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JESUS CHRISTBEFORE HIS MINISTRY

BYEDMOND STAFFERPROFESSOR IN THE FACULTY OF PROTESTANT

THEOLOGY AT PARIS

STraiislatfti bg

LOUISE SEYMOUR HOUGHTON

NEW YORKCHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS

1896


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Copyright, 1896,By Charles Scribner's Sons.

SnifafrsitD Preaa:John Wilson and Son, Cambridge,


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PREFACE

" TESUS CHRIST: his Person, his Au-thority, his Ministry," such is the

title of a work which I purpose to write.In the first volume, which I now publish,I shall endeavor to relate the life of Jesusbefore his ministry.Of the time which passed over him until

his thirtieth year we know only so muchas the evangelists Matthew and Luke havepreserved for us. But it is not from thefacts which they bring to light that I shalldraw the pages which follow. To theirtouching narratives of the childhood ofJesus it seems to me that there is nothingto add, and from them nothing to subtractand the deep poetry which breathes inthese marvellous stories defies all criticism.


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VI PREFACE

To touch them is to spoil them. Morethan that, my aim is not to repeat thelittle that we know about the youth ofJesus ; it is to seek for that which hasnot been told us.The early Christians, surprised at the

sobriety of the gospel narratives, tried tomake up for the silence of history, andcomposed the apocryphal Gospels of theInfancy. I am attempting a study of thissort, but I have no intention of writing awork of pure imagination, like that of theauthors of the antique legends. I wouldfain say what must have been the life ofJesus until his thirtieth year, by deducingfrom known facts some facts unknown,and permitting myself only to observe andto relate.


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CONTENTSPack

Preface vIntroduction ix

ChapterI. The Childhood of Jesus .... 3

II. Early Beliefs 19III. Jesus at Twelve Years of Age 39IV". First Impressions AND Experiences 57V. Studies and Reading 75VI. Jesus and the Pharisees ... 93

VII. Jesus and the Essenes .... 109VIII. Jesus and John the Baptist . . 121IX. The Messianic Ideal of Jesus at

Thirty Years of Age .... 137X. The Originality of Jesus . . . 161

Conclusion 175


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INTRODUCTION

TTOW could Jesus have believed him-self and proclaimed himself the

Messiah ?In the first half of the nineteenth cen-

tury, when historical criticism, with itssevere and certain methods, addressed it-self to the Gospels for the first time, thequestion was answered : Jesus never be-lieved himself to be the Messiah. Heowed his career only to the enthusiasmof excited disciples, who, after the deathof their Master, attributed to him in goodfaith acts which he had not done andwords which he had not spoken.But this solution of the question quickly

became antiquated. Criticism kept on inits work, and forty years of patient and


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X INTRODUCTIONconscientious labors have compelled theimpartial historian to refuse this explana-tion. It has been demonstrated with themost rigorous certainty that Jesus gavethe most surprising witness that he be-lieved himself to be really the Messiahexpected by his people, and that heannounced himself as such.Next came Kenan's explanation. Jesus

first preached the pure religion of theSpirit, love to God and love to man, thereign of charity and happiness by a uni-versal brotherhood ; and then, carriedaway by his success, he permitted himselfto be called Son of David, that is, Mes-siah ; and, little by little, by a sort ofunconscious deceit, and under the do-minion of an illusion of which he wasonly in part the dupe, he believed in hisown Messiahship. He persuaded himselfthat the apocaljrptic hopes of his peoplewould soon be realized in his own person,and he died the victim of this holy andreligious madness.


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INTRODUCTION xiTo Renan, Jesus is to be explained in a

single word, charm. He thought thatthis word solved the enigma of his life.He charmed the multitudes, his disjciples,women, the sick, and he ended by charm-ing himself. The pious and gentle Rabbiwas before all things a charmer, and every-thing becomes clear when we see deeplyinto all that this word " charm " includes.If he spoke, his words charmed. In theearly months of the Galilean ministry hiswords were precepts full of gentleness,exquisite words that consoled, delight-ful parables which enchanted the mul-titudes. By charm his cures are to beexplained, for he incontestably did per-form cures. Contact with his person, thesound of his voice, his face as well, every-thing about him was charming, every-thing was of exquisite gentleness andsuave kindness.Then came the evil days. Envy and

hatred pursued him as they always pursuethose who succeed and are greatly loved.


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xii INTRODUCTION

Then Jesus, by a natural reaction, felt hisconfidence in himself increasing. Pene-trated as much with the enthusiasm whichhe continued to breathe as with the oppo-sition to himself which continually becamemore pronounced, he had the simplicity tobelieve himself the Messiah, and, givinghimself up to this idea even to martyi'dom,he was crucified and died.But the memory which he left behind

remained, with its ever-growing charm,for death always magnifies and transfigures.Such a memory, the circumstances beingfavorable, must inevitably beget for himdisciples, give him a Church, conquer theworld for him.The starting-point of the triumphs of

the invisible Christ was the hallucinationof Mary Magdalen, one of the women whohad most loved him. Her devotion wassuch that she believed that she saw himagain, and insisted that she had seen him.Now, at that period a resurrection fromthe dead appeared to be a highly pos-


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INTRODUCTION xiiisible tiling. Mary Magdalen's exclama-tion, " He is risen from the dead ! " soonbecame every one's word, and the ChristianChurch was founded.

This explanation " charm " is evi-dently the only one which may be accepted,and is in fact that of those of our contem-poraries who are not Christians, and theyare legion, for there is no half-way, thedilemma is inexorable ; and Kenan, in spiteof the scientific imperfections of his book,has rendered a very great service to sci-ence. He has shown that the problemthat concerns Christ is entirely a psycho-logical problem. The question is, to knowwhat was taking place in the soul of Jesus.He called himself the Messiah. That isproved ; it is certain. How did he reachthat point ? Was he crazy, yes or no ?Such it seems to us is the sole alternativewhich henceforth forces itself between be-lievers and unbelievers. The questionappears to us absolutely clear and precise.It can only be solved by a third supposi-


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XIV INTROJ) UCTION

tion. Renan has very clearly shown this,and herein lies the entire scientific valueof his work.To this question, Was he mad, yes or

no ? we shall try to reply, and we shall en-deavor to do it purely as a historian. Ourplan is to observe, to ascertain the facts,and to make them known. We shall notdraw from them the dogmatic consequenceswhich they may bear. Our task is simplythat of the historian.

Do we, then, hope completely to solve,by this purely historic method, the eternalquestion of the Christ? For everybodyin general, no ; for it is possible to reachonly partial results, or rather only oneresult, he was not mad ; a wholly nega-tive result, which leads at once to anotherquestion, What, then, was he ? And thissecond question is unanswerable by thehistorian, because the documents whichmight solve it are wanting.

This penury of documents will alwaysbe the cause of a continual return to the


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INTROD UCTION XVexamination of Cliiist's character. Purescience can never exhaust it. To thisquestion, What, then, was he ? it is nolonger for history to reply, for it cannot.We enter here upon a moral question. IfJesus was not led away by a monstrousillusion, he spoke truly ; if he spoke truly,he was what he said he was, the Mes-siah, the Saviour of men, the Son of God.In this reply, the moral character of thehistorian becomes involved. He is nolonger on the ground of demonstratedfacts and historic verifications, but uponthat of religious faith and personal con-viction; and a religious belief cannot bescientifically demonstrated.The believer says : Jesus will never be

explained by science, because he is theRevelation of God himself, and incompre-hensibility is one of the most certain marksof his divinity. The pure historian willalways say: Jesus is not explained byscience, because the documents are want-ing, and we have not sufficient data con-


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XVI INTROD UC TlONcerning him to solve the enigma of hisappearance by historic methods. But thisdilemma does not embarrass the believer.It is enough for liim to know that noscientific demonstration is opposed to hisfaith, for he asks not of science to estab-lish his faith, to prove it, to show it to betrue. Faith is not to be demonstrated ; itsimply aifirms itself, simply shows itselfunder pain of ceasing to be faith and be-coming what is called sight, that is,either a sensible or an intellectual cer-titude. For in questions of faith therecan be neither sensible nor intellectualevidence, but only moral evidence. Atbottom the believer and the non-believerare divided only upon one point. To thesecond, moral evidence does not suffice;to the first (and we are of this number)it does suffice.


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JESUS CHRISTHIS PERSON, HIS AUTHORITY, HIS WORK

JESUS CHRIST BEFORE HIS MINISTRY


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THE CHILDHOOD OF JESUS


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CHAPTER ITHE CHILDHOOD OF JESUS

JESUS was brought up at Nazareth. Inthe middle of the eighth century of

Rome, about 1890 years ago,i this wasthe name 2 of a small town hidden awayamong the hills of Galilee, and makingpart of the Roman province of Sjo-ia. Itwas twenty-five leagues north of Jerusa-lem, and eight or nine hours' walk fromCapernaum.

Its general aspect was dull and mean.Nazareth was a cluster of cubical houseswithout character or elegance, built interraces in the hollow of an amphitheatreof rocky hills. Irregularly disposed, theyformed a confused medley of small white

1 It is impossible to fix the exact date. The firstten oT twelve years of Jesus' life must have lain be-tween the years of Rome 750 and 765.

