HISTORY OF OUR SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume I, Issue 44, 28 February 1874, Page 13

HISTORY OF OUR SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST.

By the Abbe J. E. D abbas, n (Translated from the French "for the ' New Zealand TaWet. 1 ) 5 10. rtTBIFICATION OF MABY IN TIIE TEMPLE OF JKBCSALEM. THE t OLD MAN SIMEON. ANNA THE PEOPHETESS. ] " Ani> after the days of her purification, according to 'b"he lew of * Moses were accomplished, they carried tire child 'to fferusalem, to pre- c cent him to the Lord, as it is written in the law of the Lord : ' Every male opening the womb shall be called holy to the Lord ; ' and to | t offer a sacrifice according to the law of the Lord, a pair of turtle doves, or two young pigeons. And behold there was a man in Jerusalem named Simeon, aud this man was just and devout, wuiting for the consolation of Israel ; and the Holy Ghost was in him. And he had received answer from the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death, before he had seen the Christ of the Lord. And he came by the Spirit into the Temple, and >vhen his parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the law, Simeon took the child into his arms, and blessed God, and said : Now thou dost dismiss thy servant, O Lord, according to thy word in peace. Because my eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face of all peoples : A light to the revelation of the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel ! Joseph and Mary were wondering at those things which were spoken concerning him. And Simeon blessed them, and said to Mary his mother : Behold, this child is set tor the fall and for the resurrection of many in Israel, and for a sign which shall be contradicted. And thy own soul a sword shall pierce, that 'Out of many hearts thoughts may be revealed. And there was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Aser. She was far advanced in years, and had lived with her husband seven years from her virginity. And she was a widow until fourscore and four years^ who departed not from the Temple, by fastings and prayers serving night and day. Now she at the same hour coming in, •confessed to the Lord, and spoke of him to all that looked for the redemption of Israel." (1) 11. EITUAL CEREMONIES OF THE PUBIFICATION. The intrinsic signs of authenticity, which we have already noticed, *a existing in the evangelical text, are manifested here with a like obviousness. The rationalistic hypothesis, which attributes this page of St. Luke to an apocryphal writer of the second or third century, becomes more and more untenable. What was this legal purification ? How many days were supposed to elapse, for ifae .young another, between the .(joye of maternity and the pious duty of the presentation in the Temple of the first-born? None knew this — neither Greek nor Roman — among whom the supposed falsifier would have written. Yet, the author is at no pains to solve these problems. He pursues his narrative absolutely as if he were speaking to a generation already instructed in all the ceremonies and observances of the Jewish law. Onless the falsifier had avowedly taken upon himself the mission of writii g a succession of enigmas, unintelligible to his readers, he could not have adopted such a method ot proceeding. It is manifest, from the tone of moderation prevailing throughout the Gospel, in the details of this circumstance, that at the time it wes written, the customs it alludes to were of public notoriety in Judea, and that they entered into the life and social practices of the Hebrews. Bring in the ruin of Jerusalem and the dispersion of the Jewish people, preTious to the date in which this page of the Gospel was written, and orthwith you place the author, if he will be intelligible, under the ■necessity of explaining a thousand details, which it would have been sufficient for a contemporary writer to note in a cursory way. This general remark is of immense import, in order to a just appreciation of the truth of the evangelical text: all the sophisms of unbelief fall to pieces in the face of this law of history. But, if we study the facts in detail, the demonstration appears still more striking. Thus, each word of tho narrative of the purification evokes a wholo class of ideas, foreign to the genius of the Greeks and Romans, and bearing relation only to the Mosaic law. Tho Lord had said to Moses : " The woman who shall bear a jnan-child, she shall be unclean seven days ; and she shall remain three-and- thirty days in her uncleannesa. She shall touch no holy thing, neither shall she enter into the sanctuary, until the days of her purification be fulfilled. But if she shall bear a aiaidchild, she shall be unclean two weeks, ana she shall remain under interdict sixty-six days. And when the days of her purification are expired, she shall bring to the door of the tabernacle of the testimony a lamb of a year old for a holocaust, and a young pigeon or a turtle for sin, and shall deliver them to the priest, who shall offer them to the Lord, and shall pray for her. So shall she be cleansed. This is the law for her that beareth a man-child or a maid-clnld. And if her hand find not sufficiency, and she is not able to offer a lamb, she shall take two turtles, or two young pigeons, one for a holocaust, and another for sin, and the priest shall pray for her, and so she shall be cleansed." (2) Placed side by side with the Gospel narrative, these texts of the law enable us to understand all that is uuexpressed in the sacred oracles. The Old Testament sheds its last rays of light over the cradle of Jesus, just as the expiring flame- of the torch, blending ite ray with the splendours of the rising sun, is confounded and lost.