xi. 23) that the very site of Capernaum, then a flourishing

and populous place, is now one of the most hotly-contested points connected with the geography of Palestine: (i) some would place it at _Khân Minyeh_, at the N.E. end of the Plain of Gennesaret: (ii) others place the Fountain of Capernaum, mentioned by Josephus (_B. J._ III. 10. 8) at _Et-Tabiga_, a little to the north of _Khân Minyeh_, and the town itself at _Tell Hum_, where there are the remains of a place of considerable extent, “consisting chiefly of the fallen walls of dwellings and other buildings, all of unhewn stone.” Robinson, I. 540; Thomson, _L. and B._

258 ‒ Lange’s _Life of Christ_, II. 298.

259 ‒ Josephus (_B. J._ VI. 9. 3) estimates the number of lambs sacrificed at the Passover in the time of Nero at 256,500.

260 ‒ This cleansing of the Temple recorded by St John is clearly distinct from the later one mentioned by Mtt. xxi. 12, &c.; Mk. xi. 15, &c.; Lk. xix. 15, &c.

261 ‒ “Any Jew might come forward as a zealot against illegal abuses in the national life (Num. xxv. 7), but the greatest zealots generally justified their proceedings as prophets and workers of miracles (1 K. xviii. 23, 24). By His act the Lord had rebuked the whole nation, and the Sanhedrin itself; they demanded, therefore, a sign to legitimate His proceeding.” Lange, II. 300; Milman, I. 159 n.

262 ‒ How widely this mysterious saying, though misunderstood, was circulated, and how deep was the impression it made, is clear from several subsequent incidents. See Mtt. xxvi. 61; Mk. xiv. 58; Mtt. xxvii. 39, 40; Mk. xv. 29.

263 ‒ Comp. Jn. iii. 1; vii. 26, 50; Lk. xxiv. 20.

264 ‒ For the circumstances here alluded to see _Class-Book of O. T. History_, pp. 182, 183.

265 ‒ Ænon means _place of fountains_, a Greek form of the Chaldee word denoting the same.

266 ‒ According to Eusebius and Jerome, Salim existed in their day near the Jordan, eight Roman miles south of Scythopolis. In exact accordance with this position the name _Salûm_ has been lately discovered six English miles south of Beisan, and two miles west of the Jordan. Beside it there gushes out a splendid fountain, and rivulets wind about in all directions, so that of few places in Palestine could it be said so truly _there was much water there_. Van de Velde, II. 356.

267 ‒ Jos. _Ant._ XVIII. 5. 1.

268 ‒ Jos. _Ant._ XVIII. 5. 2.

269 ‒ See the Calendar in _Class-Book of O. T. History_, p. 155.

270 ‒ At this time called Sychar by the Jews of the south, in studied contempt, as denoting either _falsehood_, i.e. _idol-worship_ (Hab. ii. 18), or _drunkard_.

271 ‒ Jacob’s well is a spot the identity of which has never been seriously questioned; Jews and Samaritans, Christians and Mahommedans, unite in attesting it. It is situated “on the end of a low spur or swell, running out from the north-eastern base of Gerizim,” the mouth being encumbered by the ruins of a Christian church once built over it. “The width of the bore is about nine feet, the upper portion built in with neatly dressed and squared stones like the masonry of the wells of Beersheba, the lower portion hewn, to all appearance, out of the solid rock.” The well is still deep, about seventy-five or eighty feet, though evidently choked with many feet of rubbish, and oftentimes filled with much water. Robinson, III. 132; Tristram, 146; Stanley’s _S. and P._ pp. 240, 241.

272 ‒ On the feeling of the Samaritans towards the Jews, see above, p. 122.

273 ‒ For the building and destruction of the temple there, see above, pp. 3, and 57.

274 ‒ On the Samaritan expectation of the Messiah, see above, pp. 121, 122.

275 ‒ Τις βασιλικός (Jn. iv. 46). Some have supposed him to have been Chuza, Herod’s steward, whose wife was among the holy women that _ministered unto the Lord of their substance_ (Lk. viii. 3). “This is not wholly improbable,” writes Archbishop Trench, “for it would seem as if only some mighty and marvellous work of this kind would have drawn a steward of Herod’s with his family into the net of the Gospel,” _On the Miracles_, p. 119.

276 ‒ One hour after noon.

277 ‒ The true reading in Jn. v. 1 appears to be ἑορτή without the article, and the feast spoken of is identified by Wieseler, Tischendorf, Ellicott and others, with that of Purim; for the institution of which see _Class-Book of O. T. History_, p. 475.

