53

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having authority," ""not as the Scribes." 50 While they confined their teaching to the class of scholars, He "had compassion on the multitudes." 51 While they were to be found only in the council or in their schools, He journeyed through the cities and villages. 52 While they spoke of the kingdom of God vaguely, as a thing far off, He proclaimed that it had already come nigh to men. But in most of the points at issue between the two parties, He must have appeared in direct antagonism to the school of Shammai, in sympathy with that of Hillel. So far, on the other hand, as the temper of the Hillel school was one of mere adaptation to the feeling of the people, cleaving to tradition, wanting in the intuition of a higher life, the teaching of Christ must have been felt as unsparingly condemning it. It adds to the interest of this inquiry to remember that Hillel himself lived, according to the tradition of the Rabbis, to the great age of 120, and may therefore have been present among the doctors of Luke ii. 46. Gamaliel, his grandson and successor," was at the head of this school during the whole of the ministry of Christ, as well as in the early portion of the history of the Acts. We are thus able to explain the fact, which so many passages in the Gospels lead us to infer, the existence all along of a party among the Scribes themselves, more or less disposed to recognize Jesus of Nazareth as a teacher, 55 not far from the kingdom of God,5 advocates of a policy of toleration ;57 but, on the other hand, timid and time-serving, unable to confess even their half-belief, 5 afraid to take their stand against the strange alliance of extremes which brought together the Sadducean section of the priesthood and the ultra-Pharisaic party. When the last great crisis came, they apparently contented themselves with a policy of absence. 59 The special training for a Scribe's office began, probably, about the age of thirteen. The boy who was destined by his parents to the calling of a Scribe, went to Jerusalem, and applied for admission to the school of some famous Rabbi. The master and his scholars met; the former sitting on a high chair, the elder pupils on a lower bench, the younger on the ground, both literally "at his feet." The education was chiefly catechetical, the pupil submitting cases and asking questions, the teacher examining the pupil.co After a sufficient period of training, probably at the age of thirty, the probationer was solemnly admitted to his office. There still remained for the disciple, after his admission, the choice of a variety of functions, the chances of failure and success. He might give himself to any one of the branches of study, or combine two or more of them. He might rise to high places, become a doctor of the law, an arbitrator in family litigations, the head of a school, a member of the Sanhedrim. He might have to content himself with the humbler work of a transcriber, copying the Law and the Prophets for the use of synagogues, or a notary writing out contracts of sale, covenants of espousals, bills of repudiation. The position of the more fortunate was of course attractive enough. In our Lord's time the passion for distinction was insatiable. The ascending scale of Rab, Rabbi, Rabban, presented so many steps on the ladder of ambition. Other forms of worldliness were not far off. The salutations

61

50 Matt. vii. 29: comp. the constantly re- came between them, but apparently for a curring "I say unto you."

short time only.

55 John iii. 1; Mark x. 17

56 Mark xii. 34.

57 John vii. 51.
59 Luke xxiii. 50, 51.

58 John xii. 42

61 Luke xii. 14.

60 Luke ii. 46.

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in the market-place, the reverential kiss offered by the scholars to their master, or by Rabbis to each other, the greeting of Abba, father, the long robes with the broad, blue fringe (the кpáσжedov of Matt. xxiii. 5), all these go to make up the picture of a Scribe's life. Drawing to themselves, as they did, nearly all the energy and thought of Judaism, the close hereditary caste of the priesthood was powerless to compete with them. Unless the priest became a Scribe also, he remained in obscurity. The order, as such, became contemptible and base. For the Scribes there were the best places at feasts, the chief seats in synagogues."

64

64 Matt. xxiii. 6; Luke xiv. 7.

CHAPTER VI.

BIRTH AND EARLY LIFE OF JOHN AND JESUS. B.C. 5-A.D. 26. § 1. Beginning of the Gospel History according to the Four Evangelists. § 2. St. John's doctrine of the WORLD. The eternal purpose of Redemption, and its revelation in God manifest in the flesh. § 3. St. Luke's beginning of the History. Zacharias and Elisabeth. Mary and Joseph. The births of John and Jesus announced by the angel Gabriel. Salutation of Mary by Elisabeth. § 4. Birth and youth of John the Baptist. Prophecy of Zacharias. § 5. The angel appears to Joseph. The Miraculous Conception. § 6. Joseph and Mary go to Bethlehem. BIRTH OF JESUS CHRIST. Adoration of the Shepherds. § 7. The Circumcision and Presentation in the Temple. Simeon and Anna. § 8. Adoration of the Magi. Massacre of Bethlehem. Flight to Egypt. Death of Herod and accession of Archelaus. Return of the

Holy Family to Nazareth. § 9. Jesus in the Temple at the Passover at the age of twelve. § 10. His abode at Nazareth till his thirtieth year. His outer and inner life during this period.

