HISTORY OF OUR SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume I, Issue 37, 10 January 1874, Page 13

HISTORY OF OUR SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST.

By the Abbe J. E. Daubas.

(Translated from the French for the Nkw Zealand Tablet.) 35. — Solution op the Question op the Two Evangelical GBPBALOaiSS. ; i, THC3 the existence of the genealogies given by St. Matthew aud St. is sufficient, in irself alone, to establish clearly that their Gospel •was composed before the destruction of Jerusalem (70). The discordance apparent in these Gospels is even a further guarantee of their authenticity. The foreign nations, to whom the Apostles bore the good tidings of the Word made flesh, knew nothing of the Jewish customs. If, as rationalism suppose, " popular ideas operating at various points," had been invente I, Liter on, relative to the Saviour's origin, the apocryphal writers, far from tuknig pleasure in drawing up two contradictory lists, would have come to an agreement, in order to present precisely the same account in the narratives which they wished to pass otf as being the woik of St Matthew 'and St. Luke. Here again, the Gospel, in its immutable a. id august simolicity. baffles all the suppositions of rationalism. Of till rhe Jewish gem alogies, that of the family of Jesus Christ ought io be one of the best preserved; since it represented, on the one Mile, the royal descent of David, and on the other, it was related to the sacvrdoial race, by the affinity of Mary with Elizabeth, descendant fiom Aaron, lint Jesus Christ, in his divine person, presented to the ileb-e.v genealogists a type without precedent in history. Legally, he p;i!-sed for the son of Joseph of Nazareth ; in reality, he was the son ot M ,in , an 1 ha 1 no father, among the children of men. This it why J t ,v.. Christ has two genealogies; the one through Joseph, going b.ck to Solomon and David, as given by St. Matthew ; the other, through Mary, daughter of Heli or Joachirr, going back to D.iviJ by .it mi, as described by St. Luke. And it would be well to observ tun . h> name of Mary does not occur at the beginning of the gene.il ■ . sd. Luke. An apocryphal writer, unacquainted with the Jrwis i custom*, would not have failed to inscribe it. ■ To avoid this snare, it was a positive necessity that the Evangelist should be perfectly v nvcrsant with the Hebrew customs. In effect, the name of a woman ucv.r appeared in the Hebrew genealogies, unless it might be, to call to mem jry a foreign origin, or an alliance, illegal in itß source, but set n^hi, afterwards, by exceptional circumstances. It is thus the genealogy ot ■ t Mart hew mentions Thatnar, whose union ■with Juda, the eldesc of the sons of Jacob, recalled a remarkable episode. It records besides, ih:- name of Hahab, the heroine of Jericho, whose devoted ness had nationalized her in I»rael ; thai of Ruth, the Moabite, and finally that of B'-ths.jbee, wife of Uriah, become the mother of Solomon, unler ci>eirnstances knoivn to all. With the exception of these unions, fo lign or exceptional, the genealogy of St. Matthew which emb-a -es a period of three thousand years, does not mention another woman. Fur tins reason, that, following the root of the Hebrew word (Nssim), (1) women were always passed over in silence. Man alone (Zkas), (2) hid the privilege of perpetuating memories, as well as rac?s. From the day ou which Mary was legally espoused to Joseph under the pen of the genealogists, the name of Joseph was subßtitu ted for that c.i Mary ;so that, according to the «xpression of a reomt exeget.st, •' »c find in the genealogy of St. Luke, precisely what ought to be there. Woman is kept out of sight ; she is not mentioned, evm, at the ri.k of disadvantage to the divinity of Christ. This genealogical line be trs the stamp of robust authenticity."

