their consent, without alarming Pharaoh too highly, as to the extent of his proposed excursion with the people. (3) The nature of the "mixed multitude" which accompanied the caravan of Israel, clearly appears in this extract. (4) The exact number of men, carriages, mules, &c. This, we find, was the custom also, in the time of Moses, as the returns made and registered in the book of Numbers sufficiently demon strate. (5) The time necessary for the formation of a caravan justifies the inference that the Israelites did not leave Egypt in that violent hurry which has been sometimes supposed; they must have had time to assemble; many, no doubt, from distant parts, which would require several days: they might be expelled in haste from the royal city; but to collect them all together at the place of rendezvous, must have been a work of time. (6) Another consideration, not unimportant, arises from the nature, the departments, and the powers of these officers. It appears from various passages of Scripture, that the LORD, or JEHOVAH, was considered as the chief guide, conductor, or commander of the Israelites, at the time of their exodus from Egypt. He therefore was understood to be (1) Caravan Bachi to this people: in his name Moses acted, being at the same time (2) Captain of the March; (3) Hur might be Captain while resting; (4) Joshua, Captain of the Distri- | bution; and (5) Aaron, Treasurer or Paymaster. This distribution of offices appears further probable from Joshua being ordered (chap. xvii.) to go and fight Amalek, who attacked Israel while encamped. Now fighting appears to be part of the duty of (4); and who fitter for this than Joshua? That Hur should be captain of the resting seems likely, from his being left in authority in conjunction with Aaron (chap. xxiv. 14), while Moses and Joshua went up into the mount: to what more proper person, or officer, could this charge be intrusted? As Hur's office was suspended while the people were fighting under Joshua, he could be well spared, with Aaron, to hold up the hands of Moses. It remains, that Aaron could only fill a secondary and subordinate, but equally important, office: he, like others while on the march, was under the authority and orders of the captain of the march; while at rest, he was under the authority and orders of the captain of the resting. If this be the fact, then we may fairly presume that he acted but a subordinate part in the transactions of the camp; and, by consequence, in that famous one of the golden calf, in which the people seem to have forced him. If the authority of the captain of the rest, or that of the captain of the march, though now not on duty, supported the request of the people, how could Aaron, their treasurer only, not as, afterwards, the high-priest, suppress it? Whence was he to get powers against "a people set on mishief?" Besides, if Aaron were concerned no further than by his office of treasurer, i. e., taking the money, the materials, and giving them to the workmen, some other principal officer might promote the making of the image, might direct and expedite it, and, in short, might get it completed, before Aaron saw it, as appears credible from the order of the narrative, which stands thus (Exod. xxxii. 3, 4): He took the ear-rings, &c., bound them in a bag, or bags (or valued, and placed them as purses, according to the present Turkish phrase); then he made that into a calf by fusion (comp. ver. 35, “THEY made the calf"); then "THEY said, These be thy gods; --and when Aaron saw it," &c. Now had Aaron made it himself, personally, he must have seen it before the people saw it. It should seem, therefore, that Aaron had given the gold, of which he had the custody, to a workman appointed by the people; that he followed the people throughout this transaction; and that he endeavoured to guide (perhaps even to control) their opinion, in varying and appointing to the honour of JEHOVAH, what many, at least "the mixed multitude,” would refer to the honour of the gods they had seen in Egypt. In this view, his expression deserves notice: "To-morrow is a solemnity to JEHOVAH;" not to Apis, or to any other god, but to JEHOVAH. Aaron then was less a principal in this crime than has been supposed; consequently, in one sense he was less unfit for the office of priest, afterwards conferred upon him. Moreover, if he were treasurer, then part of his duty was to keep accurate JOURNALS of all material incidents; and it is not unlikely that he assisted his brother in writing some parts of the books now bearing the name of Moses; or, at least, that as he also kept journals of public transactions, these were made use of by Moses in compiling his history. If this be admissible, then we can account at once for what difference of style appears in these books, and for such smaller variations in different places, as would naturally arise from two persons recording the same facts. It accounts, also, for the third person being sometimes used, especially in the early books, when speaking of Moses: perhaps, too, for some of the praise and commendation bestowed upon Moses, which is most remarkable where Aaron is most in fault. 