cient times, for a series of many years, this people had been favoured with numerous signal manifestations from heaven: a cloud had conducted them by day, and a pillar of fire by night; their law was given them accompanied by a peculiar display of solemn pomp and magnificence; and the glory of God had repeatedly filled their temple. Habituated as their understandings had been, for many ages, to receive as truth only what should be attested and ratified by signs from heaven, and by some grand and striking phenomena in the sky, it was natural for them, long accustomed as they had been to this kind of evidence, to ask our Saviour to give them some sign from heaven (Matt. xvi. 1.), to exhibit before them some amazing and stupendous prodigy in the air to convince them of the dignity and divinity of his character. The Jews, says St. Paul, require a sign (1 Cor. i. 22.); it was that species of evidence to which their nation had been accustomed. Thus we read that the Scribes and Pharisees came to John, desiring him that he would show them a sign from heaven. Again, we read that the Jews came and said to Jesus, What sign showest thou unto us, seeing that thou dost these things? Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up! (John ii. 18, 19.) What kind of signs these were which they expected, and what sort of preternatural prodigies they wanted him to display in order to authenticate his divine mission to them, appears from the following passages: They said, therefore, unto him, What sign showest thou then, that we may see and believe thee? What dost thou work? Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven! (John vi. 30, 31.) This method, therefore, of espousing religious doctrines, only as they should be confirmed by some signal and indubitable interposition of the Deity, and their cherishing the vanity and presumption that heaven would lavish its miraculous signs whenever they called for them, constitute a striking and very distinguishing feature in the national character of this people.' So exceedingly great was the fecundity of the Jewish people, that multitudes of them had occasionally been con strained to emigrate from their native country; hence, at the time of our Saviour's birth, there was scarcely a province in the Roman empire in which they were not to be found, either serving in the army, engaged in the pursuits of commerce, or exercising some lucrative arts. They were maintained, in foreign countries, against injurious treatment and violence, by various special edicts of the emperors and magistrates in their favour; though from the peculiarities of their religion and manners, they were held in very general contempt, and were not unfrequently exposed to much vexation and annoyance, from the jealousy and indignation of an ignorant and superstitious populace. Many of them, in consequence of their long residence and intercourse with foreign nations, fell into the error of endeavouring to make their religion accommodate itself to the principles and institutions of some of the different systems of heathen discipline; but, on the other hand, it is clear that the Jews brought many of those among whom they resided to perceive the superiority of the Mosaic religion over the Gentile superstitions, and were highly instrumental in causing them to forsake the worship of a plurality of gods. Although the knowledge which the Gentiles thus acquired from the Jews respecting the only true God, the Creator and Governor of the universe, was, doubtless, both partial and limited, yet it inclined many of them the more readily to listen to the subsequent arguments and exhortations of the apostles of our Saviour, for the purpose of exploding the worship of false deities, and recalling men to the knowledge of true religion. All which, Mosheim observes, with equal truth and piety, appears to have been most singularly and wisely directed by the adorable hand of an interposing Providence: to the end that this people, who were the sole depository of the true religion and of the knowledge of the one supreme God, being spread abroad through the whole earth, might be every where, by their example, a reproach to superstition, contribute in some measure to check it, and thus prepare the way for that fuller display of divine truth which was to shine upon the world from the ministry and Gospel of the Son of God.2 PART IV. DOMESTIC ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS, AND OF OTHER NATIONS INCIDENTALLY MENTIONED IN THE SCRIPTURES. CHAPTER I. ON THE DWELLINGS OF THE JEWS. I. Caves.-II. Tents.-III. Houses-Their Arrangement-Materials-and Conveniences.-IV. Furniture.-V. Cities, Markets, and Gates. I. As men, in the primitive condition of society, were unacquainted with the arts, they, of course, were not able to build themselves houses; they abode, therefore, necessarily under the shade of trees. It is probable that when mankind began to multiply on the earth, they dwelt in CAVES, many of which, in the Holy Land, are both capacious and dry, and still afford occasional shelter to the wandering shepherds and their flocks. Thus, Lot and his daughters abode in a cave, after the destruction of Sodom. (Gen. xix. 30.) Ancient historians3 contain many notices of troglodytes, or dwellers in caves, and modern travellers have met with them in Bar In proof of this observation, Mosheim refers to Jacobi Gronovii Decreta Romana et Asiatica pro Judæis ad cultuin divinum per Asia Minoris urbes securè obeundum. Lugd. Bat. 1712. 