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new, 'wherein never man before was laid;' also that it lay in a garden, and was the property of Joseph himself. This garden was in the place where Jesus was crucified.' Luke describes the character of Joseph as a good man and a just,' adding, that he had not consented to the counsel and deed of them,' i. e. of the Jewish authorities. From this remark it is clear that Joseph was a member of the Sanhedrim: a conclusion which is corroborated by the epithet counsellor,' applied to him by both Luke and Mark. Tradition represents Joseph as having been one of the Seventy, and as having first preached the Gospel in our own country.

JOSEPH CALLED BARSABAS was one of the two persons whom the primitive church, immediately after the resurrection of Christ, nominated, praying that the Holy Spirit would show which of them should enter the apostolic band in place of the wretched Judas. On the lots being cast, it proved that not Joseph, but Matthias, was chosen.

Joseph bore the honourable surname of Justus, which was not improbably given him on account of his well-known probity. He was one of those who had companied with the Apostles all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out amongst them, beginning from the baptism of John,' until the ascension (Acts i. 15, sq.). Tradition also accounted him one of the Seventy.

1. JO'SES, son of Mary and Cleopas, and brother of James the Less, of Simon and of Jude, and, consequently, one of those who are called the brethren of our Lord (Matt. xiii. 55; xxvii. 56; Mark vi. 3; xv. 40, 47). [JAMES; JUDE.] He was the only one of these brethren who was not an apostle-a circumstance which has given occasion to some unsatisfactory conjecture. It is perhaps more remarkable that three of them were apostles than that the fourth was not.

2. JOSES [BARNABAS].

JOSH'UA. This is the name of four persons in the Old Testament, and means whose salvation is Jehovah. The most distinguished of the four persons so called, who occur in the Old Testament, is Joshua the son of Nun, of the tribe of Ephraim, the assistant and successor of Moses. His name was originally Oshea, salvation (Num. xiii. 8); and it seems that the subsequent alteration of it by Moses (Num. xiii. 16) was significant, and proceeded on the same principle as that of Abram into Abraham (Gen. xvii. 5), and of Sarai into Sarah (Gen. xvii. 15).

In the Bible Joshua is first mentioned as being the victorious commander of the Israelites in their battle against the Amalekites at Rephidim (Exod. xvii. 8-16). He distinguished himself by his courage and intelligence during and after the exploration of the land of Canaan, on which occasion he represented his tribe, which was that of Ephraim (Num. xiii., xiv.). Moses, with the divine sanction, appointed him to command the Israelites, even during his own lifetime (Num. xxvii. 18-23; Deut. iii. 28; xxxi. 23). After the death of Moses he led the Israelites over the Jordan, fortified a camp at Gilgal (Josh. ix. 6; x. 6-43), conquered the southern and middle portions of Canaan (vi.-x.), and also some of the northern districts (ix.). But the hostile nations, although subdued, were not entirely driven out and destroyed (xiii.; xxiii. 13; Judg. i. 27-35).

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JOSHUA

In the seventh year after entering the land, it was distributed among the various tribes, which then commenced individually to complete the conquest by separate warfare (xv. 13, sq.; xvi. 10; xvii. 12, sq.). Joshua died 110 years old (B.c. 1427), and was buried at Timnath-serah (Josh. xxiv.), on Mount Ephraim.

There occur some vestiges of the deeds of Joshua in other historians besides those of the Bible. Procopius mentions a Phoenician inscription near the city of Tingis in Mauritania, the sense of which was:- We are those who fled before the face of Joshua the robber, the son of Nun.'

