266
OLD TESTAMENT
OLD TESTAMENT
In these views Jesus was at variance with many of tlie people among whom He lived. The Jews at large were incapable of understanding them. For Pharisees and Sadducees the OT was a finality. It was a full and complete law incapable of further development. It was to be accomplished, fulfilled, simply by obedience to its letter. Prophecy was formal and literal, and their interpretations were often puerile. The Apocrj-phal literature shows how far short they fell of the ideals of the ancient projjhets in spite of their ethical zeal. There was attachment to noble ethical ideals, and desire to attain them, and yet blindness to the real nature of these ideals, there was a lack of insight into the nature of their own religion, and an incapacity to live anj-where except on the surface of things.
2. Jesus and the Law. — .Jesus found in the OT not only the ideal of a life, but also command- ments, moral and ritual, bj' which this ideal was to be realized. It is certain that He regarded the OT as supremely authoritative for the conduct of life. He .so accepted it and used it. He empha- sized it as gi%"ing an authoritative revelation of the mind and will of God. He met temptation (Mt 44.7.10^ Lk 44.12.8) ^vith precepts for life (Dt 8^ gi6. ]3j^ which exactly fitted the emergency. He also referred to the Ten Commandments as specific directions for conduct (Mt 15^ Mk 7>»* ; :Mt 19'8- ^\ Mk 10i», Lk 182«). He treated the OT as giving authoritative legislation when (Mt •22^"- **, ^Nlk 222»-3i^ Lk 10-^) He quoted or approved other com- mands found in the Law (Dt 6^- ^ Lv \9^»- ^) as chief rules for life. His practice is not the onlj' indica- tion of His mind. He made a definite declaration of principles, and gave abundant illustration of what He meant by it. The Sermon on the Mount is luminous on this point : ^It 5*"'- ' Think not that I came to destroj' the law or the prophets : I came not to destroj', but to fulfil ' ; cf. Lk 16'''.
His words to John the Baptist (Mt 3'^ ' Suffer it now : for thus it becometh us to fulfil all right- eousness') show that His conception of fulfilment included His own personal performance of any and every duty which was incumbent upon Him accord- ing to the Law, so that nothing should Ije wanting to His full performance of every human dutj'. In other utterances, as Jn 4*^ 5^'^ 17^, His use of reXeto shows that His idea of fulfilment meant the com- pletion of the tasks laid upon Him to accomplish. It should be borne in mind that He considered, and even claimed, that His conduct and will were in perfect harmony with the will of God (Mt 7^' 12^, Mk 335, Mt 28^^ Mk U^, Lk 22«, Jn o»> 6^ 8«). This is a real and important mode of His fulfil- ment of the Law. If He did no more, it would be small help to those who were to preach the gospel. He did it because He was able to do far more, He was able to complete the Law as a law, i.e. to bring it to its perfection as a law. See, further, artt. Law and Law of God.
One wishes to find a clear utterance of the mind of Jesus respecting the imprecatory Psalms. Perhaps it is to be found in ilt 5+«. If the basis of the current Jewish morality respect- ing revenge found support, as some think, in Ps 41111IO1 ('But thou, O Lord, have mercy upon me, and raise me up, that I may requite them ') and the imprecatorj' Psalms, then we find the mind of Jesus in respect of those Psalms an expression of feelings which belong to the individual relations in life. Hate, divorce, and revenge are contrary to the principles of the society which Jesus came to estabUsh, and they have no place in His ideal Kingdom.
The OT often had an ideal in solution, as it were, which in the mind of Jesus was precipitated into crj'stals of perfect and imperishable form. An illustration is the inchoate ideal of Job 3129 ' If I rejoiced at the destruction of him that hated me, or lifted up myself when evil found him ' ; cf. Pr 2417 ' Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, and let not thy heart be glad when he is overthrown ' ; 2429 < gay not, I will do so to him as he has done to me, I otU render to the man according to his work ' ; 2022 ' Say not thou, I will recompense e^^l ; wait on the Lord, and he will save thee ' ; 2521 ' If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat ; and if he be thirsty, give him wat°r to drink ' ; Ex 23*- 5 ' If thou meet thine enemy's ox or his ass going astray.
thou shalt surely bring it ba.ck to him again. If thou see the ass of him that hateth thee lying under his burden, and wouldest forbear to help him, thou shalt surely help with him ' ; 1 S 24-'-'* the example of David in sparing the life of Saul when he had him in his power ; also the similar instance of Elisha in sparing the .SjTians (2 K 622) ; pg 7.5b i4bi ' Yea, I ha\e deli\ered liini that without cause was mine adversary.' These were expressions of an ideal as yet unformed ; passing through the mind of Jesus they appear in the form, ' Love your enemies, and pray for them that persecute you ' (Mt 5^), or more completelj' in Lk 62'''- as ' Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you, bless them that curse j'ou, pray for them that despiteful!}- use you.' And they are exemplified in His prayer on tlic cross, Lk 23-^^ ' Father, forgive them : for they know not what they do ' (on this verse see Westcott-Hort, Gr. Test. ii. pp. 07, 68).