Delphi Complete Works of George Eliot (Illustrated) (755 page)

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Authors: George Eliot

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* De Wette, exeg. Handb.. 1, 1, 8. 48.+ Orig. de. orat. xviii. and Hess, Gesch.
.Tesu. 2. S. 48 f. - t Schleiermacher ut sup.
S. 173; Ulshausen, 1, S. 23.”;; Sieffert, S. 78
 
DISCOUESES OF JESUS IN THE THEEE FIEST GOSPELS.365
 
commencement of their intercourse ; and if so, their request was superfluous, and must, as in John xiv. 9, have produced only an admonition to recollect what they had long seen and Iicard in his society. The account of Luke seems to have been framed on mere conjecture; it was known that the above prayer proceeded from Jesus, and tlie further question as to the motive for its communication, received the gratuitous answer: without doubt his disciples had asked him for such an exemplar. Without, therefore, maintaining tliat Matthew lias preserved to us the connexion in which tin’s prayer was originally uttered by Jesus, we are not tlie less in doubt whether it has a more accurate position in Luke.* With regard to the elements of the prayer, it is impossible to deny wliat Wetstein says:
 
tota hcec oratio ex formulas IIebrcEorum concinnata est ,’f but Fritzsche’s observation is also just, tliat desires of so general a nature might be uttered in tlie prayers of various persons, even in similar phraseology, without any other cause than tlie broad uniformity of human feeling, j: We may add that the selection and allocation of the petitions in tlie prayer arc entirely original, and bear tlie impress of tliat religious consciousness which Jesus possessed and sought to impart to his followers.§ Mattliew inserts after tlie conclusion of tlie prayer two propositions, which are properly the corollary of tlie third petition, but wliicli seem inaptly placed, not only because they are severed by the concluding petition from the passage to which they have reference, but because they liave no point of coincidence with tlie succeeding censures and admonitions which turn on tlie hypocrisy of the Pharisaic fasts. Mark, however, has still more infelicitously appended these propositions to the discourse of Jesus on the efficacy of believing prayer (xi. 25).[|
 
At vi. 19, tlie thread of strict connexion is broken, according to the admission of Paulus, and so far all expositors are bound to agree with him. But his position, that notwithstanding the admitted lack of coherence in tlie succeeding collection of sentences, Jesus spoke them consecutively, is not equally tenable; on the contrary, our more recent critics have all the probabilities on their side when they suppose, tliat in this latter half of the sermon on the mount Matthew has incorporated a variety of sayings uttered by Jesus on different occasions. First stands the apothegm on earthly and heavenly treasures (19-21), which Luke, witli more apparent correctness, inserts in a discourse of Jesus, tlie entire drift of wliich is to warn Ills adherents against earthly cares (xii. 33 f.).
 
It is otherwise witli tlie next sentence, on tlie eye being tlie liglit of tlie body.
Luke annexes this to the apothegm already mentioned on tlie light that is to be exhibited ; now as the liglit, /Lvywc, placed on a candlestick, denotes something quite distinct from wliat is intended by the comparison of tlie eye to a light, \v\vo^, tlie only reason for
* Comp. De Wette, exeg. IIandb.
1, 1, S. CO. 1, 2, S. 63.\ •&. T. 1, 823. The parallels may be seen in Wetstein and Lightfoot. t, Comm. in Matth. D. 265. i fomn
366 THE LIFE OP JESUS.
 
combining tlie two apothegms lies in the bare word /lr,y»‘o
Tlie text, Witti u’/tat measure ye mete, &c., is very inappropriately interposed by Mark (iv. 24), in a passage similar in kind to one of Luke’s intermediate miscellanies.
 
V. 6, in Matthew, is equally destitute of connexion and parallel; but tlie succeeding assurances and arguments as to the efficacy of prayer (v. 7-11), arc found in Luke xi. 9, very fitly associated witli another parable peculiar to tliat evangelist: tliat of the friend awaked at midnight. The apothegm, What ye would that men should do unto you, &c., is quite isolated in Matthew ; in Luke, it lias only an imperfect connexion.^ The following passage (v. 13 f.) on tlie straight gate, o~evff T”^7?, is introJnced in Luke (xiii. 23.) by tlie question, addressed to Jesus : Are there few that be saved/ d 6/lt’yoi 01 oo^opEvcn ; which seems likely enough to have been. conceived by one wlio knew tliat Jesus liad uttered such a saying as tlie above, but was at a losa for an occasion tliat might prompt tlie idea; moreover, the image is far less completely carried out in Luke than in Matthew, and is blended witli parabolical elcmcnts.§ Tlie apothegm on tlie tree being known Ly its fruits (v. 16-20), appears in Luke (vi. 43 ft’.), and even in Mattlicw, farther on (xii. 33 ft’.), to have a general explication but in Matthew’s sermon on tlie mount, it lias a special relation to the •false prophets; in Luke, it is in the last degree misplaced. The denunciation of those, wlio say to Jesus, .Lord, Lord, but wlio, on account of their evil deeds will be rejected by him at tlie day of
* From vi. 19 to tlie end of the chapter, even Neander finds no orderly association, and conjectures tliat tlie editor of lha Greek Gospel of Matthew was tlie compiler of this latter half of the discourse (p. lU!), note). \ Neander, ut sup.; Do Wette, in loc. t De
DISCOUESES OF JESUS IN THE THREE FIEST GOSPELS.367
 
judgment (21-23), decidedly presupposes the Messiahship of Jesus, and cannot, therefore, have well belonged to so early a period as that of tlie sermon on tlie mount; Iience it is more appropriately placed by Luke (xiii. 25 ff.). The peroration of tlie discourse is, as we have mentioned, common to both evangelists.
 
