worth while to notice here a curious text, which, although not quoted by the disciples as a prophecy, seems, as it stands in our translation, to present a remarkable coincidence; especially as it precedes Zech. xiii. 7, ap

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* Prima persona, sequente maximè relativo, sæpissime per tertiam in his libris exprimitur. Quem confixerunt, 17 N G ÖV Ženevτnoav, ut habuere Græci interpretes quidam, et Johannes evangelista, ad Christum μugins hæc applicans. At LXX, commutatis literis perquam similibus, legerunt pave wv εEWPXYσανTO, quia debacchati sunt aut absilierunt. Noster sensus optimus est, nam configere Deum dicuntur, qui eum probris lacessunt; nam sic et p quod propriè est perforare ponitur pro ßλeo@yμew. Levit. xxiv. 11.-Grotius Annot.

plied by the Evangelists to Jesus. Zech. xiii. 6: "And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends." The explanation suggested by Grotius is as follows: The writer describes the time when the idols and false prophets shall be banished from the land, and the latter fallen into such disrepute, that those who had hitherto followed the profession would be ashamed of it; and when taxed with affecting to be prophets, as evidenced by their rough garments, would deny it with many excuses, such as, "I am no prophet, but an husbandman, for man taught me to keep cattle from my youth:" and when pressed further, "What then are these wounds or marks branded upon your hands?" (i. e. certain seals or impressions called by Prudentius, sphragitidæ, by which many idol-worshipers were accustomed to devote themselves to their gods, see Rev. xiii. 16, 17) he shall answer, "They are only those with which I was marked in the house of my friends," i. e. as a badge of servitude to the family whose cattle I was keeping.

John xx. 10: "For as yet they knew not the Scriptures, that he must

rise from the dead."

See remark on Acts ii. 25.

Acts i. 16: "This Scripture must needs have been fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake before concerning Judas.

....

20, For it is written in the book of Psalms, Let his habitation be desolate, and let no man dwell therein; and his bishopric let another take."

The quotations are from the 69th and 109th Psalms, and have no more reference to Judas than to any other wicked person. The writer is denouncing his own adversaries. The first quotation is not correct, for the words in the Psalm are, "Let their habitation," &c.

Acts ii. 16: "For this (the gift of tongues) is that which was spoken

by the prophet Joel, And it small come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: and on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my spirit, and they shall prophesy, and I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood and fire, and vapour of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come; and it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved."

The latter part of Joel promises, after the captivity, a miraculous interference of heaven in favour of Israel, and a day of vengeance on the nation's enemies. Peter imagined that this promise was about to be fulfilled in his days; but the event proved that he was mistaken. The prophecy of visions and dreams fulfilled itself, for it occasioned the belief in the church that such gifts were really amongst them, and the belief produced instances. Nevertheless, the gift of languages, with a view to which Peter introduces the prophecy, is not mentioned in it.

....

Acts ii. 25: "For David speaketh concerning him (Christ), I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved. Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad. Moreover, also my flesh shall rest in hope. Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thy holy one to see corruption. . . . . Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day: therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God hath sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne, he seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption."

The Psalm is one of thanksgiving, and there is no reason to suppose that David meant to speak of any one but himself. The latter part runs thus, Psalm xvi. 6: "The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places, yea, I have a goodly heritage. I will bless the Lord, who hath

given me counsel; my reins also instruct me in the night seasons. I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope. For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell (hades, the grave); neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption. Thou wilt shew me the path of life in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore."

The writer of the Psalms appears to have believed in the immortality of the soul, and the possibility of its existence apart from the body. His meaning is clearly this : "The prospect of the grave even shall not prevent me from hoping in God all the days of my flesh; for thou wilt not leave my soul in the grave, although my body may remain there; neither wilt thou suffer thy saint (i. e. his soul) to see the corruption which his body will undergo; but rescuing me, i. e. my then disembodied soul, from the gloomy hades, thou wilt shew to it some secret path to life." The same sentiment occurs, Psalm xlix. 15, “But God shall redeem my soul from the of the grave."

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But Peter, or Luke, in order to accommodate the Psalm to Jesus, introduces a totally different sense, and concludes as if David had said that his body or flesh should not see corruption, which David manifestly does not say. The substitution of the word "flesh" for "thine holy one" is too notable an alteration to be admitted without question; yet upon the equivalency of the two expressions is Peter's whole argument built.

Psalm cxxxii. 11: "The Lord hath sworn in truth unto David, he will not turn from it, Of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne: if thy children will keep my covenant and my testimony, their children also shall sit upon thy throne for evermore." But Jesus did not ap