fruits) understand, of the householder, or rather, of the vine yard.
35. "E<§£/pav, they beat) The LXX. generally put sxdp'tu, to skin off, only once d'tpca, to skin, for the Hebrew D£>3 in the sense of to flay. They never use the verb otherwise. The Old Vocabu lary renders the Latin " excorio" (to skin) by the Greek, &xud';pu. But dalpoj signifies to beat in Arrian, B. iii., and Epictetus, ch. xix. and xxii. Whence Suidas and Favorinus draw a clear distinction between the two verbs, depu and dalpu. Hesychius also renders faipavrss by ixdtlpavrsg, and 'idsipav by s^idupav, which he further explains by s^^p^dr^eav, they flayed. Old glosses, however, render B'ep u by TVVTU, to beat : and Aristophanes, in the Wasps (ed. Dindorf, 485), says, *H fedoxrai /uoi dzps&ai xai dtpsiv di rt/j,'tpa$, " I have indeed determined to be beaten, and to beat all the day long," — where the Scholiast says, " B'tpz&ai and d'epsiv" are for rucmaSa/ (to be beaten). In fact, the verbs, jcspaXa/ow (to capitate), rp*j£i}X/£* (to jugulate), yaarpify (to stomachize), and thus also dipu (to skin or hide), have a wide signification, imply ing the infliction of injury on the head, throat, stomach, or skin respectively, either by removing them altogether, or else by striking them. The desire to avoid ambiguity induced the later Greeks to write either dipu or baipu, and thence, in this passage, itjifmv.1
"~Edeipa.v — a^sxreivav — iX/So/SoX^trai/, beat — slew — stoned) An as cending climax, in which the third degree is an atrocious species of the second ; cf. Mark xii. 3, 4, and Luke xx. 10, 11, 12, where a greater number of intermediate degrees occurs.
36.2 UXziovac, more) sc. superior (potiores), like the Hebrew D'Oi (great or numerous} : superior, certainly in number, and without doubt also in virtue, dignity, etc. The increase of calling3 is no sign of a more faithful people.
inasmuch as these take it ill that they should be disturbed in their quiet holding of the vineyard. — V. g.
1 So the uncial Cod. U, etc. — ED.
2 -TTcthiv dTfiffrei^ev «XAot^) We may regard the servants /rsZ sent as mean ing the Prophets of the middle period, which is called that of the Kings ; the servants subsequently sent, as meaning those who flourished about the time of the Captivity in Babylon. — V. g.
3 i.e. An increase in the number of those who are sent to call men to repentance. — (I. B.)