HONORED BY STRANGERS, REJECTED BY HIS OWN.
JESUS AND THE SAMARITAN WOMAN.
The direct route from Judea to Galilee lay through Samaria; but many
Jews, particularly Galileans, chose to follow an indirect though longer
way rather than traverse the country of a people so despized by them as
were the Samaritans. The ill-feeling between Jews and Samaritans had
been growing for centuries, and at the time of our Lord's earthly
ministry had developed into most intense hatred.[379] The inhabitants of
Samaria were a mixed people, in whom the blood of Israel was mingled
with that of the Assyrians and other nations; and one cause of the
animosity existing between them and their neighbors both on the north
and the south was the Samaritans' claim for recognition as Israelites;
it was their boast that Jacob was their father; but this the Jews
denied. The Samaritans had a version of the Pentateuch, which they
revered as the law, but they rejected all the prophetical writings of
what is now the Old Testament, because they considered themselves
treated with insufficient respect therein.
To the orthodox Jew of the time a Samaritan was more unclean than a
Gentile of any other nationality. It is interesting to note the extreme
and even absurd restrictions then in force in the matter of regulating
unavoidable relations between the two peoples. The testimony of a
Samaritan could not be heard before a Jewish tribunal. For a Jew to eat
food prepared by a Samaritan was at one time regarded by rabbinical
authority as an offense as great as that of eating the flesh of swine.
While it was admitted that produce from a field in Samaria was not
unclean, inasmuch as it sprang directly from the soil, such produce
became unclean if subjected to any treatment at Samaritan hands. Thus,
grapes and grain might be purchased from Samaritans, but neither wine
nor flour manufactured therefrom by Samaritan labor. On one occasion the
epithet "Samaritan" was hurled at Christ as an intended insult. "Say we
not well that thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil?"[380] The
Samaritan conception of the mission of the expected Messiah was somewhat
better founded than was that of the Jews, for the Samaritans gave
greater prominence to the spiritual kingdom the Messiah would establish,
and were less exclusive in their views as to whom the Messianic
blessings would be extended.
In His journey to Galilee Jesus took the shorter course, through
Samaria; and doubtless His choice was guided by purpose, for we read
that "He must needs go" that way.[381] The road led through or by the
town called Sychar,[382] "near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave
to his son Joseph."[383] There was Jacob's well, which was held in high
esteem, not only for its intrinsic worth as an unfailing source of
water, but also because of its association with the great patriarch's
life. Jesus, travel-warn and weary, rested at the well, while His
disciples went to the town to buy food. A woman came to fill her
water-jar, and Jesus said to her: "Give me to drink." By the rules of
oriental hospitality then prevailing, a request for water was one that
should never be denied if possible to grant; yet the woman hesitated,
for she was amazed that a Jew should ask a favor of a Samaritan,
however, great the need. She expressed her surprize in the question "How
is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of
Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans." Jesus,
seemingly forgetful of thirst in His desire to teach, answered her by
saving: "If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to
thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would
have given thee living water." The woman reminded Him that He had no
bucket or cord with which to draw from the deep well, and inquired
further as to His meaning, adding: "Art thou greater than our father
Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his
children, and his cattle?"
Jesus found in the woman's words a spirit similar to that with which the
scholarly Nicodemus had received His teachings; each failed alike to
perceive the spiritual lesson He would impart. He explained to her that
water from the well would be of but temporary benefit; to one who drank
of it thirst would return. "But," he added, "whosoever drinketh of the
water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I
shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into
everlasting life." The woman's interest was keenly aroused, either from
curiosity or as an emotion of deeper concern, for she now became the
petitioner, and, addressing Him by a title of respect, said: "Sir, give
me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw." She
could see nothing beyond the material advantage attaching to water that
would once and for all quench thirst. The result of the draught she had
in mind would be to give her immunity from one bodily need, and save her
the labor of coming to draw from the well.
The subject of the conversation was abruptly changed by Jesus bidding
her to go, call her husband, and return. To her reply that she had no
husband Jesus revealed to her His superhuman powers of discernment, by
telling her she had spoken truthfully, inasmuch as she had had five
husbands, while the man with whom she was then living was not her
husband. Surely no ordinary being could have so read the unpleasing
story of her life; she impulsively confessed her conviction, saying:
"Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet." She desired to turn the
conversation, and, pointing to Mount Gerizim, upon which the
sacrilegious priest Manasseh had erected a Samaritan temple, she
remarked with little pertinence to what had been said before: "Our
fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is
the place where men ought to worship." Jesus replied in yet deeper vein,
telling her that the time was near when neither that mountain nor
Jerusalem would be preeminently a place of worship; and He clearly
rebuked her presumption that the traditional belief of the Samaritans
was equally good with that of the Jews; for, said He: "Ye worship ye
know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews."
Changed and corrupted as the Jewish religion had become, it was better
than that of her people; for the Jews did accept the prophets, and
through Judah the Messiah had come. But, as Jesus expounded the matter
to her, the place of worship was of lesser importance than the spirit of
the worshiper. "God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship
him in spirit and in truth."
Unable or unwilling to understand Christ's meaning, the woman sought to
terminate the lesson by a remark that probably was to her but casual: "I
know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he
will tell us all things." Then, to her profound amazement, Jesus
rejoined with the awe-inspiring declaration: "I that speak unto thee am
he." The language was unequivocal, the assertion one that required no
elucidation. The woman must regard Him thereafter as either an imposter
or the Messiah. She left her pitcher at the well, and hastening to the
town told of her experience, saying: "Come, see a man, which told me all
things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?"
Near the conclusion of the interview between Jesus and the woman, the
returning disciples arrived with the provisions they had gone to
procure. They marveled at finding the Master in conversation with a
woman, and a Samaritan woman at that, yet none of them asked of Him an
explanation. His manner must have impressed them with the seriousness
and solemnity of the occasion. When they urged Him to eat He said: "I
have meat to eat that ye know not of." To them His words had no
significance beyond the literal sense, and they queried among themselves
as to whether some one had brought Him food during their absence; but He
enlightened them in this way: "My meat is to do the will of him that
sent me, and to finish his work."
A crowd of Samaritans appeared, coming from the city. Looking upon them
and upon the grain fields nearby, Jesus continued: "Say not ye, There
are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you,
Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to
harvest." The import of the saying seems to be that while months would
elapse before the wheat and the barley were ready for the sickle, the
harvest of souls, exemplified by the approaching crowd, was even then
ready; and that from what He had sown the disciples might reap, to their
inestimable advantage, since they would have wages for their hire and
would gather the fruits of other labor than their own.
Many of the Samaritans believed on Christ, at first on the strength of
the woman's testimony, then because of their own conviction; and they
said to the woman at whose behest they had at first gone to meet Him:
"Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard him
ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the
world." Graciously He acceded to their request to remain, and tarried
with them two days. It is beyond question that Jesus did not share in
the national prejudice of the Jews against the people of Samaria; an
honest soul was acceptable to Him come whence he may. Probably the seed
sown during this brief stay of our Lord among the despized people of
Samaria was that from which so rich a harvest was reaped by the apostles
in after years.[384]
JESUS AGAIN IN GALILEE: AT CANA AND NAZARETH.
Following the two days' sojourn among the Samaritans, Jesus, accompanied
by the disciples who had traveled with Him from Judea, resumed the
journey northward into Galilee, from which province He had been absent
several months. Realizing that the people of Nazareth, the town in which
He had been brought up, would be probably loath to acknowledge Him as
other than the carpenter, or, as He stated, knowing that "a prophet hath
no honour in his own country,"[385] He went first to Cana. The people of
that section, and indeed the Galileans generally, received Him gladly;
for many of them had attended the last Passover and probably had been
personal witnesses of the wonders He had wrought in Judea. While at Cana
He was visited by a nobleman, most likely a high official of the
province, who entreated Him to proceed to Capernaum and heal his son,
who was then lying at the point of death. With the probable design of
showing the man the true condition of his mind, for we cannot doubt that
Jesus could read his thoughts, our Lord said to him: "Except ye see
signs and wonders, ye will not believe."[386] As observed in earlier
instances, notably in the refusal of Jesus to commit Himself to the
professing believers at Jerusalem, whose belief rested solely on their
wonder at the things He did,[387] our Lord would not regard miracles,
though wrought by Himself, as a sufficient and secure foundation for
faith. The entreating nobleman, in anguish over the precarious state of
his son, in no way resented the rebuke such as a captious mind may have
found in the Lord's reply; but with sincere humility, which showed his
belief that Jesus could heal the boy, he renewed and emphasized his
plea: "Sir, come down ere my child die."
