coins of Tiberias, the chief town of Galilee, are extant bearing Greek inscriptions to this effect, ΚΛΑΥΔΙΟ ΤΙΒΕΡΙΩΝ ΕΤ. AII: This era is from the building of the city DCCLXX, on which see Noris,* Vaillant, etc. The coins of Sephoris, the most strongly fortified town of Galilee, are inscribed in Greek ΣΕΠΦΩΡΗΝΩΝ-on which consult Vaillant † and Patin.g It was just the same with the cities of the Samaritans; many Greek coins remain of the capital, Samaria, to which Herod, out of flattery to Augustus, gave the name of Sebaste (Zɛßάorn). A representation of these is given by Noris in his masterly work De Epochis Syro-Macedonum. On one is found the inscrip in use among the Hebrews-a sacred and a profane-and that in this latter, borrowed from the Samaritans, the coins were struck, settle the point to our satisfaction. If we ask them upon what ancient and valid authority they rest this assumption-they have absolutely none to produce. Let them, then, trumpet the worth of their Samaritan coins to others, they bring them to a bad market with us, so firmly satisfied are we that they are the productions of impostors.Sperling in fact says, that he himself saw, at Holsace, a labora tory where such shekels as these were manufactured: and Patin, a most skilful and exact numismatolagist, declares that in all the cabinets of coins he has ever seen, he has never yet fouud a genuine shekel. From these premises, then, we conceive ourselves justified in concluding, either that Simon Maccabeus never availed himself of the concession of Antiochus to coin his own money, or that the shekels now remaining and ascribed to him, are suppositious (vooluaiovs). But in regard to the tribute money with its Latin inscription, if we should concede that it was the same as the Pharisees showed to Christ, as Freher, Fischer, etc., etc., assert,' what is this to the purpose? The Roman tribute was paid in Roman money, but we are now arguing about the inscriptions upon Jewish coins-so that this, too, is travelling beyond the record, and is nought to our purpose (nihil hoc лçòs τhν húgαv.) *Noris. de Epoch. Syro-Maced. Diss. 5, t. 11, p. 582 et seq Vaillant, de Num. Imp. a Pop. Græc. loq. p. 30. Vaillant, de N. Imp. a Pop. Græc. loq. p. 24 et 30. Patinus, in Num. Imp. Roman. p. 183. Noris. de Ep. Syro-Maced. diss. 5, p. 559 et seq. 1) Freherus. et Fischer de Numismate Census. tion CEBACHTHN?N. L. OP, of the Sebastians the year cvi, and on another CEBACTHNÓN CTP. CIE. of the Sebastians of Syria, the year CCXV. For these see also Patin.* Of Sichem, a Samaritan city called afterwards Neapolis, Greek coins are also found with the inscription ΦΛΑΟΥΙ. ΝΕΑΠΟΛΙ ΣΑMAPEIAE. L. AI. Of these several may be seen in Spanheimt and other writers. Not to be tedious, however, the same practice prevailed in Cæsarea, Paneas, Raphia, Gaza, Gadara, Livia, Ramatha, Azotus, Ascalon, and other cities that bordered upon Judea. But further, these coins not only bore Greek inscriptions, but Greek names also were commonly given them by the Jews, for instance those of Drachma, Dedrachma, Stater and Denarius. (Δραχμή, Δίδραχμον, Στατὴρ, Δηναρίον.) These occur in the New Testament. That they gave these Greek names to their current coins, is clear at once from the impropriety of calling Greek moneys by Hebrew names, and from these names, and from these names only, occurring in the New Testament, and not in the Old. But the word Stater occurs in the Old Testament it may be said, and Drachma at least three times in Nehemiah ;‡ to which our reply is that it is so in our Latin Vulgate, but not in the Hebrew and Chaldee. Where we exhibit Stateres the Hebrew reads bp Seckalim; and the original of our Drachma is in the Chal .דוכמון dee As, then, it is quite certain that, long before the time of Christ, the Jews used not only money with Greek inscriptions, but called by Greek names, we are bound to own that they must have spoken Greek. §3. The Jews made use of the Greek language in their Inscriptions. We here call in the aid of Inscriptions, a testimony of equal value with the last in the estimation of critics. The first of these which we shall quote will be that in the Lorica or outer court of the temple. By this persons were warned, on pain of death, whether Jews, the subjects of ceremonial pollution, (such as the emission of seed, the menstrual flux and those that came into contact with it,) or strangers, not to enter the inner * Patinus, ibid. p. 265. + Spanhem. de V. et P. Numis. Vaillant. loc. cit. p. 279. Nehem. cap. 7, v. 70 ad 72. court. For this see Maimonides. After the temple was rebuilt Josephus reports that two inscriptions were carved in the outer court-one in Greek and the other in Latin. Ev avrų 8' eior ́κεισαν ἐξ ἴσου διαστήματος στῆλαι, τὸν τῆς ἁγνείας προσημαίνουσαι νόμον, αἱ μὲν Ἑλληνικοῖς, αἱ δὲ Ρωμαϊκοῖς γράμμασι, μὴ δεῖν ἀλλόφυλον ἐντὸς τοῦ ἁγίου παριέναι. " In it stood pillars equal distances, from each other, which exhibited the law of purity inscribed both in Greek and Roman characters, to the effect that "no foreigner should pass within the Sanctuary."+ The Antiquities present another passage of the same purport. Εἰς τοῦτο τοῦ λαοῦ πάντες, οἱ διαφέροντες ἁγνείᾳ καὶ παρατήρησει τῶν νομίμων, εἰσῄεσαν ; “ Into this temple any of the people had licence to enter, provided he was free from pollution and observant of the precepts of the law." On the subject of this prohibition too, Titus, the Roman General, thus addresses the Jews: Αρ' οὐκ ὑμεῖς, ὦ μιαρώτατοι, τὸν δρύφακτον τοῦτον προβάλεσθε τῶν ἁγίων ; οὐχ ὑμεῖς δὲ τὰς ἐν αὐτῷ στήλας διεστήσατε, γράμμασιν Ἑλληνικοῖς καὶ ἡμετέροις κεχαραγμένας; [οὐχ ἡμεῖς δὲ τοὺς ὑπερβάντας ὑμῖν ἀναιρεῖν ἐπετρέψαμεν, καν Ῥωμαιός τις ή; "Have not ye, accursed, put up this fence before the Sanctuary? Have ye not erected its pillars at proper intervals, engraven with Greek characters and ours? Have we not permitted you to kill those that go beyond it, although they be Romans ?"