The teaching of Jesus concerning the Scriptures

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I. Antecedent Presumption as to the Attitude of Jesus toward

the Scriptures I

Chapter I

Antecedent Presumptioji as to the Attitude of Jesus toward the Scriptures.

/F there were no Bible we should all be wondering why ; nor would our wonder cease until we had made a Bible, however full of faults, to satisfy it. This is why there are so many " sacred books" in the world. They represent not only a universal longing but a universal sense of the fitness of things. Men want a Bible and must have it. " There is a spirit in man " and " the spirit of man is the candle of the Lord." We were made in God's likeness and, fallen though we are, the glory is not all departed. There are memories, hopes, desires, aspirations that bind us back to God.* One of the lingering echoes of our pristine dignity when we walked with God in the Garden in the cool of the day is the feeling, everywhere prevalent, that he somehow still holds converse with us.

To the calm judgment of a Baconian logician this proves nothing. Is it not just possible, however, that there are more things in heaven and earth than the inductive sages can demonstrate by their system of reasoning ? Is it quite necessary to assume that all truth, particularly such as falls outside the province of the five physical senses, must be classified under the formula quod erat demonstrandum ? How, then, about the things that are " spiritually discerned " ?

This is not to say, however, that a dem-

* The word " religion " is held by many to be from re~ ligare, meaning " to bind back."

onstration of the truth of Scripture cannot be -made. Far from it But we thus justify our beginning this little book with certain universal facts which furnish only circumstantial evidence ; facts which, like the ergo in cogito ergo sum, draw on the imagination. They do not land us in the safe harbor of conviction ; but they make it pretty certain that the harbor is somewhere and that, with favoring winds, we may presently sail into it. In other words, they create a presumption in favor of the argument lying farther on.

I

We say, then, at the outset, that // there is a God anywhere in the universe, and if we are his children, he cannot fail to communicate with us in some way. To think otherwise would be to assume that he is either unable or unwilling to do so. In the former case he would not be omnipotent; in the latter case he would not be kind, and in either case we should have no practical interest in him because he would not be God.

II

Our second step brings us to the assumption that // God reveals himself at all it will probably be in a human form.

He is said to have created man in his own image and after his likeness, the highest of and dominant among the orders of life. Is not this, therefore, the form in which he would probably embody himself, if he is to embody himself at all?

It is worthy of note that the doctrine of the incarnation, so far from being the sole possession of the Christian Church, is practically universal ; though oftentimes so vague and even grotesque as to furnish a pathetic commentary on the inadequacy of human wisdom to answer human need. From which we infer that it is manifestly in accord with reason, in so far as reason is represented in the intuitions of the race. The false religions abound in avatars and theophanies, vain gropings toward a true embodiment of God.*

Men search for God in nature ; and behold the Pantheon ! Here are gods from hill and valley ; nymphs, dryads, nereids, deifications of nature in every form. Men worship the sun, the scarabasus, great Moloch with his fiery arms, a lizard, a crocodile, an onion. O the lamentable depths to which the race

* " God's general revelation of himself is by fixed laws of order which know no pity, which show no forgiveness, which are indifferent to the interests of individuals, which conceal the divine character in some respects while they reveal it in others. God's special revelation of himself by intervening among these laws in miraculous acts and inspired words brings him nearer to individual hearts, and yet it leaves him far away ; for, after all, but signs and sounds have been given, not himself ; he is himself still shrouded in darkness, still hidden where no man can approach him. Can he come yet nearer man, that man may draw closer to him ? Christianity answers, and its answer is Christ, — the person, the character and the work of Christ." Doctor Robert Flint in " Faiths of the Worlds has fallen in its eagerness to find or make a suitable symbol of the invisible God!

They search for him in philosophy with no better result. The thinkers of the Orient ended their researches in a polytheistic deification of the universe ; affirming that all things are God. The Occidentals, on the other hand, arrived at pantheism ; affirming that God is all things. These ultimates were equally false and equally true.*

Shall God be evolved, then, from the inner consciousness ? The utmost that a man can do in this direction is to project himself in large dimensions on the skies, like the Brocken of the Alps. As there are many men of many minds the result

* Thales professed to have discovered in water the potency of life. Xenophanes proclaimed that nothing could be more divine than thought. Plato anticipated the investigations of modern scientists who declare that the Ultimate is all-pervading law or force. The Stoics were Agnostics, giving up the quest in despair ; saying, like Fichte, " We know nothing, not even that we know nothing."

must be a corresponding multiplicity of gods.

