PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah
Edersheim, Alfred, 1825-1889 · 873,712 words · 1020 reading sections
Transfiguration.
Secondly: That many passages in it occur in different connections in the other two Synoptic Gospels, specially in St. Mark xiii. and in St. Luke xii. and xxi. From this it may be inferred, either that Jesus spake the same or similar words on more than one occasion (when the circumstances were analogous), or else th…
653 wordsSECTION 422Transfiguration.
In accordance with this, singleness of purpose and an entire self-denial, which should lead them not to make provision for the flesh,' but as labourers to be content with daily food, were the further injunctions laid on them. Before entering into a city, they were to make inquiry, literally to search out,' who in i…
899 wordsSECTION 423Transfiguration.
These remarks show how closely the Lord followed, in this first part of His charge to the disciples, [3055] Jewish forms of thinking and modes of expression. It is not otherwise in the second, [3056] although the difference is here very marked. We have no longer merely the original commission, as it is given in alm…
830 wordsSECTION 424Transfiguration.
That this is the only natural meaning attaching to this prediction, especially when compared with the parallel utterances recorded in St. Mark xiii. 9-13, appears to us indubitable. It is another question how, or how far, those to whom these words were in the first place addressed would understand their full bearin…
713 wordsSECTION 425Transfiguration.
The disciples must have the more readily applied this prediction of His Coming to Palestine, since the woes' connected with it so closely corresponded to those expected by the Jews before the Advent of Messiah. [3073] Even the direction to flee from persecution is repeated by the Rabbis in similar circumstances and…
837 wordsSECTION 426Transfiguration.
Nor could even the additional promise of Christ: But of you even the hairs of the head are all numbered,' [3093] surprise His disciples. But it would convey to them the gladsome assurance that, in doing His Work, they were performing the Will of God, and were specially in His keeping. And it would carry home to the…
944 wordsSECTION 427Transfiguration.
We have been so particular in marking the Jewish parallelisms in this Discourse, first, because it seemed important to show, that the words of the Lord were not beyond the comprehension of the disciples. Starting from forms of thought and expressions with which they were familiar, He carried them far beyond Jewish …
650 wordsSECTION 428Transfiguration.
[3029] St. Mark vi. 7. [3030] So also in St. Matthew and in St. Mark. But this authority' sprang from the power which he gave them. [3031] Dean Plumptre remarks: The words ("raise the dead") are omitted by the best MSS.' [3032] Weiss (Matth. Evang. p. 262) has the curious idea that the prohibitions about money, &…
656 wordsSECTION 429Transfiguration.
[3080] Zebhul ({hebrew}) is also the name of the fourth of the seven heavens in which Jewish mysticism located the heavenly Jerusalem with its Temple, at whose altar Michael ministered (Chag. 12 b). [3081] Jer. Ber. 13 b. [3082] The primary meaning is: manuring (land) with dung. [3083] Abod. Z. 18 b, and often. […
905 wordsSECTION 430Transfiguration.
1. It was [3118] in the late spring, or rather early summer of the year 27 of our era, that John was baptizing in Ænon, near to Salim. In the neighbourhood, Jesus and His disciples were similarly engaged. [3119] The Presence and activity of Jesus in Jerusalem at the Passover [3120] had determined the Pharisaic part…
814 wordsSECTION 431Transfiguration.
For, although Galilee belonged to Herod Antipas, it was sufficiently far from the present residence of the Tetrarch in Peræa. Tiberias, his Galilean residence, with its splendid royal palace, had only been built a year or two before; [3129] and it is impossible to suppose, that Herod would not have sooner heard of …
695 wordsSECTION 432Transfiguration.
3. We suppose, then, that Herod Antipas was at Julias, in the immediate neighbourhood of Ænon, at the time of John's imprisonment. But, according to Josephus, whose testimony there is no reason to question, the Baptist was committed to the strong fortress of Machærus. [3142] [3143] If Julias lay where the Wady of t…
854 wordsSECTION 433Transfiguration.
We withdraw our gaze from trying to pierce this gloom and to call up in it the figure of the camel-hair-clad and leather-girt preacher, and look over the ruins at the scene around. We are standing on a height not less than 3,800 feet above the Dead Sea. In a straight line it seems not more than four or five miles; …
650 wordsSECTION 434Transfiguration.
At any rate, it was at the instigation of the Pharisees, and in company with them, [3150] that the disciples of John propounded to Jesus this question about fasting and prayer, immediately after the feast in the house of the converted Levi-Matthew. [3151] We must bear in mind that fasting and prayer, or else fastin…
685 wordsSECTION 435Transfiguration.
