Part 3 — Footnotes.

1 ‒ The Edition of the Synopsis Evangelica of Tischendorf referred to is the First Edition, 1854; that of Wieseler’s Synopsis of the Four Gospels is the English Translation by Venables, 1864; that of Conybeare and Howson’s Life and Travels of St Paul is the People’s Edition, 2 Vols., 1864; that of Dean Stanley’s Sinai and Palestine, the 3rd, 1856.

2 ‒ Milman’s History of the Jews, I. 443.

3 ‒ Jos. Ant. XI. 8. 2. Comp. Article Jerusalem in Smith’s Bibl. Dict. I. 998, and note.

4 ‒ Jos. Ant. XI. 8. 7.

5 ‒ Probably Dan. vii. 6; viii. 3–8, 20, 21, 22; xi. 3.

6 ‒ Curtius, IV. 5. 13; IV. 8. 10.

7 ‒ See Thirlwall’s Greece, VI. 265; Raphall’s History of the Jews, I. 42–50.

8 ‒ “The Great Assembly or Synagogue, whose existence has been called in question on insufficient grounds, was the great council of the nation during the Persian period, in which the last substantive changes were made in the constitution of Judaism. It was organized by Ezra, and, as commonly happens, the work of the whole body was transferred to its representative member. Ezra probably formed a collection of the prophetic writings; and the Assembly gathered together afterwards (as the Christian Church at a later period in corresponding circumstances) such books as were still left without the Canon, though proved to bear the stamp of the Spirit of God.” Westcott’s Bible in the Church, Appendix A.

9 ‒ Prideaux’s Connection, I. 545.

10 ‒ “By its harbour of Seleucia it was in communication with all the trade of the Mediterranean; and through the open country behind the Lebanon it was conveniently approached by the caravans from Mesopotamia and Arabia. It united the inland advantages of Aleppo with the maritime opportunities of Smyrna.” Conybeare and Howson, Life and Epistles of St Paul, I. 118; Smith’s Dict. Geog. Art. Antiochia.

11 ‒ “Few princes have ever lived with so great a passion for the building of cities as Seleucus. He is said to have built in all 9 Seleucias, 16 Antiochs, and 6 Laodiceas. This love of commemorating the members of his family was conspicuous in his works by the Orontes. Besides Seleucia and Antioch, he built, in the immediate neighbourhood, a Laodicea in honour of his mother, and an Apamea in honour of his wife.” Conybeare and Howson, I. 119; Merivale, III. 368.

12 ‒ Jos. Ant. XII. 3. 1; Contr. Apion. II. 4.

13 ‒ Jos. Ant. XII. 2. 10.

14 ‒ The Beth-shan of the Old Testament; see Class-Book of Old Testament History, p. 316, and 445 note, 2nd ed.

15 ‒ Jos. Ant. XII. 3. 3.

16 ‒ One of the branches of the Lebanon, containing a cave sacred to Pan, whence it derived its name. See below, p. 218, n.

17 ‒ Jos. Ant. XII. 3. 3.

18 ‒ See Mommsen’s History of Rome, II. 264.

19 ‒ In the valley of the Hermus, not far from Smyrna. See Livy, XXXVII. 37, foll.; Tac. Ann. II. 47.

20 ‒ Strabo, XVI. 744; Justin, XXXII. 2. 1.

21 ‒ Livy, XLI. 19, 20.

22 ‒ See above, p. 17.

23 ‒ See above, p. 19.

24 ‒ Livy, XLV. 12.

25 ‒ Polyb. XXVI. 10; Livy, XLI. 19, 20.

26 ‒ Milman’s History of the Jews, I. 457.

27 ‒ Identified with the half-ruined village of Latrôn, the Castellum boni Latronis of the Mediæval writers, from the tradition that it was the residence of the penitent thief Dysma. Porter’s Handbook, I. 285.

28 ‒ Jos. Ant. XII. 6. 4.

29 ‒ Hepworth Dixon’s Holy Land, I. 64.

30 ‒ Class-Book of Old Testament History, p. 212 and note.

31 ‒ See Class-Book of Old Testament History, p. 275.

32 ‒ An important stronghold (comp. 1 Macc. ix. 52; xiii. 53; xvi. 1) in all probability the same as the ancient Gezer or Gazer (Josh. x. 33; xii. 12), between the lower Beth-horon and the sea. Thither we find David pursued the Philistines (2 Sam. v. 25; 1 Chr. xiv. 16), and the place was fortified by Solomon as commanding the communication between Egypt and Jerusalem. See Class-Book of Old Test. Hist. p. 361.

33 ‒ During the Captivity the Idumæans advancing westward had occupied the whole territory of the ancient Amalekites (Jos. Ant. II. 1. 2), and even took possession of many towns in Southern Palestine, including Hebron (Jos. Ant. XII. 8. 6; B. J. IV. 9. 7). The name Edom, or rather its Greek form Idumæa, was now given to the country lying between the valley of Arabah and the shores of the Mediterranean; and Roman authors sometimes give the name Idumæa to all Palestine, and even call the Jews Idumæans. Virgil, Georg. III. 12; Juvenal, VIII. 160.

34 ‒ The ancient Ashdod. See Class-Book of Old Testament History, pp. 259, 263, 272.

35 ‒ The Greek form of the ancient Jabneel (Josh. xv. 11), the modern Yebna, 11 miles S. of Jaffa, 4 from Ekron. In the time of the Maccabees it was a strong place. After the fall of Jerusalem it became one of the most populous places in Judæa, was the seat of a famous school, and according to an early Jewish tradition, the burial-place of the great Gamaliel.

36 ‒ Beth-sura, or Beth-zur, house of rock, is named between Halhul and Gedor in Josh. xv. 58, and was fortified by Rehoboam for the defence of his new kingdom (2 Chr. xi. 7). It occupied a strong position, and commanded a great road, the road from Beer-sheba and Hebron, which has always been the main approach to Jerusalem from the south.

37 ‒ The ancient Accho (Judg. i. 31). During the period that Ptolemy Soter was in possession of Cœlesyria, it received the name of Ptolemais from him, by which it was long distinguished.

38 ‒ Jos. Ant. XIII. 2. 1.

39 ‒ According to some, he was a natural son of Antiochus Epiphanes (Jos. Ant. XIII. 2. 1), but he was more generally looked upon as an impostor who falsely laid claim to the connection. Justin, XXXV. 1; Polyb. XXXIII. 16.

40 ‒ Comp. Jos. Ant. XIII. 4. 3.

41 ‒ Comp. 1 Macc. xi. 33; Jos. Ant. XIII. 5. 3.

42 ‒ Jos. Ant. XIII. 5. 6.

43 ‒ Jos. Ant. XIII. 5. 8.

44 ‒ Jos. Ant. XIII. 5. 11; Smith’s Bibl. Dict., Art. Jerusalem.

45 ‒ Jos. Ant. XIII. 6. 1.

46 ‒ Jos. Ant. XIII. 6. 7; Smith’s Bibl. Dict., Art. Jerusalem.

47 ‒ “Nehemiah mentions a palace, or rather fortress, which appertained to the Temple (Neh. ii. 8); and in the Hebrew Birah we have probably the origin of the Greek Baris, which Josephus tells us was the name of the fortress subsequently called Antonia. It was the fortress of the Temple, as the Temple was of the city.” Porter’s Handbk. I. 128, 129.

48 ‒ Milman’s History of the Jews, II. 21.

49 ‒ Comp. Jos. Ant. XIII. 7. 2.

50 ‒ By this king the privilege of a national coinage was granted to Simon, 1 Macc. xv. 6. “Numerous examples of them are extant, bearing the dates of the first, second, third and fourth years of the ‘liberation of Jerusalem;’ and it is a remarkable fact confirming their genuineness, that in the first year the name Zion does not occur, as the citadel was not recovered till the second year of Simon’s supremacy, while after the second year Zion alone is found. The emblem which the coins bear have generally a connexion with Jewish history—a vine-leaf, a cluster of grapes, a vase (of manna?), a trifid flowering rod, a palm-branch, surrounded by a wreath of laurel, a lyre, a bunch of branches symbolical of the feast of Tabernacles.” Smith’s Bibl. Dict., Art. Maccabees.

51 ‒ Jos. Ant. XIII. 8. 1.

52 ‒ Jos. Ant. XIII. 8. 2.

53 ‒ Jos. Ant. XIII. 8. 3.

54 ‒ Samaria itself was now razed to the ground, the hill on which it had stood being full of springs, was pierced with trenches, and the site of the city flooded and converted into a pool of water. Jos. Ant. XIII. 10. 3.

55 ‒ Jos. Ant. XIII. 10. 6.

56 ‒ Raphall’s History of the Jews, II. 103.

57 ‒ Jos. Ant. XIII. 16. 3.

58 ‒ Jos. Ant. XIV. 1. 2.

59 ‒ Jos. Ant. XIV. 2. 1.

60 ‒ Milman, History of the Jews, II. 42.

61 ‒ Jos. Ant. XIV. 2. 3; B. J. I. 6. 3.

62 ‒ Jos. Ant. XIV. 3. 1.

63 ‒ Jos. B. J. I. 6. 6.

64 ‒ Jos. B. J. I. 7. 3.

65 ‒ Liv. Epit. 102.

66 ‒ Comp. Cic. pro Flacco, c. xxviii.; Tac. Hist. V. 5.

67 ‒ Jos. B. J. I. 8. 5; Ant. XIV. 5. 2–4.

68 ‒ Merivale’s Romans under the Empire, I. 381, 382.

69 ‒ Jos. Ant. XIV. 7. 2; B. J. I. 8. 8, 9; Milman, II. 51.

70 ‒ Jos. Ant. XIV. 7. 4.

71 ‒ Jos. Ant. XIV. 8. 1; B. J. I. 9. 5.

72 ‒ Jos. Ant. XIV. 8. 3; B. J. I. 9. 5.

73 ‒ Jos. B. J. I. 10. 2, 3; Ant. XIV. 8. 5.

74 ‒ Jos. Ant. XIV. 9. 2.

75 ‒ Merivale, III. 377.

76 ‒ Jos. Ant. XIV. 9. 2; B. J. I. 10. 5.

77 ‒ See Merivale, III. 375.

78 ‒ Jos. Ant. XIV. 9. 4.

79 ‒ Jos. B. J. I. 11. 1.

80 ‒ Jos. Ant. XIV. 11. 2.

81 ‒ Jos. B. J. I. 11. 3; Ant. XIV. 11. 2.

82 ‒ Jos. B. J. I. 12. 4; Ant. XIV. 12. 2.

83 ‒ See above, p. 71.

84 ‒ Jos. B. J. I. 12. 6; Ant. XIV. 13. 1, 2.

85 ‒ Jos. B. J. I. 13. 4–6.

86 ‒ Jos. B. J. I. 13. 6; Ant. XIV. 13. 7–9.

87 ‒ Masada, now called Sebbeh, was situated at the S.W. end of the Dead Sea, on a rock from 1200 to 1500 ft. in height, separated from the adjoining range of mountains by deep ravines on the N. and S., and only attached to them on the W. by a narrow neck about two-thirds of its height. The fortress was first built by Jonathan Maccabæus, but Herod the Great added to it and made it an impregnable place of refuge for himself in case of danger. The rock on which it was built overhung the Dead Sea, and was only accessible by two rock-hewn paths, one on the W., the other on the E. side, carried up from the shore by a zigzag cut in the precipice, and called “the Serpent.” The summit of the rock was not pointed, but a plain of 7 stadia in circumference, surrounded by a wall of white stone, 12 cubits high and 8 thick, fortified with 37 towers of 50 cubits in height, and adorned with a palace and baths. The interior being left free for cultivation, so that the garrison might partially raise their own food. Traill’s Josephus, II. 109–115; Porter’s Handbk. of Syria and Palestine, p. 239.

