Page images
PDF
EPUB

personal nature of their connection with him, and implies the incessant opportunities which that intercourse afforded for their learning of him the truths of which they were to be witnesses. It must not be confounded with that first public appearance at Capernaum which succeeds his baptism in the order of the first three Evangelists.34 "They continued there not many days;" for a reason which presently appears; "the Jews' passover was at hand." "5 This notice fixes the marriage at Cana to a time not long before the Passover; an epoch from which we can reckon back, within pretty narrow limits of error, to our Saviour's temptation and his baptism, making in all about three months from the time when "he began to be about thirty years of age."

the north-western extremity of the plain (now El Ghuweir). 2. Three miles north of Khan Minyeh is the other claimant, Tell Hûm,-ruins of walls and foundations covering a space of half a mile long by a quarter wide, on a point of the shore projecting into the lake and backed by a

very gently rising ground. Khan-
Minyeh, Et-Tabighah, and Tell Hûm,
are all, without doubt, ancient sites,
but it is impossible to say which of
them represents Capernaum, which
Chorazin, or which Bethsaida.

34 See Chapter VIII., §§ 9, 11.
35 John ii. 12, 13.

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

(A.) THE PUBLICANS.

THE Greek word (Tɛλ✩vai) translated "Publicans," describes the portitores, or inferior officers employed as collectors of the Roman revenue. But the Latin word Publicani, from which the English of the A.V. has been taken, was applied to a higher order of men. The Roman senate farmed the vectigalia (direct taxes) and the portoria (customs, including the octroi on goods carried into or out of cities) to capitalists who undertook to pay a given sum into the treasury (publicum), and hence received the name of publicani. Contracts of this kind fell naturally into the hands of the equites, as the richest

class of Romans. In the provinces were managing directors; and under them were the portitores, the actual custom-house officers. The latter were commonly natives of the province in which they were stationed. The word reλ@vai, which etymologically might have been used of the publicani properly so called, was used popularly, and in the N. T. exclusively, of the portitores.

The system was essentially a vicious one. The publicani encouraged their agents, the portitores, in the most vexatious or fraudulent exactions. They overcharged whenever they had an opportunity (Luke iii. 13). They brought false charges of smuggling in the hope of extorting

hush-money (Luke xix. 8). The employment brought out all the besetting vices of the Jewish character. The strong feeling of many Jews as to the absolute unlawfulness of paying tribute at all made matters worse. The Scribes who discussed the question (Matt. xxii. 15) for the most part answered it in the negative. In addition to their other faults, accordingly, the Publicans of the N. T. were regarded as traitors and apostates, defiled by their frequent intercourse with the heathen, willing tools of the oppressor. They were classed with sinners (Matt. ix. 11, xi. 19), with harlots (Matt. xxi. 31, 32), with the heathen (Matt. xviii. 17). To eat and drink "with Publicans," seems to the Pharisaic mind incompatible with the character of a recognized Rabbi (Matt. ix. 11). They spoke in their scorn of our Lord as the friend of Publicans (Matt. xi. 19).

(B.)-PLACE OF OUR LORD'S

BAPTISM.

[ocr errors]

all which would seem to be, (1) that the first (rò πρшrov) baptisms of St. John took place at the lower ford near Jericho, to which not only he himself, a native of Judæa, but all Jerusalem and Judæa likewise, would naturally resort as being the nearest. (2) That his second baptisms were at the upper ford, or Bethabara (John i. 28), whither he had arrived in the course of his preachings, and were designed for the inhabitants of the more northern parts of the Holy Land, among whom was Jesus, from Galilee. (3) That his third and last baptisms were in the neighborhood of Enon and Salim (John iii. 23), still further to the north. Thus St. John would seem to have moved upward gradually toward Galilee, the seat of Herod's jurisdiction, by whom he was destined to be apprehended and executed; while our Lord, coming from Galilee, probably by way of Samaria, as in the converse case, would seem to have met him half way, and to have been baptized at Bethabara, in the ford nearest to that locality—a ford which had been the scene of the first recorded crossing. The tradition which asserts Christ to have been baptized in the ford near Jericho, has been obliged to invent a Bethabara near that spot, of which no trace exists in history, to appear consistent with Scripture.

BETHABARA, that is, the house of ford or passage, described as "be

The place of our Lord's baptism is not stated expressly. What is stated is, (1) that as St. John was a native of some "city in the hillcountry of Judæa " (Luke i. 39), so his preaching, commencing "in the wilderness of. Judæa" (Matt. iii. 1), embraced "all the country about Jordan" (Luke iii. 3), and drew persons from Galilee, as far off as Naz-yond," that is, on the eastern side areth (Mark i. 9) and Bethsaida of the Jordan (John i. 28), was prob(John i. 35, 40, 44), as well as from ably the upper fords, higher up than Jerusalem; (2) that the baptism of Jericho, where the little river Jabbok the multitude from Jerusalem and (Zerka) enters the Jordan. But the Judæa preceded that of our Lord name of Bethabara in John i. 28, is (Matt. iii. 6, 13; Mark i. 5, 9); (3) | doubtful. All the oldest MSS. have that our Lord's baptism was also not Bethabara, but Bethany, a readdistinct from that of the said multi-ing which Origen states to have obtude (Luke iii. 21); and (4) that he came from Nazareth in Galilee, and not from Jerusalem or Judæa, to be baptized. The inference from

tained in almost all the copies of his time, though altered by him in his edition of the Gospel on topographical grounds. In favor of Bethabara

are, (a) the extreme improbability of so familiar a name as Bethany being changed by copyists into one so unfamiliar as Bethabara, while the reverse -the change from an unfamiliar to a familiar name-is of frequent occurrence. (b) The fact that Origen, while admitting that the majority of MSS. were in favor of Bethany, decided notwithstanding for Bethabara. (c) That Bethabara was still known in the days of Eusebius, and greatly resorted to by persons desirous of baptism. It must not, however, be overlooked that if Bethany be accepted, the definition "beyond Jordan" still remains, and therefore another place must be intended than the well-known residence of Lazarus.

