in a few; or that he ever made the attempt in vain. He did not profess to heal every where all that were sick; on the contrary, he told the Jews, evidently meaning to represent his own case, that, "although many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land, yet unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow:" and that "many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet, and none of them was cleansed saving Naaman the Syrian."* By which examples he gave them to understand, that it was not the nature of a divine interposition, or necessary to its purpose, to be general; still less to answer every challenge that might be made, which would teach men to put their faith upon these experiments. Christ never pronounced the word, but the effect followed. It was not a thousand sick that received his benediction, and a few that were benefited; a single paralytic is let down in his bed at Jesus's feet, in the midst of a surrounding multitude; Jesus bid him walk, and he did so. A man with a withered hand is in the synagogue; Jesus bid him stretch forth his hand, in the presence of the assembly, and it was "restored whole like the other.'s There was nothing tentative in these cures; nothing that can be explained by the power of accident. ples. It is a doubt likewise, which ought to be excluded by very special circumstances, from these narratives which relate to the supernatural cure of hypochondriacal and nervous complaints, and of all diseases which are much affected by the imagination. The miracles of the second and third century are, usually, healing the sick, and casting out evil spirits, miracles in which there is room for some error and deception. We hear nothing of causing the blind to see, the lame to walk, the deaf to hear, the lepers to be cleansed.* There are also instances in Christian writers of reputed miracles, which were natural operations, though not known to be such at the time; as that of articulate speech after the loss of a great part of the tongue. IV. To the same head of objection nearly, may also be referred accounts, in which the variation of a small circumstance may have transformed some extraordinary appearance, or some critical coincidence of events, into a miracle; stories, in a word, which may be resolved into exaggeration. The miracles of the Gospel can by no possibility be explained away in this manner. Total fiction will account for any thing; but no stretch of exaggeration that has any parallel in other histories, no force of fancy upon real circumstances, could produce the narratives which we now have. The feeding of the five thousand with a few loaves and fishes surpasses all bounds of exaggeration. The We may observe also, that many of the cures raising of Lazarus, of the widow's son at Nain, as which Christ wrought, such as that of a person well as many of the cures which Christ wrought, blind from his birth, also many miracles beside come not within the compass of misrepresentation. cures, as raising the dead, walking upon the sea, I mean, that it is impossible to assign any position feeding a great multitude with a few loaves and of circumstances however peculiar, any accidental fishes, are of a nature which does not in any wise effects however extraordinary, any natural singuadmit of the supposition of a fortunate experi-larity, which could supply an origin or foundation ment. to these accounts. Having thus enumerated several exceptions, which may justly be taken to relations of miracles, it is necessary when we read the Scriptures, to bear in our minds this general remark; that, although there be miracles recorded in the New Testament, which fall within some or other of the exceptions here assigned, yet that they are united with others, to which none of the same exceptions extend, and that their credibility stands upon this union. Thus the visions and revelations which Saint Paul asserts to have been imparted to him, may not, in their separate evidence, be distinguishable from the visions and revelations which many others have alleged. But here is the difference. Saint Paul's pretensions were attested by external miracles wrought by himself, and by miracles wrought in the cause to which these visions relate; or, to speak more properly, the same historical authority which informs us of III. We may dismiss from the question all accounts in which, allowing the phenomenon to be real, the fact to be true, it still remains doubtful whether a miracle were wrought. This is the case with the ancient history of what is called the thundering legion, of the extraordinary circumstances which obstructed the rebuilding of the temple at Jerusalem by Julian, the circling of the flames and fragrant smell at the martyrdom of Polycarp, the sudden shower that extinguished the fire into which the Scriptures were thrown in the Diocletian persecution; Constantine's dream; his inscribing in consequence of it the cross upon his standard and the shields of his soldiers; his victory, and the escape of the standard-bearer; perhaps also the imagined appearance of the cross in the heavens, though this last circumstance is very deficient in historical evidence. It is also the case with the modern annual