revivification given by the late Archbishop of Bordeaux to the late Dean Stanley, and sent me by the Dean as being taken down from the Archbishop's lips. If that was so, how natural for some of the Disciples to attach a literal meaning to the precept, "raise the dead"! They would argue thus, "Our Master healed diseases at a word, so can we; He once raised a child from the dead and bade us also raise the dead; some of the Disciples therefore ought to be able to do this." How natural, under the circumstances, such a confusion of the material and the spiritual! Yet I have little doubt that the diseases which were cured by the Twelve were almost always "possession," or paralysis, or nervous diseases. Compare the different accounts given by the Synoptists of the instructions of Jesus to the Twelve when He sent them forth on their first mission:
Mark vi. 7. And he called unto him the twelve, and began to send them forth by two and two; and he gave them authority over the unclean spirits. |
Matthew x. 1. And he called unto him his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits to cast them out, and to heal all manner of disease and all manner of sickness. |
Luke ix. 1. And he called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all devils and to cure diseases. |
Here you find that the first Gospel (St. Mark's) makes mention only of the "authority over unclean spirits," and this probably represents the fact. The third account is an amplification; and the second altogether exaggerates. Hence, when we read, in the context of the second version of these instructions, "Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out devils; freely ye received freely give" (Matthew x. 8), we cannot fail to see several arguments against the probability of the italicized words being literally intended by Jesus. First, the language of Christ habitually dealt in metaphor, and in metaphor habitually misunderstood by His disciples; secondly, there
