''-- y t-^:^ M^^ ^;»;^^^•.. 1-0 6',;s/o^ Srom t^c feifirare of (profe66or WifPiam J^^^^ (Breen Q$cqueaf0eb fig ^tm to f 3e feifirari? of (princcton C^eofo^tcaf ^eminarjp las Co s MESSIANIC PROPHECY. MESSIANIC PROPHECY: Its ©rigin, f^istorical ©rointlj, anti delation to i^cbj ^rstament jFulftlmcnt. By Dr. EDWARD R I E H M, LATE PROFESSOR OF THEOLOOY IN HALLE. SECOND EDITION. TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN BY LEWIS A. MUIRHEAD, B.D., WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY Professor A. B. DAVIDSON, D.D., NEW COLLEGE, EDINBURGH. NEW YORK: CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS. EDINBURGH : T. & T. CLARK, 38 GEORGE STREET. 1891. PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. rriHE studies which form the contents of this book were published originally in three parts in Thco- logische Studien unci Kritilcen^ (1865 and 1869). In compliance with frequent requests I allowed them to appear 'in 1875 as a separate work, of which an English translation was published in 1876 by T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh. More than a year ago the book was sold off. The continuance of the demand for it, and the conviction that, apart from works on the same subject that had appeared in the interval, it still had a special mission to fulfil, decided me to publish a new edition. Apart from a reference to recent literature, the Second and Third Parts will be found substantially unaltered. More important alterations, however, both as to form and matter, were found necessary in the First Part, not because my views had changed, but because it was necessary to justify them against objections, and to secure them at various points from misunderstanding. May ^ [Theological Essays and Revietvs — a Magazine. — Tr.] vi Preface to the Second Edit ion. the little book in its partly altered form help to further the design of its original conceplion " by making way for the conviction, that when full justice has been done to the principles of grammatical and historical exegesis, and due recognition given to all the well-established results of critical investigation of the Old Testament writings and history, the Divine revelations and deeds of the Old Covenant, prepara- tory to Christ and His Kingdom, so far from being obscured, appear rather in clearer light, because they emerge to view in more tangible historic reality." Dr. Edward Eiehm. Hallk, 22nd Xucvmh r 1884. TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. T TKUST I have not altogether failed in the -*- endeavour to make this translation at once accurate and readable. It has had the advantage of being not only read, but for the most part carefully examined in proof by Dr. A. B. Davidson, New- College, Edinburgh, to whom I owe more thanks in connection with my execution of the work than 1 can well here express. I am glad that he thinks favourably of the translation, and, while pleading guilty to the charge of using philosophical terras (see p. xviii), I have to say that in this respect I have certainly not gone beyond the example of the German original. The liberties I have taken with Eiehm's text do not on the whole exceed those ordinarily con- ceded to a translator, but the few following explanations may not be amiss. The italics are in the main those of Eiehm, but there are naturally some divergences which did not seem to me of such importance as to require special indication. I have been so impressed by a sense of the importance of Eiehm's work to the general reader and learner, as well as to the scholar, that I have viii Translator s Preface. excluded Greek and Hebrew cliaracters — in one or two cases even the words themselves — both from the text and the footnotes, and where the words are used, I have generally inserted English equivalents in brackets. With the exception perhaps of the use uf ch (instead of h) for n, the system of transliteration adopted for the Hebrew words is that generally employed. Except in the name Jehovah (Yah®veh), no equivalent has been used for the silent simple i^h'^va. For the composite ah^vas I have used the corresponding vowels with the short mark ("). The s^ghol is expressed either by e or by i. In the Greek words the short vowels are not marked. The numbers used in citing Scripture texts have, Avhere necessary, been altered so as to correspond with those of the English Bible. The printers have adopted the plan of a uniform numeral for chapter and verse; it will be understood that the comma marks a transition to a new chapter or hook, and that it is placed hefore (not, as with Riehm, ((fter) the transition. In order to lessen the number of parentheses in the text, I have transferred the major part of the Scripture references to the footnotes, even where, as in most cases, Riehm has placed them in the text. Except where the contrary is stated, the page, etc., references are to the originals of the works cited. The abbreviation in loc. cit. (in loco citato) means in the work (of the author in question) already cited. Iliehm's style is on the whole terse and clear ; but I have not hesitated in some instances to break Translators Preface. ix up sentences or transpose clauses, even when the taking of such liberties was not strictly necessary, and I have allowed myself occasionally to soften the harshness of what seemed an un-English expression by means of an apologetic so to spealc. I have not been able to avoid a certain appearance of arbitrari- ness in the use of capital and small initials, par- ticularly in the case of the words kingdom and theocracy and related words. I have tried to re- serve the capital initial for the ideal as distinguished from the historical sense of these words ; but in many instances the two senses manifestly tend to coincide. The words holy land are v/ritten with small initials, except where the expression seems to be used in its modern geographical sense. Tlie word Urkcmiiniss — particularly the plural form — is notoriously a stumb- ling-block to translators from German. Probably I ought to have adopted Professor Davidson's suggestion to render it, wherever possible, by truths ; but the plea of greater accuracy may perhaps be allowed to cover the occasional offence of apprehensions or even cognitions. The same excuse may be pled for envisage, envisaging form (veranschaulichen, Anschauungsform). The use of content for Inhalt does not now need an apology, but some readers may need to be re- minded that German writers use the word Moment in the philosophical sense of a stage in a process of thinking or an element of a inental conceptio7i, and that the practice of English philosophical writers may now be said to have sanctioned its use in that X Translators Preface. sense in our language. Would not a better plan, however, have been the use of the Latin form of the word (see p. 322) ? I trust the Appendices will be found useful. The Index of Scripture Citations has been constructed so as to enable the reader to discover without loss of time what Riehm may have to say on a particular passage. In connection with the collection of material for the list of modern works on the Messianic Hope, I have to express my thanks to Mr. T. E. Sandeman, New College, Edinburgh, and to Mr. Kennedy, the librarian, as well as to Professor Davidson and the publishers. But my greatest thanks in this reference are due to Dr. P. Schmiedel, Jena, who furnished me with a very complete list of the works of importance — dealing either in part or whole with the subject, or some aspect of it — that have appeared since 1886. I have not attempted to include Commentaries in this list ; but, if any exception to this rule had been con- ceded, it would have been made most willingly in favour of Mr. G. A. Smith's able homiletic work on Isaiah (London : Hodder & Stoughton), both volumes of which — particularly vol. ii. in the chapters dealing with the Servant of the Lord — deserve no less grateful recognition from the fact that Mr. Smith's views re- jzardinfj the Servant do not altogether coincide with those here advocated. Ea.st Wemyss, Fihruarij 1891. INTRODUCTION BY PROFESSOR A. B. DAVIDSON, D.D. THE translator and publishers have done a lasting service to students of the Old Testament by brinffine out this new edition of liiehm's Messianic Prophecy. No work of the same compass could be named that contains so much that is instructive on the nature of prophecy in general, and particularly on the branch of it specially treated in the book. Some readers may not agree with Eiehm in all the positions which he holds; but there is no one who will refuse to acknowledge the thoughtfulness, the fairness and candour, and the reverential spirit of the writer. Perhaps the author has spent too much time in coming to terms with Hengstenberg and Konig on the nature of the prophetic inspiration. But the conclusion which he reaches is an important one, namely, that there is no evidence that the oracles of the canonical prophets were received in Vision, or in any condition to be strictly called ecstasy. Eiehm xii Introduction. holds strongly that the progress of Eevelation was organic, and in all cases, as he terms it, " psycho- logically mediated ; " in other words, that essential steps towards any revelation that might be called new, or an advance on that already in existence, were the operation of the prophet's mind on truth already known, and tlie influence upon him of the circumstances around him. The theory of Vision lias been thought necessary to account for the remark- able fact that all the prophets represent the con- summation and perfect condition of the Kingdom of God as at hand, and bring it close up upon the back of the great events transacting in tlieir own day — the early chapters of Isaiah, for example, placing it close behind the Assyrian devastations ; and the later chapters, immediately on the back of the downfall of Babylon before Cyrus. Many writers describe this peculiarity of prophecy by the word ixrspectivc, and appear to think that they have explained it, whereas they have only called by another name the thing requiring explanation. Eiehm appears to think that a sufficient explanation of the peculiarity is to be found in the earnest expectation of the prophets, in their ardent hopes of the speedy fulfilment of God's promises, and of the revelation of His glory to all ilesh. This hope and fervent desire, acting on the imagination of the prophets, brought the consumma- tion so vividly before them, that they represent it as at hand, and the issue of the great events taking place around them. There is an element of truth in Introduction. xiii this view, though hardly enough to explain the phenomena. The important thing, however, in read- ing prophecy, is to recognise the facts, even if the explanation be obscure ; and no fact is more certain or more necessary to be kept in view than this. Another point which Eiehm greatly insists upon is, that in interpreting any particular prophecy, the right question to put in the first instance is, What did the prophet mean ? and what did he desire those to whom he spoke to understand ? Such a question as, What did the Spirit mean ? or. What did God mean, is not to be put at least in the first instance. Eiehm recognises the propriety of the latter question in certain circumstances. The difference between the two questions (when they are not identical) is, that while the first relates to the particular part considered in itself, the second relates to the part considered as an element in a great whole. There is a difference between the comprehension of the workmen and that of the architect. While the individual workman, who polishes a foundation, or wreathes a pillar, may have perlect comprehension of the piece of work he is engaged upon, and be full of enthusiasm in the execution of it, he may not be able to see the place it will hold in the completed fabric, or the greater meaning which may accrue to it from the whole. Obviously this can be perceived only when the fabric is reared. The question, therefore. What did the Spirit mean ? is one that can be answered only from the point of view of a completed revelation. But the historical xiv Introduction. interpreter assumes that tlie revelation was pro- gressive, and his endeavour is to tlirow himself back into the historical movement, and trace how truth after truth was reached by the prophets and people of Israel. This truth was no truth till it took form in the mind of the prophet, and hence the interpreter asks on each occasion, What did the prophet mean ? When this question has been answered in each case down through the whole development, it ma}'' be profoundly instructive to look at any or each of the particulars in the light of the whole. It is when Riehm reaches the positive part of his investigation that his work becomes most interesting — wlien, for example, he draws attention to the elements of a prophetic kind that lay in the very fundamental conceptions of the Old Testament religion, such a conception as that of a covenant of God with a people to be their God, that of a theocracy or kingdom of God upon the earth, or that of prophecy, men brought into the counsel of God and filled with His Spirit. These mere conceptions, and many others like them, were prophetic of a perfect future ; they were so in a positive way, and they became even more so from the feeling of contradiction between the idea suggested and the small degree in which it had at any time been realised. Even the inherent imperfections of the Old Testament dispensation were prophetic of their own removal. Prophecy was to a large extent idealism, it transfigured institutions and history, and disengaged from them the religious ideal, Introduction. xv holding it up before men as a thing certain to be attained in the future, though only by being earnestly striven after. The organic connection of prophecy with history has been illustrated by Eiehm with a wealth of examples exceeding anything hitherto done by others. The term Messianic is used in a wider and a narrower sense. In the wider sense it is a descrip- tion of all that relates to the consummation and perfection of the Kingdom of God, a use not altogether appropriate or exact. In the narrower sense it refers to a personage who is, not always, but often, a com- manding figure in this perfect condition of the Kingdom. Many questions rise at this point for discussion, some of which Eiehm touches only in- directly perliaps, such as the question whether there be in the Old Testament a Messianic hope in the narrower sense as a distinct thing, or whether it be not always a subordinate element in the larger hope of the perfection of the Kingdom of God. The question has its justification in the fact that the great personage spoken of is the glorified reflection sometimes of one officer in the Kingdom of God and sometimes of another ; and that in the several pro- phets, one after another, he is the reflection of the officer that has the highest religious significance at the several periods when they wrote. During the monarchy he is the idealised theocratic king ; after the Eestoration, when the priest rose to eminence in the community, he is the glorified Priest. During xvi Introduction. the exile he disappears, and his place is taken by an idea, which the powerful religious genius of the prophet of the exile (Isa. xl. seq.) has given body to, and made a person, the idea, namely, that the truth of the true God has been given to Israel, that this truth is incarnated in Israel, and thus has arisen a Being who is indestructible, an Israel which has existed all through the history of the outward Israel, and will continue to exist; a vital heart in Israel which will yet send its living pulses even to Israel's extremities, and through Israel will become the life and light of the Gentiles. How profoundly Christian, if not strictly Messianic, this idea is, need not be said. At all times the Saviour is Jehovah, and if the great personage whom we call the Messiah play any part in salvation, whatever his role be, king or priest, it is the divine in him that is the saving power. The theocratic king is the representative of Jehovah, the true King and Saviour. "What must he be to truly represent Him, and what will he be when he does so ? Nothing less than the manifestation of Jehovah Him- self in all His saving attributes (Isa. ix., xi.). This point is perhaps hardly elaborated in Eiehra with sufficient fulness. Finally, in the last section of his work, devoted to the question of Fullilment, and distinguished by candour and thoughtfulness, Eiehra insists much on the distinction between Prophecy and Fulfilment. The two must be kept sedulously apart. Prophecy is what the prophet, in his age and circumstances and Introduction. xvii dispensation, meant ; Fulfilment is the form in which his great religious conceptions will gain validity in other ages, in different circumstances, and under another dispensation. Certain elements, therefore, of the relative, the circumstantial, and the dispensational must he stripped away and not expected to go into fulfilment. Every prophet speaks of the perfection of the Kingdom of God, looks for it, and constructs an ideal of it. We are still looking for it. The funda- mental conceptions in these constructions are always the same, — the presence of God with men, righteousness, peace, and the like, — but the fabrics reared by different prophets differ. They differ because each prophet seeing the perfect future issue out of the movements and conditions of his own present time constructs his ideal of the new world out of the materials lying around him : the state of his people ; the condition of the heathen world in his day ; such facts as that the Kingdom of God had a form as a state, and that the centre of Jehovah's rule was Zion. These relative elements are not called figurative, they are essential parts of the prophet's conceptions. But if we inquire how far the prophet's ideal of the perfect Kingdom of God may be expected to be realised, obviously these relative elements in it will have to be stripped away, and fulfilment looked for only to the essential religious conceptions. It would be far from the truth, how- ever, to fancy that the relative and concrete form in which the prophet embodies his eternal truths has lost all significance to us. It is of the utmost signifi- h xviii Introductio7i. cance ; for, in the first place, it brings Lome to us better than anything else the reality of the religion and the religious life in the Old Testament times, for obviously if the Prophecies had had us in view they would have taken another form ; and secondly, the concrete embodiment of the prophetic truth helps us to realise the truth ; we see the situation, and can transport ourselves into it, and live over again the life of men in former days. There is little in the Old Testament of which it can be said that it is antiquated. The translator appears to have done his work well. His rendering is vigorous and readable. Perhaps he is a little too partial to the use of the technical terms of philosophy. There is no doubt that the language which " wives and wabsters " speak is capable of expressing everything which any reasonable man can desire to say to his fellows. CONTENTS. PAGE INTRODUCTION, 1 FIEST PART. The Origin of Messianic Prophecy, 14 1. (a) Its Origin in Revelation, ...... 14 (6) TheModeof Revealed Communication to the Prophets, 19 (c) The Organico-Genetic Connection of Prophecy M'ith the Root-Ideas of Old Testament Religion, . . 59 2. (a) The Idea of the Covenant, ..... 66 (6) The Idea of the Kingdom of God, .... 88 (c) The Idea of the Theocratic Kingship, . . . 101 SECOND PART. -Its 124 125 133 133 142 153 The Historical Character of Messianic Prophecy Adaptation to the Times, .... The Fact and the Reasons of its Manifold Form, 1. Its Times-Colouring, ..... (ft) Resulting from its Destination, (6) And its Origin, in particular, the Limits of the Pro phetic Prospect, ..... (c) Proof-References, ..... 2. The yet deeper Influence of the circumstances of the Relative Times upon the Content of Messianic Prophecy, . 175 (a) Their Influence upon the Unfolding of the Separate Germs of Messianic Apprehension, , . , 176 Proved in the case of the Prophecy regarding the Messias, . 179 And of other Elements in Messianic Prophecy, . 194 (b) The Parallelism between the course of the History of the Kingdom of God and the Development of Messianic Prophecy, ...... 203 XX Contends. THIRD PART. TiiK Kki.ation of Messianic Proviikcv to New Testament Fulfilment, 1. Its Times-borrowed Features, ..... 2. Its specifually Old Testament Features, . 3. Tlie 01(1 Testament Envisaging Forms still aillieiiiig to all Messianic Prophecies, in particular, . (a) Jerusalem, the City of God, .... {b) Israel's Central Position in the Kingdom of tjod, •J. The Measure of Apprehension of God's Saving Purpose ex hibited by Messianic Prophecy, .... (a) In relation to the Final State of the People and King dom of Cod, ...... (ft) In relation to the Mediation of Salvation, in particular the Person of the Messias, (<■) In relation to the Jlessianic Work of Salvation, (d) In relation to the Conditions and Historical Course of the Realisation of Salvation, .... 288 5. The ultimate Reference to Christ of all Messianic Prophecy in the Scheme of Historical Revelation and Salvation, 296 6. The Coincidence of Prophecy and Fulfilment in Individual Concrete-Historical Features, . . . . .310 7. The Fulfilment of Messianic Prophecy in the Church and Kingdom of Christ, ....... 313 Concluding Remarks, 318 217 219 228 234 235 238 271 278 283 ADDITIONS BY TRANSLATOR. Appendices. A. Notes, 325 Ji. Index to Scripture Passages cited by Riehm, and to his other references to Ancient Literature, ..... 330 C. List of Modern Works referred to by Riehm, ... . 341 D. Recent Literature on Messianic Prophecy, or on the growtli of the Messianic idea in Jewish History, .... 345 INTRODUCTION, TN this work we use the phrase Messianic prophecy -*- in its wider sense, understanding by it all the Old Testament promises of the final accomplishment of the Kingdom of God, and the consequent glorifi- cation of His people. Messianic prophecy in the narrower sense (the prophecy, viz., of an ideal theocratic king of the house of David, with whose appearance is associated the inauguration of the last time) cannot be made an object of separate investigation, because its growth is intimately connected with that of the more universal promise. It is, moreover, axiomatic with us as Christian theologians that the entire body of Old Testament promise, relating to the last times, finds its fulfilment in and through Christ ; and when we appro- priate for the phrase Messianic prophecy the wider sense that has now become common, it is only our way of expressing this fundamental conviction. No special proof is needed, that what we thus de- scribe as axiomatic is repeatedly attested in the most emphatic way by Christ and the apostles. Every one remembers the sayings of Christ : that the Scriptures of the Old Covenant testify of Him (John 5. 