[432] Gen. 8 : 20.
[433] Exod. 24 : 5, 6; 29 : 15-25; Lev. 1 : 1-6, 10-12, 14, 15; 8 : 18, 19, etc. See also pages 102, 106-109, supra.
[434] See Speaker’s Commentary, in loco.
[435] Gen. 9 : 3-6.
[436] “A man might not use another’s life for the support of his physical life” (Westcott’s Epistles of St. John, p. 34).
[437] See Acts 15 : 2-29; also 21 : 18-25.
[438] Those, indeed, who would put the dictum of the Church of Rome above the explicit commands of the Bible, can claim that that Church has affirmed the mere temporary nature of this obligation, which the Bible makes perpetual. But apart from this, there seems to be no show of justification for the abrogation, or the suspension, of the command.
[439] James 2 : 23.
[440] Isaiah 41 : 8.
[441] 2 Chron. 20 : 7.
[442] The only instance in which it might seem that there was an exception to this statement, is Exodus 33 : 11, where it is said, “The Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend.” But here the Hebrew word is re’a (רֵעַ) with the idea of “a companion,” or “a neighbor”; while the word applied to Abraham is ohebh (אֹהֵב), “a loving one.”
[444] Gen. 17 : 2.
[445] Gen. 17 : 7-9.
[446] Gen. 17 : 10, 11.
[448] Gen. 17 : 13.
[449] Bearing in the flesh the marks of one’s devotedness to a divinity, is a widely observed custom in the East. Burton tells of the habit, in Mekkeh, of cutting three parallel gashes down the fleshy cheek of every male child; and of the claim by some that these gashes “were signs that the scarred [one] was the servant of Allah’s house” (Pilgrimage to Mecca and Medinah, third ed., p. 456). In India, there are various methods of receiving such flesh-marks of devotedness. “One of the most common consists in stamping upon the shoulders, chest, and other parts of the body, with a red-hot iron, certain marks, to represent the armor [or livery] of their gods; the impressions of which are never effaced, but are accounted sacred, and are ostentatiously displayed as marks of distinctions” (Dubois’s Des. of Man. and Cust. in India, Part III., chap. 3). “From henceforth let no man trouble me,” says Paul: “for I bear branded on my body the marks of Jesus” (Gal. 6 : 17).
[450] See Price’s Hist. of Arabia, p. 56.
[451] It is certainly noteworthy, that the Canaanitish god “Baal-bereeth” (see Judges 8 : 33; 9 : 4) seems to have had its centre of worship at, or near, Shechem; and there was where the Canaanites were induced to seek, by circumcision, a part with the house of Jacob in the blood-covenant of Abraham (see Gen. 34 : 1-31).
[452] See Godwyn’s Moses and Aaron, p. 216 f.
[453] Buxtorf, who is a recognized authority, in the knowledge of Rabbinical literature and of Jewish customs, says, on this point: “Cum deinde compater infantulum in sinu habet jacentem, tum Mohel sive circumcisor eum è fasciis evolvit, pudendum ejus apprehendit, ejusque anteriorem partem per cuticulam præputii comprehendit, granulumque pudendi ejus retrorsum premit; quo facto cuticulam præputii fricat, ut illa per id emortua infantulus cæsuram tanto minus sentiscat. Deinde cultellum circumcisorium è pueri astantis manu capit, claraque voce, Benedictus (inquit) esto tu Deus, Domine noster, Rex mundi, qui nos mandatis tuis sanctificasti, nobisque pactum circumcisionis dedisti. Interim dum ille loquitur sic, particulam præputii anteriorem usque eo abscindit, ut capitellum pudendi nudum conspici queat, illamque festinanter in patellam arena ista plenam conjicit; puero quoque isti, à quo acceperat, cultellum reddit circumcisorium; ab alio vero poculum vino rubro (ceu dictum fuit) impletum, capit; haurit ex eo quantum ore continere potest, quod mox super infantulum expuit, eoque sanguinem ejus abluit: in faciem quoque infantuli vini aliquid expuit, si eum viribus defici conspexerit. Mox pudendum puelli ore comprehendit, et sanguinis ex eodem quantumcunque potest, exugit, ut sanguis idem tanto citius se sistat; sanguinem exuctum in alterum poculorum vino rubro refertorum, vel in patellam arena abundantem, expuit.” (Synagoga Judaica, Cap. II.)
[454] Gen. 15 : 6; Rom. 4 : 3; Gal. 3 : 6; James 2 : 23.
[455] See Fuerst’s Heb. Chald. Lex., s. v.
[456] See Freytag’s Lex. Arab. Lat., s. v.
[457] See Lane’s Arab.-Eng. Lex., s. v.
