PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
A Dictionary of Christ and the Gospels — Volume 2
James Hastings · 1,290,716 words · 1269 reading sections
Section 601
Lnstly, He never uttered a word to indicate directly and explicitly that He entertained any hope of the regeneration of the civil, or political, or economical conditions and organizations of human society. Why was tliis? Why did He keep Himself so entirely and persistently aloof from these and all other great interests…
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i. But did Christ's teaching as to human progress actually follow the lines just indicated ? It did. In Ml 5^' He identihed His position in history and His work with the essentially moral nature, and with the cause and the evolution of the progress of the individual and social life of humanity. That in the Law and the …
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Thus it becomes manifest that our Lord's teach- ing embodied a philosophy of human history and progress. In this point of view His teaching was absolutely original. Nor can it ever be superseded. His ideas of human progress and His faith in it are a large part of essential Christianity. This part of His gospel is urgen…
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It is true, of course, that Jesus commonly used one term at least which in the current phraseology of the time was closely associated with the tem- jjoral and literally-understood fulfilment of the ' promise.' He constantly jiroclaimed the advent of the Kingdom of heaven or the Kingdom of God. But Avhatever critical vi…
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The first point to make clear is that this revolt was certainly jnesent among the Jews, and has left distinct traces in the OT (Is 5^) and also in the exti<a-canonical Jewish literature. ' There came to exist among them what has been called a "genius for hatred "of the rich ' (Peabody, Jesus Christ and tlic Socifd Que…
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A careful scrutiny of the relevant passages of the Book of Acts shows that: (1) the condition which prevailed in Jerusalem did not continue ; (2) tlie churches organized by St. Paul (whose companion St. Luke was) show no trace of the community of goods, nor is any condemnation ex- pressed because of this ; (3) tho.se w…
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PROPERTY PROPHET 431 spirit of aloofness and independence in relation to the world and its Avealtli. Tlie duty of work and of making provision for worldly needs by work may be clearly inferred from the teaching and example of Jesus, thougli it is not specitically inculcated. He laboured as a carpenter in Nazareth (…
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LiTERATi'RE. — Wendt, Teaching of Jesus, voL i. ; EBr^ xxii. 205 £f., .\xxii. 6(Uff. ; Schiirer, UJP, passim ; Robert E. Speer, The Principles 0/ Jesus ; Rae, Contemporary Socialism ; Pea- body, Jesus Christ and the Social Question, and also The Mess- age of Christ to Society ; Kaufiuann, Christian Socialism ; kirkup, …
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The fullest references to a coming prophet are found in Deutero Isaiah ; and here He is clearly identified with ' the Servant of the Lord.' There enters largely into the prophet's conception of this great Personality the idea of His being an anointed revealer of truth. Jehovah makes ' his mouth like a sharp .SM'ord ' (…
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II. Jesus had the essential marks of a prophet.— When we turn to the records of the life of Jesus, we find predicated of Him every characteristic that marked the Hebrew prophets. 1. If Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel were all introduced to their projihetic career by a vision granted and a voice iieard (Is e^-^, Jer l^-^o…
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5. A further characteristic of prophecy wa.s its power of prediction. The apologetic use of pro- phecy in the past no doubt led to a too exclusive consideration of this aspect of the prophetic books ; and the Church has gained much by regarding the prophets as men inspired by Jehovali with special moral messages to the…
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III. Jesus is above all other prophets. —But while Jesus fulfils every prophetic characteristic perfectly, and is thus the world's Supreme Prophet, it is also evident, from this very perfection, that He is essentially distinct from all others who bore the title. For not only is there found in Him a man called of God to…
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It is here especially that He stands pre-eminent. Throughout the Avhole course of His utterances there can be found no hesitation due to a possible conflict betAveen His OAvn judgment and His Father's Avill, but rather a claim in unmistakable language to absolute infallibility as a Teacher. In truth. His consciousness …
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It is true that Jesus does not explain AowHis death WTOught the Atonement, and that we must turn to the Epistles for this knowledge ; but we may with confidence assume that the early Church derived its light on the matter from Jesus Himself ; for St. Luke (24^^) teDs us that among the truths taught the dis- ciples by J…
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B. Christ's predictioxs. — The predictive element enters ver^' largely into the utterances of Christ. Not only do the Gospels contain pro- phecies spoken with the express intention of re- vealing the future to tlie disciples, such as those relating to His own death and the destruction of Jerusalem, but also numerous p…
