[Footnote B:  Psalm lxxxii; Isa. lviii. 1-12; Jer. xxii. 13-16.]

3.  The Savior was not backward in applying his own principles plainly and pointedly to such forms of oppression as appeared among the Jews.  These principles, whenever they have been freely acted on, the Princeton professor admits, have abolished domestic bondage.  Had this prevailed within the sphere of our Savior’s ministry, he could not, consistently with his general character, have failed to expose and condemn it.  The oppression of the people by lordly ecclesiastics, of parents by their selfish children, of widows by their ghostly counsellors, drew from his lips scorching rebukes and terrible denunciations.[C] How, then, must he have felt and spoke in the presence of such tyranny, if such tyranny had been within his official sphere, as should have made widows, by driving their husbands to some flesh-market, and their children not orphans, but cattle?

[Footnote C:  Matt. xxiii; Mark vii. 1-13.]

4.  Domestic slavery was manifestly inconsistent with the industry, which, in the form of manual labor, so generally prevailed among the Jews.  In one connection, in the Acts of the Apostles, we are informed, that, coming from Athens to Corinth, Paul “found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, lately come from Italy, with his wife Priscilla; (because that Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome;) and came unto them.  And because he was of the same craft, he abode with them and wrought:  (for by their occupation they were tent-makers.")[A] This passage has opened the way for different commentators to refer us to the public sentiment and general practice of the Jews respecting useful industry and manual labor.  According to Lightfoot, “it was their custom to bring up their children to some trade, yea, though they gave them learning or estates.”  According to Rabbi Judah, “He that teaches not his son a trade, is as if he taught him to be a thief."[B] It was, Kuinoel affirms, customary even for Jewish teachers to unite labor (opificium) with the study of the law.  This he confirms by the highest Rabbinical authority.[C] Heinrichs quotes a Rabbi as teaching, that no man should by any means neglect to train his son to honest industry.[D] Accordingly, the apostle Paul, though brought up at the “feet of Gamaliel,” the distinguished disciple of a most illustrious teacher, practiced the art of tent-making.  His own hands ministered to his necessities; and his example in so doing, he commends to his Gentile brethren for their imitation.[E] That Zebedee, the father of John the Evangelist, had wealth, various hints in the New Testament render probable.[F] Yet how do we find him and his sons, while prosecuting their appropriate business?  In the midst of the hired servants, “in the ship mending their nets."[G]

[Footnote A:  Acts xviii. 1-3.]

[Footnote B:  Henry on Acts xviii, 1-3.]