VI V r; HISTORICAL LECTURES ON THE ' LIFE OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, BEING THE iuis^ait Jfwiuns for % ^m 1859. NOTES, CRITICAL, HISTORICAL, AND EXPLANATORY. C. J. ELLICOTT, B.D., PROFESSOR OF DIVINITY, KINO'S COLLEGE, LONDON; LATE FELLOW OF ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE; AUTHOR OF CRITICAL AND GRAMMATICAL COMMENTARIES ON ST. PALL'S EPISTLES. BOSTON: GOULD AND LINCOLN, 59 WASHINGTON STREET. NEW YORKi SHELDON AND COMPANY. CINCINNATI! GEORGE S. BLANCUARD. 1862. Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1861, by GOULD AND LINCOLN, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. Vf. F. Dkaper, Printer and Electrotyper, Andover, Mass. HUspntfuIIiT JhtsmbtLr THE REV. WILLIAM HENRY BATESON, D.D. MASTER OF ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE; VICE-CHANCELLOR J THE REV. WILLIAM WHEWELL, D. D. MASTER OF TRINITY COLLEGE; THE REV. WILLIAM HEPWORTH THOMPSON, M. A. REGIUS PROFESSOR OF GREEK; TRUSTEES OF MR. HULSE'S BENEFACTIONS AT CHRISTMAS, 1858. / ■%- PREFACE. The following work consists of eight Lectures, of which the first six were preached before the University of Cam- bridge in the year 1859. The two remaining Lectures are added as giving a necessary completeness to the subject, and as in substantial accordance with the will of the munificent Founder. It is scarcely necessary to make any preliminary remarks upon the text of the Lectures, as nearly all that seems re- quired in the way of introduction to the subject will be found in the opening Lecture. It may, however, be desirable to remind the reader that he has before him no attempt at a complete Life of our Lord, but only Lectures upon it. These it has been my object to make as complete as I have been able in everything that relates to the connection of the events, or that in any way illustrates their probable order and succes- sion. The separate incidents, however, have not in every case been dwelt upon at equal length ; some being related by a single Evangelist, and requiring no explanatory comments, while others, from being related by two or more, and some- times appearing to involve discordant statements, have called for somewhat lengthened considerations. Those portions in which, for every reason, it has seemed desirable that some X PREFACE. regular continuity of narrative should be carefully preserved, viz., the Last Passover, and the Forty Days, were not required to be delivered from the pulpit, and have thus ap- proached more nearly to regular history. I have, however, in both been most careful to preserve the same tone and char- acter which marked the rest, and I have been thankful that the circumstances under which the others were written and delivered have prescribed for me in these last two Lectures, almost as a matter of course, that gravity and solemnity of tone which is so especially called for in the recital of events so blessed and so holy, yet withal so awful and so stupendous. To adopt the usual tone of mere historical writing when such subjects are before us, seems to me little short of profanity ; and I have been taught, by the repulsiveness of some nar- ratives of the closing scenes of our Lord's ministry, written in the conventional style of ordinary history, to be more than usually thankful that the nature of my present undertaking has at any rate prevented me from sharing in an error so great and so grievous. A few remarks must be made on the notes. In these it has been my effort to combine two things which are not always found in union — a popular mode of treating the question under consideration, and accuracy both in o'utline and detail. How far I may have succeeded, it is for others to judge. All I will venture to ask the reader kindly to bear in mind is this : that much time and very great care and thought have been expended on these notes (more, perhaps, than might have been needful if they had been longer or their language more tech- nical), and that thus they are not always to be judged of by their brevity or the familiar list of authorities to which they refer. In my references I have aimed solely at being useful, PREFACE. XI not to the special, but to the general student, and thus have but rarely permitted myself to direct attention to any works or treatises that are not perfectly well known and accessible. I have not, by any means, attempted to exclude Greek from my notes, as this seems to me, in such works as the present, to savor somewhat of an affectation of simplicity ; but I bave still, in very many cases, either translated or quoted from the translations of others the longer passages from the great Greek commentators which form so considerable and so valuable a portion of these notes. A similar course has been pursued in reference to German expositors, though longer quotations from them are only occasional. These latter writers are, as it will be observed, often referred to ; but care has been taken only to give prominence to the better class of them, and fur- ther to refer, where translations exist, to the work in its Eng- lish rather than its German form. In a word, my humble aim throughout these notes has been to engage the interest of the general reader, and I pray God that herein I may have succeeded ; for much that is here discussed has of late years often been put forward in popular forms that neither are, nor perhaps were intended to be, conformable to the teaching of the Church. Of my own views it is perhaps not necessary for me to speak. This only will I say, that, though I neither feel, nor affect to feel, the slightest sympathy with the so-called popular theology of the present day, I still trust that, in the many places in winch it has been almost necessarily called forth in the present pages, I have used no expression towards sceptical writings stronger than may have been positively required by allegiance to catholic truth. Towards the honest and serious thinker who may feel doubts or difficulties in some of the questions connected with our Lord's life, aM tenderness Xll PREFACE. may justly be shown ; but to those who enter upon this holy ground with the sinister intentions of the destructive critic, or of the so-called unprejudiced historian, it is not necessary or desirable to suppress all indication of our repulsion. Marginal references have been added, as indicating the authority for the expressions and statements of the text. When these are not present, and guarded conjecture has been resorted to, particular care has been taken to make this most distinctly apparent. It is not necessary to detain the reader with further com- ments ; and it only remains for me, with all lowliness and reverence, to lay before Almighty God this attempt, this poor and feeble attempt, to set forth the outward connection of those incidents that inspired pens have been moved to record of the life of His Eternal Son. May He pardon its many failings and defects ; may He look with pity on efforts, many of which have been made while the shadow of His hand has rested darkly over him who strove to make them ; and may He bless this partial first-fruits of a mercifully spared life, by permitting it to minister, in its humble measure and degree, to His honor and glory, and to the truth as it is in His blessed Son. TPIA2, MONA2, "EAEHSON. Cambridge, October, 1860. CONTENTS. LECTURE I. luirobuciorg Considerations on i\t (ftfjaratteristies of tht Jour Gospels. Statement of the subject, 19. — Reasons for choosing it, 19. —Method adopted in the Lectures, 24 sq. — Caution in applying the principles laid down, 25. — Sources of the history, 26. — Details mainly in reference to internal charac- teristics, 28 sq. — Necessity of recognizing the individualities of the four Gos- pels, 31. — Errors of earlier harmonists, 32 sq. — Individuality of St. Mat- thew's Gospel, 35. — St. Matthew's portraiture of our Lord, 36. — Individuality of St. Mark's Gospel, 37. —St. Mark's portraiture of our Lord, 39. — Individ- uality of St. Luke's Gospel, 41. — St. Luke's portraiture of our Lord, 42.— Individuality of St. John's Gospel, 44 sq. — St. John's portraiture of our Lord, 45. — Conclusion, 47. LECTURE II. f&tyz $irifj ano |nfaiug of our |Toro. General aspects of the present undertaking, 49. — Arrangement of the subject, 51. — The Miraculous Conception of our Lord; its mystery and sublimity, 52 "Q— The narrative of the conception considered generally, 54. —The nam- 14 CONTENTS. tive of the conception considered in its details, 56 sq. — Self-evident truth of the narrative, 68. — Journey of the Virgin to Elizabeth, 60 sq. — Internal truthfulness of the two inspired Canticles, 63. — Return of the "Virgin and the revelation to Joseph, 64. — Journey to Bethlehem, and taxing under Quirinus, 66 sq. —The Nativity and its attendant circumstances, 69 sq. — The Presentation in the temple, 73 sq.— The visit and adoration of the Magi, 77. — The guiding star, 78 sq. — The extreme naturalness of the sacred narrative, 80. — Flight into Egypt and murder of the Innocents, 83. —The silence of Josephus, 83.— The return to Judaea, 85 sq. —Conclusion, 87. LECTURE III. %\z (Sarlg $nin*Hn phtisirg. The early years of our Lord's life, 89. — Eeserve of the Evangelists, 89. —The brief notice of our Lord's childhood, 90. — Equally brief notice of our Lord's youth, 91. —Visit to the temple when twelve years old, 93. — Search for and discovery of the Holy Child, 94 sq. — Frivolous nature of the objections urged against the narrative, 98. — Silence of the Evangelists on the next eighteen years of our Lord's life, 99 sq. — The mental and spiritual development of our Lord, 102. — The ministry of the Baptist and its probable effects, 104 sq.— Journey of our Lord to the Baptism of John, 106 sq. — The nature of St. John's recognition of our Lord, 108. — The Temptation of our Lord; its true nature and circumstances, 110. — The temptation no vision or trance, 111. — The temptation an assault from without, 112. — The temptation addressed to the three parts of our nature, 113. — The ministering angels, and the return to Galilee, 115. — The testimony of the Baptist, 115. — The journey to and mir- acle at Cana in Galilee, 117. — Remarks on the miracle, 117 sq. — Brief stay at Capernaum, and journey to Jerusalem, 121. — The expulsion of the traders from the temple, 122. — Impression made by this and other acts, 124. — The discourse of our Lord with Nicodemus, 124. — Our Lord leaves Jerusalem and retires to the northeast parts of Judaea, 125. — The final testimony of the CONTENTS. 15 Baptist, 126 sq. — Our Lord's journey through Samaria, 129 sq. — The further journey of our Lord to Galilee, 131. — Our Lord's return to Jerusalem at the feast of l'urim, 132 sq. — Main objection to this opinion, 135 sq. — The miracle at the pool of Bethesda, 136. — Distinctive character of this epoch, 13S. — The termination of the early Judxan ministry, 139. — Concluding remarks and exhortation, 141. LECTURE IV. Cbc Ptnistrji in 6astrriT (Salilec. Ilesumption of the subject, 143. — Brief recapitulation of the events of the Ju- daean ministry, 143 sq. — Two preliminary observations, 14G. — The exact period of time embraced in the present Lecture, 146. — The variations of order in the three synoptical Gospels, 147. — The order of St. Mark and St. Luke followed in tins Lecture, 149 sq. — Appearance of our Lord in the synagogue :it Nazareth, 152. — Departure to and abode at Capernaum, 154. — Special call of the four disciples, 155. — Healing of a demoniac in the synagogue at Capernaum, 156. — Continued performance of miracles on the same day, 157. — The nature of our Lord's ministerial labors as indicated by this one day, 159. — Probable duration of this circuit, 161. — The return to Capernaum, and healing of the faithful paralytic, 162. —The call of St. Matthew, and the feast at his house, 164. — Further charges; the plucking of the ears of corn, 165. — The healing of a man with a withered hand on a Sabbath, 167. — Choice of the twelve Apostles, and Sermon on the Mount, 169. — Frobable form of the Sermon on the Mount, 170. — The healing of the centurion's servant, and raising of the widow's son, 171 sq. — The Baptist's message of inquiry, 173. — Short circuit; fresh charges of the rharisccs, 174. — The teaching by parables, 176. — The passage across and storm on the lake, 177. — The Gergesene de- moniacs, 17S. — The raising of Jairus' daughter, 179. —The second visit to the synagogue at Nazareth, 181. — The sending forth the twelve Apostles, 182 sq. — The feeding of the five thousand, 184. — Concluding remarks, 185-G. 16 CONTENTS. LECTURE V. %\i pinisirg in ^oriljcrn ftnltitt. General features of this part of our Lord's bistory, 187. — Special contrasts and characteristics, 185. — Chronological limits of the present portion, 188. — Pro- gressive nature of our Lord's ministry, 189. — Contrasts between this and pre- ceding portions of the narrative, 190. — Teaching and preaching, rather than miracles, characteristic of this period, 191. — Such a difference probable from the nature of the case, 193. — The return across the lake; our Lord walks on the water, 193 sq. — Return to Capernaum; our. Lord's discourse in the syna- gogue, 196 sq. — Healings in Gennesareth, and return of the Jewish emis- saries, 199 sq. — Journey to Tyre and Sidon, and the miracle performed there, 201. — Return toward Decapolis and the eastern shore of the lake, 203. — Journey to Decapolis ; healing of a deaf and dumb man , 204. — The feeding of the four thousand, 205. — Not identical with the feeding of the five thousand, 206. — Return to the western side of the lake, 207. — Journey northward to Csesarea Philippi, 208. —The locality and significance of the Transfiguration, 210. — The healing of a demoniac boy, 211. — Return to and probable tempo- rary seclusion at Capernaum,212 sq. — Conclusion and recapitulation, 215 sq. LECTURE VI. %\}t |o«nrtgings iofoarb $£rusalnn. General character of the present portion of the inspired narrative, 218. — Limit* of the present section, 219. — Harmonistic and chronological difficulties, 219 sq. — Precise nature of these difficulties, 221. — Comparison of this portion of St. Luke's Gospel with that of St. John, 223 sq. — Results of the above consid- erations, 225. — Brief stay at Capernaum; worldly requests of our Lord's brethren, 226 sq. —Journey to Jerusalem through Samaria, 228. — Our Lord's CONTENTS. 17 arrival and preaching at Jerusalem, 230. — The woman taken in adultery; probable place of the incident in the Gospel history, 232. — Further teaching and preaching at Jerusalem, 233 sq. — Departure from Jerusalem, and mission of the Seventy, 235. — Further incidents in Judtea recorded by St. Luke, 236. — Our Lord's visit to Jerusalem at the Feast of Dedication, 237 sq. — The Lord's message to Herod, and preparation to leave Feraa, 240. — Frobable events during the last two days in Pera:a, 242 sq. — Apparently confirmatory notice in St. John, 244. — Effect produced by the raising of Lazarus, 245. — Incidents in the last journey to Judaea, 247 sq. — Onward progress toward Jerusalem, 250. — Arrival at Jericho, 251. — Conclusion, 253. LECTURE VII. Introductory comments, 254. — Characteristics of the preceding portion of the narrative, 255. — Characteristics of the present portion, 256. — The journey to and supper at Bethany, 257. — The triumphal entry into Jerusalem, 259 sq. — Reflections on the credibility of the narrative, 263. — Our Lord's entry into Jerusalem, 265. — The cursing of the barren fig-tree (Monday), 266 sq. — The cleansing of the temple, and works of mercy performed there, 268.— Answers to the deputation from the Sanhedrin (Tuesday), 270 sq. — Con- tinued efforts on the part of the deputation, 273. — The question about the duty of paying tribute to Ca:sar, 274 sq. — Exposure and frustration of the stratagem, 277. — The question of the Sadducees touching the resurrection, 278. — The question of the lawyer about the greatest commandment, 280. — The question relative to the woman taken in adultery, 281. — Our Lord's question respecting the Son of David, 283. — The coffering of the poor widow, 285. — The request of the Greek proselytes, 286 sq. — The departure from the temple, and the last prophecies, 288. — Consultation of the Sanhedrin, and treachery of Judas (Wednesday), 290. — The celebration of the Last Supper (Thursday), 291 sq.— The agony in Gethsemane (Thursday night), 296 sq.— The betrayal of our Lord, 299. — The preliminary examination before Annas, 2* 18 CONTENTS. 300. —The examination before the Sanhedrin, 302 sq. — The brutal mockery of the attendants, 305. —The fate of Judas Iscariot, 306. — Our Lord's first ap- pearance before Pilate, 307 sq. — The dismissal of our Lord to Herod, 310. — Second appearance before Pilate ; his efforts to set our Lord free, 311 sq. — Scourging of our Lord; renewed efforts of Pilate, 314 sq. — The Crucifix- ion, 317. — Occurrences from the third to the sixth hour, 319. — The darkness from the sixth to the ninth hour, 320 sq. — The portents that followed our Lord's death, 323. — The removal from the cross, and burial of the Lord's body, 325 sq. — Conclusion, 328. LECTURE VIII. %\t iaxil gags. Introductory comments, 331. — Doctrinal questions involved in this portion of the history, 331 sq. — Characteristics of the present portion of the narrative ; number of the accounts, 334. — Their peculiarities and differences, 335 sq. — Resumption of the narrative, 338. — Visit of the women to the sepulchre, 339 sq. — The appearance of the angels to the women at the sepulchre, 343. — The two Apostles at the tomb, 344. — The Lord's appearance to Mary Magdalene, 346 sq. — Probable effect produced on the Apostles by Mary's tidings, 349. — The Lord's appearance to the other ministering women, 350 sq. — The appear- ance of our Lord to the two disciples journeying to Emmaus, 352 sq. — Ina- bility of the disciples to recognize our Lord, 355. — Appearance to the ten Apostles, 357 sq. — Disbelief of Thomas; our Lord's appearance to the eleven Apostles, 361. — Appearance by the lake of Tiberias, 362 sq. — Reverential awe of the Apostles, 365. — Appearance to the brethren in Galilee, 367. —The Lord's Ascension, 369 sq. — Conclusion, 371 sq. THE LIFE OF CHRIST LECTURE I. INTRODUCTORY CONSIDERATIONS ON THE CHARACTER- ISTICS OF THE FOUR GOSPELS. THESE ARE WRITTEN, THAT YE MIGHT BELIEVE THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST, THE SON OF GOD; AND THAT BELIEVING YE MIGHT HAVE LIFE THROUGH his name. — St. John, XX. 31. These words, brethren, which, in the context from which they are taken, allude more particularly to the miracles of Christ, but which I venture Jf™"' °f s«»- here to extend in application to the whole evangelical history, will in some degree prepare you for the subject that I purpose laying before you in this series of Lectures. After serious meditation on the various sub- jects which the will of the munificent founder of these Lectures leaves open to the preacher, it has appeared to me that none would be likely to prove more useful and more edifying than the history and connection of the events in the earthly life of our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ. Two grave reasons have weighed with me in choosing this momentous subject; one more exclusively relating to the younger portion of my audi- .w»" to - ence, the other relating to us all. The first reason has been suggested by the feeling, which I believe is not wholly mistaken, that these First reason. Lectures are too often liable, from the nature of the subjects to which they are restricted, to prove un- 20 INTRODUCTORY CONSIDERATIONS ON THE Lect. I. attractive to the younger portion of those among us. It is but seldom that the young feel much interested in the debated questions of Christian evidence. Nay, it is natural that they should not. With the freshness and warmth of springing life, with the generous impulses of yet unchilled hearts, they are ready for the most part to believe rather than to doubt, to accept rather than to question. The calm and impartial investigation, the poised judgment, the sus- pended assent, which must all characterize the sober dis- putant on Christian evidences, and which we of a maturer age may admire and appreciate, are, I truly believe, often so repulsive to our younger brethren, that after having sat out a sermon or two, they company with us no more. This applies with still greater force, as has been thoughtfully suggested to me, to the new comers in the October term, whose first entrance into the Church of this our mother University is commonly during the second part of the course of the Hulsean Lecturer. They have thus all the disadvantage of coming among us in the middle of a course ; and when to that is added a consciousness of de- fective sympathy with the theme of the preacher, they are tempted, I fear, thus early to withdraw from what they deem unedifying, and so to lay the foundation of the evil habit of neglecting attendance at this Church, and of treat- ing lightly the great Christian duty of assembling ourselves together in the house of God. It has thus seemed desirable to choose a subject which, if properly treated, ought to interest and to edify the very youngest hearer among us, and which may admit of such natural divisions as may cause the later hearers to feel less sensibly the disadvantage of not having attended the ear- lier portion of the course. My second reason, however, for the selection of this pe- culiar subject is one that applies to us all, Second reason. , # and is stdl more grave and momentous. It is based on the deep conviction, that to the great questions connected with the life of our Redeemer, Jesus Christ, the Lect. I. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE FOUR GOSPELS. 21 Son of Adam, the Son of God, all the controversies of these latter days are tending noticeably to con- J ° J Luke Hi. 38. verge. Here it is that even the more abstract questions, that try the faith of our own times, — questions as abstract as the degree of inspiration of the Written Word, 1 or the nature of the efficacies of the Atonement 2 which that Word declares to us, — must seek for their ulti- mate adjustment. Here is the battle-ground of the pres- ent, here, perchance, the mystic Armageddon of coming strife. Already forms of heresy more subtle than ever Ebi- onite propounded or Marcionite devised, — forms of heresy that have clad themselves in the trappings of modern his- 1 In every complete discussion on the Inspiration of tlie Scriptures, the nature of the more special references of our Lord to the Old Testament must be fully and fairly considered. To take an extreme case: when our Lord refers, dis- tinctly and explicitly (Matt, xii.39, 40), to "the sign of the prophet Jonas." have we any escape from one of two alternatives, either, («) that, in spite of all that has liccn urged to the contrary, and all the scarcely disguised contempt with which the history of Jonah has been treated by modern criticism (comp. Hitzig, Kleinen Propheten,p. 361 sq. ), the narrative is notwithstanding true and typical, and referred to by our Lord as such; or, (6) that it is fabulous, and that our Lord wittingly made use of a fabulous narrative to illustrate His Resurrection? Modern speculation does not hesitate to accept (b), and to urge that it was not a part of our Lord's mission to correct all the wrong opinions, more or less con- nected with religion, which might be prevalent in the minds of those with whom lie was conversing (comp. Norton, Genuineness of Gospel, Vol. ii. p. 477). If we rest contented with such unhappy statements, we must be prepared to remodel not only our views of our Lord's teaching, but of some of the highest attributes of His most holy life: consider and contrast Ullmann, Unsiindlichkeit Jesu, § 19 (Transl. p. 8, 75, Clark). The assertion that "the sign of Jonah" was not referred by our Lord to His resurrection, but to His whole earthly life, seems distinctly untenable (see esp. Meyer on Matt. xii. 40); but were it otherwise, it could scarcely affect the above considerations. To contemplate a rejection of these words from the inspired narrative in the face of tbe most unquestioned external evidence (Maurice, Kings and Prophets, p. 357) cannot be characterized as otherwise than as in the highest degree arbi- trary and uncritical. 2 Everything which tends to derogate from the Divinity of our Lord tends, as priestly long ago clearly perceived [History of Corruptions, Vol. Lp. 153). to do away with the idea of an atonement, in the proper sense of the word, for the sins of other men. (Comp. M agee, Atonement , Dissert. 8.) So, conversely, all limitations of the atonement, all tendencies to represent our Lord's sacrilice as merely an act of moral greatness (comp. Jowett, Romans, Vol.ii.p. 481), will be found inevitably to lead to indirect denials of the Catholic doctrine of the union of the two natures in our Lord, and to implied limitations of His Divinity. (Compare, but with some reserve, Maodonell, Lectures on the Atonement, Donel- lan Lectures, p. 61 sq.) 22 INTRODUCTORY CONSIDERATIONS ON THE Lect. I. torical philosophy, 1 and have learned to accommodate them- selves to the more distinctly earthly aspects of modern speculation, have appeared in other Christian lands, and are now silently producing their influence on thousands and tens of thousands who bear on their foreheads the bap- tismal cross of Christ. Already, even in our own more favored country, humanitarian views with regard to the Person of our Redeemer are thrusting themselves forward with a startling and repulsive activity, — intruding them- selves into our popular literature as well as into our popu- lar theology, 2 yea, and winning assent by their seductive appeal to those purely human motions and feelings within us, which, while we are in the flesh, we can harldly deem separable from the nature of even sinless man. Already too a so-called love of truth, a bleak, barren, loveless love of truth, which the wise Pascal 3 long since denounced, — a love of truth that like Agag claims to walk delicately, and to be respected and to be spared, — is gathering around it- self its Epicurean audiences; already is it making its boast of fabled civilizations that rest on other bases than on Christ and His Church, 4 daily and hourly laboring with 1 For a clear statement of the two problems connected with the Gospel history (the criticism of the evangelical writings, and the criticism of the evangelical history), and the regular development of modern speculation, see the Introduc- tion to the useful work of Ebrard, Wissenschaftliche Kritik der ecangelischen Geschichte, $ 2—7, p. 3 sq. (ed. 2). 2 See Preface to Commentary on the Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon, p. x. 3 The following remark of this thoughtful writer deserves consideration : " On se fait une idole de la verite meme : car la verite hors de la charite n'est pas Dieu ; elle est son image, et une idole qu'il ne faut point aimer, ni adorer; et encore moins faut-il aimer et adorer son contraire, qui est le meusouge." Pen- sees, II. 17. 74, p. 297 (Didot, 1846). 4 It does not seem unjust to say that the views advocated in the most recent history of civilization that has appeared in this country (Buckle, History <>/ ' V>. ilization, Lond. 1858) cannot be regarded as otherwise than plainly hostile to Christianity. There is a special presupposition in viewing the history of Christ in its relation to the world, which such writers as Mr. Buckle unhappily either scorn or reject, — a presupposition which a historian of a far higher strain has well defined as the root of all our modern civilization, and as that from which civilization can never separate itself, without assuming an entirely changed form.; "it is the presupposition that Jesus is the Sou of God. in a sense which cannot be predicated of any human being, — the perfect image of the supreme Lect. I. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE FOUR GOSPELS. 23 that restless energy that belongs to " the walkers in dry- places," to make us regard as imaginary or illusory those holy prepossessions in reference to the Evangelical history, that ought, and were designed by God himself, to exercise their unquestioned influence and sovereignty over our whole inner life. 1 It is this feeling that has more especially led me to fix upon the Life of our Lord and Master as the subject of these Lectures. It is the deep feeling, that every effort, however humble and homely, to set forth the groupings, the harmonies, and the significances of that holy History, is a contribution to the spiritual necessities of our own times, that has now moved me to enter upon this lofty theme. Here it is, and here only is it, that our highest ideal conceptions of perfection find only still higher prac- tical realizations. Here it is that, while we humbly strive to trace the lineaments of the outward, we cannot fail, if we be true to God and to our own souls, to feel the Avork- ings of the inward, 2 and while the eyes dwell lovingly on personal God in the form of that humanity that was estranged from Him; the presupposition that in Him appeared the source of the divine iif'e itself iu humanity, and that by Him the idea of humanity was realized." Neander, Leben Jesu Chr. p. 5 (Transl. § 2, p. 5, Bohn). Contrast with this the unhappy and self-contradictory comments of Hase. Leben Jesu, § 14, p. 16. 1 It has been well said by Ebrard, " We do not enter on the Evangelical His- tory, with spy-glass in hand, to seek our own credit by essaying to disclose ever fresh instances of what is contradictory, foolish, or ridiculous, but with the faithful, clear, and open eye of him who joyfully recognizes the good, the beau- tiful, and the noble, wheresoever he linds it, and on that account finds it with joy, and never lays aside his favorable prepossession till he is persuaded of the contrary. We give ourselves up to the plastic influence of the Gospels, live in tin in, and at the same time secure to ourselves, while we thus act in the spirit of making all our own, a deeper insight into the unity, beauty, and depth of the Evangelical History.*' — Kritik tier Evamg. Geschichte, § 8, p. 38. - It is satisfactory to find in most of the higher class of German writers on the Life of our Lord a distinct recognition of this vital principle of the Gospel nar- rative: '• As man's limited intellect could never, without the aid of God's revela- tion of Himself to the spirit of man, have originated the idea of (iod, so the image of Christ could never have sprung from the consciousness of sinful humanity, but must be regarded as the reflection of the actual life of such a Christ It is Christ's self-revelation, made, through all generations, in the frag- ments of His history that remain, and in the workings of His Spirit which inspires these fragments, and enables us to recognize in them one complete 24 INTRODUCTORY CONSIDERATIONS ON THE Lect. I. the inspired outlines of the history of Jesus, and of Him crucified, to feel His image waxing clearer in the soul, His eternal sympathies mingling with our infirmities, and en- larging into more than mortal measures the whole spiritual stature of the inner man. 1 After this lengthened, but I believe not unnecessary in- troduction, let me, with fervent prayer for grace and assist- ance from the illuminating Spirit of God, at once address myself to my arduous and responsible task. Method adopted (I-) And fi rst > as to tbe method which, in these Lectures. ^^ ^ ^elp of q q ^ j i nten ^ to p ursue . My first object in these Lectures is to arrange, to com- ment upon, and, as far as possible, to illustrate, the prin- cipal events in our Redeemer's earthly history; to show their coherence, their connection, 2 and their varied and sug- gestive meanings ; to place, as far as may be safely attempt- ed, the different divine discourses in their apparently true positions, estimated chronologically, 3 and to indicate how whole." — Neander, LebenJesu Chr. p. 6 (Transl. § 3, p. 4, Bohn). See further the eloquent remarks of Dr. Lange, in the introduction to his valuable work, Das Leben Jesu nach den Evangelien, 1. 1. 6, Vol. i. p. 71 sq. (Heidelb. 1844), and com- pare the introductory comments of Ewald, Geschichte Christus\ pp. xi. xii. 1 The admirable introductory exhortation of Bp. Taylor, prefixed to his Life of Christ, deserves particular attention. The prayer with which it concludes is one of the most exalted of those rapt devotional outpourings which illustrate and adorn that great monument of learning and piety. 2 On the two methods of relating the events of our Lord's life, whether by adhering strictly to chronological sequence, or by grouping together what seems historically similar, see Hase, Leben Jesu, § 16, p. 17. The latter method is always precarious, and in some cases, as, for example, in the Leben Jesu Cliristi of Neander, tends to leave the reader with a very vague idea of the real connec- tions of the history. 3 It may perhaps be safely affirmed, and many parts of the succeeding lectures will serve to illustrate the truth of the remark, that the exact chronological position of all our Lord's discourses can never be satisfactorily ascertained. One of the most sharp-sighted and trustworthy of modern chronologers of our Lord's life prudently observes: " I will not deny that the chronology of the discourses of our Lord, and especially of all the separate discourses, is very hard to be ascertained; nay, the problem, viewed under its most rigorous aspects, owing to the nature of the evangelical accounts that have come down to us, — I refer par- ticularly to the Gospel of St. Matthew, in which especially so many of these portions of discourses occur, — is perhaps never to be solved." — Wieseler, Chro- nologische Synopse, p. 287. Compare, too, Stier, Reden Jesu, Vol. i. p. xi. (Transl. Vol. i. p. 7, Clark). Lect. I. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE FOUR GOSPELS. 25 they both give to and receive illustration from the out- ward events with which they stand in more immediate connection. But all this must be, and the very nature of the subject prescribes that it should be, subordinated to the desire to set forth, in as much fulness and completeness as my limits may permit, not only the order and significance of the com- ponent features, but the transcendent picture of our Re- deemer's life, viewed as one divine whole. 1 Without this ulterior object all such labor is worse than in vain. With- out this higher aim, the divine harmonies of our Master's life become lost in mere annalistic detail; the spiritual epochs of His ministry forgotten in the dull, earthly study of the varied problematical arrangements of contested his- tory. These last points the nature of my present office may compel me not to leave wholly untouched ; nay, I trust that those who are acquainted with the nature of such investiga- tions will hereafter perceive that I have not shrunk from entering into this very difficult and debatable province of our subject, and that opinions are not put forth without some knowledge of what has been urged against them. Still, the details will not appear in the text of the Lectures, or ap- pear only in affirmative statements that are subordinated to the general current and spirit of the narrative. O, let us not forget, in all our investigations, that the history of the life of Christ is a history of redemption, — that all the records which the . Ca f mina Pi«u- ■* tng the above. Eternal Spirit of truth has vouchsafed to us bear this indelible impress, and are only properly to be seen 1 " It is the problem of faith,'' pays Dr. Lange, " to introduce into the church's contemplation of the life of Jesus, viewed as a whole, more and more of the various features of the gospel narrative, regarded in their consistent relations with one another. On the contrary, it is the problem of theological Boience to endeavor to exhibit more and more, by successive approximations, the com- pleted unity of the life of Jesus from the materials ready to its hand.'' — I,< bt a ./<■.*», i. 7. 2, Vol. i. p. 288. Some thoughtful remarks on the contrast between the ideal and the outward manifestation of the same {Gegensatz zwischen tier /,/•,- mi,/ der Eracheimmg) in the lives of men, but the perfect harmony of this ideal and phenomenal in Christ, will be found in Meander, LebenJesu Chr. p. 9. 3 26 INTRODUCTORY CONSIDERATIONS ON TUE Lect. I. and understood from this point of contemplation. 1 It is the history of the Redeemer of our race that the Gospels present to us ; the history, not of Jesus of Nazareth, but of the Saviour of the world ; the record, not of merely ideal- ized perfections, 2 but of redemptive workings, — "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work : " and he John v. 17. who would presume to trace out that blessed history, without being influenced by this remembrance in all his thoughts and words, must be prepared to find him- self adding one more unhonored name to the melancholy list of those who have presumed to treat of these myste- ries, with the eclectic and critical spirit of the so-called biographer, — the biographer 3 (O, strangely inappropriate and unbecoming word) of Him in whom Coi. a. 9. dAvelt the whole fulness of the Godhead. hJonj™ ° f ^ (**•) IU t]ie neXt P lilCe a f<5W WOrtls mUSt on this occasion necessarily be said both on the sources of our history, and our estimate of their divinely ordered differences and characteristics. 1 Some very valuable remarks on the true points of view from which the Evangelical History ought to be regarded by the Christian student, will be found in the eloquent introduction of Lange to his Leben Jcsu: see esp. Book i. 4. 6, Vol. i. p. 141 sq. 2 Compare Lange, Leben Jesu, i. 1. 5, 6, Vol. i. p. 41 sq. It has been well remarked by Keander, in answer to Strauss, that the picture of the Life of Christ does not exhibit the spirit of the age in which it appeared; nay, that "the image of human perfection thus concretely presented stands in manifold contradiction to the tendencies of humanity in that period; no one of them, no combination of them, dead as they were, could account for it." — Leben Jesu, p. 6, note (Transl. p. 4, Bohn). The true conception of the mingled divine and human aspects of our Lord's life has been nowhere better hinted at than by Augustine, — ''Ita inter Deum et homines mediator apparuit, ut in imitate persona; copulans utram- que naturam, et solita sublimaret insolitis et insolita solitis temperaret." — Epist. exxxvii. 3. 9, Vol. ii. p. 519 (ed. Migne). a The essential character of biography is stated clearly and fairly enough by Hasc (Leben Jcsu, § 12, p. 15), but the proposed application of it to the life of our Lord can scarcely be delined as otherwise than as in a high degree startling and repulsive. This cold, clear, but unsound writer seems to imagine that some height can be readied from which the modern historical critic can recognize the individualizing characteristics of the life of Christ as tin- Evangelists desired to portray them, and may sketch them out in their true (?) relations to the time and age in which they were manifested. Compare the somewhat similar aud equally objectionable remarks of Von Amnion, Geschichte des Lebai Jesu, Vol. i. p. vii. (Preface). Lkct. I. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE FOUR GOSPELS. 27 Our sources arc the four Gospels, four inspired narratives, so mysteriously overruled in their interdependence, that, regarded from the point of view in which the history of our Lord alone ought to be regarded, — viz., as a history of redemption, — they are all, and more than all, that our most elevated conceptions of our own spiritual needs could have sought for or devised. Such words, perchance, may sound strange in an age that has busied itself in noting down the seeming deficiencies of the Gospels, rather than recog- nizing their divine fulness; that looks out for diversities, rather than accordances, 1 and that never seems to regard its historical criticism with more complacency than when it presents to us the four inspired witnesses as involved in the discrepancies of a separate story. 2 Such words, I say, may sound strange, but they are the words of sober- ness and truth; and I will be bold to say that no patient and loving spirit will ever rise from a lengthened investiga- tion of the four evangelical records without having arrived at this honest conviction, — that though here there may seem diiliculty because faith is to be tried, 3 there a seeming discrepancy because we know not all, yet that the histories themselves, no less in their arrangements and mutual rela- tions than in the nature of their contents, exhibit vividly 1 A popular but pound article (by I'rof. C. E. Stowe) on the nature of the modem assaults upon the four Gospels will be found in the Bibiiotkeca Sacra for 1851, pp. 603—629. The details are well sketched out by Ebrard, Krilik der Ev. Oeschichte, § 3 — 7, p. 5 Bq. - The early Church was fully aware of the discrepancies, not merely in detail, but even in general plan and outline, that were deemed to exist between the Gospels, but she well knew how they were to be estimated and regarded: ovSe yap tovs tvayy€\anas (pa'niixev av inrevavria iroieTe a\\r]Kots, 6Tt oi fxtv T(p aapKiKtS tov Xpiffrov irAe'ov eV^ffxoArj^Tjcra)', oi Se rij freoAoyla -npoai^nav Kai oi /nil/ tK toiv icaS" t/M" ? > °< 5e £k tov inttp r}fj.as iTroi-fjffavTO t?V apxv"' ouVco to K-fipvy/xa SieXS/xeuoi -jrphs to xP^ctfJ-ov ol^iai ro7s Sexo/ieVois, Kal ovrco irapa tov iv aurols Tvirov/xevoi Ui'iv/j.aTos. — Grcg. Isaz. Orat. xx. Vol. i. p. 305 (Paris; 1609.) 8 "Ipsa nihil simplici el certa fide in illo permanere debemus, ut ipse aperiat Bdelibus quod in se absoonditura est : quia sicut idem dicit apostolus, In illo sunt om/m thesauri sapu ntice < t sciential adsoonditi. Quos non propterea abscondlt, ut neget, Bed ut absconditis excitet desiderium."— Augustine, Sertn. Ii. 4, Vol. v. p. 880 (ed. Migne). 28 INTRODUCTORY CONSIDERATIONS ON THE Lect. I. the pervading influence of that Spirit which it was declared should guide, aye, and infallibly has guided, John ocvi. 13. . . . their writers into all truth. 1 But let us carry out these observations somewhat in detail. Omitting, on the present occasion, all investigations into the more distinctly external characteristics in refelen7c"iTin- of the Gospels, whether in regard of the untal character*- general agpect Q f thege i lisp i re d doCUineiltS, or the particular styles in which they are com- posed, let us turn our attention to the more interesting sub- ject of their internal peculiarities and distinctions. And yet we may pause for a moment even on the outward ; for verily the outward is such as can never be overlooked; the outward differences and distinctions are indeed such as may well claim the critical reader's most meditative consid- eration. We may note, for example, the pervading tinge of Hebrew thought and diction 2 that marks, what we may perhaps correctly term, the narrative 3 of St. Matthew; 1 The language of Augustine on the subject of the plenary inspiration of the Gospels is clear and decided : " Quidquid ille [Christus] de suis factis et dictis nos legere voluit, hoc scribendum illis -tanquam suis manibus imperavit. Hoc uni- tatis consortium et in diversis officiis concordium niembrorum sub uno capite ministerium quisquis intellexerit, nou aliter accipiet, quod narrantibus discipulis Christi, in Evangelio legerit, quam si ipsam manum Domini, quam in i>roprio corpore gestabat, scribentem conspexerit.'''' — De Consensu Evang. i. 35, Vol. iii. p. 1070 (ed. Migne); comp. in Joann. Tract, xxx. 1, Vol. iii. p. 1632. 2 Nearly all modern critics agree in recognizing, not merely in isolated words and phrases, but in the general tone and diction of the first Gospel, the Hebrais- tic element. The " physiognomy of this first of our Gospels," to use the lan- guage of Da Costa, " is eminently Oriental : " the language, though mainly simple and artless, not unfrequently rises to the rhythmical, and even poetical, and is marked by a more frequently recurring parallelism of words or clauses (comp. Lowth, Prelim. Dissert, to Isaiah, p. viii. Loud. 1837) than is to be found in the other Gospels: compare, for example, Matt. viii. 24 — 27, with Luke vi. 47—49, and see Da Costa, The Four Witnesses, p. 28 sq. (Transl. Lond. 1851). 3 Perhaps the term narrative may be more correctly applied than any other to the Gospel of St. Matthew: it neither presents to us so full a recital of details as we find in St. Mark, nor the same sort of historical sequence which we observe in St. Luke, nor yet again the same connection in our Lord's discourses which wc observe in St. John, but to a certain extent combines some distinctive features of all. Antiquity well expressed this feeling in the comprehensive title to. Xdyia (1'apias, ap. Euseb. Hist. Eo.cl. iii. 39), which we may perhaps suitably paraphrase, as 1'apias himself seems to suggest (by his subsequent use of the terms twv Kvpianwv koyioiv, — but the reading is not certain), as Ta imb Xpta- Lect. I. CHARACTERISTICS OP THE FOUR GOSPELS. 29 we may observe the more isolated though more unqualified Hebraistic expressions, 1 and even the occasional Latinisms, 2 that diversify the graphic but more detached memoirs* of the exponent of the preaching of St. Peter; 4 we may trace the Hellenic coloring that gives such grace ami interest to the compiled history of St. Luke ; 5 we may recognize tov \ex&* VTa ^ vpaxbivra: sec Liicke, in Studieuu. Kritiken for 1833, p. 501 Bq., Meyer, Kommentar. uber Matth. p. 4, note, and Lange, Lcben Jesu, i. 5. 2, Vol. i. p. 161. The general structure of this Gospel has been well investigated in a programme by Earless, untitled Lucubrationum Evangelia Canomca spectan- tiiua 1'ars ii. Lrlang. 1842. As essays of this character are not always accessible, it may be worth noticing that the learned author finds in the Gospel five divisions: the Jirst, ch. i. — iv., ver. 23—25 forming the epilogue; the second, cli. iv.— ix., ver. 35— 38 similarly forming the epilogue; the third, ch. X. — xiv.; the fourth, ch. xv. — xix. 1, 2; and the fifth, ch. xix. 3 to the end. See pp. 6, 7. 1 We may especially notice the occasional introduction of Aramaic words, most probably the very words that fell from our Lord's lips; comp. ch. iii. 17, fioavtpyts; ch. v. 41, TaXtda kovixl; ch. vii. 34, e ptuToi 'lwdvuvv eax aTW Teu, trporpa- •jreVra vTrb rwv yyopl/xwv, Tlvev/iiaTi Seo^oprj&e'j'Ta, irv e v par iko v iroirjcrai evayyeXwv. The same distinction is preserved by Augustine : — " Tres isti Evan- gelista; in his rebus maxime diversati sunt quas Christus per humanam carnem temporaliter gessit: porro autem Joannes ipsam maxime divinitatem Domini qua Patre est aequalis intendit." — De Consensu Evang. I. 4, Vol. iii. 1045 (ed. Migne). 3 This character of St. John's Gospel has of late been denied, but, as it would seem, wholly unsuccessfully. That this was not the special object of that sub- lime Gospel may be fully conceded (see Luthardt, das Johan. Evang. iv. 1, Vol. i. p. 109 sq.), but that St. John wrote with a full cognizance of what his three predecessors had related, that he presupposed it in his readers, and enlarged upon events not recorded elsewhere, seems almost indisputable. That this was distinctly the belief of antiquity is fully conceded by Lucke, Comment, ilber Johan. in. 13, Vol. i. p. 187 (ed. 3). See especially Euseb. Hist. Eccl. in. 24; Jerome, de Viris Ulustr. cap. 9; and compare the expressions in the Muratorian fragment on the Canon, reprinted in liouth, Beiiq. Sacrce, Vol. iv. p. 3 sq. (ed. 1). Lect. I. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE FOUR GOSPELS. 31 forth the life of our Master, our whole superstructure not only rests upon the four Gospels, but has to be formed out of the elements which they ttuofae}mirOo»- supply, and that unsymmetrical will it be and ] ^^^ fdtand incongruous, unless, like wise master-builders, we learn to appreciate the inner and essential distinctions between the precious materials which we are presuming to employ. Here has been the grave error of only too many of those who have taken in hand to draw up an account of those things that are fully believed among us. Here harmonies have foiled to edify ; here critical histories have often proved so lamentably deficient. Nay, I believe that there is no one thing which the long roll of harmonies and histories, extending from the days of Tatian down to our own, 1 teach us more distinctly than this, — that no true picture of the earthly life of our Re- deemer can ever be realized, unless by God's grace we learn both to feel and to appreciate the striking individu- ality of the four Gospels in their portraiture of the life of Christ, and are prepared to estimate duly their peculiar and fore-ordered characteristics. 2 That antiquity failed not to recognize these individu- alities, we are reminded by the admirable treatise of Augus- tine on the Consent of the Evangelists, 3 — a treatise from 1 A full list of these will be found in the useful but unsound work of Hase, Leben Jesv, § 21, p. 21 sqq., and a shorter and selected list in the Harmonia Erangelica of Tischendorf, p. ix. sqq. Those which most deserve consideration seem to be, Gerson, Concordia Evange/istarum (about 1471); Chemnitz, Harmo- nia Quatuor Evangelistarum (vol. i. published in 1593); Lightfoot, Harmony, etc. of the JV. T. (Loud. 1(355); Lamy, Harmonia sive Concordia Quatuor Erati- gelistqrum, Paris, 1G89; liengel, Eichtige Harmonie der vier Erangelien, Tubing. 1736; Newcome, Harmony of Gospels, Dubl. 1778; Clausen, Tabula Syiiopticw, Iluvnia?, 1829; tireswell, Harmonia Evangelica, Oxon. 1S40; Robinson, Harmony of the Four Goipels, Boston, 1845, and (with useful notes) Lond. (llelig. Tract Society); Anger, Synopsis Evangeliorum, Lips. 1851; Tischendorf, Synopsis Evangelica, Lips. 1851; and, lastly, the voluminous work of Patritius, de Evan- geliis, Friburg, 1853. 2 See some good remarks in the Introduction to Lange, Leben Jesu, especially I. 3.1, Vol. i. p. 98 sq. 3 We might also specify, as illustrative of this view of the individual character of the four Gospels, the ancient and well-known comparison of the four Cios- 32 INTRODUCTORY CONSIDERATIONS ON THE Lect. I. which, though we may venture to differ in details, we can never safely depart in our general principles of combina- tion and adjustment. 1 No writer has more ably maintained the fundamental position, that the four evangelical records in their delineation of the life of Christ have noticeably different characteristics, — that they present our Redeemer to us under different aspects, 2 — and that these four histo- ries (to use the simile of another ancient writer), 3 though flowing from one paradise, go forth to water the earth with four currents of different volume and direction. It was the neglect of these principles that made so many of the laborious harmonies of the sixteenth iifZZnuL earlier an ^ seventeenth centuries both valueless and unedifying, and not improbably served to call out that antagonistic criticism which in these later days has acquired such an undue, and, it must be said, undesira- ble rn-ominence. 4 These earlier efforts we may have never pels to the four living creatures mentioned in the Apocalypse (Irenasus, JTcer. in. 1). Though later writers (Athanasius, Augustine, Jerome, al.) varied somewhat in their adaptations of the symbols (see Wordsworth, Greek Test. Vol. i. p. 51), this fourfold comparison may be considered as the practical manifestation of the belief of the ancient Church in the distinct individuality of the four Gospels. The more usual order and application of the symbols is stated by Sedulius in the following lines, which may bear quotation : — Hoc Matthscus agens, hominem generaliter implct, Marcus ut alta fremit vox per deserta Leonis, Jura sacerdotii Lucas tenet ore juvenci, More volans aquila; vcrbo petit astra Joannes. 1 Augustine appears, from his own statements, to have taken especial pains with this treatise. He alludes to it twice in his commentary on St. John (Tract. oxii. 1, Vol. hi. p. TJ29, and again Tract cxvu. 2, Vol.iii. p. 1945), and in both cases speaks of it as composed with much labor: compare also his Retractat'wnts, Book ii. ch. 16. 2 See especially Book I. 2, 3, 4 (Vol. iii. p. 1044, ed Mignefr where the different aspects under which our Redeemer was viewed by the Evangelist are specially noticed. What we have to regret in this valuable treatise is the somewhat low position assigned to St. Mark's Gospel, the author of which, according to Augus- tine, is but the "podissequus et breviator"' of St. Matthew (ch. 2). Modern criticism has strikingly reversed this judgment. 3 Jerome, Pnrf. in Matih. cap. 4, Vol. vii. p. 18 (ed. Migne). 4 I regret to have to express my dissent from the views of my friend, Dean Alford, in the Introduction to his New Testament, Vol. i. $ 7. Careful investi- gation seems to justify the opinion that between the forced harmonies, which Lect. I. CHARACTERISTICS OP THE FOUR GOSPELS. 33 seen, perhaps never heard of. We may smile perhaps at the luckless sedulity that deemed it necessary to assign to St. Peter nine denials of our Lord, 1 and we may perhaps scarcely believe that such abuses of Evangelistic harmony could have been originated by one who cooperated with Luther, and whose works were not without influence on his contemporaries, and on them that followed him. We may perhaps now smile at such efforts ; but still, if one only looks at some of the harmonics of the present century, it seems abundantly clear that these influences are even now not wholly inoperative; 2 and that efforts to interweave por- tions of the sacred narrative, without a proper estimate of the different objects and characteristics of the Evangelists, still find among us some favor and reception. In our de- sire, however, to reject such palpably uncritical endeavors, let us, at any rate, respect the principle by which they appear to have been actuated, — a reverence, mistaken it is true, but still a reverence for every jot and tittle of the written word ; and let us beware, too, that we are not tempted into the other extreme, — that equally exagger- found favor in older times, and the blank rejection of evangelical harmony, ^ except in broadest outlines, which has been so much advocated in our own times, there is a safe via media, which, if followed thoughtfully and patiently, will often be found to lead us to aspects of the sacred narrative which are in the highest degree interesting and instructive. Variations are not always neces- sarily inaccuracies: could we only transport ourselves to the right point of view, we should see things in their true perspective; and that we can more often do so than is generally supposed, has, I veuture to think, been far too summarily denied. For some good remarks on Gospel harmony, see Wieseler, Chron. Synops. p. 5 6qq., Da Costa, Four Witnesses, p. 1 sqq. (Transl.). i Oaiaader, Harmon. Evang. p. 128 (Bas. 1561). This rigid and somewhat arrogant divine was born A. d. 1498: he was educated at Wittemberg, and after- wards at Nuremberg, in which latter city lie became a preacher at one of the churches. He warmly supported Luther in his attack on Papal indulgences; but afterwards fell into errors respecting the application of Christ's righteous- ness and the divine image, which he appears to have defended with undue con- fidence and pertinacity. Sec Mosheim, Eccl. Hist. IV. 3. 2. 1, Vol. iii. p. 357 (ed. Soames); Tholuck, Lit. Anzeiger for 1833, No. 54; and for a short notice of his life, Schrbckh, Kirchengeschichte (Reformation), Vol. iv. p. 572. 2 I fear I must here specify the learned and laborious work of Dr. Stroud (New Greek Harmony of the Four Gospels), in which in this same case of St. Tetcr's denials the event is recounted under different forms seven times; see the Introduction, p. clxxxix. 34 INTRODUCTORY CONSIDERATIONS ON THE Lect. I. ated view of modern times, that the discordances of the sacred writers are such as defy reconciliation, 1 and that all, save the great events in the history of our Redeemer, must ever remain to us a collection of confused and incon- sequent details. In one word, let us remember, that though it is uncriti- cal, unwise, and even presumptuous to fabri- JiuJicious combi- . , Nation the true prin- cate a patchwork narrative, yet that it is not only possible, but our very duty to endeavor judiciously to combine? Let us remember that we have four holy pictures, limned by four loving hands, of Him who was " fairer than the children of men," Psal. xlo. 2. and that these have been vouchsafed to us, that by varying our postures we may catch fresh beauties and fresh glories. 3 Let us then fear not to use one to see more in licrlit what another has left more in shade: let us 1 For some useful observations on and answers to the extreme views that have been maintained on the supposed discrepancies or divergences that have been found in the Gospel history, see Ebrard, Kritik der Evang. Geschiohte, § 19, p. 71 sqq. 2 Modern writers on harmonistic study commonly draw distinctions between Synopsis and Harmony, and again between Chronology and Order of Events (Akoluthie). Such distinctions are useful, and serve to assist us in keeping clearly in view the principles on which our combination is constructed. The problem, however, we have to solve can really be regarded under very simple* aspects: it is merely this, (1) to determine, where possible, by reference to chronological data, the order and connection of events; (2) to reconcile any striking diver- gences we may meet with in accounts of the same event; compare Chemnitz, Harmon. Quatuor. Evang. Proem, cap. 5. In regard of (2) we must be guided by the results of a sound exegesis of each one of the supposed discordant pas- sages, combined with a just appreciation of the apparently leading aims, objects, and characteristics of the inspired records to which they respectively belong. In regard of (1), where chronology fails us, we can only fall back on the prin- ciple of Chemnitz: — "Nos quxrimus ordinem, cujus rationes, si non semper certae et ubique manifests, probabiles tamen ncc absurdae nee vero absimiles reddi posennt." — Harmonia Evang. Vol. i. p. 18 (Ilamb. 1704). 3 Compare with this the judicious observations of Da Costa: — "To picture Christ to the eye in cqua\ fulness, that is, as an actual whole, and that in all His aspects, one witness was very far from being sufficient; but Divine wisdom could here accomplish its object by means of a fourfold testimony and a four- sided delineation. In order to this, it was meet that each of four Evangelists should represent to us, not only the doings and sayings, but the very person of the Saviour, from his own individual point of view, and in harmony with his own personal character and disposition." — The Four Witnesses, p. 113 (Trausl.). Lect. I. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE FOUR GOSPELS. 35 scruple not to trace the lineament that one has left unex- pressed, but another has portrayed. Let us do all this, nothing doubting; but let us beware, O, let us beware, lest in seeking to work them up mechanically into what might seem to us a well-adjusted whole, instead of order we bring in confusion, distortion instead of symmetry, burning instead of beauty. Let me conclude with a few illustrations of those inter- nal characteristics and individualities of the four Gospels, especially in reference to the fc 2£35i£ picture of our Lord's life, to which I have '-'f ,''" ° bme al ' -I ' Iwlcd to. alluded, and so prepare ourselves for thought- ful recognitions, in future lectures, of divinely ordered dif- ferences, and for wise and sober principles of combination. How striking is the coincidence between the peculiar nature of the contents of the Gospel of St. 1 Individuality nf Matthew and what Scripture relates to us of st. Matthew's gos- the position of Jam that wrote it. How natu- rally we might expect from him who sat at the receipt of custom on the busy shores of the lake of Genncsareth, and who had learnt to arrange and to methodize in the callings of daily life, — how naturally we might expect careful grouping and well-ordered combination. 1 And how truly we find it! To leave unnoticed the vexed question of the exact nature of the Sermon on the Mount, 2 — to whom save to St. Matthew do we owe that effective grouping of par- ables which we find in the thirteenth chapter, 3 wherein 1 See the thoughtful comments of Longe, Lcbcn Jcsit, I. 7. 2. Vol. i. p. 237 sq. li iiiii\ perhaps be urged thai we are here tacitly assuming that the details ofthe office nf a TtAuSi/Tjs were more in harmony with modern practice than can actually be demonstrated. That an apxn^Xwvris (mbmagistro)'wa& especially concerned with administrative details can be distinctly shown, but that the simple collector [portitor), such as St. Matthew probably was. had any duties of an analogous nature, may he regarded as doubtful. Theverj necessities of the case, however, imply that the "portitor" would have to render constant accounts to his superior officer, — and this Beems quite enough to warrant the comments in the text. See Smith, Diet, qf Antiq. s. v. " Publieani ; " Jahn, Archceofoff. Bibl. J 211; Winn-, RecUmrterb. s. r. •••'/oil," Vol. ii. p. 739 sq. -' See the*eomments on iis probable structure in Lecture iv. 3 In this chapter we have the longer parables of the Sower (vcr. 3—9) and of 36 INTRODUCTORY CONSIDERATIONS ON THE Lect. I. each one by its juxtaposition imparts additional force and clearness to those with which it stands in immediate con- tact? "Whose hand was it save the wise publican's that wove into narrative that glorious garland of miracles of which the eighth and ninth chapters are nearly entirely composed? 1 Who but he has brought together in such illustrative combinations the Lord's last prophecies, and the partially prophetic parables that usher in that most solemn revelation of our Redeemer to His Church, which con- cludes with the twenty-fifth chapter? 2 But to narrow our observations to that Especially in his portraiture of our with which we are more especially concerned, — with what force and effect are the contrasts, which such habits of combination naturally suggest, 3 em- ployed in presenting to us vivid and impressive aspects of our Redeemer's history. In what striking antithesis do the the Tares and the Wheat (ver. 24—30), and the shorter comparisons of the King- dom of Heaven with the grain of Mustard Seed (ver. 31, 32), Leaven (ver. 33), the Treasure in a field (ver. 44), the Merchantman and the Pearl (ver. 45, 46), and the Net cast into the sea (ver. 47, 48). The illustrative connection that exists between these parables can hardly escape the notice of the observant reader. We have, as it were, seven varied aspects of the kingdom of God on earth. In the first parable we have placed before us the various classes in the visible Church ; in the second we contemplate the origin and presence of evil therein, and its final removal and overthrow; in the third we see the kingdom of God in its aspects of growth and extension; in the fourth in its pervasive and regenerative character; in the fifth and sixth in reference to its precious- ness, whether as discovered accidentally or after deliberate search ; in the seventh in its present state of inclusiveness combined with its future state of selection and unsparing separation. See Wordsworth, New Test. Vol. i. p. 39; and compare Knox, Remains, Vol. i. pp. 407 — 425. 1 In these two chapters we have the narrative of the cleansing of a leper (viii. 2 — 4); the healings of the centurion's servant (viii. 5— 13), of St. Teter's wife's mother (viii. 14, 15), and of numerous demoniacs (viii. 16); the stilling of the winds and sea (viii. 24—26); the healing of the demoniacs of Gadara (viii. 28 — 34); of the paralytic on his bed (ix. 2—8), and of the woman with an issue of blood (ix. 20— 22); the raising of Jairus' daughter (ix. 23—25), the healing of two blind men (ix. 28—30), and tlie dispossession of a dumb demoniac (ix. 32—34). 2 Especially the similitude of the Unready Servant (xxiv. 43—51), and the parables of the Ten Virgins (xxv. 1—12). and of the Talents (xxv. 14—30.) 3 Compare Lange, Leben Jesu, I. 7. 2, Vol. i. p. 240. The outlines and general construction of St. Matthew's Gospel are described by Ebrard, Kritil; der Evang. CescliicJite, § 22, p. 86 sq., but not under any very novel or suggestive aspects. For some remarks on the characteristic peculiarities of this Gospel, see Davidson, Introduction to N. T. Vol. i. p. 52 sq. Lect. I. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE FOUR GOSPELS. 37 opening chapters set before us the new-born King of Peace and the savage Herod; the mysterious adora- C h.a.i,s. tion of the Magi, and the hasty flight for life into a strange land ; the baptism, with the ch - "• U| **■ opened heavens and descending Spirit, and the temptation, with all its circumstances of cAi 7i'.'i n . * 7 ' ( "" satanic trial. Observe too, how, thus height- ened by contrast as well as heralded by prophecy, the Lord appears to us as the Son of David and the Son of Abraham, the spiritual King of spiritual Judaism, the Messiah of the Israel of God. 1 Yet withal observe how the Theocratic King and the suffering Messiah pass and repass before our eyes, in ever new and ever striking interchange, and how a strange and deep tone of prophetic sadness blends with all we read, and prepares us as it were for Gethsemane and Calvary; and yet again, when the Lord has broken the bands of death, whose save St. Matthew's is that inspired pen that records that out- pouring of exalted majesty, "All power is given me in heaven and in earth"? To whom save to the „ -,-, , . , , ~ . Jfatt. orxviii. 18. first Evangelist owe we the record of that promise which forms the most consolatory heritage of the Church, "Lo! I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world"? No less strongly marked is the individuality of St. Mark's Gospel. No less clearly in this inspired rec- ord can we trace the impressible and fervid ; "'"" V '"" W '" °f 1 St. Murk's Gospel character which we almost instinctively Actsxu.u. ascribe to John Mark, the son of Mary (for I hold the identity of the Evangelist with the nephew of 1 Compare the fragments of Ireneus, taken from Possini, Catena Patrum, and cited in the various editions of that ancient writer (Grabe, p. 471 ; Massnet, Vol. >. p. 337); it is as follows: T& koto MaT&cuw diayyeAiuv npbs 'lovSalovs typd(prp ovtol yap eTreSv/xovv irduv ff/ avrols, ws til) (K tryei/r]s applied to the Eternal Son. See ch. i. 14, 18, iii. 16, 18, and compare 1 John iv. 9. - In this Gospel our Lord is truly to us what the significant appellation of the inspired writer declares Him to be, — the Word. In the other Gospels our attention is mainly centred on our Lord's acts, but in this last one he speaks. Sec Da Costa, Four Witnesses, p. 240. It may indeed be noticed as one of the striking features of this Gospel that it makes all its characters exhibit their individuality to us by what they say rather than by what they do. We may recognize this kind of self-portraiture partially in the case of Xathanael (ch. i. 47si[.)and Nicodemus (cb. iii. 1 sq.), and very distinctly in that of the woman of Samaria (eh. iii. 7 sq.) and of the man born blind (eh. ix. 1, 30). The very enemies of onr Lord appear similarly before us; all their doubts (ch. viii. 22), divisions (ch. x. 19), and machinations (ch. xi. 47) are disclosed to us as it were bj themselves, and in the word.- that fell from their own lips. For some good remarks on the Individualizing traits and characteristics of those who appear on the pages of St. John's Gospel, see Luthardt, Das Jdhcmn. Evang. m.2, Part i. p. OS sq. s lor some further notices and illustrations, see especially Luthardt, Das 46 INTRODUCTORY CONSIDERATIONS ON THE Lect. I. conclusion call your attention to the mystical complete- ness which this Gospel gives to the evangelical history. I will only ask you to spend a moment's thought on that everlasting wisdom by which it was fore-ordained that a Gospel should be vouchsafed to us in which the loftiest ideal purities and glories with which we might be able to invest the Son of David, the Son of God, and the Son of Man, might receive a yet loftier manifestation, and by which the more distinctly historical pictures disclosed to us by the synoptical Evangelists might be made instinct with a quickening life, which assuredly they lack not, but which we might never have completely realized if we had not been endowed with the blessed heritage of the Gospel of St. John. 1 Johann. Evang. ill. 2, p. 92 sq., and for comparisons between the pictures of our Redeemer as displayed to us in this and the three other Gospels, Lange, Leben Jesu, I. 7. 2, Vol. i. p. 271 sq. Compare also Da Costa, Four Witnesses, p. 286 sq. 1 We may, perhaps, profitably close this comparison of the characteristics of the four Gospels with a brief statement of some of the distinctions which have either been above alluded to, or may be further adduced as evincing the clear individu- ality of each one of the inspired records. In regard of(l) the External features and characteristics, we are perhaps warranted in saying that (a) the point of view of the firstGospel is mainly Israelitic; of the second, Gentile; of the third, univer- sal; of the fourth, Christian; — that(6) the general aspect and, so to speak, physi- ognomy of the first mainly is Oriental; of the second, Roman; of the third, Greek; of the fourth, spiritual; — that (c) the style of the first is stately and rhythmical; of the second, terse and precise; of the third, calm and copious; of the fourth, artless and colloquial; — that (!/ 8e ev/j.cnos- wv to fxei> idewcre, vb Se edeaide. *fl rf/s Katvys pl^eics, & ttjs irapaSo^ov Kpaaecos, 6 2>v ylverat, Kai 6 o.ktkttos KriQerm, Ktxl 6 ax<*>pV T0S x w P ( * Tat 5ia Liea-qs tyuxv s voepas /x€(TiTtvovf Christ, p. 28, note (Bonn), and compare Whist on, Dissert, m., appended to his translation of Josephus, esp. Vol. iii. p. G12 (Oxford, 1839). Such an imitation does not seem clearly made out ; still, even if in part we concede it, we have only thus far weakened the testimony from without as (o consider it an acceptance Of B statement made from within, because that statement was felt to be correct. 3 "Our own idea of Christ compels us to admit that two factors, the one natu- ral, the other supernatural, were coefficient in His entrance into human life) and this, too, although we may be unable, d priori, to state how that entrance was accomplished. But at this point the historical accounts come to our aid, by testify in" thai what our theory of the ease requires, did in fact occur." — Nean- der, i.ij, qf Christ, p. 18 (Bohn), — a loose, but substantially correct represt nta- l !• n i of the original [Leben Jesu Christi,j>. l">). Compare I'>p. Taylor, L\fi ij/xriv oiKrifiari. The spring in question is alluded to and briefly. described by Stanley, Palestine, p. 362 (ed. 2). 3 The addition of the participle (Soucrain the received text, though not with- out great external support (see Tischendorf in loc. ), must still be considered as somewhat doubtful. Even if retained, we may perhaps more naturally refer the troubled feelings of the Virgin simply to the terms in which the salutation was couched: observe the specific eirJ rtp \6ya>, and the concluding clause, K(U SieAo"yi(,'eTO iroTcnrbs ejTj aairaafxb $ outos. •J We seem to recognize this distinction in the expressions of vcr. S3. — If, on the one hand, the heavenly messenger declares, in continuation of the image :it the concluding part of the former verse, that the Eternal Son " shall reign over llie house of Jacob for ever;" he, on the other hand, seems to imply, by the very seeming repetition, "And of His kingdom there shall be no end," a reference to a still more universal dominion. Comp. Dan. vii. 14, and see Bynieus, dc ifatali Jcs. Chr. xxxvi. p. 117 sq. Lect. II. OF OUR LORD. 59 must have begun to work in her the most lively conviction. Yet how characteristic is the question, "How Iafe< M shall this be ? " the question not of outwardly Luke ,-. 18 . expressed doubt, like that of Zacharias, or of aea.xnu.-a. an inwardly felt sense of impossibility, like ccn.xvm.12. that of Abraham and Sarah in the old and typical past, but of a childlike innocence, that sought to realize to itself, in the very face of seeming impossibilities, the full assurance of its own blessedness. No, there was no lack of real faith in that question. 1 It was a question to which the heavenly messenger was permitted to return a most explicit answer, and to confirm by a most notable example, even that of her kinswoman Elisabeth, that with God no word was impossible, 2 — no promise that was not to receive its completest and most literal fulfilment. "With these words of the angel all seems to have become clear to her in regard of the wonder-working power of God ; much, too, must have already seemed clear to her on the side of man. With the rapid fore-glance of thought, she must have seen in the clouded future, scorn, dereliction, the pointed finger of a mocking and uncharitable world, calumny, shame, death. But what was a world's scorn, or 1 The utmost that can be said is that the Virgin felt the seeming impossibility, and that in avowing the feeling she sought for that further assurance which she also felt would not be withheld, and would at once allay her doubts. Even the following excellent remarks of Jackson attribute to the Virgin somewhat more mistrust than the words and the case seem to imply : '■ It is far from my dispo- sition at any time, or my purpose at this, to urge further to aggravate the infirmity of a vessel bo sanctified, elect, and precious: and I am persuaded tho Evangelist did not so much intend to disparage hers, as to confirm our belief, by relating her doubtful question, and the angel's reply; the one being but Sarah's mistrust, refined with maidenly modesty, the other Sarah's check, miti- gated and qualified by the angel. - '— Creed, Book vn. 1. 12, Vol. vi. p. 209 (Oxf. 1844). 'flic earlier commentators, though perhaps they Slightly overprcss the tc«.'S in the Virgin's question (eVi^TjToi/fl'a rbu rp6irov rou irpdy/j.aTos, Theopli.), have in mosl cases rightly appreciated the true state of feeling which prompted the question. Comp. Lange, Leben Jesu, 11. 2, 8, Vol. ii p. 66 2 It is usual to consider ^F/jua in thi8 text as coextensive in meaning with the Hebrew ~^~. and as implj ing " thing,'' " matter " ("Wordsworth, in loc.). This is now rightly called in question by the most accurate interpreters; the meaning i- -imply as stated by Kntliy miiis, — ttuv u Ae'yet, nuv o iwayyeAtTat. See Meyer, Komiih nl . B01 r Lvk., p. 203. 60 THE BIRTH AND INFANCY Lect. II. a world's persecution, to those words of promise ? Faith sustains that possible shrinking from more than mortal trial, and turns it into meekest resignation : " Behold the hand- maid of the Lord ; be it unto me according to thy word." From that hour the blessed Virgin seems ever to appear before us in that character, which the notices of the Gos- pels so consistently adumbrate, 1 meek and pensive, medita- tive and resigned, blessed with joys no tongue can tell, and yet, even in the first hours of her blessedness, beginning to feel one edge of the sword that was to pierce through her loving and submissive heart. The last words of the miraculous message seem to pre- pare us for the next event recorded by the rtoZToEiuab^h. Evangelist, — the hasty journey of the Vir- gin to her aged relative Elisabeth, 2 in the hill- country of Judgea: "and Mary arose and went into the hill-country, with haste, unto a city of Juda." But why this haste? Why this lengthened, and/as far as we can infer from national custom,^/inusual journey in the case of a young and secluded maiden? Are we to believe, with a recent and eloquent writer of a life of 1 The character of the blessed Virgin, as far as it can be inferred from the Scriptures, has been touched upon by Nicmeyer, Character, Vol. i. p. 54 sq. Some thoughtful notices, as derived from St. John's Gospel, will be found in Luthardt, das Johann. Evang. Vol. i. p. 114 sq. 2 It seems impossible to state confidently the nature of this relationship. It has been thought possible that the Virgin may have been of the tribe of Levi, and thus connected with Elisabeth, who we know was of that tribe; so the apocryphal document called the Testamentum xii. Patrum, $ 2, 7, and Faustus Manichanis, as referred to by Augustine, contra Faust. Manich. xxiii. 9, Vol. viii. p. 471 (ed. Migne). The more probable opinion is, that the Virgin was of the tribe of Judah, and that the relationship with Elisabeth arose from some intermarriage. Such intermarriages between members of the tribe of Levi and members of other tribes can be shown to have occurred in earlier periods of sacred history (comp. 2 Chron. xxii. 11); and in these later periods might have been far from uncommon. See Bynasus, de Natali Chr. I. 1. 47, p. 141; and comp. Mishna, Tract, "Kiddushin," iv. 1 sq. Vol. iii. p. 878 sq. (ed. Surenhus.). 3 Passages have been cited from Philo, de Legg. Spec. ill. 31, Vol. i. p 327 (ed. Mangey), and Talm. Hleros. Tract, "Chetuboth," vn. 6, which would seem to imply that such journeys in the case of virgins were contrary to general custom. "The journey, "' says Lange, "was not quite in accordance with Old-Testament decorum; the deep realities of the cross, however, give a freedom in the spirit of the New." — Leben Jesu, Vol. ii p. 85. Lect. II. OF OUR LORD. 61 our Lord, that it was in consequence of a communication on the part of the Virgin, and a subsequent rejection on the part of Joseph? 1 Are we to do such a wrong to both our Lord's earthly parents? Arc Ave to make that righteous son of Jacob the first Ebionite? Are we to believe that the blessed Virgin thus strangely threw off that holy and pen- sive reserve, which, as I have remarked, seems her charac- teristic throughout the Gospel history ? It cannot be. That visit was not to receive consolation for wrong and unkind- ness from man, but to confer with a wise heart on trans- cendent blessings from God, which the unaided spirit even of Mary of Nazareth might not at first be able completely to grasp and to realize. And to whom could she go so nat- urally as to one toward whom the wonder-working power of God had been so signally displayed. Nay, docs not the allusion to her "kinswoman Elisabeth," in the _ -it t i Luke i. 3C. angel s concluding words, suggest the very quarter to which she was to turn for further spiritual support, and for yet more accumulated verification? To her, then, the Virgin at once hastens. A few days 2 would bring the un- looked-for visitant to the "city of Juda," — LxiXc i. 3D. whether the nearer village which tradition still points to as the home of Zacharias and Elisabeth, 3 or 1 See Lange, Leben Jcsu, i. 2. 5, Vol. ii. p. 84 so,.; fully and satisfactorily answered by Ebrard, Kritik der Ev. Gesch. § 45, p. 211 sq. There seems no suffi- cicnt reason tor placing, with Alford ami others, what is recorded in Matt. i. IS— 25 before this journey. The discovery noticed in Matt. i. 18 (e vp f dy Se tlirt Oia ih airpocrS6KT)Toi'. Euthvm.), and the events which followed, would seem much more naturally to have taken place after the Virgin's return. So rightly August. .« of the two m- . . , -I , ttpircd canticli s. attempts that have been made to throw doubt on the credibility of the sacred narrative, by ap- pealing to the improbability of these so-called lyrical effu- sions 1 on the part of Mary and Elisabeth. Lyrical effusions! What! are we to say that this strange and un- looked-for meeting on the part of the mother of the Fore- runner and the mother of the Redeemer was as common- place and prosaic as that of any two matrons of Israel that might have met unexpectedly under the terebinths 2 of Hebron? Are we so utterly to believe in those wretched Epicurean views of the history of our race, as to conceive it possible that the greatest events connected with it were unmarked by all circumstances of higher spiritual exalta- tion? If there be only that grain of truth in the Evangeli- cal history that our adversaries may be disposed to concede ; if there be any truth in those ordinary psychological laws, to which, when it serves their purpose, they are not slow to appeal ; then, beyond all doubt, both Elisabeth and the Virgin could not be imagined to have met in any way less striking than that which is recorded ; their words of greet- ing could have been none other than those we find assigned to them by the Evangelist. 3 Every accent in the saluta- tion of the elder matron is true to the princijdes of our common nature when subjected to the highest influences; 1 Compare Schleiermaclier, Essay on St. Luke, p. 24; well and completely answered by Dr. 31 ill in his admirable comments on these inspired hymns. Sec Observations ~ ' the utvine messages. craftsman of Galilee ' is made by means of a dream of the night. How suggestive is it iiatt.i.w. that, while to the loftier spirit of Mary the name of Jesus is revealed with all the prophetic associa- tions of more than David's glories, to Joseph, perchance the aged Joseph, 2 who might have long seen and realized his own spiritual needs, and the needs of those around him, it is specially said, " thou shalt call his name Jesus ; for He shall save Ills people from their sins." Surely, brethren, such things cannot be cunningly devised; such things must work, and ought to work, conviction ; such things must needs make us feel, and feel with truth, that this and the following holy chap- ters, so carped at by the doubting spirits both of earlier and of later days, are verily what the Church has ever held them to be, — the special, direct, and undoubted reve- lations of the Eternal Spirit of God. 3 1 Ckrysostom notices the different nature of the heavenly communications, assigning however what scarcely seems the true reason, — the faith of Joseph (triarbs i\v 6 avilp, Kal ouk e'SeiYo ttjs v) e'Actoffcu, Hter. j.i. 10), it may perhaps be said that such seems to have been the prevailing opin- ion of tin- early Church. That he died in the lifetime of our Lord has been justly inferred from the absence of his name in those passages in the Gospels where allusion is made to the Virgin and the Lord's brethren. See Blunt, Veracity <>/ Evangelists, § 8, p. 38; and for notices and reff. as to the supposed age of Joseph at our Lord's birth, see the curious but often very instructive work of Hofirnann, I.< n •/< six nach den Apoerypfo n, \ 10, p. 02. 3 It is painful to notice the hardihood with which the genuineness of these chapters has been called in question, even by some of the better class of critics. See, for example, Norton, G\ in/in, ness o/ Gospels, Note a, § 5, Vol. i. p. 201 sq. When we remember (1) that they are contained in every manuscript, uncial or cm-he, and in every version, eastern or western, that most of the early Fathers Cite them, and that early enemies of Christianity appealed to them (Grig. Ccls. I. 6* 66 THE BIRTH AND INFANCY Lect. II. And now the fulness of time was come. By one of those mysterious workings whereby God Journey to Beth- "* ° J lehem, ami taxing makes the very worldliness of man bring under Quirinus. 1..1 i ,• <■ tt- i i about the completion of llis own heavenly counsels, the provincial taxing or enrolment of the per- sons or estates 1 of all that were under the Roman sway, — a taxing almost proved by independent his- torical induction to have been made even as St. Luke relates it, during the presidency of Cyrenius 2 — 38, ii. 32); when we observe (2) the obvious connection between the beginning of ch. iii. and the end of ch. ii., and between ch. iv. 13 and ii. 23; and when we remark (3) the exact accordance of diction with that of the remaining chap- ters of the Gospel, — it becomes almost astonishing that even a priori prejudice should not have abstained at any rate from so hopeless a course as that of impugning the genuineness of these chapters. To urge that these chapters were wanting in the mutilated and falsified gospel of the Ebionites (Epiph. Hor. xxx. 13), or that they were cut away by the heretical Tatian (Theodoret, liter. Fab. I. 20), is really to concede their genuineness, and to bewray the reason why it was impugned. For additional notices and arguments, see Griesbach, Epimetron ad Comment. Crit. p. 47 sq. ; Gersdorf, Beitrdge, p. 38; and Patritius, de Evangeliis, Quaest. viii. Vol. i. p. 29 sq. 1 This point is so doubtful and debatable that I prefer adopting this more general form of expression. Compare Wieseler, Chron. Synops. 1. 2, p. 75 sq., and Greswell, Dissert. No. xiv. Vol. i. p. 541 sq. On the general lexical distinc- tion between airoypaty)) and anoTi/xriiTts no great reliance can be placed : in Joseph. Ant. XVII. 13. 5, xvm. 1. 1, the words appear used interchangeably. See Wieseler, I. c, and Meyer in loc. This much may perhaps be said, that if it was at first only an enrolment per capita, it was one that had, and perhaps was per- fectly well known to have, a prospective reference to property. 2 Without entering at length into this vexed question, we may remark, for the benefit of the general reader, that the simple and grammatical meaning of the words, as they appear in all the best MSS. [B. alone omits v before airoypiuprj], must be this: "this taxing took place as a first one while Cyrenius was gov- ernor of Syria; " and that the difficulty is to reconcile this with the assertion of Tertullian (contr. Marc. iv. 19), that the taxing took place under Sentius Satur- ninus, and with the apparent historical fact that Quirinus did not become Presi- dent of Syria till nine or ten years afterwards. See the Cenotaphia Pisana of Cardinal Korisius, Dissert, n., and the authorities in Greswell, Dissertations, No. xiv. Vol. i. p. 466 sq. (ed. 2). There are apparently only two sound modes of explaining the apparent contradiction (I dismiss the mode of regarding TrpairTj as equivalent to irpOTtpa as forced and artificial), either by supposing, (a) that TiyefjiovevovTos is to be taken in a general and not a special sense, and to imply the duties of a commissioner extraordinary, — a view perhaps best and must ably advocated by the Abbe Sanclemente, de Vulg. JEraz. Dionys. Emend. Book iv. ch. 2, but open to the objection arising from the special and localizing term t?1S Xvpias (see Meyer, Komment. Mber Lick. p. 221); or by supposing, (b) thai, under historical circumstances imperfectly known to us, Quirinus was either de facto or de jure President of Syria exactly as St. Luke seems to specify. In Lect. II. OP OUR LORD. 07 brings the descendants of David to David's own city. Idle and mischievous doubts have sought to question the accuracy of this portion of the Evangelical history, to which we can here pause only to return the briefest answer. 1 But this I will presume to say, that I feel certain no fair and honest investigator can study the various political considerations connected with this difficult question, without ultimately coming to the conclusion, not only that the account of St. Luke is re- concilable with contemporary history, but that it is con- firmed by it, in a manner most striking and most persua- sive. When we remember that the kingdom of Herod was not yet formally converted into a Roman province, and yet was so dependent upon the imperial city 2 as to be practically amenable to all its provincial edicts, how very striking it is to find, — in the first place, that a taxing took place at a time when such a general edict can be favor of this latter supposition we have the thrice-repeated assertion of Justin Martyr (Apol. I. ch. 34, 46, Tri/pho, ch. 7S), that Quirinus teas President at the time in question, and the interesting fact recently brought to light by Zumpt, (Commentationes Epigraphies, Part n. Berl. 1844), that owing to Cilicia, when separated from Cyprus, being united to Syria, Quirinus. as governor of the first- mentioned province, was really also governor of the last-mentioned, — whether in any kind of association with Satiuninus (see Wordsw. in foe.), or otherwise, can hardly be ascertained, — and that his subsequent more special connection with Syria led his earlier, and apparently brief, connection to be thus accurately noticed. This last view, to say the least, deserves great consideration, and has. been adopted by Merivale, Hist, of Romans, Vol. iv. p. 457. The treatises and disoussions on this subject are extremely numerous. Those best deserving con- sideration are, perhaps, Greswell, Dissert. No. xiv.; Buschke, nberden vwrZe.it ti, r <,, hurt ./. s. < 'hr. //' haltt ru n < 'ensus, Bresl. 1840; Wieseler, ' Tvron. Synops. p. 73 Bq. (in these TTfiwrrj is explained away); and l'alritius, n Jeau, i>. 110. 8 The statement of Justin Martyr, who was born at gichem, about a. 1). 103. is Mix distinct: Ttvvri^iiirct% 5e tots rou iratSiov iv B>)dA.«f'/u, In-eiSI) *\wht)s KUTtAucre.— Tryph. cap. 78, Vol. ii p. 264 (ed. Otto). This ancient 70 THE BIRTH AND INFANCY Lect. II. caverns in that narrow ridge of long gray hill on which stands the city of David, 1 was the Redeemer born into a world that rejected Him, even in His mother's womb. How brief and how simple are the words that relate these homely circumstances of the Lord's Nativity. How surely do the mother's recital and the mother's stored- up memories come forth in the artless touches of detail. 2 And yet with how much of holy and solemn reserve is that first hour of a world's salvation passed over by the Evangelist. We would indeed fain inquire more into the wonders of that mysterious night; and they are not wholly withheld from us. The same Evangelist that tells us that the mid-day sun was darkened during the last hours of the Redeemer's earthly life, tells us Luke xxm. 44. also that in His first hours the night was turned into more than day, and that heavenly glories shone forth, not unwitnessed, while angels announce to shepherd-watchers 3 on the grassy slopes tradition has been repeated by Origen (Cels. I. 51), Eusebius (Demonstr. Evang. vn. 2), Jerome (Epist. ad Marcell. xxiv.), and other ancient writers, and has been generally admitted by modern writers and travellers as far from improba- ble. Comp. Stanley. Palest, p. 438. Dr. Thomson ( The Land and the Book, Vol. ii. p. 507), though admitting the ambiguity of the tradition, opposes it on reasons derived from the context of the sacred narrative, which are however far from convincing. The Virgin might easily have been removed to the ouc'ia specified in Matt. ii. 11, before the arrival of the Magi. For further details and reff. see Thilo, Codex Apocr. p. 381 sq.; Hofmaun, Leben Jesu, p. 108; and a very good article by Rev. G. Williams, in the Ecclesiologist. for 1848. 1 The reader who may have an interest in the outward aspects of these sacred localities will find a colored sketch of Bethlehem and its neighborhood in Rob- erts's Holy Land, Vol. ii. Plate 84. The illustrations, however, most strongly recommended by an Oriental traveller of some experience to the writer of this note, as giving the truest idea of the sacred localities, are those of Frith, and the excellent views of Jerusalem and its environs executed by Robertson and Beato (Gambart and Co.). 2 See above, p. 56, note 2, where this subject is briefly noticed. 