8vo. See also Dr. Lardner's Credibility, part i. book i. ch. 8. (Works, vol. i. pp. 161-201.) where nu3 Mosheim's Commentaries, vol i. p. 106. Eccl. Hist. vol. i. p. 52. edit. 1806. Besides the authorities cited in the preceding chapter, the Jewish sects, &c. are largely discussed by Prideaux, Connection, book v. vol. ii. pp. 335-368. Relandi Antiq. Sacr. Hebræorum, pp. 276. et seq. Ikenius, Antiq. Hebr. pp. 33-42. Schachtii Dictata in Ikenium, pp. 241. et seq. Dr Macknight's Harmony, vol. i. disc. 1. Lamy's Apparatus Biblicus, vol. i. pp. 225-243. Dr. Lardner's Credibility, part i. book i. ch. 4. Leusden's Philologus Hebræo-Mixtus, pp. 138-170. Buddei Hist. Philosophia Hebræ orum, pp. 86. et seq. merous valuable testimonies are adduced. allerodotus, Eb. iii. c. 74. Diod. Sic. lib. iii. c. 31. Quintus Curtius, lib. v. c 6 Josephus, Ant. Jud. lib. xv. c. 4. $1 bary and Egypt, as well as in various other parts of the East. The Horites, who dwelt on Mount Seir, the Zamzummim, and the Emims or Anakim, are supposed to have resided in caves. II. In succeeding ages, they abode generally in TENTS, ag the Arabs of the Desert do to this day. The invention of these is ascribed to Jabal the son of Lamech, who is, therefore, termed the father of such as dwell in tents. (Gen. iv. 20.) The patriarchs pitched their tents where they pleased, and, it should seem, under the shade of trees whenever this was practicable. Thus, Abraham's tent was pitched under a tree in the plains of Mamre (Gen. xviii. 4.), and Deborah the prophetess dwelt under a palm tree between Ramah and Bethel, in Mount Ephraim. (Judg. iv. 5.) In the East, to this day, it is the custom in many places to plant about and among their buildings trees, which grow both high and broad, and afford a cooling and refreshing shade. It appears from 1 Kings iv. 25. that this practice anciently obtained in Judæa, and that vines and fig trees were commonly used for this purpose. These trees furnished two great articles of food for their consumption, and the cuttings of their vines The inhabitants of Anab, a town on the east of the river Jordan (lat. 32. long. 35. E.), all live in grottoes or caves excavated in the rock. Bucking ham's Travels among the Arab Tribes, p. 61. would be useful to them for fuel. The tents of the emirs | Indies, also, nothing is more common than for thieves to dig and sovereigns of the East are both large and magnificent, or break through these mud walls, while the unsuspecting and furnished with costly hangings. Those of the Turco-inhabitants are overcome by sleep, and to plunder them. To mans are said to be black; and those of the Turks green: similar depredations Jesus Christ appears to allude, when he but, according to D'Arvieux, Dr. Shaw, and M. Volney, the exhorts his disciples not to lay up their treasure where tents of the Bedouins, or Arabs of the Desert, are univer- thieves BREAK THROUGH and steal. (Matt. vi. 19, 20.) Job also sally black, or of a very dusky brown. To these the bride seems to refer to the same practice. (xxiv. 16.) In the holes in the Canticles compares herself (i. 5.)—I am black (or, and chinks of these walls serpents sometimes concealed tawney) as the tents of Kedar, but comely, or beautiful as the themselves. (Amos v. 19.) In Egypt, it appears from Exod. curtains of Solomon. In the East, those who lead a pastoral v. 7. that straw anciently entered into the composition of life frequently sit (as Abraham did) in the tent-door in the bricks; and some expositors have imagined that it was used heat of the day. (Gen. xviii. 1.) The Arabian tents are of (as with us) merely for burning them; but this notion is unan oblong figure, supported according to their size, some founded. The Egyptian bricks were a mixture of clay, mud with one pillar, others with two or three, while a curtain or and straw, slightly blended and kneaded together, and aftercarpet, occasionally let down from each of these divisions, wards baked in the sun. Philo, in his life of Moses, says, converts the whole into so many separate apartments. These that they used straw to bind their bricks. The straw still tents are kept firm and steady by bracing or stretching down preserves its original colour, and is a proof that these bricks their eaves with cords, tied to hooked wooden pins, well were never burnt in stacks or kilns. Part of the bricks of pointed, which they drive into the ground with a mallet: the celebrated tower of Babel (or of Belus, as the Greeks one of these pins answering to the nail, as the mallet does termed it) were made of clay mixed with chopped straw, or to the hammer, which Jael used in fastening the temples of broken reeds, to compact it, and then dried in the sun. Their Sisera to the ground. (Judg. iv. 21.) In these dwellings solidity is equal to that of the hardest stone. 10 Among the the Arabian shepherds and their families repose upon the ruins discovered on the site of ancient Nineveh, are houses, bare ground, or with only a mat or carpet beneath them. built of sun-dried bricks, cemented with mud; and similarly Those who are married have each of them a portion of the constructed dwellings were observed by Mr. Buckingham in tent to themselves separated by a curtain.3 The more opu- the village of Karagoosh, near Mousul in Mesopotamia." At lent Arabs, however, always have two tents, one for them- this day the town of Busheher (or Bushire), like most of the selves, and another for their wives, besides others for their towns in Persia, is built with sun-dried bricks and mud,12 servants; in like manner, a particular tent was allotted to There is an allusion to this mode of building in Nahum Sarah. (Gen. xxiv. 67.) When travelling, they were care-iii. 14. ful to pitch their tents near some river, fountain, or well. (1 Sam. xxix. 1. xxx. 21.) In countries subject to violent tempests as well as to intolerable heat, a portable tent is a necessary part of a traveller's baggage, both for defence and shelter. To this the prophet Isaiah appears to allude. (iv. 6.) III. In progress of time men erected HOUSES for their habitations: 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 the East Indies;5 