The unnaturalness of the natural explanation is confirmed by this
fact, that both J. Weiss and 0. Pfleiderer, while admitting that the
text as it stands signifies special Divine Sonship, on this account
reject it as not genuine.*

The conviction of a most special relation to God is expressed
by Jesus in the words "My Father," and this conviction at such
a tender age would indicate that for Him development was pre-
cluded, the ordinary laws of humanity were not observed, a preter-
natural explanation was to be looked for.
' The modem scholars who hold to a special ethical Sonship are given above, pp.
41 ff.
> Comment, on Luke, 93.
» New Test. Th. I. 81.
< Bildung und Gehalt d. messianisch. Bewusstsein J. StKr LXII (1889) 428.
' See above, p. 41.
96 THE BOYHOOD CONSCIOUSNESS OF CHRIST

(d) Not being able naturally to account for the words "My
Father" in the first recorded saying of Jesus, we are compelled to
seek an adequate explanation somewhere even if it should be in the
realms of the supernatural; An adequate explanation is readily
and as it were naturally suggested to us by the usage of this self-
same expression, "My Father," by Christ during the Public Minis-
try.
