Images de page
PDF
ePub

again to try if he could save the Jews from impending ruin. He went up with secrecy; and about the middle of the festival he entered the Temple, and taught publicly. The Rulers sent officers to seize him; but they were confounded by the authority with which he taught, and returned with their commission unperformed. He still continued his public discourses; but his declarations excited the rage of the Jews; and they endeavoured to take away his life. He escaped, however, from them; and, as he went away from the Temple, he gave sight to a man who had been born blind-a miracle which was investigated, with the utmost strictness, by our Lord's bitter enemies. After this, he delivered his discourse respecting the Good Shepherd, which concludes St. John's account of the the transactions at the Feast of Tabernacles.

Having thus been openly rejected by the Jews, at three successive national festivals, and knowing that the ministry of his Forerunner was finally closed, our Lord returned to Galilee to proclaim the near approach of the Messiah's kingdom; to commence that series of wonderful miracles, and public teaching, which we denominate his Public Preaching in Galilee; and to make the necessary preparation for carrying on the great work for which he came, when his own Ministry on earth should be closed.

PART IV. Christ's Public Preaching in Galilee-in the interval between the Feast of Tabernacles and that of Dedication-until the Mission of the Twelve.

Immediately on returning to Galilee, our Lord called Peter, Andrew, James, and John, to be constant attendants on his Ministry. On the ensuing Sabbath, he cured a demoniac in the synagogue at Capernaum, healed the mother of Peter's wife, and wrought many other miracles. The next day, after retiring to a solitary spot to hold communion with God, he commenced his FIRST PROGRESS through Galilee, a very populous district, but not larger than Worcestershire. (See p. lxxix.) During this Progress, the miracles of our Lord were peculiarly numerous and striking; and the immediate effect was to draw round him a large concourse of those who were eagerly expecting the approach of the Messiah. The absence of Herod, and the other favourable circumstances which have been already stated, (p. cxxxi.), must all have contributed to promote the publicity of this Progress; but our Lord's inestimable Discourse at the close of it, could not but disappoint those who followed him from merely worldly motives; and must somewhat embarrass even those of the better disposed, whose

In John ix. 2, the expression 'his disciples' occurs. This may denote some of those who had already been recognized as such-John and Andrew, Peter, Philip, and Nathanael: it by no means requires us to suppose that the Twelve had yet been chosen.

notions of the Messiah's kingdom were founded on a literal interpretation of the splendid predictions of their ancient prophets. The hill on which this Discourse was delivered, was assuredly near Capernaum. On descending from it, our Lord healed a leper: and, on entering into Capernaum, he cured the Centurion's servant.

If, as is probable, the true reading in Luke vii. 11, is εν τη εξης (sc. ἡμερᾳ), then our Lord went the next day to Nain, a town in the southern part of Galilee, about twenty-five miles from Capernaum. If Luke wrote εν τῳ εξης, in order, in the course of events, still, as there is no improbability in the present situation of the fact, our subsidiary principle (p. cxxix.) would lead us to arrange it here. St. Mark informs us, ch. i. 45, that, after the cure of the leper, our Lord was for some time absent from Capernaum, in the more retired parts of the country: St. Matthew is altogether silent on the subject. A few days after, in the evening, he crossed the southern part of the Lake. It was at this time that he stilled the storm; and, on landing in the region of Gadara, he healed the demoniacs, and caused their phrensy to take possession of the herd of swine. On his return to Capernaum, he found many of the Pharisees and Doctors of the Law assembled from various parts of Palestine; and in their presence he healed a paralytic, who was let down from the roof into the court near the spot where he was sitting. When he left the place, he called Matthew, then sitting at the receipt of custom, to attend upon his Ministry. Shortly after this, our Lord dined at Matthew's house, with many Publicans and others, where he conversed with some of the Pharisees, and with John's disciples. While there, Jaïrus solicited his aid in behalf of his daughter; and on the way to his abode, a poor woman was healed of her infirmity on touching his garment. After raising the daughter of Jaïrus, he returned, as it appears, to Matthew's house, where he restored sight to two blind men; and, immediately after, healed a dumb demoniac.

