80. 1. THE ACCOUNT OF CREATION
This was the end of "the world that then was" (2 Pet. iii. 5, 6).
The chapter next goes on to describe the creation of "the heavens and the earth which are now" (2 Pet. iii. 7); and in 2 Pet. iii. 13 we are informed that these will be followed hereafter by "a new heavens and new earth."
If we interpret the chapter on these lines, and do not make Moses or the Holy Spirit responsible for the mistakes of translators and commentators, we have a surer foundation for any application we make.
In doing this we destroy the miserable imagination of a criticism which regards it as either an "allegory" or as a "myth."
The interpretation tells us that at some time in the eternal ages past, "God created the heavens and the earth."
And then, that at some time, in some manner, and for some reason (which are not revealed) it became a ruin, empty, waste, desolate, and overwhelmed with water.
This is the interpretation.
Now, the application of this to the creation and the new creation of man rests on this sure foundation; and reveals truth and teaching of infinite importance.
(1) The earth was created perfect. This is implied in the word rendered "create," and is embodied in the word "cosmos." So was man. "God made man upright" (Eccles. vii. 29).
(2) But the earth became a ruin, and so did man. We are not told why or when man thus fell; but in this case we are told how in Gen. iii. Man's natural condition is described as "dead" (Eph. ii. 1), "darkened" (Eph. iv. 18), and destitute of any good thing (Rom. vii. 18).
(3) While the old creation was in this ruined condition, the first act and movement was on the part of God: "the Spirit of God moved" (Gen. i. 2). Thus it is in the case of man. He must be "born of the Spirit" (John iii. 5, 6).
(4) The next act was also of God, "And God said" (Gen. i. 3). God spake: The Word of God came. So with
1 It is rendered ornament in Exod. xxxiii. 4, 5, 6. Isa. xlix. 18; iii. 18. Jer. iv. 30. Ezek. vii. 29. And adorning in 1 Pet. iii. 3.
X. INTERPRETATION AND APPLICATION man. He must be "begotten by the Word of God" as well as by the Spirit (1 Pet. i. 23: 25).
(5) The next creative act was the creation of light.¹ And this is true in the experience of the saved sinner: "The entrance of thy words giveth light" (Ps. exix. 130). This is precisely the application made in 2 Cor. iv. 6: "God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."
(6) In the Old Creation the light shines on the ruin; and so it is in the New Creation. Here it is that *we* first come in. Here is where we begin. Here is where we first experience and come to a knowledge of all that has already been going on. A vast deal of work has been wrought by God before we are cognizant of anything except the misery through which we have passed. But when we learn the true spiritual application of the interpretation, then, in spite of all the evil which the light has revealed, we look up, and thank God for the light, and we say, as God said when He saw the light, that "it was good."
We must not pursue the *application* which may be made throughout the whole chapter, but we commend the above as an example of our Canon X.
Another example may be seen in
2. *The Rejection of Messiah* (Isa. liii.).—The *interpretation* belongs to those who were specially addressed by the prophet Isaiah, who spake of and to "Judah and Jerusalem"; and that chapter must take its place in the context in which God Himself has set it.
¹ Whatever that was. Scientists once thought they knew; but recent discoveries of the X-rays and N-rays and Radium, etc., are so wonderful and far-reaching that no scientist would now venture to frame a definition. One thing we know, that whether they call it "luminiferous ether" or anything else, it is not the same as the word rendered "lights" in Gen. i. 14, 16. The sun and moon were called קָאוּר (māōr), *light-holders*, or *candlesticks*. Thus, we are taught in Gen. i. that which science is only just getting to know; *viz.*, that what God called "light" exists independently of the sun.
² This is done in the pamphlet entitled *The New Creation and the Old*, by the same author and publisher price 1d.).
2. THE REJECTION OF MESSIAH (ISA. LIII.)
Leaving its interpretation there we lose none of its precious truths for ourselves when we apply it as we may, and do, in accordance with our own Church Epistles. Its great and solemn lesson is even stronger and deeper in its application than in its interpretation.
It must be admitted by all that Israel will be able to use those words in a sense which we can never do.
The Lord Jesus did grow up in their midst (v. 2) as He has not in ours.
When He did so, there was a literal sense in which His People to whom He came did not see any form or comeliness in Him, or any beauty that they should desire Him (v. 2), which was not equally true of us, as Gentiles, though it can be truly applied to us.
There was a sense in which they "hid their faces from Him and esteemed Him not" (v. 3), which is not so literally true of us: though our application of the words finds a real counterpart.
