Delphi Complete Works of George Eliot (Illustrated) (698 page)

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Authors: George Eliot

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* Gen. xvii. 19; LXX. (Annunciation of Matth. i. 21
 
Isaac) :
 
(w o0l)Sij(; •^aoa’ha3dv Mapiuvt Tyv ymaliSov SuAAo il •JWTI own TE^eTdt cm vlov, KQ?na am - ) TS^STCH OE vlov, Kal na^eaeif r&
KOAECEl-f; TO ovoua QVTOV ‘loatlK.ovoua (IVTOV ‘l^frovv CUTOC yap cuaet. TOY ^.aJudg. xiii. 5.(Annunciation of Sam- : or avTov u,v0 TUV u^apnuv HVTUV,
son):
 
KO.I aiiTo(; uoiferot auacu ror ‘looa^l in ;[ctpof
^VAiOTUp..
 
Gen. xvi. 11 ff.(Annunciation of Ish-Luke i. 10 ff.
 
mael):
 
toi elvev 6 i’/yE^oc airy ISov cv^vfrg iv Ka ECT ev air^ o u-j’yc’Aol: Kuotoi) iSov ai’ b>-yaarpt, itai ri^f vim, nai Kakiwcs T& ovo/icr
•yacrpi c^EtC- Kal TE$T? vlov KCU KaAErretf T^ai’rov ‘ITJOOVVOVTCK; ^orcii,
CONCEPTION OP JESUS-ITS SUPEENATUEAL CHAEACTER. 113
 
xxi. 5 ff. it is first after Isaac’s birth that Sarah mentions tlie laughing of the people, which is said to have been the occasion of his name; whereby it appears tliat this last history docs not presuppose tlie existence of the two other accounts of the annunciation of tlie birth of Isaac.* As in relation to the birth of Isaac, different;
 
legends or poems were formed without reference to one another, some simpler, some more embellished: so we have two discordant narratives concerning tlie birth of Jesus. Of these tlie narrative in Matthewf is tlie simpler and ruder style of composition, since it docs not avoid, tliougli it be but by a transient suspicion on the part of Joseph, tlie throwing a shade over the character of Mary wliich is only subsequently removed; tliat in Luke, on the contrary, is a more refined and artistical representation, exhibiting Mary from the first in tlic pure light of a bride of heaven. {
 
§ 25. IMPORT OF THE ANGEL’S MESSAGE--FULFILLMENT OF THE
PROPHECY OF ISAIAH.
 
ACCORDING to Luke, the angel who appears to Mary, in the first place informs her only that she shall become pregnant, without specifying after what manner: that she shall bring forth a son and call his name Jesus; he sliall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest (i’(oc vipia-ov): and God sliall give unto him the throne of his father David, and lie shall reign over tlie house of Jacob for ever. The subject, the Messiah, is liere treated precisely in the language common to the Jews, and even the term Son of t!ie Highest, if nothing further followed, must be taken in the same sense; as according to 2 Sam. vii. 14. PS. ii. 7. an ordinary king of Israel might be so named; still more, tlicrefore, the greatest of these kings, the Messiali, even considered merely as a man. This Jewish language reflects in addition a new light upon the question of the historic validity of the angelic apparition; for we must agree with Schleicrmacher that the real angel Gabriel would liardly have proclaimed tlie advent of the Messiali in a phraseology so strictly Jewish :§ for which reason we are inclined to coincide witli this theologian, and to ascribe this particular portion of tlie history, as also tliat which precedes and relates to tlie Baptist, to one and the same Jewish-christian author. It is not till Mary opposes the fiict of her
* Comp. de Wett’e, Kritik der mosaischen Gcschichte, S. 86 ffi
•(• The vision, which according to Matthew, Joseph had in his sleep, had besides a kind of typ.,; in the “vi^on by which, according to the Jewish tradition related by Josephus, tlie father of Moses was comforted under similar circumstances, when suffering anxiety concerning the pregnancy of hi? wife, although for a ditferent reason. Joseph.
Antiq. I[, ix., 3. “ A man “whose name was Amram, one of the nobler sort of Hebrews, was afraid for, his whole nation, rest it should fail, by the want of young men to be brought up hereafter, and was very uneasy at it, his wife being then with child, and he knew not •what to do. Hereupon he betook himself to prayer to God i , iAccordingly God had mercy on him, and was moved by his supplication. He stood by him in his sleep, and exhorted him not to despair of his future favours, i i For this child of thine shall deliver the Hebrew nation from the distress they are under from tha Egyptians. His memory sliall lie famous while the world lasts.”j: Compare Ammon, Furtbildung des
Pin.;..+,,,,H>,..*^;UOnU p
 
