or BOOK OF THE LIVING, or BOOK OF THE LORD, Psalm lxix,
28. Some have thought it very probable that these descriptive phrases,
which are frequent in Scripture, are taken from the custom, observed
generally in the courts of princes, of keeping a list of persons who are
in their service, of the provinces which they govern, of the officers of
their armies, of the number of their troops, and sometimes even of the
names of their soldiers. Thus, when it is said that any one is written
in the book of life, it means that he particularly belongs to God, and
is enrolled among the number of his friends and servants: and to be
“blotted out of the book of life,” is to be erased from the list of
God’s friends and servants, as those who are guilty of treachery are
struck off the roll of officers belonging to a prince. The most
satisfactory explanation of these phrases is, however, that which refers
them to the genealogical lists of the Jews, or to the registers kept of
the living, from which the names of all the dead were blotted out.
28. Some have thought it very probable that these descriptive phrases,
which are frequent in Scripture, are taken from the custom, observed
generally in the courts of princes, of keeping a list of persons who are
in their service, of the provinces which they govern, of the officers of
their armies, of the number of their troops, and sometimes even of the
names of their soldiers. Thus, when it is said that any one is written
in the book of life, it means that he particularly belongs to God, and
is enrolled among the number of his friends and servants: and to be
“blotted out of the book of life,” is to be erased from the list of
God’s friends and servants, as those who are guilty of treachery are
struck off the roll of officers belonging to a prince. The most
satisfactory explanation of these phrases is, however, that which refers
them to the genealogical lists of the Jews, or to the registers kept of
the living, from which the names of all the dead were blotted out.