JESUS CHRIST (Jesus, ante), the name given in the New Testament to the son of God incarnate (see INCARNATION), Jesus being the Greek form of the Hebrew Joshua, signifying Jehovah the Savior, and Christ the being translation of the Hebrew Messiah, signifying the anointed. Matthew's gospel gives a table of his human descent. traced from Abraham and David to Joseph, the husband of Mary; Luke's table, reversing the order, begins with Joseph and ascends to David, Abraham, and Adam, as created immedi ately by God. Both evangelists give accompanying statements, involving the truth that Jesus was not Joseph's son (Matt. i. 18-25; Luke i. 26-35: ii. 33, 34: iii. 23). The fact that these tables contain different names from David to Joseph has prplexed commen tators and others who have sought to harmonize the statements. Time limits of this article permit a reference only to two of the many suggestions that have been made: 1. That while Matthew gives the genealogy of Joseph and mentions in each case the actual father, Luke's table contains Mary's ancestors. This view is consistent with the language which Luke employs. If Mary was the daughter of Hell, Joseph was by mar riage Ids son. And that Mary's genealogy should be given seems reasonable and even necessary in order to show that Jesus was descended from David; only loslegal descent from him being. shown by.Joseulfs genealogy in Matthew's account. 2 The chief importance of these tables was, at the beginning. in order to satisfy the Jews that Jesus was the son of David. They, when the gospels were first published, were much hotter able to judge concerning the accuracy of the tables than we are now; and there is no evidence that they impugned it or denied that Jesus was the son of David. For other nations, and at this day, when the truth-of Christianity and the Scriptures is attested by so many proofs, it is sufficient to keep in mind that these tables were probably family records, which, iu the nature of the case, were likely to be true, and may therefore be accepted as such, even when, in our ignorance, they cannot be explained. The divine conception of the human nature of Jesus is the central fact of Christianity as God's sal vation for mankind. As such, it needed to be fully proved; and God's proof of it was addressed by special revelation to the two persons most directly and mutually concerned; to Mary before it occurred, and to Joseph afterward. Both needed to be divinely assured of it, that their peace and welfare might be secured, and that they might become the two witnesses by the record of whose united testimony the truth should be certified to all the world. The fact having been thus proved and the testimony recorded, no additional mention of it is afterwards found in Scripture; yet all the New Testament is in harmony with it and implies it. The birth of Jesus at Bethlehem, fulfilling Mica prediction made 700 years before, was in a room occupied by dumb animals outside of the crowded khan. Yet it was heralded by Gabriel to the shepherds and by the song of the heavenly host. His presentation in the temple was among the children of the poor, yet it was signalized by the benedictions and prophecies of Shneon and Anna. The star seen by the eastern magi guided them with their homage and offerings to his feet. The transient flight into Egypt afforded him refuge during the little that remained of Herod's cruel and criminal career. His presence in the temple when 12 years old, the age at which a Jew ish child became "a son of the law," remarkable at the time for his questions and answers that astonished the learned teachers in the midst of whom he sat, was yet more grandly illustrated to future ages by the one recorded utterance of his childhood which it occasioned: " Why did you have to seek me? Did you not know that it was neces sary for me to be in the places and among the affairs which belong to my Father?" This sentence marked his consciousness of the higher nature which glowed within him, and of his earthly work. It contains the germ of the character and life ascribed to him in the gospels, which are without inconsistency or imperfection in thought, word, or deed. Of his residence in the seclusion of Nazareth three facts are recorded: his subjection in his youth to Joseph and Mary; his progress in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man; and his occupation in early manhood as " a carpenter." The way for his public ministry was prepared, as prophets had foretold, by the brief mission of John the baptizer. His baptism at the Jordan, administered by John in compliance with his own direction to do it promptly, was followed by the baptism of. the Holy Ghost and the attestation from heaven, "This is my beloved Son." His special temptations in the wilderness represented several of the chief classes of temptations to which mankind arc liable: to seek sustenance desperately in doing wrong; to be presumptuous instead of submissive; and to aim at worldly success by yielding to Satan or any other the wor ship and service due to God alone. His public ministry in Jerusalem was introduced and closed with similar symbolic acts of cleansing the temple by driving out the traders in animals and money who had gradually established themselves in its courts. At the first, when the Jews asked him for a sign to justify his course, he pointed them onward to the end, when his resurrection from the dead would vindicate his claim " Destroy this temple [his body], and in three days I will raise it up." At the last, when they asked for his authority, he pointed them to the beginning of the proofs that the kingdom of God was at hand: "The baptism of John, was it from heaven or of men?" The mighty works which he wrought were not violations of the laws of nature, but exer cises of power in the various departments of nature through a superhuman administra• tion of its laws—such superhuman administration being the surest, mightiest, most fundamental law in nature. He turned water into wine; so does he habitually, through