The foregoing comparison sliows us tliat the discourses of Jesus, like fragments of granite, could not be dissolved by the flood of oral tradition; but they were not seldom torn from their natural connexion, floated away from their original situation, and deposited in places to wliicli tlicy did not properly belong. Relative to this effect, there is this distinction between the three first evangelists;
 
Mattlicw, like an able compiler, though far from being sufficiently informed to give each relic in its original connexion, lias yet for tlie most part succeeded in judiciously associating analogous materials;
 
while the two other evangelists have left many small fragments just where chance threw them, in the intervals between longer discourses.
Luke lias laboured in some instances to combine tliese fragments artificially, but lie could not thus compensate for tlie absence of natural connexion.
 
§ 77. INSTOrCTIOXS TO THE TWELVE--LAMENTATIONS OVER THE
GALILEAN CITIES--JOY OVEE THE CALLING OF THE SIMPLE.
 
THE first gospel (x.) reports another long discourse as having been delivered by Jesus, on tlie occasion of his sending out tlie twelve to preach tlie kingdom of heaven. Part of this discourse is peculiar to the first gospel; tliat portion of it which is common to tlie two other synoptists is only partially assigned by them to tlie same occasion, Luke introducing its substance in connexion with the mission of tlie seventy (x. 2 ft”.), and in a subsequent conversation with the disciples (xii. 2 ff.).
 
Some portion of the discourse is also found repeated both in Matthew and tlie other evangelists, in tlie prophetic description given by Jesus of his second advent.
 
In this instance again, wliile the older harmonists have no hesitation in supposing a repetition of the same discourse,* our more recent critics are of opinion tliat Luke only has the true occasions and tlie original arrangement of tlie materials, and tliat Matthewhas assembled them according to his own discrction.t Those expositors wlio arc apologetically inclined, maintain that Mattliew was not only conscious of here associating sayings uttered at various times, but presumed tliat this ‘vould be obvious to his readers.^:
 
On the other hand, it is justly observed tliat the manner in which tlie discourse is introduced by tlie words: These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them (v. 5); and closed by tlie words:
 
* E. g. IIrss, Gcsch. Jesu, 1, S. 54.”).•[- Sehuiz, ut sup. S. .’508, 314 ; Siefiert, S.
80 ff.f Olshau-en, in loc. Tlie latter bold assertion in Kern, uber den L’rsprung dcs
THE LIFE OF JESUS.
 
•when Jeszis made an end of commanding Ids twelve disciples, &c.
(xi. 1.); proves clearly enough that it was the intention of the evangelist to give his compilation the character of a continuous
harangue.*
 
Much that is peculiar to Matthew in this discourse, appears to
be merely an amplification on thoughts which arc also found in tlie corresponding passages of the two other synoptists; hut there are two particulars in the opening of the instructions as detailed by the former, which differ specifically from anything presented by his fellow evangelists. These are the limitation of the agency of the disciples to the Jews (v. 5, 6), and the commission (associated with that to announce the kingdom of heaven and heal tlic sick, of which Luke also speaks, ix. 2,) to raise the dead: a surprising commission, since we know of no instances previous to tlie departure of Jesus, in which tlie apostles raised the dead; and to suppose such when they arc not narrated, after tlie example of Olshausen, is an expedient to
whicli few will be inclined.
 
All that tlie synoptists have strictly in common in ihe instructions to tlie twelve, are tlie rules for their external conduct; how tlicy were to journey, and how to behave under a variety of circumstances (Matt. v. 9-11, 14; Mark vi. 8-11; Luke ix. 3-5). Here, however, we find a discrepancy; according to Mattliew and Luke, Jesus forbids the disciples to take witli them, not only gold, a scrip, and tlie like, but even shoes, vroSi’ya-a, and a, staff, pd[36ov-, according to Mark, on the contrary, he merely forbids their taking more tlian a staff and sandals, sl ^ pd^Sov povov and aavSd’Ma. This discrepancy is most easily accounted for by the admission, that tradition only preserved a. reminiscence of Jesus having signified the simplicity of the apostolic equipment by the mention of the staif and shoes, and that hence one of the evangelists understood that Jesus had interdicted all travelling requisites except tlicse; tlic other, that these also were included in his prohibition. It was consistent with Mark’s love of the picturesque to imagine a wandering apostle furnished with a staff, and therefore to give the preference to the former view.
 
It is on the occasion of the mission of tlie seventy, tliat Luke
(x. 2) puts into tlie mouth of Jesus the words which Matthew gives (ix. 37 f.) as the motive for sending forth the twelve, namely, the apothegm, The. harvest truly is ready, but the labourers are few;

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