3. The armies (arparoTreda) that would encircle
Jerusalem in the fatal siege of Titus (A.D. 70) are referred to in Lk 21-" (cf. 19*^).
4. In the parable of the Marriage of the King's Son (Mt 22"'") we read of the armies (arpaTeO/xaTa) which the king sent to avenge the murder of his servants.
5. After the trial before Pilate, when our Lord had been scourged and condemned to be cru- cified, Pilate's soldiers on duty took Him into their own quarters, and, gathering the whole band together, proceeded to treat Him with the grossest insults and mockery (Mt 27^'', Mk 15'", Jn 19'-). And during the long hours of crucifixion He had to endure similar maltreatment from the soldiers who were in charge (Lk 23=^8 ; cf. Mt 27^^ Jn 19^"). It is recorded also (Jn 19-^- ^^) how they parted His garments among them (see COAT and QUATERNION); and further that, when the end had come, finding He was already dead, they refrained from breaking His legs, as Pilate had ordered, before taking Him down ; but ' one of them with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith there came out blood and water ' (Jn 193-- ^).
6. Lastly, soldiers were keeping guard at the sepulchre when the Resurrection took place (Mt 27(i5f. 28"-i3 ; see Watch). C. L. Feltoe.
SOLITUDE. — We may infer from the phrase used in Lk 5^'' (vi' viToxo3pQ>v, see Bengel's note, ad loc.) that our Lord frequently sought solitude during the period of His ministry. Sometimes He retired from the multitude, but did not seclude Himself from His disciples [e.g. Mt W^ 17^). At other times His solitude was absolute, and He only returned to His disciples or was rejoined by them after an interval [e.g. Mt U^s, Mk ps, Lk 5^^ gis). It is this latter complete solitude that is of im- portance to the student of our Lord's Person and work.
1. We observe that He sought solitude, or, if the phrase is permissible, was forced into solitude, at certain critical times of special trial. The battle of the Temptation (Mt 4i"-, Mk P-"-, Lk A^^-) was fought out in solitude. No human being was within call, and only after the victory was won did angels come to minister to Him. The final struggle against the weakness inherent in the flesh took place in solitude (Mt 26^', Lk 223"). Al- though He yearned for human sympathy. He deliberately withdrew Himself from the companion- ship of His disciples. The account of the supreme crisis of His work of redemption witnesses to a solitude too coni]jlete and awful for our understand- ing (Mt 27*'). We ought perhaps to class the soli- tude which He sought after the feeding of the five thousand (Mt M-^, Mk 6«, Jn B^^) ^vith the three instances just mentioned. The people wished to make Him a king, and may well have suggested a temptation similar to that recorded in Mt 4^
2. Our Lord sought solitude in order to obtain spiritual help for specially important work (Lk 6^^), and spiritual refreshment after ]>eriods of exhaust- ing labour (Mk P"'- •*•', cf. Lk G^**). We may sup- pose that on these occasions, as on another, ' virtue had gone out of him,' and that in a literal sense ' Himself took our infirmities and bare our sick- nesses" (Mt 8^'), tliereby coming to feel the need for fresh intercourse with the Father unvexed with human companionship.
A very curious and suj^fjestive commentary on this twofold use of solitude in our Lord's life is afforded by the experience of the earliest monks, those Egyptian recluses whom we shall not be wron<; in resrarding as specialists in the spiritual life. They be- lieved that in solitude a man is exposed to the full fury of the powers of evil, that temi)tation is not completely conquered be- cause not met in its utmost strensjth except by him who ventures to meet it alone (Cass. Coll. vii. 23 ; Athanas. Vita Anton, xiii.). Their thought would explain our Lord's ' being led up of the Spirit into the wilderness, to be tempted of the devil ' (Mt 4'). It was, no doubt, necessary (cf. the general conception of Milton's Paradise lieyained) that He should be exposed to the utmost
652
SOLOMON
SON, SONSHIP
strength of the Tempter. Therefore He faced the Evil One in solitude.
The hermits also believed that spiritual communion with God and the graces which flow from it are attainable best in solitude. The abbot Allois sums up their teaching in his deeply suggestive word, ' Except a man say in his heart, "I and God are alone in the world," he cannot have peace' (Ferfta Seniorum, ap. Ros- weyd, Interpr. Pelagio, x. 5 ; see also Cass. Coll. xix. 5, xxiv. 4). In this respect their experience fits in with our Lord's retire- ments in search of refreshment and strength.
The literature of early Western monasticism and much of the teaching of the later Mystics on the subject of solitude fall into line with the recorded experience of the Egyptians, and form a further commentary on the recorded facts of our Lord's soli- tude. On the one hand, there is an evident dread of the ex- treme temptations of solitude, and a feeling that they ought not to be faced except by those far advanced in the spir'iual life. On the other hand, there is a recognition of the possibilities of spiritual advancement which solitude affords (see, besides books cited beloA»> Cass. Inst. v. 4 ; Basil, Reg. Fus. Tract. ; Meg. Brev. Tract. ; Bened. Meg. i. ; Joann. Clim. Grad. iv. etc.; BasU, Epp. ii., xxiii., xlii. ; Bened. Meg. iv., xlviii. etc.).