(c) In St. Paul’s Epistles the doctrinal aspects of the OT are more prominent. The frequency of his quotations depends on the subject he 1s dealing with, and the destination of the letter. Generally speaking, he appeals to the OT most frequently when he is asserting the independence of Chris- tianity against Judaistic objections, and not when he is developing its unique contents. His so- called Rabbinisms (1 Co 10'4, 2Co 3%, Gal 3% 42-81) need not excite any surprise and cause any difficulty : that they are so few in number is a testimony to his mental vigour and spiritual dis- cernment. Sometimes he does give to a quotation an application which the context does not justify (Ro 9226 11% 10 1219 1 Co 9° 1471 15%”, Gal 3%). Even in his normal use the OT language some- times, on the one hand, obscures the Christian con- ception, and, on the other hand, his Christian conception transforms the meaning of the OT words. Sometimes his use gives a harder, at other times a more gracious, tone to the passages quoted than they have in their own context. The language of the OT is not adequate for his gospel, the essential inspiration of which we may assert and maintain without committing ourselves to an
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acceptance of his exegetical methods. The occa- sion and the purpose of the Epistle to the Hebrews explain the characteristically Jewish use of the OT. Sentences are taken without any regard to context; stress is laid on single words ; allegorical explanations are given of historical references. This reading of the New Faith into the Old does violence to the historical significance of the one and the Divine originality of the other. The Apocalypse is steeped in the OT imagery, and applies the Messianic prophecies to the Second Advent. Without any closer examination of the other NT writings, enough evidence has already been produced to justify the conclusion that in every part the NT treats the OT as a Divine revelation, but that the exegetical methods of the NT writers are such as to forbid our basing on their use of the OT any dogmatic theory of verbal inspiration.
3. The NT doctrine of Revelation. — Although the NT recognizes the Divine revelation in the OT, it does not limit God’s manifestation of Him- self to the Hebrew history and literature. The Prologue to St. John’s Gospel takes up the OT conception of the Divine Word, Wisdom, or Spirit in its doctrine of the Logos, and teaches a perma- nent and universal revelation in nature and in man as well as in the history culminating in Christ. As significant is St. Paul’s teaching regarding the witness of nature to God, in his speech at Lystra (Ac 1417); regarding man’s affinity to God, in his speech at Athens (Ac 17!) ; regarding the wilful ignorance of God, to which he traces the religious degradation and the moral depravity of the Gentiles, and the testi- mony borne to God by conscience, in his Epistle to the Romans (118-8? 914-16) ; and regarding the Divine purpose in the pre-Christian stage in human history, in that to the Galatians (41), A study of the science of Comparative Religion does not contradict, but confirms, this doctrine of a permanent and universal revelation in which OT and NT agree. In many religions we find the higher elements suppressed by the lower, and in only a few the higher elements asserting them- selves over the lower. Even in the corrupt and superstitious paganism with which Christianity in its earliest days came in contact, there was in its philosophical schools an approach to an ethical monotheism which, imperfect as it was, proved to some men a tutor to lead them to Christ.
As regards the NT doctrine of the OT revela- tion, enough has been said in the preceding para- graph ; we must now consider what it teaches about the origin and the method of the Christian revelation. Jesus Christ is pre-eminently the revealer of the Father; this function He Claims for Himself (Mt 11”, Jn 17%), and it is accorded to Him by St. Paul, St. John, the writer to the Hebrews (Jn 118, Col 15, He 173). Yet it is only by the Spirit of God that men are enabled to recognize in Him the Son of God (Mt 16", Gal 125); To know God in Christ is to receive a revelation which transforms all things, so that self and world alike appear as a new creation (2 Co 5”), An interesting evidence of St. Paul’s consciousness that the Christian revelation was both in con- tinuity with and in contrast to the older revela- tion, is his use of the word ‘ mystery.’ The Divine purpose which has hitherto been concealed is now revealed (Ro 117° 16, 1 Co 27, Eph 19 3% 4 582 619, Col 16 2? 48), A completion of the old revelation (Mt 5”, Gal 34 44, Jn 5°), the new revelation can claim permanent validity, as it will not be super- seded by any other (Mt 24%). On the other hand, the comprehension of the perfect revelation b man is imperfect relatively to the full and clear vision of Christ, which is the Christian’s hope for
the hereafter (1 Co 13”, 1 Jn 32): Christ’s con- sciousness of perfect knowledge of, love for, and obedience to the Father is explained only by the confession of His essential unity with the Father. The promise of Jesus to His disciples, that the Spirit should be given to them, was fulfilled at Pentecost ; and in the outpouring of the Spirit on that day St. Peter was bold enough to see the fulfilment of Joel’s prophecy of a universal pro- phetic inspiration (Ac 2! 38), Both in the Acts and in St. Paul's Epistles it is assumed that all believers are inspired; in the exercise of their charisms, spiritual gifts, the presence and power of the Spirit in them is revealed. But for the instruction and government of the Church (see