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.

457 ‒ “This tree, so to speak, vaunted itself to be in advance

of all the other trees, challenged the passer by that

he should come and refresh himself with its fruit. Yet

when the Lord accepted its challenge, and drew near, it

proved to be but _as_ the others, without fruit as they;

for indeed, as the Evangelist observes, the time of figs

had not yet arrived,――its fault, if one may use the word,

lying in its pretension, in its making a show to run

before the rest, when it did not so indeed.” Trench _On

the Miracles_, p. 440; Lange on Mtt. xxi. 18. Thomson,

_The Land and the Book_, p. 349, states that in sheltered

spots figs of an early kind may occasionally be found ripe

as soon as the beginning of April.

458 ‒ See above, p. 158.

459 ‒ Trench _On the Miracles_, 211, 212.

460 ‒ Lange’s _Life of Christ_, IV. 69; Milman, I. 287.

461 ‒ For their distinctive tenets, see above, pp. 114–119.

462 ‒ Lange, IV. 69; Ellicott, 302.

463 ‒ See above, p. 148.

464 ‒ “The little silver coin (in value about 7½d.), bearing on

its surface the head encircled with a wreath of laurel,

and bound round with the sacred fillet――the well known

features, the most beautiful and the most wicked, even in

outward expression, of all the Roman Emperors――with the

superscription running round, in the stately language

of imperial Rome, _Tiberius Cæsar, Divi Augusti filius

Augustus, Imperator_.” Stanley’s _Canterbury Sermons_,

p. 108.

465 ‒ See above, p. 115.

466 ‒ The Sadducees appear to have held that the soul perishes

with the body: as “the cloud faileth and passeth away,”

they said, “so he that goeth down to the grave doth not

return.” Lightfoot on Mtt. xxii. 23; Comp. Jos. _Ant._

XVIII. 1. 4; _B. J._ II. 8. 14.

467 ‒ See above, p. 115.

468 ‒ Which seems to confirm Lightfoot’s opinion that the

enquiry turned on the importance of the ceremonial as

compared with the moral law. Lightfoot on ♦Mark xii. 28.

469 ‒ Some, however, would refer to this occasion the question

respecting the woman taken in adultery (Jn. viii. 1–11).

See Ellicott’s _Lectures_, 310, and notes.

470 ‒ It is not improbable that the solemn apostrophe to

Jerusalem, uttered on the occasion of the triumphal entry,

was now in part repeated. See Ellicott’s _Lectures_, 314,

and note.

471 ‒ So called, not because “women only entered in there, but

because women might not go further,” just as the court of

the Gentiles was so called, “not, because heathens only

might enter there, but because they might not go further.”

Lightfoot _in loc._

472 ‒ “Before the Passover, free-will offerings, in addition

to the temple-tax, were generally presented.” Lange on

Mk. xii. 41.

473 ‒ Λεπτὰ δύο, ὅ ἐστιν κοδράντης, Mk. xii. 42. The λεπτόν was

the very smallest copper coin. Two made one Roman quadrans,

which was ¼th of an _as_. The _as_ in Cicero’s time =

nearly a halfpenny, and the _quadrans_ = one tenth of a

penny. Lange on Mk. xii. 41.

474 ‒ The regular word for which is Ἑλληνισταί, but Ἕλληνες,

Gentile Greeks. Lange, IV. 53. See above, p. 110. For

the attendance of proselytes of the gate at the feasts at

Jerusalem, comp. Acts viii. 27, Jos. _B. J._ VI. 9. 3, and

Lightfoot on Ju. xii. 20.

475 ‒ Or they may have come from some of the Greek towns of

Galilee――Galilee of the Gentiles. See Lightfoot on Jn.

xii. 20, and above, p. 145, n.

476 ‒ _Præludium regni Dei a Judæis ad gentes transituri._

Bengel. “These men from the West represent at the end

of Christ’s life that which the wise men from the East

represented at its beginning; but those came to the cross

of the King, even as these came to His manger, and receive

presently more full intelligence,” Stier, VI. 78.

477 ‒ Concurrebat horror mortis, et ardor obedientiæ: Veni in

hanc horam, ut venirem in hanc horam, eamque exemplarem.

Bengel.

478 ‒ See above (i) p. 156 and (ii) p. 223.

479 ‒ Compare Acts ix. 4, 7, with Acts xxii. 9, and xxvi. 14.

(i) “The more dull-hearted heard the _sound_, recognized

from whence it came, but mistook it for thunder; (ii) the

more susceptible hearers perceived it to be a _voice_, but

were unable to distinguish what was uttered; (iii) the

smaller circle, of which the Apostle who relates the

occurrence was one, both heard the voice, knew whence it

came, and were enabled to understand the _words_ that were

spoken,” Ellicott, 318, n.

480 ‒ Compare the intimation made to Nicodemus two Passovers

before, above, p. 165.

481 ‒ Their remarks were possibly called forth by His own words,

Mtt. xxiii. 38. On the nature of the buildings, see Jos.

_Ant._ XI. 5; _B. J._ V. 5. 6; and above, pp. 95, 96.

482 ‒ “It is impossible to conceive a spectacle of greater

natural or moral sublimity than the Saviour seated on

the slope of the Mount of Olives, and thus looking down,

almost for the last time, on the Temple and City of

Jerusalem, crowded as it then was with near three millions

of worshippers. It was evening, and the whole irregular

outline of the city, rising from the deep glens, which

encircled it on all sides, might be distinctly traced. The

sun, the significant emblem of the great Fountain of moral

light, to which Jesus and His faith had been perpetually

compared, may be imagined sinking behind the western hills,

whilst its last rays might linger on the broad and many

fortifications on Mount Zion, on the stately palace of

Herod, on the square tower, the Antonia, at the corner

of the Temple, and on the roof of the Temple, fretted

all over with golden spikes, which glittered like fire;

while below, the colonnades and lofty gates would cast

their broad shadows over the courts, and afford that

striking contrast between vast masses of gloom and gleams

of the richest light which only an evening scene, like

the present, can display.... The effect may have been

heightened by the rising of the slow volumes of smoke from

the evening sacrifices, while even at the distance of the

slope of Mount Olivet the silence may have been faintly

broken by the hymns of the worshippers.” Milman’s _History

of Christianity_, I. 294, 295.

483 ‒ Wieseler, _Chronol. Synop._ p. 363.

484 ‒ Lange’s _Life of Christ_, IV. 151.

485 ‒ See above, pp. 96, 108, n.

486 ‒ See above, p. 253.

487 ‒ Lange’s _Life of Christ_, IV. 151; Milman, I. 301.

488 ‒ Neander’s _Life of Christ_, 419 and note; Milman, I. 303.

489 ‒ Amongst the motives which led him to the betrayal of

his Master we may perhaps give prominence to three.

(i) Avarice; (ii) Disappointment of his carnal hopes;

(iii) A gradual growth of hostility to his Master.

(i) _Avarice._ This feature in his character has been

already noticed above, p. 260, note. The germs of this

vice probably unfolded themselves gradually (Stier, VII.

40–67), and in spite of many warnings which he must have

heard from his Lord, as Mtt. vi. 19–34; xiii. 22, 23;

Lk. xvi. 11; Mk. x. 25 (Article _Judas_ in Smith’s

_Bibl. Dict._); but gathered strength and developed into

unfaithfulness and embezzlement as he became entrusted

with larger sums. Hence when he presented himself before

the Sanhedrin, _he probably expected more, but was not

unwilling to take what they offered_.

(ii) _Disappointment of his carnal hopes._ What were the

Messianic expectations of the Apostles we have seen again

and again――a visible kingdom, an earthly throne, high

places, and temporal blessings; these they looked forward

to in common with their nation. To one like Judas, then,

the issue of the Triumphal Entry must have been a deep

disappointment.

(iii) _A gradual growth of hostility towards his Master._

His practical and administrative talents which caused

him to be made treasurer were closely allied with carnal

selfishness (Neander’s _Life of Christ_, 424) which was

early rebuked (Jn. vi. 70), see above, p. 213, but still

more sharply during the supper at Bethany (see above,

p. 260). As he became aware that his real character was

known to the Lord, and found his earthly hopes more and

more disappointed, his “attachment to his Master would

turn more and more into aversion; when the manifestation

of Christ ceased to be _attractive_ it became _repulsive_,

and more and more so every day.” (Neander, p. 424, and

comp. Smith’s _Bibl. Dict._ I. 1066.)

