*Mt' yr '^-. ••'• .. "■' /^ 'rJ^^^T ^/i^-^.. PRINCETON, N. J. % BS 1415.3 .W74 1886 Wright, Charles H. H. 1836- 1909. Biblical essays 1 '.'^ m^^ 3t- f:..*c r. '4 - '/■ exeCtETical studies. BIBLICAL WORKS CHARLES H. H. WRIGHT, D.D., Ph.D. The Book of Genesis in Hebrew, with a critically revisod Text, Various headings, and Grainraatical and Critical Notes. Loudon and Edinburgh : Williams & Norgato. 1859. Price 5s. ' Mr. Wright's critical edition of tlie Hebrew Text of the Book of Genesis at onc<- jilicctl him in a higli rank among Biblical scliolars, and does equal credit to liis critical inumcn, and his sound knowledge of the language.' — The late I'tu. Arcluieacon Lee, D.L)., Aniibp. King'x Lecturer in Divinity, University of Dublin. The Book of Ruth in Hebrew, with a critically revised Text, Various Keadiiigs, inchiding a iifW cnllatiou of twcnty-ciglit Hebrew MShJ. (most of them not previously collated), and a (Jranimatical and Critical Commentarj-, to which is appended the Chaldee Targuni, ■with Various Readings, and a Chaldee Glossary. London: Williams & Norgate. Leipzig : L. Deuicke. 18G4. Price 7s. 6d. ' It is a work of pure Hebrew scholarship, in which exact knowledge, critical acumen, and diligent research have been brouglit to bear upon the te.xt of Ruth, and in wliich all t lose niceties which the commentator may jiass over with a light hand have been carefuU.v treated." — The I'cry Rev. li. Payne Smith, D.D., Dean of Canterbury, late licghm I'ru/esnorof Divinity, Ox/urd. Zechariah and his Prophecies considered in relation to Modern Criticism, with a Grammatical and Critical Commentary and New Translation. (The Bampton Lectures for 1878.) London: liodder & Stoughtou. 1879. Second Edition. Price 14s. ' Dr. Wright's Bampton Lectures on Zechariuh introduced to a wider circle one who was already well known to Hebrew scholars, by the union of thorough modern philology with a deeply reverent attitude towards both the form and the contents of the S GOVERNOR OF THE ROYAL MINT, STOCKHOLM; CCIjt's Folumc IS, BY PERMISSION, DEDICATED BY THE AUTHOR. JUL -^ l-'G 4 — ^ <^' INTRODUCTION. rilHE ol)ject of this volume of Exegetical Studies J- is to place before English students of the ]]ible, in a popular form, certain important questions connected with the interpretation of the Writings of the Old and New Testament. The discussion of critical questions, on which scholars only could be competent to form a correct judgment, has, as far as possible, been avoided, though it has been necessary occasionally to notice such points in the footnotes. The " Studies," therefore, contained in the volume are rather to be regarded in the light of articles written for the general reader, in which only portions of the topics discussed are brought under review, thaii as scientific monographs, in which greater fulness of detail would justly be required. It is the aim of the writer to stir up earnest inquiry, to stimulate religious thought, to remove difficulties i'rom the path of the intelligent believer in the Sacred Scriptures, and to point out some general principles which may lead to a better understanding of the Hebrew prophets. viii Introduction. The cliapter on the Book of Job is a revised and corrected edition of a sermon - essay contained in a volume published in 1864, when the writer was British Chaplain at Dresden. Its purpose is to point out the meaning of the Book of Job as a whole. It was impossible to do more within the limits within which it was necessary to restrict the volume. It will, therefore, not be con- sidered strange that no notice has been there taken of important contributions to the literature of that book made by the great German critics, such as Delitzsch, Evvald, and Merx, or to the popular English commentary of Cox, or to the more recent and very suggestive work of a namesake, the Eev. G. H. Bateson Wright, M.A., of Queen's College, Oxford (London : Williams & Norgate, 1883). The " study " as now published is, in some respects, indeed, a review of the able commentaries on Job written by Eev. Professor A. B. Davidson, D.D., LL.D., of New College, Edinburgh. The writer differs, howevei-, decidedly from some of the views of that excellent scholar, esj)ecially in his conception of Satan as repre- sented in the Book of Job. The second study in tlie volume, namely, that on " tlie Book of Jonah considered from an allegorical point of view," will probably be of more general interest. It is necessary, however, in this Introduc- tion to supplement to a considerable extent the arguments presented in that " study." For as the proof-sheets were passing through the press, a new Introduction. ix work on tlie subject came into the hands of the writer, of which he was unable to avail himself in the body of the work, viz. Jonah {cine alt-testament- lichc Parahcl) cats dem Urtext uhersetzt und erkldrt, von Prof. Dr. Friedrich Bercfmann in Strassburo-. Strassburo : Verlacj von Treuttel und "Wlirtz, 1885. Moreover the attention of the author was at the .same time directed towards another work, with which he had not been previously acquainted, and which requires a more extended notice, namely Studies in the Booh, of Jonah ; a Defence and an Exi^sition, by R. A. liedford, M.A., LL.B., I^rofessor of Systematic Theology and Apolo- getics, New College, London (Hodder & Stoughton, 1883). The perusal of the latter work compels the writer to state in plain terms what he would otherwise have preferred, his readers to have discovered for them- selves, namely that the essay in this volume was designed to be a " defence " of the Book of Jonah. The object which the writer had in view was to point, out — without prejudice to the opinion popular in this country, wdiich regards the Book of Jonah as a purely historical narrative — that there was a safer line of defence, which ought not to be neglected by an apologist of Sacred Scripture. The Book of Jonah, whatever is afdrraed as to its historical character, is of much more importance regarded as an historico-symbolical prophecy, or, in other words, as a divinely-constructed allegory, in X Introd action. Avliich tlie past history of Israel is descrilied, the future of Israel depicted, and, as a necessary con- sequence thereof (see pp. 62-65), the history of Israel's Messiah delineated. It is generally conceded that a genuine historical narrative may be treated also allegorically, and the sacred writers themselves have actually expounded histoiical facts in a similar manner. The essay was originally drawn up with the view of applying this principle to the Book of Jonah. It was thought well to sketch the leading arguments presented by Dr. Pusey in favour of the historical credibility of the book. The writer considered it better to leave the first section of his " study " in the form it was originally drawn up, inasmuch as the statement on p. 39 (though apparently incon- sistent with the ultimate conclusion) is, as it stands, perfectly defensible. It is no fault of the author, that, however inclined a reader may be to endorse the arguments presented by Dr. Pusey (the most learned and able defender of the historical credibility of the narrative), he cannot rise from the perusal of those arguments without feeling, to use the words of Professor Iledford, tliat " the element of the ludicrous and grotesque is to us almost inseparable from tlie narrative of Jonah." Professor Redford, who is a defender of the historical truth of the story, adds very naively : " this we must do our best to overcome." Later on in his work he remarks : " There are wonderi'ul instances of fish Introduction. xi swallowing the bodies of men, and in some cases throwing them out alive. But it does not seem of any importance to dwell on such narratives, as Dr. Pusey has done, for they provoke in some minds a feeling of repulsion, which forbids the calm considera- tion of the text itself" {Studies in the Book of Jonah, p. 25, and p. 33). Prebendary Huxtable, in the SpcaJcer's Commcntcm/, also admits the " grotesque " character of the narrat- ive. He observes : " We may in all reverence infer that this most strange and otherwise utterly un- accountable circumstance was ordered by Divine Providence for the very purpose of furnishing a typical prediction in which both the Lord Jesus Himself and His Church, as taught by Him, should recognise the distinct foreshadowing of His pre- ordained death and resurrection. The ail-but con- summated sacrifice of Isaac by his father is a piece of history which stands in this respect by the side of Jonah's three days' burial in the fish. Either narrat- i\^e, if regarded by itself, shocks all the sense of probability ; either, when regarded as typical, is seen to be in strict accordance with the main pur- pose of Divine revelation." Whatever truth may be found in Mr. Huxtable's statement with respect to the narrative contained in the Book of Jonah, we are very far from admitting the justice of his remarks on the story of Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac contained in the Book of Genesis. The historic truthfulness of the latter narrative is xii Introduction. quite capable of defence without any recourse being had to the typical interpretation of the event.^ As Professor Redford is the latest and most un- compromising champion of the popular view, it is ml'11 to note his further remarks on the miraculous preservation of Jonah. He writes (p. 33): "Those who wish to put together the facts and opinions which ])rove the possibility of a human body being held inside a ' great fish,' have only to read the evidence adduced by Dr. Pusey in his Introduction to Jonah. AVe desire to lay no special stress on such facts, as relieving the difficulty of faith, because the main point is left untouclied by them, how a man could be preserved alive in the body of a fish for three days and three nights. But then, was he alive ? The language of the psalm which Jonah offered up as thanksgiving seems to imply that he was either actually dead, or in a state of unconsciousness." " 1 We have discussed the subject here referred to in an article on "The Old Testament and Human Sacrifices" in the British ami Foreif/n Evaiujdical Berinv for July 1884. That article, together with a later one on " Human Sacrifices in the Old Testament," which ajipearcd in tlie same Review for January 1885, was intended, liy a discussion of the Biblical passages, to supplement an article in the Nineteenth Centtn-y for November 1883 ou "The Jews and the Malicious Charge of Human Sacrifice." In the last-named article the writer gave a sketch of the remarkable trial of ten Jews in Hungary, on the charge of having murdered a Christian maiden in order to obtain her blood for purposes connected with the Jewish ritual, and gave an outline of the remarkalile controversy in Germany, aroused by the false statement made by Prof. Rohling of Prag that human sacrifices were commended in Rabbinical writings as meritoiious in the sight of God. ^ In a state of coma or unconsciousness a man is generally sup- posed to reijuire as much, or nearly as much, air as when conscious. Introduction. xiii Mr. Eedford admits " the poetic hyperbole of the composition," but argues that the language used in tlie hymn of Jonah " points to the natural fact of death, or insensibility." He maintains that narrative describes either (1) "a maintenance supernaturally of life in circumstances wliich would naturally involve death, or (2) a miraculous suspension of animation for some forty-eight hours or more ; or (3) a revival of an extinguished life, a literal raising of Jonah from the dead" {Studies, p. 22). In the commencement of his work Mr. Eedford promised to " carefully discuss " this subject, but he has not done so. In several passages towards the close of his book, however, he reaffirms his belief that Jonah was " actually raised from the dead," although he is not certain that such was the " popular belief " of the Jews in the days of our Lord (p. 286). But the novel theory that Jonah when swallowed up by the fish was soon deprived of life, and that he was afterwards raised from the dead when vomited forth on the dry land, is opposed to the tenor of the whole narrative. The psalm of Jonah may indeed have been composed " entirely ex post facto." It may be " a recollection of the rapid thoughts which passed through the mind of the prophet as he sank in the waters." But the expres- sions in the second part of that psalm are decidedly opposed to the idea that the life of the prophet was taken away even for a season. Mr. Eedford, indeed, admits that the words of ver. 1 " if taken literally xiv Introduction. suppose a state of consciousness." His method of getting over the difficulty, by asserting that the Hebrew phrase can be explained " without forcing " to mean " when Jonah came out of the bowels of the fish," does speak much for his knowledge of Hebrew. The adoption of the theory of an actual resurrection of Jonah from the state of death, would not lessen the difficulties which beset the path of those who maintain the Divine inspiration and authority of the Look of Jonah. The most formidable difficulties (see pp. 71, 72) in the way of regarding the Book of Jonah to be a record of historical facts, do not arise from the miracles therein recorded, though, according to Professor Eedford, they partake of "the element of the ludicrous and grotesque." The greatest difficulty is the absence of the slightest allusion in any other part of the Old Testament to the mission on which Jonah was sent, notwithstanding its marvellous accompaniments, and its wonderful success. For if those be facts of history, the mission of Jonah was the most stupendous event which ever happened to any of the Hebrew prophets. Why should such a mission have been passed over in utter silence in the historical books of the Old Testament, in which matters of far inferior importance are related circumstantially ? Is it moreover conceivable that tlie prophets who prophesied so much concerning Assyria should never have alluded to such a fact, if it were a simple matter of history ? But just as the defenders of the credibility of the story, as Mr. Bed- latrodiiction. xv ford has well pointed out, have made no attempt to meet the chief difficulty in it, namely, the preservation of Jonah alive for three full days within the interior of the fish (while citing instances enough to prove that a man could be swallowed whole and entire) — so the advocates of the historical view of the book have not honestly faced the difficulty with which that tlieory lias to contend, namely, the silence of Scripture. If, however, it can be shown satisfactorily that the book was originally intended as an allegory, and that the allegory itself is a prophecy, the sneers so often levelled at the book by sceptics fall harmlessly to the ground. The beauty of its diction, the sublimity of its teachings (which have been pointed out by Ewald), the grandeur of its doctrines, its marvellous anticipa- tions of the events which occurred in the morning of Christianity, all combine to give it a high position among the products of Divine inspiration. Mr. Huxtable is, indeed, justified in maintaining that there is no need to be startled if no confirmation of the history is found in the Assyrian inscriptions, inasmuch as from the nature of those inscriptions " a merely moral or religious element is not to be looked for " in them. But it is significant that no reference is made to the history of Jonah's mission by any of the successors of that prophet, and that no mention whatever is made in the book itself of the name of the king of Nineveh then upon the throne. Mr. Uedford observes that " the gist of the whole XVI Introduction. narrative is the Divine dealinff loith Jonah as the representative of His people. As an incident in the life of an individual, it would be moral history ; but as it is, it is a profoundly significant parable, pointing to the solemn responsibilities of Israel as the messenger of Divine mercy to the world" (p. 23). Later on in his work he remarks, " The admission that the whole can be viewed as a parable, does not militate, in the least degree, against the truthfulness of the story, but rather lends it a very special cha- racter" (p. 149). He confesses that the moral identi- fication of the prophet and the people is quite a familiar thought in the whole of the prophetic period. Hence the difficulty, sometimes, of exactly distinguish- ing what is said of the individual in his personal capacity, and what is said representatively." Mr. Eedford has in these remarks come very near the recognition of the truth pointed at in pp. 62 ff. as the key which solves the enigma of the work. He confesses " it is easy to recognise in the Book of Jonah a parable which would very powerfully appeal to the whole nation." Israel might, he says, be described as fleeing from their mission. He asks, " were they not in danger of being plunged into the great, heaving ' sea of troubles' where the monster of the deep would await them ? " But Mr. Bedford has lailed to notice that the very incidents of the story are really derived from the allegorical language of the prophets. When constrained by Professor Cheyne's remarks (in an article on Jonah in the TJuological Introduction. xvii Bcviciu for 1877) to notice that " the belly of a sea- monster is actually used in Jeremiah (li. 34, 44) as a figure for the captivity of Israel," he has not observed the significance of the fact that the captivity of Israel is there described as the swallowing up of the people by a sea-monster, and that the restoration of the Jews is also spoken of under the figure of a fish vomiting forth its prey alive. He simply says : " Jeremiah may have taken it from Jonah, and the presence of the allusions in his writings confirm, so far, the priority of Jonah" (p. 39). The suggestion that the passage in Jeremiah is borrowed from the Book of Jonah is crude. But it is worth noting that Mr. Eedford considers the conclu- sion of the latter book " also wonderfully significant." From the typical or parabolic point of view he explains the gourd " ' the son of a night,' the mere offspring of changing circumstances," to represent the Jewish legal system. But he surely forgets that a system which was in existence from the very child- hood (Hos. xi. 1) of the Hebrew nation could not be represented, even in a parable, by a gourd depicted as only springing up to shelter the prophet when griev- ing at God's mercy in sparing Nineveh from destruction. The Eev. T. K. Cheyne, D.D., now Oriel Professor of Exegesis in the University of Oxford, in the articles in the Theological Rcvicio already referred to, has taken the symbolic view advocated by Bloch (see our note 2 on p. 53), although he has supported it by a myth-theory which is not satisfactory, notwithstanding b xviii Introduction. all that lias been urged by that scholar in its favour in his great work on the Prophecies of Isaiah (in the notes on Isa. xxvii.) as well as in his observations (on Jeremiah li.) in the Pulpit Commentary. Prof. Cheyne is moreover the author of the article on Jonah in the ninth edition of the Encycloiioidia Britannica (1881), and has also in his work on Isaiah called attention to the symbolic meaning of the name Jonah, on which much more could be said than has been noted in our study. Eedford asserts that " the whole of the modern critical school of Germany is actuated by a fierce hatred of the supernatural." There are, no doubt, some " German " as well as English critics and men of science who display such " hatred." But as a description of " the modern critical school of Germany " the statement is not correct. However opposed a theologian may himself be to the admission of the idea that a mythical element exists in the Old Testament Scriptures (and we freely confess that we are opposed to the idea), he ought to remember that among the critics who maintain that a mythical element can be traced in Biblical phraseology, there are not a few who possess as firm a faith in " the supernatural," and in the truth of " the miraculous," as any of their opponents. Many of these scholars are believers in the reality of Christ's resurrection iVom the dead, which is the real test-point of Chris- tian faith. A theologian ought to endeavour to comprehend the standpoint of the writers from whom Introduction. xix he may feel constrained to differ. The cause of truth is not advanced by a wholesale condemnation of arguments, the drift of which is sometimes imper- fectly understood, as "flimsy criticisms," although such statements may evoke the applause of persons igno- rant of the questions at stake. It is also inconsistent for Mr. Eedford to comment in one place on the absurdity of regarding proper names like that of Jonah as symbolic (p. 41), while in a later passage he draws deductions from an explanation of the proper names of Elijah and Elisha as indications of " a distinct advance in revelation" (p. 196). Professor Cheyne admits that the Book of Jonah lias a prophetico-allegorical aspect, that " Jonah tlie recalcitrant prophet may well be a type of offending Israel," and that from a post-exilic point of view the calamities of Israel were naturally seen to have arisen from the abnegation of her prophetic mission. But he has not traced out the allegory in its details. If it should be ultimately proved that Isaiah and Jeremiali and the writer of the Book of Jonah were led to make use of the symbol of the dragon or sea-monster because the cloud-dragon, the seven-headed serpent (also termed Tiamtu, the sea, like Qi^J^ in Gen. i. 2) formed "an essential part of Babylonian, Assyrian, and at least at one period popular Jewish mytho- logy," the correctness of our exposition " would not be in the slightest degree imperilled thereby." Nor is there anything whatever in that idea of Cheyne's derogatory to Divine inspiration. XX Introduction. We see, however, no reason to accept the view propounded by Kuenen, and viewed at least with favour by Cheyne, that the painful circumstances connected with the " mixed marriages" and the divorce of their Gentile wives by the Jews of that period, insisted on by Ezra (Ezra ix., x.) — though the righteousness of that act has sometimes been called in question — led to the composition of the Book of Jonah. There is no statement in the book itself to lead one to the conclusion that it claims Jonah as its author. But though it is evident that the book was written after the restoration from Babylon, there is nothing which can be fairly interpreted as an allusion to the episode of the marriage difficulty. The Book of Jonah, however, contains indications of having been composed at a time when the Jews had been expecting an overthrow of the Gentile power, and when their hopes were for a season disappointed. These indications point to its composition at some date shortly after the governorship of Zerubbabel (see pp. 84-89). .Our attempt to trace the allegory in the second part of the book may be regarded as somewhat novel. The allegorical meaning of the first part of the book has often been more or less distinctly explained. In the second part the interpretation of " the gourd " is the main difficulty. But the importance of the position occupied by Zerubbabel on the occasion of the Return from Captivity, the hopes that naturally centred round his person as the representative of the house of David, Introduction. xxi the disappointment caused by the early removal of that chieftain from the scene, and the consequent chaotic state of the Jewish colony, will all be clear to those who peruse with attention the Boohs of Ezra and Nehemiah alongside with those of Haggai and Zechariah. These facts, only slightly glanced at in our stud}', strongly support the interpretation there given of the gourd which sheltered the prophet. "We have briefly called attention to the striking similarity between the closing scene in the narrative of Jonah and the conclusion of our Lord's parable of the Prodigal Son (see pp. 73, 96, 97). If the latter could be distinctly proved to have been derived from the former, the fact would not be without an important bearing on the question as to the sense in whicli the Book of Jonah was regarded by our Lord. For as Jonah was indignant because Nineveh M'as spared, so the elder brother is represented by our Lord as angry because his father had received back the pro- digal. If it be urged that the prodigal son cannot signify the Gentiles, because the prodigal in the com- mencement of the story is stated to have received his share of his father's property (Luke xv. 12, 13), it may be well to observe that there is a striking parallel even in that particular between the descrip- tion as to Israel and the nations, given in the New Testament parable, and the statements of the Old Testament. For according to the Old Testament the Most High gave also to the nations " their inherit- ance " (Deut. xxxii. 8). Jehovah meted out to each xxii Introduction. nation the land of its possession, as well as gave over certain peoples into the hands of others. But while " riches " — the " riches of the Gentiles " — were abundantly vouchsafed to other nations, the most valuable " portion " of " the inheritance " which fell to the lot of Israel was that Jehovah was their God (Deut. xxxii. 9, 12, comp. Ps. xv, 5, 6). All nations, according to the Old Testament statements, possess an equal share in the blessings of nature, such as the sun, moon, and stars (Deut. iv. 19; Ps. xix. 1—6). Compare the New Testament statements in Matt. V. 45; Acts xvii. 26. But the law of the Lord was the special inheritance of Israel (Deut. iv. 20 ; Ps. xix. 7-11). The believing Jews could not endure in the early days of Christianity that the gift of which they chiefly boasted should be communicated on equal terms to the Gentiles. It has been too often assumed without consideration that our Lord's references to Jonah (Matt. xii. 39 ff. ; Luke xi. 29 ff.) prove that He regarded the incidents of that story to be literal facts. The argument has been briefly noticed on p. 69. But it may here be further remarked that the repentance of the Ninevites mentioned at the close of the book has ever been a difficulty in the way of viewing the narrative as historical. It has been attempted to obviate the difficulty in two ways, either by maintaining the conversion in question to have been " superficial and short-lived " (Huxtable) ; or by asserting that there is " no reasou to suppose that every individual, or Iidrudadion. xxiii even the majority, literally orjyented; for, referring to the pleading of Abraham witli God for Sodom, we know that even a small number of true penitents would save the city" (Eedford, p. 17 ; the italics are his own). But our Lord did not consider the repentance of Nineveh " superficial or short - lived." He spoke solemnly of the penitence of the Ninevites as destined in the day of judgment to condemn the impenitence of the Israelites, The repentance of the Ninevites must, therefore, have been in His view more genuine than the repentance of " Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about Jordan," who went forth to hear John the Baptist, and " were baptized of hini in the river Jordan, confessing their sins " (Matt. iii. 5, 6). For " the men of Nineveh shall stand up in the judgment with this generation, and shall con- demn it" (Matt. xii. 41), notwithstanding the mar- vellous work of John the Baptist three years before. The contrast drawn in that passage shows, as Eeuss has observed, that our Lord regarded the story in the Book of Jonah as a significant parable, and referred to the incidents of that story as an English preacher might refer to some detail in the allegories of John Bunyan. Every striking detail in the narrative of Jonah has its counterpart in expressions employed by the prophets of Israel. The allegory seems to have been mainly constructed from the significant passages in Jer. li. 34, 44. We believe firmly in the book as prophetic in its character, and as pointing onward to Christ. But, even apart from all Christology, the story X X i V Introduction. of the book will, we submit, be seen on fair examination to be an outline in allegorical language of the history of Israel down to the later days of Zechariah. If a key can be shown to fit the wards of a lock, it may be presumed that it (or at least a key of a similar con- struction) was intended to open the lock in question. It may be well to note here, in passing, that Mr. Picdford denies that the words of our Lord necessarily imply that the sign given to the Ninevites in favour of Jonah's mission was the wonderful deliverance vouchsafed to that prophet. In this he seems to agree with Dr. Samuel Davidson, who, in his Intro- chidion to the Old Testament (vol. iii. p. 282), maintains that the only sign vouchsafed was the preaching of Jonah itself. That scholar says : " The Saviour willed that men should believe in Him, and receive His doctrine without external sign or miracle, because His life showed Him to be a divinely-sent messenger; just as Jonah was believed without any further sign. Nothing but the sign of Jonah was given to the Pharisees, i.e. the call to repentance." We cannot, however, believe that this is a correct statement either of the facts of the evangelical history, or of the meaning of our Lord in His reference to the history of Jonah (see p. G8). We have felt constrained to notice Professor Ptedford's book at such length, not for its intrinsic importance, but because we are now specially writing for the English religious public who may peruse that work, and be influenced by its arguments. Iiitrodmtiun. xxv Some well-intentioned defenders of Scripture who " have a zeal for God but not according to know- ledge " (Rom. X. 2), often maintain that nothing in the Sacred Writings ought to he regarded as alle- gorical unless distinctly set forth as such. Such objectors forget that allegorical narratives were always wont to be related as historical facts, though the meaning might afterwards in some cases (though not in all) be explained by the narrator. The well- known story which Nathan told to David was in form so natural and truthful that it at once aroused the anger of the monarch, who failed at first to recognise his own likeness in the glass held up to his view (2 Sam. xii. 1-7). The narrative of the wise woman of Tekoa, invented at Joab's suggestion, in order to bring about tlie reconciliation of Absalom with his father, had a similar effect (2 Sam. xiv.). It, too, was an allegory, but that parable had not to be explained. Similar is the case of the allegorical tale of the prisoner let loose, related by an anony- mous prophet to Ahab (1 Kings xx. 39-41), and the grander and more sublime parable of IMichaiah the son of Imlah (1 Kings xxii. 19-22). There is still a dispute among the most orthodox commentators whether the narrative at the commencement of Hosea is a description of fact, or is simply allegory ; whether Jeremiah in his early days actually visited the Euphrates to hide his girdle in the hole of the rock, or whether that work was only performed in vision (Jer. xiii.). Many things were related as facts which xxvi Introduction. were designed only to be understood as allegories. A remarkable instance will be found noticed on pp. 70, 71. Nor is it strange that such allegories should in process of time have been sometimes mistaken for liistory. It is not necessary to say much here about the work of Professor Bergmann of Strassburg. As indicated on the title - page, Bergmann maintains the Book of Jonah to be a religious-philosophical parable. He does not, however, view it as an allegory, and evidently does not regard it either as divinely inspired, or prophetical in its character. According to him, the book was intended as a vindi- cation of the righteousness of God, and sets forth the Divine long-suffering of the rebellious, and His merciful dealings with penitent transgressors. In Bergman n's treatment of the passages in the Gospels which refer to the story of Jonah, he has reverted to the old rationalistic standpoint, and regards the New Testament reference to Jonah in the fish's belly as introduced by the " short-sighted and wonder-stricken Judaeo-Christian," who is sup- posed to have reduced the Gospel of St. jMatthew into its present foiin. One specimen may here suffice of the strange fancies which Professor Bergmann ventures to put forward as sober exegesis, and is itself deserving of a place in a museum, of curiosities of Biblical interpretation. According to him, when the sailors in the storm Introduction. xxvii awoke Jonah and bid him call on his God, had Jonah not been a stubborn character, when he had once recognised that the storm was sent forth for his sake, he would have called on Jehovah for pardon, and God mercifully would have saved him and his comrades from destruction. But Jonah was one of these hard- hearted and self-righteous individuals who are indis- posed to acknowledge their own sin, though quick to perceive transgression in others. Jonah preferred to die " like a righteous hero " than humble himself before Jehovah. He determined, therefore, in his pride, to offer himself up as a sacrifice, and gave himself up as " a guiltless offering to the wrath of God." The " heroism " of Jonah would have been worthy of admiration had Jonah, indeed, thrown himself into the breach with a better conscience, Ijut Jonah was " an erring stupid zealot," who, like all religious and political zealots, was zealous from very stupidity, and who in his ignorance offered up himself as self-righteous. It is unnecessary to discuss such wild fancies, or to criticise seriously the alterations which have to be introduced into the text of the book to give counte- nance to such interpretations. Professor Bergmann is not likely to find many here or in Germany willing to adopt his line of exegesis. We must, however, here bring our Introduction to a close. The study on Ezekiel's prophecy of Gog and Magog will, we hope, tend to show that the prophecy is no prediction of the future of Eussia, xxviii Tiitroducticn. but has a grander and more practical object. The chapter on the Key of the Apocalypse presented in Rev. xii. is a re - issue, in a greatly revised and enlarged form, of an article which appeared in 1880 under a different title in the Homiktic Qiuirtcrly. These two " studies " will, we hope, point out some of the true principles of prophetic interpretation to those desirous of becoming in reality students of the Biblical prophecies. The study on " the Spirits in Prison " will best tell its own tale. For obvious reasons, it is a more critical essay than any of the others. The Author earnestly hopes that this little volume may help to a better understanding of the precious word of inspiration, which was intended to be a lamj) unto the believers' feet and light unto their patli (Ps. cxix. 105). 33 Mespil Road, Dublin, March 26, 1886. CONTENTS. PACK I. The Book of Jon, ..... 1 The Book based on historical fact — The opening nar- rative supplies key to its meaning — Attempts to fill up Scripture statements — AH afflictions from God — Satan as the adversary — Not a mere instrument of God's providence — Views of Prof. A. B. Davidson — Old Testament passages ex- l)laining prologue — Micaiah's vision — Satan under Divine control — " Sons of God " not angels — The intermarriages in Book of Genesis — "Sons of God" in Old Testament — Times of solemn assembl)'- — The great contest — The accuser and the Advocate — Satan's challenge — Satan inflicts evils on Job — Job as victor in first contest — Satan assails his person — Job's wife — Job still victorious in second trial — The third trial one from the hands of men, Job's friends and their opinions — His opening lament — Re- proved by Eliphaz — Job's consciousness of integi'ity — Bildad's insinuations — Job's reply — Zopiiar's assertions^The patriarch's indignation — Faith in darkness — Storm in deep waters — Keplies of the friends — Job's entreaties — Job accused of gross transgression — Victor in debate — Elihu intervenes — New view of afflictions — Appearance of the Almighty — The problem solved, and yet not solved — Job's repentance and restoration, . . . " . . 1-3.3 II. The Book of Jonah consideiied fi;om ax allegou- ICAL point of view, . . . .34 § 1. Introduction — History and allegory — "Weakness of objections urged against the credibility of the Book of Jonah — No historical confirmation of its narrative — No reference to the story in heathen legends, ..... 34-41 § 2. The prophet Jonah and his era — The prophetic commission — Jonah's (liglit — Jonah a represent- ative of Israel — His sleep on the vessel — The storm on the sea of nations — The sea-monster XXX Contents. TAGE swallows up Israel — The allegory founded on descriptions given in the Hebrew prophets, . 42-56 § 3. The prayer of Jonah a collection of sentences chiefly from the Psalms — Israel's songs in her exile— The allegory expounded first of Israel, and then of Israel's Messiah, .... 56-66 § 4. Difliculties in the Book of Jonah regarded as an historical narrative— The New Testament refer- ences thereto — The book an allegorical descrip- tion of Israel's past, and a prophecy of Israel's future, ...... 66-74 § 5. The restoration of Jonah to the prophetic office — His renewed commission — The overthrow of the nations — The voices of the Hebrew prophets — Expectations of the Jews at the restoration from Babylon — Penitent Nineveh — Readiness of the Gentiles to learn religious truths from Israel — Conditional character of prophecy — The gourd or palmchrist of Jonah — The Davidic governor, Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, . . . 74-89 § 6. The Book of Jonah essentially a book of pro- phecy, and not of history — The judgment announced to the world — The conversion of the Gentiles and the jealousy of the Jews — The great controversy in the early days of the Christian Church — The prophetic allegory of the Prodigal Son and his Elder Brother, . . . 90-98 III. Ezekiel's Prophecy of Gog and Magog, . . 99 Nations disposed to self-laudation — God the God of all — Israel the only elect nation — Jeremiah on judgments decreed against nations — English national pride — England and Russia — Prophecies supposed to refer to Russia — Apparent evidence in favour of that view — The names Rosh and Russia not identical — Gog in Assyrian inscrip- tions — Great invasion of Scythians — Their auxiliaries, Gimmeri — Tubal and Meshak — To- garmah — Scythian invasion known to Ezekiel — Gog and Magog names of terror — The latter days or years — Ezekiel's prophecy not designed as literal — Palestine not the only scene of conflict — Gog's exploits and destruction the theme of all the prophets — Gog under Divine control — Absurd explanations of text in Ezekiel — Confederacy of Gog and Magog not one against religion — Its aim filthy lucre — Slave traders on the scent — Absurdly transformed into heroes — Imagery of Ezekiel common to all the prophets, the pestilences — The hailstones and fire — The internecine conflict — The earthquakes — Our Lord's painting of the latter days— The feast of the birds and beasts — Tlie Contents. xxxi PAGE spoils of the foe— The weapons of Gog's army — Used for firewood — The great burial-place — The valley of multitude — Ezekiel on the passengers — The burial described — Ezekiel's descriptions partly drawn from liook of Exodus — The pro- phecy an allegory — The conversion of Israel — The Jlessianic age — The picture as seen by Ezekiel — The Jews often ojtpressed for love of money — The days of deliverance, . . 99-137 lY. TnK Spirits in Prison. A study on 1 Pet. iii. 18-20 and iv. 6, . . . . . . 138 Dean Plumptre's book — Consensus of modern scholars — Silence of Scripture on the inter- mediate state — Orthodox diviners and "the larger hope" — Bishop Horsley — Professor Schweizer of Zurich — Mistakes of Authorized Version — The Kevised Version — Christ quickened iu the Spirit —The context of 1 Pet. iii. 18-20— Exhortation in preparation for day of trial — No new truth revealed — No preaching of Christ to departed spirits elsewhere referred to — Historical tradi- tion on the descent into hell — Statements of Hermas — Speculations of Clement of Alexandria • — Justin Martyr — Irenseus — Thaddaeus' summary of faith — Abgar correspondence — Gospel of Nico- demus — No allusion of the Fathers to a preach- ing to antediluvians — Views of Augustine — Spirits in prison — Isaiah's prophecy — The pit and prison — Isaiah and St. Peter — Christ as Spirit, the Pre-incarriate Word — As head of angels — In angelic form — Preaching to antediluvians — Augustine on Noah's preaching — Spirit of Christ in the prophets — The expression "went," Topivh'is — " Si)irits wlio are in prison " or "spirits who were in prison " — Character of antedilu- vians — "Aforetime disobedient" — Summary of statements in 1 Pet. iii. 19 — Context of the disputed passage in chap. iv. — The same contrast drawn as in chap. iii. — The preaching oidy a past transaction — The gospel preached — Com- jiarison Ijetween Christ and His ])eople— Object of gosjiel being preached to early believers — Ways of God and man — " Preached to the dead " — Believers only referred to — Other theories — Limbus pair urn — Orthodox theologians and "the larger hope," . , . _. 138-197 V. The Key to the Apocalypse, presented in the Vision of Rev. xii., . . . .198 General agreement among expositors — Worthless expositions — New interpretations of Apocalypse — xxxii Contents. Apocalypse not a sealed book — Visions a comfort to Church in all ages — Church and Christ's ad- vent — Propliecy not history written in advance — Events in IJook not in chronological order — The six seals — Synchronisms of Mede — Opening of chap. xii. — Work of Church — Her double temptation — Depicted as woman — In heaven — The dragon — Clothed with light — Witli the sun — Moon under her feet — Crown of stars — The man child, Christ — Christ as Son of the Church — Old Testament parallels — The travailing woman — The man-child of Isaiah — Tlie man- child of Revelation — Christ saved from Satan — Caught up to the throne — Conflicting interpreta- tions of the vision, E. B. Elliott— G. S. Faber — Von Hofmann — Ebrard — Author of "The Par- ousia " — Archdeacon Farrar — Nero and his name — Zahn's "Studies" — Kliefoth — The dragon swaying Pagan Rome — Weakness of Antichrist's kingdom — The ten horns — The two legs of Daniel's image — The dragon's tail — War in heaven — Old Testament parallels — Rev. xii. and Dan. xii. compared — The victory of Messiah — First and second advent — Victory of Jlichael — The 1260 days — Two periods of a time, times and a half — The times of the Gentiles — Israel and its Messiah, .... 