178 Letter and Spirit in the Old Testament Scriptures. [July,

Wherefore when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes? Every outward circumstance favourable to man's spiritual well-being and happiness has been afforded to him. Only one thing has been withheld. Not one of these dispensations provided the distinguishing saving benefit of the new covenant in which God undertakes to bless the creature by his own Almighty power and prevailing grace. For a temporary end they all sanctioned a method of blessing which creature agencies could supply, and a method of worship and service which the worshipper by his own righteousness and strength was able to render. For a season God left this fleshly church to the nakedness of its own fleshly resources. The law made nothing perfect. The law entered, that the offence might abound.' law which was unto life was found to be unto death.' 'But what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin condemned sin in the flesh.' Every creature agency and every human work having been tried and found wanting, God took the work of blessing and saving the helpless creature into his own hand.

The

To return then to the principles of Old Testament religion is to reject God's gracious interposition-it is to distrust and despise God's all-sufficiency and saving grace, and to go back for help to the world and the flesh. Thus we can understand how, while fleshly ordinances were sanctioned under the law, and before the coming of Christ, simply to give the Church experience of their emptiness, their revival in the New Testament Church should have called forth the memorable expostulation addressed by Paul to the Galatian disciples: O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?'*

L M

*This article is not completed. There is to be a sequel to it in the next number of the J. S. L.-EDIT.

SCRIPTURE

SCRIPTURE PARALLELISM S."

THE MESSIAS AS PROPHET:

WITH REMARKS ON THE PARALLELISTIC FORM OF HIS

DISCOURSES.

THE true theory of Hebrew versification, which, imperfectly understood by the Masorites and lost by the modern Jews, had remained so long a secret to the learned world, and which was made known by the acute and learned Lowth, has scarcely yet received the share of attention, which so important a discovery deserved. While the rhythmical nature of the poems referred to by Josephus, St. Jerome, and others, was unknown, it was a subject for investigation and inquiry; but when the darkness was cleared away, and the theory of Parallelism rendered the whole beautiful system of Hebraic poesy consistent and plain, the interest in the question ceased; and in this country but few successors have followed in the steps, or availed themselves of the labours of the author of the Prelections on Hebrew Poetry. Bishop Jebb alone has followed up the subject in a popular and familiar manner in his Sucred Literature: and by proving that the same rules of rhythmical construction are applicable to many portions of the New Testament, he has furnished materials for thought to the student of the Holy Writings, and has introduced an invaluable element into Biblical criticism. But though he has shown that portions of the New Testament may be reduced to parallelistic rhythm with the same certainty as the writings of the prophets, and the confessedly poetic portions of the Elder Testament; and has pointed out that in the Epistles, verse is mingled with prose, as in the Book of Ecclesiastes, (except perhaps in St. James' Epistle, which is an entire and perfect poem,) yet he seems not to have remarked what, upon a little consideration, will appear pretty evident, viz. that all the public discourses of the Messias were rhythmical: all the authoritative proclamations of the Second Law, the law of liberty and love, made to the Jewish nation by the mouth of Him Who was to come,' were, like those of the prophets before the captivity, in their form poetic; and whatever our Lord spoke in public in fulfilment of His Messianic mission as

a

Having received two short articles from different contributors bearing upon this subject, we unite them under this general head,

Prophet, Sermons, Parables, Prophecies, Proverbs, or by whatever name they are called, were delivered in rhythmical form, that is to say, were parallelistic Poems. This hypothesis, however, is so opposed to our present ideas of public speaking and preaching, and modern notions of what is impressive and eloquent, that some explanations and arguments in favour of it will not be out of place.

First then, one of the characters in which the Messias was to appear was that of prophet: He was to be a prophet,, like Moses, as we find (Deut. xviii. 15) ? bet ne quse TEMPO NIE

6

the Lord thy God will raise up unto * יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ אֵלָיו תִּשְׁמָעוּן :

thee a prophet from the midst of thee of thy brethren, like unto me, unto Him shall ye hearken;' and by this title of prophet the Jews looked for Him, as their inquiry of St. John Baptist shows, 'Art thou that prophet?' (John i. 21). Now is from

, protulit, cecinit, and does not in its radical sense mean a foreteller of future events, but one who uttered his sayings in an impressive and authoritative manner: thus Aaron was appointed

, or spokesman, to Moses (Ex. iv. 16); again, the prophets whom Saul met with (1 Sam. x.) were not predicters, but men who sang psalms of praise to God in an earnest and impassioned manner to exciting strains of music. The musicians appointed by David are 'prophesiers' D (1 Chron. xxv. 1); and the prophets of a later period in the sacred history, when formed into colleges and exercising a recognized political influence on the nation, were not always predicters-nay, prediction was rather the exception-but preachers of the will of Jehovah, and energetic reformers, who sought to bring vividly before the eyes of a careless and idolatrous people the precepts, promises, and threats of the Theocratic law. It was part of their office, also, to cast into measure their denunciations and warnings, clothing them with the "metrical garb of poetry that their words might dwell the longer in the memories of their hearers, and also be repeated by themselves wherever a number of men were assembled together, without material variation. For it should not escape our modern notions, that at that time it was not the committing a prophecy to writing that constituted its publication, but the solemn reiteration of it in public. It will need no words to show that in each one of these respects Moses strictly fulfilled the office of nabi' or prophet, and the Messias Whom God should raise up from His people was to be a prophet like unto Moses; and to

b Of course Hebrew metre or parallelism is meant.