exhibition of the liquefaction of the blood of St. Januarius at Na-one, informs us of the other. This is not ordina Luke iv. 25. rily true of the visions of enthusiasts, or even of the accounts in which they are contained. Again, some of Christ's own miracles were momentary; † One, and only one, instance may be produced in as the transfiguration, the appearance and voice which the disciples of Christ do seem to have attempted from Heaven at his baptism, a voice from the a cure, and not to have been able to perform it. The clouds on one occasion afterward, (John xii. 28,) story is very ingenuously related by three of the evan- and some others. It is not denied, that the disgelists. The patient was afterward healed by Christ himself; and the whole transaction seems to have been tinction which we have proposed concerning miintended, as it was well suited, to display the superiori-racles of this species, applies, in diminution of the ty of Christ above all who performed miracles in his force of the evidence, as much to these instances name, a distinction which, during his presence in the as to others. But this is the case, not with all the world, it might be necessary to inculcate by some such proof as this. 1 Mark ii. 3. § Matt. xii. 10. Matt. xvii. 14. Mark ix. 14. Luke ix. 33. Jortin's Remarks, vol. ii. p. 51. miracles ascribed to Christ, nor with the greatest | III. The cures said to be performed at the tomb part, nor with many. Whatever force therefore of the abbé Paris, in the early part of the present there may be in the objection, we have numerous century. miracles which are free from it; and even these to which it is applicable, are little affected by it in their credit, because there are few who, admitting the rest, will reject them. If there be miracles of the New Testament, which come within any of the other heads into which we have distributed the objections, the same remark must be repeated. And this is one way, in which the unexampled number and variety of the miracles ascribed to Christ strengthens the credibility of Christianity. For it precludes any solution, or conjecture about a solution, which imagination, or even which experience, might suggest concerning some particular miracles, if considered independently of others. The miracles of Christ were of various kinds,* and performed in great varieties of situation, form, and manner; at Jerusalem, the metropolis of the Jewish nation and religion; in different parts of Judea and Galilee; in cities and villages; in synagogues, in private houses; in the street, in highways; with preparation, as in the case of Lazarus; by accident, as in the case of the widow's son of Nain; when attended by multitudes, and when alone with the patient; in the midst of his disciples, and in the presence of his enemies; with the common people around him, and before Scribes and Pharisees, and rulers of the synagogues. I apprehend that, when we remove from the comparison, the cases which are fairly disposed of by the observations that have been stated, many cases will not remain. To those which do remain, we apply this final distinction; "that there is not satisfactory evidence, that persons, pretending to be original witnesses of the miracles, passed their lives in labours, dangers, and sufferings, voluntarily undertaken and undergone in attestation of the accounts which they delivered, and properly in consequence of their belief of the truth of those accounts." CHAPTER II. BUT they, with whom we argue, have undoubt edly a right to select their own examples. The instances with which Mr. Hume has chosen to confront the miracles of the New Testament, and which, therefore, we are entitled to regard as the strongest which the history of the world could supply to the inquiries of a very acute and learned adversary, are the three following: I. The narrative of Tacitus is delivered in these terms: "One of the common people of Alexandria, known to be diseased in his eyes, by the admonition of the god Serapis, whom that superstitious nation worship above all other gods, prostrated himself before the emperor, earnestly imploring from him a remedy for his blindness, and entreating that he would deign to anoint with his spittle his cheeks and the balls of his eyes. Another, diseased in his hand, requested, by the admonition of the same god, that he might be touched by the foot of the emperor. Vespasian at first derided and despised their application; afterward, when they continued to urge their petitions, he sometimes appeared to dread the imputation of vanity; at other times, by the earnest supplication of the patients, and the persuasion of his flatterers, to be induced to hope for success. At length he commanded an inquiry to be made by the physicians, whether such a blindness and debility were vincible by human aid. The report of the physicians contained various points; that in the one the power of vision was not destroyed, but would return if the obstacles were removed; that in the other, the diseased joints might be restored if a healing power were applied; that it was, perhaps, agreeable to the gods to do this; that the emperor was elected by divine assistance; lastly, that the credit of the success would be the emperor's, the ridicule of the disappointment would fall upon the patients. Vespasian, believing that every thing was in the power of his fortune, and that nothing was any longer incredible, whilst the multitude, which stood by, eagerly expected the event, with a countenance expressive of joy, executed what he was desired to do. Immediately the hand was restored to its use, and light returned to the blind man. They who were present relate both these cures, even at this time, when there is nothing to be gained by lying."