iv. 25), but at the same time is the pledge of our own future

resurrection, of our share in Christ in a future life, in his messianic kingdom, to the blessedness of which he will, at his second advent, lead all his people. Meanwhile, we may console ourselves that we have in him an Intercessor, who from his own experience of the weakness and frailty of our nature, which he himself assumed, and in which he was in all points tempted as we are, but without sin, knows how much indulgence and aid we need (Heb. ii. 17 f., iv. 15 f.).

The expediency of describing in compendious forms the riches of their faith in Christ, was early felt by his followers. They celebrated him as Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us, Χριστὸς ὁ ἀποθανών, μᾶλλον δὲ καὶ ἐγερθεὶς, ὃς καὶ ἔστιν ἐν δεξιᾷ τοῦ θεοῦ, ὅς καὶ ἐντυνχάνει ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν (Rom. viii. 34); or with more particularity as Jesus Christ our Lord, who was made of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead, Ἰ. Χ. ὁ Κύριος, γενόμενος ἐκ σπέρματος Δαβὶδ κατὰ σάρκα, ὁρισθεὶς υἱὸς θεοῦ ἐν δυνάμει κατὰ πνεῦμα ἁγιωσύνης, ἐξ ἀναστάσεως νεκρῶν (Rom. i. 3 f.); and as confessedly the great mystery of godliness, ὁμολογουμένως μέγα τῆς εὐσεβείας μυστήριον, the following propositions were presented: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory, θεὸς ἐφανερώθη ἐν σαρκὶ, ἐδικαιώθη ἐν πνεύματι, ὤφθη ἀγγέλοις, ἐκηρυχθη ἐν ἔθνεσιν, ἐπιστεύθη ἐν κόσμῳ, ἀνελήφθη ἐν δόξῃ (1 Tim. iii. 16).

The baptismal formula (Matt. xxviii. 19), by its allocation of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, presented a sort of framework in which to arrange the materials of the new faith. On this basis was constructed in the first centuries what was called the rule of faith, regula fidei, which in divers forms, some more concise, others more diffuse, some more popular, others more subtle, is found in the different fathers. [2195] The more popular form at length settled into what is called the creed of the apostles. This symbol, in that edition of it which is received in the evangelical church, has in its second and most elaborate article on the Son, the following points of belief: et (credo) in Jesum Christum, filium ejus (Dei patris) unicum, Dominum nostrum; qui conceptus est de Spiritu Sancto, natus ex Maria virgine; passus sub Pontio Pilato, crucifixus, mortuus et sepultus, descendit ad inferna; tertia die resurrexit a mortuis, ascendit ad cœlos, sedet ad dextram Dei patris omnipotentis; inde venturus est, judicare vivos et mortuos.

Together with this popular form of the confession of faith in relation to Christ, there was also framed a more rigorous and minute theological digest, occasioned by the differences and controversies which early arose on certain points. The fundamental thesis of the Christian faith, that the Word was made flesh, ὁ λόγος σὰρξ ἐγένετο, or, God was manifested in the flesh, θεὸς ἐφανερώθη ἐν σαρκὶ, was endangered on all sides, one questioning the Godhead, another the manhood, and a third the veritable union of the two natures.

It is true that those who, like the Ebionites, denied the Godhead, or like that sect of the Gnostics called Docetæ, the manhood of Christ, separated themselves too decidedly from the Christian community, which on her part maintained that it was necessary that the mediator of God and man should unite both in friendship and harmony by means of a proper relationship to each, and that while he represented man to God, he should reveal God to man, ἔδει τὸν μεσίτην θεοῦ τε καὶ ἀνθρώπων διὰ ἰδίας πρὸς ἑκατέρους οἰκειότητος εἰς φιλίαν καὶ ὁμόνοιαν τοὺς ἀμφοτέρους συναγαγεῖν, καὶ θεῷ μὲν παραστῆσαι τὸν ἄνθρωπον, ἀνθρώποις δὲ γνωρίσαι τὸν θεόν. [2196] But when it was merely the plenitude of the one nature or the other, which was contested,—as when Arius maintained that the being who became man in Christ was indeed divine, but created, and subordinate to the supreme God; when, while ascribing to Christ a human body, he held that the place of the soul was occupied by that superior being; when Apollinaris maintained that not only the body of Jesus was truly human, but his soul also, and that the divine being only served in the stead of the third principle in man, the νοῦς (understanding);—these were opinions to which it was easier to give a Christian guise. Nevertheless the Church rejected the Arian idea of a subordinate God become man in Jesus, for this reason among others less essential, that on this theory the image of the Godhead would not have been manifested in Christ; [2197] and she condemned the idea of Arius and Apollinaris, that the human nature of Christ had not the human ψυχὴ (soul), or the human νοῦς (understanding), for this reason chiefly, that only by the union of the divine, with an entire human nature, could the human race be redeemed. [2198]

Not only might the one or the other aspect of the nature of Christ be defaced or put out of sight, but in relation also to the union of the two, there might be error, and again in two opposite directions. The devout enthusiasm of many led them to believe, that they could not draw too closely the newly-entwined bond between heaven and earth; hence they no longer wished to distinguish between the Godhead and manhood in Christ, and since he had appeared in one person, they acknowledged in him only one nature, that of the Son of God made flesh. Others, more scrupulous, could not reconcile themselves to such a confusion of the divine and the human: it seemed to them blasphemous to say that a human mother had given birth to God: hence they maintained that she had only borne the man whom the Son of God selected as his temple; and that in Christ there were two natures, united indeed so far as the adoration of his followers was concerned, but distinct as regarded their essence. To the Church, both these views appeared to encroach on the mystery of the incarnation: if the two natures were held to be permanently distinct, then was the union of the divine and human, the vital point of Christianity, destroyed; if a mixture of the two were admitted, then neither nature in its individual quality was capable of a union with the other, and thus again no true unity would be attained. Hence both these opinions were condemned, the latter in the person of Eutyches, the former, not with equal justice, in that of Nestorius; and as the Nicene creed established the true Godhead of Christ, so that of Chalcedon established his true and perfect manhood, and the union of the two natures in one undivided person. [2199] When subsequently there arose a controversy concerning the will of Christ, analogous to that concerning his nature, the Church, in accordance with its previous decisions, pronounced that in Christ, as the God-man, there were two wills, distinct but not discordant, the human will being subordinate to the divine. [2200]

In comparison with the controversies on the being and essence of Christ, the other branch of the faith, the doctrine of his work, was developed in tranquillity. The most comprehensive view of it was this: the Son of God, by assuming the human nature, gave it a holy and divine character [2201]—above all he endowed it with immortality; [2202] while in a moral view, the mission of the Son of God into the world being the highest proof of the love of God, was the most efficacious means of awakening a return of love in the human breast. [2203] To this one great effect of the appearance of Christ, were annexed collateral benefits: his salutary teaching, his sublime example, were held up to view, [2204] but especial importance was attached to the violent death which he suffered. The idea of substitution, already given in the New Testament, was more fully developed: the death of Jesus was regarded, now as a ransom paid by him to the devil for the liberation of mankind, who had fallen into the power of the evil one through sin; now as a means devised by God for removing guilt, and enabling him to remit the punishment threatened to the sins of man, without detriment to his truthfulness, Christ having taken that punishment on himself. [2205] The latter idea was worked up by Anselm, in his book entitled Cur Deus homo, into the well known theory of satisfaction, by which the doctrine of Christ’s work of redemption is placed in the closest connexion with that of his person. Man owes to God perfect obedience; but the sinner—and such, are all men—withholds from God the service and honour which are His due. Now God, by reason of his justice, cannot suffer an offence against his honour: therefore, either man must voluntarily restore to God that which is God’s, nay, must, for complete satisfaction, render to him more than he has hitherto withheld; or, God must as a punishment take from man that which is man’s, namely, the happiness for which he was originally created. Man is not able to do the former; for as he owes to God all the duties that he can perform, in order not to fall into sin, he can have no overplus of merit, wherewith to cover past sins. On the other hand, that God should obtain satisfaction by the infliction of eternal punishment, is opposed to his unchangeable goodness, which moves him actually to lead man to that bliss for which he was originally destined. This, however, cannot happen consistently with divine justice, unless satisfaction be made for man, and according to the measure of that which has been taken from God, something be rendered to him, greater than all else except God. But this can be none other than God himself; and as, on the other hand, man alone can satisfy for man: it must therefore be a God-man who gives satisfaction. Moreover this cannot consist in active obedience, in a sinless life, because every reasonable being owes this to God on his own behalf; but to suffer death, the wages of sin, a sinless being is not bound, and thus the satisfaction for the sins of man consists in the death of the God-man, whose reward, since he himself, as one with God, cannot be rewarded, is put to the account of man.

This doctrinal system of the ancient church concerning the person and work of Christ, passed also into the confessions of the Lutheran churches, and was still more elaborately developed by their theologians. [2206] With regard to the person of Christ, they adhered to the union of the divine and human natures in one person: according to them, in the act of this union, unitio personalis, which was simultaneous with the conception, it was the divine nature of the Son of God which adopted the human into the unity of its personality; the state of union, the unio personalis, was neither essential, nor yet merely accidental, neither mystical nor moral, still less merely verbal, but a real and supernatural union, and eternal in its duration. From this union with the divine nature, there result to the human nature in Christ certain pre-eminent advantages: namely, what at first appears a deficiency, that of being in itself impersonal, and of having personality only by its union with the divine nature; further, impeccability, and the possibility of not dying. Besides these special advantages, the human nature of Christ obtains others also from its union with the divine. The relation of the two natures is not a dead, external one, but a reciprocal penetration, a περιχώρησις; an union not like that of two boards glued together, but like that of fire and metal in glowing iron, or of the body and soul in man. This communion of natures, communio naturarum, is manifested by a communication of properties, communicatio idiomatum, in virtue of which the human nature participates in the advantages of the divine, and the divine in the redeeming work of the human. This relation is expressed in the propositions concerning the person, propositionibus personalibus, and those concerning the properties, idiomaticis; the former are propositions in which the concrete of the one nature, i.e. the one nature as conceived in the person of Christ, is predicated of the other, as in 1 Cor. xv. 47: the second man is the Lord from heaven; the latter are propositions in which determinations of one or the other nature, are referred to the entire person (genus idiomaticum), or in which acts of the entire person are referred to one or the other nature (genus apotelesmaticum), or lastly, in which attributes of the one nature are transferred to the other, which however is only possible from the divine to the human, not from the human to the divine (genus auchematicum).

In passing through the successive stages of the work of redemption, Christ with his person endowed with two natures, experienced, according to the expression of the dogmatical theologians, founded on Phil. ii. 6 ff., two states, statum exinanitionis, and statum exaltationis. His human nature in its union with the divine, participated from the moment of conception in divine properties: but as during his earthly life Jesus made no continuous use of them, that life to the time of his death and burial, is regarded as a state of humiliation: whereas, with the resurrection, or even with the descent into hell, commenced the state of exaltation which was consummated by the sessio ad dextram patris.

As to the work of Christ, the doctrine of our Church attributes to him a triple office. As prophet, he has revealed to man the highest truth, the divine decree of redemption, confirming his testimony by miracles; and he still unceasingly controls the announcement of this truth. As high priest, he has, on the one hand, by his irreproachable life, fulfilled the law in our stead (obedientia activa); on the other, he has borne, in his sufferings and death, the punishment which impended over us (obedientia passiva), and now perpetually intercedes for us with the Father. Lastly, as king, he governs the world, and more particularly the Church, which he will lead from the conflicts of earth to the glory of heaven, completing its destiny by the general resurrection and the last judgment.

§ 146.

OBJECTIONS TO THE CHRISTOLOGY OF THE CHURCH.

The Reformed Church did not go thus far with the Lutherans in their doctrine of the person of Christ, for they did not admit the last and boldest consequence drawn by the latter from the union of the manhood and Godhead—the communicatio idiomatum, or communication of properties. The Lutherans themselves did not hold that the properties of the human nature were communicated to the divine, nor that all the properties of the divine nature, eternity for example, could be communicated to the human; [2207] and this gave occasion on the part of the Reformed Church, to the following objection: the communication of properties must be reciprocal and complete, or it is none at all; moreover, by the communication of the properties of an infinite nature to a finite one, the latter is not less annihilated as to its essence than an infinite nature would be, were it to receive the properties of a finite one. [2208] When the Lutherans sought shelter in the position, that the properties of the one nature were only so far shared by the other, as according to its character is possible, uti per suam indolem potest, [2209] they in fact did away altogether with the communicatio idiomatum; and indeed this doctrine has been explicitly given up even by orthodox theologians since Reinhard.

But the simple root of this complicated exchange of properties, the union of the divine and human natures in one person, has also met with contradiction.

The Socinians denied it on the ground that two natures, each of which alone constitutes a person, cannot be united to form a single person, especially when they possess properties so opposite, as where the one is immortal, the other mortal, the one uncreated, the other created; [2210] and the Rationalists agree with them, insisting more particularly that the formulæ of the Church, in which the above union is defined, are almost entirely negative, thus presenting no conception to the mind, and that in a Christ, who by the aid of a divine nature dwelling within him, withstood evil and kept himself from sin, the man who is destitute of such aid can have no true example. [2211]

The essential and tenable points of the rationalistic objections to this doctrine, have been the most acutely perceived and arranged by Schleiermacher, who, on this subject as on many others, has brought the negative criticism of the dogmas of the Church to completeness. [2212] Before all else he finds it a difficulty, that by the expression, divine nature and human nature, divinity and humanity are placed under one category, and what is more, under the category of nature, which essentially denotes only a limited being, conceived by means of its opposite. Further, while ordinarily one nature is common to many individuals or persons, here one person is supposed to partake of two different natures. Now if by person be meant the permanent conscious unity of a living being, and by nature, the sum of the laws which govern the conditions of life in that being: it is not to be conceived, how two opposite systems of conditions can have but one centre. The absurdity of this doctrine becomes, according to Schleiermacher, especially evident in the supposition of two wills in Christ, since, for consistency, two wills must be associated with two understandings, and as the understanding and will constitute the personality, Christ would on this supposition be inevitably divided into two persons. It is true that the two wills are supposed always to will in unison: but, on the one hand, there results from this only a moral, not a personal unity; on the other hand, this unison of wills is not possible in relation to the divine and the human will, since the latter, which from its very essence can only exercise itself on particulars as they present themselves in succession, can as little will the same with the former, whose object is the whole in its development, as the human understanding, which acts by reasoning, can think the same with the divine understanding, which acts intuitively. Hence it evidently follows also that a communication of properties between the two natures is not to be admitted.

The doctrine of the work of Christ did not escape a similar criticism. Passing over what has been objected in point of form to the division of this work into three offices, the ideas of revelation and miracles, under the head of the prophetic office, were chiefly called in question. It was argued that these ideas agreed neither objectively with just conceptions of God and the world in their reciprocal relation, nor subjectively with the laws of the human intellect; that the perfect God could not have created a world which from time to time needed the extraordinary interposition of the Creator, nor more particularly a human nature which was incapable of attaining its destination by the development of its innate faculties; that the immutable Being could not operate on the world first in this manner, then in that, at one time mediately, at another immediately, but that he must always have operated on it in the same manner, namely, in himself and on the whole immediately, but for us and on individuals mediately; that to admit an interruption of the order of nature, and of the development of humanity, would be to renounce all rational thought, while, in the particular case in question, a revelation or miracle is not confidently to be recognized as such, since, in order to be sure that certain results have not proceeded from the powers of nature and the faculties of the human mind, a perfect knowledge of the resources of both would be requisite, and of such a knowledge man is not possessed. [2213]

But the main difficulty lay in the office of high priest, attributed to Jesus—in the doctrine of the atonement. That which especially drew forth objections was the human aspect which in Anselm’s system was given to the relation of God to the Son of man. As it well becomes man to forgive offences without exacting vengeance, so, thought Socinus, might God forgive the offences committed against him by men, without satisfaction. [2214] To meet this objection Hugo Grotius argued, that not as in consequence of personal injuries, but to maintain the order of the moral world inviolable, or in virtue of his justitia rectoria, God cannot forgive sins without satisfaction. [2215] Nevertheless, granting the necessity for satisfaction, it did not appear to be met by the death of Jesus. While Anselm, and still more decidedly Thomas Aquinas, [2216] spoke of a satisfactio superabundans, Socinus denied that Christ had even borne as much punishment as men have deserved; for every individual man having deserved eternal death, consequently, as many substitutes as sinners ought to have suffered eternal death; whereas in this case, the single Christ has suffered merely temporal death, and that as an introduction to the highest glory; nor did this death attach to his divine nature, so that it might be said to have infinite value, but only to his human nature. On the other hand, Duns Scotus, [2217] in opposition to Thomas, and subsequently Grotius and the Arminians (equi-distant from orthodoxy and Socinianism), adopted the expedient of maintaining, that the merit of Christ was indeed in itself finite like its subject, his human nature, and hence was inadequate as a satisfaction for the sins of the world; but that God accepted it as adequate out of his free grace. But from the admission that God can content himself with an inadequate satisfaction, and thus can forgive a part of the guilt without satisfaction, it follows necessarily, that he must also be able thus to forgive the whole. Besides these more precise definitions, however, the fundamental idea of the whole fabric, namely, that one individual can take upon himself the punishment due to the sins of another, has been attacked as an ignorant transference of the conditions of a lower order of relation to a higher. Moral transgressions, it has been said, are not transmissible obligations; it is not with them as with debts of money, which it is immaterial to the creditor who pays, provided they are paid; rather it is essential to the punishment of sin, that it should fall on the guilty only. [2218] If, according to this, the so-called passive obedience of Christ cannot have been vicarious, still less can his active obedience have been so, since as man he was bound to render this on his own behalf. [2219]

In relation to the kingly office of Christ, the hope of his second advent to judge the world lost ground in the sentiment of the Church, in proportion as the opinion obtained, that every individual enters on a state of complete retribution immediately after death, for this opinion made the general judgment appear superfluous. [2220]

§ 147.

THE CHRISTOLOGY OF RATIONALISM.

The Rationalists, rejecting the doctrine of the Church concerning Christ, his person, and his work, as self-contradictory, useless, nay, even hurtful to the true morality of the religious sentiment, propounded in its stead a system which, while it avoided all contradictions, yet in a certain sense retained for Jesus the character of a divine manifestation, which even, rightly considered, placed him far higher, and moreover embodied the strongest motives to practical piety. [2221]

According to them, Jesus was still a divine messenger, a special favourite and charge of the Deity, inasmuch as, furnished by the disposition of Providence with an extraordinary measure of spiritual endowment, he was born in an age and nation, and guided in a career, the most favourable to his development into that for which he was destined; and, especially, inasmuch as he was subjected to a species of death that rendered possible his apparent resurrection, on which depended the success of his entire work, and was encompassed by a series of circumstances which actually brought that resurrection to pass. The Rationalists hold that their idea of the Christ is not essentially below the orthodox one, as regards his natural endowments and his external destiny, for in their view also he is the greatest man that ever trod the earth—a hero, in whose fate Providence is in the highest degree glorified: while, as regards the internal development and free agency of Jesus, they believe their doctrine essentially to surpass that of the Church. The Christ of the Church, they contend, is a mere automaton, whose manhood lies under the control of his Godhead like a lifeless instrument, which acts with moral perfection because it has no power to sin, and for this reason can neither have moral merit, nor be the object of affection and reverence: according to the rationalistic view, on the contrary, Jesus had implanted in him by God the natural conditions only of that which he was ultimately to become, and his realization of this destiny was the result of his own spontaneity. His admirable wisdom he acquired by the judicious application of his intellectual powers, and the conscientious use of all the aids within his reach; his moral greatness, by the zealous culture of his moral dispositions, the restraint of his sensual inclinations and passions, and a scrupulous obedience to the voice of his conscience: and on these alone rested all that was exalted in his personality, all that was encouraging in his example.

As regards the work of Jesus, the rationalistic view is, that he has endeared himself to mankind by this above all else, that he has taught them a religion to which for its purity and excellence is justly ascribed a certain divine power and dignity; and that he has illustrated and enforced this religion by the brilliant example of his own life. This prophetic office of Christ is with Socinians and Rationalists the essence of his work, and to this they refer all the rest, especially what the doctrine of the Church comprehends under the office of high priest. With them the so-called active obedience has value solely as an example; and the death of Jesus conduces to the forgiveness of sins, solely by furthering the reformation of the sinner in one of these two ways: either, as a confirmation of his doctrine, and a type of the devoted fulfilment of duty, it serves to kindle a zeal for virtue; or, as a proof of the love of God to man, of his inclination to pardon the converted sinner, it invigorates moral courage. [2222]

If Christ was no more, and did no more, than this rationalistic doctrine supposes, it is not easy to see how piety has come to make him her special object, or dogmatism to lay down special propositions concerning him. Consistent Rationalists have in fact admitted, that what the orthodox dogma calls Christology, forms no integral part of the rationalistic system, since this system consists indeed of a religion which Christ taught, but not of a religion of which he is the object; that, viewing Christology as the doctrine of the Messiah, it is merely an accommodation to the Jewish mind,—that even taken in a more noble sense, as the doctrine of the life, the actions, and the fate of Jesus as a divine messenger, it does not belong to a system of faith, for the universal truths of religion are as little connected with our ideas concerning the person of him who first enunciated them, as are the philosophical propositions in the systems of Leibnitz and Wolf, of Kant, Fichte, and Schelling, with the opinions we may happen to form of the persons of their authors; that what relates to the person and work of Jesus belongs, not to religion itself, but to the history of religion, and must either be prefixed to a system of religious doctrine as an historical introduction, or appended to it as an elucidatory sequel. [2223] Accordingly Henke, in his Lineaments, has removed Christology from its wonted position as an integral part of systematic theology, and has placed it as a subdivision under the head of anthropology.

