What Jesus taught, for discussion groups and classes

Front matter

Class

Book

GopyrigM -

Prefatory Note

It is the firm conviction of the editors of the series in which this book appears that in the ideals of Jesus as set forth in his words and exemplified in his life are to be found the answers to the great questions of personal conduct and the way of life for communities and nations. There are various ways of approach to the study of these ideals, each of which has its advantages. The present volume illustrates an unusual method of study, but one which we believe to be well adapted to groups of students in colleges, and to thoughtful adults everywhere. To such they heartily commend it.

The Editors

Table Of Contents

PAGE

Foreword xv

Hints to Leaders xix

Foreword

The discussions outlined in this book are intended especially for groups of college students and of others of like maturity of mind. The field of study is limited to the three gospels, Mark, Matthew, and Luke, called, because they treat the life of Jesus from the same general point of view, the synoptists (Greek synoptikos, " seeing together"). It has been thought best not to attempt to discriminate between the elements of the gospels which may come directly from Jesus and those that may hail from the gospel writers themselves or from the circles of early Christian thinking which they represent. This is a task frequently attempted by scholars, but one which involves a much longer course of study than many people have time for. It has seemed more practical to take all the teachings upon a given subject which the gospels Mark, Matthew, and Luke attribute to Jesus and build these into as complete and consistent a statement as we can.

It is expected that all users of the book will keep the New Testament at hand and verify from it all statements made for which passages are cited. No textbook can take the place of direct study of the New Testament itself.

xvi Foreword

The book is designed to be usable in a variety of ways, for example:

i. Where the group leader only may have a copy of the book.

2. Where each member of the group has a copy.

3. Where members of the group may be expected to study beforehand.

4. Where the study must be made in class.

5. Where the book is used by individuals for personal and devotional study.

For the average Sunday-school class or student group, it will be advisable for each member to have his own copy. Where the group is very large and the lecture method must largely be employed, it may be sufficient for the leader alone to have a copy. Used in this way he will find the book to contain material for about thirty lectures. In summerschool and conference classes of the Y.M.C.A. and Y.W.C.A. every member of the group should be provided with the book.

Wherever possible the chapter or part of a chapter to be used for a basis of discussion should be carefully studied beforehand by the members of the group, and the gospel passages consulted. In no case, however, should the meeting of the group take the form of a recitation. The object of the book is to stimulate constructive thinking, not to train the memory. Where study cannot be expected the passages should be read and discussed in the group.

Foreword xvii

Where individuals use the book for personal study, a careful checking up of the gospel passages cited should be made, the book freely marked, and notes kept on the flyleaves of thoughts suggested by the study. When the user rinds statements at variance with his present belief he should make note of them for future thought and investigation.

Only a few things are necessary to make college Bible-study discussion groups interesting and profitable. Think clearly and hard; speak with modesty and candor; never fail to make your contribution to the discussion, but beware of monopolizing class time; never slur another's views, however absurd they may seem to you; avoid overstatements and bad temper; realize that ultimately thought rules in this world, and that we get ahead by sharing thoughts; stick to the evidence; believe that people can and will find the truth and that it is best for them to have the truth; be absolutely free to follow wherever the truth leads you. It is said that all the wonderful progress made by modern science has been made by the inductive method of reasoning, and that the inductive method of reasoning consists of three stages : accurate observation, exact record, limited inference. Where these are practiced the discussions will always bring wholesome results.

The aim of the book, however, is not so much to furnish a manual of methods as to suggest a basis for class discussions and to indicate the spirit in xviii Foreword

which discussions may be most profitably carried on. The topics chosen are those which experience with numerous discussion groups of various types, e.g., Y.M.C.A. secretaries, ministers, Y.W.C.A. secretaries, college students, Baraca classes, and groups of business men, has shown to be of formative value. In so far as the book is informational it tries to put into the user's hands facts that will be helpful to him in his personal religious thinking and in teaching and promoting classes. Most of all, though, it is hoped that, though those who use this book may not agree with one another on all points, they will find in the class a constant demonstration of Christianity, and will come to the end with that enthusiasm for service, that passion for "the Jesus way of living," that esprit de corps and affection for one another, that tolerance that results from united devotion to a great unselfish cause, which have marked the members of the discussion groups with whom the author has used these studies. Remember the words of Jesus, " I am among you as he that serveth" (Luke 22:27). The question one is to put to one's self in every situation is, "How can I be of service to this person or to these persons so that working together we may make this a better world?" God bless you, fellow-students in the teaching of Jesus, and build you in helpful ways into the lives of hundreds and of thousands.