[458] In the Chinese language, likewise, “the word for faithfulness means both to be trustworthy, and also to trust to, and refers chiefly to friendship.” (Edkins’s Relig. in China, p. 118.)
[459] The Rabbis give a preeminent place to circumcision as the rite by which Abraham became the Friend of God. They say (see citations from the Talmud, in Nethivoth Olam, p. 367): “Abraham was not called perfect before he was circumcised; and because of the merit of circumcision was the covenant made with him concerning the inheritance of the Land. It [circumcision] also saves from the punishment of hell; for our sages have said, that Abraham sits at the gates of hell and suffers no one to enter in there who is circumcised.”
[460] James 2 : 23.
[461] Exod. 4 : 21-23.
[462] Exod. 4 : 25, 26.
[463] See Fuerst’s Heb. Chald. Lex., s. v.
[464] See Deut. 22 : 13-21. To this day, in the East, an exhibit of blood-stains, as the indubitable proof of a consummated covenant of marriage, is common. See Niebuhr’s Beschreibung von Arabien, pp. 35-39; Burckhardt’s Arabic Proverbs, p. 140; Lane’s Mod. Egypt., I., 221, note.
[465] See Lane, and Freytag, s. vv., Khatan, Khatana.
[466] Gen. 22 : 1, 2.
[467] “Heaven awaits not one who is destitute of a son,” say the Brahmans (See page 194, supra). See, also, e. g., Thomson’s Land and Book, I., 177; Roberts’s Orient. Ill., p. 53 f., Ginsburg’s “Illustrations,” in Bible Educator, I., 30; Lane’s Mod. Egypt., I., 68. Livingstone’s Trav. and Res. in So. Af., p. 140; Pierotti’s Cust. and Trad. of Pal., pp. 177 f., 190 f.
[468] See illustrations of this error in Tylor’s Prim. Cult., II., 403.
[474] See discussions of this point, by Hengstenberg, Kurtz, Oehler, Ewald, Kuenen, Lange, Keil and Delitzsch, Stanley, Mozeley, etc.
[475] John 15 : 13.
[476] Heb. 11 : 17-19.
[477] Gen. 22 : 15-18.
[478] James 2 : 21-23.
[479] See Exod. 4 : 9; 7 : 17-21.
[480] See Exod. 12 : 1-6.
[482] Exod. 12 : 7-13.
[485] See page 81 f., supra. It is, indeed, by no means improbable, that the Hebrew word tôtaphôth (טוֹטָפוֹת), translated “frontlets,” as applied to the phylacteries was an Egyptian word. Its etymology has been a puzzle to the critics.
[486] See Exod. 13 : 11-16.
[487] See references to Zohar, Pt. II., Fol. 2, by Farrar, in Smith-Hackett’s Bible Dictionary, Art. “Frontlets.”
[488] Smith-Hackett’s Bib. Dict., Art. “Frontlets.”
[489] On this point I have the emphatic testimony of intelligent native Syrians. “As I live, saith the Lord”—or more literally, “I, living, saith the Lord.” “For when God made promise to Abraham, since he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself”—by his life. (Comp. Isa. 49 : 18; Jer. 22 : 24; Ezek. 5 : 11; Heb. 6 : 13.)
[490] This also I am assured of, by native Syrians. One who had resided in both Syria and Upper Egypt told me, that in Syria, in the rite of blood-friendship, the blood is taken from the arm as the symbol of strength; while in portions of Africa where the legs are counted stronger than the arms, through the training of the people as runners rather than as burden-bearers, the leg supplies the blood for this rite (See reference to Stanley and Mirambo’s celebration of this rite at pages 18-20, supra).
[492] See e. g. Gen. 14 : 22; Dan. 12 : 7. “It is an interesting fact, that many of the images of the gods of the heathen have the right hand lifted up.” (Roberts’s Orient. Ill. of Scrip., p. 20.)
[493] See Prov. 6 : 1; 11 : 15 (margin); 22 : 24-26.
[495] See Lepsius’s exemplar of the Todtenbuch; also Birch, in Bunsen’s Egypt’s Place, V., 125.
[496] See Farrar’s article on “Frontlets,” in Smith-Hackett’s Bib. Dic.
[497] Joshua 2 : 18-20.
[499] See Roberts’s Orient. Ill. of Scrip., p. 20.
[500] Lynd’s Hist. of Dakotas, p. 81.
[501] Bayard Taylor’s India, China, and Japan, p. 52.
[502] See Home and Syn. of Mod. Jew, p. 5.
[503] See Targum, in Buxtorf’s Biblia Rabbinica, in loco.
[504] See Jones’s Credulities Past and Present, p. 188.
[505] See Kadesh Barnea, p. 382, note.
[506] Heb. 9 : 19.
[507] See Exod. 24 : 1-11.
[508] Lev. 7 : 26.
[509] Lev. 17 : 10-12.
