Page:As others saw Him.djvu/164

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AS OTHERS SAW HIM.

Christ. And if he were indeed to be the Christ, the King of Israel, the Founder of the New Kingdom, it could not be that he would suffer longer the yoke of the Romans to lie upon the neck of Israel.

Yet there was one thing that perplexed many, and opinion went hither and thither among the minds of men concerning it. The Christ who was to deliver Israel and to rule over mankind, was he not to be the son of David? Yet this Jesus was of Galilee, where the admixture of blood had been greatest in all Israel. "There is no unleavened bread in all Galilee," the scoffers used to say, meaning thereby that their genealogy was sprinkled with yeast, as we call foreign admixture. And for this man's genealogy, who could declare it? Many, indeed, as I have told thee, thought him to have no right even to be called son of his father. A mamzer shall not sit in the congregation of Israel. How, then, could one ascend Israel's throne?

When, therefore, Jesus came next morning from his lodging in Bethany, all Jerusalem turned out to welcome him, for the