Insights from Tissot's work

Volume I

The Holy Childhood and the Mission

I found Tissot’s work extremely enlightening and of course he has done a concentrated piece of research at a time before the industrial revolution really reached the Holy Land.  This gives his work a perspective that would not be achievable today.   Although he explicitly doesn’t claim that his interpretations are certainly true, and although I am sure modern scholars yield great insights as well, I think it places it at a high level, and it is a far higher starting point than I could achieve in any other way.  To absorb youself for days painting what you wish to be an accurate picture of a holy scene requires considerable focus and confidence in every detail.

THE HOLY CHILDHOOD

P11 - ‘Mary arose and went in haste’.  Tissot has the Blessed Virgin Mary journeying on donkey from Nazareth to Ain-Karim while pregnant, according to the custom of the country and to her state.  I was delighted to read this because at my very first attempt to plot the movements of Jesus, I was stumped at the first question of how one would make this trip.  There seem to be at least three viable routes: through the hills of Samaria, through the valleys and along the west side of the Jordan, or over to the east side of the Jordan along the ridges.  Each one has risks.  Mary is pregnant, though presumably in the first trimester and presumably fit and young, and I can only imagine she was accompanied.  This journey takes four full days Tissot supposes, ‘the way having been steep and rough’ and it was necessary to pass across the Wady-el-Arimaieh (Wadi of Robbers) between Samaria and Jerusalem.  I cannot find this Wadi named thus on modern maps.  He supposes they pass the night at Jerusalem.

P13 - Tissot notes ‘some traditions’ whereby Joseph made trellis-work that was popular in Egypt, perhaps having some relation to the later flight into Egypt.

P15 - Using Google Earth, I have recreated, more or less, the scene that Tissot has drawn of the precipice outside Nazareth whence Jesus was going to be flung down by his villagers.  There is a good correlation, allowing for my imprecision and presumed discrepancies between how the human eye perceives a scene and how it appears on a computer screen with blunt means of adjustment.  We remember that He did few miracles there, only some healings by the laying on of hands, due to the lack of belief.  BELIEVE.

P16 - Tissot puts the Transfiguration at Mount Tabor, not Mount Hermon as some speculate.

P17 - It is three days’ walk from Nazareth to Bethlehem or four days via Jerusalem.  He notes that an ‘inn’ in the western sense is uncommon in the east, and the term refers to a simple caravansary (at which there was no room).

P17 - It is interesting to note that Bethlehem, or Ephrata, or Bait-Lahim dates back a very long way and is mentioned in Genesis 35.

P18 - Tissot describes Bethlehem in loving detail.  The caves or grottoes are a distinctive feature and are quite extensive and regularly used by shepherds.  It would be quite natural for shepherds to go there if they have been told that Jesus is lying in a manger in Bethlehem.

P18 - The actual crib is understood to be at Saint Mary Major in Rome.  Tissot is satisfied that the new ‘Grotto of the Nativity’ is geographically accurate.

P20 - The shepherds saw the angels at Beit-Saour, probably ancient Chimham (Geruth-Chimham in Jeremiah 41:17).

P25 - There are 15 psalms called the ‘Degrees’ chanted during the libations of the Presentation - to study further.

P26 - The Corinthian Gate into Jerusalem took 18 Levites to close them, according to the Talmud, though Tissot also notes that the Talmud is prone to exaggeration.  These gates are also called (i) the Beautiful Gate, since the Corinthian brass was polished to a lustre equal to gold; (ii) the Nicanor Gate since someone of that name provided them, possibly saved from a shipwreck; and (iii) the Eastern Gate since it is on the east of the temple looking to the Mount of Olives.  It is also known as (iv) the Gate of Mercy, as Jews consider it to be the place from which the Messiah will enter and where one asks for mercy before the Day of Judgment (ref.).  It is the gate through which Jesus Christ entered on Palm Sunday.  Therefore they are the same gates that Josephus speaks of in the ‘The Wars of the Jews’ when he says the following - one of a series of ominous signs that occurred shortly before the destruction of the Temple by the Romans in AD 70 (ref.):

“Moreover, the eastern gate of the inner temple, which was of brass, and vastly heavy, and had been with difficulty shut by twenty men, and rested upon a basis armed with iron, and had bolts fastened very deep into the firm floor, which was there made of one entire stone, was seen to be opened of its own accord about the sixth hour of the night. Now those that kept watch in the temple came hereupon running to the captain of the temple, and told him of it; who then came up thither, and not without great difficulty was able to shut the gate again. This also appeared to the vulgar to be a very happy prodigy, as if God did thereby open them the gate of happiness. But the men of learning understood it, that the security of their holy house was dissolved of its own accord, and that the gate was opened for the advantage of their enemies. So these publicly declared that the signal foreshowed the desolation that was coming upon them.”

P29 -  Tissot notes that the Magi found Jesus in a ‘house’ and he favours this over the cave, surely a logical if unromantic conclusion.  According to Saint James (or Jacob) of Edessa (640-708) within the Eastern Church it is held that the Magi were accompanied by 7,000 combatants and 1,000 attendants.  Saint James was a very distinguished theologian and historian of this time.  It is certainly possible that by the time the Magi arrived, the Holy Family had now found a house in which to stay, perhaps as people left once they had been registered.
P30 - Tissot states “The monk Cyril and John of Phocas” report a cave two miles from Bethlehem where the Magi rested after their adoration and where they were warned not to return to Herod.  The reference to Byzantine John of Phocas or Phokas is surely to his 12th-century ‘Ekphrasis’ or in English ‘Concise description’ of the Holy Places, as can be seen here.

P31 - The massacre of the innocents.  Tissot relates a tradition of the method by which Herod killed the young children of Jesus’ age, which is even more appalling than you might have imagined.  We are perhaps used to cinematic representations of horsemen slashing their way through the streets, but the description given here is more chilling and premeditated.  I will let you read it for yourself if you want to in his book.  It can be possible, when you approach the massacre superficially, to ask why God would allow this?  But it confirms to me that God has allowed free will, and the human race chooses, often, to listen to themselves rather to God and to choose evil.  It is the next life where we can rest in peace.  There is no question in my mind that those poor babies, and their families, are restored to full and happy life in the new kingdom of heaven and earth.  As for Herod, he will meet his eternal reward and our challenge is to seek to forgive as Stephen the first deacon forgave his murderers.  Here are two quotations: “It’s not about you” (Bishop Robert Barron) and “God has created me to do him some definite service; He has committed some work to me which he has not committed to another. I have my mission; I never may know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next.” (Saint John Henry Newman - read the full text here, and remember that it also says “Therefore I will trust Him."  See below.

P31 - Tradition has it that Saint John the Baptist’s early years were spent to the west of Ain-Karim, skirting the Terebinth Valley, the site of David’s stones.  There grew St. John’s bread tree and there are locusts and honey there.  There is a cave attributed to him near the spring Ain-Habise.  He was in the desert until the time of his ‘shewing unto Israel’.  Unfortunately I don’t find any modern place matching this name.  It is curious that Tissot mentions this cave as a matter-of-fact while ‘discovery’ of Saint John the Baptist’s cave (the same one?) in 1999 is reported as a huge surprise here.  Did John baptise people in a cave?  A large one that has taken a lot of work?  He certainly had a huge following.  Saint John the Evangelist says that John the Baptist was also baptising at Aenon near Salim because there was much water there, suggesting either the first place had dried up or that many more people needed to be accommodated.

