Our second question goes still farther. For, if Jesus was not a Prophet - and, if a Prophet, then also the Son of God - yet no more strangely unexpected prophecy, minutely true in all its details, could be conceived, than that concerning His Kingdom which His parabolic description of it conveyed. Has not History, in the strange, unexpected fulfilling of that which no human ingenuity at the time could have forecast, and no pen have described with more minute accuracy of detail, proved Him to be more than a mere man - One sent from God, the Divine King of the Divine Kingdom, in all the vicissitudes which such a Divine Kingdom must experience when set up upon earth? __________________________________________________________________
[2778] St. Matt. vii. 25.
[2779] It adds interest to these Solomon-like lilies that the Mishnah designates one class of them, growing in fields and vineyards, by the name royal lily' (Kil. v. 8, Bab. Talmud, p. 29 a). At the same time, the term used by our Lord need not be confined to lilies' in the strictest sense. It may represent the whole wild flora of spring, chiefly the anemones (comp. Tristram, Nat. Hist. of the Bible, pp. 462-465). A word with the same letters as krnos (though of different meaning) is the Rabbinic Narkes, the narcissus - of course that {hebrew} (of fields), not {hebrew} (of gardens).
[2780] u.s. vi. 28-30.
[2781] vii. 16-20.
[2782] St. Matt. xiii. 1, 2.
[2783] St. Matt. xii. 24 &c.
[2784] This seems to be the view of Goebel in his Parabeln Jesu,' a book to which I would here, in general, acknowledge my obligations. The latest work on the subject (F. L. Steinmeyer, d. Par. d. Herrn, Berlin 1884) is very disappointing.
[2785] St. Matt. xiii.
[2786] St. Luke x.-xvi., xviii., passim.
[2787] Admonitory, hortatory - a term used in theology, of which it is not easy to give the exact equivalent.
[2788] St. Luke xi.-xiv.
[2789] St. Luke xi. 14-36; St. Matt. xii. 22-45; St. Mark iii. 22-30.
[2790] St. Matt. xviii., xx., xxi., xxii., xxiv., xxv.; St. Luke xix.
[2791] Even Goebel, though rightly following the purely historical method, has, in the interest of so-called higher criticism, attempted such artificial grouping.
[2792] St. Mark iv. 11.
[2793] From parabllo, projicio, admoveo rem rei comparationis causa (Grimm). Little can be learned from the classical definitions of the parabol. See Archbishop Trench on the Parables.
[2794] F. L. Steinmeyer has most strangely attempted to deny this. Yet every ancient Rabbinic work is literally full of parables. In Sanh. 39 b we read that R. Meir's discourses consisted in third of legal determinations, in third of Haggadah, and in third of parables.
[2795] I am here referring only to the form, not the substance, of these Jewish parables.
[2796] St. Luke xv. 8-10.
[2797] In the Midrash on Cant. i. i
[2798] It is, indeed, possible that the framework of some of Christ's Parables may have been adopted and adapted by later Rabbis. No one who knows the early intercourse between Jews and Jewish Christians would deny this à priori.
[2799] Midr. on Cant. i. 1.
[2800] I must here refer to the various Biblical Dictionaries, to Professor Westcott's Introduction to the Study of the Gospels (pp. 28, 286), and to the works of Archbishop Trench and Dr. Goebel.
[2801] St. Matt. xxiv. 32; St. Mark iii. 23; St. Luke v. 36.
[2802] St. Luke iv. 23
[2803] St. Matt. xv. 15
[2804] Every reader of the Gospels will be able to distinguish these various classes.
[2805] Cremer (Lex. of N.T. Greek, p. 124) lays stress on the idea of a comparison, which is manifestly incorrect; Goebel, with not much better reason, on that of a narrative form.
[2806] St. Luke v. 36.
[2807] St. Luke vi. 39.
[2808] St. Matt. xxiv. 32.
[2809] St. Luke iv. 23.
[2810] St. John x.