PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
A Dictionary of Christ and the Gospels — Volume 2
James Hastings · 1,290,716 words · 1269 reading sections
Section 361
(2) The reason of Simeon's peace in the prospect of death : ' For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, Which thou preparedst before the face of all peoples." What we see with our eyes is sure (cf. Jn 1'^ lO-*^ and 1 Jn 1-). And Jesus Christ is salvation (Is 49*), for salvation is in Him and in none other (Ac 4'-). ^Mor…
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Our Lord Himself gives other examples of such casuistical distinctions in the matter of oaths in Mt 23i''-22. He refers to them here because the full import of His prohibition of oaths might not l)e realized by those who were familiar with such dis- tinctions. It might be thought that He was merely forbidding a direct …
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This attempt to empty the SXus of its meaning does not commend itself. It is evidently inspired by fear of the consequences which seem to ensue from the absolute prohibition Chri.st lays down, and such a motive does not tend to sound exegesis. It fails to do justice to the original. The only permissible translation of …
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256 OBED OBEDIENCE occurs, did not refuse to answer when the high priest adjured Him by tlie living God (26*'^). And though Mark oniits the adjuration, so that we cannot Avith confidence appeal to the conduct of Christ Himself on this occasion, all the Gospels represent Him as frequently strengthening His declaratio…
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3. His sinlcssness. — We thus see in the life of Jesus no ofiTence against the law of right. There is no evidence of sinfulness. But this would not in itself establish His sinlessness. Many a man gives the impression of a perfect life, is, according to the Scripture phrase, ' blameless,' who is not ' sinless,' because …
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• history, with the idea of sin and condemnation. Or, as St. Paul expresses it ((ial 3'-*), it was a curse Avhich He did not lightly take upon Him- self. Two things result from this method of con- .sidering the death of Christ : (1) that it measures the highest degi'ee of devotion to the salvation of men ; and (2)^that…
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At the same time, none of the specific commands of the Decalogue are set aside. Even the Sabbath was observed by Jesus Himself and by His dis- ciples after Him. The ethical results of the Jewish development were, therefore, conserved by Jesus, who added to them the more spiritual interpreta- tion of the facts of histor…
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Literature.— Butler, Analogy, p. 269 ff. ; F. W. Robertson, Sermons, ii. p 94ff. ; Expositor, 2nd ser. i. [1881] pp. 372-387; Ker, Sermons, 1st ser. p. 302 ff. ; Wendt, Teaching of Jesus, 1. 109 f. w. B. Frankland. OBSERVATION.— This word occurs only once in the NT, viz. Lk IT^" 'The kingdom of God Cometh not with obs…
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A legitimate inference from all this is that our Lord — with His healthy outlook on life — would encourage all the honest occupations which mini- stered to man's varied needs. The Apostles' teach- ing surely reflected the mind of their Master on this subject. If eating and drinking could con- tribute to the glory of Go…
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One of the most striking instances of (TKa.v5a\ov in the experience of Jesus is that which is connected with Joim the Baptist. John was evidently dis- appointed somehow in Jesus. He had had reason to regard Him as the Messiah, but He was not the Messiah John iiad expected. Where were the axe and the fan and the consum…
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{b) Equally important with His sayings on causing others to stumble are those in which Jesus warns His disciples against allowing nny- thing to cause themselms to stumble. There are three of these in Mk 9*^- «• ^^ (^^,44.46 ^-^.q spuri- ous), and they are found twice in Mt. (5^'- 18"-). It is a fair inference from this…
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262 OFFENCE OFFICER not hear anything of conditions. They know what the Christian i)rinciple is, and to determine their conduct they do not need to think of any- thing else. They know, for example, that an idol is nothing in the world, and that is enough to answer all questions about their relation to idolatry — abo…
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Literature. — Cremer, Bihl.-Theol. Lex. s.vv. ; Hastings' DB iii. 586 ; Saiiday-Headlam, Romans, p. 390 ; Hort, First Peter, p. 121 ; Carr, Hor. Bibl. 58 ; F. W. Robertson, Sermons, 3rd ser. xvi. ; Bushnell, Serm. on Lin. Subjects, xix. ; Dale, Week- day Serin, p. 216; Martensen, Chr. Ethics, i. 418 ff. ; ExpT -v. [189…
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OFFICES OF CHRIST.— As the specific offices of Clirisl are handled in this work under their several heads, the treatment in the present article will be general. Etymologically the word ' office' is from officium, the shorter form of opifi'jum, the root meaning of which is 'a doing of a work' (Gr. 9r/)ajisi. The meanin…
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Father ; who put all power and judgment into His hand, and gave Him commandment to execute the same.' Along with this may be taken tiie answers to questions 43-45 in the Lartjei- Catechism. ' Christ executeth the office of a prophet in His revealing to the Church in all ages, by His Spirit and word, in divers ways of a…
