The elder brother of the Prodigal (Lk 15^"'-)
illustrates the point ; representing as he does the Pharisaic type of mind — common in all ages and pronouncedly so in the time of Jesus — which com- placently fancies itself well within the Kingdom, but shows by its harsh attitude to fellow-mortals that it is inwardly not right with God. Tlie elder brother is pictured, not without point, as remain- ing outside the banquet-hall, so long as he con- tinued in his implacable mood.
The story of tlie Two Debtors (Lk 7^"™) shows the vital contrast of the matter in the persons of the Woman who was a Sinner— truly gracious in her doings, because full now of penitence and faith and love — and Sinion, hide-bound and censorious like his class, with no disciplined sense of having been humlilcd like her before God. The latter, like the tleljtor of the trivial fifty pence, had little reaction of w holesome feeling in his mind ; the former had manifestly much, like the man over- joyed to find himself relieved from a financial peril ten times greater. This is a concrete instance of the method of the Master. Certain visible acts iif the woman at the banquet bespoke the inward action of God's Spirit, and argued a state of recon- ciliation with Him. From the scanty gracious- ness of Simon, on the other hand, one inferred just as truly a heart imperfectly attuned to good- ness, and knowing little of the joy of pardon. ' To whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little' (v.'"). As to which is the root and which the fruit, rival systems of theology may battle ; but tlie fact is, the two graces are eternal co-relatives, and either may be first in the order of thought when neither is entitleil to absolute precedence in fact. See FoRGlVENKSS.
The parable of the Two Creditors (Mt IS'-^-^s) shows the other side of the shield from the Woman's case, in a person of downright in- humanity concerning whom it is equally clear that he had no saving experience of God's mercy himself. The story, as a story, is remarkable for .simple force ; we feel the horror of the implacable attitude of the servant forgiven for a great in- debtedness, who failed to show goodwill in turn to a subordinate for a default infinitely less. Nemesis descends (v.**) when he finds he is not forgiven after all — he loses that which he had seemed to have (v."). ' So likewise shall my Heavenly F.ather do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses ' (v.^*).
Jesus saw many around Him glorying in fancied privilege and veiy zealous for the Law, yet omitting its essential matters — justice, mercy, faith. To .such especially this Gospel message was addressed ; broadening out in what for Him was the supreme truth, that love to God is seen and tested in love to man. To be sympathetic, sacrificing, generous, is not only the pier from which the heavenward arch springs, but the pier to which it returns. The forgiving God cannot possibly be seen in those who hide tliemselves from their own flesh (Lk 6^).
Literature. —Besides art. ' Debt ' in Hastings' DB, tlie Comm. on tile passages referred to, and tlie standard works on tlie Paraiiles, the following may be consulted :— Edersheim, Lijto and Times, ii. p. 268ff. ; Sc'hiirer, HJPu. 1. 362 f. ; Expositor, I. vi. [1877) p. 214 ff. ; Ker, Serm. Istser. p. ICff.
George Murray. DECAPOLIS.— A league of ten Greek cities (7 Ae/tdTToXis) in eastern Palestine, which was pro- bably formed at the time of I'diiipi-v's inv.isiun of Palestine, 64-63 B.C. By the ( Jr.rk'. ii 1,-. I'..nipey w.as hailed as a deliverer from ili'' .Irwi-li y.ike, and many towns elevated Pompcy'.-. caiiip;iij;n to the dignity of an era. The co'ins of Gadara, Canatha, Pella, Dion, and Philadelphia use the Pompeian era. At first the league must have comprised just ten cities. According to Pliny
436
DECAPOLIS
DECEIT, DECEPTION, GUILE
{HN\. IS), these were Scvthopolis(iJeM(l?i)> Hipiios (Siisieh), Gadara ({■•»( ;«^ Kcis), Pella {Fahil), Phila- delphia {'Animati), Gerasa (Jer&sh), Dion, Canatha (Kanaw('tt), Damascus, ami Raphana. The forma- tion of a confederation of Greek cities in the midst of a Semitic population was necessary for the pre- servation of Hellenic civilization and culture. From the days of Alexander the Great, who sought to Hellenize the Orient by founding Greek cities throughout the conquered lands, there were Greek cities in Palestine. The Seleucid kings of Antioch and the Ptolemies encouraged the immigration of Greeks into this region. Among the cities occu- pied before 198 B.C. by the incoming Greeks were Pella, Dion, Philadelphia, Gad.ara, and Abila in the region east of the Jordan. Hipjios and Gerasa are first named in the early jiart of the 1st cent. B.C. (Jos. BJl. iv. 8). Among tlie citios liberated by Pompey from the Jewish yoke, Hippos, Stytho- polis, and Pella are expressly named ; and Gadara, which had been destroyed by the Jews, was rebuilt {BJ I. vii. 7). Pompey annexed these cities to the province of Syria, but conferred upon them municipal freedom. All the cities of the Decapolis had in the Koiii.in jierind the rights of coinage and asylum, and were allowed to maintain a league for defence against tlieir common foes.