P32 - Tissot supposes that the flight into Egypt is by way of Pelusion and Heliopolis and then Babylon (Cairo), and he has visited these places.
P34 - Tissot notes that there is a cave in Old Cairo, now the site of a Coptic Church, where the Holy Family rested, and the spot where women drew water is identified, in other words where Mary would have been with Jesus.  It is apparently opposite the island of Rhodes where Moses was supposedly found.
P34 - Near Heliopolis there is the sanctuary of Matarech where the Virgin Mary rested and a spring shot up for her under a sycamore tree.  Another tradition has it that idols at a church in Heliopolis fell down as they passed.
P35 - Tissot provides this chronology of the time in Egypt, to cut through a variety of possible answers: 
“We know for a fact that the Infant Jesus was one year old when He started for Egypt. Now, according to the historian Josephus, Herod died a few days after the murder of Antipater, and therefore not long after the Massacre of the Holy Innocents, as Macrobius has pointed out.  It follows herefore that Jesus was not more than two years in Egypt; for we know that He was taken there one year before the death of Herod, and, according to the Gospel account, returned very soon after that event, when Archelaus was reigning in Judea.”
P36 - The route in more detail: Old Cairo, Pelusium, Gaza, Jaffa, Samaria, Jenin, the Plain of Esdraelon then Nazareth - a journey of seven days.
P37 - Apparently there is a Greek legend that the Angel Gabriel appeared to Mary as an introduction at the well of Nazareth, which she would have frequented.  Mary also visited the well at Ain-Karim while with Elizabeth.
P37 - Jews wear a sash like a belt to separate the nobler part of the human body from the lower part.
P38 - One tradition has it that the Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph stopped at Beeroth (modern El Bireh), an hour and a half from Jerusalem, both on the way to and from the Feast of the Pentecost, and the Gospel of Luke suggests they were there for all seven days.  The ‘three days’ of Jesus’ disappearance take place over three days, reinforcing the idea that ‘three days and three nights’ is a common Jewish idiom (ref.) meaning nobody in the first century would have considered that there was any discrepancy between Jesus' predictions of His death, the scriptures of the prophets and the reality of a Friday crucifixion and a Sunday resurrection.  This story also reinforces the idea of ‘brethren’ in place of ‘brothers’ (to translate the Greek word ‘adelphos’).
P40 - Tissot puts forward that many great doctors of the Church were in consensus that Jesus’ presence in the Temple at the age of 12 was to introduce them to the coming of the Messiah.  It was indeed the coming of the Messiah, though no doubt it would have been very subtle.  Apparently there is agreement that He would have drawn attention to the key scriptures like Daniel’s seventy sevens (which John Lennox explains in 'Against The Flow' predicts the date of the crucifixion precisely, from 600 years beforehand) and the passing of the kingdom of Israel into the hands of a foreigner.
Did Jesus have a ‘bar mitzvah’ ceremony, and was this event His formal coming of age?  The answer must be no.  The bar mitzvah is a mediaeval ceremony, and the dislocation of Jesus from His parents puts us far from any reading that this is a formal recognition of His age of responsibility, or something just before or after.  Without digging too deeply, it seems safe to assume that the bar mitzvah ceremony marks an earlier tradition in which boys became responsible for their actions at age 12-13, and this may well have been why Luke mentions the age specifically - this reference makes the point sufficiently well in my opinion.  The inclusion of this in Luke's Gospel is surely with Mary’s influence, since she would remember this vividly.  The reference makes an interesting observation that Samuel was 12 years old when he began to prophesy, quoting from Josephus’ Antiquities of the Jews chapter 10:4.  This is not mentioned in 1 Samuel 3, which covers Samuel growing to adulthood, and Josephus could be referring to (or at least including) the prophesy described in 1 Samuel 3 where Samuel hears God calling him in the night.  This is, of course, treated wonderfully in the hymn ‘Here I am, Lord’ (first line ‘I, The Lord of Sea and Sky’) which is based on this and on Isaiah chapter 6.

MINISTRY

P56 - Tissot places John the Baptist three hours from Jerusalem beyond the Terebinth Valley.  He references the towns of Kastoul on the hilltop; Kalounieh in the valley to the right; Soba just visible like an Eagle's nest; and Shathaf on the slopes.  In this valley, David picked up five smooth stones and Goliath was slain.

P58 - Matthew 3:11 refers to the baptism of fire, such a popular phrase to signify a rapid and painful initiation into a new state of capability.  But is that what Matthew is referring to, or could it be the fire of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, or the energetic fire of a flaming courageous heart?  Well the next verse, 3:12, is very clear; Matthew is referring to the purging or purifying for entry into heaven.  I have read enough to allow for ‘wheat and chaff’ to include (i) persons who are very holy or very unholy, but much more importantly to include (ii) every one of us who contain elements of good and evil within ourselves.  I am very drawn to considering this analogy: nothing evil can exist in front of God, and when we die we will go through a process whereby the evil is cut out of us like a cancer in a hospital (or burnt away like chaff).  What remains is healthy body.  If your day is consumed with evil thoughts, words or deeds, then what will be left when all this is cut out?  A very holy person may simply have to recover from a cold.  For the rest of us, will there be enough healthy flesh left for the body to survive?  Look after the health of your body and soul.  If it needs some good medicine, diet or exercise then start administering it now.  Love God and love your neighbour as yourself - “for my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:30).

P61 - Tissot puts Saint John the Baptist at Bethabara where the Jordan is wide and fordable.  He links it to the crossing by Joshua, David fleeing Absalom, and Elijah dividing the waters with his mantle hither and thither when he and his companion went over on dry ground.

P63 - “Tradition indicates Mount Nebo ... as the high mountain to which Jesus was carried in the Temptation.”  On its face, this means it would have a commanding view of many territories, just as Moses was given such a view from Mount Nebo though he was not allowed to enter the promised land since he had disobeyed God by bringing forth water at Meribah with his staff (drawing honour to himself) rather than speaking the word as instructed (drawing honour to God) (Numbers 20:11).  God gave him a hint - the first time he struck his staff it didn't work - but he persisted.  Don't think we would have done any better; what Moses had already done was superhuman in the face of overwhelming odds, and remember Moses was the most humble man alive and this is a lesson that even the best of us is imperfect and should be vigilant.  Moses reappears at the Transfiguration along with Elijah, truly two of the greatest people to have walked the earth).  Going back to Jesus' temptation, Tissot, however, is drawn to a higher meaning of the words, which imply something extraordinary; that is, Jesus was offered all the principalities of the world.  This raises a tension, which is between the idea that God appoints world leaders and we should respect that and obey them, and the idea that Satan has and gives power to evil in the world, and we should resist that.  While this topic needs much more examination, in the book of Daniel, Daniel and his friends give exemplary teaching.  First, you must try to live in the situation you are in, to accept and obey the powers that be, and do a good job for them (Daniel and his friends are successful and useful stewards).  Second, you must not do anything that is disobedient or repellent to God, such as anything that is unjust (Daniel's friends refuse to worship the gold statue, and Daniel refuses to stop praying to God).  Third, you can be clever in trying to find an imaginative solution when you are expected to do something unjust or dispobedient to God (Daniel and his friends find a way around eating meat offered to idols, and become healthy vegans).  But the unavoidable lesson is that you must resist unjust demands even under threat of death.  If so, stand firm, praise God and let Him do the rest, and He will.  There will be a fourth figure in the furnace (Daniel 3:24-25) and instead of the lions eating you when you are completely at their mercy, the evil-doers had better watch out instead (Daniel 6:23-24).

P64 - Jesus tempted in the Wilderness.  My own observation on this (i.e. what I have learnt from others rather than Tissot) is that Jesus quotes the Bible to counter the attacks of Satan, so it is important to know as much as you are able, and to turn to it often.

 

P65 - Jesus "was excommunicated from the synagogue forty days before the Passion."  Very interesting - I had not picked that up before.  It is one thing being at odds with your community, and quite another to be excluded from them.  Presumably a situation of great tension in such a close-knit race of people, and one that would reflect on His followers as well.  This must have been in their minds when they celebrated Him entering Jerusalem at the start of Holy Week; they already saw Him as a revolutionary figure and were prepared to rebel with Him, but they greatly misunderstood the way in which He would achieve his goal.  They completely fell away as the cross loomed; lamented their confusion on the road to Emmaus; and then - their eyes were opened to the Light of the World.

P66 - Fasting: Tissot relates that total fasting, i.e. no food at all, is extremely difficult, with 20 days being very remarkable.  Theodoret holds that Saint Simeon Stylites fasted totally for forty days every year, presumably referring to this account by Theodoret - A History of the Monks of Syria.  Now, Theodoret is a subject for further study, being a profound thinker and theologian and not afraid to state his case (ref.).  He supported the term 'Theotokos" for the Blessed Virgin Mary and strove for peace and unity in the churches at a time of great arguments.  He was even overrruled and excommunicated, and his writings condemned to burning, but he maintained his position and was restored to good standing after appealing to Pope Leo the Great - presumably an example of the Papal primacy that the Eastern Orthodox accept.  Saint Simeon (Symeon) Stylites is also a figure of great impact, "the great wonder of the world!" as described by Theodoret - an ascetic who achieved all kinds of self-denial, after being told in a dream that he had to dig his foundations four times deeper than he thought, after which the building on them would be effortless (ref.).  The remains of his pillar in Syria can be seen here, though it was damaged by airstrikes in 2016.

P71 - Tissot notes that Peter and Andrew were called while fishing from the shoreline, not while in boats as commonly depicted.  He describes a way of fishing around the shores of the Lake of Galilee that involves wading around a confined area with a small drift net deployed by hand, with the fishermen retrieving the fish into net-sacks tied around their waists.  Matthew chapter 4 indeed says that they left their nets, not their boats.

P72 - According to Hegesippus quoted by Eusebius, Alphaeus was the brother of Saint Joseph and so his three sons James the Less, Jude Thaddeus and Simon were very close to Jesus, presumably at Nazareth.  Tissot might be quoting Eusebius' Ecclesiastical History, though I think it is probably a related document.  All the Apostles, bar Judas Iscariot, were of Galilee.  Note that Tissot uses 'Alphaeus' while Eusebius uses 'Cleophas' and so I insert the following statement from Biblehub which asserts they are one and the same: "Alphaeus: 1. Father of James the Less, Matthew 10:3 Luke 6:15, and husband of the Mary usually regarded as sister to the mother of Christ, John 19:25. See MARY, 1 and 3. By comparing John 19:25 with Luke 24:18 and Matthew 10:3, it is evident that Alphaeus is the same as Cleophas; Alphaeus being his Greek name, and Cleophas his Hebrew or Syriac name."