We were not God's "sheep" and "people" as Israel was, and it could not be said of us as of them, "All we like sheep have gone astray" (v. 6). We were far more than "lost sheep" (Matt. x. 6): we are "dead in trespasses and sins," but of Israel it was specially said that they were "the sheep of His pasture" (Ps. xcv. 7; c. 3, etc.).
It was for Isaiah's people that Messiah was specially stricken (v. 8); but, as afterwards revealed, we may apply the words in a very true sense of ourselves.
3. The mourning of Israel (Rev. i. 7).—In like manner there is a very special sense in which the interpretation of the words in Rev. i. 7 will be true of Israel—"they which pierced him . . . shall mourn over him." There can be only a somewhat strained application to ourselves; certainly not an interpretation of us.
4. The Potter's house (Jer. xviii.).—This chapter affords an instructive example of this Canon. The prophet is told to go down to the Potter's house and note what he sees.
He sees the Potter make a vessel on the wheels, and the vessel was marred in his hands.
Then he made it again another vessel as it pleased the Potter to make it (vv. 1—4).
X. INTERPRETATION AND APPLICATION
In the verses that follow, the *interpretation* is given by God Himself; and He interprets it of Israel.
But there are several *applications* which we may make, all equally true; and to us, more vitally important than the *interpretation* itself.
When Jehovah sent Jeremiah to the Potter's house, it was to teach him a great eternal principle; that *He would never mend that which man had marred*, but would make an end of it and put a new thing altogether in its place.
Jehovah's own *interpretation* of what Jeremiah saw, was that Israel, like that clay, had become marred. He, the great Potter, would not mend the nation; but would make a new nation, a new Israel in whom He could put a new spirit, and write His law in their hearts (Jer. xviii., xxxi. 31-37). This new nation is the interpretation of the Lord Jesus also, in Matt. xxi. 13, when He said to and of the nation, in His day, "Therefore say I unto you, The Kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof."
That nation will not be the vessel that was marred. It will be the same clay, but re-made "another vessel as seemed good to the potter to make it."
This is God's own *interpretation*, and we may not ignore it; or rob Israel of the blessed hope which is revealed in it, and is yet in store for that nation.
But, leaving Israel in full and sure possession of this promise we are at liberty to make as many *applications* of the lesson in the Potter's house as may be consistent with the other teaching of the Word of God.
(1) We may apply it to "the heavens and earth which are now." This earth came under the curse, and is *marred*: marred, so that "the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now" (Rom. viii. 22). God will not mend this earth; but will make "a new heaven and a new earth" (2 Pet. iii. 13); as may "seem good to the Potter to make it"; and of which this present earth will have a foretaste in millennial blessings (Rev. xxi., xxii.). Those who are labouring to mend this marred creation have not yet learned the lesson of this *application* of the Potter's house.
(2) We may apply it to man. Man was marred, and at the Fall became alienated from the life of God (Rom. v.
4. THE POTTER'S HOUSE (JER. XVIII.)
12--21. Eph. ii. 1--3; iv. 17--19, etc.). God will not mend or reform the natural man; but He makes "a new man" "a new creation, in Christ" (2 Cor. v. 17. Eph. ii. 10), and bestows a new nature, and gives a new spirit; "as it pleases the Potter to make it."
(3) We may apply it to the Covenant which God made with Israel, "which my covenant they brake," He says. That Covenant is marred. But God will not mend it. He will "make a new Covenant." That is His own *application*, and we find it in Hebrews viii. 7--13; x. 16. (Compare Jer. xxxi. 33, 34.)
(4) We may apply it to the Sacrifices as ordained by God. But these were marred in the making. They, like the Covenant itself, "were not faultless;" "for it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins." They were marred, and will not be mended. A new and living way has been made and opened by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ—once for all. "Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God. He taketh away the first that He may establish the second." The second is the new vessel "as it pleased the Potter to make it" (Heb. x. 1--23).
(5) We may apply it to the institution of Kings, and the setting up of the throne of David. The Kings failed (as the Priests also failed). The throne was marred. But, it is not in God's counsels to mend it. The confusion must go on, while all the nations of the earth are seeking, striving, and struggling to attain a better government by human remedies, reforms, or revolutions. This will go on—For in His own application of this. He has said: "I will overturn, overturn, overturn" until He comes whose right it is to reign (Ezek. xxi. 27. Isa. xxxii. 1). And, while kings fail and set themselves against Jehovah and His anointed, and thrones totter and fall, and dynasties change and pass away, yet, looking forward to that coming day when He will of this clay make another vessel, as it seemeth good for Him to make it, His counsel is declared even now, in the midst of the ruin: "Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion" (Ps. ii. 6).