S TT.-il,,,,. ,1;,> t.’.^rli’tnr, .111- T nl-.loS;
 
9 •I
 
114 THE LIFE OF JESUS.
 
virginity to the promises of a son, tliat the angel defines the nature of the conception: tliat it sliall Le by the IIolv Ghost, by tlie power of tlie Highest; after which the appellation vioc; v^li-i-ov receives a more precise metaphysical sense.
 
As a confirmatory sign that a matter ot tins kind is nowise impossible to God, Mary is referred to tliat wliicli liad occurred to her relative Elizabeth: whereupon, slie resigns herself in faith to tlie divine determination respecting her.
 
In Matthew, where the main point is to dissipate Joseph’s anxiety, the angel begins at once witli tlie communication, that tlie cliild conceived by Mary is, (as tlie Evangelist liad already stated of his own accord, chap. i. 18.), of the Holy Ghost (rrvEvfia S,yiov\;
 
and hereupon the Messianic destination of Jesus is first pointed out by tire expression, lie shall save his people from their sins. This language may seem to sound less Jcwisli than that by which tlie Messianic station of the cliild who should be born, is set forth in Luke; it is however to be observed, tliat under the term sins (afiapTta(c) is comprehended the punishment of tliose sins, namely, the subjection of the people to a foreign yoke; so that here also the Jcwisli element is not wanting; as neither in Luke, on tlie other hand, is tlie higher destination of the Messiah left wliolly out of siglit, since under tlie term to reign ftauiAEVEiv, tlie rule over an obedient and regenerated people is included. Next is subjoined by the aiigel, or more probably by the narrator, an oracle from the Old Testament, introduced by tlie often recurring phrase, all this teas done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken, of the J^ord by the prophet, [v. 22.].
 
It is the prophecy .from Isaiah, (chap. vii. 14.)
which tlie conception of Jesus after this manner should accomplish:
 
•namely, a virgin shall be u’ith child, and shall briny forth a son, and they shall call his name .Emmamiel-God-with-us.
 
The original sense of this passage in Isaiah is, according to modern research,* this. The prophet is desirous of giving Ahaz, wlio, through fear of tlie kings of Syria and Israel, was disposed to make a treaty witli Assyria, a lively assurance of the speedy destruction of Ills much dreaded enemies; and lie therefore says to him: suppose tliat an unmarried woman now on the point of becoming a wifef sliall conceive; or categorically: a certain young woman is, or is about to be with cliild; (perhaps tlie prophet’s own
•wife); now, before tills child is born, the political aspect of affairs shall be so mucli improved, tliat a name of good omen sliall be given to tlie cliild; and before he sliall be old enough to use his reason,
•the power of tlicse enemies shall be completely annihilated.
 
Tliat is to say, prosaically expressed; before nine months sliall have
* Compare Gcsenius und Hitzi^. Commentatoren xurn Jesaia ; uber (Ue Geburt de8
Iiumanuel dureli elm’ .1 unyt’rau, in den theologischen Stnditin u. Kntiken, 1830, 3. Heft, S. 541 ft’. \ ‘lllis explanation does away with the importance of controversy respecting the •word r\V^S,
 
Moreover it ought to 1)C decided by the fart that tlie word does not signify an iniiiiaculate, but a marriageable yonng wom;u], (see (i<‘scn’tms\ So early aa
CONCEPTION OF JESUS-ITS SUPERNATURAL CHARACTER. 115
 
passed awav, the condition of the kingdom shall be amended, and within about three years the danger sliall have disappeared. Thus much, at all events, is demonstrated by modern criticism, that, under tlie circumstances stated by Isaiah in the introduction to tlie oracle, it is only a sign having reference to tlie actual moment and the near future, wliicli could liave any meaning.
 
