The day ended. Surrounded by his faithful followers, he again withdrew to Bethany, filled with the consciousness of success, confident in the hope that his expectations were to be fulfilled.

He felt no need to protect his success by arranging to hold the control of the temple; God would protect it. To him this whole procedure was the assurance of the coming of the Kingdom, which no devices of men could prevent.

CHAPTER XIV

THE ARGUMENT IN THE TEMPLE-THE AUTHORITIES

TRIUMPH

With the return of the day, Jesus returned early to the scene of his triumph. No doubt surrounded still by the multitude, which over-ran the temple enclosure, he prepared to continue his discourses of the day before, announcing the coming of the Kingdom.

But the temple authorities and chief priests, who had recovered from the panic of the day before and were unwilling further to surrender possession of the temple to him, met him at once with a challenge.' "By what authority" they said "doest thou these things? Who gave you this authority?" Apparently all the authority of the nation was present to make this challenge; the temple officials, the lawyers, the chiefs of the priestly order and the members of the Sanhedrin, the great national court.

If

The question was a dangerous one for Jesus. he admitted that his action had been without authority, he certainly would have lost his influence with the multitude, which had recognized and supported the authority which he had assumed. His attitude upon the previous day had been imperious, superb, an assumption of an authority superior even to that of those in charge of the temple. To have admitted

'Mark 11:27-33; Matthew 21:23-27; Luke 20:1-8.

that he had no authority, would have been to undo all that he had accomplished, to drop immediately to the level of an interloper, not entitled to be supported and consequently, of course, certain to be abandoned. Upon the other hand, if he claimed an authority, he would immediately bring himself into conflict with the government of Pilate. The Roman governor would not interfere in the religious squabbles of his subjects but would have been very prompt to act had any one appeared attempting to exercise an authority independent of the Romans.' And Jesus could not claim that he held any authority from Pilate.

Instead of answering directly, he did a much more effective thing. He turned the situation upon his an

"To understand this situation and much of the course of the next few days it is necessary to remember precisely the relation between the active governmental factors. Since the deposition of Archelaus, son of Herod the Great and brother of Herod Antipas, Judea and Samaria had been an imperial Roman province, governed by a procurator responsible to the emperor. This government had not suspended the Jewish municipal government from their control over their temple, but had deprived the Jewish authorities of the power to inflict the death penalty without confirmation of their sentence by the procurator. The Jewish government was conducted by a council of seventy, known as the Great Sanhe. drin, assisted by several inferior tribunals, also called Sanhedrin, with smaller and varying numbers. The high priest was president of the Sanhedrin and consequently of the nation. The Sanhedrin was largely composed of priests, and they operated according to the Mosaic law as developed and expanded by the scribes or lawyers. The temple had a police force under the direction of the High Priest subject to the Great Sanhedrin, and the Jewish authorities were apparently permitted to operate the peace officers of the city so long as they were able to prevent tumult. The Roman government maintained a force of soldiers in the Castle

tagonists by a move that placed them in turn upon the defensive. "I also ask you a question," he said, "and if you answer my question, I likewise will tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism of John, whence was it? from Heaven or from men?"

This was a poser. The questioners in their turn debated how to reply to him. The problem of John was a difficult one for them. In the popular excitement raised by him, they had maintained their balance, and had not accepted his Messianic message as true. They considered the whole movement begun by him as a people led astray by an enthusiast. But they were in the minority. Most of the Jews of all classes believed that John was a true prophet.

They reasoned with themselves "If we shall say

of Antonia, a short distance from the northwest corner of the temple and directly connected with it by a protected gallery. Herod had no governmental authority whatever in Jerusalem; he was in the position of a visiting potentate, whose powers when at home were practically equivalent to those of the Roman procurator in Jerusalem, and who consequently was entitled to every courtesy from him. Great numbers of his Jewish subjects, especially from Galilee, were in Jerusalem every year at the Passover, and as they were the most unruly and turbulent of all the Jews they were frequently in conflict with the Roman authorities. One such instance had occurred shortly before the arrival of Jesus' multitude and Pilate's severity had produced a strained relationship between him and Herod. (Luke 13:1: 23:12). The Jerusalem population, especially during feast times when the city was crowded with visitors, was given to frequent and violent tumults, which frequently were ended only by the use of great violence by the Romans in suppressing them, and a consequent increase in the rigidity of restrictions placed upon the Jews. Some of them cost lives into the thousands in their suppression.

this baptism was from heaven, he will then ask us, Why then did you not believe him? But if we shall say from men"-the fear of the multitude, present and practically surrounding them, came over them. It would not be safe in that crowd to deny that John was a true prophet. They did the only safe thing. They said, "We do not know."

Jesus was released from his uncomfortable situation. If they were unable to answer his question, he was under no obligation to answer theirs. "Neither do I tell you," he said, "by what authority I do these things."

This opposition was not what Jesus had expected. The success of the previous day, when everybody had recognized his authority, even the priests and temple authorities themselves being subdued and silent in the presence of the overwhelming force which he presented, had given him a right to expect that to-day all Jerusalem would be ready to accept his message as had Galilee. This unexpected and antagonistic greeting, indicating unquestionably that the rulers of the nation would not admit his authority, aroused intense feeling in him. His was not a nature that readily brooked opposition. Believing as he did that he was the Messiah, the chosen of God, the idea of opposition, of resistance to his will, was discordant and obnoxious in the extreme. Wherever, in the record of his brief career, we find him in contact with critics or opponents, we find evidence of irritation and anger, just as in this instance. In addition, no doubt on this occasion the author