VI. BABYLONIAN AND ASSYRIAN IDOLS.

1,2. BEL and NEBO are Babylonian deities mentioned in Isa. xlvi. 1. Bel (the Belus of profane historians) was most probably a contraction of Baal, or the Sun. The planet Mercury has the name of Nebo or Nebu among the Zabians: it is found also in the composition of several Chaldæan names of persons, as Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuzaradan, &c. &c. 3. MERODACH is supposed to have been a Babylonish monarch, who was deified after his death.2 4. NISROCH was an Assyrian idol, adored by Sennacherib. (2 Kings xix. 37. Isa. xxxvii. 38.) Perhaps it was the solar fire, to whose anger he probably attributed the destruction of his army before Jerusalem; and whom he was in the act of adoring, when he was assassinated by his sons.3

VII. IDOLS WORSHIPPED IN SAMARIA DURING THE CAP

TIVITY.

represented as a woman, whose upper part was hung round with breasts, emblematic of the prolific powers of nature. Her image is said to have fallen down from Jupiter (Acts xix. 35.); whence some expositors have conjectured that it was an aerolite or atmospheric stone. But Pliny describes the image as having been made by one Caneti as from the wood of the vine. This notion of certain statues having descended on earth from the clouds to represent particular divinities, and to inspire devotion in their temples, was very common in the heathen world. The palladium at Troy, and the statue of Minerva at Athens, like this of the Ephesian Diana, are said to have dropped from the skies. The avarice of priests forged these stories to dupe and fleece a blind and bigoted people. The same ridiculous tale the Romans were taught to believe concerning their Ancilia or sacred shields, which their history represents to have fallen from heaven in the reign of Numa Pompilius.'

The deities noticed in the preceding pages are the chief idols anciently adored in Palestine; but there were other The Romans, also, it is well known, worshipped the virfalse gods worshipped there, which were imported into tues and affections of the mind, as Justice, Fidelity, or Good Samaria, after Shalmaneser had carried the ten tribes into Faith, Hope, Fortune, Fame, &c.; and the same superstition captivity, by the colony of foreigners which he sent to prevailed among the inhabitants of Malta, on which island occupy their country. These men brought their idols with Paul was shipwrecked. When they saw a venomous serpent them. The men of Babylon had their Succoth-benoth, which fasten on the hand of Paul, they concluded that he was a was the Babylonish Melitta, in honour of whom young murderer, whom vengeance-more correctly the goddess An women prostituted themselves. The men of Cuth or Cutha (Diké or Vindictive Justice)-had not permitted to live. (Acts brought their Nergal, or the Sun: it was represented by a xxviii. 4.) We learn from the mythological poet Hesiod, that cock, which animal was dedicated to Apollo, or the Sun. the Greeks had a female deity of this name.8 Nay, the The men of Hamath had Ashima; a deity of which nothing superstition of the Pagans went so far as to worship the certain is known. The rabbinical writers say, that it was gods and goddesses of all countries, even those which they compounded of a man and a goat; consequently it answered knew not. Thus there was at Athens an altar consecrated to the Pan of the Greek and Roman mythology. The peo-to the gods and goddesses of Europe, Asia, Libya, and to ple of Sepharvaim brought Adrammelech and Anammelech, the unknown God; which gave St. Paul occasion to deliver already noticed, The Avites brought Nibhaz and Tartak, that admirable discourse in the Areopagus, which is related which probably are two different names of the same idol. in Acts xvii. 23-31.9 As Nibhaz in Hebrew and Chaldee signifies quick, swift, rapid; and Tartak in both languages denotes a chariot, these two idols together may mean the sun mounted on his car.

In Lev. xxvi. 1. Moses prohibits the Israelites from setting up any IMAGE OF STONE, literally, figured stone, or stone of a picture, in their land. This prohibition was directed against the hieroglyphic figures or stones of the Egyptians, the meaning of which was known only to the priests. With these stones idolatry was practised. In Egypt they were regarded as the god Thoth, the god of sciences, and so late as the time of Ezekiel (viii. 8-11.) we find an imitation of this species of idolatry common among the Jews. According, therefore, to that fundamental principle of the Mosaic policy, which dictated the prevention of idolatry, it became absolutely necessary to prohibit stones with hieroglyphic inscriptions. Besides, in an age when so great a propensity to idolatry prevailed, stones with figures upon them which the people could not understand, would have been a temptation to idolatry, even though they had not been deified (as we know they actually were) by the Egyptians. The walls of the ancient temples, particularly that of Tentyra, and also the tombs of the kings in Egypt, are covered with such hieroglyphics; which it is impossible to see and not be struck with the necessity of the injunction contained in Deut. iv. 15-20.5

