Page:Lives of the apostles of Jesus Christ (1836).djvu/491

 extermination should be obtained from God by prayers. Or, second,—to make a more simple and rational supposition,—he may have been so struck by the boldness of the apostles, and by the evidence of the miracle performed by them, as to express a milder opinion on them at that particular moment; but afterwards may have formed a harsher judgment, when, contrary to all expectation, he saw the wonderful growth of Christianity, and heard with wrath and uncontrollable indignation, the stern rebuke of Stephen. But these loose relics of tradition, offered on such very suspicious authority as that of a Jew of the ages when Christianity had become so odious to Judaism by its triumphs, may without hesitation be rejected as wholly inconsistent with the noble spirit of Gamaliel, as expressed in the clear, impartial account of Luke; and both of the suppositions here offered by others, to reconcile sacred truth with mere falsehood, are thus rendered entirely unnecessary.

At the feet of this Gamaliel, then, was Saul brought up. (Acts xxii. 3.) It has been observed on this passage, by learned commentators, that this expression refers to the fashion followed by students, of sitting and lying down on the ground or on mats, at the feet of their teacher, who sat by himself on a higher place. And indeed so many are the traces of this fashion among the recorded labors of the Hebrews, that it does not seem possible to call it in question. The labors of Scaliger in his "Elenchus Trihaeresii," have brought to light many illustrations of the point; besides which another is offered in a well-known passage from, or "Fragments of the Fathers." Speaking of the wise, it is said, "Make thyself dusty in the dust of their feet,"——meaning that the young student is to be a diligent hearer at the feet of the wise;—thus raising a truly "learned dust," if the figure may be so minutely carried out. The same thing is farther illustrated by a passage which Buxtorf has given in his Lexicon of the Talmud, in the portion entitled "Take away your sons from the study of the Bible, and make them sit between the knees of the disciples of the wise;" which is equivalent to a recommendation of oral, as superior to written instruction. The same principle, of varying the mode in which the mind receives knowledge, is recognized in modern systems of education, with a view to avoid the self-conceit and intolerant pride which solitary study is apt to engender, as well as because, from the living voice of the teacher, the young scholar learns in that practical, simple mode which is most valuable and efficient, as it is that, in which alone all his knowledge of the living and speaking world must be obtained. It should be observed, however, that Buxtorf seems to have understood this passage rather differently from Witsius, whose construction is followed in the translation given above. Buxtorf, following the ordinary meaning of seems to prefer the sense of "meditation." He rejects the common translation—"study of the Bible," as altogether irreligious. "In hoc sensu, praeceptum impium est." He says that other Glosses of the passage give it the meaning of "boyish talk," (garritu puerorum.) But this is a sense perfectly contradictory to all usage of the word, and was evidently invented only to avoid the seemingly irreligious character of the literal version. But why may not all difficulties be removed by a reference to the primary signification, which is "solitary meditation," in opposition to "instruction by others?"

We have in the gospel history itself, also, the instance of Mary. (Luke x. 39.) The passage in Mark iii. 32, "The multitude sat down around him," farther illustrates