2 According to the best manuscripts, the corre^'tGreek transliteration of this word is Nazara ; but weretain the name Nazareth, consecrated by usage.


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4 JESUS CHRISTflat-roofed dwellings, threshing-floors andwine-presses. Here were pits hollowed outof the ground ; there tombs hewn out ofthe rock. The fig-tree, the olive, the cac-tus grew everjnyhere, and now and then,between the houses, a tiny field of wheat.The streets were rough and uneven ; and

the lanes, narrow, crooked, and steep, wereoften crossed by streamlets from the ra-vines in the hills north of the town.We are told that Nazareth containedthree or four thousand inhabitants. Thisestimate is certainly excessive. Judgingby the small area which it covered, Naza-reth was a mere village. It is true that inthe Orient men and beasts can huddle them-selves into a very small space; but wecannot credit more than fifteen hundred ortwo thousand inhabitants to a villagewhich had only one synagogue, one foun-tain, and one public square.The fountain is still there. Springs do

not change. That of Nazareth is to-daywhat it always was, the gathering-placeof the women and young girls, who cometwice a day to draw the water needed forthe household.Let us imagine ourselves in the first


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BEFORE HIS MINISTRY 5century. Here they come, with alert step;and among them Mary, the wife of Josephthe carpenter, carrying her empty water-jar crosswise on her head. She waits forher turn, chats with her companions, fillsher pitcher, and goes away, with the grace-ful, flexible step which is that of all thewomen of her country. Her dress consistsof wide trousers which leave hare the lowerpart of the leg, and a robe with open sleeveswhich leave her arms also exposed. A fewcoins gleam among the braids of her hair.When Jesus, her eldest son, has grown alittle older, he will come with his motherand will help her to fill and carry herpitcher. Later he will come alone, tospare Mary all fatigue ; and, to quote fromthe simple-hearted chronicler of 1187 : Aitmissel dc cele fontaine lavait Nostre Dameles drapels de coi ele envelopet Nostre Sei-gneur. De celefontaine envoiait querre Nos-tre Dame par Nostre Seigneur^ quant il futun peu grant, et il y aloit volontiers.^

1 " At the stream from this fountain Our Ladywashed the linen in which she wrapped Our Lord.To this fountain Our Lady sent Our Lord to bringwater, when he was a little grown ; and he went will-ingly." La Citez de Jerusalem.


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6 JESUS CHRISTMary retui'iis home. Her house is low

and square, with a court before it and aterrace on the roof. Let us enter. Weare in a large room without windows, andfilled with all sorts of utensils. The dooris wide, and by day is always open, andthe brilliant light of the Orient enters infloods. There are no tables, but there arerugs, and on the walls are hung a fewgarments, robes and veils.The dwelling is narrow, and the family

numerous. Joseph and Mary have atleast seven children. There are, to beginwith, five sons: the eldest bears the nameJehoshua, and the others are Yakob,Joseph, Youda, Shimeon, that is, Jesus,James, Joseph, Jude, and Simon. As tothe daughters we know neither theirnames nor their number; but Joseph andMary have at least two.^ These ninepeople, perhaps more, all live in the oneroom of this house ; and this room servesfor all purposes. 2 Here Joseph works athis carpenter's trade; here all the family

1 " His sisters." Mark vi. 3.2 " The one room." This was the usual condition ;

but it is very possible that Joseph and Mary had ahouse of two or three rooms.


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BEFORE HIS MINISTRY 7sleep; they all take their meals here, andhere also Mary does the cooking.The walls of this poor dwelling are notof stone, not even of brick. They aremade of sun-dried clay. An outer stair-case gives access to the roof, which formsa terrace, the floor of which, a mixture ofchalk and sand with small pebbles andashes, has become a sort of hardened soilwhich shows here and there a sparse vege-tation. In summer, on fine starlightnights, all the family sleep here, each onerolled in his blanket, for the heat of thecommon room is insupportable, and theswarming insects make it almost intoler-able to stay there.An inventory of Joseph's householdgoods would show, first of all, a carpenter'sbench like our own, and its tools; akitchen furnace with two places, a sheetof iron for roasting wheat or baking breada few leathern bottles, some wooden bowls,one or two earthen pitchers, some gobletsand cups; and that is all. Joseph andMary have no plates, no forks or spoons.The beds are mere pallets, rolled upevery morning and placed upon an ele-vated plank running along the walls. A


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8 JESUS CHRISTfew mats and cushions upon which peoplesquat after the oriental fashion, and agreat chest, complete the furniture. Dur-ing the warm season this chest holds therugs and blankets. Besides these articlesJoseph and Mary possess a lamp, a bushel,a broom, and a mill. The lamp is verytall, and stands on the floor. It is made ofclay, has two or three wicks, and burnsoil. The bushel serves as a measure, adrawer, and a bag. Turned bottom up-ward on the floor, it takes the place of thetable which is not there. Sometimes theyplace the lamp upon it when they wish toraise the light and illuminate the wholeroom.As for the mill, it is for hand use ; and

every morning Mary, with the help of oneof her daughters, must turn the crank andgrind the grain needed for the day'sbread.

It is noon, the hour of the principalmeal. Before sitting down to table, thewhole family wash their hands. Thisablution has a religious character, and itwould be more exact to say they purifytheir hands. At a later day Jesus willdeclare these purifications useless, and will


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BEFORE HIS MINISTRY 9no longer practise theui ; but he is now achild : he submits to the regulations of hispious parents, which are those of the Lawof his people.

Before squatting down in orientalfashion, Joseph gives thanks, and Jesus,the eldest child, repeats a part of hisprayer. At the close of the meal anotherthanksgiving will be pronounced.Each one has a loaf before him. It is

a sort of flat round cake which serves alsoas plate, and on which each puts hisportion of butter or of cheese. Further-more, there is a dish on the bottom of theupturned bushel; and each one at table,after having broken his bread, dips hismorsel in the dish before eating.What is there in this dish? Usually

curdled milk or a porridge made of barleyor wheat. In addition to butter andcheese there are also eggs, honey, andparched grain. These form the ordinaryfood of the carpenter's family. Meat isscarce and dear. If any is bought onfeast days, it is beef, mutton, or kid. Insummer a few grapes and figs complete thedinner. Sometimes, in the season, thereare locusts. If so, the children must have


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10 JESUS CHRISTgathered them. They are prepared byreducing the body to a powder, which ismingled with flour to make a sort of cake,very much appreciated.

In the goblet, which is passed aroundthe circle, each one drinking in turn,there is sometimes water mingled withwine ; but the ordinary drink of the familyis a sort of small beer made of wheat andfruits, and called shechar.The meal ended, each resumes his work

until evening, when another meal, evenmore frugal than the earlier one, againbrings the family together.They were poor in the house of the

Nazareth carpenter, but they did not sufferfrom poverty, for among Jews of thattime the word " poverty " was never synony-mous with "indigence" or "want." Therequirements of life were very few, andneeds created by modern civilization wereunknown. Such conveniences as we areaccustomed to did not exist, and Joseph,Mary, and their children suffered no priva-tion. Things which we could with diffi-culty do without, comforts which havebecome necessary to us, were not in theleast missed by the carpenter and his


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BEFORE ffIS MINISTRY Hfamily, for they knew nothing about themand felt no need of them.What were the first religious notionsreceived by the child Jesus ? Very earlyhe knew by heart certain verses of theBible. As soon as he began to speak, hismother made a point of repeating to himverses of the Law; and first of all shetaught him those which proclaim the unityof God and the election of Israel : " Hear,O Israel, the Lord thy God is One Lord.Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with allthy heart and with all thy soul and with allthy might."! "The Lord did not set hislove upon you nor choose you becauseye were more in number than any people,for ye were the fewest of all peoples ; butbecause the Lord lovethyou."^ When thechild could repeat these two verses per-fectly, his mother taught him others.After a while she put into his hands stripsof parchment upon which were writtenthe words which he knew by heart. Thushe finally came to know his letters, and,repeating these verses often with his littleplaymates, he soon learned to read.

^ Deut. vi. 4, 5.2 Deut. Tii. 7.


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12 JESUS CHRISTThe day came when his mother explained

to him the meaning of the words he wasrepeating. She told him of God and ofthe creation. She related to him theglorious history of the past, Abrahamwilling to offer up Isaac; Jacob and theladder of light; Moses and the burningbush; the coming up out of Egypt andthe passage of the Red Sea; David andhis victories; Judas Maccabaeus and thetriumph of national independence. Jesusearly knew all these marvellous stories ofthe Old Testament. The commandmentsof Jehovah, his promises, his warnings,were graven on his mind in ineffaceablecharacters.