490 ‒ “Thirty shekels = 120 denarii, and one denarius was at

that time the ordinary wages for a day’s labour (Mtt.

xx. 2); so that the whole sum amounted to about 4 months’

wages of a day-labourer. Thirty shekels, it is to be

noticed, was the value set upon a single slave, according

to Exod. xxi. 32.” Neander’s _Life of Christ_, 421, n.

491 ‒ Probably a believing follower: _Discipulus, sed non ex

duodecim_. Bengel. See also Stier, VII. 77; Ellicott’s

_Lectures_, 321, n.

492 ‒ At this point it may be well to try and realize the manner

in which the Paschal Feast was at this time celebrated by

the Jews.

The company at the Table, which might not be less than 10

persons, usually included from 10 to 20, according to the

family, or the number of strangers that might be present.

They met in the evening and reclined on couches, this being

the usual posture then, as standing had been originally.

The rites of the Feast were regulated according to the

succession of 4, sometimes 5, cups of red wine mixed with

water, which were placed before the head of the house, or

the most eminent guest, who was called the Celebrant, the

President, or _Proclaimer of the Feast_.

i. When they had reclined, he began by taking one of the

four cups of wine in his right hand, and pronounced the

benediction over the wine and the feast, saying, _Blessed

be Thou, O Lord our God, the King of the universe_, who

hast created _the fruit of the Vine_. He then drank the

first cup, and the remainder of the household followed his

example.

ii. Water was then brought in, and he blessed for the

washing of hands, and washed, followed by the rest.

iii. The table was next set out with the unleavened bread,

the sauce called Charoseth, the Paschal Lamb, and the

flesh of the _Chagigah_ or feast-offerings.

iv. The Proclaimer of the Feast then blessed God for the

fruits of the earth, and taking a portion of the bitter

herbs dipped it in the sop, and ate it with all who

reclined at the table.

v. The _Haggadah_ or _showing forth_ now commenced, and

the Celebrant declared the circumstances of the delivery

from Egypt, as commanded in the law (Ex. xii. 27; xiii. 8).

Then the second cup of wine was filled, and a child or

proselyte enquired, _What mean ye by this service_?

(Ex. xii. 26), to which reply was made according to a

prescribed formula or liturgy, and the wondrous events of

the Exodus were related, after which Psalms cxiii, cxiv.

were repeated, followed by a solemn blessing and drinking

of the second cup.

vi. Then, after a second washing of hands, taking two of

the unleavened cakes, the Celebrant broke one of them,

pronouncing the consecration in these words; _Blessed be

Thou, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, who bringest

forth fruit out of the earth_, and distributed a piece

to each person around him, saying, _This is the Bread of

Affliction which our fathers did eat in the land of Egypt_.

All present then dipped their portions with the bitter

herbs into the Charoseth and ate them.

vii. The flesh of the Lamb was now eaten, and the

Celebrant, lifting up his hands, blessed the third cup of

wine, specially known as the _Cup of Blessing_, and handed

it round to each person.

viii. After thanksgiving for the food of which they had

partaken, for the delivery from Egypt, the covenant of

circumcision, and the Law, a fourth cup was filled and

drunk, known as the _Cup of Joy_, for the remainder of

the Hallel, Ps. cxv‒cxviii. was now sung.

ix. Occasionally a fifth cup was drunk, while Psalms

cxx‒cxxviii. were chanted, but no more. See Buxtorf, _de

Cœnâ Domini_; Lightfoot’s _Temple Service_; Pedahzur’s

_Book of Jewish Ceremonies_, 51–56; Freeman’s _Principles

of Divine Service_, II. 29–39.

493 ‒ The view here taken, then, is that (i) the Supper,

to which our Lord sat down, was, as the first three

Evangelists (Mtt. xxvi. 17; Mk. xiv. 12; Lk. xxii. 7)

clearly intimate, a _Paschal_ Supper; (ii) that He ate it

on the eve with which Nisan 14 commenced; (iii) and thus

twenty-four hours earlier than the time when it was eaten

by the chief priests and rest of the nation. See Ellicott,

322, and notes.

494 ‒ Even if δείπνου γενομένου be the right reading in Jn.

xiii. 2, the meaning must be _when supper was begun_.

A preferable reading is γινομένου.

495 ‒ The portion of bread dipped into the sauce _charoseth_,

and consisting according to some of vinegar and water,

according to others of a “mixture of vinegar, figs, dates,

almonds, and spice.” Smith’s _Bibl. Dict._ II. 716.

496 ‒ Τοῦτό ἐστι τὸ σῶμά μου (Mtt., Mk., Lk., 1 Cor. xi. 24),

τὸ ὑπὲρ ὑμῶν διδόμενον (Lk.), τὸ ὑπὲρ ὑμῶν [κλώμενον],

(1 Cor. xi. 24), τοῦτο ποιεῖτε εἰς τὴν ἐμὴν ἀνάμνησιν

(1 Cor. xi. 24).

497 ‒ Πίετε ἐξ αὐτοῦ πάντες (Mtt.), τοῦτο γάρ ἐστι τὸ αἷμά μου

τῆς διαθήκης (Mtt., Mk.), ἡ καινὴ διαθήκη ἐν τῷ αἵματί μου

(Lk., 1 Cor. xi. 25), τὸ περὶ πολλῶν ἐκχυνόμενον (Mtt.),

τὸ ἐκχυνόμενον ὑπὲρ πολλῶν (Mk.), τὸ ὑπὲρ ὑμῶν ἐκχυνόμενον

(Lk.), εἰς ἄφεσιν ἁμαρτιῶν (Mtt.), τοῦτο ποιεῖτε, ὁσάκις

ἂν πίνητε εἰς τὴν ἐμὴν ἀνάμνησιν (1 Cor. xi. 25).

498 ‒ The site of the modern Gethsemane lies somewhat to the

East of the valley of Kedron, at a point where two paths

meet, each leading over the Mount of Olives. Descending

from St Stephen’s gate and crossing a bridge it is easily

reached. Within the enclosure are 8 venerable olive-trees,

their trunks much decayed, but their branches flourishing.

“The most venerable of their race on the face of the earth,

their gnarled trunks and scanty foliage will always be

regarded as the most affecting of the sacred memorials in

or about Jerusalem.” Stanley, _S. and P._, p. 455.

499 ‒ See Ellicott, p. 327, and note.

500 ‒ Witnesses before (i) of the resurrection of the

daughter of Jairus, see above, p. 201, and (ii) of the

Transfiguration, see above, p. 222.

501 ‒ Though the Paschal moon was at the full. On the rocky

valley of the Kedron “there fell great deep shadows from

the declivity of the mountain and projecting rocks; there

were there caverns and grottoes, into which a fugitive

might retreat; finally, there was probably a garden-house

and towers, into whose gloom it might be necessary for a

searcher to throw light around,” Lange, IV. 292.

502 ‒ Stationed during the Feast at the Tower of Antonia.

503 ‒ Of the movements of Judas, after he left the Supper, none

of the Evangelists give us an account. It seems, however,

most probable that going immediately to Caiaphas, or

some other leading members of the Sanhedrin, he informed

them where Jesus was likely to be found (Jn. xviii. 2),

and announced that he was ready to fulfil his agreement,

and at once make the arrest. “It was not the intention

to arrest HIM during the Feast, lest there should be a

popular tumult (Mtt. xxvi. 5), but now that an opportunity

offered of seizing Him secretly at dead of night, and

therefore without danger of interference or uproar, His

enemies could not hesitate. Once in their hands, the rest

was easy. A hasty trial, a pre-judged condemnation, an

immediate execution, and the hated prophet of Galilee

might be for ever removed out of their way.” Andrews,

p. 414.

504 ‒ Lange, IV. 293.

505 ‒ “At this moment Judas was already back among the people.

He must have hastened back quickly upon the sharp rebuke

of Christ. Probably by this hasty retreat he threw the

first element of sympathetic terror into the mass, which

now fully developed itself at the saying of Christ.” Lange,

IV. 294.

506 ‒ From St Luke’s account, xxii. 52, it is clear that not

only the officers of the Temple, but some of the Sanhedrin

had now joined the crowd.

507 ‒ Lange, IV. 301.

508 ‒ On the history of Annas, see above, p. 149, and notes.

