Swell with the wine.” Sat. v., 180-183.
84 WORD STUDIES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. [Cu. XIV.
Before (év 6 péow.) Rev, in the midst. Wyce., leaped in the middle.
7. He promised (@pyoroynoev.) Lit., confessed; conveying the idea of acknowledging the obligation of his oath. Salome had degraded herself to perform the part of an almeh or com- mon dancer, and could claim her reward.
8. Being before instructed (mpoiBacJeica). Wyc., mo- nested, with warned in explanation. Both wrong. Reyv., rightly, being put forward. Compare Acts xix. 33, where the right meaning is, they pushed Alexander forward out of the crowd; and not as A. V., drew out. The correct rendering slightly relieves Salome of the charge of wanton cruelty, and throws it wholly upon Herodias.
Here (ade). She demanded it on the spot, before Herod should have had time to reflect and relent; the more so, as she knew his respect for John (compare was sorry, ver. 9). The circumstances seem to point to Machaerus itself as the scene of the banquet; so that the deed could be quickly done, and the head of the Baptist delivered while the feast was still in progress.
In a charger (ézi mivaxt). The Revisers cannot be defended in their retention of this thoroughly obsolete word. A charge is originally a burden ; and a charger something loaded. Hence, a dish. Wye., dish. Tynd., platter.
9. The oath’s sake (dia rods dpxous). But the A. V. puts the apostrophe in the wrong place. The word is plural, and the Rev. rightly renders for the sake of his oaths. It is implied that Herod in his mad excitement had confirmed his promise with repeated oaths.
11. To the damsel (76 xopaciw). Diminutive, the Uttle gurl. Luther gives mdgdlein, little maid.
Gm XIV] MATTHEW. 85
13. On foot (wefp). Rev., by land in margin, which is bet- ter; for the contrast is between Jesus’ journey by ship and that of the multitude by land.
15. Desert (€pnpuos). In the Greek order standing first as emphatic. The dominant thought of the disciples is remote- ness from supplies of food. The first meaning of the word is solitary ; from which develops the idea of vod, bereft, barren.
Both meanings may well be included here. Note the two points of emphasis. The disciples say, Barren ts the place. Christ answers, Vo need have they to go away.
Give (807e). The disciples had said, “Send them away éo buy for themselves.” Christ replies, Give ye.
19. Brake. Asthe Jewish loaves were thin cakes, a thumb’s breadth in thickness, and more easily broken than cut.
20. Were filled (eéyoptacIncav). See on Matt. v. 6.
Baskets (xodivous). Wyc., coffins, a transcription of the Greek word. Juvenal, the Roman satirist, describes the grove of Numa, near the Capenian gate of Rome, as being “let out to the Jews, whose furniture is a basket (cophinus) and some hay ” (for a bed), “Sat.” iii, 14. These were small hand-baskets, specially provided for the Jews to carry levitically clean food while travelling in Samaria or other heathen districts. The word for basket used in relating the feeding of the four thou- sand (Matt. xv. 37) is omupés, a large provision-basket or ham- per, of the kind used for letting Paul down over the wall at Damascus (Acts ix. 25). In Matt. xvi. 9,10, Christ, in alluding to the two miracles, observes the distinctive term in each narra- tive; using xodivous in the case of the five thousand, and omupiéas in the other. Burgon (“ Letters from Rome ”) gives a drawing of a wicker basket used by the masons in the cathe- dral at Sorrento, and called céffano. He adds, “ Who can doubt that the basket of the gospel narrative was of the shape here represented, and that the denomination of this basket ex-
86 WORD STUDIES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. [Cu. XV.
clusively has lingered in a Greek colony, where the Jews (who once carried the cophinus as a personal equipment) formerly lived in great numbers?”