39) ; that 2 Messianic Prophcnj. His sufferings and death, His resurrection and glorifica- tion, were preannounced in tlie law of Moses, in the prophets, and the psalms (Luke 24. 44 ff.); that what was written of Him must be fulfilled (Matt. 26. 54, Luke 22. 37); that the Scripture could not be broken (John 10. 35), and others of like import. Every one knows how the apostles invariably start with the proof that what God had foretold by the mouth of all His prophets had been fulfilled in the appearance, the career, tlie work of Christ — in the salvation He brought, in the Kingdom Lie founded ; how, in particular, even Paul attests that God had " promised afore " by His prophets the gospel of His Son (Rom. 1. 2), and that all the promises of God are "yea and amen" in Christ (2 Cor. 1. 20). The minuter study of the views of the New Testament writers has tended to set only in clearer relief the fundamental importance which they attach to the conviction that the New Covenant is the accomplishment of the Old, and tlie fulfilment of its prophecies. It has shown, in particular, that even in its most developed phases the apostolic doctrine of the person and work of Christ finds its basis and starting- point in the belief that Jesus is the promised Messias of the Old Covenant.^ Even the Old Testament, moreover, is not behind- hand in attesting the justification of this assumption. It attests it in so far as Messianic prophecy points ^ Cp. in regard to the Johanniiie Cliristology my remarks in Stndien u. Kritiken, 18()4, pp. 552 IF., ami A. H. Frank K, X>«.s Alte Testament bet Johannes, 1885, pp. 166 i\. Introduction. 3 expressly beyond the Old Covenant itself. For it not only announces the extension of the original purely Israelitish theocracy to a universal Kingdom of God, embracing all peoples ; it indicates also with perfect definiteness that in the last days there will occur a thorough imoard transformation of the existing theo- cracy, and a substantial alteration in the character of the covenant-fellowship between God and His people. Then there will be no place either for Levitical priest or official prophet, for Israel will be a nation of priests (Isa. 61. 6), and will be furnished with the gift of prophecy (Joel 2. 28 f.) ; all without distinction shall know the LOKD and be taught of Him, so that none shall need instruction from another (Jer. 31. 34, Isa. 54. 13). The law shall not be written on tables of stone, but on the heart (Jer. 31. 33). The ark of the covenant will be forgotten, for the gracious pre- sence of God with His people will no longer be a mere dwelling in the inner shrine of the temple. Eather shall all Jerusalem be called the " Throne of the LOED," It will be the place of His dwelling and His revelation. There the tribes of Israel will be assembled about their God ; thither also the Gentiles will come up (Jer. 3. 17). The whole economy of the Covenant will be different. God will make a new covenant with His people, different from the covenant made with their fathers at Sinai (Jer. 31. 31 ff.). And all this will result from one grand and final deed of salvation — a full revelation of grace, which shall at once crown all previous revelations and put them in 4 Messianic Prophecy. tlie shade (Jer. IG. 14 f., 23. 7 f., Isa. 43. IG ff.).— Who can deny tliat the goal, which Old Testament prophecy has in view, while it lies thus obviously beyond the limits of the Old Covenant, is none other than that which, in accordance with the New Testa- ment, and history, and the personal experience of every true Christian, is attained, and is ever more attained, in and through Christ ? For surely all such transcendent visions in the Old Testament point ultimately to a Last Time, in wdiich for all the individual members of the unlimited Theocracy fellowship with God shall be perfect through the complete remission of sins and the universal outpouring of the Spirit. The general proposition, that all the promises of God are yea and amen in Christ, must, however, be more accurately defined. The relation of Old Testa- ment prophecy to New Testament fulfilment requires a minuter investigation. The time is past when a doffmatisintf exegesis could find the whole sense of New Testament assurance expressed in the Old Testa- ment— only with less distinctness, and under cover of various emblems and types. The right and the duty of a strictly historical consideration and exposition of the Old Testament have gained a wider recognition. At the same time, and partly as the result of the Chris- tology of Hengstenberg, the conviction from which we started has asserted itself with fresh force and in ever-widening circles as the inalienable possession of Christian faith. How does the strictly historical exposition of the Old Testament harmonise with this Tntroduclion. 5 conviction ? Does it not look as if it undermined it, or at least considerably loosened the bond which, in the correspondence of prophecy with fulfilment, con- nects the Old Testament with the New ? Modern theological science has to seek a new and satisfying answer to the question : In what way and in what measure did Old Testament prophecy promise afore, (Eom. 1. 2) the gospel of God concerning His Son, This is undoubtedly an important task. For, accord- ing to what we have noted above, we are concerned to know whether and in what way Christ's conscious- ness of the relation of His vocation and work to the whole course of previous revelation can lay claim to historical justification and foundation. What insight may we have into the wonderful ways the wisdom of God has used in the education of men — of Israel in particular ; ways, whose goal was Jesus Christ ? On our answer to this question must depend in no small degree the measure of importance which we Christians may attach to Old Testament Scripture. These pages aim at contributing to the solution of this problem. They do not contain an exhaustive treatment of Messianic prophecy. But they may perhaps claim to be a consecutive exposition of the three points which are of first importance in a synopsis of the subject. To arrive at a true view of the relation of prophecy, to fulfilment, one must start on the right road in ascertaining the contents of prophecy. This is not done by those whose main or only question is : What 6 Messianic Prophecy. did God or the Spirit of God intend to say in a l)rophecy, and who do not trouble themselves to ascer- tain the sense which the proi^hcts attached to their own utterances, and in which they wished them to be understood by their contemporaries.' How, let us ask, is the sense which God or the Spirit of God intended in a prophecy sought and found ? The answer is : We must look backwards, we must see the propliecy in the light that fulls upon it from the point of view of the fulfilment. We are far from condemning wholesale this way of regarding Old Testament prophecy. In the purely practical and religious use of the Old Testament it is both right and necessary. For here the only essential point is to ascertain what prophecy says to v.s, and there is no offence to science if by means of our fuller New Testament assurance the buds of Old Testament promise are made to unfold themselves, or if by the same means the bare outline is converted into the clearly coloured picture. Even in scientific investi- ' Cp. Hkxostenbeuo, Chrhfoloffie, 2iul ed. iii. 2, p. 204: "The two (luestioiis must be carefully distinguished — what sense the prophets attached to their own utterances, and what God intended in these utter- ances. . . . On our present method the answer to the former question cannot be found, and is not for w.s of ijreaf importance." In Heng- stenberg's case this disregard of history results from his general view of piophecy. If the projjhet's onl}' business is to describe the picture which ( ;od has shown him in a state of ecstasy, and if the ju-ophecy is contained only in tliis picture which — even though the jirophet's own spirit was allowed to ])articipate in its prodiiction — is yet substantially only the work of the Spirit of God, it cannot, of course, matter much whether and in what degree tlie prophet liimself apprehended its significance, or what sense he attached to his own words. Introduction. 7 gation this method has its place. In our present inquiry it is specially requisite, for our task is to deter- mine the pw'port of individual utterances considered as members of the entire developing hody of Old Testament prophecy. It certainly cannot be denied that it is only when we survey the whole body of Old Testament prophecy, with its many members, and in the progress of its historical development, from the point of view of the accomplishment of God's saving purpose in Christ, .that the teleological significance of each in- dividual prophecy can be fully recognised. But to ascertain the direction in which the contents of a prophecy relate themselves to its fulfilment, while it determines an important 'relation of the prophecy, gives no sufficient explanation of the prophecy itself. For what can he recognised only in the time of fulfil- ment is precisely what is not contained in the prophecy'^ itself A definition of the contents of a prophecy can include only the sense — albeit the full sense — in which at the time of its utterance the prophecy could be understood, and was necessarily understood. From this sense must not be omitted what the prophet apprehended only in vague presentiment, without clear consciousness. This presentiment be- longs to the contents of the prophecy — of course, however, only in the vagueness characteristic of all mere presentiment. On the other hand, to represent the fuller meanings that in the light of New Testament fulfilment came to be attached to a prophecy, in virtue of its ultimate reference to Christ in the Divinely-laid 8 Messianic Trcrphccy. ]»liin of historical revelation, as its proper, true, and Divinely-intended sense, only breeds confusion ; but if we are determined to retain this mode of expression, we must at least take care not to reckon the Divinely- intended sense as part of the actual contents of the prophecy, when it is our express object to deter- mine the relation of the prophecy to its fulfil- ment. To refuse to distinguish clearly at the outset between prophecy and fulfilment, by putting into the former a meaning that can be recognised only by means of the latter, is to renounce all pretension to an exact knowledge of the state of the case. It means that we intcriiret prophecy more or less in reference to fitljilment, and tend thus to reduce our problem to the absurd one of determining the relation of prophecy to a fulfilment, in whose light it has already been interpreted. Much of the dissension existing between those who lay the main stress on the agreement between prophecy and fulfilment, and those who emphasise principally the historical charac- ter of prophecy, rests solely upon the fact that the former have missed the proper statement of the question, and have not kept in view with sufficient clearness and precision the only relevant problem. Hence : The significance which a prophecy receives only when it is looked at in the light thrown back upon it by its fulfilment, and the sense in which tlie prophets themselves understood their utterances, and intended tliem to be understood by their contem- poraries, — in other words, the historiccd sense of Introduction. < 9 prophecy, — must be clearly distinguished. Only the latter is in the proper sense of the word the content of the prophecy. Hence it only can be taken into account when we have to determine the relation of the prophecy, as such, to the fulfilment. It is there- fore not only not of small, but of the very greatest importance. For apart from it a scientific solution of our problem is axiomatically impossible.^ - It is a pleasing sign of an incipient mutual understanding between opposite tendencies of thought in the Ohl Testament field, that the correctness of the above propositions has been substantially acknow- ledged by a theologian of the school of Hengstenberg — viz. Dr. KtJPER, in his work, entitled Das Prophetenthum des Alten Bundes (Leipzig 1870, pp. 89 ff.). Instead, however, of distinguishing between the contents of prophecy and its goal in the historical revelation of grace (or its significance as a member of the total organic series of Old Testament prophecies), he prefers to distinguish between the historical sense, to be ascertained by exegesis, and the contents of the prophecy, assigning to the latter the above-mentioned ultimate reference or y Friedr. Ed. Konig in the work already referred to (esp. in vol. ii. pp. 161 if.). His view of the subject, however, suffers much from its literalism (see below). 1 Even Bern. Duhm, in his work, Die Theologit der Prophe/en nls Gru7idla. 607 and 610. The Origin of Messianic Proiplucy. 2 3 to both is the characteristic peculiarity of oracular speech — that, viz., of comprehending, in a single glance and a continuous chain of sequence, events widely separated from one another in point of time. He grants further that the eschatological discourses are " h]) no means visionary in character, inasmuch as at no point in the experience of Christ can we detect the presence of the ecstatic state of mind " (in loc. cit. p. 193). How then can it be asserted that the essentially similar utterances of the prophets must have had their origin in Divine communications, involving an ecstatic condition in the prophet, and mediated by visions ? What on this view would be the mental history of those prophets for whom prophecy was not an event of now and then, but rather a life vocation, fulfilled continuously throughout a long series of years (cp. e.g. Jer. 25. 3)? Would not the mental soundness of an Isaiah or a Jeremiah have suffered considerably from the constant recurrence of those eibnormal conditions into which, according to this theory, the sudden and overmastering operation of tlie Divine Spirit must have thrown them ! ^ Over ^ Tlie wliole argument of Hengstenbei'g is manifestly dominated by . a dogmatic interest. His aim is to find the strongest possible guarantee for the reality of Divine revelation, and he would accom- })lish his purpose by removing the psychological condition of the prophets as far as possible from the sphere of ordinary experiencei But are signs and wonders requisite to guarantee the belief that the word of God is in reality His word ? Granted that signs and wonders can serve both to awaken faith and to support weak faith, surely faith ought to be able to dispense with them (John 4. 48) without any diminution of certainty (cp. article " Zeichen und Wunder" in my Dictionary of Biblical Antiquities). Signs and wonders, moreover, 24 Messianic Prophecy. against the proposition that ecstasy is the dominant characteristic of prophetic inspiration, we may, in view of the hints contained in the Old Testament on the cannot in a single instance give us the proof we desire. For visions arc not in themselves a sufficient pledge of the supernatural origin oi an alleged revelation. Are there not visions which prove only a morbid state of mind in the seer ? — Besides, Ilengstenberg's argument is not free from self-contradiction. In X\\q Jirxt edition of his Christology he carried his theory to its legitimate consequences, barely escaping the extreme of Montanistic error. The alterations in the second edition are improvements, in so far as they are more in accordance with the facts, but they are — at least to a considerable extent — out of harmony with the view that governs his main con- clusions. In particular, the allegation, p. 194, " that the prophets deal as a rule with general truths, not with facts in their empirical isolation," hardly agrees with his main position, though it may well promote the tendency to resolve the distinctively historical features ol Old Testament prophecy into bare illustrations. In KiJPEu's treat- ment of the subject (in loc. cit. pp. 47-57) I remark an absence of lucidity. He also claims for all prophecy an "ecstatic foundation," but would have us understand this phrase in a ' ' wider sense." But to the question : In what sense ? he supplies only the negative answer : that extraordinary phi/sical convulsions are not as a rule involved in l)rophetic inspiration. On the other hand, he allows that, with l)rophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah, besides the "extraordinary moods and states of inspired possession," there intervene calmer states "in which prophecy exhibits rather the ccjuable character of a higher stage of spiritual life in Israel." That even in this case their prophetic activity "presupposes not only an inner certainty of a Divine com- mission, but also a state of spiritual elevation resulting from special experiences of Divine power and operations of the Spirit," and that " special illumination intervened so often as it might be required by the prophets in the fultilment of their vocation," is by us at least expressly allowed. But it is quite another question whether these "special experiences" and "special illuminations" are or are not of such a kind that we are at liberty to describe them as ecstatic slates, and to speak of an ecstatic foundation in all prophecy. It would appear that Kiiper believes himself unable to disi)ensc with these modes of expression, if he is to "conserve to prophecy its properly objective contents as over against the active and subjective functions of con- sciousness," but that he comes to no clear understanding with himself The Origin of Messianic Prophecy. 25 subject of prophecy, — in view, in particular, of the pro- phetic writings themselves, — confidently lay down the following thesis : The loioer the grade of prophecy, the more does the ecstatic condition become the normal | one for inspiration ; whereas in the higher and riper stages it occurs but seldom — principally in the initial revelation, which constitutes the prophet's call.'^ That thus real instances of ecstasy occur in the sphere of genuine prophecy, cannot obviously be \ denied. The fact that they do so is clearly attested both by the Old and the New Testaments, In the lovxst kind of ecstasy the seer loses self-control : self-con- sciousness, and self-determination — the two essential elements of personality — are suspended. What one, so inspired, does, he does not by his own will, rather under the compulsion of the possessing Spirit, of Whom ^ he is the unconscious, will-less instrument. Thus also when the state of ecstasy is past, he has no definite remembrance of what he has experienced. Examples of such ecstatic conditions lie ready to hand in what is told of Saul and his messengers (1 Sam. 19. 20 ff.) and in the New Testament tongues (1 Cor. 14). It as to what precisely they imply. — Against the view of Hcugstenberg, cp. also K5NJG in loc. cit. ii. pp. 6 ff., 53 ff., S3 ff, "What the latter remarks, ii, pp, 139 f., against my arguments, as above, results partly from such obvious misunderstanding, that it has seemed to me sufhcient to secure my meaning against sueli unexpected misapprehension by some slight verbal alterations ; but partly also his remarks are based upon the fanciful conception — to be explained below — which pervades his whole book, that an "internal" event is an "immanent" one, and that the "supernatural" can be certainly guaranteed to men only by means of external stnfiible perception (see below), 1 Cp, Duhm in loc. cit, p, 86, 26 Messianic Prophecy. ^oes without saying that ecstasies of tliis kind — how- ever deep their significance and blessed their con- sequence may be to the religious life of those who (experience them (cp. 1 Cor. 14. 18) — are not adapted to the purpose of communicating a revelation ; they lie on f/m-side of prophecy proper. Hence the Apostle TaTil (1 Cor. 14) expressly distinguishes between the /\ tonfjuc-fiiftcd, who speak only " with the Spirit," and />. those who speak " with the understanding also," and places the superiority of the latter to the former pre- cisely in the fact that in their case the understanding is exercised, and they are therefore in a position to edify the community by their discourse.^ But besides ecstatic conditions of this kind there are others, which are marked by no such obliteration of the prophet's personality. His subjectivity is shaded, but not paralysed ; his own will can assert itself even in presence of the Spirit ; the continuity of clear self- consciousness is not interrupted. What is extra- ordinary in such a condition is that the connexion between the spiritual life and the external world is for the time broken, the relation of reciprocity subsisting between self-consciousness and the sensible world is suspended, and the spirit is wholly engrossed in the active perception of an object which does not ' It must he remembered, moreover, that S{)eakii)g with tongues did not by any moans ahrayn involve an unconscious condition. AVitness the case, rejieatedly referred to by the apostle, in which the tongue- gifted possessed a i>arallel gift of interpretation. We must, in short, suppose the line which separates the lower and the higher stages of ecstasy to be in many conceivable ways a vaimhing one. Tlic Origin of Messianic Prophecy. 2 7 belong to the sensible world. This concentration of all the spiritual faculties upon a single act of inner perception is an effect of the overmastering Spirit, and may be so intensified as to include in the common activity — by the power of phantasy — even the sense- i'aculties of sight and hearing. In this condition, therefore, while the prophet enjoys clear self-conscious- ness (barring only the obliteration of actual external objects), he sees visions and hears voices.