88 ‒ Jos. Ant. XIV. 13. 8.

89 ‒ Jos. B. J. I. 14. 2; Ant. XIV. 14. 2, 3.

90 ‒ Jos. B. J. I. 13. 9; Ant. XIV. 13. 10.

91 ‒ Jos. B. J. I. 14. 4. See above, p. 73.

92 ‒ Jos. B. J. I. 14. 4; Ant. XIV. 14. 5.

93 ‒ Jos. B. J. I. 18. 3. “Antonius was the first of the Romans who consented to smite a king with the axe.” Merivale, III. 382.

94 ‒ Jos. Ant. XIV. 16. 4.

95 ‒ Jos. Ant. XV. 2. 2.

96 ‒ Jos. Ant. XV. 3. 4.

97 ‒ Jos. Ant. XV. 3. 5.

98 ‒ Jos. Ant. XV. 6. 6; B. J. I. 20. 1.

99 ‒ Jos. B. J. I. 20; Merivale, III. 356.

100 ‒ He at the same time bestowed upon him the 400 Gauls, who had formed the bodyguard of Cleopatra. Jos. Ant. XV. 7. 3; B. J. I. 20. 3.

101 ‒ Milman’s Hist. of the Jews, II. 70; Jos. Ant. XV. 7. 7; Merivale, III. 386.

102 ‒ Jos. Ant. XV. 7. 9. 10.

103 ‒ Jan. 13, A.U.C. 727, B.C. 27. Dion LIII. 16; Liv. Epit. 134; Merivale’s Romans under the Empire, III. 417.

104 ‒ Jos. Ant. XV. 8. 5; B. J. I. 21. 2.

105 ‒ In B.C. 22 he contracted another marriage, and united himself with a second Mariamne, the daughter of one Simon, an obscure priest of Jerusalem, whom he raised to the dignity of high-priest, after deposing Joshua, the son of Phaneus, thus again throwing discredit on an office which he persisted in depriving of all political weight and influence.

106 ‒ The full name was Cæsarea Sebaste, Jos. Ant. XVI. 5. 1, but it was sometimes called Cæsarea Stratonis, or Cæsarea Palestinæ, or the “City by the Sea,” Jos. B. J. III. 9; VII. 1. 3. Its modern name is Kaisariyeh. It became the official residence of the Herodian kings, as also of Festus, Felix, and other Roman procurators. Tacitus calls it “the head of Judæa,” Hist. II. 79. In the centre of the city rose a vast temple, conspicuous from the sea, dedicated to Octavius, and adorned with two colossal statues, one of the Emperor, the other of the Imperial city. The foundations were laid in B.C. 21, and the work was completed in B.C. 10. Jos. Ant. XV. 9. 6; Lewin’s Fasti Sacri, p. 89.

107 ‒ Jos. B. J. I. 20. 4.

108 ‒ Jos. Ant. XV. 10. 1.

109 ‒ Jos. Ant. XV. 10. 3; B. J. I. 20. 4.

110 ‒ Jos. B. J. I. 21. 3.

111 ‒ Jos. Ant. XV. 10. 4.

112 ‒ Jos. Ant. XV. 11. 2.

113 ‒ Jos. Ant. XV. 11. 2.

114 ‒ Jos. Ant. XV. 11. 6.

115 ‒ Jos. Ant. XX. 9. 7.

116 ‒ For the maintenance of the service the half-shekel claimed by the Law (Ex. xxx. 13) from every male Israelite above twenty years old was religiously executed. This is the tribute-money mentioned Matt. xvii. 24, under the name δίδραχμα, and according to Josephus, was collected from all Jews even in foreign countries, their foreign coins being exchanged by the κολλυβισταί for the half-shekels of the temple-money (Matt. xxi. 12; Mk. xi. 15; Jn. ii. 15).

117 ‒ Dixon’s Holy Land, II. 47, 48; Raphall’s History of the Jews, II. 335–337; Milman, II. 77.

118 ‒ Jos. Ant. XV. 11. 6.

119 ‒ On the way he gave proof of his ardent zeal for Grecian customs, stopping at Elis to witness the Olympic games, and settling an annual revenue on the inhabitants. Jos. B. J. I. 21. 12.

120 ‒ Jos. Ant. XVI. 2. 1.

121 ‒ Jos. Ant. XVI. 1. 2.

122 ‒ Jos. Ant. XVI. 3. 3; B. J. I. 23. 1.

123 ‒ Jos. Ant. XVI. 4. 6; Comp. Ant. XV. 9. 6.

124 ‒ Jos. B. J. I. 24. 1.

125 ‒ Jos. Ant. XVI. 5. 1.

126 ‒ Built on the site of the more ancient town of Caphar Saba, sixteen Roman miles from Joppa, and twenty-six from Cæsarea. The old name lingers under the modern form Kefr-Saba.

127 ‒ Jos. Ant. XVI. 11. 1–6. Berytus was a town of Phœnicia, identified by some with the Berotha, or Berothai of Scripture (2 Sam. viii. 8; Ezek. xlvii. 16). After its destruction by Tryphon B.C. 140, it was reduced by Agrippa, and colonised by the veterans of the V. Macedonica Legio, and VIII. Augusta, and became a Roman colony under the name of Colonia Julia Augusta Felix Berytus. See Smith’s Dict. Geog., Art. Berytus.

128 ‒ Jos. Ant. XVI. 11. 7.

129 ‒ Jos. Ant. XVII. 2. 4.

130 ‒ Jos. Ant. XVII. 4. 2.

131 ‒ Jos. Ant. XVII. 5. 1; B. J. I. 31. 4.

132 ‒ Jos. Ant. XVII. 6. 2. 3.

133 ‒ Jos. Ant. XVII. 6. 5; B. J. I. 33. 5.

134 ‒ On the eastern side of the Jordan, and not far from the Dead Sea. Jos. Ant. XVII. 6. 5.

135 ‒ Probably some day between the 13th March and 4th April A.U.C. 750 = B.C. 4. See Wieseler’s Synopsis, p. 51.

136 ‒ Westcott’s Introduction to the Gospel History, pp. 47, 48.

137 ‒ Conybeare and Howson, Life and Travels of St Paul, I. 16; Merivale, III. 358.

138 ‒ See above, p. 7.

139 ‒ See above, pp. 8, 9.

140 ‒ See above, p. 10.

141 ‒ See above, p. 15.

142 ‒ See above, p. 54. This was probably Lucius Calpurnius Piso, consul in B.C. 139.

143 ‒ The Sanhedrin, or supreme court of judicature amongst the Jews, in things spiritual and temporal, consisted of seventy, seventy-one, or seventy-two members, chosen from the chief priests, scribes, elders, and some of the inferior members of the priestly order. Its President, generally but not always the high-priest, was called Nasi; the vice-president, Ab Beth Din, its place of meeting (βουλή, βουλευτήριον) was the chamber Gazith in the temple, where the members sat in a half-moon. The Jews traced back its origin to the time of Moses (Deut. xvii. 8), but it is only after the return from the Captivity, and especially during the Asmonean era, that we find it first mentioned. Its decrees were of binding force not only in Palestine, but amongst the extensive colonies of Jews in Egypt, Babylonia, and Asia Minor, and related to the worship of the temple, offences against the state, the levying of war, claims to the prophetical office, and questions appertaining to the high-priest’s functions. Ordinary cases came before the Lesser Sanhedrin, of which courts there were two at Jerusalem, and one in every town containing more than 120 inhabitants. The jurisdiction and authority of the Sanhedrin were much curtailed, first by Herod, see above, p. 82, and afterwards by the Romans (Comp. Jn. xviii. 31; xix. 6; Jos. Ant. XX. 9. 1).

144 ‒ Comp. Hor. Sat. I. ix. 69 sq.; Juvenal, III. 296; XIV. 96; Cic. pro Flacco, ch. XXVIII.

145 ‒ Merivale’s Romans under the Empire, III. 369. “We find that at Tyre, at Sidon, and at Ascalon, the Romans published their decrees in the Latin and the Greek idioms; in the Latin, in token of their own supremacy; in the Greek, as the language most generally understood by the conquered people. Ascalon became famous for its Greek writers in philosophy, history, and grammar. Gadara, a city of Greek foundation, is celebrated by Strabo for its contributions to Hellenic science.”

146 ‒ The three words for the elect nation used in the New Testament are i. Ἰουδαῖος = a Jew as regards his nation, in opposition to Ἕλλην, a Gentile; ii. Ἑβραῖος = a Jew in respect to his language and education, in opposition to Ἑλληνιστής, a Jew of the Grecian speech; iii. Ἰσραηλίτης = a Jew in respect to his religious privileges, the sacred name. Trench, N. T. Synonyms.

147 ‒ Compare with this the assemblies for prayer and worship held by the prophets or their scholars in the kingdom of the Ten Tribes, 2 K. iv. 33.

148 ‒ Generally they were erected and maintained by the congregation, but sometimes were built by private individuals: Comp. Lk. vii. 5.

149 ‒ Godwyn’s Moses and Aaron, p. 71.

150 ‒ The officers of the synagogue exercised a judicial power. And in the building itself could (i) bring an offender to trial (Lk. xii. 11; xxi. 12); and (ii) scourge (Matt. x. 17; Mark xiii. 9; Acts ix. 2).

151 ‒ Smith’s Bibl. Dict., Art. Synagogue.

152 ‒ The service was held on Sabbaths and feast-days, later on the Mondays and Thursdays also.

153 ‒ This would be the case at least in the Palestine synagogues.

154 ‒ Godwyn’s Moses and Aaron, pp. 69–73; Conybeare and Howson, I. 59.

155 ‒ Comp. Juv. III. 296, in quâ te quæro proseuchâ?

156 ‒ See above, p. 20. Comp. Merivale, III. 370.

157 ‒ See above, p. 9.

158 ‒ See Raphall’s History of the Jews, Vol. I. pp. 160, 162.

159 ‒ Others, however, derive their name from Tsadikim, ‘the righteous,’ but its origin appears uncertain.

160 ‒ See above, p. 60.

161 ‒ Jos. Ant. XVIII. 1. 4.

162 ‒ Jos. Ant. XIII. 10. 6; XVIII. 1. 4.

163 ‒ The later sect of the Karaites, or Karæans, ‘Scripturists,’ succeeded to the Sadducees, but chiefly in respect of the rejection of tradition, and their strict adherence to the letter of the law.

164 ‒ See above, p. 30.

165 ‒ The Scribes (γραμματεῖς) are often mentioned in the Gospels in connection with the Pharisees and elders. Originally they appear to have been employed in transcribing the Jewish Scriptures, but subsequently became interpreters of the Law and teachers of the people. The majority of them probably belonged to the sect of the Pharisees, but not all, see Acts xxiii. 9.

166 ‒ Jos. Ant. XIII. 5. 9, and see above, p. 60.

167 ‒ Jos. Ant. XVIII. 1. 3.

168 ‒ Jos. Ant. XIII. 10. 5; B. J. I. 5. 2, 3.

169 ‒ Comp. above, p. 63, and Luke xi. 43.

170 ‒ See above, pp. 60, 62.