VIII. The idols mentioned in the New Testament are, doubtless, known to every classical reader. It will, therefore, suffice briefly to state here, that Jupiter was the supreme deity, or father of the gods, among the Greeks and Romans; Mercury was the god of eloquence, and the messenger of the other deities. The inhabitants of Lystra, in Lycaonia, struck with the miracle which had been wrought by St. Paul, considered him as Mercury, from his eloquence, and Barnabas as Jupiter, probably from his being the more majestic person of the two, and consequently, answering to the prevalent notions which they had imbibed from statues concerning him. The Diana of the Greeks and Romans was worshipped with most solemnity at Ephesus, where she is said to have been thanksgiving. Nothing is so natural in a journey over a dreary country, as for a solitary traveller to sit down, fatigued, and to make the vow that Jacob did :-If God will be with me, and keep me in the way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and raiment to put on, so that I reach my father's house in peace, &c. then I will give so much in charity :-or, again, that on first seeing the place which he has so long toiled to reach, the traveller should sit down and make a thanksgiving; in both cases setting up a stone as a memorial." Morier's Second Journey, p. 84.

1 Gesenius's Hebrew Lexicon, by Gibbs, p. 85. col. 2. p. 407. col. 2.

2 W. Lowth, on Jer. 1. 2.

Brown's Antiq, of the Jews, vol. ii. p. 32.
Michaelis's Commentaries, vol. iv. pp. 54-59.

▸ Jowett's Christian Researches in the Mediterranean, pp. 132. 134.

IX. Very numerous are the allusions in the Sacred Writings to the idolatrous rites of the heathen, and to their persuasions concerning their power and influence. A few only of these can be here noticed.

1. With regard to the opinions which were entertained concerning their gods:

:

(1.) The heathens had generally a notion, that all deities were local, and limited to a certain country or place, and had no power any where else, but in that country or place; and thus we read in 2 Kings xvii. 26. that the colonists sent by the king of Assyria to Samaria in place of the Israelites attributed their being plagued with lions to their not knowing the manner of the god of the land. In conformity with this notion, Jonah (who lived in the midst of the mixed multitude of Gentiles, that had forced themselves into the district of Galilee, with their various forms of worship) seems to have considered Jehovah as the local god of Judæa; and in order to escape from his presence, he rose to flee unto Tarshish, and went down to Joppa. (Jonah i. 3.), So also in 1 Kings xx. 23. it is said that the servants of the king of Syria persuaded their master, that the gods of the Israelites were gods of the hills; hearing, perhaps, that the law was given on Mount Sinai, that the temple was built on Mount Sion, and that they delighted to worship on high places; and therefore they imagined that they would have the advantage by fighting the Israelites in the plain. It is not unlikely that such of the Israelites who were murmurers in the wilderness (being those among them who were most tainted with idolatry) entertained the same opinion, and believed that God was a local deity and his power limited; for in this manner it is that the Psalmist represents them reasoning with themselves,-Can God furnish a table in the wilder ness? Behold he smote the rock that the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed, but can he give bread also? Can he provide flesh for his people? (Psal. xxviii. 19, 20.)

(2.) All the nations of antiquity, especially in the East, supposed the Deity to be surrounded by light so dazzling as to overpower all mortal vision. This mode of speaking was, in a later age, transferred to the divine majesty and perfections, as being utterly incomprehensible to the human faculties. (Psal. civ. 1-3. Ezek. i. 1 Tim. vi. 16.)10

(3.) "Another common opinion which prevailed among the heathens, was, that sometimes the immortal gods, disguised in human form, deigned to visit mortals, and con

p.

Pliny, Nat. Hist. lib. xvi. c. 40.

Harwood's Introd. vol. ii. p. 360. See also Biscoe on the Acts, vol. i. 307. and Dr. Clarke's Travels, vol. vii. pp. 21, 22.

Opera et Dies, v. 254-258.

On the subject of this altar, see vol. i. pp. 196, 197.