^ In such cases there remains, after the cessation of the ecstasy, a more or less clear remembrance of what has been seen or heard. The analogy between these ecstatic conditions and dreams, which even the ancients'^ remarked, and which appears in the frequent dream- revelations of the Old Testament, is a perfectly exact one. Only in the dream the temporary sus- pension of correspondence between the spiritual life and the sensible world is induced by the physical condition of sleep, while in the state of ecstasy it is an effect of the Spirit — being the direct result of the concentration of the inner or spiritual energies upon the perception of an object not actually present in the sensible world. Now it must be admitted that not only the prophets of the Old Testament, but even the apostles,^ were frequently at the moment of revelation in an ecstasy of this kind, especially in the cases in which God Him- ^ Morbid phenomena of this kind are what we call hallucinations. 2 Cp. e.g. Cicero, de divinatione, i. 50 (113), 51 (117), 57 (129), ;^0 (63). 3 Cp. e.g. Acts 10. 9 ff., 2 Cor. 12. 1 ff. 28 Messianic Prophecy. self in some sensible form was brought l)eture the spiritual eye, or the circumstances and fortunes of the people of God were represented under certain external symbols. True, many of tlie visions narrated in the later prophetic writings may have been but the fanciful dress and veil of thought ; true, in other instances (as, e.g., Ezek. chaps, 1 and 40 ff.) the prophets may have used pictorial representation as a means of adding illustrative detail to the vision seen in the Spirit ; still it remains an incontestable fact that even in the bloom of prophecy ecstatic y conditions and visions were reckoned among the actual experiences of the prophets in the fulfilment of their vocation. Just as certain, however, is it that at this time /vision and ecstasy were not the normal vehicle of revelation. It is only of special individual revelations that the prophets say that they received them by means of visions. Isaiah, for example, tells of only one such experience — that, viz., which was connected with his consecration and call to the proplietic office (Isa. 6), and only in Isa. 8. 11 f., if even there, is there any hint of its recurrence. On the contrary, the expres- •sions most commonly used to designate the act of revelation, as well as the essential character of the prophetic discourses and oracles, point to another method of Divine communication. Such phrases as the following may be cited : " The word of the Lord came unto me" (Jer. 1. 4); "The Lord said unto me " {id. 7) ; "I have heard of the Lord (or the like)" The Origin of Messianic Prophecy. 29 (Isa. 21. 10, 28. 22, Jer. 49. 14, Ezek. 3. 17, Hab. 3. 2 ; n'''Hvi Yah^veh, i.e. seci'et confidential communi- cation from the Lord (literally, v)hat is whispered — an appropriate description of the hollow, deadened tones of a voice from the world of mystery ; cp. the roots ndhnm and hamdh), and the like. These are the most common phrases, and they n:mst form our point of departure in any attempt we make to determine precisely the mode of prophetic revelation. On the other hand, it cannot be right to emphasise in this connection such comparatively unusual words as ehdzOn and chazutli, etc., words manifestly appro- priate directly only to visions, and applied only incidentally to prophecy in general. We see thus that the usual method of prophetic revelation is to be understood as a henring of the ivord of God. This is expressly allowed even by Ivonig (in loe. cit. ii. p. 8 f.) when he distinguishes between showing and speaking, or the vision and the hearing of the Divine word, as the two methods of prophetic revelation, and points to the former as the less frequent (cp. ii. p. 388). But to a much greater degree than Hengstenberg, or indeed any of the theologians who lay stress upon the supernatural character of revelation, he insists that both events {i.e. the seeing and the hearing) are extraordinary, lying wholly beyond the circle of familiar and ordinary experience. According to him the vision of the prophet is a veritable seeing ; i.e. he actually sees with the lodily eye, which is specially equipped 30 Messianic Prophcry. for the purpose, appearances and events which, so far as he is concerned, God allows to transgress the limits of their proper sphere in the invisible world. Similarly X his hearing of the word of God, is a veritable lieaHng : his bodily ears are mysteriously opened to hear the Divine speech litcralbj and arliculatdij sonndinfj ioirard.-> him from the other world} What therefore, according to tradition, happened only on rare and extraordinary occasions — viz. that the spoken word of God became ^ As regards the seeing, he states his view thus (ii. pp. 100 f.) : "My assertion is : that only a veritable seeimj of phenomena, which God allows to meet their vision from beyond the limits of tin- visible world, could give the prophets the kind of certainty with which their visions inspired them, and that this seeing must be that of persons who art- awake, and have their outer eyes open, who arc in possession, not only of their self-consciousness, but of their self-control." How much in earnest he is over the idea that visions are "objectively real events for the bodily eye," sucli expressions as the following show (ii. j)}). 126 f.). " Even in the case of the vision of the Macedonian in the Hdrama iU. might not be intended in a sense other than literal. impossibility." Moreover, he contradicts himself by regarding, e.g., the expression, "Jehovah said unto me," in Isa. 36. 10, 2 Kings 18. 25, as not implying Divine speech in the proper sense (cp. ii. pp. 239 ff., in general, pp. 239-261). Mt is a violent and unwarranted exaggeration on the part of Kiinig (ii. p. 181) to affirm that the prophets were "constantly" saying, " We have heard it with the ears." 40 Messianic rroj)li€ry. It is, in fact, notliinj,' more than a way of adding impressive empliasis to the simple "hear" (cp. Ps. 44. IV Ikit, besides all this, there is no lack of definite indications that, by their nse of the expressions bor- rowed from intercourse between human persons, the prophets did not intend to express an audible speech of (»od, or a hearing with tlie bodily ear. (lod must awaken {heir 'o2;^/2,=arouse the ear), or oijen (pdthach 'oz — ), or discover-to (fjdhlh 'oz — ) (Isa. 50. 4 f. ; 1 Sam. 9. 15) the ear of His servant, so that he hear the Divine word. What else can this mean than that God •^opens and sets in activity the spiritual ear, or tlie faculty of inner perception adapted to supersensible communications ? ^ Further, besides the usual dihhcr 'el (to speak to), there is employed, to denote the speech ^ Kiinig cannot mean to deny that the bodily cars are not meant in every instance of tlie use of the phrase in question (cp. Isa. 6. 10). He (loos not, wc should think, ])ropose to understand literally the jihrases ill which Ezekiel describes the npeninf) of liis month and the eatirKj of the hook-roll (Ezek. 3. 1-3). "Why then insist that, in such phrases as lifting up the eyes or henriiuj with the ears, the bodily eyes and ears must be meant (Kbnig, ii. pp. 39 f., 75 f.) ? - Kbnig (in loc. cit. ii. p. 179, note 3) declares such an interpreta- tion impossible, and insists on understanding even these expressions only of a special equipment and (inickening of the bodily .sense of hearing. So correspondingly (and here he is partly right) with the 0}>cni)i(j or uncoverituj of the eyes. But surely bodily heariiiij is just as little meant in the jiassages he quotes as in Jol) 33. 16, 36. 15, and Isa. 48. 8. The expression qdldh 'Ozen is indeed sometimes used of rommunication by means of ordinary sensible sjjeech (1 Sam. 20. 2, also vv. 12 and 13, 22. 8. 17, Kuth 4. 4) ; but even in these jiassages 'oziii does not directly signify the bodily ear. On the contrary, tlie expres- sion is borrowed from the language of revelation (ej). 2 Sam. 7. 27, I Chron. 17. 25), and signifies the revelation of soniethimj hitherto concealed. The mere fact of the constant use of the singular number TJie Origin of Messianic Prophecy. 41 of God or an angel to the prophet, the phrase dibher ¥ (to speak m)/ which does not, of course, mean to speak mapef*So7i, but is at the same time not perfectly synonymous with the word for simple address. It is a phrase of more express import, being employed only of a revealed communication, and denoting that what is communicated is, as it were, spoken into the person addressed.^ I am not inclined to lay any special stress upon the fact that, in Ezek. 3. 10, the command, " All my words receive into thine heart," precedes " and hear with thine ears" (cp. 44. 5, and, for the con- trary order, 40. 4), or that, according to Jer. 20. 9, the word of God is in the heart of the prophet, consuming him like fire if he would forbear to speak, though it certainly warns us against an exaggerated literalism in the interpretation of the familiar la' milUbbenu. But by the fact that they employ other phrases than hearing, or hearing loith the ears, to denote their inward J reception of the Divine word, or, generally, its com- in the expres.sions in f[uestioii suffices to indicate that the bodily ears are not meant. In passages like Ps. 40. 6, where, besides the higher and principal meaning, there is meant to be at least an accompanying reference to what is literal, the plural form, 'oznayim is used. iCp. Hos. 1. 2, Hab. 2. 1, Zech. 1. 9. 13. 14, 2. 2. 7, 4. 1. 4. 5, 5. 5. 10, 6. 4, Num. 12. 6. 8, 2 Sam. 23. 2. ■•^ Konig (in /oc. cit. ii. p. 178 ff. ) has mistaken the special signifi- cance of the phrase. It is never used of the speech of one human being to another (1 Sam. 25. 39 cannot, in spite of Gesenius, be translated " he spoke to Abigail," but " he spoke about Abigail " {i.e. with a view to secure her in marriage) ; cp. Ps. 119. 46). For this the only properly corresponding phrase is dibber 6« 'ozne (to spt-ak in the ears of). We have not adduced the passages Num. 12. 2 and 1 Kings 22. 28 in note 1 (above), because it is doubtful whether dibber 6« does not there mean to speak by or through. 42 Messianic Prophecy. raunication,the prophets indicateclearly howfar it is fi'oin \ their intention to represent the word of God as sensibly 1 sounding in their ears. Thus, e.f/., the word of God is ' described as tncat or as a v:riUen roll, wliich tlie prophet must eat (Jer. 15. 16, Ezek. 2. 8, 3. 2 f.); or it is put 'info the mouth of the prophet (Xum. 23. 5. 16, Deut. 18. 18, Jer. 1. 9) ; or the prophet sees it and God shovjs it to him (Jer. 38. 21, Ezek. 11. 25, Hab. 2. 1 f., Isa. 2. 1, Am. 1. 1). The very fact that the phrase, • And it came to pass that the word of Jehovah came unto, etc. — a phrase by no means common as descriptive of audible speech between human persons ^ — is that most commonly and with preference employed by the pro- j)hets to denote a Divine communication, can be ex- ])lained satisfactorily only by the supposition that the Divine speech, unlike human speech, is not heard with the outer ears. Finally, we have express testimony • that it is the Spirit of God who not only effects the hithnahhe (the prophetic gift), and in particular qualifies the prophet to speak in the name of Jehovah, and to announce His counsel and will,' but is also the communicating medium of the Divine word. Thus in Isa. 30. 1 f. the intimation proceeding from Jehovah, or from His mouth (ver. 2), is likewise thought of as - proceeding from His Spirit ; in Ezek. 11. 5, the pro- position. He {Jehovah) spake to me, is annexed to the )preceding. The Spirit of Jehovah fell upon me ; Zech. » Num. 11. 25 ff., 1 Sam. 10. 6. 10, 19. 20 ff., Joel 2. 28 f. 2 Isa. 48. 16, 59. 21, 61. 1, Micah 3. 8, 1 Chron. 12. 18, 2 Cliron. 1.'>.1 f., 20. M ff., 24. 20. Tlie Origin of Messianic PropJiccy. 43 7. 12 is an express statement of the Spirit's mediation, The words which Jehovah Sahaoth hath sent through (¥) His Spirit by means of {Ifyadh) the former prophets ; cp. also Neh. 9. 80, a7id Thou gavest them witness through thy Spirit hy means of Thy 2^rophcts. Further, the words of the false prophet Zedekiah, Wliich way went the Spirit of Jehovah from me to speak unto thee ? (1 Kings 22. 24, 2 Chron. 18. 23) show that the speech of Jehovah and the sjyeech of the Spirit of Jehovah are synonymous expressions ; and, finally, it appears from 2 Sam. 23. 2 f., whether we render the Uo{ ver. 2 by to me or by through me, and v/hether in the former case we understand a revelation made directly to David himself or one mediated by Nathan, that the com- munication of the Divine word to David was mediated by the Spirit of Jehovah.^ We have thus good ground for describing the ordi- nary mode of revelation as one that implies, on the side of God, a pecular inwarcl_speech [^Einsprache= I i | literally, a speaking into, as if what the prophet spoke out had first to be conveyed in. — Tr.] mediated hy His Spirit, and on the side of the prophet a cor- responding psychical operation of inward hearing} ^ Konig (in loc. cit. i. pp. 104-114, 141-144) allows to the Spirit of God only a preparatory work — that of qualifying the prophet to receive the Divine message, and urging him to prophetic utterance. In Zech. 7. 12 and Neh. 9. 30, he would have us understand an "objective Spirit of God, " "a second Divine Being" alongside of Jehovah, an " objective Middle-Being between Jehovah and the prophet," who is the medium of bringing the word, which Jehovah Himself speaks, to the ear (!) of the prophet. * We prefer these phrases to the common description employed, e.g.. \ 44 Messianic Prophecy. This inward speech, however, and the correlative hearing, we shall rec^uire, as a rule, to conceive of as simply a certainlij as to the will and counsel of God Awroiujht immediately in the spirit of t/ie prophet hy the Spirit of God} It is a certainty that has not come to liim by way of rertectiou, or, in general, by any usual mode of original activity. The prophets are clearly conscious that it is something given them by (iotl, that they are receiving His connuands and decrees just as really as a trusted servant hears from the lips of his master what is that master's will and intention. The stage of the mysterious transaction is not indeed the sensible world, but neither is it the mere siihjeciivity of the prophet. We must insist rather that there is an actual converse of the living personal (Jod with the person of the prophet.- On the other hand, tliis in- liy Oeuleu (art. " Weis.sagung,"p. 636, Theologie des AltenTestamentes, ii. pp. 187 H'. ), according to which the ])sychical activity of the prophet is represented as an inward or iminediatv intuition — a pluase with whiiih conceptions alien to tlie true state of the case readily associate themselves. See, in particular, the misleading remarks of von Okf.li.i (in loc. cit. p. 39) on the scenot/raphic character of propliecy. If an "intuition" mean only that "the subject knows the object as imme- diately given and not ])roduced by his own activity," no ol)jection can, of course, be made to the use of the word. Neither is it to be (h-nicd that prophetic knowledge — specially if it relate to the future course of histoiy— has in many respects an "intuitive character," innsiuuch as it is rather the prophet's faculty of imagination than his understand- ing or reason that is employed in the reception of the Divine com- munication, and, conscipieutly, his pemiliar knowledge emerges to consciousness in the form of intuition. (See below, and cp. Studien u. Kritiktn, Jahrg. lS8:i. i)p. 805 f.) ' Cp. H. Scnui.TZ in loc. ci(. i. pp. 173 f., ii. pp. 4(5 f. In the 2nd liecy. 45 wardly assuring operation of the Spirit of God upon the spirit of the prophet cannot take phice arbitrarily. There must be law and method. Man's spiritual experience is governed by a Divinely-established order, v which is neither suspended nor disturbed by the opera- tion of the Spirit of God. Even though this operation be of transcendent origin, it is accomplished in a manner conformable to the established order, and yet is not on that account, as Konig contends {e.g. ii. 139 f., 224 et i^assim), reduced to a merely " immanent " process.^ In other words : Although the inner assur- ance of God's will and counsel does not originate in the sphere of the subjective spiritual life, it comes to pass only in conformity with the laws proper to that sphere — albeit the operation of these laws appears only in an act of reception. It is therefore psychologi- cally jnedAated." It must not be supposed, moreover, spiritual intercourse between God and an inhabitant of the visible world, or to deny, in particular, that a valid certainty as to his call may reach the prophet at a particular time and place ? ^ Cp. Rothe's detailed treatment of the relation of miracle to the order of nature [Zur Doipnatik, pp. 87 ff.). ■-' That these propositions cannot be attested by exjiress citations from the pro]ihets, forms no valid ground of objection to them. Konig's conception of an accommodation on the part of God to the individu- ality of the prophet is, as he himself allows (ii. p. 364), equally destitute of this kind of confirmation. It also is of the nature of a retrospective theory, based, indeed, on a proper appreciation of the facts of prophetic discourse as known to us, still manifestly going beyond the utterances of the prophets, and even beyond the explicit contents of the i)rophetic consciousness as a whole. And, in place of the idea of an external accommodation, it is in my judgment more credible and more in conformity with the facts to say that God has condescended to exercise His revealing grace in a way that perfectly corresponds with the laws of man's spiritual life. 46 Messianic Prophecy. tliat the cooperation of the prophet's original powers involved in this act of reception is by any means necessarily of an unusual kind, transcendiug the ordinary processes of the spiritual life after tlie ananner of an ecstasy or any similar state. The object of the inner prophetic certainty will indeed not unfrequently emerge to the prophet's consciousness in the plastic form of an intuition. This will be the case in proportion as the prophet's powers of imagina- tion— what we may call his phantasy — are roused to activity. And if there be an excessive concentration of the spiritual powers upon this intuition, the stage of ecstasy, accompanied by the ecstatic visions of an ex- cited phantasy, may be reached. But this is not by any means what is usual or ordinary, nor does the transaction as a whole, mysterious as it is in itself, stand apart as a perfectly isolated phenomenon. Two analogies from the sphere of religious experience may be of special service in bringing it nearer our compre- hension. The one is the way in which to this day every living conviction of religious faith, every Chris- tian truth that is recognised as carrying its own cer- tainty with it, is arrived at. Even such a conviction is assuredly not the product of reflection, — however much reflection may be exercised in connexion with it, — nor does it proceed purely from a man's own sub- jectivity in general. It is attained rather in every 3>^ single instance through a revealing operation of God ; it is impossible apart from a certainty as to saving truth wrought immediately by the Spirit of God — 2'he Origin of Messianic Prophecy. 47 apart, in fact, from the so-called testimonium internum Spiritus Sancii. " Flesh and blood hath not revealed / it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven," So said the Lord to Peter when he uttered the confession : " Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God " (Matt. 16. 17, cp. also 11. 25, and 1 John 2. 27). Now, it is undoubtedly to an essentially similar mode of revelation that we must refer the main portion of the contents of the prophetic writings. This is speci- ally true of those passages where the only concern of the prophet is to obtain due recognition for the will of God as known from the law, to bring to mind the fundamental truths of the Old Testament creed, to apply them to certain definite circumstances, to develop extensively and intensively recognised religious axioms or the like. To this domain belongs a very large portion j- of the contents of Messianic prophecy. The analogy between the mode of revelation to the prophets and the inward assurance of saving truth effected by the Spirit, is the more perfect from the fact that in both cases (if we may anticipate a later inference of our argument) the operation of the Spirit is indissolubly connected with the correlative operation of the Divine word, attested orally or in writing. It is well known how frequently a prophet's discourse connects itself with and grows out of that of his predecessors. It might, of course, be objected that this line of remark fails to do justice to the specific character of prophetic discourse. It might be urged, in particular, that the Old Testament teacher of wisdom must be to a like 48 Messianic Prophecy. extent credited with a Spirit-wrought certainty as to religious and ethical truth. lie also, it might be said, wishes to communicate to others and make practically valid the convictions thus attained ; and yet nowhere within the compass of the didactic poetry of the Old Testament do we find the authors sounding the pecu- liar note of prophecy. They do not enforce their precepts, exhortations, and warnings as a word spoken hi/ God Himself to their hearers or readers. They have not that i'ull consciousness of speaking in the name and commission of Jehovah, which would war- rant in their text that transition to tlie direct speech of God which is so frequent in the prophetic writings.^ This very obvious difference, however, arises from the j^fact that the prophet is conscious of a special call addressed to him, in virtue of which he has been con- stituted an organ of Jehovah, an interpreter of the ^ Divine will, a bearer of the continuous revelation of (lod to His people, and has been above others entrusted by God with a definite mission to his contemporaries, whereas the teacher of wisdom is conscious only of the general call — the property of every man who finds himself in possession of a truth — not to keep his treasure to himself, but to make it available for others also. The latter does not, like the prophet, feel im- pelled to utterance of his doctrines and precepts by * Tho perci'ption of this diireronce has given rise to tlie well-known Rabbinical doetrine that the ]>roi>hctic writings were inspired by the Ruarh Jhum^hhudh (the Spirit of rro])hccy ), whereas the Haij%i>ijra])lni. resulted only from the general and commoner inspiration of the Ruach llakkodhesh (the Spirit of Holiness). The Origin of Messianic Prophecy. 