3 Luke ii. 8, aypavAovvres ku\ tyvXaaaovTis (pvAaxas Tijs vvktos ; the last words defining the time and qualifying the two preceding participles. The fact here specified has been often used in the debated subject of the exact time of year at which our Lord's birth took place. But little, however, can really be derived from it, as the frequently quoted notice of the Talmudical writers (see Lightfoot on Luke ii. 8), that the herds were brought in from the fields about the beginning of November and driven out again about March, is merely general, and might include so many modifications arising from season or locality (see Lect. II. OF OUR LORD. 71 of Bethlehem the tidings of great joy, and proclaim the new-born Saviour. How mysterious are the ways of God's dealings Avith men. The Desire of all nations at length come, the Saviour born into an expectant world, and — announced to village shepherds. What a bathos, what a hopeless bathos to the unbelieving or unmeditative spirit ! How noticeable that the Apoc- ryphal writers, who spin out with the most dreary pro- lixity every other hint supplied by the sacred writers, pass over this in the fewest possible words, 1 ami as something which they could neither appreciate nor understand. And yet what a divine significance is there in the fact, that to the spiritual descendants of the first type of the Messiah, Abel the keeper of sheep, the announcement is made that the great Shepherd of the lost sheep of humanity is born Sepp, Leben Christ*, Vol. i. p. 213; Wieseler, Chrcm. Synops. p. 146), that it can- not fairly be urged as conclusive against the traditional date in December. Nay, temporary circumstances — the large afflux of strangers to Bethlehem — might have easily led to a temporary removal of the cattle into some of the milder val- leys to provide an accommodation of which at least the Holy Family were, obliged to avail themselves. Still, it must be said, the fact viewed simply does seem to incline us towards a period less rigorous than mid-winter; and when we join with Ibis chronological data which appear positively to fix the epoch as sub- Beqnent to the beginning of January (see Wieseler, ('/mm. Synops. p. 145), anil further, considerations derived from the probable sequence of events, and the times probably occupied by them, we perhaps may slightly lean to the opinion thai early in Febr. (most probably A.U.c. 750; Sulpic. Sever. His/. Soar. Book 11. oh. 39) was the time of the Nativity. The question has been discussed from a very early period. In the time of Clement of Alexandria (S/n>n>. I. 21, Vol. i. p. 407, ed. l'ott), by whom it appears to have been considered rather a matter of irtpiepyia, the traditions were anything but unanimous (sonic selecting Jan. IS, Borne Jan. 10, Others April 20, and even May 20), and it was not till the fourth century that December 25 became generally accepted as the exact date. See the useful table attached to the valuable dissertation of l'atritius, (In Kenny. Book m. 111. p. 276. Out of the many treatises and discussions that have been written mi this subject, the following may be specified: Iltig. . 197 sq. 8 '• Why was it that the Angel went not to Jerusalem, sought not out the Scribes and Pharisees, entered not into the synagogues of the Jews, but found shepherds and preached the gospel to them? Because the former were corrupt and ready to be cut to the heart with envy; while these latter were uncorrupt, affecting the old way of living of the patriarchs, and also of Moses, for these men were shepherds." — Origen ap. Cramer, Caten. Vol. i. p. 20. Com- pare, too, Theophylact in loc. For some further practical considerations, see Bp. Taylor, Life of Christ, Part I. ad Sect 4, Vol. i. p. 45 sq. (Lond. 1836). 4 The first preachers, as Cyril rightly observes (Comment, on Luke, Serm. II. Vol. i. p. 18, Trans]., Oxf. 1859), were angels, — a distinction faintly hinted at by the very terms of the original: ws b.irr)\Stov air auirwu els rbv ovpavhv ol &yy€- Aoi, Kal ol av& p ww o t ol iroi/xeves ihov k. t. A. Here it need scarcely be said we have no more idle periphrasis (" homo pastor," Drus.), but an opposi- tion to the preceding term &yye\oi. See Meyer in loc. Lect. II. OF OUR LORD. 73 of wrought on the hearts of those who heard them, we are not enabled to say. The holy reserve of " " The circumcision the Virgin mother, who kept all these say- and presentation in , °. , .,i ,1 the Temple. ings 1 and pondered them in her heart, would Luke a ir lead us to believe that at any rate the his- » , , . Vtr. 10. tory or the miraculous conception was not generally divulged ; and that the Lord's earthly parents spake not beyond the small circle of those immediately around them. The circumcision, from the Luke ii. 21. brief notice ot the Evangelist, would cer- tainly seem to have taken place with all circumstances of privacy and solitude, — in apparent contrast to that of the Forerunner, which appears to have been with gatherings and rejoicings, 2 and was marked by marvels that were soon noised abroad throughout all the hill Luke i.65. country of Judiea. .Nay, even at the presen- tation in the Temple, more than a month afterwards, 3 the Evangelist's remark, that Joseph and Mary ,, -i \ i n Lukeii.33. marvelled at fenneon s prophecy, would seem distinctly to show that no circumstances from without had as yet proved sufficient to prepare them for the mysterious welcome which awaited the infant Saviour in His Father's temple. 1 The expression to. p'ruj.ara. ravra (Luke ii. 19) is rightly referred by most modern commentators, not to the circumstances generally (ret Trpa.yjxa.ra -ravra, Theoph.), hut to the things mentioned by the shepherds; so rightly Euthym. in loc. — ftk Ttapa rwv iroiixtvccv \a\r]&4vTa. On the reasonableness of this reserve, Bee Mill, on Pantheistic Prino. n. 1. 2, p. 212. '!■ Even if we limit, as perhaps is most grammatically exrnct, the subject of i)Xhov (Luke i. 09) to those who were to perform the rite of circumcision, the context would certainly seem to show that many were present. 8 The exact time in the case of a male child (in the case of a female it was double) was forty days, during seven of which the mother was to be accounted andean; during the remaining thirty-three days she was "to continue iii the blood of her purifying; " she was " to touch no hallowed thing, nor come into the sanctuary, until the days of her purifying be fulfilled." Lev. xii. 4. For further information see Bilchaelis, Law of Moses, $ 192, B&hr, Symbolik, Vol. ii. p. 48", Winer, mill. Ait. " Beinigkeit," Vol. ii. p. 310 sq.; and for a sound sermon on the subject, Prank, Si tot. xxii. Vol. i. p. 310(A.-C. Libr.), and esp. Hill, inir. Serm. .\.\i. p. 400. The indication of the comparative poverty of (he holy Family supplied by the notice of their offering (Luke ii. 24, Lev. xii. 8) has often been observed by modern, but seldom by ancient, expositors. 7 74 THE BIRTII AND INFANCY Lect. II. But what a welcome that was, and how seemingly at variance with all outward circumstances. Luke ii. 2a. m-ii -i i -i • • -\ cr The devout, and let us add, inspired Simeon, 1 whose steps had been led that day to the Temple by the Holy Spirit, 2 saw perchance before him no more than two unnoted worshippers. 3 But it was enough. When the eyes of the aged waiter for the consolation Ver. 25. of Israel saw the Holy Child, he saw all. There in helpless infancy and clad in mortal flesh was the Lord's Christ, — there was the fulfilment of Ver. 26. . . all his mystic revelations, the granted issue of all his longings and all his prayers. 4 Can we marvel that his whole soul was stirred to its depths, Luke ii. 28. ... that he took the Holy Child in his arms, and poured forth, in the full spirit of prophecy, 5 that swan-song 1 The history of this highly favored man is completely unknown. Some recent attempts (Michaelis, al.) have been made to identify him with Rabban Simeon, the son of llillel, and father of Gamaliel, who was afterwards president of the Sanhedrin (Lightfoot, Hor. Hebr. in loc; Otho, Lex. Rabbin, s. v. "Sim- eon," p. 605): such an identification, however, has nothing in its favor, except the name, — a sufficiently common one, and this against it, that Kabban Simeon could not have been as old as the Simeon of St. Luke is apparently represented to be. For some notices of Rabban Simeon, see Sepp, Leben Christi, ch. xvn. Vol. ii. p. 52 sq. 2 This seems implied in the words ^AiS-ej/ ev t<£ Tlvzvixan els to Up6u, Luke ii. 27, — the preposition with its case marking the influence in which and under which he was acting, "impulsu Spiritus " (Meyer, on Matt. xxii. 43), and though not perfectly identical with, yet approximating in force to, the instrumental dative; t<5 Tlvev/xari tu> ayiw Kifrj^ety, Euthyni. in loc. So, too, Origen, even more explicitly, — "Spiritus sanctus eum duxit in teniplum." — In Luc. Horn, xv. Vol. iii. p. 949 (ed. Bened.). 3 One of the apocryphal writers lias represented the scene very differently, and in suggestive contrast to the chaste dignity of the inspired narrative: "Turn videt ilium Simeon senex instar columns; lucis fulgentem, cum domina Maria Virgo mater ejus do co lastabunda ulnis suis earn gestaret : circumdabant autem eum angeli instar circuli celebrautes, tanquam satellites regi adstantes." — Evang. Infant. Arab. cap. VI. p. 173 (ed. Tisch.). The Pseudo-Matt. Ecang. keeps more closely to the inspired narralive. See cap. xv. p. 78. 4 For an essay on the character of this faithful watcher, see E> ans, Script. Biogr. Vol. i. p. 326; and for some good comments on his inspired canticle, Patritius, dc Ecang. Dissert, xxvi. Part III. p. 304. In the early Church Sim- eon appears to have been designated by the title, & StoSoxos, in memory of the blessing accorded to him. Oonip. Menolog. Grac. Feb. 3, and the oration of Timoth. Ilieros. in the Bibl. Mar. Patrum, Vol. v. p. 1214. 5 Tlpotp7]7 lk(i x^P lTl t tT i^-qixivos , Cyril Alex. ap. Cramer, Catcn. Vol. ii. p. 23, LEOT. n. OP OUR LORD. 75 of the seer of the Old Covenant, to which our Church so justly and so lovingly assigns a place in its daily service? Can we marvel that with the Holy Child still in his arms 1 lie blessed the wondering parents, though the spirit of prophecy that was upon him mingled with that blessing words that must have sunk deep into the heart of the Vir- gin,- words often pondered over, yet perchance then only fully umlerstood, in all the mystic bitterness of their truth, when, not a thousand paces from Avhere she then was standing, the nails tore the hands that she had but then been holding, and the spear pierced the side she had but then been pressing to her bosom? and 5erm. XV. Vol. i.) p. 25 (Transl.). On the character of this and the other inspired canticles in this part of the Scripture, see the good remarks of Mill, on Pantht istic 'Principles, Part n. 1. 3, p. 43 sq. 1 Though we cannot, with Meyer and others, safely press the meaning of the verh K-6?rai as implying '-qui in nlnis meis jaect" (lieng.), it would yet seem highly probable from the context that this blessing was pronounced by the aged Simeon while still bearing his Saviour in his arms. For a good practical ser- mon on Simeon's thus receiving our Lord, see Frank, Scrm. xxm. Vol. i. p. 360 Bq. (A.-C. Libr.), and compare llackct, Scrm. x. p. 88 si). (Loud. 1075). l' The prophetic address of Simeon, which it may be observed is directed specially to the Virgin {Kal dree irpbs Mapiap. rrjv \vt\ripa. avrov, Luke ii. 34), has two separate references, the one general, to the Jewish nation, and the opposed spiritual attitudes into which the Gospel of Christ would respectively bring those who believed and those who rejected (muffiv /ueV, tSiv fxr) ttktt 61/oVt cof , avaoracriv 8e, ruv TricrTtv6i'Ta>v, Theophylact) ; the other special; to the Virgin personally (>cal gov 8e avrTjs k. r. A., ver. 35), and to the bitterness of agony with which she should hereafter behold the sufferings of her divine .Son. So lightly Enthymius: l>on6i*acre ti]v TyUTjTntairaT-nc taxi o^uav bSvvqv, ifTis oirjAde t^v KapSlav TTJS &eo/x7]Topos, ore 6 vlbs avrr/s TrpucTrjAai^r) r<3 aravpy. Compare also a good comment in Cramer, Caten. Vol. ii. p. 24. and Mill, Univ. Serm. XXI. p. 415. The only remaining exegetieal difficulty is the connection of the final clause, ottoos hf k. t. A. (ver. 35). According to the ordinary punctuation, this would be dependent on ver. 34, the first clause of ver. 85 being enclosed in a parenthesis; according, however, to the best modern interpreters, it is regarded as simply dependent on what precedes: the mystery, that the heart of the earthly mother was to be riven with agony at the Bufferings Of her divine Son, involved as its end and object the bringing out of the true Characters and thoughts of men, and making it clear and manifest — ris fief 6 ayairwi/ a : ntU>, Ka) /xfXP 1 Sai'drov ttjv (Is avrhv a.y6.iri]v iv^(^KVv|J.fvos• Ti's 5e 5ofxo\oy. 0eaS intersit." — De Verb. c. Prcep. Fasc. in. p. 20, — a treatise unfortunately never completed. 3 The special mention of the father and tribe of Anna was perhaps designed to give to the narrative a still further stamp of historical truth. Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, might have been a name still remembered by many: iirifxivei 6 tvayy^KiVT-qs rij irepl ttjs "Awr)S a(pyiyiiuAiV KaraXeyccf, "fa /j.d&cv/j.ei' orj a\r)drj \eyai, papTvpas waavel iroWovs ■7rpo(TKa\oviAei>os. Theoph. in loo. 4 Anna's preaohing was not general, but rots irpoff^exofxevois \vrpeofftv fv 'ItpovaaXriix, ver. 38. The local addition iv 'lepovcr. appears to belong specially to the participle rails Trpo(x8£X M € ' I ' 0,s> See Meyer *'it he. Leot.il of our lord. 77 born King. The feet of strange pilgrims and worshippers were even now on the mountains of the Promised Land. It would seem from the narrative that Joseph and Mary- had returned but a i'aw days l to their tem- porary abode at Bethlehem, 2 when sap;es, 7 ]' e •''■"' /""' /"'- l J ' o ' oration oj the Mayi. bearing the already almost generic name of Magi, arrive from some Eastern lands not specified by the Evangelist, but probably remote as the Arabia which one ancient tradition, 3 or the Persia which another ancient tradition, 4 has fixed upon as their home. Witnesses were 1 According to one MS. of the Pseudo-Matt. Evangelium (cap. xvi. p. 79, ed. Tisch.), two days afterwards; according to the text adopted by Teschendorf, the completely improbable period of two years. See Wieseler, Chron. Synops. I. 2, p. 59, note, who, however, himself (see below, p. 73, note 1) seems to press too strongly the with Stfrovs Ka\ Karuntpu, Matt. ii. 16. The Protev. Jacobi (cap. xxi.) makes the visit of the Magi to have been made to the Holy Family while yet in the cave, a statement distinctly at variance with Matt. ii. 11, «A&&ei/Ta acTTffia iu rfj a.varo\rj k olivov elvai i>o/u.i£ofAev ical /j. -n 5 e v \ t oiv avvh&oov it ap a.-K \y\ a to v ovre toiv iv rfj airAavel ovre tG>v < v reus KaTWTipu u eiSov iv t fj avcvrohfi. and still more the unusual strength of the expression which describes their joy at again beholding the star, — e'x«P r )°' a " x a P°- v fJ-fjdh-y crcpoSpa (ver. 10), — seem strongly in favor of the latter view. So Spanheim, Dub. Evang. xxix. Part ii. p. 320, Jackson, Creed, Book vn. Vol. vi. p. 201, and Mill, Obser- vations, II. 2. 3, p. 3G9. 2 The recent revival of the older anti-christian view, that the prophecy of Micah (oh. v. 2) cited, by the Evangelist, either refers to Zorobabel (a view unhappily maintained by Theodoras of Mopsuestia), or, if referring to the Mes- siah, only alludes to His descent from David, whose seat Bethlehem was, has been ably and completely disposed of by Mill, Observations, n. 2. 3, pp. 391 — 402. On this and other supposed difficulties connected with this prophecy, see Spanheim, Bub. Evang. xli.-xlvi. Part II. p. 406; Patritius, de Evang. Dis- sert, xxx. Part in. p. 368 sq. 3 According to the statements of Anquotil dn Perron, in his Life of Zoroaster, prefixed to his edition of the Zend-Avesta (Vol. i. 2, p. 46), Sosiosh was the last of the three posthumous sons of Zoroaster, and was to raise and judge the dead and renovate the earth. See lescbts Sades, xxvm., " Lorsque Sosiosch paroitra.il ilia du bien au monde entier existaut" (Vol. ii. p. 278); Boundehesch, xxxi., " Sosiosch fera revivre les morts" (Vol. ii. p. 411); and similarly, ib. xi. (Vol. ii. p. 3IJ4); ib. xxxin. (Vol. ii. p. 420). Whatever may be the faults or inaccuracies of Du Pen on's translation (many of which have been noticed in Burnof's Com- mentaire stir le Yarna, Paris 1S33), it can at any rate now no longer be doubted that Zend has its proper place among the primitive languages of the Indo-Ger- manic family (see Rask's Essay, translated by Von dor Hagen, Berl. 182(i), and that the Avesta must have existed in writing previously to the time of Alexan- der. See Donaldson, New Cratylus, § 80, p. 144 sq. (ed. 3> Lect. II. OF OUR LORD. 83 turned to their distant home by a way by which they came not. No sooner had they departed, than the heavenly warn- ing is sent to Joseph 1 to flee on that very night- into xLigypt from the coming wrath oi a,„i murder of the Herod. And that wrath did not long linger. ° & IVr. 13. When the savage king found that his strange messengers had deceived him, with the broad margin that a reckless ferocity left a matter of no moment, he slays every male child in Bethlehem, whose age could in any way have accorded with the rough date which the first appear- ance of the star had been judged to supply. 3 On this fiendish act we need dwell no fur- , The , " k ' ,cc of Josepnus. ther, save to protest against the inferences that have been drawn from the silence of a contempo- rary historian. 4 "What, we may fairly ask, was such an 1 Again, it will be observed, consistently with tbo notice of the preceding divine communication vouchsafed to Joseph (Mutt. i. 20), — by an angelic visita- tion in :i ilr, mil. Sec again ver 20, and compare the remarks made above, p. 1.5, iiolc 1. Some curious remarks on the nature of angelic visitations in dreams will be (bund in the learned work of Bynaeus, de Natali Jes. Chr. i. 2. 14, p. 210. - Probably on the same night that the Magi arrived; for there seems every reason againsl the view of a commentator in Cramer (Catrn. Vol. i. p. 14), that the star led th. in iv ri/J-epa fxetrp. At any rate the Holy Family appear to have departed by night: the words, iyepdeh irapdhafie, seem to enjoin all prompti- tude, — "surge accipe," Syr. 8 See above, p. 7'J, note 1. As Ilerod made his savage edict inclusive as regards locality (iv BTj^Aee/i /col iv -Kaatv tois opiois avT?is, ver. 16), so did he also in reference to time: he killed all the children of two \ ears and under (airb Sictovs, Bcil. iccuios, not. xp^vov, as apparently Vulg., "a bimatu"), to make sure that he included therein the Divine Infant of Bethlehem; tovs ixkv Sie-reTs avaipu, %va ex 7 ? TAaros 6 xp& vos - Euthym. on Matt. ii. lo, i>. si (ed. Matth.-vi). < It seems doubtful whether we need go so far as to say, with Dr. Mill (Ob.<v ■wpocp-Q'ruiv ought to prepare us to expect, what we find to be the case, that this is no citation from any particular prophet, but expresses the declarations of several : " pluraliter prophetas vocando, Mat- thaeusostendit non verba de Scriptuns a se sumpta sed sensum." —Jerome in Inc. We seem justified then in assigning to the word Nafapaios all the meanings legitimately belonging to it, by derivation or otherwise, which are concurrent with the declarations of the prophets in reference to our Lord. We may there- fore, both with the early Hebrew Christians (see Jerome) and apparently the whole Western Church, trace this prophetic declaration, (a) principally and pri- marily, in all the passages which refer to the Messiah under the title of the Branch ("".3.) of the root of Jesse (Isaiah xi. 1; compare Jerem. xxiii. 5, xxxiii. 15; Zech. vi. 11); (6) in the references to the circumstances of lowliness and obscurity under which that growth was to take place (comp. Isaiah liii. 2); and perhaps further (c) in the prophetic notices of a contempt and rejection (Isaiah liii. 3), such as seems to have been the common and, as it would seem in many respects, deserved portion of the inhabitant of rude and ill-reputed Naza- reth. See above, p. 57, note 2, and for further information and illustrations, Spanheim, JJub. Erang. xc. — xcn. Part II. p. 598 sq., Deyling, Obs. Sacr. XL. Vol. i. p. 176, l'atritius, de Evang. Dissert, xxxvu. Part III. p. 406, Mill, Observations, n. 8. 1, p. 422 sq. Lect. II. OF OUR LORD. 87 I must now at once bring this lecture to a close, yet not without two or three sentences of earnest exhortation to you, brethren, who form the younger portion of this audience. If there be ought in these hasty outlines of contested por- tions of Evangelical history that has arrested your attention, and deepened your convic- tions, I will pray to God that it may yet work more and more in your hearts, and lead you to feel that there is indeed a quick and living truth in every sentence of the blessed Gospel, and that they who read with a loving and reverential spirit shall find it in its fullest measures. O, pray fervently against the first motions of a spirit of doubt- ing and questioning. By those prayers which you learned at a mother's knees, by that holy history which, perchance, you first heard from a mother's lips, give not up the first child-like faith of earlier and it may be purer days, — that simple, heroic faith, which such men as Xiebuhr 1 and Nean- der 2 knew how to appreciate and to glorify, even while they felt its fullest measures could never be their own. Remember that when faith grows cold love soon passes away, and hope soon follows it ; and, O, believe me, that the world cannot exhibit a spectacle more utterly mourn- l It must be regarded as very striking, that the great historian who could express himself with such strength and even bitterness of language against much that, however exaggerated it may have been in the ease in question, was really fundamentally sound in pietism (see Letter cci.xsx.), could yet feel it right to educate his son in a way that must have led to the deepest reverence for the very fetter of the inspired records. These are Niebuhr's own words: "He [his sun] shall believe in the letter of the Old and >"e\v Testaments, and I shall nurture in him, from his Infancy, a firm faith in all that I have lost, or feel uncertain about." — Life and Letters, Vol. ii. p. 101 (Transl. 1852). - After smile comments on extreme views as to what is termed, not perhaps \' i - correctly, "the <. 20, note 5. 8* 90 THE EARLY JUDJGAN MINISTRY. Lect. III. youth. Both periods, that preceding and that succeeding this epoch, are described in two short verses, Luke ii. 40 and 52. L closely similiar in expression, and tending alike to show that the outward and earthly development of our Redeemer was in strict accordance with those laws by which those He came to save pass from childhood into youth, and from youth into mature age. 1 In regard of the first period, that of the childhood, one short clause is graciously added to warn us Tlie brief notice . of our Lord's chad- from unlicensed musings upon the influences of outward things upon the Holy Child, 2 — Luke a.m. one clause only, but enough, — "and the grace of God was upon Him." In regard of the second period, that of the Lord's youth and early manhood, one event at its commencement, which shows us how that grace unfolded itself in heavenly wis- 1 It is well said by Cyril of Alexandria : " Examine, I pray you, closely the profoundness of the dispensation ; the Word endures to be born in human fashion, although in His divine nature He has no beginning, nor is subject to time. He, who as God is all-perfect, submits to bodily growth: the Incorporeal has limbs that advance to the ripeness of manhood. . . . The wise Evangelist did not introduce the Word in His abstract and incorporate nature, and so say of Him that He increased in stature and wisdom and grace, but, after having shown that He was born in the flesh of a woman, and took our likeness, he then assigns to Him these human attributes, and calls Him a child, and says that he waxed in stature, as His body grew little by little, in obedience to corporeal laws." — Comment, en Luke, Part I. p. 29, SO (Transl.). So, too, Origen: " Et crescebat, inquit, humiliaverat enim se, formam servi accipieus, et eadem virtute qua se humiliaverat, crescit." — In Luc. Horn. xix. Vol. hi. p. 953 (ed. Bened.). 2 On this subject see more below, p. 99 sq. Meanwhile, we may justly record our protest against the way in which a most serious and profound question is now usually discussed, and the repulsive freedom which many modern writers, not only in Germany, but even in this country, permit themselves to assume when alluding to the mental development of the Holy Child. See, for example, the highly objectionable remarks of Hase (Leben Jesu, § 31, p. 56), in which this writer plainly tells us at the outset that "the spiritual development of Jesus depended on fortunate gifts of nature" (glucklichen Naturgaben); and that these, though enhanced by the purposes and circumstances of His after-life, still never went beyond the culture of the time and country, and never " transcended the limits of humanity." Compare, too, Von Amnion, Leben Jesu, i. 10, Vol. i. p. 236, where the highly questionable views of Theodorus of Mopsuestia find a ready defender; and for an example from writers of our country of eloquent and attractive but still painfully humanitarian comments on this mysterious subject, see Kobeitson, Sermons, Vol. ii. p. 196. Lkct. III. THE EARLY JUDJEAN MINISTRY. 91 dom, 1 is made fully known to us, — one event, but one only, to which one short verse, that of our • . . Equally brief no- text, is added, to teach us how that wisdom ucc o/ our Lord's waxed momently more full, more deep, more broad, until, like some mighty river seeking the sea, it merged insensihiy into the omniscience of Luke ii. 52. His limitless Godhead. 2 One further touch completes the divine picture, — " in favour with God and 1 On this subject the following arc the sentiments of Gregory of Nazianzus: " lie was making advance, as in stature so also in wisdom and grace. Not by those qualities receiving increase, — for what can be more perfect than that which is so from the very beginning? — but by their being disclosed and revealed by little and little."— Orat. xx. p. 343 (Paris, 1609). It may, however, be justly doubted whether these statements, — especially the negative assertion, — though confessedly in close accordance with some expressions of Athanasiue (TrpuK6ir- tovtos too (rw/xaros TTpofKOirrev iv avrai kcu T) ais rys deorrjTos to?s bpwcriv. Ado. Arian. in. 29. 14), and other orthodox writers, are not unduly restricted, and whether the words of the inspired Evangelist do not clearly imply (to use the language of Waterland) that our Lord's increase in wisdom is to be understood in a sense as " literal, as His increasing in stature is literal" [Script, and Avians Compeared, Vol. iii. p. 298). While then with these catholic writers we may certainly acknowledge a gradual and progressive disclosure of the Lord's divine wisdom, we must certainly, with other equally catholic writers, recognize a regular development and increase in the wisdom and grace of the reasonable soul, i.e., — to speak with psychological accuracy, of the tyvxh and vovs; the true and complete statement being, — "Christum secundum sapien- tiam divinam, hoc est earn, quae ei competit tanquam L>eo, non profecisse: secundum sapientiam autem humanam, hoc est earn, qua? ei ut homini competit, yere profecisse, hominis quidem more, sed tamen supra modum humanum." — Suicer, Thes. Vol. ii.p. 209 (appy. from Bernh. de Consid. Book n.). In a word, then, as Cyril of Alexandria (in loc.) briefly says, " the body advances in stature and the [reasonable] soul in wisdom.'' See Ambrose, de Iiicarn. cap. 72 sq. Vol. ii. 1, p. 887 (ed. Migne), Kpiphanius, Beer, lxxvii. 26, Vol. i. p. 1019 (Paris, 1G22), and the good note of the Oxford Translator (J. H.Newman) of Athanasius, Select Treatises, Disc. in. Tart n. p. 474(Libr. of Fathers). 2 This simile, though merely intended to illustrate generally a profound mys- tery, and not to be pressed with dogmatic exactness, is still, as it would seem, substantially correct. The fact of the present verse (Luke ii. 52) being one of those urged by the heretical sect of the Agnoetse, as tending to show limitations even in our Lord's divine nature, was not improbably the cause of its having received some interpretations (see above) so rigid, as to favor by inference the Apollinarian statement that the Word itself was in the place of roTs (Pearson, Oreed, Vol. il. p. 122, ed. Burton). The whole subject, and a scholastic discus- sion, "de Christi scientia el nesoientia et profectu secundum humanrtatem," will be found in Forbes, Instruct. Bist.-Theol. Book in. ch. 19, 20. See Petav. Dogm. Theol. {de Incarn. xi. 2) Vol. \i. p. C9, Suicer, Thesaur. s. v. Ao'-yos, Vol. ii. p. 268, and the sensible remarks of Boyse on our Lord's omniscience, )'iudic. of our Saviour's Deity, Vol. ii. p. 23 sq. (Loud. 1728). 92 THE EARLY JUDiEAN MINISTRY. Lect. HI. man," perchance designed to hint to ns that the out- ward form corresponded to the inner development, that the fulness of heavenly wisdom dwelt in a shrine of out- ward perfection and beauty, 1 and that the ancient tradi- tion, 2 which assigned no form or comeliness to "the fairest 1 Upon this point, it need scarcely be said, nothing certain can be adduced. From the Gospels we seem to be able to infer that our Lord's outward form, on one occasion at least, sensibly struck the beholders with a feeling of the majesty and dignity of Him who condescended to wear the garments of our mortality. Compare John xviii. 6. Perhaps, however, we may go so far as to say, that there was still nothing that merely outwardly marked the Redeemer of the world as strikingly different from the general aspect of the men of his own time and country, otherwise it would seem strange that the Apostles who beheld him by the lake of Gennesareth, and to whom He was near enough to be easily heard (John xxi. 4 sq.), did not instantly recognize who it was. The similar failure of recognition in the case of the two disciples going to Emmaus (Luke xxiv. 13 sq.) can perhaps hardly be urged, owing to the Evangelist's own remark (ver. 1G), and the further illustrative comment of St. Mark (ev erepa fxopcpfj, ch. xvi. 12). This, perhaps, is all that can safely be urged. The more dis- tinct descriptions of our Lord's appearance, especially those in the Epistle of Lentulus (see Fabricius, Codex Apocr. N. T. Vol. i. p. 301 sq.), and the very simi- lar one of Epiphanius Monachus(p. 29, ed. Dressel, — and cited by Winer, P.WB. Art. "Jesus," Vol. i. p. 576, after a better text supplied to him by Tischendorf), appear clearly to be due to the imagination and conceptions of the writers. The statue of our Lord said by Eusebius (//«£. Eccl. VII. 18) to have been erected at Caesarea Philippi by the woman with the issue of blood (Matt. ix. 20), might per- haps be urged as showing that our Lord's appearance was not unknown to the early Church, if it did not appear probable from historical considerations that the statue in question really never represented our Lord, and was never erected under the alleged circumstances. See the " Excursus " of Heinichen, in his edi- tion of Eusebius, //. E., Vol. iii. p. 396 sq. The student who is anxious to pursue further this interesting but not very profitable subject, will find abundant notices in Winer, RWB. Vol. i. p. 576, and especially in Hase, LebenJesu, § 34, p. 62 sq. (ed. 3), Hofmann, Leben Jesu, § 67, p. 292 sq. ; and may consult the special work of Keiske. de Imar/inibus Christi (Jen. 1685). Some curious remarks of Origen in reference to a supposed diversity in our Lord's appearance to different persons, will be found in the Latin translation of that great writer's commentaries on Mutt. § 100, Vol. iii. p. 906 (ed. Bened.). Comp. Norton, Genuineness of Gospels, Vol. ii. p. 274 (ed. 2). 2 See Justin Martyr, Tryplio, cap. 14, Vol. ii. p. 52 (ed. Otto): Toov re \6yoiv TOVToiv Ka\ TOtovToov, elpy];xevo}V vnb rwv irpocpijTcoi', theyov Co Tpv(puiv, oi fief etp-nvrai eis t)-\v ivpwTriu ■Kapova'iav -rod Xptarov, iv fi iavnaTovpyai> ■Jjj/ ^av/xaarbs fxovov, aWa teal i st antes," "Uegillah," fol. 21. 1), is apparently untenable (see Vitringa, de Synag. Vol. i. p. 167), and not to be pressed In the present passage. The words Kadft/Sjufeoi' if fxicrw rwu StSaffKaKccf seem, however, to bear out the view adopted In the text, and are bo interpreted bj l>e Weite in /<«•. iThis is the patristic and, as it would seem, correct statement of the exact 96 THE EARLY JUD^AN MINISTRY. Lect. III. tell us that His parents when they saw Him " were amazed;" no wonder that even the holy Luke ii. 48. mother when she gazed on that august as- semblage, when she saw, as she perchance might have seen, 1 the now aged Hillel the looser, and Shammai the binder, 2 and the wise sons of Betirah, and Rabban Simeon, Hillel's son, and Jonathan the paraphrast, the greatest of his pupils, — when she saw these, and such as these, all hanging on the questions of the Divine Child, no wonder that she forgot all in the strange and unlooked-for circumstances in which she found Him she had so sorrowinedy sought Zufceii.49. »ii i ■ for. All the mother speaks out in her half- reproachful address, 3 all the consciously incarnate Son in relation in which the Holy Child now stood to those around Him: " Quia par- vulus erat, invenitur in medio non eos doccns, sed interrogans et hoc pro a: tat is ollicio, ut nos doceret, quid pueris, quamvis sapientes ct eruditi sint, couveniret, ut audiant potius magistros, quam docere desiderent, et se varia ostentatione non jactent. Interrogabat inquam magistros, non ut aliquid disceret, sed ut interrogans eruiliret." — Origen, in Luc. Horn. xix. Vol. iii. p. 955 (ed. Bcned.). "Those very questions," says Bp. Hall, were "instructions, and meant to teach." Conti »)/>/■ ii. 1. The view taken by Bp. Taylor (Life of Christ, i. 7), that the present exhibition of learning was little short of miraculous, seems far less nat- ural, and less consonant with the tenor of the sacred text. l The names mentioned in the text belong to men who are known to have been alive at the time, and who occupied conspicuous places among the circle of Jewish Doctors. For further information respecting those here specilied, see Sepp, Leben Christi, 1. 17, Vol. ii. p. 47 sq., and the notices of Petrus Galatinus, de Arean. Cath. Ver. cap. 2. 3, p. 5 sq. (Francof. 1G02). There may be some doubt about Hillel being still alive; but if our assumed date of this event (a.u.c. 7(32) is correct, and the dates supplied by Sepp (loc. tit.) are to be relied on, we seem justified in believing that that venerable teacher was one of those thus preeminently Messed. * " .shammai ligat, Hillel solvit." Comp. Lightfoot, in Matt. xvi. 19, p. 378. For an account of the general principles of teaching respectively adopted by these celebrated men and their followers, see Jost, Gesch. des Judenth. II. 3. 13, Vol. i. p. 257 sq. •" The prominence which the Virgin-mother gives to the relation she bore to the Holy One (hat vouchsafed to be born of her can hardly be accidental,— tskvov ti iTToi-qaas TifiTu ouTws, ver. 48. The emphatic position ot the Trphs abrov might also almost lead us so far to agree with Bp. Hall ("it is like that she reserved this question till she had Him alone." Contempt, h. 1) aa to think that it was addressed to the Divine Child in tones that might not have been heard, or intended to have been heard, by those around. All the patristic exposi- tors comment on the use of the term oi yovtls avrov, and o iraTTjp aov in refer- ence to Joseph, and none perhaps with more point than Origen : " Nee miremur parentes vocatos, quorum altera ob partum, alter ob obsequium, patris et niatris Lect. in. THE EARLY JTJD.EAN MINISTRY. 97 the mysterious simplicity of the answer, that reminds the earthly mother that it was in the courts of His heavenly Father's house 1 that the Son must needs be found, that His true home was in the temple of Him whose glories still lingered round the heights of Moriah. And yet with what simple pathos is it noticed by the Evangelist that " He went down, and came to Nazareth, Ver. 51. Mnd was subject to them." As that Holy One left the glories of heaven to tabernacle with men, so now in retrospective shadow and similitude he leaves the blessedness of His Father's temple for the humble home of earthly parents, and remains with them as the loving and submissive son, the sharer, perhaps, in His reputed father's earthly labors, 2 the consoler, and perchance sup- porter, of the Avidowed Virgin after the righteous son of Jacob, who henceforth appears no more in the history, had been called away to his rest. 3 meruerunt vocabula." — In Luc. Horn. xix. Vol. iii. p. 955 (ed. Bened.). So Augustine, though with a further and deeper reference: "Propter quoddam cum ejus matre sanctum et virginale conjugium, etiam ispse [Joseph] parens Christi meruit appellari." — Contr. Faust. Manich. in. 2, Vol. iii. p. 214 (ed. Migne). l The exact meaning of the words if ro7s rov irarpSs fiov has been differently estimated. Common usage (see exx. in Lobeck, Phrynicus, p. 100), and still more the idea of locality, which would seem naturally involved in an answer to the preceding notice of the search that had been made, may incline us to the gloss of Euthymius, — iv rcS oIkc? tov -Karp6s /xov. So also the l'cshito-Syriac and Armenian versions; the Vulgate, Coptic, and Gotliic are equally indeter- minate with the original. '2 This statement is perhaps partially supported by Mark vi. 3, oi>x our6s tariv 6 TfKTaiv, — a reading which, even in spite of the assertion of Origen in reply to Celsus, that our Lord is never described in the four Gospels as a carpenter ( ( hnlr. ( 'els. vi. 86), must certainly be retained. See Tischendorf, in loc. AVhen we add to this the old tradition preserved by Justin Martyr {Trypho, cap. 88), that our Lord made "ploughs, yokes, and other implements pertaining to hus- bandry," we seem fully warranted in believing that our Redeemer vouchsafed to set to us this further example of humility and dutiful love. The silly legends of the apocryphal gospels hardly deserve to lie noticed. See, however, Evang. Thorn, cap. 11, Evang. Inf. Arab. cap. 88, 89. 8 See above, p. 86, not" '_'. According to a simple comparison of two passages in the apocryphal EUtoria ■!<>*< phi (cap. 11. 16), this took place in the eighteenth year oi' our Lord. Opon such authority, however, no further reliance can be placed than, perhaps, as the expression of a belief in the early Church that Joseph did not, as Ambrose seems distinctly to imply (de Ins tit. Virg. cap, 7, 9 ErivoJous nature cied it can detect inconsistencies and incon- gruities. 1 And yet what is there so strange, 98 THE EARLY JUD^AN MINISTRY. Lect. III. And this is the narrative, this narrative so simple and so true, in which modern scepticism has fan- of the objections urged aga narrative. what so inconceivable ? Does the age of the Holy Child seem to preclude the possibility of such contact with the Masters of Israel, when the historian Josephus, as he himself tells us, 2 was actually consulted by the high priests and the principal men of the city at an age but little more advanced than that of the youthful Saviour? Are we to admit such precocity in the case of the son of Matthias and deny it in that of the Son of God ? Or, again, is the assumed neglect of the parents to be urged against the credibility of the narrative, 3 when we know so utterly nothing of the arrangement of these travelling companies, or of the bands and groupings into which, on such solemn occasions as the present, custom might have divided the returning worshippers? But I will not pause on such shallow and hapless scepticism ; I will not do such dishonor to the audience before which I stand as to assume that it is necessary for me to make formal replies to such Vol. ii. 1, p. 318, ed. Migne), survive our Lord, or even the times of His public ministry. 1 For some notices of these objections, see Ebrard, Kritik der Evang. Gesch. § 50, p. 247. 2 "Moreover, when I was a child," says the historian, "and about fourteen years of age, I was commended by all for the love I had to learning; on which account the high priests and principal men of the city came then frequently to me together, iu order to know my opinion about the accurate understanding of points of the law." — Life, ch. 2, Vol. I. p. 2 (Winston's transl.). Such a state- ment would seem inconceivable, if it were not remembered that so much, espe- cially of interpretation of the law, turned on opinion and modes of reasoning, rather than on accumulations of actual learning. See especially Wotton, Dis- courses, ch. iv. Vol. i. p. 24 sq. 3 Much has been said by a certain class of writers about the want of proper care for the Holy Child previously evinced by Joseph and Mary. Such remarks are as untenable as they are clearly designed to be mischievous. Even Hase remarks that the Lord's staying behind in Jerusalem is perfectly conceivable without attributing any carelessness to His parents. Lcben Jesu, § 30, p. 55. Comp. Tholuck, Olnubicnrd, p. 214 sq. Bede (in loc. Vol. iii. p. 349, ed. Migne) suggests that the women and men returned in different bands, and that Joseph and Mary each thought that the Holy Child was with the other. This, however, seems " argutius quain verius dictum." Lkct. III. THE EARLY JUDiEAX MINISTRY. 99 unmerited cavillings. I will only presume to make this one mournful comment, — that if a narrative like the present, so full as it is of life-like touches, so exquisitely natural in its details, and so strangely contrasted with the silly fictions of the Apocryphal Infancies, 1 — if such a narrative as this is to be regarded as legendary or myth- ical, then we may indeed shudderingly recognize what is meant by the " evil heart of unbelief" what Jleb. Hi. 12. it is to have that mind that will excogitate doubts where the very instinctive feelings repudiate them, and will disbelieve where disbelief becomes plainly mon- strous and revolting. And now eighteen years of the Redeemer's earthly life pass silently away; 2 a deep veil falls over that -, , . i i t Silence of the mysterious period, which even loving and Evamgennt on the inquiring antiquity has not presumed to raise, ^g^gT save in regard to the brief notice of the Saviour's earthly calling to which an early writer has alluded,' 5 and to which both national custom and the 1 The simple evangelical narrative of our Lord's interview with the Doctors has, as we might have imagined, called forth not a few apocryphal additions. These will be found iu the Evany. Infant. Arab. cap. 50 — 52, pp. 199, 200 (ed. Tiscb.). -' This would seem the place, in accordance with the arrangement in the Gos- pel of St. Luke, for making a few comments on the genealogies of our Lord as recorded in this Gospel and that of St. Matthew. Into this difficult subject, however, it does not seem desirable to enter, further than to remark for the benefit of the general reader, (a) that the most exact recent research tends dis- tinctly to prove the correctness of the almost universally received ancient opinion, that Imlli arc the genealogies of our Lord's reputed father ; (b) that the genealogy of St. Matthew is not according to lineal descent, but according to the line of regal succession from Solomon, and that, in accordance with national and scriptural usage, and possibly for the sake of facilitating memory (.Mill, p. 106), it is recorded in an abridged and also symmetrical form; (c)that the genealogy of St. Luke exhibits the natural descent from David through Nathan ; (ol avTov as including all so designated, it would certainly seem LECT. III. THE EARLY JUDJ3AN MINISTRY. 101 our present argument but little. This momentous fact those words do place before us, that some of those who stood in the relation of kinsmanship and affinity to the Saviour, who saw Him as the familiar eye saw Him, were among the latest to acquire the fullest measures of faith. Though so many blessed opportunities were vouchsafed to them of seeing the glory of God shining through the veil of mortal flesh, yet they saw it not. Their eyes so rested on the outward tabernacle that they beheld not the Schechinah within. The material and familiar was a hinderance to their recognition of the spiritual, — a hinder- ance, be it not forgotten, which in their case was ulti- mately removed, 1 but a hinderance, in the case of those who could not have their advantages, which might never have been removed, an obstacle to a true acknowledgment to follow that none of them could be apostles, and that consequently James the brother of the Lord was not identical with James the son of Alphaius. On the other hand, if we adopt the only sound grammatical interpretation which the winds of Gal. i. 19 can fairly bear, we seem forced to the conclusion that James the Lord's brother was an Apostle, and consequently is to be identified with .hum s the son of Alpheus. If this be so, James the Apostle and his brethren, owing to the almost certainly established identity of the names Alphaeus and Clopaa (Mill, Observations, n. 2. 3, p. 23G), must be further identified with the children of Mary (Matt, xxvii. 50; Mark xv. 40) the wife of Clopas and sister of our Lord (John xix. 25), and so His cousins. We have thus two texts for consideration, upon the correct interpretation of which the question mainly turns. That Gal. i. 19 cannot be strained to mean "I saw none of the Apostles, but I saw the Lord's brother," seems almost certain from the regularly exceptive use which el /J-rj a ppears always to preserve in the New Testament That iirta- rtvov, however, in John vii. 5, is to be taken in the barest sense of the word, or that oi aSe\o!, and perhaps more (see Mill), who were not Apostles, and who, with the sisters, might form a party that might reasonably be grouped under the roughly inclusive expression ol a8e\(po\ avrov. For further information and references, see notes on Gal. i. 20, and especially Mill, ObaertfatiCfU, n. 2. 3, p. 221 sq. i It has been pertinently observed by Neander, that for this very reason such men are to be accounted still more trustworthy witnesses. The very fact that they who so long resisted the impression wrought upon thorn by our Lord, did at last yield, and acknowledge Him whom they accounted but as an unnoted relative to be the Messiah and the Son of God, makes their testimony all the more valuable. Sue LebenJes. Chr, p. 49 (Transl. p. 33). 9* x£o-j . -157, ib. fie VU. Oonti mpl. i i. Vol. ii. p. 471 (ed. Mang.), and Joseph. Antiq. xm. 5. 9, xvi. 1. ">. Bell. Jvd. H.8.2 sq , and tor a general estimate of the characteristics of Essene teaching and its relations to Pharisaism, Jost, Ocsch. des Judenth. n. 2. 8, Vol. i. p. 2D7 sq. 2 "The town of Nazareth lies upon the western side of a narrow oblong BBSin, extending about from S.S.W. to N.X.E., perhaps twenty minutes in length bj eighl or ten in breadth. The houses stand on the lower part of the slope of the western hill, which rises high and sleep above them Towards the north the bills are less high; on the east and south they are low. Ill the gOUth-east the basin contracts, and a valley runs out, narrow and winding, apparently to the great plain.'' — Robinson, /'"/> stine, Vol. ii. p. 838 (ed. 2). See al o i homson, The Land ■unl t/i> /;.»c. § 71, p. 76 sq.); or {b) we must conceive the fifteenth of Tibe- rius to coincide, not with the first appearance, but the captivity of John t lie Baptist, — the epoch, be it observed, from which, in accordance with ancient tradition (Euseb. Hist. Eccl. in. 24), the narrative of the Synoptical Gospels appears to date (Matt. iv. 12, 17; Mark i. 14). This latter view lias been well supported by Wieseler (Chron. Syn. p. 172 sq.), and adopted by Tischendorf [Synops. Evang. p. xiv. sq.), and is, perhaps, slightly the most probable. The opinion of Sanclemente and Browne (§ 85) that the fifteenth of Tiberius was the year of Passion, has much less in its favor. 2 The meaning of the words (Wei itwv rpiaKovra apxofJ.evos (Luke iii. 23) has been much discussed; the doubt being whether the participle is to be referred (<() tci the age specified ("incipiebat esse quasi annoruui triginta," Beza, Greswell), or [b) to the commencement of the ministry. Whichever position of apx^iw* we Lect. III. THE EARLY JUDiEAN MINISTRY. 107 His feet to the wilderness, leaves the home of His child- hood, to return to it no more as His earthly abode, save for the few days 1 that preceded the removal to Caper- naum in the spring of the following year. It was now winter, 2 and the valley of Esdraelon was just green with springing corn, 3 as the Redeemer's path lay across it toward the desert valley of the Jordan, either to that an- cient ford near Succoth, which recent geographical specu- adopt (see Tischendorf, in loc.) it cnn scarcely be doubted that (b) is tbc correct interpretation (so Origen and F.uthym.), and that our Lord's ministr) is to be understood to have commenced when he was more than thirty, but less than thirty-one years of age. For arguments (not very strong) in favor of icrel imply- ing, not somewhat above, but somewhat under, the time specified, sec Greswell, Dissert, xi. Vol. i. p. 868. l When our Lord returned to Galilee after tbc Temptation, it would seem that for the short time that preceded the passover lie did not stay at Nazareth, but at Capernaum. See John ii. 12. On His next return to Galilee (December, A. U. C. 781), He appears to have gone to and perhaps stayed at Cana (John iv. 40), a place to which some writers have supposed that the Virgin and her kindred had previously retired. See Ewald, Gesclt. Christus, Vol. v. p. 147. Under any circum- stances we have only a short period remaining before the final removal to Caper- naum, specified Matt. iv. 13, Luke iv. 31. '■i The conclusion at which Wieseler arrives after a careful consideration of all the historical data that tend to fix the time of our Lord's baptism, is as follows : Jesus must have been baptized by John not curlier than February, 780 A. p. o. (the extreme " terminus a quo " supplied by .">t. Luke), nor later than the winter of the same year (tin- extreme " terminus ad quern " supplied by St. John). See t'liriiii. Synops. ii. B. 2, p. 2lll. Wieseler himself fixes upon the spring or sum- mer of 780 A. u. 0. as the exact date (p. 202); but to this period there are two objections: First, that if, as seems reasonable, we agree (with "Wieseler) to fix the deputation to the Baptist (John i. 19 sip) about the close of February, 7S1 a. p. c, we shall have a period of eight months, viz. from the middle of 780 to the end of the second month of 781, wholly unaccounted for (Wieseler, <'/m>i>. Synops. p. 258); secondly, thai it is almost the unanimous tradition of the early church that the baptism of our Lord took place in winter, or in the early part of tin- year. See the numerous ancient authorities in the useful table of l'atritius, DiSSi rl. xix. Hook in. p. 270, and comp. Diss, xlvii. p. 4S5. The tradition of the Basilideane, mentioned by clement of Alexandria [Strom, i. 21. Vol. i. p. 408, ed. Pott), that the baptism of our Lord took place on the eleventh or fifteenth of Tybi (Jan. 6 or 10), deserves consideration, both from the antiquity of the sect, and from the fact that the baptism of our Lord was in their system an epoch of the highest importance. See Neander, Church llist. Vol. ii. p. 102 (Clark). The ordinary objections founded on the Beason of the year are well and, as it would hub, convincingly answered by GreswelJ, Dissert, xi. Vol. i. p. :171 (ed. 2). 8 The harvest in Palestine ripens at different times in different localities; but ■S a general rule the barley harvest may be considered as taking place from the middle to the close of April, and the wheat harvest about a fortnight later. See Robinson, Palestine, Vol. i. p. 401 (ed. 2), and compare Stanley, Palestine, p. 1.2). 108 THE EARLY JUD^AN MINISTRY. Lect. III. lation 1 has connected with the Bethabara or rather Bethany of St. John, or more probably to the neighbor- hood of that more southern ford not far from Jericho, round which traditions yet linger, 2 and to which the mul- titudes that flocked to the Baptist from Judaea and Jerusalem would have found a speedier and more convenient access. There the great Forerunner was baptizing; there he had been but just uttering those words of stern warning to the Luke m. i. mingled multitude, to Pharisee and to Sad- Matt.ui.i. ducee, 3 which are recorded by the first and third Evangelists ; there stood around him men with musing hearts, doubting whether that bold speaker were the Christ or no, when suddenly, Luke Hi. 15. ._ unknown and unrecognized, the very Mes- siah mingles with those strangely-assorted and expectant multitudes, and with them seeks baptism at the hands of the great Preacher of the desert. It has been doubted whether that lonely john-" n rec»g°niuln child of the wilderness at once recognized the a/ our Lord. Holy Qne that wag nQW raeek i y standing be- fore him. It is, at any rate, certain, from his own words, 1 See Stanley, Palestine, p. 308, who both pleads for the reading Bethabara, and for the more northern position of the scene of the baptism. With regard to the reading, at any rate, there can be no reasonable doubt. All the ancient authorities and nearly all the MSS. in the time of Origen ({rx^bv Travra to avTiypcupa) adopt the reading Bethany ; nor would Bethabara have ever found a place in the sacred text, if Origen, moved by geographical considerations, had not given sanction to the change. See Liicke, Comment, uber Joh. i. 28, and the critical notes of Teschendorf, in loc. 2 The traditional sites adopted by the Latin and Greek churches are not the same, but both not far from Jericho. The bathing-place of the Latin pilgrims is not far from the ruined convent of St. John the Baptist, that of the Greek pil- grims two or three miles below it. See Robinson, Palestine, Vol. i. p. 536. The objection to the latter, and possibly to the former place, is the steepness of the banks (see Thomson, The Land and the Book, Vol. ii. p. 445), but this cannot be strongly pressed, as at the assumed time of year (when, as we learn from Robin- son [Vol. i. p. 541], the river has not yet been seen by travellers) partial or local overflows might have given greater facilities for the performance of the ceremony. See Greswell, Dissert, xix. Vol. ii. p. 1S4. See, however, Thomson, The Land and the Bool:, Vol. ii. p. 452 sq. 3 See above, p. 104, note 3. Lkct. III. THE EARLY JUD.EAN MINISTRY. 109 that his knowledge of our Lord as the Messiah was not due to a previous acquaintance, 1 and it is also quite possible that he might not have known his Redeemer even by out- ward appearance. But if he knew him not by the seeing of the eye, he must have known of Him by the hearing of the ear, and he must have felt within his soul, as the Lord drew nigh, a sudden and mystic intimation that he was gaz- ing on Him of whose wondrous birth his own mother's lips must oft have told him, and on whose future destinies he might often have mused with a profound and all but con- sciously-prophetic interest. 2 With strange memories in his thoughts, and perhaps now still stranger presentiments in his heart, the Baptist pleads against such an inverted relation as the Son of Mary seek- ing baptism from the son of Elisabeth. He pleads; but he pleads in vain. Overper- snaded and awed by the solemn words which he might not 1 This view, which is substantially that taken by the older commentators, has been well defended by Dr. Mill, against the popular sceptical objections. See Obss. an Pantheistic Principles, H. 1. 5, p. 79 sq. We certainly seem to gather from the language of St. Matthew that the Baptist recognized our Lord, if not dis- tinctly as the Messiah, yet in a degree closely approaching to it, before the bap- tism, — for otherwise how are we to understand the language of Matt. iii. 14? Bee especially Chrysost. inJoann. Horn. xvi. Whether this was due to a short unrecorded conversation (Mill), or, as suggested in the text, to special revelation (ovk air' avdpanriv7)s , p. BO 10 110 THE EARLY JUDiEAN MINISTRY. Lect. III. have fully understood, the Forerunner descends with his Redeemer into the rapid waters of the now sacred river; when lo, when the inaugural rite is done, the promised sign at length appears, the Baptist beholds the opened heavens, and the embodied form 1 of the de- scending Spirit ; he sees, perhaps, the kindled fire, apt symbol of the Redeemer's baptism, of which an old writer has made mention ; 2 he hears the Father's voice of blessing: and love: he sees John i. 34. ° ' and hears, and, as he himself tells us, bears witness that this is verily the Son of God. And now all righteousness has been fulfilled. Borne away, as it would seem at once, by the motions «?£?££ of the Spirit, either to that lonely and unex- nature and drcum- pl orec ] chain of desert mountains of which stances. * Nebo has been thought to form a part, or to „, . . ,„ that steep rock on this side of the Jordan Mark i. 13. L which tradition still points out; 3 there, amid the wild beasts of the thickets and the caverns, in hunger 1 The following is the ancient tradition referred to : "And then when Jesus came to the river Jordan, where John was baptizing, and descended to the water, a fire was kindled over the Jordan." — Justin Martyr, Trypho, cap. 88, Vol. ii. p. 302 (ed. Otto). So also, somewhat similarly, Epiphanius, Holt. xxx. 13, and the writer of a treatise, de Baptismo Hcereticorum, prefixed to the works of Cyprian (p. 30, ed. Oxon.), who alludes to the tradition as mentioned in the apocryphal and heretical Paidi Prasdicatio. Something like it has been noticed in the Oracula Sibylla (vn. 83) in Galland. Bibl. Vet. Patr. Vol. i. p. 387 c. 2 The distinct language of St. Luke, ffw/xariKw ffSei oxrei irepiffTepaf (ch. iii. 22), must certainly preclude our accepting any explanatory gloss, referring the holy phenomenon to light shining " with the rapid and undulating motion of a dove " (Milman, Hist, of Christianity, I. 3, Vol. i. p. 151). The form was real. For the opinions of antiquity on the manifestation of the Holy Ghost in tin's peculiar form, see the learned work of the eloquent Jesuit, Barradius, Comment, in Harmon. I. 15, Vol. ii. p. 48 (Antw. 1617). 3 The place which the most current tradition has fixed on as the site of the Temptation is the mountain Quarantana, which Robinson describes as " an almost perpendicular wall of rock, twelve or fifteen hundred feet above the plain." — Palestine, Vol. i. p. 567 (ed. 2). Compare Thomson, Tlie Land and the Boul:, Vol. ii. p. 450. It has been asserted by Robinson that this tradition does not appear to be older than the time of the Crusades, but see Mill, Sermons on the Temptation, p. 166. The supposition in the text seems better to accord with the probable locality assigned to the baptism, but must be regarded as purely conjectural. Lect. in. THE EARLY JTJDJEAN MINISTRY. Ill and loneliness, the now inaugurated Messiah confronts in spiritual conflict the fearful adversary of His kingdom and of that race which He came to save. On the deep secrets of those mysterious forty days it is not meet that specula- tion should dwell. If we had only the narrative of St. Matthew, we might think that Satanic temp- tation only presumed to assail the Holy One when hunger had weakened the energies of the now exhausted body. If, again, we had only the gospels of St. Mark and St. Luke, we might be led to con- cn.i.iz. elude that the struggle with the powers of cu.iv.-2. darkness extended over the whole period of that length- ened fast. From both, however, combined, we may perhaps venture to conclude that those three concentrated forms of Satanic daring, which two Evangelists have been moved to record, presented themselves only at the close of that season of mysterious trial. 1 Upon the three forms of temptation, and their attendant circumstances, my limits will not permit me to enlarge. These three remarks only will I presume to make. Fii'St, I will ven- ture to avow my most solemn conviction that ti,o temptation no J vision or trance. the events here related belong to no trance or dream-land to which, alas, even some better forms of both ancient and modern speculation have presumed to refer them, 2 but are to be accepted as real and literal 1 So perhaps Origen, who remarks: " Quadraginta diebus tentatur Jesus, et qua I'uei'iiit tentamenta nesoimus." — Comment, in Luc. Horn. xxix. Vol. iii. p. 966 (i'ii. Bened.). Most of the patristic commentators seem to consider that the hours of hunger and bodily weakness were especially chosen by the Evil < iii*- for his most daring ami malignant forms of temptation. See Chrysostom mi Matt. iv. 2, Cyril Alex, on Luke iv. 3, and compare the excellent remarks of [rensus, Ha r. v. 21. 2 The opinion that, if not the whole, yet that the concluding scenes of the t. mptation were of the character of a vision, was apparently entertained by Ori- gen [de Princlp. iv. 16, Vol. i. p. 175, ed. Bened.), Theodore of llopsuestia (Milliter, Fragm. Patrum, Fasc. i. p. 107), and the author of a treatise, d> Jejunio it Ten tat. Christi, annexed to the works of Cyprian (p. 86, Oxon, 1682). This view- in a more extended application has been adopted by many modern writers, both English (Farmer, on Christ't Temptation, ed. 8, Lond. 1776) and foreign, but it need scarcely be said that all such opinions, — whether the Temptation be sup- posed a vision especially called np, or a mere significant dream (see Mej erin Stud. 112 THE EARLY JUDiEAN MINISTRY. Lect. III. occurrences, — yea, as real and as literal as that final over- throw of Satan's power on Calvary, when the Lord reft away from him all the thronging hosts of darkness, 1 and triumphed over them on His very cross of suffering. Secondly, I could as soon doubt my own The temptation ■ . , , , . , , , , - an assault from existence as doubt the completely outward nature of these forms of temptation, 2 and their immediate connection with the personal agency of the personal Prince of Darkness. 3 I could as soon accept the worst statements of the most degraded form of Arian creed as believe that this temptation arose from any inter- it. Krit. for 1831, p. 319 sq.), — clearly come into serious collision with the simple yet circumstantial narrative of the first and third Evangelists; in which, not only is there not the faintest hint that could render such an opinion in any degree plausible, but, on the contrary, expressions almost studiously chosen {ai/rix^Vt Matt. iv. 1 ; tfyeTO, Luke iv. 1. Comp. Mark i. 12, e/Cj8aAAet ; irpoo-€\^wv, Matt. iv. 3; Trapa\afx^ai/fi, ver. 5; avayaywv, Luke iv. 5; aTreffrri, ver. 13) to mark the complete objective character of the whole. See, thus far, Fritzsche, Fritzs- chior. Opusc. p. 122 sq., and Meyer, Komment. uber Matt. p. 114 sq., though in their general estimate of the whole, the conclusions of both these writers are distinctly to be rejected. For further notices and references on a subject, the literature of which is perplexingly copious, the student may be referred, perhaps, especially to Andrewes, Sermons (cii.) on the Temptation, Vol. v. p. 479 sq. (A.-C. Libr.), Hacket, Sermons (xxi.) on the Temptation, p. 205 sq. (Loud. 1671), Span- heim, Bub. Evang. li.— lxv. Fart n. p. 195 sq., Deyling, Obs. Sacr. xvn. Part II. p. 354, and Huxtable, The Temptation of our Lord (Lond. 184S), and for prac- tical comments on the circumstances and moral intention of the whole, Leo 31. Serm. xxxix.— l. Vol. i. p. 143 (ed. Ballerin.), Jones (of Naylaud), Works, Vol. iii. p. 157 sq. 1 For a discussion on the meaning of a-KenSvo-aixevos in the difficult text here referred to (Col. ii. 15), and for a further elucidation of the view here taken, see Commentary on Coloss. p. 161 sq. 2 One of the popular modes of evading the supposed difficulties in this holy narrative is to assume that the whole series of temptations were really internal, but represented in the description as external. See, for example. Ulmann, die Unsundlichkeit Jem, Sect. 7, p. 55 (Trans!.). Most of such views arise either from erroneous conceptions in respect of the mysterious question of our Lord's capability of temptation, or from tacit denials of the existence or personal agencies of malignant spirits. On the first of these points, see especially Mill, Serm. II. pp. 26 — 39, and on the second, Serm. m. p. 54 sq. Some valuable remarks on these and other questions connected with our Lord's Temptation will be found in the curious and learned work of Meyer, Historia Diaboli, in. 6, p. 271 sq. (Tubing. 1780). 3 The monstrous opinion that the Tempter was human, and either the high- priest or one of the Sanhedrin (comp. Feilmoser, Tubing. Quartalschrift fur 1S2S) is noticed, but not condemned in the terms which so plain a perversion deserves, by Milman, Hist, qf Christianity, i. 3, Vol. i. p. 153. Lect. III. THE EARLY JUILEAN MINISTRY. 113 rial stragglings or solicitations; 1 I could as soon admit the most repulsive tenet of a dreary Socinianism as deem that it was enhanced by any self-engendered enticements, or hold that it was aught else than the assault of a desperate and demoniacal malice from without, 2 that recognized in the nature of man a pos- sibility of falling, and that thus far consistently, though impiously, dared even in the person of the Son of Man to make proof of its hitherto resistless energies. Thirdly, I cannot think it an idle speculation addreued to the that connects the three forms of temptation Jj^'**"' with those that brought sin into the world, 3 — the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eye, and the pride of life ; nor can I deem it unnatural to see in them three spiritual assaults directed against the three portions of our composite nature. 4 To the body is presented the temptation of satisfying its wants 1 Such conceptions and supposition?, alas, only too often in this humanitarian age secretly entertained, if not always outwardly expressed, are justly censored by Dr. Mill (Serm. n. p. 38) as degrading and blasphemous. In all speculations on this mysterious subject the student will do well to bear in mind this admirable Statement of Augustine: " Non dicimus nos Christum, felicitate carnis a nostris sensibua Bequestratae, cupidtiatem vitiorum scntire non potuisse, scd dicimus, cum perfectione virtutis, et non per carnis rnnatpisccntiam procreata came, enpiditatem non habnisse vitiorum," — Op. Imperf. cvn.tr. Jul. iv. 48, Vol. x. p. 1306 (ed. Migne), — this great writer's hist and unfinished work. In estimating the nature of our Lord's tentability let us never forget the holiness of His humanity, and the eternal truth of His miraculous conception. 2 On the question as to the form in which the Adversary appeared, whether human or angelical (comp. Taylor, /.//< of Christ, i. 9. 7, Lange, Leben Jesu, n. ■ . \ ol. ii- p. 217), all speculation is as unnecessary as it is more or less pre- sumptuous. All that we must firmly adhere to is the belief that the presence of the Evil One "was real, and that it was external to our Lord."— Huxtable, V. mptation of the /.on/, p. 78. Compare -Mill, Serm. in. p. 64. 3 This is touched upon by Augustine (Enarr. in Psalm, vm. 14. Vol. iv. p. 116, ed. Migne) and others of the earlier writers, but nowhere more clearly and convincingly stated than by Jackson. Creed, via. 10, Vol. vii. p. 450 sq. See ;■ so \ in heu. s, v rm. ii. Vol. v. p. 496 (A.-C. Libr.), Mill, Serm. III. p. 60. 4 Tor a discussion on the threefold nature of man. and a distinction between the terms soul and sjiirif. see Tin Destiny of the Creature, Serm. V. p. 00, and the works there referred to (p. 167). The opinion of Mill that the seat of the second temptation was "our higher mental nature" (p. 80), and of the third, tin- ■• high- est sell-eon-eioiisiiess, bj which man becomes to himself the centre of regard " (ib). is scarcely so simple or so exact as the reference to soul and spirit adopted iu'llie text. 10* 114 THE EARLY JUD^AN MINISTRY. Lkct. II I. by a display of power which would have tacitly abjured its dependence on the Father, and its perfect submission to His heavenly will. To the soul, the longing, appetitive soul 1 (for I follow the order of St. Luke) was addressed the temptation of Messianic dominion 2 (mere material dominion would seem by no means so probable) over all the kingdoms of the world, and of accomplishing in a moment of time all for which the incense of the one sacri- fice on Calvary is still rising up on the altar of God. To the spirit 5 of our Redeemer, with even more frightful pre- sumption, was addressed the temptation of using that power which belonged to Him as God to vindicate His own eternal nature, and to display by one dazzling miracle the true relation in which Jesus of Nazareth stood to men, and to angels, and to God. 4 1 This we may roughly define with Olshauscn as " vis inferior [in homine] qua; agitur, movetur, in iraperio tenetur" (Opusc. p. 154), and may in many respects regard as practically identical with KapSia, — the soul's imaginary seat and abidingplace. See Comment, on Phil. iv. 6, Destiny of Creature, v. p. 117, and Beck, Seelenlehre, in. 20, p. 63. On the order of the temptations, compare Gres- well, Dissert, xx. Vol. ii. p. 192, Mill, Serin, iv. p. 82 sq. 2 See Lange, Leben Jesu, n. 3. 6, Part n. p. 225. and compare Huxtable, Temptation of the Lord, p. 87 sq. If with Dr. Mill we refer it to worldly dominion generally {Serm. iv. p. 105), we must, with the same learned author, suppose that Satan really did not fully know the exact nature of Him whom he impiously dared to tempt (p. 63. Comp. Cyril Alex, on Luke iv. 3); a view, however, which does not seem fully consistent with the opening address of the Tempter. 3 This third and highest part in man we may again roughly define with Ols- hausen (compare note 1) as "vis superior, agens, imperans in homine" (Optisc. p. 154), and may rightly regard as in many respects identical with vovs. See Comment, on Phil. iv. 6, Destiny of Creature, v. p. 115, and Delitzseh, Bill. Psychol, iv. p. 145. 4 The third form of temptation, that of spiritual presumption, has been thus well paraphrased by Dr. Mill: "Give to the assembled multitudes the surest proof that thou art indeed their expected King, — the Desire of them and of all nations, — at whose coming the Lord shall shake the heavens and the earth, and make this house more glorious than the mysterious Shekinah made the first." — Serin, p. 118. The exact spot (t2> Trrepvytov rod Upov, Matt. iv. 5) which was the scene of this temptation is not perfectly certain. The most probable opinion is that it was the topmost ridge of the (rroa /3a. 185 (id. Rose), and Meyer, Komment. ub. M>ttt. iv. 5, p. 110. 1 The nature of the services Of these blessed spirits, owing to the use of the .! term StrjKovow (Matt. iv. 11), cannot be more exactly specified. If we admit conjectures we may venture to believe that they came to supply sustenance (" allato cibo," Beng. ; comp. 1 Kings xix.), and possibly cUso to administer sup- port and eoniH.it ("ad solatium refero," Calv.j comp. Luke xxii. 43). See Backet, Serin, xxi. p. 406(Lond. 1675). ■j See w 'ieseler, Chron. Synops. \>. 258, and compare the remarks on the chro- nology Of this period made above, p. V>7. note 2. •" This deputation, we are informed by the Evangelist, was sent by the 'lovocuoi, — a general mime by which St. John nearly always designates the Jews in their peculiar aspect as a hostile community to our Lord, and as standing in marked contrast to the impressible oxAos. The more special and direct senders of tins deputation of Priests and their attendant Levites (John i. 19) were perhaps the members of the Sanhedrin, by whom these emissaries might have been directed to inquire into and test the Baptist's pretensions as a public teacher (comp. Matt. xxi. 28), and to gain some accurate information alio at one who was drawing all ilem and Judsea to bis baptism (Matt, ill- 5), and in whom somi ed that they recognized the expected Messiah (Luke ui. 15). <>n the in.— • nerall] , see Lange, Leben Jem, a. f 1. Part n. p. 451, Lttcke, ( omnu nt. UbfirJoh. Vol. i. p. 881j and on the particular questions propounded to the Bap- Ver. 40. 11 G THE EARLY JUD.EAN MINISTRY. Lect. III. might have been, in the thoughts of Him to whom he had so recently borne witness, he raises his eyes, Ch. t. 29. ' J ' and lo! he sees coming to him the very sub- ject of his meditations; he sees his Redeemer, 1 and humbly greets Him " as the Lamb of God that tak- John t. 29. eth away the sin of the world." With the same significant words 2 the Baptist parts from Him on the morrow, — words that sank so deep into J er. 35. J the hearts of two of his disciples, Andrew, and not improbably the Evangelist who gives the account, that they follow the Lord, and abide with Him, to return back again no more. On the morrow, with Simon Peter and Philip of Bethsaida, and tist, Origen, in loc. Vol. iv. p. 108 (ed. Bened.), Greg. Magn. in Evang. I. 7, Vol. i. p. 1456 (ed. Bened.). 1 The circumstances that led to this meeting are wholly unknown to us. That it took place after our Lord's baptism seems certain; and that the preceding interview with the Priests and Levites also took place after the same event seems to follow from the words " whom ye (v/j.e?s) know not" (ver. 26), — an expres- sion which may be fairly urged as implying by contrast some knowledge on the part of the speaker. Now, as we learn from St. Mark (ch. i. 12) that the Tempta- tion followed immediately after the Baptism, we may perhaps reasonably believe that our Lord was now on His homeward way to Galilee after the Temptation (comp. August, de Consens. Evang. u. 17), and that He either specially went a little out of His way again to see and greet the Baptist, or that the direction of His journey homeward led Him past the scene of the previous baptism, where John was still preaching and baptizing. If we fix the site of the Temptation at (Junrantana, the former supposition will seem most probable, if the mountains of Moab (see above, p. 110, note 3), the latter. The deputation from the Sanhe- drin and the close of the Temptation would thus appear to have been closely contemporaneous. See Lucke on John i. 19, Vol. i. p. 398, and compare Lampe in loc, and Luthardt, Joh. Evang. Vol. i. p. 329. 2 Into the exact meaning of these words we will not here enter further than to remark, (a) that the reference seems clearly not to the Paschal Lamb (Lampe, Luthardt, al.), a reference sufiiciently appropriate afterwards (1 Cor. v. 7), though not now, but to Isaiah liii. 7 (Origen VI. 35), a passage which, to one so earnestly expecting the Messiah as the holy Baptist, must have long been well-known and familiar; (b) that the meaning of ctiptiv has nowhere been better expressed than by < hrvsostom, who in referring to a former part of the same prophecy (Isaiah xxiii. 4) says: "He did not use the expression, 'He ransomed' (e\v<„./,. to perform, we are all, I trust, too familiarly acquainted to need any lengthened narrative. 4 We may, 1 Wo can scarcely agree with Greswell (Dissert, mrm . Vol. p. 284 Bq.) in the inference that the two disciples did not now permanently attach themselves to our Lord. The express terms of the call given the next day to Philip, ' me" (ver. 44). and the certain fact that some disciples were with our Lord the day following (John ii. 2), seem strongly in favor of the opinion that all the live disciples here mentioned did formally attach themselves to our Lord, and went with Him into Galilee. See Ifaldonatos on John i. 43 andii. 2. The miracle that followed had special reference to these newly-attracted followers. See John ii. 11. and compare Luthardt, Johann. Evcmg. Vol. i. p. 351. 2 Unless we accept the not very probable supposition alluded to p. 107, note 1. 3 On the position of Cana, which now appears rightly fixed, not at Kefr Keuna (De Saulcy, Voyage, Vol. ii. p. 44S), but at Kami el-Jelil, about three hours dis- tant from Nazareth. See Robinson, Palestine, Vol. ii. p. 346 Bq., Vol. iii. p. 108 (ed. 2), and Thomson, Land and the Book, Vol. ii. p. 121 sq. 1 For details and explanatory remarks the student may be especially referred to the oommentai ies of Bialdonatus, LUcke, and .Me;, er, to the exquisite contem- plation of P.p. Hall, Hook 11. 5, to Trench, Notes on the Miracles, p. 00 sq., and to the comments of Lange, /.< b n Jesu, 11. 4. 4, Part n. p. 4T.">. The Bnpposed typical telations are alluded to in a somewhat striking sermon of Bp. Copleston, 118 THE EARLY JUD^AN MINISTRY. Lect. III. however, somewhat profitably pause on one portion of it, the address of the Virgin to our Lord, and the an- swer He returned, which has been thought to involve some passing difficulties, but which a consideration of the previous circumstances, combined with a due recognition of Jewish customs, tends greatly to elucidate. In the first place let us not forget, — if Ave may place any reliance upon modern customs as illustrative of ancient, 1 — that the fact of guests adding contributions to an entertainment which extended over several days is by no means singular or unprecedented. With this let us combine the remem- brance that the Lord and His five disciples had, as it would appear, come unexpectedly, 2 a few hours only before the commencement of the marriage feast. In the next place let us reflect how more than natural it would be for these disciples — two of whom, as we are Johni.37. . \ specially told by the Evangelist, had heard the significant announcement of the Baptist, "Behold the Remains, p. 256. Compare with it Augustine, in Joann. Tractat. ix. 5, Vol. iii. p. 146 (ed. Migne), where very similar views will also be found. 1 The writer of this note was lately informed by a converted Jew on whom reliance could be placed, that it was not at all uncommon for the guests at a wedding-feast to make contributions of wine when there seemed likely to be a deficiency, and that such cases had fallen under his own observation. Be this as it may, it seems at any rate clear that the marriage-feasts usually lasted as long as seven days (Judges xiv. 12, 15; Tobit xi. 10), and it is surely not unrea- sonable to suppose that in the present case the givers of the feast were of humble fortunes (Lightfoot conjectures it to have been at the house of Mary, the wife of Cleophas. Compare Greswell, Dissert, xvn. Vol. ii. p. 120), and, as Bp. Taylor quaintly says, " had more company than wine." — Life of Christ, n. 10. 5. For further notices and references, see Winer, RWB. Art. " Hochzeit," Vol. i. p. 499 sq. '- The only statement that might seem indirectly to militate against this is the comment of St. John, e/cA^j&rj 5e iced 6 'Itjctovs ku\ oi na&rj'rcd avrov els yd/ioy, ch. ii. 2. If, however, we date the " third day " (ver. 1), as seems most natural, from the day last-mentioned (ch. i. 44), and estimate the distance from Bethany on (he Jordan to Cana, our Lord could scarcely have arrived at the last-men. tioned place till the very day specified. Compare Wieseler, Chron. Synops. n. 3, ]). 253. The 4K\-f)&ri then must be referred to the time when our Lord and His followers arrived, and its introduction accounted for, as Slightly distinguishing the newly-arrived and just-iiivited guests from the Virgin, who had been there perhaps for some little time. Comp. Meyer in toe, and Lange, Leben Jesu, II. 4. 4, Part ii. p. 470, whose date, however, for the ttj ripeptf irj rpiTij does not seem tenable. Lect. III. THE EARLY JUD.EAN MINISTRY. 119 Lamb of God," and another of whom had recognized in our Lord the very One whom prophets had foretold — to have already made such com- "^ munications to the Virgin ! as might well lead her to expect some display of our Lord's changed position and relations. He who a few weeks before had left Galilee the unnoted son of Joseph the carpenter, now returns, with five followers, the more than accredited teacher, yea, as one of those followers had not hesitated to avow, as the Son of God 2 and the King of Israel. Wrought upon by these strange **»«■* tidings, and with all the lontr treasured re- . , luh-ii. 19. membrances of her meditative heart brought up freshly before her, 3 how natural, then, becomes that 1 Though we are not positively constrained by the tenor of the narrative to fix the miracle oil the very day that our Lord arrived (conip. Wordsw. and Liicke in he), it must be admitted that on the whole such an adjustment serins slightly the most probable. Compare ver. 10, in which the remarks of the apx' r p'^K\iuos seem to have reference to a single festal meal, the beginning and end of which it contrasts. Even in this case, however, the disciples could easily have had time to communicate to the Virgin enough of what they had heard, felt, and observed in reference to their venerated Master to arouse hopes and expectations in the mother's heart. Compare Theophyl. and Euthym. in lor., both of whom, however, slightly over-estimate the Virgin's knowledge of what had recently happened. 2 Most modern, and some ancient expositors, explain away the title here given by Nathanael to our Lord as implying no more than "the Messiah,'' or, to use the language of Theophvlact, one who "on account of His virtue was adopted as the Son of Cod " (moimribivra tw 0€o>). Perhaps the further title assigned by Nathanael, and still more our Lord's reply (ver. 51) may seem partly to favor this view. It will be well, however, not to forget that this assertion was made by Xathanael after our Lord had evinced a knowledge above that of man (ver. 48), which might well have awakened in the breast of that guileless Israelite some feeling of the true nature of Him who was now speaking with him. So rightly, Cyril. Alex, in /<"'., and Augustine, in Joann. Tract, vn. 20, 21. 3 Though we certainly must not adopt the rash and indeed anti-scriptural view (conip. John ii. 11) spoken approvingly of by Maldonatus, and even par- tially adopted by Liicke (p. 470), that the Virgin had previously witnessed mir- acles performed by our Lord in private, we may yet with reason believe that she ever retained a partial consciousness of the real nature of her Divine .Son, and that the mysterious past was ever freshly remembered, when the present Serve I in any wav to call it up again: irdi'Ta awer-ripa eV rrj Kapdia aurTjs, Kp. Hall ( Contempt. I. c), that in His answer our Lord here addresses the Virgin as ywtu (vcr. 4). and not /j.tit€[), — a term which, though marking all respect, and subse- quently used by our Lord in a last display of tenderness and love (John xix. 26), still seems to indicate the now changed relation between the Messiah and Mary Of Nazareth. That our Lord's words contained a tender reproof is certain, and that it was felt so is probable; but, as the Virgin's direction to the servants clearly shows, it could not repress the longings of the mother, or alter the con- victions of the all but conscious Deipara. Lect. III. THE EARLY JUD.EAN MINISTRY. 121 times and seasons in which the Eternal Son is to display His true nature are not to be hastened, even by the long- ings of maternal love. The Lord's manifestation, however, takes place, the miracle is performed, and its immediate effect is to confirm the faith of the five disciples, who now appear before us as the first fruits of the ingathering of the Church. Immediately after the performance of this first miracle the Lord, with His mother, His brethren, 1 Britf stay at Ca- and His disciples, go down to Capernaum, 1 a pemaum,andjour- place, which, as the residence of one of His followers, but still more as a convenient point for joining the pilgrim-companies now forming for the paschal journey to Jerusalem, would at this time be more suitable for a temporary sojourn than the secluded Nazareth. 2 After a 1 The exact site of Capernaum has been much contested. See Robinson, Pal' estine, Vol. iii. p. 348 sq. (ed. 2), where the question is discussed at considerable length, and the site fixed at Khun Minyeh, a place not far from the shore of the lake and at the northern extremity of the plain of Gennesareth. Comp. Vol. ii. p. 403. On the whole, however, the name, ruins, position, and prevailing tradi- tion seem justly to incline us to fix the site at Tell Hum, a ruin-bestrewed and slightly elevated spot on a small projecting curve of the shore, about one hour in distance nearer the head of the lake than Khan Minyeh. See esp. Thomson, Land and the Book, Vol. i. p. 542 sq., Hitter, Erdlcunde, Vol. xv. p. 339, Van de Velde, Memoir (accompaning map) p. 302, and Williams in Smith's Diet, of Geogr. s. v. Vol. i. p. 504. 2 This observation seems justified by the fact that the western shores of the lake of Gennesareth were at that time extremely populous, and scenes of a bustle and activity of life that could be found nowhere else in Palestine, except at Jerusalem (see Stanley, Palestine, chap. x. p. 370); and further by the fact that there were at least three routes of considerable importance that led from the neighborhood of the lake to the south. The traveller of that day might join the great Ejrypt and Damascus road, where it passes nearest to the lake (near Khan ftfinyeh; Bee Robinson, Palestine, Vol. ii. p. 405, Van de Velde, Memoir, p. 226), and tearing it two or three miles W. S.W. of Nain proceed south through Sama- ria; or secondly, he might journey along the lake to Scythopolis (Beisan), and thence by the ancient Egypt and Midian road to Gina;a (see Winer, BWB. Art " Btrassen," Vol. ii. p. 539, Van de Velde, Memoir, p. 238), and so onward by the Jerusalem and Galilee road to Shechem and the south ; or thirdly, he might take the then more frequented but now little, known route from the south end of the lake through Perea (comp. Van de Velde, Memoir, p. 233, Ritter, Erdkunde IPcddstkia), { 13. Part xv. p. 1001 sq.), and across the Jordan to Jericho, and so to Jerusalem. For (farther Information on this somewhat important subject, the Student may be referred to Belaud, Patastina, II. 3, Vol. i. p. 404 (Traject. 1714); Winer, RWB. [loc. eU \\ the various itineraries in Ritter, ErdJeunde [Palttstina), Part xv. ; and the useful list of routes in Van de Velde, Memoir, pp. 183—258. 11 122 THE EARLY JTJDiEAN MINISTRY. Lect. III. stay of but a few days, our Lord and His disciples now bend their steps to Jerusalem, to celebrate the passover, 1 — the first passover of our Lord's public ministry. The first act is one of great significance, the expulsion of the buyers and sellers from the temple, — The expulsion of * *■ ihctraders/romthe an act repeated two years afterwards with TemjAe. . . r J similar circumstances of holy zeal for the sanctity of His Father's house. 2 How strange it is that the thoughtful Origen should have found any difficulties in this authoritative act of the Messiah, or should have deemed incongruous and unsuited to the dignity of his Master what in the narrative of the Evangelist appears to be so natural and intelligible. 3 If we closely consider the words of the original, we have presented to us only the A^ery natural picture of the Redeemer driving out from the court of the Gentiles the sheep and oxen, that base huck- stering and traffic had brought within the sacred enclosure. What is there here unseemly, what is there startling, in finding that the Lord of the Temple not only drives forth 1 It is not mentioned positively that the disciples accompanied our Lord, but it is certain that they were present at Jerusalem and witnessed the purgation of the temple. See John ii. 17, where the lii.vt\a(b-no~av is not to be referred to any future time (Olsh.), but to the period in question. See Meyer in loc, and comp. Origen, inJoann. Tom. x. 16, Vol. iv. p. 186 (ed. Bened.). 2 That this is not to be identified with the purgation of the temple mentioned by the Synoptical Evangelists (Matt. xxi. 12 sq., Mark xi. 15 sq. *Luke xix. 45 sq.), is the opinion of the patristic writers (see Origen, in Joann. Tom. x. 15, Ohrysost. in Matt. Horn, lxvii. init., and August, de Consensu Evang. n. 67), and is rightly maintained by the majority of the best recent expositors. See Meyer in loc, and Ebrard, Ev. Gesch. p. 488. 3 These difficulties are stated very clearly in his Commentary on St. John, Book x. 16, Vol. iv. p. 185 sq. (ed. Bened.), and yet disposed of by no one better than himself, when he indicates how actions which in a mere child of man, however authorized, would have been met with resentment and resistance, were in the case of our Lord viewed with a startled and perhaps reverential awe, — an awe due to that &eioT(pa rod 'lr)ffov 5vva.fj.is o'iov te octos, 8re ifiovXero, koX Srvfj.ov ix&p&v avairTSfxevov fff$eo~a.i, Kal pvpidScov frc-ia ^apiri TT€piyeveo~&cu, Kai Aoyiffixobs SopvfiovvTwv SiacriaSdaai. lor. rit. p. ISO. Comp. Jerome, in Matt. xxi. 15, Vol. vii. p. 166 (ed. Vullars.) See some good comments on this impressive act in Mil man, Hist, of Christianity, i. 3, Vol. i. p. 164 sq., and a quaint but sound, practical sermon by Bp. Lake, Serm. Part IV. p. 122 sq. Lect. III. THE EARLY JU1LEAN MINISTRY. 123 the animals, 1 but overthrows the tables of so-called sacred coin, tables of unholy and usurious gains, and, with a voice and attitude of command, sternly addresses even the sellers of the offerings of the poor, — offerings such as His own mother had once presented, — and bids them take them hence, and make not the house of His Father a house of Mammon and merchandise? The half-astonished, half- assenting bystanders ask for a sign that might justify or accredit such an assumption of authority, and a sign is not withheld ; a sign which, though not understood at the time, appears from subsequent notices to have made no slight impression on those that heard it, 2 and to have been lovingly remembered and veri- fied when the dissolved Temple of their Master's body was reared up again on the predicted day. But not only by this authoritative act, and these words of mystery, but, as St. John has specially recorded, by the display of signs and wonders during the celebration of the l It seems not improbable that Meyer (in loc.) is right in referring Trduras (ver. 16) to ra re irpojiaTa koX tovs &6as, and that the translation should not be " and the sheep and the oxen " (Auth. Ver.), but, '■■both the sheep and the oxen," as in the ReviSi d Tratul. of St. John. p. 5. The true force of the re — xai is thus pre- served (eomp. Winer, Or. § 53. 4, p. 389), and the sacred narrative freed from one at least of the objection.-- which others beside Origen have felt in the Saviour's use of the (ppayeWtov against the sellers as well as against the animals they Bold. It may be observed that our Lord speaks to the " sellers of doves," not perhaps that he regarded them with greater consideration, (De Wette), — for compare Matt. xxi. 12, Mark xi. 15, — but simply because the animals could 1" ih i veil forth, while these latter offerings could only be removed. '■! That these words of our Lord referred to llis body, which stood to the Temple in the relation of type to antitype, is the distinct declaration of the inspired Evangelist (John ii. 21), and has justly been regarded by all the older expositors as the only true and possible interpretation of the words. To assert, then, that the reference was simply to the breaking up of the older form of religious worship and the substitution of a purer form in its place (Herder, Liicke, De Wette), is plainly to contradict that Evangelist who was blessed with the deepest insight into the mind of His divine Master, and further to substitute what is illogical and inexact for what is clear, simple, and consistent. See esp. •layer in /.