604
JESUS CHRIST
JESUS CHRIST
begin by placinj; ourselves at the standpoint of an observer, one of those who saw the public ministry of Jesus in its early stages, in its de- velopment, and to its close. When that has been fully unrolled before us, we can draw upon oilier data which are not of this public character ; and we may further seek to argue backwards from effects to causes.
Hy pursuini; this method we shall have the advantaije of taking the facts in no imaginary order, but in the order of the history it-self. We shall have them disclo.sed to us in the .same sort of seipieuce in wliich they were disclosed to the tirst generations of Christians — a method always ad- visable where it can be had, and in this instance peculiarly advisable, becau.se both the origins and the iiiunecliate seiiuel to the origins are of extreme interest and importance.
We shall also have the incidental advantage of following, not only the historical order, but the critical order suggested by tlie doi^uments. It was natural that what was transacted in pulilic should have the fullest and the earliest attestation : it lay in the nature of the ca.se that some of the details which were most significant, just because of their private and intimate character, should become known only by degrees. This stale of things is reflected in the Gospels as we have them. The common matter of the Synoptic Gospels is also the most public matter. It by no means follows that what is peculiar to a single Gospel is by that fact stamped as less historical : no one would think (e.g.) of affirming this of some of the parables peculiar to St. Luke ; but it is fair to suppose that in the first instance it was less widely diffused. To this class would belong the narra- tives of the Nativity and of the Infancy. It will be in some ways a gain not to begin with these, but to let them enter into the story as they entered into it with the first Christians. More than one point which might otherwise perplex us will in this way suggest its own explanation.
Limits of space do not allow us to go elaborately into the question as to the trustworthiness of our materials. It may suffice to point to one un- doul.iteil fact which furnishes at least a consider- able presumption in their favour. The apostolic age prcHluceil soma strongly marked personalities, with well defined types of thought and phrase- ology. Now, broadly speaking, these types have left but little trace upon the Gospels. The special type characteristic of the Gospels themselves stands out conspicuously over against them. We need hardly do more than refer to such very significant facts as that the Gospels alone con- tain specimens of teaching by parables ; that the idea of the 'kingdom of heaven' (or 'of God'), which is quite central in the Gospels, recedes into the background in the writings of the apostles ; that the same holds good of that most significant title ' Son of Man ' ; that, on the other hand, such a term as ' justify ' is rare and hardly technical, while 'justification,' 'sanctiflcation,' 'reconcilia- tion' (or 'atonement'), and a number of others are wholly absent. It may be said that the Fourth Gospel is an exception, that there we have a sus- picioiLs resemblance to the style and diction of the Epp. of St. John. Some resemblance there Ls, and we would not entirely reject the inference drawn from it. But even here the exception is but partial. It has often been noticed that the evangelist scrupulously confines his doctrine of the Logos to the prologue.
The writer of this art. may be allowed once
more to express the conviction, * which he believes
that continued investigation will confirm, that the
great m;»ss of the Synoptic Gospels hail assumed
•See the Bumplon Lectures for 1S93, p. 286 IT.
its permanent shape not later than the decade (iO-70 A. I)., and that the changes which it under- went after the great catastrophe of the fall of Jerusalem were but small, and can without ditti- culty be recognized.
Hut the liusk on which we are at present en- gaged must in the main supply its own vindica- tion. The ]>icture which it is here attempted to draw will commend it-self so far as it is consistent and coherent, and no further. No one, indeed, expects in the.se days the formal and external consistency aimed at in the older Harmonies; but the writer himself believes that in their innei essence the (Jospels are consistent and coherent, and if he fails to convey the impression of this, the failure will be his own. He is conscious of something tentative in the way in which he has sought to work in data derived from the Fourth Gospel w'ith those derived from the other three. But here, again, he is giving expression to the best opinion he can form, and the value of that opinion must be judged by t'le result. Where he is not satisfied with his own suc-ess, he has not hesitated to say so.
To what has been said above it should be added, that if we assume the standpoint tif a spectator, a brief preface will be needed to explain what that standpoint is. In other words, we shall have at the otit.set to take a rapid survey of the coiulitions under which the Life of Christ was lived, so that we may see to what His teaching had to atlacli itself, and what served for it as a foil, by way of contrast and antagonism.