CHAP. ment of Jesus. ment. At one time he appears at the extreme border of Palestine, the district immediately adConceal- jacent to that of Tyre and Sidon; he then seems to have descended again towards Bethsaida, and the desert country to the north of the Sea of Tiberias; he is then again on the immediate frontiers of Palestine, near the town of Cæsarea Philippi, close to the fountains of the Jordan. Phoenician woman. The incidents which occur at almost all these places coincide with his singular situation at this period of his life, and perpetually bear almost a direct reference to the state of public feeling at The Syro- this particular time. His conduct towards the Greek or Syro-Phoenician woman may illustrate this. Those who watched the motions of Jesus with the greatest vigilance, either from attachment or animosity, must have beheld him with astonishment, at this period when every road was crowded with travellers towards Jerusalem, deliberately proceeding in an opposite direction; thus, at the time of the most solemn festival, moving, as it were, directly contrary to the stream, which flowed in one current towards the capital. There appears at one time to have prevailed, among some, an obscure apprehension which, though only expressed during one of his later visits to Jerusalem †, might have begun to creep into their minds at an earlier period; that, after all, the Saviour might turn his back on his ungrateful and inhospitable country, or at least not fetter himself with the exclusive * Matt. xv. 21-28.; Mark, vii. 24―30. ↑ John, vii. 35. VI. nationality inseparable from their conceptions of the CHAP. true Messiah. And here, at this present instant, after having excited their hopes to the utmost, by the miracle which placed him, as it were, on a level with their lawgiver, and having afterwards afflicted them with bitter disappointment by his speech in the synagogue-here, at the season of the Passover, he was proceeding towards, if not beyond, the borders of the Holy Land; placing himself, as it were, in direct communication with the uncircumcised, and imparting those blessings to strangers and aliens, which were the undoubted, inalienable property of the privileged race. At this juncture, when he was upon the borders of the territory of Tyre and Sidon, a woman of heathen extraction*, having heard the fame of his miracles, determined to have recourse to him to heal her daughter, who was suffering under diabolic possession. Whether adopting the common title, which she had heard that Jesus had assumed, or from any obscure notion of the Messiah, which could not but have penetrated into the districts immediately bordering on Palestine, she saluted him by his title of Son of David, and implored his mercy. In this instance alone Jesus, who on all other occasions is described as prompt and forward to hear the cry of the afflicted, turns, at first, a deaf and * She is called in one place a Canaanite, in another a Syro-Phonician and a Greek. She was probably of Phoenician descent, and the Jews considered the whole of the Phoenician race as descended from the remnant of the Canaan ites, who were not extirpated. She VI. CHAP. regardless ear to her supplication: the mercy is, as it were, slowly and reluctantly wrung from him. The secret of this apparent, but unusual, indifference to suffering, no doubt lies in the circumstances of the case. Nothing would have been so repugnant to Jewish prejudice, especially at this juncture, as his admitting at once this recognition of his title, or his receiving and rewarding the homage of any stranger from the blood of Israel, particularly one descended from the accursed race of Canaan. The conduct of the apostles shows their harsh and Jewish spirit. They are indignant at her pertinacious importunity; they almost insist on her peremptory dismissal. That a stranger, a Canaanite, should share in the mercies of their master, does not seem to have entered into their thoughts: the brand of ancient condemnation was upon her; the hereditary hatefulness of the seed of Canaan marked her as a fit object for malediction, as the appropriate prey of the evil spirits, as without hope of blessing from the God of Israel. Jesus himself at first seems to countenance this exclusive tone. He declares that he is sent only to the race of Israel; that dogs (the common and opprobrious term by which all religious aliens were described), could have no hope of sharing in the blessings jealously reserved for the children of Abraham. The humility of the woman's reply, "Truth, Lord, but the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from the master's table," might almost disarm the antipathy of the most zealous Jew. That the Gentiles might receive a kind of secondary and inferior benefit from their Messiah, was by no means in opposition to the vulgar belief; it left them in full possession of their exclusive religious dignity, while it was rather flattering to their pride than debasing to their prejudices, that, with such limitation, the power of their Redeemer should be displayed among Gentile foreigners. By his condescension, therefore, to their prejudices, Jesus was enabled to display his own benevolence, without awakening, or confirming if already awakened, the quick suspicions of his followers. CHAP. VI. After this more remote excursion, Jesus appears Jesus still in partial again, for a short time, nearer his accustomed resi- concealdence; but still hovering, as it were, on the bor- ment. ders, and lingering rather in the wild mountainous region to the north and east of the lake, than descending to the more cultivated and populous districts to the west.* But here his fame follows him; and even in these desert regions, multitudes, many of them bearing their sick and afflicted relatives, perpetually assemble around him.† His conduct displays, as it were, a continual struggle between his benevolence and his caution: he seems as if he could not refrain from the indulgence of his goodness, while at the same time he is aware that every new cure may re-awaken the dangerous enthusiasm from which he had so recently withdrawn himself. In the hill country of Decapolis, a deaf and dumb man is restored to speech; he is strictly enjoined, though apparently without effect, This may be assigned to the period between the Passover and the Pentecost. † Matt. xv. 29-31.; Mark, vii. 31-37. CHAP. VI. to preserve the utmost secrecy. A second time the starving multitude in the desert appeal to his compassion. They are again miraculously fed, but Jesus, as though remembering the immediate consequences of the former event, dismisses them at once, and crossing in a boat to Dalmanutha or Magdala, places, as it were, the lake between himself and their indiscreet zeal, or irrepressible gratitude.* At Magdala he again encounters some of the Pharisaic party, who were, perhaps, returned from the Passover. They reiterate their perpetual demand of some sign which may satisfy their impatient incredulity, and a third time Jesus repels them with an allusion to the great "sign" of his resurrection.† As the Pentecost draws near, he again retires to the utmost borders of the land. He crosses back to Bethsaida, where a blind man is restored to sight, with the same strict injunctions of concealment. + He then passes to the neighbourhood of Cæsarea Philippi, at the extreme verge of the land, a modern town, recently built on the site of the older, now named Paneas, situated almost close to the fountains of the Jordan. § Alone with his immediate disciples in this secluded region, he begins to unfold more distinctly, both his real character and his future Perplexity fate, to their wondering ears. It is difficult to conceive the state of fluctuation and embarrassment in which the simple minds of the Apostles of Jesus must have been continually kept by of the Apostles. * Matt. xv. 32-39; Mark, viii. 1-9. + Matt. xvi. 1—12.; Mark, viii. 11-22. Mark, viii. 22-26. |