Bible. New Testament -- Criticism, interpretation, etc.; Christianity -- Origin; Paul, the Apostle, Saint
[IV.] In the bargain between vow-maker and vow-sanctifier, the following
list of fees, provided for sanctifier, by _Excellent Church_ of that
country, in those days whatever they were,--may serve to show the use of
it to one of the contracting parties. To complete our conception of the
nature and effects of the arrangement, nothing is wanting, but that
which so unhappily must for ever remain wanting--a history of the
_purposes_, to which from the commencement of the government to the
dissolution of it, the solemnity had been applied on the vow-maker's
side. Of these purposes, we must content ourselves as well as we can
with the sample, for which we are here indebted to the author of the
Acts. The table of fees is as follows:
It is extracted from the Book of Numbers, chapter 6:1 to 21.
Fees to be paid in all cases: fees liquidated in quantity, and thence in
value.
{ 1. He lamb of the first year, one.
I. { 2. Ewe-lamb of the first year, one.
{ 3. Ram without blemish, one.
Fees, not liquidated in quantity, and thus left to be liquidated in
quantity, and thence in value, by the will of the priest.
{ 4. Basket of unleavened bread, one.
{ 5. Parcel of cakes of fine flour mingled with oil.
II. { 6. Parcel of wafers of unleavened bread anointed with oil, one.
{ 7. Meat-offering, one.
{ 8. Drink-offerings--numbers and respective quantities not
liquidated.
Fees payable, on a contingency: a contingency not describable without
more time and labour, than would be paid for by the result.
III. { 9. Turtle-doves or pigeons, two.
{ 10. Lamb of the first year, one.
IV. Mysterious addition, the liquidation of which must be left to the
Hebrew scholar. Ver. 21. "Besides _that_ that his hand shall get:"
(whose hand? priest's or vow-maker's?) "according to the vow which he
vowed, so he must do after the law of his separation:"--probable
meaning, according to the purpose, for which he performed the
ceremony--the advantage which he looked for from it.
Moreover, by any one whose curiosity will carry him through the inquiry,
causes of _nullity_ may be seen as sedulously and copiously provided, as
if by the _astutia_ of an English judge, or pair of judges, to whose
profit the fees were to be received: effect of the nullity, of course,
repetition; necessity of repeating the process, as in case of _new
trial_ or _arrest of judgment_, with the fees.
Religion was thus no less aptly served at Jerusalem, under Mosaic
institutions,--than Justice is to this day, under matchless constitution
and English institutions, at Westminster.
[56] Paul at the suit of Tertullus, A.D. 60. Acts 24:1, 2, 5, 6, 9, 11,
18.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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