1. And Jesus went out, and departed
from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to show him
the buildings of the temple.
[To shew him the buildings of the
Temple.] "He that never saw the Temple of Herod never saw a fine
building. What was it built of? Rabba saith, Of white and green marble.
But some say, Of white, green, and spotted marble. He made the laver to
sink and to rise" (that is, the walls were built winding in and out, or
indented after the manner of waves), "being thus fitted to receive the
plaster, which he intended to lay on; but the Rabbins said to him, 'O
let it continue, for it is very beautiful to behold: for it is like the
waves of the sea': and Bava Ben Buta made it so," &c. See there the
story of Bava Ben Buta and Herod consulting about the rebuilding of the
temple.
2. And Jesus said unto them, See ye
not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left
here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.
[There shall not be left one stone
upon another.] The Talmudic Chronicles bear witness also to this
saying, "On the ninth day of the month Ab the city of Jerusalem was
ploughed up"; which Maimonides delivereth more at large: "On that ninth
day of the month Ab, fatal for vengeance, the wicked Turnus Rufus, of
the children of Edom, ploughed up the Temple, and the places about it,
that that saying might be fulfilled, 'Sion shall be ploughed as a
field.'" This Turnus Rufus, of great fame and infamy among the Jewish
writers, without doubt is the same with Terentius Rufus, of whom
Josephus speaks, Rufus was left general of the army by Titus;
with commission, as it is probable, and as the Jews suppose, to destroy
the city and Temple. Concerning which matter, thus again Josephus in the
place before quoted, The emperor commanded them to dig up the whole
city and the Temple. And a little after, "Thus those that digged
it up laid all level, that it should never be inhabited, to be a
witness to such as should come thither."
3. And as he sat upon the mount of
Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when
shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming,
and of the end of the world?
[And what shall be the sign of thy
coming, and of the end of the world?] What the apostles intended by
these words is more clearly conceived by considering the opinion of that
people concerning the times of the Messias. We will pick out this in a
few words from Babylonian Sanhedrin.
"The tradition of the school of Elias:
The righteous, whom the Holy Blessed God will raise up from the dead,
shall not return again to their dust; as it is said, 'Whosoever shall be
left in Zion and remain in Jerusalem shall be called holy, every one
being written in the book of life.' As the Holy (God) liveth for ever,
so they also shall live for ever. But if it be objected, What shall the
righteous do in those years in which the Holy God will renew his world,
as it is said, 'The Lord only shall be exalted in that day?' the answer
is, That God will give them wings like an eagle, and they shall swim (or
float) upon the face of the waters." Where the Gloss says thus; "The
righteous, whom the Lord shall raise from the dead in the days of the
Messiah, when they are restored to life, shall not again return to their
dust, neither in the days of the Messiah, nor in the following age: but
their flesh shall remain upon them till they return and live to
eternity. And in those years, when God shall renew his world (or
age), this world shall be wasted for a thousand years; were,
then, shall those righteous men be in those years, when they shall not
be buried in the earth?" To this you may also lay that very common
phrase, the world to come; whereby is signified the days of
the Messiah: of which we spoke a little at the thirty-second verse
of the twelfth chapter: "If he shall obtain (the favour) to see
the world to come, that is, the exaltation of Israel," namely, in the
days of Messiah. "The Holy Blessed God saith to Israel, In this world
you are afraid of transgressions; but in the world to come, when there
shall be no evil affection, you shall be concerned only for the good
which is laid up for you; as it is said, 'After this the children of
Israel shall return, and seek the Lord their God, and David their
king,'" &c.; which clearly relate to the time of the Messiah. Again, "Saith
the Holy Blessed God to Israel, 'In this world, because my messengers (sent
to spy out the land) were flesh and blood, I decreed that they
should not enter into the land: but in the world to come, I suddenly
send to you my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before my face.'"
See here the doctrine of the Jews
concerning the coming of the Messiah:
1. That at that time there shall be a
resurrection of the just: The Messias shall raise up those that sleep
in the dust.