This appeal of Christ is still further illustrated by the Talmudic ordinance [3163] which absolved the friends of the bridegroom,' and all the sons of the bride-chamber,' even from the duty of dwelling in booths (at the Feast of Tabernacles). The expression, sons of the bride-chamber' ({hebrew}), which means all in…
914 wordsSECTION 436Transfiguration.
5. We are in spirit by the mount of God, and about to witness the breaking of a terrible storm. [3171] It is one that uproots the great trees and rends the rocks; and all we shall watch it solemnly, earnestly, as with bared head - or, like Elijah, with face wrap in mantle. Weeks had passed, and the disciples of Joh…
903 wordsSECTION 437Transfiguration.
But here we must for a moment pause to ask ourselves this, which touches the question of all questions: Surely, such a man as this Baptist, so thoroughly disillusioned in that hour, could not have been an imposter, and his testimony to Christ a falsehood? Nor yet could the record, which gives us this insight into t…
1,006 wordsSECTION 438Transfiguration.
But, even so, let there be no mistake. As afterwards St. Paul argued with the Jews, that their boast in the Law only increased their guilt as breakers of the Law, so here our Lord. The popular concourse to, and esteem of, the Baptist, [3180] [3181] did not imply that spiritual reception which was due to his Mission…
728 wordsSECTION 439Transfiguration.
It was early spring, shortly before the Passover, the anniversary of the death of Herod the Great and of the accession of (his son) Herod Antipas to the Tetrarchy. [3192] A fit time this for a Belshazzar-feast, when such an one as Herod would gather to a grand banquet his lords,' and the military authorities, and t…
666 wordsSECTION 440Transfiguration.
Such was the woman who had these many months sought with the vengefulness and determination of a Jezebel, to rid herself of the hated person, who alone had dared publicly denounce her sin, and whose words held her weak husband in awe. The opportunity had now come for obtaining from the vacillating monarch what her …
672 wordsSECTION 441Transfiguration.
[3111] This is the only occasion on which they are designated as Apostles in the Gospel by St. Mark. [3112] St. Matt. xi. 1. [3113] Their mission seems to have been short, probably not more than two weeks or so. But it seems impossible, in consistency with the facts, to confine it to two days, as Bishop Ellicott p…
650 wordsSECTION 442Transfiguration.
[3169] Godet has shown objections against all previous interpretations. But his own view seems to me equally untenable. [3170] St. Luke v. 39 seems either a gloss of the writer, or may be (though very doubtfully) an interpolation. There is a curious parallel to the verse in Ab. iv. 20. [3171] St. Luke vii. 18-35; …
725 wordsSECTION 443Transfiguration.
[3194] Jos. Ant. xviii. 7. 1, 2; War ii. 9. 6. [3195] St. Matt. xiv. 8. [3196] A spekoultor, speculator, one of a body-guard which had come into use, who attended the Cæsars, executed their behests and often their sudden sentences of death (from speculor). The same word occurs in Rabbinic Hebrew as Sephaqlator ({h…
715 wordsSECTION 444Transfiguration.
Only a few hours' sail from Capernaum, and even a shorter distance by land (round the head of the Lake) lay the district of the Bethsaida-Julias. It was natural that Christ, wishing to avoid public attention, should have gone by ship,' and equally so that the many seeing them departing, and knowing' - viz., what di…
902 wordsSECTION 445Transfiguration.
There is, at least in our view, no doubt that thoughts of the Passover and of the Holy Supper, of their commingling and mystic meaning, were present to the Saviour, and that it is in this light the miraculous feeding of the multitude must be considered, if we are in any measure to understand it. Meantime the Saviou…
813 wordsSECTION 446Transfiguration.
When we read that these five were barley-loaves, we learn that, no doubt from voluntary choice, the fare of the Lord and of His followers was the poorest. Indeed, barley-bread was, almost proverbially, the meanest. Hence, as the Mishnah puts it, while all other meat-offerings were of wheat, that brought by the woma…
698 wordsSECTION 447Transfiguration.
There is one proof at least of the implicit faith or rather trust of the disciples in their Master. They had given Him account of their own scanty provision, and yet, as He bade them make the people sit down to the meal, they hesitated not to obey. We can picture it to ourselves, what is so exquisitely sketched: th…
738 wordsSECTION 448Transfiguration.
THE ASCENT: FROM THE RIVER JORDAN TO THE MOUNT OF TRANSFIGURATION __________________________________________________________________ [3198] The common reading, House of fishes,' is certainly inaccurate. Its Aramaic equivalent would be probably {hebrew}. Tseida means literally hunting as well as fishing, having spec…
651 wordsSECTION 449Transfiguration.
