Note 68 — Chapter X · THE TRANSFIGURATION OF JESUS, AND HIS LAST JOURNEY TO JERUSALEM.

The next feature that presents itself for our consideration, is the homage which is rendered to Jesus by the populace. According to all the narrators except Luke, this consisted in cutting down the branches of trees, which, according to the synoptists, were strewed in the way, according to John (who with more particularity mentions palm branches), were carried by the multitude that met Jesus; further, according to all except John, in the spreading of clothes in the way. To this were added joyous acclamations, of which all have, with unimportant modifications, the words εὐλογημένος ὁ ἐρχόμενος ἐν ὀνόματι Κυρίου, Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord; all except Luke the ὡσαννὰ, Hosanna; and all, the greeting as King, or Son of David. The first, from Ps. cxviii. 26, ‏בָּרוּךְ הַבָּא בְּשֵׁם יְהוָֹה‎, was, it is true, a customary form of salutation to persons visiting the feasts, and even the second, ‏חושִׁיעָה נָּא‎, taken from the preceding verse of the same psalm, was a usual cry at the feast of tabernacles and the passover;68 but the addition τῷ υἱῷ Δαυὶδ, to the Son of David, and ὁ βασιλεὺς τοῦ Ἰσραὴλ, the King of Israel, shows that the people here applied these general forms to Jesus especially as the Messiah, bid him welcome in a pre-eminent sense, and wished success to his undertaking. In relation to the parties who present the homage, Luke’s account is the most circumscribed, for he so connects the spreading of the clothes in the way (v. 36) with the immediately preceding context, that he appears to ascribe it, as well as the laying of the clothes on the ass, solely to the disciples, and he expressly attributes the acclamations to the whole multitude of the disciples only (ἅπαν τὸ πλῆθος τῶν μαθητῶν); whereas Matthew and Mark make the homage proceed from the accompanying mass of people. This difference, however, can be easily reconciled; for when Luke speaks of the multitude of the disciples, πλῆθος τῶν μαθητῶν, this means the wider circle of the adherents of Jesus, and, on the other hand, the very great multitude πλεῖστος ὄχλος in Matthew, only means all those who were favourable to him among the multitude. But while the synoptists remain within the limits of the company who were proceeding to the feast, and who were thus the fellow-travellers of Jesus, John, as above noticed, makes the whole solemnity proceed from those who go out of Jerusalem to meet Jesus (v. 13), while he represents the multitude who are approaching with Jesus as testifying to the former the resurrection of Lazarus, on account of which, according to John, the solemn escort of Jesus into Jerusalem was prepared (v. 17 f.). This cause we cannot admit as authentic, inasmuch as we have found critical reasons for doubting the resurrection of Lazarus: but with the alleged cause, the fact itself of the escort is shaken; especially if we reflect, that the dignity of Jesus might appear to demand that the inhabitants of the city of David should have gone forth to bring him in with all solemnity, and that it fully harmonizes with the prevailing characteristics of the representation of the fourth gospel, to describe, before the arrival of Jesus at the feast, how intently the expectations of the people were fixed upon him (vii. 11 ff., xi. 56).