The works of the Reverend and learned John Lightfoot D. D., late Master of Katherine Hall in Cambridge such as were, and such as never before were printed : in two volumes : with the authors life and large and useful tables to each volume : also three maps : one of the temple drawn by the author himself, the others of Jervsalem and the Holy Land drawn according to the author's chorography, with a description collected out of his writings.

SECTION L.

MARK Chap. VII. all the Chapter. And Chap. VIII. from begin. to Ver. 22.

MATTH. Chap. XV. all the Chap. And Ch. XVI. from the begin▪ to V. 13.

Scribes and Pharisees impious traditions: The Woman of Canaans Daughter, healed. A man Dumb and Deaf healed. Four thousand fed miraculously. Pharisees. require a sign, &c. Leaven of Pharisees, &c.

THese two Evangelists joyn this portion to the end of Sect. 47. Now what we have laid between in Sect. 48. & 49. is of so plain subsequence and order, that no more needeth to be said of this or them.

Certain Scribes and Pharisees that were sent purposely from Jerusalem, [as may be conjectured, because the Sanhedrin there sought to destroy Jesus] seeking to intrap and oppose him, and to make a party against him, quarrel his Disciples for not washing be∣fore meat. Their preciseness about this matter may bee seen in Talmudick Treatise Ja∣daim, and in Maymony in his Tract Mikvaoth, and occursorily almost in every place in the Jewish Writers, where they have occasion to speak of their meales and of their manner of eating.

1. Washing of the hands or dipping of them, is if the institution of the Scribes: they are the words of Maymony in Mikvaoth, per. 11.

2. Hillel and Shammai decreed about washing the hands: But R. Jose the son of R. Ben saith, The tradition about it had come to their hands, but they had forgot it. These therefore decreed but according to the mind of those that had gon before them. Talm. Jerus. in Schabb. fol. 3. col. 4.

3. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The eating of their common meat in cleanness, is very much spoken of in their Writings and most highly extolled: Insomuch that the Gloss upon Chagigah per. 2. doth determine a man of Religion by this, that He eats his common meals in cleanness: and the Gemarists in the place of the Jerusalem Talmud last cited have this say∣ing, Whosoever hath his dwelling in the Land of Israel, and eats his common meals in clean∣ness, and speaks the Holy tongue, and saies over his Phylacteries morning and evening, that man may be consident that he shall obtain the life of the world to come.

And again in Challah. fol. 58. col. 3. R. Jesi in the name of R. Shabeai and R. Cajashin the name of Simeon Ben Lachish say thus, A man should walk four miles to the washing of his hands. It is a tradition, that washing before meat is arbitrary, but after meat it is duty. Only that at his washing before, he saies over some prayer, but after, not. R. Jacob bar. R. Isaac, hereupon retorted, Dost thou say he washeth and saith over a prayer, and yet dost thou say that washing is arbritrary? It is said he should go four miles to the washing of his hands, and yet dost thou say it is arbitrary?

How they prized this and other traditions of the Elders above the word of God, and so by and for them made that of no weight, may be read too numerously in them, in such like blasphemous passages as these: The words of the Scribes are more lovely then the words of the Law, and more weighty then the words of the Prophets.

And, He that saith there are no Phylacteries, and in so saying transgresseth against the words of the Law, he is not guilty: but he that saith there is five Phylacteries, and in so saying, addeth to the words of the Scribes, he is guilty. Jerus Beracoth fol. 3. col. 2.

The written Law is narrow, but the traditional is longer then the earth and broader then the sea. Tanchum, fol. 4. col. 4.

Our Saviour damning these cursed Traditions, doth instance only in that unnatural te∣net of theirs, that extinguisheth all filial assistance to needy Parents: as if a son said to his father or mother, It is Corban, &c. Their Canons set down the duty of a son to his father, as, to give him meat and drink if he stood in need, and to cloath him, to wash his hands, feet and face, and if he need, to lead him in and out. Tosapht in Kiddushin per 1. And yet with this superinduced Tradition, they destroyed all such duty. About the word Corban in the sense in which it is used here, the Talmudick Treatises, Nedarim and Nazir and the Tosaph∣toth upon them, are good explications, where it is often used.

His resolving the case about meats not defiling the man, overthrew a great part of Pharisaism: for this washing before meat was meerly out of their Traditions, and it was a great part of their sanctimony. Moses indeed had forbidden divers things as unclean to be touched, and by the touching of which the person was legally defiled, but that with this reference, that he was unclean as to Gods service, or to the Congregation, but this pretended uncleanness of theirs, for which they appointed washing before meat, had re∣spect simply neither to the one nor the other.

Christ to a Heathen woman that begged the dispossessing of her daughter, calls the Hea∣thens Dogs, and she readily understands his meaning, as that being a common title that the Jews put upon them, Midr. Till. fol. 6. col. 3. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The Nations of the world are compared to Dogs.

No sign given to the Pharisees when they demand one, but the sign of Jonah the Pro∣phet: whereby Christ doth not only intimate his own burial and resurrection, but he chiefly intendeth to hint the calling of the Gentiles after his resurrection, as the Nini∣vites were after Jonahs, which was a thing the Jews could not endure to hear of.