Israel's Messianic hope to the time of Jesus; a study in the historical development of the foreshadowings of the Christ in the Old Testament and beyond

Front matter

L

CORNELL

UNIVERSITY

Introduction

The fundamental characteristic of Hebrew thought is its ethical optimism. However prosperous the wicked might be, Israel had no serious doubt that righteousness was__ better _than_ wickedjiess, and that righteousness would ultimately prevail. Back of this certainty was Israel's God, whose character was involved in its reality ; before Hebrew it were the boundless possibilities of its future realization ; and within it was the energizing hope, awake to present conditions, "looking and hasting unto " that nearing consummation. In all its life, its institutions, its environment, its leaders, this hope was living and powerful, ennobling and transfiguring them with ideal strength and beauty.

The forms taken by this hope were various, the means to objectify and realize it diverse, but their essence is one. The divine approval and choice of them, expressed as an " anointing (Heb. Mishak) from Jehovah," when resting upon an Represented

. , , in Messianic

order of chosen servants or an individual, made H ope. them the "Anointed," him the "Messiah," and the hopes in all their phases messianic. At times this messianic hope sank low, again it was con-

B I centrated and seemed about to come to fruition, but only to throw a brighter glow upon both past and future, and — as is strong hope's way — to reveal a larger ideal for the ages yet to be. The supremest of messianic moments of realization and anticipation, distinct yet dependent on the past, marking the end of Israel's anticipation and also its new beginning, was reached in Jesus of Nazareth, the son of David, the Messiah.

For the history of Israel culminates in Jesus Christ. This is true in the sense, not merely that he is the last and greatest figure of Israel's history, but also that all the history was making toward him, preparing for him, revealing elements, ideas, and forces which united and came to their fulness in him. 1 Thus he is the unifying

Culminating element in the Old and New Testaments. To in Jesus.

study him requires the study of Israel's highest

life ; to know him involves the knowledge of Israel's messianic thought in its fullest measure. He himself is the witness to the close and vital connection which exists between him and the thoughts and events of the Old Dispensation. The pages of the gospels are full of reference to it. " He wrote of me," was his declaration concerning Moses. The followers of Jesus were accustomed to find strong and convincing arguments in his behalf in the various fulfilments of Old

1 See Edersheim, Prophecy and History in Relation to the Messiah, p. 24, and Lect. VI, passim.

INTRODUCTION 3

Testament life and prediction which his presence and words and experiences reveal. His relation to Hebrew history, therefore, will always make that history of especial significance to us, and justify its being regarded as a "preparation" for him, a " foreshadowing " of his life and work.

It is a subject of unceasing interest and permanent importance to the Christian student to follow out this Hebrew preparation for his coming and work. For the essential element in Hebrew history, after all, does not lie in the disclosures of a Hebrew Hisgeneral providence working through the events arationfor and experiences of the Hebrew nation, nor in the Him ' light which these throw upon the universal principles of human government and human society, important as are all these lines of inquiry and worthy of study, but rather in the fact that Hebrew history reveals the working out of the divine purpose of salvation for the race. The preliminary stages of this salvation are recorded in the Old Testaraent and kindred writings, and the investigation of them is central and vital.

These stages of preparation, these "foreshad-

owings," are to be the subject of this study.

Thev include everything in the development of Scope of

., , . , , r i this Study.

Israel which was concerned with the future, and

the hope, cherished for nation and individual,

which gathered about it and was embodied in its

literature.

The methods of arriving at these facts and of

Methods of Investigation.

The Historical Method preferable.

interpreting them have been various, (i) There is what might be called the fulfilment method; that is, the investigation of certain passages of the Old Testament from the point of view of the New, the endeavor to discover how much more the Old Testament means when it is viewed in the light of the life, teachings, and work of Jesus Christ. This is a legitimate and important inquiry. 1

(2) Another method might be called the theological, or systematic, method, which endeavors to determine the ultimate and essential truth which these Old Testament statements contain. It involves, to a certain extent, the method of fulfilments, but yet its aim is to make abstract and full statements of the truth, and to arrange these in a logical order, rather than to devote the attention merely to the enumeration of a series of fulfilments. The tendency is to view all of the material as of the same importance and significance, without regarding the time, the manner, or the form of its production.