How then can God unveil himself? We have exhausted our resources. The world grows weary of seeking him. The fulness of time is the hour of despair. He now appears, as announced in the protevangel, u The seed of woman shall bruise the serpent's head," The great Father desires to communicate with his children. Our human medium of communication is language. The "word" of the Father shall be articulated for his children's use. The Word is made flesh and dwells among us.*

God is manifest in flesh. Theanthropos ! The child wrapped in swaddling bands is the very God that sat upon the circle of the universe and called into being things that were not. The little hand, that lies, pink and dimpled, on its mother's breast, is the same that spun the newcreated worlds into space, and rolls the

* See Appendix A.

rattling thunders through the skies. The lips that murmur in response to her lullaby are destined to speak the words whereat, in the process of the centuries, the thrones of the Caesars shall fall in irremediable ruin and give way to a kingdom of truth and righteousness. He hath upon his vesture and his thigh a name written — a name to be made clearer and clearer in the logic of events — " King of kings and Lord of lords/'

The truth thus stated is fundamental to Christianity. It bears the same relation to our doctrinal system that a mainspring bears to a watch. Every pin and wheel and lever of the mechanism is more or less important ; but break the mainspring and the watch stops.

Not only so, this doctrine is the touchstone of Christian sincerity ; as it is written, "Hereby know we the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in flesh is of God : and every spirit that confesseth not Jesus is not of God" (1 John iv. 2).*

Ill

This brings us to the third step in our presumption ; namely, If God were to reveal himself in human form he would probably supplement and, complement that Incarnation by a Scripture.

Otherwise how would the Incarnation be of any practical use beyond its own place and time ? The true religion must, presumably, be coextensive with all races and generations. It must extend its beneficence not only " from the river to the ends of the earth' ' but from Adam to the last man. In order to accomplish this an Incarnation of God, unless other provision was made, would have to be not only ubiquitous but contemporaneous with the whole human race ! Now Christ lived in a small corner of a remote portion of the earth, during a brief period of only thirty-three years. It is claimed,

* See Appendix B.

io The Scriptures

however, that the benefits of that short and circumscribed life are made both universal and perpetual by the Scriptures which contain the record of it. In the Old Testament he is set forth prophetically as One who should, in the fulness of time, be born of a virgin, and whose name should be called Immanuel, "which is, being interpreted, God-wi thus." In the New Testament he is set forth as the historic Incarnation of Deity. In the Old and New Testaments, combined he is presented to all ages and generations, from the beginning to the end of the world, as God manifest in flesh for the deliverance of the world from sin.

It is difficult to imagine how God could have made himself known to men in any other way. We are not unaware of the importance of natural theology ; but nature "speaks a various tongue." The vernal winds whisper one thing and Euroclydon screams another. A stranger in a strange land, gazing at the stars, solaces his loneliness with the thought that they* are shining also on his distant loved ones ; but that does not answer the purpose of a letter from home. Coleridge in the Valley of Chamounix hears " all the signs and wonders of the elements " echoing God ; but this falls infinitely short of the satisfaction he feels on opening the Book and seeing his Father's name ; a satisfaction which he expresses thus, " It finds me."

It is not unnatural, I say, that God's children in the far country should look for such a letter from home. And they all do. Witness the sacred books of all the nations. Poor counterfeits, indeed, but how pathetic ! They certify to a universal longing. The expatriates have been "watching the mails" from the beginning of the ages. Is there, then, no word from God ?

Enter, the Bible with its claim. But how shall we know that the Bible is the veritable Word of God? Why not the Vedas, the Tripitaka, the Zend-Avesta, the Analects of Confucius or the Koran ? Reason must answer. All, including the Bible, are bound to stand or fall upon their comparative merits. And the question is not, Which is the best? but, Which is the one ? For truth is one, absolute and exclusive. And it should be obvious that when God reveals the truth, he makes no mistakes ; he kindles no false beacons ; he tells no lies.

In this inquiry we must be guided by internal evidence. Here is one of the functions of scholarship. It kindles the fires under all the sacred books ; if they burn, so be it. The true Word must come from the flames without so much as the smell of smoke upon it. Let those who doubt the veracity of Scripture turn on the fuming and corrosive acids of adverse criticism. It must abide the issue. And, perpetually, the world looks on.