(6) We may apply this great eternal principle of the Potter's house to our mortal bodies. Made in the image
$^{1}$ See *The Two Natures*, by the same author and publisher (price 1s.).
X. INTERPRETATION AND APPLICATION of Elohim, capable of living for ever through the virtues of the "tree of life," these human bodies became mortal; marred through the Fall, and made subject to death through sin. Man may use his means, improve his arts; and may mend by his medicines; he may delay, but he cannot stay the appointment of God for man: "It is appointed unto men once to die" (Heb. ix. 27. Gen. iii. 19. Eccles. iii. 20).
God will not mend these marred bodies of our humiliation, but He has prepared for His people "another" body. A "house not made with hands," a "house from heaven," re-made, in resurrection, like Christ's own body of glory (2 Cor. iv. 14--v. 2).
Now, while in "our earthly house of this tabernacle" we are "absent from the Lord." Therefore it is that we are earnestly longing for that resurrection day when we shall be "clothed upon with our house" which is from heaven," when we shall be absent, out of, or away from these vile bodies, and present with the Lord, in bodies made like the glorious body of Christ (Phil. iii. 20, 21). Then, and only then, will "mortality be swallowed up of life" (2 Cor. v. 4).
If any ask, "How are the dead raised up? And with what body do they come?" Then the answer is that which comes to us as the echo from the lesson in the Potter's house: "God giveth it a body AS IT HATH PLEASED HIM" (1 Cor. xv. 35, 38). Then, and then only, "shall be brought to pass the saying," "Death is swallowed up in victory" (1 Cor. xv. 54).
We could not give a better illustration of this important Canon than that of the Potter's house, which shows us how, after we have settled and distinguished the interpretation of a passage, we may make one or more applications of it, so long as they are in harmony with the general teaching of the whole Word of truth.
One more example, and that from the New Testament, must suffice.
5. The parable of the Ten Virgins (Matt. xxv.). In no Scripture is this great principle less observed than in
1 2 Cor. v. 2. Greek, οἰκείμενοι (οἰκέτειοι), a spiritual body, similar to that of the angels. See Jude 6.
5. THE TEN VIRGINS (MATT. XXV.)
the general treatment of this parable. For not only is the interpretation evaded and avoided, but it is ignored altogether; and the application is put in its place: indeed, it is actually substituted for it, and itself made the interpretation.
The application thus made is self-contradictory; for while the "kingdom of heaven" is supposed to be the Church, the Bride also is held to be the Church, "the Virgins her companions" are also taken as representing the Church; and we are constantly and universally exhorted to be "wise" and have our lamps trimmed and "oil in our vessels"; the oil being the Holy Spirit, which we refuse to give to the unwise, but bid them go and buy for themselves!
This farrago of Arminian theology is supposed to be what the Lord was then teaching to His disciples, and which we are to suppose them to have understood.
But there is a true interpretation; and there is also a true application. The latter cannot be made until the former is obtained; for the interpretation is the foundation on which the application is built. There can be no building till the foundation is laid.
The interpretation is clearly indicated by the first word with which it commences: "THEN."
That is to say, at this stage of the Lord's last great prophetic address, and at this point in the succession of events which I.e was unfolding: "THEN shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins," etc.
When the interpretation of this prophecy shall be fulfilled those who are waiting for the Bridegroom will go forth to meet Him.
"It shall be said in that day,
Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him,
And he will save us:
This is Jehovah, we have waited for him,
We will be glad and rejoice in his salvation."
(Isa. xxv. 9.)
Having thus settled the interpretation; it is now open to us to make such application as we may be able;
1 As we have seen above, p. 359.
C C
X. INTERPRETATION AND APPLICATION and one lies on the surface: viz., the general exhortation to watchfulness; which is none the less solemn and none the less powerful, weighty, and effective because the true interpretation has been made. For if they have need to watch who have and are to have "Signs" given to them, how much more watchful should we be who have no such signs, but are "waiting for God's Son from heaven," who may come at any moment to meet His risen and changed ones in the air and receive them up into glory.
XI. THE LIMITS OF INSPIRATION.
Though there is not much to be said on this subject, yet the importance of this Canon is very great.
Not only is the Spirit of God often held responsible for the mistakes and errors of translators and commentators, but other things are put down to Him when they are really the statements of others, for which the speakers alone are responsible.
The Scriptures contain records of conversations, and statements made by Satan, by demons, by the human enemies of God, and by His mistaken and erring servants. We have an inspired record of all that was said and done; but it does not follow that all that was said and done was inspired!
