(1) Dr.Bernard takes notice here, that this place Mar, where the waters were bitter, is called by the Syrians and Arabians Mariri, and by the Syrians sometimes Morath, all derived from the Hebrew Mar.He also takes notice, that it is called The Bitter Fountain by Pliny himself; which waters remain there to this day, and are still bitter, as Thevenot assures us and that there are also abundance of palm-trees.See his Travels, Part I.ch.26.p.166.
(2)The additions here to Moses's account of the sweetening of the waters at Marah, seem derived from some ancient profane author, and he such an author also as looks less authentic than are usually followed by Josephus.Philo has not a syllable of these additions, nor any other ancienter writer that we know of.Had Josephus written these his Antiquities for the use of Jews, he would hardly have given them these very improbable circumstances;but writing to Gentiles, that they might not complain of his omission of any accounts of such miracles derived from Gentiles, he did not think proper to conceal what he had met with there about this matter.Which procedure is perfectly agreeable to the character and usage of Josephus upon many occasions.This note is, I confess, barely conjectural; and since Josephus never tells us when his own copy, taken out of the temple, had such additions, or when any ancient notes supplied them; or indeed when they are derived from Jewish, and when from Gentile antiquity, - we can go no further than bare conjectures in such cases; only the notions of Jews were generally so different from those of Gentiles, that we may sometimes make no improbable conjectures to which sort such additions belong.See also somewhat like these additions in Josephus's account of Elisha's ****** sweet the bitter and barren spring near Jericho, War, B.
IV.ch.8.sect.3.
(3) It seems to me, from what Moses, Exodus 16:18, St.Paul, 2Corinthians 8:15, and Josephus here say, compared together, that the quantity of manna that fell daily, and did not putrefy, was just so much as came to an omer apiece, through the whole host of Israel, and no more.
(4) This supposal, that the sweet honey-dew or manna, so celebrated in ancient and modern authors, as falling usually in Arabia, was of the very same sort with this manna sent to the Israelites, savors more of Gentilism than of Judaism or Christianity.It is not improbable that some ancient Gentile author, read by Josephus, so thought; nor would he here contradict him; though just before, and Antiq.B.IV.ch.3.
sect.2, he seems directly to allow that it had not been seen before.However, this food from heaven is here described to be like snow; and in Artapanus, a heathen writer, it is compared to meal, color like to snow, rained down by God," Essay on the Old Test.Append.p.239.But as to the derivation of the word manna, whether from man, which Josephus says then signified What is it or from mannah, to divide, i.e.a dividend or portion allotted to every one, it is uncertain: I incline to the latter derivation.This manna is called angels' food, Psalm 78:26, and by our Sacior, John 6:31, etc., as well as by Josephus here and elsewhere, Antiq.B.III.
ch.5.sect.3, said to be sent the Jews from heaven.
(5) This rock is there at this day, as the travelers agree; and must be the same that was there in the days of Moses, as being too large to be brought thither by our modern carriages.
(6) Note here, that the small book of the principal laws of Moses is ever said to be laid up in the holy house itself; but the larger Pentateuch, as here, some where within the limits of the temple and its courts only.See Antiq.B.V.ch.1.sect.17.
(7) This eminent circumstance, that while Moses's hands were lift up towards heaven, the Israelites prevailed, and while they were let down towards the earth, the Amalekites prevailed, seems to me the earliest intimation we have of the proper posture, used of old, in solemn prayer, which was the stretching out of the hands [and eyes] towards heaven, as other passages of the Old and New Testament inform us.Nay, by the way, this posture seemed to have continued in the Christian church, till the clergy, instead of learning their prayers by heart, read them out of a book, which is in a great measure inconsistent with such an elevated posture, and which seems to me to have been only a later practice, introduced under the corrupt state of the church; though the constant use of divine forms of prayer, praise, and thanksgiving, appears to me to have been the practice of God's people, patriarchs, Jews, and Christians, in all the past ages.
(8) This manner of electing the judges and officers of the Israelites by the testimonies and suffrages of the people, before they were ordained by God, or by Moses, deserves to be carefully noted, because it was the pattern of the like manner of the choice and ordination of bishops, presbyters, and deacons, in the Christian church.
(9) Since this mountain, Sinai, is here said to be the highest of all the mountains that are in that country, it must be that now called St.Katherine's, which is one-third higher than that within a mile of it, now called Sinai, as Mons.Thevenot informs us, Travels, Part I.ch.23.p.168.The other name of it, Horeb, is never used by Josephus, and perhaps was its name among the Egyptians only, whence the Israelites were lately come, as Sinai was its name among the Arabians, Canaanites, and other nations.
Accordingly when (1 Kings 9:8) the Scripture says that Elijah came to Horeb, the mount of God, Josephus justly says, Antiq.B.
VIII.ch.13.sect.7, that he came to the mountain called Sinai:
and Jerome, here cited by Dr.Hudson, says, that he took this mountain to have two names, Sinai and Choreb.De Nomin.Heb.p.
427.
(10) Of this and another like superstitious notion of the Pharisees, which Josephus complied with, see the note on Antiq.
B.II.ch.12.sect.4.