Probably the man had never paused to reason as to the direct means or
process by which death might be averted and healing be insured through
the words of any being; but in his heart he believed in Christ's power,
and with pathetic earnestness besought our Lord to intervene in behalf
of his dying son. He seemed to consider it necessary that the Healer be
present, and his great fear was that the boy would not live until Jesus
could arrive. "Jesus saith unto him, Go thy way; thy son liveth. And the
man believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto him, and he went his
way." The genuineness of the man's trust is shown by his grateful
acceptance of the Lord's assurance, and by the contentment that he
forthwith manifested. Capernaum, where his son lay, was about twenty
miles away; had he been still solicitous and doubtful he would probably
have tried to return home that day, for it was one o'clock in the
afternoon when Jesus spoke the words that had given to him such relief;
but he journeyed leisurely, for on the following day he was still on the
road, and was met by some of his servants who had been sent to cheer him
with the glad word of his son's recovery. He inquired when the boy had
begun to amend, and was told that at the seventh hour on the yesterday
the fever had left him. That was the time at which Christ had said, "Thy
son liveth." The man's belief ripened fast, and both he and his
household accepted the gospel.[388] This was the second miracle wrought
by Jesus when in Cana, though in this instance the subject of the
blessing was in Capernaum.
Our Lord's fame spread through all the region round about. During a
period not definitely stated, He taught in the synagogs of the towns and
was received with favor, being glorified of all.[389] He then returned
to Nazareth, His former home, and as was his custom, attended the
synagog on the Sabbath day. Many times as boy and man He had sat in that
house of worship, listening to the reading of the law and the prophets
and to the commentaries or Targums[390] relating thereto, as delivered
by appointed readers; but now, as a recognized teacher of legal age He
was eligible to take the reader's place. On this occasion He stood up to
read, when the service had reached the stage at which extracts from the
prophetical books were to be read to the congregation. The minister in
charge handed Him the roll, or book, of Isaiah; He turned to the part
known to us as the beginning of the sixty-first chapter, and read: "The
Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the
gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to
preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the
blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable
year of the Lord."[391] Handing the book to the minister, He sat down.
It was allowable for the reader in the service of the Jewish synagog to
make comments in explanation of what had been read; but to do so he must
sit. When Jesus took His seat the people knew that He was about to
expound the text, and "the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue
were fastened on him." The scripture He had quoted was one recognized by
all classes as specifically referring to the Messiah, for whose coming
the nation waited. The first sentence of our Lord's commentary was
startling; it involved no labored analysis, no scholastic
interpretation, but a direct and unambiguous application: "This day is
this scripture fulfilled in your ears." There was such graciousness in
His words that all wondered, and they said, "Is not this Joseph's
son?"[392]
Jesus knew their thoughts even if He heard not their words, and,
forestalling their criticism, He said: "Ye will surely say unto me this
proverb, Physician, heal thyself: whatsoever we have heard done in
Capernaum, do also here in thy country. And he said, Verily I say unto
you, No prophet is accepted in his own country." In their hearts the
people were eager for a sign, a wonder, a miracle. They knew that Jesus
had wrought such in Cana, and a boy in Capernaum had been healed by His
word; at Jerusalem too He had astonished the people with mighty works.
Were they, His townsmen, to be slighted? Why would He not treat them to
some entertaining exhibition of His powers? He continued His address,
reminding them that in the days of Elijah, when for three years and a
half no rain had fallen, and famine had reigned, the prophet had been
sent to but one of the many widows, and she a woman of Sarepta in Sidon,
a Gentile, not a daughter of Israel. And again, though there had been
many lepers in Israel in the days of Elisha, but one leper, and he a
Syrian, not an Israelite, had been cleansed through the prophet's
ministration, for Naaman alone had manifested the requisite faith.
Then great was their wrath. Did He dare to class them with Gentiles and
lepers? Were they to be likened unto despized unbelievers, and that too
by the son of the village carpenter, who had grown from childhood in
their community? Victims of diabolical rage, they seized the Lord and
took Him to the brow of the hill on the slopes of which the town was
built, determined to avenge their wounded feelings by hurling Him from
the rocky cliffs. Thus early in His ministry did the forces of
opposition attain murderous intensity. But our Lord's time to die had
not yet come. The infuriated mob was powerless to go one step farther
than their supposed victim would permit. "But he passing through the
midst of them went his way." Whether they were overawed by the grace of
His presence, silenced by the power of His words, or stayed by some more
appalling intervention, we are not informed. He departed from the
unbelieving Nazarenes, and thenceforth Nazareth was no longer His home.
