Chapter IV

THE SECOND PASSOVER AND THE TRANSACTIONS UNTIL THE THIRD PASSOVER.
TIME ONE YEAR.

THE POOL OF BETHESDA, JOHN 5:2.

=1. Very recent discoveries= have led to the belief that this pool was not at the so-called Birket Israel on the left hand of the entrance through the gate of St. Stephen――the eastern gate of Jerusalem――but on the right hand of the same entrance at the French church of St. Anne. It is about 160 feet on the right of the gate as you enter into the city. Here there has recently (1888) been discovered a tank in the rock under the church, reached by a flight of 24 steps, and more recently a twin pool by its side, which is supposed to identify the place, according to early writers. The remains of the five porches are still to be seen.[166]

=2.= In his attendance upon the second Passover Jesus performed =the miracle of healing= at the crowded pool of Bethesda, but left with the man whom he had restored no name or clew whereby he should know him. Soon after however, meeting the man in the Temple, Jesus warned him as to his future life; and thus the healed man was informed, and he reported to those who inquired of him the name of his benefactor. This act of healing was performed on the Sabbath day, and the consequent command of Jesus, “Take up thy bed and walk,” was made the occasion of bitter resentment on the part of the Jews. This gave the opportunity to our Lord for uttering one of the most distinct avowals of his equality with God as his Father, and the assertion that their own Jewish Scriptures testified of him. He then departed for Galilee.

HISTORICAL OCCURRENCES OF THIS YEAR IN THE ORDER OF TIME,
WITH THE HARMONY OF REFERENCES AND LOCALITIES.

=3. On the way to Galilee.= The disciples pluck ears of corn on the Sabbath, Matt. 12:1; Mark 2:23; Luke 6.

=In Galilee.= The healing of the withered hand on the Sabbath, Matt. 12:9; Mark 3:1; Luke 6:6.

Immediately after the last mentioned miracle he retired to the Sea of Galilee, and the greatness of the interest manifested in him can be understood by the extent of country from which the crowds came, as indicated in Mark 3:7, 8, for it appears that the people came not only from Galilee, but “from Judæa and from Jerusalem and Idumæa and from the east of Jordan and from around Tyre and Sidon.”

=4. Near Gennesaret.= Jesus chooses the twelve apostles, Matt. 10:1; Mark 3:13; alluded to again, Mark 6:7. This he did after a night spent in prayer on a mountain, Luke 6:12, 13. This transaction seems to have taken place on some one of the hills south of the plain of Gennesaret, while on his way to Capernaum.

=5. Near Gennesaret.= The Sermon on the Mount and a probable repetition of a part on the plain of Gennesaret, as narrated in Luke 6:17; Matt. 5. In this and the following chapters St. Matthew has gathered a large collection of the precepts and teachings of Jesus which occurred at this time, but which are only in part narrated in Luke.

=6. Same place.= The Lord’s Prayer as narrated in Matthew, and probably repeated upon another occasion, as seen in Luke 11:1.

=7. Capernaum.= The centurion’s servant healed, Matt. 8:5; Luke 7:1.

=Nain.= The widow’s son raised from the bier upon which he was carried, Luke 7:11.

=8. This place= was 59 miles north of Jerusalem and 20 miles southwest of the plain of Gennesaret. En-dor is two miles northeast of it on the same northern flank of the ridge. The scenery is very beautiful towards the north and west, and suggests the fitness of the name, which means “beauty.” Immediately south, one mile distant, the mountain range rises to the height of 1,690 feet above the Mediterranean, and on the northern flank of this range the village is built, itself at the height of 744 feet. It overlooks the great plain of Esdraelon. The only reference to this place is found in Luke 7:11‒17.

=9. In Galilee.= John the Baptist while in prison sends messengers to Jesus, Matt. 11:2; Luke 7:19. Jesus had now performed a large part of his life’s work, and in some degree he now reviews it and in several places sums up the amount done. He reviews also the instances in which he had been unsuccessful in persuading some to believe upon his mission and accept him as the true Messiah. In this review he mentions Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum, and compares their advantages with those enjoyed by Tyre and Sidon.

CHORAZIN AND BETHSAIDA, Matt. 11:21; Luke 10:13.

=10. The site of the former= of these places is unknown. Excepting the similarity of the names, Kerazeh and Chorazin, we have nothing to show that the ruin called by the former name is identical with the place known in Scripture by the latter name. The ruin called Kerazeh is two and a half miles from the northern shore of the lake and about 900 feet higher than its surface. The ruins of a supposed synagogue are to be found there, and near them is a spring.

Against this supposed site of Chorazin it is said that Jerome[167] speaks of it as one of the cities which were upon the shores of the lake. In reply it is said the traveller Willibald, going northward in the beginning of the eighth century, says that he went from Tiberias by Magdala, now called Mejdel, to Capernaum, thence to Bethsaida, thence to Chorazin, and thence to the fountains of the Jordan,[168] so that the order of localities thus stated makes Chorazin probably off the lake.[169] Kerazeh appears to answer to all that the Scripture claims for Chorazin both in name and locality.

=11. As to Bethsaida=, there are supposed to have been two of this name, which means “fish-house;” the one is just east of the Jordan, about a mile above the place where it empties into the northern end of the lake. This was the eastern Bethsaida, and at about this period of our Saviour’s life Herod Philip, the tetrarch, had greatly enlarged and beautified the place and given it the name “Julias” in honor of the daughter of Augustus; and here he was buried, A. D. 33, in a costly tomb which he had erected for himself.