§ 1. THE HISTORY OF THE NEW COVENANT divides itself into two chief parts:-The Revelation of the Gospel by Jesus Christ, including the accomplishment of his work of redemption; and the Propagation of the Gospel, and full establishment of the Christian Church, after his ascension.

The former history is written in the "Gospels" of the "Four Evangelists," the respective openings of which furnish us with four different, but almost equally important, starting-. points for all that follows. ST. MATTHEW, who writes with the most constant reference to the fulfillment of prophecy, begins by showing that Jesus Christ was, by his reputed father Joseph, the son of David, and the son of Abraham; the predicted king of the royal line of Judah; the promised seed, in whom all kindreds of the earth were to be blessed; the great object of the Covenants made by God with Abraham and with David. ST. MARK, commencing at once with the public proclamation of Christ, dates "the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God" from the ministry of John the Baptist as his forerunner. ST. LUKE places in the forefront of his narrative its practical purpose, for the instruction of a convert to Christianity, and begins "to write in order " from the birth of John the Baptist, and of Christ himself. ST. JOHN, having his mind imbued with the mysteries revealed to the "disciple whom Jesus loved," goes back to a "beginning" antecedent to all time, and displays the eternal and divine glory of that "Life and Light," which were manifested by Christ when he appeared on earth.

And what is true of the beginning of the Gospel history applies to each step of its subsequent development. Critics may speculate on some common remoter source of the narratives of the four evangelists, till they learn to abandon the unprofitable search: harmonists may pursue their useful labors so far as to be in danger of confounding the separate characters of the four documents in the artificial compound of their own making: but the student who rightly appreciates the purpose of God's providence, in entrusting the record to four writers instead of one, will trace the distinct spirit of each as really his own, and will find the truest harmony in the concordant spiritual impression they produce, under the guidance of the inspiration of the Holy Ghost.

§ 2. "The Beginning" of which St. John speaks, both in

the opening of his Gospel and of his General Epistle, is, the true point of view for understanding the New Covenant. In this light the histories of the two covenants open with the self-same words:-" In the beginning," and there is a closer connection between them than of language only. The GOD who, in the beginning of the Qld Covenant, created the heaven and the earth, to be the scene of man's probation, was the same as that divine "WORD," whose dwelling "with God," both in essential glory and in council on men's behalf, formed the true beginning of the Covenant of Redemption. "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father." The discussion of this "great mystery of godliness," as a point of theological science, belongs not to the present work: we only insist on the plain truth, as the point of view from which our Saviour's work on earth derives all its meaning. It is thus that the Apostle Paul places the same great truth before his summary of the steps by which Christ advanced from the cradle to the throne:-" Without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness; God was manifested in the flesh, justified by the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory." The narratives of the four Evangelists fill up the outline which the Apostle draws in these few bold strokes.

Between the two points thus marked by St. John, there lies the whole preparatory training of the human race and the chosen family, with the successive steps in the revelation of the one great promise. A summary of the testimony of the Old Covenant to Christ would be no inappropriate preface to the history of the New; but having continually kept in view the evangelical aspect of the Old Covenant, and having to recur to it on the occasion of the fulfillment of the several prophecies, we may at once accompany St. Luke to the first scene of the history itself.

§ 3. In the reign of Herod the Great, there lived in Judæa an aged couple, both of them being of priestly descent, and of the most devout and blameless character, Zacharias and Elisabeth. They were childless, and Elisabeth was too old to hope for offspring. Now it came to the turn of Zacharias to fulfill his week of service in the temple, as a priest of the course of Abia or Abijah, the 8th of the courses appointed by David.3 At

1 John i. 14.

1 Tim. iii. 16. Even if we admit the reading og for ɛóc, the bearing of the passage is not materially al

tered, considering the personal antecedent which the öç implies.

3 Luke i. 5-8: comp. 1 Chr. xxiv. 10; 2 Chr. viii. 14.