«•. (p. 96, ed. 2), who has ably vindicated the authentic interpretation of the words. Bee also stier, Disc, of our Lord, Vol. i. p. 72 eq.j and on the eternal truth that our Lord did raise Himself, 1'earsoli, Creed, Alt. V. Vol. i. p. 8Q2 sq.(ed. Bart.). The futile objection founded on the supposed enigmatical oharacter of the declaration is well disposed of by Chrysostom, in loc. Vol. viii. P 165 l- (ed. Bened. 2). 124 THE EARLY JUDJEAN MINISTRY. Lect. III. festival, the deep heart of the people was stirred. Many believed, and among that many was one of by m m s S! °ami ™tiier the members of the Sanhedrin 1 whose name •**' .. „ is not nnhonored in the Gospel history. He Cm. u. 23. r ti who at this passover sought the Lord under cover of night, and to whom the Lord was pleased to un- fold the mysteiy of the new birth, 2 was so blessed by the regenerating power of the Spirit as to be emboldened at a later period to plead for the Lord in the open day, and to do honor to His crucified body. On that mysterious interview, which probably took Ch. xix. 39. J J John vii. 50. The discourse of place towards the end of the paschal week, our Lord with me- j canno t here enlarge: 3 but I may venture odemus. ° ' J to make one remark to those who desire to enter more deeply into the meaning of our Lord's words, 1 Of this timid yet faithful man nothing certain is known beyond the notices in St. John's Gospel, here and ch. vii. 50, xix. 39. The title he here bears, &PXW t&u 'lovBaicof (in. 1), seems to show that he was a member of the San- hedrin (comp. ch. vii. 26, CO, Luke xxiv. 20; Joseph. Antiq. xi. 1 2); and the further comment of our Lord [o SiSdffKaAos rov 'Icpa^A, ver. 10) may favor the supposition that he belonged to that portion of the venerable body which was not of Levitical or priestly descent, but is spoken of in the Gospels under the title of ypaixjj.are?s rov Kaov. See Kuapp, Scripta Far. Argum. Vol. i. p. 200, note; and comp. Lightfoot, Hor. Hebr. in Matt. ii. 4, Vol. ii. p. 260 (Roterod. 1686). Tradition says that Nicodemus was afterwards baptized by St. Peter and St. John, and expelled from his office and from the city. See Photius, Biblioth. § 171. 2 Whether the word avcoSev (ver. 3) is to be taken (a) in a temporal reference, and translated "anew" with the Vulgate, Pesh.-Syriac, Coptic, and Ethiopic Versions, and with Chrysostom (who, however, gives the other view) and Euthymius, or (b) to be taken in a local reference, and translated " from above,"' with the Gothic and Armenian Versions, and with Origen and Cyril, it is very hard to decide. The latter is perhaps most in accordance with the usage (ver. 31) and general teaching of St. John (see Meyer in toe.), the former with the apparent tenor of the dialogue. 3 For a good general exposition of this mysterious discourse of our Lord with the timid ruler, see generally, of the older writers, Chrysostom, in Joann. Horn, xxiv.— xxviii., Cyril Alex., in Joann. Vol. iv. p. 145—156, Augustine, in Joann. Tractat. xn. cap. 3, Euthymius and Theophylact in toe; and of the modern expositors, Knapp. Script. Var. Argum. Vol. i. p. Iii9— 254, Meyer, Kommentar. p. 101 sq., Stier, Disc, of our Lord, Vol. iv. p. 359 sq. (Clark), and the excellent work of Luthardt, Johan. Evang. Vol. i. p. 364 sq. Some good remarks on the character of Nicodemus will be found in Evans, Scripture Biography, Vol. ii. p. 233 sq. ; and an ingenious but not satisfactory defence of his timidity iu Niemej er, Chardht. Vol. i. p. 113 sq. Lect. III. THE EARLY JUD^AN MINISTRY. 125 and it is this, that if we remember, as I said in my first lecture, 1 that in St. John's Gospel our Lord especially appears before us as the reader of the human heart, we shall be prepared to find, as apparently we do find, that He often answers rather the thoughts than the words of the speaker, and alludes to the hidden feeling rather than the expressed sentiment. 2 If we bear this in mind, I verily believe that, by the help of God, we shall be enabled to gain some clew to understanding the more difficult parts of this most solemn and profound revelation. With this interview the occurrences of this eventful passover appear to have closed. Our Lord ... , , -i n , Our Lord leaves perceiving, by that same knowledge 01 the Jerusalem and re- human heart to which I have just alluded, paruo/judma. that He could no longer trust Himself even John a. 24. ° . Ch. Hi. »>. with those who had heard His teaching and beheld His miracles, now leaves Jerusalem, most probably for the northeastern portion of Judaea, 3 in the vicinity of the Jordan, where we seem to have good grounds for supposing that He was pleased to abide till nearly the end 1 See p. 44, note 3. 2 Thus, for example, at the very outset, our Lord's first words can scarcely be considered an answer to the words with which Kicodemus first addresses Him, but may very suitably be conceived an answer to the question of his heart, which seems rather to have related to the mode of gaining an entrance into the king- dom of God. Was the lowly but wonder-working Teacher whom he addressed the veritable Way, the Truth, and the Light, or was there some other way still compatible with the old and familiar tenets of Judaism? Chrysostom seems rather to imply that our Lord regards Kicodemus as not yet to have passed even into the outer porch of true knowledge (cm ou5e twv irpoSvpuv ttjs irpocrriKov- cttjs yviLcrtois «Ve'/3tj), and that He does not so much address Kicodemus as state generally a mystic truth, which he knew not of. but which might well arrest and engage his thoughts. Comment. inJoann. xxiv. Vol. viii. p. 161 (ed. Bened. 2). The very different views that have been taken of these opening words will be 6een in the commentaries above referred to. 3 The Evangelist only says, ?i\&ev u 'l-qaovs Kal ol /uoStjtoI ainov eis ri]i/ ^lovdaiav 7/jf (ch.iii.22): but from the closely-connected mention of the adminis- tration of baptism, it does not seem unreasonable to suppose, with Chrysostom, that our Lord retired to the Jordan («7rl rbv '\opHavi)u iroWaKis fy>x eT0 ), and perhaps sought again the place where He Himself had been baptized by John, (-'*• p. 108, note 2), and to which numbers might still be thronging. Lightfoot 1 a ii place more exactly to the north of Jerusalem, and closer to the direct route to Galilee. See Harmon. Quat. Evomg. Vol. i. p. 446(Uoterod. 1680). 11* 126 THE EARLY JUDiEAN MINISTRY. Lect. III. of the year. There the sacred narrative tells us He bap- tized by the hands of His disciples, 1 and so John iv. 2. ft ii wrought upon the hearts of the people that He eventually gathered round Him believers and disciples, which outnumbered those of John, many as there seems reason for supposing them now The final testi- . mony o/ the Bap- to have become. The Baptist was still free. _. .,. „ He was now at iEnon, 3 near Salim, a place of John lit. 23. ' i r waters in the northern portion of the valley of the Jordan, 4 and from which he might afterwards have passed by the fords of Succoth into the territory of the licentious Antipas. At this spot was deliv- John iii. 27—36. .. . _ . ered his final testimony to the Redeemer, — a testimony, perhaps, directed against a jealousy on the part of His disciples, 5 which might have been recently 1 The reason why our Lord did not Himself baptize has formed a subject of comment since the days of Tertullian. We can, however, scarcely adopt that early writer's view that it was owing to the difficulty of our Lord baptizing in His own name (de Baptism, cap. 11), but may plausibly adopt the opinion hinted at by the poetical paraphrast Nonnus (ov yap &va£ fSairri^tv iv uSaTi, p. 30, ed. Passow), and well expressed by Augustine ("praebebant discipuli ministerium corporis, prabebat ille adjutorium majestatis," in Joann. Tract, xv. 4. 3), — that baptism was a ministerial act, and thus more suitably performed by disciples than by their Lord. Compare Acts x. 48, 1 Cor. i. 17. 2 We can, of course, form no exact estimate of the actual numbers of disciples which John might have now gathered round him. As, however, the inspired narrative distinctly specifies the multitudes that came to his baptism (Matt.' iii. 5; Mark i. 5; Luke hi. 7), and alludes to the different classes and callings of which they were composed (Luke iii. 12), we may reasonably infer that the number of his actual disciples and followers could by no means have been inconsiderable. 3 Some plausible but purely contextual arguments for fixing the site of JEnon in the wilderness of Judrea will be found in Wieseler, Cliron. Synops. p. 249 sq. Such arguments, however, cannot safely be urged against the direct statements of early writers. See next note. 4 There seems good reason for identifying the Salim, near to which the Evangelist tells us John was baptizing, with some ruins at the northern base of Tell Ridghah, near to which is a beautiful spring, and a Wely (Saint's tomb), called Sheikh Salim. See Van de Velde, 3Iemoir, p. 345. Robinson appears to doubt this (Palestine, Vol. iii. p. 333, ed. 2), but without sufficient reason. The mere coincidence of name might perhaps be an unsafe argument, if the position of the place did not accord with the position of Salim as fixed by Jerome in his Onomasticon (Art. "^Enon"), where iEnon and Salim are both noticed as being eight Roman miles from Scythopolis. See Van de Velde, Syria and Palestine, Vol. ii. p 345 sq. fi The words of the sacred text (John iii. 20) give us some grounds for supposing Lect. III. THE EARLY JUDJEAN MINISTRY. 127 called out by the Jew ' with whom they had been contend- ing on the subject of purifying. That testi- mony was in one respect mournfully pro- ' phetic. He had now begun, even as he him- self said, to decrease ; his ministry was over ; the Bride- groom had come, and the friend of the bridegroom had heard his voice, and the joy of that faithful J J John in. 20. friend was now completed and full. Thus it was that apparently at the close of this year, or, accord- ing to a recent chronologer, two or three months later, 2 the fearless rebuker of sin, though it be in kings' palaces, is seized on by the irritated yet superstitious Antipas, and, it possible that feelings of doubt or jealousy might have been shown by some of St. John's disciples, — feelings which perhaps might have remained even to a later period, and might have been one of the causes which led to the mission of the two disciples recorded in Matt. xi. 2 sq., Luke vii. 18 sq. There is an expres- sion of something unlooked for, and perhaps not wholly approved of, in the fSe ovros $airTi£et teal Trdurts ipyoviai irpbs avr6v. So Augustine (" moti sunt discipuli Johannis; coucurrebatur ad Christum, veniebatur ad Johanueni''), and still more distinctly Chrysost. in loc. 1 There seems no reasonable doubt that the true reading is 'louSaiov, and not 'IouSaiW (i!,'c). The evidence for the former, which includes eleven uncial MSS. in addition to the Alexandrian and Vatican, will be found in the new edition of Tischendorf's Neio Test. Vol. i. p. 564. What the exact subject of the contention was we are not told, further than that it was irepl Kafrapiff/xov (vcr. 25); it might well have arisen, as Augustine suggests, from the statement on the part of t lie Jew [August, adopts the plural], — " majorem esse Christum, et ad ejus baptismum debere concurri." — In Joann. Tract, xm. 3. 8. 2 The exact date of the captivity of the Baptist is a question of great difficulty, and perhaps can never be settled. See Winer, IIWB. Art. "Johannes der Tau- ter." Vol. i. p. 690. Wieseler, in a very elaborate discussion (Chron. Synop.t. p. 223—251), has endeavored to show that it took place about the feast of Purim in the following year (March 19, A. u. C. 782), and that he was beheaded a few days before the Passover (April 17) of the same year. The latter date seems made out [gee ' Tirotl. Synops. p. 2'J2 sq.). but the former is open to many objections, two of ■which may be specified: («) the way in which our Lord speaks of the Baptist (John v. 33); and (l>) the brief space of time that is thus necessarily assigned to his captivity, — a time apparently as unduly short as that assigned by Greswell is unnecessarily long. See Dissert, x. (Append.) Vol. iii. p. 425. It seems then, on the whole, safer to adopt the first view in the text, and to suppose that St. John was put into prison shortly before our Lord"s present departure into (iali- lee, and that the avax wp7)/>.-<. p. 356 ,-<|. (note), where the name is connected, apparently less probably, with ""i;-"-."-'! "to liire," in reference to Gen. xxxiii. 19. It is now called Nabu- 1ns, by a contraction from the name of Neapolis, afterwards given it by the Romans; but it seems probable that the ancient city was larger and extended nearer to Jacob's well. See Robinson, Palestine, Vol. ii. p. 292 (ed. 2). where there "ill be found a full and excellent description of the place and its vicinity. Compare also Thomson, The Land and the IUink, Vol. ii. p. 200 sq., where a sketch will be found of the entrance into the citj . Van de Velde, Syria and Palestine, Vol. i. p. 386 sq., and a photographic view by Frith, Egypt and J'll/r. I er. 54. Water wine." There He yet again performs a second miracle in bringing back to life the dying son of the 1 The exact meaning of our Lord's comment record, John iv. 44, avrbs yap 'Irjcrous k. t. \., is not perfectly clear, owing to the apparent difficulty caused by the argumentative yap, and the doubtful application of irarpitii. That this latter word docs not refer to Judaea (Origen, and recently Wieseler, Citron- Synops. p. 4. r >), but to Galilee, seems almost certain from the mention of Ta\t- Aaia hoth in the preceding and succeeding verses. The force of the yap is, how- • •- easj i" decide upon, but is perhaps to be sought for in the fact that our Lord Btayod bo short a time with the Samaritans, and avoided rather than courted popularity, it is true that be found it in Galilee (ver. 46), but that was because He brought it, as it were, from another country. The Galileans did not honor the Lord as their own prophet, but as One whom they had seen work wonders at Jerusalem. The explanatory force adopted by Lucke and others does not harmonize with the simplicity of the context. - See John iv. 46, 1i\$ev oZv \b 'I^o-oCs] ird\tv els Tr\v Kara, — where the out/ to imply that the visit of our Lord was in consequence of this disposition on the part of the Galileans. He sees the effect which miracles produced upon the people, and is pleased so tar to condescend to their infirmities as to sojourn for fl time at t lie scene of a miracle that must have made a great impression on I who witne I it, and the memory of which His presence among them might savingly revive and reanimate. See Chry60stom in loc. Horn. xxv. Vol. viil. p. 325. 132 THE EARLY JULIAN MINISTRY. Lect. III. Capernaite nobleman, 1 — a miracle which wrought its blessed effects on the father and his whole household, and may thus perchance have had some influence in leading our Lord, three months after- wards, when rejected by the wretched mad- Luke iv. 29. ^ "' men of JSlazareth, to make Capernaum His earthly home. 2 Our present portion of the Evangelical history contains but one more event, — the journey of our mm to "Jerusalem Lord to Jerusalem, and his miraculous cure a^the /east of pu- of the fog^ man at the pool f Bethesda. johnv is Here, I need scarcely remind you, we at once find ourselves encountered by a question, on the answer to which our whole system of Gospel-harmony mainly depends, and on which we find, both in ancient 3 and modern times, the most marked diversity of opinions. The question is, what festival does St. John refer to at the beginning of the fifth chapter of his Gospel, when he tells 1 From the instances from Josephus of the use of the term f3affi\it<6s, that have been collected by Krebs (Obs. in Nov. Test. p. 144), we may perhaps reason- ably conclude that the person here specified was not a relative (C'hrys. I.), but in the service of Herod Antipas (" in famulitio et ministerio regis." Krebs, I. c), — in what capacity, however, cannot be determined. The opinion that this miracle was identical with that of the healing of the centurion's servant (Matt. viii. 5 sq., Luke vii. 1 sq.) is mentioned both by Origen (in Joann. Tom. xm. 60) and Chrysostom [in Joann. Horn. xxxv. 2), but very properly rejected by them. Kothing really is identical in the two miracles, except the locality of the sufferer, and the fact that our Saviour did not see him. See especially Theophylact and Euthymius in loc. 2 For some good comments on the details of this miracle, — one of the charac- teristics of which is the performance of the cure by our Lord not only without His seeing (as in the case of the centurion's servant), but when at a distance of some miles from the sufferer, — see the commentaries of Origen, Chrysostom, Cyril Alex., Theophylact, and Euthymius; and for a general view of the whole, Hall, Contempt, in. 2, and Trench, Miracles, p. 117 sq. Compare also Lange, Leben Jesu, n. 4. 10, Part n. p. 552 sq. 3 The differences of opinion as to the festival mentioned in John v. 1, are not confined to modern writers. Irensus says that it was at the Passover (Hter. ir. 39), but as we cannot ascertain what reading (eoprTj or 7] kopri], see next note) was adopted by this ancient writer, his opinion must be received with some reserve. Chrysostom, Cyril of Alexandria, and after them Theophylact and Euthymius, with more plausibility, suppose it to have been the feast of Pente- cost. See, however, p. 133, note 2. Lect. III. THE EARLY JUD.EAN MINISTRY. 133 us that "there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem"? The various answers I will not now pause to discuss, but will say briefly, that, after a prolonged consideration of this difficult sub- ject, I venture to think that as the language of St. John, according to the correct text, 1 and when duly considered, does seem distinctly unfavorable to this festival being con- sidered as either the Passover or one of the three greater festivals, 2 we may, not without many plausible arguments, adopt the view of the best recent harmonists and commen- tators, and regard it as the Feast of Purim, 3 — the com- 1 The true reading appears certainly to be eoprri (7?ec), without the article. It has, in addition to secondary authorities, the support of three out of the four leading uncial MSS. (the Alex. Vatic, and that of Beza), is specially commented on in the Chronicon Paschale (p. 405 sq., ed. Diudorf.), and is adopted by Lach- mann, Tischeudorf, and the best recent editors. 2 The principal arguments are as follow, and seem of some weight: (n) the omission of the article, which, though sometimes observed when a verb sub- Btant. precedes pliddleton, Greek Art.; comp. Neander, Life of Christ, p. 234, note, Bohn), or when a strictly defining or possessive genitive follows (see exx. in Winer, Qramm. § 19. 2. b), cannot possibly be urged in the case of a merely inverted sentence like the present, and where the gen. has no such special and defining force. See Winer, Qramm. I. e. p. 232, note. [The answer to this in Robinson, Harmony, p. 199 (Tract. Soc), has no force, as the cases adduced are not out of St. John, wholly different, and easily to be accounted for.] To this we may add (b) the absence of the name of the festival, whereas St. John seems always to specify it. Compare ch. ii. 13, vii. 2, and even (in the case of the fyKaifta) x. 22. Again (<•) it seems now generally agreed upon that it was not tlir Pentecost; that if it be a Passover, our Lord would then have been as long a time as eighteen months absent from Jerusalem (see Wicselcr, Chrnn. Synops. p. 217); and that if it be the Feast of Tabernacles, we then, according to Ebrard (Krit.dt r Ev.GeacA. § 37, p. 157), 7nHsr adopt the highly improbable view that it was lint the (TKTjvoirriyia. that followed the Passover mentioned cb. ii. 13, but that followed a second Passover, which St. John, usually so accurate on this point see ch. vi. 4), bas not specified. Lastly, (d) if the note of time alluded to, p. 128, note 4, be accepted, the difficulties alluded to in (c) will be greatly complicated and enhanced. The arguments in favor of this particular festival, though sufficiently strong to have gained the assent of a decided majority of the best recent expositors, are still of a dependent and negative character. They are as follows : (a) if the note of time derived from .John iv. 35 be correct, then the festival here men- tioned clearly falls between the end of one year and the Passover of the one following (eh. vi. 4), and Consequently can be no other than the Feast of Purim, Which was celebrated on the fourteenth and fifteenth of the month Adar (Fstli. ix. 21); ('/) if, as seems shown in the above note, strong critical as well as exeget- Ical objections can be urged against any and all of the other festivals thai have been proposed, then a remaining festival which is only open to objections of a 12 134 THE EARLY JUD.EAN MINISTRY. Lect. III. memorative feast of Esther's pleading and Haman's over- throw. This festival, it would appear by backward computation, must have taken place in this present year of our Lord's life (a. tj. c. 782), on the nineteenth of March, 1 and, as we may reasonably infer from the narrative, a Sabbath-day, — a day on which, according to the ancient, though not according to the modern calendar of the Jews, this festival could apparently have been celebrated, 2 and, singularly enough, the only instance in which a Sabbath could fall upon any one of the festivals of the year in question. 3 weaker and more general character (see below, note 2) deserves serious con- sideration ; (c) if this date be fixed upon, the chronology of the period between it and the following Passover not only admits of an easy adjustment, but also, as will be seen in the course of the narrative, involves some striking coincidences and harmonies which reflect great additional plausibility upon the supposition. For additional notices and arguments, see Anger, de Tempt, in Act. Apost. i. p. 24 sq., Wieseler, Citron. Synops. pp. 205—222, Lange, Leben Jesu, Book n. Part I. p. 9; and for perhaps the strongest statement of the counter-arguments, Hengstenberg, Christology, Vol. iii. p. 244 sq. (Clark). 1 For the principles on which this computation rests, see Wieseler, Cliron. Synops. p. 206 sq., compared with p. 219. Compare also the useful table in Tischendorf, Synops. Evang. p. li. ; and for general tables for facilitating such calculations, see Browne, Ordo Seed. § 452 — 455, p. 499 sq. 2 This seems to be made out by Wieseler, Chron. Synops. p. 219 sq., but it is so strongly questioned by Hengstenberg (Christology, Vol. iii. p. 248), who refers for proofs to Keland, Antiq. Sacr. IV. 9, and the special treatise of Shickard, on this festival, reprinted in the Critici Sacri, Vol. ii. p. 1183 (ed. Amstelod. 1698 — 1732), — that a few comments must be made on the subject. Much seems to turn on the question whether the fourteenth of Adar, or, as Hengstenberg urges, the day on which the roll of Esther was read, — a day, as will be seen from the Mishna, made variable for convenience, — was the true day of the fes- tival. With the opening sections of the Tract l; Megillah" before us, we shall probably (with Wieseler) decide for the former, especially when we compare with the preceding sections the close of sect. 3, where it is said, in answer to the general question, "when the Megillah may be read, before its proper time," that an exception is to be made for places where it is customary for [the country people] to assemble on Mondays and Thursdays, but that " where that does not take place it may only be read on its proper day" (i ' r ' choly prominence. Abruptly, as it would seem, perhaps only a day or two after this eventful Sab- bath,-' the Lord leaves Jerusalem, to return to His old home in Galilee ; there, alas, to meet with a yet sadder rejec- tion, and to withdraw from hands more sav- age and murderous than those even of the „ .. . s? ' & Luke iv. 28. Pharisees of Jerusalem. With this return to Galilee, — which is implied in the interval between the fifth and sixth chapters The termination of St. John, and which has been supposed, o/theeariyjudaian it i-i i"!i tiiinistry. though 1 cannot think correctly, by a recent sacred chronologer, 4 as identical with the MartuUt departure or return to Galilee specified by all the three Synoptical Evangelists, — this portion of our history comes to its conclusion. 1 The first of these was at our Lord's visit to Jerusalem, during the Feast of Tabernacles, towards the middle of October in the present year, a. u. c. 782 (John vii. 1 sq., comp. Luke ix. 51 sq.); the second at His appearance in Jerusa- lem at the Feast of the Dedication, in the December of the same year (John x. 22 sq.). i! When our Lord left Jerusalem is not mentioned, or even implied, but after the impious efforts directed against His life we may reasonably conclude that it was immediately, — the very day, perhaps, after the present Sabbath, and thus with fully sufficient time to reach Galilee and Nazareth before the Sabbath which succeeded. Comp. Wieeeler, Chron. Synops. p. 222, 2C0 sq. 3 See above, p. 127, note 2, and the beginning of the next Lecture, where this question is noticed more at length. •4 See Wieseler, Chron. Synops. p. 161 sq.. compared with p. 223. This oppor- tunity may proper!] be taken of especially recommending to the attention of every thoughtful student, who may in- acquainted with the language in which it is written, this able treatise on the succession of the events in the Gospel-history. The more recent Synopsis BvangeUca of Teschendorf is based nearly entirely upon the researches and deductions of this keen-sighted writer, and the present work owes :i ver\ large pari of what may be thought plausible or probable in its ohronologioal arrangement to the same Intelligent guide. It is jus! to state that nothing has been accepted without independent and very deliberate investiga- tion, and that many modifications, and, as it would seem, rectifications have been Introduced. The clew, however, even where it has been judged to lead off in a different direction, has in most oases, I again most gratefully acknow either been Indicated or supplied by this excellent work. A translation of it would be a \er\ welcome aid to the general reader. 140 THE EARLY JUD.EAN MINISTRY. Lect. III. Thus, then, what has been roughly termed the Judaean ministry — a ministry extending continuously from the March to the December of the preceding year (a. u. c. 781), and resumed only to be abruptly broken off in the March of the present year (a. u. c. 782) — may be considered as now practically ended. 1 This is immediately succeeded by the ministry in Galilee, and in the neighboring districts to the north and east, — a ministry, be it again observed, to which the principal portion of the Synoptical Gospels, especially of the first and second, 2 is nearly exclusively confined. If we only steadily bear in mind that the Syn- optical Gospels mainly relate to us the events of the min- istry in Galilee, the rough starting-point of which is the Baptist's captivity, 3 we shall, I venture to feel confident, find but little difficulty in appreciating the true relations to one another of the four Gospels, and in mastering the general outline of the succeeding portions of the Evan- gelical narrative. And now let me close this lecture with the earnest 1 The short period of two months which intervenes between the Feast of Tabernacles and the Feast of the Dedication was probably spent in Judaea (see Lecture VI.), and thus might properly be considered a portion of the Judaean ministry. The general reader, however, will find it more convenient to regard the main Judaean ministry as now past, the Galilaean ministry as about to follow, and to be succeeded by a period of broken and interrupted ministrations, of removals and journeys, which terminate with the last Passover. See above, Lect. ii. p. 51. 2 It seems necessary to make this limitation, as the Gospel of St. Luke from the close of the ninth to the middle of the nineteenth chapter — a very consid- erable portion of that Gospel — is occupied with notices of that portion of our Lord's ministry which intervened between the Feast of Tabernacles (October, A. u. c. 782) and the triumphal entry into Jerusalem just preceding the last Pass- over (April, a. u. c. 783). 3 See above, p. 127, note 2. The ancient tradition on which this very reason- able opinion mainly rests is cited below, p. 146, note 1. The reason why the Synoptical Evangelists leave unnoticed the early ministry in Juda;a cannot, per- haps, be readily assigned. As, however, it seems certain that nearly every system of chronology must, in a greater or less degree, concede the fact, we may, with all humility and reverence, perhaps hazard the opinion that these Evangelists were specially directed and guided mainly to confine their narrative to the period of the ministry in Galilee, — a period so marked, not only by the found- ing of the Church, but by the exhibition of many and mighty miracles, and the communication of varied and manifold forms of heavenly teaching. Compare Wieseler, Chron. Syno2)s. p. 261. Lect. Iir. THE EARLY JULVEAN MINISTRY. 141 prayer that these hasty and fleeting sketches 1 may have in some decree served to bring this portion of „ , ° . Limchuhng re- the history of our Redeemer before our minds marks tmdexhorta- with increased measures of freshness and coherence. Hard it has been, very hard, to adjust the many questions of contested history ; harder still to know where to enlarge or where to be brief only in unfolding the connection of events which are still regarded by the wise and meditative as in uncertain dependence, or in more than precarious sequence. Yet I trust all has not been in vain ; I trust that in you, my younger brethren, more espe- cially, 2 I have awakened some desire to search the Scrip- tures, and to muse on the events of your Redeemer's life with a fresher and more vital interest. Remember, I be- seech you, that though chronologies may seem perplexing and events intermingled, yet still that every earnest effort to bring before your hearts the living picture of your Redeemer's life will be blessed by His Spirit. 3 Be not discouraged by the difficulty of the task; though here, 1 This is the term which is most appropriate to these Lectures, and which would have appeared on the very title-page if it had not been deemed unsuitable to place a term so purely belonging to mere human things in connection with the most holy name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 2 Some experience as a public examiner in the New Testament, both in this University and elsewhere, has served to teach me that few points connected with the exposition of the four Gospels are less known or less attended to, by the young, than the study of the probable order of events, and the relations and degrees of interdependence existing between the records of the four inspired \\ 1 itiTS. 8 It is well and truly observed by Bishop Taylor, in his noble introduction to his greatest work, The /.if: qf Christ, that every true and sincere effort to set before oar souls the life of our .Master both ought to and, with God's blessing, mu-t needs end in imitation. " lie that Considers," says the Chrysostom of our Church, in reference to one particular aspect of our Lord's life, "with what effusions of love Jesus prayed, — what fervors and assiduity, what innocency of wish, what modesty of posture, what subordination to His Father, and con- formity to the Divine pleasure, were in all His devotions, — is taught and excited to holy and religious prayer. The rare sweetness of His deportment in all ti mptations and violences of His passion, His charity to II is enemies, His sharp reprehension of the Scribes ami Pharisees, Bis Ingenuity toward all men, are living and effectual sermons to teach us patience and humility and zeal, and candid simplicity and justice iu all our actions." — Life of Christ, Prelim. Exhort. { 15, Vol. i. p. 25 (Loud. 183G). 142 THE EARLY JUD^AN MINISTRY. Lect. III. perchance, we may wander; there miss the right clew; yet, if with a true and living faith we seek to bring home to our hearts the great features of the Evangelical history, — to journey with our Master over the lonely mountains of Galilee; to sit with Him beside the busy waters of the lake of Gennesareth ; to follow His footsteps into remote and half-pagan lands, 1 or to hang on His lips in the courts of His Father's house, — we shall not seek in vain. The history of the Gospels will be more and more to us a liv- ing history ; one Divine Image ever waxing cleai'er and brighter, — shedding its light on lonely hours, coming up before us in solitary walks, ever fresher, ever dearer, — until at length all things will seem so close, so near, so true, that our faith in Jesus and Him crucified will be such as no sophistry can weaken, no doubtfulness becloud. 2 For that vivid interest in the history of Jesus let us all pray to our heavenly Father; and in the name of Him on whom we have been meditating, let us con- Lttke xvii. 5. elude with the prayer of His chosen ones, " Lord, increase our faith." 1 This striking and commonly too much overlooked portion of our Lord's ministry will be found noticed especially in Lect. v. 2 For an expansion of these passing comments on the unspeakable blessedness of this form of meditative union with our adorable Saviour, the student may profitably be referred to one of the most eloquent devotional treatises ever written in our language, — the Christ Mystical of Bp. Hall ( Works, Vol. vii. p. 225. Talboys, 1837). LECTURE IV. THE MINISTRY IN EASTERN GALILEE. NOW AFTER TIIAT JOHN WAS PUT IN PRISON, JESUS CAME INTO GALILEE, PREACHING THE GOSPEL OB" THE KINGDOM OF GOD. — St. Mark i. 14. In resuming my course of Lectures upon those events in the life of our Lord and Master which are recorded to us in the Gospels, it will be per- J^ "^" 6 haps well for me, both in consideration of the time that has elapsed since my last Lecture, 1 and with the remembrance that some may now be present who did not hear the former portion of this course, 2 so far to recapitu- late as to remind you briefly of our present position in the Gospel-history, and of the events which appear to have just preceded our present starting-point. It may perhaps be remembered that our last meditations were devoted to what we agreed to term our Lord's early Judaean ministry, 3 — a ministry £%£*££ which commenced with the cleansing of the *£**"* """"" Temple at our Lord's first Passover (March A. u. c. 781), 4 and extended continuously to the December l Tlie first three Lectures of tliis course were delivered in the month of April, the present and the two following not till the succeeding October. The brief recapitulation in the text could thus hardly be dispensed with, when so long an interval had elapsed between the two portions of the course. In the form in which the Lectures now appear it is not so necessary ; as, however, it has seemed probable that, in 8 subject like the present, a brief recapitulation might be of benefit even to the general reader, the Lecture has been left in the same statu iu which it was delivered. '■i This refers to the new-comers in the October term. Sec the remarks in Lecture I. p. 20. •"• See Lecture II. p. 51, and compare p. 140, note 1. i If the tables constructed by Wieseler ( Citron. Synopx. ]>. 482 so,.; reprinted in Tischendorf, Synops. Evany, p. li.) ou the basis of astronominal data sup- 144 THE MINISTRY IN EASTERN GALILEE. Lect. IV. of that year when our Lord returned to Galilee through Samaria, and performed the second and, as it would seem, isolated miracle of healing the son of the nobleman of Capernaum. 1 It may be further remembered that after a brief stay in Galilee, — of which we have no further record than the passing comment of St. Luke, that "lie taught Ch . ]5 in their synagogues, being glorified of all," 2 ch. if. i7. and the similarly brief notices of St. Matthew and St. Mark, that the burden of that teach- ing was repentance, — our Lord went up to Jerusalem, at the time of a festival, which it was judged highly probable was that of Purim, with the apparent intention of staying over plied by Wurm (Astron. Beitragc) are to be relied on as exact, the first day of this Passover, i. e. according to popular usage, the fourteenth of Nisan took place on the twenty-ninth of March. One day earlier (March 2S) is the date specified by Browne [Ordo Seed. § 64), but the Tables from which it appears to have been derived (§ 448) are admitted to involve sufficient error to account for the difference. See the examples on p. 497. 1 See above, Lect. in. p 131. 2 This text appears to illustrate, if not confirm, the opinion previously advanced (?ee above, p. 127, note 2), that the return of our Lord specified by the three Synoptical Evangelists (Matt. iv. 12, Mark i. 14, Luke iv. 14) does not coincide with the interval between the fifth and sixth chapters of St. John, but with the return specified by that Evangelist in the fourth chapter. The words of St. Luke just seem to give that passing notice of the two-month residence in Galilee, which preceded the Feast of Purim, that we might naturally expect. The chief feature which probably marked that period, preaching and teaching in the synagogues, is briefly specified, while in the words Bo^a^o/xevos vTrh Travrwu it is just possible that there may be an oblique allusion to the miracle which we know from St. John (ch. iv. 44) was performed during that interval. The force of the main objection, that the Synoptical narrative does not thus, as it would seem to profess to do, commence immediately after that return of our Lord to Galilee, but really two months later, is thus so far weakened, that when we further observe, — (a) that of two returns to Galilee, St. John pauses carefully to specify one, and leaves the other almost unnoticed (comp. ch. vi. 1), and again, (6) that in ch. v. 35 our Lord seems to speak of John's ministry as some- thing now quite belonging to the past, it appears difficult to resist the convic- tion that the distinctly-mentioned avaxupyvis into Galilee of the Synoptical writers, immediately after John's captivity, is identical with the carefully speci- fied journey recorded in the fourth chapter of St. John. See Teschendorf, Synopsis E rang- lieu, p. xxv , and for the arguments (not very strong) in favor of the identity of the above return with that implied in John vi. 1, Wieseler, Chron. Synops. p. 161 s<;. The attempt of Lange {Lcben Jesu, Part n.) and others to interpolate a considerable portion of the events of the present earlier Galilean ministry betieeen the return through Samaria and the Feast of Purim has been well considered, and been found to involve chronological difficulties wholly insurmountable. Lect. IV. THE MINISTRY IN EASTERN GALILEE. 145 the Passover, 1 but that, owing to the malignity of the more hostile section of the Jews, He appears to have left the city almost immediately, and again to have returned to Galilee. Here our present section begins, and with it what may be termed the Lord's Galiloean or extra-Judaean ministry, — a ministry which in itself lasted about six months, but which, combined with the journeys and interrupted minis- tries which succeeded, occupied as nearly as possible a single year, 2 — the " acceptable year " of that ancient prophecy which our Lord Himself Luke7v'zi proclaimed in the synagogue at Nazareth as now receiving its fulfilment, — the year to which a most 1 See above, p. 135, note 3. 2 The ministry of our Lord would thus seem to have lasted about two years and three months, i. e. from His baptism at the close of 27 a. d. (780 a. u. c.) or beginning of 28 a. d. to the last Passover in 30 a. d. The opinions on this sub- ject have been apparently as much divided in ancient as in modern times. Several early writers, among whom may be specified Clement of Alexandria (.Strom. 1. 21, $ 145), Origen (de Princip. iv. 5, in Levit. Horn, ix., in Luc. Horn. XXXII., but see below), Archelaus of Mesopotamia (Routh, Reliq. Sacr. Vol. iv. p. 218), and, according to apparently fair inferences, Julius Africanus (Gres- well, Dissert, xm. Vol. i. p. 4G), suppose our Lord's ministry to have lasted tittle more than one ijear. Others again, of equal or even greater antiquity, such as Melito of Sardis (Routh, Reliq. Sacr. Vol. i. p. 115), Irenaeus (liar. 11. 39, but see below), and, according to correct inferences, Tertullian (see Kaye, Eccl. Hist. ch. 11. p. 159, and compare Browne, Onto Seed. § 86. 3), and, later in life, Origen (Cels. II. 12, ou$t rpia trrj), have lixed the duration as three years, or, as Irenxus (I.e.) implies, even more. A calm consideration of these and other passages from early writers will show that they cannot be strongly pressed on either side. Several of them involve references to prophecy, which in some cases evidently swayed the opinion of the writer (comp. Euseb. Dan. Erang. vm. 400 u); some (as the passage of Irenaeus) are called out by the counter-opinion of heretics, while others again are mere obiter dicta, that cannot fairly be urged as giving a really deliberate opinion. After a review of the whole evidence, the most reasonable opinion, and one which tends in a great degree to harmonize these citations, is this, — that the genera] feeling of antiquity was that our Lord's inlirr ministry lasted for a period, speaking roughly, of about three years, but that the more active part, i. c. that with which the synoptical narrative practically commences, lasted one. It' this be correct, the statement at the beginning of the note has to a certain extent the united support of all antiquity, and suf- ficiently nearly accords with the three years of the significant parable (Luke xiii. 6 sq.), which has, perhaps rightly, been prosed into this controversy. See \\ [1 eler, Chron. Synops. p. 202; and for further general information, Greswell, Dim rt. sin. Vol. i. 138 sq., Browne, Ordo Sad. § 85 sq., and the acute comments of Anger, de Titnp. in Act. Apost. p 23 sq. 13 146 THE MINISTRY IN EASTERN GALILEE. Lect. IV. trustworthy tradition preserved by Eusebius confines the narrative of the three Synoptical Gospels. 1 Before we enter upon the details of the inspired history, let me pause to make two preliminary obser- oilr°vaHo*™ ai ' v nations, the first in reference to the space of time which it is convenient to consider in the present Lecture; the second in reference to the variations of order in the events as related in this portion of the Synoptical Gospels. With regard to the first point, we may observe that we m . J have now before us the events of a year and Ttie exact ■period •> of time embraced in a few days, 2 distributed, however, very une- the present Lecture. n • i /-i i • /-\ ,. quallyin the Gospel-narrative. Or the events of the first portion, which, as will be seen, are included in a period of little more than three weeks, we have an ample and almost continuous history; of the events of the whole remaining period (excluding the final week of our Lord's ministry), more isolated and detached notices, and a some- what altered mode of narration. This being the case, I venture to think that we shall both distribute our incidents more equably, and, what is more important, keep distinct 1 The valuable tradition above alluded to is as follows: "When the three first written Gospels had now been delivered into the hands of all, and of John too as well, they say that he approved of them and bore witness to their truth, and that thus all that the history lacked was an account of the things done by Christ at first and at the beginning of His preaching. And the account is certainly true. For it is easily seen that the other three Evangelists have only written an account of what was done by our Saviour in the space, of one year after the imprisonment of John the Baptist, and that they have intimated the same at the beginning of their history." — Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. ill. 24. Compare Wieseler, Chron. Sijnops. p. 1G3. 2 The first event is the rejection of our Lord on His appearance in the syna- gogue at Nazareth (Luke iv. 16). This we know was on a Sabbath-day, the exact date of which — if Wieseler's Tables (see above, p. 143, note 4) are fully to be relied on, and if the Feast of I'urim fell, as it appears to have done, on the Sab- bath when our Lord healed the man at the pool of Bethesda (see Lect. ill. p. 134) — would be March 20. The l'assover of the succeeding year, we learn from the same authority, commenced on April 6. We have then exactly a year and eleven days. The calculation by which the week-day answering to any given date is arrived at will be greatly facilitated by Tables iv. and v. in Browne's Ordo Seed. p. 502 sq. In the present case it will be found by independent computation (hat, as above asserted, March 20 coincided with a Saturday. Lect. IV. THE MINISTRY IN EASTERN GALILEE. 14.7 from one another portions of the Gospels which appear to be dissimilar in their general characteristics, 1 if on the present occasion we confine ourselves solely to the events of the three weeks above alluded to, and reserve for the remaining Lectures the events of the longer portion. The dividing epoch, let it be observed, is that of the feeding of the five thousand, — an epoch by no means arbitrarily chosen, but, as a brief chronological notice in St. John s Gospel warrants our asserting, an epoch closely coincident with that Passover of the present year, 2 which the savage and impious designs of the Jewish party at Jerusalem appear to have prevented our Lord from celebrating in the Holy City. 3 Estimating, then, roughly by festivals, our present period extends from the Feast of Purim (March 19, a. u. c. 782) to the Pass- over-eve (April 14), at which point our present medita- tions will conveniently come to their close. With regard to the second point, — the order of the events in these three weeks, let me briefly J Ttie variations of observe that the period we are now engaged order in the three , , . ,. , , . Synuidical Oospeh. in presents the utmost difficulty to the har- monist, 4 arising from this simple fact, that though all the 1 This statement will be substantiated by the succeeding comments upon the variations of order in the fust three Evangelists (p. 148), and by the introductory remarks at tin- commencement of Lecture IV. The main points to be observed are, that up to the feeding of the live thousand the order of events in St. Mat- tliew appears intentionally modified, after that period, mainly regular and sys- tematic; and that up to the same point St. Luke is full and explicit, while to the six months between that period and the journey to Jerusalem at the Feast of Tabernacles he only devotes about thirty verses. 2 This useful conciliatory date is commented upon by Wieselcr, Oiron. Synops. p. 273. To set aside the words to iraffxa. as a gloss (Maun, True Year of our Lard's Birth, p. 161; comp. Browne, Ordo Seed. § 89) is arbitrary, and not justi- lied by any external evidence. 8 See above, p. 133, note 3. •I These discrepancies perhaps can never be wholly cleared up, especially iu those cases where there are partial notes of place which augment the already existing difficulties in regard Of time. To take an example: in the case of the healing of the leper recorded in the three Synoptical Gospels, independent of all the difficulties arising from the difference in time, the scene of the miracle as defined by St. Matthew, KarafidyTi 8e a'lTio aTfb rod upovs (ch. viii. 1), does not Si . in to accord with the iv pii rwv Tr6\ewv of St. Luke (ch. v. V2). We can, of 148 THE MINISTRY IN EASTERN GALILEE. Lect. IV. first three Evangelists record more or less the same facts, St. Matthew relates them in an order so signally and pal- pably different from that adopted by St. Mark and St. Luke, that all efforts to combine the two must be pro- nounced simply hopeless. 1 Either for those three weeks we must accept the order of St. Matthew and adapt that of St. Mark and St. Luke to it, or we must adopt the con- verse course. The third alternative, that of constructing a harmony of our own out of all three, — an alternative that has only too often been adopted by the ingenious and the speculative, — is in a high degree precarious, and, as far as I am able to judge, has not led to any other than debatable and unsatisfactory results. Without here entering into details, which delivered orally would prove both wearisome and perplexing, 2 1 will course, imagine several ways in which the two accounts could be harmonized, but we must be satisfied with merely putting them forward as tentative and conjectural. At first sight it might be thought judicious, in a case like the pres- ent, to consider the special notice of St. Matthew as contrasted with the more general notices of St. Mark and St. Luke as definitely fixing both the time and place (comp. Alford on Matt. viii. 2), but a remembrance of the principle of grouping, which appears almost evidently to have been followed in this portion of the record of the first Evangelist (comp. Lecture I. p. 35), warns us at once that all such eclectic modes of harmonizing can never be relied on, and that even with St. Matthew's accessory definitions the order of the events he relates must to the last remain a matter of uncertainty. 1 Let the student either make for himself, with the proper notes of time and place, three lists of the events in their order, as related by the first three Evan- gelists, or refer to those drawn up by others, as, for instance, by Wieseler (Chron. Synops. pp. 280, 297), Browne (Ordo Sacl. § 586), or any of the better harmoniz- ers of this portion of the inspired narrative, and he will feel the truth of this remark. For example, if 1 .... 26 represent in order the events of this period as collected from St. Mark and St. Luke, the order in St. Matthew will be found as follows : 1, 2, 3, 5, 12, 6, 13, 4, 19, 20, 7, 8, 21, 23, 15, 9, 10, 18, 17, 22, 25, 26. Such a result speaks for itself. 2 To conduct such an inquiry properly, we must endeavor (a) to form a correct idea of the general object of the Gospel in question, and to observe how far this admits of its being made the basis of a regular and continuous Gospel-history; (6) to collect all the passages which in any degree indicate the principles, anec- dotal or historical, on which the Evangelist appears to have drawn up his narra- tive; (c) to note carefully the nature and amount of the irregularities which can be detected, either from a comparison of different portions of the same Gospel with one another, or with parallel accounts in the other Gospels; (d) to classify the notes optima and place, and to observe where they are precise and definitive, and where merely vague and indefinite; lastly, (e) to investigate the nature of Thr order of St, Murk and St. Lvke followed in these Lectures, Lect. IV. THE MINISTRY IN EASTERN GALILEE. 149 simply say, that after long and careful consideration, and with a full sense of the great responsibility of making distinct assertions on such diffi- cult questions before an audience like the present, I have come to the determination of following the order of events as given by St. Mark and St. Luke, rather than that given by St. Matthew, and that for these general but weighty reasons. First, that in cases of clear discrepancy in the order Z, , First reason. of narration between two of the sacred writers, we seem bound to follow the one who himself tells us, 1 if words mean anything, that it has been his care to draw up his history with general reference to the order of events. Secondly, that the order of St. Second reason. Luke in the first part of our present por- tion is strikingly confirmed by the order of events in St. Mark, from which it only differs in two or three instances, 2 the formulae which link together the successive paragraphs, and to distinguish between those which mark immediate connection and those which indicate mere general sequence. The first of these heads is partially illustrated in Lect. j. p. 84; the rest are best left to independent observation. If assistance be needed in reference to (li), see Davidson, Introcl to 2f. T. Vol. i. p. 5G, or Cred- ner, Einkitung, § 37, p. s. p. 297 sq. ; and in ref. to (e), Ebrard, Kvitik der Ev. Gesch. § 23, pp. 88—94- 1 The exact meaning of some of the expressions in this introduction, especially o.tt" apx^is, TTaprinoAJudriKOTi, &vw&ev, and most of all Ka^e£?js, has been abun- dantly discussed. The most correct view seems to be as follows: that apx^l refers to the beginning of the Trpay^xaroiv previously alluded to. scil. twv bav/xd- twv koi rail/ ■n-pa-yua.Tcoi', Euthymius in lor.: that irapr)KoAov&iyc6Ti, in accord- ance both with its use and derivation, marks research as evinced in tracing along, and, as it wire, mentally accompanying the events in question; that Uvudev refers to a commencement from the m ry beginning, — from the birth of the Baptist ; and, lastly, that Kadetfs, like tcptfiis, can only imply an adherence to the natural order Of the events related, — e£rjS £>s eKaffra iyevero, Thucyd. n. 1, v. 26. Bee Meyer, in lor., and compare Grcswcll, Dissert. 1. Vol. i. p. 9. In a word, in this preface we are assured by the inspired writer that we are to ■ \] " c< in what follows fidelity, accuracy, research, and order; and we find them. ipare Lange, Leben Jeau, I. 6. 3. Introd. p. 220. 2 These are, the calling of the four Apostles (Luke v. 1—11, compared with Mark i- 10—20), the arrival of the mother and brethren of our Lord (Luke viii. 19 21, compared with .Mark hi. 31— 3J), and apparently the calumnies of the Pharisees (Mark iii. 20 sq., compared with Luke xi. 17 sq.), and the parable of l! " ( i:,in of Mustard (Luke xiii. IS sq., compared with Mark iv. 30 sq.), though 1.)* 150 THE MINISTRY IN EASTERN GALILEE. Lect. IV. which have been satisfactorily accounted for and adjusted. Thirdly, that the chronology of St. Luke in Third reason. " 1 . . this portion of the Gospel history can be shown to harmonize with that supplied indirectly by St. John in a very striking manner. 1 Fourthly, that the seeming want of order in St. Matthew Fourth reason. can be very readily accounted for by observ- ing that, in this portion of his Gospel, the Evangelist appears to have wittingly adopted a peculiar arrangement, viz., a separation into different groups of the discourses of our Lord and the historical events with which they stood in connection, and that such an arrangement almost neces- sarily precludes strict chronological adjustments. However perplexing we may deem such a phenomenon in a Gospel that in other parts appears mainly to follow a regular and chronological order, — however we may be tempted to speculate on the causes which led to it, 2 this much appears both these might well have been repeated on two different occasions. For a good adjustment of the two main differences, see Wieseler, Citron. Synops. p. 284 sq., and in respect of the first of them, compare also Augustine, de Consens. Ev. ii. 17, and Spanhelm, Dub. Evang. lxii. 2, p. 341 sq. 1 For a careful investigation into the confirmatory elucidations of the order of this portion of St. Luke's Gospel, as supplied by that of St. John, see Wieseler, Citron. Synops. in. 2 a, p. 271 sq. 2 Though it is ever both unwise and unbecoming to speculate too freely about the origin and composition of an inspired document, the opinion may perhaps be hazarded that this peculiarity in St. Matthew's Gospel may be due to the incorporation by the Evangelist of an earlier (Hebrew) narrative in this later and more complete (Greek) Gospel. If such a conjecture be received, we can not only explain the present peculiarity, but can also account for, on the one hand, the positive statements of antiquity that the first Evangelist composed his Gospel originally in Hebrew (Papias ap. Euseb. Hist. Eccl. in. 39, Irenasus, Beer. in. 1. al.), and, on the other, the universal reception of the Greek Gospel as the verita- ble and undoubted work of the Evangelist. See Wieseler, Synops. p. 304. The portion to which we are alluding may thus have been a part of the Aoyta which Papias says were drawn up by St. Matthew, and the meaning of the doubtful word \6yta may be so far correctly modified as to point to a predominance in that treatise of the ra inrb XpiffTov A6X^ £J/T « over the v) irpax^^ra which appears also included in the term. See above, Lect. i. p. 28, note 3. That St. Matthew originally wrote in Hebrew can scarcely be doubted, if we are to place any reliance on external testimony, and that the present Greek Gospel came from his hand, and not from that of an editor or compiler, seems almost equally clear, from internal and external testimony combined ; how then can we adjust the two apparent facts without assuming an earlier and a later treatise? And if Lect. IV. THE MINISTRY IN EASTERN GALILEE. 151 certain, that such an arrangement does exist and can be easily verified, if Ave examine the peculiar structure of the portion of the Gospel which begins with the fifth and closes with the thirteenth chapter. We see, for example, that on the one hand we have three large portions contain- ing discourses, viz. the Sermon on the Mount, the appar- ently grouped and collected instructions which our Lord addressed to the Twelve previous to their mission, and the collection of the parables in the thirteenth chapter ; l and, on the other hand, that we have a large collection of mira- cles related in the eighth and ninth chapters, which com- prise, with scarcely any exception, the scattered events of the period preceding the sending out of the Twelve; after which the narrative proceeds in strict chronological order. When we add to this the concluding observation, that, singularly enough, we find in several instances careful notices of place exactly where the order of time seems most disarranged, 2 it seems almost impossible to resist the conviction that the first Evangelist was by no means unac- quainted with the correct order of events, but that he designedly departed from it, and directed his first attention to his Master's preaching during this momentous period, and then grouped together the nearly contemporary events and miracles, 3 with such notices of place as should guard against any possibility of misconception. bo, is it strange that the first should have been incorporated in the second, and thus so effectually superseded aS to have soon passed out of notice? The preten- sions of the Curetonian Byriac (as put forward by its laborious editor) to repre- sent more nearly the words of St. Matthew than any other extant document would in some degree affect the present question, if it had not apparently been demonstrated that such pretensions arc untenable. See, thus far, the recent investigation of Roberts, Original Lang, of St. Matthew's Gospel, ch. iv. 8, p. 122 s< i . and compare l lonaldson, New < 'rat. § 15, p. 23, note (ed. 3). J 1'or a brief notice of these, see Lect. I. p. 30, note 1, and for a specification of the miracles in the eighth and ninth chapters, ib., note 2. 2 Compare for example eh. viii. 5, eiaeASoi/Ti 8« aiircS els Ka.7rtpva.0viA. ; ver. li, iKdoif els tV oiKiaf Titrpov ; ver. 18, els rb irepav; ver. 28, eh$6vTi els to irepav els Ti t v x^P av T <*" / Yfpy«Ti\vSiv ) ch. ix. 1, ^Xfrev els ir)t> ISlav ir6\iv ; ch. xii. 'J, iiKSev els t!ji/ ffwaycayrjif avrOiv ; xiii. 1, i£eh$wv airb tj/s olnlas iKab7)To itapa. tt;t/c.-«l. Vortrage tier Juden. p.887, and Sepp, Leben Christ;, a. 10, Tart n. p. 122. i The objections that bave been urged against the general character of this address are most idle and irreverent. Our Lord, who knew the human heart, saw here unbelief, and tin- ordinary (ialikcan estimate Of His divine mission (John iv. 4-"i), in their worst form-, and accordingly adopts the language of merci- ful warning and reproof. On the whole incident, see some useful comment.-, in Lange, Leben Jesu. n. 4. 9, Part II. p. 541 sq. 154 THE MINISTRY IN EASTERN GALILEE. Lect. IV. even now these dull-hearted men of Nazareth were fast falling back again, we remember with horror what followed, — how these wretched men dared to do what even the gainsayers at Jerusalem a week before had only begun to think of doing, how they thrust Him forth not only from their syna^osjue and their town, but led Him Per.29. • i , . • ■ • to a neighboring declivity, which modern travellers have not doubtfully identified, 1 to cast Him down headlong, and how by an exercise of His divine power 2 lie escaped their impious and ven'i (< lark); Trench, .Miracles, p. 120; and compare Lange, /.••'•■ » .'• ', it. i. 11, Part n. p. 662 Bq. 156 THE MINISTRY IN EASTERN GALILEE. Lect. IV. filled all with amazement, — obeyed the heavenly voice, and left father and earthly callings, nets and vessels, for- sook all, and followed Him. 1 This prompt adhesion of men so well known in Caper- naum as two at least of the four must have moiZcTuhelyna- been, 2 this ready giving up of everything to goaue at Caper- foj^ ^ j^^ Qf Nazarethj CQuld not haye been without its effect on the people of Caper- naum and its neighborhood. The report, too, of the mira- cle, though, perhaps, as yet not fully understood or appre- ciated, had probably soon passed from mouth to mouth among the fishers and boatmen on the lake, and might well have added to the prevailing expectation and excite- ment. We may readily imagine, then, the eagerness and gladness with which on the following Sab- Marki. 21. f 5 , # s bath the Redeemer's preaching was listened to in the synagogue, and we know the mighty effect that was produced by it, enhanced as it was by the subsequent healing of the demoniac within its walls. 3 How start- ling must have been that scene when the spirits of dark- ness, driven bv the wild antagonisms of their Lvkciv. 34. ... fears and malignities, broke out amid that mingled concourse into cries alike of reprobation and of 1 There seems no reason for doubting that the call of the four disciples men- tioned by St. Matthew (ch. iv. 18 sq.) and St. Mark (ch. i. 16 sq.) was contempo- raneous with the above call mentioned by St. Luke. The only difficulty is, that St. Luke makes it subsequent to the healing of the demoniac and of St. Peter's mother-in-law, while St. Mark places it before. The order of the latter is con- firmed by St. Matthew, and distinctly to be preferred, especially as the change of order in St. Luke can be partly accounted for by the desire of the Evangel- ist to place in immediate contrast the reception in the synagogue at Cana with the rejection a week before at Nazareth. See Wieseler, Chron. Synops. p. 285 sq. 2 From the notice of the hired servants (Mark i. 20), the two vessels employed (Luke v. 7), and the subsequent mention of St. John's acquaintance with one in so high a position as the high-priest (John xviii. 15), it has been reasonably inferred that Zebedee, if not a wealthy man (Jerome, in Matt. iv. 12, opp. to Chrys. in Joann. Horn. II. 1), was at any rate of some position in Capernaum. 3 See especially Mark i. 27 ( Tisch.), in which this amazement both at the teach- ing and the miracle is expressed in the strongest terms: — Tf icrnv tovto ; 8(- Saxh kouvii Kar Qovaiav koX tois iryev/xaffti' toIs aKaSaprois eirndaffft, Kal inra.Kovov•■ . _ Luke vi. 7. yet none among those simple-hearted men to object to healings on the Sabbath. There were as yet none to make the blasphemous assertion that such power, after all, was only due to some league with the prince of those spirits that had been commanded with ■ • • ii-ii i t., , Matt. xi'i. 24. such authority, and had obeyed with such „ , ... _ J ' •> Mark in. 32. terror. These men of Capernaum had no such doubts ; they saw and believed, yea, and, as two Evan- gelists record, soon spread the fame of the great Healer not only through all the neighboring villages and towns, but in all the regions round about Galilee. But the wonders of this first Sabbath at mJ^'l 28 : see Meyer. Capernaum, this day of which the events c^uinued perfor- mance of mirucl on the same day. are so specially and so minutely told us by two Evangelists, had not yet come to their close. Immediately after that amazing scene in the syna- 1 In the circumstances connected with lliis and other miracles performed on (ii moniacs, three things are worthy of notice: (1) the lost consciousness of per- sonality on the part of the Bufferer, the man becoming, as it were, identified with, and at times the mouthpiece of, the devil within him (Mark v. 7, Luke viii. 28); (2) the terror-stricken recognition on the part of the devils of Jesus as the Son of God and tluir future Judge (Matt. viii. 29, Mark iii. 11. v. 7, Luke viii. 28), enhanced in the present narrative by the awful ea\ (Luke iv. 34) of the recoiling demon : (8) the prohibition from speaking on the part of our Lord (Mark i. 34, iii. 12, Luke iv. 41), possibly that the multitude might not believe in their Redeemer on tlie testimon) of devils. Compare Cyril Alex, on Luke iv. 41, l'art i. p. 71 (Transl.). Hence, perhaps, the omission of the prohibition in the case of the demoniacs ofGadara or Gergesa, when only those were present whose faith was already tirm and convictions true and settled. •- For further comments on this miracle, Bee Trench, Miracles, p. 23o, and for some thoughtful observations on the case of demoniacal possessions generally, Olshausen, Commentary, p.305. Compare also Deyling, Oba. Sacr. xxvm. Part ii. p. 878 'i 14 158 THE MINISTRY IN EASTERN GALILEE. Lect. IV. gogue, probably about mid-day, 1 our Lord, with His four freshly-called disciples round Him, enters "''"' into the common dwelling of two of the Ver. 29. ~ number, and graciously vouchsafes to that small home-circle, on the person of the mother-in-law of St. Peter, another merciful display of those healing powers, of which a whole synagogue had but lately been witness. There, perhaps in the low and crowded suburb, 2 the mother-in-law of the Apostle Peter was laid, and sick, as the physician-Evangelist characteristically notices, of a great fever. 3 But the Healer was now nigh at hand. Anx- iously they tell Him of her state ; anxiously they beseech His help ; and with power and majesty that help is be- stowed. With His voice the Lord rebukes 4 Lvke iv. 39. Maii. via. 85. the evil influence of the disease, with His hand He touches the sufferer, — and she, who a mo- ment before lay subdued and powerless, now rises, supported 1 It would seem, from a passage in Josephus, that on the Sabbath-day the usual hour for the meal of which our Lord appears afterwards to have partaken in the house of the two brothers was mid-day : eVrTj &pa ko& %v to?s . ■i The incidents of this first Sabbath at Capernaum are well noticed by Ewald [Oeech. Ciiri.-ihis', p. 254 sq.), as showing what the nature of our Lord's holy labors really was. Comp. Lange, Lebt .•/ Jesu, a. i. 11, p. "»•".'.» sq, The occurrence of so many events on a single day makes the short duration of the present min- istry in liaJilee le.-s improbable. 160 THE MINISTRY IN EASTERN GALILEE. Lect. IV. justify, if need be, the noble hyperbole of the beloved Apostle, that if the things which Jesus did should be writ- ten every one, " the world itself could not John xxi. 25. contain the books that should be written." What a day too had this been for Capernaum! What manifestations of Divine power had been vouchsafed to them in their syna^oarue ! what mercies had Mark i. 33. J ° & been showered down upon them in their streets ! Could they, and did they, remain insensible to such displays of omnipotence ? It would have been indeed impossible ; and it is not with surprise that we find that in the dawn 1 of the following morning the multitudes, conducted as it would seem by Peter and Luiar 42 ^ e new ly-called disciples, tracked out the great Healer to the lonely place whither He had withdrawn to commune with His Father, broke in upon His very prayers, and strove to prevent His leaving those whom. He had now so preeminently Cli. iv. 42. . . rn blessed. But it might not be. That request could not be granted in the exclusive manner in which it had been urged. Though the faith of these men of Ca- pernaum was subsequently rewarded by our Lord's vouch- safing soon to return again, and by His gracious choice of Capernaum as His principal place of abode, yet now, as He alike tells both them and His disciples, JIarki.SS. . He must fulfil His heavenly mission by preaching to others as well as unto them. The blessings of the Gospel were to be extended to the other towns and villages by those peopled shores, 2 and thither, with His 1 We learn from St. Mark that our Lord retired before day broke to some lonely spot, apparently at no great distance from Capernaum (comp. Stanley, Sinai and Palestine, ch. x. p. 374), and was there praying. See ch. i. 32. From the tenses used and the special note of time, ivvvx°- A-iew {Lachm., Tisch.), it would seem that He had heen there some little time before He was discovered by St. Peter and those with him, who appear to have thus eagerly followed our Lord (KaT($ia>£ai> avrbu) at the instigation of the multitude. See Luke iv. 42, and compare Lange, Leben Jesu, II. 4. 11, Part n. p. 561. 2 The expression used by St. Mark (ch. i. 38) is ras ix°^ vas Koijxoiroktis (St. Luke adopts the more general term, reus trepats TrSAeaii'), which seems to mark LfcCT. IV. TIIE MINISTRY IN EASTERN GALILEE. 1G1 small company of followers, the Lord departed, "healing," as St. Matthew tells ns, "all manner of sick- - ,. Luke iv. 23. ness, and all manner or disease, among the people." How long this circuit lasted we are not specially in- formed, but as one incident only, the healing of the earnest and adoring leper, 1 appears 7Vo ''" u '' /'"'["- O I ' 11 turn oj Hits circuit. to belong to this journey, we may perhaps, not without some probability, believe that the present circuit lasted but a few days, and that the return to Caper- naum took place on the day before the Sab- 1 J Mark ii. 1. bath of that week, — a Sabbath of which we have some special notices. 2 the sort of " village-towns" (compare Strabo, Geogr. xn. pp. 537, 557) with which the whole adjacent plain of Gennesarcth was closely studded. Compare Stanley, Sinai and Palest, oh. x. p. 370. 1 It seems right to speak guardedly, as St. Matthew (ch. viii. 1) here appears to add a note of time, Kara^dwri Se aiirtp airb tov opovs (Hec, Tisch.). As, however, there is nothing very definitely connective in the Ka\ ISov Aeirpbs irpo- j' k. t. A., as St. Mark and .St. Luke both agree in their position of the miracle, and as the place it occupies in St. Matthews Gospel can be reasona- bly accounted for (see Lightfoot, Harmony, Vol. i. p. 512), we seem justified ia adhering to the order of St. Mark and St. Luke. Compare Wieseler, Clinm. Synops. ]'■ 806 sq. Ou the miracle itself, one of the most remarkable character- istics <>f which was, that, as the three Evangelists all specify (Matt. viii. 13. Mark i. 41, Luke v. 13), our Lord touched the sufferer (SeiKi/vs on ?'; 071a avrov aap| a.yia.afxov fxereSiSov, Theoph. in Matt. I.e.), see Trench, Miracles, p. 210; and for some good notices 011 the nature of the disease, Von Amnion, Leben Jesu, Vol. i. p. 111. and the frightful account in Thomson, Land and Bonk, Vol. ii. p. 516. The subject is treated very fully and completely in Winer, It WIS. Art. '• Aussatx," Vol. i. p. Ill sq. I As the circuit was probably confined to the u village-towns" on the western shores of the lake and in the vicinity of Capernaum (see above, p. 160, note 2), we have an additional reason tor thinking that it did not last more than four or five days, and that thus our Lord might easily and naturally be found at Capernaum on the following Sabbath, which, as we shall see below, has a definite and dis- tinctive date. No objection against this chronological arrangement can be founded on the fact that our Lord " preached in their synagogues " (Mark i 89, Luke iv. -11), as it appears certain, setting aside extraordinary days (of which there would Beam to have been one in this very week, — the Xew Moon of Nisau), there were Bervioes <>n the Mondays and Thursdays (compare Mishna, Tract " Slegillah," I. 2), in which the law was read and probably expounded, and to which the Talmudists (on " Baba, Bathra," 4) assigned as great an antiquity ::s the days of Ezra. See Lightfoot, Harmony, Vol. i. p. 476 (Roterod. 1686), Vit- ringa, /-^i i-i i •*_ • • • r- .1 nil pernaum, and heal- of trainee, and, as it is significantly- added, IZaUt faMM of Judaea and Jerusalem, had now come in Luke it among them, 1 — men, as it would seem, specially sent to collect charges against our Lord, and to mature the savage counsels which, we have already seen, 2 had been taken by the party of the Sanhe- drim No sooner was it noised abroad that He had returned, than we find the whole city flocking to the house, so that, as St. Mark with one of his graphic notices tells us, "there was no room to receive them, no not so much as about the door." But there were some without who would not be sent away. One sinful 3 but heart-touched paralytic there was, whose body and soul alike needed healing, and whose faith was such that, when entry in the usual way was found to be 1 We owe the important notice of the precise quarter from which these evil men came solely to St. Luke. From the other two Synoptical Evangelists we only learn that the objectors were Scribes (Matt. ix. 3, Mark ii. 6), and that they appear to have come there with a sinister intent. The allusion, however, to Juda?a and Jerusalem (especially when compared with Mark iii. 22, ypaj.i-iJ.aT els 01 airb 'lepoaoXv/xcov KarafidvTes), throws a light upon the whole, and gives some plausibility to the supposition that the " Scribes and Tharisees " we here meet with for the first time in Galilee were emissaries from the hostile party at Jerusalem. These men, promptly uniting themselves with others that they found to be like-minded in Galilee, form a settled plan of collecting charges against our Lord, and the sequel shows with what feelings and in what spirit they were acting. For a while they wear the mask; they reason (Luke v. 21), they murmur (ver. 30), they insidiously watch (ch. vi. 7). Soon, however, all disguise is thrown aside; a deed of mercy on the Sabbath, in spite of their tacit protest, hurries them on to their ruthless decision. That decision is at Caper- naum what it had already been at Jerusalem (John v. 18), — death. See Matt, xii. 14, Mark iii. 6. 2 See above, Lect. in. p. 138. 3 We may infer this from the declaration of our Lord recorded by all the three Synoptical Evangelists, — aipeoivrai . 242), proceed- ing thereon till they come to the Bpol over which they judged our Lord to be. They then remove the tiles, or thin .--tone slabs, which are sometimes used even at this day (see Thomson, cited below), and make an opening (Mark ii. 4. Luke \ 19; comp. Joseph. Antiq. xiv. 16. 12), through which, perhaps assisted by those bs!ow, they let the man down into the uTrep'x'ov, or large and commonly /"»• chamber beneath, in which, or perhaps lather under the verandah of which, the Lord then was. See Thomson, The Land and Hie Book, Vol. ii. i>. 7 s(|., Meyer, Komment. tiber Murk. p. 24 Bq., and compare the good article in Kitto, Hill. Ci/r/nj) Vol. i. p. S74 sip, especially p. 877. - •• lie saith to the paralytic, Rise, and take up thy bed, to add a greater con- firmation to the miracle, as ool being in appearance only ; and, at the same time, to Bhow that II" aot only healed him, but infused power into him." — Theophyl. i>n Mark ii. 11. The command on the former occasion that it was given (John r.8) probably also involved a reference to Christ's lordship over the Sabbath. Comp. Lect. in. p. 137. For further comments on this miracle, Bee Olshausen, Commentary, Vol. i. p. 321; sq., Lange, Leben Jem, 11. 4. 14, fart 11. p. 666 »■,., Trench, Notes on tin- Miracles, p. 199 sq.; and for some curious allegorical appli- cations, Theophylact, loc.cit. p. l'JO (Paris, 1631). 164 THE MINISTRY IN EASTERN GALILEE. Lect. IV. captious and malignant emissaries. Every prejudice was to be rudely shocked, when, as it would The can of si. seem , on t] ie very same day, our Lord called Matthew, and the ' ^ • ' feast at his house. from his very toll-booth, by the side of the jfari&ii lake, a publican, Matthew, 1 — a publican, to be one of His followers and disciples. Here was an infraction of all that Pharisaical prejudice held to be most clear and recognized, an infraction, too, against which they were soon able to inveigh openly, when, at the feast which the grateful publican made in honor of His Lord, and to which, perhaps by way of farewell, many of his old associates were summoned, 2 the great Teacher openly sat down to meat " with publicans and sinners." This was an opportunity that could not be neglected. The disciples are taxed with their own and their Master's 1 There seems no reason for calling in question the opinion of most of the more ancient writers (see Const. Jpost. vm. 22, and Coteler, in he. ; contrast, however, Heracleon, ap. Clem. Alex. Strom, iv 11), that Levi (Mark ii. 14, Luke v. 27) and Matthew (Matt. ix. 9) are names of one and the same person. In favor of this identity, we have (1) the perfect agreement, both as to place and all attendant circumstances, of the narrative of the calling of Matthew (Matt. ix. 10) with that of the calling of Levi (Mark ii. 15, Luke v. 29); (2) the absence on the lists of the Apostles of any trace of the name Levi (the attempted identifica- tion with Lebba?us is in the highest degree improbable), while the name of Mat- thew occurs in all, and is specified by the first Evangelist (ch. x. 3) as of that earthly calling which is here definitely ascribed by the second Evangelist to Levi. It is far from improbable that, after and in memory of his call, the grate- ful publican changed his name to one more appropriate and significant. He w r as now no longer ,, 'l? but n»JiB, not Levi but Theodore, one who might well deem both himself and all his future life a veritable " gift of God." See Winer, RWB. s. v. "Name," Vol. ii. p. 135. 2 This supposition, which is due to Neander (Life of Christ, p. 230, Bohn), is not without some probability; at the same time the specially inserted dative avTiZ (Luke v. 29) seems clearly to imply that St. Matthew's first object in giving the entertainment was to do honor to our Lord, and thereby to commemorate his own now highly-favored lot. Compare Hall, Contempt, iv. 4. The attempt to show that the feast mentioned by St. Matthew is not that mentioned by St. Mark and St. Luke (Greswell, Dissert, xxv. Vol. ii. p. 397) is by no means suc- cessful ; still less the attempt of Meyer (/Comment, rib. Matt. p. 195) to establish a discrepancy between the first and the other two Synoptical Evangelists as to the locality of the feast. That iv ttj oiKia (Matt. ix. 10) refers to the house of St. Matthew (iv ttj oIklo. ttj iKeivov, Chrys.) is not only grammatically possible, but in a high degree natural and probable; the general expression is studiedly used by the Apostle as keeping in the background the fact of his own grateful hospitality. See Blunt, Veracity of Evangelists, $ 5, p. 30 sq. Lect. IV. THE MINISTRY IN EASTERN GALILEE. 165 laxity, to which the Lord vouchsafes an answer, turning against these gainsayers the very term in which their pre- judice had expressed itself. The Redeemer, He tells them, had " not come to call the righteous, but sin- „ T . , ... JKatt.tr. 18. ners to repentance. It the publicans were sinners, then to them must He vouchsafe His presence, then with them was it meet that He should be found. It was in vain that they shifted their ground, and brought forward the stern practices of John's disciples, some of whom it is noticed were present, and some of whom seem to have been speakers. They „" r "' 1 *> Halt, ix. 14. were not worldly, they fasted ; the prophet of Nazareth feasted. Yea, but the very garments worn by those around, and the very wine they were drinking, suggested a simile that conveyed the true answer, — the New and the Old could not be brought together; 1 the spirit of the new dispensation was incompatible with the dead formalities of a dispensation that now, with all that marked it, was gone and passed away for ever. The day that followed was apparently a Sabbath," the second-first Sabbath as it is especially defined _ ( Further charges: by St. Luke, — the first Sabbath, as it is now thepiueiang of the most plausibly explained, of a year that stood second in a sabbatical cycle, 3 — when again the. same bit- 1 Some good comments on this text, of which the above is a summary, will be found in Cyril Alex. Cm, mi, ,it. on St. Luke, Part II. p. 89 (Oxf. 1859). - This assertion rests, not on the if iKfifco t<£ Kaipy (eh. xii. 1) of St. Mat- thew , which is only a general note of time, but on the apparent close connection in point of time between the different charges of the Pharisees and their adher- ents. The Passover was nigh at hand, and time was pressing. •" There are four explanations of this difficult word that deserve consideration: ('0 that of Theophylacl [in loc.), that it was a Sabbath that immediately suc- ceeded a festn al, which, from falling on the irapaoKeuri, was observed as a regu- lar Sabbath; (h) that of Scaliger [de Emend. Temp. p. 557), that it was the Sabbath that succeeded the second day of the Passover," (c) that of Hitzig (Ost. it. Pjingst, p. 19), that it was the fifteenth of Nisan, the fourteenth being, it is asserted, always coincident with a Sabbath; (d) that of Wieseler [Chron. Synops. p. 231 sip), as stated in the text. Of these (a) is open to the decisive objection that such concurrences niu.-t have been frequent, and that if such was the custom, and such the designation, we must have found some trace of it elsewhere; (<■) involves an assumption not historically demonstrable (see Wieseler, Chron, 166 THE MINISTRY IN EASTERN GALILEE. Lect. IV. ter spirit of Pharisaical malice finds opportunity for dis- playing itself. Yesterday the social privacy of the publi- can's feast, to-day the peace and rest of the year's first Sabbath, 1 is broken in upon by the malignity of that same gathered company of Pharisees whom Judaea and Jeru- salem, and alas too Galilee, had sent forth to Deut.xJiii.25-.see forejudge and to condemn. With the full Wxhna n-eai t ," sanct i n of the Mosaic law the disciples were plucking the ears of ripening corn, and rub- bing them in their hands. The act was permissible, but the day was holy, 2 and the charge, partly in the way of rebuke to the disciples, partly in the way of complaint to our Lord, who was tacitly sanctioning their act, is promptly made with every assumption of offended piety, — " Why do ye do that which it is not lawful to do on the Sabbath?" Why indeed ! The reason was obvious; the justification immediate. Did not the history of the man after God's own heart justify such an Synops. p. 353 sq.), and, equally with (b), labors under the formidable objection that as the event here specified is thus at, and not, as every reasonable system of chronology appears to suggest, before a Passover, the Passover at the feeding of the five thousand (John vi. 4) must be referred to a succeeding year, and an interval of more than a year assumed to exist between the fifth and sixth chap- ters of St. John. We adopt, then, ((f), as open to no serious objections, as involv- ing no chronological difficulties, and as apparently having some slight historical basis to rest upon, viz. that at this period years appear to have been reckoned by their place in a Sabbatical cycle. Comp. Joseph. Antiq. xiv. 10. 6. The word is omitted in the important MSS. B and L, and a few ancient versions (see Tischen- dorf in loc.), but seems certainly genuine, there being an obvious reason for its omission, and none for its insertion. 1 The exact date of this Sabbath, according to our present calendar, if we can rely on the tables of Wurm and Wieseler, would seem to be April 9, — a date when the corn would be forward enough in many localities to be rubbed in the hands. See Wieseler, Citron. Synops. p. 225 sq., and compare Lect. in. p. 107, note 3. 2 The act was regarded as a kind of petty harvesting, and as such was regarded by the ceremonial Pharisee as forbidden, if not by the written, yet by the oral law: "Metens sabbato vel tantillum reus est. Et vellere spicas est species mes- sionis." Maimonides, Tit. " Shabbath," ch. ix. cited by Lightfoot (Hor. Hebr. in Matt. xii. 2, Vol. ii. p. 320), who further reminds us that, according to the tradi- tional law, the punishment for the offence was capital, the action being one of those "per qua; reus lit homo lapidationis atque exeisionis." — Maiinon. ib. ch. vii. It is not probable that at this period such a penalty would ever have been pressed ; still it is not unreasonable to suppose that the legally grave nature of the Lect. IV. THE MINISTRY IN EASTERN GALILEE. 167 act? Did not the unblamed acts of the great type of Him who stood before them supply the substance, as did ancient prophecy the exact terms of am - a = r '- 11 ^ Ilos. vi. 6. the answer that was vouchsafed, "I will have mercy, and not sacrifice"? Mercy, and not sacrifice, — words uttered already the day before, but . ... -, , . Untl. ix. 13. now accompanied with a striking declaration, which some of those standing by might have remembered had been practically illustrated three weeks before in Je- rusalem by a deed of mercy and power, 1 even "that the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath," and oi all its alleged restrictions. And now hostility deepens. On the next, or apparently next day but one, 2 which, in the case of the • i • / r*r\c\\ The healing of a year we are considering (a. u. c. /82), com- mnn u . ith „ dis- putation would seem to fix as the seventh ^J£" d °" * day of the first month, and which we may infer from a passage in Ezekiel was specially regarded as a holy day," we almost detect traces of a regular stratagem. A man in the synagogue afflicted with a with- , . , , , , , , . . Luke vi. 6. ered right band, placed perchance in a promi- nent position, forms the subject of a question which these wretched spies not only entertain in their . , , Luke vi. 7,8. hearts, but even presume openly to propound „ to our Lord, — '"was it lawful to heal on the Sabbath-day?" The answer was prompt and practi- supposed offence may hare tended to call forth from our Lord that full ami explicit vindication of His disciples which the Evangelists have recorded. 1 Sec Lect. III. p. 137. 2 See below, p. 182, note 1, from which it would seem that there is an error of a day in the tables of Wurm and Wieseler. 8 After speaking of the first month, and the sacrifices to be observed therein, tin' prophet adds [eh. xlv. 20): "And so thou shall do the seventh day <>f the month for every one that erreth, and for him thai is Bimple: so shall ye reconcile the house." From these words, when coupled with the similar notice of the Solemn first day of Nisan in the verses that precede, and the notice of the still more solemn fourteenth day In the verses that follow, it has been apparently rightly inferred thai the seventh of Nisan was regarded as holy, and might appropriately i>e designated by St. Luke (ch. vi. 6) as irtpov o-aji!ia.Tov. Comp. Wieseler, Cliron. Synops. p, 'J:;,. 1G8 THE MINISTRY IN EASTERN GALILEE. Lect. IV. cal : first the command to the sufferer to rise from his place and stand forth in the midst; then the all-em- bracing gaze 1 of grief and anger, and, lastly, after a few reproving words, the immediate Mark iti. 5. . performance of the miracle. 2 But such an answer malice and infidelity could neither receive nor en- dure. The flame of savage vengeance at once breaks out. "They were filled with madness" are the remarkable words of St. Luke ; they go forth from the Ch. vl. 11. ' J & juatt.xii.ii. synagogue, they hold a hasty council, yea, they join with their very political opponents, the followers of Herod Antipas, 3 as St. Mark has been moved to record, and now deliberately lay plans to slay the great Healer. The cup, in their eyes, is full. Two days since blasphemy, as they deemed it, had been spoken ; this, however, they might have borne with ; but publicans have been received, the 1 Not only St. Mark, but St. Luke notices this act of our Lord's, both using the same expressive word, irepij3\eif/d/xti'os. On the use of this term by St. Mark, comp. p. 3:), note 1. 2 The present miracle forms one of the seven which are particularly noticed as having been performed on the Sabbath (see John v. 9, Mark i. 21, Mark i. 29, John ix. 14, Luke xiii. 14, Luke xiv. 1, and comp. Crit. Sacr. Thesaur. Nov. Vol. ii. j). 196), and is specially the one before the performance of which the Lord vouchsafes to vindicate the lawfulness (Matt. xii. 12) of such acts of mercy, by an appeal to recognized principles of justice and mercy which even the Pharisees could not reject or deny. For some comments on the miracle, the nature of which was the immediate restoration of the nutritive powers of nature to a part where they had perhaps by degrees but now permanently ceased to act (Winer, IiWJS. Art. " Krankheiten," Vol. i. p. 674), compare Hook, Serm. on the Mira- cles, Vol. i. p. 135 sq., and especially see Trench, Notes on the Miracles, p. 312 sq. ■T There seems to be no reason to dissent from the conjecturally expressed opinion of Origen [Comm. in Matt. Tom. xvn. 26) that the Herodians were a political sect who, as their name implies, were partisans of Herod Antipas {ol to 'H/xliSou (ppovovvres, Joseph. Antiq. xiv. 15. 10), and, by consequence, of the Roman government, so far as it tended to maintain his influence. Compare Ewald, Gesch. Christw' (Vol. v.), p. 43 sq. Thus they were really, as Meyer (Komment. ub. Matt. xxii. 16) defines them, royalists as opposed to maintainers of theocratic principles; still, being members of a political and not a religious sect, the} might easily be found in coalitions with one of the latter sects for tem- po: an objects which might affect, or be thought to affect, the interests of both. Comp. Matt. xxii. 16, Mark xii. 13, where tiny again appear in temporary union with the Pharisees. For further comments, see Winer, RWB. s. v. Vol. i. p. 486, Herzog, Real-Encycl. s. v. Vol. vii. p. 14, and compare Lightfoot, Barm. Evany. j 13, Vol. i. p. 470. Lect. IV. THE MINISTRY IN EASTERN GALILEE. 