CHAPTER XXV.

THE DAY OF MATTHEW'S FEAST (continued)

"Is there no physician there?"—JER. viii. 22.

THE feast was scarcely over at the house of Matthew,1 and Jesus was still engaged in the kindly teaching which arose out of the question of John's disciples, when another event occurred which led in succession to three of the greatest miracles of His earthly life."

A ruler of the synagogue-the rosh hakkenéseth, or chief elder of the congregation, to whom the Jews looked with great respect-came to Jesus in extreme agitation. It is not improbable that this ruler of the synagogue had been one of the very deputation who had pleaded with Jesus for the centurion-proselyte by whom it had been built. If so, he knew by experience the power of Him to whom he now appealed. Flinging himself at His feet with broken words 3—which in the original still sound as though they were interrupted and rendered incoherent by bursts of grief-he tells Him

1 The note of time in Matt. ix. 18, "while He spake these things unto them," is here quite explicit; and St. Matthew is most likely to have followed the exact order of events on a day which was to him so memorable, as his last farewell to his old life as a Galilæan publican.

2 Matt. ix. 18-26; Mark v. 22-43; Luke viii. 41-56.

3 Mark v. 23. Considering the position of Jairus, this little incident strikingly shows the estimation in which Jesus was held at this time even by men of leading position.

that his little daughter, his only daughter, is dying, is dead; but still, if He will but come and lay His hand upon her, she shall live. With the tenderness which could not be deaf to a mourner's cry, Jesus rose1 at once from the table, and went with him, followed not only by His disciples, but also by a dense expectant multitude, which had been witness of the scene. And as He went the people in their eagerness pressed upon Him and thronged Him.

But among this throng-containing doubtless some of the Pharisees and of John's disciples with whom He had been discoursing, as well as some of the publicans and sinners with whom He had been seated at the feastthere was one who had not been attracted by curiosity to witness what would be done for the ruler of the synagogue. It was a woman who for twelve years had suffered from a distressing malady, which unfitted her for all the relationships of life, and which was peculiarly afflicting, because in the popular mind it was regarded as a direct consequence of sinful habits. In vain had she wasted her substance and done fresh injury to her health in the effort to procure relief from many different physicians, and now, as a last desperate resource, she would try what could be gained without money and without price from the Great Physician. Perhaps, in

1 Matt. ix. 19, ¿yepoels.

2 Mark v. 26, Toλλà waboûσa ind modλŵv laтpŵv. The physician Evangelist St. Luke (viii. 43) mentions that in this attempt she had wasted all her substance (8λov Tòv Bíov). This might well have been the case if they had recommended to her nothing better than the strange Talmudic recipes mentioned by Lightfoot, Hor. Hebr. in Marc. v. 26. (See Wunderbar, Biblisch-talmudische Medicin.) The recipes are not, however, worse than those given by Luther in his Table Talk, who (in the old English translation of the book) exclaims, "How great is the mercy of God who has put such healing virtue in all manner of muck!"

HEALING THE ISSUE.

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her ignorance, it was because she had no longer any reward to offer; perhaps because she was ashamed in her feminine modesty to reveal the malady from which she had been suffering; but from whatever cause, she determined, as it were, to steal from Him, unknown, the blessing for which she longed. And so, with the strength and pertinacity of despair, she struggled in that dense throng until she was near enough to touch Him; and then, perhaps all the more violently from her extreme nervousness, she grasped the white fringe of His robe. By the law of Moses every Jew was to wear at each corner of his tallith a fringe or tassel, bound by a riband of symbolic blue, to remind him that he was holy to God.1 Two of these fringes usually hung down at the bottom of the robe; one hung over the shoulder where the robe was folded round the person. It was probably this one that she touched with secret and trembling haste, and then, feeling instantly that she had gained her desire and was healed, she shrunk back unnoticed into the throng. Unnoticed by others, but not by Christ. Perceiving that healing power had gone out of Him, recognising the one magnetic touch of timid faith even amid the pressure of the crowd, He stopped and asked, "Who touched my clothes?" There was something almost impatient in the reply of Peter, as though in such a throng he thought it absurd to ask, "Who touched me?"3 But Jesus, His eyes still

1 Numb. xv. 37-40; Deut. xxii. 12. The Hebrew word is kanephoth, literally, "wings;" and the white tassels with their blue or purple thread were called tsitsith.