10 Robinson's Gr. Lexicon to the New Test. voce Aporitos. Bloomfield's Annotations on the New Test. vol. viii. pp. 286, 287.

versed with them. According to their theology, Jupiter and Mercury accompanied each other on these expeditions. Agreeably to this notion, which universally obtained among the Pagans, we find that the Lycaonians, when they saw a miracle performed upon a helpless cripple, immediately cried out in the last astonishment,-The gods are come down unto us in the likeness of men! (Acts xiv. 11.) Instantly Paul and Barnabas were metamorphosed, by their imaginations, into Jove and Mercury, who, according to their creed, were inseparable companions in these visits. These heathens (as we have already intimated) recognised Jupiter in Barnabas, because, probably, his appearance and person were more specious and striking; and Paul, whose bodily presence was weak, but whose public talents and rhetoric were distinguished, they persuaded themselves could be no other than Mercury, the eloquent interpreter of the gods."

having played the harlot, that is, worshipped idols on every high mountain, and under every green tree. Nor were only mountains, woods, and valleys appointed for the_worship of false gods; almost every thing else, among the Pagans, bore the marks of idolatry. Herodotuss says, that the Phonicians, who were the greatest seamen in the world, adorned the heads and sterns of their ships with the images of their gods and Luke (Acts xxviii. 11.) has observed, that the vessel which carried St. Paul from Malta to Syracuse had the sign of Castor and Pollux; and it is not improbable, that the vessel in which Europa was carried away had the sign of a bull, which gave occasion to the poets to say, that Jupiter carried her away under that shape.9

4. The statues of the deities were carried in procession, on the shoulders of their votaries. This circumstance is distinctly stated by Isaiah, in his masterly exposure of the (4.) Further, when persons were wrongfully oppressed insanity of idolatry. (xlvi. 7.) In this way do the Hindoos and afflicted, the heathens believed that the gods interfered at present carry their gods; and, indeed, so exact a picture in their behalf. The tokens of their presence were earth- has the prophet drawn of the idolatrous processions of this quakes, the opening of doors, and the loosing of their bonds.2 people, that he might be almost supposed to be sitting among In this manner God bore a miraculous testimony of his ap- them, when he delivered his prediction to the Jews. It was probation to his faithful servants Paul and Silas, when im- also customary to make shrines or portable models of the prisoned at Philippi; and the knowledge of this fact will temples of those deities which were the principal objects of account for the extreme fright of the gaoler, which termi- worship, and to place a small image therein, when they tranated so happily for his salvation. (Acts xvi. 25-29.)3 velled or went to war, as also for their private devotions at 2. Although the priesthood constituted a distinct class of home. From the celebrity of the temple of Diana at Ephepersons among the Jews, yet among the Romans, and it sus, it is but natural to suppose, that there would be a great should seem also among the Greeks, they did not form a demand for models of it, which would become a kind of subseparate order. Among the Romans they were chosen from stitute for the temple itself, to such of her votaries as lived among the most honourable men in the state. In the eastern in distant parts of Greece. It is evident from Acts xix. 24 provinces of the Roman empire, persons were annually-27. that the manufacture of such shrines proved a source selected from among the more opulent citizens to preside of great emolument to Demetrius, and the artisans employed over the things pertaining to religious worship, and to exhibit by him, who might naturally expect a brisk demand for their annual games at their own expense in honour of the gods, in models, from the vast concourse of worshippers who were the same manner as the ædiles did at Rome. These officers present at the annual solemnization of the games in honour received their appellations from the districts to which they of Diana: which demand not equalling their expectations, belonged, as Syriarch (Zupans), Phoeniciarch (van), Demetrius might ascribe his loss to St. Paul's preaching and the like: of course, in proconsular Asia, they were called against idolatry, as the apostle had now (Acts xix. 8. 10.) Asiarchs (Aggx). The temple of Diana at Ephesus was been more than two years at Ephesus; so that all they which erected at the common expense of all the Grecian cities in dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Asia Minor. It is evident from Acts xix. 31. that at that Greeks. The tabernacle of Moloch (Amos v. 26.) is supvery time they were solemnizing games in honour of Diana, posed to have been a portable temple or shrine, made after who was one of the great celestial deities (the dii majorum the chief temple of that "horrid king," as Milton emphatigentium of the Romans), and who was, therefore, called the cally terms him.12 GREAT GODDESS, by the recorder or town-clerk of Ephesus. (Acts xix. 35.) This circumstance will account for St. Paul's being hurried before the tribunal of the Asiarchs.