A. Wakefield Slaten

HINTS TO LEADERS

No certain period is specified in which a group ought to cover the chapters of this book. Some mature groups may be able to cover a chapter at each discussion. In practice, however, it has been found that each chapter furnished stimulus for several discussion periods of one hour each. The leader should not hurry the matter. The point is not to get through the book as soon as possible, but to follow the class interests, seize the moment of aroused curiosity, and hold points before the minds of the group for all possible views to be brought out and a tentative conclusion to be reached. At the close of each discussion the leader should sum up impartially and briefly the general sentiment, remembering that it represents the joint thinking of the group up to the moment, and that it may be revised later. He should regard the discussions as a process, and not look upon the sentiments expressed as unalterable decisions. This consideration tends to tolerance and temperate speech.

In every group there will be a few quiet souls who will be content to listen. Often their thinking is the straightest and most suggestive that is being done. The leader must be skilful enough to enlist their contribution, or the discussion will suffer serixix xx Hints to Leaders

ous loss. He can easily find a way to do this without embarrassment to the quiet one. Direct questions should be avoided in such cases, as the timid member is likely to reply, " I don't know," and thus to be confirmed in his diffidence. Skilful teachers are careful not to permit their pupils to fail in recitation, because failure destroys confidence and tends to induce an attitude of, "Well, I know I can't do it." He may speak to the silent member before or after the discussion and encourage participation. If there are several of them he may "jolly" them during the discussion as a group and get them to take part. The object of the discussion is the development of every member in thinking and in expressing his thoughts.

On the other hand, an overconfident member will occasionally emerge whose tendency is to monopolize the discussion and make himself a bore. Here skilful and quick action is necessary. As a first step, the leader may emphasize the need of general discussion and the drawing out of the thinking of all. If necessary, he may go farther and say, "We now have Mr. Blank's views before us pretty fully, let's see what some others have to say." Where the talking member is incorrigible, group action is likely to be the best way of handling him. Let the class be asked, "Mr. Blank has already spoken several times. Shall we hear him further, or get the views of others?" The group will usu-

Hints to Leaders xxi

ally find a way of "sitting down" upon an obstreperous and selfish member who " likes to do all the talking."

Further, the leader must himself be on his guard that he does not himself talk too much. He is not to carry on a monologue. It has been found a good plan for him to have someone in the group hold a watch and check up the number of seconds taken by him in his remarks. He ought to take less than half the total time.

Again the leader is not to allow himself to become involved in a dialogue. He is not to debate with any member, and should interject remarks only to guide and to stimulate discussion. He must sum up fairly at the close, even though the drift of sentiment has been against his personal convictions. He is not functioning as a teacher, in the ordinary sense; he is not a lecturer; he is one of the group, presiding for the purpose of getting the topic before the minds of the group and of holding the discussion to the topic proposed. He must, if the discussion wanders into unrelated subjects, switch it back on the main track.

The leader must make himself the central figure to whom the remarks of the members are addressed. Cross-firing of remarks from one member to another takes the discussion out of his control. If he is alert and quick on the uptake and gives each member his chance, he can generally keep the control. There xxii Hints to Leaders

should be no formality, no addressing of the leader as "Mr. Chairman"; the discussion is not a debating club.

The leader has a position that is very important and influential. He is a promoter of constructive thinking. His interest is not an abstract one, in the subject under discussion, but a concrete one, the possible effects upon thought and character of the discussion. He should be a level-headed person, mentally alert, not quick-tempered, and should have a sense of humor.

The ability to lead a discussion group well is one to be prized and developed. Clear thinking is greatly needed on all sides, in no place more so than in religion. The discussion-group leader has an opportunity for distinctive and influential service.

Chapter I Why People Study The Bible

Impulsive action. — People often act without any philosophy of action. Even far-reaching decisions such as the choice of a college, one's business, one's wife or husband, may be made without clearly thinking out the arguments pro and con or considering the implications of the decision. This sort of action we call action from impulse. Sometimes it turns out well, but often it is ill-advised and followed by regret. Most wrong action is impulsive action. Impulse is not a safe guide until its suggestions have been approved by calm thinking.

Action from habit or custom. — Again, in things that we have been doing for a long time, or that we are used to seeing others do, we are very liable to act without thinking why. If we follow unthinkingly our own way of acting, we are controlled by habit; if we unthinkingly copy others, we are controlled by custom. Habit and custom sometimes have good foundations, but often they have not. Neither habit nor custom is a safe guide until it has been examined as to its reason and value and we have assured ourselves of its efficiency and good sense.