2. Then shall follow the desolation of
this world: This world shall be wasted a thousand years. Not that
they imagined that a chaos, or confusion of all things, should last the
thousand years; but that this world should end and a new one be
introduced in that thousand years.
3. After which eternity should
succeed.
From hence we easily understand the
meaning of this question of the disciples:--
1. They know and own the present
Messiah; and yet they ask, what shall be the signs of his coming?
2. But they do not ask the signs of his
coming (as we believe of it) at the last day, to judge both the quick
and the dead: but,
3. When he will come in the evidence
and demonstration of the Messiah, raising up the dead, and ending this
world, and introducing a new; as they had been taught in their schools
concerning his coming.
7. For nation shall rise against
nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and
pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
[Nation shall rise against nation.]
Besides the seditions of the Jews, made horridly bloody with their
mutual slaughter, and other storms of war in the Roman empire from
strangers, the commotions of Otho and Vitellius are particularly
memorable, and those of Vitellius and Vespasian, whereby not only the
whole empire was shaken, and the fortune of the empire changed with
the change of the whole world, (they are the words of Tacitus), but
Rome itself being made the scene of battle, and the prey of the
soldiers, and the Capitol itself being reduced to ashes. Such throes the
empire suffered, now bringing forth Vespasian to the throne, the scourge
and vengeance of God upon the Jews.
9. Then shall they deliver you up to
be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations
for my name's sake.
[Then shall they deliver you up to
be afflicted.] To this relate those words of
1 Peter 4:17, "The time is come that judgment must begin at the
house of God"; that is, the time foretold by our Saviour is now at hand,
in which we are to be delivered up to persecution, &c. These words
denote that persecution which the Jews, now near their ruin, stirred up
almost everywhere against the professors of the gospel. They had indeed
oppressed them hitherto on all sides, as far as they could, with
slanders, rapines, whippings, stripes, &c. which these and such like
places testify;
1 Thessalonians 2:14,15;
Hebrews 10:33, &c. But there was something that put a rub in their
way, that, as yet, they could not proceed to the utmost cruelty; "And
now ye know what withholdeth"; which, I suppose, is to be understood of
Claudius enraged at and curbing in the Jews. Who being taken out of the
way, and Nero, after his first five years, suffering all things to be
turned topsy turvy, the Jews now breathing their last (and Satan
therefore breathing his last effects in them, because their time was
short), they broke out into slaughter beyond measure, and into a most
bloody persecution: which I wonder is not set in the front of the ten
persecutions by ecclesiastical writers. This is called by Peter (who
himself also at last suffered in it) a fiery trial; by Christ,
dictating the epistles to the seven churches, tribulation for ten
days; and the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the
world of Christians. And this is "the revelation of that wicked one"
St. Paul speaks of, now in lively, that is, in bloody colours, openly
declaring himself Antichrist, the enemy of Christ. In that persecution
James suffered at Jerusalem, Peter in Babylon, and Antipas at Pergamus,
and others, as it is probable, in not a few other places. Hence,
Revelation 6:11,12 (where the state of the Jewish nation is
delivered under the type of six seals), they are slain, who were to be
slain for the testimony of the gospel under the fifth seal; and
immediately under the sixth followed the ruin of the nation.
12. And because iniquity shall
abound, the love of many shall wax cold.
[The love of many shall wax cold.]
These words relate to that horrid apostasy which prevailed everywhere in
the Jewish churches that had received the gospel. See
2 Thessalonians 2:3, &c.;
Galatians 3:1;
1 Timothy 1:15, &c.
14. And this gospel of the kingdom
shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and
then shall the end come.
[And this gospel of the kingdom
shall be preached in all the world.] Jerusalem was not to be
destroyed before the gospel was spread over all the world: God so
ordering and designing it that the world, being first a catechumen in
the doctrine of Christ, might have at length an eminent and undeniable
testimony of Christ presented to it; when all men, as many as ever heard
the history of Christ, should understand that dreadful wrath and severe
vengeance which was poured out upon that city and nation by which he was
crucified.
