small neck of sand only, and that the desert, now between it and Egypt, was at one time a fertile and cultivated territory belonging to Egypt, which is now a barren wilderness over which sand and dust are continually accumulating. "The river is mine, and I have made it." Ezekiel xxix. 9. The prophecy of Ezekiah, respecting Egypt, whose indignation is excited against the pride of Pharaoh, is remarkably accomplished, vide Ezekiah xxix. 9 and 10. and xxx. 12, 13, 14, 15.—The plagues are let loose against Egypt, an exterminating sword cuts down her warriors, foreign enemies ravage her land; Egypt, from the tower of Syene, unto the borders of Ethiopia, is become a solitude and a desert: such is the punishment of the pride of kings, for their arrogance in taking that glory to themselves, which belonged not to them, but to the high and omnipotent God.-Travellers who have visited Egypt in these days, will have perceived the effects of the severe accomplishment of these predictions of the prophet. All the celebrated canals which separated, of old, the waters of the Nile and multiplied its benefactions, increased its majesty and enlarged its magnificence, have been destroyed during many ages, insomuch that even the ruins of those canals, which in former ages formed the splendor of her cities, are scarcely discernible: the ravages committed, on the other hand, by the encroachment of the sands in Upper Egypt, on the productive plains of that country, fructified by the waters of the Nile, are strong demonstrations of the accomplishment of this prophecy. Thus it may be said, that, with the exception of those lands in Egypt which are submerged by the waters of the Nile, there is no habitable or cultivated land in the country. The destructive effects of the whirlwinds of dust and columns of sand from the desert, impelled by the wind, on the towns and over the country, threaten to bury the former, and to sterilize the latter, and thus to compel the inhabitants to quit their perilous abodes, to seek a more secure and comfortable habitation. There are three Arabic copies of the Pentateuch known to the Arabs, one of which three is written in the Samaritan character. It appears by some Mograbeen or Mauritanian historians that in a remote age, the Ethiopians conquered China after marching through Asia, and that they conquered also Mauritania, or El grarb; that Tirhakeh, king of Ethiopia, who warred I 1 Classical Journal, No. 44, note in page 361. against Cambyses 2500 years since, built Kassar Pharawan, or the ruins of Pharaoh. In confirmation of this historical record we may observe, that Strabo finds the Ethiopians in the western provinces of Africa, and Homer describes them as dwelling in the remotest regions of the earth, where the sun rises and where he sets. No notice would have been made respecting the following inaccuracies in Walpole's Travels, were they not calculated to mislead Oriental travellers, and such as are learning the modern Arabic language. The following sentence رایت ملاك الله العزيز is there translated, "I saw the powerful angel of God;" but he must be a powerful Arabian that can discover the word powerful in the above Arabic sentence: the words are, räit I saw, melk the angel, Allah of God, Elaziz the dear or beloved-"Í saw the angel of the beloved God." It is unnecessary to observe that in the incorrect translation, as given in the work above quoted, love is changed into power, and transferred from God to the angel. Vide Walpole's Travels, Vol. ii. p. 181. In page 102 or 112 of the same work, the sentence LMS is not "a friend his self," as it is there translated; but hebibune, a friend, Nafsûhú, to his soul, q. d. a lover of himself. b, does not mean a pound of olives, as it is translated in the above work, but ratel, a pound, zita, of oil, i. e. a pound of oil.