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siastic might look upon this only as one of the inevitable calamities which was to precede the appearance and final triumph of the Messiah, the less fervid faith of the older and more influential party was far more profoundly impressed with the dread of the impending ruin, than elated with the remoter hope of final restoration. The advice of Caiaphas, therefore, to sacrifice even an innocent man for the safety of the state, would appear to them both sound and reasonable policy.

nour of

Jesus,

We must imagine this suspense, this agitation of the crowded Demeacity, or we shall be unable fully to enter into the beauty of the calm and unostentatious dignity with which Jesus pursues his course through the midst of this terrific tumult. He preserves the same cquable composure in the triumphant procession into the Temple and in the Hall of Pilate. Every thing indicates his tranquil conviction of his inevitable death; he foretells it with all its afflicting circumstances to his disciples, incredulous almost to the last to this alone of their Master's declarations. At every step he feels himself more inextricably within the toils; yet he moves onwards with the self-command of a willing sacrifice, constantly dwelling with a profound, though chastened, melancholy on his approaching fate, and intimating that his death was necessary, in order to secure indescribable benefits for his faithful followers and for mankind. there is no needless exasperation of his enemies; he observes the utmost prudence, though he seems so fully aware that his prudence can be of no avail; he never passes the night within the city; and it is only by the treachery of one of his followers that the Sanhedrin at length make themselves masters of his person.

Yet

ment.

The Son of Man had now arrived at Bethany, and we must endeavour to trace his future proceedings in a consecutive course (1); but if it has been difficult to dispose the events of the life of Jesus, in the order of time, this difficulty increases as we approach its terDifficulty mination. However embarrassing this fact to those who require of chrono logical arsomething more than historical credibility in the evangelical narra-rangetives, to those who are content with a lower and more rational view of their authority, it throws not the least suspicion on their truth. It might almost seem, at the present period, that the Evangelists, confounded as it were, and stunned with the deep sense of the importance of the crisis, however they might remember the facts, had in some degree perplexed and confused their regular order. At Bethany he took up his abode in the house of Simon, who had Jesus as

was already applied by the popular apprehensions to some impending destruction by the Ro

mans.

Τὸν αὐτον τρόπον Δανίηλος καὶ περὶ Tŵr Papaior ngeμovías ȧvégpate, xai ὅτι ὑπ' αὐτῶν ἐρημωθήσεται. Ant. x. 2. 7., and in the Bell. Jud. iv. 6. 3., the poora κατὰ τῆς πατριδος, referred to his inter

pretation of the verses of the prophet. Compare
Babyl. Talm. Gemara, Masseck Nasir, c. 5.,
Masseck Sanhedrin, c. 11., Jerusalem Talmud,
Masseck Kelaim. c. 9. Bertholdt on Daniel, p.
585. Compare likewise Jortin's Eccl. Hist. i. 69.

(1) Matt. xxi. 1.; Mark, xi. 1.; Luke, xix.
28.; John, xii. 1.

Bethany,

Jesus en

salem in

been a leper, and, it is not improbably conjectured, had been healed by the wonderful power of Jesus (1). Simon was, in all likelihood, closely connected, though the degree of relationship is not intimated, with the family of Lazarus, for Lazarus was present at the feast, and it was conducted by Martha his sister. The fervent devotion of their sister Mary had been already indicated on two occasions; and this passionate zeal, now heightened by gratitude for the recent restoration of her brother to life, evinced itself in her breaking an alabaster box of very costly perfume, and anointing his head (2), according, as we have seen on a former occasion, to a usage not uncommon in Oriental banquets. It is possible that vague thoughts of the royal character, which she expected that Jesus was about to assume, might mingle with those purer feelings which led her to pay this prodigal homage to his person. The mercenary character of Judas now begins to be developed. Judas had been appointed a kind of treasurer, and entrusted with the care of the common purse, from which the scanty necessities of the humble and temperate society had been defrayed, and the rest reserved for distribution among the poor. Some others of the disciples had been seized with astonishment at this unusual and seemingly unnecessary waste of so valuable a commodity but Judas broke out into open remonstrance; and concealing his own avarice under the veil of charity for the poor, protested against the wanton prodigality. Jesus contented himself with praising the pious and affectionate devotion of the woman, and reverting to his usual tone of calm melancholy, declared that inadvertently she had performed a more pious office, the anointing his body for his burial.

