Part 33 (2/2)
[Footnote 2: Luke xix 41, and following]
[Footnote 3: Mishnah, _Menachoth_, xi 2; Talm of Bab, _Sanhedrim_, 14 _b_; _Pesachim_, 63 _b_, 91 _a_; _Sota_, 45 _a_; _Baba es that Bethphage was a kind of _pomaerium_, which extended to the foot of the eastern basement of the tees Matt
xxi 1, Mark xi 1, Luke xix 29, do not plainly ie, as Eusebius and St Jerome have supposed]
[Footnote 4: Matt xxi 1, and following; Mark xi 1, and following; Luke xix 29, and following; John xii 12, and following]
[Footnote 5: Luke xix 38; John xii 13]
[Footnote 6: The nuiven by Hecataeus (in Josephus, _Contra Apion_, I xxii), appears exaggerated Cicero speaks of Jerusalem as of a paltry little town (_Ad Atticum_, II ix) The ancient boundaries, whichever calculation we adopt, do not allow of a population quadruple of that of the present time, which does not reach 15,000 See Robinson, _Bibl Res_, i 421, 422 (2d edition); Fergusson, _Topogr of Jerus_, p 51; Forster, _Syria and Palestine_, p 82]
[Footnote 7: Jos, _BJ_, II xiv 3, VI ix 3]
[Footnote 8: John xii 20, and following]
[Footnote 9: Matt xxi 17; Mark xi 11]
[Footnote 10: Matt xxi 17, 18; Mark xi 11, 12, 19; Luke xxi 37, 38]
A deepthese last days, to have filled the soul of Jesus, as generally so joyous and serene All the narratives agree in relating that, before his arrest, he underwent a short experience of doubt and trouble; a kind of anticipated agony
According to some, he suddenly exclaimed, ”Now is my soul troubled O Father, save me from this hour”[1] It was believed that a voice froel ca to one widely spread version, the incident took place in the garden of Gethsemane Jesus, it was said, went about a stone's throw fro with him only Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and fell on his face and prayed
His soul was sad even unto death; a terrible anguish weighed upon hination to the divine will sustained hiulated the coement of the narrative to study adaptability and effect, has been given as occurring on the last night of the life of Jesus, and at the precise moment of his arrest
If this version were the true one, we should scarcely understand why John, who had been the inti an episode, should not mention it in the very circu of the Thursday[4] All that we can safely say is, that, during his last days, the enorht of the mission he had accepted pressed cruelly upon Jesus Huan to hesitate about his work Terror and doubt took possession of him, and threw him into a state of exhaustion worse than death He who has sacrificed his repose, and the legitireat idea, always experiences a feeling of revulsion when the ie of death presents itself to him for the first time, and seeks to persuade hi reest souls preserve, and which at times pierce like a sword, came upon him at this moment Did he remember the clear fountains of Galilee where he ont to refresh hi-tree under which he had reposed, and the young maidens who, perhaps, would have consented to love him? Did he curse the hard destiny which had denied hiret his too lofty nature, and, victireatness, did he mourn that he had not remained a simple artisan of Nazareth? We know not For all these internal troubles evidently were a sealed letter to his disciples They understood nothing of thereat soul of their Master was obscure to theained the supreht still have avoided death; but he would not
Love for his work sustained his Henceforth we behold Jesus entirely himself; his character unclouded The subtleties of the poleus and of the exorcist, are forgotten There remains only the incohts of free conscience, and the co souls will contemplate in order to fortify and console the We can easily iine that the exalted tone of John, and his exclusive preoccupation with the divine character of Jesus, may have effaced from the narrative the circumstances of natural weakness related by the synoptics]
[Footnote 2: Luke xxii 43; John xii 28, 29]
[Footnote 3: Matt xxvi 36, and following; Mark xiv 32, and following; Luke xxii 39, and following]
[Footnote 4: This is the less to be understood, as John is affectedly particular in noticing the circumstances which were personal to him, or of which he had been the only witness (xiii 23, and following, xviii 15, and following, xix 26, and following, 35, xx 2, and following, xxi 20, and following)]
The triue--that bold act of the provincials in celebrating at the very gates of Jerusale--completed the exasperation of the Pharisees and the aristocracy of the temple A new council was held on the Wednesday (12th of Nisan) in the house of Joseph Kaapha[1] The ireat idea of order and of conservative policy governed all their plans The desire was to avoid a scene As the feast of the Passover, which co, was a time of bustle and excite popular,[2] they feared an outbreak; the arrest was therefore fixed for the next day, Thursday
It was resolved, also, not to seize him in the temple, where he came every day,[3] but to observe his habits, in order to seize hients of the priests sounded his disciples, hoping to obtain useful information from their weakness or their siht in Judas of Kerioth This wretch, actuated by ave all the necessary inforh such an excess of vileness is scarcely credible) to guide the troop which was to effect his arrest The remembrance of horror which the folly or the wickedness of this iven rise to soeration on this point Judas, until then, had been a disciple like the others; he had even the title of apostle; and he had perforend, which always uses strong and decisive language, describes the occupants of the little supper-room as eleven saints and one reprobate Reality does not proceed by such absolute categories
Avarice, which the synoptics give as the motive of the crime in question, does not suffice to explain it It would be very singular if a man who kept the purse, and who knehat he would lose by the death of his chief, were to abandon the profits of his occupation[4] in exchange for a very small sum of money[5] Had the self-love of Judas been wounded by the rebuff which he had received at the dinner at Bethany? Even that would not explain his conduct John would have us regard hi,[6] for which, however, there is no probability We would rather ascribe it to sost the disciples The peculiar hatred John manifests toward Judas[7] confirms this hypothesis Less pure in heart than the others, Judas had, from the very nature of his office, become unconsciously narrow-ed in active duties, he had coard the interests of the treasury as superior even to those of the work for which it was intended The treasurer had overcos which escaped hiht the Master cost his spiritual family too dear No doubt this mean economy had caused many other collisions in the little society
[Footnote 1: Matt xxvi 1, 5; Mark xiv 1, 2; Luke xxii 1, 2]
[Footnote 2: Matt xxi 46]
[Footnote 3: Matt xxvi 55]
[Footnote 4: John xii 6]
[Footnote 5: John does not even speak of a payment in money]