[2562] St. Matt. v. 21.
[2563] B. Kamma 50 b.
[2564] Sanh. 100 a.
[2565] Sotah iii. 4; Shabb. 13 b.
[2566] Bab. Mez. 58 b, at bottom.
[2567] Pesiqt. ed. Bub. 164 a.
[2568] In the Midrash on Ruth iii. 18.
[2569] See The Temple. its Ministry and Services,' &c., pp. 26, 27.
[2570] ver. 13.
[2571] In Sot. 48 b.
[2572] Sanh. 100 b.
[2573] Sot. i. 7.
[2574] Arach. 16 b.
[2575] B. Bath. 15 b; Bekhor. 38 b; Yalk. on Ruth.
[2576] Pes. 49 a.
[2577] In Ber. R 33.
[2578] Jer. Ber. 13 d, towards the end.
[2579] In Sukk. 45 b he proposes to conjoin with himself his son, instead of Abraham.
[2580] In Ab. iii. 17.
[2581] Ab. de R. Nath. 24.
[2582] I had collected a large number of supposed or real Rabbinic parallels to the Sermon on the Mount.' But as they would have occupied by far too large a space, I have been obliged to omit all but such as would illustrate the fundamental position taken in this chapter, and, indeed, in this book: the contrariety of spirit, by the side of similarity of form and expressions, between the teaching of Jesus and that of Rabbinism. __________________________________________________________________
CHAPTER XIX. THE RETURN TO CAPERNAUM - HEALING OF THE CENTURION'S SERVANT.
(St. Matt. viii. 1, 5-15; St. Mark iii. 20, 21; St. Luke vii. 1-10.)
We are once again in Capernaum. It is remarkable how much, connected not only with the Ministry of Jesus, but with His innermost Life, gathers around that little fishing town. In all probability its prosperity was chiefly due to the neighbouring Tiberias, which Herod Antipas [2583] had built, about ten years previously. Noteworthy is it also, how many of the most attractive characters and incidents in the Gospel-history are connected with that Capernaum, which, as a city, rejected its own real glory, and, like Israel, and for the same reason, at last incurred a prophetic doom commensurate to its former privileges. [2584]
But as yet Capernaum was still exalted up to heaven.' Here was the home of that believing Court-official, whose child Jesus had healed. [2585] Here also was the household of Peter; and here the paralytic had found, together with forgiveness of his sins, health of body. Its streets, with their outlook on the deep blue Lake, had been thronged by eager multitudes in search of life to body and soul. Here Matthew-Levi had heard and followed the call of Jesus; and here the good Centurion had in stillness learned to love Israel, and serve Israel's King, and built with no niggard hand that Synagogue, most splendid of those yet exhumed in Galilee, which had been consecrated by the Presence and Teaching of Jesus, and by prayers, of which the conversion of Jairus, its chief ruler, seems the blessed answer. And now, from the Mount of Beatitudes, it was again to His temporary home at Capernaum that Jesus retired. [2586] Yet not either to solitude or to rest. For, of that multitude which had hung entranced on His Words many followed Him, and there was now such constant pressure around Him, that, in the zeal of their attendance upon the wants and demands of those who hungered after the Bread of Life, alike Master and disciples found not leisure so much as for the necessary sustenance of the body.
The circumstances, the incessant work, and the all-consuming zeal which even His friends' could but ill understand, led to the apprehension - the like of which is so often entertained by well-meaning persons in all ages, in their practical ignorance of the all-engrossing but also sustaining character of engagements about the Kingdom - that the balance of judgment might be overweighted, and high reason brought into bondage to the poverty of our earthly frame. In its briefness, the account of what these friends,' or rather those from Him' - His home - said and did, is most pictorial. On tidings reaching them, [2587] with reiterated, growing, and perhaps Orientally exaggerating details, they hastened out of their house in a neighbouring street [2588] to take possession of Him, as if He had needed their charge. It is not necessary to include the Mother of Jesus in the number of those who actually went. Indeed, the later express mention of His Mother and brethren' [2589] seems rather opposed to the supposition. Still less does the objection deserve serious refutation, [2590] that any such procedure, assumedly, on the part of the Virgin-Mother, would be incompatible with the history of Jesus' Nativity. For, all must have felt, that the zeal' of God's House was, literally, consuming' Him, and the other view of it, that it was setting on fire, not the physical, but the psychical framework of His humiliation, seems in no way inconsistent with what loftiest, though as yet dim, thought had come to the Virgin about her Divine Son. On the other hand, this idea, that He was beside Himself,' afforded the only explanation of what otherwise would have been to them well-nigh inexplicable. To the Eastern mind especially this want of self-possession, the being beside' oneself, would point to possession by another - God or Devil. It was on the ground of such supposition that the charge was so constantly raised by the Scribes, and unthinkingly taken up by the people, that Jesus was mad, and had a devil: not a demoniacal possession, be it marked, but possession by the Devil, in the absence of self-possessedness. And hence our Lord characterised this charge as really blasphemy against the Holy Ghost. And this also explains how, while unable to deny the reality of His Works, they could still resist their evidential force.