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CHAPTER XV.

USE OF GENERAL INFORMATION IN SCRIPTURE INTERPRETATION.

General History.

An interpreter must be acquainted not only with sacred history derived from the Bible itself, but with the general history of the world. The people of God were brought into contact with other nations. With some they were enjoined to wage perpetual war. By others they were frequently overcome, oppressed, and harassed, God employing the heathen as instruments for accomplishing his purposes towards his chosen. The history of the world can only be viewed aright when it is contemplated by the philosophical believer as subservient to the history of the church. The Old Testament especially, must be very obscure to him who is unacquainted with history. Its prophecies, whether fulfilled or not, he will fail to perceive in their true character. A large and wide survey of ancient nations, such as the Medes, Persians, Babylonians, Phenicians, Egyptians, Assyrians, Romans, &c. &c. must be highly conducive to the exposition and confirmation of the Bible. This is self-evident, and therefore we need not insist on it. One thing, however, should be borne in mind, that while the historical relations of Scripture are infallibly correct, those of all other writers are marked by occasional errors and imperfections. We can rely with the greatest confidence on the sacred history contained in the Word of God-but not on uninspired accounts. Wherever the two sources are opposed, there can be no hesitation in following the former. It should also be observed, that the historic statements directly or indirectly made in the Bible, are of much more extensive use than has been ordinarily supposed.. Heathen testimonies are often consulted when they are superfluous. The Biblical history is for the most part sufficient to elucidate an historic passage without foreign aid. A broad and welldefined line should be drawn between that which is contained in the Scriptures themselves, and what they do not furnish. At present the latter alone is the subject before us.

There are two purposes which a knowledge of profane history serves; first, to educe the sense of a passage or paragraph to which nothing in the Bible itself affords a clue: secondly, to confirm a sense which is liable to some uncertainty or obscurity -to place it in a clear unexceptionable light, so that all doubt of its correctness is removed. The number of passages that cannot be at all understood without this apparatus is small-those only half-understood without it are numerous. The meaning may be dimly not fully apprehended, unless there be an acquaintance with the history of nations in general. The following examples will shew the use of history.

Judges v. 20. "They fought from heaven; the stars in their courses fought against Sisera." Josephus states (Antiq. v. 5. 4), that a tempest of hail, wind, and rain discomfited the Canaanites. Thus the host of heaven fought for Israel. God appeared on behalf of his people; he sent a storm of thunder and lightning, accompanied by torrents of rain, which threw them into confusion, and contributed to their destruction.

Revelation ix. 1-11. Here a swarm of locusts is employed to depict the rise and progress of Mohammedism.

Verse 4. When Yezid marched to invade Syria, he was commanded by Abu-Beker, "Destroy no palm-trees; nor burn any fields of corn cut down no fruit trees; nor do any mischief to cattle, only such as you kill to eat."

The men that had not the seal of God in their foreheads represent the apostate Christians of that period; those who had lost the purity of religion and worshipped saints and martyrs. Accordingly, the Saracens overran the countries subject to the man of sin, viz. the greater part of the Greek empire, the south of Italy, the African provinces, and Spain.

Verse 5. They were not allowed to destroy the apostate empire. Though they made frequent attempts to take Constantinople, they never succeeded.

Verse 7. It is well known that the strength of the Saracens depends on their cavalry.

The Arabs have always worn turbans, which are meant by the expression crowns of gold on their heads. They also wore their mustachios as men, although (verse 8) their hair was flowing or plaited like that of women. Their teeth were as the teeth of lions to denote their strength, cruelty, and rapacity.

Verse 10, The stings in their tails denotes the poisonous and

destructive nature of the superstition they propagated. The five months or 150 years during which their ravages continued, may be reckoned from 602 to 752. In the latter year, Almansor founded Bagdad, and called it the city of peace. Henceforward the Saracens became a settled people, and their power declined. Verse 11. The King called Abaddon or Apollyon represents the kingdom or dynasty of Mohammed and his Caliph

successors.

Nahum ii. 6. "The gates of the rivers shall be opened, and the palace shall be dissolved." This is explained by the transactions that took place when Arbaces took Nineveh. Sardanapalus, finding that the rebels persisted in besieging the city, and despairing of success, after a mighty inundation of the river had broken in upon a part of the city, and thrown down twenty stadia of the wall in length, shut himself up in his palace, in which were collected his eunuchs, concubines, and all his treasures, and set fire to the whole. Thus the gates of the river were opened, and the palace was dissolved by fire, according to the words of the prophet; and thus also with an overrunning flood, the Lord made an utter end of the place thereof. (Nahum i. 8.)† Jeremiah li. 30, 31, 32.