which material 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 1 Emerson's Letters from the Ægean, vol. i. p. 192. From Hit, a town on the banks of the Euphrates, to Hilla, the site of ancient Babylon, "the black tent of the Bedouin, formed of strong cloth made of goat's hair and wool mixed, supported by low poles, is almost the only kind of habitation met with." (Capt. Chesney's Reports on the Navigation of the Euphrates, p. 3. London, 1833. folio.) The Illyauts, a wandering tribe of Arabs, have black tents. (Hon. Capt. Keppel's Narrative of Travels from India to England, vol. i. p. 100.) Shaw's Travels, vol. i. pp. 398, 399. The description given by the intelligent traveller Mr. Buckingham of the tent of the Sheik Barak, who was at the head of a tribe of Turcomans, wandering in the vicinity of Aleppo, will enable us to form some idea of the shape and arrangement of the tent of the patriarch, Abraham. "The tent occupied a space of about thirty feet square, and was formed by one large awning, supported by twenty-four small poles in four rows of six each, the ends of the awning being drawn out by cords fastened to pegs in the ground. Each of these poles giving a pointed form to the part of the awning, which it supported, the outside looked like a number of umbrella tops, or small Chinese spires. The half of this square was open in front and at the sides, having two rows of poles clear, and the third was closed by a reeded partition, behind which was the apartment for females, surrounded entirely by the same kind of matting." "When the three angels are said to have appeared in the plains of Mamre, he is represented as sitting in the tent-door in the heat of the day." (Gen. xviii. 1-10.) "And when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent-door, and bowed himself towards the ground.... And Abrahamn hastened into the tent unto Sarah, and said, Make ready quickly three measures of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes upon the hearth. And he took butter, and milk, and the calf which he had dressed, and set it before them, and he stood by them, under the tree, and they did eat.' When inquiry was made after his wife, he replied, 'Behold, she is in the tent.' And when it was promised him that Sarah should have a son, it is said, 'And Sarah heard in the tent-door which was behind him.'...... The form of Abraham's tent, as thus described, seems to have been exactly like the one in which we sit: for in both there was a shaded open front in which he could sit in the heat of the day, and yet be seen from afar off; and the apartment of the females, where Sarah was, when he stated her to be within the tent, was immediately behind this, wherein she prepared the meal for the guests, and from whence she listened to their prophetic declaration." Travels in Mesopotamia, vol. i. pp. 30. 33, 34. 4 Bp. Lowth on Isaiah iv. 6. Pareau, Antiq. Hebr. pp. 353-356. Bruaing, Antiq. Hebr. p. 273. Jahn et Ackermann, Archæol. Biblica, §§ 26-31. In Bengal and Ceylon, as well as in Egypt, houses are constructed with this frail material. Dr. Davy's Account of the Interior of Ceylon, p. 256. See also Harmer's Observations, vol. i. pp. 265. 285. The houses at Mousul "are mostly constructed of small unhewn stones, cemented by mortar, and plastered over with mud, though some are built of burnt and unburnt bricks." Buckingham's Travels in Mesopotamia, vol. ii. p. 28. See instances of the frailty of these tenements in Dr. Shaw's Travels, vol. i. p. 250. Belzoni's Researches in Egypt, p. 299., and Ward's View of the History, &c. of the Hindoos, vol. ii. p. 335. At first, houses were small; afterwards they were larger, especially in extensive cities, the capitals of empires. The art of multiplying stories in a building is very ancient, as we may conclude from the construction of Noah's ark and the tower of Babel. The houses in Babylon, according to Herodotus,13 were three and four stories high; and those in Thebes or Diospolis,14 in Egypt, were four or five stories. In Palestine they appear to have been low, during the time of Joshua; an upper story, though it may have existed, is not mentioned till a more recent age. The houses of the rich and powerful in Palestine, in the time of Christ, were splendid, and were built according to the rules of Grecian architecture.15 Of all modern travellers, no one has so happily described the form and structure of the eastern buildings as Dr. Shaw, from whose account the following particulars are derived, which admirably elucidate several interesting passages of Holy Writ. The streets of the cities, the better to shade them from Ward's History, &c. of the Hindoos, vol. ii. p. 325. Shaw's Travels, vol. i. p. 250. Mr. Belzoni, in his Researches in Egypt, found similar bricks in an ancient arch which he discovered at Thebes, and which he has engraved among the plates illustrative of his Researches in Egypt, Nubia, &c. Plate xliv. No. 2. In and near the ruins of the ancient Tentyra, Dr. Richardson also found huts built of sun-dried brick, made of straw and clay. (Travels, vol. i. pp. 185. 259.) They are thus described by the Rev. Mr. Jowett, as they appeared in February, 1819.