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BOOK

IV

THE

CHAPTER XIX.

THREE LAST PARABLES OF THE PEREAN SERIES: THE UNRIGHTEOUS JUDGE THE SELF-RIGHTEOUS PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN-THE UNMERCIFUL SERVANT.

(St. Luke xviii. 1-14; St. Matt. xviii. 23-35.)

If we were to seek confirmation of the suggestion, that these last and the two preceding Parables are grouped together under a common viewpoint, such as that of Righteousness, the character and position of the Parables now to be examined would supply it. For, while the Parable of the Unjust Judge evidently bears close affinity to those that had preceded—especially to that of him who persisted in his request for bread-it evidently refers not, as the other, to man's present need, but to the Second Coming of Christ. The prayer, the perseverance, the delay, and the ultimate answer of which it speaks, are all connected with it. Indeed, it follows on what had passed on this subject immediately before-first, between xvii. 20, 21 the Pharisees and Christ, and then between Christ and the disciples.d

• St. Luke xi. 5 &c.

b Comp. St. Luke

xviii. 7, 8

d vv. 22-37

• St. John xi.

f St. Luke xvii. 11

g St. Luke xvii.

е

Again, we must bear in mind that between the Parable of Dives and Lazarus and that of the Unjust Judge, not, indeed, a great interval of time, but most momentous events, had intervened. These were: the visit of Jesus to Bethany, the raising of Lazarus, the Jerusalem council against Christ, the flight to Ephraim, a brief stay and preaching there, and the commencement of His last journey to Jerusalem. During this last slow journey from the borders of Galilee to Jerusalem, we suppose the Discourses and the Parable about the Coming of the Son of Man to have been spoken. And although such utterances will be best considered in connection with Christ's later and full Discourses about The Last Things,' we readily perceive, even at this stage, how, when He set His Face towards Jerusalem, there to be offered up, thoughts and words concerning the End' may have entered into all His teaching, and so have given occasion for the questions of the Pharisees and disciples, and for the answers of Christ, alike by Discourse and in Parable.

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The most common and specious, but also the most serious mis

THE PARABLE OF THE UNJUST JUDGE.

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take in reference to the Parable of the Unjust Judge,' is to regard it as implying that, just as the poor widow insisted in her petition and was righted because of her insistence, so the disciples should insist in prayer, and would be heard because of their insistence. But this is an entirely false interpretation. When treating of the Parable of the Unrighteous Steward, we disclaimed all merely mechanical ideas of prayer, as if God heard us for our many repetitions. This error must here also be carefully avoided. The inference from the Parable is not, that the Church will be ultimately vindicated because she perseveres in prayer, but that she so perseveres, because God will surely right her cause: it is not, that insistence in prayer is the cause of its answer, but that the certainty of that which is asked for should lead to continuance in prayer, even when all around seems to forbid the hope of answer. This is the lesson to be learned from a comparison of the Unjust Judge with the Just and Holy God in His dealings with His own. If the widow persevered, knowing that, although no other consideration, human or Divine, would influence the Unjust Judge, yet her insistence would secure its object, how much more should we 'not faint,' but continue in prayer, who are appealing to God, Who has His people and His cause at heart, even though He delay, remembering also that even this is for their sakes who pray. And this is fully expressed in the introductory words: 'He spake also a Parable to them with reference1 to the need be (πρòs TÒ Seiv) of their 2 always praying, and not fainting.'

93

The remarks just made will remove what otherwise might seem another serious difficulty. If it be asked, how the conduct of the Unjust Judge could serve as illustration of what might be expected from God, we answer, that the lesson in the Parable is not from the similarity but from the contrast between the Unrighteous human and the Righteous Divine Judge. Hear what the Unrighteous Judge saith. But God [mark the emphatic position of the word], shall He not indeed [où μn] vindicate [the injuries of, do judgment for] His elect...?' In truth, this mode of argument is perhaps the most common in Jewish Parables, and occurs on almost every page of ancient Rabbinic commentaries. It is called the Kal vaChomer, 'light and heavy,' and answers to our reasoning a fortiori or de minore ad majus (from the less to the greater). According to the

1 Even this shows that it is intended to mark an essential difference between this and the preceding Parables.

2 The word auroús should be inserted in the text.

3 The verbs are, of course, in the infinitive.

4 Sometimes it is applied in the opposite direction, from the greater to the less.

285

СНАР.