3. We learn from various profane authors that High Places, or eminences, were considered to be the abode of the heathen deities, or at least as the most proper for sacrificing; and, therefore, sacrifices were offered either on the summits of mountains or in woods. Thus it was the custom of the ancient Persians to go up to the tops of the loftiest mountains, and there to offer sacrifices to Jupiter, distinguishing by that appellation the whole expanse of heaven. Further, as most of these sacrifices were accompanied with prostitution, or other impure rites, they seem to have chosen the most retired spots, to conceal their abominations. On this account, and also to obliterate every vestige of, or temptation to, idolatry, the Israelites were commanded to offer sacrifices to Jehovah, only and exclusively in the place which he should appoint (Deut. xii. 14.); and were also prohibited from sacrificing in high places (Lev. xxvi. 30.), and from placing a grove of trees near his altar. (Deut. xvi. 21.) The profligate Manasseh, however, utterly disregarded these prohibitions, when he built up again the high places, and reared up altars for Baal, and made a grove. (2 Kings xxi. 3.) Thus Isaiah (lvii. 4, 5.) reproached the Israelites with the like prevarication, when he said, Are ye not children of transgression, a seed of falsehood, inflaming yourselves with idols under every green tree, slaying the children in the valleys under the clefts of the rocks? And Jeremiah (iii. 6.) reproaches them with

Dr. Harwood's Introd. vol. ii. p. 359.

Elsner, in his notes on Acts xvi. 26. has shown, by a series of most apposite quotations, that each of these things was accounted a token of the divine appearance in behalf of those who suffered unjustly, and who were dear to the gods.-Observationes Sacræ, vol. i. pp. 441-444. a Biscoe on the Acts, vol. i. p. 313.

Grotius, Hammond, Poole's Synopsis, Wetstein, and Doddridge on Acts xix. 31. Biscoe on the Acts, vol. i. pp. 303, 304. Robinson's Greek Lexicon, voce Ariapxas.

• See Elsner's Observationes Sacræ, vol. i. pp. 460, 461. Herodotus, lib. i. c. 131.

* In Sir William Ouseley's Travels in the East (vol. i. pp. 359–401.) the reader will find a very learned and very interesting memoir on the sacred trees of the ancients, which illustrates many important passages of sacred writ.

"When the heathens offered a sacrifice to any of those numerous divinities which they worshipped, it was usual on this sacred solemnity, in which religion and friendship were harmoniously interwoven and united with each other, for all the sacrificers to have their temples adorned with chaplets o flowers, and the victims, too, that were led to the altar, were dressed with fillets and garlands. Abundant examples of this custom are found in almost every page of the Greek and Roman classics. The Lycaonians, who recognised Jupiter in Barnabas, and Mercury in Paul, and, believing themselves honoured with a visit from these divinities, from the miracle which Paul had wrought in restoring a cripple to the full use of his limbs, intended to show their veneration of this illustrious condescension to them by celebrating a public and solemn sacrifice, and decked themselves, and the victims they intended to immolate, in this manner.13 The priest, therefore, of Jove, whom it seems they worshipped as the guardian of their city, and whose temple stood a little way out of the town, immediately brought victims and chaplets of flowers to crown the apostles, agreeably to the pagan rites, and in this manner advanced towards the door of the house, where the apostles lodged, designing to sacrifice to them. This custom, here mentioned, was in conformity with the heathen ritual. All wore garlands at a heathen sacrifice, both the people and the victims."15

5. When the victim devoted to the sacrifice was brought before the altar, the priest, having implored the divine favour and acceptance by prayer, poured wine upon its head; and after the performance of this solemn act of religion, which

Hist. 1. iii. c. 37.

Biscoe on the Acts, vol. i. pp. 326, 327.

10 Ward's History, &c. of the Hindoos, vol. ii. p. 330.
11 Biscoe on the Acts, vol. i. pp. 301, 302. 304.

12 See Dr. Clarke's Travels, vol. vi. pp. 215-218., for some curious information concerning the portable shrines of the ancients.

13 Acts xiv. 13. Then the priest of Jupiter, which was before their city, brought oxen and garlands unto the gates, and would have done sacrifice unto the people.

14 Προ της πολεως. Ibid. Το ΠΡΟ ΤΗΣ ΠΟΛΕΩΣ Ασκληπιείον. The temple of Esculapius which was before the town, or a little way out of the city. Polybius, lib. i. p. 17. edit. Hanov. 1619.

