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PALESTIXE
PALESTINE
a garment or a piece of coloured pottery, and throws the rafters and -walls into shadows of the ricliest brown and indigo, while all recesses and much of the floor are in clarkness unrelieved. That this was the state of matters with which Jesus was familiar, is strikingly borne out by His parable of the Lost Coin, where the woman lights a candle and searclies tlie house (Lk 15^). That He is thinking of daylight is proved by the fact that the candle has to be lighted. It is narrated by Conder of a visitor to the cave of the Holy House at Nazareth, the reputed home of Jesus in His boyhood, that he remarked to the monk who showed him it, that it was dark for a dwelling-house. The monk answered that 'The Lord had no need of much light.' Yet it is evident from many sayings that Jesus was peculiarly sensitive to the contrasts of lig'.it and darkness. The 'outer dark' (Mt 22'^) of unlit streets allected Him with a sort of horror ; and He gloried in the claim, which He often repeated, that He was the 'light of the world,' or the light of men. In the still more striking phrase, ' the light of life,' we see something of what light meant to Him. It may have been suggested by the contrast of the dark interior of a tomb with the sunshine that struck upon its whitewashed outer walls. But these Avords could have been used only by One to Avhom light meant quickened and exhilarated vitality.
However much custom and race may have miti- gated the trials which these matters Avould impose on Westerns, we know that there were other char- acteristics of town life which were wholly distaste- ful to Him, and which He denounced. From His speech we can gather that He was often in conflict with that sophisticated provincialism which was the besetting sin of country towns. JNIingling-places of the national varieties, the towns were yet suffi- ciently complete in themselves, and apart from one another, to foster jealousy and local conceit. In l^laces like Csesarea Philippi, for instance, where to this day any passer-by may pick up large frag- ments of Iloman mosaic floors or panels, the wealthy and luxurious life had given rise to a system of servility. Jesus had noted this, and warned His disciples against the Gentile practice of encour- aging sycophants to address them as ' sweet lords ' (Lk 22'-'). Nor are the objectionable Avays and manners of the town confined to the Gentiles. There are the local hypocrites among the natives, who love to pray standing at the corners of streets (Mt 6-). There is that feature of country-town life ■\\hich appears to be ineradicable, — that excessive love for litigation (Mt 5-^), — the combined result of leisure and petty interests. Nothing is more striking in the narratives of the Evangelists than the frequency with which litigation is referred to, both by Jesus and His hearers. Again, the littlene.ss and personal character of the habitual outlook on the world are illustrated by the fluency with which the Nazarenes enumerate the relatives of Jesus (Mt 13'^-^'') — the speech this of tongues practised in tlie eloquence of local gossip. And it throws light on the meaning of Jesus when He spoke of Capernaum as ' exalted to heaven ' (Mt 11-^). Caper- naum physically Avas on the level of the Lake shore, and 682 feet beloAv sea-level. It Avas the self-im- portance of the small provincial toAvn of Avhich He spoke. Jerusalem had its OAvn sins, and the villages had theirs ; but it probably Avas especially to the toA\ns that He referred Avhen He Avarned the forth-' going Apostles of supercilious rejection, and in- structed them to meet it by a symbol of still more emphatic rejection, shaking the dust of them oil' their feet (Mt 10" etc.).
Still Avorse, and still more obvious and common in these narratives, are the tokens of the violent contrasts of avarice and misery in the toAvn life. The selfishness of the town is there, in all its
hcartlessness, portrayed in such parables as those of Lazarus and Dives (Lk 10^"), the rich man and his barns (12'*'), and many others. Prosperity and ad- A'ersity are in shameless and pitiless sight of one another. Cruelty and oppression have become the recognized convention of the poAverful classes. Disease is rampant, and a class of rapacious quack doctors has sprung up to prey upon its victims (Mk 5-"). The moral tone of the toAvn is such as to ])ermit a prostitute to enter the feast of a Avealthy Pharisee, and it is only Avhen it appears that she is penitent that any one is shocked by the incident (Lk 7"). The preference of Jesus for the toAvn is part of His principle that the true physician goes Avhere the sick are thickest, and the true saviour where sin is most unblushing.
The A'illages of Syria are a class of communities of a quite difierent order. The sheikh dAvells in his ruined toAver, overlooking the huddle of broAvn Avails and roofs, and keeping his audience-hall open for the elders to assemble in and discuss tlie neAvs of the countryside. They are inhabited now, as they have been largely all along, by fella- hin, said to be to a considerable extent the de- scendants of the ancient Canaanites, pr.actically unmixed in blood, OAving to the almost unbroken custom of intermarriages. With these Jesus must have talked that Aramaic tongue Arhich some five or six villages in the Kalamun mountain A^alleys still use as their vernacular, and Avhich is heard to-day among the bakers of Damascus Avho come doAvn to the city from the Syriac village of INIa'alula. So conservative is A'illage life in Syria, that it is to A'illage communities alone that Ave look to-day, in the assured confidence that Ave are seeing the very kind of life Avhich Jesus saAv. One result of this conservatism is, that extraordinary combination of ignorance and pride, superstitious fears and con- temptuous eii'rontery, Avliich is often tlie first im- pression pi'oduced on strangers. They preserve self-government of a kind, a hereditary rule within an imperial ; but they appear to be very helpless against both nature and man. Usury and oppres- sion coAv the inhabitants, the insecurity of pro- perty renders them suspicious. The Avriter has accidentally roused a man sleeping through the night ujion his haystack in an open field, and seen others sitting upon the top of the grain piled upon a truck on the raihvay. They are almost exclu- sively agricultural in their Avay of life, and their methods are primitive and leisurely. They leave their hardest Avork to be done by their Avomen, and spend many hours of each day in absolute idleness. Over them hangs the acrid-smelling smoke of fires Avhose fuel is camel-dung, that has been dried by being plastered over the outside of ovens, Avhich break the monotony of flat roofs by their rounded shape, and appear like blisters in the fierce heat of summer. The dirtiness of the streets and of some houses is incredible. The simple food and habits of life produce healthy bodies, but disease comes upon its victims unj^rotected by any skill of medicine, and the sick and the Avhole dAvell together and mingle everyAvhere. The first im- pression is one of universal gloom, and the faces of the people are sullen and contemjatuous. But that is in many cases but the first instinct of self- preservation in those Avho are accustomed to ill- treatment. A very little tact and kindliness soon changes the aspect of things, and threatening looks give place to a smiling childishness.