Part 32 (1/2)

At the end of the month of December, he celebrated at Jerusalem the feast established by Judas Maccabeus in es of Antiochus Epiphanes[1] It was also called the ”Feast of Lights,” because, during the eight days of the feast, lahted in the houses[2] Jesus undertook soon after a journey into Perea and to the banks of the Jordan--that is to say, into the very country he had visited some years previously, when he followed the school of John,[3] and in which he had himself administered baptism He seems to have reaped consolation from this journey, especially at Jericho This city, as the terminus of several iardens of spices and its rich cultivation,[4] was a customs station of importance The chief receiver, Zaccheus, a rich man, desired to see Jesus[5] As he was of small stature, he climbed a sycamore tree near the road which the procession had to pass Jesus was touched with this siiving offense, he determined to stay with Zaccheus There wasthe house of a sinner by this visit In parting, Jesus declared his host to be a good son of Abraham; and, as if to add to the vexation of the orthodox, Zaccheus becaoods to the poor, and restored fourfold to those whoed But this was not the only pleasure which Jesus experienced there On leaving the town, the beggar Barti hih he was told to be silent The cycle of Galilean miracles appeared for a time to recommence in this country, which was in htful oasis of Jericho, at that time atered, must have been one of the most beautiful places in Syria Josephus speaks of it with the same admiration as of Galilee, and calls it, like the latter province, a ”divine country”[7]

[Footnote 1: John x 22 Co; 2 Macc

x 6, and following]

[Footnote 2: Jos, _Ant_, XII vii 7]

[Footnote 3: John x 40 Cf Matt xix 1; Mark x 1 This journey is known to the synoptics But they see froh Perea]

[Footnote 4: _Eccles_ xxiv 18; Strabo, XVI ii 41; Justin, xxxvi

3; Jos, _Ant_, IV vi 1, XIV iv 1, XV iv 2]

[Footnote 5: Luke xix 1, and following]

[Footnote 6: Matt xx 29; Mark x 46, and following; Luke xviii 35]

[Footnote 7: _BJ_, IV viii 3 Comp _ibid_, I vi 6, I xviii

5, and _Antiq_, XV iv 2]

After Jesus had coe to the scenes of his earliest prophetic activity, he returned to his beloved abode in Bethany, where a singular event occurred, which see days of his life[1] Tired of the cold reception which the kingdom of God found in the capital, the friends of Jesus wished for a great miracle which should strike powerfully the incredulity of the Hierosolymites The resurrection of a man known at Jerusalem appeared to them most likely to carry conviction We must bear in mind that the essential condition of true criticism is to understand the diversity of tinances which are the fruit of a purely rational education We must also remember that in this dull and ier himself Not by any fault of his own, but by that of others, his conscience had lost soinal purity Desperate, and driven to extreer his own master His mission overwhelmed him, and he yielded to the torrent As always happens in the lives of great and inspired men, he suffered the miracles opinion demanded of him rather than perforle text, bearing evident traces of artifices of composition, it is impossible to decide whether in this instance the whole is fiction, or whether a real fact which happened at Bethany has served as a basis to the rued, however, that the way John narrates the incident differs widely fro of the popular iination, which fill the synoptics Let us add, that John is the only evangelist who has a precise knowledge of the relations of Jesus with the family of Bethany, and that it is impossible to believe that a mere creation of the popular mind could exist in a collection of remembrances so entirely personal It is, then, probable that the endary ones for which no one is responsible In other words, we think that so really happened at Bethany which was looked upon as a resurrection

[Footnote 1: John xi 1, and following]

Fame already attributed to Jesus two or three works of this kind[1]

The fa it, into taking part in the important act which was desired Jesus was adored by them It see a e froht that the joy Lazarus would feel at his arrival ht restore hi those who violently denied the divine mission of Jesus, carried his enthusiastic friends beyond all bounds It may be that Lazarus, still pallid with disease, caused hies as if dead, and shut up in the toe vaults cut in the rock, and were entered by a square opening, closed by an enormous stone Martha and Mary went tohim to enter Bethany, conducted him to the cave The emotion which Jesus experienced at the toht be taken by those present for the agitation and tre[4]

which accompanied miracles Popular opinion required that the divine virtue should manifest itself in man as an epileptic and convulsive principle Jesus (if we follow the above hypothesis) desired to see oncerees, his head covered with a winding-sheet

This reappearance would naturally be regarded by every one as a resurrection Faith knows no other law than the interest of that which it believes to be true Regarding the object which it pursues as absolutely holy, it uood ones do not succeed If such and such a proof be not sound many others are! If such and such a wonder be not real,intius, Lazarus and his two sisters may have aided in the execution of one of his miracles, just as ion, have sought to triumph over the obstinacy of their opponents by means of whose weakness they ell aware The state of their conscience was that of the stigmatists, of the convulsionists, of the possessed ones in convents, drawn, by the influence of the world in which they live, and by their own belief, into feigned acts As to Jesus, he was no more able than St

Bernard or St Francis d'assisi to moderate the avidity for the marvellous, displayed by the multitude, and even by his own disciples

Death, moreover, in a few days would restore him his divine liberty, and release him from the fatal necessities of a position which each day beca, and more difficult to sustain

[Footnote 1: Matt ix 18, and following; Mark v 22, and following; Luke vii 11, and following, viii 41, and following]

[Footnote 2: John xi 3, and following]

[Footnote 3: John xi 35, and following]

[Footnote 4: John xi 33, 38]

Everything, in fact, seems to lead us to believe that the miracle of Bethany contributed sensibly to hasten the death of Jesus[1] The persons who had been witnesses of it, were dispersed throughout the city, and spoke much about it The disciples related the fact, with details as to its performance, prepared in expectation of controversy

The other miracles of Jesus were transitory acts, spontaneously accepted by faith, exaggerated by popular faain referred to after they had once taken place This was a real event, held to be publicly notorious, and one by which it was hoped to silence the Pharisees[2] The enemies of Jesus were much irritated at all this fame They endeavored, it is said, to kill Lazarus[3] It is certain, that from that time a Council of the chief priests[4] was assembled, and that in this council the question was clearly put: ”Can Jesus and Judaisether?” To raise the question was to resolve it; and without being a prophet, as thought by the evangelist, the high priest could easily pronounce his cruel axiom: ”It is expedient that one man should die for the people”

[Footnote 1: John xi 40, and following, xii 2, 9, and following, 17, and following]

[Footnote 2: John xii 9, 10, 17, 18]

[Footnote 3: John xii 10]