7. The reader will observe other particulars for himself: those here suggested are offered but as hints to lead the inquiry. The remark, however, is obvious, that the most intricate transactions appear perfectly easy when set in their proper light; and that what we now find obscure, is evidently not from any real obscurity in the original narration, but from our want of acquaintance with proper accompaniments, which might conduct our judgments. How greatly this applies to establish the authenticity and authority of Scripture, must be obvious to every reflecting mind.* 1. The Hebrews regarded life as a journey, as a pilgrimage, on the face of the earth. The traveller, as they supposed, when he arrived at the end of his journey, which happened when he died, was received into the company of his ancestors, who had gone before him. See Gen. xxv. 8, xxxv. 29, xxxviii. 35; Ps. xxxix. 12; comp. Heb. xi. 13, 15; Eccles. xii. 7. Reception into the presence of God at death, is asserted in only two passages of the Old Testament, viz., Hag. ii. 23, and Eccles. xii. 7.‡ 2. When the principle of life was extinguished, and the eyes were closed in death, the first funeral corpse, with a warm infusion of camomile-flowers and dried roses. See Acts ix. 37. After washing the corpse they embalmed it, by laying all around 5. We may not close this section without noticing the preparations which were made for the journeyings of eastern monarchs. Whenever they entered upon an expedition, or took a jour-office among the Jews was the ablution of the ney, especially through desert and unfrequented countries, harbingers were sent before them, to prepare all things for their passage; and pioneers to open the passes, to level the ways, and to re-it a large quantity of costly spices and aromatic move all impediments. In allusion to this practice, John Baptist is represented as "the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain," Isai. xl. 3, 4; Matt. iii. 3. The account which Diodorus has given of the march of Semiramis into India and Persia will give us a clear notion of the preparation of the way for a royal expedition: "In her march to Ecbatana, she came to the Zarcean mountain; which, extending many furlongs, and being full of craggy precipices and deep hollows, could not be passed without taking a great compass about. Being, therefore, desirous of leaving an everlasting memorial of herself, as well as of shortening the way, she ordered the precipices to be dug down, and the hollows to be filled up; and, at a great expense, she made a shorter and more expeditious road, which is still called the road of Semiramis. Afterwards, she went into Persia and all the other countries of Asia subject to her dominion; and wherever she went, she ordered the mountains and precipices to be levelled, raised causeways in the plain country, and, at great expense, made the ways passable." + SECTION IV. FUNERAL RITES. Jewish Notion of Death-Embalming-Public Mourning- -Jewish Notions of a Future State. * Calmet's Bib. Ency., art. "Aaron," and Fragments, No. 1. + Dr. A. Clarke on Matt. iii. 3; Critica Biblica, vol. i., pp. 460. 461; Fragments to Calmet, No. 171. drugs, in order to imbibe and absorb the humours, and by their inherent virtues to preserve it as long as possible from putrefaction and decay. Thus Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about 100 pounds weight, to perform the customary office to the deceased Saviour. This embalming was usually repeated for several days together (Gen. i. 2, 3), that the drugs and spices thus applied might have all their efficacy in the exsiccation of the moisture and the future conservation of the body. They then swathed the corpse in linen rolls or bandages, closely enfolding and enwrapping it in that bed of aromatic drugs with which they had surrounded it. So Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus took the body of Jesus, and wrapt in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury, John xix. 40. Thus, when our Lord had cried with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come forth!" it is said, the dead came forth, bound hand and foot, in grave clothes! John xi. 44. We learn also from this place, that about the head and face of the corpse was folded a napkin, which was a separate thing, and did not communicate with the other bandages in which the body was swathed; for the face of Lazarus was bound about with a napkin; and when our Lord was risen, Peter, who went into the sepulchre, saw the linen clothes lie, and the napkin that had been folded round his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but in a place by itself, and at some distance from them, John xx. 7. Josephus informs us of the method by which they preserved bodies from putrefaction, till they could be buried in the family vaults to which they belonged; stating that the dead body of Aristobulus, who had been poisoned by one of Pompey's party, lay Jahn, Archæol., § 203. above ground, preserved in honey, till it was sent | among the Moors. At all their principal enter to the Jews by Antony, in order to be buried in the royal sepulchres.