THE PROOF TEXTS OF THE CATECHISM WITH

A PRACTICAL COMMENTARY.

Each article of the Creed opens with the statement of an important fact: I believe. We use this expression every day and connect various meanings with it. According as we utter it with more or less emphasis and solemnity, according as the matters to which we apply the expression differ, and according as we are conscious of a greater or less authority for the statement, we can make the phrase I believe express, now a mere thought that flits through the mind, now a vague expectation, now a conjecture, now a personal judgment, now conviction, now reliance. What does this expression mean, what are its contents as used in the Three Articles?

Rom. 10, 14: How shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard?

This question necessitates a negative answer: Believing without previous information is impossible. That which I believe must have been presented to me in such a manner that I was enabled to perceive its meaning and to understand its import. The Greek verb which denotes hearing in this place has the object in the genitive. Wilke says: "àxove cum genit. rei: vim et argumentum auditi percipere" ("To hear, when connected with an object denoting matter in the genitive, means to perceive the force and import of what one has heard").1) To hear thus, means to note that something is actually so, that it has reality. When the high-priest at the trial of Jesus addressed his associates: "Ye have heard the blasphemy" (tic ẞlaonuiac), Mark 14, 64, he meant to say: You are aware of the blasphemous nature of His remark; you have heard and you perceive what the words imply. When Paul from the templestairs at Jerusalem appealed to his countrymen: "Hear ye my defense" (ty‹ àлoloɣíaç), Acts 22, 1, he asked permission to explain to them the situation in which he was placed, and to exhibit his innocence if they would only listen. The Lord

1) Clavis, sub voce.

describes the wise builder thus: "Whosoever cometh to me and heareth my sayings (twv λó7wv) and doeth them." If the hearing of the Lord's teaching induced in the hearers action suited to what they heard, the words must have carried a certain unmistakable meaning with them.2)

Faith, then, requires previous information and instruction by which knowledge of the subject-matter of faith is conveyed. The first impulse to believe comes to a person from without. Objects are presented to his perception, his attention is arrested, his intellect is set to work, and his judgment invited to pass on facts and truths communicated to him, and thus his mind and memory is stored with knowledge which he had not possessed previously. Hearing and believing are, therefore, Scripture correlatives: "Many of the Corinthians hearing believed," Acts 18, 8. "God made choice among us" (i. e., the apostles; and He did so with this appointment) "that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the Gospel and believe," Acts 15, 7. "Two disciples heard Him speak, and followed Jesus," John 1, 37. "Many more believed because of His own word, and said: Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard Himself and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world," John 4, 41 f. This last passage, in particular, shows that knowing and believing are synonyms, and both result from hearing.3)

God has supplied the means whence faith derives its knowledge.

Rom. 10, 17: So, then, faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.

Luther's differs from this rendering: he substitutes for hearing Predigt and Predigen, just as in 1 Thess. 2, 13: λórov

2) Compare, however, Matt. 7, 24, the parallel passage, which has the same object in the accusative. Hence, this rule regarding áκove with the genitive is not a hard and fast rule.

3) From the fact that faith is by hearing the Word of God preached the further truth can be evolved, that it is not of human origin. But that is a matter which must be discussed in connection with the Third Article.

