The Problem of Evil in Early Christianity

Extract

One feature common to SS. Matthew, Mark and Luke is that in all three the Ministry of Christ begins with the Baptism in the Jordan, and for all three equally the central point in this event is the descent of the Holy Spirit upon Jesus. Their agreement continues also regarding the first movement of the Spirit which is, according to St Mark’s very striking expression, ‘to drive Jesus into the desert’, where he is to meet the Devil and conquer his temptations. The historians of the last century for whom the Gospels were merely a mine of information for the biography of Jesus, have passed over this episode as a bizarrerie of no consequence. From the literary point of view alone this is a great mistake. In its place at the beginning of the Gospel, just as the account of the temptation of man is found at the beginning of Genesis, there can be no doubt whatever that it is noted with the intention of bringing out the parallel. It is presenting the Gospel story as a re-enactment of the Adamic story, which is to say the story of man.

In this respect Milton had a truer vision than many modern exegetes when he enclosed his Biblical Epic between the two events of Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained. The parallel is connected with the idea of the Second Adam to which (especially in St Paul) exegesis has given too little attention. It seems indeed that we should also relate it to that of the Son of Man, designating Jesus.