The Life of Jesus Part 11

[Footnote 3: Jos., _Ant._, XVIII. iv. 2.]

[Footnote 4: Ibid., XVIII. vii. 1, 2, _B.J._, II. ix. 6.]

[Footnote 5: Ibid., XVIII. v. 1.]

Makaur,[1] or Machero, was a colossal fortress built by Alexander Jannaeus, and rebuilt by Herod, in one of the most abrupt wadys to the east of the Dead Sea.[2] It was a wild and desolate country, filled with strange legends, and believed to be haunted by demons.[3] The fortress was just on the boundary of the lands of Hareth and of Antipas. At that time it was in the possession of Hareth.[4] The latter having been warned, had prepared everything for the flight of his daughter, who was conducted from tribe to tribe to Petra.

[Footnote 1: This form is found in the Talmud of Jerusalem (_Shebiit_, ix. 2), and in the Targums of Jonathan and of Jerusalem (_Numb._ xxii.

35).]

[Footnote 2: Now Mkaur, in the wady Zerka Main. This place has not been visited since Seetzen was there.]

[Footnote 3: Josephus, _De Bell. Jud._, VII. vi. 1, and following.]

[Footnote 4: Jos., _Ant._, XVIII. v. 1.]

The almost incestuous[1] union of Antipas and Herodias then took place. The Jewish laws on marriage were a constant rock of offence between the irreligious family of the Herods and the strict Jews.[2]

The members of this numerous and rather isolated dynasty being obliged to marry amongst themselves, frequent violations of the limits prescribed by the Law necessarily took place. John, in energetically blaming Antipas, was the echo of the general feeling.[3] This was more than sufficient to decide the latter to follow up his suspicions. He caused the Baptist to be arrested, and ordered him to be shut up in the fortress of Machero, which he had probably seized after the departure of the daughter of Hareth.[4]

[Footnote 1: _Lev._ xviii. 16.]

[Footnote 2: Jos., _Ant._, XV. vii. 10.]

[Footnote 3: Matt. xiv. 4; Mark vi. 18; Luke iii. 19.]

[Footnote 4: Jos., _Ant._, XVIII. v. 2.]

More timid than cruel, Antipas did not desire to put him to death.

According to certain rumors, he feared a popular sedition.[1]

According to another version,[2] he had taken pleasure in listening to the prisoner, and these conversations had thrown him into great perplexities. It is certain that the detention was prolonged, and that John, in his prison, preserved an extended influence. He corresponded with his disciples, and we find him again in connection with Jesus.

His faith in the near approach of the Messiah only became firmer; he followed with attention the movements outside, and sought to discover in them the signs favorable to the accomplishment of the hopes which he cherished.

[Footnote 1: Matt. xiv. 5.]

[Footnote 2: Mark vi. 20. I read [Greek: eporei], and not [Greek: epoiei].]

CHAPTER VII.

DEVELOPMENT OF THE IDEAS OF JESUS RESPECTING THE KINGDOM OF G.o.d.

Up to the arrest of John, which took place about the summer of the year 29, Jesus did not quit the neighborhood of the Dead Sea and of the Jordan. An abode in the desert of Judea was generally considered as the preparation for great things, as a sort of "retreat" before public acts. Jesus followed in this respect the example of others, and pa.s.sed forty days with no other companions than savage beasts, maintaining a rigorous fast. The disciples speculated much concerning this sojourn. The desert was popularly regarded as the residence of demons.[1] There exist in the world few regions more desolate, more abandoned by G.o.d, more shut out from life, than the rocky declivity which forms the western sh.o.r.e of the Dead Sea. It was believed that during the time which Jesus pa.s.sed in this frightful country, he had gone through terrible trials; that Satan had a.s.sailed him with his illusions, or tempted him with seductive promises; that afterward, in order to recompense him for his victory, the angels had come to minister to him.[2]

[Footnote 1: _Tobit_ viii. 3; Luke xi. 24.]

