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Authors: George Eliot

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The form is expressly tlie point of comparison in Luke only, but it is doubtless so intended by the other narrators ; although Fritzsche contends that the words like a dove, wad -reptff-epav, in Matthew refer only to the rapid motion. Tlie flight of the dove lias nothing so peculiar and distinctive, that, supposing this to be the point of comparison, there would not be in any of tlie parallel passagas a variation, a substitution of some other bird, or an entirely new figure.
As, instead of this, tlie mention of tlie dove is invariable through all tlie. four Gospels, tlie simile must turn upon something exclusively proper to the dove, and this can apparently be nothing but its form.
Hence tliose commit the least violence on tlie text, wlio adopt the supposition of a real dove. Paulus, however, in so doing, incurred tlie hard task of sliewing by a multitude of facts from natural history and other sources, tliat tlie dove might be tame enough to fly towards a man :* how it could linger so long over one, that it might be said, ^etvev e-r’ av-w, it abode vpon him, lie has not succeeded in explaining, and he tlius conies into collision witli the narrative of John, by which lie had sustained his supposition of the absence of a voice.f
§ 51. AN ATTEMPT AT A CRITICISM AND MYTHICAL IXTEEPKETATION
OF THE NAREATIVES.
 
IF then a more intelligible representation of tlie scene at the baptism of Jesus is not to be given, without doing violence to the evangelical text, or without supposing it to be partially erroneous, we are necessarily driven to a critical treatment of tlie accounts;
 
and indeed, according to UcWette and Schlcicrmacher, ^ this is the prevalent course in relation to the above point in tlie evangelical history. From tlie narrative of John, as the pure source, it is sought to derive the synoptical accounts, as turbid streams. In the former, it is said, there is no opening heaven, no heavenly voice ;
 
only the descent of tlie Spirit is, as liad been promised, a divine witness to Jolin that Jesus is the Messiah; but in wliat manner the Baptist perceived that tlie Spirit rested on Jesus, he does not tell us, and possibly tlie only sign may have been tlie discourse ot Jesus.
 
* Comp. Enseliius, II. E. vi. 29.•(• See Paulus, Bauer, Kuinol, Hase and Thcile.
+ DaWette. liilil. UuErmatik, S 208. Anm. 6. exeg. llandliurh 1, 1, S. ;U f. 1, 3 S. 20 f.
 
BAPTISM OF JESL’S. 249
 
One cannot but wonder at Schleiermacher’s assertion, that the manner in which tlie Baptist perceived the descending spirit is not given in tlie fourth Gospel, when here also tlie expression uael rrepiorspav, like a dove, tells it plainly enough; and this particular marks tlie descent as a visible one, and not a mere inference from tlie discourse of Jesus. Usteri, indeed, thinks that the Baptist mentioned tlie dove, merely as a figure, to denote tlie gentle, mild spirit wliicli he had observed in Jesus. But had tills been all, ho would rather have compared Jesus himself to a dove, as on another occasion lie did to a lamb, than have suggested tlie idea of a sensible appearance by tlie picturesque description, I saw the Spirit descending from, heaven like a dove. It is therefore not true in relation to tlie dove, tliat first in tlie more remote tradition given by the synoptical writers, wliat was originally figurative, was received in a literal sense; for in tills sense it is understood by John, and if he have tlie correct account, tlie Baptist himself must have spoken of a visible dove-like appearance, as Bleek, Neandcr, and others, acknowledge.
 
While tlie alleged distinction in relation to the dove, between tlie first three evangelists and tlie fourth, is not to be found; witli respect to tlie voice, tlie difference is so wide, tliat it is inconceivable how tlie one account could be drawn from the other. For it is said tliat tlie testimony wliicli John gave concerning Jesus, after tlie appearance: TIris is tlie Son of tiocKJolm i. 34.), taken in connexion with tlie preceding words: He tliat sent me, to baptize, t/w same said unto me, &.c., became, in the process of tradition, an immediate heavenly declaration, such as we sec in Mattliew: This zs my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
 
Supposing sucli a transformation admissible, some instigation to it must be shown.
Now in Isaiah xhi. 1, Jehovah says of his servant: (“2--^>“ii< 1^2?) in •’asa n^s”; ‘‘“i-’na; words wliicli, excepting tliose between tlie parentheses, arc almost literally translated by tlie declaration of tlie heavenly voice in Matthew.
 
We learn from Matt. xii. 17 ff. tliat tins passage was applied to Jesus as tlie Messiali; and in it God himself is the speaker, as in tlie synoptical account of tlie baptism.
 
Here then was wliat would much more readily prompt tlie fiction of a heavenly voice, llian tlie expressions of John.
 
Since, therefore, we do not need a misapprehension of the Baptist’s language, to explain tlie story of tlie divine voice, and since we cannot use it for the derivation of the allusion to the dove; we must seek for the source of our narrative, not in one of tlie evangelical documents, but beyond tlie New Testament,-in the domain of coicmporary ideas, founded on the Old Testament, tlie total neglect of which lias greatly diminished tlie value of Schlciermacher’s critique on the New Testament.
 
To regard declarations concerning tlie Messiali, put by poets into tlie mouth of Jehovah, as real, audible voices from heaven,
WaS W’hollv 1T1 tllB an;r;+ r,f +l>n lot^,.
T^ A n; c, wT.rliSr.L nitt erJ/Ii-im
THE LIFE OF JESUS.
 
supposed such vocal communications to fall to the lot of distinguished rabbins,* and of the messianic prejudices, which the early Christians both shared tlicmselves, and were compelled, in confronting the Jews, to satisfy. In the passage quoted from Isaiah, there was a divine declaration, in which the present Messiah was pointed to as it were with the finger, and which was therefore specially adapted for a heavenly annunciation concerning him.
 
