Part 21 (1/2)
The observance of the Sabbath was the principal point upon which was raised the whole edifice of Pharisaic scruples and subtleties This ancient and excellent institution had become a pretext for the miserable disputes of casuists, and a source of superstitious beliefs[1] It was believed that Nature observed it; all inters were accounted ”Sabbatical”[2] This was the point upon which Jesus loved best to defy his adversaries[3] He openly violated the Sabbath, and only replied by subtle raillery to the reproaches that were heaped upon him He despised still more a multitude of modern observances, which tradition had added to the Law, and which were dearer than any other to the devotees on that very account Ablutions, and the too subtle distinctions between pure and is, found in hi fro into his which come out of him, those are they that defile the ators of these ly denounced by hi impossible precepts, in order to create occasions of sin: ”Blind leaders of the blind,” said he, ”take care lest ye also fall into the ditch” ”O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh”[4]
[Footnote 1: See especially the treatise _Shabbath_ of the Mishnah and the _Livre des Jubiles_ (translated from the Ethiopian in the _Jahrbucher_ of Ewald, years 2 and 3), chap I]
[Footnote 2: Jos, _BJ_, VII v 1; Pliny, _HN_, xxxi 18 Cf
Tho]
[Footnote 3: Matt xii 1-14; Mark ii 23-28; Luke vi 1-5, xiii 14, and following, xiv 1, and following]
[Footnote 4: Matt xii 34, xv 1, and following, 12, and following, xxiii entirely; Mark vii 1, and following, 15, and following; Luke vi 45, xi 39, and following]
He did not know the Gentiles sufficiently to think of founding anything lasting upon their conversion Galilee contained a great nuanized worshi+p of false Gods[1] Jesus could see this worshi+p displayed in all its splendor in the country of Tyre and Sidon, at Caesarea Philippi and in the Decapolis, but he paid little attention to it We never find in him the wearisoainst idolatry, so faionists from the time of Alexander, and which fill, for instance, the book of ”Wisdoans was not their idolatry, but their servility[3] The young Jewish de on this point with Judas the Gaulonite, and ad no master but God, was hurt at the honors hich they surrounded the persons of sovereigns, and the frequently iven to thereater nuans, he shows great indulgence to them; sometimes he professes to conceive dom of God would be transferred to them ”When the lord, therefore, of the vineyard cometh, ill he do unto these husbandmen? He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons”[5] Jesus adhered so much the more to this idea, as the conversion of the Gentiles was, according to Jewish ideas, one of the surest signs of the advent of the Messiah[6] In his kingdom of God he represents, as seated at a feast, by the side of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, men come from the four winds of heaven, whilst the lawful heirs of the kingdom are rejected[7] Sometimes, it is true, there seeives to his disciples: he seems to recommend them only to preach salvation to the orthodox Jews,[8] he speaks of pagans in a manner conformable to the prejudices of the Jews[9] But we must remember that the disciples, whose narrow minds did not share in this suprees of the sons of Abrahaiven the instruction of their master the bent of their own ideas Besides, it is very possible that Jesus may have varied on this point, just as Mahomet speaks of the Jews in the Koran, sometimes in the most honorable manner, so their favor or otherwise Tradition, in fact, attributes to Jesus two entirely opposite rules of proselytisainst us is on our part” ”He that is not with ainst me”[10] Impassioned conflict involves almost necessarily this kind of contradictions
[Footnote 1: I believe the pagans of Galilee were found especially on the frontiers--at Kedes, for example; but that the very heart of the country, the city of Tiberias excepted, was entirely Jewish The line where the ruins of tein, is to-day plainly marked as far north as Lake Huleh (Saht to have been found at Tell-Houm, are doubtful The coast--the town of Acre, in particular--did not form part of Galilee]
[Footnote 2: Chap XIII and following]
[Footnote 3: Matt xx 25; Mark x 42; Luke xxii 25]
[Footnote 4: Matt viii 5, and following, xv 22, and following; Mark vii 25, and following; Luke iv 25, and following]
[Footnote 5: Matt xxi 41; Mark xii 9; Luke xx 16]
[Footnote 6: Isa ii 2, and following, lx; A; Jer iii 17; Mal i 11; _Tobit_, xiii 13, and following; _Orac Sibyll_, iii 715, and following Co]
[Footnote 7: Matt viii 11, 12, xxi 33, and following, xxii 1, and following]
[Footnote 8: Matt vii 6, x 5, 6, xv 24, xxi 43]
[Footnote 9: Matt v 46, and following, vi 7, 32, xviii 17; Luke vi 32, and following, xii 30]
[Footnote 10: Matt xii 30; Mark ix 39; Luke ix 50, xi 23]
It is certain that he counted a his disciples many men whom the Jews called ”hellenes”[1] This word had in Palestine divers ans; soans;[2] soin converted to Judaisory of hellenes that Jesus found syrees; but the proselytes always reard to the Jew by birth Those in question were called ”proselytes of the gate,” or ” God,” and were subject to the precepts of Noah, and not to those of Moses[5] This very inferiority was doubtless the cause which drew theained them his favor
[Footnote 1: Josephus confirms this (_Ant_, XVIII iii 3) Comp
John vii 35, xii 20, 21]
[Footnote 2: Talm of Jerus, _Sota_, vii 1]
[Footnote 3: See in particular, John vii 35, xii 20; _Acts_ xiv 1, xvii 4, xviii 4, xxi 28]
[Footnote 4: John xii 20; _Acts_ viii 27]
[Footnote 5: Mishnah, _Baba Metsia_, ix 12; Talm of Bab, _Sanh_,56 _b_; _Acts_ viii 27, x 2, 22, 35, xiii 16, 26, 43, 50, xvi 14, xvii 4, 17, xviii 7; Gal ii 3; Jos, _Ant_, XIV vii 2]
He treated the Samaritans in the sareat provinces of Judaism (Judea and Galilee), Samaria formed in Palestine a kind of enclosure in which was preserved the ancient worshi+p of Gerizi that of Jerusaleenius nor the learned organization of Judaism, properly so called, was treated by the Hierosolymites with extreans, but hated the of opposition, ell disposed toward Samaria, and often preferred the Samaritans to the orthodox Jews If, at other ti to theospel to the Israelites proper,[3] this was no doubt a precept arising froiven too absolute aSometimes, in fact, the Saht hiionists;[4]--in the saarded as an enemy by the Mussulman, who always believes him to be a fanatical Christian Jesus raised his[5] He had many disciples at Shechem, and he passed at least two days there[6] On one occasion he ratitude and true piety from a Samaritan only[7] One of his most beautiful parables is that of the man wounded on the way to Jericho A priest passes by and sees hioes on his way; a Levite also passes, but does not stop; a Samaritan takes pity on hies theues fro hbor” who in Judaisionist, was in his estimation the man who has pity on his kind without distinction of sect Human brotherhood in its widest sense overflows in all his teaching