out the vineyards on a thousand hills by the chemistry of earth and sky, turn water into the blood of the grape: he stilled the winds and waves on the sea of Galilee; so does lie make the storm a calm on the broad oceans of the world: he multiplied five loaves for 5,000 men; so does he year by year, in myriads of harvest fields, multiply grain into food for man and beast: lie healed diseases through all Galilee; so does he maintain health-giving and healing processes in every land: he gave limbs to the maimed; so does he give them to the millions who, consequently, are not destitute of them: lie conferred sight upon the blind; so has he conferred it on all who axe not blind: lie restored life to the dead; so has he imparted it to the living, all of whom once were without it: he cast out evil spirits, suffering them not to speak; so are they every where subjected to his will. The works of which a particular account is given in the gospels arc only specimens of a much larger number, some estimate of which may be formed from three general statements, all relating to the of his public life: in Capernamn, " all that had any sick with divers diseases brought them to him, and he laid his hands on every one of them and healed them;" "he went about all Galilee, healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease;" "his fame went throughout all Syria. and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and. those that were possessed with devils, and those that were lunatic, and those that had the palsy, and he healed them." The teaching of Jesus announced a pure and perfect morality, in the midst of abounding corruption and of merely exter nal righteousness; it proclaimed the law of love to others, instead of selfishness as the moving spring of human action; revealed the living God as the Father of mankind; and foretold the resurrection of the dead, to be followed by the judgment and by the award of eternal life and eternal death. At the beginning of his ministry the sermon on the mount was spoken, which has become the standard of morality throughout Christendom; and after the three years and a half which, so far as can be judged, was the duration of his public course, had witnessed his strenuous activity in instructing all classes of the peo ple, in cities, villages, and desert places, the last day of his teaching seems to have sur passed any other, even of his life, in the number, variety, and greatness of its themes. Beginning early in the morning and continuing far on into the evening, he drew lessens from the blighted fig-tree; spake the parables of the two wns, the husbandmen, and the marriage of the king's son; answered the hypocritical question of the Pharisees and Herodians, the scoffing question of the Sadducees, the earnest question of the scribe, and added his own silencing counter-question concerning the Messiah; pronounced the terrible denunciations against the scribes and Pharisees, and the doom of Jerusalem; gave his estimate of the comparative value of offerings to received the Greeks, who sought admission to him, as representatives of Gentile nations; foretold the destruc tion of the temple, the close of the Jewish dispensation, and the end of the world; spakc the parables of the virgins and the talents; and closed all with the prediction that the remembrance of Mary's offering should accompany the preaching of the gospel through out the whole world. A large part of the ministry of Jesus was around the sea of Galilee, the shores of which, as a microcosm, were crowded with people of lands. This was the beginning and the emblem of the advancement which his teaching and his living power have since made. The chief work of his disciples was, for centuries, around the Mediterranean, then the center of empire and civilization. The third advance of Christianity was along the shores of the Atlantic, on which the nations of western Europe and their colonies were and are the most influential portion of the world. And now Christ's work is advancing also on both shores of the still wider Pacific. The sinless character of Jesus was manifested in a life which, while perfectly free from was actively exerted in beneficent work, was ennobled by love to those who hated him, and irradiated by filial obedience to God. His claim to be the anointed Son of God way advanced to his disciples, to Nicodemus, to the woman of Samaria, in gatherings of the people, among the chief priests and Pharisees, and, most solemnly of all, before the great council of the nation who, because of it, condemned him to death. And this claim was attested not only by his sinless life, his mingled meekness and majesty of manner, and his mighty works, but also by audible acknowledgments from heaven, at his baptism, at his transfiguration. and just before his crucifixion; and, most powerfully of all, by his resurrection from the dead and the consequent establishment and advance ment of the world's faith in him from age to age. The crucifixion of Jesus is a part of Jewish history, and is as certain as any other event in that; it is a part of Roman history, and is as certain as any other event in that; it is as certain as that the history of the Jews was crossed by that of the Romans. And• the fact of •his crucifixion being sure, all Scripture teaching concerning him is established; for the Scriptures written before it led to it; and those written after it were its results, followed, as it was, by his resurrection on the third day. "It marks also the boundary between ancient and modern days. From the hour when Christ died began the death-knell to every Satanic tyranny and every tolerated abomination; and from that hour holiness became the ideal of ail who would name him as their Lord."