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ADDITIONAL NOTES.

GENESIS XL. VERSES 9-13, 21.

Philo, in his Treatise on Joseph, gives an account of the imprisonment of the young Hebrew and the dreams of the chief butler and baker. Of the former he states:-"Then first the chief-wine-pourer (archioinochoös) declares, It seemed to me that a great vine of three roots brought forth one very vigorous and fruitful stock, bearing clusters as if in the height of summer; and as the grapes had a high, ripe color, I gathered the clusters and gently squeezed them into the royal cup, and when it contained sufficient of the pure wine (akratou), I presented it to the king." Joseph predicts his restoration to his office at court, and adds, “In order to the confirmation of thy dignity, thou shalt pour out wine (oinochoeeseis), and present the cup to thy sovereign."

EXODUS XII. VERSES 17-20.

In his treatise concerning the Sacred Festivals, Philo observes that some interpreters of Holy Scripture accounted for the prohibition of leaven at the passover from the fact that 'unfermented food is a gift of nature, while that which is fermented is a work of art' (hoti hee azuma trophee doreema phuseōs, de zumōmenon technees ergon); and, further, that as the primitive inhabitants of the world must have used the productions of the earth in their natural state, so it was suitable for the Creator to kindle afresh every year the primitive spirit by a course of plain and simple dietary.

EXODUS XXXII. VERSE 6.

And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.

To this circumstance St Paul refers, 1 Cor. x. 7. Whether the words 'sat down to eat and to drink' imply gluttony and drunkenness cannot be absolutely determined. Though the people were not furnished by God with strong drink, occasional supplies might have been procured, with the certain effect of stimulating every tendency to impurity and idolatrous rites.

NUMBERS XXV. VERSES 1, 2.

And Israel abode in Shittim, and the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab. 2 And they called the people unto the sacrifices of their gods: and the people did eat, and bowed down to their gods.

This shameful tergiversation is made a subject of apostolic warning, 1 Cor. x. 8. Prevented from cursing the people of Israel, Balaam basely gave such advice to Balak, the king of Moab, as led to the temptation before which the children of Israel fell. So far did the corruption extend, that the Israelites ate of the Moabitish sacrifices, and did reverence to the idols. As these sacrificial feasts were always occasions of revelry and intemperance, it may be presumed that the one described in the text was no exception to the rule.

DEUTERONOMY XXXIII. VERSE 28.

The expression shahmahiv, ‘THY heavens,' seems to indicate that the amn Yaakov, 'the eye (or fountain) of Jacob,' is nothing less than a poetical and intensive form of speech personifying Jehovah, who describes Himself in ver. 26 as 'the God of Jeshurun.' The promise that God's eye, the sign of complacency and blessing, should be upon the land, would exactly agree with the words of Deut. xi. 12, "A land which the Lord thy God careth for the eyes of the Lord thy God are always upon it." In Psa. xxiv. 6 the appellative Jacob' is distinctly ascribed to Jehovah in a similar outburst of ecstatic devotion, God being identified with Jacob the patriarch, as the Father of the chosen race.

ESTHER I. VERSE 8.

Concerning the change of manners and morals among the ancient Persians as to the use of strong drink, Professor Rawlinson, in his 'Ancient Monarchies,' vol. iv., offers the following remarks:-" In respect of eating and drinking, the Persians, even of the better sort, were in the earlier times noted for their temperance and sobriety. Their ordinary food was wheaten bread, barley cakes, and meat simply roasted or boiled, which they seasoned with salt and with bruised cressseed, a substitute for mustard. The sole drink in which they indulged was water. Moreover, it was their habit to take one meal only each day. The poorer kind of people were contented with even a simpler diet, supporting themselves, to a great extent, on the natural products of the soil, as dates, figs, wild pears, acorns, and the fruit of the terebinth tree. But these abstemious habits were soon laid aside, and replaced by luxury and self-indulgence, when the success of their arms had put it in their power to have the full and free gratification of all their desires and propensities. Then, although the custom of having but one meal in the day was kept up, the character of the custom was entirely altered by beginning the meal early and making it last till night. Not many sorts of meat were placed on the board, unless the occasion was a grand one; but course after course of the lighter kinds of food flowed on in an almost endless succession, intervals of some length being allowed between the courses to enable the guests to recover their appetites.

