Works, Book 1 · Discourse 18
DISCOURSE XVIII.
IOSHUA 24. 26.
And Ioshua took a great stone, and set it up there (viz. in Sichem) under the Oak which was in the Sanctuary of the Lord: Alii, by the Sanctuary. Heb. foreign
THE Story whereupon these Words depend is this: Ioshua a little before his death assembled all the Tribes of Israel at Shechem or Sichem, there to make a solemn Covenant between them and the Lord, To have him alone for their God, and to serve no other Gods besides him: Which they having solemnly promised to do,Vers. 2…. saying, The Lord our God will we serve, and his voice will we obey; Ioshua for a testimony and monument of this their stipulation, erects in the place a great Stone or Pillar under an Oak, which was by (or, as the Hebrew hath it, in) the Sanctuary of the Lord. Of this Oak, or rather collectively Quercetum or Oaken-hold, of Sichem, is twice mention made elsewhere in Scripture. For this was the place where Abram first sate down, and where the Lord appearing unto him, he erected his first Altar in the Land of Canaan, after he came out of Haran thither, as we read Gen. 12. 6. in these words, And Abram passed through the Land unto the place of Sichem, unto the Oak or Oak-grove of Morch, where the Lord appeared unto him, saying, Unto thy seed will I give this Land: and there he builded an Altar unto the Lord who appeared unto him. And what place more fit for Abraham's posterity to renew a Covenant with their God, than that where their God first made his Covenant with Abraham their Father? Again, it was this place where, in the after-times of the Iudges… one hundred and seventy years after the death of Ioshua, the Sichemites made Abimelech, the base son of Ierubbaal or Gideon, King, as we read Iudg. 9. 6. that all the men of Sichem gathered together, and all the house of Millo, and went and made Abimelech King, by the Oak of the Pillar which was in Sichem. The words are foreign, even the Oak where Ioshua (here in my Text) set up this great Stone for a witness to Israel. For the word foreign here, and foreign or foreign in the other two places, signifie one and the same thing, to wit, either an Oak, Terebinth, or some other kind of Tree; as the Seventy perpetually render them.
Yea, that of Iudges must of necessity so be rendred, by comparing it with this of my Text, to which it hath reference. Nevertheless our last Translation in the first of these places, Gen. 12. concerning Abram, chose rather (I know not wherefore) to follow S. Hierome, who follows not himself, and translates it a Plain, not an Oak, to wit, the Plain of Morch? by which Translation the identity of that place with the other two, where it is translated Oak, is obscured and made the less observable. If there be any difference between the words foreign and foreign it should rather be this, that foreign should signifie a Tree, and foreign a Grove, Holt or Wood of such Trees; as the Seventy in that place of the ninth of Iudges have expresly rendred it, namely, foreign, the Quercetum, Oak-toft or Holt of Sichem. And so, I believe, it ought to be understood in the other places, that is, to be taken collectively; of which we shall hear more hereafter.
But this is no great matter of difficulty; that which follows is, namely, How this Oak, or Oaken-holt, of Sichem is said here in my Text to have been in (for the Hebrew is foreign) or by, the Sanctuary of the Lord. For how comes the Sanctuary of the Lord to be at Sichem, whenas the Tabernacle and the Ark of the Testimony were at Shiloh, there set up by Ioshua himself, and so remained (as the Scripture*Iudg. 18. …0, 31. elsewhere tells us) until the time of the Captivity of the Land? which without question was not till after Ioshua was dead and buried,1 Sam. 4. and is usually understood of that time when the Ark was taken captive by the Philistines. And yet is not only here a Sanctuary mentioned at Sichem, but in the beginning of the Chapter, the Elders and Officers of the Tribes are said, upon Ioshua's summons,I…s. 24. …. to have presented themselves there before the Lord; which speech useth to imply as much.