He obtained the high-priesthood not only for Caiaphas his

son-in-law, but subsequently for four other sons. Jos.

XX. 9. 1.

509 ‒ Milman, I. 309.

510 ‒ “An Oriental house is usually built around a quadrangular

interior court, into which there is a passage (sometimes

arched) through the front part of the house, closed next

the street by a heavy folding-gate with a smaller wicket

for single persons, kept by a porter. In the text, the

interior court, often paved and flagged, and open to

the sky, is the αὐλή (translated _palace_, _hall_, and

_court_), where the attendants made a fire; and the passage

beneath the front of the house, from the street to this

court, is the προαύλιον or πύλων (both translated _porch_).

The place where Jesus stood before the high-priest

may have been an open room or place of audience on the

ground-floor, in the rear or on one side of the court; such

rooms open in front being customary.” Robinson’s _Harmony_,

p. 225.

511 ‒ See above, p. 177, n.

512 ‒ Lange, IV. 316.

513 ‒ _Ibid._ IV. 305.

514 ‒ Lange, IV. 313; Ellicott’s _Lectures_, 334.

515 ‒ See above, p. 145, n.; Lange, IV. 317.

516 ‒ Such is the full force of ἐκλείπῃ in Lk. xxii. 32: “I have

prayed for thee that thy faith may not _utterly fail_,” or

be _totally extinguished_. Comp. Heb. i. 12.

517 ‒ The order of the denials of the Apostle here given mainly

coincides with that suggested in Lange’s _Life of Christ_,

IV. 314–319; Ellicott’s _Lectures_, 334, n.; Andrews, pp.

426, 427.

518 ‒ See above, p. 164.

519 ‒ Herein probably alluding to the prophecy of Daniel vii.

13, 14, universally admitted to refer to the reign of the

Messiah.

520 ‒ Andrews, p. 428; Alford’s note on John xviii. 31.

521 ‒ See Lightfoot on Mtt. xxvi. 3.

522 ‒ Milman, I. 317.

523 ‒ Ewald’s _Life of Christ_; Lange, IV. 337, n.

524 ‒ Lange’s _Life of Christ_, IV. 338, n.; comp. Jos. _B. J._

II. 14. 8; II. 15. 5; Ellicott, 339, n.

525 ‒ Milman, I. 317.

526 ‒ “He might readily learn that Jesus had been condemned.

But he also _saw_ it, from the procession in which the

Pharisees conducted Jesus to Pilate, which could have no

other object than to procure His condemnation.” Lange on

Mtt. xxvii. 3; _Life of Christ_, IV. 335.

527 ‒ Ῥίψας τὰ ἀργύρια ἐν τῷ ναῷ, the inner portion of the

Temple, the sanctuary. See Lange on Mtt. ♦xxvii. 5, and

Ellicott, 339, n. If while a deputation of the Sanhedrin

attended the Saviour to the _prætorium_ of Pilate, the

rest retired to their own council-chamber in the Temple,

it is easy to understand how he could be near the

sanctuary.

528 ‒ It is not improbable that Judas hanged himself over an

abyss, perhaps the valley of Hinnom, and the rope giving

way, or the branch to which he hung breaking, he fell

down headlong (on his face, πρηνής, Acts i. 18), and

was crushed and mangled on the rocky pavement below. See

the quotation from Hackett’s _Ill. Script._, in Andrews,

p. 440; Ebrard’s _Gospel History_, p. 427; Ellicott, 339;

Lange’s _Life of Christ_, IV. 334.

529 ‒ St Matthew (xxvii. 7, 8) states that the chief priests

bought with the money the potter’s field to bury strangers

in, and that therefore that place was called the _Field

of Blood_. St Peter (Acts i. 18) says that Judas purchased

a field with the reward of iniquity. Perhaps the latter

statement may be understood as meaning to say, that

whereas Judas had with the rest of the Apostles obtained

the glorious lot of the apostolate (Acts i. 17), yet

actually he had purchased for himself a mere corner of

a field in the valley of Genhinnom, as the reward of

unrighteousness. The field was bought not by himself in

person, but with his money, the wages of his iniquity, and

received the name of the _Field of Blood_, (i) as the spot

on which his mangled body fell, and (ii) as purchased by

the chief priests with the blood-money. See Lange’s _Life

of Christ_, IV. 333–336; Ebrard’s _Gospel History_, p. 427;

Smith’s _Bibl. Dict._ Art. _Judas_.

530 ‒ “_The Field of Blood_ is now shewn on the steep southern

face of the valley or ravine of Hinnom, near its eastern

end on a narrow plateau, more than halfway up the

hill-side.” Smith’s _Bibl. Dict._

531 ‒ Stier, VII. 339.

532 ‒ Stier, VII. 340; Lange, IV. 339.

533 ‒ Stier, VII. 343.

534 ‒ “Pilate being only a Procurator, though a _Procurator cum

potestate_, had no quæstor to conduct the examination, and

thus, as the Gospels most accurately record, performs that

office himself.” Ellicott, 342, n.; Smith’s _Classical

Dictionary_, Art. _Provincia_.

535 ‒ Milman, I. 322.

536 ‒ Σύ is emphatic in Jn. xviii. 37.

537 ‒ Neander’s _Life of Christ_, p. 460.

538 ‒ Milman, I. 323; Stier, VII. 370; Ellicott, 342, n.

539 ‒ Compare Horace, _Epist._ II. i. 106:

_Ad summum sapiens uno minor est Jove, dives,

Liber, honoratus, pulcher, Rex denique regum._

and _Sat._ I. iii. 125, and _Epist._ I. i. 59:

_At pueri ludentes, rex eris, inquit,

Si recte facias..._

quoted in Milman, I. 332.

540 ‒ It was not an unusual practice to refer the case of a

criminal from the _forum apprehensionis_ to the _forum

originis_. Comp. Acts xxvi. 3. Lange, IV. 347.

541 ‒ Stier, VII. 378; Milman, I. 324.

542 ‒ The cause is not known. Some think it was the recent

slaughter of the Galilæans (Lk. xiii. 1).

543 ‒ Where Herod was now residing is not known: some think

he occupied his father’s palace with Pilate; others,

that while the Procurator resided in the fortress Antonia,

Herod occupied his father’s palace; others would make his

abode the old palace of the Maccabees. Jos. _Ant._ XX.

8. 11.

544 ‒ See above, p. 205.

545 ‒ See above, p. 88, n.; Milman, I. 325.

546 ‒ Lange, IV. 353.

547 ‒ Possibly it was of Jewish origin, adopted and continued by

the Roman governors from motives of policy. According to

Lk. xxiii. 18 the request respecting Barabbas came first

from the people; according to Mtt. xxvii. 17, from Pilate;

Mark, however (ch. xv. 8), seems “to represent the people

as making the request in general terms, while Pilate

availed himself of it in the present emergency of this

particular case.” Ellicott, 345, n.

548 ‒ A patronymic denoting _Son of Abba_. Many of the later MSS.

of Mtt. xxvii. 16 give his name as Ἰησοῦς Βαραββᾶς.

549 ‒ The βῆμα was a portable tribunal (see above, p. 147, n.)

and stood, St John tells us (Jn. xix. 13), on a tesselated

pavement, called in Greek Λιθόστρωτον, in Hebrew

_Gabbatha_, which “perhaps formed the front of the

Procurator’s residence,” Ellicott, 346, n. So necessary

was the tesselated pavement and the tribunal deemed to

the forms of justice, that Cæsar carried about with him,

on his expeditions, pieces of marble ready fitted and a

tribunal. Suet. _Jul._ c. 46.

550 ‒ In early times the Roman magistrates had not been

permitted to take their wives with them into the provinces.

This rule, however, had gradually been relaxed, and lately

a proposition of Cæcina to enforce it had been rejected,

Tac. _Ann._ III. 33, 34. According to tradition, the name

of Pilate’s wife was Procula, or Claudia Procula, and she

is said to have belonged to the class of proselytes of the

gate. Lange’s _Life of Christ_, IV. 351.

551 ‒ Lange, IV. 351.

552 ‒ Lange, IV. 355. Hengstenberg on Jn. xix. 1.