Thus, however, Rationalism enters into open war with the Christian faith, for it seeks to thrust into the background, nay, to banish from the province of theology, that which is its essential point, and corner-stone. But this very opposition is decisive of the insufficiency of the rationalistic system, proving that it does not perform what is demanded from every system of religious doctrine: namely, first, to give adequate expression to the faith which is the object of the doctrine; and secondly, to place this expression in a relation, whether positive or negative, to science. Now the Rationalists, in the effort to bring the faith into harmony with science, restrict its expression; for a Christ who is only a distinguished man, creates indeed no difficulty to the understanding, but is not the Christ in whom the Church believes.

§ 148.

THE ECLECTIC CHRISTOLOGY OF SCHLEIERMACHER.

It is the effort of this theologian to avoid both these ungrateful results, and without prejudice to the faith, to form such a conception of the doctrine of the Christ as may be proof against the attacks of science. [2224] On the one hand, he has adopted in its fullest extent the negative criticism directed by Rationalism against the doctrine of the Church, nay, he has rendered it even more searching; on the other hand, he has sought to retain what Rationalism had lost, the essential part of positive Christianity: and thus he has saved many in these days from the narrowness of Supranaturalism, and the emptiness of Rationalism. This simplification of the faith Schleiermacher effects in the following manner: he does not set out, with the Protestant, from the doctrine of Scripture, nor with the Catholic from the decision of the church, for in both these ways he would have to deal with a precise, developed system, which, having originated in remote centuries, must come into collision with the science of the present day; but he sets out from the consciousness of the Christian, from that internal experience resulting to the individual from his connexion with the Christian community, and he thus obtains a material which, as its basis is feeling, is more flexible, and to which it is easier to give dialectically a form that satisfies science.

As a member of the Christian church—this is the point of departure in the Christology of Schleiermacher [2225]—I am conscious of the removal of my sinfulness, and the impartation of absolute perfection: in other words, in communion with the church, I feel operating upon me the influence of a sinless and perfect principle. This influence cannot proceed from the Christian community as an effect of the reciprocal action of its members on each other; for to every one of these sin and imperfection are inherent, and the co-operation of impure beings can never produce anything pure as its result. It must be the influence of one who possessed that sinlessness and perfection as personal qualities, and who moreover stands in such a relation to the Christian community, that he can impart these qualities to its members: that is, since the Christian church could not exist prior to this impartation, it must be the influence of its founder. As Christians, we find something operated within us; hence, as from every effect we argue to its cause, we infer the influence of Christ, and from this again, the nature of his person, which must have had the powers necessary to the exertion of this influence.

To speak more closely, that which we experience as members of the Christian church, is a strengthening of our consciousness of God, in its relation to our sensuous existence; that is, it is rendered easier to us to deprive the senses of their ascendancy within us, to make all our impressions the servants of the religious sentiment, and all our actions its offspring. According to what has been stated above, this is the effect wrought in us by Christ, who imparts to us the strength of his consciousness of God, frees us from the bondage of sensuality and sin, and is thus the Redeemer. In the feeling of the strengthened consciousness of God which the Christian possesses by his communion with the Redeemer, the obstructions of his natural and social life are not felt as obstructions to his consciousness of God; they do not interrupt the blessedness which he enjoys in his inmost religious life; what has been called evil, and divine chastisement, is not such for him: and as it is Christ who by receiving him into the communion of his blessedness, frees him therefrom, the office of expiation is united to that of redemption.

In this sense alone is the doctrine of the church concerning the threefold office of Christ to be interpreted. He is a prophet, in that by the word—by the setting forth of himself, and not otherwise,—he could draw mankind towards himself, and therefore the chief object of his doctrine was his own person; he is at once a high priest and a sacrifice, in that he, the sinless one, from whose existence, therefore, no evil could be evolved, entered into communion with the life of sinful humanity, and endured the evils which adhere to it, that he might take us into communion with his sinless and blessed life: in other words, deliver us from the power and consequences of sin and evil, and present us pure before God; lastly, he is a king, in that he brings these blessings to mankind in the form of an organized society, of which he is the head.

From this which Christ effects, we gather what he is. If we owe to him the continual strengthening of the consciousness of God within us, this consciousness must have existed in him in absolute strength, so that it, or God in the form of the consciousness, was the only operative force within him, and this is the sense of the expression of the church—God became man in Christ. If, further, Christ works in us a more and more complete conquest over sensuality, in himself there must have been an absolute conquest over it; in no moment of his life can the sensual consciousness have disputed the victory with his consciousness of God; never can a vacillation or struggle have had place within him: in other words, the human nature in him was sinless, and in the stricter sense, that, in virtue of the essential predominance within him of the higher powers over the lower, it was impossible for him to sin. By this peculiarity of his nature he is the Archetype, the actualization of the ideal of humanity, which his church can only approach, never surpass; yet must he,—for otherwise there could be no true fellowship between him and us,—have been developed under the ordinary conditions of human life: the ideal must in him have been perfectly historical, each phasis of his actual life must have borne the impress of the ideal; and this is the proper sense of the church formula, that the divine and human nature were in him united into one person.

Only thus far can the doctrine of the Christ be deduced from the experience of the Christian, and thus far, according to Schleiermacher, it is not opposed to science: whatever in the dogma of the church goes beyond this,—as, for example, the supernatural conception of Jesus, and his miracles, also the facts of the resurrection and ascension, and the prophecies of his second coming to judge the world,—ought not to be brought forward as integral parts of the doctrine of the Christ For he from whose influence upon us comes all the strengthening of our consciousness of God, may have been the Christ, though he should not have risen bodily from the dead, and ascended into heaven, etc.: so that we believe these facts, not because they are involved in our internal experience, but only because they are stated in Scripture; not so much, therefore, in a religious and dogmatical, as in an historical manner.

This Christology is undeniably a beautiful effort of thought, and as we shall presently see, does the utmost towards rendering the union of the divine and the human in Christ conceivable; but if its author supposed that he kept the faith unmutilated and science unoffended, we are compelled to pronounce that he was in both points deceived. [2226]

Science opens its attack on the proposition, that the ideal man was historically manifested in the person of Christ. It did not escape Schleiermacher himself that this was a dangerous point. No sooner has he put forth the above proposition, than he reflects on the difficulty of supposing that the ideal should be realized in one historical individual; since, in other cases, we never find the ideal realized in a single appearance, but only in an entire cycle of appearances, which reciprocally complete each other. It is true that this theologian does not hold the character of Christ, as the ideal man, to extend to the manifold relations of human life, so as to be the archetype for all the science, art, and policy, that are developed in human society; he confines it to the domain of the consciousness of God. But, as Schmid has justly observed, this does not alter the case, for the consciousness of God also, being, in its development and manifestation, subject to the conditions of finiteness and imperfection; the supposition that even in this department exclusively, the ideal was manifested in a single historical individual, involves a violation of the laws of nature by a miracle. This, however, is far from alarming Schleiermacher; on the contrary, he maintains that this is the place, and the only place, in which the Christian doctrine must necessarily admit a miracle, since the originating of the person of Christ can only be conceived as the result of a special divine act of creation. It is true, he limits the miraculous to the first introduction of Christ into the series of existences, and allows the whole of his further development to have been subject to all the conditions of finite existence: but this concession cannot repair the breach, which the supposition only of one miracle makes in the scientific theory of the world. Still less can any help be derived from vague analogies like the following: as it is still possible that matter should begin to agglomerate and thence to revolve in infinite space; so science must admit, that there may be in the domain of spiritual life an appearance, which in like manner we can only explain as the commencement, the first point, in a higher process of development. [2227]

This comparison suggests the observation made by Braniss, namely, that it would be contrary to the laws of all development to regard the initial member of a series as the greatest—to suppose that in Christ, the founder of that community, the object of which is the strengthening of the consciousness of God, the strength of this consciousness was absolute, a perfection which is rather the infinitely distant goal of the progressive development of the community founded by him. Schleiermacher does indeed attribute to Christianity perfectibility in a certain sense: not as a capability of surpassing Christ in his nature, but solely in the conditions of its manifestation. His view is this: the limitation, the imperfection of the relations of Christ, the language in which he expressed himself, the nationality within which he was placed, modified his thoughts and actions, but in their form alone; their essence remained nevertheless the perfect ideal. Now if Christianity in its progressive advancement in doctrine and practice, rejects more and more of those temporal and national limitations by which the actions and teaching of Jesus were circumscribed; this is not to surpass Christ, it is rather to give a more perfect expression of his inner life. But, as Schmid has satisfactorily shown, an historical individual is that which appears of him, and no more; his internal nature is known by his words and actions, the condition of his age and nation are a part of his individuality, and what lies beneath this phenomenal existence as the essence, is not the nature of this individual, but the human nature in general, which in particular beings operates only under the limitations of their individuality, of time, and of circumstances. Thus to surpass the historical appearance of Christ, is to rise nearer, not to his nature, but to the idea of humanity in general; and if we are to suppose that it is still Christ whose nature is more truly expressed, when with the rejection of the temporal and national, the essential elements of his doctrine and life are further developed: it would not be difficult, by a similar abstraction, to represent Socrates, as the one who in this manner cannot be surpassed.

As neither an individual in general, nor, in particular, the commencing point in an historical series, can present the perfect ideal: so, if Christ be regarded decidedly as man, the archetypal nature and development which Schleiermacher ascribes to him, cannot be brought to accord with the laws of human existence. Impeccability, in the sense of the impossibility of sinning, as it is supposed to exist in Christ, is a quality totally incompatible with the human nature; for to man, in consequence of his agency being liable to guidance by the motives of the senses as well as of the reason, the possibility of sinning is essential. And if Christ was entirely free from inward conflict, from all vacillation of the spiritual life between good and evil, he could not be a man of like nature with us; for the action and re-action between the spiritual nature in general and the external world, and, in particular, between the superior religious and moral powers, and the operations of the mind in subordination to the senses, necessarily manifests itself as a conflict. [2228]

If, on the one side, the Christology in question is far from satisfying science, it is equally far, on the other side, from satisfying the faith. We will not enter into those points in which, instead of the decisions of the church, it at least offers acceptable substitutes (concerning which, however, it may be doubted whether they are a full compensation). [2229] Its disagreement with the faith is the most conspicuous in the position, that the facts of the resurrection and ascension do not form essential parts of the Christian faith. For the belief in the resurrection of Christ is the foundation stone, without which the Christian church could not have been built; nor could the cycle of Christian festivals, which are the external representation of the Christian faith, now suffer a more fatal mutilation than by the removal of the festival of Easter: the Christ who died could not be what he is in the belief of the church, if he were not also the Christ who rose again.

Thus the doctrine of Schleiermacher concerning the person and conditions of Christ, betrays a twofold inadequacy, not meeting the requirements either of the faith of the church, or of science. It is clear, however, from his doctrine of the work of Christ, that in order to satisfy the former so far as is here done, such a contradiction of the latter was quite unnecessary, and an easier course might have been pursued. For resting merely on a backward inference from the inward experience of the Christian as the effect, to the person of Christ as the cause, the Christology of Schleiermacher has but a frail support, since it cannot be proved that that inward experience is not to be explained without the actual existence of such a Christ. Schleiermacher himself did not overlook the probable objection that the church, induced merely by the relative excellence of Jesus, conceived an ideal of absolute perfection, and transferred this to the historical Christ, from which combination she continually strengthens and vivifies her consciousness of God: but he held this objection to be precluded by the observation, that sinful humanity, by reason of the mutual dependence of the will and the understanding, is incapable of conceiving an immaculate ideal. But, as it has been aptly remarked, if Schleiermacher claims a miracle for the origination of his real Christ, we have an equal right to claim one for the origination of the ideal of a Christ in the human soul. [2230] Meanwhile, it is not true that sinful human nature is incapable of conceiving a sinless ideal. If by this ideal be understood merely a general conception, then the conception of the perfect and the sinless is as necessarily co-existent with the consciousness of imperfection and sinfulness as the conception of infinity with that of finiteness; since the two ideas conditionate one another, and the one is not possible without the other. If, on the other hand, by this ideal be meant a concrete image, the conception of a character in which all the individual features are portrayed, it may be admitted that a sinful individual or age cannot depict such an image without blemish; but of this inability the age or individual itself is not conscious, not having any superior standard, and if the image be but slightly drawn, if it leave room for the modifications of increased enlightenment, it may continue to be regarded as immaculate even by a later and more clear-sighted age, so long as this age is inclined to view it under the most favourable light.

We may now estimate the truth of the reproach, which made Schleiermacher so indignant, namely, that his was not an historical, but an ideal Christ. It is unjust in relation to the opinion of Schleiermacher, for he firmly believed that the Christ, as construed by him, really lived; but it is just in relation to the historical state of the facts, because such a Christ never existed but in idea; and in this sense, indeed, the reproach has even a stronger bearing on the system of the church, because the Christ therein presented can still less have existed. Lastly, it is just in relation to the consequence of Schleiermacher’s system, since to effect what Schleiermacher makes him effect, no other Christ is necessary, and, according to the principles of Schleiermacher respecting the relation of God to the world, of the supernatural to the natural, no other Christ is possible, than an ideal one:—and in this sense the reproach attaches specifically to Schleiermacher’s doctrine, for according to the premises of the orthodox doctrine, an historical Christ is both possible and necessary.

§ 149.

CHRISTOLOGY INTERPRETED SYMBOLICALLY. KANT. DE WETTE.

The attempt to retain in combination the ideal in Christ with the historical, having failed, these two elements separate themselves: the latter falls as a natural residuum to the ground, and the former rises as a pure sublimate into the ethereal world of ideas. Historically, Jesus can have been nothing more than a person, highly distinguished indeed, but subject to the limitations inevitable to all that is mortal: by means of his exalted character, however, he exerted so powerful an influence over the religious sentiment, that it constituted him the ideal of piety; in accordance with the general rule, that an historical fact or person cannot become the basis of a positive religion until it is elevated into the sphere of the ideal. [2231]

Spinoza made this distinction when maintaining, that to know the historical Christ is not necessary to felicity, but only to know the ideal Christ, namely, the eternal wisdom of God, which is manifested in all things, in the human mind particularly, and in a pre-eminent degree in Jesus Christ—that wisdom which alone teaches man what is true and false, good and bad. [2232]

According to Kant, also, it ought not to be made a condition of salvation to believe, that there was once a man who by his holiness and merit gave satisfaction for himself and for all others; for of this the reason tells us nothing; but it is the duty of men universally to elevate themselves to the ideal of moral perfection deposited in the reason, and to obtain moral strength by the contemplation of this ideal. Such moral faith alone man is bound to exercise, and not historical faith. [2233]

Taking his stand on this principle, Kant proceeds to interpret the doctrines of the Bible and the church as symbols of the ideal. It is humanity, or the rational part of this system of things, in its entire moral perfection, that could alone make a world the object of divine Providence, and the end of creation. This idea of a humanity well-pleasing to God, has existed in God from all eternity; it proceeds from his essence, and is therefore no created thing, but his eternal Son, the Word, through whom, that is, for whose sake, all things were created, and in whom God loved the world. As this idea of moral perfection has not man for its author, as it has been introduced into him even without his being able to conceive how his nature can have been susceptible of such an idea, it may be said to have come down to us from heaven, and to have assumed the human nature, and this union with us may be regarded as an abasement of the Son of God. This ideal of moral perfection, so far as it is compatible with the condition of a being dependent on necessities and inclinations, can only be conceived by us under the form of a man. Now just as we can obtain no idea of the amount of a force, but by calculating the degree of resistance which it can overcome, so we can form no estimate of the strength of the moral disposition, but by imagining hard conflicts in which it can triumph: hence the man who embodies the perfect ideal must be one who would voluntarily undertake, not only to perform every duty of man on his own behalf, and by precept and example to disseminate the good and the true around him as extensively as possible; but also, though tempted by the strongest allurements, to submit to all sufferings, even to the most ignominious death, for the welfare of mankind.

In a practical relation this idea has its reality completely within itself, and it needed no exemplification in experience in order to become a model binding on us, since it is enshrined as such in our reason. Nay, this ideal remains essentially confined to the reason, because it cannot be adequately represented by any example in outward experience, since such an example would not fully disclose the inward disposition, but would only admit of our forming dubious inferences thereon. Nevertheless, as all men ought to be conformed to this ideal, and consequently must be capable of such conformity, it is always possible in experience that a man may appear, who in his teaching, course of life, and sufferings, may present an example of a man well-pleasing to God: but even in this manifestation of the God-man, it would not properly be that which is obvious to the senses, or can be known by experience, which would be the object of saving faith; but the ideal lying in the reason, which we should attribute to this manifestation of the God-man, because he appeared to us to be conformed to it—that is, indeed, so far only as this can be concluded from outward experience. Inasmuch as all of us, though naturally generated men, feel bound, and consequently able, ourselves to present such an example, we have no reason to regard that exemplification of the ideal man as supernaturally generated, nor does he need the attestation of miracles; for besides the moral faith in the idea, nothing further is requisite than the historical conviction that his life was conformed to that idea, in order to accredit him as its personification.

He who is conscious of such a moral disposition, as to have a well-founded confidence, that under temptations and sufferings similar to those which are attributed to the ideal man, as a touchstone of his moral disposition, he would adhere unalterably to this exemplar, and faithfully follow his steps, such a man alone is entitled to consider himself an object of the divine complacency. To elevate himself to such a state of mind, man must depart from evil, cast off the old man, crucify the flesh; a change which is essentially connected with a series of sorrows and sufferings. These the former man has deserved as a punishment, but they fall on the new: for the regenerated man, who takes them on himself, though physically and in his empirical character, as a being determined by the senses, he remains the former man; is morally, as an intellectual being, with his changed disposition, become a new man. Having by this change taken upon him the disposition of the Son of God, that which is strictly a substitution of the new man for the old, may be represented, by a personification of the idea, as a substitution of the Son of God, and it may be said, that the latter himself, as a substitute, bears for man, for all who practically believe in him, the guilt of sin; as a redeemer, satisfies supreme justice by suffering and death; and as an intercessor, imparts the hope of appearing justified before the judge: the suffering which the new man, in dying to the old, must perpetually incur through life, being conceived in the representative of mankind, as a death suffered once for all. [2234]

Kant, like Schleiermacher (whose Christology in many respects recalls that of Kant), [2235] carries his appropriation of the Christology of the church no further than the death of Christ: of his resurrection and ascension, he says, that they cannot be available to religion within the limits of pure reason, because they would involve the materiality of all existences. Still, in another light, he employs these facts as symbols of the ideas of the reason; as images of the entrance into the abode of blessedness, that is, into communion with all the good: while Tieftrunk has yet more decidedly given it as his opinion, that without the resurrection, the history of Jesus would terminate in a revolting catastrophe; that the eye would turn away with melancholy and dissatisfaction from an event, in which the pattern of humanity fell a victim to impious rage, and in which the scene closed with a death as unmerited as sorrowful; that the history requires to be crowned with the fulfilment of the expectation towards which the moral contemplations of every one are irresistibly drawn—with the passage into a compensating immortality. [2236]

In the same manner, De Wette ascribed to the evangelical history, as to every history, and particularly to the history of religion, a symbolical, ideal character, in virtue of which it is the expression and image of the human mind and its various operations. The history of the miraculous conception of Jesus represents the divine origin of religion; the narratives of his miracles, the independent force of the human mind, and the sublime doctrine of spiritual self-reliance; his resurrection is the image of the victory of truth, a fore-shadowing of the future triumph of good over evil; his ascension, the symbol of the eternal majesty of religion. The fundamental religious ideas which Jesus enunciated in his teaching, are expressed with equal clearness in his history. This history is an expression of devoted enthusiasm, in the courageous ministry of Jesus, and in the victorious power of his appearance; of resignation, in his contest with the wickedness of men, in the melancholy of his premonitory discourses, and above all in his death. Christ on the cross is the image of humanity purified by self-sacrifice; we ought all to crucify ourselves with him, that we may rise with him to new life. Lastly, the idea of devotion was the key-note in the history of Jesus, every moment of his life being dedicated to the thought of his heavenly Father. [2237]

At an earlier period, Horst presented this symbolical view of the history of Jesus with singular clearness. Whether, he says, all that is narrated of Christ happened precisely so, historically, is a question indifferent to us, nor can it now be settled. Nay, if we would be candid with ourselves, that which was once sacred history for the Christian believer, is, for the enlightened portion of our cotemporaries, only fable: the narratives of the supernatural birth of Christ, of his miracles, of his resurrection and ascension, must be rejected by us as at variance with the inductions of our intellect. Let them however only be no longer interpreted merely by the understanding as history, but by the feelings and imagination, as poetry; and it will be found that in these narratives nothing is invented arbitrarily, but all springs from the depths and divine impulses of the human mind. Considered from this point of view, we may annex to the history of Christ all that is important to religious trust, animating to the pure dispositions, attractive to the tender feelings. That history is a beautiful, sacred poem of the human race—a poem in which are embodied all the wants of our religious instinct; and this is the highest honour of Christianity, and the strongest proof of its universal applicability. The history of the gospel is in fact the history of human nature conceived ideally, and exhibits to us in the life of an individual, what man ought to be, and, united with him by following his doctrine and example, can actually become. It is not denied that what to us can appear only sacred poetry, was to Paul, John, Matthew and Luke, fact and certain history. But it was the very same internal cause which made the narratives of the gospel sacred fact and history to them, which makes those narratives to us a sacred mythus and poetry. The points of view only are different: human nature, and in it the religious impulse, remains ever the same. Those first Christians needed in their world, for the animating of the religious and moral dispositions in the men of their time, history and fact, of which, however, the inmost kernel consisted of ideas: to us, the facts are become superannuated and doubtful, and only for the sake of the fundamental ideas, are the narratives of those facts an object of reverence. [2238]

This view was met immediately on the part of the church by the reproach, that instead of the riches of divine reality which faith discovers in the history of Christ, it palmed upon us a collection of empty ideas and ideals; instead of a consolatory work effected, an overwhelming obligation. For the certainty, that God once actually united himself with human nature, the admonition that man ought to obtain divine dispositions, offers a poor compensation: for the peace which the redemption completed by Christ brings to the believer, it is no equivalent to put before him the duty of freeing himself from sin. By this system, man is thrust out of the reconciled world in which Christianity places him, into an unreconciled world, out of a world of happiness into a world of misery; for where reconciliation has yet to be effected, where happiness has yet to be attained, there is at present enmity and unhappiness. And, in truth, the hope of entire deliverance from these conditions, is, according to the principles of this system, which only admits an infinite approximation towards the idea, a deceptive one; for that which is only to be reached in an endless progression, is in fact unattainable.