His family was assuredly very pious,adhering closely to the strictest Judaism,for every year his father and mother madepart of the little caravan of Nazarenes whowent up to Jerusalem to celebrate thePassover; and James, the next youngerbrother of Jesus, remained in manhood,even after his conversion to Christianity, arigid and austere Jew, practising a narrowand minute piety, careful to omit no rite andto observe all the purifications. Withoutquestion this was due to impressions re-


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BEFORE HIS MINISTRY 13ceived in infancy in a home which was veryorthodox and closely bound up in thenational hopes. The piety of Jesus wasno doubt of another character; and there-fore it early began to distress his motherand brothers. The day was to come whenthey would try to hold him back, to keephim with them ; would even go so far as tosuspect him of insanity. From all this wemay conclude with certainty that the mostscrupulous attachment to pharisaical ob-servances, and an entire submission to allthe prescriptions of the Law, were thefixed rule of daily life in the carpenter'shouse.When Jesus was six years old, his parentssent him to school. That of Nazarethwas held in the synagogue, the audience-room serving for schoolroom during theweek.i The schoolmaster was the per-sonage who had charge of the building andof the manuscripts of the Sacred Books,and watched over the orderly conduct ofthe service on the Sabbath days.

^ This was the custom in the villages. In citiesand large towns (and perhaps Nazareth was of thisnumber) the school probably occupied a buildingcontiguous to the synagogue.


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14 JESUS CHRIST

Jesus attended this school until he wasten or twelve years old. At this age heknew how to read, write, and calculate.He then became a "Son of the Com-mandment;" that is, he began to be sub-ject to the discipline of the Law. Everymorning and evening he must recite theShema,^ a few verses of which he hadknown since infancy; for every morningand night, over the whole extent of Pales-tinian territory, the Jews hastily mutteredthese verses as one tells one's beads.Jesus never approved of these " vain repe-titions." The day came when he formallycondemned them. But at twelve years ofage he recited the Shema like every oneelse; and these nineteen verses certainlybecame the subject of his first religiousreflections.To this must be added what he learned

on Saturdays (the Sabbath) at a synagogueservice designed especially for childi-en.It was a sort of catechizing to which Maryhad been especially advised to send himregularly. Therefore, next to his mother,

^ The Shema contains nineteen verses, Deut. vi. 4-9xi. 13-21 ; Num. xv. 37-41. The name comes from thefirst word, Shema, which means Hear.


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BEFORE HIS MINISTRY 15it was the schoolmaster who first initiatedhim in the reading of the Old Testament.Thus passed the early years of Jesus.

What impressions must have been madeupon his soul by his home, his parents, hisbrothers and sisters, the family life inwhich he had been so happy ! How oftenhe must have recalled them to mind at alater time : the paternal home, the " fatherwho gave good things to his children, "^the little village boys with whom he hadplayed at marriages and burials, when heamused himself with them in imitatingthe village wedding-dances or in utteringthe lamentations of the hired mournerswho attended funeral services, whatsweet and peaceful memories of the timewhen he had only to let himself be loved

!

Such was the placid and humble cliild-hood of him who holds the first place inthe liistory of humanity, and who has exer-cised a decisive influence upon the destiniesof the world ; of him whose work is, withoutcontradiction, the most remarkable whichthe annals of the past have bequeathed toour meditation ; and whose life divides thehistory of our race into two parts whichnothing can ever blend together.

1 Matt. vii. 11.


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II

EARLY BELIEFS


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CHAPTER IIEARLY BELIEFS

TpHE child believes upon authority; heaccepts all that his teachers tell

him. He is surprised at nothing, andnever dreams of raising a doubt concern-ing such affirmations as are given him asindisputable truths. At a later time heexamines his early beliefs; perhaps heabandons them, and if he keeps them itis as changed into deliberate personal con-victions; but he must have begun withunquestioning submission, and if he wasbrought up by believing parents he ac-cepted all their religious teachings, andclung to them in all good faith.

This Avas certainly the case with Jesus.Brought up in a pious family, he believedwhat every young Israelite of that timebelieved. The faith of his childhood,simple, artless, confident, was that ofJoseph and Mary, that of the pious circles


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20 JESUS CHRISTof Galilee at that time. It is made knownto us by the Jewish books of that epoch,and by some of the representative char-acters whose memory has been preservedto us.We can know then with sufficient accu-racy what Jesus believed in his child-hood, and what were the beliefs which hereceived on authority and for which hewas not in the slightest degree respon-sible.What did Joseph and Mary teach their

son when he began to grow up and under-stand things ?The two eldest, Jesus and James, must

have received the same religious educa-tion; and that which later James becameand remained until the end of his life mayshow us what that education was, for hisnature was essentially conservative. Wehave said that even after becoming a Chris-tian he retained an ineffaceable stamp ofJudaism. In many respects he remainedwhat he had always been. All his lifeJames energetically defended the Jewishlaw and privileges. He was very faithful tothe temple and the synagogue; he neverceased to expect the glorious Messiah of the


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BEFORE HIS MINISTRY 21Pharisees, and was in his own person anascetic, half Ebionite, half Essene. Legendadds to these authentic characteristics thestatements that he was holy before hisbirth; that he never drank wine nor fer-mented liquor, never shaved his head noranointed himself with oil; and that hepassed his time always on his knees inprayer, a fancy picture, a few lines ofwhich may be historic ; nor is it assumingtoo much to draw from it the conclusionat which we have already arrived, that thefamily of the carpenter of Nazareth was inall probability one of profound and ardentpiety.But can we create anew the atmosphere

of this family life in which Jesus lived, atthat age when one accepts everything andrecoils from nothing? Can we say whatwas the current of ideas and facts, ofbeliefs and practices, in which James per-mitted himself to be carried along, andagainst which Jesus was one day tostruggle ?Two facts govern here, the expectationof a glorious Messiah, and the doctrinethat the fulfilling of the Law justified manbefore God. Joseph and Mary taught


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22 JESUS CHRIST

Jesus that he must be very scrupulous inthe practice of the rites, and very faithfulin looking for "the Consolation of Israel."Now, these two beliefs were precisely

those upon which Jesus at a later timestruck out new and entirely original ideas, ideas which became the very gromidof the opposition which he aroused andits reason for being.

Underlying these beliefs, if one may sospeak, in the very depths of the child'ssoul, there was a primitive religious teach-ing, common to all Jews of his time with-out exception, which Mary must havegiven to her son somewhat on this wise.She taught him, first of all, to believe in asingle God who is the only true God,creator of heaven and earth; who chosethe people Israel to be his own preferredpeople, and who would one day a daynot far off give Israel the supremacyover all nations. These were certainlythe first religious notions which the childreceived.That his people were the chosen people

there was no room to doubt, for there Avasa book which said so, the Torah, dictatedby God to Moses from the first word to


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BEFORE HIS MINISTRY 23the last. More than that, Jerusalemwas the centre of the world, and allother countries surrounded Palestine,which showed that Palestine was the"Holy Land," and that the Jews weredestined to rule over all peoples.The earth was a very large flat disk,

around which revolved the sun, the moon,and the stars, and God was up above thesky; that is, in heaven, beyond the bluesurface which we see over our heads.From thence he ruled the world and itsinhabitants.The child learned also that the world was

in two parts, the land of Israel and thatwliich was not the land of Israel. Menwere divided into two classes, Jev/s andGentiles ; that is, those who are " within "and those who are "without." Beyondthe land occupied by the Gentiles, thechild was told, lay the sea, whose vastextent no one knew.

In heaven were all the righteous peoplewho had hitherto lived. Abraham wasthe highest of them all. An everlastingfeast was carried on, and the best peoplewere at the table, "lying in Abraham'sbosom."


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24 JESUS CHRISTBesides this, in heaven was the throne

of God, surrounded by hundreds of legionsof angels, each in his own rank. The high-est, those who were nearest the Almighty,were the archangels. All of them sangthe praises of God. Some of them werealso his messengers to man ; for God, whodwelt in light inaccessible, could enterinto relations with a sinful world only bymeans of intermediaries. Now and againmen saw angels, who appeared to themsometimes in dreams, sometimes whenthey were awake. They watched over andprotected good people, and carried theirprayers to the throne of God, and weretherefore true guardian angels. Everyone had his own, who made known toGod the dangers which tlireatened himover whom he was watching, and im-plored for him divine aid. When a goodman died, angels came and carried himto heaven. If his piety had been great,he was laid in the very bosom of Abraham,and shared with him the everlasting feast.There were angels who remained alwaysin heaven to contemplate the glory ofGod or pray for men. Angels had playedan important part in the history of the


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BEFORE n/S MINISTRY 25chosen people. It was they who built theark and gave the Law to Moses, and it wasthey who always guarded the Templetreasure. More than that, every naturalforce had its angel, the rain, the dew,the wind, the fog, the hail, the fire, etc.Every one was sure of all tliis. Only theSadducees did not believe in angels.There was also another invisible world,called the Kingdom of Darkness, or King-dom of Satan. This was the name of itsprince, who ruled with the permission ofGod. This Satan, who was also calledAsmodeus, Belial, Beelzebub, Devil, wasa very real and living personage, whotormented men and led them into evil.He had innumerable hosts of demonsunder his orders, invisible and maleficentspirits, by whom people were constantlysurrounded. For this reason the de-mons were sometimes called "the pow-ers of the air." They usually wanderedin deserts and uninhabited places, espe-cially such as were arid.

