guage in which the sacred books were written | subjects on which they taught were numerous, was no longer vernacular. Hence arose the need commonly intricate, and of no great consequence; of interpreters, in order to make the people un- of which there are abundant examples in the derstand what was read. These interpreters learnt Talmud.* the Hebrew language at the schools. The teachers of these schools, who for the two generations preceding the birth of Christ had maintained some acquaintance with the Greek philosophy, were not satisfied with a simple interpretation of the Hebrew idiom, as it stood, but shaped the interpretation so as to render it conformable to their philosophy. Thus arose contentions, which gave occasion for the various sects of Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes. In the time of our Saviour, divisions had arisen among the Pharisees themselves. No less than eighteen nice questions, if we may believe the Jewish rabbins, were contested at that period between the schools of Hillel and of Shammai.

5. Upon the authority of Philo, and other Jewish writers, it has been asserted by Clemens Alexandrinus, Justin Martyr, and other of the Christian Fathers, that Moses reached the summit of human learning; and he is represented as having been a perfect master of astronomy, geometry, music, medicine, occult philosophy, and, in short, of the whole circle of the arts and sciences, which were at that time known. Similar claims are made for Solomon and Daniel, and, in a lower degree, for several of the Hebrew judges and prophets. The proofs adduced for these claims, however, are fallacious and unsatisfactory, resolving themselves either into the mere opinions of some of the Fathers, and especially of Philo the Jew, or into facts and circumstances that will not bear out the conclusion.† It is admitted that the Hebrews became renowned for their intellectual culture in the time of David, and especially of Solomon, who is-said to have surpassed all others in wisdom (see 1 Kings v. 9-14); but their literature was limited chiefly to ethics, religion, the history of their nation, and natural history. After this time, the Hebrews made little progress in science and literature. The elements of arithmetic, mathematics, geography, and astronomy, formed, as we have already intimated, the boundaries of their scientific knowledge.

SECTION I.

ARITHMETIC, MATHEMATICS, AND ASTROLOGY.

4. Anciently, learned men among the Hebrews were denominated o'n chachemim, as among the Greeks they were called sopoí; i. e., wise men. In the time of Christ, the common appellative for men of that description was ygaumarsús, in the Hebrew 10, a scribe. They were addressed by the honorary title of Rabbi; great, or master. The Jews, in imitation of the Greeks, had their seven wise men, who were Rabboni. Gamaliel was one of the number. They called themselves the children of Wisdom; an expression which corresponds very nearly to the Greek pióropos Matt. xi. 19; Luke vii. 35. The heads of sects were called Fathers, Matt. xii. 27, xxiii. 1–9. The disciples were denominated sons, or children. The Jewish teachers, at least some of them, had private lecture-rooms, but they also taught and disputed in synagogues, in temples, and, in fact, wherever they could find an audience. The method of these teachers was the same with that which prevailed among the Greeks. Any disciple who chose might propose questions, upon which it was the duty of the teachers to remark and give their opinions, Luke ii. 46. The teachers were not invested with their functions by any formal act of the church, or of the civil authority; they were self-constituted. They received no other salary than some voluntary present from the disciples, which was called 'an honorary,' run, HONORARIUM, 1 Tim. v. 17. They acquired a subsistence, in the main, by the exercise of some art or handicraft. That they took a higher seat than their auditors, although it was probably the case, does not follow, as is sometimes supposed, from Luke ii. 46. According to the Talmudists, they were bound to hold no conversation with women, * Jahn, Archæol. Bib., § 106, Upham's Trans. and to refuse to sit at table with the lower classes+They may be seen in Enfield's Hist. of Phil., vol. i., pp. 38, 39.

of the people, John iv. 27; Matt. ix. 11. The

1. THE more simple methods of arithmetical calculation are spoken of in the Pentateuch, as if they were well known. The merchants of that early period must, for their own convenience, have been possessed of some method of operating by numbers. And that they were able to do it, to some considerable extent, may be argued from the fact, that they had separate words, viz., 137, naan, for so large a number as 10,000, Gen. xxiv. 60; Lev. xxvi. 8; Deut. xxxii. 30. Among the leading terms arithmetically employed, there are particularly these: sapher, which simply denotes the act of cyphering or calculation; chezib, a reckoning, or finished computation (Lev. xxv. 2); kas, to count, to make a contrasted account (Exod. xii. 4); and mene, a distribution or division (Gen. xiii.