P74 - Jesus meets Nathanael, rather 'sees' him, under a fig tree during the celebration of the fig harvest.  Tissot puts forward a received interpretation that Nathanael was touched by this encounter and, without words, was saved from some evil.  When Jesus then mentions it at their next meeting, Nathanael knows precisely that an important thing has passed between them, something of unshakeable trust.  The fig tree meeting is held to occur between Magdala and Bethany.

P78-79 - The wedding at Cana.  Cana, the place of Jesus' first public miracle, is three leagues from Nazareth and five from Tiberius, in a valley full of reeds.  Nearby near the waters of Merom on the north of the Sea of Tiberius was a 'Lake of Crocodiles' on whose borders wonderful reeds grew, and "it is said" that one of these was given to Our Lord as His sceptre during the Passion.  According to some accounts, the Best Man (paranymph) was Nathanael, who should be identified with Bartholomew of the disciples, as here.  Jesus and His friends have now become very dear to Nathanael; and in this explanation, Nathanael has no time to wait before Jesus makes good His promise "You will see greater things than these." (John 1:50).  If this refers to the miracle of water into wine though, then it means Jesus already knew He would do this, and that is not the common sense reading of the text, since Jesus seems to resist Mary's suggestion at first.  There is a larger topic here which is omniscience, and many presume that God has this and that Jesus, as God, had this during His ministry (or always).  I think there is a huge pitfall here - that by producing a word and declaring that God has this quality, we understand how God operates, or that we can make predictions about Him.  Another pitfall is to assume that Jesus is equivalent to God the Father at all times; as a baby He surely had limited faculties, and surely we bow our heads during the Creed to recognise that Jesus lowered Himself, reduced Himself, emptied Himself, when we say "For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven, was incarnate from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and was made man".  Others think that Jesus knew enough of the future to complete His mission, such as the forthcoming destruction of the Temple, and I favour that view.  The Catechism of the Catholic Church does not mention omniscience a single time, and we should be very careful when we assert what God is like, especially in a way that denies God a choice.  God relates to us as a person again and again when He encounters us and came to us to save us as a living human person.  Not for nothing has He said that we are made in His image; yet we must also know that He is beyond our imagining.

Tissot notes a common inaccuracy.  Mary "most certainly was not near her divine Son" during the wedding, since women were physically separated behind screens.  She must have spoken her words at a propitious time when Jesus came near the screen.  No doubt the servants served the women and men alike, so she was able to given them their instruction to "Do whatever He tells you".  The pots would have been filled in the centre of the room in front of the guests.

Earlier in his book, Tissot spoke of Jesus sweeping away the "mouldy accumulation of centuries" (p52), arousing bitter hatred against Him on every side.  He now gives the example in the Talmud of the gilded wooden false teeth that were to be worn at weddings; if one of these were to fall out of the mouth on a Sabbath, it was unlawful to pick it up.  That seems to substantiated here, although I can't see it in the modern Talmud (though there are many like examples).  Meanwhile the clergy were spending the savings of the widows, as in Matthew 23:14.  They make rules that no man can follow, yet make life easy for themselves.

P80 - From Cana they went to Capernaum for a few days, after which Jesus went to Jerusalem for the Passover.

P84 - The disciples baptised in the company of Jesus, but when the Pharisees found this out, Jesus left Judea and went through Samaria into Galilee.  This is an occasion of prudence, like the case of Saint Paul being lowered in a basket out of the walls of Damascus to avoid arrest by the garrison of King Aretus (note that this basket is a spyris, which is a large basket capable of accommodating a man; this is the type of seven baskets in the feeding of the four thousand, whereas the twelve baskets of the feeding of the five thousand were kofinos, a much smaller basket, and this is important to understanding these two different events).  Jesus Himself keeps out of danger because the time is not right, rather than sailing into confrontation and relying on supernatural strength.  Of course His time does come, and Saint Paul later sails into plenty of ultra-hostile situations.  Prudence is a hard thing to learn.  I pray for more of that, Lord.

P87 - Noting that Jesus is on the south side of the Temple at the pool where He heals the cripple on the Sabbath.

P89 - Then Jesus comes to Sychar, to Jacob's well, where he encounters the Samarian woman at the well.  Tissot adds no narrative to this scene which is so beautifully described in John Chapter 4.

P91-93 - Jesus is clearly in Nazareth where He fulfils the prophesy of Isaiah, and is rejected by the Nazarenes.  I get a sense of their pride or scorn; something like "who does he think he is?", and the refusal to accept someone superior.  Small town pride and gossip.  He will not perform for them, because that is not how His power works, and it would not guide their hearts aright.

"But passing through the midst of them went his way" (Luke 4:30).  At a human level, terrifying surely to be in a mob who have bullied and crowded you up onto a precipice above the town where they intend to do you serious harm and put your life at risk.  A situation requiring determination, patience, discernment and action.  This bring into focus Jesus' divine nature; if He knew, for example, that He would exit this scene unharmed, then His human nature would not need to fear, so I think this interpretation of omniscience is a last resort.  Jesus would not be close to us if He did not feel fear in this awful situation where He stands up for his convictions.  A closer stepping stone is that He knows that God's prophesies will be fulfilled, yet also to know that free will remains and plays a central part, and this involves the correct use of your faculties at key points, if not every point.  Thus I think Jesus will have felt fear, since this is an unconscious human reaction and is supplemented by our imagination of what awful things might happen next; yet he imposes on this a peace that God's will is being done and He knows that God's prophesies carry Him past this point.  That is at least in part the Peace that Jesus gives us.  It is going to be All Right.  When Jesus faces the cross racked by pain, exhausted almost to death, dying of thirst and surely (as a human) plagued by doubt that He can endure the final agony that is necessary to save all of us, He is offered wine mixed with gall to drink.  What a panacea that would have been, and within Jesus' free will to take.  His body cries out for it.  He tasted it.  But it would deny the fulfilment of God's prophesy and His own promise not to drink wine again until His kingdom comes.

Recently I had to carry a large piece of wood that I intended to make into a mantelpiece.  It might have been half as heavy as the cross of Jesus.  When I picked it up from the timber merchant, it was clearly a two-man lift.  When I got home, the timber slid out of the car onto the road and I could not get it back in, and I realised I had to move it immediately as cars were approaching.  It took all my strength to lift it and carry it fifty metres, my body was complaining loudly, and it was altogether ungainly and tipping this way and that and at any moment was going to bruise me badly.  I realised very well what a task it was for Jesus to carry his cross with a body already tortured and broken, completely alone with scorning bystanders.  Your imagination would simply refuse the task.  The first time you brace your muscles to lift it, you would realise it is beyond you to drag it more than a few metres.  You would have to close your eyes to the impossibility and heave with all your remaining strength.  Trust in God.  This is a great lesson.  Your mind will tell you that something is impossible, utterly.  Your faith will tell you it is right and you must proceed.

P95 - The house where Jesus stayed in Capernaum.  Now Jesus is in Capernaum and teaches with authority, and drives out an unclean spirit in the Synagogue.  There is something very interesting about the house in Capernaum where it is believed Jesus resided and taught.  Synagogues face Jerusalem, the Temple, the great symbol of God where at an earlier time God Himself was present and represented by the Ark of the Covenant (do you remember the three things in the Ark?  It is very important).  God leaves the Temple as idolatry and unfaithfulness grows and as the Exile approaches (Ezekiel 8-11).  Nevertheless the intention of the faithful is to point their hearts to God which means they pray towards the Temple.  Daniel does this in Daniel chapter 6.  The location of the first century Synagogue at Capernaum is well known, and is near the shore of the Sea of Galilee, facing south.  But between the Synagogue and the shore are houses.  Directly in line between the Synagogue and the Temple is a first century house commemorated by a later Byzantine church.  The house is believed to have been the dwelling place of Jesus when He was in Capernaum, even the same house where a cripple was lowered through the roof by his friends as they could not get close, yet had overwhelming faith.  This video by Expedition Bible (I like them a lot) explains it very well.  The Jews are praying towards God incarnate!  They see a miracle of the cripple healed and say "We have never seen anything like this!"  Yet with all of these advantages ("the mighty works done in thee", Matthew 11:23), most do not choose Jesus, and He tells them that as a result, their judgment will be worse than Sodom.

,P97-100 - Straight away (forthwith) after driving out an unclean spirit in the Synagogue, they entered Simon and Andrew's house and He heals Simon's mother-in-law.  By evening, news has spread and there are throngs of people crowding at the house. "and all the city was gathered together at the door".  He heals them, and silences the devils.  What a day!  He rises very early the next morning ("a great while before day") and goes to pray in a solitary place.  Though the city still yearns for Him, He must move onto a new town to preach, heal and drive out devils.

P101 - And He went about all Galilee.

P103 - Jesus returns to Cana, having been in Judea.