These demons were the cause of nearlyall disease. They also made men fall intosin. And indeed there was a very closerelation between moral evil and physical


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26 JESUS CHEISTevil. It sometimes happened that a demon,or even the chief of demons, Satan, tookentire possession of a person, body andsouL The wretched man might even bethe prey of several demons at the sametime. It was always possible to expelthem. God had given to pious men,especially to Doctors and Rabbis, the powerto cast out demons. They alone knewhow to heal; and for this they hadtheir well-defined procedure, laying onof hands, prayers, fasts, etc. Each onehad his own, and for this reason the Rabbiswere to be held in the greatest respect.

These healings were called "signs;"that is, marks of the presence of a supe-rior power which was beneficent, or ratherof the one superior beneficent power, thatof God. There were also " signs " whichwere the tokens of the presence of a supe-rior evil-working power, or rather of theone superior evil-working power, that ofthe Devil.

These divers potencies, these invisible"powers," unceasingly made their presenceknown, and therefore nothing extraordi-nary, unfamiliar, extravagant, was impos-sible. Many had seen these signs, these


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BEFORE HIS MINISTRY 27miracles, and everybody desired to seethem. " The Jews ask for signs ; " ^ andJoseph and Mary, like every one else, cer-tainly believed in the supernatural underthe strangest forms, for example, inspiritswhich had never had bodies, or in angelsof fire, of water and of wind, that is, in aninvisible world which in all places and atall times made known its presence and itsactivities.

It is difficult for us at this day to pictureto ourselves the exact state of mind whichholds beliefs of this kind. If, for example,we are told of a sudden cure taking placein our own time, however surprising itmay be, we always explain it by the actionof natural forces, known or unknown. Itis nature which has acted; this we do notfor an instant doubt. If any one told usthat a resurrection from the dead hadtaken place among our contemporaries,even if we had seen it ourselves, we shouldimmediately explain it either by a lethargicslumber or in some other way; but evenif we could not explain it, we should notfor a moment admit that a true resurrectionhad taken place in our own time, that is1 1 Cor. i. 22.


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28 JESUS CHRISTto say, that life had returned to a bodyactually dead. In short, at the presentday we always, without hesitation, seekfor a natural explanation of everythingthat seems to be a miracle; and if we donot find such an explanation, we do notaffirm with any less certainty that it doesexist.In the time when Jesus was growing upit was entirely the other way. Thoughone might not at once admit, and find itperfectly easy to admit, the most surprisingmiracle, the resurrection of a dead per-son, for example, asking for proofs ofthe fact, at least no one was very exactingas to the proof, for there was nothing im-possible in the prodigy itself. Everythingwas possible, absolutely everything, no mat-ter what. In our day we declare every-thing that is out of the natural order ofthings to be a jjriori impossible. Perhapswe are wrong; perhaps we are too muchcarried away with the notion of the immu-tability of natural laws, and it is highlypossible that the future may bring a cor-rective to the inflexible rigor with whichwe reject all that does not appear to us tobe conformable to the known order of the


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BEFORE HIS MINISTRY 29universe. But for the time, thus it is;and therefore we find some difficulty inrepresenting to ourselves the effect whicha miracle had upon the mind of an inhabi-tant of Palestine in the first century. Thescience of medicine did not exist. Empiri-cal remedies were the only ones employed,and every one had his own. Resurrectionfrom the dead was held to be a perfectlypossible and even a very probable tiling.The firm persuasion of the speedy

appearance of the Messiah belonged to thisorder of supernatural beliefs. Withoutthe slightest doubt the parents of Jesushad told their son that there would be inthe very near future a sudden revolutionwhich would be marked by the appearanceof a Deliverer. The present was a timeof great calamity. The nation was inhumiliation, and under the Roman yokethe people felt severely the loss of thatUberty which the Maccabees had formerlyconquered for them.The great events of that glorious epoch

were certainly often related to the childJesus, and contrasted with the present sadcondition. Nothing more was to be ex-pected of man, but everj^thing might be


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30 JESUS CHRISTexpected of God. They Avere living inthe last times; and the words Maranatha^^ which Paul has preserved in theiroriginal form, must often have beensounded in the child's ears.What if the Messiah is already born?

they would say. For he is to remainhidden until the day of his manifestation.However, there will be signs at the lastmoment. Elias will first appear; thenwill come the Messiah, who will be onlya man, but a superior man, an ideal being,the Anointed of the Lord, the King ofIsrael. He will be a prophet, and willcommit no sin. His days will be days ofconsolation. While awaiting him, we mustlead a pious and austere life, with strictattention to the Pharisaic observances.When the world to come should begin,the good would have a new body, and thewicked would be eternally punished. Jeru-salem, which would have become the capi-tal of the world, would be all of gold,cypress, and cedar. A perpetual Sabbathwould be celebrated in the Temple, and thekings of the earth would prostrate them-selves before the Jews.

1 " The Lord is at hand." 1 Cor. xvi. 22.


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BEFORE HIS MINISTRY 31This era of prosperity would be estab-

lished only after a series of terrible woes,which would form the transition between"the present age " and "the age to come."For this reason the humble folk, the vil-lagers, looked forward with great fear tothe coming of the Messianic era. Thefiery-tongued Pharisaic preachers used tocome and tell them of frightful calamities,the conflict between Gog and Magog,famines, wars, earthquakes. "But," theywould add, and these words brought com-fort again to the suffering and the poor,"after that, righteousness will reign.God, who has laid the burden of life uponthe lowly, cannot have done it withoutintending to make compensation." Letthem observe the Law and the traditionsthey would thus acquire merits whichwould confer upon them rights beforeGod, and then the last should be first.And the humble folk would resume theirtasks with patience after this glimpse offuture triumph, this vision of the eternalJerusalem.!

^ Here we simply set forth the current ideas of thepopulace concerning the expected Messiah. Fartheron, in the chapter entitled " Studies and Reading," we


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BEFORE HIS MINISTRY 33life inhered solely in legal prescriptions.To love one's neighbor was no doubtimportant; but it was precisely as impor-tant to give the tithe of one's harvest, toabstain from eating pork, and not takemore than the permitted number of stepson the Sabbath day.

It is easy to understand that Jesusmust from the first have felt the need ofrecoil from this position; and the breath ofresistance with which from the first dayhis teacliings were inspired had perhaps itsorigin in the narrow and petty character ofthe prescriptions to which he had sub-mitted in his early home, and to which hisbrother James gave himself with the mostrigorous obedience. For in his parents'house Jesus must above all things havelearned to perform the rites, to recite theShema, not to omit a single purification,to have the sacred fringes on his mantleand the phylacteries on his arms. It isextremely probable that Joseph and Marysubmitted, though certainly with truepiety and profoundly religious feeling, toall the minutiae of Pharisaic devotion.The Pharisees had regulated everything,and every one knew what was his duty in

3


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34 JESUS CHRISTthe matter of walking, standing still,working, resting, eating, sleeping, jour-neying.We picture to ourselves Joseph andMary as two simple-hearted, trustfulGalileans, doing everything that theScribes ordained because they sincerelybelieved that God himself had thusordained. They inculcated in their chil-dren a respect for religious belief andpractice, the regular and assiduous accom-plishment of ritual duty, and submission inall which went beyond that. They believedwithout discussing and without under-standing, waiting in faith for him whowould "exalt the humble and cast downthe proud. " They belonged to the humblethey had been taught that poverty was amerit, that the lower classes alone weretrue patriots, that wealth was a sin, andthat the rich were impious because theywere rich.

Such was the strange mixture of truthand error with which the soul of the childJesus was first imbued.Did he at once reject the error by that

profound and unerring intuition which hehad all his life ? We do not doubt it for


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BEFORE HIS MINISTRY 35a moment. If he submitted to the ritesand observed them as he ought to havedone at the age when a child should sub-mit, he was, first of all, obeying his God,that Father whose " things " always occu-pied him; and the disquietude into whichhis conduct in the Temple was one day toplunge the minds of his parents was cer-tainly only one incident in the disquietudewhich from that day forward he was oftento cause them by the independence ofmind which he early showed in the face ofmanifest error. No doubt he believed inangels and demons. He believed that theLaw was dictated by God, and he at firstbelieved that the Messiah would reign onearth; but he never admitted that theperformance of rites makes man right withGod, and that legal purifications can takethe place of conversion.The religious instruction which was

imposed upon him by authority awakenedin his soul a great desire, an imperativeneed, to think things out for himself, toform his own convictions; in a word, tostudy by every means which God mightput within his reach, and to occupy him-self with ''the things of his Father," wliile


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36 JESUS CHRISTstill remaining an obedient and respectfulson. For he felt something within him-self which transcended and dominated allthis religion of his parents, somethingwhich protested, which understood whatthey did not understand. He felt him-self to be superior to them. What wasabout to take place in the soul of thischild?


