CHAPTER XXX. A JOURNEY TO NAZARETH. TIME-Early Winter, A. D. 28-29.-Andrews, Peloubet, 1882. HE References. Matt. 9 27-35. Mark 5: 21. first thing which Matthew Mark 6: 1-6. records after the return from Luke 8: 1, 40. Gersa, over the lake, is the The first event recorded by Mark and Luke is the raising of the daughter of Jairus. That is also an event of the past. This could not have occurred on the arrival of Jesus from over the sea. Mark says that on the return of Jesus, “a great multitude gathered unto Him, and He was by the sea." There is no doubt of this, but there is of the order of the next (22d) verse. 1. Jairus came into the house, at Matthew's feast (Matt. 9: 18). 2. Jesus rose up as did His disciples, from Matthew's table, and followed Jairus (19). Do not these expressions refer back to the feast where Matthew says, as he sat at meat in the house?" (10.) Therefore, Jairus went to the house of Matthew for Jesus, and not to the sea-shore. 64 We have shown that the feast of Matthew followed his call, 15 (259) 260 ESCAPING THE MULTITUDE. and there is more than a probability that the raising of Jairus' · daughter was the first of its kind, and occurred in the spring of this year. Those who place the feast of Matthew at this late period, viz., after the return from Gersa, find themselves in a labyrinth, and Andrews makes no less than five "Arrangements in the vain effort to extricate such as follow that error, whereas by placing the feast in its natural order after the call, as Zaccheus' feast follo.vs his call, we find no "contradictions,' no labyrinths, no five arrangements or ways of escape therefrom. The harmony is perfect. What did occur after the return of Jesus to Capernaum, or, as Matthew says, "unto His own city?"-9: I. "And He was by the sca" (Mark 5: 21). Not on it: not in the boat. Not sitting. Then He did not rise up, as when He followed Jairus. It will be remembered that Jesus went over the lake in order to gain time for rest, and, perhaps, to give further instruction to the twelve. In that He failed, and now returning to Capernaum, a great multitude sought Him at the very landing. He could not avoid them in this city, therefore "He passed by" this crowd, healing a blind man or two, and, with His disciples, went into the country of Galilee. Can we not easily trace Him? "He passed by" the crowd and went into His house.Matt. 9: 27, 28. "He went forth with the twelve," stopping merely to heal a deaf mute (32), not replying to the Pharisees' accusation (34), and "went into the villages and cities of Galilee.”—36. How wide a circuit Jesus and the disciples made in Galilee before arriving at Nazareth is unknown. We believe it to have been very wide, however. It included both "cities and villages." What cities and villages He passed through is mere conjecture. What cures He wrought on the route is equally uncertain. He and His disciples arrived at Nazareth, "His own country." A GRAND RETINUE. 261 It was winter. The rainy season had set in and the travelling was wet and disagreeable. There would be many days in which they could not travel, and would necessarily be housed. As formerly, a multitude accompanied them whenever and wherever they moved (Luke 8: 4). Their journeys involved expenses. Did Mary Magdalene, Joanna and Susanna accompany them thus early in their journeys, and contribute to those expenses, as they certainly did at some time during the Galilean ministry of Jesus? Evidently; for when we have the first notice of Jesus and the Twelve travelling, those women. were with them. It reads thus: "And it came to pass soon afterwards that He (Jesus) went about through cities and villages preaching the good tidings of the kingdom of God (or the gospel), and with him the Twelve, and CERTAIN WOMEN which had been HEALED of evil spirits and infirmities-Mary, who was called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod's steward, and Susanna, and many others, who ministered unto them of their substance."-Luke 8: 1–3. Here, then, we have the first time of Jesus and the Twelve going through Galilee. We have the first notice of the women falling in their train, and we have the first intimation of how and by whom they subsisted. So, then, this was the throng that entered Nazareth: A band of ministering women, Quite an imposing throng! Here we have occasion to draw a distinction between the two visits of Jesus at Nazareth.