553 ‒ “Generally the scourging before crucifixion (Jos. _B. J._

II. 14. 9; V. 11. 1; VII. 6. 4; Livy, XXXIII. 56) was

inflicted by lictors. But Pilate, as sub-governor, had no

lictors at his disposal, and therefore had it inflicted by

soldiers.” Lange, IV. 356, n. The Roman scourging was so

painful and horrible, nails and pieces of bone being stuck

into the scourges, that the sufferer not unfrequently

died under it. Compare the _horribile_ flagellum of Hor.

_Sat._ I. iii. 119; Smith’s _Dict. of Antiquities_, Art.

_Flagellum_.

554 ‒ Χλαμύδα κοκκίνην, Mtt. xxvii. 28; πορφύραν, Mk. xv. 17;

ἱμάτιον πορφυροῦν, Jn. xix. 2. “A war-cloak, such as

princes, generals, and soldiers wore, dyed with purple;

probably therefore, a cast-off robe of state out of the

prætorian wardrobe,” Lange, IV. 357; Ellicott, 348, n.

555 ‒ What exact species is unknown. “As _mockery_ seems to have

been the primary object, the choice of the plant was not

suggested by the sharpness of its thorns: the soldiers

took what first came to hand, utterly careless whether it

was likely to inflict pain or no.” Ellicott, 348, n.

556 ‒ Comp. Isai. liii. 3; Ps. xxii. 7.

557 ‒ Comp. Lev. xxiv. 16.

558 ‒ The mysterious title υἱὸς θεοῦ suggested to Pilate that

He might be one of his own heroes or demi-gods. Fearing

he might be braving the wrath of some unknown deity,

he enquired whether His descent was indeed such as the

title seemed to imply, Lange’s _Life of Christ_, IV. 361;

Hengstenberg on Jn. xix. 8.

559 ‒ Probably the reference is to Caiaphas, who “formally gave

over our Lord to the Roman governor (Mtt. xxvii. 2; Mk.

xv. 1),” Ellicott, 349, n.

560 ‒ See above, p. 150.

561 ‒ Addito majestatis (treason) crimine, quod tum omnium

accusationum complementum erat, Tacitus, _Ann._ III. 38.

Atrocissimè exercebat leges majestatis, Sueton. _Vit. Tib._

c. 58. The release of a criminal from punishment came

under the head of majestas; see Merivale’s _History of the

Romans_, V. 251.

562 ‒ All that he feared, however, came upon him. On the

complaint of the Samaritans of Pilate’s cruelty, Vitellius,

the prefect of Syria, in A.D. 36, sent his friend

Marcellus to administer the affairs of Judæa, and ordered

Pilate to repair to Rome, to answer the accusation before

the emperor (Jos. _Ant._ XVIII. 4. 2). Tiberius, however,

died before he reached the capital, and Pilate is said

to have laid violent hands upon himself about A.D. 40.

See Euseb. _Hist. Eccl._ II. 7. “From the confidence with

which Tiberius was appealed to on a matter of such remote

concern, it would seem that the vigilance of his control

was not generally relaxed even in the last moments of his

life,” Merivale’s _History of the Romans_, V. 420.

563 ‒ Pilate not having lictors, to whom this duty specially

belonged, soldiers would be naturally employed on this

occasion.

564 ‒ Not from being, as some think, strewn with the remains of

condemned malefactors, for the Jews always buried them.

565 ‒ St Luke, according to his usual practice, omits the

Hebrew word Golgotha, and gives (xxiii. 33) only the Greek

equivalent κρανίον, _the place called a Skull_. From the

Vulgate rendering of this verse _et postquam venerunt in

locum, qui vocatur Calvariæ_ (= _a bare skull_), the word

_Calvary_ has been introduced into the English Version,

obscuring the Evangelist’s meaning. It was (a) apparently

a well-known spot, (b) outside the gate (comp. Heb.

xiii. 12), but (c) near the city (Jn. xix. 20), and (d) on

a thoroughfare leading into the country (Lk. xxiii. 26),

and (e) contained a garden or orchard, κῆπος (Jn. xix. 41).

See Robinson’s _Bib. Res._ I. 376, n.

566 ‒ Patibulum ferat per urbem, deinde affigatur cruci, Plaut.

_Carbonar_. Hence the term _furcifer_ = cross-bearer.

This was typified by Isaac bearing the wood of the

burnt-offering, Gen. xxii. 6. Pearson _On the Creed_,

Art. IV.

567 ‒ Exactor mortis; Tac. _Ann._ III. 14; XI. 37. Centurio

supplicio præpositus, Seneca. Lange, _Life of Christ_,

IV. 373.

568 ‒ The cause of execution was generally inscribed on a white

tablet, called σανίς, λεύκωμα, titulus, αἰτία, (_Titulus,

qui causam pœnæ indicaret_, Sueton. _Calig._ 32) and borne

either suspended from the neck, or carried before the

sufferer, _precedente titulo_, Sueton. The latter was

probably the mode in our Lord’s case. Lange, IV. 373.

Pearson _On the Creed_, Art. IV.

569 ‒ He was a Hellenistic Jew, the father of Alexander and

Rufus (Mk. xv. 21), the latter of whom is probably the one

mentioned in Rom. xvi. 13.

570 ‒ Ἐρχόμενον ἀπ᾽ ἀγροῦ, Lk. xxiii. 26; Mk. xv. 21.

571 ‒ Ἀγγαρεύουσι, Mk. xv. 21, Mtt. xxvii. 32. It only occurs

again in Mtt. v. 41, and denotes military compulsion. Comp.

Herod. VIII. 98.

572 ‒ For the fulfilment of these words, see Jos. _B. J._ VI.

8. 5; 9. 4.

573 ‒ This was a Jewish not a Roman custom, though probably

permitted by the Romans. See Lightfoot on Mtt. xxvii. 34.

“It was likely that only a bad sort of wine (ὀξίνης a

medium between οἶνος and ὄξος) would be given to those

who were led away to capital punishment, especially if the

wine was to be changed by the addition of bitter spices

into a compound draught.... And it was natural that the

bitters infused as a soporific into this poor vinegar wine

would be as strong as possible, whence such an ingredient

might be called gall (Mtt. xxvii. 34).” Lange, IV. 383.

574 ‒ There were four kinds of crosses: (i) the _crux simplex_,

a single stake driven through the chest or longitudinally

through the body; (ii) the _crux decussata_ (X); (iii) the

_crux immissa_ (†); and (iv) the _crux commissa_ (T). See

the Notes on Pearson _On the Creed_, Art. IV. Article

_Cross_ in Smith’s _Bibl. Dict._ From the mention of the

Title placed over the Saviour’s head it is probable that

His cross was of the third kind. The upright post was by

no means so lofty as is often represented in pictures, but

generally only so high as to raise the sufferer (who sat

on a little projection, _sedile_, lest the arms should

be torn from the nails), a foot or two above the earth.

The feet were not always, nor generally, though certainly

not seldom nailed, but whether with one or two nails is

disputed. The nailing of the Lord’s feet is apparent from

Lk. xxiv. 39, 40.

575 ‒ See above, p. 309, note.

576 ‒ “The difference between Jn. xix. 14 (ἕκτη) and this

statement of St Mark seems clearly to point to a different

mode of reckoning.” Westcott’s _Introduction to the

Gospels_, p. 305, n.

577 ‒ Four soldiers were required, according to the Roman

appointment of military service, _ad excubias_. See Petr.

_Sat._ III. 6.

578 ‒ Lange, IV. 390.

579 ‒ Ὁ χιτών (Jn. xix. 23), was a closely-fitting garment,

worn next the body (Hom. _Od._ XV. 60), usually made in

two pieces, sewn together at the sides. “This, however,

was the so-called _toga ocellata_, or _byssina_, and was

fastened round the throat with a clasp. It was properly

a priest’s garment (Jos. _Ant._ III. 7. 4), and was woven

of linen, or perhaps of wool.” Alford _in loc._ Over

the χιτών was worn a wide cloak called φᾶρος, χλαῖνα, or

ἱμάτιον. The ἱμάτια the soldiers divided (Jn. xix. 23),

with the rest of His habiliments; for the χιτών they cast

lots.

580 ‒ From a comparison of Jn. xix. 25 with Mtt. xxvii. 56, and

Mk. xv. 40, it appears that Mary the wife of Clopas was

the same as Mary the mother of James the Less and of Joses.

581 ‒ Probably for the present to his lodging during the feast.

It seems likely that St John immediately led her away, and

then returned and witnessed what he has recorded in Jn.

xix. 31–37.