Jahn, Archæol. § 98.

16); besides one Greek word, arithrios, number. | the gloss which he adds, "A mountain of the May these probably express the fundamental rules East," which is, in fact, the signification of the of arithmetic ?* word. Sephar is applied in general to the East, 2. By mathematics we understand geometry, while Ophir, on the other hand, means the West, mensuration, navigation, &c. As far as a know- or Africa. Some, indeed, have imagined the Ophir ledge of them was absolutely required by the con- of Scripture to mean Peru; and the Tarshish dition and employments of the people, we may from which the fleets of Solomon returned every well suppose that knowledge to have actually ex-three years, "bringing gold, and silver, ivory, apes, isted; although no express mention is made of them.

3. Of the astronomical knowledge of the Hebrews, and the biblical references to the science, we have already treated in Part IV., chap. 1.

SECTION II.

GEOGRAPHY.

Limited Extent of Geographical Knowledge among the Hebrews
-Cosmological Notions of the Hebrews.

and peacocks," has given rise to innumerable learned disquisitions. Tarsus in Cilicia (which by the way was not a sea-port), as well as Tartessus in Spain, are out of the question; for the ships of Solomon were launched from Eziongeber, in the Red Sea, and ivory, apes, and peacocks are obviously Indian produce. The most ingenious of the conjectures, offered to clear up the difficulties in the way of most of the hypotheses, is that which explains the name Tarshish as an epithet derived from the Sanscrit language, in which Tar-désa, signifies "the silver-country."

merchandise of the East through the Arabians) was an expression of extreme latitude, and applicable with equal justice to opposite quarters of the globe.||

1. We have already seent that a geographical The languages of India, owing to the great trade division of the land of promise amongst the twelve and civilization of the people who spoke them, tribes was made by Joshua soon after they had obtained a footing in the country; and the accu-Arabic and Hebrew tongues; and as the Indian are known to have contributed many terms to the racy with which this division is described shows legends make frequent mention of a silver country that at least the writer had made some attainments beyond the sea, it is not very improbable, that the in geographical science. See Josh. xviii. It is Arabians adopted from them this vague and wannot to be pretended, however, that the Hebrews dering appellation. Tarshish, then, to the Phœpossessed any very enlarged or accurate know-nicians (who received the language as well as ledge of the earth and its various countries. Their institutions were designedly calculated to discourage an intercourse with strangers. The brilliant commercial enterprises in which Solomon engaged were discontinued by his successors, and even the fleets of that prince were navigated by the servants of the king of Tyre. This restricted intercourse with foreign nations rendered it, of course, impossible to acquire any enlarged or correct knowledge of the earth; and we do not find in the prophetic writings any trace of geographical information much exceeding that which was possessed by Moses, who has left us a precious record of the manner in which the knowledge of the earth was enlarged by the dispersion of the human species. See Gen. x.

3. Towards the north, the geographical knowCaucasus; and in the north-east it was confined ledge of the Hebrews never extended beyond the within equally narrow limits. The Chaldeans, who appear to have descended from the further shores of the Caspian Sea, are described by the prophet Jeremiah as coming from the ends of the With Egypt north, and the sides of the earth. and Arabia the early Hebrews were well acquainted; but towards the West, their knowledge hardly reached so far as the shores of Greece. 4. The cosmological ideas scattered through the

2. It is impossible to fix, with precision, the eastern limit of Moses' geographical knowledge. Scriptures are few in number, and of extreme

"The dwellings of the sons of Joktan," he says, "were from Mesha, as thou goest unto Sephar, a mount of the East." This Sephar may possibly be the first range of the snowy mountains of Paropamisus, called also Sepyrrus by the ancients. But that the accurate knowledge of Moses did not extend to the confines of India is evident from

* Critica Biblica, vol. iii., p. 201.
+ Part IV., chap. iv., sect. 1, § 4.

It has been thought that by the □ sinim of Isaiah, xlix. 12, the Chinese are intended; and the opinion was adopted and defended by the late eminent Chinese scholar, Dr. Morrison. The verbal opposition of the text requires that as the land of the Sinim is geographically opposed to the ➡ yam, “west,” it must lie very far east; and this agrees perfectly with the situa tion of China, at the eastern extremity of Asia.-See Critica Biblica, vol. ii., p. 115.