P104 - Tissot is indebted to what seems to be a large German publication by Johan Nepomuk Sepp, commonly known as Das Leben Christi (The Life of Christ, or in full, 'The Life of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ').  It can be found here.  I would like to read it or at least sample it, but it is in German.

The healing of the nobleman's son.  Tissot distinguishes this nobleman mentioned in John 4:46 from the similar narrative concerning a centurion in Matthew 8:5 and Luke 7:2.  It would be natural for John's to insert this story since he writes later and in possession of the other Gospels.  For a long time I assumed there was one story of healing at a distance with some confusion between the Gospels, as if it were conveyed second-hand, and Tissot ascribes the same confusion to Dr Sepp who seems to conflate these narratives.  Tissot goes on to quote Dr Sepp as relating that the nobleman was by the name of Chuza.  Chuza is recorded in an Idumean family register alongside Herod and his wife Johanna is a follower of Jesus from this point.  Johanna is given in Luke 8:3 as one of the Holy Women.  All very consistent.  The healing of the nobleman's son occurs in Galilee.  The healing of the centurion's servant is a different episode.

P105 - Jesus then teaches at the sea-side.  At some time, He tells Simon to let down his nets for a draught, yet the two boats have fished all night for nothing.  They catch enough to break the net and fill both boats to sinking.  Simon, James and John leave what they know to follow Jesus.

P109 - Great multitudes were healed in the mountain, and He healed a leper, who clearly broadcast this "and to blaze abroad the matter".

P110 - Jesus returns to the shores of the sea and teaches many.

P113 - Jesus calls Matthew at a toll booth and returns to a shoreline.  Is the calling of Matthew coincident with the healing of the leper?  "Levi, son of Alphaeus" - this must be a different Alphaeus to the father of Simon, Andrew and Jude.

P113 - Note the central busy-ness of Capernaum, a hub of activity.  Others have noted that the Holy Land is in this strange position, not protected or set aside, but at this narrow apex of commerce and travel between great cultures - surely part of God's plan.

P114 - Saint Matthew's heart must have been overflowing with gladness and gratitude to have Jesus sup with him.  Although a little time has passed since he was called ("and it came to pass..."), Matthew is quickly and exuberantly hosting other tax-collectors ("publicans") and sinners at a feast, presumably spending his tax collector's savings too.  What a visible sign and brave symbol to the Pharisees and scribes.

P116 - Noting for the timeline that Jesus heals the man with the withered hand on the Sabbath in the Synagogue.

P118 - The enemy sowing tares among the wheat.  Tare is darnel, and it looks like wheat in its early growth stages.  It is a type of ryegrass.  It seems Roman law prohibited sowing darnel amongst the wheat of an enemy (a kind of biological warfare!).  St Augustine says of the holy offices of the church that "even in these high chairs there is both wheat and tares".  But do not presume that you are one or the other.  I am inclined to read this as going beyond 'some people are good, some people are bad' and that it extends to the good and bad elements in all of us.  Also it seems specifically to refer to holy-sounding ideas that are nevertheless wrong and bear bad fruit; Origen held this view, that the devil sows evil ideas and evil words, and he thought that these would be destroyed at the final judgement: "And so the angels and servants of the Word will gather from all the kingdom of Christ all things that cause a stumbling-block to souls and reasonings that create iniquity, which they will scatter and cast into the burning furnace of fire" as here.  Johannes Quasten's Patrology (1960) here implies Origen was unsurpassed among the Church Fathers for research and scholarship, but since some of his views were later considered heretical, it is necessary to tread carefully.  We don't have to look too far to find contemporary examples of evil ideas that initially seem to have merit and gain a lot of traction, but do a lot of damage.  Communism, for example, ostensibly has parallels with the way the early Christians lived in community, but its prescription that there is no God and the reduction of a person's value to their utility is essentially a denial of the two great commandments, and its legacy speaks for itself.

P121 - Jesus goes up onto a high mountain to ordain the twelve Disciples, though Tissot uses 'Apostles'.

P124 - Jesus calms the tempest.

P126 - Jesus goes through the villages, cities and country, followed by all kinds of the sick who are made well by touching Him by His garments,

P127-132 - The possessed men.  Tissot relates the Gadarene possessed man and the Gerasene possessed men as separate events, or at least makes no attempt to conflate them or give an apology; there are two events here, like there are two multiplications of loaves and fishes.  I have heard it said 'where there is two, there is also one' as an explanation of Matthew's recurring dual participants where the others Gospels have one participant, but assuming separate events here seems more natural.  Tissot notes that the Gesarenes hired Gentiles to keep swine for them, since it was forbidden by the Torah, and the Jews profited from the venture through this loophole.  The whole town tells Jesus to get lost while the souls of the possessed men were saved; three more lost sheep returned to the fold.  Good news for you and me.

P133 - The healing of Jairus’ daughter.  I hadn't realised Jairus was a ruler of the Synagogue, so this miracle must be in Jerusalem and it also highlights the stir Jesus was causing amongst the Jewish leadership - they certainly cannot ignore Him.  Although the Sanhedrin clearly wanted Jesus condemned in the end, we see Nicodemus, Joseph of Arimathea and presumably Jairus and Gamaliel as high-ranking followers of Jesus.  They might have kept quiet at His trial or bided their time, yet their protrayal in the Gospels is sympathetic and you get an impression that they are held to have acted favourably in their circumstances - if not becoming outright Christians straight away.

Peter, James and John accompany Jesus at this healing - He has special plans for them.  He is dismayed at the weeping people at the house, as He will be dismayed at the tomb of Lazarus.  He dismisses those who scorn Him.  He has the power to do anything.  It is curious that He didn't want anyone to know, and interesting that He commended them that something should be given her to eat - or put another way, interesting that Mark and Luke record it as an important fact.  Our spirits and our bodies work together.  When Jesus appears to the eleven disciples after His resurrection, He quickly asks for something to eat (Luke 24:41-43).

P135 - In relation to Jesus preaching at the seashore, Tissot finds that there are large rocks near the Horns of Hattin (the most likely vicinity for the Sermon on the Mount, even allowing for Matthew’s possible, and allowable, telescoping of much of Jesus’ teaching into this one event).  These rocks could well have served as the place for a sermon, and Tissot includes one in his painting, as here.

P137 - When the woman with the issue of blood is healed, the KJV has it that ‘virtue’ left Him.  The Greek word used is dynamin, meaning ‘miracle’, ‘power’ or ‘mighty power’, as here.  Tissot thinks, perhaps naturally, that Jesus wanted to make sure that such a touching example of "faith and humility" did not go unnoticed.  Jesus would very likely have been wearing a taled or tallith that has blue ribbon at the corners as a remembrance of the time in Egypt and a fringe of knotted threads spelling JHVH.

P139 - We have Jesus in Capernaum to heal the centurion's servant.  As noted under P104 above, Tissot assumes there are two stories of healing by faith at a distance - one involving a nobleman Chuza and a later one involving a centurion.  I had previously assumed they were the same story with allowable discrepancies, and Jo Edkins has also implicitly made the same assumption here.  This is very important not least because the words of the centurion in John 7:6 have assumed a very high place in the Roman liturgy - in latin, "Domine non sum dignus" (or in the original Greek, "Kyrie mē skyllou, ou gar hikanos").  If there is one story, and the Chuza interpretation is right, then the centurion interpretation would be wrong, and I doubt this.  The full phrase used in the Novus Ordo (and prior to it) is "Lord, I am not worthy to receive You, but only say the word, and my soul shall be healed".  This is modelled on the Bible and presumably designed to recall the compelling merits of the centurion rather than being a direct quotation, and it comes right before communion in the order of Mass.  The reception of communion - the body and blood of Our Saviour Jesus Christ - is the summit of Christian worship and the sincere heartfelt belief and humility of the centurion (in contrast to most of Jesus' fellow Jews) is surely the right way to approach our Saviour.  During His ministry, the words of Jesus do forgive sins as only God can do (Mary Magdalene in Luke 7:48 and the crippled man in Luke 5:20).  I think this healing process takes time, a lifetime, after an experience of metanoia, when we radically change our minds, and taking communion will play a powerful role in that, working with our will and our open-ness and submission to God's grace over time.  In the Eastern Divine Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom, the equivalent words are "May the communion of Thy holy Mysteries be neither to my judgment, nor to my condemnation, O Lord, but to the healing of soul and body".

P141 - Jesus drives out an evil spirit in the Synagogue.  Tissot places these passages in a different order to the Bible, though they are more or less contemporary.

