Yet this command that he should go and declare the wonderful works of God in regard of him, may also have rested on other grounds, may have found its motive in the peculiar idiosyncracy of the man. Only with reference to this state are we able to reconcile the apparently contradictory commands which the Lord gave to those whom he had healed: -some bidden to say nothing, (Matt. viii. 4; Luke viii. 56,)-this one to publish abroad the mercy which he had received. Where there was danger of all deeper impressions being lost and scattered through a garrulous repetition of the outward circumstances of the healing, there silence was enjoined, that so there might be an inward brooding over the gracious and mighty dealing of the Lord. But where, on the contrary, there was a temperament over-inclined to melancholy, sunken and shut up in itself, and needing to be drawn out from self, and into healthy communion with its fellow-men, as was evidently the case with such a solitary melancholic person as we have here, there the command was, that he should go and tell to others the great things which God had done for him, and in this telling preserve the healthy condition of his own soul. modatum. He makes in the same place this whole account an historico-prophetic delineation of the exorcising, so to speak, of the heathen world of its foul super. stitions and devilish idolatries. VI. THE RAISING OF JAIRUS'S DAUGHTER. MATT. ix. 18, 19, 23-26; MARK v. 22, 24, 35—43; LUKE viii. 41, 42, 49–56 THE present miracle is connected by St. Mark and St. Luke immediately with our Lord's return from the country on the other side of the lake, which he had left at the urgent entreaty of the inhabitants. In St. Matthew other events, the curing of the paralytic, the calling of Matthew, and some discourses of the Lord with the Pharisees, are inserted between. Yet of these only the latter (ix. 10-17,) the best harmonists find really to have their place here. The two later Evangelists tell us also the name of the father of the child; St. Matthew who has his eye only on the main fact, and passes over every thing that is not absolutely necessary for that, speaks of him more generally as "a certain ruler;" they again telling us what kind of a ruler, namely that he was one of the prefects of the synagogue. This, we can hardly doubt, was the synagogue of Capernaum, where now Jesus was; (Matt. ix. 1;) he was therefore one who most probably afterwards made a part of that deputation which came to the Lord pleading for the heathen centurion; (Luke vii. 3;) for "the elders of the Jews" there, are identical with the "rulers of the synagogue" here. But he who appears on that later occasion pleading for another, presents himself now before the Lord, touched by a yet nearer calamity; for he comes saying, "My daughter is even now dead, but come and lay * In Matthew simply άρχων, which is explained in Mark, εἰς τῶν ἀρχισυναγώγων, in Luke, ȧpxwv Tйs σvvaywyns. Many synagogues had but one of these, so it would seem, Luke xiii. 14. The name itself seems to point out some single person, who was at the head of the whole; yet it is plain from this and many other passages, as Acts xiii. 15, that a synagogue often had many of these rulers. Probably those described as τοὺς ὄντας τῶν Ἰουδαίων πρῶτους, whom St. Paul summoned at Rome, (Acts xxviii. 17,) were these chiefs of the synagogue. (See VITRINGA, De Synagogâ, p. 584, seq.) thine hand upon her, and she shall live." Thus St. Matthew records his words, but the others with an important variation:-" My little daughter lieth at the point of death."* (Mark v. 23.) " He had one only daughter, about twelve years of age, and she lay a dying." (Luke viii. 42.) Thus they speak of her as dying when the father came, which the latter part of the history shows to have been the more exact, St. Matthew as already dead. Yet these differences are not hard to adjust; he left her at the last gasp; he knew not whether to regard her as alive or dead; he knew that life was ebbing so fast when he quitted her side, that she could scarcely be living now; and yet, having no certain notices of her death, he was perplexed whether to speak of her as departed or not, and thus at one moment expressed himself in one language, at the next in another. It is singular enough that a circumstance of this kind, so taken from the life, so testifying of the reality of the things recorded, should have been advanced by some as a contradiction between one Gospel and another. That Lord, upon whose ear the tidings of woe might never fall in vain, at once" arose and followed him, and so did his disciples." The crowd who had been listening to his teaching, followed also, that they might see the end. The miracle of the healing the woman with the issue of blood found place upon the way, but it will naturally be better treated apart, especially as it is entirely separable from this history, though not altogether without its bearing upon it; for the delay, the words to the disciples, the conversation with the woman, must all have been a sore trial to the agonized father; now when every moment was precious, when death was shaking the last few sands in the hour-glass of his daughter's life,-a trial in its kind similar to that with which the sisters of Lazarus were tried, when they beheld their beloved brother drawing ever nigher to death, and the Lord tarried notwithstanding. But however great the trial, we detect no signs of impatience on his part, and this no doubt was laid to his account. While the Lord was yet speaking to the woman, there came from the ruler's house certain of his friends or servants. St. Luke mentions but one, probably that one who was especially charged with the message, whom others went along with, even as it is common for men in their thirst for excitement to have a * 'Eoxáτws ¿xew= in extremis esse; one of the frequent Latinisms of St. Mark. Το ἱκανὸν ποιῆσαι: = satisfacere, (xv. 15,) σπεκουλάτωρ, (vi. 27,) φραγελλόω, (Στ. 15,) λɛyɛúv, (v. 9, 15,) and many more. Bengel: Ita dixit ex conjecturâ. Augustine (De Cons. Evang., 1. 