the delineation of the historical person. "He had his garment of camel's hair," distinguishing him, and constantly worn by him.➡ avrou is neither to be written avrou, nor is it a pleonasm. It is appropriate from the position of the narrator, and is without reflexive emphasis. Coarse garments for clothing and for tent-coverings, are still prepared from camel-hair, Winer I. 645. "Leathern," not from a luxurious material, but such as Elijah wore. The dress and food of the Baptist corresponded to his stern character. boquv the Sing. denotes the part of the body around which he wore the girdle. Several kinds of locusts were eaten, Lev. 11: 22. This is still done in the East, specially by the poorer classes. The wings and bones are removed, the remainder is sprinkled with salt, and either cooked or eaten raw.1

VERSE 5. "The country around the Jordan," 777, Gen. 13: 10, 11, 1 K. 7: 37, the country on both sides of the river, now el-Ghôr. On the custom of symbolical washings among the Jews, Gen. 35: 2, Ex. 19: 10, Num. 19: 7, and other nations, see Wets. in loc., Meiners's History of all Religions, p. 81, etc. John's baptism was not a modified use of the Jewish proselyte baptism. For the latter—the oldest witness in respect to which is in the Gemara Babylon. Jebamoth 46, 2, and about which Philo, Josephus and the older Targumists are wholly silent- was not introduced till after the destruction of Jerusalem. While the temple stood, proselytes were admitted by circumcision and the presentation of an offering, which last was preceded, as every offering was, by a lustration, which the proselyte administered to himself, as a Levitical purification. But, John's baptism is to be viewed in connection, not only with this lustration, but in general with the religious usages of the Jews in respect to washings, and their symbolical meaning. That there was an expectation of a special Messianic baptism, is improbable - ouoloyouμɛvol. Is a summary or a specific confession meant? one or the other, according to the difference of individuals and their relations. The compound verb marks the open and earnest confession, Acts 13: 33.

VERSE 7. "Pharisees," (from to separate, the separated), received, besides the law, traditions; taught a doctrine of fate, still without denying the freedom of the will; immortality (and as it respects the pious in other bodies, not a resurrection of the body, and not a transmigration of souls); good and evil angels, and they affect

Niebuhr Reise I. 402, Winer I. 487.

2 Winer I. 601, Robinson II. 596.

ed a holy life. The Sadducees (from 7?), acknowledged merely the written law, not the Pentateuch only, but the whole Old Testament, but with the exclusion of traditions, denied the existence of superior spirits, fate, immortality, and held to severe morals; they were in less esteem among the people than the Pharisees, against whom they formed a determined opposition; still they were numerous among the principal men and the rich.2— ini the moral direction of the aim, L. 23: 48, Winer Gr. p. 485. It has not the meaning of against, "that they might oppose his baptism." They came with the design of being baptized, but were offended by the preaching of repentance and of punishment, Luke 7: 30.- ¿zi8. artful, wicked men, Is. 14: 29, 59: 5, Ps. 58: 5. "Wrath to come," the Divine wrath to be poured out when the Messiah comes to judgment, 1 Thess. 1: 10. The Jews appropriated this wrath to the heathen, John to the godless, who repented not. The wrath of God is not the punishment, but the holy feeling of absolute displeasure towards the wicked, from which punishment proceeds as a consequence, Rom. 1: 18, Ephes 2: 3.quyɛiv úzó is a pregnant construction "to flee and thus remove them selves," Is. 48: 20. The Aor. Infin. denotes the action as momentary, Kühn. II. p. 80, exhibiting the point of the outbreaking of the wrath, in which also the flight is realized. Meaning: "Can no one have taught you that ye should flee," etc.

VERSE 8. Consequence from the preceding: "With your present character, ye cannot escape punishment; consequently, so conduct as is meet for those who have repented." "To bring forth fruit," a figurative expression, borrowed from a fruit tree, Acts 26: 20.

"in

VERSE 9. 4ozɛiv is never pleonastic, and can in no place be neg lected, Winer Gr. p. 697; "think not that ye may say," etc.; yourselves," reflection represented as the language of the inner man, comp. Heb. "he said in his heart," Ps. 4: 5, 10: 6, 14: 1. "Abraham to your father." The Jews believed that the children of Abraham would, as such, share in the salvation of the Messianic kingdom, for Abraham's righteousness would be imputed to them. "God is able," "He may exclude you from salvation, and from these stones lying around the Jordan may raise up others, who shall be Abraham's genTM uine children," Rom. iv., Gal. iv., John 8: 39, 40.

VERSE 10. The deciding moment is already near, after which the unworthy shall be excluded from the kingdom of the Messiah, and

1 Jahn Archacol. III. 117, De Wette Archaeol. § 274, Winer, II. 244.

2 Jahn, II. 203, Winer, II. 252, Grossmann de Philosoph. Sadd. Lips. 1836. VOL. VIII. No. 29.

9

be cast into Gehenna. ·xaí'also,' 'even.' The verbs in the Pres. tense, ixónz. and fά22. mean "what will happen immediately and certainly," with special definiteness, not the general sense," accustomed to be hewn down," etc.

VERSE 11.

