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A
COMMENTARY
ON THE
HOLT SCEIPTUEES:
CRITICAL, DOCTRmAL, AND HOMILETICAL,
WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO MINISTERS AND STUDENTS.
BY
JOKN PETEE LAISTGE. D.D.
IK CONNECTIOM WITH A NFMBER OF EMINENT EUROPEAN DIVINES.
TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN, AND EDITED, WITH ADDITIONS ORIGZNAl
AND SELECTED,
BY
PHILIP SCHAFF, D.D.,
ID CONNECTION WITH AMERICAN DITINES OF VARI0D8 BTANOELIOAL DKNOMIHAIIONS.
VOL. I. OF THE NEW TESTAMENT: CONTAINING A GENERAL INTSODUCTfON. ANI THE GOSPEL AGOOKDING TO MATTHEW.
NEW YORK:
CHAELES SCRIBNEE'S SONS,
1884.
THE
GOSPEL
ACCORDING TO
MATTHEW,
rOGETIIER WITH A GENERAL THEOLOGICAL, AND HOMILETIOAl INTRODUCTION TO THE NEW TESTAMENT.
JOmsr PETEE LAJS[GE, D. D,
FEOFESSOB OJ THEOLOGY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF BONN.
TRANSLATED FROM THE THIRD GERMAN EDITION, WITH ADDITIONE ORIGINAL AND SELECTED,
BY
PHILIP SCHAFF, D.D.
TWELFTH EDITION R B T I S E D .
NEW TOEK:
OHAELES SCEIBNEE'S SONS, 1884.
£nTBRED. according to Act ui Congress, in the year 1864, by CHARLES SCRIBNER, in tne Clerk's Office o*" the D'Mnct C'^oi't ^f *h& TTnited States for ine Southern Distn/X)
of New York.
Trow*s
Printing and Eookbindtng Co.,
printers and bookbinders,
205-Z13 £:asi iith St.^
NEW YORK,
LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS
TO THE CRITICAL, DOCTRINAL, AND HOMILETICAL COMMEN- TARY ON THE BIBLE.
GENERAL, EDITORS:
Rev. JOHANN PETER LANGE, D.D., Consistorial Counselor and Professor of Theology in the University of Bonn.
Rev. PHILIP SCHAFP, D.D., LL.D., Professor of Sacred Literature in the Union Theological Seminary, New York.
I. CONTRIBUTORS TO THE GERMAN EDITION.
Rev. C. A. ATJBBRLEN, Ph.D., D.D.,
Professor of Theology in the University of Basle,
Switzerland.
Eev. KARL CHR. W. F. BAHR, D.D., Ministerial Counselor at Carlfirnhe.
Rev. KARL BRATJNE, D.D., General Superintendent at Altenburg, Saxony.
Rev. PAULtrS CASSEL, Ph.D., Professor in Berlin.
Rev. CHR. FR. DAVID ERDMANN, D.D.,
Gfln. Superintendent of Silesia, and Prof. Honorarius of
Theology in the University of Breslau.
Rev. P. R. FAT, Pastor in Crefeld, Prussia,
Rev. G. F. C. FRONlVrULLER, Ph.D., Pastor at Kemnatli, Wiirtemberg,
Rev. KARL GBROK, D.D., Prelate and Chief Chaplain of the Court, Stuttgart.
Rev. PAUL KLEINERT, Ph.D., B.D.,
E*rofessor of Old Testament Exegesis in the University
of Berlin.
Rev. CHRIST. PR. KLING, D.D., Dean of Marbach on the Neckar, Wiirtemberg,
Rev. GOTTHARD VICTOR LEOHLER, D.D., Professor of Theology, and Superintendent at Leipilg;
Rev. CARL BERNHARD MOLL, D.D., General Superintendent in Kdnigaberg.
Rev. 0. "W. EDWARD NAEGELSBACH, Ph,D., Dean at Bayreuth, Bavaria.
Rev. J. J, VAN" OOSTERZEB, D.D., Professor of Theology in the University of Utrecht,
Rev. 0. J. RIGGENBACH, D.D., Professor of Theology in the University of Bade,
Rev. OTTO SCHMOLLER, Ph.D., B.D.,
Urach, Wiirtemberg.
Rev. FR. JULIUS SCHROEDER, D.D^
Pastor at Elberfeld, Prussia.
Rev. FR,W. SCHULTZ, D.D.,
Professor of Theology in Breslau.
Rev. OTTO ZOECKLER, D.D.,
Professor of Theology in the University at Greifswald.
n. CONTRIBUTORS TO THE ANGLO-AMERICAN EDITION.
Eev. CHARLEa A. AIKEN, Ph.D., D.D.,
Professor of Christian Ethics and Apologetics at
Princeton, N. J.
ECT. SAMUEL RALPH ASBIJRY, M.A., Philadelphia.
EDWIN CONE BISRELL, D.D. Professor in the Theol. Seminary at Hartford, Ct.
Rev. GEORGE R. BLISS, D.D., Professor in Crozer Theological Seminary, Upland, Pa,
Bev. CHAS. A. BRIGG3, D.D.,
Professor of Oriental Languages in the Union Theological
Seminary, New York.
Bev. JOHN A. BROADUS, D.D., Professor of New Testament Exegesis at Louiavillo, Ky.
Rev. TALBOT W. CHAMBERS, D.D.,
Pastor of the Collegiate Reformed Dutch Church,
New York.
Rev. THOMAS J. CONANT, D.D., Brooklyn, N. Y.
Eev. E. B. CRAVEN, D.D., Newark, N. J.
Rev. HOWARD CBOSBY, D.D.,LL.D., Chaucellcjr of the University of New York.
LIST OF G0NTBIBUT0E8.
Bev. GEO. E. DAT, D.B., Professor in Yale Divinity School, New Haven, Oona.
Rev. CHAS. ELLIOTT, D.D., ProfsBSor of Biblical Literature and Exegesis, Chicago, HI.
Rev. L. J. EVANS, D.D.,
Professor of New Test. Exegepis in Lane Theol. Seminary,
Cincinnati.
Rev. PATRICK PAIRBAIRN, D.D., Principal and Professor of Divinity in the Free Church
CoU^e, GlaBgow.
Rev. "WILLIAM FINDLAT, M.A., Pastor of the Free Church, Larkhall, Scotland.
Rev. JOHN FORSYTH, D.D., LL.D.,
Chaplain and Prof, of Ethics and Law in U. S. Military
Academy, West Point, N. T.
Rev. FREDERIC GARDINER, D.D.,
Prot of the Literature of the O. T. in Berkeley Divinity
School, Middletown, Ct.
Rev. ABRAHAM GOSMAN, D.D.,
Lawrenceville, N. J.
Rev. -W. HENRY GREEN, D.D., LL.D.,
Professor of Oriental Literature in the Theol. Seminary at
Princeton, N. J.
Rev. JAMES B. HAMMOND, M.A.,
New York.
Rev. HORATIO B. HACKETT, D.D ,
Professor of Biblical Exegesis in the Theological Seminary,
Rochester, N. Y.
Rev. EDWIN HARWOOD, D.D., Rector of Trinity Church, New Haven, Conn.
Rev. W. H. HORNBLOWER, D.D.,
Professor of Sacred Rhetoric, etc., in the Theol. Seminary
at Alleghany, Pa.
Rev. JOHN P. HURST, D.D.,
President of the Drew Theological Seminary,
Madison, N. J.
Rev. A. C. KENDRIClv, D.D., LL.D., Professor of Greek in the TJuiversity of Rochester, N. Y.
TAYLER LEWIS, LL.D.,
Professor oE Oriental Languages in Union CoUege,
Schenectady, N. Y.
Eev. JOHN LILLIB, D.D., Kingston, N. Y.
Rev. SAMUEL T. LOWRIE, D.D.» Philadelphia, Pa.
Rev. J. FRED. MCCURDY, M.A.,
Afls't Professor of the Hebrew Language in the Theol. Sem.
at Princeton, N. J.
Rev. CHARLES M. MEAD, Ph.D., pToteBBor of the Hebrew Language and Llteratuxe in the TheoL Sem., Andover, ~'
Rev. J. ISADOR MOMBERT, D, D., Philadelphia, Pa.
Rev. DUNLOP MOORE, D.D., New Brighton, Pa.
Miss EVELINA MOORH, Newark, N. J.
JAMES G. MURPHY, LL.D.,
Professor in the General Assembly's and the Queen's
College at Belfast.
Rev. HOWARD OSGOOD, D.D.,
Professor of the Interpretation of the Old Test, in the
Theol. Sem., Rochester, N. Y.
Rev. JOSEPH PACKARD, D.D.
Professor of Biblical Literature in the Theological
Seminary at Alexandria^ Va.
Rev. DANIEL W. POOR, D.D.,
Professor of Church History in the Theological Seminary
at San Francisco, Cal.
Rev. MATTHEW B. RIDDLE, D.D.,
Professor of New Testament Exegesis in the Theol.
Seminary at Hartford, Conn.
Rev. CHAS. F. SCHAEFFER, D.D.,
Professor of Theology in the Evangelical Lutheran
Seminary at Philadelphia.
Rev. WILLIAM G. T. SHEDD, D.D., LL.D.,
Professor of Systematic Theology in the Union Theological Seminary, New York.
Rev. CHAS. C. STARBUCK, M.A.,
Formerly Tutor in the Theological Seminary at Andover,
Mass.
Rev. P. H. STEENSTRA, Professor of Biblical Literature at Cambridge, Mass.
Rev. JAMES STRONG, D.D.,
I'rofessor of Exegetical Theology in the Drew Theological
Seminary, Madison, N. J.
Rev. W. G. SUMNER, M.A., Professor in Yale College, New Haven, Conn.
Rev. G. H. TOY, D.D.,
Professor of Hebrew and Old Testament Exegesis,
Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.
Rev. E. A. WASHBURN, D.D., LL.D.,
Rector of Calvary Church, New York.
WILLIAM WELLS, M.A., LL.D.,
Professor of Modern Languages in Union Collego,
New York.
Rev. C. P. WING, D.D.» Carlisle, Pa.
Eev. E. D. YEOMANS, D.D., Orange, N. J,
PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION.
THE BIBLE.
The Bible is the book of life, Tvritten for the instruction and edification of aU agss and nations. No man who has felt its divine beauty and power, would exchange this one volume for all the literature of the world. Eternity alone can unfold the extent of its influence for good. The Bible, like the person and work of our Saviour, is theanthropic in its character and aim. The eternal nersonal Word of God " was made flesh," and the whole fulness of the Godhead and of sinless manhood were united in one person forever. So the spoken word of God may be said to hnve become flesh in the Bible. It is therefore all divine, and yet all human, from be^nning to end. Through the veil of the letter we behold the glory of the eternal truth of tJod. The divine and human in the Bible sustain a similar relation to each other, as in tha person of Christ : they are unmixed, yet inseparably united, and constitute but one life, which Kindles life in the heart of the believer.
Viewed merely as a human or literary production, the Bible is a marvellous book, and ■without a rival. All the libraries of theology, philosophy, history, antiquities, poetry, law and policy would not furnish material enough for so rich a treasure of the choicest gems of human genius, wisdom, and experience. It embraces works of about forty authors, repre^ seating the extremes of society, from the throne of the king to the boat of the fisherman ; it was written during a long period of sixteen centuries, on the banks of the Nile, in the desert of Arabia, in the land of promise, in Asia Minor, in classical Greece, and in imperial Bome ; it commences with the creation and ends with the final glorification, after describing all tha intervening stages in the revelation of God and the spiritual development of man ; it uses aU forms of literary composition ; it rises to the highest heights and descends to the lowest depths t>{ humanity ; it measures all states and conditions of life ; it is acquainted with every grief and every woe ; it touches every chord of sympathy ; it contains the spiritual biography of every human heart ; it is suited to every class of society, and can be read with the same in terest and profit by the king and the beggar, by the philosopher and the child ; it is as uni- versal as the race, and reaches beyond the limits of time irto the boundless regions of eternity. Even this matchless combination of human excellencies points to its divine character and ongin, as the absolute perfection of Christ's humanity is an evidence of His divinity.
But the Bible is first and last \ book of religion. It presents the only true, universal, and
n PEEFACJ5.
absolute religion of God, both in its preparatory process or growth under the dispensation ol the law and the promise, and in its completion under the dispensation of the gospel, a religion which is intended ultimately to absorb all the other religions of the world. It speaks to us as immortal beings on the highest, noblest, and most important themes which can challenge our attention, and with an authority that is absolutely irresistible and overwhelming. It caq instruct, edify, warn, terrify, appease, cheer, and encourage as no other book. It seizes man In the hidden depths of his intellectual and moral constitution, and goes to the quick of the soul, to that mysterious point where it is connected with the unseen world and with the great Father of spirits. It acts like an all-penetrating and all-transforming leaven upon every fac- ulty of the mind and every emotion of the heart. It enriches the memory ; it elevates the reason ; it enlivens the imagination ; it directs the judgment ; it moT es the affections ; it con- trols the passions ; it quickens the conscience ; it strengthens the will; it kindles the sacred flame of faith, hope, and charity ; it purities, ennobles, sanctifies the whole man, and brings him into living union with God. It can not only enlighten, reform, and improve, but regenerate and create anew, and produce effects which lie far beyond the power of human genius. It has light for the blind, strength for the weak, food for the hungry, drink for the thirsty • it has a counsel in precept or example for every relation in life, a comfort for every sorrow, a balm for every wound. Of all the books in the world, the Bible is the only one of which we never tire, but which we admire and love more and more in proportion as we use it. Like the diam^^nd, it casts its lustre in every direction ; like a torch, the more it is shaken, the more it shines ; like a healing herb, the harder it is pressed, the sweeter is its fragrance.
"What an unspeakable blessing, that this inexhaustible treasure of divine truth and comfort is now accessible, without material alteration, to almost every nation on earth in its own tongue, and, in Protestant countries at least, even to the humblest man and woman that can read 1 Nevertheless we welcome every new attempt to open the meaning of this book of books, which is plain enough to a child, and yet deep enough for the profoundest philosophef and the most comprehensive scholar.
EPOCHS OF EXEGESIS.
The Bible — and this is one of the many arguments for its divine character — has given nse vo tt greater number of discourses, essays, and commentaries, than any other book or class of books ; and yet it is now as far from being exhausted as ever. The strongest and noblest minds, fathers, schoolmen, reformers, and modern critics and scholars of every nation of Chris- tendom, have labored in these mines and brought forth precious ore, and yet they are as rich as ever, and hold out the same inducements of plentiful reward to new miners. The long line of commentators will never break off until faith shall be turned into vision, and the church toilitant transformed into the church triumphant in heaven.
Biblical exegesis, like every other branch of theological science, has its creative epochs and classical periods, followed by periods of comparative rest, when the results gained by the pro- ductive labor of the preceding generation are quietly digested and appropriated to the life of the church.
There are especially three such classical periods : the patristic, the reformatory, and the modem. The exegesis of the fathers, with the great names of Chrysostom and Theodoret of
PREFACE.
Ihe Greek, and Jerome and Augustine of the Latin Church, is essentially Catholic ; the exegeais of the reformers, as laid down in the immortal biblical works of Luther and Melanch thon, Zwingli and CEcolampadius, Calvin and Beza, is Protestant ; the modem exegesis of Germany, England, and America, may be called, in its best form and ruling spirit. Evangelical Catholic. It includes, however, a large variety of theological schools, as represented in the commentaries of Olshausen and Tholuck, Liicke and Bleek, Hengstenberg and Delitzsch, Ewald and Hupfeld, de Wette and Meyer, Lange and Stier, Alford and EUicott, Stuart and Robinson, Hodge and Alexander, and many others still working with distinguished success. The modem Anglo-German exegesis is less dogmatical, confessional, and polemical Uian either of ita predecessors, but more critical, free, and liberal, more thorough and accurate m all that pertains to philological and antiquarian research ; and while it thankfully makes use of the labors of the fathers and reformers, it seems to open the avenue for new developments in the ever-expanding and deepening history of Christ's kingdom on earth.
The patristic exegesis is, to a large extent, the result of a victorious conflict of ancient Christianity with Ebionism, Gnosticism, Arianism, Pelagianism, and other radical heresies, which roused and stimulated the fathers to a vigorous investigation and defence of the truth aa laid down in the Scriptures and believed by the Church. The exegesis of the reformers bears on every page the marks of the gigantic war with Romanism and its traditions of men. So the modem evangelical theology of Germany has grown up amidst the changing fortunes of a more than thirty years' war of Christianity with RatioDalism and Pantheism. The future historian will represent this intellectual and spiritual conflict, which is not yet concluded, as one of the most important and interesting chapters in histoiy, and as one of the most bril- liant victories of faith over unbelief, of Christian truth over anti-Christian error. The German mind has never, since the Reformation, developed a more intense and persevering activity, both for and against the gospel, than in this period, and if it should fully overcome the modem and most powerful attacks upon Christianity, it will achieve as important a work aa the Reformation of the sixteenth century. Former generations have studied the Bible with as much and perhaps more zeal, earnestness, and singleness of purpose, than the present. But never before has it been subjected to such thorough and extensive critical, philological, histori- cal, and antiquarian, as well as theological investigation and research. Never before has it been assailed and defended with more learning, acumen, and perseverance. Never before hM the critical apparatus been so ample or so easy of access • the most ancient manuscripts of the Bible having been newly discovered, as the Codex Sinaiticus, or more carefully compared and published (some of them in fac-simUe), as the Codex Sinaiticus, Vaticanus, Alexandrinus, Ephraemi Syri, and the discoveries and researches of travellers, antiquarians, historians, and chronologers being made tributary to the science of the Book of books. No age has been so productive in commentaries on almost every part of the sacred canon, but more particularly on the Gospels, the Life of Christ, and the Epistles of the New Testament. It is very difficult to keep up with the progress of the German press in this department. One commentary fol- lows another in rapid succession, and the best of them are constantly reappearing m new «nd improved editions, which render the old ones useless tor critical purposes. Still the intwis* productivity of this period must sooner or later be exhausted, and give way to the more quiel activity of reproduction and application.*
« Even Dr. Wordsworth, ■who is disposed to find in the old Catholic and modern Anglican fathers the hegrinnisf and the end of exeeretiral knowledge and wisdom, feels constrained to admit (in tki3 I leface to his Uommentary or
B
'^lU PREFACE.
The time has now arrived for the preparation of a comprehensive theological commentary which shall satisfy all the theoretical and practical demands of the evangelical ministry of the present generation, and serve as a complete exegetical library for constant reference : a com mentary learned, yet popular, orthodox and sound, yet unsectarian, liberal and truly catholic in spirit and aim ; combining with original research the most valuable results of the exegetical labors of the past and the present, and making them available for the practical use of minis ters and the general good of the church. Such a commentary can be sucessfully wrought out only at such a fruitful period of Biblical research as the present, and by an association of ex- perienced divines equally distinguished for ripe scholarship and sound piety, and fully cojn- petent to act as mediators between the severe science of the professorial chair and the practicJi] duties of the pastoral office.
LANGE'S COMMENTAKT.
Such a commentary is the Bibelwerh of Dr. Langb, assisted by a number of distinguished evangelical divines and pulpit orators of Germany, Switzerland, and Holland.* This work was commenced in 1857, at the suggestion of the publishers, Velhagen and Klasing, in Biele- feld, Prussia, on a plan similar to that of Staekb's Synopsis, which appeared a hundred years ago, and has since been highly prized by ministers and theological students as a rich store- house of exegetical and homUetical learning, but which is now very rare, and to a large extent antiquated, t
It is to embrace gradually the whole Old and New Testament. The Rev. Dr. John P, Lange, professor of evangelical theology in the University of Bonn, assumed the general editorial supervision ; maturing the plan and preparing several parts himself (Matthew, Mark, John, Romans, and Genesis), selecting the assistants and assigning to them their share in the work. It is a very laborious and comprehensive undertaking, which requires a variety of talents, and many years of united labor. It is the greatest literary enterprise of the kind undertaken in the present century. Hbrzog's Theological Encycloposdia, of which the eight-
the N. T., p. V.) ; " Indeed it muet be confessed, with thankfulness to the Divine Author of the Scripture, that the present age enjoys, in certain respects, greater privileges for the due understanding of Holy Writ than were ever con- ferred by Alniiglity God on any preceding generation since the revival of letters." And he is candid enough to ad- mit, also (on p. vi.), " that the palm for industry in this sacred tield is especially due to another nation. The Masoritea of the New Testament are from Germany.^'
• The full German title of this work is : Thbologisoh-homilktisches Bibblwerk. Die Seilige Sckrift Alien und Neuen Testavients mii Buckftwht auf das theologisch-ftomiletische Bedurfniss des pasturalen Amies in Verhindung mii namhnften evangeUschen TJieologen beaKeitet wnd herausgegeben von J. P. Lange. Bielefeld. Verlag von Vel- hagen und Klasing, 1857 tf.
t Synopsis Bibliothbce Exegetice in I^ovum Testamentum. KurzgefaMter Auszuff der grUndlicTisten und VAil/zbarsten Audegungen uber alle Bucher Keuen Testaments. In Tabellen, Erklarungen, Anmerhungen und Nvtzan- v^endnngen^ tnAt Zuziehung des Orundtextes, und Jleissiger Anfuhrimg der dahey gebrauchten Biicher^ butu erwunsch- ten IJandhuch^ etc. etc. Mit Beyhulfe einiger Qelehrten von Oheistoph Starke, Pastore Primario und GarnUon, Prediger der Stadt und Fcstung Driesen. 3 vols. 4to. The preface is dated 1733. I have seen in this country and occasionally compared two copies of this work, one of the second edition, Leipzig, 1740 (in the Theol. Seminary Library at Mercersburg, Pa.), and one of the 4th ed., Leipz. 1768 (in possession of a German clergyman at New York). The Arst volume, ou itaining the four Gospels, covers 2,623 closely printed quarto pages. The title of the Old Testament Part is: Synopsis BiBLiOTHBOiB Exegbtio-e in Vetus Testamentum, etc., Berlin and Halle, 1741 S. 6 vois. 4to. Hit B«u, Johann Georg Starke, completed the Old Testament. Christoph Starke was born a. d. 1684, was pastor primariui in the town and fortress Driesen, and died 1744, IXis motto was ; CruGem sumo^ Christum sequor. He was not a man of genius, like Lange, but of Immense literary industry, and bis work is a dry but useful compilation. He embodied Id it extracts from previous exegetical works, especially those of Luther, Brentius, Canetein, Cramer Hedinger Lange, Majus, Osiandcr, Piscator, Quesnel, Tosnnus, Biblia Wurtembergensia, Zeisins. Lange transfers the substano* ■jf Starke's labors to the homiletical sections of his Commentary, and credits him with the extracts from hln nr*>d« Of.ssors under theii- names.
PKEFACE.
eenth volume has just been published (with two volumes of supplements still in prospect), is n similar monument of German learning and industry, and will be, for many years to come, a rich storehouse for theological students. So far the Commentary of Lange has progressed! rapidly and steadily, and proved decidedly successful. Even in its present unfinished state, i( has already met with a wider circulation than any modern commentary within the same time and it grows in favor as it advances.
The following parts, of the New T.,have been published, or are in course of preparation :
I. The Gospel accoedikg to Matthew, with an Introduation to the whole New Testament. By Dr. John P. Langb, 1857. Second (third) edition revised, 1861.
n. The Gospel accobdlng to Mark. By Dr. John P. Lange. Second edition re- vised, 1861.
in. The Gospel according to Luke. By Dr. J. J. tan Oosteezeb, professor of theologj at Utrecht. Second edition revised, 1861.
rV. The Gospel accohding to John. By Dr. John P. Lange. Second edition, 1863.
V. The Acts of the Apostles. By Prof. Dr. G. Lechlek, of Leipzig, and Dean K Gekok, of Stuttgart. Second edition revised, 1863.
VI. The Epistle to the Romans, now in course of preparation by the editor, in connec- tion with his son-in-law, Rev. Mr. Fay, in Crefeld, who assumed the homiletical part.
Vn. The Epistles to the Corinthians. By the Rev. Dr. Chr. Fr. Kling, 1863. Vm. The Epistle to the Galatians. By the Rev. Otto Schmollbr, 1863.
IX. The Epistles to the Ephksians, Philippians, and Colossians. By Prof Dr. Dan. ScHENKBL, of Heidelberg, 1863.*
X. The Epistles to the Thessalonians. By Prof. Drs. C. A. Aubbklen and Chb. John RiGGENBAOH, of Basel, 1864.
XT. The Pastoral Epistles and The Epistle to Philemon. By Dr. J. J. van Ooa- TBEZBB, of Utrecht. Second edition revised, 1864.
Xn. The Epistlb to the Hebrews. By Prof Dr. C. B. Moll, 1861.
XIII. The Epistle op Jambs. By Prof. Drs. J. P. Lange and J. J. van Oostbr- ZEB, 1863.
XTV. The Epistles of Peter and The Epistle of Jude, by Dr. G. F. C. FronmBlleb. Second edition revised, 1861.
The remaining parts, of the N. T., containing The Epistles of John, and The Rktb- lation, have not yet appeared. Part VI. (on the Epistle to the Romans) and Part XV. are, however, in process of preparation, and may be expected within a year.
Of the Commentary on The Old Testament, one volume has just been published (1864), which contains a general Introduction to the whole Old Testament, and a commentary on Senesis by the editor.
According to a private letter of our esteemed friend. Dr. Lange, the following dispositiom have already been made concerning the Old Testament :
DBtrrERONOMY. By Rev. Jul. Schroder, of Elberfeld (successor of Dr. F. W. Kmn* macher as pastor, and author of an excellent practical commentary on Genesis).
