The Life of Jesus Part 13

[Footnote 7: Luke iv. 29. Probably the rock referred to here is the peak which is very near Nazareth, above the present church of the Maronites, and not the pretended _Mount of Precipitation_, at an hour's journey from Nazareth. See Robinson, ii. 335, and following.]

This check far from discouraged him. He returned to Capernaum,[1]

where he met with a much more favorable reception, and from thence he organized a series of missions among the small surrounding towns. The people of this beautiful and fertile country were scarcely ever a.s.sembled except on Sat.u.r.day. This was the day which he chose for his teaching. At that time each town had its synagogue, or place of meeting. This was a rectangular room, rather small, with a portico, decorated in the Greek style. The Jews not having any architecture of their own, never cared to give these edifices an original style. The remains of many ancient synagogues still exist in Galilee.[2] They are all constructed of large and good materials; but their style is somewhat paltry, in consequence of the profusion of floral ornaments, foliage, and twisted work, which characterize the Jewish buildings.[3]

In the interior there were seats, a chair for public reading, and a closet to contain the sacred rolls.[4] These edifices, which had nothing of the character of a temple, were the centre of the whole Jewish life. There the people a.s.sembled on the Sabbath for prayer, and reading of the law and the prophets. As Judaism, except in Jerusalem, had, properly speaking, no clergy, the first comer stood up, gave the lessons of the day (_parasha_ and _haphtara_), and added thereto a _midrash_, or entirely personal commentary, in which he expressed his own ideas.[5] This was the origin of the "homily," the finished model of which we find in the small treatises of Philo. The audience had the right of making objections and putting questions to the reader; so that the meeting soon degenerated into a kind of free a.s.sembly. It had a president,[6] "elders,"[7] a _hazzan_, _i.e._, a recognized reader, or apparitor,[8] deputies,[9] who were secretaries or messengers, and conducted the correspondence between one synagogue and another, a _shammash_, or sacristan.[10] The synagogues were thus really little independent republics, having an extensive jurisdiction. Like all munic.i.p.al corporations, up to an advanced period of the Roman empire, they issued honorary decrees,[11] voted resolutions, which had the force of law for the community, and ordained corporal punishments, of which the _hazzan_ was the ordinary executor.[12]

[Footnote 1: Matt. iv. 13; Luke iv. 31.]

[Footnote 2: At Tell-Houm, Irbid (Arbela), Meiron (Mero), Jisch (Giscala), Kasyoun, Nabartein, and two at Kefr-Bereim.]

[Footnote 3: I dare not decide upon the age of those buildings, nor consequently affirm that Jesus taught in any of them. How great would be the interest attaching to the synagogue of Tell-Houm were we to admit such an hypothesis! The great synagogue of Kefr-Bereim seems to me the most ancient of all. Its style is moderately pure. That of Kasyoun bears a Greek inscription of the time of Septimus Severus. The great importance which Judaism acquired in Upper Galilee after the Roman war, leads us to believe that several of these edifices only date back to the third century--a time in which Tiberias became a sort of capital of Judaism.]

[Footnote 4: 2 _Esdras_ viii. 4; Matt. xxiii. 6; Epist. James ii. 3; Mishnah, _Megilla_, iii. 1; _Rosh Ha.s.shana_, iv. 7, etc. See especially the curious description of the synagogue of Alexandria in the Talmud of Babylon, _Sukka_, 51 _b_.]

[Footnote 5: Philo, quoted in Eusebius, _Praep. Evang._, viii. 7, and _Quod Omnis Probus Liber_, -- 12; Luke iv. 16; _Acts_ xiii. 15, xv. 21; Mishnah, _Megilla_, iii. 4, and following.]

[Footnote 6: [Greek: Archisunagogos].]

[Footnote 7: [Greek: Presbyteroi].]

[Footnote 8: [Greek: Huperetes].]

[Footnote 9: [Greek: Apostoloi], or [Greek: angeloi].]

[Footnote 10: [Greek: Diakonos]. Mark v. 22, 35, and following; Luke iv. 20, vii. 3, viii. 41, 49, xiii. 14; _Acts_ xiii. 15, xviii. 8, 17; _Rev._ ii. 1; Mishnah, _Joma_, vii. 1; _Rosh Ha.s.shana_, iv. 9; Talm.

of Jerus., _Sanhedrim_, i. 7; Epiph., _Adv. Haer._, x.x.x. 4, 11.]

[Footnote 11: Inscription of Berenice, in the _Corpus Inscr. Graec._, No. 5361; inscription of Kasyoun, in the _Mission de Phenicie_, book iv. [in the press.]]

[Footnote 12: Matt. v. 25, x. 17, xxiii. 34; Mark xiii. 9; Luke xx.