169 rest of a weekly Sabbath infringed upon, and now, worst of all, a legal Sabbath has been profaned by — beneficence; that profanity must be washed out by blood. As but a short time before in Jerusalem, so now in Galilee the fearful determination is distinctly formed of compassing the death of One whose life-giving words their own ears had heard, and whose deeds of mercy their own eyes had been per- mitted to behold. This is a very important turning-point in the Gospel- history, and it prepares us for the event which followed, perhaps only a day or two twttve Apode$, afterwards, 1 — and which now the deepening X'J™ " *" animosities against the sacred person of our Redeemer rendered in a high degree natural and appropri- ate, — a retirement into the lonely hills on the western side of the lake, and the choice of twelve pillars for the not yet consolidated, yet already endangered Church. There, on that horned hill of Hattin, which a late tradi- tion does not in this case* appear to have erroneously selected, 2 was the scene of the formal compacting and framing together of the spiritual temple of God ; there too was heard that heavenly summary of the life and prac- tice of Christianity which age after age has regarded as the most sacred heritage that God has vouchsafed unto His Church.' 1 Tlie only note of time is £v reus ^ue'pais ravrais (Luke vi. 12), which, though far too general to be quoted in support of the above supposition, does not in any way seem opposed to it. There appears much in favor of a close connection in point of time between the formal choice of the Apostles and these murderous determinations of the hierarchical party and their adherents. Compare Ewald, GeSCh. Christ us' (Vol. v.) p. 270 Bq. 2 See Robinson, Pal ■tin, , Vol. ii. p. 3T0 sq. (ed. 2), who admits that, though this appears to be only a late tradition of the Latin Church, "there is nothing in the form or circumstances of the hill itself to contradict the supposition.'' So far, indeed, it may be added, is this from being the case, that Dr. Stanley finds the conformation of the hill so strikingly in accordance with what we read in the Gospel narrative, " as almost to force the inference that in this instance the eye of those who selected the spot was for once rightly gnided." — Sinai and Palestine, p. 881 (ed. 2). Thomson ( The Land and the Book, Vol. ii. p. 118) speaks far more slightingly than is usual with that agreeable and observant writer. 3>Of the many expository works on this divine discourse the following may be 15 170 THE MINISTRY IN EASTERN GALILEE t .kct. IV. I must here be tempted into no digressions, for there are several events yet before us for considera- Probable form of _ • the sermon on the tion ; still, at such an important point in our history, it does seem almost wrong to suppress the humble statement of an opinion on a most serious and yet most contested question in reference to this divine discourse. Let me say, then, with that brevity that our limits demand, — First, that there seem greatly pre- ponderant reasons for believing the sermon recorded by St. Luke to be substantially the same with that recited by St. Matthew; 1 Secondly, that the divine unity which per- vades the whole totally precludes our believing that St. Matthew is here presenting us only with a general collec- tion of discourses, uttered at different times, and leads us distinctly to maintain the more natural and reasonable opinion, that this holy and blessed Sermon was uttered as it is here delivered to us 2 ; Thirdly, that of the modes selected as appearing, perhaps more particularly, to deserve the attention of the student: the exposition of Chrysostom in his Commentary on St. Matthew; Augustine, de Sermone Domini, Vol. iii. p. 1229 sq. (Migne), and with it Trench, Serm.on the Mount (ed. 2); Pott, de Indole Orat. Mont. (Helmst. 1788), whose general conclusion, however, as to the nature of the Sermon, does not appear plausible; the exegetical comments of Stier (Disc, of our Lord, Vol. i. p. 90, Clark) and Maldonatus (Comment, p. 95); the special work of Tholuck, Berg- predigt (translated in Edinb. Cabinet Libr.); and, lastly, the more directly practical comments and discourses of Bp. r.lackr.ll (Lond. 1717) and James Blair (Lond. 1740, with a commendatory preface by Waterland); to which may be added the comments in Taylor, Life of Christ, n. 12, Vol. i. p. 190 (Lond. 1836), and in Lange, Leben Jesu, n. 4. 12, Part n. p. 566 sq. 1 The main arguments are, — that the beginning and end of the Sermon are nearly identical in both Gospels; that the precepts, as recited by St. Luke, are in the same general order as those in St. Matthew, and that they are often expressed in nearly the same words; and, lastly, that each Evangelist specifies the same miracle, viz. the healing of the centurion's servant, as having taken place shortly after the Sermon, on our Lord's entry into Capernaum. Compare Matt. viii. 5, Luke vii. 2 sq., and see Tholuck, Sermon on the Mount, Vol. i. p. 5 sq. (Clark). 2 This opinion, improbable as it is now commonly felt to be, was adopted by as good an interpreter as Calvin (Harm. Evany. Vol. i. p. 13.">, ed. Tholuck), and has been lately advanced in a slightly changed form by Neander, who attributes to the Greek editor (?) of St. Matthew the insertion of those expressions of our Lord which are fouud in other collocations in St. Luke's Gospel. See Life of Christ, p. 241 (Bohn). There is nothing, however, unnatural in the supposition that our blessed Lord vouchsafed to use the same precepts on more occasions than The healing of the centurion's servant. Lect. IV. THE MINISTRY IN EASTERN GALILEE. 171 of reconciliation proposed between the two forms of this Sermon vouchsafed to us by the Holy Ghost, two deserve consideration, — (a) that which represents St. Luke's as a condensed recital of what St. Matthew lias related more at length, and (b) that which attributes the condensation to our Lord Himself, who on the summit of the hill deliv- ered the longer, but, as it has been doubtfully termed, eso- teric sermon to His Apostles, and perhaps disciples, and on the level piece of ground, a little distance below, delivered the shortened and more popular form to the mixed multi- tude.' But let us now pass onward. On the Lord's return to Capernaum, which it does not seem un- reasonable to suppose took place on the evening of the same day, the elders of the ""'' ~ w "» of " ,e o •> ' widows son. synagogue of Capernaum meet our Lord with a petition from one who shared in the faith, though he was not of the lineage, of Abraham. This petition, and the way in which it was made, deserve a passing notice. We see, on the one hand, the different feelings with which as yet the leading party at Capernaum were animated, when contrasted with the emissaries from Jerusalem ; and on the other we recognize the profound humility of the God-fear- one. Compare Matt. v. 18 and Luke xii. 68, Matt, vi. 19— 21 and Luke xii. 33, Matt vi. 24 and Luke xvi. 13, Matt. vii. 13 and Luke xiii. 24, Matt. vii. 22 and Luke xiii. 25—27. i Of these two opinions, the second, though noticed with some approval by Augustine (dr Consensu Erang. II. 19), and convenient for reconciling the slight differences as to locality and audience which appear in the records of the two Evangelists (><•<• Lange, l.< i>, n Jem, n. 4. 12, Part n. p. 56S sq.), has so much the appearance of having been formed simply to reconcile these differences, and involves so much that is unlikely, and indeed unnatural, that we can hardly hesitate to adopt the flrstj bo loo, as it would seem, Augustine, Inc. cit. ad tin. Comp. Trench, Expos. ofSerm. on Mount, p. 1G0 (ed. 2). A fair comparison of the two inspired records Beema to confirm this judgment, and satisfactorily to show that St. Luke's record is here a compendium, or rather selection, of the hading precepts which appear In that of St. Matthew. No extract, it maybe observed, i> made from ch. vi. (Matt.), as the duties there specified (almsgiving, pro; er, fasting, etc.) are mainly considered in reference to their dne performance in (be sight of God, while St. Luke appears to have been moved to specify those which relate more directly to our neighbor. For further notices and comments, Bee I lioluok, Serm. on Mount, Vol. i. p. 1 sq. (Clark). 172 THE MINISTRY IN EASTERN GALILEE. Lect. IV. ing soldier who, it would seem from St. Luke's account, twice preferred his petition by the mouths Ch. vii. 3, 6. _ r * J of others, before he presumed himself to speak in behalf of his suffering servant. Then followed, probably from his own lips, words of faith that moved the wonder of our Lord Himself, and forthwith came the reward of that faith,' — the healing of apparently the first Gentile sufferer. 1 But the morrow was to see yet greater things ; for, as St. Luke tells us, on the fol- Ch. vii. 11 sg. , , , lowing day, during the course of a short ex- cursion into the vale of Esdraelon, the Lord of life comes into first conflict with the powers of death. At the brow of that steep ascent, up which the modern traveller to the hamlet of JVain has still to pass, 2 the Saviour, begirt with a numerous company of His disciples and a large attendant multitude, beholds a sad and pity-moving sight. The only son of a widow was being borne out to his last resting-place, followed by the poor, weeping mother, and a large and, as it would seem, sym- pathizing crowd. But there was one now J r '" nigh at hand who no sooner beheld than He Per. 13. ^ pitied, and with whom to pity was to bless. The words of power were uttered, the dead at once rose up to life and speech, and was given to the Ver.U. _ l . ' ° ver.is. widow's arms, while the amazed multitude Ver. 16. glorified God, and welcomed as a mighty prophet Him who had done before their eyes what their memories might have connected with the greatest of the 1 For comments on this miracle, one of the characteristics of which is, that, as in the case of the nobleman's son, our Lord vouchsafed the cure without see- ing or visiting the sufferer, see Bp. Hall, Contempt, n. 6, Trench, Miracles, p. 222, and compare Lange, Leben Jesu, II. 4. 13, Tart II. p. C45 sq. 2 See Stanley, Sinai and Palestine, ch. ix. 352 (ed. 2). The Dutch traveller Van de Velde remarks that the lock on the west side of Kain is full of sepulchral caves, and infers from this that our Lord approached Jsain on the western side. Syria and Palestine, Vol. ii. p. 382. A sketch of the wretched-looking but finely situated hamlet that still bears the name of Jvain or Neiu (Robinson, Palest. Vol. ii. p. 361) will be found in Thomson, The Land and the Book, Vol. ii. p. 159. Lect. IV. THE MINISTRY IN EASTERN GALILEE. 173 prophets of the past. 1 It is here perhaps, or at one of the towns in the neighborhood, that we are to fix the memo- rable and affecting scene at the house of Ver. 36. Simon the Pharisee, when the poor sinful woman pressed unbidden among tlie guests to anoint, not the head, like the pure Mary of Bethany, but i-r» • * o I'er.'S. the feet of the v irgin s bon, and whose passionate repentance and special and preeminent faith were blessed with acceptance and pardon.- M It is about the same time, too, and, as The naj.tiscsmet- appears by no means improbable, but a very "w^**"** lew days before the tragical end of their Master's life, 3 that the two disciples of John the Baptist come to our Lord with the formal question which the, so to say, dying man commissioned them to ask, — whether the great Healer, the fame of whose deeds had penetrated into the dungeons of Machrerus, were trul\ r lie " '*!'. ' ° J Luke vii. 19. that was to come, or whether another "were yet to be expected. The exact purpose of this mission 1 For some further comments on this miracle, see Cyril Alex, on St. Luke, Serm. xxxvi. Part I. p. 132 sq. (Trausl.), Bp. Hall, Contempt, n. 1, and Trench, Notes on the Miracles , p. 239. Compare also Augustine, Serm. xevm. Vol. v. p 591 sq. (ed. Migne), and Lange, Leben Jesu, II. 4. 16, Part II. p. 740 sq. 2 With regard to tins anointing of our Lord, we may briefly remark, (a) that it certainly is not identical with that which is specified by the other three Evangel- ist-; (.Mutt. xxvi. G sq., Mark xiv. 3 sq., John xii. 1 sq.). Everything is different, — the time, the place, the chief actor, and the circumstances. See Meyer, on Matt. xxvi. 6, p. 4S3, and Lange, Leben Jesu, n. 4. 1C, Part n. p. 73o. We may farther remark ('<) that there seems no just ground for identifying the repentant sinner here mentioned witli Mary Magdalene, who, though a victim to Satanic influence, and that too in a fearful and aggravated form (Luke viii. 2), is not di cessarily to he considered guilty of Bins of impurity. Nay, more, the very description of the affliction of Mary Magdalene seems in itself sufficient to dis- tinguish her from one whom no hint of the Evangelist leads us to suppose was then or formerly had been a demoniac. The contrary opinion has been firmly maintained bj Sepp (/.• '» /< Christi, in. 23, Vol. ii- p- 285), but on the authority of Rabbinical traditions, which are curious rather than convincing. On the incident generally ,eee Greg. VL.Bom. in Evong. xxxiii., Augustine, Serm. xcix., ami especially Bp. Hall. Contempt, iv. 17. 3 The most probable period to which the murder of the Baptist is to be I d would .-ceiu to be the Meek preceding the Passover of the second year of our Lord's ministry, April 10 — 17, A. u. v. 782. I'or the arguments on which this rests, consult Wieseler, Cknm. Synops. p. 292 sq., and see below, p. 183, note .". 15* 174 THE MINISTRY IN EASTERN GALILEE. Lect. IV. will perhaps remain to the end of time a subject of contro- versy, 1 but it has ever been fairly, and, as it would seem, convincingly urged, that He whose eyes, scarce sixteen months before, had beheld the descending Spirit, whose ears had heard the voice of paternal love and benediction, and who now again had but recently been told of acts of omnipotent power, could himself have never really doubted the truth of his own declaration, 2 that this was indeed "the Lamb of God that taketh away the John i. 20. . _ , , - „ sin ot the world. Almost immediately after the marvellous scene at Nain, our Lord, accompanied not only by His twelve fresh chlrglToTth'e Apostles, but, as it is specially recorded, by Fha jMcevm 2. pious and grateful women, chief among whom stands the miraculously healed Mary of Magdala, passed onward from city to city and village to village, preaching the kingdom of God. That circuit could not have lasted much above a day or two after the miracle at Nain, 3 and, as the words of the second Evangelist seem 1 The three different states of feeling (doubt, impatience, desire to convince his disciples) which have been attributed to the Baptist, as having given rise to this mission, are noticed and commented on by Ebrard, Kritik der Evang. Gesch. § 73, p. 367 sq. For a full discussion of the subject, however, see the calm and learned comments of Jackson, on the Creed, Vol. vi. p. 310 sq. Comp. also, but with caution, Lange, Leben Jesu, n. 4. 17, Part n. p. 745 sq. 2 The utmost that can be said is, that the Baptist required the comfort of accu- mulated conviction (see Jackson, Creed, Vol. vi. p. 314); that he entertained distrust, or wavered in faith in these last days of his life, seems wholly incred- ible. To convince his disciples (Cyril Alex, in loc.) fully and completely before his death, was the primary object of the mission; to derive some incideutal com- forts from the answer he foresaw they would return with, may possibly have been the secondary object. 3 It has been already observed (p. 160, note 2), that the villages, and even towns, were so numerous in some parts of Galilee, that the words of the Evangelist (Sit&Stvtv Kara tr6\iv /cat Kw/xriv KrjpvcrcToov, Luke viii. 1) need not be pressed as necessarily implying a lengthened circuit. It may be indeed doubted whether these notices of circuits, which it is confessedly very difficult to reconcile with other notes of time, may not be general descriptions of our Lord's ministry at the time rather than special notices of special journeys. That the circuit had a homeward direction and terminated at Capernaum, we gather from Matt. xiii. 1, which, in specifying the place (irapa t))v &a\affo-av), marks the day as the same with that on which the visit of our Lord's mother and brethren took place, and so connects us with Mark iii. 19 sq., which seems to refer to the return from the circuit (Luke viii. 1 sq.) which we are now considering. Lect. IV. THE MINISTRY IN EASTERN GALILEE. 175 to imply, terminated at Capernaum, which, as we already know, had now become our Lord's temporary home. On their return two parties anxiously awaited them ; on the one hand the multitude, which, St. Mark tells us, gathered so nastily round the yet unrested company, that either the disciples, or, as seems more prob- able from the sequel, the mother and brethren /» tit ii i Hi Seech, iii. 31 sq. of our Lord, deemed themselves called upon to interpose, 1 and to plead against what they could not but deem an almost inconsiderate enthusiasm. On Mark Hi. 21. the other hand, we still find there the hostile party of Scribes and Pharisees from Jerusalem, whom we have already noticed, and who yet lingered, though the Pass- over was so nigh, in hopes that they might find further and more definite grounds of accusation. An opportunity, if not for preferring a charge, yet for attempting to check the crowing belief of the amazed multitude, and ,f . , ~ ,. . , Xatt.xO.SS. for enlisting the worst feelings against the very acts of mercy which our Lord vouchsafed to perform, soon presented itself at the miraculous cure of a blind and dumb demoniac, which appears to belong to this portion of the sacred narrative. 2 Then was it that the embittered hatred of these prejudiced and hardened men showed 1 A little difficulty lias been felt (a) in the exact reference of the words oi wap' avrov (Mark iii. 21), and (b) in the fact that St. Luke places the visit of our I. oids mother and brethren after the delivery of the parables rather than before tin-in. With regard to the first point, oi irap' avrov seems clearly to imply, not the Apostles, but our Lord's relatives (" propinqtii ejus," — Syr.), who are noticed here as going forth (probably from some temporary abode at Capernaum; see p. 152, note 1), and a few verses later (Mark iii. 31) as having now arrived at the house where our Lord then was. With regard to (&), it seems enough to say that St. Luke clearly agrees with St. Matthew in placing the event in question on the same day, but from having here omitted the discourse which preceded the arrival (Mark iii. 22 sq.), he mentions it a little out of its true chronological order, to prevent its being referred to some one of the towns on the circuit, and to con- nect it with the right place and time, — Capernaum, and the day of the return. 2 There seems reason for placing the narrative of the healing of the demoniac, recorded in Matt. xii. 22 sq., between Mark iii. 21 and Mark iii. 22, as the sub- stance of the words which follow in both Gospels are so clearly alike, and as the narrative of the miracle in St. Matthew follows that of other miracles which certainly appear to belong to a period shortly preceding the one now under consideration. 176 THE MINISTRY IN EASTERN GALILEE. Lect. IV. itself in the frightful blasphemy — repeated, it would seem, more than once 1 — that attributed the wonder-work- ing power of the eternal Son of God to the a .an. . energy of Satan ; and then too was it that Mark Hi. 23. ' our Lord called them to Him, and mercifully revealed to them the appalling nature of their sin, which was now fast approaching the fearful climax of sin against the Holy Ghost, — that sin for which there was no forgive- ness, 2 "neither in this world, neither in that Matt. xii. 82. m ' ' The teaching by which is to come." The afternoon or early parables. . _ , - . , . evening of that day was spent by the snores of the lake. The eager multitude, augmented by others who had come in from the neighboring Luke viii. 4. i i • towns, had now become so large, that, as it would seem, for the sake of more conveniently addressing them, our Lord was pleased to go on board one of the fishing vessels, and thence, with the multitude before Him, and with His divine eyes perchance resting on some one of those patches of varied and undulating corn-field which modern travellers have noticed as in some cases on the very margin of the lake, 3 — with the earthly and the heavenly harvest-field thus alike before Him, — He deliv- 1 Compare Luke xi. 17 sq., where we meet with, in what seems clearly a later portion of the history, the same impious declaration on the part of the Pharisees which St. Mark (ch iii. 22 sq.) and apparently St. Matthew (ch. xii. 24) refer to the present place. That such statements should have been made more than once, when suggested by similar miracles, is every way natural and probable. Comp. Matt. ix. 34 and xii. 22 sq., and see Wieseler, Chron. Synops. p. 287 sq. 2 On this highest and most frightful enhancement of sin in the individual, of which the essential characteristic appears to be an outward exjyression (see Waterland) of an inward hatred of that which is recognized and felt to be divine, and the irremissible nature of which depends, not on the refusal of grace, but on the now lost ability of fulfilling the conditions required for forgiveness, see the able remarks of Muller, Doctrine of Sin, Book v. Vol. n. p. 475 (Clark), and the good sermon of Waterland, Serin, xxviii. Vol. v. p. 707. For further comments on this profound subject, see Augustine, Serin, lxxi. Vol. v. p. 445 sq. (ed. Migne), the special work on the subject by Schaff (Halle, 1841), and the arti- cle by Tholuck, in the Studien u. Kritihen for 1826, compared with the earlier articles in the same periodical by Grashoff (1833) and Gurlitt (1S31). 3 See the interesting and illustrative remarks of Stanley, Sinai and Palestine, ch. xm. p. 421 sq ; and, in reference to the parable, compare the elucidations, from local observation, of Thomson, The Laud and the Book, Vol. i. p. 115 sq. Lect. IV. THE MINISTRY IN EASTERN GALILEE. 177 ered to that listening concourse the wondrous series of parables beginning with that appropriately chosen subject, specified alike by all the three Synoptical Evangelists, — the Sower and the seed. 1 And now, as St. Mark specifies, the evening had come, and after that long and exhausting day the Holy One needed retirement and repose, and across and storm i ii-i t i , . • ■• ontlte lake. nowhere could it be more readily obtained J Mark w. 35. than in the solitudes of the eastern shore. The multitudes still linger; but the Apostles bear away their wearied Master, " as lie was," says the graphic St. Mark, in the vessel from which He had been Ver. 3G. preaching. As they sail the Lord slumbers; when from one of the deep clefts of the surrounding hills 2 a storm of wind bursts upon the lake, and . . , . .11 Luke viii. '23. the stirred-up waters beat in upon the boat. j Iarkiv .sr. Terror-stricken, the disciples awake their sleeping Master, and He, who only a few KS* hours before had driven forth devils, now quells by His word the lesser potencies of wind and storm. 3 "When they reached the opposite side, which might have 1 On the connection of tbe parables, of which this forms the first, see Lect. i. p. 35, note 3. 2 "To understand," says Dr. Thomson, who himself witnessed on the very spot a storm of similar violence, and that lasted as long as three days, " the causes of these sudden and violent tempers, we must remember that the lake lies low [hence Kcnt/ir) Ka7\aip, Luke viii. 23], — six hundred feet lower than the ocean; that the vast and naked plateaus of Jauhin rise to a great height, spreading back- ward to the wild8 of the Hauran,and upward to snowy Hermon; that the water- courses have cut out profound ravines and wild gorges, converging to the head of this lake, and that these act like gigantic funnels to draw down the winds from the mountains." — The Land and the Bool;, Vol. iii. pp. 32, 33. See also Hitter, Erdkunde, Part xv. 1, p. 308 sq., where the peculiar nature of these Btorm-winds Is briefly noticed. 3 For further comments on this miracle, one of the more striking features of which is the Saviour's rebuke to tbe waning elements, the very words of which, as addressed to the storm-tost waterBCrai tfira tj; AaAaacnj, 2ia)7ra, vecplfuoao, Hark iv. 89), have been specially recorded by the second Evangelist. — see the tory remarks of Chrysostom, in Matt. Hum. xxvm.. the typical and practical application of Augustine, Serm. lxiii. (ed. Higne), Trench, Notes an the Miracles, p. 143, sq., aud compare Hook, Serm. on the Miracles, Vol. i. p. 207 ••!• 178 THE MINISTRY IN EASTERN GALILEE. Lect. IX. been late that evening, or more probably studiously de- layed till the dawn of the following day, our 7v Genjescne T j0 i-d na j n0 sooner s;one out of the vessel demoniacs. P than He was met by the hapless Gergesene 1 demoniac or demoniacs, 2 wdiose home was in the tombs, that can still be traced in more than one of Mark v. 3. the ravines that open out upon the lake on its eastern side. 3 There, and in the solitudes of the desert mountains behind, dwelt the wretched and, as it would seem, sinful man, who by his Lord's own Luke viii. 39. ' •> divine command was hereafter to be Christ's first preacher in his own household, and who Mark r. 20. L ' told abroad the blessings he had received through the surrounding land of Decapolis. How he 1 Whether the true reading in Matt. viii. 28 be Tepyen-qvuv, Ta^apfjvwu, or Tepacrrii Siv, is a question which cannot easily be answered. On the whole, how- ever, if we assign due weight not only to the evidence of manuscripts but also to recent geographical discovery, we shall, perhaps, be led to adopt the first reading in St. Matthew and the second in St. Mark and St. Luke. The grounds on which this decision rests are as follows: (1) The amount of external evidence in favor of Yzpyeo-nvwi' in Matt. viii. 28 (see Tischendorf in loc.) is much too great to be due solely to the correction of Origen; (2) Origen plainly tells us that there toas a place in his time so named, and that the exact site of the miracle was pointed out to that day; (3) ruins have been recently discovered by Dr. Thomson in Wady Semak, still bearing the name of Kerza or Gerza, which are pronounced to fulfil every requirement of the narrative. See, especially. The Land and the Boole, Vol. ii. p. 33 sq., and compare Van de Velde, Memoir to Map, p. 311. The probable reading in St. Mark and St. Luke (TaSap-nvHv) may be accounted for by supposing that they were content with indicating generally the scene of the miracle, while St. Matthew, whose knowledge of the shores of the lake whereon he was collector of dues would naturally be precise, speciiies the exact, spot. 2 Of the current explanations of the seeming difficulty that St. Matthew names two and St. Mark and St. Luke one demoniac, that of Chrysostom (in loc.) and Augustine (de Consensu Evany, u. 24) seems most satisfactory, viz. that one of the demoniacs took so entirely the prominent part as to cause two of the narrators to omit all mention of his companion. We have no reason for inferring from St. Matthew that the second of the sufferers did more than join in the opening cry of deprecation. See Matt. viii. 29. 3 Sec Thomson, The Land and the Booh, Vol. ii. p. 35. Tombs have also been observed in Wady Flk on the side of the road leading up from the lake (Stan- ley, Palestine, eh. x. p. 376), the position of which has perhaps led to that ravine being usually selected as the scene of the miracle; if, however, the above identification of Tepyifra and Gerza be accepted, the scene of the miracle must be transferred to the more northern Wady Semak. Lect. IV. THE MINISTRY IN EASTERN GALILEE. 179 was healed, the astonishing and most convincing way in which every line of the narrative sets before us the awful kind of double or rather manifold personality, * Ver. 9. the kneeling man of the one moment and the O Ver. 6. shouting demoniac of the next, the startling yet all-wise permission given to the devils, 1 and the over- powered instinct of self-preservation in the possessed swine, — all this our present limits preclude me from pausing fully to delineate ; but this one comment I will venture to make, that with this miracle before us, with expressions so unqualified, and terms so distinct, a denial of the reality of demoniacal possession on the part of anyone who believes the Gospel narrative to be true and inspired, may justly be regarded as simply and plainly inconceivable. 2 On the Lord's return to the western side, n,e raisin of . . Juirus' daughter. which took place immediately in consequence of the request of the terror-stricken inhab- itants of the neighboring city, lie found the multitude l On this much debated subject we may briefly observe, (a) that the permission to enter into the herd of swine may have been deemed necessary by our Lord (noAAa ivTtii&tv oIkovoixwv, Chrvs.) to convince the sufferer of his cure (Chrys. I.)j (6) that it may also stand in connection with some unknown laws of demo- niacal possession generally, and more particularly with that which the demons dreaded, deprecated, and perhaps foresaw, — a return to the abyss (Luke viii. 31). It maybe that to defer that return they ask to be suffered to enter into fresh objects in that district to which they mysteriously Clung (Mark v. 10), and it maybe too that the very permitted entry, by destroying the instinct of self- preservation in the swine, brought about, even in a more ruinous way, the issue tin;, so much dreaded. That this was (e) further designed to punish the people fur keeping swine is not perfectly clear, as the inhabitants of those parts wer< mainly (.entile. Compare Joseph. Antiq. xvn. 11. 4. The supposition that the swine were driven down the precipice by the demoniacs (Kuinoel, followed by Mil man, Hist, qf Christianity, Vol. i. p. 238) is not only in the highest degree Improbable, but wholly at variance with the express Statements of the inspired writers. 'i For some good remarks on this subject, sec Olshauscn, Commentary, Vol. i. p. 305 sq. (Clark). Trench, Notes <■,, the Miracles, p. 151 sq., AJford m Matt. viii. 32, and compare Kitto, Journal qfSacr. l.ii. No. vn. p. 1 sq., No. xiv. p. S'Jl sq. In addition to these, on the miracle generally, see Chrysostom on Matt. Horn. xxvn., the good comments of Maldonatus on Matt. I. <■., Bp. Hall, Contempt. in. 5, and compare Jones of Nay land, Works; Vol. v. p. 72 sq., and Bp. Wilbcr- force, Serin, p. 107. 180 THE MINISTRY IN EASTERN GALILEE. Lect. IV. eagerly waiting to receive Him, and among them one anx- ious and heart-stricken man, Jairus, whose Luke viii. 40. . daughter lay clying, and who besought our Lord with all the passion of a father's love to save his child. But the crowd hung round the Lord, and the case of the suffering woman, who Ver. 43 sq. & ' touched her Saviour's garments with the touch of faith, 1 added to the delay, and the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue had breathed her last before the Lord could reach the father's house; 2 so LvLIiu.49. they tell Him that all was over. But now was the glory of God to be revealed. Yet again a second time — as once on the bier, so now on the bed — did the Lord loose the bands of death ; with how- ever this very striking and peculiar difference, that what a few days before was done in the sight of Ch. vii. 11. . J . . . ° all .Nam, was here done in strict privacy, with three chosen Apostles and the father and mother alone present, and with the special and urgent Mark V. 43. * ., . . , command to those present not to raise the veil of the solemn scene they had been permitted to witness. 3 1 On this miracle, the characteristics of which are the great faith of the sufferer, and the indirect though not unconscious performance of the cure, see Hall, Contempt, iv. 7, Trench, Notes on the Miracles, p. 189 sq., Hook, Serm. on the Miracles, Vol. i. p. 242 sq.; and compare Lange, Leben Jesu, IV. 4. 14, Part n. p. 681. 2 The slight difference between the narrative of St. Matthew, in which the father speaks of his daughter as now dead (ch. ix. 18), and that of St. Mark, where he speaks of her as being at the last gasp (ch. v. 23), has been accounted for most reasonably by Augustine (de Conceits. Evang. n. 2), Theophylact (1st alternative), and others, by the supposition that Jairus spoke from what his fears suggested, and that he regarded the death of his daughter as by that time having actually taken place. Comp. Greswell, Dissert, in. Vol. i. p. 217. 8 This command, which Meyer (on Mark v. 43) most rashly considers a mere unauthorized addition of later tradition, is perfectly in harmony with the pri- vate manner in which the miracle was performed. The reason v'hy it was given can, however, only be conjectured. It can scarcely have been on account of the Jews (Sia Tt>e (pSi6vou ia.ya Tcic 'lovSaicav, Theophyl. on Luke viii. 66), but may very probably have been suggested by a desire to avoid undue publicity, and perhaps also by merciful considerations of what the Lord knew to be best lor the maiden and her relatives. Compare Olshausen, Commentary on Gospels, Lect. IV. THE MINISTRY IN EASTERN GALILEE. 181 Soon after this, perhaps on the same day, our Lord, accompanied by His disciples, leaves Caper- 1 , * . - . , . Ttir second visit naum, and on the Sabbath which immediately «»*»« synagogue at . -i • i JSazareth. followed again appeared in the synagogue at His own town of Nazareth. 1 The feeling there is now in some deerree better than it was three ° Luke iv. Ksq. weeks before. The fame that spread all through Galilee had produced some effect even at Naza- reth, and had disposed them to give ear a second time to Him whose wisdom and even miraculous Mark vi. 2. powers they were forced to recognize and to confess. But the inward heart of the men of Nazareth was unchanged as ever. Though there was now no longer that open indignation and murderous racje . . Ver.28. that was so frightfully manifested at the former visit, there was a similar vexed spirit of amaze- ment and incredulity, and a similar and even more scorn- fully worded appeal to family connections of low estate, and to kindred that had long lived humbly among them: " Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James and Joscs and Judas and Simon?" x • i n* • Mark vi. 3. It is now, however, offence rather than posi- tive rejection, — yet offence that sprang from a deep heart of unbelief, which staved the Saviour's heal- J Malt. xiii. 68. ing hands, and made Him, who knew full well what it was to meet with rejection and want of faith, to marvel at the exceeding measures of Naz- ° , Mark. vi. G. arene unbelief. On the eve of that day, or more probably early on the morrow, our Lord appears to Vol. i. p. 270 (Clark). On the miracle itself sec the good comments of Chrysost. in Matt, llinii. xxxi., Bp. Hall, Contempt, it. 8, Lardner's vindication, Works, Vol. xi. p. 1 Bq., Trench, Notes on the Miracles, p. 179, and Lange, Leben Jesu, a. 4. 11, Part ii. p. 083 s

a Matt. xiii. 64. The only argument for the identity is our Lord's use of the same proverb on both occasions; hut is there anything Btrange In such a repetition, especially when the conduct of the people of Nazareth on each occasion rendered such a proverb most mournfully pertinent J See Wieseler, ( %ron. Synnjis. p. 234 sq. 10 182 THE MINISTRY IN EASTERN GALILEE. Lect. IV. have commenced a short circuit of Galilee, but, as we must conclude from our general notes of The sending . , . . • jbnh of the Twelve time, in the direction of Capernfium ; and at this same time also it would certainly appear that He sent forth the twelve Apostles (who we know accompanied Him to Nazareth), by two and Markvi.6. r . " \ two, probably in different directions, and perhaps with an order, after having made a brief trial of the powers with which they had been Mark vi. 12. % ....,, ~ intrusted, to join their Master at Caper- naum. Thither they must have returned, it would seem, not more than two days afterwards. 2 Such a statement may at first seem startling. It may be urged that so short an absence on the part of the Apostles is hardly compat- ible with the instructions given to them by our Lord, as recorded by the first Evangelist, wherein Matt, x.osq. . J . . distant and continued journeymgs would seem rather to be contemplated than the limited circuit which our present chronology suggests. 3 The objection is 1 The Sabbath on which our Lord preached at Nazareth would certainly seem to be the Sabbath which succeeded the ffafifiaTov deuTtpoirpwTov (Luke vi. 1), and consequently, according to our explanation of the latter term, the second Sabbath of Nisan. Now if we turn to our tables (Wieseler, Chron. Synops. p. 4S4), we find that our present Sabbath answers to Nisan 13, and therefore must conclude that both our Lord and His Apostles returned to Capernaum from their respective missionary journeys on the following day, there being good reason for fixing the feeding of the five thousand on the Passover-eve, Nisan 14. See below, and compare John vi. 4. Such a result can hardly be conceived natural. The difficulty, however, may be in some degree removed by taking into consideration the fact that the first day of the Jewish month was fixed by observation, and that the day of the Julian calendar with which it agrees can hardly be determined with perfect certainty. In the case of Nisan 1 in the pres- ent year, the correct time of new moon was about seven o'clock in the evening of April 2; the new moon would then probably be observed on the evening of April 4 (see Wieseler, Chron. Synops. p. 446). But the Jewish day begins after six o'clock; Nisan 1 would then begin on April 4, but really coincide with April 5, and not with April 4, as Wieseler and Warm suppose. The date of our present Sabbath would then be Nisan 12, and not Nisan 11, and we should have two whole days for the absence of the Apostles, a time not improbably short. See below. Such niceties and difficulties may well teach us caution, and may justly make us very diffident as to our ability to assign each event in tins portion of the sacred narrative to the true day on which it occurred. 2 See the preceding note. 3 Another objection may perhaps be founded on the declaration of St. Mark Lect. IV. THE MINISTRY IN EASTERN GALILEE. 183 certainly not without force, and is useful in warning us not to be too confident either on the construction of our chro- nological tables, or in the correctness of our collocation of individual events. Still, when we consider, — First, that it is far from improbable that St. Matthew has incorporated in this address to the Apostles instructions given to them by our Lord at other periods of His ministry; 1 /Secondly, that the address, whether in its longer or its shorter form, may reasonably be supposed to extend far J J \ c Vamp. Matt. x. 23. beyond the present time, and to refer to periods of missionary labor as yet still distant; Thirdly, that it does not seem probable that our Lord would have long dispensed with the attendance of those to whom His blessed presence was so vital and so essential, 2 — when we consider all these points, it will perhaps seem less improb- able that this first missionary journey was but short, and that the Apostles returned to Capernaum as early as the evening of the second day. The return was nearly, it would seem, contemporaneous with the arrival of the tidings of the Baptist's murder; 3 and it was, perhaps, partly tliat our Lord "went round about the villages, teaching" (ch. vi. 6; comp. Matt. ix. 3.3). This is also of some weight, but as we find no special note of time serv- ing to define it as subsequent to the visit to Nazareth, and prior to the sending fcrth of the Twelve, we may perhaps justly and correctly regard it either (a) as Serving only to mark that our Lord's ministry was continuous, that He did not remain at Nazareth, but was extending His blessings to other places; or, still more simply, (b) as merely specifying the work in which our Lord was then engaged, and as preparing the reader for a transition to other subjects (ver. 7— 29). See above, p. 174. note 3. i When we remember that St. Matthew does not notice the sending forth of the 8eventj , and, further, when we compare the instructions delivered to them, as recorded by St. Luke (ch. x. ii), with those which are here recorded by St. Matthew, as delivered to the Twelve (ch. x. 2 sq.), it seems hard to resist the con- viction that as the lirst l',\ angelist was moved in the preceding chapters to group miracles together, so ill the present case he is presenting in a collected form all our Lord's instructions on the subject of missionary duties and labors generally. Bee a comparison of the parallel passages in Wieseler, Citron. Synopa. p. 303. 2 it is right to remember that the formal appointment of the Twelve can scarcely be placed farther back than a week or ten days from the present time. Some of the number, we know, bad been already long enough with our Lord as disciples for as to conceive that they might have been enabled to teach and preach for some time without being sustained by His presence, but this can hardly be <<-!t In rcfi rence to all the Apostles. 2 It seem- probable that the death of the Baptist took place somewhere about 184 THE MINISTRY IN EASTERN GALILEE. Lect. IV. on this account, and partly for the sake of communing in stillness with His chosen ones after their first Comp. Matt. xiv. . _ _ , . i3. missionary efiorts, that our Lord thought it Mark vi 3i meet to avoid the many comers and goers which a time so close to the Passover would Per. 31. be sure to set in motion, and to seek rest and privacy by retiring with His Apostles to the solitudes of the further side of the lake. But rest and privacy were not to be obtained. A very short time, especially when we remember the JVS12 Probable vicinity of the city of Bethsaida- Julias, 1 and the numbers that might now have been moving about the country, would have served to have brought the five thousand round our Lord ; and there, on the green table-lands on the northeastern corner of the lake, or amid the " ere en grass " of the rich Mark vi. 39. , . ' , °, „ ° , _ ., - plain near the mouth of the Jordan/ must we place the memorable scene of the miraculous feeding of that vast multitude. Memorable indeed, — Matt. xiv. 21. _ . , n . . memorable for the display ot the creative power of the eternal Son that w T as then made before more a week before the time now under consideration. See Wieseler, Chron. Synops. p. 292 sq. Much, however, turns on the meaning assigned to the term ysvecria, (Matt. xiv. 6, Mark vi. 21). If it refers to the festival in honor of the birthday of Herod Antipas (Meyer), no precise date for the murder of the Baptist can be obtained from this portion of the narrative; if, however, as seems not unlikely, it refers to the festival in honor of the commencement of Herod's reign, then an approximately close date can easily be arrived at, as Herod the Great, whom Herod Antipas succeeded in the government of Galilee (Joseph. Antiq. xvn. 8. 1), is known to have died a few days before the Passover, a. u. c. 750. See Lect. ii. p. 81, note 1. 1 This appears to have been a place of some size and importance. It was trans- formed by Philip from a mere village into a populous and handsome town (see Joseph. Antiq. xviii. 2. 1), of which some traces are thought to have been found on some rising ground on the east side of the Jordan and not far from the head of the lake. See Robinson, Palestine, Vol. ii. p. 413, Thomson, The Land and the Booh, Vol. ii. p. 9, and compare Winer, PWB. Vol. ii. p. 174. 2 See Stanley, Palestine, ch. x. p. 377, and especially Thomson, The Zand and the Pool; Vol. ii. p. 29, where it is stated that the exact site of the miracle may almost confidently be identified. For a confutation of the rashly advanced opinion that St. Luke places the scene of the miracle on the western shore (De Wette, comp. Winer, liWB. Vol. i. p. 175), see Meyer on Luke ix. 10. Lect. IV. THE MINISTRY IN EASTERN GALILEE. 185 than five thousand witnesses; memorable too for the strange coincidence that on the very eve that the Paschal lambs were being offered up in the temple-courts of Jeru- salem, the eternal Lamb of God was feeding His people in the wilderness with the bread which His own divine hands had multiplied! 1 And now I must draw these words and this portion of our Master's life at once to a close, yet not without the prayer that this effort to set „££**" re ' forth the narrative of a most solemn and eventful period — the period of the Lord's founding His Church — may be blessed by His Spirit. To be confident of the accuracy of details, either of time or place, where not only the connection of individual events, but the ar- rangement of the whole period, is a matter of the utmost doubt and difficulty, would indeed argue a rash and self- satisfied spirit; yet this I will presume to say, that if certain chronological data and reasonings be approximately cor- rect, — and after manifold testings correct in the main I do verily believe them to be, — then the general picture can hardly be much otherwise than as it has been here sketched out. Be this however as it may, I count all as nought if only I have succeeded in the great object which these Lectures are intended to promote, if only, by pre- senting some sketches of the continued life of the Saviour, I may have been enabled to bring that Saviour nearer to one heart in this church. On that holy life, on all its divine harmonies, on all its holy mysteries, may we be moved more and more to dwell. By meditating on the inspired records may we daily acquire increasing measures of that fulness of conviction, to have which in its most l On this miracle, which, as has been often observed, is the only one found in all tin- lour Gospels, and which, when compared with the miracle of turning the water into wine (John ii. 1 Bq.), Bhows our Lord's creative powers in reference to quantity, as the latter does his transforming (powers as to qua! it a, Bee Origen, hi Matt. \i. l, Vol. iii. p. -17') Bq. (ed Bened.), Augustine, in Jonm. Tract, xxiv. Vol. iii. p, 1592 sq. (ed. Uigne), Bp. Hall, Contempt, iv. "(.Trench, Notes on the Miracles, p. 361, and a good sermon by .Mill, I'nic. S<.im. XVI. ji. 301. 1G* 186 THE MINISTRY IN EASTERN GALILEE. Lect. IV. complete proportions is to enjoy the greatest earthly blessing which the Lord has reserved for those that love Him. This is indeed to dwell with the Lord on earth ; x this is indeed to feel His spiritual presence around us and about us, and yet to feel, with no ascetic severity, but in sober truth, that we have here no abiding city, but that there, where He is, is our true and everlasting home; there, by the shores of that crystal sea, our heavenly Gennesareth ; there that new Jeru- Rev. xxi. 23. . . Heb.xi.w. salem, whose light is the light of the Lamb, — the "city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God." 1 " Do not then," says the wise and eloquent Bp. Hall, " conceive of this union as some imaginary tiling that hath no existence but in the brain, or as if it were merely an accidental or metaphorical union by way of figurative resemblance; but know that this is a real and substantial union, whereby the believer is indis- solubly united to the glorious person of the Son of God. Know that this union is not more mystical than certain, that in natural unions there may be more evi- dence but cannot be more truth. Neither is there so firm and close a union betwixt the soul and body as there is betwixt Christ and the believing soul ; for- asmuch as that may be severed by death, but this cannot."— Christ Mystical, ch. ii. See above, Lect. m. p. 142, note 2. LECTURE V. THE MINISTRY IX NORTHERN GALILEE. AND HE SAID UNTO TUEM, I MUST PREACH THE KINGDOM OP GOD TO OTHER CITIES ALSO: FOR THEREFORE AM I SENT. — St. Luke iv. 43. I have chosen these words, brethren, which really belong to a slightly earlier period 1 than that which we are now about to consider, as nevertheless a very suitable text for that part of our Master's history which will occupy our attention this afternoon. In the portion of the inspired narrative now before us, we have the brief yet deeply interesting J l J ° General features notices of more widely, extended journeys nfthu partem* and more prolonged circuits. We find the clear traces of missionary travel to the west and to the cast and to the north, and we read the holy record of deeds of mercy performed in remote regions, both of Galilee and the lands across the Jordan, 2 which the Lord had not, as it 1 The exact time when these words were uttered by our Lord was the morn- ing following the first Sabbath at Capernaum, when the amazed but grateful multitudes were pressing Him not to leave the jilaee He had so greatly blessed. See Lect, iv. ]. L60. -' It has not been easy to select a single term which should correctly describe thi' principal BCene ol' the ministerial labors of our Lord which come before us in this Lecture. The known geographical divisions of Upper and Lower Gali- lee (Joseph. Bell. Jud. hi. 3. 1) would naturally have suggested the adoption of the former term in reference to the present, ami the latter in reference to the preceding portion of the sacred narrative, if it were not apparently an estab- lished fact that Capernaum belonged, not, as it might be thought, to Lower (Kitto, Bibl. < if!. Art. "Galilee,"' Vol. i. p. 727), but to Upper Galilee. Comp. Kuscb. Onamast. Art " Capharnaum," and Smith, Dk-t. of Bible, Art. "Galilee," Vol. i ]). 040. The title above has thus been ehusen, though it is confessedly not exact, as failing to include the districts across the .Jordan, which, as will be seen from thi' narrative, were the scenes of some part of the ministry that we are DOW eon.sidering. 188 THE MINISTRY IN NORTHERN GALILEE. Lect. V. would appear, yet blessed with his divine presence. Hitherto the plain of Gennesareth and the nearer portions of Galilee, "the land of Zabulon and the land of Neph- thalim," had been almost exclusively blest with the glory of the great Light; now Phcenice and Decapolis were to behold its rays. Hitherto the lake of the east, " the wav of the sea beyond Jor- 1'cr 15. dan," had been the chief theatre of the Re- deemer's teaching and miracles ; now even the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, and the great sea of the west, were to hear the tidings of salvation, yea, and to bear their witness to victories over the powers of that kingdom of darkness which had so long been seated on those heathen and idol- atrous shores. Such is the general character of the very remarkable portion of the sacred narrative on which we SpecM contrasts now a j J0ut to dwell. Remarkable is it and characteristics. for the glimpses it vouchsafes to us of the unwearied activities of our Lord's ministerial life ; remark- able for the notices it supplies to us of the extended spheres to which those holy energies were directed; 1 re- markable too for the contrasted relations in which it stands to that portion of the Gospel history which claimed so much of our attention last Sunday. To these contrasts and characteristics let us devote a few preliminary thoughts. First, however, let us specify the limits of the section to which Ave are about to confine our attention. Chronological limits of the present These seem, almost at once, to suggest them- selves to the meditative reader, and serve to separate the evangelical narrative into simple and natural 1 The peculiar character of these distant missionary journeys of our Lord, and the considerable portion of time which they appear to have occupied, have been too much overlooked by modern writers of the Life of our Lord. Compare, for example, Hase, Leben Jesu, § 85. and even to some extent Lange, Lebeti Jesu, n. 5. 10, Part ii. p. 864, neither of whom seems properly to recognize the important place which these journeys really occupy in our Lord's ministry. See below, p. 189. Ewald, on the contrary, has correctly devoted a separate section to this portion of the Gospel history. See Gesch. Christus\ p. 331 sq. Lect. V. THE MINISTRY IN NORTHERN GALILEE. 189 divisions. Our section, it will be remembered, commences ■with the events which immediately succeeded the feeding of the five thousand on the Passover eve, 1 and naturally and appropriately concludes with the return of our Lord to Capernaum a very short time previous to His journey to Jerusalem at the feast of Tabernacles, towards the mid- dle of October. We have thus as nearly as possible a period of six months; 2 a period bounded by two great festivals, and, as I have already said, marked off from the preceding portion of our Lord's history by some striking contrasts and characteristics. On these let us briefly pause to make a few observations which the nature of the subject appears to demand. One of the most striking features of the present section is the glimpse it affords us of the proc/ressive o I i 1/ Progrr.**irt' )itr- nature, if I may venture to use such an ex- tmv of our /..-/•, /» t ■ • -ill t minUtri/. pression, of our Lord s ministerial labors, and the prophetic indications, as it were, which it supplies of the future universal diffusion of the Gospel. At first we have seen that our blessed Master was mercifully pleased to confine His teaching and His deeds of love and mercy mainly to that province which could now alone be reck- oned as the land of the old theocracy. In Juda;a lie was pleased to dwell continuouslv more than eight 1 . John iv. 1. months;"' in Judaea He gathered round Him disciples more numerous than those of John, and from Ju- 1 See above, Lect. iv. p. 185. The opinion there advanced, of the exact coin- cidence of the day on which the multitudes were fid with that on which the paschal-lamb was slain, derives some slight support from the subject of our I. (nd's discourse (the bread of life, John vi. 22 sq.) at Capernaum on the follow- ing day, which, it does not appear at all unlikely, was suggested by the festal season. See below, p. 197. 2 If we are correct in our general chronology, the present year would be 782 A.l'.c, and in this year the FaSSOver would begin April IT or 18 (see above, p. 182, ii.. te 1), and the least of Tabernacles October 19. See the tables in Wieseler, Chron. Synopa. p. 4S3. 8 This ministry began with (he 1'assover of the year 781 A. u. c. (March 29), ami concluded with our Lord's departure to Galilee through Samaria, which, as mi' have M'li above, may be lixed approximately ns late in December. See Lect. in. p. 128, note 3. 190 THE MINISTRY IN NORTHERN GALILEE. Lect. V. dcea He departed only when the malignity of Scribe and Pharisee rendered that favored land no longer a safe rest- ing-place for its Redeemer and its God. Ihen, and not till then, followed the minis- try in the eastern and, as it would seem, more Jndaized 1 portion of Galilee. In due and mysterious order suc- ceeded those missionary labors in frontier lands where the Gentile element was mainly, if not in some cases exclu- sively, prevalent. This gradual enlargement of the field of holy labor does indeed seem both striking and suggestive ; this we may perhaps venture to regard as a result from our present system of harmonizing the Gospel narrative, which reflects on that system no small degree of plausibility. But there are contrasts too between the narrative of this present portion of our Lord's history and Contrasts between , i . i ■ i 1 -it • • i • 1 this and the pnced- that which has preceded, winch seem to li- ft^*™ ^» e ]ustrate the f ore going remarks, and are in themselves both interesting and instructive. Though the portion of time vouchsafed to the ministry in Capernaum and its vicinity was so short, yet with what minute accuracy is it detailed to us by the three Synoptical Evangelists ! How numerous the miracles, how varied and impressive the teaching ! Three continuous weeks only, 2 1 This last epithet may perils be questioned, but is apparently borne out by the essentially Jewish chaiacter of the district which the sacred narrative seems to reveal. The population of the great city of the district, Tiberias, though mixed (Joseph. Antiq. xviii. 2. 3), appears to have included a considerable and probably preponderant number of Jews, as we find it mentioned as in revolt against the Romans (Joseph. Fit. 9), while the other large city of Galilee, Sep- phoris, did not swerve from its allegiance. Capernaum too, if we agree to identify it with Tell Hfim (p. 121, note 1), must have had a large population of Jews at a time not very distant from the Christian era, otherwise we can hardly account for the extensive ruins, apparently of a synagogue of unusual magnifi- cence, which have been observed at that place by modern travellers. See Rob- inson, Palestine, Vol. in. p. 346 (ed. 2), Thomson, The Land and the Bool:, Vol. i. p. 540. As to the supposed early date of the building, compare the remarks of Robinson, Palest. Vol. iii. p. 74. 2 Assuming our general dates to be right, our Lord's first appearance in the synagogue at Nazareth would be on a Sabbath corresponding with the twenty- first day of the intercalated mouth Beadar, or, according to the Julian Calendar, JIarch 20 or 27. The Tassovcr, as we have already teen, commenced on April 17 orl8. We have thus for the portion of our Loni's ministry on which we Lect. V. THE MINISTRY IN NORTHERN GALILEE. 191 yet in that short time one signal instance of the Lord's controlling power over the elements, 1 two records of tri- umphs over the power of death, three notable accounts of a stern sovereignty exercised over the spirits of perdition, 2 the formal founding of the Church, and the promulgation of all its deepest teaching. But in our present section, when we follow our Lord's steps into half-heathen lands, though the time spent was so much greater, how few the recorded miracles, how isolated and detached the notices of them ! Nay, more, our very inspired authorities » ' ' ' Teaching ami seem to change their relations, and yet sug- preaching rather . • . than miracletchar- gest by the very change that local teaching aeuristic of u,u and preaching,' rather than display or mi- raculous power, was the chief characteristic of these six liave commented in the preceding Lecture only a period of about twenty-two days. It may be Urged that this is far shorter than we could have inferred from the narrative; but it may be answered, that if the feast mentioned by St. John (ch. v. 1) be Pnrim, and //'we consider, as we seem fairly justified in doing, the feeding of the five thousand coincident with the Passover-eve of the same year (see p. 117, note 2), then our Lord's ministry in Eastern Galilee cannot readily be 8bown to have lasted longer than has been here supposed. It is by no means disguised thai there arc in this, as in every other system of chronology that has yet been proposed, many difficulties, and much that may make us very doubtful of our power of fixing the exact epochs of many o\ ents (see above, p. 182, note 1); still, if the extreme chronological limits appear rightly lixed, we seem bound to accept the fair results of such an arrangement, if not as certainly 1 1 in-, yet at least as consistent with what has been judged to be bo, and thus far a> claiming our assent. l'or some remarks tending in some measure to dilute the force of a priori arguments Pounded on the apparent shortness of the time, see Wieseler, Chron. Syrups, p. 288. 1 We might bare almost said tim, as the miracle of walking on the water (Matt. xiv. 2'2, Mark vi. 48, John vi. 19), though placed in the portion on which WO are now commenting, obviously belongs to the ministry in Eastern Galilee. -' These are, (1) the striking instance in the synagogue at Capernaum (Mark i. 23 sq., Luke iv. :» gq.), which so greatly amazed those who vi itnessed it; (2) the instance of healing the blind and deaf demoniac (Matt. xii. 22), which provoked the impious declarations of the Jerusalem scribes and Pharisees; and (8) the Gergesene demoniacs (Matt. viii. 28 Sq., Mark v. i. Bq:, Luke viii. 26 si].). 8 The Btateraeni of Chrysostom (in Matt. Horn, i.n Vol. vii. p. 59G, ed. Bened. 21. that our Lord did not journey 1o the borders of Tyre and Sidon for the pur- po-e of preaching there (ou5e cLs xr/pv^wy a,Tr'ii\d(V), seems doubtful, from Si. Mark, a.- ChrySOStom urges, we learn that our Lord BOUght privacy •• and would have no man know" (ch. vii. 24), bui this, from the immediate context, and, as it were, ("intra- i'ii miracle, would seem to indicate a desire for partial rather than ab ..'ale concealment; a temporary laying aside of Bis merciful displays of divine power, rather than a suspension of His ministry. 192 THE MINISTRY IN NORTHERN GALILEE. Lect. V. months of the Lord's ministerial life. I ground this opin- ion on the easily verified fact that the professed histo- rian of his Master's life, he who made it his duty to set in order the narrative which eye-witnesses had delivered, and who records to us events rather than Luke i. 2. . , . , ... , , discourses, has assigned to this six months period only some thirty or more verses, 2 while to the brief but eventful period that preceded he has devoted at least seven times as much of his inspired record. Our principal authority, as we might almost expect, is St. Matthew; yet not exclusively, as about one hundred and fifty verses of St. Mark's Gospel relate to the same period. 3 The events however recorded by both Evangelists taken together are so very few, that again the inference would seem reason- able, that if two of those who were eye-witnesses — for in St. Mark we have the testimony of St. Peter — have related so little, our Lord's miracles during this time could scarcely have been numerous. Miracles, as we know, were performed, but it was probably less by their influence than by the calm but persuasive influence of teaching and preaching that the Lord was pleased to touch and test the rude yet apparently receptive hearts of the dwellers in the remote uplands of Galilee, or in the borders of Hellenic Decapolis. 4 l On (he nature and characteristics of this Gospel, see Lect. i. p. 41 sq. - The only portion of St. Luke's Gospel which appears to relate to this period of our Lord's ministry, if we except a very few verses which may perhaps belong to discourses during this period (ch. xv. 3—7, xvii. 1, 3), begins ch. ix. 18, and concludes with the fiftieth verse of the same chapter. Comp. Wieseler, Citron. Synops. p. 311. 3 The portion of St. Mark's Gospel that refers to this period of our Lord's ministry begins ch. vi. 45, and seems to conclude with the last verse of ch. ix. The next chapter describes our Lord as journeying into Judaea by way of Feraea, and, consequently, is describing the last journey to Jerusalem. See Lect. VI. 4 The district, or, more strictly speaking, confederation bearing this name, seems to have been made up of cities and villages round them (Joseph. Fit. § 65), of which the population was nearly entirely Gentile; two of the cities, Hip- pos and Gadara, are distinctly termed by Josephus (Antiq, XII. 11. 4) 'EAATjWSey ttoAcis. The geographical limits of Decapolis can scarcely be denned; we semi, however, justified in considering that nearly all the cities included in the confederation were across the Jordan, and on the eastern side of the lake of Gennesaretb. Compare Eusebius, Onomast. s. v. "Decapolis," and see Winer, RWB. Art. " Decapolis," Vol. i. p. 263. Lect. V. THE MINISTRY IN NORTHERN GALILEE. 193 This is exactly what we might have presumed to expect from the circumstances of the case, and from . J _ Such a difference what has been incidentally revealed to us of probable from the nature of the case. the conditions on which the performance of the Lord's miracles in a great measure depended. From the comment which both St. Matthew and St. Mark have made upon the repressing jtpiw. influence of the unbelief of the people of Nazareth, we seem justified in asserting that our Redeem- er's miracles were in a great degree contingent upon the faith of those to whom the message of the Gospel was offered. 1 How persuasively true then does that narrative appear which on the one hand represents the appeal to miracles most frequent and continuous in Eastern Galilee, where the receptivity was great and the contravening influences mainly due to alien emissaries, 3 — and, on the other, leaves us to infer, by its few and isolated notices, that amid the darkness and necessarily imperfect belief of the frontier lands that appeal was comparatively limited and exceptional. But it is now time for us to resume the thread of the inspired history. On that Passover-eve with l _ •* The return across which our narrative commences, our Lord, the lake, our Lord . . walks on the waters. alter having ted the live thousand, remains Himself behind on the eastern shore to dis- miss the yet lingering multitudes, but directs -> O & ' Mark vi. 45. the disciples to cross over the lake to Beth- saida. From some supposed discordant notices in the 1 The following comment of Origan is clear and pertinent: " From these words (Matt. xiij. 68) we are taught that miracles were performed among the believing, Bince 'to every one that hath it shall be given and shall be made to abound,' but aiming unbelievers miracles not only were not, but, as St. Mark has recorded, • .. n could not be performed. For attend to that ' He could not perform any miracle there;' he ° discourse in the s \ c } e many 2 of those who had been miracu- sitnayogue* lously fed the evening before, and to them, in the synagogue at Capernaum (for it was the fifteenth of Nisan and a day of solemn service 3 ), the Lord utters 1 On the full signification of the title "Son of God," as applied to our Lord in the New Testament, see the valuable remarks of Wilton, Iliu.it r. of the New Test. ch. ii. p. 10 sq. In the present case it is impossible to doubt that it was aught else than a full and complete recognition, not merely of our Saviour's Messiahship (Meyer), which would here be wholly out of place, but of His divine nature and prerogatives. 2 Unnecessary difficulties have been made about the transit of the multitude. Without unduly pressing 6 earr^Kcis (Stier), as specially implying those who remained, in contrast with those that went away, it still seems obvious from the tenor of the narrative that those who followed our Lord were only the more earnest and deeply impressed portion of the multitude. Boats they would find in abundance, as the traffic on the lake was great, and the gale would have driven boats in a direction from Tiberias, and obliged them to sock shelter on the northeastern shore. See above, p. 194, note 2, and compare Sepp, Lebcn Christi, v. 7, Vol. iii. 16. 8 See Lev. xxiii. 7, Deut. xxviii. 18, from both of which passages we learn that there was to be a holy convocation on the day, and no servile work done thereon. I.ixt. V. THE MINISTRY IN NORTHERN GALILEE. 197 that sublime discourse recorded by St. John, so strik- ingly in accordance not only with the past miracle but with the present Passover-season, wherein He declares Himself to be the Bread of Life. The whole discourse is worthy of our attention, 1 as serving to confirm, perhaps in a somewhat striking way, some of the views which we were led to adopt last Sunday in regard to the spiritual state of the people of Capernaum and its neighborhood. It seemed almost clear, you may remember, that the hos- tility and unbelief which the Lord met with at Capernaum were in a great degree to be traced to malignant emissa- ries from Jerusalem, subsequently joined by some Galilfean Pharisees. 2 We may reasona- „ Lvke . v - 17; comp - J Mark m. 22. bly conceive that these evil men had now left Galilee to celebrate the Passover, and we may in con- sequence be led to expect far fewer exhibitions of hatred and hostility when our Lord vouchsafes to preach in the synagogue from which they were temporarily absent. And this is exactly what we do find recorded by the fourth Evangelist. We detect traces of doubt and sus- pended belief in some of the assembled , -, John «* 30. hearers, nay, we are told of murmunngs from the more hostile section then present, 3 when our Lord declares that He Himself was " the bread which came down from heaven;" we observe, too, strivings among themselves as 1 For good and copious comments on this discourse, the subject of which is the mysterious relation of our Lord to His people as the Bread of Life, and as the spiritual sustenance of believers, see Chrysostom, in Joann. Horn. xliv. —xi. vit., Cyril Alex, in Joann. Vol. iv. pp. 295—372 (ed. Aubert), Augustine, in Joann. Tractat. xxv. xxvi., and among modern writers in Luthardt, das Johann. Evan;;. 1'art n. pp. 49—64, and Stier, Disc, of our Lord, Vol. v. pp. 149—205 (Clark). 2 See above, p. 162, note 1. 3 It deserves notice that the speakers are now not, as above, some of the mul- titude who had followed our Lord, and whose questions had received the solemn answers recorded in the earlier portion of the discourse, but arc specially noticed as 'lovScuot ; i. e., according to what seems St. .John's regular use of the term, adherents of the party that was specially hostile to our Lord. See above, p. 137, note 3 17* Fer.41. Ver. 52. 198 THE MINISTRY IN NORTHERN GALILEE. Ljcct. V. to the true meaning of His weighty words; 1 but we are shocked by none of those outbursts of maddened hatred which on an earlier occasion marked the juk e vi.ii;co mp . presence f tbe intruders from Jerusalem. It is clear, however, that evil seed had been sown and was springing up ; it is plain that our Lord's words caused offence, and that not merely to the general multitude, but, alas, to some unspiritual disciples, who, St. John tells us shortly but sadly, " went back, and walked with Him no more." But the holy Twelve were true and firm: they who a few hours before, on the dark waters of the solitary lake, had confessed their Master's divinity, now again, johivt^' m tne f ace °f au men > declare by the mouth of St. Peter 2 that they believed and were sure that " He Vas Christ, the Son of the living God." 1 These strivings, though in a different and better spirit, have continued to this very day. Without entering deeply into the contested question of the reference of the words Kal 6 &pTos, k. t. A. ( ver. 51), we may remark generally (1) that the allu- sion in ver. 50 is clearly to the Incarnation, which at the commencement of ver. 51 is more fully unfolded, and in the conclusion of that verse seems also further (Kal 6 apTos 8e, k. t. A.) followed out to its last most gracious purpose, — the giving up of the human flesh thus assumed to atone for the sins of mankind : cnro&vr)(rKa> (p-qtriv, virep tmtwv, 'iva iravras faoiroiricrw St' ifxavrov, Cyril Alex, in loc. Vol. iv. p. 353. This supposition, thus derived from the context, is strongly confirmed by the word s. p. 311, note) Beemsto refer not only all these events, but also the reply of our Lord to the Pharisees on the subject of eating with unwashen hands (Matt. xv. 1 sq., Mark vii. 1 sq.), to the same day as that on which the discourse on the Bread of Life was delivered, i. e. on Nisan 15. This, however, is by no means probable. The Pharisees and Scribes, who are specified both by the first and second Evangelists as having come from Jerusalem, would hardly have left the city till the festival of the Passover was fully concluded. Origen (in Matt. Tom. XI. 8) comments on the T<$re (Matt. xv. 1) as marking a general coincidence in point of time with the healings in Gennesareth, but gives no precise opinion as to the exact Ume when the emissaries reappeared. I Chrysostom [in Matt. xv. 1) has noticed the special mention of the place whence they had come, remarking that the Scribes and Pharisees from the capital were both actuated by a worse spirit and held more in repute than those from other parts of Judsa. Horn. Li. Vol. vil. p. 583 (ud. Bened, 2). See l.ulli;. mius, im loc. Vo!. i. | 200 THE MINISTRY IN NORTHERN GALILEE. Lect. V. and truth, to take counsel against innocent blood. Ground of accusation is soon found out. These base men had perhaps insidiously crept into the social meetings of the disciples, and marked with malignant eyes the freedom of early evangelical life, and the charge is soon made : "Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashen hands?" Matt. xv. 2. £~, -. , . .--. Markrii.5. btern and crushing indeed is the answer „ . .. . which is returned, startling the application Mark vii. 6. ~ L 1 of prophecy, plain the principle, declared openly and plainly to the throng of bystanders, 1 that de- filement is not from without, but from within. Matt. xv. 11. . . Complete indeed was the vindication, but dangerous in its very completeness. The Pharisees, as we learn incidentally, were now still more Ver. 12. . deeply offended ; their malevolence was as- suming hourly a more implacable form, and, not improba- bly, hourly becoming more and more contagious. Doubts, suspicion, and perhaps aversion, 2 were now not improbably fast springing up in the minds even of those who once would fain have prevented the Lord from ever leaving their highly-favored land. Nor was this all. Other evil influences were at work, not only among the people, but among their rulers ; for we may 1 Both St. Matthew and St. Mark notice the fact that our Lord called the mixed multitude round Him (Matt. xvi. 10, Ka\ irpocTKaKeadixivos rov v%^ov. Comp. Mark vii. 14) and declared more especially to them (rptTrti Tbv \6yov irpbs t)jv o%Aoy ws a^ioKoyc&Tepoi', Euthym.) the principle, which the Pharisees would have been slow to admit, that defilement was from within, and not from without. It would seem, however, that this was uttered in the hearing of the Pharisees, and that, as Euthymius rightly suggests, this was the \6yos (Matt. xv. 12) at which, both from its sentiment and the publicity given to it, the Phar- isees were so much offended. Comp. Meyer, in loc. p. 306 (ed. 4). 2 This seems in some measure to transpire in St. John's account of our Lord's recent preaching at Capernaum, especially in those expressions of thorough Nazarene unbelief (Luke iv. 22, Mark vi. 3) which followed our Lord's declara- tion that He was the " Bread which came down from heaven " (John vi. 41 sq.). Though it is right to remember that these expressions came from a hostile sec- tion (see above, p. 197, note 3), yet the very presence of such a section in a syna- gogue where a very short time before the only feeling was amazement (Mark i. 22, Luke iv. 32), seems to show that some change of feeling was beginning decid- edly to show itself. Lect. V. THE MINISTRY IN NORTHERN GALILEE. 201 remember that it was but a short time before that the evil and superstitious Herod Antipas 1 had ' . r Lukcix.9. evinced a strong desire to see One of whom he had heard tidings that filled him with uneasiness and perplexity. And such a desire on the part of the murderer of the Baptist, we may well infer, could bode nothing but ill against One whom his fears had made him believe was his victim come back again from the grave. 2 All the Lord's secret or avowed enemies thus seemed unconsciously working together; danger was on every side, and eastern Galilee was proba- bly fast becoming as unsafe an abode for the Redeemer ami His Apostles as JiuUea had been a few months before. However this may be, the blessing of the Lord's pres- ence was now to be vouchsafed to other . Journey In Tyre lands, in the remote west and in the con- andsuion,andthe n t c m j.i t i i i miracle per/urmcJ lines' or lyre the Lord was now pleased there. to seek, if not for a security that was denied . . Mark vii. 24. at Capernaum, yet lor a seclusion that might have been needed for a yet further instruction of the i What little we know of the character of this Tetrarch is chiefly derived from what is recorded of him in the Gospels, especially in that of St. Luke. Josephus notices chiefly his love of ease and expense {An/it/, xviii. 7. 1 sq.), but in the sacred writers, beside the mention of his adultery and murder of the Baptist, we also lind allusions that prove him to have been a thoroughly bad man. Com- pare Luke iii. 19. and Nolde, Historia Iilum. p. 251 sq. ^ In the account given by the three Synoptical Evangelists (Matt, xiv. 1 sq., Mark vi. 11 sq., Luke ix. 7 sq.) we have the workings of a bad conscience plainly Bet before as. Observe the emphatic lf& (Luke ix. 9), and the desire expressed ti> -ic our Lord so as to satisfy himself that the general opinion (Luke ix. 7), in which he himself Beems to have shared (Matt. xiv. 2, Mark vi. 10; comp. Chrys. in Matt. I. <•.), was not true after all. There seems no reason for ascribing to the Tetrarch a belief in any form of transmigration of souls (comp. Grotius in loc); his words were merely the natural accents of guilty fear. 8 This Beems the correct inference from the words of St. Mark {to. fj.tS6f>ia Tvpov, ch. \ii. 21) collided with the incidental comment of St. Matthew (airb tcov bpiuiv fKtivuiv i£<\$oiiat e/j.e\\eu, ov& ais fxera ravra. cScoKeif. Vol. vii. p. 598 (ed. Bened. 2). 2 The term Xavavata, used by St. Matthew (ch. xv. 22), seems fully to justify this statement. She is termed 'EAA.tjw's (!. c. a heathen, not of Jewish descent), l.'jfHKpoivlKiffcra (Laehm.) or 2i'pa QoiviKioffa ( JHsch.) red -yeVei by St. Mark (ch. vii. 20), a definition perfectly accordant with that of St. Matthew, as these Syro- Phcenicians probably derived their origin from the remains of old Canaanite nations which had withdrawn on the conquest of Palestine to the extreme northern coasts. Comp. Winer, RWB. Ait. " Canaaniter," Vol. i. p. 210. 3 On this miracle, the characteristics of which are that it was performed on Lect. V. THE MINISTRY IN NORTHERN GALILEE. 203 How long our Lord abode in these regions we know not; but as this touching miracle is the only inci- dent recorded by the Evangelists, and as the i k c„P'„ ,Zi"ri* privacy which our Lord sought for was now %£»"*<™*f«» still less likely to be maintained, we may, perhaps, not unreasonably conclude that after a short stay, yet probably long enough for His enemies to have returned back to Jerusalem, our Lord again turned His steps back- ward, passing through the midst of the semi-pagan Decap- olis, 1 and ultimately approaching the sea of Galilee, as it would seem, from the further side of the Jordan. Equally, or nearly equally, ignorant 3 ^°'" p - ih "' k ''"• are we of the extent of this northern journey; if, however, we adopt a reading which now finds a place in most critical editions, 2 we are certainly led to extend this journey beyond the Tyrian frontier, and further to draw the interesting inference, that our Lord, moved probably by the great faith of the Syro-Phoenieian woman, actually passed into the heathen territory, visited ancient and idol- atrous Sidon, 3 and from the neighborhood of that city one of heathen descent, at a distance from the sufferer (comp. p. 132, note 2), and in consequence of the great faith of the petitioner ( ' vox humilis Bed celsa fides," Sedulius), see Cbrysost. in Matt. Horn, lii., Augustine, Serm. lxxvii. Vol. v. p. 4S3 (ed. Migne), Bp. Hal], Contempt, iv. 1, Trench, Miracles, p. 839 sq., and Lange, Leben Jesu, II. 5. 10, Part u. p. 80o sq. The allegorical reference according to which the woman represents the Gentile Church, and her daughter t?V irfju^iv Kvpitvoixii>t)v hch Sai/xufow, is briefly but perspicuously noticed by Euthymius in Matt. xv. 28. 1 See above, p. 192, note 4, where the character of this confederation is briefly noticed. 2 The reading in question is i)\&ev 5ia "SiBuvos (Mark vii. 81), which is found in the Codex VaticanUS and Codex Bezas, in the valuable MS. marked L, in A (Codex Sangallensis), and in several ancient versions of considerable critical value, e. g. the Old Latin, Vulgate, Coptic, and Etbiopic. It lias been adopted by Lachmann, Tischendorf, Fritzsche, Meyer, Alford, and Tregelles, and appears certainly to deserve tlie preference which those critics and commentators have thus unanimously given to it. See Meyer, Komment. nh. Mark. p. 80 (ed. 3). 3 It is not safe to enlarge upon a point which rests only on a probable reading; but if we accept this reading, it must be acknowledged as a fact of the greatest significance in reference to the subsequent diffusion of the Gospel, that the city of Baal and of Astarte Mas \ Isited by the Redeemer of mankind. See above, p. 201. This question is worthy of further consideration. 204 THE MINISTRY IN NORTHERN GALILEE. Lect. V. commenced His south-easterly circuit towards Decapolis and the further shore of the sea of Gennesareth. On that shore He was not now to be a strange and unwelcome visitor. There, in that region of netun to Decap- Decapolis, lips by which devils once had olis; healing of a deaf and dumbman. spoken had already proclaimed the power Contrast Matt. ix. . 34. and majesty of Him that had now vouchsafed zukeviii.39. to journey through that darkened land; and there too those lips had not spoken in vain. No sooner had the Lord appeared among them, than, as St. Mark relates to us, His healing powers are besought for a deaf and all but dumb man who is brought to Him, and brought only to be healed. 1 It is worthy of a moment's notice that both this and a miracle performed shortly afterwards on a Mark viii. 22. i i • i t-»i • i t i • blind man at T>etnsaida-Julias M r ere accom- panied with a withdrawal of the sufferer from the throng of bystanders, special outward signs, and, in the case of the latter miracle, a more gradual j^rocess of restoration. All these differences it is undoubtedly right to connect with something peculiar in the individual cases of those on whom the miracle was performed; 2 yet still it does not seem improper to take into consideration the general fact that these were miracles performed in lands which the Lord had before traversed, — lands where the nature of His healing powers might have been wholly misunderstood, and to which, for the spiritual benefit of the sufferers, it was judged meet that their earnest and deliberate attention 3 1 On this miracle, the characteristics of which are alluded to in the text, see the comments of Maldonatus and Olshauscn, Hook, Serm. on the Miracles, Vol. ii. p. 49 sq., Trench, A T otes on the Miracles, p. 348 sq., and Hare (Jul.), Serm. xiv. Vol. i. p. 245. 2 See Olshausen on the Gospels, Vol. ii. p. 20G (Clark), who comments at some length on the peculiarities in the performance of this miracle, and in that of the healing of the blind man at Bethsaida. Some good comments will also be found in Maklonatus, Comment, in Marc. vii. 33. The withdrawal from the crowd is ascribed by the scholiast in Cramer's Catena (Vol. i. p. 338) to a desire on the part of our Lord to avoid display {'iva nr) Sity iiriSeiKTiK&s hrtreAeut Tas &€OffT)/.ua.s) ; but this, in the present case, seems very doubtful. 3 So in eil'ect Maldonatus: " Quia ergo qui surdi sunt, videntur re aliqul obtu- Lect. V. THE MINISTRY IX NORTHERN GALILEE. 205 should be especially directed. Both these miracles, we may also observe, were accompanied with a command to preserve silence, 1 but in the case of the present miracle it was signally disobeyed. So widely, indeed, was the fame of it spread abroad that great multitudes, as we are told by St. Matthew, brought their sick unto the Lord ; and He, who as He Him- _ ' Ver. 24. self had but recently declared, was not come "save to the lost sheep of the house of Israel," nevertheless sought His Father's glory even amidst half-Gentile Decap- olis ; so that it is not, perhaps, without deep meaning that the first Evangelist tells us that "the\ r glorified ° J ° Ch. xv. 31. the God of Israel." 2 And they were yet to ne/eeding qfoe glorify Him more, and to be the witnesses of the creative as well as of the healing powers of His beloved Son. Those eager-hearted men had now so swelled in num- bers that four thousand, without counting , ... ' ° Matt. xv. 38. women and children, were gathered round the Lord and His Apostles, and He who had so pitied and re- lieved their afflictions now pitied and relieved their wants. They had come from far; they were faint , . . . Mark I'm. 3. and weary, and were to be miraculously refreshed. Seven loaves feed the four thousand, just as, a few weeks before, and perhaps not far from the same spot, 3 r:itus habere aura, mittit digitnm in aures surdi, quasi clansas et obturates tere- braturus, aul impedimentum, quod in illie erat, ablatarua digito. El quia qui muti sunt, videntur ligatam nimia siccitate habere linguam (.'), palatoque adhs- rentcm, ideoquc loqui non posse . . . mittit salivam in os muti, quasi ejus linguani humectatnrus." — Vol. i. p. 762(Mogunt. 1G11). i Bee above, p. 180, note 3. 2 This did not escape the notice of Origen {in .^fatt. Tom. XI. 18), who remarks aa follows: "Tea, they glorify Him, being persuaded that the Father of Him who healed the man above-mentioned is one and the same God with the God of I irael ; for God is not the God of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles." — Vol. iii. p. 008 (ed. liened.). Theophylaot {in Matt. xv. 29) places the Bcene in Galilee, - the parallel passage in St. Hark (cb. vii. 81 sq.) seems clearly to prove, not correctly. Comp. Robinson, Palestine, Vol. ii. p. 897, note 2. 8 The locality is not very clearly defined,. That it was an uninhabited place appears from Matt. xv. 88, and that it was on the high ground east of the lake may be inferred from ver. 81. As the spot to whioh our lord crosses over i^ situated about the middle of the western coast, we may perhaps consider the 18 206 THE MINISTRY IN NORTHERN GALILEE. Lect. V. five loaves had fed a greater number; "they did all eat," says the first Evangelist, "and were filled, Matt.xv.37; J ° ' ' and they took up of the broken meat that was left seven baskets full." We may here pause, yet for a moment only, to make our decided protest against that shallow criticism Not identical with < * ° the feeding of the which would persuade us that this distinctive five thousand. . . . . ... miracle is merely an ill-remembered repro- duction of the feeding of the five thousand a few weeks before. 1 Few opinions can be met more easily; few of the many misstatements that have been made in reference to the miracles of our Redeemer can be disposed of more readily and more satisfactorily. Let it be observed only that everything that might seem most clearly to specify and to characterize is different in the two miracles. The number of loaves in the latter miracle is greater; the number offish greater; the remnants collected less; the people fewer; the time they had tarried longer; their behavior in the sequel noticeably different. The more excitable inhabitants of the coast-villages of the north and the west, 2 we are distinctly told, would have borne away our Lord and made Him a king, if He had not withdrawn into the mountains ; the men of Decapolis and the eastern shores permit the Lord high ground in the neighborhood of the ravine nearly opposite to Magdala, which is now called Wady Semak, as not very improbably the site of the present miracle. 1 See, for example, De Wette, on Matt. xv. 29, and Tseander, Life of Christ, p. 287, note (Bohn). The remarks in the text seem sufficiently to demonstrate that such a view is wholly untenable. See more in Olshausen, Comment. Vol. ii. p. 209 sq. (Clark), Ebrard, Kritik der Evang. Gesch. § 86, p. 433; and compare Origen, in Matt. xi. 19, Vol. iii. p. 509 (ed. Bened.), Alford, Commentary, Vol. i. p. 157 (ed. 4). 2 The recipients in the case of the former miracle appear to have come mainly from the western side. Compare Mark vi. 33. They followed our Lord, we are told, on foot (Matt. xiv. 13), and would consequently have passed round the northern extremity of the lake, receiving probably, as they went, additions from Bethsaida-Julias and the places in its vicinity. Chrysostom {in Matt. Horn. Liu. 2) seems to imply that the effect produced by this miracle was as great as that produced by the former miracle; this may have been so, but it certainly cannot be inferred from the words of the sacred narrative. Lect. V. THE MINISTRY IN NORTHERN GALILEE. 207 to leave them without any recorded excitement or demon- stration. Let all these things be fairly and temperately considered, and there will, I firmly believe, be found but few indeed who will feel doubt or difficulty as to the sep- arate and distinct nature of this second manifestation of the Lord's creative beneficence. 1 Immediately after this miracle our Lord leaves a land which emMe^thetau. seems to have displayed somewhat striking faith, and on which His divine visit could hardly have failed to have exercised a permanent spiritual influence, for the familiar shores on the opposite side of the lake. He crosses over to Magdala, 8 or perhaps to some village close to the high ground in its vicinity, which seems alluded to in the designation Dalmanutha, 3 as specified by the 1 On the miracle itself, which Origeu (in Matt. Tom. xi. 19), though on some- what insufficient reasons, considers us even greater than that of the feeiling of the live thousand, see Origen, /. c. Hilary, in Mutt. Can. xv. p. 542 (Paris, 1031), Augustine. Sinn, lxxxi. Append, (but apparently rightly regarded by Trench as genuine). Vol. v. p. 1902 (ed. flligne), Hook, Serm. on the Miracles, Vol. ii. p. 66, Trench, Notes on the MiracU g, p. 355. The idea of Hilary (he. cit.) that the tinnier miracle has reference mainly to the Jews, the present miracle to the (.entiles, is perhaps not wholly fanciful; the multitude in the present case we may reasonably conceive to have been collected nearly entirely from Decapolis, and so mainly Gentile; the multitude in the former case, as we have observed, was apparently from Capernaum and its vicinity, and probably mainly Jewish. Compare p. 190, note 1. 2 This place is now unanimously regarded by recent travellers as situated, not on the eastern side of the lake (Light foot. Decas Chorographica Marco prcemi issa , cap. v. 1 ). hut on the western side, and at the miserable collection of huts now known by the name of "el-Medjel." See Robinson, Palestine, Vol. ii. p. 397 (ed. 2), Thomson, Land am! tin Jinn!;. Vol. ii. p. 108, where there is a sketch of this forlorn village, and Van de Velde, Memoir, p. 334. It is proper to observe that some 8188. and versions of importance (T5D; Vulg., Old Lat., al.) read MayaSdv, and that this reading has been adopted by some recent editors. Of this latter place nothing seems to be known; the identification with .Mcgiddo (Ewald, 1'i-ii Erst. Evv. p. 208, Gesch. Christus\ p. 333) docs not seem very probable. •'! The exact locality of Dalmanutha is difficult to trace. It must clearly have been near to Magdala, as St. Mark (eh. viii. 10) specifies it as the place Into the neighborhood of which our Lord arrived in the transit across the lake which we an- now considering, II' we accept the nut improbable derivation of -l~, '•was pointed" (Wieseler, Chron. Synops. \>. 812), we may fix (he locality as among the oliffi (see Thomson's .-ketch) which rise at a short distance from Magdala. Porter indentifles Dalmanutha with "Ain el-Barideh" (Smith, Diet. Of Bibli . Vol. i. p. 881 ). nituated at the mOUth of a narrow glen a mile south ■ I' Magdala, but this appears only to rest on the fact that ruins are found there. 208 THE MINISTRY IN NORTHERN GALILEE. Lect. V. second Evangelist. But there His abode was short. The evil wrought by the emissaries from Jerusa- Ch. viii. 10. & J lem was now only too mournfully apparent. No sooner was the Lord arrived than Pharisees, now for the first time leagued with Sadducees, as once before they had combined with Herodians, come to Him Hark Hi. 6. • i i -it -i r> • n „ „ . , with the sceptical demand of a sign from Matt. xvi. 1. 