Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

CHAPTER IX.

THE DISCIPLES.

In this earthly paradise, little touched as yet by great historic changes, lived a people in perfect harmony with the country itself, — active, honest, with a feeling of life at once gay and tender. The Lake of Tiberias is one of the best fishing-grounds in the world.1 Very productive fisheries had been established, particularly at Bethsaida and Capernaum, and had created a certain opulence. These fishermen's families formed a gentle and peaceable society, extending, by means of numerous ties of relationship, throughout the lake region we have described. Their leisurely way of life left their imagination quite free. The ideas concerning the kingdom of God found in these little groups of kindly people more credence than anywhere else. Nothing that we call civilisation, in the Greek or worldly sense, had yet found its way among them. They had not our German or Celtic severity of temper; their kind-heartedness may have been on the surface, without depth, but in character they were gentle, in mind quick-witted and intelligent. We can imagine them as being somewhat like the better populations of the Lebanon, but with the capacity which these have not, of producing great men.

[ocr errors]

1 Matt. iv. 18; Luke v. 4-9; John i. 44, and xxi. 1-8. Josephus, Wars, III. x. 70; Jerusalem Talmud, Pesachim, iv. 2; Babylonian Talmud, Baba kama, 80 b; Jacobus de Vitry, Gesta, etc. i. 1075.

[ocr errors]

Jesus met there his true kindred. He lived among them as one of them. Capernaum became "his own city;" and, amid the little circle that adored him, he forgot his sceptic brothers, ungrateful Nazareth, and its mocking incredulity.

[ocr errors]

One house especially, at Capernaum, offered him an agreeable asylum and devoted disciples. It was the home of two brothers, -sons of one Jonas, who was probably dead at the time when Jesus came to fix his abode upon the border of the lake. These two brothers were Simon surnamed Kephas ("a stone") in SyroChaldaic; in Greek, Petros2 — and Andrew. They were born at Bethsaida,3 and were already settled in Capernaum when Jesus began his public life. Peter was married and had children, his mother-in-law living with him. Jesus loved that house, and customarily abode there. Andrew appears to have been a disciple of John the Baptist, and Jesus had probably known him on the banks of the Jordan. The two brothers, even when they might seem most occupied with their Master, still continued to follow the calling of fishermen. Jesus, who was fond of playing upon words, used to say that

6

1 Matt. ix. 1; Mark ii. 1, 2.

2 The surname Kŋpâs is apparently the same with Kaïápas, that of the high-priest, Joseph Caiaphas. The name Пérpos is found in Josephus (Antiq. XVIII. vi. 3) as the proper name of a contemporary. We are thus led to think that Jesus did not bestow upon him this epithet, but rather gave emphasis to the name which his disciple already had.

8 John i. 44.

4 Matt. viii. 14; Mark i. 30; Luke iv. 38; 1 Cor. ix. 5; 1 Pet. v. 13. Clem. Alex. Strom. iii. 6 and vii. 11; Pseudo-Clem. Recogn. vii. 25; Euseb. Hist. eccl. iii. 30.

5 Matt. viii. 14 and xvii. 24; Mark i. 29–31; Luke iv. 38.

6 John i. 40, 41.

Matt. iv. 18; Mark i. 16; Luke v. 3; John xxi. 3.

he would make them fishers of men. In fact, among all his disciples none were more firmly attached to him.

Another family, that of Zabdiah or Zebedee, a wellto-do fisherman and the owner of several boats,2 gave Jesus a hearty welcome. Zebedee had two sons, James, who was the elder, and a younger son, John, who later on was called to play so important a part in the history of infant Christianity. Both were zealous disciples. It would seem from certain hints that John, as well as Andrew, had been a follower of the Baptist;3 at all events, the two families of Jonas and Zebedee seem to have been closely connected. Salome, wife of Zebedee, was also strongly attached to Jesus, and accompanied him till his death.5

Women, in fact, received the new teacher very warmly. He had in their society those reserved manners which admit a very agreeable companionship in thought between the two sexes. The separation of men and women, which has prevented all finer development among the people of the East, was then no doubt, as in our day, much less strict in the rural districts and villages than in the large towns. Three or four devoted Galilean women always accompanied the youthful Master, and contended among themselves for the pleasure of listening to him and attending on him in turn.® These women brought into the new sect an element

1 Matt. iv. 19; Mark i. 17; Luke v. 10.

2 Mark i. 20; Luke v. 10 and viii. 3; John xix. 27.

8 John i. 35-37. The mysterious way in which John is always spoken of in the Fourth Gospel seems to show that one of the disciples here unnamed is John himself.

