vi. 10) still fresh in the spring of the year, before it

had faded away in the summer sun――the tall grass which, broken down by the feet of the thousands there gathered together, would make as it were couches (Mk. vi. 39, 40) for them to recline upon.” Stanley’s _S. and P._ 381.

336 ‒ Trench, _Miracles_, p. 271, and note.

337 ‒ The Western Bethsaida, the city of Philip, and Andrew, and Peter, is placed by Robinson at the modern _Et-Tabighah_, by Ritter at _Khân Minyeh_. Ellicott, 207, note.

338 ‒ The proper Jewish reckoning recognised only _three_ such watches, entitled (i) _the first or beginning of the watches_ (Lam. ii. 19), lasting from sunset to 10 P.M.; (ii) _the middle watch_ (Judg. vii. 19), from 10 P.M. to 2 A.M.; (iii) _the morning watch_ (Ex. xiv. 24; 1 Sam. xi. 11), from 2 A.M. to sunrise. After the Roman supremacy the number of watches was increased to _four_, sometimes described by their numerical order (as Mtt. xiv. 25), sometimes by the terms “_even_,” closing at 9 P.M.; “_midnight_;” “_cock-crowing_” at 3 A.M.; “_morning_” at 6 A.M.; See Smith’s _Bibl. Dict._

339 ‒ Scarcely, therefore, more than half the way, the lake being 40 or 45 furlongs in breadth.

340 ‒ “The contrary wind, which, blowing up the lake from the south-west would prevent the boat of the Apostles from returning to Capernaum, would also bring _other boats_ (Jn. vi. 16–24) from Tiberias, the chief city on the south, to Julias, the chief city on the north, and so enable the multitudes, when the storm had subsided, to cross at once, without the long journey on foot which they had made the day before.” Stanley’s _S. and P._, p. 382.

341 ‒ _Verily, verily, I say unto you_, Jn. vi. 26; vi. 32; vi. 47; vi. 53.

342 ‒ If it was not actually being celebrated. Many hold that the day on which this momentous discourse was delivered in the synagogue of Capernaum was the 15th of Nisan, the second day of the Paschal Feast. See Wieseler, p. 281; Tischendorf, _Synop. Evang._ XXXIV.; Ellicott’s _Hulsean Lectures_, p. 210 and note.

343 ‒ Ὁ ἅγιος τοῦ θεοῦ (Jn. vi. 69): such appears to be the preferable reading. See Scrivener’s Greek Testament.

344 ‒ It is not necessary to regard the statements in Mk. vi. 54, 55 as descriptive of an activity confined to that one day. Andrews, p. 269.

345 ‒ Lange on Mtt. xv. 21.

346 ‒ A _woman of Canaan_ according to St Matthew (xv. 22), _a Greek_ or _Syrophœnician_ according to St Mark (vii. 26). The first term describes her religion, that it was not Jewish, but heathen; the second, the stock of which she came, “which was even that accursed stock once doomed of God to a total excision, but of which some branches had been spared by those first generations of Israel that should have extirpated them root and branch. (See _Class-Book of Old Testament History_, pp. 225–227.) Everything, therefore, was against this woman, yet she was not hindered by that everything from drawing nigh, and craving the boon that her soul longed after,” Trench, _Parables_, p. 339.

347 ‒ If not _through Sidon_, according to a reading, διὰ Σιδῶνος, in Mk. vii. 31, found in several MSS., in several ancient Versions, and adopted by Tischendorf, Alford, Tregelles and others, and “which certainly appears to deserve the preference thus almost unanimously given to it.” Ellicott, 218, n. What part of the Decapolis the Lord visited is not mentioned.

348 ‒ Not, indeed, absolutely dumb, but unable to utter intelligible sounds, having, as our Version renders the word, an impediment in his speech; Greek μογιλάλος = βραδύγλωσσος.

349 ‒ _He put His fingers into His ears, and spat, and touched His tongue, and looking up to heaven He sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened_ (Mk. vii. 34).

350 ‒ Trench, _Miracles_, p. 353.

351 ‒ Lange on Mtt. xv. 32.

