A supplement to Dr. Hammond's paraphrase and annotations on the New Testament in which his interpretation of many important passages is freely and impartially examin'd, and confirm'd or refuted : and the sacred text further explain'd by new remarks upon every chapter / by Monsieur Le Clerc ; English'd by W. P. ; to which is prefix'd a letter from the author to a friend in England, occasion'd by this translation.

CHAP. VI.

Vers. 2. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.] That is (the words being in∣verted) he went out to conquer, and did in effect con∣quer from his very going out. That which is meant is, that the Coming of Christ, whether to reform Men, or to punish them if they were obstinate, was neither vain, nor casual.

Vers. 4. Note a. I. It was worth observing that Eusebius makes mention of two Famines, under the reign of Claudius, one fore∣told by Agabus, and to be referred to the second year of Claudius, tho he mentions it on his fourth; another in Greece and at Rome, which he refers to the ninth and tenth Years of that Emperor. I know that Joseph Scaliger thinks that the latter was foretold by Agabus, and refers it to the fifth Year of Claudius; but he gives no reason for his Affir∣mation; expecting, as is common with him, to be believed without proof.

II. Suetonius does not expresly say what our Author attributes to him, but only: Judaeos, impulsore Christo, assidue tumultuantes Roma ex∣pulit. The unbelieving Jews endeavour'd to raise a Tumult against the Christians, upon the account of Religion, for which reason both the Jews and Christians were expelled out of Rome. Suetonius says that Christ was impulsor, the cause or mover of those Tumults, out of Igno∣rance, when he should only have said that he was the occasion of them.

III. Whereas our Author affirms, that those who were by the Em∣peror's Edict expelled out of Rome, were expelled also out of the rest of the Cities of the Roman Empire, he ought to have proved it, and not have supposed it as certain. But it is false, as every one knows that has read any thing of the Roman History. Of this I have spoken already on the Premonition prefixed to this Book.

Vers. 6. Note b. The learned Dr. Bernard thinks that the Syrian Chaenix, when full of Wheat, weighed something above four English Pounds, and that one of Tiberius his denarii, current in the time of John, was worth a little more than seven English Farthings. By which calculation it appears that Wheat was dear, when four Pounds cost seven Farthings; but that our Author is mistaken, who supposes that

a Chaenix of Wheat was spent by one Man in a day. But I leave these things to the examination of those who are curious about such mat∣ters.

Vers. 8. Note d. I. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 cannot signify Cattel, but only wild Beasts, except improperly: and therefore I prefer the ordinary reading be∣fore that of the Alexandrian Copy.

II. There are two faults here in the Citations of Josephus; one in the Margin, where Lib. vi. c. 8. Bell. Jud. is set instead of Lib. vi. c. 28. and the other, where Josephus de Captiv. L. vi. c. 44. is cited instead of the same Book de Bell. Jud. Lib. vi. c. 45.

Vers. 9. Note e. I. Our learned Author thought St. John here alludes to the fourth, as it is called, Book of Esdras, extant only in Latin. But his Publishers, knowing this Book to be Apocryphal, ci∣ted the second of Esdras, in which there is no such passage. [This must be in a different Edition from that which I use, where Esdras 4. is referred to.] In the Epistle of Barnabas Chap. xii. there is a place produced out of the same Book. But this might also be added in Bar∣nabas his Epistle; and he that wrote the 4th Book of Esdras, who seems to have been some Christian, imitated this place in the Revelation.

II. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, the Souls of them that were slain, may, according to the use of the Hebrew Language, which these Writers often fol∣low, signify their dead Bodies; for 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Soul is frequently taken for a dead Body. But tho the Soul is taken for the Life, and the Life be in the Blood, it does not therefore follow that in the use of Scripture the Blood is ordinarily called the Soul. The use of words must be shewn by examples, and not by reasonings. He might have produced that Passage in Virgil Aeneid. ix. v. 349.

Purpuream vomit ille ANIMAM, & cum sanguine mista Vina refert moriens.

But it is better to understand by 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 here the Souls of Martyrs, which being admitted into the heavenly Sanctuary, did by their Presence put God in mind of taking Vengeance upon the Jews. For the loud Voice here does not signify praying, or desiring Revenge, but the great∣ness of the Crime, which is said to cry unto God, because the thing it self does as much implore the divine Justice, as if the injured Person called upon him with a loud Voice. This appears by the example of the Blood of Abel, and the Story of the Sodomites, in Gen. xviii.20.

Vers. 12. Note g. I. There is no doubt but great numbers of dead Bodies send forth exhalations into the Air; but that Clouds have been

made by them, and visible Meteors, whereby the Sun has been made black, and the Moon bloody, was never, I believe, by any one observed: And therefore the prophetical Expressions, in which great Calamities are represented under such Images, are not taken from what really is, but are rather a Prosopopeia, whereby the Sun is said to refuse to be∣hold the impieties of Men, and the Moon upon that account to blush and become red with shame, when they are very great. There are a great many such figurative Expressions in the Poets, as in Ovid. Me∣tam. v. where speaking of the prodigies that preceded the death of Julius Caesar, he says,

— Phoebi quoque tristis imago Lurida sollicitis praebebat lumina terris. —Sparsi Lunares sanguine currus.

II. I do not think we ought, in the representation of those Miseries that befel Judaea, under the Similitude of the Sun becoming black, and the Moon red, and the Stars falling, to consider the several parts distinct∣ly, but all these things together; which without doubt signify very great Calamities, but must not be examin'd particularly as if they had each a special signification, which can be proved by no place of Scripture: see on the contrary Isa. xiii.10. where all these things sig∣nify one thing conjunctly, and nothing at all separately. Add also the place in the same Prophet, alledged by our Author.

Vers. 15. Note i. I. The 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 in Josephus should not have been rendred the promiscuous Noise or Voice; for what is a promiscuous Noise, but the sudden Voice, as it is translated by Sigism. Gelonius? The Passage which the Doctor afterwards cites as out of Josephus, with∣out naming him, in these words, the seditious go to the Palace where many had laid up their Wealth, drive out the Romans thence, kill eight thousand of them, four thousand Jews that had gotten thither for Shelter, plunder the place, is not exactly translated from the Greek, which is thus, Lib. vii. cap. 37. according to the Greek division: 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉: that is, the Seditious went into the Palace, in which, because it was a safe place, many had laid up their Possessions, and put the Romans to flight; and killing all the Inhabi∣tants that were there gather'd together, to the number of eight thousand and four hundred, plunder'd their Riches. Some difficulty there is in the words, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, which seem to be corrupted.

II. I don't know why our Author should recur to the Walls of the Temple, to explain 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, when, besides the Mountain of the Temple, there were two other Mountains contained within the Walls of the City, under which there had been Vaults made, where the Jews hid themselves, as he himself relates out of Josephus. When there is a natural and literal interpretation ready at hand, what need is there of recurring to a violent one? However he interprets here 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 in Mat. xxvii.51. Walls better than by Sepulchres. See my Note on that place.

Notes

• ☞
• Chapter VII.