The Harmony Chronicle and Order of the New Testament, Part 1 · Section 62 – Section 70

The Harmony Chronicle and Order of the New Testament · Part 1 · Section 62 – Section 70

p. 49SECTION LXII. LUKE Chap. XIII. Ver. 23. to the end of the Chapter. And Chap. XIV, XV, XVI, XVII, XVIII, to Ver. 15.

THe order here is somewhat obscure, and that especially from these two things. 1. Because of the first verse of all the Section, which may seem to be linked to the time of the verse preceding it in Luke. He went thorow the Cities and villages teaching and journeying towards Ierusalem. Then said one to him, &c. 2. Because of that passage in Chap. 17.11. And it came to passe as he went to Ierusalem, he passed thorow the mids of Samaria and Galilee, which might seem to be the same journey with that Chap. 13.22. and that all the occurrences in these Chapters were in that journey.

But for the proof and cleering of the order, to be as we have laid it, these things are to be observed. 1. That this story wherewithall this Section beginneth, One said to him Lord, Are few to be saved? &c. was on the same day that he crieth out, O Ierusalem, Ierusalem, &c. ver. 31, 34. Now that this was when Christ was no more to come up to Ierusalem till his last coming up thither, is evident from his words, ver. 35. Ye shall no more see me till the time when ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the Name of the Lord: So that this was after his coming up to the Feast of Dedication. And those words were spoken, whilest he was yet at Ierusalem, before he went away thence from that Feast to go beyond Iordan: The word Then therefore wherewith this Section beginneth in our English tran…lation, doth not enforce the necessary conjunction of the times, for in the Originall it is not foreign but foreign. 2. Whereas it is said, in Chap. 17.11. That as he went to Ierusalem, he passed through Samaria and Galilee, it is to be understood of his last journey thither: and the manner of expression doth help to confirm our order, as we shall see there. Herod was now at Ierusalem, as compare ver. 31, & 34. and it may be, he being Ruler of Galilee, had helped forward the death of these Galileans whom Pilate had slain as they were sacrificing: and an intimation of such like danger from him is given Iesus: And this may be conceived one cause that sets him out of the City, and to go beyond Iordan, which is recorded in the last verses of the preceding Section, Ioh. 10.40. and how the order of story is to be cast in the readers thoughts it is easie to see. Christ being at the Feast of Dedication at Ierusalem, one comes and asks him, Lord, are few to be saved? Luk. 13.23. And the same day, ver. 31. some Pharisees tell him of danger from Herod. He answers, that it was true indeed that he was to die at Ierusalem, for a Prophet could not be tried but by the great Council there [Talm. in Sanhedr. per. 11.] but he had yet some time to walk and work miracles before, and so he goes away from Ierusalem.

Chap. XIV. He healeth the Dropsie on the Sabbath, and pleadeth the lawfullnesse of the action, from their own pity to their beasts, to pull them out of a pit on the Sabbath. of which Maym. in Schabb. Per. 25.

R. Abuhabh in praesat. ad Ner. 7. hath a Parable somewhat like that passage at ver. 8. and forward. Three men, saith he, were bidden to a feast, A Prince, a wise man, and an humble man: The Prince sate highest, next him the wise man, and the humble man lowest. The King observed it, and asked the Prince, why sittest thou highest? He said, Because I am a Prince. To the wise man, Why sittest thou next? He said, Because I am a wise man. And to the humble man, Why sittest thou lowest? Because I am humble. The King seated the humble man highest, and the wise man still in his place, and the Prince lowest.

Chap XV. By three eminent and feeling Parables, is set forth Gods readinesse to receive sinners, &c. in the last of which is a cleer intimation of the calling of the Gentiles.