Reasoned action. — The safest basis for action is reason. Taking all the relevant facts into consideration, thinking out what the effects of our action are likely to be, noticing what alternatives there are, weighing what the result will be if we do not act at all, questioning whether our inclinations are biased in any way, disregarding prejudice and fear, we at length decide and act. Often, however, it is necessary to decide and act quickly, and there is not time for us to review all the facts, or see all the alternatives, or perceive all the effects. Even with plenty of time to turn over the matter in our minds we may overlook some determinative factor, or our judgment may be affected by emotion, as anger or dislike, or we may be overinfluenced by another person, and so our reasoned action turn out after all to be wrong or mistaken. Nevertheless, such a method of action comes nearest to perfection, and when a number of people reason together on a matter, their calm, united judgment is very likely to be correct. Prayer is of value both to individuals and to groups in reasoning and reaching decisions, because it steadies and quiets one and clears the mind so it can do its best work. Reasoned action, then, is most likely to be right action.

The discussion-group method. — Now in the discussion-group method of Bible-study as in perhaps no other method reasoned action tends to displace action from impulse, habit, or custom. Though probably many members of the discussion group have already, through personal reading, attendance upon or teaching of Bible classes, correspondence courses, or other church, college, or young people 's activities, given more or less attention to the Bible, experience with large numbers of people in successive classes shows that generally what has been acquired through such methods is rather a theory about the Bible than knowledge of the Bible itself. Also the general effect has been to develop what may be called the accepting type of mind, rather than the investigative, constructive type. The discussion-group method as we propose to follow it is severe in its demands for patient, free, constructive thinking. Its effects are consequently more deeply registered in character. Its appeal is to one's thinking power, rather than to impulse, habit, or custom. It presupposes that you, as a member of the discussion group, are willing to lay down anything that you may have previously thought true, if the discussions bring out facts that disprove your opinion; it presupposes, too, that, as a member of the discussion group, you are willing to take up and champion anything that may be new to you or which you may previously have thought false, if the discussions bring out facts that prove that thing true. If you cannot assume this attitude you had much better stop at this point and have nothing to do with the discussion group. The discussions of people who are already unalterably committed to any opinion result in no progress and are likely to be painful. It is only those who are sincerely willing to reason together upon the common stock of facts who can reach a concert of opinion, or be really helpful to one another. In the discussion group action is to be based, not upon impulse, habit, or custom, but upon reason.

WHERE BIBLE-STUDY FAILS

Superficiality. — With impulse, habit, or custom as an incentive, it has long been a common thing for people to study, or to think they were studying, the Bible. Obviously, however, much of their effort was not real study. Study has been defined as " mental effort to master a problem." Study of that type always strengthens the mind, provokes original thought, arouses discussion, affects conduct, and builds character. Much so-called Bible-study has not done that, because it was not mental effort to master a problem. It involved only the passive assimilation of a mass of predigested instruction. It was thus easy, superficial, and developed only believers, not thinkers. It did not call for that tense strain of will, that merciless uncovering of one's weaknesses and ignorances which real study involves. It failed, therefore, to incite eager, robust, independent, fearless search for fact, with that search's consequent bracing effect upon character. Much so-called Bible-study fails because of its superficiality.

Misdirection. — Further, some study of the Bible that is earnest and ingenious is worthless because it is misdirected. Much sturdy walking may be done on a road that leads nowhere. In rightly directed study we take up a subject with an adequate idea of what it is, and what is to be gained from it. We do not take up French and think we are studying Greek, nor practice the cornet and say we are learning the piano. But with the Bible this has not been the case. It has often been studied as if it were something other than it is. This paragraph is not the place to go into detail, but it is right to say that there have been some sad consequences. An amount of effort has been put forth that would have made a cultured Christian gentleman, and the result has been only a fanatic or a bore. Acquaintance with these misguided Bible-students has often prejudiced people against the Bible. Moreover, the effort to reconcile an artificial view of the Bible which one has been taught with one's own reading of it, or with the results of one's studies in other subjects, often involves acute distress and sometimes the loss of faith. None of these is the Bible's fault, but the fault of previous misdirected effort and of regarding the Bible as something other than it really is. Like every other thing that has objective existence, the Bible actually is something, and has been that something all the while, no matter what may have been thought about it or claimed for it. For lack of finding out at the start what the Bible is much time and effort has been wasted.

