REV. W. T. BULLOCK, M. A.—No doubt has been entertained at any time in the church, either of the canonical authority of this gospel, or of its being written by St. John. IGNATIUS, the disciple of John, was acquainted with his Gospel, for he quotes it more than once. Its phraseology may be clearly traced in the EPISTLE TO DIOGNETUS, and in JUSTIN MARTYR, about A. D. 150. TATIAN, A. D. 170, wrote harmony of the four Gospels, and he quotes St. John's Gospel in his only extant work; so do his contemporaries, APOLLINARIS, ATHENAGORAS, and the writer of the Epistle of the churches of Vienne and. Lyons. THEOPHILUS of Antioch expressly ascribes this Gospel to John. And, to close the list of writers of the second century, the numerous and full testimonies of IREN/EUS in Gaul, and TERTULLIAN at Carthage, and the Roman writer of the MURATONIAN FRAGMENT, sufficiently show the authority attributed in the Western Church to this Gospel. The third century introduces equally decisive testimony from the Fathers of the Alexandrian Church, CLEMENT and ORIGEN, which it is unnecessary to quote here at length.—Smith's Dict. of Bible, p. 1427.
PROF. GEORGE PARK FISHER, D. D.—It is an indisputable fact that in the last quarter of the second century the Fourth Gospel was received in every part of Christendom as the work of the apostle John. The prominent witnesses are TERTULLIAN in North Africa, CLEMENT in Alexandria, and IRENÆUS in Gaul. The testimony of Irenmus is decisive. He had in his youth known POLYCARP, the immediate disciple of John, and retained a vivid recollection of his person and words.— Smith's Dict., p. 1431.
The Word
CICERO.—All things must necessarily arise from some first cause.—Disp. ruse., lib. i., c. 23.
God Invisible
PLUTARCH. —Numa seems to have thought, like Pythagoras, that the first cause is not an object of sense, nor liable to passion, but invisible, incorruptible, and discernible only by the mind.—Num., c. 8.
Cana
MR. GEORGE GROVE, Cryst. Pal.—The traditional site of "Cana" is at Kefr Kenna, a small village four and a-half miles northeast of Nazareth. It now contains only the ruins of a church, said to stand over the house in which the Savior's first miracle was performed, and the fountain from which the water for the miracle was brought.—Smith's Dict. of Bible, p. 351.
DR. W. M. THOMSON.—There is not now a habitable house in Kânâ. Poor little lonely thing! the proudest cities on earth might envy your lot. Nineveh and Babylon, and a thousand other names may be forgotten, but not "Cana of Galilee." It may even come to pass that Paris, London and New York will be dropped out of mind, and their very sites be lost; but to the end of time, and to the end of the world, whenever and wherever there shall be the voice of the bride and the bridegroom, then and there will Cana of Galilee be remembered. —The Land and the Book, II., 124.
The Descent to Capernaum
DR. F. W. FARRAR.—" He went down "—a touch of accuracy, since the road is one long descent.— Life of Christ, I., 174.
The Temple in Building
DR. ADAM CLARKE.—Herod finished the main work on the temple, according to Josephus, in nine and a half years; yet some additional buildings or repairs were constantly carried on for many years afterward. He began the work sixteen years before the birth of our Lord, and this conversation was in the thirtieth year of our Lord, which make the term exactly forty-six years.—Note, In loco.
The Wind
XENOPHON. —The winds are not discoverable to our sight, though we plainly see their effects; and know when they arise. And if there be anything in man partaking of the Divine Nature, it must be the soul which governs and directs him; yet no one considers this an object of sight. —Mem., lib. iv., c. 3.
