PRESENT DAY FACTORS IN NEW TESTAMENT STUDY. 43 



in the sayings recorded in that particular Gospel (see to tlie 

 same effect Jacquier, Le Nouveaii Testament dans UEglise 

 Chr6tienne, p. 141, 1911). 



But if St. Matthew's Gospel, as there is reason to believe, was 

 from the first the most popular,* owing perhaps to its sayings 

 and discourses, which would most readily strike the ear and 

 remain in the memory, then we can account for the phenomenon 

 mentioned. Moreover, it is very strange that these numerous 

 similarities in thought and word should scarcely be found out- 

 side the N'ew Testament books, in spite of their previous 

 influence, and that, apparently, we have no certain evidence of 

 The Testaments until the time of Origen. 



One of the most remarkable features in these Jewish books 

 is the omission, according to good evidence, of a suffering 

 Messiah. And this becomes a matter of great importance at 

 present, in face of the assertions of A. Drews, in Germany, that 

 the idea of a suffering and dying Messiah was by no means 

 unknown to the Jews. 



But even in the memorable passage IV Esdras vii, 29, where 

 we read that after 400 years, the Son of God, the Messiah, 

 should die, such a statement lias nothino- to do with the gjreat 

 prophecy of Isaiah liii. In the passage before us there is no 

 kind of suffering, the death of the Messiah is a purely natural 

 one — there is no violence associated with it — not only is the 

 Messiah to die, but all in whom there is human breath. It may 

 even be that the writer meant to emphasize the thought of the 

 new creation, which was to supersede the Jewish national 

 Messianic hope (see further for this prophecy International 

 Journal of Apocrypha, January, 1912). 



Anyhow, the whole conception of a suffering Messiah was 

 at variance with Jewish beliefs at the time of the Advent. 

 All the Gospels bear witness to this, and it may be fairly said 

 that it is not until after the fall of Jerusalem that we meet 

 with this conception of a suffering Messiah in Eabbinical 

 literature at all. 



III. In dealing with the subject of comparative religion the 

 relation of Christianity to the mystery religions is the question 

 most freely discussed, according to Dr. Kirsopp Lake and 

 Dr. Percy Gardner, in England, and they are strongly supported 

 by Eeitzenstein in Germany. But on the opposite side we 

 have Sir W. Eamsay and Dr. Warde Fowler.-|- 



* See Mr. C. H. Turner, Journal of Theological Studies, October, 1910. 

 t See bis Religious Experiences of the Roman People, ^. 467, and The 

 Modern Churchman, April, 1912. 



