Inspiration and Interpretation Part 26

OPEN THOU MINE EYES THAT I MAY SEE THE WONDROUS THINGS OF THY LAW!

?? ??G?S ??T?O?O?, ???? ??TOS ?S??? ???TOS ??G?S T???.

FOOTNOTES:

[390] Preached in Christ-Church Cathedral, Dec. 9th, 1860.

[391] See Sermon VII.

[392] Ibid.

[393] Gen. x.x.xvi.

[394] See the Hulsean Lectures for 1833, (_The Law of Moses viewed in connexion with the History and character of the Jews, with a defence of the Book of Joshua_, &c.) by Henry John Rose, B.D.

[395] 2 St. Peter i. 21.

[396] 1 St. Peter i. 11.

[397] "With the idea of a Prophet," (says Gesenius in his Hebrew Lexicon, on the noun,) "there was this necessarily attached; that he spoke not his own words, but those which he had divinely received; (see Philo, t. iv. p. 116, ed. Pfeifferi,--p??f?t?? ??? ?d??? ?? ??d??

?p?f????eta?, ????t??a d? p??ta ?p?????t?? ?t????); and that he was the messenger of G.o.d, and the declarer of His will. This is clear from a pa.s.sage of peculiar authority in this matter, (Ex. vii. 1,)--where G.o.d says to Moses,--'I have made thee a G.o.d to Pharaoh; and Aaron thy brother _shall be thy prophet_.'" ... Elsewhere, (speaking of the Hebrew verb, 'to prophesy,') Gesenius has the following remarkable statement:--"The _pa.s.sive forms_, Niphal and Hithpael, are used in this verb; from the Divine Prophets having been _supposed to be moved rather by another's powers than their own_." (Just as if the Oracles of G.o.d were not express on the subject! viz. "No prophecy ever came by the will of Man; but, [because they were] borne along (fe??e???) by the HOLY GHOST, spake those holy men of G.o.d."--2 St. Pet. i. 21.)

???f?t??, in fact, means 'an interpreter' rather than 'a prophet,'

(for which, in our popular sense, the Greek is rather ??t??:) hence the use of the words p??f?t??, p??f?te??, p??f?te?a in the New Testament, e.g. 1 Thess. v. 20. 1 Cor. xi. 4: xii. 10. Rom. xii. 6, (where see Wordsworth.) See also 1 Cor. xiv. 1, 3, 4, 5, &c.: in all which places, the p??f?t?? was what we should rather now call _a preacher_. But then, the expounding of G.o.d'S Word is the special function of the preacher's office from which he takes this name.--The reader is referred to Blomfield's Glossary, _Agam._ v. 399, and to Liddell and Scott's _Lexicon_; (in both of which, some important references are given:) also to Trench's _Synonyms of the New Testament_, pp. 22-26.

[398] See above, pp. 2-5.--The reader will find an interesting pa.s.sage based on this a.n.a.logy, in the Appendix (F).

[399] _a.n.a.logy_, P. II. c. vii.--The same thing has been more fully expressed in a volume of Sermons which deserves to be far better known than it is:--"I suppose that if there is one portion of the Old Testament which a discriminator would set aside as less needing to be reckoned inspired than other parts, it is the Historical; the books which are strictly narrative. Now it may seem to have been providentially ordered, in the purpose of meeting this view, that these books are made to bear on them most peculiarly the stamp and the claim of Inspiration. For they do not profess to be so much the account of what Man did, as what G.o.d did in ruling men, and guiding human events.

They are a history of a providential course of events, and, (which is the point,) as seen from the providential point of view. They are a history written not on Earth, but above the skies. Events are spoken of therefore in this view. A man's obduracy is recorded thus,--'G.o.d hardened his heart.' A king numbers his people; it is recorded as a thing suggested in the spiritual world. In fact, the historic volume of the Old Testament is a history of the secret springs of things; it is a narrative of things which none but G.o.d ALMIGHTY could know; not Man's Word therefore at all, but G.o.d'S."--_Sermons_, by the Rev. C. P. Eden, pp. 153-155. Several other extracts from the same suggestive volume of a very excellent Divine, will be found in the Appendix.

[400] Eccl. iii. 14. So Deut. iv. 2: xii. 32. Rev. xxii. 19.

[401] See the Appendix (G).

[402] Hooker's _Eccl. Pol._, B. 1. c. ii. -- 2

[403] See above, p. 77.

[404] _The Inspiration of the Bible, five Lectures_, by Chr. Wordsworth, D.D. 1861,--p. 5.

[405] For some remarks on Theories of Inspiration, see the Appendix (H.)

[406] "Quicquid Ille de Suis factis et dictis nos legere voluit, hoc scribendum illis tanquam Suis manibus imperavit."

[407] St. Matth. x. 9.

[408] E.g. ?e?t?????: spe?????t??: ??st??.

[409] Comp. St. Luke viii. 43, with St. Mark v. 26.

[410] The reader will be grateful for a beautiful and highly suggestive pa.s.sage from Eden's _Sermons_, in the Appendix (I.)

[411] Alluding to a sermon preached by the Provost of Queen's.

[412] Ecclus. iii. 19.

[413] Ps. cxi. 10. Prov. ix. 10.

[414] Ps. cxix. 100.

[415] Ps. xix. 8.

[416] St. Mark xii. 24.

[417] Job xlii. 5.

[418] See above, p. 95-99.

[419] St. Luke iii. 1.

[420] Ibid. iii. 36.

[421] Ibid. ii. 2.

[422] St. Mark ii. 26.

[423] St. Matth. xxvii. 9.

[424] St. John xix. 14.

[425] St. Matth. xiii. 29.

[426] Heb. ix. 8.

[427] 1 Cor. ix. 9 and 1 Tim. v. 18.

[428] St. Mark ii. 26.

[429] All will be found more fully insisted upon at the beginning of the VIIth Sermon.

[430] St. Luke xx. 37-8.

[431] St. Matth. xxii. 41-6.

[432] St. John x. 34-6.

[433] 'Essayists and Reviewers' would reply, that in the first instance, the supposed inference has no connexion with the premisses:--that in the second, (1) it has to be proved that the person intended in Psalm cx. is CHRIST; and (2) it does not follow, because David calls him "lord," that the person so spoken of is not his "son:"--that in the third instance, 'G.o.ds' is used in Psalm lx.x.xii. of _earthly_ rulers; whereas, when our SAVIOUR called Himself "the SON of G.o.d," He claimed to be "_of one substance with the FATHER,--G.o.d of G.o.d_."