* Mark does not mention the first visit, because he commences his record with the opening of the Galilean ministry, and that first visit of Jesus to Nazareth was previous to that time, when, according to Mark 1: 14, "Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God." There we have already placed the first visit. The simplicity * Geikie commits the error of combining the two visits in one. 262 THE TWO VISITS TO NAZARETH. in the character of His work on that first visit shows Low early in His career it occurred Luke 4: 17, 21. There was but one miracle to which they could then refer that at Cana * None other could be referred to John 4: 54) second visit, wonderful works had been shown Now, on the forth in Him Mark 6: 2;, and at "His words many were astonished." The following table will show the more plainly the distinction between the first and second visits at Nazareth: FIRST, RECORDED BY LUKE. 1. It occurred in early spring 4 2. Jesus was then unattended. 3. He simply reads and explains a passage of Scripture, as per "custom." 4. The people were wrathful at His assurance in applying the prophecy to Himself 5. Jo-eph is mentioned, as if alivehence Jesus is called “ Joseph's son." 7. His brothers and sisters are omitted. They had not then opposed Him. 8. The people laid violent hands on Jesus, as He was unprotected. 9. Jesus healed none, but barely escaped with His life! SECOND, RECORDED BY MAT THEW AND MARK. 1. It occurred in the winter following. 2. His disciples and others attei Him. 3. He does not rea 1, but preaches in the synagogue, to the astonishment of all. It was without precedent. 4. They were amazed at His progress, and stumbled (not "offended") at the seeming contradiction. 5. Joseph is dead-hence Jesus is "Mary's son." This was the custom. 7. Brothers and sisters are mentioned by both Matthew and Mark. 8. Jesus was unmolested. His disciples were at His back. 9. He remained at His leisure and healed a few of His townsfolk. These are differences which cannot be explained away, while the points of likeness are natural ones, such as might come up had there been three or more years' time between the visits. The reference back to Jesus being "a carpenter's son' (Matt. 13:55) only draws a comparison between that fact and the present one, of His "mighty works." Mark's inquiry was: *The cure was done in Cana, while the invalid was in Capernaum.-Luke 4: 23. † Andrews makes the first visit to Nazareth in April. It should be earlier. Robinson says in January. See Schaff in loco. Being Mary's son, how could He be a prophet and worker of miracles? See R. V. 6:2, 3. 66 WHEN JOSEPH DIED. 263 'Is not this the carpenter?" which seems to me to have been the correct inquiry, for all writers admit that the death of Joseph occurred before this period. There is an old tradition which says that Joseph died when Jesus was eighteen years of age; but I had rather rely upon the reference to Him, as if living at the time, by Luke (4: 22) than to trust to traditions, which also say that the four brothers of Jesus were Joseph's children by a former wife, which could not have been, since it would have cut Jesus off as the first-born and heir to David's throne! Do not forget the fact that the father, on presenting the first-born, as Jesus was presented, has to affirm before God that it is his first-born, and the first-born of the mother. There was no other theory promulgated than that those four brothers. and two sisters were children of Joseph and Mary, and uterine brothers and sisters of Jesus, until Jerome's time. He first denied that they were Joseph's children. The Latin Church adopted Jerome's views, seconded by Augustine, and the dogma is thus supported to this period.-See Andrews, 106. We may take it for granted that Joseph live up to the period when his name was used by Luke, and that he was dead when his name was dropped (by Mark) and the mother's name used as the head of the family. It is equally evident that at the time of Jesus' last visit Joseph was dead, as it was at the crucifixion when, as the lawful support of the widow, the first-born made provision for His mother. In view of His having raised the widow's son from the dead almost at the very door of Nazareth-namely, at Nain, not five miles away-Jesus may well have repeated His former proverb: "A prophet is not without honor save in his own country," adding on this latter occasion: "And among his own kin, and in his own house." For even His brothers did not believe on Him (John 7:5). These brothers, and His mother, had been down to Capernaum and seen and known, positively, of the great works done by Jesus. Perhaps it were the former who, as "friends," came to bind Him as a maniac, whose works were the works of "Beelzebub," as the Pharisees reported. |