disproved by Dr. Lardner, for it was too insignificant, being only a Roman fort; and Seleucia on the Tigris, being one of the cities built by Seleucus Nicanor, would have been called by its own name. Admitting that the Jews were accustomed to use figurative names, and that John in the Apocalypse has so portrayed papal Rome, beyond all evasion of cavil, under the type of Babylon, yet it will not follow that Peter, in the conclusion of this epistle, has deviated from a plain matter of fact. It may be inferred that he not only visited the Asiatic Babylon, but that he resided there for some years. His second epistle is evidently written from the same place, and in it he calls Balaam the son of "Bosor," a Chaldee idiom, instead of "Beor," which is Hebrew. It has been objected that the mutinous Jews were expelled from the Euphratean Babylon during the reign of Caligula; yet there were some residents who were permitted to remain there; and the epistle of Peter was not written before the year 60, when there may have been, as shown from Josephus, many more, if not in Babylon, still in its neighbourhood, and the city may have been put for the region. There was a similar expulsion of them from Rome by Claudius, yet Paul found there his own countrymen during his last visit to that city, and before his own martyrdom. Geographers have amplified or diminished both the circuit and population of Babylon in Asia at this time agreeably to the particular bias of their own minds, and for the purpose of comparison between it, and Babylon in Africa, but according to Dr. Jahn it could not have been depopulated. From Philo we learn that its jurisdiction was in the hands of the Jews. There are fourteen years in the life of Peter which are left historically blank; and since he was the apostle of the circumcision, it is reasonable to think that he travelled

into Babylonia, in which the ten tribes principally were located, and where it seems very probable that he may have been put to death. That he was martyred under the Roman persecution of Nero is only a tradition. If it be possible that he may have peregrinated to Rome, since there is no positive proof of an alibi during the whole period of his apostleship, yet that church was more exclusively Gentile, and there is no evidence of his having presided over it, though he may have been accounted a chief presbyter among his apostolic brethren in Judæa, having had committed to him in order of time a prior potency of the keys, and much respected for his age and character. Though the early bishops of Rome were men of Christian piety, the appointment of Peter by Christ to the government of his church, in connexion with the other apostles, who laid the foundation of it, can afford no shadow of right to the blasphemous pretension of vicarial supremacy claimed by his apostate successors in the impersonated high treason of the Romish pontiffs. Where infallibility resides, whether in the papal see, or council of the church, has never yet been decided.

It is doubtful whether Silvanus, the bearer of this epistle, was the same as Silas, the companion of Paul, who was the apostle to the Gentiles, addressed an epistle to the Romans, but made no allusion to Peter in it, nor in his second epistle to Timothy, which was written from Rome, where and when arraigned before the Roman emperor. The pope, while affecting to couple the blessed apostles Peter and Paul, as if he could lay claim astrologically to the patronage of the twin apostleship, has monopolised at the same time the seal and signature of the fisherman. The literal meaning of the Greek phrase, év Βαβυλῶνι συνεκλεκτὴ καὶ Μάρκος ὁ υἱός μου, is, “she

in Babylon, elected with you, and Marcus my son;" or rather, "Mark my son," since the name is so written elsewhere. That the latent word кλŋola is here understood, is entirely gratuitous, and that it was the church of Rome is most uncertain. It is only found in the margin of two Mss. collated by Griesbach, and in the Syriac, Arabic, Armenian, and Vulgate versions, being in the latter a gloss. Now both revelation and history testify that Peter was married. If Marcus was his own son, then may have reference to his wife, which was the suggestion of Dr. Mill. The word Tékvov is used by Paul, when speaking of Timothy as his adopted son, instead of viós here inserted, which usually means a son by blood.

Individual salutations of members are frequent in the apostolic writings, which were addressed to churches in the aggregate; and the "elect lady," though without name or lineage, is the subject of an epistle from John. If Peter were personally unknown to the mass of those Jews for whom he wrote this epistle, so likewise might have been his partner, or the church if so signified, as well as Marcus, whether Mark the evangelist, another Mark, or the son of Peter. The apostle notwithstanding may have intended here naturally to express the cordial greeting of himself and of his domestic family, though modestly omitting the name of his wife, and to mark their affection and his own towards their dispersed Jewish brethren of Asia Minor, who had been converted to the Christian faith.

II. PETER.

Chap. i. ver. 3. Sià dógns kaì ȧpers.

Lachmann and Tischendorf read ἰδίᾳ δόξῃ καὶ ἀρετῇ, but from weak external evidence.

i. 5. Kai avтò TOUTO Sé, "and besides this;" rather, "and for this very reason."

ii. 3.

προφητεία,

So Scholefield.

See 2 Cor.

i. 21. πроonтeía, "the prophecy;" rather, "prophecy," without the article. In the same verse oi is cancelled by Griesbach et rel. and Bloomfield, from three uncial, twenty cursive Mss., two Lambeth, and seven Museum copies.

ii. 2. ἀπωλείαις. Almost all Mss., with the Lambeth and Museum copies, versions, and early editions, read doeλyelais, which has been edited by Wetstein, Bengel, Matthæi, Griesbach et rel., and Bloomfield.

ii. 4. tetnpnμévovs. Almost all the best Mss. and early editions have Tηpovμévovs, which has been followed by nearly every critic from Wetstein to Bloomfield.

ii. 5. bydoov Nŵwe, "Noah the eighth person;" rather, "Noah with seven others." So Scholefield, the same being in conformity with an idiom of common acceptation.

ii. 12. κатap@apnσovтai. Lachmann and Tischendorf

read kai poaρnoovтal, from three uncial, four cursive Mss., some Mss. of the Vulgate, and later versions.

ii. 13. áπáтαιs. Lachmann and Tischendorf read ȧyáTais from slight authority, and Tischendorf has restored the former.

ii. 14. πλeovečiais. Griesbach et rel. and Bloomfield, with almost all the best Mss., most of the Lambeth and all the Museum copies, read πλεονεξίας.

ii. 17. veþéλat. Griesbach et rel. read ôμíxλai, from three uncial, many cursive Mss., and one Lambeth copy.

ii. 18. ὄντως. Griesbach et rel., with some of the most ancient Mss., nearly all versions, some Greek and Latin fathers, read ỏλiyws. The Vulgate has paululum.

iii. 3. év éμπacyμovy. Griesbach et rel. add these words before éμπaîκтai, from several ancient Mss., one Lambeth, some versions, Chrysostom, and Cyril.

iii. 10. év vuкTÍ. These words are not found in several Mss., versions, and fathers, and are cancelled by Griesbach et rel. Bloomfield considers that they are interpolated from 1 Thess. v. 2.