Sunday, January 13, 2008

F.A.J. Hort on Revelation in Jesus

Here's a good quote that I came across in Baird's History of NT Research (2:61):

All our primary knowledge of God is through Him, the true Son of the true Father. All of our primary knowledge of Him, the Son, is through His revelation in human flesh and blood under the conditions of earthly life, and through the testimony of those who had conversed with Him by their bodily senses. (F.A.J. Hort, The Way the Truth and the Life, 163)

The quote is from Fenton John Anthony Hort (1828-1892), who was part of the Cambridge Triumvirate along with J.B. Lightfoot and B.F. Westcott. I find the quote both inspirational and daunting. It is great to think that God was revealed in the person of Jesus...but it is something else to think that this great revelation of God has been relayed to us "through the testimony of those who had conversed with Him by their bodily senses."

If Hort is right (and I think he is), then this should be a reminder to all of us who are confessing scholars to remember to be humble. Where is there room for arrogance when such a great thing (the revelation of God in Jesus) has come in such a dingy package (the testimony of people's senses)? Though the question was intended to be rhetorical, I'll answer it: There's no room for arrogance!

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