15. When ye therefore shall see the
abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the
holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand):
[The abomination of desolation.]
These words relate to that passage of Daniel (chapter 9:27) which I
would render thus; "In the middle of that week," namely, the last of the
seventy, "he shall cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease, even until
the wing or army of abomination shall make desolate," &c.;
or, even by the wing of abominations making desolate....
[Let him that readeth understand.]
This is not spoken so much for the obscurity as for the certainty of the
prophecy: as if he should say, "He that reads those words in Daniel, let
him mind well that when the army of the prince which is to come, that
army of abominations, shall compass round Jerusalem with a siege, then
most certain destruction hangs over it; for, saith Daniel, 'the people
of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city, and the
sanctuary,' &c., verse 26. 'And the army of abominations shall make
desolate even until the consummation, and that which is determined shall
be poured out upon the desolate.' Flatter not yourselves, therefore,
with vain hopes, either of future victory, or of the retreating of that
army, but provide for yourselves; and he that is in Judea, let him fly
to the hills and places of most difficult access, not into the city."
See how Luke clearly speaks out this sense in the twentieth verse of the
one-and-twentieth chapter.
20. But pray ye that
your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day:
[That your flight be not in the
winter.] R. Tanchum observes a favour of God in the destruction of
the first Temple, that it happened in the summer, not in winter. For
thus he: "God vouch-safed a great favour to Israel; for they ought to
have gone out of the land on the tenth day of the month Tebeth, as he
saith, 'Son of man, mark this day; for on this very day,' &c. What then
did the Lord, holy and blessed? 'If they shall now go out in the
winter,' saith he, 'they will all die': therefore he prolonged the time
to them, and carried them away in summer."
22. And except those days should be
shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake
those days shall be shortened.
[Those days shall be shortened.]
God lengthened the time for the sake of the elect, before the
destruction of the city; and in the destruction, for their sakes he
shortened it. Compare with these words before us
2 Peter 3:9, "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise," &c. It
was certainly very hard with the elect that were inhabitants of the
city, who underwent all kinds of misery with the besieged, where the
plague and sword raged so violently that there were not living enough to
bury the dead; and the famine was so great, that a mother ate her son
(perhaps the wife of Doeg Ben Joseph, of whom see such a story in Babyl.
Joma). And it was also hard enough with those elect who fled to the
mountains, being driven out of house, living in the open air, and
wanting necessaries for food: their merciful God and Father, therefore,
took care of them, shortening the time of their misery, and cutting off
the reprobates with a speedier destruction; lest, if their stroke had
been longer continued, the elect should too far have partaken of their
misery.
The Rabbins dream that God shortened
the day on which wicked king Ahab died, and that ten hours; lest he
should have been honoured with mourning.
24. For there shall arise false
Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders;
insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very
elect.
[Shall shew great signs and wonders.]
It is a disputable case, whether the Jewish nation were more mad with
superstition in matters of religion, or with superstition in curious
arts.
I. There was not a people upon earth
that studied or attributed more to dreams than they. Hence
1. They often imposed fastings upon
themselves to this end, that they might obtain happy dreams; or to get
the interpretation of a dream; or to divert the ill omen of a dream:
which we have observed at the fourteenth verse of the ninth chapter.
2. Hence their nice rules for handling
of dreams; such as these, and the like: Let one observe a good dream
two-and-twenty years, after the example of Joseph: "If you go to bed
merry, you shall have good dreams," &c.
3. Hence many took upon them the public
profession of interpreting dreams; and this was reckoned among the
nobler arts. A certain old man (Babyl. Beracoth) relates this story;
"There were four-and-twenty interpreters of dreams in Jerusalem: and I,
having dreamed a dream, went to them all: every one gave a different
interpretation, and yet they all came to pass," &c. You have R. Joses
Ben Chelpatha, R. Ismael Ben R. Joses, R. Lazar, and R. Akiba
interpreting divers dreams, and many coming to them for interpretation
of their dreams. Nay, you see there the disciples of R. Lazar in his
absence practising this art. See there also many stories about this
business, which it would be too much here to transcribe.