198-252 Indexes, ...... 253 EXEGETICAL STUDIES. I. THE BOOK OF JOB. ANY interesting questions have been raised concerning the patriarch whose trials and sufferings form the basis of the Book of Job. It has often been maintained that the book is allefforical, and that Job, as an indi- vidual, had no historical existence. However in- correct this may be, and however little countenance is given to it by the phenomena of the book, the view cannot in itself be fairly regarded as derogatory to the inspired character of the work, or necessarily opposed to the notices of Job in other parts of Scripture. It is, however, more correct to regard the book as based on historical facts, which have been made use of by the sacred writer in order more vividly to point out some of the general causes which tend to explain the affliction of the upright and righteous on earth. 2 Exegetical Studies. The narrative given in the prologue (chaps, i. and ii.) supplies the key for the comprehension of the poem that succeeds. But in order to understand that narrative more perfectly, it is necessary to have distinct views upon two points, namely, the character of the malignant being termed " the Adversary," or Satan, and the nature of those designated in Job i. 6, ii. 1, "the sons of God." It is well to be careful against arbitrarily " reading into " the Book of Job ideas which are only found in later books of Holy Scripture. But it must be remembered at the same time that it is not possible, from the fragmentary references which occur in any book, to give a precise account of the opinions held on all points by the particular author. In the case of the Biblical writers, it is safer, and more in accord- ance with true criticism, to fill up the fragmentary statements found in one book by the fuller state- ments made in another, than arbitrarily to fill in the outlines of the picture drawn by one writer with details out of harmony with the general spirit of Biblical literature. If it be unscientific to assert without evidence the absolute harmony of the Biblical writers, it is surely equally unscientific to assume without evidence that the opinions of the several writers are different, if not contradictory. It is certain that the writer of the Book of Job was strongly impressed with the truth expressed in the saying of Amos, "Shall evil befall a city, and the Lord hath not done it ? " (Amos iii. 6). In the Book The Book of Job. 3 of Exodus, the sin of Pharaoh in refusing to obey the divine command to " let Israel go " is fully recognised and exposed. But the truth is never for a moment concealed that man, even when violently opposed to the will of God, cannot thwart the carrying out of that will unless by the divine permission. The sacred writer does not regard himself as palli- ating in any degree the guilt of the Egyptian monarch when he ascribes to the workings of Divine Provi- dence even that king's unwillingness to obey : " The Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he did not let the children of Israel go" (Ex. x. 20). In accordance with a similar principle, the afflic- tions of Job are throughout the Book of Job recog- nised as coming from God, in the sense of having been distinctly permitted by the Almighty. But those sufferings are also represented by the author as the work of Satan, or the Adversary. This latter fact ought not, however, to lead us to identify in any way the work of Satan and that of God. Satan is represented as the doer of the evil, while God is represented simply as having permitted the evil to be done for certain purposes not obscurely hinted at in the book. In examining into the question who or what is designated in the Book of Job as " the Satan," we must not reject the light afforded by the narrative of tlie Book of Genesis, in which " the Adversary " is depicted as a serpent at " enmity " with man and seeking hia ruin (Gen. iii.). Nor can we leave out of 4 Excgetical Studies. sight the statements in the Book of Leviticus, where Azazel, the evil spirit, is contrasted with Jehovah (Lev. xvi. 8), and the goat laden with tlie sin of Israel was directed to be sent forth into the wilder- ness, away from the camp, to be sent back by a symbol to him who was the real originator and cause of Israel's transgression,^ who had been Israel's tempter, and consequently Israel's foe. Similar in spirit, though not in external form, is the remarkable vision of Zechariah, in v/hich Satan is represented as seeking to prevent the Angel of Jehovah from remov- ing the filthy garments from Joshua the high priest (chap. iii. 1—3), who is there the representative of the Jewish Church. For that vision, in which the Evil Angel is represented in his character of Accuser and Adversary, and in which he receives a solemn rebuke from the Angel of Jehovah, who is also Jehovah, stands in a close connection to the prologue of the Book of Job." It is therefore not a little surprising that Pro- fessor A. B. Davidson should maintain that in the Book of Job " there is no antagonism between God 1 That 'Azazel (. Davidson, D.D., LL.D., Professor of Hebrew and Old Testament Exegesis in the New College, Edinburgh, 1884, pp. xxxii., xxxiii. See, however, our remarks on p. 25. 6 JExegetical Studies. would then look like a philosophical attempt to explain away the conflict between God and Satan, which was certainly taught distinctly after the restoration from Babylon. There are two passages in the Old Testament whicli cast no small light npon this portion of the prologue of the Book of Job. These are the vision of Micaiah, the son of Imlah, recorded in 1 Kings xxii. 19-2o, and the vision of Zechariah already referred to (Zech. iii. 1—3). In the former passage Jehovah is repre- sented as sitting on His throne, and all the host of heaven standing by Hira on His right hand and on His left, when the Lord asks, " Who shall entice Ahab that he may go up and fall at Eamoth-Gilead ? And one said on this manner, and another said on that manner. And there came forth the spirit ^ and stood before the Lord, and said, I will entice him. And the Lord said unto him. Wherewith ? And he said, I will go forth, and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And He said. Thou shalt entice him, and shall prevail also : go forth and do so." The doctrine set forth in Micaiah's vision is not peculiar to that prophet. It is that taught in many parts of the Old Testament and repeated in the New ' The article is expressed in the Hebrew text. Both the Authorized and the Revised Versions have regarded the article here as generic, and hence have left it untranslated. But it is more likely that it has the usual definite sense. The Evil Spirit was no doubt frequently spoken of among the Israelites, even though it is seldom directly mentioned in Old Testament literature. The Booh of Job. T (2 Thess. ii. 10-12). It is set forth plainly in Ezek. xiv. 9 : "If the prophet be deceived and speaketh a word, I, the Lord, have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand upon him and will destroy liim from the midst of my people Israel." But " the spirit," described by Micaiah as " a lying spirit," was there no " mere instrument in the economy of God's providence." The prophets of lies spoke visions out of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the Lord (Jer. xxii. 16). Though "sent" in one sense as a judicial punishment upon obstinate trans- gressors, and permitted in judgment to lead astray a people who had wandered wilfully after their own ways, the false prophets were not " sent " by Jehovah in the higher or true sense of that expression (Jer. xiv. 13-15). Satan, whom our Lord describes as having " from the beginning " of the world's his- tory been " a liar " as well as " a murderer " (John viii. 44), was the " lying spirit " in the mouth of the prophets of Ahab, and " the Adversary," " the Satan," and calumniator of Job. It is not correct, therefore, to regard Satan in the prologue to the Book of Job as presenting himself before God " to report or to receive commissions," as if he were " that one of God's ministers whose part it is to oppose men in their pretensions to a right standing before God." He is figuratively represented as presenting himself before God in the moral character of " the serpent," who having chosen evil as his good is compelled to eat dust all the days of his 8 Excgetical Studies. miserable life (Gen. iii. 14 ; Isa. Ixv. 25); but who, notwithstanding, has to come trembling, like one of " the crawling things of the earth," out of his close places unto the Lord (Micah vii. 16, 17). He acts, indeed, as " the Accuser," but his weakness is shown by his inability without special permission to " hurt " the Lord's people (Isa. xi. 9). Hence, in New Testa- ment times, those who were once enrolled in " the city of God " had to be " cut off " from that " city," and delivered over to Satan, ere they could fall fully under his power (comp. 1 Cor. v. 3-5 ; 1 Tim. i. 20). For in the higher sense even Satan is compelled to await God's commands, and to do God's will, though he knows it not, like his agent Caiaphas (John xi. 49-52), or like the storm- winds of the heavens, or the four war-chariots, or world-empires, which are also represented as " going forth from standing before the Lord of the whole earth " (Zech. vi. 5).^ " The sons of God " spoken of in Job i. 6 and ii. 1, have been generally explained to mean " the angels." But there is grave reason to believe that the popular interpretation is incorrect. The precise expression found in these two passages occurs elsewhere only in Gen. vi. 2, 4. The phrase occurs with a slight varia- tion also in Job xxxviii. 7.^ In the latter passage 1 See my Bampton Lectures on Zechariah on the passage. ^ The expression D^^'?N^ '^22, " som of the Elohim " or God, occurs only in Gen. vi. 2, 4 and in Job i. 6, ii. 1 ; D^^^X 'J3, which may be regarded as identical, is the phrase found in Job xxxviii. 7, Another expression, Qi^x ij3, is found in Ps. xxix. 1, Ixxxix. 6, and is rendered in both the Autliorized and Revised Versions The Book of Job. 9 the usage of Hebrew parallelism leads us to interpret the phrase to mean " the stars." ^ For the stars are represented there as rejoicing in chorus at the creation of a new planet. The sacred writer represents the Almighty as asking Job — " Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth ? Declare, if thou hast understanding. When the morning stars sang together, And all the sons of God shouted for joy ? ' Similar poetical figures, like this of the stars rejoic- ing and shouting for joy, are found in other passages, as in Isa. xxxv. 1, 2, where the wilderness is spoken of as rejoicing with joy and singing ; or in Isa. Iv. 12, where the trees of the field are described as clapping their hands for joy. In Gen. vi. 2, 4, " tlie sons of God " are described as intermarrying with " the daughters of men," which intermarria2res led (following most of the ancient expositors) by '■'■the mhjhty," and " ut put forth Thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will renounce Thee to Thy face." Thus was the gauntlet thrown down. God's trusty servant was accused of selfishness, and a slight was cast upon the knowledge of Him " who searcheth the reins and the heart." The challenge was at once accepted. In order that the disinterested piety of His servant might be made manifest to the universe, the Lord gave Satan permission to put Job to the test. The Book of Job. 15 " Behold, all that he hath is in thy power ; only upon himself put not forth thine hand." Armed with this fearful permission, Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord to execute all the evil that his malice could devise. Job was at the time the greatest of all the men of the East, his substance was immense, and in the number of oxen, asses, sheep, camels, and servants, he surpassed all the men of the country ; he was likewise blessed in his family, for he had seven sons and three daughters. It was a day of festivity in the family of the patriarch, but Job was himself not present at the festive circle, when a messenger, entering in hot haste, brought the startling news that the oxen were plough- ing and the asses feeding beside them, when the Sabeans fell upon them, slew the servants with tlie edge of the sword, and carried off all the cattle. Scarce had he ceased his narration, when another messenger appeared on the scene with still more evil tidings. The lightning of God liad fallen upon the flocks of the sheep and upon their shepherds, and sheep and shepherds together had perished in the fell conflagration, the messenger alone having escaped to bring the heavy tidings. Scarcely is tliis tale t(ild when another messenger arrives bringing further dismal intelligence. The Chaldeans had fallen upon the camels, and had carried them ofl" ; the servants that watched over the animals were also overmastered and slain. Worse than all, a fourth messenger came runninii in with tlie terrible news that the seven 16 Exegetical Studies. children of Job who had met together in harmless festivity, and for whose spiritual welfare the patri- arch was so concerned that he was wont to offer sacrifices for them continually, had met with a fearful fate : a great wind from the wilderness smote upon the house in which they were assembled, and sons and daughters were alike buried under one melancholy pile. Thus, as it appeared, had both God and man com- bined to bring ruin and desolation upon the patriarch. A heavy cloud of mystery hung over this sad dis- pensation. Job was not conscious of having com- mitted any enormous sin, and yet he had suffered terrible calamities. He knew not the hidden reason of those ills. Overwhelmed with grief and reduced to utter destitution. Job gave utterance to the words of lofty resignation : " The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away ; blessed be the name of the Lord." Job's religion was thus unmistakeably proved to be a religion of love and reverential fear, and not the off- spring of mere selfishness. Time rolled on ; again the sacred day arrived when the sons of God went to present themselves before the Lord at His altar ; and the poor afflicted patri- arch was doubtless not absent from that assembly. There were also present, — invisible, however, to human eye, — the Great Advocate, the Captain of the Lord's host, and the wicked Accuser who sought to devour the people of the Lord. Again the Lord trium- phantly interrogated Satan, and pointed out to him The Book of Job. 17 the victorious result of the trial. With more bitter malignity than before, Satan now assailed the cha- racter of Job's religion, and insinuated that the reason of Job's continued stedfastness was the selfishness of his nature, and his insensibility to all evils that did not affect his own person. The challenge thus for the second time thrown down was again accepted, and Satan received permission to afflict the person of Job, provided only that he did not take his life. Satan accordingly smote the patriarch with a plague of burning ulcers, which covered his entire body, causing excruciating agony, rendered his appearance horrible and his breath offensive, so that the poor afflicted man became loathsome to behold. Fearful as was this affliction, mysterious as was its cause, and unable as Job was to reconcile it with the justice of the Almighty, he yet maintained his integrity, and held fast his grasp of Heaven. In the first temptation he recognised God's right to deal as He thought fit with the things He had freely bestowed on him. He now recognised God's right to deal as He saw fit with his person. " Dost thou still hold fast thine integrity ? " said his wife ; " curse God and die," for death will soon put an end to thy miserable existence. Beautifully resigned was the reply of the patriarch : " Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What ! shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil ? " B 18 Excgdical Studies. The second trial was thus met with sub- mission by the afflicted child of God ; in the terrible contest Job remained the victor. His religion was proved to be a reality, and manifested as not merely outward show. Satan now vanished from the scene, no more to reappear. A further trial, however, still awaited the patri- arch, a tiial at the hands of man. Far from receiving relief from sympathizing friends. Job's misery was unwittingly to be aggravated by well- meaning comforters. The trial was, perhaps, designed by divine wisdom, as a necessary preparation to be luidergone before Job could be restored again to his former position. He required to learn many lessons before he was again prepared for prosperity, before he could understand the dealings of God with him. The dark trials which had come upon him had shaken, although they had not overthrown, his faith. From the trial to which he was now to be subjected, Job was to come forth like gold. Three friends who had heard of the patriarch's downfall came to express their deep sympathy with him. They were probably men of exalted station, — according to the Greek translators, they were kings, — but whatever rank they belonged to, they were narrow-minded men, and were led by the mistaken religious views they had adopted to ascribe the calamity of their friend to an erroneous cause. According to their theory, afflictions were sent by God as punishments for the sins of men. They The Booh of Job. 19 looked to the punitive side of affliction and saw no other. Tlieir views were grounded on truth, but not on the whole truth. They saw part of a large question, and thought they saw it all. Affliction is caused by sin. Job is afflicted, therefore he must liave sinned ; afflicted, too, in an unexampled degree, and, therefore. Job must have committed some extra- ordinary sin. To persons with such convictions deeply rooted in their minds, the patriarch, after the first few days of sorrow had been spent in silence, poured out liis bitter complaint. With such a heavy load of sorrow crushing him to the ground, life was far from a blessing, and in striking terms he cursed the night in which he was conceived, and the day in which he was born. To his circumscribed vision it appeared best that he should descend as soon as possible to that grave, where the wicked cease from troubling, and where the weary are at rest. Eliphaz, probably the oldest and certainly the ablest of the three friends, began the discussion with the patriarch (iv. 15). In mild and soothing tones, Eliphaz apologized for the intrusion of himself and his friends on Job in the midst of such sorrow. Strong, however, in the conviction that such miseries as Job suffered could oidy be caused by some terrible iniquity, he expressed his surprise that a man like Job, who had often been the support of others, should be so overwhelmed with sorrow as to give vent to passionate exclamations. He 20 Exegctical Studies. reminded Job firmly of the supposed truth (which Job, in other circumstances, might himself have been ready to admit) that no one who was innocent ever perished, and that the righteous were never cut off, thus plainly leaving the deduction to be drawn that Job must have been guilty of secret sin. In language dictated by a desire to be faithful, he hinted at the conclusion at which he and his friends had arrived on the patriarch's case, and after pointing out the consequent impiety and sin of complaining against God, and the uses to which affliction might be turned, concluded with the exhortation to Job to hear what was spoken, and to ponder on it for his good. Eliphaz in this speech touched the poor patriarch to the very quick. Like a heartless bystander, who looks callously upon some sufferer in agony, Eliphaz treated the exclamations uttered in Job's auguish as criminal. He imagined that by demonstrating the sin of complaining against God, he could close for ever the patriarch's mouth. Job was not, however, to be thus easily silenced ; he felt conscious of his integrity, notwithstanding the dark insinuations of his friends, and though conscious of sin in general (vii. 19, 21), was certain that the fearful afflictions he suffered were not deserved. In piteous language he described the loathsome state of his poor body (vii. 4, 5), and turned towards heaven to beg in agonizing strains for relief. In touching terms he expressed his bitter disappointment at such language The Book of Joh. 21 coming from men who had been his friends. Like noisy brooks, swollen by winter's rains, they had at one time been loud in their professions of attachment ; they were also but too like those brooks when dried up by the summer's heat, fatally disappointing the parched traveller's hopes in the day of distress. No word of sympathy had fallen from their lips, no l)alm of Gilead had been poured upon his bleeding wounds. Bildad in his rejoinder added little to the argu- ments adduced by Eliphaz. God must ever be true, and what He does must be right ; He rewards the righteous, and punishes the wicked. Job's sufferings were, in Bildad's view, a sad confirmation of this truth. The calamity which liad befallen Job's children must necessarily have been the result of their transgression (viii. 4). The Almighty could not act unjustly. If Job had been pure and upright his prosperity would have continued. His misfortunes must be traced to some acts of trans- gression. As the rush by the river's side does not grow without mire to nourish it, so misery must have its cause in some sin lying at the root (viii. 11-13). Such, Bildad informs Job, was the unanimous belief of his friends, and not only their creed, but that of the wise of former times, whom Bildad is ever fond of quoting in defence of his views. Job was but too plainly proved to have been a hypocrite ; had he been upright, God woidd have upheld his cause. Yet if Job were willing to return to God, He would 22 Excgetical Studies. return to him, and grant him joy and peace in his latter end. Job's reply to Bildad contains some fine passages. He ironically assents to his statement that God deals with man strictly according to retributive justice. But how can a man in such a case prove himself just before God ? If he were to dare to contend with God, he could not answer Him one of a thousand questions. It were hopeless to think of reasoning with such an adversary ; better, says Job, to fall down humbly before Him, and make sup- plication to " my opponent " (A. V. " my judge "). ^ But, as the patriarch points out, God's retributive justice is not always so clearly exhibited as his friends had ventured to assert. God had afflicted him though innocent ; God destroys alike often the guiltless and the guilty (ix. 22). Having thus replied to Bildad, Job burst forth in a strain of 1 So the word in ix. 15 should perhaps rather be rendered, and not my judge, as the Authorized Version has it. Tlie Revised Version has more correctly ^^ mine adversary." The Hebrew DDty is a judge, while tSDB'P is one loho goes to lata with another, an opponent. Exactly the same distinction exists between the Arabic iS\>~ and fS\.^^' Vid. Gesenius' Thesaurus, p. 1464. In the Lexicon Manuale, Gesenius viewed the two participles as identical in meaning, and so they are viewed even in the latest editions of his work by Miihlau and Volck (8th ed. 1878 ; 9tli cd. 1883). Bottcher, however, regards the form in question as a collective (a broken plural form), simply more expressive than thu ordinary Kal participle used for judge. See his Xeue Aehrenlese, 1406. The matter cannot be fully discussed here. The Book of Job. 23 remonstrance with God, and besought Him to clear away the darkness which surrounded the mysterious visitation, and to explain why He had so inexplicably changed His mode of dealing with His servant. In these burning remonstrances the patriarch gives vent to his intense longing for some mediator, some days- man, between himself and the Almighty. Zophar now took up the argument against Job (xi.). He accused Job of ignorance, and pointed out God's wisdom. He accused Job of mockery and impiety, and expressed a wish that God would indeed speak and open His lips against Job, when the wickedness of Job would be manifested, and his guilt be brought to light. He adduced no arguments, but warned the patriarch to put away iniquity, and his misery would soon be forgotten. Zophar, indeed, adduced no arguments in proof of Ids assertions, but he exhibited considerable irrita- tion against Job for the persistence with which he had maintained his innocence, and charged the patriarch with being an empty talker and full of boastings.^ Job's indignation was now fully aroused. Unable any longer to endure the dark insinuations of his friends, and their want of sympathy with his calamity, he no longer stood upon the defensive, but assumed the offensive. In reference to the proud assumption of his friends, he remarked with bitter irony : " No doul)t 1 Lies, which is the Authorized Version rendering of xi. 2, is somewhat too strong. The Revised Version has correctly rendered "thy boastings." 24 Exegetical Studies. ye are the people, and wisdom shall die with you. But I have understanding as well as you ; I am n(jt inferior to you ; yea, who knoweth not such things as these ? " (xii. 2, 3). His friends had brought forw^ard nothing new, but had only given utterance to what he knew as well as they. They had not even been honest in the expression of their opinions, for they had upheld what was neither in unison with the convictions of their hearts or with their own experience. " Ye are forgers of lies, ye are all ]}hysicians of no value," ignorant quacks incompetent to understand the disease they proposed to cure. " Will ye speak unrighteously for God, and talk deceit- fully for Him ? Will ye accept His person ? will ye contend for God ? " " He will surely reprove you if ye do secretly accept persons" (xiii. 7, 8, 10). Though you vainly imagine that He will approve of your feigned words in His defence, you will find at last that you shall receive rebuke and shame at His hands. Amid tlie wail of woe that proceeded so oft from the patriarch, and the fearful darkness that gathered around his path, there still lingered in his bosom the liope and conviction that God was after all his friend. To Him, therefore, he appealed to explain His strange dealings, and to Him he turned when condemned by his friends. Like the Psalmist he could say : " My soul waiteth only upon God, from Him cometh my sal- vation" (Ps. Ixii. 1). The descriptions of the natural misery of man, and of the sin of which the entire race is guilty, the utter destruction of man and tlie bright The Book of Joh. 25 hope of another life, presented in the fourteenth chapter, form one of the most striking parts of this wonderful poem. " It is easily seen," beautifully remarks Prof. Davidson,^ " that this storm of passion and doubt into which Job has been worked is one that rages, like all storms in deep waters, merely on the surface, — deep down (always when he forgets himself) his faith and fundamental conceptions of God are calm and undis- turbed. The very deeps of darkness into which he sinks but give him clearer glimpses of heavenly light — as when one descends between engulfing waves, he sees the stars invisible to those on calmer waters. And out of the extremity of human woe. Job rises to the extremity of human hope. Because the perfect conception of misery — concentrated sin and wrath and speedy dissolution — overbalances itself, the mind, from its nature and inherent conceptions of man and God, immediately swings itself aloft, and from the .shortness and the miserable abandonment by God of this life, finds and utters the necessity of an endless and blessed life with Him anew (xiv. 1 3 ff.). A man with such firm foothold on the past, and sucli I A Commentary, Grammatical and Exegetical, on the Booh of Job : with a Translation. By Eev. A. B. Davidson. Vol. i. p. 178 (Williams & Norgate, 1862). A work, the .second volume of which, alas ! never ajjpeared, owing mainly to the sad want of appreciation shown for such books in this country. There is some compensation for the loss, indeed, in the fact that Prof. A. B. Davidson is the author of the Commentary on the Book of Job in the Cambridge Bible for SchooU and Colleges (Cambridge, 1884), already referred to. But the non- appearance of the larger work is still much to be regretted. 26 Exegctical Studies. occasional convulsive grasps of the future, is not one readily to fall into Atheism." The rejoinder of Eliphaz (xv.) was fierce and cutting. The patriarch had now shown himself in his true colours as one who had no fear of God, who restrained prayer before the Most High, who condemned himself by his own foolish and daring words, and ventured to set himself against the Almighty, and madly to rush upon God with the thick bosses of his bucklers. Broken down with sorrow upon sorrow. Job replied : " I have heard many such things : miserable com- forters are ye all." " I also could speak as ye do : if your soul were in my soul's stead, I could join together words against you, and shake mine head at you." But if you were in such circumstances, "I would strengthen you with my mouth, and the solace of my lips should assuage your grief " (xvi. 2, 4, 5). " My face is foul with weeping, and on my eyelids is the shadow of death ; although there is no violence in mine hands, and my prayer is pure. earth, cover not thou my blood, and let my cry have no resting place. Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and He that voucheth for me (my sponsor) is on liigh. My friends scorn me, but my eye poureth out tears unto God, that He would maintain the right of a man with God, and of a son of man with hi.s neighbour!" (xvi. 16-21). Bildad was not overcome by Job's tears and entreaties. With the intense earnestness of a bigot, convinced that his opinions are true, even though he The Booh of Job. 27 cannot prove his points, Bildad spoke out still more bitterly. Job's hypocrisy was, in his opinion, most awful to behold ; he was a wicked man, the light of whose tent had been blown out by the Most High, and his lamp and fire extinguished. His fate should prove a solemn warning to others, and men as they passed by might well exclaim : " Surely such are the dwellings of the unrighteous, and this is the place of him that knoweth not God" (xviii. 21). Again the patriarch entreated his friends at least to be silent. He had replied to their arguments, they had nothing left but invective. " Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, ye my friends ; for the hand of God hath touched me. Oh that my words were now written ! oh that they were inscribed in a book ! That with an iron pen and lead they were graven in the rock for ever ! But I know that my Eedeemer liveth,^ and that He shall stand up at the last upon the earth : and after my skin hath been thus destroyed, yet from my flesh " (or, " apart from my flesh," in the disembodied state,^) "shall I see God" (xix.21, 23-26). ' Or, " And a Later One (an after-one, he that cometh after me) shall stand upon the earth. " Ewald renders jiinx by Nachmann. Davidson in his earlier work maintained that "undoubtedly jilPIX (the Later One) is He who inaugurates the D'^JD'H n^iriN (the latter days), or Messianic era, i.e. the Messiah." He explains it in his later work as an epithet of God, as "The first and the last" (Isa. xliv. 6, xlviii. 12); and as a parallel to "My God" in the first, clause, and therefore as nearly equivalent in sense to "in aftertimo He shall stand." " This is the sense which is most in harmony with the context ; the reference to the resurrection docs not so well agree with the context. 28 Excgctical Studies. Notwithstanding this pathetic appeal, the discussion between Job and his friends waxed fiercer and fiercer. Ehphaz in his third speech no longer sought to conceal his impressions. Drawing now upon his imagination for the facts required, he declared Job's wickedness to be great. It was his cruelty towards liis own flesh and blood, his shameless disregard of the poor, his neglect of the widow, and his unfeeling conduct towards the orphan, which had all by a righteous retribution brought upon him a well-merited affliction (xxi. 5-10). In his closing speech Job triumphantly defends liimself against such fearful charges ; he feelingly con- trasts his former with his present state (xxix., xxx.). He enlarges on the wisdom of God, but declares the workings of His providence as inscrutable, and once more, having solemnly protested his innocence of the charges adduced against him, appeals to heaven for an explanation of his woes (xxxi.). Thus far had Job come off victorious ; his three friends had been worsted in the debate. Their theory, that affliction was always tlie consequence of sin, was too narrow, it did not accord with even ordinary experience, it did not explain the sufferings of Job. Those friends had also been convicted of partiality and injustice. In upholding what they believed to be the cause of God, they in the heat of argument went beyond their conscientious convictions, and in charging the patriarch with crimes of wliich they liad The Book of Job. 29 no evidence, they had been convicted themselves as transgressors. On the other hand, Job, goaded on by their accusations, had been guilty of uttering impious words against God, and had called in question the divine justice. Scripture paints men as they are, and does not hesitate to put into the mouth of Job the dark thoughts that often suggest themselves to the minds of even pious men in the depth of sorrow and distress. " The utterances of anguish," as Prof. Davidson has remarked, " are not to be rigidly measured by the square of dogmatic truth ; and we cannot attach to Job the same blame as we should were his sentiments given out calmly, nor can we attach to the sentiments the same weight as if they were the deliberate convictions of the understanding." Another speaker is now represented as appearing on the scene. Elihu belonged to the family from whence Abraham had sprung, and, young as he was in years, modesty had kept him from taking any part in the discussion, which he is supposed to have listened to as a casual bystander. It is unnecessary for our present purpose to discuss the genuineness of this portion of the book. Whether it was an insertion tacked on by the author himself to the original work, or added thereto by a later hand, it forms a very important addition to the argument of the book. Elihu was indignant at the result of the contro- versy. He was indignant at the inability shown by the three disputants, and was pained at the words 30 Excgetical Studies. Job had uttered. He could not any longer, therefore, remain silent. He began by apologizing as a young man for venturing to take part in the debate. He pointed out to Job that affliction was often sent by CJod as chastisement, and was employed to teach man humility. God is a God of justice, and cannot treat man unjustly. Nor does God keep silence. He speaks to man in various ways. He is a God of goodness and truth, while sin in man is sufficient in itself to account for any trials that man may have to endure. " Surely it is meet to be said unto God, I have borne chastisement, I will not offend any more. That which I see not, teach Thou me : if I have done iniquity, I will do it no more" (xxxiv. 31, 32); for after all, "Who is a Teacher like God ? " (xxxvi. 22). He teaches man by suffering. He educates His own children. Thus sufferings are loving stripes from a "Father's hand : "Whom the Lord loveth He chas- teneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth" (Heb. xii. 5, 11; Prov. iii. 11, 12). Afflictions are sent as punishments, but they are also sent as corrections. They are purgative. Elihu's argument might well be summed up in the remarkable words of Habakkuk in reference to the cruel and insulting Chaldeans : " Art not Thou from everlasting, Jehovali my God, mine Holy One ? we shall not die. Jehovah, Thou hast ordained him for judgment ; and Thou, O Eock, hast established him for correction " (Hab. i. 12). Interrupting Elihu in his speech, the Almighty The Booh of Job. 3 1 Himself is next introduced as speaking out of the storm-cloud. The speech of God is the more remarkable, because at first sight it appears to ignore altogether the question at issue. The Almighty did not con- descend to reply to Job's charges, nor did He even upbraid him with impiety. He did not unravel the mystery of evil. He did not speak about the afttictions of Job. He made His glory in creation to pass before the patriarch. He showed His own wondrous dealings in the natural world which man is unable to understand, and left Job to draw from thence the conclusion that if he could not comprehend the mere natural world, he could not expect to understand God's moral govern- ment and the deep mysteries connected with it. Davidson well observes in his later work, p. 260 : " The solution to Job's problem given in God's answer from the storm is a religious solution, not a specula- tive one. It is a solution to the heart, not to tlie intellect. It is such a solution as only God could give ; a solution which does not solve the perplexity, but buries it under the tide of a fuller life and joy in God. It is a solution as broad as Job's life and not merely the measure of his understanding ; the same solution as was given to the doubting apostle, making him to exclaim, 'My Lord and my Godl' and teaching him that not through his sense of touch or his eyesight, but through a broader sense, God makes Himself felt by man." The sight of the Almighty and of His glory were quite enough for Job. The few words of rebuke 32 Exegetical Studies. addressed to Job by God in the conclusion of this speech (xl. 7 ff.) prostrated him in the dust. The riddle for the solution of which he had longed was no more thought of, Job was content resignedly to await God's time for its explanation. He asked no longer the cause of the stripes he had received ; it was sufficient that they came from a Father's hand. In the sanctuary of God he learned the lesson, not to be learned outside its walls — a lesson of patience. The patient one was shown his impatience, the just man beheld his own injustice. With the cry, as it were, of " Father, I have sinned," the patriarch prostrated himself before Him who was indeed his Father. He liad in heart wandered far from his home, but his wanderings were now over ; he would fain return. The Father's pardon was not long delayed, the kiss of love was imprinted on the son's lips, and the order to bring forth the best robe, to clothe withal the poor penitent, was almost immediately given. Job was restored to health and prosperity, liis wealth was doubled. His friends were condemned for their sin against God whom they had misrepre- sented, and for their sins against Job whom they had falsely accused. They were bidden to ask Job to intercede for them, and to offer up, at the same time, a sacrifice to God. They were then pardoned and forgiven, and the storm-cloud which seemed big with vengeance burst thus in blessings on the heads of all. Thus does the Book of Job at least partially explain God's designs in affliction. The story told at The Book of Job. 33 the beginning of the book solves, as far as is possible t>n earth, the dark problem of human suffering. Trials are not only punitive and purgative, but sometimes also probative. The main object for Job's heavy trial was his probation — his sufferings were designed to test his faith. But they were also useful in other ways. Job learned in his affliction more of God's dealings than he had known before. He acquired a deeper knowledge of sin, and his own words received a striking fulfilment : " Wlien He hath tried me, I shall come forth like gold" (xxiii. 10). " Count it all joy," writes St. James, " when ye fall into manifold temptations (or trials) ; knowing that the proof of your faith worketh patience. And let patience have its perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, lacking in nothing" (Jas. i. 2-4). II. THE BOOK OF JONAH CONSIDERED EllOM AN ALLEGOEICAL POINT OF VIEW. § 1. Introduction — Uistory and ulleOne of the greatest French states- men, though an unbeliever, asked for the rites of the Church when dying, on the ground that he would not be such a fool as to despise any chance, however small, in such a trying hour. So the mariners in the storm were not disposed to quarrel with any prayer in the day of their sore distress. It was but natural, how- ever, that the thought should soon arise in the hearts of the superstitious sailors that the tempest raging around them was no ordinary storm, but one aroused by the wrath of Heaven. They accordingly cast lots in order to discover for whose sake the storm had i> ")() Excjjctical Studies. y been sent forth, and the lot fell upon Jonah. Eagerly interrogated respecting his country, his people, and ]iis crime, the prophet calmly and proudly replied : " I am a Hebrew, and I fear Jehovah, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land." The Ciod whose service Jonah so strangely relincpiished was now to him a dread reality, the religion once apparently despised was a cause of boasting. In the hour of danger, with Heaven frowning on him, and with men scowling at him, Jonah suddenly stood forth as a bold confessor, exclaiming almost in the language of Job : " Though He slay me, yet will I wait for Him " (Job xiii. 15). The reply to his questioners was the simple recital of his creed. It was not a penitential confession of personal guilt, it was a summary of the creed of the Psalmist : — " The sea is His, and He made it : And His hands formed the dry land. come, let us worship and bow down : Let lis kneel before Jehovah our Maker." — Ps. xcv. 5, 6. It was a protest against idolatry delivered in the very face of idolaters, and is strangely illustrative of the truth expressed by a great Eabbi of later days : " The heathen, when evil befalls tliem, curse their gods ; but we praise our God in prosperity and in adversity, and cry. Praise be to the Judge of Truth ! " ' It is highly significant that the prophet did not ' R. Akiba, see Dr. J. Hamburger, Rcal-Encydopddie fur Bibel nnd TcUmud, Ahth. ii. \>. 