CHAPTER IX.

THE DISCIPLES OF JESUS.

In this terrestrial paradise, which the great revolutions of history
had till then scarcely touched, there lived a population in perfect
harmony with the country itself, active, honest, joyous, and
tender-hearted. The Lake of Tiberias is one of the best supplied with
fish of any in the world.[1] Very productive fisheries were
established, especially at Bethsaida, and at Capernaum, and had
produced a certain degree of wealth. These families of fishermen
formed a gentle and peaceable society, extending by numerous ties of
relationship through the whole district of the lake which we have
described. Their comparatively easy life left entire freedom to their
imagination. The ideas about the kingdom of God found in these small
companies of worthy people more credence than anywhere else. Nothing
of that which we call civilization, in the Greek and worldly sense,
had reached them. Neither was there any of our Germanic and Celtic
earnestness; but, although goodness amongst them was often superficial
and without depth, their habits were quiet, and they were in some
degree intelligent and shrewd. We may imagine them as somewhat
analogous to the better populations of the Lebanon, but with the gift,
not possessed by the latter, of producing great men. Jesus met here
his true family. He installed himself as one of them; Capernaum
became "his own city;"[2] in the centre of the little circle which
adored him, he forgot his sceptical brothers, ungrateful Nazareth and
its mocking incredulity.

[Footnote 1: Matt. iv. 18; Luke v. 44, and following; John i. 44, xxi.
1, and following; Jos., _B.J._, III. x. 7; Jac. de Vitri, in the
_Gesta Dei per Francos_, i. p. 1075.]

[Footnote 2: Matt. ix. 1; Mark ii. 1, 2.]

One house especially at Capernaum offered him an agreeable refuge and
devoted disciples. It was that of two brothers, both sons of a certain
Jonas, who probably was dead at the period when Jesus came to stay on
the borders of the lake. These two brothers were Simon, surnamed
_Cephas_ or _Peter_, and Andrew. Born at Bethsaida,[1] they were
established at Capernaum when Jesus commenced his public life. Peter
was married and had children; his mother-in-law lived with him.[2]
Jesus loved this house and dwelt there habitually.[3] Andrew appears
to have been a disciple of John the Baptist, and Jesus had perhaps
known him on the banks of the Jordan.[4] The two brothers continued
always