d of the generation then living (Matt. xxiv. 34; 1 Cor. xv.
51-56, vii. 29), there could be no need for acquiring property or making
arrangements for the future; even marriage became unnecessary. These
teachings of Jesus have a marked Essenian character, as well as his
declaration that in the Messianic kingdom there was to be no more
marriage, perhaps no distinction of sex (Matt. xxii. 30). The sect
of Ebionites, who represented the earliest doctrine and practice of
Christianity before it had been modified by Paul, differed from the
Essenes in no essential respect save in the acknowledgment of Jesus as
the Messiah, and the expectation of his speedy return to the earth.

How long, or with what success, Jesus continued to preach the coming
of the Messiah in Galilee, it is impossible to conjecture. His
fellow-townsmen of Nazareth appear to have ridiculed him in his
prophetical capacity; or, if we may trust the third evangelist, to have
arisen against him with indignation, and made an attempt upon his life.
To them he was but a carpenter, the son of a carpenter (Matt. xiii. 55;
Mark vi. 3), who told them disagreeable truths. Our author represents
his teaching in Galilee to have produced but little result, but the
gospel narratives afford no definite data for deciding this point. 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 re