The Right and Wrong Uses of the Bible Part 22

"Republic," Book II.

[27] How then are we to know what words and deeds express the mind of G.o.d, are words of the Lord, examples He presents for our imitation? By the mind of G.o.d manifest in 'the express image of His person?' All morality and religion is to be tried by 'the mind which was in Christ,' 'the spirit of Christ which dwelleth in us.'

[28] In what is said above there la no positive denial intended of the Old Testament miracles. We are in no position to deny them. The point is simply that they are not bounden on us in any reasonable and reverent recognition of a real historical revelation in the Old Testament, and need trouble no one who cannot receive them. The miracles of Christ, when reduced to the wonders reported by the conjoint testimony of the synoptics,--_i.e._, to the common tradition of the early church, stand apart from all other Scripture miracles; having a reasonable and natural character as the powers of such a personality, and coming within the ken of our visions of possibility. They are imaged In the well attested powers of rare men. They appear as in no wise violations of law, but as the manifestations of nature's laws and forces worked by the normal man, having 'dominion' over the earth. "The wise soul expels disease."

[29] So judicious a commentator as Dean Alford, in his introduction to the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians, discussing the vexed question of the Daniel-like section in the third chapter, so wholly unlike Paul observes:

"If we have" (in any sense, G.o.d speaking in the Bible) "then, of all pa.s.sages, it is in these, which treat so confidently of futurity, that we must recognize His voice; if we have it not in these pa.s.sages, _then, where are we to listen for it at all_?"--Greek Testament III:64.

[30] "History of American Socialisms,"--Noyes.--p. 608.

[31] "To understand that the language of the Bible is fluid, pa.s.sing and literary, not rigid, fixed and scientific, is the first step towards a right understanding of the Bible."--_Literature and Dogma_.--p. xii.

[32] The revised version calls the attention of English readers to this latter influence, in the marginal rendering of "_Tartarus_" for "h.e.l.l" in 2 Peter, 11: 4.

[33] Luther's strong sense detected his unevangelicalness.

[34] Ewald says the tenth century, and Kuenen the eighth century.

[35] Ask at Abel and at Dan whether the genuine old statutes of Israel have lost their force?--2 Samuel, xx. 18. Restored by Ewald from the LXX.

[36] Such a late codification is no more inconceivable than Justinian's codification of Roman law.

[37] Brook Foss Westcott. Smith's Bible Dictionary: article on Daniel.

[38] "The Bible of To-day," Chadwick, p. 50.

[39] Of this process we see hints in the various references to the consecration of great trees and stones to Jehovah.

[40] The indications of this nature-worship lie scattered on the surface of the Old Testament so plainly that no one can fail to notice them.

[41] "Among the Edomites, Ishmaelites, Ammonites and Moabites--the tribes with which Israel felt itself most nearly related--the service of the rigorous and destroying G.o.d was most prominent The very names for G.o.d which are most common among them--Baal, El, Molech, Milcom, Chemosh--are enough to show this. These names denote the mighty, violent, death-dealing G.o.d." "The Religion of Israel," Knappert, p. 29. These names constantly recur in the early history of Israel. Jephthah's vow is a familiar instance of this abhorrent rite. Circ.u.mcision is supposed to mark a merciful compromise with this blood-gift; in addition to its sanitary character.

[42] We know from general history how among other people the homage paid to the productive powers of nature led to systematized prost.i.tution, in the name of the personification of this force of nature. Tradition records how early in this period the Midianites seduced Israel temporarily from Jehovah, by the licentious pleasures of their worship of Baal-Peor. Later on in history we find that it is these impure rites that especially provoke the anger of the prophets.

[43] The sun symbols may not have been permanent features of the Temple-worship at this period, though, from the probable identification of the early Jehovah with the sun, it seems likely that their presence there was no casual fact.

[44] 2 Kings, xxiii. 6, 7.

[45] Isaiah, i. 11-17.

[46] Micah, vi. 6-8.

[47] Isaiah, xi. 2-5.

[48] Isaiah, v. 8; iii. 14, 15.

[49] Cf. Exodus, xxiii, 10, 11 (the earliest code) with Deuteronomy, xv.