But not the faith alone, science also in its newest development, has found this system unsatisfactory. Science has perceived that to convert ideas simply into an obligatory possibility, to which no reality corresponds, is in fact to annihilate them; just as it would be to render the infinite finite, to represent it as that which lies beyond the finite. Science has conceived that the infinite has its existence in the alternate production and extinction of the finite; that the idea is realised only in the entire series of its manifestations; that nothing can come into existence which does not already essentially exist; and, therefore, that it is not to be required of man, that he should reconcile himself with God, and assimilate his sentiments to the divine, unless this reconciliation and this assimilation are already virtually effected.

§ 150.

THE SPECULATIVE CHRISTOLOGY.

Kant had already said that the good principle did not descend from heaven merely at a particular time, but had descended on mankind invisibly from the commencement of the human race; and Schelling laid down the proposition: the incarnation of God is an incarnation from eternity. [2239] But while the former understood under that expression only the moral instinct, which, with its ideal of good, and its sense of duty, has been from the beginning implanted in man; the latter understood under the incarnate Son of God the finite itself, in the form of the human consciousness, which in its contradistinction to the infinite, wherewith it is nevertheless one, appears as a suffering God, subjected to the conditions of time.

In the most recent philosophy this idea has been further developed in the following manner. [2240] When it is said of God that he is a Spirit, and of man that he also is a Spirit, it follows that the two are not essentially distinct. To speak more particularly, it is the essential property of a spirit, in the distribution of itself into distinct personalities, to remain identical with itself, to possess itself in another than itself. Hence the recognition of God as a spirit implies, that God does not remain as a fixed and immutable Infinite encompassing the Finite, but enters into it, produces the Finite, Nature, and the human mind, merely as a limited manifestation of himself, from which he eternally returns into unity. As man, considered as a finite spirit, limited to his finite nature, has not truth; so God, considered exclusively as an infinite spirit, shut up in his infinitude, has not reality. The infinite spirit is real only when it discloses itself in finite spirits; as the finite spirit is true only when it merges itself in the infinite. The true and real existence of spirit, therefore, is neither in God by himself, nor in man by himself, but in the God-man; neither in the infinite alone, nor in the finite alone, but in the interchange of impartation and withdrawal between the two, which on the part of God is revelation, on the part of man religion.

If God and man are in themselves one, and if religion is the human side of this unity: then must this unity be made evident to man in religion, and become in him consciousness and reality. Certainly, so long as man knows not that he is a spirit, he cannot know that God is man: while he is under the guidance of nature only, he will deify nature; when he has learned to submit himself to law, and thus to regulate his natural tendencies by external means, he will set God before him as a lawgiver. But when, in the vicissitudes of the world’s history, the natural state discloses its corruptions, the legal its misery; the former will experience the need of a God who elevates it above itself, the latter, of a God who descends to its level. Man being once mature enough to receive as his religion the truth that God is man, and man of a divine race; it necessarily follows, since religion is the form in which the truth presents itself to the popular mind, that this truth must appear, in a guise intelligible to all, as a fact obvious to the senses: in other words, there must appear a human individual who is recognised as the visible God. This God-man uniting in a single being the divine essence and the human personality, it may be said of him that he had the Divine Spirit for a father and a woman for his mother. His personality reflecting itself not in himself, but in the absolute substance, having the will to exist only for God, and not at all for itself, he is sinless and perfect. As a man of Divine essence, he is the power that subdues nature, a worker of miracles; but as God in a human manifestation, he is dependent on nature, subject to its necessities and sufferings—is in a state of abasement. Must he even pay the last tribute to nature? does not the fact that the human nature is subject to death preclude the idea that that nature is one with the divine? No: the God-man dies, and thus proves that the incarnation of God is real, that the infinite spirit does not scorn to descend into the lowest depths of the finite, because he knows how to find a way of return into himself, because in the most entire alienation of himself, he can retain his identity. Further, the God-man, in so far as he is a spirit reflected in his infinity, stands contrasted with men, in so far as they are limited to their finiteness: hence opposition and contest result, and the death of the God-Man becomes a violent one, inflicted by the hands of sinners; so that to physical degradation is added the moral degradation of ignominy and accusation of crime. If God then finds a passage from heaven to the grave, so must a way be discoverable for man from the grave to heaven: the death of the prince of life is the life of mortals. By his entrance into the world as God-man, God showed himself reconciled to man; by his dying, in which act he cast off the limitations of mortality, he showed moreover the way in which he perpetually effects that reconciliation: namely, by remaining, throughout his manifestation of himself under the limitations of a natural existence, and his suppression of that existence, identical with himself. Inasmuch as the death of the God-man is merely the cessation of his state of alienation from the infinite, it is in fact an exaltation and return to God, and thus the death is necessarily followed by the resurrection and ascension.

The God-man, who during his life stood before his cotemporaries as an individual distinct from themselves, and perceptible by the senses, is by death taken out of their sight; he enters into their imagination and memory: the unity of the divine and human in him, becomes a part of the general consciousness; and the church must repeat spiritually, in the souls of its members, those events of his life which he experienced externally. The believer, finding himself environed with the conditions of nature, must, like Christ, die to nature—but only inwardly, as Christ did outwardly,—must spiritually crucify himself and be buried with Christ, that by the virtual suppression of his own sensible existence, he may become, in so far as he is a spirit, identical with himself, and participate in the bliss and glory of Christ.

§ 151.

LAST DILEMMA.

Thus by a higher mode of argumentation, from the idea of God and man in their reciprocal relation, the truth of the conception which the church forms of Christ appears to be confirmed, and we seem to be reconducted to the orthodox point of view, though by an inverted path: for while there, the truth of the conceptions of the church concerning Christ is deduced from the correctness of the evangelical history; here, the veracity of the history is deduced from the truth of those conceptions. That which is rational is also real; the idea is not merely the moral imperative of Kant, but also an actuality. Proved to be an idea of the reason, the unity of the divine and human nature must also have an historical existence. The unity of God with man, says Marheineke, [2241] was really and visibly manifested in the person of Jesus Christ; in him, according to Rosenkranz, [2242] the divine power over nature was concentrated, he could not act otherwise than miraculously, and the working of miracles, which surprises us, was to him natural. His resurrection, says Conradi, [2243] is the necessary sequel of the completion of his personality, and so little ought it to surprise us, that, on the contrary, we must rather have been surprised if it had not happened.

But do these deductions remove the contradictions which have exhibited themselves in the doctrine of the church, concerning the person and work of Christ? We need only to compare the structures, which Rosenkranz in his Review has passed on Schleiermacher’s criticism of the Christology of the church, with what the same author proposes as a substitute in his Encyclopædia, in order to perceive, that the general propositions on the unity of the divine and human natures, do not in the least serve to explain the appearance of a person, in whom this unity existed individually, in an exclusive manner. Though I may conceive that the divine spirit in a state of renunciation and abasement becomes the human, and that the human nature in its return into and above itself becomes the divine; this does not help me to conceive more easily, how the divine and human natures can have constituted the distinct and yet united portions of an historical person. Though I may see the human mind in its unity with the divine, in the course of the world’s history, more and more completely establish itself as the power which subdues nature; this is quite another thing, than to conceive a single man endowed with such power, for individual, voluntary acts. Lastly, from the truth, that the suppression of the natural existence is the resurrection of the spirit, can never be deduced the bodily resurrection of an individual.

We should thus have fallen back again to Kant’s point of view, which we have ourselves found unsatisfactory: for if the idea have no corresponding reality, it is an empty obligation and ideal. But do we then deprive the idea of all reality? By no means: we reject only that which does not follow from the premises. [2244] If reality is ascribed to the idea of the unity of the divine and human natures, is this equivalent to the admission that this unity must actually have been once manifested, as it never had been, and never more will be, in one individual? This is indeed not the mode in which Idea realizes itself; it is not wont to lavish all its fulness on one exemplar, and be niggardly towards all others [2245]—to express itself perfectly in that one individual, and imperfectly in all the rest: it rather loves to distribute its riches among a multiplicity of exemplars which reciprocally complete each other—in the alternate appearance and suppression of a series of individuals. And is this no true realization of the idea? is not the idea of the unity of the divine and human natures a real one in a far higher sense, when I regard the whole race of mankind as its realization, than when I single out one man as such a realization? is not an incarnation of God from eternity, a truer one than an incarnation limited to a particular point of time.

This is the key to the whole of Christology, that, as subject of the predicate which the church assigns to Christ, we place, instead of an individual, an idea; but an idea which has an existence in reality, not in the mind only, like that of Kant. In an individual, a God-man, the properties and functions which the church ascribes to Christ contradict themselves; in the idea of the race, they perfectly agree. Humanity is the union of the two natures—God become man, the infinite manifesting itself in the finite, and the finite spirit remembering its infinitude; it is the child of the visible Mother and the invisible Father, Nature and Spirit; it is the worker of miracles, in so far as in the course of human history the spirit more and more completely subjugates nature, both within and around man, until it lies before him as the inert matter on which he exercises his active power; [2246] it is the sinless existence, for the course of its development is a blameless one, pollution cleaves to the individual only, and does not touch the race or its history. It is Humanity that dies, rises, and ascends to heaven, for from the negation of its phenomenal life there ever proceeds a higher spiritual life; from the suppression of its mortality as a personal, national, and terrestrial spirit, arises its union with the infinite spirit of the heavens. By faith in this Christ, especially in his death and resurrection, man is justified before God; that is, by the kindling within him of the idea of Humanity, the individual man participates in the divinely human life of the species. Now the main element of that idea is, that the negation of the merely natural and sensual life, which is itself the negation of the spirit (the negation of negation, therefore), is the sole way to true spiritual life. [2247]

This alone is the absolute sense of Christology: that it is annexed to the person and history of one individual, is a necessary result of the historical form which Christology has taken. Schleiermacher was quite right when he foreboded, that the speculative view would not leave much more of the historical person of the Saviour than was retained by the Ebionites. The phenomenal history of the individual, says Hegel, is only a starting point for the mind. Faith, in her early stages, is governed by the senses, and therefore contemplates a temporal history; what she holds to be true is the external, ordinary event, the evidence for which is of the historical, forensic kind—a fact to be proved by the testimony of the senses, and the moral confidence inspired by the witnesses. But mind having once taken occasion by this external fact, to bring under its consciousness the idea of humanity as one with God, sees in the history only the presentation of that idea; the object of faith is completely changed; instead of a sensible, empirical fact, it has become a spiritual and divine idea, which has its confirmation no longer in history but in philosophy. When the mind has thus gone beyond the sensible history, and entered into the domain of the absolute, the former ceases to be essential; it takes a subordinate place, above which the spiritual truths suggested by the history stand self-supported; it becomes as the faint image of a dream which belongs only to the past, and does not, like the idea, share the permanence of the spirit which is absolutely present to itself. [2248] Even Luther subordinated the physical miracles to the spiritual, as the truly great miracles. And shall we interest ourselves more in the cure of some sick people in Galilee, than in the miracles of intellectual and moral life belonging to the history of the world—in the increasing, the almost incredible dominion of man over nature—in the irresistible force of ideas, to which no unintelligent matter, whatever its magnitude, can oppose any enduring resistance? Shall isolated incidents, in themselves trivial, be more to us than the universal order of events, simply because in the latter we presuppose, if we do not perceive, a natural cause, in the former the contrary? This would be a direct contravention of the more enlightened sentiments of our own day, justly and conclusively expressed by Schleiermacher. The interests of pity, says this theologian, can no longer require us so to conceive a fact, that by its dependence on God it is divested of the conditions which would belong to it as a link in the chain of nature; for we have outgrown the notion, that the divine omnipotence is more completely manifested in the interruption of the order of nature, than in its preservation. [2249] Thus if we know the incarnation, death and resurrection, the duplex negatio affirmat, as the eternal circulation, the infinitely repeated pulsation of the divine life; what special importance can attach to a single fact, which is but a mere sensible image of this unending process? Our age demands to be led in Christology to the idea in the fact, to the race in the individual: a theology which, in its doctrines on the Christ, stops short at him as an individual, is not properly a theology, but a homily.

In what relation, then, must the pulpit stand to theology,—nay, how is the continuance of a ministry in the church possible when theology has reached this stage? This is the difficult question which presents itself to us in conclusion.

§ 152.

RELATION OF THE CRITICAL AND SPECULATIVE THEOLOGY TO THE CHURCH.

Schleiermacher has said, that when he reflected on the approaching crisis in theology, and imagined himself obliged to choose one of two alternatives, either to surrender the Christian history, like every common history, as a spoil to criticism, or to hold his faith in fee to the speculative system; his decision was, that for himself, considered singly, he would embrace the latter, but that, regarding himself as a member of the church, and especially as one of its teachers, he should be induced rather to take the opposite course. For the idea of God and of man on which, according to the speculative system, the truth of the Christian faith rests, is indeed a precious jewel, but it can be possessed only by a few, and he would not wish to be that privileged individual in the church, who alone among thousands held the faith on its true grounds. As a member of the church, he could have no satisfaction but in perfect equality, in the consciousness that all receive alike, both in kind and manner, from the same source. And as a teacher and spokesman to the church, he could not possibly attempt the task of elevating old and young, without distinction, to the idea of God and of man: he must rather attack their faith as a groundless one, or else endeavour to strengthen and confirm it while knowing it to be groundless. As thus in the matter of religion an impassable gulf would be fixed between two parties in the church, the speculative theology threatens us with the distinction of an esoteric and exoteric doctrine, which ill accords with the declaration of Christ, that all shall be taught of God. The scientific alone have the foundation of the faith: the unscientific have only the faith, and receive it only by means of tradition. If the Ebionitish view, on the contrary, leave but little of Christ, yet this little is equally attainable by all, and we are thereby secured from the hierarchy of speculation, which ever tends to merge itself in the hierarchy of Rome. [2250]

Here we see presented, under the form of thought belonging to a cultivated mind, the same opinion which is now expressed by many in a less cultivated fashion: namely, that the theologian who is at once critical and speculative, must in relation to the church be a hypocrite. The real state of the case is this. The church refers her Christology to an individual who existed historically at a certain period: the speculative theologian to an idea which only attains existence in the totality of individuals; by the church the evangelical narratives are received as history: by the critical theologian, they are regarded for the most part as mere mythi. If he would continue to impart instruction to the church, four ways are open to him:

First, the attempt already excluded by the above observations of Schleiermacher, namely, to elevate the church to his own point of view, and for it, also, to resolve the historical into the ideal:—an attempt which must necessarily fail, because to the Church all those premises are wanting on which the theologian rests his speculative conclusions; and upon which, therefore, only an enthusiast for interpretation would venture.

The second and opposite measure would be, to transport himself to the point of view of the church, and for the sake of imparting edification ecclesiastically, to descend from the sphere of the ideal into the region of the popular conception. This expedient is commonly understood and judged too narrowly. The difference between the theologian and the church is regarded as a total one; it is thought, that in answer to the question, whether he believes in the history of Christ, he ought to say exactly, no; whereas he says, yes: and this is a falsehood. It is true, that if in the discourses and instructions of the spiritual teacher, the main interest were an historical one, this would be a correct representation of the case: but, in fact, the interest is a religious one,—it is essential religion which is here communicated under the form of a history; hence he who does not believe in the history as such, may yet appreciate the religious truths therein contained, equally with one who does also receive the history as such: the distinction is one of form merely, and does not affect the substance. Hence it is an evidence of an uncultivated mind, to denounce as a hypocrite a theologian who preaches, for example, on the resurrection of Christ, since, though he may not believe in the reality of that event as a single sensible fact, he may, nevertheless, hold to be true the representation of the process of spiritual life, which the resurrection of Christ affords. Strictly considered, however, this identity of the substantial truth, exists only in the apprehension of him who knows how to distinguish the substance from the form of religion, i.e., of the theologian, not of the church, to whom he speaks. The latter can conceive no faith in the dogmatical truth of the resurrection of Christ, for example, apart from a conviction of its historical reality: and if it come to discover that the theologian has not this conviction, and yet preaches on the resurrection, he must appear in the eyes of the church a hypocrite, and thus the entire relation between the theologian and the church would be virtually cancelled.

In this case, the theologian, though in himself no hypocrite, would appear such to the church, and would be conscious of this misconstruction. If notwithstanding this, he should continue to instruct the church under the form of its own conceptions, he would ultimately appear a hypocrite to himself also, and would be driven to the third, desperate course, of forsaking the ministerial office. It avails nothing to say, he has only to descend from the pulpit, and mount the professor’s chair, where he will not be under the necessity of withholding his scientific opinions from such as are destined to science; for if he, whom the course of his own intellectual culture has obliged to renounce the ministerial office, should by his instructions lead many to the same point, and thus render them also incapable of that office, the original evil would only be multiplied. On the other hand, it could not be held good for the church, that all those who pursue criticism and speculation to the results above presented, should depart from their position as teachers. For no clergyman would any longer meddle with such inquiries, if he thus ran the risk of being led to results which would oblige him to abandon the ministerial office; criticism and philosophy would fall into the hands of those who are not professed theologians, and to the theologian nothing would remain but the faith, which then could not possibly long resist the attacks of the critical and speculative laity. But where truth is concerned, the possible consequences have no weight; hence the above remark ought not to be made. Thus much, however, may be maintained in relation to the real question: he whom his theological studies have led to an intellectual position, respecting which he must believe, that he has attained the truth, that he has penetrated into the deepest mysteries of theology, cannot feel either inclined or bound just at this point in his career to abandon theology: on the contrary, such a step would be unnatural, nay, impossible.

He will therefore seek another expedient; and as such there presents itself a fourth, which is not, like the two first, one-sided, nor like the third, merely negative, but which offers a positive mode of reconciling the two extremes—the consciousness of the theologian, and that of the church. In his discourses to the church, he will indeed adhere to the forms of the popular conception, but on every opportunity he will exhibit their spiritual significance, which to him constitutes their sole truth, and thus prepare—though such a result is only to be thought of as an unending progress—the resolution of those forms into their original ideas in the consciousness of the church also. Thus, to abide by the example already chosen, at the festival of Easter, he will indeed set out from the sensible fact of the resurrection of Christ, but he will dwell chiefly on the being buried and rising again with Christ, which the Apostle himself has strenuously inculcated. This very course every preacher, even the most orthodox, strictly takes, as often as he draws a moral from the evangelical text on which he preaches: for this is nothing else than the transition from the externally historical to the inward and spiritual. It is true, we must not overlook the distinction, that the orthodox preacher builds his moral on the text in such a way, that the latter remains as an historical foundation; whereas, with the speculative preacher, the transition from the biblical history or the church doctrine, to the truth which he thence derives, has the negative effect of annihilating the former. Viewed more closely, however, the transition of the orthodox preacher from the evangelical text to the moral application, is not free from this negative tendency; in proceeding from the history to the doctrine he implies at least thus much: the history is not enough, it is not the whole truth, it must be transmuted from a past fact into a present one, from an event external to you, it must become your own intimate experience: so that with this transition, the case is the same as with the proof of the existence of God, in which the cosmical existence, which is the point of departure, apparently remains as a foundation, but is in fact negatived as a true existence, and merged in the absolute. Nevertheless, there remains a marked distinction between these two propositions: since, and in so far as, this has happened, so and so is your duty and your consolation—and: this is indeed related as having happened once, but the truth is, that it always so happens, and both in and by you ought to happen. At least, the community will not receive both as identical; and thus, here again, in every excess or diminution which the more or less spontaneous relation of the teacher to critical theology, together with the variety in the degrees of culture of the community, introduces,—the danger is incurred that the community may discover this difference, and the preacher appear to it, and consequently to himself, a hypocrite.

In this difficulty, the theologian may find himself driven either directly to state his opinions, and attempt to elevate the people to his ideas: or, since this attempt must necessarily fail, carefully to adapt himself to the conception of the community; or, lastly, since, even on this plan, he may easily betray himself, in the end to leave the ministerial profession.

We have thus admitted the difficulty with which the critical and speculative views are burthened, with reference to the relation of the clergyman to the church; we have exhibited the collision into which the theologian falls, when it is asked, what course remains for him in so far as he has adopted such views? and we have shown that our age has not arrived at a certain decision on this subject. But this collision is not the effect of the curiosity of an individual; it is necessarily introduced by the progress of time and the development of Christian theology; it surprises and masters the individual, without his being able to guard himself from it. Or rather he can do this with slight labour, if he abstain from study and thought, or, if not from these, from freedom of speech and writing. Of such there are already enough in our day, and there was no need to make continual additions to their number through the calumniation of those who have expressed themselves in the spirit of advanced science. But there are also a few, who, notwithstanding such attacks, freely declare what can no longer be concealed—and time will show whether by the one party or the other, the Church, Mankind, and Truth are best served.

THE END.

NOTES

[1] [This passage varies slightly from the original, a subsequent amplification by Dr. Strauss being incorporated with it.—Tr.]

[2] Plato, de Republ. ii. p. 377. Steph.; Pindar, Nem. vii. 31.

[3] Diog. Laërt. L. ii. c. iii. No. 7.

[4] Cic. de Nat. Deor. i. 10. 15. Comp. Athenag. Legat. 22. Tatian, c. Græc. Orat. 21. Clement. homil. 6, 1 f.

[5] Diodor. Sic. Bibl. Fragm. L. vi. Cic. de Nat. Deor. i. 42.

[6] Hist. vi. 56.

[7] Döpke, die Hermeneutik der neutestamentlichen Schriftsteller, s. 123. ff.

[8] Gfrörer. Dähne.

