Ass

Judg. v. 10. Ch. x. 4. Ch.xii.14.ASS, an Animal fit for domestick uses, there is frequent mention of it in the Scripture. People of the best quality in Palestine generally rode on Asses. Deborah in her Song describes those of the greatest power in Israel by these words, Ye that ride on white Asses. Jair of Gilead had thirty Sons, who rode upon as many Asses, and commanded in thirty Cities. Abdon, one of the Judges of Israel, had forty Sons, and thirty Grandsons, who rode on seventy Asses.

The Ass was declared an unclean creature by the Law, and no one was permitted to taste the flesh of it, because it did Levit. xi. 26. Numb. xxii. 2 Pet.ii.6. Deut.xxii. 10. Matth. xviii. 6. Mark ix. 41.not chew the cud. To draw with an Ox and an Ass together was prohibited. The history of Balaam’s Ass which spoke to him is very well known. In some places of the Gospel there is mention of a milstone, or mola asinaria, to express a large milstone, such as was turned by Asses, bigger and heavier than those turned by slaves.

The Jews were accused by some Pagans with worshiping the head of an Ass. Appion the Grammarian seems to be the first Author of this slander¹. He affirmed, that the Jews kept the head of an Ass in the Sanctuary of the Temple; and that it was discovered there, when Antiochus Epiphanes took the Temple of Jerusalem, and entred into the most private part of this Sacred Place. He added, that one Zabidus, upon a certain day having secretly got into their Temple, carried off the Ass’s head, and conveyed it to Dora. Suidas² says that Damocritus, or Democritus, the Historian averr’d that the Jews adored the head of an Ass made of gold, and sacrificed a man to it every three, or as he says elsewhere³, every seven years, after having cut him in pieces.

Plutarch⁴ and Tacitus v were imposed upon by this calumny. They believed that the Hebrews adored an Ass, out of gratitude for the discovery of a Fountain, which was made to them by one of these creatures in the Wilderness, at a time when they were parched with thirst, and extremely tired; Effigiem animalis, quo monstrante, errorem, sitimque depulerant, penetrali sacravere, says Tacitus.

The Heathens would impute the same impertinency to Christians: Audio Christianos, says Cæcilius⁵, turpissimæ pecudis asini caput consecratum inepta nescio qua persuasione venerari. Tertullian⁶ tells us the same thing, Nam & quidam somniastis caput asininum esse Deum nostrum⁷. He says moreover, that some who were enemies to the Christians exposed a picture to publick view, wherein there was a person represented holding a Book in his hand, dressed in a long robe, with Asses ears, and one foot like an Ass, with this inscription, The God of the Christians has an Ass’s hoof. St. Epiphanius⁸ speaking of the Gnosticks, says they taught that the God Sabaoth had the figure of an Ass; and that others described him in the shape of a Hog. Those learned men who have endeavoured to search into the original of this slander, are very much divided in their opinions. The reason which Plutarch and Tacitus bring for it would be the most plausible, if there were any truth in the fact whereupon they ground it. But we see nothing in the history of the Jews that can any way favour this circumstance, of the Asses which are supposed to have shewn Moses a spring of water. Tanaquil Fevre has attempted to prove that this accusation proceeded from the Temple in Egypt called Onion, as if this name came from Onos, an Ass. Which is indeed a very happy conjecture; for it is very credible that the report of the Jews worshiping an Ass, might come originally from Egypt; and it is well known that the Alexandrians had a great aversion to the Jews, and were very much inclined to raillery and defamation. But they might have been informed, that the Temple Onion at Heliopolis took its name from Onias the High Priest of the Jews⁹, who built it in the reign of Ptolomy Philometor and Cleopatra; in the year of the World 3854. before J. C. 146. before the vulgar Æra 150.