38. Tlie Book of Jonah. 5 1 condescend — whatever he may have felt in his soul — to express any regret for his notorious sin. But when the mariners further asked him what they sliouki do, Jonah immediately directed them to cast ^ liim overboard into the sea. It must not be forgotten that if there were false prophets in Israel who were among the causes which brought about Israel's ruin, there were also genuine prophets of Jeliovah who were enlightened by divine wisdom to comprehend that the way to a national amelioration lay through a national death, and such a calamity alone could bring about tlie nation's resurrection to a higher life. But those prophets were accused, and that very naturally, of weakening the hands of their country- men in the last campaign against Babylon (Jer. Nxxviii. 4), and even of inviting in the invader and destroyer of the land. As messengers of Jehovali, the prophets of Israel had to perform the sad duty of denouncing Jehovah's wrath against their own country. They were even commanded in their pro- phecies to summon the Chaldean invaders against Jerusalem : " Prepare ye war against her. . . . Thus liath the Lord of hosts said, Hew ye down trees, and cast up a mount against Jerusalem : this is the city to be visited " (Jer. vi. 4, G). Thus in the Book of Jonah, in accordance with the command pronounced with his own lips, Jonah, -^ as Israel's representative, was cast forth into the yawning billows which threatened immediate death. The prophet was instantly swallowed up by a great r,o. Ejaegetical Studies. fi.sli prepared by Divine Providence specially for the purpose ; and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights, after whicli period the Lord spoke unto the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land. In Isa. xxvii. it is predicted that " Jehovah with His sword — the hard, and the great, and the strong (sword) — shall punish leviathan the swift serpent, and leviathan the crooked serpent ; and He shall slay the sea-monster (P^Jj^l') which is in the sea." The world - power is there described under its three great heads : Leviathan the swift serpent signified Assyria, with its capital Nineveh on the swiftly-flowing Tigris ; leviathan the crooked serpent indicated Babylon, which lay on the crooked and labyrinth-like Euphrates ; while " the sea-monster which is in the sea" indicated Egypt, of which that was a common emblem. Though the world-power was thus represented under three heads, it was in all its forms essentially the same, and was to be over- turned by one weapon, the sword of Jehovah, which is described as " hard," i.e. well-tempered, so that it cannot be broken; "great," for it hath executed judg- ment in heaven upon the rebellious host on high (Isa. xxxiv. 5), and therefore may well be feared when it descends to earth ; and it is " strong " and able to smite the nations (Rev. xix. 15) with its sharp two- edged blade (Kev. i. 16, ii. 13). Under tAvo of these terrible forms the world-power is depicted by Jeremiah as working its will on Israel : ^ The, Booh of Jonah. 53 " Israel is a scattered sheep ; the lions have driven him away : first the king of Assyria hath devoured him ; and last this Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon hath broken his bones" (Jer. 1. 17). The more complete picture which is pourtrayed in the Book of Jonah, if that book be considered as an allegory, is presented to view in Jer. li. 34: "Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon hath devoured me, he hath crushed me, he hath made me an empty vessel, he hath swallowed me ^ up like the sea-monster (Pli^?), lie hath filled his maw (his belly) with my delicates, lie hath cast me out." Thus plainly does Jeremiah present a picture of the sea-monster, the great fish swallowing up Israel, and filling its belly therewith.^ Hosea further fills up the allegorical representation when he says : ' The word used here is ]y?2 which is also employed in Jonah i. 17, or, according to the Hebrew division of the book, in chap. ii. 1. * Our attention was first directed specially to this fact by the suggestive remarks of Rabbi J. S. Bloch on the Book of Jonah in liis Studien zur Geschichte der Sammlumj der alt-hebrdischen Literatur (Leipzig 1875), pp. 72-96. Though in the cx]>lanation of the details of the allegory we differ in many particulars from that .scholar, even in the explanation of the early chapters, and Bloch gives no suggestions as to his mode of explaining tlie second portion of the book, yet it was his remarks which iirst put us upon the right track leading to the solution of the curious difficulties of the book. Kleinert (in Lange's Bihelwerk) adopts substantially the same view as we do, but he has not gone sufficiently into the details, nor pointed out that the very details of the allegory are all borrowed from the language of the i)rophets. The previous attempts to explain the book as an allegory must be regarded as failures, such as, for instance, that of von der Hardt. The Roman Catholic scholar Kaulen (sec note on p. 67) is sometimes referred to as a defender of 54 Excgdical Studies. " Come, and let us return unto the Lord : for Ho hath torn, and He will heal us ; He hath smitten, and He will bind us up. After two days will He revive us : on the third ^ day He will raise us up, and we shall live before Him" (Hos. vi. 1, 2). In the latter description distinct reference is made to the three days spent in the interior of the sea-monster, the short period of the Babylonish captivity being thus signified. The picture of the Book of Jonah would not be complete if no instance could be quoted from the prophets of the significant detail of the sea-monster disgorging its prey. But this actually occurs in another passage of Jeremiah (li. 44), where Jehovah says : " I will do judgment upon Bel in Babylon, and. I will bring fortli out of his mouth that which he hath swallowed up." Thus distinctly do the prophets of Israel represent the captivity of the chosen people as tlie swallowing up of Israel by a sea-monster; thus the allegorical sense. IJut Kaulen maintains the truth of tlu^ historical narrative, although he also expounds the book allegorically, morally (vioraliter), and mystically. Kalisch's work gives such a complete sketch of the literature on the Book of Jonah, that it is somewhat surprising to find that he has nowhere noticed Bloch's contribution to its exegesis. The notices of the allegorical inter- pretation given by Pu.sey in his Minor Prophets are very defective, and it is strange that Archdeacon Perowne, in his small volume in the Cambridfje Series of Commentaries, shows no acquaintance with Klcinert's important work. Nor indeed does the Spealcer's Com- mentanj treat the allegorists much better. * Txi'o and three is no doubt occasionally used as an indefinite number, as in Isa. xvii. 6 ; Amos i. 3 ; Prov. xxx. 15, 18 ; Sir. 1. 27. But the use of that phrase here is somewliat more precise, more in accordance with 2 Kings xx. 5 ; Luke xiii. .32. See p. 65. /I The Booh of Jonah. 5 5 do they further describe Israel in captivity as in the great fish's belly, and speak of Israel remaining almost in a state of death in the maw of the sea- monster for three mystical days, and even further predict that the monster would be ultimately compelled to disgorge its prey alive. While other nations deported from their lands were absorbeil into the body of the conquering nation, Israel was not thus absorbed, but was kept nationally distinct as a people (Num. xxiii. 9), and the prophets foresaw that it alone of the nations should be restored and brought back to the land of promise, once granted to ' them by the Most High/ No violence would therefore be put upon the narrative of the Book of Jonah (so far as yet con- sidered), if the story of that book were regarded as pure allegory. The language employed lends itself readily to such a treatment. The selection of the prophet Jonah as the representative of Israel is peculiarly suitable. Israel owed all her pre-eminence to her prophets : " By a prophet Jehovah brought ' It must not, however, be forgotten that Jeremiah predicts the carrying away of Moab into captivity, and its restoration from captivity "in the latter days" (Jer. xlviii. 46, 47). A similar l)rophecy was uttered with respect to the Ammonites, who were also to be brought back from captivity (Jer. xlix. 6). The same state- ment occurs in reference to Elam "in the latter days" (Jer. xlix. 39). These prophecies, however, cannot be proved to have been literally fulfilled, and it is a serious question whether they were ever intended to be so understood, or whether by the return of the captivities thus specified the prophet did not refer to the universal blessing which was ultimately to be bestowed u])on all nations through the In.stru- mentality of Israel and its Messiah. TiG Excgdical Studies. Israel out of Egypt, and by a prophet was he preserved" (Hos. xii. 13). Jonah belonged to the iK)rtliern kingdom, the portion of Israel which was most steeped in Gentilism and idolatry. Consequently he was peculiarly fitted to represent Abraham, the ancestor of Israel, who had been called out of a land and people of idolaters. Jonah lived at a time when the Gentile power had begun to gird up its loins for the work of destroying Israel. Moreover, Israel as the prophetic nation of humanity, the nation through wliom the knowledge of the true God was to be imparted to the world, could only be properly repre- sented in an allegory by a prophet, and only by a ])rophet who (owing to the incidents of his personal history being unknown) might without any violence to actual history form a leading character in such a divinely-constructed parable. § 3. The ^??'02/^r of Jonah a collection of sentences chiefly from the Psalms — Israel's songs in her exile — The allegory expounded first of Israel, and then of Israel's Messiah. The prayer of Jonah in the fish's belly must now be examined paragraph by paragraph. It begins thus : " I called by reason of mine distress unto the Lord, and He answered me. Out • if the belly of Sheol cried I; Thou heardest my voice." David's expression concerning liis deliverance IVom Saul must liere been noted : " In mv distress ^ Tlic Book of Jonah. 5 7 I called upon the Lord, and cried unto my God " (Ps. xviii. 6). There is even a more close parallel to be found in Ps. cxx., a psalm composed after the cap- tivity : " In my distress I cried unto the Lord, and He answered me." On the reference to Sheol, observe J)avid's words in Ps. xviii. 5: " The cords of Sheol were round about me, the snares of death came upon me." Jonah continues, ver. 3 : " For Thou didst cast me into the depth, in the heart of the seas, and the Hood was round about me ; all Thy waves and Thy billows passed over me." The words of David (in Ps. xviii. 4) must be borne in mind : " The cords of death compassed me, and the floods of ungodliness made me afraid." But even a closer parallel may be discovered in one of the psalms belonging the exile (Ps. xlii. 7): "Deep calleth unto deep: all Thy waves and Thy billows are gone over me." The latter clause is identical with that of Jonah. The phrase, " the heart of the sea," occurs in Miriam's song of triumph sung beside the waters of the Red Sea (Ex. XV. 8). Compare also on the whole passage, Ps. Ixxxviii. 6, 7. Ver. 4 : " And I said, I am cast out from before Thine eyes ; yet will I look again toward Thy holy temple." Jonah's words in this verse are partly borrowed from Ps. xxxi. 22 : "I said in my haste, 1 am cut off from before Thine eyes : nevertheless Thou lieardest the voice of my supplications ; " and from l*s. xviii. 6 : " He heard my voice out of His temple, and my cry before Him came into His ears." 58 Excgetical Studies. But Jonah proceeds (vers. 5 and 6) : " The waters compassed me about, even to the soul : the deep was round about me, the weeds were wrapped about my head. I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars closed upon me for ever : yet hast Thou brought up my life from corruption, Lord my God." The language of Ps. Ixix. 1, 2, which was i^robably v/ritten during the captivity, is very similar : " Save me, God ; for the waters are come in unto my soul. I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing : I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me;" and in ver. 15: "Let not tlie waterflood overwhelm me. Neither let the deep swallow me up ; and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me." Compare also the language of the Book of Lamentations, iii. 54 : "Waters flowed over mine head; I said I am cut off." The language of David in Ps. XXX. 3 must also be noted : " Lord, Thou hast brought up my soul from Sheol : Thou hast kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit." Observe also Ps. xvi. 10: "For Thou wilt not leave my soul to .Sheol ; neither wult Thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption." Vers. 5 and 6 are the only portions of the prayer of Jonah in which expressions really original are to be discovered. The reference. to the sea "weeds" is probably a reminiscence of the deliverance at the Eed Sea, " the weedy sea " as it is termed in the Hebrew.' ' Dr. Kalisch observes : " The Targum, in rendering >^n fllDT NO^ ■•k^'^IO T^Vj '^^^ sca-wecd Sea was suspended over my head,' iioints to .i /) T}iC Bouh of Jo nail. 59 Job speaks of " the bars and doors of the sea " (xxxviii. 10). Jonah alone alkides to "the bars of the earth." It must also not be left out of sight that Zechariah, the great prophet of the Restoration, simi- larly refers to the great deliverance from Egypt in former days, the circumstances connected therewith being employed in his book as types of the future deliverance (Zech. x. 10-12). " Under the symbol of an exodus from Egypt and from under its power, and of a march through a sea and a river, such as occurred in the days of the first triumphal march of Israel, the great truth is set forth, that amid all trials and afflic- tions the covenant people would be delivered by the protecting hand of God." ^ The closing verses of Jonah's prayer (vers. 7-9) are as follows : " When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord : and my prayer came in unto Thee, into Thine holy temple. They that regard lying vanities forsake their own mercy. But I will sacrifice unto Thee with the voice of thanksgiving ; I will pay that which I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord." Jewish tradition explicitly stated by the Rabbins, contending that God showed Jonah the Red Sea, and, for his comfort and encouragement, allowed him to behold how the Israelites passed over the dry bed in safety ; for the fish's eyes were like windows through which the prophet was able to see all that happened in the waters, while the monster had in its interior a large jewel luminous like the sun ( Yalkut, Jon. §550)." "According to the tenor of the book, the sea-weed did not cling round the head of Jonah, but of the fish ; which dis- crepancy, however, the author could hardly deem of much im- portance in a poetical composition." — Kalisch's Bible Studies on Jonah, p. 214. ' Sec Bavipton Lectures on Zechariah, p. 296. GO Excfjciical Studies. All these clauses are borrowed from the Psalms. In I's. cxlii. 3 the identical phrase occurs, "When my spirit fainted within me ; " while " I remembered Jehovah" is met with in Ps. cxix. 55, "I have re- membered Thy name, Jehovah, in the night." " My prayer came in unto Thee into Thy holy temple," is a slight variation of Ps. xviii. 6. The phrase " they that observe lying vanities " is taken from Ps. xxxi. 6, where idolaters are thus described. Idols are termed " lying vanities " in contrast with " the God of truth," 2 Chron. xv. 3, one of whose attributes is mercy. ^ Yer. 9 is almost a quotation of Ps. cxvi, 1 7 ; while the closing expression, " Salvation is of Jehovah," is taken from Ps. iii. 8. Pew persons, after such a comparison of all the clauses of Jonah's psalm of thanksgiving, will, we think, be found willing to endorse Dr. Pusey's startling assertion, that no one could have written that hymn who had not himself been delivered from some such peril as that depicted in the story of the book. Dr. Pusey admits " that no image so well expresses the overwhelmedness under affliction or temptation as the pressure of a storm by land, or being overflooded by the waves of the sea. ... Of this sort," he notes, " are those images which Jonah took from the Psalms. Put" he adds, "a description so minute as ' D'non compare '•'nDn, ^'my mercy," applied to God, Ps. cxliv. 2. In Jonah the expression "their mercy" evidently signifies "the iiifTcy shown to them" (compare "the mercies of David," i.e. the kindness bestowed ujton David, Isa. Iv. 3), which men soon forget and drive out of their thoughts. Sec Kalisch, p. 217. TJie Booh of Jonah. 6 1 the whole of Jonah's would be allegory, not metaphor." Tlie possibility of the language used being allegorical thus suggested itself to Dr. Pusey's mind, but he was not led to examine whether that might not be the true explanation of the phenomena of the so-called prayer. It is highly significant that almost every sentence of the song of Jonah is either directly borrowed from, or can be illustrated by, the songs sung either in anticipation of the captivity, or during the dark days of Israel's exile from her land. It is also worthy of notice that not a single note of repentance is struck in the hymn from first to last. It contains no lamentation for sin, though it is replete with the voice of thanksgiving for deliver- ance. The only sin alluded to in the psalm is the sin of idolatry, alluded to in ver. 8, which sin was not committed by Jonah, but by the Gentiles who knew not the God of Israel and yet cast His prophet into the sea. Something like the same phenomenon is exhibited in some of the psalms composed in the days of exile, such as Ps. xlii., xliii., xliv. Swallowed up by an idolatrous nation, the noble protest the Israelites made against idolatry in the land of idols was one of the grandest characteristics of the faithful remnant in the days of the Babylonish captivity. Jonah's hymn fits in admirably into an allegory of which the exile of Israel is the theme. It is not such a hymn as could have been naturally composed under the circumstances narrated in the book, if those circumstances be regarded as literal facts. Nor 62 Exegdical Studies. is it such a hymn as one would have expected a man rescued from the stomach of an actual sea-monster to liave composed as a memorial of his deliverance. The key to open this and many a difficult lock in the Old Testament is the right comprehension of the name and position of " the servant of Jehovah." Israel as a nation, " Israel according to the flesh," is called by that high appellation. But the nation was deaf to the call of God, deaf to the appeals of His prophets, and so blind that it did not behold the real glory of its position. Jehovah therefore expostulates with them in the following words : " Who is blind, but my servant ? or deaf, as my messenger that I send ? who is blind as he who is given up to me (i.e. devoted professedly to my service), and blind as the servant of Jehovah?" (Isa. xlii. 19). Thus was the nation of Israel condemned for its blindness. But, as Delitzsch well observes, " Israel according to the , flesh" is only the outer circle. There is an inner ( circle, composed of the faithful in Israel. This is the " Israel according to the spirit," which in a higher sense is also termed " the servant of Jehovah," is spoken of with approval, and promised divine grace to perform the work and service befitting such a position. The centre-point of the inner circle is the great Messiah, the Christ of God, He concerning whom Jehovah says : " Behold my servant, whom I uphold; my chosen, in whom my soul delighteth : I have put my spirit upon Him : He shall bring forth judgment to the nations " (Isa. xlii. 1). This is the The Booh of Jonah. 63 servant whose work and ultimate victory is depicted in the afterpart of that chapter, and whose strange travail with its blessed result is so marvellously depicted in the glorious passional of Isaiah lii., liii. The unfaithfulness of " Israel according to the flesh," in discharging the performance of the duty imposed on it as Jehovah's servant, led to the selection of " Israel according to the spirit." And " the weakness of the flesh" even in the latter case ultimately led to the setting apart to the office of "servant of Jehovah" in the highest sense. Him who in very deed was holy, sinless, undefiled, separated from sinners (Heb. vii. 26), able to speak in righteousness, mighty to save (Isa. Ixiii. 1). The history of Israel shadows forth, more or less distinctly, the history of Messiah. Israel was punished for their sins ; they knew their Lord's will and they did it not, and so they received many stripes (Luke xii. 47). Israel therefore, as a nation, was cast forth to be swallowed up by the sea-monster. In the interior of that monster the nation had to abide in a state of national death, or suspended animation, during the mystical " three days and three nights," singing strangely, however, " the Lord's songs in a strange land," and testifying in tlie very heart of the dragon to the vanity and folly of idolatry. Wliat then occurred had never previously happened. The monster voluntarily disgorged its prey ; and tlie exiles returned and came singing unto Zion, singing as they went along, — 64 Exegetical Studies. " When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, We were like unto them that dream. Then was our movith filled with laughter, And our tongue with singing : Then said they among the nations, The Lord hath done great things for them. The Lord hath done great things for us ; Whereof we are glad." — Ps. cxxvi. 1-3. The returning exiles of Israel were " a sign and a wonder " unto " the men of that generation," to the men of Nineveh, to the inhabitants of Babylon. The ■ nations had never before seen such a national resur- 1 recti on. It was a new birth, the nation was born in a day (Isa. Ixvi. 8). That march from Babylon to Jerusalem, though unaccompanied by any miracu- lous portent, was as marvellous an event as the march from Egypt, commenced on the night of the iirst Passover, which led the nation ultimately to ('anaan. , But a greater than Jonah is pointed out in the allegory. Jonah, the dove, was regarded by the men of old as a symbol of Israel. Jonah, the dove, was also employed by the Eabbis as a symbol of the Messiah. An allegory which depicts the one must necessarily point out the other. JMessiah was ])unished for sin, but for sin which was not His own : " He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities : the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed. . , . The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all " (Isa. liii, 5, 6). He, too, was swallowed up, not, indeed by the sea-monster or world-power, — Tlic Book of Jonah. 6 5 the dragon of Rev, xii. which sought in vain to devour Him. For His kingdom was not of this world (John xix. 36), and therefore it could not be destroyed by any earthly power. He overcame the world (John xvi. 33). But He was for a season swallowed up by a still greater monster, Death, which has swallowed up, and swallows up still unceasingly, the sons of men. The lot fell upon Him (John xi. 49, 50), and by the directions of His own people, but by the hands of the Gentiles, He was cast forth into the abyss. He went down, "descended into the lower parts of the earth" (Eph. iv. 10). He tarried within the gates of Sheol (the Under-world) or Hades (the Unseen) three literal days, — the days to which the mystical three of Hosea ultimately pointed. He " went down to the pit," having " in the days of His flesh offered up prayers and supplications, with strong crying and tears, unto Him that was able to save Him from death, and having been heard for His godly fear, though He was a Son, yet learned obedience by the things which He suffered " (Heb. V. 7, 8), and " through death He brought to nought him that had the power of death, that is, the devil " (Heb. ii. 14). For "now hath Christ been raised from the dead, the first-fruits of them that are asleep. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive" (1 Cor. xv. 20-22). The Son of man was a sign to the men of His generation (Luke x. 30). He was "saved" fir.st 06 Excgciical Studies. Himself, and thus fitted to become the saviour of others (comp. Zech. ix. 9;^ Heb. v. 7-10). He could close His thanksgiving psalm, like Jonah, or Israel of old, with a " salvation to Jehovah." For, " being hy the right hand of God exalted, and having received (jf the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost," He poured forth on the day of Pentecost precious rain upon His inheritance (Acts ii. 33). The allegory con- cerning Jonah, if an allegory, is fully and beautifully realized in the history of Israel and its return from captivity. Like all those prophecies which treat of Israel, it has also received its highest and most glorious accomplishment in the history of Israel's Messiah, the Son of man of the New Testament, and in His resurrection from the dead. § 4. Diffiadtks in the Book of Jonah regarded as an historical narrative — The Nevj Testament references thereto — The look an allegorical description of Israel's jmst, and a prophecy of Israel's futitre. The real difficulties which lie in the way of regarding the Book of Jonah as historical, do not arise from the fact that wonders and miracles are related therein. Some objections, indeed, brought against the narrative can be easily answered. There is, for example, no necessity to suppose that Jonah actually composed the "prayer" or hymn of the second chapter while in the belly of the fish. The 1 See Bumpton Lectures on Zechariah, j). 234 fl'. The Book of Jonah, 67 Jiistorical truth of the book would not be endangered were it to be maintained that the song was composed by Jonah in later days in memory of his wonderful deliverance.^ But more serious difficulties present themselves' when the narrative is carefully examined. The storm is said to have taken place in the eastern part of the Mediterranean. But in that case the story of the deliverance of Jonah could not have become known at Nineveh until long after the event and, since the Assyrian territory did not extend to the Mediterranean, the miracle could scarcely have become known to Ninevites except through Jonah's own report. The Old Testament narrative does not, perhaps, necessarily imply that the Ninevites heard any- ^ Kaulen, the pious Roman Catholic expositor {Libriim Jomv prophetce, ezposuit Franciscus Kaulen, Mogunt. 1862), has considered it necessary to caution his readers against imagining that the second chapter of the book contains all the prayers which Jonah poured out to God during those three consecutive days. He maintains that only those sayings are mentioned which comprise, as it were, the beginning and the end of that supplication (sed ea tantum commcnio- rantur dicta, quje orandi quasi epilogum and conclusionem elBciunt). He argues, in a footnote, that this is shown in the Hebrew text, because Hebrew forms are made use of which are used in narrating past events. He notices that S. Jerome similarly understood the text : ' ' Non dixit clamo sed clamavi : nee de futuro precatur, sed de pra3terito gratias agit." Pusey takes a similar view, observing in chap. ii. 1 : "When the three days and nights were passed, he uttered this devotion. " The idea that such slavish punctiliousness to accuracy in the smallest details ought to be looked for in the sacred writings, far from promoting the interests of faith, tends in the very opposite direction. Such minute accuracy does not characteri:2e sacred Scripture. G8 Excgdical Studies. thing of the matter ; and if the story were men- tioned only in the Old Testament, it would be quite appropriate to quote as parallels to the consternation caused in Nineveh by the preaching of Jonah, such incidents as the alarm created in Jerusalem by the piercing cry of Jesus the son of Anan,^ or the terror once occasioned at Constantinople by the prediction of a soldier that the city was to perish by fire from heaven;^ or even to adduce the statement of Layard, that he has " known a Christian priest frighten a whole INIussulman town to repentance by proclaiming that he had a divine mission to announce a coming earthquake or plague." ^ Such cases are amply sufficient to prove the possibility of the king and people of Nineveh being alarmed by the unwonted . spectacle of " an unknown Hebrew in a prophet's austere and homely attire passing through the splen- did streets of the proudest town of the Eastern world, uttering words of rebuke and menace " (Kalisch). But the New Testament goes further. In one of our Lord's discourses it is stated that there should no sign be given to the men of that generation " but the -^ sign of Jonah. For even as Jonah became a sign unto the Ninevites, so shall also the Son of man be to this fjeneration." " The men of Nineveh shall stand up in the judgment with this generation, and shall ' Joseiilius, De Bdlo Jud. vi. 5. 3. - See Augustine's account of this incident, quoted in Pusej''s Minor Prophets, p. 278. ■' Layard's Babylon and Nincrth, \i. 632 ; and Pusey in his Introduction to Jonah, p. 255. The Book of Jonah. 6 9 coDdemn it : for they repented at the preaching of Jonah ; and behold a greater than Jonah is here " (Luke xi. 29, 30, 32)/ The words used plainly imply that the Ninevites had a knowledge of Jonah's deliverance from the iish's belly, and that that deliverance was a " sign " to them. It was, then, not the weird and strange appearance of the Hebrew prophet as he uttered his predictions in the streets of Nineveh which led the people to give credence to the denunciations of the prophet as the utterances of one who spoke with the authority of Heaven, but the fact that the man who uttered such threatenings had been marvellously delivered from the belly of a fish in order that he might perform that special work. It must be admitted that the New Testament has thus considerably increased the difficulties which beset the apologist of the Book of Jonah, if the book is to be viewed as a historical narrative. But if it can be shown that the book is a prophetico-allegorical history of the people of Israel, our Lord's words create, as we shall see, no difficulty whatever. For His references to the narrative of Jonah do not necessarily imply the historical truth of the event in the precise form in which it is presented in the Book of Jonah. The reference of our Lord would be fully justified even if it could be shown that the Book of Jonah was an allegory or symbolical prophecy like ' See the parallel passage in Matt. xii. 38-41, in which, however, it is not exactly stated that Jonah's deliverance was made known to the people of Nineveh. 70 Excgetical Studies. Ezekiel's description (chap, xxiii.) of Oholali and Oliolibali, or like our Lord's own story of the prodigal son and his elder brother (Luke xv.). For Messiah and the people of Israel are so closely connected together that the prophecies which relate j to the one refer more or less directly to the other. It has been noticed that Messiah and Israel are both termed " the servant of Jehovah," the one in the higher, the other in a lower sense of the phrase. The events wdiicli happened to the people of Israel in the infancy of that nation, find in some respects a counterpart in the history of Israel's King. The world-power sought to destroy both in infancy (Ex. i. 15-22; Matt, ii.) ; they were both driven into Egypt for temporary deliverance from danger (Gen. xlv. 7-11 ; Matt. ii. 13-1 5), and after a season were called forth out of that land (com p. Hos. xi. 1 with Matt. ii. 15). A prophetical allegory, depicting the temporary death of the nation and its resurrection X anew to a national existence, might therefore very properly be referred to as containing a prophecy of the death and resurrection of Israel's Lord and King.' Eor it ought not to be forgotten that the descrip- tion in Ezekiel of the national resurrection of Israel (Ezek. xxxvii. 1-14) is related witli so much fulness of detail that that prophecy has frequently been 1 Tlie language used of the nation in Isa. xxvii. 19 must not lie forgotten, nor should the significant reference of S. Paul to the resurrection of Christ on the third day as " according to the Scrip- tiires (1 Cor. xv. 4) be overlooked (conip. Luke xxiv. 46). See our remarks on Ilos. vi. 1, 2, on pp. 54, 65. The Book of Jonah. 71 misunderstood to be a prediction of the resurrection of the dead at the last day. Deductions have even been drawn from that prophecy of Israel's restoration which have seriously affected the correct compre- hension of the scriptural doctrine of the resurrection of the body,^ It need not therefore surprise us to find that the symbolical allegory of the Book of Jonali in process of time came to be regarded as literal history.^ Had the collectors of the canon of the Old Testa- ment viewed the Book of Jonah as historical, they would scarcely have inserted it in its present position among the prophetical, instead of with the historical books. If the incidents mentioned in the book were historical, it is more than strange that no allusion is made to any one of them in the Books of the Kings and the Chronicles. Although the writer of 2 Kings mentions Jonah the prophet, and one of his predictions (2 Kings xiv. 25), he never alludes to the wonderful mission on which that prophet was sent. ^ In mediieval times it was generally believed that the Scripture taught the resurrection of every portion of the original body. Hence the frequent allusion made to the collecting together of all the particles of each human body from all quarters in the day of resurrection. The supposed truth was often set forth to the eye in paintings. But the apostle's words in 1 Cor. xv. 35-42 distinctly negative any such iilea. The body of the resurrection is regarded by him as no more identical in all its component particles with that committed to the grave, than the plant which springs from the seed is identical in its particles with the seed originally deposited in the soil. There is A close connection between the seed and the plant which grows from it, but there is no identity in their component particles. - It is referred to as historical truth in Tob. xiv. 4, 8 ; 3 Mace. vi. 8 ; Joseph. Antiq. ix. 10. 2. 72 Exegetical Studies. No prophet was ever despatched on a grander and more important mission ; and the outcome of Jonah's preaching, if the narrative be regarded as history, was ,X the most wonderful success ever experienced. When compared with the result of Jonah's preaching, Elijah's controversy with Israel on Mount Carniel (1 Kings xviii.) sinks into utter insignificance. Why then should the latter incident have been recorded in the ]jOoks of the Kings (1 Kings xviii.), while the most extraordinary fact connected with a prophet is passed over in silence by the Hebrew historians ? No reference is made to the mission of Jonah in the pro- j)hecies of the later prophets, although they delivered many predictions against Assyria. Is it not strange tliat in those numerous denunciations not the slightest allusion was ever made to the wonderful warning which Assyria received, and which the capital city of that empire is said to have taken so deeply to heart ? It is not, then, the miracles recorded in the book .. which constitute the real difficulties in the way of I regarding the book as actual history. The formidable difficulties are those just mentioned. There is, more- over, much omitted in the Book of Jonah which, if it were a historical narrative, ought properly to have been mentioned. Nothing is said in the book concerning the special sins of which Nineveh has been guilty, and of ' " which the king and people repented at the preaching of Jonah. Kaulen and others suppose that the sins tlien repented of were lust and luxury. But was not the sin of idolatry one of tlie very chief of Nineveh's llic Book of Jonali. 73 transgressions ? (Nah. i. 14, iii. 4). Are we to sup- pose that the Ninevites abandoned for a season their sins of hist and hixury ? Would such a repentance have been acceptable, if they had not also turned from idols to serve the living and true God ? But where, as Kalisch well inquires, is there the slightest y trace in history of the Ninevites ever having done homage to the God of Israel ? Where is there the slightest trace of their having, even for a season, renounced their ancestral worship ? If the book be regarded as an historical narrative, it is a serious defect in it that no mention is made therein /^ of the name of the king of Nineveh who was seated then upon the throne. The history of Jonah prior to this great mission, his journey to Nineveh (no easy journey in that day), and his subsequent fortunes, are all passed over in silence. Eegarded from a historical standpoint, the story closes abruptly with God's rebuke of Jonah's discontent. The result of that -■ rebuke upon the prophet (a gap in the story, too often filled up by the fancy of commentators) is not recorded in the book. There is, indeed, a remarkable New Testament parallel to this, — a parallel, too, which was probably not undesigned. In our Lord's parable of the Prodigal Son, the result of the father's entreaty •- with the elder son is also left out. That parable closes abruptly, just like the Book of Jonah. There is, we maintain, a deep reason for the omission. Both narratives are, as shall be shown hereafter, allegorical representations of one and the same fact, of Israel, 74 Excgctical Studies. tlie people of God, the people of Messiah, strangely discontented with results which ought to have been to tliern causes of the hicrhest exultation. § 5. The restoration of Jonah to the prophetic office — His renewed commission — The overthrow of the nations — The voices of the Hehreiv prophets — Expectations of the Jeivs at the restoration from Babylon — Penitent Nineveh — Readiness of the Gentiles to learn religious truths frorii Israel — Conditional character of prophecy — The gourd or loalmchrist of Jonah — The Davidic governor, Zeruhbahel the son of Shealtiel. When restored once more to his country and to liis work by the marvellous deliverance from the belly of the sea-monster, Jonah received a second A commission from God to arise and go to Nineveh, and 1 to preach to that city the preaching which he had been commanded, Jonah was not a second time dis- obedient to the divine command, although, as shown in the sequel of the story, the commission he was entrusted with was still far from agreeable to him.'^ He set out, however, upon the journey, and, on entering the great city Nineveh, commenced his jireaching with the awful announcement, " Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown ! " The voices of the prophets of Israel were not specially directed against the great nations of the world until Israel and Judah were threatened with The Booh of Jonah. 75 attack by the great world - empires. The earlier Hebrew prophets, from Samuel to Jonah, occupied themselves mainly with pointing out the low state of religion in their own land, and with calling Israel to repentance. They seldom spoke of the nations of the outside world, with the exception of those whose territories bordered on the Holy Land. The pro- phetical books contained in the canon of the Old Testament all belong to the period in which the attention of the prophets was by degrees turned, under divine direction, towards the great world which lay outside of the land of Israel. It was not intended that Israel should be for ever isolated and cut off from the great nations of the earth. A con- siderable portion of the prophecies of Isaiah and the other prophets are occupied with matters which concern " the regions beyond." This is a character- istic, however, especially of the writings of Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and Zechariah, many of whose prophecies seem to have been, directly or indirectly, designed for foreign peoples. Israel, the prophet of humanity, began to discharge her mission to the world at the very time when she began to be shorn of her national independence. Her peculiar great- ness was exhibited most brightly in the time of trouble and distress. The prophets of Israel often dilate on tlie approaching destruction of the nations because of their sins, and on the subsequent deliverance of Israel. They foresaw the sorrows which afterwards 7G Exegetical Studies. Ml upon their own nation on account of sin. Israel was to be punished but not destroyed, while Assyria, the world-power — like that depicted in the Book of the Revelation (xvii. 1 1) — " was to go into perdition " (Xuni. xxiv. 24). Against the great city of the nations, Israel's prophets proclaimed : " Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be destroyed." They announced the latter fact to their own nation in sucli words as " Hide thyself for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast. For, behold, Jehovah cometh forth out of His place to punish the inhabit- ants of the earth for their iniquity : the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain" (Isa. xxvi. 20, 21). This truth is remarkably illustrated in the vision in w^hich Jeremiah represents himself as taking " the cup of the wine of fury " at the hand of Jehovah, and giving all the nations a drink thereof, beginning with Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, and ending with the king of Babylon : " All the kings of the north, far and near, one with another, and all the kingdoms of the world, which are upon the face of the earth, and the king of Sheshach shall drink after them" (Jer. xxv. 15-31). The same subject of prediction was taken up by Ezekiel and continued by Daniel.