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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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them to become his followers ; unknown to the inhabitants of the town in which he had been " brought up >" who knew nothing extraordinary concerning him , bat regarded him only * t * * -n ir . . • • mechanicMattxiii
as an ordinary , ( . . 35 , Mark vi . 3 , ) with whose humble circumstances and connexions they were perfectly acqnainted ; unknown or discredited by his own relatives ( John vii . 5 ) ; and , if it is correct as related , Mark iii . 21 , 31 , that his
mother accompanied his brethren to se * cure his person , from the persuasion that he was " beside himself / ' or , in the language of the Scribes ( ver . 22 ) " Beelzebub , " at a time when he was particularly distinguished by his miracles and discourses , alike unknown in his true character to her
also . Observing < the parallelism of the expressions , They ( his friends ) ivent out to lap hold of him , for they said he is beside himself And the Scribes from Jerusalem said , He hath Beelzebub , " Dr . Campbell concludes , that " nothing appears plainer than that the verdict of the friends is the
occasion of introducing the verdict of the Scribes in the verse immediately following . " The connexion between the persuasion with which the mother and brethren of Jesus were actuated , and the verdict of the Pharisees , receives confirmation from the
corresponding passage in Matthew . ( See ch . xii . 24 , 46 , with the intervening and subsequent remarks of Jesus . ) Now when this general and total estrangedness from the knowledge of Christ ' s character , extending itself to his most intimate relatives , and who
are represented in the passages in question as the subjects of several of ihe miracles there related , is contrasted with the general contents of these passages , how can they possibly be
reconciled ? It appears manifest that the knowledge which they were directed to establish and diffuse by copious miracles , and in particular the supernatural wisdom infused into the
minds of John the Baptist , of Mary , and others , had no permanent continuance , and was productive of no corresponding effects . What other rational inference can be deduced than that these stories were not founded in fact , being unknown and attended with no results in the age and
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country hi which they ate said to have transpired ? That these stories are fabulous appears not simply from the particulars being unknown , but inconsistent with the subsequent history , which pro- *
ceeds upon the principle , that the preaching of John the Baptist was the first annunciation of the appearance of the Messiah since the predictions of the ancient prophets . The office of John was to announce one greater than he , who was to come after him , whom nobody knew or could know
but as he was introduced to them by John as his precursor and herald , and by the subsequent descent of the Holy Spirit upon him and the miracles he would afterwards perform . It was that event which , according to this part of the history , appears to have been the introductory miracle which first made known Jesus in hi&
capacity as the Christ to the precursor himself , while according to those stories they must have been intimately familiarized with each other in their true characters from their earliest years ! It is observable indeed , that neither before this event *
nor tin any subsequent occasion , does John appear to have expressly an * nounee < f hifai as the Christ , but usually employs some other expressions , such as " one greater than he , who should come after him "— " the Lamb of
God "— " he that baptizeth with the Holy Spirit "— " he that cometh from above , " &c , * and his subsequent
* On one -occasion , viz . John i . 34 , John the Baptist applies the phrase the Son of God to Jesus ; and with the article prefixed , as in this case , it has been thought that this phrase is synonymous with the Christ . Bat as without the
article k is applicable to all persous of distinguished piety , so its use with the article by John m the present instance was sufficiently authorized by the voice which he had recently heard from heaven , " This
is my beloved Sou- " This circumstance * however , might not determine him to be the Christ , either in hU appraheusiou or that of others ; and it appears to uio that our Lord himself on several
occasions used this phrase , without its certainly determining his pretensions to that office " m the apprchensioiisof . tho . se who heard him . See particularity John X . 31 —36 " . lu several of his preceding coiw
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On the Passages ascribed ia Matthew and Luke . 2 S 09 *
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1826, page 209, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2547/page/21/
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