known teachings of the New Testament touching the person of Christ that there is reason to suspect that they are not the words of the original writer, but Christian interpolations which found their way into the Ethiopic version of the book of Enoch. But, accepting them as pre-Christian, it is not difficult to believe that a late Jewish writer, after the times of the Maccabees, might have constructed out of the sublime suggestions of the book of Daniel (vii, 9-14), and from such portrayals of Wisdom as we read in Prov. viii, 20-31, all these heavenly conceptions of the Messiah as the Son of man. Whether Jesus himself ever read these Similitudes of the apocryphal Enoch, we may not say; but many interviews with wise men of his nation and with teachers of the law, like the one recorded in Luke ii, 46, were possible to him during the eighteen years which passed between that event in the temple and the time of his baptism at the Jordan; and from such conversations he might have gathered up all the various ideals of the Messiah which were entertained among the Jewish people of that day. He may have added to them in his own thought the conception of "the Servant of Jehovah" from Isa. lii, 13-liii, 12.1 The "one like unto a son of man" in the apocalypse of Daniel (vii, 13), whether understood personally or collectively, "came with the clouds of heaven to the Ancient of days, and there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, and languages should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom shall not be destroyed." This magnificent conception embodies in substance all the supernatural elements which appear in the Son of man as presented in Enoch. The idea of preëxistence, as suggested in Prov. viii, must have been as familiar to Jesus as it was to any of the later Jewish writers, and his own profound interpretations of Scripture, of which we possess not a few examples in the gospels, leave no room for us to question that in the course of his "advance in wisdom and in favor with God and man" (Luke ii, 52) he selected from his own abundant stores of the knowledge of the Scriptures and of all sacred things such forms of expression as would best suit his deep spiritual understanding of the kingdom of God and the mission of God's Anointed One. His increase in wisdom was as normal as his bodily growth.

This view is maintained by Charles in his annotated translation of the book of Enoch (Oxford, 1893), Appendix B; pp. 314-316: "While retaining its supernatural associations, this title underwent transformation in our Lord's use of it. And just as his Kingdom in general formed a standing protest against the prevailing Messianic ideas of temporal glory and dominion, so the title, 'Son of Man' assumed a deeper spiritual significance; and this change we shall best apprehend if we introduce into the Enoch conception of the Son of man the Isaiah conception of the Servant of Jehovah."

(3) The Lord's Own Favorite Title. "Son of man" is, accordingly, our Lord's own favorite Messianic title. He deliberately assumed it because of its scriptural connotation, and also because it most appropriately designated his Christly manifestation in the flesh. Paul's doctrine of the first and the last Adam seems to be a further elaboration of this Messianic concept. The first Adam was made in the image of God; the second in the likeness of men; and as by the transgression of the first man death passed upon all men, so by the redemptive Messianic ministry of "the second man from heaven," those who have borne the image of the earthy shall also bear the image of the heavenly. Our Lord's chosen title is one which magnifies his own humiliation by suggesting the great purpose for which he came into the world. Others may call him the Son of God; he does not forbid them. But it is at least interesting to note that when, according to Matt. xvi, 13-20, Jesus asked his disciples, "Who do men say that the Son of man is?" Peter answered, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." Whereupon Jesus pronounced a remarkable blessing upon Peter, and yet "charged the disciples that they should tell no man that he was the Christ."

(4) A Person Sublimely Unique. Our conclusion is that the title, "Son of man," as well as "Son of God," served of design to point him out as the very Christ of God. His person was sublimely unique, and he and those who were nearest to him felt that in him were fulfilled, or soon to be fulfilled, the Messianic hopes. of Israel. He was divinely commissioned and manifested for effecting "the consolation of Israel and the redemption of Jerusalem" (Luke ii, 25, 38). But this redemption was to be accomplished in a more profoundly spiritual manner than the Jewish people of that day were able to apprehend. His exaltation to the right hand of God, and his exercise of all power in heaven and on earth until he shall have put all things under him, imply a sovereignty of the world, and a participation in the glory of his Father which we shall treat in another connection.

1 So Beyschlag: "The Son of man is the God-invested bearer of the kingdom that descends from above, that is to be founded from heaven; it is he who brings in the kingdom of God."-New Testament Theology, vol. i, p. 64. Edinburgh, 1895.

CHAPTER III

THE SUPERNATURAL IN THE PERSON OF CHRIST

1. The Supernatural Birth. The supernatural birth of Jesus Christ is unmistakably attested by the gospels of Matthew and Luke, and clearly implied in the gospel of John. The criticism which questions the credibility of the first chapters of these gospels is conspicuously negative in its character and has not been able to show any real contradictions in the varying narratives. These narratives of the birth and childhood of Jesus are apparently from another source of tradition than that from which the main portions of the synoptic gospels arose, but they must have originated too near the time of the facts recorded to be arbitrarily cast aside as untrustworthy. Matthew's record embodies the secret of Joseph, and Luke has preserved the secret of Mary, and we cannot allow the noteworthy variations of the two traditions nor any a priori assumptions in denial of the supernatural to prejudice the main testimony which they bear to the virgin birth of Jesus. Luke's gospel has been regarded as in some sense, or to some extent, embodying the gospel according to Paul,' and his narrative of the birth of Jesus may be taken as in full accord with what Paul meant by "God's sending forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law" (Gal. iv, 4). There is also a suggestion of preëxistence in the words, "God sent forth his Son," as truly as there is a witness of the supernatural "Spirit of his Son" in verse 6, immediately following. This is in deep harmony with the words of Luke i, 35: "The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee." The birth of Jesus is to be regarded as the product of a supernatural agency like the creation of the first Adam, who in Luke's genealogy (iii, 38) is called "the son of God." If we believe that vegetable and animal life in the cosmos originated, not in nonliving matter, but in a principle of life imparted directly from the ever-living God, it ought not to be difficult for us also to believe that the human life of the immaculate Son of God was supernaturally begotten of the same eternal Source of life. Luke's record calls both Jesus and Adam son of God and has a perceptible relationship with Paul's

