reader is now to judge. Perhaps it may be thought that I have mistaken the meaning of some passages of Scripture. All that I can say for myself is this only; that in the explication of so many, it is well if I have not; that I have sincerely endeavored to follow truth, being very little solicitous where it led me; that, if I have failed, yet this I am sure of, that my intentions were good and upright. But if I have made it appear, that the writers of the New Testament argue strictly and very rationally, even in those points where our adversaries represent them as arguing very weakly and absurdly, I hope I have done no disservice to the cause of Christ." (Preface to Sykes's "Essay on the Truth of the Christian Religion.")

Cambridge, Massachusetts, April 4th, 1854.

* These books contain no such reference to the Old Testament as to

bring them within the plan of the present work.

NOTES

ON

PASSAGES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT.

PART I.

NARRATIVE BOOKS.

SECTION I.

GOSPEL OF MATTHEW.

I. 1.*

Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

THESE titles, applied to Jesus, the founder of our religion, refer to the Old Testament, and must be explained from it.

1. Jesus is surnamed Christ. The Greek word Christ (xporos) and the Hebrew word Messiah (χριστός) (p) are equivalent. (John i. 41.) They both mean anointed. Part of the ceremony of inducting the Jewish kings into their office consisted in pouring a perfumed oil upon their heads. (Judges ix. 8; 1 Sam.

I shall not treat the question respecting the genuineness of the first two chapters of Matthew's Gospel. The external evidence against them consists in a statement of Epiphanius (A. D. circ. 360) that they were wanting from the copies in the hands of the Ebionites ("Sanct. Epiph. Opp.," "Adv. Hær.," cap. xxx. § 13, Tom. I. p. 138, edit. Petav.), a statement thought to derive confirmation from a notice by Eusebius ("Hist. Eccles.," Lib. iii. cap. 27), as well as by earlier fathers, of the disbelief of some of the Jewish Christians in the doctrine of the miraculous conception. The internal evidence, which resolves itself mainly into the question of a reconciliation of the passage with the introduction to Luke's Gospel, is discussed by Mr. Norton ("Evidences of the Genuineness of the Gospels," Vol. I., Additional Notes, pp. liii. - lxii.) with his characteristic eminent ability.

ix. 16; x. 1; xvi. 13; 2 Sam. ii. 4; v. 3; xix. 10; 1 Kings i. 39; Ps. ii. 2; xx. 6.)

Now the "prophet" who had been predicted by the founder of the Jewish institutions, and described by Moses as "like unto himself" (Deut. xviii. 15 – 18), had, in the course of time, come to be conceived of by the nation under the different character of a king. (Comp. John i. 41, 45, 49.) How this conception grew up, I have explained at large in another work, to which I refer, instead of here going again over the same ground. ("Lectures on the Jewish Scriptures and Antiquities," Vol. II. pp. 377-386; III. 18-21; IV. 306, 307.) From the age of David down, the advent of that illustrious personage, of David's blood, who was to exalt his country to a vast dominion, and make Jerusalem, his capital, the admiration and delight of the whole earth, was the darling hope of every Jew. In their times of prosperity, they had looked for the speedy fulfilment of that hope. In their depression and distress, it had been their resource against despair. It was not only, as some writers seem to suppose, at the era of the first Cæsars, that they were expecting their royal hero. They were looking for him in every period from that of the foundation of their monarchy, and especially in every period when the aspect of public affairs seemed so doleful that no help, short of his, would avail.

As this person, according to their erroneous conception, was to be a king in the common acceptation of that word, a fit name for him was the anointed (comp. e. g. 2 Sam. ii. 7; iii. 39), the Christ, the Messiah. This particular name, it is true, does not appear to have been ever applied to him by any Old Testament writer, unless we understand him to be designated by the word in a Psalm probably written by David. (Ps.