Biblical commentary on the New Testament - The Christian ...

CXXX
CONCLUSION.
very evident that no writings could be Divine whicli originated in
deceit and imposture.
In the first pkcc, we find in the New Testament citations from
almost all the writings in the Old Testament.* The principal books,
as, e. J/., the Pentateuch, the Psalms, the Prophet Isaiah, are cited
very often, and even those less important are referred to here and
there in the New Testament. A very few are entirely neglected ;'
of tliis number, in particular, is Solomon's Song, which is nowhere
cited in all the New Testament. This circumstance is certainly not
accidental. Perhaps it is not too much to conclude, that the books
of the Old Testament which are not at all mentioned in the New,
should be regarded very much as the so-called deutero-canonical
books of the New Testament ; though the circumstance that they
are not cited in the New Testament can be nowise objected against •
their genuineness, any more than the position of a New Testament
book among the Antilegomena can be considered as a proof of its
spuriousness. These non-cited books of the Old Testament, with
the exception of the three minor prophets, probably present some-
thing like a transition to the apocryphal books. At all events, the
fact that these books are nowhere mentioned in the New Testament
should inculcate upon us caution in making use of them.
Of more importance than the citations, are such passages of the
New Testament as contain decisive declarations respecting the Old
Testament as a whole. These occur particularly in the discourses
of our Lord himslf. Jesus calls the law (Matth. v. 17 seq.) eternal,
imperishable. Heaven and earth, he says, shall pass away, but not
one jot or tittle of the law shall pass aWay till all be fulfilled. In a
similar manner, in Luke xxiv. 44, prophecy concerning Christ is re-
presented as something running through the law of Moses, the
Prophets, and the Psalms, and as necessary to be fulfilled. In Luke
xvi. 17, also, all created things (heaven and earth), it is said, wiU
sooner and more easily pass away than the Law and the Prophets.
Thus a lofty divine character is clearly claimed in behalf of the Old
Testament. It may, indeed, be observed on the contrary, that, in
the passages refeiTed to, allusion is made, not to the whole Old
Testament, but only to particular books, the Mosaic law, the
Prophets, and the Psalms. But, first, it is to be noticed, that the
expression. Law, or Law and Prophets, stands frequently for the
whole Old Testament, just as Gospel stands for the whole New
1 The Old Testament is expressly cited in the New more than four hundred times,
and in a much larger number of places there are allusions to tlie Old Testament.
2 The Books of Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Ecclesiastes, and Solomon's Song, as also
the minor Prophets, Obadiah, Nahum, and Zephaniah. It is most proper, however, to
consider the twelve Prophets as one work; and then the fact that these three are not
cited loses its force. But in regard to other books of the Old Testament the cixcum-
stance that they are not cited is not unimportant.