CONTROLLING INTERESTS IN BIBLE-STUDY

i. Language. — Before we go farther, or attempt to say what the Bible is and how we plan to approach it, let us think over the main interests that have controlled people in their study of the Bible. Naturally there are a number of these, and they vary in their value. To begin with the interest that is perhaps to most people the most remote and unusual, some have studied it because of its language, or more properly, its languages, for as it stood originally the Bible was in three languages, the Old Testament being in Hebrew and Aramaic, the New Testament in Greek. Only a small part of the Old Testament was in Aramaic, however, 1 and Hebrew and Aramaic are sister-languages, like Spanish and Portuguese, so that a man who can read Hebrew can easily learn Aramaic.

Now the Old Testament contains the best Hebrew that has ever been written, consequently it has an attraction for the person who is interested in that language, as many Jews and some Gentiles are.

1 Only Ezra 4 : 8 — 6 : 18; 7 : 1 2-26; Dan. 2 : \b — 7 : 28 are written in Aramaic. Besides these there are a few Aramaic words and phrases in the New Testament, for example in Mark 5:41; 7 : 34; 15:34; Matt. 27:46; I Cor. 16:22.

There is another important and much larger collection of literature written in Hebrew, the Talmud, 1 but although this has much curious and interesting and valuable material, the language and style is not equal to the Hebrew of the Bible.

If a Frenchman were interested in American literature, and had a talent for language-study, he would prefer to read our best authors in the language they used, rather than in a translation. In the same way, a person who is interested in Hebrew literature, and has a talent for language-study, wishes to read the Old Testament authors in Hebrew, the language in which they wrote. Often interest in the Bible itself has created interest in its languages. Men have been led to study the Hebrew Old Testament in order to translate it into some other language, or to improve a translation already in existence. Often, too, it has been supposed that those who could read the Bible in its original languages had a great advantage, in that they could discover meanings hidden to the reader of a

1 This is an immense collection of Hebrew learning twenty times as large as the Old Testament. It contains two parts, the Mishna, compiled in its present form by Rabbi Juda the Holy about 200 a.d., and the Gemara, written by later rabbis down to about 500 a.d. It consists of the Jewish oral law reduced to writing, plus comments on the law of Moses, or written law. Scholars are drawn to the study of the Talmud, not for its language, but for its intrinsic interest and the influence it has had upon Judaism.

translation. This is why ministers were formerly thoroughly trained in Hebrew. At the present time this advantage, which after all ministers did not very generally make much use of, is less considered, and other subjects, regarded as more essential, are emphasized.

Passing to the New Testament, the case is not in all respects the same. The New Testament does not contain the best Greek ever written. Most of it is in the common, everyday Greek of the time when it was written. Some of it, indeed, is very poor and ungrammatical Greek. In only a few places is there an attempt to use bookish language. The classic period of Greek literature was from 500 to 300 B.C., while the books of the New Testament were not written till roughly 70-170 a.d., centuries after the greatest Greek authors had passed away. Those who are interested in Greek literature and wish to read it in the original therefore prefer to read Homer and Demosthenes and Plato, rather than the Book of Revelation, or James, Peter, or Mark, or even the better Greek of the Epistle to the Hebrews and of Luke and of Paul. But if one cares for the history of language, the New Testament Greek has a great interest because it shows him how the language was changing and gives him a link between the earlier Greek of the post-classical period and the later Greek of the patristic and Byzantine periods. In fact the modern Greek of the present day is much less different from the Greek of the New Testament than is generally supposed. 1

2. History. — A somewhat larger group is drawn to the Bible by an interest in history. History is coming to be regarded more and more as the great teacher of mankind. While a knowledge of history does not make one able to foretell the future with accuracy, it does tend to give a broad understanding of life and enables one to see the causes of many of our present conditions. Now closely knit up with the history of all the nations of Europe and America are two elements, the Jewish people and the Christian religion. The source book for the early history of both these elements is the Bible.

The Old Testament gives what the Jews knew or believed as to their origin, their settlement in Palestine, the development of the Jewish state, the acts of their various kings, their political connections

1 M. Hatziadakis, a modern Greek scholar, finds that 46 per cent of the words used in the New Testament are current in modern Greek today. In fact the realization that Greek is a modern language, spoken by nine million people, suggests the feasibility and interest of making the approach to ancient Greek through the medium of the modern, living language, which does not differ from the Greek of the earlier periods as the Romance languages differ from the Latin from which they spring. It is recommended that any reader who is interested in Greek form an acquaintance with a Greek. This is not difficult, as they are to be found in business in our cities and towns generally. Such an acquaintance will lead to many interesting discoveries.

io What Jesus Taught

with adjacent nations, their subjugation and exile, and their return to Palestine about 445 B.C. Subsequent Jewish history must be sought in other books, but the Old Testament gives the most of what is known up to this point.