* tainments, says Dr. Shaw, and to show mirth and gladness on other occasions, the women welcome the arrival of each guest by squalling out, for several times together, Loo, Loo, Loo, a corruption, as it seems to be, of Hallelujah. Aλaλ, a word of the like sound, was used by an army, either before they gave the onset, or when they had obtained the victory. The Turks, to this day, call their funerals, also, and upon other melancholy occasions, they repeat the same noise (Loo), only they make it more deep and hollow, and end each period with some ventriloquous sighs. The railing greatly, as our Version expresses it (Mark v. 38), upon the death of Jairus' daughter, was probably performed in this manner; for there are several women hired to act upon these lugubrious occasions, who, like the præfica, or mourning women of old, are skilful in lamentation (Amos v. 16), and great mistresses of these melancholy expressions. It should be stated, that the ordinary mourning for the dead was divided into two periods; the first, between the time of the death and the burial, which was called The Mourning, by way of eminence; and the second, for thirty days after the funeral, Numb. xx. 29; Deut. xxxiv. 8.|| 3. It was usual among the Jews to make very great and public lamentations for their departed friends. This we see in the case of Sarah, and especially in that of Jacob, Gen. 1. 7-13. On the loss of near and dear relatives, and of amiable and affectionate friends, the grief of this people was violent and frantic. Tearing their hair, rend-out Allah, Allah, Allah, upon like occasions. At ing their clothes, and uttering doleful shrieks and piercing cries, were some of the expressions of it. Suetonius marks this distinguished vehemence of the Jews in the expressions of their grief. In that great and public mourning, at the funeral of Julius Cæsar, a multitude of foreign nations, says the historian, expressed their sorrow according to their respective customs; but the mourning and lamentation of the Jewish people exceeded all the rest they continued about the funeral pile whole nights together. It appears, also, that upon the demise of their friends they hired persons whose profession it was to superintend and conduct their public and private sorrows, who, in funeral odes, mournful songs, and doleful ejaculations, deplored the instability of human condition, celebrated the virtues of the deceased, and excited the grief and lamentations of the survivors. This we learn from the following passages of the prophets: "Thus saith the Lord of hosts, consider ye, and call for the MOURNING WOMEN, that they may come ; and let them make haste, and take up a wailing for us, that our eyes may run down with tears, and our eyelids gush out with waters," Jer. ix. 17, 18. "Both the great and the small shall die in this land: they shall not be buried, neither shall men lament for them, nor cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them. Neither shall men tear themselves for them in mourning, to comfort them for the dead, neither shall men give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or their mother," chap. xvi. 6, 7. See also chap. xlviii. 36, 37; Ezek. xxiv. 16-18. In the time of our Saviour, these mournful songs had musical accompaniments. The soft and plaintive melody of the flute was employed to heighten the doleful lamentations and dirges. Thus, on the death of the daughter of Jairus, a company of mourners, with players on the flute, according to the Jewish custom, attended upon this sorrowful occasion. When Jesus entered the governor's house, he saw the minstrels and the people wailing greatly, Matt. ix. 23.† This custom still obtains 4. When the time of the burial arrived, which was commonly within twenty-four hours after death, the relations and friends were the attendants; but if the person deceased had been a highly beloved character, the company was very numerous. The widow of Nain had much people of the city at the funeral of her son, Luke vii. 12. 