were come unto Him, they besought Him that He would remain with them. And He abode there two days. And many more believed because of His own word; and said unto the woman, 'Now we believe no longer because of thy saying (this had already become in their eyes a less important testimony to the glory of Jesus, a λaxiá): we have heard Him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Saviour of the world,' the Christ.' We may conclude from these words, that many became acquainted with Him there as the Saviour of their own life.

Finally, Jesus met with a like reception in Galilee (in Upper Galilee, or Galilee in the more restricted sense: see vol. ii. 354). After two days, namely, He took His departure from that Samaritan city, and went into Galilee (Upper Galilee). He did not therefore take up His abode at Nazareth, in Lower Galilee. This contrast is indicated by the Evangelist in the following words: For He Himself, Jesus, testified, that a prophet hath no honour in his own country. Then, when He was come into Galilee, the Galileans received Him, having seen all the things that He did at the feast in Jerusalem. For they also had gone to the feast. So Jesus came again to Cana in Galilee (to the Cana of Upper Galilee) where He made the water wine. And there was a certain nobleman (government officer) whose son lay sick at Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus was come out of Judea into Galilee, he went unto Him, and besought Him, that He would come down and heal his son; for he was at the point of death. Jesus found it necessary first to prove the man with the words: Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe.' He received the reproach in humility, and continued to beg in the anguish of his heart: 'Sir, come down ere my child die!' 'Go thy way,' said the Lord; thy son liveth!' That was a word at once of the most instant miraculous help, and of the strongest trial of faith. The man stood the proof. He believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto him, and went his way. And as he was now going down-from the mountainous country to the sea-coast-his servants met him, and brought him the tidings: Thy son liveth. Then inquired he of them the hour when he began to amend.

And they said unto

'Probably they made use of the Samaritan designation for the Messiah along with the Jewish, possibly in this manner: the Hatthaheb of the world, the Christ; see ii. 352.

him, Yesterday, at the seventh hour, the fever left him. So the father knew that it was the same hour in which Jesus had said unto him, Thy son liveth. And he himself believed, and his whole house.

The Evangelist concludes with the remark: This sign did Jesus again, as the second, when returning out of Judea into Galilee. He came therefore both times successively with a great miraculous blessing into the land.

This was the time of first love in the labours of Christ, the joyful recognition which took place between the Lord and the souls which had sympathy and desire for the light, the first union between Him and His eternal Church, of which John the Baptist declared, The friend of the bridegroom standeth and heareth him, and rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice. The hostile agitation of the kingdom of darkness shows itself as yet but feebly.

The ideality of the life of Christ appears here first in the remarkable distinctness with which He makes known to individual minds His own divine character, with which also He apprehends them in their individual character, according to its eternal tendencies, and treats them accordingly; so that His image is reflected in theirs, their image in His, and a whole eternity in their mutual salutation. John the Baptist first becomes perfected as a prophet, by knowing Him; he assumes a christological and Christian character in the higher sense, by the manner in which he testifies of the divine depths of the life of Christ, and in which he sacrifices his own reputation, and his prospects of an extensive discipleship, to the honour of Christ. Christ, on the other hand, appears in the glass of the stern-minded Baptist as the Lamb of God, and the Holy Spirit, whom He receives, is presented in the image of a dove. Further, Christ attracts His first and most select disciples to Himself by casting marvellous glances into their heart, by recognising and depicting the image of their inmost being, their character and destiny, with the penetrating eye of love. His relatives and friends must come to know Him as the guardian of their household life, who is acquainted with and can remove the family cares, turn its want into wealth, and beautify its festivals with a new glory; whilst the image of His mother Mary appears in the finest traits of sympathizing love, and of the boldest trust. He makes Himself first known

to the Israelitish people in the form of a stern prophet: to Nicodemus as the new interpreter of the Old Covenant, who brings home to the heart the doctrine of the new birth, with the most solemn asseverations of divine certainty, in order then, as the founder of a new covenant, to attach the new revelations to the kernel of the old. How distinctly does the character of Nicodemus stand forth in the light of Christ, and how clearly does the master-hand of Christ reveal itself in the discussion with the pious but pharisaically-biassed old Rabbi! He then appears to us as the holy, gentle, and unfettered Son of man in the conversation with the Samaritan woman--as the Prince of all true fatherconfessors, whilst the transparent image of the woman's nobler nature comes forth ever more brightly from the darkness of her sinful life. We see how, in His paths, human love again blossoms forth from among the rubbish of the confessional hatred of many centuries, under which it had found its grave. Finally, in Galilee He appears already as a Prince in the domain of the spiritual life. Thus does He stand over against the nobleman of Capernaum. The latter, on the other hand, under His influence, unfolds a beautiful tenderness of paternal love, and the most courageous faith; and the obedience of faith, with which he goes his way at the command of Christ, turns himself into a royal servant of the King, in the kingdom of God.

