THE ASCENT: FROM THE RIVER JORDAN TO THE MOUNT OF TRANSFIGURATION __________________________________________________________________
[2730] St. Luke viii. 1-3; St. Matt. ix. 35.
[2731] Out of whom went seven devils.' Those who are curious to see one attempt at finding a rational' basis for some of the Talmudical legends about Mary Magdalene and others connected with the history of Christ, may consult the essay of Rösch in the Studien and Kritiken for 1873, pp. 77-115 (Die Jesus-Mythen d. Judenth.)
[2732] The suggestion that the word meant curler of hair,' which is made by Lightfoot, and repeated by his modern followers, depends on entire misapprehension.
[2733] In Baba Mets. 25 a, middle, R. Isaac the Magdalene is introduced in a highly characteristic discussion about coins that are found. His remark about three coins laid on each other like a tower might, if it had not been connected with such a grave discussion, have almost seemed a pun on Magdala.
[2734] Jer. Erub. 22 d, end.
[2735] Ber. R. 79.
[2736] Jer. Taan. 69 a, line 15 from bottom.
[2737] Thus in regard to another village (not mentioned either by Relandus or Neubauer) in the Midr. on Lament. ii. 2, ed. Warsh. p. 67 b, line 13 from bottom.
[2738] Midr. on Lament. ii. 2.
[2739] Jer. Taan. 69 a.
[2740] Jer. Taan. u.s.; Midr. on Lament. ii. 2, ed. Warsh. p. 67 b middle.
[2741] Midr. on Eccl. x. 8, ed. Warsh p. 102 b.
[2742] This Synagogue is introduced in the almost blasphemous account of the miracles of Simon ben Jochai, when he declared Tiberias free from the defilement of dead bodies, buried there.
[2743] This has been well shown by Neubauer, Géogr. de la Palestine, pp. 217, 218.
[2744] Jewish War iii. 10.
[2745] Baedeker's Palastina, pp. 268, 269.
[2746] It is at any rate remarkable that the Talmud (Megill. 6 a) finds in the ancient territory of Zebulun the Chilzon ({hebrew}) so largely used in dyeing purple and scarlet, and so very precious. Spurious dyes of the same colour were also produced (comp. Lewysohn, Zool. d. Talm. pp. 281-283).
[2747] St. Matt. xxvii. 56.
[2748] ver. 61.
[2749] St. Luke xxiii. 55.
[2750] ver. 56.
[2751] St. Luke xxiv. 10.
[2752] Seb. 62 b.
[2753] Curiously enough, the Greek term x ptropos x (steward) has passed into the Rabbinic Aphiterophos.
[2754] St. John iv. 46-54.
[2755] Delitzsch (Zeitsch. für Luther Theol. for 1876, p. 598), seems to regard Kuzith ({hebrew}) as the Jewish equivalent of Chuza. The word is mentioned in the Aruch (ed. Landau, p. 801 b, where the references, however, are misquoted) as occurring in Ber. R. 23 and 51. No existing copy of the Midrash has these references, which seem to have been purposely omitted. It is curious that both occur in connection with Messianic passages. In any case, however, Kuzith was not a proper name, but some mystic designation. Lightfoot (Horæ Hebr. on Luke viii. 3) reads in the genealogy of Haman (in Sopher. xiii. 6) Bar Kuza. But it is really Bar Biza, son of contempt' - all the names being intended as defamatory of Haman. Similarly, Lightfoot asserts that the designation does not occur in the genealogy of Haman in the Targum Esther. But in the Second Targum Esther (Miqraoth Gedol. Part vi. p. 5 a) the name does occur in the genealogy as Bar Buzah.'
[2756] Yebam. 70 a.
[2757] Dr. Neubauer (Studia Bibl. p. 225) regards Chuza as an Idumæan name, connected with the Edomite god Kos.
[2758] St. Matt. ix. 27-31.
[2759] St. Matt. ix. 34.
[2760] St. Mark iii. 23-30.
[2761] I regard St. Mark iii. 23-30 as combining the event in St. Matt. ix. (see St. Mark iii. 23) with what is recorded in St. Matt. xii. and St. Luke xi., and I account for this combination by the circumstance that the latter is not related by St. Mark.