The life and work of St. Paul

THE SCHOOL OF THK BA.BBL 27
resurrection of the dead, which has been too sweepingly characterised as M the
one doctrine which Paul the Apostle borrowed from Saul the Pharisee."
It is both interesting, and for the study of St. Paul's Epistles most
deeply important, to trace the influence of these years upon his character and
intellect. Much that ho learnt during early manhood continued to be, till the
last, an essential part of his knowledge and experience. To the day of his
death he neither denied nor underrated the advantages of the Jew ; and first
among those advantages he placed the 1
possession of "the oracles of God."
He had begun the study of these Scriptures at the age of six, and to them,
and the elucidations of them which had been gathered during many centuries
in the schools of Judaism, he had devoted the most studious years of his life.
The effects of that study are more or less traceable in every Epistle which he
wrote ; they are specially remarkable hi those which, like the Epistle to the
Romans, were in whole or in part addressed to Churches in which Jewish
converts were numerous or predominant.
His profound knowledge of the Old Testament Scriptures shows how
great had been his familiarity with them from earliest childhood. From the
Pentateuch, from the Prophets, and above all from the Psalter, he not only
quotes repeatedly, advancing at each step of the argument from quotation to
quotation, as though without these his argument, which is often in reality
quite independent of them, would lack authority; but he also quotes, as is
evident, from memory, anil often into one brief quotation weaves the verbal
reminiscences of several passages. 2 Like all Hellenistic Jews he uses the
Greek version of the LXX., but he had an advantage over most Hellenists in
that knowledge of the original Hebrew which sometimes stands him in good
stead. Tet though he can refer to the original when occasion requires, the
LXX. was to him as much " the Bible " as our English version is to us ; and,
as is the case with many Christian writers, he knew it so well that his
sentences are constantly moulded by its rhythm, and his thoughts incessantly
coloured by its expressions.
And the controversial use which he makes of it is very remarkable. It
often seems at first sight to be wholly independent of the context. It often
seems to read between the lines. 3 It often seems to consider the mere words
of a writer as of conclusive authority entirely apart from their original
application. 4
It seems to regard the word and letter of Scripture as full of
divine mysterious oracles, which might not only be cited in matters of doctrine,
but even to illustrate the simplest matters of contemporary fact. 5
It attaches
consequences of the deepest importance to what an ordinary reader might
1 Rom. iii. 2.
E.g., Rom. i. 24, Iii. 6, iv. 17, is. 83, x. 18, xi. 8 ; 1 Cor. vi. 2, ix. 7, xv. 45 ; &o.
Rom. ii. 24, iii. 1018, ix. 15 ;1 Cor. x. 14 ; Gal. iv. 2431; &c. This is the
essence of the later Kabbala, with its Pardes namely, Pcsliat, " "
explanation ; Remes,
"hint;" Derush, "homily;" and Sod, "mystery." Yet in St. Paul there is not a
trace of tke methods (Geneth) of Gem atria, Notarikon, or Themcurah, which the Jews
applied ve>*y to
early Old Testament exegesis. I have fully explained these terms in a
paper on "Rabbinic Exegesis," Expositor, May, 1877.
4 1 Cor. xiv. 21 ; Rom. x. 69 ; 1 * Cor. xv. 45.
See Rom. x. 1521.