The report is certainly false; but this false report is founded on the supposition that there was such a custom, and so far confirms the account given from the Mishna. The Mishna was composed in the middle of the second century according to Prideaux; Lardner ascribes it to the year of Christ 180.

Casaubon has a quotation from Maimonides which farther confirms this account: - Exercitat. in Baronii Annales, Art. lxxvi. Ann. 34. Numbers 119. Auctor est Maimonides in Perek xiii. ejus libri ex opere Jad, solitum fieri, ut cum reus, sententiam mortis passus, a loco judicii exibat ducendus ad supplicium, praecedoret ipsum zwrkj khrux, praeco; et haec verba diceret: Ille exit occidendus morte illa, quia transgressus est transgressione illa, in loco illo, tempore illo, et sunt ejus ret testes ille et ille. Qui noverit aliquid ad ejus innoeentiam probandam, veniat, et loquatur pro eo. "It was customary when sentence of death was passed upon a criminal, and he was led out from the seat of judgment to the place of punishment, a crier went before, and spoke as follows: - 'This man is going out to suffer death by - because he has transgressed by - such a transgression, in such a place, in such a time; and the witnesses against him are -. He who may know any thing relative to his innocence let him come and speak in his behalf.'" Now it is plain from the history of the four Evangelists, that in the trlal and condemnation of Jesus no such rule was observed; though, according to the account of the Mishna, it must have been in practice at that time, no proclamation was made for any person to bear witness to the innocence and character of Jesus; nor did any one voluntarily step forth to give his attestation to it. And our saviour seems to refer to such a custom, and to claim the benefit of it, by his answer to the high priest, when he asked him of his disciples and of his doctrine: "I spoke openly to the world; I ever taught in the synagogue and in the temple, whither the Jews always resort; and in secret have I said nothing. Why askest thou me? ask them who heard me, what I have said unto them: behold, they know what I said, "John xviii. 20, 21. This, therefore, was one remarkable instance of hardship and injustice, among others predicted by the prophet, which our saviour underwent in his trial and sufferings.

St. Paul likewise, in similar circumstances, standing before the judgment seat of Festus, seems to complain of the same unjust treatment; that no one was called, or would appear, to vindicate his character. "My manner of life (thn biwsin mou, yrwd dori, 'my generation') from my youth, which was at the first among my own nation at Jerusalem, know all the Jews, who knew me from the beginning, if they would testify; that after the straitest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee; " Acts xxvi. 4, 5.

rwd dor signifies age, duration, the time which one man or many together pass in this world, in this place; the course, tenor, or manner of life. The verb rwd dor signifies, according to Castell, ordinatam vitam sive aetatem egit, ordinavit, ordine constituit. "He passed a certain course of life, he ordained, "&c. In Arabic, curavit, administravit, "he took care of, administered to." Was he stricken "He was smitten to death"] The Septuagint read twml lemaveth, eiv qanaton, "to death. " And so the Coptic and Saidic Versions, from the Septuagint; MSS. St. Germain de Prez.