15 Dr. Harwood's Introduction, vol. ii. p. 301. Wetstein and Dr. A Clarke on Acts xiv. 11-15.

142

ALLUSIONS TO THE IDOLATROUS RITES

[PART III. CHAP. VI.

Lev. xix. 28.) For the heathens did these things not only by pretending that certain divinities uttered oracles. The
in honour of their gods, but also in testimony of their grief
for the loss of any of their neighbours. The Scythians, as we
are informed by Herodotus, were accustomed to slash their
arms on the death of their kings; and it is not improbable
that some similar custom obtained among some one of the
neighbouring nations. The modern Persians to this day cut
and lacerate themselves, when celebrating the anniversary
of the assassination of Hossein, whom they venerate as a
martyr for the Moslem faith.2

researches of enlightened travellers have laid open the contrivances by which these frauds were managed, at least in Greece." Various were the means by which the credulity of the people was imposed upon. Sometimes they charmed serpents, extracted their poison, and thus rendered them harmless;-a practice to which there are frequent allusions in the Old Testament, and it must have been a gainful and an established traffic.

7. The heathens showed their veneration for their deities NERS into futurity, whom the Israelites were prohibited from X. Moses has enumerated seven different sorts of DIVIin various ways, the knowledge of which serves to illustrate consulting (Deut. xviii. 10, 11.), viz. 1. Those who used many passages of Scripture. quent than prostitution of women, with examples of which by auguries, using lots, &c.;-2. Observers of times, those Thus nothing was more fre- divination, that is, who endeavoured to penetrate futurity the ancient writers abound. According to Justin, the Cy- who pretended to foretell future events by present occurprian women gained that portion which their husbands re- rences, and who predicted political or physical changes from ceived with them, on marriage, by previous public prostitu- the aspects of the planets, eclipses, motion of the clouds, &c.; tion. And the Phoenicians, as we are informed by Augustine,-3. Enchanters, either those who charmed serpents, or those made a gift to Venus of the gain acquired by the same dis- who drew auguries from inspecting the entrails of beasts, gusting means. biting the Israelites from committing any such atrocities. pretended to bring down certain celestial influences to their Hence we may account for Moses prohi- observing the flights of birds, &c.;-4. Witches, those who (Lev. xix. 29.)-Others dedicated to them the spoils of war; aid by means of herbs, drugs, perfumes, &c.;-5. Charmers, others, votive tablets and other offerings in commemoration those who used spells for the purposes of divination;—6. Conof supposed benefits conferred on them. tended to inquire by means of one spirit to get oracular sulters with familiar spirits,—Pythonesses, those who preanswers from another of a superior order; and, 7. Wizards or necromancers, those who (like the witch at Endor) professed to evoke the dead, in order to learn from them the secrets of the invisible world.

A more frequent and indeed very general custom was the carrying of marks on their body in honour of the object of their worship. This is expressly forbidden in Lev. xix. 28. To this day, all the castes of the Hindoos bear on their foreheads, or elsewhere, what are called the sectarian marks, which not only distinguish them in a civil, but also in a religious point of view, from each other. Most of the barbarous nations lately discovered have their faces, arms, breasts, &c. curiously carved or tatooed, probably for superstitious purposes. Ancient writers abound with accounts of marks made on the face, arms, &c. in honour of different idols,and to this the inspired penman alludes (Rev. xiii. 16, 17. xiv. 9. 11. xv. 2. xvi. 2. xix. 20. xx. 4.), where false worshippers are represented as receiving in their hands, and in their forehead, the marks of the beast.

The prohibition in Lev. xix. 27. against the Israelites rounding the corners of their heads, and marring the corners of their beards, evidently refers to customs which must have existed among the Egyptians, during their residence among that people; though it is now difficult to determine what those customs were. shave or cut their hair round in honour of Bacchus, who (they Herodotus informs us, that the Arabs say) wore his hair in this way; and that the Macians, a people of Libya, cut their hair round, so as to leave a tuft on the top of the head; in this manner the Chinese cut their hair to the present day. This might have been in honour of some idol, and, therefore, forbidden to the Israelites.

