Gathered of every kind. Compare the graphic passage in Homer (“ Odyssey,” xxii., 384-389) of the slain suitors in the halls of Ulysses.
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82 WORD STUDIES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. [Cu. XIV.
‘* He saw that all had fallen in blood and dust, Many as fishes on the shelving beach, Drawn from the hoary deep by those who tend The nets with myriad meshes. Poured abroad Upon the sand, while panting to return To the salt sea, they lie till the hot sun Takes their life from them.”
48. Sat down. Implying deliberation in the assortment.
52. Which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven. Instructed padnrevtels. Rev., who hath been made a disciple to the kingdom, etc. The kingdom of heaven is personified. The disciples of Christ are disciples of that kingdom of which he is the representative.
Which (éo7ss). The pronoun marks the householder as be- longing to a class and exhibiting the characteristic of the class: a householder—one of those who bring forth, ete.
Bringeth forth (€«Barre). Lit., flingeth forth. See on xii. 35. Indicating his zeal in communicating instruction and the Sulness out of which he speaks.
1. Tetrarch. A ruler of a fourth part. Archelaus had ob- tained two-fourths of his father’s dominions, and Antipas (this Herod) and Philip each one-fourth.
The fame (axonv). Better as Rev., report. Lit., hearing.
3. Put him in prison (év duran aré9er0). Lit. “put him away or aside” (amd). This prison was the fortress of Machae- rus on the east side of the Dead Sea, almost on a line with Bethlehem, above the gorge which divided the Mountains of Abarim from the range of Pisgah. Perched on an isolated cliff at the end of a narrow ridge, encompassed with deep ra- vines, was the citadel. At the other end of this ridge Herod built a great wall, with towers two hundred feet high at the
Cu. XIV.) MATTHEW. 83
corners; and within this inclosure, a magnificent palace, with colonnades, baths, cisterns, arsenals—every provision, in short, for luxury and for defence against siege. The windows com- imanded a wide and grand prospect, including the Dead Sea, the course of the Jordan, and Jerusalem. In the detached citadel, probably in one of the underground dungeons, remains of which may still be seen, was the prison of John. “ We return through what we regard as the ruins of the magnificent castle-palace of Herod, to the highest and strongest part of the defences—the eastern keep or the citadel, on the steep slope, one hundred and fifty yards up. The foundations of the walls all around, to the height of a yard or two above the ground, are still standing. As we clamber over them to examine the interior, we notice how small this keep is: exactly one hundred yards in diameter. There are scarcely any remains of it left. A well of great depth, and a deep, cemented cistern, with the vaulting of the roof still complete, and—of most terrible interest to us—-two dungeons, one of them deep down, its sides scarcely broken in, ‘with small holes still visible in the masonry where staples of wood and iron had once been fixed!’ As we look down into its hot darkness, we shudder in realizing that this terrible keep had, for nigh ten months, been the prison of that son of the free wilderness, the bold herald of the coming kingdom, the humble, earnest, self-denying John the Baptist” (Edersheim, “ Life and Times of Jesus”).
6. Birthday (yevecios). Though some explain it as the anniversary of Herod’s accession. The custom of celebrating birthdays by festivities was not approved by the strict Jews; but it is claimed that the Herodian princes adopted the custom. The Roman satirist, Persius, alludes to a festival known as “ Herod’s Day,” and pictures a banquet on that occasion.
“But when Comes Herod’s day, and on the steaming panes The ranged lamps, festooned with violets, pour The unctuous cloud, while the broad tunny-tail Sprawled o’er the red dish swims, and snowy jars