would be self-evident: but not on any other principle : for what menial or servile act, distinct from the part ordinarily discharged at the Paschal ceremony by the principal personage of the company, is our Saviour seen or known to have performed besides this? The latter is found in the words of verse 31 : Σίμων, Σίμων, ἰδοὺ ὁ Σατανᾶς ἐξητήσατο ὑμᾶς, τοῦ σινιάσαι ὡς τὸν σίτον*. The force of the Greek middle is strikingly exemplifed in the use of this verb έξαιτεῖσθαι—which the subjoined examples will prove not to be employed instead of the active ἐξαιτεῖν, except in the sense of begging so as to obtain, or in the confident hope of obtaining †.

stigia lymphis, | Purpureave tuum consternens veste cubile. Catullus, lxiv. 161.

Suetonius, Caius 26: Modo ad pedes stare succinctos linteo passus est-Idem, Vitellius, 2 : Pro maximo munere a Messalina petiit, ut sibi pedes præberet excalceandos-Plutarch, De Virtu tibus Mulierum, Operum vii. 23, 24: ἑσπέρας δὲ πρὸς ἑκάστην ἀνὰ μέρος βαδίζουσαι, διηκονοῦντο τοῖς ἀλλήλων γονεῦσι καὶ ἀδελφοῖς, ἄχρι τοῦ καὶ τοὺς πόδας ἀπονίζειν—Pompeius, 73: καὶ τὸ λοιπὸν, ἐκ τούτου περιέπων καὶ θεραπεύων ὅσα δεσπότας δοῦλοι, μέχρι νίψεως ποδῶν καὶ δείπνου παρασκευῆς, διετέλεσεν Clemens Alexandrinus, i. 620. 4. Strom. iv. 19: ἡ δὲ Κλεοβούλου θυγάτηρ τοῦ σοφοῦ καὶ Λινδίων μον αρχοῦντος, τῶν ξένων τῶν πατρῴων οὐκ ᾔδεῖτο ἀπονίπτειν τοὺς πόδας Heliodorus, Ethiopica, ii. 22: καὶ ἡ μέν τις ἀπένιζε τώ πόδε, καὶ τῆς κόνεως ἠλευθέρου τὰ ὑπὸ κνήμην, κ. τ. λ. Cf. also the anecdote recorded by Sozomen, E. H. i. xi. 417. B. of Spyrido, bishop of Trimythus, in Cyprus, in the time of Constantine. Also, ii.

ii. 443. B. what is related of the empress Helene, mother of Con. stantine, at Jerusalem. See likewise v. vi. 602. C.

* Cf. Clemens Alex. i. 597. 2. Strom. iv. 9: where this text is quoted thus: ἀλλὰ καὶ αὐτὸς ὁ Κύριος, Ἐξητήσατο ὑμᾶς ὁ Σατανᾶς, λέγει, σινιάσαι· ἐγὼ δὲ παρῃτησάμην.

† Ἡμᾶς γε μὲν δὴ, ναῦν τ', ἀκήρατον σκάφος, ἤτοι τις ἐξέκλεψεν, ἢ ξητήσατο, | θεός τις, οὐκ ἄνθρω πος, οἴακος θιγών. Æschylus Agam. 644- τοὺς γὰρ κάτω σθένον. τας ἐξητησάμην | τύμβου κυρῆσαι, κεἰς χέρας μητρὸς πεσεῖν. Euripides, Hecuba, 49-τοσόνδε μοι παρά σχετ ̓ ἐξαιτουμένῃ. Hippolytus, 706— ἔγραψεν ἡ δύστηνος ἐξαιτουμένη. Ibid. 854-εἴ πως τὰ πρόσθε σφάλματ ̓ ἐξαιτούμενος. Andromache, 54-ή παρθενείαν πατρὸς ἐξη τήσατο. Troades, 975 - στεί χωμεν ἡμεῖς, Κάδμε, κἀξαιτώμεθα | ὑπέρ τε τούτου, κ, τ. λ. Baccha, 341-πρώτον γὰρ τόδ ̓ ἐξαι τήσομαι. Heraclidæ, 475—ἀλλ ̓ ἐν βραχεῖ δὴ τήνδ' ἔμ ̓ ἐξαιτεῖ χάριν. Sophocles, Edip. Col. 586. Cf. 1327ἡμέας εξαιτέονται. Herodotus, Calliope, 87ἡ δὲ μήτηρ

The meaning of the declaration, then, is not that Satan had merely desired to have, but that he had actually got possession of, the Apostles; they had been given up to his desire; to be sifted as wheat. Now the object of sifting wheat, universally, being to separate the grain from the chaff*, this surrendering of the Apostles to Satan for such a purpose, which is spoken of as already past, and even though future was manifestly near at hand, was designed for the probation of their faith and constancy; which of them should continue firm, and which should prove a castaway: which in short should be the wheat, and which the chaff. A similar metaphor occurs, Amos ix. 9: I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve; yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth. But it was not so with the Apostles: one of them would be lost. The declaration, therefore, accords best to the supposition of a time posterior to the final apostasy of Judas; of whom Satan had now got and would retain possession. It is memorable however on another account; viz. as leading to a second prediction of the denials of Peter; which also results so naturally from the passing conversation, that it can on no principle be confounded with the former.