582 ‒ The wine or strong drink turned sour, drunk by the Jews,

was acid even to a proverb (comp. Prov x. 26; Ps. lxix. 21).

“The acetum of the Romans was a thin, sour wine consumed

by soldiers, either in a pure state, or, more usually,

mixed with water, when it was termed _posca_.” Smith’s

_Bibl. Dict._

583 ‒ Not proceeding from an eclipse of the sun, for such a

phenomenon could not occur at the time of the full moon,

but probably due to some special and peculiar derangement

of the terrestrial atmosphere.

584 ‒ Lange, IV. 404; Milman, I. 335.

585 ‒ For the full symbolism of this, see Heb. ix. 3; x. 19.

In reference to the record of the fact itself, we must

remember, (i) the almost certain spread of the rumour,

and (ii) that subsequently a great number _of the priests

became obedient unto the faith_ (Acts vi. 7). Alford

_in loc._

586 ‒ The resurrection of many _bodies of the saints that slept_

(Mtt. xxvii. 2) was _the result_, not _the immediate

accompaniment_, of the opening of the tombs (Alford _in

loc._). It was μετὰ τὴν ἔγερσιν αὐτοῦ that they appeared

unto many in the Holy City.

587 ‒ Lange, IV. 422.

588 ‒ “Thus this believing heathen became the first

representative of the heathen world, which in after times

bowed the knee before the might of Christ’s Cross.���� Lange,

IV. 423.

589 ‒ Ellicott, p. 360.

590 ‒ Comp. Ex. xii. 16; Lev. xxiii. 7.

591 ‒ Comp. Deut. xxi. 22, 23; Jos. _B. J._ IV. 5. 2.

592 ‒ Death after crucifixion did not generally supervene even

for three days, and “was at last the result of gradual

benumbing and starvation.” Sometimes the crucified were

despatched by a fire kindled below them, or by lions or

bears sent to devour them. Lange, V. 2, n.

593 ‒ Comp. Cic. _Tusc. Q._ I. 43: _Theodori nihil interest,

humine, an sublime putrescat_. Pearson _On the Creed_,

Art. IV. note.

594 ‒ See Pearson _On the Creed_, Art. IV., who quotes Hor.

_Epist._ XVI. 48: _Non hominem occidi: non pasces in

cruce corvos_; Juvenal, _Sat._ XIV. 77: _Vultur, jumento

et canibus crucibusque relictis, Ad fœtus properat,

partemque cadaveris affert._ The very object of setting

the guard was _cruces servare, ne quis ad sepulturam

corpora detraheret_, Petron III.

595 ‒ “Sometimes fractures of the legs, _crucifragium_ (Plaut.

_Pœn._ IV. 2. 64) was especially adopted by the Jews to

hasten death, and it was a mitigation of the punishment,

as observed by Origen.” Smith’s _Bibl. Dict._ The _coup de

grace_ was, as a rule, combined with it. Lange, V. 2, n.;

Neander’s _Life of Christ_, 473 n.

596 ‒ Λόγχῃ, Jn. xix. 34, the only place where it occurs in

the New Testament. This was the ordinary Roman _hasta_,

“a lighter weapon than the _pilum_, consisting of a long

wooden shaft with an iron head, which was the width of a

handbreadth and pointed at the end, and so was egg-shaped.”

Lange, V. 3, n.

597 ‒ Probably the same as Ramah, the birthplace of the prophet

Samuel (1 Sam. i. 19), called in the LXX. Armathaim

(Ἀρμαθαίμ), and by Josephus (_Ant._ V. 10. 2), Armathia.

598 ‒ The Attic _Litra_ of 12 ounces is here spoken of. Both the

myrrh and aloes appear to have been pulverized and strewn

in the folds of the linen in which the body was wrapped,

Lange, V. 13; Pearson _On the Creed_, Art. IV. note.

599 ‒ The Jewish tombs had then probably, as these have now,

steps and a descent in a perpendicular direction, or an

entry in a sloping or horizontal position.

600 ‒ Comp. Jn. ii. 19 with Mtt. xii. 40.

601 ‒ The only κουστωδία at the actual disposal of the Sanhedrin

would be, as Bp. Ellicott remarks, the temple-guards, but

the watchers were Roman soldiers; it seems more natural

therefore to take ἔχετε as an imperative in Mtt. xxvii. 65,

though λάβετε might have been rather expected. See Alford

_in loc._

602 ‒ A string or cord was probably stretched across the stone

and sealed at either end with sealing-clay. For the custom

of using sealing-clay on tombs, see Smith’s _Bibl. Dict._

Art. _Seal_.

603 ‒ Or Mary of Magdala (now called _el-Mejdel_), a town near

the lake of Tiberias. On the erroneousness of the idea

of her character generally entertained, see Article in

Smith’s _Bibl. Dict._

604 ‒ They did not know of the sealing of the stone, and the

setting of the watch, which took place on the eve of the

Sabbath.

605 ‒ It seems not impossible that St Peter, who must by this

time have won back the respect of the rest by his deep

repentance (Lange, V. 46), was in the same abode, to which

the Apostle John had conveyed the mother of the Redeemer.

606 ‒ Οὐκ οἴδαμεν, Jn. xx. 2, an incidental notice that she had

not been the sole visitant of the tomb. Ellicott, 381.

607 ‒ Οὐδενὶ οὐδὲν εἷπον· ἐφοβοῦντο γάρ, and see Ellicott,

381, n.

608 ‒ Such appears to be the force of θεωρεῖ in Jn. xx. 6.

“Ipsius animi intentionem denotat quâ quis intuetur

quidquam.” Tittman, _Synon. N. T._ cited by Ellicott,

283, n.

609 ‒ Such appears to be the force of the word ἐπίστευσεν in Jn.

xx. 8. See Lange, V. 46; Ellicott, 384, n.

610 ‒ The ἀπῆλθον πάλιν πρὸς αὐτούς (Jn. xx. 10) appears, as

Bp. Ellicott remarks, to denote that they returned to the

places, or perhaps rather place, where they were abiding,

to meditate on the amazing miracle (Lk. xxiv. 12).

611 ‒ Or rather, “Do not continue to cling to Me.” See

Donaldson’s _Gk. Gram._ 414. Ἅπτεσθαι denotes the

retaining of an object for some time, with perhaps here

a reference to clasping the knees as a suppliant or

worshipper. The Risen Saviour had not entered into those

relations in which He might truly thus be “touched.”

612 ‒ Lange, V. 57.

613 ‒ Not of the Twelve, nor necessarily of the Seventy, but of

the wider circle of the Redeemer’s followers now assembled

at Jerusalem. Lange on Lk. xxiv. 13.

614 ‒ Cleopas = Κλεοπάτρος, altogether different from Κλωπᾶς, Jn.

xix. 25. According to Eusebius he was a native of Emmaus.

Nothing further is known of him, or who the other disciple

was: some have conjectured Nathanael; others Simon; others

Luke himself.

615 ‒ There were two places of the name of Emmaus; (i) a town,

afterwards called Nicopolis, 22 Roman miles from Jerusalem,

where Judas Maccabæus defeated Gorgias, see above, p. 33;

(ii) another is mentioned by Josephus, _B. J._ IV. 1. 3,

before the city Tiberias, and interpreted the “warm baths.”

St Luke however states that this Emmaus was 60 stadia

(A. V. _threescore furlongs_), = about 7½ miles from

Jerusalem, and Josephus mentions a village at the same

distance, _B. J._ VII. 6. 6. Robinson, because two uncial

MSS. and a few cursives insert ἕκατον in Lk. xxiv. 13 and

thus make the distance 160 stadia, identifies it with the

Emmaus = Nicopolis. But the best critics do not accept

this reading, and the site of Emmaus remains yet to be

identified, though some would place it at _Kubeibeh_,

about 3 miles west of the ancient Mizpeh, and 9 miles from

Jerusalem.

616 ‒ Comp. Mtt. xxi. 11, 46.

617 ‒ Ἀλλά γε καί, Lk. xxiv. 21 = _beside all this_.

618 ‒ The Jewish rule was _three eating together were bound

to give thanks_. The usual words were, _Blessed be Thou,

O Lord our God, King of the Universe, who bringest forth

fruit out of the earth_.

