[Footnote 5:  Luke xix. 1, and following.]

[Footnote 6:  Matt. xx. 29; Mark x. 46, and following; Luke xviii. 35.]

[Footnote 7:  B.J., IV. viii. 3.  Comp. ibid., I. vi. 6, I. xviii. 5, and Antiq., XV. iv. 2.]

After Jesus had completed this kind of pilgrimage to the scenes of his earliest prophetic activity, he returned to his beloved abode in Bethany, where a singular event occurred, which seems to have had a powerful influence on the remaining days of his life.[1] Tired of the cold reception which the kingdom of God found in the capital, the friends of Jesus wished for a great miracle which should strike powerfully the incredulity of the Hierosolymites.  The resurrection of a man known at Jerusalem appeared to them most likely to carry conviction.  We must bear in mind that the essential condition of true criticism is to understand the diversity of times, and to rid ourselves of the instinctive repugnances which are the fruit of a purely rational education.  We must also remember that in this dull and impure city of Jerusalem, Jesus was no longer himself.  Not by any fault of his own, but by that of others, his conscience had lost something of its original purity.  Desperate, and driven to extremity, he was no longer his own master.  His mission overwhelmed him, and he yielded to the torrent.  As always happens in the lives of great and inspired men, he suffered the miracles opinion demanded of him rather than performed them.  At this distance of time, and with only a single text, bearing evident traces of artifices of composition, it is impossible to decide whether in this instance the whole is fiction, or whether a real fact which happened at Bethany has served as a basis to the rumors which were spread about it.  It must be acknowledged, however, that the way John narrates the incident differs widely from those descriptions of miracles, the offspring of the popular imagination, which fill the synoptics.  Let us add, that John is the only evangelist who has a precise knowledge of the relations of Jesus with the family of Bethany, and that it is impossible to believe that a mere creation of the popular mind could exist in a collection of remembrances so entirely personal.  It is, then, probable that the miracle in question was not one of those purely legendary ones for which no one is responsible.  In other words, we think that something really happened at Bethany which was looked upon as a resurrection.

[Footnote 1:  John xi. 1, and following.]

Fame already attributed to Jesus two or three works of this kind.[1] The family of Bethany might be led, almost without suspecting it, into taking part in the important act which was desired.  Jesus was adored by them.  It seems that Lazarus was sick, and that in consequence of receiving a message from the anxious sisters Jesus left Perea.[2] They thought that the joy Lazarus would feel at his arrival might restore him to life.  Perhaps, also, the ardent