Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 13.djvu/395

* MESSIAH. 361 MESSIAH. 19), wlio was to be the lawgiver, teacher, and deliverer of Israel. The second period centres in the reijins of David and Solomon; tlic promise of a kingdom to David and his house 'forever' could uot be literally fullilled by any mere con- tinuation of his dynasty on an earthly throne. It implied a superhuman royalty of which we have a scries of pictures in the Jlessianic psalms, which are believed to be pervaded with the expectation of a coming deliverer, based on delinit* promises of God and confirmed by His repeated assurances. In Ps. ii., xlv., Ixxii., and ex., for instance, we have de])icted not only the Messiah's inheritance and the blessings and extent of his kingdom, but the King himself reigning among men and bring- ing to his subjects righteous judgment, salvation, and redemption. He is both priest and king. He is David's Lord as well as his son. His empire is spiritual. Its rule is world-wide and time- enibraeing. He is to reign until his enemies be- come his footstool. These Psalms, as is widely contended, cannot be applied exclusively to Solo- mon or any temporal ruler without excgetieal violence and the New Testament interpretation of the regal triumph over the rebellious heathen (Heb. i. 8) referred it to the anointed Saviour. The third period extends to the close of the Hebrew canon and includes, according to tradi- tion, the richest mine of Messianic prophecy in the Old Testament. Messiah, as the "servant of God,' is the central figure of Isaiah's prophecies. This expected king, this "root of -Jesse,' will 'stand for an ensign of the people.' He will be the rallying-point of the world's hopes, the true centre of its government ( Isa. xi. 10). He is portrayed as "the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace' (Isa. ix.) The picture of the suffering jMessiah in the fifty-third chapter is so accurate in its prophetic anticipations of the events in the judgment hall of Caiaphas and be- fore Pilate's bar as to have given Isaiah the title of the "Evangelical prophet.' .Jeremiah depicts the future deliverer as a king executing judgment and justice in the earth ( .Jer. xxiii. .5) and Zeehariah paints him as an enthroned priest (Zech. vi. 1.3). Daniel is taught that at the anointing of the most holy. God will 'make recon- ciliation for iniquity' and "tring in everlasting righteousness' (Dan. ix. 24). In chapter vii. he applies, according to this view, to the coming Messiah the title 'Son of Man.' whose dominion is 'an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away.' Finally IMalachi speaks of him as 'the angel of the covenant' whom Israel was seeking and who would "suddenly come to his temple' (Mai. iii. 1). The fourth epoch extends from the close of the Hebrew canon to the beginning of the Gospel era. Among the .Jews of Alex- andria the ilessianic hope at this time is sup- posed to have deteriorated, while among the Palestinian Jews it survived and flourished. The Hcllenized peoples would naturally be absorbed in the current speculations regarding the Sophia and the Logos and long absence from Palestine, and a hesitancy to avow startling beliefs among unfriendly critics would tend to quench all inter- est in the future of .Jewish nationality. Xever- theless the expectation of a ^Messiah was a promi- nent feature of both the popular and the intel- lectual mind at the beginning of the Christian Era. The Galilean peasantry and the Pharisees alike expected the fulfillment of the national hopes. An oppressed and suffering people natu- rally looked for a secular prince who would free them from the heathen yoke, and when Jesus entered upon his public ministry, Messiah- ship meant to the masses and the classes of Jewry simply emancipation from Koman rule. But .Jesus did not lend himself to this narrow and penertcd type of Messiahship. He claimed to be the divine Messiah of David and Isaiah. At C'tesarea Philippi (Matt, xvi.; Mark viii., Luke i.x. ) he clearly accepted the recognition of himself as the Messiah-King of the Old Testament. The term 'Christ' or Anointed is synonymous with Messiah, and Saint Peter's confession "Thou art Christ — the Christ of God (Luke), the Son of the living (Jod (ilatt.)" ex- presses in unmistakable language the supernat- urally imparted recognition of Jesus as the Mes- siah. The same designation of him was used by the Samaritan woman (.John iv. "25, 26) and accepted by Jesus, and Andrew said to his brother Simon: "We have found the Messiah, which is, being interpreted, the Christ" (John i. 41 sqq.). According to the traditional view, the title 'Son of Man' was the Christ's self-chosen desig- nation of himself, and with two exceptions was applied to him by his own lips. To Jewish ears it is thought to have been a clear assertion of ilessiahship. Some suppose that in consequence of the prophecy of Daniel it became a popular and official title of the Messiah. In one part of the Book of Enoch (q.v.), which, however, is of uncertain date, the judgment day of Messiah, identified with Daniel's "Son of Jlan,' stands in the forefront of the eschatological picture. Jesus, when standing at the tribunal of Caiaphas. said to his judges: "Hereafter shall ye see the son of man sitting at the right hand of power and com- ing in the clouds of heaven" (Matt. xxvi. 64), and he uttered a similar prediction in his prophecy over Jerusalem (^latt. xxiv. 30). Those who accept the genuineness of these sayings think that it was no merely generic title, but the constant setting forth of his Messianic claims and that, coupled as it was with his repeated assertions of his divine origin, it brought down upon him the wrath of the scribes and Pharisees. The San- hedrin. the highest court of Jewry, condemned him because he claimed divinity. "We have a law and by our law he ought to die because he made himself the son of God." said the mem- bers of this court to the Roman Governor. "He hath spoken blasphemy." cried the High Priest (Matt, xxvi, 65). This was the culmination of the Nazarene's olfense against the current concep- tions of Messiahship. "'They all condemned him to be guilty of death." But having lost the power of capital punishment, in their subjection to the Roman Government, the .Jews had to go to Pontius Pilate to attain their ends, and Jesus was crucified by order of the Governor. It should also be stated that between the criti- cal estimate first given and the traditiimal inter- pretation just outlined many scholars have as- sumed a mediating position, rejecting the bulk of supix)sed Messianic prophecy and the accuracy of the Xew Testament interpretation of it. while still maintaining that .Jesus regai'ded himself as the Messiah and gave to the ilessiahship as to the kingdom a more spiritiial significance. In A.D. 37 a Samaritan appeared as a leader of a rebellion in Tirathana. Precisely what claims he made for himself is not clear from