If we say the Ark of God was taken out of its place at Shiloh, and brought to Sichem by the Levites,Ios. 24. 26. upon occasion of this general Assembly; yet the difficulty will not be removed. For first, How could the Ark alone give denomination to the place where it stood, to be called the Sanctuary of the Lord; Or secondly, If the Altar were there with it,Deut. 16. 21, 22. how was the Law of God observed, which saith, Thou shalt n…t plant a Grove of any trees (or any tree) near unto the Altar of the Lord thy God, which thou shalt make thee; Neither shalt thou set up a Pillar, which the Lord thy God hateth: whenas here are both, an Oak or Quercetum in the Sanctuary of God, and a Pillar or Statue erected under it? Thirdly, This Sanctuary, whatsoever it was, must be something which had a constant and fixed station, and was not temporary and mutable; and that, because the Oak, under which this Pillar was erected by Ioshua, is here designed and pointed out by it as by a constant and standing mark: else to what purpose had it been to sign out the Oak by it, if it were such as would be here to day and not to morrow?
For these reasons it appears that this Sanctuary could not be the Tabernacle where the Ark and Altar for Israel were, but that it was something else: And what that should be, is to be enquired.
I answer, It was a Proseucha or praying-place, which the Israelites (at least those of Ephraim, in whose lot it was) after the Countrey was subdued unto them, had erected in that very place at Sichem where God first appeared to Abram, and where he built his first Altar after he was come into the Land of Canaan; the place where God said unto him, Unto thy seed will I give this Land.
For the understanding whereof, you must take notice, that the Iews besides their Tabernacle or Temple, which was the only place for Sacrifice, had (first or last) two sorts of Places for religious duties; the one callet Proseuchae, the other Synagogues. The difference between which was this: Proseucha was a plot of ground encompassed with a wall or some other like mound or inclosure, and open above; much like to our Courts: the use properly for Prayer, as the name Proseucha importeth: A Synagogue was aedificium tectum, a covered edifice, as our Houses and Churches are, where the Law and Prophets were read and expounded, and the people instructed in divine matters; according to that Acts 15. 21. Moses of old time hath in every City them that preach him, being read in the Synagogues every Sabbath-day. From whence also you may gather, that Synagogues were within the Cities, as Proseucha's were without; which was another difference between them, as you shall hear confirmed.
That Proseucha's were such places as I have described them to be, I prove out of a notable place of Epiphanius, a Iew bred and born in Palestine; who in his Tract against the Massalian Hereticks, after he hath told us that the Massaliani built themselves foreign, &c. certain houses or large places, like the ancients places of market, which they called Proseuchae; he goes on thus, And that the Iews of old (as also the Samaritans) had certain places without the Cities for prayer, which they call'd Proseucha's, appears out of the acts of the Apostles, where Lydia a seller of purple is said to have met with the Apostle Paul, and to have heard him preaching in that place, of which the Scripture saith, foreign,A… 1…. 13., it seemed to be a place of prayer, (of which I shall say more anon:) He goes on still, There is also at Sichem (saith he) which is now called Neapolis, above a mile without the City a Proseucha or place of prayer, like a Theatre, which was built in the open air, and without a roof, by the Samaritans, who affected to imitate the Iews in all things. Out of these words you may collect every part of my Description. First, That Proseuchae were out of the Cities in the fields. Secondly, that they were foreign, like the Ancients Fora or places of market,… hath a few lines after of the Sa…aniani; foreign. and foreign, under the open air, and without roof, such as the Courts of the Temple also were, whither the people came to pray; so that they were as it were a kind of disjoyned and remoter Courts unto the Temple, whither they turned themselves when they prayed in them. Thirdly, That they were ordained for places of Prayer. All these are in this passage of Epiphanius; and moreover, that such a one was in his time remaining at Sichem, the place my Text speaks of, there erected by the Samaritans, in that, as in all things else, imitators of the Iews. What better Testimony could be desired?
These Proseucha's of the Iews, both name and thing, were not unknown to the Poet Iuvenal; when describing in his third Satyre in what manner proud and insolent fellows in the City of Rome used, in their drunken humours, to abuse and quarrel with those they met in the streets in the night-time, whom they took to be of mean condition, he brings them in speaking thus, foreign Ede ubi consistas; in quâ te quaero Proseuchâ? Where dwell you? in what Proseucha should I seek or enquire for you? intimating that he was some poor fellow, either that dwelt in an house that could not keep out wind and weather, but was like a Iew's Proseucha, all open above; or he alludes to the banishment of the Iews out of Rome by Domitian, in his own time, and then fresh, as who had no where else to bestow themselves but in their Proseucha's out of the City; or who used to assemble in the Proseucha's. According to some of these senses is Iuvenal to be understood.