-Speaking of the remains of ancient buildings in that part of Egypt, he says, "These magnificent edifices, while they display the grandeur of former times, exhibit no less the meanness of the present. This temple, built of massive stone, with a portico of twenty-four pillars, adorned with innumerable hieroglyph ics, and painted with beautiful colours, the brightness of which in meny parts remains to this day, is choked up with dusty earth. Village after vil lage, built of unburnt brick, crumbling into ruins, and giving place to new habitations, have raised the earth, in some parts, nearly to the level of the summit of the temple; and fragments of the walls of these mud huts appear even on the roof of the temple. In every part of Egypt, we find the towns built in this manner, upon the ruins, or rather the rubbish, of the former habitation. The expression in Jeremiah xxx. 18. literally applies to Egypt in the very meanest sense-The city shall be builded upon her own heap; and the expression in Job xv. 28. might be illustrated by many of these deserted hovels-He dwelleth in desolate cities, and in houses which no man inhabiteth, which are ready to become heaps. Still more touching is the allusion in Job iv. 19.; where the perishing generations of men are fitly compared to habitations of the frailest materials, built upon the heap of similar dwelling places, now reduced to rubbish-How much less in them that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust!"-(Jowett's Researches in the Mediterranean, pp. 131, 132.)-In one place, says the same intelligent traveller, "the people were making bricks, with straw cut into small pieces, and mingled with the clay to bind it. Hence it is, that, when villages built of these bricks fall into rubbish, which is often the case, the roads are full of small particles of straws extremely offensive to the eyes in a high wind. They were, in short, engaged exactly as the Israelites used to be, making bricks with straw; and for a similar purpose-to build extensive granaries for the bashaw; treasure-cities for Pharaoh." Exod. i. 11. (Ibid. p. 167.) 10 Sir R. K. Porter's Travels in Georgia, Persia, Babylonia, &c. vol. ii. pp. 329, 330. 11 Buckingham's Travels in Mesopotamia, vol. ii. p. 71. 12 Price's Journal of the British Embassy to Persia, part i. p. 6. Lond 1825. folio. 14 Diod. Sic. lib. '. c. 45. 13 Herodot. lib. i. c. 180. 18 Jahn et Ackermann, Archæol. Bibl. § 33. the sun, are usually narrow, sometimes with a range of shops on each side. If from these we enter into any of the principal houses, we shall first pass through a porch or gateway, with benches on each side, where the master of the family receives visits, and despatches business; few persons, not even the nearest relations, having admission any farther, except upon extraordinary occasions. From hence we are received into the court, which lying open to the weather, is, according to the ability of the owner, paved with marble, or such proper materials as will carry off the water into the common sewers." This court corresponded to the cava adium or impluvium of the Romans; the use of which was to give light to the windows and carry off the rain. When much people are to be admitted, as upon the celebration of a marriage, the circumcising of a child, or occasions of the like nature, the company is seldom or never admitted into one of the chambers. The court is the usual place of their reception, which is strewed accordingly with mats or carpets, for their more commodious entertainment. The stairs which lead to the roof are never placed on the outside of the house in the street, but usually at the gateway or passage room to the court; sometimes at the entrance within the court. This court is now called in Arabic el woost, or the middle of the house, literally answering to the Toy of St. Luke. (v. 19.) In this area our Saviour probably taught. In the summer season, and upon all occasions when a large company is to be received, the court is commonly sheltered from the heat and inclemencies of the weather by a vellum umbrella or veil, which, being expanded upon ropes from one side of the parallel wall to the other, may be folded or unfolded at pleasure. The Psalmist seems to allude either to the tents of the Bedouins, or to some covering of this kind, in that beautiful expression, of spreading out the heavens like a veil or curtain." (Psal. civ. 2. See also Isaiah xl. 22.) The arrangement of oriental houses satisfactorily, explains the circumstances of the letting down of the paralytic into the presence of Jesus Christ, in order that he might heal him. (Mark ii. 4. Luke v. 19.) The paralytic was carried by some of his neighbours to the top of the house, either by forcing their way through the crowd by the gateway and passages up the staircase, or else by conveying him over some of the neighbouring terraces; and there, after they had drawn away the Grey or awning, they let him down along the side of the roof through the opening or impluvium into the midst of the court before Jesus. Ere, Dr. Shaw remarks, may with propriety denote no less than tatlilo (the corresponding word in the Syriac version), any kind of covering; and, consequently, ancora may signify, the removal of such a covering. ET is in the Vulgate Latin version rendered patefacientes, as if further explanatory of array. The same in the Persian version is connected with xpzrcy, and there implies making holes in it for the cords to pass through. That neither array nor are imply any force or violence offered to the roof, appears from the parallel passage in St. Luke; where, though de trendy avrov, per tegulas demiserunt illum, is rendered by our translators, they let him down through the tiling, as if that had been previously broken up, it should be rendered, they let him down over, along the side, or by the way of the roof, as in Acts ix. 25. and 2 Cor. xi. 33., where the like phraseology is observed as in St. Luke: d is rendered in both places by, that is, along the side, or by the way of the wall. Epugares may express the plucking away or removing any obstacle, such as awning or part of a parapet, which might be in their way. Kepa was first used for a roof of tiles, but afterwards came to signify any kind of roof.3 The following diagram will perhaps give the reader a tolerably accurate idea of the arrangement of an eastern house : 1 In Bengal, servants and others generally sleep in the verandah or porch, in front of their master's house. (Ward's History, &c. of the Hindoos, vol. ii. p. 323.) The Arab servants in Egypt do the same. (Wilson's Tra vels in Egypt and the Holy Land, p. 55.) In this way Uriah slept at the door of the king's house, with all the servants of his lord. (2 Sam. xi. 9.) Dr. Shaw's Travels, vol. i. pp. 374-376. Shaw's Travels in Barbary, &c. vol. i. pp. 382-384. 