[Footnote 2: Matt. iv. 1, and following; Mark i. 12, 13; Luke iv. 1, and following. Certainly, the striking similarity that these narratives present to the a.n.a.logous legends of the _Vendidad_ (farg.

xix.) and of the _Lalitavistara_ (chap. xvii., xviii., xxi.) would lead us to regard them only as myths. But the meagre and concise narrative of Mark, which evidently represents on this point the primitive compilation, leads us to suppose a real fact, which furnished later the theme of legendary developments.]

It was probably in coming from the desert that Jesus learned of the arrest of John the Baptist. He had no longer any reason to prolong his stay in a country which was partly strange to him. Perhaps he feared also being involved in the severities exercised toward John, and did not wish to expose himself, at a time in which, seeing the little celebrity he had, his death could in no way serve the progress of his ideas. He regained Galilee,[1] his true home, ripened by an important experience, and having, through contact with a great man, very different from himself, acquired a consciousness of his own originality.

[Footnote 1: Matt. iv. 12; Mark i. 14; Luke iv. 14; John iv. 3.]

On the whole, the influence of John had been more hurtful than useful to Jesus. It checked his development; for everything leads us to believe that he had, when he descended toward the Jordan, ideas superior to those of John, and that it was by a sort of concession that he inclined for a time toward baptism. Perhaps if the Baptist, whose authority it would have been difficult for him to escape, had remained free, Jesus would not have been able to throw off the yoke of external rites and ceremonies, and would then, no doubt, have remained an unknown Jewish sectary; for the world would not have abandoned its old ceremonies merely for others of a different kind. It has been by the power of a religion, free from all external forms, that Christianity has attracted elevated minds. The Baptist once imprisoned, his school was soon diminished, and Jesus found himself left to his own impulses. The only things he owed to John, were lessons in preaching and in popular action. From this moment, in fact, he preached with greater power, and spoke to the mult.i.tude with authority.[1]

[Footnote 1: Matt. vii. 29; Mark i. 22; Luke iv. 32.]

It seems also that his sojourn with John had, not so much by the influence of the Baptist, as by the natural progress of his own thought, considerably ripened his ideas on "the kingdom of heaven."

His watchword, henceforth, is the "good tidings," the announcement that the kingdom of G.o.d is at hand.[1] Jesus is no longer simply a delightful moralist, aspiring to express sublime lessons in short and lively aphorisms; he is the transcendent revolutionary, who essays to renovate the world from its very basis, and to establish upon earth the ideal which he had conceived. "To await the kingdom of G.o.d" is henceforth synonymous with being a disciple of Jesus.[2] This phrase, "kingdom of G.o.d," or "kingdom of heaven," was, as we have said, already long familiar to the Jews. But Jesus gave it a moral sense, a social application, which even the author of the Book of Daniel, in his apocalyptic enthusiasm, had scarcely dared to imagine.

[Footnote 1: Mark i. 14, 15.]

[Footnote 2: Mark xv. 43.]

He declared that in the present world evil is the reigning power.

Satan is "the prince of this world,"[1] and everything obeys him. The kings kill the prophets. The priests and the doctors do not that which they command others to do; the righteous are persecuted, and the only portion of the good is weeping. The "world" is in this manner the enemy of G.o.d and His saints:[2] but G.o.d will awaken and avenge His saints. The day is at hand, for the abomination is at its height. The reign of goodness will have its turn.

[Footnote 1: John xii. 31, xiv. 30, xvi. 11. (Comp. 2 _Cor._ iv. 4; _Ephes._ ii. 2.)]

[Footnote 2: John i. 10, vii. 7, xiv. 17, 22, 27, xv. 18, and following; xvi. 8, 20, 33, xvii. 9, 14, 16, 25. This meaning of the word "world" is especially applied in the writings of Paul and John.]

