DR. EDERSHEIM'S "JESUS, THE MESSIAH."• THE title of Dr. Edersheim's
book is significant. It indicates the main point of view from which be regards the life and work of Jesus Christ, and it strikes the note which pre- dominates throughout these interesting pages. From one of the Hebrew race, skilled in Hebrew lore both before and after the coming of Christ, and filled with the spirit of his people, we naturally expect a work which will deal largely with Hebrew life, Hebrew history, and Hebrew modes of thinking. Dr. Edersheim is a Hebrew Christian, who believes that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and all his Hebrew learning—which is great—is used. strictly for the setting-forth of that great theme. He has given us a book for which we are very thankful. He has thrown light on many obscure points in the Gospel history, and he has written the history of the time between the closing of the Old Testament and the opening of the New as it was never written before. The introductory chapters, which tell the story of the more immediate prepara- tion for the Gospel, describe in luminous terms the religions state, the social life, the theology, and the political condition of the Jewish diaspora in the East and West, and also the life of the Jews who remained rooted in the soil of Palestine. Much has been written on these topics. It is not too much to say that Dr. Edersheim has brought to the discussion of them a fuller knowledge, a more thorough acquaintance with the sources, and a more complete sympathy with the Jewish people than we have been able to find in any other books dealing with the subject. Other writers occupy more or less an external stand-point, and busy themselves with the outward aspects of events. Dr. Eders- heim seems to have grasped the inner secret and organic move- ment of Hebrew thought and life, in the obscure period of their life which immediately precedes the coming of Christ.
We have, all of us, the defects of our qualities, and our greatest strength lies close beside our greatest weakness. Dr. Edersheim's book is a good illustration of the truth of this trite saying. His strength lies in his wide, and deep, and accurate Jewish learning. The weakness of the book lies there also. It is overloaded with references to all kinds of Jewish topics. They bristle on every page. Nothing is too small to find a place. The domestic arrangements of a Jewish household, the cost of living, the different markets in Jerusalem, and the kind of produce which each supplied, the weights and measures and the inspectors of them, the fixing of the prices, and a hundred other items of the same sort are poured out on us in great profusion. We cannot see the wood because of the trees. There is a tendency to lose sight of the main theme in the atten- tion given to details. No doubt, these details are instructive and illustrative of the Gospels, but somehow the impression gathers strength, when we re-read the book, that the details are not held in subordination, nor are they grouped with the skill which makes all the parts contribute to the organic unity of the whole. This may be regarded merely as a defect of artistic power, but a graver defect emerges when we look at the. style in which Dr. Edersheim occasionally writes. Somehow, one feels that in writing on such a theme as the life of Christ, a serene and chastened style is alone in place. We feel that we ought to think and speak in plain and strong and lofty words. The thoughts suggested by the life and work of Christ are so great, simple, and touching that they need no outward adornment. It is strange to find that all recent works on the life of Christ— none of which are without merit—err in this respect, and all form a striking contrast to the simple, sublime words in which the Gospels tell that wondrous story. We had intended to make some quotations in order to set forth our meaning, but we forbear to quote them, as they will be apparent to almost every reader.
We wish to notice the great value of the contributions which Dr. Edersheim has made to our knowledge, in the various essays he has printed in the appendices. Of these we select some as specially worthy of commendation. The paper on " Philo of Alexandria and Rabbinic Theology" is noteworthy, while those on "Rabbinic Theology and Literature," the "List of Old-
• Th. Lie and Tunes of Jesus, the Messiah. By Alfred Mersheim, M.A. Oxon., D.D., Ph.D. 2 vols. London: Longmana, Green, and Co.
Testament Passages Messianically applied in Ancient Rabbinic Writings," and " On Eternal Punishment, according to the Rabbis and the New Testament," are fall of fresh information, and contain much material for the solution of problems which have up to this time found no solution.