The intelligence of the arrival of Jesus at Bethany spread rapidly ters Jeru- to the city, from which it was not quite two miles distant. Multitriumph. tudes thronged forth to behold him : nor was Jesus the only object of interest, for the fame of the resurrection of Lazarus was widely disseminated, and the strangers in Jerusalem were scarcely less anxious to behold a man who had undergone a fate so unprecedented.

Lazarus thus an object of intense interest to the people (3), became one of no less jealousy to the ruling authorities, the enemies of Jesus. His death was likewise decreed, and the magistracy only awaited a favourable opportunity for the execution of their edicts. But the Sanhedrin is at first obliged to remain in overawed and trembling inactivity. The popular sentiment is so decidedly in favour of Jesus of Nazareth, that they dare not venture to oppose his open, his public, his triumphant procession into the city, or his entrance amid the applauses of the wondering multitude into the

(1) Matt. xxvi. 1-13.; Mark, xiv. 3-9.; John, xii. 1-11. (We follow St. John's narrative in placing this incident at the present period).

(2) See Psalm, xxv. 5. Horat. Carmi. ii. 11. 16. Martial, iii. 12. 4.

(3) John, xii. 9--11.

Nisan 2,
March.

Temple itself. On the morning of the second day of the week (1), Monday, Jesus is seen, in the face of day, approaching one of the gates of the city which looked towards Mount Olivet (2). In avowed conformity to a celebrated prophecy of Zachariah, he appears riding on the yet unbroken colt of an ass; the procession of his followers, as he descends the side of the Mount of Olives, escort him with royal honours, and with acclamations expressive of his title of the Messiah, towards the city : many of them had been witnesses of the resurrection of Lazarus, and no doubt proclaimed, as they advanced, this extraordinary instance of power. They are met (3) by another band advancing from the city, who receive him with equal homage, strew branches of palm and even their garments in his way; and the Sanhedrin could not but hear within the courts of the Temple, the appalling proclamation, "Hosannah, blessed is the King of Israel, that cometh in the name of the Lord." Some of the Pharisees, who had mingled with the multitude, remonstrate with Jesus, and command him to silence what to their ears sounded like the profane, the impious adulation of his partisans. Uninterrupted, and only answering that if these were silent, the stones on which he trod would bear witness, Jesus still advances; the acclamations become yet louder; he is hailed as the son of David, the rightful heir of David's kingdom; and the desponding Pharisees, alarmed at the complete mastery over the public mind which he appears to possess, withdraw for the present their fruitless opposition. On the declivity of the hill he pauses to behold the city at his feet, and something of that emotion, which afterwards is expressed with much greater fulness, betrays itself in a few brief and emphatic sentences, expressive of the future miserable destiny of the devoted Jerusalem (4). The whole crowded city is excited by this increasing tumult; anxious inquiries about the cause, and the intelligence that it is the entrance of Jesus of Nazareth into the city, still heighten the universal suspense (5); and even in the Temple itself, where perhaps Acclamathe religion of the place, or the expectation, of some public decla- the Temration, or perhaps of some immediate sign of his power, had caused ple. a temporary silence among his older followers, the children prolong the acclamations (6); and as the sick, the infirm, the afflicted with different maladies, are brought to him to be healed, and are restored at once to health or the use of their faculties, at every instance of the power and goodness of Jesus the same uncontrolled acclamations from the younger part of the multitude are renewed with increasing fervour.

Those of the Sanhedrin who are present, though they do not altempt at this immediate juncture to stem the torrent, venture to

John, xii. 12.

Matt. xxi. 1-10.; Mark, xi. 1-10.; Luke, xix. 29-40.; John, xii, 12-19.

(3) John, xii. 18.

(4) Luke, xix. 41-44.
(5) Matt. xxi, 10, 11.
(6) Ibid. 15.

tions in

The Greeks,

remonstrate against the disrespect to the sanctity of the Temple, and demand of Jesus to silence, what to their feelings sounded like profane violation of the sacred edifice. Jesus replies, as usual, with an apt quotation from the sacred writings, which declared that even the voices of children and infants might be raised, without reproof, in praise and thanksgiving to God,

