LAST JOURNEY OF JESUS TO JERUSALEM.
Jesus had for a long time been sensible of the dangers that surrounded
him.[1] During a period of time which we may estimate at eighteen
months, he avoided going on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.[2] At the feast
of Tabernacles of the year 32 (according to the hypothesis we have
adopted), his relations, always malevolent and incredulous,[3] pressed
him to go there. The evangelist John seems to insinuate that there was
some hidden project to ruin him in this invitation. "Depart hence, and
go into Judea, that thy disciples also may see the works that thou
doest. For there is no man that doeth anything in secret, and he
himself seeketh to be known openly. If thou do these things, show
thyself to the world." Jesus, suspecting some treachery, at first
refused; but when the caravan of pilgrims had set out, he started on
the journey, unknown to every one, and almost alone.[4] It was the
last farewell which he bade to Galilee. The feast of Tabernacles fell
at the autumnal equinox. Six months still had to elapse before the
fatal denouement. But during this interval, Jesus saw no more his
beloved provinces of the north. The pleasant days had passed away; he
must now traverse, step by step, the painful path that will terminate
only in the anguish of death.
[Footnote 1: Matt. xvi. 20, 21; Mark viii. 30, 31.]
[Footnote 2: John vii. 1.]
[Footnote 3: John vii. 5.]
[Footnote 4: John vii. 10.]
His disciples, and the pious women who tended him, met him again in
Judea.[1] But how much everything was changed for him there! Jesus
was a stranger at Jerusalem. He felt that there was a wall of
resistance he could not penetrate. Surrounded by snares and
difficulties, he was unceasingly pursued by the ill-will of the
Pharisees.[2] Instead of that illimitable faculty of belief, happy
gift of youthful natures, which he found in Galilee--instead of those
good and gentle people, amongst whom objections (always the fruit of
some degree of ill-will and indocility) had no existence, he met there
at each step an obstinate incredulity, upon which the means of action
that had so well succeeded in the north had little effect. His
disciples were despised as being Galileans. Nicodemus, who, on one of
his former journeys, had had a conversation with him by night, almost
compromised himself with the Sanhedrim, by having wished to defend
him. "Art thou also of Galilee?" they said to him. "Search and look:
for out of Galilee ariseth no prophet."[3]
[Footnote 1: Matt. xxvii. 55; Mark xv. 41; Luke xxiii. 49, 55.]
[Footnote 2: John vii. 20, 25, 30, 32.]
[Footnote 3: John vii. 50, and following.]
The city, as we have already said, displeased Jesus. Until then he had
always avoided great centres, preferring for his action the country
and the towns of small importance. Many of the precepts which he gave
to his apostles were absolutely inapplicable, except in a simple
society of humble men.[1] Having no idea of the world, and accustomed
to the kindly communism of Galilee, remarks continually escaped him,
whose simplicity would at Jerusalem appear very singular.[2] His
imagination and his love of Nature found themselves constrained within
these walls. True religion does not proceed from the tumult of towns,
but from the tranquil serenity of the fields.
[Footnote 1: Matt. x. 11-13; Mark vi. 10; Luke x. 5-8.]
[Footnote 2: Matt. xxi. 3, xxvi. 18; Mark xi. 3, xiv. 13, 14; Luke
xix. 31, xxii. 10-12.]
The arrogance of the priests rendered the courts of the temple
disagreeable to him. One day some of his disciples, who knew Jerusalem
better than he, wished him to notice the beauty of the buildings of
the temple, the admirable choice of materials, and the richness of the
votive offerings that covered the walls. "Seest thou these buildings?"
said he; "there shall not be left one stone upon another."[1] He
refused to admire anything, except it was a poor widow who passed at
that moment, and threw a small coin into the box. "She has cast in
more than they all," said he; "for all these have of their abundance
cast in unto the offerings of God; but she of her penury hath cast in
all the living that she had."[2] This manner of criticising all he
observed at Jerusalem, of praising the poor who gave little, of
slighting the rich who gave much,[3] and of blaming the opulent
priesthood who did nothing for the good of the people, naturally
exasperated the sacerdotal caste. As the seat of a conservative
aristocracy, the temple, like the Mussulman _haram_ which succeeded
it, was the last place in the world where revolution could prosper.
