§ 83. Jesus at the festival of Tabernacles. MATTHEW. MARK. John viii. 1, to the Mount of Olives.] It is apparent, from various incidental allusions in the Evangelists, that it was the habit of our Lord at this period to spend his days in Jerusalem, in teaching the people and healing the sick, and his nights in the Mount of Olives, in prayer. Yet it is nowhere directly asserted; and the manner in which it is LUKE. His public teaching. Jerusalem. JOHN. CH. VII. 11-53. CH. VIII. 1. 39 (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive, for the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified.) 40 Many of the people therefore, when they heard this saying, said, Of a truth this is the Prophet. 41 Others said, This is the Christ. But some said, Shall Christ come out of Galilee? 42 Hath not the scripture said,* That Christ cometh of the seed of David, and out of the town of Bethlehem, where David was? 43 So there was a division among the people because of him. 44 And some of them would have taken him; but no man laid hands on him. 45 Then came the officers to the chief priests and Pharisees; and they said unto them, Why have ye not brought him? 46 The officers answered, Never man spake like this man. 47 Then answered them the Pharisees, Are ye also deceived? 48 Have any of the rulers, or of the Pharisees believed on him? 49 But this people who knoweth not the law are cursed. 50 Nicodemus saith unto them, (he that came to Jesus by night, being one of them,) 51 Doth our law judge any man bejore it hear him, and know what he doeth ? 52 They answered and said unto him, Art thou also of Galilee: Search, and look: for out of Galilee ariseth no prophet. 53 And every man went unto his own house. CH. VIII. JESUS went unto the mount of Olives: *Ps. lxxxix. 4, and cxxxii. 11. Mic. v. 2. slightly mentioned or alluded to by the sacred writers, is worthy of particular notice, as a proof of their veracity, never met with, in works of fiction. Compare Matth. xxiv. 3, and xxvi. 30; Mark xiii. 3, and xiv. 26; Luke vi. 12, and xxi. 37, 38, and xxii. 39; John viii. 1, 2, and xviii. 1. MATTHEW. § 84. The woman taken in MARK. § 85. Further public teaching of our Lord. He reproves the John viii. 5, should be stoned.] The Romans, in settling the provincial government of Judea, which they had conquered, deprived the Jewish tribunals of the power of inflicting capital punishments. John xviii. 31. The law of Moses, however, condemned adulterers to be stoned to death. "This woman had been caught in the very fact. Jesus must therefore determine against the law, which inflicted death; or against the Romans, who suffered them not to put any body to death, and who would still less have permitted it for such a crime as adultery, which was not capital among them.-If he condemned not the adulteress to death when he was alone with her, he hereby teaches us LUKE. adultery. Jerusalem. JOHN. CH. VIII. 2-11. 2 And early in the morning he came again into the temple, and all the people came unto him; and he sat down and taught them. 3 And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery: and when they had set her in the midst, 4 They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. 5 Now Moses in the law* commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou? 6 This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not. 7 So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. 8 And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground. 9 And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. 10 When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee? 11 She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more. unbelieving Jews, and escapes from their hands. Jerusalem. CH. VIII. 12-59. 12 Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the • Lev. xx. 10. Deut. xxii. 21. to submit to the civil laws of the places where we live." v. c. xx. § 2. BASNAGE, Hist. Jud. lib. John viii. 7, let him first cast a stone.] When one was condemned to death, those witnesses, whose evidence decided the sentence, inflicted the first blows, in order to add the last degree of certainty to their evidence. DUPIN, Trial of Jesus, p. 7. SALVADOR, Histoire des Institutions de Moise, &c. Liv. iv. ch. ii. p. 76. § 85. Further public teaching of our Lord. He reproves the MARK. John viii. 14, ye cannot tell.] John vii. 28, is consistent with John viii. 14. "Ye both know my transactions among you, and whence, as a man, I derive my descent; (ch. vi. 42,) and yet there is a sense in which ye know not whence I am, as I came not," &c. Kai is used in the same manner, Matth. ix. 19. And yet wisdom, &c. See also |