from Joppa to Caesarea, bounded on the west by the highlands of Samaria. The effect of this display of power and benevolence, was such, on their minds, that, without exception, they professed their faith in Christ.
Lydda.—This was a place of far more importance and fame, than would be supposed
from the brief mention of its name in the apostolic narrative. It is often mentioned
in the writings of the Rabbins, under the name of (
Hebrew characters) (Ludh,) its original Hebrew
name, and was long the seat of a great college of Jewish law and theology,
which at this very period of Peter's visit was in its most flourishing state. This appears
from the fact that Rabbi Akiba, who raised the school to its greatest eminence,
was contemporary with the great Rabban Gamaliel, who bears an important part in
the events of the apostolic history. (The data of this chronological inference I find
in Lightfoot.) It is easy to see, then, why so important a seat of Jewish theology
should have been thought deserving of the particular notice and protracted stay of
Peter, who labored with remarkable earnestness and effect here, inspired by the consciousness
of the lasting and extensive good, that would result from an impression
made on this fountain of religious knowledge. The members of the college, however,
did not all, probably, profess themselves followers of Christ.
It is also described as possessing some importance in addition to its literary privileges. Josephus (Ant. XX. vi. 3.) mentions "Lydda" as "a village not inferior to a city in greatness." Its importance was, no doubt, in a great measure derived from the remarkably rich agricultural district which surrounded it. This was the plain of Sharon, so celebrated in the Hebrew scriptures for its fruitful fields and rich pastures,—its roses and its flocks. (Sol. Song. ii. 1: Isa. xxxiii. 9: xxxv. 2: lxv. 10: 1 Chron. xxvii. 29.) "All this country is described by Pococke as very rich soil, throwing up a great quantity of herbage; among which he specifies chardons, rue, fennel, and the striped thistle, 'probably on this account called the holy thistle.' A great variety of anemonies, he was told, grow in the neighborhood. 'I saw likewise,' he adds, 'many tulips growing wild in the fields (in March;) and any one who considers how beautiful those flowers are to the eye, would be apt to conjecture that these are the lilies to which Solomon, in all his glory, was not to be compared.'"—[Mod. Trav. p. 57.] Its distance from Jerusalem is ascertained, by Lightfoot, to be one day's journey, as it is stated with some circumlocution in the Mishna. It was destroyed, as Josephus relates, by Cestius Gallus, the Roman general, who marched his army through that region, in the beginning of the war, which ended in the destruction of Jerusalem. Under the peaceful times of the later Roman sway in Palestine, it was rebuilt, and called Diospolis. But like many other such instances, it has lost its temporary heathen name, and is now called by its old scripture appellation, Ludd. Travelers describe it as now a poor village, though the stones to be seen in the modern buildings show that it has been a place of great consequence.
The New Testament name Lydda, ((Greek characters)(Transliteration from Greek: Aydda),) by which Josephus also mentions it, is
only so much changed from the Hebrew Ludh, as was necessary to accommodate it
to the regular forms and inflexions of the Greek language. Lightfoot well refutes
the blunder of many modern geographers who make the two names refer to different
places. This learned author is remarkably full in the description of this place, and
is very rich in references to the numerous allusions which are made to it in the Talmudic
writings. See his Centuria Chorographica, (Cap. 16,) prefixed to Hor. Heb.
et Talm. in Matt.
Aeneas.—This name is unquestionably Greek, which seems to show the man to have been a Hellenist; and that he was already a believer in Christ, would appear from the fact of Peter's finding him among the brethren there.
THE VISIT TO JOPPA.
Hardly had this instance of divine favor occurred in Lydda, when a new occasion for a similar effort presented itself, in the neighboring seaport town of Joppa. A female disciple of the faith of Christ, in that city, by name Tabitha, or in the Greek, Dorcas,