Maritime Discoveries, vol. i., p. 7. Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopa dia.

simplicity. In the prophetic writings many traces | when it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb; when I made the cloud the garment thereof?" chap. xxvi., xxxviii. The general allusions which occur in Scripture to the earth and its creation are not more remarkable for the sublime language in which they are conveyed, than for their perfect freedom from fanciful and subtle speculations.* At the same time, it may be thought probable that Isai. xl. 22, and Job xxii. 14, hint at the globular form of our world.

may be found of an opinion that "heaven," or "the mount of the Lord," was in the north (Isai. xiv.). The earth was evidently considered to be a plain, surrounded, perhaps, by the ocean, which was again inclosed by the clouds of heaven. Such are the opinions expressed by Job, the sublimest of all poets: "He hath compassed the waters with bounds, until [in the places where] the day and night come to an end." And again he says: "Whereupon are the foundations of the earth fostered? or who laid the corner-stone thereof? or who shut up the sea with doors [boundaries]

Maritime Discovery, vol. i., pp. 7, 8.

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CHAPTER III.

SOCIAL CUSTOMS.

We have already had occasion to notice the dress, was, in all likelihood, a sort of felt-cloth, permanency of eastern customs; and hence the manufactured out of these materials. Later still, assistance which may be derived from an acquaint- the art of weaving was discovered, and a web was ance with the various manners and characters of formed by combining the hair of animals with the Orientals, as they at present exist, in the illus- threads drawn from wool, cotton, or flax. (See Gen. tration of the sacred Scriptures. This has been xiv. 23, xxxi. 18, 19, xxxvii. 3, xxxviii. 28, xli. 42, noticed by many writers, and has engaged the at- xlv. 22; Job vii. 6, xxxi. 20.) The Egyptians tention of some of our most intelligent travellers. were very celebrated for such manufactures. The "The manners of the East," says Mr. Morier, Israelites, while living among them, learned the amidst all the changes of government and reli- art, and even excelled their teachers. (1 Chron. gion, are still the same: they are living impres- iv. 21.) While wandering in the Arabian wilsions from an original mould; and at every step derness, they prepared the materials for covering some object, some idiom, some dress, or some cus- the tabernacle, and wrought some of them with tom of common life, reminds the traveller of an- embroidery. Cotton cloth was esteemed most cient times, and confirms, above all, the beauty, valuable; next to that, woollen and linen. That the accuracy, and the propriety of the language which was manufactured from the hair of animals and the history of the Bible.* In the following was esteemed of least value. Of silk there is no sections we shall notice such of these usages, cus-mention made at a very early period, unless, pertoms, or habits, as bear upon the illustration of chance, it be in Ezek. xvi. 10, 13, under the word the Bible.

SECTION I.

CLOTHING AND PERSONAL ORNAMENTS.

Materials used for Clothing-Coloured Clothes-Various parts of the Oriental Dress: the Upper Garment; Head-dress; Tunic; Girdles; Shirts; Veils; Painting of the Eyes;Treatment of the Hair and Beard-Phylacteries-Nose-rings and Ear-rings-Bracelets, &c

'w. This, however, is clear, that Alexander found silks in Persia; and it is more than probable, that the Median dress, which we find was adopted by the Persians under Cyrus, was silk.

2. White was esteemed the most appropriate colour for cotton cloth, and purple for the others. The fullers, who had discovered the art of communicating a very splendid white to cloth, by the aid of alkali and urine, lived out of the city (Isai. vii. 3), lest their shops should communicate a fœtidness to the atmosphere. The purple cotton 1. THE earliest improvement upon the employ-cloth, which was essentially the same with the

ment of the mere skins of animals as an article of

* Preface to Second Journey, &c., Lond. 1818.

celebrated Tyrian purple, was highly esteemed. (See Luke xvi. 19; Rev. xviii. 12.) It was called 18, and p¬, and was produced by the blood taken from a vein in the throat of a certain

by the ladies and persons of distinction, to be the peplus of the ancients. Ruth's veil, which held six measures of barley (Ruth iii. 15), might be of the like fashion, and have served, extraordinarily, for the same use; as were also the clothes (the upper garments) of the Israelites (Exod. xii. 34), in which they folded up their kneading-troughs, and other cumbrous things; as the Moors, Arabs, and Kabyles do to this day. Instead of the fibula, used by the Romans, the Arabs join together either by thread or by a wooden bodkin, the two upper

