We
believe the most probable conclusion to be that Jesus did attract
many followers, and became famous throughout Galilee; for Herod
is said to have regarded him as John the Baptist risen from the
grave. To escape the malice of Herod, Jesus then retired to
Syro-Phoenicia, and during this eventful journey the
consciousness of his own Messiahship seems for the first time to
have distinctly dawned upon him (Matt. xiv. 1, 13; xv. 21; xvi.
13-20). Already, it appears, speculations were rife as to the
character of this wonderful preacher. Some thought he was John
the Baptist, or perhaps one of the prophets of the Assyrian
period returned to the earth. Some, in accordance with a
generally-received tradition, supposed him to be Elijah, who had
never seen death, and had now at last returned from the regions
above the firmament to announce the coming of the Messiah in the
clouds. It was generally admitted, among enthusiastic hearers,
that he who spake as never man spake before must have some divine
commission to execute. These speculations, coming to the ears of
Jesus during his preaching in Galilee, could not fail to excite
in him a train of self-conscious reflections. To him also must
have been presented the query as to his own proper character and
functions; and, as our author acutely demonstrates, his only
choice lay between a profitless life of exile in Syro-Phoenicia,
and a bold return to Jewish territory in some pronounced
character.
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