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Ill

JESUS AT TWELVE YEARSOF AGE


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CHAPTER IIIJESUS AT TWELVE YEARS OF AfiE

'T^HE man who does a great work andstrongly influences his time is ahvays

aided by circumstances. He is oftenindeed, as it were, created by them.Genius, however great, does not suffice tohim who initiates a movement ; it is alsonecessary that the moment when geniuscan put forth its full powers shall be pre-cisely the moment in which he lives.Luther, born a hundred years earlier,would not have made the Reformation,and Napoleon was served by events evenmore than by his own genius.Jesus was not an exception to this com-mon law. When he was born, the time,to use the picturesque expression of theGospel, "was fulfilled." Judaism hadcompleted its religious evolution, andPaganism had reached the limit of itsspeculations and experiments. What the


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40 JESUS CHRISTfirst centiuy needed was a great social andreligious renovation.

It was inaugurated by him whose youthwe are trying to describe ; and among thenumber of the events which taught him,enlightened him, hastened the efflorescenceof his religious consciousness, we mustplace in the front rank the scene that St.Luke has preserved to us, which tookplace when the child was twelve yearsold.Every year Joseph and Mary made the

journey to the Holy City for the Feast ofthe Passover, joining the little group ofpious folk of Nazareth who held to thestrict accomplishment of the Law. Totake Jesus with them as soon as he wastwelve years old was considered by hisparents an imperative duty. The childhad certainly been prepared by his motherfor the coming of this great day. Toleave home ; to see Jerusalem and the Tem-ple; to be initiated into the sacred rite ofthe Paschal Lamb, for which his parentshad such great respect, and for which theymade such sacrifices, how often had henot looked forward to it

!

The route which the little caravan took


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BEFORE rilS MINISTRY 41was from this time forth traversed byJesus every year. Besides the Feast ofthe Passover, that of Tabernacles and stillothers must have drawn him to Jerusalemand therefore it comes to pass that thisroad, which still exists, is of all the roadsof Palestine that which Jesus most oftentraversed.On quitting Nazareth the little band ofworshippers turned their steps toward theJordan valley, for they must not passthrough Samaria. They therefore wenttoward the southeast, and after havingcrossed the great caravan route betweenEgypt and Damascus, they passed Shunem,the home of Elisha's Shunamite^ andJezreel,^ crossing the valley of that name.From Jezreel the travellers went to Beth-shan, also called Scythopolis.^ This wasthe first stage.

Nine hours of walking lay between themand Nazareth; the Jordan valley openedbefore them. Here they halted, set uptheir tents, and passed the night. Scytho-polis was a great foi-tified town, filled with

1 1 Kings iv. 8-37.2 Now Zerin.3 Now Beisan.


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42 JESUS CHRISTheathen buildings, temples, theatres, placesof amusement. It overlooked the riverfrom an eminence of a hundred metres.On the morrow the pilgrims, who hadbeen most careful not to enter the city soas not to incur uncleanness by contactwith heathen, resumed their march, fol-lowing the valley, which was covered withrich pasturage and crossed by many brooks.They passed Succoth ^ and Archelais,^ anentirely new city lately built by Archelaus,Herod's son.

This second stage was of about twelvehours. Again the caravan camped in thefields to avoid entering a heathen town.On the third day, in about four hours,they reached Phasaelis, also a new town,for it had been founded by Herod theGreat in honor of his son Phasael. In fourhours more they were in Jericho.From Jericho to Jerusalem was only a

six hours' journey, and this had to be leftfor the fourth and last day. This final stageof the journey was rendered extremelydifficult by the stifling heat, due to thedepression of the Jordan valley. For the

1 Now Sqout.2 Now Kerbet-Makherut.


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BEFORE HIS MINISTRY 43valley is in fact shut in between tworanges of hills, and the temperature some-times becomes intolerable. It is true thatit was now springtime, about Easter, andprecisely the season when the journeycould be made under the least unfavorablecircumstances.

Let us add that the road was not safe.From Jerusalem to Jericho and all alongthe Jordan valley attacks of robbers werefrequent, and the men of the Nazarethparty were certainlj- all armed. By day,when the travellers had nothing to fear,they sang the Pilgrim Psalms,^ and wecan picture to ourselves Jesus, at the even-ing halt, helping Joseph to set up thetent, while Mary prepared supper, and all,before retiring, reciting Psalm cxxi., whichwas the hymn for the close of day,

I will lift up mine eyes to the hills,From whence cometh my help.My help cometh from the Lord,Who made heaven and earth.He will not permit thy foot to stumble :He who keepeth thee will not slumber.Behold, He will not slumber nor sleepWho guardeth Israel.

1 Psalms cxx.-cxxxiv.


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44 JESUS CHRISTThe Lord is thy keeperThe Lord is thy shade on thy right hand.The snn shall not smite thee by day,Nor the moon by night.The Lord shall preserve thee from all evilHe will preserve thy soul.The Lord shall preserve thy going out and

thy coming inFrom this time forth and for evermore.Jericho, the city of palm-trees, was a

charming city, the first in which ourpilgrims could take a little rest, for it wasthe only one not infested with Gentiles.The whole surrounding country was cov-ered with palm groves mingled withgardens and cultivated fields.

Between Jericho and Jerusalem theyfirst crossed a wide, arid, stony plain,somewhat like a desert. Then the roadascended rapidly, and forced its way be-tween two almost vertical walls of giganticrocks. The road, the remains of which stillexist and are easy to folloAv, continued toascend, and becoming steeper and steeperwas at times nothing less than a veritablestaircase hewn out of the rock. All aroundwere bare and fissured heights. Fromtime to time, in a yawning gulf far below.


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BEFORE HIS MINISTRY 45was seen the torrent of Kidron, silvery asa thread of foam.

After this toilsome march by wild andsteep paths which justify the expression"go up to Jerusalem," they arrived atBethany, one of the villages best loved byJesus, and the acquaintance of which hemade now for the first time.

Jerusalem was near at hand; but itcould not yet be seen, being hidden bythe Mount of Olives. Just this hill toclimb, and within ten minutes after leav-ing Bethany, suddenly the plain unrolled,revealing the splendid panorama of the citycrowned by its gigantic Temple.They from Nazareth stood still and

gazed. There, fii'st of all, was the height ofMount Zion ; next that of Moriah, crownedwith the walls which encircle the sanctu-ary. The majestic scene was new to Jesus.The city seemed like an almost impreg-nable place. A thick and high wall, fur-nished with sixty towers, completelysurrounded it. Within the enclosureappeared a mass of flat-roofed buildingsclosely huddled together. It was like amultitude of small cubes of white stonestanding out against the blue sky, at


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46 JESUS CHRIST

unequal altitudes, for the city is builtupon hills.The panorama which the child Jesus had

before his eyes was the very one which hewas to have on Palm Sunday, five daysbefore his death; and he was standing onthe spot where he would then weep overthe city and its people. Did he think onthat Palm Sunday of his childish impres-sions, and of that other day which alsopreceded by a very little the Paschal Feast,when, twenty-one years before, this sacredplace had appeared before him for the firsttime? At last he was looking upon theTemple, which he had so often pictured tohimself, with its golden roof sparkling inthe sunlight!But they must keep on to the end of

their journey. The path descended ob-liquely. They went through the valley ofGethsemane, crossed the Kidron, and fiveminutes later entered the city by theSheep Gate, the very gate by which Jesuswas to go out on that Thursday nightwhich was the last before his death. Theywere all singing the One Hundred andTwenty-second Psalm, " Our feet shallstand within thy gates, O Jerusalem!"


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BEFORE HIS MINISTRY 47These poor folk from Nazareth must

have very much resembled the pilgrims ofthe present day who come from the heartof Russia or elsewhere to kneel in the HolySepulchre, whose simple and ardent pietyprovokes smiles among those who aresurfeited with the emotions of the HolyPlaces. Their devotion certainly repro-duces in its essential features that of theGalileans of the early time.The latter did not lodge in the town, for

the number of its inhabitants, which ingeneral was from sixty to eighty thousand,was increased at feast-times to unheard-of,incredible proportions. They were there-fore obliged to camp outside upon theMount of Olives.The garden of "the Oil-press," where

Jesus was arrested, belonged to a friend,who had there a farmstead serving as coun-try-house. Who knows whether the habitwhich he formed later of always passingthe night outside of the city, upon theMount of Olives, did not date from hischildhood, springing from time-honoredrelations of his family with some inhabi-.tant of this place?However this may have been, Joseph,


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48 JESUS CHRISTMary, and the child made no delay ingoing to the Temple. To do this theywere compelled to make a considerableascent, for it was situated on one of thehills enclosed by the wall of the city.The Temple, above all other things,

fixed their attention. It resembled a for-tress, for a formidable wall of defencesurrounded it on all sides. Joseph, Mary,and the child, accompanied, no doubt,by other Nazarenes, "their kinsfolk andacquaintance, " 1 entered the enclosure bya great arched gate, and found themselvesin an immense court, with porticos run-ning around the inner side of the walls.