8vo. edition. Valpy's Gr. Test. on Mark ii. 4. If the circumstances related by the evange list had happened in India, nothing could be easier than the mode of letting down the paralytic. A plank or two might be started from the top balcony or viranda in the back court, where the congregation was probably assembled, and the man [be] let down in his hammock."Callaway's Oriental Observations, p. 71. Now, let it be supposed, that Jesus was sitting at D in the porch, at the entrance into the main building, and speaking to the people, when the four men carrying the paralytic came to the front gate or porch, B. Finding the porch so crowded that they could not carry him in and lay him before Jesus, they carried him up the stairs at the porch to the top of the gallery, C, C, C, and along the gallery round to the place where Jesus was sitting, and forcing a passage by removing the balustrade, they lowered down the paralytic, with the couch on which he lay, into the court before Jesus. Thus we are enabled to understand the manner in which the paralytic was brought in and laid before the compassionate Redeemer.1 "The court is for the most part surrounded with a cloister, as the cava ædium of the Romans was with a peristylium or colonnade, over which, when the house has one or more stories (and they sometimes have two or three), there is a gallery erected of the same dimensions with the cloister, having a balustrade, or else a piece of carved or latticed work going round about it, to prevent people from falling from it into the court. From the cloisters and galleries we are conducted into large spacious chambers of the same length of the court, but seldom or never communicating with one another. One of them frequently serves a whole family, particularly when a father indulges his married children to live with him; or when several persons join in the rent of the same house. Hence it is that the cities of these countries, which are generally much inferior in size to those of Europe, are so exceedingly populous, that great numbers of the inhabitants are swept away by the plague, or any other contagious distemper. In houses of better fashion, these chambers, from the middle of the wall downwards, are covered and adorned with velvet or damask hangings, of white, blue, red, green, or other colours (Esth. i. 6.), suspended upon hooks, or taken down at pleasure. But the upper part is embellished with more permanent ornaments, being adorned with the most ingenious wreathings and devices in stucco and fret-work. The ceiling is generally of wainscot either very artfully painted, or else thrown into a variety of panels, with gilded mouldings and scrolls of their Koran intermixed. The prophet Jeremiah (xxii. 14.) exclaims Mr. Hartley has dissented from the interpretation above given by Dr. frequently above my head, and contemplate the facility with which the Shaw. "When I lived in Ægina" (he relates), "I used to look up not un whole transaction might take place. The roof was constructed in this manner :-A layer of reeds, of a large species, was placed upon the rafters. earth was deposited, and beat down into a compact mass. On these a quantity of heather (heath) was strewed; upon the heather Now what diffi culty could there be in removing, first the earth, then the heather, next the reeds? Nor would the difficulty be increased, if the earth had a pavement of tiling (xipauwv) laid upon it. No inconvenience could result to heather and reeds would intercept any thing which might otherwise fall the persons in the house from the removal of the tiles and earth; for the down, and would be removed last of all." (Hartley's Researches in Greece, p. 240.) Similar costly hangings appear to have decorated the pavilion or state tent of Solomon, alluded to in Cant. i. 5.; the beauty and elegance of which would form a striking contrast to the black tents of the nomadic Arabs. The state tents of modern oriental sovereigns, it is well known, are very superb: of this gorgeous splendour, Mr. Harmer has given some instances from the travels of Egmont and Hayman. The tent of the Grand Seignior covered on the outside with scarlet broad cloth, and lined within with violet was covered and lined with silk. Nadir Shah had a very superb one, coloured satin, ornamented with a great variety of animals, flowers, &c formed entirely of pearls and precious stones. (Harmer on Sol. Song p. 186.) against the eastern houses that were ceiled with cedar, and painted with vermilion. The floors are laid with painted tiles, or plaster of terrace. But as these people make little or no use of chairs (either sitting cross-legged or lying at length), they always cover and spread them over with carpets, which, for the most part, are of the richest materials. Along the sides of the wall or floor, a range of narrow beds or mattresses is often placed upon these carpets and for their farther ease and convenience, several velvet or damask bolsters are placed upon these carpets or mattresses; indulgences which seem to be alluded to by their stretching themselves upon couches, and by the sewing of pillows to the armholes, as we have it expressed in Amos vi. 4. and Ezek. xiii. 18. At one end of the chamber there is a little gallery, raised three, four, or five feet above the floor, with a balustrade in the front of it, with a few steps likewise leading up to it. Here they place their beds; a situation frequently alluded to in the Holy Scriptures; which may likewise