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Bible Dictionaries
Loneliness
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament
or LONELINESS.—To speak of the isolation of Christ would give a wrong impression as far as the everyday circumstances of His life are concerned. He was most often either in crowds, teaching and healing, or else seeking loneliness without success; He was lonely in the same sense as that in which Nazareth and Syria were lonely—placed close to the world’s highways, yet living a life of their own (cf. G. A. Smith, HGHL [Note: GHL Historical Geog. of Holy Land.] , p. 432; Edersheim, Life and Times of Messiah, i. 147). We may notice four aspects of what may be called the loneliness of Christ.
1. Solitude for the purposes of prayer, meditation, and rest. The outstanding instances are—the Temptation in the Wilderness (Matthew 4:1, Mark 1:12, Luke 4:2), the retirement after the excitement consequent on the feeding of the five thousand (Matthew 14:22, Mark 6:45; cf. John 6:15), and the retirement for prayer, soon interrupted (Mark 1:35; cf. also Luke 6:12; Luke 9:18 where Mark 8:27 has ‘in the way he asked his disciples’). It should be noted that at times of peculiar spiritual intensity Jesus withdrew from the other disciples, but kept by Him Peter and the sons of Zebedee, as at the Transfiguration (Matthew 17:1, Mark 9:2, Luke 9:28), at the raising of Jairus’ daughter (Mark 5:37), and at Gethsemane (Matthew 26:37—‘watch with me,’—Mark 14:35, Luke 22:43).
2. Retirement from possible persecution, or from unwished for notoriety: e.g. after the death of John the Baptist (Matthew 14:13; in Mark 6:11 this retirement immediately follows the return of the Twelve); from the opposition of the Pharisees (Matthew 16:13, Mark 8:27, Luke 9:18; also Matthew 15:21, Mark 7:24). Similarly, He was extremely anxious that His miracles should not become known (Luke 5:13, Matthew 8:4, Mark 8:26; Mark 9:9; the chief exception, where there were special reasons, is in Mark 5:19). The opposite reason for solitude and concealment is given in John 6:15 (‘perceiving that they were about to come and take him by force, to make him king’). On the other hand, it must be remembered that (a) Jesus was constantly accompanied, at least in Galilee and at the end in Jerusalem, by twelve friends and disciples specially appointed (Matthew 10:2, Mark 3:16, Luke 10:1 imply a larger circle from which to draw); to these we must add a number of women (Luke 8:3; cf. Matthew 27:55, Mark 15:40, Luke 23:49). In connexion with the visits to Jerusalem recounted in the Fourth Gospel, the disciples are hardly mentioned; John 7:10, coupled with the absence of reference to the disciples in chs. 7 to 10, seems to make it certain that Jesus was alone; we find the disciples with Him again in John 11:16. (b) In the earlier part of His ministry Jesus was constantly inconvenienced by the thronging of the vast crowds drawn to His side (cf. Matthew 4:23; Matthew 8:18; Matthew 9:35, Mark 1:37, Luke 4:42; Luke 12:1; see Swete, St. Mark, p. lxxx); in the last visit to Jerusalem He sought retirement at night by leaving the city either for Bethany or the Mount of Olives (Matthew 21:17, Mark 11:19, Luke 21:37). (c) His conduct was social enough—as distinet from that of John and of the Essenes—to give rise to the slanders about ‘a gluttonous man and a winebibber’ (Matthew 11:19, Luke 7:34); He went to the marriage at Cana (John 2:1); He was found at the feast in Simon’s house (Matthew 26:6, Mark 14:3, also Luke 7:36); with Matthew (Matthew 9:10, Luke 5:29), and Zacehaeus (Luke 19:6); and contrasted Himself with John as one who ‘comes eating and drinking’ (Matthew 11:19, Luke 7:34).
3. The inevitable result of His own attitude. The question in Matthew 12:48 seems to be that of one who wilfully cuts himself off from human ties; as He faced death more nearly, isolation could not but grow on Him (Matthew 17:12, Mark 9:30, Luke 9:22; Luke 9:44, cf. also Mark 10:32); as early as the feeding of the five thousand, ‘many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him’ (John 6:66). The disciples remained with Him till the end, when the arrest proved too much for their loyalty, although we find John, with the women, at the foot of the cross (John 19:25-26, Matthew 27:55, Mark 15:40).
4. The uniqueness of Christ’s Person. This is emphasized chiefly in the Fourth Gospel; though that it was soon felt is shown in Luke 5:8 (‘Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord’; compare the timidity of the disciples in John 21:12); and easily gathered from the manner in which the disciples misunderstood Him and His purposes for themselves (Matthew 20:21, Mark 10:37; cf. Luke 9:54-55, and Mark 9:32, Luke 9:46; Luke 22:24). When Christ speaks of His own nearness to the Father, distance from mankind must naturally follow; see John 5:18 ff; John 8:16; John 8:27; John 8:29; John 10:30; John 20:17. On the other hand, this special relation of Christ to the Father is one which is, through Christ, to be shared by His disciples (see John 10:4, ch. 17 passim, and John 20:17). The extreme of loneliness, as it is heard in the cry upon the cross (Matthew 27:46, Mark 15:34, cf. Luke 23:46, John 19:30), lasted, it would seem, but for a moment. See Dereliction.
Literature.—In addition to the Commentaries and Lives of Christ, see F. W. Robertson, Sermons, 1st Series, p. 220; J. Caird, Aspects of Life, p. 111; II. P. Liddon, Passiontide Sermons, p. 138; J. Martineau, Endeavours after the Christian Life, p. 159; E. B. Pusey, Sermons from Advent to Whitsuntide, p. 188.
W. F. Lofthouse.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Loneliness'. Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdn/l/loneliness.html. 1906-1918.
