What Think Ye ?
The Riddle of the New Testament. By Sir Edwyn Hoskyns, Bart., and Noel Davey. (Faber and Faber. 10s. 6d.)
TIIE Riddle of the New Testament, according to the view set forth in this vigorous and impressive book, is not a problem of credibility, but a problem of significance. What did the record of the life and death of Jesus of Nazareth mean to the primitive writers ? When the historical method has dealt faithfully with their works, what is the nature of the material left in our hands ? Put in another way : " Does the New Testament ultimately rest upon human, spiritual, and mystical experience, or does it rest upon a particular individual his- tory ? " Disregarding for a moment the fatal " Either—or " —which really invites us to choose between the completing halves of all real religion, to the impoverishment of both:- we see that the question, thus put, is intended to concentrate attention (even exclusive attention) on the historical and factual claims of Christianity, as presented in its earliest writings. " The challenge," says Sir Edwyn Hoskyns, " lies in the history, and not in the thought detached from the history." The New Testament is " not a collection of thought- ful essays nor an attempt to construct a system of ethics." It claims to give an account of God Acting, in a particular his- torical life and death ; and by His action giving that life and death a universal and ultimate significance.
This " staggering claim " may be true or false ; but its existence is a historical fact. It is the " rough Jewish mater- ial " of Christianity. It gives the Gospels their living unity; and forbids us to relate the bits we like to an amiable and imaginary " Jesus of History " whilst rejecting the eschato- logical and the severe. Even St. Mark is not a mere shapeless compilation of Petrine reminiscences, but a " carefully con- structed literary unity " ; setting forth the claim of our Lord
to be the Messiah promised in the Old Testament, coming in the power of God. The bringing out of this significance became a major interest with subsequent writers. Matthew and Luke edit the record in the interest of special interpretations ; but on the whole all three agree in the meaning they give to the life and death of Jesus ; whilst the Pauline and Johannine writings expound that meaning in terms of theology. More- over, this Christology, however difficult, is embedded in the earliest Christian tradition. Jesus acted, lived, and died as He did because His own outlook was Messianic and sacrificial. He was not merely a sublime ethical teacher, afterwards clothed by Greek thought with the attributes of a Saviour God. In His life and death He was consciously fulfilling a necessity imposed on Him by God, through the demands of the Old Testament." Thus the New Testament, seen his- torically, is the fulfilment of the Old ; and is incomprehen- sible without it. In the eyes of the Evangelists all the miracles, and most of the parables, owe their importance to the fact that they are actual or virtual fulfilments of prophecy. The physical miracles are external signs of the supreme Messianic miracle, the rescue of men from the grip of the powers of evil— of sin . . . by the power of the Living God exercised through the agency of the Messiah " ; and this saving action cul- minates in the sacrifice of the Cross. The association of the Passion with human salvation is such a commonplace of Christian belief, that its strangeness is easily missed. " But it is strange indeed "—and found in the end to rest upon Old Testament prophecy.
Thus front every angle the authors of this remarkable piece of apologetic press to their central conviction that " detection of Old Testament allusions is the real key to the Gospels." Yet is it not possible after all that the Gospels are like those strong rooms which can only be opened by the simultaneous use of two keys ; and will never yield their secret to the key of history alone ? Some philosophic background, some con- sciousness of the profound spiritual significance of the facts, are surely essential to any adequate interpretation of Christian belief. There is nothing here to account for the transforming power and undying charm of the synoptic record ; why it has won not merely acceptance, but adoring love. The answer to the " Riddle " which is here offered has, too, its own dangers ; as the authors practically admit. For either we must accept the detailed and purposive fulfilment in history of the oracles of the Hebrew prophets ; or else concede the elaborately artificial character of the Synoptic portrait of Christ. Yet another solution seems possible. Dante's declaration con- cerning the " Divine Comedy," that " the sense of this work is not simple, but on the contrary it may be called polysemous," is true not only of great literature but also of crucial events. History—and especially religious history—reflects within the time-series truths that transcend the time-series. Hence it may be interpreted on two levels ; and the degree in which it is conditioned by the close interweaving of the past and the present, the chain-like procession of events, need do nothing to infringe the claim of the truths which are revealed in it to an independent and Eternal reality.
EVELYN UNDERHILL.
Previous page