Jacob's Well
DEAN STANLEY.—Of all the special localities of our Lord's life in Palestine, this is almost the only one absolutely undisputed. By the edge of this well, in the touching language of the ancient hymn, Quœrens me, sedisti lassus. Here on the great road through which “He must needs go," when "He left Judea, and departed into Galilee," He halted, as travelers still halt, in the noon or evening of the spring day, by the side of the well, amongst the relics of a former age. Up that passage through the valley, His disciples “went away into the city," which He did not enter. Down the same gorge came the woman to draw water, according to the unchanged custom of the East, which still, in the lively concourse of veiled figures round the way-side wells, reproduces the image of Rebekah, and Rachel, and Zipporah: Above them, as they talk, rose " this mountain" of Gerizim, crowned by the. Temple, of which the vestiges still remain, where the fathers of the Samaritan sect "said men ought to worship," and to which still, after so many centuries, their descendants turn as the only sacred spot in the universe. And around them, as He and she thus sate or stood by the well, spread far and wide the noble plain of waving corn. It was winter or early spring-four months yet to the harvest; and the bright golden ears of those fields had not yet whitened their unbroken expanse of verduer.—Sinai and Palestine, p. 238.
PROF. H. B. TRISTRAM. —We mounted the edge of the old vault, and read together John iv., the first unfolding of a spiritual religion, for the whole world. That chapter read by Jacob's Well brings home the accuracy of the narrator. The very ruins are in keeping with the scene.—Land of Israel, p. 147.
LIEUTENANT S. ANDERSON, R. E.—We lowered a candle down the well, and found the air perfectly good, and, after the usual amount of noise and talking among the workmen and idlers, I was lashed with a good rope round the waist and a loop for my feet, and lowered through the mouth of the Well by some trusty Arabs directed by my friend Mr. Fletcher, the Protestant Missionary. After having passed through the narrow mouth, I found myself suspended in a cylindrical chamber, in shape and proportion not unlike that of the barrel of a gun.... The Well is 75 feet deep, 712 feet diameter, and is lined throughout with rough masonry, as it is dug in alluvial soil. The bottom of the Well was perfectly dry at this time of the year (the month of May), and covered with loose stones. There was a little pitcher lying at the bottom unbroken, and this was an evidence of there being water in the Well at some seasons, as the pitcher would have been broken had it fallen upon the stones.—Recovery of Jerusalem, 362.
DR. J. P. NEWMAN.—Had St. John written the incidents of the Savior's Journey from Jerusalem to Sychar with a previous knowledge that his narrative would be subjected to a searching criticism by the enemies of Divine Truth, he could not have written with greater accuracy. As the facts of topography on which the traveler relies for the credibility of the story are recorded merely as incidents of the story itself, the correspondence between the statement and the fact is the more, wonderful and convincing.—Dan to Beersheba, p. 318.
Conversation with the Woman
PLATO.—God the eternal, the chief Ruler of the universe, and its Creator, the mind alone beholds, but that which is produced we behold by sight.—Tim. Locr., c. 5.
PLINY. —I consider it an indication of human weakness to inquire into the figure and form of God. For, whatever God be, and wherever he exists, he is all sense all sight, all hearing, all life, all mind, and all within himself.—Hist. Nat., lib. ii., c. 5.
PHARISAISM.—To talk with a woman in public was one of the six things which a Rabbi might not do.—See Berachôth, fol. 43, b.
Descent From Cana to Capernaum
DR. E. CLARKE.—The expression “Come down," applied to Capernaum, is singularly illustrated by the features of the country: for, in fact, the whole route from Cana, according to the position of the place now so called, is a continued descent towards Capernaum.—Travels.
Bethesda
John 5:2, 32Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches. 3In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water. (John 5:2‑3).—Now there is at Jerusalem... a pool ailed Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water.
DR. HENRY J. VAN-LENNEP.—Mineral springs are abundant in Western Asia, and most of them formerly had protecting structures built over them, some of whose remains are yet standing. The Pool of Bethesda was probably supplied with water from an intermittent spring, which also possessed mineral qualities. This characteristic in springs of ebbing and flowing is not at all uncommon. Bethesda is now dry, but the Pool of Siloam, which is of the same nature, and was probably supplied from the same source, has an intermittent ebb and flow recurring every few minutes.—Bible Lands, p. 46.
John 6:5-145When Jesus then lifted up his eyes, and saw a great company come unto him, he saith unto Philip, Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat? 6And this he said to prove him: for he himself knew what he would do. 7Philip answered him, Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take a little. 8One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, saith unto him, 9There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes: but what are they among so many? 10And Jesus said, Make the men sit down. Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand. 11And Jesus took the loaves; and when he had given thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to them that were set down; and likewise of the fishes as much as they would. 12When they were filled, he said unto his disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost. 13Therefore they gathered them together, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves, which remained over and above unto them that had eaten. 14Then those men, when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, This is of a truth that prophet that should come into the world. (John 6:5‑14).—When Jesus lifted up his eyes, and saw a great company come unto him, he saith unto Philip, Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat? etc.
