(John vi. 14, 15) to take him by force and make him a king, and, sympathizing with the movement, were unwilling to go away. For this very reason, in order to prevent their becoming implicated in any such movement, Jesus may have obliged them to enter the vessel. Then, having dismissed the multitudes, he went up into the mountain alone to pray. When the night came on he was there, apart from the confused excitement of the crowds and their ambitious schemes in his behalf, the silent heavens bending over him, and the mountain solitudes around. These retired seasons of meditation and prayer were peculiarly grateful to him. "It seems to me that no one can remember how the Holy One found strength and peace in prayer, and ever again doubt that we need it. Judas did not pray. Herod did not feel the need of it. Pilate felt no need of it. The worldly and the cruel did not pray. But the Holy One, alone on the mountain, by the grave of Lazarus, at his own last hour, felt the need of prayer; and so long as the record of that example remains, we have an unanswerable evidence of the necessity of prayer."-E. Peabody, D. D. JESUS WALKING ON THE WATER. 21-34. While Jesus was alone on the mountain, in the gray twilight of the dawn, as it broke faintly into the darkness of the night, Jesus saw the disciples tossed about by the waves, and struggling with their oars to make some headway against the opposing wind. At about the fourth watch of the night, which extended from three to six o'clock, he went towards them, walking on the water. As they saw him approaching, they screamed aloud with fear, thinking it a spirit, or an apparition. A word from him calmed their apprehensions. Peter with the vehemence and the sudden revulsion of feeling which he showed on other occasions more than once, asked that he might walk to him on the waters, and then, in the violence of the wind his courage failing him, and he beginning to sink, he cried to Jesus for help. When they had come into the vessel, the wind ceased. This miracle evidently produced on those who were there (Mark vi. 51, 52) a stronger impression of amazement and wonder, than that which they had witnessed the day before with unmoved and hardened hearts. Their sense of personal danger from the storm, the terrors of the night heightened by what they feared at the time as a phantasm or apparition from another world, had prepared them to recognize with gratitude and wonder the power which interposed to save them. They immediately came to the land of Gennesaret, a rich and beautiful plain on the west side of the lake, lying four or five miles north from Tiberias, and probably a little to the south from Capernaum. NOTES. AT that time Herod the tetrarch heard of the fame of Jesus, 2 and said unto his servants, This is John the Baptist; he is risen from the dead, and therefore mighty works do show forth 3 themselves in him. For Herod had laid hold on John, and bound him, and put him in prison, for Herodias' sake, his 4 brother Philip's wife. For John said unto him, It is not law5 ful for thee to have her. And when he would have put him to death, he feared the multitude, because they counted him as a 6 prophet. But when Herod's birthday was kept, the daughter of 7 Herodias danced before them, and pleased Herod; whereupon he promised with an oath to give her whatsoever she would 8 ask. And she, being before instructed of her mother, said, 9 Give me here John Baptist's head in a charger. And the king was sorry; nevertheless, for the oath's sake, and them which 10 sat with him at meat, he commanded it to be given her. And 11 he sent and beheaded John in the prison. And his head 10. and beheaded John in prison] Josephus, who is less likely to be correct in this matter than Matthew, assigns a different was brought in a charger, and given to the damsel; and she brought it to her mother. And his disciples came and took up 12 the body, and buried it; and went and told Jesus. When 13 Jesus heard of it, he departed thence by ship into a desert place reason for the death of John from that which is here given. His account of John is as follows (Ant. XVIII. 5. 2): "Now some of the Jews thought that the destruction of Herod's army came from God and that very justly, as a punishment of what he did against John, who was called the Baptist. For Herod slew him, who was a good man, and commanded the Jews to exercise virtue, both as to righteousness towards one another, and piety towards God, and so to come to baptism. For that the washing with water would be acceptable to him, if they made use of it, not in order to putting away, or the remission of some sins only, but for the purification of the body: supposing still that the soul was thoroughly purified beforehand by righteousness. Now when many others came in crowds about him for they were greatly moved or pleased by hearing his words Herod, who feared lest the great influence John had over the people might put it into his power and inclination to raise a rebellion (for they seemed ready to do anything he should advise), thought it best, by putting him to death, to prevent any mischief he might cause, and not bring himself and not bring himself into difficulties by sparing a man who might make him repent of it when it should be too late. Accordingly he was sent a prisoner, out of Herod's suspicious temper, to Machærus, the castle I before mentioned, and was there put to death.' 13. When Jesus heard of it, he departed thence by ship into a desert place] "The news of John's execution," says Mr. Norton, "probably produced a sudden excitement among the people, and a feeling of strong resentment, for all believed John to be a prophet,' and might powerfully tend to turn their attention on Jesus, and direct their hopes to him as their expected king. John's disciples came to tell him of it, his own Apostles collected about him, and the multitude flocked to him. From this excited multitude, eager to force on him an office so foreign from that which he was appointed to sustain, our Lord was desirous of withdrawing himself, till their passions should subside, and he should, in consequence, be able with less difficulty to repress their misdirected zeal. He probably wished also to withdraw his disciples, who were very likely to share in the popular ferment. He therefore passed over from Galilee to the other side of the lake, into the dominions of Philip, a part of the country where he appears to have spent but little time during his ministry. Here, however, a great number of persons soon collected, whom he fed miraculously. The performance of this miracle, with its effect on the multitude, which our Lord