4 9 the conviction that the existing state of affairs demands from him the immediate fulfilment of a perfectly definite duty of his calling, laid upon him by God. Naturally also the word of the wise man will be to a much greater extent than that of the prophet a product * of original reflection ; it will emerge to his own con- sciousness as such, and as the fruit of his life-experi- ence ; and this, even although the truth he utters receives the seal of the Spirit of God. It is different with the prophet. To hira, in his consciousness of his special Divine mission, the truth, of which the Spirit of God has assured him, will always appear as a word that God has given him at the moment, that in these definite circumstances he may fulfil the trust of his calling. We require thus only to keep in view the prophet's conciousness of his 2>^cnliar vocation to see that the specific quality of prophetic discourse, as regards the points noticed above, is satisfactorily explained as the result of an assurance wrought im- mediately by the Spirit of God, and perfectly similar in kind to the testimonium internum Spiritus Sancti, as to what in a particular case is to he announced as the will and purpose of God} Of course, however, this consciousness of vocation ^ Similar is the case of the man who having, apart from the possi- bility of much reflection, spoken the right word in ditticnlt circnm- stances or at critical moments in fulfilment of his official or Christian duty, declares from the depths of his consciousness ; It was given me. Kbnig's objection to this analogy (ii. p. 195, note) is otf the point, for, of course, the prophet's consciousness of his vocation adds something specific to the bare certainty that the word has been given him by God. D 50 Messianic P7'ophccy. could not T:>c present to the mind of the prophet with -/such extraordinary force were not special revelations vouchsafed to him, such as God does not grant to every spiritual man, but only to the prophet. True as it is that the business of the prophet is not primarily to foretell the future, tlie strength of his consciousness of a Divine mission is hardly conceiv- able apart from the experimental certainty that Jehovah reveals His counsels to His prophets as to trusted servants, and that they therefore have above all others an anticipatory knowledge of the future. Apart from this, indeed, prophetic discourse would lack the very element necessary to vindicate to their contemporaries the claim of the prophets to be the ambassadors of God.^ But even for the subjective Divinely-wrought assurance of the prophet as to the counsel of God for the future we have a perfectly exact analogue in the domain of religious experience.- I refer to assurance of answer to prayer, in particular to cases in which the prayer relates to matters belong- ing either wholly or in part to the domain of the outer life. Such assurance also is not reflective, nor indeed in any sense a product of the human spirit. Like the prophetic certainty, it is immediately wrought in the spirit of the petitioner by the Spirit of God, ' Cp. my remarks in Stud. v. Krit. 1872, pp. 558 (T. ; Ki'i-EU in loc. cit. pp. 442 f. ''The analogy is noted also by Oehleh, art. " Weissagung," p. C39, The.ologie ilea Alten Tentameiitcs, ii. § 211. I may be allowed to rennirk tliat the suggestion to make use of it did not reach me first through Oehler. The Origin of Messianic Prophecy. 5 1 and comes to his consciousness as an answer vouch- safed him by the living God, to Whom he has spoken. The certainty of the true petitioner that he has received the answer from God Himself — that it is no mere imagination, hut rather an experience as real and matter-of-fact as any outward occurrence — is just as indubitable, and shows itself just as powerful and effective, as the certainty of the prophet — perfectly similar to it in kind and origin — that God has spoken to him. We all know how in the Psalms, in con- sequence of an inward assurance of an answer from God, the language of the bitterest complaint and most imploring entreaty passes frequently into that of most joyful confidence, even of exulting praise of the Divine grace. Sometimes this transition is so remarkable that to those whose standpoint does not admit of their doing justice to the true inner essence of prophecy, it seems explicable only on the assumption that already the deliverance from distress, or at least a change for the better in the position of the suppliant, has inter- vened.^ Experiences of certainty as to answer to prayer, which cannot be brought under suspicion as " so called," or even as products of " religious con- fusion,"^ might be cited from ancient and from modern times. It may suffice, however, only to call to mind the answer which the Apostle Paul received to his thrice - uttered entreaty ; ^ and the confidence with ^ Cp. Hitzig, Die Psalmen, i. p. 128. ■ " Religioser Verirrung," Konig, ii. pp. 200 f. " 2 Cor. 12. 8 f. 5 2 Messianic Prophecij. which Peter, after prayer, called to the dead Tabitha: "Tabitha, arise."^ Oeiiler very justly reminds us that this analogy deserves the more attention from the fact that the intercourse of the prophet with God during the process of revelation is not unfrequently represented as, properly speaking, a prayer-intercourse^ that prayer is even named as the condition of revelation,^ and that correspondingly the word 'dnCih (answered) is employed to denote the answer to prayer, which consists of a revelation made to the prophet.* The gift of prayer is a common gift of grace ; never- theless, there are isolated instances of petitioners who possess a special charisma, or grace -endowment, in virtue of which they frequently enjoy, even while they pray, an inward assurance regarding the granting or refusal, even of petitions that relate only to the external life.^ Similarly the assurance as to what is contained in the secret counsel of God, which the 1 Acts 9. 40. - Jer. 32. 16 ff., A2. 4, Hab. 1. •'' Jer. 33. 2 f. " Jer. 23. 35. 37, 33. 3, Micali 3. 7, Hab. 2. 2. * Konig's polemic a<:;aiiist our use of the above analogy (in loc. cit. ii. pp. 196 fr. ) rests almost entirel}' upon a misunderstanding. He supposes us to affirm that the possession of assurance of answer to prayer maket the possessor a prophet. His description, moreover, of such assurance as originating entirely in the human heart, as "only the creation of the praying soul," onlj' "a conscious or unconscious inference from the general to the particular in the matter of saving assurance," some- thing, therefore, tluit belongs entirely to the sphere of mere subjectivity, forces one to asK, Where in this view is his faith in the living God ? The fact is, that just as there are dilFerent degrees of certainty in regard to the answ-er of prayer, so there are, according to circumstances, different degrees in the inward certainty of a prophet as to whether or not the word that has come to him be really the word of Jehovah (cp. Jer. 32. 6-8). Of course, however, he can announce it only after he has attained full certainty. The Origin of Messianic PropJiccy. 5 3 Spirit of God effects in the prophet, presupposes a special charisma. This charisma has, however, a basis in nature. In the case alike of the prophet and the exceptional petitioner, it is communicated by an opera- tion of the Spirit of God, which sanctifies and sub- limates t\\Q, facility of presentiment in the human soul, — a faculty which is unquestionably possessed by some individuals in an exceptionally high degree, and attains the closest resemblance to the prophetic charisma wlien it is roused to activity by the force of deep ethical convictions.^ If this be a correct description of the regular mode of revelation to the prophets, it becomes clear, in the fiz^t place, how completely a normal ethico-relir/ioics attitude on the part of the prophet to God is an essential prerequisite to the proper exercise of his gift.- For, as we Iiave remarked above, it is precisely tlie ethico-religious character of a would-be prophet's work which must decide the question whether he has really received revelations from God, or whether his claims are fictitious. Even the prophet's own certainty that he is announcing the word of God is conditioned by the testimony of his conscience that this is what he is honestly setting his will to do (see above, p. 16). Hence it is, secondly, that in presenting truths of which he has been assured by the Spirit of ^ For a detailed treatment of the natural basis of the charisma, pro- phet eias, see Tholtjck in lot: cit. pp. 1 tf., and the passages there cited. Konig's objections to the concluding sentence above result from gross misinterpretation (in loc. cit, ii. pp. 201 f.). - Cp. on this Oehler, art. " Weissagung," pp. 639 f. 54 Messianic Fro^Jcccy. ^(Jod, the specific mental characteristics of the prophet must make themselves fully perceptible. For such an assurance cannot even enter the prophet's con- sciousness unless there be some preliminary correspond- ence between the operation of the Spirit of God and the receptive activity of the human spirit, which assimilates the impression made by the Spirit by transforming it into the form of thought or intuition. A communication, moreover, of his assured truth to ^others is impossible, unless the prophet exert upon it his reproductive activity in an effort in whicli reflection, phantasy, and in general all the spiritual powers display themselves in the measure and manner prescribed by his oicn sjnritual idiosyncracy} Viewed in this aspect, the word of God which he announces is also the prophet's own word. It is something which, as regards its ultimate origin, does not proceed millihho (from his heart), but yet at the same time, in a true sense, docs so proceed — as is acknowledged even by Konig (in loc. cit. ii. pp. 361 f.). Fincdly, — and this the point that here mainly concerns us, — it is likewise clear that, though the fresh truth, communicated to /the prophet in revelation, is one immediately given ^ him by the Spirit of God, its apprehension can never he unmediated. It cannot he an act that stands in no organic connexion ivith the cognitions, concepts, and ideas already present to the mind of the prophet. Bather must it he organically summoned hy the Spirit of God to X the light of consciousness out of that which is already ' Cp. Pfleiderer, Die Religion, ihr Wesen u. ihre Geschichif, i. p. 379. The Origin of Messianic Prophecy. 55 the spiritual property of the prophet, and that without hurt to the freshness proper to revealed truth.^ For how could the Spirit of God produce in the prophet certainty in regard to matter wholly strange and absolutely new to his spirit — something which he could not recognise in its connexion and agreement with the total previous content of his consciousness, and fit into its appropriate place ? A truth not psychologically mediated by connexion with the previous contents of consciousness, could result only from a magical operation of the Spirit of God upon the spirit of the prophet. In other words, it could only be put into the prophet in an external andi mechanical way. It is impossible to suppose that any truth, or even the immediate certainty regard- ing the will and counsel of God, peculiar to the prophet, could originate in this way. The law which is valid in the sphere of the natural life is not less valid in the spiritual sphere : the law, that nothing can be mechanically received into a living organism, or in a purel}' external way drawn into its life-process and activity. In the one sphere as in tlie other, there can be appropriation only through a process of assimilation conditioned by the laws of the receptive faculties ; and this process of assimilation ' Kiinig, indeed, conceives of two " sums " of thoughts and concepts, sharply and definitely distinguished from each other, the one of which siirings from Divine revelation without any psychological medium, while the other originates in the prophet's own mind (in loc. cit. ii. pp. 184 f., 214 f., 220). But, as we saw, he found it impossible to work out his theory in full detail. o6 Messianic rropliecy. is, in the present instance, possible only when the fresh truth of revelation finds not merely certain supposed external points of connexion, but real roots, or concealed hcginnings of its growtli., in the previous contents of the prophet's consciousness. The organic connexion between the latter and the new truth must therefore be in some measure genetic. This is de- manded by the constitution of man's spiritual being, in accordance with which the receptive and assimilat- ing activity of the spirit in relation to a new truth is only possible, when the new apprehension so offers itself that the existing store of apprehensions is enriched by a living growth from within outwards, and not by mere mechanical addition, somewhat after the fashion in which, in building, one stone is laid upon another ^ (see above, p. 45). The degree of this organic con- nexion betw^een old and new may, however, of course, vary according to the peculiarities of particular cases, in such a way that the predicate new is claimed for the revealed truth, now in a lower, now in a higher sense. The new apprehension, ohjedivcly regarded, may be simply the unfolding of a certain geriuinal know- ^ As regards Konig's criticism of the above (in /oc. clt., ii. pp. 217fl".), be it reniembereil that we here presuppose as proven tlic position tliat tlic hearing of the speech of God is an inner assurani;e regarding God's counsel and will. 15ut even if we accepted Konig's literalistic view, his hypothesis of an acconiinodation on the jmrt of the speaking God would have to be extended to the point reijnircd by the theory we ])refer, unless, indeed, we are content to assume that the prophet was, like a pui>il who has learnt his lesson by "mere verbal repetition," appropriating it only as a kind of unintelligible ballast to the memory, — an assumption which Konig himself expressly repudiates (p. 219). Tltc Origin of Messianic Tro'phecy. 5 7 ledge already contained in the consciousness of the prophet, only the unfolding process is not effected by the conscious exercise of his understanding and reason. At the moment of revelation he is conscious only of the result of the process as something given. He is not conscious of the development of the new truth out of those which are already his spiritual possession, and it is only afterwards, if at all, that he can, as it were, count up the items of the given total, and clear up by reflection the genetic connexion of the new with the old. But, apart from this, the organic relation of which we speak may reveal itself in the fact that the i new truth reconciles contradictory elements in the existing contents of the prophet's consciousness, or that, by, as it were, filling a gap in the complex of his prophetic intuitions, it seems to him the solution of a riddle. This is particularly the case where the new truths are not of a purely ideal character, but relate rather to the concrete facts of future history. Such truths cannot manifestly be related to the existing knowledge of the prophet in a purely genetic way, as i if the related terms were but the necessary steps in a , process of abstract reasoning. The rule ma}'- be laid ( down that in all cases in which the peculiar prophetic charisma, based as it is on the natural faculty of pre- sentiment, operates with marked prominence, the pre- dicate new is applicable to the truths enunciated in/ the higher sense. Yet even such truths can be taken up into the consciousness of the prophet only in a manner conformable with the laws of the human spirit. 58 Messianic Prophecy. Ill spite of their newness, they cannot he added to his existing knowledge in an external way, hut they must so (jroio out of it that the new shoots of spiritual impulse derive the nourishment necessary, so to speak, to their organic outfit through numerous delicate arteries from the old stem. As a vjliolc, the truth may fairly be regarded as a 7iew one ; yet, for all that, it must be possible to exhibit some genetic connexion between the individual moments of its apprehension and the apprehensions previously attained by the prophet. A mode of revelation which thus respects the nature and laws of the spiritual life seems, moreover, to be the only one worthy of God, For to assume that revelations were made to the prophets in a way that condemned their previous apprehensions of truth to absolute disuse, involves surely an unworthy conception of God. No ! — the Spirit of God is not for ever beginning His work afresh, nor is that work to be conceived as an external process of dismemberment, whose express design is continuously to set aside and conceal the inner connexions of the total truth. He rather makes it His function to develop the germs that lie concealed in existing apprehensions, to bring them by constant impulse to the point at which they shall discover their hidden treasures, and cause the new trutli organically to blossom forth from them under the reciprocal action of tliose influences wdiicli by the laws of their own life-force they exert upon one another in the natural progress of their develop- The 0rigi7i of Messianic Prophecy. 5 9 inent. It is really only a revelation of such a kind and manner that can be called worthy of God. ^ Hence it follows that the question as to the origin ■ l^ of a Messianic prophecy is answered in a truly satisfactory way only when it is shown how that origin has been psycliologically mediated, or more particularly, ivhat roots mid qerinsof it were contained in thejprevious consciousness of the prophM^_g/rjidtjixi~^>J(JiM^JU^^ organically developed from them. In dealing with any particular case we should have not only to investigate what portion of the national life the prophet, as ' In the above dissertation we have expressly noticed only the mode of revelation which we have recognised as the one that is nsual — the one that is to be presumed as having been actually employed in by far the majority of cases. It would be easy, however, to show that our exposition is in all essential respects valid even in relation to the revelations received in ecstasy or by means of visions, as indeed may be seen from what has already been indicated in regard to the pysjcjho- logical genesis of the latter (pp. 45 f. ). It would take us too far beyond the proper object of our investigation, as well as the limits of an introductory treatise like the present, to enter upon a criticism of the view of Konig (in loc. cit. ii. jip. 25-48), that in their visions the prophets saw with their bodily eyes appearances and events of the supersensible world, which God summoned before them in an external sensible way. We remark only that, on this point, he lays the chief emphasis upon the fact that, in describing their own visions, the prophets use only the verb nVdh, never chclzdh (as a finite verb or as a participle), whereas the latter word is used of the visions of the false prophets. His theory is that by this contrast between rd'dh and chdzdh the prophets meant to indicate that their own visions were a "proper seeing," whereas those of the false prophets were " as produced through a psychological medium, not a seeing in the proper sense," rather " a projection outwards of the results of a purely internal process" (p. 30). Had this really been the intention of the prophets, they wonld surely have taken care to mark the alleged contrast between 7-d'dh and chdzdh much more distinctly than they really do (Konig makes use of Ezek. 13. 3 in a way which the words do not warrant). They would not have awkwardly concealed it by using — if not the verb chdzdh itself — 60 Messianic Prophecy. occupying the highest religious standpoint attainable in liis time, lias, so to speak, absorbed into his conscious- ness through his acquaintance with the law and history of his people, with the prophecies of his predecessors, with the constitution of the theocracy, etc. "We should have to inquire also what knowledge he has of the conditions and circumstances of the time when he writes, what he has personally observed and experienced in relation to his compatriots, what acquaintance he has with the great events of history, and with the contemporary circumstances of other peoples, etc. at least its derivatives, chdzfdh, chdzon, chizzdyon, of tlie visions of the true jirophets, and, in a broader sense, of revelation in general ; and, on the other hand, by using rd'dh in an "improper" as well as a "proper" sense. Yet Kiinig himself has been at ]>ains to show that such is in both particulars the usage of the propliets (pp. .3-3 ff.). The leal state of the case is as follows : rd'dh is by its root-meaning the proper and usual prose word in ancient Hebrew for to see. The root idea of chdzdh, on the other hand, is that of the material action of xplitthui, cletivincj asunder. Hence, in a spiritual sense, it is a choicer word than rd'dh. In ancient Hebrew it is thus used mainly in poetry, or else for the sake of variety in expression, as a synonym with rd'dh (cp. Ex. 24. 10 f., Isa. 30. 10, Job 19. 26 f.). In later Hebrew, how- ever, especially in the Books of Chronicles, it is used with equal freiiuency in prose. Thus rd'dh and hir'dh were undoubtedly the words most suitable and readiest to hand to denote visions that were real in the sense of being referable to God as their author, and it is, as a rule, of such visions that we have i)rose accounts. On the other hand, chdzdh (of which there is no Hiph'il in general use) is not of itself sufficient to denote the pretentious Htlf-dectivhuj character of the visions of the false i)rophets. For this such common additions as shdv', shek-er, millihban}, etc. (vanity, falselinod, from their heart), are necessary. In sj>ite, moreover, of all that Kiinig says, the fact cannot be blinked, that the derivative ro'eh is used in Isa. 28. 7 of the visions of false Jirophets ; while, on the other hand, chozim is used in Is. 30. 10 as parallel to ro'im, and that, in words uttered by the jjrophet himself, not in those cpioted from the people, and is therefore not exclusively referable to the false prophets. The Ori(jin of Messianic I'ropliccy. 6 1 In dealing, on the other hand, with the question as to the origin of Messianic prophecy in general, the one essential matter is to perceive that the prophets were above others those members of the theocratic nation who had the law of their God in their heart (Ps. 37^ 31, Is. 51. 7, cp. Deut. 30. 