Lange Commentary - Matthew

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Lange Commentary - Matthew


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THE

GOSPEL

ACCORDING TO

MATTHEW

TOGETHER WITH A GENERAL THEOLOGICAL, AND HOMILETICAL INTRODUCTION TO THE NEW TESTAMENT

by

JOHN PETER LANGE, D. D.

Professor Of Theology At The University Of Bonn

TRANSLATED FROM THE THIRD GERMAN EDITION, WITH ADDITIONS ORIGINAL AND SELECTED,

By PHILIP SCHAFF, D.D.

VOL. I. OF THE NEW TESTAMENT: CONTAINING A GENERAL INTRODUCTION, AND THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW

PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION

THE BIBLE

The Bible is the book of life, written for the instruction and edification of all ages and nations. No man who has felt its divine beauty and power, would exchange this one volume for all the literature of the world. Eternity alone can unfold the extent of its influence for good. The Bible, like the person and work of our Saviour, is theanthropic in its character and aim. The eternal personal Word of God “was made flesh,” and the whole fulness of the Godhead and of sinless manhood were united in one person forever. So the spoken word of God may be said to have become flesh in the Bible. It is therefore all divine, and yet all human, from beginning to end. Through the veil of the letter we behold the glory of the eternal truth of God. The divine and human in the Bible sustain a similar relation to each other, as in the person of Christ: they are unmixed, yet inseparably united, and constitute but one life, which kindles life in the heart of the believer.

Viewed merely as a human or literary production, the Bible is a marvellous book, and without a rival. All the libraries of theology, philosophy, history, antiquities, poetry, law and policy would not furnish material enough for so rich a treasure of the choicest gems of human genius, wisdom, and experience. It embraces works of about forty authors, representing the extremes of society, from the throne of the king to the boat of the fisherman; it was written during a long period of sixteen centuries, on the banks of the Nile, in the desert of Arabia, in the land of promise, in Asia Minor, in classical Greece, and in imperial Rome; it commences with the creation and ends with the final glorification, after describing all the intervening stages in the revelation of God and the spiritual development of man; it uses all forms of literary composition; it rises to the highest heights and descends to the lowest depths of humanity; it measures all states and conditions of life; it is acquainted with every grief and every woe; it touches every chord of sympathy; it contains the spiritual biography of every human heart; it is suited to every class of society, and can be read with the same interest and profit by the king and the beggar, by the philosopher and the child; it is as universal as the race, and reaches beyond the Limits of time into the boundless regions of eternity. Even this matchless combination of human excellencies points to its divine character and origin, as the absolute perfection of Christ’s humanity is an evidence of His divinity.

But the Bible is first and last a book of religion. It presents the only true, universal, and absolute religion of God, both in its preparatory process or growth under the dispensation of the law and the promise, and in its completion under the dispensation of the gospel, a religion which is intended ultimately to absorb all the other religions of the world. It speaks to us as immortal beings on the highest, noblest, and most important themes which can challenge our attention, and with an authority that is absolutely irresistible and overwhelming. It can instruct, edify, warn, terrify, appease, cheer, and encourage as no other book. It seizes man in the hidden depths of his intellectual and moral constitution, and goes to the quick of the soul, to that mysterious point where it is connected with the unseen world and with the great Father of spirits. It acts like an all-penetrating and all-transforming leaven upon every faculty of the mind and every emotion of the heart. It enriches the memory; it elevates the reason; it enlivens the imagination; it directs the judgment; it moves the affections; it controls the passions; it quickens the conscience; it strengthens the will; it kindles the sacred flame of faith, hope, and charity; it purifies, ennobles, sanctifies the whole man, and brings him into living union with God. It can not only enlighten, reform, and improve, but regenerate and create anew, and produce effects which lie far beyond the power of human genius. It has light for the blind, strength for the weak, food for the hungry, drink for the thirsty; it has a counsel in precept or example for every relation in life, a comfort for every sorrow, a balm for every wound. Of all the books in the world, the Bible is the only one of which we never tire, but which we admire and love more and more in proportion as we use it. Like the diamond, it casts its lustre in every direction; like a torch, the more it is shaken, the more it shines; like a healing herb, the harder it is pressed, the sweeter is its fragrance.

What an unspeakable blessing, that this inexhaustible treasure of divine truth and comfort is now accessible, without material alteration, to almost every nation on earth in its own tongue, and, in Protestant countries at least, even to the humblest man and woman that can read! Nevertheless we welcome every new attempt to open the meaning of this book of books, which is plain enough to a child, and yet deep enough for the profoundest philosophe and the most comprehensive scholar.

EPOCHS OF EXEGESIS

The Bible—and this is one of the many arguments for its divine character—has given rise to a greater number of discourses, essays, and commentaries, than any other book or class of books; and yet it is now as far from being exhausted as ever. The strongest and noblest minds, fathers, schoolmen, reformers, and modern critics and scholars of every nation of Christendom, have labored in these mines and brought forth precious ore, and yet they are as rich as ever, and hold out the same inducements of plentiful reward to new miners. The long line of commentators will never break off until faith shall be turned into vision, and the church militant transformed into the church triumphant in heaven.

Biblical exegesis, like every other branch of theological science, has its creative epochs and classical periods, followed by periods of comparative rest, when the results gained by the productive labor of the preceding generation are quietly digested and appropriated to the life of the church.

There are especially three such classical periods: the patristic, the reformatory, and the modern. The exegesis of the fathers, with the great names of Chrysostom and Theodoret of the Greek, and Jerome and Augustine of the Latin Church, is essentially Catholic; the exegesis of the reformers, as laid down in the immortal biblical works of Luther and Melanch thon, Zwingli and Œcolampadius, Calvin and Beza, is Protestant; the modern exegesis of Germany, England, and America, may be called, in its best form and ruling spirit, Evangelical Catholic. It includes, however, a large variety of theological schools, as represented in the commentaries of Olshausen and Tholuck, Lücke and Bleek, Hengstenberg and Delitzsch, Ewald and Hupfeld, de Wette and Meyer, Lange and Stier, Alford and Ellicott, Stuart and Robinson, Hodge and Alexander, and many others still working with distinguished success. The modern Anglo-German exegesis is less dogmatical, confessional, and polemical than either of its predecessors, but more critical, free, and liberal, more thorough and accurate in all that pertains to philological and antiquarian research; and while it thankfully makes use of the labors of the fathers and reformers, it seems to open the avenue for new developments in the ever-expanding and deepening history of Christ’s kingdom on earth.