[3244] St. John vi. 48-58. [3245] Rosh haSh 29 b. [3246] Sot. vii. 1. [3247] Jer. Sot. p. 21 b. [3248] Ber. 44 a. [3249] Not an Egyptian basket, as even Jost translates in his edition of the Mishnah. The word is derived from {hebrew} (Metser), wicker or willow. [3250] Comp. Sotah. ii. 1. [3251] See the meaning…
761 wordsSECTION 450Transfiguration.
Thus far, to the utmost verge of their need, but not farther. The Lake is altogether about forty furlongs or stadia (about six miles) wide, and they had as yet reached little more than half the distance (twenty-five or thirty furlongs). Already it was the fourth watch of the night.' There was some difference of opi…
929 wordsSECTION 451Transfiguration.
Nor let it be forgotten, that what had just been remarked about this narrative holds equally true in regard to other miracles recorded in the New Testament. Thus, even so fundamental an article of the faith as the resurrection of Christ is described as having come upon the disciples themselves as a surprise - not o…
816 wordsSECTION 452Transfiguration.
And they also who were in the boat must have been agitated by peculiar feelings. Against their will they had been constrained' by the Lord to embark and quit the scene; just as the multitude, under the influence of the great miracle, were surrounding their Master, with violent insistence to proclaim him the Messian…
832 wordsSECTION 453Transfiguration.
And presently, as they two came into the boat, [3277] the wind ceased, and immediately the ship was at the land. But they that were in the boat' - apparently in contradistinction to the disciples, [3278] though the latter must have stood around in sympathetic reverence - worshipped Him, saying, Of a truth Thou art …
652 wordsSECTION 454Explanatory Notes And Corrections For The First Volume
Page 7, note 1: i.e. the mind of the one was settled like men, that of the others unsettled as women. Page 12, note 2: Diety' = Shekhinah.' Page 35, note 3: See Zunz, Gottesd. Vortr. p. 323, note b. Page 97, note 1. This, of course, is and inference from the whole history and relation there indicated. Page 174, n…
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-------- TRANSFIGURATION - continued __________________________________________________________________ [3252] Note here the want of the article: na poisosin atn basila. We owe this notice to the Fourth Gospel, and it is in marked inconsistency with the theory of its late Ephesian authority. [3253] St. John vi. 1…
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[3273] St. Mark vi. 48. [3274] This seems to me implied in the expression, St. John vi. 21: Then they were willing to take Him into the ship.' Some negative critics have gone so far as to see in this graphic hint a contradiction to the statements of the Synoptists. (See Lücke, Comment. ü. d. Evang. Joh. ii. pp. 12…
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Two inferences will appear from this chronological arrangement. First, when our Lord had retraced His steps from the eastern shore in search of rest and retirement, it was so close on the Jewish Sabbath (Friday), that He was almost obliged to return to Capernaum to spend the holy day there, before undertaking the f…
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Again, from the place which the narrative occupies in the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark, as well as from certain internal evidence, it seems difficult to doubt, that the reproof of the Pharisees and Scribes on the subject of the unwashed hands,' [3304] was not administered immediately after the miraculous fee…
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It has already been shown, that they accounted for the miracles of Christ as wrought by the power of Satan, whose special representative - almost incarnation - they declared Jesus to be. This would not only turn the evidential force of these signs into an argument against Christ, but vindicate the resistance of the…
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It is somewhat more difficult to account for the origin of the ordinance. So far as indicated, it seems to have been first enjoined in order to ensure that sacred offerings should not be eaten in defilement. When once it became an ordinance of the elders, this was, of course, regarded as sufficient ground for obedi…
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Allusion has already been made to what are called the first' and the second,' or other' waters.' But, in their original meaning, these terms referred to something else than washing before and after meals. The hands were deemed capable of contracting Levitical defilement, which, in certain cases, might even render t…
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After this full exposition, it can only be necessary to refer in briefest manner to those other observances which orthodox Judaism had received to hold.' They connect themselves with those eighteen decrees, intended to separate the Jew from all contact with Gentiles. Any contact with a heathen, even the touch of hi…
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These painful details, most reluctantly given, are certainly not intended to raise or strengthen ignorant prejudices against Israel, to whom blindness in part' has truly happened; far less to encourage the wicked spirit of contempt and persecution which is characteristic, not of believing, but of negative theology.…
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It is in explaining this strange provision, intended both to uphold the solemnity of vows, and to discourage the rash use of words, that the Talmud [3388] makes use of the word hand' in a connection which we have supposed might, by association of ideas, have suggested to Christ the contrast between what the Bible a…
