Lives of the apostles of Jesus ChristBacon, David Francis
Religion
Lives of the apostles of Jesus Christ
Bacon, David Francis
Apostles
In the discussion of particular points, reference can be
properly made to the authority of others, where necessary to explain
or support.
Taking up the apostolic history, then, where it is left by John, as
referred to above, and taking the facts from each gospel in what seems
to be its proper place and time; the three narratives are thus combined
into one whole, with the addition of such circumstances as may be
inferred by way of explanation, though not directly stated.
Leaving Nazareth, Jesus had come to Capernaum, at the northwestern
end of the lake, and there made his home. About this time, perhaps on
occasion of his marriage, Simon had left Bethsaida, the city of his
birth, and now dwelt in Capernaum, probably on account of his wife
being of that place, and he may have gone into the possession of a
house, inherited by his marriage, which supposition would agree with
the circumstance of the residence of his wife’s mother in her married
daughter’s family, which would not be so easily explainable on the
supposition that she had also sons to inherit their father’s property,
and furnish a home to their mother. It has also been suggested, that
he probably removed to Capernaum after his introduction to Christ, in
order to enjoy his instructions more conveniently, being near him. This
motive would no doubt have had some weight. Here the two brothers dwelt
together in one house, which makes it almost certain that Andrew was
unmarried, for the peculiarity of eastern manners would hardly have
permitted the existence of two families, two husbands, two wives in the
same domestic circle. Making this place the center of their business,
they industriously devoted themselves to honest labor, extending their
fishing operations over the lake, on which they toiled night and day.
It seems that the house of Simon and Andrew was Jesus’s regular place
of abode while in Capernaum, of which supposition the manifest proofs
occur in the course of the narrative. Thus when Jesus came out of the
synagogue, he went to Simon’s house,――remained there as at a home,
during the day, and there received the visits of the immense throng
of people who brought their sick friends to him; all which he would
certainly have been disposed to do at his proper residence, rather than
where he was a mere occasional ♦visitor. He is also elsewhere mentioned,
as going into Peter’s house in such a familiar and habitual kind of way,
as to make the inference very obvious, that it was his home. On these
terms of close domestic intimacy, did Jesus remain with these favored
disciples for more than a year, during which time he continued to
reside at Capernaum. He must have resided in some other house, however,
on his first arrival in Capernaum, because, in the incident which
is next given here, his conduct was evidently that of a person much
less intimately acquainted with Simon than a fellow-lodger would be.
The circumstances of the call evidently show, that Peter, although
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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