JOBHUA. By Eev. Mr. Schneider, rector of the seminary at Bromberg.
• This part will probably be rewritten by another hand on account of the recent nnfortanate :hange m till IJ.pningical position of the author.
PREFACE
Judges and Ruth. By Dr. Paulus Cassbl, in Berlin.
Kings. By Dr. Bahe, in Carlsruhe (author of the celebrated -work on the Symbolism of the Mosaic Worship, etc.).
Thb Psaxms. By Dr. Moll, general superintendent in Konigsberg. Jrbkmtaf. By Rev. Dr. Nagblsbach, of Bayreuth.
DR. LANGE.
The reader will naturally feel some curiosity about the personal history and character ot the editor and manager of this great Biblical work, who heretofore has been less known among English readers than many Uerman divines of far inferior talent. Only two of his many works have been brought out in an English dress, and they only quite recently, namely, his Life of Je&ua, and parts of his Commentary on the Gospels.
Dr. Lange was born on the 10th of April, 1803, on the Bier, a small farm in the parish ol Bonnborn, near Elberfeld, in Prussia. His father was a farmer and a, wagoner, and broughl his son up to the same occupation, but allowed him, at the same time, to indulge his passion for reading. Young Lange often drove the products of the soil to market. He early acquired an enthusiastic love of nature, which revealed to his poetic and pious mind, as in a mirror, the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. He was instructed in the doctrines of the Heidelberg Catechism, which is still in use among the Reformed Churches on the Rhine, although the Lutheran and Reformed Confessions are united in Prussia since 1817 under one government and administration, and bear the name of the United Evangelical Church. His Latin teacher, the Rev. Herrmann Kalthof, who discovered in him unusual talents, induced him to study for the ministry. He attended the Gymnasium (College) of Diisseldorf from Easter, 1831, to autumn, 1833, and the University of Bonn from 1833 to 1835. There he studied mainly undei Dr. Mtzsch, the most venerable of the living divines of Germany, who for many years was a strong pillar of evangelical theology in Bonn and subsequently in Berlin. The writings of Mtzsch, though pregnant with deep thoughts and suggestive hints, give but an imperfect Idea of his power, which lies chiefly in his pure, earnest, and dignified, yet mUd and amiable personal character. He is emphatically a Twmo gravis, a Protestant church-father, who, by hia genius, learning, and piety, commands the respect of all theological schools and ecclesiastical parties.
After passing through the usual examination, Lange labored from 1825 to 1836 in the quiet but very pleasant town of Langenberg, near Elberfeld, as assistant minister to the Rev. Emil Krummacher (a brother of the celebrated Dr. Frederic William Krummacher, who wrote the sermons on Elijah the Tishblte, and other popular works). From thence he was called to the pastoral charge of Wald, near Sollngen, where he remained from 1836 to 1838. In 1833 he removed as pastor to Dulsburg, and began to attract public attention by a series of brilliant articles in Hengstenberg's Evangelical Church Gazette and other periodicals, also by potms lermons, and a very able work on the history of the infancy of our Saviour, against Strauss'j l/^e of Jesut. In 1841 he was called to the University of Zurich, in Switzerland, as professor of theology in the place of the notorious Strauss, who had been appointed by the radical and infidel administration of that Canton, but was prevented from taking possession of the chali by a religious and political revolution of the people. In Zurich he labored with great per
PREFACE. XI
aeverance aud fidelity in the midst of many discoui-agements till 1854, when he received a caL to the University of Bonn, in Prussia, where he will probably end his days on earth*
Dr. Lange is undoubtedly one of the ablest and purest divines that Germany ever pro duced. He is a man of rare genius and varied culture, sanctified by deep piety, and devoted to the service of Christ. Personally he is a most amiable Christian gentleman, genial, aflfeo- ';ionate, unassuming, simple, and unblemished in all the relations of life. He combines an anusual variety of gifts, and excels as a theologian, philosopher, poet, and preacher. Ha abounds in original ideas, and if not always convincing, he is always fresh, interesting, and (Stimulating. He is at home in the ideal heights and mystic depths of nature and revelation, and yet has a clear and keen eye for the actual and real world around him. He indulges in poetico-philosophical speculations, and at times soars high above the clouds and beyond th« stars, to the spiritual and eternal " land of glory,'' on which he once wrote a fascinating book.t His style is fresh, vigorous, and often truly beautiful and sublime, but somewhat deficient in simplicity, clearness, and condensation, and is too much burdened with compound, semi-poetical, unwieldy epithets, which offer peculiar difiiculties to the trana- lator. His speculations and fancies cannot always stand the test of sober criticism, although we might wish them to be true. But they are far less numerous in his Commentary than in his former writings. They are, moreover, not only harmless, but suggestive and pious, and supply a lack in that sober, realistic, practical, prosaic common-sense theology which deala with facts and figures rather than the hidden causes and general principles of things, and never breathes the invigorating mountain air of pure thought.
Poetical divines of real genius are so rare that we should thank Cod for the few. Why should poetry, the highest and noblest of the arts, be banished from theology ? Has not God joined them together in the first and last chapters of the Bible ? Has He not identified poetry with the very birth of Christianity, in the angelic hymn, as well as with its ultimate triumphs, in the hallelujahs of the countless host of the redeemed ? Is it not one of the greatest gifts of God to man, and an imfailing source of the purest and richest enjoyments ? Is it not an essential element and ornament of divine worship ? Can any one fully understand and explain the Book of Job, the Psalms and the Prophets, the Parables, and the Apocalypse, without a keen sense of the beautiful and sublime ? Theology and philosophy, in their boldest flights and nearest approaches to the vision of truth, unconsciously burst forth in the festive language of poetry ; and poetry itself, in its highest and noblest forms, is transformed into worship of Him who is the eternal source of the True, the Beautiful, and the Good. No one will deny this who is familiar with the writings of St. Augustine, especially his Confessions, where the metaphysical and devotional elements interpenetrate each other, where meditation ends in prayer, and speculation in adoration. But the greatest philosophers, too, not only Plato, Schelling, and Coleridge, who- Were constitutionally poetical, but even Aristotle, Kant, and Hegel, who were the greatest masters of pure reasoning and metaphysical abstraction, prova
* For the biographical notices I am indebted to the kindness of Br, Lange, who communicated them to me by tetter at my request. I previously wrote also a sketch of his character as a divine in ray book on G&nnany^ its Un4 eersiUee and Divines, Philadelphia, 1867, of which I have no copy on hand, the edition being oxhanstod, I have seen Dr Lange in ZQrieh in 1844, and at Bonn in 1854, and corresponded with him more or less for the last twenty years.
t Under tlie title : Bos land der Berrlichkeit, Oder die christUche Lehre mm Bimmel, first published as a seriei •f articles In Hengstenberg's EvangeKcal Churcli Gazette, and then in book form, 1838. Dr. H. Harbaugh, of Mer. oeriburg, Pa,, has translated a portion of it in the third of his three popular works en the heavenly world, whlci hav< fluQe through some fifteen or twenty editions.
tii PREFACE.
this essential harmony of truth and beauty.* The poetic and imaginatire element impartt freshness to thought, and turns even the sandy desert of dry critical research into a blooming flower garden. I fully admit, of course, that the theologian must regulate his i3hilosophica speculations by the word of revelation, and control his poetic imagination by sound reasoD and judgment. Lange represents, among German divines, in hopeful anticipation, the peacfc- ful and festive harmony of theology and poetry, of truth and beauty, which exists now in heaven, " the land of glory," and will be actualized on the new earth. Take the following striking passage on the locality and beauty of heaven, as a characteristic specimen of hla thought and style : f
" Wlien the beautiful in the world manifests itself alone, so that the friendly features of God's character are exclusively seen, profane souls remain profanely inclined; yea, they become even more profligate in the misuse of the riches of God's goodness. If, on the other hand, the greatness and power of God are revealed in the rugged and tembly sublime, in the hurricane, in the ocean-storm, then the profane are overwhelmed with horror, which is easily changed into fear, and may manifest itself in hypocritical or superficial exhibi- tions of penitence ; but when the goodness and power of God manifest themselves in one and the same bright phenomenon, this produces a frame of spirit which speaks of that which is holy. This is the reason why the much-praised valley of the Rhine is so solemn and sabbatic, because it is enamelled by a blending of the beautiful and the sublime: stern mountains, rugged rocks, ruins of the past, vestiges of grandeur, monumen- tal columns of God's power, and these columns at the same time garlanded with the loving wreaths of God'a favor and goodness, in the midst of smiling vineyards which repose sweetly around in the mild sunlight of heaven. For this reason the starry night is so instructive — the grandest dome decked with the brightest radiance of kindness and love. For the same reason there is such magic attraction in the morning dawn and in the evening twilight : they take hold upon us like movings tc prayer ; because in them beauty is so min. gled with holy rest, with spiritual mystery, with the earnest and sublime. Thus does it meet the festive chil- dren of this world, who are generally of a prayerless spirit, so that they are as it were prostrated upon the earth in deep devotion, when some great sight in nature, in which the beautiful is clothed with sublime ear- uestness, bursts upon their view ; or when, on the other hand, some marked manifestation of God's power is associated with heart-moving wooings of kindness. Accordingly, we hear one tell what pious emotions he felt stirring his bosom, when he beheld the wide-extended country from the top of the Pyrenees; another tells how the spirit of prayer seized upon his soul when he stood upon the height of Caucasus, and felt, as be looked over the eastern fields and valleys of Asia, as if heaven had opened itself before him. Such witnesses might be gathered to almost any extent.
** But now it is certain that there must be some place in the upper worlds where the beauties and wondera of God's works are illuminated to the highest transparency by bis power and holy majesty; where the com- bination of lovely manifestations, as seen from radiant summits, the enraptured gaze into the quiet valleys of universal creation, and the streams of light which flow through them, must move the spirits of the blest in the mightiest manner, to cry out: Holt! Holt! Holt! — And there is the holiest place in the great Temple! It is there, because there divine manifestations fill all spirits with a feeling of his holiness. But still rather because there he reveals himself through holy spirits, and through the holiest one of all, even Jesus Him* Belfl"
t)r. Lange's theology is essentially biblical and evangelical catholic, and inspired by a fresh and refreshing enthusiasm for truth under all its types and aspects. It is more positive and decided than that of Keander or Tholuck, yet more liberal and conciliatory than the orthodoxy of Hengstenberg, which is often harsh and repulsive. Lange is one of the most micompromising opponents of German rationalism and scepticism, and makes no concession? to the modem attacks on the gospel history. But he always states his views with moderation. Bnd in a Christian and amiable spirit ; and he endeavors to spiritualize and idealize doctrines
• I would mention as examples that noble passage of Aristotle on nature's argument forth© existence of Gtoa preserved by Cicero, De Mat. Deorrnn, ii. 37, and quoted by Alexander von Humboldt with admiration, In his Koa »os, vol, 11. p. 16 (German edition), a work where otherwise even the name of God Is nowhere mentioned' Kant'i famous saying of the two things which fill his soul with evev-growlng reverence and awe, the starry heaven above him, and the moral law within him ; and Hegel's truly sublime iutrodiictiun to his Lectures on the Philosophy ofli» ligion^ as well as many of the noblest passages in his Lectures on JEsthetics.
t From his youthful work : Daa Land d&r Herrlichkeit Not having a copy of the orlglnad within reaoli I bor Fow the translation from Dr. Harbaugh'a Heavenly Some, oh. vii. p. 142 ff.
PKEFACB.
Md facts, and thus to mate them more plausible to enlightened reason. His orthodoxy it is true, is not the fixed, exclusive orthodoxy either of the old Lutheran, or of the old Oalvinistit Confession, but it belongs to that recent evangelical type which arose in conflict with modern mfldelity, aud going back to the Reformation and the still higher and purer fountain of primitive Christianity as it came from the hands of Christ and His inspired apostles, aims to unite the true elements of the Reformed and Lutheran Confessions, and on this firm historical basis to promote catholic unity and harmony among the conflicting branches of Christ's Church. It is evangelical catholic, churohly, yet unsectarian, conservative, yet progressive ; it is the truly living theology of the age. It is this very theology which, for the last ten oi twenty years, has been transplanted in multiplying translations to the soil of other Protestant countries, which has made a deep and lasting imi^ression on the French, Dutch, and especially on the English and American mind. It is this theology which is now undergoing a process of naturalization and amalgamation in the United States, which will here be united with the religious fervor, the sound, strong common sense, and free, practical energy of the Anglo-Amer- ican race, and which in this modifled form has a wider field of usefulness before it in this new world than even in its European fatherland.
Dr. Lange is an amazingly fertile author. Several of his works belong to the department of belle-lettres, aesthetics, and hymnology. Some of his hymns have deservedly found a placa in modern German hymn books,* and help to swell the devotions of the sanctuary. Hia principal works on theological subjects are, first, a complete system of Divinity, in three parts, severally entitled : Philosophical Dogmatics, Positive Dogmatics, and Applied Dogmatics (or Po- lemics and Irenics). This is an exceedingly able work, abounding in original and profound ideas, but artificial and complicated in its arrangement, often transcending the boundaries of logic, and in many sections almost untranslatable. His second great work is a Life of Jesus, ftlso in three parts, which, upon the whole, is justly regarded as the fullest and ablest modern work on the subject, and the best positive refutation of Strauss. It has quite recently been given to the English public by Mr. Clark, in six volumes.t His History of the Apostolic Church, in two volumes, was intended as the beginning of a general History of Christianity, which, however, has not been continued. But the last, the most important, and the most useful labor, worthy to crown such a useful life, is his TheologicM and Homiletical Commentary. All Ms preceding labors, especially those on the Life of Christ, prepared him admirably for the exposition of the Gospels, which contains the rich harvest of the best years of his manhood. This Commentary will probably engage his time for several years to come, and will make hit name as familiar in England and America as it is in Germany.
I add a complete list of all the published works of Dr. Lange, including his poetry, in chronological order :
1. Die Lehre der TieiUgen Schrift von der freien und allgemeiam Ghnade Gottes, Elberfeld, 1831.
2. Sibliseh.e Diohtungen. 1 Bandchen. Elberfeld, 1832.
3. Predigten. MUnchen, 1833.
4. Biblisehe DicMi-ngen. 2 Bandchen. Elberfeld, 1834.
• I adopted a number of them in my German hymn book, published In 1859 and eitenslvely used In tli.iB oonn.ij, •. g., Nos. 94, 194, 227.
t Thb Like op thz Lord Jesus Chetst : a complete critical exmnination of the Origin, Contents, and Connection y the Gospels. Translated from the German of J. P. LiNGB, D.D. Edited, with additional Notes, hy thi Bee. Mar- aiM Dods, A.M., In 6 mis. EJinbnrgh : T. & T. Clark, 1864. Vol i. Is translated by Sophia Taylor, vol ii. by J. B Byland, vol. lit by M. G. Huxtable, vol. iv. by Eev. Kob. E. Wallls, vol y. by Rev. S Manson, vol. vl. bj Uov. Robert
PREFACE.
6. Kleine poUmische Gedichte. Duisburg, 1835.
6. GedicMe und SprucJie aus dem Gebiefe christlicher IfaturletracMung, Duisburg, 1835.
7. Die Welt des Herrn in didahiischen Gesdngen. Essen, 1835.
8. Die Verfinsterung der Welt. LehrgedicM. Berlin, 1838.
9. Grundziige der urchriitliehefi frohen Botachaft. Duisburg, 1839.
10. Bomilien iiier Oolosser iii. 1-17. Vierte Auflage. Bremen, 1844.
11. Ghristliche Betrachtungen ilber zusa?/imen7idngende biblische Abschnitte fur die lia/uslUJu St^jOViM^
Duisburg, 1841.
12. Ueher den geschicMlichen Charahter der hxnonischen Evangelien-^ iTisbesondere der KvndheitegeschicnU
Jesuy mit Beziehung auf das Leben Jesu von D. F. Strauss. Duisburg, 1836. 18. Das Land der Herrlichkeit, oder die christliche Lehre vom Himmel. Mors, 1338.
14. VermiscMe Schriften, 4 Bande. Mors, 1840-41.
15. Gedichte. Essen, 1843.
16. Die kirchliche Hymnologie, oder die Lehre vom Kirchengesang. TheoretisaTi^ Einleitung und Kirttttrv
Uederbueh. Ziiricb, 1843,
17. Das Lehen Jesw, 3 Bilcher. Heidelberg, 1844^' 47.
18. Worte der Abwekr {iji Bezieliung auf das Leben Jesu). Ziirich, 1846.
19. Christliehe Dogmatih, 3 Bande. PhiiosopJiisdie^ Positive^ und Angewandte Dogmatih. HeiddL
berg, 1847.
20. JTeber die Neugestaltung des Verhaltn-isses zwischen dem Stoat und der Kirche. Heidelberg, 1848.
21. NeutestanientlicJie Zeitgedichie. Erankfurt a. M,, 1849.
22. Brief e eines communistischen PropJieten. Breslau, 1850.
23. Gothe's religiose Poesie. Breslau, 1850.
24. Die Geschichte der Kirche, Erster Theil. Das apostolische Zeitalter, 2 Bande. Braunschweig, 1853-'54.
25. Austvahl vou Ga$t^und Gelegenkeitspredigten. Zweite Ausgabe. Bonn, 1857.
26. Vom Oelherge. Geistliche DicTitungen. Neue Ausgabe. Frankfurt a. M., 1858. 97. Vermischte Schriften. Neue Folge, 3 Bandchen. Bielefeld, 1860.
28. Tlieologisch-homiletisches Bibelwerhy commenced 1857, Bielefeld. Dr. Lange prepared the Commentariea on Matthew, 8d edition, 1861 ; on Mark, 2d edition, 1861 ; on John, 2d edition, 1862; on the Epistle of James (in connection with van Oosterzee), 1862 ; on Genesis, with a general introduction to the Old Testament, 1864 ; on the Epistle to the Romans (now in course of publication).
THE PLAN OF LANGE'S COMMENTARY.
The plan of Lange's BibelwerJe is very compreliensiTe. It aims to give all that the minis- ter and Biblical student can desire in one work. Its value consists to a great extent in its completeness and exhaustiveness, and in the convenient arrangement for practical use.
It contains, first, appropriate Inteoduotions, both critical and homiletical, to the Bible as a whole, to each particular book, and to each section. The sections are provided with clear and full headings, the parallel passages, and the indications of their homiletical use in the order of the church year.
The Text is given, not in the original Greek, nor in Luther't version, but in a new German vernon, which is as literal as the genius of the language will bear, and is made with special reference to the exposition. The principal readings of the Greek text are given in foot-notes with short critical remarks. The critical editions of the Greek Testament by Lachmarm and Tischendorf * are made the basis.
Bmith. Six trana.ators for one of the many books of Lange I This is a enfficlent evidence of the difflonlty of the bwk. The editor (Mr. Dode), in the introductory preface to vol. i., speaks in the highest terms of " this comprehen live and masterly work." I am very happy to find that Lange, who has heen comparatively unknown out of Qer. many, is beginning to he appreciated in England. The frequent references to the Lebem Jeau in this Commentary on Mai^J'.hew are always to the Gorman orlgloal ; the translation having reached me too late to change the fi-rures It ia not likely, however, that such a voluminous and costly work will be soon reprloted in America ; the less so since bhe author haa embodied many of the most important results In his 0 immentaries on Matthew, Mark and John.
* Not, however, the seventh and best edition of Tischendorf, which appeared In 1859, two years after the first »dltlon of lAnge's Matthew, and which s*ten deviates from the text of his previous editions and returns ro many of tht
PREFACE.
Then follows the Commentary itself. This is threefold, Critical, Docteinal, and Hom. LETICAL.* The three departments are kept distinct throughout, and are arranged under differ, ent heads, so that the reader can at once find what he wants at, the time, without being foree< to work his way through a mass of irrelevant matter.
1. The first department contains : Exegbtical aub Critical NoTBS.t These explain th« words and phrases of the text, and endeavor to clear up every difficulty which presents itsell to the critical student, according to the principles of grammatico-historical exegesis. On all the more important passages, the different views of the leading ancient and modem commen- factors are given ; yet without the show and pedantry of learning. The chief aim is to con- dense, in as brief a space as possible, the most valuable and permanent results of original and previous exegetical labors, without detaining the reader vrith the tedious process of investiga- tion, and a constant polemical reference to false opinions. The building appears in its beau- tiful fl-osh, and the scaffolding and rubbish required during its construction are removed out of sight.
3. The second department is headed : LsADrNa DoGMATicAii and "Ethical Thoughts, or Doctrinal and Ethical.J It presents, under a number of distinct heads, the fundamental doctrines and moral maxims contained in, or suggested by, the text. In the Gospels, these truths and principles are viewed mainly from the christological point of view, or as connected with the person and work of our Saviour. The reader will find here a vast amount of living theology, fresh fi*om the fountain of God's revelation in Christ, and free from scholastic and sectarian complications and distortions. The person of Christ stands out everywhere as the great central sun of truth and holiness, from which light and life emanate upon aU parts of the Christian system.
3. The third department is entitled : Homiletical Hints or StrGGB8Ti0NS.| This shows the way from the study to the pulpit, from the exposition and understanding of the word of God to its practical application to all classes and conditions of society. It is especially the pastor's department, designed to aid him in preparing sermons and Biblical lectures, yet by no means to supersede the labor of pulpit preparation. It is suggestive and stimulating in its character, and exhibits the endless variety and applicability of Scripture history and Scripture truth. It brings the ma,rble slabs from the quarry, and the metals from the mine, but leavef
readings of the t&cfius recepfiua. This is the case In the Gospel of Matthew alone in more than a hundred places, «. ^., Matt. ii. 13 ; Hi. 1 ; iv. 23 ; v. 11, 13, 32 ; vi. 6, 16, 33 ; vu. 14 ; vili. 10, 13 ; ix. 1, 8, 9, 11, 17 ; x. 7, 10, 14, 19, 23, 33, etc.
• The proper rendering of the German headings of the three distinct sections, viz., Exbqetischb Ebl^uteefs- OBN, Dogmatisoh-Chbistologisohe or (in the Acts and Epistles) Dogmatisch-Ethischb GRUNDGsnANKEH, ani flOMlLBTlsoHB Andedtungen, has given some trouble. The Edinburgh translation of Matthew renders them : Criti- cal Notes, Doctrinal Reflbotions, and Homiletical Hints. But this is too free, and the edition alluded to is not consistent. The Scotch translator of the Commentary on the Acts, of which the first twelve chapters have just ap- peared. Rev. Paton J. Gloag, renders the headings more literally: Exegetical Explanations, Dogmatical and Bthical Thoughts, Homiletical Hints. But Grundgedanken means /wndamentaZ or leading thoughts. Upon the whole I thought it most advisable to use the adjectives only, as best calculated to reconcile conflicting tastes and opinions. Ohristologico DogmaUcai, and Dogmatico-Kthical would be too heavy, while Doctrinal and Ethical la good English and gives the idea as well. For symmeti-y's sake I chose a double adjective for the other sectioni 1. Bxeoetioal and Critical , 2, Doctrinal and Kthical ; 3. Homiletical and Practical.
t In German : Exegetisohb Erl^uteedngen, lit. : Exegetical Illustrations or Explanations (whiot ig ■omewhat tautological, exegetical being identical with eaypository or eapla/natory).
t In German ; Dogmatisch-Ethische Grundoedankbn. In the Gospels, where the christological element pro* ponderates, Lange calls them : Dogmatisoh-Oheistologisohe Gbundgedanxeh. But his contributors have subiti- tatod for it the more general title : Dogmatico-Ethical Fundamental Thoughts, which is as applicable to the rer ipectlve sections in the Gospels as to those in the Bpistles. In his Commentary on Genesis, just published U864) Ds [iSnge uses Theologische Grundgedankbn.
f HoMILETISOHE ANnEUTUHGBN.
KVi PREFACE.
the chiselling and hammermg to the artist. The authors of the several parts give under thi» heading first their own honuletical and practical reflections, themes and r»arts in a few words, and then judicious selections from other homiletical commentators, as Qtjesnbl, Cansteik, Stabkb, Gossnbk, Lisco, Otto von Gbrlaoh, Hbtxbnbr, and occasionally brief skeletons of celebrated sermons.
I must confess, I was at first prejudiced against this part of the Commentary, fearing that it made the work of the preacher too easy ; but upon closer examination I became con vinced of its great value. If I am not mistaken, the American readers will prize it in proper tion as they make themselves familiar with it. They will be especially edified, I think, by the exuberant riches and high-toned spirituality which characterize the homiletical suggeS' tions of Lange, and several of his contributors, especially Dr. \an Oosterzee (a man of genius, and the best pulpit orator of Holland), as also with the selections from Staike and his predecessors found under his name. Otto von Gerlach (late court-preacher in Berlin, an« author of a brief popular commentary), and the venerable Heubner (late director of the Fheo- logical Seminary at Wittenberg).
There are standard commentaries on special portions of the Scripture.^, which excel al. others, either in a philological or theological or practical point of view, either in brevity and condensation or in fulness of detail, either in orthodoxy of doctrine and soundness of judg- ment or in expository skill and fertility of adaptation, or in some other particular aspect. But, upon the whole, the Biblical work of Dr. Lange and his associates is the richest, the soundest, and the most useful general commentary which Germany ever produced, and far better adapted than any other to meet the wants of the various evangelical denominations of the English tongue. This is not only my individual opinion, but the deliberate judgment of some of the best Biblical and German scholars of America whom I have had occasion to con- sult on the subject.
