"to testify his gratitude to Tiberius, who honoured him with his friendship, chose out an agreeable place upon the borders of the lake called Genesareth, and there he built a city which he called Tiberius." Cœlosyria is without the borders of Judea, but joins to them; one part of it is called Abi-. lene, from the city Abila, its capital; which I observe, because this little province was a part of Herod the Great's kingdom; and St. Luke,* speaking of the princes who governed at the time that St. John began to preach, mentions it. This king, under whom Jesus Christ was born, possessed Idumea, Judea, Samaria, Perea, Galilee, Paneadis, Gaulonitis, Batanea, Trachonitis, Auranitis, and Abilene. 5. When he died, he divided all his dominions among his three sons, Archelaus, Herod-Antipas, and Philip. He gave Archelaus the kingdom which contained Idumea, Judea, and Samaria. He gave Herod Galilee and Perea, under the name of a Tetrarchy; which was a dignity that held the fourth place in the Roman empire, after emperors, proconsuls, and kings. And Philip had Gaulonitis, Trachonitis, Batanea, and Paneadis, with the same title. This is Josephus's account of it; but St. Luke makes Iturea a part of Philip's tetrarchy. Perhaps Josephus confounds Iturea and Auranitis, under the general name of Paneadis. Herod likewise gave Salome his sister, the cities of Jamnia, Azotus, and Phazealis. As soon as Herod was dead, Archelaus was * Luke iii. 1. proclaimed proclaimed king: and the fear that the new king was of the same opinion, with relation to the child Jesus, as his father had been, made Joseph and Mary retire to Nazareth, upon their return from Egypt. CHAP. III. Of the different Ways of Measuring Time among the Hebrews:-their Hours, Days, Weeks, Months, Years, and Jubilee. GOD, who formed the republic of the He brews, appointed certain fixed and regular times for the performance of things,. without which all would necessarily have run into disorder and confusion. And this appointment was the more necessary, in that he prescribed the performance of certain sacrifices and festivals; both which he fixed to certain days. But it would be very difficult to form a clear notion of them, if we knew not the manner in which the Hebrews regulated and measured time. For though all people make use of almost the same terms, yet these terms have very different significations; so that our hours, days, months, and years, are very different from those of the Hebrews; and we shall therefore in this chapter speak, first, of Days; secondly, of Weeks; thirdly, of Months; fourthly, of Years. First, of Days. Time is the measure of the duration of things; which duration we judge of, by by the relation it bears to the course of the planets; that is, we say a thing has had a longer or shorter duration, in proportion as certain planets have made more or fewer revolutions during its subsistence. The time in which the earth revolves round its own axis from east to west, is termed a Day. But some begin the day at noon, others at midnight; some at sun-rising, and others at sun-set. The Hebrews follow this last method; that is to say, with them the day begins at sun-set, and ends the next day at the same time.* Whence it is that we read in the Gospels, that the sick were not brought out to Jesus Christ, on the sabbath-days, till after sunset; which was because the sabbath was then ended, and the Jews, who were scrupulously exact in observing it, were no longer afraid of any violation of it. And it was likewise customary with the Hebrews, to express a whole day by the terms, the evening and the morning or by these, the night and the day: which the Greeks express by their Nuchthemeron, and which as well signifies any particular part of the day or night, as the whole of it. And this is the reason why a thing that has lasted two nights and one whole day, and a part only of the preceding and following days, is said by the Hebrews to have lasted three days and three nights.§ It is with time as with places, with respect to its division; it is purely arbitrary. Formerly the *Exod. xii. 18. + Matt. viii. 16: § Matt. xii. 40. Lev. xxiii. 32. Gen. i. 5-13. Hebrews Hebrews and Greeks divided the day, only according to the three sensible differences of the sun, when it rises, when it is at the highest point of elevation above the horizon; and when it sets; that is, they divided the day only into morning, noon, and night. And these are the only parts of a day which we find mentioned in the Old Testament; the day not being yet divided into twenty-four hours. Since that, the Jews and Romans divided the day, that is, the space between the rising and setting of the sun, into four parts, consisting each of three hours. But these hours were different from ours in this, that ours are always equal, being always the four and twentieth part of the day; whereas, with them the hour was a twelfth part of the time which the sun continues above the horizon. And as this time is longer in summer than in winter, their summer hours must therefore be longer than their winter ones. The first hour began at run-rising, noon was the sixth, and the twelfth ended at sun-set. The third hour divided the space between sun-rising and noon; the ninth divided that which was between noon and sun-set. And it is with relation to this division of the day, that Jesus Christ says in the Gospel, Are there not twelve hours in the day?* The Hebrews likewise distinguished between two evenings. The first began at noon, when the sun begins to decline, and reached to its setting; the second began at that setting; and they call the space of time between these two, that * John xi. 2, is, from noon to sun-set,* Been Haarbaim, that is, between the two evenings.† The night was likewise divided by the Hebrews into four parts. These were called watches, and lasted each three hours. The first is called by Jeremiah the beginning of the watches; the second is called in the book of Judges, the middle watch,§ because it lasted till the middle of the night. The beginning of the third watch was at mid-night, and it lasted till three in the morning; and the fourth was called the morning watch. The first of these four parts of the night began at sun-set, and lasted till nine at night, according to our way of reckoning; the second lasted till midnight; the third till three in the morning; and the fourth ended at sunrising. The Scripture sometimes gives them other names; it calls the first the evening, the second midnight, the third the cock crowing, and the fourth the morning.** Secondly, The Hebrews, like us, make their Weeks to consist of seven days, six of which are appointed for labour; but they were not suffered to do any work on the seventh day, which was therefore called the sabbath, that is, a day of rest. The observation of the sabbath began with the world. God, after he had employed six days in making the universe out of nothing, rested the seventh day, and therefore appointed it to be a day of rest. But this term sabbath is *Or rather, the ninth hour, which is the middle point between them, is what they called between the evenings. Lamy, de Ta bern. 1. 7. c. 7. § 1. § Judg. vii. 19. Mark xiii, 35. * † Exod. xii. 6. || Matt. xiv. 25. †† Gen. ii. Lam. ii. 19. likewise |