The patristic exegesis is, to a large extent, the result of a victorious conflict of ancient Christianity with Ebionism, Gnosticism, Arianism, Pelagianism, and other radical heresies, which roused and stimulated the fathers to a vigorous investigation and defence of the truth as laid down in the Scriptures and believed by the Church. The exegesis of the reformers bears on every page the marks of the gigantic war with Romanism and its traditions of men. So the modern evangelical theology of Germany has grown up amidst the changing fortunes of a more than thirty years’ war of Christianity with Rationalism and Pantheism. The future historian will represent this intellectual and spiritual conflict, which is not yet concluded, as one of the most important and interesting chapters in history, and as one of the most brilliant victories of faith over unbelief, of Christian truth over anti-Christian error. The German mind has never, since the Reformation, developed a more intense and persevering activity, both for and against the gospel, than in this period, and if it should fully overcome the modern and most powerful attacks upon Christianity, it will achieve as important a work as the Reformation of the sixteenth century. Former generations have studied the Bible with as much and perhaps more zeal, earnestness, and singleness of purpose, than the present. But never before has it been subjected to such thorough and extensive critical, philological, historical, and antiquarian, as well as theological investigation and research. Never before has it been assailed and defended with more learning, acumen, and perseverance. Never before has the critical apparatus been so ample or so easy of access the most ancient manuscripts of the Bible having been newly discovered, as the Codex Sinaiticus, or more carefully compared and published (some of them in fac-simile), as the Codex Sinaiticus, Vaticanus, Alexandrinus, Ephraemi Syri, and the discoveries and researches of travellers, antiquarians, historians, and chronologers being made tributary to the science of the Book of books. No age has been so productive in commentaries on almost every part of the sacred canon, but more particularly on the Gospels, the Life of Christ, and the Epistles of the New Testament. It is very difficult to keep up with the progress of the German press in this department. One commentary follows another in rapid succession, and the best of them are constantly reappearing in new and improved editions, which render the old ones useless for critical purposes. Still the intense productivity of this period must sooner or later be exhausted, and give way to the more quiet activity of reproduction and application.

The time has now arrived for the preparation of a comprehensive theological commentary which shall satisfy all the theoretical and practical demands of the evangelical ministry of the present generation, and serve as a complete exegetical library for constant reference: a commentary learned, yet popular, orthodox and sound, yet unsectarian, liberal and truly catholic in spirit and aim; combining with original research the most valuable results of the exegetical labors of the past and the present, and making them available for the practical use of ministers and the general good of the church. Such a commentary can be sucessfully wrought out only at such a fruitful period of Biblical research as the present, and by an association of experienced divines equally distinguished for ripe scholarship and sound piety, and fully competent to act as mediators between the severe science of the professorial chair and the practical duties of the pastoral office.

LANGE’S COMMENTARY

Such a commentary is the Bibelwerk of Dr. Lange, assisted by a number of distinguished evangelical divines and pulpit orators of Germany, Switzerland, and Holland. This work was commenced in 1857, at the suggestion of the publishers, Velhagen and Klasing, in Bielefeld, Prussia, on a plan similar to that of Starke’s Synopsis, which appeared a hundred years ago, and has since been highly prized by ministers and theological students as a rich storehouse of exegetical and homiletical learning, but which is now very rare, and to a large extent antiquated.

It is to embrace gradually the whole Old and New Testament. The Rev. Dr. John P. Lange, professor of evangelical theology in the University of Bonn, assumed the general editorial supervision; maturing the plan and preparing several parts himself (Matthew, Mark, John, Romans, and Genesis), selecting the assistants and assigning to them their share in the work. It is a very laborious and comprehensive undertaking, which requires a variety of talents, and many years of united labor. It is the greatest literary enterprise of the kind undertaken in the present century. Herzog’s Theological Encyclopœdia, of which the eighteenth volume has just been published (with two volumes of supplements still in prospect), is a similar monument of German learning and industry, and will be, for many years to come, a rich storehouse for theological students. So far the Commentary of Lange has progressed rapidly and steadily, and proved decidedly successful. Even in its present unfinished state, it has already met with a wider circulation than any modern commentary within the same time, and it grows in favor as it advances.

The following parts, of the New T., have been published, or are in course of preparation:

I. The Gospel according to Matthew, with an Introduction to the whole New Testament. By Dr. John P. Lange, 1857. Second (third) edition revised, 1861.

II. The Gospel according to Mark. By Dr. John P. Lange. Second edition revised, 1861.

III. The Gospel according to Luke. By Dr. J. J. van Oosterzee, professor of theology at Utrecht. Second edition revised, 1861.

IV. The Gospel according to John. By Dr. John P. Lange. Second edition, 1862.

V. The Acts of the Apostles. By Prof. Dr. G. Lechler, of Leipzig, and Dean K. Gerok, of Stuttgart. Second edition revised, 1862.

VI. The Epistle to the Romans, now in course of preparation by the editor, in connection with his son-in-law, Rev. Mr. Fay, in Crefeld, who assumed the homiletical part.

VII. The Epistles to the Corinthians. By the Rev. Dr. Chr. Fr. Kling, 1862.

VIII. The Epistle to the Galatians. By the Rev. Otto Schmoller, 1862.

IX. The Epistles to the Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians. By Prof. Dr. Dan. Schenkel, of Heidelberg, 1862.

X. The Epistles to the Thessalonians. By Prof. Drs. C. A. Auberlen and Chr. John Riggenbach, of Basel, 1864.

XI. The Pastoral Epistles and The Epistle to Philemon. By Dr. J. J. van Oosterzee, of Utrecht. Second edition revised, 1864.

XII. The Epistle to the Hebrews. By Prof. Dr. C. B. Moll, 1861.

XIII. The Epistle of James. By Prof. Drs. J. P. Lange and J. J. van Oosterzee, 1862.

XIV. The Epistles of Peter and The Epistle of Jude, by Dr. G. F. C. Fronmüller. Second edition revised, 1861.

The remaining parts, of the N. T., containing The Epistles of John, and The Revelation, have not yet appeared. Part VI. (on the Epistle to the Romans) and Part XV are, however, in process of preparation, and may be expected within a year.

Of the Commentary on The Old Testament, one volume has just been published (1864), which contains a general Introduction to the whole Old Testament, and a commentary on Genesis by the editor.

According to a private letter of our esteemed friend, Dr. Lange, the following dispositions have already been made concerning the Old Testament:

Deuteronomy. By Rev. Jul. Schröder, of Elberfeld (successor of Dr. F. W. Krummacher as pastor, and author of an excellent practical commentary on Genesis).

Joshua. By Rev. Mr. Schneider, rector of the seminary at Bromberg.

Judges and Ruth. By Dr. Paulus Cassel, in Berlin.

Kings. By Dr. Bähr, in Carlsruhe (author of the celebrated work on the Symbolism of the Mosaic Worship, etc.).

The Psalms. By Dr. Moll, general superintendent in Königsberg.

Jeremiah. By Rev. Dr. Nägelsbach, of Bayreuth.

DR. LANGE

The reader will naturally feel some curiosity about the personal history and character of the editor and manager of this great Biblical work, who heretofore has been less known among English readers than many German divines of far inferior talent. Only two of his many works have been brought out in an English dress, and they only quite recently, namely, his Life of Jesus, and parts of his Commentary on the Gospels.

Dr. Lange was born on the 10th of April, 1802, on the Bier, a small farm in the parish of Sonnborn, near Elberfeld, in Prussia. His father was a farmer and a wagoner, and brought his son up to the same occupation, but allowed him, at the same time, to indulge his passion for reading. Young Lange often drove the products of the soil to market. He early acquired an enthusiastic love of nature, which revealed to his poetic and pious mind, as in a mirror, the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. He was instructed in the doctrines of the Heidelberg Catechism, which is still in use among the Reformed Churches on the Rhine, although the Lutheran and Reformed Confessions are united in Prussia since 1817 under one government and administration, and bear the name of the United Evangelical Church. His Latin teacher, the Rev. Herrmann Kalthof, who discovered in him unusual talents, induced him to study for the ministry. He attended the Gymnasium (College) of Düsseldorf from Easter, 1821, to autumn, 1822, and the University of Bonn from 1822 to 1825. There he studied mainly under Dr. Nitzsch, the most venerable of the living divines of Germany, who for many years was a strong pillar of evangelical theology in Bonn and subsequently in Berlin. The writings of Nitzsch, though pregnant with deep thoughts and suggestive hints, give but an imperfect idea of his power, which lies chiefly in his pure, earnest, and dignified, yet mild and amiable personal character. He is emphatically a homo gravis, a Protestant church-father, who, by his genius, learning, and piety, commands the respect of all theological schools and ecclesiastical parties.

After passing through the usual examination, Lange labored from 1825 to 1826 in the quiet but very pleasant town of Langenberg, near Elberfeld, as assistant minister to the Rev. Emil Krummacher (a brother of the celebrated Dr. Frederic William Krummacher, who wrote the sermons on Elijah the Tishbite, and other popular works). From thence he was called to the pastoral charge of Wald, near Solingen, where he remained from 1826 to 1828. In 1832 he removed as pastor to Duisburg, and began to attract public attention by a series of brilliant articles in Hengstenberg’s Evangelical Church Gazette and other periodicals, also by poems, sermons, and a very able work on the history of the infancy of our Saviour, against Strauss’s Life of Jesus. In 1841 he was called to the University of Zürich, in Switzerland, as professor of theology in the place of the notorious Strauss, who had been appointed by the radical and infidel administration of that Canton, but was prevented from taking possession of the chair by a religious and political revolution of the people. In Zürich he labored with great per severance and fidelity in the midst of many discouragements till 1854, when he received a cal to the University of Bonn, in Prussia, where he will probably end his days on earth.

Dr. Lange is undoubtedly one of the ablest and purest divines that Germany ever produced. He is a man of rare genius and varied culture, sanctified by deep piety, and devoted to the service of Christ. Personally he is a most amiable Christian gentleman, genial, affectionate, unassuming, simple, and unblemished in all the relations of life. He combines an unusual variety of gifts, and excels as a theologian, philosopher, poet, and preacher. He abounds in original ideas, and if not always convincing, he is always fresh, interesting, and stimulating. He is at home in the ideal heights and mystic depths of nature and revelation, and yet has a clear and keen eye for the actual and real world around him. He indulges in poetico-philosophical speculations, and at times soars high above the clouds and beyond the stars, to the spiritual and eternal “land of glory,” on which he once wrote a fascinating book. His style is fresh, vigorous, and often truly beautiful and sublime, but somewhat deficient in simplicity, clearness, and condensation, and is too much burdened with compound, semi-poetical, unwieldy epithets, which offer peculiar difficulties to the translator. His speculations and fancies cannot always stand the test of sober criticism, although we might wish them to be true. But they are far less numerous in his Commentary than in his former writings. They are, moreover, not only harmless, but suggestive and pious, and supply a lack in that sober, realistic, practical, prosaic common-sense theology which deals with facts and figures rather than the hidden causes and general principles of things, and never breathes the invigorating mountain air of pure thought.

Poetical divines of real genius are so rare that we should thank God for the few. Why should poetry, the highest and noblest of the arts, be banished from theology? Has not God joined them together in the first and last chapters of the Bible? Has He not identified poetry with the very birth of Christianity, in the angelic hymn, as well as with its ultimate triumphs, in the hallelujahs of the countless host of the redeemed? Is it not one of the greatest gifts of God to man, and an unfailing source of the purest and richest enjoyments? Is it not an essential element and ornament of divine worship? Can any one fully understand and explain the Book of Job, the Psalms and the Prophets, the Parables, and the Apocalypse, without a keen sense of the beautiful and sublime? Theology and philosophy, in their boldest flights and nearest approaches to the vision of truth, unconsciously burst forth in the festive language of poetry; and poetry itself, in its highest and noblest forms, is transformed into worship of Him who is the eternal source of the True, the Beautiful, and the Good. No one will deny this who is familiar with the writings of St. Augustine, especially his Confessions, where the metaphysical and devotional elements interpenetrate each other, where meditation ends in prayer, and speculation in adoration. But the greatest philosophers, too, not only Plato, Schelling, and Coleridge, who were constitutionally poetical, but even Aristotle, Kant, and Hegel, who were the greatest masters of pure reasoning and metaphysical abstraction, provethis essential harmony of truth and beauty. The poetic and imaginative element imparts freshness to thought, and turns even the sandy desert of dry critical research into a blooming flower garden. I fully admit, of course, that the theologian must regulate his philosophical speculations by the word of revelation, and control his poetic imagination by sound reason and judgment. Lange represents, among German divines, in hopeful anticipation, the peaceful and festive harmony of theology and poetry, of truth and beauty, which exists now in heaven, “the land of glory,” and will be actualized on the new earth. Take the following striking passage on the locality and beauty of heaven, as a characteristic specimen of his thought and style:

“When the beautiful in the world manifests itself alone, so that the friendly features of God’s character are exclusively seen, profane souls remain profanely inclined; yea, they become even more profligate in the misuse of the riches of God’s goodness. If, on the other hand, the greatness and power of God are revealed in the rugged and terribly sublime, in the hurricane, in the ocean-storm, then the profane are overwhelmed with horror, which is easily changed into fear, and may manifest itself in hypocritical or superficial exhibitions of penitence; but when the goodness and power of God manifest themselves in one and the same bright phenomenon, this produces a frame of spirit which speaks of that which is holy. This is the reason why the much-praised valley of the Rhine is so solemn and sabbatic, because it is enamelled by a blending of the beautiful and the sublime: stern mountains, rugged rocks, ruins of the past, vestiges of grandeur, monumental columns of God’s power, and these columns at the same time garlanded with the loving wreaths of God’s favor and goodness, in the midst of smiling vineyards which repose sweetly around in the mild sunlight of heaven. For this reason the starry night is so instructive—the grandest dome decked with the brightest radiance of kindness and love. For the same reason there is such magic attraction in the morning dawn and in the evening twilight: they take hold upon us like movings to prayer; because in them beauty is so mingled with holy rest, with spiritual mystery, with the earnest and sublime. Thus does it meet the festive children of this world, who are generally of a prayerless spirit, so that they are as it were prostrated upon the earth in deep devotion, when some great sight in nature, in which the beautiful is clothed with sublime earnestness, bursts upon their view; or when, on the other hand, some marked manifestation of God’s power is associated with heart-moving wooings of kindness. Accordingly, we hear one tell what pious emotions he felt stirring his bosom, when he beheld the wide-extended country from the top of the Pyrenees; another tells how the spirit of prayer seized upon his soul when he stood upon the height of Caucasus, and felt, as he looked over the eastern fields and valleys of Asia, as if heaven had opened itself before him. Such witnesses might be gathered to almost any extent.

“But now it is certain that there must be some place in the upper worlds where the beauties and wonders of God’s works are illuminated to the highest transparency by his power and holy majesty; where the combination of lovely manifestations, as seen from radiant summits, the enraptured gaze into the quiet valleys of universal creation, and the streams of light which flow through them, must move the spirits of the blest in the mightiest manner, to cry out: Holy! Holy! Holy!—And there is the holiest place in the great Temple! It is there, because there divine manifestations fill all spirits with a feeling of his holiness. But still rather, because there he reveals himself through holy spirits, and through the holiest one of all, even Jesus Himself!”

Dr. Lange’s theology is essentially biblical and evangelical catholic, and inspired by a fresh and refreshing enthusiasm for truth under all its types and aspects. It is more positive and decided than that of Neander or Tholuck, yet more liberal and conciliatory than the orthodoxy of Hengstenberg, which is often harsh and repulsive. Lange is one of the most uncompromising opponents of German rationalism and scepticism, and makes no concessions to the modern attacks on the gospel history. But he always states his views with moderation, and in a Christian and amiable spirit; and he endeavors to spiritualize and idealize doctrines and facts, and thus to make them more plausible to enlightened reason. His orthodoxy, it is true, is not the fixed, exclusive orthodoxy either of the old Lutheran, or of the old Calvinistic Confession, but it belongs to that recent evangelical type which arose in conflict with modern infidelity, and going back to the Reformation and the still higher and purer fountain of primitive Christianity as it came from the hands of Christ and His inspired apostles, aims to unite the true elements of the Reformed and Lutheran Confessions, and on this firm historical basis to promote catholic unity and harmony among the conflicting branches of Christ’s Church. It is evangelical catholic, churchly, yet unsectarian, conservative, yet progressive; it is the truly living theology of the age. It is this very theology which, for the last ten or twenty years, has been transplanted in multiplying translations to the soil of other Protestant countries, which has made a deep and lasting impression on the French, Dutch, and especially on the English and American mind. It is this theology which is now undergoing a process of naturalization and amalgamation in the United States, which will here be united with the religious fervor, the sound, strong common sense, and free, practical energy of the Anglo-American race, and which in this modified form has a wider field of usefulness before it in this new world than even in its European fatherland.

Dr. Lange is an amazingly fertile author. Several of his works belong to the department of belle-lettres, æsthetics, and hymnology. Some of his hymns have deservedly found a place in modern German hymn books, and help to swell the devotions of the sanctuary. His principal works on theological subjects are, first, a complete system of Divinity, in three parts, severally entitled: Philosophical Dogmatics, Positive Dogmatics, and Applied Dogmatics (or Polemics and Irenics). This is an exceedingly able work, abounding in original and profound ideas, but artificial and complicated in its arrangement, often transcending the boundaries of logic, and in many sections almost untranslatable. His second great work is a Life of Jesus, also in three parts, which, upon the whole, is justly regarded as the fullest and ablest modern work on the subject, and the best positive refutation of Strauss. It has quite recently been given to the English public by Mr. Clark, in six volumes. His History of the Apostolic Church, in two volumes, was intended as the beginning of a general History of Christianity, which, however, has not been continued. But the last, the most important, and the most useful labor, worthy to crown such a useful life, is his Theological and Homiletical Commentary. All his preceding labors, especially those on the Life of Christ, prepared him admirably for the exposition of the Gospels, which contains the rich harvest of the best years of his manhood. This Commentary will probably engage his time for several years to come, and will make his name as familiar in England and America as it is in Germany.

I add a complete list of all the published works of Dr. Lange, including his poetry, in chronological order:

1. Die Lehre der heiligen Schrift von der freien und allgemeinen Gnade Gottes. Elberfeld, 1831.

2. Biblische Dichtungen. 1 Bändchen. Elberfeld, 1832.

3. Predigten. München, 1833.

4. Biblische Dichtungen. 2 Bändchen. Elberfeld, 1834.

5. Kleine polemische Gedichte. Duisburg, 1835.

6. Gedichte und Sprüche aus dem Gebiete christlicher Naturbetrachtung. Duisburg, 1835.

7. Die Welt des Herrn in didaktischen Gesängen. Essen, 1835.

8. Die Verfinsterung der Welt. Lehrgedicht. Berlin, 1838.

9. Grundzüge der urchristlichen frohen Botschaft. Duisburg, 1839.

10. Homilien über Colosser iii. 1–17. Vierte Auflage. Bremen, 1844.

11. Christliche Betrachtungen über zusammenhängende biblische Abschnitte für die häusliche Erbauung. Duisburg, 1841.

12. Ueber den geschichtlichen Character der kanonischen Evangelien, insbesondere der Kindheitsgeschichts Jesu, mit Beziehung auf das Leben Jesu von D. F. Strauss. Duisburg, 1836.

13. Das Land der Herrlichkeit, oder die christliche Lehre vom Himmel. Mörs, 1838.

14. Vermischte Schriften, 4 Bände. Mörs, 1840–’41.

15. Gedichte. Essen, 1843.

16. Die kirchliche Hymnologie, oder die Lehre vom Kirchengesang. Theoretische Einleitung und Kircher liederbuch. Zürich, 1843.

17. Das Leben Jesu, 3 Bücher. Heidelberg, 1844–’47.

18. Worte der Abwehr (in Beziehung auf das Leben Jesu). Zürich, 1846.

19. Christliche Dogmatik, 3 Bände. Philosophische, Positive, und Angewandte Dogmatik. Heidelberg, 1847.

20. Ueber die Neugestaltung des Verhältnisses zwischen dem Staat und der Kirche. Heidelberg, 1848.

21. Neutestamentliche Zeitgedichte. Frankfurt a. M., 1849.

22. Briefe eines communistischen Propheten. Breslau, 1850.

23. Göthe’s religiöse Poesie. Breslau, 1850.

24. Die Geschichte der Kirche, Erster Theil. Das apostolische Zeitalter, 2 Bände. Braunschweig, 1853–’54.

25. Auswahl von Gast-und Gelegenheitspredigten. Zweite Ausgabe. Bonn, 1857.

26. Vom Oelberge. Geistliche Dichtungen. Neue Ausgabe. Frankfurt a. M., 1858.

27. Vermischte Schriften. Neue Folge, 2 Bändchen. Bielefeld, 1860.

28. Theologisch-homiletisches Bibelwerk, commenced 1857, Bielefeld. Dr. Lange prepared the Commentaries on Matthew , 3 d edition, 1861; on Mark , 2 d edition, 1861; on John , 2 d edition, 1862; on the Epistle of James (in connection with van Oosterzee), 1862; on Genesis, with a general introduction to the Old Testament, 1864; on the Epistle to the Romans (now in course of publication).

THE PLAN OF LANGE’S COMMENTARY

The plan of Lange’s Bibelwerk is very comprehensive. It aims to give all that the minister and Biblical student can desire in one work. Its value consists to a great extent in its completeness and exhaustiveness, and in the convenient arrangement for practical use.

It contains, first, appropriate Introductions, both critical and homiletical, to the Bible as a whole, to each particular book, and to each section. The sections are provided with clear and full headings, the parallel passages, and the indications of their homiletical use in the order of the church year.

The Text is given, not in the original Greek, nor in Luther’s version, but in a new German version, which is as literal as the genius of the language will bear, and is made with special reference to the exposition. The principal readings of the Greek text are given in foot-notes, with short critical remarks. The critical editions of the Greek Testament by Lachmann and Tischendorf are made the basis.

Then follows the Commentary itself. This is threefold, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical. The three departments are kept distinct throughout, and are arranged under different heads, so that the reader can at once find what he wants at the time, without being forced to work his way through a mass of irrelevant matter.

1. The first department contains: Exegetical and Critical Notes These explain the words and phrases of the text, and endeavor to clear up every difficulty which presents itself to the critical student, according to the principles of grammatico-historical exegesis. On all the more important passages, the different views of the leading ancient and modern commentators are given; yet without the show and pedantry of learning. The chief aim is to condense, in as brief a space as possible, the most valuable and permanent results of original and previous exegetical labors, without detaining the reader with the tedious process of investigation, and a constant polemical reference to false opinions. The building appears in its beautiful finish, and the scaffolding and rubbish required during its construction are removed out of sight.

2. The second department is headed: Leading Dogmatical and Ethical Thoughts, or Doctrinal and Ethical. It presents, under a number of distinct heads, the fundamental doctrines and moral maxims contained in, or suggested by, the text. In the Gospels, these truths and principles are viewed mainly from the christological point of view, or as connected with the person and work of our Saviour. The reader will find here a vast amount of living theology, fresh from the fountain of God’s revelation in Christ, and free from scholastic and sectarian complications and distortions. The person of Christ stands out everywhere as the great central sun of truth and holiness, from which light and life emanate upon all parts of the Christian system.

3. The third department is entitled: Homiletical Hints or Suggestions. This shows the way from the study to the pulpit, from the exposition and understanding of the word of God to its practical application to all classes and conditions of society. It is especially the pastor’s department, designed to aid him in preparing sermons and Biblical lectures, yet by no means to supersede the labor of pulpit preparation. It is suggestive and stimulating in its character, and exhibits the endless variety and applicability of Scripture history and Scripture truth. It brings the marble slabs from the quarry, and the metals from the mine, but leaves the chiselling and hammering to the artist. The authors of the several parts give under this heading first their own homiletical and practical reflections, themes and parts in a few words, and then judicious selections from other homiletical commentators, as Quesnel, Canstein, Starke, Gossner, Lisco, Otto von Gerlach, Heubner, and occasionally brief skeletons of celebrated sermons.

I must confess, I was at first prejudiced against this part of the Commentary, fearing that it made the work of the preacher too easy; but upon closer examination I became convinced of its great value. If I am not mistaken, the American readers will prize it in proportion as they make themselves familiar with it. They will be especially edified, I think, by the exuberant riches and high-toned spirituality which characterize the homiletical suggestions of Lange, and several of his contributors, especially Dr. van Oosterzee (a man of genius, and the best pulpit orator of Holland), as also with the selections from Starke and his predecessors found under his name, Otto von Gerlach (late court-preacher in Berlin, and author of a brief popular commentary), and the venerable Heubner (late director of the Theological Seminary at Wittenberg).