Tiberias
JOSEPHUS.—And now Herod the tetrarch, who was in great favor with Tiberius, built a city of the same name with him, and called it Tiberias. He built it in the best part of Galilee, at the lake of Gennesareth. There were warm baths at a little distance from it, in a village called Emmaus.— Antiq., 18, 2, 3.
PROF. H. B. HACKETT, D. D., LL. D.—The ancient name of Tiberias has survived in that of the modern Tŭbarieh, which occupies unquestionably the original site, except that it is confined to narrower limits than those of the original city. About a mile south along the shore are the warm baths which Pliny reckoned among the greatest known curiosities of the world. Tubarieh is four and a half hours distant from Nazareth, and one hour from Mejdel, (ancient Magdala).—Smith's Dict. of Bible, 3243.
CAPTAIN WILSON, R. E.—The modern, town of Tabariyeh occupies only a small portion of the ground covered by the ancient Tiberias. A small church, and a. mosque half in ruins, with its courtyard and fountain, are the only buildings which attract attention; but lying about may still be seen some traces of the grandeur of the ancient city-here a magnificent block of polished granite from Upper Egypt, cut into a basin six feet four inches in diameter—there a hunting scene carved on the surface of a hard black lintel of basalt. To the south the ruins cover some extent of ground; there are the remains of a sea-wall, and of some portions of a city-wall, twelve feet thick; many traces of old buildings, broken shafts and columns, half-buried in rubbish; and at one place, foundations which appear to belong to a church, perhaps to that which was built during the reign of Constantine on the site of Adrian's unfinished temple.—Recov. of Jerusl., p. 280.
The Bread of Life
John 6:48, 4948I am that bread of life. 49Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. (John 6:48‑49), and 59.—I am the bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna, in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread that came down from heaven..,. These things said he in the synagogue, as he taught in Capernaum.
CAPTAIN WILSON, R. E.—The White Synagogue at Capernaum, built entirely of white limestone, must once have been a conspicuous object, standing out from the dark basaltic background; it is now nearly level with the surface, and its capitals and columns have been for the most part carried away or turned into lime. The original building is seventy-four feet nine inches long, by fifty-six feet nine inches wide; it is built north and south, and at the southern end has three entrances. In the interior we found many of the pedestals of the columns in their original positions, and several capitals of the Corinthian order buried in the rubbish; there were also blocks of stone which had evidently rested on the columns and supported wooden rafters.... If Tell-Hum be Capernaum, as we believe it to be, this is without doubt the synagogue built by the Roman centurion (Luke 7:4, 54And when they came to Jesus, they besought him instantly, saying, That he was worthy for whom he should do this: 5For he loveth our nation, and he hath built us a synagogue. (Luke 7:4‑5)), and one of the most sacred places on earth. It was in this building that our Lord gave the well-known discourse in John 6, and it was not without a certain strange feeling that on turning over a large block we found the pot of manna engraved on its face, and remembered the words, "I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead."—Recovery of Jerusalem, p. 268-9.
Doing the Will of God
ARISTOTLE.—That which is best is not apparent except to a good man. Depravity distorts the judgment, and produces deception about the practical principles. Hence it is evident that it is impossible for any one to be a prudent man, unless he is also a good man. —Eth., VI., 12.
The Incomparable Teacher
ST. AUGUSTINE.—The teaching of Christ is a great sea whose smiling surface breaks into refreshing ripples at the feet of our little ones, but into whose unfathomable depths the wisest may gaze with the shudder of amazement and the thrill Of love.—Conf., XII., 14.