The book of Joshua is so called from the personage who occupies the principal place in the narration of events contained therein, and may be considered as a continuation of the Pentateuch. The Pentateuch, and especially Deuteronomy, are repeatedly referred to in the book of Joshua, the narration of which begins with the death of Moses and extends to the death of Joshua, embracing a chronological period of somewhat less than thirty years. The subject of the book is thus briefly stated in ch. i. 5, 6: There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. Be strong and of a good courage; for unto this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance the land which I sware unto their fathers to give them.' In these two verses is also indicated the division of the book into two principal portions, with reference to the conquest and the distribution of the land of Canaan. The conquest is narrated in the first twelve, and the distribution in the following ten chapters. In the last two chapters are subjoined the events subsequent to the distribution up to the death of Joshua. The history of the conquest of Canaan is a series of miracles, than which none more remarkable are recorded in any part of sacred history. The passage into the Promised Land, as well as that out of Egypt, was through water. Jericho was taken not by might, but by the falling of the walls on the blast of the trumpets of seven priests; and in the war against Gibeon the day was prolonged to afford time for the completion of the victory.

It is generally granted that the first twelve chapters form a continuous whole: although the author, in ch. x. 13, refers to another work, he not merely transcribes but intimately combines the quotation with the tenor of his narration. It is certain that there sometimes occur episodes which seem to interrupt the chronological connection, as for instance the portion intervening between chs. i., ii., and iii. 1. But it belongs to the nature of detailed historical works to contain such episodes.

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The whole tenor of the first twelve chapters bespeaks an eye-witness who bore some part in the transactions-a fact proved not merely by such expressions as we passed over,' in ch. v. 1, but especially by the circumstantial vividness of the narrative, which clearly indicates that the writer was an eye-witness.

The statement that the monuments which he erected were extant to this day, indicates that Joshua did not promulgate the book immediately after the events narrated (comp. iv. 9; vii. 26; viii. 28, 29; x. 27). The book, however, could not have been written very long after the time of

JOSHUA

Joshua, because we find that Rahab was still alive when it was composed (vi. 29). The section from chapter xiii. to xxii. inclusive, which contains an account of the distribution of the land, seems to be based upon written documents, in which the property was accurately described. That this was the case is likely not merely on account of the peculiar nature of the diplomatic contents by which this Doomsday Book' is distinguished from the preceding part of Joshua, but also on account of the statement in chapter xviii. 4, where Joshua says to the children of Israel, Give out from among you three men from each tribe: and I will send them, and they shall rise, and go through the land, and describe it according to the inheritance of them; and they shall come again to me.' Compare ver. 6, 'Ye therefore shall describe the land into seven parts.' Compare also verses 8 and 9, And the men arose and went away; and Joshua charged them that went to describe the land, saying, Go, and walk through the land, and describe it, and come again to me, that I may here cast lots for you before the Lord in Shiloh. And the men went and passed through the land, and described it by cities into seven parts in a book, and came again to Joshua to the host at Shiloh.'

The author of the book of Joshua frequently repeats the statements of the Pentateuch in a more detailed form, and mentions the changes which had taken place since the Pentateuch was written. Compare Num. xxxiv. 13 and 14, with Josh. xiii. 7, sq.; Num. xxxii. 37, with Josh. xiii. 17, sq.; Num. xxxv. with Josh. xxi.

There is also considerable similarity between the following passages in the books of Joshua and Judges:-Josh. xiii. 4, Judg. iii. 3; Josh. xv. 13, sq., Judg. i. 10, 20; Josh. xv. 15-19, Judg. i. 11-15; Josh. xv. 62, Judg. i. 21; Josh. xvi. 10, Judg. i. 29; Josh. xvii. 12, Judg. i. 27; Josh. xix. 47, Judg. xviii.

It seems to have been the intention of the author of chapters xiii.-xxii. to furnish authentic records concerning the arrangements made by Joshua after the conquest of Canaan. Since we do not find in the subsequent history that the tribes, after the death of Joshua, disagreed among themselves about the ownership of the land, it would appear that the object of the book of Joshua, as a 'Doomsday Book,' was fully attained. The circumstance that the book of Joshua contains many Canaanitish names of places to which the Hebrew names are added, seems also to indicate that the second part originated in an early age, when neither the Canaanitish name was entirely forgotten, nor the Hebrew name fully introduced; so that it was expedient to mention both.