11, xxi. 12; _Acts_ xxii. 19, xxvi. 11; 2 _Cor._ xi. 24; Mishnah, _Maccoth_, iii. 12; Talmud of Babylon, _Megilla_, 7 _b;_ Epiph., _Adv.

Haer._, x.x.x. 11.]

With the extreme activity of mind which has always characterized the Jews, such an inst.i.tution, notwithstanding the arbitrary rigors it tolerated, could not fail to give rise to very animated discussions.

Thanks to the synagogues, Judaism has been able to sustain intact eighteen centuries of persecution. They were like so many little separate worlds, in which the national spirit was preserved, and which offered a ready field for intestine struggles. A large amount of pa.s.sion was expended there. The quarrels for precedence were of constant occurrence. To have a seat of honor in the first rank was the reward of great piety, or the most envied privilege of wealth.[1] On the other hand, the liberty, accorded to every one, of inst.i.tuting himself reader and commentator of the sacred text, afforded marvelous facilities for the propagation of new ideas. This was one of the great instruments of power wielded by Jesus, and the most habitual means he employed to propound his doctrinal instruction.[2] He entered the synagogue, and stood up to read; the _hazzan_ offered him the book, he unrolled it, and reading the _parasha_ or the _haphtara_ of the day, he drew from this reading a lesson in conformity with his own ideas.[3] As there were few Pharisees in Galilee, the discussion did not a.s.sume that degree of vivacity, and that tone of acrimony against him, which at Jerusalem would have arrested him at the outset. These good Galileans had never heard discourses so adapted to their cheerful imaginations.[4] They admired him, they encouraged him, they found that he spoke well, and that his reasons were convincing. He answered the most difficult objections with confidence; the charm of his speech and his person captivated the people, whose simple minds had not yet been cramped by the pedantry of the doctors.

[Footnote 1: Matt. xxiii. 6; Epist. James ii. 3; Talmud of Bab., _Sukka_, 51 _b_.]

[Footnote 2: Matt. iv. 23, ix. 35; Mark i. 21, 39, vi. 2; Luke iv. 15, 16, 31, 44, xiii. 10; John xviii. 20.]

[Footnote 3: Luke iv. 16, and following. Comp. Mishnah, _Joma_, vii.

1.]

[Footnote 4: Matt. vii. 28, xiii. 54; Mark i. 22, vi. 1; Luke iv. 22, 32.]

The authority of the young master thus continued increasing every day, and, naturally, the more people believed in him, the more he believed in himself. His sphere of action was very limited. It was confined to the valley in which the Lake of Tiberias is situated, and even in this valley there was one region which he preferred. The lake is five or six leagues long and three or four broad; although it presents the appearance of an almost perfect oval, it forms, commencing from Tiberias up to the entrance of the Jordan, a sort of gulf, the curve of which measures about three leagues. Such is the field in which the seed sown by Jesus found at last a well-prepared soil. Let us run over it step by step, and endeavor to raise the mantle of aridity and mourning with which it has been covered by the demon of Islamism.

On leaving Tiberias, we find at first steep rocks, like a mountain which seems to roll into the sea. Then the mountains gradually recede; a plain (_El Ghoueir_) opens almost at the level of the lake. It is a delightful copse of rich verdure, furrowed by abundant streams which proceed partly from a great round basin of ancient construction (_Ain-Medawara_). At the entrance of this plain, which is, properly speaking, the country of Gennesareth, there is the miserable village of _Medjdel_. At the other extremity of the plain (always following the sea), we come to the site of a town (_Khan-Minyeh_), with very beautiful streams (_Ain-et-Tin_), a pretty road, narrow and deep, cut out of the rock, which Jesus often traversed, and which serves as a pa.s.sage between the plain of Gennesareth and the northern slopes of the lake. A quarter of an hour's journey from this place, we cross a stream of salt water (_Ain-Tabiga_), issuing from the earth by several large springs at a little distance from the lake, and entering it in the midst of a dense ma.s.s of verdure. At last, after a journey of forty minutes further, upon the arid declivity which extends from Ain-Tabiga to the mouth of the Jordan, we find a few huts and a collection of monumental ruins, called _Tell-Houm_.

Five small towns, the names of which mankind will remember as long as those of Rome and Athens, were, in the time of Jesus, scattered in the s.p.a.ce which extends from the village of Medjdel to Tell-Houm. Of these five towns, Magdala, Dalmanutha, Capernaum, Bethsaida, and Chorazin,[1] the first alone can be found at the present time with any certainty. The repulsive village of Medjdel has no doubt preserved the name and the place of the little town which gave to Jesus his most faithful female friend.[2] Dalmanutha[3] was probably near there. It is possible that Chorazin was a little more inland, on the northern side.[4] As to Bethsaida and Capernaum, it is in truth almost at hazard that they have been placed at Tell-Houm, Ain-et-Tin, Khan-Minyeh, and Ain-Medawara.[5] We might say that in topography, as well as in history, a profound design has wished to conceal the traces of the great founder. It is doubtful whether we shall ever be able, upon this extensively devastated soil, to ascertain the places where mankind would gladly come to kiss the imprint of his feet.

