כלב, an animal well known. By the law of Moses, the dog was
declared unclean, and was held in great contempt among the Jews, 1 Sam.
xvii, 43; xxiv, 14; 2 Sam. ix, 8; 2 Kings viii, 13. Yet they had them in
considerable numbers in their cities. They were not, however, shut up in
their houses or courts, but forced to seek their food where they could
find it. The Psalmist compares violent men to dogs, who go about the
city in the night, prowl about for their food, and growl, and become
clamorous if they be not satisfied, Psalm lix, 6, 14, 15. Mr. Harmer has
illustrated this by quotations from travellers into the east. The Turks
also reckon the dog a filthy creature, and therefore drive him from
their houses; so that with them dogs guard rather the streets and
districts, than particular houses, and live on the offals that are
thrown abroad. In 1 Sam. xxv, 3, Nabal is said to have been “churlish
and evil in his manners; and he was of the house of Caleb;” but Caleb
here is not a proper name. Literally, it is, “He was the son of a dog;”
and so the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic render it,--he was irritable,
snappish, and snarling as a dog. The irritable disposition of the dog is
the foundation of that saying, “He that passeth by, and meddleth with
strife belonging not to him, is like one that taketh a dog by the ears,”
Prov. xxvi, 17; that is, he wantonly exposes himself to danger.
In 1 Kings xxi, 23, it is said, “The dogs shall eat Jezebel.” Mr. Bruce,
when at Gondar, was witness to a scene in a great measure similar to the
devouring of Jezebel by dogs. He says, “The bodies of those killed by
the sword were hewn to pieces, and scattered about the streets, being
denied burial. I was miserable, and almost driven to despair, at seeing
my hunting dogs, twice let loose by the carelessness of my servants,
bringing into the court yard the heads and arms of slaughtered men, and
which I could no way prevent but by the destruction of the dogs
themselves.” He also adds, that upon being asked by the king the reason
of his dejected and sickly appearance, among other reasons, he informed
him, “it was occasioned by an execution of three men, which he had
lately seen; because the hyænas, allured into the streets by the
quantity of carrion, would not let him pass by night in safety from the
palace; and because the dogs fled into his house, to eat pieces of human
carcasses at their leisure.” This account illustrates also the readiness
of the dogs to lick the blood of Ahab, 1 Kings xxii, 38; in conformity
to which is the expression of the Prophet Jeremiah, xv, 3, “I will
appoint over them the sword to slay, and the dogs to tear.”
2. The dog was held sacred by the Egyptians. This fact we learn from
Juvenal, who complains, in his fifteenth satire,
_Oppida tota canem vencrantur, nemo Dianam._
“Thousands regard the hound with holy fear,
Not one, Diana.”
GIFFORD.
The testimony of the Latin poet is confirmed by Diodorus, who, in his
first book, assures us that the Egyptians highly venerate some animals,
both during their life and after their death; and expressly mentions the
dog as one object of this absurd adoration. To these witnesses may be
added Herodotus, who says, that when a dog expires, all the members of
the family to which he belonged worship the carcass; and that, in every
part of the kingdom, the carcasses of their dogs are embalmed, and
deposited in consecrated ground. The idolatrous veneration of the dog by
the Egyptians is shown in the worship of their dog-god Anubis, to whom
temples and priests were consecrated, and whose image was borne in all
religious ceremonies. Cynopolis, the present Minieh, situated in the
lower Thebais, was built in honour of Anubis. The priests celebrated his
festivals there with great pomp. “Anubis,” says Strabo, “is the city of
dogs, the capital of the Cynopolitan prefecture. These animals are fed
there on sacred aliments, and religion has decreed them a worship.” An
event, however, related by Plutarch, brought them into considerable
discredit with the people. Cambyses, having slain the god Apis, and
thrown his body into the field, all animals respected it except the
dogs, which alone ate of his flesh. This impiety diminished the popular
veneration. Cynopolis was not the only city where incense was burned on
the altars of Anubis. He had chapels in almost all the temples. On
solemnities, his image always accompanied those of Isis and Osiris.
Rome, having adopted the ceremonies of Egypt, the emperor Commodus, to
celebrate the Isiac feasts, shaved his head, and himself carried the dog
Anubis.
3. In Matt. vii, 6, we have this direction of our Saviour: “Give not
that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before
swine, lest they,” the swine, “trample them under their feet, and,” the
dogs, “turn again and tear you.” It was customary, not only with the
writers of Greece and Rome, but also with the eastern sages, to denote
certain classes of men by animals supposed to resemble them among the
brutes. Our Saviour was naturally led to adopt the same concise and
energetic method. By _dogs_, which were held in great detestation by the
Jews, he intends men of odious character and violent temper; by _swine_,
the usual emblem of moral filth, he means the sensual and profligate;
and the purport of his admonition is, that as it is a maxim with the
priests not to give any part of the sacrifices to dogs, so it should be
a maxim with you not to impart the holy instruction with which you are
favoured, to those who are likely to blaspheme and to be only excited by
it to rage and persecution. It is, however, a maxim of _prudence_ not of
_cowardice_; and is to be taken along with other precepts of our Lord,
which enjoin the publication of truth, at the expense of ease and even
life.