14), or, to express the same thing more generally, that they before others were, so to speak, the bearers and representatives of the religion<' of Israel. And if the obvious admission be made, that the most essential element in Messianic prophecy is of an ideal as distinguished from a concrete character,v — not relating, i.e., to the details of future history, — we shall have to exhibit the requisite organic connexion between the truths revealed to the prophets and their previous religious knowledge as on the whole mainly a purely genetic one. That is to say, the revealed truths will appear in greatly preponderating measure as but the development of an already existing germinal knowledge — a development, albeit, that is not effected by the conscious . exercise of the prophet's own understanding and reason./ We must not seek to prove that this germinal knowledge belongs to the scries of those isolated prophetic utterances which have been communicated in the course of the Old Testament narrative from the so - called Proto-Evangel down to the time of the prophets. At least we must not claim that it does so exclusively or even chiefly. Historical criticism cannot find in the traditions regarding these prophetic sayings, which are preserved in the Pentateuch, a foundation for a history^ of prophecy which should reach back to the time of 62 Messianic Prophecy. tlie Patriarchs and the beginnings of the human race. In a first view it can recognise in them only a testimony to the fact that in later times and under tlie influence of prophecy certain views were formed regarding the economy of revelation which was pre- paratory to and prophetic of the kingdom of God founded in Israel. ]3ut even if a properly historical character, in the fuller sense, were rightfully claimed for these traditions, the opinion that the Messianic element in prophecy must trace its roots and first begin- nings specially to them would still be unwarranted. Were this opinion in accordance with the facts, we should necessarily expect to find in Messianic prophecy — from its beginning onwards — characteristic references to these primitive models of Divine promise. We should find points of connexion with them, echoes of them. But where shall we look for the effects on Messianic prophecy of such conceptions as that of the seed of the woman that should bruise the head of the serpent, or of the blessing of all the nations of the earth in the seed of Abraham, or of the star tliat should rise from Jacob ? The soil from which the spirit of revelation caused such conceptions to grow is manifestly much broader and more comprehensive than the contents of those isolated oracles of which tradition reported. It comprehends the general principles and fundamental trutlis of the Old Testament faith. * • A work therefore, like that of von Ouei.li's cited above, wliich ])roun.ses to exhibit OKI Testament projOiccy "in its hi.storical develop- ment," ought not to be content with the traditional mode of showing how, beginnJHg from the so-called Troto-Evangel, prophecy advances The Origin of Messianic Prophecy. 6 3 Hence our object will be to show hoiu it was both possible and necessary that the Messianic hopes andS prophecies should proceed from the inmost heart of the religion of the ancient covenant-people, — a religion founded and developed by Divine revelation. We must discover in the essence of this religion the ground of that expectant look and effo7't forwards to a glorious consummation — foreordained by the unalterable decree of God, and to be reached " in the end of the days"^ — which are so characteristic of it, and have made it, alone of the religions of antiquity, the religion of hope.^ Now it may be said in general that this ground lay in the idealism of the Old Testament religion of revela- tion. It lies, that is to say, in the fact that revelation implanted in the religious consciousness of Israel ideas ■ of such great, deep, and rich significance, that it was never possible to recognise in actual conditions and through such stages as the Blessincj of Noah, the Promises to the Patriarchs, the Blessing of Jacob (so called), the PropJiecies ofBalaatn, etc., to ever-increasing definiteness. The whole style of treatment is misleading and unhistorical. In Hengstenberg's Christology it corre- sponds indeed with the author's standpoint, whereas in von Orelli it appears only as the result of a one-sided supernaturalism, and of tradi- tional views of the authorship of the Old Testament writings, that do not harmonise with his own main positions. Cp. Stud. u. Kritik. 1883, pp. 807 ff. 1 [The Vacharith hayydmlm of Isa. 2. 2, Micah 4. 1, etc. — Tk.] ^ KtJPER (in loc. cit. pp. 48 and 55) considers the above, along with the inferences we proceed to draw from it, "likely to lead to grave misapprehensions," on the ground that it fails "to do full justice " to the objective character of Messianic prophecy. But his objection : "Prophecy is not a psychological product, but a Divine revelation," does not touch my argument, as I have not denied to prophecy the attribute of revelation. At the same time, however, I did endeavour to "do full justice " to the proposition, which even he concedes (p. 54) ; G4 Messianic Propliecy. circumstances any measurable approximation to their perfect realisation, ideas that at every stage in the development of religious life and knowledge in Israel revealed more of their proper depth and richness, and whose power thus necessarily gave to the religious life at every point of its development that peculiar direction forwards to a still future goal. The more keenly a pious Israelite realised the contradiction between the idea and the reality, — and who could be more aware of it than the prophet, distinguished by the intensity of his religious life and the wealth and purity of his reli- gious and ethical knowledge ? — the more necessarily did his faith, hope, and longing direct themselves to the future and final removal of the contradiction, and the perfect realisation of tlie idea. We have now to con- sider more minutely the most important of these ideas, that the revealinpj operations of tlie Divine Spirit maintain them- selves in harmony with the laws of the human spirit, and that therefore all revelation is psychologically mediated. Kiinig's adverse criticism (ii. pp. 303 ff.) culminates in the proposition : that God has so revealed Himself, " that there is no genetic connexion between human historical development and Divine revelation," and that "there is no ground for wonder that God has not rooted His revelation in anything human. " I content myself with the counter question : Is, then, the religion of Israel, are the fundamental truths of the Old Testament faith, something purely "huinan," to which Divine revelation can be thus absolutely opposed ? Moreover, KiJnig himself remarks incidentally that the TorcUh Yah'^veh (Law of Jehovah), announced by the prophets, is "never more than an unfolding of ancient germs" (ii. p. 335). The statement of his latest work [Die I/auptprobleme der aldsraelilischtn Ildiyionsgcschtchte, 1884, p. 41) is even more explicit — viz. that " the universalistic hopes of the religion of Israel were the natural and necessary result of the Hebrew view of the relation of God to the world ; that they, in fact, grew from it by, so to speak, the native impulse of a liciixj germ." The Origin of Messianic Prophecy . 6 5 those, viz., which are to be regarded as the germinal ideas out of which Messianic prophecy grew. In doing so we take for granted that the root thoughts of the Old Testament religion do not date merely from the era of ' prophecy, but are the fruit of the initial and funda- ^ mental revelation mediated by Moses, and belong ' therefore to the pre-prophetic period. The right to^ this assumption rests on the indisputable fact that even the oldest prophets announce these root thoughts as old truths, which were made known to the Israelites at the time of the exodus from Egypt,^ We need not, however, pause to investigate precisely the expression of them that may have been given by Moses. It is sufficient for our purpose to concentrate attention on the form they have attained when the prophets, whose Messianic utterances are before us, received them into their consciousness,^ and this we regard as something that remains essentially one and the same ; for the progressive development sought to be traced in the teaching of successive prophets, so far as it really exists, does not touch the essence of the root-thoughts them- selves, but only their form of presentation,^ ^ On this cp. Smend, Ueber die von den Propheten des 8 Jahr- hunderts vorausgetietzte Entwiclcelungstufe der israelitischen Beligion, in Stud. II. Kritih, 1876, Pt. 4, esp. pp.' 622 ff. ;Konig in^c. dt. ii. pp. 334-347 ; and his work, Die Hauptprohleme der (dtisraelitschen Reli- gionsgeschichte gegenilher den Entivickelungstheoretihern beleuchttt, Leipzig 1884. - The want of unanimity as to the literary origin of the Pentateuch, in particular, as to the date of the so-called Grundschrift (Original or Primi- tive Document), is therefore to us a matter of subordinate importance. ^ With this verdict Reuss agrees, Die Geschichte der heiligen Schriften Alten Tesfamenfes, 1881, p. 316. E G6 Messianic Prophecy. There are three ideas which, above others, demand ^ our special attention : the idea of the Covenant, the n immediately related idea of the Kingdom of God, and, as the germ of Messianic prophecy in the narrower sense, the idea, not indeed Mosaic, yet still pre-pro- ^ phetic, of the Theocratic Kinrjship. I. The idea of the covenant on which Jehovah entered Avith Israel is the fundamental and principal idea of the entire Old Testament religion. It is the centre to which the sum - total of Israel's faith and religious knowledge is uniformly referred. It governs the consideration and presentation of the entire history of Israel, and, indeed, of the prehistoric period, back to the very beginnings of the human race, and it is the % root-thought of prophecy. An attempt has, indeed, been made of late to prove that while the older pro- phets (Amos, Isaiah, Micah) recognise the existence of a special relation of Israel to Jehovah, they have not yet begun to regard this relation as that of a covenant, and that only shortly before the Exile, in consequence probably of the solemn acceptance by Josiah and the people of the Deuteronomic law-book, the idea of the covenant that prevails in Deuteronomy, in Lev, 17-26, in tlie Book of the Eour Covenants,^ — the so-called Primi- tive Document of the Pentateuch, — and is assumed by the prophets Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the Deutero-Isaiah, was advanced to a central position in the religious ' [Tliis document is now more ,£;oncrally known as the Priestly Code. See Appendi.x A, Note IV. — Tk.] The Origin of Messianic Prophecy. 67 consciousness/ It must perhaps be conceded that the practice of designating the relation between Jehovah and His people by the term covenant became usual with the prophets only with the commencement of the Deuteronomic period." Still we must remember that the word occurs in this sense even in Hosea^ and in some of tlie admittedly elder portions of the Penta- teuch/ Above all, it must be borne in mind that the separate elements of the conception of the relation of Jehovah to Israel, which have received a comprehen- sive expression in the term Ifrith (covenant), including the circumstances, that the relation depended upon the obedience of Israel, and yet was not wholly remov- able on God's side, can not only be traced in the pages of both the elder and the eldest prophets, but also belong to what they designate as truth that had been announced as early as the time of the exodus from Egypt/ It is sufficient for our purpose briefly to unfold the significance of the covenant idea in its most essential elements. As an element of fundamental importance we emphasise, first of all, the fact that, though the cove- nant is, in idea, a compact-relation, involving a reci- ^ Cf. Wellhaitsen, Oexcldchte Isradn, i. 1878, pp. 434 f., amlPro?e- ijomtna zur Geschichte Israeh, 1883, pp. 442 f. [Eng. Trand. p. 402.] - Cp. on this GuTHE, De. foederis notione Jeremiana, Leipzig 1877, esp. pp. 10 fF. » Hos. 6. 7, 8. 1. 4 E.g. Ex. 19. 5, 24. 7 f. ■' Cp. Keuss, Die Geschichte dvr h. Schriften Allen Testamentes, pp. 322 and 324 ; KoNiG in loc. cit. ii. pp. 338 tf. , and in the work, Die Hauptprohleme, etc., pp. 84 f . ; Bredenkamp, Gesetz und Propheten, 1881, pp. 21 ff. Even Guthe (in loc. cit.) admits that by his nse of the term l/rith Jeremiah has not imported any essentially new element into tlie conception of the relation of Jehovah to Israel. 68 Messianic Prophcc?/. procity of obligations, still the mutual obligations have been fixed wholly by the one side, viz. by Jehovah in the exercise of His unconditioned freedom and inde- pendence. Jehovah therefore is the sole Founder of the )H covenant. Tliis is a view which is deeply rooted in Israel's consciousness of God, and which notoriously has stamped itself upon the phraseology commonly employed to denote the establishment of the covenant- relation/ Tlie foundation, therefore, of the conscious- ness of Israel, as regards his peculiar relation to God, is the belief that Jeliovah, tlie Lord of the world, has in the absolute freedom of His gracious will chosen Israel from among all the peoples of the earth to be His peculiar people (Ex. 19. 5, Amos ?>. 2). Now undoubtedly tliere is a view which pervades all the rentateuch traditions, and occupies, besides, an im- portant place in the consciousness of the prophets (cp. even Isa. 29. 22, Micah 7. 20), to the effect that the progressive fulfilment of this elective decree dates from the first beginnings of history, being prepared for by the gradual separation of Israel from otlier peoples, and specially by the relation of peculiar intimacy on which God entered with the patriarchs. All the Pen- tateuch traditions, moreover, tell of prophetic announce- ments of tliis decree in the form of Divine promises made to Abraham and his posterity, and confirmed to the succeeding patriarchs ; ^ and the designation, in ' Cp. Okhlek, Theoloijie des Alien Tesitamentes, § 80. - Cp., on the one hand (Elohistic), Gen. 17. 7 f., 28. 3 f., 35. 11 f.; on the other (Jehovistic), Gen. 12. 2 f., 13. 14 fl"., 18. 18 f., 22. 16 If., 26. 3 ff., 28. 3 f. The Origin of Messianic Prophecy. 6 9 the Jehovistic document, of Jehovah as the " God of Shem" (Gen. 9. 26), in the blessing of Noah, is meant to mark His future relation to Israel. Still it is only in the redemptive act of the deliver- ance from Egypt that the elective decree attains its full accomplishment. This is an experience of the redeeming might and grace of Jehovah whicli is national and historical, and it results from it that the word of God, mediated by Moses, becomes, throughout the continuance of the Old Covenant, the foundation of Israel's confidence that Jehovah is his God, and that he himself is Jehovah's peculiar people, whom He has separated from other peoples and won for Himself (Ex. 15. 16, 2 Sam. 7. 23 f.). The redemption from Egyptian bondage occupies thus in the religious consciousness of Israel the place which in our Christian consciousness belongs to God's deed of redemption through Jesus Christ.^ On the basis of this deliverance and of the law announced at Mount Sinai, the covenant between Jehovah and Israel is definitely fixed (Ex. 6. 2-8, 19. 4 ff., 24. 3 ff.). It is a covenant with the people as a whole, for God's deliverance was a national experience, and the indi- vidual Israelite is in covenant with his God in the first instance only in so far as he is a member of the nation. 1 It may be called to mind that even Old Testament prophecy expressly institutes a parallel between the Messianic deeds of salva- tion and the deliverance from Egypt and entrance into the holy land, regarding the former as the second, higher and fuller realisa- tion of what was signified by the election of the ancient covenant- people (cp. e.cj. Isa. 10. 26, 11. 1. 16, chap. 12, Micah 7. 15, Jer. 23. 6 ff., chap. 31, Isa. 65. 9, etc.). 70 Messianic Prophecy. In consequence of the election and tlie covenant, y ' Jehovah is the God of Israd. This hy no means implies merely that Israel shall worship and obey Him alone, as his national God. It implies also that He will be what He is in particular for Israel, i.e. that He will reveal Himself to Israel as the living God, in His holiness, in the fulness of His power, and the riches of His grace. To this people it nmst be made evident how merciful and gracious, long-suffering and of great grace and truth, He is, yet how hostile to all evil. To no other people does He so show Himself as God ; other peoples are indeed made aware of His Divine power and holiness, but not in the first instance by His becoming their helper and redeemer, but either by His using them for the accomplishment of His decrees regarding Israel, or by His visiting them with judgment for Israel's sake. His whole revelation on earth is thus directly only a revelation made to Israel and for his advantage. The beginning of this gracious revelation of Jehovah as the God of Israel is the Exodus, which is thus the event of fundamental importance,^ but its continuation is the fact that Jehovah dirclls among His people,- and when He has put them in possession of the promised land. He reigns among them as their present King. Israel is made aware of His gracious presence and government by the feeling of security, freedom, and independence, ^ Cp. Jehovah's self-designation in the preface to the Ten Words, Ex. 20. 2, and passages like Lev. 19. 36, Ex. (i. « f.. 20. 4(1. and many others. ••' Ex. 29. 45, Lev. 26. 11 f., Ezek. 37. 27. The Origin of Messianic Tro'pliccy. 71 by the vincibility of enemies, by the peaceful posses- sion of his appointed territory, by rapid numerical increase, by wise social arrangements, by material wealth — specially by the rich productivity of the land, by protection from plagues and other national calamities—in short, by his national prosperity and greatness. Yet all this is but the outer side of the higher blessing of salvation vouchsafed to this people ; they are near to the living God, can come to Him and inquire of Him, receive from Him the most righteous laws and ordinances of life, are constantly directed by His Spirit and word through chosen organs, and are heard when they call upon Him, It is by this that Israel is distinguished above all the peoples of the earth (Ex. 33. 16, Deut. 4. 7 f.). As the people who are near to God, and can come near, they have the dignity and the privilege of a priestly people (Ex. 19. 6).i On the other hand, however, God as the Holy One can enter on this alliance with Israel only in such a way as to preserve — even in relation to Israel — His holiness, i.e. His sublime transcendence and His stainless purity. He must, so to speak, sublimate His chosen and peculiar people into the sphere ot His holiness. He must lift them out of their natural connexion with the profane, impure Gentile world, who serve false gods. The opposition of His holy ^ It is not, however, implied in the expi'ession mamlekheth kohdnim (kingdom of priests), as used in Ex. 19. 6, that Israel, as a priestly- people, exercises the mediatorial function of representing humanity before God. 72 Messianic Prophecy. being to the " no-Gods " of the heathen, and to the impurity associated with their worship, must find its earthly antitype in tlie separateness of Israel from all other peoples. As the Sanctifier,^ therefore (m^kaddesh), Jehovah constitutes Israel a holy people (Ex. 19. 6, Lev. 20. 26). In this way there is established no mere external distinction, but rather mainly an inward separateness of the Israelitish nationality fiom that of other peoples. Their whole political constitution bears an impress distinct from that of other States ; "^ the life of the people as a whole is otherwise ordered and shaped from the fact that it is placed exclusively under the determining influence of the holy will of Jehovah. This peculiar holiness of Israel is primarily a Divine endowment — a character impressed upon him by God. Yet in it Israel's problem and destiny are set before him. For the whole mutual relation of Jehovah and Israel is made dependent upon the condition that Israel hear the voice of Jehovah and keep His covenant (Ex. 19. 5). By making allowance, in this way, for the reciprocity of obligation implicit in the idea of a covenant, the Old Testament creed does justice to human freedom — in particular, to the truth that in His relation to men God does not, as in the kingdom of nature, set all things in motion by the sole instrumentality of all-pervading force, but leaves room for human freedom. The kingdom of God 1 Ex. 31. 13, Lev. 20. 8, 21. 8, 22. 16. 32, Ezek. 20. 12, 37. 28 as compared with Lev. 21. 15. 23, 22. 9, Num. 8. 17. - Cp. the complaint of Lsaiah (2. 6-8). The Origin of Messianic Projjliecy. *73 founded in Israel bears an ethical character. Israel has to keep the character of holiness that has been vouchsafed to him ; by faithfulness and obedience to his God and King he must remain a people distinct from the heathen peoples. He is under obligation to keep himself as pure and free as possible from everything, that would tend to the dishonour of the holy God, to Whom he is allied, and with Whom he has intercourse, from physical impurities,^ as well as from ethical stain.^ And the requirement : " Ye shall be holy, for I am holy," has no mere negative signifi- cance ; it is a summary of the entire legislation."^ Judged by its inmost essence, the latter is nothing less than the revelation of the ethical perfection of God, as appears in the form of the demand, Isa. 2. 5, which implies that the light of the law is the reflected light of Jehovah, and its design is so to shape the national life of Israel, that it will exhibit an ever-increasing resemblance to the holiness of God, and Israel becomes thus in the full sense of the words a goi hdclhOsh, or holy nation. While, therefore, the covenant relation would be unreal and inefficacious unless there were — corre- sponding to the gracious end of the Divine election — the experience that Jehovah is Israel's God, and^ Israel His holy peculiar people, this experience is at every moment conditioned by the fulfilment on the part of the people of the stipulations of the covenant. On no other terras can Jehovah prove Himself Israel's 1 Lev. 11. 44, 20. 26 ; cp. 21. 8. " Lev. 19. 2, Amos 2. 7 ff. 3 Lev. 19. 2 ; Num. 15. 40. 74 Mcsdanic Prophecy. God and Saviour. So emphatically is this the case, that, to meet the case of unfaithfulness and covenant-breaking, there is held out the threat of a withdrawal of all prospective blessings, and of a series of severe punitive judgments, culminating in the scattering of Israel among the heathen. For the very intimacy of the relation on which God has entered with Israel, carries with it the certainty that His jealous anger at the slighting of His holy majesty and the profanation of His holy name will visit none so surely as His own erring people.^ As, however, Israel could not cooperate with Jehovah in the institution of the covenant, it must be correspondingly impossible that the continuance of the latter should be altogether dependent upon the attitude of the covenant -people. Tlie pre- servation of the covenant, as well as its initial establishment, must be preeminently the concern of Jehovah. The decree of election once ixisscd, can neither be as though it had not been, nor yet can it be made of none effect,'^ because of Israel's unfaith- fulness and the judgments which it entails. The promises which God made in early times to the people, particularly to the fathers of the nation, cannot be annulled through the guilt of one generation, or even of several generations, nor can the purpose of grace, for whose realisation Israel was chosen, be stultified. For God is not a man that He should repent ; " hath He said, and shall He not do it ? or 1 Lev. 10. 3. Josh. 24. 19 f., Amos 2. 3. - Iiik/i of the Old Covenant and its theocracy, — a contradiction 1 1 Kin<;.s 19. 18, HiU>. 1. 13. -Cp. e.fj. I's. 31. 1, 71. 2, 1-20. 4. ' For passages illustratiuj? in detail tlii.s a.spect of the Divine riglitpousiiess, i.e. as vindicating tlic peculiar rights of the covenant |>L'(ipli-, sL'c esp. Isa. chaps. 40-06, e.g. 41. 10 ff. The Origin of Messianic Prophecy, 79 which came progressively to the consciousness of pious and enlightened Israelites along with the development and deepening of religious knowledge and life. The first point does not require further illustration of a special kind. For the very idea of the covenant, as we have developed it, implies that in times of defection, and of judgments already present or even only in prospect, the eyes of all in whose hearts the Old Testament faith was alive were necessarily turned to the coming better time, in which God's purpose of grace concerning Israel should really be accomplished. However great might be the defection, and however severe the judgment, the election of Israel, the unchangiDg faithfulness of God, His holiness and His righteousness remained ever the firm pillars of the confident expectation that nevertheless, in the end, a day of redemption would dawn for the people of God, — a time of salvation in which Israel should participate in the full blessing of covenant communion. The other point requires a somewhat more minute consideration. We have remarked above (p. 69) that the covenant was one made with the people as a whole, and that the individual was in the first instance in covenant with God only in so far as he was a member of the nation. Now the progress of the development ^ of the Old Testament religion in the time of prophecy consists in general in this : that on the basis of the common consciousness of the nation in regard to its special relation to God, a relation of personal love and trust, experienced by pious individual Israelites 80 Mcmanic Frcyphccy. towards the God of Israel, steadily develops itself, and by the intercourse of prayer with God M'ins increasingly iiu independent significance. The God of Israel ^ becomes tlieir God, not merely in so far as they are Israelites, but also in so far as they carry within /themselves the consciousness of a personal reciprocal relation of possession in each other as between God and themselves. The covenant-grace becomes a love and faithfulness of God to individual suppliants, wliich are a matter of personal experience witnessed ill the heart. It was a necessary consequence of this development of the subjective religious life, that it became ever a matter of clearer consciousness and .stabler conviction, that the idea of the covenant was realised only in a very imperfect way in the theocracy founded by Moses, and that it set before the nation of Israel a goal that was still far distant, but the attainment of which, as its Divine calling and destiny, was as certain in the long run as the Divine decree of election.^ To be sure, God dwelt in the sanctuary in the midst of His people, revealed Himself to them by word and deed, and led them by His Spirit. Israel was a priestly people, near to his God, having fellowship and converse with Him. But as the theocracy was in the first instance only, so to speak, an external State of God founded on the natural basis of Hebrew nation- ality, and as membership among the people of Jehovah •' was involved in the mere fact of physical descent from ^ the chosen stock, the implied relation of communion ^ Sec Apiieiulix A, Note Y. The Origin of Messianic Prophecy. 81 could be primarily, and for the people as a whole, only an external one, and one, to boot, that was tied to the mediation of the Levitical priesthood. The idea that Israel is a priestly people, has for the individual member of the nation in reality only a very limited applicability. Circumcision and the tassels on the fringe of his garment^ are indeed for every Israelite the external signs of his belonging to God, and of his priestly dignity. Furthermore, he exercises his priestly calling at the yearly renewal of covenant-fellowship in the feast of the Passover.^ In Sabbaths and feasts he draws near to his God, and at the peace-offering meal he rejoices thankfully in the external completion of his fellowship with God. Yet it is only into the forecourt of the dwelling-place of his God that he dare come ; from the Sanctuary itself he is shut out. Only there in reverential distance may he worship a God who is enthroned in the darkness of the Holy of holies, and only by priestly mediation can he bring his offerings to his God. Thus the very ordinances of the external intercourse of worship between Israel with his God contained a reminder of the fact that the covenant communion with God was by no means, as yet, perfect or final. — To pious Israelites, however, this ceremonial intercourse with Jehovah was, by the mere fact of its externality, unsatisfactory ; it could not in their eyes be what was intended in the covenant and the election. 1 Num. 15. 37 ff. - Cp. HUPFELD, Comment, de primitiva d vera festorum apud Hebraeos ratione, etc, i. pp. 22 ff. F 82 Messianic Prophecij. Every godly man, who carried the law of his God in his heart/ and had his delight in the commands of Jehovah, which make wise, rejoice the heart, and refresh the soul, every one wlio in any degree knew from his own intimate experience how the God of grace and salvation enlightens and leads even the individual by His Holy Spirit,- how inwardly near to Him His accepted suppliants come, how He hears and answers them when they call upon Him, and what bliss it is to be able to call God his inheritance and his portion, would necessarily recognise in this inv:ardness of communion with his God what is most of all essential to the realisation of the idea of the covenant. And it lay in the nature of the case that the more the contrast between the scant company of the truly godly and the party of the worldly-minded came to be emphasised, the more did the difference of inward attitude to God tend to bring about a division within the circle of the covenant-i)eople, and the more also in consequence did mere physical membership in the covenant-nation, and the outward ritual intercourse with Jehovah necessarily tend, in the consciousness of the godly, to recede in siguiticance and worth behind this truer blessing of inward fellowship and intercourse by prayer with God. It was not in present condi- tions and circumstances when so many had forgotten God, and thought not of His commandment, that the godly could recognise the fulfilment of the Divine intention in the election and the covenant, but only in 1 Vs. 37. 31, Isa. 51. 7. » Cp. e.resented by all its individual members, that inward living personal fellowship with God which they themselves enjoyed. It was their part, therefore, to await in lively faith in Israel's election, and in love to their people, their God, and His Kingdom, the coming time when the gracious intention of the electing God should be fully accom- plislied upon the entire elect community by the establishment of the true inward covenant-fellowshijD, mediated by the enlightening and sanctifying opera- tion of the Spirit of God. It deserves in this connection to be specially noted that the formula of Divine promise in the Pentateuch — of particularly frequent occurrence in the so-called Primitive Document — W^hdylthi Idchem le'lohim ^ (and I will be to you a God), or, more fully : WVidyithi Idchem le'lohim., whittem tUc^yu-li l^'dm - (and I will be to you a God, and ye shall be [j to Me a people), is used by those prophets, whose / language has come to reflect a more minute acquaint- ance with the written law, not only in the same sense,^ i.e. as initiating the covenant, but also, and mainly, to designate the relation between Jeliovah and Israel which is to exist in the perfect time^ — a t distinct testimony that the Messianic salvation is 1 Geu. 17. 7 f., Ex. 6. 7, 29. 45, Lev. 11. 45, 22. 33, 25. 38, 26. 45, Num. 15. 41. " Lev. 26. 12. ^ j^i.^ ;_ 23, 11. 4. < Jer. 24. 7, 30. 22, 31. 1, 32. 38, Ezek. 11. 20, 14. 11, 34. 24, 36. 28, 37. 23. 27, Zech. 2. 11, 8. 8 ; cp. Zech. 13. 9. 84 Messianic Prophecij. apprehended consciously and clearly as tlie full realisation of the idea of the covenant. l)Ut even the inward relation of fellowship, proper '''to tlie ,^odly Israelite, was not without repeated painful disturbance and obscuration. For, firstly, it was not simply love to his people, or the keen sense of community with them, that made him sensible of the wrath of God at the unfaithfulness of his people ; he felt it at the same time as a disturbance and /T obscuration of his 'pc^'^onal communion with God. For the undermost ground of his certainty of personal acceptance with God was no other than the conscious- / ness of Israel's election, and every suspension of the covenant-grace from the people tended necessarily to obscure more or less his personal standing of grace. Hence the pitiful complaints that God has cast away His people from before His face, which we hear in the time of the Exile, and which reveal a deep sense of being forsaken by God in the hearts of the godly. ]>ut, secondly, the blissful fellowship with God, en- joyed by devout souls, was also liable to obscnration -^through their own sin — and that, the more their knowledge of the will of God w\as deepened, and the greater in consequence seemed the conditions of covenant fellowship demanded by Him, Deepened knowledge of God meant a deepened sense of sin and guilt. They could indeed attain a firm and joyful certainty of the forgiveness of their sins (Ps. 32); yet not — at least not since the deepening of religious life during the period of prophecy — by the offering of the The Origin of Messianic Pj^ophccy. 85 Old Testament sacrifices of atonement, rather by their I firm faith in the sin-forgiving grace of God. Tor both the haw and the prophets attest the gospel contained in the proclamation : " The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and al)undant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, and transgression, and sin.^ This sin-forgiving grace of God had not as yet, however, manifested itself in a really sufficient way. Belief in it had not as yet a secure foundation in fact, or one that sufficed for every case. If in times of trial and doubt the need of falling back on some such fact-foundation made itself felt, there was nothing to which Old Testament faith could recur but just Israel's election and his previous history ; and the decider the sense of sin, the less did this foundation seem sufficient. Hence the certainty of attained forgiveness could not be either perfect or always present. In timid, shrinking hearts, and in hours of trial, the longing for it frequently remained perforce unsatisfied, and so it came about that the godly minority of the Old Covenant longed and hoped for a relation of personal communion with God such as could be perfect only in a future time, when their sin should be removed by a perfect forgiveness, and every fresh obscuration of their joy in God and the blissful 1 Ex. 34. 7, Num. 14. 18, Isa. 1. 18, 55. 7, Micah 7. 18. The gracious words of this self-designation are echoed throughout the entire Old Testament— cp. Ex. 34. 6, 33. 19, Joel 2. 13, Nah. 1. 3, Jonah 4. 2 ; Ps. 86. 15, 103. 8, 111. 4, 145. 8, 2 Chron. 30. 9, Neh. 9. 17. 81. 80 Messianic Prophecy. sense of His nearness should be prevented by some mightier and more lasting operation of the Spirit of (}od on their heart. This hope, however, accorded precisely with the Divine intention of Israel's election. For it was involved in the covenant - promise that God would manifest His divine attributes to Israel by becoming 4 his Redeemer and Saviour. With the knowledge of the need for salvation, there grow a corresponding * knowledge of God as Saviour, as well as an insight into His purpose of grace and the design of His kingdom. It became therefore necessarily a matter of increasingly clear apprehension to the godly men of the Old Covenant, that if Jehovah was to be in the full sense Israel's God, and Israel His people, there must he in prospect a revelation of His glorij far outshining all ^2^revious 'inanifcstations — some neiv and great deed of grace and scdvation — something to remove the barrier to full and lasting covenant-fellowship — in short, an .^operation of His sin-forgiving grace, which shoxdd do away with sin fully and for ever. They became always the more assured that God must one day take up His abode in the midst of His people in some ^wholly different and far more glorious way than hitherto. Every one — did he but belong to the people of God — should be truly near to Him, and should participate in the priestly right of immediate inter- course with Him. All, from the least even to the greatest, should see His glory and be acquainted with Him. And to bring about this result, He Himself The Origin of Messianic Prophecy. 87 must circumcise the heart of His people, that they might be able to love their God with their whole heart and soul ; ^ He Himself must put His law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts ;2 He must put within them a new heart and a new spirit — even His own, and thus constrain them to walk in His commandments.'^ In the sphere of the present there was for the Israelite no equivalent to this hope comparable with that which met his eye in the phenomenon of j^roj^/icc^Z-JU- Not even the priesthood witnessed an operation of the Spirit of God upon men so immediate and so powerful, for it implied no such relation of confidential intimacy* — no such constant and lively intercourse with God. In prophecy, however, he could feel — what the prophet himself, of course, in virtue of his peculiar experience felt most of all — that there was the distinctest possible presentation of the goal which, in virtue of his election, Israel should one day attain. "^ Only then is the people of God what it is meant to be, only then is the idea of the covenant completely realised, when the Spirit of God shall have been poured out no longer merely upon individual and select organs, but upon the whole people, — thus fulfilling the early expressed ideal of Moses,^ that all 1 Deut, 30. 6. 2 jer. 31. 33. 3 Jer. 32. 39, Ezek. 11. 19 f., 36. 26 f. ^ Amos 3. 7. ® In the remarkable narrative Num. 11. 16 ff., cp. esp. ver. 29 : "Would God that all the Lord's people were prophets, and that the Lord would put His Spirit upon them ! " Cp. also the familiar passages: Joel 2. 28 f., Ezek. 39. 29, Isa. 54. 13, etc. 88 Messianic Prophecy. should Be prophets — pupils of Jehovah, ruled by His Spirit. — It was, moreover, just this jiresentation — in . the fact of prophecy — of the goal whicli Israel should attain that led to the further perception, that, in virtue of his election, Israel had the same Divine calling to fulfil towards humanity which the prophets had to fulfil within the chosen circle, and that in some future day he would accomplish his mission as the /'Servant of Jehovah, equipped with tlie Divine Spirit, and entrusted with the proclamation of the word of God. This perception, as is well known, is elaborated with wonderful clearness and in most many - sided intensely significant detail in the prophecies of the " Great Unknown," Isa. chaps. 40-6 G. With this point we need not concern ourselves further here. Enoucjh has been said to show that the root-idea of the Old (Testament religion, the idea, viz., of the covenant, was a living germ and motive-power of Messianic prophecy ; and how, on the one hand, every present or prospective judgment of vengeance upon Israel, and on the other every growth in religious knowledge and every deepen- ing of religious life — in particular, every deepening of the yearning for salvation — necessarily tended to pro- duce from this germ the expectation of fresh revelations and deeds of grace, by which in the last days God should conduct His chosen people to their great destiny. II. We turn now to the second idea — closely related to its predecessor — which falls to be considered as one of the principal germs of Messianic prophecy, viz. the Tlic Origin of Messianic Prophecy. 8 9 4^idea of the Kingdom of God. Jehovah is the King of His people ; as in the sphere of nature all is subject unconditionally to His will, so also is it ordained that His will should he the all-determining norm in the Kingdom which He has erected for Himself in the midst of the people Israel. All the circumstances of His subjects, all their relations to one another, are 'controlled by Him ; all legal ordinances are l)y Him established ; every subject must in obedience to his God and King observe them as holy. In the Kingdom of God right is not to be over- borne by violence or artful stratagem, nor are the social weal and peace to be disturbed, nor, in general, are injustice and crime to be suffered.^ It is to be a kingdom in which " mercy and truth are met together,^ righteousness and peace have kissed each other;'"- and that it should be, and remain, and always become more so, is the aim of the Kingly regimen of God. For as King He is very specially also Judge,^ just as even in the case of the human king the exercise of the judicial office is a main part of the work of his calling.* As Judge He makes it His task to uphold ^ The opinion suggested by Vatke {Bibl. Theol. i. pp. "207 ff. , 260 fif., 476 ff.), and shared by Wellhatjsen, Stade, and others, that the conception of the Kingdom of God is a simple reflex of the exist- ing human kingdom, is, as Bertheau rightly remarks {Buck der Richter, 2nd ed. on Judg. 8. 23), refuted even by the Song of Deborah : cp, also Ex. 15. 18, Dent. 33. 5, There can be no question, however, in any case, but that tlie idea of the Kingdom of Jehovah occupies a central place in the religious consciousness of the prophets. 2 Ps. 85. 10. 3 Deut. 10. 17 f., Ps. 96. 10, 89. 14, 97. 2. * Cp. e.fj. 2 Sam. 15. 4, 1 Kings 3. 9. 1(0 Messianic Prophecy. equitable order and the autliority of His law in His *r kingdom, to protect all — in a special degree, however, the poor and the needy — in their rights, to waive every violent transgressor back within the confines of right, to make evil-doers harmless by frustration of their plans, and by punishment, and by His judgments extirpate the incorrigible from His Kingdom. But here also the actual conditions and circumstances were in glaring contradiction to the idea. We know how fre([uently the censures of the prophets are specially directed against the covetous violence of the powerful and the venality of the judges, and iiow often in the Psalms the " afflicted " must cry to God for help, because as persons w^ithout either protection or rights, they are given over to their powerful persecutors. Too often in the kingdom, that w^as designed to be a kingdom of righteousness, the reins of power were in the hands of evil-doers ; too often must those wlio were " quiet in the land " ^ learn by bitter experience liow little, as yet, the Kingdom of God was a kingdom "^ of peace ; in actually existing conditions and circum- stances the Kingly government of Crod was still but faintly visible. How natural, therefore, the yearning and hope for a time in which the wicked should no longer be able to disturb the righteous ordinances and the peace of the Kingdom of God ! How natural the confident expectation that in some future time / Jehovah Himself would take over and conduct in a far more perfect manner the Kingly government of His ^ Vs. 35. 20. The Origin of Messianic rrophccy. 9 1 'pco'plc, so as to suppress all crime, and bring His King- dom into entire conformity with its ideal ! ^ Here also, however, the contradiction between idea and reality was inherent in the very nature and character of the Old Testament theocracy itself. It was a natural kingdom of God, lying within the narrow bounds of the land of Canaan, and confined to the chosen people Israel. Only within these bounds was Jehovah known and worshipped ; only here did His royal will attain, at least in the better times, recogni- tion and accomplishment. At the most, the influence of His regimen did not extend beyond some tributary neighbours, whom it affected only in a limited degree. And yet Jehovah, the God of Israel, is the only true God, and all the gods of other peoples are dead nothings ; ^ to Him alone therefore all honour and ^ worship are due ; to Him every knee should bow, and every tongue swear.^ As Creator of heaven and earth, Israel's King is also King and Lord of the whole earth,* tlie King of all kings, and the Lord of all lords ; ^ therefore all peoples should serve Him and obey His commandment. As with His kingly, so with His judicial office ; it also extends over the whole earth,*^ and hence most frequently the " earth," the " world," the " peoples," the " nations," '' are named as the object 1 Cp. e.g. Isa. 24. 23, 52. 7, Micah 4. 7. - Cp. Deut. 4. 35. 39, 32. 39 et passim. ^ jsa. 45. 23. * Josh. 3. 11. 13, Ps. 47. 7, Ex. 19.«5, Ps. 24. 1, etc. 5 Deut. 10. 17. 6 Cp. Gen. 18. 