(3) Another method is adopted in these pages, which may be called for convenience the historical, method; that is to say, it takes up the ancient Hebrew literature from the point of view of the historical origin and environment of its various writings. The history is studied from the Hebrew

1 This is Edersheim's point of view, e.g. Proph. and Hist, p. 134. The limitations of this method are pointed out in Adeney, The Hebrew Utopia, p. 21 ff. Cf. also the criticism in Riehm, Messianic Prophecy, p. 5 ff.

INTRODUCTION side ; the ideas are investigated as they grow out of the history, and are modified or conditioned by it. The question asked is, not so much, What did this statement mean to the Christian Church ? but, What did it mean to him who first uttered it, and to those by whom it was first heard or read ?

This historical method of investigation is not an easy one. It requires a certain amount of imagination as well as self-restraint to transport oneself into the remote periods of the past, and to see with the eyes of the men of old, not importing into the picture that which may seem to be so intimately associated with it. It involves certain new points of view which at first appear strange. One must needs recognize that these ideas, events, and predictions disclose only a very imperfect Difficulties, apprehension of the great truths and facts which seem so clear and definite in the light of their fulfilment. To those who stood in the semidarkness and uncertainty of the pre-Christian period, this material had no such fulness of meaning. Their vision was not illumined with the light of day. They lived in hope, and these hopes in their details were, on the one hand, indefinite and. general, and, on the other, limited and conditioned by the historical situation. They were " foreshadowings."

In particular, the historical method may threaten to take away much of that personal element which has connected the Old Testament directly with the Christ of the New. In putting these sayings, ideals, events, in their historical relations, and, looking forward in company with the prophets and heroes, compelling ourselves to see the future in the hazy, suggestive, indistinct twilight before the sunrise, it will follow that what to-day seems to have pointed to Christ had in its historical position and reference a different or general application. The historic Jesus was not so clearly in their thoughts, whatever of fulness and definiteness his historical existence may have thrown back upon the inner meaning of the promises and the divine purposes in them.

But in spite of what may seem at first a narrowing of the richness and attraction of the theme Advantages, hy the rigid insistence upon the historical method, there are compensations which outweigh all these seeming disadvantages.

(i) In this light, chiefly, is the Old Testament seen as a living thing, and the Old Testament history as reality. What is desirable above all things else in Bible study is to come face to face with reality. These central facts of God's dealing with men in his purpose of salvation for them are seen in their growing, in their actual progress in history among men.

(2) Therefore a better understanding of their meaning is gained. For to be able to trace the successive steps in the realization of an event is to gain the only proper and satisfactory insight

INTRODUCTION 7

into its character. The preparation for Christ was in history ; to history, therefore, must we go, and with history must we advance, if we would understand this preparation.

(3) Unquestionably, the conviction of the broad, all-inclusive, and pervasive power of Christianity as a world force in politics, in society, in literature, and in life will be strengthened when this more general preparation for the larger Christ is followed out as he appears in Hebrew history and , thought. A worthier view of the divine activity and purpose is to be gained, foretokening something of the apostolic view of Christ, the permanent significance of Christianity, and thus a conception more satisfying, because more real, of the essential unity of the Old and the New Testaments. 1

For the adoption of the historical method as thus defined carries with it a somewhat broader notion of the preparation for Christ in ancient Israel than

1 A pregnant remark of Edersheim, that " prophecy prepares for the future, and this is the predictive element of it," contains a whole philosophy of the subject, and should have helped him to understand the statement of Kuenen which he rejects, viz. : " If they [Jesus Christ and the apostles] had continued still to occupy altogether the standpoint of the old prophets and poets, Jesus of Nazareth would not have been accepted as the Messiah." Cf. Proph. and Hist., pp. 38, 54. A similar thought is expressed by Riehm {Mess. Proph., p. 6) when he says, " What we do not learn until the period of fulfilment cannot be in the prophecy itself." In other words, the prophecy contributes to its own fulfilment and hence is less than it.

