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"It CHAP. XXXVL

the New Kingdom sounded out, clear and decisive. has been said by Moses, "25 continued Jesus, "Whosoever shall 25 Deut. 24.1. put away his wife, let him give her a bill of divorce. But

I

say unto you, that whosoever shall put away his wife, except for fornication, causes her to be the occasion of

Matt. 5. 31, 32.

corrected text.

adultery 26 if she marry again, for she is still a wife; and 2 Tischendorf's whosoever marries her, when put away, thus commits adultery."

The use of oaths was no less prevalent in Christ's day than it still is in the East, and the Rabbis had sanctioned the practice by laying down minute rules for its regulation. The law of Moses had absolutely forbidden perjury,27 but 27 Lev. 19. 12. the casuistry of the Rabbis had so darkened the whole subject of oaths, that they had, in effect, become utterly worthless. They were formally classed under different heads, in Rabbinical jurisprudence, and endless refinements opened facilities for any one to break them who wished. Their number was endless; men swore by heaven, by the earth, by the sun, by the prophets, by the Temple, by Jerusalem, by the altar, by the wood used for it, by the sacrifices, by the Temple vessels, by their own heads.28

28 Examples in Hor. Heb. ii. 127, 128. Keim, ii. 255.

Wetstein, 305, 420.

By joining a second text, from a different part, to the prohibition of perjury, the Scribes had, in effect, opened the door to every abuse. To the prohibition of Moses, "Thou shalt not swear falsely,"29 they had added the charge, "but 29 Lev. 19. 12. shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths,"30 and from this it 30 Deut. 23. 21. was argued that no oath was binding, either on one's-self or towards others, which had no vow of sacrifice as a part of

31

Matt. 23. 16 f.

it, or if the vow had been punctually fulfilled.31 Any oath, a Schött, 26. any deception towards God or man, and even perjury itself, was thus sanctioned, if it were only consecrated and purified by an offering. The garrulous, exaggerating, crafty Jew needed to be checked, rather than helped in his untruthfulness, but the guardians of the purity of the Law had invented endless oaths, with minute discriminations, and verbal shades and catches, which did not expressly name God, or the Temple, or the altar, and these the people might use, without scruple, mock oaths, harmless to themselves and of no binding force!

CHAP. XXXVI.

Against such equivocation and consecrated hypocrisy Jesus lifted His voice. "I say unto you, swear not at all; neither by heaven, for it is God's throne; neither by the earth, for it is His footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. You would tremble to swear by God, but when you swear by anything connected with His works or His worship, you swear, in reality, by Himself. Nor shall you swear by your head, for you cannot make a hair of it white or black; and, thus, your oaths by it are idle words. But let your speech be simply yes and no, for what exceeds these is from the 'evil one.' As my disciples, your word is enough you will speak only as ever in the presence of God.""

The theory of life under the New Kingdom, as we have seen, was the very opposite of that held by the schools of the day. Prosperity, with them, was an unbroken enjoyment of life to extreme old age, abundance of worldly comforts, and continuous success in all undertakings, and triumphant victory over all enemies. All this was expected as the just reward of a strict obedience to Rabbinical prescriptions, which constituted the "righteousness of the Law." Jesus held forth the very opposite of all this as the blessedness to be sought in the New Kingdom. Poverty, sorrow, and persecution, were to be the natural lot of His followers, but their transcendent reward, hereafter, and the love which inspired such devotion, transfigured them to gain and honour, and demanded the highest joy.

To make the contrast more vivid between the Old Kingdom and the New, he had added "woes" in connection with all that the former had praised as specially blessed. The rich, who have their reward in their earthly possessions; the prosperous, who cared for nothing except this world, would suffer hunger hereafter; those who cared only for present joy, would one day mourn and weep; those whom men praised, would find the praise only deceiving flattery. Patience, humility, gentleness, resignation, and love, were to characterize the New Israel; the virtues and rewards of the soul; the piety of form and rewards in this world, were discountenanced. The New Kingdom was to win hearts by spiritual attractions, till now little valued.

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32

xen. Mem. ii. Critias, 469.

6. 35.

Gorgias, 469.
De Repub. i.

334.

