[2248] St. Luke v. 5.
[2249] St. Matt. iv. 18 &c.; St. Mark i. 16 &c. as compared with St. Luke v. 2.
[2250] In order not to impede navigation, it was forbidden to fix nets. For these two ordinances, see Baba K. 80 b, last line &c. The reference to the fishing in the lake is in 81 b. But see Tos. Baba K. viii. 17, 18.
[2251] St. Matt. vii. 10; xiii. 47; xv. 36.
[2252] Ab. Z. 39 a.
[2253] Bab. Mez ii. 1.
[2254] Moed K. 11 a, last line.
[2255] Three lines before that we read this saying of a fisherman: Roast fish with his brother (salt), lay it beside his father (water), eat it with his son (fish-juice), and drink upon it his father' (water).
[2256] Jer. Sheq. vi. 2, p. 50 a.
[2257] Shem. R. 9.
[2258] Specially from Egypt and Spain, Machsh. vi. 3.
[2259] Neh. iii. 3.
[2260] Ber. 44 a.
[2261] Jer. Ab. Z. ii. 10, p. 42 a.
[2262] So in Erub. 30 a.
[2263] Ab. i. 1; Sanh. 91 b.
[2264] St. John i. 37 &c.
[2265] St. Matt. iv. 20, 22.
[2266] The name Peter occurs also among the Jews, but not that of Paul. Thus, in Pesiqta (ed. Buber, p. 158 a, line 8 from bottom, see also the Note there) we read of a R. José the son of Peytros, and similarly in the fragments from Tanchuma in Jellinek's Beth ha-Midr. vol. vi. p. 95, where, however, he is called Ben Petio. In Menor. Hamm. the name is changed into Phinehas. Comp. Jellinek, Beth ha-Midr. vol. vi. Pref. xi.
[2267] We would call special attention to the arrangement of this narrative. The explanation given in the text will, it is hoped, be sufficient answer to the difficulties raised by some commentators. Strauss' attempt to indicate the mythic origin of this narrative forms one of the weakest parts of his book. Keim holds the genuineness of the account of the two first Evangelists, but rejects that of the third, on grounds which neither admit nor require detailed examination. The latest and most curious idea of the Tubingen school has been, to see in the account of St. Luke a reflection on Peter as Judaistically cramped, and to understand the beckoning to his partners as implying the calling in of Pauline teachers. __________________________________________________________________
CHAPTER XIV. A SABBATH IN CAPERNAUM
(St. Matt. viii 14-17; St. Mark i. 21-34; St. Luke iv. 33-41.)
It was the Holy Sabbath - the first after He had called around Him His first permanent disciples; the first, also, after His return from the Feast at Jerusalem. Of both we can trace indications in the account of that morning, noon, and evening which the Evangelists furnish. The greater detail with which St. Mark, who wrote under the influence of St. Peter, tells these events, shows the freshness and vividness of impression on the mind of Peter of those early days of his new life. As indicating that what is here recorded took place immediately after the return of Jesus from Jerusalem, we mark, that as yet there were no watchful enemies in waiting to entrap Him in such breach of the Law, as might furnish ground for judicial procedure. But, from their presence and activity so soon afterwards, [2268] we infer, that the authorities of Jerusalem had sent some of their familiars to track His steps in Galilee.
But as yet all seemed calm and undisturbed. Those simple, warm-hearted Galileans yielded themselves to the power of His words and works, not discerning hidden blasphemy in what He said, nor yet Sabbath-desecration in His healing on God's holy day. It is morning, and Jesus goes to the Synagogue at Capernaum. [2269] To teach there, was now His wont. But frequency could not lessen the impression. In describing the Influence of His Person or words the Evangelists use a term, which really means amazement. [2270] And when we find the same word to describe the impression of the Sermon on the Mount,' [2271] the inference is naturally suggested, that it presents the type, if it does not sum up the contents, of some of His Synagogue-discourses. It is not necessary to suppose that, what held His hearers spell-bound, had necessarily also its effect on their hearts and lives. Men may be enraptured by the ideal without trying to make it the real. Too often it is even in inverse proportion; so that those who lead not the most moral lives even dare to denounce the New Testament standpoint, as below their own conceptions of right and duty. But there is that in man, evidence of his origin and destiny, which always and involuntarily responds to the presentation of the higher. And in this instance it was not only what He taught, but the contrast with that to which they had been accustomed on the part of the Scribes,' which filled them with amazement. There was no appeal to human authority, other than that of the conscience; no subtle logical distinctions, legal niceties, nor clever sayings. Clear, limpid, and crystalline, flowed His words from out the spring of the Divine Life that was in Him.