For that the Iews had Proseucha's about the City of Rome, appears by Philo Iudaeus in his Delegatione ad Caium, where commending the …lemency and moderation of Augustus Caesar, he saith, foreign, That he knew the Iews of Rome had their Proseucha's, and that they used to assemble in them, especially on the Sabbath-days; and yet never molested them, as Caius did.Vide de V… Mos…s, l…b. … The same Philo mentioneth Proseucha's elsewhere; though it be not to be dissembled, that he seems to comprehend Synagogues also properly so called under that name, as being better known to the Gentiles, who called both by that name. Iosephus in his Life tells us of a Proseucha at Tiberias in Galilee, in these words, foreign, On the next day, which was the Sabbath-day, the whole people were gathered together in the Proseucha; which is (saith he) foreign, a large edifice, fit to receive a great multitude. He afterward tells us of a publick fast and supplication appointed to be had the Monday following in the Proseucha, whither himself and others assembled foreign, &c. to perform their devotions.
In the New Testament the name of Synagogue is frequent, but that of Proseucha seldom; whence may be conjectured that both are comprehended under that name, as in Philo both are termed Proseuchae. Yet once or twice, as learned Interpreters think, we read of Proseucha's in the New Testament. As namely, Acts 16. 13. (which Epiphanius even now alledged to that purpose) where S. Luke tells us, that S. Paul being come to Philippi in Macedonia on the Sabbath-day, they went out of the City to a river side, foreign, where there was taken to be a Proseucha, or where was famed to be a Proseucha; foreign, will bear both. The Syriack hath, Quia ibi conspiciebatur Domus orationis; the Arabick, Locus orati…nis. For if foreign were taken here for Prayer it self, as if the sense were, where Prayer was used to be made, it should rather have been said, foreign, and not foreign. Yet, if it were so taken, it would still argue no less than that there was here an appointed place for Prayer, and that out of the City; which is all one as to say, there was a Proseucha. So I take foreign, in the 16. verse of the same Chapter, where it is said, It came to pass, foreign, as we went to the Proseucha; especially since we read not in the Text that S. Paul went thither to pray, but to preach, where he deemed there was an assembly that day according to custom: And we sat down, (saith S. Luke) and spake unto the women which were come together there.
A second place where a Proseucha is mentioned in the New Testament, may be that Luke 6. 12. where it is said, that our Saviour went out into a Mountain to pray, and continued all night, foreign, in Proseuchâ Dei, in an Oratory or Prayer-house of God; so Drusius thinks foreign is here to be taken, for a place, and the Article helps the sense: Otherwise it seems an odd and unaccustomed expression for foreign to mean in Prayer made unto God. And why should it not be as likely that our Saviour might sometimes pray in their Proseucha's, as teach in their Synagogues.
Thus we have seen the Testimonies for Proseucha's, their use, and difference from Synagogues. Now for Synagogues, the common opinion is, that they were not before the Captivity of Babylon; and that Necessity first taught the Iews the use of them in that Captivity, which afterward they brought with them at their return into their own Country. The reason why men so think is, I suppose, the absolute silence of them in Scripture until the time of the second Temple. But though the name were not, it is possible the thing might be. Howsoever, because it is most received, that they were not, we will let it pass for current. But as for Proseucha's, such as we have described them, none, that I know, have affirmed or determined ought of their antiquity; it may be, not taken it into consideration, either because they had no occasion to think of any such matter, or because they confounded them altogether with Synagogues.
The matter therefore being yet free and undecided, I will make bold to affirm, That if Synagogues were not, yet Proseucha's, that is, open places for Prayer, were a long time before the Captivity, yea even from the days of Ioshua the son of Nun: And though the Iews had, or were to have, but one Altar or place of Sacrifice, that namely which the Lord should chuse to place the Ark of his Covenant there, the Tabernacle or Temple; yet had they other places for devotion and religious use.
