[2041] St. Matt. viii. 5 &c.; St. Luke vii. 1 &c.
[2042] These will readily occur on comparison of the two narratives. Archdeacon Watkins (ad loc.) has grouped these under eight distinct particulars. Comp. Lücke (Ev. Joh.) i. p. 626.
[2043] So partially and hesitatingly Origen, Chrysostom, and more decidedly Theophilus, Euthymius, Irenoeus, and Eusebius. All modern negative critics hold this view; but Gfrörer regards the narrative of St. John, Strauss and Weiss that of St. Matthew, as the original account. And yet Keim ventures to assert: Ohne allen Zweifel (!) ist das die selbe Geschichte.'
[2044] Alike Strauss and Keim discuss this at some length from the point of view of seeming contradiction between the reception of the heathen Centurion and the first refusal of the Syro-Phoenician woman. Keim's treatment of the whole subject seems to me inconsistent with itself.
[2045] Keim, Jesu v. Nazara, II. i. pp. 179-185. I regret to say, that the language of Keim at p. 181 is among the most painful in his book.
[2046] So Strauss, Leben Jesu, vol. ii. pp. 121, 122 (1st ed.).
[2047] At least I so understand Keim, unless he means that the faith of the child alone brought about the cure, in which case there was no need for the father's journey. Keim naively asks, what objections there can be to this view, unless for the wording of St. John'? But the whole narrative is derived from that wording.'
[2048] ver. 52.
[2049] So literally; the A.V. has: began to amend.'
[2050] ver. 53.
[2051] The Jewish servants may have expressed the time according to Jewish notation, though in such a house in Galilee such might not have been the usual practice. However this be, we contend that St. John's notation of time was according to the Roman civil day, or rather according to that of Asia Minor.
[2052] ver. 52.
[2053] St. Luke viii. 3.
[2054] ver. 50.
[2055] ver. 53. __________________________________________________________________
CHAPTER X. THE SYNAGOGUE AT NAZARETH - SYNAGOGUE-WORSHIP AND ARRANGEMENTS.
(St. Luke iv. 16.)
The stay in Cana, though we have no means of determining its length, was probably of only short duration. Perhaps the Sabbath of the same week already found Jesus in the Synagogue of Nazareth. We will not seek irreverently to lift the veil of sacred silence, which here, as elsewhere, the Gospel-narratives have laid over the Sanctuary of His inner Life. That silence is itself theopneustic, of Divine breathing and inspiration; it is more eloquent than any eloquence, a guarantee of the truthfulness of what is said. And against this silence, as the dark background, stands out as the Figure of Light the Person of the Christ. Yet, as we follow Jesus to the city of His Childhood and home of His humility, we can scarcely repress thoughts of what must have stirred His soul, as He once more entered the well-known valley, and beheld the scenes to each of which some early memory must have attached.
Only a few months since He had left Nazareth, but how much that was all-decisive to Him, to Israel, and to the world had passed! As the lengthening shadows of Friday's sun closed around the quiet valley, He would hear the well-remembered double blast of the trumpet from the roof of the Synagogue-minister's house, proclaiming the advent of the holy day. [2056] Once more it sounded through the still summer-air, to tell all, that work must be laid aside. [2057] Yet a third time it was heard, ere the minister' put it aside close by where he stood, not to profane the Sabbath by carrying it; for now the Sabbath had really commenced, and the festive Sabbath-lamp was lit.
Sabbath morn dawned, and early He repaired to that Synagogue where, as a Child, a Youth, a Man, He had so often worshipped in the humble retirement of His rank, sitting, not up there among the elders and the honoured, but far back. The old well-known faces were around Him, the old well-remembered words and services fell on His ear. How different they had always been to Him than to them, with whom He had thus mingled in common worship! And now He was again among them, truly a stranger among His own countrymen; this time, to be looked at, listened to, tested, tried, used or cast aside, as the case might be. It was the first time, [2058] so far as we know, that He taught in a Synagogue, and this Synagogue that of His own Nazareth.