Him, and so held together, that the grey red-striped undergarment was little seen, and His feet, which had sandals, not shoes, were only noticed occasionally, when He moved. When He had sat down and looked over the people, they became stiller and stiller, till nothing was heard but the soft plash of the ripple on the beach. As He sat on the stone, Simon and Andrew, the sons of Jonas, stood on His right and left hand, with James and John, the sons of Zabdai. The people stood around the slope, for as yet Rabbis were heard, standing. Sickness came into the world," says the Talmud, "when Rabban Gamaliel died, and it became the rule to hear the Law sitting."1 "Sons of Israel, men of Galilee," He began, "the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come; repent, and believe the Gospel. Moses, your teacher, peace be to him, has said-'A prophet will the Lord your God raise unto you from your brethren, like unto me. Him shall ye hear. But he who will not hear this prophet shall die!' Amen, I say unto you: he who believes on me has everlasting life. No man knows the Father but the Son, and no man knows the Son but the Father, and he to whom the Son reveals Him." Then, with a louder voice, He continued, "Come to me, all ye that labour and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." Then, drawing to a close, He added, "Take on you the yoke of the kingdom of heaven, for the kingdom of heaven is the fulfilling of the Law and the Prophets. Give up that which is worth little, that you may have what is of great price. Become wise changers who value holy money above all other, and the pearl of price above all." He that has ears to hear, let him hear." i 1 Lightfoot, vol. ii. p. 212. THE CHAPTER XLI. THE BURSTING OF THE STORM. THE summer passed in a succession of excitements and an unbroken recurrence of exhausting toil. Wherever Jesus appeared He was surrounded by crowds, anxious to see and to hear. The sick everywhere pressed in His way, and friends brought the bed-ridden and helpless to Him, from all quarters. From early morning till night, day by day, without respite, there was a strain on mind, heart, and body, alike. Even the retirement of the house in which He might be resting, could not save Him from intruding crowds, and time or free space for meals was hardly to be had. Such tension of His whole nature must have told on Him, and must have affected His whole nervous and physical system. To be continually surrounded by misery in every form, is itself distressing; but, in addition to this, to be kept on the strain by the higher spiritual excitement of a great religious crisis and to be overtaxed in mere physical demands, could not fail to show results, in careworn features, feverishness of the brain, and the need of temporary quiet and rest. Yet sympathy was felt for Him only by a few. The thoughtless crowds did not realize that they were consuming in the fires of its own devotion, the nature they intended to honour, and His enemies, seeing everything only through the disturbing light of their hatred, invented a theory for it all that was sinister enough. The continued and increasing support Jesus received from the people, was a daily growing evil, in the eyes of the ecclesiastical authorities. They were in danger of losing their influence, which they identified with the interests of orthodoxy, and national favour with God. They had let Him gather four or five disciples, without feeling alarmed, for a movement as yet so insignificant was almost beneath their notice. The choice of a publican as one of this handful had, indeed, apparently neutralized any possible danger, by VOL. II. 129 K the shock it gave to public feeling. The further selection of the Twelve was, however, more serious. It seemed like consolidation, and progress towards open schism. There were, already, parties in Judaism, but there were no sects, for all were alike fanatically loyal to the Law, the Temple, and the scribes, and ready to unite against any one who did not identify himself with them, in every sense. Criticism was utterly proscribed: blind worship of things as they were was imperatively required, and hence, Jesus, with His free examination of received opinions, provoked the bitterest hostility. As long, however, as He had no following He was little dreaded, but signs of organization and permanence, such as the choice of the Twelve, and the growing enthusiasm of the people towards Him, determined the authorities on vigorous action. Information was laid against Him at Jerusalem, where He had already been challenged, and Rabbis were sent down to investigate the whole question. Every movement which did not rise in the Rabbinical schools was suspected by the Rabbis and their disciples, and there were circumstances in that of Jesus, which were especially formidable. The superhuman powers He displayed could not be questioned, and the Rabbis could boast of nothing as imposing. They were falling into the shade. Respect for Jesus was growing among the people, in spite of them.1 His claims were daily urged more frankly, and the masses were disposed to assent to them. On His return to Capernaum He had cured a man who was blind, dumb, and mad, and possessed, besides, with a devil; and so astounding a miracle had raised the question, far and wide, whether, in spite of their former ideas, He were not the Son of David athe Messiah, after all. Men had, indeed, expected an outward political kingdom, with a blaze of miracle wrought on behalf of the nation at large, but they began to ask each other, "When the Christ cometh will He do more miracles than this man has done?"3 It could not be endured. movement of John had just been crushed, and, now, in restless Galilee, one far more dangerous to the Jerusalem dignitaries was rapidly taking shape and consistence. It must be put down at any cost. The The Rabbis from the capital, reverend and gray, did not know whether to be more bitter at the discredit thrown on 1 Keim, vol. ii. p. 289. 