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There can be no doubt, that the words of Christ referred to such vows of personal obligation. By these a person might bind himself in regard to men or things, or else put that which was another's out of his own reach, or that which was his own out of the reach of another, and this as completely as if the thing or t…
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As we read it, the discussion, to which such full reference has been made, had taken place between the Scribes and the Lord, while the multitude perhaps stood aside. But when enunciating the grand principle of what constituted real defilement, He called to Him the multitude.' [3413] It was probably while pursuing t…
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[3279] St. Matt. xv. 21. [3280] St. Mark vi. 45. [3281] St. John xii. 21. [3282] I have myself counted twelve different places in England bearing names which might be freely rendered by Bethsaidsa,' not to speak of the many suburbs and quarters which bear a like designation, and, of course, my list is anything bu…
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[3330] {hebrew}, sometimes though rarely, {hebrew}, but not {hebrew}, which refers to ordinary washing. Occasionally it is simply designated by the term Netilah. [3331] {hebrew}(Chull. 107 a and b). [3332] Chag. ii. 5, 6. [3333] This and what follows illustrates St. John ii. 6. [3334] tgon [3335] Chull. 107 a; B…
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[3373] Ber. 7 a. [3374] Shem. R. 42, comp. Rosh haSh. 17 b. [3375] Ber. 6 a. [3376] Shem. R. 15, ed. warsh. p. 22 a, line 13 from top. [3377] Is. lxvi. 15; comp. Numb. xxxi. 23. [3378] Jer. Taan. 66 a, about the middle. [3379] It was, however, admitted that the Halakhah sometimes went beyond the Pentateuch (Sot.…
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[3419] Acts x.14. [3420] It is, of course, well known that the reasoning of the Tübingen school and of kindred negative theology is based on a supposed contrariety between the Petrine and Pauline direction, and that this again is chiefly based on the occurrence in Antioch recorded in Gal. ii. 11 &c. _____________…
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This, however, is a primary requirement, that, what Christ is reported to have spoken, should appear suited to His hearers: such as would appeal to what they knew, such also as they could understand. This must be kept in view, even while admitting that the Evangelist wrote his Gospel in the light of much later and …
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Such were the carnal thoughts about the Messiah and His Kingdom of those who sought Jesus because they ate of the loaves, and were filled.' What a contrast between them and the Christ, as He pointed them from the search for such meat to work for the meat which He would give them,' not a merely Jewish Messiah, but a…
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It was an appeal which the Jews understood, and to which they could not but respond. Yet the mood was brief. As Jesus, in answer to the appeal that He would evermore give them this bread, once more directed them to Himself - from works of men to the Works of God and to faith - the passing gleam of spiritual hope ha…
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4. What now follows [3458] is again spoken to the Jews,' and may have occurred just as they were entering the Synagogue. To those spiritually unenlightened, the point of difficulty seemed, how Christ could claim to be the Bread come down from heaven. Making the largest allowance, His known parentage and early histo…
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5. These words, so deeply significant to us, as pointing out the true meaning of all His teaching, must, indeed, have sounded most mysterious. Yet the fact that they strove about their meaning shows, that they must have had some glimmer of apprehension that they bore on His self-surrender, or, as they might view it…
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Here, then, we are at the parting of the two ways; and, just because it was the hour of decision, did Christ so clearly set forth the highest truths concerning Himself, in opposition to the views which the multitude entertained about the Messiah. The result was yet another and a sorer defection. Upon this many of H…
360 wordsSECTION 477The Ascent:
FROM THE RIVER JORDAN TO THE MOUNT OF TRANSFIGURATION. __________________________________________________________________ [3421] It is specially requested that this chapter be read along with the text of Scripture. [3422] We are here involuntarily reminded of the fate of Elijah on the morning after the miracle on …
670 wordsSECTION 478The Ascent:
[3481] The right reading of ver. 71 is: Judas the son of Simon Iscariot,' that is, a man of Kerioth.' Kerioth was in Judæa (Josh. xv. 25), and Judas, it will be remembered, the only Judæan disciple of Jesus. __________________________________________________________________ CHAPTER XXXIII. JESUS AND THE SYRO-PHOEN…
707 wordsSECTION 479The Ascent:
All this resolves into a higher harmony those small seeming discrepancies, which negative criticism had tried to magnify into contradictions. It also adds graphic details to the story. She who now sought His help was, as St. Matthew calls her, from the Jewish standpoint, a Canaanitish [3488] woman,' by which term a…
868 wordsSECTION 480The Ascent:
But, viewed as the teaching of Christ to this heathen concerning Israel's Messiah, all becomes clear, even in the very brief reports of the Evangelists, of which that by St. Matthew reads like that of one present, that of St. Mark rather like that of one who relates what he has heard from another (St. Peter). She h…
742 wordsSource & rights
Public Domain; source text supplied by Christian Classics Ethereal Library.
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Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.