Imagine an innovator going in our days to preach the overturning of
Islamism round the mosque of Omar! There, however, was the centre of
the Jewish life, the point where it was necessary to conquer or die.
On this Calvary, where certainly Jesus suffered more than at Golgotha,
his days passed away in disputation and bitterness, in the midst of
tedious controversies respecting canonical law and exegesis, for which
his great moral elevation, instead of giving him the advantage,
positively unfitted him.
[Footnote 1: Matt. xxiv. 1, 2; Mark xiii. 1, 2; Luke xix. 44, xxi. 5,
6. Cf. Mark xi. 11.]
[Footnote 2: Mark xii. 41, and following; Luke xxi. 1, and following.]
[Footnote 3: Mark xii. 41.]
In the midst of this troubled life, the sensitive and kindly heart of
Jesus found a refuge, where he enjoyed moments of sweetness. After
having passed the day disputing in the temple, toward evening Jesus
descended into the valley of Kedron, and rested a while in the orchard
of a farming establishment (probably for the making of oil) named
Gethsemane,[1] which served as a pleasure garden to the inhabitants.
Thence he proceeded to pass the night upon the Mount of Olives, which
limits the horizon of the city on the east.[2] This side is the only
one, in the environs of Jerusalem, which offers an aspect in any
degree pleasing and verdant. The plantations of olives, figs, and
palms were numerous there, and gave their names to the villages,
farms, or enclosures of Bethphage, Gethsemane, and Bethany.[3] There
were upon the Mount of Olives two great cedars, the memory of which
was long preserved amongst the dispersed Jews; their branches served
as an asylum to clouds of doves, and under their shade were
established small bazaars.[4] All this precinct was in a manner the
abode of Jesus and his disciples; they knew it field by field and
house by house.
[Footnote 1: Mark xi. 19; Luke xxii. 39; John xviii. 1, 2. This
orchard could not be very far from the place where the piety of the
Catholics has surrounded some old olive-trees by a wall. The word
_Gethsemane_ seems to signify "oil-press."]
[Footnote 2: Luke xxi. 37, xxii. 39; John viii. 1, 2.]
[Footnote 3: Talm. of Bab., _Pesachim_, 53 _a_.]
[Footnote 4: Talm. of Jerus., _Taanith_, iv. 8.]
The village of Bethany, in particular,[1] situated at the summit of
the hill, upon the incline which commands the Dead Sea and the Jordan,
at a journey of an hour and a half from Jerusalem, was the place
especially beloved by Jesus.[2] He there made the acquaintance of a
family composed of three persons, two sisters and a brother, whose
friendship had a great charm for him.[3] Of the two sisters, the one,
named Martha, was an obliging, kind, and assiduous person;[4] the
other, named Mary, on the contrary, pleased Jesus by a sort of
languor,[5] and by her strongly developed speculative instincts.
Seated at the feet of Jesus, she often forgot, in listening to him,
the duties of real life. Her sister, upon whom fell all the duty at
such times, gently complained. "Martha, Martha," said Jesus to her,
"thou art troubled, and carest about many things; now, one thing only
is needful. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken
away."[6] Her brother, Eleazar, or Lazarus, was also much beloved by
Jesus.[7] Lastly, a certain Simon, the leper, who was the owner of the
house, formed, it appears, part of the family.[8] It was there, in the
enjoyment of a pious friendship, that Jesus forgot the vexations of
public life. In this tranquil home he consoled himself for the
bickerings with which the scribes and the Pharisees unceasingly
surrounded him. He often sat on the Mount of Olives, facing Mount
Moriah,[9] having beneath his view the splendid perspective of the
terraces of the temple, and its roofs covered with glittering plates
of metal. This view struck strangers with admiration; at the rising of
the sun, especially, the sacred mountain dazzled the eyes, and
appeared like a mass of snow and of gold.[10] But a profound feeling
of sadness poisoned for Jesus the spectacle that filled all other
Israelites with joy and pride. He cried out, in his moments of
bitterness, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets,
and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have
gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens
under her wings, and ye would not."[11]
[Footnote 1: Now _El-Azerié_ (from _El-Azir_, the Arabic name of
Lazarus); in the Christian texts of the Middle Ages, _Lazarium_.]
