afterwards.94 He would attend the services of the Synagogue, where Moses and the
prophets were read, and, as afterwards by Himself, 95 occasional addresses delivered.96
That His was pre-eminently a pious home in the highest sense, it seems almost irreverent
to say. From His intimate familiarity with Holy Scripture, in its every detail, we may be
allowed to infer that the home of Nazareth, however humble, possessed a precious copy
of the Sacred Volume in its entirety. At any rate, we know that from earliest childhood it
must have formed the meat and drink of the God-Man. The words of the Lord, as
recorded by St. Matthew97 and St. Luke,98 also imply that the Holy Scriptures which He
read were in the original Hebrew, and that they were written in the square, or Assyrian,
characters.99 Indeed, as the Pharisees and Sadducees always appealed to the Scriptures in
the original, Jesus could not have met them on any other ground, and it was this which
gave such point to His frequent expostulations with them: 'Have ye not read?'
93. The most painful instances of these are the legendary accounts of the early history of
Christ in the Apocryphal Gospels (well collated by Keim, i. 2, pp. 413 -468, passim). But
later writers are unfortunately not wholly free from the charge.
94. I must here protest against the introduction of imaginary 'Evening Scenes in
Nazareth,' when, according to Dr. Geikie, 'friends or neighbours of Joseph's circle would
meet for an hour's quiet gossip.' Dr. Geikie here introduces as specimens of this 'quiet
gossip' a number of Rabbinic quotations from the German translation in Dukes'
'Rabbinische Blumenlese.' To this it is sufficient answer: 1. There were no such learned
Rabbis in Nazareth. 2. If there had been, they would not have been visitors in the house
of Joseph. 3. If they had been visitors there, they would not have spoken what Dr. Geikie
quotes from Dukes, since some of the extracts are from mediæval books and only one a
proverbial expression. 4. Even if they had so spoken, it would at least have been in the
words which Dukes has translated, without the changes and additions which Dr. Geikie
has introduced in some instances.
95. St. Luke iv. 16.
96. See Book III., the chapter on 'The Synagogue of Nazareth.'
97. St. Matt. v. 18.
98. St. Luke xvi. 17.
99. This may be gathered even from such an expression as 'One iota, or one little hook' -
not 'tittle' as in the A.V.
But far other thoughts than theirs gathered around His study of the Old Testament
Scriptures. When comparing their long discussions on the letter and law of Scripture with
His references to the Word of God, it seems as if it were quite another book which was
ha ndled. As we gaze into the vast glory of meaning which He opens to us; follow the
shining track of heavenward living to which He points; behold the lines of symbol, type,
and prediction converging in the grand unity of that Kingdom which became reality in
Him; or listen as, alternately, some question of His seems to rive the darkness, as with
flash of sudden light, or some sweet promise of old to lull the storm, some earnest lesson
to quiet the tossing waves - we catch faint, it may be far-off, glimpses of how, in that
early Child-life, when the Holy Scriptures were His special study, He must have read
them, and what thoughts must have been kindled by their light. And thus better than
before can we understand it: 'And the Child grew, and waxed strong in spir it, filled with
wisdom, and the grace of God was upon Him.'