The other recorded occasion on which Jesus suf- fered from hunger was at the end of His ministry, and during tliat week when His la.st conflict with the religious authorities of His nation culminated in His Passion and Death. The incident atiords an example of the way in which the Evangelists, in their choice of literary material, were guided to subordinate the selection of historical facts to the moral and spiritual importance attaching to them. Neither St. Matthew nor St. Mark was deterred from relating the story of the fruitless fig-tree by a fear lest the appearance of harshness and petu- lance should detract from the moral dignity of their Master. Their portrait of Him was too faithful and their insight too keen to permit any suggestion, to themselves at least, of an unworthy display, in an angry moment, of thaumaturgical energy. See art. Fig-tree.
The union between Christ and His people, so repeatedly insisted on by Jesus as indispensable to their higher life (see, e.g., Jn IS''^), is postulated in His great eschatologieal discourse. The sufferings of redeemetl humanity are His sufferings, and the loving serrice, which clothes the naked and feeds the hungry, is hallowed because it is done, not merely in His cause, but for Himself (Mt 25^"-, cf. 104i)«r.)_ There is something more in these words than an expression of syiii|i:itliy I'V .i brother who has himself experienceil ■Icpiix ation and suffering
■ (cf. He 4'=), and who feels lur ( wlio is passin<'
through similar stages. We have in them a vivid portraiture of that essential and spiritual oneness upon which the writer of the Fourth Gospel lays such emphasis (cf. Jn 14* 1721.3.20 et(._. ggg ajgo Ac 9° 'E7ii ei/ii 'It/o-oGs Sk <n> Siiiicfis).
It is not without significance that not only have we this my.stic union adumbrated by the Synoptists which is elaborated and, inchoatively at least, systematized by St. John; we have also recorder I in the WTitings of all three an incident illustratix e of that complete companionship in privations as well as in privileges which He demanded as tlie essence of discipleship from the scribe who «uulil follow Him whithersoever He went (Lk iV- - Mt s- ' ; cf. Mt I0» 16--", Lk 9^, Mk 8*^ etc.). The laet that the disciples suflered hunger is speoiiie ally men tioned by St. Matthew, though it is only to be in- ferred from the parallel passages in the other two Synoptists (cf. Mk 2^«- = Ut l-2"f- = Lk G'"-). On this occa.sion Jesus takes advantage of the oppor- tunity afforded by the carping criticism of the Pharisees to emphasize, by an appeal to the case of the hungry David, His teaching on the Sabbath question. A fine touch is added by each of the Synoptists which beautifully illustrates the spirit of camaraderie existing between Jesus and His disciples. The touch is incidental, and tlierefore the more effect ive, Eaeh of the writers p\-|iressly states that it was (he .li-eiple., wlm were phv kin'u the ears of corn ami imt -le^us. tlumt^li .■a^li .nm- mences the narrative liy niaUiii;,' .lesus the ^uhj.ci of the story {eTropivtii} 6 l-naovt, k.t.X., .\It li." : . . . avrbv dtawopeiicaffai, Mk 2^, Lk 6'). It was througli the disciples that the Piiarisees attacked Him (cf., however, Lk 6-) ; and it was in their defence that
Jesus met them with the unanswerable argument taken from their own armoury — the UT.
It will not surprise us to find Jesus transferring the idea of physical bungler to the spiritual life and experience, as this habit of transposition foniw one of the most attractive and powerful features in His teachin". Just as in man's physical life hunger is a sign of health, and becomes an evil only when its cravings cannot be satisfied, so Jesus counts those blessed whose soul's health is robust enough to cause them to cry out from hunger after right- eousness (note the peculiar construction which has the accusative rrif BiKaioaivrii' after ireivUvret instead of the genitive of classical writers ; cf. Od. xx. 137 ; Xen. Cyr. VIII. iii. 39 ; Plato, Bep. 521 A ; see Blass' Grammar of NT Greek, p. 89 f. ; and Liddell and Scott's Lexicon). That need, because it is felt, shall be met in the fullest possible way, hence their blessedness {Sri avrol xop'rocff^o-ofrot, Mt 5* ; cf. Lk 6=1).
On the other hand, they are to be pitied whose spiritual appetite is so deranged that they feel no need at all, because the day shall come when they must feel, and the pangs of hunger shall remain without hope of alleviation (Sri ireivaaeTf, Lk 6-^). That He possessed the power of permanently satis- fying the deepest needs of the human soul, Jesus categorically asserts on more than one occasion (Jn 6^, cf. 4" and 7"). In these express assurances we may see the profovindest explanation of the words of the Magnificat: 'The hungry he hath filled with good things ; and the rich he hath sent empty away' (Lk 1^), which are but the echo of the word's in which the Psalmist long before had clothed his experience (Ps 107^). J. R. WiLLIS.
HUSBAND (di-^p).— Betrothal and marriage were virtually one among the Jews. The former con- sisted in the simple act, on the part of the bride- groom or his deputy, of giving to the bride or her representative a written engagement, in the pres- ence of two witnesses, or a piece of money, large or small, with the words, 'Be thou consecrated unto me.' Like marriage itself, of which it was the initiatory step, it could be dissolved only by death or divorce. Under the Mosaic Law, the maiTiage tie was comparatively easily broken, and divorces seem to have been quite common. During the period of the later prophets the ethical stand- ard was considerably advanced (' God hates putting away,' Mai 2""). Christ Himself utterly set aside the ^aw of Moses, and limited the dissolution of the in avriage tie to the one cause of adultery ; and in this respect He apparently put the two sexes on the same plane (Mk 10"'). The mercy of Christ towards -inners against the law of sexual morality as lai.l down liy Himself is, however, beautifully illnstrated in His treatment of the Samaritan woman (.In 4'- '"(, and in that of the woman taken in adultery s' ' ..