VI.

CHAP. patriotism to the meditated crime, by declaring the expediency of sacrificing one life, even though innocent, for the welfare of the whole nation.* His language was afterwards treasured in the memory of the Christians, as inadvertently prophetic of the more extensive benefits derived to mankind by the death of their Master. The death of Jesus was deliberately decreed; but Jesus for the present avoided the gathering storm, withdrew from the neighbourhood of the metropolis, and retired to Ephraim, on the border of Judæa, near the wild and mountainous region which divided Judæa from Samaria.t

CHAP.
VII.

CHAPTER VII.

THE LAST PASSOVER. THE CRUCIFIXION.

Passover.

THE Passover rapidly approached; the roads from Last
all quarters were already crowded with the assem-
bling worshippers. It is difficult for those who are
ignorant of the extraordinary power which local
religious reverence holds over Southern and Asiatic
nations, to imagine the state of Judæa and of Jeru-
salem at the time of this great periodical festival.*
The rolling onward of countless. and gathering
masses of population to some of the temples in
India; the caravans from all quarters of the Eastern
world, which assemble at Mecca during the Holy
Season; the multitudes which formerly flowed to
Loretto or Rome at the great ceremonies, when
the Roman catholic religion held its unenfeebled
sway over the mind of Europe do not surpass,
perhaps scarcely equal, the sudden, simultaneous
confluence, not of the population of a single city,
but of the whole Jewish nation, towards the capital
of Judæa at the time of the Passover. Dispersed as
they were throughout the world, it was not only the
great mass of the inhabitants of Palestine, but many
foreign Jews who thronged from every quarter-

* Μύριοι ἀπὸ μυρίων ὅσων πόλεων, οἱ μὲν διὰ γῆς, οἱ δὲ διὰ θαλάτα της, ἐξ ἀνατολῆς καὶ δύσεως, καὶ

ἄρκτου καὶ μεσημβρίας, καθ ̓ ἐκάστην
ἑορτὴν εἰς τὸ ἱερὸν καταίρουσιν.
Philo, de Monarch. 821.

VII.

from Babylonia, from Arabia, from Egypt, from Asia
Minor and Greece, from Italy, probably even from
Gaul and Spain. Some notion of the density and
vastness of the multitude may be formed from the
calculation of Josephus, who, having ascertained the
number of paschal lambs sacrificed on one of these
solemn occasions, which amounted to 256,500*; and
assigning the ordinary number to a company who
could partake of the same victim, estimated the total
number of the pilgrims and residents in Jerusalem at
2,700,000. Through all this concourse of the whole
Jewish race, animated more or less profoundly,
according to their peculiar temperament, with
the same national and religious feelings, rumours
about the appearance, the conduct, the pretensions,
the language of Jesus, could not but have spread
abroad, and be communicated with unchecked
rapidity. The utmost anxiety prevails throughout
the whole crowded city and its neighbourhood, to
ascertain whether this new prophet
this more,

perhaps, than prophet - will, as it were, confront
at this solemn period the assembled nation; or, as
on the last occasion, remain concealed in the remote
parts of the country. The Sanhedrin are on their
guard, and strict injunctions are issued that they
may receive the earliest intelligence of his approach,
in order that they may arrest him before he has at-
tempted to make any impression on the multitude.t

Already Jesus had either crossed the Jordan, or descended from the hill country to the north. He had passed through Jericho, where he had been

* Or, according to Mr. Greswell's + John, xi. 55, 57. reading, 266, 500.

VII.

recognised by two blind men as the Son of David, CHAP. the title of the Messiah, probably the most prevalent among the common people; and instead of disclaiming the homage, he had rewarded the avowal by the restoration of their sight to the suppliants.*

On his way from Jericho to Jerusalem, but much Zaccheus. nearer to the metropolis, he was hospitably received in the house of a wealthy publican named Zaccheus, who had been so impressed with the report of his extraordinary character, that, being of small stature, he had climbed a tree by the road-side to see him pass by; and had evinced the sincerity of his belief in the just and generous principles of the new faith, both by giving up at once half of his property to the poor, and offering the amplest restitution to those whom he might have oppressed in the exercise of his function as a publican.† It is probable that Jesus passed the night, perhaps the whole of the Sabbath, in the house of Zaccheus, and set forth, on the first day of the week, through the villages of Bethphage and Bethany to Jerusalem.

Let us, however, before we trace his progress, pause to ascertain, if possible, the actual state of feeling at this precise period, among the different ranks and orders of the Jews.

Jesus of Nazareth had now, for three years, assumed the character of a public teacher; his wonderful works were generally acknowledged; all no doubt considered him as an extraordinary being;

* Matt. xx. 30.; Mark, x. 46.; Luke, xviii. 35.

VOL. I.

U

+ Luke, xix. 1—10.

VII.

CHAP. but whether he was the Messiah still, as it were, hung in the balance. His language, plain enough to those who could comprehend the real superiority, the real divinity of his character, was necessarily dark and ambiguous to those who were insensible to the moral beauty of his words and actions. Few, perhaps, beyond his more immediate followers, looked upon him with implicit faith; many with doubt, even with hope; perhaps still greater numbers, comprising the more turbulent of the lower class, and almost all the higher and more influential, with incredulity, if not with undisguised animosity. For, though thus for three years he had kept the public mind in suspense as to his being the promised Redeemer, of those circumstances to which the popular passions had looked forward as the only certain signs of the Messiah's coming; those, which among the mass of the community were considered inseparable from the commencement of the kingdom of heaven

the terrific, the awful, the national, not one had come to pass. The deliverance of the nation from the Roman yoke was as remote as ever; the governor had made but a short time, perhaps a year, before, a terrible assertion of his supremacy, by defiling the Temple itself with the blood of the rebellious or unoffending Galileans. The Sanhedrin, imperious during his absence, quailed and submitted whenever the tribunal of Pilate was erected in the metropolis. The publicans, those unwelcome remembrancers of the subjugation of the country, were still abroad in every town and village, levying the hateful tribute; and instead of