In the last two chapters occur two orations of Joshua, in which he bids farewell to the people whom he had commanded. In chapter xxiv. 26, we read, And Joshua WROTE these words in the book of the law of God.' The expression, these words, seems to refer only to his last address, and the subsequent resolution of the people to follow his example. We are here, however, expressly informed that Joshua did WRITE this much; and consequently we deem it the more likely that he also committed to writing the other memorable events connected with his career, such as the conquest and the distribution of the land.

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consider it highly probable that the whole book of Joshua was composed by himself up to the twenty-eighth verse of the last chapter; to which a friendly hand subjoined some brief notices, contained in verses 29-33, concerning the death, age, and burial of Joshua; the continuance of his influence upon the people; the interment, in Shechem, of the bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel had brought from Egypt; and the death and burial of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, whom his son Phinehas interred in his allotment on Mount Ephraim.

The authority of the book of Joshua mainly rests upon the manner in which it is treated in other parts of the Bible.

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Besides the allusions in the book of Judges, we find Joshua referred to in 1 Kings xvi. 34. (Comp. Josh. vi. 26). The second and third verses of Psalm xliv. contain a brief summary of the whole book of Joshua:-Thou didst drive out the heathen with thy hand, and plantedst them thou didst afflict the people, and cast them out. For they got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them: but thy right hand and thine arm, and the light of thy countenance, because thou hadst a favour unto them.' (Compare Psalm lxviii. 12-14; lxxviii. 54, 55; cxiv. 3 and 5, which refer to the book of Joshua.) Also, Hab. iii. 11: The sun and moon stood still in their habitation,' &c. Heb. xiii. 5: For he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.' (Compare Josh. i. 5.) Heb. xi. 31: By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies with peace;' and James ii. 25: Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way?" (Compare Josh. ii. and vi. 22-25.) Acts vii. 45: Which (the tabernacle) also our fathers that came after brought in with Jesus into the possession of the Gentiles, whom God drave out before the face of our fathers.' (Compare Josh. iii. 14.) Ib. xi. 30: By faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after they were compassed about seven days.' (Compare Josh. vi. 17-23.) Heb. iv. 8: For if Jesus [JOSHUA] had given them rest, then would he not afterwards have spoken of another day.'

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The other persons of this name in the Bible

are:

JOSHUA, a Beth-shemite (1 Sam. vi. 14, 18), an Israelite, the owner of the field into which the cart came which bore the ark on its return from the land of the Philistines.

JOSHUA (2 Kings xxiii. 8), the governor of the city of Jerusalem at the commencement of the reign of Josiah.

JOSHUA, the son of Josedec (Hagg. i. 1, 12, 14; Zech. iii. 1, 3, 9; vi. 11), a high-priest in the time of Haggai and Zechariah [JESHUA].

JOSIAH (God-healed), seventeenth king of Judah, and son of Amon, whom he succeeded on the throne in B.C. 698, at the early age of eight years, and reigned thirty-one years.

As Josiah thus early ascended the throne, we may the more admire the good qualities which he manifested. Avoiding the example of his immediate predecessors, he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in all Viewing all the circumstances together, we the ways of David his father, and turned not