II. There were hardly any people in the
whole world that more used, or were more fond of, amulets, charms,
mutterings, exorcisms, and all kinds of enchantments. We might here
produce innumerable examples; a handful shall serve us out of the
harvest: "Let not any one go abroad with his amulet on the sabbath day,
unless that amulet be prescribed by an approved physician" (or, "unless
it be an approved amulet"; see the Gemara). Now these amulets were
either little roots hung about the necks of sick persons, or, what was
more common, bits of paper with words written on them whereby they
supposed that diseases were either driven away or cured: which they wore
all the week, but were forbid to wear on the sabbath, unless with a
caution: "They do not say a charm over a wound on the sabbath, that also
which is said over a mandrake is forbid" on the sabbath. "If any one
say, Come and say this versicle over my son, or lay the book" of the law
"upon him, to make him sleep; it is forbid": that is, on the sabbath,
but on other days is usual.
"They used to say the psalm of
meetings (that is, against unlucky meetings) at Jerusalem.
R. Judah saith, Sometimes after such a meeting, and sometimes when no
such meeting had happened. But what is the Psalm of Meetings? The third
psalm, 'Lord, how are my foes increased!' even all the psalm: and the
ninety-first psalm, 'He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most
High,' to the ninth verse." There is a discourse of many things, which
they used to carry about with them, as remedies against certain
ailments; and of mutterings over wounds: and there you may see, that
while they avoid the enchantments of the Amorites, they have and allow
their own. You have, Bab. Joma, fol, 84.1, the form of an
enchantment against a mad dog. And, Avodah Zarah, fol. 12.2, the
form of enchantment against the devil of blindness. You have, Hieros.
Schab. fol 13.4, and Avod. Zarah, fol. 40.4, mutterings and
enchantments, even in the name of Jesus. See also the Babyl. Sanhedr.
fol. 101.1, concerning these kind of mutterings.
III. So skilful were they in conjurings,
enchantments, and sorceries, that they wrought great signs, many
villanies, and more wonders. We pass by those things which the sacred
story relates of Simon Magus, Elymas, the sons of Sceva, &c., and
Josephus, of others; we will only produce examples out of the Talmud, a
few out of many.
You will wonder, in the entrance, at
these two things, in order to the speaking of their magical exploits;
and thence you will conjecture at the very common practice of these evil
arts among that people: 1. That "the senior who is chosen into the
council ought to be skilled in the arts of astrologers, jugglers,
diviners, sorcerers, &c., that he may be able to judge of those who are
guilty of the same." 2. The Masters tell us, that a certain chamber was
built by a magician in the temple itself: "The chamber of Happarva was
built by a certain magician, whose name was Parvah, by art-magic."
"Four-and-twenty of the school Rabbi, intercalating the year at Lydda,
were killed by an evil eye": that is, with sorceries. R. Joshua outdoes
a magician in magic, and drowns him in the sea. In Babyl. Taanith,
several miracles are related that the Rabbins had wrought. Elsewhere,
there is a story told of eighty women-sorceresses at Ascalon, who were
hanged in one day by Simeon Ben Shetah: "and the women of Israel (saith
the gloss) had generally fallen to the practice of sorceries": as we
have mentioned before. It is related of abundance of Rabbis, that they
were skilful in working miracles: thus Abba Chelchia, and Chanin,
and R. Chanina Ben Dusa; of which R. Chanina Ben Dusa there is almost an
infinite number of stories concerning the miracles he wrought, which
savour enough and too much of magic.
And, that we may not be tedious in
producing examples, what can we say of the fasting Rabbis causing it to
rain in effect when they pleased? of which there are abundance of
stories in Taanith. What can we say of the Bath Kol very frequently
applauding the Rabbins out of heaven? of which we have spoken before.
