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CHAPTER IV.

ANNOUNCING THE KINGDOM IN GALILEE

With the pressure of the consciousness of his great mission upon him, Jesus began immediately to renew in Galilee the message which John, and perhaps he himself, had preached in Judea and Perea. Out of his meditations in the wilderness had come at least one clear conviction; the obligation rested upon him, who positively knew the nearness of the Day of the Lord, to warn the people, lest they be taken without warning and destroyed.' The remainder of his life was spent in this task, of warning them of the impending great event, and advising them how to live so as to be safe when the Day should arrive.

Precisely where he began we do not know. But it is certain that in some of the villages of Galilee, probably very near Capernaum, was heard again the message "The times are fulfilled and the King

'Mark 1, 38: "And he said unto them, let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also: for therefore came I forth." Luke 4, 18-21: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto them, "This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears." Luke 4:43. "And he said unto them, I must preach the kingdom of God to other cities also: for therefore am I sent."

dom of Heaven is at hand. Change your hearts and believe the good tidings."

The Messianic hope was as widely distributed among the Jews of Galilee as elsewhere. This hope had been freshened and made immediate and positive by the preaching of John, to whom numbers of Galilean Jews also had gone. In this respect it was not a new message which Jesus brought to the Galileans, but one with which they were all familiar, and to which they flocked as soon as it was known that one was again preaching these good tidings. Wherever the Jews gathered in the towns of that region, especially in the synagogues,' the centers of the Jewish life in those communities of mixed populations, Jesus went, announcing the nearness of the Kingdom and arousing the enthusiasm of his eager hearers. The fame of his preaching quickly spread throughout that region.

Very early in this preaching he attracted to him four young men whose lives were thereafter most intimately bound up with his. In his new home city of Capernaum dwelt two families of fishermen who plied their occupation on the sea of Galilee. One was composed of the brothers Simon and Andrew; the other of Zebedee with his sons, James and John. These worked together as partners. On one of his

'Matthew 4:23; Mark 1:39; Luke 4:14, 15, 44.

"These synagogue meetings were not limited to the Sabbath. Schuerer (827) quoting from the Talmud says, "it is stated, as the mark of a large town, that even on week days there was always without difficulty a sufficient number of synagogue frequenters present" for a religious meeting.

early trips, probably somewhere near Capernaum, Jesus sat in Simon's boat and spoke to the assembled multitudes who had practically crowded him off the shore in their eagerness to be near him. After he finished speaking, at his suggestion the boat was moved farther out into the lake and the net was let down in a spot indicated by Jesus. To the astonishment of the fishermen, who had had a very unsuccessful night, the net drew up a great quantity of fish, so great that Simon, already deeply moved by the speech of Jesus, immediately assumed that it was the result of his supernatural knowledge. Caught by the wonder of his message and deeply impressed by this extraordinary event, the four younger men, Simon and Andrew, James and John, at his invitation abandoned their boats and followed this new preacher of the coming of the Kingdom.

It is easy to understand why young men of ardent temperament, filled as these men were with the belief in the reality of the Kingdom of God which Jesus was preaching, and convinced that it was in truth near at hand, would abandon their daily occupation to follow him. "Follow me," he had said "and I will make you fishers of men."" Why should they not? If this message was true, their daily occupation was about to become useless. All the familiar everyday things of their world were about to pass away and a new world was to come into existence, filled with

'Luke 5:1-11; Matthew 4:18-22; Mark 1:16-20.

"Luke puts it "thou shalt take men alive".

the presence of the living God, and containing only men fit for such a world. Property was no longer of value; fitness for the new Kingdom alone was worth while.

The purpose of Jesus in calling them to follow him at this time is not so clear. His intent, as shown in his invitation to them, was to induce them also to become preachers of the Kingdom to those who were in danger of being lost. Apparently it was also a manifestation of the natural desire for the constant association and cooperation of men of his own type of thought, who had similar expectations concerning the events of the immediate future. Later, when his movement acquired more breadth, their number and their function in the movement were expanded. During these early days, however, they appeared merely as followers, companions, who accompanied him on his travels through the neighboring villages of Galilee, constant listeners, who gradually acquired his vivid conception of the immediate ending of the age and the coming of the Kingdom of God and who became daily more impressed with his extraordinary personal qualities and powers.

These first intimate associates were themselves striking characters. James and John seem to have been his cousins, sons of his mother's sister, Salome. Their occupation as fishermen does not properly in

The weak

"John 19:25, with Mark 15:40 and Matthew 27:56. ness of the opinion is that it depends upon the historical accuracy of the reference to "his mother's sister" in John 19:25, a passage which is undoubtedly inaccurate in other respects.

dicate to modern minds their social standing. They were not the poorer type of fishermen, but operated upon a more pretentious scale, as they had hired helpers who worked with them. The little Sea of Galilee at this time was alive with fishing vessels, as the fisheries constituted one of the most profitable occupations of that time. It was especially fruitful of fish and was far famed through the ancient world for the abundance and exceptional quality of its products. Fish from this sea were carried as far as Rome. Men engaged in the business upon such a scale as they were, occupied a superior economic position.

The two brothers were of vigorous, powerful personality, impetuous and eager, of a type which Jesus later described by calling them 'sons thunder.""

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Of Simon and Andrew we know less. Socially and economically they seem to have been in a position similar to that of the sons of Zebedee, for they were partners. We have no indication of any family connection with Jesus. But Simon in particular was a really gifted individual, with a capacity for courage and leadership which in later years was to make him the center around which the followers of Jesus would rally and concentrate. These two also seem to have been less educated than John and James. Simon especially was an individual of a very concrete mind, who was much interested in the things

'Mark 3:17; 9:38; Luke 9:49, 52-54.

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