[Page 128.]—The Therapeutæ.] Philo, who is the only ancient author who speaks of the Therapeutæ, says, (de Vit. cont. Op. 892.) that there were many of them in all parts of Egypt; but that their favourite residence was a hill near the lake Mareotis. The Therapeutæ were, according to him, the contemplative Essenes. Op. 889. They were great allegorists; Ἐντυγχάνοντες τοῖς ιἑρωτάτοις γράμμασι, φιλοσοφοῦσι, την πάτριον φιλοσοφίαν ἀλληγοροῦντες. They were called Therapeutæ, ἄπο τοῦ θεραπεύειν τὸ Ὀν, p. 890. The account of the Essenes and the other Jewish sects, the Pharisees and Sadducees, may be seen in Philo, Op. 876. Joseph. Bell. Jud. ii. 8. Ant. xiii. 5. xviii. 1. or Prideaux, Conn. An. 107. who has translated great part of what Josephus says.
[Page 132.]—A dreary waste.] “After some hours travel you arrive at the mountainous desert into which our blessed Saviour was led, to be tempted by the devil. A most miserable, dry, barren place it is, consisting of high rocky mountains, so torn and disordered as if the earth had here suffered some great convulsion, in which its very bowels had been turned outward. On the left hand, looking down in a deep valley as we passed along, we saw some ruins of small cells and cottages, which they told us were formerly the habitations of hermits, retiring hither for penance and mortification. And certainly there could not be found in the whole earth a more comfortless and abandoned place for that purpose. From the top of these hills of desolation, however, we had a delightful prospect of the mountains of Arabia, the Dead Sea, and the plain of Jericho.” Maundrell, p. 80. The reader will observe with what propriety this region has been chosen for the scene of the parable of the good Samaritan. See Buckingham, 292.
[Page 134.]—Valour of the Essenes.] Philo (Op. 877.) represents them as holding war in the utmost abhorrence, and never fabricating any instrument which could be employed in it. Josephus praises (Bell. Jud. ii. 8. 10.) the constancy which they displayed in the Roman war, but it was in enduring torture. He speaks of them, however, as carrying swords for their defence against thieves; and Philo mentions that the Therapeutæ united for mutual protection, if their settlements were attacked. Op. 893.
[Page 138.]—Oasis of the Essenes.] It is placed in this neighbourhood on the authority of Pliny, who represents them as living near the Dead Sea, on the western side, but at such a distance as to avoid the effects of the pestilential effluvia. N. H. v. 17.
[Page 138.]—The books of doctrine and the names of the angels.] Συντηρήσειν ὁμοίως τάτε τῆς αἱρέσεως αὐτῶν βιβλία καὶ τὰ τῶν ἀγγέλων ὀνόματα. Jos. Bell. Jud. ii. 17. Thus rendered by Prideaux, “to preserve with equal care the books containing the doctrine of their sect, and the names of the messengers by whose hands they were written and conveyed to them.”
[Page 140.]—Seated themselves at table.] This was the primitive custom of the Jews, (as of the heroic times of Greece, Athen. lib. i. p. 11.) See Gen. xxvii. 19. 1 Sam. xx. 5. 24, Amos ii. 8. is the first passage of Scripture in which the recumbent posture is mentioned.
[Page 141.]—No women were to be seen.] “Gens sola, et in toto orbe præter ceteras mira sine ullâ feminâ, omni venere abdicatâ, sine pecuniâ, socia palmarum. In diem ex æquo convenarum turbâ renascitur, large frequentantibus quos vita fessos ad mores eorum fortunæ fluctus agitat. Ita per seculorum millia, incredibile dictu gens æterna est in qua nemo nascitur.” Plin. N. H. v. 17.
[Page 149.]—The garden of God, the plain of Jericho.] See the description in Josephus, B. J. iv. 8. Huds. Ὡς οὐκ ἀν ἁμαρτεῖν τινα ἔιποντα, θεῖον εἶναι τὸ χωρίον, ἐν ᾧ δαψιλῆ τὰ σπανιώτατα καὶ καλλίστα γεννᾶται. Other particulars respecting the city and the region which surrounds it may be found in Reland, 829. Most modern travellers to the Holy Land also describe it. See Maundrell, p. 80. seq. Pococke, ii. 31. Epiphanius describes Jericho as having a circuit of twenty stadia. It is generally supposed that the village of Rihhah, about three miles from the Jordan, marks the site, as it evidently bears the name of Jericho. But Rihhah has no ruins, such as might have been expected on the site of so considerable a city. Hence it has been thought that the ancient Jericho stood nearer the mountains, at a place where many broken shafts and other traces of buildings are visible, and at the distance of six miles from the Jordan. Buckingham, 295.
[Page 158.]—Chiefly inhabited by priests.] This circumstance serves still further to illustrate the local propriety of the parable of the good Samaritan.
[Page 161.]—Bethabara.] Βηθαβαρὰ בית עברה denotes a place of passage. John i. 28. Engeddi was called, from its palms, Hazazon Thamar, 2 Chron. xx. 2. It was a large village. Pliny, who calls it the second town in Judæa after Jerusalem, (v. 17.) must have confounded it with Jericho. It was about three hundred stadia from Jerusalem.