As it still was in the time of Horace: Cum mea nemo Scripta legat vulgo recitare timentis.' Also Juvenal, 1st Sat.

the

the readers of the Gospel, the points in which Jesus of Nazareth came up to this character of a prophet, are also clearly evident. From that time Jesus began to preach.' He opened His mouth and taught.' 'He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes,' not merely expounding the law, but delivering a doctrine of His own: they said of Him, 'one of the old prophets is risen again, and God hath visited His people,' because He preached in the style and manner of the old prophets, as one Who had a commission from God; nay, with greater authority still, for as with them the prophetic formula was in, thus saith the Lord, the formula of the Christ was 'Aun λéyw iuiv, Verily I say unto you. Again, the set speech of the 2, or earnest speaker, was his Sip, proverb or parable.' From up, to have authority or power, to regulate,' we have an authoritative and regulated speech,' which the LXX. render παραβολή or παροιμία indifferently, and our translators 'parable' or 'proverb.' The verb p is used in this sense, of those 'regulating' (their sentences) in Num. xxi. 27, by which the LXX. translate Aid Touro ¿poñσnd of ainyuatiorai;' and St. Jerome, 'Idcirco dicitur in proverbio.' The lines are a beautiful specimen of Parallelism celebrating a victory over Moab, and composed by Amorite poets contemporary with or prior to Moses :

6

"Go we to Cheshbon,

Be there built and be there established a city for Sichon,
For a fire goeth forth from Cheshbon,

A burning-flame from the city of Sichon;

It devours the chief city of Moab,
The Lords of the steeps by Arnon.

Woe for thee, Moab !

Thou art perished, people of Kemosh!

He made his sons fugitives

And his daughters for a prey

To the king of the Amorites, Sichon :

When we hurled-at-them, Cheshbon perished unto Dibon,
And we made-desolate to Nophach, which is to Meideba.'

,וַיִּשָּׂא מְשָׁלוֹ,7 .occurs is Num. xxiii מָשָׁל The next place in which

6

6

LXX. ‘nai àvæλaßwv τùν пaρaßoλn avrou,' Vulg. ' assumptâ parabolâ,' which the English version follows, And he took up his parable.' The most literal sense of the words seems to be, and

6

d These ænigmatists seem to have puzzled St. Augustine, who, not finding the word in the LXX. elsewhere, was at a loss for its meaning: he concluded that they were what is now called poets.-Quest. xlv. in Num.

e Luther's translation renders it, 'Er hob an seinen Spruch:' the French translation in Bagster's Polyglott, 'Il commença à haute voix ses discours sententieux;' and Diodoti's Italian version, Egli prese a proferire la sua sentenzia.'

he

he elevated his measured speech,' pronouncing it aloud in a majestic and excited manner. It is not necessary to give the 'mashalim' of Balaam that follow, as Bishop Lowth has shown them to be parallelistic poems of the highest beauty.

Now in neither of these places, nor in Job xxvii. 1,' will bp mean either a proverb or parable in the modern and usual sense of the words: the true sense is yet to seek: napaßoan the LXX. seem to have considered the best rendering, from açà and Bax, I place alongside of; and will not this give us the notion, not of a parable or an analogical comparison of two ideas, but of a parallelism or the placing together of two lines or sentences? and on this ground, the 'mashal' will not be merely either 'a proverb' or 'parable,' but a parallelistic distich or poem, comprehending under itself the proverb or parable, in its usual sense, as the genus, to use the language of the logician, comprehends its several species. I have found no place in the Old Testament in which the use of the word will not readily coincide with this interpretation; and the employment of napaßon by the author or translator of Ecclesiasticus will also easily fall in with the hypothesis of its meaning a parallelism, or, as the Germans denominate it, a Thought-rhythm. Before we come to examine the New Testament wxgxBohai, it will not be altogether out of place to give Aristotle's definition of a Tapaßon in his rhetorical and technical sense (Rhetorica, lib. ii. cap. 20) which is this:- Of paradigms or examples the species are two: for one form of paradigm is to bring forward events that have really already taken place; and the other for the speaker himself to invent them. Of this, the one is parabolë, and the other fables (λoyo), as the Æsopean and Libyan. And to bring forward Paradigms is of this nature-as if a man should urge that it is necessary to be on our guard against the Great King, and not to allow Egypt to be subdued, for that before, Darius did not first invade us till he had possession of Egypt, but, having gained possession, he invaded us : and Xerxes did not attempt it before he gained possession, but having gained it he invaded: thus also, this king, if he gain possession, will invade us; wherefore it must not be allowed. And the Parabolë, as the Socratic discourses. For instance, if a man should say that men chosen by lot should not take the government, for it was like as if one should appoint athletes by lot, not those who are able to wrestle, but those to whom the lot falls; or of sailors, if a man should appoint by lot who ought to steer,

f In Isaiah xiv. 4, the LXX. translate

by Opñvos, ‘a dirge or keen,' giving the narrowed meaning instead of the wider in reference to the parallelistic effusion contained in the following verse.

SO