18 Gen. 9. 6.
23 John 2. 19.
26 Mark 14, 66.

C

Verse 3. "The palace of the high priest."-This was not their proper place of assembly; and we may therefore suppose that they met there for the sake of privacy, or that it might not be known that they had any affair in agitation. The Sanhedrim had been accustomed to meet in a room belonging to the Temple, called Gazith, or the paved chamber; but, according to the Babylon Talmud, they ceased to sit in this place forty years before the destruction of the Templethat is, rather more than a year before the death of Christ. But they still continued to meet within the bounds of the Temple, at a place called Chanoth, or the sheds. The palace of the high priest was in Jerusalem, where he constantly resided; but he was only to be found there at night, as, during the day, he was always in attendance at the Temple, where he had a suitable apartment, called the chamber of the high priest. If that personage were therefore himself present at this meeting, it must have been held in the night time, which indeed appears from other circum

stances.

"Caiaphas."-This was his surname, his proper name being Joseph. He was appointed high priest by Valerius Gratus, Pilate's predecessor in the government of Judea, towards the end of his administration, or about A.U.c. 777 (A.D. 24); and his removal was one of the first acts of Vitellius, Pilate's successor, A.U.c. 789 (A.D. 36). Caiaphas was, consequently, high priest during the whole of Pilate's administration. Vitellius, who went to Jerusalem soon after his appointment to the government, was well received by the people; and, in acknowledgment of the honour done to him, granted some important favours, among which Josephus includes the deposition of Caiaphas-which sufficiently shows that he was not popular among his own countrymen. It is not known what became of him after this.

5. "Not on the feast day, lest there be an uproar among the people."-It is not very clear, as some suppose, that their apprehensions of a tumult arose from the popularity of Christ among the people; particularly when we recollect that the multitude had just before been greatly disappointed in the expectations under which they had conducted him with triumphant "Hosannas" to Jerusalem. A better reason for their apprehensions may be found in the fact, frequently mentioned in the Talmud, that the trial of causes on days of public festival was forbidden-though such a prohibition certainly was not in accordance with the spirit of the law of Deut. xvii. 13. That the people might possibly resent the infraction of a popular usage was therefore very likely. But, as Jahn observes (Arch. Bib.' sect. 245), it appears that, as soon as a person was found treacherous enough to betray the Saviour, their fears even from this source vanished. It seems indeed that there is scarcely one of the then existing rules concerning the conduct of public trials which was observed on this occasion. Not to mention in this place other examples, it will be observed that the trial (if it may be so called) and condemnation took place by night; whereas their own canon strictly inculcated that capital causes should be proceeded with and completed by day. Cases of debt, and perhaps some others of a civil nature, were also to be taken by day; but, if prolonged, these might be concluded in the night-time: and this exception the more strongly marks the difference, and consequently points out the irregularity of the present proceeding.

6. "Simon the leper."-Simon was probably one of the lepers whom Jesus had healed. The reason usually given for his not being at present a leper, namely, that he would not have been allowed to live in Bethany, is however not a good one, since Bethany appears to have been only a village, and lepers were only excluded from walled towns.

7. "An alabaster bor."-Theophrastus and Pliny speak of very precious unguents as kept in vessels of alabaster, for their better preservation; but sometimes the vessels or boxes employed for this use were of gold, silver, glass, stone, or even wood. The vessels of small size, and appear to have borne a form similar to that of our oil-flasks, with long and narrow necks. They were sometimes much ornamented. Our present cut offers rather a proximate than an exact

illustration, showing the form and ornaments of the small and rich boxes or coffers in which the Romans kept their

incense.

Some other observations on this transaction may be found under the parallel account in Mark xiv.

18. “I will keep the Passover at thy house."-The inhabitants of Jerusalem prepared rooms, with the necessary furniture, in their houses, where strangers might celebrate the passover. These apartments were not let out for the occasion, nor was any compensation taken, but were of common right, for any persons by whom they were wanted, and were freely allowed to any who came to claim them. This was also the case at the other great festivals, when the inhabitants of other places resorted to Jerusalem. The desire to accommodate their brethren was so strongly manifested by the people of Jerusalem that, as we are told by the Jewish writers, notwithstanding the multitudes which resorted to the city, "A man could never say to his friend, I have not found a fire to roast the passover lamb in Jerusalem, nor have I found a bed to sleep on in Jerusalem;' nor The place is too strait for me to lodge in, in Jerusalem."" See Gill, in loc. These parties for the celebration of the passover had commonly no communication with that of the family of the house; for not only might two parties celebrate the passover in the same house, but even in the same chamber, if the concourse to Jerusalem were such as to render it necessary.