THE ANGLO-AMERICAN EDITION.
A work of such sterling value cannot be long confined to the land of its birth. America as it is made up of descendants from all countries, nations, and churches of Europe (« pluribut unum), is set upon appropriating all important literary treasures of the old world, especially those which promise to promote the moral and religious welfare of the race.
Soon after the appearance of the first volume of Dr. Lange's Commentary, I formed at the solicitation of a few esteemed friends, and with the full consent of Dr. Lange himself an assc ciation for an American edition, and in September, 1860, 1 made the necessary arrangements with my friend, Mr. Charles Scribner, as publisher.* The secession of the slave States, and
* I may be permitted to state that I went into this enterprise at first with considerable reluctance partly fW>m a gensa of its vast labor and responsibility, partly because it involved In al] probability the abandonment of an orieinal though much shorter commentary (German and English) which I had been preparing for the last twenty years and of which a few specimens appeared In the Eirchenfrewnd (1S48-'G3) and in the Merceralmrg Rmiew. But the +ask teemed to devolve on me naturally and providentially, and I gradually became so interested in it that I am willing t« sacrifice to it other cherished literary projects. Dr. Lange himself, In foi-warding to me an early copy of the first volume, wished me to tate part in the original work, and encouraged me afterward to assume the editorial supervi lion of the English translation, giving me every liberty as regards additions and improvements. I made howevei no use of my old notes on Matthew, leaving all my eiegetical manustripts boxed up with my library at ICercersbura I ^li not wish to mix two works which dift'er in plan and extent, and adapted my additions to the general characto iQd plan of Lnnffe's work and the wants of the Bnallsh reader.
PREFACE. J VI
the consequent outbreak of the civil war in 1861, paralyzed the book trade, and indeflnitelj suspended the enterprise. But in 1863 it was resumed at the suggestion of the publisher and with the consent of Mr. T. Clark, of Edinburgh, who in the mean time (since 1861) had commenced to publish translations of parts of Lange's Commentary in his " Foreign Theolo gical Library." I moved to New York for the purpose of devoting myself more fully to this work amid the literary facilities of the city, completed the first volume, and made arrangements with leading Biblical and Grerman scholars of different evangelical denominations for the trans- lation of the other volumes.
The following books are already finished, or in course of preparation for the press :
The Gospel accokpinq to Matthew, with a General Introduction to the New Testament. By the American Editor.
The Gospel according to Mark. By the Rev. Dr. "W. G. T. Shedd, Professor of Biblical Literature in the Union Theological Seminary at New York.
The Gospel according to Luke. By the Editor.
The Gospel according to John. By the Rev. Dr. Edw. D. Yeomans, Rochester, N. Y.
The Acts op the Apostles. By Prof. Dr. Charles P. Schapfer, Phildelphia.
The Epistles to the Corinthians. By the Rev. Dr. Bamel "W. Poor, of Newark, N. J., and Dr. 0. P. Wing, of Carlisle, Pa.
The Epistle to the Galatians. By the Rev. Charles C. Starbuck, New York.
The Epistle to the Philippians, and that to Philemon. By Prof. Dr. H. B. Hackbtt, Theol. Seminary at Newton Centre, Mass.
The Epiitles to the Thessalonians. By the Rev. Dr. John Lillib, of Kingston, N. Y,
The Epistle to the Hebrews. By Prof. Dr. A. C. Kendbick, Rochester, N. Y.
The Pastoral Epistles. By Prof. Dr. George E. Day, of Lane Theol. Seminary, Ohio.
The Catholic Epistles. By the Rev. J. Isidor Mombert, of Lancaster, Pa.
Genesis. By Prof. Tatlhr Lewis, Union College, Schenectady, N. Y., and the Rev. Dr. A. GosMAN, Lawrenceville, N. J.
These gentlemen, and others who are or will be invited to take part in the work, have already an established reputation as excellent Biblical scholars or experienced translators from the German, and will no doubt do full justice to the task assigned them.
It is impossible beforehand to state with absolute certainty the number of volumes or the time required for the completion of the whole commentary. It is sufficient to say that it will be energetically pushed forward, without undue haste, and published with proper regard to economy of space and price. The enterprise is necessarily a very extensive and expensive one, and falls in a most unfavorable period of the American book trade ; the war having caused an unprecedented rise in the price of composition, paper, and binding material. But it haa the advantage over an encyclopsedia and other voluminous works, that each volume wiU cove* an entire book or books of the Bible and thus be relatively complete in itself, and can be sold noparately.
PRINCrPLES OP THE AMERICAN EDITION.
'fhe character of the proposed Anglo-American edition of Lange's Bibelwerh, and its rela- tion to the original, may be seen from the following general principles and rules on which it nO) be prepared, and to which all contributors must conform, to insure unity and symmetry.
r?lll PREFACE.
1. The Biblical Commentary of Dr. Lange and his associates must be faithfully and freely translated into idiomatic English, 'without essential omission or alteration."
2. The translator is authorized to make, within reasonable limits, such additions, original or selected, as will increase the value and interest of the work, and adapt it more fully to the wants of the English and American student. But he must carefully distinguish these addi- tions from the original text by brackets and the initials of his name, or the mark Tr.
3. The authorized English version of 1611, according to the present standard edition of the American Bible Society ,t must be made the basis, instead of giving a new translation, which, in this case, would have to be a translation of a translation. But wherever the text can be more clearly or accurately rendered, according to the present state of textual criticism and biblical learning, or where the translation and the commentary of the German original requite it, the improvements should be inserted in the text (in brackets, with or without the Greek, as the writer may deem best in each case) and justified in the Critical Kotes below the text, with such references. to older and recent English and other versions as seem to be necessary cj desirable.
4. The various readings are not to be put in foot-notes, as m the original, but to follow Immediately after the text in small type, in numerical order, and with references to the verses to which they belong.
5. The three parts of the commentary are to be called : I. Exbgeticai, aot) Cbitical ; n. Doctrhtai, and Ethical ; lEL Homilbtical and Practical.
C. The ExBGBTiCAL Notes are not to be numbered consecutively, as in the original, but marked by the figure indicating the verse to which they belong ; an arrangement which facili- tates the reference, and better accords with usage.|
7. Within these limits each contributor has fuU liberty, and assumes the entire literary responsibility of his part of the work.
If these general principles are faithfully carried out, the American edition will be not only d complete translation, but an enlarged adaptation and improvement of the original work, giving it an Anglo-German character, and a wider field of usefulness.
The typographical arrangement will be closely conformed to the original, as upon the whole the best in a work of such dimensions. A page of the translation contains even more than a page of the original, and while the size of volumes will be enlarged, their number will be lessened.
THE COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW.
The first volume which is now issued, will show these principles and rules in their actual xxecution, and may therefore serve as a specimen for the volumes that will follow.
As regards the translation of this part of the commentary, I must acknowledge my indebt-
• A condenBatlon, Buch as has been proposed by Bome in this case, opens tte door foi au endless variety of con- flicting opinions and tastes, and almost necessarily results in a mutilation of the original. The only proper altema Mve seems to be either to translate a foreign ■work entire, if it be at all ■worthy of translation, or to make it the baali af a ne^w ■work.
t Not the re-Tision of 1854 (■which contained unanthorized changes and was set aside), bnt the collation adopted jythe Board of Managers In 186S, and printed in 1860 and since. &« the Repm4 of the Committee 01 Veraiona U Vie Board of Manaffers of the American Bible Society^ for February, 1869.
I I would remark, that all the changes and improvements above proposed have the hearty approvrf of Dr LanA 1'he last one he hab *ince adopted himself in his recent Commentary on Genesis.
PREFACE. xli
edness to the tianslation published by my esteemed friend, Mr. T. Clark, who has done at much for transplanting German evangelical learning on British soil, and is entitled to the last- ing gratitude of English and American divines. This translation preceded mine, not in design (for I began in 1860, and was only interrupted by the civil war), but in execution, by two years.* I made use of it as a basis in the doctrinal and homiletical sections, comparing it, however, word for word with the latest edition of the original, and making innumerable changes. In the textual and critical department (which is entirely omitted in the Edinbm-gh edition), and in the exegetical notes I pursued an independent path, and while I retained every essential idea of the original, I went far beyond it.
Dr. Lange's work is so intensely and exclusively German, and his mode of thought and style so foreign to us, that a mere translarion, no matter how well executed, could not take root in English and American soil. I for my part would never undertake such an ungrateful task. The work must be reproduced, enriched, adapted, in one word, Anglicized and Americanized. This has been the principal and most difficult part of this volume, and wiU be in all those volumes which I may prepare. I shall give my co-workers the same margin for original con- tributions to biblical scholarship. The American edition of Matthew contains over one him- dred pages, mostly in the smallest type, that is, fully one-fourth more matter than the German original (which numbers only 462 pages). The additions are found mostly in the comments on the later chapters of the Gospel, f
It seemed to me worthy of the labor and trouble to make an attempt to popularize so much of the immense critical apparatus of modem bibUoal learning as can be made available for the practical use of ministers and students. A few words of explanation on the principles Vfhich guided me, may not be out of place here.
The great variety of readings in the Greek Testament is a fact which should stimulate ia- vestigation and strengthen our faith. The more than 100,000 discrepancies in one hundred and twenty uncial and over twelve hundred cursive manuscripts of the N. T. are unable to unsettle a single doctrine or precept of Christianity. They strengthen the evidence of the essential purity and integiity of the sacred text, showing that it has been substantially the same in aU ages and countries in which those manuscripts were written. "If there had been,'' said Richard Bentley, the great classical scholar and critic, more than a hundred years ago, "but one manuscript of the Greek Testament at the restoration of learning, then we had had no various readings at all. And would the text be in a better condition then, than now when we have 30,000 [over 100,000]? So far from that,
* The Edinburgh translation w&a made from the first edition of Lange, and appeared in small octavo, large type, uniform with "Clark's Foreign Theological Library," Third series, vols. ix. ff., under the title: Theolagteal aTid Eomiletical Commenta^^ on the Gospel of St. Matthew. From the German of J. P. Lange, D.D. By the Rev. Alfred EOeraheim, Ph. D., voL i., Edinburgh, 1S61 ; vol. ii. and part of voL iii., 1862. From a note on the back to the title- page of vol. ii. it appears that the Rev. W. B. Pope translated from ch. xx. 28 to the close of the second volume. The third volume, which contains the conclusion of IMatthew and the Gospel of Mark, appears without the name of a trans- Ator. Portions of the work are well done, while other portions betray the employment of inferior hands in the execution if the difllcult and laborious task ; for neither of the nominal translators could be capable of mistaking the M'undenmaitU fern (the stigmata) for 'meals of wonder' {Wunaermahlzeiten\ the grune Aue (green pasture) of Ps. xxiii. for 'the green ear,' Uorla (Mt. Moriah) for the Virgm ' Mary ' (Maria), UbUcher Wetse (usually) for ' unfortunately ' (ubler Weise), namenilich (especially) for ' namely ' (ndmlich), the Atfall vom C'hristenthum (apostasy fi-om Christianity) for ' apostasy of Christendom' (_OhristenhiiU), and many other mistranslations equally astoimding and amusing. Compare e. g. pp. 31, 87, 867, S39, 894, 396, 44S, 511, 531, 533, 550. There is good prospect that the future volumes will be pubUshed jointly bj Mr. Olrirk and Messrs. Scribner & Co., under my editorial control. There is no use of two translations.
t Compare pp. 18, 33, 84, 121, 180 f., 203-208, 228, 239, 256-260, 267, 293-297, 339, 153 f., 381 t, 449, 434-458, 467 t 471-47B, 519-628, 555-666. etc.
PREFACE.
that in the best single copy extant we should have hundreds of faults, and some omissiom irreparable. Besides that, the suspicions of fraud and foul play would have been increased immensely. It is good, therefore, to have more anchors than one. . . . It is a good providence and a great blessing that so many manuscripts of the New Testament are stiD amongst us, some procured from Egypt, others from Asia, others found in the Western Churches. For the very distances of places, as well as numbers of the books, demonstrate that there could be no collusion, no altering nor interpolating one copy by another, nor all by any of them. In profane authors whereof one manuscript only had the luck to be preserved, ag Velleius Paterculus among the Latins, and Hesychius among the Greeks, the faults of the scribes are found so numerous, and the defects so beyond all redress, that, notwithstanding tha pains of the learnedest and acutest critics for two whole centuries, those books still are, and are like to continue, a mere heap of errors. On the contrary, where the copies of any author are numerous, though the various readings always increase in proportion, there the text, by an accurate collation of them, made by skilful and judicious hands, is ever the more correct, and comes nearer to the true words of the author."
The object of biblical criticism is to restore the oldest and purest text which can be ob- tained with our present means and facilities. In accordance with the well-known principta first propounded by Bentley, revived by the venerable Bengel, and recently applied and carried out by Lachmann, we must make the oldest and most authoritative uncial manuscripts of the New Testament now extant the basis of the true text, especially those few which date from the fourth to the sixth century. They are the following : 1. Codex SnfAiricus, edited by Tischendorf, Leipzr, 1863.* 3. Cod. Vaticantjs (designated by the letter B., defective from Heb. ix. 14), carelessly edited by Cardinal Angelo Mai, with improvements by Vercellone, Rome, 1857, and much better by Const. Tischendorf Lips. 1867. 3. Cod. ALEXANDBnsrns (A., in the British Museum), of which the New Testament was published in uncial types, though not in fac-simile, by C. G. Woide, Loud., 1786, and by B. H. Cowper, 1860. 4. Cod. (rescriptus) Ephbaemi Syki (C, a cod. rescriptus, or palimpsest, very imperfect), published by Tischendorf, in uncial type, but not in fac-simile, Leipz., 1843. 5. Cod. Bbz^ (D., at Cam- bridge), containing the Gospels and the Acts, with a Latin version, published in fac-simile by Ths. Kipling, Camb., 1793, 3 vols., fol.t In the same class with these oldest manuscripts,
♦ Dr. Lange could not make U8e of this very importaiU discovery, which will hereafter figure largely in the criti- cal apparatus of future editions of the G-reek Testament, although it will not materially disturb the principles and results of modern criticism. Tischendorf iProlegg., p. xxx sqq.) regards the Sinaitic MS., which he was so fortu- nate as to discover on Mount Sinai, and -which he published under the liberal patronage of the Russian government, fts the oldest copy extant, older even than the famous Vatican MS., and B.iumlein, Meyer and "Wieseler agree, while Hiigenfeld objects. It is moreover the only complete uncial MS,, and contains the whole Bible of the O. and N. T. -Compare the Addenda at the close of this volume. The Sinaitic Bible generally agrees with Codd. B., D., L., T. (T. is Codex Borgianue, at Rome, of the fifth century, and contains only a few fragments, John 'i.-viii.), X. (Codex Monacensis, parts of the four Gospels), Z, (Dublinensis, a palimpsest, the greater part of Mat fhew), over against Cod. A. (Alexandi-inus) and the great majority of later uncial and cursive manuscripts, while Cod. O. (Ephraemi Syri) occupies a position of its own. With all its great value the Sinaitic Manuscript abounds- In blunders owing to the ignorance and carelessness of the transcriber. This shows the great importance of tbp vast number and variety of manuscripts of the Bible, which far exceeds in amount that of any other ancient book ia VLs world. Comp. "Wieseler on the Sinait. MS., in the Studien und Kritilcen for 1864, p. 399.
1 1 was so fortunate as to have access, in the Library of the American Bible Union of New York, to the printed lidltions of these important manuscripts, which are far preferable to the imperfect collations of former critics, and th« mere references often faulty in the apparatus of Greek Testaments. For fuller information on these and other Co iliois I must refer the reader to the ample Prolegomena of Tischendorf to his seventh critical edition of the N. T. 1859, and to his editi )n of Cod. Sinaitious, 1863 ; also to the Prolegomena of Alford, Oammmtury, vol L, 4th ed. I8S9, ch. vii., p. 102 ff and to Scrivener's Introduction to the Criticism of the N. 1. 1861.
PREFACE.
though last, must be placed the later and less important uncials, as Cod. Basiliensis (called E., of the eighth or ninth century, containing the Gospels), Cod. Bokbbli (P., at Utrecht, the Gospels, except some portions of Matthew and Mark), Cod. Sbidblii Haelbianus ((}., in the British Museum, the greater part of the Gospels), Codd. H., I., K., L. (Pans, No. 02, generally in agreement with Codd. Sin. and Vatic), etc. Next in importance to the uuciaj manuscripts are the quotations of the early fathers, and the ancient versions, especially th« Latin and the Syriac. In the third rank are to be placed the cursive manuscripts of later date, down to the close of the fifteenth century, of which more than five hundred have been collated in the Gospels alone. For our purpose it was useless to refer to them except in those rare cases where the older authorities are insufficient to establish the original text. The deci- sion of the true reading depends, however, not only on the antiquity and number of author- ities, but also on internal reasons. Lachmann's object was simply historical, viz., to establish the oldest attainable text, as it stood in the fourth or fifth century, in the place of the compar- atively recent, accidental, and unreliable textus receptus. This is the only safe basis for future critics, but it is only a part of the task, which must be completed by a proper consideration of the internal evidences. Where the oldest authorities — uncial manuscripts, patristic quota- tions, and ancient versions — lead to no satisfactory result, later manuscripts (which may be transcripts of uncial manuscripts even older than those we now possess) may be profitably consulted, and that reading deserves the preference which gives the best sense and agrees most with the style and usage of the writer. Thus, in many instances, a return from Lachmann to the textns receptus may be justified. See the seventh critical edition of Tischendorf.
As to the corrections of the authorized English version, I beg the reader to view them as part of the commentary. Some of them would be unnecessary or even objectionable in a revised version for public use. Our incomparable English Bible stands in no need of a radical revision ; its idiom, beauty, and vigor are all that can be desired. But no good scholar will deny that it might be greatly improved as to clearness and accuracy ; while many doubt whether it could be done without producing greater division and confusion, and thus doing more harm than good. A final revision for popular use should proceed from a body of schol- ars representing the British and American Bible Societies, and all the Protestant Churches which worship God in the English language, and have an equal claim to this inestimable in- heritance of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In the mean time, no one can object to new translations and revisions for exegetical and critical use. They prepare the way for a final authorized revision for general and popular use.
My selections from other writers are mostly taken from representative older and modem commentators of the various English and American Churches, with the view to give this work an Anglo-Gterman character. Thus Burkitt, M. Henry, Scott, and Doddridge represent the older practical exegesis of England ; Alford and Wordsworth, the modem Anglican exegesis in its two divergent, progressive, and conservative, tendencies ; D. Brown, the Free Church of Scotland ; J. Addison Alexander, the Old School Presbyterian ; Barnes and Owen, the New Bohool Presbyterian ; Whedon and Nast, the Methodist ; Conant, the Baptist, views on th6 more important doctrinal passages in the Gospel of Matthew.
I cannot conclude this lengthy preface without giving public expression to my sense of gratitude to the oflScers of the " Ami.'rican Bible Union," for the unrestricted use of Hieir valuable Biblical Library, with its rich varietj of Bibles in all langua^'^es, commentariea.
PREFACE
dictionaries, the Benedictine and other editions of the church fathers, etc., which irake ki probably the best collection of the kind on this continent.
May the blessing of the triune God rest upon this commentary on His holy word, whicl was commenced in faith and with the earnest desire to assist the ministers of the Gospel u the discharge of their high and holy mission.
PHILIP SCHAFF.
Bible House, New Yobe, Oct. BUt, 1864.
THEOLOGICAL AND IIOMILETICAL INTRODUCTION^
TO
THE NEW TESTAMEI^T.
§ 1. Theology in general, or the scientific knowledge of the Christian religioD, may, according to its historical and scientific character, he arranged under two great divisions, — Historical, and Theoretical or Systematic Theology, taking these terms in their widest sense. (I.) Historical Theology may again be ranged under the foUow- rag thrse sections : — (1) The History of Revelation, or of the Kingdom of God, which forms the basis of the whole system ; (2) The History of the Records of Revelation, or Exegetics ia the wider sense ; (3) The History of Revealed Religion, or Church History. (H.) lii the same manner, Theoretical or Systematic Theology may be divided into three sections : — (1) The System of Christian Doctrines, or Dogmatics ; (2) The System of Christian Morals, or Ethics ; (3) The System of Christian Polity, or Practical Theology.
§ 2. From this analysis we infer that the materials from which to construct a theological and homiletical Introduction to the Sacred Scriptures, must be derived from the elements of the history of revelation, of exegesis, and church history, as well as from the elements of dogmatics, ethics, and practical theology, always with special reference to the practical, homiletical, and pastoral point of view.
§ 3. Before proceeding with our special Introduction to the New Testament, we must premise, in brief outline, a General Introduction to the Scriptures. The special introduction to the Old Testament may be left for another occasion,* not merely be- cause our present task is connected with the New Testament, but because, as Chris- tians, we proceed, theoretically, from the New Testament to the Old, and not vice versa. It is sufficient for our purpose to commrmicate, in briefest form, the results obtained by modern research, and to indicate the works which may aid the reader in reviewing these results for himself.
§ 4. Accordingly, we shall have to preface the N. T. portion of our Commen- tary,—(1) by a General Introduction from the theological and homiletical point of V'ow ; (2) by a Historical and Exegetical Introduction to the New Testament in general, and to its various parts ; (3) by a General Homiletical and Pastoral Intro- duction ; (4) by a Homiletical and Pastoral Introduction to the New Testament.
• [The Tlieol. and Homil. Commentary on the Old Testament which is Included In the plan of Dr. Lange's Bibel ¥i«rle, and will foUow that on the New T.— P. S.] 1
GENERAL INTEODUCTION TO THE HOLT SCRIPTURES.
FIRST SECTION.
GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO THE HOLY SCRIPTURES
THE HISTORY OF REVELATION, OR OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD.
The History of the Kingdom of God must not be confomided Tpith Biblical Hi* lory. The latter, like Biblical Theology, forms part of Exegesis, while the History of the Kingdom of God embraces the whole history of the world viewed from the Christian stand-point.
The kingdom of God is that new creation ia which God reveals Himself in Mia character as Redeemer. It is based upon the universal and absolute dominion of God over the world, and results from it ; and it consists in the restoration of the dominion of the Spirit of God over the hearts of men, brought about by Christ, who is the heart of the race. As mankind wag originally destined to form the kingdom of God, and for that pui-pose was arranged into one family, the kingdom of God may also be viewed as the restoration of mankind to one body under the One and Eternal Head (Acts iii. 21 ; Eph. i. 22), in whom it was elected from all eternity, and called, for the harmonious manifestation of the glory of God (Eph. i. 4, 5).
The restoration of this kingdom presupposes the existence of an opposite pseudo- kingdom, in which the human family were scattered and dispersed by sin — a king- dom of darkness and of falsehood, the kingdom of Satan. Accordingly, the history of the preparation, foundation, and completion of the kingdom of God, is at the same time the history of its hostile conflicts with the antagonistic kingdom of darkness.
The kingdom of God disappeared from earth through the working of unbelief, by which the Lord was robbed of His dominion over the heart. Similarly has it again been restored to the world by the combined operation of the grace of God, and of a spiritual faith which He has planted in the heart of His elect, and which ultimately appeared in all its fulness and perfectness, as conquering the world, in Christ, the Elect One. This salvation of the world is destined gradually to spread tiU it pervades all mankind. Hence the extension of the kingdom of God to its final completion in the world will occupy the entire course of time, even as this kingdom is destined to cover all space in the world. Viewed in this light, the whole history ol uhe world itself is simply the history of the restoration and transformation of the world into the kingdom of God.
Thus, all history may be included under the idea of the /iacriXda toC ©eoB. But its innermost centre is that manifestation of God's redeeming grace, by which on the basis of His general revelation to man, He has founded His kingdom.
The all- comprehensive medium of God's revelation was His personal iucamation m Christ. Throughout the entire course of history, we perceive how mankind in e^ er-narrowing circles, tends towards this manifestation of the God-Man. Again after He has appeared, we notice how, in ever-widening circles, it tends towards the final goal — to present all mankind as bom of God.
g 1. HISTORY OF KEVELATION.
CI rli t, then, is the beginning, the middle, and the end of all revelation. But as revelatioa is ever love, light, and life, it embodies at the same time both saving truth and savag reality, or revelation in the narrower sense, and actual redemptioH Hence it is that in Christ ^e have not only the completion of revelation, but also complete j edemption.
Reden^ption, in all its phases and stages, is prepared and introduced by judg tncnts, wh.3h, by the grace of God, are, however, converted into so many deliver ances. Ag lin, every new stage in the unfolding and history of salvation is marked by a fresh extension and establishment of the kingdom of God, appearing as the Church of tie redeemed. Hence, while the real kingdom of God was foimded when redemption was first introduced, it shall be perfected when the benefits of redemp- tion shall have been extended to the utmost boundaries of the world.
This is the Development of Revelation, to which we now proceed.
I. General JRevelation.
a) Widest circle (revelation by Symbolical signs, which ultimately point to the Word).
1. Objectively : creation (Rom. i. 20). 2. Subjectively : the human mind, especially th«
conscience (Rom. ii. 14, 18). 6) Narrower circis (revelation by facts).
1. Objective iy: history (Ps. ii, ex.). 2. Subjectively: the dealings of God with indi-
viduals (Ps. cvii. ; cxxxix. 16).
n. SpeciaZ Hbodation, or Revelation of Salvation (by the Word, accompanied by
Symbolical Signs).
a) Revelation during the course of its progress.
