Footnotes
[1.] For what is meant by “Structure,” see A Key to the Psalms, by the late Rev. Thos. Boys, edited by the present author, 7, St. Paul's Churchyard. Price Five shillings. [2.]
Viz., in A (verses 7, 8),—
“Converting,” from שׁוּב, to return, as the sun in the heavens.
“Testimony,” from עוּד, to repeat, hence, a witness, spoken of the sun in Ps. lxxxix. 37.
“Sure,” אָמַן, faithful, as the sun. (Ps. lxxxix. 37.)
“Enlightening,” from אוֹר, to give light, as the sun. (Gen. i. 15, 17, 18; Isa. lx. 19; Ezek. xxxii. 7.)
In B (verses 11, 12, 13),—
“Warned,” from זָהַר, to make light, hence, to teach, admonish.
“Keeping,” from שָׁמַר, to keep, observe, as the heavens. (Ps. cxxx. 6; Isa. xxi. 11.) Or as the heavenly bodies observe God's ordinances.
“Errors,” from שָׁנַה, to wander, as the planets.
“Keep back,” חָשַׂךְ, to hold back, restrain.
“Have dominion over,” from מָשַׁל, to rule. Spoken of the sun and moon in Gen. i. 18. “The sun to rule the day,” &c. (Ps. cxxxvi. 8, 9.)
The other half of the Psalm is just as perfectly arranged. For example, there are six words used (verses 7-9) to describe the fulness of the Word of God, and they are thus placed, alternately:—
F | Two feminine singulars. (Law and Testimony.)
G | One masculine plural. (Statutes.)
F | Two feminine singulars. (Commandment and Fear.)
G | One masculine plural. (Judgments.)
Note the structure of this verse:—
A | The seven stars,
B | Orion,
A | The twelve signs,
B | Arcturus.
Besides this monthly difference, there is an annual difference; for at the end of twelve months the sun does not come back to exactly the same point in the sign which commenced the year, but is a little behind it. But this difference, though it occurs every year, is so small that it will take 25,579 years for the sun to complete this vast cycle, which is called The precession of the Equinoxes; i.e., about one degree in every 71 years. If the sun came back to the precise point at which it began the year, each sign would correspond, always and regularly, exactly with a particular month; but, owing to this constant regression, the sun (while it goes through the whole twelve signs every year) commences the year in one sign for only about 2,131 years. In point of fact, since the Creation the commencement of the year has changed to the extent of nearly three of the signs. When Virgil sings—
“The White Bull with golden horns opens the year,”
he does not record what took place in his own day. This is another proof of the antiquity of these signs.
The Ecliptic, or path of the sun, if it could be viewed from immediately beneath the Polar Star, would form a complete and perfect circle, would be concentric with the Equator, and all the stars and the sun would appear to move in this circle, never rising or setting. To a person north or south of the Equator the stars therefore rise and set obliquely; while to a person on the Equator they rise and set perpendicularly, each star being twelve hours above and twelve below the horizon.
The points where the two circles (the Ecliptic and the Equator) intersect each other are called the Equinoctial points. It is the movement of these points (which are now moving from Aries to Pisces) which gives rise to the term, “the precession of the Equinoxes.”
Aratus calls him Arctophylax, i.e., the guardian of Arctos, the flock of the greater fold, called to-day the Great Bear:—
“Behind, and seeming to urge on the Bear,
Arctophylax, on earth Boötes named,
Sheds o'er the Arctic car his silver light.”
By some moderns he is mistakenly called The Waggoner. Hence the allusion of Thompson:—
“Wide o'er the spacious regions of the North,
Boötes urges on his tardy wain.”
This perversion scarcely does justice even to human common sense, as waggoners do not use a sickle for a whip!
The constellation is a very brilliant one, having 54 stars, viz., one of the 1st magnitude, six of the 3rd, eleven of the 4th, etc.
The constellation of the Canes Venatici (the Greyhounds), i.e., the two dogs (Asterion and Chara), which Boötes holds by a leash, is quite a modern invention, being added by Hevelius (1611-1687). The bright star of the 3rd magnitude in the neck of Chara, was named “Cor Caroli” (the heart of Charles) by Sir Charles Scarborough, physician to Charles II., in honour of Charles I., in 1649. This is a good example of the almost infinite distance between the ancient and modern names. The former are full of mysterious significance and grandeur, while the latter are puerile in the extreme, almost approaching to the comic! e.g., the Air Pump, the Painter's Easel, the Telescope, the Triangle, the Fly, the Microscope, the Indian, the Fox and Goose, the Balloon, the Toucan (or American Goose), the Compasses, Charles's Oak, the Cat, the Clock, the Unicorn, &c. The vast difference can be at once seen between those designed by the ancients and those added by astronomers in more recent times.
