confirm this, Ye shall find the child lying in a stable, which was a good direction by which to find Jefus. J.

20. Methinks the evangelift's meaning will be more perfpicuous, if the comma be placed after heard, and omitted after seen. i e. for all that they had heard of the angels, and for having found what had been told them to be true. T.

SECTION VII.

The Cireumcifion of Jesus, and the Prophecies of Simeon

and Anna.

Luke II. 21- -40,

LUKE II. 25.

The consolation of Israel;]

i. e. the coming of the Meffiah.

27. I conceive that the fecond na in this verfe is fuperfluous, and inferted by mistake. The evangelift seems to intend to point out the exact coincidence in point of time of Simeon's entrance into the temple and the bringing in of the child. T.

32. Φως εις αποκαλυψιν εθνων] Compare If. xxv. 7. And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the veil that is spread

over all nations.

T.

34, A sign.] The word anμsov fometimes fignifies a mark to shoot, or throw at. The meaning of the verse seems to be, that the publication of the gofpel would be a bleffing to thofe who received it, and the

occafion

occafion of deftruction to thofe who rejected it. As the apostle fays, to fome it was a savour of life, and to others of death. The calamities that befel the Jewish nation are more efpecially afcribed to their wickedness in general, fo more efpecially to their fin in killing Chrift, their rejection of the gospel, and their perfecution of the chriftians.

34. To all them who looked for redemption or deliverance.] It appears from various evidence, that there was a general and earnest expectation of the Meffiah among the Jews about this time, and which continued to the deftruction of Jerufalem, and afterwards. This could only have been raifed by the ancient prophecies.

39. The different narratives concerning our Lord's infancy, given us by Matthew and Luke, will, I think, appear very confiftent, if we only fuppofe that, immediately after the transactions at the temple, Jofeph and Mary went to Nazareth, as Luke fays, but only to fettle their affairs there, and foon after returned to Bethlehem, where the report of the fhepherds, and the fa vourable impreffions that report had made on the inhabitants (fee v. 17, 18) would fuggeft many cogent prudential motives to fix their abode. There they might have dwelt many months before the arrival of the wife men which Matthew relates. For the order for the flaughter of the children which Herod gave in pursuance of the diligent enquiry which he had made of the wife men, concerning the time when the ftar appeared, gives us ground to conclude, that a confiderable time had intervened between the birth of the child,

or

or the appearance of the ftar (fuppofing them to coincide) and the coming of the wife men. It is obfervable also that on Joseph's return from Egypt, his first intention feems to have been to go into Judea, moft probably to Bethlehem, but through fear of Archelaus, and by a divine direction, he fixed at Nazareth, the place of his firft abode. There he and his family were at the time of the only event of our Lord's childhood, which Luke has thought fit to give us; and therefore it was not to his purpose to take notice of any removal, or other place of abode. T.

40. The Grace of God, xapis Geoʊ ] This may mean an extraordinary grace, or gracefulness, the term God being used in this manner in Hebrew for a fuperlative, as mountains of God, rivers of God, &c. meaning very high mountains, very large rivers, &c. On this foundation Macknight thinks that Jefus had a graceful or handsome perfon, notwithstanding what is faid of him in If. Liii. 2. He has no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him, which he thinks will admit of another interpretation. But on the whole it is more probable that the grace, or form of God means the particular guidance of heaven, as his whole conduct, and the course of events, even from his infancy, indicated. J.

40. The words in the spirit are not in all the MSS, and are better omitted.

SEC

The Homage of the Magians; the Journey to Egypt, the Murder of the children at Bethlehem, and the re turn of Jesus to Nazareth.

Matt. II. 1--23.

MATTHEW

ATTHEW II. 1. The Magians were perfons who lived in colleges, ftudying aftronomy, and other parts of natural knowledge, and they are faid to have worshipped one God, without the ufe of images. Daniel accepted the office of master of the Magians, and many others of them were Jews. Pearce, therefore, thinks that, probably thefe Magians were Jews

too.

And indeed, it is not probable that a revelation of the birth of the Meffiah would be made fo early as this to any heathens. On the fuppofition that they were not Jews but Arabians, Mr. Turner conjectures that they understood this strange light to denote the birth of a great prince in the land of Judea, from their being acquainted with the prediction of their country. man Balaam. Numb. xxiv, 17.

What is here called a star, was probably a kind of meteor, which is often called αφηρη or flar, by Greek

writers.

1. I think it had been better rendered, Now after Jesus was born-] This would have admitted the fuppofition of a confiderable interval between the birth of Jefus and the coming of the wife men, which ap. pears to me the truth; whereas our tranflation when

Jesus

Jesus was born, imports that they came at the time, or foon after the birth.

T.

11. In the Eaft no perfons of rank are approached without a prefent; and the gifts of thefe Magians were fuch as were proper to be prefented to a royal child. See Observations on Travels into the East, Vol. II. 23.

15. Out of Egypt have I called my son.] The prophecy referred to by the evangelift is Hofea xi, 1. where the words here quoted occur. The application of the paffage to Chrift does not feem to be strictly proper; fince it cannot be pretended that, in the origi nal, it refers to any thing more than the children of Ifrael, who had been in Egypt.

18. The paffage in Jeremiah here referred to is ch xxxi, 15 In Rama there was a voice heard, lamentation and weeping, and great mourning; Rachel, weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they were not. But it does not appear to refer to the times of Chrift; for the prophet is only speaking of the con dition of Kama in his own time, when the inhabitants of that place were carried into captivity, and he was prophecying of their return.

23. He shall be called a Nazarene.] This does not refer to any particular paffage in any of the prophets, but to the general idea that is given of the Meffiah in all the prophets, who speak of him as a man who should be hated, reviled, persecuted, and afflicted, and the Hebrew word from which Nazareth is derived fignifies this, as well as to be separated, or fequestered from other men ; and the town of Nazareth itself was both in name, and Yot, III,

in