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Tiie quality of the oil depended partly on the time at wliich the olives were gathered, and partly on the mode of crushing. Tlie best quality was that yielded by berries gathered before they became black (as they do when fully ripe), and pounded in a mortar. Of this kind was ' beaten oil' (Ex 27^" 29^0, Lv 24'^ Nu 28''…
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OLD TESTAMENT (I. Chri.st a-s ftilfilment of).t— 1. The ideals of life found in the OT by Jesus. — Jesus" conception of the life of the OT is that of the life wMch is proper to the children of God (Mt 5-7). It is the normal relation of fellowship between (iod and His children, oliedience to God and to His messengers (7…
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266 OLD TESTAMENT OLD TESTAMENT In these views Jesus was at variance with many of tlie people among whom He lived. The Jews at large were incapable of understanding them. For Pharisees and Sadducees the OT was a finality. It was a full and complete law incapable of further development. It was to be accomplished, ful…
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The ideal of true life found in the OT was fellow- ship Av^ith God. The necessary condition of such a life was perfect obedience to the law of love. Jesus found these principles in the literature of the OT, and their authority came from the Spirit, who moulded the life of which the OT was a growth. 3. Jesus and prophe…
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It is quite significant that no one passage is quoted or mentioned in the reports of the teaching of Jesus given by Him after His resurrection. Yet He taught His disciples explicitly that His sufi'erings, death, and resurrection were necessary in order to fulfil the OT. Further, the disciples, after thej- undei'stood t…
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Among other things, two facts have come to clear recognition at some stage in this discussion. One is that Jesus knew that the society which He was labouring to establish, the Kingdom of God, was certain to 1>e established, and that both the chief place in the establishment of it and the supreme place in it after its e…
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The following are passages of this sort : Mt l-- 23 215. n. !•<. 23 817 1217- -21 21-1. 5 27«. 10, Jn 2" 121«6 l'J-->- M- 37. See, further, art. Prophecy. LiTERATiRE. — Beyschlag, NT TheoL, Eng. tr. bk. i. chs. i.-v.; Stevens, ST Tkeol. 19U4, pp. 17-28, Edinburgh; B. Weiss, Bibl. Theol. uf yr, Eng. tr. 1SS5-1889, vol.…
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2. Difficulties of ihe subject. — Fascinating as this study is, it is beset with many peculiar diffi- culties, (n) First among these is the question of language. It is now generally recognized that the language our Lord spoke was Aramaic, the then current colloquial speecii of Palestine. This is, as is well known, reve…
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3. How Jesus learned to know the OT.— Jewish boys were from their earliest j'ears made familiar with the contents of the OT, particularly with the books of the Law (see Boyhood, and Education). They were not only taught to commit many pass- ages to memory, but there seems to have been a pretty widespread knowledge of r…
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pressed upon their souls like a heavy burden, but itself enabled them to bear life's greatest loads. He became, therefore, a popular interpreter of the Book to the weary heart of humanity ; while He became, on the other hand, a hated teacher to the privileged class, who felt their jirofession endan- gered both by His m…
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The glory of the court of Solomon is twice referred to in the Gospels, and that in words of Christ. The first instance is the unfavourable comparison between the splendour of the great monarch and the beauty of the field flowers (Mt 6^9, Lk 122^). The second occasion is the reference to the story of the visit of the 'q…
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(d) Jesus' attitude to current modes of interpre- tation.— The teaching of Jesus was recognized by His contemporaries as being diflerent in character from that of the scribes ; yet He employed, to some extent, the same methods. He based Ilis teaching upon that of the OT, which He interpreted not in their manner, but on…
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In the eulogy of John the Baptist, reported in Mt 11, Jesus is represented as quoting the passage in Mai 3^ with reference to His great predecessor. Inasmuch as this verse is elsewhere used by the Evangelists as descriptive of John, and as we have other traces of the fact that they did not, till a later time, understan…
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^•O!.. II. — iS cussion of several passages in John's Gospel. There the idealizing 2>rocess has been carried so far that we cannot be delinitelj' certain, especially when we are dealing with quotations, that we have the words of Jesus at all. In 6*", where Jesus is speak- ing of the impossibility of anj- man's attaini…
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(g) A subject of wider reach, though also of greater difficulty, is the endeavour to discover to what extent .Jesus was familiar with, and employed, the Jewish literature that lies outside the OT. It is only in comparatively recent times that much attention has been given to this subject ; but the more carefully it is …