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Though its beginning is unobserved (Lk 17-"), yet He predicted, in the parable of the Seed Growing Secretly (Mk 4-^), its reaching through steady growth its consummation ; in the parable of the Mustard Seed (Mt IS'*'), its universal extension as a visible societj- ; and in that of the Leaven, its gradually acquired pow…
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5. Predictions regarding the destination of Jeru- salem.— The chief difficulties found in the pre- dictions of Jesus regarding the destruction of Jerusalem are in the great eschatological discourse recorded in Mk 13. and in 'the lesser Apocalypse' in Lk 17. As both these passages will come up before us under the prophe…
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off their preconceptions, and still hankered after a material Messianic kingdom (Ac IB) ; and we may therefore be certain that during the days spent with Him before His death and resurrection, they would have been absolutely unable to under- stand Him had He spoken openly of His continuous spiritual presence, of His sp…
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(2) ' The ISon of Man shall ooine in the f^lory of his Father with his angels, and then shall he render unto every man according to his deeds. Verily I say unto you, There be some of them that stand here, which shall in no wise taste of death, till they .see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom ' (Mt 16-^- -*). .Jesus …
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It might be enough to object to such a radical solution by pointing out the entire absence of any external evidence ; but, further, it should be said that it seems incredible that the Evangelists should, by this sort of literary patchwork, have concocted a discourse so difficult for themselves and their readers to unde…
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intervene between the destruction of Jerusalem and the Parousia. The discourse closed with two remarkable state- ments : first, that that generation would not pass away until all those things were accomplished (Mk 1330, Mt 24=*^ Lk 21^2) ; second, that none save the Father, not even the Son, knew ' that day and hour' …
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V. The prophetic office of the Ascended Christ. — We must not conceive of the prophetic office of Jesus as ceasing with His ascension ; for it, no less than the priestly and kingly, belongs to His essential activities as the Redeemer of men. Error as well as sin blights human life, and truth as well as righteousness is…
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1. In the teaching of our Lord.— The .single in- stance in which our Lord is reported to have used the word l\d(TKo/j.at, in Lk 18'^, has little bearing on the question whether He thought His work a pro- pitiation. This question must be considered on the l)roader ground of His thought of the relation in which His work …
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2. In the teaching of the Apostles. — While we may have the key to the innermost meaning of our Lord's mission work in the forms of the word i\d<TKo/xai, they must be interpreted in the perspec- tive of the general teaching of the Epistles. While the word ' propitiation ' is used so seldom, the idea that our Lord's wor…
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world, can be explained only on the ground that he thought of Clirist's propitiatory work as having primarily an efficacy Godward, and manward only as a conse([uence. (r) The Epistle tv the Hebrevjs. — According to He 2'^, propitiation is made for sin. It is made by Christ as the antitype of the high-priesthood of the…
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C. Goodspeed. PROSELYTE.— 1. Derivation of the name.— irpod-qXvTos (from irpoffipxoixai) means lit. ' one who has arrived at a place,' hence 'a stranger,' 'a so- journer.' In the LXX it is frequently used as the equivalent of the Heb. "13 (see Expos. IV. x. [1894] p. 264). By NT times it had acquired the technical mea…
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XVII. X. The account of the Acts shoAvs that proselytes often became converts to Christianity, and this Avas an important factor in the establishment of the Gentile Christian Church. The struggle betAveen St. Paul and the Judaizers (Ac 15 and Ep. to Galatians) Avas an attempt on the part of Christian Pharisees to comp…
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(1) December is the rainy season, and with ever3- wayside brook running full, Jesus would not have needed to crave a drink from the woman's pitcher to slake His thirst (cf. Ps 110"). (2) It is incredible that, when after the Passover He retired with His disciples from Jerusalem ' into the land of Jud;ea' (Jn 3"), in or…
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6. The Sermon on the Mount abounds in pro- verbial phrases. ' A single iota or a single tip ' (Mt 5'^) is like our phrase, ' The dot of an i or the stroke of a t.' It is frequent in the Talmud (cf. Lightfoot and Wetstein). ' Sound not a trumpet before thee ' (6^) is a proverbial metaphor, though Calvin takes it literal…
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11. One misses the spirit of the conversation be- tween Jesus and the Syrophcenician Avoman (Mt 1521-28= Mi^ 72-1-30) unless one observes tiiat it is a bandying of proverbs. The scene was evidently the lodging of Jesus and the Twelve. The woman had followed them indoors [in Mk 72' Tischendorf, after J<LD, reads elcreXd…