As to the result, every man must judge for himself whether the Bible verifies its claim or not. But history has somewhat to say. The " logic of events is irrefutable. It is a significant fact that the pathway of the centuries is lined with discredited and discarded oracles. The sacred books of antiquity were weighed successively in the balance and found wanting. Where is the Egyptian " Book of the Dead " ? It survives only in fragments deciphered from mummy-crypts and bands of byssus. Where are the mythologies of the Greeks, the Romans and the Norsemen ? Where are the philosophies of Greece ? Of devotees they have practically none ; the spectres of disappointment are their only mourners. And of the sacred books of Buddhism, Brahmanism and Islam, which still survive, three things must be observed : first, infallibility is not claimed for them ; second, they have no calculable following among the civilized nations of the earth ; and third, they represent religions which are stricken with death.

Meanwhile, what of the Bible ? It is the Book of Christendom — that charmed circle which includes practically all the light and life of these days. It is the center of a controversy which represents the mental and moral energy of the world. It counts among its friends and defenders an ever increasing number of those who are distinguished for character and culture. Its enemies contribute to its triumph and perpetuity by their assaults upon it. " Hammer away, ye rebel bands ; your hammers break, God's anvil stands ! ' It may be confidently affirmed that more people are reading the Bible to-day than ever before ; and — as certified by the roll-call of the universal church — more people than ever are affixing their faith to it. We do not say that this proves the truth of the Bible, by any means, but only that it opens the way. It warrants us in affirming that it looks as if there might, perhaps, be something in the claim that it is the veritable Word of God.

IV

Our fourth step brings us to a full statement of our antecedent presumption, to wit : If God were to reveal himself in both human form and in Scripture, the Man and the Book would be in perfect accord with each other.

On the one hand, the Book would be not only true, in the necessity of the case, but a complete setting forth of God so far as it is important that man should know him. It does not fall within the writer's province, at this time, to traverse the argument for the authenticity and trustworthiness of Scripture except so far as that is covered by the teachings of Christ. Let it suffice here to say that the Bible claims to be the written Word of God.

On the other hand, a man claiming to be incarnate God would have to be, in the necessity of the case, a true and complete revelation of God in all his practical relations with us. He would need to be, as it were, the articulate speech of God addressed to men. And this is precisely the claim which is made for Jesus Christ. " In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth " (Johni. 1, 14). As we are made acquainted with one another through the medium of language, so the eternal Logos in his incarnation becomes, as it were, the articulated speech of God, by means of which we know him.

If these respective claims of Christ and the Bible are true, we should expect them to agree, each with the other, perfectly. If they meet this requirement, we must conclude that the argument for the truth of either is strengthened an hundredfold. This then is the question : Does the Bible bear an unequivocal testimony to the claims of Jesus as the Incarnate Word, and does Jesus bear witness, correspondingly, to the claim of the Scriptures as the written Word of God ? If so, in the two together, constituting the binomial Word, we may confidently rest as in a full, true and final revelation of God.

It is only with the latter half of this question that the writer has to do. His task is to discover and state \ as clearly as possible, what the Incarnate Word has to say respecting the Written Word of God.

CHAPTER II The Actual Attitude of Jesus toward the Scriptures

Ik TO amount of a priori argument, / Y/ such as the patient reader found in Chapter first, can settle the matter in hand. It is easy enough to lay down antecedent presumptions and probabilities ; but the question, after all, is purely a question of fact : What was Jesus's attitude toward the Scriptures ? The obvious way to arrive at a satisfactory answer is by making a comprehensive survey of his life and teaching, so far forth as they have any reference whatsoever to the matter before us. 18

/. The Preparation

Observe, at the outset, Jesus knew the Scriptures. In his childhood he was instructed in them. He was surrounded by a religious atmosphere. The mezuzah with its passage of Scripture * was affixed to the doorpost of his home. Joseph and Mary were loyal Jews and, as such, nurtured and instructed the Holy Child in the sacred Word. At the first this duty would naturally devolve on the mother. " It needed not the extravagant laudations, nor the promises held out by the rabbis," says Edersheim, "to incite Jewish women to this duty. If they were true to their descent, it would come almost naturally to them. But while the earliest religious teaching would, of necessity, come from the lips of the mother, it was the father who was ' bound to teach his son.' To impart to the child knowledge of the Torah conferred as

* " The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth and even forevermore " (Ps. cxxi. 8).

great spiritual distinction, as if a man had received the Law itself on Mount Horeb. Every other engagement, even the necessary meal, should give place to this paramount duty ; nor should it be forgotten that, while here real labor was necessary, it would never prove fruitless. That man was of the profane vulgar (an Am haarets\ who had sons but failed to bring them up in the knowledge of the Law."*