[Footnote 2: Matt. xxi. 17, 18; Mark xi. 11, 12.]
[Footnote 3: John xi. 5.]
[Footnote 4: Luke x. 38-42; John xii. 2.]
[Footnote 5: John xi. 20.]
[Footnote 6: Luke x. 38, and following.]
[Footnote 7: John xi. 35, 36.]
[Footnote 8: Matt. xxvi. 6; Mark xiv. 3; Luke vii. 40-43; John xii. 1,
and following.]
[Footnote 9: Mark xiii. 3.]
[Footnote 10: Josephus, _B.J._, V. v. 6.]
[Footnote 11: Matt. xxiii. 37; Luke xiii. 34.]
It was not that many good people here, as in Galilee, were not
touched; but such was the power of the dominant orthodoxy, that very
few dared to confess it. They feared to discredit themselves in the
eyes of the Hierosolymites by placing themselves in the school of a
Galilean. They would have risked being driven from the synagogue,
which, in a mean and bigoted society, was the greatest degradation.[1]
Excommunication, besides, carried with it the confiscation of all
possessions.[2] By ceasing to be a Jew, a man did not become a Roman;
but remained without protection, in the power of a theocratic
legislation of the most atrocious severity. One day, the inferior
officers of the temple, who had been present at one of the discourses
of Jesus, and had been enchanted with it, came to confide their doubts
to the priests: "Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed
on him?" was the reply to them; "but this people who knoweth not the
Law are cursed."[3] Jesus remained thus at Jerusalem, a provincial
admired by provincials like himself, but rejected by all the
aristocracy of the nation. The chiefs of schools and of sects were too
numerous for any one to be stirred by seeing one more appear. His
voice made little noise in Jerusalem. The prejudices of race and of
sect, the direct enemies of the spirit of the Gospel, were too deeply
rooted there.
[Footnote 1: John vii. 13, xii. 42, 43, xix. 38.]
[Footnote 2: 1 Esdr. x. 8; Epistle to Hebrews x. 34; Talmud of Jerus.,
_Moëdkaton_, iii. 1.]
[Footnote 3: John vii. 45, and following.]
His teaching in this new world necessarily became much modified. His
beautiful discourses, the effect of which was always observable upon
youthful imaginations and consciences morally pure, here fell upon
stone. He who was so much at his ease on the shores of his charming
little lake, felt constrained and not at home in the company of
pedants. His perpetual self-assertion appeared somewhat fastidious.[1]
He was obliged to become controversialist, jurist, exegetist, and
theologian. His conversations, generally so full of charm, became a
rolling fire of disputes,[2] an interminable train of scholastic
battles. His harmonious genius was wasted in insipid argumentations
upon the Law and the prophets,[3] in which we should have preferred
not seeing him sometimes play the part of aggressor.[4] He lent
himself with a condescension we cannot but regret to the captious
criticisms to which the merciless cavillers subjected him.[5] In
general, he extricated himself from difficulties with much skill. His
reasonings, it is true, were often subtle (simplicity of mind and
subtlety touch each other; when simplicity reasons, it is often a
little sophistical); we find that sometimes he courted misconceptions,
and prolonged them intentionally;[6] his reasoning, judged according
to the rules of Aristotelian logic, was very weak. But when the
unequaled charm of his mind could be displayed, he was triumphant. One
day it was intended to embarrass him by presenting to him an
adulteress and asking him what was to be done to her. We know the
admirable answer of Jesus.[7] The fine raillery of a man of the
world, tempered by a divine goodness, could not be expressed in a more
exquisite manner. But the wit which is allied to moral grandeur is
that which fools forgive the least. In pronouncing this sentence of so
just and pure a taste: "He that is without sin among you, let him
first cast a stone at her," Jesus pierced hypocrisy to the heart, and
with the same stroke sealed his own death-warrant.