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aside to the right hand or to the left' (2 Kings |
xxii. 1, 2; 2 Chron. xxxiv. 1, 2). So early as
the sixteenth year of his age he began to mani-
fest that enmity to idolatry in all its forms which
distinguished his character and reign; and he
was not quite twenty years old when he pro-
claimed open war against it, although more or
less favoured by many men of rank and influence
in the court and kingdom. He then commenced
a thorough purification of the land from all taint
of idolatry, by going about and superintending
in person the operations of the men who were
employed in breaking down idolatrous altars
and images, and cutting down the groves which
had been consecrated to idol-worship. His detes-
tation of idolatry could not have been more
strongly expressed than by ransacking the sepul-
chres of the idolatrous priests of former days,
and consuming their bones upon the idol-altars
before they were overturned. Yet this operation,
although unexampled in Jewish history, was
foretold 326 years before Josiah was born, by
the prophet who was commissioned to denounce
to Jeroboam the future punishment of his sin.
He even named Josiah as the person by whom
this act was to be performed; and said that it
should be performed in Beth-el, which was then
a part of the kingdom of Israel (1 Kings xiii. 2).
All this seemed much beyond the range of human
probabilities. But it was performed to the letter;
for Josiah did not confine his proceedings to his
own kingdom, but went over a considerable part
of the neighbouring kingdom of Israel, which
then lay comparatively desolate, with the same
object in view; and at Beth-el in particular,
executed all that the prophet had foretold (2
Kings xxiii. 1-19; 2 Chron. xxxiv. 3-7, 32).
In these proceedings Josiah seems to have been
acnated by an absolute hatred of idolatry, such
as no other king since David had manifested, and
which David had scarcely occasion to manifest in
the same degree.

In the eighteenth year of his reign and the twenty-sixth of his age, when the land had been thoroughly purified from idolatry and all that belonged to it, Josiah proceeded to repair and beautify the temple of the Lord. In the course of this pious labour, the high-priest Hilkiah discovered in the sanctuary a volume, which proved to contain the books of Moses, and which, from the terms employed, seems to have been considered the original of the law as written by Moses. On this point there has been much anxious discussion and some rash assertion. Some writers of the German school allege that there is no external evidence--that is, evidence beside the law itself-that the book of the law existed till it was thus produced by Hilkiah. This assertion it is the less necessary to answer here, as it is duly noticed in the art. PENTATEUCH. But it may be observed that it is founded very much on the fact that the king was greatly astonished when some parts of the law were read to him. It is indeed perfectly manifest that he had previously been entirely ignorant of much that he then heard; and he rent his clothes in consternation when he found that, with the best intentions to serve the Lord, he and all his people had been living in the neglect of duties which the law declared to be of vital importance. It is certainly difficult to account for this ignorance.

JOTHAM

Some suppose that all the copies of the law had perished, and that the king had never seen one." But this is very unlikely; for however scarce complete copies may have been, the pious king was likely to have been the possessor of one. The probability seems to be that the passages read were those awful denunciations against disobedience with which the book of Deuteronomy concludes, and which from some cause or other the king had never before read, or which had never before produced on his mind the same strong conviction of the imminent dangers under which the nation lay, as now when read to him from a volume invested with a character so venerable, and brought with such interesting circumstances under his notice.

The king in his alarm sent to Huldah the prophetess," for her counsel in this emergency [HULDAH]: her answer assured him that, although the dread penalties threatened by the law had been incurred and would be inflicted, he should be gathered in peace to his fathers before the days of punishment and sorrow came.

It was perhaps not without some hope of averting this doom that the king immediately called the people together at Jerusalem, and engaged them in a solemn renewal of the ancient covenant with God. When this had been done, the Passover was celebrated with careful attention to the directions given in the law, and on a scale of unexampled magnificence. But all was too late; the hour of mercy had passed; for the Lord turned not from the fierceness of his great wrath, wherewith his anger was kindled against Judah' (2 Kings xxii. 3-20; xxiii. 21-27; 2 Chron. xxxiv. 8-33; xxxv. 1-19).

