Son of God plications In the mind of the evangelist even when he applied to the persecuted Infant Jesus the prophetic summary of Israelitish history, " Out of Egypt did I call my Son" (2^^), although at first sight we might seem to be moving here in the atmos- phere of a merely official sonship.^* In every other instance of the adduction of this designation In Mat- thew these supernatural Implications are thrust promi- nently forward. The very point of Satan's temptation of our Lord was that He should exercise the super- natural powers which necessarily belonged to Him — If He were Indeed really 'a Son of God' (4^'^ cf. g29^ 26 Similarly the confession wrung from the dls-
24 Cf. Zahn in loc: " According to the connection of the narrative up to this point, Jesus can be called the Son of God for no other reason than that He was born of the Virgin apart from any aid of man (cf. Lk 1^^). The divine sonship of Israel, which was grounded in God's calling this people into being for a particular purpose, and, as it were, begetting it (Deut 32^^) — an idea which was so vividly conceived that God's fatherhood is set excludingly over against that of Abraham and Jacob (Is 631*^) — appears as a type of the divine Sonship of Jesus, which actually excludes the bodily fatherhood of the son of David."
25 Cf. Zahn, in loc. (p. 152) : "He is by a word of power to create for Himself the food for which He hungers. This is an echo out of the abyss corresponding to the voice from heaven (3^'^). What God declares of Jesus, the devil brings into question (Gen 3^, Job iSseq.)^ demanding from Jesus that He should offer him proof of it. We must not overlook, however, that he does not say, as might have been ex- pected from the undeniable connection with 3I'', ei 6 old's but el ulds
The Designations in Matthew 79
clples by the spectacle of His control of the forces of nature, emphasizes as strongly as possible the super- naturalness of the Being who is capable of such works ^ J ^33^ 26 jj^ Peter's great confession (16^*^)^'' the ad- junction of ' the Son of the Living God ' to the simple ' Christ ' Is no more without its high significance than the similar adjunction in the high priest's adjuration (26°^)^^ of 'the Son of God' to the simple 'Christ.'
el TOO deou. He is to prove not that He is the unique Son of God whom God just on that account has chosen as the Messiah, but that He is a being more closely related than other men to God (cf. Mt j^33 27^0 )_ jf it cannot be unknown to the evil spirit, who is ac- quainted with the voice from heaven, that Jesus has been chosen to be the Messiah, nevertheless what he demands of Him has nothing di- rectly to do with this vocation. It is, however, surely to be expected of One who as a Son of God must have power over nature, that He should rescue Himself from the unsuitable condition of a hungry man by the use of His power."
26 Cf. Zahn, in loc. (p. 513): "Neither the absence of the article from the predicate (cf. on the other hand, 3^''^ 16^^ even 11-^), nor the position of dsou before ul6<; is to be overlooked. Even if divine Sonship and Messianic dignity were synonyms (see to the contrary p. 145 seq.), and what had cast the disciples into adoring wonder had had anything to do with the office of the Messiah, the absence of the article nevertheless would forbid us to think of that here (cf. on the contrary, 12^3 16^^ 21^ zG^^). What is said and what there was occa- sion to say is not who but what kind of a man Jesus was. The ques- tion elicited by a similar occasion, -KoraTzo^ iarcv outo^ (8^") is here answered ; though, naturally, not after the fashion of a scholastic dictum, but in the direct expression of an overwhelming experience. Not a son of man, but a Son of God He is, who exhibits such super- natural power over the elements, and shows Himself so exalted over the hesitancies between the power of faith and the feebleness of the flesh which accompany human weakness even when the spirit is willing, — as was to be seen in Peter."
27 Cf. Zahn in loc. pp. 534-5: goes above 14^^ in confessing Jesus as the Son of God, and of the living God; that is, Jesus had manifested the works of the Son of a God who exists and acts, etc.
28 Cf. Zahn in loc, pp. 694-5.
8o The Designations of Our Lord