the preparative civilities of suppers; at this 'tis conceived. the sop was given unto Judas, the original word implying some broth or decoction, not used at the passover. The third or latter part was eucharistical, which began at the breaking and blessing of the bread, according to that of Matthew," And as they were eating, Jesus took bread and blessed it."

Now although, at the passover or first supper, many have doubted this reclining posture, and some have affirmed that our Saviour stood, yet that he lay down at the other, the same men have acknowledged, as Chrysostom,* Theophylact, Austin, and many more. And if the tradition will hold, the position is unquestionable; for the very triclinium is to be seen at Rome, brought thither by Vespasian, and graphi phically set forth by Casalius.3

Thus may it properly be made out, what is delivered, John xiii.; Erat recumbens unus ex discipulis ejus in sinu Jesu quem diligebat; "Now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom one of his disciples whom Jesus loved;" which gesture will not so well agree unto the position of sitting, but is natural, and cannot be avoided in the laws of accubation.4 And the

*De Veterum Ritibus.

3 Lastly, if it be not, &c.] This and the next paragraph were first added in the 2nd edition.

✦ which gesture, &c.] I am not aware whether our author had any authority for saying that "the back was advanced by some pillow or soft substance." If it was so, John could not very conveniently have leaned back upon the bosom of his master. It seems probable that each person lay at an acute angle with the line of the table (as seems implied in the following quotation), in which case the head of John, as our author observes, p. 19, would have attained to about his master's bosom. It must also (as it seems to me) be supposed that the table was scarcely, if at all, higher than the level of the couch. I subjoin Godwin's description of the table, &c. "The table being placed in the middest, round about the table were certain beds, sometimes two, sometimes three, sometimes more, according to the number of the guests; upon these they lay down in manner as followeth each bed contained three persons, sometimes more, seldom or never more (qu. fewer?) If one lay upon the bed, then he rested the upper part of his body upon the left elbow, the lower part lying at length upon the bed: but if many lay on the bed, then the uppermost did lie at the bed's head, laying his feet behinde the second's back in like manner the third or fourth did lye, each resting his head in the other's bosome. Thus John leaned on Jesus' bosom."-Moses and Aaron, p. 93, 4to. 1667.

5

very same expression is to be found in Pliny, concerning the emperor Nerva and Veiento whom he favoured; Conabat Nerva cum paucis, Veiento recumbebat propius atque etiam in sinu; and from this custom arose the word iπiorý¤ios, that is, a near and bosom friend. And therefore Casaubon* justly rejecteth Theophylact; who not considering the ancient manner of decumbency, imputed this gesture of the beloved disciple unto rusticity, or an act of incivility. And thus also, have some conceived it may be more plainly made out what is delivered of Mary Magdalen, that she "stood at Christ's feet behind him weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head."+ Which actions, if our Saviour sat, she could not perform standing, and had rather stood behind his back than at his feet. And therefore it is not allowable, what is observable in many pieces, and even of Raphael Urbin, wherein Mary Magdalen is pictured before our Saviour washing his feet on her knees, which will not consist with the strict description and letter of the text.

Now, whereas this position may seem to be discountenanced by our translation, which usually renders it sitting, it cannot have that illation: for the French and Italian translations, expressing neither position of session nor recubation, do only say that he placed himself at the table; and when ours expresseth the same by sitting, it is in relation unto our custom, time, and apprehension. The like upon occasion is not unusual: so when it is said, Luke iv., Túžas rò ßi¤λior, and the Vulgate renders it, cum plicâsset librum, ours translateth it, he shut or closed the book; which is an expression proper unto the paginal books of our times, but not so agreeable unto volumes or rolling books, in use among the. Jews, not only in elder times, but even unto this day. So when it is said, the Samaritan delivered unto the host twopence

5 Theophylact.] Theophylact, bishop of Bulgary, lived 930th yeare of Christe, in which time the empire being translated into Germanye, and the maner of lying at all meales translated into the maner of sitting, which was most used among the northern nations, gave the bishop occasion to taxe the Jewish and Roman forme of lying as uncouth and uncivil: every nation preferring their owne customes, and condemning all other as barbarians.-W.

for the provision of the Levite, and when our Saviour agreed with the labourers for a penny a day, in strict translation it should be seven-pence halfpenny, and is not to be conceived our common penny, the sixtieth part of an ounce. For the word in the original is envápiov, in Latin denarius, and with the Romans did value the eighth part of an ounce, which, after five shillings the ounce, amounteth unto seven-pence halfpenny of our money.

Lastly, whereas it might be conceived that they ate the passover, standing rather than sitting, or lying down, according to the institution, Exodus xii., "Thus shall you eat with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand;" the Jews themselves reply, this was not required of succeeding generations, and was not observed but in the passover of Egypt. And so also many other injunctions were afterward omitted: as the taking up of the paschal lamb from the tenth day, the eating of it in their houses dispersed, the striking of the blood on the door-posts, and the eating thereof in haste; solemnities and ceremonies primitively enjoined, afterward omitted; as was also this of station: for the occasion ceasing, and being in security, they applied themselves unto gestures in use among them.

