From Book: A New Literal Translation From the Original Greek of All the Apostolical Epistles, Essay VIII,
"Concerning The Right Interpretation of the Writings in which the Revelations of God are Contained", p. 702, 1841.

In like manner, Jacob before his death required his son Joseph to put his hand under his thigh, and swear, that he would not bury him in Egypt, but in Canaan with his fathers, Gen. xlvii. 29.

To express extreme affliction and grief, they rent their clothes, and covered themselves with sackcloth. Thus it is said of Jacob when he saw Joseph's coat, ' He rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his loins, and mourned for his son many days.' —1 Kings xxi. 27, when Ahab heard Elijah's words, ' he rent his clothes, and put sackcloth on his flesh, and fasted, and lay on sackcloth and went softly.'  Moses having constrained his wife Zipporah to circumcise her son, she, to express her detestation of the action, and her displeasure with her husband for having commanded it, cast the foreskin of the child at his feet, and said, ' Surely a bloody husband art thou to me,' Exod. iv. 25.

Anciently the significant actions with which any kind of information was accompanied, were commonly of the typical kind ; that is, they were so contrived as to express the information conveyed by the words. Thus, when Moses saw an Egyptian smiting an Israelite, he slew the Egyptian, to shew, by action, that God would by him deliver the Israelites from the bondage of the Egyptians. So Stephen assures us, Acts vii. 25. — Thus also, 1 Kings xi. 30, 'The prophet Ahijah caught the new garment that was on Jeroboam, and rent it in twelve pieces. 31, And he said to Jeroboam, take thee ten pieces ; for thus saith the Lord the God of Israel, Behold I will rend the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon, and will give ten tribes to thee.' — 1 Kings xxii. 11, ' Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah made him horns of iron ; and he said, Thus saith the Lord, With these shall thou push the Syrians until thou have consumed them.' — 2 Kings xxii. 11, ' Elisha said unto the king of Israel, Smite upon the ground: and he smote thrice, and staid. 19, And the man of God was wroth with him, and said, Thou shouldst have smitten five or six times, then hadst thou smitten Syria till thou hadst consumed it ; Whereas now thou shalt smite Syria but thrice.' The king's fault was, that knowing his smiting upon the ground was typical of his smiting Syria, he ought to have smitten it oftener than thrice. — Neh. v. 13, ' Also I shook my lap and said, So God shake out every man from his house, and from his labour, that performeth not this promise, even thus be he shaken.' — Ezek. xxi. 6, ' Sigh, therefore, thou son of man, with the breaking (beating) of thy loins ; and with bitterness sigh before their eyes. 7. And it shall be when they say unto thee, Wherefore sighest thou ? that thou shall answer, For the tidings, because it cometh ; and every heart shall melt, and all hands shall be feeble,' &c. Ver. 14, ' Thou, therefore, son of man, prophesy, and smite thine hands together.'

In later times, likewise, the Jews accompanied their discourses with significant actions, to give their instructions the greater force. Matt, xviii. 2, ' Jesus called a little child, and set him in the midst of them. 3, And said, Verily, I say unto you, except ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. 4, Whosoever, therefore, shall humble himself as this little child,' &c. — Mark xi. 12, ' On the morrow when they were come from Bethany, Jesus was hungry. 13, And seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came, if haply he might find any thing thereon ; and when he came to it he found nothing but leaves. Now the time of (gathering) figs was not yet. 14, And Jesus answered and said to it, No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever. And his disciples heard it. — 20, And on the (next) morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. 21, And Peter, calling to remembrance, saith unto him, Master, behold the fig tree which thou cursedst is withered away.' Peter called his Master's declaration, in consequence of which the fig tree was destroyed, a curse, agreeably to the phraseology of the Hebrews, who considered land absolutely sterile аs cursed ; Heb. vi. 8. — By the typical action of destroying the barren fig tree, our Lord intimated to his disciples the destruction which was coming on the Jewish nation on account of their wickedness. — John xiii. 4, ' Jesus riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments, and took a towel and girded himself. 5, After that he poureth water in a bason, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded. — 12, So after he had washed their feet, and had taken his garments and was set down again, he said to them. Know ye what I have done to you ? 14, If I your Lord and Master have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another's feet'. Ye ought to do the meanest offices to each other, when they are necessary for promoting each other's happiness. — Luke ix. 5, ' Whosoever will not receive you, when ye go out of that city, shake off the very dust from your feet for a testimony against them.' — Mail. xix. 13, ' Then there were brought unto him little children, that he should put his hands on them and pray. 15, And he laid his hands on them.' — 1 Tim. iv. 14, ' Neglect not the spiritual gift which is in thee, which was given thee according to prophecy, together with the imposition of the hands of the eldership.' — Matt. xx. 34, ' Jesus had compassion on them, and touched their eyes ; and immediately their eyes received sight.' — John ix. 6, ' He spat on the ground and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay ; 7, And said to him, go wash in the pool of Siloam.'

These examples shew, that our Lord's taking Peter's wife's mother, who was sick of a fever, and Jairus's daughter, who was dead, by the hand ; and his touching the eyes of the two blind men mentioned Matt. ix. 2, with other things of the like nature, were merely significant actions, by which he intimated to the persons themselves, and to those who were present, that he was going to work a miracle in their behalf. So also, before he said to his apostles, John xx. 22, ' Receive ye the Holy Ghost, he breathed on them,' to intimate, that by the invisible operation of his power he would confer on them the gifts of inspiration and miracles.

Another remarkable instance of enforcing information by a significant action, we have Acts xxi. 11. Agabus ' took Paul's girdle, and bound his own hands and feet, and said, Thus saith the Holy Ghost, So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owneth this girdle, and shall deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.'

Lastly, it is well known that baptism and the Lord's supper were instituted by Christ, and appointed to be continued in the church, for the purpose of setting before the people by significant action some of the greatest articles of their faith.

Since then it was common in the eastern countries to give instruction by symbolical actions, as well as by words, the many extraordinary things done by the Jewish prophets, for discovering to the Israelites God's purposes concerning themselves, and concerning the neighbouring nations, cannot be matter either of astonishment or of offence to us. They were all of them done at the commandment of God, and agreeably to the manners of the times ; and were admirably adapted to convey, in the strongest and most forcible manner, the information intended.

Thus, Isaiah was commanded by God to walk three years, not only barefoot but naked, that is, without his upper garment; namely, the hairy mantle commonly worn by the prophets, Zech. xiii. 4.

---