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That removal from the world which had been promised to Josiah as a blessing, was not long delayed, and was brought about in a way which he had probably not expected. His kingdom was tributary to the Chaldæan empire; and when Pharaoh-necho, king of Egypt, sought a passage through his territories, on an expedition against the Chaldæans, Josiah, with a very high sense of the obligations which his vassalage imposed, refused to allow the march of the Egyptian army through his dominions, and prepared to resist the attempt by force of arms. Necho was very unwilling to engage in hostilities with Josiah: the appearance of the Hebrew army at Megiddo, however, brought on a battle, in which the king of Judah was so desperately wounded by arrows that his attendants removed him from the warchariot, and placed him in another, in which he was taken to Jerusalem, where he died. No king that reigned in Israel was ever more deeply lamented by all his subjects than Josiah: and we are told that the prophet composed on the occasion an elegiac ode, which was long preserved among the people, but which is not now in existence (2 Kings xxiii. 29-37; 2 Chron. xxxv. 20-27).

JOT, properly IOTA, designates the smallest letter of the Greek alphabet (1); derived from the Hebrew jod () and employed metaphorically to express the minutest trifle. It is, in fact, one of several metaphors derived from the alphabetas when alpha, the first letter, and omega, the last, are employed to express the beginning and the end.

1. JOTHAM (God is upright), the youngest of

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JUBILEE

Gideon's seventy legitimate sons; and the only one who escaped when the rest were massacred by the order of Abimelech. When the fratricide was made king by the people of Shechem, the young Jotham was so daring as to make his appearance on Mount Gerizim for the purpose of lifting up a protesting voice, and of giving vent to his feelings. This he did in a beautiful parable, wherein the trees are represented as making choice of a king, and bestowing on the bramble the honour which the cedar, the olive, and the vine would not accept. The obvious application, which indeed Jotham failed not himself to point out, must have been highly exasperating to Abimelech and his friends; but the speaker fled, as soon as he had delivered his parable, to the town of Beer, and remained there out of his brother's reach. We hear no more of him; but three years after, if then living, he saw the accomplishment of the malediction he had pronounced (Judg. ix. 5-21).

JUBILEE

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While yet wandering in the wilderness, and therefore, before they had entered the land of promise,' the children of Israel received from the lips of their great legislator the following lawsix years thou shalt sow thy land, and shalt gather in the fruits thereof: but the seventh year thou shalt let it rest; that thine ox and thine ass may rest, and the son of thy handmaid and the stranger may be refreshed' (Exod. xxiii. 10, sq.). This injunction is repeated in Lev. xxv. 1-7, where it stands as proceeding immediately from the Lord. The land is to keep a sabbath for the Lord.' Then in immediate sequence follows the law relating to the Jubilee (Lev. xx. 8). thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years, forty and nine years; then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the Jubilee to sound in the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land. And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof; and ye shall return every man unto his possession and unto his family,' &c. &c. (Lev. xxv.

And

by the party who sold it; but in the Jubilee year it must return to its original proprietor. Dwellinghouses within a walled city might be redeemed within the first year; if not redeemed within the space of a full year they became the freehold of the purchaser. The houses of villages were to be counted as the fields of the country. The cities and houses of the Levites were redeemable at any time, and could never be held longer than the ensuing Jubilee: the field of the suburbs of their cities might not be sold (vers. 25-38). Israelites who were hired servants (Israelitish bond-servants were not allowed) might serve till the year of Jubilee, when they returned to their possessions. A Hebrew sold as a slave to a foreigner resident in Palestine was redeemable by himself or relatives at any time, by making payment according to the number of years to elapse before the next Jubilee; but at the Jubilee such bondsman was, under all circumstances, to be set at liberty (vers. 39-55). The only exception to this system of general restitution was in the case of property set apart and devoted to the Divine service- Every devoted thing is most holy unto the Lord; none devoted shall be redeemed (Lev. xxvii. 28-29).

