[4977] St. Mat., xx. 16; St. Mark x. 31.
[4978] The words, many be called, but few chosen,' seem spurious in that place.
[4979] St. Matt. xvi. 21; xvii. 22, 23.
[4980] St. John xi. 8, 16.
[4981] This is the precise rendering of the verb.
[4982] This is the precise rendering of St. Mark x. 32.
[4983] St. Luke xviii. 31.
[4984] St. Matt. xvi. 23.
[4985] St. Matt. xxvii. 56; comp. St. Mark xv. 40.
[4986] St. Mark ix. 38.
[4987] St. Luke ix. 54.
[4988] It is very remarkable that, in St. Matt. xx. 20, she bears the unusual title: the mother of Zebedee's children' (comp. also for the mention of Zebedee, St. Mark x. 35). This, evidently, to emphasise that the distinction was not asked on the ground of earthly kinship, as through Salome, who was the aunt of Jesus.
[4989] by St. Mark (x. 35).
[4990] St. Matt. xx. 20-28; St. Mark x. 35-45.
[4991] The clause in St. Matthew: and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptised with,' is probably a spurious insertion, taken from St. Mark's Gospel.
[4992] St. Matt, xx. 24, &c.; St. Mark x. 41 &c.
[4993] I have chosen these two words because the verbs in the Greek (which are the same in the two Gospels) express not ordinary dominion' and authority,' but a forcible and tyrannical exercise of it. The first verb occurs again in Acts xix. 16, and 1 Pet. v. 3; the second only in this passage in the Gospels.
[4994] St. Matt. xx. 28; St. Mark x. 45.
[4995] We would here call attention to some exquisitely beautiful and forcible remarks by Dean Plumptre on the passage.
[4996] Comp. Dean Plumptre, u. s.
[4997] St. John xiii.
[4998] Rom. iii. 24: 1 Cor. vi. 20; 1 Tim. ii. 6; 1 Pet. i. 19; 1 John iv. 10. __________________________________________________________________
CHAPTER XXIV. IN JERICHO AND AT BETHANY - JERICHO - A GUEST WITH ZACCHÆUS - THE HEALING OF BLIND BARTIMÆUS - THE PLOT AT JERUSALEM - AT BETHANY, AND IN THE HOUSE OF SIMON THE LEPER
(St. Luke xix. 1-10; St. Matt. xx. 29-34; St. Mark x. 46-52; St. Luke xviii. 35-43; St. John xi. 55-xii. 1; St. Matt. xxvi. 6-13; St. Mark xiv. 3-9; St. John xii. 2-11.)
ONCE more, and now for the last time, were the fords of Jordan passed, and Christ was on the soil of Judæa proper. Behind Him were Peræa and Galilee; behind Him the Ministry of the Gospel by Word and Deed; before Him the final Act of His Life, towards which all had consciously tended. Rejected as the Messiah of His people, not only in His Person but as regarded the Kingdom of God, which, in fulfilment of prophecy and of the merciful Counsel of God, He had come to establish, He was of set purpose going up to Jerusalem, there to accomplish His Decease, to give His Life a Ransom for many.' And He was coming, not, as at the Feast of Tabernacles, privately, but openly, at the head of His Apostles, and followed by many disciples - a festive band going up to the Paschal Feast, of which Himself was to be the Lamb' of sacrifice.
The first station reached was Jericho, the City of Palms,' a distance of only about six hours from Jerusalem. The ancient City occupied not the site of the present wretched hamlet, but lay about half an hour to the north-west of it, by the so-called Elisha-Spring. A second spring rose an hour further to the north-north-west. The water of these springs, distributed by aqueducts, gave, under a tropical sky, unsurpassed fertility to the rich soil along the plain' of Jericho, which is about twelve or fourteen miles wide. The Old Testament history of the City of Palms' is sufficiently known. It was here also that King Zedekiah had, on his flight, been seized by the Chaldeans, [4999] and thither a company of 345 men returned under Zerubbabel. [5000] In the war of liberation under the Maccabees the Syrians had attempted to fortify Jericho. [5001] These forts were afterwards destroyed by Pompey in his campaign. Herod the Great had first plundered, and then partially rebuilt, fortified, and adorned Jericho. It was here that he died. [5002] His son Archelaus also built there a palace. At the time of which we write, it was, of course, under Roman dominion. Long before, it had recovered its ancient fame for fertility and its prosperity. Josephus describes it as the richest part of the country, and calls it a little Paradise. Antony had bestowed the revenues of its balsam-plantations as an Imperial gift upon Cleopatra, who in turn sold them to Herod. Here grew palm-trees of various kinds, sycamores, the cypress-flower, [5003] the myrobalsamum, which yielded precious oil, but especially the balsam-plant. If to these advantages of climate, soil, and productions we add, that it was, so to speak, the key of Judæa towards the east, that it lay on the caravan-road from Damascus and Arabia, that it was a great commercial and military centre, and lastly, its nearness to Jerusalem, to which it formed the last station' on the road of the festive pilgrims from Galilee and Peræa - it will not be difficult to understand either its importance or its prosperity.