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regard to the temporary and economic purpose of the Law, or that of the writer to the Hebrews in regard to the weakness and unprofitableness thereof1, we shall be prepared to admit that the critical theory tends entirely to confirm the apostolic view of the Law. If the verdicts of the New Testament 'hold good as against a law emanating from Moses, a fortiori they hold good against a law which came into force nearly a millennium later. The important principle enunciated by Paul, that the law was subordinate to the promise and came in after it and between it and the [fulfilment of the] promise, obviously holds on the critical hypothesis.' Our general conception of the Law is the same. Accepting the critical view however, we recognize that the rigid legal discipline to which Israel was subjected came at a period in its history later than was formerly supposed; and the words of St. Paul apply even more forcibly to the Judaistic than to the Mosaic stage of Hebrew history. Before faith came we were being kept in ward, shut up under the law unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed2. The rudimentary purpose and function of the Law is a truth practically unaffected by critical disputes; and certainly we have no reason to be surprised that the legal discipline was so protracted in duration, when we consider how effective it was in its final result.

The New Testament then recognizes the fragmentary character of the old dispensation, the variety of the methods observed in the divine self-revelation, and the rudimentary nature of the discipline which gradually prepared Israel for the coming of its promised Saviour. At the same time we cannot overlook the fact that Christ and His apostles assign to the Old Testament a unique and inviolable authority 3.

1 Heb. vii. 18.

2 Gal. iii. 23.

Cp. Dalman, Das Alte Testament ein Wort Gottes, p. 9: Bei Jesus wie bei Paulus geht offenbar Hand in Hand mit einer klaren Einsicht in die Unzulänglichkeit der alttestamentlichen Offenbarung eine dadurch nicht erschütterte Ueberzeugung von der göttlichen Autorität nicht nur

I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled1. The scripture cannot be broken 2. Even its smallest fragment must be fulfilled; i.e. it must be shown to occupy its rightful place; must be brought under the true point of view, and its significance in relation to the whole vindicated. The same truth is implied in the apostolic vindication of prophecy. The distinctive character of the prophetic word of God is that no prophecy is of any private interpretation. It has more than one application; it has a deeper and wider reference than is apparent on the surface. A careful study does indeed show us that for Christ there was to some extent 'a Bible within the Bible '.' The books to which He most commonly refers are Deuteronomy, the Psalms, and Isaiah-those in a word which are most full of the Messianic element. His first public discourse at Nazareth was based on a passage of the later Isaiah; the ministry of teaching and healing placed Him as it were in line, with the ancient prophets; the martyr-spirit numbered Him with the righteous men of old whose sorrows and hopes breathe in the Psalter; His consciousness of Messiahship and His passion for righteousness found expression more often in the utterances of the saints and prophets than in those of the historians or legalists of ancient Israel. There can be no doubt however as to the general attitude of Christ towards the Jewish Scriptures. He speaks freely of Moses, perhaps we might say more often as a supreme authority than as an author; He refers to him as leader, legislator, and writer, but always, it would seem, and necessarily, in

der im A. T. ausdrücklich als von Gott stammend bezeichneten Worte, sondern des Schriftwortes überhaupt.'

2 John x. 35.

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2 Pet. i. 20.

1 Matt. v. 17, 18. * Cheyne, Aids to the Devout Study of Criticism, p. 155 note. Cp. Bruce, Apologetics, p. 363. Cheyne notices that the O. T. Canon was 'not finally settled in all its parts in our Lord's time.' Cp. Valeton, Christus und das A. T. p. 30.

5

Cp. Mark xii. 29; Luke xvi. 29; John v. 46; vii. 19.

accordance with the current literary conceptions of His time, and with the declared purpose of His mission1. We are not at present concerned with the manner of our Lord's quotations, but only with the general character of authority which He attributes to the ancient Scriptures. He speaks of them as if they discharged an organic function, and must ever hold. a permanent place, in the religion of which He was the founder. While He points out the defective elements in the old dispensation, and supersedes the detailed precepts of the Law by principles of far-reaching simplicity, He never fails to give the impression that He recognizes in the Old Testament the abiding word of God. As the author and finisher of our faith's He points us to the ancient Scriptures as the food which nourished His own spiritual life, and gave due expression to His own Messianic consciousness; as the soil in which the gospel of salvation had its roots, and in which the treasure of eternal life lay hid. Salvation, He declared, is of the Jews.

