PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah
Edersheim, Alfred, 1825-1889 · 873,712 words · 1020 reading sections
The Ascent:
To us there is in this history even more than the solemn interest of Christ's compassion and mighty Messianic working, or the lessons of His teaching. We view it in connection with the scenes of the previous few days, and see how thoroughly it accords with them in spirit, thus recognising the deep internal unity of…
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It is important to keep in view that, although Jesus was now within the territory of ancient Israel, the district and all the surroundings were essentially heathen, although in closest proximity to, and intermingling with, that which was purely Jewish. St. Matthew [3502] gives only a general description of Christ's…
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It was in vain to enjoin silence. Wider and wider spread the unbidden fame, till it was caught up in this one hymn of praise, which has remained to all time the jubilee of our experience of Christ as the Divine Healer: He hath done all things well, He maketh even the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak.' This Jewis…
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Peculiar to this history is the testing question of Christ, whether they really believed what their petition implied, that He was able to restore their sight; and, again, His stern, almost passionate, insistence [3526] on their silence as to the mode of their cure. Only on one other occasion do we read of the same …
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[3505] In St. John ix. 6 it is really application of clay. [3506] stenzo occurs only here in the Gospels. Otherwise it occurs in Rom. viii. 23; 2 Cor. v. 2, 4; Hebr. xiii. 17; James v. 9; the substantive in Acts vii. 34; Rom, viii. 26. [3507] So literally. [3508] Kulls means here incurvatus, and not as in ix. 43 m…
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(St. Matt. xii. 1-21; St. Mark ii. 23-iii. 6; St. Luke vi. 1-11.) IN grouping together the three miracles of healing described in the last chapter, we do not wish to convey that it is certain they had taken place in precisely that order. Nor do we feel sure, that they preceded what is about to be related. In the ab…
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The terribly exaggerated views on the Sabbath entertained by the Rabbis, and the endless burdensome rules with which they encumbered everything connected with its sanctity, are fully set forth in another place. [3536] The Jewish Law, as there summarised, sufficiently explains the controversies in which the Pharisai…
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The same result is reached by another process of reasoning. After the first Passover [3544] our Lord, with such of His disciples as had then gathered to Him, tarried for some time - no doubt for several weeks - in Judæa. [3545] The wheat was ripe for harvesting, when he passed through Samaria. [3546] And, on His re…
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Holding views like these, the Pharisees, who witnessed the conduct of the disciples, would naturally harshly condemn, what they must have regarded as gross desecration of the Sabbath. Yet it was clearly not a breach of the Biblical, but of the Rabbinic Law. Not only to show them their error, but to lay down princip…
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To this St. Mark adds as corollary: The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.' It is remarkable, that a similar argument is used by the Rabbis. When insisting that the Sabbath Law should be set aside to avoid danger to life, it is urged: the Sabbath is handed over to you; not, ye are handed over to…
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But although the man with the withered hand could not be classed with those dangerously ill, it could not have been difficult to silence the Rabbis on their own admissions. Clearly, their principle implied, that it was lawful on the Sabbath to do that which would save life or prevent death. To have taught otherwise…
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But who after this will say, that it was Paul who first introduced into the Church either the idea that the Sabbath-Law in its Jewish form was no longer binding, or this, that the narrow forms of Judaism were burst by the new wine of that Kingdom, which is that of the Son of Man? They had all seen it, this miracle …
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[3548] Few would be disposed to place St. Matt. xii. before St. Matt. iv. [3549] St. John v. [3550] Adverbs answer to the questions, How, When, Why, Where. [3551] Meyer insists that the dn, poien, or more correctly dopoien, (St. Mark ii. 23) should be translated literally, that the disciples began to make a way b…
653 wordsSECTION 494The Ascent:
[3586] Shabb. 117 b, about the middle. [3587] St. Luke vi. 6. [3588] The tense indicates, that it was restored as he stretched it out. And this is spiritually significant. According to St. Jerome (Comm. in Matt. xii. 13), in the Gospel of the Nazarenes and Ebionites this man was described as a mason, and that he h…
1,012 wordsSECTION 495The Ascent:
But the most noteworthy difference seems to us this - that on the first occasion, they who were fed were Jews - on the second, Gentiles. There is an exquisite little trait in the narrative which affords striking, though utterly undesigned, evidence of it. In referring to the blessing which Jesus spake over the firs…
