[48] Some translate it “they offer prayer (εἰς τὸν ἥλιον) to the sun.” But it is utterly inconceivable that the Essenes, who were such thorough Jews, and so exemplary for their adoration of the Holy One of Israel, would be guilty of idolatry by worshipping the sun. Besides, the prayer in question is described as one transmitted by the fathers. And can it be imagined that there existed among the Jews a national prayer to this luminary in direct violation of the first commandment, and of what is so expressly forbidden in Deut. iv. 10? The prayer therefore here spoken of is the well known national morning hymn of praise (‏המאיר לארץ‎) for the return of the light of the day, which still forms a part or the Jewish service to the present day. Comp. Berachoth 9 b; Rappaport in the Bikure Ha-Ittim, vol. x., Vienna 1829, p. 115, and infra p. 69. [49] This practice of bathing before meals was also common among the Pharisees (comp. Chagiga, 18, b), and as the Essenes covered themselves with their aprons so the Pharisees put on their Talith during their baptisms. (Comp. Berachoth 24, b.) [50] The Pharisees, too, regarded the refectory as a sanctuary, and compared its table to the altar in the temple, because the altar in the temple is represented as the table of the Lord (Ezekiel xli, 22). Hence, R. Jochanan and R. Eleazar remark—“As long as the temple stood the altar atoned for the sins of Israel, but now it is man’s table which atones for his sins.” (Talmud Berachoth, 55a). Hence the Chaldee paraphrase of Ezekiel xii. 22, and the remarks of Rashi and Kimchi on this passage, which cannot be understood unless this traditional interpretation is borne in mind. Comp. also Aboth iii, 3. [51] This was also the practice of the Pharisees, and is to the present day the custom among the orthodox Jews. [52] This paragraph almost embodies the sentiments uttered by our Saviour in Matth. chap. v. [53] These ancient books on magical cures and exorcisms were the reputed works of Solomon, who, according to the Talmud as well as the Byzantine and Arabian writers, composed treatises on miraculous cures and driving out evil spirits. (Comp. Pesachim 56 a; Fabricius, Codex pseudepigraphus Vet. Test. p. 1042, &c.; Weil, Biblische Legenden der Muselmänner, p. 225–279). Josephus tells us elsewhere that some of these Solomonic productions still existed in his own days, and that he had actually seen demons driven out and people cured by their aid. (Comp. Antiq. book viii. chap. ii. § 5.) This account most strikingly illustrates what Christ says in Matth. xii. 27.