171 ‒ The Jews of later times were very zealous in making proselytes (Comp. Horace, Sat. I. iv. 143), and succeeded to a great extent, especially among the women. They are said, though it does not appear absolutely certain, to have been divided into two classes; (i) Proselytes of righteousness, who were admitted to all the privileges of Judaism after submitting to circumcision, and baptism, and offering sacrifice: (ii) Proselytes of the gate, who were not circumcised, but simply bound themselves to observe what were called ‘the seven precepts of Noah,’ i.e. (1) to renounce idolatry, (2) to worship the one true God, (3) to abstain from bloodshed, (4) incest, (5) robbery, (6) to be obedient to the magistrates, (7) to abstain from eating flesh with the blood. Josephus calls such Proselytes οἱ σεβόμενοι, the worshippers, and they are supposed to be meant by the same word, rendered in our Version devout men in such passages as Acts xiii. 50; xvi. 14; xvii. 4, 17; xviii. 7.

172 ‒ Analogous to the Essenes were the Therapeutæ, who lived in Egypt, were bound by even stricter rules, and spent their time in still greater seclusion, Godwyn’s Moses and Aaron, I. 12.

173 ‒ Conybeare and Howson, I. 33; Godwyn, Lib. I. 13.

174 ‒ Class-Book of O. T. History, p. 427.

175 ‒ Compare for a notice of such a process, Herod. III. 149; VI. 21, quoted in Trench, Miracles, p. 311, note.

176 ‒ Comp. Jos. Ant. X. 9. 7; IX. 14. 3.

177 ‒ See above, p. 5.

178 ‒ ‘The Samaritans have a firm belief in the coming of Messiah. They found this upon the words of Moses (Deut. xviii. 15). They differ, however, with regard to the character of the Messiah, as well from Jews as from Christians. They ridicule the Jewish idea of his being a king and a great conqueror. His mission, they say, is not to shed blood, but to heal the nations; not to make war, but to bring peace. He is to be, according to Moses’ promise, a great Teacher, a Restorer of the Law, one that will bring all the nations, by the illumination of his teaching, to unite in one service to one God. Therefore his common name with them is Taebah (‏תהבה‎), though the better known name is Hatah or Hashah, the Restorer, or the Arabic equivalent, Al Mudy, because it is he whose mission it is to turn the ungodly and unbelieving unto the Lord.’ Mill’s Modern Samaritans, 215, 216.

179 ‒ Westcott’s Introduction to the Study of the Gospels, 148, 9.

180 ‒ Godwyn’s Moses and Aaron, Lib. I. p. 48; Trench, Miracles, p. 311.

181 ‒ Jos. Ant. XX. 6. 1; B. J. II. 12. 3.

182 ‒ Jos. Ant. XVIII. 2. 2.

183 ‒ See Class-Book of Old Testament History, p. 483.

184 ‒ Ebrard’s Gospel History, p. 487; Westcott’s Introduction to the New Testament, pp. 92, 95.

185 ‒ So Grotius, Lightfoot and others. Reland and Robinson identify it with Juttah in the mountain-region of Judah, near Maon and Carmel (Josh. xv. 55), allotted to the priests (Josh. xxi. 16), now Yŭtta. The traditions of the Greek and Latin Churches point on the other hand to Ain Karim, a village near Jerusalem. Thomson’s L. and B. 664.

186 ‒ See Class-Book of O. T. History, p. 123. For the composition of the Incense, Ibid. p. 135.

187 ‒ See Smith’s Bibl. Dict., Art. Incense.

188 ‒ Hebrew Jochanan = God is gracious.

189 ‒ The number present appears to indicate that it was the Sabbath-day.

190 ‒ It is one peculiarity of the Galilæan hills, as distinct from those of Ephraim or Judah, that they contain or sustain green basins of table-land just below their topmost ridges; forming marked features in any view from the summit of Tabor, or further north from the slopes of Hermon.... Such above all is Nazareth. Fifteen gently rounded hills “seem as if they had met to form an enclosure” for this peaceful basin—“they rise round it like the edge of a shell to guard it from intrusion. It is a rich and beautiful field in the midst of these green hills—abounding in gay flowers, in fig-trees, small gardens, hedges of the prickly pear; and the dense rich grass affords an abundant pasture. The expression of the old topographer, Quaresmius, was as happy as it is poetical: ‘Nazareth is a rose, and, like a rose, has the same rounded form, enclosed by mountains as the flower by its leaves.’” Stanley’s Sinai and Palestine, p. 365.

191 ‒ As the first leader of the hosts of Israel was called first Hoshea, a Saviour, and afterwards Jehoshua or Joshua, God the Saviour or God’s Salvation, in Greek, ΙΗΣΟΥΣ, Jesus, and saved the Israelites from their enemies the Canaanites, so the second Joshua was to save His people from enemies no less real—even their sins (Matt. i. 21). Compare the title of Conqueror so often applied to our blessed Lord in the Book of Revelation, as ii. 7, 11; iii. 5, 12, 21; v. 5; vi. 2, &c., as also in St John’s Gospel, xvi. 33, and in 1 Jn. ii. 13, 14; iv. 4. See Pearson On the Creed, Art. II.; Class-Book of O. T. History, pp. 173, 223.

192 ‒ The distance from Nazareth to Jerusalem is about 80 miles, and if Zacharias lived at Hebron 17 miles south of Jerusalem, the whole journey would occupy four or five days. (i) The most direct route was by Nain and Endor, and through Samaria and southward by Bethel. (ii) If for any cause Samaria was to be avoided, the Jordan would be crossed near Scythopolis, and the way followed through Peræa along its eastern bank. This was the common route with the Jews in their journeyings to the feasts, if they wished specially to avoid Samaria. (iii) Still a third way was by Dor on the sea-coast, passing through Lydda, and thence over the mountains of Ephraim. Andrews, p. 64.

193 ‒ See Class-Book of O. T. History, p. 158.

194 ‒ Locusts were frequently used as an article of food (comp. Levit. xi. 21, 22), being sometimes ground and pounded and then mixed with flour and water and made into cakes, sometimes salted and then eaten, or prepared in many other ways. See Kitto’s Bible Illustrations, VII. 191, 2; Kirby and Spence’s Entomology; Thomson’s Land and the Book, pp. 419, 20.

195 ‒ Merivale’s Romans under the Empire, III. 401, smaller edition.

196 ‒ From Suetonius (Aug. Chap. XXVII.) we learn that Augustus three times held a census for Italy, A.U.C. 726, 746, and 767; and Strabo speaks of one in Gaul and another in Spain. Tacitus (Ann. I. 11) tells us that he had a little book written out in his own hand treating of the numbers of his soldiers, the taxes, imposts, &c., of his empire, which is also alluded to by Suetonius and Dion Cassius, and must have been based on surveys of all parts of the empire. It is also well established that he commenced, if he did not carry out, a complete geometrical survey of the empire (see Merivale’s Romans, III. 404). Though these facts do not absolutely prove the holding of a general census, they go far to confirm the Evangelist’s statement.

197 ‒ St Luke relates that this taxing or enrolment took place as a first one, when Cyrenius was governor of Syria (Lk. ii. 1). But Josephus states that Cyrenius was sent as governor of Syria after the deposition of Archelaus and the annexation of Judæa as a Roman province to Syria, and that he then instituted a census. This could not be earlier than A.U.C. 758 or 760; but the Saviour was born before Herod’s death in A.U.C. 750. Various explanations have been offered of the Evangelist’s words: i. Some would throw the emphasis on the ἐγένετο, and translate, “This enrolment first took effect when Cyrenius was governor of Syria,” i.e. the enrolment, enumeration of persons, descriptio capitum, was made at the time of our Lord’s birth, but its actual execution was deferred some nine or ten years, till Judæa was made a Roman province, when (Acts v. 37) the rebellion took place against the actual levying of the taxes. ii. Others would render πρώτη before, as in the somewhat parallel passages in Jn. i. 15, 30, where it is used as = πρότερος, and translate, “This enrolment took place before Cyrenius was governor of Syria.” iii. It appears, however, almost certain, Merivale says demonstrated, that Publius Sulpicius Quirinus (Cyrenius) was twice governor of Syria, first from A.U.C. 750–753, or B.C. 4–1, and secondly from A.U.C. 760–765, or A.D. 6–11. It is true that Cyrenius does not appear to have been governor till the autumn of A.U.C. 750, but the enumeration may have begun or been appointed under Varus the preceding governor, and being suspended in consequence of Herod’s death and the disturbances that followed it, was reserved for execution to Cyrenius, with whose name it was connected. Merivale, IV. 457; Ellicott, p. 58 n.; Andrews, 5–8; and see the results of Zumpt’s dissertation De Syriâ Romanorum provinciâ in Wieseler’s Synopsis, 129–135.

198 ‒ On Herod’s completely tributary relation to Rome, see Wieseler, Chronol. Synop. pp. 84, 85.

199 ‒ “In the kingdoms of their allies the Romans adopted at first a milder, and even when circumstances dictated it, an exceedingly lenient form of census. This we may be sure would have been the case in the census of Palestine under Herod, who reigned over the entire nation of the Jews, a people so much inclined to revolt. It is probable that the forms for holding the census, issued by Rome, were adapted as closely as possible to the conditions of the country, while the execution of it was, as far as practicable, entrusted to the sole management of Herod and his officers.” Wieseler, p. 82.

200 ‒ Under purely Roman law “Joseph might perhaps have been enrolled at Nazareth,” but the fact that he is described by the Evangelist as journeying to Bethlehem to be enrolled at the town of his forefathers, is in remarkable accordance with “the perplexed political relations of the intensely national yet all but subject Judæa.” Ellicott’s Lectures, p. 60.

201 ‒ On the reasons why this journey was often taken by the Jews, see above, pp. 122, 123.

202 ‒ It is not impossible that these Magi were acquainted with Balaam’s prophecy respecting a star to rise out of Jacob (Num. xxiv. 17; Class-Book of O. T. History, 191, 192), and very probable that they were not ignorant of the Prophecies of Daniel. The general expectation in the East at this time that a king should arise in Judæa to rule the world, is mentioned in Suetonius, Vesp. c. IV., Tac. Hist. V. 13.

203 ‒ The Magi were a tribe of the Medes, like that of Levi among the Jews, to whom were entrusted all the priestly functions connected with the practice of their religion, the chief feature of which was a worship of the elements, as also the study of astrology, and the interpretation of dreams.

204 ‒ Though the terrible disorder which carried him off was already afflicting him, and it wanted probably but a few days of the period when he sought relief in the baths of Callirhoe; see above, p. 104, Ellicott’s Lectures, p. 75, n.

205 ‒ The customary gifts of subject nations, see Gen. xliii. 11; Ps. lxxii. 15; 1 Kings x. 2, 10; 2 Chron. ix. 24; Cant. iii. 6; iv. 14.

206 ‒ Under any circumstances the number of children thus ruthlessly murdered could not have been large. “In peaceful times such an act as this, even if executed, as this probably was, in secresy, would have excited general indignation when it became known; but now the Jewish people had so long ‘supped with horrors,’ and were so engrossed in the many perils that threatened their national existence, that this passed by comparatively unnoticed. Such a deed, from a man of whom Josephus says that ‘he was brutish and a stranger to all humanity,’ ... could have awakened no surprise. It was wholly in keeping with his reckless and savage character, but one, and by no means the greatest of his crimes. It is therefore possible that it may never have come to the knowledge of the Jewish historian, writing so many years after the event.” Andrews, p. 89, Rawlinson’s Bampton Lectures, pp. 352, 3 and note.

207 ‒ Compare the execution of the zealots for pulling down the Golden Eagle, above, p. 104.

208 ‒ See above, p. 82.

