i. Questions put by Jesus. — 1. The promin- ence of interrogative sentences in the Gospels is due in part to the characteristic avoidance of indirect con.structions ; but no doubt both in this particular and in the number of questions intro- duced they reflect the vividness of the Saviour's methods of teaching. The interrogative form was also particularly adapted to make people think for themselves, and we can trace all through our Lord's utterances the desire to promote thought. In a few cases the que.stions are simply requests for information. One instance is of special interest. According to Mk G'**, Jesus asked the disciples, before the feeding of the 5000, ' How many loaves have ye?' This question is omitted in Mt. (14""-) and Lk. (9'^). Jn. (G'*'-) relates that Christ asked a similar que.stion of Philip on the same occasion.
' Whence are we to buy loaves, that these may eat ? ' But the Evangelist is careful to show that he does not understand this to be simply a request for information, by adding, ' And this he said to prove him : for he himself knew M'hat he would do.' The following is a list of .simple requests for information ; it will be noted that they occur mostly in Mk., and fall in with the .simpler con- ception of the Person of Christ presented in that Gospel :
Mk 59, Lk 830 ' What is thy name?' [wanting in Mt.].
,, 6^=*. See above.
,, 8-\ Mt 153-* ' How manv loaves have ye?' [wanting in Lk.].
,, 823 916. 21 [peculiar to Mk.].
,, 933 ' What were ye reasoning in the way?' [Mt. avoids the question ; it is wanting in Lk.]. Jn 113^ ' Where have ye laid him?'
,, 138 18^- ''• 3J probably do not come under this category ; in each of these instances the question seems to be intended to suggest some thought to the hearers. Jn 20'5, like Lk 2417. 19, seems to be due to the character of a stranger assumed for the moment by Christ.
2. Instances of purely rhetorical questions occur with normal frequency {e.g. Mt 15^, where the parallel Mk 7** has an assertion ; Mk 4'^ Lk 18'^, Jn 6™). Christ habitually used such questions as a form of mild rebuke, often implying a notion of surprise or of sorrow (e.g. Mk 4^0:=Mt 8-6 =Lk 8^5, Jn 31").
3. The use of a rhetoiical question to introduce parables or parabolic utterances is characteristic of Luke, but is found also in Matthew and Mark. In the latter Gospel the parable of the Mustard- seed (4^") is introduced by the striking double question, ' How shall we liken the kingdom of God ? or in what parable shall we set it forth ? ' which Swete (ad loc. ) thus paraphrases : ' How are we to depict the kingdom of God? in what new light can we place it ? ' He adds, ' The Lord, as a wise teacher, seems to take His audience into His counsels, and to seek their help.' Lk 13^® retains the double question in an obviously less original and really tautological form, in which the hearers are not taken into the Master's counsels ('Unto Avhat is the kingdom of God like ? and whereunto shall I liken it?'), but Mt 13^' drops it. Cf. also Mk 219 = Mt 9i'5=Lk z;'\ Mk 836f=Mt 16^6 = Lk 2'^, Mk 950 = Mt 513= Lk 14^4; examples peculiar to Mk. are found in 3'^^ and 4^^. This use occurs also in Mt. in passages where the matter is common to himself and Lk. (Mt 6^7 = Lk 1225, Mt Ili6 = Lk 7»i, Mt 1812 = Lk 154^ ^^ 24^5 = Lk 12^^), but there do not appear to be any instances of it in matter peculiar to Matthew. Further examples in Lk. are 6^^ IP (where the interrogative form in which the parable of the Friend at Midnight begins is not carried to a grammatical conclusion), 13^° ( = Mt 13^^ where the question is dropped) H^s-si 158 \1^i^^ A somewhat similar use is found in Jn 4^ and IP, where a parabolic meaning is apjjarently given to popular proverbs.
This investigation throws an interesting side-light on the Synoptic problem : one of the four parables recorded by Mk. is introduced by a very striking interrogative formula, and many parables in the non-Markan document used by Mt. and Lk. seem to have been similarly introduced; Mt., however, did not care for this use, and was inclined to avoid it.
i. Christ often asked a question also in order to make men draw their own conclusions from His parables: cf. Mk 129 = Mt 2P» = Lk 201* (where He apparently answered the question Himself, though Mt. ascribes the answer to the audience), Mt 2pi, Lk 7^- 10'«> 1611.
5. Very frequently Christ, by means of a ques- tion, led His hearers to admit the truth of matters of common knowledge, or of generally accepted principles, on which He was going to base His teaching : some characteristic examples are here classified :
(a) Matters of common knowledge : Mt 1029 =Lk 126 (price of sparrows), Mt 17^5 (tribute collected of strangers).
462 QUESTIONS AND ANSWEKS
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
(,b) Appeals to common sense : Mt 5«f=Lk 632f., Mt 73f=Lk e^if (the mote and the beam — ahnost parabolic), Mt 79fr=Lk llHft., Mt 7lfi (question-form dropped in Lk 6«), Mk 7l8f. = Mt 1517, Mk 1216 = Mt 2220= Lk 20^1 ('Whose is this image and superscription ? '), Lk ll-»0 2227.