The hair was much used in divination among the ancients; and for purposes of religious superstition among the Greeks; and particularly about the time of the giving of this law, as this is supposed to have been the era of the Trojan war. We learn from Homer, that it was customary for parents to dedicate the hair of their children to some god; which, when they came to manhood, they cut off and consecrated to the deity. Achilles, at the funeral of Patroclus, cut off his golden locks, which his father had dedicated to the river god Sperchius, and threw them into the flood. From Virgil's account of the death of Dido, we learn that the topmost lock of hair was dedicated to the infernal gods. If the hair was rounded, and dedicated for purposes of this kind, it will at once account for the prohibition in this verse.10

A religion so extravagant as that of pagaism could not have subsisted so long, had not the priests by whom it was managed contrived to secure the devotion of the multitudes

1 Herodotus, lib. iv. c. 71.

Mr. Morier has given a long and interesting narrative of this anniversary. "It is," he says, "necessary to have witnessed the scenes that are exhibited in their cities, to judge of the degree of fanaticism which possesses them at this time. I have seen some of the most violent of them, as they vociferated Ya Hossein! walk about the streets almost naked, with only their loins covered and their bodies streaming with blood, by the voluntary cuts which they had given to themselves, either as acts of love, anguish, or mortification. Such must have been the cuttings of which we read in Holy Writ." Morier's Second Journey, p. 176. Hist. lib. xviii. c. 5.

185.

Calmet on Lev. xix. 29. Michaelis's Commentaries, vol. iv. pp. 183

See much curious information on this subject in Dr. Clarke's Travels, vol. vi. pp. 444-448. 8vo. and Mr. Dodwell's Classical Tour in Greece, vol. pp. 341, 342.

i.

See Forbes's Oriental Memoirs, vol. iii. p. 15.
Herod. lib. iii. c. 8. and lib. iv. c. 175.

• Hiad. xxiii. 142, &c.

• Eneid. iv. 698.

1 Calmet, and Dr. A. Clarke on Lev. xix. 27.

sacred history, viz. by the cup,-by arrows,-by inspecting the livers of slaughtered animals, and by the staff. Four kinds of divination are particularly mentioned in ancient: it certainly prevailed in Egypt at the time of Joseph (Gen. xliv. 5.), and it has from time immemorial been pre1. Divination by the cup appears to have been the most valent among the Asiatics, who have a tradition (the origin of which is lost in the lapse of ages) that there was a cup which had passed successively into the hands of different presenting in it the whole world, and all the things which potentates, and which possessed the strange property of rewere then doing in it. The Persians to this day call it the Cup of Jemsheed, from a very ancient king of Persia of that name, whom late historians and poets have confounded with Bacchus, Solomon, Alexander the Great, &c. when digging the foundations of Persepolis. To this cup filled with the elixir of immortality, they say, was discovered This cup the Persian poets have numerous allusions; and to the intelligence supposed to have been received from it they ascribe the great prosperity of their ancient monarchs, as by it they understood all events, past, present, and future. Many of information of futurity by means of a cup. Thus when Mr. the Mohammedan princes and governors affect still to have Norden was at Dehr or Derri in the farthest part of Egypt, in a very dangerous situation, from which he and his com pany endeavoured to extricate themselves by exerting great spirit, a spiteful and powerful Arab in a threatening way told one of their people, whom they had sent to him, that he knew what sort of people they were, that he had consulted his cup, and had found by it that they were those of whom one of their prophets had said, that Franks would come in disguise, and passing every where, examine the state of the country, and afterwards bring over a great number of other Franks, conquer the country, and exterminate all. It was precisely the same thing that Joseph meant when he talked of divining by his cup.14

cup among the Abyssinians, Chaldees, and Egyptians, was Julius Serenus tells us, that the method of divining by the to fill it first with water, then to throw into it their plates of who came to consult the oracle used certain forms of incangold and silver, together with some precious stones, whereon were engraven certain characters: and after that the persons tation, and so calling upon the devil, received their answers several ways; sometimes by articulate sounds, sometimes by the characters, which were in the cup, arising upon the surface of the water, and by this arrangement forming the answer; and many times by the visible appearing of the persons themselves about whom the oracle was consulted.

cup; although, according to the superstition of those times, supernatural
11 See Dr. Clarke's Travels, vol. vi. pp. 479, 480.; also vol. iii. p. 298.
12 We have no reason to infer that Joseph practised divination by the
influence might be attributed to his cup.
related in Gen. xliv. was merely intended to deceive his brethren for a
And as the whole transaction
short time, he might as well affect divination by his cup as affect to believə
that they had stolen it.

13 Trav. vol. ii. p. 150.

14 Hariner, vol. ii. p. 475.