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(3) THE BASIS of this teaching and hope was the O.T. Scriptures.
"All that the prophets have spoken" (Luke xxiv. 25).
"And beginning at Moses and all the prophets" (Luke xxiv. 27).
"In the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms" (Luke xxiv. 45).
"Both the law of Moses and the Prophets" (Acts xxviii. 23).
(4) THE METHOD was that of exposition.
"He expounded unto them in all the scriptures" (Luke xxiv. 27).
"He opened to us the scriptures" (Luke xxiv. 32).
"He expounded and testified" (Acts xxviii. 23).
(5) THE OBJECT was persuasion with a view to belief and understanding.
"O fools and slow of heart to believe" (Luke xxiv. 25).
"Did not our heart burn within us" (Luke xxiv. 32).
"Then opened he their understanding" (Luke xxiv. 45).
"Persuading them concerning Jesus" (Acts xxviii. 23).
"Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand" (Acts xxviii. 26).
To these close parallels there are added others, more incidental, yet nevertheless
having some weight, such as the "lodging" and the "hired house" of the Apostle
(Acts xxviii. 23 and 30), and the invitation to abide with the disciples, as it was toward
evening (Luke xxiv. 29). Again, the word "slow" in the phrase "slow of heart to believe"
(Luke xxiv. 25) is bradus, while the word "dull" in the phrase "dull of hearing"
(Acts xxviii. 27) is bareos, both words being derived from baros, "a weight". The eyes
of the two who walked to Emmaus "were opened" (Luke xxiv. 31), but of the eyes of the
Jews in Rome it is written, "their eyes have they closed" (Acts xxviii. 27). The rebuke
"O fools" follows the words, "they saw not" (Luke xxiv. 24), and this same word "to see"
and "to perceive" occurs in Acts xxviii. 26 and 27. The fact that there occurs in both
passages, "the evening", "the third day" or "after three days", might also be noted.
Also that while the name "Moses" has three or four different spellings in the N.T., in
Luke xxiv. and Acts xxviii. the spelling is the same. These, however, are but
incidental, the five items first noted being sufficient for our purpose.
We have established two important points.
(1)
In the preceding article (Volume XXXII, pp. 208-212), from the Apostle's
own testimony, the close relationship which his witness, even among the
Gentiles, had with the hope of Israel.
(2)
A link between the testimony of the Lord Himself "in the land" with that of the
Apostle "in Rome".
What we have not discovered is any statement or allusion to a distinct, high, and
heavenly calling for the believing Gentile, independently of Israel, the promises made
unto the fathers, or the covenants. We are on the very verge of this revelation, but until
the crisis is actually reached and Israel set aside "the mystery" was "hid in God".