Christian sense. See Mandelstamm, Talmud. Stud. i. But Mandelstamm goes too far in
his view of the purely allegorical meaning, especially of the introductory part.
Book IV
THE DESCENT: FROM THE MOUNT OF TRANSFIGURATION INTO THE VALLEY
OF HUMILIATION AND DEATH.
Chapter 11
THE FIRST PERAEAN DISCOURSES
TO THE PHARISEES C ONCERNING THE TWO KINGDOMS
THEIR CONTEST
WHAT QUALIFIES A DISCIPLE FOR THE KINGDOM OF GOD, AND HOW ISRAEL
WAS BECOMING SUBJECT TO THAT OF EVIL.
(St. Matthew 12:22-45; St. Luke 11:14-36.)
It was well that Jesus should, for the present, have parted from Jerusalem with words
like these. They would cling about His hearers like the odour of incense that had
ascended. Even 'the schism' that had come among them1 concerning His Person made
it possible not only to continue His Teaching, but to return to the City once more ere His
final entrance. For, His Perę n Ministry, which extended from after the Feast of
a
Tabernacles to the week preceding the last Passover, was, so to speak, cut in half by
the brief visit of Jesus to Jerusalem at the Feast of the Dedication.2 Thus, each part of
the Perę n Ministry would last about three months; the first, from about the end of
a
September to the month of December;3 the second, from that period to the beginning of
April.4 Of these six months we have (with the solitary exception o f St. Matthew xii. 22-
45),5 no other account than that furnished by St. Luke,6 7 although, as usually, the
Jerusalem and Judę n incidents of it are described by St. John. 8 After that we have the
a
account of His journey to the last Passover, recorded, with more or less detail, in the
three Synoptic Gospels.
1. St. John x. 19.
2. St. John x. 22-39.
3. 28 a.d.
4. 29 a.d.
5. The reasons for his insertion of this part must be sought in the character of this
Discourse and in the context in St. Matthew's Gospel.
6. St. Luke xi. 14 to xvii. 11.
7. On the characteristics of this Section, Canon Cook has some very interesting remarks
in the Speaker's Commentary, N.T. vol. i. p. 379.
8. St. John x. 22-42; xi. 1-45; xi. 46-54.
It will be noticed tha t this section is peculiarly lacking in incident. It consists almost
exclusively of Discourses and Parables, with but few narrative portions interspersed.