The request for a sign in confirmation of His teaching He uniformly refused. The apparent response in Jn 2^* is no exception. The sign He would gi^e would be granted only in its due place as His career was consummated by His own resur- rection. Jn 62*' contains an apparent commenda- tion of those who accepted Him because of His Avonder-working, but it Avas only a relative com- mendation in comparison with the far lower spirit which was unconcerned about any spiritual author- ity so long as their physical wants were easily and bountifully provided. Lk 721-2-2 on the surface ap- pears to be a sign given for the sake of convincing John the Baptist, and if ever our Lord could have departed from His habitual way, it was to help that lone prisoner, suffering mental and spiritual anguish because the work Messiah was doing m as so unlike what he had expected — deeds of quiet beneficence instead of sharp vengeance against iniquity. But the action sprang out of the Divine impulse as our Lord, deeply moved by John's doubt, realized afresh that to bless and heal men was the truest mark of One sent of God.
Jesus resolutely and ))ersistently refused to give any external sign for the sake of evidencing His claims, and only in the most chary manner si)oke of His miracles as signs. He cho.se rather to call them ^pya (' works ') arising out of the need of man and prompted by His own inner life in resi)onse to that need (see art. MIRACLES). His works were 'signs' because they Avere part of His Avhole re- velation of God, and elseAvhere He regards ojijjor- tunities for His miracles as occasions for the manifestation of the Avorks of God (Jn 9^), or for tlie glorifying of Himself (11^). Self-manifestation and Divine revelation Avere identical in the mind of Jesus (14'^). Clearly our Lord only refrained from applying the word cry]fj.da to His miracles because of the general associations of the Avord. To Him they Avere vital ])arts of the re\-elation of Divine power Avhich He came to give.
A very particular and urgently-pressed demand for a sign ' in the heavens ' is recorded in Mt 12™"'" m'-\ Mk 8"-'2, and Lk IP"- 2«-32. The various ac- counts give a full idea of the occasion, or occasions. Mk. records tlie astonishment anil bcAvilderment of Jesus at such a claim made by tho.«e who pro- fessed to be religious leaders. In an age Avhich Avas full of signs, in Avliich He Himself had been the most signal manifestation of the Divine pre- sence and power, these religious teachers Avere still
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SILENCE
SILEKCE
asking for signs. ' Why doth this generation seek after a sign ? No sign shall be given. ' Mt. and Lk. record our Lord's answer that no sign should be given but that of Jonah. Lk. gives the ex- planation of that sign to the Ninevites as con- sisting in the man and his message, not in his deliverance from the sea-monster, which they could only have believed on the strength of their faith in the man himself. Mt IG'""* gives the same in- terpretation, as also does Mt 12^^"^''- ^^, which forms a consistent whole and regards Jonah's preach- ing as the sign. Mt 12'*'', with its parallel to the Resurrection of Jesus, must be regarded as an after- thought incorporated incongruously into the narra- tive. And the chief point is that our Lord declares that the one Divine sign to that generation was Himself, the Son of Man, His Person and His teaching. Simeon, under the exaltation of the Spirit, gives expression to the same essential truth (Lk 2^*). Jesus entirely severs Himself from the common conception of a sign. A mere sign was the prodigy desired by an evil generation ; His ' Avorks ' were signs in the truer and higher sense of having in them a spiritual and Divine significance, and as pointing to greater possi- bilities of soul and higher regions of reality. They were signs of the Divine power and life which dwelt in Himself.
Jn 10^', declaring the embarrassment felt by those who were conscious of the truth of the Baptist's message regarding Christ, together with the fact that he ' wrought no sign,' is witness that more spiritual conceptions were breaking through the ancient crust of superstition. And the Fourth Gospel is evidence that one Evangelist was able to disentangle the spiritual and ethical from the material and catastrophic. The con- ceptions of Christ's power set fortii in this Gospel are of a distinctly more spiritual order. The word used by the writer is invariably crifxe'iov ( Jn 2'' 3^ 4^, etc.), and there are plain indications that the truer and higher significance was attached to it. The value of the sign is seen to be its revealing quality. The miracle of the Cana-marriage is described as the beginning of His signs, in which He manifested forth His glory {icpav^poicre ttjv 56^av avTov), showing that the disciple had truly appre- hended the Master's teaching.
T. H. Wright.
SILENCE. — ' Speech is of time. Silence is of Eternity. Thought will not work except in Silence ; neither will Virtue Avork except in Secrecy.' Carlyle's words (Sart. 151) are well known and profoundly true. The silences of great men are often more significant and self-revealing than their Avords. Silence has an eloquence that speech cannot rival. It is in silence that souls meet and strong emotions pass from one to the other. This is peculiarly true of Jesus, whose character can never be fathomed without a special study of His silences. The sayings of Jesus are limpid gems of ethical thought, flawless in their purity, enunciating principles of universal applicability. His deeds are the perfect expression of His sin- less nature. But His silences are as essentially significant of the impression He made upon the world, for they reveal the spiritual atmosphere in which He lived and which determined His atti- tude to human life and to the problems of human nature.