What can we say of the death or plagues foretold by the Rabbins to
befall this or that man? which came to pass just according as they were
foretold. I rather suspect some magic art in most of these, than fiction
in all.
IV. False Christs broke out, and
appeared in public with their witchcrafts, so much the frequenter and
more impudent, as the city and people drew nearer to its ruin; because
the people believed the Messias should be manifested before the
destruction of the city; and each of them pretended to be the Messias by
these signs. From the words of Isaiah, "Before her pain came, she was
delivered of a man child," the doctors concluded, "that the Messias
should be manifested before the destruction of the city." Thus the
Chaldee paraphrast upon the place; "She shall be saved before her utmost
extremity, and her king shall be revealed before her pains of
childbirth." Mark that also; "The Son of David will not come, till the
wicked empire [of the Romans] shall have spread itself over all
the world nine months; as it is said, 'Therefore will he give them up,
until the time that she which travaileth hath brought forth.'"
27. For as the lightning cometh out
of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of
the Son of man be.
[For as the lightning, &c.] To
discover clearly the sense of this and the following clauses, those two
things must be observed which we have formerly given notice of:--
1. That the destruction of Jerusalem is
very frequently expressed in Scripture as if it were the destruction of
the whole world,
Deuteronomy 32:22; "A fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn
unto the lowest hell" (the discourse there is about the wrath of God
consuming that people; see verses 20,21), "and shall consume the earth
with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains."
Jeremiah 4:23; "I beheld the earth, and lo, it was without form and
void; and the heavens, and they had no light," &c. The discourse there
also is concerning the destruction of that nation,
Isaiah 65:17; "Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the
former shall not be remembered," &c. And more passages of this sort
among the prophets. According to this sense, Christ speaks in this
place; and Peter speaks in his Second Epistle, third chapter; and John,
in the sixth of the Revelation; and Paul,
2 Corinthians 5:17, &c.
2. That Christ's taking vengeance of
that exceeding wicked nation is called Christ's "coming in glory," and
his "coming in the clouds,"
Daniel 7. It is also called, "the day of the Lord." See
Psalm 1:4;
Malachi 3:1,2, &c.;
Joel 2:31;
Matthew 16:28;
Revelation 1:7, &c. See what we have said on chapter 12:20; 19:28.
The meaning, therefore, of the words
before us is this: "While they shall falsely say, that Christ is to be
seen here or there: 'Behold, he is in the desert,' one shall say;
another, 'Behold, he is in the secret chambers': he himself shall come,
like lightning, with sudden and altogether unexpected vengeance: they
shall meet him whom they could not find; they shall find him whom they
sought, but quite another than what they looked for."
28. For wheresoever the carcase is,
there will the eagles be gathered together.
[For wheresoever the carcase is,
&c.] I wonder any can understand these words of pious men flying to
Christ, when the discourse here is of quite a different thing: they are
thus connected to the foregoing: Christ shall be revealed with a sudden
vengeance; for when God shall cast off the city and people, grown ripe
for destruction, like a carcase thrown out, the Roman soldiers, like
eagles, shall straight fly to it with their eagles (ensigns) to tear and
devour it. And to this also agrees the answer of Christ,
Luke 17:37; when, after the same words that are spoke here in this
chapter, it was inquired, "Where, Lord?" he answered, "Wheresoever the
body is," &c.; silently hinting thus much, that Jerusalem, and that
wicked nation which he described through the whole chapter, would be the
carcase, to which the greedy and devouring eagles would fly to prey upon
it.
29. Immediately after the
tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall
not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers
of the heavens shall be shaken:
[The sun shall be darkened, &c.]
That is, the Jewish heaven shall perish, and the sun and moon of its
glory and happiness shall be darkened, and brought to nothing. The
sun is the religion of the church; the moon is the government
of the state; and the stars are the judges and doctors of both.
