PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah
Edersheim, Alfred, 1825-1889 · 873,712 words · 1020 reading sections
[5483] A. D. 132-135.
The disciples imagined that they understood this at least. Christ had read their thoughts, and there was no need for anyone to put express questions. [5791] He knew all things, and by this they believed - it afforded them evidence - that He came forth from [5792] God. But how little did they know their own hearts! …
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The gift of His consecration could not have been laid on more glorious Altar. Such Cross must have been followed by such Crown. [5806] And now again His first thought was of them for whose sake He had consecrated Himself. These He now solemnly presented to the Father. [5807] He introduced them as those (the individ…
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In its last part this intercessory Prayer of the Great High-Priest bore on the work of the disciples and its fruits. As the Father had sent the Son, so did the Son send the disciples into the world, in the same manner, and on the same Mission. And for their sakes He now solemnly offered Himself, consecrated' or san…
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[5738] 1 John ii 1. [5739] ver. 17. [5740] Ver. 19 should, I think, be rendered: But you behold Me, because [for] I live, and ye shall live.' [5741] St. John xiv. 20, 21. [5742] ka monn par' at poiesmetha. Of course only a station,' as the reference is only to the state of believers while on earth. [5743] vv. 22…
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[5782] This meaning of the word is not only most important but well marked. Canon Westcott calls attention to its use also in the following passages: v. 19; vii. 18; xi. 51; xv. 4. [5783] St. John xvi. 8-15. [5784] ver. 16. [5785] The words, because I go to the Father,' are spurious in ver. 16. [5786] vv. 5-7. […
1,024 wordsSECTION 786[5483] A. D. 132-135.
The sickly light of the moon was falling full on them as they were crossing Kidron. It was here, we imagine, after they had left the City behind them, that the Lord addressed Himself first to the disciples generally. We can scarcely call it either prediction or warning. Rather, as we think of that last Supper, of C…
884 wordsSECTION 787[5483] A. D. 132-135.
The second mystery of that night was Christ's supplication for Peter. We dare not say, as the High-Priest - and we know not when and where it was offered. But the expression is very strong, as of one who has need of a thing. [5829] And that for which He made such supplication was, that Peter's faith should not fail…
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They had now reached the entrance of Gethsemane. It may have been that it led through the building with the oil-press,' and that the eight Apostles, who were not to come nearer to the Bush burning, but not consumed,' were left there. Or they may have been taken within the entrance of the Garden, and left there, whi…
951 wordsSECTION 789[5483] A. D. 132-135.
It was in this extreme Agony of Soul almost unto death, that the Angel appeared (as in the Temptation in the wilderness) to strengthen' and support His Body and Soul. And so the conflict went on, with increasing earnestness of prayer, all that terrible hour. [5850] For, the appearance of the Angel must have intimat…
661 wordsSECTION 790[5483] A. D. 132-135.
We can now understand the progress of events. In the fortress of Antonia, close to the Temple and connected with it by two stairs, [5859] lay the Roman garrison. But during the Feast the Temple itself was guarded by an armed Cohort, consisting of from 400 to 600 men, [5860] so as to prevent or quell any tumult amon…
713 wordsSECTION 791[5483] A. D. 132-135.
It is at this point, as we suppose, that the notices from St. John's Gospel [5870] come in. Leaving the traitor, and ignoring the signal which he had given them, Jesus advanced to the band, and asked them: Whom seek ye?' To the brief spoken, perhaps somewhat contemptuous, Jesus the Nazarene,' He replied with infini…
701 wordsSECTION 792[5483] A. D. 132-135.
So ended the first scene in the terrible drama of that night. __________________________________________________________________ [5818] Ps. cxv. to cxviii. [5819] Zech. xiii. 7. [5820] St. Matt. xxvi. 32; St. Mark. xiv. 28. [5821] St. John xxi. 2. [5822] St. Matt. xxviii. 16. [5823] u. s. vv.18-20. [5824] St. L…
672 wordsSECTION 793[5483] A. D. 132-135.
[5856] Sanh. 41. [5857] St. John xviii. 31; St. John xix. 7. [5858] Jos. War iv. 4. 6. [5859] Jos. War v. 5, 8. [5860] The number varied. See Marquardt, Röm. Alterthumsk. vol. v. 2, pp. 359, 386, 441. Canon Westcott suggests that it might have been, not a cohort, but a manipulus' (of about 200 men); but, as himse…
828 wordsSECTION 794[5483] A. D. 132-135.
