Page:Visions and Prophecies of Zechariah (Baron, David).djvu/129



It is for this reason also that this evangelist took upon himself the laborious task of tracing the genealogy of Jesus right back to Adam, in order to show His relation as the promised " Seed of the woman," not only with Israel, as does Matthew, but with men of all nations and kindreds, and peoples and tongues, who are thus traced back to one common stock.

(4) And the picture of our Lord in the Gospel of John is undoubtedly that of " the Branch of Jehovah "; for though it is true that " no other evangelist so sounds the depths of our Lord's humiliation, nor rises with such adequacy to the exaltation of His glorified manhood, as John, the son of Zebedee, the eagle of the Church," and it would not be true to say that in the Fourth Gospel the emphasis rests entirely on the deity of Christ and ignores His perfect humanity; yet the light that shines most transcendently through this most sublime narrative is His Divine Sons/tip that glory which He had with the Father from all eternity. Hence we have no genealogy in this Gospel tracing back His relations to Abraham, for He of Whom it speaks was " before Abraham " (viii. 5 8); nor yet, as in Luke, to Adam, for by Him were all things made (i. 3), and Adam himself was created in His image. No, John traces not His human, but His divine pedigree, and shows us that, although the Word " became flesh and dwelt among us," He that tabernacled with the children of men was none other than the Only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, Who in the very " beginning " was with God, and Himself was God.

But just as in each of the Gospels, though one feature of our Lord's character is brought more prominently to the fore, His twofold nature is always steadily kept in view; so it is also in each of the four different prophecies to which we have referred. Jeremiah speaks of Him as the " Branch of David," thus dwelling more particularly on His human nature, but he proceeds to add: " And this is the name