The advent of this reign of goodness will be a great and sudden revolution. The world will seem to be turned upside down; the actual state being bad, in order to represent the future, it suffices to conceive nearly the reverse of that which exists. The first shall be last.[1] A new order shall govern humanity. Now the good and the bad are mixed, like the tares and the good grain in a field. The master lets them grow together; but the hour of violent separation will arrive.[2] The kingdom of G.o.d will be as the casting of a great net, which gathers both good and bad fish; the good are preserved, and the rest are thrown away.[3] The germ of this great revolution will not be recognizable in its beginning. It will be like a grain of mustard-seed, which is the smallest of seeds, but which, thrown into the earth, becomes a tree under the foliage of which the birds repose;[4] or it will be like the leaven which, deposited in the meal, makes the whole to ferment.[5] A series of parables, often obscure, was designed to express the suddenness of this event, its apparent injustice, and its inevitable and final character.[6]

[Footnote 1: Matt. xix. 30, xx. 16; Mark x. 31; Luke xiii. 30.]

[Footnote 2: Matt. xiii. 24, and following.]

[Footnote 3: Matt. xiii. 47, and following.]

[Footnote 4: Matt. xiii. 31, and following; Mark iv. 31, and following; Luke xiii. 19, and following.]

[Footnote 5: Matt. xiii. 33; Luke xiii. 21.]

[Footnote 6: Matt. xiii. entirely; xviii. 23, and following; xx. 1, and following; Luke xiii. 18, and following.]

Who was to establish this kingdom of G.o.d? Let us remember that the first thought of Jesus, a thought so deeply rooted in him that it had probably no beginning, and formed part of his very being, was that he was the Son of G.o.d, the friend of his Father, the doer of his will.

The answer of Jesus to such a question could not therefore be doubtful. The persuasion that he was to establish the kingdom of G.o.d took absolute possession of his mind. He regarded himself as the universal reformer. The heavens, the earth, the whole of nature, madness, disease, and death, were but his instruments. In his paroxysm of heroic will, he believed himself all powerful. If the earth would not submit to this supreme transformation, it would be broken up, purified by fire, and by the breath of G.o.d. A new heaven would be created, and the entire world would be peopled with the angels of G.o.d.[1]

[Footnote 1: Matt. xxii. 30.]

A radical revolution,[1] embracing even nature itself, was the fundamental idea of Jesus. Henceforward, without doubt, he renounced politics; the example of Judas, the Gaulonite, had shown him the inutility of popular seditions. He never thought of revolting against the Romans and tetrarchs. His was not the unbridled and anarchical principle of the Gaulonite. His submission to the established powers, though really derisive, was in appearance complete. He paid tribute to Caesar, in order to avoid disturbance. Liberty and right were not of this world, why should he trouble his life with vain anxieties?

Despising the earth, and convinced that the present world was not worth caring for, he took refuge in his ideal kingdom; he established the great doctrine of transcendent disdain,[2] the true doctrine of liberty of souls, which alone can give peace. But he had not yet said, "My kingdom is not of this world." Much darkness mixed itself with even his most correct views. Sometimes strange temptations crossed his mind. In the desert of Judea, Satan had offered him the kingdoms of the earth. Not knowing the power of the Roman empire, he might, with the enthusiasm there was in the heart of Judea, and which ended soon after in so terrible an outbreak, hope to establish a kingdom by the number and the daring of his partisans. Many times, perhaps, the supreme question presented itself--will the kingdom of G.o.d be realized by force or by gentleness, by revolt or by patience? One day, it is said, the simple men of Galilee wished to carry him away and make him king,[3] but Jesus fled into the mountain and remained there some time alone. His n.o.ble nature preserved him from the error which would have made him an agitator, or a chief of rebels, a Theudas or a Barkokeba.

[Footnote 1: [Greek: Apochatastasis panton], _Acts_ iii. 21.]

[Footnote 2: Matt. xvii. 23-26; xxii. 16-22.]