IN CAPERNAUM.
Jesus wended His way to Capernaum,[393] which became to Him as nearly a
place of abode as any He had in Galilee. There He taught, particularly
on Sabbath days; and the people were astonished at His doctrine, for He
spoke with authority and power.[394] In the synagog, on one of these
occasions, was a man who was a victim of possession, and subject to the
ravages of an evil spirit, or, as the text so forcefully states, one who
"had a spirit of an unclean devil." It is significant that this wicked
spirit, which had gained such power over the man as to control his
actions and utterances, was terrified before our Lord and cried out with
a loud voice, though pleadingly: "Let us alone; what have we to do with
thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee
who thou art; the Holy One of God." Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit,
commanding him to be silent, and to leave the man; the demon obeyed the
Master, and after throwing the victim into violent though harmless
paroxysm, left him. Such a miracle caused the beholders to wonder the
more, and they exclaimed: "What a word is this! for with authority and
power he commandeth the unclean spirits, and they come out. And the fame
of him went out into every place of the country round about."[395]
In the evening of the same day, when the sun had set, and therefore
after the Sabbath had passed[396], the people flocked about Him,
bringing their afflicted friends and kindred; and these Jesus healed of
their divers maladies whether of body or of mind. Among those so
relieved were many who had been possessed of devils, and these cried
out, testifying perforce of the Master's divine authority: "Thou art
Christ the Son of God."[397]
On these as on other occasions, we find evil spirits voicing through the
mouths of their victims their knowledge that Jesus was the Christ; and
in all such instances the Lord silenced them with a word; for He wanted
no such testimony as theirs to attest the fact of His Godship. Those
spirits were of the devil's following, members of the rebellious and
defeated hosts that had been cast down through the power of the very
Being whose authority and power they now acknowledged in their demoniac
frenzy. Together with Satan himself, their vanquished chief, they
remained unembodied, for to all of them the privileges of the second or
mortal estate had been denied;[398] their remembrance of the scenes that
had culminated in their expulsion from heaven was quickened by the
presence of the Christ, though He stood in a body of flesh.
Many modern writers have attempted to explain the phenomenon of
demoniacal possession; and beside these there are not a few who deny the
possibility of actual domination of the victim by spirit personages. Yet
the scriptures are explicit in showing the contrary. Our Lord
distinguished between this form of affliction and that of simple bodily
disease in His instructions to the Twelve: "Heal the sick, cleanse the
lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils."[399] In the account of the
incidents under consideration, the evangelist Mark observes the same
distinction, thus: "They brought unto him all that were diseased, and
them that were possessed with devils." In several instances, Christ, in
rebuking demons, addressed them as individuals distinct from the human
being afflicted,[400] and in one such instance commanded the demon to
"come out of him, and enter no more into him."[401]
In this matter as in others the simplest explanation is the pertinent
truth; theory raised on other than scriptural foundation is unstable.
Christ unequivocally associated demons with Satan, specifically in His
comment on the report of the Seventy whom He authorized and sent forth,
and who testified with joy on their return that even the devils had been
subject unto them through His name; and to those faithful servants He
said: "I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven."[402] The demons
that take possession of men, overruling their agency and compelling them
to obey Satanic bidding, are the unembodied angels of the devil, whose
triumph it is to afflict mortals, and if possible to impel them to sin.
To gain for themselves the transitory gratification of tenanting a body
of flesh, these demons are eager to enter even into the bodies of
beasts.[403]
Possibly it was during the interval between the rebuking of the evil
spirit in the synagog and the miracles of healing and casting out devils
in the evening of that Sabbath, that Jesus went to the house of Simon,
whom He had before named Peter, and there found the mother-in-law of His
disciple lying ill of fever. Acceding to the request of faith He rebuked
the disease; the woman was healed forthwith, rose from her bed, and
ministered the hospitality of her home unto Jesus and those who were
with Him.[404]
NOTES TO CHAPTER 13.
