defining Him in His majesty.^ There is here some- thing more than merely the association of our Lord with glory, as when we are told that He had glory with God before the world was (Jno 17^), and after His humiliation on earth (though even on earth He mani- fested His glory to seeing eyes, Jno i^'* 2^^ i?") entered again into His glory (Lk 24-^ Jno 17"^, i Tim 3^^ Heb 2^, cf. Mt 19-^ 25^\ [Mk 10^''^]), and is to come again in this glory (Mt 16^' 2420 25^1, Mk 8^" if\ Lk cf"" 21% Titus 2^^, I P 4^^). We come nearer to what is implied when we read of Jesus being ' the Lord of Glory' (i Cor 2^), that is He to whom glory belongs as His characterizing quality; or when He is described to us as "the effulgence of the glory of God" (Heb i^). The thought of the writer seems to be fixed on those Old Testament passages in which Jehovah Is de- scribed as the " Glory " : e. g., *' For I, saith Jehovah, will be unto her a wall of fire round about, and I will be the Glory in the midst of her" (Zech 2^). In the Lord Jesus Christ, James sees the fulfillment of these promises: He is Jehovah come to be with His people; and, as He has tabernacled among them, they have seen His glory. He is, in a word, the Glory of God, the Shekinah: God manifest to men. It is thus that James thought and spoke of his own brother who died a violent and shameful death while still in His first youth! Surely there is a phenomenon here which may well waken inquiry.
The attitude of Jude Is precisely the same. He does
although Peter's remark on the advent of the day of God (2 P 3^2) makes such an ascription unlikely, and it is to be noted that in the preceding and following verses (s-^"'-*^-^) xupcog is used of God." ^Bengel, Bassett, Mayor.
266 The Designations of Our Lord
indeed speak of Christ in the address of his Epistle by the simpler formal title of ' Jesus
'the Despot' Christ,' but in accordance with his de- scription of himself at that point as the " slave " of this ' Jesus Christ,' he tends to multiply reverential titles in speaking of Him elsewhere. To Him our Lord is always ' our Lord Jesus Christ ' (17, 21), 'Jesus Christ our Lord' (25), 'our only Master (^s^-or^c) and Lord, Jesus Christ' (4) — a phrase, this last one, so strong that many commentators balk at it and wish to render it ' the only Master, viz., God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.'* But we cannot feel surprised that one who pointedly calls himself in the first verse of his Epistle " slave " of Jesus Christ, should apply the correlative of that term, " Despotic Master and Lord " to Jesus Christ, three verses later. No doubt " no Jew could use " such a phrase " without thinking of the one Master in heaven " ;^ but that is only evidence that this Jew thought of Jesus who was his ' Lord ' and whose " slave " he recognized himself as being, as, in this eminent sense, his " Master in heaven" (cf. 2 P 2^). Obviously it is the testimony of these two Epistles that Jesus was conceived by His first disciples as their divine Lord and Master.
The designations of our Lord in i Peter are notably
simple, but none the less significant. Peter's favorite
designation for Him (as it is Paul's)
ofTpe°ef '^ ^^^ simple 'Christ,' used, ordinarily at least, as a proper name, though of
* See on the passage, Bigg and Mayor in loc.
^ The phrase is Mayor's {in loc): who notes also the use of the word dEfTTtiXTovoi by Julius Africanus (Eus. H. E., i. 7) to denote the kins- folk of Jesus, and justly remarks that this implies a current earlier employment of deanoTtj^ of our Lord.
The Catholic Epistles 267
course not without its appellative significance still cling- ing to it and in one or two instances (i"-") becoming prominent (i"-iii» 2-^ 31546.18 ^1.13,14 ^1.10,14) _ ^e^j. ^^
the simple ' Christ ' Peter uses by predilection the sim- plest of the solemn compound names, ' Jesus Christ ' (ji.2,3,7.13 25 321 ^ny i^ ^he address to the Epistle he
sets this designation in its place In the trine formula of Father, Spirit and Jesus Christ, with the effect of suggesting the Threefold Name, that is to say, with underlying Implication of the Trinity.^ Similarly In l" where " the Spirit of Christ," that Is, most naturally, the Spirit which proceeds from and represents Christ, is spoken of as having resided In the ancient prophets, the preexistence of Christ Is assumed.' Besides these proper names, Peter speaks of our Lord by the desig- nation ' Lord ' (2^'^^ 3^% cf. 2"^ and Bigg in loc. and p. 109) and in doing so applies an Old Testament text to Him in which ' Lord ' stands for ' Jehovah,' and