619 ‒ Is it not possible that on their way through the city they

may have met and told some of the οἱ λοιποί, not Apostles,

but general body of disciples, who refused to credit their

intelligence, as related in Mk. xvi. 12?

620 ‒ Of this appearance here incidentally mentioned, and more

prominently by St Paul in 1 Cor. xv. 5, we know nothing:

all that is certain is that it was after the return from

the sepulchre (Lk. xxiv. 12, Jn. xx. 10), but whether

(i) _before_, or (ii) _after_ the appearance to the two

disciples on the road to Emmaus cannot be determined. The

effect, however, it produced was clearly very great on the

disciples, who had given little credence to the accounts

of the women. See Ellicott, 398, n. It is observable that

on this occasion “he is called by his original name Simon,

not Peter; the higher designation was not restored until

he had been publicly reinstituted, so to speak, by his

Master.” Smith’s _Bibl. Dict._, Art. _Peter_.

621 ‒ Even if Mk. xvi. 12 refers to this, there is no real

contradiction. The ten believed (i) that the Lord was

really risen, and (ii) that He had appeared to Peter

(Lk. xxiv. 34), but that One, who had gently rebuked the

adoring touch of Mary Magdalene, should have accompanied

them as a humble wayfarer to Emmaus, and sat down with

them to their evening meal, may have appeared at first

incredible: see a note in Ellicott, 400, n. “They would

naturally be ignorant of the properties of His Risen Body,

and its powers of sudden transition from place to place.”

Andrews, p. 516.

622 ‒ Lange, V. 83.

623 ‒ For indications of his character, see above, p. 249, n.

624 ‒ “In the famous statue of him by Thorwaldsen in the Church

at Copenhagen, the Apostle stands, thoughtful, meditative,

with the rule in his hand for the due measuring of

evidence and argument.” Smith’s _Bibl. Dict._

625 ‒ “The feast of the passover was completed on Thursday the

21st of Nisan. The disciples remained over the approaching

Sabbath, on the 23rd of Nisan, and also the 24th, as the

day which commemorated their Lord’s resurrection. After

this, there was nothing to prevent their leaving Jerusalem,

and therefore they obeyed their Lord’s command to go into

Galilee.” Wieseler, _Chronol. Synop._ p. 395.

626 ‒ Trench _On the Miracles_, p. 453.

627 ‒ Probably from Bethsaida, the fishing-town of Capernaum.

Evening was the usual time then for commencing fishing,

as it is now. “The fishermen here (lake of Gennesaret),

as elsewhere, toil all night.” Tristram’s _Land of Israel_,

p. 428.

628 ‒ Stanley’s _S. and P._, p. 378. “It seems natural to think

that the friendly voice, ‘calling, after the manner of

the East, _Children_’ (Stanley, _S. and P._, 374), and

inquiring if they had any προσφάγιον, was conceived by the

disciples to be that of one who wished to buy of them――ὡς

μέλλων τι ὠνεῖσθαι παρ᾽ αὐτῶν, Chrysost. _in loc._”

Ellicott, p. 405, n.

629 ‒ See above, p. 178. For the contrast between the first and

second miraculous draughts of fishes, see Trench,

_Miracles_, 456–459.

630 ‒ Τὸν ἐπενδύτην διεζώσατο, Jn. xxi. 7: “resuming the dress,

which, like Eastern boatmen, he had thrown off whilst

struggling with the net.” Stanley, _S. and P._, p. 378;

compare however Tristram, p. 438, and see note in Trench,

_Miracles_, p. 455. For the various nets and fish, see

above, p. 195. “Each of the Apostles comes wonderfully out

in his proper character: he of the eagle eye first detects

the presence of the Beloved, and then Peter, the foremost

ever in act, as John is profoundest in speculation, unable

to wait till the ship should be brought to land, throws

himself into the sea that he may find himself the nearer

at his Saviour’s feet.” Trench, p. 455.

631 ‒ All round the lake (which is about 13 miles long, and in

its broadest parts 6 miles wide) runs, “like a white line,”

“a level beach; at the southern end roughly strewn with

the black and white stones peculiar to this district,

and also connected with its volcanic structure; but the

central or northern part formed of smooth sand, or of a

texture of shells and pebbles so minute as to resemble

sand, like the substance of the beach on the banks of

Akaba.” Stanley’s _S. and P._, 371.

632 ‒ Ἀνθρακία only occurs elsewhere in Jn. xviii. 18, when

St Peter _denied_ his Lord.

633 ‒ Ἐξετάσαι, Jn. xxi. 12, is more than _ask_. It denotes

_studiose quærere_ (Bretschneider), to _question_, to

_prove_. The word only occurs in two other places in the

New Testament, (i) Mtt. ii. 8, where Herod bids the Magi

enquire accurately (ἀκριβῶς ἐξετάσατε) concerning the

Child, and (ii) Mtt. x. 11, where accurate enquiry is also

hinted at.

634 ‒ Ellicott, _Lectures_, p. 407.

635 ‒ (i) The Saviour enquires ἀγαπᾷς με; to which the Apostle

replies, ... φιλῶ σε; (ii) He asks again ἀγαπᾷς με; and

the Apostle answers, ... φιλῶ σε; (iii) He asks, φιλεῖς

με; and the Apostle replies, σὺ γινώσκεις ὅτι φιλῶ σε.

“Ἀγαπᾷν = _diligere_ (= _deligere_) has more of judgment

and deliberate choice; φιλεῖν = _amare_, has more of

attachment and peculiar personal affection. Thus the

ἀγαπᾷς on the lips of the Lord seems to Peter at this

moment too cold a word; as though his Lord were keeping

him at a distance; or at least not inviting him to draw as

near as in the passionate yearning of his heart he desired

now to do. Therefore he puts by the word and substitutes

his own stronger φιλῶ in its room. A second time he does

the same. And now he has conquered, for when the Lord

demands a third time whether he loves Him, He does it

with the word which alone will satisfy Peter, which alone

claims from him that personal attachment and affection,

with which indeed he knows that his heart is full.” Trench,

_Miracles_, p. 464, n.; _Synonyms_, I. 48.

636 ‒ Comp. Mtt. xxvi. 33; Trench, _Miracles_, p. 463.

637 ‒ At Rome, and according to early writers, at or about the

same time as St Paul, and in the Neronian persecution.

According to Origen (see Euseb. III. 1) he was crucified

with his head downwards. For the legend found in St

Ambrose touching his death, see Article _Peter_ in Smith’s

_Bibl. Dict._ and the notes.

638 ‒ Ellicott, 408, n.

639 ‒ Possibly Tabor, or the Mount of the Beatitudes, or of the

Transfiguration. Lange, V. 109; Ellicott, 409, n.

640 ‒ See Wieseler, _Chronol. Synop._ p. 396; Lange, V. 108.

641 ‒ During this period the risen Saviour had _manifested

Himself from time to time_ (ὀπτανόμενος, Acts i. 3) to

certain chosen witnesses, and these appearances according

to the order followed in the text were (1) to Mary

Magdalene; (2) to the other ministering women; (3) to

the two disciples journeying to Emmaus; (4) to St Peter;

(5) to the ten Apostles; (6) to the eleven Apostles; (7) to

seven Apostles by the lake of Tiberias; (8) to the eleven

Apostles, and probably the 500 brethren (1 Cor. xv. 6),

on the appointed mountain; (9) to James (1 Cor. xv. 7);

(10) to the Apostles in or near Jerusalem just before

the Ascension. See Wieseler, _Chronol. Synopsis_;

Tischendorf’s _Synopsis Evangelica_; Ellicott’s _Lectures_,

p. 414, n. “Thus,” in the words of Paley, “it was not

one person but many who saw Him; they saw Him not only

separately but together; not by night only but by day; not

at a distance but near; not once but several times; they

not only saw Him but touched Him, conversed with Him, ate

with Him, examined His person to satisfy their doubts.”

See also Pearson _On the Creed_, Article V.

642 ‒ Ellicott, p. 411. For the Festival, see _Class-Book of Old

Testament History_, p. 152.

643 ‒ “A more secluded spot could scarcely have been found so

near the stir of a mighty city: the long ridge of Olivet

screens the hills, and the hills themselves screen the

village beneath from all sound or sight of the city

behind.” Stanley, _S. and P._, p. 454. “Not altogether

into Bethany, but so far as the point where Bethany came

into sight,” Stier.