Chap. XVI. The Parable of the unjust steward, of the rich man and Lazarus, from Psal. 49. Lazer is used constantly in the Jerus. Talm. for Eleazer. The word signifies God help me, or God is my help, a fit name under which to personate a begger. Ahrahams bosome, a phrase used by the Jews. That day that Rabbi died, R. Ada ben Ahava said, This day he sits in Abrahams bosome, Juchasin fol. 77. col. 4. That the tongue of the damned in hell thirsts for water, as ver. 24. is also their conception. Talm. Ierus. in Chagigah. fol. 77. col. 4. is relating a story of a good man and a bad man that died: And the good p. 50man foreign, had no buriall rites, but the bad man had. Afterward one in a vision saw the good man walking in gardens, and among pleasant fountains of waters: but the bad neer a river, and his tongue reach after water, but could not reach it.

Chap. XVII. At ver. 11. it is said, As he went through Ierusalem, he passed through Samaria and Galilee. This meaneth his last journey thither; but the expression is somewhat strange: Had it been as he went to Ierusalem he passed through Galilee and Samaria, this had set his face towards Ierusalem: but uttered as it is, it seems to set his back upon it: But by this passage the Evangelist helpeth to explain what Iohn and the other Evangelists speak of his journey from Ierusalem beyond Iordan,namely that he went not to Iericho, and so the next way to the next place beyond Iordan, but that he went through Samaria up into Galilee, and there crossed over Iordan to Bethabara, which was over against Galilee.

From ver. 20. and forward, there is a speech of Christ much like that in Matth. 24. which still giveth us occasion to observe how Christ rehearsed things over and over.

Chap. XVIII. By two Parables he sheweth the needfullnesse and efficacy of fervency, constancy and humility in prayer. In the Pharisees prayer ver. 11. we may observe what kinde of faith in God the Judaich faith was. He waited for good from God, but grounded this in himself, because of his own righteousnesse. But in the Gospel the righteousnesse of God is revealed, and that from faith to faith. In the Publicans posture in his prayer, two of their Canonicall gestures in prayer are exhibited; standing and looking downward. Maym. in Deah per. 7. foreign A scholer of the wise must look downward when he stands praying. The Pharisees fasting twice a week, may be explained from Ierus. Taanith fol. 64.3. & Maym. Taanith per. 1.

SECTION LXIII. MATTH. Chap. XIX. from the beginning to Ver. 13. MARK Chap. X. from the beginning to Ver. 13. CHRIST beyond Iordan. Concerning Divorce.

MATTHEW saith, When Iesus had finished these sayings, he departed from Galilee, and came into the coasts of Iudea beyond Iordan. Which sayings that he speaketh of, were finished a long while ago, at Sect. 55. but because he setteth down nothing betwixt that time and this journey over Iordan, therefore he thus joyneth their stories together: The time and actions that he hath omitted, we have seen how Luke and Iohn have supplied.

Were there any Coasts of Iudea beyond Iordan? Either the conjunction And is to be understood, He came into the coasts of Iudea and beyond Iordan, as it is understood Psal. 133.3. Acts 7.16, &c. or by Fines Iudaeae trans Iordanem, is meant Fines Iudaeorum, because the Syrians also dwelt in the coasts beyond Iordan.

Moses at the very same instant of time gave a Law to put an adulterous wife to death, Deut. 22.22. and a Law to divorce her, Deut. 24.1. in the former shewing the desert of the fact, in the latter permitting to mitigate of the rigour of that Law, and as our Saviour here interprets it, to prevent those cruel effects that their hardnesse of heart might have produced, had there been no mitigation. They brag of that Law of divorce as if favoured them as a peculiar priviledge. Ierus. kiddushen fol. 58.3. R. Chaijah Rabbah said, Divorces are not granted to the nations of the world, meaning not to the Gentiles as they were to the Jews: whereas truth here informs us, that it was permitted only because of the hardnesse of their hearts and to avoid greater mischief. When permission of divorce was given, after a Law to punish adultery with death, for a mitigation of it, it requires most serious weighing, whether a Law to punish adultery with death should be undispensable now, after the Law of divorce given, and continued by our Saviour in case of fornication.

p. 51SECTION LXIV.

INFANTS brought to Christ. A rich man departs sorrowfull.

MATTHEW and Mark do evidence the order, and as Luke had helped out their briefnesse before, so do they now also again help us out about his order.

