Isa. 40. 11. Ezek. 34. 23. & 37. 24. X. answered, If ye were blind, ye would not have sin; but ye say, 'We see,' therefore your sin remaineth. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he who entereth not by the door into the sheep-fold, but climbeth over the fence, is a thief 2 and a robber. The shepherd always entereth by the door. 3 To him the door-keeper openeth, and the sheep obey his voice. 4 His own sheep, he calleth by name, and leadeth out. And having put out his sheep, he walketh before them, and they fol5 low him, because they know his voice. They will not follow a stranger, but flee from him, because they know not the voice 6 of strangers. Jesus addressed this similitude to them, but they 7 did not comprehend what he said. He therefore added: Ver8 ily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the fold. All who have entered [in another manner] are thieves and robbers, but 9 the sheep obeyed them not. I am the door: such as enter by me shall be safe; they shall go in and out, and find pasture. 10 The thief cometh only to steal, to slay, and to destroy. I am come that they may have life, and more than life. 11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his life 12 for the sheep. The hireling, who is not the shepherd, and to whom the sheep do not belong, when he seeth the wolf coming, abandoneth the sheep and fleeth; and the wolf teareth 13 some, and disperseth the flock. The hireling fleeth, because 14 he is a hireling, and careth not for the sheep. I am the good Matt. 11, 27. 15 shepherd. I both know my own, and am known by them, Lu. 10. 22. Tea. 53. 7. Acts. 2. 24. (even as the Father knoweth me, and I know the Father); 16 and I give my life for the sheep. I have other sheep besides, which are not of this fold. Them I must also bring; and they will obey my voice; and there shall be one flock, one shepherd. 17 For this the Father loveth me, because I give my life, to be af18 terwards resumed. No one forceth it from me; but I give it of myself. I have power to give it, and I have power to resume it. This commission I have received from my Father. 19 Again there was a division among the Jews, occasioned by 20 this discourse. Many of them said: He hath a demon and is 21 mad, why do ye hear him? Others said: these are not the words of a demoniac: Can a demon give sight to the blind? 1 Mec. 4. 59. 22 Once when they were celebrating the feast of the dedication 23 at Jerusalem, it being winter; as Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon's portico, the Jews surrounding him, said to him: 24 How long wilt thou keep us in suspense? If thou be the Mes25 siah, tell us plainly. Jesus answered: I said to you, but ye believed not, the works which I do in my Father's name testi26 fy of me.' As for you, ye believe not, because ye are not of 27 my sheep. My sheep,' as I told you,' obey my voice;' I 28 know them and they follow me. Besides, I give them eter nal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any one 29 wrest them out of my hands. My Father, who gave them me, is greater than all; and none can wrest them out of my Father's 30 hand. I and the Father are one. 31 Then the Jews again took up stones to stone him. Jesus 32 said to them: Many good works I have shown you from my 33 Father; for which of these do ye stone me? The Jews an swered: For a good work we do not stone thee; but for blas34 phemy, because thou, being a man, makest thyself God. Jesus replied: Is it not written in your law, "I said, Ye are gods?" 35 If the law styled them gods to whom the word of God was ad- Ps. 82. 6. dressed, and if the language of Scripture is unexceptionable, 36 do we charge him with blasphemy whom the Father hath con37 secrated his apostle to the world, for calling himself his Son? If 38 I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works, that ye may know and believe that the Father is in me, and I am in him. 39 Thereupon they attempted again to seize him; but he es40 caped out of their hands, and retired again towards the Jordan, 41 and abode in the place where John first baptized. And many resorted to him, who said: John indeed wrought no miracle; 42 but all that John spake of this man is true. And many believed on him there. XI. SECTION VIII.-LAZARUS RAISED FROM THE DEAD. NOW one Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and 2 her sister Martha, was sick. (It was that Mary who anointed ch. 12. 3. the Lord with balsam, and wiped his feet with her hair, whose 3 brother Lazarus was sick). The sisters therefore sent to tell 4 Jesus: Master, lo, he whom thou lovest is sick. Jesus hearing it, said: This sickness will not prove fatal, but conduce to the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified there5 by. Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus. 6 Having then heard that he was sick, Jesus staid two days in the place where he was. 7 Afterwards he said to the disciples: Let us return to Judea. 8 The disciples answered, Rabbi, but very lately the Jews would 9 have stoned thee, and wouldst thou return thither? Jesus replied, Are there not twelve hours in the day? If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light 10 of this world: but if he walk in the night, he stumbleth, be11 cause there is no light. Having spoken this, he added: Our 12 friend Lazarus sleepeth, but I go to wake him. Then said his 13 disciples: Master, if he sleep he will recover. Jesus spake of Lu. 14. 14. ch. 5. 29. & 6. 40. ch. 9.1. his death; but they thought that he spoke of the repose of 14 sleep. Then Jesus told them plainly: Lazarus is dead. And 15 on your account I am glad that I was not there, that ye may 16 believe; but let us go to him. Then Thomas,* that is Didymus, said to his fellow-disciples: Let us also go, that we may die with him. 17 When Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had been already 18 four days in the tomb. Now, (Bethany being about fifteen fur19 longst from Jerusalem), many of the Jews came to Martha 20 and Mary to comfort them on the death of their brother. Mar tha having heard that Jesus was coming, went and met him; 21 but Mary remained in the house. Then Martha said to Jesus: 22 Master, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. But I know that even now, whatsoever thou shalt ask of God, God 23 will give thee. Jesus said to her: Thy brother shall rise again. 