ness, the Man who had it in Him by gifts and graces to perform a Christ’s part for all the world. Truly a noble conception, which lends perennial interest to the texts in which it is embodied.
3. In the foregoing remarks I have anticipated to a certain extent what relates to the question of didactic aim. That the first Gospel has such an aim is obvious from the careful manner in whicl. the prophetic argument is elaborated. The purpose is to confirm Jewish Christians in the faith that Jesus is the Christ. The purpose is reveafed in the very first sentence and in the genealogy to which it forms a preface. ‘The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham.” The Son of David first, because on that hangs the Messianic claim; the Son of Abraham likewise, because that makes Him a Jew, a fellow-countryman of those for whose benefit the Gospel is written. The genealogy is the first contribution to the apologetic argument. The logic of it is this: “The Psalms and Prophets predict the coming of a great Messianic King who shall be a descendant of the house of David; this genealogy shows that Jesus possessed that qualification for Messiahship. He is the rod out of the stem of Jesse.” Whoever compiled the genealogy did it under the impression that physical descent from David was indispensable to Jesus being the Christ. But it does not follow that the genealogy was manufactured to serve that purpose. The descent from David might be a well-known fact utilised for an apologetic aim. For us, though a fact, it is of no vital consequence, Our faith that Jesus is the Christ does not rest on any such external ground, but on spiritual fitness to be ths world’s Saviour. We reverse the logic of the Jewish Church. They reasoned: because David's Son, therefore the Christ. We reason: because the Christ, therefore David's Son, at least in spirit.
4. In speaking of the literary characteristics of Matthew it is necessary to keep in mind that some of these may come from the Logia of the apostle Matthew, and that others may be due to the evangelist. Critics ascribe to the apostolic source certain phrases of frequent recurrence, such as καὶ ἰδού, ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν, 6 πατὴρ ὁ ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖ». Among the features of the evangelist’s own style they recognise the frequent use of such words as τότε, λέγων, προσελθών, ὄχλοι, ἀποκριθείς, ἀναχωρεῖν, λεγόμενος, and such phrases as τί σοι δοκεῖ, συμβούλιον λαμβάνειν, κατ ὄναρ, ἐν ἐκείνῳ τῷ καιρφ By comparison with Mark, the style of this Gospel is smooth and correct.
1 Vide notes on Matt. i. * Vide Weiss, Matthdus-Evangelium, pp. 23-4.