If he shall ask an egg,— Naturalists tell us, that the body of a scorpion is very like an egg, especially if the scorpion be of the white kind, which is the first species mentioned by AElian and others. Bochart has produced testimonies to prove, that the scorpions were about the bigness of an egg; and therefore, in Judea a white scorpion, nearly resembling an egg, might, to children, who were not capable of distinguishing the one from the other, be offered in the place thereof, if the person so doing meant that it should sting them to death. The author of the Observations informs us, that St. Jerome reckons wine, fish, and eggs, together with honey, in his catalogue of delicacies: so that possibly, on being told that the disciples gave our Lord a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honey-comb, Ch. Luke 24:42 we, who have been ready to look upon it as a strange association of dishes, (if understood of a proper honeycomb, and not of a sort of bread,) have suffered this surprize from not entering into the views of the disciples; they probably not attending to Milton's order,
——— So contrived, as not to mix Tastes not well joined, inelegant, and bring Taste after taste, upheld by kindliest change; but only designing to express their great veneration for their Master, by setting before him the most grateful things in their power, and leaving it to him to eat of which he pleased. I am not sure that there was no view, in like manner, to the delicacy of eggs in the passage before us, where our Lord is speaking of fish and eggs. On the contrary, perhaps it may add to the beauty of the passage, if we understand it as signifying, that, if a child should ask an earthly parent for bread, a necessary of life, he will not deny him what is requisite for his support, putting him off with a stone; and if he should ask him for a sort of food of a more delicious kind, a fish, or an egg, he will not, we may assure ourselves, give his child what is hurtful, a serpent or a scorpion. If sinful men then will give good gifts to their children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the necessary gifts of his Spirit to them that supplicate for them?—not giving up to hurtful illusions, those who affectionately pray for the hallowing of his name, and the coming of his kingdom, Luke 11:2. But, whatever might be the view of our Lord, it is certain that St. Jerome was right in putting eggs into his list of Eastern delicacies; for nothing is more common than to meet with eggs in modern entertainments there, when they would treat persons in the most respectful manner. So Dr. Pocock describes a very grand morning collation, given in Egypt to a person of distinction, as consisting of the best sort of bread, with butter, fried eggs, honey, green salted cheese, olives, and several other small things. He mentions also eggs very often in the accounts that he gives of the entertainments made for him by the Sheiks in the Holy Land: agreeably to which, M. D'Arvieux tells us, that a supper prepared by the peasants of a village near Mount Carmel for him and for their governor, and attended with all the marks of respect which they were capable of expressing, consisted of wine, fried fish, eggs, and some other things. It must be the reputed delicacy of eggs also, one would imagine, that occasions them so frequently to be sent to persons of figure for presents in those countries; fifty eggs being sent at one time to the English consul, whom Bishop Pocock attended to Cairo, and a hundred at another. See Observations, p. 168.