1 £3 heaven. Amid such faithless and probably malevolent hearts the Lord vouchsafes not to tarry, but, as it would seem immediately, enters the vessel in which He had come, 1 and with warning words to them, and a special caution to His disciples against the leaven of Matt. xv. 2sq. I O ci,. xvi. 6-, their teaching, crosses over to Bethsaida-Ju- lias, and there performs the progressively developed miracle of healing the blind man to which we have recently alluded. 2 From thence we trace the Lord's steps northward to the .towns and villages in the neighborhood of Journey north- • r /-t -™ • i • ■ i ward to ccesarea the remote city of Ca2sarea Phihppi, near which it is just possible that He might have passed in His circuit from Sidon a very few weeks before. 1 The words of St. Mark are here so very distinct (traKtv tafias air)jA.&€i/, ch. viii. 12) that the supposition of Fritzsche, that our Lord crossed over alone to the place where he was questioned by the Pharisees, and that he was after- wards joined by His disciples (Matt. xvi. 6), must be pronounced wholly unten- able. The disciples are mentioned specially and by themselves (Matt. xvi. 5) simply because they alone form the subject of the iireAd&ovTo, and because this act indirectly gave rise to the warning instructions which follow. 2 On this miracle, the chief characteristic of which is the very gradual and progressive nature of the cure, see the comments of Olshausen above alluded to (Comment. Vol. ii. p. 206, Clark), Trench, Notes on the Miracles, p. 359, Hook, Serm. on the Miracles, Vol. ii. p. 20. The Bethsaida here mentioned is clearly not the village on the western side (comp. Theophylact inloc), but Bethsaida- Julias, by which the Lord would naturally have passed in his northward journey to Caesarea Philippi. 3 This picturesquely placed city, formerly called Panium (Joseph. Antiq. xv. 10. 3) or Paneas, from a cavern sacred to Pan in its vicinity (see Winer, IiWB. Vol. i. p. 207, Stanley, Palest, p. 394), received its subsequent name from the Tetrarch Philip, by whom it was enlarged and beautified (Joseph. Antiq. XVIII. 2. 1, Bell. Jud. II. 9. 1). For a description of its site see Eobinson, Palestine, Vol. iii. p. 408 sq. (ed. 2), and compare Thomson, Land and the Poo!:. Vol i. p. 344 sq., where there is a sketch of the singular cavern above alluded to. Lect. V. TUB MINISTRY IN NORTHERN GALILEE. 209 Of the exact purpose of this journey, or of the special events connected with it, we have no certain knowledge, though we may reasonably infer, from the incidental men- tion of a formal address to the multitude as ,. , ,..-. ,, , , . ■ • Mark xiii. .14. well as to the disciples, that public teaching and preaching rather than seclusion was the object of this extended circuit. However this may be, with those regions Ave connect three circumstances of considerable moment : First, the remarkable profession of faith in Christ as the Son of the living God uttered by St. Peter as the ready spokesman of the rest of the Apostles, accompanied by the remarkable charge on the part of the Lord that they should tell it to no man ; ' JSecondhj, and as it would seem almost immediately afterwards, the Lord's first formal prediction of His own sufferings and death, — a prediction which jarred strangely on the ears of men who now seem to have begun to realize more fully the divine nature and Messiah- ship of their beloved Master; 2 Thirdly, the Transfigura- tion, which a precise note of time supplied by two Evan- gelists fixes as six days from some epoch not ° J r Matt. xiii. 1. defined, but which the more general comment Markix.2. of St. Luke seems to imply was that of the above-mentioned confession, and of the discourses associ- ated with it. 3 l The true reason for this strict command (SiecrreiAaTo, Matt. xvi. 20), at which Origen (in Mutt. Tom. xii. 15) appears to have felt some difficulty, would siriii to be one which almost naturally BUggestS itself; viz. that our Lord's time w a- not ;. el i some, ami that expectations were not to be roused among those who would have sought to realize them in tumults and popular excitement. As Cyril of Alexandria well says, " lie commanded them to guard the mystery by a sea- sonable silence, until the \\ hole ltlan of the dispensation should arrive at a suita- ble conclusion." — ( ommi at, "n St. Luke, Tart i. p. 220. - on this prediction see a good sermon by Borsley, Serm. xix. Vol. ii. p. 121 (Dundee. 1810). 8 The six days are regarded by Lightfoot [Chron. Temp, mi.) as dating from the' words la.-l Bpoken by our Lord. This view differs but little from that adopted in the text, as the confession of St. Peter seems to stand in close connection with the Lord's announcement of His own sufferings (see Luke ix. 21, 22), and this last announcement to have suggested what follows. A more inclusive reference, however, as well to the important confession as to what followed, appears, on the whole, more simiile and more probable. The itfe* of St. Luke (ch. ix. 28) 1 8 ' 210 THE MINISTRY IN NORTHERN GALILEE. Lect. V. On the mysteries connected with this third event, — the m , , glorified aspect of Him whose very garments The locality and . significance of the shone bright as the snows of the mountain Transfiguration. . on which He was standing ; the personal presence of Moses and Elias ; the divine voice, not only of paternal love, but of exhortation and com- Matt. axH. 5-, rnand, "Hear ye Him," and the injunction ""Erttef V ' of the Saviour to seal all in silence till the Son of Man be risen from the dead, — on all this our present limits will not permit me to enlarge. Let me only remark, first, as to locality, that there seems every reason for fixing the scene of the Transfiguration, not on the more southern Tabor, but on one of the lofty spurs of the snow-capped Hermon; 1 secondly, as to its meaning and significance, that Ave may, not without reason, regard the whole as in mysterious connection both with St. Peter's profession of faith and with that saddening prediction which followed it, and which, it has been specially revealed, formed the subject of the mystic converse between the Lord and his two attendant saints. That the Transfiguration appears generally to have had, what may be termed, a theological aspect, and was designed to show that the Law and the Prophets had now become a part of the Gospel, cannot reasonably be doubted; but that it was also designed to confirm the Apostles who witnessed it in their faith, and to supply them with spirit- ual strength against those hours of suffering and trial shows that there is no necessity to attempt a formal reconciliation (see Chrysost. in loc.) of his note of time with that supplied by St. Matthew and St. Mark. 1 So rightly Lightfoot (Hor. He.br. in Marc. ix. 2), Iteland (Pakest. p. 334 sq.), and apparently the majority of the best recent commentators. The objections of Lightfoot to the traditional site, founded on the high improbability of so sudden a change of place, are nearly conclusive; and when we add to this that the sum- mit of Tabor was then occupied by a fortified town (see Robinson, Palestine, Vol. ii. p. 359), we seem certainly warranted in rejecting a tradition though as old as the sixth century. The incidental simile, us X l " v > °f tne graphic St. Mark (ch. ix. 3) might well have been supplied to him by one to whom the snow- capped mountain suggested it; the reading, however, though fairly probable (see Meyer, Komm. iib. Marl;, p. 97), is not certain, c*>s x 1 ^" not being found in two of the four leading manuscripts. Lect. V. THE MINISTRY IN NORTHERN GALILEE. 211 which ouv Lord had recently predicted, seems pressed upon us by the position it occupies in the sacred narrative. 1 And the practical faith of the Apostles was verily still weak, for, on the very day that followed, their ne ,,„,,,„,„/„ want of spiritual strength to heal a deaf and " h,cU " J - _, , - . , JkirL- ix. 25. dumb demoniac afforded an opportunity, only too readily seized, to some Scribes who were present, of making it fully known to the gathering multitudes. They were in the very act, St. Mark tells us, of questioning with the disciples, when the Lord, with His face perchance still reflecting the glories of the past night, 2 comes among the disputing and amazed throng. After a general rebuke for the want of faith shown by all around, 3 the Lord commands the hapless lad to be brought 1 This view seems certainly to have been considered probable by Chrysostom, ■who states as a fifth reason why Moses and Elias appeared in attendance on the Lord, that it was "to comfort Peter and those who regarded with fear the (Lord's) Buffering, and to raise up their thoughts," — in Matt. Horn. LI. 2, Vol. vii. p. 688 (ed. Bened. 2). Comp. Cyril Alex, on St. Luke, Serm. Li Part II. p. 227 (Transl.). The last-mentioned wi iter, it is proper to be observed, also clearly states the reason alluded to in the text for the appearance of Moses and Elias {ib. p. 228), and BO, as we might imagine, does Origen, who briefly but perti- nently says, •• Hoses the Law and Elias the Prophets are become one, and united with Jesus the Gospel," — in Matt. Tom. xn. 43, Vol. iii. p. 565 (cd. Bened.). ( >n the subject generally, besides the writers above referred to, see August. Serm. i.xxvm. Vol. v. p. 490 (ed. Migne), Hall, Contempt, tv. 12. Hacket, vii. Serm. p. •ill Bq. (Loud 1675), Frank, Serm. xi.vii. Vol. ii. p. 318 (A.-C.L.), Lange, Lcben Jesii, ii. 512, Part ii. p. 902, and Olshauscn, Commentary, Vol. ii. p. 228 Bq. (Clark). The opinion that this holy mystery was a sleeping or waking vision (comp. Milnuui, Hist, of Christianity , Vol. i. p. 258), though as old as the days of Teitullian icontr. Marc. IT. 22), is ;:t once to be rejected, as plainly at variance with the clear, distinct, objective statements of the three inspired narrators. -' This, a.- Euthymius (second altera.) suggest.-, may perhaps he inferred from, ami be the Datura! explanation of, the strong word e^^dfj.^o-ai' (xal yap euros ((pfAKtodai riva X u P lv ** T 'i y fieTauopcpctXTectis) , with which St. Mark (eh. ix. ].".), whose account of this miracle is peculiarly full ami graphic (see Da Costa, The Four \\"ttn< x.s. ■■•', p. 78 Bq.), describes the feelings of the multitude when they beheld our Lord. Comp. also I'.engel, in Inc. 8 The avTo'is (Mark ix. 19, Lachm., 77.s-.7i.) mail refer only to the disciples (Me er), but our Lord's use of the strong term " perverted," as well as"iaith- tees" ( [sc. o Satfxowt(6fxevos • see Meyer, in loc] avr6p, ih irvev^a tb&vs icrirdpa^iv avr6i/ (Mark ix. 20). Something similar may be observed in the case of the demoniac in the synagogue at Caper- naum (Luke iv. 34: comp. Lect. iv. p. 156) and that of the Gergesene demoniacs (Mark v. 6 sq., Luke viii. 28). Lange (Leben Jesu, n. 5. 13, Tart n. p. 921) con- siders the paroxysm as an evidence that the power of our Lord was already working upon the lad, but the view adopted in the text seems more simple and natural. For further comments on this miracle, see Origen. in Matt. xiii. 3 sq., Vol. iii. p. 574 (ed. Bened.), Cyril Alex. Comment, on St. Luke, Serm. hi. Part I. p. 231 sq. (Transl.), Bp. Hall, Contempt, iv. 19, Trench, Notes on the Miracles, p. 362 sq., and the careful exposition of the whole narrative in Olshausen, Commen- tary on the Gospels, Vol. ii. p. 238 sq. (Clark). 2 It is scarcely necessary to remark that reference is here made to the early and universally received tradition that St. Mark's Gospel was written under the guidance of St. Peter, and embodies the substance, if not in some cases the very words, of that Apostle's teaching. The principal testimonies of antiquity ou which this assertion rests have been already referred to (Lect. i. p. 29, note 4), to which we may add Tertulliau contr. Marc. IV. 5. Sec further, if necessary, Guericke, Eialeitung in das N. T. § 39, 2, p. 254, (ed. 2), and the introductory comments of Meyer (Komment. p. 3), who seems fairly to admit the truth of the ancient tradition. Lect. V. THE MINISTRY IN NORTHERN GALILEE. 213 from the context, we retain the old opinion that it was the half-shekel for the temple-service, 1 we must attribute the present tardy demand of a tax levied some months before either to the Lord's frequent absences from Capernaum, or to some habit of delayed collection which may very likely have prevailed in places remote from Jerusalem, but which, from deficient knowledge of local customs, we are unable formally to substantiate. 2 The present stay at Capernaum was probably short, and, as far as we can infer from the Lord's desire, expressed on His homeward ,-, n Murk ii. 30. journey, to remain unobserved, one ot com- parative seclusion. He had now to prepare the minds of His chosen ones for the heavy trials through which they must soon pass, when their Master was delivered up into the hands of men, and when their longings for a trium- phant Messiah were to be changed into the avowal of a crucified Saviour. On their late return through Galilee, 1 This sum was to be paid every year for the service of the sanctuary (E.vod. xxx. 10; compare 2 Kings xii. 4, 2 Chron. xxiv. 6, 9) by every male who bad attained the age of twenty years (see Winer, RWB. Art. " Abgaben," Vol. i. p. 4), and, as we learn from the Mishna ( w .Shekalim," 1, 3), was levied in the month Adar. We seem therefore obliged to have recourse to some supposition like that advanced in the text. Compare Lightfoot, Ilor. Hebr. in loc. Vol. ii. p. 341 sq. (Roterod. 1G8G), and see Greswell, Dissert, xxm. Vol. ii. p. 377, who gives some reason lor thinking that the tax might have been regularly paid about the feast of Tabernacles. The opinion of most of the ancient expositors that the reference is here to a tribute which each male hail to pay to the Roman government ("tribntnm Csesareum," Sedulins) is noticed, not disapprovingly, bj Lightfoot, and has been zealously defended by Wieseler [Chron. Synops. p. 284 Bq.), but to such a view the words of our Lord (Matt. xvii. 25, 26) seem distinctly opposed. What our Lord implies by His question to st. Peter, and His comment on the Apostle's answer, seems clearly this: — as Son of Ilim to whom the temple was dedicated, and indeed as Himself the Lord thereof, He had fullest claim to be exempted from the tribute, but > t i 1 1 He would not avail Himself of His undoubted prerogatives. See Hammond, in loc, whose discus- sion of this passage is both clear and convincing. 2 On the remarkable miracle by which the half-shekel was paid, the design of which, we may humbly conceive, was still further to illustrate and substantiate what was implied in the address to the Apostle ('-in medio aetu Bubmissionifi emicat majestas," — Ben gel), see the extremely good comments of Trench, Notes on the Miracles, p. 372. The older expositors cannot here be referred to with advantage, as they nearly all adopt the apparently erroneous opinion above alluded to. that it was a tribute which was paid to the Roman government, and adapt their comments accordingly. 214 THE MINISTRY IN NORTHERN GALILEE. Lect. V. when their hearts were dwelling most on their Lord's powers, their elation was checked by a re- Mark ix. 33. newal of the sad prediction which they first heard near Caesarea Philippi ; and now again, in the quiet of* home, the same holy anxiety may be traced to check that pride of spirit which seems to have been sensibly manifesting itself in the apostolic com- pany. Such manifestations were apparently of a mixed character, and were probably due to very different influen- ces. On the one hand, we may connect them with a more real conviction of their Lord's divine nature and Messiah- ship ; on the other hand, we cannot fail to observe that they involved much that was merely carnal and worldly. This pride of spirit shoAved itself, as we are especially informed, in unbecoming contentions among themselves about future preeminence, and led them over- hastily to forbid some yet undeclared disciple, 1 who was casting out devils in their Master's name, from continuing to do what they might have remembered they themselves could not do a week or two before, when an Markix 33. agonized father called to them for help, and Ver. ss. when Scribes stood by and scoffed. Humil- Mnit. ji-iii. C. # J ver.w. ity, forbearance, avoidance of all grounds of matt, xx^ii. sq',- offence, love towards their Master's little ones, gentleness, and forgiveness, the lost sheep, and the debtor of the ten thousand talents, were the 1 It would seem clear from our Lord's words that the man was no deceiver or exorcist, but one who, as Cyril of Alexandria observes, though " not numbered among the holy Apostles, was yet crowned with apostolic powers." — Comment, on St. Luke, Serin, lv. Part I. p. 249 (Transl.), where there are some other good comments on this very suggestive incident. The connection of thought between the notice of this occurrence on the part of St. John and the words of our Lord which preceded is, perhaps, more clearly to be traced in St. Mark (ch. ix. 37, 38) than in St. Luke (ch. ix. 49). Our Lord's declaration, os &*" ev tw toiovtwv ttcuSiW Sf'^ijTcu e7rj t<£ bv A fiaT i /j.ov t/j.4 5 e x * to », seems to bring to the remembrance of St. John a recent case which appeared at variance with His Master's words, viz. that of one who used the Lord's name and yet did not evince his reception of Him by becoming an avowed disciple. The remembrance, coupled perhaps, as Theophvlact suggests, with the feeling that their treatment of that case had not been right, gives rise to the mention of it to our Lord. Lect. V. THE MINISTRY IN NORTHERN GALILEE. 215 wise and loving lessons which the Lord now specially vouchsafed to them in this brief period of tranquillity and seclusion. And here this portion of our meditations comes to a natural and suitable close. 1 Yet ere we part let us spend a few moments in recapitulation and retrospect. We have considered this afternoon what I think we cannot but deem a most interesting part of t-» -i i ' • , -i !_• i Conclusion and our Redeemer s ministry, and yet one which recapitulation. does not perhaps always so distinctly present itself to the general reader as other and more sharply de- fined portions of the Gospel-history. We have perhaps been led to admit the appearance of a gradual enlargement of the sphere of our Master's personal ministries; Ave have journeyed with Him in half-heathen lands ; we have seen saving mercies extended to those who were not of the stock of Abraham ; we have seen that divine presence not withheld from the dwellers in Decapolis ; nay, more, we have seemed to see 2 that priceless blessing vouchsafed to strictly pagan regions, the land of Baal and of Ashto- reth ; yea, we have beheld, as it were, the Lord's prophetic 1 After tin's period, as will be seen in the following Lecture, the nature of our Lord's ministerial labors and the character of His missionary journeys appear to assume a completely different aspect. The whole wears the character of being what 8fc Luke very fitly terms it, — at rip.4pai rijs a.va\i]i\iews (ch. ix. 61). Though Jerusalem is the point towards which the journeys tend, and Jiid.ca the land to which a portion of the ministry is conliued, yet the whole period is so marked by interruptions and removals, that we can hardly consider it as standing in ministerial connection witli any former period. See above, Lect. ill. p. 140, note 1. 9 Here, as it has already been observed, it is our duty to speak with caution. That our Lord approached that portion of Palestine which is termed the "con- lines of Tyre " (to. /xtdopia Tvpov, Mark vii. 24, — if with Teschendorf we adopt the shorter reading), or, with more latitude, the "parts of Tyre and Sidon " (Tot pepr) Tvpou ica\ 2tSwvos, Matt. xv. 21), is indisputable, but that lie was plea ed actually to cross the frontier rests really upon a probable though con- tested reading. See above, p. 203, note 2. Modern writers appear often to have fell a difficulty in the supposition that our Lord went beyond the Jewish border (oomp. Meyer, Ub. Mutt. xv. 21 ), but this feeling does not seem to have prevailed equally among the earlier writers, some of whom, as ( hrvsostoui. hi Mutt . Horn. Ml. 1. not only speak of our Lord's having departed tis 65bt> idvwi', but endeavor to account for His having acted contrary to a command which He Himself gave to His Apostles. Compare Matt. x. 5. 216 THE MINISTRY IN NORTHERN GALILEE. Lect. V. performance of His own subsequent command, that the message of mercy should be published not Matt, xxviii. 19. . — _ - T , , only in Judaja and Jerusalem, but even to the uttermost bounds of the wide heathen world. All this wc have seen and dwelt upon, — and I trust not dwelt upon wholly in vain. To some, perchance, the grouping of events which I have ventured to advocate may seem to wear the aspect of partial novelty ; to others again I may have seemed to press unduly characteristics to which they may feel disposed to assign a different or a modified ap- plication. Be this, however, as it may; whether such a survey of this portion of our Lord's life be regarded as plausible or improbable ; whether such an endeavor to trace the connection of events during a period where connection is doubtful be deemed hopeful or precarious, matters but little, provided only it may have so far arrested the student's attention as to lead him to examine for him- self, patiently and thoughtfully, the harmonies in the nar- rative of His Master's life. 1 Yea, I will joyfully count all as nought, if only I have been enabled by the help of God to stir up in others a desire to look more closely into the connection of the inspired record, and have helped to strengthen the belief that the earnest student may un- 1 Ii is much to be feared that the tendency of our more modern study of the Gospels is to regard every attempt to harmonize the sacred narrative with indifference, if not sometimes even with suspicion. We may concede that recent harmonistic efforts, viewed generally, though made with the most loyal feelings towards the inspired Word, have in many cases been such as cannot stand the test of criticism. Kay, we may go further, and say that the modern tendency to study each (Jospel by itself, rather than in connection with the rest, is undoubt- edly just and right, so long as the object proposed is a more complete realization Of the view of our Lord's life as presented by each of the sacred writers, and so long as it is considered preparatory to further combinations. All this we may willingly concede, and yet we may with justice most strongly urge the extreme importance, not only in a mere critical, but even in a devotional point of view, of obtaining as complete and connected a view of our Lord's life and ministry as can possibly be obtained from our existing inspired records. And this, let it be remembered, can only be done by that patient and thoughtful comparison of Scripture with Scripture which now finds such little favor with so many theo- logians of our present day. The general principle on which such comparisons ought to be made we have already endeavored to indicate. See Lect. I. p. 31 sq. Lect. V. THE MINISTRY IN NORTHERN GALILEE. 217 ceasingly derive from it fresh subjects for meditation, and that the seeker may verily hope to find. May God move us all to dwell upon such things with an ever fresh and ever renewing interest. May His eternal Spirit guide us into all truth ; and may He, on whose blessed words and deeds we have mused this afternoon, lovingly draw us, heart and soul and spirit, to Himself. O may we really feel that to commune with Him here on earth is the most blessed privilege that the Lord has reserved for those that love Him ; yea, that it is a very antepast of the joys of those realms where He now is, — a very foretaste of that blessed and final union, when, whether summoned forth from the holy calm of Paradise, or borne aloft from earth by upbearing clouds, 1 the servants of Jesus shall enter into their Redeemer's presence, and dwell with Him, forever and forever. 1 See 1 Thess. iv. 17, apTrayr\.\ iii. 14 refers to our Lord's last journey to Jerusalem, and that to doubt it ■• ;.; the pert! ctioo of scepticism and incredulity " (p, 640), are such as maj be most Justl] called into question. Some useful observations on this portion id' ■ -pel narrative will be found in Itobinson. Harmony of Gospels, p. 82 (Trad Societj ). Comp. also the remarks of Dr. Thomson in Smith's Dictionary qfthe Bib ■ , Vol. i. p. 1061. 220 THE JOURNEYINGS TOWARD JERUSALEM. Lect. VI. the Evangelist, to whom we owe the recital of so many of the circumstances and discourses which belong to this period, has here failed in his deliberately an- nounced design of relating in order 1 the events of his Master's life, and has here blended in one in- coherent narrative the distinctive features and elements of the last three journeys of our Redeemer to Judaea and Jerusalem. 2 We may, indeed, be thankful to feel and know that such opinions, which in fact carry with them their own condemnation, are now beginning to belong to the past. We may with good reason rejoice that of late years a far more reverent as well as critical spirit has been at work among the chronologers and expositors of the sacred histories. We may gladly observe that order and connec- tion have been found where there was once deemed to be only confusion and incoherence, — that the inspired narra- tives are regarded no longer as discrepant but as self-ex- planatory, — and that honest investigation is showing more and more clearly that what one inspired writer has left unrecorded another has often supplied, with an incidental preciseness of adjustment which is all the more convinc- ing from bein. Gesch. § 37, p. 160 pq. •" The objection that if we include our Lord's visit to Jerusalem at the feast of Dedication we might seem to have /0«r journeys to Jerusalem (see the synopsis of Lampe), is readily removed by observing that the way in which St. John men- tions the festival and our Lord's appearance at it (John x. 22), combined with the (act that there is no previous mention of any departure from JudSS [con- trast John x. 40), leads as certainly to suppose that during the interval between the feast of Tabernacles ami that of the Dedication our Lord confined llis min- istry to Judea. See p. 266. If this be so, the visit to the latter festfr al Is not to be regarded :i^ due to a separate or second journey, but only a- a sequel of the ti i St. Comp. BengePs more correct synopsis. Gnomon, Vol. i. p. SSI, ami see Wieseler, Chron. Synops. p. 018, note 1. 224 THE JOURNEYINGS TOWARD JERUSALEM. Lect. VI. Instead of all seeming, as it might once have seemed, the confused recital of the circumstances of but one journey, he would now be led to identify the journey of the ninth chapter of St. Luke with the journey to the feast of Tab- ernacles specified by St. John; 1 he would again have his attention arrested by the break a little past the middle of the thirteenth chapter, and would see how strikingly it agreed with St. John's notice of the second journey toward Jerusalem, that reached no fur- ther than Bethany; 2 and, lastly, he could not fail to pause at the special notice of a third journey towards the begin- ver. u. ning of the seventeenth chapter, and would ai.xxi. i. naturally connect it, not only with the express a '- *■ '• statements of St. Matthew and St. Mark, but with the previous retirement to Ephraim so distinctly spe- cified by St. John. 3 Such would be the result of a fair and 1 The main argument/or the identity of the journey specified John vii. 10 with that mentioned Luke ix. 51 rests on the two facts, (a) that the journey specified by the third Evangelist was through Samaria (Luke ix. 52), and (/<) that the inhabitants of that country at once inferred that our Lord's destination was Jerusalem (ver. 53). The first of these facts is in complete harmony with the avoidance of observation specified in John vii. 10; the second is in equally com- plete harmony with St. John's statement of the object of that journey (hvifrf) els t))v kopTr\v, ib. ver. 10). It was the knowledge on the part of the Samari- tans that the feast of Tabernacles was now going on that made them so readily notice and recognize the direction to which the Lord's face was now turned. See below, p. 249. The main objection against the identity lies in St. Luke's rough note of time, ev toS cm/x7rAr}poDcr&af ras ii/nepas rjjs ava.\ri\peais (ch. ix. 51), which, it is urged, the use of the peculiar term ava\T]\pts clearly shows can only belong to a last journey (see Meyer, in loc, and compare Greswell, Dissert. xxxi. Vol. ii. p. 522). Why, however, may not the very general term, a! T]fJ.epcu tj)s avaAtyews 6 Katpbs 6 a$opiit at the feast of Dedication rather than, as seems more natural, to that at the least of Tabernacles, ('ontiast Wieseler, Citron. Synops. p. 329. - It is scarcely necessary to observe that reference is here made to the ('hrn)io- logischt Synapse di r \"n r Evangelien of Kail Wieseler, — a treatise of which the importance has been already commented on. See p. 139, note 4. It is to be regretted that in a few important passages Wieseler has been tempted to pro- pound novel interpretations (see above, p. 224, note 1), which have been almost universally pronounced to be untenable. This has led hasty readers to rate this able work much below its real merits. Compare Kilto, Journal of Sacr. Lit. for 1850, N". xi. p. T-">. 3 The date of the commencement of the second and third journeys and then- duration can only be fixed roughly and approximately. The data for forming a calculation are as follow. The feast of the Dedication took place on the twent) - fifth of Kislev (Dec. 20), and lasted eight days (Joseph, Antiq. xn. 7. 7; compare Jahn, Archaol. j 869); at this, as we know from St. John, our Lord was present. Very soon afterwards our Lord retires to the Peraean Bethany (John x. 40), and there abides long enough for many to believe on linn (John x. 42). At the end of this stay the second journey towards Jerusalem (Luke xiii, 22: compare John xi. 7) is commenced, which for the time terminates at Bethany, but which, 226 THE JOURNEYINGS TOWARD JERUSALEM. Lect. VL Let us now proceed to a brief but orderly recital of the recorded events. The last circumstance on which we dwelt was the return of our Lord to Capernaum after His long Brief stay at Ca- ... - TT . . . pernawn .- worldly missionary journeys, and His impressive Lo, ■£ brethren.'" teaching to His Apostles during that brief period of apparent tranquillity and seclusion. 1 That time of holy rest seems soon to have come to an end. The feast of Tabernacles was nigh at hand, and the Lord's brethren, 2 who now come prominently before us, and who, in spite of their practical unbelief,' 5 appear to have dis- tinctly shared in similar feelings of pride and expectancy to those which we seem to have already traced in the Apostles, now urge Him to display His wonder-working powers amid circumstances of greater pub- Johnvii.S. x . ° l licity, — to challenge and to command adhe- sion, and that not in remote Galilee, but in the busy owing to the machinations of the Jews (John xi. 47), is very shortly afterwards directed to Ephraim (John xi. 54). From this place the third journey is com- menced, which appears to have extended through Samaria, Galilee, and Fersa, raid to have been temporarily arrested at Bethany, near Jerusalem, six days before the Passover, or, in the year in question (A. u. c. 783), somewhere about April 1. If we now reckon backward, and assign at least a fortnight to this journey, a month or five weeks to the stay at Ephraim, and a week or more to the second journey, — which, though much shorter than the third, seems at first to have been leisurely performed (comp. Luke xiii. 22, and see below, p. 2C2, note 2), — we shall then leave about a month or five weeks for the stay in the neighborhood of the Peraean Bethany. The second journey, according to this view, would have commenced about the beginning of February, and the third about the middle of March. 1 See Lect. v. p. 213, and comp. p. 218, note 2. 2 For a brief consideration of the probable meaning of this much contested appellation, see above, p. 100, note 2, and for examples of the various senses of the word aSeAcpbs, according to Hebrew usage, see Greswell, Dissert, xvn. Vol.- ii. p. 117. 8 That the words oboe iiriffTevov (John xiii. 5), though probably implying a disbelief in our Lord*s Godhead (cos els &eou, Euthym.), did not imply a disbe- lief in His mighty works, and perhaps not even in His claims to be regarded a divinely accredited teacher, seems clear from the context. See ver. 3, and com- pare Lect. ill. p. 101, note. Chrysostom (i?l he.) rightly remarks that the address, though marked by bitterness, still clearly came from friends {SoksI rj a^iccais Sr^ei/ (fuAcoz/ zlvai ) contrast Euthym. in loc.). We may pause, however, before we agree with that able expositor in his further remark that James the brother of the Lord was one of the speakers. Compare Greswell, Dissert, xvn. Vol. ii. p. 116. Lect. VI. THE JOURN'EYIXGS TOWARD JERUSALEM. 227 thoroughfares of Jerusalem, 1 and among the thronging worshippers in its temple courts. The apparent contra- diction that has here been found between our Lord's words and His subsequent acts vanishes at once when we pause to observe that here, as so often in the narrative of the fourth Evangelist, lie is revealed to us as the reader of the heart, and as answering its thoughts and imaginations, rather than the words by which those feelings were dis- guised. 2 It is to the spirit and meaning of this worldly and self-seeking request, rather than to the mere outward terms in which it was couched, that the Lord answers His brethren, even as He had once before answered a mother's tacit importunity, that "His time is not yet r *» J Jo/in lit. 6. come," and that lie goeth not up to the feast. He does indeed not go up to the feast in the sense in which those carnal-minded men presumed to counsel Him. lie joins now no festal companies; lie takes now no prominent part in festal solemnities; 8 if lie be found in 1 The exact meaning of the address of our Lord's brethren, especially of the confirmatory clause (ouSels yap «V Kpvnrtp rt ttoki Kal ^rjTe? avrbs if irappri- aia thai, John vii. 4), is not at first Bight perfectly clear. What the brethren appear to say is this : " (Jo to Judaea, that Thy disciples, whether dwelling there or come there to the festival, may behold the works which Thou art doing here in comparative secrecy ; it is needful that Thou seek this publicity if true to Thy character, lor no man doeth his works in secret, and seeks personally (auToi) to be before the world, as Thou, who claiinest to be the Messiah, must necessarily desire to be. Hidden though wondrous works and personal acceptance by the world at large are things not compatible." The whole is the speech of shrewd and worldly-minded, but not treacherous or designing men. Compare L'uckc in loc. Vol. ii. p. 189 (ed. 3). 2 See above, Lect. i. p. 44, note 3, and compare p. 125, note 2. The supposition of Meyer, that our Lord here states His intention and afterwards alters it, is neither borne out by the context nor rendered admissible by any parallel case (Matt. .\\ . 26 is certainly not in point) in the whole sacred narrative. The mis- erable effort of Porphyry to fix on our Lord the charge of fraudulent represen- tations and deliberate inconstancy is noticed and refuted by Jerome, COlltr. /■■ fag. ii. 0. 3 That this is the true meaning of the words was apparently / '/ by the earlier expositors (<>v yap avajiaivti v i>ov$(Ti]0~biv Si jUaAAof, Cyril Alex. in loo. p. 104 !••)• and bat been distinctly asserted by many of the Bounder modem writers. 8o rightly Lntbardt (" niohi an diesem Feste wird er so wie sie n* itten binauf-nnd einsdehn in .Jerusalem"' — Das Johanm Evang.Y&ri n. p. 77), S tier ( Disc, qf our I ord, Vol. r. p. 242, 'lark), and somewhat similarly, LUcke in loo. The explanation of Do Wette ami Alford, that the true reading uiiK cba/3cu'ru> is 228 THE JOURNEYINGS TOWARD JERUSALEM. Lect. VI. Jerusalem and in the courts of His Father's house, it is not as the wonder-worker or Messianic king, but as the persecuted Redeemer, who will yet again brave the malice of Scribe and Pharisee that He may still fulfil his mission to those lost sheep of the house of Israel whom the festival may gather together. Thus it was, that, perhaps, scarcely before the very day on which the festival actually commenced, 1 journey to .rem- oul . Lord, and, as the sequel seems to show, fnleiii through ba- ' ' 1 ' '""'•'"• His Apostles, directed their steps to Jerusa- Comp. Luke ix. \ em , but, as it were, in secret. Their way, as we might have expected, and as the appar- ently coincident notice of St. Luke distinctly substantiates, lay through Samaria. 2 But Samaria now Ch. ix. 52. . . . ' receives not this Saviour as it had received John iv. 40. Him nine months before. Then the Lord's face was turned towards Galilee, now it is turned towards practically equivalent to the oviroi avafialvco of the received text, is perhaps defensible on the ground that the succeeding ovirai may he thought to reflect a kind of temporal limitation on the foregoing negative, but seems neither so sim- ple nor so natural as that which has been adopted in the text. 1 That our Lord did not arrive at Jerusalem till the middle of the feast is cer- tainly not positively to be deduced from John vii. 14, which may only imply that up to that day, though in Jerusalem, He remained in concealment (Meyer). Still the use of the term avefir], especially viewed in connection with its use a few verses before, seems to involve the idea of a preceding journey, and may possibly have been chosen as serving to imply that on His arrival our Lord pro- ceeded at once to the Temple, — that it was, in fact, the true goal of the present journey. Cyril of Alexandria calls attention to the word aviRr\ (oi>x aw\u>s (tat]\^tv, akAa avdfiri, (p7]aiu, eis rb Upov, in loc. p. 409 E), but apparently refers it to the solemn and formal nature of the entry. 2 Even if we hesitate to regard the journey mentioned by St. Luke (ch. ix. 51/ as identical with that here specified by St. John, which, indeed, as we have shown above, we seem to have no sufficient reason for doing, we can scarcely doubt that the journey was through Samaria. By this route our Lord would be able to make his journey more completely oos iv Kpvnr^ (John vii. 10), and would also apparently be able to reach Jerusalem more quickly than if He bad taken the usual and longer route through Peraea. See above, Lecture III. p. 121, note 2. The assertion of Meyer (in loc), that ws iv Kpwrrtp simply implies that our Lord joined no festal caravan, but affords no indication of the way He was pleased to take, may justly be questioned. If our Lord was accompanied by His Apostles, which, from St. John's Gospel alone, seems certainly more proba- ble than the contrary, could a company of thirteen have travelled is iv Kpvmcp by any but a little-frequented route? Lect. VI. THE JOURNEYINGS TOWARD JERUSALEM. 229 Jerusalem; then His journey was made more leisurely, now it is in haste ; then there was no apparent reason why the route through Samaria had been chosen rather than any other ; now it is self-evident. The peculiar season of the year at once reminds the jealous Samaritan whither those hurried steps were being directed, and tells him plainly enough "what must be the true reason which now has brought that hastening company through their com- monly avoided land. So when messengers J . ° Lake ix. 52. are sent forward to expedite the journey, and make preparations for the coming Master, He whom the city of Sychar had once welcomed is now rejected by the churlish village that lay in His way. The Sons of Thunder 1 would have had fire called down from heaven, but their intemperate zeal is rebuked by their Lord, yea, and practically rebuked by a striking proof that even now Samaria was not utterly faithless. One at least, there seems to have been, 2 who i The incident mentioned in this passage deserves particular attention as tend- ing to correct a very popular and prevailing error in reference to the character of one of the actors. Does the present passage, especially when combined with Luke ix. 49 and Mark x. 38, and further illustrated by the most natural and obvious interpretation of the term " Son of Thunder" (Mark iii. 17; see Meyer in loc. p. 39, at all justify our regarding St. John as the apostolic type of that almost feminine softness and meditative tranquillity (see Olshausen, Comment, on the Gospels, Vol. iii. p. 304) which is so popularly ascribed to him? Is it not much more correct to say that the notices of the beloved Apostle recorded in the Gospels, when estimated in connection with the name given to him by his Master, present to us the scarcely doubtful traces of an ardent love, zeal, and confidence (Mark x. 38), which, like the thunder to which the character was compared, was sometimes shown forth in outspokenness and outburst? This characteristic ardor, this glowing while loving zeal, is not obscurely evinced in the outspokenness and hones! denunciation of falsehood and heresy that marks tin' Brst, and, even more clearly, the short remaining epistles of this inspired writer. Compare 2 John 10, 3 John 10. The misconception of the character of the Apostle is apparently of early date, and perhaps stands in some degree of connection with his own simple yet affecting notice of the love and confidence vouchsafed towards him by our Redeemer during the Last Supper (John xiv. 25). Let us not forget, however, thai ho, who in memory of this was lovingly called 6 (Trunridios by the early Church, was called by his own Master the " Son of Thunder." The patristic explanation of this latter title will be found in Sui- cer, Thetamr, s. v. /S^wrrj, Vol. i. p. 712 sq., but is not sufficiently distinctive. '- It sci ins proper lure to speak with caution, as the present case, and that of the man who, when called by our Lord, requested leave first to go and bury his 20 230 THE JOURNEYINGS TOWARD JERUSALEM. Lect. VI. was ready to cast in his lot with that travel-worn company, and to him it was answered in the words of Luke ix. 57. our text, and with a striking and pathetic appropriateness, that though the creatures that His own divine hands had made had their allotted j)laces of shelter and rest, "the Son of Man had not where to lay His head." The Lord soon reaches Jerusalem, where it would seem He was partially expected, and about the Our Lord's arri- < rai and preaching middle of the feast enters the Temple, and at Jerusalem. ... , , teaches in its now crowded courts. And that John vii. 11. . . teaching was not in vain. Though some of the mere dwellers in Jerusalem 1 paused only to speculate on the policy of their spiritual rulers in permitting One whom thev were seeking to kill now to speak John vii. 25. . J ° l with such openness and freedom, the effect on the collected multitude was clearly different. Many, we are told, believed in our Lord : many saw Ver. SI. ... . . in His miracles an evidence of a Messiahship which it seemed now no longer possible either to doubt or to deny. The sequel, however, we might J r ' ' easily have foreseen. An effort is at once Ver. 32. J made by the party of the Sanhedrin to lay hands on our Lord, but is frustrated, perhaps partly by the father, are placed by St. Matthew in a totally different connection. See ch. xviii. 19 — 21. To account for this is difficult, though we can have no difficulty in believ- ing that it could be readily accounted for if we knew all the circumstances. It is not, for example, unreasonable to suppose that the incident of the self-offering follower might have happened twice, and that St. Matthew, in accordance with his habit of connecting together what was similar (see Lect. I. p. 35 sq.), might have associated with the first occurrence of that incident an incident which, in point of time, really belonged to the second. 1 It is worthy of notice that St. John here places before us the views and com- ments of a party that clearly must be regarded as different from the general ox^os (ver. 20) on the one hand, and the more hostile 'lov5a7oi (ver. 15) on the other. We have here the remarks of some of the residents in the city. They evidently are perfectly acquainted with the general designs of the party of the Sanhedrin, and are full of natural wonder that they should have permitted this free speaking on the part of One whom they had resolved, and whom it was obviously their interest, to silence. The incidental notice of the sort of half knowledge these 'IpoaoKv/xiTai had acquired is in the highest degree natural and. characteristic. See Stier, Disc, of our Lord, Vol. v. p. 267. Lect. VI. THE JOURNEYINGS TOWARD JERUSALEM. 231 multitude, and certainly also in great measure by the convictions of the very men that were sent to take Him. 1 The savage spirit of the Sanhcdrin is now, however, distinctly shown, and now is it that for the first time publicly, though darkly, the Lord speaks of that depart- ure, — of that "being sought for and not found," on which lie had already spoken twice before to His disciples with such saddening explicit- iii'ss. Yet He will not leave those heart-touched multi- tudes that were now hanging on His words. Yet again, on the last day of the festival, the Lord preaches • r Ver. 37. publicly, with a most solemn and appropriate reference to the living waters of the Spirit which should flow forth when He was glorified. 2 Again a desire is manifested by the party of the Sanhcdrin to J l J Ver. H. lay hands on Him ; again, as it would seem, a meeting of the Sanhcdrin is held, and again their pro- 1 This transpires afterwards. See John vii. 45. It would seem that when these wrrjpeTai were sent forth with orders to seize our Lord, it was left to their discretion to watch for a good opportunity and a reasonable pretext. At the next session of the Sanhedriti they make a report of what they had done, or milier left undone, and are exposed accordingly to the scornful inquiries and practical censure of the council (ver. 47). Further proceedings, it would seem, tn' ; t t present, if not arrested, yet impeded by the question of Xicodemus (ver. 61). '-' There seems no sufficient reason for rejecting the generally received opinion, that allusion is here made to the custom of bringing water from the well of Siloam and pouring it on the altar, which appears to have been observed on every day of this festival, — the eighth (according to R. Judah in "Succah," iv. 9) also included. See especially Lightfoot, Hot. Hebr. in loc. Vol. ii. p. 632 (Roterod. 1686), and the good article in Winer, Ull'I). " Laubhuttenfest," Vol. ii. p. S. Whether this ''great day'' of the festival is to be regarded as the seventh or as the eighth is a matter of some doubt. If it be true, as urged by Winer, that the opinion of Rabbi Judah above cited is only that of an indi- vidual, and that the prevailing practice was to offer libations only on seven days ("Succah," iv. 1), and if it be further supposed that our Lord's words were called forth by the actual performance of the rite, then "the great day " must !»■ the seventh day. As, however, it appears from the written law that the eighth day was regarded aa a Sabbath (Lev. xxiii. 86; oomp. Joseph. Antiq. m. 10. 4), and as peculiar solemnities are specified in the oral law as celebrated on that day (SCe Lightfoot, lOC. tit.), it seems more correct to regard the eighth as "the great day ; " and if it be conceded that there was no libation on that day, to suppose our l. oid's words were called turth, not by the act ItBelf, hut by a remembrance of the custom observed on the preceding days. See Meyer in loc. p. 289 (ed. 3) and the elaborate comments of Lilokc, Vol. ii. p. 228 sq. (ed. 3). 232 THE JOURNEYLNGS TOWARD JERUSALEM. Lect. VI. posals are encountered by a just opposition ; not, however, on this occasion by the tacit and merely passive opposition of their reluctant satellites, but by the open pleading of one of its most important members, the timid yet faithful Nicodemus, 1 — the only one anions the rulers Ver.Sl. J ° of the Jews who was found to urge the observance of that law of Moses which its hypocritical guardians were now seeking to pervert or to violate. To this same period, if we conceive the narrative in question to be written by St. John, must be me woman taien assigned the memorable and most certainly in adulter?/ : prnha- ... tie place of the m- inspired history of the woman taken in adul- cident in the Gospel , x history. tery ; but as 1 venture to entertain, some- what decidedly, the opinion that it was not written by that Evangelist, 2 and that it does not in any way blend naturally with the present portion of the Re- deemer's history, I will not here pause on it, but will only notice in passing the great plausibility and historical fitness with which three or four of the cursive manuscripts insert it at the end of the twenty-first chapter of St. Luke. 3 1 Compare Lect. in. p. 124, note 3, ad fin. 2 The limits and general character of these notes wholly preclude our attempt- ing to enter upon a formal discussion of this difficult question. It may be briefly observed, however, that the opinion expressed in the text rests on the following' considerations: (l)the absenceof the passage from — (a) threeoutof thefour first- class MSS. and the valuable MS. Marked L; (b) several ancient versions, amonp which are some early Latin versions of great importance, and apparently the Peshito-Syriac; (c) several early and important patristic writers, Origen, Tertul- lian, Cyprian, and Chrysostom being of the number: (2) The striking number of variations of reading among the documents that retain the passage, there being not less than eighty variations of reading in one hundred and eighty -three words : (3) The almost equally striking difference of style, both in the connecting particles and other words, from that of St. John, and the apparent similarity in style to that of St. Luke. From these reasons, external and internal, we seem justi- fied in removing the passage from the place it now occupies in the received text, though there appears every reason for believing it a portion of the Gospel his- tory. It cannot be too strongly impressed on the general reader that no reason- able critic throws doubt on the incident, but only on its present place in the sacred narrative. For critical details see the new (7th) edition of Tischendorf s Greek Test. Vol. i. p. 602, and Meyer, Komineiit. iib. J oh. p. 247 (ed. 3). 3 These manuscripts are numbered 13, 69, 124, 346; one of these (69) being the well-known Codex Leicestrensis, and the other three MSS. of the Alexandrian family. It cannot apparently be asserted that the passage exactly fits on after Lect. VI. THE JOURNEYINGS TOWARD JERUSALEM. 233 But the Lord still lingers at Jerusalem in spite of the vengeful storm that was fast gathering round Him. To the first Sabbath after the festival J£%££* we must apparently 1 assign the discourse on ^'"'-' a ' c »'- II J O John vui. 12—20. His own and His Father's testimony, and the striking declarations of His mission from Him that was true, and of His union with the eternal Ver. 25 sq. Father, — declarations which we know so "wrought upon our Lord's very opponents that many of them, 2 as St. John tells us, believed on Him as He thus spake unto them, though, alas, as the sequel Beems to show, that belief was soon exchanged J*"' ' ~ Ver. 33. for captious questioning, and at last even for the frightful violences of blinded religious zeal. To this same Sabbath we must certainly assign the performance of the deeply interesting miracle of giving sight to the beggar 3 who had grown up to man- Luke xxi. 88, but it certainly does seem rightly attached to that chapter gen- erally, and properly to find a place among the incidents there related. See more in Lect. vii. 1 It may be doubted whether we are to assign the discourses recorded by St. John .in ch. viii. to the last day of the feast of Tabernacles (John vii. 37), or to the Sabbath on which the blind man was healed (John x. 14). The latter appears to be the more probable connection. The beginning of ch. ix. seems closely linked with the concluding verse of chap. viii. — a chapter which really com- mences with ver. 12, and contains the record of a series of apparently continuous discourses. Compare Origen, in Joann. xix. 2, Vol. iv. p. 292 (ed. Bened.). Between this chapter and the close of ch. vii. there seems a break, which in the received text is filled up with the narrative of the woman taken in adultery. On the connection of this portion, see Wieseler, Chron. Si/nops. p. 329, and com- pare the remarks of Meyer, Komment. Ub.Jok. p. 289 sq. (ed. 3), — who, however, does not seem correct in separating John viii. 21 sq. from what precedes, and in assigning the discourse to a following day. 2 It is worthy of notice that the Evangelist seems desirous that it should be clearly observed that the ttoAAoJ who believed (John viii. 30) belonged to the hostile party, the 'Iowfcuoi (see p. 116, note3), as he specially adds that the address beginning ch. viii. 81 was directed irpbs tovs TrfwiffTeuKdras o.vtu> 'lovdaiovs. (>n the whole discourse and the melancholy fluctuations in the minds of these sad); imperfect believers, see the exceedingly good comments of Stier, Disc, of Our Lord, Vol. iv. p. 319 sq. (Clark). 3 See John ix. 8, where the true reading seems undoubtedly, not '6ti t vot period of the mission of the Seventy lias been mueli debated by harmonists of this portion of Scripture. Wieseler fixes it as during the journey through Samaria, and finds a special appropriateness in the choice of that coun- try. Bee Climnril. Stjnops. p. 320, note. As, however, the journey through Samaria was apparently in haste, and as the whole of Luke x. seems to refer io events which succeeded that journey (comp. De Wettc, in loc), the place here ■ 1 to the mission is perhaps more probable. - Bee Eisenmenger, Entd. Judenthv/m, Vol. ii. p. 786 sq., and especially the interesting Rabbinical citations io Lightfoot {Hor. Hebr. in Joann. \ ii 37). which •ac may further use as indirectly confirming our present ohronological arrange- ment. If the custom alluded to in those passages, of offering sacrifices at the feast of Tabernacles for the seventy nations of the heathen world, was as old as the time of our Ba\ lour, — and this there seems no reason to doubt,— ii does not ■eem wholly fanciful to connect this mission of seventy men, whose distillation, though not defined, does nol at any rate appear to lun e had any specified limits assigm il to it (OOUtrasl Malt. x. .0), with a period shortly succeeding a festival where the needs of the heathen world were not forgotten even by the Jews. 236 THE JOURXEYINGS TOWARD JERUSALEM. Lect. VI. During this same period — this interval between the feast of Tabernacles and the feast of the Further incidents -*-* -.. , . . . ■ . -. , , tnjudma recorded Dedication — we may also, with considerable *' „ probability, place the visit of our Lord to Luke x. 38. * * ' • Martha and Mary at Bethany, when Martha was so cumbered with much serving; and to this same interval may we assign that instructive series of discourses 1 which extend from the middle of the tenth to the middle of the thirteenth chapter of St. Luke, the few incidents connecting which seem admirably to agree with the ar- rangement that would refer them to Judaea and to this par- ticular period of our Lord's ministry. 2 Though devoid of all notices of place 3 which might enable us to give some circumstantial touches to the few interspersed incidents, or sketch them out in a connected narrative, they still serve to show us very clearly, on the one hand, that the effect produced by our Lord's present ministry in Judaea was very great, that His hearers were now unusually numerous, and showed as earnest a desire to hear the words of life as was 1 This interesting portion of St. Luke's Gospel opens with the parable of the good Samaritan (ch. x. 25 sq.) and closes with the miracle performed on the woman bowed by a spirit of infirmity (ch. xiii. 10 — 17). The two striking para- bles of the rich fool (ch. x. 16 sq.) and the barren fig-tree (ch. xiii. 6 sq.) belong to this period, and present the characteristics of so many of the parables recorded by St. Luke, viz. that of springing from or being suggested by some preceding event. See Da Costa, The Four Witnesses, p. 211 sq. 2 The healing of the two blind men (Matt. ix. 27 sq.) is inserted by Teschendorf (Synops. Evang. p. xxxix.) in the present portion of the narrative, on the ground that, according to St. Matthew, it stands in close connection with the cure of a deaf and dumb demoniac (ver. 32 sq.), which again, according to Luke xi. 14 sq., must belong to the present period of the history. On the whole, how- ever, it seems better to conceive that the incident of curing a deaf and dumb demoniac, and the blasphemy it evoked (Matt. ix. 34, Luke xi. 15), happened twice, than to detach Matt. ix. 27 sq. so far from the period to which it certainly seems to belong. The blasphemous comment might well have been first made by the Tharisees (Matt. ix. 34), and then afterwards have been imitated and reit- erated by others. Compare Luke xi. 15, where observe that the speakers are not defined. 3 Compare ch. x. 38, where even the well-known Bethany [GreswelTs argu- ments (Dissertation xxxn.) against this identification seem wholly invalid] is no more nearly defined than as a kw/.i?j tis. Compare also ch. xi. 1, iv T elval iv t(5jto> tivi, xiii 10, iv /Uta twv o-jvaywyuiv, and see above, p. 20G, note 2. Llct. VI. THE JOURNEYINGS TOWARD JERUSALEM. 237 ever shown even in Galilee; and, on the other hand, that the enmity of the Pharisees and hierarchical party was deepening in its implacability, — eomp.eh.xt.ia. and that more especially as onr Lord did not «<•"..■,;,.,. i « See ver. 3'J sq. now repress His solemn and open denun- ciations of the hypocrisy and bloodthirsty spirit of these miserable and blinded men. The last incident of the period in question, the cure, on a Sabbath day, of a woman weakened and bowed down by demoniacal influence, 1 brings both parties very clearly before us, the adversaries and their shamed silence, and the _ „ ' l er. 17. people, that, as the Evangelist tells us, "re- joiced for all the glorious things" that were done by their great Healer. At the end of this two-month ministry in Judaea, and, as computation seems to warrant our saying, about the 20th of December,- St. John dis- to Jerusalem at the ., ,, w^ii ti i- Jeastof Dedication. tinctly specifies that our Lord was present in Jerusalem at the annual festival which commemorated the purification and re-dedication of the Temple under Judas Maccabeus. 3 Though threatened by every form of danger, 1 This miracle, it may be observed, also took place in a synagogue (Luke xiii. 1 i). :incl in this respect was the counterpart in Judaea of the similar healings on the Babbatb in the synagogue at Capernaum (Mark i. 21 sq., Luke iv. 31 sq. ; and Matt. \ii. 9 sq., Mark iii. 1 sq., Luke vi. G sq.). On the first occasion we find no expression of complaint or indignation; on the second occasion, evil thoughts arc at work, but no demonstration is made; here, however, the ruler of the Bynagogue himself interposes and addresses the multitude in terms spe- cially intended t.> relied censure on our Lord (ver. 14). On the miracle itself, the peculiar nature of which was the removal of a contraction of the body, pro- duced by demoniacal influence (ver. lGj^that had continued as long as eighteen years, see Augustine, Srrm. ex. Vol. v. p. G33 sq. (ed Migne), Hook, Serm. on the Minifies, Vol. ii. p. 102, and Trench, Notes on the if trades, p. 324. n The feast of Dedication regularly commenced on the twenty-fifth of Chisler. Thai date in I he J ear we are now considering | a. t'. C. Tffi) Will coincide, accord- ing to the tallies of Wuiin and Wieseler, with Tuesday. December 20. See Chron. Synopa. p. 4*1. or Teschendorf, Synops. Evang. p. i.n. ■i This festival, more fully specified in the Books of Maccabees as 6 eyKaivia^hs rod SvaicuTTrip'iou |1 Mace. iv. 56, 69), o Ka^apta/ubs tov vaov (2 Mace. x. 6), and further distinguished by the name (puna, in consequence, according to JosephuS [Alliiq. XII. 7. 7), of Unlooked-for deliverance, was instituted by Judas Macca- beus alter his victories over the generals of Antiochus Epiphases, and designed 238 THE JOURNEYINGS TOWARD JERUSALEM. Lect. VI. the Good Shepherd yet went once again, as His own divine words seem partially to suggest, to tend His sheep, — the sheep which heard His voice and had been given to Him by that eternal Father with whom Pie now solemnly and explicitly declared Himself to be one. He John x. 30. L J who but a few months before, in the remote uplands of Galilee, had commanded His disciples not to divulge His Messiahship, now in Solomon's Matt. xvi. 20. a . . porch 1 and in the face of bitter foes pro- claims His divinity ; He who even now vouchsafed not fully to answer the question of the excited people whether He were the Christ or no, nevertheless avows John x. 24, 25. before all men that He is the Son of God. 2 That title which to the misbelieving Jew would have been but the symbol of earthly and carnal hope or the watchword of sedition, He merges in the higher designa- te commemorate the purification of the temple after its pollution by that frantic and cruel man (1 Mace. i. 20, Joseph. Antiq. xn. 5. 4). It lasted eight days, and appears to have been a time of great festivity and rejoicing. See Otho, Lex. fiabbin. p. 238 sq., and Lightfoot, Ho?-. Hebr. in Joann. x. 22, where quotations are given from the Mishna which seem to show that the practice of illuminating the city during the festival, and perhaps also the title (poora, was derived from a legendary account of a miraculous multiplication of pure oil for lighting the sacred lamps, which occurred at the first celebiatiou of the festival. See, how- ever, Winer, RWB. Art. " Kirchweihfest," Vol. i. p. 659. 1 The comment x el l JL ^ v ^ v ( cn - x - 22), which St. John prefixes to his notice of the exact locality in which our Lord then was, seems designed to remind the reader why He was pleased to select this covered place (" ut captaret calorem," Lightfoot) rather than the open courts in which, it would seem, He more usually taught the multitudes. Compare Winer, RWIi.. Art. "Tempel," Vol. ii. p. 586. The porch, or cloister in question, we learn from Joscphus (Antiq. xx. 9. 7). was on the east side of the temple, — hence also known by the name of the aroa araToMicr), — and appears to have been a veritable portion of the ancient temple of Solomon, which either wholly or in part escaped when the rest of the build- ing was burnt by Nebuchadnezzar, 2 Kings xxv. 9 (Joseph. Antiq. x. 8. 5). It formed one, and that apparently the most splendid, of the noble cloisters which surrounded the temple enclosure. See Lightfoot, Descr. Templi, cap. 8, Vol. i. p. 565 (Roterod. 1686). 2 On this title, which here, as in other places, has been explained away by many recent writers, see the following note, and compare above, p. 119, note 2, and p. 196, note 1. Some good comments on this particular passage will be found in Wilson, Tllustr. of the N. T. ch. ii. p. 37 sq., and a defence of the true meaning of the title in opposition to Dorner, in Stier, Disc, of our Lord, Vol v. p. 496 sq. Lect. VI. THE JOURNT.YIXOS TOWARD JERUSALEM. 2oP tion that betokened His eternity and Godhead. 1 We can perhaps scarcely wonder at what followed. If, nine months before, at the feast of Purim, the same bitter and preju- diced men had sought to kill our Lord for John v. 18. claiming to be the Son of God ; if again, at the recent feast of Tabernacles, the declaration of an existence before Abraham had made them snatch up • 11 11 Vh - '''"• ■"''''• stones to cast at Hun, it could scarcely be otherwise now, when the eternal Son was claiming a one- ness of essence with the eternal Father. Ch. x. 30. Savage hands soon take up the stones that lay around those ancient cloisters; 2 wild voices charge the Holy One with blasphemy. With blas- ii i /• ci • Paabnlxxxii.9. phemy ! when the very language of Scripture proved that Shiloh was only laying claim to prerogatives and titles that were verily His own. Blas- J . John x. 3C. pheiny ! when the very works to which our Lord appealed were living proofs that lie was in the Father, and the Father in Him. But the Vcr.rs. hearts of those wretched men were hardened, and their ears could not hear. Fain would they have used the stones they were now holding in their hands ; 8 fain i The nopular assumption that the term ''Son of God" was regarded by the Jews in the time of our Lord as one of the appropriate titles of the Messiah, is carefully investigated by Wilson in the work referred to above (chap. iv. p. 56 sq I, and the conclusion arrived at is stated as follows: " With no direct testi- mony whatever on one side, and with the testimony of Origen [contr. Cels. i. p. 88, id. Spencer), supported by a strong body of probable evidence deduced from the New Testament, on the other, it seems necessary to conclude that custom had not appropriated this title to the Messiah of the Jews near the time of Jesus Christ."— Ithutr. <■/ X. '/'. p. 74. - The idle question, how stones would be found in BUCh a locality, may be most easily disposed of by observing, not only that general repairs and restoration in and about the temple \\vr\- going on to a considerable extent until after the time of our Lord (Joseph. Antiq. xx.9.7; compart' Lightfoot, Bar. Ttebr. VoL ii. p. 688), bul that these verj cloisters had not improbably suffered greatly in the Are during the revolt against Sabinue ( Intig. svn. 10. 2), and might not even yet have been completely restored. At any rate, a proposal was made to rebuild them In the ti if Agrippa {Antiq. jr.. 9. 7;. lor an account of stones being freely used in an uproar in the temple-courts, see intiq. xvn. 9. 3. We seem Justified In pressing the present tense (oia irolov aliToiv tpyov /.te \l&af«Ts; John x.32); the. Jews had taken np stones, and were standing 240 THE JOURNEYINGS TOWARD JERUSALEM. Lect. VI. would they have seized on their Redeemer, and carried out, even where they were, their lawless and impious designs, when that Holy One at once left both the temple and the city, and withdrew to those secluded John x. 40. districts across the Jordan where the BajDtist had commenced his ministry. 1 There the Lord found both faith and reception, and there, as it would ,""" '... „ seem, He vouchsafed to abide until the com- Luke xiti. 32. ' mencement of His second and subsequent journey to Bethany and to the neighborhood of Jerusalem. But even in those secluded districts hypocrisy and malice soon found an opportunity for cooper- J??to'£2£Z ation « After our Lord had now, as it would preparation to seem commenced His iourney towards Jeru- leave reraza. ' v « salem, and as His steps were leading Him perhaps through one of the Peraean villages or towns in the neighborhood of His former abode, 2 Pharisees come ready to carry out their blinded impiety. Compare Winer, Gram. § 40. 2, p. 237 (ed. 6). Stier {Disc, of our Lord, Vol. v. p. 494, Clark) contrasts the e^daracrav Kirovs in the present case with the r/pav Ai&ovs in ch. viii. 59, urging that the former word marks a more deliberate rolling up of larger stones, the latter a more hasty and impetuous snatching up of any stones that chanced to lie in their way. The explanation of -fjpav may possibly be correct; but the ifidtrra- G&v seems rather to imply, what the context seems to confirm, both the act of taking up the stones, and also that of holding them in their hands, so as to be ready for use. 1 For a rough estimate both of the time (four or five weeks) which our Lord may be supposed to have now spent in Persia, and of the date of the commence- ment of the second journey, see above, p. 225, note 3. The place, we may observe, is particularly specified, as " where John at first baptized " (John x. 40), i. e , Bethabara, or (according to the correct reading) Bethany, which would seem to have been situated not very far from the ford over the Jordan in the neighborhood of Jericho. See above, Lect. in. p. 108, note 2. Here, and in the adjoining districts of Persea, our Lord remained till the second journey toward Jerusalem, which at first might have assumed the character of a partial mission- ary circuit; with the Holy City as its ultimate goal (see the following note), and which at first might have been leisurely, but which afterwards, as the sequel shows, was speedy. 2 It would seem, as has been suggested in the preceding note, that our Lord's present journey was not at first direct. St. Luke's very words SiSdaKwv K Kal rfj T P' T J)I, seems to imply not mere general and undefined periods, but literal and actual days (see Meyer and Alford, inloc), two of which would be spent in the territory of the evil man to whom the message was sent, and devoted to miracu- lous works of mercy. That our Lord really designed the message not for Herod but I. ir tin' Pharisees (Stier, Disc, of our Lord, Vol. iv. p. 61, Clark; comp. also Cyril Alex, in loc. and the Scholiast in Cramer, Catcn. Vol. ii. p. 110) seems highly Improbable, aud contrary to the plain tenor of very simple and very explicit words. 3 The portion which this address to Jerusalem occupies in St. Luke's Gospel (ch. xiii. 34), as compared with that in St. Matthew's Gospel (see ch. xxiii. 37 Bq.), and the interpretation which is to be given to the words, arc points which have been much discussed. With regard to the Jirst, the natural coherence with what precedes wholly precludes our believing that St. Luke has misplaced the words. Nearly as much may be urged for the position of the words in St. Mat- tbew. It appears, then, not unreasonable to suppose that the words were ottered on two different occasions, a supposition further supported by some slight diversities of language in the two places. See Alford on Luke xiii. 34. With regard to tin s<-:,>n(t point, while it seems dillicult to believe that the words 21 242 THE JOURNEYLNGS TOWARD JERUSALEM Lect. VI. which immediately follows, serves indirectly to confirm, saw in an instant through that combination of cunning and malevolence. Works of mercy were yet to be done, miraculous cures were to be vouchsafed to-day and to-mor- row, even in the borders of that wily ruler's province ; on the third was to begin the journey that, though recom- menced from Ephraim, was the last made Johnxi. 54. . actually to Jerusalem, — that journey that closed with Golgotha and its perfected sacrifice. 1 Whether the difficult words which have just been para- phrased apply definitely to the period of the Probable events l . i l J J r (hiring the last two history now before us, whether they are (lays in Perma. . . . . . , , . . merely proverbial, or whether they involve a special note of time, cannot confidently be decided. The latter, as we have already implied, seems the more natural view, and is most in accordance with the precise nature of the inspired language; but more than this cannot be positively asserted. One thing seems perfectly clear, that in the succeeding portion of St. Luke's Gospel there is nothing which is opposed to such a view, and that in St. John's Gospel, as we shall hereafter see, 2 there is something in its favor. That our Lord preached and per- formed miracles 3 during the brief remainder of His stay in have no reference to the time when the very terms here specified were actually used (see Mark xi. 9), it seems equally difficult to believe that their meaning was then exhausted. We may thus, perhaps with some reason, believe, with modern chronologers (comp. Wieseler, Chron. Synops. p. 322), that the words had a first and perhaps immediate reference to the triumphal entry, and, with the ancient writers (Theophylact, al.), that they had a further reference to the Lord's second advent. 1 The meaning and reference of TeAeioD,u.ai (Luke xiii. 32) is perhaps slightly doubtful. That it is a present passive (Syr., Vulg.), not a pres. middle (Meyer), and that the meaning is " consummor " (Syr., Vulg.), seems clearly to follow from the regular usage of the verb in the N. Test. (comp. esp. Phil. iii. 12); and that the reference is to an action soon and certainly (Winer, Or. J 40. 2) to be commenced, and also to be continued, seems a just inference from the tense. Combining these observations, we may perhaps rightly refer it, as above, to our Lord's perfected sacrifice ("the passion upon the cross for the salvation of the world," Cyr. Alex.), winch was consummated in Golgotha, but the onward course to which was commenced when our Lord left the borders of Pera;a. 2 See below, pp. 267, 268. 3 The prominent declaration in our Lord's message to Herod is that there will Lect. VI. THE JOURNEYINGS TOWARD JERUSALEM. 243 Perrea can scarcely be doubted. That He healed a man afflicted with dropsy 1 at the house of a leader of the Pharisees, where He was invited, as it would Lukcxi v.i. seem, only to be watched, and uttered there \'' r - K - the appropriate parable of the Great Supper, — that publicans 8 and sinners crowded round Him, — and that when scribes and Pharisees murmured thereat, He uttered the parables of the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin, the Prodigal Son, and subse- ra-.f' quently, to His disciples, though in the hear- lZ'"v.u. ing of the Pharisees, the parables of the j£/jy Unjust Steward, and of Lazarus 3 and the Rich Man, — seems almost certain from the place which still be a continuance of miraculous works of mercy "to-day and to-morrow." Of these St. Luke only mentions the healing of a man afflicted with dropsy ; but as we may observe that in this portion of his Gospel he was clearly moved rather to record the teaching of our Lord than to specify His mighty works, we cannot fairly press the omission of other miracles that might have taken place on these c iluding days. 1 On this miracle, which forms one of the seven performed on the Sabbath (see above, p. 168, note 2), compare some comments by Anselm. Horn, x. p. 180 (1 :iris, 1676), a few remarks by Stier, Disc, of our Lord, Vol. iv. p. 67 (Clark), and Trench, Notes on the Miracles, p. 329. The miracle was performed at the house of an df>x u > v T <*" / &api iropw- ecrdat avrov tis 'lepovaaKiifi, koX avrhs 8ir]px eT0 5ia jj.ecrov Sauapei'as kcu TaAi- Aaias (Luke xvii. 11), — between which passages there is just the connection we might expect, on the hypothesis that the first refers to a journey which did not reach Jerusalem, and that the second refers to its continuation or recommence- ment. 3 According to the Jerusalem Itinerary, the distance from Jerusalem to Jericho was eighteen miles, and from Jericho to the Jordan five more, in all twenty- three miles. The same distances are specified by Josephus (Bell. Jiul. IV. 8. 3) as one hundred and fifty and sixty stades respectively, or in all two hundred and ten stades. See Greswell, Dissert, xxxvm. Vol. hi. p. GO. Whichever calcu- lation be adopted, our Lord clearly could have reached Bethany from the Jordan in as little as one day, and with ease in two, even if he had been some little distance on the other side of the river. On the rate of a day's journey, see Greswell, Dissert. XXVI. (Append.) Vol. iv. p. 525 sq. LBCT. VI. TBE J0URNT3YINGS TOWARD JERUSALEM. 245 was summoned from the tomb after he had lain there four days, how very plausible is the supposition that the Lord Avas in Peroea when lie re- ceived the message from the sisters of Lazarus, 1 and that the two days during which "He abode in the place where He was" were the two last days in Perrca, the "to-day and to-morrow" of which He spake when the Pharisees came with the hypocritical warn- intr about the designs of Herod. This seem- . „ , . ,. Lukexiii.il. ing coincidence of the notes of time supplied by the fourth Evangelist with those hinted at by St. Luke, combined with the further very curious fact, already alluded to, that the not very common name of Laza- . i i i t t u See p. 24S, note 3. rus - appears in a parable delivered by our Lord just at a time when it may be thought to have been suggested by the message which St. John tells us was sent to our Lord about the actual Lazarus of Bethany, — all this does indeed seem to support our view of the chronology of the present period, and to reflect some prob- ability on our explanation of the ambiguous "to-day and to-morrow" of the third Evangelist. 3 But let us pass onward. On the mighty but familiar miracle of the bv the roMn^o/ raising of Lazarus I will not pause, save to Lazarws - remark that the effect it produced was immense. It gath- 1 The message only announced that Lazarus was sick, but the supposition is not Improbable that by the time the messenger readied our Lord Lazarus had died. It may be observed that two days afterwards, when our Lord speaks of tbe death of Lazarus, be uses the aorist airibavtv (John xi. 14), which seems to refer the deatb to some period, undefined indeed, but now past. See Fritz, de Aoristi Ft, p. 17, and compare notes on 1 Thess. ii. 16. On the adjustments of time mentioned in the narrative of St. John, see Meyer on John xi. 17, p. 331 (Ml. 8). - Lazarus appears to be a shortened form of the more familiar Eleazar. See ally the learned Investigation of Bynseus, de Morte Christ i, m. 8, Vol. i. p 180 <|.. and compare Lightfbot, Hot. Hebr. in Joann. xi. 1. 8 We may perhaps recognize a further point of contact between the rfj rplrri Tt\(ivv/j.ai of St. Luke (eh. xiii. 32) and the remarks of the Apostles (JohnxL ■-. 16) on our Lord's proposal to go into Judsea: they regard that Journey, as it truly proved to he, a journey of which rb TtTeKeiuxrdai was the issue. 21* 24u THE JOUBNEYINGS TOWARD JERUSALEM. Lect. VI. ered in believers even from the ranks of opponents ; it afterwards brought multitudes from Jerusa- johnxi.45. i em t0 ee ^ Hsen man, and swelled the Ch. xti. 9. ' triumph of the Lord's entry; 1 and, alas! it also now stirred up enemies to delay no longer, and made a high-priest pervert the mysterious gift of ° prophecy 2 by using it to hurry on the mem- bers of his council to plot against innocent blood. So avowed were now the savage counsels, that our Lord at once withdrew to the town of Ephraim, on the borders of Samaria, 3 and there, after an abode of perhaps a very few weeks, 4 com- menced the last, and, as we may perhaps venture to term it, the farewell iourney described by all the Matt.xix.l. ' ■ ■• -n ■ i- ■ ikukx.i. three Synoptical Evangelists, and specially noticed by St. Luke as being directed " through the midst of Samaria and Galilee." 5 The strik- 1 See John xii. 17, 18. On this mighty miracle, in which our Lord not only appears, as previously, the conqueror of death, hut even of corruption (John xi. 39), see the commentaries of Origen [the part preceding ver. 39 is lost], Chrys- ostom, Cyril Alex., and Augustine (in Joann. Tractat. xlix.), Bp. Hall, Con- tempi, iv. 23, 24, the very good comments in Stier, Disc, of Our Lord, Vol. vi. p. 1 sq. (Clark), the vindication of Lardner, Works, Vol. xi. p. 1, and Trench, Notes on the Miracles, p. 389. 2 It has often heen discussed whether this was conscious or unconscious prophecy. The tenor of the context seems clearly to show that it can only be regarded in the latter view. Caiaphas was only consciously stating what he deemed politically advisable, but he was nevertheless, as the inspired Evangelist distinctly tells us, at the time actually prophesying: Kara rov '\-naov ay7jTeucrer. Origen, in Joann. Tom. xi. 12, where the nature of this prophecy is considered at great length. Compare Thesaur. Nov. (Crit. Sacr.) Vol. ii. p. 525. 3 There seems reason for believing that this place was identical with Ophrah, and corresponds with the modern village of Taiyibeh, which, according to Rob- inson, occupies a commanding site on the top of a conical hill, whence a fine view is to be obtained of the eastern mountains, the valley of the Jordan, and the Dead Sea. — Palestine, Vol. i. pp. 444, 447. It is about 6h. 20m. (1 hour = three Roman miles) distant from Jerusalem (see ib., Vol. ii. p. 508), a distance very closely agreeing with that specified by Jerome (Onomast. s. v.), who makes it twenty miles. 4 See above, p. 225, note 3. s The interpretation of Meyer (comp. Alford in loc, Lange, Leben Jesu, Tart II. p. 1065), according to which Sio ixiaov ^afiapelas xai TaAiXaias (Luke xvii. 11) is to be understood as implying the frontier district lying between these two LEOT. VI. THE JOUUXEYIXGS TOWARD JERUSALEM. 247 ing harmony between this notice of direction and the abode in the frontier town of Ephraim specified by St. John, may well give us confidence in our foregoing ar- rangement, and add strength to our belief in the general chronological accuracy of the latter as well as of the former portions of the narrative of the third Evangelist. The incidents in this last journey are not many. Possi- bly on the frontiers of Samaria we may fix the scene of the healing of the ten lepers, 1 um journey to Ju- and of the gratitude of the single sufferer d TiLte xr«. i«. that belonged to the despised land. To the period of the transit through Galilee we may perhaps assign the notice of the solemn answer to the probably treacherous inquiry of the Pharisees when the kingdom of God should come, and to *' .„, ° ' CA.2Ylll.l8tf. the same period 2 the parable of the Unjust Judge, — a parable that gains much of its force and solem- nity from the previous mention of a time of terrible trial and perplexity. 8 From Galilee we seem fully justified, by provinces along which our Lord journeyed from west to east, is apparently grammatical]]' defensible (see Xen. Anab. i. 4.4), but certainly not very natural or probable. The plain and obvious meaning surely is that our Lord went, not merely " per Samaritanos in Galilasam," Syr.-1'esh., but through the middle of both countries. See Lightfoot, Chron. Temp. § G2, and comp. Wieseler, Citron. Synops. p. 322. 1 On this miracle, the characteristic of which is its deferred working till the faith of the Bufferers was shown by their obedience to the Lord's command, see Bp. Hall, Contempt, rv. 10, Trench, Notes on the Miracles, p. 332, — who, how- ever, has adopted the not very probable interpretation referred to in the pre- ceding mile; and compare Hook, Strut, mi tin Miracles, Vol. ii. p. 140, and a good practical sermon by Hare (A. W.), Sermons, Vol. ii. p. 457. -' It is very doubtful whether these incidents are to be assigned to the portion of the- journey through Galilee, or to that through Ferssa. The latter view ia ado], led bj Greawell, Dissert, xxxi. Vol. ii. p. 642; the former, however, seems Slightly the most probable. See Lightfoot, Citron. Temp. § C2, CO, Vol. ii. p. 40 (Boterod. b;8(3). 8 There seems no reason for supposing, with Olahansen and others, that some Intermediate remarks connecting this parable more closely with what precedes are here omitted, (in the contrary, as ver. 7 seems t<> prove, the connection is close and immediate. When the Lord comes, He comes to avenge Bis own and free them from their foes, and that full surely. If an unjust earthly jndge avenged her v ho called upon him, Bhall not a righteous beavenly Judge avenge - • t of God? See .Meyer {« toe. p. Ill (ed. 8), and on the parable generally, 248 TEE JOURNEYINGS TOWARD JERUSALEM. Lect. VI. the distinct notices both of St. Matthew and St. Mark, in tracing our Lord's steps to the lands across the Jordan. Whether this journey extended to the more northern parts of Peraea, where it will be remembered a few months before the four thou- sand were fed, and where the name of the God of Israel was so magnified, we cannot determine. The a xv. . expressions of St. Matthew would rather lead Ch. xix. 1. l us to the contrary opinion, and to the suppo- sition that our Lord passed directly onward to the portions nearer Judrea 1 in which He had preached a few weeks before, and to which we shall apparently be right in confin- ing the few remaining incidents which we meet with in this part of the inspired narrative. 2 We observe there just what we should have expected from our remembrance of our Lord's former sojourn in that country. We trace the same characteristics displayed by the two classes of our Lord's hearers with which we are so familiar in earlier parts of the Gospel history, — thankful and Matt.xix.2. ... i even enthusiastic reception on the part of the multitude, craft and malignity on the part of the Pharisees compare Greswell, Exposition of the Parables, Vol. iv. p. 213 sq., Trench, Xotes on the Parables, p. 439. 1 There is some little difficulty in the words -fiX&ev els ra opta Trjs 'lovSaias wepav tov 'lopfidvov (Matt. xix. 1). Viewed simply, and with the remembrance that an insertion of the article before irtpav is not positively necessary (see Winer, Gr. § 20. 2), they would seem in accordance with the statement of rtolemy (Geogr. v. 16. 9) that a certain portion of the province of Juda?a actually lay on the eastern side of the Jordan; viewed, however, in connection with Mark x. 1, they seem rather to mark the general direction of our Lord's journey, and might be paraphrased, — "He came to the frontiers of Judasa (ovk tir\ to fxeaa, a\\' oiovel rd &Kpa, Origen), His route lying on the other side of the Jordan." Comp. Greswell, Dissert, xxxi. Vol. ii. p. 542. 2 In this arrangement nearly all harmonists are agreed; the only doubt, as has been before observed (p. 247, note 2), is whether these are the only incidents which belong to the journey through Perwa. Greswell urges the apparent con- secutive character of the discourses, Luke xvii. 20 — xviii. 14, but it may be said that there is really no greater break between Luke xvii. 19 and Luke xvii. 20, which Greswell disconnects, than between Luke xviii. 14 and Luke xviii. 15, which he unites. It must remain, then, a matter of opinion, the few arguments in favor of one arrangement being nearly of equal weight with those in favor of the other. Lkct. VI. THE JOUltXEYIXGS TOWARD JERUSALEM. 249 and their various adherents. The latter feelings are soon displayed in the insidious inquiry about the Hark x. 3 .«'/. lawfulness of divorce, a question studiously Mark x. 21. chosen to place our Lord in antagonism either with the school of Ilillel or with the school of Shammai, and thus to bring upon Him the hostility of one or other of two influential parties, if not also in some degree to involve Him with the adulterous Tetrarch in whose territory He then was. 1 In these same districts, and in touching contrast to all this craft, ° . Matt. xix. 13. "were the young children brought to our Lord, and blessed with the outward signs and tokens of His divine love. 2 Here, too, was the home of that rich young man whom Jesus looked on and loved, and of whom the melancholy notice is left, "' that worldly possessions kept him back from the kingdom of God. 3 And now every step was leading our Lord and His Apostles nearer to Jerusalem, and every step calls forth in 1 Compare Do Wettc on Matt. xix. 3, to whom the hint is due. The main design, however, as St. .Matthew's addition Kara. Trciirav alriai' (practically the language of the school of Ilillel) seems clearly to show, was to induce our Lord to decide upon a question that was much in debate between two large parties, the school of ilillel adopting the lax view, the school of Shammai the more shirt : " Schola Shammaana, non permisit repudia nisi in causi adulterii, Hille- liana alitor." — Lightfoot in loo. Vol. ii. p. 315. Comp. Jost, Gesch. di t Jud< nth. ii :;. 18, Vol. i. p. 2.-,:. •- Ui are distinctly told by St. .Matthew the two blessings which the bringers of the children hope to receive for them at the hands of our Lord, — iVa tcls x e 'P as iir&ij a-JTo?s Ka\ Trpncnv^-qrai (ch. xix. 13). The former act, the imposition of hands, was probably regarded to some extent what it truly was, the outward sign of the conveyance of inward gifts and blessings (ttji* rlgen in Matt. ( Per. Interpr.) Tom. xv. 14. See Hofmann, / i Jem, $ 71, p. 30G. 250 THE JOURNEYINGS TOWARD JERUSALEM. Lect. VI. the very outward demeanor of the Lord a manifestation of a dauntless resolution which awes and to?,Z!i'trl°aiem" amazes * that shrinking and now foreboding company. The Lord now heads His band Ch. x. 33. r J of followers, as St. Mark graphically men- tions, and leads the onward way. To the general com- pany of disciples, augmented as it now well might have been by many a worshipper that the festival was bringing up to Jerusalem, the Lord is silent; but to the chosen Twelve 2 He now again for the third time speaks of the future that awaited Him. Yet they could not " ' xx ' or they would not understand. Nay, they Luke ix. 46. •> ' ' J seem, as on a former occasion, almost to have put a counter-interpretation on the words; for, strange as indeed it appears, this we learn was the hour „ ,"''" " that the sons of Zebedee and their mother Mark x. Jo sq. preferred their ambitious request, and in fancy were enthroning themselves on the right hand and the left hand of their triumphant Master. 3 1 The second reason assigned by Euthymius {on Mark x. 32) seems certainly tbe true one: " They were amazed, either at what He was saying, or because of His own accord He was going onward to His passion" (Sioti 7]vTOfj.6\ei nphs rb irados ) . 2 It is distinctly told us by St. Matthew (ch. xx. 17) that this mournful com- munication was made privately (/tar' iSlav) to the Apostles. Comp. Mark x. 32, Luke xviii. 31. The two other occasions on which the same sad future had been announced to them was in the neighborhood of Ca;sarea Philippi. imme- diately after St. Peter's confession (Matt. xvi. 21 sq., Mark viii. 30 sq., Luke ix. 21 sq.), and not very long afterwards during the subsequent return to Caper- naum (Matt. xvii. 22 sq., Mark ix. 30 sq., Luke ix. 43 sq.). The reason for the private manner in which the communication was made is perhaps rightly given by Euthymius, — to avoid giving grounds of offence to the attendant multitudes. • n > It is worthy of notice that the request is made by one from whom, according to our common estimate of his character, we should not have expected it, — St. John, the disciple whom Jesus loved. The attempt of Olshausen to explain away the request as a petition hereafter to enjoy the same privilege of nearness to our Lord (Comment, on Gospels, Vol. iii. p. 121, Clark) must certainly be rejected; such a desire was doubtless present, but the request itself was plainly one for irpoeSpta (Chrys.), a genuine characteristic of the glowing hearts of the Sons of Thunder. See above, p. 229, note 1. According to St. Matthew (ch. xx. 20), the request was preferred by their mother, Salome. The explanation is obvious: the mother was the actual speaker, the two apostles were the instiga- tors; alffx.'"'oiJ.ivoi TpoPdWovrat t/ ; j> reKodaav, Chrysost. in Matt. Horn. lxv. Vol. vii. p. 04i (ed. Bencd. 2). Lect. VI. THE JOURNEYINGS TOWARD JERUSALEM. 