DISSERTATION THE SEVENTH.

INQUIRY INTO THE IMPORT OF CERTAIN TITLES OF HONOUR OCCURRING IN THE NEW TESTAMENT.

I INTEND, in this Dissertation, to offer a few remarks on those titles of honour which most frequently occur in the New Testament, that we may judge more accurately of their import, by attending, not only to their peculiarities in signification, but also to the difference in the ancient Jewish manner of applying them, from that which obtains among the modern Europeans, in the use of words thought to be equivalent.

PART I.

Κυριος.

NOTHING can be more evident, than that, originally, titles were every where the names, either of offices, or of relations, natural or conventional, insomuch that it could not be said of any of them, as

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may be said, with justice, of several of our titles at present, those especially called titles of quality, that they mark neither office nor relation, property nor jurisdiction, but merely certain degrees of hereditary honour, and rights of precedency. Relation implies opposite relation in the object. Now, when those persons, for whose behoof a particular office was exercised, and who were consequently in the opposite relation, were very numerous, as a whole nation, province, or kingdom, the language commonly had no correlate to the title expressing the office; that is, it had not a term appropriated to denote the people who stood in the posite relation. But when there was only a small number, there was a special term for denoting the relative connection in which these also stood. Thus the terms, king, judge, prophet, pontiff, hardly admitted any correlative term, but the general one of people. But this does not hold invariably. With us the correlate to king is subject. In like manner, offices which are exercised, not statedly, in behalf of certain individuals, but variously and occasionally, in behalf sometimes of one, sometimes of another, do not often require titles correlative. Of this kind are the names of most handicrafts, and several other professions. Yet, with us the physician has his patients, the lawyer his clients, and the tradesman his customers. In most other cases of relation, whether arising from nature, or from convention, we find title tallying with title exactly, Thus, 58

VOL. I.

father has son, husband has wife, uncle has nephew, teacher has disciple or scholar, master has servant.

§ 2. I ADMIT, however, that in the most simple. times, and the most ancient usages with which we are acquainted, things did not remain so entirely on the original footing, as that none should be called father, but by his son or his daughter; none should be saluted master, but by his servant, or styled teacher, but by his scholar. There is a progression in every thing relating to language, as, indeed, in all human sciences and arts. Necessity, first, and ornament, afterwards, lead to the extension of words beyond their primitive signification. All languages are scanty in the beginning, not having been fabricated beforehand, to suit the occasions which might arise. Now, when a person, in speaking, is sensible of the want of a proper sign for expressing his thought, he, much more naturally, recurs to a word which is the known name of something that has an affinity to what he means, than to a sound which, being entirely new to the hearers, cannot, by any law of association in our ideas, suggest his meaning to them. Whereas, by availing himself of the name of something related, by resemblance, or otherwise, to the sentiment he wants to convey, he touches some principle, in the minds of those whom he addresses, which (if they be persons of any sagacity) will quickly lead them to the discovery of his meaning. Thus, for expressing the reverence which I feel for a respectable character, in one who is also

my senior, I shall naturally be led to style him father, though I be not literally his son; to express my submission to a man of greater merit and dignity, I shall call him master, though I be not his servant ; and to express my respect for one of more extensive knowledge and erudition, I shall denominate him teacher, though I be not his disciple. Indeed, these consequences arise so directly from those essential principles of the imagination, uniformly to be found in human nature, that deviations, in some degree similar, from the earliest meanings of words, are to be found in all tongues, ancient and modern. This is the first step from pure simplicity.

3. YET, that the differences in laws, sentiments, and manners, which obtain in different nations, will occasion in this, as well as in other things, considerable variety, is not to be denied. In Asia, a common sign of respect to superiors was prostration. In Europe, that ceremony was held in abhorrence, What I have remarked above, suits entirely the progress of civilization in the Asiatic regions. The high-spirited republicans of Greece and Rome, appear, on the contrary, long to have considered the title kyrios, or dominus, given to a man, as proper only in the mouth of a slave. Octavius, the emperor, when master of the world, and absolute in Rome, seems not to have thought it prudent to accept it. He very justly marked the precise import of the term, according to the usage which then obtained, in that noted saying ascribed to him. Impe

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rator militum, Princeps reipublica, Dominus servoTo assume this title, therefore, he considered as what could not fail to be interpreted by his people, as an indirect, yet sufficiently evident, manner of calling them his slaves; for such was then the common import of the word servus. But, in despotic countries, and countries long accustomed to kingly government, it did not hurt the delicacy of the greatest subject to give the title Dominus to the prince.

4. THAT such honorary applications of words were quite common among the Jews, was evident to every body, who has read the Bible with attention. In such applications, however, it must be noted, that the titles are not considered as strictly due from those who give them. They are considered rather as voluntary expressions of respect, in him who gives the title, being a sort of tribute, either to civility, or to the personal merit of him on whom it is bestowed. But, to affix titles to places and offices, to be given by all who shall address those possessed of such places and offices, whether they that give them stand in the relation correspondent to the title or not, or whether they posses the respect or esteem implied or not, is comparatively a modern refinement in the civil intercourse of mankind, at least in the degree to which it is carried in Europe. This is the second remove from the earliest and simplest state of society.

5. THERE remains a third, still more remarkable, to which I find nothing similar in ancient times.