[9] Homil. 5. in Levit. § 5.

[10] Homil. 2. in Exod. iii.: Nolite putare, ut sæpe jam diximus, veterum vobis fabulas recitari, sed doceri vos per hæc, ut agnoscatis ordinem vitæ.

[11] Homil. 5. in Levit. i.: Hæc omnia, nisi alio sensu accipiamus quam literæ textus ostendit, obstaculum magis et subversionem Christianæ religioni, quam hortationem ædificationemque præstabunt.

[12] Contra Cels. vi. 70.

[13] De principp. L. iv. § 20: πᾶσα μὲν (γραφὴ) ἔχει τὸ πνευματικὸν, οὐ πᾶσα δὲ τὸ σωματικόν.

[14] Comm. in Joann., Tom. x. § 4:—σωζομένου πολλάκις τοῦ ἀλπθοῦς πνευματικοῦ ἐν τῷ σωματικῷ, ὡς ἂν εἴποι τις, ψεύδει.

[15] De principp. iv. 15: συνύφηνεν ἡ γραφὴ τῇ ἱστορίᾳ τὸ μὴ γενόμενον, πὴ μὲν μὴ δυνατὸν γενέσθαι, πὴ δὲ δυνατὸν μὲν γενέσθαι, οὐ μὴν γεγενημένον. De principp. iv. 16: καὶ τί δεῖ πλείω λέγειν· τῶν μὴ πάνυ ἀμβλέων μυρία ὅσα τοιαῦτα δυναμένων συναγαγεῖν, γεγραμμένα μὲν ὡς γεγονότα, οὐ γεγενημένα δὲ κατὰ τὴν λέξιν.

[16] De principp. iv. 16.

[17] Homil. 6, in Gen. iii.: Quæ nobis ædificatio erit, legentibus, Abraham, tantam patriarcham, non solum mentitum esse Abimelech regi, sed et pudicitiam conjugis prodidisse? Quid nos ædificat tanti patriarchæ uxor, si putetur contaminationibus exposita per conniventiam maritalem? Hæc Judæi putent et si qui cum eis sunt literæ amici, non spiritus.

[18] De principp. iv. 16: οὐ μόνον δὲ περὶ τῶν πρὸ τῆς παρουσίας ταῦτα τὸ πνεῦμα ᾠκονόμησεν, ἀλλ’, ἅτε τὸ αὐτὸ τυνχάνον καὶ ἀπὸ τοῦ ἑνὸς θεοῦ, τὸ ὅμοιον καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν εὐαγγελίων πεποίηκε καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν ἀποστόλων, οὐδὲ τούτων πάντῃ ἄκρατον τὴν ἱστορίαν τῶν προσυφασμένων κατὰ τὸ σωματικὸν ἐχόντων μὴ γεγενημένων.

[19] Contra Celsum, i. 40.

[20] Comm. in Matth., Tom. xvi. 26.

[21] Comm. in Joann., Tom. x. 17.

[22] De principp. iv. 19. After Origen, that kind of allegory only which left the historical sense unimpaired was retained in the church; and where, subsequently, a giving up of the verbal meaning is spoken of, this refers merely to a trope or a simile.

[23] In his Amyntor, 1698. See Leland’s View of the Deistical Writers.

[24] See Leland.

[25] In his work entitled The Moral Philosopher.

[26] Posthumous Works, 1748.

[27] Chubb, Posthumous Works, i. 102.

[28] Ibid., ii. 269.

[29] The Resurrection of Jesus Considered, by a Moral Philosopher, 1744.

[30] Six Discourses on the Miracles of our Saviour. Published singly, from 1727–1729.

[31] Schröckh, Kirschengesch, seit der Reform. 6 Th. s. 191.

[32] Fragmente des Wolfenbüttelschen Ungenannten von G. E. Lessing herausgegeben.

[33] Recension der übrigen, noch ungedruckten Werke des Wolfenbütteler Fragmentisten, in Eichhorns allgemeiner Bibliothek, erster Band 1tes u. 2tes Stück.

[34] Paulus’s Commentar über das neue Testament.

[35] Eichhorn’s Urgeschichte, herausgegeben von Gabler, 3 Thl. s. 98. ff.

[36] Allgem. Biblioth. 1 Bd. s. 989, and Einleitung in das A. T. 3 Thl. s. 82.

[37] Religion innerhalb der Grenzen der blossen Vernunft, drittes Stück. No. VI.: Der Kirchenglaube hat zu seinem höchsten Ausleger den reinen Religionsglauben.

[38] Ad. Apollod. Athen. Biblioth. notæ, p. 3 f.

[39] Hebraische Mythologie des alten und neuen Testaments. G. L. Bauer, 1802.

[40] Institutiones Theol. Chr. Dogm. § 42.

[41] Ammon, Progr. quo inquiritur in narrationum de vitæ Jesu Christi primordiis fontes, etc., in Pott’s and Ruperti’s Sylloge Comm. theol. No. 5, und Gabler’s n. theol. Journal, 5 Bd. s. 83 und 397.

[42] Ueber Mythen, historische Sagen und Philosopheme der ältesten Welt. In Paulus Memorabilien, 5 stuck. 1793.

[43] Vid. die Abhandlung über Moses und die Verfasser des Pentateuchs, im 3ten. Band des Comm. über den Pent. s. 660.

[44] Kritik der Mosaischen Geschichte. Einl. s. 10. ff.

[45] Einleit. in das N. T. 1, s. 408. ff.

[46] Antiquit. xix. viii. 2.

[47] Die verschiedenen Rücksichten, in welchen und für welche der Biograph Jesu arbeiten kann. In Bertholdt’s krit. Journal, 5 Bd. s. 235. ff.

[48] Recens-von Paulus Commentar, im neuesten theol. Journal 7, 4, s. 395 ff. (1801).

[49] Hebräische Mythologie. 1 Thl. Einl. § 5.

[50] Ist es erlaubt, in der Bibel, und sogar im N.T., Mythen anzunehmen? Im Journal für auserlesene theol. Literatur, 2, 1, s. 49 ff.

[51] Ueber den Täufer Johannes, die Taufe und Versuchung Christi, in Ullmann’s u. Umbreit’s theol. Studien u. Kritiken, 2, 3, s. 456 ff.

[52] Beitrag zur Erklärung der Versuchungsgeschichte, in ders. Zeitschrift, 1832, 4. Heft.

[53] Einleitung in das N. T. 1, s. 422 ff. 453 ff.

[54] Besonders durch Gieseler, über die Entstehung und die frühsten Schicksale der schriftlichen Evangelien.

[55] Vid. den Anhang der Schulz’schen Schrift über das Abendmahl, und die Schriften von Sieffert und Schneckenburger über den Ursprung des ersten kanonischen Evangeliums.

[56] In den Probabilien.

[57] Geschichte der hebräischen Nation, Theil. i. s. 123.

[58] In Henke’s Magazin, 5ten Bdes. 1tes Stück. s. 163.

[59] Versuch über die genetische oder formelle Erklärungsart der Wunder. In Henke’s Museum, i. 3. 1803.

[60] Kaiser’s biblische Theologie, 1 Thl.

[61] Gabler’s Journal für auserlesene theol. Literatur. ii. 1. s. 46.

[62] Gabler’s neuestes theolog. Journal, 7 Bd.

[63] Bertholdt’s Krit. Journal, v. s. 235.

[64] Ullmann, Recens. meines L. J., in den Theol. Studien u. Kritiken 1836. 3.

[65] George, Mythus und Sage; Versuch einer wissenschaftlichen Entwicklung dieser Begriffe und ihres Verhältnisses zum christlichen Glauben, s. 11. ff. 108. ff.

[66] Work cited, § 8, note 4. Hase, Leben Jesu, § 32. Tholuck, s. 208. ff. Kern, die Hauptsachen der evangelischen Geschichte, 1st Article, Tübinger Zeitschrift für Theologie, 1836, ii. s. 39.

[67] Comp. Kuinöl, Prolegom. in Matthæum, § 3; in Lucam, § 6.

[68] e.g. Ammon, in der Diss.: Ascensus J. C. in cœlum historia biblica, in seinen Opusc. nov.

[69] In Bertholdt’s Krit. Journ. v. Bd. s. 248.

[70] Gabler’s neuestes theol. Journal, Bd. vii. s. 395.

[71] Encyclopädie der theol. Wissenschaften, s. 161.

[72] In Gabler’s neuestem theolog. Journal, Bd. vi. 4tes Stück. s. 350.

[73] Gränzbestimmung dessen, was in der Bibel Mythus, u. s. f., und was wirkliche Geschichte ist. In seiner Bibliothek der heiligen Geschichte, ii. Bd. s. 155. ff.

[74] Meyer, Apologie der geschichtlichen Auffassung der historischen Bucher des A. T., besonders des Pentateuchs, im Gegensatz gegen die blos mythische Deutung des letztern. Fritzsche. Kelle.

[75] Exegetisches Handbuch, i. a. s. 1, 71.

[76] Greiling in Henke’s Museum, i. 4. s. 621. ff.

[77] See the quotations given by De Wette in his “Einleitung in d. N. T.” § 76.

[78] Euseb. H. E., iii. 39.

[79] Ullman, Credner, Lücke, De Wette.

[80] Hieron. de vir. illustr. 3.

[81] Contra Celsum, ii. 16. v. 56.

[82] Euseb. H. E. iii. 39.

[83] This is clearly demonstrated by Griesbach in his “Commentatio, quâ Marci Evangelium totum e Matthæi et Lucæ commentariis decerptum esse demonstratur.”

[84] Chap. xvi. 10–17; xx. 5–15; xxi. 1–17; xxvii. 1–28; xxviii. 10–16.

[85] Euseb. H. E. v. 20, 24.

[86] De Wette, Gieseler.

[87] Ad. Autol. ii., 22.

[88] See Schleiermacher.

[89] This same want of distinction has led the Alexandrians to allegorize, the Deists to scoff, and the Supernaturalists to strain the meaning of words; as was done lately by Hoffmann in describing David’s behaviour to the conquered Ammonites. (Christoterpe auf 1838, s. 184.)

[90] Heydenreich, über die Unzulässigkeit, u. s. f. 1 stück. Compare Storr, doctr. christ. § 35. ff.

[91] If the Supranatural view contains a theological contradiction, so the new evangelical theology, which esteems itself raised so far above the old supranatural view, contains a logical contradiction. To say that God acts only mediately upon the world as the general rule, but sometimes, by way of exception, immediately,—has some meaning, though perhaps not a wise one. But to say that God acts always immediately on the world, but in some cases more particularly immediately,—is a flat contradiction in itself. On the principle of the immanence or immediate agency of God in the world, to which the new evangelical theology lays claim, the idea of the miraculous is impossible. Comp. my Streitschriften, i. 3, s. 46 f.

[92] In this view essentially coincide Wegscheider, instit. theol. dogm. § 12; De Wette, bibl. Dogm., Vorbereitung; Schleiermacher, Glaubensl. § 46 f.; Marheineke, Dogm. § 269 ff. Comp. George, s. 78 f.

[93] To a freedom from this presupposition we lay claim in the following work; in the same sense as a state might be called free from presupposition where the privileges of station, etc., were of no account. Such a state indeed has one presupposition, that of the natural equality of its citizens; and similarly do we take for granted the equal amenability to law of all events; but this is merely an affirmative form of expression for our former negation. But to claim for the biblical history especial laws of its own, is an affirmative proposition, which, according to the established rule, is that which requires proof, and not our denial of it, which is merely negative. And if the proof cannot be given, or be found insufficient, it is the former and not the latter, which is to be considered a presupposition. See my Streitschriften i. 3. s. 36 ff.

[94] Prolegomena zu einer wissenschaftlichen Mythologie, s. 110 ff. With this Ullmann, and J. Müller in their reviews of this work, Hoffmann, s. 113 f., and others are agreed as far as relates to the heathen mythi. Especially compare George, Mythus und Sage, s. 15 ff. 103.

[95] The words of Baur in his review of Müller’s Prolegomena, in Jahn’s Jahrbüchern f. Philol. u. Pädag. 1828. 1 Heft, s. 7.

[96] I. 19.

[97] Midrasch Koheleth f. 73, 3 (in Schöttgen, horæ hebraicæ et talmudicæ, 2, S. 251 f.). R. Berechias nomine R. Isaaci dixit: Quemadmodum Goël primus (Moses), sic etiam postremus (Messias) comparatus est. De Goële primo quidnam scriptura dicit? Exod. iv. 20: et sumsit Moses uxorem et filios, eosque asino imposuit. Sic Goël postremus, Zachar. ix. 9: pauper et insidens asino. Quidnam de Goële primo nosti? Is descendere fecit Man, q. d. Exod. xvi. 14: ecce ego pluere faciam vobis panem de cælo. Sic etiam Goël postremus Manna descendere faciet, q. d. Ps. lxxii. 16: erit multitudo frumenti in terra. Quomodo Goël primus comparatus fuit? Is ascendere fecit puteum: sic quoque Goël postremus ascendere faciet aquas, q. d. Joel iv. 18: et fons e domo Domini egredietur, et torrentem Sittim irrigabit.

[98] Tanchuma f. 54, 4. (in Schöttgen, p. 74): R. Acha nomine R. Samuelis bar Nachmani dixit: Quæcumque Deus S. B. facturus est ‏לעתיך לבא‎ (tempore Messiano) ea jam ante fecit per manus justorum ‏בעולם הזה‎ (seculo ante Messiam elapso). Deus S. B. suscitabit mortuos, id quod jam ante fecit per Eliam, Elisam et Ezechielem. Mare exsiccabit, prout per Mosen factum est. Oculos cæcorum aperiet, id quod per Elisam fecit. Deus S. B. futuro tempore visitabit steriles, quemadmodum in Abrahamo et Sarâ fecit.

[99] The Old Testament legends have undergone many changes and amplifications, even without any reference to the Messiah, so that the partial discrepancy between the narratives concerning Jesus with those relating to Moses and the prophets, is not a decisive proof that the former were not derived from the latter. Compare Acts vii. 22, 53, and the corresponding part of Josephus Antiq. ii. & iii. with the account of Moses given in Exodus. Also the biblical account of Abraham with Antiq. i. 8, 2; of Jacob with i. 19, 6; of Joseph with ii. 5, 4.

[100] George, s. 125: If we consider the firm conviction of the disciples, that all which had been prophesied in the Old Testament of the Messiah must necessarily have been fulfilled in the person of their master; and moreover that there were many blank spaces in the history of Christ; we shall see that it was impossible to have happened otherwise than that these ideas should have embodied themselves, and thus the mythi have arisen which we find. Even if a more correct representation of the life of Jesus had been possible by means of tradition, this conviction of the disciples must have been strong enough to triumph over it.

[101] Compare O. Müller, Prolegomena, s. 7, on a similar conclusion of Grecian poets.

[102] The comparison of the first chapter of this book with the history of Joseph in Genesis, gives an instructive view of the tendency of the later Hebrew legend and poetry to form new relations upon the pattern of the old. As Joseph was carried captive to Egypt, so was Daniel to Babylon (i. 2); like Joseph he must change his name (7). God makes the ‏שַׂר הַסָּרִיסִים‎ favourable to him, as the ‏סָרִים שַׂר הַטַבָּחִים‎ to Joseph (9); he abstains from polluting himself with partaking of the king’s meats and drinks, which are pressed upon him (8); a self-denial held as meritorious in the time of Antiochus Epiphanes, as that of Joseph with regard to Potiphar’s wife; like Joseph he gains eminence by the interpretation of a dream of the king, which his ‏חַרְטֻמִּים‎ were unable to explain to him (ii.); whilst the additional circumstance that Daniel is enabled to give not only the interpretation, but the dream itself, which had escaped the memory of the king, appears to be a romantic exaggeration of that which was attributed to Joseph. In the account of Josephus, the history of Daniel has reacted in a singular manner upon that of Joseph; for as Nebuchadnezzar forgets his dream, and the interpretation according to Josephus revealed to him at the same time, so does he make Pharaoh forget the interpretation shown to him with the dream. Antiq. ii. 5, 4.

[103] Thus J. Müller, theol. Studien u. Kritiken, 1836, iii. s. 839 ff.

[104] It may here be observed, once for all, that whenever in the following inquiry the names “Matthew,” “Luke,” etc., are used, it is the author of the several Gospels who is thus briefly indicated, quite irrespective of the question whether either of the Gospels was written by an apostle or disciple of that name, or by a later unknown author.

[105] See Kuinöl Comm. in Luc., Proleg., p. 247.

[106] Paulus, exeget. Handbuch, 1 a. s. 78 f. 96. Bauer, hebr. Mythol., 2 Bd. s. 218 f.

[107] Here Michael is called one of the chief princes.

[108] Here Raphael is represented as one of the seven angels which go in and out before the glory of the holy One; (Tobit, xii. 15), almost the same as Gabriel in Luke i. 19, excepting the mention of the number. This number is in imitation of the Persian Amschaspands. Vid. De Wette, bibl. Dogmatik, § 171 b.

[109] Hieros. rosch haschanah f. lvi. 4. (Lightfoot, horæ hebr. et talmud. in IV. Evangg., p. 723): R. Simeon ben Lachisch dicit: nomina angelorum ascenderunt in manu Israëlis ex Babylone. Nam antea dictum est: advolavit ad me unus τῶν Seraphim, Seraphim steterunt ante eum, Jes. vi.; at post: vir Gabriel, Dan. ix. 21, Michaël princeps vester, Dan. x. 21.

[110] Olshausen, biblischer Commentar zum N.T., 1 Thl. s. 29 (2te Auflage). Comp. Hoffmann, s. 124 f.

[111] Olshausen, ut sup. Hoffmann, s. 135.

[112] Ut sup. s. 77.

[113] Geschichte der drei letzten Lebensjahre Jesu, sammt dessen Jugendgeschichte. Tübingen, 1779. 1 Bd. s. 12.

[114] Bibl. Comm. 1, s. 115.

[115] Hebr. Mythol. ii. s. 218.

[116] Bauer, ut sup. i. s. 129. Paulus, exeget. Handbuch, i. a, 74.

[117] Paulus, Commentar, i. s. 12.

[118] Bauer, ut sup.

[119] Glaubenslehre, 1 Thl. § 42 und 43 (2te Ausgabe).

[120] Binder, Studien der evang. Geistlichkeit Würtembergs, ix. 2, 5. 11 ff.

[121] Compare my Dogmatik, i. § 49.

[122] Bibl. Comm., 1. Thl. s. 119.

[123] Ut sup. s. 92.

[124] Hess, Geschichte der drei letzten Lebensjahre Jesu u. s. w., 1. Thl. s. 13, 33.

[125] Horst in Henke’s Museum, i. 4. s. 733 f. Gabler in seinem neuest. theol. Journal, vii. 1. s. 403.

[126] Briefe über die Bibel im Volkstone (Ausg. Frankfurt und Leipzig, 1800), 1tes Bändchen, 6ter Brief, s. 51 f.

[127] Bahrdt, ut sup. s. 52.

[128] Exeget. Handb. 1, a. s. 74 ff.

[129] Bahrdt, ut sup. 7ter Brief, s. 60.—E. F. über die beiden ersten Kapitel des Matthäus und Lukas, in Henke’s Magazin, v. 1. s. 163. Bauer, hebr. Mythol. 2, s. 220.

[130] Exeget. Handb. 1, a. s. 77–80.

[131] Ut sup. s. 73.

[132] Comp. Schleiermacher über die Schriften des Lukas, s. 25.

[133] Horæ hebr. et talmud., ed. Carpzov. p. 722.

[134] Ut sup. s. 26.

[135] Examples borrowed from Aulus Gellius, v. 9, and from Valerius Maximus, i. 8, are cited.

[136] Ut sup. s. 26.

[137] Ut sup. s. 72 f.

[138] Ut sup. s. 69.

[139] In Schmidt’s Bibliothek für Kritik und Exegese, iii. 1, s. 119.

[140] Paulus, ut sup.

[141] Comp. De Wette, exeg. Handb., 1. 2, s. 9.

[142] Über die Schriften des Lukas, s. 23.

[143] Paulus und Olshausen z. d. St., Heydenreich a. a. O. 1, s. 87.

[144] Comp. Horst, in Henke’s Museum, i. 4, s. 705; Vater, Commentar zum Pentateuch, 3, s. 597 ff.; Hase L. J., § 35; auch George, s. 33 f. 91.

[145] E. F. über die zwei ersten Kapitel u. s. w. in Henke’s Magazin, v. 1, s. 162 ff., und Bauer hebr. Mythol., ii. 220 f.

[146] The adoption of this opinion is best explained by a passage—with respect to this matter classical—in the Evangelium de nativitate Mariæ, in Fabricius codex apocryphus N. Ti. 1, p. 22 f., and in Thilo 1, p. 322, “Deus”—it is here said,—cum alicujus uterum claudit, ad hoc facit, ut mirabilius denuo aperiat, et non libidinis esse, quod nascitur, sed divini muneris cognoscatur. Prima enim gentis vestræ Sara mater nonne usque ad octogesimum annum infecunda fuit? et tamen in ultimâ senectutis ætate genuit Isaac, cui repromissa erat benedictio omnium gentium. Rachel quoque, tantum Domino grata tantumque a sancto Jacob amata diu sterilis fuit, et tamen Joseph genuit, non solum dominum Ægypti, sed plurimarum gentium fame periturarum liberatorem. Quis in ducibus vel fortior Sampsone, vel sanctior Samuele? et tamen hi ambo steriles matres habuere.—ergo—crede—dilatos diu conceptus et steriles partus mirabiliores esse solere.

[147] Neuestes theol. Journal, vii. 1, s. 402 f.

[148] In Henke’s Museum, i. 4, s. 702 ff.

[149] Hase in his Leben Jesu makes the same admission; compare § 52 with § 32.

[150] Wetstein zu Luke i. 11, s. 647 f. adduces passages from Josephus and from the Rabbins recording apparitions seen by the high priests. How readily it was presumed that the same thing happened to ordinary priests is apparent from the narrative before us.