In the midst Jesus saw venders, money-changers, and buyers inveighing againstone another; for the first time he heardthe insulting remarks of Sadducees andthe vociferations of Pharisees. ImpassibleRoman soldiers were mounting guard justas Turkish soldiers do to-day; and all inone moment the child had before his eyes

1 Luke ii. 44. These relatives may have beenZebedee and Salome, father and mother of Jamesand John. We believe, although these questions ofrelationship are difficult to solve, that Salome wasMary's sister, and that James and John, the sons ofZebedee, were cousins-german of Jesus.


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BEFORE ins MINISTRY 49a view of the profanation of the HolyPlace, the narrowness and hatred of thereligious parties who directed the nation,and the oppression of the foreigner whoheld it in custody under a yoke of iron.His religious and patriotic feelings wereat once excited and wounded. It was thefirst contact of Jesus with the priests,who looked down upon the poor pilgrimscoming to offer their ardent devotion,Galileans, who spoke with so displeasing anaccent, and, worse still, Nazarenes froma village out of which nothing good couldcome.The pilgrims, however, crossed the great

court without pausing ; they were in haste topass through the Beautiful Gate, and enterthe enclosure into which none but Israelitesmight come. Here Mary remained. Itwas the Court of the Women; they werenot permitted to go farther. Joseph andJesus went on into the court called "OfIsrael," the place reserved for men. Be-fore them was the Platform of the Bene-dictions, from which the priest blessed theassembled people. Behind it arose the.smoke of the great altar of sacrifice,and, still beyond, the door of the Holy

4


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50 JESUS CHRISTPlace, which only the priests might enter.Father and cliild bowed themselves andworshipped.But the pilgrims had come not merely

to see; they had come to celebrate thePassover. Jesus already knew what fes-tival this was ; he knew every one of thedetails of the solemnity about to takeplace, and the great memories which itcelebrated had long been familiar to him.

Joseph's first care was to procure a lambfor the sacrifice. This was easy; theywere for sale everywhere. But the pricewas high for one in his circumstances. Atthe birth of Jesus his mother was able tooffer only the turtle-doves of the poor ; andno doubt the carpenter of Nazareth hadbeen laying aside, for months past, themoney necessary for the purchase of thelamb. The animal chosen, Joseph carriedit on his shoulders to the Temple, fol-lowed by the child. At the entrance ofthe Court of the Priests he handed itover to those who conducted the sacrifice.They took it from him and offered it uponthe altar, a blast of the trumpet givingthe signal for the sacrifice.We may imagine the child's emotion,


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BEFORE ins MINISTRY 51the questions that he asked, and all thatpassed in his soul at the sight of tliissacrifice.The animal was flayed and drawn. Its

entrails and its fat Avere thrown upon thefire. Joseph lifted up the carcass and car-ried it away to prepare, with Mary's help,the sacred feast. The animal was roasted,and not boiled. Not one of its bones wasbroken, and all that might not be eatenwas to be burned in the fire.

In earlier days it had been the customto partake of this feast standing, withstaff in hand, ready for departure, thus toreproduce in all its details the scene ofthe departure from Egypt on the night ofdeliverance. But this custom had longsince fallen into disuse. Every one wasseated, in oriental fashion, on cushions andcarpets. The sacred feast was celebratedafter a ritual order. Four times the cupmade the round of the table. After thefirst round bitter herbs were brought to ])eeaten with the unleavened bread. Thesebitter herbs, steeped in vinegar, were areminder of the sufferings formerly enduredin Egypt.At this moment Jesus, according to cus-


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52 JESUS CHRISTtorn, asked Joseph the meaning of all thatwas passing before his eyes. He repeatedthe question twice, and his father repliedwith the story of the exodus from Egypt,closing his narrative with the words : " Weought to praise, celebrate, honor, and mag-nify Him who did these great and marvel-lous things for our fathers, and led themfrom bondage to libert}^, from sorrow tojoy, from darkness to a great light. Letus then say 'Hallelujah! Praise theLord ! ' " At these words the whole familysang Psalms cxiii. and cxiv. Then themeal went on, and after the fourth andlast cup those present sang Psalms exv.,cxvi., cxvii., cxviii. This was the end.The memory of this evening left an in-

effaceable impression upon Jesus' mind.Of all the rites of his people the PaschalFeast was certainly that one to which hewas the most attached. He found a greatsweetness in celebrating it year after yearAvith those whom he loved; and the even-ing before his death he said to his apostles,"With desire I have desired to eat thisPassover with you before I suffer." ^The next day was the first and great

1 Liike xxii. 15.


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BEFORE HIS MINISTRY 53day of the feast, which had been begunthe evening before by the Paschal Feast, forthe Jews did not count the day from mid-night to midnight, as we do, but from sixin the evening until six in the evening ofthe next day. It was not permitted towork on either of these days.On the next day but one they offered inthe Temple a sheaf of the new harvest.

During the seven days of the festival everyone ate unleavened bread. On the last dayit was still obligatory to be present. It wasexpressly forbidden to depart from Jerusa-lem before the seven days were completed.When all had been done, Joseph andMary set off with the Nazareth caravan.We know what happened. "The boyJesus tarried behind in Jerusalem; andhis parents knew it not, but supposinghim to be in the company, they wenta day's journey; and they sought himamong their kinsfolk and acquaintance."^

So it came about that they had gone asfar as Jericho, and perhaps farther, with-out being disturbed by the absence ofJesus. " When they found him not, they,retui-ned to Jerusalem seeking for him."^

^ Luke ii. 44. ^ Luke ii. 45.


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54 JESUS CHRIST BEFORE HIS MINISTRY

With hearts torn by anguish they there-fore retraced their steps up that steep,dangerous, rocky road which lies betweenJericho and Jerusalem, and which theyhad passed over with Jesus only eight dayspreviously.

" And after three days they found himin the Temple, sitting in the midst of thedoctors, both hearing them and askingthem questions. And all that heard himwere astonished at his understanding andhis answers. And when they saw himthey were astonished : and his mother saidunto him, Son, why hast thou thus dealtwith us ? Behold, thy father and I soughtthee sorrowing. And he said unto them.How is it that ye sought me? Wist yenot that I must be in the things of myFather? And they understood not thesaying wliich he spake unto them. Andhe went down with them, and came toNazareth, and was subject unto them; andhis mother kept all these sayings in herheart. And Jesus advanced in wisdomand stature, and in favor with God andmen."i

1 Luke ii. 47-52.


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IVFIRST IMPRESSIONS AND

EXPERIENCES


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CHAPTER IVFIRST IMPRESSIONS AND EXPERIENCES

/^N their return to Nazareth Jesus began^-^ to learn his trade under Joseph'sdirection; for he was the eldest, and hemust toil to aid his parents in bringing uphis younger brothers and sisters. A childof twelve was at that time, in the East,as well developed, physically and intel-lectually, as a child of fifteen is to-dayin oui' western, modern world. Jesuswould later be called "the carpenter'sson;"i and people would see him accom-panying his father, sharing his severe toil,and early learning to feel himself a respon-sible being.

After a time Joseph died; everythingleads us to believe that it was not longafter tliis, for he is no longer spoken of,and Jesus, the carpenter's son, becomes"the carpenter. "2

1 Matt. xiii. 55. 2 Mark vi. 3.


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58 JESUS CHRISTHe therefore went on with the paternal

calling, and soon became the support ofhis mother and the head of the family.For long years he worked at this mostlaborious of trades, being, no doubt, theonly carpenter in the village. He wouldput roofs upon new houses and mend the oldones. Clothed in the humble garments ofthe working-man, a simple woollen tunic,and a turban upon his head, he went abouthis work, squaring beams, wielding thehatchet and axe, directing the men whohelped him, returning home at evening toeat the bread and hard-boiled eggs whichhis mother had prepared before taking fromthe wall the pallet and coverlid in whichhis weary limbs would gain a few hoursof rest.A few indications permit us to divinesomething of what he was among his ownpeople, in the bosom of his family.When in the upper chamber not one ofhis disciples was ^villing to wash the feetof the others, he, the Master, took uponhimself this humble office. From this wemay conclude that readiness to serve andto do acts of service must have been afeature of his character in childhood.


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BEFORE HIS MINISTRY 59Another indication is his love of medita-tion and prayer. When we see him, fromthe beginning of his public life, passingentire nights in prayer, are we not catch-ing a glimpse of a long habit ? Had notprayer been in his youth "the breath ofhis soul"?A third indication which forces itselfupon us is tolerance, charity. In one of

his first public preachings he spoke of lov-ing one's enemies, of pardoning those whoharm one, of giving without hoping toreceive again. Who will dare to say thatthese precepts were not inspired in him bythe sweet and vivid memory of the lovewhich he had shown to every one atNazareth ? And finally, the solicitude withwhich he concerned himself with his motherin his dpng moments, and his twofoldutterance, "Behold thy son!" "Beholdthy mother! "1 speak plainly enough ofthe tenderness with wliich he had alwayssurrounded her.Thus Jesus increased in wisdom and

stature, and in favor with God andmen ; ^ he passed from childhood to youth.He reached the age when the attention

1 John xix. 27. ^ Luke ii. 52.


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60 JESUS CHRISTawakes; he put questions to himself; heobserved what he saw, he reflected uponwhat he heard. Immediately after his firstjourney to Jerusalem, whatever may havebeen his manual labors, he began to occupyhimself with "the things of his Father."The Chazzan,^ his mother, and perhaps,also, some ruler of the synagogue had,until this time, been his only religiousteachers. They no longer sufficed forhim. To occupy himself with " the thingsof his Father " must have been, as hisattitude in Jerusalem showed, to interro-gate the Doctors and ask them questions.From this we conclude with certaintythat he studied the religious partiesof his people, and that his curious andquestioning gaze took in everything whichclaimed religious authority.

