HKB
[Footnote 8: Matt. xiii. 54 and following; Mark vi. 2 and following; John v. 43.]
[Footnote 9: The tradition of the plainness of Jesus (Justin, Dial. cum Tryph., 85, 88, 100) springs from a desire to see realized in him a pretended Messianic trait (Isa. liii. 2).]
Paradise would, in fact, have been brought to earth if the ideas of the young Master had not far transcended the level of ordinary goodness beyond which it has not been found possible to raise the human race. The brotherhood of men, as sons of God, and the moral consequences which result therefrom, were deduced with exquisite feeling. Like all the rabbis of the time, Jesus was little inclined toward consecutive reasonings, and clothed his doctrine in concise aphorisms, and in an expressive form, at times enigmatical and strange.[1] Some of these maxims come from the books of the Old Testament. Others were the thoughts of more modern sages, especially those of Antigonus of Soco, Jesus, son of Sirach, and Hillel, which had reached him, not from learned study, but as oft-repeated proverbs. The synagogue was rich in very happily expressed sentences, which formed a kind of current proverbial literature.[2] Jesus adopted almost all this oral teaching, but imbued it with a superior spirit.[3] Exceeding the duties laid down by the Law and the elders, he demanded perfection. All the virtues of humility--forgiveness, charity, abnegation, and self-denial--virtues which with good reason have been called Christian, if we mean by that that they have been truly preached by Christ, were in this first teaching, though undeveloped. As to justice, he was content with repeating the well-known axiom--"Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them."[4] But this old, though somewhat selfish wisdom, did not satisfy him. He went to excess, and said--"Whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also."[5] "If thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee."[6] "Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you, pray for them that persecute you."[7] "Judge not, that ye be not judged."[8] "Forgive, and ye shall be forgiven."[9] "Be ye therefore merciful as your Father also is merciful."[10] "It is more blessed to give than to receive."[11] "Whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted."[12]
[Footnote 1: The Logia of St. Matthew joins several of these axioms together, to form lengthened discourses. But the fragmentary form makes itself felt notwithstanding.]
[Footnote 2: The sentences of the Jewish doctors of the time are collected in the little book entitled, Pirke Aboth.]
[Footnote 3: The comparisons will be made afterward as they present themselves. It has been sometimes supposed that--the compilation of the Talmud being later than that of the Gospels--parts may have been borrowed by the Jewish compilers from the Christian morality. But this is inadmissible--a wall of separation existed between the Church and the Synagogue. The Christian and Jewish literature had scarcely any influence on one another before the thirteenth century.]
[Footnote 4: Matt. vii. 12; Luke vi. 31. This axiom is in the book of Tobit, iv. 16. Hillel used it habitually (Talm. of Bab., Shabbath, 31 a), and declared, like Jesus, that it was the sum of the Law.]
[Footnote 5: Matt. v. 39, and following; Luke vi. 29. Compare Jeremiah, Lamentations iii. 30.]
[Footnote 6: Matt. v. 29, 30, xviii. 9; Mark ix. 46.]
[Footnote 7: Matt. v. 44; Luke vi. 27. Compare Talmud of Babylon, Shabbath, 88 b; Joma, 23 a.]
[Footnote 8: Matt. vii. 1; Luke vi. 37. Compare Talmud of Babylon, Kethuboth, 105 b.]
[Footnote 9: Luke vi. 37. Compare Lev. xix. 18; Prov. xx. 22; Ecclesiasticus xxviii. 1, and following.]
[Footnote 10: Luke vi. 36; Siphre, 51 b (Sultzbach, 1802).]
[Footnote 11: A saying related in Acts xx. 35.]