Others¹⁰ have asserted, that the mistake which the Heathens fell into in this particular, proceeded from an ambiguous and wrong way of reading. The Greeks said that the Hebrews adored Heaven, Ouranon; instead of Ouranon, they might in the way of abbreviation write Ounon; from whence the Enemies of the Jews concluded that they worshiped an Ass, Onon. Or perhaps reading in Latin Authors that they worshiped Heaven, Cœlum¹¹,

Nil præter nubes & Cœli numen adorant, Isai. i. 20. xl. 5. lviii. 14. Omer. or Asinus.instead of Cœlum, they read Cillum¹², an Ass¹³, and so gave out that the Jews adored this Animal. Bochart¹⁴ is of opinion, that their error arose from an expression in the Scripture, The mouth of the Lord hath spoken it; in the Hebrew, Pi-Jehovah, or piieo. Now in the Egyptian language Pieo signifies an Ass; the Egyptians hearing the Jews often pronouncing the word Pieo, believed that they called upon their God, and thence inferr’d, that they adored an Ass. These explications are very ingenious, but there is no solidity at all in them. It is very probable that no one will be ever able to give a good reason for any thing so ridiculous as this accusation. M. Le Moine seems to have hit it off best, who says, that in all probability the Urn of gold wherein the Manna was inclosed, and which was preserved in the Sanctuary, was taken for the head of an Ass; and that the Omer of Manna might have been confounded with the Hebrew, Chamor, which signifies an Ass.

BALAAM’s ASS. The Reader, in the Article BALAAM, may see the account of what passed between him and his Ass which spoke to him. Here I shall insist only on an examination of this fact, and enquire whether it really and literally happened as Moses relates, or whether it be an allegory only, or the mere imagination or vision of Balaam. S. Austin¹⁵, with the greatest number of the Commentators, supposes the fact to be certain, and he understands it exactly according to the letter. He finds nothing in the whole account of it more surprizing than the stupidity of Balaam, who heard his Ass speak to him, and talked to it again, as with a reasonable person. Our Saint is of opinion, that this Diviner was accustomed to prodigies like this, talibus monstris assuetus; or that he was strangely blinded by his avarice, not to be stop’d by an event of so extraordinary a nature. He adds, that God had not given the Ass a reasonable soul, but permitted it to pronounce certain words, in order to reprove the Prophet’s covetousness.

St. Gregory of Nyssa¹⁶ seems to think, that the Ass did not utter any words distinctly, but that having brayed as usual, the Diviner, whose practice it had been to draw presages from the cries of Beasts, and singing of Birds, comprehended easily the Ass’s meaning by its noise. Moses designing to ridicule this superstitious art of the Augurs and Soothsayers, relates the matter as if the Ass really spoke in words articulate.

Maimonides asserts this whole dialogue to be only a kind of fiction and allegory, whereby Moses relates what passed only in Balaam’s imagination, as a piece of real history.

Others¹⁷ have believed that the difficulty which occurs naturally to every man’s mind, upon enquiring how Balaam came to answer his Beast without any sign of amazement, as if it had been not only capable of reasoning, but had even the use of speech; this difficulty, I say, they think sufficiently accounted for, by saying that Balaam believing the transmigration of souls, which supposes a continual revolution of souls passing from one body into another, from that of a Man into that of a Beast reciprocally, as fate or choice determine; that this Prophet, I say, was not surprized at the Ass’s complaint to him, and might without astonishment answer and converse with it.

According to their system who hold that Beasts have the use of Reason to a certain degree, the difficulty of this place does not consist in observing Balaam’s Ass to complain and reason, but only in hearing it speak. It is not uncommon to see Parrots, Ravens, Magpies, Jackdaws and Greenfinches learn to talk, because their organs are susceptible of the habit of speech. But we cannot conceive how an Ass can do any thing like this. Notwithstanding the Ancients have made no scruple of advancing things as incredible; for example, that the Serpent spoke to Eve; that an Ass spoke to Bacchus; that Achilles’s Horses, Phrixus’s Lamb, and Porus’s Elephant uttered words, and spoke to their Masters. It is necessary either that the Ancients who relate these things understood them in an allegorical and figurative manner, or that they had not the same idea which we have of the impossibility of these events. The 2 Pet. ii. 16.Apostle St. Peter speaks of this fact as literal and certain; and so all interpreters explain it. We must own therefore, that it is a miraculous fact, related by an inspired Writer, whose authority we are not allowed to call in question in the least particular. But we study such ways of explaining it as are most conformable to reason, and most proper to solve the difficulties of it, without attacking the truth of the history. Now it is very possible for God to make an Ass speak articulately: it is indeed something miraculous, and above the ordinary faculty of this Animal; but not against the laws of Nature.

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