1. Objectively : the Old Covenant (Gen. xii. 2. Subjectively : faith (Gen. xv. 6).
etc.). V) Revelation completed.
1. Objectively : the New Covenant (Luke xxii. 2. Subjectively : justifying faith, in its New Te»-
20 ; John xiii. 34). tament sense (Rom. v. 1 ; 1 Pet. iii. 21).
So far as we are concerned, it is by subjective revelation that we become par- takers of objective revelation, even as it is only by the revelation of salvation that we come to understand and see general revelation. The various cycles of revelation are clearly perceived only when viewed in the light of justifying and saving faith, which sheds upon each of them a new and glorious lustre.
The following are the various periods of historical revelation in parallel review : —
I'he Old Testament in the wider sense of the term : The New Testament in the wider sense of the term:
1. Primeval religion, unto Abraham, 2000 B. c. 1. Gospel history, and the Apostolic Age.
2. Patriarchal faith in the promise, unto 1500 2. The ancient Catholic Church. The Fathers.
B. C.
i. The period of the Law, unto 800 b. o. 3. The legal Church of the Middle Ages. [Th«
Popes.— P. S.] 4. The period of the Prophets, unto 400 b. o. 4. The Protestant Churches. [The Reformers. —
P. S.] 6. The period of national religiousness (the Mac- 5. Union into one evangelical Church in its prog-
cabees). ress.
fi. Ojnoentration of religious longing in the an- 6. The Bride of Christ, or the Church in the last
cient world as the cradle of the Messiah. days awaiting His coming.
The Blessed Virgin. V, The Erst coming of Christ. t. The last coming of Christ. His manifestation
in glory.
4 GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO TEE HOLT SCKIPTUKES.
Tlie manifestation of salvation, as it constitutes the great moving force of ali history, draws the comse of the latter into the whole of the history of the kingdom of God. The history of the jSao-iXtia toC ®eoS may be divided into that of the King dom of God in its legal and typical form, or the Theocracy (a term formed by Josephus, Contra Apion. ii. 16), and that of the real Kingdom of God in spirit and ill truth — the ^aa-tXeia Twv ovpavSiv, — or into the Pre-Christian and the Christian Cno Posi-Christian) Era.
I. History of the Theocracy, or of the, Prer Christian, Era.
1. Primeval times, the type of the entire history of the world to the great judgmeut — till the Flood— and the new formation of the (Noachic) race.
2. The dispersion of nations and the calling of Abraham ; or, origin of the contrast between Heathen- ism and Judaism (preparation for the Theocracy), or between passive and active religiousness (the religioiil of nature, and that of revelation).
a) The table of nations in Genesis, and the a) Promise of the holy people.
mythologies of the Gentiles. 6) Separation between the civilized nations of antiquity and barbarous tribes (Heathenism in its ascending and in its descending line. (See Rom. ii.).
4) Separation between Isaac and Ishmael, Jacob and Esau. Difference among the sons Of Israel (Judaism in its ascending and in its descending line. Rom. ii. and x.).
8. Establishment of the great contrast ; or, the Empires of the world as the central points of civiliza- tion, and the foundation and history of the Theocracy in the narrower sense. Antagonism and mutual influence.
a) Great Empires of the world in their origin and growth. Egypt, Assyria, Phoenicia, etc.
6) The great Empires of the world fully developed. — Dan. ii. Vision of the image of the vari- ous monarchies. Its bright aspect : Union. Dan. vii. Vision of the four beasts. Its dark aspect : Division.
a) The Babylonian Empire.
/3) The Persian Empire. 7) The Macedonian Empire. S) The Roman Empire.
a) The Theocracy in its origin. Antagonism and mutual influence between Israel, and Egypt, Canaan, Syria, Phoenicia, and As- syria.
6) The Theocracy in its full typical manifesta- tion. Antagonism and mutual influence between Israrel and the four Empires.
a) Period of the Judges and Prophets,
from Moses to David. j8) Period of the Kings, from David to
the Babylonian Exile.
7) Period of the Priests (blooming period under the Maccabees).
S) Close of the typical and commence- ment of the real kingdom of God.
t. Removal of the great contrast and antagonism. Gentiles settle in Palestine ; the Jews of the Dias- pt-a. Cessation of the typical, and preparation of the real Theocracy. (Heathen power and heathen cul- ture. Oppression of the Jews and prophecies.)
a) The Cuthseans settled in Samaria, and be- coming Samaritans.
6) The Aramaean language and Sadducean no- tions introduced into Palestine on the re- turn from Babylon.
c) The DecapolJs in Galilee of the Gentiles,
founded chiefly by the veterans of Alexan- der the Great.
d) The Herodians. Introduction of Grecian
and Roman manners in Palestine. (The Proselytes.)
a) The ten tribes carried to Assyria beyond tht
Euphrates. 6) Many of the Jews remaining in Babylon.
e) Jewish colonies in Alexandria, Libya, Syria and Asia Minor. The Septuagint.
£) The Jewish Diaspora in Rome and tbrongb. out the West, since the time of Pompej and Caesar. (The Essenes.)
§ 1. HISTORY OF REVELATION.
e) Rule of the heathen, of Christians, and of Mohammedans in Palestine.
B. The first coming of Christ. 9f the world.
e) Destruction of Jerusalem, and dispersion oi the people throughout the world.
Close of the first, and commencement of the second era. RedemptioB
IL Mistory of the Kingdom of God in its Fulness^ or of the Kingdom of
Heaven in the World,
1 . Primeval Christianity, the type of all Church History.
2. Appearance of the antagonism between the Christian Church and the Jewish and heathen world.
o) The ancient Catholic Church and the mai-
a) The Talmud, and heathen calumnies against
Christianity. 6) Judaism in its unhistorical ossification,
(Analogy with the partial barbarism of
the original races.)
tyrs.
6) Separation between the Church and heret ical secta
8. Establishment of this antagonism ; or, the Christian Empires, and the establishment of the Church Ib
Ine narrower sense. Hostility and mutual influences. a) Movement in the heathen world.
6) Secularization of the Church.
c) Migration of the nations into the Church,
and the great baptism of water.
d) The Eastern Church, or orthodoxy secular-
ized.
e) Mohammedanism, or heresy completed.
f) The Western Papacy.
g) The Catholic Roman Empire. The anti- evangelical powers. Machiavellianism.
MediiEval Legalism a symbol and type of the future.
a) The worldly Church of Constantine th«
Great. Missions. 6) The Monastic Church. c) The Theocratic legalistic Church.
i) The Roman Church.
e) Western Catholic Christendom. The Cru-
f) Protestant parties and movements during
the Middle Ages. Humanism. Popular literature.
g) Evangelical Christendom. Germ of the true
Church and the true State.
t, Removal of the antagonism, and appearance of the true Church and the true State.
o) The Roman Catholic world.
6) The reformatory movements in the Roman Catholic Church.
c) The dissolving elements of Jesuitical Monas- ticism. Mysticism, political influences, and the advance of civilization in Romish Churches and countries, under the form of reaction.
rf) Revolutions in the Roman Catholic world.
«) The world in all forms of intellectual heath- enism acting upon the Church.
f) Humanism as leaven in the Roman Catholic and in Romanizing Churches.
1. The future of Christendom.
a) Apostasy in the alliance between Absolutism
and Antichrist. h) Judgment upon the apparent completion of
Hierarchism and Secularism.
a) The Church of the Reformation (harmonious
difference between Church and State).
b) Romanizing divisions of the EvangelicJ
Church.
c) Awalienings and union among Protestants
d) Protestant Reforms.
e) Christian missions acting upon all parts ot
the world. /) The authority of Christ appearing in all de- partments of life. The Bible the bools of nations.
a) Victory in the union of believers under the
banner of Christ.
b) Redemption of the visible Church of Christ it
its apparent destruction. Manifestation ot the IJride, and advent of he Bridegroom.
LITERATURE.
Ill a certain sense, every branch of literature may be regarded as auxiliary to the study of the history of the kingdom of God. More particularly, hoTrever, -we include here those works on wniversal history which are written from a general or a
GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO THE HOLT SCEIPTUEES.
reUgious point of view, and works on the philosophy of history. It is scarcely necessary to add, that we would also direct special attention to historical books written in a Christian spirit, and to those which treat expressly of the history of the kingdom of God.
I. General Wokks*.
On Chronology .—GatteTeT (1111), Ideler (1825- t6), Brinkmeier (1843). On General History : — Her- der, Fred. Schlegel (R. C), and Hegel, on the Phi- hsophy of History. Eyth : History from the Chris- tian stand-point {\%5Z). Ehrenfeuchter ; The Histor. Development of Mankind (Heidelb. 1855). Bram,
Barth, Lisco, Theremin, Grundtwig, Zahn, Ealkar, Ziegler, Kurtz, on Saered History. Bunsen : God in History (Part I. Leipz., 1867). Leo (Romanizing), and Dittmar : History of the World before and since Christ. [R. Turnbull : 0irist in History. Boston, 1854.— P. S.]
II. On Pabticulak Peeiops and Branches.
1. History of Creation. — Schubert, Wagner, Pfaff, Burmeister (negative), Rougemont. Hum- boldt : Kosnios. Kurtz : Bible and Astronomy (Germ, and English). [Hugh Miller : Testimony of the Rocks, or Geology in its bearings on the two the- ■iogies, natural and revealed. Edinb. and Boston, 1859. Tayler Lewis: The Six Days of Creation, or the Scriptural Cosmology. New York and Lon- don, 1855.— P. S.]
2. The Flood. — Liieken, Stolberg [Hist, of Religion, Germ., vol. i. App.), Buttmann, Bopp (Die Sundfluth, Berlin, 1829), Rud. Wagner (Naturge- tchichte des Menschen, 1838), Schubert (Das Welt- gebaude, Erlangen, 1852).
3. The Division of Nations and the Ge- nealogical Table. Heathenism. — Feldhoff (Die Vblkertafel der Genesis, 1837), Knobel (ditto, 1850). [Tueh, Delitzsch, Bush, on Genesis, ch. x. — P. S.] Creuzer, Baur, Stuhr, Wuttke, on Ancient Mythol- ogy and the heathen religions. G. Seibert : Grie- chenthum und Christenthum , 1867. Bollinger (R. C.) : Heidenthum und Judenthum — Vorhalle des Christenthums, 1857. [A very learned and instruc- tive work, also translated into English. — P. S.] 6chelling: Philosophy of Mythology.
4. History of Israel. — Hess, Jost (a liberal Jew), Bertlieau, Ewald, [Milman, Stanley] on the his- tory of the Jews. — Comp. Josephus on the Jewish war.
o. Fulfilment of Prophecies. — Keith, 0. Strauss (Niniveh and the Word of God, 1866), Lay- ard (Nineveh and Babylon).
6. The Life of Christ. — Works of Hase, Ne- andor, Lange, Ewald, Lichtenstoin, Friedlieb, Bucher, [Sepp, Kuhn, EUicott, Andrews, on the Life of Christ; jIbo UUmann, Young, Bushnell, Schaff, Dorner, on he Character and sinless Perfection of Jesus. — P. S.]
7. The Apostolic Age. — Neander, J. P. Lan- ge (Leipz., i863), P. Schaff (2d ed., Leipz., 1864, German and English), Thiersch, Trautmann, Lechler, M the Apostolic Age. Mosheira, Baur, Hagenbach
and Schaff, on the Church in the first three cen- turies.
8. Church History. — See Liter, in Hagen bach's Theol. Encyclop., p. 220, and in Schaff 's Hist, of the Apost. Church, Gen. Introd., ch. iv. On thfl moral effects of Christianity : Tzschimer, on the Down ■ fall of heathenism (German), Chastel, Beugnot, on the same subject (French), C. Schmidt : JEssai his- toriqufi sur la sociHe civile dans le monde romain^ et sur sa transformation par le Christianisme , [comp. an able review of the latter work, by Dr. Sears, in the Bibliotheca Sacra for April, 1863. — P. S.]
9. Post-Christian Judaism. — Friedlander, Gratz, Beer, M'Caul, Jost, [Edersheim,] on later Jewish history.
10. Mohammedanism. — G. Weil : Moham med, his Life and Doctrine (German). Stuttgart, 1343. DoWmger: Mohammed's Religion. Miinchen, 1838. W. Irving ; Life of Mohammed. Gerok : Christology of the Koran (German). Gotha, 1839. German translations of the Koran, by Boysen, Wahl, Geiger, Ullmann. [Engl. trsl. with notes, by J. M Rodwell. London, 1861.— P. S.]
11. History of Civilization. — A very exten- sive literature. General works on the subject bj Gruber, Kolb, Wachsmuth (Leipz. 1860), Guizot [Balmez.] History of Philosophy by Brucker, Ten nemann, Reinhold, Rixner, Ritter, Hegel, Sigwart, Schwegler ; and on special sections of the List, of Philos.: Brandis, Erdmann, Obalybaus [Zeller, Morel] A. Butler, Maurice..— P. S.] History otArt by Kug- ler, Schnaase, Otte, Springer, Piper, etc. History of Literature by Eichhom, Wachler, Bouterivecli, Schlegel, [Grasse, Brunet, Allibone, etc.] Hig tory of Law and Jurisprudence by Eichhorn Walter, Philipps, Grimm, Savigny.
12. History of Missions Blumhardt Gen,
Hist, of Missions in the Christ. Church. Basel
1828-18S7, 3 vols. G. Schmidt : Victory of Chris tianity, etc. (German). Leipz., 1857, 8d ed. Steger
rThie long list of books is reduced in the Ediub. trsL to a few linee,*wlthoiit division of subjects.- I*. 8.1
§ 2. THE HOLT SCRIPTURES.
Protest. JUissiona, 1838. W. Hoffmann : Missions- Stunden, and other writings. Wallmann : The Mis- tions of the Mangel. Churches (German), 1849. [Harvey Newcomb : Cyclopedia of Missions (700 pages). New York, 1864. The Memorial Volume of the first Fifty Years of the Amer. Board of Com.
for Foreign Missions. Boston, 1861, — P. S.] Th« periodical reports and publications of Missionarj societies in Europe and America. On Inner mis sions see the worljs of Wichern, Marz, [and th« reports of the German Church Diet and Congress for Inner Missions, since 1848. — P. S.]
§2.
THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.
I. Auxiliary Sciences.
Among the auxiliary sciences of exegesis we include all those which serve to prepare us for the study of Scripture. To this class belongs the study of antiquities, and that of ancient languages, generally-; and, more particularly, that of criticism and of hermeneutics. The direct auxiliaries to the study of the Scriptures are, so far as the text itself is concerned, biblical antiquities and the sacred languages ; and, so far as regards the present form of the text, biblical criticism and hermeneutics These two sciences consist ia the knowledge how scientifically to examine and to ascertain the genuineness of the records of Scripture and of the text, and in acquaintanceship with the fundamental principles of biblical interpretation.
1. Biblical Archseologry in general. — Comp. Hagenbach, Theol. Encyclop., p. 132. Among works on this subject we name those by Warnekros, Rosen- mul'er, Jahn, de Wette, Ewald, Scholz, Saalschiitz, the Real- Worterbuch of Winer (indispensable), and other Encyelopasdias of Biblical Literature.
Various branches of biblical Archa:ology.
a) Ethnology. — The descendants of Shem. The Hebrews. The Jews. The nations of Canaan. The nations surrounding Israel. Comp. the Archseological works of Bellermann, Rosenmiiller, Winer, Movers {on the Phcenicians), [Layard, Rawlinson, and Ilie- buhr on the Assyrians.]
b) Oeography. — Palestine and the other coun- tries mentioned in the Bible. Travels. Topograph- ical works. Maps. Comp. especially Crome, von Raumer, Robinson {Researches, Engl, and Germ.), Strauss {Sinai und Golgatha), Krafft {Topography of Jerusalem), Schulz {Jerusalem), Tobler ; the Trav- els of Berggren, Schubert, Robinson, Wilson, Van de Velde, Schulz, Tischendorf, [Stanley, Hackett, Thomson, Bausman,] etc.
c) Natural Science. — Bochart's Hierozoicon.
d) Chronology. — Comp. as above, p. 6.
e) Civilization. — Agriculture. Pastoral life. Oirellings. Furniture. Trades. Domestic life. Social life (Poetry and Music). Government. The- acraey. See Michaelis, The Laws of Moses ; Herder jnd Saalschiitz {on Hebrew Poetry) ; [the various commentaries of Ewald, Hupfeld, Umbreit, Hengs- tenberg, Delitzsch, Alexander, etc., etc., on the Psalms and other poetical books of the 0. T. — P. S.]
/) Religion. — On the typology of the Old Testa- ment services, comp. the works of Biihr {Symbolik de.s Mos. Cultus, 2 vols. 1837), Kurtz, Hengstenberg, Keil, [and Fairbairn, Typology of Scriptures, Edinb. and Philad., 1857.]
2. The Languages of Scripture. — Philologia sacra. See Hagenbach, p. 123, and the manual? quoted below.
3. Biblical Criticism. — Unhappily, we are stiU without any accurately defined canon of criticism, es pecially of biblical criticism. Hence, when biblical criticism appears in so many instances to be self- contradictory and self-destructive, this must be ascribed not merely to Rationalism, but also to the want of well-ascertained scientific principles. The two great points which must be kept in view in criti- cism are, the authenticity of the text, and its integ- rity. On the character and literature of biblical criticism, see Hagenbach, p. 146. — Fundamental principles : (1) The place of criticism is not above the subject, as looking down upon it, but in juxtaposi- tion to, and in living contact with it. (2) In criticism we must progress from the general to the particular, in order to be always sure that we are treating of the same subject ; while, on the other hand, we must also pass from the particular to the general, in ordei thereby to make sure of the reality and actuality of the subject. (3) The standard which we apply to a subject must be commensurate to it. Thus historical facts cannot be judged of by the physical standard applied to them by Pantheism and by Fatalism. Mythological ideas are altogether inappl cable to thf
GENERAL INTEOD0CTION TO THE HOLY SCRIPTUEES.
elucidation of the Scriptures. The Old Testament standard is insufficient for the criticism of the Gospel history. (4) The critic must first have settled his general principles before he can arrive at any conclu- Bion as to the special results of these principles, ibove all, therefore, he must be quite clear about ttie personality of God and of the God-Man. (5) Criti- Sism must ever recognize it that all history has a deep religious tearing, symbolical of the great fact that all history has an ideal object, and that this grand idea is evolved in the course of history. (6) The critic must bear in mind that one grand idea pervades and connects the various portions of Scripture, while he at the same time keeps in view the gradual devel- opment of Scripture, its various periods, and the spe- cial form which each separate portion has taken, ac- cording to the individuality of the writer. (1) Criti- cism must be able to d'itinguish between agreement in spirit, and agreement in the letter merely. (8) The criticism of the witnesses themselves must precede the criticism of what they witnessed. (9) The various records of Scripture must be classified according to their relation to the character and object of those who bore the record. (10) The great fact that the Word
has become flesh — i.e., that the idea has become his tory — must be laid down as the fundamental princi pie of all criticism. This presupposition raises the critic above all false presuppositions. See Lange, Zeben Jem, 1. 108; JPosit. Dogm., p. 606.
On the history of criticism, see Hagenbach, Theol. Encyclop., p. IS'?, sqq.
4. Biblical Hermeneutics. — This is the seienc* of the right understanding and the right interpreta^ tion of Holy Writ. For hirther explanation, and for the literature of the subject, see Hagenbach, p. 162 Among modern writers on hermeneutics, we mentior Liicke, Clausen, Schleiermacher, Lutz, and the writer of the article Hermeneutics in Herzog's (German) Real-Encycl. ; [also Cellerier : Manuel d'Hermeneu- tique, Geneva, 1862 ; Fairbairn : Hemieneutical Manual, Philad. 1859.— P. S.] For the history of scriptural interpretation, and of its principles, we re- fer to the work of G. W. Meyer (Hist, of Exegesit since the revival of Letters (Gott., 1802 — 1808, 5 vols.). On the allegorical exegesis of the Middle Ages, see Elster : De medii cevi theologia exegetico, Gott., 1855.
The following are the essential conditions in hermeneutics : a. For the right understanding.
(1.) Inward condition of interpretation : homogeneousness of spirit •with the Trriter and his subject.
(2.) Outward condition : familiarity with the languages, antiquities, and history.
(3.) Combination of these two elements : familiarity with the peculiar character and spirit of revelation, and, in consequence, ability to distinguish between what is 83rmboUcal and mere myths, and again, between what is symbolical and what is pure history or abstract dogma. (The symbolical must not be confounded with myths ; but, on the other hand, it must not be regarded as pure dogma.)
(4.) The mind of the interpreter must continually connect and biing into juxta- position the Scriptures, in their general bearing, with the individual portions under examination. (Scripture must not be made to contradict itself by pressing the letter.) Analogy of faith : survey of the grand total bearing, the fundamental idea Analogy of Scripture : survey of the individual and the special parts. Compai'ison of Scripture with Scripture.
(6.) A comparison and connection between the general spirit of Scripture, and the personal and individual views of each inspired writer.
(6.) A lively interchange between the mmd of the Word and the mind of the Interpreter.
(7.) A living interchange between the individual interpreter and the general spirit of interpretation in the Church. (Not, indeed, blind submission to authority but neither craving for singularity.)
S. For the proper interpretation. (1.) Accurate exposition of the meaning of the text. Interpretation in th« laiTOwer sense.
§ 2. THE HOLT SCRIPTURES.
(2.) Illustration of the meaning of the text, by analogous passages. Explan* tion.
(3.) Reproduction of the meaning of the text, by pointing out its eternal bearing and import. Application.
n. Ecegetics.
Exegetics, in the widest sense, depends on the proper connection between the right understanding and interpretation of the general import of Scripture and that of its individual portions. The parts can neither be understood without the whole, nor the whole without the parts. Hence that interpreter only can advance the subject who has learned to view the Ladividual parts in the light of the total bearing of Scripture, and the total bearing in the light of the individual portions thereof. Thus alone can the necessary equilibrium be preserved.
Viewed theoretically, criticism is the first process, although, in point of practice, criticism follows upon exegetics and hermeneutics.
Criticism consists in a lively interchange between a scrutiny of the general prin- ciple and that of the individual statements of Scripture.
Henneneutics then shows the lively interchange existinf^ between the interpreta- tion of the spirit, or of the meaning of Scripture as a whole, and the interpreta- tion of the special passage or expression.
Lastly, we have Exegetics proper, which may be either general or special. The former, or Introduction (Isagogics), establishes and explains, from the mutual rela- tionship between the character of Scipture as historically ascertaiaed, and the sum- mary contents of its various portions, the import and substance of the Scriptures' generally. Special Exegetics develops and exhibits the succession of thought in Scripture, down to the minutest expression and letter, by connecting and comparing the ascertained character of Scripture with the text under review. The Introduction to the various books of Scripture belongs to the department of Exegesis, since, on the one hand, it presupposes an exegetical analysis of each book, while, on the other, it concludes with an exegetical survey of the contents of the portion of Scripture examined. Again, Exegesis itself is an Introduction, in the most special sense of the term. For every exegetical treatise must not only commence with a special in troduction to, and indicate the character and contents of, the portion of Scripture about to be examined, but it must ever again revert to those general views and leading characteristics which have been ascertained.
1. Definition of the Holy Scriptures.
Holy Scripture is the complete sum of the records of our divinely revealed reli- gion, which culminates in Christianity. Hence it marks the progress of the incai-nar tion of the Eternal Word of God to its completion in the final settlement of the canon of Scripture. If, generally speaking, writing is the peculiar organ of civiliza- tion, the medium for the increasing interchange of thought, the record of the history of manldnd, the standard of its development, aU this apj lies in the highest, and, indeed, in a unique sense, to the sacred writings. They are the foim under which Christianity originally appeared to regenerate the world, the bond of fellowship between believers of all nations and ages, the record of the history of revelation, and th* standard and rule for the development of Christianity and of the Church-
10
GENERAL INTEODFCTION TO THE HOLY SCKIPTUKES.
In the all- wise arrangement of the God of revelation, Holy Writ was therefore as necessary as the Incarnation itself. The Gospel was destined to pervade every relationship of life and every institution. As in Baptism, it sanctified the washing with water ; in the Eucharist, the meal of fellowship — the bread and the wine ; and by the Charismata, the diversity of human gifts, so as a written record it sanctified the letter and assumed this essential form of intellectual and spii'itual intercours« among men.
Bretschneider : * " The Bible may be viewed, — 1, historically, if we inquire what its character is, according to the testimony of history — viz., a collection of credible documents of the Jewish and the Christian religion ; or, 2, dogmatically, if we ia quire in what light the religious society of Christians regard it — viz., as the code of Divine revelation." While at one time theologians were wont to lay special em phasis on the dogmatical, they have of late equally dwelt upon the historical charao ter of Scripture. But all such seeming antagonism disappears if we take a deeper view of Holy Writ. Scripture is not " a collection," it is the collection. The various records of which it is composed, together form only one record. Lastly, the great question which claims our attention is not merely concerning the records of the Jewish and Christian religion generally, but as to the Divine origin and institu tion of these religions.
LiTEEATURE. — Coinp. the article Bible in the dif- ferent Encyclopaedias of Ersch and Gruber, Herzog, Hagenbach, Pelt, [Kitto, Smith.— P. S.]. The dif- ferent Introductions to the Old and New Testament {see a list of them in Winer's Handbuch der theol. Liieratur, vol. i, p. 33 sqq.). Also the introductory chapters of the Bible-works of Starke, Richter, Ger- lach, Lisco, Bunsen. Then the articles on the Holy Bcript.ures in the principal works on Dogmatics.
