Matthew 20:29 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

And as they departed, &c.— St. Luke says, that the blind man was cured as our Lord drew nigh to Jericho, Luke 18:35 and before he passed through the town, ch. Matthew 19:1. The other Evangelists say, the miracle was performed as he departed from Jericho. But their accounts may be reconciled three different ways: First, Jesus arriving about mid-day entered Jericho, and having visited his acquaintance, or done any thing else that he had to do, returned in the evening by the gate through which he had gone in. As he was coming out, he passed by the beggars, and cured them. The next day he entered into and passed through Jericho in his way to Jerusalem. There is nothing improbable in this solution; for if our Lord was a night in that part of the country, he might spend it in some of the neighbouring villages, rather than in the city, where he had many enemies.—It may be objected, that St. Luke seems to say the miracle was performed as Jesus went towards Jericho, not as he was coming away, εγενετο δε εν τω εγγιζειν αυτον εις Ιεριχω; but if the opinion of Grotius, Le Clerc, and others, may be relied upon, the phrase εν τω εγγιζειν, stands here for εν του εγγυς ειναι, while he was near Jericho. The second solution is as follows: the blind man, of whom St. Luke speaks, may have cried for a cure as Jesus went into Jericho about noon, though he did not obtain it then. The multitude rebuked him, and Jesus passed without giving him any answer, intending to make the miracle more illustrious. Towards evening, therefore, as he was returning, the blind beggar, who had cried after him in the morning, being joined by a companion in the sameunhappy condition with himself, renewed his suit, beseeching the Son of David to have mercy on them. The multitude, as before, rebuked them for makingsuch a noise; but the season of the miracle being come, Jesus stood still, called them to him and cured them: it may be objected, that St. Luke makes no distinction between the beggar's calling to Christ in the morning, and the cure performed in the evening as he came out, but connects the two events, as if they had happened in immediate succession.—The answer is, there areseveral undeniable examples of this kind of connection to be found in the Sacred History, particularly in St. Luke's Gospel, Luke 23:25-26; Luke 24:4, &c. The third solution of the difficulty is this: Jericho, having been a flourishing city before the Israelites entered Canaan, must, in the course of so many ages, have undergone various changes from war and other accidents; we may therefore suppose that it consisted of an old and a new town, situated at a little distance from each other. On this supposition, the beggars sitting on the road between the two towns, might be said to have gained their cure either as Jesus departed from the one, or drew nigh to the other, according to the pleasure of the historians. The reader, however, must not look upon this as a mere supposition; for, on examination, he will find clear proof of it in the Sacred History. We are told (Joshua 6:24; Joshua 6:26.) that after the Israelites had burned Jericho, Joshua, their general, interdicted by a curse the rebuilding of it. His curse struck such terror into the Israelites, that for the space of five hundred years no man attempted to rebuild Jericho, till Hiel the Bethelite, in the days of Ahab, brought it upon himself, by venturing to raise the old city out of her ashes. 1 Kings 16:34. But though the old city thus continued in ruins for many ages, there was a town very soon built not far from it, to which they gave its name: for so early as Eglon's time we read of the city of Palm-trees, Judges 3:13 a name peculiar to Jericho on account of the fine palm-trees with which it was environed. Deuteronomy 34:3. 2 Chronicles 28:15. Besides, we find Jericho, some time after this, expressly mentioned by name, it being the town where David ordered his messengers to abide till their beards, which Hanun king of Moab caused to be shaved, were grown. Wherefore, as there was a Jericho before Hiel rebuilt the ancient town, which Joshua destroyed, it cannot, I think, be doubted, that from Hiel's days there were two cities of this name, at no great distance from each other; perhaps a mile or so. Besides, Josephus insinuates, that both of them subsistedinhistime;expresslydeclaring,"thatthespringwhich watered the territories of Jericho arose near the old town." See Bell. Jude 1:5:4. Thus therefore we have an easy and perfect reconciliation of the seemingly contradictory accounts which the Evangelists have given of our Lord's miracle on the blind men in this part of the country. But although there had been no hint in antiquity, directing us to believe there were two cities of the name of Jericho, not far from each other, every reader must acknowledge, that to have supposed this, would have been sufficient to our purpose of reconciling the Evangelists, because there are such towns to be met with in every country; a thing which of itself must have rendered the supposition not only possible, but probable; and I may venture to say, that had two prophane histories related any fact with the disagreeing circumstances found in the Evangelists, the critics would have thought them good reasons for such a supposition, especially if the historians were writers of character, and had been either eye-witnesses of the things which they related, or informed by the eye-witnesses of them. To conclude, this instance may teach us never to despair of finding a proper and full solution of any imagined inconsistency that is to be met with in the Sacred History. The city of Jericho, for greatness and opulence, was inferior to none in Palestine; Jerusalem excepted. It was beautified with a palace for the reception of the governor, if he chose to go thither, with an amphitheatre for public shews, and a hippodrome for horse-races. The city was pleasantly situated, at the foot of that range of hills which bounded the Campus Magnus to the west. The country round was the most fertile spot in Canaan; yielding, besides the necessaries of life in great abundance, the best palms, also excellent honey, and the famed balsam-tree, the most precious production of the earth. The fruitfulness of this region was owing to various causes, and among the rest to a fine spring with which it was watered, and which anciently was sweetened by the prophet Elisha, who blessed the land likewise, by God's command, with perpetual and extraordinary fruitfulness. 2 Kings 2:18-22. The air was exceedingly mild; for when it snowed in the other provinces of Palestine, and was so cold that they were obliged to make use of the warmest clothing, the inhabitants of this place went about clad in linen only. Hence, as Josephus tells us, the territory of Jericho was called θειον χωριου, a heavenly country, resembling paradise for beauty and prospect, fertility of soil, and felicity of climate. The fountain which enriched this delightful spot was so large, as to deserve the name of a water or river, (Joshua 16:1.) and refreshed a plain of seventy stadia long, and twenty broad; but the excellency of its quality is visible in its effects: for it gladdened the whole tract through which it glided, and made it look like a garden, affording a prospect more agreeable, as the neighbouring country was black and inhospitable. Jericho was a hundred and twenty stadia (that is, fifteen miles) from Jerusalem, almost due east, the country being mountainous; but thence to Jordan, which was at the distance of twenty stadia, or two miles and a half, and towards the Asphaltic lake, the land was flat and barren. See Macknight, and Reland's Palaest.