graciousness of his words and of his personality and returned to ordered mental processes. The crowds pressed upon him, those on the outskirts seeking eagerly to reach the place where he stood and threatening the personal safety of those who stood near to him and even of Jesus himself. He sought safety in the only means left to him; he called to his disciples to bring him a boat, but instead of departing in it he merely withdrew from the pressure of the throng and as soon as it had scattered sufficiently to permit him to make his way through it, he climbed up the precipitous sides of the mountain overlooking the lake, only a short distance away from it, and relieved himself of the pressure of the multitude.

To assure himself of safety from any attempts of the officials to arrest him, he did not return to Capernaum on this night, but spent it in the mountain, carefully cautioning those who knew his purpose not to reveal his refuge."

'Matt. 12:16, 17. The parallel, Mark 3:12, is subject to the possible interpretation that he was charging the unclean spirits not to make him known. The two together make it clear that he was seeking secrecy.

CHAPTER VI.

THE GREAT DISCOURSES AT CAPERNAUM-HE LEAVES

CAPERNAUM.

The weight of this task was becoming too great. His meditation in the solitude of that night ripened the conviction that he must have help in carrying his message; that it would be impossible for him alone to reach all the lost sheep of the house of Israel, to give them an opportunity to change their hearts and become fit for membership in the Kingdom before the time when it should arrive. So with the coming of the morrow he sent' to the multitude which was awaiting his return at the foot of the mountain, and called to him twelve men, whose interest and belief in the message were strongest and whose superior ability had impressed him and had convinced him of their fitness for the work to be done.

Twelve was a peculiarly significant number. Though the ten tribes had long been separated from the rest of the Jews and the old tribal organization was merely a tradition, it was nevertheless a very sacred tradition. The Jews believed that in the Kingdom of God when it should appear, the scat

'Mark 3:13-19; Luke 6:13-16. It is likely that the five already chosen by him, or some of them, accompanied him into his se clusion the previous night.

tered ten tribes would again be united to the faithful two tribes and that the renewed and reconstructed Israel would again contain twelve tribes as of old. Jesus was completely a Jew in his mental outlook and the selection of twelve men, as shown by his subsequent statement, was for the purpose of adjusting his own organization of workers to the future kingdom of twelve tribes. At a later time he told these twelve that in the day of judgment, the twelve should sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. Among these twelve, preeminent were the four who had accompanied him for the past few weeks, since the beginning of his preaching in Galilee,-Peter and Andrew, James and John. With them were included Levi, or Matthew, the tax gatherer of Capernaum; Simon of Cana, well known as an adherent of that great Judas who had stirred up the disturbance in the time of the enrollment, probably prominent in the troubles of that time, and for this reason called the Zealot'; Judas, from the town of Ke

'Matthew 19:28.

"The enrollment or "taxing", by Quirinius which Luke places at the time of Jesus' birth, occurred actually in the thirty-seventh year of Augustus' victory over Antony at Actium (Jos. Antiq. XVIII, ii, 1) or during 6 and 7 A. D. Most of the Jews submitted peacefully to the enrollment, or assessment, which was especially hateful to the Jews, even when performed by their own kings. Some of the bolder spirits, however, under the leadership of Judas the Galilean, resisted bitterly. Jos. Wars II, viii, 1: "A certain Galilean whose name was Judas, prevailed with his countrymen to revolt; and said they were cowards if they would endure to pay a tax to the Romans, and would, after God, submit to mortal men as their lords". In the Antiquities (XVIII,

rioth and for that reason called Ish-karioth, or man of Kerioth; Philip and Bartholomew, Thomas; and the brothers James and Judas, the sons of Alpheus, or Clopas, like John and James probably cousins of Jesus. Names for the most part common even among the Jews, but in the centuries that have passed since then, written by thousands and tens of thousands in every record, every census, every muster roll of the western world.

When he had named these men and asked them to undertake this task and they in turn had accepted it, he came down from the mountain to the level sea coast at its foot,* and began to teach them and such part of the multitude as could come within reach of his words the real meaning of his message, so

i, 1) the same historian describes at greater length the purposes and appeals of Judas, and alleges that the subsequent disasters of the Jews had their beginning in this rebellion and the ideas which caused it. Messianic ideas are evident in the cautious language in which Josephus describes the beliefs of these Zealots (Antiq XVIII, i, 6): "These men agree in all other things with the Pharisaic notions; but they have an inviolable attachment to liberty; and say that God is to be their only Ruler and Lord. They also do not value dying any kind of death, nor indeed do they heed the deaths of their relations and friends, nor can any such fear make them call any man Lord". Jesus was a boy of eight or nine years when this outbreak took place. Judas was a Galilean and the disturbance was in Galilee. Jesus may conceivably have seen and talked with Judas himself and certainly was familiar with his followers and his ideas. It is very significant that one so thoroughly identified with this movement as to be called "the Zealot" should have been one of Jesus' most intimate associates. It is well to remember these facts when Jesus is later asked about the legality of payment of tribute to Caesar.

'Luke 6:17.

far as it affected the present lives of those who heard him.

This address, preserved for us by one of those happy strokes of good fortune which go so far to support those who find a satisfaction in believing that God operates by special dispensation, was intended to be a statement to those who had accepted his doctrine of the Kingdom, of the principles according to which their lives must be lived if they were to be able to participate in the coming Kingdom of God. It contained a system of morals suitable to a people who believed that they were shortly to stand in the immediate presence of God, and that their hope for safety from condemnation and for participation in the promises of this Kingdom depended upon their bringing forth in their lives fruits worthy of that hope.

This discourse, under the name of "The Sermon on the Mount," has become the most cherished possession of the western world."

Jesus at this time was at the height of the power and vigor of his preaching. As yet he was not seriously disturbed by any contradiction or antagonism. Dominated as he was with the absolute assurance that the day was immediately at hand when all present human institutions and human relations would pass away and human beings would stand in the presence of the Most High with only their own

"The complete form is found in Matthew, chapters 5-7. The Lucan parallel is found in chapter 6. Parts of the sections omitted by Luke are scattered through other chapters of that gospel.