An enquiry into the relationship between the synoptic record of the teaching of Jesus and the book of Isaiah, with especial reference to the Septuagint version.

In our study of the parables we have shown instances of the fact that Jesus has taken materials from the Greek version of the Book of Isaiah and worked them into his discourse. This shows a familiarity with the Greek of Isaiah which could have been gained only by unhurried study.But it is only as we approach those conceptions which were central in the thinking of Jesus that we see how real and vital was the influence of the Greek version of the Book of Isaiah upon him. His most vital interpretations of himself, and cf his mission were built solidly upon it. We shall take the space here for only three of them.We have shown, (P. 94) that the famous saying in regard to "turning the other cheek" not only gives us some insight into the interpretation of his mission as the teaching ministry of the CHILD of God, but that it rests solidly and quite unmistakably upon the Greek version of Isaiah.V,e have also shown, (p. 62), that the characteristic conception of "betrayal ", rests upon the Greek rather than the Hebrew of Isaiah.Put what seems to us the most important, as well as the - clearest indication that Jesus was under the dominance 226 of the Greek version of Isaiah is the supreme place in his spiritual life held by his conception of himself as the Child of God. This has been shown to have been phrased by Jesus himself in the words of Isaiah xlii: 1. This verse rang in his consciousness at the Baptism, the Temptation, and the Transfiguration.(See pp. 63, 67 -69). Although the gospel accounts have substituted the word "son ", for "child", indications are not lacking that the original form in which Jesus phrased his consciousness of himself was in the Isaianic terns, the CHILD of GOD. At least this seems to have been the earliest title applied to Jesus in the early church. It occurs in the speech of Peter delivered from Solomon's porch (Acts iii: 12), and in the words of the company to whom Peter and John reported what had befallen them, (Acts iv: 27, so). The translation of the Revised Version "Servant ", constitutes a reference to the Hebrew rather than to the Greek version, from which the tern: is taken. Put there is no evidence whatever that the conception of servant was applied to Jesus either in his own thinking, or in that of the early church. On the contrary the connotation of the underlying term is disregarded, if indeed, it be not non-existent, both Jesus and the early church. This title of Jesus maintained itself for some time, as may be seen from the sub -apostolic writings (Didaché ix: 2, Z., x: 2, 2; Parnabas vi: 1; I Clement lix: 2 -4; The Epistle to Diognetus viii: 9,11; and the Martyrdom of Folycarp xiv: 1, E). This phenomenon, which might seem strange to those unfamiliar with the facts we have been detailing, can be explained only as the persistence of a title quite naturally bestowed upon Jesus, and quite as naturally cherished greatly, by those who were close enough to him to know how greatly he had been affected by the Isaianic conception of the CHILD of God.We cannot help feeling that when all the facts are weighed the conclusion will be inevitable that Jesus knew with peculiar intimacy,and perhaps through a long period of time, the Greek version of the Hook of Isaiah; that he used it, if not to come to his own consciousness of his relationship to God, at least to make that relationship known to others. The indications are that his knowledge of the Hebrew version of the Book may have been limited. tit may at least say that if he knew it, he turned from it, and preferred to build the deepest ideas in his thinking and teaching solidly upon the Greek