, however, the spiritual
dependence went hand in hand. These parts of the country could the less
oppose any great resistance to the influences of heathendom, that they
were separated, by a considerable distance, from the religious centre
of the nation--the temple and _metropolis_, in which the higher
Israelitish life was concentrated. A consequence of this degeneracy was
the contempt in which the Galileans were held at the time of Christ,
John i. 47, vii. 52; Matt. xxvi. 69.--But in what consisted the
_honour_ or the _glorification_ which Galilee, along with Peraea, was
to obtain in the after-time? Chap. ix. 5 (6), where the deliverance and
salvation announced in the preceding verses are connected with the
person of the _Redeemer_, show that we must not seek for it in any
other than that of the Messianic time. Our Lord spent the greater part
of His public life in the neighbourhood of the lake of Gennesareth; it
was there that Capernaum--His ordinary residence--was situated, Matt.
ix. 1. From Galilee were most of His disciples. In Galilee He performed
many _miracles_; and it was there that the preaching of the Gospel
found much entrance, so that even the name of the Galileans passed over
in the first centuries to the Christians. _Theodoret_ strikingly
remarks: "Galilee was the native country of the holy Apostles; there
the [Pg 75] Lord performed most of His miracles; there He cleansed the
leper; there He gave back to the centurion his servant sound; there He
removed the fever from Peter's wife's mother; there He brought back to
life the daughter of Jairus who was dead; there He multiplied the
loaves; there He changed the water into wine." Very aptly has
_Gesenius_ compared Micah v. 1 (2). Just as in that passage the birth
of the Messiah is to be for the honour of the small, unimportant
Bethlehem, so here Galilee, which hitherto was covered with disgrace,
which was reproached by the Jews, that there no prophet had ever risen,
is to be brought to honour, and to be glorified by the appearance of
the Messiah. It was from the passage under review that the opinion of
the Jews was derived, that the Messiah would appear in the land of
Galilee. Comp. _Sohar_, p. 1. fol. 119 ed. Amstelod.; fol. 74 ed.
Solisbae: [Hebrew: baret dglil itgli mlka mwita]. "King Messiah will
reveal himself in the land of Galilee." But we must beware of putting
prophecy and fulfilment into a merely accidental outward relation, of
changing the former into