4. COURSE OF JESUS’ PUBLIC WORK.

But if from the first Jesus really met with so much hostility, how are we to understand why he was so long allowed such freedom? Is it conceivable that, after driving the dealers from the fore-court of the Temple, and supposing that it took place at the beginning of his visits to Jerusalem, he could have continued to work for two years unmolested? In Galilee, it would be easier to think this; 73it is not so easy to imagine that he could have done so under the eyes of the Jewish authorities in Jerusalem, where, according to Jn., he stayed with few exceptions. The excuse that “his hour was not yet come” (vii. 30; viii. 20), is one which, having regard to all we know from the rest of human history, should be characterised as quite unsatisfactory.