illustrate the circumstance of Hezekiah's turning his face when he prayed towards the wall, i. e. from his attendants (2 Kings xx. 2.), that the fervency of his devotion might be the less taken notice of and observed. The like is related of Ahab (1 Kings xxi. 4.), though probably not upon a religious account, but in order to conceal from his attendants the anguish he felt for his late disappointments. The stairs are sometimes placed in the porch, sometimes at the entrance into the court. When there is one or more stories, they are afterwards continued through one corner or other of the gallery to the top of the house, whither they conduct us through a door that is constantly kept shut to prevent their domestic animals from daubing the terrace, and thereby spoiling the water which falls from thence into the cisterns below the court. This door, like most others we meet with in these countries, is hung, not with hinges, but by having the jamb formed at each end into an axle-tree or pivot, whereof the uppermost, which is the longest, is to be received into a correspondent socket in the lintel, while the other falls into a cavity of the same fashion in the threshold." Anciently, it was the custom to secure the door of a house, by a cross-bar or bolt, which by night was fastened by a little button or pin: in the upper part of the door was left a round hole, through which any person from without might thrust his arm, and remove the bar, unless this additional security were superadded. To such a mode of fastening the bride alludes in Cant. v. 4.2 "The top of the house, which is always flat, is covered with a strong plaster of terrace, whence in the Frank language it has obtained the name of the terrace. This is usually surrounded by two walls, the outermost whereof is partly built over the street, and partly makes the partition with the contiguous houses, being frequently so low that one may easily climb over it. The other, which may be called the parapet wall, hangs immediately over the court, being always breast high, and answers to the npy, or lorica, Deut. xii. 8., which we render the battlements. Instead of this parapet wall, some terraces are guarded, like the galleries, with balustrades only, or latticed work; in which fashion, probably, as the name seems to import, was the , or net, or lattice, as we render it, that Ahaziah (2 Kings i. 2.) might be carelessly leaning over, when he fell down from thence into the court. For upon those terraces several offices of the family are performed, such as the drying of linen and flax (Josh ii. 6.), the preparing of figs or raisins, where likewise they enjoy the cool refreshing breezes of the evening, converse with one another, and offer up their devotions."4 At Tiberias, we are informed that the parapet is commonly made of wicker-work and sometimes of green branches; which mode of constructing booths seems to be as ancient as the days of Nehemiah, when the people went forth, at the feast of tabernacles, and brought branches and made themselves booths, every one upon the top of his house. (Neh. viii. 16.)5 "As these terraces are thus frequently used and trampled upon, not to mention the solidity of the materials with which they are made, they will not easily permit any vegetable substances to take root or thrive upon them; which perhaps may 1 Dr. Shaw's Travels in Barbary, vol. i. pp. 374-379. 2 Bp. Percy's Translation of Solomon's Song, p. 76. On these terraces, the inhabitants of the East sleep in the open air during the hot season. See instances, illustrating various passages of the Scriptures, in the Travels of Ali Bey, vol. ii. p. 293. Mr. Kinneir's Travels in Armenia, &c. p. 134. Mr. Morier's Second Journey in Persia, p. 230, where a wood-cut is given explanatory of this practice; and Mr. Ward's History, &c. of the Hindoos, vol. ii. p. 323. Thus we read that Samuel communed with Saul upon the house-top (1 Sam. ix. 25.); David walked upon the roof of the king's house (2 Sam. xi. 2.); and Peter went up upon the house-top to pray. (Acts 1. 9.) Madden's Travels in Turkey Egypt, &c. vol. ii. p. 314. VOL. II. illustrate the prophet Isaiah's comparison of the Assyrians to the grass upon the house-tops. (Isa. xxxvii. 27.) When any of these cities are built upon level ground, one may pass along the tops of houses from one end of them to the other, without coming down into the street."6 In the mountainous parts of modern Palestine these terraces are composed of earth, spread evenly on the roof of the house, and rolled hard and flat. On the top of every house a large stone roller is kept, for the purpose of hardening and flattening this layer of rude soil, to prevent the rain from penetrating; but upon this surface, as may be supposed, grass and weeds grow freely. Similar terraces appear to have been anciently constructed in that country: it is to such grass that the Psalmist alludes as useless and bad-Let them be as the grass upon the house-tops, which withereth afore it groweth up. (Psal. cxxix. 6.) These low and flat-roofed houses afford opportunities to speak to many on the house as well as to many in the courtyard below: this circumstance will illustrate the meaning of our Lord's command to his apostles, What ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the house-tops. (Matt. x. 27.) On these terraces incense was anciently burnt (Jer. xix. 13. xxxii. 