How ill chosen, according to IIengstenberg’s* interpretation, is tlie prophet’s language : As certainly as tlie day shall arrive when, in fulfilment of tlie covenant, the Messiah sliall be born, so impossible is it that the people among whom lie shall arise, or the family whence lie shall spring, shall pass away. How ill-judged, on the part of tlie prophet, to endeavour to make tlie improbability of a speedy deliverance appear less improbable, by an appeal to a yet greater improbability in the far distant future!-And tlien tlie given limit of a few years!
The overthrow of tlie two kingdoms, such is Hengstcnberg’s explanation, sliall take place-not in the immediately succeeding years, before the cliild specified shall have acquired tlie use of his reason but-within such a space of time, as in tlie far future will elapse between tlie birth of tlie Messiah and the first development of hia mental powers ; therefore in about three years. What a monstrous confounding of times! A. child is to be born in tlie distant future, and that which sliall happen before this cliild sliall know how to use his reason, is to take place in the nearest present time.
 
Thus Panlus and his party are decidedly right in opposing to Hengstenberg and Ins party, tliat tlie prophecy of Isaiah has relation, in its original local signification, to the then existing circumstances, and not to tlie future Messiah, still less to Jesus.
 
Hengstenberg, on tlie other hand, is equally in the right, when in opposition to Paulus he maintains, that tlie passage from Isaiah is adopted by Mattlicw as a prophecy of tlie birth of Jesus of a virgin. Whilst tlie ortliodox commentators explain the often recurring that it might be fulfilled (t’va ‘rr/l^piyi’)^), and similar expressions as signifying: tills happened by divine arrangement, in order tliat the Old Testament prophecy, wliicli in its very origin had reference to the New Testament occurrence, might be fulfilled;-the rationalistic interpreters, on tlie contrary understand merely: this took place after such a manner, that it was so constituted, that the Old Testament words, which, originally indeed, had relation to something different, should admit of being so applied; and in such application alone, do they receive their full verification.
 
In the first explanation, the relation between the Old Testament passage afed the New Testament occurrence is objective, arranged by God himself: in tlie last it is only subjective, a relation perceived by tlie later author; according to the former it is a relationship at once precise and essential: according to the latter both inexact and adventitious. But opposed’to this latter interpretation of New Testament passages, wliicli point out an Old Testament prophecy as
THE LIFE 01’ JESCS.
 
fulfilled, is the language, and equally so the spirit of the New Testament writers. The language: for neither can ‘rr^fjpoWa.i signify in such connexion any tiling than ratum fieri, eventu comprobari, nor iva OTWC any tiling than. eo consilio ut, whilst tlic extensive adoption of Iva KK.[3a~i.K.w has arisen only from dogmatic perplexity.*
But such an interpretation ia altogether at variance witli the Judaical spirit of the authors of the gospels. Paulus maintains that the Orientalist does not seriously believe that tlie ancient prophecy was designedly spoken, or was accomplished by God, precisely in order that it should prefigure a modern event, and vice versa ; but this is to carry over our sober European modes of thought into the imaginative life of the Orientals. When however Paulus adds; much rather did tlie coincidence of a later event with an earlier prophecy assume only tlie form of a designed coincidence in the mind of the Oriental: he thus, at once, annuls his previous assertion; for this ia to admit, that, wdiat in our view is mere coincidence, appeared to the oriental mind tlie result of design; and we must acknowledge this to be the meaning of an oriental representation, if we would interpret it according to its original signification. It is well known that tlic later Jews found prophecies, of the time being and of the future, everywhere in tlie Old Testament; and tliat thev constructed a complete image of the future Messiah, out of various, and in part falsely interpreted, Old Testament passages.! And tlic Jew believed lie saw in tlie application lie gave to tlie Scripture, however perverted it might be, an actual fulnlment of tlic prophecy. In tlie words of Olshausen: it is a mere dogmatic prejudice to attribute to this formula, wdicn used by the New Testament writers, an altogether different sense from that which it habitually bears among their countrymen; and this solely with the view to acquit them of the sin of falsely interpreting tlie Scripture.

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