25. ^ Cp. DiESTEL, "Die Idee der Gereelitigkeit im Al ten Testament," in tlie Jahrbikhcriifur deutsche Theologie, v. 1860, pp. 17G f. 92 Messianic Prophecy. of His judicial activity, and even His judgment of Israel is commonly represented as a judgment of the world. Hence also the legal ordinances of His Kingdom must come into force everywhere on earth, and by His judicial activity righteousness and peace must be secured among all peoples. It belonged essentially to the idea of God, prevalent among his countrymen, that the Israelite should claim the whole earth as the kingdom of his God. For this idea con- tained from the first the power of lifting its possessor above the initial particularism of the Old Testament religion ; in it lay the fertile germ of the knowledge that in the time of its accomplishment in the future, the theocracy must become a universal monarchy of T Jehovah, embracing all peoples. The development of this germ might indeed for a time be kept back by the power exercised upon religious perceptions by tlie nationalistic constitution of the existing theocracy, and by the sharp contrast in which at first Israel was required to stand to other peoples ; l)ut with the actual development of the idea of God it necessarily con- tinued to acquire fresh strength, until at last, breaking through its envelope of national particularism, it yielded for sprouts and blossom the Messianic prophecy, that " in the end of the days " all peoples should know Jehovah and submit themselves to His law, and that by His kingly government and judicial activity an end should be put to all war, and the icliok earth hecomc a V kingdo7ii of jjcacc} This result was all the more ^ Tlie universalistic tendency proper to the OKI Testament religion, The Origin of Messianic Prophecy. 9 3 inevitable from the circumstance that the Israelite possessed a full and clear consciousness of the linity of the humein race. Though he felt compelled to regard the heathen world as a massa pcrditionis, forgotten of God/ defiled by the abominations (to'ehhoth) of their filths (shikkntsim) of worship,^ and ready for the exter- minating stroke of the Divine vengeance,^ his belief in the one God, who sends forth His Spirit to give life and breath to all people upon earth, prevented him from drawing a line of absolute delimitation within humanity. Thus, with unmistakable significance, both stories of the Creation place one human pair in the beginning of the history of the human race. Eve is so called because she is the " mother of all living, " * and all the nations known to the Israelites in the time of the writer of Gen. 1 0 are traced back to the three sons of Noali, Were the interest involved in such an assertion one that concerned merely physical descent, we should see in it only a comparatively insignificant historical conception. In reality, however, the interest is rather an ethico-religious one : the essential matter even in its infancy, is a peculiarity that is inseparable from its character of revelation, and that distinguishes it from all other religions of antiquity. The latter are indeed much more particvilar- istic. Tiiey allow, of course, other religions to exist peacefully along- side of themselves, or even, it may be, borrow elements from them. l>ut this toleration results simply from the circumstance that they rest entirely upon a national foiuidation. Their national gods profess neither the power nor the desire to claim recognition from other ]iooples as the only gods. It is notoriously only Buddhism which in :iny degree shares the universalism of the Old Testament religion. . 1 Ps. 9. 17. - Isa. 35. 8, Ezra 6. 21 9. 11. 3 Jer. 10. 25, Ps. 79. 6. * Gen. 3. 20. 94 Messianic Propheci/. is that tall men — without dilTerence of tribe or nationality — owe their origin to one and the same decree of creation, to one and the same creative act of the Divine will ; and that therefore the nobility of human nature, the csscniial relation of humanity to God (the " image of God "), the high destiny of man in the intention of the Creator, that he should rule over the earth and enter on terms of fellowship and intercourse with his God, is something common to them all. The Old Testament itself indicates this ethico-religious kernel with sufficient clearness when, for example, in Gen. 5. 3, cp. ver. 1, in the account of the Jirst ^ birth special prominence is given to the trutli, that thus the image of God went on to transmit itself, the effect of which is to draw attention to the implication that all men are traceable to tlie first man, who was created in the image of God ; or when, again. Gen. 9. 5 f. expresses the sacredness and inviol- ability of human life in general, postulating at the same time the fundamental truth that man is created in the image of God; or yet again, when the bloorl relationship of all men or their derivation from one and the same Creator is made the motive that ought to induce the fulfilment of the duties of mercy and neighbourliness towards inferiors.- But if tliu historical conception of the descent of all human beings from one pair contains this ethico - religious kernel,"' 1 I.e. according to the Prbnilive Document. - Cp. e.g. Isa. 58. 7, Prov. 14. 31, 17. 5, Job 31. \b, etc. •* To this kernel let those be referred who arc afraid that th(> eoni- bincd efforts of philological and historical iiKiuiry on the one liainl, The Origin of Messianic Prophecy. 95 there must have been in the consciousness of thej Israelite but a step between it and the perception,! that in accordance with its destination all humanity would one day attain the knowledge of the true God, serve Him in His Kingdom, live in His fellowship, and have converse with Him, for only thus could there be fully attained — what the Old Testament everywhere regards as the last end of the creation and history of the world — the honour and glory of God Himself. To the question, In ivhat 'precise v:ay the Kingdom of God vjould become a universal monarchy, emhracing allf peoples, the idea of the covenant supplied an answer. How can the one living God reveal His properly Divine attributes to Israel, and yet fail to attract the notice of the nations whose gods are dead nothings ? Shall the fact that the accomplishment of His counsel con- cerning Israel remains at once the centre-point and the goal of God's government of the world, fail to the last to direct the attention of the Gentiles to what He does in and for His people ? How were such a result conceivable in presence of such facts as : that Assyria, with her schemes of conquest, is only an instrument in His hand ;^ or that the mighty Nebuchadnezzar is but and of physiology on the other, may possibly establish the conelu.siou that the human race could not have spread itself over the earth from one starting-point. The kernel of ethico-religions truth would remain unafiected by such a result. This full and clear consciousness, more- over, of the unity and homogeneousness of the human race is another of those peculiarities of the Old Testament religion which distinguish it from all the other religions of auticjuity. 1 Isa. 10. 5. 15. 96 Messianic Prophecy. His "servant"' to ficcomplish upon Israel a chastise- ment ordained l)y Ilini and announced long before ; or /that Cyrus is Jehovah's shepherd, His anointed, the man of His counsel,- whom He has raised up for the sake of }Iis servant Israel, and to whose every under- taking He grants success with a view to the accom- plishment of His judgments upon the Chaldeans, and the fulfilment of the long-promised redemption of His l)eculiar people ? '^ Even in the Jehovistic portions of tlie Pentateuch this result of God's acts upon Israel is definitely indicated. Thus in Num. 14. 21 Jehovah swears : " In very deed, as I live, and as all the eartli shall he filled with the glory of the Lord,* all these men," etc., — signifying not only that, according to God's will and decree, the glory of Jehovah should one day be manifest to tlie whole world, but also (as judged by the context) that His vengeance upon the generation led out from Egypt, who had seen His glory and yet had despised and rejected Him (ver. 22), served to carry out tliat decree. IJut, besides the part played by this judicial revelation of His glory, a similar purpose, according to other passages, is served by His gracious 1 Jcr. 2.5. 9, 27. 6, 43. 10, - Lsa. 44. 28, 45. 1, 46. 11. 'Isa. 41. 2, 43. 14, 44. 28, 45. 1. 13. "* Knukkl's I'lMiiark on tliis passage, "He lieais the iutcrcessory petition, bnt swears at tlie same time that the eartli shall be filled witli His glory," is inaccnrate. The subjeet-mattev of the oath, introduced by ki, begins to be stated only in ver. 22 f. Bunsen's translation, " And all the world is full of tlie ^lory of the Eternal," is, however, also wrong, being forbidden by the Im[)erf. n^yimmCiW; ep. Ps. 72. 19; and, for the usage to exjiress the present, lsa. 6. 3, Ps. 33. 5, 119. 64. Kkil rightly objects to the presential sense in the Numbers passage. The Origin of Messianic Prophecy, 9 7 exhibition of His Divine attributes in mercy to His chosen people. We refer particularly to the well- known promise to the patriarchs : " And all peoples (or families) of the earth will hless themselves (or be blessed) in (or by) thee (or thy seed)." ^ For even according to the rendering that is supported by the parallels, Gen. 48. 20, Ps. 72. 17,2 and now generally admitted » to be the right one, at least in those passages where the Hithpael is used, — the rendering, viz., that conveys the sense that all peoples in invoking blessing upon them- selves will wish for themselves the blessing that shall have become the recognised property of the patriarchs and their descendants, — the words imply at least that 1 Gen. 12. 3, 18. 18, 22. 18, 28. 4, 28. 14. ^ Cp. also Dent. 29. 19, Isa. 65. 16, Jer. 4. 2; and for the opposite (the curse). Num. 5. 21, Isa. 65. 15, Jer. 29. 22, Zech. 8. 13, Ps. 102. 8. ^ Cp. Heno.stenberg, Ghristologie, 2nd ed. i. p. 52. That in the pas- .sages, where instead of the HUhpa'el the Niph'al is used, the promise is to be taken in the different sense, that all peoples, etc., are to he blessed through or in Abraham and his seed, as Hengstenberg, Keil (on Gen. 12. 3), and others assume, could, in view of the indisputable fact that the Niph'al had originally a reflexive force, in case of need be admitted only in the event of GusTAV Bauu's {Geschichte der altte.ftamentlichen Weissarfung, i. pp. 205 ff. ) view proving correct — viz. that the passages. Gen. 22. 18 and 26. 4, are by a different author from the other pas- sages— a supposition which, at least as regards Gen. 22. 18, we consider unfounded. But, even granting the supposition, the passive rendering of the Niph'al would be, in view of the context, specially that in Gen. 12, improbable. For, apart from the words in Gen. 12. 2, " And be thou a blessing," which are to be explained according to Zech. 8. 13, and which therefore support our interpretation, how can it be supposed jirobable that, immediately after a promise to the patriarchs themselves of a blessing in the form of numerous posterity, victorious dominion over all enemies, and the possession of Canaan, the spiritual blessing of a knowledge of the true God proceeding from Israel should be held out prospectively to the peoples of the earth (Baur, p. 215) ? Even Delitzsch has set his seal to the right rendering (on Gen. 12. 3). G 98 Messianic Ffajpliecy. all nations will recognise in the Israelites the " blessed of Jehovah" (Isa. G5. 23), or, more definitely, the people who alone are blessed of their God, who is the true, God. They imply, therefore, that the grace of God, which displays itself to Israel with its burden of blessing, will attract the regard of all peoples, and awaken in them the longing to participate in the like blessing.^ The thought that God's deeds of judgment, and espe- cially His deeds of grace and redemption towards Israel, must fill the nations with an astounding admiration and fear of the power of the Living God, is expressed in other parts of the Old Testament — particularly in the prophets — more frequently than in the Pentateuch. It is, in fact, a fundamental thought of prophecy peculiarly appropriate to its character. Why, then, should not the last great act of God's grace towards Israel, in which He manifests Himself in the sight of the nations in the fulness of His glory and helpful grace, make an overpowering impression upon them, convince them of the vanity of their idolatry, and of the sole Godhead of Jehovah, and thus bring about the extension of the theocracy among all peoples ? How the knowledge of the 2>^'ophctic vocation of Israel, which originated in the idea of the covenant, contributed a fresh light, which revealed the human instrumentality by means of which the nations should be brought into the kingdom of God, has already been indicated above.- ' Cp. the beginning of tlie fulfilment of this prophecy in Gon. 26. 28 f. * Cp. my article, " Der MissionsgeJanke im Alten Testament," in Dr. "Warneck's Allijem. Alinnioutizcitschrift, 1880, pp. 453 ff. The Oi'igin of Messianic Prophecy. 9 9 Finally, all that comes under the designation of evil i can have no place in the perfected kingdom of God. For, according to Old Testament belief, evil exists in the world only because of sin — indeed, in the first instance only as its punishment. It is the immediate consequence of the fact, that God conceals His face in wrath. But when in the last days sin has been removed for ever by perfect forgiveness, and fresh defection prevented by the writing of the law of God upon the hearts of His subjects, the power of God, that redeems from evil and is rich in resource, and the salvation and life which accompany His gracious pre- sence, must also be manifested in full measure in the perfected Kingdom. All the misery resulting from sin and God's judgment upon it must have disappeared, that the peace and bliss of the original Paradise may be restored. Hence the features of Messianic prophecy that are borrowed from the familiar pictures of the original condifeion of the world and humanit}' : no more sickness ; ^ patriarchal longevity ; - peace among the beasts, as among human nations, and peace between man and beast ; ^ the holy land made like the garden of Eden,* transformed into it by the wonderful stream that goes forth from the dwelling-place of Jehovah,-'"' is laden with blessing, and makes even the waters of the Dead Sea healthful,*" with the trees of life on its banks, whose never-failing fruits are for food, and its never- ' Isa. 33. 24. - Isa. 65. 20, Zeuh. 8. 4. 3 Hos. 2. 18, Isa. 11. 6 tf., 65. 25. * Ezek. 36. 35. * Cp. Joel 4. 18, Zech. 14. 8. « Cp. Gen. 2. 10 ff. 100 Messianic Prophecy. fading leaves for healing ; ^ finally, the destruction of the power of death itself and the end of all weeping. ^ — Further, as God in His judgments usually shows Him- self at the same time also as Lord of Nature, by drawing her into a companionship of suffering with men, for whose sake as well as for the Kingdom of Ood she exists, thus giving to her also a share in tlie history of the Theocracy, the perfection of His Kingdom must necessarily be associated with the full display of His creative glory in nature. The great catastrophe accom- panying the final judgment, by which the present world is shattered;"^ takes place with a view to the renewal and transfiguration of the world ; its result is tlie new heaven and the new earth.^ Yet again, — and to conclude, — let it be carefully noted that all these expectations necessarily tended to disentangle the idea of the Kingdom of God more and more from the conception of the existing national theocracy, and to prepare the way for the perception tliat the perfected Kingdom would be of an essentially different kind. Where perfected covenant fellowship is recognised as an inward and personal communion of all individuals with God, which, from its very nature, cannot be confined to any one country or particular place, where it is said of all flesh that " tliey shall come every new moon and every Sabbath to the city of God to worship Jehovah," ^ but where also it is said, on 1 Ezek. 47. 1 ff. '^ Isa. 25. 8 ; cp. 26. 19, Dan. 12. 2. 3 Isn. 24. 18 fr., 34. 4, 51. 6. * Ci'. Isa. 30. 26, 65. 17, 66. 22. '•> Ish. 66. 23. The Origin of Messianic Prophecy. 101 the other hand, that every individual in the countries of the nations shall worship Jehovah from his oiuii ylace^ — already there can there be seen shining through the thin Old Testament veil the idea of a Kingdom of God, which shall be primarily spiritual and heavenly. III. Germs of individual features of Messianic pro- phecy lay imbedded in all the, institutions of the Old Testament theocracy, for at the root of these, as well as of all the precepts of conduct prescribed to Israel, there lay ideas which originate, on the one hand, in the fundamental religious needs of the human heart, and, on the other, in those eternal conditions of com- munion between the Holy One and sinners, which are "'founded on the very being of God. As, however, the precise way in which these ideas came to be actually represented and carried out was necessarily determined entirely by the character of the external national theocracy, the arrangements and ordinances of the Old Covenant could offer no real satisfaction to the religious needs of the human heart, and could correspond with the conditions of communion with God only in a very imperfect way. Simultaneously, therefore, with the ■ deepening and spiritualising of religious life, tlie expec- tation was necessarily awakened that these arrange- ments and ordinances would one day be transformed into a shape that would correspond more perfectly with their original idea and intention, or else be replaced by others, and that by an act of God. This is very 1 Zepl). 2. 11. ] 0 2 Messianic Prophecy. specially true of the institution of sacrifice. In the period of prophecy many a godly and enlightened Israelite had come to see how little fit animal-sacrifice was to secure a true atonement for sin, and how, similarly, the washings and other ordinances of cleans- ing could have no inwardly purifying effect. The announcement, therefore, that God would in some future time effect in another way the expiation of His "*" people's sins^ met a longing already awake. Among all the germs of individual features of Mes- sianic prophecy, however, that were imbedded in the Old Testament institutions, none is so important as -f that contained in the theocratic kingship, for it is from it that Messianic prophecy, in the narrower sense of the word, grew. Before closing this section,^ therefore, it is necessary for us to investigate the idea of tliis insti- tution.^ Over and above the accounts of the origin of the kingship, the Deuteronomic ordinances relating to the kingly office, the prophecy in 2 Sam. 7, the last words of IXavid in 2 Sam. 2o. 1-7, and various scat- tered references, a number of the psalms shed a special light upon our subject. Of these the most important ^are Pss. 2, 20, 21, 45, (72), 89, and 110."* ' Cp. e.g. Ezek. 36. 25 IF., Zech. 13. 1. = [I.e. I'art I.— Tr.] ' Cp. on tliis Dir.sTEi,, "Die Iilee des tlicokratischcn Kiinigs," in the Jahrhb. fiir dfutitche Theologie, vol. viii. pp. .536 fl"., and Oehlkr's article, " KiJnigc, Kiinigthuin in Israel," in llmog's liealeiiojtdopadie. * Doi'isive a(jain. theocratic king ; the Kingdom of God, over which he is placed, is an everlasting Kingdom, whose kingship is granted to him for ever, because of the election of David, from which Jehovah cannot go back. This, ol course, does not imply the eternal longevity of the individual king, — although in poetic hyperbole even this is assigned him,^ as in court-language it is wished to him,^ — but only that the kingship is the property of his house,^ and in that sense the eternal possession even of the individual — the same sense, viz., in which the priesthood of Aaron and his sons is an eternal priesthood.^ Hitherto we have regarded the king as the repre- ^ sentative of the invisible Divine King. But as standing at their head, the king is also the natural representative a of the people. He is so to God as well as to other peoples and kings. And as this people, in virtue of their election, are a people of priests,^ so to him, in virtue of his special election, in which that of the dominion over outlying peoples usually consisted. — The dress in which the fancy of the Israelites necessarily clothed it must not, however, allow us to forget the thoroughly ideal character of the conception. The picture, moreover, in which the Israelite, basing upon his limited geographical horizon, and following the political ideas of his time, might portray the world-dominion of the king who reigned in God's stead, was one after all of very indefinite outline — as indeed, consider- ing the nature of such ideal conceptions, it behoved to be. The Germano-Roman empire presents, at least in its time of bloom, a notorious analogy to the theocratic kingdom of the Israelites : in the idea of both world-dominion is an integral moment. 1 Ps. 45. 6. 2 py, 21. 4. 3 I Kings 1. 31. * 2 Sam. 7. 12-16. 29, 1 Kings 9. 5, 1 Ghron. 28. 4, Ps. 89. 28 f. 36 f. 5 Cp. Ex. 40. 15, Num. 25. 13. « Ex. 19. 6. 118 Messianic Prophecy. people culminates, there must be assigned the highest degree of priestly dignity. The Theocratic Kingdom • must be — according to its idea — a Kingdom of Priests. History testifies, further, that the kings regarded them- selves as the chief trustees of the priestly function, even tliougli in all probability they did not usurp the elder privilege of the house of Aaron to exercise the priestly rights and duties pertaining to the sanctuary, in particu- lar, the ritual of sacrifice ; or, if they did so, as according to the Chronicles Uzziah did,^ they met with the most pronounced opposition.- In the festive fetching of the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem, David not only wears the priestly dress, the linen ephod,^ but he dis- penses to the people the priestly blessing,* and deems himself warranted in transferring the high priestly office to Zadok and Abiathar. Solomon, too, imparts to the people the priestly blessing,^ ordains a religious feast,*^ and deposes one high priest to install another^ That, in general, the king bore the principal part, by way of oversight and management, in all the cere- monies of religion and worship, has already been noted above. Even Uzziah's offering of the incense requires us to suppose that a special priestly dignity was actu- ally conceded to him ; finally, because the king, as head of the people, is their representative before God, 1 2 Chron. 26. 16 fT. ^ On the pas.sages which seem to assign to tlie Davidic kings the management of matters pertaining to the priesthood, cp. art. " Priester" in the HandwOrterhnrh p. 812 If. * [The German is sinn)ly Der zeiti/e.schkhtliche Charaktcr da- men- sianischcii Wtinsa'jiuKj. Our hhtorkcd can liardly he .iccepted as a Its Adaptation to the Times. 