himself the proverb, "No one is a prophet in
his own country."

[Footnote 1: It is true that Tell-Houm, which is generally identified
with Capernaum, contains the remains of somewhat fine monuments. But,
besides this identification being doubtful, these monuments may be of
the second or third century after Christ.]

[Footnote 2: _B.J._, III. x. 8.]

[Footnote 3: Matt. ix. 1; Mark ii. 1.]

[Footnote 4: Matt. xiii. 54, and following; Mark vi. 1, and following;
Luke iv. 16, and following, 23-24; John iv. 44.]

[Footnote 5: Mark vi. 5; cf. Matt. xii. 58; Luke iv. 23.]

[Footnote 6: Matt. xiii. 57; Mark vi. 4; John vii. 3, and following.]

[Footnote 7: Luke iv. 29. Probably the rock referred to here is the
peak which is very near Nazareth, above the present church of the
Maronites, and not the pretended _Mount of Precipitation_, at an
hour's journey from Nazareth. See Robinson, ii. 335, and following.]

This check far from discouraged him. He returned to Capernaum,[1]
where he met with a much more favorable reception, and from thence he
organized a series of missions among the small surrounding towns. The
people of this beautiful and fertile country were scarcely ever
assembled except on Saturday. This was the day which he chose for his
teaching. At that time each town had its synagogue, or place of
meeting. This was a rectangular room, rather small, with a portico,
decorated in the Greek style. The Jews not having any architecture of
their own, never cared to give these edifices an original style. The
remains of many ancient synagogues still exist in Galilee.[2] They are
all constructed of large and good materials; but their style is
somewhat paltry, in consequence of the profusion of floral ornaments,
foliage, and twisted work, which characterize the Jewish buildings.[3]
In the interior there were seats, a chair for public reading, and a
closet to contain the sacred rolls.[4] These edifices, which had
nothing of the character of a temple, were the centre of the whole
Jewish life. There the people assembled on the Sabbath for prayer, and
reading of the law and the prophets. As Judaism, except in Jerusalem,
had, properly speaking, no clergy, the first comer stood up, gave the
lessons of the day (_parasha_ and _haphtara_), and added thereto a
_midrash_, or entirely personal commentary, in which he expressed his
own ideas.[5] This was the origin of the "homily," the finished model
of which we find in the small treatis