[151]

Judges xiii. 14 (LXX.): Luc. i. 15.:

καὶ οἶνον καὶ σίκερα (al. μέθυσμα, καὶ οἶνον καὶ σίκερα οὐ μὲ hebr. ‏שֵׁכָר‎) μὴ πιέτω. πίῃ.

[152]

Judg. xiii. 5: Luc. i. 15.:

ὅτι ἡγιασμένον ἔσται τῷ θεῷ (al. Ναζὶρ καὶ πνεύματος ἁγίου θεοῦ ἔσται) τὸ παιδάριον οὐκ τῆς πλησθήσεται ἔτι ἐκ κοιλίας γαστρός (al. ἀπὸ τῆς κοιλίας). μητρός αὐτοῦ.

[153]

Judg. xiii. 24 f.: Luc. i. 80:

καὶ ηὐλόγησεν αὐτὸν Κύριος, καὶ η τὸ δὲ παιδίον ηὔξανε καὶ ’ξήθη (al. ἡδρύνθη) τὸ παιδάριον· καὶ ἐκραταιοῦτο πνεύματι, κὰι ἦν ἐν ἤρξατο πνεῦμα Κυρίου συμπορεύεσθαι ταῖς ἐρήμοις, ἕως ἡμέρας αὐτῷ ἐν παρεμβολῇ Δὰν, ἀναμὲσον Σαρὰ ἁναδείξεως αὐτοῦ πρὸς τὸν καὶ ἀναμέσον Ἐσθαόλ. Ἰσραήλ.

Comp. Gen. xxi. 20.

[154]

Gen. xvi. 11. (LXX.): Luc. i. 13:

καὶ καλέσεις τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ Ἰσμαήλ. καὶ καλέσεις τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ Ἰωάννην.

xvii. 19: — — Ἰσαάκ.

[155] Olshausen, bibl. Commentar, 1. s. 116. Hoffmann, s. 146.

[156] With this view of the passage compare De Wette, Exeg. Handbuch zum N. T., 1, 2, s. 12.

[157] Kuinöl, Comm. in Matth. Proleg., p. xxvii. f.

[158] Paulus, p. 292.

[159] Hieron. in Daniel. init.

[160] See Wetstein.

[161] e.g. Fritzsche, Comm. in Matth., p. 13.

[162] Exegt. Handbuch, i. 1, s. 12 f.

[163] The expedient of Kuinöl, Comm. in Matth. p. 3, to distinguish the Rahab here mentioned from the celebrated one, becomes hence superfluous, besides that it is perfectly arbitrary.

[164] Hoffmann, s. 154, according to Hug, Einl., ii. s. 271.

[165] Compare Fritzsche, Comm. in Matth., p. 19; Paulus, exeget. Handbuch, i. s. 289; De Wette, exeg. Handb. in loco.

[166] Fritzsche in Matth., p. 11.

[167] Paulus, s. 292.

[168] Bibl. Comm., p. 46, note.

[169] See Schneckenburger, Beiträge zur Einleitung in das N. T., s. 41 f., and the passage cited from Josephus, B. j. vi. 8. Also may be compared the passage cited by Schöttgen, horæ hebr. et talm. zu Matth. i. from Synopsis Sohar, p. 132, n. 18. Ab Abrahamo usque ad Salomonem XV. sunt generationes; atque tunc luna fuit in plenilunio. A Salomone usque ad Zedekiam iterum sunt XV. generationes, et tunc luna defecit, et Zedekiæ effossi sunt oculi.

[170] De Wette has already called attention to the analogy between these Old Testament genealogies and those of the Gospels, with regard to the intentional equality of numbers. Kritik der mos. Geschichte, s. 69. Comp. s. 48.

[171] See Chrysostom and Luther, in Credner, Einleitung in d. N. T., 1, s. 143 f. Winer, bibl. Realwörterbuch, 1., s. 659.

[172] Orig. homil. in Lucam 28.

[173] Luther, Werke, Bd. 14. Walch. Ausg. s. 8 ff.

[174] De consensu Evangelistarum, ii. 3, u. c. Faust., iii. 3; amongst the moderns, for example, E. F. in Henke’s Magazin 5, 1, 180 f. After Augustine had subsequently become acquainted with the writing of Africanus, he gave up his own opinion for that of the latter. Retract, ii. 7.

[175] Eusebius, H. E. i. 7, and lately e.g. Schleiermacher on Luke, p. 53.

[176] S. 53. Comp. Winer, bibl. Realwörterbuch, 1 Bd. s. 660.

[177] Comp. Michaelis, Mos. Recht. ii. s. 200. Winer, bibl. Realwörterb. ii. s. 22 f.

[178] Thus e.g. Spanheim, dubia evang. p. 1. s. 13 ff. Lightfoot, Michaelis, Paulus, Kuinöl, Olshausen, lately Hoffmann and others.

[179] Epiphanius, Grotius. Olshausen, s. 43.

[180] Testament XII. Patriarch., Test. Simeon c. 71. In Fabric. Codex pseudepigr. V. T. p. 542: ἐξ αὐτῶν (the races of Levi and Juda) άνατελεῖ ὑμῖν τὸ σωτήριον τοῦ θεοῦ. Ἀνασήσει γὰρ Κύριος ἐκ τοῦ Αευῒ ὡς ἀρχιερέα, καὶ ἐκ τοῦ Ἰουδα ὡς βασιλέα κ.τ.λ.

[181] Comp. Thilo, cod. apocr. N.T. 1, s. 374 ff.

[182] Thus e.g. the Manichæan Faustus in Augustin. contra Faust. L. xxiii. 4.

[183] Protevangel. Jacobi c. 1 f. u. 10. and evangel. de nativitate Mariæ c. 1. Joachim and Anna, of the race of David, are here mentioned as the parents of Mary. Faustus on the contrary, in the above cited passage, gives Joachim the title of Sacerdos.

[184] Dial. c. Tryph. 43. 100. (Paris, 1742.)

[185] Paulus. The Jews also in their representation of a Mary, the daughter of Heli, tormented in the lower world (see Lightfoot), appear to have taken the genealogy of Luke, which sets out from Heli, for that of Mary.

[186] e.g. Lightfoot, horæ, p. 750; Osiander, s. 86.

[187] Juchasin f. 55, 2. in Lightfoot s. 183, and Bava bathra, f. 110, 2. in Wetstein s. 230 f. Comp. Joseph. Vita, 1.

[188] Thus Eichhorn, Einl. in das N. T. 1 Dd s. 425. Kaiser, bibl. Theol. 1, s. 232. Wegscheider, Institut. § 123, not. d. de Wette, bibl. Dogm. § 279, and exeget. Handbuch 1, 2, s. 32. Winer, bibl. Realwörterb. 1, s. 660 f. Hase, Leben Jesu, § 33. Fritzsche, Comm. in Matt, p. 35. Ammon, Fortbildung des Christenthums zur Weltreligion 1, s. 196 ff.

[189] See De Wette, bibl. Dogm. and exeg. Handb. 1, 1, s. 14; Hase, L. J. Eusebius gives a not improbable explanation of this disagreement (ad. Steph. quæst. iii., pointed out by Credner, 1, p. 68 f.) that besides the notion amongst the Jews, that the Messiah must spring from the royal line of David, another had arisen, that this line having become polluted and declared unworthy of continuing on the throne of David (Jerem. xxii. 30), by the wickedness of its later reigning members, a line more pure though less famed was to be preferred to it.

[190] The farther considerations on the origin and import of these genealogies, which arise from their connexion with the account of the miraculous birth of Jesus, must be reserved till after the examination of the latter point.

[191] Fabricius, Codex apocryphus N. T. 1, p. 19 ff. 66 ff.; Thilo, 1, p. 161 ff. 319 ff.

[192] Gregory of Nyssa or his interpolator is reminded of this mother of Samuel by the apocryphal Anna when he says of her: Μιμεῖται τοίνυν καὶ αὕτη τὰ περὶ τῆς μετρὸς τοῦ Σαμουὴλ διηγήματα κ.τ.λ. Fabricius, 1, p. 6.

[193] Evang. de nativ. Mar. c. 7: cunctos de domo et familia David nuptui habiles, non conjugatos.

[194] Protev. Jac c. 8: τοὺς χηρεύοντας τοῦ λαοῦ.

[195] It is thus in the Evang. de nativ. Mariae vii. and viii.; but rather different in the Protev. Jac. c. ix.

[196] Protev. c. 9: πρεσβύτης. Evang. de nativ. Mar. 8.: grandaevus. Epiphan. adv. haeres. 78, 8: λαμβάνει τὴν Μαρίαν χῆρος, κατάγων ἡλικίαν περί που ὀγδοήκοντα ἐτῶν καὶ πρόσω ὁ ἀνήρ.

[197] Παράλαβε αὐτὴν εἰς τήρησιν σεαυτῷ. c. ix. Compare with Evang. de nativ. Mar. viii. and x.

[198] See the variations in Thilo, p. 227, and the quotations from the Fathers at p. 365 not.

[199] Numb. v. 18.

[200] Protev. Jac. x.–xvi. The account in the Evang. de nativ. Mar. is less characteristic.

[201] “Die natürliche Geschichte des grossen Propheten von Nazaret,” 1ter Band, s. 119 ff.

[202] Augustin, de consens. evangelist. ii. 5.

[203] Paulus, Olshausen, Fritzsche, Comm. in Matth. p. 56.

[204] Comp. de Wette’s exeg. Handbuch, i. 1, s. 18. Schleiermacher, Ueber die Schriften des Lukas, s. 42 ff.

[205] Protev. Jac. c. 12: Μαριὰμ δέ ἐπελάθετο τῶν μυστηρίων ὧν εἶπε πρὸς αὐτὴν Γαβριήλ. When questioned by Joseph she assures him with tears: οὐ γινώσκω, πόθεν ἐστὶ τοῦτο τὸ ἐν τῇ γαστρί μου. c. 13.

[206] Geschichte der drei letzten Lebensjahre Jesu u. s. w. 1. Thl. s. 36. Comp. Hoffmann, s. 176 f.

[207] Ch. viii.–x.

[208] Paulus, exeg. Handb. 1 a, s. 121. 145.

[209] To this opinion Neander inclines, L. J. Ch. s. 18.

[210]

Gen. xvii. 19; LXX. (Annunciation of Matt. i. 21. Isaac): (μὴ φοβηθῆς παραλαβεῖν Μαριὰμ ἰδοὺ Σάῤῥα ἡ γυνή σου τέξεται σοι τὴν γυναῖκα σου—) τέξεται δὲ υἱὸν, καὶ καλέσεις τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ υἱὸν, καὶ καλέσεις τὸ ὄνομα Ἰσαάκ. αὐτοῦ Ἰησοῦν· αὐτὸς γὰρ σώσει τὸν λαὸν αὑτοῦ ἀπὸ· τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν Judg. xiii. 5. (Annunciation of αὐτῶν. Samson): Luke i. 30 ff. καὶ αὐτὸς ἄρξεται σῶσαι τὸν Ἰσραὴλ ἐκ χειρὸς φυλιστιΐμ. καὶ εἶπεν ὁ ἄγγελος αὐτῇ—ἰδοὺ συλλήψῃ ἐν γαστρὶ, καὶ τέξῃ Gen. xvi. 11 ff. (Annunciation of υἱὸν, καὶ καλέσεις τὸ ὄνομα Ishmael): αὐτοῦ Ἰησοῦν. Οὗτος ἔσται.——.

καὶ εἶπεν αὐτῆ ὁ ἄγγελος Κυρίου· ἰδοὺ σὺ ἐν γαστρὶ ἔχεις, καὶ τέξη υἱὸν καὶ καλέσεις τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ Ἰσμαήλ. Οὗτος ἔσται — —.

[211] Comp. de Wette, Kritik der mos. Geschichte, s. 86 ff.

[212] The vision which, according to Matthew, Joseph had in his sleep, had besides a kind of type in the vision by which, according to the Jewish tradition related by Josephus, the father of Moses was comforted under similar circumstances, when suffering anxiety concerning the pregnancy of his wife, although for a different reason. Joseph. Antiq. II. ix. 3. “A man whose name was Amram, one of the nobler sort of Hebrews, was afraid for his whole nation, lest it should fail, by the want of young men to be brought up hereafter, and was very uneasy at it, his wife being then with child, and he knew not what to do. Hereupon he betook himself to prayer to God.... Accordingly God had mercy on him, and was moved by his supplication. He stood by him in his sleep, and exhorted him not to despair of his future favours.... For this child of thine shall deliver the Hebrew nation from the distress they are under from the Egyptians. His memory shall be famous while the world lasts.”

[213] Comp. Ammon, Fortbildung des Christenthums, i. s. 208 f.

[214] Ueber die Schriften des Lukas, s. 23.

[215] Compare Gesenius and Hitzig. Commentaren zum Jesaia; Umbreit, Ueber die Geburt des Immanuel durch eine Jungfrau, in den theol. Studien u. Krit., 1830, 3. Heft, s. 541 ff.

[216] This explanation does away with the importance of the controversy respecting the word ‏עָלְמָה‎. Moreover it ought to be decided by the fact that the word does not signify an immaculate, but a marriageable young woman (see Gesenius). So early as the time of Justin the Jews maintained that the word ‏עָלְמָה‎ ought not to be rendered by παρθένος but by νεᾶνις. Dial c. Tryph. no. 43. p. 130 E. Comp. Iren. adv. haer. iii. 21.

[217] Christologie des A. T. s. 1, b, s. 47.

[218] See Winer, Grammatik des neutest. Sprachidioms, 3te Aufl. s. 382 ff. Fritzsche, Comm. in Matth. p. 49. 317 und Excurs. 1, p. 836 ff.

[219] See the Introduction, § 14.

[220] See Bleek in den theol. Studien u. Kritiken, 1835, 2, s. 441 ff.

[221] The whole rationalistic interpretation of Scripture rests upon a sufficiently palpable paralogism, by which it stands or falls:

The New Testament authors are not to be interpreted as if they said something irrational (certainly not something contrary to their own modes of thinking).

Now according to a particular interpretation their assertions are irrational (that is contrary to our modes of thinking).

Consequently the interpretation cannot give the original sense, and a different interpretation must be given.

Who does not here perceive the quaternio terminorum and the fatal inconsequence, when Rationalism takes its stand upon the same ground with supernaturalism; that, namely, whilst with regard to all other men the first point to be examined is whether they speak or write what is just and true, to the New Testament writers the prerogative is granted of this being, in their case, already presupposed?

[222] Conjugial. præcept. Opp. ed. Hutton, Vol. 7. s. 428.

[223] Irenäus, adv. haer. 1, 26: Cerinthus, Jesum subjecit non ex virgine natum, impossibile enim hoc ei visum est.

[224] In Henke’s neuem Magazin, iii. 3, s. 369.

[225] Homil. in Lucam xiv. Comp. my Streitschriften, i. 2, s. 72 f.

[226] Olshausen, Bibl. Comm. s. 49. Neander, L. J. Ch. s. 16 f.

[227] e.g. by Eichhorn, Einleitung in das N. T. 1. Bd. s. 407.

[228] Glaubenslehre, 2 Thl. § 97. s. 73 f. der zweiten Auflage.

[229] This side is particularly considered in der Skiagraphie des Dogma’s von Jesu übernatürlicher Geburt, in Schmidt’s Bibliothek, i. 3, s. 400 ff.; in den Bemerkungen über den Glaubenspunkt: Christus ist empfangen vom heil. Geist, in Henke’s neuem Magazin, iii. 3, 365 ff.; in Kaiser’s bibl. Theol. 1, s. 231 f.; De Wette’s bibl. Dogmatik, § 281; Schleiermacher’s Glaubenslehre, 2 Thl. § 97.

[230] Brought to bear upon this point by Neander, L. J. Ch. s. 12.

[231] Augustinus contra Faustum Manichaeum, L. 23. 3. 4. 8.

[232] See Schmidt, Schleiermacher, and Wegscheider, Instit. § 123 (not. d).

[233] Eichhorn thinks this probable, Einl. in das N. T. i. s. 425, De Wette possible, exeg. Handb. i. 1, s. 7.

[234] Justin Mart. Dial. cum Tryphone, 48; Origines contra Celsum, L. 5, 61. Euseb. H. E. 3, 27.

[235] Epiphan. haeres. 30, 14.

[236] Haeres. 29, 9.

[237] Credner, in den Beiträgen zur Einleitung in das N. T. 1, s. 443. Anm.

[238] Orig. ut sup.

[239] See Neander, K. G. 1, 2, s. 615 f.

[240] Credner, über Essener, und einen theilweisen Zusammenhang beider, in Winer’s Zeitschrift f. wissenschaftliche Theologie, 1. Bd. 2tes and 3tes Heft; see Baur, Progr. de Ebionitarum origine et doctrinâ ab Essenis repetendâ, und christl. Gnosis, s. 403.

[241] De carne Christi, c. 14: Poterit haec opinio Hebioni convenire, qui nudum hominem, et tantum ex semine David, i.e. non et Dei filium, constituit Jesum, ut in illo angelum fuisse edicat.

[242] Neander and Schneckenburger are of the latter, Gieseler and Credner of the former opinion.

[243] I here refer to the account of Hegesippus in Eusebius, H. E. iv. 22.

[244] Homil. 3, 23–27.

[245] Epiphan. haeres. 30, 18. comp. 15.

[246] That these were the traits in David’s character which displeased the Christian sect in question, is sufficiently evident from a passage in the Clementine Homilies, though the name is not given: Homil. 3, 25; ἕτι μὴν καὶ οἱ ἀπὸ θης τούτου (τοῦ Καΐν) διαδοχης προεληλυθότες πρωτοι μοιχοὶ ἐγένοντο, καὶ ψαλτήρια, καὶ κιθάραι, καὶ χαλκεῖς ὅπλων πολεμικῶν ἐγένοντο. Δὶ ὃ καὶ ἡ τῶν ἐγγὁνων προφητεία, μοιχῶν καὶ ψαλτηρίων γέμουσα, λανθανόντως διὰ τῶν ἡδυπαυειων ὡς τοὺς πολέμους ἐγείρει.

[247] Epiphan. haer. 30, 14. 16. 34.

[248] Homil. 3, 17.

[249] Schneckenburger, über das Evang. der Aegypter, s. 7; Baur, christl. Gnosis, s. 760 ff. See on the other side Credner and Hoffmann.

[250] Orig. Comm. in Matth. T. 16, 12. Tertullian, De carne Christi, 14, s. Anm. 13 (a passage in which indeed the speculative and ordinary Ebionites are mingled together).

[251] Clement, homil. 18, 13. They referred the words of Matth. xi. 27: οὐδεὶς ἔγνω τὸν πατέρα, εἰ μὴ ὁ υἱὸς κ.τ.λ. to τοὺς πατέρα νομίζοντας χριστοῦ τὸν Δαβὶδ, καὶ αὐτὸν δὲ τὸν χριστὸν υἱὸν ὄντα, καὶ υἱὸν θεοῦ μὴ ἐγνωκότας, and complained that αἰτὶ τοῦ θεοῦ τὸν Δαβὶδ πάντες ἔλεγον.

[252] Haeres. 30, 14: ὁ μὲν γὰρ Κήρινθος καὶ Κάρποκρας τῷ αὐτῷ χρώμενοι παρ’ αὐτοῖς (τοῖς Ἑβιωναίοις) εὐαγγελίῳ, ἀπὸ τῆς ἀρχις τοῦ κατὰ Ματθαῖον εὐαγγελίου διὰ τῆς γενεαλογίας Βούλονται παριστᾷν ἐκ σπέρματος Ἰωσὴφ καὶ Μαρίας εἶναι τὸν χριστόν.

[253] Dial. c. Tryph. 100. 120.

[254] Br..., die Nachricht, dass Jesus durch den heil. Geist und von einer Jungfrau geboren sei, aus Zeitbegriffen erläutert. In Schmidt’s Bibl. 1, 1. s. 101 ff.—Horst, in Henke’s Museum 1, 4, 497 ff., über die beiden ersten Kapitel in Evang. Lukas.

[255] Bemerkungen über den Glaubenspunkt: Christus ist empfangen vom heil. Geist. In Henke’s neuem Magazin, 3, 3, 399.

[256] Schleiermacher, über den Lukas, s. 26 f.

[257] Im neuesten theol. Journal, 7. Bd. 4. Stück, s. 407 f.

[258] Antiq. xviii. 3, 4.

[259] Iter Theil, s. 140 ff.

[260] The legend has undergone various modifications, but the name of Panthera or Pandira has been uniformly retained. Vid. Origenes c. Cels. 1, 28., 32. Schöttgen, Horæ 2, 693 ff. aus Tract. Sanhedrin u. A.; Eisenmenger, entdecktes Judenthum, 1, s. 105 ff. aus der Schmähschrift: Toledoth Jeschu; Thilo, cod. apocr. s. 528. Comp. my Abhandlung über die Namen Panther, Pantheras, Pandera, in jüdischen und patristischen Erzählungen von der Abstammung Jesu. Athenäum, Febr. 1839, s. 15 ff.

[261] Orig. c. Celsus i. 32.

[262] Ibid. vi. 8.

[263] Ibid. i. 37.

[264] Gabler, in seinem neuesten theol. Journal, 7, 4. s. 408 f.; Eichhorn, Einleitung in das N. T. 1, s. 428 f.; Bauer, hebr. Mythol. 1, 192 e ff.; Kaiser, bibl. Theologie, 1, s. 231 f.; Wegscheider, Instit. § 123; De Wette, bibl. Dogmat. § 281, und exeg. Handb. 1, 1, s. 18 f., Ammon, Fortbildung des Christenth. s. 201 ff.; Hase, L. J. § 33; Fritzsche, Comment. in Matth. s. 56. The latter justly remarks in the title to the first chapter: non minus ille (Jesus) ut ferunt doctorum Judaicorum de Messiâ sententiæ, patrem habet spiritum divinum, matrem virginem.