1. Animosity Between Jews and Samaritans.--In any consideration of the
Samaritans, it must be kept in mind that a certain city and the district
or province in which it was situated were both known as Samaria. The
principal facts pertaining to the origin of the Samaritans and the
explanation of the mutual animosity existing between that people and the
Jews in the time of Christ, have been admirably summarized by Geikie
(_Life and Words of Christ_, vol. i, pp. 495-6). Omitting his citation
of authorities, we quote: "After the deportation of the Ten Tribes to
Assyria, Samaria had been repeopled by heathen colonists from various
provinces of the Assyrian empire, by fugitives from the authorities of
Judea, and by stragglers of one or other of the Ten Tribes, who found
their way home again. The first heathen settlers, terrified at the
increase of wild animals, especially lions, and attributing it to their
not knowing the proper worship of the God of the country, sent for one
of the exiled priests, and, under his instructions, added the worship of
Jehovah to that of their idols--an incident in their history from which
later Jewish hatred and derision taunted them as 'proselytes of the
lions,' as it branded them, from their Assyrian origin, with the name of
Cuthites. Ultimately, however, they became even more rigidly attached to
the Law of Moses than the Jews themselves. Anxious to be recognized as
Israelites, they set their hearts on joining the Two Tribes, on their
return from captivity, but the stern Puritanism of Ezra and Nehemiah
admitted no alliance between the pure blood of Jerusalem and the tainted
race of the north. Resentment at this affront was natural, and excited
resentment in return, till, in Christ's day, centuries of strife and
mutual injury, intensified by theological hatred on both sides, had made
them implacable enemies. The Samaritans had built a temple on Mount
Gerizim, to rival that of Jerusalem, but it had been destroyed by John
Hyrcanus, who had also levelled Samaria to the ground. They claimed for
their mountain a greater holiness than that of Moriah; accused the Jews
of adding to the word of God, by receiving the writings of the prophets,
and prided themselves on owning only the Pentateuch as inspired;
favoured Herod because the Jews hated him, and were loyal to him and the
equally hated Romans; had kindled false lights on the hills, to vitiate
the Jewish reckoning by the new moons, and thus throw their feasts into
confusion, and, in the early youth of Jesus, had even defiled the very
Temple itself, by strewing human bones in it, at the Passover.
"Nor had hatred slumbered on the side of the Jews. They knew the
Samaritans only as Cuthites, or heathens from Cuth. 'The race that I
hate is no race,' says the son of Sirach. It was held that a people who
once had worshipped five gods could have no part in Jehovah. The claim
of the Samaritans that Moses had buried the Tabernacle and its vessels
on the top of Gerizim, was laughed to scorn. It was said that they had
dedicated their temple, under Antiochus Epiphanes, to the Greek Jupiter.
Their keeping the commands of Moses even more strictly than the Jews,
that it might seem they were really of Israel, was not denied; but their
heathenism, it was said, had been proved by the discovery of a brazen
dove, which they worshipped, on the top of Gerizim. It would have been
enough that they boasted of Herod as their good king, who had married a
daughter of their people; that he had been free to follow, in their
country, his Roman tastes, so hated in Judea; that they had remained
quiet, after his death, when Judea and Galilee were in uproar, and that
for their peacefulness a fourth of their taxes had been remitted and
added to the burdens of Judea. Their friendliness to the Romans was an
additional provocation. While the Jews were kept quiet only by the
sternest severity, and strove to the utmost against the introduction of
anything foreign, the Samaritans rejoiced in the new importance which
their loyalty to the empire had given them. Shechem flourished: close
by, in Cæsarea, the procurator held his court: a division of cavalry, in
barracks at Sebaste--the old Samaria--had been raised in the territory.
The Roman strangers were more than welcome to while away the summer in
their umbrageous valleys.
"The illimitable hatred, rising from so many sources, found vent in the
tradition that a special curse had been uttered against the Samaritans,
by Ezra, Zerubbabel, and Joshua. It was said that these great ones
assembled the whole congregation of Israel in the Temple, and that three
hundred priests, with three hundred trumpets, and three hundred books of
the Law, and three hundred scholars of the Law, had been employed to
repeat, amidst the most solemn ceremonial, all the curses of the Law
against the Samaritans. They had been subjected to every form of
excommunication; by the incommunicable name of Jehovah; by the Tables of
the Law, and by the heavenly and earthly synagogues. The very name
became a reproach. 'We know that Thou art a Samaritan, and hast a
devil,' said the Jews, to Jesus, in Jerusalem.... A Samaritan egg, as
the hen laid it, could not be unclean, but what of a boiled egg? Yet
interest and convenience strove, by subtle casuistry, to invent excuses
for what intercourse was unavoidable. The country of the Cuthites was
clean, so that a Jew might, without scruple, gather and eat its produce.