^ Many passages in the Psalms and the ^ The otlier prophets speak in general of the destruction of par- ticular nations, but all the prophets touch more or less upon the same theme, e.g. Joel iii. 2 ; Obad. 15 ; Micah vii. 15 ; Zeph. iii. 8, etc. Tlic Book of Jonah. 77' prophets, especially in Isaiah, speak of the con- version of the nations, and foreshadow the time when " the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea" (Isa. xi. 9). But the general drift of Hebrew prophecy is that the nations are to be brought low by judgment, destroyed as " nations," and after that, the remnant are to be affrighted, and to give glory to the God of heaven (Rev. xi. 13). When, therefore, tlie people of Israel^ were restored after the Babylonish captivity, and the first bands of the returning exiles trod again the sacred soil of Palestine, there was a general expectation that the divine judgments would speedily be poured out upon all the adversaries of Jehovah and His people, and that the great city of the nations would be visited for its sins. Considerable disappointment prevailed among the Jews who had returned when these expected judgments did not at once take place, and when they saw that the cities of the nations were not over- whelmed by the wrath of the Almighty. The state of feeling prevalent at the time of the Restoration can easily be perceived by those who read with attention the books of the Old Testament whicli ^ We have designedly sj)oken of the restoration of Israel after tlu- Babylonisli captivity as a protest against the misunderstanding which confines that restoration to the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. See the remarks on this subject in the Bampton Lectures on Zechariah, pp. 278-285. The name "Israel" is frequently employed in the prophets and elsewhere to designate Judah, which had an equal right with Ei>hraim to that honourable appellation. 78 Exvijctical Studies. treat of that special period. Haggai and Zecliariah were raised up to clieer the returned exiles in that time of gloom and depression. Haggai predicted the shaking of the nations, and Zechariah in his opening vision described the Angel of Jehovah as pouring forth intercessory prayer in order that the longed-for breaking up of the Gentile power might speedily take place. Shortly after the overthrow of the Jewish kingdom by Nebuchadnezzar, signs were displayed by the Gentiles of a disposition to learn in matters of religion from the people of Israel. Faith in idolatry was somewhat shaken, and Israel in its low estate began to act as an instructor to the nations. The Book of Daniel narrates that Nebuchadnezzar, the proud monarch of the Gentile world, though " mad upon idols" (Jer. 1. 38), was on several occasions forced to acknowledge that the God of Israel was the God of gods and the Lord of kings (Dan. ii. 47). Despite the contempt he had once felt for the Deity worshipped by the nation which had been trodden under foot by his armies, Nebuchadnezzar decreed tliat no one should speak amiss against the God of Israel (Dan. iii. 29). On a later occasion that monarch humbled himself in penitence before the King of Heaven for his pride and transgressions (Dan. iv. 34-37), and confessed that he had been taught by experience that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of heaven, and setteth up over it whom- soever He will (Dan. v. 21), The Book of Jonah. Y9 Such a disposition was not confined to the great king of Babylon. At an earlier period the nations planted in the northern parts of Palestine, in the room of the Israelites carried away captive by the king of Assyria, displayed anxiety to learn the manner in which they ought to worship Jehovah (2 Kings xvii. 24-41). Those colonists had, no doubt, a very imperfect conception of Jehovah as " the God of the land," and hence they continued for some time the worship of their own gods. In process of time the Gentile colonists, however, intermarried with the poor Israelites who were left by the Assyrians behind in the land.^ For a time they were not disposed to forget their Gentile origin, which was originally a matter for boasting. In later times they also laid stress when convenient upon their Gentile origin (Ezra iv. 7-16) ; but the influence of the religion of Israel (which they finally adopted in a purer form than they did at first (2 Kings xvii. 32-41)), induced the Samaritans at last to lay claim in the most unqualified manner to an Israelitish origin (John iv. 12). Their request in the days of Zerubbabel to be permitted to share in the work of rebuilding the temple was not received in a friendly spirit by the Jews who iiad then returned from Babylon. The latter looked upon the Samaritans as " adversaries," and probably had good 1 See Bampton Lerturcn on Zechariah, pp. 244 fl". and 284 ff. Tliat many of the poor Israelites were left behiiul when the Assyrians carried Israel away captive, as in the later deportation of Judah to Babylon (2 Kings xxv. 12, 22), is evident from the narrative in 2 Chron. xxx. 1, 5-11, xxxiv. 9. 80 Excr/dical Studies. grounds for their suspicions (ILzra iv. 1-6). But the \'ery fact of sucli an overture having been made to the Jews by the Samaritans — a proposal distinctly based on the declaration that they also worshipped the God of Israel, and did sacrifice unto Him (Ezra iv. 2) — proves at least the extension among the (i entiles of faith in Jehovah. Many, too, of the Gentiles who dwelt in that portion of the Holy Land which was taken possession of by the Jews who returned from Babylon, voluntarily attached them- selves to the Jewish religion (Ezra vi. 21) ; and mention is also incidentally made in the Book of Esther (Esth. viii. 17) of a considerable spread of faith in the God of Israel among the nations of the Persian empire. Moreover, not a few of the heredi- tary foes of Israel, such as the Philistines, in the period after the Pteturn, by degrees became incor- })Orated into the nation of Israel (Zech. ix. 0, 7).^ It did not fall within the scope of the authors of the Old Testament books which belong to the period referred to, to give any account of the spread of the spirit of jienitence and religion among the Gentiles. The incidental notices of the fact already alluded to suffice, however, to prove that the sojourn of Israel in captivity had a beneficial effect upon the heathen world. The idea of the conversion of the nations, and of their repentance towards God, is often met with in the Hebrew prophets. It is nut a little significant that tlie King of Zion is depicted by 1 See Bampton Lecturea on Zechariah, pp. 218-220. \ The Booh of Jonah. 81 Zechariali as dostined to destroy the military power of Ephraim and Judah prior to the great period of tlie conversion of the Gentiles (Zech. ix. 9, 10). The same writer, in his closing chapter, — while he predicts a gathering together of the nations against Jerusalem and Jiulali, and describes the utter overthrow of that confederacy, — proceeds to speak afterwards of the nations being converted to the God of Israel, and pourtrays them as keeping the feast of Tabernacles and worshipping the King, Jehovah of hosts, in Jerusalem (Zech. xiv. 16, 17).^ In the same spirit, and with the same object in view, the Book of Jonah describes penitent Nineveh [ as mercifully spared by a God that delights in mercy. Notwithstanding the solemn prediction, " Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown," when the ])eople of Nineveh repented in sackcloth and ashes, the sword that was stretched out against them (as against Israel in a former day) was put up again into its sheath. The prediction of Jonah, ushered in though it was by wondrous prodigies, was not accom- ' plished. The transgressions of Nineveh were forgiven, her sins were covered (Ps. xxxii. 1). Jeremiah, whose writings peculiarly abound with prophecies of the ruin and downfall of the various ' Inasmuch as a great deal of popular misconception exists as to tlie meaning of these prophecies, and the crudest views have been put forth concerning them in pamphlets and tracts professing to sketch out what is to happen in the future, I may be permitted to refer to the last chapter of the Bampton Lectures on Zechariah, entitled "The Eschatology of Zechariah, or 'tlie Last Things,' as seen in the light of the Old Dispensation." V 82 Exegetical Studies. Gentile nations, was commissioned to lay down in express terms the following great principle wliicli influences God's dealings with the nations : " At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and con- cerning a kingdom, to pluck up and to break down and to destroy it ; if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, tuin from their evil, I will repent of -^ the evil that I thought to do unto them " (Jer. xviii. 7, 8). In other words, the Divine denunciations of wrath against any nation are conditional on the con- tinuance in evil of the nation specially threatened. The ruin of kingdoms announced by any prophet might ^^^ 1)6 averted by their repentance. If God visits the iniquity of the fathers upon tlie children, upon the third and fourth generation of them that hate Him, He will as assuredly show mercy even to the people of the third or fourth generation, if their hatred be transformed into love, and if they keep His com- mandments (Ex. XX. 5, 6). Jeremiah was directed to collect together and make a digest of his most terrible prophecies against Israel and Judah, in the hope, however slight it might be, that the people concerned would give heed to the evil which God purposed to do unto them, and repent and obtain forgiveness (Jer. xxxvi. 3, *7). The principle laid down by Jeremiah in reference to nations is further expounded by Ezekiel as applicable to the case of '^ individuals (Ezek. xxxiii. 8, 13-16). The principle itself had long before been laid down virtually in the Second Commandment of the Law. Daniel's exhorta- The Book of Jonah. 83 tiou of Nebuchadnezzar to repentance (Dan. iv. 27) was founded on the hope that Nebuchadnezzar's cahxmities, though distinctly predicted, might be averted (as in the case of Ahab, 1 Kings xxi, 29) ; and the recognition in the most distinct manner of the truth in its bearing upon judgments threatened to the nations is one of the leading principles whicli underlie the Book of Jonah. For the Book of Jonah states in the most precise terms that the unwillingness exhibited at first by the prophet to execute the great commission with which lie was entrusted was in reality due to the conviction in his innermost soul that God was " gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and plenteous in mercy" (Jonah iv. 2). However much he longed for the overthrow of the great city, in order that his own nation might escape the danger impending from that quarter, Jonah considered it was quite possible that God might repent of the evil which He designed to do to Nineveh (Jonah iv. 2, 3). Consequently he feared that the predictions, which he, as the prophet of Jehovah, might utter, were not likely after all to be accomplished, but that in the very discharge of th(^ mission he himself might come under the charge of having been ti deceiver and a false prophet. The difficulty suggested was no mere imaginary conception of the prophet. But it is remarkable that no solution of it is vouchsafed in the Book of Jonali. The difficulty is not concealed ; on the contrary, it is even brought into bold relief in the book. But there 84 Exegctical Studies. is no attempt made by the writer to solve the problem, or to explain and justify the divine method of procedure. The mission of the Hebrew prophet is described as so successful that the king and people of Nineveh, stricken with terror at the idea of ) the coming destruction, repented in dust and ashes. The consequence of this exhibition of penitence was tliat Nineveh was spared by the long-suffering of God. It is not therefore surprising to read that Jonah ^ was greatly displeased at the result. His prophecy was apparently a failure. The forty days expired, and Nineveh Was not overthrown. He could not adapt liimself to the altered circumstances of the position. He could not bring himself to rejoice in the exhibition of Divine mercy and long-suffering. He hoped in some way or other that tlie threatened judgment might yet be executed. He went out of the city, " made him a booth, and sat sullenly under it in the sliadovv, till he might see what would become of the city." It has been already noticed that the exiles who returned from Babylon to Jerusalem murmured at tlie \ non - fulfilment of the prophecies concerning tlie destruction of Babylon, and tlie breaking up of the Gentile power. Though restored to their country, the Jews were still servants under the Gentile yoke. Their bodies, their cattle, and their goods were in the })o\ver of their enemies, and they were consequently in great distress (Neh. ix. 36, 37). Dissatisfied at this state of things, it was quite natural for the Jews Tlte Booh of Jonaii. 85 ill Jerusalem in their ruined city to scan eagerly the horizon in order to discover any one who would bring them from that distant land the wished- for news of the great overthrow. Under their poor shelter in their desolated country, the Jews watched and -(^ waited to see what would become of the great city of the nations. The discontented and murmuring prophet was not — forgotten by his God. In mercy and in love Jehovah did not grant his angry petition and take away his life. He was not left without some refreshment in liis day of sorrow and gloom. In his evil case Divine Providence caused a gourd or palmchrist to shoot - up over Jonah's booth, which overshadowed it and slieltered the head of the prophet from the burning- rays of the Eastern sun. The booth in itself was, indeed, but a slight protection from the scorching heat of the sun, which, combined with the sultry east wind, was certain very soon to burn up the twigs and leafy foliage with which it was covered.' The palm- christ or gourd was no small advantage, and Jonah was exceeding glad because of it. The Jewish exiles who, after the seventy years' ' There is, however, no need whatever to sui)pose that Jonah's liQoth or tabernacle (n3D) was constructed according to the directions given in the Talmud for the construction of the bootlis used at the feast of Tabernacles. It is impossible to prove, as Dr. Pusey asserts, that it was such a booth as did not " e.xclude the sun." The heat of the sun, no doubt, was able to shrivel up the foliage of the branches which formed its covering ; and that foliage was, no doubt, damaged by the spreading out of the tendrils of the palmchrist, so that 86 Excgctical Studies. captivity in Babylon, returned to their own land, were not a little comforted and cheered by the fact that Sheshbazzar the prince of Judah (Ezra i. 8), or, according to his proper Israelite designation, Zerub- babel the son of Shealtiel, of the royal house of David (1 Chron. iii. 17-19), had been placed by Cyrus at the head of the infant State. As their forefathers in the days of Zedekiah hoped that the day of calamity was over when that prince was placed upon the throne of Judah, and said among themselves, " Under his shadow we shall live among the nations" (Lam. iv, 20) — so the restored exiles imagined that now, at length, the day of blessing had begun to dawn upon them, and that the morning of the day had come whose sun was not to go down in darkness. Nurtured as they were on Messianic hopes, it was quite natural that they should now anticipate that the " shoot " would " come forth out of the stock of Jesse, and a. branch out of his roots would bear fruit" (Isa. xi. 1). Such hopes had also been directly fostered by the words of Haggai the prophet in reference to Zerub- ^ liabel. The prophet Jeremiah said of Zerubbabel's grandfather, Coniah (Jeconiah, 1 Chron. iii. 16, or the original shad}' cliaracter of tlie booth was materially injured l)oth by the rapid decay of the palmchrist and by the insects (the worm or worms), which consumed not only the leaves of the ])almchrist, but also the leaves which were on tlie branches of th(! tr(>ps with which Jonah covered the booth. Compare the e.xpressions : " in the shadow" (>'i*2), in ver. 5, "that it might be a shadow (7V) over his head," in vir. 6, with the statement in ver. 8. The Book of Juiiah. 87 Jelioiachin, 2 Kings xxiv. 6, 8), that though he were the signet upon Jehovah's right hand, yet he would be phicked off from thence (Jer. xxii. 24). But the prophet Haggai was directed, at a time when the whole earth was sitting still and at rest (Zech. i. 11), to predict a great shaking of the heavens and the earth, and to speak and say to Zerubbabel that " in that day, saith Jehovah of hosts, will I take thee, Zerubbabel, my servant, the son of Shealtiel, saith Jehovah, and will make thee as the signet : ^ for I have chosen thee, saith Jehovah of hosts " (Hag. ii. 23). The sequel, indeed, made it abundantly mani- fest that the promise made to Zerubbabel, like that iirst made to Abraham (Gen. xii. 1-3), was intended to be fulfilled not to Zerubbabel himself, but in the })erson of his great descendant ; but as Haggai had prophesied that Zerubbabel was to be replaced as the signet upon the Lord's right hand, it is not surprising that the Jews should have expected that he would soon be manifested, not as a mere Persian viceroy, but as the Anointed of Jehovah (Lam. iv. 20) ; that the govern- ment would be upon the shoulder (Tsa. ix. 6) of ]iim who had the signet-ring (comp. Gen. xl. 41, 42); and that the Israelites would indeed sit down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit be sweet to their taste (Cant. ii. 3). 'The Hebrew has the article (Dnins), and though it is quite lawful to regard it as the generic article, and render it, as in the Revised Version, "as a signet," yet it appears preferable to give here the full force owing to the reference to the ^yt^ T'"by DHin of Jer. .xxii. 24. 88 Excgctical Studies. Zecliariah was soon commissioned to check such iUusoiy imaginations, and he did so by the significant action recorded in Zech. vi. 9-15, which probably took place in the temple of the Lord. There by divine direction he came forward in the presence of Israel, and placed the twisted fillet of silver and gold, formed out of the gold and silver brought by the Jewish deputation from Babylon, upon the head of Joshua the high priest, instead of upon the head of Zerubbabel. But even that significant action appears to have failed to direct the hopes of the Jews into a higher channel. Had Zerubbabel been crowned instead of Joshua the high priest, the people might have imagined that Zerubbabel was the man referred to in the words of Zecliariah : " Behold the man whose name is the Branch!" "Hence in all probability it was that the crown was not placed upon the head of Zerubbabel,' but upon that of the high priest. Neither Zechariah the priest-proj)het, nor Joshua the high priest, could well have been ignorant of the fact that in Ps. ex. the Messiah was predicted in the character of both king and priest. And inasmuch as the high-priestly office was a typical one, the high priest and the people saw something remarkable in the prophetic words, addressed, indeed, to the high priest, but evidently referring to the Messiah, accompanied as they were by the symbolical act of crowning the high priest with the mark of royal dignity. The whole trans- action was a symbolico - prophetical act. In the crowned high priest addressed by the prophet of The Uouk of Junah. 8 9 Jehovah in those solemn words, a strikmg picture was exhibited before the people of the long-expected Branch of David." ' It was expedient that the prince of David's line should be taken away from the head of the nation in order that the Israelites might set their affections on a coming One greater than Zerubbabel. The palm- christ, therefore, on which the Jews had fixed their hopes, and which for a time shadowed and sheltered them, was destroyed, Zerubbabel soon passed away. Whether his last days were spent in the city of his fathers, or whether lie returned to breathe out his last breath in the land of exile, we know not. But his viceroyalty was short. The palmchrist perished as it were in a night. The worm did the work of destruction. The governor of the royal house of David was not permitted by Divine Providence to sit upon David's throne ; the holy anointing oil was not poured upon his head. Long before even the days of Israel's partial independence dawned, that noble had been borne to his grave, men had watched sadly over his tomb, the worms covered him (Job xxi. 26 ; Isa. xiv. 11), the clods of the valley were sweet unto him (Job xxi. 32, 33). By the death of Zerubbabel the hopes of a restoration of the Davidic throne in Jerusalem came to an end, and the house of David sank for centuries into utter insignificance. ^ Bampton Lectures on Zechariah, p. 14S. 90 Excgdical SUuiics. § G. The. Booh of Jonah essentially a book of prophecy, not of history — The jndyment announced to the world — The conversion of the Gentiles and the jealousy of the Jews — The great controversy in the early days of the Christian Church — The proplietic cdlegory of the Prodigcd Son and his Elder Brother. The Book of Jonah was no doubt inserted among tlie prophets by the wise men who collected the canon of the Old Testament, not so much because tlie book had been written by a prophet, for most of the sacred writings were supposed to have had prophets for their authors, but because the book was itself essentially prophetical.^ Whether there be any basis of historical truth at the bottom of the narrative itself or not — and time only can finally resolve that problem — the Book of Jonah seems to have been mainly intended to be a historico-symbolical prophecy. If it alluded to the past, and described the present, it also pointed forward to the future. " That which hath been is that which shall be ; and that which hath been done is that which shall be done " (Eccles. i. 9). The history of Israel repeated itself substantially more than once ; and the repetition of Israelitish history, which forms, as we maintain, the main sum and substance of the prophecy of the book, took place in the early Christian era. ' See my Excursus I. on The Talmud and the Old Teatammt Canon, especially at p. 452 ff., and p. 463, of The Book of Kohdrth con.sidered in relation to Modern Criticism and Modern Pti^aimi/fm. / The Book of Juiiah. 91 It has frequently been noticed in this essay that the history of Messiah is foreshadowed in the history of Israel. The Book of Jonah is expressly referred to by our Lord as containing a prophecy of His death by the hands of the Gentiles, and of His resurrec- tion after three days (see p. 64 ff.). The work of preaching the gospel to the world after Christ's resurrection was carried on, indeed, by Christ's dis- ciples. Christ after He rose from the dead did not in person exhibit Himself again in the character of the Prophet of the World. But it is distinctly stated that the Lord worked with His people and confirmed the word by the signs that followed (Mark xvi. 20). St. Peter laid stress upon the fact that the gift poured out on the day of Pentecost came directly from the risen Lord : " Being therefore by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, He hath poured forth this, which ye see and hear" (Acts ii. 33). The preaching of the gospel to the world, whether Jewish or Gentile, contained in it a declaration of " judgment to come," and a denunciation of a destruc- tion impending over the heads of the ungodly. The ])oint is referred to not only in St. Peter's sermon on the day of Pentecost (Acts ii. 40), but also at the close of St. Paul's great discourse in the synagogue of Antioch in Pisidia (Acts xiii. 40, 41), in his speech on Mars Hill (Acts xvii. 30, 31), in his private discussions with Felix (Acts xxiv. 25), and on other occasions. The cry was raised " in the street of the 92 Exegetical Studies. great city where also the Lord was crucified " (Rev. xi. 8), a cry similar to that spoken of by the prophet, " Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown : " " The world passeth away and the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever" (1 John ii. 17). The voice of warning, "Flee from the wrath to come " (Matt. iii. 7), first lifted up on the banks of the Jordan, was caught up and re-echoed more or less distinctly in all the apostolic letters. It was " sounded forth " not merely by the Apostle of the Circumcision (2 Pet. iii. 10), but also by the Apostle of the Gentiles (2 Thess. i. 7-10). And within a period, in round numbers, of some forty years, the first fury of the tempest fell upon the city of Jerusalem (1 Thess. ii. 16). The efforts made by our Lord in His lifetime to raise the degraded classes of the Jews were not O looked upon with favour by the Pharisees and scribes (Luke XV. 1, 2). It would have been meet for them ti) have made merry and to have been glad when they saw the " publicans and sinners," who had previously been " dead " to any love of God, awakening to spiritual life under the teaching of Jesus; when those who had been regarded as " lost " were " found again," and seen sitting at the feet of the great Teacher. But even a stranger phenomenon was exhibited when the very disciples of Jesus, explicitly directed by the Master to go into all the world and make disciples of all nations (Matt, xxviii. 19), showed a deep-seated and decided reluctance to believe that God was " no The Booh of Jonah. 93 respecter of persons, but in every nation he that feareth Him, and worketh righteousness, is acceptable to Him" (Acts x. ."So). Yet the early Christians \vere amazed when the Holy Spirit was bestowed upon the Gentile^ (Acts x, 45), and were astonished because God granted "to the Gentiles also repentance unto life " (Acts xi. 18). There is little reason to be surprised at the picture of Jonah sitting over against Xineveh, angry and sullen because God had granted repentance and life from the dead to that city after it had been doomed to destruction, when the disciples of Jesus, in the full enjoyment of a Pentecostal effusion of grace, found it so hard to believe in the loving-kindness of God. It is no doubt true that when the Jewish Christians heard the tidings of the marvellous grace bestowed upon the Gentiles, they " glorified God." The record of the Acts of the Apostles, however, proves that those disciples were not at once emancipated from their prejudices. , Even from the standpoint of the Old Dispensation, they ought to have rejoiced at the Gentiles becoming proselytes. But such a small amount of liberality was not exhibited at the outset. And when the Gentiles were " admitted into the fellowship of Christ's communion," and tlie true consequences of the doctrine that " God hath made of one blood all nations upon the earth " (Acts xvii. 26) began to be perceived, the Jewish Christians strove to force the necks of the Gentiles to stoop under the yoke of the old law of carnal ordinances. 9-i Exegetical Studies. Tliey no doubt argued that if the Gentiles were to be partakers of grace they ought also to become Jews (Esth. viii. 17), and like the servants and slaves of Abraham, they ought to receive on their bodies the sign of circumcision, as did " the father of the faith- ful" (Gen. xvii. 27). Notwithstanding, therefore, the " great grace " bestowed upon the Jewish Christians, there was a liard struggle ere uncircuracised Gentiles came to be // looked upon by them as Christians equal in position to circumcised Jews. The Council held at Jerusalem decided after much discussion in favour of liberty being granted to the Gentiles (Acts xv. 19-21, 28, 29). But the liberty then formally conceded had again and again to be contended for. In order to gain popularity among their Jewish adherents, I'eter and Barnabas were at a later date guilty of dissembling the broad and liberal views they once held on this question (Gal. ii. 11-14). It was long before the old prejudice was really overcome. The men accustomed to drink the " old wine " of the Law did not relish the " new wine " of gospel liberty, and for a considerable period they were wont to maintain that their old wine was "better" (Luke vi. 39). Men who held the faith of Christ did not conform at once to the " canons and decrees " even of an Apostolic Council. Before the contest within the Church of Christ was finally laid to rest, the Jewish temple was destroyed, Jerusalem was trodden down of the Gentiles, and, owing to the success which attended missionary TIlc Book of Jonah. 95 work outside of the limits of Palestine, the Geutile element in the Church had become in a majority. The attitude which the Christian Church, under apostolic leading, finally took up on this question was no doubt one of the reasons why the Jews showed themselves so unwilling to recognise the claims of Christianity. The " great company " of the Jewish priests who became obedient to the faith (Acts vi. 7) may have continued stedfastly in the apostles' teaching and fellowship (Acts ii. 42). But the number of such adherents does not appear to have increased as time rolled on ; while the general reception (however unwilling at first) of the decrees of the first Christian Council had the effect of stopping to a considerable extent conversions among the Jewish people. The Jews were inveterately hostile to the idea that the Gentiles ought to be admitted to an equal position with themselves. They listened attentively to the arguments drawn from the Law and the Prophets in favour of the Messiahship of Jesus ; they seemed often ready to admit their full force. But the doctrine of " Christ crucified " and that of the equality of the Gentiles were their real stumbling- blocks. The Jews at Jerusalem listened earnestly to Paul while he related in Hebrew the story of his conversion, and the vision which he had beheld of the glory of the Lord Jesus. They seem, therefore, at that period to have been somewhat better disposed towards Christianity than in the days when Stephen was martyred. But when the apostle proceeded to state K OG E.ccgctlcal Studies. that Christ had sent liim to the Gentiles, the Jews could abide liis speech no longer, but lifting up their voices with one accord, they cried out, " Away with Rucli a fellow from the earth : for it is not fit that he should live" (Acts xxii. 21, 22). Thus did the Jews, the prophets of humanity, intended by Divine Providence to be the teachers of religion to the world, act when the very mission they had been commissioned to discharge met with its grandest success. When, as foreseen by the prophets (Isa. ii. 3 ; Micah iv. 2), the law began to go forth from Zion, and the word of Jehovah was being spread from Jerusalem among the nations who had hitherto sat in darkness, — the very people, who ought to have burst forth into shouts of exultation, sat sullen and angry under the miserable Herodian tabernacle, longing for the destruction of the Gentiles, cherishing all sorts of delusory expectations, and meanwhile refusing to enter the liall of feasting, within which was to be heard the sound of " music and dancing," where " the i'atted calf," the blessings of the New Dispensation, was being served up for their enjoyment, as well as for the lost prodigals of the Gentiles. " What advantage hath the Jew ? or what is the profit of circumcision?" (Eom. iii. 1), was the (question they sullenly asked. " Thou never gavest me a kid that I might make merry with my friends ; but when this thy son came which hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou killest for liim the fatted calf" (Luke xv. 29, 30). The Booh of Jonah. 97 The answer to the murmuring inquiry is thus presented by the great Apostle of the Gentiles. The Jew hath much advantage over the Gentile, there is verily a profit in circumcision : " Much every way : first of all, that they (the Jews) were entrusted with the oracles of God" (Eom. iii. 1, 2). The answer corresponds to the voice of the father : " Son, thou art ever with me, and that which is mine is thine." " Whose is the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the Law, and the service of God, and the promises ; whose are the fathers, and of whom is Christ as concerning the flesh, who is over all, God blessed for ever " (Eom. ix. 4, 5). The parable of the Prodigal Son — known rightly under that designation, because it was the miserable prodigal who most needed the father's compassion and love — closes with the scene of the father stepping forth from the banqueting-house, the banner over which was love (Cant. ii. 4), to entreat the elder son, proud and indignant at the glad reception of the younger, to enter the hall of feasting. The Book of Jonah closes, too, with the remonstrance of Jehovah \ with Jonah on account of his unrighteous anger. The abrupt close of the parable and of tlie prophecy is by no means accidental; it was in both cases specially designed. The Book of Jonah as a symbolico-historical prophecy is most appropriately closed with the divine expostulation. The voice of the Father of Israel, pleading still with the nation whom He had once chosen as His G 98 Exegciical SiiuUcs. peculiar people, is a voice distinctly audible all through the books of the New Testament. The parable of our Lord is a prophecy as well as a parable. It is not merely the Jewish tax-gatherers and sinners who are therein represented. The Good Shepherd speaks there, too, of the " other sheep " which were not of the Jewish fold, which also He had to bring back to God, that Jews and Gentiles united in true faith and love might be one flock under one Shepherd (John x. 16). The pleading voice of Messiah, pleading with " His own " people, is still to be heard in the writings of the prophets and apostles. That voice will one day be listened to with gladness by the " backsliding children " of Israel, and the glorious answer to Messiah's entreaty wiU be that prophesied by Jeremiah: "Behold, we are come unto Thee, for Thou art Jehovah our God " (Jer. iii. 22). III. EZEKIEL'S PEOPHECY OF GOG AND MAGOG. HAT hast thou wliich thou didst not receive ? but if thou didst receive it, why then dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it ? " So Paul chode the Corinthian converts (1 Cor. iv. 7), who were dis- posed to boast of the teachers whom they followed, and the gifts of grace of which they had been made partakers ; the most remarkable of which, the wonder- ful gift of tongues, they were delighted to displa}-, in order to draw forth the admiration of beholders, rather than to promote their edification. The reproof of the apostle is, however, applicable to many other Churches than that of Corinth, and to many other nationalities than the boastful Greeks. Every nation is more or less disposed to think well of itself, and to glory in the great men whicli have belonged to it in former days, or the able men belonging to it in the present time. It is quite natural for a people to know its own history better than that of others, and to understand its own f^ood 100 JExegctical Studies. qualities, while it is iguorant of those of others. But it is well to look abroad as well as at home, to observe excellencies in others as well as in ourselves, to become acquainted with our own defects as well as to be able to comment on the shortcomings of other nations. It may be useful to remember the apostolic precept : " Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others " (Phil. ii. 4). For it lays down a principle which is applicable not only to individuals but also to nationalities — God is the God of the whole earth, and He " hath made of one every nation of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed seasons and the bounds of their habitation " (Acts xvii. 26). The only nation specially selected by God as His own was the people of Israel. That choice and selection was also made for the benefit of the world at large (see p. 45). It is mere folly to speak of any other people as specially " chosen of God." All nations have their appointed places and their special missions. But we cannot always understand what the special mission of each may be. No nation is hated by the Father of all men, " who willeth that all men should be saved, and come to the knowledge of the trutli " (1 Tim. ii. 4). No nation is to be regarded as of necessity foredoomed to fall under the divine judg- ments. The distinct utterance of Jeremiah on this very subject (xviii. 7—10) must never be forgotten ; which is the more remarkable as having proceeded from a prophet who uttered, perhaps, more predictions in refer- EzehieVs Prophecy of Goy and Magog. 101 ence to the ruin and downfall of different nations than any other prophet of Israel. He was emphatically " a prophet unto the nations " (Jer. i. 5). As such he was set by God " over the nations and over the kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down, and to destroy and to overthrow ; to build, and to plant " (Jer. i. 10). And yet the teaching of the eighteenth chapter is in substance that no nation is punished but for their own sin voluntarily committed, and that true repentance, as taught in the Book of Jonah, may at any moment stave off the threatened judg- ment ; yea, even though the destroying angel sent forth from Jehovah were standing, as in the case of Jerusalem of old, with the drawn sword in his hand stretched out over the nation (1 Chron. xxi. 15, 16). English exponents of Scripture have often — in a manner which (were it not for the sacredness of the subject) would be positively amusing — shown a spirit akin to that which gave utterance to the sentiment expressed by the Pharisee of old : " Lord, I thank Thee I am not as other men are." In popular inter- pretations of the prophecies of the Book of the lievelation, considerable ingenuity has been exerted in order to prove that the English nation is to be exempted from the horrors of " the great tribulation," which these commentators have depicted as destined to come upon all the other nations of the world. ^ * See, for example, the remarks in The National Restoration and Conversion oftlie Twelve Tribes of Israel, by the Rev. Walter Cham- berlain, M.A. (London : "Wertheim &. Macintosh, 1854), p. 384, 102 Exegetical Studies. Some few more ingenious individuals have, under the influence of similar national bigotry, endeavoured to make out that the English nation is derived from the sacred stock of Israel ; or, if not actually belonging to the House of Israel, is at least destined to be the people through whom the Israelites are to be brought back to the Land of Promise. It has been seriously urged by some of these would-be interpreters, that the English race must needs T)e connected with the tribes of Zebulon or Issachar, for the English people " suck of the abundance of the seas and of treasures hid in the sand" (Deut. xxxiii. 18, 19). It was, however, reserved for our own age to witness the culmination of such absurdities, in the recent and widespread attempt of some well-designing but ill- informed English Christians, on the basis of false history, false philology, and false Biblical exegesis, to demonstrate that the Anglo-Saxon race as a whole is to be identified with " the lost tribes " of Israel, which it will be sufficient to cite as a sample out of many similar. Mr. Chamberlain maintains that while Germany, France, and Russia, with Italy and Greece, shall all be found among the enemies of the Lord in the final struggle, "England, that modern Tarshish, will be found in the Lord, and her mighty armaments waiting to do His will. God be praised, the efforts of our faithful ministers of Christ and the Protestant energies of her people, blessed of God, will be crowned with honour and success " ! ! Mr. Chamberlain's work exhibits more reading than the most of such publications, though the learning is sadly misapplied. The above is a fair specimen of the spirit which too often characterizes our popular theology. England is viewed as par excellence the holy nation, God is s})oken of as peculiarly her God, and the salvation of the nations is not unfrequently spoken of as if it depended upon their adoption of the religious opinions peculiar to the English people. EzekieVs Propliecy of Gog and Mcujog. 103 supposed by many to have been swallowed up in the quicksands of history. Far-seeing politicians have often spoken of the possibility of another straggle between the East and the West, the might of the former directed by the Kussian Empire. It was quite natural that the great Napoleon, whose downfall was mainly brought about by the gigantic losses suffered in his Eussian cam- paign, should, on his solitary rock at St. Helena, point to Eussia as the danger of the future. But it is only in the last fifty years that Eussia, whose assistance was so welcome in England's mortal struggle with France in the early part of this cen- tury, has been generally recognised as likely to become in the future England's most dangerous adversary. We have no intention whatever of indulging here in any speculations as to the future. But it is import- ant to call attention to the fact that no inconsider- able number of our Bible-reading and Bible-loving people have, without inquiry into its correctness, admitted the principle that the Sacred Scriptures contain prophecies of all the great events which are destined to influence human history up to the end of time. Hence, ever since a collision between the empires of England and Eussia has become a pro- bability, not a few popular writers — many of them ]iersons who have never studied the first principles of Biblical interpretation — have turned to the writ- ings of the prophets in order to discover where such an event is predicted. 