644 ‒ The last occasion on which she is mentioned in the New

Testament. From the commencement of the Saviour’s ministry

she is withdrawn almost altogether from sight. Four times

only is the veil removed, (i) at the marriage at Cana (Jn.

ii.); (ii) the attempt which she and His brethren made _to

speak with Him_ (Mtt. xii. 46; Mk. iii. 31; Lk. viii. 19);

(iii) the Crucifixion; (iv) the present occasion.

645 ‒ See note above, pp. 228, n., 229.

646 ‒ See above, p. 297, and note.

647 ‒ According to Eusebius, _H. E._ I. 12, he, as also Joseph

Bar-Sabas, was one of the Seventy, and is said to have

preached and suffered martyrdom in Ethiopia.

648 ‒ The use of lots occurs frequently in the Old Testament;

compare, among others, that at (i) the division of the

land of Canaan (Num. xxxiv. 13); (ii) at the detection

of Achan (Josh. vii. 14, 18); (iii) the Election of Saul

(1 Sam. x. 20, 21); (iv) over the two goats at the feast

of the Atonement (Lev. xvi. 8); (v) the distribution of

the priestly offices of the temple-service (1 Ch. xxiv.

3, 5, 19, and comp. Lk. i. 9, above, p. 128). “Tablets, on

which the names of Joseph and Matthias were written, were

probably placed in a vessel, and that lot which, on the

shaking of the vessel, first fell out, gave the decision.”

Lechler.

649 ‒ See above, p. 195, and note.

650 ‒ Milman, _History of Christianity_, I. 352.

651 ‒ Ἐν τῷ συμπληροῦσθαι τὴν ἡμέραν = “was now fully come, or

rather, perhaps, _was on the point_, or _in the act, of

being_ fulfilled; just dawning, we may suppose, for the

day to run its course;” Vaughan _on the Acts_, I. p. 42.

652 ‒ See _Class-Book of O. T. History_, p. 152. This festival

lasted one day, and was distinguished by the offering of

two leavened loaves, made from the new corn of the now

completed harvest. That it was likewise a memorial of the

giving of the Law from Sinai, is a supposition which rests

only on later Jewish traditions. Neander’s _Planting_,

I. 5, E. V.

653 ‒ The Catalogue (Acts ii. 9–11) proceeds from the North East

to the West and South.

654 ‒ On the colonies of Jews in Babylonia, see above pp. 7, 107.

655 ‒ In pure Greek the inhabitants were called Ἐλυμαῖοι, from

Elam or Elymais, a Semitic people, see Gen. x. 22. “Elam

is mentioned in connection with Babylon (Gen. xiv. 1);

with Media (Isai. xxi. 2; Jer. xxv. 25); with Assyria

(Ezek. xxxii. 24), as a province of Persia (Ez. iv. 9).”

Josephus (_Ant._ I. 6. 4) makes the Elymæans the

progenitors of the Persians.

656 ‒ A name apparently not older than the Macedonian conquests

for the Hebrew _Aram-Naharaim_, or Syria of the two rivers,

Tigris and Euphrates, of which we first hear in Gen. xxiv.

10.

657 ‒ The former kingdom of Mithridates, situated along the

southern coast of the Euxine, now divided into petty

principalities, subject to Roman protection, but under

Nero made a Roman province. It is mentioned again in Acts

xviii. 2; 1 Pet. i. 1.

658 ‒ Τὴν Ἀσίαν, Acts ii. 9. This expression, which frequently

occurs in the New Testament, denotes the _Roman province

of Asia_, which embraced the western part of the peninsula

of Asia Minor, and had Ephesus for its capital. It

included the territory anciently subdivided into Æolis,

Ionia, and Doris, and afterwards into Lydia, Mysia, and

Caria. Originally bequeathed to the Romans by Attalus,

king of Pergamus, (Hor. _Od._ I. 1. 12; II. 18. 5), or

king of Asia, (see 1 Macc. xi. 13), B.C. 133, it was,

after some rectifications of the frontier, constituted

a province, and placed by Augustus amongst those subject

to the senate, and therefore governed by a procurator.

Comp. Acts xix. 38, and see above, p. 147, n. Within its

boundaries were the seven Churches of the Apocalypse; see

Con. and Howson, _Life and Ep. of St Paul_, chap. xiv.;

Spruner’s _Atlas Antiquus_, Ed. 3.

659 ‒ On the Islands of the Mediterranean in connection with the

dispersion of the Jews, see above, p. 108.

660 ‒ For notices of Jews in Egypt and Cyrene see above, pp.

8, 107.

661 ‒ On the proselytes, see above, p. 118, n.

662 ‒ They were not πυρός but ὡσεὶ πυρός, not burning but

luminous, in appearance like fire: see Lechler _in loc._

663 ‒ Διαμεριζόμεναι, in our version rendered _cloven_, but

rather = _distributed or parting themselves among them_.

664 ‒ See Neander’s _Planting_, I. 12–15.

665 ‒ Τῆς φωνῆς ταύτης, Acts ii. 6, not this rumour, but the

noise of the rushing mighty wind: Vaughan and Alford

_in loc._ Neander’s _Planting_, I. 17.

666 ‒ The first hour of prayer = 9 A.M., before which,

especially on a feast-day, no Israelite ventured to taste

anything. Lightfoot _in loc._

667 ‒ Ἀποδεδειγμένον, demonstratum, attested and demonstrated,

_shewn_ to be that which He claimed to be. See Alford

_in loc._

668 ‒ Four names for what we commonly call “a miracle” occur

in the New Testament, (1) Τέρας, _a wonder_ (never used

alone, but always with one of the other names), the effect

of astonishment which the work produces upon the beholder

being transferred to the work itself; (2) Σημεῖον, or

_sign_ (an especial favourite with St John), a token and

indication of the near presence and working of God, the

seals and credentials of a higher power; comp. Exod. vii.

9, 10; (3) Δύναμις, _a power_, or _mighty work_, that is,

of God; as in the term _wonder_, the effect is transferred

and gives a name to the cause, so here the cause gives its

name to the effect; (4) Ἔργα, _works_, a significant term

often used by St John, the _works_ of Him whose name is

Wonderful (Isai. ix. 6), and who therefore does works of

wonder (comp. Jn. v. 36; vii. 21; x. 25, 32, 38, &c.).

Trench _on the Miracles_, pp. 2–8; _Synonyms of the N. T._,

Pt. II. 177–181.

669 ‒ Εἰς ᾄδου in Hades = the abode of departed spirits,

translated in our Version “hell,” which from _hælen_ to

cover, denotes, like the Hebrew _Sheol_, literally “the

covered place,” the place of departed spirits. On the word

Gehenna, the place of torment, ἡ ἄβυσσος, the bottomless

pit, see above, p. 198.

670 ‒ Μετανοήσατε, not μετανοεῖτε, as in Mtt. iii. 2, iv. 17.

The aorist denotes a definite, sudden act: the present,

a habit, more gradual; “The word imports _change of

mind_, here a change from thinking Jesus an impostor, and

scorning Him as one crucified, to being baptized in His

Name, and looking to Him for the remission of sins, and

the gift of the Spirit.” Alford _in loc._

671 ‒ Πᾶσι τοῖς εἰς μακράν = the Gentiles (comp. Eph. ii. 13),

whose conversion the Apostles expected, like all other

pious Jews, but not _as Gentiles_, which was not yet

revealed to them.

672 ‒ Thus the Apostle, the former fisherman of the lake,

now the fisher of men, launched forth, and cast his net

into the deep, amongst the multitudes of Jerusalem, and

enclosed many of every kind; see above, p. 178.

673 ‒ Ἦσαν προσκαρτεροῦντες τῇ διδαχῇ τῶν ἀποστόλων, Acts ii. 42.

Made disciples when they had been baptized into Christ;

detailed instruction, and gradual increase in knowledge

and holiness must now follow.

674 ‒ Τῇ κοινωνίᾳ, ver. 42, explained by the εἷχον ἅπαντα κοινά

of ver. 44.

675 ‒ Τῇ κλάσει του ἄρτου, Acts ii. 42, where the force of the

article is observable. “The Eucharist was at first, and

for some time, till abuses put an end to the practice,

inseparably connected with the ἀγάπαι or Love-Feasts of

the Christians, and unknown as a separate ordinance;”

Alford _in loc._ “We can scarcely doubt that this implies

that the chief actual meal of each day was one at which

they met as brothers, and which was either preceded or

followed by the more solemn commemorative acts of the

breaking of the Bread and the drinking of the Cup.”