The Chaldeans, believing that Babylon was impregnable, remained at ease, and derided the besiegers from the walls. The Persians entered the city by the channel of the river at the same time from above and below, passed into the city through the gates leading down to the river, which had not been closed, and pressed forward to the royal palace. We are informed that the Persians burnt those houses from the roofs of which they had been annoyed, by setting fire to the doors, which were covered with bitumen. Hence it is said in the 30th verse, "they have burned her dwelling-places ;" and in the 32d, when it is affirmed, "the reeds they have burned with fire," this is explained by Cyrus having turned the course of the river along which they went, and which was overgrown with reeds. These they burned with fire.

That a good degree of historical knowledge is necessary for understanding the Scriptures, above all, the prophetic and epistolary portions, no intelligent student will deny. Especially should

* Sec Faber's "Sacred Calendar of Prophecy," vol. ii. pp. 393-411, where the prophecy is adınirably illustrated.

+ See Diodorus, Bibliotheca, lib. ii., and Herodotus, Hist. ii.

the religious views current at the time when Christ appearedthe errors then beginning to be propagated-the different sects that existed, be investigated and known. Unless there be an acquaintance with the political and religious aspect of the people among whom prophets and apostles lived-the people of whom and against whom they wrote, obscurity will attach to passages and paragraphs. Let any one attempt to expound Colossians ii. 16-19 who knows nothing of the Oriental or Magian philosophy which the Gnostics engrafted on Christianity, and he will be perplexed with phrases which bear a marked allusion to peculiar opinions entertained by Judaising Christians imbued with such a theosophy. Several parts of the apostle John's writings also point to the same philosophy as adopted by various sects. Or, let him attempt to expound the Apocalypse who has no acquaintance with the history and spread of Christianity — the persecutions to which it was exposed-the corruptions it gradually underwent, and the great Antichristian apostasy developed in the book. Such an one will soon fall into grievous mistakes, and grope his way amid ambiguity.

To furnish this historical knowledge is the peculiar province of introductions, which the interpreter should have studied before attempting actual exegesis. A safe and systematic exposition should succeed this introductional literature.

Chronology.

Chronology is intimately connected with history. In studying the Scriptures it will be most useful to ascertain the chronology of certain periods in the Biblical history, such as the flood -the call of Abraham-the exodus from Egypt - the first appointment of judges — the time at which Solomon built the temple-the division of the twelve tribes-the downfal of Israel and Judah as two separate kingdoms-the date of the seventy years' captivity - the commencement of Daniel's seventy weeks -the time when our Saviour died-when Paul was converted, &c. &c. Such remarkable events should be assigned to their respective dates, and indelibly fixed in the mind. The difficulties belonging to the subject are neither few nor small. It presents inextricable labyrinths. Chronological systems are found to disagree. Those of the Hebrew Bible, the Septuagint, the Samaritan Pentateuch, and Josephus, differ from one another. It is, therefore, needless for the interpreter to perplex himself

with the conciliation of varying dates, when the Bible itself affords no assistance in the solution, or when the knowledge of a passage or paragraph does not depend on such an adjustment.

As the subject is unsettled in many of its details, so it has little influence on the exposition of Scripture. There are few passages to the knowledge of which it is the sole guide, or which cannot be understood apart from its application. The chronology contained in the pages of the Bible itself is sufficient for the elucidation of the sacred Book.

Archæology.

God has imprinted on the constitution of society in eastern countries indelible marks of the truth of those sacred records which are given for the salvation of men. With a pen of iron he has written on its frame-work a lasting memorial of events, the greatest which the world has been privileged to witness. The shifting aspect of migratory hordes has not swept away customs and modes of life once prevalent in Arabia and Palestine. The same features and habits which characterised patriarchal times, or the later days of our Saviour's incarnation, still continue in unbroken succession. Wildness of scenery and the vagrancy of lawless tribes have not served to efface the permanent lineaments of antiquity; but the overruling providence of God has preserved in customs and ceremonies unvarying traces of His presence and power. In this respect the nations of the west present a remarkable contrast to Oriental countries. Here, perpetual changes are constantly taking place from discoveries in arts, the cultivation of science, and the progression of the human mind towards the full measure of its maturity. Were our simple ancestors to revisit their descendants of the third or fourth generation, they would marvel at habits of life so unlike their own; and the rapid effects of civilisation around would fill them with no less wonder. But in the east, centuries roll on, presenting the same unvarying occupations and manners. Rural pictures and domestic scenes appear to the eye in unchanging succession; forms of salutation descend from father to son, and are preserved as faithfully as the parting counsels of pious parents in the bosoms of their dutiful offspring. Thus the Bible is not left without a continued testimony to its truth; for wherever travellers have penetrated eastward, especially in the localities mentioned in Scripture, they have found distinct marks of its faithful portraiture; and how

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