§ Now if a law of such grave moment was set forth in the Greek language to be read by the Jews, who does not perceive that this language must have been their vernacular, else the purpose would not have been answered? No one assuredly who does not close his eyes against the light. As Bernard Lamy was ignorant of the true reason for the inscription being in Greek, he with some others has expended much labor to little purpose in the attempt to account for Josephus's not mentioning a Hebrew Inscription, as they were Hebrews for whom the premonition was chiefly intended. The reason is simply that stated above, that the Hebrews universally spoke Greek, and consequently the Hebrew Inscription was not required. * Maimonides, de Domo Electa, cap. 7, §13. The next Greek Inscription to be noticed is that upon the cross of the Lord Christ, which Luke records in these words: "And a superscription also was written over him in letters of Greek and Latin and Hebrew."* Now in this triad of languages some one must needs have been vernacular to the Jews, in order that by them, of all others, who were most pressing for the execution, the accusation and title might be read. John confirms this verse: "This title read many of the Jews, be cause the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city."+ Now the Hebrew was no longer in common use, inasmuch as from the period of the Babylonish captivity it had been displaced: nor in fact did the Jews any longer understand that language, as our very opponents confess, and as will be made clear as we proceed. Much less could the Latin language be their common one, inasmuch as it has never been contended that they adopted it as a people; it remains, therefore, that the Greek alone was the prevailing language at Jerusalem at that time. Nothing could more beautifully or perfectly harmonize with this conclusion than what Jochanan, the first of the Rabbins, has writ ten of these three languages: "There are three tongues-the Latin best adapted for war, the Greek for social life, the Hebrew for prayer." The Hebrew, therefore, was employed, on this occasion, because in a measure their sacred tongue; the Latin because that of their masters, the Romans; and the Greek, finally, because the familiar tongue of the inhabitants of Jerusalem. This accounts for Luke's putting the Greek first, because the most common and important-and this sacred writer, on Casaubon's showings, has exhibited the true order of the inscriptions. Nor was this employment of the Greek language in inscriptions confined to Judea; we find it prevailing in the neighboring territories, also Josephus supplies us with certain Roman Edicts, that prove this beyond dispute. There is that, for instance, of Caius Cæsar, conferring upon Hyrcanus and his sons, the perpetual government of the Jews Lucas, Evang. cap. 23, v. 38. + Joan. Evang. cap. 19, v. 19. R. Jochanan, in Midr. Tillim, fol. 25, c. 4. Casaubon. exer. 16 ad Baron. An. 34, 119, p. 563. Diodati makes no mention of John's putting the Hebrew first.-TRANSLator. ¶ Joseph. lib. 14 Antiq. cap. 10. p. 703 et ed. which was engraven on brazen tables in the Greek and Latin tongues, in Ascalon, Sidon, Tyre, in the temples, in that of Jerusalem and elsewhere, by the order of the same Caius: "And that a brazen tablet with an inscription to this effect, be set up in public in the Capitol, in Sidon, Tyre and Ascalon, and in the temples, engraven in Roman and Grecian letters." To these might be added other rescripts for the Jews, given by Josephus in the same place, all, in like manner, published in Judea and the neighboring regions, in Greek and Latin. The Romans, of course, used the Latin because it was their own tongue, and the Greek as evidently, because the vernacular of the country, that it might be read and understood by the inhabitants. Nor must we pass over in silence, the interesting fact that those Jews who settled and died in Rome, had Greek inscriptions cut upon their Tombs. After Pompey had subdued Judea, he took away with him to Rome immense numbers of the Jews as captives, to whom, however, liberty was afterwards given, together with the privilege of observing the usages of their ancestors without hinderance, by Augustus and Tiberius Cæsar. In the city, therefore, they had a synagogue, and outside the city a cemetery, on the way to the port, keeping up their national observances in every particular.* Bos, in the year 1602, was the first who discovered this place of interment, while tracing some subterranean passages beyond the Tiber. There he found, first of all, sepulchres in the sides of the walls, as is usual, but some also under foot, without the slightest vestige of Christianity, the only symbol being a representation of the Mosaic Candelabrum with its seven branches.There were also earthen lamps found, made in the same shape. There were, besides, fragments of bricks of a red color, with which and mortar, sepulchres were formerly closed, and these presented, one and all, merely Greek inscriptions, which generally began thus: ENOAAE KEITAI EN EIPHNH. This means, Here lies in peace; and, though a phrase prevailing among the followers of Christ, has been evidently borrowed by them from the Hebrews, among whom the same use prevailed, as the Scriptures amply show. But in addition to this, two other forms of expression occur in the more recent • V. Bosium Roma Sotterran, lib. 2. cap. 22, p. 142; Aringum, in Ro. Subterr. Noviss, tom. 1, lib. 2, cap. 23. |