tion of the day preserved in document P§60-another minor indication, it may be, that P §60 ought to be regarded as belonging to the final discourse.

Interpreted independently, the parable of the Pounds or Talents seems to have been intended by Jesus as one form of inculcating faithfulness in the use of the powers possessed by his disciples, especially faithfulness in the period when he should no longer be with them, and is eminently appropriate as such to the last days of his life. By means of the parable of the Ten Virgins Jesus sought, it seems, to guard his disciples against the possible error of interpreting his references to the day of the Son of man as implying that he would soon return to their midst again; they would prove themselves "wise" who were prepared for the indefinite prolongation of the period to elapse before "that day."

The influences at work in effecting the observed modifications in the reports of these two parables as now found in document MK 13:33-37 and in document P§§27-30 are probably to be credited with the peculiarly isolated fragment in document P§28 which Matthew has inserted from that document as Matt. 24:43, 44. The conception of the day of the Lord as a thief had currency very early as a part of the apostolic thought, as is witnessed by the appearance of the figure in Paul's earliest letter, I Thess. 5:1-6:

But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that aught be written unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. When they are saying, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall in no wise escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. So then let us not sleep, as do the rest, but let us watch and be sober.

...

The form in which the fragment in P §28 is reported assumes that the day has already been described as like a thief, and takes that as its starting-point. It is, therefore, apparently the outgrowth of a current idea rather than the origin of it. No stronger testimony to the confused state of the reports in document P §§27-30 can be cited than that which forces itself upon one when there is an earnest endeavor to give some intelligibility in this context to the words in P $29A.

That the early apostolic age felt great freedom in the application of the parables of Jesus to specific conditions which confronted the Christian community is evidenced not only by the treatment accorded to these two parables of the final discourse, but also in the use made of another parable which has been brought by document P into immediate contact with the portrayal of the day of the Son of man, P §61. Taken apart from the editorial introduction to it, and the reputed application of it by Jesus, this parable would probably be interpreted by the reader of today as the other member of a pair, the first of which is reported in P§14. It would be thought that the two parables taught a common truth and urged a common attitude, that of importunity in prayer as effective for whatever object is sought by the suppliant. That some specific longing of the disciple is not in the mind of Jesus is made evident by the very general scope of petition as defined by what follows the first parable in P §15, where the terms used cover the whole ground of the disciples' need and desire. But even by the reportorial introduction to the parable in P §61 it is shown that this parable had come to be regarded as intended by Jesus to apply to a specific situation, namely, to the period in which faith would wane and the spirit grow faint because of deferred hope. When one passes from the parable proper to its application there is met at once the apparent evidence of the lateness of the origin of this application. Jesus is referred to as "the Lord," a mode of designation practically peculiar in the gospels to document P, and already seen to be one of the marks of the comparatively late date at which the settings of P were framed. The Christian community is described as "his elect," a form of designation found elsewhere in the gospels only in the eschatological addition to the document M report of the parable of the Marriage Feast or Great Supper, M §23, and in three verses of the final discourse, which, on wholly independent grounds, are regarded as later accretions, document MK 13:20, 22, 27. The situation of "his elect" is clearly portrayed; they are in the midst of drastic persecution from which they long for relief. It has elsewhere been seen how the persecution experiences affected the report of many sayings of Jesus, the tendency being to adapt them more explicitly to the needs of actual history. The relief which is prayed for and hoped for is plainly indicated; it is that which is to come through the bringing-in

of "redemption" by the Son of man. That which is "redemption" for the disciples will be "distress" for their persecutors; by that "distress" God will "avenge them speedily." The object of this specific application of the parable is to arrest defection and strengthen waning faith under persecution that goes on while the dominant hope of the community, the expectation of the return, is being indefinitely postponed. This sketch of a waning faith under persecution is similar to that which is provided by the Matthaean summary of the early apostolic age in the editorial portion Matt. 24: 10-12, "the love of the many shall wax cold." An effective appeal for loyalty is made by the suggestive question with which the reputed exposition closes, "Howbeit when the Son of man cometh, shall he find the faith on the earth ?" Within this question, the appearance of the designation "the faith," as a summary of that which is vital, may be taken as another indication of the comparatively late date of the exposition as a whole.