REV. F. W. FARRAR, D. D., F. R. S.—And we who can compare Christ's teaching—the teaching of One whom some would represent to have been no more than the Carpenter of Nazareth—with all that the world has of best and greatest in Philosophy, and Eloquence, and Song, must not we too add, with yet deeper emphasis, that teaching as one having authority, He spake as never man spake? Other teachers have by God's grace uttered words of wisdom, but to which of them has it been granted to regenerate mankind? What would the world be now if it had nothing better than the dry aphorisms and cautious hesitations of Confucius, or the dubious principles and dangerous concessions of Plato? Would humanity have made the vast moral advance which it has made, if no great Prophet from on High had furnished it with anything better than Sakya Mouni's dreary hope of a nirvana, to be won by unnatural asceticism, or than Mahomet's cynical sanction of polygamy and despotism?
No faith—no teaching—has ever been able like Christ's to sway the affections and hearts of men. Other religions are demonstrably defective and erroneous; His has never been proved to be otherwise than perfect and entire; other systems were esoteric and exclusive, His simple and universal; others temporary and for the few, His eternal and for the race. Confucius, Sakya Mouni, Mahomet, could not even conceive the ideal of a society without falling into miserable error; Christ established the reality of an eternal and glorious kingdom-whose theory for all, whose history in the world, prove it to be indeed what it was from the first proclaimed to be-the Kingdom of Heaven, the Kingdom of God.
And yet how exquisitely and freshly simple is the actual language of Christ compared with all other teaching that has ever gained the ear of the world! There is no science in it, no art, no pomp of demonstration, no carefulness of toil, no trick of rhetoricians, no wisdom of the schools. Straight as an arrow to the mark His precepts pierce to the very depths of the soul and spirit. All is short, clear, precise, full of holiness, full of the common images of daily life. There is scarcely a scene or object familiar to the Galilee of that day, which Jesus did not use as a moral illustration of some glorious promise or moral law. He spoke of green fields, and springing flowers, and the budding of the vernal trees; of the red or lowering sky; of sunrise and sunset; of wind 'and rain; of night and storm; of clouds and lightning; of stream and river; of stars and lamps; of honey and salt; of quivering bulrushes and burning weeds; of rent garments and bursting wine-skins; of eggs and serpents; of pearls and pieces of money; of nets and fish. Wine and wheat, corn and oil, stewards and gardeners, laborers and employers, kings and shepherds, travelers and fathers of families, courtiers in soft clothing and brides in nuptial robes-all these are found in his discourses. He knew all life, and had gazed on it with a kindly as well as a kingly glance. He could sympathize with its joys no less than he could heal its sorrows, and the eyes that were so often suffused with tears as they saw the sufferings of earth's mourners beside the bed of death, had shone also with a kindlier glow as they watched the games of earth's happy little ones in the green fields and busy streets.—Life of Christ, I., 269-272.
ROUSSEAU.—I confess to you farther, that the majesty of the Scriptures strikes me with admiration, as the purity of the Gospel hath its influence on my heart. Peruse the works of our philosophers, with all their pomp of diction; how mean, how contemptible are they compared with the Scriptures! Is it possible that a book at once so simple and sublime, should be merely the work of man? Is it possible that the Sacred Personage, whose history it contains, should be himself a mere Man? Do we find that he assumed the air of an enthusiast or ambitious sectary? What sweetness, what purity in his manners! what an affecting gracefulness in his delivery! what sublimity in his maxims! what profound wisdom in his discourses! what presence of mind, what subtlety, what truth in his replies! how great the command over his passions! Where is the man, where the philosopher, who could so live and so die, without weakness and without ostentation?— Emilius, Vol. II., p. 218.
Who Should Cast the First Stone
CICERO.—All men are required to abstain most especially from those vices for which they have reproved others. Everything which you have impeached in another must be earnestly avoided by yourself.—In Verr., IV., 2.
The Bondage of Sin
John 8:33, 3433They answered him, We be Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free? 34Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. (John 8:33‑34).—They answered him, We he Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free? Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.
EPICTETUS.—No wicked man is free. If you were to tell this to a man that has been twice Consul he will cry—How? Am I a slave? My father was free, and my mother was free. It may be so, good sir; for they perhaps were generous, and you are mean; they brave, and you a coward; they sober, and you dissolute.—Epict., IV., i.
IDEM.—Surely no one who lives in error is free.—Epict., II, 1.
EPICTETUS.—No man hath power over me; I am made free by God; I know his commandments, and no man can bring me under bondage.—Epict., IV., 7.
