Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 96:382 (Apr 1939)
Article: Editorials
Author: Anonymous

BSac 96:382 (Apr 39) p. 129

Editorials

Dwelling in the Tents of Shem

BIBLIOTHECA SACRA, the oldest theological quarterly published in the United States (107 years) exchanges convictions with the CHRISTIAN OBSERVER (125 years), the oldest religious weekly of our country, on the question: Was Jesus a Jew?1 The article in the OBSERVER opens with the following explanatory paragraph: “This question has come to me through the mails and orally more than once. If Jesus was only a mere mortal man, the Son of Joseph and Mary, of course He was a Jew. If He was the natural Son of Joseph and Mary, the question is not open for discussion. However, the New Testament writers distinctly teach that, while Mary was His mother, Joseph was not His father and that He was the Son of God in a very unique sense of that word.” Then follows a seven-point argument to prove His deity and divine Sonship, with the implication that these are incompatible with the claim that He was a Jew according to the flesh.

It is this type of presentation-the setting forth of a part of the truth for the whole truth, so prevalent today-that misleads those who do not know the Scripture testimony, and is especially effective with the unthinking reading public. In its application in this case it leaves such readers without a clear appreciation of the separation between the two natures of the Lord Jesus Christ-very God and very man-as distinguished from the hypostasis. His tripartite human nature-body, soul and spirit-is as clearly taught in the Scriptures as the revelation of His deity, but the former is consistently set forth as racially circumscribed, and that for a purpose. Moreover, this racial circumscription is in no wise represented as detracting from either His deity or His perfect manhood, and certainly not from His saviorhood. The latter

BSac 96:382 (Apr 39) p. 130

in its racial universality not only became available to believers amongst descendants of the Shemites, from a branch of whom according to the flesh the Savior sprang, but also to those of faith amongst the descendants of the other two sons of Noah.

In the antediluvian period of God’s dealings with man the Messianic succession is traced through Seth and his line to Noah and his family. Although there was a distinction hertween the lines of Seth and Cain, racial solidarity was maintained. After the Deluge, however, with God’s injunction to repeople the earth, He saw fit to divide mankind into three diverse racial stems, each headed by a son of Noah. To each of these stems He assigned marked identifying characteristics, some inherent in the respective sons and other qualities according to His sovereign will-enlargement and leadership to the Japhethic stock, servitude as the lot of t...