"Origen, "(Contra Celsum, lib. i. p. 370, edit. 1733,) after having quoted at large this prophecy concerning the Messiah, "tells us, that having once made use of this passage in a dispute against some that were accounted wise among the Jews, one of them replied, that the words did not mean one man, but one people, the Jews, who were smitten of God and dispersed among the Gentiles for their conversion; that he then urged many parts of this prophecy to show the absurdity of this interpretation, and that he seemed to press them the hardest by this sentence, apo twn anomiwn tou laou mon hcqh eiv qanaton, 'for the iniquity of my people was he smitten to death.' " Now as Origen, the author of the Hexapla, must have understood Hebrew, we cannot suppose that he would have urged this last quotation as so decisive if the Greek Version had not agreed here with the Hebrew text; nor that these wise Jews would have been at all distressed by this quotation, unless their Hebrew text had read agreeably to eiv qanaton, "to death, "on which the argument principally depended; for, by quoting it immediately, they would have triumphed over him, and reprobated his Greek version. This, whenever they could do it, was their constant practice in their disputes with the Christians. Jerome, in his Preface to the Psalms, says, Nuper cum Hebraeo disputans, quaedam pro Domino Salvatore de Psalmis testimonia protulisti: volensque ille te illudere, per sermones fere singulos asserebat, non ita haberi in Hebraeo, ut tu de LXX. opponebas. "Lately disputing with a Hebrew, - thou advancedst certain passages out of the Psalms which bear testimony to the Lord the saviour; but he, to elude thy reasoning, asserted that almost all thy quotations have an import in the Hebrew text different from what they had in the Greek. " And Origen himself, who labouriously compared the Hebrew text with the Septuagint, has recorded the necessity of arguing with the Jews from such passages only as were in the Septuagint agreeable to the Hebrew: ina prov ioudaioiv dialegomenoi mh proferwmen autoi ta mh keimena en toiv antigrafoiv autwn, kai ina sugcrhswmeqa toiv feromenoiv parÆ ekeinoiv. See Epist. ad African. p. 15, 17. Wherefore as Origen had carefully compared the Greek version of the Septuagint with the Hebrew text, and speaks of the contempt with which the Jews treated all appeals to the Greek version where it differed from their Hebrew text; and as he puzzled and confounded the learned Jews by urging upon them the reading eiv qanaton, "unto death, "in this place; it seems almost impossible not to conclude, both from Origen's argument and the silence of his Jewish adversaries, that the Hebrew text at that time actually had twml lemaveth, "to death, "agreeably to the version of the Septuagint. - Dr. Kennicott.

Is. 53:1-3 No where in all the Old Testament is it so plainly and full prophesied, that Christ ought to suffer, and then to enter into his glory, as in this chapter. But to this day few discern, or wil acknowledge, that Divine power which goes with the word. The authenti and most important report of salvation for sinners, through the Son of God, is disregarded. The low condition he submitted to, and his appearance in the world, were not agreeable to the ideas the Jews ha formed of the Messiah. It was expected that he should come in pomp instead of that, he grew up as a plant, silently, and insensibly. He had nothing of the glory which one might have thought to meet with him His whole life was not only humble as to outward condition, but als sorrowful. Being made sin for us, he underwent the sentence sin ha exposed us to. Carnal hearts see nothing in the Lord Jesus to desire a interest in him. Alas! by how many is he still despised in his people and rejected as to his doctrine and authority!

Is. 53:4-9 In these verses is an account of the sufferings of Christ also of the design of his sufferings. It was for our sins, and in ou stead, that our Lord Jesus suffered. We have all sinned, and have com short of the glory of God. Sinners have their beloved sin, their ow evil way, of which they are fond. Our sins deserve all griefs an sorrows, even the most severe. We are saved from the ruin, to which by sin we become liable, by laying our sins on Christ. This atonement wa to be made for our sins. And this is the only way of salvation. Ou sins were the thorns in Christ's head, the nails in his hands and feet the spear in his side. He was delivered to death for our offences. By his sufferings he purchased for us the Spirit and grace of God, to mortify our corruptions, which are the distempers of our souls. We ma well endure our lighter sufferings, if He has taught us to esteem all things but loss for him, and to love him who has first loved us.

Is. 53:10-12 Come, and see how Christ loved us! We could not put him in our stead, but he put himself. Thus he took away the sin of the world by taking it on himself. He made himself subject to death, which to u is the wages of sin. Observe the graces and glories of his state of exaltation. Christ will not commit the care of his family to any other God's purposes shall take effect. And whatever is undertaken accordin to God's pleasure shall prosper. He shall see it accomplished in the conversion and salvation of sinners. There are many whom Chris justifies, even as many as he gave his life a ransom for. By faith we are justified; thus God is most glorified, free grace most advanced self most abased, and our happiness secured. We must know him, an believe in him, as one that bore our sins, and saved us from sinkin under the load, by taking it upon himself. Sin and Satan, death an hell, the world and the flesh, are the strong foes he has vanquished What God designed for the Redeemer he shall certainly possess. When he led captivity captive, he received gifts for men, that he might giv gifts to men. While we survey the sufferings of the Son of God, let u remember our long catalogue of transgressions, and consider him a suffering under the load of our guilt. Here is laid a firm foundatio for the trembling sinner to rest his soul upon. We are the purchase of his blood, and the monuments of his grace; for this he continuall pleads and prevails, destroying the works of the devil __________________________________________________________________

Original Hebrew