PLUTARCH.—The good man only is free, and all bad men are slaves.—Cat. Min., c. 67.
The Pool of Siloam
JOSEPHUS.—Now the valley of the cheesemongers, as it was called, and was that which we told you before distinguished the hill of the upper city from that of the lower, extended as far as Siloam; for that is, the name of a fountain which hath sweet water in it, and this in great plenty also.—Jewish Wars, 5, 4, 1.
REV. HENRY BAILEY, B. D.—Siloam is one of the few undisputed localities in the topography of Jerusalem, and which still retains its old name, with Arabic modification, Silwan. Apart from the identity of name, there is an unbroken chain of exterior testimony, during eighteen centuries, connecting the present Birket Silwan with the “Shiloah " of Isaiah, and the " Siloam" of St. John. —Smith's Dict. of Bible, p. 3036.
CARNE.—The Fountain of Siloam breaks out of a rock on the side of Mount Zion, and falls into an open and rock-hewn excavation, to which a flight of ancient stone steps descends: it is deep, and clear as crystal. Its waters are as sweet, as full, and as beautifully clear now, as in the days of our Lord. It is a luxury to sit on the grass that grows above and look down on this celebrated water, the most useful, as well as healthful in the whole neighborhood; and follow its rapid stream as it gushes down the side of Zion, and thence into the valley beneath, that passes into the wilderness.—Illustrations of the Holy Land, Vol. III.
The Shepherd and His Sheep
.
HEARTLEY.—I asked my man if it was usual in Greece to give names to sheep. He informed me that it was, and that the sheep obeyed their shepherd when he called them by their names. This morning I had an opportunity of verifying the truth of this remark. Passing by a flock of sheep, I asked the shepherd the same question which I put to my servant, and he gave me the same answer. I then bade him to call one of his sheep. He did so, and it instantly left its pasturage and companions, and ran up to the hand of the shepherd with signs of pleasure, and with a prompt obedience which I had never before observed in any other animal. The shepherd told me that many of his sheep are still wild: that they had not yet learned their names, but that by teaching they would all learn them.—Researches in Greece and the Levant, p. 321.
DR. W. M. THOMSON.—What our Savior says of the good shepherd is true to the letter. He leads them forth from the fold, just where he pleases. It is necessary that they should be taught to follow, and not to stray, when they are sure to get into trouble. The shepherd calls sharply from time to time to remind them of his presence. They know his voice and follow on; but, if a stranger call, they stop short, lift up their heads in alarm, and, if it is repeated, they turn and flee, because they know not the voice of a stranger. This is not the fanciful costume of a parable; it is simple fact.—The Land and the Book, I., 301.
Bethany
MR. GEORGE GROVE, Cryst. Pal.—There never appears to have been any doubt as to the site of Bethany, which is now known by a name derived from Lazarus—el'Azariyeh. It lies on the eastern slope of the Mount of Olives, a mile beyond the summit, and not very far from the point at which the road to
Jericho begins its more sudden descent towards the Jordan Valley. The place is now but a ruinous village of some twenty families. In it are shown the traditional sites of the house and tomb of Lazarus, and of the house of Simon the leper. As to the real age and character of these remains there is at present no information to guide us—they are first heard of in the fourth century.—Smith's Dict. of Bible, is. 285.
DR. F. W. FARRAR.—The village of Bethany is to this day called El-Azariyeh, a corruption of Lazarus, and a continuous memorial of the miracle.—Life of Christ, II., 170.''
John 12:12-1512On the next day much people that were come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, 13Took branches of palm trees, and went forth to meet him, and cried, Hosanna: Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord. 14And Jesus, when he had found a young ass, sat thereon; as it is written, 15Fear not, daughter of Sion: behold, thy King cometh, sitting on an ass's colt. (John 12:12‑15).—On the next day much people that were come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took branches of palm-trees, and went forth to meet him, etc.
Knowledge and Practice
ARISTOTLE.—The end of ethical doctrines is not knowledge but action.—Eth., lib. i., c. 3.
CICERO.—It is not enough to treasure these things in the memory; they must be called forth into action. He is not the happy man who knows these things, but he who does them.—Epist., 75.
