This intimates that when he
first appeared it was at a distance, at least from many of the
spectators. Ib. p. 197.
_________
John vi. 66. "From that time, many of his disciples went back, and
walked no more with him." Was it the part of a writer who dealt in
suppression and disguise to put down this anecdote? Or this, which
Matthew has preserved (xii. 58)? "He did not many mighty works there,
because of their unbelief."
Again, in the same evangelist (v. 17, 18): "Think not that I am come to
destroy the law or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to
fulfil; for, verily, I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one
jot, or one tittle, shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be
fulfilled." At the time the Gospels were written, the apparent tendency
of Christ's mission was to diminish the authority of the Mosaic code,
and it was so considered by the Jews themselves. It is very improbable,
therefore, that, without the constraint of truth, Matthew should have
ascribed a saying to Christ, which, primo intuitu, militated with the
judgment of the age in which his Gospel was written.
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