5. Coffins were not in general use in Judea: nor are they, at present, in the East. Dr. Henderson witnessed a funeral in the Crimea, and he observes, "It [the body] had not been put in a coffin, according to the manner of burials conferred upon even the poorest person in Europe, but was simply wrapped round with a white cloth, laid upon a bier or board, and borne by four men to the grave. This mode of performing the funeral obsequies obtains equally among the Jews, Christians, and Mohammedans, in these parts, with the exception of the European families, who naturally conform to the rites of their ancestors. Such appears to have been the manner in which Abner was interred (2 Sam. iii. 31); for it is said that David followed the bier, in Hebrew mettek, a bed or board,' and not arun, an ark or coffin,' such as that in which the body of Joseph was 6 1 * Jewish Wars, b. i., c. 9. See also Josephus, Wars, b. iii., c. 10. Travels, p. 305, first edit., 1738. Brown's Jewish Antiquities, vol. ii., part ix., s. 14. laid, Gen. 1. 26. It has been supposed that what | the bodies of Jehoiada the high-priest, and of Hulwas done to Joseph was designed as a mark of dah the prophetess, were laid, 2 Chron. xxiv. 16. distinction by the Egyptians; but there is no proof The sepulchres were in gardens, in fields, and in from the text of Scripture, that the rite was per- the sides of mountains; and they were generally formed by the Egyptians at all; and it seems more in solitary and unfrequented places. Thus the natural to conclude that his body was thus de- demoniac of Gadara wore no clothes, and abode posited in order to its being preserved till such not in any house, but had his dwelling among the time as it could be conveyed to the land of tombs (Mark v. 2, 3, 5), delighting in these gloomy Canaan. The soros, or bier, on which the widow and melancholy recesses, as most friendly and of Nain's son was carried, and which commenta- congenial to the wretched state of his mind. tors general interpret arca retecta et aperta, was Josephus also informs us that these sepulchres most probably nothing more than what we saw in were the haunts and lurking-places of those nuthe Crimea."* merous and desperate bands of robbers with which Judæa was at that time infested.|| 9. Sometimes they buried their dead in the open fields, over whom the opulent and families of distinction raised superb and ostentatious monuments, which they religiously maintained from time to time in their pristine splendour and mag 6. At the burial of a Rabbi, some books were commonly laid upon the bier; and it was reckoned honourable for a warrior to be buried in armour (Ezek. xxxii. 27); but a person dying under the sentence of excommunication had, a stone upon the bier, or a stone thrown into the grave, to show that he was worthy of death, be-nificence.§ To this custom our Saviour alludes in cause he applied not to have the sentence removed. When arrived at the sepulchre, they addressed a short prayer to God, as the giver and restorer of life, placed the bier on the ground, walked round it seven times, repeated another prayer; after which the relations threw a handful of earth on it, and then filled up the grave. 7. The entertainment of the company invited to a funeral, did not precede, but followed the solemnity. Among the heathen, it was either over or around the grave (Ecclus. xxx. 18; Tobit iv. 17; Jer. xvi. 7†); but the Jews had it at home. This entertainment was commonly liberal: they drank two cups of wine before it, five while eating, and three afterwards; at least, they had the offer of so many. But as this implied greater abundance than was in the power of many to give, the want was supplied by the liberality of their neighbours, both as a mark of sympathy, and in the expectation that they would return the compliment, when themselves should be visited with a similar affliction, Jer. xvi. 7, 8; Ezek. xxiv. 17, 20. 8. The Jewish cemeteries were without the walls of the cities; at least, the only exception was in favour of the city of Jerusalem, within whose walls the kings of the house of David, and Biblical Researches and Travels in Russia, p. 304. + Mr. Roberts, speaking of the Hindoo customs, says, "After the corpse has been consumed on the funeral pile, or buried, the relations of the deceased prepare and send a fine kind of gruel (made of the Palmirah killunga) to the funeral house. At the anniversary of a funeral, the relations of the deceased meet to eat together, and give food to the poor. Heuce great numbers on these occasions get plenty of provisions."-Oriental Illustrations, p 475. Lightfoot, Hor. Heb., Mat ix 23. his address to the Pharisees, "Woe unto you, See Macknight on Mark v. 3. For a description of the various kinds of tombs among the Jews, see Fragments to Calmet, Nos. 210, 575, &c. likewise of their respective cupolas and inclosures, | the resurrection. But in what particular place that are constantly kept clean, whitewashed and beauti-state was, has been differently explained: some fied, they continue to illustrate those expressions making it an immense cavern in the centre of the of our Saviour, where he mentions the garnishing of sepulchres, and compares the Scribes, Pharisees, and hypocrites, to 'whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but within were full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness.'"