352 ‒ _Where_ is not very distinctly specified. All we can certainly gather is that it was on the Eastern side of the lake, and in a _desert spot_ (Mtt. xv. 33), possibly about the middle or southern end of the Lake.

353 ‒ The baskets on this occasion are called σπυρίδες (comp. Acts ix. 25), on the occasion of the feeding of the Five Thousand, κόφινος (Mtt. xiv. 20 and the parallels). When alluding to the two miracles subsequently (Matt. xvi. 9, 10; Mk. viii. 19, 20), the Saviour preserves the distinction. For the word κόφινος, compare Juvenal, III. 13,

Judæis, quorum cophinus fœnumque supellex.

354 ‒ Possibly the ship kept specially for His own use.

355 ‒ Now unanimously identified with a miserable collection of hovels (Stanley’s _S. and P._, p. 382) known as _el-Mejdel_, on the western side of the lake, and at the S.E. corner of the Plain of Gennesaret. Its name “is hardly altered from the ancient Magdala or Migdol, so called, probably, from an ancient watch-tower that guarded the entrance of the plain.” Stanley, _l. c._; compare Tristram, p. 425; Thomson, _L. and B._

356 ‒ “Just before reaching Mejdel we crossed a little open valley, the _Ain-el-Baridah_, with a few rich corn-fields and gardens straggling among the ruins of a village, and some large and more ancient foundations by several copious fountains, and probably identified with the Dalmanutha of the New Testament.” Tristram, _l. c._ “We conjecture that the Lord touched the shore somewhere between these two villages.” Lange on Mtt. xv. 39.

357 ‒ Comp. Jn. ii. 18, above, p. 164; Jn. vi. 30, above, p. 211. A sign from heaven denoted either (i) some visible manifestation of the _Shechinah_, or (ii) some change in the sun or moon, some meteor, or thunder and lightning. Comp. Lange on Mtt. xvi. 1.

358 ‒ A town, not Canaanite but Roman, “in its situation, in its exuberance of water, its olive-groves, and its view over the distant plain, almost a Syrian Tivoli.” Stanley’s _S. and P._, p. 398. (i) Its ancient name was _Panium_ or _Paneas_ (Jos. _Ant._ XV. 10. 3, and see above, p. 13), so called from a cavern near the town, “abrupt, prodigiously deep, and full of still water,” adopted by the Greeks of the Macedonian kingdom of Antioch as “the nearest likeness that Syria affords of the beautiful limestone grottos which in their own country were inseparably associated with the worship of the sylvan Pan,” and dedicated to that deity. Hence its modern appellation, _Banias_. (ii) The town retained its old name under Herod the Great, who built here a splendid temple, of the whitest marble, which he dedicated to Augustus Cæsar (see above, p. 94). But Herod Philip made great additions to the town (Jos. _Ant._ XVIII. 2. 1; _B. J._ II. 9. 1), and called it Cæsarea Philippi, partly after his own name, and partly after that of the Emperor. Agrippa II. afterwards called it Neronias (Jos. _Ant._ XX. 9. 4), and here Titus exhibited gladiatorial shows at the close of the Jewish war (Jos. _B. J._ VII. 2. 1).

359 ‒ i. The _Baptism_ (Lk. iii. 21); ii. The _Election of the Twelve_ (Lk. vi. 12, 13); iii. The _Discourse in the Synagogue_ of Capernaum (Mtt. xiv. 23); iv. Now _the Transfiguration_ (Lk. ix. 28); v. The _Agony_ (Lk. xxii. 44).

360 ‒ Stier, II. 329; Lange’s _Life of Christ_, III. 229.

361 ‒ Already by His very name the deepest purport of His mission had been declared to be the _delivery of His people from their sin_ (Mtt. i. 21); already the aged Symeon had foreseen _heart-piercing anguish_ in store for His mother (Lk. ii. 35); already the Baptist had twice pointed Him out as the _Lamb of God_ destined _to take away the sin of the world_ (Jn. i. 29); already at the first Passover He had spoken to the Jews of a _Temple to be destroyed and rebuilt in three days_ (Jn. ii. 19); and to Nicodemus of _a lifting up of the Son of Man_ even as Moses had _lifted up the serpent in the wilderness_ (Jn. iii. 12–16); already at the second Passover He had declared that He was about to give His flesh _for the life of the world_, that His flesh was _meat indeed_, and His blood _drink indeed_ (Jn. vi. 47–51).