* Now, though Tacitus wrote this account twenty-seven years after the miracle is said to have been performed, and wrote at Rome of what passed at Alexandria, and wrote also from report: and although it does not appear that he had examined the story, or that he believed it (but rather the contrary,) yet I think his testimony sufficient to prove that such a transaction took place: by which I mean, that the two men in question did apply to Vespasian; that Vespasian did touch the diseased in the manner related; and that a cure was reported to have followed the operation. But the affair labours under a strong and just suspicion, that the whole of it was a concerted imposture brought about by collusion between the patients, the physician, and the emperor. This solution is probable, because there was every thing to suggest, and every thing to facilitate, such a scheme. The miracle was calculated to confer honour upon the emperor, and upon the god Serapis. It was *Not only healing every species of disease, but turn achieved in the midst of the emperor's flatterers ing water into wine (John ii); feeding multitudes with and followers; in a city, and amongst a populace, a few loaves and fishes (Matt. xiv. 15: Mark vi. 35; beforehand devoted to his interest, and to the worLuke ix. 12; John vi. 5); walking on the sea (Matt. xiv. 25); calming a storm (Matt. viii. 25; Luke viii. 24); ship of the god; where it would have been treason a celestial voice at his baptism, and miraculous appear and blasphemy together, to have contradicted the ance (Matt. iii. 16; afterward John xii. 28); his trans-fame of the cure, or even to have questioned it. figuration (Matt. xvii. 1-8; Mark ix. 2; Luke ix. 28; And what is very observable in the account is, that I. The cure of a blind and of a lame man of Alexandria, by the emperor Vespasian, as related by Tacitus; II. The restoration of the limb of an attendant in a Spanish church, as told by cardinal de Retz; and, 2 Peter i. 16, 17); raising the dead in three distinct instances (Matt. ix. 18; Mark v. 22; Luke viii. 41; Luke vii. 14; John xi.) *Tacit. Hist. lib. iv. the report of the physicians is just such a report | The ecclesiastics of the place would, it is probable, as would have been made of a case, in which no favour the story, inasmuch as it advanced the external marks of the disease existed, and which, honour of their image and church. And if they consequently, was capable of being easily coun- patronised it, no other person at Saragossa, in the terfeited, viz. that in the first of the patients the middle of the last century, would care to dispute organs of vision were not destroyed, that the it. The story likewise coincided, not less with weakness of the second was in his joints. The the wishes and preconceptions of the people, than strongest circumstance in Tacitus's narration is, with the interests of their ecclesiastical rulers: so that the first patient was "notus tabe oculorum," that there was prejudice backed by authority, and remarked or notorious for the disease in his eyes. both operating upon extreme ignorance, to account But this was a circumstance which might have for the success of the imposture. If, as I have found its way into the story in its progress from suggested, the contrivance of an artificial limb was a distant country, and during an interval of thirty then new, it would not occur to the cardinal himyeurs; or it might be true that the malady of the self to suspect it; especially under the carelessness eyes was notorious, yet that the nature and degree of mind with which he heard the tale, and the of the disease had never been ascertained; a case little inclination he felt to scrutinize or expose its by no means uncommon. The emperor's reserve fallacy. was easily affected; or it is possible he might not III. The miracles related to have been wrought be in the secret. There does not seem to be much at the tomb of the abbé Paris, admit in general of weight in the observation of Tacitus, that they this solution. The patients who frequented the who were present, continued even then to relate tomb were so affected by their devotion, their exthe story when there was nothing to be gained by pectation, the place, the solemnity, and, above all, the lie. It only proves that those who had told by the sympathy of the surrounding multitude, the story for many years persisted in it. The state that many of them were thrown into violent conof mind of the witnesses and spectators at the vulsions, which convulsions, in certain instances, time, is the point to be attended to. Still less is produced a removal of disorders depending upon there of pertinency in Mr. Hume's