[2700] Ab. iv.16.
[2701] The Teraqlin was sometimes entered by an antechamber (Prosedor), Ab. iv. 16, and opened into one (Jer. Rosh haSh. 59 b), or more (Yom. 15 b), side-or bed-rooms. The common measurement for such a hall was fifteen feet (ten cubits) breadth, length, and height (Baba B. vi. 4).
[2702] The strangeness of the circumstance suggests this, which is, alas! by no means inconsistent with what we know of the morality of some of these Rabbis, although this page must not be stained by detailed references.
[2703] The other and harsher reading, a woman which was in the city a sinner,' need scarcely be discussed.
[2704] I have so translated the word mron, which the A.V. renders ointment.' The word is evidently the Hebrew and Rabbinic {hebrew} which, however, is not always the equivalent for myrrh, but seems also to mean musk and mastic. In short, I regard it as designating any fluid unguent or - generally speaking, perfume.' So common was the use of perfumes, that Ber. vi. 6 mentions a mugmar, or a kind of incense, which was commonly burnt after a feast. As regards the word alabastron,' the name was given to perfume-phials in general, even if not made of alabaster, because the latter was so frequently used for such flasks.
[2705] Shebh. vii. 6.
[2706] Jer. Demai 22 b.
[2707] Ab. S. 35 b.
[2708] Shabb. vi. 3.
[2709] The derivation of the Rabbinic term in Buxtorf's Lexicon (p. 1724) is certainly incorrect. I have no doubt the {hebrew} was the foliatum of Pliny (Hist. Nat. xiii. 1, 2). In Jew. War iv. 9, 10, Josephus seems to imply that women occasionally poured over themselves unguents. According to Kethub. vi. 4, a woman might apparently spend a tenth of her dowry on such things as unguents and perfumes. For, in Kethub. 66 b we have an exaggerated account of a woman spending upwards of 300l. on perfumes! This will at any rate prove their common and abundant use.
[2710] This is the real meaning of the verb.
[2711] This is implied in the tense.
[2712] It is certainly not implied, that she had her hair dishevelled as in mourning, or as by women before drinking the waters of jealousy.
[2713] The tense implies this.
[2714] ver. 39.
[2715] ver. 43.
[2716] In the A. V.
[2717] The Talmud, with its usual exaggeration, has this story when commenting on the reverence due by children to their parents, that R. Ishmael's mother had complained her son would not allow her, when he came from the Academy, to wash his feet and then drink the water - on which the sages made the Rabbi yield! (Jer. Peah 15 c). Again, some one came to kiss R. Jonathan's feet, because he had induced filial reverence in his son (u. s., col. d).
[2718] The one sum="upwards" of 15l.; the other=upwards of 1l. 10s.
[2719] Money-lender - though perhaps not in the evil sense which we attach to the term. At the same time, the frequent allusion to such and to their harsh ways offers painful illustration of the social state at the time.
[2720] So rather than frankly' in the A. V.
[2721] The points of resemblance and of difference with St. Matt. xviii. 23 will readily appear on comparison.
[2722] Comp. for ex. St. John xiii. 4.
[2723] Washing: Gen. xviii. 4; xix. 2; xxiv. 32; Judg. xix. 21; 1 Sam. xxv. 41; kissing: Ex. xviii. 7; 2 Sam. xv. 5; xix. 39; anointing: Eccl. ix. 8; Amos vi. 6, as well as Ps. xxiii. 5.
[2724] Thou gavest me no water, she washed not with water but tears; no kiss, she kissed my feet; no oil, she unguent; not to the head, but to the feet. And yet: emphatically - into thy house I came, &c.
[2725] So literally.
[2726] Mark the tense.
[2727] So, properly rendered. Romanism, in this also arrogating to man more than Christ Himself ever spoke, has it: Absolvo te, not thy sins have been forgiven,' but I absolve thee!