REVELATION
REVELATION 333
necessary digression to the main course of the discussion, the investigation of Jesus’ use of the OT shows that He recognized the kinship of His own religious life to that of the saints of old ; that in His teaching He assumed as the condition of the understanding of His words the knowledge of the Law and the Prophets; that in the moral standards He imposed the principles of the Jewish theocracy were applied and developed, and that His own historic mission was conceived in relation to a continuous and progressive historical activity of God in and by the chosen people; but, on the other hand, the manner of His use of the OT does not discharge us from the duty, far less forbid the attempt, to free by sound exegetical and critical methods the universal and permanent content of truth in the OT revelation from its local and tem- porary forms of expression.
(6) The distinctive use of the OT in the Gospels and the Acts is this, that the whole life of Christ is viewed as the fulfilment of prophecy. We observe differences of emphasis, according to the speaker or writer, the hearer or reader. Without entering into details, it may be said that when the writer or speaker is himself imbued with the apes of Judaism, or addresses himself to Jews, then the argument from prophecy is more pro- minent than when Gentiles are being spoken or written to by one of broader sympathies. Gener- ally, the OT is appealed to as authoritative by or for those whose religious life had already been developed by it. How large a place this concep- tion fills in the minds of the historical writers of the NT will be best shown by a brief summary of the facts of Jesus’ life, in which they find predic- tions realized. He is born of a virgin in Bethlehem, and as an infant returns from Egypt to Nazareth. His public ministry is heralded by John the Baptist. He begins His work in Galilee by claim- ing the endowment of the Spirit, and in Judea by showing His zeal for God’s house. His ministry in Northern Galilee brings light to dark places. In His acts of healing He takes upon Himself the burden of men’s infirmities. As befits the Servant of God, He is humble, silent, patient. He is com- pelled by the stupidity of the peo le to speak in parables. He enters Jerusalem in owliness, seated onan ass. He is greeted as coming in the name of the Lord. Wis message is not believed ; He is re- jected by the leaders of the people; He is betrayed ‘for money ; He is forsaken by His followers ; He is reckoned among transgressors, and hated without cause. His garments are divided ; His bones are not broken, although His side is pierced ; He is not suffered to be holden of death; He is exalted to God’s right hand. By His gift the Spirit is poured forth upon all flesh. Although in Him all_ the nations of the earth are blessed, yet against Him the heathen rage, and the rulers are gathered to- gether. In His exaltation as Son of the Highest ‘all who scorn Him are put to shame. He proves Himself a light to the Gentiles, and in Hum alone can the ruin of Jerusalem be repaired.
There can be no doubt whatever that the OT revelation reaches its highest point in the hopes which Christ fulfils, for there is a vital, organic connexion between it and Him. The Messianic hope did in many of its most striking features anticipate the characteristics of His life and work. On the other hand, these writers treat the whole OT as prophetical, even when it is purely his- torical or didactical, and thus use some passages for quite another purpose than their original intention. Yet even in these cases the interpre- tation cannot be pronounced altogether arbitrary and artificial. For if Christ may be regarded as the end and reason for all God’s historical activity in the Hebrew people, then its whole development
may be conceived as a movement towards Him in whom the promises which had never found fulfil- ment, the hopes which had again and again been blighted with disappointment, the aspirations which neither moral performances nor ritual observances could satisfy, all found their consum- mation,—then the spiritual experiences of God’s saints of old may be viewed as an anticipation of the life hid with Christ in God, and the sufferings for righteousness’ sake of God’s witnesses to an unbelieving people as a participation in the Cross of the Just and Holy One. These writers, there- fore, were entitled to assume the unity of the life of God’s Anointed with the history of His chosen people, the prophetical character of its great per- sonalities and the typical significance of its main institutions, although it must be acknowledged that they laid stress on minor details which may be adequately accounted for as coincidences, and need not be regarded, as they regarded them, as immediate prophecies. It has sometimes been assumed that these coincidences are not to be explained by similar conditions and experiences, due to the unity of the principle underlying the whole development of religion and revelation, which not only ends but is summed up in Christ, but must be accepted as Divine harmonies. To the mind of the present writer at least such a view gives an artificiality to, and hides the reality of, the connexion of Christ and the OT. There are cases, however (Mt 27%, Ac 2°), where this con- nexion is imposed rather than discovered. Again, to note briefly the conclusion to which this part of the investigation leads, we are constrained to recognize the continuity of the revelation of the OT and the NT; and, on the other hand, that the writers of the NT tend to regard the parallelism as more exact than it actually is, owing to their peculiar method of exegesis in treating passages apart from, even in spite of, their historical setting. It need not surprise us to find that the men who were fitted by the Spirit to be both receptive and communicative of the truth as it is in Jesus were lacking in scientific method and historical insight. Their inspiration did not raise them above their times in these respects, and con- sequently we must, on the one hand, form such a conception of revelation as admits such limita- tions, and, on the other, maintain that the OT must be interpreted by the grammatical and his- torical methods of a scientific criticism, unhindered and undisturbed by appeals to the usages of NT writers.