It was near this Bethsaida that Jesus fed the five thousand with the five loaves and two fishes, and after dismissing the crowd retired into one of the neighboring hills to pray.[170]

=12. Place uncertain=, probably Capernaum. At the house of Simon the Pharisee, while “at meat,” Christ’s feet are anointed by a woman who is called “a sinner,” Luke 7:36. Another anointing by a woman took place at a much later period, and perhaps a third just before his betrayal, John 11:2; 12:2. Anointing was very common in those days. The so-called alabaster-box was not necessarily of any one material, much less of the material known now as alabaster. The same Greek term is used by Herodotus[171] in exactly the same form used in Matt. 26:7; Mark 14:3; Luke 7:37, and the vessel might have been of marble, of glass, or metal.[172] Theocritus[173] writes of “golden alabasters filled with Syrian ointments.”

It was customary to anoint the head and also the feet of a guest on certain occasions, and the alabastron was common among persons of means. There is therefore no sufficient reason to suppose that this anointing was so rare an instance that the several accounts in the Gospels refer to only one event. The other accounts besides that referred to at the beginning of this section are found in Matt. 26:6; Mark 14:3, which appear to describe one and the same occasion, shortly before his betrayal, and John 11:2; 12:2, which description is somewhat similar to that of the preceding Gospels.

=13. Galilee.= Our Saviour makes visits with the twelve through Galilee the second time. Luke 8:1. This seems to have been in Galilee, judging from the context as compared with Matt. 12:46; Mark 3:31, and following verses in the next chapter. He seems to have visited extensively, as the Greek phrase, “city by city and village by village,” signifies.

=14.= The following incidents are supposed to have taken place about this time and in the following order, all in Galilee:

(1.) The healing of the demoniac, Matt. 12:22. A somewhat similar case occurred before, Matt. 9:32. In this passage the utterances of our Saviour define the solemnity of the office of the Holy Spirit in a most fearful sense, and again in Mark 3:28, 29. This healing is repeated, Luke 11:14.

(2.) The scribes and Pharisees seek from him a sign to prove his authority, Matt. 12:38; repeated with additional remarks, Matt. 15:1; also Mark 8:11; and more urgently in John 6:31. It was in reply to one of these requests that Jesus announced that the sign superior to all others should take place after his death, for that after death he should rise again on the third day, Matt. 12:40, drawing from the history of Jonah an illustration of his own burial for three days only.

(3.) The declaration that his true disciples were his nearest relatives, Matt. 12:46; Mark 3:31; Luke 8:19.

(4.) Jesus takes dinner with a Pharisee and denounces the sect, Luke 11:37.

(5.) Jesus instructs a multitude when he declares that whosoever shall confess him before men shall be confessed by him before the angels of God, Luke 12:1.

=15. By the lake.= (1.) The parable of the sower, Matt. 13:3; Mark 4:2; Luke 8:4.

(2.) The parable of the tares, Matt. 13:24.

(3.) =Sea of Galilee.= Jesus calms the tempest, Matt. 8:24‒27; Mark 4:37‒41; Luke 8:22‒25.

(4.) He heals the demoniacs of the country of the Gergesenes, stilling the tempest by a word as he crosses, Matt. 8:23; Mark 5:1; Luke 8:26.

GADARA, GERGESA.

=16.= The location of =Gadara= (pronounced Gad´-ara) was at the present Um Keis, where the ruins are extensive and four fine springs exist. Um Keis is seven miles southeast of the Sea of Galilee, upon the level surface of a steep hill. It is thought that the term Gadarenes referred to the general region of which Gadara was the capital, and Gergesenes to the town of Gergesa, on the lake, where the miracle occurred, and which belonged to the district of the Gadarenes.

Gadara is first mentioned in secular history when captured by Antiochus the Great, B. C. 218. It was taken by the Jews twenty years afterwards, but destroyed during their civil wars, and rebuilt by Pompey to please his freedman, who was a Gadarene. When the proconsul of Syria, Gabinius, changed the constitution of Judæa, dividing it into five districts having governing councils, Gadara was made the seat of one of these councils, and became a chief city or capital of the country around.

It is probable that Gergesa is properly identified in the ruin Kersa on the east shore of the Lake of Gennesaret, almost equi-distant from the north and the south ends. It was once surrounded by a wall, the ruins of which still remain. Just south of it the hills come down very precipitously into the water, as they do in no other place on the shore, Mark 5:1; Luke 8:26; Matt. 8:28.

=17. Capernaum.= The feast given to our Lord by Levi, who is also called Matthew, takes place at this time, Matt. 9:10; Mark 2:15; Luke 5:29.

The raising of Jairus’ daughter, and the healing of the woman who touched the hem of his garment, Matt. 9:20; Mark 5:25; Luke 8:43.

Two blind men and a dumb man healed, Matt. 9:27.

=18. Nazareth.= Christ appears here, but is rejected the second time, Matt. 13:54; Mark 6:1. The first time was soon after his baptism, Luke 4:16.

=Galilee.= Jesus makes with his disciples a third circuit through Galilee, Matt. 9:35; Mark 6:6. The passage in Luke 13:22 gives quite another circuit on his final journey towards Jerusalem, which took place probably the following year.

Jesus sends out the twelve, two by two, Matt. 10:1, 5; Mark 6:7; Luke 9:1.

Herod (Antipas), who had slain John the Baptist, hears of Jesus, and supposes that John has risen, Matt. 14:1; Mark 6:14; Luke 9:7.

=Northeast coast of the lake.= The five thousand are fed. Jesus afterwards walks upon the water, Matt. 14:15‒33; Mark 6:35‒51; Luke 9:12‒17 (Luke omits the walking on the water); John 6:5‒21.