[5021] St. John xii. 10,11.
[5022] On the precise dates, see the Commentaries. It has been impossible here to discuss in detail every little difficulty. Rather has it been thought best to tell the events, as we regard them as having taken place. See Nebe, Leidensgesch. i. pp. 23, 24.
[5023] St. John xii. 1.
[5024] Hengstenberg.
[5025] Ewald.
[5026] Those, if any, who identify this Mary with the Magdalene, and regard the anointing of St. Luke vii. 36, &c., as identical with that of Bethany, are referred, for full discussion and refutation, to Nebe, Leidensgesch. vol. i. pp. 21 &c., 30 &c.
[5027] Unguenta optime servantur in alabastris (Plin. H. N. xiii. 2, 3). These alabasters' - for the flask itself obtained that name from the stone used - had at the top the form of a cylinder, and are likened by Pliny to a closed rose-bud.
[5028] Kerith. 6 a.
[5029] Hist. Nat. xii. 12, 26.
[5030] xii. 12, 26.
[5031] The expression pistik has giver rise to much controversy. Of the various renderings, that by genuine' has most in its favour. For a full discussion see Nebe, u. s. pp. 33, 34, and Meyer on St. Mark xiv. 3-9.
[5032] On the various mixtures of precious ointments, their adulteration, the cost of the various ingredients, and the use made of perfumes in Palestine, see Herzfeld, u. s. pp. 99, 100, 191, 192.
[5033] See Book III. chap. xxi.
[5034] St. Matt. xxvi. 13.
[5035] St. Mark xiv. 8.
[5036] St. Matthew and St. Mark.
[5037] St. John. There is manifestly neither contradiction nor divergence here between the Evangelists. Mary first poured the nard over the Head, and then over His Feet (Godet sees this implied in the katcheen ato of St. Mark). St. John notices the anointing of the Feet, not only as the act of greatest humility and the mark of deepest veneration, but from its unusual character, while anointing of the head was not so uncommon. We recall the ideal picture of Aaron when anointed to the priesthood, Ps. cxxxiii. 2, to mark here the fulfilment of the type when the Great High-Priest was anointed for His Sacrifice. She who had so often sat at His feet, now anoints them, and alike for love, reverence, and fellowship of His sufferings, will not wipe them but with her hair.
[5038] St. John.
[5039] St. Mark xiv. 41. __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________
Book V. THE CROSS AND THE CROWN.
Ave, Scala peccatorum,
Qua ascendit rex coelorum,
Ut ad choros Angelorum
Homo sic ascenderet;
In te vitam reparavit
Auctor vitæ, proles David,
Et sic se humiliavit.
Ut mundum redimeret.
Ap. Daniel, Thes. Hymnol. vol. v. p. 183.
The blessing from the cloud that showers,
In wondrous twofold birth
Of heaven is and earth -
He is both yours, ye hosts, and ours:
Hosannah, David's Son,
For victory is won!
He left us with a blessing here,
And took it to the sky;
The blessing from on high
Bespeaks to us His Presence near:
Hosannah, David's Son,
For victory is won!'
(From an Ascension Hymn). - A. E. __________________________________________________________________
CHAPTER I. THE FIRST DAY IN PASSION-WEEK - PALM-SUNDAY - THE ROYAL ENTRY INTO JERUSALEM
(St. Matt. xxi. 1-11; St. Mark xi. 1-11; St. Luke xix. 29-44; St. John xii. 12-19.)
At length the time of the end had come. Jesus was about to make Entry into Jerusalem as King: King of the Jews, as Heir of David's royal line, with all of symbolic, typic, and prophetic import attaching to it. Yet not as Israel after the flesh expected its Messiah was the Son of David to make triumphal entrance, but as deeply and significantly expressive of His Mission and Work, and as of old the rapt seer had beheld afar off the outlined picture of the Messiah-King: not in the proud triumph of war-conquests, but in the meek' rule of peace.
It is surely one of the strangest mistakes of modern criticism to regard this Entry of Christ into Jerusalem as implying that, fired by enthusiasm, He had for the moment expected that the people would receive Him as the Messiah. [5040] And it seems little, if at all better, when this Entry is described as an apparent concession to the fevered expectations of His disciples and the multitude . . . the grave, sad accommodation to thoughts other than His own to which the Teacher of new truths must often have recourse when He finds Himself misinterpreted by those who stand together on a lower level.' [5041] Apologies' are the weakness of Apologetics' - and any accommodation' theory can have no place in the history of the Christ. On the contrary, we regard His Royal Entry into the Jerusalem of Prophecy and of the Crucifixion as an integral part of the history of Christ, which would not be complete, nor thoroughly consistent, without it. It behoved Him so to enter Jerusalem, because He was a King; and as King to enter it in such manner, because He was such a King - and both the one and the other were in accordance with the prophecy of old.