No figure is better known in contemporary Jewish history than that of Annas; no person deemed more fortunate or successful, but none also more generally execrated than the late High-Priest. He had held the Pontificate for only six or seven years; but it was filled by not fewer than five of his sons, by his son-in-l…
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Of what occurred in the Palace of Caiaphas we have two accounts. That of St. John [5896] seems to refer to a more private interview between the High-Priest and Christ, at which, apparently, only some personal attendants of Caiaphas were present, from one of whom the Apostle may have derived his information. [5897] …
714 wordsSECTION 796[5483] A. D. 132-135.
Remembering that the High-Priest's Palace was built on the slope of the hill, and that there was an outer court, from which a door led into the inner court, we can, in some measure, realise the scene. As previously stated, Peter had followed as far as that inner door, while John had entered with the guard. When he …
808 wordsSECTION 797[5483] A. D. 132-135.
What had he to do there? And why should he incriminate himself, or perhaps Christ, by a needless confession to those who had neither the moral nor the legal right to exact it? That was all he now remembered and thought; nothing about any denial of Christ. And so, as they were still chatting together, perhaps bandyi…
928 wordsSECTION 798[5483] A. D. 132-135.
Some inferences seem here of importance, as throwing light on early Apostolic arrangements - believing, as we do, that the outward form of the Church was in great measure derived from the Synagogue. First, we notice that there was regular ordination, and, at first at least, by the laying on of hands. Further, this …
696 wordsSECTION 799[5483] A. D. 132-135.
Even this brief summary about the Sanhedrin would be needless, if it were a question of applying its rules of procedure to the arraignment of Jesus. For, alike Jewish and Christian evidence establish the fact, that Jesus was not formally tried and condemned by the Sanhedrin. It is admitted on all hands, that forty …
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Abandoning this line of testimony, the Priests next brought forward probably some of their own order, who on the first Purgation of the Temple had been present when Jesus, in answer to the challenge for a sign' in evidence of His authority, had given them that mysterious sign' of the destruction and upraising of th…
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Only one thing now remained. Jesus knew it well, and so did Caiaphas. It was to put the question, which Jesus could not refuse to answer, and which, once answered, must lead either to His acknowledgement or to His condemnation. In the brief historical summary which St. Luke furnishes, there is an inversion of the s…
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5. It was after this meeting of the Sanhedrists had broken up, that, as we learn from the Gospel of St. Luke, the revolting insults and injuries were perpetrated on Him by the guards and servants of Caiaphas. All now rose in combined rebellion against the Perfect Man: the abject servility of the East, which delight…
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The echo of his words had scarcely died out - their diastole had scarcely returned them with gurgling noise upon his conscience - when loud and shrill the second cock-crowing was heard. There was that in its harsh persistence of sound that also wakened his memory. He now remembered the words of warning prediction w…
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[5898] St. Luke xxii. 66. [5899] St. John xviii. 20. [5900] I cannot think that the expression t ksmo to the world,' in ver. 20 can have any implied reference to the great world in opposition to the Jews (as so many interpreters hold). The expression the world' in the sense of everybody' is common in every languag…
650 wordsSECTION 805[5483] A. D. 132-135.
[5923] Sanh. 88 b; Maim. u. s. ch. ii. 7, 8. [5924] 1 Tim. iii.; Tit. i. [5925] Tit. i. 5. [5926] Kuene, and after him Schürer (Neutest. Zeitgesch.) have denied the existence of this arrangement, but, as I think, on quite insufficient grounds. They have been answered by D. Hoffmann (see the very able ed. of the P…
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[5950] Besides other movements, we refer here specially to that under Theudas, who led out some 400 persons under promise of dividing Jordan, when both he and his adherents were cut down by the Romans (Jos. Ant. xx. 5. 1). At a later time an Egyptian Jew gathered 3,000 or 4,000 on the Mount of Olives, promising to …
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Few expressions have given rise to more earnest controversy than this. On two things at least we can speak with certainty. Entrance into a heathen house did Levitically render impure for that day - that is, till the evening. [5975] The fact of such defilement is clearly attested both in the New Testament [5976] and…
1,050 wordsSECTION 808[5483] A. D. 132-135.
As the Jewish authorities had to decline the Governor's offer to proceed against Jesus before their own tribunal, on the avowed ground that they had not power to pronounce capital sentence, [5991] it now behoved them to formulat a capital charge. This is recorded by St. Luke alone. [5992] It was, that Jesus had sai…
697 wordsSECTION 809[5483] A. D. 132-135.
But these words struck only a hollow void, as they fell on Pilate. It was not merely cynicism, but utter despair of all that is higher - a moral suicide - which appears in his question: What is truth?' He had understood Christ, but it was not in him to respond to His appeal. He, whose heart and life had so little k…
772 wordsSECTION 810[5483] A. D. 132-135.
