Anise—Cummin (dvn9ov—xijuuvov). Rev. renders anise, dill in margin. Used as condiments. The tithe of these plants would be very small; but to exact it would indicate scrupulous conscientiousness. The Talmud tells of the ass of a certain Rabbi which had been so well trained as to refuse corn of which the tithes had not been taken.
Cu. XXIIL] MATTHEW. 125
Faith (riorw). Rather faithfulness, as in Rom. iii. 3, Rev. Gal. v. 22, Rev.
24. Strain at (SwriLovres). Sua, thoroughly or through, and init, to filter or strain. Strain at is an old misprint perpetu- ated. Hence the Rev. correctly, as Tynd., strain out. Insects were ceremonially unclean (Lev. xi. 20, 23, 41, 42), so that the Jews strained their wine in order not to swallow any unclean animal. Moreover, there were certain insects which bred in wine. Aristotle uses the word gnat (k#vwma) of a worm or larva found in the sediment of sour wine. “In a ride from Tangier to Tetuan I observed that a Moorish soldier who ac- companied me, when he drank, always unfolded the end of his turban and placed it over the mouth of his dota, drinking through the muslin to strain out the gnats, whose larves swarm in the water of that country ” (cited by Trench, “ On the Author- ized Version”).
Swallow (xarazivovres). The rendering is feeble. It is drink down (katd); gulp. Note that the camel was also un- clean (Ley. xi. 4).
95. Platter (apowidos). mapa, beside, dor, meat. A side- dish, with the accompanying sense of something dainty ; later, as here, the dish itself as distinguished from its contents.
Excess (axpacias). d, not, Kpatos, power. Hence conduct which shows a want of power over one’s self: ¢ncontinence or intemperance.
27, Whited sepulchres (rddous xexoviapevos). Not the rock-tombs, belonging mostly to the rich, but the graves cov- ered with plastered structures. In general, cemeteries were outside of cities; but any dead body found in the field was to be buried on the spot where it had been discovered. A pilgrim to the Passover, for instance, might easily come upon such a grave in his journey, and contract uncleanness by the contact (Num. xix. 16). It was therefore ordered that all sepulchres
126 WORD STUDIES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. ([Cu. XXIII.
should be whitewashed a month .before Passover, in order to make them conspicuous, so that travellers might avoid ceremo- nial defilement. The fact that this general whitewashing was going on at the time when Jesus administered this rebuke to the Pharisees gave point to the comparison. The word xexo- viapévos (whitened, from xoms, dust) carries the idea of whiten- ing with a powder, as powdered lime.
29. Tombs of the prophets. By this name are called four monuments at the base of the Mount of Olives, in the valley of Jehoshaphat ; called at present the tombs of Zechariah, Absa- lom, Jehoshaphat, and St. James. Two of them are monoliths cut out of the solid rock ; the others are merely excavations, with ornamental portals. “They appear,” says Dr. Thomson, “to be quite extensive, consisting of winding or semicircular galleries, passing under the mountain more than a hundred feet from east to west, and terminating in a rotunda about eighty feet from the entrance. There is no authority for the name which they commonly bear.” Possibly they were in sight of our Lord when he spoke, and were pointed to by him. The refer- ence would be all the more telling, if, as has been conjectured, the Pharisees were engaged in constructing the tombs of Zech- ariah and Absalom at the time that the Lord addressed them, and that the chambered sepulchres of James and Jehoshaphat, lying between those two, were the sepulchres which they were gar- nishing at their entrances.
35. Temple (vaod). Rev., rightly, sanctuary. See on Matt. iv.5. Zechariah was slain between the temple proper and the altar of burnt-offering, in the priests’ court.