_Anticipated him._――This word I substitute in the place of “_prevented_” which is the expression used in our common English Bible, and which in the changes of modern usage has entirely lost the signification which it had when the translators applied it to this passage. The Greek word here is προεφθασεν, (_proephthasen_,) and literally means “forespake” or “spake before” him. This was the idea which the English translators wished to express by the word “_prevented_,” whose true original meaning is “anticipated,” or “was beforehand with him,” being in Latin compounded of the words _prae_, “before,” and _venio_, “come.” Among the numerous conveniences of Webster’s improved edition of the Bible, for popular use, is the fact that in this and similar passages he has altered the obsolete expression, and changed it for a modern one, which is just and faithful to the original idea. In this passage I find he has very properly given the word above suggested, without my knowledge of the coincidence. _Of the children of others._――This expression too is a variation from the common English translation, which here expresses itself so vaguely, that a common reader can get no just idea whatever of the passage, and is utterly unable to find the point of the allusion. The Greek word is αλλοτριων, (_allotrion_,) which is simply the genitive plural of an adjective, which means “of, or belonging to others,” and is secondarily applied also to “strangers, foreigners,” &c., as persons “belonging to other lands;” but the primary meaning is absolutely necessary to be given here, in order to do justice to the sense, since the idea is not that they take tribute money of foreigners rather than of their own subjects; but of their subjects rather than of their own children, who are to enjoy the benefit of the taxation.