136 Christ's use of Scripture. CHAP. 



the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the 

 God of Jacob. Now He is not the God of the dead, 

 but of the living : for all live unto Him." 1 



In some of Christ's applications of Scripture, He 

 claims for Himself a peculiar relation to it ; as in 

 that memorable discourse in the synagogue at 

 Nazareth, where He announces the fulfilment of 

 prophecy, and Himself as fulfilling it; 2 or in the 

 Sermon on the Mount, where He claims for Himself 

 authority to correct, to add to, or to supersede the 

 laws of Moses. But in most instances where He 

 quotes from the Scriptures He does not speak " with 

 authority," as fulfilling a prophecy or making a 

 revelation ; but uses Scripture, as His disciples from 

 Saint Paul downwards have constantly done, for 

 enforcement and illustration of the truths on which 

 He is insisting. The passage now under considera- 

 tion belongs to the second of these two classes. 

 Christ here claims for Himself no special relation to 

 Scripture. He is not speaking " with authority," or 

 making any new revelation. He is neither fulfilling 

 the prophecies of Isaiah nor correcting the laws of 

 Moses ; He is telling His audience what they ought 

 to have found in Moses for themselves. 



In order fully to understand our Lord's drift in 

 this discourse, we must remember that the Sadducees, 

 to whom it was addressed, regarded the Prophets, as 

 well as the Psalms and the other Hagiographa, as 

 inferior in authority to the Books of Moses. Now it 

 1 Luke xx. 34-38. 2 Luke iv. 16-21. 



