[218] Ans. But He did not doubt!
[219] 1 St. John iv. 2, 3.—2 St. John ver. 7.
[220] Dr. Moberly, as before, p. xlvii.
[221] E.g. "We should observe how the popular explanations of Prophecy, as in heathen (Thucyd. ii. 54,) so also in Christian times, had adapted themselves to the circumstances of mankind." (The Reverend writer can never for a moment divest himself of his theory that Thucydides and the Bible stand on the same footing!) "We might remark that in our own country, and in the present generation especially, the interpretation of Scripture had assumed an apologetic character, as though making an effort to defend itself against some supposed inroad of Science and Criticism." (p. 340.) ... Just as if any other attitude was possible when one has to do with 'Essayists and Reviewers!'
[222] One would imagine that the Essayist and his critic were entirely agreed. See below, p. 74,—"I refuse to accept any theory whatsoever." And p. 115,—"Theory I have none."
[223] Had the following passage occurred sooner to my recollection, it should have been sooner inserted:—"Are we to conduct the Interpretation of Holy Scripture as we would that of any other writing? We are and we are not. So far as the words are concerned, the mere words of Scripture have the same office with those of all language written or spoken in sincerity." They must be studied "by the same means and the same rules which would guide us to the meaning of any other work; by a knowledge of the languages in which the books were written, the Hebrew, the Chaldee, the Greek, and of those other languages, as the Syriac and Arabic, which may illustrate them; and of all the ordinary rules of Grammar and Criticism, and the peculiar information respecting times and circumstances, history and customs,—all the resources, in a word, of the Interpretation of any work of any kind. The Grammatical and Historical interpretation of profane or sacred writings is the same.... "All Scripture," meanwhile, "is given by Inspiration of God:" and this at once introduces several important differences; which whoever neglects may yet, with whatsoever advantages of learning and talent, fail to discover the real meaning of the Word of God."—From Dr. Hawkins (Provost of Oriel)'s Inaugural Lecture as Dean Ireland's Professor, delivered in 1847,—pp. 29-30.
It is but fair to Mr. Jowett to add that, in terms, he has very nearly (not quite) said the self-same thing himself, at p. 337, (upper half the page.) But it is the peculiar method of this most slippery writer, or most illogical thinker, occasionally to grant almost all that heart can desire, as far as words go; but straightway to deny, or evacuate, or explain away, the thing which those words ought to signify.—Thus, at p. 337, he volunteers the remark that "No one who has a Christian feeling would place Classical on a level with Sacred Literature;" and at p. 377, he observes that, "There are many respects in which Scripture is unlike any other book." And yet, (as I have shown, p. cxliii. to p. cl.,) Mr. Jowett puts the Bible on a level with Sophocles and Plato; and argues throughout as if Scripture were in no essential respect unlike any other book!
[224] "Had this writer reminded us that the New Testament Greek is a Greek of different age from that of the classical writers; had he simply warned us that we must not press our Attic Greek scholarship too far, but study the Alexandrian Greek of the Septuagint, Philo, &c. in order to ascertain the exact meaning of the words and phrases of the writers of the New Testament;—still more, if, as the result of such study on his own part, he had offered us some well-digested observations on the use of tenses, articles, or particles in the sacred writings;—he would have done some service. But this talk about 'excessive attention to the article,' and 'particles being often mere excrescences of style,' is of no effect except to expose the writer to ridicule. It sounds as if he had been accustomed to lay down the law to an admiring audience of 'clever young men,' and had forgotten that there were still 'men in Denmark' who understood Greek."—Some Remarks on Essays and Reviews, prefixed to Dr. Moberly's 'Sermons on the Beatitudes.' (1861.) pp. lxii.-iii.
[225] Quarterly Review, No. 217, p. 298.
[226] Quarterly Review, No. 217, pp. 265-6.