1-18.

[50] The latter seems the probable influence of Persia. At all events, from this time Hebrew literature shows the gradual development of an angelic hierarchy.

[51] The comparison of the earlier prophetic writings with the exilic prophecies, and with the later writings, such as Jonah, Ecclesiastes, &c., will ill.u.s.trate this change.

[52] Ezekiel's vision of the valley of dry bones is the earliest appearance of this thought in any writing of whose date we are certain.

[53] And thou shalt-number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the s.p.a.ce of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years. Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubilee to sound on the tenth _day_ of the seventh month, in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land. And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout _all_ the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family. A jubilee shall that fiftieth year be unto you: ye shall not sow, neither reap that which groweth of itself in it, nor gather _the grapes_ in it of the vine undressed. For it _is_ the jubilee; it shall be holy unto you: ye shall eat the increase thereof out of the field. In the year of this jubilee ye shall return every man unto his possession. And if thou sell ought unto thy neighbor, or buyest _ought_ of thy neighbor's hand, ye shall not oppress one another: According to the number of years after the jubilee thou shalt buy of thy neighbor, _and_ according unto the number of years of the fruits he shall sell unto thee: According to the mult.i.tude of years thou shalt increase the price thereof, and according to the fewness of years thou shalt diminish the price of it: for _according_ to the number _of the years_ of the fruits doth he sell unto thee. Ye shall not therefore oppress one another; but thou shalt fear thy G.o.d: for I _am_ the Lord your G.o.d.

The land shall not be sold for ever: for the land _is_ mine; for ye _are_ strangers and sojourners with me. And in all the land of your possession ye shall grant a redemption for the land.

And if thy brother be waxen poor, and fallen in decay with thee; then thou shalt relieve him: _yea, though he be_ a stranger, or a sojourner; that he may live with thee. Take thou no usury of him, or increase: but fear thy G.o.d; that thy brother may live with thee. Thou shalt not give him thy money upon usury, nor lend him thy victuals for increase. I _am_ the Lord your G.o.d, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, _and_ to be your G.o.d. And if thy brother _that dwelleth_ by thee be waxen poor, and be sold unto thee; thou shalt not compel him to serve as a bondservant: _But_ as an hired servant, _and_ as a sojourner, he shall be with thee, _and_ shall serve thee unto the year of jubilee: And _then_ shall he depart from thee, _both_ he and his children with him, and shall return unto his own family, and unto the possession of his fathers shall he return. For they _are_ my servants, which I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: they shall not be sold as bondmen. Thou shalt not rule over him with rigor; but shalt fear thy G.o.d.--Leviticus xxv. 8 _et seq._

Fenton, "Early Hebrew Life," has, I think, given the clue through the difficulties of the jubilee-year legislation. He traces the early communal character of Hebrew society, its gradual break-up under the encroachments of manorial lords, and the natural efforts of the people to regain their communal rights. "But how remedy the evil? How restore to the communities their old rights and privileges, without unduly trenching upon rights and possessions that had since been acquired? The year of Jubilee is the Hebrew solution of the problem," (p 71). It was a compromise; the old seventh year communal right adjourned to seven times seven years, and enlarged. Fenton quotes a curious survival, in the borough of Newtown-upon-Ayr, of this very compromise between the old and the new social systems--a Scottish Jubilee.

It is a queer sign of the disproportionate development of individual religion in our current Christianity, that this social and economic legislation should have been so spiritualized away as to leave no consciousness of its original character in the minds of those who sing in our prayer-meetings that "The year of Jubilee is come."

[54] The Dialogues of Plato: Jowett's edition, II. 106.

[55] Matthew Arnold in _Contemporary Review_, xxiv. 800; xxv. 508.

[56] The Friend: Essay x.

[57] Sacred Books of the East: I. ix. _et seq._

[58] Confessions of Augustine: Book X. -- vi.

[59] Exodus, xx. 31.

[60] Richard Hooker: Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, Book I., ch. xvi. -- 8.

[61] Le Page Renouf: Hibbert Lectures, 1879, p. 250.

[62] Hibbert Lectures, 1879, p. 279.

[63] G.o.d in Christ, p. 93.