2. JOTHAM, tenth king of Judah, and son of Uzziah, whom he succeeded in B.C. 758, at the age of twenty-five: he reigned sixteen years. His father having during his last years been ex-8-24). Land might be redeemed by a kinsman or cluded by leprosy from public life [UZZIAH], the government was administered by his son. Jotham profited by the experience which the reign of his father, and of the kings who preceded him, af forded, and he ruled in the fear of God, although he was unable to correct all the corrupt practices into which the people had fallen. His sincere intentions were rewarded with a prosperous reign. He was successful in his wars. The Ammonites, who had given gifts as a sort of tribute to Uzziah, but had ceased to do so after his leprosy had incapacitated him from governing, were constrained by Jotham to pay for three years a heavy tribute in silver, wheat, and barley (2 Chron. xxvi. 8; xxvii. 5, 6). Many important public works were also undertaken and accom plished by Jotham. The principal gate of the temple was rebuilt by him on a more magnificent scale; the quarter of Ophel, in Jerusalem, was strengthened by new fortifications; various towns were built or rebuilt in the mountains of Judah; and castles and towers of defence were erected in the wilderness. Jotham died greatly lamented by his people, and was buried in the sepulchre of the kings (2 Kings xv. 38; 2 Chron. xvii. 8-9). JUBAL (music); one of Cain's descendants, son of Lamech and Adar. He is described as the inventor of the KINNOR, and the UGAB, rendered in our version the harp and the organ,' but perhaps more properly the lyre and mouthorgan,' or Pandean pipe (Gen. iv. 21) [Music]. JUBILEE, according to some a period of fifty years, according to others, though less probably, of forty-nine years, the termination of which led to certain great changes in the condition of the Hebrews, all of which seem to have been designed and fitted to bring about from time to time a restoration of the original social state instituted by Moses, and so to sustain in its unimpaired integrity the constitution of which he was the author.

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Intimately connected with the Jubilee was another singular Mosaic institution, namely, the Sabbatical year. On this account we shall speak briefly of the latter, as preparatory to a right understanding of the former.

With these scriptural details the account given by Josephus (Antiq. iii. 12. 3) substantially agrees; and it is worthy of notice that the Jewish historian speaks of the law as a reality, as a present reality, as something in actual operation.

The time required by the Sabbatical year and by the Jubilee to be rescued from the labours of the field, was very considerable. Strictly interpreted the language we have cited would take out of the ordinary course of things every sixth, seventh, and eighth year, during each successive septenary, till the circle of fifty years was in each period completed. Nay more, the old store, produced in the sixth year, was to last until the ninth year, for the sixth year was to bring forth fruits for three years.

The reader has now before him the whole of this extraordinary piece of legislation, which, viewed in all its bearings-in its effects on human labour, on character, on religious institutions and observances, as well as on the general condition

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The recurring periods of seven years are in keeping with the institution of the seventh day as a Sabbath for man and beast. The aim in both is similar-needful repose. The leading idea involved in the Jubilee-namely, restitution-also harmonizes with the fundamental principles of the Mosaic system. The land was God's, and was entrusted for use to the chosen people in such a way that every individual had his portion. A power of perpetual alienation would have been a virtual denial of God's sovereign rights, while the law of Jubilee was one continued recognition of them. The conception is purely theocratical in its whole character and tendencies. The theocracy was of such a nature as to disallow all subordinate 'thrones, principalities, and powers;' and consequently, to demand entire equality on the part of the people. But the power of perpetual alienation in regard to land would have soon given rise to the greatest inequalities of social condition, presenting splendid affluence on one side and sordid pauperism on the other. A passage in Deuteronomy (xv. 4), when rightly understood, as in the marginal translation-to the end that there be no poor among you'-seems expressly to declare that the aim in view, at least, of the Sabbatical release, was to prevent the rise of any great in- | equality of social condition, and thus to preserve unimpaired the essential character of the theocracy. Equally benevolent in its aim and tendency does this institution thus appear, showing how thoroughly the great Hebrew legislator cared and provided for individuals, instead of favouring classes. Beginning with a narrow cycle of seven days, he went on to a wider one of as many years, embracing at last seven times seven annual revolutions, seeking in all his arrangements rest for man and beast, and, by a happy personification, rest even for the brute earth; and in the rest which he required for human beings, providing for that more needful rest of mind which the sharp competitions and eager rivalries of modern society deny to ten thousand times ten thousand. As being of a benign character and tendency, the law of the Sabbatical and Jubilee year is in accordance with the general spirit of the Mosaic legislation, and appears not unworthy of its divine origin.