251 Jericho is soon reached ; and there, as it would seem, at the entrance into the city, one, or, as St. Mat- Arrival at Jericho. thew specifies, tico blind men l hail the Lord with the same title that a few days afterwards was heard from a thousand voices on the slopes of Oli- vet. They call unto the Son of David, whom „ . „ as yet they saw not; they call, and they are healed. Begirt l»y the now increasing and glorifying mul- titude, the Lord enters the city. But praises soon change to general murmurings when the just and faithful ZacohsBUS is called down from the sycamore-tree to entertain Him on whose divine form he would have rejoiced only to have gazed afar off,- but whom now he was to be so blest as to welcome under the shadow of his roof. Still the heart of the people was moved. Wild hopes and expectations still pervade all hearts; and it is to allay them that the Lord now utters, both to the disciples and the Ch. Tic. 11. multitude, the solemn parable of the Pounds, — that parable which, as St. Luke tells us, was specially 1 It is difficult to account for this seeming discrepancy, as there is not only a difference between St Matthew and the second and third Evangelists as to num- ber, but between St. Luke and the tirst and second as to time. Perhaps, as seemed likely in the similar case of the Gad&rene demoniacs (see above, p. 178, note -), one of the blind men, Bartiniaus, was bitter known (Augustine), and thus his cure more particularly specified. Sec Mark x. 44 sq. If we add to this the further supposition that the one who is mentioned at our Lord's entry into Jericho as having learnt from the crowd who it was that was coming into the city (Luke xviii. 37), was not healed then, but in company with another sufferer, when our Lord was leaving the city (MaldonatUS, Ben gel), we have perhaps the mo t probable solution of the difficulty that has yet been proposed. Ou this point and the mir&Cle generally sec Trench, Xnh '.8 on the Miracles, p. 428 S(j., and compare Origen, in Matt. Tom. xvi. !t, who adopts an allegorical mode of recon- ciliation, Augustine, de Consent. Evang. u. 66, Vol. Hi. p. lb;7, Serm. i.xxxvm. Vol. v. ]p. 589 (ed. Uignl), and Lange, Lebt n Jem, ii. C. 1, Part n. p. 1158. i The language of St. Luke (££qrei i5e?f t^'I^cow' ris icmv, ch. xix. 3) would seem to imply that Zacchcus was anxious to behold the person and out- ward form of our Lord, and distinguish it from that of the bystanders. That this was not from curiosity, but from a far deeper feeling, — perhaps presenti- ment,— seems clear from what followed: ci5«|/ ainhv roii bfpb6.KfJi.ois T7JS b.v- bpunr6ri)Tos, trpotio'e yap ainbf rols ocpddKtxois rTyr *>«ot7jtos, liuthymius, in lOC. < In t be title a/'X * salem, and reaches Bethany six days 2 before his last Passover. And here our present section, and our extended though, alas, hasty survey of the concluding year of our Lord's ministry, comes to its close. I will delay you with no practical comments, — for the time is far spent, — but I will conclude with the deep and 1 Apparently two reasons are given by St. Luke why our Lord uttered this parable, — " because He was nigh to Jerusalem," and " because the kingdom of God should immediately appear" (ch. xix. 11). The two reasons, however, really only amount to one, our Lord's journey to Jerusalem being connected in the mind of the populace (as was fully shown two or three days later) with the establishment there of His future kingdom: "They deemed," says Euthymius, " that for this cause He was now going up that He might reign therein." On the parable itself, which is obviously very similar to, but not on that account to be regarded as identical with, the parable of the talents (Matt. xxv. 14), see Greswell, Exposition of the Parables, Vol. iv. p. 418 sq., Trench, Notes on the Parables, p. 234 sq. 2 There is some little difficulty as to the date of our Lord's arrival at Bethany. It is definitely fixed by St. John as irpb e£ i)ixtpwv tov irdaxa (ch. xii. 1), and thus, according to the ordinary meaning of the words and the usual mode of reckoning, would seem to be Nisan 8, the Passover being Nisan 14. Now, as it seems certain that our Lord suffered on a Friday, and as it is scarcely less cer- tain that, according to St. John (ch. xiii. 1, xviii. 28, xix. 4), the Passover was eaten on that same day, it will follow that Nisan 8, or the day of our Lord's arrival at Bethany, will coincide with the preceding Saturday, or with the Jew- ish Sabbath. Of this difficulty various solutions have been proposed, the most elaborate of which is that of Greswell (Dissert, xxxviii. Vol. iii. p. 51 sq.), according to which our Lord came from Jericho to a place a few miles from Bethany, assumed to be the house of Zacchaeus, on Friday eve, and on Saturday eve, after sunset, went onward to Bethany. This appears so complicated, that it is better either (a) to admit that our Lord arrived on Nisan 8, but to leave the circumstances and time of the arrival unexplained (Liicke, Meyer, Alford), or (6) to conceive that St. John, writing generally, does not here include the days from which and to which the six days are reckoned, and that thus our Lord arrived at Bethany on Friday, Nisan 7. Comp. Tischendorf, Syn. Eo. p. xliii. It is worthy of consideration, however, whether (c) our Lord might not have' arrived on Friday eve just after the Sabbath commenced, so that the day of His arrival was really, according to Jewish reckoning, Nisan 8. Discussions of this question will be found in the various commentaries. Compare also Bynreus, de Morte Christi, 1. 3. 12, Vol. i. p". 188 sq., Schncckeuburger, Btitrage, p. 14. Lect. VI. THE JOURNEYINGS TOWARD JERUSALEM. 253 earnest prayer that I may have awakened in some hearts a fresh desire to ponder over for themselves /> t_ ■ *» t • Conclusion. the connections of the blessed history of their own and the world's redemption. The close study of it may require all our highest powers, and tax all our freshest energies; but believe me, brethren, the consolationsof that study no tongue of men or angels can fully tell. While we are so engaged we do indeed feel the deep meaning of what an apostle has called the "comfort" of the word of God. Though at times we may seem as i i • Rom - xv ' *• yet in doubtfulness or perplexity, yet soon, very soon, all becomes clear and comforting. Lights break around our path; assurance becomes more sure; hopes burn brighter; love waxes warmer ; sorrows become joys, and joys the reflections of the unending felicities of the kingdom of Christ. Around us and about us we feel the deepening influence of the Eternal Son. All inward things, yea, too, all outward things, appear to us verily transfigured and changed. We cast our eyes abroad on earth ; 't is the earth that lie trod, and earth seems bright and blessed. We raise our eyes to the heavens, and we know that He is there ; we gaze, and faith , . Isa. xxxiii. 17. rolls back those everlasting doors ; yea, we seem to see the vision of beauty, and in our spirit we behold our God. 22 LECTURE VII. THE LAST PASSOVER. BEHOLD, WE GO UP TO JERUSALEM, AND ALL THINGS THAT ARE WRITTEN BY THE PROPHETS CONCERNING THE SON OP MAN SHALL BE ACCOM- PLISHED. — St. Luke xviii. 31. We have now entered upon a portion of the inspired narrative which, no less in its general and M °„™" c outward features than in the subjects on which it treats, is strikingly different from any other portion that we have yet attempted to consider. Hitherto in only a very few, and those scattered parts of the sacred history, has the united testimony of the four Evangelists been vouchsafed to us in reference to the same facts. 1 Sometimes one of the inspired writers has been our principal guide, sometimes another. What one has left unnoticed another has often been moved to record ; but seldom have all related to us the same events, or even dwelt in equal proportions upon the same general divisions 1 In the large portion of the Gospel history which we have now considered, apparently not more than three or four cases can be found in which the same speech, subject, or event is specified by all the four sacred writers. The first instance, perhaps, is the declaration of the Baptist as to the relation in which he stood to our Lord. With Matt. iii. 11 sq., Mark i. 7 sq., Luke iii. 16 sq., compare John i. 26, but observe that the words which are approximately the same in the four narratives were uttered on more than one occasion, and to different hearers. The second instance is the narrative of our Lord's baptism, which, as related by the Baptist (John i. 32), may be compared with the notices of the Synoptical writers (Matt. iii. 16 sq., Mark i. 10 sq., Luke iii. 21 sq.). The third is the account of the feeding of the five thousand, where John vi. 1 sq. is clearly parallel with Matt. xiv. 13 sq., Mark vi. 32 sq., Luke ix. 10 sq. St. Feters profession of faith in our Lord may perhaps be considered & fourth case; but it must be remem- bered that the occasions were different: the first profession (John vi. 68) being made at Capernaum, the second (Matt. xvi. 16, Mark viii. 29. Luke ix. 20) in the neighborhood of Caesarea Philippi. See above, Lecture v. p. 198, note 2. Lect. VII. THE LAST PASSOVER. 255 of the Gospel history. Not unfrequently indeed have we enjoyed the privilege of the combined testimony of two of the sacred writers, and not much less frequently even of the first three; 1 but at present anything like a con- tinuously concurrent testimony, even in the case of the Synoptical Gospels, has rarely presented itself except for very limited periods of the time over which their records extend. We may verify this by a brief retrospect. We may remember, for instance, how in the earliest portions of the Gospel history the appointed £Z2£££ witness seemed to be, preeminently though "°" "■'' " ,e '""*'""" 7 * rf o five. not exclusively, St. Luke, and how again in the brief narrative of the early ministry in Judaea almost our only guide was found to be St. John. 2 It may be remembered, further, that of portions of our Lord's minis- try in eastern Galilee we often had the blessing of three records, but that in reference to the order of the events we appeared to have reasons for relying more on the narrative of the second and third Evangelists than on that of the more grouped records of St. Matthew. 3 Of the ministry 1 The exact numerical proportions in which the discourses, subjects, or events specified by three of the Evangelists stand with respect to those related only by two can hardly be satisfactorily stated, owing to the differences of opinion about some of these coincidences, and still more to the obvious fact that the relations between the three Synoptical gospels are continually changing. As a general statement. however, it may be said that the combined testimony of the first three delists preponderates in the narrative of the ministry in eastern Galilee, but that in the narrative of the north-tialiUean ministry the instances are not many where we have the testimony of more than fiOO, principally Si. Matthew. See above, Lect. v. p. 192. The u hole question of these correspondences is one of great importance, as affecting our opinion of the origin and relations of the first three Gospels, but Car tun long to be comprised in the limits of a single note. The attention of the student may, however, be called to the fact, that exact verbal coincidences arc much more frequent in the recital of Words spoh n than in merely narrativi portions ,• and, again, that the ratio of coincidence in narrative to that in recital i- strikingly different in the first three Evangelists, the ratio in St. .Matthew being BS 1 to a little more than '_', in St. Marie as 1 to 4, and in St. J. ul.e a- l to 10. See especially the good discussion in Norton, Evidi in-- .* of the Genuineness of the Gospels, Vol. i. p.239(ed. 2), where the consideration of these numerical relations appears to lead to satisfactory results. 1 Bee alio-, e tin- Important quotation from Eusebius, Leot. iv. p. 1 hi. note 1. 3 Sec above, Lect. IV, p. ll'J eq., where a statement will be found of the four 256 THE LAST PASSOVER. Lect. VII. in northern Galilee, we have seen that but little has been recorded by the historian-Evangelist St. Luke ; but again, that of our Lord's concluding ministry in Judaea and Peraea we should have known almost nothing if he had not been specially moved to record that striking series of connected events and discourses 1 which occupied our attention in the concluding part of the foregoing Lecture. Thus varied would seem to be the general aspect of those parts of the inspired narrative to which JSSSSSi we have hitherto confined our meditations. Now, however, we meet with a striking and yet not unlooked-for change. If all the three solemn pre- dictions of our Lord's sufferings were thought to be of such moment that they have been specially recorded by all the three Synoptical Evangelists, 2 surely it would not be too much to expect that the mournful record of the verification of those prophecies should be given, not by two only, or by three, but by all. The history of the suf- ferings whereby mankind was redeemed must be told by no fewer in number than the holy four. 3 The fulfilment principal reasons for adopting the order of St. Mark and St. Luke rather than that of St. Matthew. Compare also Lect. I. p. 35 sq. 1 It has been already implied, but may be more distinctly stated, that the great peculiarity of the large portion of St. Luke's Gospel, extending from the end of the 9th to the middle of the 19th chapter, is the close connection that appears to exist between the incidents mentioned, or alluded to, and the discourses which followed. It would seem almost as if the former were only noticed as serving to introduce and give force to the weighty words which followed. Compare Luke xi. 37 sq., xii. 1 sq., xiii. 1 sq., 23 sq., xiv. 1 sq., xv. 1 sq., al. Some careful com- ments on this portion of St. Luke's Gospel, though not always such as can be fully accepted, will be found in Greswell, Dissert, xxxf. Vol. ii. p. 517 sq. 2 The prediction uttered near Cajsarea I'hilippi is specified in Matt. xvi. 21 sq., Mark viii. 30 sq., and Luke ix. 21 sq. ; the prediction near or on the way to Capernaum, in Matt. xvii. 22 sq., Mark ix. 31 sq., Luke ix. 44; the prediction in Perrca on the way to Jericho, in Matt. xx. 17 sq., Mark x. 32 sq., Luke xviii. 31 sq. 3 It may be noticed as a matter of curiosity, that the Apocryphal Gospels, which we have long lost sight of, now again come before us. With the excep- tion of an account of our Lord's appearance in the temple when twelve years old (Erang. Ii\f. Arab. cap. 50 si!., Evang. Thorn, cap. 19), a few scattered notices of our Lord's baptism (see Hof'mann, Leben Jesu, § 69, p. 299), and the nan alive of the rich young man (see above, p. 249. note 3), we meet with no attempts to add anything to the Gospel history since the period of the infancy. Kow, how- Lect. VII. THE LAST PASSOVER. 2">7 of type and shadow, of the hopes of patriarchs, of the expectations of prophets, yea, and of the dim longings of a whole lost and sinful world, must be declared by the whole Evangelistic company; the four streams that go forth to water the earth 1 must here meet in a common channel; the four winds of the Spirit of Life 2 must here be united and one. For such a dispensation of wisdom and grace, ere we presume to dwell upon it, let us offer up our adoring t hanks. Let us bless God for this fourfold heritage; let us praise the Eternal Spirit that thus moved the hearts and guided the pens of these appointed witnesses, and then witli all lowliness and reverence address ourselves to the momentous task of attempting so far to combine their holy narratives as to bring before our minds, in all its fulness and completeness, the record of the six concluding days of the Lord's earthly ministry, — the six days in which a world was re-created, and the last fearful efforts of the rulers of its darkness met, quelled, and tri- . , _ Eph.vi.12. umpned over forevermore. The last incident, it will be remembered, to which we alluded in the preceding Lecture, was the short stay of our Lord at Jericho, and the JlgST subsequent journey to Bethany. He had "";'; , , T i •> J J Lomp. John xi. 7. now again passed along the wild and unsafe road' 5 that leads from the plain of Jericho to the uplands of ever, in the Evangelium Nicodemiwe find the apocrypha] narrative resumed, ami are famished with accounts (not wholly undeserving of notice) of our Lord's trial, and of the events which followed. See Teschendorf, Evcmg. Apoer. p. 203 sq., Bnd compare Bofimann, Leben Jesu, § 78 sq. i Jerome, I'm/, in Matt, cap. l. Vol. vii. p. 18 (ed. Migne). - This second simile is a modification of one « liich occurs in a curious passage in [rensus, which, though not very com facing, may bear citation as incidentally showing how completely at that earlj age the four, and only the /our, Gos- pele were accepted throughout the Church. " Since there are four regions of the world," says this ancient writer, " In which we live, and four cardinal winds, and the Church has become Bpread over the whole earth, and the Gospel is the pillar and support ofthe Church, and the breath of life, it is meet thai it should have tour pillars breathing on all sides inoorruption, and refreshing mankind." Adv. Bar. ax. 11., p. 221 (ed. Grabe). 3 This road, though connecting two places of great importance, seems almost 22* 258 THE LAST PASSOVER. Lect. VII. Judaea, and was now, possibly late on the Friday evening, 1 in the abode of that highly-favored household, which, as the fourth Evangelist tells us, our Lord vouchsafed to regard with feelings of affection and love. John xi. 5. m, , . ~ . ,, . „ 1 here, in the retirement ot that mountain- John xii. !). ' hamlet of Bethany, 2 — a retirement soon to be broken in upon, — the Redeemer of the world may with reason be supposed to have spent His last earthly Sabbath. There, too, either in their own house, or, as seems more probable, in the house of one who probably owed to our Lord his return to the society of his fellow-men, 3 did that loving household " make a supper" for John xii. 2. . ° l ' their divine Guest. Joyfully and thankful, y did each one of that loving family instinctively do that which might seem most to tend to the honor and glorifica- tion of Him whom one of them had declared to be, and always to have been infested by robbers (Jerome on Jerem. iii. 2), and to have been deemed notoriously dangerous to the traveller. See Lightfoot, Hor. Hebr. in Luc. x. 30. It was the scene of the striking parable of the Good Samaritan, and was now being traversed, apparently for the second time (the first being on the occasion of the sickness and death of Lazarus), by Him whom several writers of the early Church (Origen, Ambrose, Augustine, al.) regarded as shadowed forth by the merciful stranger of His own parable. For an account of the road, see Thomson, The Land and The Book, Vol. ii. p. 440 sq. ; and for a very power- ful sketch of a wild portion of it, with the plain of Jericho below, see Koberts, Holy Land, Vol. ii. Plate 15. 1 See above, p. 252, note 2. 2 The village of Bethany (according to Lightfoot, " , ?.' 1 !"] IT'S " house of dates") lies on the eastern slope of Olivet, in a shallow and partially wooded valley, and in a direction about E. S. E. from Jerusalem, and at a distance of about fifteen furlongs (John xi.18), or between half and three quarters of an hour in time. It is now called "el-'Aziriyeh," from the tomb of Lazarus, which is still pretended to be shown there, and is described by travellers as a poor and somewhat forlorn hamlet of about twenty houses. See Robinson, Palestine, Vol. i. p. 432 (ed. 2), Thomson, The Land and. the Book, Vol. ii. p. 599, Stanley, Palestine, p. 188; and for views of it, Roberts, Holy Land, Vol. ii. Plate 13, Robertson and Beato, Views of Jerusalem, No. 30, and Frith, Egypt and Palestine, Part xxiv. 3. 3 It has been conjectured, and perhaps rightly, that Simon "the leper," at whose house the supper would seem to have been prepared (Matt. xxvi. 6, Mark xiv. 3), had formerly suffered under this frightful disease, and had been healed by our Lord. Compare Meyer on Matt. xxvi. 6. The connection in which he stood to Lazarus and his sisters is wholly unknown to us; according to Theophy- lact he was the father (comp. Ewald, Gesch. Christus'', p. 357); according to some modern writers, the husband of Martha (Greswell, Dissert. Vol. ii. p. 554), or, as Beems perhaps slightly more probable, a friend of the family. Lect. VII. THE LAST PASSOVER. 259 whom they all knew to be, the Son of God 1 that was to come into the world. So Martha serves; .. .,, •iii'i Jnhn xi. 27. Lazarus, it is specially noticed, takes his place (/ , ,„ L ,. at the table, the visible, living proof of the omnipotence of his Lord ; Mary performs the tender office of a mournfully foreseeing love, that thought nought too pure or too costly for its God, — that tender office which, though grudgingly rebuked by Judas, and, alas! others than Judas, who j, a „. . rxri -. 8 . could not appreciate the depths of such a Markxts.*. ., . 1 ' , , . _f . . . , Matt. xxvi. 13. devotion, nevertheless received a praise which it has been declared shall evermore hold its place on the pages of the Book of Life. 2 But that Sabbath soon passed away. Ere night came on, numbers, even of those who were sel- 1 /> iit ix T 1 1 The triumphal dom favorably disposed to our Lord, now* «.„,,.„ into ja-ma, came to see both Him and the living monu- *■"*■*»* ment of His merciful omnipotence. ihe _ .. 1 Ver. 11. morrow probably brought more of these half- curious, half-awed, yet, as it would now seem in a great 1 On the title " Son of God " see above, Lect. v. p. 19G, note 1, and also Lcct. vi. p. 289, note 1. It can scarcely be doubted that on the occasion referred to (John xi. 27) Martha had a general if not a theologically precise belief in our Lord's divinity. Now, that belief would naturally have become still clearer and fuller, and probably evinced itself in all these acts of duteous and loving service. 2 For the arguments by which it would appear almost <■< rtavn that the present anointing is not identical with that in the house of Simon the Pharisee (Luke vii. 86), see above, p. 173, note 2, and compare Ebrard, Kritik ii< r Evang. Oesch. j 96, p. 473. The incident is related by St. Matthew and St. Mark after the triumphal entry, — not as having happened then, hut as standing in suitable sonnection with the mention of the betrayal of Judas, the workings of whose evil heart, as we know from St. John, were fully displayed on the occasion of" this supper. See Wicseler. Sytlopg. p. 391 sq. 8 It seems reasonable to Buppose that at a time of such large popular gather- ings the strict observance Of the Sabbath-day's journey might In some measure have been relaxed. Kvcn, however, without this assumption, we may suppose these eager visitants to have arrived at Bethany soon after the Sabbath was over, having performed the permitted part of the distance (live or six stades) 1' fore the Sabbath legally ended, and the rest afterwards. The news that our Lord was there could easily have been spread by those who journeyed with Him from Ji richo on the Friday, and who themselves went on direct to Jerusalem. On the length of a Babbath-day's journey, see Winer, BWB., Art. "Sabbatb- Eweg," Vol. ii. p. 851, <'H rwell, Dissert, nzvni, Vol. iii. p. 70. 2G0 THE LAST PASSOVER. Lect. VII. measure, believing visitants. The deep heart of the peo- ple was stirred, and the time was fully come when ancient prophecy was to receive its fulfilment, and the daughter of Zion was to welcome her King. 1 Yea, and in kingly state shall He come. Begirt not only by the smaller band of His own disciples, but by the great and now hourly increasing multitude, our Lord leaves the little wooded vale that had ministered to Him its Sabbath-day of seclusion and repose, and directs His way onward to Jerusalem. As yet, however, in but humble guise, and as a pilgrim among pilgrims, He traverses the rough mountain-track which the modern traveller can even now somewhat hopefully identify ; 2 every step bringing Him nearer to the ridge of Olivet, and to that hamlet or district of Bethphage, the exact site of which it is so hard to fix, but which was separated perhaps only by some narrow valley from the road along which the procession was now wending its way. 3 But the Son of 1 This prophecy, we are told distinctly by St. John (ch. xii. 16), was not under- stood by the disciples as now being fulfilled till after our Lord had been glorified. The illumination of the Holy Ghost then enabled them both to call to mind the words of this particular prophecy (observe the thrice-repeated raura) and to recognize the occasion on which it was thus signally fulfilled. See Meyer on John xii. 1G. 2 See Stanley, Sinai and Palestine, p. 189 sq., where this triumphal entry is extremely well described and illustrated. In deference to the opinion and argu- ments of this observant traveller, who has himself seen and considered the locality in reference to the very event we are now considering, it has been assumed in the text that our Lord proceeded, not by the traditional route over the summit of Olivet, but by the most southern of the three routes from Bethany to Jerusalem. We must not, however, forget that the present appearance of the city from Olivet and the appearance of the city in the time of our Lord, when the eastern wall certainly ran much within the present line of wall (see the plans by Ferguson in Smith, Diet, of Bible, Vol. i. pp. 1028, 1032), must certainly have been different, and that the statements of the modern traveller must always be subjected to this correction. Views of the city from Olivet are very numerous. See, however, especially, Williams, Holy City, Vol. i. Frontis- piece, Roberts, Holy Land, Vol. i. Plate 4, 1C, Frith, Egypt and Palestine, Part xviii. 1, 2, and for a view of the roads down the side of Olivet, Williams, Vol. i. p. 318, and compare Stanley, Palestine, p. 156. 3 The site of this village or district has not yet been satisfactorily determined. See Robinson, Palestine, Vol. i. p. 433, but compare also Van de Velde, Memoir to Map, p. 297. The most reasonable view seems to be that Bethphage (S:>5 ^t.' " house of figs") was a village or hamlet not far from Bethany, but nearer to Lect. VIE THE LAST PASSOVER. 261 David must not. solemnly enter the city of David as a scarcely distinguishable wayfarer amid a mixed and way-, faring throng. Prophecy must have its full and exact ful- iilmcnt; the King must approach the city of the King with some meek symbols of kingly majesty. With haste, it would seem, two disciples are despatched to the village over against them, to bring to Him " who ha Ku>fxf\v t))v Ka-rivavn. v,aa>v ; Luke xix. 30, t!;i> KO.riva.vTi kix7)v, — in all which places Beth- phage appeals to he referred to. The apparently less probable supposition that it was a district rather than a village, has been advocated by Lightibot, Cent. Chorogr. in Matt. cap. 37, Vol. ii. p. 198 (Roterod. 1686). Comp. also Williams, Holy city. Vol. ii. p. 412 eq. 1 See Stanley, Sinai unit Palestine, p. 190, where it is stated that, on reaching the ridge of tin- southern slope of Olivet, by the road above alluded to, the trav- eller obtains a view of Mount Zion and that portion of Jerusalem which was more especially connected with the memory of David, as the site of his palace. The temple anil the more northern parts would not be seen at present, being hid from \ iew by an Intervening Blope on the right. -' This would seem to be the correct reconciliation of Luke xix. 37 with 'Matt, xxi. 9 and Mark xi. 9. The disciples that were round our Lord flrsi raise the jubilant shouts, the multitudes both before and behind (Matt. /. r.) take them up immediately afterwards. St. John specifies some of the acclamations, but more particularly gives us the subject of the testimony which the multitude pub- licly bare to our Lord, viz., that lie had raised La/arus from the dead (eh. xii. 17). and thus Incidentally supplies the reason why they PO readily joined in these thouts of triumph. Compare Ewald, Oetch. Clu-istus', p. 884. Ps. cxi-iii. 2C. 262 THE LAST PASSOVER. Lect. Vn. there were fast streaming up Olivet, a palm-branch in every hand, to greet the Kaiser of Lazarus and the Conqueror of Death. And now all join. One common feeling of holy enthusiasm now pervades that mighty multitude, and displays itself in befitting acts. Garments are torn off and cast down 1 before .xxi. . | Holy One; c:reen boughs bestrew the Ver. 8. * ... way ; Zion's King rides onward in meek maj- esty, a thousand voices before and a thousand voices behind rising up to heaven with hosannas and with mingled words of magnifying acclamation, some of which once had been sung to the Psalmist's harp, and some heard even from angelic tonp-ues. Luke li. 14. ° ° .... But the hour of triumph was the hour of deepest and most touching compassion. If, as we have ventured to believe, the suddenly opening view of Zion may have caused the excited feelings of that thronging multitude to pour themselves forth in words of exalted and triumphant praise, full surely we know from the inspired narrative that, on our Redeemer's nearer ap- Luke xix. 41. , , ■, -• proacn to the city, as it rose up, perhaps sud- denly, 2 in all its extent and magnificence before Him who 1 Most of the recent expositors of this passage have appropriately referred to the curious incident, mentioned by Dr. Robinson (Palestine, Vol. i. p. 473, ed. 2), of the people of Bethlehem casting their garments on the way before the horses of the English consul of Damascus when supplicating his assistance and inter- cession. The same writer briefly illustrates, by modern usage, the act of the disciples casting their cloaks (why does Dr. Thomson, in Smith's Diet, of Bible, Yol. i. p. 10G4, go out of his way to specify them as "ragged"?) upon the foal to serve as a saddle. —Palestine, Vol. ii. p. 219. Such is the enduring nature of Eastern habits. 2 We learn from Dr. Stanley {Sinai and Palestine, p. 191) that at a particular point of the southern road the traveller reaches a ledge of smooth rock from which the whole city, rising up, as it were, "out of a deep abyss," is suddenly beheld in all its extent. Compare the view in Williams, Holy City. Vol. i., Front- ispiece, which seems to illustrate this description. It seems too much to venture, with Dr. Stanley, positively to identify this spot with that where the Saviour paused and wept, especially as it is by no means certain (see above, p. 260, note 2) that this was the route actually taken; still we may perhaps permit ourselves to believe that our Saviour's affecting address was synchronous with and per- haps suggested by the sudden opening out of some widely extended view of the inaguiticent city. The view from the summit of Olivet is noticed by Dr. Robin- Lect. Til. THE LAST PASSOVER. 263 even now beheld the trenches cast about it, and Roman legions mustering round its fated walls, tears . . Ver. 43. fell from those divine eyes; yea, the Saviour of the world wept over the city wherein lie had come to suffer and to die. . . . The lengthening procession again moves onward, slowly descending into the deep valley of the Cedron, and slowly winding up the opposite slope, until at length, by one of the eastern gates, it passes into one of the now crowded 1 thoroughfares of the Holy City. Such was the Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem ; such the most striking event, considered with ref- ° # fir/leetionrs on t/ir erence to the nation, on which we have as unkuw credibility . . of the narrative. yet meditated. It was no less than a public recognition of Jesus of Nazareth as the long looked-for Messiah, the long and passionately expected theocratic King. Though, as the sequel shows, only transitory and evanescent, it was still a recognition, plain, distinct, and historical, and exactly of such a nature as tends to increase bod, and described as "not particularly interesting," and as embracing little more than a "dull, mixed mass of root's and domes." — Palestine, Vol. i. p. 23G (ed. 2). l It is now hardly possible to form a just conception of the appearance which Jerusalem and its vicinity must have presented at the season of the Passover. All the open ground near the city, and perhaps the sides of the very hill down which our Lord had recently passed, were now, probably, being covered with the tents and temporarily erected structures of the gathering multitudes, who even thus early would have most likely found every available abode in the city completely full. We are not left without some data of the actual amount of 1 lie gathered numbers, as we have a calculation of Josephus, based upon the num- ber of lambs sacrificed (256,500), according to which it would appear that even at the r< ry low estimate of ten persons to each lamb, the number of people assem- bled must have been little short of two millions seven hundred thousand, with- out taking into consideration those that were present but incapacitated by legal Impurities from being partakers in the sacrifice. See Bell.Jud. vi. 9. 3, and compare Bell. Jud. n. 11. 3. where the number is with more probability set down at about three millions. There would thus have been present not much short of half of the probable population of Judaea and Galilee. .See G res well, Dissert. xxin. Append. Vol. iv. p. 494. These observations arc not without importance, considered theologically. They show that our Lord's rejection and death is not merely to be laid to the malevolence of the party of the Sanhedrin, and to the wild clamors of a city mob, but may justly be Considered, though done in partial Ignorance (Acts hi. 17), the act of the nation. When Pilate made his proposal, it was tn the multitude (Mark xv. 9), and that multitude we know was unanimous (John xvili. 40). 26-4 THE LAST PASSOVER. Lect. VII. in the highest degree our convictions of the living truth of the inspired narrative. Let us pause a moment only to observe how marvellously it sets forth no less the sacred dignity than the holy decorum of the accepted homage. Let us only observe with wonder and reverence how not a single prerogative of the Messiah was waived or foregone, and how not even the most bitter opponent of the truth 1 can dare, with any show of reason or justice, to assert that the faintest appeal was here made to the prejudices or passions of the multitude. Let us mark, on the one hand, how, ere the multitude begin to greet their Lord with the words of a Messianic psalm, 2 He Himself vouchsafes them a Messianic sign, and how, when the Pharisees urge our Lord to silence the commencing acclama- Zuke xix. 39. tions, He refuses with an answer at once decided and sublime. Let us mark again, on the other hand, how the object of all that jubilant reverence shows in the plainest way the spiritual nature of His triumph and of His kingdom, when on His nearer approach He pauses and weeps over the city to which He was advanc- ing with such kingly majesty. Was this the way to appeal to the political passions of the multitude? "Was this what worldly prudence would have suggested as the most hope- ful mode of assuming the attributes of such a Messiah 1 The various objections in detail which modern scepticism has endeavored to bring against the inspired narrative do not appear in any way to deserve our attention, or require any further confutation thau they have already received. For notices of them, and short but sufficient answers, see Ebrard, Kritik cler Evang. Gesch. § 97, p. 476. The general objection, however, or rather false representation, alluded to, and briefly discussed in the text, deserves a passing notice and exposure. It was advanced, towards the close of the last century, by the compiler of the notorious Wolfenblittel Fragments, and has often been repeated in later sceptical writings. When we read the inspired accounts, and observe how they incidentally disclose everything that was most opposed to political demonstration, it may seem doubtful whether the impiety of such a theory is not even exceeded by its improbability and its total want of all histor- ical credibility. 2 The comment of Hilary is not without point: " Laudationis verba redemp- tionis in eo exprimunt potestafem, nam Osanna Hebraico sermone signiflca- tur redemptio [domus David].'' — Comment, in Matt. Canon xxi. p. 567 (Paris 1631). Lect. VII. TIIE LAST PASSOVER. 265 as was then looked for by popular enthusiasm? 1 No, it cannot be. Here at least let scepticism fairly own that it is at fault — plainly, palpably at fault. If it affects to value truth, let it own that here at least there is a sober reality wholly irreconcilable with assumptions of mistaken enthusiasm or political adventure, here a life and a truth with which the subtlest combinations of thought could never have animated a mythical narrative. But let as pass onward. No sooner had our Lord entered the city than all was amazed inquiry and commotion. The recognition, as far as we ^j^LT^ can infer from the sacred narrative, would seem to have been speedy and general; 2 not indeed in those exalted strains which had just been heard on Olivet, yet still in a manner which probably served to show how true was the bitter admission of the Pharisees one to an- other, that the whole "world had gone after Him," and that all their efforts were at present of no avail. Yet by no outward acts, if we adopt what seems on the whole the most probable connection of the sacred narrative,' 5 did our Lord as yet respond to those l It, perhaps, cannot be doubted that at the present time numbers trusted that they beheld in our Lord the mighty Deliverer and Restorer whose advent was so earnestly and so eagerly looked for. See Luke xxiv. 21, and compare Acts i. 6. Still it seems by no means improbable that with all this there was also such a growing feeling that the expected kingdom was to be at least as much of a spir- itual as of a temporal nature (compare Luke xix. 11), that even the most enthu- siastic did not perhaps generally associate with the Lord's present triumphal entry many well-defined expectations of purely political results and successes. Comp. EwaJd, Qtach. Christ us 1 , p. 381. The nature of their acclamations seems confirmatory of this view. -' We may observe the characteristic way in which the inquiry is made and the answer returned. The people in the city at present share but little in the enthu- (-iiisin of the entering multitudes; their only question is, Tij la-riv outos (Matt. xxi. 10). The answer is given by the Sx^oi, mainly, as it would seem, though probably not exclusively those who were now accompanying our Lord, and not perhaps without a tinge of provincial and local pride: Out6s (irrty 6 -Kpo(py]Tt)S 'Irjffovs [Rec. 'l7j (Monday). an y ? with the intention, we may humbly ch ^fi™' presume, of reaching the temple before any great influx of worshippers could have been found in its courts. The inspection of the preceding ■ day had shown only too clearly that the Ver.U. J J J sanctity of His Father's house must again be vindicated, and that the unholy and usurious 3 traffic The former view is most in accordance with the connection of St. Matthew's narrative, and is partially supported by the notice of the children crying in the temple, which might seem but a continuation of what had happened on the way. Still, the very distinct note of time (ttj iirav^iov, ch. xi. 12) supplied by St. Mark, coupled with his precise notice of the lateness of the hour when our Lord finished His survey the preceding evening (ch. xi. 11), leads us here to adopt the generally safe rule, in cases of disputed order, of giving the preference to the narrative of that Evangelist who has been moved to supply a special rattier than a merely general note of the time when any event occurred. The hypothesis that the cleansing of the temple commenced on the afternoon of the Sunday, and was continued on the following day, is noticed, but rightly rejected, by Greswell, Dissert, xxxix. Vol. iii. p. 99 sq. 1 On the use of this peculiar term by St. Mark, see Da Costa, Four Witnesses, p. 122, and compare Lect. I. p. 39, note 1. 2 See Lightfoot rJ ffbr. Hebr. in Matt. xxi. 12, who mentions that the place where this traffic was carried on was called rvan ("Tabernas "), and was in the spacious court of the Gentiles. Compare Descr. Tempi, cap. IX. Vol. i p. 565. 3 See Lightfoot, Hor. TIehr. in Matt. xxi. 12, where there are some valuable Rabbinical citations illustrative of the koWv&kttoX and their practices. The following seems to show that the agio exacted in changing common money yito sacred, or the shekel into two half-shekels, was great: " Quanti valoris est istud lucrum? Tunc temporis cum deuarios pcrsolverent pro Hemisiclo, Kolbon [vel, Lhct. VII. THE LAST PASSOVER. 2b i which was now being carried on within its walla must again 1 be purged out of the hallowed precincts. On the way, He, who was truly flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone, felt the weakness of the nature He vouchsafed to assume. lie hungered, wc are told by the xatt.xxi.ia. first two Evangelists, and turned to a way- jf«*asi.i& side fig-tree to see if haply there was the *■*«*■» fruit thereon of which the early show of leaves, though not the season of the year, 2 gave such ostentatious promise. lucrosus reditus nunimul.trio pensus] fuit dimidium Meae, hoc est pars duodecima denarii: ef nunquam minus." — Tolm. "Shekalim," cap. 3. For a description of the sacred shekel, compare Friedlieb, Archdol. § 15, p. 37. i The purging of the temple, mentioned by St. .John (ch. ii. 13 sq.), is rightly regarded bj < brysostom, most of the older, and nearly all the best recent expos- itors, as different from the present. It took place at the Passover, a. v. c. 781, or two years before the present time. See above, Lect. in. p. 122. The vindication of the sanctity and honor of His Father's house was thus one of our Lord's ear- liest as well as one of His latest public acts. On the difficulties which some interpreters have felt in the performance of this authoritative act by our Lord, especially on the first occasion, see above, p. 122, note 3. •- Much difficulty has been felt at the partially parenthetical clause, Mark xi. 13, 6 yap xaipbs ovk -fiv (tvk&v (Tixcli.), or ov yap i\v Kaipbs ovkmv (lice). From this, it has been urged, we are to conclude that our Lord could not have expected to find figs on the tree, and consequently that the curse pronounced on it is less easy to be accounted for. A close attention to the exact words of the original, c imbined with the notices of modern travellers, seems completely to remove all Uiliiculty. St. Mark tells us distinctly that our Lord saw a fig-tree ix ov(Tal ' ding the leaves. .See Thomson, The Land and the Book, Vol. i. p. 588, from \ horn we learn that in a sheltered spot tigs of an early kind may occasionally bo found ripe as soon as the beginning of April. Compare a No Winer, fi WB. Art. '• Feigenbaum," Vol. i. p. 867, Greswell, Dissert, xxxix. Vol. iii. p. 91. Our Lord approaches the tree U) see et dpa, if, as was reasonable to expect under such cir- eumstances (Klotz, Devar. p. 178 sq.), fruit was to be found. He finds nothing except leaves, — leaves, not fruit; whereas, if it had been later, and the regular sea. hi, lie would have found fruit and not leaves, and would not have been attracted by the unseasonable appearance of the tree. See Mej er, Komnu nt. ub. Mark. p. 131, whose general explanation ot' the passage is reasonable and satis- factory. The ordinary supposition that these were leaves of the preceding year, and that what our Lord expected was fruit of the same year (see UghtfOOt, //"/'. lli br. in Matt . xxi. 1'J), is by no means probable, as the connection between the presence Of leaves and absence of fruit is thus wholly hist, the curse Hot BO ounted lor (the tree might have once had figs Which Others had now plucked off), and, lastly, the tone of the clause ou yap k. t. a. either explained away f.N'oii stride et solum ralioiiem reddit, CUT fiCUS nun inveiierit; sed ratioiieui reddit totius actionis, cur scilicet in munte isto, ficubus abundanti, imam tantuui 268 THE LAST PASSOVER. ' Lect. VII. Hapless tree ! emblem of a still more hapless nation. The dews of heaven had fallen upon it, the sunlight had fos- tered it, the sheltering hill-side had protected it ; all sea- sonable influences had ministered to it, and, even as it had been with the mercies of Jehovah to His chosen people, all had been utterly in vain. Nay, worse than in vain ; the issue was a barrenness that told not merely of frustrated but of perverted influences; gifts from the God of nature received only to issue forth in unprofitable and deceptive produce ; not in the fruit of His appointment, but in pretentious and unseasonable leaves. Why, then, are we to pause for reasons, or to seek about for any further expla- nation of what is at once so suggestive and so intelligible ? Why marvel we that, like the watered earth, "that bringeth not forth herbs meet for the use of man," but beareth only thorns and briers, that emblem- atic tree was now "nigh unto cursing," and that its end was to be burned ? x It was probably still early when our Lord reached the temple. Its present desecration might pos- JSFJZ sibly not have been so great in every respect works of mccy - t j j \ )ecn two y ears before. Still it is performed there. J clear that nearly every evil practice had been resumed. Buyers and sellers were there, usurious money- changers were there ; all was well-nigh as of old. Meet viderit, cui folia talia," — Lightfoot) or completely lost. Explanations such as those of Lange (Leben Jesu, Fart n. p. 321), Sepp (Leben Christi, Vol. iii. p. 219), and others, according to which Kaipbs is amplified to mean " favorable season," or " favorable locality," appear wholly untenable. 1 The above comments seem fully sufficient to meet the open or tacit objections against this " destructive act, and that on a tree by the wayside, the common property " (Milman, Hist, of Christianity, ch. vn. Vol. i. p. 309). Those who advance such objections would do well to remember the sensible remarks of Chrysostom: " Whenever any such act takes place, either in respect of places, plants, or things without reason, be not over-precise in thy comments, and do not say, ' How then with justice was the fig-tree made to wither away V ... for it is the extreme of folly to make such remarks. Look rather at the miracle, aud admire and glorify Him who wrought it." — In Matt. Horn, lxvii. Vol. vii. p. 746. On the miracle generally, see the good comments of Hall, Contempt. IV. 2G, and Trench, Notes on the Miracles, p. 435. Lect. VII. THE LAST PASSOVER. 269 then was it that by authoritative acts no less than in inspired words it should be proclaimed in the face of all men that God's house was not j^vHu. for thievish gains, 1 but for worship ; not for Jewish buying and selling, but for the prayers of all tho scattered children of God.- Meet was it that, as at the first Passover of our Lord's ministry, so at His last, the majesty of the eternal Father should be thus openly glori- fied by the acts of His eternal Son. And not by these only. Deeds of mercy followed deeds of necessity. The blind came to Him and received their sight ; ° Matt. xxi. 14. the lame walked, yea, even before the un- believing eyes of the very chief priests and scribes who, as we learn from St. Mark, had heard of the Ch. xi. 18. Lord's presence in the temple, and were now seeking to find an opportunity of destroying Him 3 whom now, more than ever, they were regarding with mingled hatred and apprehension. At present it was in vain. The children round them glorifying the Son of David, the attentive and awe-stricken mul- iiarkxiv.is. titude hanging on the words and deeds of Him whom they had welcomed yesterday with cries that 1 See above, p. 266, note 3. 2 It is worthy of notice that the words iraai rot? e&vtcriu, which duly express the spirit of the prophecy referred to, are only found in St. Mark (ch. xi. 17). The addition would not seem due to any greater care in St. Mark's mode of cita- tion (I)i' Wette), but as suggested by the general character of his Gospel and its more general destination for Gentile readers. 3 It is perhaps scarcely safe to make definite historical deductions from finer shades of grammatical distinction which may not have been fully recognized by the writers | still the student's attention may be called to Mark xi. 18, itfyrow \oi d/>x te P e '* Koi ol ypa/j.fj.a.Tf7s] irws ainbv diroAfcraxrii', where the tense adopted, iaiokiffwriv [Titch., Lachm., with the four leading MSS.), or airo\t- aovaw [Ree. with later M.SS.), will modify the view taken of the conduct of the members of the Sanhedrin. If we adopt the subjunctive, the meaning will sim- ply be •• how they should kill Bim," how they should carry out the design they were now entertaining; if the future, — which, however, critically considered, seems less pi obable, — the meaning will be, " how they shall kill Him," how they shall accomplish a design already definitely formed and agreed upon, and now considered only In reference to the " modus operandi." On this distinction, see Winer, Gr. $ 41. a, p. 266 (cd. 6), and compare Stalbaum on l'lato, Sympos. p. 23* 270 THE LAST PASSOVER. Lect. VII. their children were now reiterating, all clearly told the party of the Sanhedrin that their hour — the hour of the powers of darkness — had not vet come. Luke xxii. 53. x J One effort they make ; reproachfully they ask Him if He hears, if He accepts these cries of hom- age, plainly implying what the Pharisees had att.xm.1 openly demanded on the Mount of Olives Luke xuc. 39. r J the day before, that such demonstrations should be silenced. 1 But neither then nor now is it meet that the jubilant accents, whether of loving or of innocent lips, should be hushed and checked. Nay, prophecy must have its fulfilment. With the pertinent words Ps. viii. 2. , . of a Psalm, of which the deeper meaning and application was now fully disclosed, our Lord leaves the temple and city and returns again to Bethany. On the morrow, and, as St. Mark tells us, early in the Answers to the day, our Lord and His disciples take their SSS^TiS- wa y t0 Jerusalem. Much there awaited da v)- them. The day preceding had been marked cii. xi. 20. by manifestations of divine power, as shown forth in deeds, and wondrous works ; the present day was to be the witness of divine wisdom, as shown forth in words and discourses. It was a day that our Lord fore- 1 The present feelings of these evil men are very distinctly put before us by the comment of St. Mark, iKav a\n6v, Matt, xxvii. 18. The present behavior of the people, as Cyril of Alexandria has well observed, ought to have led to a very different result : " And does not this, then, make the punishment of the scribes and Pharisees, and all the rulers of the Jewish ranks, more heavy, — that the whole people, consisting of unlearned persons, hung upon the sacred doctrines, and drank in the saving word as the rain, and were ready to bring forth also the fruits of faith, and place their neck under His commandments? But they whose office it was to urge on their people to this very thing savagely rebelled, and wickedly sought the opportunity for murder, and with unbridled violence ran upon the rocks, not accepting the faith, and wickedly hindering others also."— Commentary on St. Luke, Serai, cxxxn. Part u. p. 615 (Transl.). Lect. VII. THE LAST PASSOVER. 271 knew would be marked by rapidly changing incidents, 1 by every varied form of stratagem, by hypocritical question- ings and insidious inquiry ; it was to be a day of last and most solemn -warnings, of deepest and most momentous prophecies. Early must it needs be that He go, late that He return. Ere they reach Jerusalem the hapless emblem of that city and its people meets the eyes of the disciples. The fig-tree, as the graphic St. Mark tells us, was withered from its very roots. The won- dering question that was called forth by such an exhibition of the power of their Master over the material world re- ceives its practical answer in the solemn reiteration of words first uttered by way of gentle reproof ., i n , .1 3tatl.xvu.20. some months before, and now again, by way of instruction, declaring the omnipotence of perfect and unwavering faith. 2 They pass onward to the temple, 1 To the present clay (Tuesday) are assigned, by most of the leading harmonists, all t lie events and discourses comprised in Matt. xxi. 20 — xxv. 40, Mark xi. 20— xiii. 37, Luke xx. 1— xxi. 38, and apparently (see below, p. 280) John xii. 20—30, with the recapitulatory remarks and citations of the Evangelist, ver. 37 — SO. We have thus, mi this important day, the answer to the deputation from the San- hedrin, and the three parables which followed it; the answer to the Pharisees and llerodians about the tribute-money, to the Sadducees about the woman with seven husbands, and to the scribe about the greatest commandment ; the question put to the Pharisees about the Messiah, and the severely reproving dis- course in reference to them and the scribes; the praise of the poor widow; the words uttered in the presence of the Greeks who sought to see our Lord, aud the last prophecies in reference to the destruction of Jerusalem and the end of the world, with the accompanying parable of the Ten Virgins. See Wieselcr, i in-tin. 8y flops, p. 393 sq., aud Grcswcll. Dissert. XL. Vol. iii. p. 109 sq., who, however, conceives the day to be Wednesday, and also diners in lixing the inci- dent of the Greeks on the day of the triumphal entry. The view of Milmau (/lis/. <>/ Christianity, Vol. i. p. 311 note), that some of the discourses, c g., the answer to the Pharisees and llerodians, and what followed, belong to a day sub- seqnenl to thai on which the answer was made to the deputation from the San- liedrin, has very little in its favor. - The addition of the verse in St. Mark (ch. xi. 25) on the duty and necessity of showing a forgiving spirit, especially when offering up prayer to God (comp. Matt. \ j. li), has been judged by Meyer and others as due to the Evangelist, and OB not tunning a part of our Lord's present words. This seems a very uncalled- for assumption. The preceding declaration of the prevailing nature of the prayer of faith leads our Lord to add a warning, which a possible misunderstanding of the miracle Just performed might suggest as necessary, \'\/.., that this efficacy of prayer was not to be used against others, even though they might be thought justly to deserve our animadversion. Compare Stier, Disc, qf our Lord, Vol. iii. 272 THE LAST PASSOVER. Lect. VII. where already, early as it was, many were gathered together to hear the teaching of life and and compwe Luke those glad tidings of the Gospel which now, "' "a rr -0 as St. Luke incidentally informs us, formed Lide xu: i$. the subject of our Lord's addresses to His fcbr.&i& eager and wondering hearers. But, as since, so then was the Gospel to some a savor of death unto death. The Lord's preaching is broken in upon, by a formal deputation from the Sanhedrin, 1 with two questions fair and specious in their general form, and yet most mischievously calculated to call forth an answer that might be twisted into a charge, — "By what authority was He doing these things?" 2 and "From Matt.xxi.SO. ^ . -nut-. whom did He receive it? But question must be met by question. Ere the Messiah declares the nature of His mission, He must be told in what aspects the mission of His forerunner was regarded. Was that without higher sanction, unaccredited, unauthorized, — from men or from heaven ? Let the spiritual rulers of the nation answer that question, and then in turn J r ' _ shall answer be made to them. The sequel Vcr. ST. _ 1 we well remember: the shrewdly-weighed alternatives, the necessary admission, "They could not p. 105, Lange, Leben Jesu, II. 6. 6, p. 1212. That our Lord should have uttered the same words on another and earlier occasion, and should now be pleased to repeat them, involves nothing that is either unlikely or even unusual. See Lect. iv. p. 170, note 2. 1 This seems clearly implied by St. Mark's mention of the three component parts of the supreme court, tpyovrai irpbs avTov ol apxicpeTs ko.\ ol ypau.fxa.Tels ical ol TrpeaSi'/Tepoi, ch. xi. 27. Compare Matt. xxi. 23, Luke xx 1. For a good account of these three sections of the Sanhedrin, the first of which was com- posed of priests (jwrhaps beads of the twenty-four classes, not deposed high- priests), the second of expounders and transcribers of the law (see Lightfoot, Jlor. Htbr. in Matt. ii. 4), the third of the heads of the principal families of Israel, see Friedlieb, Archdol. § 8, p. 15 sq. -' In the question proposed by the deputation, 'Ej/ iro'ia i£ovo~ia ravra. Troiels (Mark xi. 2*). the ravra appears to refer, not to the present or previous teaching of our Lord (Bengel, comp. Chrysost.), but to the authoritative purging of the temple the day before (Cyril. Alex., Euthym.), and apparently also to the mira- cles on the blind and the lame, of which some of the speakers had been wit- nesses. See Matt. xxi. 15. The probable design was to induce our Lord to lay such claim to divine powers as might Le turned into a charge agaiust Him. Lect. VII. THE LAST PASSOVER. 273 tell," the consequent refusal of our Lord to give them an answer, 1 and vet the mercy with which, by ,. , , , . i ^ i xi • Per. 28-32, 33— means of two parables, their conduct, both in ^ its individual and in its official aspects, is placed clearly before them,- with all its issues of shame and condemnation. The drift of the two parables, especially of the second, they failed not clearly to perceive. They knew that our Lord was speaking with ref- on the part <& the erence to them, but they hoed not, nay, they rfe "" t """<- . . T T . . , Mark jrii. 12. renew their efforts against I Inn with greater ~ ° Matt. xxvi. 4G. implacability, and are only restrained from open acts by their fear of the populace. With words of last and merciful warning, 3 as expressed in the parable of 1 The question proposed by our Lord had close reference to Himself, as Him of whom John had spoken, and that too to a similar deputation (John i. 10 sq.) to the present. The SanJiedrin had heard two years ago, from the mouth of t lie Baptist, an indirect answer to the very question they were now proposing; meet, then, was it that they should first declare the estimation in which they held him who had so spoken to them. 2 in the first of the two parables, the Two Sons sent into the Vineyard, the gen- eral course of conduct of the Pharisaical party is put in contrast with that of the publicans and harlots (ver. 31), and thus more clearly shown in its true char- acter. By their general habits this latter class practically said ob &e\oo to the di\ Ine command, but afterwards repented, at the preaching of John. The Phar- isaical party, on the contrary, at once said 4yw Kvpte with all affected readiness, but, as their conduct to this very hour showed clearly enough, never even attempted to fulfil the promise; they were the second son of the parable, the harlots and publicans (not the Gentiles, as Chrysost. and the principal patristic expositors] the first. Compare Lange, Leben Jeau, n. G. G, Part n. p. 1215, G res- well, Dissert, zl. Vol. Hi. p. 113, and see De Wette and Meyer in loe. In the second parable, tbe Husbandmen who slew the Heir, the conduct of the Phar- isaical party, a~ BrJer (l>i.7) rightly observes, is set forth more in reference to its official characteristics, and to the position of the rejecting party as representatives of the nation. At the same time, also, the punishment thai awaited them {liriiyaye koX tcls KoAaacis, Chrys.), which was only hinted at in the first parable (Matt. xxi. 21), is now expressly declared. Bee Matt. x\i. 41. On these parables generally, see Stier, I. c, Trench, Xotes on the Parabli S, p. L60 sq., 173 s<|., and com]). Greswell, /'arables, Vol. v. p. 1 sq. 8 There seems m> jusl reason for thinking, with Olshansen and others, that Matt. xxi. 46, W conclude the previous scene. The words only depict thi era! state of (feeling of the adverse party, viz., that they both perceived (he application of the parable, and were only restrained from open violence by U:>r of the multitude, and thus in fact prepare. the reader tor the further act of mcroy on the part of our Lord in addressing yet another parable to these malig- 274 THE LAST PASSOVER. Lect. VII. the Marriage of the King's Son, they depart for a season to organize some plan how they may en- Ck. XXU. 1 Sq, . TT 1 /"v • XT' 11 1 snare the Holy One in His speech; how they Matt. xxn. is. may force Him or beo-uile Him into admis- ilark xti. 13. J ~ sions which may afford a colorable pretext for giving Him up to the stern man 1 that then bore the sword in Jerusalem. They choose fit instruments for such an attempt, — their own disciples, associated with Herodians ; The question . . . . . a , . . , about the >htt u of men at variance in many points,- but united P co^ar. * '" m one i an( l ready enough now, as they had jfaw.aas.i6. been once before, to combine in any attempt Mark lit. C. J I to compass the destruction of one who was alike hateful to both. 'Twas a well-arranged combination : religious hypocrisy and political craft, hierarchical preju- dice and royalist sympathies ; each party scarcely tolerat- ing the other except for temporary and special purposes, and yet both of them, for the time and the occasion, working harmoniously together, 3 and concurring in the proposal of the most perplexing and dangerous question that could nant enemies. Comp. Chrysost. in Matt. Horn. lxix. hut., Lange, Leben Jesn, ii. 6. 6, Part II. p. 1217. 1 Such certainly seems to have been the general character of Pilate as procu- rator of Judaea. See Luke xiii. 1, and compare Joseph. Antiq. xvm. 3. 1 sq., Met/. Jud. ii. 9. 2 sq. There are some proofs that this sternness was not always pushed to an extreme (see Friedlieb, Archdol. § 34, p. 122, note), but it is still equally clear that his general conduct towards the refractory province of which he was procurator was by no means marked by leniency or forbearance. The consideration of his conduct as a public officer forms the subject of a separate treatise by J. C. S. Gerniar, Thorun. 1785. See Winer, RWB. Art. " Pilatus," Vol. ii. p. 262. 2 On the general characteristics of the political sect of the Herodians, see Lect. iv. p. 108, note 3. S The temporary bond of union between the two parties was now probably a common fear caused by the attitude which they conceived our Lord to have recently assumed. The triumphal entry into Jerusalem, and the authoritative acts in the temple, would have been easily represented by the Pharisees, though happening in Judsea, as boding danger to the authority of Herod when the Prophet should return back to his home in Galilee. To regard the Herodians as " soldiers of Herod " (Chrysost.), and sent only as witnesses (u ti Kara rov Kai- crapos a.TTOKpiH>e'n], Euthym.), does not seem either natural or accordant with the expressions of the sacred narrative, which seem rather to imply that Loth parties joined in the question. Sec Mark xii. 14. Li:ct. VII. THE LAST PASSOVER. 270 then have been devised — the tributary relations of a conquered to a conquering people. Let us pause for a moment to consider the exact nature of the attempt, and the true difficulties of the question proposed. ... A party of men, with every appearance, as the third Evangelist implies, of being right-minded and thoroughly in earnest, come, as it would seem, with a case of conscience, 1 "Was it meet and right to give tribute to Caesar, or no?" To such a question, even if proposed by honest men, hard would it have been to have returned a blameless answer at such a time and in such a place, — during the tumultuous passover season, and in the very presence of the symbols of these conflicting claims ; when round the speakers spread the temple courts and the thronging worshippers of the God of Israel ; when yonder stood the palace of the first Herod, and in front rose the frowning tower of Antonia. 2 Hard indeed would it have been, in such a case, to have answered honest men without causing offence; but plainly, as it would have seemed, im- possible, when those who put the question were avowed hyp- ocrites, of differing religious sympathies and of discordant political creeds. If the Lord answered as they might have hoped and expected,'' standing as now He did in the very 1 The question, it will be observed, was so worded :is to show that it affected to be considered as something more than one of mere political duty or expedi- ency. The inquiry was not whether it was advisable to give tribute to Caesar, but whether it was laiqftd to do so (i^tcniu Sovvai, Matt. nxu. 17, Mark \ii. 14, Luke xx. 22); whether it was consistent with an acknowledgment of <•"f Gamala (Acts v. 37) i ut this forward as one of the principles which it pretended to vindicate, /xdvov iryeix6va Ka\ ZiaTr6ri)v rbv Qebu that, Joseph. Antiq. .win. l. 6. Compare Lightfoot, Hot. II.hr. in Matt, \.\ii. 20, Sepp, Leben Ctoristi, vi. 17, Vol. iii. p. 256. -This fortress was rebuilt by the first Herod towards the beginning of his (Joseph. Antiq. .win. 4. 3), and was situated at the N. W. corner of the temple enclosure, with which it was connected by an underground gallery (Joseph. Antiq. xv. il. J 7). Its situation, and the full view it commanded of the outer courts, made it a com cuicnt place for the Roman garrison, by which, when Judaea came under the jurisdiction of a procurator, it was regularly occupied. Bee Winer, RWB. Art. " Tempel," Vol. ii. p. 686; compare Friedlieb, trchaol. ♦ 28. p. 98 sq. ■'i "They expected," says Chrysostom, "that they should catch Him whichever way lie might answer; they hoped, however, that He would answer against 276 THE LAST PASSOVER. Lect. VII. centre of Judaism, and laying claim to represent all that was most distinctive in its expectations — if He answered Nay, their most eager wish was realized ; they could at once, with a fair show of reason and justice, deliver Him up to the Roman government as an advocate of sedition, a Galihean of avowed Galilaean sympathies, one whose blood they knew Pilate would now as readily shed at the very altar, as he had shed that of His coun- Luke xiii. 1. trymen but a short time before. 1 Did He, however, contrary to expectation, answer Yea, then He stood forth to the multitude as the practical opponent of the theocratic aspirations they so dearly cherished, and to the Herodians as the Jewish subject of a Jewish prince, who scrupled not to sanction the payment of tribute to heathens and to strangers. Such was the most artful and complex stratagem ever laid against the Saviour; 2 and yet, with what divine sim- plicity was it frustrated ! A word lays bare the true char- tbe Herodians." — In Matt. Horn. lxx. Compare Euthym. in loc. This also, aa Cyril of Alexandria observes, seems clearly to transpire from the words of St. Luke (iW iiriKafiwvTai avrov Aoyov, oxrre vapaSovvai aiiToi' rfj apxfj ical 7y ££ouo-iq tov i]ye/j.6vos, ch. xx. 20), and probably suggested the insidious com- ment (ou /3AeVeis eis irpoacairov avSrpdnruiv, Matt. xxii. 16, Mark xii. 14; comp. Luke xx. 21) with which they accosted our Lord. ''This, too, they say, inciting Him not to entertain any reverence for Cajsar, and not from any fear to with- hold an answer to the inquiry." — Euthymius on Matt. xxii. 16. 1 The exact time and circumstances under which the act here alluded to took place is not known. The way in which it was told to our Lord (irapyo-av 84 rives iv avrw t&3 KatptS airayyeAAovres, Luke xiii. 1) would seem to imply that it had happened recently, and the mention of the country to which the victims belonged would also seem to render it likely that it was one of those movements in which the Galilasans were so often implicated. Compare Joseph. Vit. § 17, and Antiq. xvn. 9. 3. That they were actual adherents of the party which Judas of Gamala had formerly headed (Theophyl.) is possible, but not very probable. See Lightfoot, Hor. Hebr. in Luc. xiii. 1. 2 It is not without point that Cyril of Alexandria alludes to the way in which they who strove to involve the innocent Saviour with the Roman government themselves became involved with that nation in the most tragic way. After quoting Psalm xxxv. 7, and showing its application in the present case, he adds: " For so verily they did fall ; for because they delivered Jesus unto Pilate, they were themselves given over to destruction ; and the Itoraan host consumed them with Are and sword, and burnt up all their land, and even the glorious temple that was among them." — Commentary on Luke, Sermon exxxv. Part II. p. 633 (Trausl.). Lect. VII. THE LAST PASSOVER. 277 acter of the affected case of conscience and of those who proposed it; 1 a single command that the r , lomre an , t tribute-money be brought, and a single in- frustration of «/<« » ° ° etratagem. quiry whose image it bore, — and the whole , „ . , , .. . Mark xtt. 1.5. web of cunning and hypocrisy is rent in a xatt.xxu.sa. moment : " All that by God's appointment belongs unto Ca?sar must be rendered unto Caesar, and all that be God's unto God, and to Ilira alone." 2 On receiv- ing such an answer, no marvel is it that we lead that the very inquirers tendered to Him ibm.xxu.ss. the reluctant homage of their wonder, 3 that ukexx. 26. they were silent and went their way. 1 It is very distinctly specified by all the three Synoptical Evangelists that our Lord saw into the hearts and characters of those who came with the question. Camp. Matt, xxii.18, yvovs 5e 6 'Ivaovs rrjf irovripiav ; Mark xii.15, tlows avraiv t))i> virSicpiffiy ; Luke xx. 23, Karav operas Se avrwv rr]i> iravovpyiav. We are told by St. Luke that they were iyKa&trovs vnoKptvo/xiuovs iavrovs SiKaiovs elvai (ch. xx. 20); this our Lord confirms and exposes by His address as recorded bj St. Matthew [(lie reading in St. Mark and St. Luke is doubtful], Tt ^te Treipo- £ere vir o k p it al, ch. xxii. 18. 2 The exact force of this declaration has been somewhat differently estimated, in consequence of the different meanings that have been assigned to la. tou @tov. Most of them, however, e. t/., "the temple tribute" (Miliuun, Hist. 0/ Christianity, Vol. i. p. 313), " the inner life" (Lange, Leben Jesu, Tart 11. 1220; comp. Tertull. contr. Marc. iv. 38), etc., seem wholly inconsistent with the gen- eral form of the expression, and give a mere special and partial aspect to what was designedly inclusive and comprehensive. If, with Chrysostoin (in Matt. Horn. lxx. Vol. vii. p. 776), we explain the expression as simply and generally, to. red &(w nap' i}fxwv bcpstAu/xeva, the meaning of the whole appears perfectly clear: "(jive to C';esar what rightly belongs to him [ov yap sVti tqvto Soi/vat, &AA.' airoSovvai, Chrys.), as to one ordained of God (Bom. xiii. 1), and to God ail that be His — all that is due to Him as your King and your God." Thus, then, far from separating what is political from what is religious, or accepting the ques- tion in the alternative form (SoCvai 7) otf, i. e., in point of fact, " < tesar or God "?) in which it was proposed, our Lord graciously returns an answer which shows that it was not a question for either yea or nay; that obedience to Ca:sar and duty tn God were DOt things to be put in competition with each other, but to be Dnited, — the latter suppl] ing, where necessary, the true regulating and limiting principle of the former (see Chrys in loc), and the former, thus regulated and defined, becoming a very part of the latter, — duty to Him by whom Caisar was < a -ar, and from whom are "the powers that be." Tor sound practical applica- tions of this text see Andrewes, Serin, vi. Vol. v. p. 127 (A.-C. Libr.), and a ser- mon liv Hill, 1'nir. Sinn. I. p. 1 sq. 8 This, not improbably, would have been increased by the recognition of the determination of their own schools (" Ubicunqne namisms regis alionjns obtinet, illic IncolsB regem latum pro domino agnoscuut." — Maimon. in " Gczclah," cap. 24 278 THE LAST PASSOVER. Lect. VII. But if a question as to civil duties and relations has been thus answered and thus foiled, might of tFe" 1 saMt!cee 3 not a question as to religious differences prove touching the jtes- more successful ? Was there not some hope urrection. ± in stirring a controversy that had long sepa- rated two important sects? Might not the Sadducee succeed where the Pharisee and Herodian had failed? The trial we know was made. On that same day, as St. Matthew particularly specifies, a party of the Sadducees, 1 probably acting under the instructions of the same supreme court, approach our Lord with a hypothetical case of religious difficulty, the woman that had seven husbands in this world — to whom was she to belong in that Avorld to come in which those worldly and self-sufficient speakers so utterly disbe- lieved? 2 The question was coarsely devised and coarsely propounded ; but the attempt to drive our Lord into some admissions that might compromise Him either with the Pharisees or with the multitude was rendered thereby all the more hopeful. To such a question our Lord vouchsafes to return no answer; but to the evil heart of unbelief 5), which the Lord was in part here actually propounding to them. See Light- foot, Hor. Hebr. in Matt. xxii. 20. 1 These Sadducees might have been, and perhaps actually were, a portion of the Sanhedrin, the religious opinions of the sect being no bar to their election as members of the supreme court. See Acts xxiii. C, and comp. Friedlieb, Arch'dol. § 8, p. 19. There seems no reason for supposing, with Lightfoot [in Matt. xxii. 23), that there was any connection in point of religious creed between the pres- ent party and the Herodians who had just gone away. Some of the Herodians might possibly have been Sadducees; but to draw definitely such a conclusion from Matt. xvi. 6, compared with Mark viii. 15, seems certainly precarious, espe- cially when we remember that Herod can hardly be conceived himself to have had much in common with the peculiar tenets of the Sadducees. See Matt. xiv. 2. 2 See Lightfoot, Hoi: Hebr. in Matt. xii. 32. The statement of the Sadducee was, " Deficit nubes, atque abit; sic descendens in sepulc'nrum non redit."' — Tanchum, fol. 3. 1, cited by Lightfoot on Matt. xxii. 23. They appeared to have believed that the soul perished with the body (laSSuKalots ras >pvxas d \6yos avvutyavi^i to7s o-di/aaai, Joseph. Antiq. xviii. 1. 4), and thus, as a matter of course, denied the doctrine of the resurrection, and of future rewards and pun- ishments. Compare Joseph. Bell. Jud. II. 8. 14. On the origin and peculiarities of this sect, see Lightfoot, in Matt. iii. 7, Jost, Gesch. dex Judenth n. 2. 8, Vol. i. p 215, and a good article by Winer, R WB. Vol. ii. p. 352. Lect. VII. THE LAST PASSOVER. 279 from which it came He speaks out clearly and plainly. With all their affected wisdom and philosophic calm He tells them they do err, and that they know not either the Scriptures, which clearly teach j^^if" the doctrine of the future state that they so confidently denied, or the power of God, which shall make man the equal of angels and the inheritor of incorruption. 1 So clear was the vindication of God's truth, so weighty the censure, so final the answer, that we can scarcely wonder that the impressible multitudes were 1 Matt.xxii.88. stricken with amazement, and that some even of the number of our Lord's opponents could not forbear declaring that He had " well spoken," that ° /. iirf.-exr.89. the discomfiture of the impugners of the future state was complete and overwhelming. 2 One at least of that number was so struck by the divine 1 Our Lord does not notice the mefe question of the Sadducees, but the erro- neous belief thai BUggested it (ob irpb-i ret prifxara a\\a Ttpus T^V yvcbfxrjv lirrd- ixtvos, Chrysost.); t his Be Bhowswas due to their ignorance of two things: (1) tlic Scriptures, (2) the power of Clod. Their ignorance of the latter is shown first (Matt. xxii. 30, .Mark xii. 20, Luke xx. G5, 30) by a declaration of the char- acteristics of the life after death, and the change of the natural body into a spiritual body (1 Cor. xv. 44; comp. Phil. hi. 21); the ignorance of the former by a declaration of the doctrine really contained in the Scriptures, and more especially in one of the books (Exod. iii. 6) of that very portion (the Pentateuch) thai contained the passage on which they had based their question: ineiBiiirep (K(7foi rbf Maiucrea Trpoe0d\ouTO Aotirbi/ Kal avrbs curb rfjs MaxratKris ypaT(#)- } according to St. Mark (ch. xii. 28 sq.), he puts the question after observing how well our Lord had answered. The slight apparent difference between these accounts admits of this natural explanation, that the man was put forward by his party for the purpose of ensnaring our Lord, and that he acquiesced, but that he was also really inspired by a sincere desire to hear the opinion of one whose wisdom he respected. St. Matthew exhibits him in the former light, and in reference to his party ; St. Mark in the latter, and as an individual. Compare Lange, Leben Jesu, n. 6. 6, Part n. p. 1232. The reconciliation adopted by Euthymius (see Chrysostom), that the designs of the man at first were bad, but were changed by our Lord's answer, seems scarcely so natural. 2 Somewhat similar questions are noticed by Schoettgen, in Matt. xxii. 36, and by Wetstein in his notes on ch. v. 19 and xxiii. 23. According to Lightfoot (in Marc. xii. 28), the inquiry turned upon the importance of the ceremonial as compared with the moral law; this, however, seems less probable. 3 It is not easy to specify in what particular way the question was calculated to ensnare our Lord; though, from the nature of the controversies and casuistry of the day. it is not difficult to imagine that there were known differences of opinion on the subject, in which it might have been thought our Lord could not escape becoming involved. It is worthy of notice that, on an earlier occasion, when our Lord puts an inquiry to a lawyer who had a similar but stronger design against Him (avtcm) i kit e i p d(o>v ahr6v, Luke x. 25), "What is written in the law? " (comp. Matt. xxii. 36, iroia ivroK^j fx(ya\rj eV tw v6ixa>), the answer was promptly given, in terms but little different to the present, and was approved of by our Lord (Luke x. 28). The present question, then, might have been intended to lead Him to give the prominence to some single com- mand; the answer given, however, was one which our Lord had commended as an answer to a more general question, aud which involved the substance of no Lkct. VII. THE LAST PASSOVER. 281 the inquirer's concluding comment, his better feelings still more clearly prevail ; a sort of consciousness of the idle nature of all that casuistry and formality of which his own question was the exponent breaks out in words, and obtains for him, from the Redeemer's lips, the gracious declaration, 1 that "he was not far from the kingdom of God. And was this the last attempt to ensnare our Lord which was made on this eventful day? So _, , * Trie question rel- indeed it would seem from the tenor of the aaeetothemnum , /> i • • t • taken in adultery. present portion of the inspired narrative. But are we not in some degree justified in again 2 ad- vancing the conjecture that the incident of the woman taken in adultery belongs to the history of the present day? Such a view, it may be remembered, has the support of some slight amount of external evidence, in addition to the very strong internal arguments on which it principally rests. 3 What, save the deeply-laid stratagem of the tribute-money, could have seemed more hopeful than the proposal of a case for decision which must appar- ently have involved our Lord either with the Roman single command, but of all. The opinion of Chrysostom and others, that it was to tempt our Lord to say something about his own Godhead, La apparently not \ ery probable. 1 We cannot say, with Milman, that the lawyer " did not hesitate openly to espouse our Lord's doctrines," and that the Pharisees " were paralyzed by this desertion " [Hist, qf Christianity , Vol. i. p. ;;i"i), as there is nothing in the Bacred text to substantiate such an Lnferenoe. The declaration that "he was not far from the kingdom of God " gives hope that be was afterwards admitted into it ; but, as Chrysostom correctly observes, Heliannruf en iTzex ovra - ''*' a C r \' r 'h' x V T ^ Xtiirov. — In Matt. Horn, i.xxi. - See above, Lect. vi. p. 232. 3 The external evidence is specified above, p. 232, note 2. The internal argu- ments me. on the negative Bide, (a) the striking dissimilarity of the lanj u from that of St. John, especially in the particles, (b) the forced nature of the connection with the close of John vii. (see Luthardt, Joftann. Evang. Pari n. p. 39), and (c) the total want of union with what follows; and on the positive side, (, 37), and as a sort of answer (ver. 35) to the silence of the opponents. All these accounts admit of the obvious explanation, that the question of our Lord was proposed openly, and to those « ho had la>t questioned ILm. viz., Pharisees in regard to their Beet, but Several Of whom were scribes and lawyers by profes- sion. Compare Luke xx. 89 with Mark xii. 28. 284 THE LAST PASSOVER. Lect. VII. scribes Christ is the Son of David, David, while speaking under the influence of the Spirit, nevertheless calls Him Lord. How can He be both His Lord and Psalm ex. 1. . in n His Son r 1 To that profound question, so clearly pointing to the mystery of the divine and human natures of Him who stood before them, 2 no answer is even attempted. By silence they acknowledge Matt. xxii. 46. . * J . / ° their defeat ; and in silence they now receive that warning though merciful chastisement of their meek victor recorded to us by the first Evangelist, which forms the subject of the whole of the 23d chapter of his Gospel. There our Lord, with a just severity, lays bare the prac- tices of scribe and Pharisee, concluding with ver. is s 7 . an apostrophe to Jerusalem, which it would Ver. 3/ sq. 1 l seem had been uttered on an earlier occa- sion, 3 but was now appropriately repeated, as declaring, in 1 It lias been popularly urged by modern expositors tbat the psalm was not written by David but to David (Ewald, Meyer, al.), and that our Lord conformed His language to the generally received views of the time (De Wette). This latter assumption, though a very favorite one in our popular theology, is always very precarious, if no worse. In the present case it is even out of place, as there are strong reasons for believing, from a fair critical consideration of the psalm in question, that it was written by David, as is here expressly declared. Compare Hengstenberg, Comment, on Psalms, Vol. iii. p. 310 sq. (Clark), Phillips, ib., Vol. ii. p. 416, and on the Messianic character of the psalm and its reference to 2 Sam. vii. 1 sq., 1 Chron. xvii. 1 sq., see Ebrard, Kritik der Evang. Gesch. § 100, p. 490. 2 As Euthymius briefly but clearly expresses it, — " He is said to be his Son, as having sprung from his root, according to His human generation; but his Lord, as being his Cod." — In Matt. xxii. 45, Vol. i. p. 869. 3 An address scarcely differing from the present except in the particle that connects the last verse with what precedes {yap, Matt, xxiii. 39; Se, Luke xiii. 35) is specified by St. Luke as having been uttered by our Lord after receiving the message about Herod's designs as communicated by the Pharisees. See above, Lect. VI. p. 242. There does not seem any reason either for agreeing with Meyer {on Luke xiii. 34), who asserts that the original and proper position of the words is that assigned by St. Matthew, or with Wieseler {Chron. SynojJS. p. 322; compare Credner, Einleit. p. 67, 136), who regards the words in their present position as interpolated from St. Luke. As we have elsewhere, and as it would seem justly, urged the probability of a repetition of the same words on different occasions, when called forth by something similar, so in the present instance does it seem reasonable to suppose that the similarity of the subject which in both cases precedes the words (the slaughter of the righteous in Jeru- salem), called forth in both the pathetic address to the bloodthirsty and now for'.orn city. Compare Lect. iv. p. 170, note 2, p. 181, note 1. Lect. VII. THE LAST PASSOVER. £85 language of the deepest pathos, that desolation was nigh at hand, that the hour of mercy had at length passed away, and that justice, temporal and eternal, must now be the portion of the city that had poured out the blood of Jehovah's prophets, and was thirsting for the blood of His Son. 1 The scene changes with a marvellous truthfulness and appropriateness. After our Lord had uttered His last words of solemn denunciation against oepoor widow. the scribes and Pharisees, — the consumers rZex"'.*?.' of widows' houses, the rapacious, the hypocrit- ical, and the bloodthirsty, — He turns His steps toward the place where free gifts and contributions for the various ministrations of the temple were offered by the worship- pers, and sits there marking the varied and variously minded multitude that was now clustering round the numerous chests. 2 There He beholds one of those hapless ones of whom He had but so lately spoken as the victim of the extortionate scribe, in her penury cast- ing in her two mites, her all. And she departed not unblest. That act caused the Redeemer of 1 Tlie concluding words ov fxij fj.e JoeTe k. t. \. (Matt, xxiii. 39) had reference, on the former occasion that they were uttered, primarily to the triumphal entry, and secondarily to the second advent (see above, p. 241, note 2); In* the present the reference is exclusively to the latter. "Then," as Eutbymius well remarks, " will they say this — willingly, never, but unwillingly, at the time of His sec- ond advent, when He shall come with power and great glory, and when their i unit ion shall be of no avail. - ' — In Mult, xxiii. 39. 2 These, we learn from Lightfoot {Decas Chorogr. in Marc. cap. 3, § 4), were thirteen In number, called by the Talmudical writers Pn"B"W (from the trumpet- like shape of the openings into which the money was dropped, — " augustae supra lata; infra propter deceptores " — Gemara on Misltna, " Shekalim," II. 1), and stood in the court of the women. See Keland, Antiq. 1. 8. 14, and comp. Winer, RWB. Art. "Terapel," Vol. ii. p. 583. B As Lightfoot pertinently says, "Haeo paupercula duobus minutis ajtcmam sibi famam coemit."— In Marc. xii. 42. The grounds of the divine commenda- tion are distinctly specified, — she gave all. She might have given one of the two Af?rra[the Rabbinical citation iii Sohoettgen, in /<><■. and Sep]). Leben Chr. Vol. iii. p. 811, does not Mem to refer to contributions like the present], but .-be gi\ es both. "The woman offered two (farthings; but .-be possessed nothing more than what she offered ; she had nothing left; with empty hand, but a hand bountiful of the little Bhe possess) d, she went away from the treasury." — Cyril Alex. Com- ment, on at. Luke, Sermon oxxxvin. Part n. p. 04". John to. 20. Ver. 21. 286 THE LAST PASSOVER. Lect. YII. the world to call up to Him His disciples, and to declare to them that the poor desolate one had cast Zidex.ri.2. in more than all; yea, and one at least of Mark xii. 43. -. . -. . . •. , , ver.a. the hearers did so bear witness that, by the 23,notei.'' ; " eeP ' record of two Evangelists, the widow's gift, like the piety of Mary of Bethany, shall be known and remembered wheresoever the Gospel shall be preached unto men. "While, as it would seem, our Lord was still teaching within, 1 a strange message is brought from n,c r^uest of the fo Q court without. Some Greek proselytes Greek proselytes. of the gate, who had come up to Jerusalem to worship the God of the Jew and the Gentile at the feast of the Passover, prefer, by the mouths of the apostles Andrew and Philip, a request to see Him of whom every tongue in Jerusa- lem now was speaking, and towards whom perchance deep- seated presentiment had mysteriously attracted these God- fearing Gentiles. 2 Deeply moved by a request which He 1 The suggestion of Greswell {Dissert. XL. Vol. iii. p. 123, note), that our Lord sat and taught in the court of the women, in order "that the female Israelites might have access to Him, as well as the male," is not without probability. It must be remembered, however, that the court of the women (yvvautwinTis, Joseph. Bell. Jud. VI. 9. 2) was so called, not because it was especially designed for their use, but because it was the furthest court into which they were per- mitted to enter. See Lightfoot, Decas Chorogr. in Marc. cap. 3, § 5. The incident that follows is also assigned by Greswell to the day of our Lord's triumphal entry; the words kcl\ aweASwv tKpvfSt) an avrwv (ch. xii. 36) seem, however, much more in favor of its present position. Compare Wieseler, Chron. Synops. p. 396. 2 The "EAAijpes here mentioned by St. John are rightly considered by the majority of modern expositors not to have been, on the one hand, purely hea- thens (Chrys., Euthym.), nor again, on the other, Hellenists (Ewald, Gesch. Chr. p. 392), but, in accordance with the usual meaning of the word in the K. T., Greeks, whom, however, the clause avafiouvovTuv k. t. A. (observe the pres. part.) seems further to specify as habitual worshippers, and so, probably, as is stated in the text, "proselytes of the gate," many of whom attended the great feasts. See Acts viii. 27, Joseph. Bell. Jiul. VI. 9. 3, and compare Lightfoot, Hor. Ilebr. in Joann. xii. 20. The reason why they peculiarly addressed themselves to the Apostle Thilip can only be a matter of conjecture. It has been supposed that they may have come from Galilee (De Wette, Meyer), and from the neigh- borhood of Bethsaida, to which place it is here again (see John i. 45) specially noticed that the apostle originally belonged. It is, however, perhaps, equally Lect. Vn. THE LAST PASSOVER. 287 felt to be yet another token of His own approaching glori- fication, and of the declaration of His name to the wide heathen world of which these were the earliest fruits, our Lord, as it would seem, accedes to the wish. 1 In their hearing and in that of the people around He reveals, by means of a similitude appropriately taken 111 . Per. 24. from the teaching of nature, that truth which it was so hard for the Greek mind with its deifying love of the living and the beautiful to conceive or to realize — that unto man the pathway to true life lay through the dreaded gates of death and decay. And if to man, so also, by the mystery of redeeming love, in a certain measure, to the Son of Man Himself, — a thought which so moved the depths of the Saviour's soul, 2 and called forth from His probable that they were complete strangers, but attracted to Philip by his Gre- cized name. The conduct of the apostle on the present occasion, and his appli- cation to Andrew ("cum Bodali audet," — Beng.), has been rightly judged to indicate a cautious, wise, and circumspect nature. Compare Luthardt, Julian. Evang. Tart i. p. 102. 1 This has been considered doubtful. It is, however, reasonable to suppose that such a request, thus sanctioned by two apostles, would not be refused by our Lord, especially as the character of the applicants {aualiaii'SvTciiv 'iva ir^oa- Kvvi\aovaiv iv rf/ &>pvp, vcr. 20) seems to show that it did not result from mere curiosity. The first portion of our Lord's reply (ver. 23) may have been ad- dressed only to the two apostles on the way to the outer court, the rest uttered in the hearing of the Greeks and the multitude (ver. 2'.»). On the whole incident, so- Lange, A* bi n ■<< sw, n. 6. 