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On the occasion referred to in the preceding narrative, those who had lately taken counsel together against Jesus - the Pharisees and the Herodians, or, to put it otherwise, the Pharisees and Sadducees - were not present. For, those who, politically speaking, were Herodians,' might also, though perhaps not religiou…
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Two striking instances from Rabbinic literature will show, that this demand of the Pharisees was in accordance with their notions and practice. We read that, when a certain Rabbi was asked by his disciples about the time of Messiah's Coming, he replied: I am afraid that you will also ask me for a sign.' When they p…
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When the Lord touched the other shore, His mind and heart were still full of the scene from which He had lately passed. For truly, on this demand for a sign did the future of Israel seem to hang. Perhaps it is not presumptuous to suppose, that the journey across the Lake had been made in silence on His part, so dee…
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[3591] This appears from the whole context. Comp. Bp. Ellicott's Histor. Lect. pp. 220, 221, and notes. [3592] For a summary of the great differences between the two miracles, comp. Bp. Ellicott, u. s. pp. 221, 222. The statements of Meyer ad loc. are unsatisfactory. [3593] The kphinos (St. Matt. xiv. 20) was the …
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From Dalmanutha, across the Lake, then by the plain where so lately the five thousand had been fed, and near to Bethsaida, would the road of Christ and His disciples lead to the capital of the Tetrarch Philip, the ancient Paneas, or, as it was then called, Cæsarea Philippi, the modern Banias. Two days' journey woul…
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It seems worth while, even at such length, to describe the scenery along this journey, and the look and situation of Cæsarea, when we recall the importance of the events enacted there, or in the immediate neighbourhood. It was into this chiefly Gentile district, that the Lord now withdrew with His disciples after t…
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But what of the disciples, who (as we have seen) would probably understand the sign' of Christ little better than the Pharisees? That what might seem Christ's failure, in not daring to meet the challenge of His questioners, must have left some impression on them, is not only natural, but appears even from Christ's …
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And so in part was this leaven' of the Pharisees purged! Yet not wholly. For then it was, that Christ spake to them of His sufferings and death, and that the resistance of Peter showed how deeply that leaven had penetrated. And then followed the grand contrast presented by Christ, between minding the things of men …
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In saying this, so far from weakening, we strengthen the import of this glorious confession. For first, we must keep in view, that the confession: Thou art the Messiah' is also that: Thou art the Son of the Living God.' If, according to the Gospels, we believe that Jesus was the true Messiah, promised to the father…
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Not less Jewish in form are the succeeding words of Christ, Thou art Peter (Petros), and upon this rock (Petra) will I build my Church.' We notice in the original the change from the masculine gender, Peter' (Petros), to the feminine, Petra' (Rock'), which seems the more significant, that Petros is used in Greek fo…
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Viewing the Church' as a building founded upon the Petrine,' [3667] it was not to vary, but to carry on the same metaphor, when Christ promised to give to him who had spoken as representative of the Apostles - the stewards of the mysteries of God' - the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven.' For, as the religious unity of…
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But all this that had passed between them could not be matter of common talk - least of all, at that crisis in His History, and in that locality. Accordingly, all the three Evangelists record - each with distinctive emphasis [3672] - that the open confession of his Messiahship, which was virtually its proclamation,…
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But why speak of the future and distant? A sign' - a terrible sign of it from heaven,' a vindication of Christ's rejected' claims, a vindication of the Christ, Whom they had slain, invoking His Blood on their City and Nation, a vindication, such as alone these men could understand, of the reality of His Resurrectio…
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[3646] This is the correct reading. [3647] St. Luke ix. 18. [3648] There could have been no anti-Petrine tendency in this, since it is equally omitted in the Petrine Gospel of St. Mark. [3649] Ecclus, xiv. 18; xvii. 31. [3650] 1 Cor. xv. 60; Gal. i. 16; Eph. vi. 12. [3651] St. John i. 42. [3652] Pesiqta, ed. Bub…
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But God forbede but men shulde leve Wel mor thing then men han seen with eye Men shall not wenen euery thing a lye But yf him-selfe yt seeth or elles dooth For god wot thing is neuer the lasse sooth Thogh euery wight ne may it nat y-see.' Chaucer: Prologue to the Legend of Good Women. ___________________________…