At the age of five or six Jesus was sent

* Directly the child learned to speak, his religious instruction was to begin — no doubt, with such verses of Holy Scripture as composed that part of the Jewish liturgy, which answers to our creed. Then would follow other passages from the Bible, short prayers, and select sayings of the sages. Special attention was given to the culture of the memory, since forgetfulness might prove as fatal in its consequences as ignorance or neglect of the Law. Very early the child must have been taught what might be called his birthday-text — some verse of Scripture beginning, or ending with, or at least containing, the same letters at his Hebrew name. This guardian-promise the child would insert in its daily prayers. The earliest hymns taught would be the Psalms for the days of the week, or festive Psalms, such as the Hallel, or those connected with the festive pilgrimages to Zion." Edersheim's " Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah."

to the rabbinical school, where the Bible was the only text-book. The course of study began with Leviticus and continued through the Pentateuch ; after which the prophets and then the poetical books were taken up. Much attention was given to the memorizing of certain portions, particularly the important prescripts of the law and the acrostic Psalms. At ten years of age the pupil was permitted to enter on the study of the Gemara and the fundamental doctrines of the Jewish faith.

In this connection the further words of Edersheim, himself a Jew, are significant : " From his intimate familiarity with Holy Scripture, in its every detail, we may be allowed to infer that the home of Nazareth, however humble, possessed a precious copy of the sacred volume in its entirety. At any rate, we know that from earliest childhood it must have formed the meat and drink of the God-man. The words of the Lord, as recorded by St. Matthew and St. Luke, also imply that the Holy Scriptures which he read were in the original Hebrew, and that they were written in the square, or Assyrian, characters. Indeed, as the Pharisees and Sadducees always appealed to the Scriptures in the original, Jesus could not have met them on any other ground ; and it was this which gave such point to his frequent expostulations with them: ' Have ye not read ? ' But far other thoughts than theirs gathered around his study of the Old Testament of the Scriptures. When comparing their long discussions on the letter and law of Scripture with his references to the Word of God, it seems as if it were quite another book which was handled. As we gaze into the vast glory of meaning which he opens to us ; follow the shining track of heavenward living to which he points ; behold the lines of symbol, type, and prediction converging in the grand unity of that kingdom which became reality in him ;

or listen as, alternately, some question of his seems to rive the darkness as with flash of sudden light, or some sweet promise of old to lull the storm, some earnest lesson to quiet the tossing waves — we catch faint, it may be far-off, glimpses of how, in that early child-life, when the Holy Scriptures were his special study, he must have read them, and what thoughts must have been kindled by their light. And thus better than before can we understand it : ' And the Child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him.'"*

In the single authoritative glimpse which we have into the early life of Jesus we find him, at twelve years of age, in the temple sitting in the midst of the doctors, " hearing them and asking questions and answering " (Luke ii. 41-50). It was probably in that apartment of the temple known as the Hall Gazith ; and in all the

* Edersheim's " Life and Times of fesus the Messiah"

world there was no more distinguished body of scholars than those accustomed to assemble there. Of the number were Annas, the high priest and president of the Sanhedrin ; Ben Uzziel, the Targumist who wrote the Chaldee Paraphrase; Joseph of Arimathea, a man of wealth and character ; Ben Buta, who had been blinded by Herod for his devotion to the Jewish cause ; Nicodemus ; the aged Hillel, and Shammai, his rival ; and Gamaliel, a professor in the University of Jerusalem, known as " the Flower of the Law/' In the midst of such a distinguished assemblage stood the boy of twelve, "hearing, asking questions and answering them."