73. “Thy speech bewrayeth thee.”—Compare Luke xxii. 59:-" Another confidently affirmed, saying, Of a truth this fellow also was with him: for he is a Galilean." From which we learn that the dialect of the Galileans was so distinctly marked from that of the inhabitants of Judea, that a man could without hesitation be distinguished for a Galilean by his manner of speech. This is not surprising; since we see that even in comparatively small countries-our own for one-the dialects are found differing greatly from one another, and all from that of the metropolitan district. Even in the small island of Malta, where the vernacular language is a kind of barbarous Arabic, the dialects are so marked, that there was a knight of Malta who acquired some credit for being so well versed in them, that he was able, from hearing them spoken, to discover from what casals (villages) the peasantry who frequented the market of Valetta came. It appears from the Talmudists that the dialect of Galilee was considered very barbarous and corrupt by the people of Judea. This may have partly proceeded from the circumstance that the population was of a character much more mixed than that of Judea, being occupied along with the Jews by people of different origin and languages, whose attempts to understand and be understood by one another occasioned accommodations and amalgamations of words and sounds which, while they facilitated intercourse, tended to the corruption of the several languages. If we rightly collect the results of the Rabbinical statements, it appears that the dialect of the Galileans was marked by the indeterminate pronunciation of particular letters, so that the nice ear of the metropolitan Jew was often at a loss to distinguish their meaning; and in mispronouncing or confounding particular letters, especially the gutturals, in such a manner that they were frequently, out of their own country, understood to express something very different indeed from that which they intended to say. Lightfoot (Chorog. Lent.,' ch. 87) has collected some amusing examples, which we may cite in a condensed form.

66

A certain Galilean said, “Whose is (PN immar) this lamb?" But he pronounced the first letter of the word immar, so confusedly and uncertainly, that his hearers could not tell whether he meant chamar, “ an ass ;”” or chamar, "wine;" or amar, "wool;" or N immar, “a lamb." Another case is mentioned of a Galilean woman who said to her neighbour, ThƆINT 'N♫ tai doclic chalaba—“Come, and I will feed you with milk:" she pronounced the two last words as a toclic labe, words that imply a curse, “Let a lion devour thee." Another case is that of a woman who intended to say before a judge, "My lord, I had a picture, which they stole, and it was so large that if you had been placed in it, your feet would not have touched the ground." But she so managed the pronunciation, that she was understood to say, "Sir, slave, I had a beam, and they stole thee away, and it was so large that if they had hung thee in it, thy feet would not have touched the ground."

74. "The cock crew."-To this it has been objected that there were no cocks kept in Jerusalem, lest their habit of turning over dunghills, where they might find creeping things, should expose to pollution the holy food-the peace offerings and thank offerings-which were eaten in that city. It is not disputed that such a regulation existed; but we know that it was on some account or other dispensed with or not enforced. For Lightfoot and others have shown that cocks were actually kept at Jerusalem, as in other places, and instance the story, in the Jerusalem Talmud, of a cock which was stoned, by the sentence of the council, for having killed a little child.

CHAPTER XXVII.

1 Christ is delivered bound to Pilate. 3 Judas hangeth himself. 19 Pilate, admonished of his wife, 24 washeth his hands: 26 and looseth Barabbas. 29 Christ is crowned with thorns, 34 crucified, 40 reviled, 50 dieth, and is buried: 66 his sepulchre is sealed, and watched.

WHEN the morning was come, 'all the Chief Priests and elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put him to death:

2 And when they had bound him, they led him away, and delivered him to Pontius Pilate the governor.

3 Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the

thirty pieces of silver to the Chief Priests and elders,

4 Saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, What is that to us? see thou to that.

5 And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself.

6 And the Chief Priests took the silver pieces, and said, It is not lawful for to put them into the treasury, because it is the price

of blood.

7 And they took counsel, and bought with them the potter's field, to bury strangers in.

2 Acts 1. 18.

1 Mark 15. 1. Luke 22. 66. John 18. 28.

3 Acts 1. 19. 4 Zerh. 11. 13. 5 Or, whom they bought of the children of Israel. 8 John 19. 1. 9 Or. governor's hʊuse. 10 Mark 15. 21. Luke 23. 26,