29.), and the host of heaven was worshipped. (Zeph. i. 5.). In Barbary, the hills and valleys in the vicinity of Algiers are beautified with numerous country seats and gardens, whither the opulent resort during the intense heats of summer. In all probability, the summer-houses of the Jews, mentioned by the prophet Amos (iii. 15.), were of this description; though these have been supposed to mean different apartments of the same house, the one exposed to a northern and the other to a southern aspect. During the Rev. Mr. Jowett's residence at Haivali, in May, 1818, he relates that the house, in which he abode, gave him a correct idea of the scene of Eutychus's falling from the upper loft, while Paul was preaching at Troas. (Acts xx 6-12.) "According to our idea of houses," he remarks. "the scene of Eutychus's falling from the upper loft is very far from intelligible; and, besides this, the circumstance of preaching generally leaves on the mind of cursory readers the notion of a church. To describe this house, which is not many miles distant from the Troad, and perhaps, from the unchanging character of oriental customs, nearly resembles the houses then built, will fully illustrate the narrative. "On entering my host's door, we find the ground floor entirely used as a store: it is filled with large barrels of oil, the produce of the rich country for many miles round: this space, so far from being habitable, is sometimes so dirty with the dripping of the oil, that it is difficult to pick out a clean footing from the door to the first step of the staircase. On ascending, we find the first floor, consisting of a humble suite of rooms, not very high; these are occupied by the family, for their daily use. It is on the next story that all their expense is lavished: here, my courteous host has appointed my lodging: beautiful curtains, and mats, and cushions to the divan, display the respect with which they mean to receive their guest: here, likewise, their splendour, being at the top of the house, is enjoyed, by the poor Greeks, with more retirement and less chance of molestation from the intrusion of Turks: here, when the Professors of the College waited upon me to pay their respects, they were received in ceremony and sat at the window. The room is both higher and also larger than those below: it has two projecting windows; and the whole floor is so much extended in front beyond the lower part of the building, that the projecting windows considerably overhang the street. In such an upper room-secluded, spacious, and commodious-Paul was invited to preach his parting discourse. The divan, or raised seat, with mats or cushions, encircles the interior of each projecting window: and I have remarked, that when company is numerous, they sometimes place large cushions behind the company seated on the divan; so that a second tier of company, with their feet upon the seat of the divan, are sitting behind, higher than the front row. Eutychus, thus sitting, would be on a level with the open window; and, being overcome with sleep, he would easily fall out from the third loft of the house into the street, and be almost certain, from such a height, to lose his life. Thither St. Paul went down; and comforted the alarmed company, by bringing up Eutychus alive. It is noted, that there were many lights in the upper chamber. The very great plenty of oil in this neighbourhood would enable them to afford many lamps: the heat of these This is particularly the case at Aleppo. Irby's and Mangle's Travels, p. 238, Shaw's Travels, vol. i. pp. 380, 381. Jowett's Christian Researches in Syria, &c. pp. 89. 95. and so much company would cause the drowsiness of Euty- ble to one who came behind the couch, as in the annexed chus at that late hour, and be the occasion, likewise, of the diagram:windows being open. 71 In most houses, some place must have been appropriated to the preparation of food; but kitchens are for the first time mentioned in Ezek. xlvi. 23, 24. The hearth or fire-place appears to have been on the ground. Chimneys, such as are in use among us, were unknown to the Hebrews, even in the latest times of their polity. The smoke, therefore, escaped through large openings left for that purpose, which in our version of Hos. xiii. 3. are rendered by the equivalent term, chimneys.2 It was common, when any person had finished a house, and entered into it, to celebrate the event with great rejoicing, and to perform some religious ceremonies to obtain the divine blessing and protection. The dedication of a newly-built house was a ground of exemption from military service. (Deut. xx. 5.) The xxxth Psalm, as appears from the title, was composed on occasion of the dedication of the house of David; and this devout practice obtained also among the ancient Romans. In Deut. vi. 9. Moses directs the Israelites to write certain portions of his laws on the doors of their houses and the gates of their cities. This direction Michaelis understands not as a positive injunction, but merely an exhortation, to inscribe his laws on the door-posts of their houses. "In Syria and the adjacent countries, it is usual at this day to place inscriptions above the doors of the houses, consisting of passages from the Koran or from the best poets. Among us, where, by the aid of printing, books are so abundantly multiplied, and may be put into the hands of every child, such measures would be quite superfluous; but, if we would enter into the ideas of Moses, we must place ourselves in an age when the book of the law could only come into the hands of a few opulent people."4 IV. 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. The interior of the more common and useful apartments was furnished with sets of large nails with square heads (like dice), and bent at the head so as to make them cramp-irons. In modern Palestine, the plan is to fix nails or pins of wood in the walls, while they are still soft, to suspend such domestic articles as are required; since, consisting altogether of clay, they are too frail to admit of the operation of the hammer. To this custom there is an allusion in Ezra ix. 8. and Isa. xxii. 23. On these nails were hung their kitchen utensils or other articles. Instead of chairs they sat on mats or skins; and the same articles, on which they laid a mattrass, served them instead of bedsteads, while their upper garment served them for a covering, and sovereigns had chairs of state or thrones with footstools. (Exod. xxii. 26, 27. 