=43-45. After two days.= Spent in preaching the gospel to the Samaritans. The nature of this ministry is left to conjecture. We must presume, however, that it was of the same type as Christ’s preaching in Galilee at this time, where his theme was, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt. 4:17); the nature of that kingdom, and the character of the Messianic king, he probably made no attempt to explain. It was preparative; he sowed only, leaving the reaping to be done by others at a later day.--=For Jesus himself testified that a prophet hath no honor in his own country.= The rationalistic critics cite this as one of the evidences that the Fourth Gospel is not the product of one of the Twelve. Thus, “In the Synoptics Jesus is reported as quoting against the people of his own city, Nazareth, who rejected him, the proverb, ‘A prophet has no honor in his own country’ (Matt. 13:57; Mark 6:4; Luke 4:24). The appropriateness of the remark here is obvious. The author of the Fourth Gospel, however, shows clearly that he was neither an eye-witness nor acquainted with the subject or country when he introduces this proverb in a different place. * * * * * He (Christ) is made to go into Galilee, which is his own country, because a prophet has no honor in his country, and the Galileans are represented as receiving him, which is a contradiction of the proverb.”--(_Supernatural Religion_, Vol. II, 447.) I have cited this objection at length because it is a not unfair illustration of the straits to which rationalism is reduced in its efforts to discredit this Gospel. Constructive dogmatism is bad enough; destructive dogmatism is much worse. The difficulties created by evangelical critics in the interpretation of the passage are equally curious as an illustration of forced and fanciful exaggerations. The curious will find them stated in Alford and Meyer. The English reader, who simply takes the context, will assuredly find no difficulty in the passage. Christ was received in Samaria, notwithstanding he was a Jew, with whom usually the Samaritans had no dealings (ver. 9), and this though he wrought no miracles, and merely because of his words, _i. e._, the purity and beauty and self-evident truth of his teaching (ver. 41).--In Galilee he was received only because he was a Jew, and had wrought miracles at Jerusalem (chap. 3:2), and brought with him a metropolitan reputation. He had no honor in his own country as a prophet, until he brought it back with him from the holy city; it was honor, not indigenous but imported. 46 So Jesus came again into Cana of Galilee, where he made[154] the water wine. And there was a certain nobleman, whose son was sick at Capernaum. [154] ch. 2:1, 11. 47 When he heard that Jesus was come out of Judæa into Galilee, he went unto him, and besought him that he would come down, and heal his son: for he was at the point of death.