Whose children were these that were brought to Christ? Not unbeleevers doubtlesse, but the children of some that professed Christ: Why did they bring them? Not to be healed of any disease doubtlesse, for then the Disciples would not have been angry at their coming: for why at theirs, more then at all others, that had come for that end? Their bringing therefore must needs be concluded to be in the name of Disciples, and that Christ would so receive them and blesse them: And so he doth, and asserteth them for Disciples, and to whom the Kingdom of heaven belonged; taking the Kingdom of heaven in the common acceptation of the Gospel.

Observe Mark 10.19, &c. that mention being made by Christ of the Commandments, as if he spake of the whole Law, yet he instanceth only in the second table. And see the like again, Rom. 13.8, &c. Iames 2.8, 9, 10, &c. The demeanour of men toward the second table is a sure triall how they stand to the first.

It is easier for a Camell to go through the eye of a needle. An expression common in the Nation. Talm. Bava meria fol. 38. facie 2. It may be thou art of Pumbeditha where they can bring an Elephant through the eye of a needle.

SECTION LXV. MATTH. Chap. XX. from the beginning to Ver. 17. Labourers in the Vineyard, &c.

THe first word For makes plain the order and connexion, joyning this speech to that before.

The Ierus. Talm. in Beracoth hath a Parable somewhat like to this, but wildly applied to a far different purpose: A King hired many workmen, and there was one of them hired for his work, for more then what was enough: What did the King? He took him and walked with him up and down. At the time of the evening the workmen came to receive their wages, and he also gave him his full wages with them. The workmen repined and said, We have laboured all the day and this man laboured but two hours, and thou hast given him full wages with us: The King said to them, This man hath laboured more in two hours then you have done all day. So R. Bon laboured more in the Law in twenty nine years, then another in a hundred, &c. fol. 5.

SECTION LXVI. JOHN Chap. XI. from the beginning to Ver. 17. Tidings come to Christ of Lazarus sicknesse.

AT Sect. 63. Christ goeth beyond Iordan: the occasion of his coming back, was the message of Mary and Martha to him, to desire his help to their sick brother: The story of this therefore is necessary to be related before the story of his coming thence, which is the next thing that the other three Evangelists fall upon, after they have done with what is set down in the preceding Sections.

The words of the second verse, It was that Mary which anointed the Lord with oyntment, and wiped his feet with her hair, are most generally construed as pointing to that story in the next Chapter, Ioh. 12.3. Then took Mary a pound of oyntment of Spikenard very costly, and anointed the feet of Iesus, and wiped his feet with her hair ▪ Which seemeth very improper and unconsonant upon these reasons. 1. To what purpose should Iohn use such an anticipation? It was neither materiall to the story that he was entring on, Chap. 11. to tell that Mary anoynted Christs feet a good while after he had raised her brother: p. 52nor was it any other then needlesse to bring in the mention of it here, since he was to give the full story of it in the next Chapter. 2. The word foreign is of such a tense as doth properly denote an action past, and is so to be rendred, if it be rendred in its just propriety, It was Mary which had anointed. 3. Whereas no reason can be given why Iohn should anticipate it here, if he meant it of an anointing that was yet to come, a plain and satisfactory reason may be given, why he speaks of it here, as referring to an anointing past, namely because he would shew what acquaintance and interest Mary had with Christ, which did imbolden her to send to him about her sick brother, for she had washed and anointed his feet heretofore. The words of Iohn therefore point at an action past, and indeed they point at that story of the woman-sinner washing the feet of Christ with …ears, and anointing them with ointment, and wiping them with her hairs, Luke 7. It is true indeed that Iohn who useth these words that we are upon, had not spoken of any such anointing before, whereunto to refer you in his own Gospel, but the passage was so well and renownedly known and recorded by Luke before, that he relateth to it as to a thing of most famous notice and memoriall.

SECTION LXVII.

CHRIST foretelleth his suffering.

THe message from Mary and Martha, about their sick brother, inviteth Christ from beyond Iordan into Iudea again. He staies two daies after he had received the message in the same place where the messenger found him, and in the story of this Section he is set forward. And being now upon his last journey to Ierusalem he foretelleth to his Disciples what should become of him there: They followed him with fear and amazement before, foreseeing that he went upon his own danger, and yet when he had spoken the thing out to them at the full they understood him not.

SECTION LXVIII. MATTH. Chap. XX. from Ver. 20. to Ver. 29. MARK Chap. X. from Ver. 35. to Ver. 46. The request of Zebedees sons. They are told of their Martyrdom.

THe order is plain of it self: and yet the connexion is somewhat strange: for in the last words before, Christ had foretold of his death, yet the sons of Zebedee here desire to sit on his right hand and left in his Kingdom. Galatius resolves it thus, Discipuli in errore aliquando fuerunt, credentes Christum illicò post resurrectionem terreni regni sceptro potiturum: unde & quidam eorum, super caeteros primatum ambientes, &c. The Disciples sometimes were mistaken, conceiving that Christ presently after his resurrection should obtain the scepter of an earthly Kingdom, whereupon some of them ambitious of priority above the rest, desired to sit on his right hand and left, &c. lib. 4. cap. 1. It is true indeed that the Jewish Nation, and the Disciples with them erred in judging about Messias his Kingdom, Act. 1. but they erred as farre also about Messias his resurrection, till experience had informed them better. Therefore it cannot well be imagined, that the wife and sons of Zebedee thought of Christs resurrection in this their request, but conceived of his temporall Kingdom according to the notions of the rest of the Nation about it: What therefore our Saviour had spoken instantly before of his being scourged, crucified, killed, and Rising again, they understood in some figurative sense or other; but the Evangelists plainly tell us, they understood it not in the sense that he spake it. It may be his naming these two The sons of thunder, gave them some blinde incouragement to such a request. Christ foretels his own death and their suffering Martyrdom under the title of Baptism, in which sense the Apostle also useth the word 1 Cor. 15.29. The Jewish baptizings or dippings in their purifications, was a very sharp piece of Religion, when in frost and snow and wind and weather they must over head ears in cold water, from which, the phrase was used to signifie death and the bitterest sufferings. The Ierusalem Gomarists do tell us, that the women of Galilee grew barren, by reason of the cold in their purifyings. R. Aba in the p. 53name of Tanchum bar R. Chaia saith, In the daies of R. Ioshua ben Levi, they sought to abolish this dipping, because of the women of Galilee which were made barren by reason of the cold. R. Ioshua ben Levi saith, Do ye seek to abolish a thing that fenceth Israel from transgression? &c. Beracoth fol. 6. col. 3.

SECTION LXIX.

Blinde healed.

CHRIST in his journey from beyond Iordan to Bethany for the raising of Lazarùs, passeth through Iericho: and he healeth one blinde man as he entreth into Iericho, of which Luke speaketh, and another as he goeth out, of which the other two. Matthew indeed speaketh of two healed as he came out of Iericho; comprehending it may be, the story of him that was healed on the other side of the Town, and this together in one story, for briefnesse sake: Or if there were two healed on this side the Town, Mark only mentions one because he rather aimeth at shewing of the manner or kinde of the miracle, then at the number: as we have observed the like before, at Sect. 39.

SECTION LXX. LUKE Chap. XIX. from the beginning to Ver. 29. Zaccheus a Publican converted.

THe order lies plain in ver. 1. Christ was passed through Iericho before he met with Zaccheus, &c. Rabban Iochanan ben Zaccai, hath made the name Zaccai or Zaccheus renowned in Jewish Writings: His father Zaccai might very well be now alive, and for any difference of the times might well enough be the Zaccheus before us, but that some other circumstances do contradict it. Whosoever this man was, it is observable, that though his name Zaccheus speak him a Jew, yet Christ reputes him not a child of Abraham till he beleeve, ver. 19.

Ver. 11. They thought that the Kingdom of heaven should immediatly appear. Observe this: this they had learned from Dan. 9. where the time is so punctually determined, that they that looked for the consolation of Israel could not but observe it, and they that observed, could not but see it now accomplished.