[Page 184.]—Insult offered to Hyrcanus by the Pharisees.] This circumstance is related by Josephus, (Ant. xiii. 10.) The reason alleged by the Pharisees, if it were their real motive, was honourable to them. Οὐ γάρ ἐδοκει λοιδορίας ἕνεκα θανάτῳ ζημιοῦν· ἄλλως τε καὶ φύσει πρὸς, τὰς κολάσεις ἐπιεικῶς ἔχουσιν οἱ Φαρισαῖοι.
[Page 186.]—Azereth.] See Lightfoot, “of the Pentecost, עצרת,” Works, vol. ii. p. 970. Josephus, Ant. iii. 10. 6. This name is given to other festivals in Scripture, but never to this, except by the Rabbins. It is not said in Scripture that the law was given on this day, but it is inferred by calculation of the time. The Israelites came out of Egypt on the fifteenth of Nisan, and they reached the foot of Sinai on the new moon of the third month from their departure, (Exod. xix. 1.) adding the fifteen remaining days of Nisan to twenty-nine of Siv, the first day of Sivan would be the forty-fifth from their departure. Five days more elapsed, (Exod. xix. 3. 7, 8. 11.) before the law was actually given. Jennings’s Jew. Ant.
[Page 195.]—Rama.] This, which signifies high, was a name borne by so many places in Palestine, that it is difficult to discriminate them. Reland, p. 581, 964, supposes that the Arimathea of the New Testament was near Lydda. 1 Macc. i. 34.
[Page 197.]—Lebona.] Now Leban, on the road from Jerusalem to Naplosa. Maundrell, p. 63.
[Page 199.]—Sichem.] Of its position see Buckingham, p. 63. Reland makes Sichem or Sichar (John iv. 5.) to be ten miles from Shiloh, and forty from Jerusalem, p. 1007. The town of Neapolis, called by the inhabitants Mabortha, (Jos. Bell. iv. 8.) was built so nearly on the site of Sichem, that it is generally spoken of as the same. The name is retained in the modern Naplosa or Nablous. Dr. Clarke bears testimony to the romantic beauty of the situation, (iv. 268.) Maundrell, p. 62, supposes that the city may have anciently extended nearer to Joseph’s well, as a mile seems a great distance to come to draw water. Mr. Buckingham, however, says that there are traces of sepulchres between the well and the city, which must have been without the walls. Travels, p. 543.
[Page 200.]—Moreh.] Like Mamre, it was celebrated for its terebinths, (Deut. xi. 30.) and the two places have sometimes been confounded together.
[Page 203.]—The Samaritans.] A remnant of this people, escaping the persecutions of the emperor Justinian, (Gibbon, viii. 323.) has still continued to inhabit Sichem, and to celebrate their festivals on mount Gerizim. Basnage, vii. c. 25, 26. Had the despot effected his purpose of exterminating or converting them, Revelation would have been deprived of the evidence which their copy of the Pentateuch furnishes of the general integrity of the Mosaic writings. This invaluable document was first brought into Europe about 1640 A. D. About forty of them still remain at Naplosa. Jowett’s Christian Researches, p. 425. No ancient authority supports the Samaritan reading of Gerizim for Ebal, Deut. xxvii. 4. Josh. viii. 30. Had the Jews corrupted the reading out of hatred to the Samaritan worship, they would have made Gerizim the Mount of Cursing, Deut. xxvii. 12.
[Page 204.]—Well may Shechem be called Sychar.] שכר, Sicar, signifies in Hebrew to be intoxicated, and שקר to lye. Isaiah xxviii. 3. The Jews, even in their most serious compositions, delighted in this play on words. Isaiah x. 30.
[Page 206.]—Samaria.] Dr. Richardson’s Travels (ii. p. 414) contain the fullest account which any modern traveller has given of the present state of Samaria. There are still many magnificent remains of the buildings erected by Herod when he raised it from its ruins and named it in honour of Augustus, Sebaste. Jos. Ant. xv. 8. 5. The historian relates its destruction by Hyrcanus, Ant. xiii. 10. 4.
[Page 206.]—A tribe of wandering shepherds.] Compare the picture of the Bedouin Arabs in Volney (Voyage en Syrie, i. 235, 239, 40.) Clarke, vi. 248. and of the Turkmans, Russell, i. 388.