But, however that may have been, sufficient had already passed to convince Judas what the end would be. Indeed, it is difficult to believe that he could have deceived himself on this point from the first, however he had failed to realise the fact in its terrible import till after his deed. The words which Jesus had…
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Out he rushed from the Temple, out of Jerusalem, into solitude.' [6004] Whither shall it be? Down into the horrible solitude of the Valley of Hinnom, the Tophet' of old, with its ghastly memories, the Gehenna of the future, with its ghostly associations. But it was not solitude, for it seemed now peopled with figur…
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But when the Governor, hoping to enlist some popular sympathy, put this alternative to them - nay, urged it, on the ground that neither he nor yet Herod had found any crime in Him, and would even have appeased their thirst for vengeance by offering to submit Jesus to the cruel punishment of scourging, it was in vai…
799 wordsSECTION 813[5483] A. D. 132-135.
The Evangelists have passed as rapidly as possible over the last scenes of indignity and horror, and we are too thankful to follow their example. Bar-Abbas was at once released. Jesus was handed over to the soldiery to be scourged and crucified, although final and formal judgment had not yet been pronounced. [6025]…
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Such danger a Pilate would never encounter. He sat down once more in the judgment-seat, outside the Prætorium, in the place called Pavement,' and, from its outlook over the City, Gabbatha,' [6030] the rounded height.' So solemn is the transaction that the Evangelist pauses to note once more the day - nay, the very …
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[5976] Acts x 28. [5977] Ohol. xviii. 7; Tohar. vii. 3. [5978] Pes. 92 a. [5979] Jer. Pes. 36 b, lines 14 and 15 from bottom. [5980] Deut. xvi. 1-3; 2 Chron. xxxv. 1, 2, 6, 18. [5981] The subject has been so fully discussed in Wieseler, Beitr., and in Kirchner, Jüd. Passahfeier, not to speak of many others, that …
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[6009] Acts. i. 18. [6010] St. Matt. xxvii, 7. [6011] Jer. xix. [6012] The alterations in the words quoted are, as previously explained, a targuming' of them. [6013] Most Commentators, however, regard the word Jeremy' as a lapse of memory, or an oversight by the Evangelist, or else as a very early error of trans…
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It matters little as regards their guilt, whether, pressing the language of St. John, [6034] we are to understand that Pilate delivered Jesus to the Jews to be crucified, or, as we rather infer, to his own soldiers. This was the common practice, and it accords both with the Governor's former taunt to the Jews, [603…
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As mostly all abominations of the ancient world, whether in religion or life, crucifixion was of Phoenician origin, although Rome adopted, and improved on it. The modes of execution among the Jews were: strangulation, beheading, burning, and stoning. In all ordinary circumstances the Rabbis were most reluctant to p…
786 wordsSECTION 819[5483] A. D. 132-135.
Thither, then, did that melancholy procession wind, between eight and nine o'clock on that Friday in Passover week. From the ancient Palace of Herod it descended, and probably passed through the gate in the first wall, and so into the busy quarter of Acra. As it proceeded, the numbers who followed from the Temple, …
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Here, where, if the Saviour did not actually sink under His burden, it yet required to be transferred to the Cyrenian, while Himself henceforth needed bodily support, we place the next incident in this history. [6063] While the Cross was laid on the unwilling Simon, the women who had followed with the populace clos…
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It was a merciful Jewish practice to give to those led to execution a draught of strong wine mixed with myrrh so as to deaden consciousness. [6071] This charitable office was performed at the cost of, if not by, an association of women in Jerusalem. [6072] That draught was offered to Jesus when He reached Golgatha.…
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Before nailing Him to the Cross, the soldiers parted among them the poor worldly inheritance of His raiment. [6083] On this point there are slight seeming differences [6084] between the notices of the Synoptists and the more detailed account of the Fourth Gospel. Such differences, if real, would afford only fresh e…
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This was His first Utterance on the Cross - as regarded them; as regarded Himself; and as regarded God. So, surely, suffered not Man. Has this prayer of Christ been answered? We dare not doubt it; nay, we perceive it in some measure in those drops of blessing which have fallen upon heathen men, and have left to Isr…
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Yet other inferences come to us. First, there is a remarkable relationship between what St. Luke quotes as spoken by the soldiers: If Thou art the King of the Jews, save Thyself,' and the report of the words in St. Matthew: [6101] He saved others - Himself He cannot save. He [6102] is the King of Israel! Let Him no…
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If a more close study of the words of the penitent thief' may seem to diminish the fulness of meaning which the traditional view attaches to them, they gain all the more as we perceive their historic reality. His first words were of reproof to his comrade. In that terrible hour, amidst the tortures of a slow death,…