We may now pass to the consideration of the principles which appear to guide our Lord and the New Testament writers in their references to the Old. And here it is important to remember that in the time of Christ there already existed among the scribes traditional rules of interpretation, which were of high antiquity and unquestioned authority. The scribes were in fact

1 Cp. Köhler, Über Berechtigung der Kritik des A. T. p. 13. Christ, he says, must have used the ordinary literary language of His day if He was to make Himself intelligible to His hearers, and if He was not to exceed the limits of His Messianic vocation by giving instruction on points of natural knowledge. The references to Daniel (Matt. xxiv. 15) or to David (Matt. xxii. 41 foll.; cp. Acts ii. 24 foll.) are most reasonably explained on this principle. To the same effect Valeton, Christus und das A. T. p. 37; Delitzsch, New Comm. on Genesis [Eng. Tr.], vol. i. p. 21. 2 John v. 39.

3 Heb. xii. 2. Cp. Valeton, Christus und das A. T. pp. 20, 21. See also an admirable lecture by Prof. G. A. Smith, The preaching of the O. T. to the Age, pp. 11, 12.

See Oettli, op. cit. p. 22. Valeton, Christus und das A. T. p. 12, remarks that so close is the inner connexion and correspondence between the words of Christ and the language of the O. T. as almost to justify the paradox, 'In His teaching there is nothing new but Himself.'

guided in their treatment of the canonical Scriptures by two chief aims: first, the systematic development and establishment of the Law, which had now become the central shrine, so to speak, of Jewish religion; second, the didactic manipulation of the historical books. Hence there arose on the one hand the Halachah, or customary law, the general object of which was to protect the Law, by a fence of minor restrictions, from even the chance of infringement; and on the other hand the Haggadah, i.e. narrative or legend by which the Old Testament history was enlarged, illustrated, or homiletically enforced. The basis of both methods was Midrash, or regular exegesis of the biblical text, and they presupposed the principle that inspired writings can contain nothing that is arbitrary, fortuitous, or indifferent, since Scripture both in its organic unity and in the diversity of its contents reflects the infinite being of its Author. And indeed if it be granted that Scripture comes from God in a special and unique sense, it is only reasonable to suppose that even single words of Scripture may conceal a multitude of thoughts and contain truths of inexhaustible significance.

Two methods then of dealing with the sacred text were already current. By the time of our Lord the Halachah, or exegetical expansion of the Law, had already resulted in the formation of a vast body of casuistry under which the original Law of Moses was in danger of being practically buried, while the Haggadah had produced a mass of legendary accretions by which the biblical history was expanded, for purposes of moral and religious instruction'.

1 For an account of the Halachah and Haggadah see The Literary remains of Emanuel Deutsch, ch. 1. Also his article, 'Versions, ancient (Targum),' in the Dict. of the Bible. The description of Haggadah merely as 'narrative' needs some qualification. It really implies the amplification or imaginative development of the Old Testament history, especially of that which is not directly expressed in the text, but is supposed to be indirectly hinted at. Edersheim, Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, vol. i. p. 11, n. 2. remarks that Halachah might be described as the apocryphal Pentateuch, and Haggadah as the apocryphal prophets.

The Chronicles supply an example of Haggadah in dealing with the history of the Jewish kings. The Chronicler enlarges the material contained in earlier sources by a whole class of narratives intended to illustrate his favourite thesis, viz. the merit acquired by monarchs who zealously maintained the priestly ritual of the temple. He was doubtless actuated in his treatment of the history by a desire to meet the actual needs of his age, but the result is that his work, as we have already seen, has only a quasi-historical character1. It is a didactic work, which is inspired by a purely religious and moral aim, and in which imagination is allowed large play.

It will suffice to mention another method of interpretation which undoubtedly plays a large part in apostolic exegesis, and may be illustrated from Christ's own teaching, namely the method of Sodh, by which the mystical or allegorical sense of a passage was elicited. This seems on the whole to have been more characteristic of Hellenistic than of Palestinian Judaism. The Hellenists in their endeavour to amalgamate Greek thought with Hebrew ideas of revelation, found the allegorical method ready to their hand, since it was already in use both among Platonists and Stoics. The true principle that underlies this method will engage our attention presently.

Now a careful study of our Lord's usual mode of teaching makes it evident that in the matter of scriptural interpretation and exposition, as in other points, He occasionally condescended to adapt Himself to the customs of His time. We cannot fail to observe, however, a wide difference between the teaching of our Lord and of the scribes in two main respects-indeed the divergence was already obvious to those who first

1 Schürer, The Jewish People in the Time of Christ, § 25. Observe the references to Midrash (Ă. V. Story) in 2 Chron. xiii. 22, xxiv. 27, the latter passage embracing the entire history of the kings. "The compilers of chronicles seem to have used such promiscuous works treating of biblical personages and events, provided they contained aught that served the tendency of the book' (Deutsch, . c.).

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