There are standard commentaries on special portions of the Scriptures, which excel all others, either in a philological or theological or practical point of view, either in brevity and condensation or in fulness of detail, either in orthodoxy of doctrine and soundness of judgment or in expository skill and fertility of adaptation, or in some other particular aspect. But, upon the whole, the Biblical work of Dr. Lange and his associates is the richest, the soundest, and the most useful general commentary which Germany ever produced, and far better adapted than any other to meet the wants of the various evangelical denominations of the English tongue. This is not only my individual opinion, but the deliberate judgment of some of the best Biblical and German scholars of America whom I have had occasion to consult on the subject.

THE ANGLO-AMERICAN EDITION

A work of such sterling value cannot be long confined to the land of its birth. America, as it is made up of descendants from all countries, nations, and churches of Europe (e pluribusunum), is set upon appropriating all important literary treasures of the old world, especially those which promise to promote the moral and religious welfare of the race.

Soon after the appearance of the first volume of Dr. Lange’s Commentary, I formed, at the solicitation of a few esteemed friends, and with the full consent of Dr. Lange himself, an association for an American edition, and in September, 1860, I made the necessary arrangements with my friend, Mr. Charles Scribner, as publisher. The secession of the slave States, and the consequent outbreak of the civil war in 1861, paralyzed the book trade, and indefinitely suspended the enterprise. But in 1863 it was resumed at the suggestion of the publisher and with the consent of Mr. T. Clark, of Edinburgh, who in the mean time (since 1861) had commenced to publish translations of parts of Lange’s Commentary in his “Foreign Theological Library.” I moved to New York for the purpose of devoting myself more fully to this work amid the literary facilities of the city, completed the first volume, and made arrangements with leading Biblical and German scholars of different evangelical denominations for the translation of the other volumes.

The following books are already finished, or in course of preparation for the press:

The Gospel according to Matthew, with a General Introduction to the New Testament. By the American Editor.

The Gospel according to Mark. By the Rev. Dr. W. G. T. Shedd, Professor of Biblical Literature in the Union Theological Seminary at New York.

The Gospel according to Luke. By the Editor.

The Gospel according to John. By the Rev. Dr. Edw. D. Yeomans, Rochester, N. Y.

The Acts of the Apostles. By Prof. Dr. Charles F. Schäffer, Phildelphia.

The Epistles to the Corinthians. By the Rev. Dr. Daniel W. Poor, of Newark, N. J., and Dr. C. P. Wing, of Carlisle, Pa.

The Epistle to the Galatians. By the Rev. Charles C. Starbuck, New York.

The Epistle to the Philippians, and that to Philemon. By Prof. Dr. H. B. Hackett, Theol. Seminary at Newton Centre, Mass.

The Epiitles to the Thessalonians. By the Rev. Dr. John Lillie, of Kingston, N. Y.

The Epistle to the Hebrews. By Prof. Dr. A. C. Kendrick, Rochester, N. Y.

The Pastoral Epistles. By Prof. Dr. George E. Day, of Lane Theol. Seminary, Ohio.

The Catholic Epistles. By the Rev. J. Isidor Mombert, of Lancaster, Pa.

Genesis. By Prof. Tayler Lewis, Union College, Schenectady, N. Y., and the Rev. Dr. A. Gosman, Lawrenceville, N. J.

These gentlemen, and others who are or will be invited to take part in the work, have already an established reputation as excellent Biblical scholars or experienced translators from the German, and will no doubt do full justice to the task assigned them.

It is impossible beforehand to state with absolute certainty the number of volumes or the time required for the completion of the whole commentary. It is sufficient to say that it will be energetically pushed forward, without undue haste, and published with proper regard to economy of space and price. The enterprise is necessarily a very extensive and expensive one, and falls in a most unfavorable period of the American book trade; the war having caused an unprecedented rise in the price of composition, paper, and binding material. But it has the advantage over an encyclopædia and other voluminous works, that each volume will cover an entire book or books of the Bible and thus be relatively complete in itself, and can be sold separately.

PRINCIPLES OF THE AMERICAN EDITION

The character of the proposed Anglo-American edition of Lange’s Bibelwerk, and its relation to the original, may be seen from the following general principles and rules on which it will be prepared, and to which all contributors must conform, to insure unity and symmetry.

1. The Biblical Commentary of Dr. Lange and his associates must be faithfully and freely translated into idiomatic English, without omission or alteration.

2. The translator is authorized to make, within reasonable limits, such additions, original or selected, as will increase the value and interest of the work, and adapt it more fully to the wants of the English and American student. But he must carefully distinguish these additions from the original text by brackets and the initials of his name, or the mark Tr.

3. The authorized English version of 1611, according to the present standard edition of the American Bible Society, must be made the basis, instead of giving a new translation, which, in this case, would have to be a translation of a translation. But wherever the text can be more clearly or accurately rendered, according to the present state of textual criticism and biblical learning, or where the translation and the commentary of the German original require it, the improvements should be inserted in the text (in brackets, with or without the Greek, as the writer may deem best in each case) and justified in the Critical Notes below the text, with such references to older and recent English and other versions as seem to be necessary or desirable.

4. The various readings are not to be put in foot-notes, as in the original, but to follow immediately after the text in small type, in numerical order, and with references to the verses to which they belong.

5. The three parts of the commentary are to be called: I. Exegetical and Critical; II. Doctrinal and Ethical; III. Homiletical and Practical.

6. The Exegetical Notes are not to be numbered consecutively, as in the original, but marked by the figure indicating the verse to which they belong; an arrangement which facilitates the reference, and better accords with usage.

7. Within these limits each contributor has full liberty, and assumes the entire literary responsibility of his part of the work.

If these general principles are faithfully carried out, the American edition will be not only a complete translation, but an enlarged adaptation and improvement of the original work, giving it an Anglo-German character, and a wider field of usefulness.

The typographical arrangement will be closely conformed to the original, as upon the whole the best in a work of such dimensions. A page of the translation contains even more than a page of the original, and while the size of volumes will be enlarged, their number will be lessened.

THE COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW

The first volume which is now issued, will show these principles and rules in their actual execution, and may therefore serve as a specimen for the volumes that will follow.

As regards the translation of this part of the commentary, I must acknowledge my indebtedness to the Edinburgh translation of the Rev. Alfred Edersheim and the Rev. W. B. Pope, which I used to a large extent as a basis, especially in the earlier chapters, comparing it word for word with the original. But I found it necessary to make innumerable alterations and additions, so that this may be regarded almost as a new work. There is not a page and hardly a sentence in the Edinburgh translation, so far as I used it at all, which remained untouched. I have no disposition to criticise it in detail, or to injure any of the useful publications of my esteemed friend, Mr. Clark, who has done more than any other publisher for transplanting German learning on British soil, and is entitled to the lasting gratitude of English and American divines. But I must say that, while some portions of the Edinburgh translation are well executed, especially if we take into consideration the peculiar difficulties of Lange’s style and thought, it is very unequal and imperfect: it omits, besides the improvements of the second and third editions of the original, without a word of explanation, all the critical foot-notes and various readings of the text, the changes in the English version, even where they are imperatively demanded by Lange’s German version or comments, all the liturgical and most of the literary references of the work, and abounds in mistakes and mistranslations, some of which pervert the sense of the original into the very opposite, and suggest the charitable supposition that the nominal translators employed in part other and inferior hands in the execution of their laborious and difficult task.

But I confined myself by no means to a thorough revision and completion of the Edinburgh translation. The American edition contains over one hundred pages, mostly in the smallest type, that is, fully one fourth, more matter than the German original (which numbers 462 pages). The additions are found mostly in the department of textual criticism, the revision of the English version, and in the comments on the later chapters of the Gospel.

It seemed to me worthy of the labor and trouble to make an attempt, on a somewhat larger scale than Dr. Lange, to popularize so much of the immense critical apparatus of modern biblical learning as can be made available for the practical use of ministers and students. A few words of explanation on the principles which guided us, may not be out of place here.

The great variety of readings in the Greek Testament is a fact which should stimulate investigation and strengthen our faith. All these discrepancies in the few uncial and the more than five hundred cursive manuscripts of the N. T. are unable to unsettle a single doctrine or precept of Christianity, and strengthen the evidence of the essential purity and integrity of the sacred text, showing that it has been substantially the same in all ages and countries in which those manuscripts were written. “If there had been,” said Richard Bentley, the great classical scholar and critic, more than a hundred years ago, “but one manuscript of the Greek Testament at the restoration of learning, then we had had no various readings at all. And would the text be in a better condition then, than now we have 30,000 (50,000)? So far from that, that in the best single copy extant we should have hundreds of faults, and some omissions irreparable. Besides that, the suspicions of fraud and foul play would have been increased immensely. It is good, therefore, to have more anchors than one. … It is a good providence and a great blessing that so many manuscripts of the New Testament are still amongst us, some procured from Egypt, others from Asia, others found in the Western Churches. For the very distances of places, as well as numbers of the books, demonstrate that there could be no collusion, no altering nor interpolating one copy by another, nor all by any of them. In profane authors whereof one manuscript only had the luck to be preserved, as Velleius Paterculus among the Latins, and Hesychius among the Greeks, the faults of the scribes are found so numerous, and the defects so beyond all redress, that, notwithstanding the pains of the learnedest and acutest critics for two whole centuries, those books still are, and are like to continue, a mere heap of errors. On the contrary, where the copies of any author are numerous, though the various readings always increase in proportion, there the text, by an accurate collation of them, made by skilful and judicious hands, is ever the more correct, and comes nearer to the true words of the author.”

The object of biblical criticism is to restore the oldest and purest text which can be obtained with our present means and facilities. In accordance with the well-known principle first propounded by Bentley, revived by the venerable Bengel, and recently applied and carried out by Lachmann, we must make the oldest and most authoritative uncial manuscripts of the New Testament now extant the basis of the true text, especially those few which date from the fourth to the sixth century. They are the following: 1. Codex Sinaiticus, edited by Tischendorf, Leipz., 1863. 2. Cod. Vaticanus (designated by the letter B., defective from Heb_9:14), carelessly edited by Cardinal Angelo Mai, with improvements by Vercellone, Rome, 1857, and much better by Const. Tischendorf. Lips. 1867. 3. Cod. Alexandrinus (A., in the British Museum), of which the New Testament was published in uncial types, though not in fac-simile, by C. G. Woide, Lond., 1786, and by B. H. Cowper, 1860. 4. Cod. (rescriptus) Ephraemi Syri (C., a cod. rescriptus, or palimpsest, very imperfect), published by Tischendorf, in uncial type, but not in fac-simile, Leipz., 1843. 5. Cod. Bezæ (D., at Cambridge), containing the Gospels and the Acts, with a Latin version, published in fac-simile by Ths. Kipling, Camb., 1793, 2 vols., fol. In the same class with these oldest manuscripts, though last, must be placed the later and less important uncials, as Cod. Basiliensis (called E., of the eighth or ninth century, containing the Gospels), Cod. Boreeli (F., at Utrecht, the Gospels, except some portions of Matthew and Mark), Cod. Seidelii Harleianus (G., in the British Museum, the greater part of the Gospels), Codd. H., I., K., L. (Paris, No. 62, generally in agreement with Codd. Sin. and Vatic), etc. Next in importance to the uncial manuscripts are the quotations of the early fathers, and the ancient versions, especially the Latin and the Syriac. In the third rank are to be placed the cursive manuscripts of later date, down to the close of the fifteenth century, of which more than five hundred have been collated in the Gospels alone. For our purpose it was useless to refer to them except in those rare cases where the older authorities are insufficient to establish the original text. The decision of the true reading depends, however, not only on the antiquity and number of authorities, but also on internal reasons. Lachmann’s object was simply historical, viz., to establish the oldest attainable text, as it stood in the fourth or fifth century, in the place of the comparatively recent, accidental, and unreliable textus receptus. This is the only safe basis for future critics, but it is only a part of the task, which must be completed by a proper consideration of the internal evidences. Where the oldest authorities—uncial manuscripts, patristic quotations, and ancient versions—lead to no satisfactory result, later manuscripts (which may be transcripts of uncial manuscripts even older than those we now possess) may be profitably consulted, and that reading deserves the preference which gives the best sense and agrees most with the style and usage of the writer. Thus, in many instances, a return from Lachmann to the textus receptus may be justified. See the seventh critical edition of Tischendorf.

As to the corrections of the authorized English version, I beg the reader to view them as part of the commentary. Some of them would be unnecessary or even objectionable in a revised version for public use. Our incomparable English Bible stands in no need of a radical revision; its idiom, beauty, and vigor are all that can be desired. But no good scholar will deny that it might be greatly improved as to clearness and accuracy; while many doubt whether it could be done without producing greater division and confusion, and thus doing more harm than good. A final revision for popular use should proceed from a body of scholars representing the British and American Bible Societies, and all the Protestant Churches which worship God in the English language, and have an equal claim to this inestimable inheritance of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In the mean time, no one can object to new translations and revisions for exegetical and critical use. They prepare the way for a final authorized revision for general and popular use.

