THE true meaning of the doctrine of Jesus was revealed to me; everything
confirmed its truth. But for a long time I could not accustom myself to
the strange fact, that after the eighteen centuries during which the law
of Jesus had been professed by millions of human beings, after the
eighteen centuries during which thousands of men had consecrated their
lives to the study of this law, I had discovered it for myself anew. But
strange as it seemed, so it was. Jesus' law, "_Resist not evil_," was to
me wholly new, something of which I had never had any conception before.
I asked myself how this could be; I must certainly have had a false idea
of the doctrine of Jesus to cause such a misunderstanding. And a false
idea of it I unquestionably had. When I began to read the Gospel, I was
not in the condition of one who, having heard nothing of the doctrine of
Jesus, becomes acquainted with it for the first time; on the contrary, I
had a preconceived theory as to the manner in which I ought to
understand it. Jesus did not appeal to me as a prophet revealing the
divine law, but as one who continued and amplified the absolute divine
law which I already knew; for I had very definite and complex notions
about God, the creator of the world and of man, and about the
commandments of God given to men through the instrumentality of Moses.
When I came to the words, "_Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye
for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: But I say unto you, That ye resist
not evil_,"--the words, "_An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth_,"
expressed the law given by God to Moses; the words, "_But I say unto
you, That ye resist not evil_," expressed the new law, which was a
negation of the first. If I had seen Jesus' words, simply, in their true
sense, and not as a part of the theological theory that I had imbibed at
my mother's breast, I should have understood immediately that Jesus
abrogated the old law, and substituted for it a new law. But I had been
taught that Jesus did not abrogate the law of Moses, that, on the
contrary, he confirmed it to the slightest iota, and that he made it
more complete. Verses 17-20 of the fifth chapter of Matthew always
impressed me, when I read the Gospel, by their obscurity, and they
plunged me into doubt. I knew the Old Testament, particularly the last
books of Moses, very thoroughly, and recalling certain passages in which
minute doctrines, often absurd and even cruel in their purport, are
preceded by the words, "And the Lord said unto Moses," it seemed to me
very singular that Jesus should confirm all these injunctions; I could
not understand why he did so. But I allowed the question to pass without
solution, and accepted with confidence the explanations inculcated in my
infancy,--that the two laws were equally inspired by the Holy Spirit,
that they were in perfect accord, and that Jesus confirmed the law of
Moses while completing and amplifying it. I did not concern myself with
accounting for the process of this amplification, with the solution of
the contradictions apparent throughout the whole Gospel, in verses 17-20
of the fifth chapter, in the words, "_But I say unto you_."
Now that I understood the clear and simple meaning of the doctrine of
Jesus, I saw clearly that the two laws are directly opposed to one
another; that they can never be harmonized; that, instead of
supplementing one by the other, we must inevitably choose between the
two; and that the received explanation of the verses, Matthew v. 17-20,
which had impressed me by their obscurity, must be incorrect.
When I now came to read once more the verses that had before impressed
me as obscure, I was astonished at the clear and simple meaning which
was suddenly revealed to me. This meaning was revealed, not by any
combination and transposition, but solely by rejecting the factitious
explanations with which the words had been encumbered. According to
Matthew, Jesus said (v. 17-18):--
"_Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets_ (the
doctrine of the prophets): _I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For
verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle
shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled._"
And in verse 20 he added:--
"_For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the
righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter
into the kingdom of heaven._"
I am not come (Jesus said) to destroy the eternal law of whose
fulfilment your books of prophecy foretell. I am come to teach you the
fulfilment of the eternal law; not of the law that your scribes and
pharisees call the divine law, but of that eternal law which is more
immutable than the earth and the heavens.
I have expressed the idea in other words in order to detach the thoughts
of my readers from the traditional false interpretation. If this false
interpretation had never existed, the idea expressed in the verses could
not be rendered in a better or more definite manner.
The view that Jesus did not abrogate the old law arises from the
arbitrary conclusion that "law" in this passage signifies the written
law instead of the law eternal, the reference to the iota--jot and
tittle--perhaps furnishing the grounds for such an opinion. But if Jesus
had been speaking of the written law, he would have used the expression
"the law and the prophets," which he always employed in speaking of the
written law; here, however, he uses a different expression,--"the law
_or_ the prophets." If Jesus had meant the written law, he would have
used the expression, "the law and the prophets," in the verses that
follow and that continue the thought; but he says, briefly, "the law."
Moreover, according to Luke, Jesus made use of the same phraseology, and
the context renders the meaning inevitable. According to Luke, Jesus
said to the Pharisees, who assumed the justice of their written law:--
"_Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your
hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in
the sight of God. The law and the prophets were until John: since that
time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it. And
it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to
fail._" (Luke xvi. 15-17.)
