King Agrippa, after applauding highly the works of Josephus, adds, “However when thou comest to me, I will inform thee of a great many things which thou dost not know." It is probable that these things related more to the secrets of his own and the Roman court, than to the affairs of Paul and the Christians. Yet how the hint awakens our wish for the king's account of the Apostle's trial!

CHAPTER II.

HISTORICAL SKETCH CONTINUED, FROM THE DEATH OF JESUS TO THE END OF THE FIRST CENTURY.

THE disciples of Jesus had not thought it possible that the Messiah could be allowed to perish ignominiously, but rather hoped that each successive disappointment was in reality bringing him nearer to his throne. The unexpected catastrophe bewildered them; and for a short time their allegiance was shaken by alarm and uncertainty. They feared to appear in public as his friends; the women, who incurred less danger, alone went to see where he was laid, and after the Sabbath, were the first to visit the tomb.

But this interval of one day and two nights, following upon the first hasty interment of Jesus, had given time to Joseph to take what further measures seemed expedient to him. His performance of the office of a friend in securing an honourable burial to Jesus, might excite suspicions on the part of the governor or of the council, and at the same time lead the disciples to regard him as their protector and leader. These characters he was not at all anxious to assume. He might have listened with interest to the discourses of Jesus, but his secret discipleship was not of that kind that he could leave all to follow him. He feared that the followers of Jesus, who had come up with him from the turbulent province of Galilee, although terrified for a moment, might attempt to excite the populace of Jerusalem to avenge him ; an attempt the more dangerous at that time, as Jerusalem was crowded with country people come up for the pass

over.* The place of interment was likely to be resorted to, and being in his own possession or under his superintendence, any disturbances which might arise from the access to, or attempts to recover, the remains of Jesus, were likely to be laid to his charge, and possibly he might be the next victim.+ *

He had the body removed from the tomb, or from that part of it where the women had seen it laid, and directed the agent who remained in charge of the open sepulchre to inform the visitants that Jesus was not there, but that they should behold him in Galilee. The message was first delivered to Mary Magdalene and her companions, by whom and the subsequent narrators, in an interval of time of which

There were so many tumults raised on these occasions, that the approach of feasts was always regarded with apprehension by the priests. Jos. Ant. xvii. 9, 2; x. 2. War, ii. 3, 1.

+ These are some of the considerations on which this conjectural filling up of the conduct of Joseph rests:

Firstly, Joseph stood in peril.

Secondly, He was not of a temper to encounter martyrdom.

Thirdly, On the other hand, he was attached to Jesus and his disciples, and would be unwilling to cast them off harshly.

Fourthly, The expedient in question would seem to meet all these three difficulties.

Fifthly, The character of the disciples, for the most part simple country people, and believers in miracles, admitted of its being practised upon them.

Sixthly, Joseph had better means than any of the disciples of knowing what became of the body of Jesus. The total absence, therefore, of his important testimony, on either side of the question, confirms the suspicion that he had some peculiar motives for silence.

Seventhly, The conduct and writings of the disciples show that most of them were sincere believers in the resurrection and approaching re-appearance of their master.

The probabilities respecting the disposal of the remains of Jesus will be considered more amply in the chapter on the resurrection.

Mark xvi. 5-7, "And entering into the sepulchre, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a long white garment; and they were affrighted. And he saith unto them, Be not affrighted; ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified; he is risen, he is not here; behold the place where they laid him. But go your way, tell his disciples and Voe M. Am CT $149.5307.

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we cannot fix the precise limits, the occurrence was converted into the appearance of an angel, of two angels, and finally of Jesus himself.

The disciples at first treated the accounts of the women as idle tales; but could not remain unconvinced that the body had really disappeared. Thus Jesus seemed to meet with the same distinction as Moses, of whose sepulchre no man knew. The absence of the lifeless remains allowed full scope for the imagination.* The Messiah might expect to be favoured with proofs of the Divine approbation similar to those which had been granted to the eminent servants of God of old, Enoch, Moses, and Elias. He had been raised from the dead, some bright cloud had served, like the fiery car of Elias, to convey him into heaven, whence they might expect to see

Peter, that he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him, as he said unto you."

This agrees nearly with the accounts of Matthew and Luke, except that Luke mentions two men at the tomb, and Matthew adds an earthquake. John says that Mary Magdalene saw the stone taken away when she first came, and, on coming a second time, saw the two men or angels. The concurrent testimony of the first three, not essentially contradicted by John, is thus in favour of the fact, that the women who visited the tomb were told by some one there that Jesus was risen, and gone into Galilee. After this the four accounts diverge into numberless contradictions.

It seems very probable that Joseph should endeavour to convey an intimation to the disciples to return into Galilee. But all the accounts are evidently coloured from the subsequent ideas of the church, and the attributing this message to Joseph is perhaps the most hazardous part of the conjec

ture.

* Luke xxiv. 12. "Then arose Peter, and ran unto the sepulchre, and stooping down, he beheld the linen clothes laid by themselves, and departed wondering in himself at that which was come to pass."

John xx. 6-9. "Then cometh Simon Peter, following him, and went into the sepulchre, and seeth the linen clothes lie; and the napkin that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself. Then went in also that other disciple which came first to the sepulchre, and he saw and believed. For as yet they knew not the Scripture, that he must rise again from the dead."

him return when the proper time for revealing his kingdom should arrive. The mystery of the Messiah's sudden death appeared to be thus explained; the error had been theirs to suppose that they knew the right time and season for rescuing Israel, which the Father had reserved in his own power. Passages of Scripture were remembered, of which the Messiah's resurrection seemed to afford a new and sublime fulfilment; and every text capable in the remotest manner of affording this sense supplied additional and indisputable proof of the fact. It was natural also to suppose that, in his superhuman state, Jesus might, before ascending into heaven, make himself visible to his faithful followers. Accordingly, accounts of actual appearances of Jesus soon found their way into the narrations of the events attending his supposed resurrection; imagination or mistake continually afforded fresh materials for stories of a kind so honourable to the relator, and to the head of the church; and of these stories we have at this day such as were current from forty to sixty years after the death of Jesus.

The disciples probably without delay took refuge in Galilee, bearing with them the incipient working of these ideas. The aim of Joseph and of the priests was attained so far, that political disturbances were prevented. But the life and teachings of the Nazarene prophet had left an impulse, which might be partially diverted from its first channel, but which could not be suppressed.

* See chap. xii. The Jews never expected that the Messiah was to rise from the dead. Roseum. Schol. in Esaiam xlii.

+ Matthew's account of the return of the disciples into Galilee meets with some confirmation from the last chapter of John; and is probable in itself. The provincials were always accustomed to return from Jerusalem, after the feast, and the alarm of the disciples would hasten their departure. There was time for such a journey between the Passover and the day of Pentecost, viz. seven weeks. The accounts of Mark, Luke, and John, of the proceedings after the crucifixion, are so imperfect as to leave room for such a journey.