[9]: "This (_wise men_ from the East) is not only an indefinite, but an improper version of the term. It is indefinite, because those called μαγοι were a particular class, party, or profession among the Orientals, as much as Stoics, Peripatetics, and Epicureans were among the Greeks. They originated in Persia, but afterward spread into other countries, particularly into Assyria and Arabia, bordering upon Judea on the East. It is probable that the Magians here mentioned came from Arabia. Now to employ a term for specifying one sect, which may with equal propriety be applied to fifty, of totally different, or even contrary opinions, is surely a vague way of translating. It is also, in the present acceptation of the word, improper. Formerly the term _wise men_ denoted philosophers, or men of science and erudition: it is hardly ever used so now, unless in burlesque. Some say _Magi_; but _Magians_ is better, as having more the form of an English word." CAMPBELL'S Translation of the Four Gospels, vol. ii. _notes_. [10]: "Salvete, flores Martyrum, Quos, lusis ipso in limine, Christi insecutor sustulit, Ceu turbo nascentes rosas. Vos, prima Christi victima, Grex immolatorum tener, Aram ante ipsam, simplices, Palma et coronis luditis." [11]: Bishop Horne. [12]: Josephus has given an affecting account of this awful death. Vide Joseph. Antiq. lib. xvii. cap. 6. and Bell. Jud. lib. i. cap. 33. [13]: So say the Jews, [Hebrew] _the passover of women is arbitrary_. [14]: Misn. Sanhedrin c. v. sec. 4. ap. GILL in loc. [15]: _At my Father's_ εν τοις του πατρος μου Syriac [Hebrew], _in domo patris mei_. The Armenian version renders the words in the same manner. It has been justly observed that τα του δεινος is a Greek idiom, not only with classical writers, but with the sacred penmen, for denoting the house of such a person.... Campbell. [16]: Judg. xi. 12. 2 Sam. xvi. 10. I Kings xvii. 18. 2 Kings iii. 13. and ix. 19. _Sept. translation_, [17]: Blackwall observes, "'Tis the opinion of some learned men, that the holy Jesus, the most tender and dutiful Son that ever was born, when he called his mother plainly _woman_, declared against those idolatrous honours which he foresaw would be paid her in latter ages, which is no improbable guess. But in the more plain and unceremonious times it was a title applied to ladies of the greatest quality and merit by people of the greatest humanity and exactness of behaviour. So Cyrus the Great says to the queen of the Armenians, Ἀλλὰ σὺ ᾆ γὺναι: and servants addressed queens and their mistresses in the same language." Blackwall's Sacred Classics, V. ii. p. 206. _second edit_. [18]: These water-pots contained two or three _baths_ apiece. A bath was about seven gallons and a half. [19]: Bishop Hall. [20]: Mosheim's Eccl. Hist. vol. i. p. 432. ii. 56, 71. [21]: Bossuet, Serm. pour la Fête de la Conception.