Bees, wild and hived, are very common in Pales- tine. Tristram {Nat._ Hist. j). 325) says: 'Many of the Bedouin obtain their subsistence by bee- hunting, bringing into Jerusalem skins and jars of the wild honey on which John the Baptist fed.' Bee-keeping is much practised, especially in Galilee. The hives are very simple in construction ; being ' large tubes of sun-dried mud, about 8 inches in diameter and 4 feet long, closed with mud at each end, having only a small aperture in the centre.'
The gnat (/ccii-uf ) is mentioned in Mt 23^''. As one of the smallest animals, it is contrasted with the camel, one of the largest. The Pharisees strain out a gnat with scrupulous care, while they will swallow a camel. They are careful to tithe' mint, but they fail to do justice. The Pharisees may have adopted a practice which is still in use among the Brahmans, viz. of drinking through muslin in order to avoid swallowing any fly or insect present in the water.
Locusts (d^piofs) formed part of the food of John the Baptist (Mt 3^ Mk 1«). The LXX uses 6.KpU for the third of the four kinds of edible locusts mentioned in Lv 11--. They formed a common article of diet in Palestine, and there is no need to alter the text, as one or two MSS have done, veaA- ing e'YKptoes, 'cakes.'
The moth (o-tjs) is mentioned as disfiguring earthly treasures (Mtei"--", Lk 12'^). Thecommon clothes- moth is meant, of which there are many species in Palestine. ' In this warm climate it is almost im- possible to guard against their ravages' (Post). There is an indirect reference to the saying of Jesus in Ja 5^.
8. A sponge (0-^67705) full of vinegar was offered to our Lord on the cross (Mt27-'*). lOf siwn^es, the finest in texture and the most valued is the Turkish or Levant sponge. The sponge-fisheries of the Mediterranean have always been and still are very considerable. For the method of diving for si>onges see Post in Hastings' DB iv. 612''.
iii. The place of animals in the life of our Lord.— In this connexion it may be worth while to point out that the part played by animals in many of the incidents in which their presence is recorded, serves to emphasize tlie humility of Jesus. The two youn^ pigeons which Mary brings as an offering when she presents Jesus in the Temple (Lk 2=<), are a mark of her poverty. Jesus belonged to a poor family. The peaceful character of Christ's teaching, which is marked at the outset by the descent of the dove at His baptism, is confirmed at the close by the fact that He rode into Jerusalem (Mt 21--'|:) not on the warrior's horse, but on the ass, which, as prophecy foretold, was to be a sign of the lowliness of the coming Messiali.
iv. The place of animals in the teaching of
OUR Lord. — We have reserved for discussion under this head the imagery drawn from pastoral life in which Jesus described His own mission, and the doctrine of providence unfolded more especially in His sayings about the birds of the air.
1. Our Lord's mission illust rated. ~{a) Jesus con- fined His earthly ministry to ' the lost sheep of the house of Israer (Mt 15-^). When He sent forth the Twelve on a preaching tour. He bade them observe the -same limits (Mt 10"). We need not suppose from this phrase that the work of Jesus embraced only the outcasts of Israel. 'The lost sheep of the house of Israel ' describes the nation us a whole [grammatically the words ' of the house of Israel' {oIkov 'I.) are best taken as a defining genitive, i.e. ' the lost sheep who are the house of Israel']. The very sight of a Galilsean crowd touched the heart of Jesus, for they were like worried and scattered sheep that have no shepherd (Mt f\ Mk 6^''). In the eyes of Jesus, the spiritual condition of His couiilryiucii a^n-i-d with the de- scription of the slie]ilHi',IIr>, |,..(.|,1(> given in Ezk 34. More particularly Hir .l.ws needed guidance in their national and reli-i'uis u^|iirations. They had mistaken alike tlie cliaracter of the coming- Messiah and the nature of the coming kingdom. The hope to re-establish by force the throne of David made the people the helpless victims of political agitators like Judas the Gaulonite (Ac 5^'), and led at length to the chastisement inflicted on the nation by the Koman power.
The exact interpretation of Jn 10 is exceedingly difficult, but it may in part be understood, in rela- tion to this view given in Matthew and Mark, of the nation as a shepherdless flock. Jesus speaks of Himself as the door of the sheep, through which if a man enters, he shall be saved (vv.'- "). The only hope of salvation for the Jews lay in their realizing, through the teaching of Jesus, that God's kingdom was not of this world. Those who offered them- selves as leaders before Christ, and who proposed to subdue Rome by arms, were thieves and robbers who came only to steal and destroy (vv.*- "). The best comment on these thieves and robbers, and their treatment of those heljjless sheep, the house of Israel, is perhaps Josephus' account of the Judas above mentioned —