LiTERATURK. — Creiiier, Lex. s.v. xo<r//.i>! ; Weiss, NT Theol., Index ; Beyschlaff, NT Theol. ii. 250, 435, 471 ; F. W. Robert-
son, Serm., 2nd set. xiii ; Dale, Laws of Christ, 217; ExpT v. [1894] 201 ; J. Watson, The Inspiration of our Faith, 122 ; J. H. Jowett, Apostolic Optimism, 47 ; E. Grubb in Present - Day Papers, i. (1898) 7 ; J. Rickaby, Oxf. and Camb. Conferences, 2nd ser. (1900-1) p. 25. H. BiSSEKER.
WORM.— See Animals in vol. i. p. 67*.
WORMWOOD.— See Gall.
WORSHIP.— See Praise, Prayer, Synagogue, Temple.
WRATH.— See Anger.
WRITING.— The allusions to writing in the Gospels may be classified under four headings, none of which requires any elaborate discus- sion.
1. In one series of passages ('Moses wrote,' or 'it is written') the reference is to the OT Scrip- tures, whose letter was held to be authoritative on matters of faith and morals. This view of Scrip- ture was due mainly to the influence of the earlier Rabbis, and naturally it dominated more or less the thinking of the primitive Church, whose one sacred book was the OT. But the formula ' as it is written ' had already acquired a juristic sense, as may be seen from numerous inscriptions and papyri (Deissmann, Bible Studies, pp. 112-114, 249, 250), so that the LXX translators were not striking out a new line in rendering Torah often by vbp.os. ' A re- ligion of documents^considered even historically —is a religion of law.' It is in this legal or semi- technical sense that Pilate is said to have written the charge against Jesus (Jn 19'^ etc.), while another metaphorical application occurs in Lk 10^* ' rejoice that your names are written (or enrolled) in heaven.' The latter passage alludes to the well- known Rabbinic and apocalyptical conception of the heavenly books or registers, a figure employed to denote the indelible mercy of God and the certainty of the believer's relation to Himself, as a citizen of the heavenly state. To have one's name written in the heavenly archives, or inscribed on the Divine roll of citizens, was equivalent to the enjoyment of a safe and sure lot with God. On the general use of ypcKpv in the Gospels and Epistles, see art. Scripture, and ExpT xiv. [1903] 475-478.
2. Twice the phrase is used of the composition of the Gospels (Lk P, Jn 2(P- ^i and 2124- ^s), the object of the undertaking in both cases being carefully explained as practical, not literary. To confirm faith, if not to awaken it, is the aim of a written Gospel. Thus an implicit divergence from the above-mentioned sense of ypa<pr] emerges here. No writer of the Gospel claims a juristic authority for his statements. There is nothing legal or formal about their contents (cf. Moffatt, Historical New Testament^, pp. 42 f., 258, 259, 537, 538), nor, as the very persistence of oral tradition suggests, was there any notion of setting them up as infallible tests. Faith sprang from hearing rather than from reading in those days of primitive Christianity. The rise of written records was late, and even their growing prominence did not as yet shift the centre of gravity and influence from living intercourse to scholastic or doctrinal prepossessions. The living voice, the fellowship of the Christian Church, the witness of Apostles — these prevented anything like degeneration into a book religion. The litera scripta had its place and merits. But it was pro- duced in and for the Church. And not until it became isolated from the Church did its abuse begin. ' For the general principles of any study you may learn by books at home ; but the detail, the colour, the tone, the air, the life which makes it live in us, you must catch all these from those in whom it lives already ' (Newman). Thus the rise
YEAR
YOUNG MAN
843
of written records in Cliristianity introduced a real problem, which is soluble only upon a proper view of the mutual relations between living intercourse, such as the Church provides, and literary standards and sources (cf. Tolstoi's Essays, 170 f.).
3. The ordinary use of writing is twice mentioned, in connexion with domestic (Lk \^) and business (16^' '') aftairs. The three R's were taught in Jewish schools, so that writing would be a fairly common accomplishment, indispensable, of course, to the higher branches of trade and culture (cf. Eder- sheim's Sketches of Jeivish Social Life, p. 130 f. )■ See art. Education.
4. Jesus Himself is only once said to have writ-
ten — and that upon the dust (Jn 8'^- ^), stooping and scrawling with His linger on the ground to conceal His embarrassment and to avoid answer- ing the brazen questions of the woman's accusers (cf. Ecce Homo, ch. ix.). It is idle to suppose that He wrote any sentence, or to conjecture what that sentence was, whether the sins of His interrogators or some text like Mt 5^ or Ps 50^*'. It is the action and nothing else that is significant. Jesus stooped to write, in short, by one of those natural gestures which a pure-minded man, seated on the ground, would employ to hide liis confusion and put by a question which should never have been asked.
J. MOFFATT.
YEAR.— See Time.
YOKE.— The yoke (^vy6s, Mt IV^^-) supplied Jesus witli one of His agiicultural metaphors (cf. Mt 13^, Lk 12" 15", Jn 15^). It was ' a bar which connects two of a kind usually — as the ox-yoke — fastened by bows on the necks of a pair of oxen and by thongs to the horns or the foreheads of the oxen. It con- sists generally of a piece of timber hollowed or made curving near each end, and fitted with bows for receiving the necks of the oxen, by which means two are connected for drawing. From a ring or hook in the bow a chain extends to the thing to be drawn' (Lloyd's Ency. Diet.). Another use of the word is found in Lk 14}^ (^evyos, tr. 'pair' in 2'^), where it means a pair of draught-oxen. Now, while the facts of farm-life supplied the form for this metaphor of Jesus, it was not there alone that He found the idea of the metaphor. When from the fields His eye turned to the Scriptures to survey the story of His people, on many a page the yoke met His vision. There it is, in prose, poetry, and prophecy ; about it have gathered the country's glory and grief. To itself it has harnessed the people's experiences. Ideas of opposing character — joy and woe, freedom and slavery, peace and war, plenty and poverty — are symbolized by it (Dt 28^^, Job P 4212, jer o^i', Is 58«, 1 K 12^ La 3^^). More- over, it is in His treatment of those bitter-sweet memories and realities of life that the teaching of Jesus, under this figure of speech, touches and keeps a lonely sublimity. Only once (Mt ll^f) He uses the metaphor. Now it is in everyday use. For He ' touched nothing that He did not adorn.' And He so adorned the yoke as to draw after it the whole gospel.