History of the Sabbath and First Day of the Week - John N. Andrews

withdrew it, as Josephus says, "without any reason
in the world." This was the moment of flight for
the disciples, and mark how the providence of God
opened the way for those in Jerusalem:--
"But when the robbers perceived this
unexpected retreat of his, they resumed their
courage, and ran after the hinder parts of his army,
and destroyed a considerable number of both their
horsemen and footmen: and now Cestius lay all
night at the camp which was at Scopus, and as he
went off farther next day, he thereby invited the
enemy to follow him, who still fell upon the
hindmost and destroyed them."[13]
This sally of the excited multitude in pursuit of
the Romans was at the very moment when the
disciples were commanded to flee, and could not
but afford them the needed facility of escape. Had
the flight of Cestius happened upon the Sabbath,
undoubtedly the Jews would have pursued him
upon that day, as under less exciting circumstances
they had a few days before gone out several miles
to attack him upon the Sabbath. It is seen,
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