The object of this volume is kindred to that of my previous book on The Temple, its

Ministry and Services as they were at the Time of Jesus Christ. In both I have wished to

transport the reader into the land of Palestine at the time of our Lord and of His apostles,

and to show him, so far as lay within the scope of each book, as it were, the scene on

which, and the persons among whom the events recorded in New Testament history had

taken place. For I believe, that in measure as we realise its surroundings--so to speak,

see and hear for ourselves what passed at the time, enter into its ideas, become familiar

with its habits, modes of thinking, its teaching and worship --shall we not only

understand many of the expressions and allusions in the New Testament, but also gain

fresh evidence of the truth of its history alike from its faithfulness to the picture of

society, such as we know it to have been, and from the contrast of its teaching and aims

to those of the contemporaries of our Lord.

For, a careful study of the period leaves this conviction on the mind: that--with

reverence be it said --Jesus Christ was strictly of His time, and that the New Testament

is, in its narratives, language, and allusions, strictly true to the period and circumstances

in which its events are laid . But in another, and far more important, aspect there is no

similarity between Christ and His period. "Never man"--of that, or any subsequent

period--"spake like this man"; never man lived or died as He. Assuredly, if He was the

Son of David, He also is the Son of God, the Saviour of the world.

In my book on The Temple, its Ministry and Services, I endeavoured to carry the reader

with me into the Sanctuary, and to make him witness all connected with its institutions,

its priesthood, and its solemnities. In this book I have sought to take him into ordinary

civil society, and to make him mingle with the men and women of that period, see them in

their homes and families, learn their habits and manners, and follow them in their

ordinary life --all, as illustrative of New Testament history; at the same time

endeavouring to present in a popular form the scenes witnessed.

Another, and perhaps the most important part in its bearing on Christianity, yet remains

to be done: to trace the progress of religious thought--as regards the canon of

Scripture, the Messiah, the law, sin, and salvation--to describe the character of

theological literature, and to show the state of doctrinal belief at the time of our Lord. It

is here especially that we should see alike the kinship in form and the almost contrast in

substance between what Judaism was at the time of Christ, and the teaching and the

kingdom of our Blessed Lord. But this lay quite outside the scope of the present

volume, and belongs to a larger work for which this and my previous book may, in a

sense, be regarded as forestudies. Accordingly, where civil society touched, as on so

many points it does, on the theological and the doctrinal, it was only possible to

"sketch" it, leaving the outlines to be filled up. To give a complete representation of the

times of our Lord, in all their bearings--to show not only who they were among whom

Jesus Christ moved, but what they knew, thought, and believed--and this as the frame,

so to speak, in which to set as a picture the life of our Blessed Lord Himself, such must

now be the work, to which, with all prayerful reverence and with most earnest study, I

shall henceforth set myself.

It seemed needful to state this, in order to explain both the plan of this book and the

manner of its treatment. I will only add, that it embodies the results of many years' study,

in which I have availed myself of every help within my reach. It might seem affectation,

were I to enumerate the names of all the authorities consulted or books read in the

course of these studies. Those mentioned in the foot-notes constitute but a very small

proportion of them.