XIX

BOOK
IV

ed. Warsh.

p. 164 b, from about

the middle

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Rabbis, ten instances of such reasoning occur in the Old Testament 1 itself. Generally, such reasoning is introduced by the words Kal Ber. R. 92, vaChomer; often it is prefaced by, Al achath Cammah veCammah, against one how much and how much,' that is, how much more.' Thus, it is argued that, if a King of flesh and blood' did so and so, shall not the King of Kings, &c.; or, if the sinner received such and such, shall not the righteous, &c. In the present Parable the reasoning would be: If the Judge of Unrighteousness' said that he would vindicate, shall not the Judge of all Righteousness do judgment on behalf of His Elect? In fact, we have an exact Rabbinic parallel to the thought underlying, and the lesson derived from, this Parable. When describing, how at the preaching of Jonah Nineveh repented and cried to God, His answer to the loud persistent cry of the people is thus explained: The bold (he who is unabashed, conquers even a wicked person [to grant him his request], how much more the All-Good of the world!' b

b Pesikta,
ed. Buber,
p. 161 a,
lines 3 and 2

The Parable opens by laying down as a general principle the from bottom necessity and duty of the disciples always to pray-the precise meaning being defined by the opposite, or limiting clause: 'not to faint,' that is, not to become weary.'2 The word 'always' must not be understood in respect of time, as if it meant continuously, but at all times, in the sense of under all circumstances, however apparently adverse, when it seems as if an answer could not come, and we are therefore in danger of 'fainting' or becoming weary. This rule applies here primarily to that 'weariness' which might lead to the cessation of prayer for the Coming of the Lord, or of expectancy of it, during the long period when it seems as if He delayed His return, nay, as if increasingly there were no likelihood of it. But it may also be applied to all similar circumstances, when prayer seems so long unanswered that weariness in praying threatens to overtake us. Thus, it is argued, even in Jewish writings, that a man should never be deterred from, nor cease praying, the illustration by Kal va Chomer being from the case of Moses, who knew that it was decreed Siphré, ed. he should not enter the land, and yet continued praying about it. The Parable introduces to us a Judge in a city, and a widow. Except where a case was voluntarily submitted for arbitration rather than judgment, or judicial advice was sought of a sage, one man

Friedm. p.

50 b, line 7 from top

These ten passages are: Gen. xliv. 8; Exod. vi. 9, 12; Numb. xii. 14; Deut. xxxi. 27; two instances in Jerem. xii. 5; 1 Sam. xxiii. 3; Prov. xi. 31; Esth. ix. 12; and Ezek. xv. 5.

2 The verb is used in the same sense

wherever it occurs in the N. T.: viz., St. Luke xviii. 1; 2 Cor. iv. 1, 16; Gal. vi. 9; Eph. iii. 13; and 2 Thess. iii. 13. It is thus peculiar to St. Luke and to St. Paul.

JUDGES IN THE LAND OF ISRAEL.

287

XIX

a Chethub. 104 b

could not have formed a Jewish tribunal. Besides, his mode of CHAP. speaking and acting is inconsistent with such a hypothesis. He must therefore have been one of the Judges, or municipal authorities, appointed by Herod or the Romans-perhaps a Jew, but not a Jewish Judge. Possibly, he may have been a police-magistrate, or one who had some function of that kind delegated to him. We know that, at least in Jerusalem, there were two stipendiary magistrates (Dayainej Geseroth a), whose duty it was to see to the observance of all police-regulations and the prevention of crime. Unlike the regular Judges, who attended only on certain days and hours, and were Shabb. 10 a unpaid, these magistrates were, so to speak, always on duty, and hence unable to engage in any other occupation. It was probably for this reason that they were paid out of the Temple-Treasury, and received so large a salary as 225l., or, if needful, even more. On account of this, perhaps also for their unjust exactions, Jewish wit designated them, by a play on the words, as Dayainey GeselothRobber-Judges, instead of their real title of Dayainey Geseroth (Judges of Prohibitions, or else of Punishments). 1 It may have been that there were such Jewish magistrates in other places also. Josephus speaks of local magistracies. At any rate there were in every locality police-officials, who watched over order and law.3 The Talmud speaks in very depreciatory terms of these villageJudges' (Dayainey deMegistha), in opposition to the town tribunals (Bei Davar), and accuses them of ignorance, arbitrariness, and covetousness, so that for a dish of meat they would pervert justice.f Frequent instances are also mentioned of gross injustice and bribery in regard to the non-Jewish Judges in Palestine.

