CHAPTER IV. СНАР. PUBLIC LIFE OF JESUS FROM THE FIRST TO THE SECOND salem. On the dispersion of the strangers from the metro- Departure polis, at the close of the Passover, Jesus, with his from Jerumore immediate followers, passed a short time in Judæa, where such multitudes crowded to the baptism administered by his disciples, that the adherents of John began to find the concourse to their master somewhat diminished. The Baptist had removed his station to the other side of the Jordan, and fixed himself by a stream, which afforded a plentiful supply of water, near the town of Salim, in Peræa. The partisans of John, not it should seem without jealousy, began to dispute concerning the relative importance of the baptism of their master, and that of him whom they were disposed to consider his rival. But these unworthy feelings were strongly repressed by John. In terms still more emphatic he re-asserted his own secondary station he was but the paranymph, the humble attendant on the bridegroom, Christ the bridegroom himself: his doctrine was that of earth, that of Christ was from heaven; in short, he openly announces Jesus as the Son of the Almighty Father, and as the author of everlasting life.* The career of John was drawing to a close. His John the new station in Peræa was within the dominions of and Herod. Baptist, * John, iii. 22. 36. IV. CHAP. Herod Antipas. On the division of the Jewish kingdom at the death of Herod the Great, Galilee and Peræa had formed the tetrarchate of Antipas. Herod was engaged in a dangerous war with Aretas, king of Arabia Petræa, whose daughter he had married. But having formed an incestuous connection with the wife of his brother, Herod Philip, his Arabian queen indignantly fled to her father, who took up arms to revenge her wrongs against her guilty husband.* How far Herod could depend in this contest on the loyalty of his subjects, was extremely doubtful. It is possible he might entertain hopes that the repudiation of a foreign alliance, ever hateful to the Jews, and the union with a branch of the Asmonean line (for Herodias was the daughter of Herod the Great, by Mariamne), might counterbalance in the popular estimation the injustice and criminality of his marriage with his brother's wife. The influence of John (according to Josephus) was almost unlimited. The subjects, and even the soldiery, of the tetrarch crowded with devout submission around the Prophet. On his decision might depend the wavering loyalty of the whole province. But John denounced with open indignation the royal incest, and declared the marriage with a brother's wife to be a flagrant violation of the law. Herod, before long, ordered him to be * Luke, iii. 19. Matt. xiv. 3. 5. Mark, vi. 17. 20. This natural view of the subject appears to me to harmonise the accounts in the gospels with that of Josephus. Josephus traces the persecution of the Baptist to Herod's dread of popular tumult and insurrection, without mentioning the real cause of that dread, which we find in the Evangelic narrative. IV. seized and imprisoned in the strong fortress of CHAP. Machærus, on the remote border of his transjordanic territory. Samaria, Jews and Samari Jesus, in the mean time, apprehensive of the awakening jealousy of the Pharisees, whom his increasing success inflamed to more avowed animosity, left the borders of Judæa, and proceeded on his return to Galilee.* The nearer road lay through Jesus passes the province of Samaria. The mutual hatred through between the Jews and Samaritans, ever since the Hostility of secession of Sanballat, had kept the two races not merely distinct, but opposed to each other tans. with the most fanatical hostility. This animosity, instead of being allayed by time, had but grown the more inveterate, and had recently been embittered by acts, according to Josephus, of wanton and unprovoked outrage on the part of the Samaritans. During the administration of Coponius, certain of this hateful race, early in the morning on one of the days of the passover, had stolen into the temple at Jerusalem, and defiled the porticoes and courts by strewing them with dead men's bones— an abomination the most offensive to the Jewish principles of cleanliness and sanctity. Still later, they had frequently taken advantage of the position in which their district lay, directly between Judæa and Galilee, to interrupt the concourse of the religious Galileans to the capital. § Jealous that such multitudes should pass their sacred mountain, Geri Matt. iv. 12.; Mark, i. 14.; Luke, iv. 14. † John, iv. 1. 32. Hist. of the Jews, ii. 154. VOL. I. IV. CHAP. zim, to worship in the temple at Jerusalem, they often waylaid the incautious pilgrim, and thus the nearest road to Jerusalem had become extremely insecure. Our history will show how calmly Jesus ever pursued his course through these conflicting elements of society, gently endeavoured to allay the implacable schism, and set the example of that mild and tolerant spirit, so beautifully embodied in his precepts. He passed on in quiet security through the dangerous district, and it is remarkable that here, safe from the suspicious vigilance of the Pharisaic party, among these proscribed aliens from the hopes of Israel, he more distinctly and publicly than he had hitherto done, avowed his title as the Messiah, and developed that leading characteristic of his religion, the abolition of all local and national deities, and the promulgation of one comprehensive faith, in which the great Eternal Spirit was to be worshipped by all mankind in "spirit and in truth.” There was a well near the gates of Sichem, a name which by the Jews had been long perverted into the opprobrious term Sichar. † This spot, according to immemorial tradition, the patriarch Jacob had purchased, and here were laid the bones of Joseph, his elder son, to whose descendant, Ephraim, * Tradition still points to this well, about a mile distant from the walls of Sichar, which Maundrell supposes to have extended farther. A church was built over it by the Empress Helena, but it is now entirely destroyed. "It is dug in a firm rock, and contains about three yards in diameter, and thirty five in depth, five of which we found full of water." Maundrell, p. 62. + From a Hebrew word meaning a "lie" or an "idol." The name had no doubt grown into common use, as it could not be meant by the evangelists in an offensive sense. this district had been assigned. Sichem lay in a valley between the two famous mountains Ebal and Gerizim, on which the law was read, and ratified by the acclamations of the assembled tribes; and on the latter height stood the rival temple of the Samaritans, which had so long afflicted the more zealous Jews by its daring opposition to the one chosen sanctuary on mount Moriah. The well bore the name of the patriarch; and while his disciples entered the town to purchase provisions*, a traffic from which probably few, except the disciples of Christ, would not have abstained t, except in extreme necessity, Jesus reposed by its margin. It was the sultry hour of noon, about twelve o'clock ‡, when a woman, as is the general usage in the East, where the females commonly resort to the wells or tanks to obtain water for all domestic uses, approached the well. Jesus, whom she knew not to be her countryman, either from his dress, or perhaps his dialect or pronunciation, in which the inhabitants of the Ephraimitish district of Samaria differed both from the Jews and Galileans, to her astonishment, asked her for water to quench his thirst. For in general the According to the traditions they might buy of them, use their labour, or say amen to their benedictions (Beracoth, i. 8.), lodge in their towns, but not receive any gift or kindness from them. Buxtorf, Lex Talm. 1370. Lightfoot in loc. + Probably the more rigid would have refrained, even from this permitted intercourse, unless in cases of absolute necessity. This is the usual opinion. Dr. Townson, in his ingenious ar- IV. |