Galilean, whose baptism would soon, they feared, supplant his own. But the two masters remained superior to these little jealousies. According to one tradition,1 it was in the school of John that Jesus gathered the most celebrated group of his disciples. The superiority of John was too indisputable for Jesus, little known as he was, to think of contesting it. He wished to increase under John's shadow, and thought himself obliged, in order to gain the multitude, to employ the outward means which had wrought such astonishing results with John. When he began to preach again after John's arrest, the first words said to have been spoken by him are only the repetition of one of the familiar phrases of the Baptist.2 Several other expressions of John are found verbally in his discourses.3

The two schools

appear to have lived for a long time with a good mutual understanding, and, after John's death, Jesus, as his trusty friend, was one of the first to be informed. of the event.5

The prophetic career of John came to a sudden end. Like the old Jewish prophets, he came into the most daring and open opposition to the established authorities. The extreme vivacity of his attacks upon them could not fail to bring him into difficulties. In Judæa, he does not appear to have been disturbed by Pilate; but in Peræa, beyond the Jordan, he invaded the territory of Antipas. This tyrant was uneasy at the political leaven thinly veiled in the preaching of John. The great gatherings of men, drawn about the Baptist by

1 John i. 35-37; confirmed by Acts i. 21, 22.

Matt. iii. 2; iv. 17.

4 Matt. xi. 2-13.

6 Luke iii. 19.

Matt. iii. 7; xii. 34; xxiii. 33. 5 Matt. xiv. 12.

religious and patriotic enthusiasm, had a suspicious look. Furthermore, a purely personal grievance was added to these motives of state, and rendered the death of the austere censor inevitable.

One of the most strongly marked characters in this tragic family of the Herods was Herodias, a granddaughter of Herod the Great. Violent, ambitious, and passionate, she detested Judaism and despised its laws.2 She had been married, probably against her will, to her uncle Herod, son of Mariamne, whom Herod the Great had disinherited, and who never held any public position. The inferior rank of her husband, in comparison with the other members of the family, allowed her no peace of mind; she resolved to be sovereign at any cost. Antipas was the instrument she employed. This weak man, desperately enamoured of her, promised to marry her and to repudiate his first wife, the daughter of Hâreth, king of Petra, and emir of the neighbouring tribes of Peræa. The Arabian princess, having obtained a hint of this purpose, resolved to fly. Concealing her design, she pretended that she wished to make a journey to Machærus, in her father's territory, and caused herself to be conducted thither by the officers of Antipas.

Macharus (Makaur' or Machero) was a colossal fortress built by Alexander Jannæus, and rebuilt by Herod, 1 Josephus, Antiquities, XVIII. v. 2.

2 Ibid. v. 4.

In Matt. xiv. 3 and Mark vi. 17 he is called Philip; but this is certainly an error (Josephus, Antiquities, XVIII. v. 1, 4). Philip's wife was Salome, daughter of Herodias.

4 Josephus, Antiquities, XVII. iv. 2.

5 Josephus, Antiquities, XVIII. vii. 1, 2; Wars, II. ix. 6.

Josephus, Antiquities, XVIII. v. 1.

7 This form occurs in the Jerusalem Talmud (Schebiit, ix. 4) and in the Jonathan and Jerusalem Targums (Num. xxii. 35).

in one of the most rugged hollows (wadis) to the east of the Dead Sea.1 It was a wild and savage country, full of extraordinary legends, and was believed to be haunted by demons.2 The fortress was just on the boundary of the States of Hâreth and Antipas, and at this moment was in the possession of Hâreth. He had been forewarned, and had prepared everything for the flight of his daughter, who was brought back, from tribe to tribe, to Petra.

3

The almost incestuous union of Antipas and Herodias then took place. The Jewish laws as to marriage were a constant rock of offence between the irreligious family of the Herods and the rigid Jews. The members of this numerous and somewhat isolated dynasty being obliged to intermarry, there resulted frequent violations of the limits prescribed by the Law. John was the echo of the general feeling when he vigorously rebuked Antipas." This was more than enough to decide the latter to give effect to his suspicions. He caused the Baptist to be arrested and confined in the fortress of Macharus, which he had probably seized after the departure of Hâreth's daughter.

More timid than cruel, Antipas did not wish to put John to death. According to certain reports, he feared popular sedition (Matt. xiv. 5). According to another version,' he had taken pleasure in listening to his prisoner, and these interviews had thrown him into great

1 Now Makaur, above the wadi Zerka-Main (Vignes' map of the Dead Sea; Paris, 1865).

2 Josephus, Wars, VII. vi. 1, 2.

4 Josephus, Antiquities, XV. vii. 10.

5 Matt. xiv. 4; Mark vi. 18; Luke iii. 19.

6 Josephus, Antiquities, XVIII. v. 2.

8 Levit. xviii. 16.

▾ Mark vi. 20 (reading πópe for énoíe; cf. Luke ix. 7, dinπópei).

perplexities. What is certain is, that the detention was prolonged, and that John retained even in prison considerable freedom of action.1 He held intercourse with his disciples, and we find him still in communication with Jesus. His faith in the near coming of the Messiah was only strengthened; he attentively followed the movements outside, and sought to discover in them signs favourable to the accomplishment of the hopes by which he was sustained.

1 An Oriental prison has no cells: the convict, with feet fettered, is kept in sight in a court or open space, where he talks freely with the passers-by.

CHAPTER VII.

THE KINGDOM OF GOD.

A

UNTIL the arrest of John, which we put approximately in the summer of the year 29, Jesus did not quit the neighbourhood of the Dead Sea and the Jordan. stay in the desert of Judæa was generally looked upon as a preparation for great things, a sort of "retreat before public acts. Jesus followed the example of those before him, and passed forty days there, fasting strictly, without other companionship than that of wild beasts. The minds of the disciples were much exercised in regard to this sojourn. The desert was, according to popular belief, the abode of demons.1 There are few regions in the world more desolate, more Godforsaken, more shut off from life, than the rocky slope which forms the western border of the Dead Sea. It was believed that during the time Jesus passed in this frightful country he had gone through terrible trials; that Satan had assailed him with his illusions, or flattered him by seductive promises; and that finally, to reward him for his victory, angels had come and ministered to him.2

1 Tobit viii. 3; Luke xi. 24.

2 Matt. iv. 1-11; Mark i. 12, 13; Luke iv. 1-13. It is true that the striking likeness of these accounts to the legends of the Vendidad (farg. xix.) and the Lalitaristara (chaps. xvii. xviii. xxi.) might lead us to regard this stay in the desert as only a myth; but the lean, curt account of Mark, here plainly reflecting the earliest tradition, points to a real fact, which later made the basis of legendary expansion.