In the words, "_The law and the prophets were until John_," Jesus
abrogated the written law; in the words, "_And it is easier for heaven
and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail_," Jesus confirmed
the law eternal. In the first passage cited he said, "the law _and_ the
prophets," that is, the written law; in the second he said "the law"
simply, therefore the law eternal. It is clear, then, that the eternal
law is opposed to the written law,[3] exactly as in the context of
Matthew where the eternal law is defined by the phrase, "the law _or_
the prophets."
[3] More than this, as if to do away with all doubt about the law
to which he referred, Jesus cites immediately, in connection with
this passage, the most decisive instance of the negation of the law
of Moses by the eternal law, the law of which not the smallest jot
is to fail: "_Whosoever putteth away his wife, and marrieth
another, committeth adultery._" (Luke xvi. 18.) That is, according
to the written law divorce is permissible; according to the eternal
law it is forbidden.
The history of the variants of the text of these verses is quite worthy
of notice. The majority of texts have simply "the law," without the
addition, "and the prophets," thus avoiding a false interpretation in
the sense of the written law. In other texts, notably that of
Tischendorf, and in the canonical versions, we find the word "prophets"
used, not with the conjunction "and," but with the conjunction
"or,"--"the law _or_ the prophets,"--which also excludes any question of
the written law, and indicates, as the proper signification, the law
eternal. In several other versions, not countenanced by the Church, we
find the word "prophets" used with the conjunction "and," not with "or";
and in these versions every repetition of the words "the law" is
followed by the phrase, "and the prophets," which would indicate that
Jesus spoke only of the written law.
The history of the commentaries on the passage in question coincides
with that of the variants. The only clear meaning is that authorized by
Luke,--that Jesus spoke of the eternal law. But among the copyists of
the Gospel were some who desired that the written law of Moses should
continue to be regarded as obligatory. They therefore added to the words
"the law" the phrase "and the prophets," and thereby changed the
interpretation of the text.
Other Christians, not recognizing to the same degree the authority of
the books of Moses, suppressed the added phrase, and replaced the
particle [Greek: kai], "and," with [Greek: ê], "or"; and with this
substitution the passage was admitted to the canon. Nevertheless, in
spite of the unequivocal clearness of the text as thus written, the
commentators perpetuated the interpretation supported by the phrase
which had been rejected in the canon. The passage evoked innumerable
comments, which stray from the true signification in proportion to the
lack, on the part of the commentators, of fidelity to the simple and
obvious meaning of Jesus' doctrine. Most of them recognize the reading
rejected by the canonical text.
To be absolutely convinced that Jesus spoke only of the eternal law, we
need only examine the true meaning of the word which has given rise to
so many false interpretations. The word "law" (in Greek [Greek: nomos],
in Hebrew [Hebrew: torah], _torah_) has in all languages two principal
meanings: one, law in the abstract sense, independent of formulæ; the
other, the written statutes which men generally recognize as law. In the
Greek of Paul's Epistles the distinction is indicated by the use of the
article. Without the article Paul uses [Greek: nomos] the most
frequently in the sense of the divine eternal law. By the ancient
Hebrews, as in books of Isaiah and the other prophets, [Hebrew: torah],
_torah_, is always used in the sense of an eternal revelation, a divine
intuition. It was not till the time of Esdras, and later in the Talmud,
that "Torah" was used in the same sense in which we use the word
"Bible"--with this difference, that while we have words to distinguish
between the Bible and the divine law, the Jews employed the same word to
express both meanings.
And so Jesus sometimes speaks of law as the divine law (of Isaiah and
the other prophets), in which case he confirms it; and sometimes in the
sense of the written law of the Pentateuch, in which case he rejects it.
To distinguish the difference, he always, in speaking of the written
law, adds, "and the prophets," or prefixes the word "your,"--"your law."
When he says: "_Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should
do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets_"
(Matt. vii. 12), he speaks of the written law. The entire written law,
he says, may be reduced to this expression of the eternal law, and by
these words he abrogated the eternal law. When he says, "_The law and
the prophets were until John_" (Luke xvi. 16), he speaks of the written
law, and abrogates it. When he says, "_Did not Moses give you the law,
and yet none of you keepeth the law_" (John vii. 19), "_It is also
written in your law_" (John viii. 17), "_that the word might be
fulfilled that is written in their law_" (John xv. 25), he speaks of the
written law, the law whose authority he denied, the law that condemned
him to death: "_The Jews answered him, We have a law, and by our law he
ought to die_" (John xix. 7). It is plain that this Jewish law, which
authorized condemnation to death, was not the law of Jesus. But when
Jesus says, "I am not come to destroy the law, but to teach you the
fulfilment of the law; for nothing of this law shall be changed, but all
shall be fulfilled," then he speaks, not of the written law, but of the
divine and eternal law.
