S. S. Times John 9:4 I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night comes, when no man can work. There is a difference between the ancient Oriental and the modern Occidental idea of night, owing to the comparative security of life and property in modern times. In the ancient East (and it is so still in the modern East), the man who camped outside of the city walls was liable to attack from prowling Bedouins, from professional thieves, and from wild animals; while he who slept within city walls hardly dared to venture out of doors by night, for fear of the troops of half-savage dogs that scoured through the narrow streets, fighting each other for the offal which they found there. The darkness was also the time when evil spirits had most power: Lilith, the female demon, and Asmodai, and other evil spirits, hid in dark places during the day; but during the night they issued forth to prey upon mankind. A certain trace of this same feeling is seen in the evil epithets applied to night by the classical writers. The night is "terrible," "destructive." To these writers, as well as to the Orientals, the night was the time of peril and of enforced cessation from work. To us, night is the period of repose and safety. (S. S. Times.) Parallel Verses KJV: I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work. |
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