THE HOSANNAH RABBAH.

57

There, with great solemnity, he drew three logs of water, which were then carried in triumphant procession through the water-gate into the Temple. As he entered the Temple courts the sacred trumpets breathed out a joyous blast, which continued till he reached the top of the altar slope, and there poured the water into a silver bason on the western side, while wine was poured into another silver bason on the eastern side. Then the great Hallel was sung,1 and when they came to the verse "Oh give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good: for His mercy endureth for ever," each of the gaily-clad worshippers as he stood beside the altars, shook his lulab in triumph. In the evening they abandoned themselves to such rejoicing, that the Rabbis say that the man who has not seen this "joy of the drawing water" does not know what joy means.2

In evident allusion to this glad custom-perhaps in sympathy with that sense of something missing which succeeded the disuse of it on the eighth day of the feast -Jesus pointed the yearnings of the festal crowd in the Temple, as He had done those of the Samaritan woman by the lonely well, to a new truth, and to one which

1 Ps. cxiii.-cxviii. Jahn, Archaeol. Bibl. § 355. Even Plutarch (Sympos. iv. 5) alludes to the paτnpopopía.

66

2 Succah, v. 2. The feast was called Shimcath beth hashoabah. The day was called the Hosannah Rabbah, or 'Great Hosannah," because on the seventh day the Hallel was seven times sung. The origin of the ceremony is quite obscure, but it is at least possible that the extra joy of it-the processions, illuminations, dances-commemorated the joy of the Pharisees in having got the better of Alexander Jannæus, who, instead of pouring the water on the altar, disdainfully poured it on the ground. The Pharisees in their fury hurled at his head the citron-fruits which they were carrying in their hands (Lev. xxiii. 40), and on his calling his mercenaries to his aid, a massacre of nearly six thousand ensued (Derenbourg, Hist. Pal. 98; Jos. Antt. xiii. 13, § 5, KITρlois avтòv ěßaλλov). This unauthorised use of the fruits as convenient missiles seems not to have been rare (Succah, iv. 9).,

more than fulfilled alike the spiritual (Isa. xii. 3) and the historical meaning (1 Cor. x. 4) of the scenes which they had witnessed. He "stood and cried, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water."1 And the best of them felt in their inmost soul-and this is the strongest of all the evidences of Christianity for those who believe heart and soul in a God of love who cares for His children in the family of man-that they had deep need of a comfort and salvavation, of the outpouring of a Holy Spirit, which He who spake to them could alone bestow. But the very fact that some were beginning openly to speak of Him as the Prophet and the Christ, only exasperated the others. They had a small difficulty of their own creating, founded on pure ignorance of fact, but which yet to their own narrow dogmatic fancy was irresistible-" Shall Christ come out of Galilee? must He not come from Bethlehem? of David's seed?"2

It was during this division of opinion that the officers whom the Pharisees had dispatched to seize Jesus, returned to them without having even attempted to carry out their design. As they hovered among the Temple courts, as they stood half sheltered behind the Temple pillars, not unobserved, it may be, by Him

66

1 Cf. Isa. xliii. 20; lviii. 11; lv. 1; xii. 3; and John iv. 14; vi. 35; Rev. xxii. 17. These are the nearest passages to as the Scripture hath said," which must therefore be interpreted as a general allusion. St. Chrysostom asks, καὶ ποῦ εἶπεν ἡ γραφὴ ὅτι ποταμοὶ, κ. τ. λ.; οὐδαμοῦ. Νο metaphor, however, could be more intense than that offered by the longing for water in a dry and thirsty land. To see the eagerness with which men and beasts alike rush to the fountain-side after journeys in Palestine is a striking sight. The Arabs begin to sing and shout, constantly repeating the words "Snow in the sun! snow in the sun!"

2 Micah v. 2; Isa. xi. 1; Jer. xxiii. 5, &c.

PHARISAIC CONTEMPT.

59

for whom they were lying in wait, they too could not fail to hear some of the divine words which flowed out of His mouth. And, hearing them, they could not fulfil their mission. A sacred spell was upon them, which they were unable to resist; a force infinitely more powerful than their own, unnerved their strength and paralysed their will. To listen to Him was not only to be disarmed in every attempt against Him, it was even to be halfconverted from bitter enemies to awe-struck disciples. "Never man spake like this man,' like this man," was all that they could say. That bold disobedience to positive orders must have made them afraid of the possible consequences to themselves, but obedience would have required a courage even greater, to say nothing of that rankling wound wherewith an awakened conscience ever pierces the breast of crime.

The Pharisees could only meet them with angry taunts. "What, ye too intend to accept this Prophet of the ignorant, this favourite of the accursed and miserable mob! "1 Then Nicodemus ventured on a timid word, Ought you not to try, before you condemn Him?" They had no reply to the justice of that principle: they could only fall back again on taunts" Are you then a Galilæan?" and then the old ignorant dogmatism, "Search, and look: for out of Galilee ariseth no prophet."

Where then, as we have asked already, was Gathhepher, whence Jonah came? where Thisbe, whence Elijah came? where Elkosh, whence Nahum came? where the northern town whence Hosea came? The more recent Jews, with better knowledge of Scripture,

1 The ecclesiastical contempt of the Pharisees surpassed, in its habitual spirit of scorn, the worst insolence of Paganism against "the many."

declare that the Messiah is to come from Galilee ;1 and they settle at Tiberias, because they believe that He will rise from the waters of the Lake; and at Safed, "the city set on a hill," because they believe that He will there first fix His throne. But there is no ignorance so deep as the ignorance that will not know; no blindness so incurable as the blindness which will not see. And the dogmatism of a narrow and stolid prejudice which believes itself to be theological learning is, of all others, the most ignorant and the most blind. Such was the spirit in which, ignoring the mild justice of Nicodemus, and the marvellous impression made by Jesus even on their own hostile apparitors, the majority of the Sanhedrin broke up, and went each to his own home.

1 See Isa. ix. 1, 2, and this is asserted in the Zohar. Vol. I., p. 65.

2 So I was assured on the shores of the Sea of Galilee.

See supra,

CHAPTER XL.

THE WOMAN TAKEN IN ADULTERY.

"Thus conscience doth make cowards of us all."-SHAKESPEARE.

As

IN the difficulties which beset the celebrated incident which follows, it is impossible for us to arrive at any certainty as to its true position in the narrative.1 there must, however, be some à priori probability that its place was assigned with due reference to the order of events, and as there appear to be some obvious though indirect references to it in the discourses which immediately follow, I shall proceed to speak of it here, feeling no shadow of a doubt that the incident really happened, even if the form in which it is preserved to us is by no means indisputably genuine.3

1 John viii. 1—11. In some MSS. it is placed at the end of St. John's Gospel; in some, after Luke xxi., mainly, no doubt, because it fits on well to the verses 37, 38 in that chapter. Hitzig (Ueber Joh. Marc. 205) conjectured, very plausibly, that the fact which it records really belongs to Mark xii., falling in naturally between the conspiracy of the Pharisees and Herodians, and that of the Sadducees to tempt Christ-i.e., between the 17th and 18th verses. In that case its order of sequence would be on the Tuesday in Passion week. On the other hand, if it has no connection with the Feast of Tabernacles, and no tinge of Johannean authorship, why should so many MSS. (including even such important ones as D, F, G) place it here?

2 Ex. gr., John viii. 15, 17, 24, 46.

3 The whole mass of critical evidence may be seen fully treated in