104 Excgetical Studies. It is not at all strange that persons so predisposed should accept without hesitation the remarkable pro- phecy of Ezekiel respecting Gog and Magog as clearly predicting " the Coming Struggle." Thousands and tens of thousands of copies of a pamphlet, with that sensational title, were eagerly purchased and discussed in numerous quarters during the struggle between England and Eussia, generally known as the Crimean War. The outcome, indeed, of that campaign by no means corresponded with the expectations excited by the popular prophetical expositions of the day ; but a considerable portion of the English religious public, little trained to careful examination of first principles, has ever shown itself disposed to listen with eager- ness to new predictions of a similar kind, vainly imagining that the former exponents of prophecy have only mistaken " the times and the seasons," but convinced that the prophecy is destined to be accom- plished in some similar manner. The proper names mentioned in Ezekiel's prophecy appear at first sight to afford some basis for such an interpretation as that to which we refer. Gog and Magog, since the time of Josephus, have been inter- preted to mean the Scythian tribes living in the Caucasus and the districts between the Caspian Sea and the Sea of Asof, and the Arabic writers use almost the same designation, speaking of Yagug and Magug. Meshech has been supposed to point to ^loscow, Tubal to Tobolsk, on the Tobol, the capital of Western Siberia, and it is quite possible to trans- Ezekiel's Propheaj of Gog and Magog. 105 late the words of Ezek. xxxviii. 2 as in the llevised Version : " Set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the prince of Eosh, Meshech, and Tubal." The name Eosh has therefore been easily identified with Eussia, and to the untrained mind the corre- spondence in all these particulars appears marvellous and striking. It must be acknowledged that no less a scholar than Gesenius was led astray by the similarity of the names Eosh and Eussia, and was induced by the authority of Byzantine Greek writers of the tenth century to affirm that the Eosh of Ezekiel — which word the old Greek version (the LXX.) retains in the text — was a Scythian nation belonging to those living near the Taurus range of mountains. Gesenius, after Bochart, fancied that a trace of the name in earlier times might be discovered in the name of a Scythian tribe Ehoxalani, compounded of Ehos and Alani. It has, however, since been shown by scholars that the name of Eussian is of Scandinavian origin, that it was borne by the Swedish founders of the Eussian State who migrated there in the ninth century, and that through those emigrants into Eussia it gradually became the name accepted generally by the Eastern Slavs. Hence there is no real connection between the names Rosh and Russia} Nor is it absolutely certain that ^ The Slavonic word Rus^, or Russ, originated, it would appear, through the P'innisli appellation given to Sweden {Uuotsi). The Old Swedish rol>er {rother ; Old Norse, rddhr), rowing, navigation, ro^JS-menn, or rol>s-karlar, rowers, seafarers, is connected witli the same. In Northern Norway, Rossfolk {Rors- or Rods-folk) still 106 Exc(jctical Studies. the translation " Prince of Kosh " is the most correct rendering, although the balance of critical opinion is decidedly in its favour. It is to be noted that Smend, one of the latest critical interpreters of Ezekiel, main- tains that the correct translation is that found in the Authorized Version, " the chief prince of Meshek and Tubal." ^ If the word be a proper name it may mean the people of Eash, inhabiting " the land of Rash " on the borders of ancient Elam on the Tigris, although there is some difficulty in the fact that a people dwelling so far to the east should be mentioned ineniis fishers that assemble near the shore during the fishing season. In process of time the signification of the term was lost, and it was treated as a proper name. The name Eos ('P»f) properly belonged to the Swedish settlers in Russia, who, tliough originally rulers, were ultimately overwhelmed by the Slavonic element. For centuries the influence of the Scandinavians in Russia can be distinctly traced. The Scandinavian designation lios was naturally transliterated into Greek by the Byzantine writers as 'Vus. But the latter fact cannot be regarded as establishing any connection between that word and that found in Ezekiel. Between the Russ of the ninth century after Christ and the Rosh (LXX. 'Pa''?) of Ezekiel, there intervenes at least some 1400 years. The whole question of the Scandinavian origin of the name has been ably discussed from a linguistic and historical standpoint in the lectures delivered in 1876, in Oxford, by Dr. Vilhelm Thomsen, Professor of Comparative Philology in the University of Copenhagen, published in English under the title, The Relations between Ancient Russia and Scandinaina, and the Origin of the Russian State, Parker & Co., Oxford and London, 1877. See especially pp. 92-97. 1 The LXX., Symm., Theod. regard the word as a proper name. Rut the pointed Hebrew text, the Targum, Aquila, Jerome, are authorities on the other side. Smend appeals to 2 Kings xxv. 18, 1 Chron. xxvii. 5, and to Ewald's Gr. 287. 1. The latter can be examined in Mr. Kennedy's excellent English edition of Ewald's Syntax of the Hebrew Language (T. & T. Clark, 1879). See Dr. Rudolf Smend, Der Prophet Ezechiel erhldrt (Leipzig 1880), in the Kurzge/asstes Exegetisch. Handhuch zum A . T. Uzckid's Prophecy of Gog and Marjog. 107 in connection with peoples of Asia Minor such as were the nations of Meshek and Tubal.^ According to the opinions of the best critics, the name Gog is either to be identified with Gugu, Gyges, the name borne by a remarkable king of T.ydia, or, perhaps better, with the name Gagi, which also occurs as the name of a king in the Assyrian inscriptions.^ There is a close connection between the names Gog and Magog. Whether the prefix ma in the latter word denotes land or country, or is a mere preformative, has not yet been distinctly ascer- tained.' Assurbanipal, the great king of Assyria, who lived nearly a century prior to the time of Ezekiel, thus describes his victory over the formidable Scythian tribes who inhabited the mountainous country north of Assyria. " Sarati and Pariza, sons of Gagi (Gog), a chief of the Saka (>nv. ?a-hi, Scythians), who had thrown off the yoke of my dominion, seventy-five of their strong cities I took. I carried off their spoil. Themselves alive in hand I took, and brought them to Nineveh, the city of my dominion." * 1 The English reader may need to be informed tho,t Rosh and Rash are identical words, the vowel difference here being of no import- ance. The Hebrew word Rosh, which signifies a head, has its plural Rashim. * See Schrader, Keilinschriftcn unci das Alle Test., 2nd cd. p. 427 ; Friedrich Delitzsch, Wo lag das Paradies? pp. 246, 247. •^ See Delitzsch, Paradies, as before. * See George Smith's History of Assurbanipal translated from the Cuneiform Inscriptions (Williams k Norgate, 1871), pp. 97, 98. Also Delitzsch, p. 247. 108 Exegetical Studies. Some years afterwards, when Assurbanipal was no more, those Scythian tribes burst forth from their mountain homes, and when the Medes had gained decisive victories over the Assyrians, those northern peoples swooped down upon the victors, beat them in turn in bloody engagements, and became for a time masters of Asia, extending their conquests to the very borders of the Holy Land, and threatening even Egypt in the south. For more than a quarter of a century those savage people rode roughshod over Asia, " during which time their insolence and oppression," as the great Greek historian tells us, " spread ruin on every side" (Herod, i, 103-6). They were devasta- tors, not merely conquerors ; their main object was to carry over the wealth of others, their " cattle and goods." Their countless hordes of horsemen traversed the country, with the numerous scalps of their slain foes, which were used as napkins, hanging from their bridle reins. Their archers were the terror of the land, and their quivers were usually covered with human skins, while they sometimes bore aloft as standards flayed bodies of their enemies stretched upon frames. Their drinking cups were human skulls. Cappadocia, in Asia Minor, known to us in the New Testament as one of the regions of the Apostle Paul's missionary labours, was called by the ancient Armenians Gamir, and the people thereof were known as Gimmeri, the Kimmerians, or Cimmerians of Homer. This is the district known as Gomer EzckicVs Prophecy of Gog and Maijng. 100 in tlie Bible. In the wars of Asarhaddon and Assur- banipal the people of Gimir are mentioned as common enemies of the Assyrian monarclis at the same time as the Scythians.^ The Scythian tribes invaded Asia sometimes by the route of the Caucasus, and at other times by the way of Thrace, crossing over the narrow straits known then as the Hellespont, and now as the Dardanelles. Some time previous to the great raid of the Scythians into Asia, war seems to have broken out between them and the Ginimeri ; and, according to Herodotus, it was in pursuit of the latter tribes, who were expelled from Europe, that the Scythians crossed over into Asia Minor. In their further raid into .Central Asia the Gimmeri probably swelled the Scythian ranks. The warlike nations also of the Mosci and the Tibareni living in the countries north-west of Armenia, often vanquished by the Assyrians, and mentioned in the Assyrian inscriptions as the peoples inhabiting the land of the Mush-ki or Muski, and the land of Tabali or Tabal, adjoining Cilicia, shook off about the same time tlie Assyrian yoke, and joined with the Scythians, who ' See Sniitli's Assurbanipal, p. 65 ff., and many otlier places ; Records, of the. Past, vol. ix. p. 46 tf. Frietliich Delitzsch in his Paradien, p. 245, refers to Asarh. ii. 6, in which inscription men- tion is made of Te-ush-pa-a and the land of Gi-mir-ra-a, and the statement is made by Asarhachlon that Teushpa, the ruler of that distant land, was annihilated with his whole army. The same inscription gives an account of that Assyrian monarch's expeditions against Cilicia {Hi-lak-ki) near the land of Tabal. Meshek and Tubal are certainly to be identified with the Muski and Tabali so often spoken of in Assyrian inscriptions. See Delitzsch, p. 250. 110 Exegctical Studies. traversed their country in their inarch towards Central Asia. Among the various nationalities represented by the prophet Ezekiel as trading in the markets of Tyre, ahjiig with the merchants uf Tarshish in distant Spain, and with the traders of Javan (the Greeks), Tubal and Meshek are spoken of as bringing slaves and copper to Tyre for sale. The people of Togarmah are also mentioned along with the riicenicians, as offering for sale in the same mart horses and mules in abundance. These people were not improbably tribes inhabiting South - Western Armenia, and possibly were represented among the wild tribes, who, either by persuasion or force, were swept along with the Scythian hordes in their terrific descent upon the rich and civilised cities which belonged to tlie empires of Assyria and Media. The name, indeed, of Togarmah has not yet been satisfactorily explained. Christian Armenian writers, on the ground of these passages of Ezekiel, have spoken of their nation as the house of Thorgom, but no satisfactory evidence in support of this identifica- tion has been yet afforded.^ The identification of the name with that of Turk or Turcoman is to be classed among the chimeras of prophetical enthusi- ' Delitzscli {Paradkn, p. 246) considers that Togarmah maybe conuected with the city Til-ga-rim-ma, a fortress of Melitene on the borders of Tabal. He observes that Kiepert and Dillmann believe Tof!;armah to be South-Western Armenia. lint Sc-hradcr (Die Keilinschriftai und das Alte Test., 2nd ed. p. 85) is not satisfied with the ideutilication. EzchieVs Prophecy of Gog and Magog. Ill asts or Jewish . speculators/ on a par with the identification of Eosh as liussia, Meshek as Moscow, Tubal as Tobolski, Gomer as Germany, and Javan as pointing through Ivan, the founder of the Eussian Empire, to the connection between the Eussian and the Greek Churches.^ Ezekiel and his fellow-exiles were carried away captives to Babylonia, and located on the banks of the great canal, termed by him the Eiver Chebar,* not many years after the expulsion of the Scythian hordes from that country. The exiles must have often heard of the story how, when the Scythian warriors were weakened by luxury, the Median monarch, after an awful massacre of their chieftains at a banquet of wine, brought the remnant of those savage hordes into subjection, and re - established order and civilisation in those vast territories. Their linal massacre and overthrow is alluded to by Ezekiel in his denunciations against Egypt, in recalling to mind the previous downfall of Assyria and Elam. The prophet warns Pharaoh that a similar fate is reserved for his kingdom : — " There (in the pit of Sheol, or Hades) is Meshek and Tubal, and all her multitude, round about her ' E.g. the distinguished missionary, Rev. Joseph Wolff, LL.D., in his Researches and Missionary Labours, 2nd ed., London, Nisbet, 18"5, see p. 159, etc. - Chamberlain, National Restoration of Israel, pp. 333, 349. ' The Chebar, or Kebar, was in Babylonia. See Delitzsch's Pnradies, p. 48 ; Schrader, Keilinscliri/ten, p. 424, and my article on "The Site of Paradise" in the Nineteenth Century for Oct. 1882. 112 Exegetical Studies. ^M-ave, all of tliem uiicircumcised, slain by the sword, though they caused their terror in the land of the living" (Ezek. xxxii. 20). The very mention of Russians and Frenchmen has in modern days often awakened dread and horror in the lands once overrun by their armies. The names of Tartar and Turk were similarly wont to arouse ten'or in earlier days. It is therefore only natural to suppose that in the lands of Babylonia the Jewish captives soon learned to pronounce in their own tongue the names of Gog and Magog, of Muski and Tabal, as words suggestive of the wildest and most ferocious cruelties and barbarism, and as names inspiring the utmost fear and terror. The Scythian hordes had, in very deed, in the days of Josiah, approached the confines of the Holy Land, but they were not permitted to traverse its plains or to molest its valleys or hills. There was, however, in the days of Ezekiel reason to fear another Scythian invasion. Kuthless as had been the armies of the Assyrians and those of the Chaldaans, those civilised soldiers were far less to be dreaded than the warriors of the Scythians, The Jews, in their cap- tivity among civilised nations, first learned what a scourge they had escaped, in having been protected by Providence from the horrors of a Scythian in- vasion, and were led to note that Jehovah might have employed even a more terrible " rod " and " staii' " than that of the Chaldaeans, with which to have chastised His guilty people. EzclcicVs Prophecy of Gufj and Magog. 113 The prophecy concerning Gog and j\lagog was to be fulfilled in " the latter years " (xxxviii. 8) fir in "the latter days" (xxxviii. 16). Ezekiel is the only prophet who makes use of the former expression. But this fact is of little significance, inasmuch as the prophet himself explains the expression as identical with the latter and more common phrase. The e.xpression " the latter days " is indefinite, and is often employed in cases where no reference is specifically designed to the times immediately preceding the final close of the world's history. The phrase occurs in many prophecies long since accomplished, such as those of Jacob (Gen. xlix. 1), the predictions of Balaam (Num. xxiv. 14), the prophecy of Daniel concerning the wars of the kings of the north and the south (Dan. x. 14), as well as in others partly fulfilled, but yet to be accomplished more fully (such as Isa. ii. 2 ; Micah iv. 1 ; Hosea iii. 5 ; Jer. xxiii. 20, xxx. 24, xlviii. 47, xlix. 39). These prophecies are spoken of as to be accomplished " in the latter days ; " while the same expression is used indefinitely for " in after days" in other passages of Scripture (Deut. iv. 30, xxxi. 29). Ezekiel's prophecy concerning Gog and Magog (xxxviii. 39) contains distinct indications, which are quite sufficient to prove to the intelligent reader that it was never intended to be understood literally. The prophecy is couched in metaphorical language. The awful events, then fresh in the 114 Excgdical Studies. memory of many of his hearers, are employed in it as figures, in order to depict in more vivid colours the vain attacks of the nations of the world on the people whom Jehovah specially had chosen to be His inheritance. The people of Israel, though they were to be chastised for their sins, were not to be cast away, or delivered up entirely to the mercy of their cruel foes. " For the gifts and the calling of God are without repentance," or " not repented of" (Eom. xi. 29). Though, in the prophecy of Ezekiel the scene of the final catastrophe described is ideally laid in Palestine, the conflict is not necessarily or exclusively thought of as waged in that land. See Ezek. xxxix. G, and comp. xxxviii. 20, xxxix. 21. Consequently as the struggle itself does not admit of actual localiza- tion, save for the purposes of allegory, the enemies alluded to are not to be viewed as persons necessarily belonging to any particular nationalities. In the opening of the prophecy, Ezekiel intro- duces the Most High as thus addressing Gog the adversary : " Art thou not he of whom I have spoken in old time by my servants the prophets of Israel, which prophesied in those days for years that 1 would bring thee against them ? " ^ (xxxviii. * The Authorized Version inserts a " not " in the interrogation, and thus makes the answer expected a distinct affirmative. The Revised Version omits the "not," and renders: "Art tliou lie of wliom I spake ?" In the latter case the language is that of wonder and astonishment. The Hebrew has the simple interrogative, which may be rendered in either way. See note on p. 119. Ezckiels Prophecy of Gog and Magog. 115 17). Similarly, when the overthrow of Magog is spoken of, it is added : " Behold it is come, and it is done, saith the Lord God, this is the day whereof I have spoken " (xxxix. 8). While, however, Ezekiel in the name of God thus emphatically states that the invasion of Gog and Magoff and the final overthrow of those adver- saries were repeatedly spoken of by the prophets of Israel, not a single verse is to be found in any of the books of the prophets, prior to the days of P^zekiel, which depicts by name such an irruption of Gog and Magog. Are we then to conclude with some critics that the predictions alluded to, though well known in the prophet's days, have been lost, and that the ruthless exploits of Gog and his dire destruction, were actually the theme for years and years of the prophets of Israel, although not a vestige of such prophecies has survived the ravages of time ? Or ought we not to regard the prophecies pronounced against Assyria (such as Isa. x. 6), against Edom (Isa. xxxiv.), against Babylon (Isa. xxiv.-xxvii. ; Jer. 1., li.), against Egypt, Tyre, Moab, Amnion, and the other enemies of Israel, as being in reality the pro- phecies to which the Lord refers ? For those prophecies speak of an irruption of enemies from all quarters of the world against the people of the Lord, in order to devour their persons, and to plunder their goods, and speak at the same time of the overthrow of the adversaries by the putting forth of the right 116 Exegeiical Studies. liaiul of the Lord, which is glorious in power, and has repeatedly dashed to pieces the enemy (Ex. xv. 6). Zephaniah, when prophesying the destruction of Xineveh, speaks of the gathering of the nations (Zeph. iii. 8) ; and the same phenomenon may be noticed in the other prophecies referred to. The overthrow of the adversaries of the Lord and His people is, indeed, the great theme of all inspired prophets. When the spirit of prophecy rested for a while even upon a feeble woman like Hannah, her mouth was opened in thanksgiving, not simply to thank God for the blessing of which she was indi- vidually made a partaker, but to exalt the majesty of Him " who will keep the feet of His saints, and the wicked shall be silent in darkness ; for by strength shall no man prevail. The adversaries of the Lord will be broken to pieces ; out of heaven will He thunder upon them ; the Lord shall judge the ends of the earth, and He shall give strength unto His king, and exalt the horn of His Messiah " (1 Sam. ii. 9, 10). Gog, the wild and savage chieftain, was informed by the prophet at the very outset (as Moses and Aaron told the proud king of Egypt) that he was in the hands of one stronger than he, and was, though he knew it not, actually being turned about like a wild and savage animal, — turned round hither and thither by hooks fastened in its jaws (conip. Isa. xxx. 28, xxxvii. 29). This is the meaning of the expression translated in our version (xxxviii. 4) : " And I will turn thee back." Uzeldd's Propliccy of Gog and Magog. 117 It was amusing to note how many English " students of prophecy " availed themselves of this sentence to modify their previous predictions about Eussia, when, after the opening battles of the Crimean war, the great northern power appeared, contrary to their original expectations, likely to be worsted in its struggle with the allied forces of Turkey, England, and France. Those would-be expositors then turned back to their " prophetical studies," and endeavoured to twist the sentence of Ezekiel into a prophecy of the defeat of Eussia at the first onset, though they held fast to their notion that the prophet spoke of a great victory to be achieved by Gog in a second campaign. But the words of the prophet convey no such meaning. The idea conveyed in the passage is that the adversaries of Jehovah, though they know it not (Isa, x, 7), are directed by a higher power, and that Divine Providence will infallibly guide those who obstinately disobey the commands of God, as it guided Pharaoh of old, into the abyss of destruction, over the precipice into the roaring waves beneath. The prophet does not represent the object of the confederacy of Gog and Magog as any attempt to extirpate the worship of Jehovah, That con- federacy is not pourtrayed as an infidel and God- defying combination. The object of the enemy is simply stated to be the taking of spoil, the capture of prey. The Israelites are described as restored to their land, but the prophet in his allegory does 118 Exegdical Studies. not represent the land of Israel (as in xxxvi. 35) as full of cities duly fenced and inhabited, — but pictures the country as a land of vmwalled villages, in which the people dwell confidently and at ease, without walls, or gates, or bars. Hence a golden opportunity was presented to the ruthless invader of taking away cattle and goods, and deriving great spoil. That which Gog and Magog desired was filthy lucre ; the love of money and gain was the root of their iniquity. Covetousness was their sin, the greed of things not their own hurried them on to attempt to plunder the people of God. When the sacred historians, or the books of the prophets, describe armies of Syrians, Assyrians or Chaldseans, going up against the Israelites, bands of merchant traders are also spoken of as hovering in the rear of those armies, ready to purchase the captives taken in war as slaves, and to offer a price for the spoils of war. Joel thus speaks of the Syrians and Zidonians as receiving the sacred spoils, and selling Israelite captives as slaves to the distant Greeks (Joel iii. 4-6). Amos states that the crown- ing sin of the Philistines and of the Syrians was that they sold their Israelite captives wholesale to the Edomite merchants (i. 6-9). Similar acts are described by the historian in 1 Mace. iii. 41. The same custom is alluded to iu Ezekiel's pro- phecy. " Sheba, Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish (the Phoenicians from distant Spain), with all the young lions thereof" — the merchants of the world Ezekids Prophecy of Gog and Magog. 119 and not merely traders from the nations round about Israel — the cruel, covetous, rapacious traffickers in human flesh being described as devouring lions (comp. xix. 2, xxxii. 2), are represented as col- lecting together from all quarters, in order to discover the intentions of the invaders of the Holy Land, and to offer their assistance in the due dis- posal of the spoil (xxxviii. 13). It ought to be noted that the second word in the phrase, " cattle and goods," employed in the verse, is used of the purchase of slaves (Lev. xxii. 11).^ Ezekiel had previously predicted the total overthrow of Tyre. Consequently it would not have been proper, even in an allegory, to have represented the merchants of Tyre as the persons seeking to profit by the results of the invasion of Gog. Hence he introduces into the sacred picture slave-dealers and merchants from Sheba (the Sabeans), from Arabia, and those of Dedan on the Persian Gulf, along with the merchants of far-distant Tarshish. The attempt first to trans- ^ Chamberlain, in his Restoration of Israel, p. 234, etc., tries to make out that the interrogative used in the Hebrew "conveys the force of indignant disapproval," and seeks to uphold his views by references to Glassius, Philolor/ia Sacra, and to.Noldius' Con- cord. Particularum. It is quite true tliat the simide interrogative liere used in the text may be so employed. But, the ^'indignant dis- approval" is in every case conveyed in the context, and does not lie in the use of the interrogative. Noldius' Concordantia points out that the ))article in (juestion is frequently used to denote the simple ([uestion in cases where a (juestioner is uncertain what answer he may receive. The same particle is used both when a negative answer, and also when an affirmative answer is expected. It is useless to cite i)assages, as they are given in sufficient numbers iu every Hebrew Lexicon of value. 120 Hxegctical Studies. form a company of money-loving slave-dealers, who are represented in Ezekiel's picture as desirous to make unholy merchandize of the bodies of men, into heroes, ready to draw the sword in defence of poor oppressed Israel, and then further to explain " the merchants of Tarshish " to mean the mercantile and maritime power of England, is one of the most extraordinary misrepresentations of prophecy that can well be conceived. Eussia, Germany, France, and other nations, are doomed, according to this inter- pretation, to be swept away with " the besom of destruction," while England with its Eastern allies are to be the only Gentile nations who are to choose the better part ! ! Such pretended " expositions " of tlie Bible are sad exhibitions, on the part of " evan- gelical " interpreters, of egotism and national Phari- saism. Such interpretations might well be left to fall by their innate absurdity, were it not that they are again and again cooked up anew, and eagerly devoured as wholesome spiritual food by many who pride themselves on their diligent study of the prophetic word. The overthrow of Gog and Magog and their rapacious allies, maddened with covetousness and drawn on by the bait of gold to their own destruc- tion, is represented by Ezekiel in strict accordance with the imagery common to the prophets of Israel. Jehovah pleads against the foe with pestilence and blood (xxxviii. 22). It \vas by a pestilence the great Assyrian army of Sennacherib was overthrown UzcJciel's Prophecy of Gog and Magog. 121 in the very sight of Jerusalem, This is the ordinary- way in which the Lord deals with rebel man. " For behold," says Isaiah (Ixvi. 15,16), "Jehovah will come with fire and with His chariots like a whirl- wind, to render His anger with fury, and His rebuke with flames of fire. For by fire and by His sword will Jehovah plead with all flesh : and the slain of Jehovah shall be many." Thus also Zechariah in a remarkable prophecy (xiv. 12), which it is utterly impossible to interpret literally, describes such a pestilence as consuming the bodies, melting the eyes of the many nations that desired to look on the nakedness of poor Zion (Micah iv. 11), and also as rotting the tongues of the blasphemers who dared to blaspheme the God of Israel.^ Among the instrumentalities by which the avaricious confederacy is to be overthrown are " the great hailstones, fire and brimstone " (xxxviii. 22) often mentioned in earlier days. By fire and brimstone Sodom and Gomorrah were over- whelmed ; and in Joshua's great battle with the five kings their hosts were discomfited at Azekah by hail- stones from heaven (Josh. x. 11). A storm of hail- stones repeatedly recurs in the symbols of the Book of the Eevelatiou (xi. 19, xvi. 21), though for many reasons we abstain here from citing illustrative passages from that book. But it should be specially ^ See tlie Bampton Lectures on Zechariah, where the numerous absurdities are pointed out whicli beset any attempt to explain literally the prophecy of Zech. xiv. 122 Excgdical Studies. noted that in Isaiah's predictions of the ruin of Sennacherib and his army, which was mainly caused, according to the writer of the Book of Kings, by means of an awful pestilence, the prophet speaks of fire, hail, and thunder : " And Jehovah shall cause His glorious voice (comp. Ps. xxix. 3) to be heard, and shall show the lighting down of His arm, with the indignation of His anger, and with the flame of a devouring fire, with scattering and tempest and liailstones " (Isa. xxx. 30, 31). The confederacy is also spoken of by Ezekiel as broken up by internecine conflict. The Lord shall call for a sword against Gog through all the moun- tains of Israel, and every man's sword shall be against his brother (xxxviii. 21). In the great battle at Michmash, the Philistines in a heaven- sent confusion turned their swords against one another, and so added to the terrible slaughter of that day (1 Sam. xiv. 20 ff.). Similar events happened in earlier days in the war against Midian (Judg. vii. 22), as well as repeatedly in later days (2 Chron. xx. 23). Hence the prophets introduce this feature into their description of the future overthrow of " the armies of the aliens." It forms a striking future in Zechariah's description of the great conflict (Zech. xiv. 13). Gog is also represented as overthrown by an earthquake in the land of Israel. By the earth - (juake mountains are overturned, craggy rocks fall, and every wall is levelled with the ground EzekieVs Prophecy of Gog and Magog. 123 (xxxviii. 19, 20). Earthquakes .are introduced into all the prophetic pictures which represent the over- tlirow of the Lord's enemies and the salvation of the Lord's people. The earthquake is vividly depicted on the canvas of Zechariah ; and the terror of the beasts of the field, of the fowls of the heaven and even of the fishes of the sea, occasioned by the dreaded phenomenon is mentioned in the Book of Hosea (Hos. iv. 3). In our Lord's great prophecy of the latter days (Matt, xxiv., Mark xiii., Luke xxi,), which comprehends the great period which reaches onward from the time of His ascension into heaven to His return again to earth, these several features are blended together into one grand picture. That prophecy is not a pre- diction only of the end of the world, it is a faithful sketch of human history during the whole of the Messianic period. It is as it were a sketch and study drawn by the hand of the great Master of all the prophetic painters. It describes in a few masterly touches the wars and commotions, the fearful sights, the great signs, the pestilences, famines, earthquakes, internecine slaughter, nation rising against nation, kingdom against kingdom, the false prophets, false teachers, abounding iniquity, the declining love exhibited on the part of tlie Church towards its r.ord, the increasing hate of religion manifested on the part of the world, the afflictions and sufferings of the righteous, and their triumph even in death, — all which have characterized, and will continue to 124 Excgciical Studies. characterize, this portion of the world's history, not- withstanding the advent of " the Prince of peace," and in spite of the preaching of the everlasting gospel. Ezekiel gives a graphic description of the great feast which was to be provided by means of the slaughter of Gog's army for the ravenous birds of prey and the wild beasts of the field (xxxix. 4, 5). The prophet was commanded to invite all the birds and beasts of prey to assemble upon the mountains of Israel to partake of the great sacrifice of human flesh and blood. The animals thus assembled are described as gorged with the flesh and fat of mighty captains and princes of the earth. They driok their blood until they become drunken, and are satisfied to the full at that fearful table of the Lord (xxxix. 20) with the sacrifice prepared by God for their enjoyment (xxxix. 17-20). The description given by Ezekiel is, however, a repetition, with greater fulness of detail, of the equally vivid picture drawn by the prophet Isaiah (xxxiv.) of the sacrifice in Bozrah, and the great slaughter in the land of Idumea or Edom. In Isaiah's picture the mountains are represented as melted down by the blood of the slain, and the anger of the Lord is spoken of as poured out upon all nations of the earth, and His fury upon all their armies. The same imagery is made use of in the description of the final conflict with the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies in the nineteenth chapter of the Book of lievelation. EzclcicVs Prophecy of Gog and Magog. 125 No Old Testament description' of a field of battle (even as presented in the allegorical descriptions of the prophets) would be complete without some mention of the spoil of the foe. Ezekiel in his prophecy speaks first of the spoiling of Israel, and then of the spoiling of the enemies by the Israelites. Similarly Isaiah records the spoils of Israel first as gathered by the Assyrians, and then further describes how the Assyrians were to be spoiled in their turn (xxxiii. 1). Zechariah also predicts the plundering of Jerusalem, and afterwards speaks of the spoil of the foe, consisting in gold, silver, and garments, being gathered up by the men of Judah (Zech. xiv. 1, 2, 14). It is, however, a feature peculiar to Ezekiel that in his prophecy the weapons of the enemies (which are fully described in ch. xxxviii. 4, 5, xxxix. 9, and all of which, with the excep- tion of swords, have long since been discarded by modern armies) are represented as carefully gathered up from the fields of battle, and stored \ip in order to be used for the useful purpose of firewood. The Israelites, restored to a land the trees of which were cut down by the foe, are represented in the prophecy as provided in this manner with the fuel required for domestic purposes for seven long years. In one of his graphic predictions of the overthrow of Sennacherib's army, in sight of its long looked-for goal, namely, the holy city Jerusalem, Isaiah depicts Tophet in the valley of Jehoshaphat in front of the 126 Exegetical Studies. city as the place where the great pile of fire and wood would be ignited by the breath of Jehovah in order to consume the bodies of the slain. That natural pit, deep and large as it was, was ordained of old for the purpose, fitly prepared for the haughty king who dared to blaspheme the God of Israel who was his Maker. The Assyrian soldiers, cut down in their ranks like sheaves of corn, were gathered in that spot into the threshing-floor (Micah iv. 12), and laid in their last earthly beds along the sides of that deep valley. Sennacherib's death at Nineveh was the direct result of his discomfiture before Jerusalem (Isa. XXX. 33, xxxviii. 37, 38). In another pro- phet picture, Joel speaks of the same valley of Jehoshaphat as the place where the final victory should be gained over tlie enemies of Jehovah, although that prophet does not describe the burial of the foe (Joel iii. 11-17). In Ezekiel's prophecy, Gog is described as vainly conceiving in his heart that he would get the land of Israel for a possession. No possession in the land of Israel should, however, according to Ezekiel, be accorded to him or his soldiers, but the possession of a place of sepulture (Ezek. xxxix. 11). It is use- less to inquire what particular valley the prophet thought of as the special place of burial, whether it was the district lying along the shores of the Dead Sea, the valley of Salt, where Chedorlaomer and his confederate kings were overthrown by Abraham (Gen. xiv. 8-10), and where in later days David, and EzekieVs Prophecy of Gog and Magog. 127 afterwards Amaziah, won victories over the people of Edom, Ezekiel probably had in view in his ideal description some place within the territory of the Holy Land. Some critics have conjectured the place to have been the valley of Megiddo, where the pious Josiah fell wounded by the Egyptian archers ; and others some vale along the side of the Lake of Galilee. It apj)ears, however, more likely that the valley of Hamon-Gog, where the multitude of Gog is described as buried, was probably localized ideally as situated along the Mediterranean or the great sea, the sea of nations. The translation in the Authorized Version of chap, xxxix. 11, — " And it (the valley with its stink) shall stop the noses of the passengers," — is tlie rendering given by some Jewish critics. If that were the meaning, the passage would be somewhat parallel to the description in Joel (ii. 20) : "I will remove far off from you the northern army, and I will drive him into a land barren and desolate, with his face toward the east sea and his hinder part toward the utmost sea : and his stink shall come up and his ill savour shall come, because he hath done great things." But it is more probable that the meaning of the whole passage (xxxix. 11) is: "And it shall come to pass in that day that I will give to Gog a place for burial in Israel, the valley of passers through, east of the sea, and it shall stop (or hem up) those who pass through, and they shall bury there Gog and all his multitude, and they shall call it the 128 Excgdical Studies, Valley of the Multitude of Gog." ^ The multitude of Gog is to be identified with " the multitudes " pour- trayed by Joel " in the valley of decision ; " and the result of the decisive judgment there given by the overthrow of tlie foe is that Jerusalem shall be holy, and strangers shall not pass through her any more (Joel iii. 17 ; or, in the Hebrew, iv. 17). For Ezekiel describes the fate of Gog as identical with the fate of all the other enemies of the Lord. He shall pass through the land of Israel, but he shall only be a passenger going through the land, for a grave there shall be his only portion. Hemmed up in the Valley of Multitude, he shall no more return, his armies shall be like mere hordes of passers through. His hosts shall come up like a storm and pass through it, covering the land for a while like a cloud (xxxviii. 9). Men appointed to pass through the land shall bury them, and men shall perpetually pass to and fro over the graves of those avaricious })assers through the land. Tims shall Jehovah be magnified. There is, it will be observed, all through the passage a play upon words. Gog and his multitudes, however numerous and mighty they may a})pear, are but passengers — they shall be buried as passengers — passengers shall bury them, and pas- sengers shall walk over their graves. The burial itself is described as a gigantic under- taking. Notwithstanding the ravenous beasts and ' The rendering of the Revised Version is substantially the same. "We have rendered a little more literally in order to avoid ambiguity. EzchicVs Prophccjj of Gog and Magog. 129 birds gathered together to consume the corpses, the burial of the transgressors is represented as occupying seven weary montlis, during which one might almost use the language of Isaiah : " They shall go forth and look upon the carcases of the men that have trans- gressed against me ; for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched, and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh " (Isa. Ixvi. 24). The Inirial is described as a tedious and hateful work, though necessary according to the Law : " Whosoever toucheth in the open field one that is slain with a sword, or a dead body, or a bone of a man, or a grave, shall be unclean seven days" (Num. xix. IG). Seven months shall all the people of the land be Inirying the army of Gog, that they may cleanse the land (Ezek. xxxix. 12, 13). Even after that ])eriod, for a long and undefined space of time, men shall be set apart and separated for the constant work of burying the bodies which still remain unburied, and for the purpose of collecting together the bones scattered over the fields. Over these remains " signs " were to be set up and erected, in order that the bones thus found might ultimately be conveyed in due course of time to the valley of Hamon-Gog, where a new city to be built should serve by its very name Hamonah (or, " Multitude ") to keep in everlasting remembrance the memory of the vengeance taken by the Most High upon the foe, and the salvation granted to the people of Israel. " Ah ! the tumultuous-multitude of many peoples, 130 Excgetical Studies. like the tumult of the seas they are tumultuous ; and the roar of nations like the roar of mighty waters they roar ! The nations — like the roar of mighty waters they roar, but He rebuketh them, and they ilee far away, and are chased like the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like whirling - dust before the hurricane. At eventide, behold terror ! before morning, it is gone ! This is the portion of those who spoil us, and the lot of those who plunder us!" (Isa. xvii. 12-14). In his description of the destruction of the last enemy of Israel, Ezekiel availed himself largely of the phraseology used in the Book of Exodus in reference to Pharaoh, Israel's first great enemy. If the heart of Pharaoh is represented in the Book of Exodus as hardened by Jehovah, even so does Ezekiel speak of Gog as prepared by the same overruling power to rush madly onward to his own destruction. Tlie writer of Exodus depicts Pharaoh as raised up by Jehovah to lofty estate in order that by his fall the divine power might be more clearly manifested (Ex. ix. 16); and Ezekiel describes God as for a similar reason permitting Gog to exalt himself for a little season. The Egyptians are described in the Book of Exodus as learning at last by the destruction of their king and army that Jehovah was God (Ex. vii. o, xiv. 4, 18), when God had gotten Him honour upon Pharaoh and all his host in the waters of the Eed Sea. Ezekiel similarly says that Jeliovah would in the same way be sanctified, known, and honoured in EzclcicVs rropliccy of Gog and Mwjog. 