[Footnote 1: The ancient Kinnereth had disappeared or changed its name.]

[Footnote 2: We know in fact that it was very near Tiberias.--Talmud of Jerusalem, _Maasaroth_, iii. 1; _Shebiit_, ix. 1; _Erubin_, v. 7.]

[Footnote 3: Mark viii. 10. Comp. Matt. xv. 39.]

[Footnote 4: In the place named _Khorazi_ or _Bir-kerazeh_, above Tell-Houm.]

[Footnote 5: The ancient hypothesis which identified Tell-Houm with Capernaum, though strongly disputed some years since, has still numerous defenders. The best argument we can give in its favor is the name of _Tell-Houm_ itself, _Tell_ entering into the names of many villages, and being a subst.i.tute for _Caphar_. It is impossible, on the other hand, to find near Tell-Houm a fountain corresponding to that mentioned by Josephus (_B.J._, III. x. 8.) This fountain of Capernaum seems to be Ain-Medawara, but Ain-Medawara is half an hour's journey from the lake, while Capernaum was a fishing town on the borders of the lake (Matt. iv. 13; John vi. 17.) The difficulties about Bethsaida are still greater; for the hypothesis, somewhat generally admitted, of two Bethsaidas, the one on the eastern, the other on the western sh.o.r.e of the lake, and at two or three leagues from one another, is rather singular.]

The lake, the horizon, the shrubs, the flowers, are all that remain of the little canton, three or four leagues in extent, where Jesus founded his Divine work. The trees have totally disappeared. In this country, in which the vegetation was formerly so brilliant that Josephus saw in it a kind of miracle--Nature, according to him, being pleased to bring hither side by side the plants of cold countries, the productions of the torrid zone, and the trees of temperate climates, laden all the year with flowers and fruits[1]--in this country travellers are obliged now to calculate a day beforehand the place where they will the next day find a shady resting-place. The lake has become deserted. A single boat in the most miserable condition now ploughs the waves once so rich in life and joy. But the waters are always clear and transparent.[2] The sh.o.r.e, composed of rocks and pebbles, is that of a little sea, not that of a pond, like the sh.o.r.es of Lake Huleh. It is clean, neat, free from mud, and always beaten in the same place by the light movement of the waves. Small promontories, covered with rose laurels, tamarisks, and th.o.r.n.y caper bushes, are seen there; at two places, especially at the mouth of the Jordan, near Tarichea, and at the boundary of the plain of Gennesareth, there are enchanting parterres, where the waves ebb and flow over ma.s.ses of turf and flowers. The rivulet of Ain-Tabiga makes a little estuary, full of pretty sh.e.l.ls. Clouds of aquatic birds hover over the lake. The horizon is dazzling with light. The waters, of an empyrean blue, deeply imbedded amid burning rocks, seem, when viewed from the height of the mountains of Safed, to lie at the bottom of a cup of gold. On the north, the snowy ravines of Hermon are traced in white lines upon the sky; on the west, the high, undulating plateaux of Gaulonitis and Perea, absolutely arid, and clothed by the sun with a sort of velvety atmosphere, form one compact mountain, or rather a long and very elevated terrace, which from Caesarea Philippi runs indefinitely toward the south.

[Footnote 1: _B.J._, III. x. 8.]

[Footnote 2: _B.J._, III. x. 7; Jac. de Vitri, in the _Gesta Dei per Francos_, i. 1075.]

The heat on the sh.o.r.e is now very oppressive. The lake lies in a hollow six hundred and fifty feet below the level of the Mediterranean,[1] and thus partic.i.p.ates in the torrid conditions of the Dead Sea.[2] An abundant vegetation formerly tempered these excessive heats; it would be difficult to understand that a furnace, such as the whole basin of the lake now is, commencing from the month of May, had ever been the scene of great activity. Josephus, moreover, considered the country very temperate.[3] No doubt there has been here, as in the _campagna_ of Rome, a change of climate introduced by historical causes. It is Islamism, and especially the Mussulman reaction against the Crusades, which has withered as with a blast of death the district preferred by Jesus. The beautiful country of Gennesareth never suspected that beneath the brow of this peaceful wayfarer its highest destinies lay hidden.

