By what authority doest thou these things? and who gave thee this authority?—Matthew, 21:23.
It may seem almost superfluous to define so wellknown a word as authority, but since this word has several shades of meaning it may be advisable for the sake of clearness to agree upon those definitions that concern us in this article. Primarily, then, authority, according to the Standard Dictionary, is "the right to command and to enforce obedience; the right to act by virtue of office, station, or relation." It is evident from this definition that so far as the individual exercising authority is concerned, the power exercised is extrinsic, since it does not originate in himself, but is bestowed upon him from some higher source of which it is a characteristic, intrinsic quality. For instance, the authority of the President of the United States is bestowed by the people. The man who at any time fills this office has no authority of himself, save as he becomes vested with presidential power; but unless he uses with discretion what is so bestowed, it will be taken away by the same self-constituted higher source and given to another. Similarly, when any one who believes he is clothed with authority observes another acting in seeming opposition, he at once challenges the rival with a question similar to that quoted above.
At the time the words which head this article were spoken, the Jewish priests had for centuries held authority over the Hebrew people, and had reached the zenith of their power when Jesus appeared in Judea and attracted the people by a rival system of teaching, "for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes," who laid emphasis upon traditionary writings which were like themselves part of the great rabbinical machine. His lessons, unlike theirs, were not limited to wordy platitudes, but were accompanied by tangible and in countless cases immediate proofs of their correctness —the healing of the blind, the maimed, and the sick, and even the raising of the dead. Such phenomena aroused the envy of the hitherto constituted dictators, who in this precedence of works over words, recognized and welcomed by the people, foresaw the downfall of their fruitless ceremonials unless they could check the power of one whom they regarded as a heretic. Jesus, however, parried their question, and thrust home at them by asking whether John the Baptist's mission was human or divine; a question they did not dare to answer because of anticipated consequences. Then by means of parables Jesus still further pressed his advantage, and showed them that their formalisms were vain, finally declaring: "The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof," which fruits, as we learn from St. Paul, are "love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance," all of which, if history records correctly, were conspicuous by their absence in rabbinical circles.
