The term 'accommodation' may be defined as thr ].rineipl,. or huv Hccor.lin;:To which G„d adapts ills S,. If-r,. V,. lat iu„ 1.. tin- ,:,|K,ciliu>.-iiKlIii,iitaliuns
earliest c)ii\vanls,"ll,is S.'lt iv\ ,.|;,'( i,„r ,'if (;,„| has been made, and has its own .h.ir.ird 1 1,| i, frai ims. Between the time when www cunr, m .j ,,i (,,„| j,',
the rudimentary anthro]>(iiii(ii |.lii- i i:;: :;• ;,iiil
the time of the highest aUaiinnunl l.y Ihr hniii.in mind of His Nature and Being (Jn 4-^'-). every conceivable gradation occurs in the extent anil character of God's revelation of Himself to men.
i. The Incarnation as the supreme example. —This is not the place to enter into a detailed iniiuiry as to tlie nature and extent of the self- imposed limitations of Clu'ist, or how far the modern theories of the kcnosis (wh. .see) are justified by revelation, directly or by implication. It will be sufficient here to indicate how far the Gospels, as we have them, point to a real adoption by Him of the conditions of that life which He assumed, and invoh-ed Him ex necessitate in the limitations of a real human life.
(a) So complete is the accommodation to the capacities and requirements of infanthood, that St. Luke scruples not to record, as part of the angelic message, the finding by the shepherds of . . . 'a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger' (Lk 2"), and St. Matthew makes the safety of His childhood depend on the vigilance and care of Joseph antl His mother, their return from enforced exile being conditioned by tlie fact that ' tliey aie dead that sought the young child's life' (Mt 'I-"). All this presupposes, of course. His development along the lines of human growth, which is boldly outlined by St. Luke in the much debated passage, 'Jesus advanced in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and men' (Lk 2^^-). If tliese words are to be in- terijreted according to their obvious meaning, they imply a moral and spiritual as well as a phj'sical advancement along lines as normal as, for ex- ample, those which marked the growth of the child Samuel. We may say, indeed, that there is a marked reference to the words . . . Kal ayaObv Kol /JiCTO. Kvpiou Kal fiera dc^paiTrwc of 1 S 2-^ [LXX]. ' Christ's growth was from His birtli a holy growth ' (Martensen, Christian Dogmatk-s, Eng. tr. p. 282); but the words 'the child grew and waxed strong' (Lk 2-'") point to the essentially human conditions under which that growth was eU'ected.
The sole incident in connexion with His boyhood which has come down to us in our reliable authori- ties is that of His visit to the temple (Lk a'lif-). Short, however, as it is, it throws a clear light on the nature and reality of the advance 'in wisdom and favcjur,' and its uninterruijted continuity is well exproM'd in \'.*', if we give the word irXij^oi/- (Hei/oi/ its |ir(i|icr sij;iiificance. Day by day He was being lilled \silh wisdom. Even at this age. His marvellous intellectual powers displayed them- selves, and already He exhibited that keen insight which in after life He so frequently sliowed. "riie verb used to express the amazement of the learned teachers {i^iaTavro) shows how much these men wondered at the Boy's knowledge and at the depth of His understanding (tiri rrj avviaei). Notwith- standing this feature of tlie narrative, the historian is far from Icailinu n-. U> su)»|iiiM' that there was anythinu suiicruai mal in tin- matter. He rather represents .ii-sns as .a l«iy ni n. ^inL:ularly inquiring turn of mind, who ileliherately determines to find out for Himself the solution of many problems which puzzled Him during the course of His home education, and for which He could find no satis- factory explanation fronvHis teachers in Nazareth. He sits down (/v-aflij-oMfo") at the feet of these great teachers (^l^aff^-d^u;') as a learner (ef. St. Paul's description of his own education in the Law, Ac 22'). Nor are we to look upon the circumstance in the temple as constituting an exhibition of miraculous intellectual acquirements in the ordi- nary sense of that word. All Jewish children from their 'earliest infancy' (.ios. <. Apion. ii. 18) were made to ae(|nire a Kii..« le.l-e <,f and to prac- tise the preccjits df the Law. We have only to compare the tukan narrative with that given in the Arabic Gospel of the Infancy to .see how_ com- pletely natural and human is the whole incident, and how entirely the boyhood of Jesus was subject
16
ACCOMMODATION
ACCOMMODATION
to boyhood's conditions and limitations. In the latter He is represented as cross-examining each of the doctors, and instructing them not only in matters appertaining to the Law and the Prophets, but iu astronomy, physics, metaphysics, and other branches of current erudition (see chs. xlviii.-lii. ).
Without entering into an examination of tlie words contained in His answer to His mother's gentle rebuke, or what relation they bear to His subsequent complete and developed self- consciousness, it may be said that they do not necessarily in- volve all that is sometimes imported into them. Even the im- plied antithesis o ^urr,p irou of v. -is and h ^o/"; toZ txtpoi u^ of v.-is probably means nothing more than a reminder that the claims of His heavenly Father take precedence of all others, and bears testimony to a profound appreciation of the transcendent reality of His Divine Sonship (cf. B. Weiss, Leben Jesu, Eng. tr. vol. i. p. 278 ff.). It is true, we have no right to assume that the Boy Jesus had no knowledge of His unique relationship to God (cf. Gore, Diss. p. 78, n. 1). The use of the possessive particle ^«i. points to the probabihty that His powers of realiza- tion in this respect were as wonderful as the development of His mental faculties in another. This is, however, far from saying that Jesus at this early age possessed the consciousness of His Messiahship, which only came to full maturity at the next turning-point of His life (see Sanday's art. ' Jesus Christ ' in Hast- ings' DB, vol. ii. p. 6IM) ; and the short but graphic touch with which St. Luke portravs for us His surprise at His parents' method of search (n ot, ilr.rvit u.i;), and His sustained sub- ordination (?» iiTincurrifutK aiTs'.V gives the idea of a continuance of His subjection to the conditions of His home life) to the authority of Joseph and Mary shows how completely the Son of God ' emptied Himself,' fupfi.t ioixnu Xafim,, Ph 27.