We have looked in vain in the pages of Dr. Edersheim's book for a full and ripe discussion of many questions which ought to be discussed as introductory to the writing of a life of Christ. It is, no doubt, instructive to obtain so fall a description of the surroundings of Jesus Christ, and of the mental, moral, and spiritual condition of the Jews at the beginning of the Christian era. But the main sources are the Gospels. When, however, we say that the Gospels are the main sources for the life of the Messiah, we are far from having settled the matter. We have to determine the relation of the written Gospels to the Apos- tolic tradition, and to ascertain, as far as possible, the sources of the Gospels as they are now in our hands. Then further questions arise regarding the relations of the gospels to one another. The rode way of harmonistic reconciliation of diffi- culties may have suited an uncritical time ; but modern science demands a more thorough method. We expected from the pen of Dr. Edersheim a critical discussion and solution of all these questions, worthy to take its place alongside of the masterly discussion contained in the introduction to the life of Christ by Dr. Weiss. All the more needful is such an investigation, because some of the results of Dr. Weiss are not such as will obtain universal acceptance. At all events, Dr. Weiss has fairly faced the problem and has given reasons for his critical position. But Dr. Edersheim has carefully avoided any formal inquiry into these important questions, and his views are to be gathered from his synthetic work, and from that alone.
Apart from the questions of the relation of the Gospels to the oral Gospel of the Apostles, and the relative priority of the Synoptic Gospels, there is the great question of the method of the Evangelists, and of the freedom they allowed themselves in dealing with the written and oral sources from which they drew their written narrative. Did they permit themselves to group, into a whole, isolated sayings of the Lord, given at sepa- rate times and in different circumstances ? Was the Sermon on the Mount one continued statement, or was it the outcome of the Evangelist's reflection on many sayings of the Lord, which he gathered into the unity of one time and place ? These are questions which have been asked, and we have a right to expect an answer from any one who undertakes to write a life of Jesus, the Messiah. We do not get an answer from Dr. Edersheim. He seems to be of opinion—we should be sorry to do him an injustice, but we can find no other answer in his work—that we cannot go behind the Gospels as we now have them, and that it is a vain and useless inquiry to seek to deter- mine the extent and limits of deviation from the oral sources of our written Gospels. He seems to accept the written Gospels as ultimate, and the other questions as questions which ought not to be asked. But then the fact remains that they are asked and keenly agitated in many quarters at this hour, and it is the duty of a believing criticism to answer them, and to find a solution of these great problems.
Then another problem of the utmost importance is to deter- mine the relation of the Johannine Gospel to the Synoptics. We find, for instance, that Dr. Edersheim carefully traces the connection, or rather the distinction, between the Johannine Gospel and the teaching of the Hellenistic speculation which culminated in Philo. But, on the other hand, we do not find a critical discussion of the relation of the Fourth Gospel to the other three. We have a statement, indeed, that " the Fourth Gospel became, not the supplement, but the complement, of the other three." It is a complement, without which we should have been helpless. For it is to the Johannine Gospel that we owe any knowledge that we have of the historic order of the Ministry of Christ. From him we learn many things regard- ing which the Synoptic Gospels keep silence. It would pass our limits were we to seek to enumerate them. The duration of the Ministry of Christ, the first calling of the Disciples, the ministry at Jerusalem previous to his final visit to is, and the commemora- tion of the feasts which he attended at Jerusalem, together with many other words and works of Jesus, we owe to the Fourth Gospel In any attempt to follow the events of our Lord's ministry in the order of time, the indications of the Fourth Gospel are simply indispensable. For the notices of time in the Synoptics are vague and undetermined, and the breaks in the narrative are many. We observe also that Dr. Edersheim
follows the outline of time indicated in the Gospel according to St. John. But this he does very much in the harmonistic fashion. At all events, the critical grounds of his procedure are not indicated. We do not find fault with the order of events or the succession of topics followed by Dr. Edersheim. But the reader has a right to know the principle of arrange- ment. This, however, can only be obtained as the outcome of a critical examination of the historical trustworthiness of the Fourth Gospel, and of its superiority to the other Gospels in respect of time, and place, and order of events.