[Footnote 1: John viii. 13, and following.]
[Footnote 2: Matt. xxi. 23-37.]
[Footnote 3: Matt. xxii. 23, and following.]
[Footnote 4: Matt. xxii. 42, and following.]
[Footnote 5: Matt. xxii. 36, and following, 46.]
[Footnote 6: See especially the discussions reported by John, chapter
viii., for example; it is true that the authenticity of such passages
is only relative.]
[Footnote 7: John viii. 3, and following. This passage did not at
first form part of the Gospel of St. John; it is wanting in the more
ancient manuscripts, and the text is rather unsettled. Nevertheless,
it is from the primitive Gospel traditions, as is proved by the
singular peculiarities of verses 6 and 8, which are not in the style
of Luke, and compilers at second hand, who admitted nothing that does
not explain itself. This history is found, as it seems, in the Gospel
according to the Hebrews. (Papias, quoted by Eusebius, _Hist. Eccl._,
iii. 39.)]
It is probable, in fact, that but for the exasperation caused by so
many bitter shafts, Jesus might long have remained unnoticed, and have
been lost in the dreadful storm which was soon about to overwhelm the
whole Jewish nation. The high priesthood and the Sadducees had rather
disdained than hated him. The great sacerdotal families, the
_Boëthusim_, the family of Hanan, were only fanatical in their
conservatism. The Sadducees, like Jesus, rejected the "traditions" of
the Pharisees.[1] By a very strange singularity, it was these
unbelievers who, denying the resurrection, the oral Law, and the
existence of angels, were the true Jews. Or rather, as the old Law in
its simplicity no longer satisfied the religious wants of the time,
those who strictly adhered to it, and rejected modern inventions, were
regarded by the devotees as impious, just as an evangelical Protestant
of the present day is regarded as an unbeliever in Catholic countries.
At all events, from such a party no very strong reaction against Jesus
could proceed. The official priesthood, with its attention turned
toward political power, and intimately connected with it, did not
comprehend these enthusiastic movements. It was the middle-class
Pharisees, the innumerable _soferim_, or scribes, living on the
science of "traditions," who took the alarm, and whose prejudices and
interests were in reality threatened by the doctrine of the new
teacher.
[Footnote 1: Jos., _Ant._, XIII. x. 6, XVIII. i. 4.]
One of the most constant efforts of the Pharisees was to involve Jesus
in the discussion of political questions, and to compromise him as
connected with the party of Judas the Gaulonite. These tactics were
clever; for it required all the deep wisdom of Jesus to avoid
collision with the Roman authority, whilst proclaiming the kingdom of
God. They wanted to break through this ambiguity, and compel him to
explain himself. One day, a group of Pharisees, and of those
politicians named "Herodians" (probably some of the _Boëthusim_),
approached him, and, under pretense of pious zeal, said unto him,
"Master, we know that thou art true, and teachest the way of God in
truth, neither carest thou for any man. Tell us, therefore, what
thinkest thou? Is it lawful to give tribute unto Cæsar, or not?" They
hoped for an answer which would give them a pretext for delivering him
up to Pilate. The reply of Jesus was admirable. He made them show him
the image on the coin: "Render," said he, "unto Cæsar the things which
are Cæsar's; and unto God the things that are God's."[1] Profound
words, which have decided the future of Christianity! Words of a
perfected spiritualism, and of marvellous justness, which have
established the separation between the spiritual and the temporal, and
laid the basis of true liberalism and civilization!
