his heart, fresh from rejection in Judea.

122. One reason why he wished to hasten from Judea seems to have been his
knowledge of the hostile movement which was making against John the
Baptist. Either before or soon after Jesus started for Galilee Herod had
arrested John, ostensibly as a measure of public safety owing to John's
undue popularity (Jos. Ant. xviii. 5. 2). Herod may have been encouraged
to take this step by the hostility of the Pharisees to the plain-spoken
prophet of the desert (see John iv. 1-3). The fourth gospel leaves its
readers to infer that the imprisonment took place somewhere about this
time (compare iii. 24 and v. 35), while the other gospels unite in giving
this arrest as the occasion for Jesus' withdrawal into Galilee.

123. Arrived in Galilee, Jesus seems to have returned to his home at
Nazareth, while his disciples went back to their customary occupations,
until he summoned them again to join him in a new ministry (see sect.
125). John assigns to this time the cure of a nobleman's son. The father
sought out Jesus at Cana, having left his son sick at Capernaum. At first
Jesus apparently repelled his approach, even as he had dealt with seekers
after marvels at Jerusalem; but on hearing the father's cry of need and
trust, he at once spoke the word of healing. This event is in so many ways
a duplicate of the cure of a centurion's servant recorded in Matthew and
Luke, that to many it seems but another version of the same incident.
Considering the variations in the story reported by Matthew and Luke, it
is clearly not possible to prove that John tells of a different case. Yet
the simple fact of similarity of some details in two events should not
exclude the possibility of their still being quite distinct. The reception
which Jesus gave the two requests for help is very different, and the case
reported in John is in keeping with the attitude of Jesus before he began
his new ministry in Galilee. On his arrival in Galilee he wished to avoid
a mere wonder faith begotten of the enthusiasm he excited in Jerusalem,
yet this wish yielded at once when a genuine need sought relief at his
hands.

124. The apparent result of this first activity in Judea was
disappointment and failure. He had won no considerable following in the
capital. He had definitely excited the jealousy and opposition of the
leading men of his nation. Even such popular enthusiasm as had followed
his mighty works was of a sort that Jesus