278 ‒ By some identified with a large reservoir called the _Birket Israil_ within the walls of the city and close to St Stephen’s Gate, under the N.E. wall of the haram area. Robinson, however, identifies it with the “Fountain of the Virgin,” in the Kedron valley, a little above the pool of Siloam. Smith’s _Bibl. Dict._

279 ‒ Ellicott’s _Lectures_, pp. 141, 142.

280 ‒ For the service of the Synagogue see above, pp. 111–113.

281 ‒ “They arose,” it is said of the infuriated inhabitants, “and cast Him out of the city, and brought Him to _a brow of the mountain_ (ἕως ὀφρύος τοῦ ὄρους) on which the city was built, so as to _cast Him down the cliff_ (ὥστε κατακρημνίσαι αὐτόν). Most readers probably from these words imagine a town built on the summit of a mountain, from which summit the intended precipitation was to take place. This is not the situation of Nazareth. Yet its position is still in accordance with the narrative. It is built ‘upon,’ that is, on the side of ‘a mountain,’ but the ‘brow’ is not beneath but over the town, and such a cliff (κρημνός), as is here implied, is to be found, as all modern travellers describe, in the abrupt face of the limestone rock, about thirty or forty feet high, overhanging the Maronite convent at the south-western corner of the town.” Stanley’s _S. and P._, p. 367; Robinson, II. 335; Tristram’s _Land of Israel_, p. 121.

282 ‒ “The Saviour _came down_ (Lk. iv. 31; Jn. iv. 47, 51) from the high country of Galilee, where He had hitherto dwelt, and from henceforth made His permanent home in the deep retreat of the sea of Galilee.... It was no retired mountain-lake by whose shore He took up His abode, such as might have attracted the eastern sage or western hermit. It was to the Roman Palestine almost what the manufacturing districts are to England. Nowhere, except in the capital itself, could He have found such a sphere for His works and words of mercy; from no other centre could _His fame_ have so gone throughout all Syria (Mtt. iv. 24).... Far removed from the capital, mingled with the Gentile races of Lebanon and Arabia, the dwellers by the sea of Galilee were free from most of the strong prejudices which in the south of Palestine raised a bar to His reception. _The people in the land of Zabulon and Nephthalim, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles_, had _sat in darkness_; but from that very cause _they saw_ more clearly _the great Light_ when it came: _to them which sat in the region and the shadow of death_, for that very reason _light sprang_ up the more readily. He came to _preach the Gospel to the poor_, _to the weary and heavy laden; to seek and to save that which was lost_. Where could He find work so readily as in the ceaseless toil and turmoil of these teeming villages and busy waters? The heathen or half-heathen _publicans_ or tax-gatherers would be there, sitting by the lake side _at the receipt of custom_. The _women who were sinners_ would there have come, either from the neighbouring Gentile cities, or corrupted by the license of Gentile manners. The Roman soldiers would there be found quartered with their slaves (Luke vii. 2), to be near the palaces of the Herodian princes, or to repress the turbulence of the Galilæan peasantry. And the hardy boatmen, filled with the faithful and grateful spirit by which that peasantry was always distinguished, would supply the energy and docility which He needed for His followers.” Stanley’s _S. and P._ 375–377; comp. Jos. _B. J._ III. 3. 2.

283 ‒ Milman, I. 177; Andrews, p. 179.

284 ‒ The notice of _the hired servants_ (Mark i. 20), the _two vessels_ employed (Luke v. 7), and the subsequent mention of St John’s acquaintance with one in so high a position as the high priest (John xviii. 15), seem to indicate that Zebedee, if not a wealthy man, was at any rate of no mean position in Capernaum. See Ellicott, 169 n.

285 ‒ Trench, _Miracles_, 127, 128.

286 ‒ Comp. Exod. xx. 18, 19; Judg. xiii. 22; Dan. x. 17; Isai. vi. 5.

287 ‒ Trench, 232.

288 ‒ Or “great fever,” one of the expressions often cited as illustrating St Luke’s professional acquaintance with disease. The Greek medical writers recognised a marked distinction between “great” and “small” fevers.

289 ‒ See _Class-Book of Old Testament History_, p. 150.

290 ‒ Comp. Mk. vi. 11, _for a testimony unto them_, with Luke ix. 5, _for a testimony against them_.

291 ‒ The identity of Matthew and Levi seems to follow from

(i) The perfect agreement in the narratives of the calling of the one (Matt. ix. 10), and of the other (Mark ii. 15; Luke v. 29);

(ii) The absence from the lists of the Apostles of any trace of the name _Levi_, while that of _Matthew_ occurs in all.

It is not improbable that the grateful “publican” changed his name after and in memory of his call, so that he, who was before called Levi, was now known as Matthew, or Matthias, which is equivalent to _Theodore_, the “gift of God.” See Ellicott’s _Lectures_, 172 n.