In any final judgment as to the source of this application of the parable, account must be taken of the fact that its intended result is to give the assurance to those who are longing and praying for relief that this relief will not be long deferred-"he will avenge them speedily;" their desire for the day of the Son of man will soon be realized. But in the exposition of the day of the Son of man by Jesus as recorded in the preceding section, P §60, he had expressly told his disciples that it was vain for them to desire the day of the Son of man in the period of the distresses which were coming upon them after his death, "Days will come when ye shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of man, and ye shall not see it." It can hardly be credited that Jesus followed this assertion by the promise of speedy intervention on their behalf through the coming of the Son of man.

The apparently inevitable conclusion from the study of the hortatory element in the final discourse on the future, both as recorded in document MK and as recorded in that section of document P (P §61) which follows upon the portion of document P (P §60) which probably belongs to the final discourse, is that the parable in P §61 has X been brought into a service not intended by Jesus, and that the two parables in the document MK report of the discourse (MK 13:33-37) I Compare Luke 21:25-28.

See pp. 145-47.

are fragmentarily recorded and confusedly interpreted, the more complete reports being made by document M §§24, 25, these more complete reports bearing on their surface the truths intended to be conveyed by Jesus. In document P §§27-30 these two parables of the final discourse are more fully reported than in document MK 13:3337; but, when that of document P is compared with the document M record, the conclusion seems necessary and reasonable that in document P there has found final documentary embodiment that one of the lines of tradition as to the parables of Jesus about the future in which those parables had suffered most in form from the dominant ideas which swayed the early Christian community.

It remains to be asked whether these parables from document M §§24, 25 have taken on any features by virtue of the fact that they come from that particular document, a document marked by striking individual characteristics. It has been observed that document M as restored is made up of the report of a lengthy discourse, M §§1-14, a large group of parables on the kingdom of God, M§§15-25, a portrayal of the judgment day, M §26, and another long discourse, M $27. An impressive feature of the parables of document M is the formula by which they, almost without exception, are introduced, "The kingdom of heaven is like unto." This suggests the inquiry whether this formula is peculiar to the document M report of Jesus' parables. Document G contains no parables. Document MK has three complete parables in 4:1-34, another complete one in 12:1–12, and the fragments of two long ones in 13:33-37. Of these only the first three are designated as parables of the kingdom, one implicitly and two explicitly. Document P contains, at the least, twenty-one parables; of these two only are defined as explicative of the kingdom of God, P §37AB. Of these two, one is the parallel to one of the only two of document MK which are introduced by the formula, "The kingdom of God is like unto," P §37A=MK 4:30-32. Document M reports ten parables, eight of which have the formula; another has practically a blank for this mode of introduction, M §25, "For (the kingdom of heaven is) as when a man;" the other, M §22, shows in the explicative portion B that it is regarded as giving teaching of the kingdom. Of those which bear the formula, four are placed by Matthew in that discourse of parables on the kingdom (Matt. 13:1

=

53) which contains the two so designated by document MK, MK 4:26-32, and one of the two so designated by document P, P §37A= MK 4:30-32. It seems clear from document M §19 that document M had knowledge of a distinct discourse made up of parables of the kingdom; even as has document MK in 4:1-34; and, in part, document P §37AB-for it seems evident that where the parable of the Mustard Seed belongs there also should go the companion parable of the Leaven. The testimony of all three documents is that there was one discourse by Jesus on "the mystery of the kingdom" in the form of parables introduced by the formula, "The kingdom of God is like unto" or its equivalent. From the evidence of documents MK and P alone it would be decided that only on one occasion did Jesus speak parables which he himself designated as intended to be direct and positive explications of the nature of the kingdom of God, namely, the parables spoken in exposition of what he at that time termed "the mystery of the kingdom of God,” MK 4:1-34=Matt. 13:1-53=Luke 8:4-18+13:18-21.

What then shall be said of this introductory formula when it appears in the document M parables outside of this group, namely, in M 8820-24? Shall it be said that this formula in these cases results from contiguity in grouping in document M, by which all of the parables in the group were ultimately given the opening phrase originally peculiar to those of "the mystery of the kingdom"? Or shall it be believed that the document M itself did not explicitly so begin any other parables than those in M §§15-19, but reported them as that one in M §25, "For (it is) as," the evangelist supplying the initial formula when he separated each parable from the group where its content seemed designated by the first members. In favor of the latter supposition is the fact that in the only instance where Matthew carried over two of the later document M parables together, M §§24, 25, the second of the two is not supplied with the formula.

Whatever the origin of the formula in the later parables of the document M group, whether from Matthew or before him, there is some external evidence, additional to that already advanced, that in these parables the formula is not from Jesus. Not much significance may be attached to the fact that the document P account of the parable of the Ten Virgins is without this formula, for that report has