àxoñs toũ vεoũ, "the Word of God which ye heard of us," "das Wort goettlicher Predigt," and in Gal. 3, 2: 2 dxo7c nioτewc, "by the hearing of faith," "durch die Predigt vom Glauben." In Hebr. 4, 2 both versions agree: ó lóɣog týc àxoñ, “the word preached," "das Wort der Predigt." Wilke) distinguishes between the first and second dxoń in our text: the former he interprets "auditio cum fide conjuncta," hearing coupled with faith, and the latter, "quod auditur, vel auditum est," that which one hears, or has heard. Thus, dxon, in the first place, would have subjective force, the act of hearing, in the second, objective force, the matter heard. Now, the apostle in this connection cites Is. 53, 1: "Who hath believed our report?" (àxon), v. 16.5) The Hebrew term is n which the Septuagint renders àɣɣɛlía (also in 1 Sam. 4, 19), and the English version "report" (in 1 Sam. 4, 19, "tidings"). This is decisive for establishing the meaning of dxoń in the passage before us: it is objective, that which is proposed for hearing, the communication, the instruction, the sermon; Luther: Predigt. And there is no apparent reason why the meaning of the same word should be varied in the same verse. Faith cometh by that which is heard, i. e., by preaching, and that which is heard, preaching, cometh by the Word of God. God by His Word creates faith. "The Lord gave the Word: great was the company of them that published it," Ps. 68, 11. "How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the Gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!"—this very text is taken from the immediate context of our proof-passage. Faith, then, is from the Gospel, this is what the passage substantiates. The Word of God, more particularly, the Gospel, informs man of what God wants him to know for his salvation; it enables man to know the things that make for his peace, and it bestows that knowledge, enlightening man's understanding by its inherent power.

The knowledge of faith extends to all that God has had to communicate. John 17, 3 states the chief doctrines, that of

4) Clavis, sub voce ȧκoń.

5) Comp. John 12, 38, where the same passage is cited.

the only true God, and that of the Savior and His work. But Rom. 10, 17 declares, by inference, that faith is from any word of God: for any word of God when preached can produce faith in the bearers. All communications of God to man are in the Holy Scriptures, the chief part of which is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. From this book faith obtains all its knowledge, and strives to know all that is in the Bible. Whatever is not Scripture cannot form the subject-matter of faith. We can believingly know only that which "cometh by the Word of God." This knowledge is no small matter.

John 17, 3: This is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent. Believing knowledge is the way of life, the true road to heaven. Knowledge is such an important characteristic of faith that faith is here called simply knowledge. Knowing of this kind and believing are equivalents. Hence, John declares: "These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe in the name of the Son of God," 1 John 5, 13. And in 1 John 2, 3 the statement: "We do know that we know Him" amounts to saying: We are aware that we believe in Him.

But faith is not knowledge only. It is not in the intellect alone; it is not of the head. Christ charges the Jews:

John 5, 46: Had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me.

John 3, 36: He that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.

In both passages the Greek verbs for believe and not believe have the object in the dative, and that object is a person. There is an approach made from the believer to the person whom he believes: he recognizes the authority and benevolence of the person who speaks to him. Wilke (sub voce) interprets MOTED, with the dative of a person, thus: "alicui aliquid narranti, asseveranti, docenti fidem habere," to give credence

to the narrative, claim, or teaching of some one, in a word, to believe a person's words. The believer coincides with the speaker, and declares his acquiescence in the speaker's statements. He is satisfied, not only that he has heard the truth, but that he likes the truth. He applauds it; he expresses, in some manner, his assent; he accepts what has been proposed to him. There is seen in such an act a more intimate and personal relation between the believer and the object of the believer's faith. The assenting believer not only perceives facts, but facts as they concern him, and perceives their relation to him with gladness. His heart is filled with joy and gratitude, while he declares: Yes, these things are so!

The assent of faith extends to all that Moses in the Old and Christ in the New Testament have published by God's direction. Moses (John 5, 46) and Christ (John 3, 36), by synecdoche, stand for the entire Scripture. The believer assents to just as much as he knows. He affixes his yea and amen to the whole Bible.

This assent is no small matter. This is shown by the two passages just quoted and by

James 2, 19: Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe and tremble.

The Jews did not lack knowledge of the contents of Moses' books. They read them every day and Sabbath day. They taught them to their children, wrote them on strips of paper, and tied them about their wrists and foreheads, carved them on the gables of their houses, and could recite entire sections from memory. Nor was there any doubt in their hearts that Moses was the author of these sayings, and that he had received them from God. But they did not accept the truth of these words, they perverted them by false interpretations, they denied their reference to Jesus of Galilee, they yielded no assent to what Moses had told them concerning the coming Messiah, who now rebukes them for their failure to give credence and a glad acceptance to the teachings of their ancient prophet. The consequence was: "The wrath of God abided on them." It rests