Herod Antipas, one of the sons of Herod the Great, was governor of
Galilee: Philip, another of them, was governor or tetrarch of Itruria.
The word "tetrarch" means the governor of a certain portion of a
kingdom. The land of Palestine being subject to the Romans, they had
divided it into portions; and the governors of each portion were
styled tetrarchs. Philip had a wife called Herodias, a bad woman, who
behaved ill to her husband, and at length left him, and became the
wife of his brother Herod. Now this was a great sin on the part of
Herod, as well as that of Herodias, and John the Baptist reproved them
for it: this holy man was not afraid to speak the truth, though doing
so was sure to bring trouble upon himself, for Herod was a proud man,
who would not like to be told of his faults, and Herodias would be
much more angry.
But John had been sent by God the Father to prepare the way of the
Lord, by teaching His Will to men, and exhorting them to repentance
and amendment of life: this John was determined to do, undismayed by
any fear of what man might do to him; and therefore he told Herod,
that it was not lawful, not allowed by the Law of God, that he should
thus take his brother's wife to be his wife.
The consequence was, that John was immediately put into prison.
Herodias, who hated him for reproving her, would gladly have had him
put to death; but she could not yet prevail on Herod to consent to so
wicked an act.
There seems to have been two reasons which made Herod unwilling to put
his prisoner to death. In the first place, many of the Jews looked
upon John as a prophet and a teacher sent by God; and Herod feared
that there might be some riot amongst the people, in which case the
Romans might accuse him of having misgoverned the country, and suffer
him to be no longer governor. The other reason was, that although
Herod was angry with John, he could not help seeing that he was a good
and holy man; so much so, that he listened to his advice on many
points, though he would not act according to it, in the matter of
Herodias. Even after John was cast into prison, Herod often "sent for
him, and heard him gladly, and did many things."
Well would it have been for Herod, if he had done _all_ things
according to John's advice.
"Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee,
preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God": preaching, that is, the
good tidings of how sinful man might enter into the kingdom of God,
from which the Fall of Adam had shut him out. "Repent ye and believe
the Gospel," was the sum of his preaching: true repentance would make
men leave off sinning; and belief in the Gospel would lead them to
strive to be holy, out of love for the Saviour, who was come upon
earth to deliver them from eternal misery.
He preached the Gospel of the kingdom of God to all who would hear
him; they naturally told others; so that "there went out a fame of him
through all the region round about." Besides this, "Jesus taught in
their synagogues." Synagogues were buildings in which the Jews
assembled to pray to God, and to hear the holy Scriptures read and
explained. The use of synagogues began after the return of the Jews
from their captivity in Babylon; and in our Saviour's time there were
great numbers of them, not only in towns and villages, but all over
the country: some writers tell us, that wherever there were ten
grown-up men, able to form a congregation, the Jews thought it right
to build a synagogue.
It would be well if Christians had in this matter followed the example
of the Jews; for unhappily there are not now nearly enough Churches in
our land, so that there are great numbers of men, women, and children
in England, who could not go to Church if they wished to do so,
because there is not room enough for them. This is very sad, and we
should always be ready to give our money to help in building Churches,
which are so much wanted all over the country.
The Synagogues were generally built close to rivers and brooks, so as
to have water at hand for all the ceremonies of purification: it was
right in the Jews to observe these outward ceremonies, but it would
have been better for them if they had remembered, that they were only
ordered, to show the necessity of purifying the heart and life from
sin. Let _us_ remember this, and pray to God, "Make me a clean heart,
O God."
The daily service in the Synagogue, consisted of prayers and the
reading of a portion from the books of Moses, which was afterwards
expounded or explained: on the Sabbath days, a second portion of
Scripture, from the writings of the Prophets, was read in addition. A
certain number of wise and serious men, were chosen to be Rulers of
each Synagogue; that is, to settle all matters concerning it, and to
arrange the services, and appoint the readers. The readers were
usually some of the Scribes; but strangers were often allowed to read
and expound the Scriptures in their place, and any one who was looked
upon as a prophet, would be eagerly listened to. To show their
reverence for the Scriptures, the Jewish doctors stood up whilst they
read the daily portions, and then sat down, whilst they explained the
meaning to their congregation. Whenever any person among the Jews set
himself up as the founder or leader of a party, by teaching any
peculiar doctrines, he was allowed by the Rulers to explain these
doctrines publicly in the Synagogues; so that all men might have an
opportunity of hearing his opinions, and judging whether such a
teacher spoke according to the Scriptures, and ought to be listened
to, and followed. In consequence of this custom, Jesus Christ, and in
after times His Apostles also, were allowed to read and expound in the
Synagogues.
