m for
which He could not expect the support of any of the existing classes of
religionists. He differed from the Essenes, as He did not adopt their
ascetic habits; He displeased the Sadducees, by asserting the doctrine
of the resurrection; He provoked the Pharisees, by declaring that they
worshipped God in vain, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men;
and He incurred the hostility of the whole tribe of Jewish zealots, by
maintaining His right to supersede the arrangements of the Mosaic
economy. By pursuing this independent course He vindicated His title to
the character of a Divine lawgiver, but at the same time He forfeited a
vast amount of sympathy and aid upon which He might otherwise have
calculated.

There has been considerable diversity of opinion regarding the length of
our Saviour's ministry. [26:1] We could approximate very closely to a
correct estimate could we tell the number of passovers from its
commencement to its close, but this point cannot be determined with
absolute certainty. Four are apparently mentioned [26:2] by the
evangelist John; and if, as is probable, they amounted to no more, it
would seem that our Lord's career, as a public teacher, was of about
three years' duration. [26:3] The greater part of this period was spent
in Galilee; and the sacred writers intimate that He made several
circuits, as a missionary, among the cities and villages of that
populous district. [26:4] Matthew, Mark, and Luke dwell chiefly upon
this portion of His history. Towards the termination of His course,
Judea was the principal scene of His ministrations. Jerusalem was the
centre of Jewish power and prejudice, and He had hitherto chiefly
laboured in remote districts of the land, that He might escape the
malignity of the scribes and Pharisees; but, as His end approached, He
acted with greater publicity, and often taught openly in the very courts
of the temple. John supplements the narratives of the other evangelists
by recording our Lord's proceedings in Judea.

A few members of the Sanhedrim, such as Nicodemus, [27:1] believed Jesus
to be "a teacher come from God," but by far the majority regarded Him
with extreme aversion. They could not imagine that the son of a
carpenter was to be the Saviour of their country, for they expected the
Messiah to appear surrounded with all the splendour of secular
magnificence. They were hypocritical and selfish; they had been
repeatedly rebuked by Christ for their impiety; a