But Jesus was a preacher, not a theologian. Consequently His call to repentance is, as a rule, in the form of those exquisite parables that speak to the heart. Such is the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican (Lk 18''-^^), and that of the Pro- digal Son (15"-2<). The latter of these is the truest, the humanest, and the tenderest picture of repentance to be found in the Bible. The essen- tial elements, in the repentance of the Prodigal are
(1) a realization of his desperate condition : ' He came to himself ; (2) a definite mental determina- tion to reverse his course and retrace his steps at any risk : ' I will arise and go to my father ' ; (3) the decisive act of breaking away from his surroundings and going straight into the presence of his much wronged father : ' He arose and came to his father ' ; (4) his absolute, abject, self-effacing humility : ' I am no more worthy to be called a son of thine; make me as a servant' ; (5) his open, outspoken, unreserved, unqualified confession : ' I have sinned to the very heaven, and my sin is against thee, O thou best of fathers.'
2. How Christ leads men to repentance. — If repentance means what we have seen, namely, the change from the self-centred life to tlie God-centred life, then Jesus is the author and inspiration of repentance. No other was ever able to reach down deep enough into human nature to effect this change. And He does it (1) by means of the revelation which He gives of the beauty and blessedness of righteousness in contrast with the ugliness and wretchedness of sin. This revelation makes one ' hunger and thirst after righteousness. '
(2) By means of the revelation which He has given of God and the Fatherly compassion of God toward alienated and sinning men. (3) By means of the sur- passing and compelling exhibition of His own love in renouncing self and enduring such suffering as He did for the reconciliation and redemption of men. (4) By working in man through His Spirit that sorrow for sin and hatred of sin which lead men to renounce it and to turn away from it, seek- ing forgiveness and deliverance. (5) By holding out to men and giving to men the power to forsake sin and to overcome the tendency to sin. (6) Through the convincing effect of examples of that moral transformation which He is continually working in men and women of all sorts and conditions. In short, the history of Christianity in the past and the Christendom of the present both form a solid commentary of fact on the pregnant and potent
words of St. Peter : ' Him hath God exalted as Prince and Saviour, to give repentance and for- giveness of sins' (Ac 5-^1).
Literature. — Bruce. Kingdom of God ; Wendt, Teaching of Jefius; Stevens, Theolog;/ of NT\ Beyschl.is:, NT Theolo(/y\ AXexanAev. Son of Man \ Weiss, Life of C hrint \ Stapfer, o/c'.v«« Chrifit before Hix Miitintry ; Hastings' I)B, art. ' liepentanoe ' ; Bi'ig'frs, Ethical Teaching of Jeaun; de Witt Ilvde, Jemia'' Way (lit08), 55 ; Gilbert, Revelation of Jesus (1899), 62 ; C. A. Brings, Ethical J'eachiny of Jenii/t {1904), (iS ; J. Watson, Doctrinenof Grace (1900), 25 ; .1. Dennev, ' Three Motives to Kenentance ' in Exp. 4th Ser. vii. (18it8) 232; C. G. Montefiore, 'Itabbinic Con- ceptions of Repentance ' in JQR .xvi. (1903) 209 ; P. .1. Maclag-aii, Tlie Goxpel Fiew (1906), Tl ; H. Black, Edinburgh Sermons
(1906), 89. Gross Alexander.
REPETITIONS.— The word 'repetitions ' is found in the Gospels only in the phrase ' vain repeti- tions' in Mt 6'^ ' When ye pray (RV 'in praying'), use not vain repetitions, as the heathen (RV 'the Gentiles') do : for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.' The original word (paTTaXoyiu, written by modern scholars with a in the second syllable, after KB) seems to be un- known to classical Greek, occurring only in the comment of Simplicius on Epictetus (c. 530 a. c), and in Christian literature influenced by the Gospels.
Its origin has been explained in three ways : (1) as a word related to Parrapi^ai, and derived from Battus (Bottos), the name of a Libyan stammerer said to be associated with the early history of Cyrene, or a wordy poet ; (2) as an onomatopoetic word imitating the utterance of a stammerer (Grimm, H. Holtz- mann, Meyer) ; (3) as a hybrid composed of a Semitic element— Neo-Hebrew batal, Aram, betal, 'to be idle,' 'vain,' 'worthless,' represented in I'liodern Arabic by baUal, a term of contempt, ExpT xii. GO, and \oyeai. The last derivation, which may have been in the minds of some of the Syriac translators (Syrsia and Pal. Lect.\ has the powerful support of Blass {EvpTxii. 60), and apparently of Zahn. It is not wholly new, for some earlier scholars regarded the word as a hybrid, but found a diit'erent Semitic element. Zahn suggests that it was coined by Greek-speaking Semites, who, in writing the word with tt, thought of ^ttTTapi^io, and wished to connect their new formation with it. This ini-enious e.xplanation is not absolutely certain, but may be safely jironounced more probable than the first, and is, on the whole, preferable to the second.