Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 14.djvu/658

 THEOLOGY

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THEOLOGY

"thirty pieces of silver" (xi); the Psalmist praying in the anguish of his soul is a type of Christ in His agony (Ps. liv) ; His capture is foretold in the words "pursue and take him" and "they will hunt after the soul of the just" (Ps. Ixx; xciii); His trial with its false witnesses may be found represented in the words "unjust witnesses have risen up against me, and iniquity hath lied to itself" (Ps. xxvi) ; His flagel- lation is portrayed in the description of the man of sorrows (Is.,lii, 13; Hii, 12) and the words "scourges were gathered together upon me" (Ps. xxxiv); the betrayer's evil lot is pictured in the imprecations of Psalm cviii; the crucifixion is referred to in the pass- ages "What are these wounds in the midst of thy hands?" (Zach., xiii), "Let us condemn him to a most shameful death" (Wisd., ii), and "They have dug my hands and my feet" (Ps. xxi); the miraculous dark- ness occurs in Amos, viii; the gall and vinegar are spoken of in Ps. Ixviii; the pierced heart of Christ is foreshadowed in Zach., xii. The sacrifice of Isaac (Gen., x,xi, 1-14), the scapegoat (Lev., xvi, 1-28), the ashes of purification (Num., xix, 1-10), and the brazen serpent (Num., xxi, 4-9) hold a prominent place among the types prefiguring the suffering Messias. The third chapter of Lamentations is justly considered as the dirge of our buried Redeemer.

(8) Finally, the glory of the Messias has been fore- told by the Prophets of the Old Testament. The con- text of such phrases as "I have risen because the Lord hath protected me" (Ps. iii), "My flesh shall rest in hope" (Ps. xv), "On the third day he will raise us up" (Osee, v, 15, vi, 3), "O death, I will be thy death" (Osee, xiii, 6-1.5a), and "I know that my Re- deemer Uveth" (Job, xix, 23-27) referred the devout Jewish worshipper to something more than a merely earthly restoration, the fulfilment of which began to be realized in the Resurrection of Christ. _ This mys- tery is also implied, at least tjT)ically, in the first fruits of the harvest (Lev., xxiii, 9-14) and the de- livery of Jonas from the belly of the fish (Jon., ii). Nor is the Resurrection of the Messias the only ele- ment of Christ's glory predicted by the Prophets. Ps. Ixvii refers to the Ascension; Joel, ii, 28-32, to the coming of the Paraclete; Is., Ix, to the call of the Gen- tiles; Mich., iv, 1-7, to the conversion of the Syna- gogue; Dan., ii, 27-47, to the kingdom of the Messias as compared with the kingdom of the world. Other characteristics of the Messianic kingdom are typified by the tabernacle (Ex., xxv, 8-9; xxix, 43; xl, 33-36; Num., ix, 15-23), the mercy-seat (Ex., xxv, 17-22; Ps. Ixxix, 1), Aaron the high priest (Ex., xxviii, 1; xxx, 1; 10; Num., xvi, 39-40), the manna (Ex., xvi, 1-15; Ps. Ixxvii, 24^25), and the rock of Horeb (Ex., xvii, 5-7; Num., xx, 10-11; Ps. civ, 41). A Canticle of thanksgiving for the Messianic benefits is found in Is,, xii.

The Books of the Old Testament are not the only source from which the Christian theologian may learn the Messianic ideas of pre-Christian Jewry. The Sibylline oracles, the Book of Enoch, the Book of Jubilees, the Psalms of Solomon, the Ascensio Moysis, the Revelation of Baruch, the Fourth Book of Esdras, and several Talmudic and Rabbinic writings are rich depositories of pre-Christian views concerning the ex- pected Messias. Not that all of these works were written before the coming of Christ ; l)ut, though par- tially post-Christian in their authorship, they preserve a picture of tlie Jewish world of thought, dating back, at least in its outline, centuries before the coming of Christ.