must have foreseen, may seem inconsistent with the reasons that have just been assigned for his leaving Galilee. lee. But it is to be observed, that, while he repressed those feelings of the multitude which arose from false expectations concerning the Messiah, it was necessary for him, at the same time, to give the most decisive proofs of his Divine authority. As he but seldom visited this part of the country, we may suppose that it was his purpose to perform a miracle so astonishing and so public that it would make a deep impression, and that the knowledge of it would be spread everywhere round about. Under this aspect the miracle resembles that of the cure of the demoniacs, related in the eighth chapter of Matthew, which was so remarkable in its circumstances, and which was likewise performed on the eastern 14 apart; and when the people had heard thereof, they followed him on foot out of the cities. And Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude; and was moved with compassion toward them, and he healed their sick. 15 And when it was evening, his disciples came to him, say shore of the lake." In the work of educating the disciples as Apostles and Evangelists, while it was important that they should at times be sent out by themselves, and at times be brought into connection with large and excited multitudes of multitudes of men, it was also important that they should sometimes be alone with Jesus to receive his private and confidential admonitions and instructions, as well as to have the spirit and habit of devotion established in them. We must still regard them as a peripatetic school, going about with their master, and preparing under him for the great and responsible office which is soon to devolve on them. 14. The And Jesus went forth] He had probably been with his disciples in some retired part of the mountain from which he now came out. This may not have been the same day as that on which he crossed the lake. Mr. Norton supposes that one or more days had intervened. narrative in Mark vi. 33, 34, at first sight would indicate that the multitudes were fed on the same day that Jesus arrived there. His account is as follows: And the people saw them departing, and many knew him, and ran afoot thither out of all cities, and outwent them and came together unto him. And Jesus when he came out, saw much people." According to the text in Tischendorf's edition, we we must read: "And many saw them departing and knew them; and on foot from all the cities they ran together thither, and came before them. And when Jesus came out," &c. This may mean, that when Jesus came out from the boat he saw the multitudes, and then fed them. But considering the circumstances of the case, and the rapid, sketchy manner in which the We Evangelists group events that were separated in point of time, it is more probable that Jesus had spent some time there, perhaps a day or more, healing and instructing them, but seeking also for himself and his disciples seasons of retirement; and that once, when he came out from his retirement, and saw the people who had been there so long, weary, scattered, and hungry, like sheep without a shepherd, his compassion for them was excited, and he fed them. There has been a difference of opinion in regard to the place where the five thousand were miraculously fed, and which Jesus left to walk upon the lake. think, however, there can be no longer any doubt that it was, as we have placed it, at the northeast corner of the lake, near Bethsaida, afterwards called Julias, where Philip, the tetrarch, resided at least a portion of the time, and where he died and was buried in a costly tomb. (See Robinson's Researches, III. p. 308.) John vi. 23 speaks of other vessels coming that night from Tiberias to the place where they had eaten bread. "The contrary wind," says Stanley in his Geography, p. 374, "which, blowing up the lake from the southwest, would prevent the boat from returning to Capernaum, would also bring 'other boats' from Tiberias, the chief city on the south, to Julias, the chief city on the north, and so enable the multitudes, when the storm had subsided, to subsided, to cross at once, without the long journey on foot which they had made the day before." This accords with the account given by John vi. 22 – 15. And when it was evening] 23. and when the evening was come] From these two verses it would seem as if there were two evenings 24. ing, This is a desert place, and the time is now past; send the multitude away, that they may go into the villages, and buy themselves victuals. But Jesus said unto them, They need 16 not depart; give ye them to eat. And they say unto him, We 17 have here but five loaves and two fishes. He said, Bring 18 them hither to me. And he commanded the multitude to sit 19 down on the grass, and took the five loaves and the two fishes, and, looking up to heaven; he blessed, and brake, and gave the loaves to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude. And they did all eat, and were filled; and they took up of 20 the fragments that remained twelve baskets full. And they 21 that had eaten were about five thousand men, beside women and children. And straightway Jesus constrained his disciples to get into a 22 ship, and to go before him unto the other side, while he sent the multitudes away. And when he had sent the multitudes 23 away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray. And when the evening was come, he was there alone. But the ship was 24 now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves; for the wind was contrary. And in the fourth watch of the night, Jesus 25 went unto them, walking on the sea. And when the disciples 26 saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a spirit; and they cried out for fear. But straightway Jesus 27 spake unto them saying, Be of good cheer, it is I; be not afraid. And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be 28 thou, bid me come unto thee that day. This," says Trench on the Miracles, p. 224, was an ordinary way of speaking among the Jews, the first evening being very much our afternoon (compare Luke ix. 12, where the evening of Matthew and Mark is described as the day beginning to decline); the second evening being the twilight, or from six o'clock to twilight.' Lightfoot, on the other hand, a great authority in such matters, comparing 15 with 23, says: "That denotes the lateness of the day; this, the lateness of the night. So, 'evening' in the Talmudists, signifies not only the declining part of the day, but [of] the night also." Either explanation meets the case or even before us; but the first seems to us |