In Mtl' In ,|ili is ealled 'the husband' of
Mary, indica; in , in < -mnexion with v.'-^, that true marital relati'ia- e\i-ti^l hetween them. This is in evident conflict with the Apocrypha, which assigns to Joseph the place of a guardian rather than tliat of a tnie husband, in order to uphold the perpetual virginity of MarJ^ See, further, artt. Marriage, AViFE. Henry E. Dosker.
HUSBANDMAN (7€up7^s).— Jesus knew well the life of the fields. His keen eye for illustrations fell reailily on the most fundamental of occupa- tions; one universal since the primeval days when simple patriarchs began to be husbandmen, and princes digged at the up-springing Avell (' which the nobles of the people delved, with the sceptre • This pass.'^re, whether genuine or not, Is certainly a true refle.\ion of our Lord's mind and character.
HUSBANDMAN
HUSKS
763
and with their staves,' Nu 21'* KV). Agriculture, in Israel's best days, had hrru thi- ihief employ- ment, and still fri.i'ii nit ihc stall, red villages men were to be seen ai wmk u\n,n thr riiiftlike patches. As sure token of liajijiy and succcsslul labours, the plain was verdant witli the growing grain, the vines liung graceful from the terraced slope. The human mind never fails to be arrested in religious mood by the mystic forces of nature ; and in the case of the JeA\s there was this added discipline, that Scripture, read statedly in their liearing, teemed with references to the tilling of the soil. Keady to the lips of Jesus, therefore, was an allusive spi-n h vliidi slujuhl prove power- ful in appeal to cdurali'.l ai il uneducated alike. The way into the iii.|iular Miitiiuent was ck-ar for Him. Peoijle were at luast grounded in the ele- ments of literarj' thought. Un the principles and growth of the great Kingdom He could discourse profitably under the familiar images of seed-time and liarvest, tree or plant culture in their gardens, or the ongoings in tlieir season of the workers in tlie vineyard on the hill.
What proliably commended this line of teaching to Jesus, however, was the fact that husbandry suggests, in singular fashion, the co-ordination of man's activity with God's. Without, on the one hand, what is graciously supplied to us— soil and seed, rain and sunshine— man's labour could be of no avail ; yet, on the other hand, without that labour well directed, mankind would perish. The lesson is writ large in cultivated fields that faith and hope, zeal and jiatience, have a reward assured which comes immediate from the hand of God. Further, this rural imagery of Jesus met the fact that the minds hearing Him were not all equally ready to see the truth in His light. For such persons, pictures from the outer and familiar realm stored up material for self-cailture in the future. And nothing better certifies the supreiiip instinct of the Master than this, that t\w tlionvaml n-vcla- tions of the natural science of l.i ilay illii>trate only the more those spiritual iniinipli,^ and universal laws of the unseen v\ hicli He w as wont to enforce by reference to plienomena around Him as He spoke.
The slighter glances recorded of Jesus in this realm are fairly numerous. Compare the refer- ences to plants and trees (Mt 71^--" 12"^, Lk 6""''^), the putting of the hand to the plough (Lk 9"=), the application of salt to the land (Mt 5", Lk 14"'), the ox fallen into the pit (Lk 14^), the action of tlie airs of heaven (Lk 12^^, Jn 3'), the glo^inu or beclouded sky (Mt 16" ^ Lk 12'^), the buyer gone to survey his piece of ground (Lk 14'"), oi- busy testing his new teams (v.'-'), the dec|>ly- suggestive corn of wheat (Jn 12-^), tlic sifting of the same (Lk 22='), the tenant counting up his measures (Lk 16'), labourers needed for tlie plente- ous harvest (Mt 9"'-^, Lk 10=), the growing white- ness of the crops (Jn 4^), the fated twain of field workers (Mt 24™, Lk 17^), and the beautiful picture of the fig-tree at the approach of summer jiutting forth leaves upon its tender branch (Mt 24^2, Lk 2V-%
But chiefly in the exquisite parables do we see that power of observation in the mnterinl world which makes Jesus so eiiuau ill 'J .as a rhilil of natiii.'. who lived much, and li\i'(l inr. in ih.^ opin air ol Palestine. Aswe move with Him l.y llir liiuliw.iys and the hedges, we descry in one lii-ld tlic servant ploughing or feeding cattle (Lk 17'), in another the well-remembered spot where gleams of joy lit up the rustic's eyes who hajiped upon hid treasure (Mt IS"). Here we have the corn-lands gi-een with the sprouting of the tiny blade (Mk 4-«-2»), tangled betimes with the tares (Mt 13==) ; there the rocky and the thorn-choked patches (Mk 4*-') ; and over
all the hovering birds (v.''), ready to devour the precious seed. We see the labourers standing in the market-place for hire (Mt 20^), the prosperous farmer critical about his barns (Lk 12'"), the shepherd searching the grassy plateau for his sheep (Mt 18'-). Men are workiuf' in the clumps of vines (Mt 21'-"), from which tlie wine-press peeps (Mk 12'), and where the watch-tower stands upon its bolder coign (v.'). See the garden where the tall mustard grows (Lk 13'"), and yonder the forlorn fig-tree (v.") threatened with the axe. The whole world of nature, the varied scenes of toil, are laid amply under contribution, made the emblems and the witness of the highest things of the Sjiirit. (See art. VINE (ALLEGORY OF) for dis- course njion the Vine and the Branches, Jn 15'"", where the Father is the Husbandman ; cf. also art. Agriculture).