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' " What is the way that leads to the true Instruction ? " said I. "You see above," said he, "yonder place where no one dwells, but it seems to he desert?" "I do." "And a little door, and a way before the door, which is not much thronged, but very few go there ; so impassable does the way seem, so rougli and rocky?" "Y…
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(2) The traders were not the only strangers who visited the Holy Land. There were Roman soldiers and Herod's mercenaries, the latter including Thracians, Germans, and Galatians (Jos. Ant. XVII. viii. 3). King Herod the Great had built a magnificent theatre at Jerusalem and an equally magnificent amphitheatre, and had i…
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PROVIDEXCE PRUDENCE 449 asters falling on the individual are not to be taken as Di\ine retributions upon special guiltiness (Lk 13'"^), and that our views of Divine providence must be extended so as to include a coming day of judgment for nations as well as individuals (Mt OjJirt.) Thus in His teaching He anticipate…
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Christ's doctrines of Divine and human provid- ence are thus complementary to each other. The thought of God's foreseeing care does not do away with human freedom and responsibility. On the contrary, it accentuates these by assuring us that we are not the creatures of fate, but the free chil- dren of God, and that we l…
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ministry they questioned Him about His disciples and fasting . ' The da3's will come when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days ' (Lk 5^*5). And as soon as Peter had made his confession of belief in Him as Messiah, Jesus began to prepare His disciples for sufferings and de…
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2. But in estimating the influence of the Psalter upon Jesus, we are not left to conjecture. On many occasions— notably at the beginning and the end of His public career — He uses it directly, and expresses, sometimes the truths of His gospel, sometimes tiie aspirations of His soul, sometimes His premonitions of the fa…
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The tendency to find in the Psalter predictive references to Jesus must have set in very early. In Mt 1335, e.g., the para- bolic method of teaching adopted by Jesus is said to be in fulfilment of the prophecy (attributed in one MS to Isaiah), ' I will open my mouth in parable.t, I will utter things hidden from the fou…
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representative of Jehovah, the King and Father of His people. It is, we must admit, by no means impossible, especially when we consider the soaring- language of the psalm, that its subject is not any reigning king, but some king yet to be ; this would be the case if the psalm belongs, as it may, to the post-exilic peri…
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Ps 3*21 (20). According to Jn 19»6 tiie legs of Jesus were not broken, in order that tiie scripture inigiit be fulfilled, 'A bone of liim sliall not be broken.' In the psalm the verse is intended to express tiie general care whicii Jeiiovah exercises over tiie righteous, and therefore it could iiardly be re- garded as …
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\]\\ 454 PSALMS PSALMS Ps 69. It might seem surprising that a psalm marked by so vindictive a spirit as Ps 69 should ever have been interpreted Messianically, but several of its verses are even in the NT brought into relation with Christ. In his usual manner .St. John (IQ-*^'^") sees in the ottering of vinegar to J…
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Ps 118. With this psalm as with Ps 8, Jesus assumed a certain familiarity on the part of His audience (Mt 21*^ < jy^A ye never read ?'). His use of it strongly suggests, though perhaps it hardly compels, the belief that He regarded it as Mes- sianic. With the words, ' Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord' …
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.lolin the Baptist's preaching attracted many publicans to him, and when they inquired in what tiiey must mend tlieir ways after being baptizeil by him, his answer indicated that extortion was tiieir besetting danger, as we should expect (Lk 3'-- '^) Tile remarkable effect that our Lord's ministry also iiad upon tiies…
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We see, then, that it was not Christ's object to reveal Himself to every one indiscriminately, but to those only who had a desire for that know- ledge, together with love and reverence. The training of such recipients was gentle and gradual. Manifestation to the hardened brought with it only condemnation. Concealment i…
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PUNISHxAIEXT PURIFICATION 457 ledge. Human analogies can merely give us vague hints, every analogy being to some degree im- perfect, and therefore to the same degree mislead- ing. Instead of seeking to dogmatize on what does not at present fall within the sphere of our understanding, it Avould seem wise to contine o…
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1. In case of leprosy (Mk 1"^ Lk 5", Mt 8^, Lk 17"'^"). — The uncleanness of the leper seems to have been due not to the fear of contagion, for contagious diseases were not, generally speaking, regarded as unclean, but to the repulsive appearance of this particular disease. Leprosy (wh. see) was counted to be a sjiecia…
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4. After childbirth (Lk 222)._That childbirth renders a woman unclean is an almost universal belief among primitive peoples. Among some Arab tribes it was customary to build a hut out- side the camp, where the woman had to stay for a time (Hastings' i)5 iv. 828''; Wellhausen, Rested, 170). The Priestly Code recognized …