Supposing the Feast of Tabernacles to have begun a little before the middle of September, the events already summarily related may have occurred before the close of October. About that time, probably, our Lord began a SECOND PROGRESS through Galilee; at the commencement of which he appears to have chosen the Twelve, several of whom, we know, were his earliest Disciples; and all of whom must have had suitable opportunity of becoming well acquainted with him and with his doctrine. About a month afterwards, he specially instructed them, and then sent them out on their Mission, from near Capernaum.

PART V.

Transactions of Christ after sending forth the Apostles, shortly before the Feast of Dedication, till all of them had collected to him after the Death of the Baptist.

The First Passover appears to have occurred just before the vernal equinox, which makes the Feast of Dedication come very early. Upon the calculation on which the Calendar in the Appendix to this Dissertation is founded, the last day of the festival was, this year, on the 27th of November. Our Lord obviously made no stay in Jerusalem; and as there was no religious obligation to attend this festival, we may presume that neither the Apostles nor other distant Disciples, attended it; and that our Lord himself remained in Galilee as long as he could, consistently with the purpose of being at Jerusalem during it. From Nain, which was the most southerly of the towns of Galilee spoken of in the Gospels, to Jerusalem, going through Samaria, was a journey of nearly three days; and we may suppose our Lord to have crossed the Plain of Esdraelon, without any of his regular attendants, on the 23d of the month.

In this part of our Lord's Ministry, we are left much to conjecture; and yet, allowing the general correctness of our arrangement, there can be little hesitation respecting the real course of events during the absence of the Twelve. After sending them forth, we learn from St. Matthew (ch. xi. 1) that our Lord departed to teach in their cities. Soon after the mission of the Apostles, two of the Disciples of the Baptist came to him, from their Master, to inquire whether he were the promised Messiah, or only another forerunner: and immediately after St. Luke's record of this circumstance, we find his account of our Lord's visit to Simon the Pharisee, with the interesting occurrence at his house. Comparing the situation of our Lord's reproof to the unbelieving cities in St. Luke's Gospel, where it follows the Mission of the Seventy, with its place in Matthew's, where it follows the message of the Baptist-and perceiving nothing inconsistent with the probable order of events-I consider the Mission of the Seventy as following the Message of the Baptist, and occurring before the upbraiding of the cities: its direction and purpose have been stated in the Second Dissertation, p. liii. According to the fifth principle in p. cxxix., I suppose that it was soon afterwards, that our Lord, on being accosted by the Jewish Doctor, delivered the parable of the Good Samaritan; and that he visited Martha and Mary. Lazarus and his sisters resided at Bethany, on the eastern side of the Mount of Olives; and I presume that this visit to Bethany preceded our Lord's short visit at Jerusalem during the FEAST OF DEDICATION. Again the Jews sought to kill him; but he immediately withdrew from their jurisdiction, and went into the Peræa, residing principally at Bethabara (p. cx.) i. e. Bethany beyond the Jordan. In that region he appears to have spent the whole of December, and the greater part of January; and during his abode there, he probably delivered several of those Discourses and Parables which are recorded by St. Luke in his Gnomology, and by him alone. While there, too, the Seventy appear to have rejoined him, after having executed their ministry in different parts of the country east of the Jordan. From the record respecting the Resurrection of Lazarus, I conclude that some also of the Apostles rejoined him while in the Peræa.

At the close of the January preceding the Crucifixion, our Lord, knowing that Lazarus was dead, set out again for Bethany, near Jerusalem; and after having restored his friend to life, he retired, with those of his Disciples who had attended him, to Ephraim, in Samaria, out of the jurisdiction of the Jews.

