Master, they answered: 'The Lord [the Master, Christ] hath need of him,' when, as
predicted, no further hindrance was offered. In explanation of this we need not resort to
the theory of a miraculous influence, nor even suppose that the owners of the colt were
themselves 'disciples.' Their challenge to 'the two,' and the little more than permission
which they gave, seem to forbid this idea. Nor is such explanation requisite. From the
pilgrim-band which had accompanied Jesus from Galilee and Perĉa, and preceded
Him to Jerusalem, from the guests at the Sabbath -feast in Bethany, and from the people
who had gone out to see both Jesus and Lazarus, the tidings of the proximity of Jesus
and of His approaching arrival must have spread in the City. Perhaps that very morning
some had come from Bethany, and told it in the Temple, among the festive bands -
specially among his own Galileans, and generally in Jerusalem, that on that very da y -
in a few hours - Jesus might be expected to enter the City. Such, indeed, must have
been the case, since, from St. John's account, 'a great multitude' 'went forth to meet
Him.' The latter, we can have little doubt, must have mostly consisted, not of citizens of
Jerusalem, whose enmity to Christ was settled, but of those 'that had come to the
Feast.'12 With these went also a number of 'Pharisees,' their hearts filled with bitterest
thoughts of jealousy and hatred.13 And, as we shall presently see, it is of great
importance to keep in mind this composition of 'the multitude.'
11. St. Mark; comp. also St. Matthew.
12. St. John xii. 12.
13. St. Luke xix. 39; St. John xii. 19.
If such were the circumstances, all is natural. We can understand, how eager
questioners would gather about the owners of the colt (St. Mark), there at the cross -
roads at Bethphage, just outside Jerusalem; and how, so soon as from the bearing and
the peculiar words of the disciples they understood their purpose, the owners of the ass
and colt would grant its use for the solemn Entry into the City of the 'Teacher of
Nazareth,'14 Whom the multitude was so eagerly expecting; and, lastly, how, as from the
gates of Jerusalem tidings spread of what had passed in Bethphage, the multitude
would stream forth to meet Jesus.
14. It is surely one of those instances in which the supposed authority of MSS. should not
be implicitly followed, when in St. Mark xi. 3, the R.V. adopts what we must regard as a
very jejune gloss: 'and straightway He [ viz. Christ] will send him back hither' - as if the
disciples had obtained the colt by pledging the Master to its immediate restoration. The
gloss is the more inapt as it does not occur in the parallel passages in St. Matthew and
St. Luke.
Meantime Christ and those who followed Him from Bethany had slowly entered on15 the
well-known caravan-road from Jericho to Jerusalem. It is the most southern of three,
which converge close to the City, perhaps at the very place where the colt had stood
tied. 'The road soon loses sight of Bethany. It is now a rough, but still broad and well-
defined mountain-track, winding over rock and loose stones; a steep declivity on the left;
the sloping shoulder of Olivet above on the right; fig-trees below and above, here and
there growing out of the rocky soil.'16 Somewhere here the disciples who brought 'the
colt' must have met Him. They were accompanied by many, and immediately followed
by more. For, as already stated, Bethphage - we presume the village - formed almost