A crucial instance is found in the chronology of the Passion
Week. We have read and re-read the account of the events of that week by Dr. Edersheim. We are free to acknowledge that in many respects the narrative is masterly, and a flood of light is cast on many of the incidents and events of the time. To us, however, the chronology assumed by Dr. Eder- sheim is eminently unsatisfactory. More particularly, the view taken of the events of the night on which our Lord was
betrayed seems to us to be unjustified. The controversy is an old one, and one on which competent men have taken different sides. The apparent meaning of the Synoptic Gospels is that the Lord's Supper was instituted on the Passover night, and at the time when the Passover was being eaten. We say the apparent meaning, for even in the Synoptic Gospels there are indications which lead to a different result. The teaching of the Fourth Gospel seems clearly to. imply that the night of betrayal was the night before the Passover. A series of converging proofs seem to make this conclusion irresistible. There is the abrupt withdrawal of Judas from the upper room, an impossible event, if the feast. was the Passover ; there is the misunderstanding of the dis- ciples of the words of Jesus to Judas,—" That thou doest, do quickly." They would never have thought that "Jesus said to him, Buy what things we have need of for the feast," if the feast had already begun. Perhaps, however, the most con- vincing of all is the reason assigned why the Jews did not enter the Prietorium. It was " that they might not be defiled,- but might eat the Passover." Dr. Edersheim's explanation of this is, that the Passover is here taken in a large sense, and includes " the Chagigah, or festive offering, which was brought on the first Paschal day." The references to the Old Testatment do not justify this explanation. It is incon- ceivable that a phrase so technical as "to eat the Passover" should be used of another feast, by a writer so careful as the author of the Fourth Gospel. Besides, as Godet remarks, "The members of the Sanhedrim might perfectly, without incurring the penalty of death, have abstained from taking part in a sacrifice of a general kind, for these acts were voluntary ; the Paschal feast, properly so called, was the only one which did not admit of abstention." The question is too large and too minute to be argued here. But a careful examination of the arguments and explanations of Dr. Edersheim has led us anew to the conclusion that the precise statements of the Fourth Gospel cannot be explained away, If the various accounts must be harmonised, then it is the Synoptic account which may most easily be reconciled with the other. And Professor Godet has shown how this is possible, without violence to the language of the Synoptics. We have pointed out what to us is the grave defect of this book. Having discharged this disagreeable duty, we are free to praise the many good qualities of this important contribution to the cause of sacred learning. The author has succeeded in accomplishing much of what be intended, and has gathered much material for that life of Christ which has yet to be written. We must allow Dr. Edersheim to speak for himself :—
" Since Jesus of Nazareth was a Jew, spoke to and moved among Jews in Palestine, and at a definite period of its history, it was abso- lutely necessary to view that life and teaching in all its surroundings of place, society, popular life, and intellectual or religious develop- ment. This would form not only the frame in which to set the picture of the Christ, but the very background of the picture itself. It ie, indeed, most true that Christ spoke not only to the Jews, to pales- tine, and to that time, but—of which history has given the evidence —to all men and to all times. Still, he spoke first and directly to the Jews, and his words must have been intelligible to them, his teach- ing have reached upwards from their intellectual and religions stand- point, even although it infinitely extended the horizon, so as, in its fall application, to make it wide as the bounds of earth and time. Nay, to explain the bearing of the religious leaders of Israel from the first towards Jesus, it seemed also necessary to trace the historical developmext of thought and religions belief, till it issued in that system of traditionalism which, by an internal necessity, was irrecon- cilably antagonistic to the Christ of the Gospels." — Paxt-ace, pp.
This purpose has been fully and successfully carried out, and in addition these volumes are rich in illustration of Eastern customs, and will help greatly the realisation of the Scripture narrative. For this all people will owe to Dr. Edersheim a deep debt of gratitude. He has helped to remove difficulties and to reconcile apparent contradictions ; and his book will serve to bring into prominence what he has called " the background of the picture."
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