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The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah Vol 1 - Predestination

The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah Vol 1 - Predestination

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Prophet <strong>of</strong> Nazareth. And it was characteristic that<br />

<strong>Jesus</strong> should improve such opportunity. When we<br />

read <strong>of</strong> ' sinners' as in company with <strong>the</strong>se<br />

publicans, it is not necessary to think <strong>of</strong> gross or<br />

open <strong>of</strong>ienders, though such may have been<br />

included. For, we know what such a term may<br />

have included in <strong>the</strong> Pharisaic vocabulary. Equally<br />

characteristic was it, that <strong>the</strong> Rabbinists should<br />

have addressed <strong>the</strong>ir objection as to fellowship<br />

with such, not to <strong>the</strong> Master, but to <strong>the</strong> disciples.<br />

Perhaps, it was not only, nor chiefly, from moral<br />

cowardice, though <strong>the</strong>y must have known what <strong>the</strong><br />

reply <strong>of</strong> <strong>Jesus</strong> would have been. On <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r h<strong>and</strong>,<br />

<strong>the</strong>re was wisdom, or ra<strong>the</strong>r cunning, in putting it<br />

to <strong>the</strong> disciples. <strong>The</strong>y were but initial learners—<br />

<strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> question was one not so much <strong>of</strong> principle,<br />

as <strong>of</strong> acknowledged Jewish propriety. Had <strong>the</strong>y<br />

been able to lodge this cavil in <strong>the</strong>ir minds, it<br />

would have fatally shaken <strong>the</strong> confidence <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />

disciples<br />

JO IBM,

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