In B.C. 20, Herod the Great obtained permission to appoint his brother Pheroras tetrarch of Persea [Ant. XV. X. 3 ; BJ, I. xxiv. 5). Pheroras after- wards incurred the enmity of Herod, and retired or was driven to Pera;a, where he died, not im- probably by poison (BJ, I. xxix. 4). At his death (B.C. 4) Herod left Galilee and Persea to his son Antipas (Ant. XVII. viii. 1). The tribute paid by these provinces was 200 talents (Ant. XVII. xi. 4), Antipas ruled with the title of tetrarch till his banishment in A.D. 39 by Caius Csesar, who added his tetrarchy to the dominions of Agrippa (Ant. XVIII. vii. 2). Antipas was therefore in authority in Galilee and Pera^a during the whole lifetime of John the Baptist and of Christ.
Among the towns of Pei'sea, Pella has a special interest as having been twice the refuge of the Christians fleeing from Jerusalem, in A.D. 68, and again in A.D. 135, when under Hadrian Jerusalem was taken for the second time and its name changed to ^lia. The fact that Pella was a heathen city may have been an inducement to the Christians of Jerusalem to seek refuge in it, as it would not attract the hostility of the Romans. Merrill (East of the Jordan, p. 462 f. ) thinks that Christ prob- ably several times passed through the Jordan valley and may well have visited Pella itself. His preaching may have been successful there, and His connexion with the town such as to suggest it as a refuge to the Christians.
I
PLKUITION
PEKFECTION
337
Literature. — Besides authorities cited above, see Hasting' DB, artt. ' Peiaea,' 'Uadara,' ' Decapolis," ' Machaerus ' ; Thom- son, Land and Book. For later history, Guy le Strange, Palestine under the Moslems. ' A. E. RoSS.
PERDITION.— See Destruction.
PERDITION, SON OF.— See JUDAS ISCAKIOT
PEREZ. — Mentioned as a link in our Lord's L'fiiealogy (Mt P, Lk 3»^ AV Fhares).
PERFECTION (OF Jesus). — Christian writers generally take for granted the perfection of their Lurtl. file}' point to the records, and declare that such is the impression which they make on the honest reader. And that is not the mere begging' of the question which it seems. Men judge of gooilness by the eye. The vision of faith conies lirst ; thought comes later with its justihcations.
1. One note of perfection, though nierelj- a nega- tive one, is sinlessness. He -i^^ sajs that though He was tried in all things as we are, Christ remained without sin. Can that be proved or made clear? Certain ditticulties suggest themselves. (1) Only the merest fragment of that life is known. Before His storj' begins, Jesus had lived for thirty ye.ars in this world, which is full to overflowing of all manner of sin. How can we be sure that no stain ever touched the purity of His soul during ail those buried years, silent for ever now in quiet Nazareth ? (■2) There is also the whole story of a man's inward life : the dreams of the secret heart, the fancies cherished in the recesses of fond imagination, the conver.se which the soul holds with itself. What record can lay kire that hidden and withdrawn, but most real and vital, region of the spirit's life, with all its startling ileptlis and unexpected glories ?
One witness can testify of that — the spirit's own consciousness in the presence of God, who has been the unseen conij)anion of all that life. And we gather from the Gospels that .Jesus was weighed down by no sense of sin. It is the saints who have the keenest sense of sin. Their inward thought Iia-^ always placed them in a line with the publican in the Tem])le who would not so much as lift his eyes to heaven, but smote on his breast and cried, 'God, be merciful to me a sinner' (Lk IS'^). .lesus, among the saints, is unique in this matter : no word of self-re])roach, no hint of any thought or inward struggle which He deplored, ever falls from His lips. See, furtiier, art. fSlNLESSXESS.
2. Another note of jierfection is that Jesus stands nhnrc the varioKs f>/pcs and rlassrs of men. Humanity is parcelleil out among men. They have their peculiar excellences and diH'erences ; but these are usually only a jiart of our human nature. The most royally endowed among men are lint fragments. Our life is comjiosed of three ele- ments— thought, and will, and feeling ; and accord- ing as one or other of these may preponderate, we have men of action, men of thought, men of passion. Jesus eludes any such classification : He has affini- ties with each of them ; their excellences inhere in Him with none of their defects.
(") Jesus has affinities with the artist and the port. His eye rested on the beauty of the earth with the ])oet's joy and understanding. The common sights mirror themselves in His teaching : the lilies in their glory, the birds among the iranches, the ravens seeking their food from God, seed-time and harvest, sowing and reajiing. The face of this goodly universe spake joy within His heart. And He looked with loving, discerning eyes on all the pageant of human life. When we read His words, the life of His day flows ])ast us. And His glance was deep as well as wide. With what irony He sketches the indecision of the Pharisees,