42. Verbal parallels could easily be quoted, and naturally so, since Jesus spoke as a Jew
to Jews - but no real parallel. Indeed, the point of the story lies in its being so utterly un-
Jewish.
These words about receiving Christ, and 'receiving in the Name of Christ,' had stirred
the memory and conscience of John, and made him half wonder, half fear, whether
what they had done by the way, in forbidding the man to do what he could in the name
of Christ, had been right. And so he told it, and received the further and higher teaching
on the subject. And, more than this, St. Mark and, more fully, St. Matthew, record some
further instruction in connection with it, to which St. Luke refers, in a slightly different
form, at a somewhat later period.43 But it seems so congruous to the present occasion,
that we conclude it was then spoken, although, like other sayings,44 it may have been
afterwards repeated under similar circumstances.45 Certainly, no more effective
continuation, and application to Jewish minds, of the teaching of our Lord could be
conceived than that which follows. For, the love of Christ goes deeper than the
condescension of receiving a child, utterly un-Pharisaic and un-Rabbinic as this is.46 To
have regard to the weaknesses of such a child - to its mental and moral ignorance and
folly, to adapt ourselves to it, to restrain our fuller knowledge and forego our felt liberty,
so as not 'to offend' - not to give occasion for stumbling to 'one of these little ones,' that
so through our knowledge the weak brother for whom Christ died should not perish: this
is a lesson which reaches even deeper than the question, what is the condition of
entrance into the Kingdom, or what service constitutes real greatness in it. A man may
enter into the Kingdom and do service - yet, if in so doing he disregard the law of love to
the little ones, far better his work should be abruptly cut short; better, one of those large
millstones, turned by an ass, were hung about his neck and he cast into the sea! We
pause to note, once more, the Judaic, and, therefore, evidential, setting of the Evangelic
narrative. The Talmud also speaks of two kinds of millstones - the one turned by hand
()dyd Myyxr),47 referred to in St. Luke xvii. 35; the other turned by an ass (µυλος ονιλος),
just as the Talmud also speaks of 'the ass of the millstone' ()yxyrd `ymx).48 Similarly, the
figure about a millstone hung round the neck occurs also in the Talmud - although there
as figurative of almost insuperable difficulties.49 Again, the expression, 'it were better for
him,' is a well-known Rabbinic expression (Mutabh hayah lo).50 Lastly, according to St.
Jerome, the punishment which seems alluded to in the words of Christ, and which we
know to have been inflicted by Augustus, was actually practised by the Romans in
Galilee on some of the leaders of the insurrection under Judas of Galilee.
43. St. Luke xvii. 1-7.
44. Comp. for example St. Mark ix. 50 with St. Matt. v. 13.
45. Or else St. Luke may have gathered into connected discourses what may have been
spoken at different times.
47. Kethub. 59 b, line 18 from bottom.
46. St. Matt. xviii. 2-6, and parallels.
48. Moed K. 10 b, first line.
49. Kidd. 29 b, lines 10 and 9 from bottom.
50.
Vayyikra R. 26.
And yet greater guilt would only too surely be incurred! Woe unto the world!51 Occasions
of stumbling and offence will surely come, but woe to the man through whom such