Observation was an important factor inthe education of Jesus. For example, itwas to observation that he owed his entirepractical theory of life. What he had notseen he did not know. He had not seengreat capitals, great empires; he certainlynever quitted Palestine, and he had only

^ This was the name given to the functionary incharge of the synagogue and of the holy books.


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BEFORE HIS MINISTRY 61an imperfect notion of the Roman Empireand the power of "Csesar." No doubt, itmay be said that when he describes kingsas personages clothed in fine apparel, wholive in palaces, with many slaves to dotheir bidding, going in their behalf tosummon the people whom they have invitedto dinner, 1 he used this childish languagesimply to put himself on the level of hishearers. None the less is it certain thathe had never seen a king, and that heknew no other sovereign than the tetrarchHerod Antipas. He therefore could speakof the great ones of earth only by hearsay.But whatever he had seen he knew. He

had a gift of penetration, a power andkeenness of vision, which were of extraor-dinary intensity; and the profundity ofobservation which the least of his parablespresupposes is truly prodigious. He hadseen everything in Nazareth, and wasunaware of nothing which went on in thatvillage.The habits of men and of beasts ; the

manner of life of the animals in the woods,the fields, on the farms; the relations oflaborers and proprietors ; the price of vari-

1 Matt. xi. 8 ; xviii. 23 ; xxii. 2 ff. ; etc.


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62 JESUS CHRISTous commodities ; the habits of villagersthe fold in which the flocks are gatheredby night ; the shepherd who seeks the straysheep; the hen calling her chickens to her;the necessity of a careful choice of groundfor building ; the time required for a grainof mustard seed to become a great tree;the destiny of different handfuls of seedcast by the sower, some lost for diversreasons, the rest dying in good ground inorder to live again; the making of bread;the difference between old wine and new;the way to mend clothes, and the impor-tance of washing the inside as well as theoutside of a dish, he was familiar withthem all, and nothing in daily life wasforeign to him.He carried this gift of observation and

of learning by observation, above all things,to the religious customs which prevailedaround him. He certainly never attendedthe schools of the rabbis in Jerusalem,that of Hillel or that of Shammai. Hewas never seen among their pupils. Hewas a carpenter. The people of Nazarethknew him as such; and later, when menheard him speak, they marvelled preciselybecause he knew so many things and had


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BEFORE HIS MINISTRY 63SO much wisdom, though he was only " thecarpenter."But there is a long way from these facts

to the conclusion that Jesus had not stud-ied. It is certain to us that from histenth to his fifteenth year he studied, inthe school at Nazareth, the traditional lawand the minute regulations of Israelitishlife. He was too well acquainted withthem for anything else to have been pos-sible ; and, besides, every yoimg man whointended to sound these things even for alittle way carried on such studies. Nodoubt Jesus possessed neither parchmentsnor diplomas; he was autodidact, that isto say, self-taught. But he was a Rabbihe was called Rabbi Jehoshua Natserieh,that is. Rabbi Jesus of Nazareth. Now,this was a sort of profession, a careerinto which it was necessary to be initiatedby the acquisition of a certain amount ofknowledge. Though any one might callhimself Rabbi, he could nevertheless onlydo it in good earnest after preparing him-self for his work.A Rabbi was a personage whom peopleconsulted, who healed the sick, had dis-ciples, pronounced aphorisms and max-


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64 JESUS CHRISTims. What had been the studies ofJesus? Certainly none which followed awell-defined programme, terminating inexaminations which confer a title or adegree. Such studies, examinations, cer-tificates, were the affair of the Doctors ofthe Law. The Rabbi was more free; infact, he was entirely free. Rabbi was aname given by the people to whoevertook the ascendant over them and renderedthem services. But one could only gainthis ascendant, and the authority whichconferred upon a man the honor of beingcalled Rabbi, after having acquired a cer-tain knowledge ; and this knowledge Jesuscertainly had. He knew too well thestrength and the weakness of the partiesof his time not to have very narrowlyobserved these parties, and lived withthem in closest contact.Every Sabbath day after the Synagogue

the pious men of the town came togetherto read and meditate, to discuss and argue.Who will believe that Jesus, after hisfifteenth year, never went to this school ofthe Rabbis, where they gave themselvesup to a thorough study of the Scriptures,beginning with Leviticus, passing in re-


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BEFORE HIS MINISTRY 65view the entire Torah, and after that theProphets ? Jesus certainly was present atthe meetings of this nature which musthave been held in Nazareth. The proofthat he frequented the places where theScribes carried on their arguments is foundin the fact that he learned their method ofreasoning.

It was by arguments like theirs that hedemonstrated that the resurrection of thedead is taught in the Pentateuch ; ^ that heanswered the Sadducees, who denied afuture life, 2 and asked how the Messiahcould be at the same time the Son ofDavid and his Lord.^ The rabbinicalexegesis was familiar to him, because helearned it by hearing the Doctors expound-ing the Law and the Prophets. We may,then, hold it as certain that Jesus preparedhimself for liis ministry by a very seriousand attentive study of and acquaintancewith the Judaism of the schools.He did more ; he learned to speak. The

splendid habit of public speech which he1 Matt. xxii. 31, 32; Mark xii. 26, 27; Luke xx.

37, 38.2 Matt. xxii. 23 ff. ; Mark xii. 18 ff. ; Luke xx. 27 flf.8 Matt. xxii. 45 ; Mark xii. 37.

5


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66 JESUS CHRISThad from the very first argues a prepara-tion which was not a matter of a day.This preparation was so complete thatduring his ministry he always gave to hiswords the most admirably finished form,so finished that all trace of effort has dis-appeared. We can discover none; noteven in his parables, the structure of whichis so perfect. It is therefore impossible tosay here what was the nature of Jesus'preparation ; but it is none the less certainthat he did prepare himself. If at a latertime he was often compelled to improvise, itis evident that he had learned how to do it.

Jesus, then, like every other man, hadmade his preparation, with the aid ofcircumstances he had created for himselftests and struggles which he must havefought out. He profited by all the methodsof self-instruction which God had putwithin his reach. His character, his mind,his intelligence, his whole soul were in-cessantly growing during these eighteenyears. He lent an ear to the lessons givenby the events of the day, patriotic or reli-gious; he became aware of the hostility ofmen, and was taught by it.

I hold it also to be highly probable that


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BEFORE HIS MINISTRY 67Jesus passed some time in Jerusalem dur-ing the eighteen years that lay betweenhim and public life. He must have con-tinued to go up to the Paschal feasts ; heperhaps went to other feasts. That ofTabernacles was very popular, and hisdesire to learn, the ardent interest whichhe felt in the "things of his Father," thememory wliich he kept of his first visit toJerusalem, his first sight of the Temple, all lead me to believe that his stepswere often turned toward the holy city;for it is difficult to believe that afterreturning to Nazareth, at twelve years ofage, he never again left it. But his absences-were never long; he never made distantjourneys, and Nazareth was certainly hisconstant place of abode. For thirty yearshe had before his eyes the meagre and nar-row horizon of his own village. For thirtyyears he lived amid its cottages, threshing-floors, wine-presses. For thirty years helooked upon those mountains whose mostminute outlines had been familiar to himfrom his tenderest infancy. The featuresof this landscape were graven on hismemory in lines never to be effaced.Here, among these shrubs and roses, he had


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68 JESUS CHRISTreceived his first impression of the world,and felt his soul awake to a sympathy withnature which had been always growingstronger. In the brilliancy of the red anem-ones, which he called lilies, he had seen theresplendent glory of his Father ; and uponthese silent hills he had felt his presenceand had passed long nights in prayer.Among acts preparatory to his publiclife we must include prayer, the hoursspent with his Father. He knew how to"close his door" and "pray to the Fatherwho seeth in secret; " but it was especiallyupon the heights which encircle the vil-lage that he found solitude and isolation.There is, perhaps, not one of the hills nearNazareth upon which he has not prayed.We have already remarked that if duringhis ministry he loved to withdraw to themountain and pass sometimes the wholenight there alone with the Father, he cer-tainly did it, and often, during the longand fruitful years of his preparation.

