griech. Sprache, ii. p. 530 ff. ; F. Kattenbusch, Das apostolische Symbol, ii. p. 581 ff. ; G. Wobbermin, Religionsrjeseh. Studien zur Frage der Beeinflussung des Urchristentuins durch das antike Mysterienwesen, p. 114 ff. ; Beyschlag, AT Theology (Eng. tr.), ii. 414ff. FERDINAND KatTENBUSCH.
OPPOSITION. — The reason for the opposition offered to Christ in proclaiming His Kingdom on earth was the hostility of the scribes, Pharisees, and others, who represented the religious element in the Jewish nation. The profession of religion was at that time fashionable among the Jews. To make a parade of religious observance was a sure passport to popularity, as the ostentatious display of wealth is in modern times. Christ decried this parade of religion as hypocritical. He inveighed against the Pharisees and scribes in no measured terms (.see esp. Mt 23). He told them that their profession was a sham and their religion worthless. He assured them that their lineal descent from Abraham, on which they prided themselves so much, gave them no special plea for acceptance with God. It was the spiritual descendants of the patriarch, who imitated his faith and listened to the teaching of God, who were the true Israelites, the inheritors of the promise. He insisted upon a religion of the heart, and not the outward and formal rites and obsei"vances, on which they laid such stress because they brought them into favour with men.
The Sadducees, with the leading priestly families at their head, had a special grudge against Jesus, on account of His cleansing of the Temple and condemnation of the traffic carried on in its courts, — a traffic in which they had a direct interest.
The opposition to Christ was so bitter as to be satisfied with nothing short of His death. It culminated in the illegal trial before the high prie.st and the Sanhedrin, and the arraignment before Pontius Pilate. Its strength is shown in the preference for the release of liarabbas to that of Jesus. Though the Roman governor fully realized that this opposition was dictated by envy, and that Christ was innocent of any thought of treason against the Roman government, yet he was afraid, from motives of personal interest, to give a decision in accordance with his convictions.
As far as the people, as distinguished from the ruling classes, were concerned, their final opposi- tion, or at least indifference, to Jesus arose chiefly from the way in which He had disappointed their carnal Messianic expectations. See artt. Popularity, Popularity of Jesus.
Christ in the Gospels warned His disciples con- stantly of the opposition with which they would inevitably meet (.see esp. Mt 24^ Mk 10^", Lk 2V^-^\ Jn 15^"). C. H. Prichard.
OPPRESSION.— The word does not occur in the Gospels or in connexion with the activity of Jesus except in the verbal form in Ac 10^** ('Jesus of Nazareth . . . went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed [KaTadwaarevo/jL^vovs'] of the devil '). In ' breaking the rod of the oppressor,' Jesus delivered men not only from sin, but from sorrow and sickness (Lk 4^^^ jyjt 11«-), from the yoke of legalism (Lk 11*"), the tyranny of worldly circumstance (Lk 12^-'), the fear of death (Ac 2^^), etc. Oppression of guilt weighing upon the sinner's .soul was a condition which never failed specially to elicit Christ's sympathy and pity (Mt ips-sS^ according to the interpretation that commends itself to the present writer). The sense of this oppression could not exist without an earnest desire to be rid of the burden, and it was this desire that was a sign of a tendency towards a higher life.
It was the oppression of sin that Christ came to take away, and not the yoke of the Roman
ORCHARD
ORGANLZATIOX
283
government ■w-hich proved so galling to the Jewish nation after their glorious past. It ■was partly the mistake about the object of His mission that stirred up against Christ the opposition which Ls so marked a feature in the Gospels. See OPPOSl- Tiox. C. H. Peichard.
ORCHARD.— See Garden.
ORDINANCES.— In the English versions of the Gospels this word occurs only once, Lk I*, where the parents of John the Baptist are described as 'walking in all the commandments {eyroXah) and ordinances {oiKoudJ/jLtuji ) of the Lord blameless. ' From its etymology the word dLKcuwfm means (Ij a right- eous enactment of rightful authority, and (2( a righteous act or deed. Here, of course, the first signification is the one intended, but the strict etymological force is not to be pressed, as the word is simply one of the oft-recurring practical syno- nyms for the injunctions of the Divine Law, both moral and ceremonial. E. C. DaegaN".
ORGANIZATION In the XT organization is
visible, but in a rudimentary and experimental state. It lacks the rigidity of a fully systematized religion, but it is thereby the better evidence of the glorious vigour of primitive Christianity and its impatience of all that might restrain and hinder its mission. Christ imbued His disciples with an ideal ; they accepted His declaration of a Kingdom of God unfettered in plan and method and time ; they knew it was to come imperceptibly ( ' the wind bloweth where it listeth,' Jn 3-), and to one the Kingdom %vill appear vith the surprise of a treasure found in a field (Mt 13*^), while to another it vrUl be the pearl gained at the willing cost of all else (v.*5). In its earthly realization it was to be all-inclusive, a net that should gather of every kind (v.*'), a field for tares as well as wheat (v.**), and this \^"ide vision gave the Apostles zeal to seek sinners as well as saints, Romans as well as Jews, calling none unworthy or unclean (Peters dream, Ac 10^). Yet Jesus knew that organiza- tion was the inevitable accompaniment, if not the necessity, of this heavenly Kingdom's appearance on earth. The sea might be full of fish, but fishers were needful (Lk 5^ ") ; the fields were ripe unto hanest, but labourers must be found for the reaping (Mt 9^, Lk lij^) ; the broadest community will need the power of exercising discipline, even to the extent of excommunicating if that will make the ^vrong-doer feel the distance between his