Breadth of the Messianic Hope from this Point of View.

has commonly been held. Messianic prophecy, as ordinarily conceived, is concerned with more or less definite references on the part of writers and speakers of the Old Testament, to the person and work of Jesus Christ, or with the events of Israel's history as "typical" of him. While minimizing somewhat the element of definiteness and directness in this view of the messianic teachings in Israel's prophecy and history, the historical method emphasizes the gradual preparation for the Christ, traceable in each period, and immensely broadens and deepens the foundations of the messianic argument. It uncovers the contribution of each age in revealing and unfolding " by divers portions and in divers manners " the ideas which were united and came to their realization in Jesus Christ. No institution, no hope, no thought, no personality, is insignificant so far as it contributed something to prepare the way for him, or found its final place in his person or kingdom. In this sense messianic prophecy is an inexhaustible study, since Jesus Christ is the living head of the Church, and his kingdom is ever progressing and thus embodying more and more the fruitful anticipations of the Old Testament prophets. It must needs be studied anew and reinterpreted by every generation. Such a study as this is designed only to differentiate certain main currents of messianic thought, to stimulate further investigation, to suggest other lines of inquiry, and to apply a method of ap-

INTRODUCTION 9

proach which can thereby lead to more rational judgments and more fruitful issues in this important field.

The great leaders and teachers of Israel, preeminently the prophets, were the chief bearers of these messianic thoughts and expectations, and the division of the subject into epochs of development follows naturally, and, for the most part, is characterized by, their successive appearance and work. The periods are the following : ( 1 ) The Divisions of Pre-Mosaic Ages; (2) The Mosaic Age; (3) The the Subject. United Kingdom ; (4) Times of the Earlier Prophets ; (5) Times of Isaiah ; (6) Times of Jeremiah ; (7) The Exile; (8) The Post-Exilic Period to the Maccabean Uprising ; (9) From the Maccabees to Jesus.

The literary material forming the basis of the work of the student in these periods is quite various. All of it, indeed, has to do with an anticipation of future blessing. A large part consists of utterances of prophets relating to the future, contemplated as on the point of realization, expectations of blessing rising out of present conditions and extending on into a far distant day. These might be called messianic prophecies of the present, character of Again, the prophet can find nothing of hopefulness in the present situation, and overleaping all temporal bounds, he passes as if by reaction into a future which is as much brighter and more glorious as the present is forbidding. This is mes-

IO ISRAEL'S MESSIANIC HOPE

sianic prophecy of the fitture. Or, he looks back on the history of mankind and his people, as it has come down to him in legends, traditions, songs, and story, in chronicles and annals, in oracles and institutions ; he studies it in the light of the divine" inspiration in his own spirit and experience, and combines, organizes, interprets it for his generation in its bearing upon the eternal purpose of Jehovah, his blissful designs for his people in the days to come. This is messianic prophecy of the past.

He may cast this material into any form, whether the sermon or oration, the poem or psalm, or the prose narrative. But in all forms The Prophet the prophet is inteipreting to his generation that terofje- which should assure them of Jehovah's purpose Activity. of future blessing. Sometimes it is his interpretation of the present that defines for him the future ; sometimes he turns his back upon the present, and, as if in spite of it, interprets the future directly; sometimes he reads out of the past the promise that is to be realized. Where the men of his day are blind, he has clear vision. Where the events of the past are dull and dim, or the words from the heroes of old, or divine oracles of early days, wrapped up in the husk of legend, or made uncertain or mysterious by the indefiniteness of oral tradition, he re-creates, translates, expands, and transforms event and word and oracle alike into a living and hopeful message. He seeks, not his-

INTRODUCTION 1 1

torical accuracy, but living meaning, in the past, and does not hesitate in his consciousness of speaking the truth to make over the dry details and hazy outlines into elements of inspiration and power, significant for all time. 1 Thus everywhere messianic prophecy is an interpretation; and the wonderful fact that this interpretation foreshadows the Christ of the New Testament cannot fail to appear in any serious and candid study of the subject.

