[253] Kern, über den Ursprung des Evang. Matth., Tübing. Zeitschrift, 1834, 2, s. 110. [↑]
[254] Bertholdt. Christol. Jud. § 35. [↑]
[255] See the passages quoted from Tanchuma, Vol. I. § 14. [↑]
[256] [1 Kings xvii. 23], LXX. καί ἔδωκεν αὐτὸ τῇ μητρὶ αὑτοῦ, [Luke vii. 15]: καὶ ἔδωκεν αὐτὸν τῇ μητρὶ αὑτοῦ. [↑]
[257] Thus the author of the Abhandlung über die verschiedenen Rücksichten, in welchen der Biograph Jesu arbeiten kann, in Bertholdt’s krit. Journ., 5, s. 237 f., Kaiser, bibl. Theol. 1, s. 202.—A resuscitation strikingly similar to that of the young man at Nain is narrated by Philostratus, of Apollonius of Tyana. “As according to Luke, it was a young man, the only son of a widow, who was being carried out of the city; so, in Philostratus, it is a young maiden already betrothed, whose bier Apollonius meets. The command to set down the bier, the mere touch, and a few words, are sufficient here, as there, to bring the dead to life” (Baur, Apollonius v. Tyana und Christus, s. 145). I should like to know whether Paulus, or any other critic, would be inclined to explain this naturally; if, however, it ought to be regarded as an imitation of the evangelical narrative (a conclusion which can hardly be avoided), we must have a preconceived opinion of the character of the books of the New Testament, to evade the consequence, that the resuscitations of the dead which they contain are only less designed imitations of those in the Old Testament; which are themselves to be derived from the belief of antiquity, that a victorious power over death was imparted to the favourites of the gods (Hercules, Esculapius, etc), and more immediately, from the Jewish idea of a prophet. [↑]
[258] Bibl. Comm. 1, s. 287. [↑]
[259] Thus Paulus, exeg. Handb., 1, b, s. 468 ff.; Venturini, 2, s. 166 ff.; Kaiser, bibl. Theol., 1, s. 197. Hase, also, § 74, thinks this view probable. [↑]
[260] Neander, L. J. Chr., s. 363, who for the rest here offers but a weak defence against the natural explanation. [↑]