VIII

THE INCEPTION

HE story of the Nazarene as here told accepts the gospel narrative as veritable history. The incidents are recited in the order assigned them

in the standard harmonies with little deviation. Their distribution is more independent. Our story proposes to dwell chiefly on the human personality of this manysided man, this God's ideal of a man, to present him as he must have appeared to an unprejudiced observer of that day, as a man among men taking part in the life of the time, an historical phenomenon in conflict with his surroundings yet originating a new and mighty movement in the world. We shall neglect doctrines in favor of events, filling in the outline given by the evangelists with such details as may be fairly inferred from the text, and supplying collateral matter from archæology and contemporary history. The formal purpose is to bring Jesus nearer to us without ignoring his divinity, to bring the man Jesus home to us by a true and vivid representation of his humanity.

After the wedding at Cana, Jesus with his mother and brethren and disciples went down to Capernaum. It was now about the beginning of April in the year 27, and the feast of the Passover was at hand. It was the intention of Jesus and his six disciples to attend this feast, and they went to Capernaum to join some one of the many Gali

lean caravans preparing to go to Jerusalem. The Jews of Galilee on going to Judea felt a strong repugnance to passing through the inhospitable district of Samaria, peopled by an alien, heretical, and socially hostile race. They were therefore accustomed to cross the Jordan just below the lake of Gennesareth into Peræa, to move southward past Bethabara to the ford opposite Jericho, and crossing there into Judea to go up to Jerusalem, thus avoiding a passage through Samaria.

The caravan which Jesus and his disciples joined pursued this route, whose length from Capernaum was about one hundred miles. At Bethabara Jesus met John for the third and last time. After some days journey the pilgrims surmounted Olivet, and came in sight of Jerusalem and the Temple.

The view from the brow of Olivet overlooking the city is famous. Beyond the Temple the hill of Zion was covered with dwellings and palaces, divided into blocks by narrow streets, and surrounded by a lofty and strong stone wall having fortified towers standing on it at intervals like sentinels.

Between Olivet and the city is the temple hill, whose broad flat top nearly square and about a thousand feet each way, was enclosed by high and massive stone walls, from which on the right and left, the city walls began their circuit. Against the further half of the northern wall of the Temple, on the right, outside the enclosure, stood the great square tower or fortress of Antonia, built by Herod on the site of Baris, an Asmonæan fort. It was about 400 feet square and of such height that it overlooked frowningly the temple enclosure into which it opened by a gate and stairs. At this time it was the lodg

ment of a Roman garrison, whose specific duty was to keep order among the crowds of turbulent Jews visiting the Temple.

The vast square enclosure paved with marble tesselated, was entered from the city by gates, chiefly the four on the further or western wall. Against the inner sides of the enclosing wall were four porches or porticoes supported by colonnades, each extending the full length of the side. Under these colonnades the Schools of the Doctors were ordinarily held, there the boy Jesus conversed with them, and there Paul sat at the feet of Gamaliel. These colonnades were built of white marble, the columns were lofty, sculptured in the elaborate Corinthian style, and ranged in a double row. The portico running along the eastern side was called Solomon's Porch. That along the southern side was called Herod's Porch. It was wider than the others, and had a quadruple row of columns, with a nave of great height running along the middle in the style of a Roman Basilica, and hence was called also the Stoa Basilica. A gate at its western end gave exit over a massive stone bridge crossing the Tyropœon valley, between the Temple and city, and ending at the Asmonæan palace.

In the midst of the square surrounded by the porticoes and open to the sky was a smaller square of about 500 feet each way, marked off by a balustrade, the Soreg, within which strangers were forbidden to enter on pain of death. The space covered by the porticoes, together with the open space outside the balustrade, was free to all comers, and hence was called the Court of the Gentiles. Within the balustrade on a raised platform was the enclosure of the Sanctuary, standing a little to the right of the middle. It consisted of marble walls pierced by lofty