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ment in Syria about B.C. 6 which may have been loosely described as a governorship, and that there is evidence for a twelve years' cycle in Imperial statistics which would give a first enrolment about the same date.

6. Years of Preparation (cf. Keim, vol. ii. pt. 2). — The silence of the Gospels as to the boyhood and early manhood of Jesus is broken only by the mention of a pilgrimage to Jerusalem (Lk 2""-). Even if it be true that none of His townsfolk beUeved on Him, it might have been expected that the piety of His disciples would have recovered some facts from the public memory, and that in any case the tradition would have been enriched at a later date by members of the family circle. The only possible explanation of the silence is that during the years in Nazareth Jesus did and said nothing which challenged notice. It is also evident that the silence is an indirect testimony to the credibility of the great events of the later years, as there was every reason why the tradition, had it not been bound by facts, should have invested the earUer period with supernatural surprises and glories.

(1) Education of Jesus. — Earliest in time, and probably chief in importance, was the education in the home. The Jewish Law earnestly impressed upon parents, especially upon fathers, the duty of instructing their children in the knowledge of God, His mighty acts and His laws, and also of discipUning them in religion and moraUty. 'We take most pains of all,' says Josephus, ' with the instruction of children, and esteem the observation of the laws, and the piety corre-sponding with them, the most important affairs of our whole life' (c. Apion, i. 12). 'We know the laws,' he adds, 'as well as our own name.' It was the home in Nazareth that opened to Jesus the avenues of knowledge, and first put Him in possession of the treasures of the OT. It also seems certain that in His home there was a type of family life which made fatherhood stand to Him henceforward as the highest manifestation of a love beneficent, disinterested, and all-forgiving. It is probable that Jesus had other teachers. We hear in the course of the same century of a resolution to provide teachers in every province and in every town; and before the attempt was made to secure a universal system, it was natural that tuition should be given in connexion with the synagogue to boys Ukely to 'profit above their equals.' Of the officers connected with the synagogue, the ruler and the elders may sometimes have done their work as a labour of love, and there is evidence that it could be laid on the chazzan as an official duty. The stated services of the synagogue, in which the chief part was the expounding of the Scriptures by any person possessed of learning or a message, must have been an event of the deepest interest to the awakening mind of Jesus. From early childhood He accompanied His parents to Jerusalem to keep the Feast — the utmost stress being laid by the Rabbis upon this as a means for the instilment of piety. It has also been well pointed out that the land of Palestine was itself a wonderful educational instrument. It was a Uttle country, in size less than the Scottish Highlands, of which a great part could be seen from a mountain-top, and every district visited in a few days' journey; and its valleys and towns, and, above all, Jerusalem, were filled with memories which compelled the citizen to live in the story of the past, and to reflect at every stage and prospect on the mission of his people and the ways of God (Ramsay, The Education of Christ, 1902) . To these has to be added the discipUne of work. Jesus learned the trade of a carpenter, and appears to have practised this trade in Nazareth until He reached the threshold of middle age (Mk 63). It is perhaps remarkable that none of His imagery is borrowed from His handicraft. One has the feeling that the work of the husbandman and the vine- dresser had more attraction for Him, and that His self-sacrifice may have begun in the workshop. The

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deeper preparation is suggested in the one incident which is chronicled. The point of it is that even in His boyhood Jesus thought of God as His Father, and of His house as His true sphere of work (Lk V). The holy of hoUes in the silent years was the life of communion with God in which He knew the Divine Fatherhood to be a fact, and became conscious of standing to Him in the intimate relationship of a Son.

(2) Knowledge of Jesus. — There is no reason to suppose that Jesus studied in the Rabbinical schools. Nor is there more ground for the beUef, which has been made the __motive of certain 'Lives of Christ' (Venturini, NatuTliche Gesch. des grossen Propheten von Nazareth, 1800-2), that He had acquired esoteric wisdom among the Essenes. It has also become diflScult for those who take their impressions from the historical records to believe that, while in virtue of His human nature His knowledge was progressive and limited, in virtue of His Divine nature He was simultaneously omniscient. All we can say is that He possessed perfect knowledge within the sphere in which His vocation lay. The one book which He studied was the OT, and He used it continually in temptation, confiict, and suffering. He knew human nature in its littleness and greatness — the Uttleness that spoils the noblest characters, the greatness that survives the worst pollution and deg-radation. He read individual character with a swift and unerring glance. But what must chiefly have impressed the listeners were the intimacy and the cer-tainty with which He spoke of God. In the world of nature He pointed out the tokens of His bounty and the suggestions of His care. The realm of human affairs was to Him instinct with principles which illustrated the relations of God and man. He spoke as One who saw into the very heart of God, and who knew at first hand His purpose with the world, and His love for sinful and sorrow-laden men.

7. Jesus and the Baptist.— The reUgious common-placeness of the age, which has been described above, was at length broken by the appearance of John the Baptist, who recalled the ancient prophets. He pro-claimed the approach of the Day of the Lord, when the Messiah would take to Himself His power and reign. He rejected the idea that the Jews could claim special privileges on the ground of birth (Mt 3'), and proclaimed that the judgment, with which His work would begin, would be searching and pitiless. Along with other Galilaeans Jesus repaired to the scene of the ministry in the lower Jordan valley, and received baptism (Mk I'), not, indeed, as though He needed repentance, but as a symbol and means of con-secration to the work which lay before Him. The Gospels are more deeply interested in the impression made by Jesus on John, modern writers in the influence exerted by John upon Jesus. According to all the Synoptics, John proclaimed the near advent of the Messiah; according to Mt., he may have implied that Jesus was the Messiah (3"); while the Fourth Gospel states that he explicitly pointed Him out as the Messiah to his disciples (l^n- »). If we suppose that Jesus held intercourse for a time with the Baptist, it is easy to believe that the stainlessness and commanding greatness of His character at least evoked from the Baptist an avowal of his own inferiority. That he went so far as to declare Him the Messiah whom he preached is a statement which it is difficult to accept Uterally, or as meaning more than that the school of the Baptist pointed to its consummation in the school of Christ. On the other hand, contact with the Baptist's ministry evidently precipitated the crisis in the life of Christ. The man who re-discovered the need and the power of a prophetic mission was an instrument in bringing Jesus face to face with His prophetic task; while his proclamation of the impending advent of the Messiah must have had the character for Jesus of a call to the work for which, as the unique Son, He knew Himself to be

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