2 It is not easy to stoop down in a thick moving crowd, nor could she have done so unobserved.

366

Illi premunt, ista tetigit" (Aug., Serm. ccxlv.). "Caro premit, fides tangit" (id. lxii. 4). (Trench, Miracles, p. 204.)

wandering over the many faces, told him that there was a difference between the crowding of curiosity and the touch of faith, and as at last His glance fell on the poor woman, she, perceiving that she had erred in trying to filch the blessing which He would have graciously bestowed, came forward fearing and trembling, and, flinging herself at His feet, told Him all the truth. All her feminine shame and fear were forgotten in her desire to atone for her fault. Doubtless she dreaded His anger, for the law expressly ordained that the touch of one afflicted as she was, caused ceremonial uncleanness till the evening. But His touch had cleansed her, not her's polluted Him. So far from being indignant, He said to her, "Daughter"-and at once the sound of that gracious word sealed her pardon-"go for peace: thy faith hath saved thee; be healed from thy disease."

2

The incident must have caused a brief delay, and, as we have seen, to the anguish of Jairus every instant was critical. But he was not the only sufferer who had a claim on the Saviour's mercy; and, as he uttered no complaint, it is clear that sorrow had not made him selfish. But at this moment a messenger reached him with the brief message "Thy daughter is dead;" and

now.

1 Lev. xv. 19. The Pharisees shrunk from a woman's touch, as they do "The chakams were especially careful to avoid being touched by any part of the women's dresses" (Frankl, Jews in the East, ii. 81).

2 As before (Luke vii. 50), this corresponds to the Hebrew expression, Our Lord addressed no other woman by the title eÚYаTEP. Legend has assigned to this woman Veronica as a name, and Paneas (Cæsarea Philippi) as a residence. An ancient statue of bronze at this place was believed to represent her in the act of touching the fringe of Christ's robe; and Eusebius (Hist. Eccl. vii. 18) and Sozomen (Hist. Eccl. v. 21) both mention this statue, which is believed to have been so curious a testimony to the reality of Christ's miracle, that Julian the Apostate-or, according to another account, Maximus-is charged with having destroyed it.

JAIRUS'S DAUGHTER.

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then, apparently with a touch of dislike and irony, he added, "Worry not the Rabbi."1

The message had not been addressed to Jesus, but He overheard it, and with a compassionate desire to spare the poor father from needless agony, He said to him those memorable words, "Fear not, only believe." They soon arrived at his house, and found it occupied by the hired mourners and flute-players, who, as they beat their breasts, with mercenary clamour, insulted the dumbness of sincere sorrow, and the patient majesty of death. Probably this simulated wailing would be very repulsive to the soul of Christ; and first stopping at the door to forbid any of the multitude to follow Him, He entered the house with three only of the inmost circle of His Apostles-Peter, and James, and John. On entering, His first care was to still the idle noise; but when His kind declaration-"The little maid is not dead, but sleepeth " -was only received with coarse ridicule, He

1 The curious word σKÚλλe, something like our worry," or "bother," is used here, and here alone (except in Luke vii. 6), by both St. Mark and St. Luke. (The okvλμévoi of Matt. ix. 36 is a dubious reading.)

2 Mark v. 36, Tарáкovσas (α, B, L). The word occurs nowhere else in the New Testament.

3 At this time among the Jews, no less than among the Romans,

"Cantabat fanis, cantabat tibia ludis,

Cantabat moestis tibia funeribus." (Ov. Fast. vi.)

The Rabbinic rule provided that there should be at least two flute-players, and one mourning-woman (Selden, Uxor. Hebr. iii. 8). The amount of noise indicated by the θόρυβος κλαίοντας καὶ ἀλαλάζοντας πολλὰ (Mark v. 38) recalls to us the "Quantum non superant tria funera" of Hor. Sat. i. 6, 43. The custom was doubtless ancient (Eccles. xii. 5; Jer. ix. 17; Amos v. 16; 2 Chron. XXXV. 25). St. Luke adds the beating on the breast (viii. 52; cf. Nahum ii. 7). The custom still continues; "they weep, howl, beat their breasts, and tear their hair according to contract" (Thomson, Land and Book, I., ch. viii.).

4 Mark v.

39, τὸ παιδίον. She was twelve years old.

The Evangelists use the strong expression, kateɣéλWV AVTOû,