ANIMALS,-It cannot be sail i!;:. aniinil. play a vei-y imix)rtant part in tin- 1 aing of
our Lord ; yet the Gospel reii i , , , i ,; wider
range than is usually iinagiTic! I'm r.\ :iii;4elists use no fewer than 40 different Greelc words denot- ing animals, and, apart from such general terms as 'birds of the air,' '>\-ild Ijeasts,' and 'serpents,' they mention at least 20 particular kinds. The references may best be classified under the head- ings 'Domestic' and '^A'ild.'
i. Domestic Animal.s.— 1. The beasts of bunlen in Palestine in the time of our Lord were the ass and the camel. The horse is not mentioned in the (Jospels, its use in the East being restricted to purposes of war. Thus the horse becomes pro- luiueut in the military imagery of the Apocalypse.
ANIMALS
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Josenh^^s(^»^ lii Ac 23=J a 'I
tlie NT therefore clearly some 'beast of burden 'which is not a horse. Probably the Good Samaritan rode on an ass, or possibly on a
The ass is denoted Tiy four oilier words in the Gospels, viz. TriiXos, opdpiop, Svos, and vwol^&yioi'. The animal on which our Lord made His triumplial entry into Jerusalem is described hy all four Evan- gelists as a colt (TTiiXoi, Mt 2P- ^- ', Mk 11-- ■■■ ^- ', Lk 1930.33.35^ Jn 12'^). The word is not used else- where in the Gospels, and in John it occurs only in the quotation from Zechariah. St. John de- scribes the colt as dvapiov, a young ass. St. Matthew introduces the she-ass, the mother of the colt, into the story. In the Matthcean form of the quota- tion from Zechariah (Mt 2P) the mother ass is further described as a draught beast {inrol'Oyioy).
The meaning of this fulfilment of prophecy is well brought out by Chrj-sostom. Jesus entered Jerusalem riding on an ass, ' not driving chariots like the rest of the kings, not demanding
The triumphal entry into Jerusalem is the only incident in the life of our Lord in which an ass is concerned ; but in His teaching, as reported by St. Luke, there are two other references. The synagogue-ruler, who forbade people to come to be healed on the Sabbath, received the rebuke, ' Hypocrites, does not each one of you loose his ox or his ass {t&v Sfov) from the stall on the Sabbath and lead him away to watering?' (Lk 13^'). On another occasion, with reference to the same ques- tion of Sabbath healing, our Lord asked, ' Which of you shall have an as.s or an ox fallen into a well, and will not straightway draw him up on a Sab- bath day ' (Lk 14=).
Tlie text of the latter passage is uncertain, the evidence of N and B being divided. E reads w'oV, adopted by Westcott and Hort ; while K reads o»ot, retained by the Revisers. Possibly neither ii tbf <T.ir.i t lc\t ; but if we follow the Revisers, we
imply tl
ith the ox, as if I
'The
1 ) <lomestic anmiala with whichan 1 i i lii' ii i- ii.il li | i i I. a (O. Holtzmann).
The ass oocupips a nine h inoro important place in the farm life of the East than his neglected de- scendant occupies in England to-day. The liner breeds are regularly used for riding, while the commoner breeds draw the plough and carry bur- dens. ' The ass is still the most universal of all beasts of burden in Bible lands ' ( Post, in Hastings' DB).
The camel (vcimi/Xos) figures in two sayings of our Lord \\ hicli have a proverbial ring, ("fhomson notes that the camel is still the subject of many Arabian proverbs). The three Synoptics record the saying, ' It is easier for a camel to pass through a needle's eye than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God ' (Mt l'J■-^ Mk 10=^ Lk If "). There is no need to stumble at the hyperbole involved in ' a needle's eye,' nor is it necessary to explain the phrase as a reference to a particularly small gate (see art. ' Camel ' in Hastings' DB). Tlie second reference is found in the denunciation of the Pharisees, who strain out a gnat while they gulp down a camel (Mt 23^). A camel-caravan would be one of the sights of our Lord's boyhood, and the awkwardness of meeting a camel in the narrow street, which modern travellers experience, was not unkni.wn iiineteen hundred y<'ars ago. The camel must liave been the largest animal with which our Lord was familiar, and in both sayings it is mentioned for its size.
The only other reference to the camel occurs in the description of the dress of John the Baptist,
. of Elijah, was of camel':
2. Of larger cattle* oxen, bulls, and calves find a place in the Go.spels.
The ox ()3oOs) is nientioni'd tlneo times in Luke, twice in connej;ion wilii iIm- ;i-^ in ih.- |i;issages previously cited (Lk i:;'' I i i, .umI ■,,_:.n\i in the parable of the Great ,Su|,],ri, «|i,ii \,nv uf the invited guests excuses liiui.self on the ground that he has bought five yoke of oxen whicli need to be tested (Lk 14'"). The ox was emploj'ed in the East for ploughing anil thresliing ; it was also used for sacrihce, as appears from the only other pas- sage in the Gospels where oxen are mentioned, viz. St. John's account of the cleansing of the Temple court. Sheep and oxen (Jn 2"'-) were driven out along with their vendors.