P142 - Note that Jesus tells the Widow of Nain to "weep not".  It won't be the last time He laments weeping.  Tissot relates a tradition that the son raised from the dead was called Quadratus, and he became a disciple of Jesus via the Apostles.  Quadratus is mentioned by Eusebius in Ecclesiastical Histories, though Tissot goes on to quote from Eusebius that 'many of the cured remained alive until his day (Hist. III, XXXVII, 17)', and I cannot find any text saying this.  Instead, in the English of this chapter of Eusebius I see mention of the memory of 'those whose traditions still survive to this day'.  I think there is some translation error, noting that Tissot wrote in French and Eusebius in Greek.  We must be careful because it seems to be a common view that Eusebius exaggerated in his writings.  He writes an account of a letter written by Jesus Christ to King Agbarus of Edessa, who wished to see Jesus but could not travel, and in fact the content of the letter that Jesus allegedly wrote are given in Ecclesiastical Histories here.  There are many reasons to be sceptical: the hand of God writing something is only recorded three times in the Bible; if Jesus wrote in such an ordinary way then he presumably wrote many other things, and nothing survives - and the disciples would surely have preserved any writing they encountered; it seems quite out of character to the rest of His ministry to communicate like this; He writes that He is ascending up to the Father, yet the disciples seemed unaware that this will happen until Jesus tells Saint Mary Magdalene in John 20:17; and the letter states "For it is written concerning me..." yet is seems unlikely that the Gospels or similar text were yet written, and not enough time has passed for such writings to be established enough for anyone to say 'it is written'.  The subsequent account of Saint Jude going to visit King Agbarus and heal many is far more plausible.  One solution would be that Jesus spoke to the King’s messenger who wrote something down, and this later became the basis for a letter story.

Tissot notes another tradition where the mother of Nain joins the Holy Women who journeyed with the Apostles and disciples.  The words spoken to the young man who is raised from the dead also seem very close to the words preserved in Aramaic that Jesus spoke to the daughter of Jairus, "Talitha Koum", so very tender.  Perhaps He did indeed speak the very same words to the boy in Aramaic, to be later recorded in Greek.

P146 - In eating 'corn' (barley - it is only recently that the word 'corn' has been associated closely with maize) on the Sabbath, it could be argued that the two conditions necessary for legitimacy under Jewish law were satisfied - absolute necessity and legitimate authority.  Of course it still enraged the Pharisees, and it would have meant that they had to consider Jesus' authority - who He was - perhaps in a similar way to the forgiving of sins; they can choose for Him or against Him.

P147 - Note Jesus tries to hide in a house (Mark 7:24) as He goes far away to the borders of Tyre and Sidon, but it isn't possible.  He heals the daughter of the Greek woman because of her great faith, though the time for the Gentiles has not yet come.  How could a loving Saviour resist such faithful entreaty?  The way the Gospel is written, it sounds like she brings Him to attention by finding Him and insisting on this miracle.  Once again the Gospel makes it seem that Jesus doesn't know everything that is going to happen; or, if He does, He acts in a way that is perplexing to us.  While a teacher will often generate learning by raising question after question, I think you have to yield to plain reading sometimes.  If He is making difficult and spontaneous evaluations and decisions as we ordinary people do, and living with the consequences (such as here, when he is clearly not hidden any more), then He is every inch our brother.  I think God’s plan has plenty of space for free will.

P149 - If we connect Matthew 14:36 with Mark 6:56 ("As many as touched were made perfectly whole") then P149 is a reflection of P104.  We are treated with another illustration though!

P151 - Mary Magdalene's anointing of Jesus' feet without being centre-stage or easily dismissed is explained by the custom of reclining at table, and the easy access such a meal will have had for anyone passing.  Tissot's painting says it all.  She washed His feet with her tears.  She says nothing and speaks volumes.

P153 - Mark 6: After their expedition to preach the Kingdom of God, the disciples rest in a desert place.  In modern terms, it is necessary to recharge.  This is hard to do when your electronic devices press your attention all day every day, and some new attraction is always on offer to watch, listen to, pique your emotions, buy, eat or drink.  Seek out quietness, at least sometimes; give Him something to work with.

What I want to dwell on for a moment is this: what did the disciples preach?  Jesus is a long way from finishing His ministry here.  There is no death on the cross or resurrection to preach, and they don't even realise this is going to happen.  Are they preaching the Gospel, and what do they understand by that?  This is explored by chief apologist Jimmy Akin here.  When the 12 are sent out, they are instructed to perform miracles, and in terms of their message, we have: Matthew 10:7 "And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand."; Mark 6:12 "And they went out, and preached that men should repent."; Luke 9:6 "And they departed, went through the towns, preaching the gospel, and healing every where."  Jesus himself has just been preaching the same message, so the disciples don't need to be told the details again (Matthew 9:35-38): "And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction.  When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.  Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”  By their preaching, the disciples multiply the harvest.  It is worth being humble here; Jimmy's conclusion is that "The Gospel is not about us; it is about God, His Kingdom and His Son."  John the Baptist preached "Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matthew 8:2).  Surely what they were doing here is preparing people that something amazing is approaching, preparing them for the crucifixion and resurrection, and, by using miracles - in proportion to people's belief - they were making a loud and clear statement that could not be ignored.  It can be refused or accepted, but not ignored; indeed, if you are miraculously healed or you care about someone who is miraculously healed, you will accept and rejoice!  God's Kingdom is about to start, and it is good!  "Make straight the way of the Lord" (John 1:23).

I wondered whether 'is at hand' meant a reference to the physical presence of Jesus.  The Greek word is ēngiken, both when used by John the Baptist and when used by Jesus Himself, according to Matthew.  This means 'has drawn near', as here.  So I think it may be read in all senses of the word 'near'.

P159 - Tissot locates the site of the multiplication of the loaves exactly, on the seaward side of the base of the Horns of Hattin.  He also locates the Horns of Hattin as the site of the Mount of the Beatitudes.  He pictures Jesus on its slopes on P157.

P161 - Listen and rejoice - the healing of the two blind men.  "Believe ye that I am able to do this?" "Yea, Lord!" "According to your faith, be it unto you."

Tissot relates that he found blindness to be far more common in the east than in the west.  On P154 he writes "In the streets of Jerusalem, numbers of blind men may still sometimes be seen, walking one behind the other in files, and clinging to each other, under the leadership of one of their number who is familiar with the obstacles to be avoided, and knowing every nook and corner of the town, inspires his comrades with confidence."

P166 - Tissot refers to small resting-places where a number of people can sit out of the sun or rain and which have been made level and smooth over time.  I saw some of these myself in Bulgaria, covered areas of seats and tables in no particular place except one that is peaceful, near water and that a traveller would appreciate.  Some kind soul has loved me by doing this.

P170 - The miracle of the loaves and fishes (the feeding of the five thousand) takes place after they cross the Sea of Galilee.  It is close to Passover.  Luke 9:10-11 tells us that they are in a desert place belonging to the town of Bethsaida.  John 12:21 tells us that Philip is from Bethsaida.  So, it is natural for Jesus to start His lesson by asking Philip first where they can get food for the multitude.  By reading John 6:6 it is quite clear that Jesus knows exactly what is about to happen, and He immediately leads them into realising that they can use His power.  This time, it will not be Him who performs the miracle.  Look at the progression of events.  First Jesus is doing the miracles, then sending out the disciples to perform household miracles, then reminding them that their faith is the only limit, and now showing them how to minister to thousands in His name - He is surely training the disciples, because they need to well prepared for ministry after He goes.  Philip thinks in a logical way, logical for someone not used to being an instrument of God's power, and says there is grossly insufficient food or money.  John 1:44 tells us that Andrew was also from Bethsaida.  Andrew therefore knows too that there is no natural solution to this, yet he does something quite remarkable.  He brings forth a child with a tiny amount of food.  He does not take the food from the child, he brings the child with the food.  What does he think can be done with this?  He surely has an inkling of what could happen next, that something can be done with it, with the Master's enlightenment.  He brings an offering to the Lord that is woefully insufficient but he brings something far more important, an ounce of faith.  Like the schoolchild he tentatively puts up his hand in the classroom of silence.  Perhaps he also already appreciates the importance of children to Jesus, and the importance of their innocent belief, long before Jesus makes this plain when the disciples squabble about which of them is more important.  Perhaps the child put his small hand up when Andrew was shouting ‘who has any food?’, eager to offer what he has to the Lord.  It is surely also implied that the child has shown more foresight than any of the thousands of people.

The Gospels tell us variously that they were in a desert place, that there was grass, even 'much' grass, and that it was green.  I understand from internet sources (e.g. this helpful exposition here) that there is a seasonal window near Passover when the normally-brown grass grows green, and the picture below suggests it can be very green near Bethsaida.  The Greek translated as 'desert' here is erēmos and erēmō which is closer to 'desolate' and 'wilderness'.  Our normal imagination of 'desert' might well be of barren sand dunes or rocks (especially if you live in a cold and wet place!), and I wonder if 'deserted' would be a better analogue.  Since the evangelists place these words so close to 'grass', it must be construed that they do not mean a sandy or rocky desert, but a wilderness, a remote place with no substantial food or resources.  John the Baptist lived in such a 'desert', yet there was wild honey and locusts, which some think this is a reference to the locust bean tree, or carob tree, or St John’s Bread tree as it is variously known.  Honey might also have been a reference to date honey, as speculated here; though the ascetism and uncompromising holiness practised by John the Baptist is unchanged by any of these interpretations.  Carob is a basic yet staple foodstuff in some places in the middle east.  I was fortunate to visit a carob factory and museum in Cyprus and it can be put to a lot of uses.  It may have been the 'husks' that the prodigal son yearned for when he was starving and looking after the pigs since they contain nutrition, though not very appetising.  The word 'carat' for measuring weights of precious stones and metals derives from 'carob' since the size and weight of a carob bean is very predictable.