[Footnote 1: This is the estimate of Captain Lynch (in Ritter, _Erdkunde_ xv., 1st part, p. 20.) It nearly agrees with that of M. de Bertou (_Bulletin de la Soc. de Geogr._, 2d series, xii., p. 146.)]

[Footnote 2: The depression of the Dead Sea is twice as much.]

[Footnote 3: _B.J._, III. x. 7 and 8.]

Dangerous countryman! Jesus has been fatal to the country which had the formidable honor of bearing him. Having become a universal object of love or of hate, coveted by two rival fanaticisms, Galilee, as the price of its glory, has been changed to a desert. But who would say that Jesus would have been happier, if he had lived obscure in his village to the full age of man? And who would think of these ungrateful Nazarenes, if one of them had not, at the risk of compromising the future of their town, recognized his Father, and proclaimed himself the Son of G.o.d?

Four or five large villages, situated at half an hour's journey from one another, formed the little world of Jesus at the time of which we speak. He appears never to have visited Tiberias, a city inhabited for most part by Pagans, and the habitual residence of Antipas.[1]

Sometimes, however, he wandered from his favorite region. He went by boat to the eastern sh.o.r.e, to Gergesa, for instance.[2] Toward the north we see him at Paneas or Caesarea Philippi,[3] at the foot of Mount Hermon. Lastly, he journeyed once in the direction of Tyre and Sidon,[4] a country which must have been marvellously flourishing at that time. In all these countries he was in the midst of Paganism.[5]

At Caesarea, he saw the celebrated grotto of _Panium_, thought to be the source of the Jordan, and with which the popular belief had a.s.sociated strange legends;[6] he could admire the marble temple which Herod had erected near there in honor of Augustus;[7] he probably stopped before the numerous votive statues to Pan, to the Nymphs, to the Echo of the Grotto, which piety had already begun to acc.u.mulate in this beautiful place.[8]

[Footnote 1: Jos., _Ant._, XVIII. ii. 3; _Vita_, 12, 13, 64.]

[Footnote 2: I adopt the opinion of Dr. Thomson (_The Land and the Book_, ii. 34, and following), according to which the Gergesa of Matthew viii. 28, identical with the Canaanite town of _Girgash_ (_Gen._ x. 16, xv. 21; _Deut._ vii. 1; _Josh._ xxiv. 11), would be the site now named _Kersa_ or _Gersa_, on the eastern sh.o.r.e, nearly opposite Magdala. Mark v. 1, and Luke viii. 26, name _Gadara_ or _Gerasa_ instead of Gergesa. _Gerasa_ is an impossible reading, the evangelists teaching us that the town in question was near the lake and opposite Galilee. As to Gadara, now _Om-Keis_, at a journey of an hour and a half from the lake and from the Jordan, the local circ.u.mstances given by Mark and Luke scarcely suit it. It is possible, moreover, that _Gergesa_ may have become _Gerasa_, a much more common name, and that the topographical impossibilities which this latter reading offered may have caused Gadara to be adopted.--Cf. Orig., _Comment. in Joann._, vi. 24, x. 10; Eusebius and St. Jerome, _De situ et nomin. loc. hebr._, at the words [Greek: Gergesa], [Greek: Gergasei].]

[Footnote 3: Matt. xvi. 13; Mark viii. 27.]

[Footnote 4: Matt. xv. 21; Mark vii. 24, 31.]

[Footnote 5: Jos., _Vita_, 13.]

[Footnote 6: Jos., _Ant._, XV. x. 3; _B.J._, I. xxi. 3, III. x. 7; Benjamin of Tudela, p. 46, edit. Asher.]

[Footnote 7: Jos., _Ant._, XV. x. 3.]

[Footnote 8: _Corpus inscr. gr._, Nos. 4537, 4538, 4538 _b_, 4539.]

A rationalistic Jew, accustomed to take strange G.o.ds for deified men or for demons, would consider all these figurative representations as idols. The seductions of the naturalistic worships, which intoxicated the more sensitive nations, never affected him. He was doubtless ignorant of what the ancient sanctuary of Melkarth, at Tyre, might still contain of a primitive worship more or less a.n.a.logous to that of the Jews.[1] The Paganism which, in Phoenicia, had raised a temple and a sacred grove on every hill, all this aspect of great industry and profane riches,[2] interested him but little. Monotheism takes away all apt.i.tude for comprehending the Pagan religion; the Mussulman, thrown into polytheistic countries, seems to have no eyes. Jesus a.s.suredly learned nothing in these journeys. He returned always to his well-beloved sh.o.r.e of Gennesareth. There was the centre of his thoughts; there he found faith and love.

[Footnote 1: Lucia.n.u.s (ut fertur), _De Dea Syria_, 3.]