belief, viz., that within four and twenty hours it reduces the bodies of the dead to dust, which virtue, even when carried into other regions, it still preserves ; for when, by command of the Empress Helena, as much earth, they say, as 270 vessels could hold, was taken from this field to Rome, and unloaded close by the Vatican Mount, on to that which the inhabitants call CAMPO SANTO, although it has changed its country, yet daily expe rience shows that it retains its power : for, rejecting Romans, it admits to sepulture only the bodies of strangers, the whole sub stance of whose flesh it here also entirely consumes within four and twenty hours, leaving only the bones." This statement is partly confirmed, partly denied, by recent travellers.
9. ToD irpocprirn, x.r.X., the prophet, etc.) These words are clearly found in Zechariah, whose writings were well known to St Matthew ; see ch. xxi. 4, 5 ; cf. App. Grit.1 p. 493 (Ed. ii. pp. 141, 142). — Kai fXafiov, x.r.X., and they took, etc.) In Zech. xi. 12, 13, the LXX. have x.ai tpu vpb$ avToiig, *' xaXoy SVUKIOV eSTi, dors Grqaavrig2 rov 'AiffQov H,QV, ?j avfl-TraffSt' xa/ effrr,ffav rtiv (j,ov rpiaxovra, apyvpoZg, xai s7-rrt Kvpios xpog ftf xdtisg avToi/g e!$ ri •fcuvfj-TTipiov, xa/ sx's-^o'Acti a'jTo, ti boKipov sanv, ov rpovov i8o%.ifj,a.ffi)rlv i/Tsp aurSJv- zai ='Xa/3oi> roug rptaxobra, apyvpovsj Kai svs[3aXov a'jToix; 11$ olxw Kvptov £/j rb xMvtvrqpiov — And I will say unto them, if it is good in your sight, weigh and give me my price, or else refuse it; and they weighed my price, thirty silver pieces. And the Lord said unto me, Cast them into the melting furnace, and I unll assay it
1 E. M. has 'Iipeptov.
Beng. shows, in his Apparatus, Ed. ii., p. 141. 142, 493, that the word ' Isosftt'ov is a gloss, and that many modern writers wish to expunge it.— Not. Grit.
But the oldest authorities are against the omission. B reads ' Isptftt'ov. A and C corrected, ' Ivpifttov. Hil. 747, Vulg. and c, and MSS. quoted in Origen, Euseb., and Jerome, read Jeremiah. It is only the later Syr. in the margin, and other recent authorities, read Ztx.^a.piov. ab, however, sup port the omission of Jeremiah or Zechariah, as Beng. would read. Comp. Jer. xviii. 2. The quotation is not literatim from Zech. : Jerem. xviii. 1, 2, and xxxii. 6-12, may have also been in the mind of Matthew. This may account for the presence of the name 'lepipiov. Lightfoot thinks that the 3d division of Scripture, the Prophets, began with Jeremiah ; and that the whole body of the prophets is thus quoted by the name Jeremiah, he refers to B. Bathra and D. Kimchi. — ED.
2 The Vatican MS. omits the word vTyoat'JTeg. — (I. B.)