[265] Jamblich. vita Pythagoræ. cap. 2, ed. Kiessling.

[266] Adv. Jovin. 1, 26. Diog. Laërt., 3, 1, 2.

[267] Glaubwürdigkeit, s. 64.

[268] Apologie des L. J. s. 92.

[269] Diog. Laërt a. a. O.: Σπεύσιππος (Sororis Platonis filius, Hieron.) δ’· ἐν τῷ ἐπιγραφομένῳ Πλάτωνος περδείπνῳ καὶ Κλέαρχος ἐν τῷ Πλάτωνος ἐγκωμίῳ καὶ Ἀναξιλίδης ἐν τῷ δευτέρῳ περὶ φιλοσόφων, φασὶν, Ἀθήνησιν ἦν λόγος, κ.τ.λ.

[270] Neander, L. J. Ch. s. 10.

[271] Antiq. 15. 2. 6.

[272]

Gen. xviii., 14 Sept. Luke i. 37.

μὴ ἀδυνατήσει παρὰ τῷ θεῷ ῥῆμα; ὅτι οὐκ ἀδυνατήσει παρὰ τῷ θεῷ πᾶν ῥῆμα.

[273] De Wette, Exeg. Handb. 1, 1, s. 17.

[274] They are to be found however in the more modern Rabbins, s. Matthæi, Religionsgl. der Apostel 2, a. s. 555 ff.

[275] Bibl. Comm. 1, s. 47. Also Daub. 2 a. s. 311 f; Theile, § 14. Neander, s. 9.

[276] Diog. Laërt. a. a. O. See Origenes c. Cels. 1, 37.

[277] Demonax, 29.

[278] S. Origenes in Matthæum, Opp. ed. de la Rue, Vol. 3. s. 463.

[279] The Arian Eunomius according to Photius taught τὸν Ἰωσὴφ μετὰ τὴν ἄφραστον κυοφορίαν συνάπτεσθαι τῇ παρθένῳ. This was also, according to Epiphanius, the doctrine of those called by him Dimaerites and Antidicomarianites, and in the time of Jerome, of Helvidius and his followers. Compare on this point the Sammlung von Suicer, im Thesaurus ii., s. v. Μαρία, fol. 305 f.

[280] Comp. Hieron. adv. Helv. 6, 7, Theophylact and Suidas in Suicer, 1, s. v. ἔως, fol. 1294 f.

[281] Hieron. z. d. St.

[282] See Orig. in Matth. Tom. 10, 17; Epiphan. haeres. 78, 7; Historia Josephi, c. 2; Protev. Jac. 9. 18.

[283] Chrysostomus, hom. 142, in Suicer, s. v. Μαρία, most repulsively described in the Protev. Jac. xix. and xx.

[284] Hieron. ad Matth. 12, und advers. Helvid. 19.

[285] Die Brüder Jesu. In Winer’s Zeitschrift für wissenschaftliche Theologie, 1, 3. s. 364 f.

[286] Biblisches Realwörterbuch, 1 Bd. s. 664, Anm. De Wette, z. d. St. Neander L. J. Ch., s. 34.

[287] Comment. in Matth. s. 53 ff., vgl. auch s. 835.

[288] Olshausen is exceedingly unhappy in the example chosen by him in support of his interpretation of ἕως οὗ. For when it is said, we waited till midnight but no one came, certainly this by no means implies that after midnight some one did come, but it does imply that after midnight we waited no longer; so that here the expression till retains its signification of exclusion.

[289] On this subject compare in particular Clemen, die Brüder Jesu, in Winer’s Zeitschrift für wiss. Theol. 1, 3, s. 329 ff.; Paulus, Exeg. Handbuch, 1 Bd. s. 557 ff.; Fritzsche, a. a. O. s. 480 ff.; Winer, bibl. Realwörterbuch, in den A. A.; Jesus, Jacobus, Apostel.

[290] See the different names assigned them in the legend in Thilo, Codex apocryphus N.T., 1. s. 360 note.

[291] Euseb. H. E. 2, 1.

[292] Euseb. H. E. 3, 11.

[293] Fritzsche, Comm. in Matth. p. 482.

[294] Theile, Biographie Jesu, § 18.

[295] Paulus, exeg. Handb. 1. a, s. 120 ff.

[296] S. Olshausen und de Wette, z. d. St.

[297] Hess, Geschichte Jesu, 1, s. 26; Olshausen, bibl. Comm. z. d. St.; Hoffmann, s. 226; Lange, s. 76 ff.

[298] Compare Luke i. 47 with 1 Sam. ii. 1. ,, i. 49 ,, ,, ii. 2. ,, i. 51 ,, ,, ii. 3, 4. ,, i. 52 ,, ,, ii. 8. ,, i. 53 ,, ,, ii. 5.

Particularly Compare Luke i. 48 with 1 Sam. i. 11. Luke i. 50 Deut. vii. 9. ,, i. 52 Ecclesiasticus x. 14. ,, i. 54 Ps. xcviii. 3.

[299] 5 Band, 1. Stück, s. 161. f.

[300] In Henke’s Museum, 1, 4, s. 725.

[301] Ueber den Lukas, s. 23 f.

[302] Olshausen, Paulus, Kuinöl.

[303] Tholuck, s. 194 ff. Neander, s. 19.

[304] Cassiodor. Variarum, 3, 52. Isidor. Orig. 5, 36.

[305] To refer here to the Monumentum Ancyranum, which is said to record a census of the whole empire in the year of Rome 746 (Osiander, p. 95), is proof of the greatest carelessness. For he who examines this inscription will find mention only of three assessments census civium Romanorum, which Suetonius designates census populi, and of which Dio Cassius speaks, at least of one of them, as ἀπογραφὴ τῶν ἐν τῇ Ἰταλίᾳ κατοικούντων. See Ideler, Chronol. 2, s. 339.

[306] In the authoritative citations in Suidas are the words taken from Luke, αὔτη ἡ ἀπογραφὴ πρώτη ἐγένετο.

[307] Hoffmann, s. 231.

[308] Joseph. Antiq. 17, 13, 2. B. j. 2, 7, 3.

[309] Antiq. 17, 13, 5. 18, 1, 1. B. j. 2, 8, 1.

[310] Paulus, exeg. Handb. 1, a, s. 171. Winer, bibl. Realwörterbuch.

[311] Tacit. Annal. 1, 11. Sueton. Octav. 191. But if in this document opes publicæ continebantur: quantum civium sociorumque in armis; quot classes, regna, provinciæ, tributa aut vectigalia, et necessitates ac largitiones: the number of troops and the sum which the Jewish prince had to furnish, might have been given without a Roman tax being levied in their land. For Judea in particular Augustus had before him the subsequent census made by Quirinus.

[312] Ὅτι, πάλαι χρώμενος αὐτῷ φιλω, νῦν ὑπηκόῳ χρήσεται. Joseph. Antiq. 16, 9, 3. But the difference was adjusted long before the death of Herod. Antiq. 16, 10, 9.

[313] Joseph. Ant. 17, 2, 4. παντὸς τοῦ Ἰουδαϊκοῦ βεβαιώσαντος δι’ ὅρκων ἣ μὴν εὐνοῆσαι Καίσαρι καὶ τοῖς βασιλέως πράγμασι. That this oath, far from being a humiliating measure for Herod, coincided with his interest, is proved by the zeal with which he punished the Pharisees who refused to take it.

[314] Tholuck, s. 192 f. But the insurrection which the ἀπογραφὴ after the depositions of Archelaus actually occasioned—a fact which outweighs all Tholuck’s surmises—proves it to have been the first Roman measure of the kind in Judea.

[315] Antiq. 17, 9, 10, 1 ff. B. j. 2. 2. 2. His oppressions however had reference only to the fortresses and the treasures of Herod.

[316] Antiq. 18, 1, 1.

[317] Bell. jud. 2, 8, 1. 9. 1. Antiq. 17, 13, 5.

[318] Kuinöl, Comm. in Luc. p. 320.

[319] Winer.

[320] Adv. Marcion. 4, 19.

[321] Storr, opusc. acad. 3, s. 126 f. Süskind, vermischte Aufsätze, s. 63. Tholuck, s. 182 f.

[322] Michaelis, Anm. z. d. St. und Einl. in d. N.T. 1, 71.

[323] Münter, Stern der Weisen, s. 88.

[324] Paulus. Wetstein.

[325] Credner.

[326] In Schmidt’s Bibliothek für Kritik und Exegese, 3, 1. s. 124. See Kaiser, bibl. Theol. 1, s. 230; Ammon, Fortbildung, 1, s. 196; Credner, Einleitung, in d. N.T. 1, s. 155; De Wette, exeget. Handbuch.

[327] Chap. 17. Compare Historia de nativ. Mariae et de infantiâ Servatoris, c. 13.

[328] Fabricius, im Codex Apocryph. N.T. 1, s. 105, not. y.

[329] Ambrosius and Jerome. See Gieseler, K. G. 1, s. 516.

[330] Dial. c. Tryph. 78.

[331] C. Cels. 1, 51.

[332] Hess, Olshausen, Paulus.

[333] Paulus.

[334] Chap. 14.

[335] Chap. 4 in Thilo, s. 69.

[336] In seinem Versuch über die Wundergeschichten des N. T. See Gabler’s Neuestes theol. Journal, 7, 4, s. 411.

[337] Exeg. Handb. s. 180 ff. As Paulus supposes an external natural phenomenon so Matthæi imagines a mental vision of angels. Synopse der vier Evangelien, s. 3.

[338] Hebräische Mythologie, 2. Thl. s. 223 ff.

[339] Recension von Bauer’s hebr. Mythologie in Gabler’s Journal für auserlesene theol. Literatur, 2, 1, s. 58 f.

[340] Neuestes theol. Journal, 7, 4, s. 412 f.

[341] In Luc. 2. in Suicer, 2, p. 789.

[342] Servius ad Verg. Ecl. 10, 26.

[343] Liban. progymn. p. 138, in Wetstein, s. 662.

[344] Thus Cyrus, see Herod. 1, 110 ff. Romulus, see Livy, 1, 4.

[345] Thilo, Codex Apocr. N. T. 1, s. 383 not.

[346] Vid. Schöttgen, 2, s. 531.

[347] Sota, 1, 48: Sapientes nostri perhibent, circa horam nativitatis Mosis totam domum repletam fuisse luce (Wetstein).

[348] Ueber den Lukas, s. 29. f. With whom Neander and others now agree.—L. J. Ch. s. 21 f.

[349] Comp. De Wette, Kritik der mosaischen Geschichte, s. 116; George, Mythus u. Sage, s. 33 f.

[350]

Gen. xxxvii. 11 (LXX.): Luc. 2, 18 f.:

Ἐζήλωσαν δὲ οὐτὸν οἱ ἀδελφοὶ καὶ πάντες οἱ ἀκούσαντες ἐθαύμασαν — — αὐτοῦ, ὁ δὲ πατὴρ αὐτοῦ ἡ δὲ Μαριὰμ πάντα συνετήρει τὰ ῥήματα διετήρησε τὸ ῥῆμα.—Schöttgen, ταῦτα, συμβάλλουσα ἐν τῇ καρδίᾳ αὐτῆς. horae, 1, 262. 2, 51: καὶ ἡ μήτηρ αὐτοῦ διετήρει πάντα τὰ ῥήματα ταῦτα ἐν τῇ καρδίᾳ αὐτῆς.

[351] See Introduction.

[352] Perhaps as a precautionary measure to obviate objections on the part of the Jews. (Ammon, Fortbildung, 1, s. 217.)

[353] Pirke R. Elieser, 33: Sex hominum nomina dicta sunt, antequam nascerentur: Isaaci nempe, Ismaëlis, Mosis, Salomonis, Josiæ et nomen regis Messiæ. Bereschith rabba, sect. 1, fol. 3, 3.—(Schöttgen, horae, 2, s. 436): Sex res prævenerunt creationem mundi: quædam ex illis creatæ sunt, nempe lex et thronus gloriæ; aliæ ascenderunt in cogitationem (Dei) ut crearentur, nimirum Patriarchæ, Israël, templum, et nomen Messiæ.

[354] Comp. Schneckenburger, über den Ursprung des ersten kanonischen Evangeliums, s. 69 ff.

[355] Joseph. B. J. vi. vi. 4: Tacit. Histor. v. 13; Sueton. Vespas. 4. All the extant allusions to the existence of such a hope at the era of Christ’s birth, relate only in an indeterminate manner to a ruler of the world. Virg. Eclog. 4; Sueton. Octav. 94.

[356] In saying that it is inadmissible to suppose a divine intervention directly tending to countenance superstition, I refer to what is called immediate intervention. In the doctrine of mediate intervention, which includes the co-operation of man, there is doubtless a mixture of truth and error. Neander confuses the two. L. J. Ch., s. 29.

[357] Paulus and De Wette, exeg. Handb. in loc.

[358] According to Hoffmann (p. 256), that he might control the assertion of the magi by inquiring of his own astrologers, whether they had seen the star at the same time. This is not merely unsupported by the text—it is in direct contradiction to it, for we are there told that Herod at once gave terrified credence to the magi.

[359] Fritzsche, in loc. aptly says—comperto, quasi magos non ad se redituros statim scivisset, orti sideris tempore, etc.

[360] K. Ch. L. Schmidt, exeg. Beiträge, 1, s. 150 f. Comp. Fritzsche and De Wette in loc.

[361] Hoffman thinks that Herod shunned this measure as a breach of hospitality; yet this very Herod he represents as a monster of cruelty, and that justly, for the conduct attributed to the monarch in chap. ii. of Matthew is not unworthy of his heart, against which Neander superfluously argues (p. 30 f.), but of his head.

[362] Schmidt, ut sup. p. 155 f.

[363] Stark, Synops. bibl. exeg. in N. T., p. 62.

[364] This was the opinion of some of the Fathers, e.g. Euseb. Demonstr. evang. 9, ap. Suicer, 1, s. 559; Joann. Damasc. de fide orthod. ii. 7.

[365] Chrysostomus and others ap. Suicer, ut sup. and the Evang. infant. arab. c. vii.

[366] See Kuinöl, Comm. in Matth., p. 23.

[367] Vermischte Aufsätze, s. 8.

[368] Bibl. Comm. in loc, Hoffmann, s. 261.

[369] Schmidt, exeg. Beiträge, 1, 152 ff.

[370] This is shown in opposition to Olshausen by Steudel in Bengel’s Archiv. vii. ii. 425 f. viii. iii. 487.

[371] Schmidt, ut sup. p. 156.

[372] Babylon. Sanhedr. f. cvii. 2, ap. Lightfoot, p. 207. Comp. Schöttgen, ii. p. 533. According to Josephus Antiq. xiii. xiii. 5, xiv. 2, they were Jews of each sex and of all ages, and chiefly Pharisees.

[373] Joseph. B. J. i. xxx. 3. Comp. Antiq. xvii. iv. 1.

[374] Macrob. Saturnal. ii. 4: Quum audisset (Augustus) inter pueros, quos in Syriâ Herodes rex Judæorum intra bimatum jussit interfici, filium quoque ejus occisum, ait: melius est, Herodis porcum (ὗν) esse quam filium (υἱόν).

[375] Vid. Wetstein, Kuinöl, Olshausen in loc. Winer d. A. Herodes.

[376] Fritzsche, Comm. in Matt., p. 93 f.

[377] Chrysostom and others.

[378] Vid. Gratz, Comm. zum Ev. Matth. 1, s. 115.

[379] Kuinöl, ad Matth. p. 44 f.

[380] Wetstein, in loc.

[381] Schneckenburger, Beiträge zur Einleitung in das N. T., s. 42.

[382] Gieseler, Studien und Kritiken, 1831, 3. Heft, s. 588 f. Fritzsche, s. 104. Comp. Hieron. ad Jesai. xi. 1.

[383] For both these explanations, see Kuinöl, in loc.

[384] Kepler, in various treatises; Münter, der Stern der Weisen; Ideler, Handbuch der mathemat. und technischen Chronologie, 2. Bd. s. 399 ff.

[385] Olshausen, s. 67.

[386] Paulus, ut sup. s. 202, 221.

[387] Bengel’s Archiv. vii. ii. p. 424.

[388] At a later period, it is true, this journey of Jesus was the occasion of calumnies from the Jews, but those were of an entirely different nature, as will be seen in the following chapter.

[389] Ueber formelle oder genetische Erklärungsart der Wunder. In Henke’s Museum, 1, 3, 399 ff. Similar essays see in the Abhandlungen über die beiden ersten Kapitel des Matthäus u. Lukas, in Henke’s Magazin, 5, 1, 171 ff., and in Matthäi, Religionsgl. der Apostel, 2, s. 422 ff.

[390] L. J. Ch., s. 29 ff.

[391] Orig. c. Cels. i. 60. Auctor, op. imperf. in Matth. ap. Fabricius Pseudepigr. V. T., p. 807 ff.

[392] Schmidt’s Bibliothek, 3, 1, s. 130.

[393] In loc. Num. (Schöttgen, horæ, ii. p. 152): Multi Interpretati sunt hæc de Messiâ.

[394] Justin, Hist. 37.

[395] Sueton. Jul. Cæs. 88.

[396] Jalkut Rubeni, f. xxxii. 3 (ap. Wetstein): quâ horâ natus est Abrahamus, pater noster, super quem sit pax, stetit quoddam sidus in oriente et deglutivit quatuor astra, quæ erant in quatuor cœli plagis. According to an Arabic writing entitled Maallem, this star, prognosticating the birth of Abraham, was seen by Nimrod in a dream. Fabric. Cod. pseudepigr. V. T. i. s. 345.

[397] Testamentum XII. Patriarcharum, test. Levi, 18 (Fabric. Cod. pseud. V. T. p. 584 f.): καὶ ἀνατελεῖ ἄστρον αὐτοῦ (of the Messianic ἱερεὺς καινὸς) ἐν οὐρανῷ,—φωτίζον φῶς γνώσεως κ.τ.λ. Pesikta Sotarta, f. xlviii. 1 (ap. Schöttgen, ii. p. 531): Et prodibit stella ab oriente, quæ est stella Messiæ, et in oriente versabitur dies X V. Comp. Sohar Genes. f. 74. Schöttgen, ii. 524, and some other passages which are pointed out by Ideler in the Handbuch der Chronologie, 2 Bd. s. 409, Anm. 1, and Bertholdt, Christologia Judæorum, § 14.

[398] Compare with the passages cited Note 7. Protevang. Jac. cap. xxi.: εἴδομεν ἀστέρα παμμεγέθη, λάμψαντα ἐν τοῖς ἄστροις τοὺτοις καὶ ἀμβλύνοντα αὐτοὺς τοῦ φαίνειν. Still more exaggerated in Ignat. ep. ad Ephes. 19. See the collection of passages connected with this subject in Thilo, cod. apocr. i. p. 390 f.

[399] Exeg. Beiträge, i. s. 159 ff.

[400] Fritzsche in the paraphrase of chap. ii. Etiam stella, quam judaica disciplina sub Messiæ natale visum iri dicit, quo Jesus nascebatur tempore exorta est.

[401] As in Matt. ii. 11 it is said of the magi τροσήνενκαν αὐτῷ—χρυσὸν καὶ λίβανον: so in Isa. lx. 6 (LXX.): ἥξουσί, φέροντες χρυσίον, καὶ λίβανον οἴσουσι. The third present is in Matt. σμύρνα, in Isa. λίθος τίμιος.

[402] V. 1. und 3: ‏כִּי בָא אוֹרֵךְ וּכְבוֹד יהוָֹה עָלַיִךְ‎ (LXX: Ἰερουσαλὴμ) ‏קוּמִי אוֹרִי זָרָח:—וְהָלְכוּ גּוֹיִם לְאוֹרֵךְ וּמְלָכִים לְנֹגַהּ זָרְחֵךְ‎

[403] Æneid, ii. 693 ff.

[404] Wetstein, in loc.

[405] Herod, i. 108 ff. Liv. i. 4.

[406] Octav. 94:—ante paucos quam nasceretur menses prodigium Romæ factum publice, quo denuntiabatur, regem populi Romani naturam parturire. Senatum exterritum, censuisse, ne quis illo anno genitus educaretur. Eos, qui gravidas uxores haberent, quo ad se quisque spem traheret, curasse, ne Senatus consultum ad ærarium deferretur.

[407] Bauer (über das Mythische in der früheren Lebensper. des Moses, in the n. Theol. Journ. 13, 3) had already compared the marvellous deliverance of Moses with that of Cyrus and Romulus; the comparison of the infanticides was added by De Wette, Kritik der Mos. Geschichte, s. 176.

[408] Joseph. Antiq. ii. ix. 2.

[409] Jalkut Rubeni (cont. of the passage cited in Note 6): dixerunt sapientes Nimrodi: natus est Tharæ filius hâc ipsâ horâ, ex quo egressurus est populus, qui hæreditabit præsens et futurum seculum; si tibi placuerit, detur patri ipsius domus argento auroque plena, et occidat ipsum. Comp. the passage of the Arabic book quoted by Fabric. Cod. pseudepigr. ut sup.

[410] Protev. Jacobi, c. xxii. f.

[411]

Ex. iv. 19, LXX: Matt. ii. 20:

βάδιζε, ἄπελθε εἰς Αἴγυπτον, ἐγερθεὶς—πορεύου εἰς γῆν Ἰσραήλ· τεθνήκασι γὰρ πάντες οἱ ζητοῦντές τεθνήκασι γὰρ οἱ ζητοῦντες τὴν σου τὴν ψυχὴν. ψυχὴν τοῦ παιδίου.

We may remark that the inappropriate use of the plural in the evangelical passage, can only be explained on the supposition of a reference to the passage in Exod. See Winer, N. T. Gramm. s. 149. Comp. also Exod. iv. 20 with Matt. ii. 14, 21.

[412] Vide e.g. Schöttgen, Horæ, ii. p. 209.

[413] Theile, zur Biographie Jesu, § 15, Anm. 9. Hoffmann, s. 269.