eulogium on obstruction. We shall, at this day, have the less the cautious and penetrating genius of the histo- difficulty in admitting the above account, because ran; for it does not appear that the historian be- it is the very same thing as hath lately been exlieved it. The terms in which he speaks of perienced in the operations of animal magnetism; Serapis, the deity to whose interposition the mi-and the report of the French physicians upon that racle was attributed, scarcely suffer us to suppose that Tacitus thought the niiracle to be real: "by the admonition of the god Serapis, whom that superstitious nation (dedita superstitionibus gens) worship above all other gods." To have brought this supposed miracle within the limits of comparison with the miracles of Christ, it ought to have appeared, that a person of a low and private station, in the midst of enemies, with the whole power of the country opposing him, with every one around him prejudiced or interested against his claims and character, pretended to perform these cures, and required the spectators, upon the strength of what they saw, to give up their firmest hopes and opinions, and follow him through a life of trial and danger; that many were so moved as to obey his call, at the expense both of every notion in which they had been brought up, and of their ease, safety, and reputation; and that by these beginnings, a change was produced in the world, the effects of which remain to this day: a case, both in its circumstances and consequences, very unlike any thing we find in Tacitus's relation. II. The story taken from the Memoirs of Cardinal de Retz, which is the second example alleged by Mr. Hume, is this: "In the church of Saragossa in Spain, the canons showed me a man whose business it was to light the lamps; telling me that he had been several years at the gate with one leg only. I saw him with two."* It is stated by Mr. Hume, that the cardinal, who relates this story, did not believe it: and it no where appears, that he either examined the limb, or asked the patient, or indeed any one, a single question about the matter. An artificial leg, wrought with art, would be sufficient, in a place where no such contrivance had ever before been heard of, to give origin and currency to the report. Liv. iv. A. D. 1654. mysterious remedy is very applicable to the present consideration, viz. that the pretenders to the art, by working upon the imaginations of their patients, were frequently able to produce convulsions; that convulsions so produced, are amongst the most powerful, but, at the same time, most uncertain and unmanageable applications to the human frame which can be employed. Circumstances, which indicate this explication in the case of the Parisian miracles, are the following: 1. They were tentative. Out of many thousand sick, infirm, and discased persons, who resorted to the tomb, the professed history of the miracles contains only nine cures. 2. The convulsions at the tomb are admitted. 3. The diseases were, for the most part, of that sort which depends upon inaction and obstruction, as dropsies, palsies, and some tumours. 4. The cures were gradual; some patients attending many days, some several weeks, and some several months. 5. The cures were many of them incomplete. 6. Others were temporary.* So that all the wonder we are called upon to account for, is, that, out of an almost innumerable multitude which resorted to the tomb for the cure of their complaints, and .nany of whom were there agitated by strong convulsions, a very small proportion experienced a beneficial change in their constitution, especially in the action of the nerves and glands. Some of the cases alleged, do not require that we should have recourse to this solution. The first case in the catalogue is scarcely distinguishable from the progress of a natural recovery. It was that of a young man, who laboured under an inflammation of one eye, and had lost the sight of the The reader will find these particulars verified in the detail, by the accurate inquiries of the present bishop of Saruin, in his Criterion of Miracles, p. 132, &c. other. The inflamed eye was relieved, but the blindness of the other remained. The inflamma PART II. CHAPTER I. Prophecy. tion had before been abated by medicine; and the OF THE AUXILIARY EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. young man, at the time of his attendance at the tomb, was using a lotion of laudanum. And, what is a still more material part of the case, the inflammation, after some interval returned. Another case was that of a young man who had lost his sight by the puncture of an awl, and the discharge of the aqueous humour through the wound. The sight, which had been gradually returning, was much improved during his visit to the tomb, that is, probably, in the same degree in which the discharged humour was replaced by fresh secretions. And it is observable, that these two are the only cases which, from their nature, should seem unlikely to be affected by convulsions. ISAIAH lii. 13. liii. "Behold, my Servant shall deal prudently; he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high. As many were astonished at thee (his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men); so shall he sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at him: for that which had not In one material respect I allow that the Parisian been told them, shall they see; and that which miracles were different from those related by Ta- they had not heard, shall they consider.