214 LECTURES AND ESSAYS [1870- 



the Old Testament by the Hellenistic Jews, in their 

 efforts to force into harmony the abstract speculations 

 of the Greek philosophers and the living concrete truths 

 of Jehovah s personal dealings with His people. It was, 

 indeed, the only system of exegesis which was in natural 

 harmony with the spirit of Hellenic philosophy, which 

 always moved by preference in a region apart from 

 the wants of common humanity, and inevitably tended 

 to a one-sided exaltation of the eternal, unchangeable, 

 unhistorical voiV The Christian Church was urged 

 towards the same exegesis by many causes : the desire 

 to draw from every verse of Scripture a direct practical 

 application to Christian duty the perception that in 

 Old Testament prophecy much is really symbolical the 

 necessity of finding an answer to the Jewish objection 

 that many prophecies were in no proper sense fulfilled 

 in Christ. But after all, the real reason why men failed 

 rightly to understand the record of redemption, was 

 because they had no true comprehension of the work of 

 redemption. The theological conception of Christianity 

 as a new law did justice neither to the Christian con 

 sciousness of personal union to Christ nor to the historical 

 facts of Christ s work. It was impossible to interpret 

 Scripture rightly so long as men sought in it for what it 

 did not contain, for a system of abstract intellectual 

 truth instead of a Divine history of God s workings 

 among mankind, and in men s hearts, to set up on earth 

 the kingdom of heaven. Meantime the theological 

 authority of Scripture was fully acknowledged as supreme. 2 

 The words of the Old Testament writers, equally with 

 those of the incarnate Saviour, are the words and doctrine 

 of Christ, from which alone the faithful gain the wisdom 



1 We need only call to mind the interpretation of an ode of Simonides, 

 given by Socrates in the Protagoras, c. 26 sqq., to see how thoroughly 

 prone the Greek culture was to spiritualizing exegesis. 



2 Origen, Prin. iv. 156 Rue, KOIVO.I Zvvoiai and evdpyeia rCjv 



are not sufficient. Therefore 7rpo&amp;lt;77rapa\a / u/3d^o^ej /jLctprvpLo. TU&amp;gt;V 

 v ifuf elvai 



