QUOTATIONS
856
QUOTATIONS
braces has been examined and been found to support it, every experiment "r occurrence thai favors it may be Baid to fill up what is wanting to its perfect and unde- niable certainty. Hence the New-Test, writers, in re- cording events or describing characters which accord with and so • scemplify the truth of the mora] maxims of the Old rest.,spi ak ol these as if they had contained actual pn -intimai ions of the occurrence to \\ hich they arc applied. They contain, in fact, the norm, or t uL . ac- cording i" which the matter in question has occurred.
The usage of the New-Test, writers in the cases we have been considering is illustrated by thai of the Rab- binical writers in their quotations from the Old Test, as Surenhusius has largely shown in his work upon this subject (B//3Xoc KaraXXavqc, etc., lib. i; see, also, Wanner, .1 ntiquitates Hebrceorum, i, 527 sq. |. instances have also been adduced of a similar usage by the clas- sical and ecclesiastical writers. Thus, Julian introduces Diogenes Sinopensis as Baying that "he fulfilled and endured the curses out of the tragedy" (on avrbc, imrXfipoi teai viroftsvei rdr Ik rtjg rpaywSiai apag). Olympiodorus says of Plato that "a swarm of bees made honey on his lips, thai it might become true con- cerning him, -And from his tongue flowed a strain sweeter than honey,'" which is what Homer says of Nestor. Epiphanius says of Ebion, " But in him is fid- filled that which is written; I had nearly been in all mischief, between the Church and the Synagogue" (dW iv aur({i 7r\i)povrai to yeypafipivov, k~. r. \. | Hceresis Ebion. c. i]). So, also, the Latin implere is used by Jerome: "Caeterum Socraticum illu<l impletur in nobis, Hoc tantulum scio, quod nescio" (Ep. l't.'i ad l'aulin.'). Comp. • Hem. Rom. Ep. l ad t 'or. sec.:;.
Thirdly. The New-Test, writers make quotations from the Old, for the purpose of clothing their own ideas in language already familiar to their readers,or attractive from its beauty, force, or dignity. The writings of the < lid Test, were the great classics of the Jewish nation. venerable at once for their literary value and their di- vine authority. In these the youth of Judaea were carefully instructed from their earliest years, and with their words all their religious thoughts and feelings were identified. Hence it was natural, and nearly un- avoidable, thai in discoursing of religious subjects they should express their thoughts in language borrowed
from the l ks which had formed the almost exclusive
objects of their study. Such quotations arc made for merely literary purposes — for ornament ofstyle,for vig- or of expression, tor felicity of allusion, or for impres- siveness of statement. I he passages I bus incorporated with the writer's own thoughts and words are not ap- pealed to as proving what he says or as applying to any circumstance to which he refers ; their sole use ap- pear- to be to express in appropriate language his own thoughts. Thus when Paul, after dissuading the Ro- man Christians from the indulgence of vindictiveness, adds, in the words of Solomon (Prov. XXV, '-' 1 . 22), ■■ rtierefore, if thine enemy hunger, teed him; if he
thirst, give him drink, for in so doing thou shah heap
coals of tire upon Ids head." the quotation evidently
Berves no other purpose than to express, in language of
an appropriate and impressive kind, the duty w hich the
apostle would enjoin, am I which would have been equal- ly intelligible and equally binding if expressed in his own words as when uttered in those ol the inspired author of the Proverbs. On what other principle, moreover, are we to account for the quotation made by Paul, in Horn. x. is. from the 19th Psalm, where, in of the diffusion of the Gospel among the Jews, he says, "Bui I 3ay, have they not heard? Yes, verily, their so, 1 1 ,,1 went into all the earth, and their words into the end ot the world" a passage originally applied by 'In- Psalmist to the heavenly bodies? To insist upon regarding this as a prediction of the diffusion of the Gospel, or as furnishing even a parallel to it, is surely to sacrifice reason aid common-sense to prejudice or some
favorite theorv.
It has appeared to some that the hypothesis of an ac- commodation of words originally used of one thing to designate another is inconsistent with due reverence to the divine Word. But wherein does the alleged irrev- erence of such a practice lie? To employ the words of Scripture to express low and unworthy ideas, or for the sake of giving point to mere worldly reasonings, i- to use them irreverently; hut to use them to convey ideas ted as those original!) attached to them, if not more so (which is the case. e.g.. in Rom. x, 18), has hut little appearance of treating them with irreverence. The only ground on which such a charge could he maintained is. that words once employed by ;m inspired writer in a peculiar combination become thenceforward sacred to tin expression in thai combination ofth mm hi: a they were first used to designate, whatever others they may he susceptible of expressing, lint who is there that could seriously attempt to defend such a po- sition as this? If this were the ease, every quotation not made expressly as authority would he liable to cen- sure; and, as the number of such in the New Test, is indisputably considerable, hardly any of its writers would stand clear of blame. See Accommodation.