Instead of water, wine became the usual beverage; each man prided himself on the quantity he could drink; and the natural result followed, that most banquets terminated in general intoxication. Drunkenness even came to be a sort of institution. Once a year, at the feast of Mithras, the king of Persia, according to Duris, was bound to be drunk. A general practice arose of deliberating on all important affairs under the influence of wine, so that in every household, when a family crisis impended, intoxication was a duty.”

PROVERBS XXXI. VERSES 4, 5.

Plato, in his Laws,' b. ii. 674, puts into the mouth of the Athenian guest certain concluding remarks which the others pronounce to be very good.

"In preference (he says) to the custom of the Cretans and Lacedæmonians I would favor the Carthaginian law; viz., that no one when in camp is to taste of that drink (wine), but is to exist upon water during all that period; and that in the city, neither a male nor female slave should ever taste it; and that not magistrates during their year of office, nor pilots (of the State? kuberneetas), nor judges engaged in business, should taste it at all; nor any one who goes to any council to deliberate upon any matter of moment; neither any one in the daytime at all, unless on account of bodily exercise or disease (somaskias ee nosōn); nor at night, when either man or woman is intent upon begetting offspring. Many other cases a person might mention in which wine ought not to be drunk by those who possess understanding and a correct rule of action (nomon orthon).”

CANTICLES VIII. VERSE 2.

The Targum on this passage is periphrastic and allegorical, but contains the fol. lowing expressive sentence:-"We shall drink old wine (khamar attiq) which has been stored up in its own grapes since the commencement of the creation, and from pomegranates which have been made ready for the righteous in the Eden of delight."

CANON OF CRITICISM.

"The usage of the time and place of the writer determines the meaning. If a word or phrase had several meanings, the context determines which it bears in ‘a given' passage. The more common meaning of the writer's day is to be preferred, provided it suits the passage,—not that more common to our day."

Professor MURPHY, D. D., Belfast, Commentary.

CONNECTION OF THE OLD AND

NEW TESTAMENTS.

No thoughtful person can peruse the Sacred History (constituting the Jewish Bible) on which we have been commenting in relation to a great practical duty lying at the foundation of the spiritual life of the Individual, and of the religious progress of the Jewish people, without perceiving that it is a history of development. The simple religion of the Patriarchs prepares for the more complicated legislation of Moses, and for the adumbrations and symbolism of the Levitical systemshadowing forth the 'better things to come.' In process of ages, however, human corruption and tradition are seen obscuring and perverting the spirit of the whole dispensation, and the people are in danger of the eclipse of formalism and superstition. To recall them to the true meaning of Ordinances and Sacrifices, and to re-infuse a spirit of reality into their life, various bold and outspoken Prophets and Exemplars are consecrated and sent forth :

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"I raised up your sons for Prophets,

And of your young men for Nazarites;
Is it not even thus? saith the Lord."

While the one was commissioned to announce neglected Truth, the other exhibited the willinghood of a piety founded upon a regard for the Divine Will, evincing the superior value of the spontaneous sacrifice of our appetites upon the living altar of Duty. The last of the prophets had spoken, and the roll of prophesy had become sealed till the fulness of time' should arrive for the advent of its living Illustrator. Meanwhile the example of the Nazarites had called up imitators, and, while the class bearing that peculiar name may have diminished, the chief practice and principle by which they were distinguished, assumed a solidarity, and exerted a power, of a very remarkable kind. The association of the Jews with the Persian Magi, the influx of Greek philosophy along with the Grecian conquests -especially the semi-moral and religious philosophies of Epicurus and Pythagoras, —and later still, intimate relations with the Egyptian Wisdom,-all brought the pious and reflecting Jews into constant contact with some form of abstinence from intoxicating liquors-a doctrine closely interwoven with the religion and morals of antiquity. Such is the nature of the human mind, that many persons will readily embrace an opinion or a practice of foreign growth, sanctioned by strange authorities or fashions, which they would persistently reject when recommended by the faithful servants of God and truth at home. Thus, while the Jews perversely 'gave their Nazarites wine to drink,' subsequently the very same class of people might look with favor upon the abstinence which came to them from the teachers of India and Persia on the one hand, or from those of Egypt and Greece on the other. The Apocrypha and Secular History make certain the fact of the prevalence of such opinions and practices amongst the pre-Christian Jews, and the early Christians-so much so, that unless we proceed to read the New Testament in the light of this fact, many of its allusions and even its words will fail to yield up the truth to us, which was patent to the minds of those to whom the original was addressed.

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