524, 525 III. Commerce of the Hebrews, particularly under Solomon and his Successors Theatres, to Theatrical Performances, and to the Grecian Games in I. Recreations of the Jews in Domestic Life III. Introduction of Gymnastic and Theatrical Exhibitions among the Jews 533 IV. Allusions to the Theatres and to Theatrical Performances in the New Testa- - 634-538 4. Beautiful Allusions to these Games in the New Testament, explained - 541-545 I. Origin and Progress of the Art of Medicine in the East 546, 547 II. Notice of Remedies in use among the Jews 547, 548 III. A Concise Dictionary of the Symbolical Language of the IV. — An Historical, Biographical, and Geographical Dictionary 608-745 INTRODUCTION TO THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. NAMES, BOUNDARIES, AND DIVISIONS OF THE HOLY LAND. I. THIS country has in different ages been called by various NAMES, which have been derived either from its inhabitants, or from the extraordinary circumstances attached to it. Thus, in Ruth i. 1. and Jer. iv. 20. it is termed generally the land: and hence, both in 'As this portion of the present work is designed to exhibit only an outline of the Geo- graphy of the Holy Land, and not a complete system of Biblical Geography; the reader will find, in the Historical, Biographical, and Geographical Index, annexed to this volume, a concise notice of the principal countries and places, both in and out of Palestine, which discourse restrained to a particular country, as in Isa. xiii. 5. (Sept.); and to the land of Judæa, as in Luke ii. 1., xxi. 26.; Acts xi. 28., and James v. 17. But the country occupied by the Hebrews, Israelites, and Jews, is in the sacred volume more particularly called, 1. The LAND OF CANAAN, from Canaan, the youngest son of Ham, and grandson of Noah, who settled here after the confusion of Babel, and divided the country among his eleven children, each of whom became the head of a numerous tribe, that ultimately became a distinct nation. (Gen. x. 15-19.) It continued to bear this name until the Israelites took possession of it. (Lev. xxv. 38.; Psal. cv. 11.) But, in strictness, only the countries on the west of the river Jordan were thus called; those on the east being denominated Gilead. (Num. xxxiii. 51., xxxiv. 2., xxxv. 10.; Josh. xxii. 9-11. 13. 15. 32.) 2. The LAND OF ISRAEL, from the Israelites, or posterity of Jacob, who is also called Israel, having settled themselves there. This name is of most frequent occurrence in the Old Testament: it is also to be found in the New Testament (as in Matt. ii. 20, 21.); and in its larger acceptation comprehended all that tract of ground on each side the river Jordan, which God gave for an inheritance to the children of Israel. Within this extent lay all the provinces or countries visited by Jesus Christ, except Egypt, and, consequently, almost all the places mentioned or referred to in the four Gospels. 3. The LAND OF JEHOVAH, or, the LORD'S LAND (Hos. ix. 3.); that is, the land which the LORD sware ..... to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them (Deut. xxx. 20.); and which he did accordingly give to the Israelites, their descendants, still reserving the ownership of it unto himself. (See Lev. xxv. 23.) With reference to this circumstance, we meet with the appellation of the LAND OF GOD, in various parts of the Old Testament. But, of all the names given to this country, the most delightful in the eyes of a Christian Believer is that of IMMANUEL's Land. (Isa. viii. 8.) 4. The LAND OF PROMISE (Heb. xi. 9.), from the promise made by Jehovah to Abraham, that his posterity should possess it (Gen. xii. 7. and xiii. 15.); who being termed Hebrews, this region was thence called the Land of the Hebrews. (Gen. xl. 15.) And the same appellation may still be given to it; because the people of Israel, though at present exiled from it, have the promise of returning thither again, and of resuming possession of it when they shall be wholly converted to the Lord Jesus Christ. (Deut. xxx. 3-5.; Isa. xi. 11-13.; and especially Ezek. xxxvi. and xxxvii.) 5. THE HOLY LAND; which appellation is to this day conferred on it by all Christians, because it was chosen by God to be the immediate seat of his worship, and was consecrated by the presence, actions, miracles, discourses, and sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ, and also because it was the residence of the holy patriarchs, prophets, 1 Dr. Pocock, on Hos. ix. 3. This appellation (the Land of the Hebrews) is recognised by Pausanias (lib. vi. c. 24. in fine). By heathen writers the Holy Land is variously termed, Syrian Palestine, Syria, and Phoenicia; but as these appellations are not applied generally in the Scriptures to that country, any further notice of them is designedly omitted. and apostles. This name does not appear to have been used by the Hebrews themselves, until after the Babylonish Captivity, when we find the prophet Zechariah applying it to his country. (ii. 12.) After this period it seems to have become a common appellation: we meet with it in the apocryphal book of Wisdom (xii. 3.), and also in the second book of Maccabees. (i. 7.) The whole world was divided by the ancient Jews into two general parts, the land of Israel, and the land out of Israel, that is, all the countries inhabited by the nations of the world, or the Gentiles: to this distinction there seems to be an allusion in Matt. vi. 32. All the rest of the world, together with its inhabitants (Judæa excepted), was accounted as profane, polluted, and unclean (see Isa. xxxv. 8., lii. 1., with Amos vii. 17. and Acts x. 14.); but though the whole land of Israel was regarded as holy, as being the place consecrated to the worship of God, and the inheritance of his people, whence they are collectively styled saints, and a holy nation or people in Exod. xix. 6.; Deut. vii. 6., xiv. 2., xxvi. 19., xxxiii. 3. ; 2 Chron. vi. 41.; Psal. xxxiv. 9., 1. 5. 7., and lxxix. 2. ; yet the Jews imagined particular parts to be vested with more than ordinary sanctity, according to their respective situations. Thus the parts situated beyond Jordan were considered to be less holy than those on this side: walled towns were supposed to be more clean and holy than other places, because no lepers were admissible into them, and the dead were not allowed to be buried there. Even the very dust of the land of Israel was reputed to possess such a peculiar degree of sanctity, that when the Jews returned from any heathen country they stopped at its borders, and wiped the dust of it from their shoes, lest the sacred inheritance should be polluted with it: nor would they suffer even herbs to be brought to them from the ground of their Gentile neighbours, lest they should bring any of the mould with them, and thus defile their pure land. To this notion our Lord unquestionably alluded when he commanded his disciples to shake off the dust of their feet (Matt. x. 14.) on returning from any house or city that would neither receive nor hear them; thereby intimating to them, that when the Jews had rejected the Gospel they were no longer to be regarded as the people of God, but were on a level with heathens and idolaters.1 6. The LAND OF JUDAH. Under this appellation was at first comprised only that part of the region which was allotted to the tribe of Judah; though the whole land of Israel appears to have been occasionally thus called in subsequent times, when that tribe excelled all the others in dignity. After the separation of the ten tribes, that portion of the land which belonged to the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, who formed a separate kingdom, was distinguished by the appellation 'Lightfoot, Hor. Heb. in Matt. x. 14.; Reland, Antiquitates Hebraicæ, pp. 1. 17. Beausobre's Introduction to the New Testament. (Bp. Watson's Collection of Theological Tracts, vol. iii. p. 141.) This distinction of holy and unholy places and persons throws considerable light on 1 Cor. i. 28. where the Apostle, speaking of the calling of the Gentiles and the rejection of the Jews, says, that God hath chosen base things of the world, and things that are despised, yea, and things which are not (that is, the Gentiles), to bring to nought (Gr. to abolish) things that are; in other words, to become God's church and people, and so to cause the Jewish church and economy to cease. See Whitby in loc. |