131 tlie eyes of many nations l3y the glorious overthrow of the confederacy of Gog and Magog. " The nations shall know that I am Jehovah" (Ezek. xxxviii. 16, 23) ; and it is specially noted that this should be the case not only with the peoples in the Holy Land, but also with those in the islands (Ezek. xxxix. 6). (jod's holy name shall be acknowledged in the midst of Israel, " and the nations shall know that I am Jehovah the Holy One in Israel " (Ezek, xxxix. 7, 22, 23, 28). The various points already noticed all tend to prove that Ezekiel does not describe in the prophecy any special foe of Israel, who has already appeared, or who is to appear at some future period, whose armies are to be literally armed, overthrown, devoured, and buried in the particular manner described. The prophecy is a sort of allegory, in which a picture is presented of the ultimate ruin and utter overthrow of all those enemies who, when Israel is restored to their laiul, seek for the sake of greed and gain to destroy the people of Jehovah. If the prophecy were regarded as literal, its fulfilment would be in many points impossible, nor can it, regarded as a literal prophecy, be brought into harmony with other pre- dictions which treat of the same period. On the other hand, regarded as a description of real events, pourtrayed in allegorical language, the picture is grand and impressive. Ezekiel represents, in the thirty-seventh chapter, under the figure of the resur- rection of dry bones in the valloy, the restoration of 132 , Exegetical Studies. Israel from the Babylonish captivity, and points out that the twelve tribes would thenceforth form one nation, to be ultimately ruled by " David, my servant," or the great Messiah. The conversion of Israel forms the subject of the thirty-sixth chapter ; and at the close of the thirty-seventh the prophet returns to the same theme, and gives a short but vivid account of Israel's conversion : " My tabernacle shall also be with them ; yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And the nations shall know that I, Jehovah, do sanctify Israel when my tabernacle shall be in the midst of them for evermore " (xxxvii. 27, 28). The invasion of Gog is then related as an episode, which is to occur after the restoration and before the final national conversion of Israel, which latter point is again predicted in glowing language at the close of chap, xxxix. Some English interpreters have devised a theory of " breaks " or " gaps " in prophecy ; but the hypothesis merely shows how utterly such writers, led astray by their imagination, have failed to com- prehend the principles which underlie all prophecy. The history of the human race presented in the sacred writings is simple, but its very simplicity is pro- found. The universal apostasy of the Gentiles from the true God led to the call of Abraham, and to the selection of Israel, as a holy people. The duty appointed to Israel was to preserve the light amid darkness, and by Israel's instrumentality the nations were at last to be brought back to the true God. lUit though Israel was the chosen people, guided and EzelcieVs Prophecy of Gog ami Marjoj. l.''>3 taught by Jehovali, their unfaithfulness led to their repeated punishment. Israel was chastised and finally overwhelmed by the world-power, first as ruled over by Assyria, afterwards as swayed by Babylon. But forasmuch as the nations which conquered Israel imagined in their folly that their gods had triumphed over Jeliovah, the prophets foretold that Israel should be delivered by divine power out of captivity, and restored to the land of their possession. The restora- tion of Israel and the subsequent coming of Messiah is the theme of the later prophets. Tlie sufferings of Messiah and the glory that should follow (1 Pet. i. 11), as seen by the prophets of Israel, were viewed as ])art and parcel of one grand picture. The sufferings of ]\Iessiah were to be the " birth throes " of the world, its " regeneration," as our Lord expresses it (Matt. xix. 28). The Messianic age in its length and breadth . is identified with the " latter days." That age or dispensation is " the day of the Lord," in the morning of which Messiah comes to suffer, and in the evening of which He returns to rei^n. In the New Testament picture the great Dragon was seen waiting for the birth of the wondrous Child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. The Dragon's expectations were thwarted, for the Child when born was caught up to God, and His throne (Rev. xii.). Thus closed the first half of the Seven Times of the Gentiles, which began with the victory of the world - power over Israel, and to the eyes of the world closed with the victory of that power over Christ. For the l:]4 Exegciical Studies. triumph of Christ at His resurrection and ascension was a triumph only witnessed by a few. The Dragon, though foiled in his attempt to overcome Christ, is not, however, yet wholly vanquished. He still makes war with the remnant of the woman's seed which keep the commandments of God, and hold the testimony of Jesus Christ. The second portion of " the Times of the Gentiles," or the mystical " time, times and a half," is the period during which this war lasts ; and the conflict began when Christ ascended from Mount Olivet, and will not be ended until He shall be manifested as King of kings and Lord of lords. Ezekiel beheld only part of this scene of conflict and victory. But the portion he was permitted to see was a picture complete in itself. He saw Israel restored from captivity, he saw them settled in a land of unwalled villages. He next saw the foe advancing from all quarters, hoping to gain an easy victory. He was permitted to behold " the conclusion of the matter," the overthrow of the foe, the burial of the mighty, the salvation of Israel, the conversion of the world, and the Messiah seated on His throne ! The picture was one which the prophet could fully com- prehend. It was drawn upon the lines of the old dispensation. He was permitted further to behold the hidden springs of human action, the reality which often lies deep below the surface. The hostility of the world against Israel often sprang, not so much from hostility towards God, as from the love EzckieVs Prophecy of Gog and Magog. 135 of gain. As Christ more than once emphatically points out, God and Mammon ever compete together tor human souls. Eiches, money, wealth, is often the real idol which men worship, lieligion is used as a stalking horse, behind which as a shelter money is greedily sought to be acquired. " Money, m.one}', money ! " this is the cry which awakens the nations ! The wail of Demetrius the silversmith (Acts xix. 24ff.) over his foreseen and sadly dreaded losses, is the shout that always collects together a sordid mob who would hinder the progress of truth. From all parts they gather, they come ; they scent money from far as keenly as the vulture scents the carrion it loves to devour. It was the prosperity and wealth of restored Israel, often exaggerated by report, which attracted the cupidity and aroused the animosity of their foes, whether Persian, or Grecian, or Eoman. But had the Israelites not been unmindful of the Eock that begat them, of the God that formed them (Deut. xxxii. 18), how should one have chased a thousand and two put ten thousand to flight? (Deut. xxxii. 30.) Israel's forgetfulness of God at one time, their rejection of Messiah at another, caused that people to be left helpless under the assaults of their enemies both ancient and modern. Stripped of their real defence, their strength gone, Israel, whether in the Land of Eromise in unwalled villages, or scattered among the nations, has been plundered and spoiled by foes from every quarter, from the north and the south, and the east and the west. 1.T6 Excgctical Studies. But a brighter day will, we trust, soon dawn. The da3's of oppression are well-nigh past. The day of Israel's conversion is to come. Ezekiel's prophecy opens with the restoration of Israel from the Babylonish captivity, and reaches on to the time of the end. It does not delineate all the sad events of Jewish history ; it sums them up in one picture. There may be another restoration of Israel to the Land of Promise, and such a restoration is probable, but Ezekiel does not speak in this prophecy of that restoration. His prophecy is not unfulfilled. It has had many a fulfilment in the oppression used against the poor Jew, and in the vengeance that by Divine Providence has fallen upon his oppressors. There are no grounds whatever to expect a more full accomplish- ment in the future. There is no reason to expect the rise of another such confederacy as that of Gog and Magog. At all events " the mission of Ilussia " is certainly not pourtrayed in the prophecy. There is indeed a portion of Ezekiel's prophecy which awaits a future fulfilment, namely, that which speaks of the blessed day of grace and glory. Israel is to be converted ; the Jews will shake off the sleep of forgetfulness, and once more remember their Lord. The promises, the fulfilment of which was stayed, because when Christ " came unto His own, they that were His own received Him not" (John i. 11), are yet to have their full accomplishment. The " mystery " which the apostle reveals is that " a hardening in part hath befallen Israel until the ful- EzckieVs Proj^hccy of Gog and Magog. 137 ness of the Gentiles be come in, and so all Israel shall he saved, even as it is written — " ' There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer ; He shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob ' " (Eom. xi. 25, 26). And "if the casting away of them was the reconciling of the world, what shall tlie receiving of them be but life from the dead ? " (Rom. xi. 15). "The kingdom of tlie world shall become the kingdom of our Lord and His Christ, and lie shall reign for ever and ever " (Rev. xi. 1 5). IV. THE SPIRITS IN PEISOK A STUDY ON I PETER III. 18-20 AND IV. 6. HE publication of Dean Plumptre's work on The Spirits in Prison ^ has awakened in this country fresh interest in the exegesis of the remarkable passage in 1 Pet. iii. 17-22. Dean Plumptre upholds the dictum of the late lamented Professor Dorner, that " it may be accepted as a result of modern exegetical research " that St. Peter in his Epistle alludes to the descent of Christ after His death on the cross into Hades, or the unseen- world of spirits, and to the work wdiich the Eedeemer carried on in the region of the dead previous to His resurrection on the third day. In face of the formidable consensus of opinion on this point, which exists among the scholars and theo- logians of the present time, it may appear rash, on critical and exegetical grounds, to impugn the cor- • The Spirits in Prison and other Studies on the Life after Death. Ry E. H. Plumptre, D.D., Dean of Wells. Londou : Wm. Isbister Limited, 5G Liul<,'ate Hill. 1S85. 13S The Spirits in Prison. 139 rectuess of such an interpretation. But the general acceptance of the theory which thus regards the passage to refer to the descent into Hades has, in our opinion, been mainly due to the mistakes which have been made by interpreters on the other side. The latter have too often sought to defend untenable positions, and have failed to perceive the strong points on the maintenance of which their efforts should have been concentrated. On the other hand, those who refer the passage to a preaching of Christ in the other world, have not really faced the difficulties of the passage, and, even on their own showing, have generally gone beyond the statements of the sacred text. The last word has not been spoken on the controversy ; and we hope to be able to show that it is more than doubtful whether St. Peter either in the passage before us, or in the other passage in chap. iv. 6, makes any allusion whatever to Christ's descent into Hell.^ 1 It may be well to notice our article on this subject, entitled "Scripture Revelations on the Intermediate State," published in the Journal of Sacred Literature for April 1866. That article in a slightly revised form was reprinted in the appendix to our work on The Fatherhood of God (T. & T. Clark, 1867). A more careful con- sideration of the subject led to the rejection of several of the minor positions there maintained, and the subject was more carefully handled in an article on " The Spirits in Prison and the Son of God," which appeared in the British and Forehjn Evangelical Review for January 1876. The same position there defended is maintained in the present study, though with more fulness and, possibly, more clearness of detail. We have not, however, tliought it advisable to embarrass the argument by any discussion of the passage in Gen. vi. 4, 5, though still denying, on e.xcgetical grounds, the correctness of the view which considers that there is an allusion there to an intermarriage of angels and women in the days before the Flood. See pp. 9, 10. 1-10 Excgdical Studies. It must not be thought that we have been led to the conchisions indicated by theological prepos- sessions, or by an inveterate unwillingness to admit the conclusions arrived at on some points by the scholars referred to. Some of their conclusions are in themselves probable, when viewed from a speculative point of view. Thus it may be admitted that it is likely that the descent of Christ into the unseen-world was an event necessarily fraught with momentous consequences to the dwellers in that spirit-land. If the Gospel of St. Luke (xxiii. 24), which u.st;d to be so coiiiinoiily explained as connected with the verb to ask-, and as consequently signifying "the insatiable Orcus," has been recognised by the best modern Hebraists as connected with the root to .sink doirn, to be. sunk, wHiy, ?V^i b^), aiifl, therefore, signities properly rff/jj-cw/ow, depth, that is, in other words its proper rendering would be " that which is beneatli," "the Under-world." See the latest editions of Gesenius' He,b. JIandwdrterbuck, by Muhlau and Volck. On the other hand, the Greek Hades, alvs, is best translated by " the Unseen," and it is a ])ity that the words were not so rendered in simple English by the Revisers. 142 Exegdical Studies. tion of Scripture with buttresses derived from false metaphysics. On the other hand, the modern advo- cates of " the larger hope " have equally erred in demanding assent to theories built upon as weak foundations. In the interests of true theology we protest against all attempts to found upon speculations, however specious or probable, any doctrines whatever affecting faith or practice, such as the doctrine of a purgatory after death or that of prayer for the dead. The doctrine of purgatory is now boldly asserted as true by many of the modern school of Anglican theologians, although the purgatory they teach may be of a nobler and more generous character than that depicted by lioman Catholic theologians. The doctrine of prayers for the dead is in the present day clearly and distinctly advocated by the former divines as part and parcel of primitive Christianity.^ Dean Plumptre's interesting chapter on the subject of " the descent into hell " is divided into two sections, the first treating of the historical tradition, the second of the Scripture foundation on which that article of the Apostles' Creed is based. In the latter the Dean specially notices the views put forward by tliose theolonians who maintain that St. Peter refers ' Seethe able work of Rev. H. JI. Luckock, D.D., After Death, ilie State of the Faithful Dead and their Relationship to the Living. Ijondon. Dean PUiniptre in the nintli " study " of liis book expresses sympathies in the same direction. Several other Anglican divines have written even more strongly in defence of prayers for the dead, as for instance Dr. Fivdciick G. Lee in his work on The Christian Doctrine of Prayer for the Departed, 2nd ed. 1875. The Spirits in Prison. 143 to Christ's "descent into hell" in his 1st Epist. iii. 18-20. The history of the exegesis of the passage presented by the Dean is far from complete ; and, indeed, it professes to be only an outline. But even considered as a mere outline, it is faulty and mis- leading. The authority of Bishop Horsley is rated too highly,^ and scant justice is dealt out to the eminent theologians of past days who have rejected the interpretation advocated by the Dean. Tlie expositions of the passage given by these scholars are summarily dismissed with the somewhat supercilious remark that " were it not for the tendency of super- iicial interpretations, which seem to avoid difficulties, to reappear with a strange vitality after they have been again and again refuted, it might seem super- fluous, after Horsley's masterly treatment, to indicate its intimate connection with the doctrine of the^ 'descent into hell'" (p. 111). It is probable that Dean Plumptre, when he wrote this severe criticism of his opponents, was unacquainted with the remark- able treatise of Professor Schweizer of Zurich on the subject,^ which is very far from being " superficial " in ^ The advance of scholarsliip has exploded not a few of Bisliop Horsley's most original interpretations, and, notwithstanding that Horsley's writings are highly suggestive, his expositions, especially of Old Testament passages, require always to be carefully examined in the liglit of modern criticism. - Hinahgefahren zur Nolle aU Mythiis ohm hiblische Begrilndunij, durch Auslegung der Stelle, 1 Pet. iii. 17-22, nachgeweisen von A. Schweizer, Dr. und Prof, theol. Ziirioh, A''erlag von Friedrich Schulthess, 1868. Three important articles by Rev. Professor Salmond, D.D., Aberdeen, on this subject, entitled "The Dogma of the Triduum," aiipearcd in tlie British and Foreign Evangelical 14-1 E,j-egctical Studies. it? character. Although we do not coincide with all that has been written by that eminent Swiss theo- logian, his essay is one of the most important contributions to the literature of the passage, and we shall in the present " study " call attention to the critical arguments which he has advanced against the i)iterpretation of the passage advocated by Horsley, Alford and Plumptre among the English divines. It must be noted that our review of the interpreta- tion of the passage is to be regarded merely as a small contribution towards the English literature on the subject. It does not pretend to be an exhaustive treatise on such an important point, or to give any- thing like a complete sketch of the writings of German scholars on the question. It is no longer denied that the translation of the passage given in the English Authorized Version is incorrect in several important particulars. The issue of the Eevised Version has placed the state of the case in its true light before the intelligent English reader. The contrast intended between the " being put to death in the flesh " and the " being quickened in the spirit " is too clear to be disputed. It is consequently impossible any longer to interpret the L'eview for October 1872, January and April 1873. Bishop Horslej''.s sermon on the subject, "On Christ's Descent into Hell, and the Intermediate State," wa.s appended to his Trandation of Hosea, iiHlh Notes explanaiory and critical, London 1804. It is also to be found in tlu^ edition of his Sermo7is, London 1826, as well as in the collected edition of hi.s work.s. His "masterly treatment" of the subject, when that which is common to all interpreters is excluded, occupies less than four pages. Tlte Siyirits in Prison. 145 former clause as stating the nature iu which Christ suffered, and the latter as pointing out the instru- mental means whereby Christ was made alive. The clauses are in the Greek identical in form and evidently antithetical in meaning. Hence the trans- lation " quickened by the Spirit," that is, made alive again by the operation of the Holy Ghost, and the explanation of the relative clause in the next verse as referring to a preaching of the Holy Spirit through Noah to the world of the ungodly, must once for all be set aside as erroneous.^ For, if the " spirit " mentioned in ver. 18 (con- trasted as it is with the "flesh" spoken of in the former clause) signifies the personal spirit of Christ, then the relative in the beginning of ver. 19, "in which " (iv cS), must also be referred to Christ's spiritual nature. The other translations, " wherefore," " through which," " at which time," are here inad- missible, although (considered apart from the context) all more or less defensible. The well-balanced statements of ver. 18, "put to death in the flesh " and " quickened in the spirit," must be interpreted as mutually contrasted. The former expression can only mean that Christ endured ^ The ^ut'Toitihi; 11 THUftari closely corresponds to the ia^iaruh); f/Lit (reipKi, and even the reading of the Textus Recept. t* Tuvfiari, which is found in very few of the cursive, but in none of the uncial MSS., would not much alter the matter. It may, however, be fairly doubted whether the translation of our Authorized Version, though incorrect, merits Alford's sweeping denunciation as in defiance of all grammar. But we are not disposed to go into any special pleading on that point. K 14G Excgetical Studies. death in consequence of having become "partaker of flesh and blood" (Heb. ii. 14). By becoming man Christ became subject to the law of death, with the distinct object in view (as stated in the Epistle to the Hebrews) of overcoming death by dying, and not only so, but with the further object of making man- kind " partakers of the divine nature " (2 Pet. i. 4). The expression " quickened in the spirit " cannot therefore refer to the spiritual or pneumatical body (1 Cor. XV. 44) with which our Lord rose from the dead ; -^ because (as Schweizer observes) the resur- rection from the grave which includes the idea of the reunion of the spirit with the soul and body cannot be correctly spoken of as a " being quickened in the spirit." ^ ^ It ou<,'lit, liowever, to be obseived that Huther (in Meyer's Comm.) docs not exactly identify tlie pneuma of Christ with Hi.s spiritual body. He rather understands the pneuma in this place to signify the new spiritual life into which Christ entered when He was raised from the dead. That life began in such a manner that the pneuma united itself again with the (rufta, so that the ffZua itself became a pneumatical body. According to Huther's explanation, the ])reaching of Christ iv ■rviCf/.ari took plac(! after His resurrection, and not previous to that event. - The object sought to be attained by this explanation of the ])assage is the preservation of ^uo'reiiiu in its proper signification, viade alive after death, the word being constantly used in reference to the revivification of the dead (John v. 21 ; Kom. iv. 17 ; 1 Cor. XV. 22 If.). The pneuma of Christ in its jjroper signification can never be thought of as suffering death. One of the dilticulties of the l)assage is that in order to preserve intact the full antithesis between the irapxl (in thefleah) in the first member of the sentence, and the Ti/iufiaTi [in the spirit) in the second, it seems necessary to understand the vi>rb Z.uoWnu in a sense, not elsewhere to be found in the New Testament writings, of being kept alive. There is, however, in the I'^pistle of I'arnabas, chap, vi., a remarkable parallel. In attemjiting The Spirits in Prison. 147 The phrase " quickened in the spirit," therefore, refers to the spirit - life into which Christ entered when He surrendered up His spirit to the Father. 1 )eath put an end for a season to His bodily life ; that event was, however, the beginning of a higher and spiritual life, in which His spirit asserted its power aTid put forth its energies. Death has its effect on the body of Christ. He submitted to death to fulfil the will of the Father. He had power to lay down His life, and had power to take it again (John x. 18). But the latter life (the resurrection life) is not that I'eferred to in the text. St. I'eter speaks of the life of which man cannot deprive his fellow in any case whatever, namely, the life of the pneuma or spirit, by virtue of which the man exists even in the disem- l)odied state. In other words, the apostle alludes to tlie life of the Redeemer in the intermediate state to explain spiritually the promise of the possession of a land ilowing ■with milk and honey, Barnabas asks : "What then mean the milk and honey?" and replies: "This, that as the infant is kept alive first by honey and then by milk {on rrpurtm to tui^iov fi'tkiTi, uto. ya.Xa.x.rt ^uO'X-onirai), SO also we being quickened (tJi -rirTU is WayyiXia.; xai 7M Xoyv l^ufroiov/uitai ^irofciv) by the faith of the promise and by the word, shall live ruling over the earth." Here is the same connection between the datives //.iXiTi and yaXuKTi, met with in the passage in S. Peter, while the verb is used in the double sense of quickened or made alive, and of h'pt alive or preserved in life. The difficulty, however, as to the meaning of the verb is not really serious, because the apostle speaks of the death mentioned in the first clause as attecting the whole man, Christ Jesus, as a person, although that death in reality only atfected His body (His flesh) ; and similarly the quickening was a fact which concerned Christ's whole personality, although in reality He was made alive and entered into a new phase of existence "in the spirit." Hence it is not of much consequence whether the X'^oToirihU is rendered "made alive" or " ke^H alive." 148 Exegetical Studies. prior to His resurrection. As that life was the awakening of a new existence for the man Christ Jesus, S. Peter speaks of it as a being " quickened in the spirit." Before, however, entering on the inquiry as to what is meant by Christ's " preaching in the spirit," it is of importance carefully to note the general drift of the part of the Epistle in which the statement occurs, and to examine the peculiar phraseology employed in the 19 th verse. The object which the apostle had in view in the context, was to encourage the Jewish Christians to whom he wrote to stand firm amid the trials by which they were surrounded, and to be consistently jealous for that which was good. They were not, like their unbelieving forefathers in the days of Ahaz, to allow themselves to be terrified (Isa. viii. 11-13) when they heard of conspiracies formed against them on account of their religion. Men might seek to root Christ's people out of the land of the living. But believers in Christ, like the faithful saints " who nobly fought of old," should fear the Lord of hosts alone, and not be unduly moved by the plots of mortal men who are only able to kill the body. In the hour of trial they should fear and reverence that God who is able to destroy both body and soul in hell (Matt. x. 28). The followers of Jesus should never forget to sanctify in their hearts Christ as Lord. For if it be the will of God it is better for Christians to suffer for well-doing than for evil-dointr. The Spirits in Prison. 149 " A disciple is not above his master, nor a servant above his lord" (Matt. x. 24). If the great Master suffered for His people, He lias, even in His submis- sion unto death, left them an example that they sliould follow in His steps.^ He did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth. When reviled He did not revile His revilers, but committed His cause to Him that judgeth righteously. He suffered for us that He might bring us to God. He was put to death in the flesh, the body, in which He suffered on the cross ; but He was kept alive or quickened — raised in either case to a higher life — " in the spirit," that is, in the higher part of His nature. Thus was He "justified in the spirit" (1 Tim. iii. 16). There- fore they that suffer with Him here will be similarly "justified," and will be finally "glorified together" (liom. viii. 17). For when Christian martyrs, " faithful unto death," put off their mortal bodies, in the way that the Lord Jesus Christ oft foretold, " Ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake " (Luke xxi. 17), they like their Master enter into a higher life " in the spirit." Their enemies cannot kill their souls ; and since the believers who are faithful unto death shall assuredly receive the crown of life (Rev. ii. 10), those of them that suffer according to the will of God may with confidence commit their souls in well-doing unto a faithful Creator (1 Pet. iv. 19). ' The line of tliought presented in the passage is in many respects a repetition of tliat in cliap. ii. 19 ff., and hence it is qnite lawful to illustrate it by the pliraseology of the earlier part of the Epistle. 150 Excgctical Studies. If this be a fair rcsumd of the exhortations of the apostle which precede and follow the passage specially under discussion, it is clear that his object was to prepare the believers to whom he wrote for tlie fiery trial which he foresaw would try their faith, and test the vitality of their Christian profession (1 Pet, iv. 12 ff.). The example of Christ who suffered for well-doing was, therefore, repeatedly urged upon their consideration, and Christ's patient endur- ance when He was led as a lamb to the slaughter was specially dwelt upon (ii. 21 ff.). For in that day of trial the Redeemer committed His cause and its justice into the hands of God, without permitting any denunciations against His enemies to fall from His sacred lips. The example of Christ on the cross i.s, therefore, first of all set before the believers as a model of suffering patience, and the apostle then mentions, as it were, a second instance of a similar kind, namely, that Christ went in the spirit and preached to the spirits in prison. The question, therefore, at once suggests itself: Is the new fact adduced in the 19th verse — connected as it is with the former illustration by the use of the conjunction " also " (/cat) — another example of Christ's long-suffering patience ? If so, some illustration in harmony with the context would be expected. Otherwise the allusion in the 19th verse (whatever be its special meaning) would be an interruption in the solemn and earnest admonition to the saints to persevere in well-doing. Tlic Sj^irits in Friauit,. 151 Before enteriug upon a more minute examiiiatioii of the disputed passage, it is necessary also to call particular attention to the point that whatever be meant by Christ's preaching to the spirits in prison, the fact to which the apostle refers was evidently considered a matter with which his readers were acquainted. The apostle does not exhibit the slightest consciousness in the Epistle that he was setting forth any new and hitherto unknown truth, which had been by the power of the Holy Ghost specially revealed to him. He does not preface his statement by any announcement like that of St. I'aul : " Behold I show you a mystery " (1 Cor. XV. 51). He takes it for granted that the preaching of Christ to the spirits in prison was well known and believed in by all his readers. It is certain that no preaching of Christ to departed spirits, whether before or after His resur- rection, is alluded to in any other passage of the New Testament. Even if it be conceded that all the passages generally adduced in proof of the descent into Hades are correctly interpreted, as directly or indirectly referring to that event,^ nothing is contained in any of those texts, beyond the general statement that Christ went down into the depths uf the Under - world, and that He was with the ' Dean Pluinptre refers to Acts ii. 27 (including, of course, Ps. xvi. 8) ; Luke x.viii. 43 ; JIatt. x.wii. 52, 53 ; Eph. iv. 8, 9 ; Phil, ii. 9, 10 ; Rev. v. 1-18, together with the passages in 1 Pet. iii. 18-20, and 1 Pet. iv. 6. The latter two we maintain contain no reference at all to the Descent. Dean Phunptre also considers 152 Exeg diced Studies. ])enitent thief in Paradise. Not one of them con- tains any allusion whatever to the work which Christ performed " in the spirit," during the interval whicli elapsed between His death and resurrection. It will be of importance here to digress a little in order to notice the " historical tradition " con- cerning Christ's descent into hell, current in the Church of the early ages. Although Dean Plumptre considers that the opinions of the Fathers throw much light on the verse of St. Peter, we maintain that a survey of their opinions distinctly proves that the Church of the early ages was left as completely in the dark on the subject as we are. Hermas is the only one of " the Apostolic Fathers " who alludes to the matter. He speaks mysteriously of a preaching (Kijpvyfia) to those who were asleep carried on by " the apostles and teachers." But that writer nowhere mentions any preaching of Christ Himself to the dead. In the vision of the Church militant and triumphant, represented under the similitude of the building of a great tower, Hermas asks the Shepherd (Siin. ix. 16): " Why did also the forty stones " — which in the previous chapter are explained to be " the apostles and teachers of the preaching of the Son of God " — ascend out of the deep having already received the seal (of baptism) ? references to the event less distinct, but still highly probable, occur in I's. cxix. 82, Ps. cxlii. 7, and in Zech. ix. 11, 12, none of which in nur opinion, and least of all the last mentioned passage (to which he frequently refers), contain any allusion whatever to the point. See the Bampton Lecturen on Zechariah, pp. 249-251 and p. 672. The Spirits in Prison. 153 In other words, why were these stones seen in the vision to ascend with the holy spirits or virgins (named Faith, Continence, Purity, Truth, Love, etc.), represented as building the tower? The answer of the Shepherd was as follows: " Because, said he, these, the apostles and the teachers, who preached the name of the Son of God, after having fallen asleep in the power and faith of the Son of God preached {iKrjpv^av) even to those who had fallen asleep, and they gave to them the seal of the preaching/ They descended, therefore, with them into the water, and again ascended. But these (the apostles and teachers) descended when living, and again ascended living, but the others who had previously fallen asleep descended dead, but ascended living. Through these, therefore, fthe apostles and teachers) they were quickened (i^(i)07roir)6r}aav) and made to know the name of the Son of God. For this cause also did they ascend with them, and were fitted along with them into the building of the tower, and untouched by tlie chisel, were built in along with tliem. For they ' For as the Shepherd had already explaiued in the passage im- Tiiediately preceding : " They were obliged to ascend through water ill order that they might be made alive ; for they conld not other- wise enter into the kingdom, unless they laid aside the deadness of their life. Therefore, even those wlio had fallen asleep received the seal of the Son of God. For before, said he, the man carries the name of the Son of God, he is dead, but when he receives the seal, he lays aside his deadness, and obtains life. The seal, therefore, is the water: they therefore go down into the water dead and they ascend living. And to them, therefore, was this seal preached, and they made use of it in order tliat they might enter into the kingdom of God." 154 Exegdical Studies. slept ill righteousness and in great purity, but only tlicy had not this seal" In other words, the persons referred to were not among those who had received Christian baptism in their lifetime. The designation " apostles," in this and other passages of Hernias, is not restricted to the Twelve Apostles, as the mention of the typical u amber " forty " proves. I'rofessor Harnack of Giessen has conclusively shown, from a comparison of the Diclaclie with the earliest Christian writings, that the apostles of the early period were simply itinerating mis- sionaries/ However this may be, it is tolerably clear that the persons of whom Hennas speaks as having heard the " preaching " of the gospel and having received " the seal " of baptism in the other world, were none other than the saints of the Old Dispensa- tion. For he remarks of those persons that " they slept in righteousness and in great purity, but only they had not this seal." All, therefore, they needed was Christian baptism. For Hennas believed in the regenerating power of Christian baptism, and in the absolute necessity of such regeneration, in order to qualify any persons for entrance into " the kingdom of Christ." There is no necessity here to discuss the truth or falsehood of this theory. Hennas was, ' On the wider use of the term " apostle," see Bishop Lightlbot on The Epistle to the Galatians, p. 93 ff. , in wliich reference ititer alia is made to the ))assage above quoted from Hernias. See also Harnack, Lehre der Zw6lf Apostel, nehst UntersuchuiKjen zur iiUeHten Oeschichte der Kircheni-erfasstinKj und des Kirchenrechts (Leipzig : Hinrichs, 1884), Prolegomena, p. Ill fl". llie Spirits in Pylson. 155 however, led by it to affirm that believers under the Old Dispensation were, through the instrumentality of Christian teachers, made partakers after death of the blessings not previously granted under the Old Covenant. The perfection spoken of in Heb. xii. 23, 24 as ultimately bestowed upon " the spirits of just men " — of whom it was said that " apart from us they should not be made perfect " (Heb. xi. 40) — seems to lie at the foundation of the inter- esting bit of " Christian speculation " set forth in this part of Hermas' vision. But, be it noted, Hermas does not say a word about Christ Himself having preached in the Unseen - world, or of the gospel liaving been preached to sinners wlio had died in their sins. Clement of Alexandria {ob. circa 21G) has, indeed, ventured to interpret the expressions of Hermas in a wider sense. In his Stromaia (or Miscellanies), n. 9, vi. 6, Clement specially refers to Hermas, and expounds his words as having reference to the pious Gentiles who lived in the ages prior to Christ, as well as to the saints of the Old Testament. But the interpretation assigned by Clement does not cor- rectly express the meaning of the original writer. Clement maintains that the gospel was preached in the. Unseen- world to the Gentiles, at least to those who lived prior to the days of the Christian dispensation. And it must be carefully noted that even Clement speaks of the gospel as having been preached only to such of the Gentiles as had " lived in riuhteousness luG ExCfjdical Studies. according to the law and philosophy," who were " possessed of greater worth in righteousness," and " whose life had been pre-eminent," who were " con- fessedly of the number of the people of God Almighty," and who were " ready for conversion " {Strom, vi, 6). Not even such a bold thinker as (Jlement dreamed of the gospel being preached to all men, whether they had lived righteously or uu- I'ighteously on earth.^ Tlie Biblical passages cited by Clement in support of tliese views are, together with that quoted from Hernias, Isa. xlix. 8, 9; Job xxviii. 22; and 1 Pet. iii. The first passage has nothing whatever to say to the question. The second is strangely (pioted, possibly from memory, and does not agree witli any known text." He remarks as follows on ^ The words of Clement are : TovTiffTi rov; l* hxaioirutr rri xttra vificov xai xara (piXoffo^'iat (!>'.^iuKOTa,s, . . . iTi n toI; T/^ri/j-fitXtihiffi ^£T«v£K»!*«Taf, xa» £v aXXu TO-^Tiif tu^ui7im, 'i^o/j-oXoyov/jLHu; iv Ten Tou ^■ou i'vTa.; rsZ ^uvroxpaTcpo; x. r. X. , and again : Tou; e^ Ifvuv \iv t^j ^uivr,$ thioTnTa ipfa; fii^iuKOTO.;, it ko.) iv aon itu^ov avra; kol) iy (ppoupa I'raxiuffavTac Tr,s rev Kvpiau ^aur,; un rr.s auhvTixris, %1ri Kai t?is S/a ruy aT/nrroXcuf inpytvffr,;, ri rci^^e; iTiffvpccfyivai n Kai 'XtaTivca.i. 158 Uxer/etical Studies. It onglit to be carefully observed that, in settinj]; forth these views Clement teaches them as, in his opinion, fairly deducible from Scripture. They are propounded by him as personal deductions, resting partly on Scripture and partly on " Christian specula- tion." Clement of Alexandria, it is evident, knew nothing whatever of any " historical tradition " cur- leiit in the Church, and derived from sources out- side of Scripture, on the question of Christ's having preached in the disembodied state to " the spirits in prison." Had such a tradition then been current that Father would have appealed to it. Clement had in reality only the text of St. Peter, and no other authority, on which to base his theories on the sub- ject, whether true or false. It is admitted that there was a general belief in tlie ancient Church that Christ's death on Calvary liad a beneficial effect on the Old Testament believers. The existence of such a belief appears not only from the quotations already cited from the Shepherd of Hermas, but also in passages of other Cliristian writers prior to Clement of Alexandria. Tiiat belief, however, casts no real light on the l)assages in the First Epistle of Peter. Thus Justin Martyr {oh. 165), in his Dialogue iiyainst Tnjj^ho (cap. 72), among the passages which he incorrectly accuses the Jews of having fraudu- lently removed from the text of tlie Holy Scriptures, enumerates one, which he asserts originally formed part of the I>ook of Jeremiah, namely : " The Lord The Spirits in Prison. 