Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IX.djvu/656

636 called Golgotha, in the 34th or 35th year of his age. The 25th of December has been received and commemorated by the church in the festival of Christmas from the 4th century as the day of his birth, though this date was previously unsettled, and the opinions of the learned have always varied concerning it. His genealogy is traced from Abraham by St. Matthew, and from Adam by St. Luke, through the royal line of David; the two pedigrees, after David, are very different, and the discrepancies have been variously explained by Biblical critics. Nor are these the only debatable points in the Biblical narrative, the main parts of which are condensed in the following. His mother was Mary, who was betrothed to a carpenter named Joseph, when an angel announced to her: a The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall over-shadow thee;" accordingly "she was found with child of the Holy Ghost," and, as St. Matthew states, her husband "knew her not till she had brought forth her first-born son," who was named Jesus. Joseph and Mary resided in Nazareth, an obscure town,in Lower Galilee, whence they went up to Bethlehem to be taxed, in compliance with a decree of Augustus, and because Joseph was of the house and lineage of David. It was there that the days were accomplished that she should be delivered, and the child was born, wrapped in swaddling clothes, and laid in a manger, the inn being full. His birth and Messianic dignity were revealed by angels to shepherds tending their flocks by night in the field, and they went in haste to Bethlehem to greet the babe. After 8 days he was circumcised; after 33 days he was presented in the temple at Jerusalem, when the aged Simeon took him in his arms, and blessed God that he had lived to see the Saviour; and soon after his birth, most probably while his parents remained in Bethlehem, three wise men (magi ; according to ecclesiastical tradition, three kings) came from the East, guided by a star, and fell down before the young child, worshipped him, and present- ed to him gifts, gold, and frankincense, and myrrh. Their inquiries in Jerusalem had ex- cited the suspicion of King Herod, who com- manded them to bring him word when they had found the child. But the parents of Je- sus, warned in a dream, fled with him to Egypt. Herod, to whom the wise men, by divine direc- tion, had not returned, and who feared the loss of his throne if the Messiah were acknowl- edged, was greatly enraged, and, in order to secure the destruction of Jesus, gave orders that all the male children in and near Bethle- hem, from two years old and under, should be put to death. After the death of Herod, a few months later, Jesus was brought by his parents to Nazareth. Of his early youth noth- ing more is known, except the summary state- ment of Luke that he waxed strong in spirit, was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him. When he was 12 years old his parents took him with them to Jerusalem, to the feast of the passover. As they returned, he tarried behind without their knowledge : they retraced their steps in search of him, and after three days found him in the temple at Jerusalem, sitting in the midst of the doctors, hearing them and asking them questions, and astonishing them by his .understanding and his answers. lie returned to Nazareth with his parents, and was subject to them. Of the fol- lowing 18 years, till the commencement of his public ministry, the canonical Gospels give no account. Various suppositions have been made to fill this gap in the narrative, as that he as- sociated with learned Jews and studied the Greek authors; that in his 14th year he went with John the Baptist to Egypt, and was in- structed for 16 years by Egyptian philosophers ; that he was educated in the school of the Es- senes (which is the oldest opinion) ; that he was a Nazarite ; and that he belonged to the sect of the Sadducees. None of these hypothe- ses, however, rests upon any historical basis. It is more probable, as the gospel narrative intimates, that he followed the occupation of a carpenter, and, as the eldest son of the family, provided for its maintenance after Jo- seph's death. The apocryphal gospels give full but fanciful and often absurd narratives of this period, concerning which the four evan- gelists are silent. His appearance as a public teacher was heralded by John the Baptist, who admonished and warned the people, exhort- ing them to repentance, baptizing them in the Jordan, and announcing the approach of one mightier than himself, who should baptize with the Holy Ghost and with lire. It was probably in his 31st year that Jesus came to the Jordan at Bethabara to John, was recog- nized by him as the Messiah, and was bap- tized by him at his own command; and as he went up from the water a voice from heaven said: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." The events of his ministry, which is usually believed to have occupied about three years, are related by the evangelists, and have been arranged in chronological orde* (not in all cases with cer- tainty) in harmonies of the Gospels. The pub- lic administration of baptism was followed immediately by the fast for 40 days in the wil- derness, and the temptation by the devil. Di- rectly after this he selected the first five or six of his twelve disciples, subsequently called apostles, and began to promulgate his doctrines, and to perform miracles. At a marriage in Cana of Galilee he changed water into wine to supply the guests. He attended a feast of the passover at Jerusalem, drove the traders out of the temple, and by his mighty works made many believe in his name. Passing from Ju- dea to Galilee by way of Samaria, he announced himself as the Messiah to a Samaritan woman by Jacob's well at Sychar. Again in Cana he cured by a word a nobleman's son lying ill at Capernaum; in Nazareth he preached in the