While our Lord was residing at Ephraim, it is probable the Baptist was beheaded; and to the knowledge of it I attribute our Lord's return to Galilee, to terminate his labours there. On the first sabbath after his return, he cured the man with the Withered Hand; see Harm. p. 116. This miracle, which was probably wrought near Capernaum, excited the persecuting spirit of the Pharisees, who now sought, even in Galilee, to take away his life; and it may not unreasonably be supposed, that this was in part owing to the known determination of the Sanhedrim to put him to death. He then went out to the shores of the Lake, accompanied and followed by great numbers of those who needed and received his benevolent aid. At this time he delivered several Discourses, which were occasioned by the hostility of the Pharisees, and the interference of his own Relations. He then dined at the house of a Pharisee, and uttered some solemn reproofs and warnings, against the Scribes and Pharisees. The same day he delivered a remarkable series of Parables, beginning with that of the Sower. Near the end of February, he went into the interior of Galilee, and on the sabbath-day visited Nazareth. Thence he went into the surrounding villages; and perhaps then delivered the discourses which are recorded in the twelfth chapter of Luke; and on the following sabbath cured the infirm woman in the synagogue. By this time the death of the Baptist must have been generally known; and, not improbably, it was the immediate cause of the return of those Apostles who had not yet rejoined

our Lord.

PART VI. From the Return of the Twelve following the Death of John the Baptist, and succeeded by the Miracle of the Five Thousand-to our Lord's Departure from Galilee.

Herod returned to Galilee soon after he had beheaded John at Machærus. Hearing of Jesus, (as it appears for the first time), he was very desirous to see him; but our Lord knew the crafty cruelty of his disposition; and, from this period, he spent most of his time, till his Final Journey to Jerusalem, either in the dominions of Philip, east of the Jordan, or in Galilee Superior, at a distance from Herod's court at Tiberias, and whence he could easily go beyond his jurisdiction.

On the return of the Apostles, the multitudes beginning to crowd around him, our Lord went, by water, to a desert near Bethsaida in Philip's dominions. There he wrought the signal miracle, which showed that he had such power at his command as would have enabled him to attain any of the objects of human ambition, and which excited in the minds of the people, the purpose of forcibly making him a king. In the succeeding night he followed his Disciples as they were crossing the Lake, by walking on the sea; and the next day delivered, in the synagogue at Capernaum, that remarkable Discourse which proved, to many, too hard a test of faithfulness. This is recorded by St. John alone; but Matthew and Mark have recorded another Discourse, (which may have been delivered on the same or on the subsequent day), addressed to some Scribes and Pharisees from Jerusalem, to the people, and to his disciples, concerning eating with unwashen hands. While he was on the north-western coast of the Lake, he healed many sick persons who dwelt in the Land of Gennesaret.

He

It appears that after remaining a short time only in that district, where he was but a few miles from Tiberias, he went into the region of Tyre and Sidon, and there healed the daughter of the Syrophænician woman. then came to the eastern shore of the Lake, passing through the Decapolis, in which region he cured the deaf and dumb man and wrought many other miracles, and also miraculously fed the Four Thousand. It appears not improbable that this was near the place where he had wrought the preceding miracle of the same kind. See p. cv. From the neighbourhood of Julias, or Bethsaida east of the Jordan, we may suppose that Jesus and the Apostles went by water to Dalmanutha, (which must have been somewhere on the eastern side of the Lake), where some Pharisees came forth to dispute with him; * and he then crossed the Lake to Magdala, and

It is not perhaps unreasonable to suppose, that he would have remained longer on that side the Lake, but for the intrusion of the Pharisees; and that now seeking for privacy and security, he only went across to the residence of friends, to avoid his enemies, though he could not of course have remained so near Tiberias. Indeed he appears to have immediately gone from Magdala and Bethsaida to the north of Palestine. -The records of Matthew and Mark are here attended with a geographical difficulty, respecting which some observations will be found in the note on Part V. Sect. vii. p. 159.

« PrécédentContinuer »