VIII. After this, there is no reason why Luke xxii. 35-38 should not be supposed to follow consecutively, until a period of time when the Paschal solemnity as

ἐξαιτησαμένη αὐτόν. Xenophon, Anab. i. I. §. 3-φεύγοντας δὲ ὑμᾶς ἐκ τῶν πόλεων ἐξητοῦντο. Lysias, xii. 97—ἐξητήσαντο δὲ κατ ̓ οἶκτον. Jos. Bell. Jud. i. xxii. 1-'Aиλaîov é₤airovμevoɩ. Ant. xviii. ix. 7—ἐξητήσατο δὲ αὐτοὺς ἵνα δῶσιν αὐτῷ ὥραν προσεύξασθαι ἀδεῶς. Acta Polycarpi, vi. 39.—ëlos de máтpiov

ἦν Ἰουδαίοις, τὸ παρὰ τοῦ ἄρχοντος ἐξαιτεῖσθαι τοὺς κατακρίτους, ὥσπερ καὶ παρὰ Σαούλ ἐξῃτήσαντο τὸν Ἰω'Iwválav. Theophylact, Operum i. 483. C. in Lucam, xxiii.

*Cf. Ecclesiasticus xxvii. 4: As when one sifteth with a sieve, the refuse remaineth.

such was manifestly drawing to a close; the next event which he specifies being the departure to the mount. Here, then, I would place the introduction of the third and probably the last Paschal cup; and with it the institution of the remaining member of the Christian sacrament. In this part of the first eucharistic ordinance Judas would consequently not partake; though he must have partaken of the former.

IX. The next ceremony might be the singing or recitation, either wholly or in part, of the usual thanksgiving Psalms, called the great Hillel, or Psalm of praise, and consisting of the cxv. cxvi. cxvii. and cxviii. Psalms; which the rabbinical writers inform us were not confined to the Passover, but wont to be used at the other feasts also. Maimonides, indeed, supposes them to be recited while the lamb was eaten b: but this must not be too strictly understood. I place the Hillel here in obedience to the authority of St. Matthew and of St. Mark; both of whom specify the singing of some hymn, as the last circumstance before the whole company went out. It is true that this hymn was not necessarily the Hillel; and the singing of such an hymn, previous to the departure from the chamber, might have taken place with apparently an equal propriety after John xvii. 26.

X. The Paschal celebrity being concluded, still our Saviour and his eleven disciples might not immediately leave the supper chamber: and if they actually stayed there some time longer, this interval cannot be otherwise devoted than to the conversations, ending with the prayer of Jesus, which are successively recorded in the xiv. xv. xvi. and xvii. chapters of St. John. There is internal evidence that the subject-matter of these

b De Sacrificio Paschali, viii. 14.

chapters is a series of circumstances and discourses, all of consecutive occurrence; omitted perhaps by the other Evangelists because they came between the close of the Paschal ceremony, and the departure to the garden; and therefore, according to his practice, supplied by St. John. It is manifest that, even so early as the end of the fourteenth chapter, the time was come when they must have been preparing to leave the place where they were: ἐγείρεσθε, ἄγωμεν ἐνTevlev, though it may not amount to a command actually to set out, cannot imply less than that the time for setting out was at hand. Nor is it improbable that our Lord, who knew from the first all which was coming upon him, and whose invisible eye had accompanied the movements of Judas ever since he went out, would purposely delay his departure even after the supper was over; in order so to time his arrival in the garden, that the traitor might find him there.

XI. With the departure itself, when it actually took place, a circumstance specified by all the Evangelists, we must date the commencement of the second subdivision, laid down above. The time itself it may not be possible exactly to determine. But if we consider at what period in the evening Judas must have gone out, viz. before the shops were shut in Jerusalem; and at what period our Lord was apprehended, viz. before every body had retired to rest; and also what is asserted by Maimonides, that the eating of the Passover was always finished before midnight: we may see reason to conclude that it would be before midnight, rather than after it. And though the supper had not been begun until the first or the second hour of the night, still this would allow as many as four hours,

c De Sacris Temeratis, vi. 12. De Sacrificio Paschali, viii. 14.

or even five, for the transaction of the intermediate

events.

I assume, then, that our Lord set out for the mount of Olives in the last hour of the second watch of the night, between our eleven and twelve o'clock. The period of the year was the vernal equinox, and the day of the month about two days before the full of the moon; in which case the moon would be now not very far past her meridian, and the night would be enlightened until a late hour towards the morning. The suburbs of Jerusalem were full of gardens d; and Gethsemane, as the name implies (denoting the place of the winepresses *) was one of these, or in the vicinity of one of these: and Gethsemane, according to Jerome, was Ad radices montis Oliveti, and consequently to the east of Jerusalem: His feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east f: and, as we have seen from Josephus, it was five or six stades remote from the walls of the city, on the other side of the valley or torrent of Cedron 5-where, as Jerome also informs us, a church was subsequently built.

This quarter was on the road to Bethany; and the family of Lazarus might have possessions there. That for some reason at least our Lord was accustomed to resort thither is directly affirmed by St. Luke, who says that he went there according to his wont; and impliedly by St. John, who says that Judas also knew the place. The house, where the supper had just been celebrated, was probably situated in the eastern divi

* Jerome iv. Pars ia. 129. ad med.: renders Gethsemani, by

d Jos. Bell. Jud. v. iii. 2. vi. i. I. Nominibus. f Zech. xiv. 4.

vallis pinguissima, which is in fact its literal signification.

e Operum ii. Pars ia. 451. De Situ et g 2 Sam. xv. 23. 1 Kings ii. 37.