2 Herzog, vol. ix. p. 432. Schürer, p. 582. John vii. 31. RABBINICAL EXORCISMS. 131 their own claims to supernatural powers, or at the popular favour shown to Jesus. He cast out devils, indeed, but so did they, and their disciples,1 the exorcists. It was enough for Him, however, to speak, and the sufferer was cured of all ailments alike, while they used adjurations, spells, and magic formulæ, which were dangerously like the superstitions of the despised heathen. They laid stress on their knowledge of the secret names of God and the angels. To utter the cipher which stood for these, was, in their belief, to set in motion the Divine and angelic powers themselves, and a whole science of the black art had been invented, defining how and for what ends they could be pressed into the service of their invoker, like the genii of the Arabian Nights into that of a magician. The calm dignity and simplicity of Jesus, contrasted with their doubtful rites, was, indeed, humiliating to them. The mightiest of all agencies at their command was the unutterable name of "Jehovah "-called in the Book of Enoch, in the jargon of the Rabbinical exorcists-the oath Akâl and "the number of Kesbeel." 2 By this number, or oath, it was held, all that is has its being. It had also a secret magical power. It was made known to men by the wicked angels"the sons of God"-who allied themselves with women, and brought on the flood.3 "It was revealed by the Head of the Oath to the holy ones who dwell above in majesty; and his name is Beqa." And he said to the holy Michael that he should reveal to them that secret name, that they might see it, and that they might use it for an oath, that they who reveal to the sons of men all that is hidden, may shrink away before that name and that oath. And this is the power of that oath, and these are its secret works, and these things were established by the swearing of it. The heaven was hung up for ever and ever (by it), before the world was created. By it the earth was founded above the water, and the fair streams come by it for the use of the living, from the hidden places of the hills, from the foundation of the earth, for ever. And by that oath was the sea made, and underneath it He spread the sand, to restrain it in the time of its rage, and it dare not overstep this bound from the creation of the world to eternity. And through that oath the abysses are confirmed, and stand, and move not from their place, 1 Matt. xii. 22-37. Mark iii. 19-30. Luke xi. 14, 15, 17-23. from eternity to eternity. And through that oath the sun. and the moon fulfil their course, and turn not aside from the path assigned them, for ever and ever. And through that oath the stars fulfil their course, and He calls their names, and they answer, from eternity to eternity. And even so the spirits of the waters, of the winds, of all airs, and their ways, according to all the combinations of the spirits. And by that oath are the treasuries of the voice of the thunder and of the brightness of the lightning maintained, and the treasuries of the rain, and of the hoar frost, and of the clouds, and of the rain, and of the dew. And over them all this oath is mighty." Possessing spells so mighty as they believed the secret names of the higher powers thus to be, the Rabbis had created a vast science of magic, as fantastic as that of mediæval superstition, to bring these awful powers to bear on the mysteries of the future, and the diseases and troubles of the present. Combinations of numbers of lines, or of letters based on them, were believed to put these powers at the service of the seer, or the exorcist. Resistless talismans, protecting amulets, frightful curses, by which miracles could be wrought, the sick healed, and demons put to flight, were thus formed. Armed with a mystic text from the opening of Genesis, or the visions of Ezekiel,2 or the secret name of God, or of some of the angels, or with secret mysterious unions of letters, the Rabbis who dealt in the dark arts had the power to draw the moon from heaven, or to open the abysses of the earth! The uninitiated saw only unmeaning signs in their most awful formulæ, but he who could reckon their mystic value aright was master of angelic or even Divine attributes.3 The appearance of Jesus as a miracle-worker so different from themselves, must have excited the Rabbinical schools greatly. They made no little gain from their exorcisms, and now they were in danger of being wholly discredited. At a loss what to do, they determined to slander what they could not deny, and attribute the miracles of Jesus to a league with the devil. They had indeed, for some time back been whispering this insinuation about, to poison the minds of the people against Him, as an emissary of Satan, and thus, necessarily, a disguised enemy of Israel, and of man. It would raise super 5 1 Das Buch Henoch, lxix. 12–25. 2 Gfrörer, vol. i. pp. 60, 246. 3 Hausrath, vol. i. p. 108. Acts xvi. 16. Matt. ix. 34. |