Warburton adduced this law in order to show that Moses was in truth sent and sustained by God, since nothing but a divine power could have given the necessary supplies of food in the sixth year; and no unprejudiced person can deny the force of the argument.

Now these laws either emanated from Moses, or they did not. If they did not, they arose after the settlement in Canaan, and are of such a nature as to convict their fabricator of imposture, if, indeed, any one could have been found so daring as to bring forth laws implying institutions which did not exist, and which under ordinary circumstances could not find permanence, even if they could ever be carried into operation at all. But if these laws emanated from Moses, is it credible that he would have given utterance to commands which convict themselves of impossibility? or caused the rise of institutions, which, if unsup

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JUDEA

ported of heaven, must come to a speedy termina tion, and in so doing act to his own discredit as a professed divine messenger?

But it may be asked, Could the land sustain the people? On this point we find the following important passage in Palfrey's Lectures on the Jewish Scriptures, Boston, 1841, vol. i. p. 303: I find no difficulty arising from any inadequacy of the produce of six years to afford sustenance to the people for seven. To say that this was intended would merely be to say that the design was that the consumption of each year should only amount on an average to six-sevenths of its produce. In such an arrangement it cannot be thought that there was anything impracticable. There are states of this Union which export yearly more than half their produce, and subsist substantially on the remainder, their imports consisting mostly of luxuries. Again, in England nearly three quarters of the families are engaged in commerce, manufactures, professions, and unproductive pursuits; but in Judæa every man was a producer of food, with the advantage of a fine climate and a rich soil.'

In spite of all these arguments, some rationalistic writers have hazarded the surprising assertion that these laws were not executed before the Babylonish exile. But in addition to the proofs already mentioned, we have the positive evidence of the Roman historian Tacitus (Hist. v. 4), of Josephus (Antiq. xiv. 10-6), of Ezekiel (xlvi. 17), and of Isaiah (lxi. 1-2), to the observance of the Sabbatical year at least. And since the essential element of this system of law, namely, the Sabbatical year, was an established institution in the days of Tacitus, Josephus, the Maccabees, Ezekiel, and Isaiah, we think the fair and legitimate inference is in favour of those laws having been long previously observed, probably from the early periods of the Hebrew republic. Their existence in a declining state of the commonwealth cannot be explained without seeking their origin nearer the fountain-head of those pure, living waters, which, with the force of all primitive enthusiasm, easily effected great social wonders, especially when divinely guided and divinely sustained.

JUDE'A, the southernmost of the three divisions of the Holy Land. It denoted the kingdom of Judah as distinguished from that of Israel. But after the captivity, as most of the exiles who returned belonged to the kingdom of Judah, the name Judæa (Judah) was applied generally to th whole of Palestine west of the Jordan (Hag. i. I 14; ii. 2). Under the Romans, in the time Christ, Palestine was divided into Judæa, Galile and Samaria (John iv. 4, 5; Acts ix. 31), the las including the whole of the southern part west the Jordan. But this division was only observe as a political and local distinction, for the sake indicating the part of the country, just as we us the name of a county (Matt. ii. 1, 5; iii. 1; iv. 25 Luke i. 65); but when the whole of Palestine wa to be indicated in a general way, the term Juda was still employed.

It is only Judæa, in the provincial sense, that requires our present notice, the country at large being described in the article PALESTINE. In this sense, however, it was much more extensive than the domain of the tribe of Judah, even more so than the kingdom of the same name. There are no materials for describing its limits with

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