Every considerable synagogue, that is, every one so situated as to
have a large congregation, had attached to it an academy, or school
for elder children, who here studied the Scriptures under the guidance
of the Rabbis. But unfortunately, with the Scriptures, which are the
Word of God, these Rabbis instructed the Jewish youth in the
traditions of man. "Traditions" were sayings and doctrines which had
never been written down, but had merely been told by word of mouth
from father to son, and had thus been handed down through many
generations. Many of these traditions, which had some truth in them at
first, had become sadly altered by thus being told by one to another;
so that some of them were, in our Saviour's time, quite contrary to
the commandments and precepts of God.
Other traditions again had been entirely invented by men, and were not
deserving of any attention; but the Jews received them all, and looked
upon them as equal in authority, or rather as superior, to the Holy
Scriptures themselves.
The Rabbis who taught in the academies attached to the synagogues, sat
in the midst of their scholars, who all stood round them.
We have said, that "When Jesus had heard that John was cast into
prison, he departed into Galilee," preaching and teaching throughout
the country. "And leaving Nazareth," which had been the home of His
childhood, "he came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the sea
coast (of the lake of Tiberias), in the borders of Zabulon and
Nepthalim." Thus was fulfilled the prophecy spoken by Esaias, that is
Isaiah, "The land of Zabulon and the land of Nepthalim, by the way of
the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles; the people which sat
in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and
shadow of death light is sprung up." In the holy Scriptures, the word
"darkness" constantly means ignorance and sin; whilst "light" is used
to express the contrary, as knowledge and goodness. The people of
Galilee were ignorant and sinful, but the Gospel of Jesus Christ was
as a light to drive away this darkness, by teaching men to believe in
their Saviour, and obey the Will of God. This blessing was now
brought, as the prophet Isaiah had foretold, to the country round
about Capernaum.
From this time, Capernaum seems to have been the home of Jesus Christ;
as far, at least, as he could be said to have a home, when His whole
life was spent in moving about the country from one place to another,
"teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the Gospel of the
Kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness, and all manner of disease
among the people."
In the Four Gospels you must look for the full account of the
miracles, parables, and conversations of our blessed Saviour; here
many of them will be only briefly mentioned.
In passing on one occasion from Judaea into Galilee, "He must needs go
through Samaria." His disciples being gone into the town to buy food,
Jesus asked a woman of Samaria who came to draw water from the well,
to give Him to drink; and He took this occasion to tell her, that it
signified little in what place men worshipped God, if they worshipped
Him properly "in spirit and in truth," that is, truly and sincerely,
in faith; and he ended by telling her plainly that He was the Messiah,
expected by Samaritans as well as by Jews. In consequence of what
passed between our Lord and this woman, many of the Samaritans
believed in Him as the Christ, the Saviour of the world.
Jesus appears to have remained at Samaria for two days; and we may be
quite sure that during that time He preached "the Gospel of the
Kingdom" to all who would hear His words.
Next we hear of another miracle worked at Cana, where He had changed
the water into wine. A certain nobleman, whose son was sick at
Capernaum, came to Him to implore His help: this nobleman believed
that Jesus could heal his son, and his faith was rewarded by having
his child restored to health. After this, Jesus "came to Nazareth,
where he had been brought up; and as his custom was, he went into the
synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up for to read. And there was
delivered unto Him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had
opened the book, he found the place where it was written, The Spirit
of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the
Gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to
preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the
blind; to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the
acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book, and he gave it
again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that
were in the synagogue were fastened on him," eagerly expecting the
explanation of this passage of holy writ. Jesus told them, that this
prophecy was now fulfilled in Him; and when they hesitated to believe
in "Joseph's son," and seemed to wonder why He did not work miracles
there, He reminded them that miracles were worked, and always had been
worked, just according to the pleasure of God, who often chose the
most unlikely persons to work his miracles upon. His words made all
who were in the synagogue very wrath; "and they rose and thrust him
out of the city, and led him unto the brow (or edge) of the hill
whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong,"
and so put an end to his life and his preaching; but not yet, and not
so, was the Son of man to die. He therefore worked a miracle to save
himself, and "passing through the midst of them, went His way."