There is one of the heights overlookingthe village which must often have attractedhim.i From hence is seen one of the finest

1 Now Jebel-es-Sikh, 542 metres in height. Naza-reth itself is 273 metres above the sea, and 100 metres


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BEFORE HIS MINISTRY 69views in all Palestine, and it is beyond alldoubt that Jesus often looked upon it.Tins height is at the north ; it is the mostelevated of the immediate environs ofNazareth. At Nazareth the view is verymuch shut in ; but here, on the contrary,the panorama is immense. At the southare the mountains of Samaria, beyondwhich may be pictured the dark and unat-tractive Judea. On the west lies theCarmel range, the double peak dominatingMegiddo, and in the distance, stretchingout to infinity, the blue waters of theMediterranean. At the northward maybe seen the mountains of Jafed, meltingaway into the sea ; and in the farthest dis-tance the snow peak of great Hermon.Then, turning to the east, the eye is fixedby the rounded and graceful forms ofthe mountains of the land of Shechem andMount Tabor.Such was the view which Jesus lookedupon. From that hill, on the side towardthe sunrise, after a night of deep thoughtand prayer, he would catch a glimpse ofthe Jordan valley, which was later toabove the plain of Esdraelon. At the summit ofJebel-es-Sikh is found the little Waly of Nebi Ishmael.


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70 JESUS CHRISTbe the scene of his activity, and beyondthe river, Perea with its high plains ; whileall around him, at his very feet, was spreada prodigious wealth of rich vegetation, andlands of such fertility that they were com-pared with Paradise.

In this nature Jesus unceasingly saw theface of his Father. He had known thisFather, and loved him with all his heart,all his soul, all his strength, and all histhought, from the day when his piousmother taught him to lisp his name; andafter having found his Fatherhood in theOld Testament, in the marvellous story ofthe deliverances of his people, he found itagain on the solitary heights which over-look Nazareth.

Descending from the hill, he found itagain, everywhere and always, in thatnature which encompassed him. It re-flected the invisible world; it was as iftransparent, and the serene and benevolentface of the Father appeared to him throughall things. The labors of the country, thehabits of animals, the slow developmentof plants, the arduous task of shepherdsand laborers, everything interested andattracted him, everything served as mate-


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BEFORE HIS MINISTRY 71rial for instruction, everything was to hima proof of the incessant activity of theheavenly Father and his infinite love.There was in it, to him, a perpetual rev-elation, which preserved him from the hardand dry Rabbinism of his contemporaries.He collected facts, accumulated experi-ences, of which he was later to open theinexhaustible treasure to those whom hewould teach.

Finally, in his hours of solitude, thequestion of his destiny formulated itself:Why am I in the world? What is mymission? What is to be my life? Heasked his Father; he occupied himselfwith the things that concerned Him. TheSynagogue had revealed to him the exist-ence of a multitude of religious questions,and had not answered one of them. He hadread the Prophets, and the mission of hispeople had been revealed to him. Butone question included all the others, andforced itself upon him: Who would bethe Messiah? When would he appear?What work would he accomplish? Thuspassed eighteen years, and he arrivedslowly, but surely, at the unalterable con-viction, " The Messiah ! I myself am he ! "


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VSTUDIES AND READING


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CHAPTER VSTUDIES AND READING

"DEADING was certainly one of theprincipal sources of Jesus' education.

It is not diflScult to divine what bookshe knew and pondered. First of all mustbe named the Old Testament. The onewhich he read was less complete than ourown. It consisted of two volumes. Thefirst, called "The Law," included the fivebooks attributed to Moses. They had amore particularly sacred character than allthe others; and every one believed, as wehave already had occasion to say, that Godhimself had dictated their contents to theHebrew Lawgiver, word by word. Thesecond volume, called "The Prophets,"contained the following books, in theorder given: Part First, Joshua, Judges,1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, 2 Kings.Part Second, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel,Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah,


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76 JESUS CHRISTNahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai,Zechariah, Malachi.The other books which we fmd in our

Old Testament to-day were not yet gatheredinto a sacred collection. They were nonethe less considered as having come fromGod; for every writing bearing the nameof one of the great men of the past washeld to be divine. Jesus certainly neverhad the modern notion of a closed, defini-tively fixed canon. He read the Book ofDaniel with the same veneration as thoseof Isaiah and Jeremiah, and yet this bookwas not in the collection which includedthe writings of Isaiah and Jeremiah. ButDaniel had been one of the most remark-able seers of the Exile, and his book con-tained revelations of capital importance.The same was the case with the Psalms.

In the time of Jesus these were simply theHymn Book of the Synagogue; but thiscollection of sacred songs was consideredby the whole people as divine; it wassometimes named in connection with theLaw and the Prophets; men added "andthe Psalms."^ On the other hand, thereare certain books like Ezra, Nehemiah,

1 Luke xxiv. 44.


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BEFORE HIS MINISTRY 77Esther, Ecclesiastes, the Song of Songs,which Jesus never quoted; and there aresome among the number of whose existencehe was probably always unaware.The first book which he knew was cer-

tainly the Law, because this was the workmost respected by the people, and becausehe heard it read in the Synagogue everySabbath day. For that matter, the Syna-gogue was, without any doubt, his firstreligious school and his first inspiringinfluence. He had early begun to attendit mth all his veneration and childishpiety. He continued, as a young man, tobe present at its services ; and never, dur-ing his whole life, did he fail to take partin the Synagogue worship. ^ The sermonswhich he heard there every week for reg-ular sermons were preached there arousedhim to thought, provoked him to reflec-tion. It would happen that these sermons,which were explanations of the text, werecontradictory; and Jesus would assimilateone thing, reject another, ask himself howhe himself would have explained such apassage; above all things recoiling fromthe scholasticism which was the cankerof Judaism in his time.

1 "As his custom was." Luke iv. 16.


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78 JESUS CHRISTThe Synagogue of Nazareth, where he

was one day to read a fragment fromIsaiah, 1 was a very large rectangular build-ing. In the interior there were fourcolumns on each side; at the end an ele-vated semicircular rostrum, upon whichwere seated the readers and the Scribes.A great chest contained the sacred manu-scripts, and in front of it was a small pul-pit. The hall was furnished with benches,the seats in the first rows and on the plat-form being paid for. These were theseats of the wealthy. Joseph and his sonswould have places on one side of the hall, inthe free seats ; Mary and her daughters onthe other side, for the sexes were alwaysseparated. The women were veiled, andthe men kept on their turbans.When the sermon began, a person whohad been selected beforehand mounted theplatform and recited the Shema and theShemone Esre; ^ the congregation, stand-ing, responded with a loud Amen at the

^ Luke iv. 17."^ These were the architectural features of all

synagogues, and consequently of the synagogue ofNazareth.

^ For the Shemone Esre see my work " Palestinein the Time of Jesus Christ," 5th ed., p. 375 ff.


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BEFORE BIS MINISTRY 79close of each prayer. No doubt Jesus hadmore than once been called to repeat thesetwo prayers.

After this the Law was read ; that is tosay, about fifty verses of the Pentateuch.The Chazzan, a sort of sacristan, had takenfrom the chest the case containing thesacred texts ; and seven men read, by turn,three or four verses apiece, in monotonousand nasal tones. Every three years theentire Pentateuch was thus read through.Between his twelfth and thirtieth yearsJesus must have heard it read six times inthe Synagogue of Nazareth. Each versewas read in Hebrew, the original language,and immediately translated into Syriac;for the people of Nazareth did not under-stand Hebrew.

In his childhood Jesus understood it nomore than the others, and he was obligedlo learn it when he undertook to make aprivate study of the text. It is probablethat he never spoke it fluently, for notone of those utterances of his which theGospels have preserved in their originaltext is in Hebrew. They were all utteredin Syi'iac, his mother tongue; he neverused any other in conversation, and even


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80 JESUS CHRIST

when he quoted from the Old Testament,he quoted it only as translated into Syriac.When the reading was finished, one ofthe readers made an oral comment, anexposition, or a sort of homily. As achild Jesus long accepted as a matter ofauthority, with no thought of questioningthem, these interpretations, of which theTalmudic commentaries may give us anidea. Most generally they were trivial andunintelligent remarks, forced reconcilia-tions, puerile observations.

This commentary finished, the individualwho had recited the opening prayers reada passage from the Book of the Prophets.Every three verses were translated by aninterpreter; finally, the benediction waspronounced, and the assembly dispersed.These various readings and recitationswere alternated with the singing of Psalms,and three deacons gathered the gifts of theworshippers for the poor.One of the first steps in the self-educa-

tion of Jesus was certainly to borrow,during week days, the roll of the Torah,in order to read over again the passagecommented upon the previous Sabbath.Thus he became thoroughly acquainted


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BEFORE HIS MINISTRY 81with the history of his people, and thestories in the Mosaic books became veryfamiliar to him, the Creation, the Fall,Abel, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, allthe patriarchs, Moses and his mightydeeds; then, in the collection of theProphets, David, Solomon, Elijah, Elishawere his favorite heroes.He had his favorites among the writing

prophets. He seems not to have enjoyedthem equally. Isaiah appears to have beenthe author of his choice, and perhaps thePsalms alone were more familiar to himthan this prophecy. It is probable that hesucceeded in procuring copies of the Scrip-tures for himself, which he would not needto return to the Synagogue after havingbecome acquainted with them ; for the ve

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