362 ‒ See above, p. 201.

363 ‒ Stanley, _S. and P._, 399; Lightfoot on Mk. ix. 2.

364 ‒ It is clear that the occurrence was no waking vision or “dream.” Peter and they that were with him _had been weighed by sleep_ (ἦσαν βεβαρημένοι ὕπνῳ), _but they thoroughly roused themselves_ (διαγρηγορήσαντες δέ), _and saw_ His glory and the two men standing with Him. Lk. ix. 32. See Alford _in loc._

365 ‒ Ἔλεγον τὴν ἔξοδον αὐτοῦ, Lk. ix. 31. “An unusual construction of λέγειν,” it has been remarked, “though it occurs again in Rom. iv. 6, and in the earliest ecclesiastical writers, in the sense of _recounting, relating the details of, describing_.” Westcott’s _Introd. to the Study of the Gospels_, p. 298, n. For the word Ἔξοδος here used compare Wisdom vii. 6; 2 Pet. i. 5.

366 ‒ Trench, _Miracles_, p. 361.

367 ‒ The _Didrachma_ (Matt. xvii. 24) was exactly the sum mentioned in Ex. xxx. 11–16, due for the current expenses of the tabernacle, and afterwards of the Temple. The shekels, half-shekels, and quarter-shekels, which the Jews were permitted in the time of the Maccabees to coin (see above, pp. 55, 56), becoming scarce, and not being coined any more, “it became the custom to estimate the Temple-dues as two drachmas (the δίδραχμον here required),” Trench, _Miracles_, p. 373.

368 ‒ Κῆνσος = the capitation-tax; τέλη = customs or tolls on goods, Trench, _Miracles_, p. 380.

369 ‒ The coin he was told he would find in the fish’s mouth was a _Stater_ (στατήρ, Matt. xvii. 27) = a whole shekel, which amounted to about 3 shillings and 3 pence, or just the sum required.

370 ‒ From Mtt. xiii. 56 we learn that their names were _James_, _Joses_, _Judas_, and _Simon_. By some they are regarded as the actual brethren of our Lord; by others as his first cousins, being the sons of Alphæus or Clopas and Mary the sister of the Virgin.

371 ‒ Ellicott, 246 n.

372 ‒ Ellicott, 249.

373 ‒ See _Class-Book of Old Testament History_, p. 403.

374 ‒ Comp. Jn. v. 16–18, and see above, p. 173.

375 ‒ Milman, I. 244.

376 ‒ See _Class-Book of O. T. History_, p. 154, and note.

377 ‒ “This was not historically true; for two prophets at least had arisen from Galilee: Jonah of Gath-hepher, and the greatest of the prophets, Elijah of Thisbe; and perhaps also Nahum and Hosea. Their contempt for Galilee made them lose sight of historical accuracy.” Alford _in loc._

378 ‒ Milman, _Hist. of Christianity_, I. 246.

379 ‒ Milman, I. 246.

380 ‒ Lightfoot (Wks. I. 325) says they were 13 in number, and stood in the Court of the Women.

381 ‒ Ellicott, p. 256.

382 ‒ From the fact that the Jews divided the heathen world into 70 nations, it has been supposed that this mission of “the Seventy” hinted at the future destination of the Gospel for the whole world, just as the mission of “the Twelve” Apostles typified its first offer to the twelve tribes of Israel. Lightfoot, _Hor. Heb. in Joann._ VII. 37. Lange’s _Life of Christ_, III. 403 n. E. T.

383 ‒ This village, now called _el’ Azarîyeh_, from the name of Lazarus, is situated on the E. slope of the Mount of Olives, “not very far from the point at which the road to Jericho begins its more sudden descent towards the Jordan valley.” Bethany is usually taken to mean _House of Dates_, just as Bethphage close by denotes _House of Figs_. Another explanation is _House of Misery, Poor-House_, see Deutsch’s Note in Hepworth Dixon’s _Holy Land_, II. 214–219.