My selections from other writers are mostly taken from representative older and modern commentators of the various English and American Churches, with the view to give this work an Anglo-German character. Thus Burkitt, M. Henry, Scott, and Doddridge represent the older practical exegesis of England; Alford and Wordsworth, the modern Anglican exegesis in its two divergent, progressive, and conservative, tendencies; D. Brown, the Free Church of Scotland; J. Addison Alexander, the Old School Presbyterian; Barnes and Owen, the New School Presbyterian; Whedon and Nast, the Methodist; Conant, the Baptist, views on the more important doctrinal passages in the Gospel of Matthew.

I cannot conclude this lengthy preface without giving public expression to my sense of gratitude to the officers of the “American Bible Union,” for the unrestricted use of their valuable Biblical Library, with its rich variety of Bibles in all languages, commentaries, dictionaries, the Benedictine and other editions of the church fathers, etc., which make it probably the best collection of the kind on this continent.

May the blessing of the triune God rest upon this commentary on His holy word, which was commenced in faith and with the earnest desire to assist the ministers of the Gospel in the discharge of their high and holy mission.

PHILIP SCHAFF.

THEOLOGICAL AND HOMILETICAL INTRODUCTION

TO

THE NEW TESTAMENT

§ 1. Theology in general, or the scientific knowledge of the Christian religion, may, according to its historical and scientific character, be arranged under two great divisions,—Historical, and Theoretical or Systematic Theology, taking these terms in their widest sense. (I.) Historical Theology may again be ranged under the following three sections:—(1) The History of Revelation, or of the Kingdom of God, which forms the basis of the whole system; (2) The History of the Records of Revelation, or Exegetics in the wider sense; (3) The History of Revealed Religion, or Church History. (II.) In the same manner, Theoretical or Systematic Theology may be divided into three sections:—(1) The System of Christian Doctrines, or Dogmatics; (2) The System of Christian Morals, or Ethics; (3) The System of Christian Polity, or Practical Theology.

§ 2. From this analysis we infer that the materials from which to construct a theological and homiletical Introduction to the Sacred Scriptures, must be derived from the elements of the history of revelation, of exegesis, and church history, as well as from the elements of dogmatics, ethics, and practical theology, always with special reference to the practical, homiletical, and pastoral point of view.

§ 3. Before proceeding with our special Introduction to the New Testament, we must premise, in brief outline, a General Introduction to the Scriptures. The special introduction to the Old Testament may be left for another occasion, not merely because our present task is connected with the New Testament, but because, as Christians, we proceed, theoretically, from the New Testament to the Old, and not vice versa. It is sufficient for our purpose to communicate, in briefest form, the results obtained by modern research, and to indicate the works which may aid the reader in reviewing these results for himself.

§ 4. Accordingly, we shall have to preface the N. T. portion of our Commentary,—(1) by a General Introduction from the theological and homiletical point of view; (2) by a Historical and Exegetical Introduction to the New Testament in general, and to its various parts; (3) by a General Homiletical and Pastoral Introduction; (4) by a Homiletical and Pastoral Introduction to the New Testament.

FIRST SECTION

GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO THE HOLY SCRIPTURES

_____________

§ 1

THE HISTORY OF REVELATION, OR OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD

The History of the Kingdom of God must not be confounded with Biblical History. The latter, like Biblical Theology, forms part of Exegesis, while the History of the Kingdom of God embraces the whole history of the world viewed from the Christian stand-point.

The kingdom of God is that new creation in which God reveals Himself in His character as Redeemer. It is based upon the universal and absolute dominion of God over the world, and results from it; and it consists in the restoration of the dominion of the Spirit of God over the hearts of men, brought about by Christ, who is the heart of the race. As mankind was originally destined to form the kingdom of God, and for that purpose was arranged into one family, the kingdom of God may also be viewed as the restoration of mankind to one body under the One and Eternal Head (Act_3:21; Eph_1:22), in whom it was elected from all eternity, and called, for the harmonious manifestation of the glory of God (Eph_1:4-5).

The restoration of this kingdom presupposes the existence of an opposite pseudo-kingdom, in which the human family were scattered and dispersed by sin—a kingdom of darkness and of falsehood, the kingdom of Satan. Accordingly, the history of the preparation, foundation, and completion of the kingdom of God, is at the same time the history of its hostile conflicts with the antagonistic kingdom of darkness.

The kingdom of God disappeared from earth through the working of unbelief, by which the Lord was robbed of His dominion over the heart. Similarly has it again been restored to the world by the combined operation of the grace of God, and of a spiritual faith which He has planted in the heart of His elect, and which ultimately appeared in all its fulness and perfectness, as conquering the world, in Christ, the Elect One. This salvation of the world is destined gradually to spread till it pervades all mankind. Hence the extension of the kingdom of God to its final completion in the world will occupy the entire course of time, even as this kingdom is destined to cover all space in the world. Viewed in this light, the whole history of the world itself is simply the history of the restoration and transformation of the world into the kingdom of God.

Thus, all history may be included under the idea of the âáóéëåßá ôïῦ Èåïῦ . But its innermost centre is that manifestation of God’s redeeming grace, by which, on the basis of His general revelation to man, He has founded His kingdom.

The all-comprehensive medium of God’s revelation was His personal incarnation in Christ. Throughout the entire course of history, we perceive how mankind, in ever-narrowing circles, tends towards this manifestation of the God-Man. Again, after He has appeared, we notice how, in ever-widening circles, it tends towards the final goal—to present all mankind as born of God.

Christ, then, is the beginning, the middle, and the end of all revelation. But as revelation is ever love, light, and life, it embodies at the same time both saving truth and saving reality, or revelation in the narrower sense, and actual redemption Hence it is that in Christ we have not only the completion of revelation, but also complete redemption.

Redemption, in all its phases and stages, is prepared and introduced by judgments, which, by the grace of God, are, however, converted into so many deliverances. Again, every new stage in the unfolding and history of salvation is marked by a fresh extension and establishment of the kingdom of God, appearing as the Church of the redeemed. Hence, while the real kingdom of God was founded when redemption was first introduced, it shall be perfected when the benefits of redemption shall have been extended to the utmost boundaries of the world.

This is the Development of Revelation, to which we now proceed.

I. General Revelation

a) Widest circle (revelation