od, and in this sense it is found in
Psalm 74:18; Isa. 52:5; Rom. 2:24, etc.... On this charge both our Lord
and Stephen were condemned to death by the Jews. When a person heard
blasphemy he laid his hand on the head of the offender, to symbolize his
sole responsibility for the guilt, and rising on his feet, tore his
robe, which might never again be mended." (See Matt. 26:65.)

3. Publican.--"A word originally meaning a contractor for public works
or supplies, or a farmer of public lands, but later applied to Romans
who bought from the government the right to collect taxes in a given
territory. These buyers, always knights (senators were excluded by their
rank), became capitalists and formed powerful stock companies, whose
members received a percentage on the capital invested. Provincial
capitalists could not buy taxes, which were sold in Rome to the highest
bidders, who to recoup themselves sublet their territory (at a great
advance on the price paid the government) to the native (local)
publicans, who in their turn had to make a profit on their purchase
money, and being assessors of property as well as collectors of taxes,
had abundant opportunities for oppressing the people, who hated them
both for that reason and also because the tax itself was the mark of
their subjection to foreigners."--J. R. Sterrett in _Stand. Bible Dict._

4. Fishers of Men.--"Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men,"
said Jesus to fishermen who afterward became His apostles (Matt. 4:19).
Mark's version is nearly the same (1:17), while that of Luke (5:10)
reads: "From henceforth thou shalt catch men." The correct translation
is, as commentators practically agree, "From henceforth thou shalt take
men alive." This reading emphasizes the contrast given in the text--that
between capturing fish to kill them and winning men to save them.
Consider in this connection the Lord's prediction through Jeremiah
(16:16), that in reaching scattered Israel, "Behold, I will send for
many fishers, saith the Lord, and they shall fish them;" etc.

5. "Thy Sins Be Forgiven Thee."--The following commentary by Edersheim
(_Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah_, vol. i, pp. 505, 506) on the
incident under consideration is instructive: "In this forgiveness of
sins He presented His person and authority as divine, and He proved it
such by the miracle of healing which immediately followed. Had the two
been inverted, [i.e. had Christ first healed the man and afterward