Further, the ideality of the life of Jesus meets us here in the nature and sequence of His miracles. The first is a miracle. of divinely-penetrating prophetic insight into the solitude of a pious heart; the second is the transformation of an earthly festivity into a heavenly one-the changing of the water into wine, a joyful token of the transformation of the world, now begun in the labours of Christ; the third miracle, again, a master-glance into the dark life and mind of a far-strayed sinful woman; the fourth, a silent and spirit-like operation of healing at a dis

tance.

There is likewise to be observed here already, the commencement of the spiritual transfiguration of the Old Testament. John himself must designate the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world, as the proper end and aim of the Old Testament; the first disciples of Jesus must hear of the completion of the Old Testament revelation in a new, in which heaven shall stand open over them continually; His friends must

see how the water-pots of Jewish ordinance1 are changed into vessels of wine for the feast of Christian love; the Jews must learn what is meant by the sanctification of the temple, and be led to surmise that over against the typical temple on Moriah there stands another truer temple in the human body of Christ; Nicodemus must know that there is a higher regeneration than that of water (and circumcision) alone; and in the light of the advent of the Messias, must the old confessional strife betwixt Jews and Samaritans be judged and composed, and the ideal mountains of the worship of God must come in the room of the typical. Thus does the Lord bring to light, in features ever new, the ideal and essential meaning of the Old Testament.

And in like manner also the ideality of nature. The image of the dove designates the Holy Spirit as the animating principle of His life, the image of the Lamb, His disposition, His mode of life, and His sufferings. We hear the rushing of the night-wind amidst the conversation of Christ with Nicodemus: it is consecrated by the Lord as a figure of the Holy Spirit, in the mysterious operation by which He accomplishes the renewal of the human soul. We look into the dark night, and under the teaching of Christ it becomes to us an image of the darkness, in which the unbelieving have their being, because their works are evil. We look down into the well of Jacob, and learn how the Lord makes the fountain of water to be an image of the new life in the Spirit of God, which quenches all thirst, and, fountain-like, has an eternal principle of motion and renovation within itself.

Finally, there is here everywhere apparent the richest transformation of ordinary life, and its incidents, into ideal relationships, clothed with festive beauty. The salutations of Jesus to His first disciples are moments in which we see Him attach the highest to the nearest their walking, their state, their name, becomes an image of their life and their destiny. The unforeseen want at a marriage-feast furnishes Him the occasion for the first manifestation of His glory. His appearance in Israel first takes place in the midst of the long established annual market within the courts of the temple. The night-season, in which He is visited by Nicodemus, provides an emblem with which He connects the deepest instruction and warning. And finally, He

1 See the publication of the Saxon Anonyme, Die Evang., etc., p. 403.

sanctifies the water-pot of the Samaritan woman, of whom, as a weary pilgrim on the well, He begs a draught, as a first means for the conversion of a Samaritan city, nay, as the first breaking up of the way for the spread of the Gospel in the heathen world.

The last mark of ideality in this narrative must be found in the frugal communication of facts, in the perfect significancy of those selected, in the calmness and pictorial character of their delineation, and in the transformation of all the events recorded into a manifestation of spiritual life.

NOTES.

1. The foregoing section comprehends that period in the beginning of the life of Jesus which the synoptists, for the most part, pass by, as they make the second return of Jesus from the Jordan to coincide with the first. The commencement presupposes the baptism of Jesus as having already taken place; in like manner, the forty days of temptation in the wilderness are past, except one, the last. The return of Jesus to Galilee in company with His disciples is conducted by the Evangelist only to Cana; His touching at Nazareth on the way, which Luke places here, is, however, slightly indicated, iv. 44, and likewise the intention of Jesus to come to Capernaum, ver. 47. The Evangelist has silently corrected the misapprehensions afloat, regarding the meaning of the three first Gospels, in two passages; namely, in the notice about John the Baptist, iii. 24, and in the τοῦτο πάλιν δεύτερον, κ.τ.λ., ἐλθὼν, a distinct indication of a second return to Galilee, iv. 54.

2. Regarding the assertion of Baur, that, according to John, there can be no question whatever of the baptism of Jesus, see Ebrard, as above, p. 25. Concerning the relation between the Xoyos, who is manifested in Jesus, and the TVEûμa which is imparted to Him, comp. Fromman, der Joh. Lehrbegriff 357 ff.; Lücke, i. 434. The appearance of contradiction, which has been sought to be found between the two statements, regarding the person of Christ, is as strong, and even stronger, between the statements of the synoptists, that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Ghost, and that He was then baptized with the Holy Ghost; it resolves itself, however, immediately, when one has

VOL. VI.

U 6