Page images
PDF
EPUB

fand, enjoying the fresh air; fome were dressing provifions among these rocks; others were smoking tobacco; notwithstanding the apparent danger of the fall of great pieces of the rocks, which frequently happened: but it is common for them to retire hither, on account of a fpring of fine water which glides along here, and is always extremely cool'.

On these accounts I would make fome remarks.

ift. That the Greeks were wont, not unfrequently, to eat a repaft on the fea-fhore; and that the Syrians, in the neighbourhood of the Holy-Land, are wont to do the fame, and people too that dwell in Syria of very different nations: Turks, Moors, and Arabs.

2dly. That whatever other delicacies the Greeks might carry with them, on occafion of these parties of pleafure, they were wont to make use of that opportunity, to regale themselves on the fresh fish that happened to be catched, or brought to shore, while they were there. And by what is faid of these fishermen, the Syrians too are very fond of fifh; as it appears, from the words of our Lord, the Jews of that time were: "If a "fon fhall afk bread of any of you that is a

[ocr errors]

father, will he give him a stone? or if he "ask a fish, will he for a fifh give him a ferpent?... If ye then, being evil, know how

66

Voy, de la Terre-Sainte, ch. 61.

"to

[ocr errors]

to give good gifts unto your children: how "much more, &c '."

[ocr errors]

3dly. When the Eastern fishermen are difpofed to eat, it feems they frequently eat fome of their own fish which they have catched but that they are wont to land in order to drefs it, whereas our fishermen drefs their food on board their veffels, at leaft generally.

In what light then, after making these remarks, muft our Lord's vifit to the apostles appear, which is recorded in the beginning of the 21ft of John!

If they first faw a man on the fea-fhore, whom they did not immediately know, who appearing near a fire, asked them if they had catched any fifh; was it not natural for them to suppose it was fomebody who was a stranger to them, who was come to the fea-fhore to enjoy the freshness of the air, and to regale himself with some new-caught fish there? If fo, the word children, which he made use of, is to be understood as a familiar term made use of by a fuppofed fuperior to an inferior, and fishermen were looked upon as being of a very low profeffion.

There was nothing fo particular in his being alone, and unattended by fervants, as to fix their attention, and lead them to fufpect

Luke 11. II, 13.

2 Children, have you any meat? The word doth not mean Alefh-meat, but have you catched any fish proper for eating. something

VOL. III.

Р

fomething extraordinary in this. He might affect fomething of folitude, or expect company to join him, or he might be a traveller, for any thing they knew, who might choose to take his repast on the shore, as companies of people did in excurfions of pleafure. There were two travellers indeed that are described as regaling themselves by the fide of the Tigris, on a fish newly caught, and which they roasted or broiled on fome coals, of which mention is made in the book of Tobit'; but it should feem Jacob travelled all alone, when he went into Mefopotamia. They might then take him to be fome traveller; or they might look they might look upon him to be one belonging to a party of pleasure, fent beforehand to prepare matters for the rest that were to follow in due time; or one that, though unaccompanied, was refolved to enjoy the pleasures of the fea-fide.

There might appear nothing extraordinary in his directing to throw the net on the right-fide of the ship, it being no unusual thing for people on fhore to make fignals to fishing-veffels, pointing out to them the way the fhoals of fish are taking. Nor was it their taking fish, in confequence of the direction that our Lord gave them, that occafioned their apprehending it was he himself, but the astonishing number of large fishes they had inclofed in their net, which first, it should feem, occa→ fioned John to apprehend it was Jefus.

12

• Ch. 6. 3, 5.

Rocky

Rocky eminences are frequently met with on the fea-fhore, from whence there is a view to the feaward pretty extenfive: there were fuch prominences on the fhore on which the fishermen landed Doubdan, and where he found Moors and Arabs enjoying themselves, and which rocks Doubdan afcended when these Moors and Arabs began to look fourly upon them, from whence they defcried their fhip, and called to the people aboard to take them in', and fuch there might be on this part of the fhore of the sea of Gennefareth.

Nor will it occafion any great difference, if we should range these two circumstances in the contrary way if we should suppose they firft faw our Lord on fome eminence by the fea-fide; and afterwards, as they approached the land, in confequence of their success, faw a fire burning on the fhore, and bread laid there, as if fome perfon intended to regale himself.

It is neither neceffary to suppose that the Olapio that the difciples faw, along with the bread, on the fhore, was a fish, or that it laid upon the coals. Plutarch, in the place before cited, observed that there were various kinds of things that came under that Greek term, though fifh was confidered as the best fort. It might mean fome other kind of delicious affociate with bread: what in particular the Evangelift did not intend to exprefs, nor

Voy, de la Terre-Sainte, p. 542.
P 2

can

can we know. On another occafion, the difciples gave our Lord a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honey-comb1. The honey-comb was one kind of Oчapov, was then used, and might now be laid on the fhore, for aught we know to the contrary.

For the word εTTIMEμEVOV, in the 9th verfe, doth not, I think, neceffarily imply that the thing, whatever it was, laid upon the coals; it is fufficient if it laid not far from them. But whatever it was, and if we suppose actually laid upon the coals, it seems to me not very natural to understand the word as fignifying a fish; for how odd muft it appear to them to have this perfon ask for fish, when he, at that very time, had fish broiling on the coals. It appears to me moft probably to fignify fome other fort of provifion, of a kind to be eaten with bread.

An inftance of an unneceffary limiting the meaning of words may be obferved as to this very term our tranflators here unneceffarily, and, as it seems to me, improperly, limit the meaning of the term to fifh, when it appears to fignify any proper adjunct to bread, at least of the delicious kind; and in the translation of John vi. 9, they limit the sense ftill more, and fuppofe the word fignifies little fishes, when the hiftorian says nothing of the fize, nor would it lose the glory of being a miraculous repast, when five barley loaves, and

Luke 24. 42.

two

« PreviousContinue »