5, Part n. p. 1200 sq. -' It is worthy of notice that, as in the more awful scene in Gethsemane (Matt. xxvi. 3S, Mark xiv. 84), the Evangelist has been specially mined to record that the soul Of the Saviour — that human ^>"XV of which the earlier Apollinarians Been) at first even to have denied the existence (Pearson. Creed, Vol. ii. p. 205, ed. Burton) — was moved and troubled (ver. 27). On the scriptural meaning of the term, and its prevailing reference to the f< elings and aff< /■Hon*, rather than to the thoughts or imaginations, .-ee Olshausen, Opuscula, p. 168 sq., and comp. notes an l Tim. hi. 16, ami Destiny of the i '/•< ature, Senn. v. p. 99. It is perhaps scarce]) necessary to add that the present troubled state of the Saviour's soul is not for a moment to he referred to the mere apprehension of physical death (compare Liieke in loc.), still less of the wrath of the devil (Lightfoot, in Joann. x ii 28), but to the profound consciousness of the close connection of death with sin. In dying for us, the sinless Saviour vouchsafed to bow to a dispensation which was the wages of sin (Bom. \i. 23); and it was the contemplation of such B eoiil act on the part of the all- Pure and all-Holy with everything that was UlOSi alien to the divine nature. — sin, darkness, and death,— 'that called forth the Saviour's presenl words (ver. 27), that heightened the agonies of Gethsemane, and found ii- deepest utterance hi that cry of unimaginable suffering (Matt. .\.\\ii. Ii'., .Mark x\ . 81) which was heard from Golgotha, when all that was con- 288 THE LAST PASSOVER. Lect. VII. divine lips such words of self-devotion and prayer, that now again, in the court of the Gentiles, as iiait'.ih.iT. once by the banks of the Jordan and on the Lukcix.?,r>. Mount of the Transfiguration, the answer John xii. 30. ° ' of Paternal love was vouchsafed, for the sake of those who stood around, in audible accents of accept- ance and promise. 1 And now the day was far spent, and our Lord prepares to leave His Father's house, and for a short from our Lord for seeking out the chief priests, and for bringing the designs of his now satanically possessed heart to their awful and impious completion. On the next day, and, as we may perhaps with some reason be led to think, so near its close 2 as to be really on destruction of Jerusalem; what follows, mainly but not exclusively (see below) to our Lord's second advent and the final judgment; (b) that the difficult word €u&e'o)S (6/u.od yap cxeSif airavra yiverat, Chrys.) is to be explained by the apparent fact that towards the close of the former part of the prophecy the description of the events connected with the fall of Jerusalem becomes identical with, and gradually (ver. 27, 28) passes into, that of the end of the world; (c) that the appended parable (ver. 32 sq.) refers to both events, the ir&vTa ravra (ver. 34) belonging exclusively to the events preceding the fall of Jerusalem, and standing in clear contrast to the fi/xipa e k e i vt\ (ver. 36) which obviously refers exclusively to the end of the world. For more special explanations the student may be referred to the excellent comments of Chrysostom, in Matt. Horn. lxxv.— lxxvii., Stier, Disc, of Our Lord, Vol. iii. p. 244 sq. (Clark), Lange, Leben Jesu, n. 6. 7, Part ir. p. 1253, and, with reservations, to the special trea- tises of Dorner (de Orat. CJir. Eschatolog. Stuttg. 1844), E. J. Meyer (Komment. zu Matt. xxiv. xxv., Frankf. 1857). and the commentary of Meyer (H. W.), p. 433 sq. (ed. 4). 1 Oh the prophetic declaration of the. appearance of the Lord on Olivet. (Zech. xiv. 4), and its supposed reference to the circumstances of His second advent, and to the locality of His seat of judgment, see Jackson, On the Creed, Vol. x. p. 196. 2 See Greswell, Dissert, xli. Vol. iii. p. 170 sq., where it is shown, on the authority of Maimonides and Apollinarius of Laodicea that the proper begin- Lect. VII. THE LAST PASSOVER. 291 the commencement (according to Jewish reckoning) of the fourteenth of Nisan, the day on which the paschal lamb was to be killed and preparation ^th* iZi Supper made for the celebration of the Passover, we < - n, " s ' la ^- are told by the three Synoptical Evangelists JJaS? that our Lord answers the inquiry of His disciples, where He would have preparation made for eating the Passover, by sending Peter and John to Luke xxii 8. the house of a believing follower 1 with a special message, and with orders there to make ready. Thither, it would seem, our Lord shortly afterwards fol- lowed them with the rest of the disciples, and partook of a supper, which the distinct expressions of the first three Evangelists 8 leave us no ground for doubting was a ^a*- chal supper, but which the equally distinct expressions of the fourth Evangelist,"' combined with the peculiar nature ning of any feast-day was reckoned from tlie night [eve] which preceded it. irtei n'li of Nisan, though not, strictly considered, a portion of the festival (comp. Joseph. Antiq. in. 10. 5), was popularly regarded as such, and, from the putting away of haven, which took place immediately it commenced, and the c -hi ion from servile labor (romp. Mishna, ■■ Pesacfa," iv. 5), was usually spoken of as the -'first day of unleavened bread" (Matt. xxvi. 17, Mark xiv. 12. See Joseph. Antiq. rr. 16.1, who speaks of the festival as lasting eight days, and compare Lightfoot, in Mure xiv. 12, Friedlieb, Archdol. § IT, p. 42). i This supposition seems justified by the peculiar use of the words specified by all the three Synoptical Evangelists, i 8 i5 da ko,\o s \4yei (.Halt. xxvi. IS, Mark xiv. 14, Luke xxii. 11), and still more by the peculiar and confidential terms of the message. Compare Kahnis, Lehre rum Abendm. p..5. When we further remember that the bearers of the message were our Lord"s most chosen apostles, we Bhall feel less difficulty in admitting the apparently inevitable con- elusion (see below) thai the supper was prepared within what we have seen were popularly considered the limits of the festival, hut actually one day before the usual time. 1 These are especially (payuv rh -n-dax a (Matt. xxvi. 17, Mark xiv. 12. Luke xxii. 7) and fToi.uacW tc» ndcrx a (Matt. xxvi. l'i, Mark xiv. 10, Luke xxii. 13), both "f which all sound principles of interpretation wholly preclude our refer- ring, either here or John xviii. 28 (opp. to Wieseler, Chron. Synops. p. 881 sq.), to the paschal supper. ( !omp. Gesenins, Theaaur. Vol. ii. p. 1115. ' ; rhese are (o) »Va (Tiv rb irdaxa (ch. xviii. 28), alluded to in the above DOte, and referred to the day following thai which we are now considering; (6) the special note of time (ch. \iii. I) in reference to a Bupper which it seems nearly impossible (opp. to Lightfoot, in Matt. xxvi. 6) to regard as different from tlmt referred to by the Synoptical Evangelists; (c)the definition of time, irapaffKfui] tov wacrxa (ch. xi\. it), which it seems equally impossible (opp. to fynops. p. 886), in the language of the N. T., to understand 292 THE LAST PASSOVER. Lect. VII. of our Lord's message to the householder, give us every reason for believing was celebrated twenty- Matt.xxvi.1S. " - ' !• T i • i • r , ... oa four hours earlier than the time when it was John xvui. 28. celebrated by the chief priests and Pharisees, and apparently the whole body of the nation. 1 While otherwise than as " the preparation," or day preceding the Passover. See Meyer in loc. p. 478 (ed. 3), and Kitto, Journal of Sacr. Lit. for 1850, xi. p. 75 sq.; (d) the statement that the Sabbath in the Passover week was " a high day " (ch. xix. 31), which admits of no easy or natural explanation except that of a coincidence of the important Nisan 15 with the weekly Sabbath. The statements are so clear, that to attempt, with Wieseler (Chron. Synops.), Robinson (Biblioth. Sacr. for Aug. 1845), and others, to explain them away, must be regarded as arbi- trary and hopeless. 1 From what is here said, and the above notes, it will be seen that we adopt the view of the Greek Fathers, and indeed of the primitive Church generally (see the quotations in Greswell, Dissert, xli. Vol. iii. p. 168 sq., and add Clem. Alex. o?i St. Luke, Sermon cxli. Part n. p. 660, Trans!.), that, even as Tal- mudical tradition (Babyl. "Sanhedr." vi. 2) also asserts, our Lord suffered on Alsan 14, and that He ate the paschal supper on the eve with which that day commenced. In favor of this opinion we may briefly urge, on the positive side, (a) the statements of St. John above alluded to; (b) the peculiar nature of the message sent to the olKoSto-irdTrjs, which seems to refer to something special and unusual. See above, p. 291, note 1; (c) the words rovro lb ir6.ax a (Luke xxii. 15), and the desire expressed by our Lord (ib.), both of which well coincide ■with the assumption of a peculiar celebration ; (d) several apparent hints in the Synoptical Gospels that the day on which our Lord suffered was not marked by the Sabbatical rest which belonged to Nisan 15. Comp. xxvii. 59 sq., Mark xv. 21 (?), 42, 46, Luke xxiii. 26 (?), 54, 46; (e) the anti-typical relation of our Lord to the paschal lamb (1 Cor. v. 7), in accordance with which the death of our Redeemer on the very day and hour when the paschal Iamb was sacrificed must be reverently regarded as a coincidence of high probability. See Euthym. in Matt. xxvi. 20. On the negative side, we may observe (/) that the main objec- tion, founded on the necessity of the lamb being killed in the temple (Lightfoot, in Matt. xxvi. 19, Friedlieb, Archaol. § 18, p. 47), is somewhat shaken by the lan- guage of Philo, adduced by Greswell I. c, p. 14i> and still more so by the proba- bility that the time specified for killing the lamb, viz., "between the two even- ings" (Exod. xii. 6, Lev. xxiii. 3, Numb. ix. 3), might have been understood lo mean between the eves of Nisan 14 and Kisan 15 (see Lee, Sevm. on Sabb. p. 22), and that more especially at a time when the worshippers had become so numer- ous that above two hundred and fifty-six thousand lambs (see above, p. 203, note 1) would have had to be sacrificed in about two hours, if the ordinary interpretation of the C*2~age 250. itself, called forth, perhaps, in the present case, by a desire to occupy the places nearest One towards whom every hour was now deepening their love and devotion. But such demonstrations were unmeet for the disciples of Jesus Christ ; such contentions, though not without some excuse, must still be lovingly repressed. And in no way could this be more tenderly done than by the performance of every part of an office — .,,.,„ ... , . John xiii. 4, 5. that ot washing the feet of those about to sit down to meat — which usually fell to the lot of a servant, 1 but was now solemnly completed in the case of each one of them, yea, the traitor not excepted, by Him whom they called, and rightly called, their Master and their Lord. And now the supper had com- menced, 2 and round the Saviour were gathered, for the last 14, anil ate the Passover on the first hours of that day the eve before, — calcula- tion clearly showing that in that year the new moon of Nisan was on Wednes- day, .March 22, at 8h. 8m. in tlie evening, and that, consequently, if we allow the usual two days for the phase (see Greswell, Dissert. Vol. i. p. 320), Nisan 1 com- menced (according to Jewish reckoning) on Friday evening March 24, but really coincided as to daylight with Saturday, March 25, or Kisan 14 with Friday April 7. Compare Wieseler, Chron. Synops. p. 446, whose own tables (indepen- dently proved to be accurate) may thus be used against him. See also above, p. 182, note 1. More might be urged, but the above considerations may perhaps lead us to pause before we reject a mode of reconciliation so ancient, so free from all forcings of language, and apparently so reasonable and trustworthy. For notices of the many different treatises on this difficult subject, see Winer, BTTJB. Art. •■ Pascha," Vol. ii. p. 202, and Meyer, Kommcnt. ub. Joh. xviii. 28, p. 468 sq. (ed. 3). 1 See Friedlicb, Archiiol. § 20, p. G4, and Meyer in loc. p. 375 (ed. 3). It may be observed that there is some little difficulty in arranging the circumstances of the Last Supper in their exact order, as the narrative of St. Luke is not in strict harmony with that of St. Matthew and St. Mark. Of the various possible ar- rangements, the connection adopted in the text, which is closely in accordance with that of the best recent harmonists, seems, on the whole, the most satisfac- tory. See Wieseler, ('limn. Synops. p. :::is so,., Itobiuson, Harmony, p. 153 (Tract. and comp, Greswell, Dissert, xui. Vol. hi. p. 179 sq. I There seems some reason for accepting, with Teschendorf, the reading of lil.X. Cant., Orig. (4), St'iTrvov yivofxevov (John xiii. 2), according to which the time Would seem to lie unhealed when our I. old and His apostles were just in the act of sitting down. Comp. .Meyer, in Ii"-. Even, however, if we retain the ' 2.V* 294 THE LAST PASSOVER. Lect. VII. time, those whom He loved so well, and loved even unto the end. And yet the hand of the betrayer vZ-.zi. was on -the table, — a thought, we are told, that so moved the very inward spirit of the Lord that He solemnly announced it, and brought it home by a general indication 1 to that small and saddened com- pany that sat around Him, and that now 3Iatl.xxri.22. asked Him, each one of them in the deep trouble of his heart, whether it were possible that it could be he. After a more special and pri- ver'.w."" vate indication had been vouchsafed, and xll-hl™^.' tne self-convicted son of perdition had gone forth into the night, followed in due and sol- emn order the institution of the Eucharist, 2 and with it those mysterious words that seem to imply that that most received text, yevofxivov, the meaning cannot be " supper being ended " ( Auth. Ver. ; compare Friedlieb, Archdol. p. 64); for compare ver. 4, 12, 26, but, " when supper had begun, had now taken place." Comp. Lucke, Commentar uber Joh. Vol. ii. p. 548 (ed. 3). 1 It seems incorrect and uncritical to confuse the general indication specified in the Synoptical Gospels, 6 eLifidtyas /iter' e/xoO Ty\v x^P a (Matt. xxvi. 23) or 6 f/j./Za.TrTjf.i.ei'os k. t. A. (Mark xiv. 20), with the more particular oue John xiii. 26. The first merely indicates what is in fact stated by St. John in ver. 18, that the betrayer was one of those who were now eating with our Lord; the second is a special indication more particularly vouchsafed to St. John, though perhaps in some degree felt to be significant by the rest of the Apostles. See Stier, Disc, of Our Lord, Vol. vii. p. 49 (Clark). The change of tense in St. Mark 6 i^airroixtvos (" the dipper with me," etc.) has been alluded to by Meyer (in loc.) as indicating that Judas sat in close proximity to our Lord. This does not seem improbable (comp. John xiii. 26), and may be thought to favor the idea that St. John was on one side of our Lord, and the traitor on the other. If, however, we accept the reading of Lachmann and Tischendorf in ver. 24, veuei oiiv ~S,ill(hv rieVpos k a\ Ae'yei a u t <$ Elir e t i s e ff r 1 v, the usually re- ceived opinion that St. Peter was on the other side of our Lord will then seem most natural. 2 This would seem not to have taken place till the traitor went out. The strongly affirmative cry efaas of St. Matthew (ch. xxvi. 25; compare Schoettg. in loc.) appears to agree so well with the second and distinct indication of the traitor in John xiii. 26, after which we know that he went out, that we can hardly imagine that Judas was present at what followed. Again, John /. c. seems to imply that the supper was going on, whereas it is certain that the cup was blessed fJ-era to Senrvrjaat, Luke xxii. 20, 1 Cor. xi. 25. If this view be correct, we must suppose that the departure of the traitor took place after Matt. xxvi. 25, and that ver. 26 ta^iovraiv 8e auTusu refers to a resumption of the supper after the interruption caused by his leaving the apartment. Lect. Yir. THE LAST PASSOVER. 295 holy sacrament was to have relation not only to the past, hut to the future; that it was not only to he commemo- rative of the sad hut blessed hour that then was passing, hut prophetic of that hour of holy joy when all shouhl again he gathered together, and the Lord should drink with his chosen ones the new paschal wine in the king- dom of God. 1 After a few melancholy words on the dis- persion and failing faith of all of those who were then around, yea, and even more particularly of him who said in the warmth of his own glowing heart that he would lay down his life for his Master, and follow Him to prison and to death, our Lord appears J T oh ," riii : s !: r ' 11 Luke x.m.33. to have uttered the longer and reassuring address which forms the fourteenth chapter of the Gospel of St. John, and which ceased only to he resumed again, perchance, while all were standing in attitude to depart, 2 in the sublime chapters l The meaning of this mysterious declaration can only be humbly surmised. It would appear, however, from the peculiar distinctness of the expressions (tovtou tov yevvi)/j.aros t?/s a/j.Tr4\ov, Matt. xxvi. 29), that there is a reference to some future participation in elements which a glorified creation may sup- ply (comp. Rev. xxii. 2). perchance at that mystic marriage supper of the Lamb | Rev, xix. 9), when the Lord and those that love Him shall be visibly united in the kingdom of God, nevermore to part. The reference to our Lord's compan- ionship with His disciples after the resurrection (Theopbyl., Euthym.) can never be accepted ns aii adequate explanation of this most mysterious yet most exalt- ing promise. See especially Stier, Disc, qf Our Lord, Vol. vii. p. 1C3 sq., and compare Krummacher, Hie Sufft ring Saviour, ch. v. p. 44 (Clark). - It scarcely Beems probable that .John xv. 1 sq. was uttered in a different and place (comp. Chrysost. in he.) than that in which the preceding discourse had been delivered, still less that it was uttered on the way to Gethsemane. The vii-w adopted by Luthardt [das Johann. Evang. Part. n. p. 821 ). Stier ( Disc. <c). If we are to presume that this heavenly discourse was suggested by anything outward, "the fruit of the vine," of w hicfa all had mi solemnly partaken, would seem to be the more natural object that gave rise to the comparison. SecGro- ti\u in loo., and Stier, Di --. <■/ Our 1. <>rnt. Vol. vii, p. 287. Heavy indeed was the burden of sin. for it bowed the Saviour to the earth (Mark xiv. 35); fearful the assaults of the powers of evil, for their hour was at band (Luke xxii. 68); but it was to the vivid clearness of the Saviour's knowledge of the awful affinity between death, sin, and the powers of darkness (see p. 287, note 2) that we may humbly presume to refer the truest bitterness of the cup of Getbsemane. See Beck, Lehrwissenschaft, p. 614 ■ ). and compare P< arson, ( '/•• ■ v auTor, ver. 43; compare Matt. iv. 11) was exhibited in the more ago- nized fervency of the prayer {inTcvtaTtpov it poa7]vxf 'o , ver. 44), but in a man- ner that showed that the exhaustion of the human and bodily powers of the Redeemer had now reached its uttermost limit. The omission of this verse (ver. 43) and of that which follows in some manuscripts [AB; 13. 69, 124], and the marks of suspicion attached to them in others (see Tisch. in loc), are apparently only due to the mistaken opinion that the nature of the contents of the verses was not consistent with the doctrine of our Lord's divinity. ii It has been considered doubtful whether the comparison of the sweat to fall- ing drops of blood was only designed to specify the thickness and greatness of the drops (Theophvl., Euthym., Bynseus), or whether it also implies that the sweat was tinged with actual blood, forced forth from the pores of that sacred body (comp. Pearson, Creed, Vol. i. p. 233, ed. Burt) in the agony of the struggle. The latter opinion seems most probable, and most coincident with the language of the inspired writer. If the use of &>. the garden. \\ hue they pause, perchance, Luke jju.-x. and stand consulting how they may best provide against every possibility of escape, He whom they were seeking, with all the holy calm of pre- a John tv lit. 4. science, comes forth from the enclosure, ami stands face to face with the apostate and his company. And now follows a scene of rapidly succeeding incidents, — the traitor's kiss, 2 the Lord's question to the soldiers, and avowal of Himself as Him whom they were John xviii, '•. seeking; the involuntary homage of the ter- ror-stricken baud ; ;! the tender solicitude of the Lord for words as spoken with a kind of permissive force (Winer, Oram. § 43, p. 278), and in tones in which merciful reproach was blended with calm resignation: SttKvvs, on ov8ei> ttjs ajTwu SeiYat @07]&eias, iai. — (his. Ml /iic Horn, lxxxui. With this the eyeiptoSe, ayoo/xtv (ver. 48) that follows seems in no way inconsistent. The former words were rather in the accents of a pensive contemplation, the latter in the tones of exhortation and command. Comp. Mark JCiv. 41. where the inserted a-nt^n seems exactly to mark the change in tone and expression. 1 From the term aireipa used by St. John (ch. xviii. 3), and the separate men- tion of vwnpeTai 4k tuv apxieptooi/ teal . 12, and after holding the office for several years was deposed by Valerius Gratus, the procu- rator of Judffia who preceded Pilate. Comp. Joseph. Antiq. xviii. 2. 1 sq. He appears, however, to have possessed vast influence, as he not only obtained the Lect. VII. THE LAST PASSOVER. 301 certainly as the father-in-law of the acting high-priest, was the fittest person ' with whom to leave our Lord till the Sanhedrin could be formally assembled. The locality of the examination that followed is confessedly most difficult to decide upon, as the first and fourth Evangelists seem here to specify two different places, though indeed it requires but the simple and reason- j" lin ^,1'^' able supposition that Annas and Caiaphas occupied a common official residence, to unite their testi- mony, and to remove many of the difficulties with which this portion of the sacred narrative is specially marked. 2 Be this as it may, we can scarcely doubt, from the clear statements in St. John's Gospel, that a pre- ,. . r. . .... Ch. xviii. IS— 24. hminary examination ot an inquisitorial na- „ ... .. J l Ch. xrm. 19. ture, in which the Lord was questioned, perhaps conversationally, about His followers and His teaching, and which the brutal conduct of Ver. 22, one of the attendants present seems to show was private and informal, took place in the palace of Annas. Here, too, it would seem, we must also place the high-priesthood for his son Eleazar, and his son-in-law Caiaphas, but subse- quently for four other sons, under t he last of whom James, the brother of our Lord, was ]>ut to death. Comp. Joseph. Aatiq. xx. 9. 1. It is thus highly prob- able that besides having the title of dpx l6 P e " x merely as one who had filled the office, he to a great degree retained the powers he had formerly exercised, and came to be regarded practically as a kind of de jure high-priest. The opinion of Lightfoot that he was Sur/mi, is not consistent with the position of his name before Caiaphas, Luke iii. 2 (see Vitringa, 06s. Sacr. vi. p. 529), and much less probable than the supposition of SeldA (revived and abh r put forward by VTieseler, citron. Synops. p. ISO sip) that he was the Nasi or President of the Sanhedrin, an office not always held by the high-priest. Compare Friedlieb, Archdol. j 7, p. 12. The latter view would well account for the preliminary examination, bul is not fully made out, and hardly in accordance with John xviii 18. See below. 1 The words l\v yap Trtvdepos k. r. \. (John xviii. 13) seem certainly to point to the degree of relationship as the cause of the sending. They are thus, to Bay tiic least, no) Inconsistent with the supposition that Caiaphas was wholly in the hands of his powerful father-in-law. Compare (thus far) Sepp, Leben Clirhli, vi. 48, Vol. iii. p. 4G3 sq, 2 So Entbymius, in Matt. xxvi. 5S, — a very reasonable conjecture, which has been accepted by several of the best modern expositors. See SrJer, Disc, of our Lord, Vol.vii. p, 806 (Clark). 2G 302 THE LAST PASSOVER. Lect. VII. three denials of St. Peter, 1 the last of which, by the sort of note of time afforded by the mention of the Markxiv. "2. , second cock-crowing, must have occurred not "very long before the first dawning of day, 2 and not improb- ably at the very time that the Saviour was being led away, bound, to Caiaphas, across the court where John xviii. 2t. i a i l -i • the Apostle was then standing. And now day was beginning to draw nigh ; yet, as it would seem, before its earliest rays the whole The examination ■. -. p.i oil- it iit before the Sanhe- body oi the banhedrin had assembled, as (,rin - it was a case that required secrecy and comp. Matt, despatch, at the house of the high-priest Caiaphas, whither the Lord had recently been brought. 3 The Holy One is now placed before his 1 The difficult question of the harmony of the various accounts cannot here be fully entered into. If we allow ourselves to conceive that in the narrative of St. John the first and second denials are transposed, and that the first took place at going out, rather than coming in, there would seem to result this very natural account, — that the first denial took place at the fire (Matt. xxvi. C9, Mark xiv. 66 sq., Luke xxii. 56, John xviii. 25), and was caused by the fixed recognition (Luke xxii. 56) of the maid who admitted St. Peter; that the second took place at or near the door leading out of the court, to which fear might have driven the Apostle (Matt. xxvi. 71, Mark xiv. 68 sq., Luke xxii. 58, John xviii. 17); and that the third took place in the court, about an hour afterwards (Luke xxii. 59), before several witnesses, who urged the peculiar nature of the Apostle's harsh Galilean pronunciation (see Fricdlieb, Archaol. § 25, Sepp, Leben Chr. Vol. iii. p. 478 sq.), and near enough to our Lord for Him to turn and gaze upon His now heart-touched and repentant follower. Minor discordances, as to the number and identity of the recognizers, still remain ; but these, when properly considered, will only be found such as serve the more clearly to show not only the indepen- dence of the inspired witnesses, but the living truth of the occurrence. For further details see a good note of Alford on Matt. xxvi. 69, Robinson, Harmony, p. 166 note (Tract Society), and compare Liechtenstein, Lebensgesch. Jes. p. 427 sq. 2 From a consideration of passages in ancient writers (esp. Ammian. Marcel- linus, Hist. xxii. 14) Friedlieb shows that the second cock-crowing must be as- signed to the beginning of the fourth watch, and consequently to a time some- where between the hours of three and four in the morning. See Archaol. § 24, p. 79, Wieseler, Chron. S>/no2>s. p. 406, and compare Greswell, Dissert, xlii. Vol. iii. p. 211 sq. 3 From the above narration it will be seen that the contested a-n-earei\ei/ (John xviii. 24) is taken in its simple aoristic sense, and as defining the end of the pre- liminary examination before Annas, of which the fourth Evangelist, true to the supplemental nature of his Gospel (see p. 30, note 3), alone gives an account. The usual pluperfect translation (" miscrat r ) is open, in a case like the present, to serious objection in a mere grammatical point of view (consider the examples Lect. VII. THE LAST PASSOVER. 303 prejudiced and embittered judges, and proceedings at once commenced. These were probably not gravely irregular. Though neither the time nor perhaps the place of meeting were strictly legal in the case of a capital trial like the present, there still does not seem any reason for supposing that the council departed widely from the out- ward rules of their court. 1 With vengeance in their hearts, yet, as it would seem, with all show of legal formality, they lort h with proceed to receive and investigate the many suborned witnesses that were now in readi- .... -r, . . Matt, sen* 60. ness to bear their testimony, .but conviction is not easy. The wretched men, as we may remember, so gain say ed each other that something further seemed required before the bloody sentence ver.es. which so many present had now ready on " l m J Matt. xxvi. G3. their lips could with any decency be pro- nouneed. Meanwhile the Lord was silent. The witnesses were left to confute or contradict each other;- even the two that affected to repeat words actu- in Winer, Gr. § 40, p. 24G), especially as the verb has a pluperfect in regular use; (■in, however, if these he waived, the exegctieal arguments against it seem plainly irresistible. See Stier, Disc. <>f Our Lard, Vol. vii. p. 307 (Clark). 1 As the council hail now, it would seem (LightfOOt, /fur. Hebr. lit Mutt. xxvi. 3), ceased to occupy its formal hall of meeting on the south side of the temple, called Gazith (P'TUn TZ'V: conclave 08281 lapidis), and had moved elsewhere (see Fried lieb, Arcltitol. § 5, p. 10; and correct accordingly Miluuiti, Hist, of Christianity, chap. vii. Vol. i. p. 886, note, and p. 344), meetings in the city and In the house of the nigh-priest may hare become less out of order. The time, however, was not in accordance with the principle, "judicia capitalia transi- gunt interdiu, et tiniunt interdiu " ((.'em. Babyl. "Sanhedr." iv. 1), as the com- ment of St. Luke o>s iyivero r]f.Upa (eh. xxii. GO) would appear to refer to the concluding part of Hie trial, of the whole of which he only gives a summary. < ompare Sfej er, in loc. p. 448. The preceding part of the trial would thus seem to have been in the night. In other respects it is probahle that the prescribed forme were complied with. The Sanhedristswere doubtless resolved to condemn our Lord to death at all hazards; it still however seems clear, from the sacred narrative (Matt. xxvi. 60, 61), that they observed the general principles of the laws relating to evidence. See Wilson. Tllustr. qfthe New Test, oh, v. p. 77, and for a description of the regular mode of conducting atrial compare Friedlieb, 'J''., and the rabbinical quotations in Bepp, Leben Christi, vi.48 Bq., Vol iii- p, 1' . t The difference of onr blessed Lord's deportment before 1 1 i~ different Judges is worth] of notice'. Before Annas, where the examination was mainly comer- 304 THE LAST PASSOVER. _ Lect. VII. ally spoken, and even in this could not agree, were dis- missed without one question being put to TahihiulT them by the meek Sufferer, who, even as ancient prophecy had foretold, still preserved His solemn and impressive silence. Foiled and perplexed, „,..„„ the high-priest himself becomes interrogator. Mark XI V. GO. o 1 o Matt.xxvi.es. With a formal adjuration, which had the effect of 2?utting the accused under the obli- gation of an oath, he puts a question 1 which, if answered in the affirmative, would probably at once ensure the Lord's condemnation as a false Messiah, 2 and as one against whom the law relating to the false prophet might xviu. 20.' be plausibly brought to bear. And the an- » z • M swer was given. He that spake avowed Him- Mark xi v. 62. ~ 1 self to be both the Christ and the Son of God ; yea, the Son of God in no modified or theocratic sense, 3 but whom their own eyes should behold sitting on sational, He vouchsafes to answer, though, as Stier remarks, with dignified repul. fion. Before the injustice of the Sanhedrin and the mockery of Herod He is profoundly silent. Before Pilate, when apart from the chief priests and elders (contrast Matt, xxvii. 12—14), He vouchsafes to answer with gracious forbear, ance, and to bear testimony unto the truth. See Stier, Disc, of our Lord, Vol. vii. p. 311 (Clark). 1 The question, it has been not improbably supposed, was partially suggested by the previous testimony about our Lord's destroying the temple, there being an ancient rabbinical tradition that when the Messiah came He was to construct a much more glorious temple than the one then existing. See especially Sepp, Leben Christi, vi. 48, Vol. iii. p. 468 sq. 2 When the high-priest asked our Lord whether He were " the Christ, the Son of God" (Matt. xxvi. 63), or "the Christ, the Son of the Blessed" (Mark xiv. 61), he was probably using with design a title of the Messiah, which, though not appropriated by custom to the Messiah (see p. 239, note 1), was not wholly un- precedented, and in the present case was particularly well calculated to lead to some answer which might justify condemnation. If our Lord had answered that lie was truly the Messiah, it is possible the intention might have been to put further questions as to His relation with the Father, and so lead Him to declare before the Sanhedrin what they perhaps knew He had declared before the people (John x. 30). It is, however, not improbable that the formal avowal of Messiahship would have been deemed enough to justify condemnation accord- ing to the law alluded to in the text. See the following note. A slightly different explanation is given by Wilson, Must, of Xcw Test. ch. IV. p. 64. 3 Whatever may have been the design of the high-priest in putting the ques- tion to our Lord in the peculiar terms in which we find it specified both by St. Matthew and St. Mark, — whether it was merely a formal though unusual title, 1....T. \U. T1IK LAST PASSOVER. oO") the right hand of Him with whom equality was now both implied and understood, and riding on the 1 7 ° Matt.xxvi.6i. clouds of heaven. With those words all Mark xiv.ea. - „ nil i • i • Matt. xxvL 65. was uproar and confusion. I lie hign-priest, possibly with no pretended horror, 1 rent his clothes ; the excited council put the question in the new form which it had now assumed. Was it even so'? Did the seeming mortal that stood before them declare that He was the Son of God? Yea, verily, He did.- Then y Luke xxii. 70. His blood be on His head. \v orse, a thou- sand times worse, than false prophet or false Messiah, — a blasphemer, and that before the high-priest and great council of the nation, — let Him mmX die the death. After our Lord was removed from the chamber, or per- haps even in the presence of the Sanhedrin, , . , ~ * The brutal mock- began a fearful scene of brutal ferocity, in er U o/ the attenj- which, possibly not for the first time in that dreadful night,' 5 the menial wretches that held the Lord or one chosen for sinister purposes, — the fact remains the same, that our Lord gave marked prominence to the second portion of the title, using a known syn- onym and well-remembered passage (Dan. vii. 13) to make the meaning in which 1 1 > - used it still more explicit, and that it was for claiming this that lie was con- demned. See John xix. 7, and the very clear statements of Wilson, Illustr. of the X. T. p. 5 sq. 1 There seems no good reason for supposing this was either a " stage trick " (Krummacher), or the result of a concerted plan. The declaration of our Lord following the formally assenting 2u erros (Matt. xxvi. 64), introduced as it is by the forcible 7rA.T)f (" besides my assertion, you shall have the testimony of your own eyes;" compare Klotz,Devar. Vol. ii. p. 725). seems to have tilled the wretched Caiaphas with mingled rage and horror. lie gives full prominence t<> the last, thai he may better satiate the first. On the ceremony of rending gar- ments, which we learn was to be performed standing (compare Matt, xx ( and so that the rent was to be from the neck straight downwards (-lit Btando; a coll teriua Don posterins" — liaJmon. ap. Buxtorf, Lex. Talm. p. 21 ! Friedlieb, Archaol | 26, p. 92, Sepp. Leben Cliristi, vi. 18, Vol. iii. p. 173, note. 2 In the words 0/j.t7s Ktytre, on iyd> tl^i (Luke xxii. 70) the 8ri is lightly taken bj the besi expositors as argumentative ("because I am "), the sentence i ' being, to use the language of grammarians, not objective^ but causal. Com- pare Donalds. Or. ('ruin. \ 584, 615. 3 It is extremely doubtful whether Luke xxii. 68— 66 is to be conceived as placed a little out of its exact order, Or as referring to insults and mockery in the court Of Annas. The exact similarity of the incidents with those Bpecified 20* 306 THE LAST PASSOVER. Lect. VII. now all took their satanic part, and in which the terms used showed that the recent declaration of Luke xxii. 63. our Lord was used as a pretext for indigni- ties and shameless violence that verily belonged to the hour of the powers of darkness. Meanwhile Per. 53. a. 3 Matt.xxvii.i. the confused court was again reassembled, and, after some consultation how their sen- tence could most hopefully be carried into effect, 1 they again bind our Lord, and lead Plim to Pon- Matl. xxvii. 2. ° tius Pilate, who was now in his official res- idence in Herod's palace, 2 and had, as usual, come to Jeru- salem to preserve order during the great yearly festival. We may here pause for a moment to observe that, from the connection in this portion of St. Mat- TJte fate of Judas , , t . . , -, , . , iscariot. thew s narrative, it would certainly seem reasonable to suppose that it was this last act on the part of the Sanhedrin that served suddenly to open the eyes of the traitor Judas to the real issues of his appalling sin. Covetousness had lured him on ; Satan had blinded him ; and he could not and would not look forward to all that must inevitably follow. But now the Matt. xxvi. 67 sq., Mark xiv. 65, make the first supposition perhaps slightly the most probable. 1 The meeting of the council alluded to Matt, xxvii. 1, Mark xv. 1 (compare Luke xxiii. 1, John xviii. 28), and defined by the second Evangelist as eVl rb ■npwi (" about morning; " Winer, Gr. § 49, p. 353), was clearly not a new meet- ing, but, as the language both of St. Matthew and St. Mark seems clearly to imply, a continued session of the former meeting, and that, too, in its full numbers {Kal oKov rb avutSpiov, Mark xv. 1). The question now before the meeting was, how best to consummate the judicial murder to which they had recently agreed. 2 Here appears to have been the regular residence of the procurators when in Jerusalem. See Joseph. Bell. Jud. n. 14. 8, QhSipos 5e r6re if to7s /HacriXeiois avXi^erat (compared with Bell. Jud. II. 15. 5), and see Winer, BWB. Art. "Eichthaus," Vol. ii. p. 329. This has been recently denied by Ewald (Gesch, Cliristus', p. 12), who states that the temporary residence of the procurators was in an older palace, nearer to the fort of Antonia, but apparently on insufficient grounds. For a description of Herod's palace, and notices of the size and splendor of its apartments, see Joseph. Bell. Jud. v. 4. 4, Antiq. xv. 9. 3, and compare Sepp, Leben Chr. VI. 53, Vol. iii. p. 496 sq., Ewald, Gesch. des Volk. Isr. Vol. iv. p. 493. Lect. Vn. THE LAST PASSOVER. 307 lost man sees all. The priests, 1 at whose feet he casts the blood-money, jibe him in language al- most fiendish; his soul is filled with hitter- Jfa*.***.* ness, darkness, despair, and death. The son Acisi.25. of perdition' 2 goes to his own place. But let us return to the further circumstances of our Lord's trial. The Redeemer now stood before the gates of him who bore the sword a/.pelrance won in Jerusalem, awaiting the message which * a *'" 3 ~ John xiai. 28. the Sanhedrists, men who shrank from leaven though they shrank not from blood, had sent into the palace of the procurator, demanding, as it would seem, that our Lord should at once be put to death as a danger- ous malefactor. With ready political tact the Roman 1 The use of the definite terms ev t<3 yaw (Matt, xxvii. 5) would certainly seem to imply that the wretched traitor forced his way into the inner portion of the temple, where the priests would now have been preparing for the approaching (estiva! (compare Sepp, Leben Chr. vi. 78, Vol. iii. p. 609), and there flung down the price of blood. With regard to his end, it is plainly impossible to interpret the explicit term airriy^aro (Matt, xxvii. 5) in any other way than as specifying ■ self-inflicted death by hanging. Compare the exx. in Greswell, Disst rt. xlii. Vol. iii. ])• 220, note. The notice in Acts i. 18 in no way opposes this, but only Btatea a frightful sequel which was observed to have taken place by those, probably, who found the body. The explanation of Lightfoot (Hor. Hear, in Miitl. I. <■.), according to which o.Tfr)y£aro is to be translated " strangulaius est, a I)iabolo scilicet,'' is obviously untenable. We may say truly, with Chrysos- tom, that it was the mediate work of .Satan (avatpu ire icras eaurbi/ airoAevat), but must refer the immediate perpetration of the deed to Judas himself. For further accounts, all exaggerated or legendary, see the notices in llol'mann, I., I,, a .1, .-.-», p. 333. - This title, given to the wretched man by our Lord Himself, in His solemn high-priestly prayer (John xvii. 12; compare vi. 70), coupled with His previous declaration, KaAbv i\v ainw el ovk eyevvi]&T] &v&panros eKeTvos (Matt. xxvi. 24; compare hereon Krnmmacher, The Suffering Saviour, p. 69), win always be regarded by sound thinkers as a practical protest against all the anti-Christian attempts of later historical criticism (see the reft", in Meyer, Komtm nt. vii. Mutt. p. 1^7) to palliate the traitor's inexpiable crime, and to make it appear that he only wished to force our Lord to declare II is true nature, and betraj ed Him as the best means of ensuring it. Whether Buch motives did or did not mingle with the traitor's besetting sin of coretousneBB (comp. ISwald, Gesch. Chr. p. 898 s(|.), we pause not to inquire; we only see in his fearful end the most dread instance of the regular development and enhancement of sin in the individual (see Muller, Doctr. <>f sin. Booh v. Vol. ii. p. 461, Clark) that is contained in the history of man, and witli awe we behold in him the only one who received his sentence in person before tie last day. see Stier, Disc. 0/ our Lord, Vol. vii, p. 66 sq., and a practical sermon by Pusey, Paroch. Serm. xn. Vol. ii- p- 197. Ver. 30. £7/. xxiii. 308 THE LAST PASSOVER. Lect. VTI. comes forth at their summons, hut, with a Roman's in- stinctive respect for the recognized forms of justice, demands the nature of the charge brought Ver. 29. . against the man on whom his eyes now fell, and whose aspect proclaimed His innocence. The accusers at first answer evasively ; but soon, as it would seem from the narrative of St. Luke, find an answer that they calculated could not fail in appealing to a procurator of Judaea. With satanically prompted cunning they carefully suppress the real grounds on which they had condemned the Saviour, and heap up charges of a purely political nature; 1 chief among which were specified, in all their familiar sequence to the procu- rator's ear, seditious agitation, attempted prohibition of the payment of the tribute-money, and assumption of the mixed civil and religious title of King of the Jews. 2 It seems, however, clear that from the very first the sharp- sighted Roman perceived that it was no case for his tribu- nal, that it was wholly a matter of religious differences and religious hate, and that the meek prisoner who stood before him was at least innocent of the political crimes that had been laid to His charge with such an unwonted and suspicious zeal. 3 The prescribed forms must, however, be gone through ; the accused must be examined, and be dealt with according to the facts which the examination l This fact has been alluded to by Wilson, IUustr. of the New Test. p. 5, and has been urged by Blunt, Veracity of Gospels, § 13, p. 50 sq. (Lond. 1831.) It did not escape the notice of Cyril Alex., who has some good comments upon the changed character of the charges. Comment, on St. Luke, Part n. p. 709. ■2 There are no sufficient grounds for rejecting, with Meyer (tib. Joh. p. 470, ed. 3), the usual and very reasonable supposition that St. Luke's mention of the charges preferred by the Sanhedrin (ch. xxiii. 2) is to be connected with Pilate's question as recorded by St. John (ch. xviii. 29). It would seem that, at first, the Sanhedrists hoped to urge the procurator to accept the decision of their own court without further inquiry, but, finding this promptly and even tauntingly (John xviii. 38) rejected, they then are driven to prefer specific charges. Comp. Lange, Leben Jem, II. 7. 7. Tart II. p. 1504 sq. On the nature of these charges see Stier, Disc, of our Lord, Vol. vii. p. 340 (Clark). S The remark of Pfenninger (cited by Stier) is just and pertinent, that " Pilate knew too much about Jewish expectations to suppose that the Sanhedrin would hate and persecute one who would free them from Roman authority." Lect. VII. THE LAST PASSOVER. C09 may elicit. That examination, which (\vc may observe in passing) was conducted by the procurator i -i i T">' i % ■ John xi'ni. 33* in person, served to deepen Jrilates impres- sions, ;nid to convince him that the exalted sufferer, whose mien and words seem alike to have awed and attracted him, was guiltless of everything save an enthusiasm which the practical Roman might deem hopeless and visionary, 8 but which it was in no way meet to punish with the sword of civil justice. And the yet righteous judge acts on his convictions. He goes forth to the Jews and declares the Lord's innocence, and only so far listens to ., i f ,, , ., • John xriii. 38. the clamors ot the accusers as to use their , , Luke xj hi. ■"}. mention of the name of Galilee as a pretext for sending our Lord to the Tetrarch of that country, 3 who was now in Jerusalem as a so-called wor- shipper at the paschal festival. This course the dexterous procurator failed not to perceive had two great advantages : it enabled him, in the first place, to rid himself of all further responsibility, and in the next it gave him an opportunity of exercising the true Roman state-craft of propitiating by a trifling act of political courtesy a native ruler with whom he had been previously 1 Pilate, being only a procurator, though a procurator cum poteBtate, had no quaestor to conduct the examinations, and thus, as the Gospels most accurately record, performs that office himself. Compare Friedlieb, Architol. § 31, p. 105. 2 On the character of Pilate Bee below, p. 815, note 3. His memorable ques- tion, " What is truth? " (.John xviii. 38) which occurred in the present part of the examination, must apparently neither be regarded, with the older writers, as the expression of a desire to know what truth really was (Cbrys., ah), nor, again, With some recent expositors, as the cheerless query of the wearied and baffled searcher (Olsbausen, ah), but simply as the half-pitying question of the practical man of the world, who felt that truth was a phantom, a word that had no polit- ical import, and regarded the attempt to connect it with a kingdom and matters of real life as a delusion of harmless though pitiable enthusiasm. See Meyer, in loc. p. 472, Slier. /)/.«-. qf our Lord, Vol. vii. p. 370 sq. (Clark), and compare Luthardt. Johcm. Evang. Part n. p. 400. 3 Pilate here availed himself of a practice occasionally adopted in criminal I iz., that of sending away (Luke xiii. 7, aviire/xxptv remisit) the accused from theybrum apprefo nsionis to his forum originis. Compare the partly >im- ilar case in reference to si . paid (Acts xxv. 9 sq.), and the conduct of Vespasian towards the prisoners who were subjects of Agrippa, — Josepbus, Bell. Jud. in. 10. 10. See Friedlieb, Archaol. § 32, p. 107. 310 THE LAST PASSOVER. Lect. VII. at enmity, 1 and with whose authority he had probably often come in collision. The sinful man 2 before whom our Lord now was brought, had, we are told by St. Luke, long desired to The dismissal of TT . , . .... , om- Lm-d to u e rod. see Him, and is now rejoiced to have the < Verf iLi ' wonder-worker before him. 3 He puts many questions, all probably superstitious or pro- fane, bnt is met only by a calm and holy silence. Super- stitions curiosity soon changes to scorn. With a frightful and shameless profanity, the wretched man, after mocking and setting at nought Iliin whom a moment Lulce xxiii. 11, -t p •/• ill ipi before, it any response had been vouchsafed to his curiosity, he would with equal levity have honored as a prophet, now sends the Lord back to Pilate, clad in a shining 4 kingly robe, as if to 1 The cause of the enmity is not known, but is probably to be referred to some acts on the part of the procurator which were considered by Herod undue as- sumptions of authority. It is possible that the recent slaughter of the Galilaeans mentioned Luke xiii. 1, if it did not give rise to. may still have added to the ill- feeling. The discreditable attempts to throw doubt upou the whole incident, as being mentioned only by one Evangelist, require no other answer than the nar- rative itself, which exhibits every clearest mark of truth and originality. Comp. Meyer, Komment. ub Luk. p. 403 (ed. S), Krummacher, The Suffering Christ, ch. xxxi. p. 268. 2 On the character of this Tetrarch, which seems to have been a compound of cunning, levity, and licentiousness, see above, p. 201, note 1. 3 The key to the present conduct of this profane man is apparently supplied us by the observant comment (comp. p. 43, n. 1) of the thoughtful Evangelist, Ka\ r)A7n£eV ti ffrj/xelov iSe?v vir' aurov yei/o/xei/ov, Luke xxiii. 8. As long as there seemed any chance of this desire being gratified, Herod treated our Lord with forbearance; when it became evident that he was neither to see nor hear anything wonderful, he gave rein to his wretched levity, and avenged his disap- pointment by mockery. On the incident generally, see Lange, Leben Jesu t ii. 7. 7, Part in. p. 1512 sq. 4 It has been thought that by the use of the terms ecr&riTa \aixirpav (Luke xxiii. 11) the Evangelist intended to denote a irhite robe, and that the point of tlic profane mockery was, that our Lord was to be deemed a " candidatus." See Friedlieb, Arch'dol. § 32, p. 109, Lange, ZebenJesti, Part in. p. 1515. This seems very doubtful; the word \a/j.Trpbs does not necessarily involve the idea of white- ness (the primary idea is " visibility" [Aaco]; see Donaldson, Crat. § 452), nor would the dress of a " candidate" imply the contempt which Herod designed to express for the pretensions of this King so well as the " gorgeous robe" (Auth. Ver.) of caricatured royalty. The remark, too, of Lightfoot seems fully iu point, " de veste alba cum aliis intellexerim, nisi quod videam hunc Evangelis- ram, cum tic veste alba habet sermonem, a/bam earn vocare iu terminis; " cap. IX. 29, Acts i. 10. Hor. Sebr. in Luc. xxiii. 7. Lect. VII. THE LAST PASSOVER. 311 intimate that for such pretenders to the throne of David neither the Tetrarch of Galilee nor the Procurator of Judaea need reserve any heavier punishment than their ridicule and contempt. We may well conceive that Pilate was much perplexed at seeing our Lord again before his own tri- , . _ , . Second appear- banal. In the present appearance, however, „„,,,, „,.,•, /•,/,./, . of the Saviour, the procurator plainly saw a ^S.' OS€ ' our practical exhibition of Herod's sentiments, and at once resolved to set free one who he was new more than ever convinced was a harmless enthusiast, wholly and entirely innocent of the crimes that had been laid to His charge. So, too, he tells the assembled chief • "" i i i rt , « T) . Luke sxiU. \r,. priests and people. hut, alas tor human jus- tice ! he seeks to secure their assent by a promise of inflict- ing punishment, lighter indeed by very far than had been demanded, 2 yet still by his own previous declarations undeserved and unjust. But this, though a most unrighteous concession, was far from satisfying the bitter and bloodthirsty men to whom it was made. Something perchance in their countenances and gestures 8 drove the now anxious judge to an appeal to the people, who, he might have heard and even ■it t- i l • i Hark a to. 3. observed, were tor the most part on the side of the Prophet of Nazareth, and whose clamorous requests i We may observe that St. Luke specially notices tliat on tlie return of our Lord from Herod, Pilate assembled not only the cbief priests and rulers, but the people also (cli. ,\.\iii. 13); he probably had already resolved to make an appeal to tin iik if his pi! -i hi proposal (ver. 1G) were not accepted. See above, p. 2C3, note 1. 2 The punishment Implied in the term TraiSeucras (Luke xxiii. 16) is left unde- fined. It was, however, probably no severer than scourging. Comp. Bammond, in Inc. Here was Pilate's first concession, and fust betrayal of a desire, if pos- sible, in meet the wishes of the accusers. This was not lost on men so subtle and so malignant as the Sanhedrists. 8 There is a Blight difficulty in the fact, that, according to St. Luke (xxiii. 18; ver. 17 is ul' doubtful auihorih ). the request in reference to Barabbas comes Brat from the people, and in SI. Matthew (eh. xxvii 17) that the proposal is made by Pilate. All. however, seems made clear by the narrative of St .Mark (ch. i/ of ver. 14. Compare Luthardt, das Johann. Ecang. Part n. p. 413. Lect. VII. THE LAST PASSOVER. 315 our law ought He to die," because "He made Himself the Son of God." The Son of God ! That title spake with strange significance to one pagan heart in that vast concourse. The awed 1 and now „ J er. 9. unnerved procurator again returns into his palace to question the Holy Sufferer, and comes forth again, yet once more to make a last effort to save one whose mysterious 2 words had now strangely moved his very inmost saul. What a moment for that hapless pagan ! One expression of an honest and bold determination to take a responsibility on himself from which no Roman magistrate ought ever to have shrunk, one righteous resolve to follow the dictates of his conscience, and the name of Pilate would never have held its melancholy place in the Christian's creed as that of the irresolute and unjust judge, who, against his own most solemn convic- tions, gave up to a death of agony and shame one whom he knew to be innocent, and even dimly felt to be divine. 3 1 The fear which Tilate now felt, even more than before (/.iuWov tcpofiri&r], Julm xix. S), when be beard that our Lord had represented Himself as vlos Qeov, w.mki naturally arise from bis conceiving such a title to imply a divine descent or parentage, which the analogy of the heroes and demigods of ancient story might predispose him to believe possible in the present case. Comp. Lnthardt, Johann. Evang. Part ii. p. 405. The message from his wife might have already aroused some apprehensions; these the present declaration greatly augments. 'I lie unjust judge begins to tear he may be braving the wrath of some unknown deity, and now anxiously puts the question ir6~Aev fl av (ver. 9), "Was llis descent indeed such as the mysterious title might be understood to imply? " To this the accuse (ver. 11) forms, and probably was felt by Pilate to form, a kind of indirect answer. See Slier, Disc, of our Lord, Vol. vii. p. 301 Bq. (Clark), where the last question is well explained. Compare Lange, LebenJesu, u. ~. 7, Pari in. p. 1627. 2 The difficult words 5ia tovto 6 irapafiiSovs /ue - oav (ib.) and the statements of the other Evangelists, were obviously throughout the instruments by which the sentence was carried out. The party of the San- hedrin are bowerer still clearly put forward as tbe leading actors : tlt>ycruci- ti. d mil- Lord (John xix. IS, Acts v. 80); Soman hands drove in the nails. • '7* 318 THE LAST PASSOVER. Lect. VII. suggested — Golgotha, or the place of a skull. Ere, how- ever, they arrive there, two touching incidents are specified by the Evangelists — the unrestrained lamentation and weeping of the women 1 that formed part of the vast attend- ant multitude, and the substitution of Simon of Cyrene 2 as bearer of the cross in the place of the now exhausted Redeemer. The low hill is soon reached ; the cross is fixed ; the stupefying drink is offered and refused ; ruthless hands strip away the garments; 3 the holy and lace- a .xp,i ra ted body is raised aloft; the hands are nailed to the transverse beam ; the feet are separately nailed 4 to the lower part of the upright beam ; the bitterly worded accusation is fixed up above the sacred 1 This incident is only specified by St. Luke (ch. xxiii. 27 sq.), who, as we have already had occasion to remark, mentions the ministrations of women more frequently than any of the other Evangelists. See Lect. i. p. 43, note 2. 2 He is said, both by St. Mark (ch. xv. 21) and St. Luke (ch. xxiii. 26), to have now been ipx^^vos a.irb aypov, — a comment which may perhaps imply that he had been laboring there, and was now returning ("onustus ligno,'' Lightfoot, Hor. Hebr. in Marc. I. c), some time before the hour when (if the day was the irapaa Kzv)) rod ndcrxa) servile work would commonly cease. Comp. Friedlieb, Archdol. § 17, p. 41. If this be the meaning of the words, they may be urged as supplying a subsidiary proof that the day was Nisan 14, and not Nisan 15. See p. 291, note 2, where this and a few similar passages are briefly specified. 3 See Matt, xxvii. 35, Mark xv. 24, Luke xxiii. 34, John xix. 23. None of these passages are opposed to the ancient belief that a linen cloth was bound round the sacred loins, as the apocryphal Evang. Nicodemi (cap. 10) cursorily, and so perhaps with a greater probability of truth, mentions in its narrative of the crucifixion. What we know of the prevailing custom has been thought to imply the contrary (see Lipsius, de Cruce, n. 7); still, as this is by no means certain, the undoubted antiquity of the apocryphal writing to which we have referred may justly be allowed to have some weight. See Hofmann, Leben Jesu, § 84, p. 373, and compare Hug, Frieb. Zeitschr. vn. p. 161 sq. (cited by Winer). 4 This is a very debated point. The arguments, however, in favor of the opinion advanced in the text, viz., that not three (Nonnus, p. 176, ed. Fassow) but four nails were used, seem perhaps distinctly to preponderate. See Friedlieb, Archdol. § 41, p. 144 sq., Hofmann, Leben Jesu, p. 375. The attempt to show that it is doubtful even whether the feet were nailed at all (comp. Winer, de Pedum Affixione, Lips. 1845, and R WB. Vol. i. p. 678), must be pronounced plainly futile, and is well disposed of by Meyer, Komment. ub. Matt, xxvii. 35, p. 533 sq. For a full account of the form of the cross, which, in the present case, owing to the ti'tAos fixed thereon (John xix. 19), was probably that of the crux immissa ( -f ), not of the crux commissa ( "J"), see esp. Friedlieb, Archdol. § 36, p. 130; and for the assertion that the holy body was raised, and then nailed, ib. § 41, pp. 142, 144. Lect.VII. THE LAST PASSOVER. 319 head ; the soldiers divide up rind cast lots for the gar- ments, and then, as St. Matthew has paused to specify, sit watching, the stolid, impassive spectators of their fearful and now completed work. It was now, as we learn from St. Mark, about the third hour, 1 and to the interval between this and mid-day must we assign the mockeries of the t^Zldtoth/Zvi passers-by, the brutalities of the soldiery, and Aou , r - the display of inhuman malignity on the part jfoa.xawn.8ft of the members of the Sanhedrin, who now Matt.xxva.iL were striving, chief priests and elders of Is- rael as they were, by every fiendish taunt and jibe to add to the agonies of the crucified Lord, when even, as it would seem, the rude multitude J*** **»****• stood around in wistful and perhaps commis- erating silence. To the same period also must we refer the narrative of the mercy extended to the penitent malefactor, and St. John's affectin7) to have been Salome, ami Ueyer finds in the passage a trace of the Apostle's peculiarity not directly 320 THE LAST PASSOVER. Lect. VII. ful Mary of Magdala, was remaining up to this fearful hour nigh to the Redeemer's cross, but who now, it would seem, yielded to what she might have either inferred or perceived was the desire of her Lord, and was led away by the beloved Apostle. 1 But could all these scenes of agony and woe thus fear- fully succeed each other, and nature remain /*TLt5rZ impassive and unmoved? The sixth hour the ninth how. nQW h a( J come# \y as t l iere to K, e nQ ou t Wa rd • Matt, xxv'u. 45. . • • i i , t i -i -> i Markxv.sa. sign, no visible token that earth and heaven were sympathizing in the agonies of Him by whose hands they had been made and fashioned ? No, ver- ily, it could not be. If one Evangelist, as we have already „ . observed, tells us that on the nio;ht of the Led. II. p. 70. / & Matt.xami.4s. Lord's birth a heavenly brightness and glory Lu'ke^iiT'u shone forth amid the gloom, three inspired witnesses now tell us that a pall of darkness was spread over the whole land 2 from the sixth to the to name himself or his kindred ; but as ch. i. 42 (where Meyer asserts that James was then called though not mentioned) proves utterly nothing, and ch. xxi. 2 proves the contrary, we seem to have full reason for adhering to the usual ac- ceptation of the passage, and for believing that the sister of the Virgin was the wife of Clopas. See Luthardt, das Johann. Evang. Tart II. p. 419, Ebrard, Kritih der Evang. Gesch. § 108, p. 555. 1 This seems a reasonable inference from John xix. 27, the air' tKtivns wpas appearing to mark that the apostle at once and on the spot manifested his lov- ing obedience by leading away the Virgin mother to his own home. After this (lUSTci tovto, ver. 28), and during the three-hour interval of darkness, the apos- tle would have returned, and thus have been the witness of what he has re- corded, ver. 28 sq. In confirmation of this view, it may be noticed that among the women specified as beholding afar off (Matt, xxvii. 56, Mark xv. 40) the Vir- gin is not mentioned. Compare Greswell, Dissert, xlii. Vol. iii. p. 249, Stier, Disc, of our Lord,Yo\. vii. p. 479 (Clark). 2 This darkness, as now seems properly admitted by all the best expositors, was neither due to any species of eclipse, nor to the deepened gloom which in some cases precedes an earthquake (comp. Milman, Hist, of Chr. Vol. i. 363), but was strictly supernatural, — the appointed testimony of sympathizing nature. "Yea. creation itself," as it has been well said, "bewailed its Lord, for the sun was darkened, and the rocks were rent." — Cyril Alex. Comment, on St. Lul:e, Serm. cliii. Part n. p. 722. where reference is made to Amos (ch. viii. 9, not v. 8) :is having foretold it. Compare Bauer, de Mirac. obscurati so/is. Wittenb. 1741. External heathen testimony appears not to have been wanting (see Tertullian, Apologet. cap. 21), though, as recent chronologers have properly shown, the constantly-cited notice of the freedman Phlegon (apud Syncell. Chronogr. Vol. Lect. VII. THE LAST PASSOVER. 321 ninth hour. But while they thus specially notice the interval, it may be observed that they maintain the most solemn reserve as to the incidents by which it was marked. Though full and explicit as to the circumstances of the agony in the garden, they are here profoundly silent. The mysteries of those hours of darkness, when with the sufferings of the agonized body mingled the sufferings of the sacred soul, the struggles with sinking nature, the accu- mulating pressure of the burden of a world's sin, the mo- mently more and more embittered foretastings of that which was its wages and its penalty, the clinging despera- tion of the last assaults of Satan and his mustered hosts, 1 the withdrawal and darkening of the Paternal presence, — mysteries such as these, so deep and so dread, it was not meet that even the tongues of Apostles should be moved to speak of, or the pens of Evangelists to record. Nay, the very outward eye of man might now gaze no further. All man might know was by the hearing of the ear. One loud cry revealed all, and more than all, that it is possible for our nature to conceive, — one loud cry of unfathom- able woe and uttermost desolation, 2 and yet, even as its very accents imply, of achieved and consummated victory. i. p. 014, ed. Bonn) lias no reference to the present miracle, but to an ordinary eclipse the year before. See Ideler, Handb. der ( %ronol. Vol. ii. p. 427, Wieseler, Clirmi. Synops. p. 3S8. 1 1 1 is worthy of consideration whether the important and difficult passage, Col. ii. 16, may not have eotlte reference to this awful period. If, as now seems grammatically certain, airevSuaauefos is to be taken in its usual and proper . maj iioi the " stripping off from Himself of powers and principal- ities "' have stood in Borne connection as to time with the hours when the dj ing but victorious Lord, even out of the darkness, called unto His God, and, by His holy surrender of Himself into the hands ui' His Eternal Father, quelled satanio assaults, which, thou jh not recorded, and scarcely hinted at (compare, however, Luke xxii. 63, and obscn e Luke i> . 13), we may still presume to think would then have been made with fearfully renewed energies. See Com. on Col. 1. c. p. 1C1. 2 On the words of our Lord here referred to — which are indeed far from being " perhaps a phrase in common use in extreme distress," as tfilman coldly terms them [Hist, of Chr. Vol. i. p 864), and which the two inspired witi who record them ha\ e retained even in the \ ery form and accents in which they esp. the thoughtful comments of Stier, Disc, of our Lord, Vol. \ii. p. 488 sq , Lange, Leben Jenu, n, 7. '.'. Part m. p. 1073, and compare Thesaur. Theol. {Crit. Soar.) Vol. ii. '-'17 Bq. 322 THE LAST PASSOVER. Lect. VII. Even from the lowest depths of a tortured, tempted, sin- burdened, and now forsaken humanity — even from the remotest bound, as it were, of a nature thus traversed to its extremest limits, 1 and thus feelingly realized in all the measures of its infirmity for man's salvation, the Saviour cried unto God as His God ; the Son called 2Iatt.xxvii.A7. . Ty M l ,1 • i n „ , „ unto linn with whom, even in this hour or Mark xv. 34. dereliction and abandonment, lie felt and knew that lie was eternally one ; yea, and, as the language of inspiration has declared, He " was heard in that He feared." With the utterance of that loud cry, as we perhaps presume to infer from the incidents that followed, 2 the clouds of darkness rolled away and the light broke forth. If this be so, the first mo- ments of that returning light were profaned by a mockery and a malignity on which it is fearful to dwell. We shud- der as we read that the words of that harrowing exclama- tion — words first spoken by the prophetic Psalmist, and the outward meaning of which no Jew could r^ossibly have misunderstood — were studi- ously perverted by a satanic malice, 3 and that the most holy 1 Compare Cyril. Alex. : " He who excels all created things, and shares the Father's throne, humbled Himself unto emptying, and took the form of a slave, and endured the limits of human nature, that he might fulfil the promise made of God to the forefathers of the Jews." — Commentary on St. Luke, Serm. cliii. Part ii. p. 722. 2 It seems most consistent with the deep mysteries of these hours to conceive that the darkness had not passed away when the Lord uttered the opening words of Tsalm xxii. 1, but that immediately afterwards light returned. See Slier, Disc, of our Lord, Vol. vii. p. 483 (Clark). With the returning light mockery would not unnaturally break forth anew. However this may be, we must certainly maintain that these words of Psalm xxii. were not, as asserted by Milman [Hist, of Christianity, Vol. i. p. 364), our Lord's "last words," it being perfectly clear from St. Matthew that, after the 'EAaii, 'EAcoi, k. t. A., our Lord uttered at least another cry {ird.\iv Kpd^as, ch. xxvii. 50). The re- ceived opinion seems undoubtedly the right one; according to which the sixth word from the cross was TeTeAecrrai (John xix. 30), the last words narep, tis ras x e ^P^ s °~ ou vapaTiZre/xcu to Trvevfxa. f.iov [compare 7ricci' to nvedfia, John xix. 30], as recorded by St. Luke (ch. xxiii. 40). Compare, if necessary, Slier, Disc, of our Lord, Vol. viii. p. 28 (Clark), Meyer, «B. Luk. p. 498 (ed. 3). •" There is no reason for thinking, with Euthymius [in Matt, xxvii. 47), that those who said 'HAi'ae (pooi/ei (Matt. /. '•.) were Roman soldiers (r^v 'E/3pa'i5a Lect. Vn. THE LAST PASSOVER. name of the eternal Father was used by the Jewish repro- bates that stood around as that wherewith they now dared to make a mock at the Eternal Son. But the end had now come. One solitary act of" in- » Mark xv. 86. stinctive compassion ' was yet to be performed ; the sponge of vinegar was pressed to the parching lips; the dying Lord received it, and, with a loud cry of con- sciously completed victory for man, and of most loving resignation unto God, 2 bowed meekly His divine head and gave up the ghost. Jesus was dead. Can we marvel, then, The portent* mat , l^iiii p i j. fallowed our Lord's when we read that the most awful moment death. in the history of the world was marked by M f: xxoi t Bl ' •> J Mark- XV. 38. mighty and significant portents? — that the Xatt.xxvii.tt. veil that symbolically separated sinful man from his offended God was now rent in twain, 3 that the i 1 1- wretch joined in the mockery of the rest, and yet must apparently infer from Matt. xxvii. 49 that his present act was regarded as one of mercy which his companions Bought to restrain. It may l>e true, as has been suggested by some expositors, that the man was really touched by the Saviour's Buffering, now perhaps made more apparent by the Si^oi of John xix. 28, and that under the cover of mockery he still persisted in performing this last act of compassion. At any rate, the Spa/xwv (Matt, xxvii. 48, Mark xv. 30) and &s kutoi eis Siio of St. Matthew (ch. xxvii. 61) and St. Mark (ch. xv. 38). 324 THE LAST PASSOVER. Lect. VII. earth quaked, that the rocks were rent and the graves opened, and that by the vivifying power of the Lord's death they that slumbered therein arose, and after their Saviour's resurrection were seen by many witnesses ? 1 Such things were known, patent, and recognized ; they were seen by Jews and by Gentiles ; by the centurion on Golgotha, and by the priest in the temple ; zuhexxiiu 47. by the multitudes that now beat their breasts Lute xxiu. is. j n amaze d and unavailing sorrow, and by the Ver. id. m & . women and kinsmen that stood gazing afar off; they were believed in and they stand recorded ; yea, and in spite of all the negative criticism that the unbelief of later days has dared to bring against them, 2 they remain, and will remain even unto the end of time, as the solemn 1 Nothing can be more unwarrantable than to speak of this statement of the inspired Evangelist as the mythical conversion into actual history of the sign of the rent graves (Meyer, i'tb. Matt, xxvii. 52), nor less in harmony with sound principles of interpretation than to term these resurrections (riy4p£>ri T-, of the Lord's body. their deepest and truest significance, imager bands of householders 1 were npw streaming into the temple, each one to slay his victim, and to make ready for the feast. It was a Passover of great JoAnxix.Sl, solemnity. The morrow was a high day, a double Sabbath, a day which was alike the solemn fifteenth of Nisan and the weekly festival. 2 Not unnatural, then, was it that petition should be made to Pilate for the prompt removal from the cross of the bodies of those who had been crucified in the forenoon, that the approaching day might not be legally profaned. The petition is granted ; the legs of the two malefactors are broken to hasten their death,' but no bone is broken of that sacred body which now hung life- less between them. A spear is thrust into Per. 34. the holy side, perchance in the neighborhood of the heart, to make sure that life is extinct, and forthwith a twofold sign was vouchsafed, whether natural or supernat- 1 See especially Friedlieb, Archdol. § IS, p. 47 sq., where this and other cere- monies connected with the Passover are very fully illustrated. ^ The efforts of those writers who regard this Saturday as Xisan 10 cannot be considered successful in proving it to have been a "high day" (John xix. 31). The principal fact adduced in favor of such an opinion is that on this day the first-fruits were presented in the temple. See Wieseler, Chron. Synops. p. 3S5, Robinson, Harmony, p. 150 (Tract Society). If, on the contrary, the day be re- garded as Xisan 15, then all becomes intelligible and sell-explanatory, the solemn character of Xisan 15 being so well known and so distinctly defined. Bee Exod. xii 16, Lev. xxiii. 7. 8 The breaking of the legs has been thought to include a coup de grace (see Friedlieb, Archdol. j 48, and compare Hug, Fried. Zeitschr. in. p. 67 sq.), as the cruri/ragium would not seem sufficient in itself to extinguish life. As, how- such an expansion of the term has not been made out (Auini. Marcell. Hist. xtv. 9 is certainly not sufficient to prove it), and ae tin' present passage seems to show that it hud reference to the death of the Bufferer (comp. John xix. 33), we must conclude that it was found by experience to bring death, possibly slowly, but thus not unconfonnably with the fearful nature of the punishment. 28 326 THE LAST PASSOVER. Lect. VII. ural we know not, 1 but which the fourth Evangelist was specially moved to record, and in which we may, with all the best interpreters of the ancient church, not perhaps unfitly recognize the sacramental symbol both of the communion of our Master's body and blood, and of the baptismal laver of regenerating grace. The sacred body was taken from the cross, and was still in the custody of the soldiers, when a secret disciple, the wealthy Joseph of Arimathea, who, as a member of the supreme court, would know that the bodies were to be removed, now came to Golgotha, 2 and, after finding that the procurator's permis- sion was carried out, emboldened himself so far as to beg personally for the Lord's body from that unrighteous judge. The request is freely granted, 3 and the holy body is borne by the maxr.4i. pi ous Joseph to a garden nisrh at hand, Matt, xxvii. GO. x l ° # a ' which was probably his own property, and in which was a tomb that he had hewn out of the rock, 1 The emphatic language of St. John (ch. xix. 31) seems to favor the opinion that it was a supernatural sign. The use made of this incident by Dr. Stroud (Physical Death of Christ, Lond. 1849) and others to prove that our Lord died of a ruptured vessel of the heart is ingenious, but seems precarious. Without in any way availing ourselves of the ancient statement that our Lord's death was hastened supernaturally (see Greswell, Dissert, xlii. Vol. iii. p. 251), we may perhaps reasonably ascribe it to the exhausting pains of body (see Richter quoted by Friedlieb, Archdol. § 44), which, though in ordinary cases not sufficient to bring such speedy death, did so in the present, when there had been not only great physical suffering previously, but agonies of mind which human thought cannot conceive, and which clearly appear (compare Matt, xxvii. 4G) to have endured unto the very end. 2 See Malt, xxvii. 57, where the ^X^ey would seem naturally to have reference to the scene of the incidents last mentioned, i. e., to the place of crucifixion. While the soldiers were waiting for the sequel of the crurifragium (John xix. 32), Joseph would easily have had time to go to the praetorium and prefer his request to Tilate. The touch supplied by the roKjx^aas of the graphic St. Mark (ch. xv. 4.1) should not be left unnoticed. 8 It is not improbable that the term c'ScopTjffaTo was designedly used by St. Mark (ch. xv. 45), as implying that Mate gave np the holy body without de- manding money for it. See Wetstein, in loc. Had not Joseph been moved to perform this pious office, it would seem that the Lord's body would have been removed to one of two common sepulchres reserved for those who had suffered capital punishments, — "unum occisis gladio et strangulatis, alteram lapidatis [qui etiam suspendebantur] et combustis.'' " Sanhcdr." vi. 5, cited by Light- foot, in Matt, xxvii. 58. Comp. Sepp, Leben Christi, VI. 76, Vol. iii. p. 602. Lect. VII. THE LAST PASSOVER. 827 wherein man had never yet been laid. Aided by one who :it first came secretly to the Lord undercover of night, but now feared not to bring his princely offering 1 of myrrh and aloes openly and in the liidit of day, the faithful disciple solemnly ° . . . . - Jo/m xix. 38. perforins every rite of honoring sepulture. Yea, the hands of two members of that very council that had condemned the Lord to death, but one at least of whom had no part in their crime, are those that now tenderly place the Kedeemer s body in the new rock-hewn tomb. And now all is done, and the Sabbath well-nigh begun. The King's Son is laid in His sleeping-chamber ; the faithful Mary Magdalene and the mother of Joses,- who in their deep grief had remained 'sitting beside the tomb, now return to the citv to buy spices and ointments, and make , , . ' , " J l Luke XXIII. ul: preparations for doing more completely what had now necessarily been done in haste ; the great stone is rolled against the opening of the tomb;"' the two pious 1 This, we learn from St. John, was of the weight of one hundred pounds (ch. \i\. 89), and did indeed display what Chrysostom rightly calls the fj.eyaAo\pv- X'O-" r V" & T0 '£ XP 7 ''A' a,n ('"■ Matt. Horn. LXIXVin.) of the faithful and true- hearted ruler. The myrrh and aloes were probably mixed, and in the form of a Coarse powder freely sprinkled between the b$6via with which the body was swathed. See John xix. 40. For further details see Friedlieb, Arclutol. j 60, p. 171 eq., ami Winer, J: 11'/:. Art. " Leichen," Vol. ii. p. 15. 2 The reading is somewhat doubtful (Lachmann, Tregelles, Tischend., y 'lco- trqros — apparently rightly), though the person designated is not, 'WctTjtos being onlj the Greek form of the more familiar laaij. Wieseler (Chron. Synops. p. 426, note) adopts the reading Of the Alexandrian MS., V 'lu>(Tr), and colliders the Mary here mentioned to have been the daughter of the honorable man who bore thai name; this, however, has been rightly judged by recent critics to be open to objections, which, combined with the small amount of external c, , on which the reading rests, are decisive against it. See Meyer, iib. Marl:, p. ISO (ed. 8). With regard to the two women, it would seem from Matt, xxvii. 61 [Kab-fifievat anivavrnov Tti., that at present they took but little part, but sat by, stupefied with grief, while the two rulers (John xix. 40, tAafloi>, tSrjffav) performed the principal rites of sepulture. 8 The tombs were then probably, as now, either («) with steps and a descent in a perpendicular direction, or (e) in the face of the rock, and with an entry in a or horizontal direction. The tomb of our Lord would reem to have been Of the latter description : tombs of the former kind are perhaps alluded to Luke 328 THE LAST PASSOVER. Lect. VII. rulers turn their steps to Jerusalem, and all rest on the Sabbath-day, "according to the command- Luke xxiii. 56. ,, merit. With the first Evangelist's notice of the request pre- ferred by the members of the Sanhedrin that the sepulchre should be guarded, and with a brief mention Mall, xxi-ii. 04. e ,, , . - Ver 66 ot the procurator's curtly expressed permis- sion, the sealing of the stone, and the setting of the watch, 1 this lengthened portion of the inspired narrative now comes to its close. And here our Lecture shall at once conclude. Practical reflections on events so numerous, and of Conclusion. such momentous interest, would far exceed the limits that must be prescribed to this work, 2 and would necessarily involve recapitulations which, in a narrative so* simple and continuous as that here given by the Evangel- ists, might reasonably be judged to a certain degree unne- cessary and undesirable. Into such varied reflections, then, it may not now be wholly suitable to enter. Yet let us at least bear one truth which this portion of our subject has presented to us, practically, vitally, and savingly, in mind, — even the everlasting truth, that our sins have been atoned for, that they have been borne by our Lord on His xi. 44. The stone which was rolled against the opening and in this case appears to have completely filled it up (comp. John xx. 1, Sk tov fj.vr)/j.elov, and see Meyer, in loc.) was technically termed Golal (":h}Z; see Sepp, Leben Chr. vi. 77, Vol. iii. p. G08), and was usually of considerable size (Mark xvi. 4). See Pearson, Creed, Art. iv. Vol. ii. p. 1S7 sq. (ed. Burton), and on the subject generally, the special work of Nicolai in Ugolini, Thesaur. Vol. xxxiii., and Winer, RWB. Art. " Graber," Vol. i. p. 443 sq. 1 See Matt, xxvii. 65, where the verb «X 6Te would seem more naturally imper- ative than indicative, as in the latter case the reference could only be to such a KovcrTU)o"ia, as the chief priests had at their disposal, i. e., temple guards, whereas the actual watchers were Roman soldiers. See Matt, xxviii. 14. In the former case permission is given in the form of a brusquely expressed command, means being supplied for it to be carried out. 2 It may again be noticed (see above, p. 51, note 1) that both this and the follow- ing Lecture were not preached, the nuniber required, owing to recent changes, being only six. The omission of practical comments or hortatory application will thus seem perhaps not only natural but desirable, as such addresses, if merely of a general character, and not made to a special audience, can rarely be satisfactory. Lect. VII. THE LAST PASSOVER. 329 cross, and that by His stripes we have been healed. God grunt that this belief of our fathers and our forefathers, and of the holiest and the wisest of every age in the Church of Christ, may not at length become modified and diluted. Let words of controversy here appear not. Let no terms of party strife appear at the close of a narrative of a love boundless as the universe, and of a sacrifice of which the sweet-smell- ing savor has pervaded every realm of be- ing, — let none such meet the eye of the reader of these concluding lines. Yet let the prayer be offered with all lowliness and humility that these weak words may have been permitted to strengthen belief in the Atonement, to convince the fair and candid reader of the written Word that here there is something more than the perfection of a self-denial, something more than a great moral spectacle at which we may gaze in a perplexed wonder, but of which the benefits to us are but indirect, the realities but exem- plary. O, no, no! That blood, which, as it were, we have be- held falling drop by drop on Golgotha, fell not thus fruit- lessly to the earth. Those curtains of darkness shrouded something more than the manifestation of a moral sublim- ity. That cry of agony and desolation told of something more than a souse of merely personal suffering, or the closing exhaustions of a distressed humanity. The very outward circumstances of the harrowing history raise their voices against such a bleak and cheerless theosophy. The very details of the varied scenes of agony and woe plead meekly, yet persuasively, against such an estimate of the sufferings of an Incarnate God. O, may deeper med- itation on these things bring conviction ! May those who yet believe in the perfections of their humanity, and doubt lie efficacies of their Redeemer's blood, unlearn that joy- 1' 188 'Teed. May the speculators here cense to speculate; may the casuist learn to adore. Yea, to us all may fuller measures of faith and of saving assurance yet be minis- 28* 830 THE LAST PASSOVER. Lect. VII. tered, that with heart and mind and soul and spirit we may verily and indeed believe that " Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many," and that, eix '"' even as the beloved Apostle has said, "He 1 John xi. 2. l ' is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world." LECTURE VIII. THE FORTY DAYS. GO TO HIT BRETIIREN, AND 8AV UNTO THEM, I ASCEND UNTO MY FATHER, AND YOUR PATUER; AND TO MY GOD, AND YOUR GOD. — St. John. XX. 17. The portion of the inspired narrative at which Ave have now arrived is the shortest, but by no means the least important of the divisions into T ,„"„™ which it has appeared convenient to separate the Gospel history. In some respects, indeed, it may be rightly termed the most important, as containing the ac- count of that which was in fact the foundation of all apos- tolical preaching, and which, when alluding to the subject generally, St. Paul has not scrupled to speak of as that which alone gives a reality to our faith here and to our hope of what shall be hereafter. 1 The resurrection of Jesus Christ, of Him whom Joseph and Nicodemus laid in the new rock-hewn tomb, is no less the solemn guarantee to us of the truth of that in which Ave have believed, than it is also the holy pledge to us of our own future victory over death and corruption. On the history of such an adorable manifes- Doctrinal quo- tation of the divine power and majesty of ';'"'"' """""'■" l J J this portion hi tin: Him Avho saved us, and Avho has thus given *&*»•?. an infallible proof that He had as much the power 2 to take 1 The nature of the apostle's argument, and the reciprocal inferences, viz., " thai Christ's resurrection from the dead is the necessary cause of our resurrec- tion," and "that our future resurrection necessarily infers Christ's resurrection from the dead," so that •• the denial or doubt of our resurrection infers a doubt or deuial of His resurrection," are well discussed by the learned Jackson, in his valuable Commentaries on the Creed, xi. 16. 1, Vol. x. p. 807 sij. (Oxford, 1844). 2 The catholic doctrine on the agency by which Christ was raised from the 332 THE FORTY DAYS. Lect. VIII. His life again as He had the mercy to lay it clown — on such a history, meet indeed will it be for us John x. IS. J ' to dwell with thoughtfulness, precision, and care. Meet indeed will it be to strive to bring into one every ray of divine truth, as vouchsafed to us in this por- tion of the Evangelical history, to miss no hint, to over- look no inference whereby our faith in our risen and as- cended Lord may become more real and more vital, and our conviction of our own resurrection more assured and more comjylete. 1 And not of our own resurrection only, but even of what lies beyond. Yea, hints there are of partial answers not only to the question " How are the dead raised ?" but even to that further and more special question, "With what body do they come? " which so perplexed the doubters of Corinth, and remains even to this day such a subject of controversy and debate. Into such questions the general character of my present undertaking will wholly preclude me from entering, either formally or at length ; nay, in a professed recital of events it will scarcely be convenient to call away the attention of the reader from a simple con- sideration of facts to their probable use as bases for speculative meditation; still it will not be unsuitable or dead is nowhere better or more clearly stated than by Bp. Pearson, who, while stating the general truth "that the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost raised Christ from the dead," shows also that the special truth "that the Lord raised Him- self" is distinct and irrefragable, as resting on our Lord's own words (John ii. 22), and the way in which those words were understood by the apostles: "If, upon the resurrection of Christ, the apostles believed those words of Christ, 'Destroy this temple, and I will raise it up again,' then did they believe that Christ raised Himself; for in those words there is a person mentioned which raised Christ, and no other person mentioned but Himself." — Exposition, of the Creed, Art. v. Vol. i. p. 303 (ed. Burton). 1 It has been well said by Dr. Thomas Jackson, that "every man is bound to believe that all true believers of Christ's resurrection from the dead shall be undoubted partakers of that endless and immortal glory into which Christ hath been raised. But no man is bound to believe his own resurrection, in particular, into such glory any further, or upon more certain terms, than he can (upon just and deliberate examination) find that himself doth steadfastly believe this fuu- damental article of Christ's resurrection from the dead." — Commentaries on the Creed, XI. 16. 11, Vol. x. p. 326 sq., where there is also a short but excellent prac- tical application of the doctrine. Lect. VIII. THE FORTY DAYS. 333 inappropriate to bestow such a careful consideration on those parts of the subject which need it on their own account, as will also incidentally prove suggestive of fruit- ful thoughts in reference to our future state, our hopes and our expectations. The remembrance that our risen Lord was the veritable first-fruits of them that slept, that as He rose we shall rise, will always press upon us the thought that the nature of His resurrection-body 1 must involve something, at any rate, remotely analogous to the nature of the future bodies of His glorified servants, and must insensibly lead us to dwell with thoughtful care upon all the circumstances and details relating to those appearances which we are now about to recount. Let us, then, address ourselves to this important portion of the inspired history with all earnestness and sobriety. Never was there a time when meditation on the history of the risen yet not ascen- l This difficult subject will not l>e formally discussed in the text, but in every case comments will be made upon the nature of those appearances which seem i«i require more special consideration. From these, and, above all, from a sound tical discus.-ion of the passages in question, the student will perhaps be enabled to arrive at some opinion upon a very important subject. Meanwhile, without anticipating what will be best considered separately and in detail, it may be well to notice that there base been, roughly speaking, three opinions on the subject : (a) that our Lord's body was the same natural body of flesh and blood that had been crucified and laid in the tomb; (b) that it was wholly changed at the resurrection, and became simply an ethereal body, something between matter and spirit (wairepd iu fxf\>opiw tw\ tt)s waxuT^ros t?js irpb rov trddovs awuaros Kal rov yv/xu^v roiovrov aw/xaros (pairjeadai \puxvv — Origen. contr. < 'i Is. a. 62); (c) that it was the same as before, but endued with new powers, prop- eities, and attributes. Of these views (a) is open to very serious objections, aris- ing from the many passages which seem clearly to imply either (1) that there was a change in the outward appearance of our Lord's body, or (2) that its appear- ances and disappearances involved something supernatural. Again, (6) seems plainly irreconcilable with our Lord's own declaration (Luke xxiv. 39), and with the fact that His holy body was touched, handled, and proved experiment- ally to be real. Between these two extremes (c) seems soberly to meditate, and i- the opinion maintained by (reneus, Tertullian, Hilary, Augustine (but not exclusively), and other sound writers of the early church. As will be seen from what follows, it appears best to reconcile all apparent differences in the accounts of the Lord's appearances, ami, to say the very least, deserves the student's most thoughtful consideration. For a very complete article on this subject, Bee the Dibliotheca 8acra tor 1846, Vol. ii. p. 292. The writer (Dr. Robinson) advo- cates ('/), hut supplies much interesting matter and many useful quotations iu reference to the other opinions. 