The course of procedure will be to take up one by one the several periods, and in general (i) to determine the character of the material ; then (2) to frame a picture of the historical situation from which the hopes were projected ; then (3) to study the various passages ; and finally (4) to sum up the nature and extent of the " preparation " which the period illustrates.

1 See Ottley, Aspects of the Old Testament, p. 296: "Messianic prediction was to a considerable extent the result of a continuous process of reflection on the history of the past."

Chapter I The Messianic Interpretations Of The Pre-mosaic Age

I. The material bearing upon this period is The Litera- contained in the Book of Genesis. This book preserves the fine gold of primitive Hebrew tradition, sifted and refined by generations of inspired students of Jehovah's will. From the point of view of literary form, the book is a composite. 1 It is made up of materials from many sources, ancient poetry, prophecy, history, coming from various authors, put together long after the events which it records. It is conditioned by elements which belong to later periods, the understanding of which depends upon our apprehension of the

1 The critical analysis of Genesis discloses at least three different literary works out of which it has been compiled, written respectively by two prophetic writers, for whom the symbols J and E are used, and one priestly writer, for whom the symbol P is employed. The dates of these works are uncertain. J and E can hardly be later than the beginning of the eighth century, J being possibly earlier than E, while P was written probably after the Exile, during which period the Book of Genesis took its present form. Cf. Driver, Introduction to the Literature of the Old Testament, sixth ed., 1897, Ch. I- The most learned commentary on Genesis is that of Dillmann, 2 vols.

social and religious atmosphere in which they are produced.

II. It follows, therefore, that only messianic prophecy of the past is to be expected in the Book of Genesis. In the case of such material, it is needless as well as futile to ask how far actual preservation of definite historical facts and details can be expected. Doubtless not more than the These Tradigerms of thoughts and ideals now clearly visible received the were present there, but they were living and grow- la ^^ ^ er _ ing. No literary or spiritual analysis is keen pretation. enough to discern them now. The book is the work of prophets who had before them a great mass of primitive tradition which the Hebrew people cherished concerning the beginning of the world and man, the early movements of peoples, and the origins of their own nation. All these materials are organized, interpreted, and idealized under the influence of the religious conceptions and aspirations of later ages, in which the religious education and divine guidance of Israel's teachers had passed beyond the elementary stage. 1 It is from this point of view that the pre-Mosaic material must be studied, — as an interpretation rather than a record of the past. Thus these prophecies illustrate two periods, — both that with which their traditions deal, and that to which the prophets belong who have given them their form. They interpret the aspirations of the earlier age ; but the

1 Cf. Riehm, Mess. Proph., p. 62 f.

H interpretations are those of men living in the light of an advanced and advancing revelation. 1

1. The Ideal Conception of Man and his Destiny.*

And God said, Let us make man in our image,

after our likeness : (26)

And let them have dominion over the fish of the

sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the

cattle, And over all the earth, and over every creeping

thing that creepeth upon the earth.

And God created man in his own image, (27) In the image of God created he him, Male and female created he them.

And God blessed them : and God said unto

Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth,

and subdue it ; And have dominion over the fish of the sea, and

over the fowl of the air, And over every living thing that moveth upon the

This sublime picture is the condition of all prophecy and of all history, since it presents them as

1 The consideration of the historical background of this material would then naturally come in the periods to which the prophetic interpreters belong.

2 Read Gen. i. l-ii. 4 (creation of the world and man). The section in its present form is from the priestly document (P) which was compiled in the post-exilic period, i.e. after 537 B.C. For the difficult passages (1) vs. 26, let us, cf. Dillmann, Gen., I, p. 78 f.; Orelli, Old Testament Prophecy, p. 86; Briggs, Mess. Proph., 69" / (2) in our image, etc., cf. Topic, p. 32.

8 The language of the Revised Version has been employed in the Biblical passages.

IS under special divine guidance, and reveals a ground of hope. What is it that is here promised ?

(a) Man's nature is godlike. The essential being of man is identical with that of his Creator.

(b) The purpose of his creation is that he maybecome lord of the world. The proper translation of the second clause in v. 26 is not" let them," but " that they may have dominion over," etc. As man's essential being is identified with that of his Creator, so his destiny joins him intimately with the world.

(c) This lofty purpose is to be accomplished by the human race ; it is " the gradual taking possession of a kingdom given to mankind by God." l

What does this ideal conception involve ? What The ideal of hope lies within it ? The man to whom it was umam y ' revealed and who uttered it was conscious in himself that mankind had not attained unto his destiny, that the attainment was far distant. In his utterance there lies the inspired thought of a glorious future, that man is designed for something infinitely beyond what he has yet reached; that he was intended by nature for companionship with God; that he was born to be the king of the world ; and that these fundamental purposes, because divine, shall ultimately be realized. This sublime prophecy, therefore, is the foundation of all that is to follow. The purpose and the progress of salvation is made possible because of this primal fact.

1 Briggs, Mess. Propk., p. 71.

The generalities of this primal foreshadowing involve a multitude of details to be unfolded in later and more definite words. Yet its limitations must be as clearly recognized as its possibilities. In foreshadowing man's future it looks not beyond the world, even though it promises him sovereignty therein.

2. The Hope of Victory over Sin. 1

And Jehovah God said unto the serpent, (14)

Because thou hast done this, cursed art thou

Above all cattle, and above every beast of the field ;

Upon thy belly shalt thou go,

And dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life :

And I will put enmity between thee and the

woman, (15)

And between thy seed and her seed :

It shall bruise thy head

And thou shalt bruise his heel.

These verses disclose a very different picture. The writer is one who stands in the midst of the plainest and saddest facts of human life, facts which demand from him an interpretation and explanation. These are the essential facts of human sin, human birth, and human death, waywardness from God, the coming of the individual into the world through the agony of the mother,

1 This passage is from J, who gives a second account of creation (ch. ii.) followed by the narrative of the Temptation and Fall.

2 The word Jehovah has been substituted for " the Lord" in all the passages where the latter occurs.

his struggle for existence, his labor and sorrow,

and his passing away in spite of all resistance

and struggle. Under the divine guidance the The 1<ieal ° f

, , . ... . , Ultimate

prophet has given us his interpretation, and Deliverance.

through the interpretation he has risen to a higher

sphere. Out of it he has drawn glorious hope,

sublime inspiration, for the future. What is his

explanation, and what is his hope ?

(a) Everything returns for its solution to man's disobedience toward God. The birth-pangs of the mother and her sorrows, man's conflict with the soil for the means of existence, the horror of death, are the results of the divine displeasure against the fall of the race from its fidelity toward its Creator. This is the fountain of sin.

(b) Sin is not originally natural to humanity. Man struggles against it. There is enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. A divine aversion to evil has been planted in the human soul.

(c) Observe that all is general. In the eye of the seer it is humanity, the descendants of the first pair, who must wage this warfare.

(d) How, or where, or when this struggle shall culminate he does not say. To him the importance of the issue is vital; its details have no place in his horizon.

(e) Man shall ultimately conquer — not without suffering, not without pain. Yet it is head against heel. The serpent's power shall be struck at its strongest point by that part of man most capable of bruising and crushing.

