Sec. 3. His Personality. 39
upwards as Jesus was taken away from them, or Cornelius stared at the Angel. In the Third Gospel, IV 20, the stare of the congregation in Nazareth at Jesus, when He first spoke in the synagogue after His baptism, suggests that a new glory and a new conscious- ness of power in Him were perceived by them. The power which looks from the eyes of an inspired person attracts and compels a corresponding fixed gaze on the part of them that are brought under his influence ; and this adds much probability to the Bezan reading in III 3, where the fixed gaze of the lame man on Peter seems to rouse the power that was latent in him. The Greek word (arevi^etv) is almost peculiar to Luke, and occurs chiefly in Acts. Elsewhere in N.T. it is used only by Paul in II Cor. Ill 7, 13 ; and it has often seemed to me as if there were more of Lukan feeling and character in II Cor. than in any other of Paul's letters. A consideration of these passages must con- vince every one that the action implied by the word (arevi&iv) is inconsistent with weakness of vision : in fact, Paul says that the Jews could not gaze fixedly on the glory of Moses' face, implying that their eyes were not strong enough. The theory which makes Paul a permanent sufferer in his eyes, unable to see distinctly persons quite near him, and repulsive to strangers on account of their hideous state (Gal. IV 13 f.), is hopelessly at variance with the evidence of Luke. In that word, as he uses it, the soul looks through the eyes.
The word twice occurs in the Third Gospel, once in a passage peculiar to Luke, and once when the servant- maid stared at Peter and recognised him, where her fixed gaze is not mentioned by Matthew or Mark.