209 ‒ See above, p. 105.

210 ‒ See above, p. 105.

211 ‒ He was the son of Herod by his Samaritan wife Malthace (Jos. Ant. XVII. 8. 1; B. J. I. 28. 4). He was guilty of great cruelty and oppression. Not long after his accession he put to death in the Temple 3000 of the Jews, letting loose upon them his entire army during the Paschal Festival (Jos. Ant. XVII. 9. 3; B. J. II. 1. 3). The Samaritans also suffered terribly from his cruelties (B. J. II. 7. 3).

212 ‒ Andrews’ Life of our Lord on Earth, p. 91; Ellicott, p. 81.

213 ‒ The attendance of women at the great feasts was not required by the Law. Ellicott, p. 89.

214 ‒ “As is well known, the first day’s journey of a company of eastern travellers is always short. On that day it is not customary to go more than six or eight miles, and the tents are pitched, for the first night’s encampment, almost within sight of the place from which the journey commences.” Hackett, Script. Ill. 12, quoted in Andrews, p. 96.

215 ‒ This we may compute in two ways; either (i) the first, that of their departure from Jerusalem; second, the day of their return; third, the day when He was found; or (ii) excluding the day of departure; first, the day of their return; second, the day of search in Jerusalem; third, the day when He was found. Ibid.

216 ‒ See above, p. 96; comp. Lightfoot Hor. Heb. on Lk. ii. 46.

217 ‒ This was the general opinion of the early Fathers; is in accordance with the settled custom of the Jews to bring up their sons to some trade; and is implied in the question of the inhabitants of Nazareth, “Is not this the carpenter?” (Mtt. xiii. 55, Mk. vi. 3).

218 ‒ The Roman province of Judæa extended from the plain of Esdraelon southwards to the desert, and in our Lord’s time included Samaria, which had now no separate political existence. On Idumæa, see above, p. 32 and note.

219 ‒ Galilee, from the Hebrew form Galil or Galilah (comp. Jos. xx. 7; 1 Kings ix. 11; Is. ix. 1), denoting “a circle” or “region,” and “implying the separation of the district from the more regularly organized tribes or kingdoms of Samaria and Judæa,” extended from the region of Lebanon to the southern border of the plain of Esdraelon. It thus comprised the district formerly occupied by the tribes of Asher, Naphtali, Zebulun, Issachar, and part of Manasseh, and was divided into two sections: (i) Lower Galilee, which included the rich plain of Esdraelon and the whole region from the plain of Akka to the shores of the Lake of Gennesaret. (For the fertility of this region, see Class-Book of O. T. History, pp. 219, 220.) (ii) Upper Galilee, which “embraced the whole mountain-range lying between the Upper Jordan and Phœnicia,” and was also called Galilee of the Gentiles (Matt. iv. 15; 1 Macc. v. 15), for twenty of its towns were given by Solomon to Hiram king of Tyre (1 K. ix. 11), and were then or afterwards colonised by strangers (Is. ix. 1), who increased in number during the Captivity and the times of the Maccabees (1 Macc. v. 20–23), and chiefly consisted of Syrians, Phœnicians, Arabs, and Greeks. It was probably from contact with this large body of foreigners that the pronunciation of the Jews residing in Galilee became peculiar (Mtt. xxvi. 73; Mk. xiv. 70).

220 ‒ A region extending from the Arnon to the Hieromax.

221 ‒ Auranitis was the Greek form of the old name Hauran (Ezek. xlvii. 16), and was the name of the district in the upper valley of the Hieromax.

222 ‒ Gaulanitis derived its name from the ancient Levitical city of refuge (Jos. xx. 8; xxi. 27), Golan, in the territory of Manasseh (Deut. iv. 43), and included the district immediately east of the lake of Gennesaret, and the Upper Jordan. Its principal cities were Golan, Hippos, Gamala, Bethsaida-Julias (Mark viii. 22) and Seleucia.

223 ‒ Trachonitis was the Greek form of the Hebrew Argob = stony. See Class-Book of O. T. History, p. 185.

224 ‒ Batanæa, the Græcized form of the Hebrew Bashan, included, probably, the mountain-district east of Auranitis.

225 ‒ Ituræa was a little province lying between Gaulanitis on the south, Trachonitis on the east, Hermon on the west, and the plain of Damascus on the north. It derived its name from Jetur, a son of Ishmael, who colonised it (Gen. xxv. 15, 16). His descendants were conquered by the half-tribe of Manasseh (1 Chr. v. 19–23) but not annihilated, for, as we have seen, above, p. 61, Aristobulus re-conquered their colony, then called Ituræa, and gave them their choice between Judaism or banishment (Jos. Ant. XIII. 11. 3). Remnants, however, still survived, and retiring to the neighbouring rocky fastnesses “became known as skilful archers and daring plunderers” (Virgil, Georg. II. 448; Cic. Phil. II. 24; VIII. 19; XLIV. 112; V. 18). When Pompeius came into Syria it was ceded to the Romans, and was heavily taxed by M. Antonius; it then fell into the hands of a chief called Zenodorus, but about B.C. 20 was bestowed by Augustus on Herod the Great (see above, p. 93), who bequeathed it to his son Philip. Jos. Ant. XVII. 8. 1; Smith’s Bibl. Dict. and Dict. Geog.

226 ‒ Jos. B. J. II. 6. 3.

227 ‒ According to Dion Cassius he was banished by Augustus to Vienne in Gaul, in the consulship of Marcus Æmilius Lepidus and L. Arruntius, after reigning from A.U.C. 750 to A.U.C. 759, Wieseler, Chronol. Synop. p. 50.

228 ‒ Jos. B. J. II. 7. 3; Lewin’s Fasti Sacri, p. 146.

229 ‒ From the time of Augustus (B.C. 27) the provinces subject to the Roman sway were divided into two classes, (i) Senatorial, and (ii) Imperial. (i) Senatorial provinces were governed by a Proconsul, called in Greek Ἀνθύπατος (Acts xiii. 7; xviii. 12; xix. 38), who was appointed by lot, held his authority for a year, carried with him the lictors and fasces, the insignia of a consul, but had no military power. (ii) Imperial provinces were governed by a Proprætor, in Greek Ἀντιστράτηγος, or as he was sometimes termed “Legatus,” or Πρεσβευτής, the representative or “Commissioner” of the emperor. He was appointed by the emperor himself, held his authority as long as the latter wished, and went from Italy with all the pomp of a military commander. Syria was an imperial province, and therefore was governed by a Legatus, or “Commissioner” of the emperor, and Judæa, partly on account of its remoteness from Antioch, partly from the peculiar character of its inhabitants, was ruled by a special procurator, subject to the governor of Syria, but vested within his own province with the power of a Legatus. Hence we never find the title Proconsul applied to Quirinus, Pilate, Festus, or Felix, but Ἡγεμών, a general term = the Latin præses (Comp. Lk. ii. 2; iii. 1; Acts xxiii. 24). The procurator of Judæa (a) had his head-quarters at Cæsarea (Acts xxiii. 23); (b) was assisted by a council consisting of assessors (Acts xxv. 12); (c) was attended by six lictors, wore the military dress, and had a cohort as a body-guard (Matt. xxvii. 27); (d) came up to Jerusalem at the time of the great festivals, when, according to Josephus, he resided in the palace of Herod (B. J. II. 14. 3); (e) had an audience-chamber (Acts xxv. 23), and a judgment-seat (Acts xxv. 6); (f) had the power of life and death (Matt. xxvii. 26), and sent appeals to the emperor (Acts xxv. 12).

230 ‒ During his procuratorship occurred the pollution of the temple by the Samaritans, related above, p. 123. Up to this time they had been admitted to the temple, but were now excluded.

231 ‒ “Sebaste and Jerusalem being far from Antioch, the mountains difficult and the people turbulent, Quirinus was allowed to treat these new districts of the empire as a sub-province, placing them under a procurator of their own, with a provincial capital at Cæsarea on the sea-coast.” H. Dixon’s Holy Land, I. 236.

232 ‒ Jos. B. J. II. 8. 1.

233 ‒ See above, p. 135, note.

234 ‒ Jos. Ant. XVI. 13. 5.

235 ‒ Ib. XVII. 1. 1.

236 ‒ Jos. Ant. XVIII. 1. 1; B. J. II. 8. 1.

237 ‒ Jos. Ant. XVII. 2. 1.

238 ‒ Jos. Ant. XVIII. 2. 2; Lewin’s Fasti Sacri, p. 160, 1.

239 ‒ Seeing that a rapid succession of governors only increased the oppressions and exactions of the provinces; the governor, who anticipated but a short harvest, making the most of his time, and extorting as much as he was able in the shortest possible period. Jos. Ant. XVII. 7. 5; Merivale, V. 281.

240 ‒ Jos. Ant. XVIII. 2. 2. Some think that Annas was now Nasi or President of the Sanhedrin, an office not always held by the high-priest. Ellicott, 333, n.

241 ‒ The gens of the Pontii, with whom he may have been connected either by descent or adoption, is first conspicuous in Roman history in the person of C. Pontius Telesinus, the great Samnite general. Smith’s Bibl. Dict.

242 ‒ By some (i) deemed to denote “armed with the pilum, or javelin;” by others (ii) considered an abbreviation of pileatus, from pileus, “the cap or badge of manumitted slaves,” indicating that he was either a libertus, i.e. “freedman,” or descended from one. Smith’s Bibl. Dict.

243 ‒ Jos. Ant. XVIII. 3. 1.

244 ‒ Comp. Mark vii. 11.

245 ‒ Jos. Ant. XVIII. 3. 2.

246 ‒ “With the Roman legions came the Roman fiscal system; harbour-dues, post-dues, town-dues, customs, excise; in the streets a house-tax, in the markets a fruit-tax, everywhere a poll-tax. The Jews began to groan under the weight, and sicken under the names of these Roman imposts ... their nationality was gone, they were denied the grain of comfort which an Oriental finds in seeing and kissing the foot that grinds him into dust. For many years after Archelaus left Jerusalem, the Jews rarely saw the faces of their lords. Augustus dwelt at Rome, Quirinus at Antioch, Coponius at Cæsarea. Jerusalem was garrisoned by a subaltern, governed by a priest.” H. Dixon’s Holy Land, I. 238.

247 ‒ The 15th year of Tiberius mentioned by St Luke iii. 1. either (i) includes the two years during which Tiberius appears to have been associated with Augustus, or (ii) coincides not with the first appearance, but the captivity of John the Baptist, “the epoch, from which, in accordance with ancient tradition, the narrative of the first three Gospels appears to date.” Ellicott’s Lectures, 104, n.; Wieseler’s Chronol. Synop.

248 ‒ Situated either thirty miles north of Jericho, near Succoth, the northern ford, or nearly east of that city, the ordinary point of passage across the river. Ellicott’s Lectures, 106, n.

249 ‒ See above, p. 118, note.

250 ‒ “Lightfoot shews that it was the token of a slave having become his master’s property, to loose his shoe, to tie the same, or to carry the necessary articles for him to the bath.” Alford on Matt. iii. 11.

251 ‒ Probably about six months after his ministry had begun. Ellicott’s Lectures, 102, n.

252 ‒ Διεκώλυεν, Mtt. iii. 14, a much stronger word than the simple ἐκώλυεν, and denoting earnestness and an active endeavour to prevent him.

