will of God and put Jesus' teachings into practice. The tree would be known by its fruit. Those who had loved, forgiven, done good to the poor and suffering would enter the kingdom. Upon this point Jesus' teaching never varied. In a parable of his latest days he declared that those who should be placed at his right hand and enter eternal life would be those who had fed the hungry, given drink to the thirsty, visited those who were sick and in prison. The Jews said, Practise the Law and you will be worthy of the kingdom. Jesus said, Do the will of God and you will be the son of God. The Lord's Prayer remains the loftiest expression of this high conception of the relations of man with God, which is the whole of the religion. first taught by Jesus. We must bear in mind, when we study this prayer, that Jesus said at the same time that the Father knows what things we have need of before we ask for them.1

The teaching of Jesus in this early period is, then, not to be distinguished from a large, tolerant Pharisaism, taking a long step forward. Most of his aphorisms were

1 Matt. vi. 8.

borrowed from the Old Testament or from the Rabbis who preceded him. He was persuaded that true Pharisees would approve of his ideas of reform, just as Luther was at first persuaded that he was doing the work of a good Catholic, and would be approved of by the Church and its rulers. In the same way Jesus expected to be approved by every one, welcomed by every one; he deemed that he was doing nothing but what every true zealot of the Law could do and ought to do. Full of confidence himself, he inspired confidence. He had as yet very few disciples, properly so called, but he was reaching consciences, he was touching hearts; his word was sinking deep into men's souls.

IN

CHAPTER IV

THE MESSIAH AND HIS WORK

N our first volume we affirmed that from the beginning of his ministry Jesus believed himself to be the Messiah. He would not be a Messiah instigating a revolution, like Judas the Gaulonite or any other zealot, but he was the Messiah.

It would seem at first view as though the conviction of his Messianic dignity had been of slow growth. In fact, all that we have said of him up to this time shows simply the work of a Rabbi. He began by preaching, like John the Baptist. Would he have done so if at that time he had believed himself to be any other than also a forerunner? More than this, it is certain that he did not reveal himself to his apostles as Messiah until a much later time, only a year before his death.1 In these early days he was simply one of those

1 Matt. xvi. 13-20.

itinerant preachers frequently to be met in Palestine at that time, trying to do some good, healing the sick, casting out demons, preaching the love of the Law, and each in his own way preparing for the coming of the kingdom.

All this is true, and nevertheless Jesus already at this time (and, as we have shown, since the Temptation) had not the slightest doubt as to his own person: He was the very Messiah. This conviction had been forming itself from his youth, and he came forth from his desert-testing absolutely convinced that the Messianic prophecies were to be fulfilled in him, and that he was to be the hero of the Apocalypses of his people.

More than this, Jesus never said, like John the Baptist, that he was only a precursor; and he never limited himself, as John did, to arousing Israel to duty. He clearly performed a Messianic work. It was the Messiah who, in the Sermon on the Mount, opposed his "But I say unto you" to "Moses has said to you. It was the Messiah who declared that John the Baptist had no part in the new dispen

1 Matt. v. 22, 28, 32, 34, etc.

"1

2

sation; who uttered sovereign menaces and promises concerning Bethsaida and Capernaum; who declared himself to be greater than Jonas, than Solomon, than the Temple and the Temple worship; who called himself the Bridegroom, thus justifying the violation of the Sabbath; who forgave the sins of the paralytic; assumed the name Son of Man.5

who

No doubt he said, "The kingdom is coming!" and it seems more natural that Jesus, believing himself to be the Messiah, should have said, "The kingdom is come, is present. "This is to misunderstand at once the Messianic ideas of Jesus' contemporaries, and the views which Jesus held about himself. According to Jewish notions, the Messiah was to remain for a certain time hidden, occupying this time of humiliation in preparing for the Messianic kingdom. Now, this is precisely the line of

1 Matt. xi. 21; Luke x. 13.

2 Matt. xii. 41; Luke xi. 32.

8 Mark ii. 19; Matt. ix. 15; Luke v. 35.

4 Mark ii. 5, and parallel passages.

5 Mark ii. 10; Matt. viii. 20, x. 23; etc.

• Jerus. Berakhoth, fol. 51; Mishna, Sanhedr. 28. See Luke xxi. 8; cf. Justin Martyr, Dial. with Tryph. chap. viii.