JESUS CHRIST Si
5urc of his destruction (:Matt. ii, 1-12). This attempt was foiled bv the return of the Magi home by another route, through divine intimation, and the child was pre- served from the murderous rage of Herod by a pre- cipitous flight of tlie parents (who were in like manner warned of tlie danger) into Egypt [see Alexandria] under a like direction (prob. July, B.C. 5). Here they remained [see Egypt] until, on the death of the tyrant, at the divine suggestion, they returned to Palestine; but, avoiding Judiea, where Archelaus, who resembled his father, had succeeded to tlie throne, they settled at their former place of residence, Nazareth, within the territory of the milder Antipas (jMatt. ii, 19-23 ; prob. April, B.C. 4). See Nazakenk. The evangelists pass over the boy- hood of Jesus with the simple remark that his obedience, intelligence, and piety won the affections of all who knew him (Luke ii, 40, 51, 52). A single incident is recorded in illustration of these traits, which occurred when he had comi)leted his twelfth year— an age at which the Jewish males were expected to take upon them the re- sponsibility of attaching themselves to the public wor- ship, as liaving arrived at years of discretion (Luke ii, 41-50 ; see Lightfoot and Wetstein, ad loc). Having accompanied his parents, on this occasion, to the Pass- over at Jerusalem, the lad tarried behind at the close of the festal week, and was discovered by them, as they turned back to the capital from their homeward journey, after coiisiderable search, sitting in the midst of the Rab- bis in one of the anterooms of the sacred edifice, seek- ing information from them on sacred tliemes (or proba- bly ratlier imparting than eliciting truth, after the man- ner of the Socratic questionings) with a clearness and profundity so far beyond his years and opportunities as to excite the liveliest astonishment in all beholders (April, A.D. 8). His pointed reply to his mother's ex- postulation for his seeming neglect of filial duty evinces a comprehension already of his divine character and work : " Knew ye not that I must be at my Father's ?" (tv Tol(; Tov Harpof ixov).
1. Iiitrndiirtori/ Year. — Soon after John the Baptist had opened his remarkable mission at the Jordan, among the thousands of all classes who flocked to his preaching and baptism (q. v.), Jesus, then thirty years old, pre- sented himself for the same initiatory rite at his hands as the only acknowledged prophet extant who was em- powered to administer what should be equivalent to the holy anointing oil of the kingly and priestly ofHces (Matt, iii, 13-17 ; Luke iii, 1-18, 23 ; and parallels). See Messiah. John did not at once recognise Jesus as the Messiah, although he had just declared to the people the near ajiproach of his own Sujjerior ; yet, being donljt- less personally well actpiaintcd with his relative, in whom he must have perceived the tokens of an extraor- dinary religious personage, he modestly declined to per- form a ceremony that seemed to imply his own pre-em- inence; but upon his compliance with the request of Jesus, on the ground of the jjropriety of this prelimina- ry ordinance, a divine attestation, both in a visible [see Dove] and an audible [see I5atii-kol] form, was pub- licly given as to the sacred character of .Jesus, and in such clear conformity to a criterion which John him- self had already received by the inward revelation, that he at once began to proclaim the advent of the Messiah in his i)crson (prob. August, A.O. 25). See John the Baptist. After this inauguration of his public career, Jesus immediately retired into the desert of Judica, where, during a fast of forty days, he endured those in- tenor temptations of Satan which should snf.ice to prove the superiority of his virtue to that power to which Adam had succumbed ; and at its close he successfully resisted three special attempts of the devil in a personal lorm to move him first to doubt and then to presume upon th- divine care, and finallv to bribe him to such barefaced idolatry that Jesus indignantly repelled him Irom his presence (Matt, iv, 1-1 1, and parallels). See I emptation. The eflfect of John's open testimonv to the character of Jesus, as he began his preaching afresh
JESUS CHRIST
Map of oui Loid's Jouinejs duiiug the intioduLtoiy Year of his Miuistiv.
the next season on the other side of the Jordan, was such as not only to lead to a deputation of inqinry to him from the Sanhedrim on the subject, but also to induce two of the Baptist's disciples to attach themselves to Christ, one of whom immediately introduced his own brother to his newly-found Master, and to these, as he was departing for Galilee, were added two others of their acquaintance (John i, 19-3G). On arriving at Cana (q. v.), whither he had been invited with his relatives and friends to a wedding festival, Jesus performed his first miracle bj^ changing water into wine for the supply of the guests (John ii, 1-11 ; prob. jMarch, A.D. 26).
2. First more public Year. — After a short visit at Ca- pernaum, Jesus returned to Juda?a in order to attend the Passover ; and finding the entrance to the Temple choked with various kinds of merchant-stalls, he forci- bly expelled their sacrilegious occupants, and vindicated his authority by a prediction of his resurrection, which was at the time misunderstood (John ii, 12-22). His