^•O!.. II. — iS
cussion of several passages in John's Gospel. There the idealizing 2>rocess has been carried so far that we cannot be delinitelj' certain, especially when we are dealing with quotations, that we have the words of Jesus at all. In 6*", where Jesus is speak- ing of the impossibility of anj- man's attaining a knowledge of Him without the previous influence of His Father, this statement is supported by a quotation from Is 54'^, wherein the projihet speaks of the people being directly enlightened by God. This is one of the references that would suggest themselves to a writer familiar with the OT, but it has no special bearing on the argument of the passage, and has all the appearance of a glo.ss. The next passage is a very difficult one, though its very difficulty makes it more probable that it is to be referred in its present form to Jesus Himself, since it is not at all likelj- that a later writer would have added to his own problems by quoting as Scripture something of which the origin is so obscure. The \^ ords referred to are those in 7** ' He that believeth in me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.' Now the passages suggested as the oriL'in of this saying— c.r/. Is 12^ 43-^' 44^-55' 58", Ezk 47'"'-, Zee 13' 14*, and Jn 4'^ — have, it must be con- fessed, very little resemblance to it. The passage last cited, Avitli its phrase. • a ^^ ell of water . . . unto eternal life,' has the closest resemblance to the form of the words, but Ave can scarcely suppose it to be the actual source. One seems driven to con- clude, with Hiihn, that the reference must be to some passage in a writing not now known to us (see, for some interesting suggestions as to the possible origin of the phrase, H. J. Holtzniann, Hdcom. ad loc.).*
if) It is not only, or perhaps mainly, in such definite quotations as we have already considered that our impression of Jesus as a student of the OT is most clear, but when we read through the body of His teaching, and see how it is everywhere pcrnicafcd hy OT ideas and coloured b// OT lan- (juarjc. When, for example, we read the Beatitudes in Mt 5, we can almost parallel them from jiassages in the OT. For example, Ps 37" ' The meek shall inherit the land ' ; Pr 2-' ' The upright shall dwell in the land, and the perfect shall remain in it.' Again, as illustration of vv.*"*, we have the words in Ps 24* • Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord ? He that hath ... a iiure heart ' ; a\ liile the very form in which these great utterances are couched is reminiscent of OT language, where the Beatitude is a favourite form of stating great and precious truths. When, again, we regard the continual teaching of Jesus as to God's Fatherhood, which manj' have considered to be the central point of His revelation, we are reminded how Avidespread a basis He found for this in the OT, in such passages as Dt 328, -^i^i 2'«- '«, Is 63'", and elsewhere. The idea of the catholicity of the Kingdom of God, Avhich is so often upon His lips — e.g. in Mt 8" ' I say unto you. That many shall come from the east and the west,' etc. — finds its prototype in such passages as Is 43^'-, and more closely still in Ps 107^. For the darker as well as for the lighter colours of His picture He seems also to be dejien- dent on the words of His predecessors, since we find that the foreshadowing of trouble within the
* Albert J. Edmunds (Buddhht and Christian Gospels) con- tends that the words are quoted from a Buddhist writing, the Patisambhida-waggo (' Wav to Supreme Knowled<re '). See ExpT xviii. [1006] p. 100. Cf. also Clemen, Dtr Gebraxtch des AT in den XT Schri/fen, pp. 36, 37, who rearards the words as referrinsT not to one passage, but to the general teaching of the OT on the gift of the Holy Spirit. A third passage in John's Gospel should also be noted where (103-») Jesus quotes Ps 82'', where the words are apjilied a/ortiori to Himself. In Jn S+* we have a reference to the story recorded in Gn 4*. 9. Cf. Wellhausen, Enreitemnnen vnd Aendernngen im Vierten Emnqelivm [1907], pp. 19-24. Cf. also Jn 152-'' and 1318.
274
OLD TESTAMENT
OLD TESTA3IENT
familj- circle, owing to obedience to His message as set forth in Mt 10^^, has the closest parallel in
Mic
One is sometimes tempted to think that
the actions of Jesus, as well as His words, were prompted by reminiscences of the OT. For in- stance, the story of Elisha, recorded in 2 K 4^'**, may have suggested the providing of a meal for the multitude in the desert place, the words of Ps 69* the cleansing of the Temple (see Jn 2i'), and the memory of the prophecy in Zee 9* may have been the thought that prompted the triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Sometimes also the OT seems to liave afforded a theme for a parable, as in the case of the Vineyard (cf. Is 5^ with Mt 21*^), or the Lost Sheep (Lk 15^) ; and the allegory of the Shep- herd in Jn 10 may have as its literary origin Ezk 34^^ Jesus' great utterance about the future of His Church, as well as about the perils that were about to come upon His fellow-countrymen, has many points of contact with the OT (cf. e.g. Mt 24=1 with Dn 12i 242-'. Dt 13--^ ; 24^9 A\-ith Is 13^, Am 89 ; 24^1 with Is 27'^ Zee 12"). A careful ex- amination of the passage will reveal many more. Very pathetic is the interest of the sayings recorded from the Cross, Avhere Jesus is reported to have quoted, in the language of His childhood, the first verse of the 22nd Psalm. The appropriateness of the whole of this to the circumstances has been frequently pointed out ; and, according to Lk 23^, His last words were an adaptation of Ps 3P.* These are to be taken only as instances of what a careful examination of the Gospels, by the help of such a guide as Hiihn, will reveal to any student in frequently unsuspected places ; and the great significance of the study does not, of course, arise from tlie interest or ingenuity of the parallel that can be drawn, but from the fact that such a study reveals how tlaoroughly imbued Jesus was with the thought and spirit of the OT.