4 Matt. iv. 18-22; Luke v. 10; John i. 35-37 and xxi. 2, 3.

5 Matt. xxvii. 56; Mark xv. 40; xvi. 1.

• Matt. xxvii. 55, 56; Mark xv. 40, 41; Luke viii. 2, 3, and xxiii. 49.

of enthusiasm as well as love of marvel, the importance of which was already felt. One of them, Mary of Magdala, who has made the name of her poor native town so famous in the world, appears to have been a person of peculiar excitability. In the language of the day, she had been possessed by "seven devils; "1 that is to say, she had been afflicted with nervous and seemingly inexplicable maladies. Jesus, by his unspotted and gentle loveliness, quieted her disturbed temperament. The Magdalene remained faithful to him even to Calvary, and on the second day following his death played a most important part; for, as we shall see later on, she was the chief medium through which faith in the resurrection was confirmed. Joanna, wife of Chuza (one of the officers of Antipas), Susannah, and others who have remained unknown, constantly followed and served him.2 Some of them were rich, and by their fortunes put the young prophet in a position to live without practising the trade he had followed till then.3

Many others followed Jesus habitually, and recognised him as their Master, -one Philip of Bethsaida; Nathanael, son of Tolmai (or Ptolemy) of Cana, a disciple of the first period; and Matthew, probably the same who was the Xenophon of infant Christianity. He had, according to tradition, been a tax-collector; 5 and as such he handled the pen (kalam) more easily than the

1 Mark xvi. 9; Luke viii. 2. Cf. Tobit iii. 8; vi. 14.

2 Luke viii. 3; xxiv. 10.

8 Luke viii. 3.

4 John i. 44-47; xxi. 2. Nathanael may be plausibly identified with the apostle who appears in the lists as Bartholomew (Bar-Tolmai, or Bar-Tholomæus).

Matt. ix. 9; x. 3.

others. Even then, possibly, he began to think of writing those discourses (logia) which are, in substance, what we know of the teachings of Jesus. Among the disciples are also mentioned Thomas (or Didymus),1 who sometimes doubted, but was warm-hearted, and a man of generous temper;2 one Lebbæus or Thaddeus; Simon the Zealot, perhaps a disciple of Judas the Gaulonite, belonging to the party of the Kenaïm, already existing, which was soon to play so great a part in the affairs of the Jewish people; Joseph Barsaba, surnamed Justus; Matthias; an unknown person named Aristion; 5 lastly Judas, son of Simon, of the town of Kerioth, the black sheep of the flock, who acquired such a terrible renown. He was, it appears, the only one of them who was not a Galilean: Kerioth was a town at the extreme south of the tribe of Judah," a day's journey beyond Hebron.

4

We have seen that the family of Jesus was in general not well inclined towards him. Nevertheless, James and Jude, his cousins, sons of Mary Cleophas,8 became from that time his disciples; and Mary Cleo

1 Didymus (twain, or twin) is the Greek rendering of Thomas.

2 John xi. 14; xx. 24-29.

8 Matt. x. 4; Mark iii. 18; Luke vi. 15; Acts i. 43; Ebionite Gospel (Epiph. Adv. hær. xxx. 13).

• Acts i. 21-23; cf. Papias (Euseb. Hist. eccl. iii. 39).

5 Papias (ibid.) calls him a disciple like the apostles, ascribes to him narrations respecting the discourses of Jesus, and associates him with "John the Elder." (See Introduction, p. 58.)

• Now Kuryetein, or Kereitein.

7 The incident told in John xix. 25-27 [the adoption by John of the mother of Jesus] seems to imply that his own brothers stood aloof from him during all his public life. If we assume more than one James in the family circle, we may trace an allusion to the unfriendliness of "James the Lord's brother" in Galatians ii. 6, comparing i. 19 and ii. 9, 11.

See ante, p. 95.

« ZurückWeiter »