Compare
Isaiah 13:10, and
Ezekiel 32:7,8, &c.
30. And then shall appear the sign
of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth
mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven
with power and great glory.
[And then shall appear the sign of
the Son of man.] Then shall the Son of man give a proof of
himself, whom they would not before acknowledge: as proof, indeed, not
in any visible figure, but in vengeance and judgment so visible, that
all the tribes of the earth shall be forced to acknowledge him the
avenger. The Jews would not know him: now they shall now him, whether
they will or no,
Isaiah 26:11. Many times they asked of him a sign: now a
sign shall appear, that he is the true Messias, whom they despised,
derided, and crucified, namely, his signal vengeance and fury, such as
never any nation felt from the first foundations of the world.
31. And he shall send his angels
with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his
elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
[And he shall send his angels,
&c.] When Jerusalem shall be reduced to ashes, and that wicked nation
cut off and rejected, then shall the Son of man send his ministers with
the trumpet of the gospel, and they shall gather together his elect of
the several nations from the four corners of heaven: so that God shall
not want a church...
34. Verily I say unto you, This
generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.
[This generation shall not pass,
&c.] Hence it appears plain enough, that the foregoing verses are not to
be understood of the last judgment, but, as we said, of the destruction
of Jerusalem. There were some among the disciples (particularly John),
who lived to see these things come to pass. With
Matthew 16:28, compare
John 21:22. And there were some Rabbins alive at the time when
Christ spoke these things, that lived till the city was destroyed, viz.
Rabban Simeon, who perished with the city, R. Jochanan Ben Zaccai, who
outlived it, R. Zadoch, R. Ismael, and others.
36. But of that day and hour knoweth
no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.
[No man knoweth, no, not the angels.]
This is taken from
Deuteronomy 32:34: "Is not this laid up in store with me, and sealed
up among my treasures?"
37. But as the days of Noe were,
so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
[But as the days of Noe were,
&c.] Thus Peter placeth as parallels, the ruin of the old world, and the
ruin of Jerusalem,
1 Peter 3:19-21; and by such a comparison his words will be best
understood. For, see how he skips from the mention of the death of
Christ to the times before the flood, in the eighteenth and nineteenth
verses, passing over all the time between. Did not the Spirit of Christ
preach all along in the times under the law? Why then doth he take an
example only from the times before the flood? that he might fit the
matter to his case, and shew that the present state of the Jews was like
theirs in the times of Noah, and that their ruin should be like also.
So, also, in his Second Epistle, chapter 3:6,7.
The age or generation of the
flood hath no portion in the world to come: thus Peter saith, that
"they were shut up in prison": and here our Saviour intimates that "they
were buried in security," and so were surprised by the flood.
1. Then shall the kingdom of heaven
be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to
meet the bridegroom.
[Ten virgins.] The nation of the
Jews delighted mightily in the number ten, both in sacred and
civil matters: A synagogue consisted not but of ten at the least:
which we have observed before, when we spoke about synagogues. This also
was current among them, An order or ring of men consisted not
but of ten at the least. The text is speaking of a company to
comfort mourners: which the Gloss thus describes, "When the company was
returned from burying a dead body, they set themselves in order about
the mourners, and comforted them: but now such an order or ring
consisted of ten at the least." To this commonly received number there
seems to be an alluding in this place: not but that they very frequently
exceeded that number of virgins in weddings of greater note, but rarely
came short of it.
[To meet the bridegroom.] To go
to a wedding was reckoned among the works of mercy.
"The shewing of mercy implies
two things: 1. That one should assist an Israelite with one's wealth,
namely, by alms and redeeming of captives. 2. That one should assist him
in one's own person; to wit, by comforting the mourners, by attending
the dead to burial, and by being present at the chambers of
bridegrooms." The presence of virgins also adorned the pomp and
festivity of the thing. Marriages are called by the Rabbins
receivings, &c. The introducing of the bride, namely, into
the house of her husband. There were no marriages but of such as had
been before betrothed; and, after the betrothing, the bridegroom might
not lie with the bride in his father-in-law's house before he had
brought her to his own. That 'bringing' of her was the consummation of
the marriage. This parable supposeth that the bride was thus fetched to
the house of her husband, and that the virgins were ready against her
coming; who yet, being either fetched a great way, or some accident
happening to delay her, did not come till midnight.