24 Martha replied: I know that he will rise again at the resurrec25 tion on the last day. Jesus said to her: I am the resurrec tion and the life. He who believeth on me, though he were 26 dead, shall live; and no man who liveth and believeth on me, 27 shall ever die. Believest thou this? She answered: Yes, Mas ter, I believe that thou art the Messiah, the Son of God, he 28 who cometh into the world. Having said this, she went and called Mary her sister, whispering her: The Teacher is come, 29 and calleth for thee. When Mary heard this, she instantly rose 30 and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, 31 but was in the place where Martha met him. The Jews, then, who were condoling with Mary in the house, when they saw that she arose hastily, and went out, followed her saying: She 32 is going to the tomb to weep there. Mary being come to the place where Jesus was, and seeing him, threw herself at his feet, 33 saying: Hadst thou been here, Master, my brother had not died. When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews weeping who came with her, he groaned deeply, and was troubled, and 34 said: Where have ye laid him? They answered and said: 35. Master, come and see. Jesus wept. The Jews therefore said: 37 Mark how he loved him. But some of them said: Could not he who gave sight to the blind man, even have prevented this 38 man's death? Jesus therefore again groaning came to the mon ument. It was a cave, the entrance whereof was shut up with 39 a stone. Jesus said: Remove the stone. Martha, the sister of the deceased, answered: Sir, by this time the smell is offensive, 40 for this is the fourth day. Jesus replied: said I not unto thee, If 41 thou believe, thou shalt see the glory of God?' Then they re * Thomas in Chaldee, and Didymus in Greek, both signify twin. Near two miles. moved the stone. And Jesus lifting up his eyes, said: Father, I 42 thank thee that thou hast heard me. As for me, I know that thou hearest me always; but I speak for the people's sake who surround me, that they may believe that thou hast sent me. 43 After these words, raising his voice, he cried: Lazarus, come 44 forth. And he who had been dead came forth, bound hand and foot with fillets, and his face wrapped in a handkerchief. Jesus 45 said to them: Unbind him and let him go. Many therefore of the Jews who had come to Mary, and seen what Jesus did, 46 believed on him. But some of them repaired to the Pharisees, and told them what Jesus had done. 47 Whereupon the chief priests and the Pharisees assembled the Sanhedrim, and said: What are we doing? for this man 48 worketh many miracles. If we let him go on thus, every body will believe on him, and the Romans will come and destroy 49 both our place and nation. One of them, named Caiaphas, ch. 18. 14. 50 who was high priest that year, said to them: Ye are utterly at a loss, and do not consider, that it is better for us that one man die for the people, than that the whole nation should be 51 ruined. This he spake, not of himself, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for the nation; 52 and not for that nation only, but that he should assemble into 53 one body the dispersed children of God. From that day, there54 fore, they concerted how they might destroy him. For this 55 reason Jesus appeared no longer publicly among the Jews, but retired to the country, near the desert, to a city called Ephraim, and continued there with his disciples. Meantime the Jewish passover approached, and many went to Jerusalein from the country, before the passover, to purify 56 themselves. These inquired after Jesus, and said one to another, as they stood in the temple: What think ye? Will he 57 not come to the festival? Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had issued an order, that whosoever knew where he was should discover it, that they might apprehend him. Mar. 14. 3. XII. SIX days before the passover Jesus came to Bethany, where Matt. 26. 6. 2 Lazarus was, whom he had raised from the dead. There they ch. 11. 2. made him a supper, and Martha served: but Lazarus was one 3 of those who were at table with him. Then Mary taking a pound of balsam of spikenard, which was very valuable, anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped them with her hair, so that the 4 house was filled with the odor of the balsam. Whereupon one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, who was to be5 tray him,'said: Why was not this balsam sold for three hundred 6 denarii,* which might have been given to the poor? This he * About L. 9 sterling. said, not that he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief, 7 and had the purse, and carried what was put therein. Then Jesus said: Let her alone. She hath reserved this to embalm 8 me against the day of my burial. For'ye will always have the poor amongst you; but me ye will not always have. 9 A great number of the Jews, knowing where he was, flocked thither, not on account of Jesus only, but likewise to see La10 zarus whom he had raised from the dead. The chief priests, 11 therefore, determined to kill Lazarus also; because he proved the occasion that many Jews forsook them, and believed on Je sus. Matt. 21. 6. 12 SECTION IX.-THE ENTRY INTO JERUSALEM. ON the morrow a great multitude who were come to the festival, hearing that Jesus was on the road to Jerusalem, took 13 branches of palm-trees, and went to meet him, crying: Hosanna,* blessed be Israel's King who cometh in the name of the 14 Lord. Now Jesus having found a young ass, was riding thereZech. 9.9. 15 on, agreeably to what is written, "Fear not, daughter of Zion; 16 behold thy king cometh, sitting on an ass's colt." These things the disciples did not understand at first; but after Jesus was glorified, they remembered that thus it had been written con17 cerning him, and that thus they had done unto him. And the people who had been present, attested that he called Lazarus 18 out of the tomb, and raised him from the dead. It was the rumor that he had wrought this miracle, which made the people 19 crowd to meet him. The Pharisees therefore said among themselves: Are ye not sensible that ye have no influence? Behold the world is gone after him. 23 20 Now among those who came to worship at the festival, there 21 were some Greeks. These applied to Philip of Bethsaida in 22 Galilee, making this request: Sir, we wish to see Jesus. Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip told Jesus. Jesus answered them, saying: The time is come when the 24 Son of Man must be glorified. Verily, verily, I say unto you, when a grain of wheat is thrown into the ground, unless it die, Matt. 10.39. 25 it remaineth single; but if it die, it becometh very fruitful. He who loveth his life, shall lose it; and he who hateth his life in 26 this world, shall preserve it eternally in the next. Would any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall my servant also be. If any man serve me, my Father will reward him. and 26. 25. Mar. 8. 35. Lu. 9. 24. & 17:33. |