Note that in this miracle, we have 12 baskets left over - small baskets (kofinos) sufficient for the hunger of each disciple.  The lesson is that after they have seen to the needs of the flock, their needs are satisfied, though they may not be certain of this at the outset.  You go, God provides.  There is a different lesson in the feeding of the four thousand, later.  Here, we find that there are 7 baskets left over, only this time they are spyris - a large basket capable of holding a man, as we see when Saint Paul is lowered from the walls of Damascus in on (Acts 9:25).  Matthew 16:5 and Mark 8:14 very clearly record Jesus Himself saying that there were two miracles, and two different kinds of basket.  Look - Matthew 16:9-10 "Do ye not yet understand, neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many kofinos ye took up?  Neither the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many spyris ye took up?"   Jesus could have said '12 kofinos' and '7 spyris' but He deliberately wants them to recall the number so they will remember and understand it is important.  Most sources hold the 12 kofinos to be small baskets to satisfy each disciple, when Jesus is at first getting them to rely on power in His name, and He lets them know they will be provided for when they do His work.  When they are faced with the same question a second time, they still don't get it - and so they are given seven huge baskets of leftovers.  Surely this is communicating overabundance through God providing for them.  Do they understand now?  Feed my sheep, and don't worry about it!

P176 - After the death of John the Baptist, Jesus manages to send away the crowds and retreat to a mountain to pray.  Tissot notes how very often Jesus does this, and let it be a lesson to us, that we need to get away from our earthly attachments sometimes to strengthen our connection with our Father in heaven, something very hard to do these fays with a smartphone in your pocket.  It occurs before or after one of His important acts.  If Jesus, Son of God, needs to do this then how much more do we need to.  Tissot notes seven of these, but the list can be enlarged further as follows:

P177 - Jesus walks on the Sea of Galilee in a storm.  "Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid."  Tissot holds that Jesus must have been illuminated as He walked on the water.  Peter walks on the water initially with faith, but then with logic and he starts to sink and he is saved when he calls on the name of Jesus, like us.  Tissot also holds that the ship must have been carrying passengers other than the disciples, who then worshipped Jesus.  They arrive in Gennesaret.

P181 - Perhaps it is telling that when the crowds catch up with the 'escaped' Jesus in Capernaum, they want to know when He arrived, as if they want to work out how much miraculous bread they have missed out on.  "Labour not for the meat that perisheth, but for that meat that endureth unto everlasting life."

P182 - Tissot has sketched for us the Lake of Gennesaret near Megdel - ancient Magdala.  "This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him who He hath sent."  I am very taken with the KJV's use of the phrase 'believe on', which implies an act of will supported from below, rather than 'believe in' which is more akin to a state of mind that merely exists, an emotion.

P183 - Tissot refers to a beautiful work by Fr Didon on Jesus Christ, which I assume is this book here, and it does seem rather good.  Didon looks on the 'when did you arrive' question as relating to their plans to make Him king.

P183 - Jesus once again eats with the Pharisees (as at the dinner involving Mary Magdalene) - Luke 11.  Jesus does not hold back in His criticism of their hypocrisy.

P186 - Luke Chapter 13 - the greatest confrontation so far, the healing of the woman with infirmity.  Women were freely permitted in the Synagogue and seem to have had a greater status than they do in Jewish communities today, since they could make up the quorum of ten required for worship (an edah), at least as described here.  Neither were women segregated from men as they are customarily today, and they took part in the regular study sessions that were conducted in the synagogue’s bet midrash.  There was a separation when it came to priestly functions, which meant that in the Temple women could not proceed beyond the Women's Court, but the Women's Court was for men and women and otherwise it appears they mixed freely.  Jesus was teaching in the Synagogue so He clearly was a full member of the congregation and well respected, though hostility was growing, and this day would make it sharper.  "I came not to send peace, but a sword."  He was teaching to men and women.  The focus of this event is the hypocrisy of the leaders, and the purpose of the Sabbath.  There would have been no doubting that this woman, crippled and bent over for 18 years, had indeed received a miracle of God.  It would be astonishing and draw gasps of amazement.  The audience therefore have to decide who Jesus is.  Some decide in favour, some against.  That is the choice we all have.  From there, you proceed in humility and faith to understand more.  If you chose the wrong path, you can turn around any time you want.

"There is nothing to fear but fear itself, and spiders"

(adapted from Franklin D. Roosevelt)

P188 - The Transfiguration on a high mountain.  There is so much to say, but perhaps an overlooked aspect is about fear.  “Peter, James and John were sore afraid”.  In a sense these were the top three disciples.  If you feel afraid it could be completely natural.  Jesus does not want us to be afraid, however.  He can see that it is futile; He loves us beyond measure and sees every part of our lives.  I think that while we have free will, and this is absolutely central, He can control anything else and does control it subtly to our good if we, or someone else asks (or prays) Him.  He allows Saints to intervene as well, and He allows us to call on them in prayer, to pray on our behalf.  Best of all He allows His mother and our mother the Blessed Virgin Mary to intervene in all sorts of ways, and He allows for us to call on her and rest with her any time of day.  Of course we will be chastened and taught lessons, and as Saint Paul (probably) puts it in Hebrews 12, “… do not lose heart when He rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines the one He loves… No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful.  Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.”  Now, fear of heights or fear of spiders is one thing, an instinctive fear.  Then fear of God - awe, respect, humbling - is a virtuous thing, exceedingly so.  What I think is meant here is fear of the future, fear of other people, a fear of the imagination, one that paralyses progress (to continue the quotation).  Such fear is a feature of a broken world where there may indeed be something to fear, and our faith that ‘God has it’ is not strong enough, or we want a particular outcome.  Peter was not strong enough to sustain him walking on the water for more than a few moments.  Even the best have fear.   In the book of Esther, when Mordecai is condemned - and then all the rest of the Jews too when he refuses to renounce his faith (imagine being Mordecai in that situation!) - Esther is seized with a deadly anxiety (Esther 14:1) and prays for strength to speak well in front of the King so that the King will hate his evil adviser Haman and so spare Mordecai and the Jews (Esther 14:13).  She prays to conquer her fear, but when in Esther 15:7 she comes in front of the King, instead she faints!  But God heard her prayer to save Mordecai and the Jewish people perfectly well, and her fainting served a great purpose as it aroused compassion in the King, a good emotion.  Take note - God did a GOOD thing in response to an earnest prayer, not the specific thing asked for (for one man to hate another)*.  He also showed His strength through the weakness of our human natures - as Saint Paul says, "And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness" (2 Corinthians 12:9).  But work and pray tirelessly to overcome fear, and not only will your life now be better, but those around you will be better for it, and your entry into the next life will be so much easier.  Know that fear will not be present in the life to come.  Neither will lying or any kind of sin.  So every human interaction will be free and unrestrained and a joy, and your mind will be free to dwell on good things, not second-guess every event or word for a false or negative meaning.  Know that this future is offered to you.  Now.  Take it.  Create some of it on Earth too.

I tried researching the source of the idea that the Bible says 'Fear not' 366 times (one for every day of a leap year).  I even bought the book '12 Steps to Living Without Fear' by Lloyd Ogilvie which is sometimes referenced, but he doesn't list them.  It is a great Christian book though; he says "Today I commit myself to motivating people by love, rather than manipulating them with fear".
* This is an interesting insight into the development of the Bible.  Now, the Bible does not ‘develop’ after it has been agreed by the Church, and God doesn’t change His word.  In the early Christian Church - under persecution by the Romans until Emperors Constantine and Licinius decriminalised Christianity in 313 - there are many texts in use, mostly consistent, but there was not a complete consensus on what documents were canonical scripture, and there were some variations of texts in circulation.  The agreement by the Church is presented differently by the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches, for example by reference to the 397 Council of Carthage in the former case (see clause 36 here, with 73 books) and by reference to the 680 Council of Constantinople in the latter case (explained here, with 85 books, including e.g. 1 Clement which is agreed to be a letter from the first successor of Peter - the role later to be termed Pope; the first 33 of whom would be killed for their faith).  Many protestants do not include 'deutero-canonical'or 'apocryphal' books and have 66 books in their Bible.  One ancient list is the Codex Alexandrinus, and other such texts are the Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus, all believed to be from the fourth century - recalling that the early Church was in persecution so we can't expect too much prior to that.  The highly illuminating passages describing Esther’s and Mordecai’s prayers, and Esther fainting in front of the King, are not generally present in key Hebrew texts (e.g. the Masoretic text), but are found in key Greek texts (e.g. the Septuagint).  These particular moments are captured in what is known as Addition C and Addition D to Esther, and are often tacked on the end of Esther in Chapters 13, 14 and 15 (an inelegant solution), other times included where they appear in the Greek (making much more sense, as here, and also in the Latin Vulgate here, which has Latin next to English), and sometimes omitted altogether - in case you can’t find them!  The universal Church has agreed that the Greek text is canonical.  That’s all I need to know for now - though I want to know a great deal more, and I have so much to learn.

