aristocrats of Jerusalem, to learn that all this solemn parade had been got up for no better purpose than merely to honor a dweller of that outcast region of mongrels, Galilee! And of all places, that this prophet, so called, should have come from Nazareth! A prophet from Galilee, indeed! Was it from this half-heathen district, that the favored inhabitants of the capital of Judaism were to receive a teacher of religion? Were the strict faith, and the rigid observances of their learned and devout, to be displaced by the presumptuous reformations of a self-taught prophet, from such a country? Swelling with these feelings, the Pharisees could not repress a remonstrance with Jesus, against these noisy proceedings. But he, evidently affected with pleasure at the honest tribute thus wrung out in spite of sectional feeling, forcibly asserted the propriety and justice of this free offering of praise. "I tell you, that if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out."
With palm-branches in their hands.—This tree, the emblem of joy and triumph in
every part of the world where it is known, was the more readily adopted on this occasion,
by those who thronged to swell the triumphal train of Jesus of Nazareth, because
the palm grew along the way-side where they passed, and the whole mount was
hardly less rich in this than in the far famed olive from which it drew its name. A
proof of the abundance of the palm-trees on Olivet is found in the name of the village
of Bethany, (
Hebrew characters), (beth-hene,) "house of dates," which shows that the tree which
bore this fruit must have been plentiful there. The people, as they passed on with
Jesus from this village whence he started to enter the city, would therefore find this
token of triumph hanging over their heads, and shading their path every where within
reach, and the emotions of joy at their approach to the city of God in the company
of this good and mighty prophet, prompted them at once to use the expressive emblems
which hung so near at hand; and which were alike within the reach of those who
journeyed with Jesus, and those who came forth from the city to meet and escort him
in. The presence of these triumphal signs would, of course, remind them at once of
the feast of the tabernacles, the day on which, in obedience to the Mosaic statute, all
the dwellers of the city were accustomed to go forth to the mount, and bring home
these branches with songs of joy. (Levit. xxiii. 40, Nehem. viii. 15, 16.) The remembrance
of this festival at once recalled also the beautifully appropriate words of
the noble national and religious hymn, which they always chanted in praise of the
God of their fathers on that day, (see Kuinoel, Rosenmueller, Wolf, &c.) and which
was so peculiarly applicable to him who now "came in the name of the Lord," to
honor and to bless his people. (Ps. cxviii. 26.)
The descent of the Mount of Olives.—To imagine this scene, with something of the force of reality, it must be remembered that the Mount of Olives, so often mentioned in the scenes of Christ's life, rose on the eastern side of Jerusalem beyond the valley of the Kedron, whose little stream flowed between this mountain and Mount Moriah, on which the temple stood. Mount Olivet was much higher than any part of the city within the walls, and the most commanding and satisfactory view of the holy city which modern travelers and draughtsmen have been able to present to us in a picture, is that from the more than classic summit of this mountain. The great northern road passing through Jericho, approaches Jerusalem on its north-eastern side, and comes directly over the top of Olivet, and as it mounts the ridge, it brings the holy city in all its glory, directly on the traveler's view.
Hosanna.—This also is an expression taken from the same festal hymn, (Ps. cxviii. 25,)
(Hebrew characters) (hoshia-na) a pure Hebrew expression, as Drusius shows, and not Syriac,
(See Poole's Synopsis on Matt. xxi. 9,) but corrupted in the vulgar pronunciation
of this frequently repeated hymn, into Hosanna. The meaning of the Hebrew is