Koppen : Die Bibel, 2 vols. Finally the modenj works on Biblical llieology. On the History of the Bible, see E. Reuss (Brannschweig, 2d ed., 1863), and the more popular works of Ostertag : Die Bibel una ihre Geschichte, (2d ed., Basel, 1867), and Tholuck Die Bibel (Leipzig, 1851). [Prideaux, Staekhouse, Howel, L. Clarke, on the History of the Bible; A. Alexander, and L. Gaussen, on the Canon of tlie Old and New Testaments. — P. S.]
2. Various Designations of the Scriptures.
The three different designations commonly given to the Scriptures indicate the different points from which the same Divine record may be viewed. The term Bible {to. ^i/SXia sc. Oua), i. e. the Book, or the Book of books, points out the difference between Holy Writ and all other literature, while at the same time it also connects the Scriptures with the intellectual productions of men. All other writings are, like planets, to move round this central sun. The name Holy Scripture {lepa ypa^-q, ayia ypo-^iT), 6ua ypa.<^rj) refers to the relationship between the form or the letter of the Scriptures and the inspired word of God which it contains. Lastly, the term Word of God (Verbum Dei) indicates the identity of the oral revelation of God with the Bible, and also its internal identity — the agreement of the whole with the parts, and of the parts with the whole. The Bible, as such, is the historical object of theological science, the introduction to the Old and New Testament. The Bible in its character as the Holy Scriptures, is the human expression of Divine inspiration, and the religious object of our faith. The Bible, as the Word of God, is the canoe or the doctrinal rule and standard of our belief and practice. The first of these names designates the human aspect of Scripture in its Divine grandeur ; the second, the combination of Divine revelation with human development and inteMectualitT •
* Sj/aterAaf. Kntwicktung alter in der Dogmatik vorkommenden BeyriJ^
§ 2. THE HOLY SCKIPTUEES.
whUe the third points to the pure and perfect revelation of God which it embodies or the canon, as the final and grand leading characteristic of the Bible, both as a book and as the Scriptures.
3. The Bible in its Divine Aspect. Inspiration. The Word of God.
The Bible consists of a number of books, whose composition is coextensive with (he progress of Divine revelation in Israel, and covers a period of more than on« thousand five hundred years. Its writers were of the most different character and education ; it exhibits every variety of form, and is couched in two very difierenl languages. Yet withal it is so thoroughly one in its character, that it might be sup posed to have been written in one century, in one year, in one hour, in one moment.
Throughout, it is pervaded by one and the same idea of God and revealed religion ; it sets forth the same truths ; it breathes the same spirit ; it has the same object. This is its Divine aspect. The Bible is not of time, nor of man ; it ia Divine, because it is inspired (2 Tim. iii. 16 ; 2 Pet. i. 20, 21).
But the inspiration of the Scriptures by the Spirit of God must not be viewed apart from the inspiration of the holy men who wrote it, in the execution of their immediate, prophetic, and Divine calling. Nay, the inspiration for their office has this advantage over the inspiration of their writings, which are closely connected, that it is more direct and more lively. On the other hand, the inspiration of these writings implies special preparedness and coUectedness on the part of the sacred writers, and a special significance of the occasion and the motive. In aU these respects a corresponding measure of spiritual blessing and direction must have been vouchsafed.
It is for didactic theology tO enter into fuller details. The following points, liowever, should be borne in mind : — The idea of inspiration entertained by the Jews of Palestine was different from that of the Jews of Alexandria. The former accm-ately distinguished between Divine Ulumination and mere human enlightenment (hence the difference as to the Apocrypha). Besides, the views of the Palestinians were also sounder and more liberal on the question of the relation between the Divine Spirit and the intellect of man in inspiration. The Alexandrian Jews, following in this respect Grecian ideas, were wont to regard inspiration as something magical, — the individuality of man being for the time depressed and silenced : whUe the Hebrews understood it that human individuality was only humbled, but thereby ilso exalted and purified, and thus set free and quickened. The Alexandrians reasoned on the supposition that originally the Divine and the human mind were heterogeneous, and that in the course of history this gulf was bridged over ; while the Hebrews proceeded on the idea of an original homogeneousness, and held that the discord which appeared in the course of history was more or less removed by the influence of grace. Hence it was that they alone properly appreciated the Divine element of Scrijiture in its human form — the " apples of gold in pictures of silver." The Alexandrian idea was substantially that which, at a later period, was urged by the Montanists. This view of inspiration was rejected by the ancient Church. SliU kindred notions again partially prevailed in the seventeenth century. Rationalism was of course incompetent to remedy such a defect. If theologians had formerly overlooked the human individuality in the composition of Scripture, the Rationalists went to the opposite and more dangerous extreme of denying the Divine charactei
12
GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO THE HOLT SCRIPTURES.
of Scripture altogether, or at least of confining the Divine element to the operation Df mere reason, or to special providence, or to moral elevation on the part of the writers. Inspiration necessarily implies the presence and sway of the Spirit of God in the wi-iter, whereby he becomes the organ of that Spirit. The impulse or motive power (impulsits), the commvmication or the contents (mggestio), and the guidance toward the object aimed at {directio), are all divine, and conform to the objects and aim of the kingdom of God. But this also implies that inspiration itself is subject to certain limitations or conditions. These are either religious conditions, flowing from the nature of this object ; or intellectual conditions, arising from its gradual realization ; or organic conditions, connected with Him who is the great centre of that object ; or, lastly, ethical conditions, springing from the personal holiness of that object. In other words, 1, The Bible, as inspired, is a book of religion, and not an ai«tronomical, geological, or scientific revelation. 2, It has gradually progressed from the incompleteness of the Old, to the perfectness of the New Testament. 3, It has its centre in Christ, as God incarnate, and as the absolute revelation of God in human form. 4, It must never be considered as the effect of a morbid state of body or mind on the part of the writers (such as clairvoyance), but always as the result of direct moral and spiritual intercourse of the personal and living God with the personal mind of man. The Spirit of God was indeed strong enough to preserve the sacred writers from essential mistakes or false testimonies and traditions, and to secure to their writings the impress of never-fading freshness of youth, although He never could nor would force them to speak otherwise than in language conformable to the current ideas of the people, and to their own intellectual development.
We are now prepared to answer that much vexed modern question, — whether the Holy Scriptures be the Word of God itself, or whether the Word of God be in the Holy Scriptures. Viewing the Bible in its individual parts and sections, we reply, The Word of God is in the Bible. But, regarding it as an organic whole, of which all the parts point to Christ and proceed from Christ, we must confess : Holy Writ, as it explains itself, and opens up from book to book and from verse to verse, is the one harmonious and complete Word of God.*
On the literature of inspiration), comp. the Ency- clops. ; also the works of Wilson, Haldane, Rudel- bach, and Gaussen. We specially refer to Fr. de Rougemont, Christ et ses temoins, 2 vols. Paris and Lauaanne, 1856 — a work which equally opposes the
views of Gaussen and the false spiritualism of tho Strassburg school of Scherer and others. [W. Lee : T/ie Inspiration of the Holy Scripture, its Nature and Proof. Dublin and New York, 1857, 478 pages. —P. S.]
4. The Holy Scriptures in their Human Aspect ; or, History of the Holy Scriptures (Isagogics in the narrower sense).
The period over which the composition of Holy Scripture extends, reaches from
Moses to the Apostle John, or from about 1500 before to 100 after Christ,
El period of sixteen centuries, — irrespective of the oral traditions and of those imall commencements of scriptural records which preceded the time of Moses.
Equally great is the distance of places where these books were written, varying from Jerusalem and Babylon to Rome, and embracing all Palestine and Greece.
The Bible was composed in the two leading languages of antiquity, which reflect the greatest contrast in the intellectual world. The Hebrew tongue may be charao
• Comp. Lange'B Philosophische Dogmatik, p. 640 sqq
§ 2. THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.
li
terized as the mo8t unstudied and childlike, as the deepest, purest, and most direct language of spiritual experience; while the Greek is the most cultivated, refined, and philosophical expression of intellectual life. The inspired writers were shepherds and kings, men learned and men unlettered. The diversity of form in the Scriptures appears not only objectively in their contents and character (being partly historical, partly poetic, partly apophthegmatic, partly prophetic, and partly episto- lary), bat also subjectively in their style and composition, each book bearing a faith- iul impress of the individuality of its writer. Not reckoning the Apocrypha, the Old Testament comprises thirty-nine books (counting the Book of Lamentationa separately), while the New Testament contains twenty-seven separate writings. Yet, from the unity of spirit pervading this vast literary collection, they constitute, really, only one book — a second intellectual creation (Ps. xix.).
The science of General Isagogics treats of Scripture as a whole, giving the history, — 1, of the collection, or of the canon ; 2, of the present form and character of the text, of the various codd. and editions ; 3, of its spread, or of the translatioM and quotations ; 4, of its application, or of interpretation. The science of iSpecicd Isagogics treats of separate books, discussing their authorship, time, place, occasion, character, contents, division, and literature.
On the Introduction to the Holy Scriptures and ita literature, compare Hagenbach's Encycl. pp. 140, 144, and the excellent works of Hertwig : Tables to
the IntrodtictioH into tlie Old Testament. Berlin, 1856 ; and to the Introduction into the New '^'.atar ment. Berlin, 1855.
5. The Holy Scriptures in their Christological, Divine-Human (Theanthropic) Character; or, the Scriptures as the Canon. The Old and the New Testament.
Viewed in their Christological character, the Holy Scriptures are the canon, both as the record of the revelation completed in Christ, and as the rule of the Christian life of faith. According to this Christological principle, they are divided into the Old and New Testaments {testamentvm,, Sia^jjKr;, ni-ia), to indicate that the Old Testament is the incomplete commencement which is explained, fulfilled, and glori- fied by the New, embodying, as it does, absolute perfectness. According to the same principle, the Apocrypha are kept distinct, as a mere appendix to the Bible, which, so to speak, forms an intermediate link between the canonical Scriptures and common literature. Lastly, viewed in this light, the Scriptures bear special refer- ence to the development of the Christian Church and of the Christian Ufe, where their teaching is expressed in a logical form (more especially in confessions of faith), while at the same time they serve as the rule, standard, and guide on all questions of doctrine.
The expression Canon implies not merely that the Bible is a sacred book, but that in its pages revelation continues, by the agency of the Spirit, an ever-present and ever-sufficient reality. As the canon, the Bible is, so to speak, the Word of God incarnate, which, by means of writing, continues spiritually effectual to the present time. The Old Testament is not merely the book of the Old Covenant, but the Old Covenant itself as the t^e of the New. Similarly, the New Testament it the New Covenant itself, the Gospels are the Gospel, and the apostolic writings, the living word of the Apostles.
The organic Christological relationship between the Old and New Testament, according to which the former is the preparation, the introduction, and the growth
14 GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.
of the New, while the latter is the fulfilment, the abrogation, and the completion of the Old, is indicated in the Old Testament itself, and amply confirnipd in the New (Deut. xviii. 18 ; Isa. Ixvi. 3 ; Jer. xxxi. 31, 32 ; Ezck. xxxvi. 25 ; Dan. ii. 44 ; Hos. ii. 19, etc. ; and 2 Cor. iii. 7 ; Matt. v. 17-20, xii. 40, 42 ; John i. 17, 18, viii. 56 j Gal. iii. 25 ; Heb. viii, 7, etc.).
The relationship between the canonical and the apocryphal hooks was correctly defined by the ancient Jewish synagogue, and, after it, by the ancient Greek and the modern Protestant Churches in opposition to the Koman CathoUc theory. The Apocrypha serve, 1, as a kind of historical supplement, being a narrative of the king dom of God daring the period intervening between the Old and New Testaments ^ 2, as a record of popular piety, forming a distinct period between the age of the Prophets and that of the New Testament ; 3, to exhibit the character of Alexandrian Judaism, though only a part of them is derived from that source ; 4, as a back- ground to the canon itself; 5, for private instruction and edification. Even the strictly Calvinistic Synod of Dort decided on retaining the Apocrypha along with the canon, and, despite their fallibility and mistakes, they are too deeply imbued with the genuine spirit of the Theocracy to rank them among the a.Toira koI 8u<r<re/3^, in which Eusebius (iii. 25) places the heretical New Testament Apocrypha.
The Hebrews have divided the Old Testament into the Law (I'^'iPi) ; the Prophets, c-is^:: (which includes the books of Joshua, of the Judges, of Samuel, and of the Kings) ; and the Writings generally (ni2<ir3)j or Hagiographa. Thia division bears reference to the foundation, the historical development, and the edification of the Theocracy. The great preponderance of the prophetic books in the canon, clearly shows that Judaism was the religion of the future, and that the tendency of the Old Testament was ever towards the New. The arrangement of the canon adopted in Christian theology is that into Historical, Doctrinal, and Prophetical Books, corresponding to the same division in the New Testament.
According to this analogy we notice, 1, that to us the Law has become history ; 8, that the Prophets are brought into immediate contact with the New Testament, and point out the tendency of the Old towards the New Covenant ; while the circum- stance that the New Testament contains only one prophetical book, although it is throughout a prophecy of the second coming of Christ, indicates the deep rest which the longings of the soul have found, in the appearance of Christ, and in the redemp- tion which He has accomplished.
Viewing the Holy Scriptures as one connected canon, we may consider all doctrine as historical fact with historical efiicacy, and all history as ideal, symbolical, typical, and spiritual, while in their prophetic portions they combine both these elements. .
There is, of course, a difference between the genuine canon of Scripture and that which is current, in respect, 1, of unauthenticated readings, or variatioas ; 2, of mistakes, or of infeUcity of translation ; 3, of the various misrepresentations of the genuine text by exegetical traditions.
The Scriptures, as canon, are necessarily subordinate to the living Savio'jr, and to the blessed Trinity. They are the written revelation of Christ, but not a second Christ ; hiast of all when taken individually, and under the impression thi»t the Old Testament is in every respect quite equal in authority to the New Testan.ent. On the other hand, as the canon of Christ, the Scriptures must ever form the directory ■}{ the external Church, and of the individual Christian, in their fallible growth and
§2. THE HOLY SCRirTURES. jj
development, and are consequently above them. Finally, they are coordinate, oi occupy tte same line with the ideal Ufe of Christ in the Church, and stand forth an a second spii-itual creation by the side of God's revelation in nature.*
6. Import of the Holy Scriptures.
The Bible is a mystery of Divine Providence in the department of literature similar in character to the mystery of the incarnation itself. The incarnation of God in Christ has, so to speak, assumed a bodily expression in the essential Chm-ch, i. e., in the preaching of the Gospel, on the basis of the apostolic office, and in the congregation of holy baptism and of the Eucharist. Similarly, the Scriptures are its intellectual or spiritual f expression.
It is simply impiety to designate the origin of the Bible as accidental, while the decrees of Synods and papal bulls are called necessary.
Holy Writ is the tradition of traditions, and the canon of canons. All other traditions and canons must be brought to the test of the Prophets and Apostles. And, in truth, the Bible reflects all times and places, or rather it is the reflex of eternity. Viewed in reference to its centre, it is the biography of the eternal Christ ; viewed in its circumference, it is that of humanity : for, in the power of the prophetic spirit which pervades it, it embraces the end as well as the commencement of our world, and sounds the depths of heU as well as scales the heights of heaven The book of God is also the book of the world ; and, rightly understood, the book of nature as well as the book of the Spirit. There, the history of revelation becomes doctrine, and doctrme becomes history. Proceeding from the Spirit of God, it is fuUy understood only by the Spirit, even as it can only be explained and applied by the Spirit. To those who are called and waiting, it opens its mysteries ; while to the hardened and the sinner it proves a closed book, as it were sealed with seven seals. Nay, like the Gospel itself, it is to some " a savour of life unto life ; " to others, " a savour of death unto death." The outward senses may be absorbed by the letter only, and make an idol of it. In this respect the elements of Scripture have the same import and effect as those of the world. But just as the elements of the world are only rightly known when viewed in the unity of creation, and only wholly known if viewed as the symbolical Word of God, so the Bible is only rightly known when regarded as the second and spiritual creation, and wholly known when viewed as the second and higher revelation of God — the revelation of the foundation, of the reconciliation, and of the transformation of the world.
7. Relation between Holy Writ and the so-called Sacred Records of other Nations and
Religions.
All the principal religions have chronicled their origin in sacred records, which ever afterwards were regarded as the standard for their development. The most renowned of these religious records are the Vedas of the Indians, the Kings of the Chinese, the Zendavesta of the Persians, the two Eddas of the ancient Germans, and the Koran of the Mohammedans. Even the Old Testament, when brought into
* [Dr. Lange'8 distinction between unt&rgeordn-et^ Hbertjeordnet^ gleicTigeordnetf and beigeordnet cannot be fully rendered, but is more clearly expressed above than in the Edinb. trsL — P. S.]
t [Dr. Lange uses here the unusual term ; geUthaft^ as opposed to l&ihhaft^ and with a shade of difference froit eisfiff or vntcUectual, geisiMeh or splritualt and geUterJtaft or ghoat-UJce^ The antithesis is clear enoush. — P. B.I
IB GENERAL INTKODUCTION TO THE HOLT SCKIPTUKES.
combination with the Jewish Talmud, becomes quite different from what it is wher. viewed in the light of the New Dispensation. To the Jews it has become a series of traditional statutes, upon which the covering of Moses rests. The Mormons of our day have stamped upon themselves the mark of apostasy, since, like jjlohammed of old, they have adopted the falsified records of a new and spurious revelation.
The religious records of all nations are faithful representations of these religioni fhemselves. All heathen religions are mythical, — the myth being the essential form of heathenism. But if form and substance are related, the contrast between Holy Scripture and myths must be as great in point of form as uuai between revealed religion and heathenism. In the Bible, religion has become faith, faith fact, fact sacred history, and sacred history the soul of secular history. Hence also biblical history gives not merely outward facts, but is itself symbolical. Hence also biblica) doctrine is not a scholastic system, but also historical and deeply practical. Lastly, it is on this ground that Scripture presents such a wonderful concatenation and succession of history and of doctrine. But the antagonism of history and doctiine is transformed into a higher unity in the prophetical and poetical portions of Scripture.
Revealed religion discloses the errors of all other creeds, while at the same time it brings out any remnant of truth in them, which in turn may become a point of connection for the kingdom of God. Similarly, Holy Writ sheds Lght on the sacred records of the Gentiles, showing their utter insufSciency, their errors, and the tradi- tions of truth which may have been preserved in them. Indeed, the same remark might be made with reference to aU other literature. Thus in this sense also the Bible is the Book of books.
in. Special Exegetics ; or, the Art and Practice of Scriptural Mcposition.
Viewing it in the widest sense, all science and civilization, consciously or unconsciously, must serve as a kind of exposition of tin) Scriptures, and that whether the Scriptm-es be di-agged down to the level of man, or man raised to the level of the Scriptures. (The Talmud, the New Testament.) Speaking more strictly, the spiritual life of the Christian Church, and more especially the pastoral office, may be regarded as an exposition of the Scriptures, with a twofold and diverse result (tradition, faith). Lastly, the same remark holds true of scriptural exposition in the narrowest and special sense of the term ; and there is an exegesis which draws down Scripture to its own level, and another which rises to that of Scripture (mere dogmatism or rationalism on the one hand, and, on the other, the light of the Bible thrown upon exegesis, and that of exegesis upon the Bible).
Various qualifications are requisite for the right interpretation of the Scriptures. Thus the Bible as a whole must all along be compared with its individual parts ; exposition must be closely connected with explanation, or the word with the life ; exegetical tradition (or the analogy of faith as expressed in the various confessions t f faith) and individuality must each have their proper place, — there must be proper B'lbmission, and yet proper independence ; above all, the interpreter must eve. realize that the Lord speaks, and that he is to hear, — or, in other words, the trutt revealed must find a response in the obedience of faith, and again, in the prayei which it evokes.
The results of Exegesis are Bible History and Biblical Theology.
g 2. TlflE HOLY SCRIPTURES.
IV. Bible History.
Bible History differs from the general history of the kingdom of God, in that it delineates only the foundation of this kingdom by means of and during the course of revelation. It traces in historical succession the narrative contained in the Scrip- tures in all its essential features. In the Old Testament, it shows us all the elements of the life of faith, and sets before us many a precious example of faith and patience for our imitation ; while in the New Testament it exhibits the history of faith and salvation " made perfect," both iu the miracles and triumphs of the Lord, and in the deeds of His Apostles. Thus Bible Histoiy forms the basis of Church History.
Comp. the Sacred Miatoriea of Hiibner, RauBohenbuseh, Zahn, Grube, Giinther, Kurtz, etc.
V. Biblical Theology.
Biblical Theology may be regarded as the final result of exegesis, and at the same time as the basis of the History of Dogmas and of Systematic Theology. Its purpose is to trace the gradual yet uniform development of Christian doctrine and ethics throughout revelation. It may be divided into General and Special. The former follows the development of faith throughout Scripture, showing, — a, The Divine aspect of Scripture, or its one and all-pervading idea : the faith of revelation in the God of revelation, b. Its human aspect, or its gradual unfolding in the individual books of Scripture, according to the various stages of religious develop- ment and their character, c. Its Ghristological or theanthropic aspect, viewing revelation to its completion in Christ, and according to the different doctrinal types in the New Testament. — On the other hand, it is the task of Special Biblical Theology to trace the doctrines of Scripture from their first germs in the Old Testament to their completion in the New, viewing them in the light of theology, of anthropology, of Christology, and of the doctrine of the kingdom of God (Theocratology).
On the literature of the subject, comp. Hagen- 1 especially the excellent work of the late Dr. Schmid, bach, pp \91 and 201. [We mention de Wette, of Tiibingen: 7'he Biblical Theology of the N. T Steudel, Oehler, Lutz, on Biblical Theology, and | Stuttg., 1868, in 2 vols. — P. S.]
VI. Appendix. Exegetical and Somiletical Helps.*
1. Biblical Philology. —
ffl) Hebrew Orammar : Gesenius, Rodiger, Ewald, Stier, Freitag, Hupfeld, Thiersch, Nagelsbach. [Engl, works : Stuart, Conant, Bush, Tregelles, Nordheimer, Green.— P. S.]
b) Hebrew Dictionaries : Buxtorf, Coccejus, Si- monis, Simonis-Winer, Gesenius, Schroder, Fiirst, Maurer. [Robinson's Gesenius, 3d ed., Bost., 1849 ; B. Davidson and Bagster's Analytical Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon (with a grammatical analysis of each word in the H. Bible), London, 1848.— P. S.]
c) S^ew Testament Grammar: Winer [6th ed., teipz., 1855. Two Engl, trsl- P. S.], Alt, Buttmann.
o) New Testament (and Septuagint) Dictionaries ; Bchottgen, Schleussner, Wahl, Bretschneider, Schir-
litz, Wilke, Dalmer, [Robinson : A Oreek and Engl. Lexicon of the N. T., the new ed.. New Tork, 1851, etc., and Bagster's Analytical Greek Lexicon, Lond., 1852.— P. S.]
2. Archaeology. — Geography of Palestine: Ritter {JSrdkunde, vol. xv.), K. von Raumer, Bram, Crome, Vfilter, Robinson, [Stanley, Thomson, Hack- ett, Bausman. — P. S.] Maps of Grimm, Kiepert, Zim- mermann, and the Bibel- Atlas of Weiland, Weimar, 1832, [and of Jenks, Coleman, and the AiDetiou Tract Society. — P. S.] Topograghy of Jerusalem Schulz (Berlin, 1845), Krafft (Bonn, 1846), Tobler, Robinson, Berggren.
3. Introduction to the Bible. — Berthold^ de Wette, Scholz, Eichhorn, Schott, Hug, Credne^
• [This whole section it omitted in the Edinb. trel —P. S.'
18
GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.
Guericke, Reuss, Hengstenberg {Beitrdge), HaTernik, Keil, etc. ; [also the posthumous works of Bleek, and -he English works of Home and Davidson. — P. S.]
4. Editions of the Bible.— Polyglot Bible by Stier and Theile (Bielefeld, 2d ed., 1864, 4 vols.). The Hebr Old Testament by Simonis, van der Hooght, Hahr^ Theile. The beptuagint by Breitinger, Tisch- endorf, and Paris edition. The Greek Testament by Gricsbach, Knapp, Schott, Hahn, Lachmann (small ind large editions), Theile, Tischendorf (Leipz. 1841, '48, '49, 59, different cd.), etc. Synopsis or Har- monies of the Gospels: Griesbach, de Wette and Liicke, Eodiger, Anger, Tischendorf, Robinson (all in Greek), Lex {Die Evangelien-Harmonie, Wiesbaden, 1835), [Robinson, Strong, in English.— P. S.] The Vulgate by van Ess, Eistemaker, etc.
[Note. — The best of the Dianyed. of Tisohendokf, which [ have used in this Engl, edition of Lange's Matthew, Is the large critical edition in 2 vols. : iHovuw, Testamentum GroBce, Ad aniiquos testes denuo recensuit^ apparatimi Driiicum onvni studio perfect-um apposuit, etc. Edit, aeptlma, Lips. 1359. The smaller critical edition in one vol. (ed. ii. 1849) gives a sulficient amount of critical apparatus for ministers and students. In connection with this, reference fihould be had now also to Tischendorf e edition of the famous Oodex Sinaiticus, discovered by him, and issued in 1S63.
Of Lachmann I have used the large edition in two rolumos with the Latin translation: Novum TestamenUim Grace et Latine. Berolini, 1842 and 1850.
