Lactantius

Footnotes

^[723] i.e., Osee, Oshea, or Hoshea, as Joshua was first called. See Num. xiii. 8. [But note Num. xiii. 16. The change was significant. See Pearson On the Creed, art. ii. 125–128. Thus, “Jehovah-Saviour” = Jesus, and the change was prophetic of “the Name which is above every name.” Compare Gen. xxxii. 29 and Phil. ii. 9, 10.]

^[724] Per figuram nominis. The name Jesus or Joshua signifies a deliverer or saviour. [Nay, more, Jehovah-Salvator, thus: Hoshea + Jah = Jehoshua = Joshua = Jesus.]

^[725] Involutum. Thus Seneca: “Non est tibi frons ficta, nec in alienam voluptatem sermo compositus, nec cor involutum.”

^[726] 1 Sam. xvi. 7: “The Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.”

^[727] Lutulentum (besmeared with mud) “et immundum.” See 2 Pet. ii. 22.

^[728] [“The swine gorges his acorns, and never looks up to the tree from which they fall,” as a parable of nature for swinish men.]

^[729] Sedendi vehiculum. “Sedeor” is sometimes used in this sense for riding.

^[730] Exuviis, used in the same sense as “pellibus.”

^[731] Ingurgitat cœno, “plunges into the mire.” [“Sus lota in volutabro luti.” 2 Pet. ii. 22, Vulgate.]

^[732] Per figuram. [This Typology has never yet been fully or satisfactorily treated. Yet the volumes of Dr. Fairbairn (Typology of Scripture, Clarks, Edin.) ought to be known to every Bible student.]

Chap. XVIII.—Of the Lord’s Passion, and that It Was Foretold.

^[733] Subinde, “from time to time.”

^[734] Legatus. This title was given, in the time of the Roman emperors, to the governors sent by them into the provinces. Pontius Pilate was procurator of Judæa, which was not a separate province, but a dependency of the province of Syria, which was at this time governed by Silanus.

^[735] John ii. 19, 20. The forty-six years spoken of were not occupied with the rebuilding of the temple, which was completed in nine years, but with the additional works which Herod the Great and his successors were continually carrying on for the adorning and beautifying of the temple. See Prideaux. [I regret the loose references of the translator, and yet more that the inexorable demands of the press give me time to supply only the more important ones. See Connections, book ix. vol. ii. p. 394.]

^[736] [It is probable, that, owing to the perpetual and universal recitation of the Creed, this unhappy name has been more frequently uttered and recalled to human memory than that of any other human being.]

^[737] Herod Antipas the tetrarch of Galilee. According to St. Luke (xxiii. 15), Herod agreed with Pilate in declaring the innocency of Jesus.

^[738] This statement requires some modification. Pilate did indeed say to the Jews, “Take ye Him, and judge Him according to your law;” but they declared that it was not lawful for them to put any man to death. The punishment was entirely Roman, the mode of death Roman, the executioners Roman soldiers. There were two distinct trials,—one before the Jewish Sanhedrim on a charge of impiety, the other before the Roman governor on a charge of treason.

^[739] Punicei coloris. The colour was a kind of red, not purple. [It was mixed with blue, so as to be at once purple and in some reflections scarlet.]

^[740] The quaternion of Roman soldiers who carried out the execution.

^[741] De tunicâ et pallio. The “tunica” was the inner garment, the “pallium” a mantle or cloak. Thus the proverbial phrase, “tunica proprior pallio.” [Vol. iv. p. 13, Elucidation I., this series.]

^[742] Gavius was crucified by Verres. [In Verrem, act ii. cap. 62. This event providentially illustrated the extreme wickedness of what was done to our Lord, but so quickened the Roman conscience that it prevented like injustice to St. Paul, although a Roman citizen, over and over again. Acts xvi. 37, 38, and xxii. 24, 25.]

^[743] Suffixus.

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