384 THE FORTY DAYS. Lect. VIII. ded Lord were more likely to be useful than now ; never was there an age when it was more necessary to set forth events that not only imply but practically prove the resur- rection of the body, 1 and that not only suggest but confirm that teaching of the Church in reference to the future state which it is the obvious tendency of the speculations of our own times to explain away, to modify, or to deny. 2 Ere, however, we proceed to the regular and orderly recital of the events of this portion of the diaraeteristics of *■ the present portion evangelical history, let us pause for a moment of the narrative. . to make a few brief comments on the general character of the different records of the inspired narrators. With regard to the number of those holy records, the , r . „ , same remarks that were made at the betrin- Number of the ~ amounts. ning of the last Lecture may here be repeated, as equally applicable to the portion of the sacred history now before us. Events of such a moment- ous nature as those which followed our Lord's death and burial were not to be told by one, but by all. If all relate how the holy body of the Lord was laid in the tomb, surely all shall relate how on the third morning the tomb was found empty, and how angelical witnesses 3 declared that the Lord had risen. If all relate how holy women were spectators of their Redeemer's suffering, shall not all relate 1 Some of the more popular quasi scientific objections to the received doctrine of the resurrection of the body are noticed, discussed, and fairly answered, in an article by Prof. Goodwin in the Bibliotheca Sacra for 1852, Vol. ix. p. 1 sq. For earlier objections, see Jackson, Creed, xi. 15, Vol. x. p. 283 sq. 2 Information is so often sought for in vain on the subject of the general teaching of the best writers of the early Church on the Doctrine of the Last Things (Eschatology, as it is now called), that we may pause to refer the student to a learned volume now nearly forgotten, Burnet, de Statu Mortuorum et Ue- sitrgi ntium, London, 1728. 3 The first point, the fact that the tomb was empty, and the body not there, is very distinctly put forward by all the four Evangelists. Compare Matt, xxviii. i', Mark xvi. 0, Luke xxiv. 3. John xx. 2, 6, 7. The second point, the angelical testimony, is, strictly considered, only specified by the first three Evangelists: St. John relates the appearance of two angels, and their address to Mary Mag- dalene (ch. xx. 13), but the testimony which they deliver to the women (Matt, xxviii. G, Mark xvi. 6, Luke xxiv. 6) is, in the case of Mary Magdalene, prac- tically delivered by the Lord Himself. Lect. VIII. THE FORTY DAY.-. 335 how some at least of this ministering company 1 were first to hear the glad tidings of His victory over the grave, and to proclaim it to His doubting Apostles? If all, as we have seen in the last Lecture, have so minutely described the various scenes of the Passion, can we wonder that all were moved to record some of the more striking scenes of the great forty days that followed, and that afforded to the disciples the visible proofs of the Lord's resurrection? 2 It could not indeed be otherwise. These things must be told by all, though, as in other portions of the Gospel history, all have not been moved to specify exactly the same inci- dents. Nay, when we come to consider the pre- net,- reennm-i- , . * . , ~ , , ties and differences. cise nature and character of the tour holy records we meet with some striking and instructive differ- ences. 3 The first two Evangelists devote no more than 1 The women mentioned as having visited the sepulchre are not the same even in the case of the h'i>t three E\ angelists. This, however, can cause no real diffi- culty, ae the lact thai St. Matthew only mentions Mary Magdalene and "the other Mary" (the wife of < lopas or Alpbens, and sister of the Virgin ; see above, ]>. 319, n. 2) in no way implies that others were not with them. From St. Mark (eh. xvi. 1) «<■ learn that Salome was also present; and from St. Luke (oh. xxiv. 1 compared with ch. xxiii. 49 and 00) we should naturally draw the same infer- when, how e\ it, the Evangelist pauses a little later tospecify by name, Salome is not mentioned but Joanna (ch. xxiv. 10), the al Xoural aiiv avials including Salome, and. as it would appear, others not named by any of the Evangelists. The attempt of Greswell (Dissert, xi.in. Vol. iii. p. 264 sq.] to pro\ e thai there were two parties of women, the one the party of Salome, and the other the patty of Joanna, is very artificial, and really does but little to remove the difficulties which seem to have given rise to the hypothesis. 8 So rightly Augustine : "Ergoadcorum [discipuiorum] confirmationem dig- natus est post resurrectionem vivere cum illis quadraginta diebus integrie, ab ipso die passionis sum usque in hodiernum diem [fest. Asccnsionis], intrans ct exiens, manducans el bibens, stout dicil Scriptura [Act. i. 8, 4], confirmans hoc redditum esse ocnlis eorum post resurrectioncm, quod ablatum erat per orucem." A rro. i i \\w. Vol. v. p. 1212 (ed. Mign6). The reasons suggested by the same author (p. 1211, 1216) why the interval was exactly forty days, are ingenious, but scarcely satisfactory. 3 These differences, when studiously collected and paraded out (see De Wette, ■ [i s Evanff. Matt. p. 806, ed. 8), at tirst set m very Btartling and irreconcil- able. They cease, however, at once to appear so when we only pause to observe the brevity of the sacred writers, and remember thai an additional know of perhaps no more than two or three particulars would enable lis at once to reconcile all that seems discordant. See a ^ood article by Robinson in the Bib- Uotheca Sacra for 1846, Vol. ii. p. 162. At the end (p. 189) will be found a useful obb THE FORTY DAYS. Lect. VIII. twenty verses each to the history of this period, and are but brief in their notices of the appearances of the risen Lord, though explicit as to the circumstances under which the first witnesses of the resurrection were enabled to give their testimony. The third and fourth Evangelists, on the other hand, have each given a record nearly three times as long, and have each related with great exactness the circumstances of selected instances of the Redeemer's manifestation of Himself, wherein He more especially vouchsafed to show that He had raised again the same body that had been laid in Joseph's sepulchre ; that it was indeed He Himself, their very own adorable Master and Lord. And yet both in this and other differences we can hardly fail to be struck by the divine harmony that pervades the whole, and must again be led to recognize in this portion of the history, with all its seeming discrepancies, what we have so often already observed in earlier portions, how strikingly the Evangel- ical accounts illustrate by their differences, and how the very omissions in one or two of the sacred records will sometimes be found to place even in a clearer light, and to reflect a fuller and truer significance on what others have been moved to record. If, for example, two Evangelists would thus appear to dwell simply upon the fact of the Resurrection, the other two, we observe, were specially guided to set forth the proofs of its true nature, its reality, and its certainty. 1 If, again, we might be induced to think from the words of the first and second Evangelists that Galilee was to be more especially the land blessed by the appearances of the risen Saviour, the two others direct selected list of treatises both on the subject of the Resurrection and on the prin- cipal events connected therewith. l It can hardly escape the notice of the observant reader that while the first and second Evangelists dwell mainly on the fact that the Lord was risen from the dead, the third and fourth Evangelists dwell most upon the reality of the body that was raised (Luke xxiv. 30, 39, 41 Bq.; comp. Acts i. 3) and its identity with that which was crucified. Compare John xx. 20, 27. The, so to speak, crucial test of eating is alone referred to by these Evangelists — being definitely specified, Luke xxiv. 43, and perhaps implied, John xxi. 12 sq. Lect. VIII. THE FORTY DAYS. 337 our thoughts more to Judasa, and yet one of these joins the testimony of an eye-witness to that of the first two by his explicit and most undoubtedly genuine 1 account of the Lord's appearance at the most favored scene 1 r _ Mark xvi. 1!). of His Galilean ministry. 2 If, lastly, two Luktxxiv.n. only of the four witnesses have been moved to record the Ascension, the other two have taught us by their very silence, in the first place, to view that last event of the Gospel history in its true light, as so entirely the necessary and natural sequel of what preceded, that Apos- tles could leave it unrecorded; and, in the second place, thus to realize more deeply the true mystery of the Resur- rection, to see and to feel how it included and involved all 1 On this point it is not necessary to dwell at length. There is not a vestige of external evidence to lead us to think that the early Church entertained the slightest doubt of John xxi. being written by the Apostle St. John. Internal evidence has nothing else whatever to rest upon than the two seeming conclu- sions, ch. xx. 30 s3, where this untenable hypothesis is put forward and defended. 29 338 THE FORTY DAYS. Lect. VIII. that followed, and how it truly was that one great victory over sin and death that made every minor conquest over earthly relations a matter of certain and inevitable se- quence. 1 If, on the one hand, St. Luke has told us how the Lord "was carried up into heaven," and St. Mark 2 has followed Him with the eye of faith even up to the moment of His session at the right hand of God, no less, on the other, is our text a most significant testimony from the beloved Apostle, that, when the Lord arose, that ascension had vir- tually commenced, that He rose to ascend, and that in the early dawning of that Easter morn the Lord's return to the throne of Omnipotence was already begun 3 — "I as- cend to my Father and your Father, and to Ch. xx. 17. J J my God and your God." We might extend these observations, but enough, per- haps, has been said to indicate the general Resumption o/ the character of this portion of the inspired nar- narrative. 1 L rative, and the general nature of the difficul- ties we may expect to meet with. We must now turn to 1 It may be remarked how comparatively little the ascension of our Lord is dwelt upon by the early writers, compared with their references to the resurrec- tion, and it may also be observed that the special festival, though undoubtedly of great antiquity (see Augustine, Epist. ad Januar. liv. Vol. ii. p. 200, cd. Migne), and certainly regarded in the fourth century as one of the great festi- vals (Const. Apost. viii. 33), is still not alluded to by any of the earliest writers, Justin Martyr, Iren;eus, Clement of Alexandria, and Cyprian, and is not in- cluded in the list of festivals enumerated by Origen (contr. Cels. vm. 21, 22). See Riddle, Christian Antiq. p. 678. The preaching of the apostles was preemi- nently the resurrection of Christ (Acts ii. 31, iv. 33 al.), as that which included in it everything besides; it was from this that the early Church derived all its full- est grounds of assurance. Comp. Clem. Rom. Epist. ad Cor. cap. 42. 2 For a brief discussion of the arguments in favor of the genuineness of the concluding verses of St. Mark's Gospel, see above, Lect. I. p. 40, note. 3 Though the use of the present ava&alva) John xx. 17) man be regarded as ethical, i. e., as indicating what was soon and certainly to take place (see Winer, Gram. § 40. 2, p. 237, ed. 6), it seems here more simple to regard it as temporal, — as indicating a process which had in fact already begun. The extreme view of this text, as indicating that an ascension of our Lord took place on the same day that He rose (Kinkel, in Stud. u. Krit. for 1841, translated in Bibliotheca Sacra, Vol. i. p. 152 sq.), is, it is needless to say, plainly to be rejected, as incon- sistent with Acts i. 3, and numerous other passages in all the four Gospels. Lect. VIII. THE FORTY DAYS. 339 its subject-matter, and to a consideration of the few but notable events which mark this concluding part of our Redeemer's history. One of the last events in the preceding portion of our narrative is that which connects us with the . • , -n • 3 -ii t^' 1 of the u '°" present, and unites the Jbriday eve with the men to the «■,.«/- Easter morn. This we observe especially in the Gospel of the historian Evangelist, who, without any break or marked transition, relates to us how the minister- ing women of Galilee now come to perform the pious work for which they had made preparations on the Friday evening. They had bought spices and oint- ments ere the Sabbath had commenced, and ' Hark xvi. 1. again, as it would seem, after its legal conclu- sion on the Saturday evening. Every preparation was thus fully made, and it remained only that with the earliest light of the coming day they should bear their offering to the sepulchre, and tenderly anoint that sacred body 1 which tiny had seen laid in haste, though with all reverence and honor, in the new rock-hewn tomb. It was still dark wdien they set out, and their hearts were as sad and as gloomy as the shadows of the night that were still lingering around them. 2 But the mere needs of the present were what now l The object is more definitely stated by St. Mark than by St. Matthew. The first Evangelist says generally that it was i&ecoprjffai rbv ra. i r> ii i *- 7 '- xx i v - 3. tells us, into the tomb itself, and by the see- ing of the eye are assured that the holy body they them- selves had beheld securely laid there is now there no longer. The tomb is empty ; they have searched and have not found, and now stand sadly gazing on each other in utter bewilderment and perplexity. But one there was among them more rapid in the in- ferences of her fears, and more prompt in action. Ere, as it would seem, the rest had entered the sepulchre and com- menced their search, Mary Magdalene was already on her way to Jerusalem. 2 She who owed to Him i -i • i st i i n -i o Lu}:e viiim %• that died on Golgotha a freedom from a state worse than death, and who loved even as she had been 1 Some little difficulty lias been felt in the clause %v yap /xtyas ff(p68pa (Mark xvi. 4), as it might seem rather to give a reason why the women meditated how the stone should be removed, than why they perceive that what they mused on had happened. If, however, we make the assumption in the text, or some simi- lar one, as to the position of the stone, all seems clear; while the women are yet at a little distance they perceive that the stone is not in its place, it being of large size, and its changed position readily seen. This harmonizes with the supposition thai -Mary Magdalene went away first, and at once. Compare John xx. 1, 2, /3A.«7T6« k. t. A. Tpe'xe* oiv k. r. A.., where the oiv must not be left unnoticed. 2 The common supposition is that Mary ran first to the sepulchre, without wailing for the rest; to this, however, there are objections arising from the fact that St. Matthew specifies that there was at least another with her when she went ifh. xxviii. 1), and that St. Luke implies that she acted in some degree of conceit with the other women. Compare Wieselcr, Chron. Synops. p. 430, and see below, p. 842, note 2. The primary difficulty that St. John names no other woman than Mary, must be cut. if not solved, by the reasonable assertion that St. John was moved to notice her case particularly, and by the fair principle of Lc Clerc, which so often claims our recognition in this part of the inspired nar- rative, — "qui plura narrat, pauoiora compleotiturj qui pandora memorat, plum noii negat." — Harmon, p. 625, Can. m. flu. (cited by Kobinson). 29* 342 THE FORTY DAYS. Lect. VIII. blessed, no sooner beholds the stone removed from the doorway of her Lord's resting-place than she sees, or seems to see, all. She whose whole present thought was only how she might do honor to her Master's body, how best strew the spices around the holy body, how most tenderly spread the ointment on the sacred temples of the sleeping head, now at a glance perceives that others have been before her; she sees it, and at once fears the worst, — her Lord's sepulchre violated, His holy body borne away to some dishonored grave, 1 or exposed to shame and indigni- ties which it was fearful even to think of. Help and coun- sel must at once be sought, and that of a more effectual kind than weak women could provide. Perhaps, with a few hasty words to those around, 2 she runs with all speed to the Lord's most chosen fol- lowers, Peter and John, and in artless language, which incidentally shows that she had not been the sole visitant of the tomb,® at once tells them the mournful tidings, — " They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid Him." The two Apostles promptly attend to the 1 See above, p. 326, note 3. 2 This supposition, though not positively required by any of the succeeding incidents, is still hazarded, as serving to indicate how it might have happened that the women did not meet St. Peter as he was coming up to the sepulchre. Knowing that one of their party had gone to him, the women possibly went off in different directions to the abodes of the other Apostles. Though they were all assembled together in the evening (Luke xxiv. 36, John xx. 19), it does not follow that they were now all occupying a common abode. Comp. Griesbach, Opusc. Acad. Vol. ii. p. 243. If further conjectures are worth making, it does seem wholly improbable that St. Peter might have been now in the abode that contained St. John and the Virgin (John xix. 27). The psychological truth in Mary's running for help to men is noticed by Luthardt, Johann. Evang. Part II. p. 435. It is, however, quite as useful in illustrating the reason why Mary did not remain with those unable to help, as why (on Luthardt's hypothesis) she did not run back to them. 3 This deduction from the plural oVBafAev (John xx. 3) is objected to by Meyer (in loc), who urges the oI5a (ver. 13) as fully counterbalancing the plural in the present case. This does not seem satisfactory. The first statement was made under different feelings to the second ; now she had but lately left others, and speaks under the natural consciousness of the fact; afterwards she feels left alone in her sorrow, and speaks accordingly. See below, p. 346, note 2. Lect. vrrr. the forty days. 843 message and hasten to the sepulchre, followed, as it would seem, by her who brought the tidings, and who, it appears from the context, must have J£ arrived there not long afterwards. Ere, however, the two Apostles had reached the tomb, other messengers, filled indeed with an awe , i i i • i • The appearance and amazement that sealed their lips to every aftheangeu to the i .ii. /Mil i '.i t„ women - c , . comp. Mutt, xxviii. host, announce to them that the Lord is risen, 5. and bid them with all speed convey the tid- Matt.tacvHS.7. ings to the Apostles, and tell them that the ver.7. Markxoi. risen Shepherd gocth before His flock 3 to 7- (Jalilee, even as He had solemnly promised ch. win. s. /.XT- • Mark xvi. 10. three days before on the eve of His passion. The message, we know, was speedily delivered ; the weep- 1 It seems unreasonable in Meyer {on Marl: xvi. 8) and others to press the ovStvl ovblv (Ittov of the second Evangelist, as implying that the women did not obey the angel's command, and that it was only afterwards that they men- tions! it. Siiiily it is reasonable on psychological grounds (to borrow a favor- ite mode of argument in modern writers) to think that the women would not, Individually, much less collectively, disobey a command of such a kind, and uttered by such a speaker. Fear sealed their lips to chance-met passers to and fro, but joy (Matt, xxviii. 8) opened them freely enough to the Apostles. i The question of the number of the angels present at the sepulchre possibly admits of some sort of explanation similar to those already adopted in not unlike eases (p. ITS. note 2; p. 251, note 1), and founded on the assumption that our was the chief speaker, and that to him attention was particularly directed. It is however, perhaps more probable that in the present case the difference is to be referred to the special excitement of the time, and the perturbed state of the observers (Luke xxiv. 5). Compare Stier, Disc, of oar Lord, Vol. viii. p. 03 (Clark). 3 The term irpodyd (Matt, xxviii. 7, Mark xvi. 7) Is rightly explained by Stier and others as indicating, not b mere precedence in reference to the time of going, but BS marking the attitude of the risen Lord to His now partly scattered flock. Observe the connection in Matt. xxvi. oi Bq., and Mark xi\ . 27 sq. 344 THE FORTY DAYS. Lect. YIII. ing and desolate Apostles 1 were sought out and told the cheering tidings, but their sorrow clouded their faith ; the words of the excited messengers seemed foolishness unto them, and they believed them not. Sad- dened, perhaps, and grieved that they could not persuade those to whom they were sent, yet strong in a faith that was soon to receive its exceeding great reward, the women appear to have turned backward again 2 toward the one spot in the world on which their thoughts now were fixed — their Master's tomb. Let us, however, turn back for a moment to Mary Magdalene and the two Apostles. They a ™Vto,^? P ° StleS WGre n0W a11 thl ' ee at tlie t0mb - St - J ° lm had reached it first, but with the feelings of a holy awe had not presumed to enter his Master's tomb, though he had seen enough to feel Toimxx.5. half convinced that Mary's tidings were Ver.5. . ° Ver & true. St. Peter follows, and with charac- teristic promptness enters the tomb, and steadily surveys 3 its state, and the position of the grave- 1 The graphic comment on the state of the Apostles when Mary Magdalene brought her message airriyyetAep rots /ast' ainoii ytvofxtvots, irev&ovaiv K al KXaiovaiv (Mark xvi. 10), seems justly to outweigh all the petty excep- tions that have been taken by Meyer and others to some expressions in this verse (e/ceiVrj, used without emphasis; Tropev&elffa, -rots /tier' avrov ytvofxeyois, instead of to?s fj.a&rjTa?s avrov) which are urged as foreign to St. Mark's style. If the hypothesis already advanced (p. 40, note 1) be accepted, viz., that St. Mark added this portion at a later period, we only here meet exactly with what we might have expected, identity in leading characteristics, change in details of language. 2 It seems reasonable to suppose that the women would return to the sepulchre. They left it in great precipitation (((pvyou, Mark xvi. 8), and would naturally go back again, if not for the lower purpose of fetching what they might have left there, yet for the higher one of gaining some further knowledge of a mystery which even Apostles refused to believe. Compare, thus far, Wieseler, Chron. Synops. p. 425 sq. 3 The verb Seo>pe?i>, though frequently used by St. John (above twenty times), seems in the present case (&ta.'pt7 ra 6$6i>ia Kel^iei/a, k. t. \. ch. xx. C), as indeed commonly elsewhere, to mark the steady contemplation ("ipsius aninii inten- tionem denotat qua quis intuetur quidquam." Tittm.) with which anything is regarded by an interested observer; a-xavra. Karwrnsvatv aKptficis, Chrys. See the good comments on this word in Tittmann, Si/non. Xor. Test. p. 120 sq. The remark of Stier is perhaps not wholly fanciful, that the visibility of angels is Lect. VIII. THE FORTY DAYS. 345 clothes. Wh.it his exact feelings then were we know not, though we know those of his brother Apostle who now cut cied into the tomb. He too saw the position of the grave-clothes, the swath ing-ba ml s by themselves in one part of the tomb, the folded napkin in the 1 ' l Vcr.7. other, every sign of order and none of con- fusion, 1 and he who had perhaps before believed that the tomb was empty, now believes, what a true knowledge of tin' Scriptures might have taught him at first, that the Lord is risen.- Consoled, and elevated in thought and hope, the two Apostles turn backward to their own home. 3 .Meanwhile Mary Magdalene had now returned to the tomb, though, as we must conclude from the context, wilh- dependent upon the existing wakefulness or susceptibility of the beholding eye, and that thus the investigating Apostles did not see them, while to the rapt and longing Mary they became apparent. See Disc, of our Lord, Vol. viii. p. 68, and comp. the somewhat similar but overconfidently expressed "canon" of LUcke, ( | ,i,ii,i nt. ub. .Ink. Vol. ii. p. 781 (ed. 3). 1 The position of the grave-clothes is specially noticed as showing clearly that there had been no violation of the tomb: '• inde patebat, ilium qui statum sejiul- Ohri inutaverat. quicuiique tandem fuerit, nihil festinanter egisse . . . sed studio et com certo cousilio lintea corpori detraxissc, et concinno online in diversis locifl reposuisse." — Lunipe, in loc, cited by Luthardt, p. 430. On the further deductions from this passage (8ti ovk 1\v (TirevSouToiv ov5e ^opv^oufiii/wu to ■n-pay/ia, Chrys.) see above, p. 340, note 3. 2 The exact meaning of iirloTewrev (John xx. 8) is somewhat doubtful. Are we to understand by it merely that the Apostle believed in Mary's report (-'quod dixerat mulier, cum de monumento esse sublatum," August, in Joarm. Tractat. cxix.). or, in accordance with the usual and deeper meaning of the word, that he believed in the religions truth, viz., of the resarrection (TJj avaff-racrzi, tiria- rewaf, Chrys.)? Certainly, as it would seem, the latter. The ground of the belief was the position of the grave-clothes, which was inconsistent with the Supposition of a removal of the body by enemies; anb tt)s t£>v b^tov'nnv avWo- yris ivvovo-i ti> avdaraatu, Cyril. Alex, in Joann. Vol. iv. p. 107* (ed. Anbert). The supposed difficulty in the yap of the succeeding member seems removed by the gloss adopted above in the text. St. John BOW and believed (eTSfc /ecu hria- rtvatv): but had he known the Scripture he would not have required the evi- dence by which he had become convinced. Compare Robinson, liiblioih. Sacr. Vol. ii. p. 174. 3 The expression air?)A&oi/ irpbs abrobt {John xx. 10) seems rightly paraphrased by Euthymius, atrqA&OP, — irpbs r))v kavron/ Ka.Tayaiyr\v. So. similarly, Luke xxiv. 12. The two disciples returned to the places, or perhaps rather place (see above, p. 842, note 2), where they were abiding, to meditate upon the amazing miracle (compare Luke xxiv. 12); very soon afterwards, as we must infer from Luke xxiv. 24, they communicated it to the rest of the Apostles and the other brethren. 346 THE FORTY DAYS. Lkct. VIII. out having again met the two Apostles, who would other- wise have cheered her with the hopes they The Lord's ap- m pearance to iiwy themselves were feeling, and imparted to Jlai/dalciie. _ , . . . her some share ot their own convictions. But she was now standing weeping bv the John SCX. 11. ITT- 1 1 1 1 T 1 tomb, unconsoled and inconsolable; her Lord was borne away, and she knew not where he was laid : was not that cause sufficient for those bitter tears? Yet she will gaze at least into that quiet resting-place that once had contained her Lord and Saviour; she will gaze in, thouo-h she fears to enter. The fourth Evan- Ch. xx. 12. gelist has told us what she saw, — two angels as in attitude of still watching over Him who had but so lately lain there. 1 They ask her why she John xx. 13. , weeps. She has but one answer, the same artless words she uttered to the two Apostles, varied only by a slight change of person, that seems to tell of an utter grief and perplexity with which she feels herself now left to struggle unsustained and alone. 2 Yea, she turns away, as it would seem, even from angelic sympathy. But she turns to see, perhaps, now standing in some position in which immediate recognition was less easy, 3 One whom 1 There seems something more than arbitrary fancy (Meyer) in the idea alluded to in the text. The attitude of the angels, thus specially mentioned by the Apostle, was so explained by some of the best early commentators (o-ruxaivovres ws ovk &f 7|SiKT) tidings. clear that no credence was given to Mary's declaration that the Lord was alive again, and that her own eves had seen Him. This, at any rate, , Mark xvi. 11. they did not and could not believe. They had but lately, as it would seem, heard strange tidings from the women, and they might possibly have come to the belief that a part at least of these tidings was true. 2 But the Lord Himself no eye had seen ; 3 nay, the very removal of the bodv, which might have been admitted 1 Most commentators have rightly called attention to our Lord's present use of the term •• brethren"' (John xx. 17) in reference to the Apostles, though they differ in their estimate of the exact sentiment it seems intended to convey. The most natural view seems that of Euthymins, that it was indirectly to assure the disciples that the Lord was still truly man, and still stood, in this respect, on the same relations with them as before: '• lie named them brethren, as being him- self a man, and their kinsman according to man's nature." — In Joann. xx. 17, Vol. iii. p. 635. 2 The exact amount of information of what had taken place which the Apostles had up to this time received, and their present state of feeling, can only be gener- ally surmised. All we know certainly is that they had received the first tidings of the women and regarded them as "idle tales" (Luke xxiv. 11). It is indeed possible that, previous to the arrival of Mary Magdalene, some of them might have learnt from St. Peter and St. John, or from those to whom those Apostles might have mentioned it, " that the body was not in the sepulchre " (comp. Luke XXiv. 28) J the probable shortness of time, however, between the departure of the two Apostles and the second departure of Mary, and the improbability of the supposition that the disciples were already all assembled together (see above, p. 312, note 2), render it natural to think that not much more could be generally known that had been communicated by the first women. Even it \\e adopt the supposition alluded to in the preceding note, and con- ceive the results of the visit of St. Peter and St. John to have been now known to the rest of the Apostles, it still seems clear that any account of an actual visi- ble appearance of our Lord would have been regarded little less incredible than before. The two travellers to Emmaus, though probably starting at a time (see below) when more would bare been known, speak of the confirmation which tli- report of the women had received, but add the melancholy conviction of the disciples generally, aWlf 6« ouk «(5of, Luke xxiv. 24. ;30 350 THE FORTY DAYS. Lect. Till. and believed in, served perhaps only to confirm the vague feeling that now all trace was forever lost ; that the angels of which the women had spoken had borne away the holy body to some sepulchre unknown as that of Moses ; and that the dream of any earthly union was more than ever impossible and unimaginable. The vision of angels they perhaps had now joomp.Lvkexxiv. De g Un partially to believe in, 1 but that their Lord had been seen by the excited woman that now stood before them, that He had spoken with her, and made her the bearer of a message, was a dream and a hallucination too wild to deserve even a moment's attention. But they were soon to receive yet further and fuller testimony. Hitherto those that had come ne lorcrs ap- t them could speak only from the seeing peurance to the I J o other ministering Q f ftlQ eVe ' OtheVS Wei'g DOW tO COtlie W'ho women. J could plead the evidence of another sense, and could tell not only of what their eyes had seen but their "hands handled." Very shortly, perhaps, after Mary Magdalene had left the Apostles, 2 the other ministering women, who had brought the first tidings to Matt.xxviii.O. , ° . _ -, . the Apostles, are permitted to meet then- Lord face to face, yea, and to clasp the holy feet before 1 After the intelligence brought by Maty Magdalene, the Apostles might have been led to believe that the tomb really was empty, and, further, that marvellous things had been seen (comp. Luke xxiv. 23); but more than this, it seems certain, •was not believed by any except by St. John. On the slowness of the Apostles to believe, see Stier, Disc, of our Lord, Vol. viii. p. 96. The reasons why women were the first bearers of the tidings of the resurrection are alluded to by Augustine, Serm. xlv. Vol. v. p. 266, Serm. ccxxxn. ib. p. 1108 (ed. Migne). 2 It would seem probable that the women returned with the account of having seen the Lord not long after Mary Magdalene had left the Apostles. We have, however, no data for fixing even roughly the probable time, the very fact of such a return being in itself in some degree debatable. See below, p. 351, note 3 It may indeed be urged that, if the disciples had received thus early this double testimony, the travellers to Emmaus would have alluded to such au appearance (comp. Luke xxiv. 22); but to this it may be replied, that, through- out, the tidings brought by the women seem to have been viewed with distrust; the speakers rather appeal to what the apostles had seen and verified, and to them the Lord had certainly not yet appeared. Lect. Ylir. THE FORTY DAYS. 3.">1 which they had at once fallen in trembling and believing adoration. They saw, they believed, they touched, and they worshipped. 1 More we know not; where they were, or under what circumstances they thus beheld the Lord, must remain only a matter of the merest conjecture.- If we adopt the received text we may seem to have some grounds for thinking that this appearance was vouchsafed to the women soon after leaving the sepulchre; but as the text which favors such an opinion has been justly regarded extremely doubtful, 3 and as such a supposition scarcely admits of any reasonable reconciliation with the distinct statement of the second Evangelist that Mary i«r -. , r> , , . Xarkxvi.9. .Magdalene was the nrst mortal to whom the risen Lord vouchsafed to show Himself, we shall perhaps 1 The conduct of the women, when our Lord thus vouchsafed to appear to them, is noticeable and instructive. It is specially recorded by St. .Matthew (ch. xxviii. 9) that they "held Him by tin- feet," and "worshipped Him" (irpo- aeicvvriffav avr6v). They at once recognize Him, with holy awe (ver. 9), not merely as their Teacher (contrast .John xx. 1G), but as their risen Lord, and instinctively pay Him an adoration which, as Bengel has rightly observed, was but rarely evinced towards our Lord by His immediate followers previous to His passion: "Jesuni ante passionem alii potius alieniores adorarunt quam disci- puli." — In Matt, xxviii. 9. The exact feeling which led to their embracing the Lord"s feet has been differently estimated; the act may have been from a desire to convince themselves that it was He (Chrysost. in /<«.■.), or from joy at again beholding Him they had thought lost to them (De Wette), but from the context (compare ver. 10) seems more naturally to have been from a reverential love (e/e ir6dov koJ Tt/UTJs, Buthym.), that evinced itself in supplicating adoration. Com- pare Up. Hacket, Sinn. viii. on I!t xurr. p. 018 (Lond. 1675). -' We have nothing from which to infer where or when our Lord appeared to the women. If we adopt what seems the true reading in ver. 9 (see the following note), there seems nothing unreasonable in the conjecture that, after the delivery of the first tidings to the Apostles, they directed their steps back again to the sepulchre (see above, p. 344, note 2), and that it was on their way there that the Lord vouchsafed to appear to them. 8 If we adopt the received text in Matt, xxviii. 9, is St inopcvovTO a.Trayyu\ai TOts p.abr)Tais avrov, we have no alternative but to suppose that the appearance of our Lord took place when the women were first on their way to the apostles. As, however, the above words are rejected by I.aclmiaim, Tischeiidorf, and Tre- gelles, on w hat seem- sufficient evidence (see Ti-cheiid. ill tor. Vol. i. p. 164), and have Strongly the appearance of an explanatory gloss, we are in no way neces- sitated by the context to refer the incident to the first journey. No valid objec- tion to this can be urged from the irop(vop.(vniv 5e avTuf of ver. 11 ; tin apoel le, having related all connected with the women, reverts to the terrified guard (ver. 4), and to the further circumstances collected with them; to this fresh para- graph he suitably prefixes a note of time. 352 THE FORTY DAYS. Lect. VIII. be right in conceiving that the appearance was subse- quent to the first communication which the women made to the Apostles, and most undoubtedly subsequent to the appearance to Mary Magdalene. 1 It might thus seem designed not only to add confirmation to the statements which had been made by Mary, but again to convey a special and singular command relative to the Lord's ap- pearance in Galilee 2 which had first been alluded to by the angels, and appears to have been directed, Luke ocriv. 9. . . and indeed understood to have been directed, to all the company of believers then abiding in Jeru- salem. But the apostles were to receive yet a third and more convincing testimony that their Lord had o/!!urTonno1Z risen, and had been seen, yea, and spoken two ascites jou,- w ith, by those who had known Him in the neying to £mmaus. ' * flesh. Meet indeed was it that the holy eleven should now learn to believe. Were they to be the last to welcome back their risen Saviour? Were their hearts to be duller even than that of the Lord's worst and most cruel enemies ? Already we know that these things 1 Independently of the very distinct statement of Mark xvi. 9, itpavr) tr p w- t ov Mapia rij May8a\i)i>ri (opp. to Robinson, Bibl. Sacra, Vol. ii. p. 178), it seems impossible, on sound principles of interpretation, to maintain, with Wiese- ler (Citron. Syn. p. 426) and others, that the appearance recorded in John xx. 14 sq. is identical with that to the other women; every circumstance is not only different, but contrasted. See Sticr, Disc, of our Lord, Vol. viii. p. 91 (Clark), and comp. Andrewes, Semi. iv. Vol. ii. p. 233 (A.-C. L.), Ilacket, Serm. viii. on Jtesurr. p. 616 (Lond. 1675), both of whom rightly consider the appearance to Mary distinct from that to the women. 2 The repetition, from our Lord's own lips, of the direction which had so recently been given by the angels (Matt, xxviii. 7, Mark xvi. 7), that the disci- ples were to depart into Galilee, accompanied with the reiterated promise that there they should see Him (Matt, xxviii. 10), seems clearly to invest the appear- ance specified by St. Matthew (ver. 16 sq.) as having taken place in that country with great importance and significance. The very distinct and consoling ko.k(i fie oi\iovto.i (ver. 10), when coupled with the remembrance that it is simply cer- tain that on the present day (John xx. 19) our Lord appeared to the eleven and those with them in Jerusalem, seems certainly to predispose us to believe that the appearance in Galilee was to the Church at large, and thus was identical with the appearance specified 1 Cor. xv. 6. See, however, the further remarks, p. 368, note 1. Lect. VIII. TIIE FORTY DAYS. 353 had reached the ears of the Sanhedrin, and that the tidings brought by the terrified soldiers had oaused them deliberately to fabricate a lie for these bribed watchers to repeat, 1 lest the fact of the super- natural disappearance of the body should be publicly known, and the multitude should believe what their very lie showed they themselves were in a great measure forced to admit. Were Romans to testify, and Jews to accept, and Christians still to doubt ? Friends, it seemed, required fuller confirmation than enemies, and fuller confirmation was it mercifully appointed that they were yet to receive. Ere the day closed two of the Lord's followers, but neither, as it would seem, of the number of the eleven, 2 were to be the bearers of the third testimony to the still perplexed and doubting Apostles. Comi '- Mark xiv - On the particulars of that interesting jour- ney to Emmaus 3 it will not be necessary to dwell, as 1 The studious way in which this lie was propagated is alluded to by Justin Martyr ( Trypho, cap. 108, compare capp. 17, 117), who taxes the Jewish rulers with having sent out " chosen men over the whole world " for this special pur- pose. Compare also Tertullian, mlr. Mure. in. 23. The missionary efforts of the Jews against the Christians are mentioned by Eusebius [in Jes. xviii. 1) in a valuable passage cited both by Thirlby and Otto in their notes on Just. 51. Trypho, cap. 17. Compare Tertull. ad Nat. 1. 14, adv. Judceos. cap. 13. Some good comments on the incident of the bribery of the guards, and on the fact that it is especially related by St. Matthew, will be found in Sherlock, Trial of Wit- nesses, Vol. v. p. 182, and in Sequel of Trial, ib. p. 274. - Who the two disciples were has been much debated. The popular view that Cleopas was identical with Clopas or Alphens (oomp. p. 101, note), and the farther nut unnatural supposition that his companion was James his son, are open to this etymological objection, that KKeonas appears not to be identical with KAo;- irtis, but to be a shortened form of KAeo7raTpos, like 'Aj/Tnras (Iter, ii. 13) and similar forms. See Winer, Gr. § 10, 4. 1, p. 93. If this be so, the slight proba- bility that the BeCOnd of the two was James is proportionately weakened, and the appeal to 1 Cor. xv. 7 less plausible. We are thus thrown wholly upon con- jecture. This, in its most ancient form, appears to regard the unnamed disciple as Simon (Origen, Comment, in Joann. I. 7. Vol. iv. p. 8, ed. Bened.), and both as of the number of the Beventy disciples; "And you mni t know that these two belonged to the number of the seventy, and that Cleopas*S companion was Simon, — not Peter, nor he of Cana, but another of the seventy." — Cyril. Alex < ' m 8t. Luke, Part ii. p. 726 (Transl.). 8 The site of Emmans ia somewhat doubtful. In ancient times it appears to have been identified with Nicopolis on the border.of the plain of Phillatia, but erroneously, as the distance Of this latter place from Jerusalem (about twenty- 30* 354 THE FORTY DAYS. Lect. VIII. all is so clear and simple, and so completely free from those difficulties of adjustment with which we have hitherto had to contend. We may, however, pause to remark, that the time when the incident took place is generally defined by St. Luke as having formed part of the same day on which our Lord rose from the rer. 29; comp. jr raV e. As we know that it was not vet tier. 33. ° •> evening when the two disciples turned back- ward to Jerusalem, and as we are also specially informed by the Evangelist of the distance 1 of Emmaus from the city, we may perhaps reasonably suppose that they started some little time before mid- day, and so, very probably, might have heard of the later announcements made to the Apostles by Mary Magda- lene and the other ministering women. " Him they saw not" seems, however, to be the pathetic bur- ner. 24. . \ den of their discourse and their commun- ings, 2 and forms, as it were, the sad summary of that want two Roman miles) cannot possibly be reconciled with the distance specified by the Evangelist. See next note. In later times it has been identified with the village of El-Kubeibeh, about two and a half hours A T . VV. of Jerusalem (Van de Velde, Memoir to Map, p. 309), but for this there appears no reasonable grounds of any kind. Either, then, with Porter (Smith, Diet. s. v., Vol. i. 548), we must consider the site yet to be identified, or we must accept the tradition of the Greek church, which places it at Kuriet el-'Enab (Abu Gush). In defence of this latter opinion, see some good remarks of Williams, Journal of Philology, Vol. iv. p. 262 sq. 1 A few manuscripts (H Kl N; 5 cursive MSS.)and a few versions read tita- tqv i^i-jKuvTa for e|i';«o^Ta in Luke xxiv. 13, making the distance of Emmaus one hundred and sixty instead of sixty stadia from Jerusalem. This reading has been supported by Robinson (Palestine, Vol. iii. p. 150, ed. 2) as tending to favor his identification of Emmaus with 'Amwas (the ancient Nicopolis), but is rightly rejected by all modern editors. The statement of Josephus (Bell. Jud. vn. 6. 6) that there was a place of this name sixty stadia (so all the best DISS.) from Jerusalem, and the other arguments urged by Reland against the identifi- cation with Nicopolis, have justly been considered satisfactory and final. See PalcBstina, p. 42G sq. 2 It is doubtful how much information the two travellers to Emmaus had received in reference to our Lord's resurrection. It might possibly be concluded from Luke xxiv. 23, 24, that they had not heard of the tidings brought by Mary Magdalene and the women relative to the Lord's appearances, but this, owing to the time at which they appear to have started, is not likely. They probably speak in reference to the confirmatory reports of the ticcs tu'v avv ■jjij.'ii' (ver. 24), and to what they themselves believed. See above, p. 350, note 2. LBOT. VIII. THE FORTY DAYS. 355 of faith which the Lord was pleased so mercifully and so effectually to rebuke by the deliberate statement and ex- position 1 of all the passages of the prophetic Scriptures that related to Himself, and had foretold His approaching glorification. One other remark we may make on the apparently sin- gular fact that the two disciples were not able l Inability of the to recognize our Lord till the very moment of «/bci;.fcj to recog- _ liiii nize our Lord. His departure; that they not only beheld Him, and heard His words, but felt their hearts kindle as they listened to His teaching, and yet never surmised even who it was that spake with them. Singular indeed such a fact does seem if we are to reason merely from what we know or think we may know of that which constitutes personal identity, 2 but in no- wise singular if we will dismiss our philosophy and our speculations, and accept only what is told us by one and confirmed by another Evangelist. Plainly are we told by St. Luke that the eyes of the two disciples were holden, that by divine interposition 3 1 There is some little difficulty in the explanation of the words ical ap^a/xevos airb Mwiio-ecos k, r. \. Luke xxiv. 27. The simplest interpretation is either to regard the ko.1 ap^aLia/os as belonging to both parts (" beginning with Moses, ami with each of the prophets as he came to them," Meyer, Alford), or, still mini' simply, to consider the second ano as a continuation ami echo of tin- Bret, which necessarily turns the substantive it precedes into the genitive, and involves a slight laxity in the mode of expression, the meaning really being, " lie began with Hoses, and went through all the prophets." See Winer, Cram. « i',7. 2, p. 557 (ed. 6). 2 Into such considerations it seems here wholly undesirable to enter, as in ordinary cases they involve much that is debatable, and. in the present, much that is presumptuous. All that we arc concerned to know and believe may be very simply stated. On the one hand, we have before us in this portion of the Gospel history the certain fact that our Lord's body was the same body as that which was laid in the tomb (Luke xxiv. 39, John xx. 20), and, on the other, the Oertain feet that Bis form sometimes appeared to be so far different from it (.Mark x\i. 12) as not to be recognized. The reconciliation of these two state- mentS may be difficult, owing to our ignorance of the exact nature of the Lord's resurrection body, but the facts no less remain. 3 The meaning of the words 01 d ri^pota/xevovs tovs ei/Sexa teal tovs avv aurois, oh. xxiv. 33, leads us to conclude that others beside the apostles were pres- enl at the appearance of our Lord which we are now considering. Whether, how- ever, all, or whether only the ten Apostles received the first-fruits of the lloly Spirit (John xx. 22), cannot positively be decided, as St. John only uses the gen- eral term fJ.ainiTai. Analogy might seem to suggest that, as others beside the Apos- tles (consider Acts ii. 1.4) appear to have received the miraculous gift of the Spirit on the day of l'entecost, so it might have been now; the power of binding and loosing, however, which seems to have been specially conveyed in this gift of the Spirit (see Chrysost. in fee), more naturally directs our thoughts solely to the Apostles, and leads us to think that they were on this occasion the only recipients; the airapxh of the Spirit is received by the a-n-apxv of the Church. So Andrewes, who, in his sermon on this text, defines " the parties to whom" as the Apostles. —Serin. IX. Vol. hi. p. 203 (A.-C. L.). 2 Of the appearance of our Lord to St. Peter, incidentally mentioned by St. Luke, and further confirmed by 1 Cor. xv. 5, we know notliing. It certainly occurred after the return from the sepulchre (Luke xxiv. 12, John xx. 10), but whether before the appearance to the two disciples on their way to Emmaua (Lange, Leben Jesu, 11. 8. 3, Tart in. p. 1091), or after it, as conjectured by Cyril Alex. (Comment, on St. Luke, Part 11. p 728, note), cannot be determined. The effect, however, produced by it was dearly very great. The words of the disci- ples now show plainly their conviction of the truth of the Lord's resurrection (riyipdri & Kvptos ovtws, ver. 3t), and the very construction adopted by the Evangelist implies how eager they were in expressing it: tvpov ri^poifffiffous tovs fvotna koX robs abv o.vto7s XtyovTas k. t. A. ver. B4. They gave hut little credence to the accounts of the women, bnt in the report of one of their own number, and that one St. Peter, they very nuturally put the fullest confidence. See above, p. 350, note 2. 358 THE FORTY DATS. Lect. VIII. "the Lord had risen indeed, and appeared unto Simon." And now they too in their turn have a tes- timony to render to the assembled disciples more full and explicit than any that had yet been delivered that eventful day. They have seen the Lord, they have journeyed with Him, they have conversed with Him, they have been instructed by Him, they have sat down with Him to an evening meal, 1 they have received bread from His sacred hands, and, at the very moment when recog- nition was permitted, they have seen Him vanish from their longing eyes. To such a testimony we marvel not to find it recorded that full belief even now was not extended. Events so circumstantial and so minutely specified seemed perhaps less to confirm than to bewilder. They might at length have been led to admit the already thrice-repeated statement that the Lord had been seen, that His sacred form had passed before the eyes of Peter, that it had even been seen by Mary Magdalene, and, even further, that it had been touched, or thought to have been touched, by the other women ; — this they might at length have been disposed either wholly or in part to believe, but the Luke xxiv. 37. ,. -, , . ■, . -, „ „„ present narrative seemed to involve ideas T'er.38. l of a bodily form and substance which their subsequent fears and our Lord's gentle reproof showed 1 It does not appear from the inspired narrative that our Lord actually shared with them their evening meal. The words Kal iytvero iv t<£ /caTa/cA(&f)fat k. r. A. (ver. 30) seem rather to imply that the Lord vouchsafed to sit down with the two disciples, and took the position, gladly offered, of master of the house, but that after He had pronounced the customary blessing [Mishna, " Bernchoth," vi. 6; the citation in Lightfoot, reproduced by most expositors, "Tres viri qui simul comedunt tenentur ad gratias indicendum " [cap. vn. 1] appears to refer to grace after meat), and had broken the bread and given it to the two disciples, He permitted Himself to be recognized, and then vanished from their eyes. The act by which the Lord was pleased to awaken their powers of recognition was " the breaking of the bread" (ev ttj K\deret rov &prov, ver. 35; on this foree of eV, see notes on 1 Thess. iv. 18); but how, whether by allowing them to see the wounds on His sacred hands, or (more probably) by some solemn and well-remembered gesture, we can only conjecture. The opinion of many of the early writers, that this was a celebration of the Eucharist, seems inconsistent with the specification of time (eV t£ KaraicA.) and the general circumstances of the present supper. Lect.VIII. THE FORTY DAYS. d59 they regarded as inconceivable and incredible. 1 We have no need, then, to explain away the accurate statement of the second Evangelist that they believed not , • i /• i r- -n CA. xvi. 14. the strange recital of the -wayfarers to Em- mans. 1 But, lo! a yet fuller testimony was now to be vouchsafed. Even while they were considering and dis- cussing these things, and now perhaps putting questions in every form to the two latest witnesses, the Lord Himself appears among them, and with words of holy and benedic- tory greeting shows unto them both His hands and His side. At first, as we learn from St. Luke's narrative, they were above measure per- turbed and terrified ; they well knew that the doors were closed, and yet they plainly beheld their Lord standing before them; 3 they knew not what to think ; they conceive 1 In spite of the joyful avowal of their belief that the Lord had risen, the disciples, as the inspired narrative plainly specifies, are greatly terrified (Luke xxiv. 37) when the Lord actually appears. This was not in itself wholly unnat- ural, but seems to have been increased by the belief that they were beholding a spirit {(S6kovu wytvfiaAewpuv), a persuasion against which our Lord's subse- quent words are specially directed. This in some measure prepares us for the statement in Mark xvi. 13. See the following note. -' There is confessedly, at first sight, some difficulty in reconciling the joyful greeting of the Apostles and their spontaneous announcement of the appear- ance to Simon (Luke xxiv. 34) with the incredulity with which St. Mark (ch. xvi. 18) tells us they received the account of the two disciples frbm Emmaus. It is possible that the ou5t eKeivois iiriffrevffav (ver. 13) may refer, not to the Apos- tles, bat to some of the others (to?s \otiro?s} to whom they related it (see August. v Sbvpwv KiK\a(rp.(vuiv (John xx. 19), repeated ver. 2C\ and in the latter case without any repetition of the reason, seems to point to the mode of the Lord's entry (&§poov tart) /ueVos, ChrysOBt.) as involving some- thing marvellous and supernatural. How this took place we are wholly unable to explain, but the conjecture may be hazarded that it was not so much spe- cially miraculous, as due to the very nature and properties of the body of the risen Lord. Compare p. 866 sq. The attempts to show that this might have been merely a natural entry (Robinson, Bibl. SOCT. Vol. ii. p. 182, COmp. Sher- lock, Triatqf Willi. Vol. v. p. 196) do not seem successful. The sittti ei's rb H((T0f of St. John appears correlative to the &(pavTos frfivero of St Luke (ch. xxiv. 31); if the hitter be supernatural, so certainly would seem the former. 3G0 THE FORTY DAYS. Lect.VIII. it must be His bodiless spirit that they are now beholding, and the flesh quailed. Though partially reassured by the sight of the wounds, and by the condescend- john'xL-it. m g l° ve which permitted them to touch the Lubexxiy.89. h \y body that stood before them, they even Luke xxiv. 41. •> J ' J then could not fully believe. But that lack- ing belief now no longer arose from a dull or faithless heart, but from a bewildering joy i 1 it was to be excused, yea, it was so far to be borne with that a special sign, which on another occasion had probably been Mark v. 43. -i • ■ m L i • n l • j.- used in a similar way to bring final conviction, was yet to be vouchsafed to the overjoyed but amazed be- holders. The fish and the honey-comb were taken by Him who, as Augustine has well said, had "the power though not the need of eating;" 2 they were taken in the presence of all; the Lord was pleased to eat thereof; and then, as we may infer from the context, the Apostles and assembled followers believed with all the fulness of a fervent, lasting, and enduring faith. Then at length the first-fruits of the effusion of the Holy Spirit were conveyed by an outward sign and medium, and the myste- rious power of binding and loosing was conferred upon the inspired and anew accredited Apostles. 3 1 See Luke xxiv. 41, ainVTovvTuv avruiv ctarb tt)s xctpay. With tin's the tX.dpr)(rav »(5()j/T6$ rhv Kvpiop of St. John (ch. xx. 20) seems exactly to harmo- nize. Joy is the pervading feeling, so great and so overwhelming, that they can hardly believe the evidence of their very eyes and ears. Both Chrysostom and Cyril of Alexandria here refer to John xvi. 22 as now notably fulfilled. -' This appears to have been a favorite comment of Augustine, and is as reason- able as it is pertinently expressed : " Fecit cum discipulis quadra ginta dies, intrans et exiena, manducans et bibens, non egestate sert potestate ; manducans et bibens, non esuriendo nee sitiendo, sed docendo et monstranclo." Serm. ccxclviii. 2, Vol. v. p. 1360. See also Serm. cxvr. 3, Vol. v. p. 659, in Joann. Tractat. lxiv. 1, Vol. iii. p. 1806, an interesting passage in the Civit. Dei, xin. 22, Vol. vii. p. 395, and some sound remarks in Cyril Alex. Commentary on St. Luke, Tart II. p. 730 (Trans!.). 3 The mysterious power now given to the Apostles was an essential adjunct to their office as the ambassadors of Christ, and, more especially, as the rulers of His Church; "potestas ista .... primitus ApcMolis lit ecclesias magistris et rec- toribus demandata est." Barrow, de Potest. Clav. Vol. via. 113. It had refer- Lect. VIII. THE FORTY DAYS. 06 1 But one there yet was of the number of the holy eleven who had not beheld with his own eyes, and <■ it j it a. t T Dubelitf of Thom- who could not and would not believe even „. our Lor(fs ap . the overwhelming testimony of the assembled S^^S***" believers. Seven days was he to remain in his unbelief. While his brother Apostles were now the probably conscious recipients of the eternal Spirit, 1 the unconvinced Thomas was yet seeking for outward and material evidences, without which he had avowed that he could not believe. And even these were vouchsafed to the now isolated Apostle. We read in the inspired narrative of the fourth Evangelist, how on the day which the Lord's renewed appearance thereon had now begun to stamp with a special sanctity, 2 our Lord appears in the same ence, as Meyer rightly observes, not merely to the general power of receiving into the Church or the contrary, but to their disciplinary power over individual members of it, both in respect of the retaining and the absolving of sins. On the subject generally, see Andrewes, Serm. Vol. v. p. 82 ( A.-C. Libr.) Barrow, de Potest. Ctav. Vol. viii. p. 84 sq. (Oxf. 1830), Bingham, Works, Vol. viii. p. 357 6q. (Lond. 1844), and comp. Marshall, Penit. Disc. I. 2, p. 10 sq. (A.-C. L.), Thorn- dike, Princ. of Chr. Truth, I. 9, Vol. ii. p. 157 (A.-C. L.). 1 It seems right and reasonable to suppose that the Apostles now felt them- selves endued with that gift of the Holy Ghost which they had received from their Lord, though as yet they could have had no power of exercising it. That this was a real airapxh of the Holy Ghost is rightly maintained by all the best expositors; the gift was not general like that at the Pentecost, but special and peculiar {iTrr\yay(v T Civ hv apyre k. t. \. fictKvvs irolov (ISos cvepyfias $i5ui(riv, Chrvsost.), yet no less veritably a gift of the Spirit. Luthardt (Johmin. Erang. Part ii. p. 449) presses the absence of the article, and urges that it was only a spirit of the new life as coming from the risen but not ascended Lord : for such a distinction, however, there is no sound grammatical foundation (see notes on Gal. v. 5), and apparently no evidence deducible from the language of the X. T. 2 It does not seem wholly improbable that we have here the very commence- ment, as it were, of the celebration of the Lord's day, and the earliest indication of that observance of the first day of the week which the Lord's resurrection had naturally evoked, and to which His present appearance gave additional sanction and validity. See Cyril Alex. inJoann. xx. 20, Vol. iv. p. 1104. and compare Hula. Essay for 1S43. p. 74. The fair statement of the whole contested subject would seem to be as follows, — that the dedication of one day of the week to the special service of God is binding on us by His primeval law, but that the special selection of the .first day rests on Apostolical, and, as the present case Be ma in suggest, indirectly Divine appointment. Compare also Abp. Bramhall, Lords Day, Vol. v. p. 32 sq. (A.-C. L.). 31 362 THE FORTY DAYS. Lect. VIII. supernatural manner; 1 we mark with adoring wonder how the personal test which the doubting Apostle had required was now vouchsafed to him, and it is with thankful joy that we hear that outburst of inspired conviction that now recognized in the risen Jesus, yea, in Him whose very wounds the privileged Apostle was permitted to touch, not so much the humanity as the divinity; 2 — "and Thomas answered and said unto Him, My Lord, and my God." Some time afterwards, how long we know not, followed the Lord's manifestation of Himself by the our Lord's ap- i a k e f Tiberias, of which we have so full pearanceby the lake ' of nberias. and explicit account from the hand of the ch.xxi.\sq. beloved Apostle. The promise of the great jfaM.asm-.32. Shepherd that He would 2fo before His flock Mark xiv. 28. r ° into Galilee, and would there appear unto them, was now first most solemnly fulfilled. Seven Apos- tles 3 are the first witnesses, and under circum- rohnxxi. 24. stances which the distinct and emphatic lan- guage of the inspired narrator leads us to believe produced 1 That our Lord's appearance was supernatural again rests on the special notice of the fact of the closed doors. See above, p. 359, note 3. The peculiar terms (here epx^rui kuI tart), ver. 26, comp. ver. 19) which seem designedly used by the Evangelists in describing our Lord's appearances are noticed by Stier, Disc, of our Lord, Vol. viii. p. 90 (Clark). 2 The declaration of St. Thomas has often and with justice been urged by writers upon our Lord's divinity, but the exact circumstances under which it was made, and which add so much to its force, have not always been sufficiently considered. Let it then be observed that it is at the very time when our Lord is being graciously pleased to convince His doubting follower of the reality of Ilis sacred body, in fact of His perfect humanity, that the Apostle so preeminently recognizes his Lord's divinity. With his hands on the sacred wounds, with evi- dence the most distinct that He whom he was permitted to touch was man, the convinced disciple, in terms the most explicit, declares Him to be God. Some sound comments on this text will be found in Cyril Alex, in Joann. xx. 28, Vol. iv. p. 1108 (ed. Aubert.), and for a collection of analogous passages, Waterland, Serm. vi. on our Lord's Divinity (Moyei-'s Led.) Vol. ii. p. 129. 3 It is not perfectly certain that the two not mentioned by name (&K\oi e'/c twi> na&rjTcou avrov 5vo, ver. 2) were Apostles, as the word fJ.a^7]Ta\ has some- times in St. John a more inclusive sense. As, however, in verse 1 it seems used to specify the Apostles (with verse 1 compare John xx. 26, to which the irahiv naturally refers the reader), the assumption that it is used in a similar sense in ver. 2 appears perfectly reasonable. See Ldcke, in loc. Vol. ii. p. 806 (ed. 3). Lect. VIII. THE FOHTY DAYS. 3G3 an impressiou almost more deep and enduring than any they had yet received. 1 Upon the details, where all is told "with such divine simplicity, and where there are no diffi- culties either in the language or in the sequence of the narrative, it will not perhaps be necessary to dwell. We may pause, however, to notice that again the disciples did not recognize the Lord, though they were near enough to the beach to hear his voice. 2 On this occasion, however, there seems no reason to sup- pose that the Lord's form was specially changed, or that it was not His divine pleasure that He should at first be rec- ognized. It was now, it must be remembered, early dawn ; the wearied men probably saw the figure somewhat indistinctly, and with the unobserv- ing eye of those who expect nothing and indeed perceive nothing different to the usual homely incidents of their daily life, 3 they answer the friendly call of the stranger ; 1 It is not wholly improbable that the emphatic declaration of the Apostle at the close of the narrative, in reference to the truth of his testimony (John xxi. 24), may have been occasioned by the feeling that this manifestation of our Lord vt as perhaps the most important that had yet been vouchsafed. It was indeed a manifestation (itpavtpwaev in tovtou St\\ov, oti ovx iwpuTo el jut) crvyKaTf^ri, Chrys.) alike convincing and consolatory. On the one hand, in the various acts He was pleased to perform (ver. 13), it most clearly set forth the reality of the Lord's risen body ; and, on the other, it assured the Apostles of the continuance ot those same miraculous powers which would have ever occupied so prominent a place in their retrospect of their Master's earthly ministry. On the importance of this revelation, see Augustine, in Joann. Tractat. cxxir., where it is suggested that the concluding verses of the preceding chapter might have been added, — "secutura narratloilis quasi prorcinium,quod ei quodammodo faceret eminentio- rcm locum." — Vol. iii. p. lUy'J (ed. Bligne). 2 The distance at which the boat was from the shore (about one hundred yards, ver. 8) would certainly be sufficient to prevent them immediately recog- nizing one whom, at that particular place and time, they were in no way expecting to see, unless, indeed, we are to suppose that there was something in the Lord's form and general appearance strikingly different from that of other men. This, however, we have already seen, does not appear to have been the case. Comj). Lect. m. p. 92, note 1. 3 It seems natural to think that the friendly voice, "calling, after the manner of the East, children" (Stanley, Palest, p. 374), and inquiring if they had any irpoacpayiov, was conceived by the disciples to be that of one who wished to buy of them, — an fXfWccv Ti wvt?i' i^Tacrai o.vt6v, 2u rls el, John xxi. 12. Here, again, the explanation of Chrysostom seems perfectly satisfactory : "Seeing his form somewhat different to what il was before, and with much about it that caused astonishment, they were above measure amazed, and felt a desire to make some inquiry about it; but their apprehension, and their knowledge that it was not another, but Him- self, restrained the inquiry." — In Joann. Vol. viii. p. 594 sq. 3J* 366 THE FORTY DAYS. Lect. VIII. special alteration in the Lord's appearance. A change doubtless there was, as the early interpreters have rightly surmised, 1 but it was a change probably rather felt than seen ; a change that might have deepened their reverential awe, but in no way interfered with the warm feelings of holy love which two at least appear to have specially evinced both in their words and their ac- Comp. ver. 19,20. . tions. Ihe very last glimpse we are per- mitted to behold of this third blessed interview with the disciples, so rich in symbol and so deep in meaning — this continuance, as it were, after the weary night had passed away, of the Last Supper, 2 is an incident that brings back the past, and mingles it, as it were, with the blessed and glorious present. Again St. Peter and St. John appear before us in their wonted relations of warmest and most clinging love to their holy Master. We see the Lord gradually and perhaps mysteriously withdrawing; 3 we see 1 See the above note. The exact words of Chrysostom are rfv fiop£i Hot, when viewed in connection with what precedes, would seem to be " follow me, even unto that martyr's death for my name which I have but just now foretold." Compare Augustine, in Joann. Tractat. cxxiv. 1, Vol. hi. p. 1370 (ed. MignS). Lect.TIIi. THE FORTY DAYS. oG7 the elder Apostle perhaps obeying literally the figurative command of his Lord, and behind him the ' . Per. 19. true-hearted son of Zebedee, both following the steps of their receding Saviour; we hear the solemn and mysterious words in answer to the un- "' John xxi. 22. befitting question, 1 and the holy, exalted, and most impressive scene fades away from our wondering eyes. But this interview, full as it was of blessedness and con- solation, was not to be the last. The Lord h, . , , • c TT* Appearance of ad promised, even on the morning or His the lord to the resurrection, that lie would meet His Church • "' ... ,„ Matt, xxi'iu. 10. in that land in which it had formerly been established and consolidated. And there, as it would seem, all now were assembled, 2 hourly expecting the com- plete fulfilment of a promise, of which the last-mentioned interview had been a commencement and first-fruits. Nor did they tarry long. Probably within a few days after the appearance by the lake, and on a moun- i . Ver. 16. tain which He had appointed, perchance that of the Beatitudes, 3 the Lord manifests Himself not only to 1 The exact meaning of the words used in reference to St. John has been much discussed. The most simple and satisfactory explanation would seem to be that alluded to by Theophylact, according to which the coming of the Lord is to be understood of that form of His advent which in His last prophecy He was pleased to connect with His final advent, viz., the fall of Jerusalem. Com- pare Matt. xiv. 28. The hypothetical mode of explanation (Cyril Alex., al.), and that which refers ixivuv to a natural death, seem much less satisfactory. 2 It seems reasonable to suppose that the great promise uttered by the angels after the resurrection (Matt, xxviii. 7, Mark xvi. 7), and specially confirmed by our Lord (John xx. 10), was understood to apply to the whole Church, and had induced the greater part of the brethren who were then in Jerusalem to take their way to Galilee and there await its fulfilment. Some of the Apostles, we have seen, had not ouly returned to Galilee but even resumed their former call- ing (John xxi. 2). 3 The exact scene of the solemn meeting is not further specified than as being "the mountain which Jesus appointed, " and in Galilee (Matt, xxviii. 1G). The only two conjectures worthy of consideration arc (a) that it was Tabor, which from its situation might seem not unsuitable for a place «f general meeting (.-re Lange, Leben Jesu, n. 8. 7. Part in. p. 1730), and (//) that it was the mountain on which the .Sermon had been delivered, which, from its proximity to the lake of Tiberias (see p. 1G9, note 2) and to the populous plain of Gennesareth, might Mini, topographically considered, even more suitable than Tabor, and from its connection with the founding of the Church much more probable, considered 368 THE FORTY DAYS. Lect. VIII. the eleven, but, as the terms of his promise seem fairly to imply, to the five hundred brethren 1 al- i cor. xv. 6. luded to by St. Paul. The interview was of the deepest solemnity, and tends to set forth the majesty of the risen Lord in a manner far more distinct than had even yet been witnessed. While a Matt, xxviii. 17. " few doubt the evidence of their senses, 2 and cannot apparently believe that they are beholding their Lord, the chosen eleven no sooner see than Matt, xxviii. 17. they adore. That adoration the Lord now not only accepts, but confirms by the mighty declaration that "all power now was given to Him in heaven and in earth." Yea, He gives it a yet deeper meaning and fuller significance by now issuing His great evangelical com- mission, and by enhancing it with that promise of bound- less consolation — that with those that execute that com- mission He will be present unto the end, even unto the theologically. The supposition of Hofmann {LebenJesu, § 89, p. 397) that the term " Galilee" here used by St. Matthew really refers, not to the country but to the northern summit of Olivet, which appears to have been so named (though not by any early writers), is by no means natural or probable. 1 Nearly all the best recent expositors concur in supposing, that the appear- ance of our Lord mentioned by St. Matthew (ch. xxviii. 16) is identical with that alluded to by St. Paul (1 Cor. xv. 6) as having been vouchsafed to above five hun- dred brethren at once. Comp. Wieseler, Chron. Synops. p. 434, Robinson, Bill. Sacra, Vol. ii. p. 185. It is true that St. Matthew only specifies the eleven as having gone to the appointed mountain, but the solemn character of the twice- repeated promise (see p. 352, note 2) on the morning of the resurrection, com- bined with the fact that our Lord had appeared twice previously to the collected Apostles, renders it highly probable that the term was here not intended to be understood as exclusive. 2 The statement that "some doubted," though strongly urged by Meyer and others (comp. Winer, Gr. § 17.2, p. 96) as referring to the Apostles, is far more reasonably referred to others who were with them. Though it cannot perhaps positively be asserted that St. Matthew must have used oi ij.ev — ol 5e if he had meant to indicate that some few of the Apostles doubted, yet it seems natural to suppose that some very explicit form of expression (e. g., rivts «'{ avTuv) would certainly have been selected to mark a fact in itself so unlikely (even if we con- fine ourselves to St. Matthew's Gospel) as the doubting of some of the eleven while the rest were sufficiently persuaded to worship. If we admit that the events specified by St. John, ch. xx. 19 — 29, preceded, then the supposition that the doubters were Apostles seems plainly preposterous. See Stier, Disc, of our Lord, Vol. viii. p 280 (Clark). The assumption of Miiller and others that the doubting only lasted till the Lord came nearer (TrpoatK&wi', ver. 18) is precarious, as no hint of this is contained in the words. Lect. VIII. THE FORTY DAYS. 369 hour -when His mediatorial kingdom shall be merged in the eternity of His everlasting reign. 1 One farther and last interview is yet to be vouchsafed, and of that a holier mountain even than .that of the Beatitudes is to be the scene and the ce ^ tm Lor (Luke xxiv. 50) refers to the scene of the commencement of this interview, from which our Lord conducted His disciples towards Beth- any. This may have been either in the neighborhood of the city, or more proba- bly in the city; perhaps in the same room, with its closed doors, where the Lord had already appeared twice before (John xx. 19, 26). 3 Comp. Heb. iv. 14, 8ie \r]\v&6Ta robs ovpavovs, where there seems no reason to consider the plural as without its proper force, especially when compared with Eph. iv. 10, 6 ai>afias inrepdva) irdvrwv rS>v ovpdvoiv : "Whatsoever heaven there is higher than all the rest which are called heavens, whatsoever sanctuary is holier than all which are called holies, whatsoever place is of great- est dignity in all those courts above, into that place did He ascend, where, in the splendor of His deity, He was before He took upon Him our humanity." — Pearson, Expos, of Creed, Art. vi. Vol. ii. p. 320 (ed. Burton). 4 There seems no sufficient reason for calling in question the ancient tradition that our Lord ascended from the Mount of Olives. The usual arguments, founded on the eus els &r)baviai> of Luke xxiv. 50 (Robinson, Palest. Vol. i. pp. 416) are not by any means conclusive, as it seems fairly probable that the words are not to be limited to the actual village, but generally referred to the brow or side of the hill, where the road strikes downward to Bethany. Comp. Acts i. 12, and see Lightfoot, Hor. Hebr. in Luc. xxiv. 50, Meyer, ub. Aposte/gescli. i. 12, Williams, Holy City, Vol. ii. p. 440 sq. Lect. VIII. THE FORTY DAYS. 371 ing the words of the last promise, they behold Ilim part- ing from them, rising from Olivet higher and yet higher, still rising and still blessing, until JO' o *-" Acts i. 9. the cloud 1 receives Ilim from their sight, and angelic voices address to them those words of mingled warning, consolation, and prophecy, " Why stand ye gaz- ing up into heaven ? This same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven." _ er ' '.. „„ J ° Rev. xxji. 20. Even so, come, Lord Jesus; come quickly. Amen. And now let us bring these meditations to their close, yet not without the expression of an earnest " Conclusion. hope that they may have in some degree tended to remove a few of the doubts and difficulties, which even the sober and the thoughtful have sometimes felt with regard to the connection of this portion of the Evangelical history. 2 Above all things, may it have been granted to 1 The cloud in which our Redeemer ascended was not only, as Stier suggests, typical of that cloud in which He will visibly return (if vetptAy, Luke xxi. 27), but also directs the thought to the mystery of the assumption of the faithful servants of Christ who at His second coming will be caught up "in clouds"' (eV vetpeKats, 1 Thess. iv. 17) to meet their Lord in the air. Compare Lect. IV. p. 217, note 1. It may be remarked further that if the words avftpepero ds rbf ovpavbv (Luke xxiv 61) be received as genuine, of which, supported as they are by external authority, there can be no reasonable doubt (Tisch. rejects them on most insufficient grounds), we have the gradual ascent upwards ( avecpepero, imperf.) vividly put before us: the Lord is parted from His disciples, and is beheld being borne upwards, till the cloud at length intercepts Him from the view of the watchers beneath. - If the views advanced in the preceding pages be accepted, it would seem that in the Gospels we have in all notices of nine appearances of our Lord after His resurrection ; (l)to Mary Magdalene; (2) to the other ministering women; (3) to the two disciples journeying to Emmaus; (•!) to St. I'eter; (5) to the ten Apos- tles; (6J to the eleven Apostles; (7) to seven Apostles by the sea of Tiberias; (8) to the eleven Apostles, and probably many others, on the appointed mountain; (9) tn the Apostles in or near Jerusalem, immediately previous to the ascension. Besides these, we learn from St. I'aul (10) that an appearance of our Lord was vouchsafed to James (1 Cor. xv. 7). This, if we conceive the passage to be writ- ten with reference to chronological order, would seem to have been shortly after the appearance to the live hundred brethren. The agreement of this enumeration of St. I'aul with the record of the appearances to msn, as recorded in the Gospels, is very striking, and has been rightly put forward by Wieseler, Citron. Synops. p. 413 sq. Comp. Ebrard, Kritih

7; to St. Peter, 357 n. ; to the eleven Apostles, 361; to disciples on the lake of Gcnnesareth, 362; to the five hun- dred brethren, 367; last, previous to ascension, 369. Ascension, festival of, 338 w. ; descrip- tion of, 370-71; probable place of, 370 n.; literal and local, 372 n.; half- belief in the doctrine of, 372 n. ; great importance of a right belief in, ib. Atonement, its connection with our Lord's divinity, 21 n. ; hortatory com- ments on, 329. Baptism, our Lord's, 110; probable date of, 106 n. ; probable locality of, 108 n. 32* Barabras, 311 n. ; origin of custom which led to his escape, 312. Beeroth, 94. Bethany, date of our Lord's last ar- rival at, 252 n. ; supper at, 257; posi- tion of, 258 n. ; roads from to Jerusa- lem, 260 n. Beth esd a, pool of, 136 7^. ; etymology of, 136 re. Bethabara, 108 «., 240 n. Bethlehem, 70 n. Bethphaoe, probable site of, 260 n. Bethsaida-Julias, 184 n. ; two places of that name, 194 n. Betrayal of our Lord, 299; circum- stances which immediately followed, 300. Binding and loosing, power of, 357 »., 360 n. Brethren of our Lord, 100 n. ; im- portunity of and imperfect faith, 227. CwESarea TniLiPPi, 208 n. ; events which took place in its vicinity, 209. Caiaphas, prophecy of, 246 n.; ex- amination of our Lord. 304. (ana, 117 n.\ miracle at, 117. Canticles in Luke i.,64; inspiration and characteristics of, 64. Capernaum, site of, 121m.; nobleman of, 132. Circuits, our Lord's, round Galilee, 161 ?!.; length of, 174 n. Civilization, theories of, 22 n. Christ, early development of, 90; ad- vance of in wisdom, 91 ii.; Supposed outward appearance of, 92; visit of to temple when twelve years old, 93; youth of, 97; reserve hereon of the Evangelists, 100; spiritual and mental development of, 102; a reader of the 378 INDEX heart, 125 n. • reception of his teach- ing, 143 n. ; date of his return to Galilee, 144 n. ; duration of ministry, 145 n. ; visit to Jerusalem at Feast of Tabernacles, 226; deportment of be- fore his judges, 303 n. ; nature of last agonies, 321; last words on the cross, 322 n. ; nature of death, 326 n. ; burial of, 327; recognition of not always permitted after the resurrection, 346 «. ; how this is to be explained, 355; appearance of after resurrection somewhat changed, 355 n. ; bodily nature of his ascension, 371; his eternal reign, 369 n. Clkopas, 353 n. Clopas, wiie of, 319 n. Clothes, casting down of, 262 n. ; rending of, 305 n. Cock-crowing, 302 n. Coincidences, verbal, in the four Gos- pels, 255 n. Corn, rubbing ears of, 166 n. Cross, form of, 318 n. Dalmanutha, site of, 207 n. Darkness, supernatural, at the cruci- fixion, 320 n. Decapolis, confederation of, 192 n. Dedication, feast of, 237 n. Demoniacs, healing of, how charac- terized, 156 ii.; boy, healing of, 211; Gergesene, 178. Disciples, first that joined our Lord, 117 n. ; the two journeying to Em- maus, 353 n. Discourses of our Lord, their order doubtful, 24 ii. ; delivered in the syn- agogue at Capernaum, 197 B.j our Lord's last, 295 n. Doctors, Jewish, names of those alive when our Lord was twelve years old, 90. E a stern world , expectations of, 55 n. E.mmaus, position of, 353 ». ; distance of from Jerusalem, 354 n. Ephraim, site of, 246 n. Essene teaching, 103. Eucharist, institution of, 294; proba- bly not partaken of by Judas, 294 n. Eusebius, on the relations of the four Gospels, 146. Fig-tree, cursing of, 267; objections urged against, 268 n. Fish, constellation of, 79 n. Five thousand, feeding of, 184. Flight into Egypt, date of, and du- ration of stay, 85 ii. Four thousand, feeding of, 205; site of the miracle, 205 n. Gabbatha, 312 ii. Galilee, divisions of, 187 n. ; Christ's appearances in, 337 n. ; the mountain in, where probably situated, 367 n. Genealogies, comments on, 99 ». Gennesareth, lake of, storms on, 177 ii. Gennesareth, plain of, 155 n. Gergesa, probable site of, 178 n. Gethsemane, 296 ii. Golgotha, site of, 317 n.; meaning of the term, ib. Gospel history, mode of studying, 23 m. Gospels, inspiration of, 27 n. ; har- monies of, 31 n. ; correct principles of a harmony of, 34; apocryphal, 256 ii. ; characteristics of contrasted and compared, 46 w.; discrepancies of unduly exaggerated, 50 n. Grave-clothes, position of, in the sepulchre, 345 n. Greeks, petition of, to see our Lord, 286 ii. Guards, bribery of, 353. Harmonists, errors of, 32. Harvest, usual time of, 107 n. Herod the Great, death of, 81 n. ; barbarities of, 83 n. Herod Antipas, character of, 201 n.; dismissal of our Lord to, 310; wicked levity of, 310 n. ; mockery of our Lord, ib. Herodians, 168 n., 274 n. Hillel, school of, 249 11. IIoly Ghost, blasphemy against, 176 n.j gift of to the Apostles, 357 n., 361 n. Innocents, murder of, 83; silence hereon of Josephus, 83. 'IovSouoi, meaning of the term in St. John, 115 «., 137 n. INDEX. 379 Jacob's well, 129 n. Jairus' daughter, healing of, 180. Jerusalem, our Lord's address to, 241 n.j view of from Olivet, 262 n.; appearance of at Passover, 203 n. ; probable numbers assembled at, ib.; our Lord'6 apostrophe to, 241 n , 284. Jericho, our Lord's visit to, 251 ; road from to Jerusalem, 257 n. John the Baptist, 104; date of com- mencement of his ministry, 104 n. ; its effects, 105; deputation of San- hedrin to, 115; number of his disci- ples, 126 n. ; date of captivity of, 127 n. ; message of inquiry to our Lord, 173; death of, when, 183 n. John, St., Gospel of, 30; character of, 229 «., 250 n. ; difference of from that of St. 1'eter, 304 n. ; visit of to the sepulchre, 344; external characteris- tics of, 30 «.; individuality of, 51; genuineness of chap, x.xi., 338 n. Joseph of Arimathea, 326. Journeys, last three of our Lord to Jerusalem, 224; their probable dates and durations, 225 n. Juda, city of, 61. Jcdas, death of, 307 n. ; sin of, 307 n. Lazarus, sickness of, and death, 245; raising of, 246 n. ; effect produced by the miracle, 245. Legs, breaking of, 325 n. Levi, same as Matthew, 164 n.j feast in his house, ib. Like of Christ, history of, a history of redemption, 26. Loins, cloth bound round, at the cru- cifixion, 318 ft. Luke, St., Gospel of, its external char- acteristics, 29 n.\ individuality of, 41; universality of, 42 it.; peculiarity of the portion ch. xi. 51 — xviii. 14, 219 n., 222 n. Lltiiardt, Essay on St. John's Gos- pel, 44 ?t. Mach-erus, site of, 128 n. Magdala, site of, 207 n. HAOI, adoration of, 77; country of, 77; ground of their expectations, 78 n.j nature of their expectations, 80 n. Mark, St., identical with John Mark, 38 it. ; Gospel of, its external charac- teristics, 29; written under the guid- ance of St. reter, 29 n., 212 n. ; in- dividuality of, 37; graphic character of, 38; genuineness of concluding verses, 40 it., 344 n. Marriage-feasts, customs at, 118 n. Mary Magdalene, visit of to the sepulchre, 341 n. ; appearance of our Lord to, 346-7. Matthew, St., Gospel of, its external characteristics, 28; individuality of, 55; originally written in Hebrew, 150 n. ; genuineness of first two chap- ters of, 65 n. ; order of incidents not exact, 148 n., 151 n. ; how this is to be accounted for, 150. Messages, divine, to Joseph and Mary, 65. Miraculous conception, dignity of, 52; mystery of, ib. ; narrative of, 56; not noticed by St. John, 52. Ministry, our Lord's, duration of, 145 n. Mount, sermon on the, 169; scene of, 169 n. Nain, site of, 172 n. Nativity, circumstances of, 69; exact locality of, 69 n. ; date of, 70 n. Nazareth, description of, 103 n. ; ill repute of, 57 n. ; our Lord's first preaching at, 152; second visit to, 181. Nicodemus, history of, 124 n.; dis- course of our Lord with, 124; bold- ness and piety of at our Lord's burial, 327. Parables, of sons sent into vineyard, 273 «.; of wicked husbandmen, ib.; collection of, by St. Matthew, 35 n. Para lytic, healing of, 162. Pilate, official character of, 274 n. ; general character of, 315 n.; our Lord's first appearance before, 307; second ditto, 311 ; enmity with Herod, 310 n. ; awe felt by towards our Lord, 315 n. ; fate of, 316 n. Pinnacle ok the temple, 115. Presentation in temple, 73. Pbeokpts, reception of, 170. 380 INDEX Precipitation, Mount of, 170 n. Portents, at our Lord's death, 323. Procurators, residence of, at Jeru- salem, 306 ii. Prophecies, our Lord's last, 289 n. Protevangelium Jacobi, narrative of Nativity, 69 m. Puberty, age of, 93 n. Publicans, 35 m. Turim, feast of, our Lord's visit to Jerusalem at, 133; observances at, 134 m. Purification, time of, 73 n. Peter, St., confession of, 198 m. ; three denials of our Lord, 302 n. ; visit of to sepulchre, 344; character of as compared with that of St. John, 364 m. Resurrection, Christ's, a pledge of ours, 332 m. ; objections to doctrine of, 331 n. ; number of the accounts of, 334 m. ; differences in the incidents related, 335; exact time of, 340 n. Resurrection-body, nature of our Lord's, 333 n. ; glorification of, per- haps progressive, 356 »., 366 m. Roads, from Judsa to Galilee, 121 m. Roofs, nature of, 163 m. Sabbath, observance of, 137; second- first, 165 n. ; miracles performed on, 168 m., 237 m. Sabbath-day's journey, 259 m. Sadducees, errors of, 278 n. ; accepted other parts of Scripture beside Pen- tateuch, 279 m. Saints, resurrection of, at our Lord's death, 324 n. Salim, site of, 126 m. Samaria, our Lord's first journey through, 129 ; second journey through, 228. Samaritan woman, our Lord's dis- course with, 129. Samaritans, faith of, 130; expectation of a Messiah, 130 m. Sanhedrin, meeting of, called by Herod, 81 m. ; first public manifesta- tion of their designs, 231 ; component parts of, 272 m. ; lost the power of life and death, 282 n. ; place of meet- ing, 303 n. ; our Lord's examination before, 302. Scape-goat, supposed reference to, 314 n. Scribes, from Jerusalem, 162 m. Scripture, inspiration of, 21 n. Sects, Jewish, some characteristics of, 72 m. Seventy' disciples, mission of, 235 m. Shammai, school of, 249 m. Shekel, half, annual payment of, 213 m. Shepherds, announcement to, 71. Sidon, probably visited by our Lord. 203, 215 n. Siloam, well of, 231 m. Simeon, 74 m. ; prophetic address of, 75 n. Simon the leper, 258 n. Simon of Cyrene, 318 n. Solomon's Porch, 238 m. Son of God, 119 n. ; meaning of the title, 198 m., 234 m., 238 m., 259 m., 304 n. Sosiosch, 82 m. Soul, meaning of the term, 114 m. Spirit, meaning of the term, 114 m. Star of the East, 78; date of ap- pearance, 79 m. Stone, great, rolled against the door of the sepulchre, 328 n., 340 n. Storm, stilling of, 195 n. Sufferings, our Lord's predictions of his own, 256 n. Supper, last, celebration of, 291; a paschal supper, but not on Nisan 14, 292 m.; order of incidents, 293 n. Sweat, bloody, nature of, 298 m. Swine, destruction of, 179 n. Sychar, 129 m. Synagogue, service of, 153 m., 158 m. Syrophcenician woman, 202 n. Tabiga, a suburb of Capernaum, 155 m., 158 m. Taxing, under Quirinus, 66; Roman in origin, Jewish in form, 68. Temple, first cleansing of, 122; second cleansing of, 266; veil of, 323 m. Temptation, scene of, 110 m. ; no vision, 111; an assault from without, 112; addressed to the three parts of our nature, 113. Thomas, St., disbelief of, 361; testi- mony of to our Lord's divinity, 362 m. Thorns, crown of, 314 n. INDEX. J81 Tombs, nature of, 327 n. Transfiguration, 210; probable scene of, 210 n. Treasury, 285. Triumphal entry, 2.19. Tyre, our Lord's journey towards, 201. Virgin Mary, probable authority for early portions of St. Luke's Gospel, 60 n. ; legendary history of, 57 n.\ relationship to Elizabeth, 60 n. ; char- acter of, 00; journey of to Elizabeth, 61 ; later residence of, 175 n. Washing of hands, Tilatc's, 313 n. Wieseler (K.), value of his chrono- logical labors, 139 n., 225 n. Women, court of, 286 «.; the minister- ing, 335 n. ; visit of to the sepulchre, 339. World, state of at our Lord's birth, 54 n. Zacch.eu8, 251 ; desire of to see our Lord, 251 n. Zebedee, position of at Capernaum, 156 n. 382 INDEX PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE EXPLAINED OR ILLUSTRATED. MicAn v. 2, Matt. ii. 2, ii. 9, Mark Luke ii. 13, . ii. 23, . xiii. 58, . xix . 1, xxii. 21, xxvi. 29, xxvi. 45, xxviii. 7, xxviii. 9, xxviii. 17, i. 34, vi. 3, . vii. 24, . xi. 13, xi. 18, . a., . xi. 25, . xvi. 4, xvi. 7, . i. 37, . i.2, i.3, . ii. 8, ii. 35, . ii. 43, . ii. 44, . ii. 48, . ii. 49, . iii. 1, . iii. 23, iv. 39, . ix. 51, . xiii. 32, . 82 n. Luke XV. 1, . . 79 n. xxii. 70, 82 m. xxiv. 44, . 85 n. John i. 29, . 80 n. i. 33, . . 193 n. ii. 2, . . 248 n. ii. 3, 4, . . 277 n. ii. 15, . . 295 n. ii. 21, . . 298 n. iii. 3, . . 343 n. iv. 2, . 351 n. iv. 4, . . 351 n. v. 1, . 159 7i. V. 4, . 97 m. vi. 50, . . 191 n. vii. 4, . . 267 n. x. 32, . . 209 m. xii. 27, . 270 n. xii. 29, . . 271 n. xiii. 5, . . 341 n. xvii. 4 sq . 343 n. xviii. 3, 59. xviii. 24, . 149 n. xviii. 38, . 223 n. xix. 11, . . 70 n. xix. 12, 75 n. xix. 14, . . 94 n. xx. 8, 95 n. xx. 17, . . 96 n. xx. 17, 97 ». xxi. 19, . . 106 n. xxi. 22, . 106 n. Eph. ii. 6, . 158 ». 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