§ 62. Different Theatres of Christ’s Labours as Teacher.

Christ exercised his office as teacher in two distinct theatres, Galilee and Jerusalem; and his mode of teaching varied accordingly. That carnal mania for miracles (directly contrasted by Paul¹⁵¹¹⁵¹   1 Cor., i., 22. with the Greek pride of reason) which infected the Jews every where, whether in Galilee or Jerusalem, and added presumption to their narrow-mindedness, proved, indeed, in both places, the greatest hindrance to their reception of the words of Christ. This common Jewish feature of opposition to the spirit of Christ justified the Apostle John, when he was reviewing the past in its great outlines, in embracing not only the dominant Pharisaic party at Jerusalem, but also the hosts of Galilee, under the general conception of Ἰουδαῖοι.¹⁵²¹⁵²   See John’s Gospel, passim.

Yet as the people of Galilee were of a more simple turn of mind, and were less subject to the influence of Pharisaism than those of Jerusalem, they must naturally have been more susceptible to his instructions. But a prophet is not wont to be held in honour in his own country; nor was the narrow-minded, carnal supranaturalism of the Galileans likely to recognize in the son of the carpenter of Nazareth the man sent of God. It was not until the displays of his power in the metropolis of the Theocracy had revealed him in a higher light, that he found a better reception on his return to the villages of Galilee.John, iv., 44, 45.

It was partly, then, in Jerusalem, where the Jews gathered together from all the world at the Passover, and partly in Galilee, where he spoke to the people, clustered in more or less numerous groups about him. especially as he walked along the shores of Genesareth, that the scone of his labours as a public teacher lay.