Admit that all this is merely formal proof; admit that I have carefully
combined contexts and variants, and excluded everything contrary to my
theory; admit that the commentators of the Church are clear and
convincing, that, in fact, Jesus did not abrogate the law of Moses, but
upheld it--admit this: then the question is, what were the teachings of
Jesus?
According to the Church, he taught that he was the second person of the
Trinity, the Son of God, and that he came into the world to atone by his
death for Adam's sin. Those, however, who have read the Gospels know
that Jesus taught nothing of the sort, or at least spoke but very
vaguely on these topics. The passages in which Jesus affirms that he is
the second person of the Trinity, and that he was to atone for the sins
of humanity, form a very inconsiderable and very obscure portion of the
Gospels. In what, then, does the rest of Jesus' doctrine consist? It is
impossible to deny, for all Christians have recognized the fact, that
the doctrine of Jesus aims summarily to regulate the lives of men, to
teach them how they ought to live with regard to one another. But to
realize that Jesus taught men a new way of life, we must have some idea
of the condition of the people to whom his teachings were addressed.
When we examine into the social development of the Russians, the
English, the Chinese, the Indians, or even the races of insular
savages, we find that each people invariably has certain practical rules
or laws which govern its existence; consequently, if any one would
inculcate a new law, he must at the same time abolish the old; in any
race or nation this would be inevitable. Laws that we are accustomed to
regard as almost sacred would assuredly be abrogated; with us, perhaps,
it might happen that a reformer who taught a new law would abolish only
our civil laws, the official code, our administrative customs, without
touching what we consider as our divine laws, although it is difficult
to believe that such could be the case. But with the Jewish people, who
had but one law, and that recognized as divine,--a law which enveloped
life to its minutest details,--what could a reformer accomplish if he
declared in advance that the existing law was inviolable?
Admit that this argument is not conclusive, and try to interpret the
words of Jesus as an affirmation of the entire Mosaic law; in that case,
who were the Pharisees, the scribes, the doctors of the law, denounced
by Jesus during the whole of his ministry? Who were they that rejected
the doctrine of Jesus and, their High Priests at their head, crucified
him? If Jesus approved the law of Moses, where were the faithful
followers of that law, who practised it sincerely, and must thereby have
obtained Jesus' approval? Is it possible that there was not one such?
The Pharisees, we are told, constituted a sect; where, then, were the
righteous?
In the Gospel of John the enemies of Jesus are spoken of directly as
"the Jews." They are opposed to the doctrine of Jesus; they are hostile
because they are Jews. But it is not only the Pharisees and the
Sadducees who figure in the Gospels as the enemies of Jesus: we also
find mention of the doctors of the law, the guardians of the law of
Moses, the scribes, the interpreters of the law, the ancients, those who
are always considered as representatives of the people's wisdom. Jesus
said, "_I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to
repentance_," to change their way of life ([Greek: metanoia]). But where
were the righteous? Was Nicodemus the only one? He is represented as a
good, but misguided man.
We are so habituated to the singular opinion that Jesus was crucified by
the Pharisees and a number of Jewish shopkeepers, that we never think to
ask, Where were the true Jews, the good Jews, the Jews that practised
the law? When we have once propounded this query, everything becomes
perfectly clear. Jesus, whether he was God or man, brought his doctrine
to a people possessing rules, called the divine law, governing their
whole existence. How could Jesus avoid denouncing that law?
Every prophet, every founder of a religion, inevitably meets, in
revealing the divine law to men, with institutions which are regarded as
upheld by the laws of God. He cannot, therefore, avoid a double use of
the word "law," which expresses what his hearers wrongfully consider the
law of God ("your law"), and the law he has come to proclaim, the true
law, the divine and eternal law. A reformer not only cannot avoid the
use of the word in this manner; often he does not wish to avoid it, but
purposely confounds the two ideas, thus indicating that, in the law
confessed by those whom he would convert, there are still some eternal
truths. Every reformer takes these truths, so well known to his hearers,
as the basis of his teaching. This is precisely what Jesus did in
addressing the Jews, by whom the two laws were vaguely grouped together
as "Torah." Jesus recognized that the Mosaic law, and still more the
prophetical books, especially the writings of Isaiah, whose words he
constantly quotes,--Jesus recognized that these contained divine and
eternal truths in harmony with the eternal law, and these he takes as
the basis of his own doctrine. This method was many times referred to by
Jesus; thus he said, "_What is written in the law? how readest thou?_"
(Luke x. 26). That is, one may find eternal truth in the law, if one
reads it aright. And more than once he affirms that the commandments of
the Mosaic law, to love the Lord and one's neighbor, are also
commandments of the eternal law. At the conclusion of the parables by
which Jesus explained the meaning of his doctrine to his disciples, he
pronounced words that have a bearing upon all that precedes:--
"_Therefore every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven_
(the truth) _is like unto a man that is a householder, which bringeth
forth out of his treasure_ (without distinction) _things new and old_."
