IV. ‘HE HUMBLE YET HEARTY PAGEANT. All was done es had been directed. 'The colt was brought and led quietly along, its mother by its side, accompanying it. Then the disciples cast their abbas, or outer garments, on them, and set Jesus upon them —éxdye abtay being either on the garments, or on one of the animals. ‘The former view is that of Theophylact, who refers the pronoun to the garments, saying, “ Not the two beasts of burden, but the garments;” so also Euthymius, Beza, and many others, Many explain the pronoun of the beasts of burden, but understand it variously—some supposing our Lord to have mounted them alternately ; others supplying tus, as Krebs and Kuinoel ; and others, again, having recourse to an enallage of number; while some copyists have ventured to substitute abred or abr#s, The intention of the disciples was to do their Master royal honour in the true Eastern style of improvising, and just as in Old Testament times, a throne had been extemporised for Jehu, as we read in 2 Kings ix. 13, “Then they hasted, and took every man his garment, and put it under him [Jehu] on the top of the stairs, and blew with trumpets, saying, Jehu is king.” Scarcely had the disciples prepared the housing and got their Master mounted on the colt thus caparisoned, when the very great multitude, or rather the most part of the multitude, not to be outdone in devotion and loyalty, strewed some their garments, while others cut down Lranches off the trees or out of the fields (aypay, read by Tischen- dorf and Tregelles), aud spread tllem in the way. Thus the streaming multitude from
‘On. XI. 1—33.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST, MARK. 148 (ee SE ee
Galilee, from Bethany—some before, some behind the central figure of the Saviour— tapestried the line of march with their garments, or strewed it with fronds (oroBdSas. a rare word, as if oreBddas, from ore/Bw, to tread ; and thus, that which is trodden on, a litter of leaves or bed of small leafy branches, then the material of such, viz. young branches). It may perhaps be worthy of note, that in the former case the aorist (éctpwoar) is used to denote the throwing down of their garments as a thing done readily and at once; while the cutting of the branches and the spreading of them in the way, as requiring more time, are expressed in the imperfect; that is, they kept cutting them and continued strewing them as they proceeded. Many similar tokens of honour and respect are on record, and practised even to the present day. Thus, when Mordecai issued from the palace of Ahasuerus, the streets (Targum on Esther) were strewn with myrtle; like honour was shown to Xerxes by his army before crossing the Hellespont ; 80 also, as we are informed by Robinson, in his ‘ Biblical Researches,’ the Bethlehemites threw their garments under the feet of the English consul’s horses at Damascus, when they bad come to implore his aid. In the ‘Agamemnon’ of Aischylus, too, we read that the doomed monarch, when entering the palace on his return to Mycensw, was, in imitation of the barbaric pomp of Eastern kings, tem)ted to walk on costly carpets.
V. A PEACEFUL THOUGH TRIUMPHAL PROCESSION. ‘The lowliness of the animal was in keeping with the character of the procession. It was humble, yet right royal. The ass in the East is stately, sprightly, sleek, and shiny; it is highly esteemed, and employed alike for work and ridiug. Persons of rank used it commonly for the latter purpose. Thus we read of Balaam, of Caleb’s daughter, and of Abigail riding on asses. Moses’ wife rode on an ass, as she went down with her husband from Midian into Egypt. At a still earlier period it was the same animal that Abraham rode on that eventful day, when, rising early in the morning, he saddled his ass and went to offer his son Isaac in sacrifice. It was, moreover, the animal on which the judges of Israel rode, as we learn from such passages as the following :—‘ Speak, ye that ride on white asses, ye that sit in judgment;” so also Jair the Gileadite, who judged Israel two and tweuty years, had,” as we read, “ thirty sons that rode on thirty ass colts, and they had thirty cities.’ We have evidence of the same in Jacob’s blessing of his sons, when he says of Issachar that he is “a strong ass, couching down between two burdens.” Animals unyoked or unused were employed for sacred purposes; thus, in Num. xix. 2, it is written, “Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring thee a red heifer without spot, wherein is no blemish, and upon which never came yoke; ” again, in 1 Sam. vi. 7, “Now therefore make as new cart, and take two milch kine, on which there hath come no yoke.” ‘Thus it was every way suited to the procession, sacred and solemn,
eful and royal, that advanced on this occasion towards Jerusalem. The horse, on the other hand, would have been unbecoming in such a procession, since the horse was the emblem of war from an early to a late period in Hebrew history; thus, in Exod. xv. we read, “Sing ye to the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea;” and also in Jer. viii. 6, ‘‘ Every one turned to his course, as the horse rusheth into the battle.”
VI. Txx PROcESSION FROM THE orry. Another crowd of persons, passing out of the city gates, crossed the Kedron, and advanced in one long continuous line up the opposite side of Olivet till it met the procession that accompanied our Lord. The persons that composed this crowd had been attracted by the miracle of the raising of Lazarus, and they bore their willing testimony to that stupendous fact, as St. John informs us (xii. 17), where we read dr, that, instead of dre, when, ‘The people therefore that was with him bare record that he called Lazarus out of his grave, und raised him from the dead.” The people from the city bore in their hands palm branclies, the emblems of victory. In the ancient games the crowns were various—olive, laurel, pine, or parsley ; but in every game the victor bore in his hand the palm branch of victory. Accordingly, with these palm branches in their hands, they welcomed him as victorious over death and the Conqueror of the king of terrors. Soon the crowd from Jerusalem and the mul- titude from Bethany met and mingled; and now all united formed one grand triumphal procession, the like of which had never climbed or crossed that hill before.
VII. Tue enrursiasm. The enthusiasm had reached its height. Hitherto the acknowledgment of the Saviour’s kingly power was confined to actions—those of himself and his disciples; now the multitudinous voices of the umited crowd made the welkin
144 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MARK. [on. x1. 1—33.