had such an abundant witness. Bethsada, and Capernaum, were all in Galilee. Christ had gone to Ju dea on several occasions. He went there to be baptized of John. Al ways, the Scripture reminds us, He returned to Galilee. The Lord’s disciples, except for Judas, were all Galileans. On the night of His betrayal, when He was taken into the courtyard of the High Priest, Peter, the denier, was eager to see what would happen. He gath ered with the soldiers and others around that flickering fire to keep warm in the cold night. A little ser vant girl pointed her finger at Peter accusingly, and said, “You’re one of His, aren’t you? You were in the garden with Him.” Peter rejected her words. If he’d only kept his mouth shut he would have been bet ter off. The moment he spoke, he gave the whole thing away, and identified himself as a Galilean. One could mistake identity at night, in the flickering light of a fire, but the ideosyncrasies of speech gave it all away. Peter’s dialect was similar to the way Jesus Christ talked. Jesus Christ was a marked man on the streets of Jerusalem. Now the Galilean language was not a prestige dialect of its day. In rabbinical circles it was despised. Galileans were changed with errors in grammar using gutteral pronunci ations with a rather peculiar vocab ulary. Southern Jews mocked and mimiced such speech, laughing in derision at those who used it. So corrupt did the Jews consider the Galilean dialect that people from this area were prohibited from read ing aloud in the synagogues of Ju dea during our Lord’s time. There’s
Page 38
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs