Matthat, which was the son of Janna, which was the son of 25 Which was the son of By this theory Matthew gives the genealogy of Joseph (including in fact that of Mary) in the line of royal inheritance; Luke gives that of natural descent. is made clear by the following table: Line of Joseph's DAVID. Solomon. Nathan. Roboam. This natural descent from David. Mattatha. Amon. Addi. Neri. Salathiel-son by birth. Zorobabel. Abiud. Rhesa. that Jacob and Heli are two sons; the former, being the elder, is crown-heir; the second stands in the private line. Heli's son is JOSEPH; Jacob, the crownheir, has only a daughter, MARY. The royal line thus failing of a direct male heir, Joseph marries Mary and is thus transferred to the royal line both by kin and by marriage. From David Matthew traces the royal | Matthat. But this Matthat is the same line through Solomon to Jechonias; as Matthew's Matthan. Of this Matwhereas Luke gives the private line through Nathan to Salathiel. But Jechonias was childless, (Jer. xxii, 30,) so that with him the Solomonic line ended. Consequently Salathiel, of the Nathanic line, came into the royal heirship. By this transfer Salathiel stands in both namely, the line of natural descent from David through Nathan, and the line of political succession to the crown. From Zorobabel's son, Abiud, Matthew furnishes a series of heirs; from his other son, Rhesa, Luke gives the natural line of Joseph down to Both these views secure the true Davidic descent of Mary; which is indeed absolutely necessary to the fulfilment of that most explicit divine promise, (2 Sam. vii, 12,) "I will set up Mattathias, which was the son 31 Which was the son of 27 Which was the son of Joanna, which was the son of Rhesa, which was the son of Zorobabel, which was the son of Salathiel, which was the son of Neri, 33 Which was the son of Aminadab, which was the son of Aram, which was the son of Esrom, which was the son of Phares, which was the son of of Judah, of 28 Which was the son Melchi, which was the son 34 Which was the son of Addi, which was the son of Jacob, which was the son of Cosam, which was the son of Isaac, which was the son of Elmodam, which was the son of Abraham, which was the son Er, of Thara, which was the son of a 29 Which was the son of Nachor, Jose, which was the son of 35 Which was the son of SaEliezer, which was the son of ruch, which was the son of RaJorim, which was the son of gau, which was the son of PhaMatthat, which was the son of lec, which was the son of Heber, Levi, which was the son of Sala, of с 30 Which was the son of 38 b Which was the son of Simeon, which was the son Cainan, which was the son of Judah, which was the son of Arphaxad, which was the son Joseph, which was the son of of Sem, which was the son of Jonan, which was the son of Noah, which was the son of Eliakim, ∞ Zech. 12. 12.―y 2 Sam. 5. 14; 1 Chron. 3. 5. Ruth 4. 18, &c.; 1 Chron. 2. 10, &c.-a Gen. thy seed after thee which shall proceed out of thy bowels." So Peter affirms (Acts ii, 30) that God sware to David, "that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ." Words like these cannot be fulfilled by any adoptive or marriage paternity. Lamech, 11. 24, 26.b See Gen. 11. 12.-c Gen. 5. 6, &c., & 11. 10, &c. It has been inserted, both in the Septuagint and in this place, by means unknown. There seems to be some reason to suppose that it was first inserted in the Septuagint for the purpose of lengthening the chronology. It may thence have been inserted by early 36. Which was the son of Cainan-transcribers into Luke's genealogy in The name of this Cainan does not ap- order to make it agree with the Septupear in the Old Testament catalogues. agint. 37 Which was the son of Ma CHAPTER IV. a thusala, which was the son of AND Jesus being full of the Enoch, which was the son of Holy Ghost returned from Jared, which was the son of Jordan, and b was led by the Maleleel, which was the son of Spirit into the wilderness, Cainan, с 2 Being forty days tempted 38 Which was the son of of the devil. And in those Enos, which was the son of days he did eat nothing: and Seth, which was the son of when they were ended, he Adam, which was the son of afterward hungered. God. d d Gen. 5. 1, 2.-a Matt. 4. 1; Mark 1. 12. CHAPTER IV. 817. TEMPTATION OF JESUS, 1-13. Matt. iv, 1-11: Mark i, 12, 13. 1. Full of the Holy Ghost-Bestowed in full measure at his baptism. Returned from Jordan-Towards Jerusalem, probably, and thence to Nazareth. This is an important point. It has been objected, How could he be led into the wilderness, when at his baptism he was already in the wilderness? Jesus's back was towards the wilderness, we reply, and his face and movements toward Jerusalem, or Nazareth, when, as Mark says, "immediately the Spirit driveth him into the wilderness." 2. Being forty days tempted-For the full sacred period of forty days had the devil permission to inject into the intellect of the man Jesus distrust of his divine Sonship, awful conceptions of his Messianic suffering appealing to his will for a recantation, exhibitions of the selfish uses to which he may put his miraculous powers, and high imaginations of the grandeur he might attain if he would pervert his supernatural endowments to the attainment of dominion. When the forty days were at their close, the trial terminated in the threefold effort of Satan in person, narrated specifically by the evangelists. Did eat nothing-Van Oosterzee thinks that it is shown by Matt. xi, 18, that these words need mean only that he ate nothing outside the fasting diet, namely, of locusts and wild honey. Yet we need not hesitate to accept the 3 And the devil said unto b Ver. 14; ch. 2. 27.c Exod. 34. 28; 1 Kin. 19. 8 utmost latitude of their literal meaning. The instances of a Spinoza and a Newton show how powerful thought may suspend the demands of appetite. It is spirit which organizes, shapes, and controls body; not body, spirit: and the body disorganizes and dies because spirit is too weak to maintain the completeness and firmness of its mastery. The great spirit of Jesus, sustained by the Holy Spirit, and reined up to its full natural strength by this great crisis, held the bodily organ in complete subserviency to its uses. ble must have been the hungering reaction after such a fast! But how terri 3. The devil-For the nature of the devil, see our note on Matt. iv, 1. Some see not, still, how so great an intellect as Satan's should not see and reject the folly of evil. But all experience shows that great intellects encounter temptations proportionately great, and are liable to a proportionate fall. A Bacon, a Burr, à Buonaparte, could as readily yield to temptation as a simpleton or a boy. The intellect of a Satan may cover a stupendous circle of knowledge, and yet the circumference of that circle be so cut, as not to include a large amount of knowledge perfectly clear to men. Just so the eye of man may not see a microscopic world perfectly visible to the eye of an insect. Lange suggests a theory that Satan was the master-spirit of the world of monstrous lizards revealed to us by geology. Satan's judgment and fate took place in the catastrophe of that world Hence ne is the dragon, that old ser. him, If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread. 4 And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. and to whomsoever I will, I give it. 7 If thou therefore wilt i worship me, all shall be thine. 8 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for fit is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord 5 And the devil, taking him thy God, and him only shalt up into a high mountain, show-thou serve. ed unto him all the kingdoms of 9 And he brought him to Jeruthe world in a moment of time. salem, and set him on a pinnacle 6 And the devil said unto of the temple, and said unto him, All this power will I give him, If thou be the Son of God, thee, and the glory of them: cast thyself down from hence: for that is delivered unto me; 10 For it is written, He d Deut. 8. 3; Isa. 8. 20; Eph. 6. 17.-e John before me. - Deut. 6. 13, & 10. 20. Matt. 12. 31, & 14. 30; Rev. 13. 2.-1 Or, fall down 4. 5.-h Psa. 91. 11. pent." Hence, he found the serpent form most congenial for his brief incarnation in Eden. Hence his hatred for the human race that has superseded him. Hence, finally, his spirit breathes poison to man through nature, until his great Conqueror shall renovate the earth in holiness. This theory may solve a number of facts and expressions in Scripture; but Lange wisely allows no Scripture doctrine to depend upon its truth. Devil said unto him-Of course he spoke under no serpentine or bestial shape. And as Ebrard says, "It was no cloven-footed caricature taken from German mythology." It was in a form, to the utmost of his power, able to fascinate by his blandishments or subdue by menace and terror. 