253 ‒ Ellicott, p. 109. The traditional site is the mountain Quarantania, “a high and precipitous wall of rock 12 or 1500 feet above the plain west of the Jordan near Jericho.” The side facing the plain is as perpendicular and apparently as high as the rock of Gibraltar, and upon the summit are still visible the ruins of an ancient convent. Midway below are caverns hewn in the perpendicular rock, where hermits formerly retired to fast and pray in imitation of the “Forty Days.” Robinson’s Palestine, I. 567; Thomson’s L. and B. 617; Tristram, pp. 208, 209.

254 ‒ The identity of Nathanael and Bartholomew appears highly probable. a. St John twice (i. 45; xxi. 2) mentions Nathanael, never Bartholomew. b. The other Evangelists (Mtt. x. 3; Mk. iii. 18; Lk. vi. 14) all speak of Bartholomew, never of Nathanael. c. Philip first brought Nathanael to Jesus, and Bartholomew is mentioned by each of the first three Evangelists immediately after Philip. d. St Luke couples Philip with Bartholomew precisely in the same way as Simon with his brother Andrew, and Joses with his brother John.

255 ‒ Perhaps for the purpose of prayer and meditation. “The foliage of the fig-tree produces a thick shade, and the Jewish Rabbis were accustomed to rise early and study beneath it.” Wordsworth’s Notes.

256 ‒ Identified either with (i) Kefr Kenna, a small village about 4½ miles N.E. of Nazareth, which “now contains only the ruins of a church, said to stand over the house in which the miracle was performed;” or (ii) Kana el Jelil, about 5 miles north of Sepphoris, and 9 from Nazareth, near Jotapata, the name of which is considered by some completely to represent the Hebrew original. Robinson, II. 346–349; Thomson, Land and Book, p. 425; Stanley, S. and P. 367.

257 ‒ It is a striking confirmation of our Lord’s words (Mtt. xi. 23) that the very site of Capernaum, then a flourishing and populous place, is now one of the most hotly-contested points connected with the geography of Palestine: (i) some would place it at Khân Minyeh, at the N.E. end of the Plain of Gennesaret: (ii) others place the Fountain of Capernaum, mentioned by Josephus (B. J. III. 10. 8) at Et-Tabiga, a little to the north of Khân Minyeh, and the town itself at Tell Hum, where there are the remains of a place of considerable extent, “consisting chiefly of the fallen walls of dwellings and other buildings, all of unhewn stone.” Robinson, I. 540; Thomson, L. and B.

258 ‒ Lange’s Life of Christ, II. 298.

259 ‒ Josephus (B. J. VI. 9. 3) estimates the number of lambs sacrificed at the Passover in the time of Nero at 256,500.

260 ‒ This cleansing of the Temple recorded by St John is clearly distinct from the later one mentioned by Mtt. xxi. 12, &c.; Mk. xi. 15, &c.; Lk. xix. 15, &c.

261 ‒ “Any Jew might come forward as a zealot against illegal abuses in the national life (Num. xxv. 7), but the greatest zealots generally justified their proceedings as prophets and workers of miracles (1 K. xviii. 23, 24). By His act the Lord had rebuked the whole nation, and the Sanhedrin itself; they demanded, therefore, a sign to legitimate His proceeding.” Lange, II. 300; Milman, I. 159 n.

262 ‒ How widely this mysterious saying, though misunderstood, was circulated, and how deep was the impression it made, is clear from several subsequent incidents. See Mtt. xxvi. 61; Mk. xiv. 58; Mtt. xxvii. 39, 40; Mk. xv. 29.

263 ‒ Comp. Jn. iii. 1; vii. 26, 50; Lk. xxiv. 20.

264 ‒ For the circumstances here alluded to see Class-Book of O. T. History, pp. 182, 183.

265 ‒ Ænon means place of fountains, a Greek form of the Chaldee word denoting the same.

266 ‒ According to Eusebius and Jerome, Salim existed in their day near the Jordan, eight Roman miles south of Scythopolis. In exact accordance with this position the name Salûm has been lately discovered six English miles south of Beisan, and two miles west of the Jordan. Beside it there gushes out a splendid fountain, and rivulets wind about in all directions, so that of few places in Palestine could it be said so truly there was much water there. Van de Velde, II. 356.

267 ‒ Jos. Ant. XVIII. 5. 1.

268 ‒ Jos. Ant. XVIII. 5. 2.

269 ‒ See the Calendar in Class-Book of O. T. History, p. 155.

270 ‒ At this time called Sychar by the Jews of the south, in studied contempt, as denoting either falsehood, i.e. idol-worship (Hab. ii. 18), or drunkard.

271 ‒ Jacob’s well is a spot the identity of which has never been seriously questioned; Jews and Samaritans, Christians and Mahommedans, unite in attesting it. It is situated “on the end of a low spur or swell, running out from the north-eastern base of Gerizim,” the mouth being encumbered by the ruins of a Christian church once built over it. “The width of the bore is about nine feet, the upper portion built in with neatly dressed and squared stones like the masonry of the wells of Beersheba, the lower portion hewn, to all appearance, out of the solid rock.” The well is still deep, about seventy-five or eighty feet, though evidently choked with many feet of rubbish, and oftentimes filled with much water. Robinson, III. 132; Tristram, 146; Stanley’s S. and P. pp. 240, 241.

272 ‒ On the feeling of the Samaritans towards the Jews, see above, p. 122.

273 ‒ For the building and destruction of the temple there, see above, pp. 3, and 57.

274 ‒ On the Samaritan expectation of the Messiah, see above, pp. 121, 122.

275 ‒ Τις βασιλικός (Jn. iv. 46). Some have supposed him to have been Chuza, Herod’s steward, whose wife was among the holy women that ministered unto the Lord of their substance (Lk. viii. 3). “This is not wholly improbable,” writes Archbishop Trench, “for it would seem as if only some mighty and marvellous work of this kind would have drawn a steward of Herod’s with his family into the net of the Gospel,” On the Miracles, p. 119.

276 ‒ One hour after noon.

277 ‒ The true reading in Jn. v. 1 appears to be ἑορτή without the article, and the feast spoken of is identified by Wieseler, Tischendorf, Ellicott and others, with that of Purim; for the institution of which see Class-Book of O. T. History, p. 475.

278 ‒ By some identified with a large reservoir called the Birket Israil within the walls of the city and close to St Stephen’s Gate, under the N.E. wall of the haram area. Robinson, however, identifies it with the “Fountain of the Virgin,” in the Kedron valley, a little above the pool of Siloam. Smith’s Bibl. Dict.

279 ‒ Ellicott’s Lectures, pp. 141, 142.

280 ‒ For the service of the Synagogue see above, pp. 111–113.

281 ‒ “They arose,” it is said of the infuriated inhabitants, “and cast Him out of the city, and brought Him to a brow of the mountain (ἕως ὀφρύος τοῦ ὄρους) on which the city was built, so as to cast Him down the cliff (ὥστε κατακρημνίσαι αὐτόν). Most readers probably from these words imagine a town built on the summit of a mountain, from which summit the intended precipitation was to take place. This is not the situation of Nazareth. Yet its position is still in accordance with the narrative. It is built ‘upon,’ that is, on the side of ‘a mountain,’ but the ‘brow’ is not beneath but over the town, and such a cliff (κρημνός), as is here implied, is to be found, as all modern travellers describe, in the abrupt face of the limestone rock, about thirty or forty feet high, overhanging the Maronite convent at the south-western corner of the town.” Stanley’s S. and P., p. 367; Robinson, II. 335; Tristram’s Land of Israel, p. 121.

282 ‒ “The Saviour came down (Lk. iv. 31; Jn. iv. 47, 51) from the high country of Galilee, where He had hitherto dwelt, and from henceforth made His permanent home in the deep retreat of the sea of Galilee.... It was no retired mountain-lake by whose shore He took up His abode, such as might have attracted the eastern sage or western hermit. It was to the Roman Palestine almost what the manufacturing districts are to England. Nowhere, except in the capital itself, could He have found such a sphere for His works and words of mercy; from no other centre could His fame have so gone throughout all Syria (Mtt. iv. 24).... Far removed from the capital, mingled with the Gentile races of Lebanon and Arabia, the dwellers by the sea of Galilee were free from most of the strong prejudices which in the south of Palestine raised a bar to His reception. The people in the land of Zabulon and Nephthalim, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, had sat in darkness; but from that very cause they saw more clearly the great Light when it came: to them which sat in the region and the shadow of death, for that very reason light sprang up the more readily. He came to preach the Gospel to the poor, to the weary and heavy laden; to seek and to save that which was lost. Where could He find work so readily as in the ceaseless toil and turmoil of these teeming villages and busy waters? The heathen or half-heathen publicans or tax-gatherers would be there, sitting by the lake side at the receipt of custom. The women who were sinners would there have come, either from the neighbouring Gentile cities, or corrupted by the license of Gentile manners. The Roman soldiers would there be found quartered with their slaves (Luke vii. 2), to be near the palaces of the Herodian princes, or to repress the turbulence of the Galilæan peasantry. And the hardy boatmen, filled with the faithful and grateful spirit by which that peasantry was always distinguished, would supply the energy and docility which He needed for His followers.” Stanley’s S. and P. 375–377; comp. Jos. B. J. III. 3. 2.

283 ‒ Milman, I. 177; Andrews, p. 179.

284 ‒ 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), seem to indicate that Zebedee, if not a wealthy man, was at any rate of no mean position in Capernaum. See Ellicott, 169 n.

285 ‒ Trench, Miracles, 127, 128.

286 ‒ Comp. Exod. xx. 18, 19; Judg. xiii. 22; Dan. x. 17; Isai. vi. 5.

287 ‒ Trench, 232.

288 ‒ Or “great fever,” one of the expressions often cited as illustrating St Luke’s professional acquaintance with disease. The Greek medical writers recognised a marked distinction between “great” and “small” fevers.

289 ‒ See Class-Book of Old Testament History, p. 150.

290 ‒ Comp. Mk. vi. 11, for a testimony unto them, with Luke ix. 5, for a testimony against them.

291 ‒ The identity of Matthew and Levi seems to follow from (i) The perfect agreement in the narratives of the calling of the one (Matt. ix. 10), and of the other (Mark ii. 15; Luke v. 29); (ii) The absence from the lists of the Apostles of any trace of the name Levi, while that of Matthew occurs in all. It is not improbable that the grateful “publican” changed his name after and in memory of his call, so that he, who was before called Levi, was now known as Matthew, or Matthias, which is equivalent to Theodore, the “gift of God.” See Ellicott’s Lectures, 172 n.

292 ‒ Ellicott’s Lectures, p. 173.

293 ‒ By some explained as (i) The Sabbath that succeeded the second day of the Passover; (ii) The 15th of Nisan, the 14th being, it is asserted, always coincident with the Sabbath; (iii) The first Sabbath of a year that stood second in a Sabbatical cycle.

294 ‒ “He that reapeth corn on the Sabbath, to the quantity of a fig, is guilty; and plucking corn is as reaping.” Lightfoot, quoting the Mishna.

295 ‒ See above, p. 159.

296 ‒ See above, p. 159.

297 ‒ It was probably now that the Saviour called these brothers Boanerges, “Sons of Thunder,” from their burning and impetuous spirit, of which we trace indications in Lk. ix. 54, Mk. ix. 38.

298 ‒ See above, p. 159.

299 ‒ See above, p. 159, n.

300 ‒ See above, p. 182.

301 ‒ See above, p. 148.

302 ‒ Tradition places the scene of the Sermon on the Mount on a hill known as the “Horns of Hattin,” a ridge no great distance from Tell Hûm, running east and west for about a quarter of a mile, and called by the Latins the Mount of Beatitudes. Stanley thinks “the situation so strikingly coincides with the intimations of 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 guided,” S. and P. p. 360. On the peculiar acoustic properties of the neighbourhood, see Tristram’s Land of Israel, p. 433.