[Footnote 1: Matt. xxii. 15, and following; Mark xii. 13, and
following; Luke xx. 20, and following. Comp. Talm. of Jerus.,
_Sanhedrim_, ii. 3.]
His gentle and penetrating genius inspired him when alone with his
disciples, with accents full of tenderness. "Verily, verily, I say
unto you, he that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but
climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he
that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. The sheep
hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them
out. He goeth before them, and the sheep follow him; for they know his
voice. The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to
destroy. But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own
the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and
fleeth. I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of
mine; and I lay down my life for the sheep."[1] The idea that the
crisis of humanity was close at hand frequently recurred to him.
"Now," said he, "learn a parable of the fig-tree: When his branch is
yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh.
Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already
to harvest."[2]
[Footnote 1: John x. 1-16.]
[Footnote 2: Matt. xxiv. 32; Mark xiii. 28; Luke xxi. 30; John iv.
35.]
His powerful eloquence always burst forth when contending with
hypocrisy. "The scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. All,
therefore, whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but
do not ye after their works: for they say and do not. For they bind
heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's
shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their
fingers.
"But all their works they do to be seen of men; they make broad their
phylacteries,[1] enlarge the borders of their garments,[2] and love
the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues,
and greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi.
Woe unto them!...
[Footnote 1: _Totafôth_ or _tefillin_, plates of metal or strips of
parchment, containing passages of the Law; which the devout Jews wore
attached to the forehead and left arm, in literal fulfilment of the
passages (_Ex._ xiii. 9; _Deut._ vi. 8, xi. 18.)]
[Footnote 2: _Zizith_, red borders or fringes which the Jews wore at
the corner of their cloaks to distinguish them from the pagans (_Num._
xv. 38, 39; _Deut._ xxii. 12.)]
"Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye have taken
away the key of knowledge, shut up the kingdom of heaven against
men![1] for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that
are entering to go in. Woe unto you, for ye devour widows' houses,
and, for a pretense, make long prayers: therefore ye shall receive the
greater damnation. Woe unto you, for ye compass sea and land to make
one proselyte; and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child
of hell than yourselves! Woe unto you, for ye are as graves which
appear not; and the men that walk over them are not aware of them.[2]
[Footnote 1: The Pharisees excluded men from the kingdom of God by
their fastidious casuistry, which rendered entrance into it too
difficult, and discouraged the unlearned.]
[Footnote 2: Contact with the tombs rendered any one impure. Great
care was, therefore, taken to mark their extent on the ground. Talm.
of Bab., _Baba Bathra_, 58 _a_; _Baba Metsia_, 45 _b_. Jesus here
reproached the Pharisees for having invented a number of small
precepts which might be violated unwittingly, and which only served to
multiply infringements of the law.]
"Ye fools, and blind! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin,
and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy,
and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other
undone. Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.
Woe unto you!
"Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean
the outside of the cup and of the platter;[1] but within they are
full of extortion and excess. Thou blind Pharisee,[2] cleanse first
that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may
be clean also.[3]
[Footnote 1: The purification of vessels was subjected, amongst the
Pharisees, to the most complicated laws (Mark vii. 4.)]
[Footnote 2: This epithet, often repeated (Matt. xxiii. 16, 17, 19,
24, 26), perhaps contains an allusion to the custom which certain
Pharisees had of walking with closed eyes in affectation of sanctity.]
[Footnote 3: Luke (xi. 37, and following) supposes, not without
reason, that this verse was uttered during a repast, in answer to the
vain scruples of the Pharisees.]
"Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; for ye are like unto
whited sepulchres,[1] which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are
within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye
also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of
hypocrisy and iniquity.
