Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 13.djvu/691

JESUS 661 death to Socrates, 1 and from Seneca s statement that magi, "who then chanced to be at Athens," had visited the tomb of Plato and offered incense to him as to a divine being. 2 That they should have been deeply interested in any sidereal phenomenon is in accord ance with what we know of their studies, and that a sidereal phenomenon of the rarest kind, 3 and one which by the recognized rules of astrology was of stupendous significance, actually did occur at this very epoch we know by the independent and, so to speak, accidental investigations of the great Kepler. 4 The conjunction of planets which occurred on December 17, 1613, was followed the next year by the appearance of a new evanescent star of the first magni tude in the foot of Ophiuchus, which first attracted the notice of Kepler s pupil Brunowski, and continued to shine for a whole year. Such a phenomenon may have some bearing on the "star of the wise men," although taken alone it will not minutely correspond with the language of St Matthew. 5 But that such an astrological event would naturally turn the thoughts of these Chaldaeaus to some great birth, and that its occurrence in the sign of the zodiac which astrology connected with the fortunes of Judaea should turn their inquiries thitherward, is again in accordance with the tension of Messianic expectations in those days, which especially affected the East, but which has left deep traces even on the pages of Roman writers. 6 Again, the answer of the Jewish rabbis to these inquirers is in exact accordance with their own anticipa tions. The sequel of the story Herod s jealousy and the massacre of the innocents has been mainly doubted because it is not mentioned in Josephus. But there must have been hundreds of events of that day of which the Jewish historian has taken no notice, though they wers far more sanguinary than the murder of a handful of infants in a little village. The act corresponds to the jealousy and cruelty vhich were the master passions of the Idumsean usurper, and, if Josephus here follows Nicolaus of Damascus, we may be quite sure that he would not have mentioned a fact so damaging to the character of his patron. There are, however, two allusions in Josephus, which, if they do not specifically indicate this event, yet may well allude to it, or at least show how consonant it was with Herod s impulses. 7 Further, Macrobius speaks of "the boys under two years of age (comp. Matt. ii. 16) whom Herod ordered to be slain in Syria," and, although lie confuses this with the sentence upon Herod s sons, of whom Antip iter was executed within five days of Herod s death, his words may well point to the murder of the children of Bethlehem. 8 Thus, while this event is not recognizable in other histories, it meets with unexpected confirmations of its possibility from many quarters. That Joseph should have lied with Mary and the child into Egypt was exactly what would have been done by every Jew similarly circumstanced. Three days journey, as far as the Wady Rhinocolura, would have placed the fugitives beyond the reach of Herod s jurisdiction. The sojourn of the holy family in Egypt was probably very short, nor indeed would there have been any tempta tion to stay a day longer than was necessary. Joseph s first intention was to return to Bethlehem when the news that Herod the Great was dead seemed to open the pro spect of happier times. But when he was met on the way by the intelligence that Judaea had fallen by his father s 1 Diog. Laert., ii. 45. 2 g en ^ Kp _ 5g 3 The conjunction of the three planets in the same constellation of the same trigon only occurs once in 794 years. 4 He found that the three planets Jupiter, Mars, and Saturn had been conjoined in Pisces in A.U.C. 748, De nova stella in pcde Serpentarii, 1606; Itleler, Chronol., ii. 406; Miinter, Stern cler Weisen, 1827; Pfaff, Das Licht und die Weltyeyenden, 1821. 6 According to the Chinese astronomical tables, if Wieseler s account of them (Chronol., p. 61) can be relied on, a new star actually did appear in the heavens at this very epoch. 6 Virgil, Ed., ix. 47; Sueton., Vesx>as.. 4 ; Tac., Hist., v. 13; Jos., D. J., vi. 5, 4. 7 Jos., Ant., xvi. 11, 7, where he speaks of Pharisees and others massacred for a prediction that Herod s posterity should not enjoy his crown ; and xvii. 2, 4, where lie speaks of a clamour of " the mothers (comp. Matt. ii. 18) of those who had been slain by him." 8 Macrob. Satuma!. ii. 4. will to the share of the cruel Archelaus 9 he was afraid to establish himself so near to the palace of that jealous tyrant, and "retired" (dve^wp^o-ci/) to the mountain seclusion of remote and despised Nazareth. How deep was the impression which these events had made on the memory of the people, and how little likely it was that a con temporary evangelist could fall into a mistake about them, is shown by the fact, which has only recently been noticed, that fully thirty years afterwards Jesus made the events which happened at the succession of Archelaus even in minute particulars the groundwork of a striking parable. 10 2. At Nazareth He who, even as a mere matter of history, was to influence for ever the entire development of human civilization grew up in extreme seclusion. A single anecdote and two or three incidental expressions comprise every glimpse of Him which we can obtain. We learn that " He was subject to His parents " n at Nazareth 5 that " He grew and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon Him " ; 12 that " He gradu ally advanced (TrpoeKOTrre) in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man." 13 We further learn that He was not subjected to the training of any of the rabbinic schools. He had never learned that complicated system of oral tradition which was known by the Jews as " letters." 14 It is doubtful whether the schools which afterwards became common existed at this early period in country villages. Schools for infants are said to have been first founded by the son of Gamaliel, but possibly by this time the custom had begun of employing the scribes and lower officers of the synagogue (chazzanim) to teach the boys of each village. We can trace proofs that Jesus was wonderfully familiar with the sights and sounds of nature, as well as with the habits of men of all classes, for He drew His illustrations in abundance from both sources. It is also certain that He knew both Greek and Aramaic, which were at that time universally spoken throughout Palestine; and there are slight indications that He was acquainted with Latin and with Hebrew, though the latter had now become a dead and learned language. We also find that He was acquainted with the then by no means common art of writing. It is certain that in His home He must, like other Jewish children, have learned first the Shema (Deut. vi. 4), then the Hallel (Psalms cxiv. to cxviii.), and then the Scriptures generally, to all parts of which, and especially to the Psalms and prophetic books, He constantly referred. The certainty that He never passed through the ordinary training of the learned classes nullifies the sugges tion that any part of His wisdom was borrowed from such writers as Philo and such rabbis as Hillel and Shammai. His methods and His whole moral conception differ funda mentally from those of the Alexandrian philosopher and the Jerusalem Pharisees. His teachers, humanly speaking, were the books of God, the books of Scripture, of nature, and of life, and the voice of God within His soul. At the age of twelve a Jewish boy was held to have finished the elementary stages of his education, and became a "con of the law." At this age He was presented by His father in the synagogue, began to wear the phylacteries, learnt a trade for His own support, and "advanced," as the Jews phrased it, from the study of the Scriptures to 9 St Matthew uses the word jSatriAeuei, and Archelaus, having been saluted "king" by the army, actually did wear that title for a short time after his father s death (Jos., E. J., ii. 1, 1 ; Ant., xvii. 9, 2) until Augustus ordered him to be called only "ethnarch." 10 rp ne p ara bi e of the pounds," Luke xix. 11-27. St Luke does not himself allude to the fact that this parable is a veiled sketch of what had happened to the ethnarch thirty years before, and that the cir cumstance may well have been recalled to the memory alike of the Speaker and the hearers by the vicinity of the splendid palace which Archelaus had built at Jericho (see Jos., Ant. , xvii. 13, 1, 2). 11 Luke ii. 51. 12 Luke ii. 40. 13 Luke ii. 52. !4 Mark vi. 2 ; John vi. 42, vii. 15.