[414] Comp. my Streitschriften, i. 1, s. 42 f.; George, s. 39.

[415] Neander, L. J. Ch. s. 27.

[416] Schleiermacher (Ueber den Lukas, s. 47), explains the narrative concerning the magi as a symbolical one; but he scorns to take into consideration the passages from the O. T. and other writings, which have a bearing on the subject, and by way of retribution, his exposition at one time rests in generalities, at another, takes a wrong path.

[417] Lightfoot, Horæ, p. 202.

[418] Schneckenburger, Ueber den Ursprung des ersten kanonischen Evangeliums, s. 69 ff.

[419] Thus, e.g. Augustin de consensu evangelistarum, ii. 5. Storr, opusc. acad. iii. s. 96 ff. Süskind, in Bengel’s Archiv. i. 1, s. 216 ff.

[420] E.g. Hess, Geschichte Jesu, 1, s. 51 ff. Paulus, Olshausen, in loc.

[421] Süskind, ut sup. s. 222.

[422] The same difference as to the chronological relation of the two incidents exists between the two different texts of the apocryphal book: Historia de nativitate Mariæ et de inf. Serv., see Thilo, p. 385, not.

[423] This incompatibility of the two narratives was perceived at an early period by some opponents of Christianity. Epiphanius names one Philosabbatius, together with Celsus and Porphyry (hæres. li. 8).

[424] Neander, L. J. Ch. s. 33, Anm.

[425] Schleiermacher, Ueber den Lukas, s. 47. Schneckenburger, ut sup.

[426] Antiq. xiv. ix. 4, xv. i. 1 and x. 4.

[427] The Evang. Nicodemi indeed calls him, c. xvi. ὁ μέγας διδάσκαλος, and the Protev. Jacobi, c. xxiv. makes him a priest or even high priest, vid. Varr. ap. Thilo Cod. Apocr. N. T. 1, s. 271, comp. 203.

[428] 1 Th. s. 205 ff.

[429] Cap. vi. Viditque illum Simeon senex instar columnæ lucis refulgentem, cum Domina Maria virgo, mater ejus, ulnis suis eum gestaret,—et circumdabant eum angeli instar circuli, celebrantes illum, etc. Ap. Thilo, p. 71.

[430] Thus E. F. in the treatise, on the two first chapters of Matth. and Luke. In Henke’s Mag. 5 bd. s. 169 f. A similar half measure is in Matthäi, Synopse der 4 Evan. s. 3, 5 f.

[431] With the words of Simeon addressed to Mary: καὶ σοῦ δὲ αὐτῆς τὴν ψυχὲν διελεύσεται ῥομφαία (v. 35) comp. the words in the messianic psalm of sorrow, xxii. 21: ῥῦσαι ἀπὸ ῥομφαίας τὴν ψυχέν μου.

[432] Schleiermacher, Ueber den Lukas, s. 37. Compare on the other hand the observations in § 18, with those of the authors there quoted, Note 19.

[433] Neander here (s. 24 f.) mistakes the apocryphal for the mythical, as he had before done the poetical.

[434] Olshausen, bibl. Comm. 1. s. 142 f.

[435] Dial. c. Trypho, 78: Joseph came from Nazareth, where he lived, to Bethlehem, whence he was, to be enrolled, ἀνεληλύθει (Ἰωσὴφ) ἀπὸ Ναζαρὲτ, ἔνθα ὤκει, εἰς Βηθλεὲμ, ὅθεν ἦν, ἀπογράψασθαι. The words ὅθεν ἦν might however be understood as signifying merely the place of his tribe, especially if Justin’s addition be considered: For his race was of the tribe of Judah, which inhabits that land, ἀπο γὰρ τῆς κατοικούσης τὴν γῆν ἐκείνην φυλῆς Ἰούδα τὸ γένος ἦν.

[436] Beiträge zur Einleit. in das N. T. 1. s. 217. Comp. Hoffmann, s. 238 f. 277 ff.

[437] C. I. 8. 10.

[438] Paulus, exeg. Handb. 1, a, s. 178.

[439] Ueber die Unzulässigkeit der mythischen Auffassung u. s. f. 1, s. 101.

[440] L. J. Ch. s. 33.

[441] Tertull. adv. Marcion iv. 8. Epiphan. hær. xxix. 1.

[442] Comp K. Ch. L. Schmidt, in Schmidt’s Bibliothek, 3, 1, s. 123 f.; Kaiser, bibl. Theol. 1, s. 230.

[443] On this Heydenreich rests his defence, Ueber die Unzulässigkeit. 1. s. 99.

[444] Ueber den Lukas, s. 49. There is a similar hesitation in Thelte, Biographie Jesu, § 15.

[445] Ueber den Ursprung u. s. w., s. 68 f. u. s. 158.

[446] Comp. Ammon. Fortbildung, 1, s. 194 ff.; De Wette, exeget. Handb. 1, 2, s. 24 f.; George, s. 84 ff. That different narrators may give different explanations of the same fact, and that these different explanations may afterwards be united in one book, is proved by many examples in the O. T. Thus in Genesis, three derivations are given of the name of Isaac; two of that of Jacob (xxv. 26., xxvii. 16), and so of Edom and Beersheba (xxi. 31., xxvi. 33). Comp. De Wette, Kritik der mos. Gesch., s. 110. 118 ff. and my Streitschriften, I, 1, s. 83 ff.

[447] Hess, Geschichte Jesu, 1, s. 110.

[448] Olshausen, bibl. Comm. 1, s. 145 f.

[449] Olshausen, ut sup. 1. 150.

[450] Hase, Leben Jesu, § 37.

[451] Heydenreich, über die Unzulässigkeit u. s. f. 1, s. 103.

[452] Megillah, f. 21, apud Lightfoot, in loc.

[453] Vid. Kuinöl, in Luc. p. 353.

[454] Evang. Thomæ, c. vi. ff. Ap. Thilo. p. 288 ff. and Evang. infant, arab. c. xlviii. p. 123, Thilo.

[455] Ibid.

[456] Evang. infant, arab. c. l.

[457] Ibid. c. l. and li.; comp. ev. Thomæ, c. xix.

[458] Olshausen confesses this, s. 151.

[459] For proofs (e.g. Hieros. Taanith, lxvii. 4) see Wetstein and Lightfoot, in loc.

[460] Lightfoot, Horæ, p. 742.

[461] Paulus, s. 279.

[462] Kuinöl, s. 353 f.

[463] Horæ, ii. p. 886.

[464] Bibl. Comm. p. 151.

[465] Geschichte Jesu, 1, s. 112.

[466] In the similar account also which Josephus gives us of himself when fourteen, it is easy to discern the exaggeration of a self-complacent man. Life, 2: Moreover, when I was a child, and about fourteen years of age, I was commended by all for the love I had to learning, on which account the high priests and principal men of the city came there frequently to me together, in order to know my opinion about the accurate understanding of points of the law.

[467]

1 Sam. ii. 26 (LXX): Luc. ii. 52:

καὶ τὸ παιδάριον Σαμουὴλ ἐπορεύετο καὶ Ἰησοῦς προέκοπτε σοφία καὶ μαγαλυνόμενον, καὶ ἀγαθὸν καὶ μετὰ ἡλικίᾳ, καὶ χάριτι παρὰ θεῷ καὶ Κυρίου καὶ μετὰ ἀνθρώπων. ἀνθρώποις.

Compare also what Josephus says Antiq. ii. ix. 6 of the χάρις παιδικὴ of Moses.

[468] Gabler neuest. theol. Journal 3, 1, s. 39.

[469] Joseph. Antiq. ii. ix. 6.

[470] Philo, de vita Mosis, Opp. ed. Mangey, Vol. 2. p. 83 f. οὐχ οἷα κομιδῆ νήπιος ἥδετο τωθασμοῖς καὶ γέλωσι καὶ παιδιαῖς—ἀλλ’ αἰδω καὶ σεμνότητα παραφαίνων, ἀπούσμασι καὶ θεάμασιν, ἃ τὴν ψυχὴν ἔμελλεν ὠφελήσειν προσεῖχε. διδάσκαλοι δ’ εὐθὺς, ἀλλαχόθεν ἄλλος, παρῆσαν·—ὧν ἐν οὐ μακρῷ χρόνῳ τὰς δυνάμεις ὑπερέβαλεν, εὐμοιρίᾳ φύσεως φθάνων τὰς ὑφηγὴσεις.

[471] Chagiga, ap. Wetstein, in loc. A XII anno filius censetur maturus. So Joma f. lxxxii. 1. Berachoth f. xxiv. 1; whereas Bereschith Rabba lxiii. mentions the 13th year as the critical one.

[472] Schemoth R. ap. Wetstein: Dixit R, Chama: Moses duodenarius avulsus est a domo patris sui etc.

[473] Joseph. Antiq. v. x. 4: Σαμούηλος δὲ πεπληρωκὼς ἔτος ἤδη δωδέκατον, προεφήτευς.

[474] Ignat. ep. (interpol.) ad Magnes. c. iii.: Σολομῶν δὲ—δωδεκαετὴς βασιλεύσας, τὴν φοβερὰν ἑκείνην καὶ δυσερμήνευτον ἐπὶ ταῖς γυναιξὶ κρίσιν ἕνεκα τῶν παιδίων ἐποιήσατο.—Δανιὴλ ὁ σοφὸς δωδεκαετὴς γέγονε κάτοχος τῷ θείῳ πνεύματι, καὶ τοὺς μάτην τὴν πολιὰν φέροντας πρεσβύτας συκοφάντας καὶ ἐπιθυμητὰς ἀλλοτρίου κάλλους ἀπήλεγξε. But Solomon, ... being king at the age of twelve years, gave that terrible and profound judgment between the women with respect to the children.... Daniel, the wise man, when twelve years old, was possessed by the divine spirit, and convicted those calumniating old men who, carrying gray hairs in vain, coveted the beauty that belonged to another. This, it is true, is found in a Christian writing, but on comparing it with the above data, we are led to believe that it was drawn from a more ancient Jewish legend.

[475] This Kaiser has seen, bibl. Theol. 1, 234.

[476] Neither do we learn what Hase (Leben Jesu § 37) supposes to be conveyed in this narrative, namely, that as it exhibits the same union with God that constituted the idea of the later life of Jesus, it is an intimation that his later excellence was not the result of conversion from youthful errors, but of the uninterrupted development of his freedom.

[477] Ueber die Unzulässigkeit u. s. f. 1, s. 92.

[478] Ueber den Lukas, s. 39 f.

[479] Cap. v. In the Greek text also the more probable reading is καὶ μάλιστα οὐ σοφῶς, vid. Thilo, p. 287.

[480] Hence the title of an Arabian apocryphal work (according to the Latin translation in Thilo, 1, p. 3): historia Josephi, fabri lignarii.

[481] Vid. Thilo, Cod. Apocr. N. T. p. 368 f. not.

[482] Justin. Dial. c. Tryph. 88. According to him Jesus makes these implements, doubtless under the direction of Joseph. In the Evang. Thomæ c. xiii. Joseph is the workman.

[483] Cap. xxxviii. ap. Thilo, p. 112 ff.

[484] C. ix. and xiii.

[485] C. Cels. vi. 36.

[486] Fritzsche, in Marc. p. 200.

[487] Vid. Wetstein and Paulus, in loc.; Winer, Realwörterbuch, 1, s. 665. Note; Neander, L. J. Chr. s. 46 f. Note.

[488] Ut sup.: ταῦτα γὰρ τὰ τεκτονικὰ ἔργα εἰργάζετο ἐν ἀνθρώποις ὢν, ἄροτρα καὶ ζυγά. διὰ τούτων καὶ τὰ τῆς δικαιοσύνης σύμβολα διδάσκων, καὶ ενεργῆ βίον.

[489] Cap. xxxviii.

[490] Theodoret. H. E. iii. 23.

[491] Hase, Leben Jesu, § 70; Winer, bibl. Realw. 1, s. 665.

[492] Winer, ut sup.

[493] This is done by both the above-named theologians.

[494] Paulus, exeget. Handb. 1, a, s. 273 ff.

[495] Such, however, are the arguments of Paulus, ut sup. 275 ff.

[496] Comp. Hase, Leben Jesu, § 38; Neander, L. J. Chr. s. 45 f.

[497] Paulus, ut sup.

[498] To this Schöttgen appeals, Christus rabbinorum summus, in his horæ, ii. p. 890 f.

[499] As e.g. Reinhard does, in his Plan Jesu.

[500] Evang. infant. arab. c. i. p. 60 f. ap. Thilo, and the passages quoted § 40 out of the same Gospel and the Evang. Thomæ.

[501] Cap. ii. p. 278, Thilo.

[502] Cap. x. ff.

[503] E.g. Evang. Thomæ, c. iii.–v. Evang. infant. arab. c. xlvi. f. Evang. Thomæ, c. ii. Evang. inf. arab. c. xxxvi.

[504] Yet some isolated instances occur, vid. Semler, Baumgarten’s Glaubenslehre, 1, s. 42, Anm. 8.

[505] Orig. c. Cels. 1. 28: καὶ (λέγει) ὅτι οὗτος (ὁ Ἰησοῦς) διὰ πενίαν εἰς Αἴγυπτον μισθαρνήσας, κᾀκεῖ δυνάμεων τίνων πειραθεὶς, ἐφ’ αἷς Αἰγύπτιοι σεμνύνονται, ἐπανῆλθεν, ἐν ταῖς δυνάμεσι μέγα φρονῶν, καὶ δι’ αὐτὰς θεὸν αὐτὸν ἀνηγόρευσε.

[506] Sanhedr. f. cvii. 2: R. Josua f. Perachja et ‏ישו‎ Alexandrian Aegypti profecti sunt — — ‏ישו‎ ex illo tempore magiam exercuit, et Israëlitas ad pessima quævis perduxit. (An important anachronism, as this Josua Ben Perachja lived about a century earlier. See Jost, Geschichte des Isr., 2, s. 80 ff. and 142 of the Appendices.) Schabbath f. civ. 2: Traditio est, R. Elieserem dixisse ad viros doctos: annon f. Satdae (i.e. Jesus) magiam ex Aegypto adduxit per incisionem in carne suâ factam? vid. Schöttgen, horæ, ii. p. 697 ff. Eisenmenger, entdecktes Judenthum, 1, s. 149 f.

[507] E.g. Des Côtes, Schutzschrift für Jesus von Nazaret, s. 128 ff.

[508] Neander, L. J. Chr. s. 39 ff.

[509] Vid. Joseph. B. j. ii. viii. 2–13. Antiq. xviii. i. 5. Comp. Philo, quod omnis probus liber and de vita contemplativa.

[510] This opinion is judiciously developed by Stäudlin, Geschichte der Sittenlehre Jesu, 1, s. 570 ff.; and in a romantic manner in the Geschichte des Grossen Propheten von Nazaret, 1. Band.

[511] H. E. ii. 16 f.

[512] Comp. Bengel, Bemerkungen über den Versuch. das Christenthum aus dem Essäismus abzuleiten, in Flatt’s Magazin, 7, s. 126 ff.; Neander, L. J. Chr. s. 41 ff.

[513] This is stated with exaggeration by Bahrdt, Briefe über die Bibel, zweites Bändchen, 18ter, 20ster Brief ff. 4tes Bändchen, 49ster Brief.

[514] Comp. Paulus ut sup. 1, a, 273 ff. Planck, Geschichte des Christenthums in der Periode seiner ersten Einführung 1, s. 84. De Wette, bibl. Dogm. § 212. Hase L. J. § 38. Winer, bibl. Realw. s. 677 f. Neander, L. J. Chr. s. 38 ff.

[515] Exeget. Handbuch. 1 a, s. 46. Schneckenburger agrees with him, über den Ursprung des ersten kanon. Evang., s. 30.

[516] Vermischte Aufsätze, s. 76 ff. Compare Schneckenburger, ut sup.

[517] De Wette and Fritzsche, in loc.

[518] See Paulus, ut sup., s. 336.

[519] I here collect all the passages in Josephus relative to Lysanias, with the parallel passages in Dion Cassius. Antiq. xiii. xvi. 3, xiv. iii. 2, vii. 8.—Antiq. xv. iv. 1. B. j. i. xiii. 1 (Dio Cassius xlix. 32). Antiq. xv. x. 1–3. B. j. i. xx. 4 (Dio Cass. liv. 9). Antiq. xvii. xi. 4. B. j. ii. vi. 3. Antiq. xviii. vi. 10. B. j. ii. ix. 6 (Dio Cass. lix. 8). Antiq. xix. v. 1. B. j. ii. xi. 5. Antiq. xx. v. 2, vii. 1. B. j. ii. xii. 8.

[520] Süskind, vermischte Aufsätze, s. 15 ff. 93 ff.

[521] Tholuck thinks he has found a perfectly corresponding example in Tacitus. When this historian, Annal. ii. 42 (A.D. 17), mentions the death of an Archelaus, king of Cappadocia, and yet, Annal. vi. 41 (A.D. 36), cites an Archelaus, also a Cappadocian, as ruler of the Clitæ, the same historical conjecture, says Tholuck, is necessary, viz., that there were two Cappadocians named Archelaus. But when the same historian, after noticing the death of a man, introduces another of the same name, under different circumstances, it is no conjecture, but a clear historic datum, that there were two such persons. It is quite otherwise when, as in the case of Lysanias, two writers have each one of the same name, but assign him distinct epochs. Here it is indeed a conjecture to admit two successive persons; a conjecture so much the less historical, the more improbable it is shown to be that one of the two writers would have been silent respecting the second of the like-named men, had such an one existed.

[522] Michaelis, Paulus, in loc. Schneckenburger, in Ullmann’s und Umbreit’s Studien, 1833, 4 Heft, s. 1056 ff. Tholuck, s. 201 ff.

[523] For, on the authority of a single manuscript to erase, with Schneckenburger and others, the second τετραρχοῦντος, is too evident violence.

[524] Compare with this view, Allgem. Lit. Ztg., 1803, No. 344, s. 552: De Wette, exeg. Handbuch, in loc.

[525] See Paulus, s. 294.

[526] See Schleiermacher, über den Lukas, s. 62.

[527] Bengel was also of this opinion. Ordo temporum, s. 204 f. ed. 2.

[528] Antiq. xviii. v. 2.

[529] So Cludius, über die Zeit und Lebensdauer Johannis und Jesu. In Henke’s Museum, ii. iii. 502 ff.

[530] Cludius, ut sup.

[531] Stäudlin, Geschichte der Sittenlehre Jesu, 1, s. 580. Paulus, exeg. Handb. 1 a, s. 136. Comp. also Creuzer, Symbolik, 4, s. 413 ff.

[532] Ut sup. p. 347.

[533] Bell. jud. iii. x. 7.

[534] See Winer, bibl. Realwörterbuch, A. Wüste. Schneckenburger, über den Ursprung des ersten kanonischen Evangeliums, s. 39.

[535] Schneckenburger, ut sup., s. 38 f.

[536] Winer, ut sup., s. 691.

[537] Paulus, ut sup., s. 301.

[538] Schneckenburger, über das Alter der Jüdischen Proselytentaufe.

[539] Sanhedr. f. xcvii. 2: R. Elieser dixit: si Israëlitæ pœnitentiam agunt, tunc per Goëlem liberantur; sin vero, non liberantur. Schöttgen, horæ, 2, p. 780 ff.

[540] Antiq. xviii. v. 2.

[541] Thus Paulus, ut sup., s. 314 and 361, Anm.

[542] Fragment von dem Zwecke Jesu und seiner Jünger, herausgegeben von Lessing, s. 133 ff.

[543] So thinks Semler in his answer to the above Fragments, in loc.; so think most of the moderns; Plank, Geschichte des Christenthums in der Periode seiner Einführung, 1, K. 7. Winer, bibl. Realwörterbuch, 1, s. 691.

[544] Let the reader judge for himself whether Neander’s arguments be not forced: “Even if the Baptist could have expected” (say rather must necessarily have known) “from the circumstances of the birth of Jesus, that he was the Messiah, the divine witness in his own mind would eclipse all external testimony, and compared with this divine illumination, all previous knowledge would seem ignorance.” p. 68.

[545] Lücke, Commentar zum Evang. Johannis 1, s. 362.

[546] Osiander, in despair, answers, that the heavenly communications themselves might contain directions for—keeping the two youths apart! s. 127.

[547] Hess, Geschichte Jesu, 1, s. 117 f. Paulus, ut sup., s. 366.

[548] Comp. the Fragmentist, ut sup.

[549] Hæres, xxx. 13: Καὶ ὡς ἀνῆλθεν ἀπὸ τοῦ ὕδατος, ἡνοίγησαν οἱ οὐρανοὶ, καὶ εἶδε τὸ πνεῦμα τοῦ Θεοῦ τὸ ἅγιον ἐν εἴδει περιστερᾶς κ.τ.λ. καὶ φωνὴ ἐγένετο κ.τ.λ. καὶ εὐθὺς περιέλαμψε τὸν τόπον φῶς μέγα· ὃν ἰδών, φησὶν, ὁ Ἰωάννης λέγει αὐτῷ· σύ τὶς εἶ, Κύριε; καὶ πάλιν φωνὴ κ.τ.λ. καὶ τότε, φησὶν, ὁ Ἰωάννης παραπεσὼν αὐτῷ ἔλεγε· δέομαι σοῦ Κύριε, σύ με βάπτισον. And when he came from the water, the heavens were opened, and he saw the holy spirit of God in the form of a dove, etc., and a voice was heard, etc., and immediately a great light illuminated the place; seeing which, John said to him, Who art thou, Lord? and again a voice, etc. And then, John falling at his feet, said to him, I beseech thee, Lord, baptize me.

[550] Schneckenburger, über den Ursprung des ersten kanonischen Evangeliums, s. 121 f.; Lücke, Comm. z. Ev. Joh., 1, s. 361. Usteri, über den Täufer Johannes u. s. w., Studien, 2, 3. s. 446.

