Respecting the characteristics of Jesus's teaching (see especially Winkler, Utber J. Lehrfdhigkeit mid Ldirurt, Leipz. 1797; 'RQ\m,U(b.die Lehrart Jesu u. seiner Apos- tel, Liibeck, 1791 ; IlaufF, Bemerlaingen iiber die Lehi-art . Jesu, Offenbach, 1788 ; H. Ballauf, Bie Lehrart Jesu als rortreflich (jeziifft, Ilannov. 1817 ; H. N. la Cle, He Jesu Ch. insliliKiidi iiKlhiuIn horn, iin/oil,/ crrohiit,: (Ironing. 1835; AninHii,./;;W. 7V,r r,/. ii. :;:is ..,,. ; Vhmrk.i ,< .-.Itirlite d.Christnith. i. Kil s(].: liasc. /.-/«// .A.^'.p. 12:! s,|.; Ne- ander, p. 151 sq. ; Wcissc, i, o7G sq.), we may remark that all his discourses, which were delivered sometimes in the synagogues (Matt, xiii, 54 ; Lidve iv, 22, etc.), sometimes in public places, and even in the open field, sometimes in the Temple court, were suggested on tlie occasion (John iv, 32 sq. ; vii, 37 sq.), either by some transaction or natural phenomenon, or else bj^ some re- cital (Luke xiii, 1), or expression of others (Matt, viii, 10). He loved especially to clothe his sentiments in comparisons (see Greiling, p, 201 sq.), parables (Matt, xiii, 11 sq., 84 sq.) (for these are pre-eminently distin- guished for simiilicity, conciseness, natural lienuty, in- telligibleness, and (lit;i lily: sic csiiccinlly rnucr. lu par- aholar.Jesu nal/n-d. iiit( rjm hi/li'iic nyii. Ltip/. 1S2«), al- legories (John vi, 32 Bij.; x; xv),andaiK)lhegnis(?Jatt. v), sometimes also paradoxes (John ii, 19; vi, 53: viii, 58), which exactly suited the comprehension of his au- dience (Mark iv, 33 ; Luke xiii, 15 sq. ; xiv, 5 sq.) ; and he even adapted the novelty and peculiarity of his doc- trines to familiar Jewish forms, which in his mouth lose that ruggedness and una?sthetic character in which they have come down to us in the Talmud (comp.'\\'eisse, Be more Bomini acceptos a mayistris Jud. loquendi ac dis- serendi modos siijiiciiti r < iik iid(iiidi.yueh.l79'2). See Al- legory; Parai;i,i:. in 'imic >ts with learned Jews, Je- sus knew how, liy sinqilc rlc-uMu ss of intellect, to defeat their arrogant dialectics, and yet was able to pursue their own method of inferential argument (JMatt. xii, 25). When they jiroposed to him captious questions, he brought them, not unfrequently by similar questions, mostly in the form of a dilemma (Matt, xxi, 24; xxii,' 20 ; Luke X, 29 sq. ; xx, 3 sq.), or by appeal to the ex- plicit written law or to their sacred historj'^ (Jlatt. ix, 13 ; xii, 3 sq. ; xix, 4 sq. ; Luke vi, 2 sq. ; x, 26 sq. ; xx, 28 sq.), or by analogies from ordinary life (Matt, xii, 10 sq.), to maintain silence, or put them to embarrassment with all their sagacity and legal zeal (Matt, xxii, 42 sq. , John viii. 3 .sq.) ; sometimes he disarmed them by th3 exercise of his miraculous power (Luke v, 24). With a
JESUS CHRIST
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few exceptions, Jolin alone assigns longer speeches of a dogmatic character to Jesus; nor is it any matter of surprise tliat the Wisdom which delivered itself to the populace in maxims and similes should permit itself to be understood, in the circle of the priests and those eru- dite in the law, connectedly and mystically on topics of the higher ynosis, although even in John, of course, wo can not expect the ijisissima verba. In a formal treat- ment, moreover, his representations, especially those ad- dressed to the people, could not be free from accommoda- . lion (P. van Hemert, Ueb. A ccommod. im X. T. Dortmund and Lcipz. 