These new constellations were added, 22 by Hevelius (1611-1687); and 15 by Halley (1656-1742). They were formed for the purpose of embracing those stars which were not included in the ancient constellations. This shows that the old constellations were not designed, like the modern ones, merely for the sake of enabling astronomers to identify the positions of particular stars. In this case all the stars would have been included. The object was exactly the opposite! Instead of the pictures being designed to serve to identify the stars, only certain stars were used for the purpose of helping to identify the pictures!
This is another important proof of the truth of our whole argument.
This is the first time that the word “Alleluia” occurs in the New Testament, and it is praise for judgment executed.
Where is its first occurrence in the Old Testament? In Ps. civ. 35, where we have the very same solemn and significant connection:—
“Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth,
And let the wicked be no more.
Bless thou the Lord, O my soul,
Hallelujah (Praise ye the Lord).”
Note, that—
In a and a, we have the rising of Israel;
In b and b, the light that is come upon her;
In c and c, the glory of the Lord; and
In d and d, the darkness of the world.
These facts are kindly supplied by Mr. E. W. Maunder, of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, who gives another example, as follows:—
In a.d. 586 there were two solar eclipses: on June 22 (Julian) the old and dying eclipse, and on July 22 (Julian) another (the new one). A Saros (viz., 18 years and 11 days) earlier there was only one, viz. on June 11 (Julian), a.d. 568, there being no eclipse on July 11 of that year.
The last appearance of this new eclipse, which first appeared on July 22, 586, was on August 28 (Greg.), 1848, so that it had a life history of 70 Sari, amounting to 1,262 years 36 days (after the Julian dates have been corrected to correspond to the Gregorian). Thus the eclipse that died, so to speak, on August 28 (Greg.), 1848, first appeared on July 22 (Julian) in a.d. 586. See an important article on Eclipses by Mr. E. W. Maunder in Knowledge, for October 1893, where other life-histories of eclipses are given, and the whole subject of eclipses clearly explained.
This date 636-7 is a great and important central date, whether we reckon backwards or forwards; whether we reckon them as Lunar, Zodiacal (360 days), or Solar (365 days) years.
(1.) If we take Lunar years (= 1222-1/2 Solar)—
(a.) reckoning backward, we get to 587 b.c., the very date of the destruction of the Temple by Nebuchadnezzar.
(b.) reckoning forward, we get to 1860 a.d., the very date of the European intervention in the Lebanon, which has brought the Eastern Question into its present prominent position.
(2.) If we take Zodiacal years (= 1242 Solar)—
(a.) reckoning backward we get to 608 b.c., the date of the battle of Carchemish (2 Chron. xxxv. 20), when Babylon completed the conquest of Assyria, and became supreme; utterly shattering all the hope which Israel had in Egypt.
(b.) reckoning forward brings us to 1879 a.d., when, by the Treaty of Berlin, Ottoman power received a blow from which it has never recovered, and which has prepared the way for its extinction.
(3.) If we take Solar years, then—
(a.) reckoning backward, we get to b.c. 624 (a.m. 3376), the beginning of the Babylonian kingdom, the “head of gold.”
(b.) reckoning forward we get to 1896-7 a.d., which is yet future.
These reckonings in their beginnings and endings form an introversion, or Epanodos, thus:—
587 b.c. ... 606 b.c. ... 624 b.c. ... dates increasing.
1860 a.d. ... 1879 a.d. ... 1896-7 a.d. ... dates increasing.
The Solar reckonings are the more important dates; the Lunar are next in significance; while Zodiacal reckonings furnish us with dates which, to say the least, fit neatly into their places.
In passing from b.c. dates to a.d. dates, one year must always be deducted, e.g., from b.c. 2 to a.d. 2 is only three years, not four! Thus—
From Jan. 1 b.c. 2 to Jan. 1 b.c. 1 is one year.
From Jan. 1 b.c. 1 to Jan. 1 a.d. 1 is one year.
From Jan. 1 a.d. 1 to Jan. 1 a.d. 2 is one year.
These make only three years.
Hence, b.c. 31 to a.d. 636 is 666 years, not 667.