[510] Lev. 17 : 14.
[511] Rom. 6 : 23.
[512] Lev. 17 : 3-6.
[513] Comp. Heb. 13 : 20.
[514] Lev. 17 : 13.
[515] A traveler in Mauritius, describing a Hindoo sacrifice there, of a he-goat, in fulfilment of a vow, says: “It was killed on soft ground, where the blood would sink into the earth, and leave no trace” (Pike’s Sub-Tropical Rambles, p. 223). See also page 109, supra.
[516] Rom. 5 : 12-21.
[517] See Quarterly Statement, of Pales. Expl. Fund, for July 1885, pp. 197-207.
[518] The Temple, Its Ministry and Services, p. 88, f.
[519] The Old Test. in the Jewish Church, Notes on Lect. XII.
[521] Lev. 1 : 13, 17; 2 : 2, 12; 3 : 8, 26.
[522] Christian Institutions, Chap. 4.
[523] The Temple, Its Min. and Serv., p. 82.
[524] The Temple, Its Min. and Serv., p. 82.
[525] Lev. 4 : 7, 18, 25, 30, 34.
[526] Lev. 4 : 6, 7, 17; 16 : 14, 15.
[527] Lev. 1 : 5, 11, 15.
[528] Lev. 8 : 14-22; 9 : 8-22; 14 : 19, 20; 16 : 3-25.
[529] Edersheim’s The Temple, Its Min. and Serv., p. 100.
[530] “From its derivation it might also be rendered, the offering of completion” (Edersheim’s The Temple, Its Min. and Serv., p. 106).
[532] Edersheim’s The Temple, Its Min. and Serv., p. 86.
[533] Psa. 16 : 4, 5.
[534] Heb. 9 : 8.
[535] Heb. 10 : 4.
[536] Psa. 50 : 7-17.
[537] Isaiah 1 : 11-17.
[538] Isa. 25 : 6.
[539] Jer. 7 : 21-23.
[540] Hosea 6 : 4-7.
[541] Deut. 10 : 14-16.
[542] Deut. 30 : 1-6.
[543] Gal. 3 : 7-9; Rom. 4 : 11, 12.
[544] Rom. 2 : 26-29; Phil. 3 : 3.
[545] Prov. 3 : 1-4.
[546] Prov. 7 : 2, 3.
[547] Jer. 31 : 31-34.
[548] Col. 2 : 17.
[549] Num. 35 : 12; Deut. 19 : 6, 12; Josh. 20 : 3, 5, 9.
[550] Num. 35 : 19, 21, 24, 25, 27; 2 Sam. 14 : 11.
[551] Job 19 : 25; Psa. 19 : 14; 78 : 35; Prov. 23 : 11; Isa. 41 : 14; 43 : 14; 44 : 6, 24; 47 : 4; 48 : 17; 49 : 7, 26; 54 : 5, 8; 59 : 20; 60 : 16; 63 : 16; Jer. 50 : 34.
[552] Comp. Isa. 51 : 10; Jer. 31 : 11.
[553] “A term of which the original import is uncertain. The very obscurity of its etymology testifies to the antiquity of the office which it denotes.” (Speaker’s Com. at Num. 35 : 12.)
[554] Cited from Herzog’s B. Cycl., in Keil and Delitzsch’s Bib. Com. on the Pent., at Num. 35 : 9-34.
[555] See Niebuhr’s Beschreibung von Arabien, p. 32 f.; Burckhardt’s Beduinen und Wahaby, pp. 119-127; Lane’s Thousand and One Nights, I., 431, note; Pierotti’s Customs and Traditions of Palestine, pp. 220-227; Mrs. Finn’s “The Fellaheen of Palestine,” in Surv. of West Pal., “Special Papers,” pp. 342-346.
[556] Comp. Exod. 21 : 18-27; 22 : 14-17; Lev. 27 : 1-8.
[557] Num. 36 : 30-34.
[558] Sooras, 2 and 17.
[559] Livingstone and Stanley on several occasions, made payments, or had them made, to avoid a conflict on a question of blood. See, e. g. Trav. and Res. in So. Africa, pp. 390, 368-370, 482 f., The Congo, I., 520-527.
[560] Reise in Hadhramaut, p. 199.
[561] Surv. of West. Pal., “Special Papers,” p. 342.
[562] A Pilgrimage to Mec. and Med., 357.
[563] Cust. and Trad. of Pal., p. 221.
[564] A Pilgrimage, p. 367.
[567] Pierotti’s Cust. and Trad. of Pal., p. 216.
[568] Comp. Gen. 15 : 18; Jer. 34 : 18; 2 Sam. 12 : 17.
[569] See Gesenius, Fuerst, Cocceius, s. v.
[570] Gen. 21 : 22-24.