And that this Sanctuary of God, here mentioned in my Text, at Sichem (which was a Levitical City) was such a one, my reasons are these. First, Because it is incredible, that the Israelites having but one Temple for the whole Nation, whereat they were bound to appear, and those the males only, but thrice a year, should have no other Places of Prayer nearer their dwellings whither they might resort on Sabbath-days; the Temple or Tabernacle being from some of them above an hundred miles distant at the least. Secondly, Because (as I have already shewed) this Sanctuary at Sichem could not be the Tabernacle (which was then at Shiloh, not at Sichem) and yet must have some stable and fixed place, because the situation of the Oak is designed by it: yea must have been still there, when this story of Ioshua was written; which is thought to have been long after his death: surely this Chapter was written after it, where both his death and burial are recorded. Wherefore to say the Ark was brought thither upon this occasion, will not serve turn. Thirdly, This place should be a Proseucha, because of that circumstance of Trees growing in it; which, as it proves it not to have been the Tabernacle, (where no such thing was lawful to be) so seems it to be a Characteristical note of a Proseucha.
For though it were not lawful to have Trees near the Altar of God, that is, in or about the Court of the Tabernacle; yet was it not so with Proseucha's, yea they seem to have been ordinarily garnished and beset with them. This may be gathered from a passage of Philo Iudaeus, where relating the barbarous outrage of the Gentiles at Alexandria against the Iews there dwelling, in the time of Gaius, foreign, saith he, foreign, Of some of the Proseucha's they cut down the Trees, others they demolished to the very Foundations. Mark here, foreign, They dis-tree'd the Proseucha's.
The same is implied by that of the Poet, speaking of a Iewish Wizard or Fortuneteller,—conducta sub arbore conjux. And Iuvenal in his sixth Satyr,
Arcanum Iudaea tremens mendicat in aurem,
Interpres legum Solymarum, magna sacerdos
Arboris, ac summi fida internuncia coeli.
Interpres legum Solymarum, that is, of Moses Laws; magna sacerdos Arboris, because of the Trees in their Proseucha's or Places of worship. The same appears also out of those Verses of his third Satyr, complaining that the once sacred Grove of Fons Capenus, where Numa used to meet with the Goddess AEgeria, was then let out to the beggarly Iews for a Proseucha, and that every Tree (such were the times) must pay rent to the people; by which means the Woods, which formerly had been the habitation of the Muses, were become dens for beggarly Iews to mutter their Orizons in. Hear his words:
Hic ubi nocturnae Numa constituebat amicae,
Nunc sacri Fontis nemus & delubra locantur
Iudaeis; quorum cophinus foenumque supellex.
Omnis enim populo mercedem pendere jussaest
Arbor, & ejectis mendicat sylva Camoenis.
Whence comes this connexion between Iews andaPs…l. 52. 8. I am like a gr…n olive-tree in the House of God. Is not House of God here a Proseucha? Trees, but from their having Trees in their Proseucha's? unto which their situation without the Cities conduced; as also it did for privacy and retirement.