To Job and his friends, God categorically said, "Ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right" (Job xlii. 7, 8. Compare ch. xxxiii. 12). "Job hath spoken without knowledge, and his words without wisdom" (ch. xxxiv. 35), and he "multiplieth words without knowledge" (ch. xxxv. 16). "Who is this (God asked Job) that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge" (ch. xxxviii. 2). Are we then to quote such words as inspired? Surely not, unless we are distinctly told that God "put them into the mouths" of the speakers as He did into Balaam's mouth (Num. xxiii. 5, 16).
Surely we have to be careful in all our quotations of God's Word, to see that they are the words of God, and that we are not making Him responsible for the words of fallen, erring, and ignorant human beings.
It is a question whether the song of Deborah (Judg. v.) was inspired: though we have an inspired record of the words of her song. We do not say it is not; but, if any do think so, they need not be at too great pains to reconcile her statements or her ethics with the attributes of Jehovah: though, as we have shown (Part I, iv. 2, pp. 108, etc.), they are perfectly in accord with the Dispensation in which we find them.
In many cases grave difficulties are created by not observing this Canon of interpretation; and hopeless c c 2
XI. THE LIMITS OF INSPIRATION efforts are made to get out of the entanglements of our own assumptions.
If exceptions prove the rule, then the truth of the Inspired record is enhanced by the one or two exceptions which are distinctly stated to be such by the Apostle Paul himself. He thereby sets his seal to the fact that all his other statements have Divine authority.
The same principle must be applied to actions of God's servants.
David was "a man after God's own heart," as to his being chosen as God's king: but it does not follow, nor does it say, that all David's acts were according to God's choice or even approval; for we know how he was judged by God for his sins and infirmities. The word "heart" in the above quotation has to do with God's call and not with David's walk.
The same is the case with Paul's last journey to Jerusalem. It was commenced in disobedience; characterized by dissembling; and concluded in disaster (personally).
Peter also at Antioch manifested the same weakness of human nature.
God's servants were men of like passions with ourselves, neither more nor less. And we have an inspired record of their actions and their words, which have to be distinguished and rightly divided from the "words which the Holy Ghost teacheth"; and those acts which were done by direct Inspiration.
See what mischief has been made of the words of Mary in Luke ii. 48, "Thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing." These words have been quoted and used as supporting the denial of the Virgin birth of the Lord Jesus. Various arguments have been used to explain Mary's words. In The Record of Feb. 1, 1907, a correspondent labours to upset the Received Text, which, here, is unquestioned, by setting above it some old Latin Versions. But there is no need for all this if we remember that this is not the only occasion when Mary "erred with her lips." That she did so err is shown by the next verse, where the Lord's correction is very pointed and emphatic. She said "Thy father and I have sought thee" (v. 48). He replies, "Wist ye not that I must be about MY Father's business?" (v. 49). "They understood
THE LIMITS OF INSPIRATION not the saying which He spake unto them" (v. 50). But those who do not observe this Canon of interpretation do not "understand the saying"; and not only misunderstand it, but misuse it for the support of error. (See pp. 318 and 385.)
The need of observing it is clear enough in such cases as the words Satan, and evil spirits, and the enemies of God, such as Pharaoh, Rabshakeh, Herod, the Scribes and Pharisees who opposed the Lord Jesus.
When we consider the havoc wrought by the first two lies of the Old Serpent, we may see the importance of this Canon. Not only is the Old Theology permeated with these two lies, but they are the two pillars on which the "New Theology" is based:
"Ye shall be as God" (Gen. iii. 5).
"Ye shall not surely die" (Gen. iii. 4).
These two lies led to the Fall of man; and they are still the two great signs of his fallen condition, for fallen man prefers them to the truth of God. (Compare pp. 315, etc.)
When it comes to the words of others there is danger lest we put them on the same level with the "words which the Holy Ghost teacheth." The words and utterances of men have all to be judged by the words of God; hence the need of careful attention to this Canon of interpretation.
XII. THE PLACE OF VARIOUS READINGS.
In speaking on or of the "words" of God, references are sometimes made to variations in the Original Text of the Old and New Testaments.
It may be well, therefore, to put the general reader, who has not time to devote to this subject, in possession of a few elementary facts in connection with it.¹
The Word of God has come down to us in manuscript form; and not until the invention of printing was it possible to have it in any other form.²
These manuscripts are written by different hands at different times, and existing copies date from the fourth century.
Translations of them made before the fourth century are also in existence, though the MSS. of these versions (still in existence) are, of course, not so old.
