' aAy,6!/«,' sajs Beyschlag, ' is to Him not this or that worldly and finite truth, but the truth of God, the revelation of God as the eternally good, who, as such, is open-hearted to the world ... it is the sister of x«/">. for every revelation of God is a revelation of holy love ' {NT Theol. ii. 429). See also Truth.
3. But although ' truth,' according to the mind of Christ, Avas a HebrcAv and religious concej)t and not the modern scientific notion, the thought of Jesus Avas free from all the extravagances Avhich Ave liave seen to be characteristic of the JeAvs, though it shared some of their conceptions as to natural phenomena.* If His thought was not scientific, neither Avas it pseudo-scientific. Neither the mldrash of the JeAvish annalist nor the magical metaphysics of the Rabbis has any place in His teaching. While He Avas a keen observer of nature
(Mt 626-28 1331.32.36-43^ M]^ 426-29^ L], 136-9.20.21)^ His
utterances about nature never attempted explana- tions beyond tlie reach of observation ; and Avhile His judgment Avas to an unequalled degree inde- jiendent. He neither criticised the scientific opinions of His day nor attempted to add to humanity's in- adequate store of knoAvledge. Whether this abstin- ence from scientific speculation and instruction Avas intentional (as Wendt suggests), or the natural result of His uuAvavering and complete concentra- tion of soul upon ' His Father's business,' is not important in this connexion. It is sufficient to notice that He escheAved alike Rabbinical explana- tions and scientific research, dealing finally only Avith ' those matters Avhich are naturally the objects of spiritual intuition,' and Avhich, unlike natural phenomena, cannot be adequately investigated by the human understanding.
So far as nature is concerned, then, Ave may say that the knoAvledge Avhich Jesus exhibits in His sayings is just such as a free mind Avith great natural poAvers of fresh observation might gather from a joyous intercourse Avith the ordinary aspects of the material Avorld.
4. One matter of considerable controversial im- portance, hoAvever, in this connexion demands brief attention. What Avas the attitude of Jesus to the literary ' science ' of the Rabbis ? It Avas a double attitude. First, He abolished certain precepts of the LaAv itself (Mt 5^2. 38) ^ g^j^^j added others on His OAvn authority (vv.^2. 34. 39) . a,nd, secondly. He dis- paraged and discredited the learned societies of scribes, and, by the Aveight of His OAvn authority, overthreAV their teaching. But this repudiation of the teaching of the schools and criticism of the LaAV Avas not conceived in any modern scientific temper, or achieved by means of modern critical apparatus. It Avas the inevitable outcome of Christ's conception of Divine truth as a living reality Avithin Himself. His utterances concerning the OT Avere all from this point of vieAV. He judged them according to their spiritual and religious A'alue, not according to any canons of textual criticism, modern or ancient. This is true even in the case of the quotation from Ps 110. ' He did not Aveigh a triith,' says Bishop Moorhouse, 'in Avhat Ave should call critical balances . . . the question of the age or authorship of any passage in the OT Avas never either stated by our Lord Himself or raised by His opponents.'
5. We have next to ask Avhether Ave may concluae from His recorded sayings that Jesus shared those logical characteristics Avhich Ave have seen to be at the foundations of HebreAv ' scientific ' thought. We noticed tAvo main marks of the HebreAV mind — its vivid, simple, and temperate apprehension of the details of life and nature, and its inability to take such a Avide and comprehensive vieAv of fact and experience as Avould make the generalizations of modern science possible. The first of these is
* .Tesus' evident acquiescence in Jewish demonology, at least in its main features, is a case in point.
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pre-eminently characteristic of the thought of Jesus. The vivid originality, profound simplicity, and pic- torial impressiveness of His speech make every reader of His words agree that ' never man so spake.' His insight into the human soul, His parables so true to life. His startling paradoxes, His telling object-lessons, all show the best traits of Jewish thought carried to their highest power. The concrete, stirring, and simple elements of life are seized and ajipreciated with the imagination of the poet and the practical sense of the workman. Jesus is never abstract, never modern — but always particular and Hebrew. But, on the other hand, it is impossible to speak of the mind of Jesus as defective in the sense given above. While He always expresses Himself with the simple concrete- ness characteristic of HebreAv thought, it cannot be said that He is limited by it, for it is the best possible medium or dialectic in which to enunciate religious truth. It is scientific truth which de- mands abstraction, with definitions per genus et differentiain and laws. We have seen that Jesus remained always and wholly within the world of religious truth, and always and wholly outside the world of scientific statement. He was not a theo- logian who theorized about religious truth — He was the Truth. He was not a philosopher who tried to prove the being of God — He declared God. And so the apparatus of scientific description was for Him unnecessary. It would be futile to speculate as to whether He could have used it had He wished. All we need say is that He was a Jew with a Hebrew mind of the highest possible type, and so in the fullest possible sense equipped to utter the highest revelation of God which has been vouch- safed to man.