As a practical application of the ideal, thus sketched, OHAP. XXXVI. He required His followers to repudiate the Old Testament doctrine of retaliation, with the endless refinements of the Rabbis, and to adopt, in its place, the principle of overcoming evil with good. Antiquity, both Jewish and heathen, cherished the idea of revenge for injuries. To requite like with like was assumed as both just and righteous. Even Socrates had no higher idea of virtue than to surpass friends in showing kindness, and enemies in inflicting hurt.32 Plato,33 indeed, held that revenge was wrong, and that no one should do evil on any ground; that it was worse to do wrong than to suffer it, and that the virtuous man would not injure any one, because to do so injured himself. But Plato had only in his mind, in these noble sentiments, the relations of Greek citizens to each other, to the exclusion of slaves, and of all the world but his own race; and the motive for his magnanimity was not love for the individual man, or for ideal humanity, but only political justice and right. Roman stoicism rose higher, but its injunctions of kindness to enemies were rather the expression of self-approving virtue than of loving moral conviction. Among the Jews, retaliation had the sanction of Moses. Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe, are required by him.34 0 The stern Sadducee party clung to the letter of the Law, but the milder Pharisees had invented a scale of money payments instead. As in our own middle ages, a tariff of fines was constructed for each personal injury; for tearing the hair, for a cuff on the ear, a blow on the back, spitting on the person, taking away an under garment, uncovering a woman's head, and the like.85 The value of a hand, or foot, as Robertson's or an eye, was computed by the depreciation it would have made in the value of a slave. A blow on the ear was variously set at the fine of a shilling or a pound: a blow on the one cheek at two hundred zuzees; on both cheeks, at double. To tear out hair, to spit on the person, to take Sepp, iv. 224. away one's coat, or to uncover a woman's head, was compensated by a payment of four hundred zuzees.P

This rude and often mercenary softening of the harshness

34 Exod. 21. 24

35

Works,

iii. 239 (State
of Europe in
Middle Ages)
Bastian,
Rechtsver-
hältnisse, &c.

210.
Hor. Heb. ii.

130.

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CHAP. XXXVI. of the old Law fell wholly below the requirements of the New Kingdom. Its members must suffer wrong patiently, that the conscience of the wrong-doer,-become its own accuser, might be won to repentance, by the lesson of unresisting meekness. Christ's own divine charity and forgiveness was to be repeated by His followers. Sin was to be conquered by being made to feel the power of goodness. The present was, at best, only a discipline for the future, and the patient endurance of wrong, from Christ-like love and gentleness, was part of the preparation for the pure joys of the Messianic kingdom. "Ye have heard," said He, "that it was said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. But I say unto you, that ye resist not the evil man; but whosoever smites thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And to him who desires to contend with thee and take thy coat, leave him thy cloak also. And whosoever shall press thee one mile, go with him two. To him that asks thee, give, and from him that desires to borrow of thee, turn not away." The spirit of such injunctions is evident. Hasty retaliation; readiness to stand on one's rights in all cases; deliberate revenge rather than pity, are unworthy a member of the New Kingdom. It is for him to teach by bearing, yielding, and giving, and not by words only. The virtues he commends he is to illustrate. But it is far from the teaching of Christ that law is to cease, or that the evildoer is to have everything at his mercy. Only, as far as possible, the principle of His kingdom is to be the purest, deepest, self-sacrificing love.

r

THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT (CONCLUDED).

73

JESU

CHAPTER XXXVII.

THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT (CONCLUDED).

ESUS had led His audience step by step to higher and CH. XXXVII. higher conceptions, and now, by an easy transition, raised them to the highest of all.1

1 Chrysostom; quoted in

Matthäus, 157.

The character of any religion depends on its idea of God. Meyer The Jews had no loftier thought of Him than as a national deity, the Father of Israel and of its proselytes, but not the God of the world at large. They looked on Him also as a jealous God, and the Pharisee urged himself to a painful zeal in his fulfilment of the Law by the thought that the sins of the father were visited on the third and fourth generation. If he agonized to carry out a thousand minute prescriptions, if the Essene secluded himself in hurtful loneliness, if the Sadducee toiled to discharge all that was required in the service of the Temple, and in the presentation of offerings, if the people mourned in the apprehension that God had forsaken them, it was because all alike looked up to a Being who, as they believed, required what they could hardly render. They should have drawn other conceptions from their ancient Scriptures, but they did not. They had always learned much that was true and sublime from the Law and the Prophets -the Majesty of God and the dependence of the creature— the dignity of man as the divine image, and the kingly relation of Jehovah to Israel-His son, His first-born, His bride, His spouse. They had never lost the conviction that their nation could not perish, because the honour of God was pledged to defend it, and they even looked forward, with a frenzied earnestness, to a future when He would send His Messiah, and raise them above all the nations. As Jews, many doubtless drew comfort from the divine words, that, like as

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