Volume 2

Jesus at Eleale 27
In the synagogue, as also among the field laborers,
Jesus related and explained the parable of the sower. He
did not always explain His parables. He often related
them to the Pharisees without an explanation.
Andrew and Saturnin with some other disciples went
afterward to Ophra, to confirm in their good resolutions
those that Jesus had roused by His teaching.
When Jesus left the inn near Dibon, He started southward
for Eleale about four hours distant, taking a road
two hours farther to the southeast of the Jordan than that
by which He had come thither from Bethabara. He arrived
with about seven disciples, and put up with one of
the Elders of the synagogue. When the Sabbath began,
He taught in the synagogue taking for His subject a parable
upon the waving branches of a tree scattering around
their blossoms and bearing no fruit. By this parable Jesus
intended to rebuke the inhabitants who for the most part
had not become better after having received John's baptism.
They allowed the blossonls of penance to be scattered
by every wind without bearing fruit. Such were they
here. Jesus chose this similitude because these people
found their support chiefly in the cultivation of fruit.
They had to carry it far away for sale, as no highroad
passed near their isolated city. They were also largely
engaged in coarse embroidery and the manufacture of
covers.
Up to the present Jesus had met no contradiction. The
people of Dibon and the country around loved Him, and
said that never before had they heard such a teacher. The
old men always likened l-lim to the Prophets of whose
teaching they had heard fronl their forefathers.
After the Sabbath Jesus went about three hours westward
to Bethjesimoth on the east side of a mountain, the
sunny side, about one hour from the Jordan. Andrew and
Saturnin with some others of John's disciples met Hinl on
the way. Jesus spoke to them of the Children of Israel