and from the scribes. These escapes, as reported by Mark, take place in all directions possible for one whose work lay on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee: towards the hill behind, towards the eastern shore, towards the northern borderland. Five in all are mentioned: one to the hill;1 two to the eastern shore, first in an eastward,’ then in a northerly direction;* two to the north, first to the borders of Tyre and Sidon,‘ next to the neigh- bourhood of Caesarea Philippi. All had the same end in view: the instruction of the disciples. It was in connection with the first that the “Sermon on the Mount,” or the Teaching on the Hill, though not mentioned by Mark, was doubtless communicated. The second and third attempts, the flights across the lake, were unsuccessful, being frustrated in the first case by an accidental meeting with a demoniac, and in the second by the determination of the multitude not to let Jesus get away from the:~. Therefore, to make sure, the Master had to retire with His tisciples to the northern limits of the land, and even beyond them, into Gentile territory, that there He might, undisturbed, talk to His disciples about the crisis that He now clearly perceived to be approaching.
9. These last flights of Jesus take us on to a point in the story considerably in advance of the end of the third section, chap. vi. 13. The material lying between this place and chap. viii. 27 shows us the progress of the drama under the ever-intensifying influence of the two great forces, popularity and hostility. The multitude grows ever larger till it reaches the dimensions of 5000,° and the enmity of the scribes becomes ever more acute as the divergence of the ways of Jesus from theirs becomes increasingly manifest, and His ab- horrence of their doctrines and spirit receives more unreserved expression.’ After the encounter with the scribes occasioned by the neglect of the disciple-circle to comply with Rabbinical customs in the matter of ceremonial ablutions, Jesus felt that it was a mere question of time when the enmity of His foes would culminate in an effort to compass His death. What He had now to do therefore was to prepare Himself and His disciples for the end. Accord- ingly, Mark reports that after that incident Jesus went thence into the borders of Tyre and Sidon, desiring that no one should know.® He could not be hid even there, and so to make sure of privacy He seems to have made a wide excursion into heathen territory, through Tyre and Sidon, possibly across the moun-
1 Chap. iii. 13. 2 Chap. iv. 35. Σ Chap. vi. 30. ‘Chap. vii. 24. 5 Chap. viii. 27. 6 Chap. vi. 44. 7 Chap. vii. 1-23. ® Chap. vii. 24.