(Matt. xiii. 52.)
The Church understands these words, as they were understood by Irenæus;
but at the same time, in defiance of the true signification, it
arbitrarily attributes to them the meaning that everything old is
sacred. The manifest meaning is this: He who seeks for the good, takes
not only the new, but also the old; and because a thing is old, he does
not therefore reject it. By these words Jesus meant that he did not deny
what was eternal in the old law. But when they spoke to him of the whole
law, or of the formalities exacted by the old law, his reply was that
new wine should not be put into old bottles. Jesus could not affirm the
whole law; neither could he deny the entire teachings of the law and the
prophets,--the law which says, "_love thy neighbor as thyself_," the
prophets whose words often served to express his own thoughts. And yet,
in place of this clear and simple explanation of Jesus' words, we are
offered a vague interpretation which introduces needless contradictions,
which reduces the doctrine of Jesus to nothingness, and which
re-establishes the doctrine of Moses in all its savage cruelty.
Commentators of the Church, particularly those who have written since
the fifth century, tell us that Jesus did not abolish the written law;
that, on the contrary, he affirmed it. But in what way? How is it
possible that the law of Jesus should harmonize with the law of Moses?
To these inquiries we get no response. The commentators all make use of
a verbal juggle to the effect that Jesus fulfilled the law of Moses, and
that the sayings of the prophets were fulfilled in his person; that
Jesus fulfilled the law as our mediator by our faith in him. And the
essential question for every believer--How to harmonize two conflicting
laws, each designed to regulate the lives of men?--is left without the
slightest attempt at explanation. Thus the contradiction between the
verse where it is said that Jesus did not come to destroy the law, but
to fulfil the law, and Jesus' saying, "_Ye have heard that it hath been
said, An eye for an eye_... _But I say unto you_,"--the contradiction
between the doctrine of Jesus and the very spirit of the Mosaic
doctrine,--is left without any mitigation.
Let those who are interested in the question look through the Church
commentaries touching this passage from the time of Chrysostom to our
day. After a perusal of the voluminous explanations offered, they will
be convinced not only of the complete absence of any solution for the
contradiction, but of the presence of a new, factitious contradiction
arising in its place. Let us see what Chrysostom says in reply to those
who reject the law of Moses:--
"He made this law, not that we might strike out one another's eyes, but
that fear of suffering by others might restrain us from doing any such
thing to them. As therefore He threatened the Ninevites with overthrow,
not that He might destroy them (for had that been His will, He ought to
have been silent), but that He might by fear make them better, and so
quiet His wrath: so also hath He appointed a punishment for those who
wantonly assail the eyes of others, that if good principle dispose them
not to refrain from such cruelty, fear may restrain them from injuring
their neighbors' sight.
"And if this be cruelty, it is cruelty also for the murderer to be
restrained, and the adulterer checked. But these are the sayings of
senseless men, and of those that are mad to the extreme of madness. For
I, so far from saying that this comes of cruelty, should say that the
contrary to this would be unlawful, according to men's reckoning. And
whereas thou sayest, 'Because He commanded to pluck out _an eye for an
eye_, therefore He is cruel'; I say that if He had not given this
commandment, then He would have seemed, in the judgment of most men, to
be that which thou sayest He is."
Chrysostom clearly recognized the law. _An eye for an eye_, as divine,
and the contrary of that law, that is, the doctrine of Jesus, _Resist
not evil_, as an iniquity. "For let us suppose," says Chrysostom
further:--
"For let us suppose that this law had been altogether done away, and
that no one feared the punishment ensuing thereupon, but that license
had been given to all the wicked to follow their own dispositions in all
security to adulterers, and to murderers, to perjured persons, and to
parricides; would not all things have been turned upside down? would
not cities, market-places and houses, sea and land, and the whole world
have been filled with unnumbered pollutions and murders? Every one sees
it. For if, when there are laws, and fear, and threatening, our evil
dispositions are hardly checked; were even this security taken away,
what is there to prevent men's choosing vice? and what degree of
mischief would not then come revelling upon the whole of human life?