-Who citus, and from the Spanish miracle of the cardi- hath believed our report ? and to whom is the arm nal de Retz. They had not, like them, all the of the Lord revealed? For he shall grow up bepower and all the prejudice of the country on their fore him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a side to begin with. They were alleged by one dry ground: he hath no form nor_comeliness; party against another, by the Jansenists against and when we shall see him, there is no beauty the Jesuits. These were of course opposed and that we should desire him. He is despised and examined by their adversaries. The consequence rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted of which examination was, that many falsehoods with grief: and we hid, as it were, our faces from were detected, that with something really extra-him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. ordinary much fraud appeared to be mixed. And if some of the cases upon which designed misrepresentation could not be charged, were not at the time satisfactorily accounted for, it was because the efficacy of strong spasmodic affections was not then sufficiently known. Finally, the cause of Jansenism, did not rise by the miracles, but sunk, although the miracles had the anterior persuasion of all the numerous adherents of that cause to set out with. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his These, let us remember, are the strongest ex-mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, amples, which the history of ages supplies. In none of them was the miracle unequivocal; by none of them, were established prejudices and persuasions overthrown; of none of them, did the credit make its way, in opposition to authority and power; by none of them, were many induced to commit themselves, and that in contradiction to prior opinions, to a life of mortification, danger, and sufferings; none were called upon to attest them, at the expense of their fortunes and safety.* *It may be thought that the historian of the Parisian miracles, M. Montgeron, forms an exception to this last assertion. He presented his book (with a suspicion, as it should seem, of the danger of what he was doing) to the king; and was shortly afterward committed to prison, from which he never came out. Had the miracles been unequivocal, and had M. Montgeron been originally convinced by them, I should have allowed this exception. It would have stood, I think, alone, in the argument of our adversaries. But beside what has been observed of the dubious nature of the miracles, the account which M. Montgeron has himself left of his conversion, shows both the state of his mind, and that his persuasion was not built upon external miracles."Scarcely had he entered the churchyard, when he was struck (he tells us) with awe and reverence, having never before heard prayers pronounced with so much ardour and transport as he observed amongst the supplicants at the tomb. Upon this, throwing himself on his knees, resting his elbows on the tomb-stone, and cover. ing his face with his hands, he spake the following prayer:-O thou, by whose intercession so many miracles are said to be performed, if it be true that a part of thee surriceth the grave, and that thou hast influence with the Almighty, have pity on the darkness of my understand ing, and through his mercy obtain the removal of it.” Having prayed thus, "many thoughts (as he saith) and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment; and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living; for the transgression of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief. When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors, and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors." began to open themselves to his mind; and so profound was his attention, that he continued on his knees four hours, not in the least disturbed by the vast crowd of surrounding supplicants. During this time, all the arguments which he ever heard or read in favour of Christianity, occurred to him with so much force, and seemed so strong and convincing, that he went home fully satisfied with the truth of religion in general, and of the holiness and power of that person, who, as he supposed) had engaged the Divine Goodness to enlight en his understanding so suddenly."-Douglas's Crit. of Mir. p. 214. These words are extant in a book, purporting | circumstances of Christ's passion, the bishop to contain the predictions of a writer who lived brings out in an order perfectly agreeable to the seven centuries before the Christian era. event, "and his grave was appointed with the wicked, but with the rich man was his tomb." The words in the eleventh verse, “by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many," are, in the bishop's version, "by the knowledge of him shall my righteous servant justify many." It is natural to inquire what turn the Jews themselves give to this prophecy. There is good proof that the ancient Rabbins explained it of their expected Messiah; but their modern expositors concur, I think, in representing it as a de That material part of every argument from prophecy, namely, that the words alleged were actually spoken or written before the fact to which they are applied took place, or could by any natural means be foreseen is, in the present instance, incontestable. The record comes out of the custody of adversaries. The Jews, as an ancient father well observed, are our librarians. The passage is in their copies, as well as in ours. With many attempts to explain it away, none has ever been made by them to discredit its authenti-scription of the calamitous state and intended res city. And, what adds to the force of the quotation is, that it is taken from a writing declaredly prophetic; a writing, professing to describe such future transactions and changes in the world, as were connected with the fate and interests of the Jewish nation. It is not a passage in an historical or devotional composition, which, because it turns out to be applicable to some future events, or to some future situation of affairs, is presumed to have been oracular. The words of Isaiah were delivered by him in a prophetic character, with the solemnity belonging to that character: and what he so delivered, was all along understood by the Jewish reader to refer to something that was to take place after the time of the author. The public sentiments of the Jews concerning the design of Isaiah's writings, are set forth in the book of Ecclesiasticus: He saw by an excellent spirit, what should come to pass at the last, and he comforted them that mourned in Sion. He showed what should come to pass for ever, and secret things or ever they came." It is also an advantage which this prophecy possesses, that it is intermixed with no other subject. It is entire, separate, and uninterruptedly directed to one scene of things. toration of the Jewish people, who are here, as "Vaticinium hoc Esaiæ est carnificina Rabbino rum, de quo aliqui Judæi mihi confessi sunt, Rabbinos † Hulse, Theol. Jud. p. 430. 1 Bishop Lowth adopts in this place the reading of the Seventy, which gives smitten to death, "for the transgression of my people was he smitten to death." The addition of the words" to death," makes an end of the Jewish interpretation of the clause. And the authority upon which this reading (though not given by The application of the prophecy to the evan- the present Hebrew text) is adopted, Dr. Kennicot has gelic history is plain and appropriate. Here is no set forth by an argument not only so cogent, but so clear double sense; no figurative language, but what is and popular, that I beg leave to transcribe the subsufficiently intelligible to every reader of every stance of it into this note:-"Origen, after having quoted at large this prophecy concerning the Messiah, teils country. The obscurities (by which I mean the us, that, having once made use of this passage, in a disexpressions that require a knowledge of local dic-pute against some that were accounted wise among the tion, and of local allusion) are few, and not of Jews, one of them replied that the words did not mean great importance. Nor have I found that varie- one man, but one people, the Jews, who were smitten of God, and dispersed among the Gentiles for their conties of reading, or a different construing of the version; that he then urged many parts of this prophecy, original, produce any material alteration in the to show the absurdity of this interpretation, and that sense of the prophecy. Compare the common he seemed to press them the hardest by this sentence, translation with that of bishop Lowth, and the for the transgression of my people was he smitten to death. Now, as Origen, the author of the Hexapla, difference is not considerable. So far as they do must have understood Hebrew, we cannot suppose that differ, bishop Lowth's corrections, which are the he would have urged this last text as so decisive, if the faithful result of an accurate examination, bring Greek version had not agreed here with the Hebrew the description nearer to the New Testament text; nor that these wise Jews would have been at all distressed by this quotation, unless the Hebrew text had history than it was before. In the fourth verse read agreeably to the words 'to death,' on which the of the fifty-third chapter, what our Bible renders argument principally depended; for, by quoting it im"stricken," he translates "judicially stricken:"mediately, they would have triumphed over him, and and in the eighth verse, the clause, "he was taken from prison and from judgment,” the bishop gives, "by an oppressive judgment he was taken off." The next words to these, "who shall declare his generation?" are much cleared up in their meaning by the bishop's version; "his manner of life who would declare ?" i. e. who would stand forth in his defence? The former part of the ninth verse, and he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death," which inverts the Chap. xlviii. ver. 24. reprobated his Greek version. This, whenever they J |