4. By bread alone-Deut. viii, 3. We understand Jesus (as does not Van Oosterzee) to quote the words in their original sense. God says to Israel, in effect, I sustained thee by strange supernatural means, to show thee that thou must trust, not in the material and earthly, but in God's declarations. So Christ will trust not in any questionable means, but commit aimself to the divine order. Luke, a doctrinal order. Hence, while Matthew's connective phrases then, again, claim to affirm the true order, Luke cautiously has only and. Luke's order is, 1. The appeal to the appetite; 2. The appeal to the desire for an earthly monarchy; 3. The appeal to the desire for a dashing supernatural exploitation, a showy triumph over the laws of nature. In Matthew there is a climax of faculties, namely, the appetites, the tastes, and the ambition. In Luke the climax is, power over personal gratification, power over men, power over the laws of nature. 7. If-In the three temptations there are three ifs, given obviously by Matthew in the true order. The first if questions whether he is the Son of God, and suggests a selfish test. The second if rather concedes the sonship, and bases upon it a selfish vain-glory. The third if concedes his fitness for a universal monarchy, and proposes a compact by which Jesus shall be the king, and Satan the god, of the earth. 10. It is written-The word of God, the venerable Old Testament, has been quoted by many illustrious characters; by Jesus, just now; by Gabriel, i, 18; 5. Up into a high mountain-Mat- by God, 1 Sam. ii, 30; and now in solemn thew, no doubt, follows the true histor- mimicry by Satan. So that neither cal order of the three temptations— | God, Christ, nor angels allow that slight shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee: 11 And in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. 13 And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season. 1 k 12 And Jesus answering said 14 And Jesus returned unto him, It is said, Thoum in the power of the Spirit i Deut. 6. 16.-k John 14. 30; Heb. 4. 15. regard for the Holy Book in which modern rationalism indulges. Satan alone handles it with an insidious spirit. Charge over thee-In the 91st Psalm a description is given of God's care of the ideal holy man; true in its degree of all saints, but absolutely true only in the absolutely holy One, the Messiah. 7 Matt. 4. 12; John 4. 43.-m Ver. 1. power to sin, having concentrated and reduced himself down to finite and human conditions. This is a German view not yet fully brought before the American Church. It is concisely but clearly presented and maintained by Dr. Nast in his commentary on Matt. iv, 1-11. PERIOD THIRD. THE PREPARATORY MINISTRY, iv, 14-vi, 11. Historical Synopsis (Vol. 1,) § 19-§ 34. From the temptation Jesus returns to the Jordan, receives John's attestation, and thence taking his first journey to Galilee, performs his first miracle at Cana, and then fixes his residence at Capernaum. 13. All the temptation-The fast of Moses of forty days was doubtless a miniature image of Israel's sojourn in the wilderness of forty years. So, too, this new founder of a spiritual Israel passes through the terrible ordeal which is representative of the probation his Church must pass in her earthly sojourning. Happy shall she be, like her Head, in the crowning victory. For a season-Defeated and discouraged, Satan lets him alone for a while. But intense malignity allows neither the devil nor at Jerusalem, cleanses the temple, He soon goes to his first Passover his angels or agents any permanent re-discourses with Nicodemus, and depose. He will harass Jesus, in his own parting into eastern Judea, baptizes coperson or through them, at every possi-ordinately with John. But upon hearble interval; and especially at the time of the events recorded Luke xxii, 3, and those following. To what we have said on the free moral agency of Christ, including his volitional power to obey temptation, we here add as follows. There are three views on the subject: 1. Christ had no volitional power to obey temptation. This is the old Calvinistic view, maintained especially by the adherents of the Synod of Dort, and especially by Dr. Edwards in his work on the Will. 2. The man Jesus had such volitional power. Tins is the old Arminian view, maintained by Episcopius, Limborch, and Curcellæus, against the dogmas of Dort. 3. The eternal Logos had the volitional ing of John's imprisonment he retires a § 23. JESUS RETIRES TO GALILEE AFTER Jesus returned-From the wilder |