"The rather, since cruelty lies not only in allowing the bad to do what
they will, but in another thing too quite as much,--to overlook, and
leave uncared for, him who hath done no wrong, but who is without cause
or reason suffering ill. For tell me; were any one to gather together
wicked men from all quarters, and arm them with swords, and bid them go
about the whole city, and massacre all that came in their way, could
there be anything more like a wild beast than he? And what if some
others should bind, and confine with the utmost strictness, those whom
that man had armed, and should snatch from those lawless hands them who
were on the point of being butchered; could anything be greater humanity
than this?"
Chrysostom does not say what would be the estimate of these others in
the opinion of the wicked. And what if these others were themselves
wicked and cast the innocent into prison? Chrysostom continues:--
"Now then, I bid thee transfer these examples to the Law likewise; for
He that commands to pluck out _an eye for an eye_ hath laid the fear as
a kind of strong chain upon the souls of the bad, and so resembles him
who detains those assassins in prison; whereas he who appoints no
punishment for them, doth all but arm them by such security, and acts
the part of that other, who was putting the swords in their hands, and
letting them loose over the whole city." ("Homilies on the Gospel of St.
Matthew," xvi.)
If Chrysostom had understood the law of Jesus, he would have said, Who
is it that strikes out another's eyes? who is it that casts men into
prison? If God, who made the law, does this, then there is no
contradiction; but it is men who carry out the decrees, and the Son of
God has said to men that they must abstain from violence. God commanded
to strike out, and the Son of God commanded not to strike out. We must
accept one commandment or the other; and Chrysostom, like all the rest
of the Church, accepted the commandment of Moses and denied that of the
Christ, whose doctrine he nevertheless claims to believe.
Jesus abolished the Mosaic law, and gave his own law in its place. To
one who really believes in Jesus there is not the slightest
contradiction; such an one will pay no attention to the law of Moses,
but will practise the law of Jesus, which he believes. To one who
believes in the law of Moses there is no contradiction. The Jews looked
upon the words of Jesus as foolishness, and believed in the law of
Moses. The contradiction is only for those who would follow the law of
Moses under the cover of the law of Jesus--for those whom Jesus
denounced as hypocrites, as a generation of vipers.
Instead of recognizing as divine truth the one or the other of the two
laws, the law of Moses or that of Jesus, we recognize the divine quality
of both. But when the question comes with regard to the acts of
every-day life, we reject the law of Jesus and follow that of Moses. And
this false interpretation, when we realize its importance, reveals the
source of that terrible drama which records the struggle between evil
and good, between darkness and light.
To the Jewish people, trained to the innumerable formal regulations
instituted by the Levites in the rubric of divine laws, each preceded by
the words, "And the Lord said unto Moses"--to the Jewish people Jesus
appeared. He found everything, to the minutest detail, prescribed by
rule; not only the relation of man with God, but his sacrifices, his
feasts, his fasts, his social, civil, and family duties, the details of
personal habits, circumcision, the purification of the body, of domestic
utensils, of clothing--all these regulated by laws recognized as
commandments of God, and therefore as divine.
Excluding the question of Jesus' divine mission, what could any prophet
or reformer do who wished to establish his own doctrines among a people
so enveloped in formalism--what but abolish the law by which all these
details were regulated? Jesus selected from what men considered as the
law of God the portions which were really divine; he took what served
his purpose, rejected the rest, and upon this foundation established the
eternal law. It was not necessary to abolish all, but inevitable to
abrogate much that was looked upon as obligatory. This Jesus did, and
was accused of destroying the divine law; for this he was condemned and
put to death. But his doctrine was cherished by his disciples, traversed
the centuries, and is transmitted to other peoples. Under these
conditions it is again hidden beneath heterogeneous dogmas, obscure
comments, and factitious explanations. Pitiable human sophisms replace
the divine revelation. For the formula, "And the Lord said unto Moses,"
we substitute "Thus saith the Holy Spirit." And again formalism hides
the truth. Most astounding of all, the doctrine of Jesus is amalgamated
with the written law, whose authority he was forced to deny. This
_Torah_, this written law, is declared to have been inspired by the Holy
Spirit, the spirit of truth; and thus Jesus is taken in the snare of his
own revelation--his doctrine is reduced to nothingness.
This is why, after eighteen hundred years, it so singularly happened
that I discovered the meaning of the doctrine of Jesus as some new
thing. But no; I did not discover it; I did simply what all must do who
seek after God and His law; I sought for the eternal law amid the
incongruous elements that men call by that name.