Chapter III: From the First Passover to the Second

=1. As is generally supposed=, the first miracle, at Cana, was performed during the first year of our Lord’s public ministry. His attendance upon the first Passover at Jerusalem brings us to consider the state of the city at the time of his visit.

At the great event of =a Passover= the city would be crowded with visitors, not only from Judæa and the surrounding country, but from distant lands. At this time the Jews were scattered over almost every province under Roman control, and even beyond the Roman Empire.

Josephus informs us that for these occasions immense preparations were made, not only to accommodate the people, but also that they might bring with them their flocks, and he estimates that at the Passover celebrated in the time of Nero the number of lambs sacrificed was 256,500.[162]

=2. The presence of Jews= from so many countries would of necessity bring into the city not only purchasers, but tradesmen with various moneys requiring an exchange or brokerage; and some of the Rabbinical writers say that an immense traffic was carried on in cattle and other animals for victims and for food, and much extortion was practised, a great part of the profits of which went to the priests.[163]

It was on this occasion of his first Passover that our Saviour drove out the sheep and oxen and upset the tables of the exchangers, as recorded in John 2:15, using the material with which the animals were bound for a whip or scourge.

=3.= From the very evident divine power which the Saviour exhibited at this Passover, a member of the Sanhedrin, =Nicodemus=, sought an =interview= with him at night, John 3, at which time Christ made the announcement of his special mission to this world in those remarkable words: “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life,” John 3:14, 15.

=4.= The =Passover being ended=, Jesus left Jerusalem, but seems to have remained in Judæa near the Jordan, perhaps on the plain at the north end of the Dead Sea. John was baptizing in the same region. It must have been somewhere on these plains that Herod Antipas met the Baptist and received the reproof of which we have spoken before. This Herod[164] was the ruler of Galilee and Peræa, and was at first married to the daughter of Aretas, king of Arabia Petræa, but forsook her for Herodias, the wife of his half-brother (see preceding table). This brought on a war with Aretas on the confines of his territory on the south, and it is probable that on his way to meet Aretas Herod received the reproof from the Baptist and condemned the latter to imprisonment in his castle at Machærus.

MACHÆRUS AND PERÆA.

=5. This castle= was seven miles east of the Dead Sea, and the ruins remain at a place about 25 miles south of the north end of the sea. It is 3,800 feet above its level and 2,507 feet above the Mediterranean. Josephus says that John the Baptist was imprisoned here, and here he must have been beheaded. The region of Peræa extended from this place to Pella, near the Jordan, about 60 miles north, and Herod Antipas was at that time ruler of all Galilee and Peræa, which included the castle Machærus.

ENON AND SALIM.

=6. During the Saviour’s stay in Judæa=, after the Passover just spoken of, it appears that he remained for a time near the Jordan while his disciples baptized. The two preachers were therefore not far distant from each other, and the disciples of John, evidently with a spirit of rivalry, communicated the fact that greater crowds attended the ministry of Jesus.

This brought out the testimony of John to the greater glory and future progress of the gospel of Jesus. John was at this time at “Enon near Salim,” and the sites of these two places have not yet been settled.

Enon is the Greek form of the Aramaic word for “springs,” and Salim is the word for “peace,” and both of these words are frequently found in varying forms in several places.

It has been thought that the little village now called Salim, not far east of Shechem, was the site of the Scripture Salim, and that Enon was to be identified with a little ruin called Ainun, nearly eight miles northeast. But apart from the fact that these places are not near each other, they are entirely too near the very heart of the Samaritan district, Salim being only four miles east of Shechem.

It is not at all probable that John ever left Judæa, and it is exceedingly improbable that he would have gone into the Samaritan region to baptize. There is a little valley three or four miles northeast of Jerusalem which yet bears a name somewhat similar to Salim, where there are waters described by Dr. Barclay; but neither of these Biblical places has yet been satisfactorily identified.

=7. Our Saviour now left Judæa= and passed to Galilee upon the shortest road, which leads through Samaria, John 4:3. The season seems to have been in December, John 4:35, as it was “four months to harvest,” which began in April. On the way he sat down upon the well called Jacob’s, and the scene described in John 4 took place.

JACOB’S WELL, SYCHAR, John 4.

=8. Jacob’s well= has always been identified with that well cut in the solid rock which is about a mile and a half east by south from Shechem. It formerly had a small chapel built over it, in the fourth century, and was about 80 feet in depth when examined by the writer, but the original depth must have been greater, for there are many stones at the bottom. It is not now a well of constant supply, but varies with the season, and was dry when we examined it. Hence perhaps the remark of our Saviour, John 4:10, in which he alludes to “living water.”

Sychar was probably at the little village now called Askar, about one-half of a mile northeast from the well. Some have supposed that Sychar and Shechem were the same; but it is not probable that the woman spoken of in the context would have walked a mile and a half from Shechem, where there was an abundance of water, to draw water from this deep well. The probabilities are that Askar was the site of Sychar, where there are caves and remains of ancient tombs.

MATT. 4:12‒17; MARK 1:14, 15; LUKE 4.

=9. Jesus passed through= Samaria to Galilee, stopping for a short time in Nazareth, Matt. 13:53‒58; and then going to Capernaum, announced as he went the great object of his mission, and especially that the appointed time had arrived which had been foretold for the appearance of the Messiah as spoken of in the prophets, Mark 1:14, 15. That he himself was this Messiah he distinctly asserted at Jacob’s well to the Samaritan woman, John 4:26.

=10. Passing on from Nazareth= he again visited Cana, where the miracle of the healing of the nobleman’s son was performed, John 4:46‒54. He then went down to Capernaum, which hereafter seems to have been adopted as his favorite place of abode.

CAPERNAUM.

=11. This place= has not yet been certainly identified. Some have supposed that it was on the west side of the Sea of Galilee at a place called Khan Minyeh, which is on the plain of Gennesaret, five miles southwest of the mouth of the Upper Jordan; others have located it at a ruin farther north of this sea, called Tell Hum. To some this name seems to be all that remains of the ancient name Capernaum, which, as they think, means the village (caper) of Nahum (Naum).

At Capernaum many of our Saviour’s miracles were performed, and the place is referred to sixteen times by name.

=12.= A miracle performed here at this time in the history confirmed the faith of Andrew, Peter, James, and John, who were fishing in the waters of the sea not far off from the village, Luke 5:1‒11.

Soon after this the restoring of the demoniac to his senses in the synagogue took place, Luke 4:33, and immediately after this the healing of Peter’s wife’s mother, as recorded in the same chapter. Many other miracles were performed the same evening.

=13. Jesus then began to travel= throughout Galilee, preaching and healing. One miracle on this journey is recorded, that of healing a leper, as narrated in Matt. 8:2; Mark 1:40; Luke 5:12. On his return to Capernaum he heals a paralytic, Matt. 9:2; Mark 2:1‒12; Luke 5:18.

In the narrative of this last-mentioned miracle we have an illustration of the use of _double names_ among the Jews, for Matthew, 9:9, calls himself Matthew, whereas the other evangelists in their accounts called him Levi,[165] and moreover Matthew adopts the usual method of Greek historians in speaking of themselves in the third person to avoid egotism. Compare Matt. 9:10; Mark 2:15; Luke 5:29.