[1777] Robinson, Sepp, and, if I understand him aright, Lieut. Conder, regard Khan Minyeh (Tent-Work in Palest. vol. ii. pp. 182 &c.) as the site of Capernaum; but most modern writers are agreed in fixing it at Tell Hûm.
[1778] Jewish War iii. 10. 8; Life 72.
[1779] The stories are too foolish, and the insinuations too vile, to be here repeated. The second of the two notices evidently refers to the first. The heretic' Jacob spoken of, is the bete noire of the Rabbis. The implied charges against the Christians remind one of the description, Rev. ii. 20-24.
[1780] Midr. on Eccl. i. 8. and vii 26. ed. Warsh. vol. iii. p. 80 a and 97 a.
[1781] St. Matt. viii. 5, &c.
[1782] The comparison is Canon Tristram's (Land of Israel, p. 427.)
[1783] This is another Rabbinic interpretation of the term Gennesaret.
[1784] St. Mark ii. 15; comp. iii. 20, 31.
[1785] St. Matt. viii. 14.
[1786] St. John vi. 49, 59.
[1787] Comp. especially Warren's Recovery of Jerusalem, pp. 337-351.
[1788] a.d. 27.
[1789] Wieseler and most modern writers place the Baptism of Jesus in the summer of 27 a.d., and, accordingly, the first Passover in spring, 28 a.d. But it seems to me highly improbable, that so long an interval as nine or ten months should have elapsed between John's first preaching and the Baptism of Jesus. Besides, in that case, how are we to account for the eight or nine months between the Baptism and the Passover? So far as I know, the only reason for this strange hypothesis is St. John ii. 20, which will be explained in its proper place.
[1790] 780 a.u.c. or 27 a.d.
[1791] St. John xi. 55.
[1792] Simon Maccabee had copper money coined; the so-called copper shekel, a little more than a penny, and also half and quarter shekels (about a half-penny, and a farthing). His successors coined even smaller copper money. During the whole period from the death of Simon to the last Jewish war no Jewish silver coins issued from the Palestinian mint, but only copper coins. Herzfeld (Handelsgesch. pp. 178, 179) suggests that there was sufficient foreign silver coinage circulating in the country, while naturally only a very small amount of foreign copper coin would be brought to Palestine.
[1793] It is extremely difficult to fix the exact equivalent. Cassel computes it at one-fifth, Herzfeld at one-sixth, Zunz at one-third, and Winer at one-fourth of a denar.
[1794] Comp. Winer's Real-Wörterb. I have taken a low estimate, so as to be well within bounds. All the regulations about the Tribute and Qolbon are enumerated in Sheqal. i. I have not given references for each of the statements advanced, not because they are not to hand in regard to almost every detail, but to avoid needless quotations.
[1795] 54-53 b.c.
[1796] Comp. The Temple and its Services, &c.,' pp. 118, 119.
[1797] Jer. Taan iv. 8.
[1798] M. Derenbourg (Histoire de Palest., p. 467) holds that these shops were kept by priests, or at any rate that the profits went to them. But I cannot agree with him that these were the Chanuyoth, or shops, of the family of Annas, to which the Sanhedrin migrated forty years before the destruction of Jerusalem. See farther on.
[1799] Sanh. 5 b.
[1800] Bekhor. iv. 5.
[1801] It is certain that this Temple-market could not have been on both sides of the Eastern Gate - the gate Shushan - as far as Solomon's Porch' (Dr. Farrar). If it had been on both sides of this gate, it must have been in Solomon's Porch. But this supposition is out of the question. There would have been no room there for a market, and it formed the principal access into the Sanctuary. The Temple-market was undoubtedly somewhere in the Court of the Gentiles.'
[1802] Ker. i. 7.