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LEVITICAL STATUTES

not well define the acts prohibited. The law says, "Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy father's wife;" and he imagines he gives its meaning, by saying, "Thou shalt not dishonor thy father's wife." Now, as such a relative might be dishonored in various ways and by different acts, the question will arise, Does the law refer to one act, to one way, or to all acts and ways of dishonoring a relative? This we apprehend to be obscuring, rather than explaining the law. The particular act that would produce dishonor to a female relative, is specified in the law; but the Puritan thinks he explains the prohibition, by substituting the effect for the cause.

At the top of p. 12 he says, "The Seventy translate the word in all the instances in which it occurs, in these chapters, by the word ασχημοσυνη, which signifies baseness, or a base act. And they render this text, 'Thou shalt not dishonor or expose to shame,'" &c. In this the Puritan is erroneous.

Robinson, in his Greek Lexicon of the New Testament, gives, as one meaning of this word, pudenda; and very properly supporting it by