One Leaning on Jesus Bosom
PLINY.—Nerva was at supper with a few guests; next to him was Veiemo, who even leaned on his bosom.—Epist., IV., 22,
The Badge of Love
TERTULLIAN.—See, said the heathen, how they love one another; and are ready to lay down their lives for each other.—Apology.
Love Unto Death
John 15:1313Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. (John 15:13).—Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. EURIPIDES.—Alas! alas! what shall I say hearing this noble speech of the maiden who is willing to die on behalf of her brothers? who can utter more noble words than these? who of men can do a greater deed?—Herac., v. 535.
The Night Cold
PROF. H. B. HACKETT, D. D., LL. D.—The incident of Peter's warming himself at such a fire on the night of the crucifixion, tallies both with the climate of the country at the end of March or the beginning of April, and with the present customs of the people. The nights at Jerusalem, at that season of the year, are cool, though the days may be warm. The air after sun-down becomes chilly, and, under the open sky, a person needs to increase his raiment or have recourse to a fire.—Smith's Dict. of Bible, p. 473.
Pilate the More Afraid
DR. F. W. FARRAR.—Pilate was guilty, and guilt is cowardice, and cowardice is weakness. His own past cruelties, recoiling in kind on his own head, forced him now to crush the impulse of pity, and to add to his many cruelties another more heinous still. He knew that serious complaints hung over his head. Those Samaritans whom he had insulted and oppressed-those Jews whom he had stabbed promiscuously in the crowd by the bands of his disguised and secret emissaries-those Galileans whose blood he had mingled with their sacrifices-was not their blood crying for vengeance? Was not an embassy of complaint against him imminent even now? Would it not be dangerously precipitated if, in so dubious a matter as a charge of claiming a kingdom, he raised a tumult among a people in whose case it was the best interest of the Romans that they should hug their chains? Dare he stand the chance of stirring up a new and apparently terrible rebellion rather than condescend to a simple concession, and even necessary compromise?—His tortuous policy recoiled on his own head, and rendered impossible his own wishes. The Nemesis of his past wrongdoing was that he could no longer do right.—Life of Christ, II., 376.
The Terror of Caesar's Name
DR. F. W. FARRAR.—At that dark and terrible name of Cæsar, Pilate trembled. It was a name to conjure with. It mastered him. He thought of that terrible implement of tyranny, the accusation of lœsa majestas, into which all other charges merged, which had made confiscation and torture so common, and had caused blood to flow like water in the streets of Rome. He thought of Tiberius, the aged gloomy Emperor, then hiding at Capreæ his ulcerous features, his poisonous suspicions, his sick infamies, his desperate revenge. At this very time he had been maddened into a yet more sanguinary and misanthropic ferocity by the detected falsity and, treason of his only friend and minister, Sejanus, and it was to Sejanus himself that Pilate is said to have owed his position. There might be secret delators in that very mob. Panic-stricken, the unjust judge, in obedience to his own terrors, consciously betrayed the innocent victim to the anguish of death.—Life of Christ, II., 386.
The Thirst of Crucifixion
DR. NICHOLSON.—As-Sujuti, an Arabic writer, describing the crucifixion of a young Turk, in 1247, says that he complained of intense thirst on the first day, and his sufferings were increased by seeing constantly before him the waters of the Baradâ, on the banks of which he was crucified.—In Kitto, I., 595
Thomas Convinced
WESTCOTT.—If Christ did. not rise, we have not only to explain how the belief in His resurrection came to be received without any previous hopes which could lead to its reception, but, also how it came to be received with that intensity of personal conviction which could invest the life and person of Christ with attributes never before assigned to any one, and that by Jews who had been reared in the strictest monotheism.—Gospel of the Resurrection, p. 112.
The Naked Fisherman
DR. W. M. THOMSON.—In this hot climate it is common to fish with nothing but a sort of shawl or napkin tied round the waist. This they doff or don in a moment.—The Land and the Book, II., 81,
PROF. H. B. TRISTRAM.—These fishermen with the casting-net at the present day work stark naked, with the exception of a thick woolen skull cap. On the Egyptian monuments, all persons catching fish and waterfowl with nets are depicted naked. The custom, therefore, appears to have been ancient and widespread.—Nat. hist. of Bible, p. 290.