4. The decline of His popularity. — The miracle of tiie Feeding of the Five Thousand was a great turning-point in the life of Jesus. It marked, we have said, the culmination of His popularity, but also tlie beginning of its decline. And the reason for tills decline was just that the popularity it brought was of a kind that Jesus could not accept. The i)eople wished to take Him by force and make Him king (Jn 6^'), while He Avished to win in their hearts a spiritual Kingdom for His Father. They would liave set Him on a worldly throne, and He knew tliat His Kingdom was not of this Avorld (Jn 18^''). Tlie two ideals Avere utterly incompatible. Henceforth, He Avho had sought the people and welcomed their coming began to avoid them (Jn &\ Mk 7-^ 8i»- «■ -8- -^ 930), and, Avhen they still came after Him, spoke not only of the gladness of the Kingdom, but of the mysterious patlnvay of the Cross (.In 6-6-«5, Mk S^*«- W^«-). Tlie result Avas soon apijiirent. Nothing more quickly cools the enthusiasm of the multitude than the refusal of its object to be popular on the popular terms. After this many even of Christ's disciples Avent back and Avalked no more Avitli Him (Jn 6^^). And though Peter answered nobly for the TAvelve to tliat pathetic question, ' Will ye also go aAvay ? ' (vv. ""■"*'), the Lord kncAV that one of the very Aj)Ostles Avhom He had chosen had admitted into his heart a devil of dissatisfaction Avith his Master (vv.™-"'). Soon, Avith tlie vision of tlie Cross before Him, He ' sted- fastly set his face to go to Jerusalem' (Lk O'M- The disciples, as they followed, Avere afraid (Mk 10^'-), and so He prepared them for Avhat Avas coming, by tliose great ' Lessons on the Cross' Avliich mark the stages of His progress toAvards the great act of sacrifice (Mt 16-i-28||, 20i"-28 , 26«-i3- ^s-^sn ; cf. Bruce, Traininq of the Tivelve). Day by day the shadoAvs lengthened across the Saviour's path. And though at His hist PassoA'er the raising of Lazarus (.Jn 12^") led to a transitory outburst of fresh en- thusiasm among the GaliU^ans Avho had come up to the Feast (cf. "Sit 21" Avith v.i»), the time of His national popularity Avas really over from the day of the Capernaum discourse (Jn 6-^""-), and Avhat lay before Him thereafter Avas a groAving opposi- tion that could end only in national rejection and the death on Calvary.
LiTERATiRE.— Sanday's art. 'Jesus Christ' in Hastings' DB\ Andrews, Life of Our Lord ; Stalker, Life of Jenus Christ ; Bruoe, Traiiilng of the Tivelve, Galilean Gospel ; Expositor, v.
ii. [180.5 u»t. J.C.Lambert.
POPULATION
PORTION
383
POPULATION. — Ancient statistics are pro- verbially unreliable, and in no department are thej' less trustworthy than in the reckoning of population. Except for military or hscal pur- poses, the inhabitants of a Koman province were not liable to be counted, while, even in such cases, the estimate, when preserved, is at best approxi- mate. The sole information, of any precise and fairly contemporary character, as to the population of Galilee in the daj's of Jesus, is to be found in Jos. BJ, III. iii. The historian there observes that the Galilseans have always been numerous. The fertility of the soil induced the inhabitants to cultivate it, and trading was carried on assidu- ously. ' Moreover, the cities lie very thick, and the numerous villages are everywhere so populous, owing to the richness of the soil, that the smallest of them contains over 15,000 inhabitants.' This is probablj' an exaggeration, due to the historian's desire of glorifj'ing the countrj- ; but even when one discounts his statements fairl}% a residuum of fact remains, corroborated bj' the occasional allusions of the Gospels to the thicklj- populated districts in which Jesus lived and preached. If Josephus could muster 100,000 warriors from the province, some thirty years after the ministrj' of Jesus, and if the larger towns, like Scythopolis, included over 30,000 inhabitants, it is probable that the population of Galilee, during the tirst quarter of the tirst century, must have exceeded one million, if not two millions, since it included over 200 towns and villages within an area of about 100 square miles. Certainly, the Galilee into which Jesus brought His gospel (Mk 1'"*), with its cities like Capernaum (Mk 1*'), its countrj- -towns (v.^*), and country-districts, was no thinly - peopled tract. Crowds repeatedly gather round Him (1-^ 2'^ 3''- 4^ etc.). His presence is the signal for multitudes to assemble, and althotigh these were naturally drawn from the cities (cf. Mk 6^*-). the same holds true of the rural districts (cf. 6^^-). A motto for the Galila^an ministry might well be found in the words, ' In those daj-s again there was a great crowd' (Mk 8'), whether Jesus was in the populous cities by the Lake or touring through the inland sj-nagogues. 'Save in there- corded hours of our Lord's praying, the history of Galilee has no intervals of silence and loneliness ; the noise of a close and busy life is always audible ; and to every crisis in the Gosjiels and in Josephus we see crowds immediately swarm' (HGHL, p. 421).
Eastward, it was otherwise. Gaulanitis, on the opposite side of the Lake, was more bare and Avild, and to this quarter Jesus resorted at least once (Mk 4^^-) for some privacy, when pressed bj^ the crowds of Capernaum and the neighbourhood. The population here was thinner. Villages were more widelj' scattered, and, apart from the southern federation of cities known as the Decapolis, there was a comparative lack of important towns. On tiie later spread of Christianity in Per^a, see Hai'uack's Mission unci Ausbrcitung des Christen- tums, pp. 414 f. [Eng. tr. ii. 252 f.]. How far the Christian churches in that district were recruited from a mission of Jesus it is difhcult to say, since it is uncertain how much St Luke has grouped from other sources under his account of the Penean journey (9" etc., cf. Mk lOM, and since the outbreak of tlie Jewish War drove many Christians from the west to the east of the Jordan. In any case, Per.iea was less thickly populated than Galilee, though larger in extent. Josephus (loc. cif.) describes it as ' for the most part desert and rough, and mucli less adapted than Galilee for the growth of cultivated fruits.' Samaria, on the opposite side of the Jordan, numbered a larger population proportionately. But if Jesus worked here, it was only en route from Galilee to Judjea.