[551] Tertull. adv. Marcion, iv. 18. Comp. Bengel, historico-exegetical remarks in Matt. xi. 2–19, in his Archiv. 1, iii. p. 754 ff.

[552] See Paulus, Kuinöl, in loc. Bengel, ut sup., p. 763.

[553] Calvin, Comm. in harm. ex. Matth., Marc. et Luc. in loc.

[554] We agree with Schleiermacher, (über den Lukas, s. 106 f.) in thus designating the narrative of the third evangelist, first, on account of the idle repetition of the Baptist’s words, ver. 20; secondly, on account of the mistake in ver. 18 and 21, of which we shall presently treat, and to which ver. 29, 30, seem to betray a similar one.

[555] Compare Calvin in loc. and Bengel ut sup., s. 753 ff.

[556] Thus most recent commentators: Paulus, Kuinöl, Bengel, Hase, Theile, and even Fritzsche.

[557] This difficulty occurred to Bengel also, ut sup., p. 769.

[558] The gospel writers, after what they had narrated of the relations between Jesus and the Baptist, of course understood the question to express doubt, whence probably v. 6 (Matt.) and v. 23 (Luke) came in this connection. Supposing these passages authentic, they suggest another conjecture; viz. that Jesus spoke in the foregoing verses of spiritual miracles, and that the Baptist was perplexed by the absence of corporeal ones. The ἀκούσας τὰ ἔργα τ. Χ. must then be set down to the writer’s misapprehension of the expressions of Jesus.

[559] Gabler and Paulus.

[560] De Wette, de morte Christi expiatoria, in his Opusc. theol., s. 77 ff. Lücke, Comm. zum Ev. Joh. 1, s. 347 ff. Winer, bibl. Realwörterb. 1, s. 693, Anm.

[561] Gabler and Paulus. De Wette.

[562] De Wette, ut sup., p. 76.

[563] Paulus, Leben Jesu, 2 a, die Übers., s. 29. 31.

[564] Tholuck and Lücke, in loc.

[565] Lücke, ut sup.

[566] See Bertholdt, Christologia Judæorum Jesu apostolorumque ætate, § 23–25.

[567] Probabilia, p. 41.

[568] See Gfrörer, Philo und die Alexandr. Theosophie, part ii. p. 180.

[569] Lücke, ut sup., p. 500.

[570] Compare especially:

Joh. iii. 11 (Jesus to Nicodemus): Joh. iii. 32 (the Baptist): καὶ ἀμὴν, ἀμὴν, λέγω σοι, ὅτι ὃ οἴδαμεν, ὃ ἑώρακε καὶ ἤκουσε, τοῦτο λαλοῦμεν, καὶ ὃ ἑωράκαμεν, μαρτυρεῖ· καὶ τὴν μαρτυρίαν μαρτυροῦμεν· καὶ τὴν μαρτυρίαν ἡμῶν αὐτοῦ οὐδεὶς λαμβάνει. οὐ λαμβάνετε.

V. 18: ὁ πιστεύων εἰς αὐτὸν οὐ V. 36: ὁ πιστεύων εἰς τὸν υἱὸν κρίνεται· ὁ δὲ μὴ πιστεύων, ἤδη ἔχει ζωὴν αἰώνιον· ὁ δὲ ἀπειθῶν κέκριται, ὅτι μὴ πεπίστευκεν εἰς το τῷ υἱῷ, οὐκ ὄψεται ζωὴν, ἀλλ’ ἡ ὄνομα τοῦ μονογενοῦς υἱοῦ τοῦ Θεοῦ. ὀργὴ τοῦ Θεοῦ μένει ἐπ’ αὐτόν.

Comp. also the words of the Baptist v. 31, with Joh. iii. 6. 12 f. viii. 23; v. 32 with viii. 26; v. 33 with vi. 27; v. 34 with xii. 49, 50; v. 35 with v. 22, 27, x. 28 f. xvii. 2.

[571] Bibl. Comm. 2, p. 105.

[572] Paulus, Olshausen, in loc.

[573] E.g. here, v. 32, it is said: τὴν μαρτυρίαν αὐτοῦ οὐδεὶς λαμβάνει, but in the Prolog. v. 11: καὶ οἱ ἴδιοι αὐτὸν οὐ παρέλαβον. Comp. Lücke, s. 501.

[574] Ut sup.

[575] De Wette, de morte Christi expiatoria, in s. Opusc. theol. p. 81; biblische Dogmatik, § 209; Winer, bibl. Realwörterbuch 1, s. 692.

[576] Neander, p. 75. This author erroneously supposes that there is an indication of the Baptist having directed his disciples to Jesus in Acts xviii. 25, where it is said of Apollos: ἐδίδασκεν ἀκριβῶς τὰ περὶ τοῦ Κυρίου, ἐπιστάμενος τὸ βάπτισμα Ἰωάννου. For on comparing the following chapter, we find that Paul had to teach the disciples of John, that by the ερχόμενος announced by their master, they were to understand Jesus; whence it is clear that the things of the Lord expounded by Apollos, consisted only in the messianic doctrine, purified by John into an expectation of one who was to come, and that the more accurate instruction which he received from the Christians, Aquila and Priscilla, was the doctrine of its fulfilment in the person of Jesus.

[577] Gesenius, Probeheft der Ersch und Gruber’schen Encyclopädie, d. A. Zabier.

[578] Bretschneider, Probab., s. 46 f.; comp. Lücke, s. 493 f.; De Wette, Opusc a. a. O.

[579] Greiling, Leben Jesu von Nazaret, s. 132 f.

[580]

2 Sam. iii. 1. John iii. 30.

‏וְדָוִד הֹלֵךְ וְחָזֵק‎ ἐκεῖνον δεῖ αὐξάνειν. ‏וּבֵית שָׁאוּל הֹלְכִם וְדַלּים :‏‎ ἐμὲ δὲ ἐλαττοῦσθαι.

[581] Schulz, die Lehre vom Abendmahl, s. 145. Winer, Realwörterbuch, 1, s. 693.

[582] Commentar, s. 380.

[583] The passage above quoted from the Acts gives us also some explanation, why the fourth Evangelist of all others should be solicitous to place the Baptist in a more favourable relation to Jesus, than history allows us to conceive. According to v. 1 ff. there were persons in Ephesus who knew only of John’s baptism, and were therefore rebaptized by the Apostle Paul in the name of Jesus. Now an old tradition represents the fourth gospel to have been written in Ephesus (Iræneus adv. hær. iii. 1). If we accept this (and it is certainly correct in assigning a Greek locality for the composition of this Gospel), and presuppose, in accordance with the intimation in the Acts, that Ephesus was the seat of a number of the Baptist’s followers, all of whom Paul could hardly have converted; the endeavour to draw them over to Jesus would explain the remarkable stress laid by the fourth Evangelist on the μαρτυρία Ἰωάννου. Storr has very judiciously remarked and discussed this, über den Zweck der Evangelischen Geschichte und der Briefe Johannis, s. 5 ff. 24 f. Compare Hug, Einleitung in das N. T., s. 190 3te Ausg.

[584] Antiq. xviii. v. 2.

[585] Ueber den Lukas, s. 109.

[586] Ibid. p. 106.

[587] Ueber den Ursprung u. s. w. s. 79.

[588] The expression οἱ Ἰουδαῖοι is thus interpreted by the most learned exegetists. Comp. Paulus, Lücke, Tholuck in loc.

[589] Lücke, Commentar, s. 327.

[590] Lücke, s. 339.

[591] Whether the dialogue between John and his complaining disciples (John iii. 25 ff.) be likewise a transmutation of the corresponding scene, Matt. ix. 14 f., as Bretschneider seeks to show, must remain uncertain. Probab., p. 66 ff.

[592] That Jesus, as many suppose, assigns a low rank to the Baptist, because the latter thought of introducing the new order of things by external violence, is not to be detected in the gospels.

[593] For a different explanation see Schneckenburger, Beiträge, s. 48 ff.

[594] Antiq. xviii. v. 2.

[595] This former husband of Herodias is named by the Evangelists, Philip, by Josephus, Herod. He was the son of the high priest’s daughter, Mariamne, and lived as a private person. V. Antiq. xv. ix. 3; xviii. v. 1. 4. B. j. i. xxix. 2, xxx. 7.

[596] Antiq. xviii. v. 4.

[597] Hase, Leben Jesu, s. 88.

[598] Fritzsche, Comm. in Matth. in loc. Winer, bibl. Realwörterb. 1, s. 694.

[599] Paulus, exeg. Handb. 1, a, s. 361; Schleiermacher, über den Lukas, s. 109.

[600] Vergl. Fritzsche, Comm. in Marc., p. 225.

[601] E.g. Schneckenburger, über den Ursprung des ersten kanonischen Evangeliums, s. 86 f. That the ἐλυπήθη of Matthew, v. 9, is not contradictory to his own narrative, see Fritzsche, in loc.

[602] S. Winer, b. Realwörterb. d. A. Herodes Antipas.

[603] Fritzsche, Commentar. in Matt., p. 491.

[604] Antiq. xviii. v. 1.

[605] Dial. c. Tryph. 8, s. 110. der Mauriner Ausg.

[606] Hess. Geschichte Jesu, 1 Bd. s. 118.

[607] Paulus, ut sup., s. 362 ff. 337. Hase, L. J., s. 48, erste Ausg.

[608] Hieron. adv. Pelagian. iii. 2: In Evangelio juxta Hebræos—narrat historia: Ecce mater Domini et fratres ejus dicebant ei: Joannes baptista baptizat in remissionem peccatorum; eamus et baptizemur ab eo. Dixit autem eis: quid peccavi ut vadam et baptizer ab eo? nisi forte hoc ipsum quod dixi, ignorantia est.

[609] The author of the Tractatus de non iterando baptismo in Cyprian’s works, Rigalt., p. 139, says (the passage is also found in Fabric. Cod. apocr. N.T., s. 799 f.): Est—liber, qui inscribitur Pauli prædicatio. In quo libro, contra omnes scripturas et de peccato proprio confitentem invenies Christum, qui solus omnino nihil deliquit, et ad accipiendum Joannis baptisma pæne invitum â matre suâ Mariâ esse compulsum.

[610] Justin. Mart. dial. c. Tryph. 88: κατελθόντος τοῦ Ἰησοῦ ἐπὶ τὸ ὕδωρ, καὶ πῦρ ἀνήφθη ἐν τῷ Ἰορδάνη, κ.τ.λ.. Epiphan. hæres. 30, 13 (after the heavenly voice): καὶ εὐθὺς περιέλαμψε τὸν τόπον φῶς μέγα.

[611] See Usteri, über den Täufer Johannes, die Taufe und Versuchung Christi, in the theolog. Studien und Kritiken, 2 Bd. 3 Heft, s. 442 ff., and Bleek, in the same periodical, 1833, 2, s. 428 ff.

[612] Bauer, hebr. Mythologie, 2 s. 225 f. Comp. Gratz, Comm. zum Evang. Matt. i. s. 172 ff.

[613] These are Theodore’s words, in Münter’s Fragmenta patr. græc. Fasc. 1, s. 142. Orig. c. Cels. i. 48. Basil. M. in Suicer’s Thesaurus, 2, p. 1479.

[614] As even Lücke confesses, Comm. zum Evang. Joh. i., s. 370, and Bleek, ut sup., s. 437.

[615] Comp. Eusebius, H. E. vi. 29.

[616] See Paulus, Bauer, Kuinöl, Hase and Theile.

[617] De Wette, bibl. Dogmatik, § 208. Anm. 6, exeg. Handb. 1, 1, s. 34 f. 1, 3, s. 29 f. Schleiermacher, über den Lukas, s. 58 f. Usteri, Bleek, Hase, Kern, Neander.

[618] According to Bava Mezia, f. lix. 1 (in Wetstein, p. 427), R. Elieser appealed to a heavenly sign, in proof that he had tradition in his favour: tum personuit echo cœlestis: quid vobis cum R. Eliesere? nam ubivis secundum illum obtinet traditio.

[619] Dial. c. Tryph. 88.

[620] Hæres. xxx. 13.

[621] Pædagog. i. 6.

[622] De consens. Evangg. ii. 14.

[623] S. Wetstein in loc. des Lukas, and De Wette, Einl. in das N. T., s. 100.

[624] S. Rosenmüller’s Schol. in Psalm ii.

[625] Schleiermacher, über den Lukas, s. 57.

[626] Tibull. Carm. L. 1, eleg. 8, v. 17 f. See the remark of Broeckhuis on this passage; Creuzer, Symbolik, ii. s. 70 f.; Paulus, exeg. Handb. 1, a, s. 369.

[627] Creuzer, Symbolik, ii. s. 80.

[628] Chagiga c. ii.: Spiritus Dei ferebatur super aquas, sicut columba, quæ fertur super pullos suos nec tangit illos. Ir Gibborim ad Genes. 1, 2, ap. Schöttgen, horæ, i. p. 9.

[629] Targum Koheleth, ii. 12, vox turturis is interpreted as vox spiritus sancti. To regard this, with Lücke, as an arbitrary interpretation, seems itself like arbitrariness, in the face of the above data.

[630] Bereschith rabba, s. 2, f. 4, 4, ad Genes. T. 2 (ap. Schöttgen ut sup.): intelligitur spiritus regis Messiæ, de quo dicitur, Jes. xi. 2: et quiescet super illum spiritus Domini.

[631] Sohar. Numer. f. 68. col. 271 f. (in Schöttgen, horæ, 2, p. 537 f.). The purport of this passage rests on the following cabalistic conclusion: If David, according to Ps. lii. 10, is the olive tree; the Messiah, a scion of David, is the olive leaf: and since it is said of Noah’s dove, Gen. viii. 11, that it carried an olive leaf in its mouth; the Messiah will be ushered into the world by a dove.—Even Christian interpreters have compared the dove at the baptism of Jesus to the Noachian one; see Suicer, Thesaurus, 2, Art. περιστερὰ, p. 688. It has been customary to cite in this connection, that the Samaritans paid divine honours to a dove under the name of Achima, on Mount Gerizim; but this is a Jewish accusation, grounded on a wilful misconstruction. See Stäudlin’s and Tzschirner’s Archiv. für K. G. 1, 3, s. 66. Lücke, 1, s. 367.

[632] See Fritzsche, Comm. in Matt., p. 148.

[633] Hess, Geschichte Jesu, 1, s. 120.

[634] Bibl. Comm. 1, s. 175 f.

[635] Comm. zum Evang. Joh. 1, s. 378 f.

[636] From the orthodox point of view, it cannot be consistently said, with Hoffmann (p. 301), that for the conviction of his messiahship and the maintenance of the right position, amid so many temptations and adverse circumstances, an internally wrought certainty did not suffice Jesus, and external confirmation by a fact was requisite.

[637] Epiphan. hæres. xxx. 14: ἐπειδὴ γὰρ βούλονται τὸν μὲν Ἰησοῦν ὄντως ανθρώπον εἶναι, Χριστὸν δὲ ὲν αὐτῷ γεγενῆσθαι τὸν ἐν εἴδει περιστερᾶς καταβεβηκότα, κ.τ.λ.:—They maintain that Jesus was really man, but that that which descended from heaven in the form of a dove became Christ in him.

[638] Epiphan. hæres. xxviii. 1.

[639] Epiphan. hæres. xxx. 13:—περιστερᾶς κατελθούσης καὶ εἰσελθούσης εἰς αὐτὸν:—of a dove descending and entering into him.

[640] See the passage above, § 48, note 7.

[641] Schneckenburger, über den Ursprung des ersten kanonischen Evang., s. 39.

[642] Comm. z. Ev. Joh. 1, s. 344.

[643] Comp. de Wette, exeg. Handb. 1, 3, s. 27.

[644] Compare Fritzsche, Comm. in Marc, s. 23 De Wette, exeg. Handb., 1, 2, s. 33.

[645] Kuinöl, Comm. in Luc., s. 379.

[646] Lightfoot, horæ, p. 243.

[647] Schneckenburger, über den Ursprung des ersten kan. Evang., s. 46.

[648] Ibid.

[649] Thus Euthymius, Kuinöl, and others.

[650] Fritzsche, in loc.

[651] Beitrag zur Erklärung der Versuchungsgeschichte, in Ullmann’s and Umbreit’s Studien, 1834, 4, s. 789.

[652] Ueber den Lukas, s. 56.

[653] Compare Schneckenburger, ut sup., s. 46 f.

[654] Exegetische Beiträge, 1, s. 277 ff.

[655] Comm. in Matth. s. 172 ff.

[656] In the Essay quoted, s. 768.

[657] Thus, e.g., Kuinöl, Comm. in Matth., p. 84. Comp. Gratz, Comm. zum Matth., 1, s. 229. Hoffmann, p. 315.

[658] Usteri, über den Täufer Johannes, die Taufe und Versuchung Christi. In den theol. Studien und Kritiken, zweiten Jahrgangs (1829), drittes Heft, s. 450. De Wette, exeg. Handb., 1, 1, s. 38.

[659] De Wette, bibl. Dogmatik, § 171. Gramberg, Grundzüge einer Engellehre des A. T., § 5, in Winer’s Zeitschrift f. wissenschaftliche Theologie, 1 Bd. s. 182 f.

[660] Glaubenslehre, 1, ss. 44, 45, der zweiten Ausg.

[661] Schmidt, exeg. Beiträge. Kuinöl, in Matt.

[662] In a fragment of Theodore of Mopsuestia in Münter’s Fragm. Patr. Græc. Fasc. 1, p. 99 f.

[663] Paulus.

[664] Hoffmann thinks that the devil, in his second temptation, designedly chose so startling an example as the leap from the temple roof, the essential aim of the temptation being to induce Jesus to a false use of his miraculous power and consciousness of a divine nature. But this evasion leaves the matter where it was, for there is the same absurdity in choosing unfit examples as unfit temptations.

[665] Hess, Geschichte Jesu, 1, s. 124.

[666] See the author of the discourse de jejunio et tentationibus Christi, among Cyprian’s works.

[667] Compare Joseph. B. J. v. v. 6, vi. v. 1. Fritzsche, in Matth., s. 164. De Wette, exeg. Handb., 1, 1, s. 40.

[668] The one proposed by Kuinöl, in Matth., p. 90; the other by Fritzsche, p. 168.

[669] Theodore of Mopsuestia, ut sup. p. 107, maintained against Julian that the devil had made the image of a mountain, φαντασίαν ὄρους τὸν διάβολον πεποιηκέναι, and according to the author of the discourse, already cited, de jejunio et tentationibus Christi, the first temptation it is true passed localiter in deserto, but Jesus only went to the temple and the mountain as Ezekiel did from Chaboras to Jerusalem—that is, in spiritu.

[670] Paulus, s. 379.

[671] See for the former, H. Farmer, Gratz, Comm. zum Ev. Matth. 1, s. 217; for the latter, Olshausen in loc., and Hoffmann (s. 326 f.) if I rightly apprehend him.

[672] Paulus, s. 377 ff.

[673] Fritzsche, in Matth. 155 f. Usteri, Beitrag zur Erklärung der Versuchungsgeschichte, s. 774 f.

[674] Ullmann, über die Unsündlichkeit Jesu, in his Studien, 1, 1, s. 56. Usteri, ut sup., s. 775.

[675] Usteri, s. 776.

[676] 1 Bd. s. 512 ff.

[677] The former in Henke’s n. Magazin 4, 2, s. 352; the latter in the natürlichen Geschichte, 1, s. 591 ff.

[678] This view is held by Ullmann, Hase, and Neander.

[679] Schleiermacher, über den Lukas, s. 54. Usteri, ut sup., s. 777.

[680] If something really experienced by Jesus is supposed as the germ of the parable, this opinion is virtually the same as the preceding.

[681] J. E. C. Schmidt, in seiner Bibliothek, 1, 1, s. 60 f. Schleiermacher, über den Lukas, s. 54 f. Usteri, über den Täufer Johannes, die Taufe und Versuchung Christi, in den theol. Studien, 2, 3, s. 456 ff.

[682] K. Ch. L. Schmidt, exeg. Beiträge, 1, s. 339.

[683] Hasert, Bemerkungen über die Ansichten Ullmann’s und Usteri’s von der Versuchungsgesch., Studien, 3, 1, s. 74 f.

[684] Hasert, ut sup., s. 76.

[685] Zur Biographie Jesu, § 23.

[686] See Zech. iii. 1, where Satan resists the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord; farther Vajikra rabba, f. cli. 1 (in Bertholdt, Christol. Jud., p. 183), where, according to Rabbi Jochanan, Jehovah said to ‏מלאך המות‎ (i.e. to Satan, comp. Heb. ii. 14 and Lightfoot, horæ, p. 1088): Feci quidem te κοσμοκράτορα, at vero cum populo fœderis negotium nulla in re tibi est.

[687] See the passages quoted by Fabricius in Cod. pseudepigr. V. T., p. 395, from Gemara Sanhedrin.

[688] The same, p. 396. As Abraham went out to sacrifice his son in obedience to Jehovah, antevertit eum Satanas in via, et tali colloquio cum ipso habito a proposito avertere eum conatus est, etc. Schemoth, R. 41 (ap. Wetstein in loc. Matth.): Cum Moses in altum adscenderet, dixit Israëli: post dies XL hora sexta redibo. Cum autem XL illi dies elapsi essent, venit Satanas, et turbavit mundum, dixitque: ubi est Moses, magister vester? mortuus est. It is worthy of remark that here also the temptation takes place after the lapse of 40 days.

[689] Thus Fritzsche, in Matt. p. 173. His very title is striking, p. 154: Quod in vulgari Judæorum opinione erat, fore, ut Satanas salutaribus Messiæ consiliis omni modo, sed sine effectu tamen, nocere studeret, id ipsum Jesu Messiæ accidit. Nam quum is ad exemplum illustrium majorum quadraginta dierum in deserto loco egisset jejunium, Satanas eum convenit, protervisque atque impiis— —consiliis ad impietatem deducere frustra conatus est.

[690] Schöttgen, horæ, ii. 538, adduces from Fini Flagellum Judæorum,