P190 - Mark Chapter 9, and the healing of the demoniac boy.  Tissot places this at the foot of Mount Tabor.  It is hard to resist contrasting Jesus' apparent annoyance with the disciples' lack of faith.  He repeats the need for faith to the father of the boy.  The father cries.  The spirit is a strong one indeed.  Jesus heals the boy, by the faith of the father.

P194 - Interestingly, Tissot relates that the 'binding and loosing' was a power given along with a key on appointment of a Rabbi to office.  He explains that binding and loosing means the closing and opening of doors.  Isaiah says the same thing in relation to Eliakim (Isaiah 22:22).  The term 'bind' is elsewhere used to describe how people are weighed down by the unnecessary rules of the Jewish leaders.  This seems to be different to the forgiving of sins that comes later, though I have heard these conflated.

P198 - If you do a miracle in Jesus' name, you are a follower of Jesus.  The plain reading seems to allow for different organisations.  "Ye shall know them by their fruits."

P200 - Now the Jews want to kill Jesus, and it is the Feast of Tabernacles.

P202-206 - Saint Mary Magdalene.  Tissot has an extended account of what is known about this wonderful saint.  I have been to her cave in La Sainte Baume in France, which is high up on the north side of a wooded hill which becomes a cliff where the cave is.  It can get very hot outside, but the shadow of the hill and the cool interior of the cave are soothing.  There is fresh water in the cave, and you can imagine someone living here in solitude.  It is said locally that towards the end of her life, after evangelising in France, she lived out her days here and people would come to see her and bring her food.  I can only imagine she found here the tranquility of resting in Jesus, and placed herself as close as she could to her beloved Saviour.  The view from the cave, of God's creation, is spectacular.

View from the cave of Saint Mary Magdalene, Sainte Baume.  (Photos: mine)

In this area it is understood that the three Marys came from the Holy Land by ship and evangelised - Saints Mary Magdalene, Mary Salome and Mary Cleophas.  There is much description of this in the local churches and in the basilica of Saint Maximin La Sainte Baume.  All these Holy Women arrived at Saintes Maries de la Mer (literally, Saint Marys of the Sea) and established themselves here and brought great holiness to the area.  The skull of Saint Mary Magdelene is housed at the basilica, in a grotto under the nave.  Although it has not been analysed, an anthropologist friend told me that it is clearly the skull of a female, and he thought the chin was quite long and narrow.  I didn't photograph this; I think there is a time when reverence is better.  There is also described a Saint Sara who was at the foot of the cross and who also travelled to France, possibly a servant to one of the Holy Women, whose relics are there too.
Saint Mary Magdelene's witness is one of the most compelling in the Bible.  As Our Lord says, "Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her." (Mark 14:9).  Whatever we imagine the 'seven devils' to have been, she was someone completely lost and broken in the world and unable to save herself.  Like us, if we admit it.  She is transformed by Jesus Christ.  She bathes His feet with her tears and wipes them with her hair, for many a symbol of turning from her sinful past.  Saint Paul reminds us that a woman's long hair is a glory to her.  Tissot reminds us of the words of Isaiah (1:18): "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow ; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool".

The Magdalene anoints him with precious oil as He sits at table.  She does not care what people think about her actions of love, or at least she bears it humbly.  There is someone in the room vastly more important than anyone's opinion.  Later, in His passion, she is at the foot of the cross clinging to Him raised up on the bloody tree, her hands now touching His feet pierced with iron, covered with His precious blood where once were her tears and ointment.  In His passion so many have deserted Him; He faces horror completely alone in the Garden of Gethsemane while the disciples sleep; yet this one clings to Him without reservation.  We know that Jesus speaks the first line of Psalm 22 on His cross and this goes on to speak power: "men shall tell of the Lord to the coming generation, and proclaim his deliverance to a generation yet unborn".  It seems to me that He speaks Psalm 31 as well; Psalm 31:5 has 'Into your hand I commit my spirit'.  This psalm speaks "I am the scorn of all my adversaries, a horror to my neighbours... I have passed out of mind like one who is dead" yet Mary Magdalene holds fast to her Saviour.  She has three days of agony, and then she sees a gardener (like Adam?) and she asks desperately for the body of her Lord once again.  She is rewarded with the the most precious and loving word that anyone could hear.  "Mary".  Her name spoken by her living Lord.  She desires to cling to Him once more, but this must end now, because Jesus is going to the Father soon.  Psalm 31 ends "Be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for the Lord!"
By the way, if you think the precious oil should have been sold and money given to the poor, you have missed the point of having precious oil, or any possession.  It is good to produce it since it exists to be put to a good use.  If it is sinful to use it (rather than sell it) then you are just passing this sin onto someone else by selling it.  If you have no use for it and are not likely to, then pass it on, of course, and if you have two jackets, give one to your brother.  How has she afforded to buy it?  In your repentance, you may offer the Saviour of the world anything, and if He needs to be anointed in an amazing foresight of what was soon to come, then there can be no better use for it.  Jesus forgives her sins in the measure of her love for Him - fully - and asks the others at the table in the Pharisee's house to reflect on their own situation - did they offer Him hospitality like this?  "Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little." (Luke 7:47).

One last thought about the need to speak up for your Saviour and for the memorial of this astonishing woman.  I had trouble finding the cave as it is not clearly marked.  The only public information I could find was a board with a detailed map of the areas and its attractions.  The cave was merely marked with a star labelled 'Curiosité'.  This is one of the most moving and important religious places I have ever been to and this is lamentable.  My difficulty in finding it meant that I went for a lovely walk in the woods and had a simple conversation with a group of French walkers who seemed surprised - and delighted - that I had come a long way to see this, and said I was a long way off.  I had learned the word 'Pèlerinage'.  The cave is maintained by a group of religious, but by the time got there in the evening it was closed (noting that they have a defibrillator but it is on the locked side of the gate!).  So I had boeuf bourguignon from a tin and slept in my car and made a respectful ascent in the morning.  If you go there, and you want a 30-minute walk rather than a 3-hour one, then after winding up the dangerous* mountain road from the bottom of the valley to the south, stop at the hostel on the right by the main road and walk in via the path you first come to, which is through the woods.  Sheer beauty.  If you go further east along the road there is a lovely rest area, but the gravel path to the top is less natural.  This woman embraced the feet of Our Saviour.  Go to this place if you can.

*The danger is brought home by the names of the people who have died being painted carefully in permanent road paint in the carriageway.

P204 - Tissot notes that if there were any hint of Jesus being illegitimate, He would never have read in the Synagogue or been regarded as a Rabbi.  It would also have been a simple claim to make, and his detractors were looking for any way to discredit him.

P206 - It is interesting to compare the illustration of Tissot's smiling women of Samaria with the heavily clothed and sullen Jewish woman on P86.  Remember his attention to accuracy.

P209 - Jesus then passes through Bethany and other villages on his way to Jerusalem.

P215 - Jesus heals ten lepers and Tissot's research points to the town of Jenin in the north of Samaria.  Tissot also notes the three north-south routes through Palestine: (1) by the Jordan and mountains of Gilboa; (2) by Mount Carmel and the sea-coast, and (3) via Jenin, through Samaria.  Route (3) was a hilly route but safer from attack by robbers.

P217 - Luke Chapter 10, Jesus is at Martha's house in Bethany.  "There He would fear no wearisome discussions, no plots to catch Him unawares, no hateful conspiracies against Him."  Tissot believes that at His feet were Mary Magdalene, Johanna Chuza, the woman of Samaria and the Canaanite woman.  He takes it that Mary Magdalene is Martha's sister, and he paints her especially on P220.

P220 - Luke Chapter 11, Jesus discourses with His disciples in the valley of Jehoshaphat, to the east of Jerusalem.