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It was evening, [3681] and, as we have suggested, the evening after the Sabbath, when the Master and those three of His disciples, who were most closely linked to Him in heart and thought, climbed the path that led up to one of the heights of Hermon. In all the most solemn transactions of earth's history, there has…
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As they ascend in the cool of that Sabbath evening, the keen mountain air must have breathed strength into the climbers, and the scent of snow - for which the parched tongue would long in summer's heat [3687] - have refreshed them. We know not what part may have been open to them of the glorious panorama from Hermo…
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And still that night of glory had not ended. A strange peculiarity has been noticed about Hermon in the extreme rapidity of the formation of cloud on the summit. In a few minutes a thick cap forms over the top of the mountain, and as quickly disperses and entirely disappears.' [3706] It almost seems as if this, lik…
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But can we suppose, if not fraud, yet mistake on the part of these witnesses, so that an event, otherwise naturally explicable, may, through their ignorance or imaginativeness, have assumed the proportions of this narrative? The investigation will be the more easy, that, as regards all the main features of the narr…
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But, for us all, the interest of this history lies not only in the past; it is in the present also, and in the future. To all ages it is like the vision of the bush burning, in which was the Presence of God. And it points us forward to that transformation, of which that of Christ was the pledge, when this corruptib…
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[3708] A comparison of the narratives leaves on us the impression that the disciples also were touched by the cloud. I cannot agree with Godet, that the question depends on whether we adopt in St. Luke ix. 34 the reading of the T.R. kenous, or that of the Alex. atos. [3709] The more correct reading in St. Luke seem…
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It would be only natural, that their thoughts should also wander to the companions and fellow-disciples whom, on the previous evening, they had left in the valley beneath. How much they had to tell them, and how glad they would be of the tidings they would hear! That one night had for ever answered so many question…
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There was another question, and it they might ask of Jesus, since it concerned not the mysteries of the future, but the lessons of the past. Thinking of that vision, of the appearance of Elijah and of his speaking of the Death of the Messiah, why did the Scribes say that Elijah should first come - and, as was the u…
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At that very moment, Jesus appeared with the three. We cannot wonder that, when they saw Him, they were greatly amazed, [3729] and running to Him saluted Him.' [3730] He came - as always, and to us also - unexpectedly, most opportunely, and for the real decision of the question in hand. [3731] There was immediate c…
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It was but natural - and yet it was the turning-point in this whole history, alike as regarded the healing of the lunatick, the better leading of his father, the teaching of the disciples, and that of the multitude and the Scribes. There is all the calm majesty of Divine self-consciousness, yet without trace of sel…
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[3720] While writing this, we fully remember about the title of St. John as he whom Jesus loved' specially, even in that inner and closer circle. [3721] St. Mark ix. 10. [3722] St. Mark ix. 10. [3723] St. Matt. xi. 14. [3724] The meaning remains substantially the same whether we insert him' or it.' [3725] The q…
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(St. Matt. xvii. 22, xviii. 22; St. Mark ix. 30-50; St. Luke ix. 43-50.) Now that the Lord's retreat in the utmost borders of the land, at Cæsarea Philippi, was known to the Scribes, and that He was again surrounded and followed by the multitude, there could be no further object in His retirement. Indeed, the time…
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It will be remembered that, shortly before the previous Passover, Jesus with His disciples had left Capernaum, [3758] That they returned to the latter city only for the Sabbath, and that, as we have suggested, they passed the first Paschal days on the borders of Tyre. We have, indeed, no means of knowing where the …
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The other legend is similar. It was in Rome (in the Christian world) that a poor tailor went to market to buy a fish for a festive meal. [3763] Only one was on sale, and for it there was keen competition between the servant of a Prince and the Jew, the latter at last buying it for not less than twelve dinars. At th…
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How deep-rooted were such thoughts and feelings, appears not only from the dispute of the disciples by the way, but from the request proffered by the mother of Zebedee's children and her sons at a later period, in terrible contrast to the near Passion of our Lord. [3776] It does, indeed come upon us as a most painf…
