And so we scarcely wonder that many, on hearing Him, said, though not with that heart-
conviction which would have led to self-surrender, that He was the P rophet promised of
old, even the Christ, while others, by their side, regarding Him as a Galilean, the Son of
Joseph, raised the ignorant objection that He could not be the Messiah, since the latter
must be of the seed of David and come from Bethlehem. Nay, such was the anger of
some against what they regarded a dangerous seducer of the poor people, that they
would fain have laid violent hands on Him. But amidst all this, the strongest testimony to
His Person and Mission remains to be told. It came, as so o ften, from a quarter whence
it could least have been expected. Those Temple -officers, whom the authorities had
commissioned to watch an opportunity for seizing Jesus, came back without having
done their behest, and that, when, manifestly, the scene in the Temple might have
offered the desired ground for His imprisonment. To the question of the Pharisees, they
could only give this reply, which has ever since remained unquestionable fact of history,
admitted alike by friend and foe: 'Never man so spake as thi s man.'33 For, as all spiritual
longing and all upward tending, not only of men but even of systems, consciously or
unconsciously tends towards Christ,34 so can we measure and judge all systems by this,
which no sober student of history will gainsay, that no man or system ever so spake.
33. Whether or not the last three words are spurious is, so far as the sense of the words
is concerned, matter of comparative indifference.
34. St. John vii. 17.
It was not this which the Pharisees now gainsaid, but rather the obvious, and, we may
add, logical, inference from it. The scene which followed is so thoroughly Jewish, that it
alone would suffice to prove the Jewish, and hence Johannine, authorship of the Fourth
Gospel. The harsh sneer: 'Are ye also led astray?' i s succeeded by pointing to the
authority of the learned and great, who with one accord were rejecting Jesus. 'But this
people' - the country-people (Am ha-arez), the ignorant, unlettered rabble - 'are cursed.'
Sufficient has been shown in previous parts of this book to explain alike the Pharisaic
claim of authority and their almost unutterable contempt of the unlettered. So far did the
latter go, that it would refuse, not only all family connection and friendly intercourse,35
but even the bread of charity, to the unlettered;36 nay, that, in theory at least, it would
have regarded their murder as no sin,37 and even cut them off from the hope of the
Resurrection.38 39 But is it not true, that, even in our days, this double sneer, rather than
argument, of the P harisees is the main reason of the disbelief of so many: Which of the
learned believe on Him? but the ignorant multitude are led by superstition to ruin.
35. Ps. 49 b.
36. Baba B. 8 b.
37. Pes. 49 d.
38. Kethub. 111 b.
39. For further details the reader is referred to Wagenseil's Sota, pp. 516 -519.
There was one standing among the Temple -authorities, whom an uneasy conscience
would not allow to remain quite silent. It was the Sanhedrist Nicodemus, still a night-
disciple, even in brightes t noon-tide. He could not hold his peace, and yet he dared not
speak for Christ. So he made compromise of both by taking the part of, and speaking
as, a righteous, rigid Sanhedrist. 'Does our Law judge (pronounce sentence upon) a