From the foregoing examination of the passages in the Gospels where the phrase is used of Jesus by others than Himself, it will be perceived that there is considerable variety of meaning and appli- cation ; it certainly is Messianic, but it is not uniformly or exclusively so.
(2) When we turn to the passages in which Jesus speaks of Himself as ^ the Son,' or calls God His Father, the official-Messianic element is almost entirely absent, the language being that of inti- macy and confidence. Here and there, indeed, there may be Messianic associations involved, as when Jesus promises to the Twelve that, in the day of the full manifestation of the Kingdom, they shall sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel (I\It 19-^), or when He predicts that on the judgment-day He will appear in the glory of His Father and of the holy angels (Mk 8^**) ; but, as a rule, one might read the greater number of these sayings without being reminded that they proceeded from the lips of one claiming to be the Messiah. The consciousness to which they give expression is that of a personal relationship, as when, in Gethsemane, He prays, ' O my Father, if it be possible, let tliis cup pass from me ; never- theless, not as I will, but as thou wilt ' ; and, farther on, ' O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done ' (Mt 2Q^^- ^^) ; or when, on the cross. He cries, ' Father, forgive them : for they know not what they do ' ; and, farther on, ' Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit ' (Lk 23^"'- *).
The climax of this ethico-religious sentiment is reached in the great saying of Mt 11-^11 Lk 10^ ' All things are delivered unto me of my Father ; and no man knoweth the Son but the Father, neither knoweth any man the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.' In recent times this passage has attracted great attention, not a few looking upon it as the profoundest utterance of Jesus in the Synoptics. Holtzmann, indeed, hesitates between such a decision and a suggestion of Brandt's that it is a cento, put into the mouth of Jesus, of words borrowed partly from other Scripture and partly from the Apocrypha ; but by Keim it has been reverentially interpreted, and scholarship has, on the whole, knelt before it as expressing the inner- most mystery of the consciousness of Jesus. The words were spoken at a crisis, when He was roused otit of deep depression at the apparent failure of His mission, by the return of the Seventy, bringing a joyful account of the results of their labours. ' In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, aTid said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise
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and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes ; even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight ' (Mt ll^^'-). Then followed the words already quoted. The first of them, ' All things are de- livered unto me of my Father,' may be best under- stood, as is suggested by Liitgert (op. cit. infr.), of the Messianic dominion in its widest extent, as it had been promised in prophecy from of old ; while the next words, ' For no man knoweth the Son but the Father,' etc., express tlie consciousness of His own right and ability to fill this position, because He has all the resources of the Divine nature to dispense to those who come to Him. This is why He proceeds immediately to say, ' Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest' (v.-^). The mood in which He was consisted of a joyful uprising within Himself of the consciousness of all He was able to do for those who trusted Him ; and this was due to His inti- mate and perfect union with Deity.
Most scholars, however, hasten to add that this sonship was purely ethical, and was not difterent from that to which He was prepared to introduce His disciples. He showed, it is remarked, the true pathway to this position, and the one by which He had reached it Himself, in such sayings as the following : ' Love your enemies, and pray for them that persecute you ; that ye may be sons of your Father which is in heaven ; for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust ' (Mt 5^'"-)- Certainly this sonship of Jesus is ethico-religious, and this indicates the pathway by which the dis- ciples of Jesus may participate in His sonship ; but that His sonship and theirs are in all respects identical is contradicted by the unfailing usage of Jesus in speaking of God as 'my Father' and ' your Father,' but never as ' our Father.' Of this difference Holtzmann makes light in the same way in which he lays down the wholly unsupported assumption that Jesus prayed the Lord's Prayer with the disciples, including the fifth petition ; but the fact is a radical one ; and the conclusion to which it points is not without other confirmation.