2, c. 28): Ita enim desperaverat, ut potius eam vellet reviviscere, non credens vivam posse inveniri, quam morientem reliquerat. But Theophylact, not, I think, rightly: 'Hv ab§ávwv từp συμφορὰν, ὡς εἰς ἔλεον ἑλκύσαι τὸν Χριστόν. kind of pleasure in being the bearers even of evil tidings. They come "saying to him, Thy daughter is dead, trouble not the Master." They who, perhaps, had faith enough to believe that Christ could fan the last expiring spark of life into a flame, yet had not the stronger faith which would have enabled them to believe the harder thing, that he could once more enkindle that spark of life, when it was quenched altogether. Their hope had perished: perhaps the father's would have perished too, and thus there would have been no room for this miracle, since faith, the necessary condition, would have been wanting; but a gracious Lord prevented his rising doubts, for "as soon as he heard the word that was spoken, he saith to the ruler of the synagogue, Be not afraid, only believe." Here the emphasis should be placed on the first words-as soon as the tidings came, on that very instant the Lord spake, thus leaving no room or place for a doubt to insinuate into the father's mind, before he had pre-occupied him with a word of confidence and encouragement.† The Lord took with him but three of his apostles, the same three who were allowed, more than once on later occasions, to be witnesses of things hidden from the rest. This, however, is the first time that we read of any such election within the election, and the fact of such now finding place would mark, especially when we remember the solemn significance of the other seasons of a like selection, (Matt. xvii. 2; xxvi. 37,) that this was a new era in the life of the Lord. That which he was about to do was so great and holy that those three only, the flower and the crown of the apostolic band, were its fitting witnesses. The parents were present on grounds altogether different. Those, and these, and none other, accompanied him into the house. There, as every where else, he appears as the calmer and pacifier: "Why make ye this ado and weep? the damsel is not dead, but sleepeth." Some, and those not unbelievers, nor persons who have learned to regard miracles as so much perilous ware, fron: which it is always an advantage when * Σkúλλw, properly to flay, as oxuλα are originally the spoils, dress, or armor, stripped from the bodies of the slain; see Passow. Afterwards more generally, fatigare, vexare, and often it would seem with a more particular allusion to fatiguing with the length of a journey; and so perhaps here, “Why do you weary the master with this tedious way?" It is well known that some MSS. and Fathers read lokvλμé vol for exλελvμévoi at Matt. ix. 36, which, if the word have indeed this under mean ing, would then be peculiarly appropriate. (See SUICER's Thes., s. v.) + Titus Bostrensis (in CRAMER'S Cat., in Luc.): "Iva yàg μì ɛiñŋ kaì avròç, ’Eñíoχες, οὐ χρείαν σου έχω, Κύριε, ήδη γέγονε τὸ πέρας, ἀπέθανεν, ἣν προσεδοκῶμεν ὑγιαί· νειν· ἄπιστος γὰρ ἦν, Ἰουδαϊκὸν ἔχων φρόνημα, φθάνει ὁ Κύριος καὶ φησι, Μὴ φοβοῦ, παῦσον τῆς ἀπιστίας τὰ ῥήματα. The three, Peter, James, and John, are called therefore by Clement of Alexan dria, ἐκλεκτῶν ἐκλεκτοτέρους. the Gospels can be a little lightened,-Olshausen, for instance,* who is as far as possible from wishing to explain away the wonderful works of our Lord,-have yet considered his words, repeated by all the narrators, "The maid is not dead, but sleepeth," to be so explicit and distinct a declaration that death had not absolutely taken place, that in obedience, as they believe, to these words of our Lord's, they refuse to number this among the actual raisings from the dead. They will count it only a raising from a death-like swoon; though one it may have been from which the maiden would never have returned but for that life-giving touch and voice. Had this, however, been the case, Christ's word to the father would clearly have been different, when the tidings came that the spirit of the child had actually fled. The consolation must have clothed itself in another language. He might have brought out the side of his omniscience, and bid him not to fear, for he knew that no such evil had befallen him as he imagined. But that "Be not afraid, only believe," points another way; it is an evident summoning him to a trust in the all-might of the gracious helper, who is coming with him to his house. And as regards the Lord's words, that the maiden was not dead, but slept, he uses exactly the same language concerning Lazarus, "Our friend Lazarus sleepeth," (John xi. 11;) and when Olshausen replies to this obvious objection, that Christ explains there distinctly that he meant the sleep of death, adding presently, "Lazarus is dead," it is enough to answer that he does not do so till his disciples have misunderstood his words: he would have left those words, but for their mistaking them and supposing he had spoken of natural sleep-"Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead." But as Lazarus only slept, because Jesus was going that he "might awake him out of sleep," so was she only sleeping, because her awakening was so near. Beside this, to speak of death as a sleep, is an image common, I suppose, to all languages and nations. Thereby the reality of the death is not denied, but only the fact implicitly assumed, that death will be followed by a resurrection, as sleep is by an awakening. Nor is it hard to perceive why the Lord should have spoken in this language here. First, in regard to the father, the words are an establishing of a tottering faith, which the sight of all * Origen (Con. Cels., ii. 48) has, I think, the same view of this miracle. He is observing on the absence of all prodigality in the miracles, and notes that we have but three raisings from the dead in all: mentioning this first of Jairus's daughter, he adds, περὶ ἧς οὐκ οἶδ' ὅπως εἶπεν, Οὐκ ἀπέθανεν, ἀλλὰ καθεύδει· λέγων τι περὶ αὐτῆς § οὐ πᾶσι τοῖς ἀποθανοῦσαι προσήν, but he does not express himself very plainly. + Fritzsche: Puellam ne pro mortuâ habetote, sed dormire existimatote, quippe in vitam mox redituram. |