Note 150 — IV. PREPARATION IN HISTORY FOR CHRIST.
Reading edition
S. Matt. xiii. 52; v. 17.
[151] S. Matt. xxi. 33-38.
[152] S. Matt. v. 12; xxiii. 30-37.
[153] S. Mark xiv. 49; S. Luke xxii. 37.
[154] S. Luke xxiv. 25, 26, 44.
[155] Gal. iv. 9.
[156] Rom. xvi. 26. So the pages of the early apologists are to our feeling almost cumbered by the profuseness of their appeal to these Scriptures.
[157] S. John i. 1, 14, 9, 10.
[158] Ep. cii. 12.
[159] De Carne Christi vi. Eum Christum qui jam tunc et adloqui ... humanum genus ediscebat in carnis habitu: cp. adv. Prax. xvi. ediscebat Deus in terris cum hominibus conversari.
[160] S. Matt. xi. 4, 5; xii. 39; xvi. 3.
[161] Hdt. i. 142.
[162] Clem. Alex. Protrept. cx. init.
[163] 1 Cor. i. 21.
[164] Wordsworth, Excursion iv.
[165] Ἀταραξία (Epicurean): αὐτάρκεια.
[166] The words 'era of Christianity' are used intentionally rather than the more precise 'era of Christ,' because anything which (without being influenced unless in the most impalpable way by Christianity) prepared the world through the first and even the second century of the era to receive the Gospel may be fairly included as preparation for the revelation of Christ.
[167] Capes, Age of Antonines.
[168] Philosophy of the Greeks: Eclectics, p. 20 (tr. Alleyne).
[169] Gospel of the Resurrection (3rd ed.), p. 72. It is interesting to notice that according to so dispassionate an observer as M. Gaston Boissier (La Religion Romaine d'Auguste aux Antonins), who has done so much to trace the better tendencies of the Imperial period, the evidence suggests some such distinction, even as regards some of the main practical results of Christianity. For example, there was a tendency to ameliorate slavery on principles of general humanity, but there was no hint of a possibility of an end to slavery. There were some signs of mutual interest between classes, but no progress towards the effective appearance of a true philanthropy such as the Christian. In such cases, however, the validity of the distinctions must be debatable and fluctuating. It is absolute as regards the Incarnation.
[170] Bk. V. c. xi. The New Monarchy.
[171] Edersheim's Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah: Schürer, History of the Jewish People in the time of Jesus Christ.
[172] Schürer, II. ii. 273.
[173] Schürer, II. ii. 297.
[174] Tac. Hist. v. 4.
[175] Schürer, II. ii. 308.
[176] Acts xvii. 5, xiv. 5, xiii. 50, 44.
[177] Acts xiii. 43, &c.
[178] Acts xv. 21.
[179] Isaiah xxxvi. 18.
[180] Hibbert Lectures, 1882, p. 231.
[181] Nineteenth Century, April, 1886.
[182] Isaiah x. 15; xi. 1; Zeph. iii. 12.
[183] Hosea xi. 1.
[184] Amos ix. 7.
[185] Ezekiel xvi. 3.
[186] It is interesting to note that, according to the record preserved by Israel of their own history, that which Kuenen says of later time,—that 'at each turning-point of the history stands a man who claims to bring a word from God.'—is exactly true of the older history too; Abraham, Moses, Samuel, David, are all in this sense prophets. Yet there is no appearance of a later age forming a past in its own likeness. The prophets do not imagine an earlier row of prophets like themselves, put in like the portraits of the early Scottish kings at Holyrood, to fill the blanks of history. The early figures are not cut to prophetic pattern; they have each their distinct individuality of character and office, only they have a unity of Divine commission and service.
[187] Pensées, ii, 7 § 2.
[188] S. Matt. xii 45. It should be observed that the words were spoken of 'this wicked generation.'
[189] 1 Cor. i. 22.
[190] S. John iv. 25.
[191] S. Luke xvii. 20.
[192] S. Matt. xii. 38; S. John vi. 30, 31, in each case following some of our Lord's own signs.
[193] This comes before us vividly in Justin Martyr's account of his own conversion. Dial. c. Tryph. 3 ff. 'Thus and for this reason I am a philosopher.'
[194] S. Matt. xvi. 16.