tone of His iciiiaik to llj, n
The words iy ruls roO irar,..,
profoundly He was ijupii'ss.
His Divine Sonship ; ,-ind, «
were the outconie of Ills
thought underlying much of the langiiage'of tl
<H . In repelhug tlie Satanic attacks of the Temp
tation He reveals to us a mind steeped in tlu
I I he temple. ■y-') show how tlie sense of believe, they ith the
literature of, and full to overflowing with spiritual principles culled from, the Book of Deuteronomy. Nor was it only when He felt the sore stress of temptation that His belief in the truth of God's revelation given in the OT, and His profound knowledge of its contents, came to His aid. In the hour of His intensest bodily and mental agony, the words of Ps 22 leaped instinctively to His mind, and gave expression to the feeling of awful loneliness which then hung over Him like a black cloud. If in moments of deepest feeling, when the soul almost without conscious effort turns to the sources whence it drew its early sustenance, Jesus had recourse to the words of the OT, and was able to extract from that wide field of literature all tliat was purest and most spiritual, it was not, we feel sure, without Ion", deep study and pondering over the meaning of the dilferent writers from His childliood onwards. Kemembering, then, this feature in the mental and sjiiritual equipment of Christ, it will not be surprising if we find Him displaying the same |i;,l,ii ,,f mind in almost every variety of cirruni-lanee ol \\liicli He found Him- self the centre. St. .Mallheu- and St. Mark tell us that, at I lie time of St. Peters confession at Ca'savea !'liili|i|ii, lie for the first time spoke to His dis,i|,l.s ol (ho fatal end in store for Him. St. M.illlu'W cliaily points out that this was a new departure -awo t:,t, iJr^aTo, v.r.X. (16-'),— and
that He cuntmu.illy i,-vr I to (he .subject as if
desircnis of impressuie I lie disriples with the im- possibility of His esca|.e. Wo do not know at what precise period Jesus was convinced that there could inevitably be only one ending to His work, or whether He knew from the beginning, and merely waited for a fitting time to prepare His di.sciples for the slio, k. W,. do, however, know that at this peiiod II,. w.is eoiivinced not merely by the 'siuns oi the tiitie^ (Mt Itl-'), which all pointed in (liis dneelion, hu, also l.yHis know-
Mo '--, and (he prophets,
"I, eoneel lliug Hiui, that
d -I
eiilly e\i^tr(( 111 .lesii.^ iiiiiid, liotwecn >1 (he l;,.|,list .and His own eomiiie- end «e kno,v (luit til.: murder ol John made i)..|.ivssion upon llim (.Mt 14'^ cf. Jn ps we ni.iy bo allowed to conjecture reumsta nee marked an advance in the lirist towards a great synthesis — the III of the Conquering with the SuU'er-
It T;;;,- yi-yOXTTKI. H.7.?-.. of Jlli fl'^, sIlOWS Wlut it
mo 1 \\ id"i,\ e.i;n assed, and, in- diila.ailL p.i.sayo in the Gospel
w hich Jesus is said to have dis- lodge of the time of His glorious
1 1 hew and St. Mark record His
o I identical words, except that
.1 1"-^ II I ly the addition of /iiivos
which are common to
lid .Ml. i:. I. In both narratives
stand lli^ n-nil -elf-designation 'Son of Man,' occuninu as tins (ale does in the context of both passages, Mt -'i-'- -', Mk 13=8). How are «'e to interpret, then, this self-revelation which emanates from the consciousness of Jesus ? Many expedients have been tried to get over the logical conclusion
ACCOMMODATION-
ACCOMMODATION
derivable from a literal exegesis, some even going so far as to suggest that the passage is an Arian interpolation.
his Orations against the A xliv., where these passaj^es occur (Bi andria, in his capacity of malleits A the same : " '
Athanasius would almost dichotomize the Person of Christ 111 his effort at explanation. Indeed, he plainly asserts that the Son did know ' the hour of the end of all things.' But as heing the Word (i,- ui. /(>«) He knew, though at the same time as man (i,- hi a.>epi,Tc;) He is ignorant of it (iyvot?). In the same context he maintains that Jesus acted deliberately in speaking of His iRnorance for the sake of 'economy' (a»i.vo« TiTo;«i. \V ^^^' ^.' ^*^P»*^'^^'< awTfly >Airoupyia.? iXiyiv, * ovls i Ti'eV '). See
" k. ii. chapters xliii. and ght's ed.). Cyril of Alex- lanorxim^ speaks in much re unguardedly, as if he were unwilling, as indeed most of the Fathers were, to face the theological and exegetical difficulties of this whole question. .Most nt us will sympathize with the strong and vigorous language of Theodoret with respect to the evasions so commonly current. * If,' he says, ' He knew the day, but being desirous to conceal it said He did not know, you see in what blasphemy the infer- ence lands us. For the Truth lies ' (Repr. XII. capp. Cyril in
There is also a considerable body of modern thought which seems to reject all serious consideration of this aspect of the * ight and reverent attitude ■e only to read such a book eral articles in the Ch. Q. earnestly
their most obvii
as Hall's The Kenntic Thet lierifxc (e.g. vols, xliv., xlv, . contend against the frank acceptance; meaning, of the words of Jesus.