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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 (xplorós) and the Hebrew word Messiah (χριστός) () 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.

ii. 2; comp. "Lectures on the Jewish Scriptures," &c., Vol. IV. p. 317.) But no fact is more familiar to a reader of the New Testament, than that, in the time of Jesus, the word was in constant use among the Jews in the application which I have described.

Erroneous as was the apprehension entertained by the Jews concerning the illustrious personage who, in God's good time, was to appear among them, it was, however, founded upon a basis of truth. It had had its origin in the revelation, which, fifteen centuries before, Moses had been inspired to utter, that God would send to them "a prophet," or teacher, to be, like Moses, the publisher of new truth, and the founder of new institutions. In the ages after Moses, the genuine idea expressed in his words had, through natural tendencies of the human mind, been obscured, and its prime element had been made secondary. It was still believed that God's new messenger would be a "prophet," that is, a teacher. But it was believed that he would execute this office, that he would extend the truth, chiefly by his victorious arms; and the attributes of the religious reformer were subordinated in the popular thought to those of the powerful and magnificent sovereign.

Jesus was the personage whom Moses had predicted. The Jews of the time of Jesus were looking for the personage predicted by Moses, though, like their ancestors from a time at least as far back as that of David, they so greatly misconceived his character. It was the personage foretold by Moses, ill as they understood him, that they had in view when they spoke of the Messiah, or Christ. Jesus, therefore, when the time came for him to assert his claims distinctly (Matt. xvi. 13-17), rightly claimed to be the person denoted by that title. (" Lectures," &c., Vol. II. pp. 382-384.)

Matthew, in the verse before us, omitting the definite article, uses the word Christ like a proper name. He does not say "Jesus the Christ," but "Jesus Christ." The explanation of this is, that, after Jesus had come to be fully recognized by his disciples as the Messiah who had been expected, his proper name and his official name became to them equivalent. During his stay on earth, the word Christ does not appear ever to have been applied to him except in the sense of the official designation. After his ascension, it almost, in the use of his disciples, superseded that of Jesus as his proper appellative, an effect to which, as Dr. Campbell well remarks, the commonness of the name Jesus among the Jews may have contributed. (“The Four Gospels Translated," &c., Vol. I. p. 225.)

I. 2-6.

Abraham begat Isaac . and Jesse begat David the king.

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From Judah, great-grandson of Abraham, to King David, the genealogy recorded by Matthew is, with slight differences in the forms of some names, the same as that in two passages of the Old Testament, which were probably his authority for it. (Ruth iv. 18-22, and 1 Chron. ii. 4-12.) The tracing of the parentage of Jesus through Jacob and Isaac up to Abraham, connects him with the promises to those patriarchs recorded in the book of Genesis (xxii. 18; xxvi. 4; xxviii. 14).

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This is nearly the same genealogy as that in the First Book of Chronicles (iii. 10-19). Three names and de

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