No intimation is given as to the themes traversed in this remarkable conference ; but we cannot go far wrong in supposing that it had to do particularly with the supreme problems of life to wit: God, man and the reconciliation of man with God. The basis of the conference was doubtless the Holy Scriptures, for here the wonderful Boy and the learned Rabbis were on common ground ; and the one truth about which the conversation turned was, to a moral certainty, the prophecies of the coming of the Messiah, which were called "the Hope " or " Consolation of Israel/' It would be scarcely possible for such a company of Biblical experts, under such circumstances, to refrain from discussing it. The Boy in the midst of them would ask, " Who is this Messiah ? When he cometh, how will ye know him ?" And they would answer, " He is to be King of Kings, ' great David's greater Son/ In the fulness of time he will appear to deliver Israel ; and he will reign in glory among us." The Boy would ask, "What then is the meaning of this scripture, ' A virgin shall conceive and bear a son and call his name Immanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us '; or of this, € He is a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and we hid as it were our faces from him ; he is wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities, that by his stripes we might be healed ' ? Or what is the meaning of your sacrifices ? Why is the blood of the Paschal lamb sprinkled on the lintel of every doorway and upon all the sacred things of the temple ? Why this blood, blood, blood everywhere?" And they could only say in their bewilderment, "It is written that if a man sin and bring a lamb without spot or blemish to the altar, his sin is taken from him." "But how can the blood of a lamb atone for sin ? How can it wash away the crimson stain ? " And they knew not. This boy of twelve was their Messiah ; and they did not recognize him. He was himself the antitype of all their sacrifices. His was the blood that should cleanse from sin. Was he aware of his personality and mission ? Aye ; always. The realization of his mission began with his dawning consciousness. He knew who he was, whence* he had come and what his errand was. Else what did he mean when he said to his mother, " Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?" It is true that, in assuming mortal form, he "emptied himself" of the outward tokens of his Godhood ; but never for a moment in such manner as to become ignorant of his mission or unable to perform it.*

77. His Inauguration into His Ministry

The time having come for the beginning of his great work, he one day closed the carpenter shop and never returned to

* The proof -text of "the Kenosis" or emptying of Christ is Philippians ii. 5—1 1. It affirms of Christ that he laid aside not his Godhood but the " form " of it ; not his essential glorybut the "fashion" of it. In taking upon him "the form of a servant " he held the exercise of his divine attributes in abeyance ; as a King lays aside his crown, scepter and purple robe, but always within reach. On frequent occasions he exercised his omnipotence, omniscience and omnipresence ; and never was he so divested of them as to endanger the perfect exercise of his functions as the Christ of God.

it. The work to which he had looked forward with desire, saying, " I have a baptism to be baptized with and how is my soul straitened until I shall accomplish it," was before him.

Observe how, from this time forward, he made the Scriptures his rule of faith and practice. He betook himself, straightway, to the Jordan, where John was baptizing, and presented himself "to be baptized of him." And when John refused saying, " I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thus to me ? " he had immediate recourse to the Scriptures, replying, " Suffer it now ; for thus it become th us to fulfil all righteousness 1 ' (Matt. iii. 13-17). In the Law it was prescribed that Aaron and his sons should be inaugurated into the holy office of the priesthood by being " washed with water at the door of the Tabernacle of the congregation " (Ex. xxix. 4). It was incumbent on Jesus, as he entered upon the work of priestly sacrifice and intercession, to comply with and complete that law. In this experience he struck the keynote of his entire ministry, which was in perfect accord with the Scriptures every way. The divine approval of this act was signified at his baptism by the descent of the Spirit and the Voice from heaven, saying, " Thou art my beloved Son ; in thee I am well pleased."

He was a loyal Jew, and the New Economy had not yet begun. If a son of Levi must be washed at the brazen laver on assuming his ministerial functions, so should Jesus ; but instead of the temple we have the deep valley and the overarching skies ; instead of the laver, the swift-flowing Jordan ; instead of the anointing, the descent of the dove. Now this Jesus is the source and center of all right precepts and injunctions ; his heart is the throne of law ; the writings of Sinai are the flashings of his eye ; yet under the Law he bows and passes into servitude. Though equal with God, he takes upon him the form of a servant and becomes obedient. The inaugural rite is his bounden duty ; to obey is better than sacrifice. " Thus it becometh me, as the ' Son of man ' — that is, the ideal and representative Man — to fulfil all righteousness/' If he thus respected the humblest duty, surely the same is becoming in us.

His next step was equally significant. From the Jordan he was " led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. ,, In the continuous conflict of those forty days, thrice did the adversary assault the citadel of his character and thrice was he met and repelled with the Sword of the Spirit. To the first temptation which was addressed to the physical infirmity of Jesus he answered, "-// is written, ' Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God/ ' To the second, which was directed at his Messianic consciousness and fortified by a cleverly distorted reference to Scripture, he answered, " // is written, ' Thou shalt not make trial of the Lord thy God/' To the third, which was a specious attempt to divert him from his purpose of establishing the kingdom through his vicarious death, he answered, " Get thee hence, Satan : for it is written, ' Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. ' Then the devil leaveth him ; and behold, angels came and ministered unto him." ."It is written!" " It is written ! " " It is written ! " Where ? In the Scriptures. Thus Jesus not only vindicated his own character, as against all approach of evil, but tested triumphantly the mettle of his weapon, " the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God " (Eph. vi. 17).