Jesus everywhere in the Gospels recognises the divine origin of the law,(2) and he quotes the predictions of the prophets as absolute evidence of his own pretensions. To those who ask him the way to eternal life he indicates its commandments,(3) and he even enjoins the observance of its ceremonial rites.(4) Jesus did not abrogate the
Mosaic law; but, on the contrary, by his example as well as his precepts, he practically confirmed it.(1)
According to the statements of the Gospels, Jesus himself observed the prescriptions of the Mosaic law.(2) From his birth he had been brought up in its worship.(3) He was circumcised on the eighth day.(4) "And when the days of their purification were accomplished, according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord, even as it is written in the law of the Lord: Every male, &c, &c, and to give a sacrifice according to that which is said in the law of the Lord," &c, &c.(5) Every year his parents went to Jerusalem at the feast of the Passover,(6) and this practice he continued till the close of his life. "As his custom was, he went into the Synagogue (at Nazareth) and stood up to read."(7) According to the fourth Gospel, Jesus goes up to Jerusalem for the various festivals of the Jews,(8) and the feast of the Passover, according to the Synoptics, was the last memorable supper eaten
with his disciples,(1) the third Synoptic representing him as saying: "With desire I desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; for I say unto you that I shall not any more eat it until it be fulfilled hi the kingdom of God."(2) However exceptional the character of Jesus, and however elevated his views, it is undeniable that he lived and died a Jew, conforming to the ordinances of the Mosaic law in all essential points, and not holding himself aloof from the worship of the Temple which he purified. The influence which his adherence to the forms of Judaism must have exerted over his followers(3) can scarcely be exaggerated, and the fact must ever be carefully borne in mind in estimating the conduct of the Apostles and of the primitive Christian community after his death.
As befitted the character of the Jewish Messiah, the sphere of the ministry of Jesus and the arrangements for the proclamation of the Gospel were strictly and even intensely, Judaic. Jesus attached to his person twelve disciples, a number clearly typical of the twelve tribes of the people of Israel;(4) and this reference is distinctly adopted when Jesus is represented, in the Synoptics, as promising that, in the Messianic kingdom, "when the Son
of Man shall sit on the throne of his glory," the Twelve also "shall sit upon twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel;"(1) a promise which, according to the third Synoptist, is actually made during the last supper.(2) In the Apocalypse, which, "of all the writings of the New Testament is most thoroughly Jewish in its language and imagery,"(3) the names of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb are written upon the twelve foundations of the wall of the heavenly Jerusalem, upon the twelve gates of which, through which alone access to the city can be obtained, are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel.(4) Jesus himself limited his teaching to the Jews, and was strictly "a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers."(5) To the prayer of the Canaanitish woman: "Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David," unlike his gracious demeanour to her of the bloody issue,(6) Jesus, at first, it is said, "answered her not a word;" and even when besought by the disciples—not to heal her daughter, but—to "send her away," he makes the emphatic declaration: "I was not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel."(7) To her continued appeals he lays