1797) ; but whether he made use of the ma- terial (not merely negative) species of accommodation is not a historical, but a dogmatic question (comp. there- on Bretschneider, llundb. d. Dor/m. i, 420 sq. ; Wegschnei- der, Im/ituf. p. 119 sq. ; De Wette, Sittenlehre, iii, 131 sq.; Neander, p.21G sq.). See Accomjiodation. Like the O.-T. prophets, he sometimes also employed symbol- ical acts (John xiii, 1 sq., 20, 22; comp. Luke ix,47 sq.) A dignified expression, a keen but affectionate look, a gesticulation reflecting the inward inspiration (Hege- meistcr, Christum gestus jiro coneiom usurjntsse, Servest. 1774), may have contributed not a little to the force of his words, and gained for him, in opposing the Phari- sees and lawj-ors, the eulogium of eloquence (compare John vii, 46 ; xviii, 6 ; j\Iatt. vii, 28 sq.). The tuition which Jesus imparted to the apostles (comp. Greiling, p. 213 sq.), was apparently private (Matt, xiii, 11 sq. ; see CiJlln, /iibl. Theol. ii, 14). See Apostle. Finally, Jesus commonly spoke Syro-Chaldee (comp. e. g. Mark iii, 17 ; V, 41; vii, 34; JIatt. xxvii,47; see Malala, CA/'OHoyrH;;/;. p. 13), like the Palestinian Jews generally [see Lan- guage], not Greek (Diodati, De Cliristn Grace loquente, Neap. 17G7, translated in the A m. Bibl. Repos. Jan. 1844, p. 180 sq. ; comp. on the contrary, Ernesti, Neueste theol. Bibl. i, 2G9 sq.), although he might have understood the latter language, or even Latin (Wernsdorf, De Christo Latine loquente, Viteb. ; see generally Keiske, De lingua vern. J. C. Jen. 1G70 ; Bh. de Rossi, Delln Umput propria di Ckristo,Pa,Tm. 1773; Zeibich,Z)e lii/f/nu .hi,],i,,r. temp. Christi e^ ylpo.«^ Vitebsk, 1791; Wisemanii, in his Hor. SijViac. Rom. 1828). No ivritinr/s of his are extant (the spuriousness of the so-called letter to the king of Edessa, given by Eusebius, i, 13, is evident; comp. also Rohr's Krit. Predif/er-biblioth. i, 161 sq. [see Abgar] : the al- leged written productions of Jesus may be seen in Fa- bricii Cod. A poor, i, 303 sq.), nor was there need of any, since he had provided for the immediate dissemination of his doctrines through the apostles, and he wished even to turn away attention from the literature of the age to the spirit and life of a thorough piety (compare Ilauff, Brie/e d. Werth der schrifll. Rel.-Urkund. betref- fend, i, 94 sq.; Sartorius, Cur Christus scripti nihil re- liquerit, Lciin. 1815; Witting, ll'r//7/(/i .l.„i,-hit< Srhriftl. hinterhmsen, Bschw. 1^<22; (iicsci-kc. Wdnim h.it J.C, vbersich u. s. Rclif/. nlchls Srhri//I. hint: rhi.-^.^.i,, Liuieb! 1823 ; B. Crusius, 'Bibl. Theol. p. 22 sq. ; Neander, ]>. 150 \ comp. Ilase, p. 11). Jesus has been improperly entitled a Rabbi, or high rank of religious teacher Can, pajifti), in the sense of the Jewish schools, as having "been thus styled not only by the populace (Mark x, 51 ; John xx, l(j), or his disciples (John i, 39, 50 ; iv, 3 1 ; ix, 2 ; xi. 8 ; Matt, xxvi, 25, etc.), but also byNicodemus (John iii,'2)i and even his enemies (vi, 25) themselves (Vitringa, Sy- naff. vet. p. 700 ; Paulus, Leben ./es. i, 122 scj. ; see.'on the contrary, C. E. Schmid, De promotione acad. Christo ejus- que dtsnpulis perperam tributn, Lips. 1740). In the time of Jesus persons had no occasion to aspire to the formal- ity of learned lionors, as in later ages (Neander, p. 50), and Jesus had little sympathy with such an ostentatious spirit (John vii, 1.5). .See lUmu (Additional litera- ture may be seen in VolbedLng, p. 25.) Sec Pkopiiet. J. 1 he .Jews expected miracles of the Messiah (John vu, 31 ; 4 Esdr. xiii, 50; comp. IMatt. viii, 17 ; John xx, •^t> sq.; see Bertholdt, Christolofji,, Jud,cor. p. 1G8 sq ) such as Tesus performed (rinara, a„puc,, twvapnci Ihese all had a mural tendency, and aimed at benelicent