384 ‒ Several circumstances appear to indicate that the family at Bethany were not amongst the poorest of their people: _e.g._ (i) They possess a family vault (Jn. xi. 38), which was a privilege of the wealthier orders; (ii) The number of Jews (Jn. xi. 19) who assembled from Jerusalem to condole with them were of the higher class (comp. St John’s use of the term Ἰουδαῖοι in i. 19; vii. 13; viii. 22; ix. 22, &c.); (iii) the costly box of spikenard with which Mary anointed the Saviour’s feet (Jn. xii. 3). Trench _On the Miracles_, 410.

385 ‒ “To this period we may assign that instructive series of discourses which extend from the middle of the xth to the middle of the xiiith chapter of St Luke.” Ellicott, p. 257.

386 ‒ Such as the cure of a deaf and dumb demoniac (Lk. xi. 14, 15).

387 ‒ On the blood of Zacharias the son of Barachias, who perished between the sanctuary (ναός) and the altar of burnt-offering, see _Class-Book of O. T. History_, p. 425, and note.

388 ‒ Trench _On the Parables_, p. 341.

389 ‒ Distracting anxiety. Such is the full force of μέριμνα, from μερίζειν _to divide, cleave asunder_.

390 ‒ On the “Lily” of Palestine, see Stanley, _S. and P._ pp. 139, 429. “The lilies of the field are all out, a few tulips cover the rocks, but the scarlet anemone (_Anemone coronaria_, L.) now dominates everywhere, and a small blue bulbous iris, almost rivalling it in abundance and brilliancy of colour. There have been many claimants for the distinctive honour of _the lilies of the field_; but while it seems most natural to view the term as a generic expression (comp. Stanley, _S. and P._, p. 429), yet if one special flower was more likely than another to catch the eye of the Lord as He spoke, no one familiar with the flora of Palestine in spring-time can hesitate in assigning the place to the anemone,” Tristram’s _Land of Israel_, p. 433.

391 ‒ See above, p. 151.

392 ‒ See above, p. 148.

393 ‒ This outrage very probably was, if not the cause, at least one of the causes of the quarrel between Herod and Pilate, alluded to in Lk. xxiii. 12.

394 ‒ Trench _On the Parables_, p. 343.

395 ‒ Compare the same argument as addressed to the patriarch Job, _Class-Book of O. T. History_, p. 24.

396 ‒ Probably close to the fountain of Siloam: see above, p. 235.

397 ‒ Trench _On the Parables_, p. 346.

398 ‒ _Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish._ “As the tower of Siloam fell and crushed 18 of the dwellers at Jerusalem, exactly so multitudes of its inhabitants were crushed beneath the ruins of their temple and their city; and during the last siege and assault of that city, there were numbers also who were pierced through by the Roman darts, or more miserably yet by those of their own frantic factions (Jos. _B. J._ V. 1. 3), in the courts of the temple, in the very act of preparing their sacrifices, so that literally their blood, like that of these Galilæans, was mingled with their sacrifices, one blood with another.” Trench _On the Parables_, p. 346.

399 ‒ Trench _On the Parables_, p. 323.

400 ‒ Trench _On the Parables_, p. 326.

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

402 ‒ For its institution, see above, p. 36, and _Class-Book of O. T. History_, p. 154.

403 ‒ See above, p. 96. “This cloister had its name from the circumstance that, according to the Jewish tradition, it was a relic of Solomon’s temple, left standing when the Babylonians destroyed the rest of the sacred edifice.” Lange’s _Life of Christ_, III. 432, n. E. T.

404 ‒ Lange’s _Life of Christ_, III. 432, E. T.

405 ‒ See above, p. 235.

406 ‒ For illustrations of this, see Josephus, _Ant._ XX. 9. 7; XVII. 10. 2; XVII. 9. 3.

407 ‒ The _Law_ here alluded to is used in its widest acceptation for the whole Old Testament, as in Jn. xii. 34; xv. 25.