ENON is the Greek form of the Chaldee Enavan, "' fountains; hence we read in the evangelist, that "John was baptizing in Ænon near to Salim, because there was much water there." It was evidently west

of the Jordan (comp. John iii. 22 with 26, and with i. 28); but beyond this there is no statement in the narrative itself fixing the situation. The only direct testimony we possess is that of Eusebius and Jerome, who both affirm unhesitatingly (Onom. "Enon") that it existed in their day near the Jordan, eight Roman miles south of Scythopolis. The name of Salim has been discovered by Mr. Van de Velde (Syr. & Pal. ii. 345, 6) in a position exactly in accordance with the notice of Eusebius, viz., six English miles south of Beisân (Scythopolis), and two miles west of the Jordan. It fulfills also the statement of the text, that the place contained abundance of water. "The brook of Waay Chusneh runs close to it, a splendid fountain gushes out beside the Wely, and rivulets wind about in all directions. Of few places

in Palestine could it so truly be said, 'Here is much water.""

K

[graphic][merged small][merged small]

FIRST YEAR OF CHRIST'S MINISTRY. FROM HIS FIRST PASSOVER

TO HIS SECOND VISIT TO JERUSALEM, PROBABLY AT THE PASSOVER. A.D. 27-28.

§ 1. Beginning of Christ's ministry at Jerusalem at the Passover. § 2. The First Passover. Christ purifies the Temple. Contrast with his last appearance there. The Jews demand a sign. His prediction concerning the Temple of His Body. His converts at this Passover; and his reserve in trusting them. § 3. Christ and Nicodemus. § 4. Jesus leaves Jerusalem for the country of Judæa, and gains converts, who are baptized by his disciples. John's final testimony to Christ. § 5. John rebukes Herod Antipas for Herodias's sake, and is cast into prison. §. 6. Christ retires to Galilee. The Samaritan woman and her fellow-townsmen of Sychar. § 7. Jesus in Galilee. The prophet without honor in his own country. Difficulty as to the Gospel Harmony at this point. § 8. Second visit of Jesus to Cana. His second Galilean miracle: healing of the courtier's son. § 9. Beginning of the Gospel from Galilee: its significance. Narrative of the first three Evangelists derived from Galilean sources. Their external means of information and their inspiration. § 10. Christ began by proclaiming the kingdom of heaven as at hand. Distinction between this and John the Baptist's preaching. He teaches in the Synagogues. Proclaims himself at Nazareth as the

§ 12. A

Messiah, and is rejected by his fellow-townsmen. § 11. Jesus at Ca-
pernaum. His ministry by the Lake of Galilee. Final call of Peter
and Andrew, James and John. Its relation to their first call.
Sabbath in the synagogue at Capernaum. The demoniac healed. The
question of demoniacal possession. The devil confesses Christ, but is
silenced by him. Fame of the miracle. Healing of Peter's wife's
mother. Miracles in the evening. § 13. Christ leaves Capernaum
next morning. His First Galilean Circuit. Healing of the leper. § 14.
Jesus returns to Capernaum. Healing of the paralytic in presence of
the Pharisees and Doctors. Christ claims the divine prerogative of
forgiving sin. § 15. The call of Matthew. Various examples of Christ's
miracles. § 16. The "Feast of the Jews" of John v., probably the
Second Passover of Christ's ministry. He goes up to Jerusalem. Heal-
ing of the cripple at Bethesda. The Jews charge Christ with Sabbath-
breaking. His first great discourse in vindication of his divine au-
thority.

§ 1. THAT Christ should begin his public ministry at Jerusalem was equally in accordance with the fitness of the case, and with the expectations raised by prophecy:-" Jehovah, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple." Nor was there any reason so suitable for his appearance there, as the Feast of Passover, which presented the most striking type of him, and at which the Jews were gathered, not only from all the land, but from the countries of the Dispersion. Hence the Passovers during our Saviour's ministry are most important epochs, and, indeed, they furnish the only general chronological data for its course. But we are met, in the outset, by the strange fact that, with one exception, these Passovers are mentioned only by St. John. All the Evangelists relate the events of that last great Passover, to which Jesus went up to suffer as the true Paschal Lamb. But, with this exception, the first three Evangelists confine their narrative to our Lord's ministry in Galilee, though not without incidental allusions to his visits to Judæa. Immediately after his baptism, they record the beginning of his ministry in Galilee; and the word "returned," in Matthew and Luke, might be taken for his first return from the banks of the Jordan, but for the note of time, and the motive of the journey, supplied by Matthew and Mark, "when Jesus had heard that John was cast into prison." This agrees with the beginning of St. John's 4th chapter, and interposes all the events recorded in his first three chapters. In the same way, the visits to Judæa mentioned in John v. and vii. are passed over by the other Evangelists,' who however imply, on various occasions, the not unfrequent exercise of

1 Unless the allusion in Luke ix. 51 refers to the latter journey.

« PreviousContinue »