Smith’s _Bibl. Dict._ Art. _Lord’s Supper_: see also

Neander’s _Planting_, I. 23.

676 ‒ Ταῖς προσευχαῖς, the prayers, not of course excluding

private prayer among themselves. See Vaughan’s _Church of

the First Days_, p. 88.

677 ‒ Or 3 in the afternoon. See above, p. 112. Note the

imperfect ἀνέβαινον = _were going up_, in Acts iii. 1.

678 ‒ See above, p. 96.

679 ‒ He fixed his attention on them, ἐπεῖχεν (τὸν νοῦν) ἀυτοῖς,

Acts iii. 5.

680 ‒ Βάσεις = the _soles_ of his feet; σφυρὰ = _the ankles_.

681 ‒ See above, p. 244, n.

682 ‒ Κρατοῦντος = _holding fast_, Acts iii. 11.

683 ‒ Τὸν παῖδα αὐτοῦ Ἰησοῦν. Not _Son_, for which υἱός is

always used, but _Servant_ of God, as the word is used in

Isa. xlii. 1; xlix. 3; Zech. iii. 8.

684 ‒ Ὅπως ἄν cannot mean _when_, as in our Version, it can only

denote _in order that_.

685 ‒ In accordance with the Saviour’s command (Mtt. xxviii.).

On the nature of the subsequent call of the Gentiles

expected by the Apostle, see above, p. 348 and note.

686 ‒ Either from (1) awe, or (2) miscalculating contempt, or,

(3) it is possible, internal dissension, Milman, I. 357.

687 ‒ Ὁ στρατηγὸς τοῦ ἱεροῦ (Acts iv. 1; comp. Lk. xxii. 4) was

not a Roman but a Jewish officer, and corresponded to the

προστάτης τοῦ ἱεροῦ spoken of in 2 Macc. iii. 4; comp.

2 K. xii. 9. He was the captain of the Levitical guard,

spoken of by Josephus, _B. J._ VI. 5. 3; _Ant._ XX. 6. 2,

under the name of στρατηγός, whose duty it was to visit

the sentries in the Temple during the night, and see that

they did their duties. See Lightfoot _in loc._

688 ‒ “It does not appear that the Pharisees, though they had

taken the lead in the condemnation of Christ, were eager,

after that event, to persecute His followers. They looked

on the illiterate Galilæans as worthy of no further

attention, especially since they observed the ceremonial

law, and at first abstained from controverting the

peculiar tenets of their party; they allowed them to

remain undisturbed, like some other sects by whom their

own interests were not affected.... But the Sadducees were

exasperated with the Apostles for so zealously advocating

the doctrine of the resurrection.” Neander’s _Planting_,

I. 41, 45; Milman (I. 359) thinks the Sadducees “had gained

a temporary ascendancy in the great council.”

689 ‒ Neander’s _Planting_, I. 43.

690 ‒ See above, pp. 150, 253, and note.

691 ‒ Identified by Lightfoot with Rabbi Johanan ben Zacchai,

who lived 40 years before the destruction of the Temple,

and was president of the great synagogue after its removal

to Jamnia.

692 ‒ Apparently holding some high office, and identified

by some with Alexander the Alabarch at Alexandria, the

brother of Philo-Judæus, whom Josephus mentions as a

friend of the Emperor Claudius. Jos. _Ant._ XVIII. 8. 1;

XIX. 5. 1; See Smith’s _Bibl. Dict._

693 ‒ That is, who had not been educated in the Jewish schools.

694 ‒ Ἐπεγίνωσκον, Acts iv. 13.

695 ‒ Ἐν τῷ τὴν χεῖρά σου ἐκτείνειν σε = _in the stretching

forth of Thy hand (while Thou stretchest forth Thy hand)

for healing_, Acts iv. 30.

696 ‒ Though originally excluded from the possession of land

(see _Class-Book of Old Testament History_, p. 220), this

tribe had begun to possess land, as in Jerem. xxxii. 7,

and this must have been generally the case after the

captivity. See Lechler _in loc._

697 ‒ Υἱὸς παρακλήσεως = _son of prophecy_ or _exhortation_.

If a native of Cyprus, he would be a Hellenist, and

“the schools of Tarsus, the birth-place of St Paul, may

naturally have attracted him, for Cyprus was within a few

hours’ sail from Cilicia, and there the friendship of the

two may have begun.” See Con. and Howson, I. 101.

698 ‒ See Lechler and Alford _in loc._

699 ‒ By some supposed to have been a class in the congregation

accustomed to perform such services, but more probably the

younger members of the church acting perhaps in accordance

with Jewish custom, perhaps on some hint from the apostle.

See Alford _in loc._

700 ‒ Or their own mantles, taken off in preparing to carry him

out. Alford _in loc._

701 ‒ On the shortness of the time after death allowed in the

east before burial, see above, p. 249, n. The practice was

to bury before sunset of the same day.

702 ‒ Now was fulfilled his Master’s promise, Mtt. xvi. 18.

703 ‒ The ἀρχιερεῖς mentioned in Acts v. 24 as members of the

Council were the _titular High-priests_; partly those who

had served the office, partly the presidents of the 24

courses, partly the kindred of the High-priest. Alford

_in loc._

704 ‒ Milman, I. 361: see above, p. 235.

705 ‒ This eminent teacher was the son of Rabbi Simeon, and

grandson of the celebrated Hillel, of the sect of the

Pharisees, but untrammelled by their narrow bigotry, and

distinguished for candour and wisdom. “His learning was

so eminent, and his character so revered, that he is one

of the seven who alone among Jewish doctors have been

honoured with the title of ‘Rabban’ (= the _Rabboni_ of

Jn. xx. 16). As Aquinas, among the schoolmen, was called

_Doctor Angelicus_, and Bonaventura _Doctor Seraphicus_,

so Gamaliel was called the _Beauty of the Law_, and it is

a saying of the Talmud, that since _Rabban Gamaliel died,

the glory of the Law has ceased_.” He was president of the

Sanhedrin under Tiberius, Caligula, and Claudius, and died

18 years before the destruction of Jerusalem, or about the

time of St Paul’s shipwreck at Malta. Conybeare and Howson,

I. 56, and notes.

706 ‒ Because a Theudas is mentioned by Josephus (_Ant._ XX. 5.

1) as having been an insurgent in the time of Claudius,

or about A.D. 44, and St Luke places this Theudas before

the time of Judas of Galilee, he has been accused with the

utmost inconsistency of historical inaccuracy. But there

are two solutions of the apparent difficulty, either of

which meets all the requirements of the case: (i) St Luke

represents this Theudas as having appeared before the

time of Judas the Galilæan, and therefore he cannot have

appeared later than the close of the reign of Herod the

Great. Now the year of that monarch’s death (as mentioned

above, pp. 104, 144) was one of great turbulence, and

Palestine was overrun by insurrectionary chiefs and

fanatics, of whom Josephus mentions but three by name,

Judas the son of the bandit Hezekias, Simon a slave of

Herod, and Athronges, and passes over the rest with a mere

allusion (comp. _Ant._ XVII. 9. 3; XVII. 10. 4–8). Now of

these Theudas might easily have been one, for the name was

not uncommon. (ii) Others would identify him with Judas,

the son of Hezekias mentioned above, or more probably

with the second insurgent, Simon, one of Herod’s slaves

(_Ant._ XVII. 10. 6), a man of great personal strength and

comeliness, who assumed the diadem and the title of king,

“deeming himself more worthy of that dignity than any

one else” (_Ant._ _loc. cit._; comp. Acts iv. 36, λέγων

εἷναί τινα ἑαυτόν), gained a certain number of followers,

chiefly from Peræa, burned and plundered the palace of

Jericho, and many other places, and was devastating in all

directions till he was attacked by Gratus the procurator

(see above, p. 149), who utterly defeated his followers

and beheaded Simon himself. Being originally a slave he

might easily have assumed the name of Theudas with the

diadem, and have been mentioned by Gamaliel under one,

by Josephus under the other appellation. See Neander’s

_Planting_, I. 47, n.; Lightfoot, _Hor. Hebr._ IV. 54;

Biscoe’s _History of the Acts_, p. 428; Rawlinson’s

_Bampton Lectures_, 261, and notes.