36. — Conclusion

And now, had we mt re. is mi * i -,iy that all the academies in the world, bringing together their light-*, and the historical statements at their disposal, up to thu present day, could not succeed in writing over again the two genealogies of S. MuHhew and St. Like, if these two monuments should hap] .>u to he lost ? What mean the >% popular ideas Operating ar vinous point-," 10 which rationalism wished to give the credit of such a result ? fhe Go-pel is a living miiaele of exactitude, of reality, of «tnl»inj; mil luMHicity. It would seotu as though provideaice hu-l set itsult to 'he t i.«k of multiplying around this divine monument the most incomes able guirantees. Jerusalem will he effaced from amoiisj the r.a'i an, as soon as the genealogy of Christ shall have b<en enregUferrd in the eternal book. The Hebrews will lose the remembrji.ee of thrir ancestors, as soon as the patriarchal flower of the Oid Testament shall have blossomed. It would not be in the power of any human h.n.il to add an iota to the book of the jfjanib, sealed up until the coiistunmition of ages. And there are men ■who aim at wresting from the world its faith in the Gospel! i3ut, let them tnk. the best authenticated historian, and attempt to submit his ■works to 'i 3 n.inute a control, as ee\ere an examination, as exaggerated a criticism. There is not one that could withstand it. A page of Titus Livnid, taken at run ' nn from one of the fourteen or fifteen volumes of his works, could not, without rude checks, sustain such a trial. And yet the Gospel still holds its ground. Origen expounded it to Celt u 3 the philosopher; it. Justin explained it to Tryp'uon the Jew ; St. irt^oeu«, to the Gnostics ; St. Augustine, to the disciples of Manes. Kepler, Leibnitz, Jfewton, Bossuet, the most powerful geniuses that (he world has ever known, have fallen on their knees before the marvel of the Gospel. And we, who scarce know how to lisp the first letters of a science, the secrets of which these men possessed to the full, .-.c are to be deprived of the right to adore, in its evangelical manifestation, the radiant divinity of Jesus Christ ! A few paltry j sophisms, som? tuttered sh-eds of contradictory erudition, pillaged I through the course of ages, from heresies long since dead— this is all! that thedeciej.id ratioual.sm of the day opposes to the graudold Catholic tradition, wilh its two thousand years of light, glory, and ' faith ! To impose an eternal silence and oblivion on these miserable accents, it suttices that the voice of the priest be heard repeating at the ' •ornerof'ln altar, the first page of the Gospel: Liber generationis ' Jesu Christi V tLnll runs through the whole course of history ; all the dead of the Old Testament arise, and come to adore the son of Mary at the crib of Bethlehem. Adam, " who was of God" recog-

nises the promised seed, which will crush the serpent's head. Noe salutes the new ark of the covenant, which the deluge of impiety shall never more submerge. Abraham sees the son, in whom all nations shall be blessed ; Isaac, the true victim of Mt. Moriah ; Jacob, the lion sprung from Juda, who takes possession of the sceptre -, Hahab, the Cananean, congratulates herself on having transmitted her blooi to the divine hero ; before whom tli3 w,ills of the infidel Jericho shall fall ; Ruth, the Moabite bows down before the sheaf gathered in the fields of Booz ; Jesse, before the flower blossoming on the summit of the ancient tree ; David resumes his kirmor, in presence of the immortal King, who inspired his prophetic songs ; she who wa9 the spouse of Uriah, has merited by her repanUnee, tho glory of being numbered among the ancestors of the Redeemer ; Solomon bows his majestic diadem before the spouse of his Canticle, he salutes the Immaculate Virgin, " beautiful as the eveniug star, radiant as the sua, terrible as an army in battle-array;" Achaz recognises the sign which he asked of Isiias. " Behold a virgin has brought forth a son whose name is Emmanuel (God with us)." The brethren of the Babylonian captivity take dowu the harps which hung suspended from tho willows of the bauks. They understand that henceforth the Canticles of Sioa will resound through eve'y shore, because the God of the univerao has ttie entire world for his dwelling place. Zorobibel no longer regrets the sumptuous edifijes of Solomon. The divine Victim, who comes to cover with his glory, the majesty of the second Temple, effaces all the shadows, takes the place of all the figures ; accomplishes all the prophecies; consummates all the sacrifices, and reconciles man with God. Behold the splendours which the evangelical genealogy causes to shine forth upon the crib of Bethlehem. Ttie huaible Christian, brother of Christ, in reading this page, touches with one hand, the first dawn of time, with the other, reaches even to the final period of the world ; the two shores of eternity meet each other, in the p3r3)n of Jesus — beginning aud end of all things — and the form uuier which the3s ineffable wonders are about to be presented to us, is " a little child, wrapped up in swaddling clothes aud laid in a manger !

(1) Nssim, (to forget).

(2) Zkar, (to remember).