292 ‒ Ellicott’s _Lectures_, p. 173.

293 ‒ By some explained as

(i) The Sabbath that succeeded the second day of the Passover;

(ii) The 15th of Nisan, the 14th being, it is asserted, always coincident with the Sabbath;

(iii) The first Sabbath of a year that stood second in a Sabbatical cycle.

294 ‒ “He that reapeth corn on the Sabbath, to the quantity of a fig, is guilty; and plucking corn is as reaping.” Lightfoot, quoting the Mishna.

295 ‒ See above, p. 159.

296 ‒ See above, p. 159.

297 ‒ It was probably now that the Saviour called these brothers Boanerges, “_Sons of Thunder_,” from their burning and impetuous spirit, of which we trace indications in Lk. ix. 54, Mk. ix. 38.

298 ‒ See above, p. 159.

299 ‒ See above, p. 159, n.

300 ‒ See above, p. 182.

301 ‒ See above, p. 148.

302 ‒ Tradition places the scene of the Sermon on the Mount on a hill known as the “Horns of Hattin,” a ridge no great distance from _Tell Hûm_, running east and west for about a quarter of a mile, and called by the Latins the Mount of Beatitudes. Stanley thinks “the situation so strikingly coincides with the intimations of the Gospel narrative as almost to force the inference, that in this instance the eye of those who selected the spot was for once rightly guided,” _S. and P._ p. 360. On the peculiar acoustic properties of the neighbourhood, see Tristram’s _Land of Israel_, p. 433.

303 ‒ In reference to the Sermon on the Mount as related by St Matthew and St Luke, it may be observed that the differences are on the whole few when compared with the resemblances: Thus (i) both have the same beginning and ending; (ii) the order is generally similar; (iii) the expressions are often identical; (iv) the audience (Mtt. iv. 25; Lk. vi. 17; Mk. iii. 7, 8) was the same, and included crowds from every part of the land; (v) probably St Matthew relates it _substantially_ as it was delivered, and writing for Jews retains those portions which relate to the Jewish sects and customs, while St Luke has modified it to meet the wants of those for whom he more especially wrote. Ellicott’s _Lectures_, p. 180, n. and Andrews, p. 223.

304 ‒ Trench _On the Miracles_, pp. 225, 226.

305 ‒ Ellicott’s _Lectures_, p. 181.

306 ‒ Now called _Neïn_. It was near the source of the brook Kishon, not far from Endor, and 2½ leagues from Nazareth. The name means “the lovely,” and was perhaps given on account of its pleasant situation in the plain of Esdraelon.

307 ‒ Jos. _B. J._ VII. 6. 1–3.

308 ‒ Like Socrates, the Baptist, though in confinement, was allowed to hold intercourse with his disciples. Comp. Mtt. xxv. 36; Acts xxiv. 23. Lange, III. 116, n.

309 ‒ Milman, I. 215.

310 ‒ Lange, III. 108.

311 ‒ Ellicott, p. 182.

312 ‒ There is no real ground for identifying this woman with Mary Magdalene. It is true that she was a victim of Satanic influence (Lk. viii. 2), but it does not follow that she had been guilty of sins of impurity.

313 ‒ This anointing is not to be confounded with that recorded in Mtt. xxvi. 6, &c., Mk. xiv. 3, &c., Jn. xii. 1, &c. The two anointings differ in time, and place, as well as the chief actors. Trench _On the Parables_, p. 290.

314 ‒ Trench _On the Parables_, pp. 289–293.

315 ‒ See above, p. 171.

316 ‒ See Ellicott, p. 184, and note.

317 ‒ On the scenery around the lake which would suggest the majority of the Parables now delivered, see a striking passage in Stanley’s _Sinai and Palestine_, pp. 425–427. “A slight recess in the hill-side, close upon the Plain of Gennesaret, disclosed at once, in detail, and with a conjunction I remember nowhere else in Palestine, every feature of the great parable of the Sower;” there was

i. The undulating _corn-field_ descending close to the water’s edge, over which hovered countless _birds_ of various kinds. Comp. also Tristram, p. 431;

ii. The _trodden pathway_ running through the midst of it, with no fence or hedge to prevent the seed from falling here and there on either side of it or upon it; itself hard with the constant tramp of horse and mule and human feet;

iii. The _rocky ground_ of the hill side protruding here and there through the corn-fields, as elsewhere through the grassy slopes;

iv. The large _bushes of thorn_, the “Nabk,” springing up like the fruit-trees of the more inland parts, in the very midst of the waving wheat;

v. The _good rich soil_, which distinguishes the whole of the Plain of Gennesaret and its neighbourhood from the bare hills elsewhere descending into the lake, and which, where there is no interruption, produces one vast mass of corn;