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More important, however, than any reference to special passages is the effect upon the general intellectual atmosphere of the generation in which Christ lived and worked, created and moulded to a certain extent by tlie literature intermediate between the OT and the NT. We have to read that literature to understand many…
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passages is of immense significance for us, there- fore, as showing that it is the truths embodied in the ■\\Titing which we have to discover and applj-, and that the mere outward form of the revelation is of little significance. — (c) Again, it is helpful to find that Jesus recognizes the process of evolution that too…
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G. CuRRiE Martin. OLIVET.— See MouxT OF Olives. OMNIPOTENCE.— The infinite power that works in and through, or above, all things towards the realizing of Divine ends. It may be viewed either intensively, as the power which makes its way through all finite powers, finding in these no real obstacle to its purpose ; or e…
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((■) Without following in detail the progress of thought in the Apostolic teaching, and the develop- ment in later ages, we may notice one or two points in ChristoJogy where the question of Christ's om- nipotence comes more prominently into view. The Logos theory developed into the Two-nature con- ce])tion of Clirist's…
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2. The Lord Jesus never associateil omnipresence with infnitiide. HebreAV philosophy, in the person of its supposed founder, might exclaim : ' Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee' (1 K 8-") ; but no such thought ever came from the lips of Jesus. To Him the distinctive conceji- tion of omniprese…
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'God is as present and operative in the world as He can be, without denying His absolute goodness, and without interfering with the freedom of the creature, which is the fundamental condition of all development of good in the world. The world is . . . His work and workshop. If the Judaism of the time separated God and …
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of oaths in the Sermon on the Mount, Christ speaks of heaven as ' God's throne ' and the earth as His 'footstool' (Mt 5**). In the Fourth Gospel Jesus says that He ' came down from heaven ' (Jn 3'^ 6^), and also that He ' came forth from God ' (1627. 32 j ^jjd in looking forward to His death. He says : ' I came forth f…
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Beyschlag interprets the passage differently : ' Jesus thinks of Himself as pre-existent, not because He knows Himself to be a second God, and remembered a former life in heaven, but be- cause He recognized Himself in Daniel's image as the bearer of the kingdom of heaven, and because this Son of Man, as well as the kin…
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7. We have now merely to adduce the few ex- pressions in the Gospels which imply the ubiquif// of the Holy Sjjirit. We do not fintl any explicit statement in the Gospels of the absolute onnii- presence of the Spirit. His attributes are dis- closed in connexion with His activities in the spread of the Kingdom. Wherever …
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It is in St. John's Gospel, however, that con- ceptions of oneness are most pointedly set forth. We note the following : 1. The oneness of Christ and God {IQF 14^ 17"- ^2). The declarations, ' I and the Father are one,' ' he that hath seen me hath seen the Father,' may or may not be designed to teach identity of essen…
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2- NT usage.— In the NT the expression lios fiMvor/erq^ is used only of Christ by John (3'*- '*, 1 Jn 4*). The passage Jn I'' is a contested read- ing, and in any case comes onlj- indirectly into comparison. Elsewhere in the New Test, the ex- pression occurs in Lk 7'- (the young man of Nain), S'- (the daughter of Jairu…
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griech. Sprache, ii. p. 530 ff. ; F. Kattenbusch, Das apostolische Symbol, ii. p. 581 ff. ; G. Wobbermin, Religionsrjeseh. Studien zur Frage der Beeinflussung des Urchristentuins durch das antike Mysterienwesen, p. 114 ff. ; Beyschlag, AT Theology (Eng. tr.), ii. 414ff. FERDINAND KatTENBUSCH. OPPOSITION. — The reason …
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E resent and his best self (Mt 18^') ; the tree must ave visible form if it is to shelter men in its branches (Mt 13^-, Lk 13^*j, though its vital force may be a hidden mystery, permeating, as it does, the whole body, as the leaven does the bread (Mt 13^, Lk 13^^). Jesus accepted the organization of the past, and made …
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In founding the Church, whose main purpose should be the reconciliation of man to God, Chnst's 284 ORGANIZATION ORGANIZATION chief act of organization was connected with the material that should form the Church, — the primary Apostles, and the larger gToup of disciples a\1io should foreshadow the ultimate attainmen…
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In the organization of the Church, doctrine began to be more settled. While Jesus lived, and in His own life could show the blessedness of the Kingdom of God within, men could not go far astray. But afterwards it was necessary to tell of Him, His ORIGIJN'ALITY OKIGINALITY 285 sayings and doings, His Avainings, His …