303 ‒ In reference to the Sermon on the Mount as related by St Matthew and St Luke, it may be observed that the differences are on the whole few when compared with the resemblances: Thus (i) both have the same beginning and ending; (ii) the order is generally similar; (iii) the expressions are often identical; (iv) the audience (Mtt. iv. 25; Lk. vi. 17; Mk. iii. 7, 8) was the same, and included crowds from every part of the land; (v) probably St Matthew relates it substantially as it was delivered, and writing for Jews retains those portions which relate to the Jewish sects and customs, while St Luke has modified it to meet the wants of those for whom he more especially wrote. Ellicott’s Lectures, p. 180, n. and Andrews, p. 223.

304 ‒ Trench On the Miracles, pp. 225, 226.

305 ‒ Ellicott’s Lectures, p. 181.

306 ‒ Now called Neïn. It was near the source of the brook Kishon, not far from Endor, and 2½ leagues from Nazareth. The name means “the lovely,” and was perhaps given on account of its pleasant situation in the plain of Esdraelon.

307 ‒ Jos. B. J. VII. 6. 1–3.

308 ‒ Like Socrates, the Baptist, though in confinement, was allowed to hold intercourse with his disciples. Comp. Mtt. xxv. 36; Acts xxiv. 23. Lange, III. 116, n.

309 ‒ Milman, I. 215.

310 ‒ Lange, III. 108.

311 ‒ Ellicott, p. 182.

312 ‒ There is no real ground for identifying this woman with Mary Magdalene. It is true that she was a victim of Satanic influence (Lk. viii. 2), but it does not follow that she had been guilty of sins of impurity.

313 ‒ This anointing is not to be confounded with that recorded in Mtt. xxvi. 6, &c., Mk. xiv. 3, &c., Jn. xii. 1, &c. The two anointings differ in time, and place, as well as the chief actors. Trench On the Parables, p. 290.

314 ‒ Trench On the Parables, pp. 289–293.

315 ‒ See above, p. 171.

316 ‒ See Ellicott, p. 184, and note.

317 ‒ On the scenery around the lake which would suggest the majority of the Parables now delivered, see a striking passage in Stanley’s Sinai and Palestine, pp. 425–427. “A slight recess in the hill-side, close upon the Plain of Gennesaret, disclosed at once, in detail, and with a conjunction I remember nowhere else in Palestine, every feature of the great parable of the Sower;” there was i. The undulating corn-field descending close to the water’s edge, over which hovered countless birds of various kinds. Comp. also Tristram, p. 431; ii. The trodden pathway running through the midst of it, with no fence or hedge to prevent the seed from falling here and there on either side of it or upon it; itself hard with the constant tramp of horse and mule and human feet; iii. The rocky ground of the hill side protruding here and there through the corn-fields, as elsewhere through the grassy slopes; iv. The large bushes of thorn, the “Nabk,” springing up like the fruit-trees of the more inland parts, in the very midst of the waving wheat; v. The good rich soil, which distinguishes the whole of the Plain of Gennesaret and its neighbourhood from the bare hills elsewhere descending into the lake, and which, where there is no interruption, produces one vast mass of corn; vi. The women and children picking out from the wheat the tall green stalks, called by the Arabs Zurwân, = the Greek Zizania, = the Lollia of the Vulgate, = the tares of our version, which if sown designedly throughout the fields would be inseparable from the wheat, from which, even when growing naturally and by chance, these are at first sight hardly distinguishable; vii. The mustard-tree (in Arabic Khadel, in Hebrew Chardal, in N.W. India Khardel), growing especially on the shores of the Lake, [as also near Damascus, Jerusalem, and the Dead Sea], rising from a small seed into a large shrub or tree, 25 ft. high, and producing numerous branches and leaves, among which the birds take shelter. viii. The great fisheries, which once made the fame of Gennesaret, with (1) the busy fishermen plying (a) the drag-net, or hawling-net, σαγήνη (Mtt. xiii. 47, 48), the Latin tragum or tragula, the English seine or sean, sometimes half a mile in length (Trench, Parables, 134, n.); (b) the casting-net, ἀμφίβληστρον (Mtt. iv. 18; Mk. i. 16), the Latin funda or jaculum, circular in shape, “like the top of a tent” (Thomson, L. and B. 402); (c) the bag-net and basket-net, so constructed and worked as to enclose the fish out in deep water (Lk. v. 4–9), Thomson, p. 402. (2) “The marvellous shoals of fish of various kinds, the most striking phenomenon of the lake” (Tristram, p. 432).

318 ‒ With reference to the sudden and violent tempests, to which the lake is exposed, “we must remember,” writes Thomson, “that it lies low, 600 feet lower than the ocean; that the vast and naked plateaus of the Jaulan rise to a great height, spreading backwards to the wilds 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 the lake, and that these act like gigantic funnels to draw down the cold winds from the mountains. And moreover, these winds are not only violent, but they come down suddenly, and often when the sky is perfectly clear,” The Land and the Book, p. 374; Tristram, p. 430.

319 ‒ The MSS. in all three Evangelists vary in their readings between Γαδαρηνῶν, Γερασηνῶν, and Γεργεσηνῶν. Gadara, the capital of Peræa, lay S.E. of the southern extremity of Gennesaret, at a distance of about sixty stadia from Tiberias, its country being called Gadaritis. Gerasa lay on the extreme E. limit of Peræa, and was too far from the lake to give its name to any district on its borders. It is the opinion of Dr Thomson that St Matthew, “writing for those intimately acquainted with the topography of the country in detail, names the obscure and exact locality Gergesa, while SS. Mark and Luke, writing for those at a distance, simply name the country Gadara, as a place of importance, and acknowledged as the capital of the district.” Directly opposite Gennesaret this traveller visited some ruins called by his guide Kerza or Gersa, which he identifies with the Gergesa of St Matthew, Land and Book, p. 375.

320 ‒ Trench, Miracles, p. 170.

321 ‒ Εἰς τὴν ἄβυσσον (Lk. viii. 31), translated in the English version the deep, which leads to a confusion of ideas. The word occurs here and in Rom. x. 7, where also Hell would be the better translation, and several times in Revelation, as ix. 1, 2, 11; xi. 7; xvii. 8; xx. 1, 3; in which places it corresponds to τάρταρος Tartarus, and γέεννα Gehenna (2 Pet. ii. 4), Trench, Miracles, p. 171, n.

322 ‒ At Kerza or Gersa, “while there is no precipice running sheer to the sea, but a narrow belt of beach, the bluff behind is so steep, and the shore so narrow, that a herd of swine, rushing frantically down, must certainly have been overwhelmed in the lake before they could recover themselves,” Tristram, p. 462.

323 ‒ Trench, Miracles, p. 176.

324 ‒ Decapolis, “the ten cities” (Mtt. iv. 25; Mk. v. 20; vii. 31), all lay, with the exception of Scythopolis, East of the Jordan, and to the E. and S.E. of the sea of Galilee. They were, 1. Scythopolis, 2. Hippos, 3. Gadara, 4. Pella, 5. Philadelphia, 6. Gerasa, 7. Dion, 8. Canatha, 9. Abila, 10. Capitolias. They were rebuilt, partially colonized, and endowed with peculiar privileges immediately after the conquest of Syria by the Romans, B.C. 65. The limits of the territory of Decapolis were not very clearly defined, and the word was sometimes used to designate a large district extending along both sides of the Jordan: see Smith’s Bibl. Dict.

325 ‒ Trench, Miracles, p. 181.

326 ‒ Trench, Miracles, p. 186.

327 ‒ Such is the usual explanation of γενέσια. Wieseler, however, and others, consider it refers to a feast kept in honour of his accession to the throne, and so make the date of the Baptist’s execution April 11, A.U.C. 782, since Herod the Great died a few days before the Passover, A.U.C. 750. Wieseler’s Synopsis, p. 265; Andrews, p. 254.

328 ‒ Bethsaida-Julias was at the N.E. extremity of the lake of Gennesaret. It had been a village, but was rebuilt and adorned by Herod Philip, who raised it to the dignity of a town, and called it Julias after the daughter of Augustus (Jos. Ant. XVIII. 2. 1; B. J. II. 9. 1; III. 10. 7).

329 ‒ Jos. Ant. XVIII. 5. 2.

330 ‒ Greswell, Harm. III. 428, thinks that during the earlier period of the Saviour’s ministry Herod had either been engaged in hostilities with Aretas, or had been on a visit to Rome, whither he went about this time, and so had remained ignorant of what had already taken place. The late mission of the Twelve would be very likely to rouse attention, indicating, as it apparently did, a purpose to disseminate His doctrine more widely, and to make disciples in larger numbers, Andrews, p. 256.

331 ‒ Trench, Miracles, p. 262.

332 ‒ Trench, p. 262.

333 ‒ “There is now, and probably always was, one characteristic feature of the Eastern side of the Lake—its desert character. Partly this arises from its near exposure to the Bedouin tribes, partly from its less abundance of springs and streams. There is no recess in the Eastern hills; no towns along its banks corresponding to those in the Plain of Gennesaret. Thus the wilder regions became a natural refuge from the active life of the Western shores.” Stanley’s S. and P. 379.

334 ‒ Compare Trench, Miracles, p. 264.

335 ‒ Consisting some of 50, some of 100, and, in the graphic words of St Mark, showing like so many garden plots (πρασιαὶ πρασιαὶ), on the green turf. “Our English ‘in ranks,’ does not reproduce the picture to the eye, giving rather the notion of continuous lines. Wiclif’s was better, ‘by parties.’ Perhaps ‘in groups’ would be as near as we could get to it in English,” Trench, Miracles, p. 265. “In the parts of the plain not cultivated by the hand of man would be found the much green grass (Mk. vi. 39; Jn. vi. 10) still fresh in the spring of the year, before it had faded away in the summer sun—the tall grass which, broken down by the feet of the thousands there gathered together, would make as it were couches (Mk. vi. 39, 40) for them to recline upon.” Stanley’s S. and P. 381.

336 ‒ Trench, Miracles, p. 271, and note.

337 ‒ The Western Bethsaida, the city of Philip, and Andrew, and Peter, is placed by Robinson at the modern Et-Tabighah, by Ritter at Khân Minyeh. Ellicott, 207, note.

338 ‒ The proper Jewish reckoning recognised only three such watches, entitled (i) the first or beginning of the watches (Lam. ii. 19), lasting from sunset to 10 P.M.; (ii) the middle watch (Judg. vii. 19), from 10 P.M. to 2 A.M.; (iii) the morning watch (Ex. xiv. 24; 1 Sam. xi. 11), from 2 A.M. to sunrise. After the Roman supremacy the number of watches was increased to four, sometimes described by their numerical order (as Mtt. xiv. 25), sometimes by the terms “even,” closing at 9 P.M.; “midnight;” “cock-crowing” at 3 A.M.; “morning” at 6 A.M.; See Smith’s Bibl. Dict.

339 ‒ Scarcely, therefore, more than half the way, the lake being 40 or 45 furlongs in breadth.

340 ‒ “The contrary wind, which, blowing up the lake from the south-west would prevent the boat of the Apostles from returning to Capernaum, would also bring other boats (Jn. vi. 16–24) from Tiberias, the chief city on the south, to Julias, the chief city on the north, and so enable the multitudes, when the storm had subsided, to cross at once, without the long journey on foot which they had made the day before.” Stanley’s S. and P., p. 382.

