folded, and girded with a girdle, admitted of carrying much corn or fruits of that kind in the bosom. No. 440.-vi. 48. When the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house.] "Though the returns of rain in the winter are not extremely frequent, yet when it does rain, the water pours down with great violence three or four days and nights together, enough to drown the whole country." (Jacobus de Vitriaco, Gesta Dei, p. 1098.) Such violent rains, in so hilly a country as Judea, must occasion inundations very dangerous to buildings within their reach, by washing the soil from under them, and occasioning their fall. To some such events our Lord must certainly be understood to refer. HARMER, vol. i. p. 31. 1 No. 441.-vii. 36. Sat down to meat.] In the most early times the attitude at table was sitting. In Homer, when Ulysses arrives at the palace of Alcinous, the king displaces his son Laodamas, in order to seat Ulysses in a magnificent chair. Elsewhere Homer speaks of seating the guests each in a chair. The Egyptians sat at table anciently, as did the Romans till towards the end of the second Punic war, when they began to recline at table. Mercurialis reports, that the origin of this mode was, the frequent use of the bath among the Romans, who, after bathing, going immediately to bed, and there eating, the custom insensibly became general, not only in Rome but throughout the empire. The tables were constructed of three distinct parts, or separate tables, making but one in the whole. One was placed at the upper end crossways, and the two others joined to its ends, one on each side, so as to leave an open space between, by which the attendants could readily wait at all the three. Round these tables were placed, not seats, but beds, one to each table; each of these beds was called clinium, and three of these being united to surround the three tables made the triclinium. At the end of each clinium was a footstool for the convenience of mounting up to it. These beds were formed of mattrasses, and were supported on frames of wood, often highly ornamented. Each guest reclined on his left elbow, using principally his right hand, which was therefore kept at liberty. The feet of the person reclining being towards the external edge of the bed, were much more readily reached by any body passing than any other part. The Jews, before they sit down to table, carefully wash their hands; they consider this ceremony as essential. After meals, they wash them again. When they sit down to table, the master of the house, or chief person in the company, taking bread, breaks it, but does not divide it; then putting his hand to it, he recites this blessing: Blessed be thou, O Lord our God, the king of the world, who producest the bread of the earth. Those present answer, Amen. Having distributed the bread among the guests, he takes the vessel of the wine in his right hand, saying, Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, king of the world, who hast produced the fruit of the vine. They then repeat the 23d Psalm. They take care that after meals there shall be a piece of bread remaining on the table. The master of the house orders a glass to be washed, fills it with wine, and elevating it, says, Let us bless him of whose benefits we have been partaking; the rest answer, Blessed he he, who has heaped his favours on us, and by his goodness has now fed us. Then he recites a pretty long prayer, wherein he thanks God for his many benefits vouchsafed to Israel; beseeches him to pity Jerusalem and his temple; to restore the throne of David; to send Elijah and the Messiah, and to deliver them out of their long captivity. They all answer, Amen. They recite Psalm xxiv, 9, 10. Then giving the glass with the little wine in it to be drank round, he takes what is left, and the table is cleared. These are the ceremonies of the modern Jews. CALMET's Dict. article EATING; and Fragments supplementary, No. 104. No. 442. vii. 44. Thou gavest me no water for my feet.] It was a custom universal among the eastern people to entertain their guests at their entrance into their houses with clean water and sweet oil. Thus it appears that Christ was not entertained by the master of the house; for he turned to the woman, and said unto Simon, seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house; thou gavest me no water for my feet, but she hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head. (ver. 46.) Mine head with oil thou didst not anoint, but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment. Thus also Homer represents Telemachus and Pisistratus as being entertained at the court of Menelaus. After their introduction to the palace, he says, From room to room their eager view they bend; Odyss. iv, ver. 48. No. 443.-x. 4. Salute no man by the way.] The mission upon which the disciples of Christ were sent was so important, that they were required to use the greatest dispatch, and to avoid those things which might retard them, especially if they were merely of a cere monious nature. The injunction contained in this passage is thus to be understood; for it is not to be supposed that Christ would command his disciples to neg lect or violate any of those customs unnecessarily, which were in general use, and which were innocent in them selves. In the present instance, had they been allowed to give and receive the common salutations, it is probable that their progress would have been inconsiderable for the time employed in it. Of the truth of this statement we may be satisfied from what Niebuhr says. (Travels, vol. i. p. 302.) "The Arabs of Yemen, and especially the highlanders, often stop strangers, to ask whence they came? and whither they are going? These questions are suggested merely by curiosity, and it would be indiscreet therefore to refuse an answer." This representation of the matter certainly clears from the appearance of incivility, a precept which Christ designed only to teach his servants a suitable deport ment. No. 444.-x. 13. Sitting in sackcloth and ashes.] This expression of mourning and sorrow was frequent in the East. Thus Tamar signified her distress when disho⚫ noured by Amnon. (2 Sam. xiii. 19.) Thus also when Mordecai perceived all that was done, Mordecai rent his clothes, and put on sackcloth with ashes. (Esther iv. 1.) Thus Job expressed his repentance. (Job xlii. 6.) Thus Daniel set his face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplication, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes. (Dan. ix. 3.) Other nations adopted the practice, and it became a very common method, whereby to exhibit great grief and misery. That it prevailed among the Greeks is clear and certain. Homer thus represents Achilles acting upon the news of the death of Patroclus. Αμφοτέρησι δε χερσιν ελων κονιν αιθαλόεσσαν, A sudden horror shot through all the chief, Cast on the ground, with furious hands he spread His purple garments, and his golden hairs, Iliad xviii. ver. 23. Agreeably to this practice our Lord, in declaring the miserable state of Chorazin and Bethsaida for disregarding his miracles and ministry, says, if the mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon which have been done in you, they had a great while ago repented, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. No. 445.-x. 42. Mary hath chosen that good part which shall not be taken away from her.] The Jews had commonly every one his table; and this custom was not peculiar to them, for Tacitus says the same thing of the Germans. Ulysses, in Homer, treating the deputies of the isle of Corfu, ordered as many tables to be set as there were persons, and caused every one to be served with his portion of wine and meat. Elkanah gave Hannah, whom he loved rather then Peninnah, a worthy portion in the meal that followed the sacrifice. (1 Sam. i. 5.) David sacrificing after he had danced before the ark, gave the people a feast, in which every one had his bread and his flagon of wine. (2 Sam. vi. 19.) It is thought that David alludes to this custom when he says, the Lord is the portion of mine inheritance, (marg. of my part) and of my cup; thou maintainest my lot: (Psalm xvi. 5.) and that Christ also referred to this practice in saying that Mary had chosen the good part. This custom has however now ceased among the Jews, and at present they eat at the same table, like other nations. BASNAGE'S History of the Jews, chap. xvi. § 1. |