Parabolic and typological descriptions of the Gospel.
Parabolic and typological descriptions of the Gospel.
§ 12. The parabolic and typological descriptions of the Gospel, in which the Gospel is compared to a very sumptuous banquet, a nuptial feast, and to other very joyful things, must also be placed here. “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside the waters of refreshment” (Ps. 23:1–2). “Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me. You anoint my head with oil. My cup is inebriating” (Ps. 23:4–5). “Jehovah of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of fat things, a feast of wine on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wine on the lees well-refined” (Isa. 25:6). “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a marriage feast for his son. And through servants he took care to have it announced to the invited: ‘Behold, I have made ready my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves are killed, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast’ ” (Matt. 22:2, 4). “The kingdom of God may be compared to a man who gave a great feast and invited many. And at the time for the banquet, he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited: ‘Come, for all is now ready’ ” (Luke 14:16–17). In Luke 15:20–[24] a type of the Gospel is set forth in the reception of the son who had been lost, whose father “ran and embraced him and kissed him, put new clothes on him, prepared a banquet for him,” etc.
1 sacerdotii strumis. Cf. Cicero, Letters to Atticus 2.9.2 (LCL 7 [1999], pp. 162–63).
2 There is no § 5.
3 See Chemnitz’s Works 8:821–22.
4 That is, an instrument or tool. For example, a pencil in the hand of an artist is the tool for producing a sketch.
5 A “subject” was usually the subject of a proposition, a something or someone about which something is stated. From there, a “subject” could be defined as anything that can receive an accident or an adjunct. Here Gerhard uses the term to refer to what the Gospel is in and of itself.
6 An adjunct is anything added to something else which is not part of its essence. An adjunct is really distinguished from its subject, even if it is proper to the subject. While adjuncts are often accidents (such as wisdom in a man), they can also be substances (such as wine in a bottle).
7 An “accident” is an incidental property of a thing; that which affects something and is outside its essence. For example, “whiteness” can be an accident of a wall but is not of its substance.