Among Talmudic cures of this malady we find the following : ' Let the patient sit at the parting of the ways with a cup of wine in her hand, and let some one coming up behind startle her by calling out, Be healed of thine issue of blood.' And, 'T.ake three measures of onions, boil in wine and give the patient to drink, at the same time calling out suddenly. Be healed of thine issue.'— An interesting anticipation of certain familiar features of modern therapeutics.
That our Lord's healing of the sufferer was re- garded as memorable and attained to a consider- able vogue apart from the NT record, is evidenced by the legend that the votive figure at Banifis, .sup- posed to be that of Christ, was erected by this woman out of gratitude to her Deliverer, and other kindred legends.
The chief feature of the miracle was the fact that the healing was gained surreptitiously, apart from the will and initiative of Jesus. Our Lord was pressing through the crowd on His way to the house of Jairus, when the woman, moved by a great expectation of healing, drew near to touch at least the fringe of His garment (in which special sanctity resided), assured that even this slight
contact would remove her trouble. Having ac- complished her object, ' immediately she felt in her body that she was healed of the plague,' and our Lord became conscious that ' virtue ' had gone out of Him. The idea that healing power was resident in the body of Jesus, comparable to a charge of electric energy, is not to be entertained. The casual touching of His body by any sick person would have had no such result. We must emphasize (\)thc touch of faith. The whole nature of the woman had been roused to activity and hopefulness. No labour of Jesus to create and evoke this essential condition of being healed was necessary or possible. The expectation existed at full tension, and she was prepared mentally and therefore physically to receive the healing power. And (2) corresponding to this exercise of faith is a Divinely great capacity for sympathy resident in the spirit and life of Jesus. While this capacity infinitely transcends the forces of human sympathy which exist in humanity, it still may be believed to operate on the same plane and to be not alien but kindred. The possibility of syinpathetic rela- tions being in existence between ' mind and mind,' quite irrespective of consciousness or will on the part of both or of either, is an ascertained fact, however it may be explainable. Various theories are put forward to account for the phenomena, but meanwhile the fact must be recognized — the power of mind to affect mind by other than the channels of sense. Moreover, (3), our Lord's own teaching must be duly weighed, that His works were due to the indwelling Divine power. The nature of Jesus was strung to sympathy with the whole complex coil of human suftering and need. At the very moment of this occurrence His heart was full of intensest sympathy with the sorrowing ruler. Such a nature then would present, quite apart from the immediate exercise of will, a fitting in- strument for the Divine healing energy. The Divine power utilized and made inore efficacious these already powerful sympathies and expecta- tions ; but while this is to be freely recognized, the chief emphasis is to be laid on the holy will of the unseen Father, with whom our Lord was morally and essentially one.
LiTEEATDEE.— The Comm. ,andstandardwork3on the JIfiracfcs; Ker, Serm. 1st ser. p. 186 ff.; Maclaren, Serm. pr. in Manchester, 2nd ser. p. 294 ff. On the telepathic powers of the subliminal consciousness see the relevant sections of F. W. Myers' Human Personality. T. H. WRIGHT.
ITOR.ffiA,— This term is used in Lk 3' amon^ other designations of political and geographical districts, the identification of whose rulers is in- tended to give a fixed chronological starting-point for the ministry of John the Baptist. It does not occur as a substantive in any pre-Christian writer. Neither does it occur again in post-Christian litera- ture until the days of Eusebius, and doubtfully then. The term ' Itunoans,' however, as the name of a people, is frequently mentioned. The hrst mention among Greek writers of the Ituiteans is that of Eupolenius (B.C. 150) as quoted by Eusebius {Praip. Evan. ix. 30). Cicero {Philip, ii. 112) speaks of thera as a predatory people, and Cffisar (Bell. Afr. 20) calls them skilful archers (cf. Jos. A7it. XIII. xi. 3 [Dindorf reads 'Irovpalav ; but it is commonly agreed that this is incorrect, and Naber's and Niese's reading, 'Irovpalav, is preferred] ; Strabo XVI. ii. 10, 18, 20 ; Dio Cass. xlix. 32. 5 ; Appian, Civ. V. 7 ; also VirgO, Georg. ii. 448 ; Lucan, Pharsal. vii. 230, 514).
The most important fact brought into view by the history of the Iturseans, so far as the under- standing of Lk 3' is concerned, is their migratory character. They first appear as the sons of Jetur (Gn 25'^ 1 Ch 1^'), a branch of the race of Ishmael
ITUR^A
JACOB
(cf. artt. 'Jetvir' and ' l!>liniaer in Hastings' i)£). Tlieir orir;inal home was tlie territory to the S.E. of Palestine. In the course of tlieir -wanderings they drifted nortlnvard, and some time before the Exile readied the country adjacent to Israel, east of the Jordan. Late in the 2nd cent. B.C., Aristo- bulus I. conquered certain bands of non-Israelites ■who had settled in Galilee, and compelled them either to submit to circumcision or leave the country. It has been conjectured that among these there were some Iturteans, -who moved still fartlier north. At any rate, in the next generation the Itura-ans are definitely located in the region of Lebanon. Strabo (XVI. ii. 10) speaks of them as inhabiting the ' mountain country ' which with Chalcis and Marsyas was ruled by Ptolemy the son of Menna?us (B.C. 85-40). He further describes them in association with the Arabs as ' all lawless men dwelling in the mountain region of the Libanus and anti-Libanus territory,' and harassing tlie agricultural population of the adjacent plain. D. vEniiliusSecundus, a millitary commander under Quirinius, reports that in a campaign against the Itura;ans in the Lebanon range, lie had stormed a fortress of theirs (Mommsen, Ephemcris Epigr. iv. 1881, p. 538). With the death of Ptolemy, the government of this entire region passed into the hands of his son Lysanias, whom accordingly Dio Cassius calls ' king of the Ituroeans ' (xlix. 32). Lysanias was put to death by Mark Antony in B.C. 34, and a little over ten years later (B.C. 23) this territory came, by way of a lease, imder the control of a chief named Zenodorus (Jos. Ant. XV. ■K.l;BJ I. XX. 4) ; but in B.C. 20, upon the death of Zenodorus, Augustus gave a portion of it to Herod the Great ; and when Herod's kingdom was broken up among his heirs into tetrarchies, it fell to the lot of Philip to possess it (Jos. Ant. XV. x. 3; BJ II. vi. 3). Subsequently to the mention of Ituraaa by St. Luke, the emperor Caligula be- stowed it upon a certain Soeraus (A.d. 38), entitled by Tacitus (Ann. xii. 23) and Dio Cassius (lix. 12) 'kin" of the Itur;ean.s.' From A.D. 49, the date of the death of Soemus, and onwards, the country appears as a part of the province of Syria, furnish- ing a quota of soldiers for the Koman army (Ephcm. Epigr. 1884, p. 194).