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We propose to consider some of the attempts which liave thus been made from ditt'erent sides to prove the indebtedness of Christ to those who preceded Him, anil to discuss the Avorth of the ciiarge of want of originality based uj)on the CA'i- dence thus adduced. In some of the cases Ave have to consider, it is the ques…
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was at home in Rome and Alexandria ' ; the author of Matthew, no Jewish Christian, but ' a Roman nourished by Seneca's spirit.' Such theories justify H. Holtzmann's characterization of Bauer as ' a critical Herostratus ' [Einl. in d. NT, p. 183). If their very wildness calls for no serious refutation, it at any rate se…
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ORIGINALITY ORIGINALITY 287 step was taken from the thoug;ht, ' He iinist rise again,' to the belief, ' He has risen.' The news spread among the Jewish com- nmnities scattered throughout the Roman Empire, and from them to the Roman world in the midst of which they lived, that the Christ, who was to come to inaugurat…
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To account for the presence of so much material in the Gospels borrowed from Buddhist sources, Se3del formulates the h3po- thesis that, in addition to the two sources generally recognized as underlying the Synoptic Gospels— the collection of Sayings, and the original Mark— there must also have existed a third source, a…
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These are tlie parallels upon Avhieli, as has been said, Seyclel laj's the chief stress. He aihnits him- self that the force of the other analogies depends, in great measure, upon the verdict we pa.ss upon the evidence afforded bj' the.se five parallels, which constitute his third group. And if, as we have endeavoured …
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We proceetl to consider more closely some of the different elements in the Jewish religion to which Christ's indebtedness Ls alleged to be so great as to detract from His originality. (1) The Old Testament. — There can be no ques- tion as to Chri.st's obligations to the OT. How much He was influenced by it in His pers…
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even the prevailing one, among various other titles for God, and God is represented at times under very ditierent aspects. It is the same with the various other elements of Christian doctrine that have been found in the OT. They receive a new meaning from the place Christ gives them, the importance He a--isig-ns to the…
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One may dismiss this evidence against the origin- ality of Christ in the words of Wellhaiisen (IJG^), ' Jewish scholars think that all that Jesus said is found in tlie Talmud. Yes, all, and a good deal more. IlX^ov Tjfiurv -n-avrds. The originality of Jesus consists in this, that He had the feeling for Avhat Avas true …
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One might admit the truth of most of Avhat is thus said, Avithout in any Avay detracting from the originality of Christ. It is no disparagement to that originality, as Ave have seen, to recognize that Christ stands in close and vital connexion Avith those Avho have preceded Him, and uses the modes of thought and sjseec…
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iv. The original element in Christianity. — When we turn from these attempts to disparage the ori- ginality of Christ, and proceed to consider wherein that originality consists, we find a great variety of opinions upon the subject. Some would place all the emphasis upon the Person of Christ ; others lay weight upon His…
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2. The originality which we have noted as char- acteristic of the Person of Christ, we should expect to find reflected in His doctrine. It was in His doctrine that He made His authority felt (Mt V^). The impression made upon those who stood in the closest relation to His Person was that He had a wonderful and life-givi…
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G. Wauchope Stewart. OVEN PALESTINE 293 OVEN (K\i^a.vos). — In the reference to fuel for tlie village oven (Mt 6*^, Lk 12^) the term 'grass' is usetl generally for any wild produce of the fields, including thorns and thistles. The Bible references to the baking of bread correspond to the three principal methods no…
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John Reid. OX.— See Animals, vol. i. p. 63^. PALACE. — In the Gospels the word is used in the text of Mt 27"-" and Jn IS-^- ^^ 19^ and in the margin of Mk 15^^. In all cases it is the repre- sentative of irpaiTwpiov (see PR.ETORirM), which was a term wide enough to include what would now be called a guard-room or the…
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by the sentiment or at least the conscience of sym- pathy between man and man as such. The East, whose religion is fundamentally a matter of saving one's own soul, or at widest a matter of tribal loyalties, will find that a hard saying, and indeed has always so found it. Again, everyone must have noticed that in the ba…
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The traveller to-day is often disappointed in the emotions he had expected at sacred sites. The belief in miracle is nowhere so difficult as on the spot, where every detail of the scene seems so uncompromisingly earthly. If, however, he will follow the example of the Psalmist, and 'lift up his eyes unto the hills,' he …
916 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.