341 ‒ Verily, verily, I say unto you, Jn. vi. 26; vi. 32; vi. 47; vi. 53.

342 ‒ If it was not actually being celebrated. Many hold that the day on which this momentous discourse was delivered in the synagogue of Capernaum was the 15th of Nisan, the second day of the Paschal Feast. See Wieseler, p. 281; Tischendorf, Synop. Evang. XXXIV.; Ellicott’s Hulsean Lectures, p. 210 and note.

343 ‒ Ὁ ἅγιος τοῦ θεοῦ (Jn. vi. 69): such appears to be the preferable reading. See Scrivener’s Greek Testament.

344 ‒ It is not necessary to regard the statements in Mk. vi. 54, 55 as descriptive of an activity confined to that one day. Andrews, p. 269.

345 ‒ Lange on Mtt. xv. 21.

346 ‒ A woman of Canaan according to St Matthew (xv. 22), a Greek or Syrophœnician according to St Mark (vii. 26). The first term describes her religion, that it was not Jewish, but heathen; the second, the stock of which she came, “which was even that accursed stock once doomed of God to a total excision, but of which some branches had been spared by those first generations of Israel that should have extirpated them root and branch. (See Class-Book of Old Testament History, pp. 225–227.) Everything, therefore, was against this woman, yet she was not hindered by that everything from drawing nigh, and craving the boon that her soul longed after,” Trench, Parables, p. 339.

347 ‒ If not through Sidon, according to a reading, διὰ Σιδῶνος, in Mk. vii. 31, found in several MSS., in several ancient Versions, and adopted by Tischendorf, Alford, Tregelles and others, and “which certainly appears to deserve the preference thus almost unanimously given to it.” Ellicott, 218, n. What part of the Decapolis the Lord visited is not mentioned.

348 ‒ Not, indeed, absolutely dumb, but unable to utter intelligible sounds, having, as our Version renders the word, an impediment in his speech; Greek μογιλάλος = βραδύγλωσσος.

349 ‒ He put His fingers into His ears, and spat, and touched His tongue, and looking up to heaven He sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened (Mk. vii. 34).

350 ‒ Trench, Miracles, p. 353.

351 ‒ Lange on Mtt. xv. 32.

352 ‒ Where is not very distinctly specified. All we can certainly gather is that it was on the Eastern side of the lake, and in a desert spot (Mtt. xv. 33), possibly about the middle or southern end of the Lake.

353 ‒ The baskets on this occasion are called σπυρίδες (comp. Acts ix. 25), on the occasion of the feeding of the Five Thousand, κόφινος (Mtt. xiv. 20 and the parallels). When alluding to the two miracles subsequently (Matt. xvi. 9, 10; Mk. viii. 19, 20), the Saviour preserves the distinction. For the word κόφινος, compare Juvenal, III. 13, Judæis, quorum cophinus fœnumque supellex.

354 ‒ Possibly the ship kept specially for His own use.

355 ‒ Now unanimously identified with a miserable collection of hovels (Stanley’s S. and P., p. 382) known as el-Mejdel, on the western side of the lake, and at the S.E. corner of the Plain of Gennesaret. Its name “is hardly altered from the ancient Magdala or Migdol, so called, probably, from an ancient watch-tower that guarded the entrance of the plain.” Stanley, l. c.; compare Tristram, p. 425; Thomson, L. and B.

356 ‒ “Just before reaching Mejdel we crossed a little open valley, the Ain-el-Baridah, with a few rich corn-fields and gardens straggling among the ruins of a village, and some large and more ancient foundations by several copious fountains, and probably identified with the Dalmanutha of the New Testament.” Tristram, l. c. “We conjecture that the Lord touched the shore somewhere between these two villages.” Lange on Mtt. xv. 39.

357 ‒ Comp. Jn. ii. 18, above, p. 164; Jn. vi. 30, above, p. 211. A sign from heaven denoted either (i) some visible manifestation of the Shechinah, or (ii) some change in the sun or moon, some meteor, or thunder and lightning. Comp. Lange on Mtt. xvi. 1.

358 ‒ A town, not Canaanite but Roman, “in its situation, in its exuberance of water, its olive-groves, and its view over the distant plain, almost a Syrian Tivoli.” Stanley’s S. and P., p. 398. (i) Its ancient name was Panium or Paneas (Jos. Ant. XV. 10. 3, and see above, p. 13), so called from a cavern near the town, “abrupt, prodigiously deep, and full of still water,” adopted by the Greeks of the Macedonian kingdom of Antioch as “the nearest likeness that Syria affords of the beautiful limestone grottos which in their own country were inseparably associated with the worship of the sylvan Pan,” and dedicated to that deity. Hence its modern appellation, Banias. (ii) The town retained its old name under Herod the Great, who built here a splendid temple, of the whitest marble, which he dedicated to Augustus Cæsar (see above, p. 94). But Herod Philip made great additions to the town (Jos. Ant. XVIII. 2. 1; B. J. II. 9. 1), and called it Cæsarea Philippi, partly after his own name, and partly after that of the Emperor. Agrippa II. afterwards called it Neronias (Jos. Ant. XX. 9. 4), and here Titus exhibited gladiatorial shows at the close of the Jewish war (Jos. B. J. VII. 2. 1).

359 ‒ i. The Baptism (Lk. iii. 21); ii. The Election of the Twelve (Lk. vi. 12, 13); iii. The Discourse in the Synagogue of Capernaum (Mtt. xiv. 23); iv. Now the Transfiguration (Lk. ix. 28); v. The Agony (Lk. xxii. 44).

360 ‒ Stier, II. 329; Lange’s Life of Christ, III. 229.

361 ‒ Already by His very name the deepest purport of His mission had been declared to be the delivery of His people from their sin (Mtt. i. 21); already the aged Symeon had foreseen heart-piercing anguish in store for His mother (Lk. ii. 35); already the Baptist had twice pointed Him out as the Lamb of God destined to take away the sin of the world (Jn. i. 29); already at the first Passover He had spoken to the Jews of a Temple to be destroyed and rebuilt in three days (Jn. ii. 19); and to Nicodemus of a lifting up of the Son of Man even as Moses had lifted up the serpent in the wilderness (Jn. iii. 12–16); already at the second Passover He had declared that He was about to give His flesh for the life of the world, that His flesh was meat indeed, and His blood drink indeed (Jn. vi. 47–51).

362 ‒ See above, p. 201.

363 ‒ Stanley, S. and P., 399; Lightfoot on Mk. ix. 2.

364 ‒ It is clear that the occurrence was no waking vision or “dream.” Peter and they that were with him had been weighed by sleep (ἦσαν βεβαρημένοι ὕπνῳ), but they thoroughly roused themselves (διαγρηγορήσαντες δέ), and saw His glory and the two men standing with Him. Lk. ix. 32. See Alford in loc.

365 ‒ Ἔλεγον τὴν ἔξοδον αὐτοῦ, Lk. ix. 31. “An unusual construction of λέγειν,” it has been remarked, “though it occurs again in Rom. iv. 6, and in the earliest ecclesiastical writers, in the sense of recounting, relating the details of, describing.” Westcott’s Introd. to the Study of the Gospels, p. 298, n. For the word Ἔξοδος here used compare Wisdom vii. 6; 2 Pet. i. 5.

366 ‒ Trench, Miracles, p. 361.

367 ‒ The Didrachma (Matt. xvii. 24) was exactly the sum mentioned in Ex. xxx. 11–16, due for the current expenses of the tabernacle, and afterwards of the Temple. The shekels, half-shekels, and quarter-shekels, which the Jews were permitted in the time of the Maccabees to coin (see above, pp. 55, 56), becoming scarce, and not being coined any more, “it became the custom to estimate the Temple-dues as two drachmas (the δίδραχμον here required),” Trench, Miracles, p. 373.

368 ‒ Κῆνσος = the capitation-tax; τέλη = customs or tolls on goods, Trench, Miracles, p. 380.

369 ‒ The coin he was told he would find in the fish’s mouth was a Stater (στατήρ, Matt. xvii. 27) = a whole shekel, which amounted to about 3 shillings and 3 pence, or just the sum required.

370 ‒ From Mtt. xiii. 56 we learn that their names were James, Joses, Judas, and Simon. By some they are regarded as the actual brethren of our Lord; by others as his first cousins, being the sons of Alphæus or Clopas and Mary the sister of the Virgin.

371 ‒ Ellicott, 246 n.

372 ‒ Ellicott, 249.

373 ‒ See Class-Book of Old Testament History, p. 403.

374 ‒ Comp. Jn. v. 16–18, and see above, p. 173.

375 ‒ Milman, I. 244.

376 ‒ See Class-Book of O. T. History, p. 154, and note.

377 ‒ “This was not historically true; for two prophets at least had arisen from Galilee: Jonah of Gath-hepher, and the greatest of the prophets, Elijah of Thisbe; and perhaps also Nahum and Hosea. Their contempt for Galilee made them lose sight of historical accuracy.” Alford in loc.

378 ‒ Milman, Hist. of Christianity, I. 246.

379 ‒ Milman, I. 246.

380 ‒ Lightfoot (Wks. I. 325) says they were 13 in number, and stood in the Court of the Women.

381 ‒ Ellicott, p. 256.

382 ‒ From the fact that the Jews divided the heathen world into 70 nations, it has been supposed that this mission of “the Seventy” hinted at the future destination of the Gospel for the whole world, just as the mission of “the Twelve” Apostles typified its first offer to the twelve tribes of Israel. Lightfoot, Hor. Heb. in Joann. VII. 37. Lange’s Life of Christ, III. 403 n. E. T.

383 ‒ This village, now called el’ Azarîyeh, from the name of Lazarus, is situated on the E. slope of the Mount of Olives, “not very far from the point at which the road to Jericho begins its more sudden descent towards the Jordan valley.” Bethany is usually taken to mean House of Dates, just as Bethphage close by denotes House of Figs. Another explanation is House of Misery, Poor-House, see Deutsch’s Note in Hepworth Dixon’s Holy Land, II. 214–219.

384 ‒ Several circumstances appear to indicate that the family at Bethany were not amongst the poorest of their people: e.g. (i) They possess a family vault (Jn. xi. 38), which was a privilege of the wealthier orders; (ii) The number of Jews (Jn. xi. 19) who assembled from Jerusalem to condole with them were of the higher class (comp. St John’s use of the term Ἰουδαῖοι in i. 19; vii. 13; viii. 22; ix. 22, &c.); (iii) the costly box of spikenard with which Mary anointed the Saviour’s feet (Jn. xii. 3). Trench On the Miracles, 410.

385 ‒ “To this period we may assign that instructive series of discourses which extend from the middle of the xth to the middle of the xiiith chapter of St Luke.” Ellicott, p. 257.

386 ‒ Such as the cure of a deaf and dumb demoniac (Lk. xi. 14, 15).

387 ‒ On the blood of Zacharias the son of Barachias, who perished between the sanctuary (ναός) and the altar of burnt-offering, see Class-Book of O. T. History, p. 425, and note.

388 ‒ Trench On the Parables, p. 341.

389 ‒ Distracting anxiety. Such is the full force of μέριμνα, from μερίζειν to divide, cleave asunder.

390 ‒ On the “Lily” of Palestine, see Stanley, S. and P. pp. 139, 429. “The lilies of the field are all out, a few tulips cover the rocks, but the scarlet anemone (Anemone coronaria, L.) now dominates everywhere, and a small blue bulbous iris, almost rivalling it in abundance and brilliancy of colour. There have been many claimants for the distinctive honour of the lilies of the field; but while it seems most natural to view the term as a generic expression (comp. Stanley, S. and P., p. 429), yet if one special flower was more likely than another to catch the eye of the Lord as He spoke, no one familiar with the flora of Palestine in spring-time can hesitate in assigning the place to the anemone,” Tristram’s Land of Israel, p. 433.

