The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 2 — Section 281

eelvC'e in vain in seeking to harmonize every like those of Egypt; so that now, as in the little detail in the Goepel narratives. No similar ce.ee of Babylon, Nineveh, or Egypt, two, much Ieee throe, independent witnessee after long desolation, hardly a trace of them would give an identical aooount of an remains." A great multitude. A vast crowd of pilgrims, bound for Jerusalem to keep incident, espeoie.lly one which roe.ched the Paasover, accompanied Jesus and his eome of them only by h ~ . Inspiration disciples. The number of people that this extends not to petty oiroumstancee, e.nd the great fes~ive.l e.ttraoted to the oentre.l place credibility of the goepel depends not on the of worship seems to us inoredibly large. rectifice.tion of such minutim. Josephus ('Bell. Jud,,' vi. 9. 8) reckons them e.t three millions. Doubtless our Lord Ver. 29.-Jericho. The Lord we.a on his was followed by many of those whom he we.y to Jerusalem to meet the death which had benefiterl, and others whom he ho.d won he wa.e "illing to undergo, and to win the by hie teaching; and these, at any rate, victory which he was by thie pe.th to e.ccom- would witness the ensuing miracle. plieh. His route lay througb Jericho, as Ver. 30.-Two blind men. St. l\111tthew the me.rch of hie forerunner Joshua he.d led. is doubtless e.oourate in this ste.tement. .Joshua. he.d set forth to conquer the promised Tradition might easily drop one of the suf- ~nd ;_ Jei,us sets forth to win his promised ferers in the course of time, but it ie not inhenta.nce by the sword of the Spirit. likely to have multiplied one into two. "The upland pa.etures of Perma were now These sufferers had heard of the miracles of behind them," ee.ys Dr. Geil..-ie, speaking of bee.ling performed by Jesus in his various the e.pproach to Jericho (' The Life of circuits, and especially of the late oure at Christ,' ii. 384), "and the road led down Jerusalem of one born blind, and they were to the sun.ken channel of the Jordan, and ready to believe in hie power and to profit the • di vine district ' of Jericho. This by his mercy. Heard. The beggars (Mark sme.11 but rich plain was the most luxuriant L 46), debarred from sight, had their e.tt,,n- spot in Palestine. Sloping gently upwards tion a.roused by the tread of numerous feet, from the level of the Desd Sea, 1350 feet and the voices of the excited orowd, and under the Mediterranean, to the stem back- nature.Uy asked the bystanders to tell ground of the hills of Que.ranta.ne., it had them what it e.11 meant. When they heard the climate of Lower Egypt, and displayed that Jesus was there, the hope of relief im- the vegete.tion of the tropics. Its fig trees mediately rushed into their mind. Have were pre-eminently famoUB ; it was unique meroy on us, 0 Lord, thou Bon of David! .in its growth of palms of ve.rioUB kinds; its "0 Lord" ie only the usual reepectful ad- crops of de.tea were e. proverb ; the balsam dress of e.n inferior to one in higher station ; plant, which grew principally here, furnished but to ce.11 on Jesus as "Son of David" was a costly perfume, and was in great repute virtually to acknowledge him to be the for healing wounds ; mRize yielded a double Messiah, who, e.s old prophets foretold, we.e harvest; wheat ripened a whole month to open the eyes of the blind (Isa. xxix. 18 ; earlier than in Galilee, and innumerable xn:v. 5). The same cry had been raised bees found a pa.re.dise in the many aromatic by the blind men who were cured earlier in flowers and plants, not a few unknown else- the ministry (eh. ix. 27), and by the Syro- where, which filled the air with odours and Phcenician woman (eh. xv. 22, where see the landscape with beauty. Rieing like e.n note). How these men he.d learned the amphitheatre from a.midst thie luxarie.nt truth we kuow not ; they could not see or scene, lay Jericho, the chief place ea.et of read for themselves; their faith must have Jerusalem, at seven or eight miles diete.nt come by hearing, and the inwa.rd illumina- from the Jordan, on swelling slopes, seven tion of the Holy Spirit. hundred feet above the bed of the river, from Ver. 31.-Rebu.ked them, beoe.use (fva, in which its gardens and groves, thickly inter- order that) they should hold their peaoe. epersed with mansions, and covering seventy The motive of the crowd, in thus silenoing furlongs from north to south, and twenty the blind men, has been explained in two from east to west, were divided by e. strip of ways - either they grudged tho.t Christ wildem011B. The town had had e,n event- should be addressed by the high title of fol history. Once the stronghold of the " Son of David: " or they desired to spa.re Canaanite&, it was still, in the de.ye of him unseemly importunity and unreason- Christ, surrounded by towers and castles. able interruption in his journey. As the A great stone aqueduct of eleven arches multitude show no signs of hostility at this brought e. copious snpply of water to the time, the latter suggestion seems most pro- city, and the Roman milite.ry road ran bable. They cried the more. The o.ttemptod through it. The hoUBes themselves, how- check only ma.de !hem more ea.meat in their ever, though showy, were not subste.ntie.l, entreaty. The opportunity now offered but were built mOl!tly of Bun-dried bricks, might never preeont itself a.gain. The ou, n. 1-34.] 'IHE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW. 28fi