—, zitune, is the Arabic word for olives. JAMES G. JACKSON. BIBLICAL CRITICISM. Διὰ τοῦτο ὀφείλει ἡ γυνὴ ἐξουσίαν ἔχειν ἐπὶ τῆς κεφαλῆς διὰ τοὺς ̓Αγγέλους. IT may 1 Cor. xi. 10. be conceived, that enough has been already written on this subject, to supersede the necessity of additional remarks: ' Vide Shabeeny's Account of Timbuctoo, page 120. * Vide Sir William Drummond's Punic Inscription, page 23. -yet, as the arguments in favor of the latter clause of the text, and those against it, do not appear to me to have been sufficiently discussed, I will trouble you with the following obser vations. It has been amply proved, that by ourla we are to understand the veil which women were accustomed to wear; and the Ethiopic translators imagined such to have been its signification in this place : በአኋተዝ ፡ ኖቲዕ ፡ ትትገልበብ ፡ ኖሽ ፡ ብአት ፡ ፡ = : . "For this reason, it is right that the woman's head should be veiled." Godwin, in his Moses and Aaron, enters into a succession of proofs, that it was accounted "signum subjectionis;" and Hottinger observes, "e vi argumentationis Paulinæ aliud sub ἐξουσίαν ἔχειν ἐπὶ τῆς κεφαλῆς intelligere nequeo, quam velamen capitis. Opponit Apostolus ἀκατακάλυπτῳ τῇ κεφαλῇ, εἰ ἐξουσίαν ἔχειν ἐπὶ τῆς κεφαλῆς. Addo legem, ad quam mulieres Judææ se componere debent, Maim. Tract. MWN, c. 24.”' In the 16th Ep. (1. i.) of Aristænetus we discern a passage, which may be referred to this subject : Εκπλήττομαι νὴ τῶν θεῶν πῶς ἀθρόως ἅπαντα μεταβέβληκεν ἡ γυνὴ, καὶ πάρεστιν θαυμάζειν ἐκείνης βλέμμα προσηνὲς, μέτριον ἦθος, μειδίαμα σεμνὸν, κόμην ἀφε λῶς πεπλοκισμένην, καλύπτραν ἀπ' αὐτῆς εὐ μάλα σεμ νὴν, βραχυλογίαν ἐν ἠρεμαίᾳ φώνῃ. We also read in Varro, "Rica a ritu, quod Romano ritu sacrificium fœminæ cum faciant, capita velunt;" which custom is attested by Plutarch, and quoted by Seneca (Herc. Fur. 255.) 66 Namque ipsa veste tristis obducta caput, The Mùbidan or Priests of the Magi, who attended the firetemples, were most frequently, if not always, veiled: and from the ancient practice of veiling women, which is still retained in the East, the husband was called in scripture by MIDɔ. St. Chrysostom terms the veil, σύμβολον ὑποταγῆς γυναικὸς καὶ ἐξου 'This I have omitted, as it merely relates to the trite discussion about "Tum numina sancta precamur .c&,רדיד 2 Palladis armisonæ, quæ prima accepit ovantes, Et capita ante aras Phrygio velamur amictu.”—Virg. Æn. iii. 543. The following passage may be, likewise, adduced in explanation of this disputed verse: "Et positis aris jam vota in littore solves: Purpureo velare comas adopertus amictu; NE QUA INTER SANCTOS IGNES in Honore Deorum HOSTILIS FACIES OCCURRAT, ET OMINA TURBET." Virg. Æn. iii. 401 σίας τοῦ ἀνδρὸς, and Rashi thus comments on this Scriptural title (in Gen. xx. 16.) הנה הוא לך כסות של כבוד על עיניים שלי ששלטו בך ובכל אשר אתך: In the 24th Chapter of the Koran, Mohhammed has introduced some strange remarks on women's coverings in general; on one of those verses, which approach the nearest to the point under discussion, Jellale'ddin observes, يسترن الروس والاعناق و الصدور بالمقانع "They shall cover their heads, necks and breasts with the coifs." These makanaa, or coifs, were made of fine linen, and extended to the length of two cubits; probably, they did not much differ in form from the peplum majus' of the Romans. Bücher ob ,מטפחום מעטפות משי רדידים,praesertim autem * serves, المقنع or والنقاب or الرداء be INDD ovoía, et quæ sunt hujus generis alia ritum antiquissimum esse testantur, etiam peplum in quod Rebecca (Gen. xxiv. 65.) in signum subjectionis atque verecundiæ se involvebat." We may, indeed, infer the antiquity of the practice from Numbers v. 18:-in conformity to which, when Susannah was cited before her judges, the writer thus expresses himself, de Σωσάννα ἦν τρυφερὰ σφόδρα, καὶ καλὴ τῷ εἴδει· οἱ δὲ παράνομοι ἐκέ λευσαν ἀποκαλυφθῆναι αὐτὴν, ἦν γὰρ κατακεκαλυμμένη, ὅπως ἐμπλησθῶσι τοῦ κάλλους αὐτῆς. This veil, (whether or not it or the of the East) Josephus (Antiq. Jud. lib. iii. c. 2.) calls tò tñs xepaλñs ipátiov. When Rebecca saw Isaac approaching to meet her p DI, , as Bücher2 has observed; and to the present day, Meiner records the existence of the custom in Syria: "die Syrischen weiber haben ein neklein von pferde-haaren vorm Gesicht so dass sie andere sehen können, sie aber keiner.” We know its prevalence in Egypt and Greece, and in Ezek. xiii. 18. retrace an allusion to it, in its application to idolatrous purposes. No doubt can, therefore, remain as to the meaning of ovcía 3 in St. Paul; and the context completely proves his antithesis to lie between the woman's head, when veiled, and when exposed to view: we may, indeed, recognize the expression in Ps. lx. 9. TNT NYD DEN; but, there, the signification is totally differ • See Stephens in voce πέπλον. 2 See Gen. xxxviii. 14. 3 For the reasons which determine ovala to signify a veil, the reader is referred to the former papers in the Classical Journal by other writers. ent, and is explained in the Septuagint, not by ourla, but by xparalwois; and I strongly suspect that the Cophtic EPWIWI κραταίωσις has the same force in 1 Cor. xi. 10. as ovola. The difficulty lies therefore, exclusively, with these three words, διὰ τοὺς ̓Αγγέλους. The verse is perfect without them;- as it now stands, two reasons are assigned, why the woman should be veiled, viz. dià TOUTO on account of the preceding arguments, and dià Toùs άyyéλovs, on account of the Angels. If we could discover one Ms. of ancient date without them, we might infer, with some probability, that they were not in the Autograph sent to the Corinthian Church. But we notice them in all Mss. with some slight variety of reading;-they_exist in the Syrian copy of the two Testaments written in the Estrangelo character, and given by the late Dr. Buchanan to this public library. Consequently, although the sense of the passage and the force of the Apostle's argument might allow us to cut this Gordian knot by expunging them altogether, and concluding the verse with xɛαAns, the authority of the ancient versions, supported by surviving Mss., compels us to retain them, and attempt to unravel the difficulty. Le Clerc intimated, that they were not necessary in his opinion, to the completion of St. Paul's train of reasoning. We witness a vast variety of conjectural readings, most of which are excessively absurd, such as ἀγέλους, ἀγελαίους, ὄχλους, avopas, &c. &c.; not one of them being calculated to reflect light on the inquiry, or remove any part of the objections to be urged against their ordinary interpretation. Some have imagined, that the forms of Gods and heroes were embroidered on women's veils among the Pagans, and from thence, that those of Angels or Cherubim were represented on the veils of Christian women, in the earlier ages of the Church. Bishop Hall proposed to read dià Tous avopas, the meaning of which is obvious. Beza, in one part of his writings, said, "quid sit hoc, nondum_mihi liquet;" yet, he afterwards determined ayyeλous to mean PROPHETS, quasin mbw; for which it will be seen, that he had some foundation. Still different was Lightfoot's hypothe sis: "Jam vero erant apud Judæos pm Angeli vel Nuntii Desponsationum, qui ab hoc vel illo deputati erant ad desponsandam deputandi uxorem; de quibus Angelis copiose agitur a magistris sparsimque, præsertim vero in Tractatu Talmudico p, cujus caput secundum hoc habet initium, mbwa app, vir desponsat sibi uxorem, vel per se, vel per Angelum suum, aut deputatum." Selden, also, broaches a somewhat similar hypothesis. Some years since, Professor Jens proposed at Dordrecht the substitution of ἐγγελοίους for ἀγγέλους we |