391 ‒ See above, p. 151.

392 ‒ See above, p. 148.

393 ‒ This outrage very probably was, if not the cause, at least one of the causes of the quarrel between Herod and Pilate, alluded to in Lk. xxiii. 12.

394 ‒ Trench On the Parables, p. 343.

395 ‒ Compare the same argument as addressed to the patriarch Job, Class-Book of O. T. History, p. 24.

396 ‒ Probably close to the fountain of Siloam: see above, p. 235.

397 ‒ Trench On the Parables, p. 346.

398 ‒ Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. “As the tower of Siloam fell and crushed 18 of the dwellers at Jerusalem, exactly so multitudes of its inhabitants were crushed beneath the ruins of their temple and their city; and during the last siege and assault of that city, there were numbers also who were pierced through by the Roman darts, or more miserably yet by those of their own frantic factions (Jos. B. J. V. 1. 3), in the courts of the temple, in the very act of preparing their sacrifices, so that literally their blood, like that of these Galilæans, was mingled with their sacrifices, one blood with another.” Trench On the Parables, p. 346.

399 ‒ Trench On the Parables, p. 323.

400 ‒ Trench On the Parables, p. 326.

401 ‒ See the Calendar in Class-Book of O. T. History, p. 155.

402 ‒ For its institution, see above, p. 36, and Class-Book of O. T. History, p. 154.

403 ‒ See above, p. 96. “This cloister had its name from the circumstance that, according to the Jewish tradition, it was a relic of Solomon’s temple, left standing when the Babylonians destroyed the rest of the sacred edifice.” Lange’s Life of Christ, III. 432, n. E. T.

404 ‒ Lange’s Life of Christ, III. 432, E. T.

405 ‒ See above, p. 235.

406 ‒ For illustrations of this, see Josephus, Ant. XX. 9. 7; XVII. 10. 2; XVII. 9. 3.

407 ‒ The Law here alluded to is used in its widest acceptation for the whole Old Testament, as in Jn. xii. 34; xv. 25.

408 ‒ This Psalm is directed against the tyranny and injustice of judges in Israel, and the argument is, if in any sense they could be called gods (as in Ex. xxi. 6; xxii. 9, 28), how much more He, “the only One, sealed and hallowed by the Father, and the Son of God,” Alford on Jn. x. 36.

409 ‒ See above, p. 153.

410 ‒ Lange’s Life of Christ, III. 374, E. T.; Alford on Lk. xiii. 31; Bengel in loc.

411 ‒ Ellicott, 263, and note.

412 ‒ Milman’s History of Christianity, I. 262.

417 ‒ “Every murder of a prophet, perpetrated by the Jews, proceeded either mediately or immediately from the rulers of the people, whose residence was at Jerusalem,” Oosterze on Lk. xiii. 31.

418 ‒ It seems not unreasonable to suppose that these words were uttered on two different occasions, now and afterwards, as recorded in Mtt. xxiii. 37 sq. See Ellicott, 264, n.; Alford on Lk. xiii. 34.

419 ‒ Ἦσαν παρατηρούμενοι, Lk. xiv. 1. Comp. vi. 7; xx. 20; Mk. iii. 2. See Trench On the Miracles, p. 328, n.

420 ‒ Where our Lord now probably was. See Lange’s Life of Christ, III. 388.

421 ‒ See above, p. 239, and note.

422 ‒ Trench On the Miracles, p. 391.

423 ‒ For other indications of the character of St Thomas, see Jn. xiv. 5; xx. 25. We gather that he was (i) deeply attached to his Master, (ii) prepared to die with Him, but (iii) ever ready to take the darker view of things, and (iv) unable to believe other and more than he saw.

424 ‒ “He had most likely died on the same day that the messenger announcing his illness had reached the Lord ... the day of his arrival would be one day; two our Lord abode in Peræa after He had dismissed him, and one more He would have employed in the journey from thence to Bethany ... dying upon that day, he had, according to the custom of the Jews, which made the burial immediately to follow on the death, been buried upon the same day” (cf. Acts v. 6–10). Trench On the Miracles, p. 397.

425 ‒ Compare Thomson’s Land and the Book, pp. 102, 103.

426 ‒ See Ibid. pp. 101, 2.

427 ‒ The question of some of the spectators, Could not this Man, which opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that even this man should not have died? (Jn. xi. 47) is characteristic of the exact truth of the narrative ... dwellers in Jerusalem, they refer to a miracle so well known amongst themselves, rather than to the former raisings of the dead, of which, occurring at an earlier period and in the remote Galilee, they had probably heard by rumour only. Trench, p. 408; Lange’s Life of Christ, III. 473, n.

428 ‒ Trench On the Miracles, p. 407.

429 ‒ “Sometimes natural (Gen. xxiii. 9), sometimes artificial, and hollowed out by man’s labour from the rock (Isai. xxii. 16; Mtt. xxvii. 60), in a garden (Jn. xix. 41), or in some field, the possession of the family (Gen. xxiii. 9, 17–20; xxxv. 18; 2 K. xxi. 18).” Trench On the Miracles, p. 409.

430 ‒ Neander’s Life of Christ, p. 378.

431 ‒ See above, pp. 150, 151.

432 ‒ “Having much to risk, and nothing to gain by change, the Sadducees, or aristocratic party, were anxious to keep things safe, so as to prevent any action on the side of Rome.” H. Dixon’s Holy Land, II. 221. Josephus says of the Sadducees, εἰσὶ περὶ τὰς κρίσεις ὠμοὶ παρὰ πάντας τοὺς Ἰουδαίους, Ant. XX. 9. 1, and the spirit of the family of Annas, whose son-in-law Caiaphas was, was haughty, bold, and cruel. See Jos. Ib.; Bell. Jud. II. 8. 14.

433 ‒ “Caiaphas was only consciously stating what he deemed politically advisable, but he was nevertheless, as the inspired Evangelist distinctly tells us (Jn. xi. 51), at the time actually prophesying.” Ellicott’s Lectures, 269, n. Alford on Jn. xi. 51.

434 ‒ Robinson identifies Ophrah with Ephraim (comp. 2 Chr. xiii. 19), and with a village on a conspicuous conical hill, 4 or 5 miles east of Bethel, and 16 from Jerusalem. Bib. Res. I. 447.

435 ‒ “In this border-land it was more natural than elsewhere that they should find themselves in one company, and thus a Samaritan had found admission into this forlorn assembly.” Trench On the Miracles, p. 332; Alford on Lk. xvii. 11.

436 ‒ See Class-Book of O. T. History, p. 157.

437 ‒ Trench On the Miracles, p. 336.

438 ‒ Probably at Scythopolis, where there was a bridge. See Lightfoot, Hor. Heb. et Talm. on Lk. xvii. 11.

439 ‒ The former adopting the more lax, the latter the stricter view. Lightfoot, Hor. Heb. et Talm. on Mtt. xix. 3. The object of the question may also in some degree have been “to involve Him with the adulterous tetrarch in whose territory He then was.” Ellicott, p. 272.

440 ‒ The two other occasions being (i) in the neighbourhood of Cæsarea Philippi just after St Peter’s confession (see above, p. 219); (ii) shortly afterwards, during the return to Capernaum (see above, p. 225).

441 ‒ Or perhaps the mother was the actual speaker, while the two Apostles were the instigators. Ellicott, p. 374, note.

442 ‒ Perhaps, as in the case of the Gadarene demoniacs, the one, whom St Mark (x. 46) names as Bartimæus, was better known, and hence his case is more particularly recorded; and “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 (Lk. xviii. 37), was not healed then, but in company with another sufferer, when the Saviour was leaving the city.” Ellicott, p. 274, n.; Trench On the Miracles, p. 428.

443 ‒ St Luke (xix. 2) calls him ἀρχιτελώνης, an unusual term, which probably denotes an administrator of taxes, who was entrusted with the superintendence of other publicans, and perhaps was the agent of one of the Roman knights, who often filled the office of publicanus. “The collection of customs at Jericho, which at this time produced and exported a considerable quantity of balsam, was undoubtedly an important post, and would account for Zacchæus being a rich man, Lk. xix. 2.” On the palm-groves of Jericho and its balsam-trade, see above, p. 86.

444 ‒ See Trench On the Parables, p. 512.

445 ‒ It is the opinion of some that he was a connection of the family of Lazarus.

446 ‒ For another feast upon a Sabbath, comp. Lk. xiv. 1. “The Sabbath is still among the Jews preferred for the enjoyment of feasts; but the food was prepared previously, and even the tables must have been arranged in order before the Sabbath began,” Hengstenberg on St John xii. 2.

447 ‒ Of the costliness of a casket of spikenard some idea may be formed from the fact that it was among the gifts sent by Cambyses to the Ethiopians (Herod. III. 20); compare also Horace’s words, Carm. IV. xii. 16, 17: Nardo vina merebere. Nardi parvus onyx eliciet cadum.

448 ‒ Τριακοσίων δηναρίων (Jn. xii. 5). On the denarius, see below, p.269, note.

449 ‒ St John remarks that he said this, not because he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief, and had the bag, and bare what was put therein (Jn. xii. 6). From which observation we gather (i) that the brotherhood of the Twelve had a common treasury, and received contributions for the poor; (ii) that Judas was their steward or almoner; (iii) that he had already proved unfaithful, and been guilty of embezzlement. See Lange’s Life of Christ, IV. 29.

450 ‒ Bethphage (house of unripe figs), a place on the Mount of Olives, on the road between Jericho and Jerusalem. “It was apparently close to Bethany, and from its being named first of the two in the narrative of a journey from East to West, it may be presumed that it lay, if anything, to the eastward of Bethany.” No remains answering to this position, according to Robinson, have been found, but see Barclay’s City of the Great King, p. 65.

451 ‒ Lange, IV. 39; Stanley, S. and P. 191. In Mk. xi. 8 the Vatican and Cambridge MSS. read ἐκ τῶν ἀγρῶν, “having cut the branches from the gardens.” Eastern gardens are not flower-gardens, nor private gardens, but the orchards, vineyards, and fig-enclosures round a town.

452 ‒ Lange’s Life of Christ, IV. 41, n.

453 ‒ Τὰ ἱμάτια, the “abba” or “hyke,” the loose blanket or cloak worn over the tunic or shirt (χιτών). A striking instance of the practice is mentioned by Robinson, II. 162, when the inhabitants of Bethlehem threw their garments under the feet of the horses of the English consul of Damascus, whose aid they were imploring. Stanley, S. and P. p. 191, n.

454 ‒ “The branches (κλάδοι) cut from the trees as they went (Mtt. xxi. 8) are different from the mattings στοιβάδες (Mk. xi. 8), which they had twisted out of the palm-branches as they came,” S. and P. 191, n.

455 ‒ “Again the procession advanced. The road descends a slight declivity, and the glimpse of the city is again withdrawn behind the intervening ridge of Olivet. A few moments, and the path mounts it again, it climbs a rugged ascent, it reaches a ledge of smooth rock, and in an instant the whole city bursts into view.” S. and P. 193; Tristram’s Land of Israel, p. 196.

456 ‒ εἰ ἄρα, if, as was reasonable to expect under such circumstances, fruit was to be found. Ellicott, 294, n.; Lange on Mk. xi. 4.