Practically it came to be the theological dicta of the church, explained according to the philosophy of Aristotle and his Arabian commentators.
Before Lightfoot's time commentaries, especially on the epistles, had not infrequently consisted either of short homilies on particular portions of the text, or of endeavours to enforce foregone conclusions, or of attempts to decide with infinite industry and ingenuity between the interpretations of former commentators.
Thus he was able often to recover the meaning of a passage which had long been buried under a heap of contradictory glosses, and he founded a school in which sobriety and common sense were added to the industry and ingenuity of former commentators.
After so many years the commentators had lost the key to this unusual term, and only knew that in common Greek "myrmex" meant an ant.
The mention of a particular water has caused trouble to the commentators.
