- chus says of the feet, "quos calcata terra iterum inquinat." Hammond says, "he
that hath been initiated, and entered into Christ, &c. is whole clean, and hath no need to be so washed again, all over. All that is needful to him is the daily ministering of the word and grace of Christ, to cleanse and wash off the frailties, and imperfections, and lapses of our weak nature, those feet of the soul." Grotius says, "Hoc tantum opus ei est, ut ab iis se purget quae ex occasione nascuntur. Similitudo sumpta ab his qui a balneo nudis pedibus abeunt." Besides these and many others largely quoted by Poole, Lampius also (in com. in ev. Joh.) goes very fully into the same view, and quotes many others in illustration. Wolfius (in Cur. Philol.) gives various illustrations, differing in no important particular, that I can see, from each other, nor from that of Kuinoel, who calls them "contortas expositiones," but gives one which is the same in almost every part, but is more fully illustrated in detail, by reference to the usage of the ancients, of going to the bath before coming to a feast, which the disciples no doubt had done, and made themselves clean in all parts except their feet, which had become dirtied on the way from the bath. This is the same view which Wolf also quotes approvingly from Elsner. Wetstein is also on this point, as on all others, abundantly rich in illustrations from classic usage, to which he refers in a great number of quotations from Lucian, Herodotus, Plato, Terence and Plutarch.
Sift you as wheat.—The word [Greek: siniazô] (siniazo) refers to the process of winnowing the wheat after threshing, rather than sifting in the common application of the term, which is to the operation of separating the flour from the bran. In oriental agriculture the operation of winnowing is performed without any machinery, by simply taking up the threshed wheat in a large shovel, and shaking it in such a way that the grain may fall out into a place prepared on the ground, while the wind blows away the chaff. The whole operation is well described in the fragments appended to Taylor's editions of Calmet's dictionary, (Hund. i. No. 48, in Vol. III.) and is there illustrated by a plate. The phrase then, was highly expressive of a thorough trial of character, or of utter ruin, by violent and overwhelming misfortune, and as such is often used in the Old Testament. As in Jer. xv. 7. "I will fan them with a fan," &c. Also in li. 3. In Ps. cxxxix. 2. "Thou winnowest my path," &c.; com. trans. "Thou compassest my path." The same figure is effectively used by John the Baptist, in Matt. iii. 12, and Luke iii. 17.
Galilean pugnacity.—Josephus, who was very familiar with the Galileans by his military service among them, thus characterizes them. "The Galileans are fighters even from infancy, and are every where numerous, nor are they capable of fear." Jew. War. book III. chap. iii. sec. 2.
From Jerusalem to Jericho.—The English traveler here referred to, is Sir Frederic Henniker, who in the year 1820, met with this calamity, which he thus describes in his travels, pp. 284-289.
"The route is over hills, rocky, barren and uninteresting; we arrived at a fountain, and here my two attendants paused to refresh themselves; the day was so hot that I was anxious to finish the journey, and hurried forwards. A ruined building situated on the summit of a hill was now within sight, and I urged my horse towards it; the janissary galloped by me, and making signs for me not to precede him, he rode into and round the building, and then motioned me to advance. We next came to a hill, through the very apex of which has been cut a passage, the rocks overhanging it on either side. Quaresmius, (lib. vi. c. 2.) quoting Brocardus, 200 years past, mentions that there is a place horrible to the eye, and full of danger, called Abdomin, which signifies blood; where he, descending from Jerusalem to Jericho, fell among thieves. I was in the act of passing through this ditch, when a bullet whizzed by, close to my head; I saw no one, and had scarcely time to think, when another was fired some distance in advance. I could yet see no one,—the janissary was beneath the brow of the hill, in his descent; I looked back, but my servant was not yet within sight. I looked up, and within a few inches of my head were three muskets, and three men taking aim at me. Escape or resistance were alike impossible. I got off my horse. Eight men jumped down from the rocks, and commenced a scramble for me; I observed also a party running towards Nicholai. At this moment the janissary galloped in among us with his sword drawn. * * * * * * * * *
"A sudden panic seized the janissary; he cried on the name of the Prophet, and galloped away. As he passed, I caught at a rope hanging from his saddle. I had hoped to leap upon his horse, but found myself unable;—my feet were dreadfully lacerated by the honey-combed rocks—nature would support me no longer—I fell, but still clung to the rope. In this manner I was drawn some few yards, till, bleeding from my an-
