Part 7 (1/2)
[Footnote 1: Discourse of Claudius at Lyons, Tab ii sub fin De Boisseau, _Inscr Ant de Lyon_, p 136]
[Footnote 2: 2 Sam xxiv]
[Footnote 3: Talmud of Babylon, _Baba Kama_, 113 _a_; _Shabbath_, 33 _b_]
[Footnote 4: Jos, _Ant_, XVIII i 1 and 6; _BJ_, II viii 1; _Acts_ v 37 Previous to Judas the Gaulonite, the _Acts_ place another agitator, Theudas; but this is an anachronism, the movement of Theudas took place in the year 44 of the Christian era (Jos, _Ant_, XX v 1)]
[Footnote 5: Jos, _BJ_, II xvii 8, and following]
Galilee was thus an i[1] An extraordinary conte for death,[2] was the consequence of these agitations Experience counts for nothing in these great fanatical eria, at the co, inspired men, who declared themselves invulnerable, and sent by God to drive away the infidels; the following year their death was forgotten, and their successors found no less credence The Roman power, very stern on the one hand, yet little disposed to reat, brutal despotisms, terrible in repression, were not so suspicious as pohich have a faith to defend They allowed everything up to the point when they thought it necessary to be severe It is not recorded that Jesus was even once interfered with by the civil power, in his wandering career Such freedom, and, above all, the happiness which Galilee enjoyed in being ave to this district a real superiority over Jerusalem The revolution, or, in other words, the belief in the Messiah, caused here a general ferreat renovation; the Scriptures, tortured into divers s, fostered the s of the Old Testarahteous, and to seal forever the work of God
[Footnote 1: Luke xiii 1 The Galilean movement of Judas, son of Hezekiah, does not appear to have been of a religious character; perhaps, however, its character has been misrepresented by Josephus (_Ant_, XVII x 5)]
[Footnote 2: Jos, _Ant_, XVI vi 2, 3; XVIII i 1]
From all time, this division into two parties, opposed in interest and spirit, had been for the Hebrew nation a principle which contributed to their ht to be a little world in itself, including opposite poles Greece presented, at a few leagues' distance from each other, Sparta and Athens--to a superficial observer, the two antipodes; but, in reality, rival sisters, necessary to one another It was the same with Judea
Less brilliant in one sense than the development of Jerusalereatest achievements of the Jewish people have always proceeded thence A co dry, narrow, and ferocious, has starandeur, though sad, arid, and repulsive With its solemn doctors, its insipid canonists, its hypocritical and atrabilious devotees, Jerusaleiven to the world the sidalene, the good foster-father Joseph, and the Virgin Mary The North alone has made Christianity; Jerusalem, on the contrary, is the true home of that obstinate Judaism which, founded by the Pharisees, and fixed by the Tales, and come down to us
A beautiful external nature tended to produce a much less austere spirit--a spirit less sharply monotheistic, if Iand idyllic character on all the dreams of Galilee The saddest country in the world is perhaps the region round about Jerusale district, the true hos of the well-beloved[1] During the two months of March and April, the country forms a carpet of flowers of an incomparable variety of colors The anientle--delicate and lively turtle-doves, blue-birds so light that they rest on a blade of grass without bending it, crested larks which venture almost under the feet of the traveller, little river tortoises with rave andaside all timidity, allow man to come quite near them, and seem almost to invite his approach In no country in the world do the mountains spread thehts Jesus seems to have had a peculiar love for them The most important acts of his divine career took place upon the mountains It was there that he was the most inspired;[2] it was there that he held secret communion with the ancient prophets; and it was there that his disciples witnessed his transfiguration[3]