159 God, the Holy One of Israel, remembered His dead who slept in the sepulchre, and descended to them to preach the glad tidings to them of salvation.^ The same apocryphal prophecy is twice referred to by Irenteus in his work Against Heresies (cir. 182-188). It is quoted by him in one place (lib. iii. 20. 4) as a proof that Christ was not a mere ]nan, and is there ascribed to Isaiah. But in another ])lacc (lib. iv. 22. 1) he quotes it as a prophecy of Jeremiah. In the latter chapter Irenreus maintains that Christ came to save all men '' who from the beginning, according to their capacity, in their generation have both feared and loved God, and practised justice and piety towards their neighbours, and earnestly desired to see Christ and to hear His voice." In another passage (lib. iv. 27. 2) Irena^us also refers to the descent of our Lord to the regions beneath the earth, and to His preaching there the remission of sins. But in that passage he only speaks of " the righteous men, the prophets, and the patriarchs " as those to whom Christ preached in Hades. Xor does the summary of faith of the Apostle Thaddteus go further, to which Eusebius refers in his Ecclesiastical History (Hist. Feci. i. 13), as found ^ 'Efivvf^n 05 Kvpiif i fii; uyioi lirpar,X ruv vtxpati aiirou, ichreiben des Apostels Paulus an die Hehruer (Leipzig, Fernau 1878), on Heb. i. 7, referring to the Midrash Ilabbali on Exod., remarks : " God performs His will through His angels, wlioiu He sometimes makes into winds and sometimes also into tire, as it is written, 'He makes His angels winds.' In these appearances of nature they embody themselves in order to perform the will of God. But that alone is tlieir calling, which when they have discharged, they return again to their nothingness. For only the fulfilment of this calling is their existence. When it ceases, the existence ceases also. . . . The angels, the Talmud teaches, are daily, when God pleases, created anew ; they have only existence so long as they serve, as they are busied with the fulfilment of their task. After their work is ended they fall back into their former nothingness. They are never again called into being." ^ It ought perhaps also to be noted that tlie spirit of Christ, con- sidered as part of His tripartite nature, was not itself " of man nor by mail."' The human ego, or [lersonal consciousness of man, has probably 171- Excg diced Studies. The disobedience of " the spirits in prison " consisted in their refusal to listen to the warning afforded to them, which warning was continued for the space of upwards of a hundred years. This was tlie instance of the long - suffering patience of Christ which the apostle desired to deeply impress on the attention of his readers. For if Christ as the Pre- incarnate Word endured " with much long-suffering " such " gainsaying of sinners against themselves " (or " against Himself "), His people ought not to wax weary or faint in their souls (Heb. x. 3), even though, like their Master, they should be called to stretch out their hands all the day long unto a disobedient and gainsaying people (Rom. x. 21). The passage, however, does not speak of the Spirit of Christ preaching through Noah, as Augustine and others after him imagined, although Noah is in another passage styled " a preacher of righteousness " (2 Pet. ii. 5). Nor are the words of the apostle explained by reference to Gen. vi. 3, as if an allusion was made in the text to the saying of Jehovah there recorded : " My spirit shall not strive with man for ever." For the term "spirit " in Genesis is not to be its centre in the soul, and Christ's incarnation probably consisted in the Pre-incarnatc Word taking to itself a human body and soul of the substance of the Virgin Mary, to which tlie {ire-existing imeuina, which had manifested itself to angels, was united. "\Ve do not, how- ever, desire to rest our interpretation of 1 Pet. iii. 19 on any un- certain basis of psychology. But see Delitzsch's Biblical Psychology, English translation, T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh 1867, and Heard's Tripartite Nature of Man: Spirit, Soul and Body, 5tli ed., T. & T. Clark, 1882. The Spirits in Prison. 175 identified with the " spirit of Christ " mentioned by S. Peter. Moreover, the apostle reckons Noah and his family among the persons to whom the preaching was made, for they were the " few " who believed the preaching of " Christ in the spirit," and were saved in the ark from perishing by the waters of the Deluge. S. Peter does not specify the manner in which the preaching of Christ in the spirit took place. In the Book of Judges mention is, perhaps, made of a discourse delivered by the Angel of Jehovah to a large number of Israelites assembled together. We refer to the preaching which took place at Bochim (Judg. ii. 1—5). If that be the correct interpreta- tion of that remarkable passage, it would be quite in accordance with analogy to conceive that some similar transaction took place in the days of Noah. The objection to such a view is, however, that no such preaching is recorded in the Book of Genesis, while the apostle refers to an event well known to his hearers. But the Book of Genesis states that God spake to Noah. And since whenever a detailed account of God speaking with man is recorded in Genesis, it is generally stated that the Most High appeared in angelic or human form, it is in accordance with analogy to suppose that the Angol of Jehovah appeared to Noah, and gave him directions concerning the building of the ark. The building of the ark, commanded by the Divine voice, may well be regarded us a continuation of the Divine preaching. By tliat 17G Excrjetical Studies. ark "regeneration" was preached to the world.^ It spoke of judgment and of mercy, though few accepted the salvation offered thereby. The threatened judg- ment was long deferred, and hence ungodly sinners went on in transgression until tlie day of wrath overtook them unawares. S. Peter speaks in another passage of the " spirit of Christ," which worked in and through the prophets of bygone days (1 Pet. i. 11). This is in full accordance with the saying of Amos : " Surely tlie Lord Jehovah will do nothing, but He revealeth His secret unto His servants the prophets " (Amos iii. 7). A similar statement occurs in the commencement of the New Testament book of wrath and judgment, " the Eevelatiou of Jesus Christ," which was cfiven to show " the things which must shortly come to pass," and was " signified by His angel unto His servant John " (Rev. i, 1). The gospel of warning and mercy preached by the Pre-incarnate Word to " the spirits in prison," was not less His even if it were made known to them prior to their punishment by the prophets of that era, whether Enoch, Noah, or others whose names are unrecorded. The expression " went " {iropevOel^), used of motion from one place to another, presents no difficulty in the way of our interpretation. The employment of 1 "Noah being found faithful l>y his ministry, preached {-raXty- y.v'.fflxv xofffiM ixvpuliv) regeneration to the worUl." — Clem. Koman. 1 Epist. 9. Again in Clem. Rom. i. 8, "Noah preached repentance (ixr.pv^iv /uiTKvoicty), and those wlio listened to him were saved." The Spirits in Prison. 177 the same word and form in ver. 22, in the phrase " having gone into heaven " (iropevdeU et? ovpavov) — though the identity of the expression cannot with- out harshness be retained in English/ shows that the apostle mentally contrasts the two events, the going " up " into heaven, and the going " down " to earth. For the descent referred to signifies neces- sarily no more than that mentioned in Gen. xi. 5, 7, where Jehovah is represented as " going down " to confound the builders of the tower of Babylon. The expression " went " would be employed with equal propriety, whether used of Christ's going down from heaven in order to preach to the antediluvians on earth, or of Christ going down after death to the place of departed spirits. The meaning of the term "prison" has been already discussed (see p. 166 ft'.). But the question is, what idea is conveyed by the phrase " the spirits in prison " ? Does it signify " the spirits ivho are, in prison," i.e. who in consequence of their sin were " cast into prison," and therefore were regarded by the apostle as still there ? The preaching in that case must necessarily be thought of as having taken place previous to their imprisonment. Or does the phrase signify " the spirits who were in prison," the apostle leaving his readers mentally to draw the inference, that possibly all, or at least considerable numbers of the transgressors, were by means of the preaching of 1 The literal translation would be : " in which, also, having gone to the spirits in prison, lie preached." M 178 Exegetical Studies. the gospel ^ released out of their prison ? But even if " the spirits in prison " be understood to signify " the spirits who ivere in prison," the release of these spirits out of prison is by no means distinctly stated. The awful character of the transgressions com- mitted prior to the Flood, and the universality of the apostasy which then took place, is spoken of in the strongest manner in the Book of Genesis. The story is several times referred to in the New Testament,^ and the deliverance of Noah and his family is generally referred to along with the punishment of the ungodly. The outlines of the entire narrative are distinctly set forth in the context of the passage in S. Peter (ver. 20). But, if the apostle was speaking of Christ's preaching in the Under-world, it is remark- able that he should say nothing definite about the outcome of that preaching, especially as he refers to " the spirits " of those who perished in the Flood as " in prison." It will scarcely be maintained that the long-continued impenitence and hardness of heart 1 The word x,n(vai>ui in the New Testament generally conveys the idea of the preaching of good tidings. It signifies, as von Zezschwitz notes, properly the preaching of the kingdom of God, and hence is used, as in the case of the preaching of our Lord and of John the Baptist, of a preaching in which warnings of judgment and otTers of grace were commingled. It is never, however, used of a simple announcement of wrath, though used, on the other hand, to denote a j)reaching in which mercy only was the theme. See Petri ApostoH dii Christi ad inferos descensu senlentia ex loco iiobilissimo 1 Ep. iii. 19 eruta exacta ad Epuitohe argumentum. Scripsit C. A. G. von Zezschwitz. Lipsiae : Doerffling et Francke, 1857. 2 As in Matt. ixiv. 37-39 ; Luke xvii. 26, 27 ; Heb. xi. 7 ; 2 Pet. ii. 5, iii. 6 ; Jude 13-15, and in the passage before us. The S;pirits in Prison. 179 of those spirits on earth peculiarly fitted them for the reception of the gospel preached to them " in prison," and consequently that it was unnecessary for the apostle to do more than mention the fact. There may be, and no doubt are, good reasons why men are kept by God in ignorance with regard to the secrets of the Unseen-world. But we can conceive no reason why so much should be said about the marvellous results of converting grace achieved by the descent of the Spirit on the day of Pente- cost, while such a stupendous fact as the conversion of the whole antediluvian world, by the preaching of Christ in the intermediate state, should be left to be deduced by a mere chance inference from the apostle's words. It is strange, indeed, that the apostle should refer to Christ's preaching in the Under-world as a point with which presumably his readers were acquainted, while no allusion is made to the subject by any other writer of the New Testament. The interpretation of the passage first given by the speculative Clement of Alexandria, and now affirmed to be the most simple and natural sense, is, however, in reality beset with difficulties on every side. It is no small difficulty to read of Christ's pro- claiming the gospel to the deep-dyed transgressors who perished in the Deluge. Their former obstinate rejection of the Divine revelation can, as Prof. Schweizer observes, surely not have been the reason 180 Eocegetical Studies. why the gospel should have been specially preached to them. No mention is made of an offer of salvation having been similarly made to others. Were the antediluvians the only " spirits in prison " in the Unseen-world ? Are we to believe that there are " many prisons " in the Under- world correspond- ing to the " many mansions " in the Father's house ? The assertion that the preaching of Christ to the antediluvians is only mentioned " as a sample of a like precious work on others," is the last resort of an exegesis driven to despair. Not a tittle of evidence can be adduced to justify such an assertion. But assertions of such a kind are often made with the greater boldness, the smaller the basis really is on which to construct an argument. Tlie persons to whom Christ preached are de- scribed as " the spirits in prison which aforetime were disobedient." If the clause "the spirits in prison " be regarded as the principal, and that which in the Eevised Version is the relative clause be the subordinate, the phrase may be interpreted to mean : " The prisoners who were in prison who aforetime had been disobedient in the days of Noah." ^ In that case the reference of the passage 1 To?; £v (puXctx.^ •rviif/t.a.fftv . . . a,'!rii(r,(Tn.civ. The article T)>~; in such a case would have been naturally expected before the particijilc. In that case the disobedience in former days would be contrasted with an implied submission in later time. The second dative (the jiarticiple) must then be regarded as the less important part of the clause, serving more exactly to define those signified by " the spirits in prison " in the preceding part. The Spirits in Prison. 181 must be to the descent of Christ into Hades. The second clause may, however, with equal propriety be regarded as expressing the principal idea present to the apostle's mind. In that case the clause ought to be rendered, " Christ went and preached to the spirits in prison, disobedient aforetime, when the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah." ^ The idea conveyed is then : " Christ went and preached to the spirits now in prison on account of their disobedience aforetime in the days of Xoah.' • The aorist participle {a-rui^irar',) simply indicates that the dis- obedience contemplated by the apostle was exhibited in past time. It does not convey the idea that those who were then disobedient had ceased to be disobedient. There is no reference to the condition of the individuals at the time at which the apostle wrote. Had he meant to refer to them as then actually disobedient, he would liave used the present participle {u^yruSovat) instead of the aorist. But he passes no judgment whatever on their actual con- dition, unless it be contained in the expression " the spirits in prison" {to7s iv ifvXaxn ^viuuecri). It is, however, to their past disobedience rather than their present condition that the apostle mainly directs attention. In order to avoid the introduction of an interpretation into the translation of the words of the apostle, the whole should be rendered "the spirits in prison" (or "the im- prisoned spirits "), " disobedient aforetime, when the long-suiTering of (iod waited," etc. Even the introduction in the Revised Version of the relative "which" into the clause, and the breaking up of the participle into two words, "were disobedient," impart a particular turn in English to the passage which is not necessitated by the Greek. If it should be argued that the same remark would apply to rendering the participle by an adjective, we reply, that the objec- tion does not hold good, because the adjective "disobedient" in connection with the adverb ' ' aforetime " must refer to an event long past, which is the true grammatical force of the aorist parti- ciple. The ambiguity lies simply in the phrase "the spirits in prison," and the sense of that expression is to be determined from the context and that only. The participle which follows does not ilFord any help to tlie understanding of that clause. 182 Exegetical Studies. So far from being a " superficial " interpretation, this is in reality the true explanation of the pas- sage. It brings the M^hole into close connection with the immediate context. It justifies the use of the connective particle "also" (/cat) in the 19th verse, which unquestionably suggests that the illus- tration thereby joined to the preceding is akin to what had been already mentioned. The passage thus understood contains several dis- tinct statements. In the first the apostle affirms that the spirits of whom he speaks were " in prison." Secondly, he states that their imprisonment was caused by their former obstinate disobedience. He next mentions the lon^-sufferinrj of God, which it was his main object to illustrate by the reference to the history of the antediluvian world. The dis- obedience of the " spirits in prison " took place in former days ; " aforetime " (ttotc), " when {ore) the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah." The apostle speaks of those transgressors as " kept under punishment unto the day of judgment " (2 Pet. ii. 9),^ i.e. as "spirits in prison." But he does not enter into any details as to what tliat punishment consisted in. He hurries onward to speak of their disobedience during life, and to compare the deliverance oifered to believers in Christ by true ' It is well to note the important variation in translation in tlie Revised Version, as quoted above, from that of the Authorized Version, which renders that passage, "to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to he punished." We cannot here discuss the correct- ness of the alteration. The Spirits in Prison. 18P> entrance by baptism into " the ark of Christ's Church," with the salvation which had been once offered in the ark of Noah to the antediluvian world. Christ, as the Pre-incarnate Logos, was the cause of the latter deliverance, and hence the refer- ence by the apostle to the mercy and long-suffering of the Son of God in former days was no real digression from his argument ; while the allusion to the fate of " the spirits in prison " was a wholesome warning to those to whom the Epistle was addressed, lest they should " fall after the same example of disobedience" (Heb. iv. 11). At the close of our argument it is necessary also to notice the passage in iv. 1—6. For as mention is there made of the gospel having been preached to the dead, it is of importance to consider that state- ment in the context in which it is contained. The whole paragraph runs thus : — " Forasmuch then as Christ suffered in the flesh, arm ye yourselves also with the same mind ; for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin ; that ye no longer should live the rest of your time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God. For the time past may suffice to have wrought the desire of the Gentiles, and to have walked in lasciviousness, lusts, wine-bibbings, revellings, carous- ings, and abominable idolatries : wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them into the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you : who shall give account to Him that is ready to judge the quick and 184 Excgetiml Studies. the dead. For unto this end was the gospel preached even to the dead, that they might be judged accord- ing to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit." To enter, indeed, fully into the exegesis of the remarkable passage in ver. 6, would necessitate a lengthened discussion. Its explanation depends, as will be presently seen, materially upon the interpreta- tion assigned to 1 Pet. iii. 19. The very forms of expression made use of by the apostle clearly show that reference is made to what had been previously stated, and prove that there is a distinct comparison between the subjects treated of in chap. iii. and those brought under notice in chap. iv. The preaching of the gospel referred to in the latter passage was (as appears from the tense used in the original) a transaction conceived as having already happened in past time.^ The gospel was, at some time prior to the date at which S. Peter wrote, preached to the individuals described as " dead," in order that they might be judged according to men in the flesh (crap/ct), but might live according to God in the spirit {irvevfiart). Whether the gospel, however, was preached to those persons in life or after death, is the question now to be investigated. Several points are distinctly noticed in this remarkable verse. ^ The Greek of the whole passage is important to be before the eye of the reader : tU toZto yap ko.) vtKpoTs tvt>yytXiff(r,, Vva xfifuat /^h xara uvfifUTou; ffapxi, l^uiri Vi Kara Qiiv miii/jntTi, The Spirits in Prison. 185 1. The preaching of the gospel, as far as there alhided to, was an act performed at some past time. The words of the apostle are too precise to admit of their being regarded as referring to an habitual act. They, therefore, do not convey the meaning put upon them by some, that the gospel is, as a matter of ordinary occurrence, preached even to the dead. For although the persons preached to are not specially particularized in the verse, it is to a preaching which took place in past time that the apostle speaks. 2. The " gospel," in the New Testament sense of that term (as Huther has well observed), could not have been preached until after the work of redemp- tion was complete, and consequently not until after Christ had died, or had risen from the dead. The apostolic statement cannot, therefore, mean (as Schweizer seems to maintain) that the gospel, loosely explained as the manifestation of divine mercy, has been at all times preached in some form or other to men in this world ; and that this has been effected by the operation of " Christ in the spirit," or of the Logos, in the ages prior to the incarnation of the Son of Man. Such a theory, whether true or false, is not contained in the words before us. Schweizer con- siders the argument of the apostle to be: the dead may well without injustice be judged by Christ, for all men have in this life opportunities for manifesting their disposition towards the Son of Man (com p. Matt. XXV. 40, 45) ; and He is not only the 1 8 G Exegetical Studies. judge, but the law whereby men shall finally be judged.^ 3. The whole drift of the apostle's exhortation (see p. 187), and the language of this verse, make it abundantly clear that a comparison is drawn in the passage between that which had happened to certain followers of Christ, and that which had befallen their Divine Master. He was put to death in the flesh (aapKc), but was quickened in the spirit {irvevfiart). His followers were judged according to men in the llesh (aapKi), they lived according to God in the spirit (TTvev/iiaTL). The comparison (as Schweizer has justly remarked) would lose much of its force, if the preaching, spoken of as preceding the judgment mentioned in the text, had not taken place while the persons referred to were still "in the flesh," or in the very same state or con- dition in which Christ was "found" (Philii. 8) when He was " put to death," even to " the death of the cross." 4. The objects for which the gospel had been specially preached to the followers of Christ contem- plated by the apostle, were (a) that they might be judged according to men in the flesh ; (h) that they might live according to God in the spirit." ' The gospel is sometimes spoken of as if it had been preached even in apostolic days to every individual. Thus, St. Paul iu Col. i. 23 speaks of the gospel as " preached in all creation under heaven " [tou luayyiXiau, ToZ xripu^SiyTo; i* •rd.ffY) xr'irii Tn Lto tov olfitvov), comp. Mark xvi. 15. Such language is, however, the language of faith, which looks on that as already accomplished which is actually in course of being accomplished. - Huther (in Meyer's Commentar, in loco) observes that according to the gvammatical construction, xpi^un and Z'^n arc co-ordinated The Spirits in Prison. 187 The gospel was preached to these early believers with the design on the part of God that they should be witnesses even unto death, and should glorify Him by their death. The idea which underlies the apostolic statement is akin to that expressed by our Lord (Matt, xxiii. 34) : " Therefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes, some of them shall ye kill and crucify ; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city." The gospel was preached to the believers in question that they might be " partakers of Christ's sufferings" (1 Pet. iv. 13). Tor it was " no strange thing " that had happened unto them (1 Pet. iv. 12) when they were called to " drink of the cup " that Christ drank of, and were " baptized witli the baptism " that He was baptized with (Mark X. 38, 39). " He that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin," or " sins," that is, has finally broken off with sin ; sin has no longer any power over him (ver. 2). The followers of sin hated the followers of together, and are both equally dependent on "va, ; but, according to the sense, "vx refers only to the %^iri, and the first clause is to be regarded as a parenthesis. The latter supposition is not necessary. The strict grammatical construction is always to be followed when it affords a good sense. Huther calls attention to the use of the aorist »pi6afft, as showing that the judgment referred to is one which had already taken place, and, therefore, ought not to be identified with the judgment of the last day. If xft^uvi be regarded as really dependent, even in sense, on "va, the judgment referred to must needs be a judgment which took place after tlie gospel had been actually preached to the persons concerned. But as this is the very point Huther will not admit, he consequently maintains tha according to the sense the 'iva, can only refer to the Z,uffi. But see above. 188 Hxcgetical Studies. Christ, and spoke evil of them ; they reproaclied them, persecuted them, and said all manner of evil against them falsely for Christ's sake (Matt. v. 12). For they thought it strange that Christ's people would not run with them into the same excess of riot (ver. 4). Consequently Christ's followers were con- demned by the judgment of men, though acquitted and rewarded by the judgment of God. 5. The contrast between the ways of God and the ways of men in the passage has not been generally noticed with sufficient accuracy. The judgment referred to in ver. 6 is the same as that spoken of in the end of the chapter (vers. 17, 18), where the apostle says, " The time is come for judgment to begin at the house of God ; and if it first begin at us, what shall be the end of them that obey not the gospel of God ? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear ? " The judgment meant was the fiery trial, which, owing to the hostility of men, had already begun to try the reality of the faith of the followers of Christ, The judg- ment, therefore, was inflicted by the hands of men according to their malicious desires, although at the same time in accordance with the " determined counsel and foreknowledge of God " (Acts ii. 23). The servants of Christ were only treated like their Master. If Christ was put to death " in the flesh," Christians experienced similar ill - treatment. But " he that endured to the end was saved " (Matt, xxiv. 13). The Spirits in Prison. 189 When Christ on the way to the cross beheld with the eye of a prophet the approaching judgment on Jerusalem and her people, He drew attention to the contrast between the judgment inflicted on Himself " according to men," and the awful judgment to be inflicted on the guilty nation " according to God." " If they do these things in the green tree, what shall be done in the dry?" (Luke xxiii. 31). With a similar prophetic instinct the apostle exclaims : " If the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear ? " For S. Peter considered " the end of all things " to be " at hand " (chap. iv. 7). Christ having been raised from the dead and at the right hand of God was, said he, ready (comp. Acts xxi. 13 ; 2 Cor. xii, 14) to judge the quick and the dead. The adversaries of Christ's people would, therefore, have to give account unto Him (ver. 5) for the manner in which they persecuted His chosen ones; for he that toucheth them toucheth the apple of Jehovah's eye (Zech. ii. 8). There is no difficulty whatever in understanding the expression " according to men " ^ to mean in the • Compare the meaning of xara a.i6fu'rov in 1 Cor. iii. 3 and Gal. i. 11. The plural kclto. onSpuxou;, found in the passage in 1 Peter, is used possibly to denote more distinctly the plurality of the adver- saries. We subjoin here the interpretation of the passage given by Dean Alford in his Greek Testament as that generally held by the commentators who oppose our view, in order that the reader may compare it with the interpretation given above. The parentheses in tlie following note arc Dean Alford's own : — "Our Lord is ready to judge the dead : and with reason : for even they have not been without opportunity of receiving His gospel : as the example adduced in iii. 19 shows. For this end the gospel was preached even to the dead, that 190 Excg diced Studies. manner peculiar to men, who are wont to judge according to the appearance, and who do not judge righteous judgment (John vii. 24). Nor is there any difficulty in understanding " according to God " to signify, according to the peculiar manner in which God judges. For, as St. Paul says, " it is a righteous thing that God should recompense affliction to them that afflict you, and to you that are afflicted rest with us at the revelation of the Lord Jesus " (2 Thess. i. 6-9). God bestows life on His people, and grants them even in the intermediate state " rest yet for a little time, until their fellow-servants also and their bretliren, which should be killed even as they were, should be fulfilled " (Rev. vi. 11). It would be introducing a new idea into the passage to explain the expression " live according to God " as signifiying eternal life, in opposition to the condem- nation mentioned in the text. The " livins: in the spirit " is better explained as equivalent to the " quickening in the spirit " (iii. 18). The idea, there- fore, is identical with that found in Rev. xx. 4, in they might — not indeed escape the universal judgment on human sin, which is physical death — but that they might be judged [aor. ; be in the state of the completed sentence on sin, which is death after the ilesh] according to [as] man as regards the flesh [this iirst clause following 'Iva being the subordinate one, of the state which the tliiiyytXi(r(ri left remaining], hut [notwithstanding] might live [pres. ; of a state to continue] according to God [a life with God and divine] as regards the spirit : so that the relation of these two clauses with ^b and St is precisely as in Rom. viii. 10, where the former clause in the apodosis is not the consequence of the protasis, but an abiding fact, seeming to militate against, but not really liiudering that consequence." The Spirits in Prison. 191 M'hicli passage " the souls of them who had been "beheaded for the testimony of Jesus, and for the word of God," are represented after their suffer- ings as living and reigning with Christ during the " thousand years." The only difficulty with which the above ex- position has really to contend is the use of the expression " was preached to the dead." The article is not found in the Greek, but is required by the English idiom. It is omitted also in the Greek, in the expression " ready to judge the quick and the dead," immediately preceding, and in the similar expression in Eom. xiv. 9 ; 2 Tim. iv. 1, etc. It cannot be denied that " the dead," without the article, is sometimes used to indicate the dead in general, as in Luke xvi, 30 ; Acts x. 42, etc. The difficulty, however, is not by any means in- superable. For the expression " the dead " may also be used in a more restricted sense, as referring to the persons of whom special mention had been made in the context, and to them only. The fact that " the dead " are spoken of immediately after in the phrase " the quick and the dead," is not sufficient to prove that the word must be understood in the wider sense of the dead in general. For the phrase " judge of quick and dead " is a common expression, used in reference to those who shall be alive or dead at the time of the Second Advent. But inasmuch as in this passage of S. Peter reference is made to a past transaction, and not to the time of the future 192 Exegetical Studies. Advent, the expression " the dead " in ver. 6 is not to be regarded as identical in meaning with the same expression found in a different collocation in the previous verse. Huther has virtually conceded what is here contended for when he remarks : " Had Peter meant the veKpoi:V7 Exegetical Studies. stantially the same view. He explains the 1200 days to be tlie period of the great Jewish war from about A.D. G7 to A.D. 70, when the temple perished amid blood and flame. But Dr. Farrar afterwards explains the forty-two months of Eev. xiii. 5 (which surely must be identified with the 1260 days of Rev. xii. 6, and the " time and times and a half a time " of Eev. xii. 14) as the three years and a half which intervened between the beginning of the aSTeronic persecution in Nov. a.d. 64 and the death of Nero himself in June 68. In reply to these interpretations, it must be noted that the object aimed at by the war of the Eomans with the Jews was not the extinction of the Christian Church — that terrible war was not a war of religion, certainly not a war against Christianity. The destruction of Jerusalem and its temple was an advantage rather than a disadvantage to the cause of Christianity. That event could not with any pro- priety be described in a Christian allegory under the symbol of the Dragon seeking to devour the child of the woman, or the Church. Moreover, an expositor ought definitely to make his choice between the two conflicting interpretations of the " man child " in the vision. That symbol must be explained to mean either Christ Himself or Christ's people. An inter- preter is not at liberty to explain it at one time to denote the former, anil at another time to signify the latter. If the symbol be interpreted to mean the Christian Church, or any company of believers in The Key to the AiiocahjiJsc. 233 Clirist, it is incongruous to explain the being caught up to God and His throne to mean the ascent to lieaven in the fires of martyrdom. But if, as already shown, Christ Himself be the "man child," the 1260 days, 42 months, or three times and a half, must be supposed to commence shortly after His ascension into heaven. The destruction of Jerusalem, as the author of The Farousia has pointed out, was a judicial punish- ment, and being such we maintain it cannot be viewed as the central point of the vision of the Apocalypse. There is no doubt but that the discovery in modern times, that the name of Nero may be so written in Hebrew as to make the numerical value of the letters reach the fatal number 666, combined with the fact that a very general belief prevailed in early days that Nero was still alive, or would return to life, — a belief which many suppose referred to in Eev. xiii. 3 and xvii. 11, — have induced many able expositors (Ewald among the number) to consider Nero and his bloody persecutions as the special theme of the Eevelation. But it ought to be observed that the correctness of the mode of writing " Nero Emperor " in Hebrew (")Dp P"i3) so as to bring out tlie desired result is a matter of grave doubt. For CiBsar or Kataap ought to be written in Hebrew fully with four letters ("iD^p), and not defectively with three. The former method of writing, which is more correct, is destructive of one of the chief supports of the hypothesis.^ Nor can we ' See the important article on the number of tlie beast in Zahn's "Apokalyptischc Studien " in Luthardt's Zt'Uschri/l for 1885, pp. 561- 2 -'14 Exegdical Studies. admit the second assumption on which the theory rests. Consequently although Archdeacon Farrar has put the exposition in the most favourable light before English readers, a close examination of it reveals difficulties which cannot, we maintain, be overcome. We have no space here in which to give a sketch of other explanations, such as those propounded by Kliefoth and others, by whom the entire vision is relegated to the future. Kliefoth, it may be noticed, interprets even the birth of the " man child " as a prophecy of Christ's Second Advent. Symbols interpreted in that manner might be explained with equal propriety of almost any event in history. The power of evil in opposition to the woman, is represented in the vision by a " great red dragon." This representation of Satanic power is founded upon Gen. iii., which passage seems also to be referred to in the symbol of the son of the woman. The Dragon is called the old serpent in ver. 9 (comp. also vers. 13—15). His great size symbolizes the great- ness of his power, and the colour assigned to him denotes his murderous designs (John viii. 44).^ Tlie Dragon, however, does not represent the great Adversary himself, but Satan as directing the power of r<76. Dr. Salmon (Regius Professor of Divinity in the University of Dublin) has some interesting remarks on the whole subject in his Iliatorical Introduction to the Study of the New Testament, p. 300, Lonilon, 1885. ^ Dilsterdieck has satisfactorily replied to the objection made by Ebrard to this latter explanation. The Key to the Apocalypse. 235 the Eoman empire in his capacity of " the Prince of the world" (John xiv. 30). His seven heads have, therefore, a reference to " the seven mountains " on which Eome was sitting in the days of the Apostle, in the plenitude of her power (Rev. xvii. 9). The number " ten " in the horns has, of course, a reference to the ten kingdoms into which the fourth world-empire, that of Eome, was to be divided in its second and weaker phase (see Dan. vii. 24 as explained by Dan. ii. 41, 42). For the explanation given in Dan. ii. 41, 42, of the second phase of the fourth monarchy distinctly shows that second period to be far inferior in power and strength to the Ibrmer. " It has been too often assumed that the kingdom of Antichrist, supposed to be predicted by Daniel, is described by that prophet as stronger and mightier than all the kingdoms which preceded it. Whatever its strength may have been represented to be, con- sidered in relation to the Church of God, the second stage of the fourth kingdom in the vision of the metallic image is described as the very weakest stage of the last world-monarchy. Nor does the vision of Dan. vii. set forth any other view; for the description of the fourth beast (in verses 7 and 19) as "dreadful and exceeding strong " is the description of the last monarchy in its earlier stage, and is not a picture of that monarchy in its latter phase. On the contrar}-, even in that chapter (ver. 24), the latter times of that power are represented as weak, so far as material 2oG Exegctical Studies. strength is concerned, however violent its rage against tlie saints of the Most High." ^ The number " ten " in the horns of tlie dragon is nsed as a round number to denote division and plurahty. It does not, as commentators have too uften explained it, necessarily refer to that precise number of " kings " or " kingdoms," The sole reason wliy the number ten was employed was that such was necessarily the number of the toes of the great image seen by Nebuchadnezzar in his dream. For in the vision of Nebuchadnezzar, as explained by Daniel (chap, ii.), in which the number ten first occurs, the number is not expounded as significant except so far as indicating that the fourth monarchy in its later phase was to be broken up into a considerable number of kingdoms, which, tliough possessing a certain unity, should not cohere or cleave together, notwithstanding all efforts to bring about union by tlie device of matrimonial alliances. Many prominent features in the great colossus are passed over in Daniel's interpretation as possessing no significance whatever. Nothing is said of the symbolical meaning of the eyes and ears of the image ; the number tivo belonging to the arms, thighs, and legs is not regarded as significant. Nor is the number ten found in connection with the fingers and toes explained by Daniel as symbolical. The jpluralitij of the toes, indeed, is of significance, for it is alluded to in Daniel's explanation (though no ' Hampton Lectures on Zechariah, p. 132. Tlic Key to the Apocalypse. 