us, and should we not honour it?' The answer satisfied the Prince. But God rewarded
the Jew, for, when the fish was opened, a precious gem was found in it, which he sold,
and ever afterwards lived of the proceeds.22
21. In the Midrash: 'On the eve of the great fast' (the Day of Atonement). But from the
connection it is evidently intended to apply to the distinction to be put on the Sabbath-
meal.
22. Ber. R. 11 on Gen. ii. 3.
The reader can scarcely fail to mark the absolute difference between even the most
beautiful Jewish legends and any trait in the Evangelic history.
3. The event next recorded in the Gospels took place partly on the way from the Mount
of Transfiguration to Capernaum, and partly in Capernaum itself, immediately after the
scene connected with the Trib ute-money. It is recorded by the three Evangelists, and it
led to explanations and admonitions, which are told by St. Mark and St. Luke, but chiefly
by St. Matthew. This circumstance seems to indicate, that the latter was the chief actor
in that which occasioned this special teaching and warning of Christ, and that it must
have sunk very deeply into his heart.
As we look at it, in the light of the then mental and spiritual state of the Apostles, not in
that in which, perhaps naturally, we regard them, wha t happened seems not difficult to
understand. As St. Mark puts it,23 by the way they had disputed among themselves
which of them would be the greatest - as St. Matthew explains,24 in the Messianic
Kingdom of Heaven. They might now the more confidently expect its near Advent from
the mysterious announcement of the Resurrection on the third day, 25 which they would
probably connect with the commencement of the last Judgment, following upon the
violent Death of the Messiah. Of a dispute, serious and even violent, among the
disciples, we have evidence in the exhortation of the Master, as reported by St. Mark,26
in the direction of the Lord how to deal with an offending brother, and in the answering
inquiry of Peter.27 Nor can we be at a loss to perceive its occasion. The distinction just
bestowed on the three, in being taken up the Mount, may have roused feelings of
jealousy in the others perhaps of self-exaltation in the three. Alike the spirit which John
displayed in his harsh prohibition of the man that did not follow with the disciples,28 and
the self-righteous bargaining of Peter about forgiving the supposed or real offences of a
brother,29 give evidence of anything but the frame of mind which we would have
expected after the Vision on the Mount.
23. St. Mark ix. 34.
24. St. Matt. xviii. 1.
25. St. Matt. xvii. 23; St. Mark ix. 31.
26. St. Mark ix. 42-50.
27. St. Matt. xviii. 15, 21.
28. St. Mark ix. 38.
29. St.
Matt. xviii. 21.
In truth, most incongruous as it may appear to us, looking back on it in the light of the
Resurrection, day, nay, almost incredible - evidently, the Apostles were still greatly
under the influence of the old spirit. It was the common Jewish view, that there would be
distinctions of rank in the Kingdom of He aven. It can scarcely be necessary to prove this