1 have also compared occasionally Stier and Theile: Polyglotten-Bibel, 2d ed., 1849 ; and Philippds Buttmann : yovum Testa^nentum Groiee ad fidern codicis Vaticani^ (Cod. B.) Berol., 1862, (in new Greek type, conformed to the ancient uncial M9S., the Greek inscriptions of the Au- pustan age. and the Pompeyan papers.)
The best English editions of the Greek Testament, to which I have more or less frequently referred in the course of the work, are the following:
Dr. S. T. Bloomfieli> : The Greek Teetament with Eng- lUh Notes^ 9th ed., Lond., 1855, 2 vols., with a supplemen- tary volume of Critical Annotations, Lond., I860, which contains a digest of the various readings, and embodies the Investigation of seventy uncollated or ill-collated M88. and the valuable materials derived from Scrivener's collation of reventy MSS.
W. Webster and W. F. Wilkinson ; Tlie Greek Testa- ment with Notex, Critical and Eicegetical. Lond., 1855, S vols. Anglican, useful "for learners rather than the learned."
Dr. Henet Alford : 77ie Greek Testament, etc., 4th ed., Lond. 1859, 4 vols. The first vol. containing the four Gos- pels, was reprinted, from the third ed., by the Harpers of New York, 18.59. Alford gives a revised text, and a critical digest of various readings (entirely rewritten in the 4th ed.) between the text and the comments. He surpasses his Eng- liah predecessors, is essentially orthodox (Anglican) and evanj^elical, yet critical, liberal, progressive, and made good use of the Germans, especially Olshausen, Tischendorf, ie "Wette and Meyer.
Dr. Che. Wurdsworth : The New Testament in tJie original Greek : with Notes, new ed. in 2 vols., Lond., 1862. Oonservatlve, reverential, patristic and Anglican.
Dr. S. P. Tbegelles (a Plymouth brother, and a believer to the absolute plenary Inspiration) : The Greek New Testa- ; edited (rom ancient authorities, w -th ^ arlous reading
of all the ancient MSS.. the ancient ycrsions. and oarlldt eccles. writers (to EusebiuB inch), together with the Latin version of Jerome, Lond., vol. I. containing the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, 1859: vol. II., containing Luke and John, 1860. Not yet completed. Tischendorf does him In- justice in his large ed. of 1859, Prolegg., p. cxiii sqq. Tre- gelles is one of the few scholars who have made the resto ration of the genuine apostolic text of the N. T. the wori of their life, and, like Bengel, unites with critical learnin and laborious research a childlike faith and profound rever ence for the Word of God. Mr. Scrivener, in his Introdwy tion to the Oriticism of the N. T. (1861), p. 847, remarks: " Every one who venerates the spectacle of time and sul)- stance freely bestowed in the best of causes, without the prospect or indeed the possibility of earthly reward, will grieve to know that the further prosecution of his opiu magmwm is for a while suspended by Dr. Tregelles' sdrioim illness."— P. S.]
5. Criticism. — Capelli, Kenicott, Bengel, Gries bach, Reiche, Schleiermacher, Lohnis, Lachmann, Tischendorf. [Bloomfield, Alford, Wordsworth, Tre- gelles, in the critical parts of their ed. of the Gr. Test , and especially the able work of Fr. H. Scrivener: A plain Introduction to the Criticism of the iV. T. for the use of Biblical students. Cambridge, 186], — P. S.] Kirchhofer : Quellensammlung zur Go- schichte des N. T. Kanons. Ziirich, 1844. Olshau- sen on the Genuine7i€ss of all the hooks of the iV^. T. [Engl. trsl. by Posdick, prefixed to toI. i. of Ken- drick's Olshausen. — P. S.] Thiersch on the Canon., 1845. Ebrard : Kritik der evang. GcschiclUe [not Sohriften, as the original reads. — P. S.], 2d ed., 1850. [Engl. <;o?i</«?is«(; trsl., Edinb., 1863.] Bleek: Beitrdge zur Eiiangelienkritik. [Westcott : Intro- duction to the Study of the Gospels. Amer. ed. with an introduction by Hor. B. Hackett. Boston, 1802. — P. S.] Also Neander, Lange, Schafif, Thiersch, on the Apostolic Age. For the 0. T. : Hengstenberg, Havernick, Keil, Bleek, etc.
6. Translations. — Luther's last original edition of his German Bible, by Bindseil and Niemeyer, Halle, 1850. Von Hoff, Leipz., 1851. Other Ger- tnan Bible versions : by Friedr. von Meyer, Stier (Bie- lefeld, 1856), de Wette, the Ziirich transl., and the Roman Catholic translations of Leander van Es.<, Braun, Brentano, Allioli, Dereser, etc. [English ver- sions : Wiclif, A. D. 1380; Tyndale, 1584; Cranmer, 1539; Geneva, 1560; The Bishop's Bible, 1568; Authorized, or King James's, 1611. Roman Catholic versions : Anglo-Rhemish, 1582, and Douay Bible, 1609, etc. See Bagster's English Hexapla, London ; also Mrs. H. C. Conant : Hist, of the Engl. Bible New York, 1856. The publications of the American Bible Union, N. York, especially the revised versions of Lillic, Conant, and Hackett. Dean Trench on iht Revision of the C. V., Lond., 185&. Dr. Alford's ro- vised Engl. N. Tert., Lend., 1868. The authorized English Bible of 1611 is, upt^n the whole, the beat of all Bible Teraions ancient and modern. Comp. Johi
§2. THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.
ID
H Newman's eloquent testimony in its iavor, after his transition to Rome ; also the testimony of Marsh in his Lectures on the English Language. — P. S.]
1. CommentEtriea on the Whole Bible. — Critici sacri, several editions. Amsterd., 1698; Frankf. a. M , I'ZOO, etc. Polus : Synopsis, Frkf., 1112, 6 vols. Grotius : Annotaiiones. On the Old Tretament : Rosenmiiller (Scholia), Maurer, the Exeget. Manual (Germ.) of Leipz., 1888 sqq., (ra- tionalistic in part). On the New T. : Calvin, Wolf (OurcB philologicm et critica, 1741, 5 vols.), Bengal [Onomon, Iiat., Germ., and in two Engl, transl.], Olshausen [transl. into Engl., Edinb. ; Amer. ed., re- vised by Dr. Kendrick, N. Y. 1856, etc.], de Wette, Meyer. [English Commentaries on the whole Bible : Henry, Scott, J. Gill, Clarke, Patrick — Lowth — Whitby, David Brown (Glasgow, 1863) ; on the New T. : Hammond, Doddridge, Burkitt, Bloorafield, Al- ford, Wordsworth, Webster and Wilkinson, Barnes, Owen, Jacobus. — P. S.]
8. Commentaries on Separate Books. — See list in Hagenbach: Theol. Encycl., p. 179 sqq., and Winer : Handbuch der theol. Lit., i., p. 83 sqq., 162 sqq. [On Genesis and the Pentateuch : Calvin, Luther, Hengatenberg, Tuch, Bertheau, Gerlach, Delitzsch, Bush. On the other historical books of the 0. T. ; Keil, Maurer, Thenius, Movers, Bertheau, Bush. On the Psalms : Luther, Calvin, De Wette, Tholuck, Hengatenberg, Hupfeld, Delitzsch, Jos. Add. Alexander, Isaac Taylor. On Job : Ewald, Umbreit, Hirzel, Schlottmann, Barnes, Conant. On the Proverbs : Umbreit, Stier, Bertheau, M. Stu- art. On the Song of Songs : Herder, Umbreit, Ewald, Hengstenberg, Delitzsch. On Ecclesiastes ; Umbreit, Knobel, Bertheau, Hengstenberg. On Isaiah : Geseniua, Hitzig, Dressier, Handewerk, Jos. Add. Alexander. On Jeremiah : Hitzig, Umbreit. On Ezekiel : Havemick, Hitzig. On Daniel : Havemick, Hengstenberg, Lengerke, Hitzig, Auber- len. On the Minor prophets : Theiner, Aokermann, Hitzig, Henderson, Pusey. — On the New Testament : On the Four Gospels (either separately or in har- monies) : Calvin, Olshausen, Meyer, Macknight, Campbell, Greswell, Owen, Jacobus ; also Catena aurea on the Gospels from the Fathers, collected by Thomas Aquinas. Oxf., 1843. On Matthew and ifark : Fritzsche, Jos. Add. Alexander, Conant. On Luke : van Osterzee (in Lange's Bibelwerk). On the Gospel of St. John : Lampe, Lucke, Tholuck, Luthardt, Hengstenberg. On the Sermon on the Mount : Tholuck. On the Parables and Miracles • Ttxench. On all the Discourses of Jesus : Stier : Itfien Jesu. {The Words of the Lord Jesus, trsl. by Pope, and republ. twice in America.) On the Acts : Baumgarten, Hackett, Jos. Add. Alexander. Un all the Epistles of St. Paul : Calvin, MacKnight,
Conybeare and Howson {Life and Epistles of St, Paul. Lend, and N. York ed.). On separate epis ties of Paul ; Tholuck (on the Romans), Fritzsch* (ditto, 3 vols., Latin), RUckert, Mos. Stuart (ditto). Osiander ( Corinthians), Winer, Usteri, Wieseler ( Oo- latians), Harless, Stier (on the Ephesiaris), Huther, WIesinger (the smaller and the Pastoral Epistles), Neander {Corinthians, Philippians, etc.), Pelt, Lillie {Thessalonians), Hackett {Philemon), Hodge (on iJo- mans, 1 Corinthians, and Ephesians), EUicott, (tlia English Meyer, on Galatians, Ephesians, Tliessalo nians, etc., republished in Andover, 1860, sqq.). On the Epistle to the Hebrews ; Bleek (a real exegetical masterpiece, in 8 vols., 1828-1840), Tholuck, Stuait, Ebrard (as continuator of Olshausen). On the Catholic Epistles : Steiger (on Peter), Liicke, Neander, Rickli, Dusterdieck, Ebrard (on Johiis Epistles), Archbishop Leightou (on I Peter), Schneckenburger, Kern, Neai»- der, Stier (on James), Stier (on Jude). On the Apoca' lypse : Bengel, Auberlen, Hengstenberg, LUcke, Dii* terdieck, Ebrard, Bleek, Elliott, Mos. Stuart.— P. S.]
9. Bible Dictionaries (of things). — Winer Eibl. Real-Worterbmh, 2 vols., 3d ed., 1848 (critl cal), Zeller: Bihlisches Worterbuch, 2 vols., 1866 (popular, and very useful). Many articles in Herzog's Real-Encyclop. fur Prot. 2'heol., [condensed transl. of Bomberger and others, unfinished.] Oelinger: Libl. Worterbuch, newly ed. by Bamberger, Stuttg., 1850. [English Bible Dictionaries : Taylor's, and Robinson's Calmet, Kitto, W. Smith (London and Boston, 1863, 3 vols.), and, for popular use, those of the American Tract Society, and of the American Sunday-School Union. — P. S.]
10. Genera] Bible Works for practical and homiletical use. — Christoph Starke (Past, primarius of Driesen) : Synopsis Bibliothecce exegeticce in Vetui et Novum, Testamentum ; oder kurzgefasster Aus- zug der grundlichsten und nutzbarsten Auslegunaen, 2d ed., Leipz., 1740, 10 vols. The Berleburger Bibel, 1726-'39, 8 vols, fol., new ed., 1857, J. J. Hess: Bibelwerk, Zarich, 1776-1812, 23 parts. H. & W. Richter : Erklarte Hausbibel, Barmen, 1840. 0. V. Gerlach : Das A. und N. Test, mit Einleitun- gen und erklarenden Anmerkungen, Berlin, 1864. Lisco: Das A. und N. Test, mit erklarenden An- merkungen. Matthew Henry : An Exposition of the 0. and N. T., London, 1849, 6 vols., [and many older Engl, and Amer. editions. Henry's Com. il very spiritual and practical, and widely popular in England and America. The same is true of Thomaa Scott : The holy Bible, with original notes, practical observations, etc., first 1788, 5th and best ed., Lond. 1822, in 6 vols., and often since. — P. S.] BrauQ (Rom. Cath.) : Die heil. Schrift, lat. u. deutsch nach dem Sinne der h. rom. Kirche, del h. Kirchenvater etc., Augsb., 1789-1806, 18 vols.
20 G£\EEAL AND SPECIAL INTKODtTCTION TO THE NEW TESTAMENT.
SECOND SECTION.
OENERAL AMD SPECIAL INTRODUCTION TO TEE NE^
TESTAMENT.
§1-
THE NEW TESTAMENT I. The Name : New Testament.
The term New Testament unquestionably proceeds from the institution of the Lord's Supper. The Lord designates the Eucharist the New Covenant in Hia blood, in the strict sense of the term. The New Testament fellowship of believers reconciled to God by Christ, which commences in, and is introduced by baptism, b completed and appears outwardly in the Holy Supper. In the Eucharist the Lord carries out that New Covenant with the Church which is founded upon His holj life and His Word, upon His atoning death. His victory, and on the conversion of individual believers. While the celebration of the Eucharist is a remembrance of the first foundation of the Church, it ever inaugurates anew the formation of the Church, and also serves as its manifestation. Hence the writings which record the foundation of this new and eternal covenant are themselves called the New Covenant, the New Testament. Lastly, this designation indicates the connection and the con- trast between these writings and those of the Old Covenant.
n. Origin of the New Testament.
The first commencement of the New Testament dates, in all probability, from the period when the Lord lived and taught on earth. It has ever been the practice to write down that which was deemed most memorable. Accordingly, it can scarcely be supposed that any one acquainted >vith letters should have been brought into contact with the Lord, or come under the infiuence of His Spirit, without noting dovm the most striidng occurrences he had witnessed, or the most weighty truths he had heard. In this manner some brief memoirs must have been composed before any of the New Testament writings had been compiled — a fact to which, indeed, the Evangelist Luke bears testimony (ch. i. 1). Nay, more, we are warranted in assuming that the most important events in the early history of Christ, such as the song of praise of Zacharias, of the Virgin, and of old Simeon, may have been written down at a very early period. To our mind it seems natural that Matthew, who waa probably the most practised writer * among the Apostles, should very early have collected together the sayings of the Lord ; and similarly, that John should have made a collection of His discourses.
• [Der tohreiblcmuUgsU, the best penman. The Edlnb. trsl. mlBtakes the Bense In rendering this : tht heat «d«. eated. Dr. Lange refers simply to the mechanism of writing, In which Matthew, as a former collector of costomB bj constant practice, had acquired more ease and skill than the other Apostles, who were fishermen. As to natural talml and eduoatloi,, Peter, Paul, and John were undoubtedly bis superiors Luke also had more learning, being > pbriicUi by profession, and a »npeTior Greek scholar. — P. S ]
§ 1. THE NEW TESTAMENT.
But such memorabilia were only tlie faithful historical recollections of individuals. Before the New Testament could be written, the work of the Lord required to be finished, and His Holy Spirit poured out upon the Apostles, that thus they might be fully fitted for their high calling.
The original mission intrusted to the Apostles and the seventy disciples — to testify of the Lord after the completion of His life and work — necessarily imphed also the duty of writing about Him, as opportunity afforded. If, according to tha Saviour's injunction, they were to devote all their energies to this work, to apply every means, to seize every opportunity for its promotion, they must, of course, also have employed the powerful instrumentality of literature. Nor were they unfaithful to their calling. As they went forth into aU the world preaching the Gospel, so also did they address themselves to all ages by their writings. And, as at last, at the end of the world, they shall again meet, the faithful messengers of the Lord, who by the instrumentality of the Church (which they had served to plant) have fulfilled their great commission of preaching the Gospel to every creature, so also will they be found to have accomplished their work through the writings of the New Testa- ment.
As the composition of the New Testament formed, like the preaching of the AVord, part of the great mission which the Lord intrusted to His Apostles, it required special Divine preparation and illumination by the Holy Ghost. Just as " holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost," so wrote they by the same Spirit. The inspiration bestowed on them for the pui-poses of their apostolic calling, was at the same time the source of their preaching and of their writings.
But, while asserting the Divine origin of the New Testament, we do not by any means overlook the human form in which it was cast. On the contrary, that human form appeared all the more genuinely when it became the vehicle of Divine revela- tion. Hence, the New Testament writings are clothed in the language of Greece, and couched in its peculiar mode of thought. This form constitutes another con- trast between the Old and the New Testament. The language of the Old Testa- ment (the Hebrew) is that of feeling, of directness, and of the esoteric religion of the Jews. The language of the New Testament is that of full intellectual con- liciousness (voCs), of matured reflection, and of the exoteric religion of all nations. But the New Testament is also imbued with the spirit of the Old ; and whenever there is any direct and esoteric presentation of revelation (the speaking ev irvcv/AaTi), we meet with frequent Hebraisms, especially in the Book of Revelation.
HI. Chronological Succession of the hooTcs of ike New Testament.
The oldest apostolic letter is that addressed by the Synod at Jerusalem, about the year 53 [or rather a. d. 50 — P. S.], to the Gentile Christian Churches, and which is recorded by Luke in the 15th chapter of Acts.
Soon afterward Paul wrote his first letters to the Churches. The apcstolic writings may be arranged in the following order of succession ; —
1. The two Epistles to the Thessalonians, written from Corinth, about 54 or 55 [53— P. S.l.
2. The Epistle of Paul to the Galatians, written from Ephesus, about the year 56
or 57
22 GENERAL AND SPECIAL INTRODUCTION TO THE NEW TESTAMENT.
3. Tlie two Epistles of Paul to the Corinthians, written from Ephesus and Stace donia, about the year 58.
4. The Epistle of Paul to the Romans, written from Corinth, about the year f)9.
5. The Epistle of James, written from Jerusalem, and addressed to the Je-nM Christians in the Diaspora, about the year 62.
6. The Epistles of Paul to the Ephesians, to the Colossians, and to Philemon isiitten from Rome, about the year 63.
7. The Epistle of Paul to the Philippians, written from Rome, about the year 64.
8. The Epistle to the Hebrews, the Gospel by Luke, and the Acts of the Apostles, written probably from the same place, or at least from Italy, and about the same time — the year 64.
9. The First Epistle of Peter, written from Babylon, about the year 64.
10. The First Epistle of Paul to Timothy, written from Macedonia, between 64 and 66 [?].
11. The Epistle of Paul to Titus, written from Macedonia, or from Greece, between 64 and 66 [?].
12. The Second Epistle of Paul to Timothy, written from Rome, about the yeai 67 or 68 [?].
13. The Second Epistle of Peter, written in the same place, and about the same time, about 67 or 68.
14. The Gospel by Mark, written in Rome, about the year 68.
15. The Gospel by Matthew, written in Judea, about the year 68 or 69.
16. The Gospel by John, written about the year 70.
17. The Epistle of Jude, written probably between the years 80 and 90
18. The Revelation of John, written about the year 95.
19. The three Epistles of John, written probably between the years 96 and 100 [?].*
IV. Critical Collection of the New Testament Canon.
It wUl be readily granted that the various Churches carefully preserved the epistles and writings of the Apostles, and those of their assistants, the Evangelists Mark and Luke. The idea that several apostolic writings, more especiaUy a third Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians, and an Epistle to the Laodiceans by the same Apostle, have been lost, owes its origin to a misunderstanding of some allusions in the New Testament. (Comp. Lange's Apost. Age, I. 205 sqq.) But it is probable that at a later period Mark himself enlarged his Gospel by adding to it a conclusion, appended to, that which it had in its original shape ; as also, that at the commence- ment of the second century, the well-known passage in the Second Epistle of Peter was inserted after the Epistle of Jude. (Apost. Age., I. 152.) These circumstances, however, do not aifect the authenticity of the text. The interpolation of the trinita- rian passage in 1 John v., between vei-s. 7 and 8, is of much later date. The Gospel of Matthew, originally written in Hebrew, was translated at a vei-y early period, and probably by Matthew himself, into our present Greek Gospel, which has evei since been received as canonical in the Church.
It was natural that the writings of the Apostles should be communicated from
* [The chronologlonl dates oSBlgned to the apostoUo writings hj- Dr. Lange slightly differ In three or four instancM from those adopted In rny Rifttnry of the Apostolic Chwch. 01 some books it is impossible accnrately to ascertalD thf Wme of compos' liofl. — P. & ,
§ 1. THE NEW TESTAMENT. 23
one church to the other, and extensively diifused, since many of them were evanguli cial epistles, addressed to several, or to all Christian communities (as, for example the Epistle to the Hebrews, that of James, the two Epistles of Peter, the First Epistle of John, the seven epistles in the Book of Revelation, and the Epistle to th« Ephesians). Besides, the practice was also distinctly prescribed by the Apostlei 'Col. iv. 16). Accordingly, we find even in the New Testament an allusion tc oUections of apostolic writings, more especially of those of Paul, as in the Second Epistle of Peter (iii. 16), with which also Acts xvi. may be compared with reference to the address of the Synod of Jerusalem, recorded in Acts xv.
Such collections of apostolic writings rendered something like critical examinar tion necessary, to enable the churches to distinguish between what was genuine and what spurious. It is remarkable that so early as in the Second Epistle to the The* salonians (2 Thess. ii. 2), which is the second oldest of the New Testament writings, we find an appeal to the critical sense of the churches. So long, indeed, as some of the Apostles, or even their immediate disciples, lived and taught, the stream ol oral apostolical tradition was so abundant and so pure, that some preferred to appn directly to that source of instruction. Thus we account, for example, for the circum- stance that Papias, a disciple of John, who lived at the commencement of the second century, mentions the Gospels of Matthew and of Mark, but, instead of referring to those of Luke and of John, records the names of the men whose presence and instructions had in his case filled the place of these Gospels (Euseb. iii. 33 ; comp. Lange, Leben Jesu, I. 151, and Apost. Age, I. 215). Even in the writings of the apostolic Fathers we meet with frequent evidence of their familiarity with the New Testament writings. On these various testimonies, as they multiply with the lapse of time, as also on the various forms and lists of the canon to its final close in the fourth century, compare the various Introductions to the New Testament.
Nor must we omit to mention that, during the first three centuries, the Church amply proved its critical capacity by rejecting from the canon that vast mass of apocryphal writings w hich claimed admission into the New Testament. But the deep contrast betweei, these works and the spirit of the New Testament has only lately been fully brought to light, in connection with the controversy about the mythical theory of Strauss. (Compare the literature on the subject as given by Winer, and the collections of New Testament Apocrypha, by Fabricius, Thilo, and Tischendorf.)
V. Unity and Organic Arrangement of the New Testament.
DIVISION or THE NEW TESTAMENT.
At first, it seemed as if the ancient Church would have adopted an arrangement of the New Testament writings substantially similar to that of the Jews for the Old Testament. Thus we find mention of three sections of the New Testament, to cor- respond 'With the ancient division into Law, Prophets, and Hagiographa. Besides the arrangement into to eiayyiXiov and 6 dTrouToXos (Clemens Alex.), to. evayyeXiKa f.ai ra airoo-ToXt/ca (Irenseus) — ^by which they meant the Gospels, and, in the first place at least, the writings of St. Paul — we also find mention of a third collection under the name of Ka^oXtKol iiruxToXai, which seems to have included the apostolic writings penerally, Ka%\ov (see Hug. Mnl. in's JV. T., vol. ii., p. 428). This explanation of i,he word Ka^oXiKoi has been controverted ; but the fact that the Epistle to the
24 GENERAL AND SPECIAL INTRODUCTION TO THE NEW TESTAMENT.
Hebrews, although catholic in its tenor, was not included among the Catholia F-jiistles, because its authorship was attributed to St. Paul, speaks in favor of the above suggestion. This division of the New Testament, however, fell to the groimd when the canon was completed. Hence there can be no valid objection to thf mod3rn division into Historical, Doctrinal, and Prophetic books. But it deserves no- tice that the Book of Acts was originally, and also in the Scripture lessons, iucluded among the Epistles, and this with good reason ; for in the strict historical sense, it belongs not to the period of the Gospel history, but to that of the foundation of the Church by the Apostles, and serv'es as historical basis to the Epistles. Properly .speaking, it forms a transition from the historical to the doctrinal books.
This division of the New Testament is warranted by the peculiar cast, and by the prevailing characteristics of its various books, although in a certain sense each of them contains, at the same time, history, doctrine, and prophecy. Keeping this arrangement in view, the New Testament canon presents to our mind the eternal past, present, and future of the Church ; Jems Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever — or Christ in His historical manifestation, in His rule over the Church, and in His glorious advent. But here each part is organically connected with the other, just as, in the idea of eternal life, the past, the present, and the future pervade and interpenetrate each other. " All the writings of the New Testament contain, in the first place, the basis, or the ideal past of the Church ; next, its standard, or the rule for its present development ; lastly, its final aim, or the goal of its future." (See my Apost. Age, ii., p. S'Zl.)
The historical books describe the first manifestation and the foundation of thfl kingdom of heaven in our world, and its inroad upon the world, with a view to final conquest, by the planting of the apostolic Church. The doctrinal books are intended to serve as a directory for the development of Christian and ecclesiastical life in the kingdom of heaven, or of the kingdom of heaven as manifest in ecclesiastical and Christian life, in all its relations to the world, whether hostile or peaceable. This development is ever based upon, and traced to, the first coming of Christ for the redemption of man. Lastly, the prophetical books are intended to guide this de- velopment of Christian and ecclesiastical life, in accordance with the prophetic announcement and description of the second advent of Christ. The foundation of the kingdom of heaven — its unfolding — its future conquests, and ultimate comple- tion : such are the three parts which constitute the New Testament.