133 treating this subject we shall first bring into focus the features, lying to our hand, in the delineation of the Messianic era that are obviously borrowed from the times, and then endeavour to exhibit the deeper-lying genetic connexion between the history and the prophecy.^ I. In regard then to this times-colouring, which at once strikes the student as characterising all Messianic prophecy, we have nothing substantially new to add to what has been already elaborated by Bertheatj,^ and it is only because nothing is so essential to a knowledge of the true historical character of prophecy as a proper estimate, such as is as yet by no means common, of the concrete features which it owes to contemporary history, that we do not feel at liberty to rid ourselves of the obligation to offer some explanation of this subject. The prophet is first and foremost the trustee of a Divine commission to his contemporaries. To them his entire message is, in the first instance, directed, and that not with the view of satisfying any idle curiosity that would seek gratification in the lifting of the veil that conceals the future ; for, on the contrary, prophecy is subservient to the ethico-religious task prescribed to the prophet by the actual conditions and circumstances of his time. Hence, even when he foretells future sufficient equivalent for zeitgeschichtlich, though it is the only single word available. — Tri.] ^ Cp. Bertheau, "Die alttestamcntliche Weissagiiug von Israels Reichsherrlichkeit in seinem Land," 2nd and 3rd parts, in the Jahr- hilcherii fur deutsche Theologie, vol. iv. pp. 595 ff., and vol. v. pp. 486 ff. 134 The Historical Character of Messianic Prophccj/ : events, the prophet keeps always in view the conditions and circumstances of the actual present. From them lie starts, and in relation to them his propliecy has a delinite aim. These propositions are not contradicted by the fact tliat it is frequently represented as the purpose of a prophetic utterance, particularly of its committal to writing, that it should be acknow- ledged at tlie time of fulfilment : that Jehovah had long foreseen the particular events in question, and that they are the carrying out of a decree passed by Him long before. It is notorious that we frequently meet with expressions to this effect in Isa. 40-GG, as well as in scattered references elsewhere.^ It goes without saying that a prophecy whicli announces future events is also intended for the future, and similarly, that a prophet may be impelled by the obtuseness of his contemporaries to write out expressh', for the benefit of a more receptive posterity, the word of God that can tind no entrance into present ears. ]>ut this does not exclude the fact that the prophecy always stands primarily in a definite teleological rela- tion to the conditions and circumstances of the present, and is primarily intended for the contemporaries of the prophet. Never did a prophet prophesy without intending first of all to exercise a determining influ- ence upon their inner life and conduct. — What is true of prophecy in general is also true of Messianic pro- phecy in particular. It also is intended, in the first instance, to serve a purpose of comfort and warning J C'l). c.ij. Isa. 8. 1 ir., 30. 8 IF., 34. 10, Hub. '2. 2 f. Its Adaptation to the Times. 185 to tlie contemporaries of the prophet in their actual circumstances. It is designed to awaken and to strengthen in the hearts of the responsive the faith that, in spite of all the obstacles thrown in its way by the unfaithfulness and hard-heartedness of the people, the judgments thus entailed, and the power of enemies outside, God's purpose of grace regarding Israel will yet attain accomplishment ; yea even, that present history and immediately impending future events, little as human eyes and thoughts may be able to perceive it, are part of the way on which a faithful covenant-God conducts the people of His possession to their pre- destined goal. In order to accomplish this its primary object, it rvas necessary for Messianic prophecy to place itself invariably in intimate relationship with the precise cthico-religious condition and outward position of Israel at the time, as well as with the immediately impending catastrophes of Judgment. As often then as the circum- stances of the time were substantially altered, the fact that Messianic prophecy was directed to the new state of affairs involved of necessity that even its general features should be differently outlined. Hence a later prophet never repeats the known Messianic utterances of his predecessor precisely in the same form in which he receives them, nor is he content merely to develop their meaning more fully, or to define it more accu- rately. On the contrary, while holding firmly the same fundamental thoughts, he feels himself at liberty, in view of the historical circumstances of his own time, and of the practical problem which they prescribe to 13G The Hidorical Cliaractcr of Messianic Prophecy : him, to sketch a new picture of the ])erfect time, adopting only tliose individual features of tlie former picture which retain their original significance in spite of altered circumstances. Thus Messianic prophecy remains ever fresh and living, it ever and again renews its youth, and amid all changes of historical circum- stance becomes a source of comfort to believing men in the sufferings and dangers to which they are actually exposed at the moment, strengthens them against the doubts presently assailing their faith and liope, and per- suades to repentance all who are not wholly insuscep- tible, by just those prospects of salvation which are best calculated, in their circumstances, to win their hearts. What results thus from the destination of Messianic prophecy, results equally from its psychologically mediated origin. When a prophet brings the Mes- sianic salvation into close connexion with the condi- tions and circumstances of his time, he is not following his own free choice, made with a view to the practical problem of the hour ; rather, he is following an inward "^ necessity. He cannot do otherwise ; for his prophecy has been put into his heart and mouth by God, only as it has been organically developed, on the one hand, from his previous knowledge of God's will and pur- pose ; and, on the other, from his knowledge of the historical circumstances of the present, from the per- ceptions and experiences he has made among his fellow- countrymen, and from his information regarding the world-historical events and political circumstances of his time (cp. pp. 54 ff). Its Adcq')tntion to the Times. 137 To make this position at once clearer and more secure, we must form a distinct idea of the limits which hounded the outlooh of the prophets toivards the future. No one, it may be presumed, will deny the general fact that there are such limits. But of what sort they are is a matter of debate, and will remain so, so long as the traditional and the historico - critical views regarding the dates of certain prophecies are in opposi- tion to each other. The controversy, however, affects only a comparatively small portion of the prophetic writings. We possess a considerable number of the prophecies of Isaiah whose genuineness is universally admitted. The same is true of nearly the whole of the Boole of Jeremiah and of the whole of Ezehiel u it is true also of the writings of the prophets Hosea, Amos, Micah, Nahum, Habbakuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Malachi, and of the first eight chapters of Zechariah. Disputes as to the precise dates of individual prophecies in these writings, or as to whether certain passages here and there are or are not later additions to the writings whose name they bear, have no importance for our present problem. Will any one, then, maintain that this undisputed territory is not sufficiently com- prehensive to yield us a well-grounded knowledge of the historical character of prophecy, and of the canons and law^s to which the Divine method of revelation to the prophets has voluntarily submitted itself? Or is it on any pretext to be held legitimate, after such a know- ledge has been actually acquired, to proceed to recognise exceptions to the rule that are wholly without pre- 138 The Historical Character of Messianic Propliecy : cedent, in order to justify the ascription of Isa. 40-G6 to Isaiah, or of the Apocalypse of Daniel to a prophet living in the Exile ? ^ The possibility of such excep- tions might perhaps be conceded, were it not that in relation precisely to those prophecies, on whose behalf the concession is claimed, (critical reasons of a ■wholly different hind have invariably to be thrown into the scale of evidence, — reasons which are opposed to the traditional view of the date of their authorship, and which assign them to a date whose acceptance at once brings them completely into line with other prophecies by showing them to bear the same historical character, and to be subject to the same laws. Such a coinci- dence of proofs warns us against the concession of exceptions, and justifies us in assuming the universal validity of these limitations of the vision of the future, and of those canons and laws of the Divine mode of revelation to the prophets which the study of the proportionately great number of admittedly genuine })rophecies has taught us." * Cp. c.erfection should lie through a cata- stro})he which involved tlie complete shattering of the theocracy in the external form in which it existed at that time. "VVe may also recognise a "singular historic coincidence" in the fact that just this Babel, mentioned by Micah, should have been afterwards the land of the Exile. But it must be frankly conceded that Micah's threat — in its concrete histoiical interpretation — was not fulfilled. He did not foj-etell the future historical fact of the Chaldean captii'ity of the Jews, and his prophecy does not go beyond the analogy of other prophecies because of the mention of Babylon as the scene of Israel's distress and deliverance, but keeps within the ordinary limitations and laws. — I allow these remarks to stand unaltered, as I concur neither with the dictinn of SrADE, that Micah 4. 10 "is at all events a vaticinium ex eveniu" [Zeitschrift fi'ir die alttestament/iclie W issenncli aft, 1881, i). 167), nor with Nowack's assumption, that at least the words ubhd'th adh-Bdhht'l (and thou shalt go unto Babylon), are a later addition {id. 1884, p. 286) ; that these words "utterly contradict all that we know of the prophecies of the Assyrian period " cannot be reasonably 148 llic Historical Character of Messianic Prophecy: are known only to tlie Father.^ It belongs, however, to the nature of all living hope to bring the expected f boon as near as possible to the present time, and this is specially true of a hope that springs from a faith in tlie almighty (lod, AVho has but to speak to accomplish the greatest marvels. Hence just as the apostles expected the second coming of Christ in glory as an event in immediate prospect,- which in fact they themselves hoped to survive, so all the prophets expected ^tlie speedy initiation of the Messianic time. Tlie energy of their faith and hope attracted the Messianic salva- tion to the utmost possible nearness to their own time / — in other words, brought it to the very border of the I times-horizon that bounded their iirospeet. It is this circumstance, and not the visionary character of the revelations made to the prophets, which serves to explain why the salvation of tin? ^lessiauic time is always the bright background of the picture in which they represent the immediately inqiendiny judgments. Now it lies in the nature of the case that the prophetic consciousness, owing to its belief in the near salvation of the perfect time, does not distinguish carefully between the immediately im])ending future . of the Kingdom of (Jod and its final goal, but connects them organically with each other, and coml)ines them allinned in view , iej)eated almost \erbally in Ilos. 8. 14. Its AdajJtation to the Times. 157 the comforting promise that Jehovah will completely deliver the repentant people from the present extremity, destroy the lociist-army, send henceforward abnndant and timely rain, and bless the land with wonderful frnitf ulness ; ^ and towards the end also- the prophet comes back to this just then peculiarly comforting and attractive promise. Because, further, the kingdom of Judah had, since Behoboam's time, to suffer much from the attacks of hostile neighbours, iirst from the Egyptians ; ^ then from the Edomites, who had invaded the land and butchered defenceless inhabitants ; * re- cently, however, and specially, from the Philistines,^ who, in alliance with Arab tribes, had forced their way into the capital itself, slain most of the royal family, plundered palace and temple, and, by means of the Phoenicians (who had followed the army as slave- dealers), sold the prisoners of war as slaves to the Edomites and the distant sons of Javan, — Joel's threat of judgment is directed specially against these peoples, while his Messianic oracle talces the form of a promise of deliverance and return to the captives,^ and of security to the kingdom and its capital against the attacks of neighbouring peoples. Add to which that 1 Joel 2. 18-27. " Joel 3. IS. * 1 Kings 14. 25 f. ■• Joel 3. 19. The suffix in h'^'artmm (in tlieir land) is not, as has lieen assumed from 2 Kings 8. 20, to be referred to the Edomites. It has rather to be connected with \Xshtr, and to be referred to bene ychiidhuh: "in whose land they have shed innocent blood." Cp. on the order of the words, Isa. 7. 16. Eightly : Credner and WtJNSCHE in loco. * Joel 3. 1-18, 2 Chron. 21. 16 f., 22. 1 Am. 1. 6 and 9. 6 Joel 3. 1, 7. 158 The HUtoricul Cluiracter of Messianic Proiiliecy : his whole announcement of the straight course of the history of the Kin^'doni of God to its goal is throughout conditioned by the fact that he cannot charge the people of the kingdom of Judali with any defection from their God, and that they were ready to obey his call to repentance. — Amos is acquainted with the prophecies of Joel ; but there is only one feature of the latter's testimony — that, viz., of the wonderful fertility of the holy land — that he reproduces substan- tially unaltered.^ He speaks, indeed, as does also HosEA, of a return of the captives, but the captives mean no longer in either case the Judaeans sold to the sons of Javan, but the inhabitants of the kingdom of the Ten Tribes, who, in accordance with the threats contained in their prophecies, have been carried into exile and scattered among the nations. For the rest, the times-colouring of their Messianic promises appears particularly in the prophecy of the reunion of the entire theocracy under the royal house of David; in that regarding the reconquest of the neighbouring peoples, especially the remnant of the Edomites ; - and in the announcement that in the perfect time Israel will no longer, as at present, seek his help, now from Asshur and now from Egypt.^ But in spite of all this times - colouring, the oracles of these oldest prophets really present to us the end of the ivays of God; we need think only of Joel's propliecy of the universal outpouring of the Spirit, or of Hosea's beautiful de- lineations of the intimate and eternal love-covenant on 1 Amos 9. 13 ; cp. Joel 3. 18. - Amos 9. 12. ' Hos. 14. 3. Its Adaptation to the Times. 159 which, in the last days, Jehovah will enter with the people of His possession.^ On account of the corruption that had set in under the rule of the idolatrous Ahaz, the announcements of judgment in the prophets of the Assyrian period, Isaiah and Micah, — a judgment which the Assyrians should execute even upon Judah, — strike a more decided note of condemnation than is heard from the elder prophets. Both prophets announce repeatedly that only a small remnant even of the Judaeans will turn to Jehovah, escape corruption, and, as the true Israel, the parent stock of a new elect people, enjoy the promised salvation.- Indeed, according to Micah, the impending judgment will involve the shattering of the existing theocracy, the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, and the carrying captive of the people to Babylon.^ And even Isaiah prophesied the same extreme disaster, not merely in the time of Ahaz,^ but even as late as that of Hezekiah, at the time when the king showed an inclination to follow the advice of the magnates, and, in spite of the prophetic warning, seek his salvation in an alliance with Egypt,^ When, how- ever, Hezekiah turned with his whole heart to Jehovah — on which account, according to Jer. 26. 18 f., God repented of the judgment threatened through Micah — Isaiah could again, as he had done before, announce ^ Hos. 2. 20 ff., 14. 4 ir. - Isa. 6. 13, 7. 22, 10. 20 ff., Micah 2. 12, 4. 6 f., 5. 3, 7. 18. 3 Micah 1. 16, 3. 12, 4. 9 f., 5. 1, 7. 13. * Isa. 7. 17 ff. ; cp. 28. 14 ff. 5 ha. 32. 9 ff. ; cp. also 22. 1 ff. and 30. 12 ff. 160 The Historical Character of Messianic Prophecy : with confident Divinely - wrought certainty that the overweening Assyrian would not succeed in taking the city of God, and that matters would not reach such an extremity as the downfall of the kingdom.^ — If, so far, the prophecies of Isaiah and Micah are only such advances upon and preciser definitions of the announce- ments of an Amos or a Hosea as correspond with the progress of historical development and with the ethico- religious conditions of tlieir time, their foresight of the future is in this respect superior to that of their predecessors,^ that they see clearly and definitely, hehind the judgment of Jehovah upon the kingdom of Judah, the judgment of almighty vengeance ^ which will chastise the insolence of the Assyrian, break his power, and again deliver the people of God from his violence. For, in the meantime, it had hecome clear how serious an obstacle the Assyrian supremacy, with its high - flown schemes of conquest and its openly- annonnced intention of putting an end once for all to the independent existence of the kingdom of Judah, presented to the ultimate carrying out of God's purpose of grace towards Israel. Xothing but the complete shattering of the Assyrian power could pave the way to the erection of the perfect Kingdom. But this latter event Isaiah sets in the closest and most immediate connexion with the impending deliverance 1 Isa. 33, 37. 22 iT. ; cp. 10. 32 (F., 14. 24 tl'., 17. 12 ff., IS. 4 tF., 29. r> iW, 30. 27 ff., 31. 5. 8 f. - With the sole exception of the aiitlior of Zech., chaps. 9-11, who liad given a brief indication of an impending humiliation of Assyria (Zech. 10. 11). 3 Das >ieicalli f. 15. - Mioah 7. 8 ff. •"' Micah 5. 5 f. 1G4 TJic Historical Character of Messianic Prophecy: tivity for others of the people,' — a threat which is maintained, even when in the person of Josiah a (Sod-fearing king was once more on the throne, the judgment being only delayed nntil the godly king shall have entered his rest.^ Of the executors of the / judgment, Zephaniah and even, in his earlier pro- ^ phecies, Jeremiah, still speak just as indefinitely as did formerly Amos and Hosea ; they are a people who come from the distant North, and speak an unin- telligible language.^ It is only after the Chaldeans have begun, in the beginning of the reign of Jehoia- chini, to assume, in Anterior Asia, the part formerly played by the Assyrians {i.e. after the battle of Car- chemish, 006 B.C.), that tliey are definitely indicated as the instrument to be used by Jehovah to execute the judgment decreed against Israel and all other peoples. — The whole terrible contrast between the position into which Israel should shortly fall through his guilt, and the great destiny assigned him in God's purpose of grace, lay clearly before the enlightened eyes of the prophets. They saw quite close at hand a time in which the kingdom of God should appear to the eyes of men as altogether brought to nothing, and Israel must once again, as in Egypt, endure the yoke of ignominious bondage far from the holy land. Before 1 Ci». 2 Kings 21. n fT. •^ Cp. 2 Kings 22. 15 ll., 23. 2C f., Jor. 15. 4. ^ The hypothesis that the prophecies of Zephaniah and of Jer. ,1. fi- <;. 30 find their historical explanation in the invasion of Anterior Asia l.y the Scythians, narrated hy Herodotus (i. 15, 103-106 ; iv. 11, 12). 1 consider untenable. Its Adaptation to the Times. 165 their eyes stood also the mighty Babylon, equipped with all the implements of power, so as finally to secure the world-supremacy she is shortly to snatch for herself. But certain as it is that this mighty colossus must fall in pieces before the theocracy can rise erect upon its ruins, it is still not in it, but in the guilt of Israel, whose cry is gone up to heaven, and in his stiff-necked obstinacy that the chief hindrance lies to the fulfilment of the purpose of election. Because of this hindrance the Messianic salvation appears now as somewhat further postponed. But the certainty that the people of God will yet enjoy this salvation in the glorious consummation of the restored theocracy is not only firmly maintained by the prophets, but is, in view of the impending destruction of Jerusalem, announced with all the more emphatic definiteness.'^ In the extremity of their judicial suflerings, which, according to Jeremiah, are to continue for about seventy years,- Jehovah will accomplish His intention of purifying His people and bringing them to full repentance. Then He turns to them again in all the fulness of His grace and faithfulness. Babylon, that has executed His judgment upon all other peoples, must lierself finally drink to the dregs the cup of His wrath. With one blow the whole proud edifice of her world- empire falls in pieces. And the shattering of this empire is the deliverance of Jehovah's peculiar people from the misery of the captivity. The forgiveness of their sins,^ their ethico-religious renewal effected by ' Jer. 30-33. - Jer. 25. 11 f . , 29. 10. » je,-. 31. 34, 33. 8, 50. 20. 1 G G TJic iristorical Character of Messianic Prophecy : Jehovah Himself,^ remove all the hindrances offered by the people themselves to the full accomplishment of Jehovah's saving purpose. They return to the holy land, rebuild the destroyed Jerusalem and the desolated cities of the land, and rejoice once more in the gracious presence of Jeliovah in their midst, and ]Iis government laden with blessing. The theocracy is restored, and, as so restored, it is tlic Theocracy of /the perfect time. Throughout, Jeremiah brings the dawn of the Messianic era into immediate connexion