To this law of Exod. xxii. we must append Lev. vi. 2-7, as a complementary provision characteristic of the Theocratic constitution of the Jewish state. Michaelis, as is frequent with him, misses the pro found idea of the relation between the Hebrew subject and his Divine King, when he, with an imperfect eulogy which takes in but a portion of the conception, speaks of that admirable contriv ance of legislative wisdom for keeping the conscience of the perjured on the rack (!), and thus leading him to repentance.' In this latter passage of Moses we find a Hebrew designation for deposit, which we do not discover in the former passage out of Exodus ; it is )i7B, A. V. That which was de livered him to keep ; Sept. :ropabljxn ; Vulg. De positunz. With respect to the form of the Greek word, Moeris (in Wetstein on I Tim. vi. 20, and Schleusner, O. T. Lexicon, s. v.) says it is late Hellenic, while rapattarcai)icri is Attic. Another sort of distinction is alleged by Thomas Magister (see the passage in Wetstein, ut antea), that srapa -7)Kno is the word found in Ilerodotus, and 7ropa rara9ijrn in the Athenian Thucydides. There is probably some truth in these statements, but the discrepancies of MSS. and editors render it impos sible to vouch for them wholly. It is certain that former editors read 7rapalcara97)K7), in Josephus, Philo, LXX., and the N. T., contrary to the rule of Moeris (see Grinfield's Nov. Test. Ed. Hellenistica, p. I146) ; but it is equally certain that the tendency of recent editors, under the direction of a more careful criticism, is to replace the longer word by 7rapca-linn (see Tischendorf's LXX., e. g., in 2 Macc. iii. to, 15,- and his N. T., last edition, in I Tim. vi. 20 ; 2 Tim. i. 12, 14).
The obligation to return a deposit faithfully was in very early times held sacred by the Greeks, and indeed all civilised nations. A most prominent illustration occurs in the beautiful story of the Spartan Glaucus (Herod. vi. 86). We can only give the striking moral with which the story ends : On-az de-ya9-bv ,un5b. repl rapab-7)rns dT.No cbracrobvrow eta-o&36voc ; ' It is a good thing, therefore, when a pledge has been left with one, not even in thought to doubt about restoring it.' The story of Glaucus is alluded to by Plutarch (ii. 556 D) Pausanias (ii. IS, 2) ; Juvenal (xiii. 199-208) ; Clemens Alex. (Strom, vi. 749) ; Dio Chrysostom (Or. lxiv. p. 640), and other writers (see Rawlinson's Herod. iv. 477, note). The moral
drawn by Juvenal Nam scelus intra se taciturn qui cogitat ullum, Facti crimen habet' is conceived in so pure and elevated a strain, tran scending the simple light of nature, as to raise the suggestion that the author was indebted to the true light (John i. 9) which had now begun to glimmer through the Roman world (Stocker's Yuvenal, p. 427; and Lubin's note, in loco, Varior. ed. p. A fine application of the universal law of fidelity in deposits is made by an Arabian poet contempo rary with Justinian, who remarks that life and wealth are only deposited with us by our Maker ; and, like all other deposits, must in due time be restored' (Sir W. Jones, Works, viii. 379). This principle our Lord has, by an incidental remark in his teaching, made sacred by his recognition of it.
(Luke xvi. 12, et iv Till aXXOTIA0711070i. OVK iylvnr c, K. T. X.) The inviolability of this trust illustrates the force of St. Paul's language in I Tim. vi. 20, and 2 Tim. i. 14, where he describes the gospel as a sacred deposit (irapai)icx)), which he urges Timothy to preserve and keep ; and again, in 2 Tim. i. 12, where he beautifully applies the same word irapa hic-o to his own complex self (his body, soul, and spirit), which he commends to the safe keeping of God (Alford, in loc., who quotes a similar use of 7rapah-71 in Josephus, Bell. Sid. iii. 18. 5 ; I'hilo, Quis rentm, etc., P. 499 ; and Hermas, Pastor, ii. 3; see also Conybeare and Howson, v. ii. (tat ed.) p. 493. For a less tenable application of the phrase see Ellicott, in loco). The same sacredness of charge involved in deposits induced the ancients to lay them up in temples, which thus were used as banks in many recorded instances ; e.g. the temple of Apollo at Delphi ; Jupiter at Olympia (Meier, Att. Proc. pp. 512-515, quoted in Smith's Dicty. of Antiqq.) ; also the temple of Castor at Rome (Juvenal, xiv. 260) ; the temple of Peace at Rome (Herodianus, lib. a) ; the temple of Diana at Ephesus (Plautus, in Bacch. ii. 3. 73) ; and the temple of Saturn at Rome (Macrobius, i. 8), with others. This usage was adopted even at Jerusalem, where a large amount of wealth (` which did not pertain to the account of the sacrifices,' but was in fact private property), was consigned to the safe custody of the temple (see 2 Maccab. iii., in the 15th verse of which express reference is made to the Mosaic provision about deposits, in Exod. xxii. 7, etc.)—P. H.