The waters of Samaria were clean, so that a Jew might drink them or wash
in them. Their dwellings were clean, so that he might enter them, and
eat or lodge in them. Their roads were clean, so that the dust of them
did not defile a Jew's feet. The Rabbis even went so far in their
contradictory utterances, as to say that the victuals of the Cuthites
were allowed, if none of their wine or vinegar were mixed with them, and
even their unleavened bread was to be reckoned fit for use at the
Passover. Opinions thus wavered, but, as a rule, harsher feeling
prevailed."
That the hostile sentiment has continued unto this day, at least on the
part of the Jews, is affirmed by Frankl and others. Thus, as quoted by
Farrar (p. 166 note): "'Are you a Jew?' asked Salameh Cohen, the
Samaritan high priest, of Dr. Frankl; 'and do you come to us, the
Samaritans, who are despised by the Jews?' (_Jews in the East_, ii,
329). He added that they would willingly live in friendship with the
Jews, but that the Jews avoided all intercourse with them. Soon after,
visiting Sepharedish Jews of Nablous, Dr. Frankl asked one of that sect,
'if he had any intercourse with the Samaritans?' The women retreated
with a cry of horror, and one of them said, 'Have you been among the
worshipers of the pigeons?' I said that I had. The women again fell back
with the same expression of repugnance and one of them said, 'Take a
purifying bath!'" (idem, p. 334). Canon Farrar adds, "I had the pleasure
of spending a day among the Samaritans encamped on Mount Gerizim, for
their annual passover, and neither in their habits nor apparent
character could I see any cause for all this horror and hatred."
2. Sychar.--The town where dwelt the Samaritan woman with whom Jesus
conversed at Jacob's well, is named Sychar in John 4:5; the name occurs
nowhere else in the Bible. Attempts have been made to identify the place
with Shechem, a city dear to the Jewish heart because of its prominence
in connection with the lives of the early patriarchs. It is now
generally admitted, however, that Sychar was a small village on the site
of the present Askar, which is, says Zenos, "a village with a spring and
some ancient rock-hewn tombs, about five eighths of a mile north of
Jacob's well."
3. The Nobleman of Capernaum.--The name of the nobleman whose son was
healed by the word of Jesus is not given. Attempts to identify him with
Chuza, the steward of Herod Antipas, are based on unreliable tradition.
The family of the nobleman accepted the teachings of Christ. "Joanna the
wife of Chuza Herod's steward" (Luke 8:3) was among the grateful and
honorable women who had been recipients of our Lord's healing ministry,
and who contributed of their substance for the furtherance of His work.
Unconfirmed tradition should not be confounded with authentic history.
4. The Targums are ancient Jewish paraphrases on the scriptures, which
were delivered in the synagogs in the languages of the common people. In
the time of Christ the language spoken by the Jews was not Hebrew, but
an Aramaic dialect. Edersheim states that pure Hebrew was the language
of scholars and of the synagog, and that the public readings from the
scriptures had to be rendered by an interpreter. "In earliest times
indeed," says he, "it was forbidden to the Methurgeman [interpreter] to
read his translation, or to write down a Targum, lest the paraphrase
should be regarded as of equal authority with the original." The use of
written targums was "authoritatively sanctioned before the end of the
second century after Christ. This is the origin of our two oldest extant
Targumim--that of Onkelos (as it is called) on the Pentateuch; and that
on the Prophets, attributed to Jonathan the son of Uzziel. These names
do not indeed, accurately represent the authorship of the oldest
Targumim, which may more correctly be regarded as later and
authoritative recensions of what, in some form, had existed before. But
although these works had their origin in Palestine, it is noteworthy
that in the form in which at present we possess them, they are the
outcome of the schools of Babylon." (_Life and Times of Jesus the
Messiah_, vol. i, pp. 10, 11.)
5. Capernaum.--"The name Capernaum signifies, according to some
authorities, 'the Village of Nahum,' according to others, 'the Village
of Consolation.' As we follow the history of Jesus we shall discover
that many of His mighty works were wrought, and many of His most
impressive words were spoken in Capernaum. The infidelity of the
inhabitants, after all the discourses and wonderful works which He had
done among them, brought out the saying of Jesus, 'And thou, Capernaum,
which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be cast down to hell.' (Matt.
