AVhen we endeavour to put together the im- pressions which we derive from these various sources, we may perhaps say that the outcome of them is that Judaism at the Christian era had all the outer framework of a sound religion if only the filling in had been different. The Jew knew better than any of his contemporaries in Greece or Home or in the Ka.st what reliirion was. He had a truer conception of tiod, and of the duty of man towards God ; but on the first head he had uuich still to learn, and on the .second be had many faults to be corrected in the working cut of detail.
The Jew had at least a profound seriousness on the subject of religion. Where this was wanting, the man w.as no true Jew. And, even allowing for all the cxtern.al intiucnces which told against this, there was among the tiews probably less of pro- fessed atheism, iiulifference, levity, than there has ever been in any other .society, ancient or modern. The Jew had al.so an intense feeling of loyalty to this society. His love of what we should call his Church rose to a pa.ssion. It is this which makes the apocalyi)s«'S which followed the fall of Jerusalem so pathetic. The faith of men has probably .seldom received a shock so severe. The authors of these apocalyp.ses feel the .shock to the uttermost. They gro|)e about anxiously to lind the meaning of God's mysterious dealings; but their faith in Him is unshaken. They are diviiled between passionate grief and resignation: 'Two things vehemently constrain me : for I cannot resist thee, and niy soul, moreover, cannot behold the evils ol my mother' (.\poc. Bar :!•').
2. The Spiriiil Sml-plnt of f Vin'.ifiamV;,'. — In general terms it may be saiil that when Wi' seek for allinitie.s to Christianity we lind more of them the farther we recede from the centre of ollicial Judaism. The one thing to which Christianity is most oppo.sed is the haitl, dry, casuistic legalism
* F<ir a closer and more oxart but Btlll tentattve analysh and dating, the reader limy Ito refernM to the e^litlons by It. II. CliJtrles of f'mn-fi (I'^'.M). St-rt-ftMo/ Kiwi'A and .!/«'<'. I'/JttiriK'A (l*ilKi), AKMitmitlit'ti t>f Mo^t» (l''VT) ; or for a .ludlclous pr*-sen- tatton of average tiplnfon, to Schilrer, /A//' ii. ill. .M IT.
608
JESUS CHRIST
JESUS CHRIST
of the Pharisee. If we are rii;ht in thinking; of the apocalyptic literature as in the main provincial, we siiall not he surprised to find the points of contact with it become more numeroius. Wherever there are traces of a fresher and deeper study t>f tlie I'saliiis and I'rophels, there we have a iiatural kinship for the C'liristian spirit.
Now there is one class among whom this con- linuily with I'salms and I'rophets is specially niarkeil. It has been observed • that there is a group of I'salms (of which perhap.s il. l(t. :i2. 25. 3.'). 40. tiO. 10!) are the most prominent) in which the words tran.sla(ed in EV 'poor,' • needy," 'humble,' 'meek,' are of specially freipient occurrence. It appears that these words have ac(iuiretl a moral meanins. From meanin;; originally those who are 'artiicteil' or 'oppressed' (by men), they have come III moan those who in their oppression have drawn nearer to tiod and leave their cause in His lianils. They are the jiious Israelites who suffer from the tyranny of the heathen or of their worldly coiuitrv- inen, and who refuse to assert themselves, but accept in a humble spirit the chastening sent by (iod. As there were many such in every jjeriod of the history of Israel, they might be .sai<l to form a class. Now there is other evidence that this class Btill existed at the Christian era. They are the mnnsueti et (jidpscentes of 4 Kzr (2 Es) 1 1*'^. They are just the class indicated in I's-Sol •J'"'- ' Who is the hope of the needy and the poor beside thee, •) Lord ? And thou wilt hearken : for who is gracious and gentle but thou ? Thou makest glad the heart of the humble by opening thine hand in mercy.' (Compare also the reff. in Hyle and James, p. 48, and Index, .<. r. Trraxii)- The special NT designa- tion is iTTuixol Tip 7r«i/(noTi (lit 5''). 'Vud <i better expression of the spirit in question could not easily be found than the Mn<inificnt (Lk l-'"-'^'). It is clear that the group which appears in Lk 1. 2, not oidy .loseph aiul Mary, but Zacharias and Elisabeth, Simeon and Anna, all answer to this descrijition. 'i'hey are those who look for ' the consolation of Israel,' 'the redemption of Israel' (Lk 2^- *•), and who looked for it rather by fasting and prayer than by any haste to grasp the sworil. There was no organized party, no concerted policy ; but we cannot doubt that there were many devout souls scattered throughout the country, and in just the kind of distribution which the chapters Lk 1. 2 would suggest, some for shorter or longer periods making their way to .Jerusalem, but the greater number dispersed over such secluded districts as the 'highlands' (ji 6p(ivri, Lk V^'') of Judaja and Galilee.
Here was the class which seemed, as it were, specially prepared to receive a new spiritual im- pulse and to take up a great movement of refor- mation. Anil other tendencies were in the air which were i'eady to contribute to the spread of such a movement when it came. The labours of tae scribes had not been all wasted. There is a good example in Jlk 12'5--3< — the happy combination of L't f' with Lv 111" — which shows that even among tlie Rabbis there were some who were feeling their way towards the more penetrating teaching of Jesus.