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There was reproof in this, as well as instruction, deeply consistent with that other, though seemingly different, saying: [3780] He that is not with Me is against Me.' The distinction between them is twofold. In the one case it is not against,' in the other it is not with;' but chiefly it lies in this: in the one c…
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These words about receiving Christ, and receiving in the Name of Christ,' had stirred the memory and conscience of John, and made him half wonder, half fear, whether what they had done by the way, in forbidding the man to do what he could in the name of Christ, had been right. And so he told it, and received the fu…
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To this explanation of the words of Christ it may, perhaps, be added that, from their form, they must have conveyed a special meaning to the disciples. It is well-known law, that every sacrifice burned on the Altar must be salted with salt. [3799] Indeed, according to the Talmud, not only every such offering, but e…
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Quite other was it in the Kingdom of Christ, where the theory was left undefined, but the practice clearly marked. Here, by loving dealing, to convince of his wrong, him who had done it, was not humiliation nor loss of dignity or of right, but real gain: the gain of our brother to us, and eventually to Christ Himse…
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And so it must have seemed to Peter, in his ignorance, quite a stretch of charity to extend forgiveness to seven, instead of three offences. It did not occur to him, that the very act of numbering offences marked an externalism which had never entered into, nor comprehended the spirit of Christ. Until seven times? …
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[3774] Baba B. 75 a. [3775] Ber. 34 b. [3776] St. Matt. xx. 20. [3777] St. Mark ix. 38; St. Luke ix. 49. [3778] St. Luke ix. 50. [3779] Readers of ordinary sobriety of judgment will form their opinions of the value of modern negative criticism, when we tell them that it has discovered in this man who did not fol…
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[3818] The Mishnah (Ab. iii. 2), and the Talmud (Ber. 6 a), infer from Mal. iii. 16, that, when two are together and occupy themselves with the Law, the Shekhinah is between them. Similarly, it is argued from Lament. iii. 28, and Exod. xx. 21, that if even one alone is engaged in such pursuits, God is with him and …
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It follows (as previously stated) that St. Luke's account of the three journeys to Jerusalem fits into the narrative of Christ's three appearances in Jerusalem as described by St. John. And the unique section in St. Luke [3838] supplies the record of what took place before, during, and after those journeys, of whic…
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But now the Feast of Tabernacles was at hand. The pilgrims would probably arrive in Jerusalem before the opening day of the Festival. For, besides the needful preparations - which would require time, especially on this Feast, when booths had to be constructed in which to live during the festive week - it was (as we…
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The first purpose of Christ seems to have been to take the more direct road to Jerusalem, through Samaria, and not to follow that of the festive pilgrim-bands, which travelled to Jerusalem through Peræa, in order to avoid the band of their hated rivals. But His intention was soon frustrated. In the very first Samar…
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The intenseness of the self-denial involved in following Christ, and its contrariety to all that was commonly received among men, was, purposely, immediately further brought out. This Scribe had proffered to follow Jesus. Another of his disciples He asked to follow Him, and that in circumstances of peculiar trail a…
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[3827] St. John vii. to x. [3828] x. 22-42. [3829] St. Matt. xx. 17 &c.; St. Mark x. 32 &c.; St. Luke xvii. 11 &c. [3830] St. John xi. [3831] xi. 54. [3832] St. Luke iv. 1; v. 16; vii. 24. [3833] St. Luke viii. 29. [3834] St. Luke ix. 51; xiii. 22; xviii. 31. [3835] St. Matt. xix. 1; St. Mark x. 1. [3836] Comp…
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[3867] It is scarcely necessary to discuss the suggestion, that the first two referred to in the narrative were either Bartholomew and Philip, or else Judas Iscariot and Thomas. [3868] St. Luke ix. 59. [3869] Ber. iii. 1; 17 b, and other passages, but especially Megill. 3. _________________________________________…
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We mark, that, what may be termed the Preface' to the Mission of the Seventy, is given by St. Matthew (in a somewhat fuller form) as that to the appointment and mission of the Twelve Apostles; [3879] and it may have been, that kindred words had preceded both. Partially, indeed, the expressions reported in St. Luke …
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In St. Luke's Gospel, the address to the Seventy is followed by a denunciation of Chorazin and Bethsaida. [3896] This is evidently in its right place there, after the Ministry of Christ in Galilee had been completed and finally rejected. In St. Matthew's Gospel, it stands (for a reason already indicated) immediatel…
901 wordsSource & rights
Public Domain; source text supplied by Christian Classics Ethereal Library.
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Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.