How could tlie spirit of Christian legend be slow to imagine a scene, in which these words were audibly spoken from heaven of the Messiah ? But we detect a farther motive for such a representation of tlie case by observing, tliat in Mark and Luke, the heavenly voice addresses Jesus in tlie second person, and by comparing tlie words which, according to the Fathers, were given in the old and lost gospels as tliose of the voice. Justin, following his .Sfemoirs of the Apostles, d7TO{ivri[zovEvp.a~a TUV oT-ooTo/lov, thus reports them: vl6<; y,w el av.
eyo) or’ifi.epov yeyevvr]na as ;•)• Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee. In tlie gospel of tlie Hebrews, according to Epiplianius,^
tills declaration was combined with tliat which our gospels contain.
Clement of Alexandria § and Augustin |] seem to have read the words even in some copies of the latter; and it is at least certain that some of our present manuscripts of Luke liave this addition.^ Here were words uttered by the heavenly voice, drawn, not from Isaiali, but from Psalm ii. 7, a passage considered messianic by Jewish interpreters ;** in Heb. i. 5, applied to Christ; and, from their being couched in tlie form of a direct address, containing a yet stronger inducement to conceive it as a voice sent to the Messiah from heaven.
If then tlie words of tlie psalm were originally attributed to tlie heavenly voice, or if tlicy were only taken in connexion with tlie passage in Isaiali, (as is probable from tlie use of tlie second person, av el, in Mark and Luke, since this form is presented in tlie psalm, and not in Isaiali,) we have a sufficient indication tliat tills text, long interpreted of the Messiali, and easily regarded as an address from heaven to the Messiali on earth, was tlie source of our narrative of tlie divine voice, heard at tlie baptism of Jesus.
 
To unite it with tlie baptism, followed as a matter of course, when this was lield to be a consecration of Jesus to his office.
 
We proceed to tlie descent of the spirit in tlie form of a dove.
In this examination, we must separate tlie descent of tlie Spirit from the form of tlie dove, and consider tlie two particulars apart. Tliat tlie Divine Spirit was to rest in a peculiar measure on tlie Messiali, was an expectation necessarily resulting from tlie notion, tliat tlie messianic times were to be tliose of tlie outpouring of the Spirit upon all flesh (Joel iii. 1 ft.); and in Isaiali xi. 1 f. it was expressly said
* According to Bava Mczia, f. lix. 1, (in Wetstein, p. 427), II. Elieser appealed to a heavenly sign, in proof that lie liad tradition in his favour: tuiti persofiuit echo cwiesi’ts:
 
quid vobis cum A*. Eliesere ? nam ubwis secu’tidum ilium obtim’t tradUw. f Dial. c. Trypll.
88. t H-eres, xxx. 13.
 
§ Piedagog. i. (i.[| Ue consens.
Evangg. ii. 14. 1 S. Wetstein in loc. des Lukas, and De Wette Einl. in das N. T. S. 100.** See Kosemnuller’s
BAPTISM OF JESUS.
 
of the stem of Jesse, that the spirit of tlie Lord would rest on it in
all its fulness, as the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, of might, and of the fear of tlie Lord. The communication of tlie Spirit, considered as an individual act, coincident with the baptism, had a type in the history of David, on wliom, when anointed by Samuel the spirit of God came from tliat day forward (1 Sam. xvi. 13). Further, in tlie Old Testament plirases concerning tlie imparting of tlie Divine Spirit to men, especially in that expression of Isaiali, ‘^’s nis, which best corresponds to tlie [liveiv ETT’L of John, there already lay tlie germ of a symbolical representation ; for that Hebrew verb is applied also to tlie halting of armies, or, like the parallel Arabic word, even of animals.
 
Tlie imagination, once stimulated by such an expression, would be the more strongly impelled to complete the picture, by tlie necessity for distinguishing the descent of the Spirit on tlie Messiah,-in the Jewish view, from tlie mode in which it was imparted to tlie prophets (c. g. Isaiali Ixi. 1)-in tlie Cliristian view, from its ordinary communication to tlie baptized (e. g. Acts xix. 1 ft.).* Tlie position being once laid down, tliat the Spirit was to descend on tlie Messiah, tlie question immediately occurred: How would it descend? This was necessarily decided according to the popular Jcwisli idea, which always represented tlie Divine Spirit under some form or other. In the Old Testament, and even in the New (Acts ii. 3), fire is the principal symbol of the Holy Spirit;
 
but it by no means follows that other sensible objects were not similarly used. In an important passage of the Old Testament (Gen.
i. 2), the Spirit of God is described as hovering (ns;TT-i), a word which suggests, as its sensible representation, tlie movement of a bird, rather than of fire.
 
Thus tlie expression ^”11, Deut. xxxii.
11, is used of tlie hovering of a bird over its young. But the imagination could not be satisfied with tlie general figure of a bird; it must have a specific image, and every thing led to the choice of the dove.
 
In the east, and especially in Syria, the dove is a sacred bird,f and it is so for a reason which almost necessitated its association with the Spirit moving on tlie face of the primitive waters (Gen. i. 2).
The brooding dove was a symbol of tlie quickening warmth of nature \\ it tlius perfectly represented the function which, in tlie Mosaic cosmogony, is ascribed to tlie Spirit of God,-tlie calling forth of tlie world of life from the chaos of tlie first creation. Moreover, when the earth was a second time covered with water, it is a dove, sent by Noah, which hovers over its waves, and which, by plucking an olive leaf, and at length finally disappearing, announces the renewed possibility of living on tlie eartli. Who tlien can wonder that in Jewish writings, tlie Spirit hovering over the primeval
* Schleiermacher, fiber den Luhas, S. 57.
 
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