THE PRINCIPAL WITNESS ON OUR LORD AS KING, PRIEST, AND ANGEL.
The author of "Supernatural Religion" quotes the passage in Dial.
xxxiv.:--
"For Christ is King, and Priest, and God, and Lord, and Angel, and
Man, and Captain, and Stone, and a Son born," &c.
And he remarks, with what I cannot but characterize as astonishing
effrontery, or (to use his own language with respect to Tischendorf) "an
assurance which can scarcely be characterized otherwise than an
unpardonable calculation upon the ignorance of his readers." (Vol. ii.
p. 56.)
"Now these representations, which are constantly repeated throughout
Justin's writings, are quite opposed to the spirit of the Fourth
Gospel." (Vol. ii. p. 288.)
He first of all takes the title "King," and arbitrarily and unwarrantably
restricts Justin's derivation of it to the seventy-second Psalm,
apparently being ignorant of the fact that St. John, in his very
first chapter, records that Christ was addressed by Nathanael as "King
of Israel"--that the Fourth Gospel alone describes how the crowd on His
entry into Jerusalem cried, "Osanna, Blessed be the King of Israel, Who
cometh in the name of the Lord" (xii. 13)--that this Gospel more fully
than any other records how Pilate questioned our Lord respecting His
Kingship, and recognized Him as King, "Behold your King;" and that those
who mocked our Lord are recorded by St. John to have mocked Him as the
"King of Israel."
So that this term King, so far from being contrary to the spirit of the
Fourth Gospel, is not even contrary to its letter.
But this, gross though it seems, is to my mind as nothing to two other
assertions founded on this passage of Justin:--
"If we take the second epithet, the Logos as Priest, which is quite
foreign to the Fourth Gospel, we find it repeated by Justin."
Now, it is quite true that the title "priest" is not given to our Lord
in St. John, just as it is not given to Him in any one of the three
Synoptics, or indeed in any book of the New Testament, except the
Epistle to the Hebrews: yet, notwithstanding this, of all the books of
the New Testament, this Gospel is the one which sets forth the reality
of Christ's Priesthood. For what is the distinguishing function of the
Priesthood? Is it not Mediation and Intercession, and the Fourth Gospel
more than all sets forth Christ as Mediator and Intercessor? As Mediator
when He says so absolutely: "No man cometh unto the Father but by me;"
"As my Father sent me so send I you; whosesoever sins ye remit, they are
remitted unto them."
Again, the idea of Priesthood is actually inherent in the figure of the
good Shepherd "Who giveth His Life for the sheep;" for how does He give
His life?--not in the way of physical defence against enemies, as an
earthly "good shepherd" might do, but in the way of atoning Sacrifice,
as the author of "Supernatural Religion" truly asserts, where he writes
(vol. ii. p. 352):--
"The representation of Jesus as the Lamb of God taking away the sins
of the world is the very basis of the Fourth Gospel."
Again, in the same page:--
"He died for the sin of the world, and is the object of faith, by
which alone forgiveness and justification before God can be
secured."
Again, with reference to His Intercession, we have not only the truth
set forth in such expressions as "I will pray the Father," but we have
the actual exercise of the great act of priestly Intercession, as
recorded in the seventeenth chapter of the Fourth Gospel. If we look to
words only (which the author of "Supernatural Religion" too often does),
then, of course, we allow that the epithet "priest" is quite foreign not
only to the Fourth Gospel, but to every other book of the New Testament,
except the Epistle to the Hebrews; but if we look to the things implied
in the idea of Priesthood, such as Mediation and Intercession, in fact
Intervention between God and Man, then we find that the whole New
Testament is pervaded with the idea, and it culminates in the Fourth
Gospel.
The next assertion of the author of "Supernatural Religion" on the same
passage betrays still more ignorance of the contents of St. John's
Gospel, and a far greater eagerness to fasten on a seeming omission of
the letter, and to ignore a pervadence of the spirit. He asserts:--
"It is scarcely necessary to point out that this representation of
the Logos as Angel, is not only foreign to, but opposed to, the
spirit of the Fourth Gospel." (Vol. ii. p. 293)
Now just as in the former case we had to ask, "What is the
characteristic of the priest?" so in order to answer this we have only
to ask, "What is the characteristic of the angel?"
An angel is simply "one sent." Such is the meaning of the word both in
the Old and New Testament. The Hebrew word [Hebrew: mlakh] is applied
indifferently to a messenger sent by man (see Job i. 14; 1 Sam. xi. 3; 2
Sam. xi. 19-20), and to God's messengers the Holy Angels, that is, the
Holy Messengers, the Holy ones sent. And similarly, in the New
Testament, the word [Greek: angelos] is applied to human messengers in
Luke vii. 24, [Greek: apelthontôn de tôn angelôn Iôannou], also in Luke
ix. 52, and James ii. 25. That the characteristic of the angel is to be
"sent" is implied in such common phrases as, "The Lord _sent_ His
Angel," "I will _send_ mine angel," "Are they not all ministering
spirits _sent_ forth to minister?" &c.
Now one of the characteristic expressions of the Fourth Gospel--we might
almost have said _the_ characteristic expression--respecting Jesus, is
that He is "sent." To use the noun instead of the verb, He is God's
special messenger, His [Greek: angelos], sent by Him to declare and to
do His will: but this does not imply that He has, or has assumed, the
nature of an angel; just as the application of the same word [Greek:
angelos] to mere human messengers in no way implies that they have any
other nature than human nature. Just as men sent their fellow-men as
their [Greek: angeloi], so God sends One Who, according to Justin, fully
partakes of His Nature, to be His [Greek: angelos].
This sending of our Lord on the part of His Father is one of the chief
characteristics of the Fourth Gospel, and the reader, if he cannot
examine this Gospel for himself, comparing it with the others, has only
to turn to any concordance, Greek or English, to satisfy himself
respecting this matter.
Jesus Christ is said to be "sent of God," _i.e._ to be His [Greek:
angelos], only once in St. Matthew's Gospel (Matthew x. 40: "He that
receiveth me receiveth Him that sent me"), only once in St. Mark (ix.
37), only twice in St. Luke (ix. 48; xx. 13), but in the Fourth Gospel
He is said to be sent of God about forty times. [84:1] In one discourse
alone, that in John vi., Jesus asserts no less than six times that He is
sent of God, or that God sent Him; so that the dictum, "This
representation of the Logos as angel is not only foreign to, but opposed
to, the spirit of the Fourth Gospel," is absolutely contrary to the
truth.