he had expired. What I am here saying, I shall explain more fully hereafter, when I come to treat upon ostensible contradictions, between John and Mark, and which, as far as I can trace, has not been noticed by the enemies of Christianity.

“Because it was the preparation,"]—namely, Friday. These words, and not as is generally done, those only which follow, should be put into a parenthesis. John uses them to make intelligible to his readers what he says, "that the bodies should not remain upon the cross, upon the sabbath-day." By this he informs us, that it was upon the day answering to our Friday, when Christ was crucified and died. I here feel myself called upon to explain more minutely the meaning of the word "preparation,” (πapaσкevǹ,) as it occurs in Mat. xxvii. 62. Mark xv. 42, where it is explained, as being the day before the sabbath, (πρоσaßßarov,) Luke xxiii. 54. John xix. 19-42., and here in this 31st verse of the same chapter, the importance of the word, as well as our German translation by Luther seems to require it. I would venture to say, that one half of those who read it, conceive it to be the holy evening before the feast of the passover; and it is thus that many,

even learned men, have reasoned, saying, the sabbath was so great, because the first Easterday, which was a sabbatical festival, fell upon the weekly sabbath, and it has been used even in some instances, as an argument against the truth of the resurrection. The passages, the most illustrative of this word, are to be met with in Wetstein, Walch, and Dufresne. It is worth while to condense and to submit to the reader the sentiments of these writers. The Jews, not those who lived before the Babylonish captivity, (for amongst these last we find no traces of it,) but those who conformed to the subsequent tenets of the Pharisees, strictly observed the Friday afternoon from three o'clock, as a preparation for the sabbath, or as an holy evening, according to our notions of time. The supper (for fasting is not a sabbatical festival, when friends are invited and this day was one of rejoicing,) was a subject of consequence, as they began to abstain from work, with a view to sanctify the day of rest, ordained by God. Hence they named both in Hebrew, and in Chaldee, the whole Friday, "the evening," in the same way as we, in German, name the day before the Sunday, "the Sun-evening.' The name, thus, came into the Arabic, and

probably into the Syrian, because the Jewish religion, previous to, and for some time subsequent to the Christian æra, was very powerful, and the prevailing religion upon the throne in many parts of Syria, in Petræa, and in Arabia Felix. Both the Syriac versions adopt this signification of the word, for wherever "preparation" is to be translated in the New Testament, the Syriac uniformly renders it "Friday." The Jews, who spoke Greek and Latin, used the word, which in both those languages is translated by "preparation," always as signifying "Friday." Friday." The oldest and the most important passage is to be met with in an edict of Augustus, and shows us that the word was already in his time used in this sense, both in Greek and Latin, whenever it related to Jewish affairs. Josephus has inserted the whole edict. in his Antiquities, b. 16, sec. 6, 3, from which the following passage is an extract. "That the Jews were not to be summoned before the tribunals, upon the sabbath, nor upon the preparation, preceding it from the ninth hour, (i. e. from three o'clock in the afternoon,) when the Jews withdrew themselves from worldly affairs."

Another passage from Irenæus, who lived in the second century, is, of course, not so valu

able in respect of antiquity, but equally so in respect of precision of language; it is in his first book against Heresy, (ch. 14, sec. 6.) "Moses therefore says, that man was created on the sixth day, which, deeply considered, is—that the second man appeared on the sixth day, which is the preparation," (or Friday,) "for the regeneration of the first man.' A passage of Dioscorides is still more important-it is quoted by Wetstein, but I cannot lay my hands upon it, as he does not mention the edition. "The Syrians say," (speaking of a certain decoction, with which I am unacquainted, as the chief word is wanting,) "that given on the second, and the fourth, and the preparation," (namely, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday,) "it cures fever," and he adds, "I hold this to be a great secret, for experience convinces me of its correctness." Walch ascertained a similar meaning in some of the fathers of the Church, and gives an additional light to a passage in Origen in his eighth book, against Celsus. Origen, who had previously maintained the doctrine, that "to observe his duty was to him a festal solemnity, and that consequently every day was a festival," obviates an objection, which had been made against the feasts and ceremonies of the Christians.

"But if any one would reproach us with our Lord's days, (Sundays,) our preparation days, (Fridays,) or our Easter or Pentecost, &c." the old Christians celebrated every Friday in the week by a fast. Here Origen speaks first of the Sundays, and then of the Fridays. But he who steadily prepares himself for the true life, keeps constant preparation days," i. e. every day is as holy with him as the weekly Friday, consecrated to the remembrance of Christ. Walch quotes here an important passage from Clement of Alexandria. Strom. B. 12. c. 7. "The true Gnostick understands the mystery of these days of fasting of the fourth, and of the preparation day, of which the first is named from Mercury, and the second from Venus." Who does not see that the preparation day is here the day of Venus, namely, Friday? He further quotes the remarkable words of Peter of Alexandria. "Let

no man blame us for keeping the fourth and the preparation days," (Wednesdays and Fridays,)

on which days, according to tradition, we ought to fast." After having explained the reason of the Wednesday's fast, he adds "on the preparation day we fast because on that day," (Friday,) "he suffered for us." Dufresne has observed in his Glossary, that the great or