[3080] Zebhul ({hebrew}) is also the name of the fourth of the seven heavens in which Jewish mysticism located the heavenly Jerusalem with its Temple, at whose altar Michael ministered (Chag. 12 b).
[3081] Jer. Ber. 13 b.
[3082] The primary meaning is: manuring (land) with dung.
[3083] Abod. Z. 18 b, and often.
[3084] It could not possibly mean, as has been supposed, lord of dung,' because dung is {hebrew} and not {hebrew}.
[3085] This alone explains the meaning of Beelzebul. Neither Beelzebub nor Baalzebul were names given by the Jews to any demon, but Beelzebul, the lord of sacrificing to idols,' would certainly be the designation of what they regarded as the chief of the demons.
[3086] St. Matt. x. 26.
[3087] Mark the same meaning of the expression in St. Luke viii. 17; xii. 2.
[3088] Lev. xviii. 5.
[3089] Sanh. 74 a comp. Yoma 82 a.
[3090] I confess myself unable to understand the bearing of the special pleading of Wünsche against this inference from Sanh. 74 a. His reasoning is certainly incorrect.
[3091] The Isar ({hebrew}), or assarion, is expressly and repeatedly stated in Rabbinic writings to be the twenty-forth part of a dinar, and hence not a halfpenny farthing, but about the third of a penny. Comp. Herzfeld, Handelsgeschichte, pp. 180-182.
[3092] Ber. R. 79, ed. Warsh. p. 142 b; Jer. Shebh. ix. 1; Midr. on Eccl. x. 8; on Esth. i. 9; on Ps. xvii. 14.
[3093] This is the literal rendering.
[3094] Chull. 7 b; comp. also the even more realistic expression, Shabb. 107 b.
[3095] Pesiqta 18 a.
[3096] This appears more clearly when we translate literally (ver. 32): Who shall confess in Me' - and again: in him will I also confess.'
[3097] St. Matt. x. 34.
[3098] The original is very peculiar: Think not that I came to cast peace on the earth,' as a sower casts the seed into the ground.
[3099] The meaning of the expression, losing and finding one's life, appears more markedly by attending to the tenses in the text: He that found his life shall lose it, and he that lost his life for My sake shall find it.'
[3100] B. Mets 33 a.
[3101] Especially if he taught him the highest of all lore, the Talmud, or explained the reason for the meaning of what it contained.
[3102] On Ruth i. 17.
[3103] Ber. R. 56, on Gen. xxii. 6.
[3104] St. Matt. x. 40-42.
[3105] Comp. for example the long discussion in Ber. 63 b.
[3106] 1 Kings xviii. 4.
[3107] Sanh. 39 b.
[3108] According to Is. viii. 16.
[3109] Ber. R. 42, on Gen. xiv. 1.
[3110] Sanh. 99 a. __________________________________________________________________
CHAPTER XXVIII. THE STORY OF THE BAPTIST, FROM HIS LAST TESTIMONY TO JESUS TO HIS BEHEADING IN PRISON
(1. St. John iii. 25-30. 2. St. Matt. ix. 14-17; St. Mark ii. 18-22; St. Luke v. 33-39. 3. St. Matt. xi. 2-14; St. Luke vii. 18-35. 4. St. Matt. xiv. 1-12; St. Mark vi.14-29; St. Luke ix. 7-9.)
WHILE the Apostles went forth by two and two on their first Mission, [3111] Jesus Himself taught and preached in the towns around Capernaum. [3112] This period of undisturbed activity seems, however, to have been of brief duration. [3113] That it was eminently successful, we infer not only from direct notices, [3114] but also from the circumstance that, for the first time, the attention of Herod Antipas was now called to the Person of Jesus. We suppose that, during the nine or ten months of Christ's Galilean Ministry, the Tetrarch had resided in his Paraean dominions (east of the Jordan), either at Julias or at Machærus, in which latter fortress the Baptist was beheaded. We infer, that the labours of the Apostles had also extended thus far, since they attracted the notice of Herod. In the popular excitement caused by the execution of the Baptist, the miraculous activity of the messengers of the Christ, Whom John had announced, would naturally attract wider interest, while Antipas would, under the influence of fear and superstition, give greater heed to them. We can scarcely be mistaken in supposing, that this accounts for the abrupt termination of the labours of the Apostles, and their return to Jesus. At any rate, the arrival of the disciples of John, with tidings of their master's death, and the return of the Apostles, seem to have been contemporaneous. [3115] Finally, we conjecture, that it was among the motives which influenced the removal of Christ and His Apostles from Capernaum. Temporarily to withdraw Himself and His disciples from Herod, to give them a season of rest and further preparation after the excitement of the last few weeks, and to avoid being involved in the popular movements consequent on the murder of the Baptist - such we may venture to indicated as among the reasons of the departure of Jesus and His disciples, first into the dominions of the Tetrarch Philip, on the eastern side of the Lake, [3116] and after that into the borders of Tyre and Sidon.' [3117] Thus the fate of the Baptist was, as might have been expected, decisive in its influence on the History of the Christ and of His Kingdom. But we have yet to trace the incidents in the life of John, so far as recorded in the Gospels, from the time of His last contact with Jesus to his execution.