"Still, I am not the one who shall decide in regard to the reception or rejection, but it is the Messiah. — eis μɛr. denotes the aim of the baptism, Winer Gr. p. 473.— év vdarı instrumental. The opposite higher baptism of Jesus "with the Holy Spirit and fire" shows that the points indicated as instrumental are reciprocal, comp. Mark 1: 8, L. 3: 16, and that ɛis μerav. is only a more exactly defining by-clause. In Mark and Luke the coming of the Messiah as such is brought out emphatically. The Pres. denotes the near and definite commencing Fut.-ov ovx eiuí etc. εἰμί "Compared with the Messiah I am too small to be his most menial slave." To carry, to put on and take off the sandals, was the office of the meanest slaves, among the Jews, Greeks and Romans. ἐν πν. άγ. κ. πυρί, 6 with the Holy Spirit,' those among you who shall believe in the Messiah; with the fire of Gehenna, those who reject him. Both ideas are figuratively represented as "to baptize," so far as the two are the opposite aspects of the Messianic lustration, by which believers are sanctified, unbelievers are cast into hell.

VERSE 12. Ou is not pleonastic; "he has his fan, appropriate to him, in his hand, ready to use." Comp. Is. 9: 5 in Sept. äλova, 775, an open, circular, smooth place in the field itself, where the grain was trodden out, either by oxen, or a threshing-sledge drawn by oxen, Rob. Pal. III. 143, Winer II. 591. "The floor is purged in order that the grain and chaff may be separated, and each collected for their appropriate destination." In the image, "the floor of the Messiah," does not denote mankind, but the place where he has assembled them, and determines the separation of the judgment, Mat. 25: 31-33. The compound diaxa. denotes the purification throughout, from one end to the other. The granaries were mostly dry, subterranean vaults. arvoor not simply chaff in the narrow sense, but the worthless parts of the stalk and ear, which remain after the threshing. "The Messiah will take the worthy-those who repent—into his kingdom, but the unworthy he will give over to the eternal punishment of Gehenna."

VERSE 13. Tóre, then, as John was announcing the coming of the Messiah, and was baptizing the people. Jesus would be baptized by John, because he was conscious that it was the will of God, in order to inaugurate him formally and solemnly as the Messiah.

1851.]

Jesus proclaimed as Messiah.

99

VERSE 14. This passage does not contradict John 1: 33, as the latter asserts that John had not known Jesus as the Messiah, or he needed to have his belief confirmed by the visible proof of the descent of the dove.dixolver, more emphatic than the simple verb-yo zoeiar, "If either of us is to be baptized, I have need to be baptized by thee as the most worthy," Grotius. "And comest thou to me?" a question expressing astonishment, for nothing was said of baptism in the divine announcement, John 1: 33.

VERSE 15. "Aqrt, now, allow it now.-nuiv, thee and me. "All righteousness," everything which it becomes us to do.

VERSE 16. Evous is connected with avéßn, "after he was baptized, he went up immediately." "The heavens were opened," not a brightening up of the sky, not a storm quickly disappearing, but an actual opening of the heavens, in which the Holy Spirit descends, Ez. 1: 1, John 1: 52, Acts 7: 56, Is. 64: 1.—avrą refers to Jesus and is the Dat. commodi, "for Jesus." ―elde the subject is not John, but Jesus; in' avróv is not for ¿q' avtóv, Kühn. § 628, 1.—“as a dove.” Luke 3: 22 says expressly that the dove descended er ooμazıxo eïde, in a bodily form, which determines the more indefinite expressions of the other evangelists.

VERSE 17. φωνή — λέγουσα. We are neither to supply ἐγένετο, nor does the Part. stand for a finite verb, but we are to translate, "and see there a voice," etc., Luke 5: 12, 19: 20, Acts 8: 27. o ayannrós, the Article does not make the expression emphatic, dilectissimus, but it is grammatically required. The Divine voice solemnly proclaims Jesus as the Messiah, ó viós pov, which designation of the Messiah from Ps. 2: 7, in the Christian consciousness was not a mere official name, but was at the same time of a metaphysical import, denoting the genesis of Jesus in his spiritual nature.

ARTICLE VII.

SPECULATIVE PHILOSOPHY.

By Rev. Robert Turnbull, Hartford, Conn.

1. An Historical and Critical View of the Speculative Philosophy of Europe in the Nineteenth Century. By J. D. Morell, A. M. New York, Carter and Brothers, 1850.

2. Cours De L'Histoire De La Philosophie Moderne, Par M. Victor Cousin. Didier, Paris. 1847.

FEW terms are more indefinite in their meaning, and more variant in their application, than that of Philosophy. Sometimes it is used as equivalent to Psychology, or the science of mind; then it is made to denote some particular branch of speculative inquiry, in the realm either of matter or of spirit. It is no uncommon thing to hear of the philosophy of life, the philosophy of health, and the philosophy of digestion! Indeed philosophies wonderfully abound in modern times, and one might suppose, from the prevalence of the term, that we live in the most philosophical era that ever dawned upon our race. We have philosophies of religion, of morals, of language, of rhetoric, of art, of history and of politics. In Germany, and to some extent in France, and in this country, the term philosophy is frequently used to designate ontology, or the science of absolute being; but the province of this science has never been exactly defined, and is to most persons, a terra incognita. Natural philosophy has a province tolerably well defined, though physical or positive science is its more common and certainly its more appropriate designation. Philosophy, properly so called, or speculative philosophy is occupied, though not exclusively, with the nature and manifestations of spirit. It transcends all physics, and is thence justly styled metaphysics.

"The first man that reflected," says Morell," was the first speculative philosopher; - the first time that ever thought returned to inquire into itself and arrest its own trains was the commencement of intellectual philosophy; and once commenced it was inevitable that philosophy should continue as long as a problem was left in the mental or moral world to be solved. The primary efforts of reason to get at the ground principles of human knowledge, were naturally weak and imperfect; but as reflection advanced, the path became clearer,