(B) New Testament. — Some modern writers tell us that there are two Christs, as it were, the Messias of faith and the Jesus of history. They regard the Lord and Christ, Whom God exalted by raising Him from the dead, as the subject of Christian faith; and Jesus of Nazareth, the preacher and worker of mir- acles, as the theme of the historian. They assiu-e us

that it is quite impossible to persuade even the least experienced critic that Jesus taught, in formal terms and at one and the same time, the Christologj' of Paul, that of John, and the doctrines of Nicsea, of Ephesus, and of Chalcedon. Otherwise the history of the first Christian centuries appears to these writers to be quite inconceivable. The Fomth Gospel is said to lack the data which underlie the definitions of the first oecumenical councils and to supply testimony that is not a supplement, but a corrective, of the por- trait of Jesus drawn by the Synoptics. These two accounts of the Christ are represented as mutually exclusive: if Jesus spoke and acted as He speaks and acts in the Synoptic Gospels, then He cannot have spoken and acted as He is reported by St. John. We shall here briefly review the Christ ology of St. Paul, of the Cathohc Epistles, of the Fourth Gospel, and the Synoptics. Thus we shall give the reader a com- plete Christology of the New Testament and at the same time the data necessary to control the conten- tions of the Modernists. The Christology will not, however, be complete in the sense that it extends to all the details concerning Jesus Christ taught in the New Testament, but in the sense that it gives His essential characteristics taught in the whole of the New Testament.

(1) Pauhne Christology. — St. Paul insists on the truth of Christ's real humanity and Divinity, in spite of the fact that at first sight the reader is confronted with tliree objects in the Apostle's writings: God, the human world, and the ]\Iediator. But then the latter is both Divine and human, both God and man.

(a) Clirist's Humanity in the Pauline Epistles. — The expressions "form of aservant", "in habit found as a man", "in the hkeness of sinful flesh" (PhU., ii, 7; Rom., viii, 3) may seem to impau- the real humanity of Christ in the Pauhne teaching. But in reahty they only describe a mode of being or hint at the presence of a higher nature in Christ not seen by the senses, or they contrast Christ's human nature with the natm'e of that sinful race to which it belongs. On the other hand the Apostle plainly speaks of Our Lord manifested in the flesh (I Tim., iii, 16), as possessing a body of flesh (Col., i, 22), as being "made of a woman" (Gal., iv, 4), as being born of the seed of David according to the flesh (Rom., i, 3), as belonging according to the flesh to the race of Israel (Rom., ix, 5). As a Jew, Jesus Christ was born under the Law (Gal., iv, 4). The Apostle dwells with emphasis on Our Lord's real share in our physical human weakness (II Cor., xiii, 4), on His life of suffering (Heb., v, 8) reaching its climax in the Passion (ibid., i, 5; Phil., iii, 10; Col., i, 24). Only in two respects did Our Lord's humanity differ from the rest of men: first in its entire sinlessness (II Cor., v, 21; Gal., ii, 17; Rom., viii, 3); secondly, in the fact that Our Lord was the second Adam, representing the whole human race (Rom., v, 12-21; 1 Cor., xv, 45-49).

(b) Christ's Divinity in the Pauhne Epistles. — According to St. Paul, the superiority of the Christian revelation over all other Divine manifestations, and the perfection of the New Covenant with its sacrifice and priesthood, are derived from the fact that Christ is the Son of God (Heb., i, 1 sq.; v, 5 sq.; ii, 5 sq.; Rom., i, 3; Gal., iv, 4; Eph., iv, 13; Col., i, 12 sq.; ii, 9 sq.; etc.). The Apostle understands by the expression "Son of God" not a merely moral dignity, or a merely external relation to God which began in time, but an eternal and immanent relation of Christ to the Father. He contrasts Christ with, and finds Him superior to, Aaron and his successors, Moses and the Prophets (Heb., v, 4; x, 11; vii, 1-22; iii, 1-6; i, 1). He raises Christ above the choirs of angels, and makes Him their Lord and Master (Heb., i, 3; 14; ii, 2-3), and scats Him as heir of all things at the right hand of the Father (Heb., i, 2-3;