237 stress is laid upon the number), and that feature reappears in the symbols made use of in other pro- phecies. The number ten was specially selected, because it was that necessarily presented to the eye in the representation of the four empires as a metallic colossus. But inasmuch as no importance was there assigned to the special number, the number chosen is most simply explained to indicate a divided unity, or a plurality of kingdoms, which though severally independent were parts of one great whole. Hence it is a mistake to look for ten kings or kingdoms in the fourth world-monarchy, while there is even less warrant in Scripture for any interpreta- tion of the number " two " in the two legs of the great image as being in any way symbolical. For if an image of a man had to be divided into four portions, no better division could be made than that given in Dan. ii. It is a sound principle in tlie explanation of parables and symbols, to refuse to regard any feature as necessarily symbolical which is not dis- tinctly pointed out as having such a meaning. The seven - headed, ten - horned dragon represents the world-power, symbolized by the Eoman empire, and ruled over by Satan, who claims and exercises authority over the kingdoms of the world (Luke iv. 5, G). The world-power is represented in the vision as hostile to the Church of God in its pure state, even down to the close of the mystical period of the tliree times and a half The description of the dragon casting down a 238 Excgetical Studies. tliird part of the stars of heaven (Rev. xii. 4) appears to have no special meaning, but to be a poetical detail, intended to depict his magnitude and fury. The strength of dragons or serpents was supposed to lie in great measure in their tails. The description is partly framed on that in Dan. viii. 10, where "the little horn " is spoken of as casting down some of the stars to the ground. In the latter passage the stars of heaven represent the people of Israel, against whom Antiochus Epiphanes acted with violence and cruelty (see Keil and Kranichfeld on that pas- sage). There is no allusion whatever to the fall of angels, as Arethas and other early Christian writers imagined, although that opinion has been in modern days regarded with favour by Alford and others. The description of the " war in heaven " in vers. 7 to 9 seems to be an explanation of the truth set forth under different symbols in the opening of the chapter. The passage, indeed, has been often popu- larly regarded (as by Milton) to be a description of the original fall of angels. But the contest described in the Apocalypse is distinctly connected (vers. 10, 11, 12, 13) with the endeavour on the part of the dragon to destroy the child of the woman. Some com- mentators (such as von Hofmann, Ebrard, and Auber- len) have argued that the expression " neither was their place found any more (eVt) in heaven " (ver. 8), tends to show that Satan and his angels maintained their place in heaven until the ascension of our Lord. Job i., ii., 1 Kings xxii., and Zech. iii, are referred The Key to the Apocalypse. 239 to in proof of this theory.^ But those passages must not be interpreted as stating historical facts. As illustrative of spiritual realities,. they cast light upon the vision of the Eevelation. When the seventy disciples returned to Christ with joy and announced tlie success of the mission on which He had sent them forth, our Lord expressed His assurance of final victory in the remarkable saying : " I beheld Satan fallen as lightning from heaven" (Luke x. 18). That exclamation was probably a reminiscence of Isaiah's song of triumph over the anticipated downfall of the King of Babylon : " How art thou fallen from heaven, day star, son of the morning ■ " (Isa. xiv. 12).2 For Isaiah does not there refer to the fall of Satan (as the Fathers and even some moderns have expressed it), and still less to the fall of Antichrist, to which some commentators are too fond of discovering allusions in parts of the sacred writings, often where the idea could never have entered into the mind of the original author. A more suitable parallel may be found in Isa. xxiv. 21, 22, a passage already discussed on pp. 167-169. The prophet there also predicts the downfall of Babylon, and speaks of the overthrow on earth of that mighty monarch and his vassal kings, 1 See remarks on those passages in our study on Job, pp. 6-13. ^ For the words Ihuinivv to* iaravav u; urrpaTriv Ik tou oupavtZ vktcvto, are closely akin to the LXX. rendering of the passage in Isaiah, vu; ufiimriv IK Tov ct/pecvou o tairip'opos o ^pu) avxrixXtov ; compare with the latter the words of Christ in Kev. xxii. 16, iyii tlfn ...» uTThp i XafiTp',;, irpuiyes. 240 Exegetical Studies. and at the same time of the overthrow of the wicked angels who assisted them in fighting against God. The rebels both of earth and heaven, after their defeat on the field of battle, are represented as shut up in prison by Jehovah the King of Israel (Isa. xliv. 6), and reserved by Him for future judgment. When nations that oppose God's truth are overthrown, their spiritual leaders are likewise cast down (Rev. xii. 0, 13,). In his commentary on Isaiah, Delitzsch has aptly cited the Eabbinic saying : " God over- throws no people until He has first overthrown their prince," namely, the angel who has exercised an ungodly influence over particular nations. But the real passage upon which the description of Rev. xii. 7-9 is founded is that in Dan. xii. Michael is represented by Daniel as standing up for the cause of Israel, " the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people." A day of battle is depicted, like that of Zech. xiv. 3, 4, which, thougli a day of trouble and darkness, is also a day of deliver- ance, as pointed out by both of the Old Testament prophets, and also by the New Testament seer (vers. 12, 13, 14 ff.). Michael is, as Hengstenberg and others maintain, a personification of Christ, That view has been strongly opposed by von Hofmann, who, in his Schrifthetvcis, considers that such an interpreta- tion would render it impossible to explain the vision of Rev. xii. Michael, according to the latter theo- logian, is the angel-prince of the people of Israel, the guardian-angel of the nation. The interpretation is The Key to the A'pocalypsc. 241 not in itself opposed to Old Testament ideas. But the New Testament casts a new light upon dark passages of the Old. And, while it was quite natural for "the great prince of Israel" (Dan. x. 21, xii. 1), the Angel that redeemed Jacob from all evil (Gen. xlvii. 16), who guided Israel through the wilderness to Canaan, to be described in Daniel as only " one of tlie chief princes " (Dan. x. 13), — a comparison of the pro- phecies, even of the Old Testament passages with one another, show the identity of " Michael your prince " with Messiah the leader of Israel. In Daniel Messiah and Michael are never mentioned together. The vision of Dan. vii, speaks of the Son of Man, the Messiah, appearing in the time of the end for the deliverance of His people. The vision of Dan. viii. pourtrays the Messiah as "the Prince of princes," His adversary having been " broken without hand," assailed (to use the language of Dan. ii. 45) by the " stone cut out of the mountain witliout hands." In the last prophecy of Daniel, " that which is inscribed )n the writing of truth" (Dan. x, 21), Michael assumes the place and discharges the work of Messiah. He is, therefore, to be regarded as an angelic personification of the Messiah. His people are Messiah's people ; and Israel, even in the New Testament, remains still the people of Christ, — " His own " people, although as a nation Israel has not yet received Him (John i. 11). The Angel that stood up for Israel, against Satan, when in the days of the Eestoration as in the Q 242 Excgdicul Studies. days of David, that Adversary " stood up against Israel" (1 Cliron. xxi. 1), is identified by Zechariah (iii. 2) with Jehovah Himself. This is the interced- ing Angel seen in Zecliariah's first vision (i. 12), this the Captain of the army of Israel who, in days of peril, manifested Himself to Joshua, and having been worshipped and acknowledged by Joshua as his superior (Josh. v. 13-15), gave the directions for the siege of Jericho in the capacity of Jehovah (Josh. vi. 2 ff.). ^ There is, therefore, nothing against the analogy of Scripture in the identification of Michael and Christ. The very name of Michael ( Who is like God ?) gives utterance to the glorious challenge of St. Paul in Horn, viii, 33 : " Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect ? " For the apostle adds : "God is He that justifieth, who is he that shall condemn ? " which words are a paraphrase of the Old Testament passage in Isa. 1. 8, 9. The language of Isaiah throws again fresh light on the scene described in Zechariah's vision (chap, iii.), in which the Angel of Jehovah, who is also called Jehovah, pronounced judgment in favour of Israel in opposition to the demands of the Adversary, and " justified " Joshua, tlie high priest (Israel's representative), by removing his filthy garments from him, while with his solemn " Jehovah rebuke thee" he put to flight the Adversary of Israel. Tlie name of Michael, as Hengstenberg remarks in his Christology, is a connecting link between the Old Tlie Key to the Apocalypse. 243 Testament and the New. We do not, however, think with Hengstenberg, that the reason why the name Michael is made use of in Eev. xii. is that the victory described in the vision belongs not to Christ in His human, but in His Divine character. For it is essential to the very nature of an allegory that the characters therein described should not be directly named, but should be pointed out under significant appellations. There is a special reason in Eev. xii. 7 ff. for a change in the personification employed. For Christ appears in the former part of the vision as the Cliild of the woman rescued from the great enemy (Ps. xxii. 19-21), and exalted to God's throne. As the child is described as only just born, such an infant could not be fitly repre- sented as the Conqueror of the Dragon. Hence if Christ had to be depicted in the allegory as a victor, it was necessary to represent Him in that capacity by a new personification ; and the Divine character of the person represented as Michael is so clear as to make the episode of verses 7-12 introduced into the vision an explanation of the vision itself. The prophecy of Dan. xi. is an introduction to that of Dan. xii., which forms its concluding portion. When carefully examined, that prophecy appears not to extend beyond the time of Antiochus Epiphanes. Many portions, indeed, of the earlier part of that apparently literal prophecy do not, as Kranichfeld has shown, refer to actual historical events. The destrr.ction of Antiochus E[)iplianes at the close is 244 Excfjdical Studies. related, not in literal language, but in language more in accordance with the general usage of j)ropliecy. It is a mistake to view the latter portion as referring to the Antichrist of the New Testament. Daniel in chap. xii. describes the great deliverance fondly expected by the Church of Israel. He speaks of it in connection with the overthrow of the Grecian power, so far as it had come into collision with Israel, which overthrow as represented in Daniel was an ulti- mate result of the victories of the Maccabean heroes. If Daniel speaks of the Messiah in connection with the downfall of the third world-power, so does Isaiah when he predicts the overthrow of Syria (Isa. vii., viii., ix.), and of Assyria (chaps, x., xi.), and so does Micab when speaking of the overthrow of Babylon (chaps, iv., v.). Many other parallels could be cited. For it was the constant practice of the prophets of Israel to connect the advent of Messiah with any special deliverance they were commissioned to predict. The victory of Messiah and the establishment of His kingdom was shadowed forth in Nebuchadnezzar's dream (Dan. ii.). It was depicted in the vision of the wild beasts which came up one after the other from the stormy sea (Dan. vii.). In the latter l)rophecy the Messiah is represented as coming in the clouds of heaven. It is not, however, the second advent but the first which is there described, of which the second advent is but the completion (comp. Dan. ii. 44 with Dan. vii. 27). The standing The Key to the Apocahjpse. 245 np of Michael the warrior - prince in Dan. xii. similarly represents the first advent of the Messiah, who then came for " the redemption of Jerusalem " (Luke ii. 38), although that advent "in great humility," owing to Israel's "hardening in part" (Rom. xi. 25), was not only attended by " the raising up " of many sons and daughters through faith in His name, but also resulted in " the falling of many professors through unbelief" (Luke ii. 34). Christ's first advent, therefore, on account of the sin of Israel, was followed by a time of trouble (Dan. xii. 1), namely, by the great tribulation predicted by our Lord, when Jerusalem for her iniquity was trodden down by the Gentiles (Luke xxi. 24). The two great facts which are prominently mentioned in the sketch presented by our Lord of " the times of the Gentiles," are the fall and punishment of Israel, and tlie proclamation of the gospel of the kingdom to every nation under heaven (Matt. xxiv. ; Mark xiii. ; Luke xxi.). The first advent of Messiah is suitably represented in the Old Testament prophecy by the standing up for warfare of Michael, the captain of the Lord's host (Josh. V. 14, 15), and the captain of our salvation (Heb. ii. 10). i'or inasmuch as the last prophecy of Daniel is chiefly concerned with the conflict of earthly kings and warriors, Messiah is fitly repre- sented in it as a prince and a warrior. The prophecy of Dan. xii. no doubt reaches for- ward to the time of the end. Hence it alludes to 24 G Excfjctical Studies. the resurrection of the just and unjust, tliongli that event is spoken of by Daniel only as a resurrection of " many " and not as the resurrection of all men. The resurrection of mankind from the dust of the earth is to be brouglit about by the power of Him Avho is the Eesurrection and the Life ; and inasmuch as the swallowing up of death in victory was one of the great objects to be effected by Messiah, Daniel speaks of it in close connection with His advent. Those who live in New Testament days can speak of two advents of Christ ; the prophets of the Old Testament knew of but one. They were unable to understand fully their own prophecies, in which at one time the glory and at another time the sufferings of Messiah were depicted (1 Pet. i. 10, 11). It was not granted to them to know about the long period that would intervene between the days of suffering and the time of glory. All was presented to them in one view, in which the sufferings of Messiah were dimly seen by reason of the brightness of the glory also exhibited. Both events were predicted as belong- ing to one era, inasmuch as they form in reality one grand whole. The sufferings of Christ were to be but temporal. His glory was to be eternal. The prophets before Christ beheld in their visions the first and second advents of Christ as one and the same event ; in the ages to come the saints in glory will ])robably also look back on the two advents as but one. The war of Michael and the dragon in Picv. xii. TJic Key to the Apocahjitsc. 247 is, therefore, to be identified with the struggle of Michael in Dan. xii. Both passages represent the same contest " in heavenly places " alluded to by our Lord (Luke x. 18; John xii. 31). The expression " cast out " used in John xii. 3 1 is similar to the phrase " cast down," used of Satan's fall (Eev. xii. 9) ; and the warning of ver. 12 has its counter- part in the warnings of S. Paul (Eph. vi. 12-16) and of S. Peter (1 Pet. v. 8, 9), which last was no doubt suggested by the warning given by Christ to that Apostle (Luke xxii. 31, 32). The victory of Michael " in heaven " was but a foreshadowing of the triumph of his soldiers on earth (ver. 11). For "this is the victory that hath overcome the world, even our faith" (1 John V. 4). By faith the Church in early days obtained her victories, by it she conquers still. The Adversary with whom believers struggle has been overcome, and vanquished by " the Stronger than he " (Luke xi. 22); and "the God of peace shall bruise Satan shortly under His people's feet " (Rom. xvi. 20). It is unnecessary further to delineate the explana- tion of the vision. The flood cast forth by the serpent after the woman represents the attempts made from time to time by the powers of darkness to destroy Christianity ; and the help afforded to the woman points to the providential arrangements by which the rage of the adversaries has been as repeatedly checked. If the events of Christ's life on earth form the 248 Exegetical Studies. subject of the vision of the Eevehition, the " time, times and a half " must conjmence witli the period when the dragon, worsted in the M'ar in heaven, sought to destroy the saints on earth. That period extends from the ascension of our Lord to the time of the end. The vision of chap. xii. is an epitome of the history of the faithful belonging to the real Church of Christ down almost to the close of the gospel dispensation. The " time, times and a half " are not to be explained as three and a half literal years, nor even, according to the " year-day " theory, to mean a cycle of precisely 1260 years. The period spoken of is undefined and indefinable. The ex- pedients resorted to by writers in favour of the literal interpretation, of introducing "breaks in prophecy," or of supposing immense gaps of time to be passed over without mention by the prophecy, or of expound- ing the flight of the woman as an event lasting for an indefinitely long period, are each and all arbitrary. The period is not a literal but a mystical cycle. It represents a definite time in the Divine reckoning, but man cannot discover its exact duration. Ebrard is not wrong when he maintains that the Ibrty-two months or 1260 days correspond to the Church- historical period, namely, the period which extends from the ascension of our Lord and the destruction of Jerusalem on to the coming of Antichrist, or, as we l)refer to express it, up to the period of the destruc- tion of the power of Satan. For the notion that a great Antichrist is to arise at the close of the dis- The Key io the Apocalijpse. 249 pensation is, we maintain, a simple delusion, grounded on a misconception of certain portions of the Sacred Scriptures. That question cannot, however, be here discussed ; we purpose to discuss it elsewhere. We can only here give an outline of our conclusions without entering further into detail.^ There are two distinct periods, each spoken of as a " time, times and a half." The first of these is that period during "which the fourth monarchy bears rule over the earth. This is the period spoken of in Dan. vii. 25, and must be identified with that in Eev. xii. 14. The second is the period noticed in Dan, xii. 7 ; the two have been erroneously regarded as identical. For the cycle of Dan. xii. 7 is the time which has already intervened between the days of Daniel and the advent of our Lord, and the " break- ing in pieces of the power of the holy people " because of their rejection of Jesus as their Messiah. The coming of Messiah and the destruction of Jeru- salem are the great events with which the one cycle begins, and with which the other closes. For tlie Messiah was to appear in the days of the fourtli world-monarchy. The two periods combined make up " the seven times," or " the times of the Gentiles, during which the theocracy has ceased to exist on earth." ' We hoiie to discuss the questions more fully in our commentary on Daniel, which is to form part of the Pulpit Commentary now in course of publication by Messrs. C. Kegan Paul & Co. of London. 250 Excgctical Studies. The first half of these times may be reckoned from the period when Israel fell under the power of I'.abylon, or from the close of the seventy years of the Babylonish captivity. The second period (which is not necessarily equal in length to the first) may be reckoned from the day in which Christ was taken up from the midst of His foes, or from that time in which the gospel was finally rejected by the Jewish nation, and when Christ came in the clouds of Avrath to execute vengeance upon Jerusalem. Thus the seven times comprehend the period which began when the world-power, represented then by the king of Baliylon, was permitted to overwhelm the professed people of God, who were chastened for their sin, but not given over to utter destruction, according to our Lord's words : " This generation shall not pass away, till all things be accomplished " (Luke xxi. 32). " The times of the Gentiles," during which Israel is trodden down under their feet, reach onward to the end of the world. In the first half of that period " Israel after the flesh " is described sometimes as rescued from, and at other times as falling under, the power of their adversaries. That half closed with the great transgression of Israel predicted by Zechariah, and with Israel's punishment, also set forth by that prophet.^ All through that chequered period, in which light and darkness were strangely commingled, there existed " a remnant of Israel according to the election of grace " (Kom. xi. 5). These were delivered ^ See BamiHon Lectures on Zechariah, chaps, x.-xiii. TJie Key to the Apocalyjyse. 251 in every age, and by their instrumentality the nations were prepared for Christ's first advent, and when He came were converted in great numbers from lieatlienism. Thus Israel and Israel's Messiah form the two great subjects about which all prophecy speaks. The second half of the seven times peculiarly belongs to the Gentile Church ; for Israel does not exist in the second period as a God-ruled nation, protected and upheld by Divine power. On the contrary, that nation is still trodden down and broken in pieces. Israel is not, however, even during that period, to be thought of as excluded from the blessings purchased by Israel's Messiah. But the Church of Christ composed of all nations is represented during that cycle as identical with the true Church of Israel, " Israel after the spirit," and is described as by faith overcoming the world. But as " Israel after the flesh " ultimately fell away as a nation from God, so the Gentile Church, the Church of the New Testament in its visible form, is represented in the prophecies of the Eevelation as entering into an alliance with the world, and becom- ing apostate like that of Israel. The second period, therefore, of the seven times closes like the first (comp. Isa. i. 21), with the overthrow of an apostate Church, with the downfall of "the great harlot that sitteth upon many waters" (Rev. xvii. 1 If), and with the destruction of the spiritual Babylon. But as at the close of the first part of the seven times salvation was manifested to Israel, and then, 252 Exegetical Studies. tlirongli Israel's instrumentality, to the nations ; so at tlie end of the second portion of that great period, " the mystery of God according to tlie good tidings wliich He declared to His servants the prophets " shall be finished (Eev. x. 7), " all Israel shall be saved," and the salvation of Israel shall be the salvation of the world (Piom. xi. 12). The history of Nebuchad- nezzar was a remarkable shadowing - forth of the history of the world-power ; and the " seven times " of the insanity of that king who finally crushed under foot the theocracy, fitly symbolize the seven times of the Gentiles, when the nations in their madness " give their power and authority unto the beast " (Eev. xvii. 13). Cut at the end of the dispensation, spiritual reason will be restored to the whole human family, and when the long-lost prodigals shall have been brought home, then shall be " heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunders, saying. Hallelujah : for the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigneth " (Eev. xix. 6). INDEX OF TEXTS ILLUSTRATED OR EXPLAINED. OLD TESTAMENT. Genesis. 1 Kings Canticles. PAGE PAGE PAGE iii. 14, . . . . 8 xviii., . . 72 ii. 3, . . . 87 iii. 15, . . 226 , 234 XX. 39-41, . XXV. ii. 4, . . . 97 iv. 26, . . . 11 xxii. 19-22, XXV., vi. 2, 4, 8, 9, 10 ,178 6, 12, 36 Lsaiah. vii. 14, . . 219, 221 Exodus. 2 Kings vii. 18, 19, . 199 X. 20, ... 3 xiv. 25, . . 42, 71 viii. 11-13, . 148 XX. 5, 6, . . . 82 xvii. 24-41, . 79 ix. 6, . X. 5, 6, . . . 219 . . 47 Leviticus. Ezr.A. xi. 9, . xiv. 12, . . . 8 . . 239 xvi. 8, . . . 4 iv. 2, . . . 80 xviii. 1, . . 199 Numbers. iv. 7-16, . . vi. 21, . . . 79 80 xxiv. 21, 2: , 167 ff., 239 ff. xxii. 9, , . . 55 ix., X., . . . XX. xxvii. 1, . . 52 xxiv. 24, . . . 76 xxvii. 19, . . 70 Esther. xxix. 10, 48 Deuteuonomy. viii. 17, 80, 94 XXX. 30, 31 , . 122 iv. 19, 20, . . 22 xxxiv. 5, . 52 xxxiii. 8, 9, 12, sxii. Jon. XXXV. 1, 2, . . 9 xxxiii. 18, 19, 102 i., ii 13 ff. xxxvi. 18, 19, 47 ix. 15, . . . 22 xlii. 1, . 62 Joshua. xiii. 15, . . 50 xlii. 19, 62 V. 13, 14, . 172, vi. 2, . .172, 242 242 xix. 21, 23-26, xxxviii. 7, . . xxxviii. 28, 27 . 8 . 9 Iii., liii., . Iv. 12, . Ixv. 25, Ixvi. 7, 8, 63, 64 . . 9 . . 8 64, 217, Judges. Psalms. 221 ff ii. 1-5, . . . 175 ii. 9, . . . . 216 xix., . . xxii ., 213 Jehem lAH. 2 Samuel. xcv. 5, 6, . . 50 xiii., . XXV. xii. 1-7, . . XXV. 1 ex., . . . . 88 xiv. 13-15, . . 7 xiv., . . . XXV. 1 cxxvi. 1-3, 64 xviii. 7, 8, . 82, 100 258 254 Index of Texts. Jeremiah — contd. Daniel PAOR PAOE xxii. 16, ... 7 ii. 41, 42, . 235 xxii. 24, . 87 vii. 2'j » • 235 XXV. 15-31, 76 vii. 25 . 249 xxxvi. 2, 7, 82 viii. 10, 238 xlviii. 46, 47, 55 X. 13, 21, . 241 xlix. 6, . . 55 xi., . 243 xlix. 39, . 55 xii. 1, 24011"., 243 ff., 1. 17, . . 53 248 li. 34, 44, xxiii., xii. 7, . 249 53, 54 HOSKA. Lamentations. iv. 20, . . 86, 87 vi. 1, xii. 13 2, 54, 65, 70 56 EZEKIEL. Amos. xiv. 9, .... 7 xxiii., ... 70 iii. 6, . . 2 xxvii. 26, . . 47 iii. 7, . 176 xxxiii. 8, 13-16, 82 xxxvii.1-14, 70,131 Jonah. xxxviii. 2, . . 105 i. 3, . . 44 xxxviii. 8, . . 113 i. 17, 53 xxxix. 11, . . 126 i. 18, . 172 xxxviii., xxxi <., 113 ii., . . 54-60 Micaii. PAiiE iv. 9, 10, . . 224 V. 3, 220, 222, 224 vii. 16, 17, . . 8 Habakkik. i. 12, ... 30 Haggai. ii. 23, . . 86, 87 Zechariah. i. 8-11, ... 12 i. 12, ... 242 iii. 1-3, 4, 6, 13, 172, 242 vi. 5, .... 8 vi. 9-15, . . 88 ix. 6, 7, . . 80 ix. 9, 10, 66, 81, 224 x. 10-12, . . 59 xiv. 16, 17, . 81 xiv., .... 8 NEW TESTAMENT. Matthew. iii. 5, 6, . . xxiii. iii. 7, . . . 92 V. 25, . . . 167 xii. 39 ff., xxii., xxiii., 37, 69 xxiv 123 xxvii. 4, . . 49 xxvii. 52, 53, . 161 xxviii. 30, . . 10 Mark. xii. 35, . . . 10 xiii., ... 123 Luke. ii. 34, . . . 245 iv. 5, 6, . . 237 vi. 9, . . . 94 X. 18, . . . 239 Luke — continued. Acts. X. 30, . . 65, 91 X. 11, 12, . . 211 xi. 29, 30, 32, xxii., xix. 24 rt'., . . 135 69 xxii. 21, 22, . 96 XV. . . .7 0. xxi. XV. 1, 2, . XX. 16, 35, xxi., . . 1 23, 92 10 245 Romans. iii. 1, 2, . 96 , 97 xxi. 32, 250 ix. 4, 5, , . 97 xxiii. 24, . 140 viii. 33, 242 xxiii. 31, . 189 1 Corinthian John. iv. 12, . . viii. 44, X. 16, . . 79 . 7 98 v. 3-5, . . . XV, 4, . . . XV. 35-42, . . . 8 70 71 X. 18, . . xi. 49-52, . 147 . 8 Galatians. xii. 31, . . 247 ii. 11-14, . . 94 xiv. 30, 235 iv. 19, . . . 217 Index of Texts. Ion GALATIANS— C07iocrvphal Iliooks of Old Testa- ment, 200. 20G Apocryphal Gospels, 162. See under Nicodemus. Apostasy of the Church of Israel and of the Church of Christ, 251. Assurbanipal, 107, 108, 109. Assyrian inscriptions, xv. , 40, 43. Athanasian Creed, 170. Auberlen on Daniel and the Apo- calypse, 208, 221, 230, 238. Augustine, 68 ; on descent into Hades, 165, 174. Azazel, the evil spirit, 4. Baptismal regeneration taught by Hernias, 154. Barnabas, Ejiistle of, 146, 147. Bede on the Revelation, 214. Bergmann, Jonah, ix., xxvi., 48. Biesenthal, J. H., Das Trost- schreiben an die Htbrder, 173. Bildad, 21 ft-. Birgitta, 203. Bissell, Commentary on the Ajw- cryx>ha, 200. Bloch, J. S., Stmlien, xvii., 53. Bluraenbach, 3S. Bochart, 105. Booth of Jonah, 84, 85, 96. liiittcher, Neue Aehrenlese, 22. Browne, Bisliop Harold, Thirty- Nine Articles, 166. Calvin, 221. Chamberlain, Rev. W., National Restoration and Conversion of hrael, 101, 111, 119. Chebar, 111. General Index. 257 Che3'ne, T. K., on Jonah, xv., xvii., xviii. , xix., xx. Tlce Propliecies of Jsaiah, xii., 168, 220, 222. Clirist, descent of, into Hades lirodiietive of blessing, 140, IGO, 1B2 ; texts referring to descent, 151 ; no tradition of His preaching to antediluvians or heathen, 114 ff. ; preached as Pre-inearnate Logos, 170 ti'., 181-183 ; neither a concio dani- natoria nor evangelica, 194 ; spirit or pneuma of, 170 H'., 186 ; quickened in the spirit, 145 tf. ; sufferings, 150 ; as Angel, 172 ff. ; temptation of, 225 J His coming spoken of in connection with various de- liverances, 244 ; first advent a time of trouble, 241 ; two advents spoken of as one, 246 ; His prophecy of the latter days, 123, 245 ; Christ mystical, 217. See under Messiah. Cliurch, re^iresented as a woman, 209. See under Womati. Mission of, 209 ; early con- tests of Jews and Gentiles in the Christian, 92 if. Churton, W. R., Apocryj^hal Scriptures, 200. Circumcision, disputes about, 94. Clement of Alexandria {Stro- mata), 155-158, 164, 179. Clement of Rome, Epistle of, 176. Coming struggle, the, 104. Conditional character of denuncia- tions, 82. Conditional immortality, 196. Confusion, Heaven-sent, 122. Constantine, 215, 227. Cowpier, B. H., Apoaniph.al Gos- j)el.% 162. Cox, Dr. S., on Job, viii. Crimean War, 117. Cyril of Alexandria, 40. Dante, 196. Davidic throne, tlie, 89. Davidson, Rev. Dr. A. B. , on Job, viii., 4, 5, 25, 27, 29, 31. Davidson, Dr. S., Introduction to Old Ttntament, xxiv. Daysman or mediator, 23. Dead, prayers for the, 142, 192. the gospel preached to, 191 tf. See Hermas. Delitzsch, Prof. Dr. Franz, Com- incntari/ on Psalms, 217 ; on Joh,\m. ; on Isaiah, 167, 219, 220, 222, 223, 240 ; Bibliccd Pxychology, 171, 174. Delitzsch, Prof. Dr. Friedr., Paradies, 107, 110, 111. Divine denunciations, conditional character of, 82. Dorner, Prof. J. A., 138. Dove, symbol of the, 45 ff., 64. Dragon, the, 212, 216, 224 ; attempts of, to destroy Christ, 224, 234, 237. Diisterdieck, Dr. F., on Die OfU'ii- harunq, 208, 214, 222, 224, 226, 234. Earthquakes, 122. Ebrard on the Apocalypse, 214, 231, 234, 238, 248. Elihu, 29. Elijah, 42, 72, Eliphaz, 19ff. Elisha, 42, 44, Elliot, E. B., Ilorce Apocali/p- tica', 227. Enoch, apocryphal book of, 168, 200. Eusebius, Hist. EccL, 159. Evangelical preachers on "second death," 196, Ewald, viii., xv., 106, 221. Exiles, songs of the, 61. Fabet;, G. S., Sacred Calendar of Prophecy, 228. Fabricius, Fauna Grdnlandica, 37. Farrar, Archdeacon, Early Days of Christianity, 231, 232. Feast for birds and beasts, 124. Fishes, gi-eat, 37 ff'. Fleming, Rev. John, on Fall< n Amjds, 10, n. Frederichsen, Krit. Utbersicht, 39. 11 258 General Index. (lAMii;, 108. Gentiles, times of the, 250. williiif; to learn religion from Israel, 78 ; unwillingness of early Christians to preach gos- pel to, 92. German critical school, xviii. Gesenius, Thesaurus, 22, 105; Lex. Man., 22, 141. Gimir, 108, 109, 111. Glassius, Philo'j. Sacra, 119. Gog and Magog, 104 ; Giign and Gagi, 107ff. ; prophecies about, to be fulfilled in latter days, 113 ; were not designed to be understood literally, 113; scene iileally laid in Palestine, 114; not confined to that land, 114 ; the theme of all the prophets, 114 if. ; Gog in hands of Providence, 116 ; confederacy of, not an at- tempt to extirpate worship of Jehovah, 117 ; caused by desire of filthy lucre, 118 if. ; mode of destruction of, 120 ff . ; the feast for birds and beasts, 124 ; spoil of foe, 125 ; weapons used by his army, 125 ; place of sepulture, 126 ; burialof, 128 ff. ; exaltation of, compared to that of Pharaoh, 130 ; denotes no special foe, 131 ; does not refer to Russia, 105, 106. Gourd of Jonah, 85, 89. Greed for gain, 118 ff., 134. Hades, the unseen world, 65, 141 ; Clement on the gospel preached in, 155 If. ; prison in, 166 ff. Hailstones, 121 ; Sennacherib's army partly overthrown by, 122. Hamburger, lieal • Encyclopddu, 50. Hamon Gcg, 127 ff. Hamonah, 129. Hardt, von der, 53. Harnack on the DidacM, 154. Heard, Tripartite Nature of Man, 171, 174. Hengstenberg, Christology, 240, 242, 243. Hercules and Hesione, 41. Hernias. The Shepherd of, 152, 153, i54, 155, 156, 157. Herodian tabernacle, the, 90. Hippolytus, 203. Hitzig, 221. Hofmann, Prof. J. K. C. von, Weisfiar/vv;/ und Erfidlunij, and Srhrif/heweis, 194, 229, 231, 238, 240; on Michael, 230 ff. Horsley, Bishop, 143, 144, 166. Human sacrifices, xii. Hurd, Bishop, Warbia-toniau Lectures, 206. Huss, 203. Huther, in Meyer's Comni., 146, 185, 186, 187, 192. Huxtable, Comm. on Jonah, in Speaker's Coinmentary, xi. , xv. , xxii., 54, Idolatry, sin of, 61. Inspiration, 35. Intermarriages of Israelites and Gentiles, xx., 79. of angels and men, 9 ff. Interrogative sentences, 114, 119. Irenreus, 159. Israel, mission of, 46 ; represented fitly by a prophet, 50, 55 ; songs in exile, 61, 64 ; the only nation elected, 100. See under Jonah. Restoration of, 136 ; great subject of jirophecy, 251. "after the flesh" and "after the spirit," 251. Anglo-Saxon race not Israel, 102. Name of Israel not confined to ten tribes, 77. See under Messiah. Ivan and Javan, 111. Jalkut Joxah, 59. Javan, 111. Jehu, 43. Jeroboam II., 42, 43. Jerome, 67. Jesus the son of Anan, 68. Jews, hostility of, to Christianity, 95. Joachim, Abbot, 203. General Index. 259 Job, trials of, 12 IF. ; and his friends, 18 if. Jonah. See Contents, p. xxix. ; sign of, xxiv., 69 ; booth of, 84, 85, 96 ; gourd of, 85 ; perished in a night, 89 ; book of, 34 tf. ; not confirmed by Assyrian in- scrijitions, ix., 40 ; mission of, 71, 72 ; snllenness of, 93. Josei)hus, 68, 71. Judgment in the gospel, declara- tion of, 91, Jurieu, on the Revelation, 204. Justin MartjT, 158, 162. Kalisch, Biblical Studies on Jonah, 38, 40, 41, 44, 48, 54, 58, 59, 60, 68, 73. Kaulen on Jonah, 53, 54, 67, 72. Keil, 221, 238. Kennedy's edition of Ewald's tSyntax, 106. Khorsabad, 39. Kleinert on Jonah, 53, 54. Kliefoth, 234. Kranichfeld on Daniel, 238, 243. Kuenen, Religion of Israel, xx. Lange's Bibelioerlc, 53, 215. Larger hope, the, 142, 195. Latter days or years, 113. Our Lord's prophecy of the latter days, 123. Layard's Nineveh and Babylon, 68. Lee, F. G. , on Prayer for De- parted, 142. Lee, Dr. S., on Job, 12. Leviathan, 52. Lightfoot, Bishop, on tlie Gala- tians, 154. Limbus Patrum, 194. Lions, slave-traders compared to, 118 (f. Lijjsius, Abffarsage, 160. Luckock's After Death, 142. Ludicrous and grotesque element in Book of Jonah, x., xi., xiv. Lycophron, 41. ^LvMMOK, worship of, 135. Man-child, the, of the Revelation, 211, 216-223. Man-cliild, the, of Isaiah, 221, 222. Mede, Joseph, 206, 207. Merx, viii. Mfshach not Moscow, 104, 109, 110. Messiah a shepherd, 216 ; as son of the Church, 218 tf. ; pains of, 219 ; great subject of prophecy, 251 ; identified with Michael, 242, 245 ; sufferings and glory presented in one picture, 133. Messiah and Lsrael, 63, 64, 65 ; incidents of their history alike, 70. See under Christ. Michael the archangel, 230 ; the prince of Israel, 240 ff. ; identi- fied with Messiah, 242, 245. Michaiah, vision of, xviii., 6, 12, 36. Midrash, 46. Milton, 196, 238. Minutius Felix, 196. Moon under woman's feet, the, 214. Miihlau and Volck's edition of Gesenius' Lex., 141. Miiller, Natursystem, 37. Mushki, 109, 112. Nagelsbach on Isaiah, 222. Nations disposed to think well of themselves, 99. No nations necessarily foredoomed, 100. Israel the only nation specially elected, 100. Shaking of the nations, 78. Nebuchadnezzar's penitence, 78, 83. Nero and his name, 233. Newton, Sir I., 226, 227. Nicodemus, the Gospel of, 161, 162, 163. Nineveh, greatness of, 39 ; warn- ing to, 68, 69, 76, 91, 92. Ninevites, the repentance of, xxii., 67, 72, 73, 81, 84. Noah and his preaching, 145 ; Augustine on, 165, 174 fif. Noldius, Concord. Particulanun , 119. 2C0 General Index. Otto, von, Justin Martyr, 159. Palmchrist of Jonah. See under (Jourd. Parousia, The, 206, 231, 233. Passengers of Ezekiel, the, 128. Penitence. See Jiejieiitance. Perowne, Archdeacon, on Jonah, 54. Perseus and Andromeda, 41. Pestilence and blood, 120. Pharaoh and Gog compared, exalt- ation of, 130. Phillips, Rev. Dr., Doctrine of Addai, 160. Pit and prison, 168. Plumptre, Dean, Spirits in Prison, 138 tf. Preaching, meaning of New Testa- ment term Kfipv(riruv, 178. Pre-incarnate Logos, the, 170. Prison in Hades (^oXaxn'), meaning of, 166 fif. Prodigal son, parable of, xxi., 32, 73, 96,-97. Promises stayed, fulfilment of, 136. Pi'ophecy not history written in advance, 202 ; theory of "breaks" in, 132, 248; pre- tended expositions of, 117, 120. Prophetico-allegorical histor\', 69, 90. Prophets accused of unpatriot- ism, 51 ; voices of the prophets against the nations, 74 tf. ; representatives of Israel, 55 ; false prophets, 7, 48. Purgatory, 1 42. Pusey on The Minor Pro]>hefs, X., xi., xii., 37, 38, 40, 41, 54, 60, 61, 68, 85. QuiPKEXED in the spirit, 144 if., 190 ff . ; meaning of tiuo-jro'au, 146. See under Christ. Rash, land of, 106, 107. Red Sea, passage of, 59 ; weedy sea, 58. Redford's Studies in Jonah, ix. fF. Regeneration of the world, 133 ; baptismal regeneration taught by Hernias, 154. Repentance, no, exhibited by Jonah, 61 ; of Ninevites — see Ninevites ; of Nebuchadnezzar, 78, 83 ; of Gentiles, 80 tf. Resurrection, the, 27, 71 ; in the Book of Daniel, 246 ; in Ezekiel only allegorical, 70. Reuss, Gesch. d. A. T, xxiii. Revelation, the Book of. See under Apocalypse. Rondelet, 38. Rosh not Russia, 105 ff. Russian Empire, Napoleon on, 103. Salmon, Rev. Prof., Hist. Introd. to Ife2v Testament, 234. Salmond, Rev. Prof., 143. Samaritans, the, 79, 80. Satan in Job, 3 ff. ; not a mere minister of God's suffering pro- vidence, 14 ; the Adversary, 12 ff. ; challenge of, 14 ; trials inflicted on Job by, 15 ff. See under Dragon. Sehott, 166. Schrader, Prof., KeillnschrlJ'ten, 40, 43, 107, 110, 111. Schweizer, Prof. A., on Tlie Descent into Hell, 143, 146, 179, 18.'), 186. Scythian invasions, 106, 107, 108, 109, 112. Sea monster, 52. Seals, the six first, 204 ft'. Sennacherib's overthrow, 122, 125. Seven Times, the, 133, 248 ff. Shark, stories of the, 37 ff. Sheol, the Under-world, 65, 141. Shci)herd of Hernias, the, 152 tf. Sheshbazzar. See Zerubbabel. Signet ring, the, 87. Silence of Scripture, xiv., 71, 72. Slave traders described as young lions, 118 ft". Smend, Comm. on Ezeliel, 106. Smith, G., Hist, of Assurban'qiul, 107. Socrates, 141. Sons of God not angels, 8 ff. General Index. 261 Spirit, quickened in the, 141 ff. Sec under Chr'ial. Spirits in prison, 138 ff., 177 ff. Surtering for well-doing, 148. Sword of Jehovah, 52, 62. Tabali, land of, 109, 111. Targuni, 44, 58. Tarshish not the maritime power of England, 120 ; merchants of, 118 ff. Ten horns and ten toes, the, 235 ff. Tertullian, 196. Thadd;eus, summary of faith, 160. Thomsen, Prof. V., Bussia and Scandinavia, 106. Three, the number, 54, 65, 70, 91. Time, times and a half, the, 134, 248 ff. Tischendorf, Evang. Apoc, 161, 162. Togarmah, 110. Tophet, place of burial, 125. Twelve hundred and sixty days, 240. Two, the number, 54 ; legs of the Colossus, 236. Universal restitution, 196. Vafghan, Dean, Lectures on the Revelation, 214. Victorinus, 203. Vitringa, 207, 221. Waldenses, 203. War in heaven, 238 ff., 247 ff. Weapons of war, 125. Weiss, 194. Whale of Jonah, the, 36. Wickliflfe, 203. Wiesinger, 166, 194. Wolff, Rev. Dr. J., Besearchen and Mifisionary Labours, 111. Woman, the chaste and unchaste, in the Apocalypse, 209 ; clothed with sun, 212 ; with moon under her feet, 214 ; diadem of stars, 215 ; in heaven, 210 ; in travail, 211. Wright, C. H. H., Bampton Lectures on Zechariah, 13, 59, 65, 77, 79, 80, 81, 87, 88, 121, 152, 236, 250 ; Donnellan Lec- tures on Koheleth, 90 ; Mis- cellaneous articles, xii.. Ill, 139. Wright, G. H. B., on Job, viii. Wiinsche, Dr. A., Die Leiden des Messias, 219. Zahn, Prof. Th., Apocalyptische Studien, 200, 233. Zerubbabel, hopes excited by his governorship, 86 ; identical with Sheshbazzar, 86 ; not crowned by Zechariah, 88 ; early death and removal, 89. Zezschwitz, Prof, von, 178, 194. Zophar, 23 ff. MORRISON AND CIBB, EDtNBUROH, I'K INTERS TO HER MAJliiiTV'S STATIONERY OFFICE. T. and T. C'/ark's PnhUcatioin^. Just published, in Two Vols., 8vo, price 21s., NATURE AND THE BIBLE: LECTURES ON THE MOSAIC HISTORY OF CREATION IN ITS RELATION TO NATURAL SCIENCE. By Dr. FR. H. REUSCH. PiEVISED AND CORKI'XTED BY THK AUTHOR. Sl^ranslatcti from tlj: Jourtlj liOitioii By KATHLEEN LYTTELTON. 'Other champions much more competent and learned than myself might liiive been phiced in the field ; I will only name one of the most recent. Dr. Keusch, author of "Nature and the Bible.'" — The Eight Hon. W. E. Gladstone. Will shortly be published, in demy 8vo, THE JEWISH AND THE CHRISTIAN MESSIAH. A STUDY IN THE EARLIEST HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY. By VINCENT HENRY STANTON, M.A., KKIXOW, TUTOR, AND DIVINITY LECTURER OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE; LATE IIULSEAN LECTURER. Kecently published, in crown 8vo, price ."Js., EXEGETICAL STUDIES. By PATON J. GLOAG, D.D. ' Careful and valuable pieces of work.' — Spectator. ' A very interesting volume.' — Literarii Churchman, ' Dr. Gloag handles liis subjects very ably, displaying everywhere accurate and extensive scholarsliip, and a fine ajipreciation of the lines of thought in those passages with which he deals.' — Baptist. ' Candid, truth-loving, devout-minded men will bo both instructed and pleased by studies so scholarly, frank, and practic;il.' — Baptist Magazine. T. aiul T. Clarlc's Piib/icofions. CREMER>S LEXICON. Just published, in demy 4to, price 14s., SUPPLEMENT TO BIBLICO-THEOLOaiCAL LEXICON OF NEW TESTAMENT GREEK. BY HERMANN CREMER, D.D. CnnsIatcU anti HrrangcB from tijc latest German Euition BY WILLIAM URWICK, M.A. The Complete Work, including Supplement, Is now issued at 38s. GRIMM'S LEXICON. Will shortly be published, in demy 4to, A GREEK-ENGLISH LEXICON OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. IJEIiNG GRIMM'S 'WILKE'S CLAVIS KOVI TESTAJIENTI. Cranslatci, iScbiscli, anU (EnlargcU BY JOSEPH HENRY THAYER, D.D., lU'SSEY PROFESSOR OF NEW TESTAMEXT CRITICISM AND INTEUrUETATION IN THE DIVINITY SCHOOL OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY. T. and T. Clark's Publications. Just published, in demy 8vo, price 12s., AN INTRODUCTION TO THEOLOGY: ITS PRINCIPLES, ITS BRANCHES, ITS RESULTS, AND ITS LITERATURE. By ALFRED CAVE, B.A., I'aiNCU'AL, AND PUOl-ESSOK OK THEOLOGY, OF HACKNEY COLLEGE, LONDON. ' Wo can most heartily recommend this work to students of every degi'ee (if attainment, and not only to those who will have the opportunity of utiliziuu; its aid in the most sacred of the professions, but to all who desire to encourage and systematize their knowledj^e and clarify their views of Divine things.' — Niivronformist and ErvjUsh Independent. Just published, in cro^vn 8vo, price is. 6d., THE BIBLE AN OUTGROWTH OF THEOCRATIC LIFE. By D. W. SIMON, PKINCIPAL OF THE CONGREGATIONAL COLLEGE, EI)INP,UP.GH. ' A book of absorbing interest, and well worthy of study.' — Methodist New Voitnexion Ma