Thus you see how well the description and mark of a Proseucha agrees to this Sanctuary in my Text. And that the Iews had many other such in other places, as well as at Sichem, even in those elder times, as atbWhich seems to be the reason why these three places are called by the LXX. 1 Sam. 7. 16. foreign, sanctified places, though in the Original there be no such thing. 'Tis worth the observing. Mispeh, Bethel, and Gilgal, I make little doubt; which we read to have been places of Assembly of the people, and the two last sanctified of old by Divine apparition, as Sichem was. Of Mispah the Author of the first of Maccabees, chap. 3. vers. 46. if I understand him, testifieth as much, when he tells us, that whilst the holy City lay desolate, and the Sanctuary was trodden down by the tyranny of Antiochus Epiphanes; Iudas Maccabaeus, and those of the people which adhered unto their God, assembled together at M…spha, to make there their supplications unto their God, foreign, because at Maspha, or Mispah, had been a place of prayer in former time for Israel; as much as to say, there had been a Proseucha of old. And do we not read in that story of the Benjamitical war in the Book of Iudges, that the Tabernacle being at Shiloh, (as appears by the last Chapter) yet (in the Chapter going before) it is said, that the whole Congregation of Israel was gathered together, as one man, unto the Lord in Mispah; Chap. 2…. ….and that in vers. 26. is mention made of an House of God there, where the people prayed and fasted? True, it is said the Ark of the Covenant was upon that extraordinary occasion brought thither; but it being certain, out of the next Chapter, that the Tabernacle was still at Shiloh, this House of God could be none of it. Nay, perhaps, we may hence learn, that when the Ark upon occasion of such a general and extraordinary assembly was to be removed, they used to bring it to such places as these, which were as holy Courts ready prepared for it; and that then it was lawful, but not else, to sacrifice in them.
Of these Courts for prayer we may understand that also in Psalm 74. 7. They have cast Fire into thy Sanctuary, they have burnt up all the Conventicula Dei in the Land, namely, in the captivity by Nebuchadnezzar, who destroyed both their Temple and their Proseucha's. For we understand it of the persecution of Antiochus, as some do; it must then follow, that some Canonical Scripture was written after Malachi and the ceasing of Prophecy, that is, in the time of the Maccabees; which will not easily be granted: Besides that we read not that Antiochus cast any fire into the Temple. Now if it speak of the vastation by Nebuchadnezzar, then had the Iews before that time, not only a Sanctuary for sacrifice, but also foreign, Conventicula Dei, that is, either Proseucha's, or Synagogues; for either will serve my purpose.
But now you will say, What profit is there of this long Discourse? were it so, or were it not so, as I have endeavoured to prove, of what use is the knowledge thereof to us? Yes, to know it was so, is useful in a threefold respect.
First, for the right understanding of such places of the Old Testament, where a House of God and Assembling before the Lord are often mentioned there, where neither the Ark of the Covenant, nor the Tabernacle at such time were: as (besides the places before alledged) we read in 1 Sam. 10. 3. of Saul's meeting with three men going up to God to Bethel, and in verse 5. of a place called The Hill of God, whence a company of Prophets came from the high place there, prophesying with a Tabret, Pipe, and Harp before them: in neither of which places can we find that ever the Tabernacle was. And as for the Ark, we are sure it was all this time at Kiriath-jearim, till David solemnly fetcht it thence: and if at any time the Ark might (as now it was not) be transferred to any of them upon occasion of some general Assembly of the Nation, that so they might have opportunity to ask counsel of the Lord, and offer Sacrifice; yet were they not the ordinary station thereof.
Secondly, we may learn from hence, That to have appropriate places set apart for Prayer and Divine duties, is not a Circumstance or Rite proper to Legal worship only, but of a more common nature: For asmuch as though Sacrifices, wherein the Legal worship (or worship of the old Covenant) consisted, were restrained to the Ark and Tabernacle, and might not be exercised where they were not; yet were there other places for Prayer besides that; which are no more to be accounted Legal places, than bare and simple Prayer was a Legal duty.
Lastly, we may gather from this Description of Proseucha's, which were as Courts encompassed only with a wall or other like enclosure, and open above, in what manner to conceive of the accommodation of those Altars we read to have been erected by the Patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Iacob, in the Book of Genesis; namely, That the ground whereon they stood, was fenced and bounded with some such enclosure, and shaded with Trees, after the manner of Proseucha's; as we may read expresly of one of them at Beersheba, That Abraham there planted a Grove, and called upon the Name of the Lord, the everlasting God. Gen. 21. …3.Yea, when the Tabernacle and Temple were, the Altar of God stood still in an open Court; and who can believe that the place of those Altars of the Patriarchs was not bounded and separated from common ground? And from these patterns in likelihood, after the Altar for Sacrifice was restrained to one only place, was continued still the use of such open places or Courts for Prayer, garnished with Trees, as I have shewed Proseucha's to have been.