P226 - The woman caught in adultery is placed in the Temple.  Tissot has no difficulty placing the 'writing in the dust' as being the dust on the Temple floor.  I shudder when I imagine being caught in Jesus' gaze after He straightens up and looks directly at each one of them in turn.  The powerful men have brought the greatest shame imaginable on this powerless woman, even calling for her death, with the adulterous man nowhere in sight (or worse still, actually present).  This is all just for a chance to trick Jesus into stumbling.  He stumbles not.  His gaze is devastating.  "There is none righteous, no, not one” (Romans 3:10) and He has written their sins on the ground.  Tissot capitalises 'He' who is without sin, implying Jesus Himself.  The Greek word anamartētos has no equivalent in the Bible.  I favour this interpretation, and I favour the double-meaning that the phrase has too. "Let He who is without sin among you cast the first stone."  In their minds they will try imagining whether they are able to cast the first stone.  They will fail.  They will then choose whether to pay attention to these words.  But Jesus speaks with authority, and today there will no question of it whatsoever.  They grasp the real meaning of the words, which is that Jesus is the One without sin.  It is up to Him to apply the penalty for sin.  To them.  In all respects, their hypocritical hatred of Him and their breathtaking disregard for the woman are annihilated by his gaze.  He looks down for them to reflect in their consciences.  He wants them to turn to Him, too.  "Woman, where are thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee?  She said No man, Lord.  And Jesus said unto her Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more."  She has given in to the weakness of her body and sinned; she recognises Him as Lord; He protects and saves her; and the penalty of the Law is stayed by Jesus.  He saves all of us from our right penalty.  What looms largest in this story is the guilt of the powerful men who seek to abuse the powerless woman to their own ends.

This episode is known as the 'pericope adulterae' and scholars have noted that it has a different style to the rest of the Gospel of John, and in some early texts it even appears in a different Gospel.  The Church does not doubt that the text it is true and canonical.  It could be considered a difficult text, and more than once I have heard people focus on the last phrase "sin no more - we should be calling out people's sins".  For me, that is a very impoverished viewpoint, and that is far from the lesson here.  Perhaps this episode had difficulty finding a home because Jesus does not apply the Law, and his criticism of the woman's sin is merely to name it.  Jesus doesn’t shy away from the Law, and in Matthew 19:8 he even suggests that Moses was too lenient "He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so."  This episode surely shows that some sins are much worse than others, and we don't like to hear that when we can point the finger at lust.  Long ago I heard the saying "we hate most in others what we fear most in ourselves".  In Dante's Inferno, a reflection of Catholic theology of its time, lust is a deadly sin, but the least of them.  The greatest if them is Pride, such as we see in the self-righteous judgment by the men in this story.  Thank God Jesus forgives.

P232 - John Chapter 8.  Jesus is speaking very strong words in the Temple Treasury, i.e. in the Court of Women.  John records Jesus repeating several times that the Jews have, in fact, rejected their God, and He urges them to turn to Him, Who is their God.  The Father is in Him, and He is in the Father.  This culminates in John 8:58 "Before Abraham was, I AM."  This Chapter includes the wonderful mystery that when the Pharisees try to stone Him, "He hid Himself and passed through their midst" (John 9:59) - just like He did earlier in Luke 4:30 when his fellow Nazarenes tried to throw him off the crest of a hill.  Tissot illustrated the view from this hill, as below, and I have tried to locate the approximate place in Google Earth to produce a skyline.  The attempt is very primitive, so I am not quite in the right location or altitude etc. (and I don't know how accurate the Google Earth topography is at this local scale), but they are appreciably similar.

P234 - After the scene denouncing the scribes and Pharisees, John has Jesus healing the blind man using clay and spit that is washed in the pool of Siloam.  Tissot reports that the Ancients regarded mud and spit as good remedies for eye defects, but not blindness from birth!  Modern research shows that the brain of someone blind from birth does not develop normally and cannot fully recover, and restoration of sight with the best modern medical treatment is partial at best.  Indeed John 9:32 states "Since the the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind."  This was perhaps more miraculous than we might imagine.  Note that the parents were afraid of the Synagogue, since if they recognised that this was the work of the Messiah, they would be put out of the Synagogue - exiled from their community.  The stakes are getting higher all the time.

P241 - Tissot illustrates Jesus teaching in Solomon's Porch wonderfully.  He notes that it received more shade than the other porticoes.

P242 - Jesus will not say that He is the Messiah.  Clearly the things He is doing could only be done by God, but it is necessary for each of us to choose.  I think that if God says directly to you that He is God, then it is the Truth speaking the truth and you cannot choose otherwise.  He does not do this, because we all have to choose Him which means deliberately turning our hearts - followed by our actions - to Him.  The evidence that we should do so is plain, and it is evidence of God who has no limits and loves us without limits.  Your route to this infinite mercy is through Jesus Christ.  If you choose Jesus Christ, if you love Jesus Christ, which means you keep His commandments of love, then you are safe and no-one can ever shake you: "My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand." (John 8:29).  Instead, the hands of the Pharisees are full of rocks with which to stone Him.

P248 - Jesus weeps when he encounters the mourning women at the tomb of Lazarus.  I have described this on the home page.  If the Son of God feels ‘embrimaomai’ - strong indignation or rage - then this is a fundamental point about the injustice of the fallen world and one that will be completely overturned.  Hold fast to God, and all will be restored for you.  I have held dear the phrase ‘hold fast to God’ ever since reading of Saint Marinus of Caesarea.  I even tried to draw the scene of his choosing between faith or violence, but it only served to remind me that drawing is not a charism I possess.  I include here the story of Saint Marinus; judge for yourself.

P252 - I have already described the Carob tree as being the likely source of the husks that are envied by the now destitute Prodigal Son.  Tissot gives the Carob a longer explanation here with reference to its importance in antiquity.
P254 - Jesus goes to Ephraim which is near Djifneh in ‘the wild, shut-in mountain group bordering the Valley of Ain-el-Aramiyeh’ beyond which are the ruins of Shiloh.  It is very hard to penetrate unless you are a goat, and very secluded.  Jesus Himself takes human action to prevent the Jews from killing Him, knowing He yet has work to do.  As Tissot puts it “it did not suit Him to expose Himself needlessly to a violence to which it was not His intention to submit.”  Even Jesus seemingly takes independent action in His cooperation with the will of God the Father.
P255 - Mark 10:14.  When I was reminded of this part of the Gospel, where the disciples are shooing away the children, I wrote in my notebook ‘Jesus was much displeased - can you imagine being on the receiving end?’  He needed them to learn hard and fast.  To my delight I then read on p256 that Tissot had exactly the same reaction!  He quotes the latin text “indigne tulit”, saying that “the roughness of the disciples greatly vexed Our Lord and made Him very angry with His followers.  It always grieved Him to find Himself so little understood even by His disciples and He sometimes said to them: “Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of.”
P257 - Zaccheus in the sycamore tree.  Here, an older spelling ‘sycomore’ is used.  The English language changes over time, and this affects Biblical interpretation in some important ways; for example ‘jealousy’ has come to mean the same thing as ‘envy’, whereas classically, jealousy is preventing others from having what is yours (‘she guarded her husband jealously’), rather than desiring what someone else has (‘envy’).  If we have a jealous God, who wants to keep us to Himself and away from harm, rejoice!
There are some very important insights here.  One is in plain sight, but I hadn’t noticed it until now - Zaccheus is the chief of the publicans (the tax-collectors).  Not merely a tax-collector like Matthew (not to deprecate Matthew, just to acknowledge his former rank which he left to grasp a glorious future) - Zaccheus is the chief tax-collector.  He runs the entire Tax Department and is surely one of the most hated men in Israel.  First of all, note Luke 19:4 “And he ran” before climbing the tree, yearning to see Jesus!  Now, the conversion of his soul is not of more value than the conversion of another soul less famous, yet “to whom much is given, much is expected” (Luke 12:48).  This event is yet one more of the triumphs of Jesus that are rocking Jewish society to the core.  And if God is in your midst, what else would you expect?  Jesus tells Zaccheus that He will sup with him, and Zaccheus is overjoyed.  Zaccheus has been given high social standing and much wealth, so what does he do next?  He hosts Jesus conspicuously; he gives up half of his wealth no less (and “he was rich”, Luke 19:2), and, since tax-collectors were notorious for cheating their subjects, he promises to pay back four times any difference to anyone he overcharged.  I think the importance of this cannot be underestimated in the growing cacophony that is buzzing around Jesus - in contrast to His complete peace and simplicity of truth.  He cannot be ignored.  You can choose for Him or against Him.  Who would not choose this figure of healing, love and mercy?  We shall find out.
One last point of context.  Zaccheus is in Jericho, the lowest piece of land on planet Earth.  Not for nothing is it contrasted with the heights of Jerusalem in the story of The Good Samaritan, an analogy of some people on their way to heaven and some people going the other way, some would say.  Luke 19:10 concludes this story with “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.”  From the lowest place, the most hated man in town climbs up as far as he can - only a little way - to see Jesus.  Jesus sups with him, and saves him and will carry his soul a lot higher still.  Presumably others too.  I am in reach of His hand too.
P259 - As Jesus leaves Jericho, He heals two blind men.  Illustration 189 on p260 pictures wonderfully their loud appeal to Him - their faith in Him.  Imagine the two men hearing the crowd approaching, one saying to the other “He’s coming, come on - He’s the One who can heal us, get up and shout for all you are worth!”  And never mind what anyone says.  They are rewarded in proportion to their faith and their lives are transformed.
Tissot notes that Jericho in his day is in ruins and largely abandoned, and he describes the spring where Elisha was healed.

 

Continue with insights on Volume II - Holy Week, The Passion and Resurrection