The Historical portion of the New Testament consists of two parts, the Gospels, and the Book of Acts. The former exhibits the eternal basis of the Church, and its foimdation in time ; the latter, the planting of the Church, its original form, and the 6rst and prophetic outlines of its spread through the world.
§2. HISTORICAL BOOKS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT.
The foui Gospels, which together form only one Gospel (to ivayyiXwv) under a ibnrfold aspect (Kara Mar^Jalov, etc.), constitute, along with the Book of Acta (r-pa|eis tSv dTroo-ToXa)!/), the historical records of the New Testament.
The great leading idea which pervades this history, is the introduction of the kingdom of heaven (jiaa-ikda tSv mpaviov), or its manifestation (at least, so fsr as its
§ 2. THE HISTORICAL BOOKS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 28
piinciijles and power are concerned) — the revelation of God being completed by tha coming of the God-Man, the Redeemer of the world, and His kingdom founded upon earth by the planting of His Church through the power of the Holy Ghost. Accord- ingly, this evangelical history forms the centre of aU history, by concluding that of the ancient and commencing that of the new world.
The difference between the historical books of the New Testament consists in this, that while the four Gospels record the history of the revelation of the kingdom of heaven, and of its foundation in the Person and the work of the Lord Jesus, the Book of Acts describes the royal administration of Christ as manifested in planting Ris kingdom in and for the world, by the power of the Holy Ghost working through tlie Apostles. The Gospels exhibit the kingdom of heaven in the Person of Christ ; the Book of Acts, the Person of Christ in the kingdom of heaven ; the former show us the kingdom of heaven upon the earth, yet above the earth, separate and distinct from aU the world ; the latter, the kingdom of heaven in the world — all its roots and fibres having taken hold upon the soil of earth. In the one case, we have the perfect revelation of God in the Spirit of Christ (the dTroKaXwi/zts), in the other, by the Spirit of Christ (the ^ave'pcocns); in the one case, the descent of the heavenly Jerusalem upon the holy city, in the other, the spread of that heavenly kingdom from Jerusalem to Rome. The Gospels show us how Christ consecrated Himself for the world, and thereby reconciled it to God in that solemn judgment which the world pronounced upon itself ; the Book of Acts teaches how Christ consecrated the world unto Himself, and thereby redeemed it. Yonder, the old era terminates, the principle of the new having appeared ; here, the new era commences, the principle of the old having been mortified.
I. The One Gospel in the Four Gospels.
Viewed as a literary production, the Gospel history exists in a fourfold form. But for the ancient, true, churchly view, this circumstance is altogether secondary to the fact that under this fourfold form we have the one Gospel of the Lord. Strictly speaking, therefore, it is not the Gospel of Matthew, etc., as we now are accustomed to say, but the Gospel according to Matthew, according to Mark, according to Luke, and according to John. It is this grand unity of character, of history, of doctrine, and of spirit, which gives to the Gospels their common designa^ tion. Though we have four human writings, they form only one Divine record of the Gospel. To doubt this essential unity, is to lose to the same extent the capacity for the churchly appreciation and even the Christian understanding of the Gospels,
But even this does not exhaust the relation between the four Gospels and the j)ne Evangel. Not only does the difference between the four Gospels not obscure the unity of the one Evangel ; but this number four rather indicates the unfolding of the Evangel in all its fulness, so that it reflects the fourfold sway of God in the world, meets the fourfold wants and views of the world, and under a fourfold aspect displays the infinite riches of revelation.
Irenaeus {Advers. Hmres. iii. 1) connected the vision of the four cherubim ui EzeMel i. with the four Gospels, and explained the symbolical meaning of that passage as applying to the distinctive peculiarities of the Evangelists. The idea was afterwards adopted and developed by the Fathers, and the four Gospels were com- pared with the vision of the four living creatures. Christian art has perpetuated the special arrangement of these symbols, proposed by Jerome, by assigning to Matthe w
26
GENEEAL AND SPECIAL INTRODUCTION TO THE NEW TESTAMENT.
the symbol of the man, to Mark th>tt of the lion, to Luke that of the ox or sacrificia bullock, and to John that of the eagle. (Comp. Credner : Introd. to the JV. T., p. 54.) Our own study of the Gospels would lead us to modify the interpretation of Jerome in so far as to regard Matthew under the symbol of the ox, and Luke under that of the man. (Leben Jesu, I. p. 156.) Stier has approved of this change.
The first Gospel is preeminently that of history, and of the fulfilment of the Old Testament by the sacrificial sufferings and death of Christ and the redemption thu0 achieved. Hence the sacrificial bullock is the appropriate symbol of Matthew.
The second Gospel presents to our minds the all-powerful revelation and working of Christ as direct from heaven, irrespectively of anything that preceded, — the completion of all former manifestations of the Deity. Symbol, the Hon.
The third Gospel is preeminently that of perfect humanity, — human mercy presented in the light of Di\ine grace, the transformation of aU human kindness into Divine love. Symbol, the figure of a man.
Lastly, the fourth Gospel exhibits the deep spiritual and eternal import of the history of Christ — the Divine element pervading and underlying its every phase, — • and with it the transformation of all ideas, and of all ideals, in connection with Christ. Symbol, the eagle.
To this rapid sketch we might add, that the essential harmony of these Gospeli! cannot be properly appreciated, unless, while recognising their intrinsic unity, we also keep in mind those peculiar characteristics of the Evangelists on which the differences in their narratives depend.
LiTEEATURE.* — On the Gospel Harmony compare the [German] works of Tholuck : Credibility of the Gospel History (against Strauss's Life of Jesus) ; Ebrard : Criiieism of the Evangelical History ; Thiersch : On the Restoration of the historical standpoint^ etc. ; Lex : The Gospel Harmony on the Life of Jesus (Wiesbaden, 1855). Also the Lives of
Jesus by Neander, Ease, Lange, and J. Zeller : Voicei of the German Church on Strauss^s Life of Jesus, [Engl, works : Macknight, Campbell, Greswell, Rob- inson, Strong : on the Gospel Harmony ; Westcott Introduction to the Study of the Gospels (1862) Ebrard: The Gospel History (Edinb. trsl., 186S) EUicott, and Andrews : The Life of Christ.— V. S.]
n. The Booh of Acts.
The Book of Acts may also be arranged under four sections. 1. We have the apostolic Church, as the preparation and foundation of the one primeval Church for all the world, — embracing all nations and tongues (ch. i. and ii.) ; 2. The Jewish Christian Church (with Jerusalem as its metropolis, and Peter as its representative), tending toward the Gentile world and the Gentile Church (ch. iii. to xii.) ; 3. The Gentile Christian Church (with Antioch as its metropolis, and Paul as its representa- tive), tending toward the Jewisli Christian Church (ch. xiii. to xxv. 12) ; 4. The removal of any temporary difference by a higher unity, commencing with the journey of the Apostle Paul to Rome, and in the church at Rome, where the Jewish Christian and the Gentile Christian elements appear combined.
The modem assaults on the credibility of the Acts I Lange : Hiftcry of the Apostolic Age, and in part bj arei-efuted byLechler: The Apostolic and post- Apos- Baumgarten in his Commentary on Acts. [AlsoinWie- tolicAge; Dietlein: DasCrchristenthum; Sehatfand | seler: Chronology of t!ie Apostolic Age, 1S4S.-~P. 8.]
* [Omitted In the Edlnb. trsl.— P. S.1
g8. THE DIDACTIC PORTION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT, OK, THE EPISTLES. 21
§3. IHE DIDACTIC PORTION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT, OR, THE EPISTLES.
" As the Mstorical writings of tlie New Testament form a T€Tpa.[iop<j>ov eiayyikiov BO a similar T€Tpdii.op<j)ov (to use an ancient ecclesiastical expression), a Terpap-op^m dirooToXos, might, so to speak, be traced in its parenetic portions" (Gutricke, Isagogics, p. 216). This writer then proceeds to compare Matthew with James, Mark with Peter, Luke with Paul, and the Gospel with the Epistles of John. So also substantially Neander, Schmid, Schaflf.
The didactic portion of the New Testament consists of epistles addressed to particular churches (epistles in the narrower sense), and general or catholic epistles addressed to the whole Chui-ch, or to a larger section of it. (On the various inter- pretations of the word Ka-SoXiKos, comp. the Introductions). The writings of Paul, although belonging to the former class, might also be termed catholic, as they suc- cessively extend over every department of Christian life. Thus 1. Eschatologicai Epistles : the two Epistles to the Thessalonians, which treat of the doctrine of the last things ; 2. JEJcclesiastic Epistles : the two Epistles to the Corinthians, which treat of the organization and discipline of the Church ; 3. Soteriological Epistles : the Epistle to the Galatians, which treats of the doctrine of redemption, presenting the righteousness by faith in contrast with the spurious righteousness by works ; while the Epistle to the Romans exhibits this same righteousness in its nature and effects, in opposition to sin and its consequences. 4. Ghristological Epistles : the Epistle to the Philippians, which shows the exaltation of Christ in and by His humiliation, forms a transition between the previous epistles and those which treat of the P&rson of Christ, more especially the Epistles to the Colossians, and to the Ephesians. The Epistle to the Colossians commences by presenting the eternal and inherent glory which Christ possessed before all time, and then presents Him as the sole object of our faith ; while the Epistle to the Ephesians commences with the final glory of Christ at the termination of all time, and presents Him as the only goal of the Church, and as forming the grand bond of its unity. 6. Lastly, we have the Pastoral Epistles : among which we include, besides the two Epistles to Timothy and that to Titus, the Epistle to Philemon.
The Epistle to the Hebrews must, on account of its general tenor, be classed with the Catholic Epistles, although, from its origin and character, it evidently claims kindred to those of Paul. We have thus three series of Catholic Epistles. The Epistle to the Hebrews, and that of James, express the relation in which the Church imiversal, but especially the Jewish Christian Church, stands to the Old Testament (to the ceremonial and the moral law), with the view of warning against apostasy and Judaizing tendencies. The three Epistles of John exhibit the relation- ship between the Church and the present state of thiags : 1. The fellowship of believers in Christ ; 2. The proper limits of that fellowship, — the necessity of avoid iug heretics; 3. The proper extent of that fellowship, — avoiding a spirit of separatism. Lastly, the Epistles of Peter and of Jude treat mainly of the relation Bh\p of the Church to the future.
28 GENERAL HOMILETICAL INTKODUCTION.
§4- THE PROPHETIC PORTION OP THE NEW TESTAMENT.
The Book of Revelation contains a prophetic description of the second advent ol the Lord, and of the manifestation of His new creation and the transformation of the world, which is to be brought about by a series of great conflicts and triumphi of Christ over Antichrist and over the world. The description of this new work of creation opens with the Sabbath of redemption (hence the prophet has his vision on the Lord's Day), and extends to the eternal Sabbath of final completion. Accordingly, we also have the sacred number seven, seven times repeated — the seven '"hurches, the seven seals, the seven trumpets, the seven thunders, the seven vials, and the seven heads of Antichrist. At the close, we have the manifestation of the seven Spirits of God— who throughout have guided the struggle (ch. i.)— in the appearance of Christ and the transformation of the world : a new genesis, by which the Bible at its conclusion points back to its commencement, showing how final and perfect fulfilment had now been attained.
THIRD SECTION.
GENERAL HOMILETICAL INTROBTJCTION.
THE PLACE OF HOMILETICS.
One of the main duties of the pastoral ofiice is preaching, as this work is more clearly defined by practical theology. The latter science, however, embraces more than that special department. It gives the theory of ecclesiastical life and Christian fellowship, and of its cultivation, or of edification, and treats, according to the teach- ing of Paul (1 Cor. xii. 4-6), — 1. Of the Charismata ia the Church; 2. of ecclesiasti- cal ofiices ; 3. of ecclesiastical functions. Among these, public worship occupies the most prominent place ; and again, in public worship the preaching of the word, for which homiletics supplies the rules. Public worship is the real (not symbolical) and direct outward manifestation of the life of the Church in Christ its Head ; while, at the same time, it also serves to deepen and to extend that life. The former of these objects is attained more especially by what may be designated the liturgical services, or prayer and praise, while the latter is aimed at by means of the sermon.
Based upon the eternal Word of God, and derived from it, the sermon is intended to advance the spiritual life of the Church in its individual members, — ite lessons being always pointed with special reference to the present state and require- nents of Christians, and to their ultimate calling. The rules for the proper dis charge of this New Testament prophetical office are laid down in the science of Homiletics, or the sacred Art of Religious Discourse.
g2. CHARACTER AND PRINCIPLES OF HOMILETICS. 29
§2. CHARACTER AND PRINCIPLES OF HOMILETICS.
Christian Homiletics is the evangelical churchly application of Rhetorics ta sacred purposes. The homiletio oration is addressed to the spiritual feelings and interests of men, in divine wisdom and simplicity, and with spiritual motives, in order either to enlist them for those spiritual purposes which form the one grand aim of man, or else to quicken their spiritual Ufe. From this it foUows, that we shall have to dispense with all the mere outward artifices of secular rhetorics — ^many of which are dishonest, and to present our theme in a simple, yet well arranged, lively and effective address.
From this we may derive the following fundamental rules of Homiletics.
1. The sermon occupies a place intermediate between the eternal Word of God and the present requirements of the Church. On this ground, it must neither be merely a practical exposition of Scripture, nor yet merely a practical address adapted to the wants of the moment. It must combine these two elements, and at the same time serve to quicken, to sanctify, and to further develop the inner life, from the Word of God.
2. This application of the Word of God to the state and wants of the Church, is entrusted to the believing hearts of a properly trained ministry. Accordingly, the sermon miist bear evidence both of personal piety and of intellectual individuality, or rather, this intellectual individuality must appear consecrated by devotion to the altar.
3. The sermon is addressed to a real church, — not a perfect church, but yet to a church. On this grovmd, it must proceed on the assumption that there are spiritual principles and sympathies to which it can appeal, whilst at the same time keeping in view and seeking to remove existing obstacles and objections. It must therefore avoid the extreme of being merely an appeal to the unconverted (a Xoyos irporpeTTTtKo's), whUe, on the other hand, it eschews mere indirect and pointless " speaking with tongues " (yeVr; yXMo-o-Sv). It must ascertain the exact spiritual state of the congregar tion, and, in accordance therewith, progress from conviction to joy and thanks- giving. ISTor should it ever be forgotten that the sermon forms part of worship, and that, while in its character and purpose prophetic, it is also essentially devotional. Hence the sermon must be neither noisy nor drawling ; noise in the pulpit runs counter to the dignity of worship, and to that of Christianity itself. Conversion is not to be confounded with nervous excitement ; it implies a state when the soul is moved indeed to its inmost depths, yet oakued in Christ. As for drawling, it is entirely out of place in the pulpit. Singing should be left to the congregation ; and the moment the sermon rises into musical festivity, it should close.
4. The sermon is addressed to a congregation, not to students. Hence, it must be popular, clear, pointed, and practical, — avoiding obscurity, confusion, and abstract propositions. On the other hand, it must be simple, direct, lively, yet sufficiently dignified. It must have sprung from prayer and meditation, from communion with the Lord and with His Word, and from deep sympathy with the spiritual state and the wants of the congregation.
5. The sermon is addressed to an evangelical church, i. e., a church called to th« freedom of the Spirit. Hence it is to be a homily, in the ancient sense of the term
30 GENERAL HOMILETICAL INTRODUCTION,
i. e., an interchange between the mind of the preacher and the spiritual views of th« congregation, which cannot be obtained by mere persuasion, far less by outward oi authoritative injunction, excluding all liberty, but by communion and fellowship of life. The homily is, so to speak, query and reply. Tet it were a mistake to rpbul every objection which might possibly be raised, instead of replying to the queries which would naturally arise in the mind of the audience. These enquiries must be answered not with the wisdom of man, but by the Word of God.
6. The sermon is an ofiScial address delivered to the Church in the name and by the authority of the Head of the Church. Hence its name. Preaching, — -prmdicatio, declaration. Accordingly, the testimony of the truth must be supported by evidence ; nor must it be of the nature of mere philosophical demonstration, which, of course, is incapable of bebg preached. Nor, lastly, would it be right to sub- stitute for this testimony a mere asseveration : the testimony of the heart is to be combined with argument addressed to the mind.
1. The sermon is to edify. It is intended to luild up the living temple with living stones ; t.e., to promote spiritual communion, and thereby to quicken Christians.
8. The construction of the sermon depends upon an exercise of the mind, which in turn presupposes meditation, prayer, and theological and religious knowledge For the regulation of this exercise of the mind, Homiletics lays down certain rules about the invention of the theme, its division, and the execution and delivery of the discourse itself.
§3.
ECCLESIASTICAL AND MATERIAL HOMILETICS.
That which gives to the sermon its value, is the Word of the living God, wnich is laid down objectively in the Scriptures, and expressed and appKed by the preacher in a subjective form.
The central point of the Word of God, and its grand, aU-embracing personality, is the eternal and historical Christ with His finished work. In the Person of the God-Man revelation and redemption are united, and revelation itself becomes redemption ; there the Law and the Gospel meet, and the Law itself becomes Gospel ; there doctrine and history meet, and doctrine itself becomes history ; there the Church and the Scriptures meet, and the Church itself presents the epistles read and known of all men ; there the Church and the believing heart meet, the Church being in Him of one heart and one soul ; lastly, there justification and sanctification are united, and sanctification becomes a justification for the day of judgment. With all this we wish to impress upon our readers that the mystery of revelation must be preached, not as a matter of speculation, but with a view to its grand teleologica] object — the salvation of sinners ; that the Old Testament must be explained accord- ing to the analogy of the New ; that doctriae must be illustrated by life, and the confessions of the Church regulated by the Divine Scripture ; that the Church must !)e built up by seeking the conversion and personal holiness of souls ; and that justi fioation by faith must ever be presented along with its final aim — the glorification of saints.
The main point which the preacher should keep in idew is, that the great object of Christianity is to bring us into personal relationship to the risen Saviour, that is,
§ 8. ECCLESIASTICAL AND MATERIAL HOMILETICS.
31
into blessed fellowship, tlirougli Him, with the Father, the Son, and the Holj Ghost.
The selection of a suitable subject for the sermon may be determined, 1, by th« order of the Church universal, as it presents itself in the ecclesiastical year with iti great festivals ; 2, by the traditional or a new series of Gospels and Epistles for tha day ; 3, by the directions of the authorities of the particular national or state Churches ; 4, by the order of Synods and consistories ; 5, by the ordinary course of natm-e and its seasons ; 6, by extraordinary events (oasualia) ; 7, by the peculiar relation and condition of the pastor and the congregation ; 8, by literary helps, con- cordances, commentaries, religious reading, etc., which facilitates the invention and preparation of matter for sermons.*
1. The Order of the Church General. The Ohurch Year.
The Church year designates the Christian consecration of time to the service of God, whereby the cycle of seasons becomes the symbol and type of the cycle of the evangelical history, and of the great facts of redemption. The Greek and Roman Churches changed the whole secular time into a succession of holidays in the interest of an exclusive hierarchy and an external showy ceremonialism ; and thus the holidays of saints gradually obscured and almost annihilated the holy day of the Lord, or the Christian sabbath. But the ancient Catholic and the evangelical Church year represents typically and really the sanctification of the year as a manifes- tation of, and preparation for, eternity. [The Church year, as observed in the evan- gelical churches of Germany and the Continent, in the Church of England, and their descendants in America, is a reformation, purification and simplification of the Catholic Church year ; it omits most or all holidays of saints, martyrs and angels, and of the Virgin Mary, but retains the leading festivals which commemorate what God has done for us in the incarnation, the passion and death, the resurrection and ascen- sion of Christ, and the outpouring of the Holy Ghost ; thus making the festivals of Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost prominent, and restoring — at least in England and America — the weekly festival of the Christian Sabbath to its proper dignity and significance. — P. S.]
Literature. — On the Christian Church year see the works of Fred. Strauss (Berlin, 1860), Lisco (Berlin, 1852), Alt (1851), Hamacli (1854), Warner 1860), and Piper's Evangelical Year-book^ pub- lished annually at Berlin since 1860. [Also the Liturgical works and collections of Daniel, Mone, Ifeale, etc., the Liturgies of the Church of Eng-
land, and the Lutheran Churches of Europe and America, Ebrard's Ref. Kirchenbuch, the new Baden Liturgy, the Irvingite Liturgy, the new (provisional) Liturgy of the G. Ref. Church of the TJ. S. (Philad. 1867), Baird's Collection of Presbyterian Liturgies (New York, 1859), etc., etc. —P. B.]
2. TTie Old and New Pericopes, or Scripture Lessons for the Sundays of the Year.
On the history of perikopes see the article Perikopen in the Univers. Theol. Dictionary of Panz ; [also the more recent one in Herzog's Real- Entyclopcedie, vol. xi., p. 373-399, written by E. Ranke. — P. S.] Kanke : Das kirchliche Perikopen- tystem. Berlin, 1847. Alt : Der christl. Cultus. Berlin, 1861, sqq., 8 vols. Lisco: Das christl.
Kirchenjahr, 4th ed., Berlin, 1852. Bobertag Das evangel. Kirchenjahr in sdmmtlichen Perikope des N. T. Breslau, 1857. On modern selections ct Scripture lessons: Ranke (Berlin, 1860), Siickow and Nitzsch {Bibl. Vorleswngen aus dem A. und if. T. Bonn, 1846). See the list of the old series of peri kopes at the close of the gen, introduction.
> fThlB last and all the following sections from 1—8 till j4i "-'^ omitted in the Edlnb. trsl.— P. 8.1
($2 GENERAL HOMILETICAL INTRODUCTION.
3. National and State Churches.
These have appointed m diiFerent countries of Europe a festival of the Refor- mation. [In Germany it is celebrated October 31, the day when Luther affixed the 95 theses on the doors of the castle church at Wittenberg, in 1517. — P. S.] Also political festivals, [coronation of kiugs, commemoration of royal birthdays ; m tho Church of England, the commemoration of the death of King Charles I., and of the Gunpowder Plot,— now abolished and omitted from the Common-Prayer Book.— P. S.] National fast and humiliation days. [Thanksgiving days annually recom- mended by the Governors of the different States of the United States of America, especially in New England, and national thanksgiving, or fast days, recommended to the whole people by the President of the United States, e.g. by President Taylor, during the cholera in 1849, and several times by President Lincoln, during the civil war, especially on the 30th of April, 1863. But, owing to the separation of Church and State, Governor-s and Presidents cannot ordain and command, like European sovereigns, but simply recommend, the observance of Christian festivals. Never- theless, such days are generally even better observed in America than in Europe, perhaps for the very reason that their observance is not made a matter of eompul. sion, but of freedom. — P. S.]
4. Provincial Synods [Denominations] and Local Congregations.
Missionary festivals, foreign and domestic. Laying of corner stones, and dedica- tion of new churches, etc. Confirmations, communions, benedictions, solemnization of marriage, funerals. All these are not, strictly speaking, casiialia, but occui- in the ordinary course of religious and congregational life.
5. Churchly Festivals of the JSFatural Seasons.
New Tear. Spring festival. Harvest festival. Sylvester, (close of the year. December 31).
6. Extraordinary Events of Nature and of History {Casualia).
Extraordinary days of humiliation and prayer, during seasons of pestilence, famip'*, and war (Corap. above sub No. 3), or of thanksgiving after the return of peace or some great national deliverance.
7. Pastoralia.
Ovdination — , installation — sermons. Litroductory and valedictory sermons, [Opening sermons at Classical and Synodical meetings, diocesan and general Conven' tJons, Centenary and other commemorative discourses. — P. S.]
8. Shmiletical Helps.
1. Concordances, verbal or real, or both, by Wich- mann (1782), Schott (1827), Hauff (1828), Biichner (1776), continued and improved by Hubner (1837 and often), Bembard.(1850). [All these works are
German.] Greek concordance by H. Bruder : luiitiat rav t5)S Kaic^s Jia^Kijs Xe^caiv. Lips., 1842. [Based upon an older work of Erasmus Schmid ; containn all the words of the Greek N. T. in olphabetica/
8 8. ECCLESIASTICAL AND MATERIAL HOMILETICS.
33
order with the passages where they occur ; invalu- abie for reference. — P. S.] Hebrew concordance by Jul. Fflrat: Ooncordantim libror. V. T. Lipa., 1840. [Baaed upon Joh. Buxtorf, and as valuable for the Hebrew, as Bruder for the Greek T. — English Con- cordances : Alex. Cruden : A complete Concordance to the Holy Scriptures of the 0. and N. Test., first published in London, 1731, and often since, both in England, Scotland and America, in full and in abridged forma. Also : The Englishman's Greek Concordance of the New Testament, publ. by S. Bag- Bter, London, and republ. by Harper & Br., New York, 1865, — a useful adaptation of Schmid's Greek Concordance to the study of the English Bible. — The EnglishmaiC s Hebrew and Chaldee Concordance of the Old Test., etc., Lond. (Longman, Green, Brown, and Longmans), 1843, 2 vols., — an equal adaptation of Buxtorf-Furst to the English Bible.— P. S.] '
2. Lists of Texts. Schuler ; Repertorium bibli- scher Texte und Ideen fur Casual-Predigten und Reden. Halle, 1820. Haupt : Bibl. Gasualtext- Lexicon, 1826. [There are a number of English works of the kind with or without skeletons of ser- mons; but I have none within reach, and cannot now find their titles. — P. S.]