Now in what order of recumbency Christ and the disciples. were disposed, is not so easily determined. Casalius, from the Lateran triclinium, will tell us, that there being thirteen, five lay down in the first bed, five in the last, and three in the middle bed; and that our Saviour possessed the upper place thereof. That John lay in the same bed seems plain, because he leaned on our Saviour's bosom. That Peter made the third in that bed, conjecture is made, because he beckoned unto John, as being next him, to ask of Christ who it was that should betray him? That Judas was not far off, seems probable, not only because he dipped in the same dish, but because he was so near that our Saviour could hand the sop unto him.6

• Now in what order, &c.] This paragraph was added in 2nd edit.

CHAPTER VII.

Of the Picture of our Saviour with Long Hair.

ANOTHER picture there is of our Saviour described with long hair, according to the custom of the Jews, and his description sent by Lentulus unto the senate.8 Wherein

7 Another picture, &c.] A very beautiful head of our Saviour has recently been engraved in mezzotint, by J. Rogers. It is a copy from a gem, said to have been executed by order of Tiberius Cæsar, and subsequently sent to Pope Innocent VIII. by the emperor of the Turks as a ransom for his brother.

Another error has been noticed by some commentators in representing our Lord with a crown of long thorns, whereas it is supposed to have been made of the acanthus, or bears-foot, a prickly plant, very unlike a thorn. See Dr. Adam Clarke, in loc.

This was

8 his description sent by Lentulus, &c.] Or rather said to have been sent by Lentulus, &c.; for this letter is now known to have been a forgery. The supposed author was a Roman governor of Syria; of whom it was pretended that he was a follower of our Lord, and that he gave a description of his person in a letter to the senate. however obviously insupposable at a period when the governors of provinces addressed the emperor, and no longer the senate; to say nothing of the style, which is by no means Augustan. The fact is, as has been remarked to me, that when publick opinion had been made up as to the probable appearance of our Lord's person, this letter comes out to settle the point. In No. 7026-4 of the Harleian MSS. is preserved a copy of this letter, on vellum, in the beautiful handwriting of the celebrated German dwarf Math. Buchinger, which he sent to his patron, Lord Oxford. It contains also a portrait agreeing with the description given in the letter. This letter has been translated into English, and occurs, Christ. Mag. 1764, p. 455, and other places.

Perhaps the most celebrated of the reputed original portraits of the Redeemer is that said to have been received by Abgarus, king of Edessa, mentioned by Evagrius. Eusebius gives a letter sent by the said Abgar to Jesus Christ, professing the conviction which the Redeemer's miracles had wrought in his mind of the divine character of our Lord, and entreating him to come to Edessa and cure a disease under which the king had long laboured;-together with our Lord's answer, declining to come, but promising to send a disciple to heal the king. For these letters see Hone's Apocryphal New Testament. In his Every-Day Book, Jan. 13th, he gives a wood-cut of the portrait. In the London Literary Gazette of Nov. 29, 1834, is a much better account of the circumstance, in a review of Baron Hubboff's History of Armenia, published by the Oriental Translation Society. I subjoin his account of the picture. Abgar sent a painter to take the likeness of the Saviour,

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indeed the hand of the painter is not accusable, but the judg ment of the common spectator: conceiving he observed this fashion of his hair, because he was a Nazarite; and confounding a Nazarite by vow, with those by birth or education.

son.

The Nazarite by vow is declared, Numbers vi. ; and was to refrain three things, drinking of wine, cutting the hair, and approaching unto the dead; and such an one was SampNow that our Saviour was a Nazarite after this kind, we have no reason to determine; for he drank wine, and was therefore called by the Pharisees a wine-bibber; he approached also the dead, as when he raised from death Lazarus, and the daughter of Jairus.

The other Nazarite was a topical appellation, and appliable unto such as were born in Nazareth, a city of Galilee, and in the tribe of Napthali. Neither, if strictly taken, was our Saviour in this sense a Nazarite, for he was born in Bethlehem in the tribe of Judah; but might receive that name because he abode in that city, and was not only conceived therein, but there also passed the silent part of his life after his return from Egypt; as is delivered by Matthew, "And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, he shall be called a Nazarene." Both which kinds of Nazarites, as they are distinguishable by Zain, and Tsade in the Hebrew, so in the Greek, by Alpha and Omega: for, as Jansenius observeth, where the votary Nazarite is mentioned, it is written, Nakapatos, as Levit. vi. and Lament. iv.

*

* Jans. Concordia Evangelica.

Where it

if he would not vouchsafe to visit Edessa. The painter made many vain attempts to draw a correct likeness of our Saviour. But Jesus, being willing to satisfy the desire of King Abgar, took a clean handkerchief and applied it to his countenance. In that same hour, by a miraculous power, his features and likeness were represented on the handkerchief." The picture thus miraculously produced, is said to have been the means of delivering the city from the siege laid to it by Chosroes, the Persian, 500 years afterwards. Thaddeus went to Edessa after Christ's ascension and healed Abgar.

See also Mr. W. Huttman's Life of Christ, where will be found a copious account of the portrait of Jesus Christ, published in prints, coins, &c. Mr. Huttman spells the name of the king of Edessa, Agbar.