Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 13.djvu/393

* MESSIAH. 339 MESSIAH. But the elements out of which the Messiah as an eschatological luagnilude was formed had loll" been in existence. There had been a tend- enev to attach much importance to the anoint- ing of rulers. From Saul to Zedckiah, from Joshua to Aristobulus 11., the leader of the .State, whether king, pontiil', or priest-king, had been eonseorated with oil. Originally unction was an apjilicaliou of sacrificial fat. The pour- ing of oil upon the stone in which the divinity dwelt was a sacrifice. The King was a holy be- ing to whom this oflering «as made. With the anointing a spirit entered into him ( 1. Sam. xvi. l.S) ; he was sacrosanct, his body must not be touched (I. Sam. x.xiv. 10) ; he was gradually removed from the gaze of the people and seen only by his olIicials( 11. Kings xix. 15) . The pontiff as ruler of Israel was Yahweh's anointed, a 'son of oil' (Zech. iv. 14), having access to the celes- tial court (Zech. iii. 7). It is held by some that in the Asmona-an age the priest-king by virtue of his anointment was regarded as Yahweh's 'Son' and as a 'god' sitting on his throne ( Ps. xlv., Ivii., Ixxxii. ). It is not considered strange by those holding this view that a victorious king engaged as it seemed to his admirers in the con- quest of the world should at that time have been addressed as 'god' by a court-poet ( Ps. xlv. 0). There had also been a tendency to repose ex- traordinary faith in the dynasty founded by David. The reason for this may have been its remarkable longevit}'; perhaps also its promised prosperity. As long as princes of this family lived and received signal honors at the liands of Clial- diean and Persian kings, as was the case with .Je- hoia<'hin, Sheshbazzar, and Zerubbabel, the hope of national independence naturally connected itself with these shoots of the old stock. Tlius the elevation of .Jehoiachin from his dungeon to royal dignity in B.C. 501 and the birth of his son, Sin- apaluzur (.Sheshbazzar). seem according to some to have led a poet to express the hopes of Isaiah ix. 1-0, xi. 1-0, and the presence of .lehoiachin's grandson, Zerubbabel (q.v.). as Governor in .Jerusalem at the beginning of the reign of Darius Hystaspis raised expectations of his restoring the old dynasty (Hag. ii. 2.3; Zech. viii. 8; iv. C s(]f|, : vi. 12). The gradual disappearance of prominent members of the Davidie family no doubt gave room for independent aspirations. Sanballat (q.v.) m.ay have been right when he declared that prophets in .Jerusalem had an- nounced Xehemiah as the coming King (Neh. vi. 7). Simon became prince as well as higli priest, and .ri'<tol)ulus I. king, without Ixdonging to the Davidie family. But the strength of the legiti- mist feeling may be seen both in the fiction by which the occupant of David's throne was desig- nated as his son. and in the indignant protest of the Pharisees against this fiction. This loyalty to the legitimate line and the increasing "lifticulty of finding a leader who should also be a genuine descendant of David, necessarily re- moved into the future the Messianic King. Of great importance was also the tendency, always strong in Israel, to look beyond present condi- tions f(n' better things to come. While the great prophets before the Exile announced impending judgment, there were always thosp who held up oheerful pictures of the future to the people. .■fter the Exile, it was especially the author of Isaiah xl.-xlviii. who inspired liope and courage by his promises of good. He indeed did not look forward to a Messiah, but he did much to develop that apocalyptic mood out of which this figure was born. The same is true of the Book of Daniel, written about u.c. 105. It reveals a marked growth of the apocalyptic imagery, but it is contended by many that the Jlessiah holds as yet no place among its esehatological figures. The man-like being appearing on the cloud (eh. vii.) is probably Michael, the celestial represen- tative of Israel. The Jlaccabean uprising and the establishment of a native dynasty encouraged this disposition to map out the future. But while Yahweh's anointed actually sat upon the throne of David and was eomiuering the neighboring na- tions, there was no reason for putting the Mes- siah in the future. The atmosphere of the Psalter is saturated with a desire for divine judgment upon the heathen nations and breathes a pathetic confidence in the dynasty occupying the Davidie throne. The enthusiasm seems to have been shared by the Egyptian Jews. Isaiah xix. 10-25 shows how the recognition of Jonathan by Alexander Balas on the occasion of his mar- riage to Cleopatra in B.C. 150 afiectcd the Jewish colony at Leontopolis. (See Oxi..s's Temple.) .Jonathan is probabh- the deliverer of verse 20. In the Sibylline Oracles (iii. 052 sqq. ) there seems to be a reference to Simon as a god-sent king who will put an end to evil war. From the standpoint of the Erythrean Sibyl, Simon may be said to be a king, sent 'from the sun,' even as Cyrus is called a king 'from heaven' (iii. 286). The passage was probably written in the time of Ptolemy IX., Euergetes II. (B.C. 145-117). Neither the apocalypse in Isaiah xxiv.-xxvii., written e.l28 B.C., nor Etliioine Enoch i.-x.xxvi., written later in the reign of .John Hyrcanus (B.C. 135-105), contains any allusion to a king, and Ethiopic Enoch xc. 37, 38 seems to be a late ad- dition to the book Ixxxiii.-xc, which apparently was written c.106 B.C. An elaborate eschatology had thus been developed before the Roman pe- riod in which the Messiah, according to this view, held no place. But the way was prepared by veneration for the anointed ruler of the State, loyalty to the old d.'S'nasty, and speculation about the world's future. Roman oppression caused a fusion of these elements. The anointed king that was needed must be a genuine son of David, and as no claimant to the throne of the legitimate line presented himself, he necessarily belonged to the future. The Roman yoke was all the more galling as the .Jewish people had for a century indulged in a dream of empire and imagined it- self in the midst of the actual conquest of the world. But even this cruel disenchantment could not quench the spark of ambition. The Pharisees saw the cause of the ciilamity in the .Asmono'an usurpation of the throne of David, as the I'.inller of Solomon shows, and looked to Cod to provide the genuine 'Son of David,' strengthening their faith by the prophetic word. They iinderstood the Psalms of David to be songs indited by the great monarch, and naturally interpreted the lan- guage in which the actually reigning King had been referred to as prophecies of the coming Jles- siah. Similarly the words of ancient prophets originally referring to their eontem]ioraries of the Davidie family or to the dynasty itself were explained as divine announcements of the coming deliverer. But in spite of this suiqiort in the popular exegesis of the Bible, the !Iessianic hope seems to have been cherished onlv in limited