[Footnote 1: Jos, _BJ_, III iii 1 The horrible state to which the country is reduced, especially near Lake Tiberias, ought not to deceive us These countries, now scorched, were formerly terrestrial paradises The baths of Tiberias, which are now a frightful abode, were formerly the most beautiful places in Galilee (Jos, _Ant_, XVIII ii 3) Josephus (_Bell Jud_, III x 8) extols the beautiful trees of the plain of Gennesareth, where there is no longer a single one Anthony the Martyr, about the year 600, consequently fifty years before the Mussulhtful plantations, and coypt (_Itin_, -- 5)]
[Footnote 2: Matt v 1, xiv 23; Luke vi 12]
[Footnote 3: Matt xvii 1, and following; Mark ix 1, and following; Luke ix 28, and following]
This beautiful country has now beco influence of Isla which man cannot destroy breathes an air of freedom, mildness, and tenderness, and at the time of Jesus it overfloith happiness and prosperity The Galileans were considered energetic, brave, and laborious[1] If we except Tiberias, built by Antipas in honor of Tiberius (about the year 15), in the Roe towns The country was, nevertheless, well peopled, covered with ses, and cultivated in all parts with skill[3] From the ruins which rericultural people, no way gifted in art, caring little for luxury, indifferent to the beauties of form and exclusively idealistic The country abounded in fresh streae farardens were filled with trees bearing apples, walnuts, and poe by that which the Jews still obtain at Safed, and they drank much of it[5] This contented and easily satisfied life was not like the gross ricultural Normandy, or the heavy mirth of the Flemish It spiritualized itself in ethereal drea heaven and earth Leave the austere Baptist in his desert of Judea to preach penitence, to inveigh without ceasing, and to live on locusts in the corooroodohter of the huood will?
[Footnote 1: Jos, _BJ_, III iii 2]
[Footnote 2: Jos, _Ant_, XVIII ii 2; _BJ_, II ix 1; _Vita_, 12, 13, 64]
[Footnote 3: Jos, _BJ_, III iii 2]
[Footnote 4: We hborhood of Nazareth Cf Song of Solomon ii 3, 5, 13, iv 13, vi 6, 10, vii 8, 12, viii 2, 5; Anton Martyr, _lc_ The aspect of the great farms is still well preserved in the south of the country of Tyre (ancient tribe of Asher) Traces of the ancient Palestinian agriculture, with its troughs, threshi+ng-floors, wine-presses, mills, &c, cut in the rock, are found at every step]
[Footnote 5: Matt ix 17, xi 19; Mark ii 22; Luke v 37, vii 34; John ii 3, and following]
The whole history of infant Christianity has becohtful pastoral A Messiah at the ood Zaccheus called to his feasts--the founders of the kingdom of heaven like a bridal procession; that is what Galilee has boldly offered, and what the world has accepted Greece has drawn pictures of hu poetry, but alithout backgrounds or distant receding perspectives In Galilee anting the uage But Galilee has created the ination; for behind its idyl ht which illudo scenes From his infancy, he went ale was a sweet solemnity for the provincial Jews Entire series of psalms were consecrated to celebrate the happiness of thus journeying in fa across the hills and valleys, each one having in prospect the splendors of Jerusalem, the sole together in unity[3] The route which Jesus ordinarily took in these journeys was that which is followed to this day through Ginaea and Shechem[4] From Shechehborhood of the old sanctuaries of shi+loh and Bethel, near which the travellers pass, keeps their interest alive _Ain-el-Hara and melancholy spot, and few i there for the night The valley is narrow and sombre, and a dark stream issues from the rocks, full of tombs, which form its banks It is, I think, the ”valley of tears,” or of dropping waters, which is described as one of the stations on the way in the delightful Eighty-fourth Psalm,[6] and which became the ees Early the next day they would be at Jerusalem; such an expectation even now sustains the caravan, rendering the night short and sluht
[Footnote 1: Luke ii 41]
[Footnote 2: Luke ii 42-44]
[Footnote 3: See especially Ps lxxxiv, cxxii, cxxxiii (Vulg, lxxxiii, cxxi, cxxxii)]
[Footnote 4: Luke ix 51-53, xvii 11; John iv 4; Jos, _Ant_, XX