228 CLOSE OF SECOND YEAR. BOOK I. eternal life; they still believed him to be the promised Messiah, the Son of God. Jesus received this protestation of fidelity with apparent approbation, but intimated that the time would come when one even of the tried and chosen Twelve would prove a traitor. e Thus the public life of Jesus closed its second year. On one side endangered by the zeal of the violent, on the other enfeebled by the desertion of so many of his followers, Jesus, so long as he spoke the current language about the Messiah, might be instantly taken at his word, and against his will be set at the head of a • The wavering and uncertainty of the Apostles, and still more of the people, concerning the Messiahship of Jesus, is urged by Strauss as an argument for the later invention and inconsistency of the Gospels. It has always appeared to me one of those marks of true nature and of inartificial composition which would lead to a conclusion directly opposite. The first intimation of the deference and homage shown to him by John at his baptism, grows at once into a welcome rumour that the Christ has appeared. Andrew imparts the joyful tidings to his brother: "We have found the Messias, which is, being interpreted, the Christ;" so Philip, verse 46. But though Jesus in one part of the Sermon on the Mount speaks of himself as the future judge, in general his distinct assumption of that character is exclusively to individuals in private, to the Samaritan woman (Jahn iv. 26-42), and in more ambiguous language, perhaps, in his private examination before the authorities in Jerusalem (John v. 46). Still the manner in which he assumed the title, and as serted his claims, was so totally opposite to Jewish expectation, he appeared to delay so long the open declaration of his Messiahship, that the populace constantly fluctuated in their opinion, now ready by force to make him a king (John vi. 15), immediately after this altogether deserting him, so that even the Apostles' faith is severely tried. (Compare with John vi. 69, Luke ix. 20, Matt. xvi. 16, Mark viii. 29, where it appears that rumours had become prevalent that though not the Messiah, he was either a prophet or a forerunner of the Messiah.) The real test of the fidelity of the Apostles was their adherence, under all the fluctuation of popular opinion, to this conviction, which at last, however, was shaken by that which most completely clashed with their preconceived notions of the Messiah, his ignominious death, and undisturbed burial, As a corrective to Strauss on this point, I would recommend the work of one who will not be suspected of loose and inaccurate reasoning-Locke on the Reasonableness of Christianity. CHAP. V. INFLUENCE OF JESUS. 229 daring insurrection; immediately that he departed from it, and rose to the sublimer tone of a purely religious teacher, he excited the most violent animosity even among many of his most ardent adherents. Thus his influence at one moment was apparently most extensive, at the next was confined to but a small circle. Still, however, it held the general mind in unallayed suspense; and the ardent admiration, the attachment of the few, who were enabled to appreciate his character, and the animosity of the many, who trembled at his progress, bore testimony to the commanding authority and the surprising works of Jesus of Nazareth. 230 THIRD YEAR OF PUBLIC LIFE. BOOK I. CHAPTER VI. Third Year of the public Life of Jesus. THE third Passover had now arrived since Jesus of Nazareth had appeared as a public Teacher, Passover. but, as it would seem, "his appointed hour" was not yet come; and, instead of descending with the general concourse of the whole nation to the capital, he remains in Galilee, or rather retires to the remotest extremity of the country; and though he approaches nearer to the northern shore of the lake, never ventures down into the populous region in which he more usually fixed his residence. The avowed hostility of the Jews, and their determination to put him to death; the apparently growing jealousy of Herod, and the desertion of his cause, on one hand, by a great number of his Galilean followers, who had taken offence at his speech in the synagogue of Capernaum, with the rash and intemperate zeal of others who were prepared to force him to assume the royal title, would render his presence at Jerusalem, if not absolutely necessary for his designs, both dangerous and inexpedient. But his absence from this Passover is still more remarkable, if, as appears highly probable, it was at this feast that the event occurred which is alluded to in a a The commencement of the 8th | he would not walk in Jewry, because chapter of St. John's Gospel appears to me to contain a manifest reference to his absence from this Passover. "After these things Jesus walked in Galilee: for the Jews sought to kill him." (ver. 1.) The next verse, as it were, intimating that the Passover was gone by, says, "the Feast of Tabernacles was at hand." CHAP. VI. MASSACRE OF GALILEANS. 231 at the Pass St. Luke' as of general notoriety, and at a later period was the subject of a conversation between Jesus and his disciples, the slaughter of certain Galileans in the Temple of Jerusalem by the Roman governor. The Massacre of reasons for assigning this fact to the period of the Galileans the third Passover appear to have considerable over. weight. Though at all times of the year the Temple was open, not merely for the regular morning and evening offerings, but likewise for the private sacrifices of more devout worshippers, such an event as this massacre was not likely to have occurred, even if Pilate was present at Jerusalem at other times, unless the metropolis had been crowded with strangers, at least in numbers sufficient to excite some apprehension of dangerous tumult. For Pontius Pilate, though prodigal of blood if the occasion seemed to demand the vigorous exercise of power, does not appear to have been wantonly sanguinary. It is, therefore, most probable, that the massacre took place during some public festival; and if so, it must have been either at the Passover or Pentecost, as Jesus was present at both the later feasts of the present year, those of Tabernacles and of the Dedication: nor does the slightest intimation occur of any disturbance of that nature at either. Who these Galileans were, whether they had been guilty of tur b John vii. 1. e Luke xiii. 1. d The point of time at which the notice of this transaction is introduced in the narrative of St. Luke, may appear irreconcileable with the opinion that it took place so far back as the previous Passover. This circumstance, however, admits of an easy explanation. The period at which this fact is in d 232 CONCEALMENT OF JESUS. BOOK I. bulent and seditious conduct, or were the innocent victims of the governor's jealousy, there is no evidence. It has been suggested, not without plausibility, that they were of the sect of Judas the Galilean; and, however they may not have been formally enrolled as belonging to this sect, they may have been, in some degree, infected with the same opinions; more especially, as properly belonging to the jurisdiction of Herod, these Galileans would scarcely have been treated with such unrelenting severity, unless implicated, or suspected to be implicated, in some designs obnoxious to the Roman sway. If, however, our conjecture be right, had he appeared at this festival, Jesus might have fallen undistinguished in a general massacre of his countrymen, by the direct interference of the Roman governor, and without the guilt of his rejection and death being attributable to the rulers or the nation of the Jews. Speaking according to mere human probability, the Saviour of mankind might have been swept away by a stern act of Roman despotism. Yet, be that as it may, during this period of the life of Jesus, it is most difficult to trace his course; his rapid changes have the semblance of concealment. At Concealment one time He appears at the extreme border of Palestine, the district immediately adjacent to of Jesus. ignorant of his intermediate visits to Jerusalem, which had been sudden, brief, and private. He had appeared unexpectedly; he had withdrawn without notice. They may have supposed, that having been absent at the period of the massacre in the remote parts of the country, he might be altogether unacquainted with the circumstances, or at least little impressed with their importance; or even, if not entirely ignorant, they might think it right to remind him of the dangerous commotion which had taken place at the preceding festival, and to intimate the possibility that under a governor so reckless of human life as Pilate had shown himself, and by recent circumstances not predisposed towards the Galilean name, he was exposing himself to most serious peril. |