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The familiar words of our Authorised Version - When Thou comest into Thy Kingdom' - convey the idea of what we might call a more spiritual meaning of the petition. But we can scarcely beleive, that at that moment it implied either that Christ was then going into His Kingdom, or that the penitent thief' looked to Ch…
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The narrative [6120] leaves the impression that with the beloved disciple these four women were standing close to the Cross: the Mother of Jesus, the Sister of His Mother, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala. [6121] A comparison with what is related by St. Matthew [6122] and St. Mark [6123] supplies furthe…
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For three hours had the Saviour hung on the Cross. It was midday. And now the Sun was craped in darkness from the sixth to the ninth hour. No purpose can be served by attempting to trace the source of this darkness. It could not have been an eclipse, since it was the time of full moon; nor can we place reliance on …
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It was this combination of the Old Testament idea of sacrifice, and of the Old Testament ideal of willing suffering as the Servant of Jehovah, now fulfilled in Christ, which found its fullest expression in the language of the twenty-second Psalm. It was fitting - rather, it was true - that the willing suffering of …
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By accepting the physical refreshment offered Him, the Lord once more indicated the completion of the work of His Passion. For, as He would not enter on it with His senses and physical consciousness lulled by narcotised wine, so He would not pass out of it with senses and physical consciousness dulled by the absolu…
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But even if the rending of the Temple-Veil had commenced with the earthquake, and, according to the Gospel to the Hebrews, with the breaking of the great lintel over the entrance, it could not be wholly accounted for in this manner. According to Jewish tradition, there were, indeed, two Veils before the entrance to…
722 wordsSECTION 832[5483] A. D. 132-135.
The brief spring-day was verging towards the evening of the Sabbath.' In general, the Law ordered that the body of a criminal should not be left hanging unburied over night. [6174] Perhaps in ordinary circumstances the Jews might not have appealed so confidently to Pilate as actually to ask [6175] him to shorten th…
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Not less remarkable is the second fact. If, on the Cross of Christ, these two fundamental ideas in the prophetic description of the work of the Messiah had been set forth: the fulfilment of the Paschal Sacrifice, which, as that of the Covenant, underlay all sacrifices, and the fulfilment of the ideal of the Righteo…
1,044 wordsSECTION 834[5483] A. D. 132-135.
The proximity of the holy Sabbath, and the consequent need of haste, may have suggested or determined the proposal of Joseph to lay the Body of Jesus in his own rock-hewn new tomb, [6200] wherein no one had yet been laid. [6201] The symbolic significance of this is the more marked, that the symbolism was undersigne…
1,001 wordsSECTION 835[5483] A. D. 132-135.
. . . . . . . . Now on the morrow, which is after the preparation [the Friday], the chief priests and the Pharisees were gathered together unto Pilate, saying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, which He was yet alive, After three days I rise again. Command, therefore, that the sephulchre be made sure unt…
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[6053] St. Luke. [6054] I cannot conceive any sufficient ground, why Keim should deny the historical character of this trait. Surely, on Keim's own principles, the circumstance, that only St. Luke records it, would not warrant this inference. On the other hand, it may be characterised as perhaps one of the most na…
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[6082] Thus, the notice in St. John xix. 21, 22, would be parenthetic, chronologically belonging to an earlier part, and inserted here for the sake of historical connection. [6083] It is generally stated, that this was the common Roman custom. But of this there is no evidence, and in later times it was expressly f…
659 wordsSECTION 838[5483] A. D. 132-135.
[6109] The words, with them,' in St. Luke xxiii. 35, are spurious. [6110] St. Mark introduces the mocking speeches (xv. 29) by the particle o (Ah') which occurs only here in the N.T. It is evidently the Latin Vah,' an exclamation of ironical admiration. (See Bengel and Nebe, ad loc.) The words literally were: Ha! t…
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[6117] St. John xix. 2-16. [6118] vv. 17-24. [6119] The first impression left is, of course, that the brothers' of Jesus were not yet, at least in the full sense, believers. But this does not by any means necessarily follow, since both the presence of John under the Cross, and even his outward circumstances, might…
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[6136] So Strauss (after Wetstein) and even Keim. Painful as controversy is in connection with the last hours of Jesus, I would not have shrunk from contesting the positions of Keim, if I had not felt that every unprejudiced person must see, that most of them are mere assertions, without an attempt at anything like…
659 wordsSource & rights
Public Domain; source text supplied by Christian Classics Ethereal Library.
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Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.