Josephus, it is true, wrote fully on Jewish history up to 70 a.d., in his two books The Antiquities of the Jews, and The Jewish War, but the former is largely a re-writing and expansion of the Old Testament. Similarly, in the early Christian writers before 325 a.d., whose works have been preserved and which are collected and translated into English in a set of ten large volumes called the Ante-Nicene Fathers, we have much that throws light upon their own time, but their works draw upon the New Testament for whatever historical matter they present concerning the origin of Christianity. The New Testament goes farther back and gives us what at the earliest period was known and believed among the early Christians as to the origin and development of the Christian movement, including the life and teaching of its founder. Because, therefore, of interest in the Jews, or in Christianity, or because both are involved in the history of modern civilization, people have been led to study the Bible.

3. Proof -texts. — A third interest leading to Bible-study has been the desire to find there the basis for a belief or a defense of a doctrine. This we may call the theological, or proof-text inter-

Why People Study the Bible ii

est. 1 From a remote period this has been a powerful stimulus to Bible-study. The Jewish rabbis used the Old Testament in this way before Christianity began. The early Christians borrowed the idea from their own Jewish training or from their Jewish neighbors. The New Testament in many passages, notably in the Gospel of Matthew, shows the working of this interest. After the books of the New Testament had been written and collected into one sacred book the Christians used statements from it also in proof of the correctness of their views. Thus the Bible was largely woven into the doctrines of Catholic Christianity, and is still quoted in their support. 2

When in the sixteenth century a great number of Roman Catholic Christians broke away from the rest under the leadership of Martin Luther in Germany, John Calvin in Switzerland, and other leaders elsewhere, these Protestants, as they were called, put a still stronger emphasis upon the Bible

1 The cause of this interest has been the common assumption, first by the Hebrews themselves, later, and to a modified degree, by the Catholic church in its various branches, and finally and to an extreme degree in Protestantism, that in the Bible is given a divinely produced and therefore errorless book, telling what God desires people to do and believe, particularly in matters looked upon as distinctly religious. Looking upon the Bible in this way, it has been natural to turn to it as an arbiter of religious opinion.

2 Consult, for example, Cardinal Gibbons' The Faith of Out Fathers, where frequent quotations from the Bible occur.

as the source book for religious belief, giving it the indisputable authority which they had formerly given to the teachings and the officials of the church. William Chillingworth, a Protestant theologian who died in 1644, is the author of the sentence that summarizes this view: "The Bible, the Bible, the religion of Protestants." It was inevitable, however, that differences of opinion should arise. Different leaders understood the Bible differently or emphasized different doctrines and won adherents to their views. Out of these groups the various Protestant denominations developed, which now, because they have become strongly organized and aggressive and have come to have traditions and a character of their own that tends to bind their members to loyalty, and, moreover, because in each there is constantly growing up an army of children, continue to exist long after the doctrinal disputes that called them into being have become dead issues. In addition to this, new sects every now and again spring up, seceding from the old ones, under leaders who take as a basis for their claims some part or parts of the Bible. It is evident that the theological or proof-text interest has had and has yet a controlling interest over the Bible-study of many religious leaders and their followers.

4. Sermon-making. — A fourth interest, and related to the preceding, is the homiletic or sermon-making interest felt by ministers and other speakers on religious subjects who are accustomed to use quotations from the Bible as summaries or suggestions of their addresses, or to lend authority to what they are going to say. This interest may be seen at work in almost any public religious service, though preaching from texts is not now so much in vogue as formerly, having yielded considerably to the theme or topic method. It is still influential enough, however, to cause speakers to seek Scripture passages that will bear, or seem to bear, some relation to the topic in hand. To secure such reference, recourse is often had to what is called " accommodation," that is, the passage is treated as giving or suggesting some meaning which in its original intention it clearly did not have. Dr. John A. Broadus, a southern theological educator, in warning against this practice in his textbook on homiletics, tells of an ignorant preacher who objected to the way the ladies of his congregation wore their hair, piled high on their heads, and preached a sermon against it from Mark 13 : 15, "Let him that is upon the housetop not come down," leaving out the preceding words and making his text read, "Topknot, come down!" Such a searching of Scripture to find passages, which, when isolated from their context will seem to have a meaning they do not at all have when read along with the words that precede and follow them, is not limited to the ignorant. When Archbishop Lang began the campaign of fellowship between Great Britain and the United States in March, 191 8, he took for the text of his first sermon a part of Luke 5:7: "And they beckoned to their partners in the other boat that they should come and help them. And they came," the allusion of course being to the aid rendered England by America in the world-war then in progress. Though distinctly a professional interest, this use of the Bible in support of the ideas about to be propounded in a public address is a very general one.