This belief is as old as the time of Irenæus and is repeatedly mentioned in Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, book iii, chaps. iv, xxiv; book v, chap. viii; book vi, chap. xxv.

habit of contrasting the first Adam and the last. The mystery of the origin of the first man is beyond our ken, and the incarnation of “the second man from heaven” (ὁ δεύτερος ἄνθρωπος ἐξ οὐρανοῦ ; 1 Cor. xv, 47) is even more impenetrable. But all that is exceptional and marvelous in the subsequent career and the exaltation of Jesus is in perfect harmony with the story of his supernatural birth. It was fitting that the advent of such a personage should be celebrated by a choir of angels (Luke ii, 8-14), and that prophetic words should be spoken over the Child by the aged Simeon and Anna (ii, 25-38). It was very appropriate that wise men from the far East should be guided to his cradle by a conspicuous star (Matt. ii, 1-12), for this "root and offspring of David" was himself "the bright, the morning star" (Rev. xxii, 16), destined in the great future to draw all the truly wise ones to himself, and lift them up into the holy heavens. And it accords with all this that the public ministry of Jesus was heralded by a Levitical prophet, who appeared as his forerunner "in the spirit and power of Elijah" (Luke i, 17; comp. Matt. xi, 14), and proclaimed the coming of one far mightier than himself, the latchet of whose shoes he was not worthy to stoop down and unloose, and who would baptize with the Holy Spirit and execute judgment as with the purging fire of God (Mark i, 7, 8; Matt. iii, 11, 12; Luke iii, 16). When Jesus received baptism at the hand of this prophet, of whom he testified that none greater had ever been born of woman (Matt. xi, 11), the heavens opened above him, the Spirit descended upon him, and a voice out of heaven declared: "This is my Son, the beloved, in whom I am well pleased" (Matt. iii, 16, 17).

2. The Baptism, Temptation, and Triumph. The baptism of Jesus and the descent of the Spirit upon him were of the nature of an inauguration to his public ministry. There followed immediately the temptation in the wilderness, which is made prominent in all the synoptic gospels. This trial corresponds and contrasts with the temptation of the first Adam, who miserably failed when beset with the wiles of the devil (Gen. iii, 1-7). The second Adam proved himself worthy to be called the Son of God, was tempted in the threefold manner of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the lust of dominion, but he put the adversary to flight and came off more than conqueror. Whatever interpretation be put upon the narratives of this temptation and the whole subject of demonology as presented in the New Testament, the early triumph of Jesus over Satan is significant of a purpose to overcome the dominion of evil. The power of sin and its appalling consequences among men may well be conceived as a kingdom

of wickedness, and the ministry of Jesus Christ, as told in the New Testament, treats it as a tremendous fact. According to 1 John iii, 8, "he that doeth sin is of the devil, and the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil." And so the Son of God might well have asked himself at the beginning of his ministry, "How can one enter into the house of the strong man, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man? And then will he spoil his house" (Matt. xii, 29). His manifestation in the flesh had for its high aim the salvation of man from the evil forces of the world; his signal victory, at the beginning of his career, over the prince of darkness evinced his ability to despoil the principalities and powers, and it was prophetic of an ultimate putting of all his enemies under his feet. There is, accordingly, peculiar significance in the language of Luke iv, 13, 14: "When the devil had completed every temptation, he departed from him for a season. And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee; and a fame went out concerning him through all the region round about." Thereupon he began that series of wonderful works which were in themselves a conspicuous sign of the ultimate overthrow of the kingdom of Satan and of the coming of the kingdom of God (comp. Luke x, 18; Matt. xii, 28). Hence we regard the baptism and the temptation of Jesus Christ as charged with an element of supernaturalism. By means of these extraordinary experiences he came into conscious contact with what are called in Eph. vi, 12, "the world rulers of this darkness, spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places." From that time onward he was to act "in the power of the Spirit," and to cope with infernal forces, as he had not done before.

3. The Miracles of his Ministry. The supernatural element in the person and work of Jesus is a very conspicuous feature of the gospel narratives. Nothing is more certain than that the earliest reports of the life of Jesus teemed with the accounts of his miracles. The oldest written sources from which our present gospels derived their contents of the words and works of Jesus were evidently records of the numerous "signs and wonders" which were performed by him. The gospel of Mark, now generally believed to be the oldest of the Synoptics, and containing much that seems to have been derived directly from disciples and contemporaries of Jesus,' has been appropriately called "a miracle-gospel" because of the prominence it gives to the mighty works of the Son of God. According to Matthew (xi, 2-5) and Luke (vii, 18-23) the great prophet who came as the forerunner of Christ fell into a

1 Tradition says from Peter. See Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, book ii chap. 15; book iii, chap. 39.