Part 11 (1/2)

[Footnote 3: Jos, _Ant_, XVIII iv 2]

[Footnote 4: Ibid, XVIII vii 1, 2, _BJ_, II ix 6]

[Footnote 5: Ibid, XVIII v 1]

Makaur,[1] or Machero, was a colossal fortress built by Alexander Jannaeus, and rebuilt by Herod, in one of the most abrupt wadys to the east of the Dead Sea[2] It was a wild and desolate country, filled with strange legends, and believed to be haunted by demons[3] The fortress was just on the boundary of the lands of Hareth and of Antipas At that ti been warned, had prepared everything for the flight of his daughter, as conducted from tribe to tribe to Petra

[Footnote 1: This form is found in the Talums of Jonathan and of Jerusalem (_Numb_ xxii

35)]

[Footnote 2: Now Mkaur, in the wady Zerka Main This place has not been visited since Seetzen was there]

[Footnote 3: Josephus, _De Bell Jud_, VII vi 1, and following]

[Footnote 4: Jos, _Ant_, XVIII v 1]

The almost incestuous[1] union of Antipas and Herodias then took place The Jewish laws on ious family of the Herods and the strict Jews[2]

Theobliged to st themselves, frequent violations of the limits prescribed by the Law necessarily took place John, in energetically bla[3] This was more than sufficient to decide the latter to follow up his suspicions He caused the Baptist to be arrested, and ordered him to be shut up in the fortress of Machero, which he had probably seized after the departure of the daughter of Hareth[4]

[Footnote 1: _Lev_ xviii 16]

[Footnote 2: Jos, _Ant_, XV vii 10]

[Footnote 3: Matt xiv 4; Mark vi 18; Luke iii 19]

[Footnote 4: Jos, _Ant_, XVIII v 2]

More timid than cruel, Antipas did not desire to put hi to certain ru to another version,[2] he had taken pleasure in listening to the prisoner, and these conversations had thrown hireat perplexities It is certain that the detention was prolonged, and that John, in his prison, preserved an extended influence He corresponded with his disciples, and we find hiain in connection with Jesus

His faith in the near approach of the Messiah only became firmer; he folloith attention the ns favorable to the accomplishment of the hopes which he cherished

[Footnote 1: Matt xiv 5]

[Footnote 2: Mark vi 20 I read [Greek: eporei], and not [Greek: epoiei]]

CHAPTER VII

DEVELOPMENT OF THE IDEAS OF JESUS RESPECTING THE KINGDOM OF God

Up to the arrest of John, which took place about the suhborhood of the Dead Sea and of the Jordan An abode in the desert of Judea was generally considered as the preparation for great things, as a sort of ”retreat” before public acts Jesus followed in this respect the example of others, and passed forty days with no other coorous fast The disciples speculated arded as the residence of deions more desolate, more abandoned by God, more shut out from life, than the rocky declivity which forms the western shore of the Dead Sea It was believed that during the tione through terrible trials; that Satan had assailed him with his illusions, or tempted him with seductive promises; that afterward, in order to recoels had come to minister to him[2]

[Footnote 1: _Tobit_ viii 3; Luke xi 24]

[Footnote 2: Matt iv 1, and following; Mark i 12, 13; Luke iv 1, and following Certainly, the striking siends of the _Vendidad_ (farg

xix) and of the _Lalitavistara_ (chap xvii, xviii, xxi) would lead us to regard there and concise narrative of Mark, which evidently represents on this point the primitive compilation, leads us to suppose a real fact, which furnished later the the from the desert that Jesus learned of the arrest of John the Baptist He had no longer any reason to prolong his stay in a country which was partly strange to hi involved in the severities exercised toward John, and did not wish to expose hi the little celebrity he had, his death could in no way serve the progress of his ideas He regained Galilee,[1] his true hoh contact with a great man, very different froinality