Page:The kernel and the husk (Abbott, 1886).djvu/204

188 all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall in any wise hurt you." How are we to understand this "treading upon serpents and scorpions"? Literally or metaphorically? Surely the text itself makes it evident that Jesus used the words metaphorically to refer to "the power of the Enemy," i.e. "the Serpent," or Satan, probably with a special reference to the casting out of devils. Moreover the passage is introduced by a statement that "the Seventy returned with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us in thy name. And he said, I beheld Satan fall as lightning from Heaven. Behold I have given you authority to tread upon serpents...... Howbeit in this rejoice not that the spirits are subject unto you; but rejoice that your names are written in Heaven." As for the other part of the promise, "nothing shall hurt you," it surely does not seem to you that these words must imply literal "hurt"? If it does, let me direct your attention to a much more striking instance of Christ's extraordinary use of metaphor in a passage where the Disciples are told, almost in a breath, that not a hair of their heads shall perish and yet that some of them shall be "put to death" (Luke xxi. 16-18). I think then that you will agree with me that the "authority to tread upon serpents" mentioned in St. Luke contained not a literal, but a spiritual promise, to tread upon the power of "the Serpent." Nevertheless, that this promise about "serpents" was very early misinterpreted literally can be shewn, not indeed from a genuine passage of the Gospels, but from a very early interpolation in St. Mark's Gospel, xvi. 17, 18: "These signs shall follow them that believe; in my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall in no wise hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover."

Here then we have a clear instance of misunderstanding