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who in Matt. xix. 12. are said to have made themselves Eunuchs for the Kingdom of God's sake.

4. The SCRIBES and LAWYERS, who are frequently mentioned in the Gospels, are usually classed among Jewish sects. The Scribes had the charge of transcribing the sacred books, of publicly interpreting the more difficult passages, and of deciding in cases which grew out of the ceremonial law. They possessed great influence as well as the Lawyers or private teachers of the law.

5. The SAMARITANS are generally considered as a Jewish sect: their origin and tenets have already been noticed in pp. 91, 92.

6. The HERODIANS were a political faction, the partisans of Herod, misnamed the Great, from whom they derived their name, and with whom they co-operated in all his political and time-serving schemes, to conciliate the favour of the Romans.

7. The GALILEANS were the followers of Judas the Gaulonite or Galilæan, whose tenets they embraced and acted upon. They held, that tribute was due to God alone, and consequently ought not to be paid to the Romans; and that religious liberty and the authority of the divine laws were to be defended by force of arms. In other respects their doctrines appear to have been the same as those of the Pharisees.

The ZEALOTS, SO often mentioned in Jewish history, appear to have been the followers of this Judas: and it has been supposed, that the JUST MEN, whom the Pharisees and Herodians sent to entangle Jesus in his conversation, were members of this sect. (Matt. xxii. 15, 16. Mark xii. 13, 14. Luke xx. 20.)

8. The SICARII, noticed in Acts xxi. 38., were assassins, who derived their name from their using poniards bent like the Roman sica, which they con

cealed under their garments, and privately stabbed the objects of their malice.

III. The CORRUPTION of the JEWISH PEOPLE, both in religion and morals, in the time of Christ, sufficiently appears from the censures of Jesus Christ, which are to be found in the four Gospels. The evidence of the sacred writers is confirmed by the testimony of profane writers, especially Josephus the Jewish Historian, from whom we learn that the corruption and profligacy of the chief priests and other distinguished leaders pervaded the priests; and that from them the moral and religious contamination had spread to the lowest classes of the people, who were immersed in ignorance and vice, and cherished the most supercilious contempt and bitter hatred towards the Gentiles. So great was their pro⚫ fligacy in the last period of their commonwealth, that Josephus has recorded it as his opinion, that if the Romans had delayed any longer to have come against them, the city (Jerusalem) would either have been swallowed up by an earthquake, overwhelmed by a deluge, or destroyed by fire from heaven as Sodom was for that generation was far more enormously wicked than those who suffered these calamities.*

De Bell. Jud. lib. v. c. 13. § 6,

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BOOK IV. — DOMESTIC ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS AND OTHER NATIONS, INCIDENTALLY MENTIONED IN THE SCRIPTURES.

CHAPTER I.

ON THE DWELLINGS OF THE JEWS.

THE earliest dwellings of mankind, after they began to multiply, are supposed to have been CAVES: thus Lot and his daughters abode in a cave after the destruction of Sodom: and both antient and modern travellers attest, that, in some parts of the East, caves have been employed for the purposes of habitation. In succeeding ages they abode in tents (Gen. xviii. 4); and, in progress of time, houses were erected: those of the rich were formed of stone or bricks, but the dwellings of the poor were formed of wood, or more frequently of mud (as they are to this day in various parts of the East); a material which is but ill calculated to resist the effects of the impetuous torrents, that descended from the mountains of Palestine. Our Lord alludes to this circumstance at the close of his sermon on the mount. (Matt. vii. 26, 27.) In the East Indies also, nothing is more common than for thieves to dig or break through these mud-walls, while the unsuspecting inhabitants are overcome by sleep, and to plunder them. To similar depredations Jesus Christ appears to allude, when he exhorts his disciples not to lay up their treasure where thieves break through and steal. (Matt. vi. 19, 20.) In the holes and chinks of these walls, serpents sometimes concealed themselves. (Amos v. 19.)

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As the style of Architecture and manners of the East have remained unaltered, the description of a modern oriental house will enable us to form a tolerably correct notion of the structure of the Jewish houses. In the East the streets are usually narrow, the better to shade them from the sun, and sometimes they have a range of shops on each side. If, then, we enter a house from the street A A, we shall pass through the outer porch B, into a square court open to the weather. This court, strewed with mats or carpets, is the usual place for receiving large companies at nuptials, circumcisions, and on other occasions. The banquet of Ahasuerus was given in a court of the royal palace (Esth. i. 5.); and in a court the multitude was assembled to hear the discourse of Jesus Christ, mentioned in Luke v. 19., where it is termed To μerov (to meson), the midst. The court is, for the most part, surrounded with a cloister,

over which is a gallery, CCC, with a balustrade or piece of lattice or carved work going round it, to prevent accidents: and from this cloister we are led into apartments of the same length as the court. D is an inner porch, at the entrance into the main building. The gates were always shut, and a servant acted the part of porter. (John xvii. 16, 17. Acts xii. 13.) The roofs were flat (as they still are), and were formed of earth, spread evenly along, and rolled very hard, to exclude the rain; but upon this surface grass and weeds grow freely to which there is an allusion in Psal. cxxix. 6. and Isa. xxxvii. 27. These roofs are surrounded by a wall, breast high, to prevent persons from falling through: such a defence or battlement was required by Deut. xxii. 8. It was this parapet which the men demolished, in order to let the paralytic down into the court or area of the house. (Mark ii. 4. Luke v. 19.) The back part of the house is allotted to the women in Arabic it is called the Harem, and in the Old Testament the Palace. Manahem, king of Israel, was assassinated in his harem or palace. (2 Kings xv. 25.) The harem of Solomon was an inner and separate building. (1 Kings vii. 8. 2 Chron. viii. 11.)

The furniture of the oriental dwellings, at least in the earliest ages, was very simple: that of the poorer classes consisted of but few articles, and those such as were absolutely necessary. Instead of chairs, they sat on mats or skins; and the same articles, on which they laid a mattress, served them instead of bedsteads, while their upper garment served them for a covering. (Exod. xxii. 25, 26. Deut. xxiv. 12.) This circumstance accounts for our Lord's commanding the paralytic to take up his bed and go unto his house. (Matt. ix. 6.) The more opulent had (as those in the East still have) fine carpets, couches, or divans, and sofas,

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