shell-fish.* The scarlet colour, first mentioned | for coverlids to the beds, should induce us to take in Gen. xxxviii. 28, and occurring frequently the finer sorts of them at least, such as are worn afterwards, was very much admired. It was a different colour from the shell-fish purple, and was extracted from the insects, or their eggs, found on a species of oak; and thence in Hebrew it is called yn, which means a worm or insect. The cotton cloth was dipped into this colour twice; hence the application of the Hebrew words, and ny, twice-dyed. This colour is sometimes called ¬ (2 Chron. ii. 14). The hyacinth or dark blue colour was extracted from the cuttle-fish, which bears in Hebrew the same name with the colour itself, and was highly esteem-corners of this garment; and after having placed ed, especially among the Assyrians. (Ezek. xxiii. 6.) Black colour was used for common wear, and particularly on occasions of mourning. Partycoloured cloths were highly esteemed. (Gen. xxxvii. 3, 23; 2 Sam. xiii. 18.) As far back as the time of Moses we find that cloths were embroidered, sometimes with the coloured threads of cotton and linen, and sometimes with threads of gold. When the work was embroidered on both sides, the Hebrew word for fabrics of that kind appears in the dual form; viz., p. Some of the passages in relation to embroiderers and embroidery are as follows: Exod. xxxv. 36, xxxv. 35; Judg. v. 30; Ps. xlv. 9; Ezek. xvi. 10.†

3. In describing the several parts of the Israelites' dress, we cannot do better than give Dr. Shaw's account of the Oriental costume, which occurs in his description of the manufactories of Barbary.

(1) The hykes, or blankets, as we should call them, are of different sizes, and of different qualities and degrees of fineness. The usual size of them is six yards long, and five or six feet broad, serving the Arab for a complete dress in the day, and, as "they sleep in their raiment," as the Israelites did of old (Deut. xxiv. 13), it serves also for his bed and covering by night. It is a loose, but troublesome garment, being frequently disconcerted and falling upon the ground; so that the person who wears it is every moment obliged to tuck it up, and fold it about his body. This shows the great use of a girdle, whenever those wearing the hyke are concerned in any active employment; and in consequence thereof, the force of the Scripture injunction, "of having our loins girded," in order to set about it. See Luke xvii. 8; Acts xii. 8; Eph. vi. 14; Rev. i. 13, and xv. 6. The method of wearing these garments, with the use they are at other times put to, in serving

*See Harris's Natural History of the Bible, art. purple. +Jahn, Archæol. § 119.

these over one of their shoulders, they fold the rest of it about their bodies. The outer fold serves instead of an apron; in which they carry herbs, loaves, corn, &c., and may illustrate several allusions in Scripture; as, gathering the lap full of wild gourds (2 Kings iv. 39); rendering sevenfold; giving good measure into the bosom (Ps. lxxix. 12; Luke vi. 38); “shaking the lap,” Neh. v. 13, &c. The burnoose, which answers to our cloak, is often, for warmth, worn over the hyke. It is woven in one piece straight about the neck, with a cape or Hippocrates' sleeve, for a cover to the head, and wide below, like a cloak. Some of them are fringed round the bottom, like Parthenaspa's and Trajan's garment upon the basso relievos of Constantine's arch. The burnoose, without the cape, seems to answer to the Roman pallium; and, with it, to the bardocucullus.

(2) If we except the cape of the burnoose, which is only occasionally used during a shower of rain, or in very cold weather, several Arabs and Kabyles go bare-headed, binding their temples only with a narrow fillet, to prevent their locks from being troublesome. The turban, as they call a long narrow web of linen, silk, or muslin, is folded round the bottom of these caps, and very properly distinguishes, by the number and fashion of the folds, the several orders and degrees of soldiers, and sometimes of citizens. We find the same dress and ornament of the head, the tiara as it was called, upon a number of medals, statutes, and basso relievos of the ancients.

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3. Under the hyke, some wear a close-bodied frock or tunic (a jillebba they call it), with or without sleeves, which differs little, probably, from the coat of our Saviour, which was woven without seam from the top throughout" (John xix. 23), and with which he is said to have been clothed, when he is said to lay aside his garments (imatia, burnoose and hyke, John xiii. 4), and to take a towel and gird himself. The fisher's coat (John xxi. 7) which Peter girded about him, when he is said to be naked: or what he, at the command

L