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consists of xaUxpoi, xxllap/Cu, xa.Oiicpiiru,o; (frequently) ; xxbxipa, iiKxaWa/jiJw (twice each); xKllxpoTr:;, xKHxpf^x, Tipix<cyx.p/j.x. (once each) ; and iczahxpTo;, xxxilxpa-ix. In the English (R\0 these are most often re?idered by 'clean,' 'cleanse,' etc. ; but often by 'jiure,' 'purify,' etc. The other groi;p con…
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Literature.— W. M. Ramsav, ' Greek of Early Ch. and Pagan Ritual' in ExpT x. (1809) 107 ; J. Smith, Chr. Character ax a Social Power (1899), 143 ; H. Bushnell, The Aeir Life, 176 ; W. J. Dawson, Threshold of Manhood (1889), 102; F. W. Robertson, Seitn., 3rd ser. (1876) 122 ; A. Maclaren, Serm. in Manchester, 2nd ser. 1…
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See also Bag. Literature. — The Lexicons of Liddell and Scott, and Grimm- Thayer, s.v. ^aXXavrtov ; ExpT iv. [1893] 153 ff. ; Expositor, i. vi. [187V]312fl. W. H. DUNDAS, Q QUARANTANIA.— See Wilderness, QUATERNION (rerpdStoi').— The word occurs only once in NT, and then not in the Gospels (Ac 12^)'; but we know tha…
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i. Questions put by Jesus. — 1. The promin- ence of interrogative sentences in the Gospels is due in part to the characteristic avoidance of indirect con.structions ; but no doubt both in this particular and in the number of questions intro- duced they reflect the vividness of the Saviour's methods of teaching. The int…
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((,•) Appeals to the conscience of the hearers : Mt 2317H'-, Mk 34 = Mt 1211 = Lk 6», Lk 1315 143- 5 (cf. Mt 12Wf). (d) Appeals to OT Scriptures : Mk 225f. = Mt 123f. = Lk 63f-, Mk 1117 (question-form dropped in Mt 2113 and Lk 19-16), Mk 12iof- = Mt 21-12 = Lk 2017, Mk 1 226 = Mt 2231 <• (question-form dropped in Lk20…
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2. Often He answered a question somewhat in- directly, correcting the mental attitude, or some misconception, of the questioner. Thus in answer to, ' Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven ? ' (Mt 18'), He shows the character of true greatness in the judgment of God. When a man asked (Lk 1323), 'Lord, are there f…
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P. M. Barnard. QUIRINIUS.— Lk 22 AV, ' And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria' is better rendered in RV, ' This was the first en- rolment made when Quirinius was governor of Syria.' From art. CENSUS it will be seen that this statement probably means that this was the first occasion of tan e…
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464 QUOTATIO^sS QUOTATIONS governor in charge of the military operations in the same region, with the title of legatus, or more .specifically of dux. Inasmucli as the Greek equivalent in the case of either civil or military governor is 7jy€/j.uiv, St. Luke would be justified in saying, as he does, that the first enr…
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The passages cited give evidence of intentional use of the OT. Usually they are introduced by .some formula of citation such as 'it is written,' ' the Scripture saith,' and the like. There are about fifty different variants in the mode of intro- ducing explicit quotations found in the Gospels. Some of the passages giv…
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(j) Such a passage as Lk 8'" cited above comi)els the recognition of passages which may have inten- tionally used the OT thought or language, yet do VOL. II. — 30 not give conclusive evidence that they were so iised. Its use may have been due to literary and uncon- scious influence. In any case there is such co- incid…
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2. Use of other writings in the Gospels. — Are other writings than the OT used in the Gospels ? This question recognizes the possibility (n) of ex- plicit citations from writings outside of the OT as authoritative documents, or (6) of a general use of material as a source of historical example or ex- plicit allusion, o…
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{d) Is the relation between these writings more important than a merely literary relation ? If it is, how important is it ? What does it signify ? In the references above, the extra-OT books are all prior to the birth of Jesus. They reveal something of the thought of the Jews before His time, and doubtless of His own g…
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RABBONI (from Heb. jit or \\^i) is another form of ' Rabbi,' but was considered a higher and more honourable title. Hence possibly its ])reference by the blind man (Mk 10'^) in his natural anxiety to address .Jesus with the title of greatest courtesy and respect that he knew. The word occurs only twice in the Gospels, …
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of Vernacular Syriac gives the vocalization ^3? reca (or rica) for the present dialect of the Azer- baijani Jews. This want of examples may, how- ever, be due to the fact that a word was avoided, the use of which was denounced in the Gospel. The expression dvdpuiire Kevi in Ja 2^" niay be con- sidered its Greek equiva…
1,078 wordsSource & rights
Public-domain historical reference work (1906–1908); OCR text from Internet Archive. Historical scholarship and terminology reflect its era; OCR may contain errors. Verify quotations and current scholarly claims independently.
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Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.