[1468] All the assaults of Satan were really directed against Christ's absolute submission to the Will of God, which was His Perfectness. Hence, by every one of these temptations, as Weiss says in regard to the first, rüttelt er an Seiner Volkommenheit.'
[1469] I regard the memory as affording the basis for the Temptation. What was so vividly in Christ's memory at that moment, that was flashed before Him as in a mirror under the dazzling light of temptation.
[1470] Satan's if' was rather a taunt than a doubt. Nor could it have been intended to call in question His ability to do miracles. Doubt on that point would already have been a fall.
[1471] Deut. viii 3.
[1472] The supply of the manna was only an exemplification and application of the general principle, that man really lives by the Word of God.
[1473] It cannot be regarded as certain, that the ptergion to ero was, as commentators generally suppose, the Tower at the southeastern angle of the Temple Cloisters, where the Royal (southern) and Solomon's (the eastern) Porch met, and whence the view into the Kedron Valley beneath was to the stupendous depth of 450 feet. Would this angle be called a wing' (ptergion)? Nor can I agree with Delitzsch, that it was the roof' of the Sanctuary, where indeed there would scarcely have been standing-room. It certainly formed the watch-post of the Priest. Possibly it may have been the extreme corner of the wing-like' porch, or ulam, which led into the Sanctuary. Thence a Priest could easily have communicated with his brethren in the court beneath. To this there is, however, the objection that in that case it should have been to nao. At p. 244, the ordinary view of this locality has been taken.
[1474] Comp. The Temple, its Ministry and Services,' p. 132.
[1475] Bengel: Scriptura per Scripturam interpretanda et concilianda.' This is also a Rabbinic canon. The Rabbis frequently insist on the duty of not exposing oneself to danger, in presumptuous expectation of miraculous deliverance. It is a curious saying: Do not stand over against an ox when he comes from the fodder; Satan jumps out from between his horns. (Pes. 112 b.) David had been presumptuous in Ps. xxvi. 2 - and failed. (Sanh. 107 a.) But the most apt illustration is this: On one occasion the child of a Rabbi was asked by R. Jochanan to quote a verse. The child quoted Deut. xiv. 22, at the same time propounding the question, why the second clause virtually repeated the first. The Rabbi replied, To teach us that the giving of tithes maketh rich.' How do you know it?' asked the child. By experience,' answered the Rabbi. But,' said the child, such experiment is not lawful, since we are not to tempt the Lord our God.' (See the very curious book of Rabbi So oweyczgk, Die Bibel, d. Talm. u. d. Evang. p. 132.).
[1476] Sin always intensifies in the coarseness of its assaults.
[1477] For the Jewish views on Angelology and Demonology, see Appendix XIII.: Jewish Angelology and Demonology.'
[1478] St. John vii. 3-5.
[1479] This quotation of the Doxology leaves, of course, the critical question undetermined, whether the words were part of the Lord's Prayer' in its original form. __________________________________________________________________
CHAPTER II. THE DEPUTATION FROM JERUSALEM - THE THREE SECTS OF THE PHARISEES, SADDUCEES, AND ESSENES - EXAMINATION OF THEIR DISTINCTIVE DOCTRINES. [1480]
(St. John i. 19-24.)
APART from the repulsively carnal form which it had taken, there is something absolutely sublime in the continuance and intensity of the Jewish expectation of the Messiah. It outlived not only the delay of long centuries, but the persecutions and scattering of the people; it continued under the disappointment of the Maccabees, the rule of a Herod, the administration of a corrupt and contemptible Priesthood, and, finally, the government of Rome as represented by a Pilate; nay, it grew in intensity almost in proportion as it seemed unlikely of realisation. These are facts which show that the doctrine of the Kingdom, as the sum and substance of Old Testament teaching, was the very heart of Jewish religious life; while, at the same time, they evidence a moral elevation which placed abstract religious conviction far beyond the reach of passing events, and clung to it with a tenacity which nothing could loosen.