3. Materials. Homiletical Bible-works and col- lections of Sermons and Preachers' Manuals. See
the list in Danz's and Winer's works on theol. Litera ture. Collection of Patristic sermons in Germ., trnsl. by Augusti (2 vols., 1830 and 1839). Luther's Hauspostille and Kirchenpostille. The older Ger- man sermons of Scriver, H. Muller, Val. Herberger, Rieger, and the more recent sermons of Reinhart, Draseke, Harms, Schleiermacher, Nitzseh, Fr. Strauaa [court chaplain at Berlin, died 1863], Tholuck, Jul, Muller, G. Dan. and Fr. W. Krummacher, Ludw. and Wm. Hofacker [brothers], Kapff [of Stutgart], Schen- kel [of Heidelberg], Beck [of Tubingen], Steinmeyer, W. Hoffmann [both of Berlin], Stier, Liebner, van Osterzee [of Rotterdam, now of Utrecht], and many others. — [The best English pulpit orators are Jeremy Taylor, Rbt. South, Isaac Barrow, Jos. Butler, Tillot son, Whitefleld, John Wesley, among the older, and Edward Irving, Melville, Robt. Hall, Chalmers, Guthrie, Caird, Hare, Trench, Archer Butler^ Spurgeon, among the more recent. Of American preachers we mention Jonathan Edwards, Sam. Da- vies, John M. Mason, Bethune, Alexander (father and two sons) G. Spring, Skinner, Stockton, Durbin, Wayland, Lyman Beecher, Park, Bushnell, Phelps, H. Ward Beecher, etc., etc. The French pulpit is best represented by Bossuet, Bourdaloue, Masaiet, among the Roman Catholics, and Saurin, Adolf Mo- nod, and Vinet, among the Reformed. — P. S.] *
* [We add a more complete list of distinguished deceased American preachers, selected almost entirely from Dr. W. B. Sprague's Annals of the American Pulpit, arranged by denominations and in chronological order. The list is, of course very incomplete, and a number of very eloquent and useful men are omitted, because they pnblished nothing, or wero poorly educated. The most eloquent preachers in the list are put in italics; those marlted (*) have left behind them one or more volumes of sermons ; those marked (t) have left nothing except in pamphlet form. — P. 8.]
CoHOEE&ATioKAi. (Trinitarian).
•Thomas Hooker Died, 1C47.
•Benjamin "Wadsworth "
•Benjamin Coleman, D. D.. "
"Jonathan Edwards "
tJohn Hooker "
tSamuel Cooper, V.D "
^Joseph BMamy, D.D..... "
tPeter Thatcher, D.D "
•Charles Backus, D. D "
•David Tappan, D. D "
•Nathan Strong, D. D "
• Timothy Dwight, D.D.... "
•Jesse Appleton, D.D "
tSamuel Spring, D. D "
•Joseph Lathrop, D.D "
•Samuel Worcester, D. D... "
*Davict Osgood, D.D "
fEdward Payson,D.D.... "
'Menezer Foiter, D.D... "
•Nathaniel Emmons, D. D.. "
tLeonard Woods, D. D "
•Joshua Bates, D.D "
»Lyman SeecUr, D.D.... " 1863.
Presbytekian.
•Jonathan Diokinaon Died, 1747.
tAaronBurr " 1757.
'Samuel Davies " 1761.
taObert Temient " 17C4
3
1737. 1747. 1758. 1777. 1788. 1790. 1802. 1803. 1808. 1816. 1817. 1819. 1819. 1820. 1821. 1822. 1827. 1834 1840. 1854. 1654.
|
tSamuel Pinley, D. D Died, 1766. |
|
|
••Jonathan Parsons |
" 1776. |
|
"John Wiiher&poon, D. D... |
" 1794 |
|
tSamuel Bnell, D. D |
" 1798. |
|
^John Blair Smith, D.D... |
" 1799. |
|
iJohn Blair Linn, D.D |
" 1804 |
|
*Samuel Stanlhope Smith, |
|
|
D.D., LL.D |
" 1819. |
|
* Sylvester Lamed |
" 1820. |
|
•John B. Eomeyn, D. D.. . . |
« 1825. |
|
*John Mitchell Mason, |
|
|
D.D |
" 1829. |
|
t John Holt Rice, D. D |
" 1831. |
|
♦ Willi. 1 m N'emn.i, D.D.... |
" 1835. |
|
*Edward Dorr Griffin, |
|
|
D.D |
" 18S7. |
|
* Daniel A. ClarJc |
" 1840. |
|
\John Breckenridge, D. D. |
" 1841. |
|
•James Eichards, D. D |
' 1843. |
|
•Ashbel Green, D.D |
' 1848. |
|
tSamuel Miller, D.D |
' 1850. |
|
'Archibald Alexander, |
|
|
D.D |
" 1851. |
|
•Erskine Mason, D.D |
" 1881. |
|
*Ichal>od Smith Spencer, |
|
|
D.D |
" 1854. |
|
♦Philip Lindsley, D.D |
" 1866. |
|
•James W. Alexander, |
|
|
D.D |
" 1869. |
|
tNxholaa Mirray, D. D |
" 1861, |
•Jos. Addisoii Alexander,
D.D Died, 186a
Episcopalian.
tSamucl Johnson, D.D Died, 1773,
*Kt. Ecv. Samuel Seabury,
D.D " 17961
tEt. Eev. John Henry Ho-
bart,D.D " 1830.
'Gregory Townsend Bedell,
D.D. " 1884
*Et. Eev. William White,
D.D " 188&
tSamuel Farmar Jaryls,
D.D.,LL.D " 1851
|
Baptist. |
|
|
*Samv,el Stittman, D. D.... |
Died, 1807. |
|
'Jonathan Maa'cy, D. D.... |
" 18201 |
|
tEichard Furman, D. D |
" 182,1 |
|
tThomas Baldwin, D. D |
" 1826. |
|
t William, Staughton, D. D. |
" 1829. |
|
♦ William Theophilm |
|
|
Brantley, D. D. |
" 1845. |
|
•Wm. Parkinson |
" 1848 |
|
iSpencer R. Cone |
" 185.V |
METnODIST.
•Thomas Coke, Lt. D Died, 1804
^Francis Aaiury
isia
34
GENERAL HOMILETICAL INTKODUCTION.
§4. PASTORAL OR FORMAL HOMILETICS.
Finding &/ the Subject. — This evidently depends on the above-mentioned tradi< tions of the church year, etc., and on circumstances which cannot be prescribed oi induced from without. Standing between the Word of God and the special wanta of his congregation, the minister must choose his theme according to his spiritual perception and peculiar disposition at the time. However obvious in the circum- stances a text may appear, yet the theme is always a discovery, or rather a gift from the Lord, a message to the Church, which can only be obtained or understood by prayer and meditation, by inward labor and spiritual meditation.
Division. — The sermon itself is the organic and artistic unfolding of the theme, showing the living connection between the text and the peculiar wants and cii cum> stances of the congregation.
The theine of the discourse constitutes the fundamental idea of the sermon, and, accordingly, must pervade the whole. It is generally expressed in a short, definite proposition (which accordingly is frequently called the theme). The theme must embody both the cause and the object of the discourse ; i.e., it must have a divine basis, and at the same time a divine aim, although, in the proposition, either the cause or the object may be more prominently brought forward. The different parts of the sermon naturally flow from the theme. It is the object of the introduction to prepare the audience for the theme. Again, the subject must be presented in a lucid manner. This is the object of the proposition and of the division. The execution aims at presenting the theme in all its fulness. Lastly, the subject is summed up and applied in the conclusion. The general object and benefit of the delivery is, that in it the living truth is directly communicated to the living soul.
The homily, in the narrower sense (or the familiar expository lecture), differs from the sermon, in that it follows not so much the logical order of the theme, as the order of the text, which in this case is generally a larger portion of Scripture. In the sermon, the main contents of the text are compressed and expressed in the theme and in its proposition, and afterward systematically expounded in tha various parts of the discourse. The distinction commonly made, of analytical and
'John Simijrurfleld Uieil, 1826.
tWilbur Fisk, D. D " i889.
'Henry Bidlermin ha^emn,
B.D " 1850.
'Stephen. Olln, D.D., LL.D. " 1851.
tElijall Heddlng, D. D " 1862,
• William Capers, D.D.... " 18b5.
Dtjtoh Reformed.
•Theodore Jacobus Freling-
huysen Died, 1751.
'William Lmn,D.D. " 1808.
^John N. Aieel, D.D. " 1812.
\John Renry lAvlTigstor^
D.D. " 1825.
JbJim. MelanchtJum Brad-
ford,D.D " 1826.
Mohn De Witt, D. D " 1881.
tPhllipMilledoler, D.D,.. " 1852.
MxKPb Brodhcad, D. D " 1865.
Germam Eepormed.
tMichael Schlatter Died,
»Charles Becller, D. D "
'Augustus Rauch, P. D.... "
EvANG. LttTHBKAN.
tHenry Melchlor Miihlen-
berg Died,
T Justus Henry Christian Hclmnth.D.D "
tCarl Rutlo^ph Demme, D.D "
ElFORMED PkESEYTERIAN.
tJames McKinrey Died,
'Alexander hlcL^vd^ D. D. *' tGUben Melftnsiei, !>. D.. . . "
ASBOOIATB RlFObunrt).
'James Gray. D.D. I>ied.
1790. 1818. 1841.
1787.
1804. 1888. 1854
'Alexander Proudjlt, D. D. Died, 184a ttTl M. Duncan, D.D " 1851
Unitarian. 'Jonathan Mayhew, D. D..
*John Clarlne, D. D
'Joseph Stephens Bv^ck'
minster
*Samuel Cooper Thacher... ♦Ablel Abbott, D.D. (of
Beverly)
*James Freeman, D. D
tJobn Thornton Kirkland,
D.D
* William EUery Ohan-
ning, D.D
'Henry Ware, Jr.., D.D... Francis William, Pitt
Gre&n,wood, D. D.
•W, B 0 PcBfccd.T, D.D...
Died, 176&
" 179a
" 1813
» 1817
" 1828
" 188C
" 1841
1S4( 184i
1841 1847
§4. PASTORAL OR FORMAL H0MILETIC8.
35
lynthetical discourses, is apt to mislead. Even the most analytical homily must be one in its idea and aim, otherwise it degenerates into a mere accidental exposition ; whUe the so-called synthetic or systematic sermon also must ever unfold the teaching of the word, if it is to be a sermon, and not merely a religious address. As inter mediate between the homily and the sermon, we may mention those compositions in which the two elements are combined, homiletic sermons and systematic homi ies.
The theme must be expressed in the proposition, briefly, clearly, strikingly, yet simply and not artificially. According to the text, or the circumstances of the case, or the state of the audience or of the speaker, it may be expressed either in a posi- tive sentence, or in the form of a query, or of an inscription ; in which latter case it resembles more closely the ancient homily, or the mental interchange between the congregation and the preacher.
Uniformity in presenting the subject would indicate a want of living interchange of thought with the people — a kind of dead scholasticism and formalism, unsuited to .<he pulpit. The same remark holds true in reference to the division, whith must not be determined simply according to the syntactic arrangement of the sentence, but flow from the subject by an interchange of thought and feeling between the preacher and the hearers.
The division of the sermon wUl therefore vary with our varying aim. StiU, it is always necessary to observe logical order, which may be expressed in the following rules. The division must, 1, embrace no more than the theme; 2, it must exhaust the theme ; 3, it must arrange it according to its essential synthetic parts ; 4, it must express the regular progress of these parts, from the cause to the final object, from the apxq to the riko's.
Meecution. — ^The same rules are here to be observed. The subject must be roperly grouped, without, however, allowing this arrangement to appear too promi- nently. So far as style is concerned it behoves us to remember that ours is sacred oratory, and that the effects aimed at are spiritual in their nature. Accordingly, we must equally avoid the extreme of vulgar familiarity, and that of philosophic poni- posity or of flowery poetry.
Delivery. — Here also art comes into play. The delivery of the discourse, in reference both to what is heard and what is seen (declamation and action), must not be rude nor unstudied. On the other hand, it must be free from extravagance or affectation. It must be natural, in the sense of corresponding to and expressing the subject treated, and yet distinctive, according to the individuality of the preacher, always bearing in mind that he is but the minister of the word.
Literature.* — The principal writers on Practi- cal Theology are Baxter, Burk, Seliwarz, Koster, Marheineke, HufFell, Harms, Gaupp, Nitzach, Schlei- ermacher, Moll, Ebrard. The chief works on Homi- letics are those of Sohott [translated in part by Dr. Park in earlier Tola, of the Bibliotheca Sacra. — P. S.], Theremin [trsl. by Dr. Shedd.— P. S.], Stier, Alex. Schweizer, Palmer, Baur, Yinet [trsl. by Dr. Sklnuer, — P. S.]. On the History of Pulpit
Eloquence, we refer to the works of Schuler, Ammon, Schmidt, Paniel, and Lentz, also Beyer : Baa Wesen per christl. Predigt, 1861, and Kirsch: Die popif lare Predigt, 1861. [Comp. Henry C. Fish: Hii- tory and Repository of Pulpit Eloquence (a collec- tion of the masterpieces of the greatest preachers of different ages and denominations, with biographi- cal sketches, and a masterly introductory essay by Dr Park, of Andover), New Tork, ISSY, 3 toIs.— P. S.
' [Omitted In tie Edinb. trsl. -P. S.]
36
HOMILETICAL INTRODUCTION TO THE NEW TESTAMENT.
FOURIH SECTION.
I'OMILETICAL INTRODUCTION TO TEE NEW TESTAMENT
The rules which we have already given apply specially to the honuletical treat- ment of the New Testament. It may be considered a mark of progress, that ia oiu days, more thari in the ancient Church, the New Testament is chosen as the subject of exposition ; although, on the other hand, Socinian and Rationalistic views may have led to a depreciation of tl Old Testament. In opposition to any such ten- dency, it is sufBcient to remark. v^_, the Apostles themselves based their teaching upon the Old Testament, and tha? the saying of Paul, in 2 Tim. iii. 16, applies to all times. Deeper and more spiritual views of the New Testament as the fulfilment of the Old, and that of all prophecies of creation and of ancient history, will lead ns, ip expounding the New Testament, ev/>' to refer to the Old, and thus to enrich aiiv explain, to enlarge and to quicken, . w addresses. The point to be always kept iii m'l'ij \ is tnis, that in Christ alone is all fulness.
Literature.* — 1. Ilomiletical and Practical Commentaries on the New Testament. C. H. Rie- ger : Betrachtungen iiber das N. T. znm Wachs- Ihum in der Gnade und Erhenntniss Jesu Cliristi. TiibiDgen, 1828, 2 vols. Heiibner: Fraktische Er- hlarung des N. T. Potsdam, 18C0, sqq. Besser : Bitelstundtn. Halle, 1854, sqq. Mad. Guyon : La Ste. Bible, avec des explications. Amsterd., I'ZIS-'IS, 20 vole. Also the commentaries of Ben- gel, Bogatzky, Goasner. [The best English commen- tavora for homiletical and practical use are Henry,
Scott, Gill, Doddridge, Burkitt, Barnes (Hodge on the Romans). Comp. also David Brown and others ; A. Commentary, Critical, Experimental, and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments Glasgow and London, 1863 sqq. — P. S.]
2. Expositions of the Pericopes, or Gospels and Epistles for the year. A large number of German sermon books of Herberger, Rambach, Harms, Stier, the two Hofackers, Kapff, Hirscher (R. Cath.), Lisco, etc.
* [Omitted in the EtJnb. tr«L -P. a]
APPENDIX.
Si
APPENDIX— Table ot the Anoibni Sokiptuee Lessons, or Gospels and Epistles for thk
StTNDATS OF THE YeAE.*
The Ooapels.
LAdveut Matt.xxLl-9.
2. " Luke xxL 26-36.
8. " Matt. xl. 2-10.
4. " JohnL19-28.
1. Christmaa Luke iL 1-14
The EpisUes.
Eom. xiit 11-14.
Rom. XV. 4-18.
1 Cor. Iv. 1-6.
PhU. iv. 4-7.
Tit. iL 11-14.
(Isa. ix. 2-7.)
*. " Luko li. 15-40. Tit. ill. 4r-7.
(St. Stephen's Day) Matt, xxia 34-39 Acts vl. 8-vii. 2.
3. ChriBtmas ; John i. 1-14. Hebr. i. 1-12.
(St. John's Day)... John XXL 20-24. 1 John i. Sunday after
OhrlstmaB Lnke il 38-40. Gal. iv. 1-7.
New Tear's Day ;
Oiroumoision.... Luke ii. 21. GaL iiL 23-29. Sunday after New
Tear. Matt. li. 18-23. 1 Pet. Iv. 12-19.
Epiphany Matt. IL 1-12. Isa. Ix. 1-6.
1. Sunday after
Epiphany Lnke ii. 41-62. Bom. zli. 1-6.
2. Sunday after
Epiphany John 11. 1-lL Rom. xU. 7-ia
8. Sunday after
Bpiphany Matt. vlU. 1-13. Bom. xlL 17-21.
4. Sunday after
Epiphany Matt. vUi. 23-27. Rom. xiil S-10.
6. Sunday after
Epiphany Matt. xiiL 24-30. CoL ill 12-17.
6. Sunday after
Epiphany Matt. xvii. 1-9. 2 Pet. 1. 16-21.
Septuagealma Matt. xx. 1-16. 1 Cor. Ix. 24-x 5.
Sexagesima Luke viii. 4-15. 2 Cor. xi. 19-xiL 9.
Kstomihit Luke xviii. 31-43. 1 Cor. xiii.
Invooavlt Matt. iv. 1-11. 2 Cor. vl 1-10.
Reminisoere Matt. xv. 21-28. 1 Thess. iv. 1-7.
Ooull Luke xi. 14-28. Bph. v. 1-9.
LsBtare John vl, 1-15. Gal. iv. 21-31.
Judioa John viii. 46-59. Hebr. ix. 11-16,
Palm Sunday Matt. xxi. 1-9. PhiL ii. 5-11.
Monnday Thursd'y John xili. 1-15. 1 Cor. xl 23-32.
Good Friday History of the Pas- Isa. liii.
sion.
1. Easter Mark xvi. 1-8. 1 Cor. v. 6-8.
2. " Luke xxiv. 13-36. Acts x. 34-41.
a. " Luke xxlv. 36-47. Acts xiil 26-33.
1. Sunday after Easter (Quasi-
modog.) John xx. 19-31. 1 John v. 4-10.
2. Sunday after Easter (Miser.
Dom.) Johnx.12-18. 1 Pet. 11 21-26.
3. Sunday after
Easter (Jubilate) John xvl 16-23. 1 Pet. 11 11-20.
4. Sunday after .
Easter (Cantate) John xvl. 5-15. James 1 16-21.
5. Sunday after
Easter (Bogate). John xvl 23-30. James 1 22-27.
Ascension Day.... Mark xvl 14-20. Acts 1 1-11.
6. Sunday after
Easter (Exaudl). John xv. 26-xvi. 4. 1 Pet. Iv. 8-lL
The Gospela. The Eplatlei.
l.Penteoost John xlv. 28-31. Acts 11 1-13.
2. " John ill 16-21. Acts x. 42-46.
S- " John X. 1-11. Acts viii 14-17.
Trinity Sunday.... John 111 1-15 Eom. xl 33-31
1. Sunday after
Trinity Luke xvl. 19-31. 1 John iv. 16-21,
2. Sunday after
Trinity Luke xiv. 16-24. 1 John iiilS-W
3. Sunday after
Trinity Luke xv. 1-10. 1 Pet. v. 6-11.
4. Sunday after
Trinity Luke vl. 36-42. Bom. vlil 18-28.
5. Sunday after
Trinity Luke v. 1-lL 1 Pet. in. 8-15.
6. Sunday after
Trinity Matt. v. 20-26. Rom. vl. S-11.
7. Sundiiy after
Trinity Mark viii. 1-9. Eor" -"d. 19-23.
8. Sunday after
Trinity Matt, vil 16-23. Rom. vill 12-11
9. Sunday after
Trinity Luke xvl 1-9. 1 Cor. x. 6-13.
10. Sunday after
Trinity Luke xlx. 41-48. 1 Cor. xll 1-11.
11. Sunday after
Trinity Luke xviii. 9-14. 1 Cor. xv. 1-10.
12 Sunday after Trinity Mark vil 31-37. 2 Cor. iii 4-11.
13. Sunday after
Trinity Luke x. 23-37. Gal ill 15-22.
14. Sunday after
Trinity Luke xvil 11-19. Gal. v. 16-24.
16. Sunday after Trinity Matt. vl. 24-34. Gal v. 26-t1 U
16. Sunday after
Trinity Luke vil 11-17. Eph. ill 13-21
17. Sunday after
Trinity Luke xiv. 1-11. Bph. Iv. l-fi.
18. Sunday after
Trinity Matt. xxU. 34-46. 1 Cor. 1 4-».
19. Sunday after
Trinity Matt. ix. 1-8. Eph. iv. 22-28i
20. Sunday after
Trinity Matt, xxa 1-14. Eph. v. 16-21.
21. Sunday after
Trinity John iv. 47-54 Eph. vl 10-17.
22. Stmday after
Trinity Matt, xviii. 23-35. PhU. 1 S-IL
23. Sunday after
Trinity Matt, xxil 15-22. PhiL lU. 17-21
24. Sunday after
Trinity Matt. li. 18-26. Col 1 9-14
25. Sunday after
Trinity Malt. xxiv. 16-28. 1 Thess. Iv. 13 -W
26. Sunday after
Trinity Matt. xxv. 31-46. 2 Pet. Ill »-14
27. Sunday after
Trinity Matt. xxv. 1-13. 1 Thess. v. 1-11
* [This Table Is likewise omitted in the Edb. trsl. But as It belongs to the homiletical character of this Commeiy tary and is frequently referred to In the Homiletical sections, we have retained it with the exception of the Apostlerf Days, and Days of the Virgin Mary, which are very rarely oViserved among Protestants. The old series of Gospels an^ Epistles is essentially the same in the Rom. Cath., Luth., Episcop. , and Genu. Reform. Churches with a few variationB Compare the Tables in the Eplsc. Common Prayer Book, in the Germ. Ref. Liturgy of 1857, pp. 30-33, and in manj Lutheran and Reformed Liturgies and Hymn Books. — P. S.]
t [This and the following Latin titles are the Initial words of the Introductory Latin Psalms appointed for theat ■everal Sundays in the Latin Church. — P. S.J
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW;
OB,
THE GOSPEL OF THEOOEATIO HISTORF
{SYMBOLIZED £Y THE SAGRIFIQIAL BULLOCK.)
INTRODUCTION.
51 DISTINCTIVE CHAEACTERISTIC8 OF THE FIRST GOSPEL.
The genealogy at the beginning of the Gospel of Matthew is of the greatest importance. The first Gospel connects the New Testament most intimately with the Old, not by an index of the writings of the Old Testament, but by the Old Testament genealogy of Jesus. Thii serves as evidence of the Indissoluble connection between the Old and the New Testament, which continued in the secret recesses of Jewish life even during the age of the Apocrypha. It expresses at the same time the important truth, that God's revelation was carried on not only by the spoken and written word, but also, and chiefly, in and by the seed of Abraham, through a succession of living men, until it reached its climax in the personal iacarnation, in Christ.
In the Gospel by Matthew, the life of Jesus is presented as forming part of the history and life of the Jewish nation ; and hence as the fulfilment of the hereditary blessing of Abraham. Jesus is here set before us as the new-born King of the Jews, as the promised Messiah, and the aim and goal of every progressive stage of the Theocracy. He is the great Antitype of Old Testament history, in whom everything has been fulfilled — the types in the law, in worship, in historical events, and in gracious interpositions — ^in short, the fulfilment of the Theocracy. In ■nd with Him the Old Covenant is transformed into the New, the Theocracy into the kingdom of heaven, the demands of the law into the beatitudes, Sinai into the Mount of Beatitudes, the prophetic into the teaching ofiice, the priesthood into redemption by sufiering, and the kingship into the triumph of almighty grace, restoring, helping, and delivering a fallen world.
But as Christ formed both the central truth and the crown of the entire history of the Old Covenant, His life, and the perfect revelation of God in Him, were necessarily opposed to the carnal and spurious form which Judaism had assumed in that age, or the historical traditiona.- ism of the Scribes. This claimed to expound the full import of the law of Moses, and assumea the appearance of strictest conformity to its requirements, but, in point of fact, it perverted tM Old Testament into a series of outward ordinances, utterly destructive of the spirit of the law, nd which from their very nature evoked scepticism on the one hand, and false spiritualism on «De other, while they necessarily led to the decay of national life. The truth of this statement
iO TEE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW.
appears but too clearly from the connectaon of the Judaism of the Pharisees and Scribes witl the scepticism of the Sadducees, the false spiritualism of the Essenes, and the semi-heathen and semi-Jewish rule of Herod the Idumaaan. This essential antagonism between true and falsa Judaism accounts for the persecution and the sufferings of the Christ of God. In truth, Hi« life was a continuous conflict between the real and the spurious King of Israel, between th« true Prophet and the spurious claims of the Scribes and Pharisees, between the true High Priest and a carnal priesthood. This contest issued in His death upon the cross.
Hence Christ is at the same time the heir of the blessing and the heir of the curse, which descended upon Him through the successive ages of history. Viewed in Himself, as the Son of God and the Son of Man, He is the great Heir of the blessing of Abraham, and of humanity in general ; for from the first the human family was elected and blessed in Him. On the other hand, in His history, — i. e., through the connection subsisting between His sinless divine-human Person and His guilty and sin-laden brethren, — the curse due, in the first place, to His people Israel, and in the next, to all mankind, is seen to descend and to meet upon Him. But by Hia world-conquering