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2

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• Cheth. 105 a

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Perhaps may refer to

Shek. v. 2

. Ant. iv. 8.

14

f Baba K. 114 a

g

xviii. 4

It is to such a Judge that the Parable refers-one who was consciously, openly, and avowedly inaccessible to the highest motive, St. Luke the fear of God, nor even restrained by the lower consideration of regard for public opinion. It is an extreme case, intended to illustrate the exceeding unlikelihood of justice being done. For the same purpose, the party seeking justice at his hands is described as a poor, unprotected widow. But we must also bear in mind, in the interpretation of this Parable, that the Church, whom she represents, is also widowed in the absence of her Lord. To return-this widow 'came to the Unjust Judge (the imperfect tense in the original

1 Comp. Geiger, Urschr. u. Uebers. pp. 119, 120, Note, with which, however, comp. the two Essays mentioned in Note 3.

2 See Geiger, u. s. p. 115.

Comp. Bloch, Mos. Talm. Polizeirecht, which is, however, only an enlargement of Frankel's essay in the Monatschr. für Gesch. d. Judenth. for 1852, pp. 243-261.

BOOK

IV

Comp. St. Luke xi. 8

b St. Luke xviii. 8

e ver. 7

indicating repeated, even continuous coming), with the urgent demand to be vindicated of her adversary, that is, that the Judge should make legal inquiry, and by a decision set her right as against. him at whose hands she was suffering wrong. For reasons of his own he would not; and this continued for a while. At last, not from any higher principle, nor even from regard for public opinion-both of which, indeed, as he avowed to himself, had no weight with him-he complied with her request, as the text (literally translated) has it: 'Yet at any rate a because this widow troubleth me, I will do justice for her, lest, in the end, coming she bruise me ''-do personal violence to me, attack me bodily. Then follows the grand inference from it: If the Judge of Unrighteousness' speak thus, shall not the Judge of all Righteousness-God-do judgment, vindicate [by His Coming to judgment and so setting right the wrong done to His Church] 'His Elect, which cry to Him day and night, although He suffer long on account of them '-delay His final interposition of judgment and mercy, and that, not as the Unjust Judge, but for their own sakes, that the number of the Elect may all be gathered in, and they fully prepared.

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Difficult as the rendering of this last clause admittedly is, our interpretation of it seems confirmed by the final application of this Parable. Taking the previous verse along with it, we would have this double Parallelism: But God, shall He not vindicate [do judgment on behalf of] His Elect?' 'I tell you, that He will do judgment on behalf of them shortly'-this word being chosen rather than 'speedily' (as in the A. and R. V.), because the latter might convey the idea of a sudden interposition, such as is not implied in the expression. This would be the first Parallelism; the second this: Although He suffer long [delay His final interposition] on account of them' (verse 7), to which the second clause of verse 8 would correspond, as offering the explanation and vindication: But the Son of Man, when He have come, shall He find the faith upon the earth?' It is a terribly sad question, as put by Him Who is the Christ: After all this long-suffering delay, shall He find the faith upon the earthintellectual belief on the part of one class, and on the part of the Church the faith of the heart which trusts in, longs, and prays, because it expects and looks for His Coming, all undisturbed by the prevailing unbelief around, only quickened by it to more intensity

This, as the only possible rendering of the verb in this instance, also is vindicated by Meyer ad loc. The Judge seems

6

afraid of bodily violence from the exasperated woman. For a significant pugilistic use of the verb, comp. 1 Cor. ix. 27.

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