What a picture of the history of humanity is given in the writer's portrayal of the fundamental perplexities of human life ! What an insight into essential causes ! What a vision of human greatness even in the ruins ! What a sublime hope and inspiration is added in his prophecy of victory over difficulty, of the final solution of this terrific problem ! " To the woman's seed belongs the future. . . . Henceforth man's gaze is no longer turned backward in longing after a lost Paradise, but is directed hopefully to the future." 1

3. The Hope of Comfort. 2

And he called his name Noah, saying, (29)

This same shall comfort us for our work And for the toil of our hands, Because of the ground which Jehovah hath cursed.

The fundamental problems of individual human life, sin, and death have given occasion to the first sublime picture of hope and victory. But there are other problems that concern society, which pressed with equal weight upon the heart

1 Orelli, 0. T. Proph., p. 90. See also an admirable summary in Edersheim, Proph. and Hist., p. 34.

2 Read Gen. iv. 1-24 [J] (the descendants of Cain ; the beginning of bloodshed ; the beginning of civilized life with polygamy; music; the manufacture of weapons of war); iv. 25, 26; v. 1-28 [P] (the line of Seth); v. 29 is from J.

of the prophetic narrator. The two extremes of

social organization disclosed in nomadic life, on

the one hand, and on the other, the gathering of

masses of men into cities, war and its attend- Hebrew

., . , , Problems of

ant evils, polygamy, murder, sensuous pleasures, society.

around all of which the material of tradition gathered, must be interpreted and presented by the prophet, their secret grasped, their riddle solved. To the Israelite in his quiet, agricultural life, quite barren of excitement and simple in its pleasures, they appear as the concomitants of a sinful development. So the picture is given of the progress of the Cainite line, in the invention of weapons of war and instruments of music, in the practice of polygamy, in the first murder, all exhibited in the spirit of revenge and pride condensed in the song of Lamech.

Over against this dark panorama the narrator presents another and more hopeful prospect. Another son of our first parents is the progenitor of a line culminating in one who is to introduce a new era, and about whom therefore cluster the divine assurances of hope and peace. The line of Seth is conspicuous for Enoch, who walked with God, and for Noah, who is to be the comfort of his race. With him is the new beginning. He is one who obeys God in the face of the disobedience of all other men. He is the comforter who gives to humanity the opportunity to breathe again. In Noah the prophet presents his own ideal of social life and normal activity, as over against the corrupt practices of the Cainite civilization. It is as an agriculturist that Noah is to bring comfort to man.

The toil of breaking up new ground is in him to find its recompense. He is to till the ground, The Heal of win victory over the stubborn earth, which is involved in the curse. As he comes forth from the ark, the promise is given that the earth shall henceforth yield her fruit in her season to him (Gen. viii. 21, 22\ He, according to the prophet, is a type of a true' citizen of the world and son of God, in that he is*no wild nomad, nor does he live in a city. He has no weapons of war. He is a husbandman who wins for man the prize of earth's fruitfulness, and particularly the blessed gift of the vine. Thus in him is seen a prophecy of one element in the final victory over evil, the ideal of a true civilization, the subjection of earth to man.

4. The Hope of Jehovah's Indwelling in Shem. 1

Cursed be Canaan; (25)

A servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. Blessed be Jehovah, the God of Shem; (26)

And let Canaan be his servant.

God enlarge Japheth, (27)

1 For the difficult passages (1) vs. 25, Canaan, cf. Briggs, Mess. Proph., p. 80; Dillmann, Gen., I, p. 307 f.; Ryle, Early Narratives of Genesis, pp. 119, 120; (2) vs. 27, let him dwell, etc., cf. Topic, p. 32.

And let him dwell in the tents of Shem ; And let Canaan be his servant.

The victory of Noah was his undoing. He yielded to that which he conquered. The fruit of the vine tempted him to a fall, the consequences of which involved his descendants. The strange story of Genesis ix. 20-23 is made the occasion of the utterance of an oracle of wide-reaching import. Its words run into the forms of Hebrew ethnography of the prophet's own time. Two statements are especially important : —