Among the multitudes of Jews who assembled at the Passover, there were usually many proselytes who were called Greeks (1) (a term in Jewish language of as wide signification as that of barbarians with the Greeks, and including all who were not of Jewish descent). Some of this class, carried away by the general enthusiasm towards Jesus, expressed an anxious desire to be admitted to his presence. It is not improbable that these proselytes might be permitted to advance no further than the division in the outer Court of the Gentiles, where certain palisades were erected, with inscriptions in various languages, prohibiting the entrance of all foreigners; or even if they were allowed to pass this barrier, they may have been excluded from the court of Israel, into which Jesus may have passed. By the intervention of two of the Apostles, their desire is made known to Jesus; who, perhaps as he passes back through the outward court, permits them to approach. No doubt as these proselytes shared in the general excitement towards the person of Jesus, so they shared in the general expectation of the immediate, the instantaneous commencement of the splendour, the happiness of the Messiah's kingdom. To their surprise, either in answer to or anticipating their declaration to this effect, instead of enlarging on the glory of that great event, the somewhat ambiguous language of Jesus dwells, at first on his approaching fate, on the severe trial which awaits the devotion of his followers; yet on the necessity of this humiliation, this dissolution, to his final glory, and to the triumph of his beneficent religion. It rises at length into a devotional address to the Father, to bring immediately to accomplishment all his promises, for the glorification of the Messiah. As he was yet speaking, a rolling sound was heard in the heavens, which the unbelieving part of the multitude heard only as an accidental burst of thunder : to others, however, it seemed an audible, a distinct, or according to those who adhere to the strict letter, the articulate voice (2) of an angel, proclaiming the divine sanction to the presage of his future glory. Jesus continues his discourse in a tone of profounder mystery, yet evidently declaring the immediate discomfiture of the "Prince of this world," the adversary of the Jewish people and of the human race, his own departure from the world, and the important consequences which were to

(1) John, xii. 20. 43.

(2) Kuinoël in loco. Some revert to the Jewish superstition of the Bath-Kol, or audible voice

from heaven; but the more rational of the Jews interpret this Bath-Kol as an impression upon the mind, rather than on the outward senses."

ensue from that departure. After his death, his religion was to be more attractive than during his life. "I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me." Among the characteristics of the Messiah which were deeply-rooted in the general belief, was the eternity of his reign; once revealed, he was revealed for ever; once established in their glorious, their paradisiacal state, the people of God, the subjects of the kingdom, were to be liable to no change, no vicissitude. The allusions of Jesus to his departure, clashing with this notion of his perpetual presence, heightened their embarrassment; and, leaving them in this state of mysterious suspense, he withdrew unperceived from the multitude, and retired again with his own chosen disciples to the village of Bethany.

the barren

The second morning Jesus returned to Jerusalem. A fig-tree Cursing stood by the wayside, of that kind well known in Palestine, which fig tree during a mild winter preserve their leaves and with the early spring put forth and ripen their fruit (1). Jesus approached the tree to pluck the fruit; but finding that it bore none, condemned it to perpetual barrenness.

This transaction is remarkable, as almost the only instance in which Jesus adopted that symbolic mode of teaching by action, rather than by language, so peculiar to the East, and so frequently exemplified in the earlier books, especially of the Prophets. For it is difficult to conceive any reason either for the incident itself, or for its admission into the evangelic narrative at period so important unless it was believed to convey some profounder meaning. The close moral analogy, the accordance with the common phraseology between the barren tree, disqualified by its hardened and sapless state from bearing its natural produce, and the Jewish nation, equally incapable of bearing the fruits of Christian goodness, formed a most expressive, and, as it were, living apologue.

rusalem.

On this day, Jesus renews the remarkable scene which had taken Second place at the first Passover. The customary traffic, the tumult and day in Je. confusion, which his authority had restrained for a short time, had been renewed in the courts of the Temple; and Jesus again expelled the traders from the holy precincts, and, to secure the silence and the sanctity of the whole enclosure, prohibited the carrying any vessel through the Temple courts (2). Through the whole of this day the Sanhedrin, as it were, rested on their arms; they found, with still increasing apprehension, that every hour the multitude crowded with more and more anxious interest around the Prophet of Nazareth; his authority over the Temple courts seems to have

(1) There are three kinds of figs in Palestine: 1. the early fig, which blossoms in March, and ripens its fruit in June; 2. the Kerman, which shows its fruit in June, and ripens in August; and, 3. the kind in question. See Kuinoel, in

loco. Pliny. H. N. xvi. 27. Theophr. 3. 6. Shaw's
Travels. Matt. xxi. 18, 19.; Mark, xi. 12. 14.
(2) Matt. xxi. 12. 13.; Luke, xix. 45. 46.;
Mark, xi. 15. 17.

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