11:23.) So thoroughly has this prediction been fulfilled that no trace
of the city remains, and the very site which it occupied is now a matter
of conjecture, there being even no ecclesiastical tradition of the
locality. At the present day two spots have claims which are urged, each
with such arguments of probability as to make the whole question the
most difficult in sacred topography.... We shall probably never be able
to know the exact fact. Jesus damned it to oblivion, and there it lies.
We shall content ourselves with the New Testament notices as bearing on
the work of Jesus.
"We learn that it was somewhere on the borders of Zabulun and Nephtali,
on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee, (compare Matt 4:13, with
John 6:24). It was near or in 'the land of Gennesaret' (compare Matt
14:34, with John 6:17, 21, 24), a plain about three miles long and one
mile wide, which we learn from Josephus was one of the most prosperous
and crowded districts of Palestine. It was probably on the great road
leading from Damascus to the south, 'by the way of the sea,' (Matt.
4:15.) There was great wisdom in selecting this as a place to open a
great public ministry. It was full of a busy population. The exceeding
richness of the wonderful plain of Gennesaret supported the mass of
inhabitants it attracted. Josephus (B. J., iii, 10:8) gives a glowing
description of this land."--Deems _Light of the Nations_, pp. 167, 168.
6. Knowledge Does Not Insure Salvation.--James of old chided his
brethren for certain empty professions (James 2:19). Said he in effect:
You take pride and satisfaction in declaring your belief in God; you
boast of being distinguished from the idolaters and the heathen because
you accept one God; you do well to so profess, and so believe; but,
remember, others do likewise; even the devils believe; and, we may add,
so firmly that they tremble at thought of the fate which that belief
makes sure. Those confessions of the devils, that Christ was the Son of
God, were founded on knowledge; yet their knowledge of the great truth
did not change their evil natures. How different was their
acknowledgment of the Savior from that of Peter, who, to the Master's
question "Whom say ye that I am?" replied in practically the words used
by the unclean spirits before cited, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of
the living God" (Matt. 16:15-16; see also Mark 8:29; Luke 9:20). Peter's
faith had already shown its vital power; it had caused him to forsake
much that had been dear, to follow his Lord through persecution and
suffering, and to put away worldliness with all its fascinations, for
the sacrificing godliness which his faith made so desirable. His
knowledge of God as the Father, and of the Son as the Redeemer, was
perhaps no greater than that of the unclean spirits; but while to them
that knowledge was but an added cause of condemnation, to him it was a
means of salvation.--Abridged from _The Articles of Faith_.
FOOTNOTES:
[379] Note 1, end of chapter.
[380] John 8:48.
[381] John 4:4; for incidents following see verses 5-43.
[382] Note 2, end of chapter.
[383] Gen. 33:19; and Josh. 24:32.
[384] Acts 8:5; 9:31; 15:3.
[385] John 4:44; compare Matt. 13:57; Mark 6:4; Luke 4:24.
[386] John 4:48; read verses 46-54.
[387] John 2:23, 24.
[388] Note 3, end of chapter.
[389] Luke 4:14, 15; read verses 16-32.
[390] Note 4, end of chapter.
[391] Luke 4:18, 19; compare Isa. 61:1, 2.
[392] Luke 4:22; compare Matt. 13:55-57; Mark 6:3; John 6:42.
[393] Note 5, end of chapter.
[394] Luke 4:32; compare Matt. 7:28, 29; 13:54; Mark 1:22.
[395] Luke 4:33-37; and Mark 1:23-28. Note 6, end of chapter.
[396] The Jews' Sabbath began at sunset Friday and ended with the
setting of the sun on Saturday.
[397] Luke 4:41; compare Mark 1:34; 3:11, 12; 5:1-18; Matt. 8:28-34.
[398] Pages 6, 7.
[399] Matt. 10:8; see verse 1; compare 4:24; Mark 1:32; 16:17, 18; Luke
9:1
[400] Matt. 8:32; Mark 1:25; Luke 4:35.
[401] Mark 9:25.
[402] Luke 10:17, 18; compare Rev. 12:7-9.
[403] Matt. 8:29-33; Mark 5:11-14; Luke 8:32-34.
[404] Matt. 8:14, 15; Mark 1:29-31; Luke 4:38, 39.