* The Jews call a cemetery "the house of the living," to show their belief in the immortality of the soul, and of the resurrection of the body; and when they come thither bearing a corpse, they address themselves to those who lie there, saying, "Blessed be the Lord, who hath created you, fed you, brought you up, and at last, in his justice, taken you out of the world. He knows the number of you all, and will in time revive you. Blessed be the Lord, who causeth death and restoreth life." They hold that it is not lawful to demolish tombs, nor to disturb the repose of the dead by burying another corpse in the same grave, even after a long time; nor to carry an aqueduct across the common place of burial; or a highway; nor to go and gather wood, or suffer cattle to feed there.t 10. The Jewish idea of a future state seems to have been as follows:-(1) They believed in the existence of heaven, or the heaven of heavens, the place of God's peculiar residence, the dwelling of good angels, and the everlasting abode of the blessed, after the resurrection. (2) They believed in the existence of hell, which they metaphorically styled "Gehenna," from the fires which were kept constantly burning in the valley of Hinnom (Giahenem); and "Tophet," from the tophs, or drums, which were there employed to drown the cries of the children who were sacrificed to Moloch. This they considered as the residence of the devil and his angels, and the destined abode of the wicked, after the general judgment. (3) They believed in an intermediate state, where the souls of all who died had their residence till the resurrection, in a state of comparative happiness, or misery, according to their previous characters, Isa. xiv. 8-20; Ezek. xxxii. 23-30. This was named Shaul in the Old Testament; and Hades in the New Testament, in the LXX., and in Josephus. Accordingly, while the body was committed to the grave, the soul went to Shaul, to be rewarded or punished, in an inferior degree, between death and * Travels, p. 315, first edit. 1738. Harwood's Introduction, vol. ii., pp. 126–142 ; and Calmet Bib. Ency., art. "Burial." In the common English Version of the Scriptures, the words are translated, hell, the pit, and the grave; but the Jews, and many of the Christian commentators, explain them uniformly of the intermediate state. earth; some, the state of the dead in general; and some, an intermediate state, rather than an intermediate place, where the saints, though in heaven, are less happy; and the wicked, although in hell, are less wretched, than they will respectively be after the resurrection. This last seems to have been the belief of the best informed among the Jews. Accordingly, it was a saying of theirs, that " Abraham and Moses, and all the righteous, when they die, are laid up under the very throne of God:" || implying, that those who are lying under the throne, between death and the resurrection, will, after that, stand before the throne, more exalted and more happy. Towards the end of the Mosaic economy, when the Jews became acquainted with the philosophical opinions of the Greeks and Romans, they began to describe the intermediate state, by expressions somewhat corresponding to the infernus of their heathen neighbours, with its Elysium, Tartarus, and intersecting rivers.§ For they supposed it to have had a place which contained the good, called Paradise, and Abraham's bosom (Luke xxiii. 43; Rev. ii. 7; Luke xvi. 23); a place which contained the wicked, called Tartarus (2 Pet. ii. 4); and a great gulf which divided between them, Luke xvi. 26. 11. From the representation of Josephus, Dr. Campbell is inclined to conclude, that in the time of that writer a resurrection and a future judgment (in the sense in which they were understood by the primitive Christians) were not universally the doctrines even of the Pharisees; but that the prevalent and distinguishing opinion was, that the soul survived the body; that vicious souls would suffer an everlasting imprisonment in Hades, and that the souls of the virtuous would not only be happy there, but in process of time would obtain the privilege of transmigrating into other bodies: in other words, that the immortality of human souls, and the transmigration of the good, were all that they comprehended in the resurreetion of the dead. Several allusions to this doctrine of transmigration, however ridiculous it may appear to us, seem to be made in the New Testament; for the question put by the disciples to our Lord, "Who sinned, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?" and some popular notions concerning Jesus, whom they knew to have been Lightfoot, Sermon on Luke xxiii. 42, 43. See, particularly, an extract from Josephus's Discourse to the Greeks concerning Hades, in Whiston's translation, vol. iv, p. 353, &c. Jewish Wars, b. ii., c. 12. |