There are also many quotations from these MSS. preserved in the writings of those who lived before the fourth century, though the MSS. of their works are not so old.
These transcriptions all bear the marks of human frailties and infirmities, notwithstanding the great care in copying them. In spite of all the safeguards invented and provided for insuring accuracy, there are many variations.
The human element in the transmission of the Divine Word is neither more nor less than in the transmission of ordinary literature.
Variations in reading are the normal characteristics of all manuscripts, and it has ever been a copyist's or
¹ Those who wish to go more deeply into it must study Dr. Ginsburg's Introduction to the Hebrew Bible (published by the Trinitarian Bible Society, 7, Bury Street, Bloomsbury, London; or a small pamphlet by the author on The Massorah (Eyre & Spottiswoode (Bible Warehouse), Ltd., 33, Paternoster Row, London, price 1s.). For the New Testament Dr. Tregelles' work on The History of the Printed Text of the Greek New Testament should be studied.
² This (in England) was in 1455, but as early as 1475 there are two dated books. These are in Hebrew. The first printed books of the Bible were the Hebrew Psalter, 1477, and the Hebrew Pentateuch, 1482 (Bologna).
HEBREW MSS., OLD TESTAMENT editor's aim to spare no pains in securing a good copy and a sound text.
The mere mechanical act of copying, extending as it did for many hours a day, and often for many months and even years, not to speak of drowsy intelligences and numbed fingers in a draughty scriptorium, will easily account for deviations from an authentic text.
The many editions of Shakespeare, carried out by numerous editors, show a remarkable tendency to a progressive deterioration in textual accuracy.¹
The original texts of the Bible have had a singularly happy exemption from the treatment of the texts of modern writers.
Emendations are confined for the most part to the pages of commentators, while the vast majority of textual variations are trivial in the extreme, very many being only a difference in spelling. Those which are really vital and which affect doctrine or teaching may be counted on one's fingers, if not on those of one hand.
There are many, of course, which are full of interest, and are of more or less importance. We speak first of
THE HEBREW MSS. (THE OLD TESTAMENT).
There were two great schools, or recensions of MSS., where they were transcribed between the sixth and tenth centuries. One at Babylon in the East, and the other at Tiberias in the West.
The variations are neither numerous² nor important, being confined to the vowel-points with a few exceptions.
There are five great standard Codices from which all subsequent copies have been made.
1. The Codex of Hillel, which Rabbi Kimchi (cent. xii.) says he saw at Toledo.
2. The Codex of Ben Asher, President of the School at Tiberias in the early part of the eleventh century, known as the Jerusalem Codex.
¹ Especially in the four well-known folio editions between 1623 and 1685. Milton, Pope, Gray, Keats, Shelley, Cowper, and Wordsworth have all suffered at the hands of their editors. Dr. Bentley's outrages, in 1732, on the text of Paradise Lost are inexcusable.
² They are estimated at 861 for the whole of the Old Testament.
XII. THE PLACE OF VARIOUS READINGS
3. The Codex of Ben Naphtali, President at Babylon, and hence known as the Babylonian Codex.
4. The Pentateuch of Jericho, which was held by Elias Levita to be the most perfect and correct.
5. The Codex of Sinai, also of the Pentateuch, and differing from that of Jericho only in some of the accents.
Besides these there are various readings noted in the Massorah, i.e., the writing in small characters which is seen at the head, foot, and in the margins of all the ancient Hebrew MSS. No one MS. contains the whole of this Massorah, and no one man had set himself to collect the whole from vast numbers of MSS. until Dr. Christian D. Ginsburg devoted his life to it. His edition of the Hebrew Bible is the only one which exhibits these Various Readings; and his Introduction to the Hebrew Bible is the only one which contains a complete history of the Hebrew written and printed text.
Unfortunately, the work was so long neglected by scholars, that we do not yet possess an Apparatus Criticus or recognized list of MSS. The scholars of various nations have not yet agreed on a universal or standard list by which the MSS. may be referred to or known by letters, numerals, or symbols, as is the case with the New Testament. This is a great work which is still needed to be done.
THE NEW TESTAMENT.
The Greek MSS. of the New Testament (in whole or in part) are over five hundred in number.
They are divided into two great classes, known as Uncial (i.e., written in capital letters), or Cursive (i.e., written in running-hand). The former are mostly earlier than the eighth century, the latter date from the tenth.
¹ It was published, in 1894, by the Trinitarian Bible Society of London (7, Bury Street, Bloomsbury), at the price of one guinea. A reprint of the edition was published in 1907 at the reduced price of 7s. 6d.