Solomon and Solomonic LiteratureConway, Moncure Daniel
History
Solomon and Solomonic Literature
Conway, Moncure Daniel
Hebrew literature -- History and criticism; Solomon, King of Israel
Theological scholars who have compared the Epistle to the Hebrews
with the Epistles of Paul have dwelt on the theological differences,
but the moral differences are greater. In the Epistle to the Hebrews
the emphasis is laid on the service of Jesus to mankind: it is this
that makes him, as it made Solomon, worthy of worship as a God,
and the ancient God with his sacrifices is virtually represented as
transforming himself and his government to the measure of Jesus. Jesus
is complete and perfect man, no part or power of his divine nature
accompanying him on earth. But we see in Philippians ii. 7, and other
passages, the primitive idea fading away, and Jesus pictured as a
divine being in the mere semblance and disguise of a man, no real man
at all; a theory which prevails in the story of the transfiguration,
where the disguise is for a moment thrown aside. The earlier idea of
his genuine humanity was still strong enough to prevent any stories
of miracles wrought by Jesus from arising, the resurrection being a
miracle wrought by God after the work of Jesus was "finished," as he
is said to have proclaimed from the stake. But legends of miracles
became inevitable after the theory of his disguise was diffused,
and also stories of the vituperation, anathemas, and attitudinizings,
which are so offensive in a man, but so characteristic of the whole
history of Jahveh, with whom he was gradually identified. A gentleman
does not call his opponents vipers and consign them to hell, but
Jahveh is not under any such obligations. And, alas, disregard of
the humanities did not, as we have seen, stop there even in Paul's
time. In the further development, that of Jesus the magician, the
personal character of Jesus was sadly sacrificed, and it is only
due to the superstition that prevents the New Testament narratives
from being read in a common sense way that people generally are not
shocked by some of the representations.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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