[2176] And yet most commentators - following, I suppose, the lead of Meyer - hold that Christ had stood up' in the sense of offering or claiming to read.
[2177] Although we cannot feel quite sure of this.
[2178] Is. lxi. 1, 2.
[2179] St. Luke iv. 18, 19.
[2180] Baba B. 13 b.
[2181] I infer this from the fact, that the Book of the Prophet Isaiah was given to Him by the Minister of the Synagogue. Since the time of Bengel it has been a kind of traditional idea that, if this was the Haphtarah for the day, the sermon of Christ in Nazareth must have taken place on the Day of Atonement, for which in the modern Jewish lectionary Is. lviii. 6 forms part of the Haphtarah. There are, however, two objections to this view: 1. Our modern lectionary of Haphtarahs is certainly not the same as that in the time of Christ. 2. Even in our modern lectionary, Is. lxi. 1, 2 forms no part of the Haphtarah, either for the Day of Atonement, nor for any other Sabbath or festive day. In the modern lectionary Is. lvii. 14 to Is. lviii. 14 is the Haphtarah for the Day of Atonement.
[2182] Massech. Soph. xii. 7.
[2183] This symbolically: 7 x 3, since each of the seven readers in the Law had to read at least three verses.
[2184] To set at liberty those that are bruised.' The words are taken, with but a slight necessary alteration in the verb, from the LXX. rendering of Is. lviii. 6. The clause from Is. lxi. 2 is: To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.'
[2185] Preaching instead of proclaiming, in Is. lxi. 2, and in the form of the verb in the clause from Is. lviii. 6. Besides, the insertion of the clause: to heal the broken-hearted,' is spurious.
[2186] All the best MSS. omit the words, To heal the broken-hearted.'
[2187] See above, Note 2.
[2188] See the remarks on this point in the previous chapter. If I rightly understand the somewhat obscure language of Surenhusius (Biblos Katallages, pp. 339-345), such is also the view of that learned writer. This peculiarly Jewish method of Scriptural quotation by stringing together' is employed by St. Paul in Rom. iii. 10-18.
[2189] The other two being Is. xxxii. 14, 15, and Lament. iii. 50.
[2190] See the Appendix on the Messianic passages.
[2191] See the previous chapter. It was the universal rule to listen to the sermon in perfect silence (Pes. 110 a; Moed K. a). The questions and objections commenced afterwards.
[2192] The proverb really is: Physician, heal thine own lameness' (Ber. R. 23, ed. Warsh. p. 45 b).
[2193] St. John iv. 44.
[2194] The statement that the famine in the time of Elijah lasted three and a half years is in accordance with universal Jewish tradition. Comp. Yalkut on 1 Kings xvi., vol. ii. p. 32 b.
[2195] See Stanley, Sinai and Palestine, p. 363. But surely it could not have been the south-western corner (Conder, Tent-Work, i. p. 140, and all later writers).
[2196] The provision, which awarded instant death without formal trial in case of open blasphemy or profanation (Sanh. 81 b), would not apply in this instance. Probably the purpose was, that the crowd around should, as it were accidentally, push Him over the cliff.
[2197] The spot is just above the Maronite Church.
[2198] See the plan of Nazareth in Bädeker's (Socin's) Palæstina, p. 255. The road to the left goes westward, that through the northern part of the town, towards Capernaum. Our localisation gains in probability, if the ancient Synagogue stood where tradition places it. At present it is in the hands of the Maronites.
[2199] The circumstance that the Nazarenes did not avow the purpose of casting Him over the cliff, but intended accidentally to crowd Him over, explains how, when He turned sharply round to the right, and passed through the crowd, they did not follow Him.