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, on which they sat,8 lay, and slept. (2 Kings iv. 10. 2 Sam. xvii. 28.) In later times their couches were splendid, and the frames inlaid with ivory (Amos vi. 4.), and the coverlids rich and perfumed. (Prov. vii. 16, 17.) On these sofas, in the latter ages of the Jewish state (for before the time of Moses it appears to have been the custom to sit at table, Gen. xliii. 33.), they universally reclined, when taking their meals (Amos ví. 4. Luke vií. 36-38.): resting on their side with their heads towards the table, so that their feet were accessi 1 Jowett's Christian Researches in the Mediterranean, pp. 66, 67. 2 Pareau, Antiquitas Hebraica, p. 363. a Bruning, Antiq. Hebr. p. 309. Michaelis's Commentaries, vol. iii. pp. 371, 372. 5 Rae Wilson's Travels, vol. ii. p. 118. 3d edit. Bp. Lowth on Isa. lii. 2. "A mnat and pillow form all the bed of the common people in the East; ard the rolling up the one in the other has often struck me as illustrating the command to rise, take up thy bed, and walk. (Luke v. 19. Mark ii. 4. 11.) In Acts ix. 34. Peter said to Eneas, Arise and spread thy bed for thyself. David's bed (1 Sam. xix. 15.) was probably the duan" (divan)" or raised bench with two quilts, one doubled and serving for a mattrass, and the other as a covering. It was probably not unlike a sailor's hammock, laid on the floor or bench." Callaway's Oriental Observations, p. 21. A passage in Jeremiah xiii. 22. may in some degree be explained by the oriental mode of sitting-For the greatness of thine iniquity are thy skirts discovered, and thy heels made bare. "I have often been struck," says Mr. Jowett, "with the manner in which a great man sits; for exsmple, when I visited the bashaw, I never saw his feet: they were entirely drawn up under him, and covered by his dress. This was dignified. To see his feet his skirts must have been discovered: still inore so, in order to see the heels, which often serve as the actual seat of an Oriental.”— Jowett's Christian Researches in the Mediterranean, p. 169. 9 Jahn et Ackermann, Archæologia Biblica, § 40. : :c c A B In which A denotes the table, and c, c, c, the couches on which the guests reclined. B is the lower end, open for ser vants to enter and supply the guests. The knowledge of this custom enables us to understand the manner in which John leaned on the bosom of his Master (John xiii. 23.), and Mary anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped them with her hair; and also the expression of Lazarus being carried into Abraham's bosom (Luke xvi. 22.): that is, he was placed next to Abraham at the splendid banquet, under the image of which the Jews represented the happy state of the pious after death.10 Anciently, splendid hangings were used in the palaces of the eastern monarchs, and ample draperies were suspended over the openings in the sides of the apartments, for the twofold purpose of affording air, and of shielding them from the sun. Of this description were the costly hangings of the Persian sovereigns mentioned in Esth. i. 6.; which passage is confirmed by the account given by Quintus Curtius of their superb palace at Persepolis. Other articles of necessary furniture were, at least in the more ancient periods, both few and simple. The principal were a hand-mill, with which they ground their corn, a kneading-trough, and an oven. The HAND-MILL resembled the querns, which, in early times, were in general use in this country, and which still continue to be used in some of the more remote northern islands of Scotland, as well as in the East. So essential were these domestic utensils, that the Israelites were forbidden to take them in pledge. (Deut. xxiv. 6.) The KNEADING-TROUGHS (at least those which the Israelites carried with them out of Egypt, Exod. xii. 34.) were not the cumbersome articles now in use among us, but comparatively small wooden bowls, like those of the modern Arabs, who, after kneading their flour in them, make use of them as dishes out of which they eat their victuals. The OVEN was sometimes only an earthen pot in which fire was put to heat it, and on the outside of which the batter or dough was spread, and almost instantly baked. Cakes of bread were also baked by being placed within the oven. Besides these two articles, they must have had different kinds of earthenware vessels, especially pots to hold water for their various ablutions. While sitting upon the shattered wall which enclosed "the Well of Cana" in Galilee, in February, 1820, Mr. Rae Wilson observed six females, having their faces veiled (Gen. xxiv. 66. Cant. v. 7.), come down to the well, each carrying on her head a pot (John ii. 6-10.), for the purpose of being filled with water: one of whom lowered her pitcher into the well and offered him water to drink, preciesly in the same manner in which Rebekah, many centuries before, had offered water to Abraham's servant. (Gen. xxiv. 18.) These water-pots are formed of clay, hardened by the heat of the sun, and are of a globular shape, large at the mouth, not unlike the bottles used in our country for holding vitriol, but not so large. Many of them have handles attached to the sides: and it was a wonderful coincidence with Scripture that the vessels appeared to contain much about the same quantity as those which, the evangelist informs us, were employed on occasion of the marriage which was honoured by the Saviour's presence; namely, three firkins, or twelve gallons each." About 10 Robinson's Greek Lexicon, voce Kokos. 11 Rae Wilson's Travels in the Holy Land, &c. vol. ii mp. 3, 4. 3d editlan |