Luke has handled them more freely.1 A second illustration will render this still clearer. The description of the preaching of the Baptist in the First and Third Gospels is evidently founded on a common base; but it is enriched by Luke with counsels addressed to different classes of the people. Of these Matthew says no word; he directs the Baptist's warnings against the Pharisees and Sadducees alone. Matt. 37-12. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said unto them, Ye offspring of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruit worthy of repentance and think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. And even now is the axe laid unto the root of the trees: every tree therefore that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. Luke 37-17. He said therefore to the multitudes that went out to be baptised of him, Ye offspring of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance, and begin not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. And even now is the axe also laid unto the root of the trees. every tree therefore that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. And the multitudes asked him, saying, What then must we do? And he answered and said unto them, He that hath For brevity's sake, the possibility that Luke may have copied directly from Matthew is not here considered. Other phenomena to be named directly render this practically impossible. I, indeed, baptize you with water, unto repentance; but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear he shall baptize you with Holy Spirit and with fire: whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly cleanse his threshing floor; and he will gather his wheat into the garner, but the chaff he will burn up with unquenchable fire. two coats, let him impart to him that hath none; and he that hath food, let him do likewise. And there came also publicans to be baptised, and they said unto him, Master, what must we do? And he said unto them, Extort no more than that which is appointed you. And soldiers also asked him, saying, And we, what must we do? And he said unto them, Do violence to no man, neither exact anything wrongfully; and be content with your wages. And as the people were in expectation, and all men reasoned in their hearts concerning John, whether haply he were the Christ; John answered saying to them all, I indeed baptize you with water; but there cometh he that is mightier than I, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose: he shall baptize you with Holy Spirit and with fire: whose fan is in his hand, thoroughly to cleanse his threshing-floor, and to gather the wheat into his garner; but the chaff he will burn up with unquenchable fire. The whole of the Matthæan report of John's preaching is thus reproduced by Luke, but in combination with other material. The questions of the people are altogether new and the second part of the discourse in Matthew receives an explanatory preface in Luke. Further, slight differences in the midst of such close parallelism suggest that one Evangelist does not copy from the other; but that both are dependent on some antecedent source. Moreover, that source may possibly have existed in different editions, so that the saying about the shoes was current in dissimilar versions. Of this probability further illustrations may be found in the well-known cases of the Lord's Prayer and the Beatitudes. The Lucan form of the Lord's Prayer varies only by defect but the Blessings of Matthew have absolutely no counterpart to the Woes of Luke. Matt 53-11. Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted (or consoled). Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are they that have been Luke 620-26. Blessed are ye poor; for yours Blessed are ye when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you [from their company], and reproach you, and cast out your name as evil for the Son of man's sake. Rejoice in that day, and leap [for joy]: for behold your reward is great in heaven: for in the same manner did their fathers unto the prophets. But woe unto you that are rich! for ye have received your consolation. Woe unto you that are full now! for ye shall hunger. Woe [unto you], ye that laugh now! for ye shall mourn and persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye when men shall reproach you, and persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. Many things deserve notice here. stand in the same place at the beginning of the weep. Woe [unto you], when all men shall speak well of you! for in the same manner did their fathers unto the prophets. Both groups great Sermon. Matthew reports nine Blessings, while Luke throws the sayings into the antithetical form of four Blessings and four Woes. In contrast with Luke, the first eight Blessings of Matthew are cast in the third person, but the ninth passes into address in the second person. This last beatitude is nearly equivalent to Luke's fourth, as its sequel Rejoice' clearly proves (notice Matthew's direct 'for my sake,' while Luke has the impersonal' Son of man'). But most significant of all is the open difference of spirit. In Luke it is the physically poor to whom the kingdom is promised; the hungry crowd that hangs upon the speaker's words is to be filled; and the rich and satisfied and laughing are dismissed to their doom. Matthew sounds quite another note. The inheritors of blessing are not present to be kindled with immediate hope. The announcements have the air of reflective generalisations from deep inner experience; and the impas X sioned summons of the last Blessing, to rejoice in the midst of persecution, is the only one that bears within it the urgency of personal appeal. It is difficult to conceive that either author has actually reshaped or transmuted the other's words.1 It seems more likely that the two sets of Blessings lay in some prior document, which circulated in the churches in what we should call different editions. To what document, however, can these groups of teaching, common to our Matthew and Luke, be traced? The answer of modern Gospel study is, the Matthæan logia. Written, according to the tradition handed on by Papias, in the Palestinian vernacular, they were not always intelligible to Greek readers; 'everyone translated them as he could.' We may surmise, then, that different renderings of these 'sayings' (which seem to have included an account of John's preaching), passed into use in different localities. 1 Wernle does, indeed, surmise that Luke himself added the four Woes, and probably materialised the 'hunger' as bodily by inserting 'now': Synoptische Frage (1899), p. 62. On the other hand, Holtzmann, Die Synoptiker, 3rd ed., 1901, regards Matthew's 'in spirit,' 3, 'righteousness', and 'for righteousness' sake', as later defining additions, p. 202. Luke's double 'now' emphasizes the contrast between 'this age' and 'that age' or the 'age to come,' cp. 2034 35, p. 340. Bruce, Expositor's Greek Test., vol. i. p. 504, implies that Luke's language has been shaped under contemporary influences; 'the description corresponds to the state of the early Church'; 'Christ's words are adapted to present circumstances,' etc. Elsewhere, p. 96, the same writer suggests that Jesus might have expanded the same thought on different occasions with different comments. This suggestion seems hardly to recognise adequately the element of social revolution involved in the Lucan form, which is spiritually incongruous with the Matthæan. * Sir John Hawkins, Horae Synopticae (1899), p. 89, reckons about 185 verses as common to both Gospels, 'i.e. rather more than one-sixth of the 1,068 verses of Matthew, and rather less than one-sixth of the 1,149 verses of Luke.' |