[Took lamps.] The form of
lamps is described by Rambam and R. Solomon, whom see. These things
are also mentioned by R. Solomon: "It is the fashion in the country of
the Ismaelites to carry the bride from the house of her father to the
house of the bridegroom before she is put to bed; and to carry before
her about ten wooden staves, having each of them on the top a vessel
like a dish, in which there is a piece of cloth with oil and pitch:
these, being lighted, they carry before her for torches."
2. And five of them were wise, and
five were foolish.
[Five wise; Five foolish.] A
parable, not unlike this, is produced by Kimchi: "Rabban Jochanan Ben
Zaccai saith (as he hath it), This thing is like a king, who invited his
servants, but did not appoint them any set time. Those of them that
were wise adorned themselves, and sat at the gate of the palace;
those that were foolish were about their own business. The king on a
sudden called for his servants: those went in adorned; these, undressed.
The king was pleased with the wise, and angry at the foolish."
5. While the bridegroom tarried,
they all slumbered and slept.
[They all slumbered and slept.]
"If some sleep" [while they celebrate the paschal supper], "let them
eat; if all, let them not eat. R. Josi saith, Do they slumber? let
them eat. Do they sleep? let them not eat." The Gemarists inquire, "Whence
a man is to be reputed as a slumberer? R. Ishi saith, He sleeps and
doth not sleep, he wakes and is not awake. If you call him, he answers;
but he cannot answer to the purpose." The Gloss, "If you speak to
him, he will answer yes, or no; but if you ask any thing that
hath need of thinking; as, for instance, where such a vessel is laid up?
he cannot answer you."
15. And unto one he gave five
talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to
his several ability; and straightway took his journey.
[And unto one he gave five talents,
&c.] You have a like and almost the same parable,
Luke 19; yet, indeed, not the very same; for, besides that there is
mention there of pounds being given, here of talents,--that
parable was spoken by Christ, going up from Jericho to Jerusalem, before
the raising up of Lazarus; this, as he was sitting on Mount
Olivet, three days before the Passover. That, upon this account,
"because he was nigh to Jerusalem, and because they thought that the
kingdom of God should immediately appear,"
Luke 19:11, and that he might shew that it would not be long before
Jerusalem should be called to an account for all the privileges and
benefits conferred upon it by God (see verses the fourteenth and
seventeenth); but this, that he might warn all to be watchful,
and provide with their utmost care concerning giving up their accounts
at the last judgment.
27. Thou oughtest therefore to have
put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should
have received mine own with usury.
[Thou oughtest therefore to have put
my money to the exchangers, &c.] The lord did not deliver the
talents to his servants with that intent, that they should receive the
increase and profit of them by usury; but that, by merchandise and some
honest way of trade, they should increase them. He only returns this
answer to the slothful servant, as fitted to what he had alleged; "You
take me for a covetous, griping, and sordid man: why then did you not
make use of a manner of gain agreeable to these qualities, namely,
interest or usury (since you would not apply yourself to any honest
traffic), that you might have returned me some increase of my money,
rather than nothing at all?" So that our Lord, in these words, doth not
so much approve of usury, as upbraid the folly and sloth of his servant.
Exchangers, answering to the
word trapezita very usual among the Talmudists: "An exchanger
(trapezita) sells money; and because a table is
always before him, upon which he buys and sells, therefore he is called
mensarius," one that stands at a table.
Of the same employment was the
shopkeeper of whom is as frequent mention among them. He exercised
the employment of a usurer in buying and changing of fruits, as the
other in money: for in these two especially consisted usury: of which
you may see, if you please, the tract Bava Mezia.
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