408 ‒ This Psalm is directed against the tyranny and injustice of judges in Israel, and the argument is, if in any sense they could be called _gods_ (as in Ex. xxi. 6; xxii. 9, 28), how much more He, “the only One, sealed and hallowed by the Father, and the Son of God,” Alford on Jn. x. 36.

409 ‒ See above, p. 153.

410 ‒ Lange’s _Life of Christ_, III. 374, E. T.; Alford on Lk. xiii. 31; Bengel _in loc._

411 ‒ Ellicott, 263, and note.

412 ‒ Milman’s _History of Christianity_, I. 262.

417 ‒ “Every murder of a prophet, perpetrated by the Jews, proceeded either mediately or immediately from the rulers of the people, whose residence was at Jerusalem,” Oosterze on Lk. xiii. 31.

418 ‒ It seems not unreasonable to suppose that these words were uttered on two different occasions, now and afterwards, as recorded in Mtt. xxiii. 37 sq. See Ellicott, 264, n.; Alford on Lk. xiii. 34.

419 ‒ Ἦσαν παρατηρούμενοι, Lk. xiv. 1. Comp. vi. 7; xx. 20; Mk. iii. 2. See Trench _On the Miracles_, p. 328, n.

420 ‒ Where our Lord now probably was. See Lange’s _Life of Christ_, III. 388.

421 ‒ See above, p. 239, and note.

422 ‒ Trench _On the Miracles_, p. 391.

423 ‒ For other indications of the character of St Thomas, see Jn. xiv. 5; xx. 25. We gather that he was (i) deeply attached to his Master, (ii) prepared to die with Him, but (iii) ever ready to take the darker view of things, and (iv) unable to believe other and more than he saw.

424 ‒ “He had most likely died on the same day that the messenger announcing his illness had reached the Lord ... the day of his arrival would be one day; two our Lord abode in Peræa after He had dismissed him, and one more He would have employed in the journey from thence to Bethany ... dying upon that day, he had, according to the custom of the Jews, which made the burial immediately to follow on the death, been buried upon the same day” (cf. Acts v. 6–10). Trench _On the Miracles_, p. 397.

425 ‒ Compare Thomson’s _Land and the Book_, pp. 102, 103.

426 ‒ See _Ibid._ pp. 101, 2.

427 ‒ The question of some of the spectators, _Could not this Man, which opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that even this man should not have died?_ (Jn. xi. 47) is characteristic of the exact truth of the narrative ... dwellers in Jerusalem, they refer to a miracle so well known amongst themselves, rather than to the former raisings of the dead, of which, occurring at an earlier period and in the remote Galilee, they had probably heard by rumour only. Trench, p. 408; Lange’s _Life of Christ_, III. 473, n.

428 ‒ Trench _On the Miracles_, p. 407.

429 ‒ “Sometimes natural (Gen. xxiii. 9), sometimes artificial, and hollowed out by man’s labour from the rock (Isai. xxii. 16; Mtt. xxvii. 60), in a garden (Jn. xix. 41), or in some field, the possession of the family (Gen. xxiii. 9, 17–20; xxxv. 18; 2 K. xxi. 18).” Trench _On the Miracles_, p. 409.

430 ‒ Neander’s _Life of Christ_, p. 378.

431 ‒ See above, pp. 150, 151.

432 ‒ “Having much to risk, and nothing to gain by change, the Sadducees, or aristocratic party, were anxious to keep things safe, so as to prevent any action on the side of Rome.” H. Dixon’s _Holy Land_, II. 221. Josephus says of the Sadducees, εἰσὶ περὶ τὰς κρίσεις ὠμοὶ παρὰ πάντας τοὺς Ἰουδαίους, _Ant._ XX. 9. 1, and the spirit of the family of Annas, whose son-in-law Caiaphas was, was haughty, bold, and cruel. See Jos. _Ib._; _Bell. Jud._ II. 8. 14.

433 ‒ “Caiaphas was only consciously stating what he deemed politically advisable, but he was nevertheless, as the inspired Evangelist distinctly tells us (Jn. xi. 51), at the time actually prophesying.” Ellicott’s _Lectures_, 269, n. Alford on Jn. xi. 51.

434 ‒ Robinson identifies Ophrah with Ephraim (comp. 2 Chr.