[Footnote 1: The tombs being impure, it was customary to whiten them
with lime, to warn persons not to approach them. See p. 315, note 3,
and Mishnah, _Maasar hensi_, v. 1; Talm. of Jerus., _Shekalim_, i. 1;
_Maasar sheni_, v. 1; _Moëd katon_, i. 2; _Sota_, ix. 1; Talm. of
Bab., _Moëd katon_, 5 _a_. Perhaps there is an allusion to the "dyed
Pharisees" in this comparison which Jesus uses.]
"Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the
tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous,
and say, 'If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have
been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.' Wherefore, ye
be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which
killed the prophets. Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers.
'Therefore, also,' said the Wisdom of God,[1] 'I will send unto you
prophets, and wise men, and scribes; and some of them ye shall kill
and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and
persecute them from city to city. That upon you may come all the
righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel
unto the blood of Zacharias, son of Barachias,[2] whom ye slew between
the temple and the altar.' Verily, I say unto you, all these things
shall come upon this generation."[3]
[Footnote 1: We are ignorant from what book this quotation is taken.]
[Footnote 2: There is a slight confusion here, which is also found in
the Targum of Jonathan (_Lament._ ii. 20), between Zacharias, son of
Jehoiadas, and Zacharias, son of Barachias, the prophet. It is the
former that is spoken of (2 _Paral._ xxiv. 21.) The book of the
Paralipomenes, in which the assassination of Zacharias, son of
Jehoiadas, is related, closes the Hebrew canon. This murder is the
last in the list of murders of righteous men, drawn up according to
the order in which they are presented in the Bible. That of Abel is,
on the contrary, the first.]
[Footnote 3: Matt. xxiii. 2-36; Mark xii. 38-40; Luke xi. 39-52, xx.
46, 47.]
His terrible doctrine of the substitution of the Gentiles--the idea
that the kingdom of God was about to be transferred to others, because
those for whom it was destined would not receive it,[1] is used as a
fearful menace against the aristocracy. The title "Son of God," which
he openly assumed in striking parables,[2] wherein his enemies
appeared as murderers of the heavenly messengers, was an open defiance
to the Judaism of the Law. The bold appeal he addressed to the poor
was still more seditious. He declared that he had "come that they
which see not might see, and that they which see might be made
blind."[3] One day, his dislike of the temple forced from him an
imprudent speech: "I will destroy this temple that is made with hands,
and within three days I will build another made without hands."[4] His
disciples found strained allegories in this sentence; but we do not
know what meaning Jesus attached to it. But as only a pretext was
wanted, this sentence was quickly laid hold of. It reappeared in the
preamble of his death-warrant, and rang in his ears amidst the last
agonies of Golgotha. These irritating discussions always ended in
tumult. The Pharisees threw stones at him;[5] in doing which they only
fulfilled an article of the Law, which commanded every prophet, even a
thaumaturgus, who should turn the people from the ancient worship, to
be stoned without a hearing.[6] At other times they called him mad,
possessed, Samaritan,[7] and even sought to kill him.[8] These words
were taken note of in order to invoke against him the laws of an
intolerant theocracy, which the Roman government had not yet
abrogated.[9]
[Footnote 1: Matt. viii. 11, 12, xx. 1, and following, xxi. 28, and
following, 33, and following, 43, xxii. 1, and following; Mark xii. 1,
and following; Luke xx. 9, and following.]
[Footnote 2: Matt. xxi. 37, and following; John x. 36, and following.]
[Footnote 3: John ix. 39.]
[Footnote 4: The most authentic form of this sentence appears to be in
Mark xiv. 58, xv. 29. Cf. John ii. 19; Matt. xxvi. 61, xxvii. 40.]
[Footnote 5: John viii. 39, x. 31, xi. 8.]
[Footnote 6: _Deuter._ xiii. 1, and following. Comp. Luke xx. 6; John
x. 33; 2 _Cor._ xi. 25.]
[Footnote 7: John x. 20.]
[Footnote 8: John v. 18, vii. 1, 20, 25, 30, viii. 37, 40.]
[Footnote 9: Luke xi. 53, 54.]