declared unclean, and was held in great contempt among the Jews, 1 Sam.
xvii, 43; xxiv, 14; 2 Sam. ix, 8; 2 Kings viii, 13. Yet they had them in
considerable numbers in their cities. They were not, however, shut up in
their houses or courts, but forced to seek their food where they could
find it. The Psalmist compares violent men to dogs, who go about the
city in the night, prowl about for their food, and growl, and become
clamorous if they be not satisfied, Psalm lix, 6, 14, 15. Mr. Harmer has
illustrated this by quotations from travellers into the east. The Turks
also reckon the dog a filthy creature, and therefore drive him from
their houses; so that with them dogs guard rather the streets and
districts, than particular houses, and live on the offals that are
thrown abroad. In 1 Sam. xxv, 3, Nabal is said to have been “churlish
and evil in his manners; and he was of the house of Caleb;” but Caleb
here is not a proper name. Literally, it is, “He was the son of a dog;”
and so the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic render it,--he was irritable,
snappish, and snarling as a dog. The irritable disposition of the dog is
the foundation of that saying, “He that passeth by, and meddleth with
strife belonging not to him, is like one that taketh a dog by the ears,”
Prov. xxvi, 17; that is, he wantonly exposes himself to danger.
In 1 Kings xxi, 23, it is said, “The dogs shall eat Jezebel.” Mr. Bruce,
when at Gondar, was witness to a scene in a great measure similar to the
devouring of Jezebel by dogs. He says, “The bodies of those killed by
the sword were hewn to pieces, and scattered about the streets, being
denied burial. I was miserable, and almost driven to despair, at seeing
my hunting dogs, twice let loose by the carelessness of my servants,
bringing into the court yard the heads and arms of slaughtered men, and
which I could no way prevent but by the destruction of the dogs
themselves.” He also adds, that upon being asked by the king the reason
of his dejected and sickly appearance, among other reasons, he informed
him, “it was occasioned by an execution of three men, which he had
lately seen; because the hyænas, allured into the streets by the
quantity of carrion, would not let him pass by night in safety from the
palace; and because the dogs fled into his house, to eat pieces of human
carcasses at their leisure.” This account illustrates also the readiness
of the dogs to lick the blood of Ahab, 1 Kings xxii, 38; in conformity
to which is the expression of the Prophet Jeremiah, xv, 3, “I will
appoint over them the sword to slay, and the dogs to tear.”
2. The dog was held sacred by the Egyptians. This fact we learn from
Juvenal, who complains, in his fifteenth satire,
_Oppida tota canem vencrantur, nemo Dianam._
“Thousands regard the hound with holy fear,
Not one, Diana.”
GIFFORD.
The testimony of the Latin poet is confirmed by Diodorus, who, in his
first book, assures us that the Egyptians highly venerate some animals,
both during their life and after their death; and expressly mentions the
dog as one object of this absurd adoration. To these witnesses may be
added Herodotus, who says, that when a dog expires, all the members of
the family to which he belonged worship the carcass; and that, in every
part of the kingdom, the carcasses of their dogs are embalmed, and
deposited in consecrated ground. The idolatrous veneration of the dog by
the Egyptians is shown in the worship of their dog-god Anubis, to whom
temples and priests were consecrated, and whose image was borne in all
religious ceremonies. Cynopolis, the present Minieh, situated in the
lower Thebais, was built in honour of Anubis. The priests celebrated his
festivals there with great pomp. “Anubis,” says Strabo, “is the city of
dogs, the capital of the Cynopolitan prefecture. These animals are fed
there on sacred aliments, and religion has decreed them a worship.” An
event, however, related by Plutarch, brought them into considerable
discredit with the people. Cambyses, having slain the god Apis, and
thrown his body into the field, all animals respected it except the
dogs, which alone ate of his flesh. This impiety diminished the popular
veneration. Cynopolis was not the only city where incense was burned on
the altars of Anubis. He had chapels in almost all the temples. On
solemnities, his image always accompanied those of Isis and Osiris.
Rome, having adopted the ceremonies of Egypt, the emperor Commodus, to
celebrate the Isiac feasts, shaved his head, and himself carried the dog
Anubis.
3. In Matt. vii, 6, we have this direction of our Saviour: “Give not
that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before
swine, lest they,” the swine, “trample them under their feet, and,” the
dogs, “turn again and tear you.” It was customary, not only with the
writers of Greece and Rome, but also with the eastern sages, to denote
certain classes of men by animals supposed to resemble them among the
brutes. Our Saviour was naturally led to adopt the same concise and
energetic method. By _dogs_, which were held in great detestation by the
Jews, he intends men of odious character and violent temper; by _swine_,
the usual emblem of moral filth, he means the sensual and profligate;
and the purport of his admonition is, that as it is a maxim with the
priests not to give any part of the sacrifices to dogs, so it should be
a maxim with you not to impart the holy instruction with which you are
favoured, to those who are likely to blaspheme and to be only excited by
it to rage and persecution. It is, however, a maxim of _prudence_ not of
_cowardice_; and is to be taken along with other precepts of our Lord,
which enjoin the publication of truth, at the expense of ease and even
life.